“Mrs. Scorton’s hardly likely to stay. Then Morchard was only down here trying to persuade us to sell him Friocksheim. Nothing doing, of course; we’d as soon think of parting with the Talisman itself. After what’s happened, we shan’t press him to prolong his visit. He’s not a friend of ours, it was merely a matter of business.”
“I wondered how he came to be here at all,” confessed Westenhanger. “He seemed a bit out of his element. And who’s the third?”
“Freddie. I have an idea that my uncle will politely but firmly hasten his departure. He’s stirred up enough trouble to last us for a while, and we’ll be happier without him.”
As it turned out, Eric was accurate in his forecasts. Mrs. Caistor Scorton took her departure in the afternoon, without meeting anyone, and by the same train went Morchard and Freddie Stickney.
“Must have been an interesting scene at the station,” speculated Douglas Fairmile as he joined Wraxall and Westenhanger in the evening, after most of the others had gone to bed. “The good lady would hustle into her compartment first of all. Seat facing the engine, no doubt. In her state of mind it would be better to look forward than to look back. Bury the past! Then friend Morchard would hop into a smoker. And Freddie would be left on the platform, wondering which of them he’d most like to worry with his company up to town. He’s not the lad to feel himself de trop anywhere.”
“Let’s forget ’em,” suggested Westenhanger. “They gave us enough trouble between them. I can feel the air of the place different, since they’ve gone.”
“So can I,” confirmed the American. “It’s been a very awkward week for all of us; and it’s been specially awkward for me, if I may say so. I was the outsider in the party. Your English hospitality’s perfect, and you couldn’t have done more to make me feel at home. But all the same, I was the one visitor that none of you knew personally before we met here. And I was the only one, bar the Dangerfields, who had a direct interest in the Talisman. I wanted the thing badly. The Dangerfields knew that quite well; I’d even made an offer for it, the very night it was stolen. Old Mr. Dangerfield put that offer aside. Quite polite, of course; but you know that uninterested way he has, as if he were thinking of something else all the time. No good. But I’d showed him how keen I was on the thing.”
He put down his cigar.
“And that very night, the thing disappeared! Collectors have the name of being an unscrupulous gang. I might have lifted it easily enough. And next day I got a notion he suspected me. It was very awkward. It was most awkward. And we’ve got you to thank, Westenhanger, for getting us out of it. I’m grateful. I’m very thankful to get my character cleared.”
“But surely you didn’t expect to buy the Talisman?” said Douglas. “The Dangerfields would never part with the thing.”