Читать книгу When the Sea Gives Up Its Dead. A Thrilling Detective Story онлайн

26 страница из 49

Three days later another budget from Annie was being discussed in Mr. Cory’s drawing-room. This time Miss Cory had an additional listener. Mrs. Riddell had been persuaded to take up her abode here for an indefinite period. Her house had been let furnished until such time as she was likely to require it again. Hilton was also visiting here at present, and was ready to do anything or go anywhere to help to prove his brother’s innocence. The fact that his mother was in such good hands, instead of being left to mope and grieve in childless loneliness, heartened him considerably for the work which he was convinced lay before him.

“Since writing to you last,” read Miss Cory, “I have made a wonderful discovery. I am quite sure that Hugh Stavanger, whose evidence was the principal means of ensuring Harley’s condemnation, is the thief we are in search of. Last night at twelve o’clock, when all the household was supposed to be asleep, Mr. Stavanger was fuming in the dining-room at the belated return home of his hopeful son, who, I have gathered, has got into the habit of staying out late at night. At eleven o’clock I had heard the hall door open, and someone ran upstairs to Hugh Stavanger’s room, shutting the bedroom door behind him. The servants, who had not seen the entrance of Mr. Hugh, but had heard the noisy run up to his room, concluded that it was he who had come in. Everybody else being at home, they locked and barred the doors for the night, and then went to bed. But I, who had resolved to let nothing escape my notice, if it could be helped, knew that a little pantomime was being enacted for the benefit of the unsuspicious servants, for it was Mr. Stavanger who had come noiselessly downstairs, and had imitated his son’s manner of entering the house and going upstairs. The latter was still away from home.