‘Will you kindly read that, sir, and then ask Mr. Barndale to explain?’ she said simply.
The military-looking official took the letter and read it through. It ran thus:—
‘On the Roaring Deep,
‘Thames Ditton.
‘Dear Lil,—
‘Billy has struck ile. He’s at work on an amazing comedy
with which he intends to fire the Thames next first of
April. He and I are both going to appear in it at Barndale
in the Christmas week. Meantime we rehearse a terrific
combat nightly.
‘While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaze the
wondering rustics gathered round.
‘A genial idiot, Hodges yclept, has persuaded the whole
village that a murder is on the carpet, and that Billy and I
are at daggers drawn. Don’t tell him this in any of your
letters. It’s a great tribute to our acting that even Hodges
takes us to be in earnest. I can’t call to mind any stage
row I ever listened to that I shouldn’t have spotted the
hollowness of in a brace of shakes. At this minute Author
summons Actor to Rehearsal. I close up. This Scrawl to tell
you I haven’t forgotten you. Would have written more, but
authority’s voice is urgent.
‘Your affectionate brother,
‘J.’
‘I think you had something to say, sir,’ said the military official turning to Barndale, and handing the letter back to Lilian.
‘The supposed quarrel between poor Leland and myself is easily explained. We were rehearsing for amateur theatricals, almost nightly, in a somewhat animated scene, and I can only suppose that we were overheard, and that our play was taken for earnest.’
‘Have you any clue to the whereabouts of this Greek?’ the officer asked Lilian. The doctor broke in—
‘Miss Leland was describing the Greek to me this morning with a view to his identification, when a man walked into the room, said he had overheard the lady through the open window, and had seen the man she described two hours before. He was the boots of an hotel at Kingston. We came here at once, after sending an officer to look after him.’
‘That will do, Mr. Webb,’ said the superior official. ‘There can be no necessity for detaining this gentleman.’
Lilian and the doctor read this last sentence in its most superficial light, but Barndale rose and turned with a feeling of vast inward relief—
‘Our bargain holds good still,’ he said to the inspector, as they went downstairs together.