The Wedding Chest Mystery. Dorothy Fielding

and then telling Mrs. Armstrong that the van carrying it had had engine trouble, but that another would bring it on. He had lunched at the house and the van had finally arrived around two. Major Hardy had superintended the carrying of the chest up to the niche. He had barely glanced at it, the butler thought, and had not opened it. Mrs. Armstrong had suggested doing this, but he had said, "Oh, everything's all right inside. They're packed as tight as peas in a pod, three hundred of the little beggars tied up in a princely napkin. I kept tally myself."

      Had the chest seemed heavy when it was taken upstairs?—Very heavy. Pointer went over every detail of the carrying in of the chest and of its placing in the Chinese suite. He made quite sure that it had not been out of sight until the major had locked the great double doors and hung up the key, except for one short interval, when Mrs. Armstrong had stepped back to take a last glance at the suite. The men had all stood panting about the doors until she reappeared. It had seemed long to the butler, but he had had his eyes on his watch, and it had not been three minutes all told. The doors were in full sight of the stairs and front hail. Pointer had already found that it was impossible to open or shut them without a sound like the beating of gongs, and that the key, though it turned easily, made a noise that could not possibly be missed anywhere in the house.

      The men sent with the chest by Lee and Son were Irish, said the servants. They had asked if it contained stones or cement when drinking their beer afterwards in the servants' hall.

      Major Hardy had left as soon as the doors were locked again. The butler had heard him tell Mrs. Armstrong as he hurried off that he would like to stay and support her through the afternoon's 'fuss' "his word, sir," the butler interpolated primly—"but that he had another of his own to worry through, and that there was no need to give up their little dinner party—it could, and would, wait until whatever time Mr. Armstrong got back in the evening."

      As for the preparations for the tea which was to be served in the first of the three rooms, the butler had superintended its arrangement. At no time was he, or any one else, alone in the suite, as the tables had been prepared downstairs and set up quickly in the one corner of the big room. A service lift beside the entrance doors made all this part of the work exceedingly expeditious.

      Pointer had already given orders to his men to search the house for any trace of the missing dwarf birch trees. Not that he expected them to be found at Charles Street, but the improbable as well as the probable must be investigated.

      "And when was Mr. Rufus Armstrong last in the house?" Pointer asked the butler.

      "He came this morning, sir, around eleven, just after Mrs. Armstrong had gone out, but when he heard that the chest wasn't expected until twelve, he said he wouldn't wait, and shouldn't be able to see it in place until next week."

      "When did he leave?"

      "I suppose at once, sir," the man suggested vaguely.

      "Did you show him out?"

      "No, sir. I was trying to find the main cock below stairs and turn off the water."

      "Then who did show Mr. Rufus out?"

      The butler left Pointer to make some inquiries. He returned to say that all the servants had been too busy trying to help mop up the overflow, or get to the plumber, to remember.

      "In other words, you don't know that he left the house at all," the chief inspector said quietly.

      The butler looked tolerant.

      "Well, sir, as he isn't here now, and hasn't been seen since Mrs. Armstrong spoke to him. I should say he left the house there and then. He said he couldn't wait, you remember."

      Pointer thanked the butler, and collected Major Hardy and Schofild on his way to the car.