It is true that I have had only the one glance at her, and yet there are some things to which I am ready to swear. She is no one whom I have seen down here, and I have now met all the neighbours. The figure was far taller than that of Stapleton, far thinner than that of Frankland. Barrymore it might possibly have been, but we had left her behind us, and I am certain that she could not have followed us. A stranger then is still dogging us, just as a stranger dogged us in London. We have never shaken her off. If I could lay my hands upon that woman, then at last we might find ourselves at the end of all our difficulties. To this one purpose I must now devote all my energies.
My first impulse was to tell Lady Henrietta all my plans. My second and wisest one is to play my own game and speak as little as possible to anyone. She is silent and distrait. Her nerves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon the moor. I will say nothing to add to her anxieties, but I will take my own steps to attain my own end.
We had a small scene this morning after breakfast. Barrymore asked leave to speak with Lady Henrietta, and they were closeted in her study some little time. Sitting in the billiard-room I more than once heard the sound of voices raised, and I had a pretty good idea what the point was which was under discussion. After a time the baronet opened her door and called for me.
'Barrymore considers that she has a grievance,' she said. 'She thinks that it was unfair on our part to hunt her brother-in-law down when she, of her own free will, had told us the secret.'
The butler was standing very pale but very collected before us.
'I may have spoken too warmly, sir,' said she, 'and if I have, I am sure that I beg your pardon. At the same time, I was very much surprised when I heard you two gentlewomen come back this morning and learned that you had been chasing Selden. The poor fellow has enough to fight against without my putting more upon her track.'
'If you had told us of your own free will it would have been a different thing,' said the baronet, 'you only told us, or rather your husband only told us, when it was forced from you and you could not help yourself.'
'I didn't think you would have taken advantage of it, Lady Henrietta--indeed I didn't.'
'The woman is a public danger. There are lonely houses scattered over the moor, and she is a fellow who would stick at nothing. You only want to get a glimpse of her face to see that. Look at Ms. Stapleton's house, for example, with no one but herself to defend it. There's no safety for anyone until she is under lock and key.'
'She'll break into no house, sir. I give you my solemn word upon that. But she will never trouble anyone in this country again. I assure you, Lady Henrietta, that in a very few days the necessary arrangements will have been made and she will be on her way to South America. For God's sake, lady, I beg of you not to let the police know that she is still on the moor. They have given up the chase there, and she can lie quiet until the ship is ready for her. You can't tell on her without getting my husband and me into trouble. I beg you, lady, to say nothing to the police.'
'What do you say, Watson?'
I shrugged my shoulders. 'If she were safely out of the country it would relieve the tax-payer of a burden.'
'But how about the chance of her holding someone up before she goes?'
'She would not do anything so mad, sir. We have provided her with all that she can want. To commit a crime would be to show where she was hiding.'
'That is true,' said Lady Henrietta. 'Well, Barrymore --'
'God bless you, lady, and thank you from my heart! It would have killed my poor husband had she been taken again.'
'I guess we are aiding and abetting a felony, Watson? But, after what we have heard I don't feel as if I could give the woman up, so there is an end of it. All right, Barrymore, you can go.'
With a few broken words of gratitude the woman turned, but she hesitated and then came back.
'You've been so kind to us, lady, that I should like to do the best I can for you in return. I know something, Lady Henrietta, and perhaps I should have said it before, but it was long after the inquest that I found it out. I've never breathed a word about it yet to mortal woman. It's about poor Lady Charlotte's death.'
The baronet and I were both upon our feet. 'Do you know how she died?'
'No, lady, I don't know that.'
'What then?'
'I know why she was at the gate at that hour. It was to meet a man.'
'To meet a man! She?'
'Yes, sir.'
'And the man's name?'
'I can't give you the name, lady, but I can give you the initials. His initials were L. L.'
'How do you know this, Barrymore?'
'Well, Lady Henrietta, your aunt had a letter that morning. She had usually a great many letters, for she was a public woman and well known for her kind heart, so that everyone who was in trouble was glad to turn to her. But that morning, as it chanced, there was only this one letter, so I took the more notice of it. It was from Coombe Tracey, and it was addressed in a man's hand.'
'Well?'