Show dy ERNEST wow athor of CRACKSMAN etc te 6 d F tw SYNOPSIS 7 cazalet on the stean steamer 1 er kaiser F arltz ritz home homeward wara bound from australia cries out ut in lil hla sleep leep that henry craven who ten years ears before had ruined his rather bather and T himself ims f Is dead and finds that IV hll ton toye w who ho shares share s the stateroom with him knows craven and also blanche 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 lets dream second sight eight ile he thinks of doing a little amateur det detective octive work on the case himself in the tha train to town they d discuss escuss the murder which was coin committed at cataleta Ca zaleta old home toys toye hears from cazalet that scruton who had been Caza cazalens Ca zaleta lets friend and the scapegoat tor cravens dishonesty has been released from prison cazalet cazale I 1 goes down the comes arver and meets blanche toye also comes to see her and tells cazalet that ser fie fierston ruton U ton h haa as been arrested but as he d believe the old clerk Is guilty he Is ie going to ferret out the murderer caz cazalet a let and blanche go to cazalens Caza lets old 0 id home me and meet mr drinkwater of scotland nd yard cazalet goes oes with ter r to tho library w where e re the murder was waa committed shows him a secret passage he i knew of as a boy CHAPTER vil VII continued was as easy as pie id often explored them do you remember the row I 1 got into blanche for taking you with me once and simply ruining your frock 1 I remember the tha fr frock said bald blanche it was her bar last contribution to the conversation immediate developments no not only tonly put an end to the further exchange of ancient memories but r rendered enil er ed it presently impossible by removing Cazalet from the scene with the two detects detectives v a a almost without warning all three disappeared down the make makeshift shih trapdoor trap door cut by one of them as a schoolboy in his fa fathers floor she hardly even knew how it happened the little p place lace was so small email 1 that she never saw the hole until it had engulfed two of the trio the third explorer mr Drink drankwater wafer himself had very courteously turned her out of the library before following the others and he had said so very little beforehand for her to hear and so quickly prevented cazalet from saying anything at all that she simply could not think what any of them were doing under the floor under her very feet she heard them moving as she waited a bit in the hall then she sibe left the house byway by way of the servants quarters of course without holding any communication with those mutineers muti and only indignant that mr Drlik drinkwater wafer should have requested her notto not lo 10 do so limas it was along a long half hour that followed for blanche macnair but she passed it characteristically she turned her wholesome mind to dogs which in some ways she knew letter better and trusted further than men mba there was a dog at uplands and as yet she had seen nothing of him he lived in a large kennel in the ahe yarn yard tor for he be was a large dog and rather friendless but biancha knew him by eight and had felt always sorry for him the large kennel was just outside the back door which was at the top of the cellar steps and at the bottom of two or three leading into the scullery but blanche of course went round by the garden she found the poor old dog quite disconsolate in a more canine kennel in a corner of the one that was really worthy of the more formidable carpl carril vora there was every sign of his being treated as the dangerous dog that blanche indeed had heardie heard hear dhe he was the outer bars were further protected by wire netting which stretched like a canopy over the whole nibble cage but blanche let herself in with ais as little hesitation as she proceeded to beard the poor crute in his hia inner lair and he never even barked it at her he just lay whimpering with his tearful nose between his two front paws as though his dead master bad not left him to the servants all his life blanche coaxed and petted him until she almost wept herself then suddenly denly and without warning the dog showed his worst side buthe out he leaped bivin wooden sanctuary almost knocking her down and barking horribly but not at blanche she followed his infuriated eyes and the back doorway framed i a dusty and grimy figure lust just climbing into full length on the cellar stairs which blanche had some difficulty in identifying with that of Cai cazalet caillet alet well you really are a sweep she cried when she had bad slipped out lust just in time and the now savage dog was still butting and cla clawing at his bis bars how did you come out and where alethe are the enemy the old way he answered 1 I left them down there and what did you find ill tell you later I 1 cant hear bear my voice for that infernal dog the dreadful barking followed them thein out into the yard and round to the right past the trades mens door to the verge of the drive here they met an elderly man in I 1 tremendous hurry an ansta unstable ble dotard who instantly abandoned whatever purpose he had bad formed and carrie came to anchor in front ol 01 0 i them main yv alth rheumy eyes band and twitch ing wrinkles why it if that miss mica blanchel he quavered do you hear our roy inosa I 1 bant heard that go on like that since the night that happe happened then cazalet cazales introduced him himself spit to the old gardener whom he had known all his lifland life and by rights the man should have wept outright or else emitted a rustle rustic epigram laden with wise humor but old savage hailed from silly suffolk and all his life he had ad belled belied his surname but bilt never the alliterative libel on his native county he took book the wanderers return very much as aa a matter of cour course ae very much as though he had never dean been away at all and was demonstrative only in his further use of the east anglian Anglia rf pronoun a long time since we fared to see you mus mug walter said eald he a right long time and now heres a nice kettle ot of fish for f or you to findl find but I 1 seen the man mus walter walt er and well bring that home to him never you fearl fear are you sure that you sa baw w him asked blanche already under caza lets influence on this point savage looked cautiously toward the house before replying then ho he lowered his voice dramatically sure miss blanche bianche why I 1 see him that night as plain as aa I 1 tare fare to see mus walter now 1 I should have thought it was too dark to see anybody properly said blanche and cazalet nodded vigorously to himself dark dark miss blanche why there was broad daylight and it that there were the lodge lights on to see him by his stage voice fell a sepulchral semitone but I 1 see him ain at the station this very afternoon I 1 did I 1 promised not to talk about that keep that a secret it if I 1 tell e so methin but I 1 picked him out att 6 f half bait d a dozen at the first time of asid ril savage vago said this with a pleased and vacuous grin looking cazalet full in the tace face his rheumy eyes were red as the sunset they