The House without the Door by Elizabeth Daly Read Free Book Online Page B

earlier, but as a concession to the servant problem in Bellfield Martha Beach was allowed to go—presumably to the movies—after she had cooked it. It was served, and the dishes washed afterwards, by Mrs. Stoner.
    "Immediately after dinner Gregson complained of a slight indigestion. He said that it had been dogging him all day, and he attributed it to the heat. I will say here that there was nothing seriously wrong with his digestive apparatus; except for a bilious tendency he was what you might call a well man. He decided on this occasion to take bicarbonate of soda and go to bed early, and he went up at about nine.
    "You are now to take careful note of the arrangement of rooms in that house. It has a wide front hall, with the parlour and the library on the left, and dining-room, pantry, kitchen, and so on to the right. Mrs. Gregson's bedroom was over the parlour and Gregson's over the library. There's a bath between."
    "I thought people like Mrs. Gregson never had a room of their own," said Clara.
    "Mrs. Gregson had one, and I dare say that the prosecution at her trial hoped that the jury would disapprove of that fact. The bathroom had once been a store cupboard; Gregson had had it piped—his parents never dreamed of more than one bathroom in a house.
    "On the other side of the hall, opposite Mrs. Gregson, there is a sewing-room and sitting-room combined. Behind it are linen cupboards, a large bathroom, and the guest chamber. This last, just opposite Gregson's quarters, had at some time or other been fitted with what is known as a summer door; shuttered, you know, and to be used in hot weather when the regular door had to be kept open for air.
    "On the third floor we find Martha Beach, the cook, over Mrs. Gregson, and Locke over the sewing-room. Mrs. Stoner behind Locke, Miss Warren behind Martha Beach. Bath between Locke and Stoner, trunk room between Miss Warren and the cook. Get it?"
    "I get it," said Harold. "The help and the non-paying guests were all up on the third floor together."
    "And the help's room was by no means the least desirable of the lot. Miss Warren had the one with the sloping roof, the peephole window, and no cupboard; her clothes hung on hooks behind a curtain. It came out in evidence that the top rooms were pretty cold in winter—the cook had a gas heater, by the way. And in summer the whole top floor was an oven. They gave Martha Beach an electric fan."
    Clara said: "Murder trials do bring out the queerest things."
    "That's what makes them so fascinating," said Gamadge. "We hear of mutton soup for breakfast in the dog days, flypaper soaking in saucers for the ladies' complexions, chloroform on the mantelpiece. Nobody, in court or out of it, seems to remember how funny their own little ways would look if brought out at a trial."
    "We might come out very funny at a trial, Henry," said Clara.
    "We might indeed. It would sound funny if we had to admit that we had no idea who Harold is, or where he came from."
    "But I do know where he came from," said Clara.
    Gamadge stared in astonishment at his assistant, who muttered: "We get to talking."
    "You do, do you?" After another moment devoted to a wondering survey of the taciturn Harold, Gamadge returned to his notes. He was totally incurious, except in the way of business.
    "As I said, Gregson went upstairs at nine. Mrs. Gregson prepared the dose of soda for him, and the whole family was in on it; there was none in the Gregsons' bathroom cabinet, so Miss Warren got the large tin of soda that was in the third-floor medicine cupboard. Mrs. Stoner brought a tumbler of boiled water upstairs, and a silver spoon. Locke stood in the hall and talked to his benefactor, while that gentleman, at the open door of his bedroom and in his shirt sleeves, tossed off the mixture. Locke was asking permission to borrow the family car—he wished to take a friend to the movies. He did not specify what friend, but the Gregsons knew very well that it was a Miss