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Updated: June 14, 2025
'I have some good news which I want you to share with me. He took me by the hand and drew me forward. 'I want, said he, 'to introduce you all to a young lady whom you do not know. This is Juliet McConachan, my dear and only daughter. "I was not really so surprised as he expected.
Quite dead, he was, sir, and his blood all on the floor, poor gentleman. We left him as we found him, and went back. "Mr. McConachan locked the door and put the key in his pocket. 'No one must go in there till the police come, he says. 'But in the meantime we must get what men we can together, and see if the brute who did this isn't lurking about the grounds.
Mark McConachan, or rather Lord Ashiel, as he had now become, was in the act of ending a solitary meal, when Gimblet was announced. He went to meet the detective, forcing to his trouble-lined face a smile of welcome that lit up the large melancholy eyes with an expression few people could resist.
The police are continuing their search in the neighbourhood, and it is believed that a very strong clue to the scoundrel has been discovered. Douglas, Lord Ashiel, was the seventh Baron. He was born in 1869, educated at Eton and Oxford, and served for some years in the Diplomatic Service. He was a widower and childless, and is succeeded in the title by his nephew, Mr. Mark McConachan."
In fact, Miss McConachan says he told her he had done so, but I haven't come across the will so far, though I had a good hunt through his papers this morning; Blanston and the housekeeper, who say they witnessed some document which may have been a will, have no idea where it is.
We all joked and laughed over my adventure, and Mr. McConachan said I bore a charmed life, since I had escaped being killed by his careless shot, and now the river refused to drown me. It was not till the servants had left the room, and we were preparing to do the same, that Lord Ashiel spoke again.
"In the billiard-room Mr. McConachan was still practising his game. He must have been making a break, for I remember hearing him speak, as I opened the door. 'Twenty-seven, he said aloud. My voice wouldn't come, and I stood holding on to the doorpost, while he, with his back to me, went on potting the red. "'That you, Miss Byrne? he said, without looking round.
I can fancy the frenzied haste with which McConachan thrust the plank into the hedge and ran like a deer towards the door, which he had no doubt left open. I imagine him, then, tiptoeing to the door of the library and bending to listen, every nerve astretch.
"Ah," said Gimblet, stooping to pick a piece of bracken, and waving it before him to keep at bay the flies, which were buzzing round them in clouds. He offered another bit silently to his companion, and she took it absently, without a word. "He seemed very fond of Mr. McConachan," she said, "and I think he liked every one else as well.
I thought something must be wrong, so I ran out of the room and upstairs with the others. When we got to the billiard-room there was Miss Byrne fainting on a chair, and Mr. McConachan beside her, looking very upset like. 'There's been an accident or worse, he says, 'to his lordship. Come on, Blanston, and let's see what it is. And you others look after Miss Byrne.
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