Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 116, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 709 & 710, September/October 2000

The sound of the lookout horn suddenly rang out from the redoubts, echoing throughout the town, signalling that the Boers were mustering for another bombardment, a warning to take cover while there was still time. A distant noise and confusion broke out as the townspeople ran for shelter, obeying the edict that civilians were to stay indoors as far as possible during an attack so as not to hamper the trained volunteers, competent to deal with such a situation. Hooves clattered down the street, wagon wheels rumbled, a few shouts were heard, but presently the ominous waiting silence they had all become accustomed to fell, the lull before the shelling and retaliatory mortar fire began. The interruption might have been a mere rumble of thunder for all the attention the two men paid to it.

“If I did not shoot him, and you did not, then who did?” Carradine repeated tensely. “If—” He could not go on.

Frank decided to help him. “It was the blue diamond that started it, was it not?”

Carradine started. “How in the world do you know of that?”

“My wife had the story of it from Mrs. Rampling herself. I fear,” he said carefully, looking directly at the young man, “that the lady is one of some — acquisitiveness. Sarah told me how you had procured the diamond for her—”

“How I did so in the hopes that it would buy her love, though I knew I could never marry her?” Carradine was suddenly in a passion. “How I beggared myself to procure it? No, I wager she would not have told Mrs. Whiteley that! I was — infatuated, there is no other word for it, I have had time to come to my senses and see that, at least. Infatuation that I thought was love. Through my brother’s good offices, I was able to obtain the diamond at a fair price, though its value was still staggering and it cost me all I possessed in the world, and though my expectations for the future are not nearly as high as many suppose.” Carradine came to a wretched halt and then said, “I see I must tell you everything... Between us, we may arrive at the truth.”

Frank, who already knew the truth, said nothing, looking at the brilliant stars pricking the darkening sky. Every sound was exaggerated in the expectant stillness, the shrill of the cicadas, the croo-crooing of sleepy doves, a shouted command from the defences.

Carradine sank onto the seat beside Frank. “She knew I had bought the diamond. I had had it set into a ring for her, but it took me some months to pluck up enough courage to put it on her finger, with all that such an extravagant gesture implied. Though there could have been no marriage between us, our friendship had not yet reached...” He faltered, a deep and painful flush mantling his pale cheek. “However, she had given me to understand that, on that very evening, she would accept the ring from me, and thereafter our relations would be somewhat different. She allowed me to put it on her finger before we dined. Rampling came home unexpectedly, just as we had finished our meal. He was drunk, but not so drunk that he did not immediately see how it was between us. He burst into a vile stream of abuse and Kitty became very — excited, I think, is the only word which will serve.” Carradine passed a hand across his brow. “How can I explain this? Her husband’s abuse did not appear to distress her — indeed, those big eyes of hers softened and sparkled, colour came to her cheeks when he actually raised his hand to her — it was almost as though — as though she was enjoying it! As if there was some strange complicity between them... Maybe, even, a kind of love. I think I began to see my folly, how I had been deceived, even then.”

The desperate young man buried his face in his hands. When he raised his head, his face was wet with tears. “Nevertheless, I squared up to Rampling. I could scarcely tell him to get out of his own house, but I warned him that he must not lay a finger on his wife. Whereupon, he laughed insolently and swaggered outside.” “Are you going to leave it at that, Edward?” she asked. “No, by God, I am not,” said I, and rushed out after him, intending to knock the fellow down. “But, stumbling in the darkness, I had not reached him before... before the shot rang out and he fell down dead. And that, I swear, is the truth of what happened.”

Into the silence erupted the loud crump of the first mortar shell, followed by another. A horse whickered in fright, and the night became hideous with noise and flames. Within the little garden, Edward Carradine sat as though turned to stone. “How could I have been such a fool? Seen with hindsight, it is so obvious — Rampling coming home, apparently unexpectedly, finding me in intimate circumstances with his wife, strutting out like that... Either she had arranged matters so, or she seized her chance. In any case, she had estimated my nature well. She knew I would go after him, prompted by her.” He said, his voice hard and dry as pebbles, “She would have shot me, like a dog—”