United States or Austria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For one thing was imperative Bent's marriage must not take place while there was the least chance of a terrible charge being suddenly let loose on Cotherstone. He rose in the morning with his mind made up on the matter. There was but one course to adopt and it must be adopted immediately.
The two partners had come out of their office and gone down the yard to inspect half a dozen new carts, just finished, and now drawn up in all the glory of fresh paint. Mallalieu had designed those carts himself, and he was now pointing out their advantages to Cotherstone, who was more concerned with the book-keeping and letter-writing side of the business than with its actual work.
"You'll find no prints on all this pine-needle stuff naught to go by, anyway it's too thick and soft. But he must have come along that path, one way or another I've met him walking in here of an evening, more than once." The doctor, who had exchanged a word or two with the sergeant, turned to Cotherstone. "Wasn't he a tenant of yours?" he asked. "Had the cottage at the top of the Shawl here.
He foresaw that suspicion might fall on Cotherstone; deeper reflection showed him that if Cotherstone became an object of suspicion he himself would not escape. And so he had prepared himself.
" ... for it's a fact, in criminal practice," Brereton was saying, "that there are no end of undiscovered crimes there are any amount of guilty men going about free as the air, and " "Hope you've been enjoying yourselves," said Cotherstone, going forward to the group. "I've been as quick as I could." "Mr. Brereton has been telling us most interesting stories about criminals," said Lettie.
Kitely motioned his landlord to sit down. And Cotherstone sat down trembling. His arm shook when Kitely laid a hand on it. "Do you want to know where?" he asked, bending close to Cotherstone. "I'll tell you. In the dock at Wilchester Assizes. Eh?" Cotherstone made no answer. He had put the tips of his fingers together, and now he was tapping the nails of one hand against the nails of the other.
Cotherstone that Kitely was lying dead on the Shawl. Of course we all went up." "Then you've seen him?" demanded Mallalieu. "There's no doubt about it?" "Doubt!" exclaimed Bent. "I should think there is no doubt! As determined a murder as ever I heard of. No there's no doubt." Mallalieu paused at the gate of his own house. "Come in, gentlemen," he said. "Come in just a minute, anyway.
He turned back, and followed Bent and Avice at a distance, watching them thoughtfully. "At some time?" he mused. "Um! Well, I'm now conversant with the movements of two inhabitants of Highmarket at a critical period of last night. Mallalieu didn't go to cards with Northrop until ten o'clock, and at ten o'clock Cotherstone returned to his house after being absent one hour."
And now the problem narrowed to one most serious and crucial point were the Mallows and Chidforth of these references the Mallalieu and Cotherstone of Highmarket. Speculating on this possibility, Brereton after his solitary dinner went into Bent's smoking-room, and throwing himself into a chair before the fire, lighted his pipe and proceeded to think things out.
Two thousand pounds, with thirty years' interest, at four per cent. why, that's four thousand four hundred pounds altogether!" "That's what he paid," said Bent. "Here's the receipt. "Mr. Cotherstone is telling us privately everything," remarked Tallington, glancing at the receipt and passing it on to Brereton.
Word Of The Day