“I thought we should come to that some day. What did happen?”
And they all began to talk at once. From which tumult emerged the clear little voice of Sally. “Bunny slipped out early and put a garden ladder up at my window and then went off to the powerhouse. When I went to bed, I collected Tom’s pots from the study—that was because he is so vain of them—and Alice’s cameos—that’s because they’re so dowdy—and locked them in my trunk. Then I screamed at the window. That was the signal for Bunny and he switched the lights out and came back. All that was what we planned.” She looked pathetically at Reggie. “It was a good crime, wasn’t it, Mr. Fortune?”
“You have a turn for the profession, Miss Winslow. You will try to be too clever. It’s the mark of the criminal mind.”
“I say, hang it all, Fortune——” Cosdon flushed.
“I know I spoilt it,” said Sally meekly. “I just stood there, you know, hearing Tom roar downstairs and you all fussing——”
“And you underrate the policeman. Do I fuss?” Reggie was annoyed.
“You’re fussing over my morals now. Well, I stood there and it came over me the burglars just had to have something of Mrs. Faulks’s.” She gurgled. “That would make it quite perfect. So I ran into her room and struck a match and there was her awful old ruby brooch. I took that and went out into the passage and screamed again. That was the plan. Then I bumped into somebody——”
“That was me,” said Captain Cosdon. “She was such a jolly long time with the second scream I went up to see if anything was wrong——”
“Yes. The criminal will do too much,” Reggie sighed.
“Then Faulks came. He tumbled into us and hit out, silly ass. I heard Sally go down and I let him have it. Confound him.”