"And you've telephoned the police?"
"Yes. And then signalled to you. They'll be along presently, I suppose?"
"Possibly—yes. I'd have brought my own man if I had only known. Mr. Narkom will be here in the morning to take charge of affairs. I sent for him to-day. And the rest of the household?"
"Cyril is with his mother. Wakened up out of his sleep, poor boy, by all the commotion, and of course hardly aware yet of what a terrible tragedy has happened here in his own home. The servants are huddled together like frightened rabbits, and the women refuse to put in any appearance at all. Miss McCall has been trying to get them in hand—she's so quiet and yet so resourceful, you know, Mr. Deland—and she has helped us such a lot in that way."
"And that accounts for every one, then? No one left the house since the—the thing took place?"
"Not a soul. There was no reason to, you see. And no one has been here, either. Callers to Aygon Castle are few and far between, Mr. Deland, as you can imagine. We're so very far from civilization."
"I see. And no one's been to the place at all, you say? Beyond the immediate family, and this Miss—Miss Dowd and your brother's fiancée? They returned with him, I suppose, after having persuaded him not to take such a foolhardy view of the case which I heard this morning? Well, I'm glad he came back, if only—for this. Poor chap! it will ease his conscience, at any rate. And those are the only people who have entered this place to-night, Miss Duggan? You are positive of that?"
She lifted wide eyes to his face. There was conviction in every line of her own.
"Absolutely positive, Mr. Deland."
"Well, that's all right, then." Cleek nodded slowly at her but his lips were grim. Either she or Macdonald had lied. For he had heard him say, in that broken, staccato voice of his, "I've just—come from there, you see, and was on my way home again." And a dollar to a ducat that she was not at fault. Well, the man Macdonald would want watching. And if he had "done a bunk," as the boys say, he would know his man instantly and scout all Britain over for him—though at present his motive for connection with the crime was certainly unknown.