"Well," I said, "if she knows that, she knows more. She is a very
cruel and ungrateful girl."
"She is a very sick girl," he said gravely. "Neither you nor I can
judge her until we know everything. Both she and her mother are ghosts
of their former selves. Under all this, these two sudden deaths, this
bank robbery, the invasions at Sunnyside and Halsey's disappearance,
there is some mystery that, mark my words, will come out some day. And
when it does, we shall find Louise Armstrong a victim."
I had not noticed where we were going, but now I saw we were beside the
railroad, and from a knot of men standing beside the track I divined
that it was here the car had been found. The siding, however, was
empty. Except a few bits of splintered wood on the ground, there was
no sign of the accident.
"Where is the freight car that was rammed?" the doctor asked a
bystander.
"It was taken away at daylight, when the train was moved."
There was nothing to be gained. He pointed out the house on the
embankment where the old lady and her daughter had heard the crash and
seen two figures beside the car. Then we drove slowly home. I had the
doctor put me down at the gate, and I walked to the house--past the
lodge where we had found Louise, and, later, poor Thomas; up the drive
where I had seen a man watching the lodge and where, later, Rosie had
been frightened; past the east entrance, where so short a time before
the most obstinate effort had been made to enter the house, and where,
that night two weeks ago, Liddy and I had seen the strange woman. Not
far from the west wing lay the blackened ruins of the stables. I felt
like a ruin myself, as I paused on the broad veranda before I entered
the house.
Two private detectives had arrived in my absence, and it was a relief
to turn over to them the responsibility of the house and grounds. Mr.
Jamieson, they said, had arranged for more to assist in the search for
the missing man, and at that time the country was being scoured in all
directions.
The household staff was again depleted that afternoon. Liddy was
waiting to tell me that the new cook had gone, bag and baggage, without
waiting to be paid. No one had admitted the visitor whom Warner had
heard in the library, unless, possibly, the missing cook. Again I was
working in a circle.