“What in the world put you on to the crypt?”
“Well, Sir Brian was so anxious not to be interested in the place. And the place was so mighty convenient. And the butler had to be somewhere. Pure reasoning, Lomas, old thing. This is a very rational case all through.”
“Rational! Will you tell me why Sir Brian came to stir us up about the butler and insisted Mark was innocent?”
“I told you he was an able man. He saw it would have looked very fishy if he didn’t. Acting head of the family--he had to act. And also I fancy he liked Mark. If he could get the boy off, he would rather do it than not. And who could suspect the worthy fellow who was so straight and decent? All very rational.”
“Very,” said Lomas. “Especially the first murder. Why do you suppose he wanted to kill Hugo?”
“Well, you’d better look at his papers. He talked about Hugo as if he had a grudge against the way Hugo ran the estate. I wonder if he wanted to develop it--try for minerals perhaps--it’s on the edge of the South Midland coal-field--and Hugo wouldn’t have it.”
“Good Gad!” Lomas said. “You’re an ingenious fellow, Fortune. He had proposed to Hugo to try for coal, and Hugo turned it down.”
Reggie emerged from the bath. “There you have it. He knew if Hugo was out of the way he could do what he wanted. If Mark or the old parson had the place, he could manage them. Very rational crime.”
“Rational! Murder your cousin to make a coal mine!”
“Business men and business methods. Run away and catch him, Lomas, and hang him to encourage the others.”
But in fact Lomas did not catch him. Some years afterwards Mrs. Fortune found her husband on the veranda of an hotel in Italy staring at a Spanish paper. “Don’t dream, child,” she said. “Run and dress.”
“I’m seeing ghosts, Joan,” said Mr. Fortune.
She looked over his shoulder. “Who is San Jacinto?”
“The last new South American republic. Here’s His Excellency the President. _Né_ Brian Carwell. Observe the smile.”
MR. REGINALD FORTUNE came into Superintendent Bell’s room at Scotland Yard. “That was chocolate cream,” he said placidly. “You’d better arrest the aunt.”
The superintendent took up his telephone receiver and spoke into it fervently. You remember the unpleasant affair of the aunt and her niece’s child.