Thirty-five NEWS FROM THE VICARAGE
Bobby handed back the letter and with a sigh Frankie took it.
“He’s really a very remarkable¹ person,” she said.
“You always had a fancy for him,” said Bobby coldly.
“He had charm,” said Frankie. “So had Moira,” she added.
Bobby blushed.
“It was very queer that all the time the clue to the whole thing shouldhave been in the Vicarage,” he said. “You do know, don’t you, Frankie, thatCarstairs had actually written to Evans—to Mrs. Roberts, that is?”
Frankie nodded.
“Telling her that he was coming to see her and that he wanted informa-tion about Mrs. Templeton whom he had reason to believe was a danger-ous international crook² wanted by the police.
“And then when he’s pushed over the cliff she doesn’t put two and twotogether,” said Bobby bitterly.
“That’s because the man who went over the cliff was Pritchard,” saidFrankie. “That identification was a very clever bit of work. If a man calledPritchard is pushed over, how could it be a man called Carstairs? That’show the ordinary mind works.”
“The funny thing is that she recognized Cayman,” went on Bobby. “Atleast she caught a glimpse of him when Roberts was letting him in andasked him who it was. And he said it was Mr. Cayman and she said,‘Funny, he’s the dead spit of a gentleman I used to be in service with.’ ”
“Can you beat it?” said Frankie.
“Even Bassington-ffrench gave himself away once or twice,” she contin-ued. “But like an idiot I never spotted³ it.”
“Did he?”
“Yes, when Sylvia said that the picture in the paper was very likeCarstairs he said there wasn’t much likeness⁴ really—showing he’d seenthe dead man. And then later he said to me that he never saw the deadman’s face.”
“How on earth did you spot Moira, Frankie?”
“I think it was the description of Mrs. Templeton,” said Frankie dream-ily. “Everyone said she was ‘such a nice lady.’ Now that didn’t seem to fitwith the Cayman woman. No servant would describe her a ‘nice lady.’ Andthen we got to the Vicarage and Moira was there and it suddenly came tome—Suppose Moira was Mrs. Templeton?”

分享到：