 Chapter 20 of Dead Men's Money This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ian Skillan Dead Men's Money by J.S. Fletcher Chapter 20 The Samaritan Skipper I clung to that heaven-sent bit of wreckage exhausted and weary until the light began to break in the east. I was numbed and shivering with cold, but I was alive and safe. That square yard of good and solid wood was as much to me as if it had been a floating island. And as the light grew and grew and the sun at last came up, a ball of fire out of the far horizon, I looked across the sea on all sides hoping to catch sight of a sail or a wisp of smoke of anything that would tell me of the near presence of human beings. And one fact I realised at once, I was further away from land than when I had begun my battle with death. There was no sign of land in the west. The sky was now clear and bright on all sides but there was nothing to break the line where it met the sea. Before the fading of the light in the previous evening, I had easily made out the well-known outlines of the Cheeviest on one hand and of Sey's Law on the other. Now there was not a vestige of either. I knew from the fact that I had somehow drifted further and further away from the coast. There was accordingly nothing to do but wait the chance of being sighted and picked up. And I set to work as well as I could on my tiny raft to chafe my limbs and get some warmth into my body. And never in my life did I bless the sun as I did that morning, for when he sprang out of bed in the northeast skies it was with his full and hearty figure of high spring tide and its heat warmed my chilled blood and sent a new glow of hope to my heart. But that heat was not an unmixed blessing. And I was already parched with thirst. And as the sun mounted higher and higher putting his rays full upon me, the thirst became almost intolerable and my tongue felt as if my mouth could no longer contain it. It was perhaps one hour after sunrise when my agony was becoming almost insupportable that I first noticed a wisp of smoke in the southern rim of the circle of the sea which just then was all my world. I never strayed my eyes for anything as I did for that patch of grey against a cloudless blue. It grew bigger and bigger. I knew of course that it was some steamer gradually approaching but it seemed ages before I could make out her funnels. Ages before I saw the first bit of her black hulk show up above the level of the dancing waves. Yet there she was at last, coming bows on straight in my direction. My nerves must have given out at the sight. I remember the tears rolling down my cheeks. I remember hearing myself make strange sounds which I suppose were those of relief and thankfulness. And then the horror of being unseen of being left to endure more torches of thirst of the steamer changing her course fell on me. Along before she was anywhere near me I was trying to balance myself and the grating so that I could stand erect and attract her attention. She was a very slow going craft that not able to do more than 9 or 10 knots at best and another hour passed before she was anywhere near me but thank God she came within a mile of me and I made shift to stand up on my raft and to wave to her and there on she altered her course and lumbered over in my direction. She was one of the ugliest vessels that ever left a shipyard but I thought I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life as she looked in those moments and I had certainly never been so thankful for anything as for her solid and dirty deck when willing and kindly hands helped me up in it. Half an hour after that would dry clothes on me and hot coffee and rum inside me I was closeted with a skipper in his cabin telling him under a strict pledge of secrecy as much of my tale as I felt inclined to share with him. He was a sympathetic and understanding man and he swore warmly and plentifully when he heard how treacherously I'd been treated intimating it as the just then dearest wish of his heart to have the handling of the man who had played me the trick. But you'll be dealing with him yourself, city man you'll not spare him, promise me you'll not spare him and you'll send me a newspaper the full account of all that's done to him when you've set the lot of work. Todd, I hope they'll quarter him. Then was grand days when there was more licence and liberty and punishing malefactors. Oh, I'd like fine to see this man put into boiling oil or something of that sort. That cold-hearted, murdering villain. You'll be sure to send me the newspaper. I laughed for the first time since, oh, when. It seemed years since I'd laughed and yet it was only a few hours after all. Before I can set the lot of work in him I must get on dry land captain, I answered. Where are you going? Dundee, he replied, dundee and we're just between 60 and 70 miles away now and it's near seven o'clock. We'll be in Dundee early in the afternoon anyway. And what will you do there? You'll be forgetting the next train to Berwick. Oh, I'm not so sure, captain, I answered. I don't want that man to know I'm alive yet. It'll be a nice surprise for him later. But there are those that I must let know as soon as possible. So the first thing I'll do, I'll wire. In the meantime, let me have a sleep. The steamer that had picked me up was nothing but a tramp plodding along with a general cargo from London to Dundee and its accommodation was as rough as a skipper was homely. But it was a veritable palace of delight and luxury to me after that terrible night and I was soon hard and fast asleep in the skipper's own bunk and was still asleep when they laid a hand on me at three o'clock that afternoon. We're in the tea, he said, and we'll talk in half an hour. And now you can't go assurance you're underclothing, man. Where's your purse? He had rightly sized up the situation. I'd get rid of everything but my singlet and drawers in the attempt to keep going. For as my purse, that was where the rest of my possessions were. Sunk or floating. You and me's are bout of a buildy remark. I'll fit you up with a good suit that I have and lend you up money you want. But what is it you're going to do? How long are you going to stop here in Dundee, captain, I asked? Four days, he answered. Don't be discharging tomorrow and loading the next two days and then I'll be away again. Lend me the clothes and the sovereigns that I am. I'll wire to my principal, the gentleman I told you about, to come here at once with clothes and money. So I'll repay you and hand you your suit back first thing tomorrow morning when I'll bring him to see you. He immediately pulled a sovereign out of his pocket and turned into a locker, produced a new suit of blue surge and some necessary linen. I, he remarked a bit wonderingly, you'll be for fetching him along here then? And for what purpose? I want him to take your evidence about picking me up, I answered. That's one thing and well there's other reasons we'll tell you about afterwards. And don't tell anybody here of what's happened and pass the word for silence to your crew. It'll be something in their pockets when my friend comes along. He was a cute man and he understood that my object was to keep the news of my escape from Sir Grimwick Carstairs and he promised to do what I asked. And before long he and I being as I'd observed very much of a size and the surge suit fitting me very well I was in the streets of Dundee where I had never been before seeking out a telegraph office and twiddling the skipper sovereign between thumb and finger while I worked out a problem that needed some little thought. I must let my mother and Maisie know of my safety at once and I must let Mr Lindsay know too. I knew what must have happened there at Berwick that monstrous villain would sneak home and say that a sad accident had happened to me. It made me grind my teeth and long to get my hands at his lying tongue when I thought of what Maisie and my mother must have suffered after hearing his tales and excuses. But I did not want him to know I was safe. I did not want the town to know. Should I telephone to Mr Lindsay's office it was almost certain one of my fellow clerks there would answer the ring and recognise my voice then everything would be noised around. And after thinking it all over I sent Mr Lindsay a telegram in the following once hoping that he would fully understand. Keep this secret from everybody stop. Bring suit of clothes, linen, money, mother and Maisie by next rented indeed stop. Give post office people orders not to let this out. Most important stop, HM. I read that out over half a dozen times before I finally dispatched it. It seemed all wrong somehow and all right in another way. And however badly put it was it expressed my meaning. So I handed it in and my borrowed sovereign with it and jingling the change which was given back to me I went out to the telegraph office to stare around me. It was a queer thing but I was now as lightheaded as could be. I caught myself laughing from a curious feeling of pleasure. The truth was if you want to analyse the sources I was vastly relieved to be able to get in touch with my own people. Within an hour perhaps sooner they would have the news and I knew well that they would lose no time in setting off to me. And finding myself just then in the neighbourhood of the north British railway station I went in and managed to make out that if Mr Lindsay was at the office when the wire arrived and acted promptly in accordance with it he and they could reached indeed by a late train that evening. That knowledge of course made me in a still more lighthearted mood but there was another source of my satisfaction and complacence. Things were in a grand way now for my revenge on Sir Gilbert Carstairs and what had been a mystery was one no longer. I went back to the dock where I had left the tramp steamer and told its good nature skipper what I had done for he was as much interested in the affair as if he had been my own brother. And that accomplished. I left him again and went sightseeing having been wonderfully refreshed and up and stored by my good sleep of the morning. I wandered up and down and about indeed till I was leg weary and it was nearly six o'clock in the afternoon and at that time being in Bank Street and looking about me for some place where I could get a cup of tea and a bite of food a chance by a sheer accident to see a name on a brass plate fixed amongst more of the same sort on the outer door of a suite of offices. That name was Gavin Smeaton. I recalled it at once and moved by a sudden impulse I went climbing up a lot of steps to Mr Gavin Smeaton's office. End of chapter 20 recording by Ian Skillan Chapter 21 of Dead Men's Money This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Dead Men's Money by J. S. Fletcher Chapter 21, Mr Gavin Smeaton I walked into a room right at the top of the building where in a young man of thirty or thereabouts was sitting at a desk putting together a quantity of letters which a lad standing by his side was evidently about to carry to the post. He was a good looking, alert, business like sort of young man this of a superior type of countenance, very well dressed and altogether a noticeable person. What first struck me about him was that though he gave me a quick glance when having first tapped at his door and walked inside his office or confronting him, he finished his immediate concern before giving me any further attention. It was not until he had given all the letters to the lad and made him hurry off to the post that he turned to me with another sharp look and one word of interrogation. Yes, he said. Mr Gavin Smeaton asked I. That's my name, he answered. What can I do for you? Up to that moment I had not the least idea as to the exact reasons which had led me to climb those stairs. I had acted on impulse. And now that I was actually in the presence of a man who was obviously a very business-like and matter-of-fact sort of person I felt awkward and tongue-tied. He was looking me over all the time as if there was a wonder in his mind about me and when I was slow in answering he stirred a bit impatiently in his chair. My business hours are over for the day, he said. If it's business, it's not business in the ordinary sense, Mr Smeaton. I made shift to get out. But it is business for all that. The fact is, you'll remember that the Berwick police sent you a telegram some days ago asking did you know anything about a man named John Phillips? He showed a sudden interest at that and he regarded me with a slight smile. You aren't a detective, he inquired. No, I am a solicitor's clerk, I replied, from Berwick. My principal, Mr Lindsay, has to do with that case. He nodded at a pile of newspapers which stood with a heavy book on top of it