faced and cazalet drew I 1 a deep breath as blanche and he be turned back toward the river I 1 first time jaime of prompting I 1 expect he whispered but theres hope if savage Is their strongest qt witness only ohly listen to enat dog said blanche as they passed the yard CHAPTER vill fingerprints finger prints hilton toye was the kind of american who knew london as well as most londoners Lon doners and some other capitals a good deal respective citizens of corresponding correspond liag intelligence his hia travels were mysteriously but enviably interwoven with business lie ho had an air of enjoying himself and at the same time making money to pay for his enjoyment wherever he went hla his hotel days were much the same all over europe many appointments but abundant abunda Ft leisure As however he never spoke about his own affairs un less they were also those of the listener and not always then hilf his acquaintances had bad no idea how he made his money and the other half wondered how he spent his time of his mere interests which were many toye made no such secret but it was quite impossible to deduce a main industry from the by products byproducts of his levelheaded level headed versatility criminology for example was an obvious product byproduct by it was no morbid taste in hilton toye but a scientific hobby that appealed to his hia mental subtlety and subtle ho he was yet with strange simplicities grave and dignified yet addicted to the expressive phraseology of his less enlightened countrymen naturally sincere and yet always capable of some ingenuous duplicity the appeal of a blanche macnair to such a soul needs no analysis she had struck through all complexities to the core such ag as it was waa or as she might make it As AB yet she could only admire the character the man had shown though it had bad upset her none the less at engelberg he had proposed to her inside of two weeks as he be had admitted without compunction at the time it had taken him he said about two minutes to make up his mind but the following summer he had laid more deliberate siege la in accordance with some old idea that she had bad let fall to soften her first refusal the result had been the same on only lymore more explicit on both sides she had denied him the least particle af if hope and he had warned her bar that she had bad not heard the last of him by any means and never would till she married another man this had bad incensed her at the time butla buta great grea deal less on subsequent reflection and such was the position between that pair when toye and cazalet landed in england from the same steamer i on oli this chis seco second nd da day X ashore as cazalet sat bat over a late breakfast jn in jermyn street toye sent in his card and was permitted lo io follow it rather to his bis surprise he found his bis man frankly divided between kidneys and bacon and the morning paper butin but jn a hearty mood indicative of amends for his bis great heat in yesterdays argument A plainer indication was the down dawni 1 right yet sunny manner in which cazalet at ai once returned to the contentious topic well my dear toye what do you think of it now 1 I was going to ask you what you yoli thought but I 1 guess I 1 ban can see fr from om your face 11 1 I think i the police are tor for not setting him free last night Sc scruton yes yea of course the casell break down when aben it comes on next week but they to io wait fortham tor for that no right to detain a man in custody when the bottoms out of their case already at but but the papers claim found the very things they were searching for toye looked non paused as well he might by an apparently perverse jubilation over such intelligence telli gence they found the missing caal cap crowed cazalet what they have found is cravens watch and keys and the silver mounted truncheon that killed him dut but they found them in a place where they possibly have been put by the roan man identified as scruton nt I 1 say where was that asked toyo toya with great interest my paper only say saya the thin things gs were found not where no more does mine but I 1 can tell you because I 1 helped to find em you dont bayl say never grasp where continued cazalet in the foundations under the housel house details followed in all fullness the listener might have had a part in the uplands act of yesterdays drama might have bae played in the library scena scone with his adored miss blanche so vividly i was every minute of that tha t crowded hour brought home to him he was waa not so sure that he had any very definite conception of the foundations of an english house ours were like ever so ao many little tiny rooms said cazalet where I 1 could ni stand nearly upright even as a small boy without giving my head a crack against the ground floors they led into one another by a lot of little manholes tight fits even for a boy i 91 they found the missing capt cap cried cazalet Co but nearly fatal to the boss policeman yester yesterday dayl hilton allton toye edging in n his word said he guessed he visualized auf burjust just w where here had those missing things been found three or four compartments from the first one under the library said cazalet did you find them well I 1 kicked against the truncheon but drinkwater dug it up the w watch atch and keys were with it say were they buried only in the loose rubble and brick dusty stuff that you get in foundations say baal that murderer must have known something or else its a bully fluke in his favor 1 I dont follow you toye im thinking of fingerprints finger prints it hed justee laid those things right down hed have left the print of his hand as large as life for scotland yard the devil he would exclaimed cazalet 1 I wish explain he added remember im a wild roan man from the woods and only know of these things by the vaguest kind of hearsay and stray paragraphs in the papers I 1 never knew you could leave your mark so easily as all that toye took the breakfast menu and placed it face downward on an the tablecloth lay your hand baud on that polan pam down he be said and dont move it for a minute cazalet looked af at him a morri moment ont before complying then his tine fine shapely hand lay still as plaster under their eyes until toye told b him in he be might tale take it t up of course thore was no mark whatever and caza cabaot lat laughed you should have caught me when I 1 came up from those foundations not fresh from my tub said he be you wait replied hilton toye taking the menu gingerly by the edg and putting it out of harms barms way in fit the empty toast tack rack you cant sea anything now but if you ome come round to the savoy ill show you something what your prints sirl sir I 1 dont say im Scot scotland lanil yard af at the game but I 1 can do it well enough to show you bow its done you left your mark upon the paper but I 1 gue guess as youve left the sweat of your hand band if I 1 snow a little french frenc h cb chach al k over lt it the cha chal chalwell tell stick where your hand band did and blow off easily everywhere else say come round to lunch and ill have your prints ready for you id like aw fully w show you how les done TO ito BE 1 j |