This Alan agreed to do, and an hour later appeared with Beauchamp and Sophy. Phelps received his old friend as one returned from the dead, and insisted upon having several points cleared up which he felt to be obscure.
"How about getting away, Marlow?" he asked. "You had no clothes. How did you manage?"
"But I had clothes," replied Beauchamp. "We prepared all our plans very carefully. Joe took a suit of clothes to the hut, and brought money with him. Then I walked to the nearest town and caught the train for London. There, at a quiet hotel, a box in the name of Beauchamp was waiting for me. I slept there, and went on to Brighton, and took rooms in Lansdowne Place. I was comfortable, you may be sure. Joe came down to see me, and told me all the trouble which had ensued upon the death of Warrender."
"Ah!" said Alan reflectively; "we don't know who murdered him, and we never shall know. It could not have been Lestrange, and if it were the Quiet Gentleman, he has escaped us."
"I wonder who that Quiet Gentleman was," said Sophy.
"We all wonder that, my dear," put in the Rector; "but I fear we shall never know."
"Well, what does it matter?" said Beauchamp, with more asperity than he usually showed. "Whoever murdered Warrender gave him no more than he deserved. The man was a blackmailer, although the money he got out of me was obtained under the guise of friendship. He could have saved me years of agony had he only spoken the truth--ay, and honesty would have paid him better than dishonesty."
"No doubt. But the man is dead; let us not speak evil of the dead," said Phelps. "But there is one question I wish to ask you, Marlow--Beauchamp, I mean. How was it that the page-boy swore Joe Brill was never out of the room on that night?"
"Joe drugged the lad's supper-ale, and slipped out when he was fast asleep. He did the same the next night when he had to take Warrender's body to the vault. That was my idea, for I was terrified lest I should be traced by the murder, and I wanted to get rid of the evidence of the crime. That tramp, confound him! spoilt all."
They were interrupted by the entrance of a servant, with the card of Inspector Blair. He was admitted at once, leaving a companion whom he had brought with him in the hall.