“Just one thing. After a while, I took out a cigarette myself and you had to throw my match-box across to me. You used your right hand again. That made five things, in any one of which even partial left-handedness might have come out. What settled it, to my mind, was the snatch at the match-box when I tossed it over to you. That’s an almost instinctive movement, when you’ve no time to think. One uses the hand that’s had most practice, provided one has a free choice between the two hands; and I was careful to pitch the box so that you might have used either hand for it.”
“Well, you’re a good actor, Mr. Westenhanger. I never suspected anything at all; and the whole time you must have been watching me like a cat watching a mouse.”
“It wouldn’t have been much good if you had suspected,” said Westenhanger. He turned to Douglas. “Now, Douglas, does that evidence seem enough to prove that Miss Cressage had no hand in the Talisman’s disappearance? I promised her I could do that. It’s for you to say.”
Douglas Fairmile had no doubts.
“Of course it does. I may not be an impartial judge, of course; for I never believed for a moment that Eileen had the least connection with the Talisman affair. But that evidence would convince most people. Smart of you to spot these things, Conway.”
Conway Westenhanger glanced from one to the other.
“It’s for Miss Cressage to say what we ought to do next,” he pointed out to them. “My main reason for going into the thing at all was simply to clear her of suspicion.”
Eileen gave him a grateful glance and seemed inclined to say something. Then quite evidently she changed her mind and chose a fresh subject.
“What do you think, Douglas?”
“Never suffered from doubts in my life. Seems to me the first thing is to put a stop to any more chatter with your name in it, Eileen. Call another general meeting. Let Conway make a few remarks. That would finish it.”