7
Mr. Goode opened his mouth to answer before stopping.
"I... no."
He frowned.
"Or perhaps..."
Holmes looked at him encouragingly.
"You have remembered something?"
"Only a small thing."
"What is it?"
"The Professor was very fond of walking."
Mr. Goode spoke slowly now, evidently searching his memory.
"Almost every afternoon he would wander about the estate by himself."
"You accompanied him?"
"I offered."
"And?"
"He always thanked me most courteously."
A smile touched Mr. Goode's lips.
"Then declined."
"He preferred solitude?"
"So it appeared. I soon stopped offering to accompany him, anyway."
Mr. Goode looked around the cemetery.
"I never knew where those walks took him."
He paused.
"But now..."
His gaze settled upon the weathered graves.
"I find myself wondering whether this may have been one of the places he visited."
Holmes said nothing for several moments.
Finally he asked,
"Does anyone else regularly come here?"
Mr. Goode glanced towards the gardener.
"Very seldom."
"Not even Thomas?"
"He has little reason to."
Mr. Goode smiled.
"The lawns about the house require far more attention than this forgotten corner of the estate."
Watching the old gardener patiently teasing weeds from between two leaning stones, he added,
"I suspect the cemetery is looking considerably tidier than usual solely because newspaper gentlemen have taken such an interest in it."
I caught Holmes's eye.
The faint smile which briefly crossed his features suggested that precisely the same thought had occurred to him.
A moment later Mr. Goode quietly turned toward the gate.
"If you have seen enough here, gentlemen," he said, "perhaps we should return to the house. The coffee will still be hot."
Holmes cast one final, thoughtful glance across the ancient burial ground before silently following him out.