CHAPTER XXV
THE SECOND DISAPPEARANCE
Mr. Lindsey was always one of the coolest of hands at receiving news of astartling nature, and now, instead of breaking out into exclamations, hejust nodded his head, and dropped into the nearest chair.
"Aye?" he remarked quietly. "So her ladyship's disappeared, too, has she?And when did you get to hear that, now?"
"Half an hour ago," replied Murray. "The butler at Hathercleugh Househas just been in--driven over in a hurry--to tell us. What do you makeof it at all?"
"Before I answer that, I want to know what's been happening here whileI've been away," replied Mr. Lindsey. "What's happened within your ownprovince--officially, I mean?"
"Not much," answered Murray. "There began to be talk evening before last,amongst the fishermen, about Sir Gilbert's yacht. He'd been seen, ofcourse, to go out with Moneylaws there, two days ago, at noon. And--thereis Moneylaws! Doesn't he know anything? Where's Sir Gilbert, Moneylaws?"
"He'll tell all that--when I tell him to," said Mr. Lindsey, with aglance at me. "Go on with your story, first."
The superintendent shook his head, as if all these things were beyond hiscomprehension.
"Oh, well!" he continued. "I tell you there was talk--you know how theygossip down yonder on the beach. It was said the yacht had never come in,and, though many of them had been out, they'd never set eyes on her, andrumours of her soon began to spread. So I sent Chisholm there out toHathercleugh to make some inquiry--tell Mr. Lindsey what you heard," hewent on, turning to the sergeant. "Not much, I think."
"Next to nothing," replied Chisholm. "I saw Lady Carstairs. She laughedat me. She said Sir Gilbert was not likely to come to harm--he'd beensailing yachts, big and little, for many a year, and he'd no doubt gonefurther on this occasion than he'd first intended. I pointed out thathe'd Mr. Moneylaws with him, and that he'd been due at his business earlythat morning. She laughed again at that, and said she'd no doubt SirGilbert and Mr. Moneylaws had settled that matter between them, and that,as she'd no anxieties, she was sure Berwick folk needn't have any. And soI came away."
"And we heard no more until we got your wire yesterday from Dundee, Mr.Lindsey," said Murray; "and that was followed not so very long after byone from the police at Largo, which I reported to you."
"Now, here's an important question," put in Mr. Lindsey, a bithurriedly, as if something had just struck him. "Did you communicate thenews from Largo to Hathercleugh?"
"We did, at once," answered Murray. "I telephoned immediately to LadyCarstairs--I spoke to her over the wire myself, telling her what theLargo police reported."
"What time would that be?" asked Mr. Lindsey, sharply.
"Half-past eleven," replied Murray.
"Then, according to what you tell me, she left Hathercleugh soon afteryou telephoned to her?" said Mr. Lindsey.
"According to what the butler told us this morning," answered Murray,"Lady Carstairs went out on her bicycle at exactly noon yesterday--andshe's never been seen or heard of since."
"She left no message at the house?" asked Mr. Lindsey.
"None! And," added the superintendent, significantly, "she didn't mentionto the butler that I'd just telephoned to her. It's a queer business,this, I'm thinking, Mr. Lindsey. But--what's your own news?--and what'sMoneylaws got to tell about Sir Gilbert?"
Mr. Lindsey took no notice of the last question. He sat in silence for awhile, evidently thinking. And in the end he pointed to some telegramforms that lay on the superintendent's desk.
"There's one thing must be done at once, Murray," he said; "and I'lltake the responsibility of doing it myself. We must communicate with theCarstairs family solicitors."
"I'd have done it, as soon as the butler brought me the news about LadyCarstairs," remarked Murray, "but I don't know who they are."
"I do!" answered Mr. Lindsey. "Holmshaw and Portlethorpe of Newcastle.Here," he went on, passing a telegram form to me. "Write out thismessage: 'Sir Gilbert and Lady Carstairs are both missing fromHathercleugh under strange circumstances please send some authorizedperson here at once.' Sign that with my name, Hugh--and take it to thepost-office, and come back here."
When I got back, Mr. Lindsey had evidently told Murray and Chisholm allabout my adventures with Sir Gilbert, and the two men regarded me with anew interest as if I had suddenly become a person of the firstimportance. And the superintendent at once fell upon me for my reticence.
"You made a bad mistake, young man, in keeping back what you ought tohave told at the inquest on Phillips!" he said, reprovingly. "Indeed, youought to have told it before that--you should have told us."
"Aye!--if I'd only known as much as that," began Chisholm, "I'd have--"
"You'd probably have done just what he did!" broke in Mr. Lindsey--"heldyour tongue till you knew more!--so let that pass--the lad did what hethought was for the best. You never suspected Sir Gilbert of any sharein these affairs, either of you--so come, now!"
