Even more belligerent than the words was the tone and the facial expression of the speaker. Miss Gurney was not a beautiful woman at best, and her rage transformed her into a veritable termagant. Her spa.r.s.e gray hair fell in wisps about her ears and her head shook in emphasis of her objurgations, while her pale blue eyes blinked with fury as she strove to find words harsh enough.
"Eliza!" and Miss Prall"s warning tone was quiet but very stern. "Stop that! You only make matters worse by going on so! If you can"t keep still, leave the room."
Eliza sniffed, but ceased her talk for the moment, at least.
"Now, Miss Prall," Gibbs resumed, "it is necessary, in my opinion, to have an interview at which both yourself and Mrs Everett are present. I have a right to ask this, and I offer you the choice of going there, or sending for her to come here."
"I won"t do either," snapped Let.i.tia. "I refuse to go to her home, and I certainly shall not let her enter mine."
"But, don"t you see that is most damaging to your own side of the story."
"What do I care? Don"t think you can frighten me, young man! Let.i.tia Prall is quite able to take care of herself."
"That may be, but you are not able to defy, successfully, the course of the law. If I insist on this interview, I think, Miss Prall, you will be obliged to consent."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then, I am sorry to tell you, your refusal must be set aside, and you will, I am sure, see the advisability of accepting the situation."
"Oh, come, Auntie," said Bates, "you"re making a lot of unnecessary trouble. Neither you nor Mrs Everett had any hand in this murder,--the mere idea is ridiculous! and if you have the interview Mr Gibbs wants, it will soon be over and then you will both be freed from suspicion and can go on with your silly "feud." That is a foolish thing, but trivial.
This other matter is serious. You _must_ get it over with at once,--for all our sakes."
"I won"t." And Miss Prall set her lips obstinately.
Gibbs rose abruptly and left the room.
"He"s gone for Mrs Everett," said Richard, looking severely at his aunt.
"Now, you must be careful, Aunt Letty. If you don"t look out, they"ll accuse you of the murder, and though you"ll disprove it, it will mean a whole lot of trouble for us all."
Let.i.tia Prall adored her nephew, and, too, she saw there was no use of trying to avoid the meeting with Mrs Everett. It was bound to be brought about, sooner or later, by the determined Gibbs, and it might as well be gone through with.
She sat still, thinking what att.i.tude it was best to a.s.sume, and she decided on continued silence.
"Eliza," she warned, "don"t talk too much. You"ll get us in an awful predicament if you"re so free with your tongue. First thing you know, you"ll tell----"
"Hush, they"re coming!" and in a moment Gibbs rang the bell.
Richard admitted him, and with him came both Adeline Everett and the maid, Kate.
"I didn"t invite your servant," was Miss Prall"s only word of greeting, accompanied by a scathing glance at Kate.
"You didn"t invite me," Mrs Everett returned, pertly, "and I shouldn"t have come if you had, except that I was commanded to appear by a representative of the law. I don"t see, though, why I should be mixed up in your murder case."
"It isn"t my murder case any more than it is yours, Adeline Everett,"
her enemy faced her. "I understand you"re suspected of being----"
"Oh, don"t, Aunt Let.i.tia," begged Richard, who was always distressed if obliged to be present when the two "got going," as Eliza called it.
"Now, please, auntie,--please, Mrs Everett, can"t you two forget your private enmity for a few minutes and just settle this big matter? Disarm the suspicions of Mr Gibbs by telling the truth, by stating where you all were at the time of the murder, and so, get yourselves out of all touch with it. Truly, you will be sorry if you don"t. You don"t realize what it will mean if you have to be mixed up in all sorts of witness stands and things."
"Go ahead, Mr Gibbs," and Miss Prall glared at the detective. "We owe this unpleasant scene to you,--make it as short as possible."
"I will," and Gibbs" sharp eyes darted from one face to another, for this was his harvest time, and though he expected to learn little from the wily women"s speech, he hoped for much from their uncontrollable outbursts of anger or their involuntary admissions.
It was a strange gathering. Let.i.tia Prall sat on a straight-backed chair, erect and still; but looking like a leashed tiger, ready to spring.
