Alberta suggested that instead of returning to the House immediately the party should spend the afternoon in motors. Everyone gladly acceded to this means of relief from the oppressive atmosphere of the Vale; everyone, that is, save Aire, who, having given his evidence in the second inquest, had withdrawn to prepare for the third, which will be held in a day or so. At the last moment, since we made too large a crowd to be packed loosely into the pair of available cars, I, too, seceded from the group, alleging quite truly that since the afternoon was fine, tramping and exploring would do me perfectly.
Time-wracked New Aidenn lies in the shadow of its huge castle mound whose fortress no longer stands atop, and the vestiges of old city walls are far out in the fields where the cows find succulent grazing. In ordinary circumstances these vestiges of greatness and evidences of decay would have kindled my ardour in the antiquarian way, but now I was resolved upon two queerer visits.
I found Aire with Sir Brooke in a side chamber of the mortuary itself. There was a faint scent of balsam in the room, which was fitted with some of the appurtenances of a laboratory, and Aire, in a white smock, had a slip of glass and a pipette in his hand. Sir Brooke lay on a table at the far end of the room, mercifully covered with a sheet.
“Ceremonies over?”
“They are, and no one the wiser. Your duties finished?”
“Oh, this isn’t duty, exactly. I could shunt it if I wished. Only chance, you know, has made me the responsible medical witness in all three deaths; so I have assumed the mantle of whoever corresponds to a divisional police surgeon in the country. I’m well paid—curiosity, and all that sort of thing.”
“Well, has curiosity received any communicable reward?”
“Prophecy fulfilled, at any rate. As I said, this man was drowned—drowned and nothing else.”
“But didn’t you say something about a bruise on the forehead? Mrs. Bartholomew won’t give you peace until that’s explained.”
“No, I mentioned a mark, not a bruise. Peculiar thing, you know—no contusion, just scraping and scratching of the skin above the left eye. In itself nothing unusual, but there was a long wood splinter stuck there; that’s the oddest feature of the death.”