"Someone has shot Colonel Menendez," I said, in a low voice, for Mrs.
Fisher had just entered.
"You mean--"
I nodded.
"Oh!"
Val Beverley opened and closed her eyes, clutching at me dizzily for a
moment, then:
"I think," she whispered, "she must have known, and that was why she
swooned. Oh, my God! how horrible."
I made her sit down in an armchair, and watched her anxiously, but
although every speck of colour had faded from her cheeks, she was
splendidly courageous, and almost immediately she smiled up at me, very
wanly, but confidently.
"I will look after her," she said. "Mr. Harley will need your
assistance."
When I returned to the hall I found it already filled with a number of
servants incongruously attired. Carter the chauffeur, who lived at the
lodge, was just coming in at the door, and:
"Carter," I said, "get a car out quickly, and bring the nearest doctor.
If there is another man who can drive, send him for the police. Your
master has been shot."
CHAPTER XVIII
INSPECTOR AYLESBURY OF MARKET HILTON
"Now, gentlemen," said Inspector Aylesbury, "I will take evidence."
Dawn was creeping grayly over the hills, and the view from the library
windows resembled a study by Bastien-Lepage.
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