Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/138

Rh Mr. Fortune, that there is an odd strain in Geoffrey, as it were something abnormal or thrawn—a certain violence of temperament."

"In the blood, perhaps."

"Perhaps. And yet there was nothing of it in his father. Or in his cousin Herbert."

"Cousin Herbert. Yes. What about Cousin Herbert?"

Dr. Newton laughed. "Frankly, Mr. Fortune, you baffle me. Because there is nothing about Herbert. A very worthy young man, no doubt, but colourless, quite colourless." Reggie nodded. "No." Dr. Newton pursued his own train of thought. "In my own speculations on the affair—this most deplorable affair—I find myself continually confronted by an unknown quantity, a mysterious entity, Geoffrey's Italian wife."

"Ah, there you have it," said the divisional surgeon heartily.

Reggie looked at them, nodded, and without more talk led the way to the body. It did not occupy him long. Two wounds had sufficed to make an end of Stephenson Charlecote. One in the throat, which had pierced the carotid artery; one in the chest, which had reached the heart.

Superintendent Bell, in attendance from Scotland Yard, produced the weapon found by the body—a long, thin dagger or stiletto, obviously capable of causing the wounds, obviously Italian in origin.