Miss Silver had been looking at her gravely. The balance of a mind which had been long disturbed had now, and perhaps finally, slipped. For the moment at any rate, fear of discovery with its accompaniment of disgrace and retribution were lost in the egotism and self-adulation of the criminal. She began to consider how this interview could be ended.

Irene Wayne went on talking.

“Doris Pell was a very stupid girl. When people are as stupid as that, it is amusing to try and stir them up. She didn’t like me, you know. I could tell when she was trying on that blue dress I had when I came out of mourning for Esther-she didn’t like touching me! I sent her two letters saying that everyone knew she was an immoral girl.” She gave a small shrill twitter. “Well, she didn’t like that! And I suppose she thought herself very clever when she came here to fit me on and she picked up the piece of paper which had got torn off her letter. I don’t know how you got hold of it, but I suppose you think you are very clever too! You had better take care not to be too clever, because-what happened to Doris?”

Miss Silver said gravely,

“You pushed her off the bridge and she was drowned.”

Irene Wayne laughed-a dreadful sound.

“She hit her head against one of those big stones and she was drowned. It isn’t at all a good thing to make me angry, you know. I can punish people. I punished Connie Brooke. She was going about saying that she knew who had written the letters, so I punished her. Esther was having sleeping-tablets before she died. I told the doctor that I had thrown them away, but I hadn’t-I kept them. Did you know that my back door key fitted the lock at the Croft? I found it out quite by accident, because Connie forgot her key one night when I was with her, and I said, ‘Oh, well, we’ll try mine,’ and it fitted. So all I had to do was to let myself in by Connie’s back door whilst she was up at the party they hadn’t asked me to, and there was her cocoa, left all ready on the stove! I had crushed up my dear Esther’s tablets-there were quite a lot of them-and I stirred them in and came away. Of course I was very careful to see that they were quite dissolved. She shouldn’t have made me angry-she really shouldn’t. Colonel Repton was very foolish that way too. I punished him. I was very clever about that, you know. Sleeping-tablets wouldn’t have done for him, but I remembered the stuff Esther got in for the wasps’ nest in the pear-tree two years ago. She couldn’t bear wasps. She said the stuff was very strong, and any that was left must be destroyed, but I hid it away. You never know when something like that will come in useful, do you? I put some of it in a bottle mixed up with a little whisky, and I slipped it into my bag when I went up to the Work Party at the Manor. That girl Florrie tattles, you know-very wrong of her, but girls always do-so everyone in the village knew that Colonel Repton had taken to keeping a decanter of whisky in the study. It was clever of me to remember that, wasn’t it? Well, then of course I had to find an opportunity of putting my stuff into the decanter. I slipped out of the drawing-room-I was doing white work, so of course my hands had to be very clean, and I said I had a smudge on my finger. And do you know, just as I got into the hall Colonel Repton came out of the study and went into the cloakroom.” She gave a little tittering laugh. “So I didn’t wash my hands after all! Do you know what I did instead? I went into the study, and there was the decanter on the writing-table. Not at all the thing-oh, not at all! I only had to take out the stopper, pop in the stuff out of my bottle, and put the stopper back again. The room positively reeked of smoke. There was a most dreadful foul old pipe lying on the table. Quite disgusting-I was thankful to get back to the drawing room! I was very clever, wasn’t I? So now you see how foolish you would be to make me angry.”

Miss Silver rose to her feet. She had kept her eyes upon Miss Wayne in the blue dress which Doris Pell had made, but she was not prepared for the sudden movement which took her from the sofa to the door. There was in it a suggestion, a highly unpleasant suggestion, of a springing animal. Renie Wayne stood there against the panels, a little crouched, a little as if she might spring again. Then she said,

“I suppose you think you are going to go away and tell a lot of lies about me! But you don’t suppose I shall let you do that, do you?”

Miss Silver said in her quiet voice,

“You cannot stop me.”

There was that horrid laugh again.

“Can’t I? Well, we shall see! You know, you were very stupid to come here this evening, because I was in the middle of some really rather important business. You noticed the smell of gas when you came into the house-”

Miss Silver had a moment of grave apprehension, but her voice was steady as she said,

“Yes?”

Miss Wayne bridled.

“Oh, yes, indeed! But it wasn’t an escape from the gas stove-you were quite wrong about that. You see that nice big cupboard where the water cistern is-we had to put it there when we had the plumbing altered-well, there is a gas-bracket there. Not incandescent, you know-just the ordinary old-fashioned burner. Well, we left it alone because it was useful in very cold weather to keep the pipes from freezing. Esther was always nervous about it-she would get up two or three times in the night when we had it on. But as I said to her, ‘If there was any escape, you would smell it at once, your room being next door,’ so she left it alone. And now it’s being very useful indeed, because that’s where the gas is escaping. The tap is turned on and the door is shut, and there isn’t any window because it is only a cupboard.”

Miss Silver used the strongest expression which she permitted herself. She said, “Dear me!” And then, “You had better turn it off, or there will be an explosion.”

The smell was, in fact, in the room with them and quite strong. As she spoke she was already at the window, drawing back the curtains and throwing the casement wide. The night air came in with a rush.

CHAPTER 38

Jason Leigh went on up to the Manor. As he came through the hall he saw Scilla Repton. She had put off her scarlet and green tartan and wore a dark skirt and a sweater of greyish blue. The effect was of a light that had been dimmed. Even her hair seemed to have lost some of its brightness. She half passed him, and then turned back again.

“You don’t lose much time!” she said. “I suppose you think you’re going to marry Valentine. And settle down here and let the dullness just soak into you until you die of boredom.”

He laughed.

“The country bores you because you don’t do any of the country things. I shan’t have time to be bored.”

She said, “Oh, well-” And then, “I can’t get out of it quick enough for me.” She went towards the stairs, got as far as the first step, and turned to say over her shoulder, “Are you one of the charming people who think that I poisoned Roger? I didn’t, you know. Foul minds the police have, don’t they?” She shrugged and went on up the stairs, drooping a little.

He went along to the drawing-room, where he found Valentine. They talked about themselves. It was too soon to make plans, but they found that they were making them. Miss Maggie must go on living at the Manor. Impossible to uproot her-impossible and unkind. But she could have her own sitting-room. Once the funeral was over, Scilla wouldn’t want to linger. Coming even closer to him and speaking very low indeed, Valentine said,

“Jason, they don’t really think-they can’t really-”

He said, “I’m afraid they do.”

She caught her breath.

“You don’t mean-they’ll arrest her-”

“I think they may.”

“Jason, do you think-Oh, she couldn’t-not Roger!”