Red Money

it became the common property of the neighborhood, until it finally reached the nearest county town, and thus brought the police on the scene. Lord Garvington was not

untly to the red-haired police officer, who was of

murder has taken place in my district I have to look into the matte

lass the affair as a murd

ed the man and broke his right arm. Others tell me that a second shot

I don't know who shot in the garden, and apparently no one else does. It was this unknown

along with the information I have just given

his scarlet face pettishly. "Ill news travels fast. However, as you are

firmly. "There's no sense in taking matters out of my hands. And if you w

"But the matter is too important to be

ompetent to deal with any murder, even if it is that of the hi

The common gypsy who has been sho

stioned the inspector,

od, and his wife, my sister, understood, that Sir Hubert was in Paris. It passes my comprehensi

bet," said Darby,

in my life as when I saw him lying dead near the shrubbery. And the worst of it is, that my sister

the man you shot was

I have shot him had

ly. "But as I have come to take charge of the case, you

don't wish to repeat my story twice. Still, as you are on the spot, I may as well ask

notebook. "I am all

s firmly closed. "As there have been many burglaries lately in this part of the world," he said

lancing round the splendid room. "A historic h

ral times, within the hearing of many people, that if a raid was made, I should shoot the first man who tried

nt of the burglar should be left to

e a long story short, I grew more afraid of a raid when these gypsies came to camp a

em off your land?" asked

sage through his secretary, who is staying he

ert send that me

g to learn, and I am the more puzzled beca

rk complexion and jetty eyes. "It seems, from what I have been told, th

er infor

is

called Ishmael Hearne. Occasionally longing for the old life, he stepped down from his millionaire pedestal and mixed with his own people. When he

the other man. Garvington grew a trifle confused. "Did I? Well, to tell you the truth, Darby, I'm so mixed up over the business that

inspector again, and quite believed what

e time about midnight. I went round with the footmen and the butler to see that everything was safe, for I was too anxious to let

time was tha

ch was handy. I always kept it beside me in case of a burglary. Then I stole downstairs in slippers and

a side-passage, which terminated in a narrow door. There was no one to spy on them, as the master of the house had sent all the servants to their own quarters, and t

rowling about on the other side. I threw open the door in this way and the man plunged forward to ent

y?" asked Darby,

Darby-I heard a second shot. Then the servants and my friends came and we ran out, to find the man lying by that shrubbery quite dead. I turned him over and had just grasped the fact that he was my brother-in-law, when Lady Agnes ran out. When she lear

him?" asked

shrubbery. "Someone was co

know, that

. She saw the man-of course she never guessed that he was Pine-running down

n on this side of t

, set in the puritanic greyness of the walls. "My own bedroom is further along towards the right. That is why I heard the footsteps

the house seemed to be made up of all possible architectural styles. It was a tall building of three stories, although the flattish red-tiled roofs took away somewhat from its height, and spread over an amazing quantity of land. As Darby thought, it could have housed a regiment, and must have cost something to keep up. As wind and weather and time had mellowed its incongruous parts into one neutral tint, i

ns right through the park to a small wicket gate set i

" mused the inspector. "Of course, Sir Huber

tly. "He has been in this house dozens of times and knows it

came by the high road to the wicket

, irritably. "Since he wished to come here

not enter by the

nce it is evident that his visit was a secret on

secret one?" questi

g that puzzles me

Sir Hubert come t

The whole reason of his being here, i

, and pretended to be in Paris, so that he would follow his fancy without the truth becoming known. But why he should

that you will solve it, f

. "Did Lady Agnes ask her husband

we all did, that her husband was in Paris, and certainly neve

d Darby, dryly; "since Sir Hubert really was a gypsy calle

knows the truth. And a nice thi

e way in which the late Sir Hubert attained rank and gained wealth will

n fretfully. "I sincerely hope that they won

morbid people, both in the neighborhood and out of it. The reporters in particular poked and pried all over the place, passing from the great house to the village, and thence to the gypsy camp on the borders of Abbot's Wood. From one person and another they learned facts, which were published with such fanciful additions that they read like fiction. On the authority of Mother Cockleshell-who was not averse to earning a few shillings-a kind of Gil Blas tale was put into print, and the wanderings of Ishmael Hearne were set forth in the picturesque style of a picarooning roma

, although he certainly took the lion's share. With the money he made in this way, he speculated in South African shares, and, as the boom was then on, he simply coined gold. Everything he touched turned into cash, and however deeply he plunged into the money market, he always came out top in the end. By turning over his money and re-invest

was a gypsy, Mr. Silve

arne-or rather Pine, as I know him best by that name-grew weary of civilization, and then would return to his own life of the tent and road. No one suspected amongst the Romany that he w

e was at the Abb

eing so near the house where his brother-in-law and wife were living, as I pointed out that the truth might eas

ubert intended to come by nig

Garvington was afraid of burglars, and had threate

Of course, there was nothing disgraceful in Pine's past as Ishmael Hearne, and all attempts to discover something shady about his antecedents were vain. Yet-as was pointed out-there must have been something wrong, else the adventurer, as he plainly was, would not have met so terrible a death. But in spite of every one's desire to find fire to account for the smoke, nothing to Pine's disadvantage could be learned

f. She rose from her sick-bed to depose how she had opened her window, and had seen the actual death of the unfortunate man, whom she little guessed was her husband. The burglar-as she reasonably took him to be-was running down the path when she first caught sight of him, and after the first shot had been fired. It was the second shot, which came from the shrubbery-marked on the plan placed before the Co

, was to wing him, so that he might be captured on the spot, or traced later. I closed the door after firing the shot, a

the man was Sir Hubert

he flung himself upon me. I fired and he ran away. It was not until we all went out and fou

some one must have been concealed behind the screen of laurels. The grass-somewhat long in the thicket-had been trample

otmarks?" questi

discover any footmarks. The broken twigs and trampled grass show that some one was hidden in the shrubbery, but

other gypsies, went to show that no one had left the camp on that night with the exception of Hearne, and even his absence had not been made known until the fact of the death was made public next morning. Hearne, as several of the gypsies stated, had retired about eleven to his t

" declared the secretary. "We were so intimate that had his lif

on the darkness?" aske

o throw any light on the subject. Pine's secret was not a dishonorable one,

uded, when the evidence was fully threshed out. An open verdict was

he read the report of the inquest in his St. James's Street rooms. "Strange

y to this question, n