The Red Redmaynes

n dimmed by tears. She was, however, quite controlled and showed little emotion at their meeting; but she looked very weary and every inflection of her pleasant, clear voice r

ent which seemed not much to surprise her, for she was

and strength. Only a fleeting regret shot through his mind that the case in all probability would not prove such as to reveal his own strange powers. He combined the regulation methods of c

he worst may not have happened, though from what I have heard, there is every reason to fear it; but, believe me, I will do my be

k you in your holidays," she

anything about what has happened at Foggintor. I shall hear all about that later in the day. You will do well now to let me know everything beari

mind refusing to accept the story that they have brought to me. I cannot think about it-I c

of yourself and Mr. Pendean. You

r ye

ed asto

lained, "though I'm told I

our thoughts now and just give me what of your history

it up and sat with his arms upon the back of it facing her in a c

friend," he said. "Indeed you must believe that you are

my relations may be more interesting to you than I am. The family is now a very small one and seems likely to remain so, for of my th

and had a large family. Out of seven sons and five daughters born to them during a period of twenty years, Jenny and John Redmayne only saw five of their children grow into adult

bert, the youngest of the family, now a man of thirty-five. It is he

member my parents very well, for I was fifteen and at school when they died. They were on their way to Australia, so that my father might see

d after a time came to England, joined a large and important firm of booksellers, and became an expert. They took him into partnership and he travelled for them and spent some years in New York. But his special subject was Italian Renaissance literature and his joy was Italy, where he now lives. He found himself i

, four years ago. He is a bluff, gruff old salt without any charm, and he never reached promotion into the passenger service, but remained in command of cargo boats-a circumstance he reg

usband; but the more I think of such a hideous situation, the less possible does it appear. Fo

England, and being fond of cattle breeding and agriculture, joined a farmer, the brother of an Australian friend of John Redmayne's

ime to time, for he was kind to me and liked me to be with him in my holidays. He did very little work. Most of his time he was at the races, or down in Cornwall at Penzance, where he was supposed to be courting a young woman-

ccasional breaks and the sighs that lifted her bosom, how gr

e Robert at Penzance when two great things-indeed three great things-happened. The war br

band's parents were dead. His father had been the head of a firm called Pendean and Trecarrow, whose business was the importation of pilchards to Italy. But Michael, though he had now succeeded his father in the

uncles would have raised no objection to our marrying in the long run,

uld prove considerably smaller than his sons expected. However, he left rather more than one hundred and fifty thousand.

thers as his judgment should dictate, for he knew that Albert was a man of scrupulous honour and would do justly by all. With regard to me, he directed my uncle to set aside twenty thousand pounds, to be given

. Thus it came about that each received about forty thousand pounds, while my inheritance was set aside. All would have been well, no doubt, and I was coaxing my uncle round, for Michael Pendean knew nothing about our affairs

days in August, and the face of th

, and poured herself out a little water. Mark

but she sipped the wa

swered; "but please come back again pres

e of that, M

t while he also sat down

tantly volunteered and rejoiced in the opportunity to seek adventure. He joined a cavalry regiment and invited Michael

-we must all think of him as livi

le temperament. The thought of engaging in hand-to-hand conflict was more than he could endure, and there we

rse the

nd Uncle Bendigo-who had just retired, but who, belonging to the Naval Reserve, now joined up and soon took charge of some mine sweepers-wrote very strongly as to what he thought was Michael's duty. From Italy Uncle Albert also declared his mind to the same purpose, and though

when I heard it. The tribulations began then and Uncle Bob saw red about it, accusing Michael of evading his duty and of h

not care; and my husband only lived to please me. Then, halfway through the war, came the universal call for workers; and seeing that men

tched to all the war hospitals of the kingdom. A busy little company carried on this good work and, while I joined the women who picked and cleaned the moss, my husband, though not strong enough to tramp the moors and do the heavy work of collecting it and bringing it up

ld afford to do so. His pilchard trade with Italy practically came to an end after the summer of 1914. But the company of Pendean and Trecarrow owned some good little steamers and these were soon very valuab

ose who had won the D.S.O. Michael advised me to leave the question of my money until after the war, and s

on; but he still much resented my marriage. I wrote to Uncle Bendigo at Dartmouth also, who was now in

that suddenly developed a week ago, Mr.

