The boy’s lip quivered as he looked about at the silent people.
“Tell him, Gordon,” begged Mrs. Bates, and Lockwood told the principal details of the mystery.
“Never a suicide! never!” Pinckney Payne declared. “I know Doc Waring too well for that. Suicide means a coward—and he was never that! No, Aunt Emily, it was murder. Oh, how terrible,” and the boy almost lost control of himself. “You were at the bottom of it, Auntie. I’m sure it was either one of those men you refused when you took up with Doc Waring.”
“Why, Pinckney! How dreadful of you! Don’t say such a thing!”
“But I know it. If you’d heard Jim Haskell and Philip Leonard talk—I felt sure they meant to kill Doctor Waring.”
“But it’s true, Auntie. And if it’s true, you want them shown up, don’t you, whichever one it was?”
“Yes, shut up, Pink,” Lockwood spoke sternly. “What you suggest is highly improbable, but even if there’s suspicion of such a thing, don’t babble about it. That’s the detective’s work.”
“Yes—and who’s your detective? Old blind-as-a-bat Morton, I’ll bet, who can’t see a hole through a ladder! I’ll show him now—”
“Pinky, I beg of you, hush,” said his Aunt, losing her self-control.
“There, Auntie, dear, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to worry you, but something must be done—”
“Something will be done, Pinky,” Lockwood assured him. “But I tell you right now, if you try to stick your inexperienced finger in this pie, you’ll make trouble for us all—from your aunt down. Now, behave yourself. Try to be a man, not a foolish boy.”
“That’s what I’m doing! And I don’t propose to lie down on the job, either. I tell you, Gordon. I know a lot about detective work—”
“Cut it out, Pink,” said Helen, and her words seemed to have an effect on the irrepressible youth. “To read detective stories is one thing—to solve a real, live mystery is quite another.”
“That’s right, Helen,” and Lockwood nodded approval. “Many a person thinks he has a bit of detective instinct, when all he has is curiosity and imagination.”
Helen, pleased at this appreciation went on to lay down the law for Pinckney Payne.
She was interrupted by the entrance of Morton who wanted to learn more of the departed Japanese, Nogi.
“What other servants are there?” he asked Mrs. Peyton.