Show T THOU ERNEST wo achor of ghe CRACKSMAN M RAFFLES etc aUST RATIONS by 0 J ay mf sto compari CHAPTER XIII continued 76 12 I 1 and yet he ho seemed to make no secret of it and yet it did explain his whole hole conduct since landing as toye ry had biad said she could only shut iler her eyes to what must have happened e ven even as cazalet himself had shut hisala hi bis sall all this wonderful week that she had forgotten all day in her ingratitude but would never neer in all her days forget again I 1 there wont be another case she j heard beaida herself saying while her Ah thoughts ran ahead or lagged b behind like sheep never come out I 1 V know it won wont why it he asked so sharply that she had to account for the words to herself as well wall as to him nobody knows except mr air toyo toye and he means to keep it to himself why should he 1 1 I dont know hell tell you him belt elf are you sure you dont know what can dehave he have to tell me why should he screen me blanche his eyes and voice were f furious with suspicion but still the voice was lowered hes a jolly good sort you know vald paid blanche as it the whole affair was the roost most ordinary one in the world but heroics could not have driven the sense of her remark more forcibly home to cazalet oh he Is Is he ive always found him so so have 1 I the little ive seen of him and I 1 dont blame him for getting on my tracks mind you hes a bit of a detective I 1 was fair game and he did warn me in a way why I 1 meant to have the week he stopped and looked away 1 I know ana and nothing can undo that she only said but her voice swelled with thanksgiving and and gazalet looked ye reassured assured the hot guspil clon died out othis of his eyes but left them gloomily perplexed still I 1 cant understand it I 1 dont believe it either im in his hands what have I 1 done to be saved by toye hes proba probably blk scouring london for me if he watching this window at this minu minute tel he went to the curtains as he spoke simultaneously blanche sprang up to entreat him blin to fly while he could that had been her first object in coming to him as she had done and yet once with him she had left it to the last and now it was too late he be was at the window chuckling significantly to himself he had opened it and he was leaning out that you toye down there come up and show yourself I 1 want to see you he turned in time to dart in front of the foldi folding fig doors as blanche reached them white and shuddering the flush of impulsive bravado fled from his face at the sight of hers you cant go in there the matter lie he whispered why should you be afraid of hilton allton toye how could she tell him before she I 1 had found a w word ord the landing door opened and hilton toye was in the room looking at her keep your voice down said gazalet cazalet anxiously even if its all over with me but the shouting shou ting we start the shouting here her e I 1 he at the und and now tiye to ye stood looking at him ive heard all youve done continued cazalet 11 1 I dont blame you a bit if it had been the tb other eother way about I 1 might bave h ave given you less run foj your money ive heard beard what youve found out about my mysterious movements and youre absolutely absolu tyly right as ag far a as ayou you go you dont know why I 1 took the train at naples and traveled across europe without a handbag it quite the put up job you may think but lafit it it makes you any happier I 1 may as well tell you that I 1 was at uplands that night and I 1 did get gei out out through the foundations foundation sl I 1 the insane impetuosity of the man was his mas master now he was a living fire of impulse that hayburst had burst into a blaze 1 I always guessed you might be craz yand enow I 1 now know it said hilton toys toye still I 1 judge youre no not so crazy as todenz to deny that while you were in that house hous eyou you struck down henry craven and left lef thim him for dead cazalet stood like red hot stone miss blanche said toye turning to her rather shyly 1 I guess I 1 cant do what I 1 said just yet I 1 breathed a word not yet and perhaps I 1 never will ft if come away with me now back to te your horne home and never see bee henry cravens Cr avena murderer again 1 I 1 and who pho may he be bak cried a voice that brought all three face faced about the folding doors had bad opened and a fourth figure was standing between the two room booma I 1 CHAPTER XIV t the ni I 1 the intruder wae wa a baggy elderly man anan of so cadaver cadaverous an aspect that his face alone i cried for his deathbed death bed and his gaunt frame lookup took up the cry as it swayed upon the threshold in dressing gown and bedroom slippers that toye instantly recognized as belonging to cazalet the man had a shock of almost white hair and a less gray board beard clipped roughly to a point an unwholesome pallor marked the fallen features and the envenomed eyes b burned low in their sockets as they dealt with blanche but fastened on hilton toys toye what do you iou know about henry cravens murderer he demanded in a voice between a croak and a crow have they run in some other poor devil or were you talking about me it if so ill start alibel a action and call Cazale tand that lad lady y as witnesses this is scruton explained cazalet who was only liberated this evening df after tir being detained a week on a charge that thai ou ought never to have been brought as iv ive e told you both all along adru scruton thanked him with a bitter laugh ive brought him here concluded cazalet because I 1 dont think hes fit enough to be about alone nice of him it said eald scruton bitterly im so BO fit that they wanted to keep me somewhere else longer than any right that may be why they lost no time in getting hold of me again nice considerate kindly coun country tryl ten years long enough to have you as aa a dishonored guest wont you come back for another week and see if we cant arrange for a nice little sudden death and burial for you but they you see blast em he subsided into the best chair in the room which blanche had