£19,000 - free ebook by Burford Delannoy

"£19,000"

Author of "The Garden Court Murder" "The Missing Cyclist" Etc. Etc....

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WARD LOCK & COMPANY, LONDON

Copyright, 1900, by R. F. Fenno &amp; Company...

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THE DENTIST'S IN FINSBURY SQUARE

The gong fixed in the door frame sounded. A man entered as Sawyer hurriedly ceased a perusal of the pages of the Boys of the World , and stuffed that sample of the literature of young England up his page's jacket. "Is the boss in?" "Yes, sir." "I want a tooth out." "Yes, sir. Will you take a seat a moment?" The boy handed the visitor a newspaper as he spoke, and then entered the inner room. To his employer he said: "Gent wants a tooth extracted, sir." He had attained the word "extracted" by dili

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WHAT WAS FOUND ON THE BODY

"Couldn't we put the body in a cab and send it home?" "Could—but it would probably mean putting ourselves in the bankruptcy, if not the police court. The thing would be traced home to us. True, the bankruptcy would come only a little before the appointed time, just hasten things along, as it were." "Could not we put——?" "Let's put the body in this cupboard. That's the wisest thing to do for the present.... That's it. Turn the key. Now I'll get round to my rooms and send Sawyer back. That little

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ON BOARD THE AMERICAN LINER

Arthur returned with his case of knives. He saw his brother would be worse than useless about him in the task he had in hand. Personally, he had no more compunction about dismembering his fellow-men than a butcher had in disjointing a calf—it was his business. "Drink this, Charley"—he had poured out some brandy and handed it to his brother. "And now put on your hat and go out; take a cab down to Goffs. Buy two large portmanteaus—second hand—not less than a yard long. Put them on a cab, and come

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THE CITY LAWYER AND THE CLIENT FROM THE WILD AND WOOLLY WEST

Aunt Depew had lived on the rentals of the property she had left to her nephew. Loide had been her solicitor for nearly twenty years. She had a blind confidence in him—that way fraud lies. Absolute trust in a man oft tempts him to break it. Regularly every quarter he had paid over to her the rentals of the properties; that was all she had cared for. She had never troubled about, or even visited, the places in which the buildings were situated. She had no idea that by reason of the building of a

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BETWEEN LIVERPOOL AND QUEENSTOWN

Mr. Richard Loide was getting into the sere, the yellow leaf. A certain amount of baldness on his head he covered with a wig. His age and the wig prompted him to two courses of action. He knew that he would be at a disadvantage in any personal struggle which might result from the steps he proposed taking. He discreetly determined to avoid one. Firearms, in dealing with the man with the money round his waist, were out of the question. The noise would frustrate the very object he had in view—would

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MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS

Before his companion had entered the cabin, Loide had located everything in it. Although in the dark, he knew the exact position of all things. So he reached the sleeper's side without a stumble or noise. He knew where to place his hand on a towel, and he placed it. Folded it into a sort of pad, and gripped the middle in his left hand. He bent over the sleeper, heard his breathing, and located his mouth by the feel of the warm breath. He paused to notice that the sleeper was lying on his back, t

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THE NUMBERS OF THE MISSING NOTES

Loide got off the boat safely. On the wharf at Queenstown he secured a position where, concealed himself, he could watch the liner. Hours seemed to drag by which were in reality minutes. At last the tender put off with the mails and reached the steamer's side. With his glasses he could see everything that was going on. There was no excitement. The bags were handed on board, and presently he made out a wake of foam from the blades of the steamer's screw. The tender had turned and was coming back;

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THE SEALED UP CABIN

"Man overboard!" The cry rang through the ship—as cries of that sort do—first uttered by the man who witnessed the happening, and then passed from mouth to mouth. As a matter of fact it was a girl—a child—who had fallen overboard, and the nurse was standing with blanched face and clasped hands, watching what looked like a bundle of clothing on the surface of the ocean, which bundle the vessel was now rapidly leaving astern. Then another cry rang out. It was literally as well as vocally a man ove

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A WAITING WIFE'S DISCOVERY

In the sight of the harbor of New York the ship slowed down, and the tender came alongside. The customs officers and port sanitary authority came aboard. Soon after the liner was moored at her pier, and in compliance with the signal she had hoisted, the police came on board. Not a passenger was allowed to land until the officers had thoroughly gone into their characters, and investigated the details which the captain had thoughtfully put on paper. Every passenger, his address, description, and d

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HOW THE DEVIL TEMPTED HIM

"There, there," said the doctor; "you will be all right in a few minutes." The woman closed her eyes again. "It was the shock of seeing her dead husband." The doctor spoke this in a whisper, but the woman heard. She opened her eyes. She spoke: "Let me lie like this for half an hour. I shall be all right then. I—I am subject to fainting fits." "Certainly. We shall be in that cabin there—there, away where you see the light. You see it? That's all right. We will leave you now, and when you feel wel