on a side table near his desk. So I see from these papers, he remarked. I've read all I could about the affairs of both Phillips and Crone ever since I heard that my name and address had been found on Phillips. Has any further light been thrown on that? Of course, there was nothing much in my name and address being found on the man nor would there be if they were found on any man. As you see, I'm a general agent for various sorts of foreign merchandise and this man had likely been recommended to me, especially if he was from America. There's been no further light on that matter, Mr Smeaton, I answered. He had pointed me to a chair at his desk side by that time and we were mutually inspecting each other. Nothing more has been heard on that point. Then, have you come purposely to see me about it? he asked. Not at all, said I. I was passing along this street below and I saw your name on the door and I remembered it and so I just came up. Oh! he said, looking at me rather blankly. You're staying in Dundee, taking a holiday? I came to Dundee in a fashion I'd not like to follow on any other occasion, said I. If a man hadn't lent me the suit of clothes and a sovereign, I'd have come ashore in my undergarments and without a penny. He stared at me more blankly than ever when I let this out on him and suddenly he laughed. What riddles all this? he asked. It sounds like a piece out of a story book, one of those tales of adventure. I does it, said I. Only in my case, Mr Smeaton, facts have been a lot stranger than fiction. You've read all about this burwick mystery in the newspapers? Every word. Seeing that I was mentioned, he answered. Then I'll give you the latest chapter, I continued. You'll know my name when you hear it, Hugh Moneylaw's. It was I, discovered Philip's dead body. I saw that he had been getting more and more interested as we talked. At the mention of my name, his interest obviously increased and suddenly he pulled a box of cigars towards him, took one out and pushed the box to me. Help yourself, Mr Moneylaw's, and go ahead, he said. I'm willing to hear as many chapters as you like of this story. I shook my head up the cigars and went on to tell him of all that had happened since the murder of Crone. He was a good listener. He took in every detail, every point, quietly smoking while I talked and never interrupting me. And when I had made an end he threw up his head with a significant gesture that implied much. That beats all the story books, he exclaimed. I'm glad to see you're safe anyway, Mr Moneylaw's, and your mother and your young lady will be glad too. They will that, Mr Smeaton, I said, I'm much obliged to you. You think that man really meant you to drown? He asked. What would you think yourself, Mr Smeaton? I replied. Besides, didn't I see his face as he got himself in his yacht away from me? Yon man is a murderer. It's a queer, strange business. He remarked, nodding his head. He'll be thinking now, of course, that it was he murdered both Phillips and Crone, eh? I do think that, said I. What else? And he wanted to silence me because I'm the only living person that could let out about seeing him at the crosswords that night and could prove that Crone saw him too. My own impression is that Crone went straight to him after his talk with me and paid the penalty. That's likely, he assented. But what do you think made him turn on you so suddenly yesterday and looked like going smoothly about everything? And he'd given you that stewardship, which was, of course, to stop your mouth? I'll tell you, I said. It was Mr Lindsay's fault. He let out too much at the police court. Carstairs was there. He'd a seat on the bench, and Mr Lindsay frightened him. Maybe it was Yon Isaacs. Mr Lindsay's got some powerful card up his sleeve about that. What it is I don't know. But I'm certain now, now, that there's took a fear into his head at those proceedings yesterday morning, and he thought he'd settle me once and for all before I could be drawn into it and forced to say things that would be against him. I'd better say you're right. He agreed. Well, it is indeed a strange affair, and there'll be some stranger revelations yet. I'd like to see this, Mr Lindsay. You're sure he'll come to you here? I? Unless there's been an earthquake between here and Tweed, I'd declared. He'll be here right enough, Mr Stbeaten, before many hours are over, and he'll like to see you. You can't think now of how or why Yon Phillips' man could have got that bit of letter paper of yours on him? It was like that, I added, pointing to a block of memorandum forms that stood in his stationery case at the desk before him, just the same. I can't, said he, but there's nothing unusual in that. Some correspondent of mine might have handed it to him, torn it off one of my letters, do you see? I've correspondence in a great many sea ports and mercantile centres, both here and in America. These men will appear to have come from Central America, I remarked. They'd seem to have been employed, one way or another, on that Panama Canal affair, that there's been so much in the papers about these last few years. You'd noticed that in the accounts, Mr Stbeaten? I did, he replied, and it interested me because I'm from those parts myself. I was born there. He said that as if this fact was of no significance, but the news made me prick up my ears. Do tell me that, said I. Where now, if it's a fair question? New Orleans, near enough anyway to those parts, he answered, but I was sent across here when I was ten years old to be educated and brought up, and here I've been ever since. But you're a Scotsman? I made bold to ask him. I, on both sides, though I was born out of Scotland, he answered with a laugh, and then he got out of his chair. It's mighty interesting all this, he went on, I'm a married man, and my wife will be wanting me for dinner. Now, will you bring Mr Lindsay to see me in the morning if he comes? He'll come, and I'll bring him, I answered. He'll be right glad to see you, too, for it may be, Mr Stbeaten, that there is something to be traced out of that bit of letter paper of yours yet. It may be, he agreed, and if there's any help I can give, it's at your disposal. But you'll be fine in this, you're in a dark lane with some queer turn-ins in it, and you'll come to the plain outcome of all this business. We went down into the street together, and after he had asked if there was anything he could do for me that night, and I had assured him there was not, we parted with an agreement that Mr Lindsay and I should call at his office early next morning. When he had left me, I saw it at a place where I could get some supper, and that over I idled about the town until it was time for the train from the south to get in. And I was on the platform when it came, and I was my mother and Maisie and Mr Lindsay, and I saw at a glance that all that was filling each was sheer and infinite surprise. My mother gripped me on the instant. Hugh! she exclaimed. What are you doing here, and what does all this mean? Such a fright as you've given us, what's the meaning of it? I was so taken aback, having been certain that car stares would have gone home and told them I was accidentally drowned, that all I could do was to stare from one to the other. As for Maisie, she only looked wonderingly at me. As for Mr Lindsay, he gazed at me as scrutinisingly as my mother was doing. I said he, what's the meaning of it, young man? We've done your bidding and more, but why? I found my tongue at that. What, I exclaimed, haven't you seen Sir Gilbert car stares? Didn't you hear from him that we know nothing about Sir Gilbert car stares? He interrupted. The fact is, my lad, that until your wire arrived this afternoon, nobody had even heard of you or Sir Gilbert car stares since you went off in his yacht yesterday, neither he nor the yacht have ever returned to Berwick. Where are they? End of Chapter 21 Chapter 22 of Dead Men's Money This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org read by Karen Savage, Waco, Texas, June 2007. Dead Men's Money by J. S. Fletcher Chapter 22 I read my own obituary. It was my turn to stare again. And stare I did from one to the other in silence and being far too much amazed to find ready speech. And before I could get my tongue once more, my mother, who was always remarkably sharp of I, got her word in, what are you doing in that new suit of clothes? she demanded, and wears your own good clothes as you went away in yesterday noon. I missed out this stewardship's leading you into some strange ways. My own good clothes, mother, are somewhere in the North Sea, retorted I. Top or bottom, sunk or afloat, it's there you'll find them, if you're more anxious about them than me. Do you tell me that Carstairs has never been home? I went on, turning to Mr Lindsay. Then I don't know where he is nor is yacht either. All I know is that he left me to drown last night a good twenty miles from land and that it's only by a special mercy of Providence that I'm here. Wherever he is, young man's a murderer. I've settled that, Mr Lindsay. The women began to tremble and to exclaim at this news and to ask one question after another and Mr Lindsay shook his head impatiently. We can't stand talking now our affairs in the station all night," said he. Let's go to an hotel, my lad. We're all wanting our suppers. You don't seem as if you were in very bad spirits yourself. I'm all right, Mr Lindsay," I answered cheerfully. I've been down to Jericho it's true and to worse, but I chanced across a good Samaritan or two and I've looked out a clean and comfortable hotel for you and we'll go there now. I came away to a good hotel that I had noticed in my walks and while they took their suppers I sat by and told them all my adventure to the accompaniment of many exclamations from my mother in Maisie. But Mr Lindsay made none and I was quick to notice that what most interested him was that I had been to see Mr Gavin Smeaton. But what for did you not come straight home when you were safely on shore again? asked my mother, who was thinking of the expense I was putting her to. What's the reason of fetching us all this way when you're alive and well? I looked at Mr Lindsay, knowingly I suppose. Because, mother," I answered her, I believed young car stares would go back to Berwick and tell that there'd been a sad accident and I was dead, drowned, and I wanted to let him go on thinking that I was dead and so I decided to keep away. And if he is alive it'll be the best thing to let the man still go on thinking I was drowned as I'll prove to Mr Lindsay there. If car stares is alive I say it's the right policy for me to keep out of his sight in our neighbourhood. I agreed Mr Lindsay, who was a quick hand at taking up things. There's something in that hue. Well it's beyond me all this," observed my mother, and it all comes of me taking young Gilverth weight into the house. But me and Maisie are away to our beds and maybe you and Mr Lindsay'll get more light out of the matter than I can and glad I'll be when all this mystery's cleared up and we'll be able to live as honest folks should without all this flying about the country and spending good money. I contrived to get a few minutes with Maisie, however, before she and my mother retired and I found then that had I known it I need not have been so anxious and disturbed for they had attached no particular importance to the fact that I had not returned the night before. They had thought that Sir Gilbert had sailed his yacht in elsewhere and that I would be turning up later and there had been no great to do after me until my own telegram had arrived when, of course, there was consternation and alarm and nothing but hurry to catch the next train north. But Mr Lindsay had contrived to find out that nothing had been seen of Sir Gilbert car stares and his yacht at Berwick and to that point he and I had once turned when the women had gone to bed and I went with him into the smoking-room while he had his pipe and his drop of whisky. By that time I had told him of the secret about the meeting at the crossroads and about my interwe with Crone at his shop and Sir Gilbert car stares at Hathaclw when he offered me the stewardship and I was greatly relieved when Mr Lindsay let me down lightly and said no more than that if I'd told him these things at first there might have been a great difference. But we're on the beginning of something, he concluded, that some connection with these murders I am now convinced, but what it is I'm not yet certain. What I am certain about is that he took fright yesterday morning in our court when I produced that Isaacs and asked the doctor those questions about it. And I'm sure of that too Mr Lindsay, said I, and I've been wondering what there was about