The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [4329]
She took the kettle off the gas-ring. "It's a pity Bunting isn't here," she said, drawing in her breath. "He'd a-liked so much to hear you tell all about it, Joe."
As she spoke she was pouring boiling water into a little teapot.
But Chandler said nothing, and she turned and glanced at him. "Why, you do look bad!" she exclaimed.
And, indeed, the young fellow did look bad--very bad indeed.
"I can't help it," he said, with a kind of gasp. "It was your saying that about my telling you all about it that made me turn queer. You see, this time I was one of the first there, and it fairly turned me sick--that it did. Oh, it was too awful, Mrs. Bunting! Don't talk of it."
He began gulping down the hot tea before it was well made.
She looked at him with sympathetic interest. "Why, Joe," she said, "I never would have thought, with all the horrible sights you see, that anything could upset you like that."
"This isn't like anything there's ever been before," he said. "And then--then--oh, Mrs. Bunting, 'twas I that discovered the piece of paper this time."
"Then it is true," she cried eagerly. "It is The Avenger's bit of paper! Bunting always said it was. He never believed in that practical joker."
"I did," said Chandler reluctantly. "You see, there are some queer fellows even--even--" (he lowered his voice, and looked round him as if the walls had ears)--"even in the Force, Mrs. Bunting, and these murders have fair got on our nerves."
"No, never!" she said. "D'you think that a Bobby might do a thing like that?"
He nodded impatiently, as if the question wasn't worth answering. Then, "It was all along of that bit of paper and my finding it while the poor soul was still warm,"--he shuddered--"that brought me out West this morning. One of our bosses lives close by, in Prince Albert Terrace, and I had to go and tell him all about it. They never offered me a bit or a sup--I think they might have done that, don't you, Mrs. Bunting?"
"Yes," she said absently. "Yes, I do think so."
"But, there, I don't know that I ought to say that," went on Chandler. "He had me up in his dressing-room, and was very considerate-like to me while I was telling him."
"Have a bit of something now?" she said suddenly.
"Oh, no, I couldn't eat anything," he said hastily. "I don't feel as if I could ever eat anything any more."
"That'll only make you ill." Mrs. Bunting spoke rather crossly, for she was a sensible woman. And to please her he took a bite out of the slice of bread-and-butter she had cut for him.
"I expect you're right," he said. "And I've a goodish heavy day in front of me. Been up since four, too--"
"Four?" she said. "Was it then they found--" she hesitated a moment, and then said, "it?"
He nodded. "It was just a chance I was near by. If I'd been half a minute sooner either I or the officer who found her must have knocked up against that--that monster. But two or three people do think they saw him slinking away."
"What was he like?" she asked curiously.
"Well, that's hard to answer. You see, there was such an awful fog. But there's one thing they all agree about. He was carrying a bag--"
"A bag?" repeated Mrs. Bunting, in a low voice. "Whatever sort of bag might it have been, Joe?"
There had come across her--just right in her middle, like--such a strange sensation, a curious kind of tremor, or fluttering.
She was at a loss to account for it.
"Just a hand-bag," said Joe Chandler vaguely. "A woman I spoke to --cross-examining her, like--who was positive she had seen him, said, 'Just a tall, thin shadow--that's what he was, a tall, thin shadow of a man--with a bag.'"
"With a bag?" repeated Mrs. Bunting absently. "How very strange