第54章 "Spontaneous Combustion"(2)

"He's on the other side of the Langley family, on Uncle Lewis's mother's side.I think, or at least Grace thinks, that he is quite in love with Isabelle.Harrington Brown would be quite a catch.Of course he isn't wealthy, but his family is mighty well connected.Oh, Craig," sighed Langley, "I wish he hadn't done it--Uncle Lewis, I mean.Why did he invite his brother up here now when he needed to recover from the swift pace of last winter in New York? You know --or you don't know, I suppose, but you'll know it now--when he and Uncle Jim got together there was nothing to it but one drink after another.Doctor Putnam was quite disgusted, at least he professed to be, but, Craig," he lowered his voice to a whisper, as if the very forest had ears, "they're all alike--they've been just waiting for Uncle Lewis to drink himself to death.Oh," he added bitterly, "there's no love lost between me and the relatives on that score, I can assure you.""How did you find him that morning?" asked Kennedy, as if to turn off this unlocking of family secrets to strangers.

"That's the worst part of the whole affair," replied Tom, and even in the dusk I could see the lines of his face tighten."You know Uncle Lewis was a hard drinker, but he never seemed to show it much.We had been out on the lake in the motor-boat fishing all the afternoon and--well, I must admit both my uncles had had frequent recourse to 'pocket pistols,' and I remember they referred to it each time as 'bait.' Then after supper nothing would do but fizzes and rickeys.I was disgusted, and after reading a bit went to bed.Harrington and my uncles sat up with Doctor Putnam--according to Uncle Jim--for a couple of hours longer.Then Harrington, Doctor Putnam, and Uncle Jim went to bed, leaving Uncle Lewis still drinking.I remember waking in the night, and the house seemed saturated with a peculiar odour.Inever smelt anything like it in my life.So I got up and slipped into my bathrobe.I met Grace in the hall.She was sniffing.

"Don't you smell something burning?' she asked.

"I said I did and started down-stairs to investigate.Everything was dark, but that smell was all over the house.I looked in each room down-stairs as I went, but could see nothing.The kitchen and dining-room were all right.I glanced into the living-room, but, while the smell was more noticeable there, I could see no evidence of a fire except the dying embers on the hearth.It had been coolish that night, and we had had a few logs blazing.Ididn't examine the room--there seemed no reason for it.We went back to our rooms, and in the morning they found the gruesome object I had missed in the darkness and shadows of the living-room."Kennedy was intently listening."Who found him?" he asked.

"Harrington," replied Tom."He roused us.Harrington's theory is that uncle set himself on fire with a spark from his cigar--a charred cigar butt was found on the floor."We found Tom's relatives a saddened, silent party in the face of the tragedy.Kennedy and I apologised very profusely for our intrusion, but Tom quickly interrupted, as we had agreed, by explaining that he had insisted on our coming, as old friends on whom he felt he could rely, especially to set the matter right in the newspapers.

I think Craig noticed keenly the reticence of the family group in the mystery--I might almost have called it suspicion.They did not seem to know just whether to take it as an accident or as something worse, and each seemed to entertain a reserve toward the rest which was very uncomfortable.

Mr.Langley's attorney in New York had been notified, but apparently was out of town, for he had not been heard from.They seemed rather anxious to get word from him.

Dinner over, the family group separated, leaving Tom an opportunity to take us into the gruesome living-room.Of course the remains had been removed, but otherwise the room was exactly as it had been when Harrington discovered the tragedy.I did not see the body, which was lying in an anteroom, but Kennedy did, and spent some time in there.

After he rejoined us, Kennedy next examined the fireplace.It was full of ashes from the logs which had been lighted on the fatal night.He noted attentively the distance of Lewis Langley's chair from the fireplace, and remarked that the varnish on the chair was not even blistered.

Before the chair, on the floor where the body had been found, he pointed out to us the peculiar ash-marks for some space around, but it really seemed to me as if something else interested him more than these ash-marks.

We had been engaged perhaps half an hour in viewing the room.At last Craig suddenly stopped.

"Tom," he said, "I think I'll wait till daylight before I go any further.I can't tell with certainty under these lights, though perhaps they show me some things the sunlight wouldn't show.We'd better leave everything just as it is until morning."So we locked the room again and went into a sort of library across the hall.

We were sitting in silence, each occupied with his own thoughts on the mystery, when the telephone rang.It proved to be a long-distance call from New York for Tom himself.His uncle's attorney had received the news at his home out on Long Island and had hurried to the city to take charge of the estate.But that was not the news that caused the grave look on Tom's face as he nervously rejoined us.