your Isaacs that frightened him. You'll know that yourself, of course. I, but I'm not going to tell you, he answered. You'll have to await developments on that point, my man. And now we'll be getting to bed and in the morning we'll see this Mr Gavin's meeting. It would be a queer thing now, wouldn't it, if we got some clue to all this through him. But I'm keenly interested in hearing that he comes from the other side of the Atlantic Hue for I've been of opinion that it's across there that the secret of the whole thing will be found. They had brought me a supply of clothes and money with them and first thing in the morning I went off to the docks and found my Samaritan skipper and gave him back his sovereign and his blue surge suit with my heartiest thanks and a promise to keep him fully posted up in the development of what he called the case. And then I went back to breakfast with the rest of them and at once there was the question of what was to be done. My mother was all for going homeward as quickly as possible and it ended up in our seeing her and Maisie away by the next train, Mr Lindsay having made both swear solemnly that they would not divulge one word of what had happened nor reveal the fact that I was alive to any living soul but Andrew Dunlup, who of course could be trusted. And my mother agreed, though the proposal was anything but pleasant or proper to her. You're putting on me more than any woman ought to be asked to bear, Mr Lindsay, said she, as we saw them into the train. You're asking me to go home and behave as if we didn't know whether the lad was alive or dead. I'm not good at play-acting and I'm far from sure that it's either truthful or honest to be professing things that isn't so. And I'll be much obliged to you if you'll get all this cleared up and let Hugh there settle down to his work in the proper way instead of wondering about on business that's no concern of his. We shook our heads at each other as the train went off. It was easy-waving goodbye to us and my mother sitting very stiff and stern and disapproving in her corner of the compartment. No concern of yours, do you hear my lad? laughed Mr Lindsay. Ay, but your mother forgets that in affairs of this sort a lot of people are drawn in where they aren't concerned. It's like being on the edge of a whirlpool. You're dragged into it before you're aware. And now we'll go and see this Mr Smeaton. But first, where's the telegraph office in this station? I want to wire to Murray to ask him to keep me posted up during the day if any news comes in about the yacht. When Mr Lindsay was in the telegraph office I bought that morning's Dundee advertiser more to fill up a few spare moments than from any particular desire to get the news for I was not a great newspaper reader. I had scarcely opened it when I saw my own name and there I stood in the middle of the bustling railway station enjoying the sensation of reading my own obituary notice. Ar Berwick on Tweed correspondent telegrafing late last night says considerable anxiety is being felt in the town respecting the fate of Sir Gilbert Caster's baronet of Hatherclw House and Mr Hugh Moneylaw's who are feared to have suffered a disastrous sea. At noon yesterday Sir Gilbert, accompanied by Mr Moneylaw's went out in the former's yacht, a small vessel of light weight, for a sail which, according to certain fishermen who were about when the yacht left, was to be one of a few hours only. The yacht had not returned last night nor has it been seen or heard of since its departure. Various Berwick fishing-craft have been well off the coast during today but no tidings of the missing gentlemen have come to hand. Nothing has been heard of or from Sir Gilbert at Hatherclw up to nine o'clock this evening and the only ray of hope lies in the fact that Mr Moneylaw's mother left the town hurriedly this afternoon possibly having received some news of her son. It is believed here however that the light vessel was capsized in a sudden squall and that both occupants have lost their lives. Sir Gilbert Caster's, who was the seventh baronet, had only recently come to the neighbourhood on succeeding to the title and estates. Moneylaw's, who was senior clerk to Mr Lindsay, solicitor of Berwick, was a very promising young man of great ability and had recently been much before the public eye as a witness in connection with the mysterious murders of John Phillips and Abel Crone which are still attracting so much attention. I shoved the newspaper into Mr Lindsay's hand as he came out of the telegraph office. He read the paragraph in silence, smiling as he read. I, he said at last, you have to leave home to get the home news. Well, they're welcome to be thinking that for the present. I've just wired Murray that I'll be here till at any rate this evening and that he's to telegraph at once if there's tidings of that yacht or of car stairs. Meanwhile, we'll go and see this Mr Smeaton. Mr Smeaton was expecting us. He too was reading about me in the advertiser when we entered and he made some joking remark about it only being great men that were sometimes treated to death notices before they were dead. And then he turned to Mr Lindsay, who I noticed had been taking close stock of him. I've been thinking out things since Mr Moneylaw's was in here last night, he remarked, bringing my mind to bed, you see, on certain points that I hadn't thought of before. And maybe there's something more than appears at first sight in young man John Phillips having my name in a dress on him. I, asked Mr Lindsay quietly, how now? Well, replied Mr Smeaton, there may be something in it and there may be nothing, just nothing at all. But it's the fact that my father hailed from Tweedside and from some place not so far from Berwick. End of Chapter 22 I was watching Mr Lindsay pretty closely, being desirous of seeing how he took to Mr Gavin Smeaton and what he made of him, and I saw him prick his ears of this announcement. Clearly it seemed to suggest something of interest to him. I, he exclaimed, your father hailed from Berwick or their bouts. You don't know exactly from where, Mr Smeaton? No, I don't replied Smeaton promptly. The truth is, strange as it may seem, Mr Lindsay, I know precious little about my father and what I do know is mostly from hearsay. I've no recollection of having ever seen him and, well wonder still you'll say, I don't know whether he's alive or dead. Here indeed was something that bordered on the mysterious and Mr Lindsay and myself who had been dealing in that commodity to some considerable degree of late exchanged glances. And Smeaton saw us look at each other and he smiled and went on. I was thinking all this out last night, he said, and it came to me. I wonder if that man, John Phillips, as I hear my name and address in his pocket, could have been some man who was coming to see me on my father's behalf or it's another thing to fancy and considering what's happened to him, not a pleasant one, could have been my father himself. There was silence amongst us for a moment. This was a new vista down which we were looking and it was full of thick shadow. As for me, I began to recollect things. According to the evidence which Chisholm had got from the British linen bank at Peebles, John Phillips had certainly come from Panama. Just as certainly he had made for tweedside and with equal certainty nobody at all had come forward to claim him to assert kinship with him, though there had been the widest publicity given to the circumstances of his murder. In Gilverthwaith's instance his sister had quickly turned up to see what there was for her. Phillips had been just as freely mentioned in the newspapers as Gilverthwaith, and no one had made inquiries after him, though there was a tidy sum of money of his in the people's bank for his next of kin to claim. Who was he then? Mr Lindsey was evidently deep in thought or, I should perhaps say, in surmise, and he seemed to arrive where I did, at a question, which was, of course, just that which Smeaton had suggested. I might answer that better if I knew what you could tell me about your father, Mr Smeaton, he said, and about yourself. I'll tell you all I can with pleasure, answered Smeaton. To tell you the truth, I never attached much importance to this matter, in spite of my name and address being found on Phillips, until Mr Moneylaw's there came in last night, and then, after what he told me, I did begin to think pretty deeply over it, and I'm coming to the opinion that there's a lot more in this than appears on the surface. You can affirm that with confidence, remarked Mr Lindsey dryly, there is. Well, about my father, continued Smeaton. All I know is this, and I got it from hearsay, his name, the name given to me anyway, was Martin Smeaton. He held somewhere about Burwick, whether it was on the English side or the Scottish side of the Tweed, I don't know, but he went to America as a young man, or the young wife, and they were in New Orleans when I was born, and when I was born my mother died, so I never knew her. Do you know her maiden name, asked Mr Lindsey? No more than that her Christian name was Mary, replied Smeaton. You'll find out as I go on that it's very little I do know of anything, definitely. Well, when my mother died, my father evidently left New Orleans and went off travelling. I've made out that he must have been a regular rolling stone at all times, a man that couldn't rest long in one place. But he didn't take me with him. There was a Scotsman and his wife in New Orleans that my father had foregathered with. Some people of the name of Watson, and he left me with them. And in their care in New Orleans I remained until I was ten years old. For my recollection he evidently paid them well for looking after me. There was never at any time any need of money on my account. And of course, never having known any other, I came to look on the Watson's as father and mother. When I was ten years old they returned to Scotland, here to Dundee, and I came with them. I have a letter or two that my father wrote at the time, giving instructions as to what was to be done with me. I was to have the best education as much as I liked and was capable of, and though I didn't know then and don't now know all the details, it's evident he furnished Watson with plenty of funds on my behalf. We came here to Dundee and I was put to the high school. And there I stopped till I was eighteen. And then I had two years at University College. Now, the odd thing was that all that time, though I knew that regular enhancement remittances came to the Watson's on my behalf for my father, he never expressed any wishes or made any suggestions as to what I should do with myself. But I was all for a commercial life. And when I left college I went into an office here in the town and began to study the ins and outs of foreign trade. Then when I was just twenty-one my father sent me a considerable sum, two thousand pounds as a matter of fact, saying it was for me to start business with. And do you know Mr. Lindsay from that day now ten years ago to this I've never heard a word of him. Mr. Lindsay was always an attentive man in a business interview. But I had never seen him listen to anybody so closely as he listened to Mr. Smeaton. And after his usual fashion he at once began to ask questions. Those Watson's now, he said, they're living? No replied Smeaton, both dead a few years ago. That's a pity, remarked Mr. Lindsay. But you'll have recollections of what they told you about your father from their own remembrance of him. They'd little to tell, said Smeaton. I made out they knew very little indeed of him except that he was a tall, fine-looking fellow evidently of superior class in education. Of my mother they knew less. You'll have letters of your father's suggested Mr. Lindsay? Just a few mere scraps. He was never a man who did more than write down what he wanted doing and as briefly as possible replied Smeaton. In fact he added with a laugh. His letters to me were what you might call odd. When the money came that I mentioned just now he wrote me the shortest note. I can repeat every word of it. Two thousand pounds for you, he wrote. You can start yourself in business with it as I hear you're inclined that way and some day I'll come over and see how you're getting along. That was all. And you've never heard of or from him since? exclaimed Mr. Lindsay. That's a strange thing now. But where was he then? Where did he send the money from? New York replied Smeaton. The other letters I have from him are from places in both North and South America. It always seemed to me and the Watsons that he was never in any place for long always going about. I should like to see those letters. Mr. Smeaton said Mr. Lindsay, especially the last one. There