Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Landowners -- Fiction
"Yes. I remember he went to see the doctor when he first came,"
replied Rupert mechanically. "I was in the church with Miss Mallien,
and Carrington, on his way back to The Big House, looked in about his
tooth on Tollart." He paused, then continued: "What train was it?"
"The one which leaves Liverpool Street at eight."
"That arrives here at a quarter past nine," said Hendle meditatively.
"Yes, and as the vicar was murdered at eleven, Mr. Carrington had
plenty of time to make his plans."
"I can't believe that Carrington is the assassin," muttered Hendle, in
dismay, for he dreaded lest he should prove the accusation to be true.
"Did Dr. Tollart connect Carrington with the murder?"
"No. If he had, he would have spoken out. He took little notice of Mr.
Carrington, thinking he was coming down on a visit to you. And as Mr.
Carrington was with you the next day, of course the doctor believed
that it was as he had thought."
"Yes, I see. But Carrington did not come on that night. He came by the
midday train next day."
"The doctor didn't know that," said Kit, nodding; "in fact, he thought
no more about the matter after he told Sophy, and he only told her as
a piece of gossip, you understand."
"Yes! yes! I see that, as Carrington was with me the next day, his
presence in the eight o'clock train on the previous night would arouse
no suspicion in Tollart's mind. Still, his being at Barship on that
night doesn't mean that he killed the vicar."
"Well," said Kit, with a wisdom beyond his years, "I rather think that
it is very good evidence against him. You had told him about the will,
and he knew what it meant to you. What he said when you kicked him out
the other day shows that he wants a large sum of money. He intended
perhaps to stun the vicar and get the will, so as to make his terms
with you; but the vicar, having heart disease, died straightway. For
that reason Mr. Carrington buried the will, and sent an anonymous
letter to my mother."
"But Mr. Carrington did not know where the sundial was. How, then,
could he find it in the nighttime, hidden as it was among the bushes?"
"Oh, I can't explain everything," said Beatson frankly; "but you must
admit, sir, that it is odd Mr. Carrington should have been in Barship
on the night of the murder, without saying a word to you. If his
intentions had been innocent, he would have come for the night to
you."
"True enough, Kit. I wonder where he did spend the night?"
Kit shrugged his shoulders. "You will have to ask him that. I really
believe that he is the guilty person."
"But what about that opal in the matrix which belongs to my cousin? It
was found by me on the verge of the hole where the will was buried."
"Did you find it?"
"Well, no. It was Carrington who pointed it out glittering among the
grasses. I merely picked it up."
"Well," said Kit, with a judicial air, "the person who loses generally
manages to find. How do you know that Mr. Carrington didn't drop the
opal there when your back was turned?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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