United States or Northern Mariana Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I have no wish to discredit the dead, but I must remind you that the persecution of Miss Morriston by your brother had gone on for a very considerable time, and had latterly developed into an atrocious system of bullying.
"What's that?" asked his host. "Did you notice a man named Henshaw here last night? A big, dark fellow, probably a stranger to you, but by way of being a former follower of the Cumberbatch." "An old fellow?" Morriston asked. "Oh, no. About six-and-thirty, I should say; eh, Hugh?" "Under forty, certainly," Gifford answered. "Tall and very dark, almost to swarthiness; of course I remember the man."
It would be easy to ascertain for certain whom she danced with," Morriston said reflectively. "But that again is almost unthinkable." "And," Gifford added, "it seems to go no way towards elucidating the problem of how Henshaw came to his death. As a matter of fact I should say Miss Tredworth danced and sat out nearly the whole of the evening with Kelson. You know he proposed at the dance?"
There seems little question that the stains are blood, and that makes the whole business still more puzzling. Dick Morriston is naturally very exercised about it, but I am very glad for Muriel's sake that the second discovery has been made. In fact I have been just waiting till I saw you before riding over to tell her of it, and relieve her mind."
But we shall see. The body is it here?" "The police have charge of it in the room where he was found. It is to be removed at nightfall. You will wish to see it?" Morriston answered. "Yes." Morriston led the way to the tower, explaining as he went the arrangements on the night of the ball.
So long as it looked like nothing beyond suicide there was not so much likelihood of public interest in the case." "The police " Gifford began. "The police," Morriston took up the word, "are fairly nonplussed. It seems the farther they get the less obvious does the suicide theory become. Well, we shall see."
I won't ask you to stay up here, but if you don't mind waiting downstairs I should be so grateful. I might want your advice. You'll find the rest of the party in the drawing-room." The two could do no less than promise, and, with a word of thanks, Morriston went back to the officials. As the two men crossed the hall the drawing-room door opened and Miss Morriston came out.
"If the two men had a row over a girl, or anything else," Kelson said, "there is still that difficulty to be surmounted." Gifford spoke. "From what one could judge of the dead man's personality and character it is not a far-fetched supposition that he must have had enemies." "Down here?" Morriston objected incredulously. "Where he was a stranger?
For one thing it would, short of absolute proof, leave still the shadow of doubt over your brother's death, it would effectually put a stop to your designs on Miss Morriston, which in any case must come to an end, and it would show up your dead brother's character and conduct in a very disreputable light. Now what I have to say to you is this.
"No," Gifford assented; "his was not a taking character, to men at any rate; and we rather wondered how he came to be going to the Cumberbatch Ball." "No doubt he got his ticket in the ordinary way," Morriston said. "It only shows, my dear Dick," his sister observed, "you may quite easily run risks in giving a semi-public dance in your own house." Morriston laughed.
Word Of The Day