| Show 4 s q 1 HOU ay ERNEST W 0 author of AMATEUR Ke RAFFLES R 4 F L E 5 rc etc fey by 0 irewin R ayera V 1 ta ca eobbi t COMPAN SYNOPSIS 9 a cazalet on the steamer kalser kaiser arltz homeward bound from australia cries ID out ut in hla his sleep that henry craven crave wh who ten years before had ruined his father ther and himself Is dead and finds that III 1111 ton toye tove who ab shares n r e a the state stateroom roo m with ith him knows cra craven ve n and also D blancho ia n cho macnair a former neighbor and playmate when the dally daily papers papera come aboard Southampton at toye reads that craven has been murdered and calls cataleta Ca zaleta dream second sight lie he thinks of doing a little amateur detective work on tile the case himself in the train to town they discuss the murder which was committed at cazalet cazalens Caza lets b old home toyo toya hears bears from cazalet that scruton who had been casalett Casa Caza lets friend and the scapegoat for cravens dishonesty has been released from prison cazalet goes down the river and meets blanche toye toya also com canies conies ea to see her and tells cazalet that scruton has been arrested but as he believe the old clerkly clerk Is la guilty he Is going to ferret out the murderer ca cazalet alet and blanche go to cazalens Caza lets old home borne and meet mr drinkwater of scotland yard cazalet goes with ter to them the library where the murder was waa committed shows him a secret passage he knew as a boy and leads the way in town toye talking with cazalet about the murder suggests finger prints on the weapon found inthe in the secret bassage as aa ameant a means of trapping the mur berer and succeeds in securing a print of cazalens Caza lets land hand toye traces Caza cazalens Cazalet lets 9 movements while a passenger on the kaiser arltz finds that he left the boat before the murder and returned just after it and warns him CHAPTER X the week of their lives toyes gone back to italy said cazalet he says he may be away only ollya a week lets make it the week ot of 0 our r lives 1 the scene was the little room it pleased blanche to call her parlor and the time a preposterously early hour of the following forenoon cazalet in her fie r sunny snuggery rather suggested another extravagant taxicab but blanche saw only his worn excited lace face and her own was not at its best bese la 16 her sheer amaze amazement ment italy she ejaculated when did he go nine last night but she checked herself 1 I simply cant understand it all why have you seen him since the other afternoon his manner might have explained those other two remark snow bothering her when it was too late to notice them on the other hand she was by no means sure that it did he might simply dislike toye and that again might explain his extraordinary heat over tho the argument at littleford blanche anabe began to feel the air somewhat heavily charged with explanations either demanded or desired I 1 they were thing 8 hated and she determined not to a A it if she could help it 1 I 1 set eyes on him again Bhe sald but hes been seen here 1 in A a t taxi I who saw him mirtha martha it ashes not mistaken this was a little disingenuous as will appear but that impetuous sweep was in a merciful hurry to know something else when was this blanche just about dark say seven or so she owns it was about dark said J blanche though she felt ashamed of herself well its just possible he left me about six said he be had to see someone too tob now I 1 think of it but id give a bit to know what he was doing messing about down here at the last mo menta lefiti blanche liked this as little 11 tile as anything that cazalet hadsall had said sald yet yel and he be had sald said nothing that she did like ilke this this morning but there were allowances to be made for him she knew and yet to strengthen strength ba her knowledge or rather to let him confirm it for b her e i either cither byword by word or by his silence she stated a certain ascertain case for him aloud poor old sae sweep epi ehe che laughed 11 ts its a shame ehama that th at you should hive have come home to be worried worrie d like this 1 I am worried be aalf simply 1 I think its just splendid fill all youre doing tor for that poor man but especially the way youre doing it 1 I wish ito to god yau you say that blanchel blanche he paid her the compliment of speaking exactly as he would have spoken to a wan man or rather she happened to be the woman to take it as a compliment but I 1 do say it sweep ive heard all about it ii from charlie he rang me up last night youre on the telephone are you everybody la Is in these days where have you lived oh I 1 forgot forgo tl and she laughed anything to lift this duet of theirs out of the minor key keyl but what doe sold charlie really think of the case more to the point said cazalet uneasily well he be seemed to fear there was no chance of ball bail before the adjourned hearing bearing but I 1 rather gathered he be was not going to be bein in it himself no we decided on one of those sportsmen ports men who loye love rushing in where a family lawyer like charlie owns to 11 looking coking down his bis nose ive seen the chap and primed him up about old savage and our find in the ibe foundations fo unda he says bays hell make an example of drinkwater anil anC harlle Charlie says they call him the dobbas bobbys bugbear Bug bearl auf lri kuroly ily hall h have to tell his hie client him no HOW hes just the type who would have rushed in anyhow and be time enough to put scruton under obligations when ive got him off blanche looked at the troubled eyes avo avoiding iding hers and thought that she had never heard of a fine thing being done so finely this very shamefacedness appealed to her intensely and yet last night charlie bad said that old sweep was in such tremendous spirits about it all why was he be so BO down this morning she only knew she could have taken his hand but for a very goo dreason eason why she could not she bad even to guar guard aga against ast an equivocally sympathetic voice eor or manner as she asked how long did they remand him for eight days t well then know the best or the worst toda today y week yes he said eagerly almost himself again but whichever way it goes im afraid it means trouble for me blanche sone loiue time or other ill tell you why but why I 1 want this to be the week of our lives so he really meant what he had said before the phrase had been no care less misuse of words hut but neither after all did it necessarily apply to mr toyo toye that was waa something it mide mada it easier for blanche not to ask questions cazalet had gone out on the bal