Landis asked Sergeant Forbes to station one of his men outside Graham’s door. Then he and Bernard set about the same procedure as before, questioning the servants first. He found them all gathered in the kitchen which buzzed like a beehive with their chatter.
Harley had been in the garage when the gong rang. He heard Susan scream and ran in through the lower wing hall at once but saw no one at all on the way. He found Miss Mount, Susan and Stimson with Graham and hurried out the front door. He ran around the house at once. But there was no one about.
Susan, still tearful but in possession of her senses, told them that she and Miss Mount had been in the reception-room as usual. She had sounded the gong and gone back. Miss Mount had just begun to close the window and she herself was pouring cocktails when she looked up and saw Mr. Graham in the doorway from the library. Then he had spun half round and fallen in a heap. It was all more than Susan could stand and she was going to give notice.
Stimson could add nothing of importance. He had been in the pantry when Susan screamed and had run into the hall in time to see Miss Mount darting into the library. She switched on the lights and ran to the end. He went to help Mr. Graham if he could. Miss Mount came back. Then the others began to arrive and he and Mr. Russell, finding Mr. Graham alive, had carried him up to his room. Stimson had telephoned at once for a doctor, without waiting for orders from Miss Mount. She was busy with Susan again. He saw no one and nothing suspicious.
The cook and Helen Stokes had been in the kitchen all the time and could not tell the detectives anything at all.
Angry and mystified, betraying the first if not the second, Landis and Bernard continued their inquiries. Miss Mount came downstairs while they were interviewing the servants and they questioned her first. Allen, Russell and the two girls were in the drawing-room. Joel Harrison had gone to bed. They asked Miss Mount into the library as before.
“Please give us a detailed account of your movements since six o’clock and what you saw and heard,” Bernard ordered her rather roughly. “Omit nothing, whether you consider it important or not!”
“Your tone and manner,” replied Miss Mount, with fire in her eye, “are regrettable and entirely unnecessary. As Mr. Landis is in charge of this case, I’ll address my remarks to him, if you don’t mind!”
“Address ’em where you please but address ’em!” growled Bernard.
“I returned from the funeral about six and went to my room for a few minutes to rest and change my dress. I came downstairs again about six-thirty,” Miss Mount told them. “I went for a little stroll in the sunken garden as I often do, then moved about through the kitchen, pantry and dining-room until about seven-twenty, when I went into the library for a word with Mr. Graham. I went on into the reception-room to wait for Susan with the glasses. She brought them a few minutes later. When Stimson brought in the cocktails, left the shaker and returned to the dining-room, I told Susan to ring the gong. She did so and came back. Then I closed the window. I had just closed it when Susan screamed and I turned and saw Mr. Graham fall.”