“You don’t think it necessary to tell the truth then, I gather, on every occasion?”
“No, I don’t,” The Tundish answered pleasantly. “Come now, Mr. Allport, you know that that is not quite a fair implication. I maintain that any one might have arranged the joke, and then have agreed to bluff it out as Mr. Jeffcock and I did. You might just as reasonably call a man a liar and a cheat because he was fond of a game of poker.”
But Allport took no notice of his protest and turned to Kenneth. “You, I understand, conducted this inquiry. The doctor has confessed that he was responsible for the notice and for the disturbed beds. How was it that you failed to find him out? What did you find out?”
“We came to no definite conclusion at all, but I wasn’t then aware that the doctor and Mr. Jeffcock only tell the truth when it happens to suit them,” Kenneth answered with an ugly sneer. “We were divided, but we all felt sure that it was one of the two. I think it is rather significant, however, that Dr. Wallace took good care to point out in great detail that any one of us had the opportunity to be alone up-stairs at some time or other during the evening without being missed. He went out of his way to prove it, and now I know why,” he added, turning to the doctor with a scowl.
Ethel half sobbed, “Oh, how abominable of you,” but Allport would brook no interruption, and rapped the table with his knuckles directly she opened her mouth.
“You think he stressed the point?” he asked, turning once more to Kenneth.
“Yes, I do.”
“And what have you got to say about it, Mr. Jeffcock?”
I replied that I considered that The Tundish had made an entirely accurate statement about the whole affair, and that while I agreed with Kenneth that it was he who had pointed out that we all had the chance of doing it, it was in my opinion the natural outcome of our plot to confuse the rest, and that I could not agree that any particular emphasis had been given to the point.
I was surprised to see that Allport paid really serious attention to Kenneth’s horrible suggestion. He sat frowning, drawing little squares and designs in a note-book he had placed on the table before him when the inquiry began, and in which from time to time he had jotted something down, while we sat round the table watching and anxiously waiting for what he would say.