"I have heard it, I think. Was it the one the parlor maid brought up
yesterday, about a ghost wringing its hands on the roof? Or perhaps
it's the one the milk-boy heard: a tramp washing a dirty shirt,
presumably bloody, in the creek below the bridge?"
I could see the gleam of Mr. Jamieson's teeth, as he smiled.
"Neither," he said. "But Matthew Geist, which is our friend's name,
claims that on Saturday night, at nine-thirty, a veiled lady--"
"I knew it would be a veiled lady," I broke in.
"A veiled lady," he persisted, "who was apparently young and beautiful,
engaged his hack and asked to be driven to Sunnyside. Near the gate,
however, she made him stop, in spite of his remonstrances, saying she
preferred to walk to the house. She paid him, and he left her there.
Now, Miss Innes, you had no such visitor, I believe?"
"None," I said decidedly.
"Geist thought it might be a maid, as you had got a supply that day.
But he said her getting out near the gate puzzled him. Anyhow, we have
now one veiled lady, who, with the ghostly intruder of Friday night,
makes two assets that I hardly know what to do with."
"It is mystifying," I admitted, "although I can think of one possible
explanation. The path from the Greenwood Club to the village enters
the road near the lodge gate. A woman who wished to reach the Country
Club, unperceived, might choose such a method. There are plenty of
women there."
I think this gave him something to ponder, for in a short time he said
good night and left. But I myself was far from satisfied. I was
determined, however, on one thing. If my suspicions--for I had
suspicions--were true, I would make my own investigations, and Mr.
Jamieson should learn only what was good for him to know.
We went back to the house, and Gertrude, who was more like herself
since her talk with Halsey, sat down at the mahogany desk in the
living-room to write a letter. Halsey prowled up and down the entire
east wing, now in the card-room, now in the billiard-room, and now and
then blowing his clouds of tobacco smoke among the pink and gold
hangings of the drawing-room. After a little I joined him in the
billiard-room, and together we went over the details of the discovery
of the body.
The card-room was quite dark. Where we sat, in the billiard-room, only
one of the side brackets was lighted, and we spoke in subdued tones, as
the hour and the subject seemed to demand. When I spoke of the figure
Liddy and I had seen on the porch through the card-room window Friday
night, Halsey sauntered into the darkened room, and together we stood
there, much as Liddy and I had done that other night.