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A LIFE FOR A LIFE

Danvers—the man who had dived from the ship and saved the child—was the bearer of a letter of introduction to George Depew, and the next day he presented himself with it at the farmhouse. Susan admitted him. Neither had, of course, ever seen the other. Danvers was a rolling stone—had been a colossal failure as a moss gatherer in the mother country. He was keen and intelligent, and busy with other people's affairs, but sleepy, indolent, and lazy with his own. Every one liked him, yet every one sh

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FATHER AND CHILD—THE OLD STORY

"Come here, Tessie." "Yes, dad." "Sit down, girlie." "Let me kneel, here. There, like that, then you can't be very cross, I know. Let me put my arms around your neck, and I know your lecture won't be very serious." "Kiss me." "There." "And now I want to talk to you, seriously, Tessie." "I knew you did, dad; you had such a long face. What have I done?" "Nothing yet, girlie. It's to prevent your doing something that I fear you will be sorry for all your life that I am talking to you now." "Gerald

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LOVERS—MORE OF THE OLD STORY

"Tessie, why are you angry with me?" "Angry?" His question answered by another, answered to the accompaniment of elevated eyebrows and a pretty little expression of surprise—after the manner of her sex. "Well—yes. You are—aren't you?" "Was never better tempered in my life." "I rather wish that you would get ill tempered." "Why?" "Because—because then you are nicer. Nicer to me. "Nicer, Mr. Danvers?" "Mr. Danvers!" "Well, that is your name, is it not?" "Oh, certainly, Miss Depew." The girl laughe

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THE METHOD IN SUSAN TODD'S MADNESS

The next day the farmer's daughter went into Oakville shopping. She had arranged to have tea with a friend and be back before dusk. Danvers had been sent in another direction in the early morning, and knew nothing of this. He was back early in the afternoon, and wondered at seeing nothing of the girl of his heart. Susan spoke to him presently. She beckoned him as he passed the back of the house. "I've a message for you, Mr. Danvers." "Oh! What is it, Susan?" "Not so loud! From Miss Tessie." "Ah!

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BOUND TO THE WHEEL

Gerald Danvers was never able to realize how long he lay there. Blissful moments of unconsciousness came with awful awakenings to the reality of that painful binding. Every time he moved the cords seemed to attain the heat of redness, and to burn into his flesh. Thirst—that was the most awful feeling. He had not been there an hour before he was assailed with it. The handkerchief made his mouth water, and the linen seemed to act like blotting paper, absorbing and drawing up every drop of moisture

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SUSAN TODD SEES A GHOST

That water—that delicious water! Would he ever forget that drink? It was some little while before he was able to climb off the mill wheel, and he staggered, too, when he reached the ground. Prone on his chest, he buried his mouth and nose in the little stream, and sucked up the water. Never had he tasted sweeter. He looked across the fields. Away in the distance he could see in the clearness of the early morning the windows of the farmhouse with the blinds drawn. Half way between himself and the

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A SICK BED CONFESSION

One of the men built the fire, and assistance with the crockery by others meant breakfast being served ultimately. Gerald had an appetite which some of the farm hands paused to view with a kind of envy. In the rare intervals of the meal, when his mouth was not too full, he told the farmer the rest of the story. Susan came out of her fit, but it left her lying there as weak as a rat. It was explained to her that Gerald was really alive, and then she relapsed into sullen silence—she guessed that t

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A WIFE FOR REWARD

"That time you asked for a day's holiday," said the farmer, "was when you went to meet the boat, I suppose?" "Yes. It is a hard thing to say of your husband, farmer, but there is no help for it now, if I am to tell all. My husband robbed you." "Robbed me!" "Yes. Of nineteen thousand pounds." The farmer did not speak. He simply looked at the woman. The story of the tying to the mill wheel had roused his suspicions as to her sanity—this last speech convinced him. Nineteen thousand pounds! He had n

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GERALD PUTS HIS NOSE TO THE TRAIL

The intelligence of Gerald Danvers has been remarked on. He had a long interview with Tessie, and told her that her father had engaged him to do certain work, in which, if successful, his reward was her engagement to himself. Which was true. What the work was he did not say. The farmer, after giving his promise, was rather ashamed of having done so, and bound Danvers down to secrecy on the subject of his mission. He did not want his wife to laugh at him for throwing fifty pounds away. A wife's m

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INSIDE THE LAWYER'S OFFICE

Gerald opened the letter. The flap of the envelope bore the embossed name and address of the lawyer. The contents read: I shall be pleased to see you if you will give me a call to-morrow between ten and eleven o'clock, with reference to your letter of yesterday's date. Gerald was pleased too. He just chuckled with glee. He did not fear obtaining the situation. And then the smile left his face. His theory that the lawyer had the nineteen thousand pounds had received rather a rude shock. A man wit

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THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S ART AND ARTFULNESS

