I did that much, as I'd promised," said Saunders, pressing a hand over his eyes.
From the shadow of the great chair, in which she had sat down again, Dorothy said:
"That was the other thing I was afraid of. Yes, he told us.,'
"And you never mentioned it?" cried the chief constable, with abrupt shrillness. "You knew a man was murdered, and none of you-?"
There was no heartiness or smooth bumptiousness about Saunders now. He seemed to be trying to apply the rules of English sports, suddenly, to a dark and terrible thing; and he could not find their application. His hand groped.
"They tell you things," he said, with an effort, "and you don't know — you can't judge. You- “ Well, I tell you, I simply thought he was out of his head. It was incredible, more than incredible. It was something nobody would ever do, don't you see?" His baffled blue eyes moved round the group, and he tried to catch at something in the air. "It just isn't so!" he went on desperately. "Up until last night I couldn't believe it. And then suddenly I thought — what if it were true, after all? And maybe there was a murderer. And so I arranged to watch, with Dr. Fell and Mr. Rampole here, and now I know… I know. But I don't know what to do about it."
"Well, the rest of us do," snapped the chief constable. "You mean he told you the name of the person who killed him?"
"No. He only said — it was a member of his family."
Rampole's heart was beating heavily. He found himself wiping the palms of his hands on the knees of his trousers, as though he were trying to dislodge something from them. He knew now what had been on the rector's mind last night; and he remembered that puzzling, quick question, "Where is Herbert?" which Saunders had asked when Dorothy Starberth had phoned to say Martin had left the house. Saunders had explained it, rather lamely, by saying Herbert was a good man to have around in a pinch. But he explained it much better now….
And there was Dorothy, with her burnt-out eyes, and her small, wry, vacant smile, as one who says, "Oh, well!" And Dr. Fell poking at the floor with his stick. And Saunders looking into the sun as though he were trying to do a penance by staring it out of the sky. And Payne humped, drawn into his little grey shell. And Sir Benjamin looking wry-necked at them all, like a horse round the corner of its stall.