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THE SOLITARY PASSENGER
THE SOLITARY PASSENGER
The train had come a long journey and the afternoon was wearing on. The passenger in the last third class compartment but one, looking out of the window sombrely and intently, saw nothing now but desolate brown hills and a winding lonely river, very northern looking under the autumnal sky. He was alone in the carriage, and if any one had happened to study his movements during the interminable journey, they would have concluded that for some reason he seemed to have a singularly strong inclinatio
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THE PROCURATOR FISCAL
THE PROCURATOR FISCAL
The procurator fiscal breakfasted at 8.30, punctually, and at 8.30 as usual he entered his severely upholstered dining-room and shut the door behind him. The windows looked into a spacious garden with a belt of trees leading up to the house from the gate, and this morning Mr. Rattar, who was a machine for habit, departed in one trifling particular from his invariable routine. Instead of sitting straight down to the business of breakfasting, he stood for a minute or two at the window gazing into
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THE HEIR
THE HEIR
At 9.45 precisely Mr. Rattar arrived at his office, just as he had arrived every morning since his clerks could remember. He nodded curtly as usual to his head clerk, Mr. Ison, and went into his room. His letters were always laid out on his desk and from twenty minutes to half an hour were generally spent by him in running through them. Then he would ring for Mr. Ison and begin to deal with the business of the day. But on this morning the bell went within twelve minutes, as Mr. Ison (a most prec
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THE MAN FROM THE WEST
THE MAN FROM THE WEST
Mr. Rattar's second visitor was of a different type. Mr. Cromarty of Stanesland stood about 6 feet two and had nothing artistic in his appearance, being a lean strapping man in the neighbourhood of forty, with a keen, thin, weather-beaten face chiefly remarkable for its straight sharp nose, compressed lips, reddish eye-brows, puckered into a slight habitual frown, and the fact that the keen look of the whole was expressed by only one of his eyes, the other being a good imitation but unmistakeabl
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THE THIRD VISITOR
THE THIRD VISITOR
Miss Cicely Farmond's air as she entered Simon Rattar's room seemed compounded of a little shyness, considerable trepidation, and yet more determination. In her low voice and with a fleeting smile she wished him good morning, like an acquaintance with whom she was quite familiar, and then with a serious little frown, and fixing her engaging eyes very straight upon him, she made the surprising demand: "Mr. Rattar, I want you to tell me honestly who I am." For an instant Simon's cold eyes opened v
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AT NIGHT
AT NIGHT
When Simon Rattar came to his present villa, he brought from his old house in the middle of the town (which had been his father's before him) a vast accumulation of old books and old papers. Being a man who never threw away an opportunity or anything else, and also a person of the utmost tidyness, he compromised by keeping this litter in the spare rooms at the top of the house. In fact Simon was rather pleased at discovering this use for his superfluous apartments, for he hated wasting anything.
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THE DRIVE HOME
THE DRIVE HOME
Under the grey autumnal sky Miss Cicely Farmond drove out of the town wrapped in Ned Cromarty's overcoat. He assured her he never felt cold, and as she glanced a little shyly up at the strapping figure by her side, she said to herself that he certainly was the toughest looking man of her acquaintance, and she felt a little less contrition for the loan. She was an independent young lady and from no one else would she have accepted such a favour, but the laird of Stanesland had such an off-hand au
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SIR REGINALD
SIR REGINALD
Cicely Farmond and Malcolm Cromarty walked up the avenue together, he pushing his bicycle, she walking by his side with a more than usually serious expression. "Then you won't tell me where you've been?" said he. "You won't tell me where you've been!" He was silent for a moment and then said confidentially: "We might as well say we've been somewhere together. I mean, if any one asks." "Thank you, I don't need to fib," said she. "I don't mean I need to. Only——" he seemed to find it difficult to e
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A PHILOSOPHER
A PHILOSOPHER
During luncheon an exceedingly efficient person had been moving briskly behind the chairs. His face was so expressionless, his mouth so tightly closed, and his air of concentration on the business in hand so intense, that he seemed the perfect type of the silent butler. But as soon as lunch was over, and while Cicely still stood in the hall listening with a dubious eye to Malcolm's suggestion of a game of billiards, Mr. James Bisset revealed the other side of his personality. He came up to the y
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THE LETTER
THE LETTER
It was a few days later that Cicely looked up from the local paper she was reading and asked: "Who was George Rattar?" Sir Reginald laid down his book and looked at her in some surprise. "George Rattar? What do you know about him?" "I see the announcement of his death. 'Son of the late John Simon Rattar' he's called." "That's Silent Simon's brother!" exclaimed Sir Reginald. "Where did he die?" "In New York, it says." Sir Reginald turned to his wife. "We can hardly send our sympathies to Simon on
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NEWS
