CHAPTER X
THE WOMAN AT ASHFORD
Tarling went back to his lodgings that afternoon, a puzzled and baffledman. Ling Chu, his impassive Chinese servant, had observed those symptomsof perplexity before, but now there was something new in his master'sdemeanour--a kind of curt irritation, an anxiety which in the Hunter ofMen had not been observed before.
The Chinaman went silently about the business of preparing his chief'stea and made no reference to the tragedy or to any of its details. He hadset the table by the side of the bed, and was gliding from the room inthat cat-like way of his when Tarling stopped him.
"Ling Chu," he said, speaking in the vernacular, "you remember inShanghai when the 'Cheerful Hearts' committed a crime, how they used toleave behind their _hong_?"
"Yes, master, I remember it very well," said Ling Chu calmly. "They werecertain words on red paper, and afterwards you could buy them from theshops, because people desired to have these signs to show to theirfriends."
"Many people carried these things," said Tarling slowly, "and the sign ofthe 'Cheerful Hearts' was found in the pocket of the murdered man."
Ling Chu met the other's eyes with imperturbable calmness.
"Master," he said, "may not the white-faced man who is now dead havebrought such a thing from Shanghai? He was a tourist, and tourists buythese foolish souvenirs."
Tarling nodded again.
"That is possible," he said. "I have already thought that such might havebeen the case. Yet, why should he have this sign of the 'Cheerful Hearts'in his pocket on the night he was murdered?"
"Master," said the Chinaman, "why should he have been murdered?"
Tarling's lips curled in a half smile.
"By which I suppose you mean that one question is as difficult to answeras the other," he said. "All right, Ling Chu, that will do."
His principal anxiety for the moment was not this, or any other cluewhich had been offered, but the discovery of Odette Rider's presenthiding-place. Again and again he turned the problem over in his mind. Atevery point he was baffled by the wild improbability of the facts that hehad discovered. Why should Odette Rider be content to accept a servileposition in Lyne's Stores when her mother was living in luxury atHertford? Who was her father--that mysterious father who appeared anddisappeared at Hertford, and what part did he play in the crime? And ifshe was innocent, why had she disappeared so completely and incircumstances so suspicious? And what did Sam Stay know? The man's hatredof the girl was uncanny. At the mention of her name a veritable fountainof venom had bubbled up, and Tarling had sensed the abysmal depths ofthis man's hate and something of his boundless love for the dead man.
He turned impatiently on the couch and reached out his hand for his tea,when there came a soft tap at the door and Ling Chu slipped into theroom.
"The Bright Man is here," he said, and in these words announcedWhiteside, who brought into the room something of his alert, freshpersonality which had earned him the pseudonym which Ling Chu hadaffixed.
"Well, Mr. Tarling," said the Inspector, taking out a little notebook,"I'm afraid I haven't done very much in the way of discovering themovements of Miss Rider, but so far as I can find out by inquiries madeat Charing Cross booking office, several young ladies unattended haveleft for the Continent in the past few days."
"You cannot identify any of these with Miss Rider?" asked Tarling in atone of disappointment.
The detective shook his head. Despite his apparent unsuccess, he hadevidently made some discovery which pleased him, for there was nothinggloomy in his admission of failure.
"You have found out something, though?" suggested Tarling quickly, andWhiteside nodded.
"Yes," he said, "by the greatest of luck I've got hold of a very curiousstory. I was chatting with some of the ticket collectors and trying todiscover a man who might have seen the girl--I have a photograph of hertaken in a group of Stores employees, and this I have had enlarged, as itmay be very useful."
Tarling nodded.
"Whilst I was talking with the man on the gate," Whiteside proceeded,"a travelling ticket inspector came up and he brought rather anextraordinary story from Ashford. On the night of the murder there wasan accident to the Continental Express."
"I remember seeing something about it," said Tarling, "but my mind hasbeen occupied by this other matter. What happened?"
"A luggage truck which was standing on the platform fell between two ofthe carriages and derailed one of them," explained Whiteside. "The onlypassenger who was hurt was a Miss Stevens. Apparently it was a case ofsimple concussion, and when the train was brought to a standstill she wasremoved to the Cottage Hospital, where she is to-day. Apparently thedaughter of the travelling ticket inspector is a nurse at the hospital,and she told her father that this Miss Stevens, before she recoveredconsciousness, made several references to a 'Mr. Lyne' and a 'Mr.Milburgh'!"
Tarling was sitting erect now, watching the other through narrowed lids.
"Go on," he said quietly.
"I could get very little from the travelling inspector, except that hisdaughter was under the impression that the lady had a grudge against Mr.Lyne, and that she spoke even more disparagingly of Mr. Milburgh."
Tarling had risen and slipped off his silk dressing-gown before the othercould put away his notebook. He struck a gong with his knuckles, and whenLing Chu appeared, gave him an order in Chinese, which Whiteside couldnot follow.
"You're going to Ashford? I thought you would," said Whiteside. "Wouldyou like me to come along?"
"No, thank you," said the other. "I'll go myself. I have an idea thatMiss Stevens may be the missing witness in the case and may throw greaterlight upon the happenings of the night before last than any other witnesswe have yet interviewed."
He found he had to wait an hour before he could get a train for Ashford,and he passed that hour impatiently walking up and down the broadplatform. Here was a new complication in the case. Who was Miss Stevens,and why should she be journeying to Dover on the night of the murder?
He reached Ashford, and with difficulty found a cab, for it was rainingheavily, and he had come provided with neither mackintosh nor umbrella.
The matron of the Cottage Hospital reassured him on one point.
"Oh, yes, Miss Stevens is still in the hospital," she said, and hebreathed a sigh of relief. There was just a chance that she might havebeen discharged, and again the possibility that she would be difficultto trace.
The matron showed him the way through a long corridor, terminating in abig ward. Before reaching the door of the ward there was a smaller dooron the right.
"We put her in this private ward, because we thought it might benecessary to operate," said the matron and opened the door.
Tarling walked in. Facing him was the foot of the bed, and in that bedlay a girl whose eyes met his. He stopped dead as though he were shotFor "Miss Stevens" was Odette Rider!