Clouds of Witness Part 17

took up 'is watter i' t'morning, and 'e only gied me tuppence."

"Monstrous!" said Lord Peter. "Look here, Miss Elizabeth, you're sure it was the thirteenth? Because I've got a bet on it with a friend, and I don't want to lose the money if I can help it. You're positive it was Wednesday night he slept here? I could have sworn it was Thursday."

"Naay, sir, t'wor Wednesday for I remember hearing the men talking o' t'murder i' t'bar, an' telling Mester Grimethorpe next daay."

"Sounds conclusive. What did Mr. Grimethorpe say about it?"

"There now," cried the young woman, "'tis queer you should ask that; everyone noticed how strange he acted.

He turned all white like a sheet, and looked at both his hands, one after the other, and then he pushes 'es hair off's forehead--dazed-like. We reckoned he hadn't got over the drink. He's more often drunk than not. Ah wouldn't be his wife for five hundred pounds.""I should think not," said Peter; "you can do a lot better than that. Well, I suppose I've lost my money, then. By the way, what time did Mr. Grimethorpe come in to bed?"

"Close on two i' t'morning," said the girl, tossing her head.

"He were locked oot, an' Jem had to go down and let 'un in."

"That so?" said Peter. "Well, I might try to get out on a technicality, eh, Mr. Watchett? Two o'clock is Thursday, isn't it? I'll work that for all it's worth. Thanks frightfully.

That's all I want to know."

Bet grinned and giggled herself away, comparing the generosity of the strange gentleman with the stinginess of Mr. Grimethorpe. Peter rose.

"I'm no end obliged, Mr. Watchett," he said. "I'll just have a word with Jem. Don't say anything, by the way."

"Not me," said Mr. Watchett; "I knows wot's wot. Good luck, my lord."

Jem corroborated Bet. Grimethorpe had returned at about 1.50 A.M. on October 14th, drunk, and plastered with mud.

He had muttered something about having run up against a man called Watson.The ostler was next interrogated. He did not think that anybody could get a horse and trap out of the stable at night without his knowing it. He knew Watson. He was a carrier by trade, and lived in Windon Street. Lord Peter rewarded his informant suitably, and set out for Windon Street.

But the recital of his quest would be tedious. At a quarter-past noon he joined Bunter at the Meribah memorial.

"Any luck?"

"I have secured certain information, my lord, which I have duly noted. Total expenditure on beer for self and witnesses 7s. 2d., my lord."

Lord Peter paid the 7s. 2d.without a word, and they adjourned to the "Rose and Crown." Being accommodated in a private parlour, and having ordered lunch they proceeded to draw up the following schedule: GRIMETHORPE'S MOVEMENTS.

Wednesday, October 13th to Thursday, October 14th.

October 13th:12.10 P.M. Arrives "Rose and Crown."

13.00 P.M. Lunches.

3.0 P.M. Orders two drills from man called Gooch in Trimmer's Lane.

4.30 P.M. Drink with Gooch to clinch bargain.

5.0 P.M. Calls at house of John Watson, carrier, about delivering some dog-food. Watson absent. Mrs. Watson says W. expected back that night. G. says will call again.

5.30 P.M. Calls on Mark Dolby, grocer, to complain about some tinned salmon.

5.45 P.M. Calls on Mr. Hewitt, optician, to pay bill for spectacles and dispute the amount.

6.0 P.M. Drinks with Zedekiah Bone at "Bridge and Bottle."

6.45 P.M. Calls again on Mrs. Watson. Watson not yet home.

7.0 P.M. Seen by Constable Z15 drinking with several men at "Pig and Whistle." Heard to use threatening language with regard to some person unknown.7.20 P.M. Seen to leave "Pig and Whistle" with two men (not yet identified).

October 14th: 1.15 A.M. Picked up by Watson, carrier, about a mile out on road to Riddlesdale, very dirty and ill-tempered, and not quite sober.

