|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 81
Half-way along Peel Row, Pratt stopped, suddenly--and with sudden fear.
Out of a side street emerged a man, a quiet ordinary-looking man whom he
knew very well indeed--Detective-Sergeant Prydale. He was accompanied by
a smart-looking, much younger man, whom Pratt remembered to have seen in
Beck Street that afternoon--a stranger to him and to Barford. And as he
watched, these two covered the narrow roadway, and walked into
Murgatroyd's shop.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE BETTER HALF
Under the warming influence of two glasses of rum and water, and lulled
by Pratt's assurance that all would be well, Murgatroyd had carried home
his hundred pounds with pretty much the same feeling which permeates a
man who, having been within measurable distance of drowning, suddenly
finds a substantial piece of timber drifting his way, and takes a firm
grip on it. After all, a hundred pounds was a hundred pounds. He would
be able to pay his rent, and his rates, and give something to the grocer
and the butcher and the baker and the milkman; the children should have
some much-needed new clothes and boots--when all this was done, there
would be a nice balance left over. And it was Pratt's affair, when all
was said and done, and if any trouble arose, why, Pratt would have to
settle it. So he ate his supper with the better appetite which Pratt had
prophesied, and he slept more satisfactorily than usual, and next
morning he went to the nearest telegraph office and sent off the
stipulated telegram to Halstead & Byner in London, and hoped that there
was the end of the matter as far as he was concerned. And then, shortly
after noon, in walked Mr. Eldrick, one of the tribe which Murgatroyd
dreaded, having had various dealings with solicitors, in the way of
writs and summonses, and began to ask questions.
Murgatroyd emerged from that ordeal very satisfactorily. Eldrick's
questions were few, elementary, and easily answered. There were no signs
of suspicion about him, and Murgatroyd breathed more freely when he was
gone. It seemed to him that the solicitor's visit would certainly wind
things up--for him. Eldrick asked all that could be asked, as far as he
could see, and he had replied: now, he would probably be bothered no
more. His spirits had assumed quite a cheerful tone by evening--but they
received a rude shock when, summoned from his little workshop to the
front premises, he found himself confronting one man whom he certainly
knew to be a detective, and another who might be one. Do what he would
he could not conceal some agitation, and Detective-Sergeant Prydale, a
shrewdly observant man, noticed it--and affected not to.
"Evening, Mr. Murgatroyd," he said cheerily. "We've come to see if you
can give us a bit of information. You've had Mr. Eldrick, the lawyer,
here today on the same business. You know--this affair of an old clerk
of his--Parrawhite?"
"I told Mr. Eldrick all I know," muttered Murgatroyd.
"Very likely," replied Prydale, "but there's a few questions this
gentleman and myself would like to ask. Can we come in?"
Murgatroyd fetched his wife to mind the shop, and took the callers into
the parlour which she had unwillingly vacated. He knew Prydale by sight
and reputation; about Byner he wondered. Finally he set him down as a
detective from London--and was all the more afraid of him.
"What do you want to know?" he asked, when the three men were alone. "I
don't think there's anything that I didn't tell Mr. Eldrick."
"Oh, there's a great deal that Mr. Eldrick didn't ask," said Prydale.
"Mr. Eldrick sort of just skirted round things, like. We want to know a
bit more. This Parrawhite's got to be found, d'ye see, Mr. Murgatroyd,
and as you seem to be the last man who had aught to do with him in
Barford, why, naturally, we come to you. Now, to start with, you say he
came to you about getting a passage to America? Just so--now, when would
that be?"
"Day before he did get it," answered Murgatroyd, rapidly thinking over
the memoranda which Pratt had jotted down for his benefit.
"That," said Prydale, "would be on the 23rd?"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|