“Yes, it was very fortunate, very, that finding of the diamond on the bedroom floor. It might so easily have been trodden into the carpet. Luck was on the side of justice then. And again luck was with us when, quite by accident, I found that the little splinter of glass came from the stopper of the bottle of Chinese poison. Have you ever examined it carefully, Doctor?”
The Tundish shook his head.
“It’s a really wonderful piece of work. The glass is very thin and fragile and is doubled back underneath the curving irregular top, curling inward again close to the projection that fits the neck of the bottle itself. It was from this point that the tiny splinter was missing. By the merest chance, I happened to hold the bottle up to the light and look up underneath the stopper when we were in the dispensary together. Later I found that my little fragment fitted it exactly.
“I argued that had the doctor added the poison to the draft, the addition would have been made when it was prepared.
“Again, that bedroom key required explanation. You might just conceivably have returned up-stairs and have thrown the glass among the ivy on the roof, and having locked the door, lied to Mr. Jeffcock about it—it was possible that you might have done that in order to throw suspicion on to some one else—but I could think of no satisfactory explanation that would account for your leaving the key in your own coat pocket. An oversight, it might have been, but even at that early stage of our acquaintance, dropped bottle-stoppers and glaring oversights did not seem to fit you, Doctor.
“Anyhow, I decided that in all the circumstances I ought to give you the benefit of the doubt, but that was about all I had to go on when I secured your promise that you would submit to a voluntary confinement if I held my hand. It never occurred to me that I might be putting you all in danger. True, the key of the poison cupboard was still missing, but I had no reason to anticipate any general attempt at slaughter.
“Before the joint conference in the dining-room at which I succeeded in achieving such universal unpopularity, I became more than ever satisfied that my decision had been the right one, and the inquiry itself only added to my satisfaction. And if I had known what Miss Palfreeman’s uncle has since told me, the inquiry would hardly have been necessary at all.”
The Tundish, who had been sitting quietly in his corner of the window-seat, with his hands clasped round one knee, became suddenly alert. “And it was hardly necessary for Mr. Crawford to discuss my affairs. I very much wish that he had not.”
“Oh, come now, Doctor, a detective’s mind is chock-full of curiosity, and it was only natural for any one seated at that inquiry to wonder what it was that had caused Miss Palfreeman’s father to commit suicide, and what part he imagined you had played in his disaster. All that Mr. Crawford told me when I pressed him for information was that now that his niece was dead there was no longer any need for secrecy; that in his opinion it had been absurd, in the circumstances, to keep it secret at all, and that if matters went against you, he could and would give certain information that would throw a very different light on the affair.”
The Tundish hesitated. For once he looked disturbed and at a loss. “Yes, it is quite true that every one who could have been damaged by the story is dead, but even so, I do not like giving explanations of my own conduct at their expense. However, as briefly as I can, and in the strictest confidence, I will give you the outline of the unhappy story. Miss Palfreeman’s mother was a very beautiful and charming woman, and like all beautiful and charming women who are stationed at the world’s outposts, she was subject to more than her share of temptation. She was soon the center of the English-speaking colony in Shanghai. She got badly into debt and stole and sold some of her husband’s official papers in order to save herself from catastrophe. But she might have saved herself the trouble and have taken her debts to her Maker, for only a few days after the papers were missed she was taken seriously ill of the complaint from which she died. My friend, her husband, loved her. The papers were lost beyond recovery. Circumstances were such that though he suspected me of the theft he could not make any open accusation, or hope to substantiate it if he did.”