1.45 A.M. Let into "Rose and Crown" by James Johnson, potman.

9.0 A.M. Called by Elizabeth Dobbin.

9.30 A.M. In Bar of "Rose and Crown." Hears of man murdered at Riddlesdale. Behaves suspiciously.

10.15 A.M. Cashes cheque 129 17s. 8d. at Lloyds Bank.

10.30 A.M. Pays Gooch for drills.

11.5 A.M. Leaves "Rose and Crown" for Grider's Hole.

Lord Peter looked at this for a few minutes, and put his finger on the great gap of six hours after 7.20.

"How far to Riddlesdale, Bunter?""About thirteen and three-quarter miles, my lord."

"And the shot was heard at 10.55. It couldn't be done on foot. Did Watson explain why he didn't get back from his round till two in the morning?"

"Yes, my lord. He says he reckons to be back about eleven, but his horse cast a shoe between King's Fenton and Riddlesdale. He had to walk him quietly into Riddlesdale--about 3 miles--getting there about ten, and knock up the blacksmith. He turned in to the 'Lord in Glory'

till closing time, and then went home with a friend and had a few more. At 12.40 he started off home, and picked Grimethorpe up a mile or so out, near the crossroads."

"Sounds circ.u.mstantial. The blacksmith and the friend ought to be able to substantiate it. But we simply must find those men at the 'Pig and Whistle.'"

"Yes, my lord. I will try again after lunch."

It was a good lunch. But that seemed to exhaust their luck for the day, for by three o'clock the men had not been identified, and the scent seemed cold.

Wilkes, the groom, however, had his own contribution to the inquiry. He had met a man from King's Fenton at lunch, and they had, naturally, got to talking over the mysteriousmurder at the Lodge, and the man had said that he knew an old man living in a hut on the Fell, who said that on the night of the murder he'd seen a man walking over Whemmeling Fell in the middle of the night. "And it coom to me, all of a sooden, it mought be his grace," said Wilkes brightly. Further inquiries elicited that the old man's name was Groot, and that Wilkes could easily drop Peter and Bunter at the beginning of the sheep-path which led up to his hut.

Now had Lord Peter taken his brother's advice, and paid more attention to English country sports than to incunabula and criminals in London--or had Bunter been brought up on the moors, rather than in a Kentish village--or had Wilkes (who was a Yorks.h.i.+re man bred and born, and ought to have known better) not been so outrageously puffed up with the sense of his own importance in suggesting a clue, and with impatience to have that clue followed up without delay--or had any one of the three exercised common sense--this preposterous suggestion would never have been made, much less carried out, on a November day in the North Riding. As it was, however, Lord Peter and Bunter left the trap at the foot of the moor-path at ten minutes to four, and, dismissing Wilkes, climbed steadily up to the wee hut on the edge of the fell.

The old man was extremely deaf, and, after half an hour of interrogation, his story did not amount to much. On a nightin October, which he thought might be the night of the murder, he had been sitting by his peat fire when--about midnight, as he guessed--a tall man had loomed up out of the darkness. He spoke like a Southerner, and said he had got lost on the moor. Old Groot had come to his door and pointed out the track down towards Riddlesdale. The stranger had then vanished, leaving a s.h.i.+lling in his hand.

He could not describe the stranger's dress more particularly than that he wore a soft hat and an overcoat, and, he thought, leggings. He was pretty near sure it was the night of the murder, because afterwards he had turned it over in his mind and made out that it might have been one of yon folk at the Lodge--possibly the Duke. He had only arrived at this result by a slow process of thought, and had not "come forward," not knowing whom or where to come to.

With this the inquirers had to be content, and presenting Groot with half a crown, they emerged upon the moor at something after five o'clock.

"Bunter," said Lord Peter through the dusk, "I am abso-bally-lutely positive that the answer to all this business is at Grider's Hole."

"Very possibly, my lord."Lord Peter extended his finger in a southeasterly direction.

"That is Grider's Hole," he said. "Let's go."

"Very good, my lord."

So, like two c.o.c.kney innocents, Lord Peter and Bunter set forth at a brisk pace down the narrow moor-track towards Grider's Hole, with never a glance behind them for the great white menace rolling silently down through the November dusk from the wide loneliness of Whemmeling Fell.

"Bunter!"

"Here, my lord!"

The voice was close at his ear.

"Thank G.o.d! I thought you'd disappeared for good. I say, we ought to have known."

"Yes, my lord."

