Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 5, 2025
For Parrawhite was as dead as Antony Bartle violent contact of his head with a rock had finished what Pratt had nearly completed with that vicious grip. There was no questioning it, no denying it Pratt was there in that lonely place, staring half consciously, half in terror, at a dead man. He stood up at last, cursing Parrawhite with the anger of despair. He had not one scrap of pity for him.
"What do you think happened to Parrawhite, Mr. Pickard?" asked Byner. "Gow, I know what I think!" replied Pickard disgustedly. "I think 'at if he did get any brass out o' Pratt which is what I know nowt about, and hewn't much belief in he went straight away fro' t' town vanished! I do know this he nivver went back to his lodgin's that neet, 'cause I went theer mysen next day to inquire."
I'll be with you when this lady calls at your place tomorrow evening. We'll offer her the will, to do what she likes with, for ten thousand pounds. She can find that quickly. When she pays as she will! we share, equally, and then well, you can go to the devil! I shall go somewhere else. So that's settled." "No!" said Pratt. Parrawhite turned sharply, and Pratt saw a sinister gleam in his eyes.
"Parrawhite has not come in this morning, sir," observed Pratt, gathering up letters and papers. "I'll draw his attention to it when he arrives." He went into the outer office, only to be summoned back to Eldrick a few minutes later. The senior partner was standing by his desk, looking a little concerned, and, thought Pratt, decidedly uncomfortable. He motioned the clerk to close the door.
But t' end wor this here last November theer wor about fifty to sixty pound o' mine i' his hands, and I wanted it. I'd a spirit merchant's bill to settle, and I wanted t' brass badly for that. I knew Parrawhite had been paid, d'ye see, by t' turf agent, 'at he betted wi', and I plagued him to hand t' brass over to me.
He led Byner along the lane to its further end, pointed out the place where Thomson said he had seen Pratt and Parrawhite, and indicated the terrace of houses in which Pratt lived. Then he crossed towards the old quarries. "Don't know what they should want to come in here for unless it wor to talk very confidential," said Pickard.
"Then in answer to any letter or telegram of inquiry you'll just say that you knew Parrawhite by sight as a clerk at Eldrick & Pascoe's in this town, that on November 23rd he told you that he was going to emigrate to America, that next day you booked him his passage, for which he paid you whatever it was, and that he thereupon set off for Liverpool. See?"
Parrawhite laughed, and flourished a heavy stick which he carried. "Not a bit of it!" he said, almost pleasantly. "I thought you were more of a philosopher I fancied I'd seen gleams mere gleams of philosophy in you at times. Fortunes of war, my boy! Come now you've seen enough of me to know I'm an adventurer. This is an adventure of the sort I love. Go into it heart and soul, man!
Murgatroyd's thin fingers trembled a little as he picked up his glass. "What do you want me to do exactly?" he asked. "This!" said Pratt. "I want you, tomorrow morning, early, to send a telegram to these people, Halstead & Byner, St. Martin's Chambers, London, just saying that James Parrawhite left Barford for America on November 24th last, and that you can give further information if necessary."
With these in his pocket-book he went off to a quiet part of the town the part in which James Parrawhite had lodged during his stay in Barford. Pratt turned into a somewhat mean and shabby street a street of small, poor-class shops.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking