These discoveries justified French’s theory, but they did not prove it, and he racked his brains for some test which would definitely establish the point.
At last an idea occurred to him which he thought might at least help.
In considering Mrs. Berlyn as her husband’s accomplice he had been doubtful whether there would have been sufficient time for the various actions. If after Berlyn’s arrival at the works with the body Mrs. Berlyn had driven the car back to where it was found, changed the magneto, and made the footprints, he did not believe she could have walked home in time to wake the servants at the hour stated. Nor did he believe that Berlyn, after disposing of the body in the works, could have been able on foot to make Domlio’s in time to hide the clothes in the well before the sergeant’s call.
He now wondered whether Mrs. Berlyn’s bicycle could have been pressed into the service. Could the lady have brought the machine to the works, lifted it into the tonneau of the car, carried it out on the moor, and ridden back on it to the works? And could her husband have used it to reach first Domlio’s and then Plymouth or some other large town from which he had escaped?
To test the matter, French returned to Lizzie Johnston and asked her if she knew what had become of the bicycle.
But the girl could not tell him. Nor could she recall when or where she had seen it last. She supposed it had been sold at the auction, but in the excitement of that time she had not noticed it.
“Where did Mrs. Berlyn get it, do you know?”
“From Makepeace’s. He has bicycles same as motors. He’ll tell you about it.”
Half an hour later French was talking to Mr. Makepeace. He remembered having some five years earlier sold the machine to Mrs. Berlyn. He looked up his records, and after considerable trouble found a note of the transaction. The bicycle was a Swift, and number 35,721. It had certain dimensions and peculiarities of which he gave French details.
French’s next call was on the auctioneer who had conducted the sale of the Berlyn effects. Mr. Nankivell appeared au fait with the whole case and was obviously thrilled to meet French. He made no difficulty about giving the required information. A bicycle had not been among the articles auctioned, nor had he seen one during his visits to the house.