"Mr. Vernon," she exclaimed hoarsely, "you have come at last. Poor Mr. Dimsdale was asking for you all the night. And now----" she broke down.
"How did you get in, sir?" questioned Inspector Drench imperiously, and nodding to the policeman that he should leave the room. "I gave orders that nobody was to be admitted."
"I insisted upon seeing you," said Vernon quickly. "This evening--or rather yesterday evening--I had an appointment with Mr. Dimsdale in his library, but I was decoyed to an empty house in West Kensington, and have only managed to get away."
Inspector Drench stared. "What do you mean by all this, sir?"
"What I say," rejoined Vernon tartly, for his nerves worried him. "I understand that Mr. Dimsdale is dead."
"Mr. Dimsdale has been murdered," cried Miss Hest, clasping her hands and speaking in a thick, emotional voice. "Murdered in his library. No one knows who strangled him."
"You!" Drench stood up alertly. "Take care, sir. Anything you say now will be noted," and he shuffled his papers like a pack of cards. "Who is guilty?"
"The Spider!" echoed Miss Hest. "Who is The Spider, or what is The Spider?"
She looked puzzled, but the Inspector, better informed, looked open-mouthed at the young man. "Do you mean to say that The Spider perpetrated this crime, sir?" he asked, scarcely able to speak from sheer amazement.
Vernon, thoroughly worn out from what he had undergone, dropped into a chair listlessly. "Yes."
"But this Spider?" broke in Miss Hest volubly; "I don't know who he is or what he is. Tell me if----"
"Allow me," interrupted Drench sharply. He was a military-looking man, something after the style of Colonel Towton, and spoke aggressively. "Allow me, for I am in charge here, miss. The Spider is the name--if you may call it so--of a well-known blackmailer, for whom the police have been looking, and are still looking. Perhaps, Mr. Vernon--I think you said that this gentleman's name is Vernon--will explain how he comes to be possessed of such precise information."
"There is no difficulty in explaining," retorted Vernon, annoyed by the suspicious looks of the officer. "Listen!" and he rapidly detailed all that he knew, all that had taken place from his interview with Dimsdale in Towton's chambers to the moment when he leapt from the taxicab to be met by the constable at the gate with the news of the murder. As the recital proceeded Drench tried to conceal his amazement, but scarcely managed to do so, while Frances Hest, for once startled out of her self-control, uttered ejaculations. It may be noted that Vernon suppressed for the moment the fact that The Spider was blackmailing Mrs. Bedge, as he did not wish to spread scandal. But Inspector Drench and the lady were put in possession of all other facts.