X
"AND HE STOOD _HERE_?"
The Inspector, finding himself very much disturbed by the doubt justmentioned, felt inclined to question whether any perceptible advancementhad been made by this freak business of his canny subordinate. He washardly ready to say yes, and was not a little surprised when on his waytoward the head of the staircase he heard the exultant voice of Mr. Grycewhisper in his ear:
"That's all right. We've gained a point. We know now the exact place fromwhich the arrow was shot."
"But not who shot it."
"No--except that it was not the man Travis."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"For two reasons. This is the first one: If it is difficult to understandhow a man could slip from behind the eastern pedestal and make his wayalong the open gallery to Room H, without attracting the attention of theofficer posted opposite, how next to impossible we should find it, ifthirty feet were added to his course--which is the distance between thetwo pedestals!"
"What was that fellow doing, that he shouldn't have seen this effort atescape, whether it involved a short flight or a long one?"
"He says he was not given detective-duty--that he was placed there tokeep watch over the body of the young girl;--that at a certain moment heimagined himself to hear a stealthy footstep approaching from the fartherend of the gallery, and anxious to spot the man yielding to so doubtful acuriosity, he approached the arch separating his section from theadjoining one, and stopping just inside, stood for a moment or so,listening. As this involved the turning of his back upon the court andconsequently upon the opposite gallery, it gave Travis just theopportunity he needed for an unobserved escape. But I see you are notvery much impressed by the reason I have advanced for believing his storyand placing him where he says he was placed, behind the eastern pedestal.You doubtless think that if the officer opposite had stood long enoughwith his back to the court, Travis might have taken those extra thirtysteps as easily as the twenty he had confessed to. Listen, then, to mysecond reason, or rather, step this way."
Leading his superior toward Room B, the door of which stood wide open, hepaused just outside the threshold to note the effect produced upon theInspector by what he saw inside. Evidently it was as marked with surpriseas the detective had calculated upon, for with an air of greatastonishment the Inspector turned upon him with the whisperedexclamation:
"Travis here! where he could listen--see----"
"Yes. Take a good look at him, Inspector. It won't trouble him any. Idoubt if he would notice us if we stepped into the room."
And such was the opinion of the Inspector himself, as he remarked theextreme excitement under which the Englishman was laboring. Absorbed inthoughts of his own, he was pacing the room with long strides, turningmechanically as he met some impediment, but otherwise oblivious to hissurroundings, even to the point of not noting the presence of Sweetwater,who stood quietly watching him from one of the corners.
This display of feeling was certainly eloquent enough to attract anyone'sattention, but what gave it impressiveness to the official mind was this:his excitement was that of triumph, not fear, of hope without any traceof confusion.
"It is not of himself he is thinking," muttered Gryce.
"And he stood _here_?"
"No--we left him free to move about at will, and his will carried himinto full view of the whole performance."
"And Sweetwater?"
"Was near enough to note his every move, but of course kept himself wellout of sight."
Then as they both stepped back from the doorway: "Mr. Travis didn't knowhe was being watched. He thought himself alone; and having an expressivecountenance,--very expressive for an Englishman,--it was easy enough forSweetwater to read his thoughts."
"And those thoughts?"
"Relief to find an explanation of the phenomenon he had doubtless beenpuzzling over for hours. The moments he had spent in hiding behind onepedestal had evidently failed to suggest that another man might have beenin hiding behind the other."
"I am not surprised. Coincidences of this astonishing kind are not oftenmet with even by us," was the Inspector's dry retort.
During the interchange of these hurried sentences, they had withdrawnstill farther out of sight and hearing of the man discussed. But at thispoint Inspector Jackson reapproached the doorway, and entering in amanner to intercept Mr. Travis in his nervous goings to and fro, remarkedin an off-hand way:
"I see that you have met with a surprise, Mr. Travis. Like ourselves, yougave little thought to what that upper pedestal might conceal."
"You are right. I never even glanced that way. But if I had, I shouldhave seen nothing. He was well hid, exceedingly well hid, whoever he was.But he cannot escape now; you'll get him, won't you, Inspector? He couldnot have left the building--all say that this was impossible. He was one,then, of the people I saw moving about when I went down into the court.Find him! Find this murderer of innocence! of the sweetest, purestchild----"
He turned away; grief was taking the place of indignation and revenge.At this sight the two men left him. The Inspector was at last convinced,both of the man's probity and of one stern, disconcerting fact: that thereal culprit--the man whose guilty fingers had launched the fatalarrow--had been, as Travis said, one of the twenty-two persons who hadbeen moving about for hours not only under his eyes but under those ofthe famous detective posted there.