Vanishing Point

“Yes-yes-I think it does. And, Lydia, you said this was to be the last job.”

“Of course. Only don’t worry. It’s not good for you.”

He said, “No, it isn’t. Sometimes-I do-feel ill-”

Her hand came down on his shoulder and pressed it.

“Just go off to bed and leave everything to me. All you’ve got to think about is your spiders.”

On the other side of the panel Miss Silver had been moving inch by inch. The passage went on past the opening to the study. It would be interesting to know where it came out, but this was neither the time nor the place for anything which did not bear directly upon the present emergency. Craig followed her, she moved to leave the way clear for Miss Crewe’s retreat. They had indeed no more than a bare margin of safety when the panel slid and a rectangle of light lay on the passage floor. If Lydia Crewe had looked to her right she might have seen them. She held an electric torch. If she had turned it in their direction she must have done so. She looked neither to right nor left. As Henry shut the panel behind her, she followed the beam of the torch along the passage by the way that she had come.

When all sound of her going had died away Craig bent to Miss Silver’s ear.

“Well, what do we do next?”

She answered him, not in words but by a light pressure upon his arm, in obedience to which he began to move before her down the passage. But when they came to the door by which they had entered they found it locked against them. Craig allowed himself an almost noiseless laugh.

“Well-what now? I suppose we go back and see where the other end comes out. Have you any idea of where that may be? You know the geography of the house, and I don’t.”

She said in her usual composed ma

“It would be in the hall or in the drawing-room, I should think. Both have panelling of a character very similar to that of the study.”

They retraced their steps. As they approached the panel which had been ajar, it was momentarily startling to see that light still came from it. Henry Cu

Miss Silver had to raise herself a little in order to make this peephole available. She had a good view of the writing-table, and of Henry Cu

After a minute Miss Silver yielded her place to Craig. Both received the same impression. For this time at least, Henry Cu

Miss Silver began to move forward along the passage. It came out, as she supposed it might, in one of the darker corners of the hall, and the panel slid as silently as the other had done. Lydia Crewe would have seen to that. There was still a light burning. It striped the darkness as the panel slid back, seeming much brighter than it really was. The pressure of Craig’s hand upon the wood stopped suddenly. The dining-room light clicked out and Nicholas Cu

CHAPTER 37

Miss Silver suggested that they should leave by way of the back door. In Miss Cu

They came out on to the paved yard and by way of a gravelled path to a garden gate. As Craig closed it behind him, the church clock gave four warning strokes to a

They walked, and the light moving air went with them. He said,

“What are you going to do?”

She stopped and turned to face him.

“I do not know. I think we must go back.”

“Into the house?”

“No-that should not be necessary. But I am not easy about Miss Cu

“Her life!”

“Mr. Lester, you heard the conversation between Miss Crewe and Mr. Cu

“I suppose not. It seems incredible all the same.”

She said soberly,

“Murder must always seem incredible to the normal mind. The murderer has lost his balance. His own desires, his own plans, his own safety have come to outweigh normal control and the moral law. With each further step he becomes more justified in his own eyes, more inflated with his own importance, and more certain that he can carry out his plans with success. This would not be Miss Crewe’s first step into crime. Whether or not she took a personal part in the removal of Maggie Bell and the death of Miss Holiday, I have not the slightest doubt that she was cognizant of both those murders. We may never know just what happened to Maggie, but working as she did at the Dower House, it seems probable that she saw something which might have been dangerous if she were given time to put two and two together and think about the result. It is quite certain that this is what happened in the case of Miss Holiday. In Miss Crewe’s absence, she went prying into her room. Surprised by Mrs. Bolder, she pushed a chance-come envelope into her overall pocket. As Miss Crewe herself suggested, it had probably slipped down between the seat and the side of a chair. The whole thing was due to no more than idle curiosity and to the instinctive movements of a maid who is tidying a room. She would shake up the cushions and run her hand round the side of any chair which had been occupied. But you know what that envelope contained-a sketch of Lady Melbury’s diamond and ruby necklace. The first sketch in fact from which a copy was to be prepared.”