The sea mystery : $b An Inspector French detective storyCrofts, Freeman Wills
General
The sea mystery : $b An Inspector French detective story
Crofts, Freeman Wills
Detective and mystery stories; French, Joseph (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Police -- Great Britain -- Fiction
“The engine was as right as rain,” Mr. Makepeace asseverated with
ill-repressed impatience.
“I’m glad to know that. I asked because I’ve known trouble through
shortage of water in the radiator. I suppose there was plenty that
night?”
“The radiator was full; my son noticed it particularly. You see, on
account of the mascot sticking out behind, you have to take off the
radiator cap before you can lift the bonnet. When he was taking off
the cap he noticed the water.”
French turned as if to close the discussion.
“I don’t think I need worry about the chance of more trouble with it,”
he agreed. “Surely, Mr. Makepeace, you have her clean enough now? I
think we’ll get away.”
As they swung out along the Tavistock road French’s heart had fallen
to the depths. If what this garage owner said were true, the
Berlyn-Pyke affair was an accident and he, French, was on the wrong
track. However, he had made his plans and he would carry them out.
Banishing his disappointment from his mind, he prepared to enjoy his
trip.
The road led from the west end of the town through scenery which was
more than enough to hold his attention. The country was charmingly
wooded, but extraordinarily hilly. Never had French seen such hills.
No sooner had they climbed interminably out of one valley than they
were over the divide and dropping down an equally break-neck precipice
into the next. French was interested in the notices to motor drivers
adjuring them to put their cars into lowest gear before attempting to
descend. Three of these well-wooded valleys they crossed—the last the
famous meeting of the waters, Dartmeet—and each had its dangerously
narrow bridge approached by sharp right-angled bends. The climb beyond
Dartmeet took them up on to the open moor, wild, lonely, rolling in
great sweeps of heather-clad country like the vast swelling waves of
some mighty petrified ocean. Here and there these huge sweeps ran up
into jagged rocky crests, as if the dancing foam of the caps had been
arrested in midair and turned into grim shapes of black stone. Once
before French had been on Dartmoor, when he had gone down to Princeton
to see one of the unfortunates in the great prison. But he had not
then been out on the open moor, and he felt impressed by the wide
spaces and the desolation.
The sergeant’s attention being fully occupied with his wheel, he
proved himself a silent companion, and, beyond pointing out the
various objects of interest, made no attempt at conversation. Mostly
in silence they drove some eight or nine miles, and then suddenly the
man pulled up.
“This is the place, sir.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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