Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy. Freeman Crofts Wills

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       3

       Mr Tarkington Develops a Theory

      As Ruth emerged from the comparative gloom of the courthouse into the bright September sunshine her spirits seemed to rise. A reaction had set in from the strain of the inquiry, with its continuous suggestion of the hideous details of the tragedy. Now with the ending of the inquest it seemed to her that the terrible affair was all but over. The final episode, the funerals, would not be anything like so harrowing. Not since the first hint of disaster had come in the shape of Mr Oxley’s telegram to York had she felt so lighthearted and in love with life. She seemed to have awakened from an evil dream.

      It was therefore no indication of heartlessness that she should glance eagerly around as she and her friends advanced from the shadow of the old building into the little square. She was young and the claims of the living were more to her than those of the dead. And who will reproach her for the thrill of pleasurable excitement which she experienced as the sight she was hoping for met her eyes? There was Pierce Whymper evidently waiting for a chance of speaking to her. With a smile she invited him over, and he came and joined her. At the same moment Mr Tarkington, the thin hawk-like bank manager, whom she had seen in the courthouse, approached and spoke to Mr Oxley.

      ‘Will you go on?’ the latter said to his wife. ‘I want to go round to the bank with Mr Tarkington. I’ll follow in a few minutes.’

      Mrs Oxley, Ruth and Whymper moved off in one direction, while Mr Oxley and Mr Tarkington disappeared in the other. For a time the trio chatted with animation, then Ruth grew gradually more silent, leaving the burden of the conversation to the others. She was in fact puzzled and a little hurt by a subtle change which she felt rather than noticed in Whymper’s manner. He seemed somehow different from the last time she had seen him—that time in another existence when she had left Thirsby for her visit to York. Then he had been obviously eager for her company, anxious to talk to her, even before Mrs Oxley making no secret of his admiration and regard. But now, though he was just as polite as ever, his manner was less spontaneous, indeed at times she thought it almost embarrassed. It occurred to her that possibly the change might be in herself, and even when their ways parted at the turn to the church she had not completely made up her mind. But whatever the cause, a certain disappointment remained, and when she went up to change for dinner she had lost a good deal of the lightheartedness she had felt on emerging from the courthouse.

      Mr Oxley, when he arrived shortly after, also showed a change of manner. He was a kindly, jovial man, fond of a joke and the sound of his own voice, but during dinner he was strangely silent and wore an expression of concern and disappointment. But he did not offer any explanation until the meal was over, and then he followed the ladies into the drawing-room and unburdened his mind.

      ‘I am awfully sorry, Miss Ruth,’ he began hesitatingly, ‘but I am afraid I have brought you some more bad news. It’s about money,’ he added hurriedly as the girl turned a piteous glance towards him. ‘I’ll tell you exactly what has happened. You know, or perhaps you don’t, that in spite of the way he lived, your uncle was a rich man. As his solicitor I have known that for many a year, but I had no idea of just how much he had. Tarkington knows I was his solicitor and he was talking about it just now. He tells me that Mr Averill must have been worth between thirty and forty thousand pounds when he died. Of course one would naturally suppose that the money was in securities of some kind, but here is my terrible news. Tarkington assures me that it was not, that practically the whole sum was in Mr Averill’s safe.’

      ‘Oh, Arthur!’ Mrs Oxley burst out. ‘You can’t mean that it’s gone.’

      ‘I’m afraid I do,’ her husband answered. ‘It’s awful to think about, but there were only some five hundred pounds in the bank. The rest was in Mr Averill’s safe in notes and gold. The nineteen hundred odd pounds in gold are there all right, but the whole of the paper money has been destroyed.’

      ‘Oh, how perfectly dreadful! But surely it can be replaced? Surely something can be done by the bank?’

      Mr Oxley shook his head.

      ‘Nothing, I’m afraid. I talked it over with Tarkington. The money is a total loss.’

      Mrs Oxley took Ruth into her arms.

      ‘You poor child,’ she commiserated. ‘I just can’t tell you how sorry I am.’

      But Ruth took the news coolly.

      ‘Dear Mrs Oxley,’ she answered. ‘How kind you are! But indeed I look upon this as a comparatively little thing. I shall have far, far more than I ever expected. I want to get some work, and I shall have plenty to support me while I am training and perhaps even a little after that. I am more than content.’

      Mrs Oxley kissed her and commended her spirit, though she felt the girl’s attitude was due more to her unworldliness and ignorance of life than to courage under disappointment. She wished to change the subject, but Ruth asked to have her position made clear to her and begged the others’ advice as to her future. The Oxleys, delighted by her common sense, willingly agreed to discuss the situation, and after a long talk a proposal of Mr Oxley’s was provisionally agreed to.

      It appeared that, assuming the old man’s money had really been lost, Ruth’s capital would amount to about £2400. Of this Mr Oxley was to invest all but £100, so as to bring Ruth about £130 per annum. The remaining £100 was to be spent in taking a secretarial course at one of the London training colleges. With the backing of the £130 a year and what she could earn for herself she ought, Mr Oxley believed, to be quite comfortably off. ‘But you must,’ Mr Oxley went on, ‘stay here for as long as you like, until you have rested and got over the shock of this terrible affair.’

      Mrs Oxley warmly seconded this invitation, and Ruth thankfully accepted it. It was true that she was anxious to start work as soon as possible, and life in London and the undergoing of the course of training appeared to her as a glorious and thrilling adventure. But even more anxious still was she to meet Pierce Whymper and find out if there really was a change in his feelings towards her. At the time she had imagined that there was, but now she thought that perhaps she had been mistaken and that after the inquest he had simply been suffering from a headache or some other trifling indisposition. That he loved her she had not the slightest doubt, and she could СКАЧАТЬ