at my house answered Smeaton. I'll bring them down here this afternoon and show them to you if you'll call in. But now do you think this man Phillips may have been my father? Well replied Mr. Lindsay reflectively. It's an odd thing that Phillips whoever he was drew 500 pounds in cash out of the British linen bank at Peebles and carried it straight away to Tweedside. Where you believe your father came from it looks as if Peebles had meant to do something with that cash to give it to somebody, you know? I read the description of Phillips in the newspapers remarked Smeaton but of course it conveyed nothing to me. You've no photograph of your father? asked Mr. Lindsay. No, none. Never had, answered Smeaton. Nor any papers of his except those bits of letters. Mr. Lindsay sat in silence for a time tapping the point of a stick on the floor and staring at the carpet. I wish we knew what that man Gilverthwaite was wanting at Burwick and in the district, he said at last. But isn't that evident? suggested Smeaton. He was looking in the parish registers. I have a good mind to have a search for those quarters for particulars of my father. Mr. Lindsay gave him a sharp look. I, he said in a rather sly fashion but you don't know if your father's real name was Smeaton. Both Smeaton and myself started at that. It was a new idea and I saw that it struck Smeaton with great force. True, he replied after a pause. I don't. It might have been and in that case how could one find out what it was? Mr. Lindsay got up shaking his head. A big job he answered, a stiff job. You'll have to work back a long way. But it could be done. What time can I look in this afternoon Mr. Smeaton to get a glance at those letters? Three o'clock replied Smeaton. He walked to the door of his office with us and gave me a smile. You're none the worse for your adventure, I see, he remarked. Well, what about this man who shares what news of him? We'll maybe be able to tell you some later in the day. replied Mr. Lindsay. There'll be lots of news about him one way or another before we're through with all this. We went out into the street then and at his request I took Mr. Lindsay to the docks to see the friendly skipper who was greatly delighted to tell the story of my rescue. We stopped on his ship talking with him for a good part of the morning and it was well past noon and we went back to the hotel for lunch. The first thing we saw there was a telegram for Mr. Lindsay. He tore the envelope open as we stood in the hall and I made no apology for looking over his shoulder and reading the message with him. Just heard by wire from Largo Police that small yacht answering description of car stairs has been brought in there by fishermen who found it early this morning in Largo Bay empty. We looked at each other and Mr. Lindsay suddenly laughed. Emdy, he exclaimed, I, but that doesn't prove that the man's dead. End of Chapter 23 of Dead Man's Money Chapter 24 of Dead Man's Money This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Dead Man's Money by J. S. Fletcher Chapter 24 The Suit of Clothes Mr. Lindsay made no further remark until we were half through our lunch and it was not to me that he then spoke, but to a waiter who was just at his elbow. There's three things you can get me, he said, our bill, a railway guide, a map of Scotland. Bring the map first. The man went away and Mr. Lindsay bent across the table. Largo is in fife, said he. We'll go there. I'm going to see that yacht with my own eyes and here with my own ears what the man who found it has got to say. For, as I remarked just now, my lad, the mere fact that the yacht was found empty doesn't prove that Carster has been drowned. And we'll just settle up here and go round and see Smeton to get a look at those letters and then we'll take the train to Largo and make a bit of inquiry. Mr. Smeton had the letters spread out on his desk when we went in. And Mr. Lindsay looked them over. There is not more than half a dozen altogether. And they were mere scraps, as he had said. Usually a few lines on half sheets of paper. Mr. Lindsay appeared to take no great notice of any of them, but the last. The one that Smeton had quoted to us in the morning. But over that he bent for some time examining it closely in silence. I wish he'd lend me this for a day or two, he said at the time. I wish he'd lend me this for a day or two, he said at last. I'll take the greatest care of it. It shan't go out of my own personal possession and I'll return it by registered post. The fact is, Mr. Smeton, I want to compare that writing with some other writing. Certainly, agreed Smeton, handing the letter over. I'll do anything I can to help. I'm beginning, you know, Mr. Lindsay. To fear I'm mixed up in this. You'll keep me informed. I can give you some information now, answered Mr. Lindsay, pulling out the telegram. There's more mystery DSC and money laws and I are off to Largo now. We'll take it on our way home. For by this and that I'm going to know what's become of Sir Gilbert Carstairs. We presently left Mr. Gavin Smeton with a promise to keep him posted up and a promise on his part that he'd come to Berwick if that seemed necessary and then we set out on our journey. It was not such an easy business to get quickly to Largo and the afternoon was wearing well into the evening when we reached it and found the police official who had wired to Berwick. There was not much that he could tell us of his own knowledge. The yacht, he said, was now lying in the harbour at lower Largo where it had been brought in by a fisherman named Andrew Robertson to whom he offered to take us. Him we found at a little inn near the harbour a taciturn, somewhat sour-faced fellow who showed no great desire to talk and would probably have given us scant information if we had not been accompanied by the police official though he brightened up when Mr. Lindsay hinted at the possibility of reward. When did you come across this yacht? asked Mr. Lindsay. Between eight and nine o'clock this morning replied Robertson. And where? About seventy miles out, a bit outside the bay. Emty demanded Mr. Lindsay looking keenly at the man. Not a soul in her? Not a soul! answered Robertson neither alive nor dead. Were her cells set at all? asked Mr. Lindsay. They were not. She was just drifting anywhere, replied the man and I put a line to her and brought her in. Any other craft than yours about at the time? inquired Mr. Lindsay. Not within a few miles, said Robertson. We went off to the yacht then. She had been towed into a quiet corner of the harbour and an old fellow who was keeping guard over her assured us that nobody but the police had been aboard her since Robertson brought her in. We of course went aboard. Mr. Lindsay, after being assured by me that this was really Sir Gilbert Carster's yacht remarking that he didn't know we could do much good by doing so. But I speedily made a discovery of singular and significant importance of the yacht. Small as she was, the yacht possessed a cabin. There was no great amount of headroom in it. It's true, and a tall man could not stand upright in it. But it was spacious for a craft of that size and amply furnished with shelving and lockers. And on these lockers lay the clothes a Norfolk suit of grey tweed in which Sir Gilbert Carster said set out with me from Berwick. I let out a fine exclamation when I saw that. And the other three turned and stared at me. Mr. Lindsay, I said. Look here. Those are the clothes he was wearing when I saw the last of him. And there's the shirt he had on, too. And the shoes. Wherever he is, whatever happened to him, he made a complete change of linen and clothing before he quitted the yacht. That's a plain fact, Mr. Lindsay. A fact it was. And one that made me think. However, it affected the others. It disposed, for instance, any notion or theory of suicide. A man doesn't change his clothes if he's going to drown himself. And it looked as if this had been part of some premeditated plan. At the very least of it, it was a curious thing. You're sure of that, inquired Mr. Lindsay, eyeing the things that had been thrown aside. Dead sure of it, said I, I couldn't be mistaken. Did he bring a portmanteau for anything aboard with him, then? Asked he. He didn't, but he could have kept clothes and linen and the like in these lockers, I pointed out, beginning to lift the lids. See here, here's brushes and combs and the like. I tell you, before ever he left this yacht, or fell out of it or whatever's happened to him, he'd changed everything from his toe to his top. There's the very cap he was wearing. They all looked at each other, and Mr. Lindsay's gaze finally fastened itself on Andrew Robertson. I suppose you don't know anything about this, my friend, he asked. What should I know? answered Robertson a bit surly. The yacht's just as I found it, not a thing's been touched. There was a luncheon basket lying on the cabin table, just as I had last seen it, except that Carsters had evidently finished the provisions which he and I had left. And I think the same thought occurred to Mr. Lindsay and myself at the same moment. How long had he stopped on board that yacht after his cruel abandoning of me? For forty-eight hours had elapsed since that episode, and in forty-eight hours a man may do a great deal in the way of making himself scarce, which now seemed to me to be precisely what Sir Gilbert Carsters had done, though in what particular fashion, and exactly why, it was beyond either of us to surmise. I suppose no one has heard anything of this yacht having been seen drifting about yesterday or during last night, asked Mr. Lindsay, putting his question to both men. No talk of it hereabouts. But neither the police nor Andrew Robertson had heard a murmur of that nature. And there was evidently nothing to be got out of them more than we had already got. Nor had the police heard of any stranger being seen about there. Though as the man who was with us observed, there was no great likelihood of anybody noticing a stranger. For Larca was nowadays a somewhat popular seaside resort. And down there on the beach there are many strangers, it being summer and holiday time. So that a strange man more or less would pass unobserved. Supposing a man landed about the coast here, asked Mr. Lindsay, I'm just putting a case to you and didn't go into town, but walked along the beach, where would he strike a railway station now? The police official replied that there were railway stations to the right and left of the bay. A man could easily make Edinburgh in one direction and St Andrews in the other. And then, not unnaturally, he was wanting to know if Mr. Lindsay was suggesting that Sir Gilbert Carsters had sailed to Jarashore, left it to sea again. I'm not suggesting anything, answered Mr. Lindsay, I'm only speculating on possibilities. And that's about as idle work as standing here talking. What will be practical will be to arrange about this yacht being locked up in some boat-house and we'd best see to that at once. We made arrangements with the owner of a boat-house to pull the yacht in there and to keep her under lock and key. To have an eye on her and to see that her contents were untouched until further instructions reached them from Berwick. We went off to continue our journey. But we had stayed so long in Largo that when we got to Edinburgh the last train for Berwick had gone and we were obliged to turn into a hotel for the night. Naturally, all of our talk was of what had just transpired. The events of the last two days, said Mr. Lindsay, had only made these mysteries deeper than they were before. And why Sir Gilbert Carsters should have abandoned his yacht, as he doubtless had, was a still further addition to the growing problem. And I am not certain, my lad, that I believe, Jan, man Robertson's tale, he remarked, as we were discussing matters from every imaginable point of view, just before going to bed. He may have brought the yacht in, and Carsters aboard her. Why was that change of clothes made? Probably because he knew that he'd be described as wearing certain things, and he wanted to come ashore in other things. For ought we know, he came safely ashore, boarded a train somewhere in the neighbourhood, or at Largo itself, why not, and went off, likely here, to Edinburgh, where he'd mingle with a few thousands of folk unnoticed. Then, in that case, you think he's, what, Mr. Lindsay? Do you mean he's running away? Between you and me, that's not far from what I do think," he replied. And I think I know what he's running away from, too. But we'll hear a lot more before many hours are over, or I'm mistaken. We were in Berwick at an early hour next morning, and we went straight to the police station, and into the superintendent's office. Chisholm was with Mr Murray when we walked in, and both men turned to us with eagerness. Here's more mystery about this fair, Mr. Lindsay. Exclaim Murray, it's enough to make a man's witsgo wool gathering. There's no news of Sir Gilbert, and Lady Carsters has been missing since twelve o'clock noon yesterday. End of chapter twenty-four. Chapter twenty-five of Dead Men's Money. