United States or Wallis and Futuna ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Why?" he continued, glancing at Miss Wickham, "wasn't it in order?" "That," replied Miss Wickham, "depends upon the amount." "The amount!" he exclaimed. "You know if the drawer! It was for ten thousand pounds!" "Then Mrs. Killenhall has done me, or you, out of that," said Miss Wickham. "The check I gave her was to have been filled up for the amount of the usual weekly bills twenty pounds or so.
"All we can do for him, you know!" murmured Mrs. Killenhall, with a glance at the two men. "He he had so few friends here, poor man!" "That remark, ma'am," observed Mr. Pawle, "is apropos of a subject that I want to ask Miss Wickham two or three questions about. Friends, now? Miss Wickham, you always understood that Mr. Ashton and your father were very close friends, I believe?"
"And why doesn't he come in?" Then, resolved to know more, he walked into the anteroom, and after a look round it, tried the door by which Mrs. Killenhall had admitted him after coming up the stairs from the street; a second later he went back to Miss Wickham and shook his head. "It's just as I supposed," he remarked quietly. "We're trapped!
Keep quiet, there's a good girl, the fact is, Mr. Ashton's had an accident, and I want to see that lady." "Mrs. Killenhall," answered the parlour-maid. "And the young lady her name?" asked the Inspector. "Miss Wickham." The Inspector walked inside the house. "Just ask Mrs. Killenhall and Miss Wickham if they'll be good enough to see Inspector Drillford for a few minutes," he said.
Killenhall to look after me. Here we've all been ever since and beyond that I know scarcely anything." Drillford looked at the elder lady. "I know, practically, no more than Miss Wickham has told you," said Mrs. Killenhall. "Mr. Ashton and I got in touch with each other through his advertisement in the Morning Post. We exchanged references, and I came here." "Ah!" said Drillford.
"My dear fellow," he said, "you should have posted somebody at the back here. Why, we don't quite know yet, but Miss Wickham and myself were trapped in there. As for Cave, he must be the man who went away with Martincole. As for Mrs. Killenhall, she too has gone. That boy down there saw all three go, some time ago, while we were locked up. But what made you watch these people?"
The boy, duly questioned nodded his head. "I see Mrs. Killerby go out not so long since," he answered. "Her what used to live here one time. Know her well enough." "Come along!" muttered Viner. "We've hit it! Mrs. Killerby who is Mrs. Killenhall used to live here at one time!
"Mr. Ashton is more or less a man of mystery. He had been here in England two months. His ward knows next to nothing about him, except that she was left in his guardianship many a year ago, that he sent her to England, to school, and that he recently joined her here. Mrs. Killenhall knows no more than that he engaged her as chaperon to his ward, and that they exchanged references.
Killenhall. "Very interesting, of course." Mr. Pawle, who was sitting close to Miss Wickham, suddenly pointed to a gold locket which she wore. "Where did you get that, my dear?" he asked. "Unusual device, isn't it?" "Mr. Ashton gave it to me, a few weeks ago," answered Miss Wickham. "He said it had belonged to my father." The old lawyer bent nearer, looked more closely at the locket, and got up.
"He went away one Monday morning, saying that now everything was in order we could spare him for a few days. He returned on the following Thursday or Friday, I forget which, but he didn't tell us where he had been." "You don't think any of the servants would know?" asked Mr. Pawle. "Oh, dear me, no!" replied Mrs. Killenhall.
Word Of The Day