The Paradise Mystery

mantelpiece, amongst other odds and ends of pictures and photographs, hung a water-colour drawing of Braden Medworth-and to him presently entered an old, silver-haired clergyman

id inquiringly. "D

nd assumed his suavest an

ay, by the present vicar of Braden Medworth-both he, and the sexton there, Claybourne, whom you, of course, re

ir, and taking another close by. "Clayborne, of course, I remember very well indee

espect mine. I have for two years been in practice at Wrychester, and have there made the acquaintance of a young lady whom I earnestly desire to marry. She is t

visitor with unusual interest. He grasped t

whisper. "What-what is the name

ord," answered

ght again, with a li

Mark Ransford! Then-it must have

ple take their own time. Mr. Gilwaters had already fallen into something closely resembling a reverie:

asked, repeating his first questio

d things out. By the merest chance-accident, in fact-I discovered yesterday at Braden Medworth that some twenty-two years ago you married one Mary Bewery, who, I learnt there, was your governess, to a John Brake, and that Mark Ransford was John Brake's best man and a witness of the m

sted to Bryce that he was much more likely to be a bookworm than a newspaper reader, and it was quite possible that the events of the day had small interest for him. And his first words in reply to Bryce's

here, I understood, she had lived since infancy. Now then, as to Brake and Ransford. They were two young men from London, who used to come fishing in Leicestershire. Ransford was a few years the younger-he was either a medical student in his last year, or he was an assistant somewhere in London. Brake-was a bank manager in London-of a branch of one of the big banks. They were pleasant young fellows,

ain?" asked Bryce. The old

see Brake again-under griev

umstances?" suggested Bryce. "I will

s to that," answered the old man. "I saw Jo

xclaimed Bryce. "A

had heard the sentence-I was present. I got leave to see him. Ten years' penal servitu

ence for a moment-reck

is-the trial

e marriage-seventeen years

e been doing?"

s a branch manager. He was, as it were, pounced upon one morning by an inspector, who found that his cash was short by two or three thousand pounds. The bank people seemed to have been unusually strict and even severe-Brake, it was said, had some explanation, but it was swept aside and he was given in charge. And th

after some rummaging of papers in a drawer, produced a newspaper-cutting b

Brake's counsel said on his behalf there are one or two curious and mysterious hints as to

rly to the faded

GER'S DEF

iminal Court yest

merly manager of

ndon & Home Coun

to embezzling c

of his

.C., addressing t

said that while

to offer any de

the case which, i

in evidence, wou

a wronged and dec

ase, Brake had b

end. The man who

d cleverly escape

of the least use

ng him. Not one

een used by the p

doubtless a wrong

d done, and he had

e consequences. Bu

he case could hav

any useful purpo

en that what the p

olish and serious

ded the learned co

t, knowing what h

by his client in

ugh technically g

oce

ely remarking tha

red in a case of t

o ten years' p

er twice before ha

he remarked. "You say that you saw Brake aft

and had found that Mrs. Brake had sold all the furniture and disappeared-completely. No one-thereabouts, at any rate-knew where she was, or would tell me anything. On my asking this, he refused to answer. I pressed him-he said finally that he was only speaking the truth when he replied that he did not know where his wife was. I said I must find her. He forbade me to make any attempt. Then I begged him to

e inquiries?-about t

ll I could discover was that Mrs. Brake had disappeared under extraordinarily mysterious circumstances. There was

what?" as

here was the fact-she had vanished! And eventually, I thought of Ransford, as having been Brake's great friend, so I tried to find him. And then I found that he, too, who up to that time had been practising in a London suburb-Streatham-had also disappeared. Just after Brake's arrest, Ransford had suddenly sold his practice and gone-no one knew where, but it was believ

ung woman of twenty, and she has a brother, R

he old man. "The infant I spoke of was a boy. Bless me!-h

ese two young people joined him there definitely two years ago. But from what I

ther?" asked

They know nothing. Ransford won't tell them anything. But, as you say-

ame of their mother!"

know that it isn't their real name. Of course, R

aid Mr. Gilwaters. "Our

the world, Mr. Gilwaters-men of your profession know the world, and human nature, too. Call to mind all the mysterious circumstances, the

ed his hands and let t

same time-that Brake was obviously suffering from intense and bitter hatred when I saw him after the trial-hatred of some person on whom he meant to be revenged-and that his counsel hinted that he had been deceived and betrayed by a friend. Now, to my k

cret mind. And now, having got all that he wanted o

s having been of a strictly priva

d to marry the daughter? Now that you know about her father's past-fo

agnanimity. "I am not a man of that complexion, sir. No!-

in ignorance of her real father's past-what the

ely upon me to consider her feelings in everything. As you ha

purpose for the time being. He went away from Bayswater, and, an hour later, from London, highly satisfied. In his opinion, Mark Ransford, seventeen years before, had taken advantage of his