The Luminous Face

Three days later, Zizi returned. She went to Wise’s apartment before going to the Lindsay house.

“Find out much?” he asked her, as she flung off her wraps, and deposited her small person in a very large easy chair.

“I sure did! But I’m glad to get back! New England is no paradise in winter. Get me something to eat, there’s a bright Penny.”

“All right,” and Wise rang a bell. “Take your time, Ziz, but have a little pity on a mere man, consumed with curiosity.”

“I will. Coggs’ Hollow is exactly what its name sounds like. A tiny, primitive village, just the same now as it was a quarter of a century ago, when Robert Gleason lived there, with his uncle.”

“You found people who knew him, then?”

“I did.”

“Could they throw any light on the murder – or its cause?”

“Not light – but a sort of a glimmer of a glow of a hint of dawn.”

“Good! That’s enough. You succeeded, then!”

“Oh, yes; and, Penny Wise, whom do you suppose I saw up there, also nosing about?”

“Who?”

“Mr Manning Pollard.”

“Ziz, you’re crazy. He wasn’t there. I’ve seen him myself every day you’ve been gone.”

“Seen him! Seen Manning Pollard? Penny, you’re crazy!”

CHAPTER XVIII – The Luminous Face

“No, Zizi, my child, I’m not crazy. And, as a matter of fact, I suppose you’re not, either. Now, what do you mean by thinking you saw Pollard in New Hampshire when I know he was here in New York?”

“First, you tell me what you mean by thinking he was here in New York when I saw him in Coggs’ Hollow?”

“Saw him? and talked with him?”

“No; I didn’t see him to speak to – but I saw him.”

“Where was he?”

“Walking along the street.”

“Did he see you?”

“Yes.”

“Did he speak to you, or bow?”

“Oh, no; he doesn’t know me!”

“How do you know him?”

“I don’t. But I’ve seen his picture – both in the paper and at Miss Lindsay’s, and, as you know yourself, he’s unmistakable. Nobody could take any one else for Manning Pollard! Why, that face is of a type not often seen. And his physique, and his big, square shoulders – why, Penny, I know it was he.”

“Well, Ziz, I don’t say it wasn’t, but we must puzzle out how he got up there and why he went.”

“What have you done here while I was away?”

“I’ve found out all about the Barry letter for one thing.”

“Tell me.”

“A cleverly contrived thing. It was originally written in vanishing ink and Barry signed it in real ink. Then, when the vanishing ink vanished, the perpetrator of the precious scheme filled in the typed letter above the signature.”

“Clever! What was the original document?”

“It was a testimonial or something of the sort to a Club servant. Head Steward, or somebody, and this testimonial was arranged for him. Barry remembers being asked to sign and remembers signing. Then he forgot all about it.”

“Weren’t others to sign?”

“Barry thought so, but the matter was never carried on.”

“H’m. Who asked Barry to sign?”

“Dean Monroe.”

“How he continues to crop up! Is he the murderer?”

“Now, look here, Zizi, we’re up against an enormously interesting case. It’s simple up to a certain point, and then it’s inexplicable. The murderer is one of the cleverest men on this planet. For, look. He arranged that letter deliberately, fixed up the Club servant scheme, to get Philip Barry’s signature on a blank sheet of paper. Having that, he later wrote in whatever he chose. His cleverness consisted, at this point, in not overdoing. Had he made the letter a threat of murder, it would have looked false on the face of it, for Barry is not like that. Well, he had this letter ready to plant in Gleason’s desk after he had committed his crime – and he did so. Next, he left no fingerprints on the telephone or on the revolver, save those of Gleason himself. Was that clever?”

“Oh, Penny, it was! And he made the prints on the telephone with Mr Gleason’s fingers after Mr Gleason was dead! And he did the telephoning himself!”

“Yes; how quick you are, Zizi! That’s exactly what happened, because that’s the only way it could have been. Now, a man clever enough for all that is clever enough for anything. Yet I can’t see how he did it. Nor do I grasp his motive.”

“Jealous of Phyllis?”

“That isn’t enough to account for the crime.”

“No, it isn’t! He had another motive, and I’ve found it out. I found out up in Coggs’ Hollow.”

“Going to tell me?”

“You bet I am! Right away. How did you guess the man?”

“I didn’t guess. I deduced from his alibi. Such a clever villain – what would he naturally choose by way of alibi?”

“Just what he did do. Pretend not to have any – but when they investigate, they find he has a cast-iron one!”