John Herring: A West of England Romance. Volume 3 (of 3)Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
General
John Herring: A West of England Romance. Volume 3 (of 3)
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
West Country (England) -- Fiction
’She can send for the blacksmith, I cannot. Leave them with me. I want
to look inside that drawer. There is a file in the cupboard, and I can
make a key fit the lock I intend to open. Thank you, Orange. You are a
good sister—worthy of me. You do credit to your father also. Now you
may go.’
In the night a tap sounded at the door of Willapark office. Sampson had
been working hard and was tired. He was snoozing in the chair over the
fire. He started instantly to full consciousness and in alarm. His
fears subsided when the door opened, and he saw Orange enter, very white
and trembling.
’Well,’ he said, ’what have you brought me?’
’A little money,’ she answered, ’not much. I could not get much for you.
I have had a quarrel with Mirelle—about you.’
’Have you brought me the diamonds?’
’No, and did not intend to do so; but I know where they are, and they
are where you cannot get them.’
’Where is that?’
’In a very strong oak bureau in the room over the porch, and in a secret
drawer in the well of that. That room cannot be entered except through
the hall, main stairs, and Mirelle’s bedroom. So put the thought of the
diamonds out of your head. The bureau is always locked, and Mirelle
keeps the key. Even if you got into the room, which is not possible,
unobserved, you would not be able to open the cabinet. There—that is
the end of that foolish dream, and I am glad of it. Had you taken them,
I might have been suspected. I have had a quarrel with Mirelle—about
you. But I must sit down moment, Sampson, and then run back.’ She was
out of breath; she spoke in short sentences, breathing hard between
each. ’When we were together, she began to speak about the pendant she
had given me, and to ask for it back. She said she would have the paste
diamonds removed, and real stones put in their places. She told me that
her necklace had been examined, and that it had been found that some
only of the stones in it were false. A lady’s maid of her mother had
tampered with the jewels. Then she desired to compare my brooch, with
its paste diamonds, with the real stones in her necklace; she got up and
went to the bureau; she took the key out of her purse. There was a
secret drawer opening out of a sort of well in the middle, and she
brought the set of stones out of that. After that we had compared the
false with the real diamonds she returned the necklace to its place,
relocked the cabinet, and replaced the key in her purse. Then we began
to speak about you. I told her that you were without any money, that
you had lost everything in the ship, and had been further robbed by the
men who saved your life. She asked what of?—of the stolen money? I
then begged her to let you have something to help you to get away. She
set her lips, and put on that stubborn look I know so well. She would
give nothing. You had robbed Mr. Flamank and many others, and it was
your duty to surrender yourself and suffer for your misdeeds. If you
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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