"I don't know—it—it just came into my head," stammered Beryl.
"I don't think it's at all a likely idea," Caroline deliberated. "Surely one of us would have heard some little sound coming from the room if there had been anyone inside there! I haven't heard anything myself. Besides, who would want to spy on us?"
"There's only one person, of course—and that's Miss Crabingway," said Beryl.
Caroline's eyes grew wide and round with surprise; but Isobel narrowed hers, and looked at Beryl through the fringe of her eyelashes.
"You don't mean to say," Isobel said incredulously, "that Miss Crabingway would spend her time ... well, I never! What an idea!"
"But Miss Crabingway's in Scotland, isn't she?" asked Caroline in mild astonishment. She had been told that Miss Crabingway had gone to Scotland and had never questioned the matter—of course having no reason to do so.
"Well—so we're told," said Isobel; then she gave an exaggerated shiver. "Ugh! I don't like the idea of an eye watching me through the keyhole!"
"We might ask Martha to hang a curtain in front of the door—say we feel a draught coming through on to the landing," suggested Beryl. "But really, please don't take this seriously—I only made it all up—in fun, you know—it isn't a bit possible. I—p'r'aps we ought not to have talked about it. Pamela said 'fuel for the flames.' ... And it does make you more curious when you discuss it, doesn't it?"
"I don't know," said Isobel. "I certainly shan't be tempted to look through the keyhole myself—in case there's anything in your idea, and Miss Crabingway sees me, and I lose my fifty pounds. But I shall listen, and if I hear any sounds coming from the room——"
Isobel was evidently rather taken with Beryl's suggestion, for she referred to it more than once before they reached Inchmoor.