Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 22, 2025
"Oh, miss!" she said, in a low, frightened voice, "you can't! That room's locked up. So is the study where all Mr. Horbury's papers are. So is his bedroom. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke locked them all up last night he has the keys. Nobody's to go into them nor into any other room without his permission." Betty's cheeks began to glow, and an obstinate look to settle about her lips. "Oh!" she exclaimed.
Just then the door opened and Gabriel emerged, closing and locking it after him. He paid no attention to the two men, and was passing on towards the outer hall when Polke hailed him. "Mr. Chestermarke," he said, "sorry to trouble you do you know that the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, has disappeared? You heard what that girl said this morning? Well, she hasn't come back, and "
Cornmarket was a gloomy commonplace, thought Starmidge, but the little oil lamps in the cottages were riotously cheery in comparison with the darkness of the tall, gaunt Chestermarke mansion. It looked like the abode of dead men. Starmidge longed to knock at that door if only to get a peep inside the hall. But he curbed his desires and went quietly round the corner of the house.
Joseph Chestermarke before she went. Really, one dislikes to have to say it of one's neighbours, and of persons of the standing of the Chestermarkes, but their behaviour is is " "Suspicious, my lord, suspicious!" said Polke. "There's no denying it. And yet, they're what you might call so defiant, so brazen-faced and insolent, that " "Here's your London man," interrupted the Earl.
Polke stepped forward to meet the new-comer: Gabriel greeted him in his usual impassive fashion. "This body been recovered?" he asked quietly. "A few minutes ago, Mr. Chestermarke," answered Polke. "Will you look at it?" Gabriel moved aside the group of men without further word, and the others followed him. He looked steadily at the dead man's face and withdrew.
Polke?" demanded Gabriel. Polke produced a formal-looking document and held it before the banker's eyes. "Merely to show you that, Mr. Chestermarke," he answered. "That's a search-warrant, sir! It empowers me and Mr. Starmidge here to search but I needn't read it to you, Mr. Chestermarke, I think. I suppose we can go into the house now?"
Chestermarke!" said the Earl, hastening to intervene in what seemed likely to develop into a passage-at-arms. "We're forgetting the suggestion made just before this lady Miss Fosdyke, I think? entered. Don't let's forget it it's a good one." Miss Fosdyke turned eagerly to the Earl. "What suggestion was it?" she asked. "Do tell me? I'm sure you agree with me I can see you do. Thank you, again!"
Then the Earl started as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. "I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those jewels away in his own house?" Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively. "A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!" "But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl.
Pellworthy, an elderly man, looked at Gabriel with as much disapproval as Gabriel had bestowed on him. "Mr. Chestermarke," he said quietly, "Miss Fosdyke, as next-of-kin to Mr. John Horbury my client desires to see and examine her uncle's effects. As you know very well, she is quite within her rights. I must ask you to give her access to Mr. Horbury's belongings." "And what do you want, Mr.
Starmidge would have given a good deal for a really good excuse to call on Joseph Chestermarke at that house, so that he might see the inside of it: indeed, if he had only met with a better reception at the bank, he would have invented such an excuse.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking