"I think," said Lillian, thoughtfully, "that so many well-connected people were mixed up in the matter that everything was hushed up as much as was possible." "H'm," said Halliday, throwing away the butt end of his cigar; "it is not unlikely that a hint was given in high quarters that no more need be said than was absolutely necessary. Heigh ho!" He rose and stretched; "I am weary of the business. Come down and walk on the beach, dear, and let us talk about ourselves." Lillian was only too glad and the lovers descended the marble steps which led down gently to the sands. The moon glowed, pure silver in a sky of the darkest blue, with the old moon in her radiant arms. In dark ripples, fringed with creaming white, the wavelets murmured on the sands, and at either side of the bay great cliffs bulked, huge and densely black. It was a night of soft winds and glorious moonshine, fit for Romeo and Juliet to converse about love, yet Lillian still harped on the prosaic facts of the dangers she and Dan had escaped. Perhaps it was natural, for they had assuredly passed through a most trying time. "Why did Queen Beelzebub found such a wicked society?" asked Lillian. "She wanted power and perverted her talents to base ends in order to gain it, my dear. Well, well, she has gone to her account, so we need say no more about her. She was a clever woman, but a fiend incarnate."
"And Mrs. Jarsell?"
"Poor soul. She was but an example of the influence of a strong mind on a weak one. I think she loathed the whole business thoroughly, but she had gone too far to retreat."
"Do you think Mrs. Pelgrin or her nephew knew anything of the matter?"
"No, I don't," said Halliday, very decidedly, "although Tenson had his suspicions of George. Mrs. Jarsell, who was used as a blind by Miss Armour, in her turn used George as a blind to say, if necessary, how seldom she went to town. I forgot to tell you, Lillian, that the police discovered that both Mrs. Jarsell and the leader of the society used frequently to motor for miles and miles to different stations further down the line in order to reach London without remark being made. Mrs. Jarsell only used the Thawley Station so as to get George Pelgrin's evidence that she scarcely ever went to town. In that way, of course, it was next door to impossible to connect two harmless old ladies with these many dreadful murders."
"It was only your cleverness about that scent which formed the link," said Lillian, proud of Dan's characteristic sharpness, "and by using the biplane to travel to Blackheath, when Mr. Durwin was murdered, Mrs. Jarsell was able to get Mrs. Pelgrin to prove an alibi."
"Oh, it was chance that showed Mrs. Jarsell's complicity on that occasion, my dear," said Dan, modestly; "but that we went into that animated picture entertainment, we should never have known she was at Blackheath. I suppose Miss Armour did not feel equal to committing that particular crime, so sent Mrs. Jarsell to carry out the job."
"Miss Armour was never really paralyzed, I suppose?"
"No. She pretended to be when anyone paid a visit. Nor do I believe that either she or Mrs. Jarsell were so old as they pretended to be. What a queer thing human nature is," went on Dan, thoughtfully; "here was Miss Armour, who could have lived a very pleasant and comfortable life, plunging herself and that miserable woman into dangerous crime just for the love of power. One would have thought that she would have liked to show her power publicly, but she was quite content to be a secret despot. I suppose it gave her a certain amount of pleasure, though it is hard for a simple person like I am to see where it came in."
"But her power could not have been exercised amidst public applause, Dan, seeing what it meant."