"That's partly why we did it," said Battle. "I wanted you out of that madman's reach. And besides, if I wanted to break him down I wanted to be able to count on the shock of the reaction. He'd seen his plan come off, as he thought - so the jolt would be all the greater."
"If he hadn't broken down would there have been any evidence?"
"Not too much. There was MacWhirter's story of seeing a man climb up a rope in the moonlight. And there was the rope itself confirming his story, coiled up in the attic and still faintly damp. It was raining that night, you know."
He paused and stared hard at Audrey as though he were expecting her to say something.
As she merely looked interested he went on: "And there was the pinstripe suit. He stripped, of course, in the dark on that rocky point on the Easterhead Bay side, and thrust his suit into a niche in the rock. As it happened, he put it down on a decayed bit of fish washed up by the flood tide. It made a stained patch on the shoulder - and it smelt. There was some talk, I found out, about the drains being wrong in the hotel. Nevile himself put that story about. He'd got his raincoat on over his suit, but the smell was a pervasive one. Then he got the wind up about that suit afterwards and at the first opportunity he took it off to the cleaners and, like a fool, didn't give his own name. Took a name at random, actually one he'd seen in the hotel register. That's how your friend got hold of it and, having a good head on him, he linked it up with the man climbing up the rope. You step on decayed fish, but you don't put your shoulder down on it unless you have taken your clothes off to bathe at night, and no one would bathe for pleasure on a wet night in September. He fitted the whole thing together. Very ingenious man, Mr. MacWhirter."
"More than ingenious," said Audrey.
"M'm, well, perhaps. Like to know about him? I can tell you something of his history."
Audrey listened attentively. Battle found her a good listener. She said: "I owe a lot to him - and to you."
"Don't owe very much to me," said Superintendent Battle. "If I hadn't been a fool I'd have seen the point of that bell."
"Bell? What bell?"
"The bell in Lady Tressilian's room. Always did feel there was something wrong about that bell. I nearly got it, too, when I came down the stairs from the top floor and saw one of those poles you open windows with."
"That was the whole point of the bell, see - to give Nevile Strange an alibi. Lady T. didn't remember what she had rung for - of course she didn't, because she hadn't rung at all! Nevile rang the bell from outside in the passage with that long pole; the wires ran along the ceiling. So down comes Barrett and sees Mr. Nevile Strange go downstairs and out, and she finds Lady Tressilian alive and well. The whole business of the maid was fishy. What's the good of doping her for a murder that's going to be committed before midnight! Ten to one she won't have gone off properly by then. But it fixes the murder as an inside job, and it allows a little time for Nevile to play his role of first suspect - then Barrett speaks and Nevile is so triumphantly cleared that no one is going to inquire very closely as to exactly what time he got to the hotel. We know he didn't cross back by ferry, and no boats had been taken. There remained the possibility of swimming. He was a powerful swimmer, but even then the time must have been short. Up the rope he's left hanging into his bedroom and a good deal of water on the floor, as we noticed (but without seeing the point, I'm sorry to say). Then into his blue coat and trousers, along to Lady Tressilian's room - we won't go into that -wouldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes; he'd fixed up that steel ball beforehand - then back, out of his clothes, down the rope and back to Easterhead."
"Suppose Kay had come in?"
"She'd been mildly doped, I'll bet. She was yawning from dinner on, so they tell me. Besides, he'd taken care to have a quarrel with her, so that she'd lock her door and keep out of his way."
"I'm trying to think if I noticed the ball was gone from the fender. I don't think I did. When did he put it back?"
"Next morning when all the hullabaloo arose. Once he got back in Ted Latimer's car, he had all night to clear up his traces and fix things, mend the tennis racquet, etc. By the way, he hit the old lady backhanded, you know. That's why the crime appeared to be left-handed. Strange's backhand was always his strong point, remember!"
"Don't - don't" - Audrey put up her hands. "I can't bear any more." He smiled at her.
"All the same, it's done you good to talk it all out. Mrs. Strange, may I be impertinent and give you some advice?"
"Yes, please."
"You lived for eight years with a criminal lunatic - that's enough to sap any woman's nerves. But you've got to snap out of it now, Mrs. Strange. You don't need to be afraid any more - and you've got to make yourself realise that."
Audrey smiled at him. The frozen look had gone from her face; it was a sweet, rather timid, but confiding face, with the wide-apart eyes full of gratitude.
She said, hesitating a little: "You told the others there was a girl - a girl who acted as I did?"
Battle slowly nodded his head.
"My own daughter," he said. "So you see, my dear, that miracle had to happen. These things are sent to teach us!"
III
Andrew MacWhirter was packing.
He laid three shirts carefully in his suitcase, and then that dark blue suit which he had remembered to fetch from the cleaners. Two suits left by two different MacWhirters had been too much for the girl in charge.
There was a tap on the door and he called "Come in."
Audrey Strange walked in. She said: "I've come to thank you - are you packing?"
