His voice died away in the darkness, and Meggie stiffened.
‘The Colonel,’ she whispered.
‘Yes,’ murmured Abbershaw. ‘I’m sure of it. He was the designer of the crimes. Dawlish organized them, and a carefully trained gang carried them out. The arrangements had to be written out,’ he went on, ‘because otherwise it would entail the Colonel spending some considerable time with the gang explaining his schemes, whereas it was much better that they should not know him, or he them. You see,’ he went on suddenly, ‘that’s what Dawlish had to guard against – double-crossing. Old Coombe’s plans had a definite market value. They were worth money to any criminal gang who could get hold of them, and, as I have said, to minimize any danger of this, Coombe was kept here, practically as a prisoner, by Dawlish. I dare say the only time he saw any member of the gang was when Gideon and some other member as witness came down here to collect the finished scheme for one robbery, or to discuss the next. On such occasions it was Coombe’s practice to invite Wyatt to bring down a house-party as a blind to distract attention from any of his other visitors, who may in some cases have been characters “known to the police”.’ He stopped and sighed. ‘So far,’ he said, ‘I was practically right, but I had made one tremendous error.’
‘And that?’ The girl’s voice quivered with excitement.
‘That,’ said Abbershaw gravely, ‘was the fatal one of taking Dawlish for Simister. Simister is a rogue about whom there are as many pleasant stories as unpleasant ones, but about Eberhard von Faber no one ever laughs. He is, without exception, the most notorious, unsavoury villain this era has produced. And I have pitched us all – you too – into his hands.’
The girl repressed a shudder, but she clung to Abbershaw confidently.
‘But why,’ she said suddenly, ‘why didn’t they succeed? Why didn’t the Colonel give Dawlish the papers and the whole thing work out according to plan?’
Abbershaw stirred.
‘It would have done,’ he said, ‘but there was double-crossing going on. The Colonel, in spite of his body-guard – Whitby and the butler – must have got into communication with Simister’s gang and made some arrangement with them. I’m only guessing here, of course, but I should say that the Colonel’s plans were never allowed outside the house and that his attitude towards Simister must have been, “I will sell them if you can get them without implicating me”. So Simister employed our friend, Mr Campion, to smuggle himself into Wyatt’s party without being recognized by Dawlish.’
Meggie sat up. ‘I see,’ she said, ‘but then, George, who murdered the Colonel?’