Beside her, trying hard to keep quiet, was Eliza Gurney, small, pale, and with a distracted face and angry eyes that darted venomous glances at the visitors.
Mrs Everett had chosen for her role an amused superiority, knowing it would irritate Let.i.tia Prall more than any other manner. She smiled and quickly suppressed it, she stared and then dropped her eyes and she would impulsively begin to say something and then discreetly pause.
All this Gibbs took in and Richard, seeing the detective"s interest, became alarmed. He felt sure there was something sinister concealed in the minds of some or all of the women present and his heart sank at the possible outcome of things.
It was inconceivable that his aunt was in any way concerned in the murder, yet it was even worse to imagine the mother of Dorcas mixed up in it. Of course, it couldn"t be that either of them was really implicated, but he had to recognize the fact that Gibbs was sufficiently convinced of such implication to call this confab.
And it was a confab. The detective did not ask direct questions, but rather brought out voluntary remarks by adroitly suggesting them.
"Now, that paper-knife----" he began, musingly.
"Is what they call a clue," said Mrs Everett. "I know nothing of such things,--I can"t bear detective stories, but if a paper-knife was used to kill somebody, I should think the owner of the weapon must be more or less suspected."
"Of course you think that, because you"re suspected yourself," said Let.i.tia, coldly; "naturally you think you can cast suspicion toward me, but you can"t, Adeline Everett! I gave that paper-cutter to Sir Herbert to get it mended----"
"Oho! Is _that_ the story you"ve trumped up! Clever, my dear, but too thin. Can"t you see, Mr Gibbs, that that is a made-up yarn? She knows Sir Herbert can"t deny it, and no one else can. So she thinks she"s safe!"
"Well, she isn"t," and Kate Holland gave Miss Prall a triumphant glare.
"That knife will hang her yet! She not only tried to make up a plausible story about the thing, but she tried to fasten the guilt on me by saying I have surgical skill! Ha, ha,--because I took a nurse"s training,--I"m to be suspected of murder! A fine how-do-you-do! Let me tell you, Miss Prall, you overreached yourself! I"ve been to see Dr Pagett about it, and he says that while the fatal stroke may have been delivered by somebody who knew just where to strike, yet, on the other hand, it might have been the merest ignoramus, who chanced to strike the vital point!
So, your ladyship, your scheme to inculpate _me_ falls through!"
Gibbs listened eagerly, gathering the news of Dr Pagett"s decision, and learning, too, that this maid of Mrs Everett"s was of a far higher mentality than the average servant.
"I scorn to reply," Miss Prall said, looking over the head of the triumphant Kate. "I do not converse with servants."
"Perhaps it would be well to dismiss both my servant and yours," drawled Mrs Everett, maliciously. "Let Kate and Eliza both leave the room."
"I"m no servant!" cried Miss Gurney, bristling; "I"m Miss Prall"s companion, quite her equal----"
"And think yourself her superior," interrupted Mrs Everett, with her most annoying chuckle. "Well, Eliza, I look upon you as just as much a servant as my Kate,--more so, indeed, for you can"t hold a candle to Kate for intelligence, education or----"
"Or viciousness," Let.i.tia broke in. "Now, Mr Gibbs, I decline to talk to or with either of my unwelcome visitors. If you have to conduct this official inquisition, go on with it, but I refuse to speak except to answer your questions. Eliza, you are not to talk, either."
"Good!" said Gibbs, "just what I want." And he spoke sincerely, for he began to see that he would learn little from the display of rancor and temper that moved them all.
He put definite and straightforward questions, and elicited the information that they were all in their beds and asleep at the hour of the murder. This could not be corroborated from the very nature of things, but he let it pa.s.s.
There was fierce disagreement as to which had first declared a willingness to kill Sir Herbert Binney, and which had said she, too, was inclined to the deed, but it was admitted that such hasty and unconsidered declarations had been made.
In fact, the gist of the long and difficult grilling was an apparent determination on the part of each one of the two factions to accuse the other, and a most plausible and complacent a.s.sumption of innocence by both.
This seemed a non-committal situation, but Gibbs did not deem it such.
He was definitely persuaded as to the guilty party, and his satisfied nods and approving smiles showed Richard Bates plainly which way the detective"s opinions leaned.