"Yes. I'm leaving here to-night. And sailing the day after to-morrow."
"For South America?"
"For Chile."
She said: "I'll pack for you."
He protested, but she overbore him. He watched her as worked deftly and methodically.
"There," she said, when she had finished. "You did that well," said MacWhirter.
There was a silence. Then Audrey said: "You saved my life. If you hadn't happened to see what you did see -"
She broke off.
Then she said: "Did you realise at once that night on the cliff when you - you stopped me going over - when you said 'Go home, I'll see that you're not hanged' - did you realise then that you'd got some important evidence?"
"Not precisely," said MacWhirter. "I had to think it out." "Then how could you say - what you did say?"
MacWhirter always felt annoyed when he had to explain the intense simplicity of his thought processes.
"I meant just precisely that - that I intended to prevent you from being hanged."
The colour came up in Audrey's cheeks.
"Supposing I had done it?"
"That would have made no difference."
"Did you think I had done it, then?"
"I didn't speculate on the matter overmuch. I was inclined to believe you were innocent, but it would have made no difference to my course of action."
"And then you remembered the man on the rope?"
MacWhirter was silent for a few moments. Then he cleared his throat.
"You may as well know, I suppose, I did not actually see a man climbing up a rope - indeed, I could not have done so, for I was up on Stark Head on Sunday night, not on Monday. I deduced what must have happened from the evidence of the suit and my suppositions were confirmed by the finding of a wet rope in the attic."
From red Audrey had gone white. She said incredulously: "Your story was all a lie?"
"Deductions would not have carried weight with the police. I had to say I saw what happened."
"But - you might have had to swear to it at my trial."
"Yes."
"You would have done that?"
"I would."
Audrey cried incredulously: "And you - you are the man who lost his job and came down to throwing himself off a cliff because he wouldn't tamper with the truth!"
"I have a great regard for the truth. But I've discovered there are things that matter more."
"Such as?"
"You," said MacWhirter.
Audrey's eyes dropped. MacWhirter cleared his throat in an embarrassed manner.
"There's no need for you to feel under a great obligation or anything of that kind. You'll never hear of me again after to-day. The police have got Strange's confession and they'll not need my evidence. In any case, I hear he's so bad he'll maybe not live to come to trial."
"I'm glad of that," said Audrey. "You were fond of him once?" "Of the man I thought he was."
MacWhirter nodded. "We've all felt that way, maybe." He went on: "Everything's turned out well. Superintendent Battle was able to act upon my story and break down the man -"
Audrey interrupted. She said: "He worked upon your story, yes. But I don't believe you fooled him. He deliberately shut his eyes."
"Why do you say that?"
"When he was talking to me he mentioned it was lucky you saw what you did in the moonlight, and then added something - a sentence or two later - about it being a rainy night."
MacWhirter was taken aback. "That's true. On Monday night I doubt if I'd have seen anything at all."
"It doesn't matter," said Audrey.
"He knew that what you pretended to have seen was what had really happened. But it explains why he worked on Nevile to break him down. He suspected Nevile as soon as Thomas told him about me and Adrian. He knew then that if he was right about the kind of crime - he had fixed on the wrong person - what he wanted was some kind of evidence to use on Nevile. He wanted, as he said, a miracle - you were Superintendent Battle's prayer."
"That's a curious thing for him to say," said MacWhirter dryly. "So you see," said Audrey, "you are a miracle. My special miracle."
MacWhirter said earnestly: "I'd not like you to feel you're under an obligation to me. I'm going right out of your life -"
"Must you?" said Audrey.
He stared at her. The colour came up, flooding her ears and temples.
She said: "Won't you take me with you?"
"You don't know what you're saying!"
"Yes, I do. I'm doing something very difficult - but that matters to me more than life or death. I know the time is very short. By the way, I'm conventional; I should like to be married before we go!"
"Naturally," said MacWhirter, deeply shocked. "You don't imagine I'd suggest anything else?"
"I'm sure you wouldn't," said Audrey.
MacWhirter said: "I'm not your kind. I thought you'd marry that quiet fellow who's cared for you so long."
"Thomas? Dear, true Thomas. He's too true. He's faithful to the image of a girl he loved years ago. But the person he really cares for is Mary Aldin, though he doesn't know it yet himself."
MacWhirter took a step towards her. He spoke sternly. "Do you mean what you're saying?"
"Yes ... I want to be with you always, never to leave you. If you go I shall never find anybody like you, and I shall go lonely all my days."
MacWhirter sighed. He took out his wallet and carefully examined its contents.
He murmured: "A special licence comes expensive. I'll need to go to the bank first thing to-morrow."
"I could lend you some money," murmured Audrey.
"You'll do nothing of the kind. If I marry a woman, I pay for the licence. You understand?"
"You needn't," said Audrey softly, "look so stern."
He said gently as he came towards her: "Last time I had my hands on you, you felt like a bird - struggling to escape. You'll never escape now ..."
She said: "I shall never want to escape."
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