The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher QuarlesBrebner, Percy James
General
The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles
Brebner, Percy James
Detective and mystery stories
Had I? It couldn't have been a dream, and yet faith in myself was shaken.
It was possible I had only walked across the room a second time in my
dreams. One thing is certain, I did not fall asleep again that night.
I had arranged with the constable in Manleigh Road that he should keep a
careful watch at dawn. We should leave then by the same way as we had
entered, and he was to signal to us if the coast was clear.
It was an essential part of my plan that no one should know the house had
been occupied that night. I had kept watch, thinking that if harm were
intended to Quarles the trap would be made ready previously. How and by
whom I had not fully considered. Now I determined not to leave the house
during the day.
I would be there when Quarles came that night.
I scribbled a note to him, explaining what I was doing, and I said that
if the agent should accompany him to the house I would remain hidden
until the agent had gone. This note I gave to Burroughs, and instructed
him to explain matters to the constable.
I had provided myself with a flask and some dry biscuits in case of
contingencies, and prepared to pass the day as comfortably as I could. It
is needless to say that in daylight I examined that haunted room again,
especially the looking-glass.
It was in an ornamental wooden frame fixed on the wall, formed, in fact,
a finish to a wooden dado. It was like the fixed overmantel one finds
sometimes in small modern villas, only it wasn't over the mantelpiece.
I think there was nothing in the room which I did not examine carefully,
but I did not sit there; I preferred the front room.
It was an immense relief when I saw Quarles and another man, the agent,
come through the gate.
It was between eight and nine, and I retired to the basement to be out of
the way. The agent stayed about half an hour, and they were chiefly in
the haunted room together.
"I sincerely hope your report will set at rest this silly idea that the
house is haunted," I heard the agent say as they came down to the hall.
"When my client returns he will be pretty mad about it."
"When does he return?" asked Quarles.
"I don't know. I haven't had a line from him since he went away, but
the sum I have received for him in rent doesn't amount to much, I can
tell you."
I expected to find the professor rather ill-tempered at my interference,
but I found him inclined to raillery.
"Are you hunting a murderer or a ghost, Wigan?" he asked.
"I am not quite sure, but I think at the back of my mind there is an idea
to keep you out of the clutches of the subtle personality of whom you are
afraid. Come up to the haunted room; we will talk there, but it must be
in whispers. If I have had any success it is believed that you are in
this house alone to-night."
"A foolish old man alone, eh?"
"In this instance I am inclined to answer yes."
"You are quite right to say exactly what you think," he returned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account