‘One of the boat-house keys is missing.’
‘Miss Stevens and Miss Edwards have gone up-stream in the Water-fly,’ said the Dean, ‘and Miss Burrows and Miss Barton have taken the other sculler down to the Isis. The police are searching too. They’ve been gone about three-quarters of an hour. We didn’t discover till then that the key was gone.’
‘Then there’s not much we can do,’ said Harriet, suppressing the angry comment that the boat-house keys should have been checked the moment Miss Newland’s absence had been remarked. ‘Miss Haydock—did Miss Newland say anything to you—anything at all—while you were out, that might suggest where she was likely to go in case she wanted to drown herself?’
The blunt phrase, spoken openly for the first time, shook everybody. Miss Haydock put her head in her