g you out," he said. "Would

ice. Then I approached him. My arms were round his neck and I was kissing him before he had time to know what had happened, for I need not tell you that I had long since forgiven him. He frowned at first but at last relented. He was lodging at Paignton, down on Torbay, for the summe

promised to change his unfriendly attitude. To my delight he at last consented to stop for a few hours, and I arranged the most attractive little dinner that I could. When my husband returned from the bungalow I brought them together again. Michael was on his defe

fields and seen much service. During the last few weeks before the armistice, he succumbed to gassing and was invalided; though, before that, he had also been out of action from shell shock for two months. He made light of this; but I felt there was really something different about him and suspected that the shell shock accounted for the change. He was a

larly a feature of his conversation. His memory failed him sometimes. By which I do not mean that he told us anything contrary to fact; but he often

for the moment and presently, after tea, I begged Uncle Robert to stop with us for a few days instead of going to Plymouth. We walked out over the moor in the evening to see the bungalow and my uncle was

after the builders had gone. He and Michael often spent hours of t

going to return to her. He made us promise to come to Paignton next August for the Torbay Regatta; and in secret I begged him to write to both my other uncles a

w, but I did not accompany them on this occasion. They ran round by road on U

he police station, saw Inspector Halfyard, and told him that my husband and uncle had not come back from Foggintor and that I was anxious about them. He

stopped and

ent. It would have been impossible to put the past situation more clearly before me. The great point you made is that your husband

emphat

o your uncle's room

s not been

Pendean. I shall see

ve me any s

event, and must not therefore offer

eady struck into the present demands upon his intellect, she appeared exquisite. As he left her he hoped that a great problem lay before him. He desired to impress her-he looked forward with a passing ex

a man may be happy all hi

f and felt something like a bl

paces of the quarry under a mournful mist, Mark proceeded to the aperture at the farther end. Then he left the rill which ran out from this exit and soon stood by the bungalow. It

s Brendon appeared, came

ely Devon way. "Not that it begins to look as if there w

l supported. His legs were very thin and long, and they turned out a trifle. With his prominent nose, small hea

ggintor quarry don't come into the story, though it looks as if it ought to. But the murder was done her

earched the

ful; but all points to somewhere else. A terrible strange job-so strange, in fact, that we shall probab

n't found

to the bungalow and I'll tell you what there is to tell. There's been a mu

ther and soon stoo

re you come in," said Brendon, and

ty at the time, told me that Mrs. Pendean was wishful to see me. I knew her and her husband very

t have been a breakdown, if not an accident, so I told Ford to knock up another chap and go down along the road. Which they did do-and Ford came back at half after three with ugly news that they'd seen nobody, but they'd found a great pool of bloo

at the cottages in the by-road to Foggintor, where we came in. A few quarrymenn and their families live there, and also Tom Ringrose, the water bailiff down on Walkham River. The quarrymen do

ff who lives in the end cottage. Bassett has been at the bungalow once or twice, as granite for it comes from the quarry at Merivale. He knew Mr. Pendean and Captain Redmayne by sight and, last night, somewhere about ten o'clock by summer time, while it w

im. He was now on his machine and riding slowly till he reached the main road. He reached it and then Ringrose heard him

Halfyard

ll you know?"

h roads-to Moreton and Exeter on the one side and by Dartmeet to Ashburton and the coast towns on the other. He must have gone off to the moor by one of those ways, I judge

eport the sack behin

di

you ment

d that item, just a

hen," said Brendon, and they entered