There was a silence, and then Rachel said,

“We’ve got to talk this out, and then we needn’t ever speak of it again. I have asked Louisa to be present-she and Miss Silver know why. Miss Silver has something to tell us, and so has Caroline.”

Noisy, stretched out in front of the fire, opened one eye, rolled over, and began very delicately to wash his face in exactly the same way as a cat, except that cats, to whom the toilet is a sacred rite, sit up and give it their entire attention. Noisy licked lazily, stroked a somnolent face, and presently sank again into a dream of badgers.

The room was very quiet as Miss Silver said,

“Where would you like me to begin, Miss Treherne?”

“I leave it to you.”

Miss Silver moved her chair a little. She could now see everyone quite comfortably. Dear me, how pale they all were! All except Mr. Brandon. It was impossible to imagine Mr. Brandon looking pale. A very forcible type. He would be a great support to poor Miss Treherne. Wealth was certainly a terrible responsibility, and the cause of a great deal of crime, but if you had it you just had to make the best of it.

She cleared her throat, coughed slightly, and began to speak.

“I came down here at Miss Treherne’s request. She had furnished me with a list of her relatives and some information regarding them. But members of the same family are not always the best judges of one another’s characters. They are apt to be biased by such things as early association, custom, and personal predilection. I became aware immediately of the presence of these three factors. Of Mr. Richard Treherne and Miss Caroline Ponsonby Miss Treherne could believe no wrong. Of Mr. Maurice and Miss Cherry Wadlow she was, on the contrary, quite prepared to believe anything. Between these two extremes there were, Mr. Wadlow and Miss Comperton who irritated her but whom she found herself unable to suspect, Mrs. Wadlow whom she took for granted, and Mr. Frith for whom she had a strong cousinly affection.”

Richard said, frowning, “Is all this really necessary?”

It was Rachel who answered,

“I think so. Please go on, Miss Silver.”

Miss Silver continued.

“I arrived to find that Miss Treherne had met with a very serious accident. I was at once placed in a considerable dilemma. The circumstances were such that the police should have been called in. Miss Treherne positively refused to allow this. She even went so far as to declare that she would deny the whole thing if the police were sent for. I had therefore to do the best I could, and I may say that I have never had a more serious responsibility laid upon me. I was convinced that Miss Treherne’s life was being attempted by one of her relatives, and that this person was a very cool and daring criminal with a great deal at stake. I discovered that I was not the only person to be convinced of this. Louisa Barnet was so much convinced of it that she had for some time been risking her situation and her character in a series of foolish attempts to alarm Miss Treherne.”

Louisa sniffed. Her eyelids were red, her mouth made a straight, hard line. At the mention of her name she stared fiercely at Rachel for a moment and then looked down again at the hands which were clenched in her lap.

Miss Silver coughed slightly.

“The attempts were foolish and rather alarming, but I am convinced that her motive was concern for her mistress. Miss Treherne did become alarmed, and her alarm brought her to me. I quickly discovered Louisa’s activities. But Miss Treherne’s accident on the cliff was quite another matter. In this case I exonerated Louisa immediately. Real devotion is unmistakable, and it was plain to me that she would have died for Miss Treherne.”

This time Louisa did not look up. The rigid line of her mouth set itself more rigidly. Her clenched hands were more tightly clenched.

Miss Silver looked away.

“I turned my attention to the family circle. In all but Mr. Frith I found uneasiness, nervousness, worry. I took particular notice of Mr. Frith from the beginning. Miss Treherne remaining upstairs after her fall, I was a complete stranger to everyone present. To everyone but Mr. Frith I was a retired governess of no importance, a protégée of Miss Treherne’s, quite a negligible person. I therefore saw them all behaving in a perfectly natural way. They were polite, but they did not trouble to put on a social manner- they were just themselves. Mrs. Wadlow talked because she likes talking. Mr. Wadlow indulged an inclination to fidget. Miss Comperton endeavoured to enlist my interest pecuniarily in a scheme for slum clearance. Mr. Richard and Miss Caroline were silent because they were much occupied with their own thoughts. But Mr. Frith went out of his way to make himself agreeable, and I asked myself why he should do so. He was not the type of man who devotes an evening to the entertainment of an elderly governess. His conversation convinced me that he desired to impress me with his talent, his social position, and his devotion to Miss Treherne. I asked myself why he should be at so much pains, and it occurred to me that Mr. Frith knew who I was, and for what purpose I had been brought down to Whincliff Edge.

“As a first step in my investigation into Miss Treherne’s fall over the cliff, I had to find out where all the other members of the household had been between five o’clock and six-fifteen. The servants were out of it, with the exception of Gladys, whose story interested me very much. First of all, Mr. Frith rang for her at half past five and asked to have a letter posted should anyone be going out. Secondly, she had taken advantage of this to run down to the post herself. Now why should Mr. Frith have rung for her? Letters for the post are placed on the chest in the hall. The chauffeur had just driven into Ledlington to fetch me. If the letter was not sufficiently important for Mr. Frith to have completed it in time for Barlow to take, why did it suddenly become so important that he rang for Gladys to ensure its being posted? Or, the pillar-box being just at the bottom of the drive, why did he not walk down with the letter himself? It seemed to me that Mr. Frith had been anxious to establish the fact that not only was he in the house at half past five, but that he had no intention of going out. He would, however, have had plenty of time after ringing for Gladys to slip out through his own room and reach Mrs. Capper’s cottage before Miss Treherne emerged. Nobody else had any sort of alibi, and what looked like an attempt on Mr. Frith’s part to establish one actually aroused my suspicion.”

Gale Brandon was standing on one side of the hearth. He had been watching Miss Silver as she spoke. He laughed now in a sudden boyish manner and inquired,

“Do you always suspect the person who has an alibi?”

Miss Silver shook her head.

“Not always. But when a person has taken pains to have an alibi, it is of course a suspicious circumstance.”

“I was thinking that I hadn’t one of any kind,” said Gale-“I was right there. But I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

Miss Silver acknowledged the excuse with a slight inclination.

“To continue. At breakfast next morning Mr. Frith’s behaviour confirmed my suspicions. It was obvious that Miss Treherne’s electric torch had been tampered with. Mr. Richard had put in a fresh battery in view of her coming home by the cliff path in the dark, yet when she emerged from Mrs. Capper’s cottage the torch gave so feeble a light that she turned it off and used it only when she came to the worst bit of the road. It was, in point of fact, too feeble to disclose the identity of any person who might be following her. Now what did Mr. Frith do? He became very much concerned to prove that there was some mistake, and that the torch was all right. The mistake, if I may say so, was his, since he once more attracted my attention. He had no sooner demonstrated that the battery was in perfect working order than I was convinced that he had first changed the new battery for an old one and then replaced the new one. And that is where he made a bad mistake. It is a fatal weakness of the criminal mind not to be able to leave well alone. If he had been content to leave the run-down battery in the torch, it would have been much more possible to attribute its failure to an accident. The battery might have been defective, or Mr. Richard might have put in an old one by mistake.”