"But from that moment, in spite of strenuous efforts on the part of the police, all traces of the man with the dirty face, who spoke broken English, vanished completely. And what's more, all trace of Mr. Gerald Moville had also vanished. He did not go up to London, and all this while his luggage was at the Carlton Hotel waiting to be claimed. Nor was it ever claimed by him, because about a month after that tragic Wednesday in September the body of Mr. Gerald Moville was found in a 'gruff' or gully about three-quarters of a mile from the Poacher's Leap. When I say that the body was found, I am wrong, for it was only a part of the body, and that, of course, was completely decomposed. The head was missing, and it was never found, in spite of the most strenuous efforts on the part of professional and amateur detectives, and lavish expenditure of money, thought, and trouble on the part of Sir Timothy Moville. It lies buried, I imagine, somewhere on the moor. The clothes, though sodden, were, however, still recognisable, also the unfortunate man's wrist watch which had stopped at five minutes past eleven, his cuff-links, and his signet ring, which had fallen from his fleshless finger and lay beside it in the 'gruff.'
"And about seventy yards higher up the gully a search party found a knife of obviously foreign make, which still bore certain stains, which scientific analysis proved to be human blood. That knife was identified by Topcoat as the property of Vissio."
§4
The Old Man in the Corner had been silent for a little while, as was his habit when he reached a certain stage of his narrative. At such moments it always seemed as if nothing in the world interested him, except the fashioning of innumerable and complicated knots in a bit of string. It was my business to set him talking again.
"Of course, there was an inquest after that," I said casually.
"Yes, there was," he replied dryly, "but it revealed nothing that the public did not already know. A few minor details—that was all. For instance, it came to light that when Mr. Moville left home on that fateful morning he was wearing the coat, cap, and goggles which were subsequently found in the train at Glasgow Station. It was easy to suppose that the murderer had stolen these from his victim; the cap and goggles being especially useful for purposes of disguise. The same supposition applies to money. Vissio, it was argued, had probably only a few shillings in his pocket when in a moment of mad jealousy he killed Gerald Moville. That, of course, was the universally accepted theory; it was only desperate necessity that pushed him on to robbing the dead. Topcoat and others who knew Antonio well declared that he was quite harmless except where Winnie Gooden was concerned; but it was more than likely that that morning he was tortured by one of his jealous fits. He had hated Gerald Moville from the first, and, according to the girl's own admissions, she must have given him definite cause for jealousy. That very morning he had called at her cottage and found that she had gone out with his rival. Perhaps he knew that Moville was going away for good. Perhaps he guessed that he would try and induce Winnie to go with him. With such torturing fears in his heart, what wonder that when he met his rival on the lonely moor he 'saw red' and used his knife, as Southerners, unfortunately, are only too apt to do?
"The coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Antonio Vissio, and the police hold a warrant for his arrest. But more than two years have gone by since then, and Vissio has succeeded in eluding the police. For many weeks the public were deeply interested in the mystery; the evening papers used to come out with the headlines: 'Where is Antonio Vissio?' and one great daily offered a reward of five hundred pounds for information that would lead to his apprehension. But, as you know, it has all been in vain. The public want to know how a man of unusual personality and speaking broken English could possibly lie perdu so long in this tight little island.
"And if he did leave the country, then how did he do it? He hadn't his passport with him, as that remained with his effects at Topcoat's cottage. How then did he evade the passport officials at Glasgow or any other port of embarkation? It is done sometimes, we all know that, and in this case Vissio had four days' start before Topcoat gave information to the police, but somehow the newspaper-reading public felt that if Vissio got out of the country, something would have betrayed him, some one would have seen him and furnished the first clue that would lead to discovery.
"And so the disappearance of the Italian has been classed as one of the unsolved mysteries in the annals of crime. But to me the only point on which I am not absolutely clear (although even there I hold a theory), is why Gerald Moville should have gone wandering about the moor after he had parted from Winnie Gooden, and when he hadn't very much time left to catch his train, if he didn't want to miss his connection at Dalton. That point did strike Inspector Dodsworth of the C.I.D., who had been sent down from London to assist the local police in the investigation of the crime. I know Dodsworth very well, and he and I discussed that point once or twice. Of course, I was not going to give him the key to the whole mystery—a key, mind you, which I had discovered for myself—but I didn't object to talking over one or two of the minor details with the man, and I told him that in my opinion Moville undoubtedly went out on the moor in order to meet Vissio, and have it out with him on the subject of Winnie.
"He wanted Winnie—badly—to come away with him, and I believe that he was just the sort of man who would think that he could bribe the Italian to stand aside for him by offering him money. I believe those half-bred Spaniards and Portuguese out in Argentina are a most corrupt and venal crowd, and Gerald Moville classed Vissio amongst that lot. I have no doubt whatever in my mind that Moville was walking across the moor to see if he couldn't find Vissio in Topcoat's cottage. It was obviously not for me to tell the police that the Poacher's Leap is in a direct line between that cottage and the place where the two-seater was seen at a standstill on the roadside. But Dodsworth had to admit that I was right on that point."