It had come on them from behind, in a single stride, thick, cold, choking--blotting each from the other, though they were only a yard or two apart.

"I'm a fool, Bunter," said Lord Peter."Not at all, my lord."

"Don't move; go on speaking."

"Yes, my lord."

Peter groped to the right and clutched the other's sleeve.

"Ah! Now what are we to do?"

"I couldn't say, my lord, having no experience. Has the--er--phenomenon any habits, my lord?"

"No regular habits, I believe. Sometimes it moves. Other times it stays in one place for days. We can wait all night, and see if it lifts at daybreak."

"Yes, my lord. It is unhappily somewhat damp."

"Somewhat--as you say," agreed his lords.h.i.+p, with a short laugh.

Bunter sneezed, and begged pardon politely.

"If we go on going south-east," said his lords.h.i.+p, "we shall get to Grider's Hole all right, and they'll jolly well have to put us up for the night--or give us an escort. I've got my torch in my pocket, and we can go by compa.s.s--oh, h.e.l.l!""My lord?"

"I've got the wrong stick. This beastly as.h.!.+ No compa.s.s, Bunter--we're done in."

"Couldn't we keep on going downhill, my lord?"

Lord Peter hesitated. Recollections of what he had heard and read surged up in his mind to tell him that uphill or downhill seems much the same thing in a fog. But man walks in a vain shadow. It is hard to believe that one is really helpless. The cold was icy.

"We might try," he said weakly.

"I have heard it said, my lord, that in a fog one always walked round in a circle," said Mr. Bunter, seized with a tardy diffidence.

"Not on a slope, surely," said Lord Peter, beginning to feel bold out of sheer contrariness.

Bunter, being out of his element, had, for once, no good counsel to offer.

"Well, we can't be much worse off than we are," said Lord Peter. "We'll try it, and keep on shouting."He grasped Bunter's hand, and they strode gingerly forward into the thick coldness of the fog.

How long that nightmare lasted neither could have said.

The world might have died about them. Their own shouts terrified them; when they stopped shouting the dead silence was more terrifying still. They stumbled over tufts of thick heather. It was amazing how, deprived of sight, they exaggerated the inequalities of the ground. It was with very little confidence that they could distinguish uphill from downhill. They were shrammed through with cold, yet the sweat was running from their faces with strain and terror.

Suddenly--from directly before them as it seemed, and only a few yards away--there rose a long, horrible shriek--and another--and another.

"My G.o.d! What's that?"

"It's a horse, my lord."

"Of course." They remembered having heard horses scream like that. There had been a burning stable near Poperinghe---- "Poor devil," said Peter. He started off impulsively in the direction of the sound, dropping Bunter's hand."Come back, my lord," cried the man in a sudden agony.

And then, with a frightened burst of enlightenment: "For G.o.d's sake stop, my lord--the bog!"

A sharp shout in the utter blackness.

"Keep away there--don't move--it's got me!"

And a dreadful sucking noise.CHAPTER XII The Alibi "When actually in the embrace of a voracious and powerful wild animal, the desirability of leaving a limb is not a matter to be subjected to lengthy consideration."

--The Wallet of Kai-Lung "I tripped right into it," said Wimsey's voice steadily, out of the blackness. "One sinks very fast. You'd better not come near, or you'll go too. We'll yell a bit. I don't think we can be very far from Grider's Hole."

"If your lords.h.i.+p will keep shouting," returned Mr. Bunter, "I think--I can--get to you," he panted, untying with his teeth the hard knot of a coil of string.

"Oy!" cried Lord Peter obediently. "Help! Oy! Oy!"

Mr. Bunter groped towards the voice, feeling cautiously before him with his walking-stick.

"Wish you'd keep away, Bunter," said Lord Peter peevishly.

"Where's the sense of both of us----?" He squelched and floundered again."Don't do that, my lord," cried the man entreatingly. "You'll sink farther in."

"I'm up to my thighs now," said Lord Peter.

"I'm coming," said Bunter. "Go on shouting. Ah, here's where it gets soggy."

He felt the ground carefully, selected a tussocky bit which seemed reasonably firm, and drove his stick well into it.

"Oy! Hi! Help!" said Lord Peter, shouting l.u.s.tily.