Chapter Twenty Two.
In Defiance of the Law.
The discovery of the horror concealed within that closed room opened out an entirely fresh development of the mystery. On discussing it with Boyd after we had stealthily left the house we were in complete agreement that the dead man must have either been in hiding there, or else, being an imbecile, had been kept under restraint. The fact of the door being barred on the outside strengthened Boyd’s belief in the latter theory, while I made the suggestion that he might have been imprisoned and died of starvation.
“No,” Boyd answered, “I don’t agree with you there, for it is quite plain that Lady Glaslyn must have been aware of his presence, and perhaps, indeed, arranged the room. There is every evidence that he was supplied with food at intervals, and cooked it himself, which shows that, even if an invalid, he was sufficiently active. My idea is that he may have been some relation whose demented condition her ladyship wished to keep from her friends and other members of the family, and that having died suddenly she was compelled to lock and seal the door, dreading the publicity of a coroner’s inquiry, when the truth must have been made public.”
“True,” I said. “That’s, of course, a very feasible theory. But if she were in the secret, Eva, too, must have known.”
“Of course,” he said. “She can tell us everything if she chooses. It’s a pity that the dead man’s face is unrecognisable.”
“Again, is it not strange that we should have found in there one of those same cards?”
“Yes, rather,” responded my friend. “But at present it is useless to advance all kinds of wild theories. We must stick closely to facts if we would succeed. We have to-night made certain discoveries, startling enough in all conscience, and among them have elucidated the secret which Lady Glaslyn has hidden from every one. Now we must seek to discover the motive which caused her to apply that seal to the door, as well as ascertaining the reason her daughter has that mysterious drug among her possessions, together with the photographs of the two unknown victims.”