Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
Now, my dear cousin, Mr. B., charming as he is in many points, has the
little peculiarity of liking to change his lodgings once every three
months on an average, which occasions some bewilderment to his country
friends, who have no sooner learnt the 19 Belle Vue Road, Hampstead,
than they have to take pains to forget that address, and to remember the
27-1/2, Upper Brown Street, Camberwell; and so on, till I would rather
learn a page of "Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary," than try to remember
the variety of directions which I have had to put on my letters to Mr.
B. during the last three years. Last summer it pleased him to remove to
a beautiful village not ten miles out of London, where there is a
railway station. Thither his friend sought him. (I do not now speak of
the following scent there had been through three or four different
lodgings, where Mr. B. had been residing, before his country friend
ascertained that he was now lodging at R----.) He spent the morning in
making inquiries as to Mr. B.'s whereabouts in the village; but many
gentlemen were lodging there for the summer, and neither butcher nor
baker could inform him where Mr. B. was staying; his letters were
unknown at the post-office, which was accounted for by the circumstance
of their always being directed to his office in town. At last the
country friend sauntered back to the railway office, and while he
waited for the train he made inquiry, as a last resource, of the
book-keeper at the station. "No, sir, I cannot tell you where Mr. B.
lodges--so many gentlemen go by the trains; but I have no doubt but that
the person standing by that pillar can inform you." The individual to
whom he directed the inquirer's attention had the appearance of a
tradesman--respectable enough, yet with no pretensions to "gentility,"
and had, apparently, no more urgent employment than lazily watching the
passengers who came dropping in to the station. However, when he was
spoken to, he answered civilly and promptly. "Mr. B.? tall gentleman,
with light hair? Yes, sir, I know Mr. B. He lodges at No. 8 Morton
Villas--has done these three weeks or more; but you'll not find him
there, sir, now. He went to town by the eleven o'clock train, and does
not usually return until the half-past four train."
The country friend had no time to lose in returning to the village, to
ascertain the truth of this statement. He thanked his informant, and
said he would call on Mr. B. at his office in town; but before he left
R---- station, he asked the book-keeper who the person was to whom he
had referred him for information as to his friend's place of residence.
"One of the detective police, sir," was the answer. I need hardly say,
that Mr. B., not without a little surprise, confirmed the accuracy of
the policeman's report in every particular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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