"I wonder why he did not mention it," he said, but although his training inclined him to be suspicious, his suspicions on this occasion were easily dispelled, especially as his impressions of Melville's good disposition towards his brother tallied with those formed by the two ladies.
"I consider that he behaved in a very gentlemanly and straightforward fashion," he said, and Mrs. Austen cordially agreed. "He was diffident as to his power to help, but directly I suggested something I thought he might do, he undertook it with alacrity. That is quite the proper spirit."
And privately, to his own mind, he admitted that Melville could not explain to Mrs. Austen how his financial position would have hampered his activities, but for that little cheque on account of out-of-pocket expenditure, and he was filled with admiration of Melville's delicacy and tact as well. He had no doubt but what Melville Ashley was a deeply-injured man, and resolved to interpret Ralph's instructions liberally, and pay in another hundred pounds to Melville's account at the bank.
Later in the evening, Gwendolen came to him in the library and laid some photographs in front of him.
"I found these in an old bureau," she said. "Do you think one of them might be Lady Holt?"
Mr. Tracy looked at them eagerly; two of them he laid aside, but the third he kept in his hands.
"Those two I am pretty sure I recognise; they are old photographs, but the faces are familiar to me, though I cannot put names to them at the moment. This one is different. Taken at Norwich, I see. If the photographer is still there we may ascertain whose likeness it is. I will make enquiries at once, and hope something may come of it. Thank you, my dear. This may be exceedingly useful," and after examining it earnestly, as if to impress the picture on his memory, he put it carefully away with the other papers relating to Sir Geoffrey's last will and testament.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE RESULT OF THE TRIAL.
If fate was playing a joke upon Ralph Ashley, her humour erred upon the side of grimness. His friends met with no success in their endeavours to find some other possible culprit, and, on the other hand, a succession of small incidents occurred, all of which seemed to lead him on inevitably a little nearer to the gallows. Of these, the most important was the finding of a revolver in the gun-room at the Manor House and a quantity of bullets similar to that which had penetrated Sir Geoffrey's heart. At the trial this seemed to be the most conclusive point in the case for the Crown. There was no indication that it had been recently used, but the same remark applied to all the weapons in the little armoury, all of them being kept in perfect condition. The explanation of its existence was given frankly by Ralph and corroborated by Melville; it was one of two given years before by Sir Geoffrey to his nephews, but to which of the two it properly belonged neither of the brothers could declare; both averred they had not used them for a very long time, and the damning fact remained that the other pistol was missing. It had been thrown away, the prosecution suggested, after the tragedy, and that all the ammunition had not also been destroyed was due to that oversight of which every criminal is capable, and but for which many more murderers would escape conviction.