NEWS
Even in that scattered countryside of long distances by windy roads, with scarcely ever a village as a focus for gossip, news flew fast. The next morning Ned Cromarty had set out with his gun towards a certain snipe marsh, but while he was still on the high road he met a man on a bicycle. The man had heard strange news and stopped to pass it on, and the next moment Ned was hurrying as fast as his long legs could take him back to the castle. He saw his sister only for a moment. "Lilian!" he cried
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CICELY
CICELY
Ned Cromarty waited in the hall while Bisset went to the door with the Procurator Fiscal and Superintendent of Police. As he stood there in the darkened silence of the house, there came to his ears for an instant the faint sound of a voice, and it seemed to be a woman's. With that the current of his thoughts seemed to change, and when Bisset returned he asked, though with marked hesitation: "Do you think, Bisset, I could do anything for any of them, Mr. Malcolm Cromarty, or—er—Miss Farmond?" Bis
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THE DEDUCTIVE PROCESS
THE DEDUCTIVE PROCESS
Bisset laid on the table a sheet of note paper. "Here," said he, "is a kin' of bit sketch plan of the library. Observing this plan attentively, you will notice two crosses, marked A and B. A is where yon wee table was standing—no the place against the wall where it was standing this morning, but where it was standing before it was knocked over last night. B is where the corp was found. You follow that, sir?" Ned nodded. "I follow," said he. "Now, the principle in a' these cases of crime and dete
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THE QUESTION OF MOTIVE
THE QUESTION OF MOTIVE
Two days later Mr. Ison entered Mr. Simon Rattar's room and informed him that Mr. Cromarty of Stanesland wished to see him on particular business. The lawyer was busy and this interruption seemed for the moment distinctly unwelcome. Then he grunted: "Show him in." In the minute or two that passed before the laird's entrance, Simon seemed to be thinking intently and finally to come to a decision, which, to judge from his reception of his client, was on rather different lines from his first though
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TWO WOMEN
TWO WOMEN
On the day after the funeral Lady Cromarty for the first time felt able to see the family lawyer. Simon Rattar came out in the morning in a hired car and spent more than a couple of hours with her. Then for a short time he was closeted with Sir Malcolm, who, referring to the interview afterwards, described him as "infernally close and unsatisfactory"; and finally, in company with the young baronet and Cicely Farmond, he ate a hurried lunch and departed. Ever since the fatal evening, Lady Cromart
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RUMOUR
RUMOUR
One windy afternoon a man on a bicycle struggled up to the door of Stanesland Castle and while waiting for an answer to his ring, studied the front of that ancient building with an expression which would at once have informed his intimates that he was meditating on the principles of Scottish baronial architecture. A few minutes later Mr. Bisset was shown into the laird of Stanesland's smoking room and addressed Mr. Cromarty with a happy blend of consciousness of his own importance and respect fo
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A SUGGESTION
A SUGGESTION
Next morning Simon Rattar was again informed that Mr. Cromarty of Stanesland wished to see him, and again the announcement seemed to be unwelcome. He was silent for several seconds before answering, and when he allowed Mr. Cromarty to be shown in, it was with an air which suggested the getting over a distasteful business as soon as possible. "Well, Mr. Cromarty?" he grunted brusquely. Mr. Cromarty never beat about the bush. "I've come to see you about this scandalous story that's going round." T
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£1200
£1200
Ned Cromarty had returned home and was going upstairs, when he heard a voice cry: "Ned!" The ancient stone stair, spiralling up round the time-worn pillar that seemed to have no beginning or end, gave at intervals on to doors which looked like apertures in a cliff. Through one of these he turned and at the end of a brief passage came to his sister's sitting room. In that mediæval setting of ponderous stone, it looked almost fantastic in its daintiness. It was a small room of many cushions and ma
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THE EMPTY COMPARTMENT
THE EMPTY COMPARTMENT
It was on this same evening that Superintendent Sutherland was almost rewarded for his vigilance by having something distinctly suspicious to report. As it happened, it proved a disappointing incident, but it gave the superintendent something to think about. He was going a few stations down the line to investigate a rumour of a suspicious person seen in that neighbourhood. It was a vague and improbable rumour and the superintendent was setting out merely as a matter of form, and to demonstrate h
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THE SPORTING VISITOR
THE SPORTING VISITOR
In summer and autumn, visitors were not uncommon in this remote countryside; mostly shooting or fishing people who rented the country houses, raised the local prices, and were described by the tradesmen as benefiting the county greatly. But in late autumn and winter this fertilising stream ceased to flow, and when the trains from the south crawled in, the porters and the boots from the hotels resigned themselves to welcoming a merely commercial form of traveller. It was therefore with considerab
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MR. CARRINGTON'S WALK
MR. CARRINGTON'S WALK
