Detective and mystery stories; Girls -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction
“I was rather a fool, wasn’t I?” he said without any trace of
embarrassment. “Yes, I went into the Church. But I should have let you
know.”
“The money!” she said, suddenly. “The money you gave me--you will want
that?”
He laughed a little sheepishly.
“I wondered if any was left. Honestly, I need money just now. My boys’
club is insolvent and the new church hall wants an organ....”
She nodded. She was still bewildered. Almost hysterical. And then came
an excited Bobbie with a rush, flinging open the door.
“Diana!” he began.
Behind him stood Gordon. A somewhat severely clad Gordon, yet different.
She ran to him--before she realised what happened, she had kissed him.
Gordon returned the kiss without any visible effort.
“Gordon, do you know the Reverend Guiseppi Dempsi? You’ve heard me talk
about Mr. Dempsi?”
Gordon stared at the priest open-mouthed.
“The Reverend Guiseppi Dempsi?” he said. “I thought--er----” He grasped
the hand of the smiling clergyman. “I knew it couldn’t be that little
... how do you do?”
“Diana and I are very old acquaintances--old friends, I ought to say,”
said Dempsi, beaming from one to the other. “Old lovers, I nearly said,
but the love was a little one-sided.” He chuckled.
“Extraordinary!” Gordon could say no more.
“But, Gordon, how is it you’re back? I had a wire this morning from
Inverness. You couldn’t have got back----”
“By aeroplane,” said Gordon without a blush. “I had a feeling that all
was not well with you.”
“Gordon, did you really?” Her colour came and went. “You are psychic,
aren’t you? And Gordon, dear, you’ve had your whiskers shaved!”
He nodded gravely.
“I meant to tell you I intended doing that--you once said that you did
not like them. No more than that was necessary. They vanished in the
twinkling of an eye.”
It was Gordon’s moment. He was colossal.
Eleanor opened the front door to a gentleman who was difficult to place.
“Miss Ford at home?”
“Yes, sir, but she’s engaged.”
The stranger had no visiting-card apparently, for he announced himself.
“I am Inspector Carslake from Scotland Yard,” he said. “I should like to
see the safe that was opened last night. It isn’t necessary to disturb
Miss Ford.”
Eleanor, in a flutter, opened the door wider and showed him into The
Study.
“...leave by the first train,” Mr. Dempsi was saying. “We’ll split
later.”
“We’ll split before we part,” said Heloise firmly, “for fear an accident
happens--to the money.”
The other shrugged.
“I’d hate to have a mind like yours,” he said.
And then the visitor came in. Heloise recognised him before he saw her
face. There was a newspaper within reach, and she snatched it up,
disappeared behind the printed page, and, reading, walked slowly from
The Study into the little library.
“Don’t go,” said Dempsi.
Then he too saw the detective, and here the recognition was mutual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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