Free The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne

he
was for trying to find out what it was that Cayley knew, he could hardly
expect Cayley's approval of his labours. It would be 'The George,' then,
for Antony after the inquest.
    What was the truth? Not necessarily discreditable to Cayley, even though
he were hiding something. All that could be said against him at the
moment was that he had gone the longest way round to get into the locked
office and that this did not fit in with what he had told the Inspector.
But it did fit in with the theory that he had been an accessory after
the event, and that he wanted (while appearing to be in a hurry) to give
his cousin as much time as possible in which to escape. That might not
be the true solution, but it was at least a workable one. The theory
which he had suggested to the Inspector was not.
    However, there would be a day or two before the inquest, in which Antony
could consider all these matters from within The Red House. The car was
at the door. He got in with Bill, the landlord put his bag on the front
seat next to the chauffeur, and they drove back.

Chapter VIII - "Do You Follow Me, Watson?"
*
    Anthony's bedroom looked over the park at the back of the house. The
blinds were not yet drawn while he was changing his clothes for dinner,
and at various stages of undress he would pause and gaze out of the
window, sometimes smiling to himself, sometimes frowning, as he turned
over in his mind all the strange things that he had seen that day. He
was sitting on his bed, in shirt and trousers, absently smoothing down
his thick black hair with his brushes, when Bill shouted an "Hallo!"
through the door, and came in.
    "I say, buck up, old boy, I'm hungry," he said.
    Antony stopped smoothing himself and looked up at him thoughtfully.
    "Where's Mark?" he said.
    "Mark? You mean Cayley."
    Antony corrected himself with a little laugh. "Yes, I mean Cayley. Is
he down? I say, I shan't be a moment, Bill." He got up from the bed and
went on briskly with his dressing. "Oh, by the way," said Bill, taking
his place on the bed, "your idea about the keys is a wash-out."
    "Why, how do you mean?"
    "I went down just now and had a look at them. We were asses not to have
thought of it when we came in. The library key is outside, but all the
others are inside."
    "Yes, I know."
    "You devil, I suppose you did think of it, then?"
    "I did, Bill," said Antony apologetically.
    "Bother! I hoped you'd forgotten. Well, that knocks your theory on the
head, doesn't it?"
    "I never had a theory. I only said that if they were outside, it would
probably mean that the office key was outside, and that in that case
Cayley's theory was knocked on the head."
    "Well, now, it isn't, and we don't know anything. Some were outside and
some inside, and there you are. It makes it much less exciting. When you
were talking about it on the lawn, I really got quite keen on the idea
of the key being outside and Mark taking it in with him."
    "It's going to be exciting enough," said Antony mildly, as he
transferred his pipe and tobacco into the pocket of his black coat.
"Well, let's come down; I'm ready now."
    Cayley was waiting for them in the hall. He made some polite inquiry
as to the guest's comfort, and the three of them fell into a casual
conversation about houses in general and The Red House in particular.
    "You were quite right about the keys," said Bill, during a pause. He was
less able than the other two, perhaps because he was younger than they,
to keep away from the subject which was uppermost in the minds of them
all.
    "Keys?" said Cayley blankly.
    "We were wondering whether they were outside or inside."
    "Oh! oh, yes!" He looked slowly round the hall, at the different doors,
and then smiled in a friendly way at Antony. "We both seem to have been
right, Mr. Gillingham. So we don't get much farther."
    "No." He gave a shrug. "I just wondered, you know. I thought it was
worth mentioning."
    "Oh, quite. Not that you would have convinced me, you know. Just as
Elsie's evidence doesn't