Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/317



Before Wedgwood had realized the full meaning of Mrs. Patello's announcement she had seized him by the arm and was drawing him towards the room he had just passed.

"Come!" she said in a hushed whisper. "Come and look for yourself! I'll show you—but there's no doubt about it. And to think she's kept it a secret, all these years. Of course, I knew at once!"

The detective followed her into the room; at a word from her the two women busied about the still figure on the bed drew aside. Mrs. Patello, beckoning to Wedgwood to come closer, laid back the linen from the dead man's left arm and pointed to a curiously shaped brown mark that showed plainly above the elbow.

"The Clagne birthmark!" she whispered. "His father had it—in just the same place. I've heard him—Clagne, Janet's husband—say that they all had it—every Clagne, man and woman. I saw it on him—I saw it on this boy when he was a baby. Mr. Wedgwood—this is Walter Clagne, Janet's own son!"