Winefred: A Story of the Chalk CliffsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
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Winefred: A Story of the Chalk Cliffs
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
English fiction
'No,' said he contemplatively, 'there is nothing aloft. Not a box
there, not a drawer is locked, and I have overhauled all the bunks. No
keys in his pocket. He is deep.'
He planted himself in a chair, placed his elbows on his knees, and set
his chin in his hands. His cunning, wicked eyes roved about the room.
'Dang it, Jane,' said he, 'it is somewhere. He is not the man to bury
his money in a bank. Besides, had he done that, there would have been
a pass-book. I have not found one anywhere. I have looked into every
chest and turned out every drawer, and poked into every nook upstairs.
This room is not ceiled or I would have said there was a place between
the plancheon and plaster. But that cannot be. Now I'll rummage the
inner room.'
'That has been mine,' said Jane. 'And that hole under the stair is
where my Winney has slept.'
'It is more like to be in the kitchen,' said Dench. 'He would not trust
it where a woman made her lair. But if here, it will not be where any
one else would make a hiding-place, as beneath the hearthstone or up
the chimney, nor under the floor. It is certain to be in the very last
place that would occur to any other man but he.'
He went to the clockcase.
'This is not going. Is there aught stops the works?'
'The clock has run down,' said Jane Marley.
She was uneasy, fearing lest he should find the hiding-place, but she
did not allow her feelings to transpire. She assumed a sulky mood.
He turned to the window and lifted the lid of the seat. 'There is a box
here.'
'Yes――a box.'
'He keeps his grog here; and where his grog is, there his money will
not be. Too many itching fingers go after the bottle of spirits to make
that safe.'
He tapped a bit of wainscot, but it sounded dead.
'There are shutters,' mused he; 'what does a man in a cottage want with
folding shutters? As well expect to meet with a pier-glass. They hide
something. Excuse me, Jane, if I darken the room whilst I look.'
Still his search was without result.
'I am hanged,' growled he. 'But, ha! there is still the wardrobe left.'
He crossed the room to the closet beside the fire.
Jane's heart rose into her mouth.
Dench threw open one of the doors. He hesitated a moment about
unbolting the other valve; did not do so, but groped in the pockets
of the dresses that were there suspended in double range; he was
disappointed in those he searched. Then he unhasped the second valve,
and closed the first, that he might submit the rest of the clothes to
the same search. Had he looked over his shoulder, he would have seen a
light spring into Jane's eyes.
'By my liver,' said Dench to himself, 'I did suppose that I should find
he used his wife's old rags as his bank.'
He drew some of them aside, and laughed contemptuously. 'See――those
fellows who have been before me have riddled the backboards with gimlet
holes. By Moses!'――he started back and shut the door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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