FIVE HUNDRED A YEAR
It was very evident that Chisholm was in a state of gleeful assurance
about his theory, and I don't think he was very well pleased when Mr.
Lindsey, instead of enthusiastically acclaiming it as a promising one,
began to ask him questions.
"You found a pretty considerable sum on Phillips as it was when you
searched his body, didn't you?" he asked.
"Aye--a good lot!" assented Chisholm. "But it was in a pocket-book in an
inner pocket of his coat, and in his purse."
"If it was robbery, why didn't they take everything?" inquired Mr.
Lindsey.
"Aye, I knew you'd ask that," replied Chisholm. "But the thing is that
they were interrupted. The bag they could carry off--but it's probable
that they heard Mr. Moneylaws here coming down the lane before they could
search the man's pockets."
"Umph!" said Mr. Lindsey. "And how do you account for two men getting
away from the neighbourhood without attracting attention?"
"Easy enough," declared Chisholm. "As I said just now, there's numbers of
strangers comes about Tweedside at this time of the year, and who'd
think anything of seeing them? What was easier than for these two to
separate, to keep close during the rest of the night, and to get away by
train from some wayside station or other next morning? They could manage
it easily--and we're making inquiries at all the stations in the district
on both sides the Tweed, with that idea."
"Well--you'll have a lot of people to follow up, then," remarked Mr.
Lindsey drily. "If you're going to follow every tourist that got on a
train next morning between Berwick and Wooler, and Berwick and Kelso, and
Berwick and Burnmouth, and Berwick and Blyth, you'll have your work set,
I'm thinking!"
"All the same," said Chisholm doggedly, "that's how it's been. And the
bank at Peebles has the numbers of the notes that Phillips carried off in
his little bag--and I'll trace those fellows yet, Mr. Lindsey."
"Good luck to you, sergeant!" answered Mr. Lindsey. He turned to me when
Chisholm had gone. "That's the police all over, Hugh," he remarked. "And
you might talk till you were black in the face to yon man, and he'd stick
to his story."
"You don't believe it, then?" I asked him, somewhat surprised.
"He may be right," he replied. "I'm not saying. Let him attend to his
business--and now we'll be seeing to ours."
It was a busy day with us in the office that, being the day before court
day, and we had no time to talk of anything but our own affairs. But
during the afternoon, at a time when I had left the office for an hour
or two on business, Sir Gilbert Carstairs called, and he was closeted
with Mr. Lindsey when I returned. And after they had been together some
time Mr. Lindsey came out to me and beckoned me into a little
waiting-room that we had and shut the door on us, and I saw at once from
the expression on his face that he had no idea that Sir Gilbert and I
had met the night before, or that I had any notion of what he was going
to say to me.
"Hugh, my lad!" said he, clapping me on the shoulder; "you're evidently
one of those that are born lucky. What's the old saying--'Some achieve
greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them!'--eh? Here's
greatness--in a degree--thrusting itself on you!"
"What's this you're talking about, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked. "There's not
much greatness about me, I'm thinking!"
"Well, it's not what you're thinking in this case," he answered; "it's
what other folks are thinking of you. Here's Sir Gilbert Carstairs in my
room yonder. He's wanting a steward--somebody that can keep accounts, and
letters, and look after the estate, and he's been looking round for a
likely man, and he's heard that Lindsey's clerk, Hugh Moneylaws, is just
the sort he wants--and, in short, the job's yours, if you like to take
it. And, my lad, it's worth five hundred a year--and a permanency, too! A
fine chance for a young fellow of your age!"
"Do you advise me to take it, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked, endeavouring to
combine surprise with a proper respect for the value of his counsel.
"It's a serious job that for, as you say, a young fellow."
"Not if he's got your headpiece on him," he replied, giving me another
clap on the shoulder. "I do advise you to take it. I've given you the
strongest recommendations to him. Go into my office now and talk it over
with Sir Gilbert by yourself. But when it comes to settling details, call
me in--I'll see you're done right to."
I thanked him warmly, and went into his room, where Sir Gilbert was
sitting in an easy-chair. He motioned me to shut the door, and, once that
was done, he gave a quick, inquiring look.
"You didn't let him know that you and I had talked last night?" he
asked at once.
"No," said I.
"That's right--and I didn't either," he went on. "I don't want him to
know I spoke to you before speaking to him--it would look as if I were
trying to get his clerk away from him. Well, it's settled, then,
Moneylaws? You'll take the post?"
