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By Root 836 0

rest, I didn’t think it was. Anyhow, I could soon test it. If Fitzgerald had intended to murder the Admiral that night, he would have taken this knife along with him, because he’d have known as soon as he saw it that nothing would serve him better. If he hadn’t the intention, I thought he might most probably have thrown it back into the garden as soon as he’d used it on the painter. So I had a look round Mr. Mount’s ground last night within an easy throw of his mooring-post.” Rudge by this time was so pleased with himself that he could not resist sending a highly unofficial beam at his superior officer.

Major Twyfitt smiled back. “Smart bit of work, Rudge.”

“What I want,” observed the Superintendent, unappeased, “is the weapon.”

“I found this too, sir.”

Rudge produced another piece of brown paper from his pocket, and from it another knife, an ordinary jack-knife such as sailors and navvies use. “There are no prints on it,” he said, as he laid it on the table.

“And where did you find that?”

“In a clump of valerian, sir, at the bottom of Sir Wilfrid Denny’s garden, overhanging the river.”

“Sir Wilfrid Denny’s garden!”

“Yes, sir. It’s like this.” Rudge gave an account of his finding of the sprig of valerian stuck into the Admiral’s boat, which had not been there when Sergeant Appleton overhauled it. “It’s like those treasure-hunts,” he added, “where you go from one clue to another. That valerian was a clue, so I followed it up, and that’s what I found. It’s a plant. There’s not even any blood on the knife, only rust. Of course, the real weapon’s at the bottom of the sea.”

“You think so?”

“Rivers,” said Rudge, “can be dragged.”

“And you think that Fitzgerald planted these two clues?”

“I’m certain of it, sir.”

“It’s about time,” remarked the Superintendent, “that we got our hooks on Master Fitzgerald.”

Rudge glanced at the clock. “I’m expecting him at eleven-thirty. Another fifteen minutes to go. I told him I’d have an exclusive piece of information for him if he came along then.”

“He’ll come?” said the Chief Constable doubtfully. “You don’t think you’re taking a risk?”

“Sergeant Appleton’s tailing him in any case, sir.”

“If Fitzgerald gets away, Rudge,” growled Superintendent Hawkesworth.

“He won’t, sir. Is there anything else you want me to report on before he comes?”

“Have you traced that copy of the evening paper in his pocket?”

“No, sir. He must have picked it up in Whynmouth, perhaps at the Lord Marshall. I don’t think there’s much importance to be attached to it.”

“You think now, then, that it was the Admiral who went to the Lord Marshall?” asked Major Twyfitt.

“I do, sir. I know the Superintendent thought differently, but we’ve proved he was in Whynmouth, so why shouldn’t it have been him? It’s my notion that he anticipated danger at the interview ahead of him, and wanted to take Holland along to stand by; but when the porter told him Holland was in bed he didn’t bother to have him roused and just gave the first excuse that came into his head. Of course, he never intended to catch a train at all, but he had to say something.”

“Humph!” said the Superintendent, not too pleased at having his bright idea snatched from him by a mere inspector.

“And the door-key in the Admiral’s boat?” asked the Major.

“Why shouldn’t the Admiral have dropped it there himself, sir? It seems a pity,” said Rudge, “to bother to find complicated explanations when there’s a simple one handy. I felt that,” he added with a look of great innocence, “about the Admiral’s visit to the Lord Marshall; though I know Mr. Hawkesworth didn’t agree with me.”

Mr. Hawkesworth’s large face looked for a moment so suffused with honest emotion that the Chief Constable hurriedly led the conversation into quite a different track.

“And Mrs. Mount’s death, Rudge? Have you got any further with your theory of murder there?”

“Not so far as evidence goes, sir,” Rudge said slowly, “but I could put a case of murder for you, if you’d care to hear it; though I know well enough we could never put it before a jury as it stands.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“If