coffi cony now he called to her bar and there was no taxi but a smart open car waiting in the road its brasses blazing S r 7 blanche looked at the troubled eyes avoiding hers in the sun an immaculate chauffeur at tile the wheel whose Is that sweep mine for the week im talking about I 1 mean ours it if only buck up and get ready to come out A week last forever you knowl blanche ran off to martha who bussed busied and hindered her with the best intentions infections it would have been difficult to say which was wag the more excited of the two but the old nurse would waste time in perfectly fatuous reminiscences of the very earliest expeditions ions in which mr cazalet had led and blanche had followed and what a bonny pair they had made even then etc severely snubbed on that subject she took to peering at her mistress once her bairn with furtive eagerness and impatience for blanche on her side looked as though she had something on her mind and indeed had made one or two attempts ts to lik get it off she had to force it even in the end theres lust just one thing I 1 want to say before I 1 go martha you know when mr toye 1 called yesterday I 1 was out e 1 I 1 oh alche mr etoye oye yes I 1 remember miss B blanche I 1 well I 1 dont want you to say that he be came in and waited halt half an hour in vain in fact not that be came in at all or that youre even sure you saw him unless of course youre asked who should ask me I 1 wonder well I 1 dont know but there scams to be a little bad blood between mr voye toye and mr cazalet martha looked for a moment as though she were about to weep and then for an another aliher moment as though she would die of laughing but bilt a third moment she celebrated by mak ing an utter fool of herself as sha would have been told to her face by anybody any body but blanche whose yellow hair was being disarranged by the very hands that had helped to impels on on it under tha that t motor hat hai and veil oh blaechle Blanch Blanc ble le Is that all you have to tell me said martha and then the week of the their theirly irli lives abs began the weather was true to them and this was a larger matter than it might haye bays been they were not making love they were not out for that as blanche hersell herself actually told martha with annihilating scorn when the old dear looked both knowing and longing to know at the end of the fir first st days run they were out to enjoy themselves and that seemed shocking to martha unless something was coniing coming of it she had just sense enough to keep her condlin conditional onal clause to herself yet it if they were only out to enjoy themselves in the way miss blanche vowed and declared more shame tor for her they had bad done wonders wonders for a star atar martha could hardly credit all they said they had done and as an embittered pedestrian there was nothing that she would put past one of those nasty motors it said eald very little for mr cazalet by the way in marthas private olit opinion nion that he be should take her miss blanche out in a carat all it he had turned out our as aa well as she had hoped and beani anything a nice boat on the rivet would have been better for them both than all that tearing through the air in a cloud of 0 smoky dust duat it would also have been much less expensive and tar far more the thing y but there to see and hear the after the first dayl she look also bann bonny that for a time martha really believed that mr cazalet had spoken and allowed herself to a admire him also as he drove off later with atit wicked lamps alight but blanche would only go on and on about her day the glories of at the ripley road and the grandeur of hindhead she had bad brought back heaps of heather and bunches ot of leaves just beginning to turn they were all over the little house before cazalet had been gone ten minutes but blanche forgotten her poor old martha adartha she was not one to forget people especially when she loved and yet had to snub them marthas portion was picture postcards of the gibbet aud and other landmarks of the day and it if youre good said blanche you shall have some every day and an album to keep them in forever and ever and wont that be nice when its all over and mr cazalens Caza lets gone back to australia crueler anticlimax was never planned but marthas face had brought it on her and now it remained bained to make her see for herself what an incomparably good time they were having above all was it delightful to feel that their beloved car was waiting for them outside to whirl them where they liked for quite early in the week and this was a glaring aggravation in marthas eyes cazalet had taken lodgings for himself and driver in those very nell gwynne cottages where hilton toye had stayed before him CHAPTER XI the thousandth man it had been new life to them but now it was all over it was the last evening of their week and they were spending it rather silently on blanches balcony 1 I make it at least three hundred hund jed said cazalet and knocked out a pipe that might have been a ga gag you see we were very seldom under fifty speak for yourself please cleasel my aly a tender point said blanche who looked as though she had no business to have her hair up as she sat in a pale cross fire between a lamppost and her lighted room cazalet protested that he had only meant their mileage in the car he made himself extremely intelligible now as he often would when she ral lied him in a serious voice well its been a heavenly time she assured him just once more and tomorrow its pretty sure to come all right about scruton it yes tomorrow Tomo irow we shall probably have toye back ho he answered with grim inconsequence what has that to do with it walter oh ob nothing of course but still his tone was grim and heavy with a schoolboy irony that he be would not explain but could not keep to himself so mr air toys toye must be turned out of the conversation though it was not blanche who had dragged him in she wished people would stick to their point theres one thing ive rather wanted to as ask k you she began yes said cazalet you said the other day that it would mean worry for you in any case after tomorrow wb whether ether the charge Is dismissed or nott not his wicker chair creaked under him 1 I dont see why it should she persisted it if the case falls through well where I 1 come in he had bad to say surely you mean just the other way about if they commit the man for trial then you do come in I 1 know its like your goodness 1 11 I wish you say that it hurts met mel then will you explain yourself T its not fair to tell me so much and then to leave out just the bit making you miserable TO BE CONTINUED |
