| Show r a ll 11 THOU W A N ERNEST author of RAFFLES RAFFLE 5 etc by 0 H JN AYERS COPYRIGHT 0 o wf domm campay SYNOPSIS 5 cazalet on the steamer kaiser fritz homeward bound from australia cries out ut in lila ills sleep that henry craven who ten years before had ruined his father and ana himself isneau Is dead and finds that nilton toys toye who shares the stateroom with him knows craven and also blancho blanche macnair a former neighbor and playmate when the dally daily papers come aboard at southampton toys toye reads that craven has been murdered and calls cazalens Caza C aza lets dream second sight bight ile he thinks 0 of f doing doingo a ilithe little amateur detective work on the case himself h meela in the train to town the they I 1 discuss the murder which was committed it led at cazalens Caza lets old home toys toye hears wars from froin cazalet that scruton who had been cazalens Caza lets friend and the scapegoat for cravens dishonesty has been released from prison cazalet goes down the river and meets blanche CHAPTER V continued co ile he had floundered to hla his feet as well he was standing over heri her feeling his way like a great fatuous cow ard araso so some might have thought but it really looked as aa though blanche wap not attending to what he did say yet neither was she watching her little anglers stamped in jet upon the he sll ill very stream earo nor even seeing anymore any more of bf nelly potts in the australian veranda an da she sha had bad como come biome home from australia aralia and come in from the river und and she was watching tho the open door at the other end of the old schoolroom listening to those confounded jtb steps ps coming nearer and nearer and cazalet was vas gazing ather at her as though hey he really eally had said something that deserved an answer why miss aliss blanche cried a voice and your old old lady ln in waiting figured I 1 should fInd you flowna hilton toye wa was s already a landsman and a londoner from top to toe he was perfectly dressed tor foi bond street and his native e simplicity of bearing and address placed him as surely and firmly in the present picture ile he did hot look the least bit out of it but cazalet did in an instant his old bush clothes changed at once into a merely shabby sult of despicable cut the romance dropped out of them and their wearer as he stood like a trussed turkey cock and watched a bunch of hothouse flowers presented to the he lady with a little gem of ofa a natural courteous and yet characteristically act racy speech to the lady mark you forshe for tor she was waa an one an on the and cazalet was a man agali aga inand nd making a mighty effort to behave himself because the hour of boy and girl was over mr cazalet said toye 1 I guess you want to know what phat in thunder im doing on your tracks so eo soon its hog luck sir because bemuse I 1 wanted to see you quite a biot but I 1 never thought id strike you ou right here did you hear the news no what there was no need to InquI inquire Ce as to the class of news the immediate past had corae come back with toye into caza I 1 lets ets life and even in blanches presence even evenin in her schoolroom the old days had flown into their proper place and size in the ithe pers perspective ped tive They ye made an arrest said toye e and cazalet nodded as though mr Ca cazalet said toye 1 I guess sue you want to know what im doing on your track he be had quite expected it ii which set blanche off trying tryan i g to remember something he be had said at the other bouse hause but she had not succeeded when she noticed the curious pallor of his chio chin and forehead scruton he just asked yes girl this morning said hll hit ton toye you dont mean the be poor man cried Bl blanche anglie looking from one to the other yes he does said cazalet gloomily he stared out at they the river lver seeing nothing in his turn though one of the anglers was actually busy with his reel but I 1 thought mr scruton was waa still blanche remembered him remembered dancing with him she did to say bay in prison he Ile came out tho other day sighed Can Ca let auf bu how like lakel bet po licci all overl over give a doga dog a bad name and trust them to hunt it down docu and shoot it t at sight I 1 judge its not so bad adall as all that bat in 1 A this a country 1 uld eald union hilton toye M more hii like illie the police theory about scruton I 1 guess bar drawing the bead iwa when i n did you hear of it said r cazalet it was afi on the tape at the savoy when I 1 got there so I 1 made an inquiry baid and I 1 figured to look in at af the kingston court on my way to call upon alsa blanche you see I 1 was kind of interested in all told me about ab outtie tho case well well that was my end of the situation As luck and management mana geme nt would have it between them I 1 was in time to hear your man not my man please you thought ot of him yourself said cazalet cazale t sharply well lvell anyway I 1 was in time to hear the proceedings opened against him they were all over in about a minute manule he was remanded till next week how did he look and had he be a beard demanded cazalet and blanche simultaneously H he looked like a sick man said toye with something more an than his bis usual deliberation in answering or asking questions yes miss blanche he had a beard worthy of a free citizen they let them grow one it if they like before they come out said cazalet with the nod of knowledge then I 1 guess he be was a wise man not to take it off rejoined hilton toye that would only prejudice bis his case it if its going to be one of identity with that head gardener playing lead in the witness stand old savage snorted cazalet why he was a dotard in our time they hang a dog on his evidence still said blanche id rather have it than circumstantial evidence eviden e you mr air toye no kisr lanche blanche I 1 would not replied to toye e with unhesitating candor the worst evid evidence e nee in the world in my opinion and ive given the matter some thought Is the evidence of identity he turned to cazalet who ho had betrayed a quickened interest Inte iest in his views shall I 1 tell fell you why think how often youre not so sure if you have seen a man before or it if you uever liever have you kind of shrink from nodding or else you ou nod wrong if you eyer ever have hae that feeling then youre not like any other man I 1 know 1 I 1 havel cried cazalet ive had it all my life oven even in the wit wilds ds but I 1 never thought of it before think of it now said toye and see