Vera had ceased to listen. The word “air-gun” had linked up in her mind with the memory of the dull concussions which she had heard in the Maze. That was the noise she had heard—the dull report of an air-rifle! And the metallic rasping was the grating of the spring as the murderer recharged his weapon. But the recognition of the noises left her even more perplexed.
“Of course, one can kill a rabbit with an air-gun; but one couldn’t kill a man with it even at close-range. And yet I’m certain it was an air-gun that I heard. I’d have recognised it at once if it hadn’t been that I was so shaken up by the way things happened.”
She puzzled over the problem for a time without success; and at last dismissed it from her mind and began to make arrangements which she thought might be necessary when the men returned to the house.
Meanwhile Stenness, accompanied by the gardener, had made his way to the Maze. As they came in sight of it, they saw the figure of Howard Torrance emerge from one of the entrances and gaze in their direction. Recognising the secretary, he came rapidly towards them.
“Seen Miss Forrest, Stenness?” he demanded as soon as he reached speaking distance. “Is she all right?”
“She fetched us,” Stenness explained. “She’s completely done in, of course. That’s natural. But I don’t think she’ll come to any harm. I left two maids with her, just in case; though it looked more as if the maids would collapse before she did.”
Howard nodded without replying, and Stenness continued:
“We’d better get into the Maze now and stand guard over the body till the police turn up. They’ll be here shortly.”
Howard hesitated a moment.
“Sure you know how to get about in that Maze, Stenness? You won’t get tangled up? Got bogged in it myself once already. No desire to have another dose, you know.”