The Red House Mystery

atter?" said

und at him with

mething suddenly," sa

y lau

d, "you aren't supposed

can't tak

ing about this ghost of yo

disappointed. "What on earth h

to do with it. I was just wondering. You shouldn't have brought me here if you h

s distinctly s

ow

ha

id, '

appear? I don't know

ive hundred yar

ause this is where the original one-La

o anything. But how did Miss Norris appear su

at Antony wi

e stammered. "We ne

g before, wouldn't you, if s

rse we

it rather. You would have ha

interes

ou know, Tony. We none

ome across the park when

her, and we kept looking round in case we saw her, so

alladine were p

ever do you

reasoning. Well, then

of the lawn." He indicated the o

ing in the ditch? Do you ca

uldn't. Betty and I were here before the others,

ding in the shed. Or do you

he bowls, of course. She

O

terval for thought. "But it doesn't matter,

n't

said Bill, gett

asn't. But it has got something to do with Miss

abou

a day or two before something unaccountable happens to the whole house, one is well, interest

ee.

out his pipe an

he way from the house by

mped up

mean there's a

ssage, anyway.

, and this afternoon I was playing golf just like a

begin the search was the shed where the bowls were kept. It was a tidy place as anything in Mark's establishment would be. There were two boxes of croquet things, one of them with the lid open, as if the balls and ma

ed the wall

ought to begin. It doesn't

alking round with bent head, and tapping the other wa

us the trouble of looking anywhere else for it. Surely Mark didn't let

really nowhere else to play. Personally I hate the game. He wasn't very keen on bowls, y

y lau

ark," he said. "

enly stopped and stiffened to attention. For a moment he stood listenin

it?" whis

n on his knees, and listened again. Then he put his ear to the floor. He got

coming. When I begin

ly across to the box of bowls, whistling loudly to himself. He took the bowls

t think I want to pl

you say you did

a smile of appr

en I said I did, and

do you wa

al

o!" said Bi

t. Let's bring these things along i

with that, not wishing to commit himsel

awn, Antony dropped the b

ch?" he sa

. You take the Cayley view," and then went on in his ordinary voice, "I don't think muc

enly night!"

ppi

that poor devi

rum bu

Cayley that it w

see, I k

e wrote, he talked. He said that he thought Mark had shot his brother in a fit of anger, and tha

ve it away, of course, but somehow there are one or two little things which make

ered

anyway. I may be wrong. Any

think so? Beca

ant idea of mine, Wasn't it? And it would have been

paper over to Bill. In the clear moonlight the

NUTE OR TWO, TURN ROUND AS IF I WERE SITTING

," Antony went on as Bill read,

er things which had made up his world lately. This was the real thing. This was li

hey were saying. He might do this merely by opening the door a little without showing himself, in which case Antony would have found the entrance to the passage without any trouble to himself. But when Bill turned his head and talked over the back of the seat, it was probable that the listener would find it necessary to put his head outside in order to hear, and then An

ner. He could hear Bill hard at it, arguing from his knowledge of Mark's character that this, that and the other must have happened, and he smiled appreciatively to himself. Bill was a great conspir

om where he lay he could see almost entirely inside it. Everything seemed to be as

Antony to himsel

s turning round now; his voice became more difficult to

nd croquet-box came

ack. There was nothing to be gained by staying there, and a good deal to be lost, for Bill showed signs of running down. As quickly as he could Antony hurried round the ditch and took up his place at the back of the seat. Then he sto

, and, receiving it, said, "Oh, ju

u are," s

e other hand, seemed to be thinking of nothing but bowls. He played with great deliberation

"You can talk if you want to. Just

was putting the bowls away, Antony tried the lid of t

alking back to the house again, "I'm

yle

Lord!

of the cro

be an

ll." He told the oth

it?" asked Bill, in great disappointmen

directly. Besides, I want to get in from the other end, if I can. I doubt very m

towards them. When they were a little cl

he got up to them. "I rather thought you

is," sai

Bill, "and talking, and-and playin

ayley, somehow; he was taking rather a mean advantage of his friends. Lot of funny people there were in the world-funny people with secrets. Look at Tony, that first time he had met him in a tobacconist's shop. Anybody would have thought he was a tob

d already asked himself that afternoon, and it seemed to him now that he had found the answer. As he lay in bed that night he re

at they were in his hands, to go or stay as he wished, could have been left safely to them. As it was, they had been given no alternative, and Miss Norris, who had proposed to catch an after-dinner train at the junction, in the obvious hope that she might have in this way a dramatic cross-examination at the hands of some keen-eyed detective, was

h

had followed up so alertly Bill's casual mention of her in connection with the dressing-up business. He felt that he wanted to know a little more abo

away because she knew

herself; possibly Mark had revealed it to her secretly one day, never guessing that she would make so unkind a use of it later on; possibly Cayley, having been let into the joke of the dressing-

e might make some innocent mention of it.

ssage, or even the mere knowledge of

ng there," thought Anton