Detective and mystery stories; Stone, Fleming (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
But Iris didn't want to take a maid along, and, too, Agnes didn't want
to go.
"I'll go if you say so," Agnes demurred, "but I'd hate to leave here
just now. Sam is on one of his spells, and I ought to look after him."
"Oh, yes," and Iris smiled at her, "that's one word for Sam and two for
yourself! I think that good-looking young man who calls on you has more
power to keep you in Berrien than poor Sam!"
Agnes blushed, but didn't deny it.
So Iris went to Chicago alone. She went to a woman's hotel, and
established herself there. Then she set out in search of the church that
Mrs. Pell used to attend.
The rector, Dr. Stephenson, was a kindly, courteous old man, who
received her with a pleasant welcome. He well remembered Ursula Pell,
and was deeply interested in the mystery of her tragic death. It was
many years since she had lived in Chicago, and his definite memories of
her were largely concerning the pranks she used to play, for even the
minister had not been spared her annoying fooleries.
But he knew nothing of any gift of a jeweled chalice, and said he really
had no desire for such a thing.
"It would only be a temptation to thieves," he asserted, "and the price
of it could be much better expended in some more useful way."
"Is there a crypt in your church?" asked Iris, abruptly.
"No; nothing of the sort. Or--well, that is, there is a room below the
main floor that could be called a crypt, I suppose, but it is never used
as a chapel, or for mortuary purposes. Why?"
Iris told him of the entry in her aunt's diary stating that the
collection of jewels was in a crypt, and Dr. Stephenson smiled.
"Not in my church," he said, "of that I'm positive. The basement I speak
of has no hidden places nor has anybody ever concealed anything there.
You may search there if you choose, but it is useless. To my mind, it
sounds more like a bank vault. That might be called a crypt, if one
chose so to speak of it."
"Perhaps," said Iris, disappointed at this fruitless effort. "I will go
to the Industrial Bank and inquire. That is the bank where my aunt kept
her money when she lived here."
The people at the bank were also kind and courteous, but not so much at
leisure as the rector had been. They gave Iris no encouraging
information. They looked up their records, and found that Mrs. Pell had
had an account with them some years ago, but that it had been closed out
when she left the city. There were no properties of hers, of any sort,
in their custody, and no one of their vaults was rented in her name.
They seemed uninterested in Iris' story, and after their assurances the
girl went away.
Next she went to the firm of Craig, Marsden & Co., to see if she could
trace the receipt that was mentioned in Mrs. Pell's will as being of
importance to Winston Bannard.
A Mr. Reed attended to her errand.
"A vague description," he said, smiling, as she told him of the will.
"To be sure, our books will show the name, but it will take some time to
look it up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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