Murder in the Night (Musaicum Vintage Mysteries). Arthur Gask

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СКАЧАТЬ snorted furiously. "Something wrong to eat, eh? All seven of 'em with their necks broke and laid out as straight as on the counter of a butcher's shop. Something wrong to eat, eh? You're a fool, sir—another damn fool, sir."

      It struck me at once what a liar the man was, for I remembered how careful I had been to curl the smelly brutes up in circles so as to make it look as if they had all died in their sleep.

      The detective interrupted Boulter's flow of abuse. "No noises in the night, Mr. Wacks?" he remarked pleasantly. "No creaking of the gate? Nothing out of the ordinary? But I suppose you weren't awake. You didn't hear the dog bark by any chance?"

      Nell came up to us as he spoke and began interestedly to sniff about my legs. I remembered, with a pang of uneasiness, that it was in those very trousers that I had gripped the rabbits between my knees as I had broken their necks.

      I shooed her off irritably, but she was most persistent, and wouldn't go away until Boulter himself hit her angrily on the back with a stick, and then she sat down a few paces off and watched me with her bead on one side.

      I made a mental note that she was dangerous, and that I must serve her as I had served the rabbits directly I could find an opportunity.

      I answered the detective that I certainly had heard nothing suspicious during the night, although my window had, of course, been wide open the whole time.

      Boulter calmed down a little then, and went into further details. It was murder, he insisted, cold-blooded murder by a scoundrel, and the strange part of it was his dog Nell had never given any warning. She had been quiet all night (lie number two, I thought), and had been found sleeping in her kennel just as usual when he went out at half-past six.

      He was determined to find out who had done it, and we might mark his words, it would all come out one day.

      I got away at last, and the detective, making my departure the excuse, came along with me. "It's quite interesting about those rabbits," he remarked musingly. "The whole thing seems so purposeless to me. What should anyone want to kill Boulter's rabbits for, unless they owed him a grudge, and, if anyone did, who in their senses would go to the risk of entering his back garden in the dead of night, killing seven rabbits and then methodically returning them one by one to their separate cages, and refastening the doors? It must have taken a lot of time, and there was the dog there all the while."

      I didn't pretend to hazard a guess, and together we entered our house. Mrs. Bratt met us in the hall, full of importance and wearing her best dress.

      "His lawyer has come," she whispered excitedly. "I got his address through the young man at the bank, and he is here now arranging everything."

      She had evidently forgotten the unpleasantness of the morning, and was eager to enlist our interest in the dead man's affairs.

      But they didn't interest me in the least. Captain Barker might have been dead for years for all I cared, and I went to my room thinking least of anybody about him.

      All teatime, it was Boulter's dog alone that occupied my thoughts. She was a mangy beast, and it might be somehow found out through her that it was I who had visited the back garden in the night. She must be got rid of, and I determined to lose no time, but to do it straight away that very night.

      I knew the brute's habits well. In addition to that of howling vilely at nights, there was another one, equally objectionable to those who happened to be in the vicinity at the time. In the summer months she was accustomed every evening, about sunset, to frequent the banks of the Torrens River, just below North Adelaide, and there, with a score or more of other dripping beasts, to yelp and yell while certain two-legged idiots threw sticks and stones into the water for their edification and excitement.

      I would interview her, I thought, as she was returning home, and bash her quietly on the head in some convenient corner.

      I set off just before eight with the iron bar in my trouser pocket. Its curved shape made it quite easy to hide, and except that it banged up against my leg when I walked quickly, it was not inconvenient to carry.

      I reached the riverside just about dusk, but to my disappointment and rapidly rising anger I could see nothing of Nell. There were plenty of other howling brutes there, but not the one I wanted. Where was Boulter's beastly dog? I asked myself irritably. She could always have been found here, night after night, when no one wanted her, and yet tonight, the very night she was wanted, something had kept her away. Perhaps Boulter himself had locked her up after last night's affair. Anyhow, I would get at her somehow.

      I wandered irritably across the park lands with my hand ready on my bar of iron on the off-chance of still meeting my prey.

      It was nearly dark by then, and I sullenly cursed my bad luck. The footpath was quite deserted, and I took out my watch to look at the time. It had stopped at half-past seven, and I was furious. I had paid thirty shillings for it less than a month ago, and this was the way it was serving me.

      A figure loomed up towards me out of the dusk. It was a short, stout man, and he was carrying his hat in one hand and with the other was mopping a rather bald head with a handkerchief.

      He was puffing and blowing with the heat, and waddling along, apparently in no particular hurry. I asked him, not over politely, what was the time, but he shook his head vaguely and grunted something that left me as ignorant as before. I repeated my question, but he didn't take the slightest notice, and continued to waddle on.

      A paroxysm of fury burst over me, and I shouted after him that he was a cad, but he still took no notice at all, and, chattering now with rage, I ran after him and pulled him by the arm. He turned round with a start, and with a frightened stare on his white face, elbowed me roughly in the chest. I instantly lost all control, and, whipping out my piece of iron as he started to walk on, struck him twice over the head. He put up his hands to protect himself, but I struck savagely again, and he fell on the path without a moan.

      I stood over him waiting, but he was quite still. I looked up and down the path. Not a soul was near us, but I grew all at once afraid. I literally shook with fear.

      What if I were seen? It would be a hanging for me if the man were dead. At any moment someone might come by along the path, and I should be a lost man. I thrust the iron back into my pocket, and, seizing the limp body by the collar, dragged it heavily across the turf, away from the path. It was a heavy load to pull, and less than fifty yards left me breathless and exhausted. I took a moment's rest, and then, spurred on by fear, dragged the body along again towards a little clump of trees.

      I stood up stealthily and looked round. There was nothing to disturb me—only the flickering lights of the city and the rumbling of some distant train.

      My momentary feeling of panic left me as suddenly as it had come, and I trembled now with a delicious feeling of excitement to think of what I had done. I had killed a man, and the man had richly deserved to be killed, for insulting and ignoring me when I had asked him the time.

      I wasn't going to be insulted any more, and if anyone attempted to browbeat me, they must take the consequences. I wasn't going to be caught either. It would always be a secret who had killed this man, and I would gloat over the mystery I had caused. What a tale for the papers tomorrow, and what an interest I should get in reading all they had to say. But I must be careful not to be found out, and must leave no trace behind.

      I took out the piece of iron that I had thrust back in my pocket and rubbed it vigorously upon the turf to remove any trace of blood that might be on it. Then, keeping my body low, I quickly put two or three hundred yards between СКАЧАТЬ