Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy. Freeman Crofts Wills

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СКАЧАТЬ days later she met him in the main street of the little town. She stopped to chat and he turned about and walked with her, and presently they had tea at the local confectioner’s. But the interview left her more puzzled than ever. Her belief that Whymper loved her was confirmed beyond any doubt by his manner, by the way he looked at her, by the tones of his voice. But it was evident to her that something was weighing on his mind which prevented him making the proposal which, if the truth must be admitted, she had been expecting. He gave her the impression that he would speak if he could, but that he was being held back by matters outside his own control. And the same state of mind was evident at their subsequent encounters, until Ruth’s pride asserted itself and she grew colder and more distant and their intimacy bade fair to come gradually to an end.

      She would have made a move for the metropolis to begin her course of training had not Mrs Oxley, from what was probably a quite mistaken sense of kindliness, suggested that a rest would be good for her after the shocks she had experienced. On the excuse of desiring the girl’s assistance in the remodelling of her garden, which, owing to the difficulty of obtaining labour, she was doing with her own hands, the good lady invited her to stay on for a few weeks. Ruth did not like to refuse, and she settled down with the intention of remaining at Thirsby for at least another month.

      During the month the little town also settled down again after its excitements and alarms, and events once more began to pursue the even tenor of their ways. The Starvel Hollow Tragedy ceased to be a nine days’ wonder and was gradually banished from the minds of the townspeople, until an event happened which was to bring up the whole matter again, and that in a peculiarly sensational and tragic manner.

      One morning in mid-October, some five weeks after the fire, Mr Tarkington called to see his friend Oxley. The bank manager’s thin face wore a serious and mystified expression, which at once informed Mr Oxley that something out of the ordinary had occurred to disturb the other’s usual placid calm.

      ‘Good morning, Oxley,’ said Mr Tarkington in his thin, measured tones. ‘Are you busy? I should like a word with you.’

      ‘Come along in, Tarkington,’ the solicitor rejoined heartily. ‘I’m not doing anything that can’t wait. Sit you down and have a spot.’

      ‘Thanks, no, I’ll not drink, but I’ll take one of these cigarettes if I may.’ He drew the client’s big leather covered chair nearer to Mr Oxley and went on: ‘A really extraordinary thing has just happened, Oxley, and I thought I’d like to consult you about it before taking any action—if I do take action.’

      Mr Oxley took a cigarette from the box from which the other had helped himself.

      ‘What’s up?’ he asked, as he struck a match.

      ‘It’s about that terrible Starvel affair, the fire, you know. I begin to doubt if the matter is really over, after all.’

      ‘Not over? What on earth do you mean?’

      ‘I’ll tell you, and it is really a most disturbing thought. But before you can appreciate my news I must explain to you how Averill carried on his bank business. The poor fellow was a miser, as you know, a miser of the most primitive kind. He loved money for itself—just to handle and to look at and to count. His safe was just packed full of money. But of course you know all this, and that it was through this dreadful weakness of his that that poor girl lost what should have come to her.’

      ‘I know,’ Mr Oxley admitted.

      ‘Averill’s income passed through the bank, and that’s how I come to be aware of the figures. He had between sixteen and seventeen hundred a year and it came from three sources. First he had a pension; he had held a good job with some company in London. That amounted to about three hundred pounds. Next he had an annuity which brought him in £150. But the major portion came from land—land on the outskirts of Leeds which had been built over and which had become a very valuable property. In this he had only a life interest—not that that affects my story, though it explains why that poor girl didn’t get it.’

      ‘I know about that property,’ Mr Oxley interjected. ‘I’ve had a deal to do with it one way and another. The old man got it through his wife and it went back to her family at his death.’

      ‘I imagined it must be something of the kind. Well, to continue. Averill’s income, as I said, was passed through the bank. He received it all in cheques or drafts and these he would endorse and send to me for payment. He had a current account, and my instructions were that when any cheque came I was to pay in to this account until it stood at something between £40 and £60—whatever would leave an even £20 over—and I was to send the surplus cash in £20 notes out to Starvel. Averill evidently looked upon this as a sort of revenue account and paid all his current expenses out of it. It never of course rose above the £60 and seldom fell below £20. To carry on my simile, any monies that were over after raising the current account to £60 he considered capital, and they went out to swell the hoard in the safe at Starvel. In addition he kept a sum of £500 on deposit receipt. I don’t know exactly why he did so, but I presume it was as a sort of nest-egg in the event of his safe being burgled. You follow me?’

      ‘I follow you all right, but, by Jove! it was a queer arrangement.’

      ‘Everything the poor old man did was queer, but, as you know, he was—’ Mr Tarkington shook his head significantly. ‘However, to go on with my story. These monies that were to be sent out to Starvel I used to keep until they reached at least a hundred, and then I used to send a clerk out with the cash. The mission usually fell to Bloxham—you know Bloxham, of course? Averill liked him and asked me to send him when I could. Bloxham has seen into the safe on two or three occasions, and it is from him I know that it was packed with notes as well as the gold.’

      ‘I never can get over all that money being burnt,’ Mr Oxley interjected. ‘It makes me sick to think of even now. Such stupid, needless, wicked waste!’

      Mr Tarkington took no notice of this outburst.

      ‘It happened that about a week before the tragedy, he went on in his precise manner, ‘a cheque for £346 came in from the Leeds property. The current account was then standing at £27, so I paid £26 into it, raising it to £53, and sent Bloxham with the balance, £320, out to Starvel. The money was in sixteen twenties, the numbers of which were kept. As I said, it was one of the old man’s peculiarities that he liked his money in £20 notes. I suppose it made it easier to hoard and count. Bloxham saw Averill lock these notes away in his safe and brought me the old man’s receipt.’

      Mr Tarkington paused to draw at his cigarette, then continued:

      ‘In my report about the affair to our headquarters in Throgmorton Avenue, I mentioned among other things that these notes, giving the numbers, had been destroyed in the fire. Well, Oxley, what do you think has happened? I heard from headquarters today and they tell me that one of those notes has just been paid in!’

      Mr Oxley looked slightly bewildered.

      ‘Well, what of it?’ he demanded. ‘I don’t follow. You reported that these notes had been destroyed in the fire. But wasn’t that only a guess? How did you actually know?’

      ‘It was a guess, of course, and I didn’t actually know,’ Mr Tarkington agreed. ‘But I think it was a justifiable guess. I am acquainted with Averill’s habits; he made no secret of them. Monies he paid out he paid by cheque on the current account—everything that one can think of went through it, even the Ropers’ salaries. The cash sent out to Starvel went into the hoard.’

      ‘All of it didn’t.’

      ‘Why, СКАЧАТЬ