"No! I shall not be there. I cannot bear to--but that is neither here nor there," broke off Corn hurriedly, "tell me, was the house alight?"
"Every room was lighted. It blazed like a palace in the wood."
"Colonel Carr's whim. He surrounded himself with the most beautiful things and installed the electric light. Water power you know," added the rector rather inconsequently. "I expect the wheel was going constantly for the two days before the body was discovered."
Herrick recollected the murmur in the wood, and now guessed that it came from the waterfall, which turned the wheel for the dynamos. There was no doubt that Colonel Carr surrounded himself with every comfort. "Did he ever have guests to stay with him?" he asked.
The rector made a gesture of surprise. "If you had known Colonel Carr you would not ask such a question. He hated his fellow-mortals."
"Then why had he so many bedrooms?"
"I cannot tell you. But I am certain that he never had anyone to stay in the house. I have been in it once or twice myself, and Miss Bess has paid a visit. But no other person has ever entered."
"Humph! Quite a mystery. What about Marsh?"
"Ah I expect you heard of him from Miss Bess. He is a great friend of the Biffs. Stephen Marsh will inherit the Colonel's property I expect."
"What relation was he to Carr?"
"His nephew. But the two never spoke. They hated each other."
"Mrs. Marsh then is the Colonel's sister?"
"Oh, dear me no. The present Mrs. Marsh is only step-mother to Stephen. A violent terrible woman with Italian blood in her veins. It was she I think who put Stephen against his uncle."
"She is very ill I hear. Pneumonia."
"Dear me," said Corn startled, "why she was at my house on Tuesday! But it was raining when Stephen came for her. I expect she got a chill then."
"No doubt. At all events she is seriously ill now I understand."
"Ha!" said the rector and looked down again. "I wonder if any doctor will attend her. She has quarrelled with them all. Well, there is no more to be said Dr. Herrick. By the way, if I have talked freely, you must excuse me for doing so. I have a reason. Some day I hope to tell it to you. Are you stopping here for long?"
"A day or so. I am on a walking tour with my friend Mr. Joyce. We return shortly to London. Good-day Mr. Corn."
"Good-day," replied the rector raising his hat, and slipped away into the gorse bushes like a ghost.
Herrick walked on somewhat puzzled. What was the meaning of this frank speech, to a stranger. The parson looked smarter and more of a man of the world than many serious minded people would have approved of. Yet he had talked, to say the least of it, in a most indiscreet manner. Moreover he had promised (quite unnecessarily) to explain his reason for doing so to the doctor. What did it all mean? "Does he know something, as well as Miss Bess?" thought Herrick returning to the inn. "Both of them seem to have a better opinion of Colonel Carr, than the rest of the people. Humph! I seem to be surrounded by mysteries here. Well. We shall see what the inquest will do."
Robin proved more fractious than Herrick expected. He was most anxious to be present at the inquest: but in the end over-ruled by the stronger will of his friend, he consented to remain where he was. The doctor walked by himself to the Pines, and was received by Inspector Bridge who introduced him to the Coroner, and to Dr. Tiler, who had examined the body. After some discussion, Bridge collected a jury of mixed villagers and Beorminster citizens. After these had inspected the body, the witnesses were called.
Herrick gave evidence of his discovery, of the position of the body, and of the condition of the house. He was followed by Tiler, who declared that in his opinion Carr had been shot on Tuesday night (going by the condition of the body). He flouted the idea of suicide.
"The shirt-front was neither blackened nor singed," said Tiler, "and it would have been had the deceased fired the revolver at so close a range. He was shot through the heart, and as I believe, by someone who stood at the door. It seems to me, that he was standing by the bed, and heard a footstep on the stairs. At once he turned, only to meet the levelled revolver. The shot passed through his heart and imbedded itself in the opposite wall. Again, there are three other shots in different parts of the body. One in the neck, another in the abdomen, and a third in the right leg. But the shot that killed the deceased was the the first that went through the heart."
"How do you know that such a shot was the first?" asked the Coroner.
"From an examination of the wounds," replied Tiler, "the remaining three shots were fired when the man was down.
"And dead!" said the Coroner aghast.
"Certainly. The deceased must have died almost instantaneously."
A thrill of horror passed through those present at the idea, that the assassin had fired three more shots at the dead body. There was something horrible about the wreaking of such vengeance. And vengeance it must have been, for Bridge proved that no robbery had taken place.
But the most interesting part of Bridge's evidence was yet to come. He produced the revolver found in the hand of the dead man. All six chambers proved to be loaded. Therefore it would not have been this weapon which had been used. The idea of suicide was out of the question.
"Also gentlemen," continued the Inspector, "the first shot was fired with a different weapon to that employed to fire the other three. The bullet which passed through the heart and embedded itself in the wall, has been extracted. Here it is. The other three shots were found in the body and in the floor. Here they are."
The pieces of evidence thus produced were placed before the jury. The first bullet was round--of the old-fashioned kind fired from a muzzle-loading pistol. The remaining three were conical in shape, and of the most modern manufacture. Plainly then two pistols had been used. One of an antique pattern to fire the first shot--the shot which killed the Colonel: and the other a revolver of the most modern type. And this latter had been merely employed to make a target of the dead body. "Finally," said Bridge after explaining all this, "the third pistol--or rather revolver found in the hand of the deceased, was not fired at all. The chambers are loaded--there is no smoke-stain on the barrels. It was simply put into the left hand of the dead to hint at suicide. The person who did so, knew that Colonel Carr was left-handed, but in his agitation forgot that the six chambers were loaded. In fact he defeated his own scheme."
This evidence was surprising enough. Why should the assassin use two pistols, when one would have sufficed? "And?" asked the Coroner, "why do you say 'he' Mr. Inspector? Do you then think that the guilty person is a man?"
"I don't think a woman would have committed so brutal a murder," said Bridge bluntly. "She would have been satisfied with killing the man, and not have proceeded to mutilate the body. Also the idea of putting a revolver into the hand of the dead would not occur to a woman."
"There I differ from you Mr. Inspector," contradicted the Coroner, "a woman might do such a thing, and it is more likely a woman would forget in her agitation that the revolver was loaded, than would a man in the like circumstances."
Inspector and Coroner argued out this point. At length Bridge losing his temper stated that he believed Frisco shot his master and
