United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Don't say a word of this above all, don't mention it to Mr. Pascoe. It's my fault and I must make the forty-three pounds good. Pratt, I'm afraid this is Parrawhite's work. I well, I may as well tell you he'd been in trouble before he came here. I gave him another chance I'd known him, years ago. I thought he'd go straight. But I fear he's been tempted. He may have seen me leave money about.
Pratt forgot that there might arise what actually has arisen inquiry for Parrawhite. The search for Parrawhite is afoot and if you want to get at Pratt, it will have to be through what I firmly believe to be a fact his murder of Parrawhite and his disposal of Parrawhite's body. "That's all, Mr. Eldrick," concluded Byner who had spoken with much emphasis throughout.
Pratt was of considerable physical strength. He played cricket and football; he visited a gymnasium thrice a week. His hands had the grip of a blacksmith; his muscles were those of a prize-fighter. He had put more strength than he was aware of into his fierce grip on Parrawhite's throat; he had exerted far more force than he knew he was exerting, when he flung him away.
"But you've got to remember that Pratt didn't know of Parrawhite's affairs with Pickard, nor that he was at the Green Man at that hour," rejoined Byner. "My belief is that Pratt thinks himself safe that he fancies he's provided for all contingencies. If things turn out as I think they will, I believe we shall find Pratt calmly seated at his desk tomorrow morning."
"All right I'll put a man on to shadow him, from the time he leaves his lodgings until until we want him," said the detective. "That is if we do want him." "It will be one of the biggest surprises I ever had in my life if we don't!" asserted Byner. "I never felt more certain of anything than I do of finding Parrawhite's body in that pit!"
"That's all!" Pratt had already realized that this fellow knew something. Parrawhite's manner was not only threatening but confident. He spoke as a man speaks who has got the whip hand. And so, still growling, and inwardly raging and anxious, he turned off with his companion into a track which lay amongst the stone quarries.
"That's it," answered Pratt, "And he hasn't turned up this morning, and we think he's left the town. Owe you anything, missis?" "Nay, nothing much," she replied. "Ten shillings 'ud cover it, mister." Pratt gave her half a sovereign. It was not out of consideration for her, nor as a concession to Parrawhite's memory: it was simply to stop her from coming down to Eldrick & Pascoe's.
He had so schooled himself to keep a straight and ever blank expression of countenance in any sudden change of events that he had shown nothing to Eldrick but he was none the less upset by the solicitor's last announcement. Twenty thousand pounds was lying to be picked up by Parrawhite or by Parrawhite's next-of-kin! What an unhappy turn of fortune!
Now all owing to that cursed and unfortunate contretemps with Parrawhite, that seemed utterly impossible all he could do now was to save himself and to take as much as he could get. More than once that morning, as he made his way across country, he had remembered Parrawhite's advice to take cash and be done with it perhaps, he reflected, it might have been better.
This Parrawhite's got to be found, d'ye see, Mr. Murgatroyd, and as you seem to be the last man who had aught to do with him in Barford, why, naturally, we come to you. Now, to start with, you say he came to you about getting a passage to America? Just so now, when would that be?"
Word Of The Day