The Silent Shore: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
General
The Silent Shore: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
English fiction -- 19th century
With the exception of the medical evidence, which stated that he had
been stabbed to, and through, the heart by one swift, powerful blow,
that must have caused instantaneous death, there was little more to be
told. Judging from the state of the ground, there had been no
struggle, a fact which would justify the idea that the murder had been
planned and premeditated. The workman might have easily planned it
himself in the time he followed him from outside his club to the time
they were in the Park together, but he would have had to be provided
with an extraordinarily long knife, such as workmen rarely carry. But,
even had he not been the murderer, he must have seen the murder
committed, since he was close at hand. It was, therefore, imperative
that this man should be found. But to find one man in a city with four
millions and a quarter of inhabitants was no easy task, especially
when there was nothing by which to trace him. The sentry by whom he
passed nearest thought he seemed to be a man of about five or six and
twenty, with a brown moustache. But how many thousands of men were
there in London to whom this description would apply!
Lord Penlyn sat there reading the "Specials," listening to the
different opinions expressed, and particularly noting the revengeful
utterances of men who had known Cundall. Their grief was loud, and
strongly uttered, and it was evident that the regular police, or
detective, force might be, if necessary, augmented by amateurs who
would leave no stone unturned to try and get a clue to the murderer.
Amongst others, he noticed one young man who was particularly
grief-stricken, and who was constantly appealed to by those who
surrounded him; and, on asking a fellow-member who he was, he learnt
that he was a Mr. Stuart, the secretary of his dead brother. It
happened that he had been brought into the club by a man who had known
Cundall well.
"To-morrow," Penlyn heard him say, and he started as he heard it, "I
am going to make a thorough investigation of all his papers. As far as
I or his City agents know, he hadn't a relation in the world; but
surely his correspondence must give us some idea of whom to
communicate with. And, until this morning, I should have said he had
not got an enemy in the world either."
"You think, then, that this dastardly murder is the work of an enemy,
and not for mere robbery?" the gentleman asked who had brought him
into the club.
"I am sure of it! As to the workman who is supposed to have done
it--well, if he did do it, he was only a workman in disguise. No! he
had some enemy, perhaps some one who owed him money, or whose path he
had been enabled by his wealth to cross, and that is the man who
killed him. And, by the grace of Heaven, I am going to find that man
out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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