"I shall be very glad to, Sir Gilbert," said I. "And I'll serve you to
the best of my ability, if you'll have a bit of patience with me at the
beginning. There'll be some difference between my present job and this
you're giving me, but I'm a quick learner, and--"
"Oh, that's all right, man!" he interrupted carelessly. "You'll do all
that I want. I hate accounts, and letter-writing, and all that sort
of thing--take all that off my hands, and you'll do. Of course,
whenever you're in a fix about anything, come to me--but I can explain
all there is to do in an hour's talk with you at the beginning. All
right!--ask Mr. Lindsey to step in to me, and we'll put the matter on
a business footing."
Mr. Lindsey came in and took over the job of settling matters on my
behalf. And the affair was quickly arranged. I was to stay with Mr.
Lindsey another month, so as to give him the opportunity of getting a new
head clerk, then I was to enter on my new duties at Hathercleugh. I was
to have five hundred pounds a year salary, with six months' notice on
either side; at the end of five years, if I was still in the situation,
the terms were to be revised with a view to an increase--and all this was
to be duly set down in black and white. These propositions, of course,
were Mr. Lindsey's, and Sir Gilbert assented to all of them readily and
promptly. He appeared to be the sort of man who is inclined to accept
anything put before him rather than have a lot of talk about it. And
presently, remarking that that was all right, and he'd leave Mr. Lindsey
to see to it, he rose to go, but at the door paused and came back.
"I'm thinking of dropping in at the police-station and telling Murray my
ideas about that Crone affair," he remarked. "It's my opinion, Mr.
Lindsey, that there's salmon-poaching going on hereabouts, and if my land
adjoined either Tweed or Till I'd have spoken about it before. There are
queer characters about along both rivers at nights--I know, because I go
out a good deal, very late, walking, to try and cure myself of insomnia;
and I know what I've seen. It's my impression that Crone was probably
mixed up with some gang, and that his death arose out of an affray
between them."
"That's probable," answered Mr. Lindsey. "There was trouble of that sort
some years ago, but I haven't heard of it lately. Certainly, it would be
a good thing to start the idea in Murray's mind; he might follow it up
and find something out."
"That other business--the Phillips murder--might have sprung out of the
same cause," suggested Sir Gilbert. "If those chaps caught a stranger in
a lonely place--"
"The police have a theory already about Phillips," remarked Mr. Lindsey.
"They think he was followed from Peebles, and murdered for the sake of
money that he was carrying in a bag he had with him. And my experience,"
he added with a laugh, "is that if the police once get a theory of their
own, it's no use suggesting any other to them--they'll ride theirs,
either till it drops or they get home with it."
Sir Gilbert nodded his head, as if he agreed with that, and he suddenly
gave Mr. Lindsey an inquiring look.
"What's your own opinion?" he asked.
But Mr. Lindsey was not to be drawn. He laughed and shrugged his
shoulders, as if to indicate that the affair was none of his.
"I wouldn't say that I have an opinion, Sir Gilbert," he answered.
"It's much too soon to form one, and I haven't the details, and I'm not
a detective. But all these matters are very simple--when you get to the
bottom of them. The police think this is going to be a very simple
affair--mere vulgar murder for the sake of mere vulgar robbery. We
shall see!"
Then Sir Gilbert went away, and Mr. Lindsey looked at me, who stood a
little apart, and he saw that I was thinking.
"Well, my lad," he said; "a bit dazed by your new opening? It's a fine
chance for you, too! Now, I suppose, you'll be wanting to get married. Is
it that you're thinking about?"
"Well, I was not, Mr. Lindsey," said I. "I was just wondering--if you
must know--how it was that, as he was here, you didn't tell Sir
Gilbert about that signature of his brother's that you found on
Gilverthwaite's will."
He shared a sharp look between me and the door--but the door was
safely shut.
"No!" he said. "Neither to him nor to anybody, yet a while! And don't
you mention that, my lad. Keep it dark till I give the word. I'll
find out about that in my own way. You understand--on that point,
absolute silence."
I replied that, of course, I would not say a word; and presently I
went into the office to resume my duties. But I had not been long at
that before the door opened, and Chisholm put his face within and
looked at me.
"I'm wanting you, Mr. Moneylaws," he said. "You said you were with
Crone, buying something, that night before his body was found. You'd be
paying him money--and he might be giving you change. Did you happen to
see his purse, now?"
"Aye!" answered I. "What for do you ask that?"
"Because," said he, "we've taken a fellow at one of those riverside
publics that's been drinking heavily, and, of course, spending money
freely. And he has a queer-looking purse on him, and one or two men
that's seen it vows and declares it was Abel Crone's."