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Robin Cotter June 2007 Dead Men's Money by J. S. Fletcher Chapter twenty-five The Second Disappearance Mr Lindsay was always one of the coolest of hands at receiving news of a startling nature, and now instead of breaking out into exclamations he just nodded his head and dropped into the nearest chair. I, he remarked quietly, so her ladyships disappeared too, has she? And when did you get to hear that now? Half an hour ago, replied Murray, the butler at Hatherclw House has just been in, driven over in a hurry, to tell us what you make of it at all. Before I answer that, I want to know what's been happening here while I've been away, replied Mr Lindsay. What's happened within your own province? Officially, I mean. Not much, answered Murray. There began to be talk evening before last amongst the fishermen about Sir Gilbert's yacht. He'd been seen, of course, to go out with money laws there two days ago at noon. And there's money laws. Doesn't he know anything? Where's Sir Gilbert money laws? He'll tell all that, when I tell him to, said Mr Lindsay, with a glance at me. Go on with your story first. The superintendent shook his head as if all these things were beyond his comprehension. Oh, well, he continued. I tell you there was talk. You know how they gossip down yonder on the beach. It was said the yacht had never come in. And, though many of them had been out, they'd never set eyes on her and rumours of her soon began to spread. So I sent Chisholm there out to Hatherclw to make some inquiry. Tell Mr Lindsay what you heard. He went on, turning to the sergeant. Not much, I think. Next to nothing, replied Chisholm. I saw Lady Carstairs. She laughed at me. She said Sir Gilbert was not likely to come to harm. He'd been sailing yachts big and little for many a year. And he'd no doubt gone further on this occasion than he'd first intended. I pointed out that he'd Mr Money Laws with him and that he'd been due at his business early that morning. She laughed again at that and said she'd no doubt Sir Gilbert and Mr Money Laws had settled that matter between them and that, as she'd know anxieties, she was sure borwork folk needn't have any. And so I came away. And we heard no more until we got your wire yesterday from Dundee, Mr Lindsay, said Murray. And that was followed not so very long after by one from the police at Largo, which I reported to you. Now here's an important question, put in Mr Lindsay, a bit hurriedly, as if something had just struck him. Did you communicate the news from Largo to Hatherclw? We did it once, answered Murray. I telephoned immediately to Lady Carstairs. I spoke to her over the wire myself, telling her what the Largo police reported. What time would that be? Asked Mr Lindsay sharply. Half past eleven, replied Murray. Then, according to what you tell me, she left Hatherclw soon after you telephoned to her, said Mr Lindsay. According to what the butler told us this morning, answered Murray, Lady Carstairs went out on her bicycle at exactly noon yesterday, and she's never been seen or heard of since. She left no message at the house, asked Mr Lindsay, none, and, added the superintendent significantly, she didn't mention to the butler that I'd just telephoned to her. It's a queer business this, I'm thinking Mr Lindsay, but what's your own news? The funny laws got to tell about Sir Gilbert. Mr Lindsay took no notice of the last question. He sat in silence for a while, evidently thinking, and in the end he pointed to some telegram forms that lay on the superintendent's desk. There's one thing must be done at once Murray, he said, and I'll take the responsibility of doing it myself. We must communicate with the Carstairs family solicitors. I'd have done it as soon as the butler brought me the news about Lady Carstairs, remarked Murray, as they are. I do, answered Mr Lindsay, wholmshaw and portal thwerp of Newcastle. Here, he went on, passing a telegram form to me. Right up this message, Sir Gilbert and Lady Carstairs are both missing from Hatherclw, under strange circumstances. Please send some authorised person here at once. Sign that with my name, you, and take it to the post office and come back here. When I got back, Mr Lindsay had evidently told Murray in Chisholm all about my adventures with Sir Gilbert, and the two men regarded me with a new interest, as if I had suddenly become a person of the first importance. And the superintendent at once fell upon me for my reticence. You made a bad mistake, young man, in keeping back what you ought to have told at the inquest on Philips, he said reprovingly. Indeed, you ought to have told it before that. You should have told us. I, if I'd only known as much as that, began Chisholm. I'd have... You'd probably have done just what he did, broken Mr Lindsay, held your tongue till you knew more. So let that pass. The lad did what he thought was for the best. You never suspected Sir Gilbert of any share in these affairs. Either of you. So come now. Why, as to that, Mr Lindsay, remarked Murray, who looked somewhat net old by this last passage, you didn't suspect him yourself, or, if you did, you kept it uncommonly quiet. If Mr Lindsay suspect him now, asked Chisholm, a bit maliciously, for if he does, maybe he'll give us a hand. Mr Lindsay looked at both of them in a way that he had of looking at people of whose abilities he had no very great idea, but there were some indulgence in the look on this occasion. Well now that things have come to this pass, he said, and after Sir Gilbert's deliberate attempt to get rid of money-laws, to murder him, in fact, I don't mind telling you the truth. I do suspect Sir Gilbert of the murder of Crone, and that's why I produced that ice axe in court the other day, and when he saw that ice axe, he knew that I suspected him, and that's why he took money-laws out with him, intending to rid himself of a man that could give evidence against him. If I'd known that money-laws was going with him, I'd have likely charged Sir Gilbert there and then. Anyway, I wouldn't have let money-laws go. I, you know something then? exclaimed Murray. You're in possession of some evidence that we know nothing about? I know this, and I'll make you a present of it now, answered Mr Lindsay. As you're aware, I'm a bit of a mountaineer. You know that I've spent a good many of my holidays in Switzerland climbing. Consequently, I know what Alpenstocks and ice axes are, and when I came to reflect on the circumstances of Crone's murder, I remember that not so long since, coming to be out along the riverside, I chanced across Sir Gilbert's car stairs using a very late type of ice axe as a walking stick, as he well could do, and might have picked up in his hall as some men will pick up a golf stick to go walking with, and I've done that myself hundreds of times. And I knew that I had an ice axe of that very pattern at home, and so I just shoved it under the doctor's nose in court and asked him if that hole in Crone's head couldn't have been made by the spike of it. Why? Because I knew that car stairs would be present in court, and I wanted to see if he would catch what I was after. And you think he did? asked the superintendent eagerly. I kept the corner of an eye on him, answered Mr Lindsay knowingly. He saw what I was after. He's a clever fellow that. But he took the mask off his face for the thousandth part of a second I saw. The two listeners were so amazed by this that they sat in silence for a while, staring at Mr Lindsay with open-mouthed amazement. It's a dark, dark business, sighed Murray at last. What's the true meaning of it, do you think, Mr Lindsay? Some secret that's being gradually got at. Replied Mr Lindsay promptly. That's what it is. And there's nothing to do just now, but wait until somebody comes from Homeshaw and Portalthorpes. Homeshaw is an old man. Probably Portalthorpe himself will come along. He may know something. They've been family solicitors to the car stairs lot for many a year. But it's my impression that Sir Gilbert car stairs is away and that his wife's after him. And if you want to be doing something, try to find out where she went on her bicycle yesterday. Likely she rode to some station in the neighbourhood and then took train. Mr Lindsay and I then went to the office and we had not been there long when a telegram arrived from Newcastle. Mr Portalthorpe himself was coming on to Berwick immediately. And in the middle of the afternoon he arrived, a middle-aged, somewhat nervous-mannered man whom I had seen two or three times when we had business at the Sises and whom Mr Lindsay evidently knew pretty well, judging by their familiar manner of greeting each other. What's all this, Lindsay? Asked Mr Portalthorpe as soon as he walked in and without any preliminaries. Your wire says Sir Gilbert and Lady car stairs have disappeared. Does that mean? Did you read your newspaper yesterday? I interrupted Mr Lindsay, who knew that what we had read in the Dundee advertiser had also appeared in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle. Evidently not, Portalthorpe, or you'd have known, in part at any rate, what my wire meant. But I'll tell you in a hundred words and then I'll ask you a couple of questions before we go any further. He gave Mr Portalthorpe an epitomised account of the situation and Mr Portalthorpe listened attentively to the end. And without making any comment he said three words. Well, your questions? The first, answered Mr Lindsay, is this. How long is it since you saw or heard from Sir Gilbert car stairs? A week, by letter, replied Mr Portalthorpe. The second, continued Mr Lindsay, is much more important. Much. What Portalthorpe do you know of Sir Gilbert car stairs? Mr Portalthorpe hesitated a moment. Then he replied frankly and with evident candor to tell you the truth Lindsay, he said, beyond knowing that he is Sir Gilbert car stairs? Nothing. End of chapter 25. Chapter 26 of Dead Men's Money. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Gazine. Dead Men's Money. By J.S. Fletcher. Chapter 26. Mrs Ralston of Craig. Mr Lindsay made no remark on this answer and for a minute or two he and Mr Portalthorpe sat looking at each other. Then Mr Portalthorpe bent forward little, his hands on his knees and gave Mr Lindsay a sort of quizzical but earnest glance. Now why do you ask that last question? He said quietly. You've some object? It's like this answered Mr Lindsay. Here's a man comes into these parts to take up a title and a states who certainly have been out of them for 30 years. His recent conduct is something more than suspicious. No one can deny that he left my clerk there to drown without possibility of help. That's intended murder. And so I ask, what do you, his solicitor, know of him, his character, his doings during the 30 years he was away? And you answer nothing. Just so. Ascented Mr Portalthorpe. And nobody does hear about. Except that he is Saigil but Castells. Nobody in these parts knows anything about him. How should they? We are suppose no more than anybody and we know just a few bare facts. I think you'll have to let me know what these bare facts are. Remark Mr Lindsay. And money laws too. Money laws has a definite charge to bring against this man and he'll bring it if I have anything to do with it. He shall press it if he can find Castells. And I think you'd better tell us what you know Portalsorp. Things have got to come out. I've no objection to telling you and Mr Money Law's what we know. Answered Mr Portalsorp. After all it is in a way common knowledge to some people at any rate. And to begin with you're probably aware that the recent history of this Castells family is a queer one. You know that old Sir Alexander has two sons and one daughter. The daughter being very much younger than her brothers. When the two sons, Michael and Gilbert, were about from 21 to 23 both quarrelled with their father and cleared out of this neighbourhood altogether. It's always believed that Sir Alexander gave Michael a fair lot of money to go and do for himself. Each hating the other's society. And that Michael went off to America. Asked Gilbert, he got money at that time too and went south and was understood to be first a medical student and then a doctor in London and abroad. There is no doubt at all that both sons did get money. Considerable amounts. Because from the time they went away no allowance was