“I don’t know,” moodily. “Apparently the marriage was kept from the Trevors. But why? From a worldly point of view it was a most suitable match. Both are well-born, wealthy, and good looking. Why, then, elope?”
“Blessed if I know.” Tom scratched his head hopelessly. “Mrs. Trevor, as proved by her letter, made an appointment with Gordon at a most unconventional hour. Perhaps she refused to keep silent about the past in that last interview, and in a boiling fury he snatched up the hat-pin.”
“But then how did Beatrice get so entangled in the affair?” asked Dick.
“Is she?” inquired Tom, puzzled by the new development.
“Yes,” despondently. “I know positively that she had the top of the broken hat-pin in her possession after the murder. It was undoubtedly the weapon used to kill Mrs. Trevor. Also, Beatrice’s blood-stained handkerchief is said to have been found inside the safe by the body of her stepmother. Gordon is the last man to throw suspicion on an innocent woman by using her handkerchief and her hat-pin. Even if guilty, he would never hide behind a woman’s petticoat.”
Tom’s eyes grew bigger and bigger as he listened to Dick.
“It strikes me you are on the wrong tack,” he said when the latter paused. “All your arguments appear to me to point to the fact that Gordon is trying to shield Beatrice. Innocent himself, he might have purposely let them arrest him for her crime.”
“Good God!” Dick looked at Tom in sudden horror.
“Beatrice might have been concealed behind a curtain and overheard the scene between her husband and her stepmother. Mrs. Trevor was very beautiful, also very fascinating; perhaps Gordon lost his head and made love to her. Beatrice’s jealousy roused—”
“No, no,” exclaimed Dick. “Beatrice was at the ball then. I was with her myself at the very time Mrs. Trevor and Gordon were together.”