“Have you seen this?” he asked, placing it before Alan.
“Seen what?” asked the other, glancing at the heading indicated, and then he took in the meaning at once. “Good Lord!”
He might well utter the ejaculation, for the article contained an account of the Inderwick fetish given—as was intimated—by no less a person than Miss Louisa Grison. The story of Ferrier was narrated, much in the same fashion as it appeared in the manuscript at The Monastery, and it was very plainly stated that a treasure was to be found when the riddle attached to the peacock was solved. Finally, Miss Grison ended the interview with the man, who had written the article, by saying that her dead brother had possessed the golden bird at the time of his death, and that in her mind there was no doubt that he had been murdered for its sake. “Find the peacock,” said Miss Grison, “and you find the assassin of my dear brother.” Then the article terminated with comments by the writer on the extraordinary and romantic story which had been set forth, and with the original remark culled from Hamlet, “That there were more things in heaven and earth, etc., etc.”
“I wonder he didn’t add that truth is stranger than fiction,” remarked Dick, while Alan hastily skimmed the account. “It is just as original. Well, my son, and what do you think now?”
“I think,” replied Fuller, very decisively, “that Jotty has repeated to his mistress what he told us, and she has taken steps to trap Sorley.”
“But she doesn’t know that he has the peacock—for certain that is?”
Alan shrugged his shoulders. “My mistake in showing the drawing to the boy has proved that Sorley has the bird. Miss Grison, I daresay, knew that no sketch had been made of it before it was taken away; and in any event what Jotty told us is sufficient evidence to secure Sorley’s arrest.”
“I think so indeed. There is no longer any need for me to keep silence.”
“Well,” said Fuller hesitatingly, “I suppose there isn’t. Moon is certain to see this account, and will come to ask Miss Grison why she has made the matter public after promising to be silent. She can only excuse herself by repeating Jotty’s story, and Moon will certainly go down to Belstone to arrest Sorley. Poor Marie!”
“I’m not so sure you can call her that,” put in Dick hastily. “After all if the man is a criminal, it is better that she should not be in his company.”