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Updated: June 27, 2025
Her eyes seemed to be wandering all over me and my possessions, yet her interest, if it amounted to that, never even suggested curiosity or inquisitiveness. "It is scarcely a pleasant journey at this time of night," I remarked. "Indeed, no," she assented. "I wonder if you know my name? I am Mrs. Smith-Lessing, of Braster Grange. And you?" "My name is Guy Ducaine," I told her.
"I am afraid it must have been the other way," I said, "for your brother has gone out." "Yes," she said quietly, "he has gone to that woman at Braster Grange. I wish I knew what brought her into this part of the country." I looked round at the billiard-table. "Did you mean that you would like a game?" I asked. "I am rather out of practice, but I used to fancy myself a little."
You can be amiable if you like, you know, and you can be very much the other thing." "I will try," I assured her, "not to be the other thing." She smiled. "And tell me all about Braster." "There is not much to tell," I answered. "I have been hard at work all the time, and I have scarcely seen a soul." "The woman Mrs. Smith-Lessing?" "She left Braster before you.
I walked for a few hundred yards, and then stopped short. I had reached the point where that long straight road from Braster turned sharply away inland for the second time. At a point about a quarter of a mile away, and rapidly approaching me, came a twin pair of flaring eyes. I knew at once what they were the head lights of a motor car. Without a moment's hesitation I doubled back to the "Brand."
Colour was asserting itself in all manner of places in the green of the sprouting grass, the shimmer of the sun upon the sea-stained sands, in the silvery blue of the Braster creeks. Lady Angela drew a long breath of content as we paused for a moment at the summit of the cliffs. "And you wonder," she murmured, "that I left London for this!" "Yes, I still wonder," I answered.
Our eyes met, and she smiled. "Forgive me," she said, "but did I not see you one day last week upon the sands at Braster with Lady Angela Harberly?" "I believe so," I answered. "You were riding, I think, with her brother." "How fortunate that I should find myself travelling with a neighbour!" she murmured. "I rather dreaded this night journey.
Come along!" "You must excuse me, Colonel Ray," I said, "but I have no desire to visit Braster Grange, even with you." Lady Angela, whose crossing the hall had been noiseless, suddenly interposed. "You are quite right, Mr. Ducaine," she said; "but this is no visit of courtesy, is it? I am sure that my brother would never stay there voluntarily. Something must have happened to him."
"I wanted to hear all about Braster, and I had a message for him from Sir Michael Trogoldy." The Duke made no remark. "I shall require you, Ducaine, at ten o'clock to-morrow morning in my study," he said. "Afterwards we go over to the War Office. You have brought all the papers with you? If you are quite ready, Angela."
The matter is over let it rest," "But, my poor boy," she said quietly, "it will not be allowed to rest. Can't you see that this girl's statement does away with the theory that he was washed up from the sea? He met with his death there on the sands. He left Braster to visit you, and he was found within a few yards of your cottage dead, and with marks of violence upon him.
"Thank you," I said, giving the man a shilling. "I must have just missed him, then." I left the station and walked home. Now, indeed, all my convictions were upset. Colonel Ray had left me outside his clubhouse last night, twenty minutes before the train started, without a word of coming to Braster.
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