Mr. Carrington's easy saunter lasted till he had turned out of the street on which the Kings Arms stood, when it passed into an easy walk. Though he had seemed, on the whole, disinclined to go in the Keldale direction that morning, nevertheless he continued to head that way till at last he was on the high road with the little town behind him; and then his pace altered again. He stepped out now like the sportsman he was, and was doing a good four miles an hour by the time he was out of sight of t
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MR. CARRINGTON AND THE FISCAL
MR. CARRINGTON AND THE FISCAL
The card handed in to Mr. Simon Rattar contained merely the name "Mr. F. T. Carrington" and the address "Sports Club." Simon gazed at it cautiously and in silence for the better part of a minute, and when he glanced up at his head clerk to tell him that Mr. Carrington might be admitted, Mr. Ison was struck by the curious glint in his eye. It seemed to him to indicate that the fiscal was very wide awake at that moment; it struck him also that Mr. Rattar was not altogether surprised by the appeara
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SIMON'S VIEWS
SIMON'S VIEWS
"Well," said Mr. Rattar deliberately, "I think myself that the actual evidence is very slight and extremely inclusive." "You mean the direct evidence afforded by the unfastened window, position of the body, table said to have been overturned, and so forth?" "Exactly. That evidence is slight, but so far as it goes it seems to me to point to entry by the door and to the man having been in the house for some little time previously." "Well?" said Carrington in an encouraging voice. "So much for the
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MR. BISSET'S ASSISTANT
MR. BISSET'S ASSISTANT
At eleven o'clock next morning a motor car drove up to Keldale House and an exceedingly affable and pleasing stranger delivered a note from Mr. Simon Rattar to Mr. James Bisset. Even without an introduction, Mr. Carrington would have been welcome, for though Mr. Bisset's sway over Keldale House was by this time almost despotic, he had begun to find that despotism has its lonely side, and to miss "the gentry." With an introduction, Mr. Carrington quickly discovered that Mr. Bisset and the mansion
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A TELEGRAM
A TELEGRAM
The car took Mr. Carrington straight back to the town and dropped him at the door of Mr. Rattar's office. "I shall want you again at two o'clock sharp," he said to the chauffeur, and turned in to the office. He caught the lawyer just before he went out to lunch and said at once: "I want to see Sir Malcolm Cromarty. Can you arrange for him to run up here for a day?" Simon stared at him hard, and there seemed to be even more caution than usual in his eye; almost, indeed, a touch of suspicion. The
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AT STANESLAND
AT STANESLAND
Mr. Carrington's interview with the laird of Stanesland began on much the same lines as his talk with Bisset. The amiable visitor was shown into the laird's smoking room—an apartment with vast walls like a dungeon and on them trophies from the laird's adventurous days, and proceeded to make enquiry whether Mr. Cromarty was disposed to let his shootings for next season, or, if not, whether he could recommend any others. As the visitor was in no hurry, he declared, to fix anything up, it was very
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FLIGHT
FLIGHT
On the morning after his visit from Mr. Carrington, Ned Cromarty took his keeper with him and drove over to shoot on a friend's estate. He stayed for tea and it was well after five o'clock and quite dark when he started on his long drive home. The road passed close to a wayside station with a level crossing over the line, and when they came to this the gates were closed against them and the light of the signal of the up line had changed from red to white. "Train's up to time," said Ned to the ke
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THE RETURN
THE RETURN
His friends would scarcely have picked out Mr. Ned Cromarty of Stanesland as likely to make a distinguished actor, but they might have changed their opinion had they heard him breezily announce himself as Mr. Dawkins from Liverpool and curse the Scottish railways which had lost his luggage for him. It is true that the landlord looked at him a trifle askance and that the landlady and her maid exchanged a knowing smile when he ordered a room for his niece Louisa, but few people shut up in a little
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BROTHER AND SISTER
BROTHER AND SISTER
Ned Cromarty found his sister in her room. "Well, Ned," she asked, "where on earth have you been?" He shut the door before he answered, and then came up to the fireplace, and planted himself in front of her. "Who told you that Cicely Farmond was engaged to Malcolm Cromarty?" he demanded. She made a little grimace of comic alarm, but her eye was apprehensive. "Don't eat my head off, Neddy! How can I remember?" "You've got to remember," said her brother grimly. "And you'd better be careful what yo
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A MARKED MAN
A MARKED MAN
The unexpected energy displayed by her charming guest in bustling all over the country had surprised and a little perplexed Miss Peterkin, but she now decided that it was only a passing phase, for on the day following his visits to Keldale and Stanesland he exhibited exactly the same leisurely calm she had admired at first. He sought out the local golf course and for an hour or two his creditable game confirmed his reputation as a sportsman, and for the rest of the time he idled in a very gentle
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THE LETTER AGAIN
THE LETTER AGAIN
