"--you took the clock to the attic and put it, say, in an old trunk."
"I did nothing of the sort. I went in, as you say, and I put up an old splasher, because of the way he throws ink about. Then I wound the clock, put the key under it, and went out."
"And the key is gone, too!" he said thoughtfully. "I wish I could find that clock, Mrs. Pitman."
"So do I."
"Ladley went out Sunday afternoon about three, didn"t he--and got back at five?"
I turned and looked at him. "Yes, Mr. Howell," I said. "Perhaps _you_ know something about that."
"I?" He changed color. Twenty years of dunning boarders has made me pretty sharp at reading faces, and he looked as uncomfortable as if he owed me money. "I!" I knew then that I had been right about the voice.
It had been his.
"You!" I retorted. "You were here Sunday morning and spent some time with the Ladleys. I am the old she-devil. I notice you didn"t tell your friend, Mr. Holcombe, about having been here on Sunday."
He was quick to recover. "I"ll tell you all about it, Mrs. Pitman,"
he said smilingly. "You see, all my life, I have wished for an onyx clock. It has been my ambition, my _Great Desire_. Leaving the house that Sunday morning, and hearing the ticking of the clock up-stairs, I recognized that it was an _onyx_ clock, clambered from my boat through an upper window, and so reached it. The clock showed fight, but after stunning it with a chair--"
"Exactly!" I said. "Then the thing Mrs. Ladley said she would not do was probably to wind the clock?"
He dropped his bantering manner at once. "Mrs. Pitman," he said, "I don"t know what you heard or did not hear. But I want you to give me a little time before you tell anybody that I was here that Sunday morning. And, in return, I"ll find your clock."
I hesitated, but however put out he was, he didn"t look like a criminal. Besides, he was a friend of my niece"s, and blood is thicker even than flood-water.
"There was nothing wrong about my being here," he went on, "but--I don"t want it known. Don"t spoil a good story, Mrs. Pitman."
I did not quite understand that, although those who followed the trial carefully may do so. Poor Mr. Howell! I am sure he believed that it was only a good story. He got the description of my onyx clock and wrote it down, and I gave him the ma.n.u.script for Mr. Ladley. That was the last I saw of him for some time.
That Thursday proved to be an exciting day. For late in the afternoon Terry, digging the mud out of the cellar, came across my missing gray false front near the coal vault, and brought it up, grinning. And just before six, Mr. Graves, the detective, rang the bell and then let himself in. I found him in the lower hall, looking around.
"Well, Mrs. Pitman," he said, "has our friend come back yet?"
"She was no friend of mine."
"Not _she_. Ladley. He"ll be out this evening, and he"ll probably be around for his clothes."
I felt my knees waver, as they always did when he was spoken of.
"He may want to stay here," said Mr. Graves. "In fact, I think that"s just what he _will_ want."
"Not here," I protested. "The very thought of him makes me quake."
"If he comes here, better take him in. I want to know where he is."
I tried to say that I wouldn"t have him, but the old habit of the ward a.s.serted itself. From taking a bottle of beer or a slice of pie, to telling one where one might or might not live, the police were autocrats in that neighborhood. And, respectable woman that I am, my neighbors" fears of the front office have infected me.
"All right, Mr. Graves," I said.
He pushed the parlor door open and looked in, whistling. "This is the place, isn"t it?"
"Yes. But it was up-stairs that he--"
"I see. Tall woman, Mrs. Ladley?"
"Tall and blond. Very airy in her manner."
He nodded and still stood looking in and whistling. "Never heard her speak of a town named Horner, did you?"
"Horner? No."
"I see." He turned and wandered out again into the hall, still whistling. At the door, however, he stopped and turned. "Look anything like this?" he asked, and held out one of his hands, with a small kodak picture on the palm.
It was a snap-shot of a children"s frolic in a village street, with some onlookers in the background. Around one of the heads had been drawn a circle in pencil. I took it to the gas-jet and looked at it closely. It was a tall woman with a hat on, not unlike Jennie Brice.
She was looking over the crowd, and I could see only her face, and that in shadow. I shook my head.
"I thought not," he said. "We have a lot of stage pictures of her, but what with false hair and their being retouched beyond recognition, they don"t amount to much." He started out, and stopped on the door-step to light a cigar.
"Take him on if he comes," he said. "And keep your eyes open. Feed him well, and he won"t kill you!"
I had plenty to think of when I was cooking Mr. Reynolds" supper: the chance that I might have Mr. Ladley again, and the woman at Horner.
For it had come to me like a flash, as Mr. Graves left, that the "Horn--" on the paper slip might have been "Horner."
CHAPTER VII
After all, there was nothing sensational about Mr. Ladley"s return. He came at eight o"clock that night, fresh-shaved and with his hair cut, and, although he had a latch-key, he rang the door-bell. I knew his ring, and I thought it no harm to carry an old razor of Mr. Pitman"s with the blade open and folded back on the handle, the way the colored people use them, in my left hand.
But I saw at once that he meant no mischief.
"Good evening," he said, and put out his hand. I jumped back, until I saw there was nothing in it and that he only meant to shake hands. I didn"t do it; I might have to take him in, and make his bed, and cook his meals, but I did not have to shake hands with him.
"You, too!" he said, looking at me with what I suppose he meant to be a reproachful look. But he could no more put an expression of that sort in his eyes than a fish could. "I suppose, then, there is no use asking if I may have my old room? The front room. I won"t need two."
I didn"t want him, and he must have seen it. But I took him. "You may have it, as far as I"m concerned," I said. "But you"ll have to let the paper-hanger in to-morrow."
"a.s.suredly." He came into the hall and stood looking around him, and I fancied he drew a breath of relief. "It isn"t much yet," he said, "but it"s better to look at than six feet of muddy water."
"Or than stone walls," I said.
He looked at me and smiled. "Or than stone walls," he repeated, bowing, and went into his room.
So I had him again, and if I gave him only the dull knives, and locked up the bread-knife the moment I had finished with it, who can blame me? I took all the precaution I could think of: had Terry put an extra bolt on every door, and hid the rat poison and the carbolic acid in the cellar.
Peter would not go near him. He hobbled around on his three legs, with the splint beating a sort of tattoo on the floor, but he stayed back in the kitchen with me, or in the yard.