He
was shown into the morning-room--she went to him. Five minutes later a
shot was heard. The servants rushed in--to find their young mistress shot
through the heart, dead. But the murderer? Disappeared as completely as
last year's snow! That was never solved, never!"
"Do you mean to tell me the man was never caught?" exclaimed Viner.
"I tell you that not only was the man never caught, but that although Sir
Thomas spent a fortune and nearly lost his senses in trying to find out
who he was, what he wanted and what he had to do with Lady Marshflower,
he never discovered one single fact!" affirmed Miss Penkridge. "There!"
"That's queerer than the other," observed Viner. "A veritable mystery!"
"Veritable mysteries!" said Miss Penkridge, with a sniff. "The world's
full of 'em! How many murders go undetected--how many burglaries are
never traced--how many forgeries are done and never found out? Piles of
'em--as the police could tell you. And talking about forgeries, what
about old Barrett, who was _the_ great man at Pumpney, when your mother
and I were girls there? That was a fine case of crime going on for years
and years and years, undetected--aye, and not even suspected!"
"What was it?" asked Viner, who had begun by being amused and was now
becoming interested.
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