"Several times," replied Bernard, with no very pleased expression. "I
assisted him with money."
"He is the kind of person who will always have to be assisted," was the
lawyer's reply. "I fear he is a scamp, old fellow."
"So my grandfather said. I don't think he is a good man myself. All the
same he was my mother's brother, and I must assist him."
"He'll give you every opportunity to do so," said Durham, dryly. "I had
a visit from him the other day?"
"What did he want?"
"His errand was similar to that of Mrs. Gilroy's. He wished to know if
Sir Simon had made any provision for him in the will. I don't know on
what grounds he based his claim, as your grandfather hated him. But he
evidently expected to be remembered. I told him he would get nothing,
and then with true Italian excitability he began to lament that you had
not lived, saying you would have helped him."
"I shall certainly do that. He is my uncle when all is said and done.
What is he doing?"
"Playing the violin in some orchestra. The fellow is a gentleman,
Bernard, but a thorough scamp. Since he can earn his own bread I don't
think it is wise for you to let him live on your money."
"There's no chance at present of my letting him believe I will allow
that," said Gore, rather dolefully. "What else did he say?"
"Rather a strange thing. He said that he told Sir Simon that the Red
Lamp would not bring you."
"The Red Window, you mean. My uncle knew about that one at the Hall.
When my mother was alive, and staying--as she did for a time--with Sir
Simon, she used to put a light in the Red Window so as to tell Tolomeo
that she would meet him in the garden on that evening. The window is
visible through a long avenue, and can easily be seen from the road
which runs past the grounds. My poor mother used it as a signal to her
brother, as Lucy used it as a signal to me. And I believe that in days
gone by--in Charles the First's days--it was used in a like manner to
warn loyal cavaliers."
"Tolomeo did not say the Red Window," replied Durham, wrinkling his
brows, "but the Red Lamp, which makes me think he must have been with
Sir Simon on that fatal evening."
Bernard looked up alertly, and his brow grew dark. "How do you make that
out?"
"Well," said Durham, after a pause, "I questioned Jane Riordan again
about the possibility of there having been a red light visible!"
"There was," interrupted Gore, decisively. "I saw it myself."
"And Mrs. Webber saw it, although afterwards it disappeared. Well, Jane
told me that there was a lamp on the table in front of the window. She
saw it when she went up with the cook and Miss Randolph."
"I remember. I was in the grip of the policeman then," said Gore.
"Well, it is strange, seeing that the apartment was lighted by
electricity, that a lamp should have stood in front of the window."
"What do you infer?" asked Bernard, doubtfully and uneasily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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