Eileen looked from one to the other doubtfully. She reflected for a moment or two, while Douglas and Westenhanger waited for her to speak. At last she gave them her view.
“No, you’re wrong, Douglas. That wouldn’t finish it. It would simply turn it into something worse. Both Mrs. Caistor Scorton and that little creature Stickney were accurate enough in what they said last night. I was out of my room, just as they made out. If I wasn’t stealing the Talisman, then they’d have their own ideas about where I was during that time. Mr. Westenhanger knows what I mean; and so do you, Douglas. And I can’t clear myself. I really can’t.”
She deliberately caught the eye of each man in turn and held it long enough to show that she was not avoiding them; then she looked down, as if thinking carefully.
“You certainly mustn’t say anything about this, just now. It wouldn’t do me any good. And there’s a better reason. Our one chance of catching this thief is to find the left-handed man amongst the people here. If you bring out this evidence, he’ll be on his guard at once and cover up his left-handedness somehow. He could cut his right hand badly, or something like that.”
“I knew that,” admitted Westenhanger, “but the main thing still seems to me to get you cleared. Don’t you want to be?”
Eileen studied his face in silence for a moment.
“I’ll tell you something,” she said, at last. “When you came down this morning and began to talk, I thought you were just trying to be sympathetic; but I didn’t take it at face value. I believed you were only trying to cheer me up, and that your talk about proving things wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Now I know you really did mean what you said. What’s more, I’ve learned that somebody did more than just sympathise. You didn’t stop there, Mr. Westenhanger: you did something practical to clear me of suspicion.”
“I happened to be lucky, first shot—that’s all.”
She waved that aside and went on:
“You really did something, no matter how you choose to describe it; you didn’t simply stand round, pitying me. Do you know, that’s made things ever so much easier for me, now that I know about it. I can’t explain why; it’s just a feeling. I don’t feel absolutely isolated now, as I did this morning. Don’t think I’m ungrateful to you and Cynthia, Douglas, or to Nina either. You were all as kind as you could be. But somehow nobody seemed to be doing anything to help; and I was feeling the strain of it all, horribly. Now it seems all right again, somehow.”