“I heard Austin fall,” Turner resumed after a tense pause, “and instinctively tiptoed to the pantry and crouched there in the dark. I heard you come in, Major, and Miss Judith call to you. Then after what seemed an interminable time I crept out into the central hall, found it deserted, and replaced the cane in the umbrella stand.”
“Didn’t you go at all into the library?” demanded Robert Hale harshly.
“Yes, after Miss Polly had been there.” He cast a vicious look in the girl’s direction. “I heard some one sobbing in the library as I started to leave the pantry and peeked in again in time to see you wringing your hands over Austin’s body—you are a weak sister to sob over the man who threatened you with exposure.”
“You—” John Hale started forward, but Major Richards’ tall figure blocked him. “Get out of my way, I’ll throttle that fellow.”
“Not here, you won’t,” interposed Ferguson. “Keep quiet, Mr. Hale, until Turner completes his confession.”
“Tell him to speak more respectfully of Miss Davis—or not mention her at all,” thundered John Hale.
“What happened next?” demanded his brother. “Shut up, John,” and he waved him back. “What did Miss Davis do next, Turner?”
“Cleared out,” succinctly, “first taking a look at the sword cane standing so innocently in the umbrella stand.” Turner’s chuckle was unpleasant. “That left the coast clear for me and I slipped into the library. There the open safe attracted me,” with a side-long glance at Hale. “I had picked up my rubber gloves, used in my house work, when in the pantry and I put ’em on. The open safe was too good a chance to overlook, but I only had time to grab a few bonds and a memorandum which Austin had been looking at”—a gasp escaped Mrs. Hale—“then I beat it up the back stairs to my room, for I heard some one coming down. I guess it was you, Major.”
“It was,” acknowledged Richards. He cast a hesitating look at Judith before continuing. “I did lose my way, as I have already stated, when walking home, and I entered the front door just in time to catch Judith as she fainted. I immediately carried her upstairs and laid her on the couch in our boudoir. I had some cognac there and quickly revived her.” He paused for a second. “The reading lamp was burning in the boudoir and I concluded that Judith had come downstairs feeling faint and in search of some medicine which, I recalled, had been left in the library. When she revived, she said nothing to me about having gone downstairs, and when I asked her if she needed her medicine, she replied that she did.”
“Please wait, Joe,” Judith interrupted him quickly. “I was dazed—completely unnerved. In fact I had at the time no recollection of fainting in the hall. I thought, until you questioned me the other night, that you had found me unconscious in the boudoir, so I never mentioned that after Mother and Uncle John left for the French Embassy I went down into the library to read and wait for you, Joe.”