ever paid to them nor did Sir Alexander ever have any relations with them. What the cause of the quarrel was nobody knows but the quarrel itself and the ensuing separation were final. Father and sons never resumed relations. And when the daughter now Mrs Ralston of Craig near here grew up and married Sir Alexander pursued a similar money policy towards her. He presented her with £30,000 the day she was married and told her she'd never have another penny from him. I tell you, he was a queer man. Queer lot altogether, muttered Mr Lindsay. And interesting. Oh, it's interesting enough. Agreed Mr Portal-sorp with a chuckle. Deeply so. The things were until about a year before old Sir Alexander died which, as you know, is 14 months since. As I say, about six years before his death former notice came to the death of Michael Carstairs who of course was next in succession to the title. It came from a solicitor in Havana where Michael had died. There were all the formal proofs. He had died unmarried and in testate. And his estate amounted to about a thousand pounds. Sir Alexander put the affair in our hands and of course as he was next of kin to his eldest son what there was came to him. And we then pointed out to him that now that Mr Michael Carstairs was dead Mr Gilbert came next. He would get the title in any case and we earnestly pressed Sir Alexander to make a will. And he was always going to and he never did. As you know. And at that of course Sir Gilbert Carstairs came forward and a moment interrupted Mr Lindsay did anybody know where he was at the time of his father's death? Nobody hear about at any rate? replied Mr Portal Thorpe. Neither his father nor his sister nor ourselves had ever heard of him for many a long year. But he called us within 24 hours of his father's death to prove of course that he was the man he represented himself to be asked Mr Lindsay. Oh of course full proof answered Mr Portal Thorpe. Papers, letters, all that sort of thing all in order. He had been living in London for a year or two at that time. But according to his own account he had gone pretty well all over the world during the 30 years absence. He'd been a ship surgeon he'd been attached to the medical staff of the Northern Army and had seen service. He'd been in one or two voyages of discovery. He'd lived in every continent in fact he'd had a very adventurous life and lately he'd married a rich American RS. Oh Lady Carstairs is an American is she? remarked Mr Lindsay. Just so. Haven't you met her? asked Mr Portal Thorpe. Never said eyes on her that I know of. replied Mr Lindsay. But go on. Well of course there was no doubt of Sir Gilbert's identity. continued Mr Portal Thorpe. And as there was also no doubt that Sir Alexander had died in testate we had once began to put matters right. Sir Gilbert of course came into the whole of the real estate and he and Mrs Ralston shared the personality which by the buyer was considerable. They both got nearly 100,000 each in cash and there you are. That's all. asked Mr Lindsay. Mr Portal Thorpe hesitated a moment. Then he glanced at me. Money laws is safe at a secret. said Mr Lindsay. If it is a secret. Well then. answered Mr Portal Thorpe. It's not quite all. There's a circumstance which has I can't exactly say bothered but has always disturbed me. Sir Gilbert Carstairs has now been in possession of his estates for a little over a year and during that time he has sold nearly every yard of them except heathercloth. Mr Lindsay whistled. It was the first symptom of astonishment that he had manifested and I glanced quickly at him and saw a look of indescribable intelligence and almost undeniable cunning across his face. But it went as swiftly as it came and he merely nodded as if in surprise. I. Quick work Portal Thorpe. Oh he gave good reasons. answered Mr Portal Thorpe. He said from the first that he meant to do it. He wanted and his wife wanted too to get rid of these small and detached northern properties and buy a really fine one in the south of England keeping heathercloth as a sort of holiday seat. He'd no intention of selling that at any time. But there's the fact. He's sold pretty nearly everything else. I never heard of these sales of land. remarked Mr Lindsay. Oh they've all been sold by private treaty. replied Mr Portal Thorpe. The car stairs property was in parcels here and there. The last two baronets before this one had bought considerably in other parts. It was all valuable. There was no difficulty in selling to adjacent owners. Then if he's been selling to that extent Sir Gugliel, Sir Gugliel, must have large sums of money at command. Unless he's bought that new state you're talking of. said Mr Lindsay. He has not bought anything that I know of. answered Mr Portal Thorpe. And he must have had a considerable a very large sum of money at his bankers. All of which he continued looking keenly at Mr Lindsay makes me absolutely amazed to hear what you've just told me. It's very serious this charge you're implying against him Lindsay. Why should he want to take men's lives in this fashion? A man of his position, his great wealth. Portal Thorpe. Brogan Mr Lindsay. Didn't you tell me just now that this man according to his own account has lived the most adventurous life in all parts of the world? What more likely than that in the course of such a life he made acquaintance with queer characters and possibly did some queer things himself? Isn't it a significant thing that within a year of his coming into the title and estates two highly mysterious individuals turn up here and that all this foul play ensues? It's impossible now to doubt that Gilverthwaite and Philips came into these parts because this man was already here. If you've read all the stuff that's been in the papers and add to it just what we've told you about this last adventure with the yacht you can't doubt it either. It's very very strange all of it. Agreed Mr Portal Thorpe. Have you no theory Lindsay? I have a sort of one. Answered Mr Lindsay. I think Gilverthwaite and Philips probably were in possession of some secret about Sir Gilbert Castes and that Crone may have somehow got an inkling of it. Now as we know Gilverthwaite died suddenly and it's possible that Castes killed both Philips and Crone as he's certainly meant to kill this lad and what does it all look like? Before Mr Portal Thorpe could reply to that last question and while he was shaking his head over it one of our junior Clarks brought in Mrs Ralston of Craig at the mention of whose name Mr Lindsay immediately bustled forward. She was a shrewd, clever looking woman well under middle age who had been a widow for the last four or five years and was celebrated in our parts for being a very managing and interfering sort of body who chiefly occupied herself with works of charity and philanthropy and was prominent on committees and boards and she looked over the two solicitors as if they were candidates for examination and she is the examiner. I have been to the police to find out what all this talk is about Sir Gilbert Castes she began at once they tell me he know more than they do Mr Lindsay well what have you to say and what have you to say Mr Portal Thorpe you ought to know more than anybody what does it all amount to Mr Portal Thorpe whose face had become very dismal at the sight of Mrs Ralston turned as if seeking help to Mr Lindsay he was obviously taking her back by Mrs Ralston's questions he was afraid of her but Mr Lindsay was never afraid of anybody and he had once turned on his visitor before we answer your questions Mrs Ralston he said there's one I'll take leave to ask you when Sir Gilbert came back at your father's death did you recognise him Mrs Ralston tossed her head with obvious impatience now what ridiculous nonsense Mr Lindsay she exclaimed how on earth do you suppose that I could recognise a man whom I hadn't seen since I was a child of 7 and certainly not for at least 30 years of course I didn't impossible End of Chapter 26 recorded by Gazina in June 2007 Karen Savage Waco, Texas June 2007 Dead Men's Money by J. S. Fletcher Chapter 27 The Bank Balance It was now Mr Portal Thorpe and I who looked at each other with a mutual questioning what was Mr Lindsay hinting suggesting and Mr Portal Thorpe suddenly turned on him with a direct inquiry what is it your after Lindsay? he asked there's something in your mind a lot answered Lindsay and before I let it out I think we'd better fully inform Mrs Ralston of everything that's happened and of how things stand up to and including this moment this is the position Mrs Ralston and the facts and he went on to give his caller a brief but complete summary of all that he and Mr Portal Thorpe had just talked over you now see how matters are he concluded at the end of his epitome during his delivery of which the lady had gradually grown more and more portentous of Countins now what do you say Mrs Ralston spoke sharply and decisively precisely what I have felt inclined to say more than once of late she answered in spite of my subordinate position as a privileged but inferior member of the conference I could not help letting out a hasty exclamation of astonishment at that I was thoroughly and genuinely astounded such a notion as that had never once occurred to me unimposter? not the real man? the idea was amazing and Mr Portal Thorpe found it amazing too and he seconded my exclamation with another and emphasized it with an incredulous laugh my dear madam he said deprecatingly really that's impossible but Mr Lindsay, calmer than ever nodded his head confidently I am absolutely of Mrs Ralston's opinion he declared what she suggests I believe to be true unimposter he began to look very uneasy really he repeated really Lindsay, you forget that I examined into the whole thing I saw all the papers, letters, documents oh the suggestion is you'll pardon me Mrs Ralston, ridiculous no man could have been in possession of those documents unless he'd been the real man the absolute Simon pure why my dear lady he produced letters written by yourself when you were a little girl and all sorts of little private matters that there has been any imposter a reflection on me cleverer men than you have been taken in Portal Thorpe remarked Mr Lindsay and the matters you speak of might have been stolen but let Mrs Ralston give us her reasons for suspecting this man she has some strong ones I'll be bound Mr Portal Thorpe showed signs of irritation but Mrs Ralston promptly took up Mr Lindsay's challenge sufficiently strong to have made me very uneasy of late at any rate she turned to Mr Portal Thorpe you remember she went on that my first meeting with this man when he came to claim the title and estates was at your office in Newcastle a few days after he first presented himself to you he said then that he had not yet been down to have a clue but I have since found out that he had oh rather that he had been in the neighbourhood incognito that's a suspicious circumstance Mr Portal Thorpe excuse me ma'am I don't see it retorted Mr Portal Thorpe I don't see it at all I do then said Mrs Ralston suspicious because I his sister and only living relation was close by why didn't he come straight to me he was here he took a quiet look around before he let anyone know who he was that's one thing I have against him whatever you say it was very suspicious conduct and he lied about it in saying he had not been here when he certainly had been here but that's far from all the real Gilbert casters Mr Lindsay knows lived at Hathaclw house until he was 22 years old he was always at Hathaclw except when he was at Edinburgh University studying medicine he knew the whole of the district thoroughly but as I have found out for myself this man does not know the district I have discovered on visiting him that though I have not gone there much as I don't like either him or his wife that this is a strange country to him he knows next to nothing though he has done his best to learn of its features, its history, its people is it likely that a man who had lived on the border until he was 22 could forget all about it simply because he was away from it for 30 years although I was only 7 or 8 when my brother Gilbert left home I was then a very sharp child and I remember that he knew every mile of the country round Hathaclw but this man doesn't Mr Portalfork muttered something about it being very possible for a man to forget a tremendous lot in 30 years but Mrs Ralston and Mr Lindsay disent from their opinion as for me I was thinking of the undoubted fact that the supposed Sir Gilbert Carstairs had been obliged in my presence to use a map in order to find his exact whereabouts when he was literally within two miles of his own house another thing continued Mrs Ralston in my few visits to Hathaclw