The Silent Shore: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
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The Silent Shore: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
English fiction -- 19th century
To Dobson, who was by the outside world regarded as the man who had
the whole charge of the case, the Señor's actions, and his absolute
refusal to confide in him, were almost maddening. To any question that
he asked, he received nothing but the regular answer, "Patience, my
good Dobson, patience," and with that he was obliged to be content.
For himself, he had done nothing; he was no nearer having any idea now
as to who the murderer was than he had been the morning after the deed
had been committed, and as day after day went by, he began to doubt
whether Guffanta was any nearer finding the man who was wanted than he
was.
"But if he doesn't do something pretty quick," he said to one of the
men who was supposed to be employed under him in investigating the
case, "I shall put a spoke in his wheel."
"Why, what will you do, Mr. Dobson?" his underling asked.
"I shall just go up to the Home Office, and when they ask me, as they
do regular, if I have got anything to report in connection with the
Cundall case, I shall tell them that the Señor professes to know a
good deal that he won't divulge, and ask them to have him up before
them, and make him tell what he do know."
"And suppose he won't tell, Mr. Dobson? What then?"
"Why, he'll be made to tell, that's all! It isn't right, and it isn't
fair that, if he knows anything and can't find the man himself, he
should be allowed to keep it a secret and prevent me from earning the
reward. I'll bet I'd soon find the man if I had his information--that
is, if he's really got any."
"Don't it strike you, Mr. Dobson," the other asked, "that there is
some mystery in connection with Occleve House that he knows of? What
with his having the garden locked up, and his always being about
there!"
"It did once, but I have thought it over, and I can't see how the
house can be connected with it. You see, on that night it so happened
there was no one in the house but the footmen and the women servants.
His lordship and the valet had gone off to stay at the hotel, and Mr.
Smerdon had gone down in the morning to the country seat, so what
could the murderer have had to do with that particular house? And it
ain't the house the Señor seems to think so much about--it's the
garden."
"I can't make that garden business out at all," the other said; "what
on earth has the garden got to do with it?"
"That's just what he won't say. But you mark my words, I ain't going
to stand it much longer, and he'll have to say. If he don't tell
pretty soon what he knows, I shall get the Home Office to make him."
Meanwhile the Señor, who had bewildered Lord Penlyn and Mr. Stuart by
the connection which he seemed to feel certain existed between the
garden of Occleve House and the murder in the Park, excited their
curiosity still more when he suddenly announced one evening that he
was going down, with his lordship's permission, to pay a visit to
Occleve Chase.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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