On the morning after Sir Malcolm's fleeting visit to the Kings Arms, the manageress was informed by her friend Mr. Carrington that he would like a car immediately after breakfast. "I really must be a little more energetic, or I'll never find anything to suit me," he smiled in his most leisurely manner. "I am thinking of running out to Keldale to have another look at the place. It might be worth taking if they'd let it." "But you've been to Keldale already, Mr. Carrington!" said Miss Peterkin. "I
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THE SYMPATHETIC STRANGER
THE SYMPATHETIC STRANGER
Carrington's soliloquy was interrupted by the appearance of someone on the pavement ahead of him. He pulled himself together, took out his watch, and saw that it was still only twenty minutes past twelve. After thinking for a moment, he murmured: "I might as well try 'em!" And thereupon he set out at a brisk walk, and a few minutes later was closeted with Superintendent Sutherland in the Police Station. He began by handing the Superintendent a card with the name of Mr. F. T. Carrington on it, bu
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THE HOUSE OF MYSTERIES
THE HOUSE OF MYSTERIES
The sympathetic stranger almost laid down his pen, he was so interested by this unexpected reply. "What!" he exclaimed. "Really a burglary in this house? I say, how awfully interesting! When did it happen?" "Well, sir," said Mary in an impressive voice, "it's a most extraordinary thing, but it was actually the very self same night of Sir Reginald's murder!" So surprised and interested was the visitor that he actually did lay down his pen this time. "Was it the same man, do you think?" he asked i
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A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION
A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION
The laird of Stanesland strode into the Kings Arms and demanded: "Mr. Carrington? What, having a cup of tea in his room? What's his number? 27—right! I'll walk right up, thanks." He walked right up, made the door rattle under his knuckles and strode jauntily in. There was no beating about the bush with Mr. Cromarty either in deed or word. "Well, Mr. Carrington," said he, "don't trouble to look surprised. I guess you've seen right through me for some time back." "Meaning—?" asked Carrington with
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IN THE GARDEN
IN THE GARDEN
It was a few minutes after half past eight when Miss Peterkin chanced to meet her friend Mr. Carrington in the entrance hall of the Kings Arms. He was evidently going out, and she noticed he was rather differently habited from usual, wearing now a long, light top coat of a very dark grey hue, and a dark coloured felt hat. They were not quite so becoming as his ordinary garb, she thought, but then Mr. Carrington looked the gentleman in anything. "Are you going to desert us to-night, Mr. Carringto
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THE WALKING STICK
THE WALKING STICK
Had there been, next morning, any curious eyes to watch the conduct of the gentleman who had come to rent a sporting estate, they would probably have surmised that he had found something to please his fancy strangely, and yet that some perplexity still persisted. They would also have put him down as a much more excitable, and even demonstrative, young man than they had imagined. On a lonely stretch of shore hard by the little town he paced for nearly an hour, his face a record of the debate with
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BISSET'S ADVICE
BISSET'S ADVICE
The short November afternoon was fading into a gusty evening, as Ned Cromarty drew near his fortalice. He carried a gun as usual, and as usual walked with seven league strides. Where the drive passed through the scrap of stunted plantation it was already dusk and the tortured boughs had begun their night of sighs and tossings. Beyond them, pale daylight lingered and the old house stood up still clear against a broken sky and a grey waste with flitting whitecaps all the way to the horizon. He had
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TRAPPED
TRAPPED
Cromarty and Carrington slipped unostentatiously out of the hotel a few minutes after eight o'clock. "Take any line you like," said Carrington, "but as he knows now that you brought Miss Farmond back and have heard her version, he'll naturally be feeling a little uncomfortable about the place where one generally gets kicked, when he sees you march in. He will expect you to open out on that subject, so if I were you I'd take the natural line of country and do what he expects." "Including the kick
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THE YARN
THE YARN
"I needn't trouble you with my adventures before I came down here to visit brother Simon," began the prisoner, "for you know them well enough. It was about a month ago when I turned up at this house one night." "How did you get here?" demanded the superintendent. "I did the last bit under the seat of the carriage," grinned Rattar, "and when we got into the station I hopped out on the wrong side of the train. The way I paid my fare wasn't bad either, considering I hadn't half of the fare from Lon
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THE LAST CHAPTER
THE LAST CHAPTER
On their way down to the hotel Ned Cromarty only spoke once, and that was to exclaim: "If I'd only known when I had him alone! Why didn't you tell me more before I went in?" "For your own sake," said Carrington gently. "The law is so devilish undiscriminating. Also, I wasn't absolutely certain then myself." They said nothing more till they were seated in Carrington's sitting room and his employer had got a cigar between his teeth and pushed away an empty tumbler. "I'm beginning to feel a bit bet
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