Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/265

254 I said that at the beginning. I say it now in italics. Good Lord, you can hear Kimball laughing at us!"

"Don't be uncanny."

"Well, I'm not really sure he is laughing at us. Wait a while. But why did Kimball try murder last instead of first? Oh, that's easy. He was an epicure in hate! He didn't want mere blood. He wanted the beggar to suffer—to be ruined, not just dead. Hence he went to break Sandford. Then Rand-Mason complicated the affair. Kimball had a murder on his back and I scared him. He thought we had enough to convict him or that we'd get it. He said to himself, 'I'm for it, anyway. I'll have to die. Well, why shouldn't my death hang Sandford?' And he played that last card."

"I suppose so," Lomas agreed. "In a way it's all quite rational, isn't it?"

"I always said it would be. Grant that it was worth anything to ruin Sandford and Kimball's a most efficient fellow. But why was it worth anything to ruin Sandford?"

"Ah, God knows," said Lomas gravely. "Yes. I wonder if Jane Brown does." He handed Lomas a letter.

",—"Your advertisement for information about Mrs. Ellen Edith Sandford. I have some which is at your service if you can satisfy me why you want it. Yours truly,