wheeled up behind him a moment later he looked round thanked her curtly and lay back with closed eyes until suddenly he opened them on cazalet and what was that you ou were saying that about traveling across europe and being at uplands that night I 1 thought you came round by sea and what night do you mean the night it all happened said cazalet ste steadily adil v you mean the night some person unknown knocked craven on the head yes th the sick man threw himself forward in the chair you never told me this he cried suspiciously both the voice and the man seemed stronger there was no point in telling you did you see the person yes then he unknown to you 1 I see him well scruton looked sharply at the two mute listen listeners drs they were very intent indeed who are these people cazalet nol no I 1 know one of em ho he answered himself in the next breath its blanche macnair it I 1 thought at first it must be a younger sister grown up like her forgive prison manners miss aliss Ala macnair cnair if still your name you look a woman to trust if there I 1 is 8 one and you gave me your chair anyhow youve been in for a pe penny any and you can stay in for a pound as tar far as I 1 care but chos your A amer r can friend cazalet mr air hilton toye who spotted that id d been all the way to uplands and back when I 1 claimed to have been in rome I 1 there was a touch of ns bitterness in cazalens Caza lets voice and by some subtle process it had a distinctly mollifying eff effect act on the really embittered man what on earth were ere you doing at at uplands he asked in a kind of confidential bewilderment 1 I went down to see a man toys toye himself could not have cut and measured more deliberate monosyllables craven suggested scruton no a man I 1 expected to find at cravens 11 the writer or of the letter you found at cooks office in naples the night you landed there I 1 guess it really was toye this time and there was no guesswork in his tone obviously he be was speaking by his lit tia alo book though he had not got it out again how do you know I 1 went sent to coo cooks 1 I know every step you took between the kaiser fritz and charing cross and charing cross and the kaiser fritz scruton listened to this interchange with keen attention ioa hanging 0 on n each mans lips with his sunken eyes both took it ft calmly but ns surprise was as not hidden by a sardonic grin youve evidently had a stern chase with a yankee clipper clip perl said he if hes bes right about the letter cazalet I 1 should say so presumably it from craven himself no yet it brought you across europe to cravens house well to the back house I 1 expected to meet my man on the river riter I 1 I 1 was that how you ml missed ased him more mor or less leaa iq 1 suppose it wash was flouton fic ruton ruminated rumina ted at little broke into his offensive laugh and checked it ansta instantly n ily of his own accord this la is really interesting he croaked you get gat to london at what time aks was it nominally three twenty five buts but the train ran thirteen minutes late said bald and youre on the river by whit what time scruton asked cazalet 1 I walked over hungerford Hun gorford bridge to took ak the first train to got a boat there ere and just dropped down with the stream I 1 dont dant suppose the whole thing took me very much more than an hour you forgetting something said toye yes I 1 was it was I 1 who telephoned to the house and found that craven was out motoring so BO there was po no li hurry tirry yet you going to see henry craven murmured toye cazalet did not answer his last words had come in a characteristic burst now he had his mouth shut tight t and his eyes were fast to scruton he might have been in the witness 1 hox box already a doomed wretch cynically supposed to be giving evidence on his own behalf but actually only baring his neck hy by inches to the rope under the joint persuasion ol of judge and counsel but he be had one friend by him still one who had edged a little nearer in the pause but you did see the man you went to see said scruton cazalet paused 1 I dont know eventually somebody brushed past me I 1 in the dark 1 f did think then but I 1 can cant swear 16 to him even now tell us about it do you mean that scruton nT da you insist on hearing all that happened im nol nol asking toye he can do its as he lilies likes but you scruton youve been through a lot you know you to have stopped in bed do you really want this on top of all po go ahead said scruton ill have a drink when youve done somebody give roe me a cigarette meanwhile ile cazalet supplied tho the cigarette struck a match and held it with unfaltering band the two mens eyes teet met strangely across the flame ill tell tall you all exactly what happened you can believe me or not as you like you wont forget that I 1 X what do you know about henr cravens Cra murderer knew every inch of the ground ex capt one altered bit that explained itself cazalet turned to blanche with a significant look but she bhe only drew an inch nearer still well it was in the little creek where the boat house Is that I 1 waited for my man he never n e ver came by the river I 1 heard the motor but it henry crayen craven that I 1 wanted to see but the mar mac who was coming to ane him even qually I 1 thought I 1 must have made a mistake or he might have changed his mind and come by road the dressing gong had bad gone at least I 1 supposed it was that by the time it was almost quite dark and I 1 landed and went up tire path past the back bac premises to the front of the house sc far I 1 seen a soul or been seen by one evidently but the french win vin dows were open in what used to be my fathers library the room wa was all lit up and just as I 1 got there a man ran out into the flood of light and 1 I thought you said he brushed b you in the dark interrupted toys toye 1 I was in the dark so was he in an other second seco nd and no power op on earth would induce me to swear to him do you want to hear the rest scruton or of are you another unbeliever 1 I want to hear every word than ban ever TO BE CONTINUED |