since he came I have found out that while he is very well posted up in certain details of our family history he is unaccountably ignorant of others with which he ought to have been perfectly familiar I found out too that he is exceedingly clever in avoiding subjects in which his ignorance might be detected but clever as he is he has more than once given me grounds for suspicion and I tell you plainly Mr Portalfork that since he has been selling property to the extent you report you ought at this juncture and as things are to find out how money matters stand he must have realised vast amounts in cash where is it at his bankers a new castle my dear madam replied Mr Portalfork where else should it be he has not yet made the purchase he contemplated so of course the necessary funds are waiting until he does I cannot but think that you and Mr Lindsay are mistaken and that there will be some proper and adequate explanation of all this and Portalfork exclaimed Mr Lindsay that's no good things have gone too far whether this man is a Gilbert casters or an imposter he did his best to murder my Clark and we suspect him of the murder of Crone and he's going to be brought to justice that's flat and your duty at presence is to fall in with us to this extent you must adopt Mrs Rauston's suggestion and ascertain how money matters stand as Mrs Rauston rightly says by the sale of these properties a vast amount of ready money must have been accumulated and at this man's disposal Portalfork we must know if it's true how can I tell you that demanded Mr Portalfork who was growing more and more nervous and peevish I've nothing to do with the Gilbert casters private banking account I can't go and ask point blank of his bankers how much money he has in their hands then I will exclaimed Mr Lindsay I know where he banks in Newcastle and I know the manager I shall go this very night to the manager's private house and tell him exactly everything that's transpired I shall tell him Mrs Rauston's and my own suspicions and I shall ask him where the money is do you understand that? the proper course to adopt said Mrs Rauston the one thing to do it must be done oh very well then in that case I suppose I'd better go with you said Mr Portalfork of course it's no use going to the bank they'll be closed but we can as you say go privately to the manager and we shall be placed in a very unenviable position if Sir Gilbert casters turns up with a perfectly good explanation of all this mystery Mr Lindsay pointed a finger at me he can't explain that he exclaimed he left that lad to drown is that attempted murder or isn't it? I tell you I'll have that man in the dock never mind who he is Hugh pass me the railway guide it was presently settled that Mr Portalfork and Mr Lindsay should go off to Newcastle by the next train to see the bank manager Mr Lindsay insisted that I should go with them he would have no hole and corner work he said and I should tell my own story to the man we were going to see so that he would know some of the ground of our suspicion Mrs Rauston supported that and when Mr Portalfork remarked that we were going too fast and were working up all the elements of a fine scandal she'd tartly remarked that if more care had been taken at the beginning all this would not have happened we found the bank manager at his private house outside Newcastle that evening he knew both my companions personally and he listened with great attention to all that Mr Lindsay as spokesman had to tell he also heard my story of the yacht affair he was an astute elderly man evidently quick at sizing things up and I knew by the way he turned to Mr Portalfork and by the glance he gave him after hearing everything that his conclusions were those of Mr Lindsay and Mrs Rauston I'm afraid there's something wrong Portalfork he remarked quietly the truth is I've had suspicions myself lately good god you don't mean it exclaimed Mr Portalfork how then? since Sir Gilbert began selling property continued the bank manager very large sums have been paid into his credit at our bank where previous to that he already had a very considerable balance but at the present moment we hold very little that is comparatively little money of his what? said Mr Portalfork what? you don't mean that during the past three or four months said the bank manager Sir Gilbert has regularly drawn very large checks in favour of a Mr John Paley they have been presented to us through the Scottish American Bank at Edinburgh and he added with a significant look at Mr Lindsay I think you'd better go to Edinburgh and find out who Mr John Paley is Mr Portalfork got up looking very white and frightened how much of all that money is there left in your hands? he asked hoarsely not more than a couple of thousand answered the bank manager with promptitude then he's paid out in the way you state what? demanded Mr Portalfork quite two hundred thousand pounds and concluded our informant with another knowing look now that I'm in possession of the facts but before me I should advise you to go and find out if Sir Gilbert Castells and John Paley are not one and the same person end of chapter 27 chapter 28 dead men's money this is a Libravox recording all Libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information all to volunteer please visit Libravox.org this reading by Lucy Burgoyne dead men's money by J. S. Fletcher chapter 28 they have the clue butler the three of us went away from the bank manager's house struggling with the various moods peculiar to our individual characters Mr Portalfork being naturally a nervous man given to despondency was greatly upset and manifested his emotions his sundry ejaculations of a dark nature I, being young was full of amazement at the news just given us of the excitement of hunting down the man we knew as Sir Gilbert Castells but I am not sure that Mr Lindsay struggled much with anything he was cool and phlegmatic as usual and immediately begun to think of practical measures look here Portalfork he said as soon as we were in the motor car which we had chartered from Newcastle station we've got to get going in this matter at once straight away we must be in Edinburgh as early as possible in the morning be guided by me come straight back to Berwick stop the night with me at my house and we'll be on our way to Edinburgh by the very first train we can get there early by the time the banks are open there's another reason why I want you to come I've some documents that I wish you to see documents that may have a very important bearing on this affair there's one in my pocket book now and you'll be astonished when you hear how it came into my possession but it's not one half so astonishing as another that I've got at my house I remember then that we had been so busily engaged since our return from the north that morning that we had had no time to go into the matter of the letter which Mr Gavin Smiton had entrusted to Mr Lindsay here again was going to be more work of the ferreting out sort but Mr Portalfork it was clear had no taste for mysteries and no great desire to forsake his own bed even for Mr Lindsay's hospitality and it needed insistence before he consented to go back to bear it with us go back however he did and before midnight we were in our own town again and passing the deserted streets towards Mr Lindsay's home I going with the others because Mr Lindsay insisted that it was now too late for me to go home and I should be nearer the station if I slept at his place and just before we got to the house which was a quiet villa standing in its own grounds a little north of the top end of the town a man who was saughtring ahead of us suddenly turned and came up to Mr Lindsay and in the light of a street lamp I recognised in him that they had a clue butler Mr Lindsay recognised the man too so also did Mr Portalfork and they both came to a dead halt staring and both wrapped out the same inquiry in identical words some news I looked as eagerly at the butler as I did he had been sour enough and pompous enough and an attitude to me that knight of my call on his master and it surprised me now to see how polite and swerve and in a fashion insinuating he was in his behaviour to the two solicitors he was a big, fleshy strongly built fellow with the rather flabby deeply lined face and a pallid complexion and top hat and as he stood there rubbing his hands glancing from Mr Lindsay to Mr Portalfork and speaking in soft oily, suggestive accents I felt that I disliked him even more than when he had addressed me in such supercilious accents at the doors of Hathaclw well, er not precisely news gentlemen he replied the truth is I wanted to see you privately Mr Lindsay sir, but of course I've no objections to speaking before Mr Portalfork as he's Sir Gilbert Solicitor perhaps I can come in with you Mr Lindsay the truth is I've been waiting about sir they said you'd gone to Newcastle and might be coming back by this last train and it's possibly of importance come in said Mr Lindsay he led us all into his house with his latch key and led us to his study where he closed the door now he went on turning to the butler what is it? you can speak freely we are all three Mr Portalfork, Mr Moneylaws and myself pretty well acquainted with all that is going on by this time and I'm perhaps not far wrong when I suggest that you know something the butler who had taken the chair which Mr Lindsay had pointed out rubbed his hands and looked at us with an undeniable expression of cunning and slinus well though he said in a low suggesting tone of voice a man in my position naturally gets to know things whether he wants to or not sometimes I have had ideas gentlemen for some time that something was wrong asked Mr Portalfork approaching to something of that nature sir replied the butler of course you will bear in mind that I am as it were a stranger I have only been in Sir Gilbert's car stairs employ nine months but I have eyes and ears and the long and short of it is gentlemen I believe Sir Gilbert and Lady car stairs have gone absolutely gone exclaimed Mr Portalfork good gracious Hollands you don't mean that I shall be much surprised if it is not found to be the case sir answered Hollands whose name I now heard for the first time and incidentally as it were I may mention that I think it will be discovered that a good deal has gone with them what property demanded Mr Portalfork impossible they couldn't carry property away going as they seem to have done or are said to have done Hollands cocked behind one of his big fat hands and glanced knowingly at Mr Lindsay who was listening silently but with deep attention I'm not so sure about that sir he said you're aware that there were certain small matters at Hathaclw of what we may term the heirloom nature though whether they were heirlooms or not I can't say the miniature of himself setting diamonds given by George III to the second baronet the neck place also diamonds which belong to the Queen of Spain the small picture priceless given to the fifth baronet by Azar of Russia and similar things Mr Portalfork and gentlemen the family jewels all of which had been reset they've got all those you mean to say of your own knowledge they're not at Hathaclw suddenly inquired Mr Lindsay I mean to say they positively are not sir replied the butler they were kept in a certain safe in a small room used by Lady Carstairs as her boudoir her ladyship left very hastily and secretly yesterday as I understand the police have told you and in her haste she forgot to lock up that safe which she had no doubt unlocked before her departure that safe sir the safety of those things at any rate God bless my soul exclaimed Mr Portalfork greatly agitated this is really terrible could she carry those things all of them on her bicycle by which I hear she left asked Mr Lindsay easily sir replied Hollands she had a small luggage carrier on her bicycle they were not bulky of course you've no idea where she went on that bicycle inquired Mr Lindsay Hollands smile cunningly and drew his chair a little nearer to us I hadn't when I went to Mr Murray at the police station this morning he answered but I've an idea now that's precisely why I came in to see you Mr Lindsay he put his hand inside his overcoat and produced a pocket book from which he presently drew out a scrap of paper after I'd seen Mr Murray this morning he continued I went back to Hathaclw and took it upon myself to have a look round I didn't find anything of a remarkably suspicious nature until this afternoon pretty late on the discovery about the safe in the voodwa that all the articles I've mentioned had disappeared then I began to examine a waste paper basket in the voodwa I've personally seen Lady Carstairs tear up some letters which she received yesterday