there may be flaws in the best evidence of identity that money can buy but circumstantial evidence cant lie ile aless blanche it if you get enough of it it if the links fit in to prove that a certain person was in a certain place at a certain time I 1 guess worth all the oaths of all the eyewitnesses eye witnesses that ever saw daylight cazalet laughed harshly as for no apparent reason he led the way into the garden mr air toyes made a study of these things he fired bred over his shoulder he should have been a sherlock holmes and rather wishes tie be was one give roe me time said toye laughing 1 I may come along that way yet cazalet faced him in a framo frame of tangled greenery you told me you w 1 I did sir but that was before they put salt on this poor old crook if youre right and hes not the man you say that rather altered the situation CHAPTER VI voluntary service and why do you think he be cant edone it cazalet had bad trundled the old canoe over the rollers and Bla blanche ilelle was hardly paddling in the glas glassy sy 11 trip strip alongside the below the loc lock k there had bad been something so to do and blanche had done it deftly arid and silently with almost equal caba capacity city and grace it bad given her a charming flush and sparkle kle and whit what with the suns bare hand on her yellow hair she now looked even bonnier than indoors yet ei not quite quite su such ch a girl but then every bliff the boy bad gone out oi of cazalet S so 0 that hour stolen from the tha past was up fo forever aver why do the police think than k the other thi nghe retorted what haye have they got to go on what I 1 wan lantto t to know I 1 agree with toye in one ond thing blanche looked 1 I trusi old savage in an inch ive been thinking about him alq and his previous evidence 61 dence do you realize that WE ite quite dark now soon after seven ii it was pretty thick saying his man was bareheaded with neither hat bat nor cap left behind to prove tt it yet now it seems hes put a be beard ard to him and next we shall have the color of Ws bis eyes blanche laughed aih lB 16 vigor of phrase thia oita more like the tha old hot tempered sometimes rather overbearing sweep something handmade had made him jump to the conclusion that scruton could not possibly have killed mr craven whatever else bo be might have done in days ane gone by so it simpli was impossible and anybody who toola the other zide would have to reckon henceforth with Sweep Cazalet mr air toyo toye already had bad reckoned with bl hm in id a litile debate begun outside the old summer schoolroom at littleford and adjourned rather than finished at the iron gate gaie into the road in her heart of hearts blanche Blit could not say that cazalot cazalet had the best beat of the argument toye had advance da general ce ditl principle with calm ability but adalet Cazalet could not be shifted from the particular position he was so eager to defends defend and would only enter into abstract questions to beg them out ol of hand blanche rather thought that neither quite understood what the 0 thor other meant but she could not blink the tact fact that the old friend had neither the dialectical mind nor the unfailing courtesy of the new ne w Thae being so with her perception she might have changed the subject but she could see ee that cazalet was thinking of nothing 1 9 else and no wonder since they were approaching the scene of the tr tragedy and his own old home with each long dip of her paddle it had been beenA hla his own wish to start upstream but she could see the wistful pain in his eyes as they fell once more upon the red turrets and the smooth green lawn of uplands and she neither spoke nor looked at him again until he spoke to her 1 I see got the blinds down still he said detachedly happened to mrs craven 1 I hear she went into a nursing home before the funeral 1 I expect wet we should find savage somewhere m ethere would you very much dp he clutched her hand but only as he might have clutched a mans mind blanche I 1 should rather like if it was just setting foot with you but even that effective final pronoun failed to bring any buoyancy back into his voice for it was not in the least effective as he said it and he no longer looked her in the face but this all seemed natural to blanche in the manifold a and nd overlapping circumstances of the case she made for the inlet at the upper end of the lawn and her prompt unquestioning acquiescence shamed cazalet into further and franker explanation before he could let her land to please him you dont know how I 1 feel this he exclaimed quite miserably 1 I mean about poor old scruton hes gone through so much as it Is whatever he may have done to deserve it long ago I 1 Is it conceivable that he should go and do a thing like this the very moment he gets out I 1 ask you Is it even conceivable blanche understood him and now she showed herself golden to the core almost as an earnest of her fitness for the ares fires before her ador po or fel fellow loi she cried he be has a i friend to in your ft at any ratel rate and ill iel help you to help be 1 l him it if theres any way I 1 can he clutched her hand but only as he might have clutched a mans you cant do anything but I 1 wont forget that he almost choked 1 I meant to stand by him in a very different way hed been down to the depths and id come up a bit then he was good to me as a lad and it was my fathers partner who was the ruin of him I 1 seemed to owe him something and now now ill stand iland by him whatever happens and whatever has happened then they landed in the old old oid inlet cazalet knew every knot in the post to clithe tied blanches canoe it was wag a very different differed place this uplands from rom poor old littleford on the lower reach the grounds were five or six acres instead of about one and a house in quite another class stood farther back from the river and very much farther from the road the inlet began the western boundary which continued past pasi the boathouse in the shape of a high hedge a herbaceous border not what it had been in the old days and a gravel path this path was screened from the lawn by a bank of rhododendrons as of course were the back yard and kitchen premises past which it led into the he front froni garden eventually de botching bou ching into the drive it was the path along which cazalet led the a way this afier afternoon noon and blanche at tits his heels was so struck by something that abai she c could not help telling highe ahlm he knew his way very well TO DB CONTINUED |
