Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Police -- England -- Fiction
The quarry led steadily on in a northwesterly direction, Constable
Walker following at a considerable distance behind. At the end of the
Holloway Road it passed through Highgate, and continued out along the
Great North Road. By this time it was growing dusk, and the constable
drew slightly closer so as not to miss it if it made a sudden turn.
For nearly four miles the chase continued. It was now nearly eight,
and Constable Walker reflected with a transient feeling of regret
that ‘Lured by Love’ would then be in full swing. All immediate
indications of the city had been left behind. The country was now
suburban, the road being lined by detached and semidetached villas,
with an occasional field bearing a ‘Building Ground to Let’ notice.
The night was warm and very quiet. There was still light in the west,
but an occasional star was appearing eastwards. Soon it would be
quite dark.
Suddenly the dray stopped and a man got down and opened the gate of a
drive on the right-hand side of the road. The constable melted into
the hedge some fifty yards behind and remained motionless. Soon he
heard the dray move off again and the hard, rattling noise of the
road gave place to the softer, slightly grating sound of gravel. As
the constable crept up along the hedge he could see the light of the
dray moving towards the right.
A narrow lane branched off in the same direction immediately before
reaching the property into which the dray had gone. The drive, in
fact, was only some thirty feet beyond the lane and, so far as the
constable could see, both lane and drive turned at right angles to
the road and ran parallel, one outside and the other inside the
property. The constable slipped down the lane, thus leaving the thick
boundary hedge between himself and the others.
It was nearly though not quite dark, and the constable could make out
the rather low outline of the house, showing black against the sky.
The door was in the end gable facing the lane and was open, though
the house was entirely in darkness. Behind the house, from the end of
the gable and parallel to the lane, ran a wall about eight feet high,
evidently the yard wall, in which was a gate. The drive passed the
hall door and gable and led up to this gate. The buildings were close
to the lane, not more than forty feet from where the constable
crouched. Immediately inside the hedge was a row of small trees.
Standing in front of the yard gate was the dray, with one man at the
horse’s head. As the constable crept closer he heard sounds of
unbarring, and the gate swung open. In silence the man outside led
the dray within and the gate swung to.
The spirit of adventure had risen high in Constable Walker, and he
felt impelled to get still closer to see what was going on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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