morning by the first post and throw the scraps into that basket which hadn't been emptied since and I found this gentlemen and you can perhaps draw some conclusion from it I've had no difficulty in drawing one myself he laid on the table a torn scrapper paper over which all three of us at once bent there was no more on it than the terminations of lines but the wording was certainly suggestive at once quietly best time would be before lunch at Kelso usual place in Glasgow Mr Portalfork started at sight of the handwriting that's Sir Gilbert's he exclaimed no doubt of that what are we to understand by it Lindsay what do you make of this ask Mr Lindsay turning to Hollands you say you've drawn a deduction I make this out sir answered the butler quietly yesterday morning there were only four letters for Lady Carstairs two were from London in the handwriting of ladies one was a tradesman's letter from Newcastle the fourth was in a registered envelope and the address was typewritten and the postmark Edinburgh I'm convinced Mr Lindsay that the registered one contained that a letter do you understand from Sir Gilbert I found other scraps of it but so small that it's impossible to piece them together though I have them here and I conclude that he gave Lady Carstairs orders to cycle to Kelso an easy ride for her and to take the train to Glasgow where he'd meet her Glasgow sir is a highly convenient city I believe there are people who wish to disappear and I should suggest that Glasgow should be communicated with have you ever known Sir Gilbert Carstairs visit Glasgow recently asked Mr Lindsay who had listened attentively to all this he was there three weeks ago replied Hollands and Edinburgh suggested Mr Lindsay he went regularly to Edinburgh at one time twice a week said the butler and then Mr Lindsay not making any further remark he glanced at him and at Mr Pawkelfalt of course gentlemen he continued this is all between ourselves I feel at my duty you know Mr Lindsay answered that we all understood the situation and presently he let the man out after a whispered sentence or two between them in the hall then he came back to us and without a word as to what had just transpired through the smitten letter from his pocket End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 of Dead Men's Money this is a Libri Vox recording all Libri Vox recordings are in the public domain for more information please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ian Skillan Dead Men's Money by JS Fletcher Chapter 29 all in order so that we might have it to ourselves we had returned from Newcastle to Berwick in a first class compartment and in its privacy Mr Lindsay had told Mr Pawkelfalt the whole of the smitten story Mr Pawkelfalt had listened so it seemed to me with a good deal of irritation and impatience he was clearly one of those people who do not like interference with what they regard as an established order of things and it evidently irked him to have any questions raised as to the castiers affairs which of course he himself had done much to settle when Sir Gilbert succeeded to the title in his opinion the whole thing was cut, dried and done with and he was still impatient and restive when Mr Lindsay laid before him the letter which Mr Gavin smitten had lent us and invited him to look carefully at the handwriting he made no proper response to that invitation what he did was to give a peevish glance at the letter and then push it aside with an equally peevish exclamation what are I he said it conveys nothing to me take your time portal thought remonstrated Mr Lindsay who was unlocking a drawer in his desk it'll perhaps convey something to you when you compare that writing with a certain signature which I shall now show you this he continued as he produced Gilbert's way his will and laid it before his visitor is the will of the man who's coming to Berwick ushered in all these mysteries now and then do you see who was one of the witnesses to the will look man Mr portal thought looked and was startled out of his peevishness God bless me exclaimed Michael Carstairs just that said Mr Lindsay now then compare Michael Carstairs handwriting with the handwriting of that letter come here here you too have a look and there's no need for any very close or careful looking either no need for expert calligraphic evidence or for the use of microscopes I'll stake all on worth that that signature and that letter are the work of the same hand now that I saw this meeting letter and the signature of the first witness to Gilbert's way his will side by side I had no hesitation in thinking as Mr Lindsay did it was an exceptionally curious not to say eccentric handwriting some of the letters were oddly formed other letters were indicated rather than formed at all it seemed impossible that two different individuals could write in that style it was rather the style developed for himself by a man who scorned all conventional matters and was a self distinct in his penmanship as he probably was in his life and thoughts anyway there was an undeniable an extra ordinary similarity and even Mr Portal Thorpe had to admit that it was undoubtedly there he threw off his impatience and irritability and became interested and grave that's very strange and uncommonly important Lindsay said yes I am certainly inclined to agree with you now what do you make of it if you want to know my precise idea replied Mr Lindsay is just this Michael Carstairs and Martin Smeaton are one and the same man or I should say where that's about it Portal Thorpe then in that case that young fellow at Dundee is Michael Carstairs son exclaimed Mr Portal Thorpe in my opinion that's not far off the truth said Mr Lindsay you've hit it but Michael Carstairs was never married declared Mr Portal Thorpe Mr Lindsay picked up Gilverthwaith's will and the Smeaton letter and carefully locked him away in his drawer I'm not so sure about that to your mark dryly Michael Carstairs was very evidently a queer man who did a lot of things in a peculiar fashion of his own and the solicitor is sent as formal proof of his death from Havana previous to Sir Alexander's death said distinctly that Michael had never been married interrupted Mr Portal Thorpe and surely he would know and I say just as surely that from all I've heard of Michael Carstairs there'd be a lot of things that no solicitor would know even if he sat at Michael's dying bed richtored Mr Lindsay but we'll see and talking of beds and that we were all between the sheets for it's one o'clock in the morning and we'll have to be staring again at six sharp and I'll tell you what we'll do Portal Thorpe to save time we'll just take a mere cup of coffee and a mouthful of bread here and we'll break fast in Edinburgh we'll be there by 8.30 so now you come to your beds he marsaled us upstairs here Mr Portal Thorpe had already taken the nightcaps while they talked and when he had bestowed the senior visitor in his room he came to me and mine carrying an alarm clock which he sat down at my bed head Hugh my man he said you'll have to stir yourself an hour before Mr Portal Thorpe and me I've set that implement for five o'clock get yourself up when it rings and make yourself ready and go round to Murray at the police station rouse him out of his bed tell him what we heard from that man Hollins tonight and bid him communicate with the Glasgow police to look out for Sir Gilbert Carstairs tell him too that we're going on to Edinburgh and why and that if need be I'll ring him up from the station atel during the morning with any news we have and I'll ask for his at the same time insist on his getting in touch with Glasgow it's there without doubt that Lady Carstairs went off and where Sir Gilbert would meet her let him start inquiries about the shipping offices and the like and that's all and get your bit of sleep I had Murray out of his bed before half past five that morning and I laid it on him heavily about the Glasgow affair which as we came to know later was the biggest mistake we made and one that involved us in no end of so trouble and at a quarter past six Mr Lindsay and Mr Portal Thorpe and I were drinking our coffee and blinking at each other over the rims of the cups but Mr Lindsay was sharp enough of his wits even at that hour and before we set off from Berwick he wrote out a telegram to Mr Gavin Smeaton asking him to meet us in Edinburgh during the day so that Mr Portal Thorpe might make his acquaintance this telegram he left with his housekeeper to be dispatched as soon as the post office was open and then we were off and by half past eight we were at breakfast in the Waverley station and as the last stroke of ten was sounding from the Edinburgh clocks we were walking into the premises of the Scottish American Bank the manager who presently received us in his private rooms looked at Mr Lindsay and Mr Portal Thorpe with evidence of prize it may have been that there was a mystery in their countenances I know that I in my part felt as if a burblined man might have seen that I was clothed about with mystery from the crown of my head to the sill of my foot and he appears still more surprised when Mr Lindsay briefly but fully explained why we called upon him oh of course I've read the newspapers about your strange doings at Berwick he observed when Mr Lindsay, aided by some remarks from Mr Portal Thorpe had come to the end of his explanation and I gather that you now want to know what we here know of Sir Gilbert Carstairs and Mr John Paley I can reply to that in a sentence nothing that is to their discredit they are too thoroughly estimable and trustworthy gentlemen so far as we are aware oh then there is a Mr John Paley demanded Mr Lindsay who is obviously surprised the manager evidently was also surprised by the signs of Mr Lindsay's surprise Mr John Paley is a stockbroker in this city he replied quite well known the fact is we well that is I introduced Sir Gilbert Carstairs to him perhaps he continued blancing from one gentleman to the other I'd better tell you all the facts the very simple and quite of an ordinary nature Sir Gilbert Carstairs came in here introducing himself some months ago he told me that he was intending to sell off a good deal of the Carstairs property and that he wanted to reinvest his proceeds in the very best American securities I gathered that he had spent a lot of time in America and that he preferred America to England and ensured that he had a decided intention of going back to the States keeping Hathercloak as a place to come to occasionally he asked me if I could recommend him a broker here in Edinburgh who was thoroughly well acquainted with the very best of American investments and I at once recommended Mr John Paley that's all I know gentlemen except remarked Mr Lindsay that you know that considerable transactions have taken place between Mr Paley and Sir Gilbert Carstairs we know that from what we heard last night in Newcastle precisely then you know as much as I can tell I have supplied the manager but I have no objection to saying that large sums of money coming from Sir Gilbert Carstairs have certainly been passed through Mr Paley's banking account here and I suppose Mr Paley has made the investments which Sir Gilbert desired in fact I know he has and well I should suggest you calling Mr Paley himself we went away upon that and it seemed to me that Mr Lindsay was somewhat taken aback but we're no sooner clear of the bank than Mr Bottle thought a little triumphantly a little maliciously turned on him there whether I say exclaimed everything's in order you see Lindsay I confess I'm surprised to hear about all those American investments but after all Sir Gilbert has a right to do what he likes with his own I told you we were running our heads against the wall personally I don't see what use there is in seeing this Mr Paley we're only interfering with other people's business as I say Sir Gilbert can make what disposally pleases of his own property and what I say Portal thought retorted Mr Lindsay is that I'm going to be convinced that it is his own property I'm going to see Paley whether you do or not and you'll be a fool if you don't come Mr Portal thought protested but he accompanied us and we were very soon in Mr John Paley's office a quiet self-possessed sort of man who should know a surprise at our experience indeed he at once remarked that the bank manager had just telephoned that we were on the way and why then I'll ask you a question at once Sir Mr Lindsay and I'm sure you'll be good enough to answer it when did you last see Sir Gilbert car stairs Mr Paley immediately turned to a diary which lay on his desk and gave one glance at it three days ago he answered promptly Wednesday 11 o'clock end of chapter 29 recording by Ian Skillan