‘Not if he had been blowing his nose at the moment, which he would have been, if he is the man I take him for. So now, Verney returned to his car, ran back to the garage in North London, put away the car, and then waited behind the garage doors until the first of the returning runners showed up. All he had to do then was to shed the outer clothing, and step out and attach himself to the tail of one of the little groups. It was all over!’
The brief but thoughtful silence which ensued was broken by Inspector Bligh. ‘And a very nice bit of work too,’ he remarked appreciatively, pressing down a new charge of tobacco in his pipe. ‘It was more by accident than anything else that it came unstuck.’
‘You mean the accident of my mind being engaged on the case,’ Trent suggested. ‘There is something in that, no doubt.’
‘What I mean,’ Mr Bligh answered with a shade of truculence, ‘is the pure and simple accident of Raught having seen a man in what looked like evening dress going into the place at the time he did.’ He lighted the refilled pipe.
‘Which, you were about to say, provided a starting-point for the operations of my flame-like intelligence. Yes: true,’ Trent said. ‘The accompanying fact that the man seen was wearing silent shoes was no accident, of course. It was just because Verney was so jolly careful; and it gave him away, as happens so often in this vale of tears. There was another large-scale accident, though.’
‘What was that, Phil?’ Miss Yates inquired.
‘I mean Raught not going out until some hours later than he usually did on his half-day off. Verney’s idea was, you see, that the old man would be alone in the house when I called, and that I couldn’t possibly prove that he was alive and well when I left. But its being such beastly weather kept Raught at No. 5, not only to let me into the place, instead of Randolph admitting me himself, but to see me off the premises afterwards. And as I had a solid mass of coagulated alibi for the rest of the night, that accident completely ruined the part of the plan that was intended for my benefit. And so, one thing leading to another, not even my old friend Inspector Bligh dreamed of connecting me with the crime, and I was left at large to go nearly off my head worrying about the case, and finally to get on the track—as I fully and freely admit, the fact being obvious—entirely by accident.’
‘Well, if you come to accidents, Phil,’ Fairman observed, ‘the whole of this hideous business came of those few casual words you let drop to Verney, as you were telling us, when you first met him. Those words cost Randolph his life in the end. They will cost Verney his, I suppose. He certainly meant that they should cost you yours.’
‘You might take it a step farther back,’ Trent said, ‘and make the trouble date from the day when the Prince of Monaco leased the gambling concession to M. Louis Blanc. It’s an endless chain. Still, it can’t be denied that what I said so carelessly at Brinton was a link in it. The awful power of a chance remark! But listen! I see the inspector pricking up his ears. What is that faint musical sound—as if some seraph hand, with touch of fire, were arranging glasses on a tray in the pantry? Inspector Bligh, the hour is nigh, the sun has left the lea.’
‘Yes: some time ago,’ said that officer, now amiably expectant. ‘But I don’t see what it has to do with me.’
‘The nark, his lay who trilled all day, sits hushed—’
‘You sit hushed,’ suggested Inspector Bligh.
THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB
E. C. BENTLEY • TRENT’S LAST CASE
E. C. BENTLEY • TRENT INTERVENES
E. C. BENTLEY & H. WARNER ALLEN • TRENT’S OWN CASE
ANTHONY BERKELEY • THE WYCHFORD POISONING CASE
ANTHONY BERKELEY • THE SILK STOCKING MURDERS
BERNARD CAPES • THE MYSTERY OF THE SKELETON KEY
AGATHA CHRISTIE • THE BIG FOUR
HUGH CONWAY • CALLED BACK
HUGH CONWAY • DARK DAYS
EDMUND CRISPIN • THE CASE OF THE GILDED FLY
FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS • THE CASK
FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS • THE PONSON CASE
FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS • THE GROOTE PARK MURDERS
J. JEFFERSON FARJEON • THE HOUSE OPPOSITE
RUDOLPH FISHER • THE CONJURE-MAN DIES
FRANK FROËST • THE GRELL MYSTERY
FRANK FROËST & GEORGE DILNOT • THE CRIME CLUB
ÉMILE GABORIAU • THE BLACKMAILERS
ANNA K. GREEN • THE LEAVENWORTH CASE
VERNON LODER • THE MYSTERY AT STOWE
PHILIP MACDONALD • THE RASP
PHILIP MACDONALD • THE NOOSE
PHILIP MACDONALD • MURDER GONE MAD
PHILIP MACDONALD • THE MAZE
R. A. V. MORRIS • THE LYTTLETON CASE
ARTHUR B. REEVE • THE ADVENTURESS
FRANK RICHARDSON • THE MAYFAIR MYSTERY
R. L. STEVENSON • DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
EDGAR WALLACE • THE TERROR
ISRAEL ZANGWILL • THE PERFECT CRIME
FURTHER TITLES IN PREPARATION
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