"Why, as to that, Mr. Lindsey," remarked Murray, who looked somewhatnettled by this last passage, "you didn't suspect him yourself--or, ifyou did, you kept it uncommonly quiet!"
"Does Mr. Lindsey suspect him now?" asked Chisholm, a bit maliciously."For if he does, maybe he'll give us a hand."
Mr. Lindsey looked at both of them in a way that he had of looking atpeople of whose abilities he had no very great idea--but there was someindulgence in the look on this occasion.
"Well, now that things have come to this pass," he said, "and after SirGilbert's deliberate attempt to get rid of Moneylaws--to murder him, infact--I don't mind telling you the truth. I do suspect Sir Gilbert of themurder of Crone--and that's why I produced that ice-ax in court the otherday. And--when he saw that ice-ax, he knew that I suspected him, andthat's why he took Moneylaws out with him, intending to rid himself of aman that could give evidence against him. If I'd known that Moneylaws wasgoing with him, I'd have likely charged Sir Gilbert there andthen!--anyway, I wouldn't have let Moneylaws go."
"Aye!--you know something, then?" exclaimed Murray. "You're in possessionof some evidence that we know nothing about?"
"I know this--and I'll make you a present of it, now," answered Mr.Lindsey. "As you're aware, I'm a bit of a mountaineer--you know thatI've spent a good many of my holidays in Switzerland, climbing.Consequently, I know what alpenstocks and ice-axes are. And when I cameto reflect on the circumstances of Crone's murder, I remember that not solong since, happening to be out along the riverside, I chanced across SirGilbert Carstairs using a very late type of ice-ax as a walking-stick--ashe well could do, and might have picked up in his hall as some men'llpick up a golf-stick to go walking with, and I've done that myself,hundred of times. And I knew that I had an ice-ax of that very pattern athome--and so I just shoved it under the doctor's nose in court, and askedhim if that hole in Crone's head couldn't have been made by the spike ofit. Why? Because I knew that Carstairs would be present in court, and Iwanted to see if he would catch what I was after!"
"And--you think he did?" asked the superintendent, eagerly.
"I kept the corner of an eye on him," answered Mr. Lindsey, knowingly."He saw what I was after! He's a clever fellow, that--but he took themask off his face for the thousandth part of a second. I saw!"
The two listeners were so amazed by this that they sat in silence for awhile, staring at Mr. Lindsey with open-mouthed amazement.
"It's a dark, dark business!" sighed Murray at last. "What's the truemeaning of it, do you think, Mr. Lindsey?"
"Some secret that's being gradually got at," replied Mr. Lindsey,promptly. "That's what it is. And there's nothing to do, just now, butwait until somebody comes from Holmshaw and Portlethorpe's. Holmshaw isan old man--probably Portlethorpe himself will come along. He may knowsomething--they've been family solicitors to the Carstairs lot for many ayear. But it's my impression that Sir Gilbert Carstairs is away!--andthat his wife's after him. And if you want to be doing something, try tofind out where she went on her bicycle yest
erday--likely, she rode tosome station in the neighbourhood, and then took train."
Mr. Lindsey and I then went to the office, and we had not been there longwhen a telegram arrived from Newcastle. Mr. Portlethorpe himself wascoming on to Berwick immediately. And in the middle of the afternoon hearrived--a middle-aged, somewhat nervous-mannered man, whom I had seentwo or three times when we had business at the Assizes, and whom Mr.Lindsey evidently knew pretty well, judging by their familiar manner ofgreeting each other.
"What's all this, Lindsey?" asked Mr. Portlethorpe, as soon as he walkedin, and without any preliminaries. "Your wire says Sir Gilbert and LadyCarstairs have disappeared. Does that mean--"
"Did you read your newspaper yesterday?" interrupted Mr. Lindsey, whoknew that what we had read in the _Dundee Advertiser_ had also appearedin the _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_. "Evidently not, Portlethorpe, oryou'd have known, in part at any rate, what my wire meant. But I'll tellyou in a hundred words--and then I'll ask you a couple of questionsbefore we go any further."
He gave Mr. Portlethorpe an epitomized account of the situation, and Mr.Portlethorpe listened attentively to the end. And without making anycomment he said three words:
"Well--your questions?"
"The first," answered Mr. Lindsey, "is this--How long is it since you sawor heard from Sir Gilbert Carstairs?"
"A week--by letter," replied Mr. Portlethorpe.
"The second," continued Mr. Lindsey, "is much more important--much! What,Portlethorpe, do you know of Sir Gilbert Carstairs?"
Mr. Portlethorpe hesitated a moment. Then he replied, frankly and withevident candour.
"To tell you the truth, Lindsey," he said, "beyond knowing that he is SirGilbert Carstairs--nothing!"