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“In which case that corner might have been caught and torn off when the half sheet was removed. But wouldn’t it have been noticed?”
Miss Silver’s needles clicked.
“By whom, Frank?”
“By the person who thought it worth while to remove that paper. He couldn’t have helped seeing that there was a corner missing-could he?”
“Unless it was done in the dark.”
Frank Abbott whistled.
“After the accident, you mean?”
“After the murder,” said Miss Silver.
This time he did not whistle. The ice-blue eyes narrowed a little. Then he said,
“Murder?”
“Certainly.”
“What makes you think so?”
Miss Silver coughed.
“Did you not think so yourself?”
“There was nothing to make me think so.”
She smiled.
“Are you in the habit of discussing an ordinary road accident at so much length?”
“Perhaps not. It was your handwriting that brought me here, and as soon as we began to talk I felt tolerably certain that you had something up your sleeve.”
With the slightest possible change of expression Miss Silver managed to convey the fact that she was not altogether pleased with this figure of speech.
Frank Abbott produced an ingratiating smile.
“You have-haven’t you?”
Joh
“Miss Collins talked a good deal in the train. We had the carriage to ourselves. She told me the name of the person she was going to meet. She also told me that she had promised not to disclose this information to anyone. You may think it strange that she should have confided in someone she did not know, but having inadvertently let slip another name-one which she had no reason to suppose I should recognize-”
“You did recognize it?”
“I did. And when she realized this she felt, I think, that it no longer mattered whether she told me the rest.”
“What name did she mention?”
Miss Silver spoke slowly and carefully.
“She told me that she had had the charge of a little girl for some years. When the child was fifteen the father died and she was taken away by a member of a family with whom she was illegitimately co
Frank Abbott’s face changed.
Miss Silver coughed.
“I see that the name conveys to you what it did to me- A
“What did she tell you?”
Miss Silver took a moment. Then she said,
“Like everyone else, she had read the papers. Of course she realized that the return of Lady Jocelyn implied the death three and a half years ago of A
Frank Abbott exclaimed.
“Blackmail-Miss Silver!”
“I told you it might be a very serious case.”
He ran his hand back over his hair, already mirror-smooth.
“Serious?” he said. “Good Lord-go on!”
Miss Silver frowned slightly upon this form of address. She was indulgent towards the young, but early experience as a governess had left her with a feeling that she was responsible for their ma
“I have already stated my conviction that poor Miss Collins had no such design, but I fear that she may have conveyed a quite erroneous impression to the person who rang her up.”
“What person?”
“No name was given. Miss Collins told me that she wrote to Lady Jocelyn, I presume at Jocelyn’s Holt, but received no reply from her. Instead a gentleman rang up. He gave no name, but stated that he was speaking for Lady Jocelyn. Miss Collins was, I think, under the impression that she was talking to Sir Philip. She was a good deal fluttered and pleased at the idea, as she had never, so she said, conversed with a baronet before. I tell you this in order that you may realize her state of mind-very simple, fluttered, and excited.”
“Philip Jocelyn-I wonder?” His expression was dubious.
Miss Silver’s needles clicked.
“Quite so, my dear Frank. But on the other hand… We should, I feel, withhold our judgment.”
He nodded.
“Well, someone rang Miss Collins up. What did he say?”
“He asked her whether she had told anyone that she had written about A
“You said that?”
“Yes, Frank. When I had done so, she began to talk in quite an excited ma
“What did she say?”
“I will give you her own words as accurately as I can. She said, ‘That’s as good as what I told him. You couldn’t take me in, I said, not if it was ever so.’ Then she said the gentleman laughed very pleasantly and told her she was very positive, and she said of course she was, but she didn’t tell him why. But she said to me that when you had had a child from five years old, and washed it and dressed it and done everything, well, it stood to reason you would know anything there was to know. I do not know how much more she would have said, because just then the train stopped and a crowd of people got in. We had no further conversation of a private nature, but she turned back on the platform and asked me to come and see her next time I was in Blackheath, and I gave her my name and address.”