"Hold your tongue, Dorcas; and you"d better leave the room. This is no subject for a young girl to be mixed up in. Go to Kate and let her fit your new guimpe."
"I"m just ready to try it on," and Kate, the maid, appeared in the doorway, her mouth full of pins, and her hands full of voluminous breadths of tulle.
"But I"d like to hear what this man has to say," she went on, dropping her work on a table as she took a chair for herself. "I know a thing or two about this murder," she declared, as she looked curiously at Gibbs, "and it would be to your advantage, sir, to listen to my tale."
"Oh, nonsense," put in Mrs Everett, "you don"t know anything, Kate.
She"s a visionary creature, Mr Gibbs, and greatly given to romancing."
"Nothing of the sort," spoke up Kate, briskly, and Gibbs wondered at the strange apparent relation between mistress and servant.
But as he listened further, he gathered that Kate had been so long the stay and dependence of the Everett household, that her position was more that of a housekeeper and general manager than an underling.
It seemed that Mrs Everett depended on the woman for service, yet was chummy with her as with a companion. Kate sewed for Dorcas and kept her clothing in order, looked after Mrs Everett"s social engagements and was useful in so many ways that it was not difficult to see why she was made much of by her employer.
Then, too, it was clear that she was entirely conversant with the feud, its progress and present condition. She was deeply interested in the murder mystery and, though Gibbs rather doubted it, she might have something of importance to tell him.
So, as Dorcas obeyed her mother and left the room, the detective listened to the chatter of the two women, and from the volume of inconsequent talk he gleaned much of interest.
Especially he learned the character of Miss Prall, or, rather, the traits of her character that interested the Everett household.
Their tales may have been exaggerated, probably were, but he decided they contained internal evidence of Let.i.tia"s insincerity and untruthfulness.
He found out to his own conviction that he could not rely implicitly on the word of Miss Prall, and, this granted, her whole story might fall to the ground.
The feud was talked over and detailed to him until he was positively sick of it, but he persevered in the talk, trying to lead it toward the murder.
But the women were wary of this subject. Whether it was too grewsome for their taste or whether there was some other reason, Gibbs tried hard to find out.
"But you told me you had something to communicate," he insisted, to the canny-looking Kate.
Her sharp eyes scrutinized him.
"Oh, I don"t know anything definite," she said, with a somewhat defiant glance at Mrs Everett. "And if I did, I"m not allowed to tell it."
"If you know anything at all,--definite or suggestive, you"re to tell it, whether you"re allowed or not!" Gibbs cried, willing to try intimidation. "Don"t you know, woman, that you can be jailed if you withhold information from the police?"
Mrs Everett giggled. "You can"t frighten Kate," she said; "she has no fear of anything."
"Why should I have?" and Kate looked belligerent. "I know all about the police. I"ll tell anything I see fit to, and nothing more."
Calmly, she took up the ma.s.s of white tulle, and began to sew on it.
"That att.i.tude won"t do, Kate," said Gibbs, seriously. "Bluff and bravado won"t get you anywhere."
"I don"t want to get anywhere; I haven"t set out for anywhere," and with a flippant swish of the tulle stuff, Kate rose and started to leave the room.
"Wait a minute," ordered Gibbs. "You"ve gone too far to back out now.
You said, or implied, you had something to tell,--now, you tell it!"
"Goodness, Kate, tell it,--if you"ve anything to tell!" Mrs Everett spoke with a sharp glance at the woman.
"Well, I will, then. But it"s no tale of happenings or that. It"s only that I know Miss Prall was wishing Mr Binney out of the way. She was wishing it so hard that I myself heard her say, "If I was sure I wouldn"t get caught, I"d kill him myself!""
"She said that?"
"Yes, sir, she did. Mrs Everett heard her, too."
"I did," admitted Mrs Everett as Gibbs looked at her inquiringly. "But don"t take it too seriously. Let.i.tia Prall and I are enemies, have been for years,--but I"m not the one to brand her with the mark of Cain! That I"m not."
"Well, I will," declared Kate. "She"s quite capable of it, she has expressed her willingness, and she had strong motive. What more do you want?"
"What was her motive?" asked Gibbs in a casual tone, hoping to draw further light on these remarkable statements.
"Why,----" Kate hesitated, but Mrs Everett smiled and nodded permission, and Kate went on; "why, you see Miss Dorcas and young Mr Bates are friendly-like, and old Binney----"
"Sir Herbert," prompted Mrs Everett, pointedly.
"Well, Sir Herbert, then, he was in favor of the two marrying."
"And neither Mrs Everett nor Miss Prall approve the match?" Gibbs put in quickly.
"Of course they don"t! Well, Miss Prall, she"s one who would try and try to persuade Sir Herbert to change his mind----"
"And his will," suggested Gibbs.
"And his will," agreed Kate, "and then, when she couldn"t persuade him,--he had the devil"s own stubbornness,----"
"And so has she," observed Mrs Everett.
"That"s right! Well, when she couldn"t do anything with him, she up and killed him."
"Women, he wrote."
"Of course; Eliza Gurney helped. Probably Eliza did the actual deed.
She"d cut off anybody"s head that Let.i.tia Prall told her to! But those are the women you"re looking for, and if you want to jail me for telling you, go ahead!"
"No," Gibbs told her, "you won"t be jailed for telling that,--if it"s true. But, if it isn"t,--you want to be careful about slander, you know."
Kate looked a little startled, but Mrs Everett laughed.
"Don"t be afraid, Kate; Mr. Gibbs can"t punish you for an opinion. You haven"t stated any facts."
"Except that she heard Miss Prall"s threat to kill Sir Herbert," Gibbs reminded her.
"It wasn"t a threat at all. I heard her say it, and it was merely an outburst of anger. I doubt if she meant it----"
"Do you doubt her capable of committing such a crime?" the detective asked, so suddenly that he took his listener by surprise.