When the lawyer came back from lunch, the new clerk went out to his. His meal consisted—apart from a sandwich and glass of beer—of the absorption of the contents of a catalogue of photographic materials. He spent the greater part of his dinner hour on the second floor at Benetfink's in Cheapside. That firm's photographic department is there. He was purchasing a small snapshot hand camera, and the difficulty he had was in getting one which went off at short range. He wanted to photograph a pictur

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THE HANDCUFFS PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART

That was just what Gerald was unable to do. He knew Todd was dead. His suspicions about Loide were in a measure confirmed. He was convinced now that the lawyer was involved in this crime—but how far? To know that was what troubled him. The red haired man was the mystery—a mystery which looked clueless. Loide had booked a passage after Todd had done so. Todd was found in a parcel, and the other man in the berth with his throat cut, and yet the lawyer was alive! It was a problem which needed a dea

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AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE DENTIST

At Armfield's Gerald learned but little more. Nothing had been seen of Depew there after eleven o'clock on the morning of his leaving. His bags he had taken away to the station, paid his bill, and had said he was not sure whether he would sleep there or at Liverpool that night. There was a small hand bag still at the hotel, containing a shirt, collars, and handkerchiefs—nothing more. That left Finsbury Circus for Gerald to investigate. He remembered the names of Lennox, and looked at his short c

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AN AMATEUR CARPENTER

Loide left Liverpool Street with trembling limbs, and a heart full of bitterness. That nineteen thousand pounds he had so counted on getting at least a part of, was safe in the possession of the New York detective, who had been one too many for him—that was his dominant, irritating thought. It worried him. Gerald had played a bluff game, and with success. Loide quite believed all he had said about his three days' freedom from arrest. Either Gerald was an artistic liar, or the lawyer's impression

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A WOULD BE SUICIDE

At Finsbury Circus next morning dentist Lennox was in attendance. He had been growing very ill lately, mentally and physically, and this morning he had turned over in his bed with the intention of remaining in it for the day. Dental patients were so few and far between that he did not fear losing much by his absence. But when his wife—as was her custom—brought up his cup of tea, and morning letters, there was a post-card from Sawyer—his boy. It was to tell him that a patient would call about his

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GERALD WALKS INTO THE TRAP

Gerald was enveloped in an atmosphere of tobacco smoke which nearly choked his landlady when she entered the room. A telegram had come for him, and it being, as she explained, "that dratted gal's night out," she had ascended the stairs with the message herself. Gerald was thick in smoke, because he had an idea that his brain liked it; he thought better with a pipe in his mouth. And he was as full of thought just then as a pomegranate is of pips. He took the telegram, opened it, and raised his ey

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PECULIAR MESSENGERS

Gerald was alone for some time; he remained in the same position. He was partly stunned by what had happened. It had all taken place so rapidly, and so unexpectedly, and he feared—greatly—the danger ahead. Man to man, he would have feared nothing. He was not a coward. But, as it was, he had a murderer to deal with, and his opponent had the keys. He considered Loide's character, and he calculated that his own life was a small thing in the lawyers estimation. It was an unwholesome thought. He turn

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A PISTOL AND AN OPEN GRAVE

Eleven o'clock struck. In that upper room at The Elms, where he had left a feather bed, Loide lay smoking and thinking. He was disappointed at the ill success of his scheme. His talk of starving out the detective had been all bluff—starvation was a process which would fill too much time. It would be three days before the man with the warrant touched English shores. Before that time expired, Loide must be away. But he wanted to flit with the money—the nineteen thousand pounds. A hundred and one i

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THE NEXT MOVE IN THE GAME

Before Gerald could answer the very unpleasant question, there came a sound which caused both men's hearts to cease beating for a moment, the one with hope, the other with fear. For it was a loud hammering on the front door, and an authoritative voice crying: "Open instantly, or we break in." Looking at the door, the lawyer saw through the ground glass a round disk of light, such as a bull's-eye lantern throws, and then silhouetted a helmet—a policeman's helmet. Loide stood in the passageway wit

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AT THE DENTIST'S

The dentist himself was left—the last time he was referred to in this chronicle—facing Sawyer and two policemen. The sight of the policemen caused him to clutch at the door frame for support. He thought the moment of his arrest had come, and his knees seemed to take on a desire to figure as castanets. The two men touched their caps and did not attempt to enter. That surprised the dentist. It dawned on him that a salute was not the usual preliminary to an arrest. One of the men had a note-book in

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MOON BLINDNESS

"No need to shave this off now." Gerald was standing next morning in front of his dressing-glass, and referred to his pointed beard. He had intended shaving as a disguise in case of any bother with the now dead dentist. He had not seen what could arise—what the dentist would dare to do—but the detective's failure to go back for his prisoner would naturally excite suspicion in the dentist's breast. Now—well, that breast was cold. "There is no doubt," thought Gerald, "the doctor and the dentist be

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THE LOVERS MEET

New York. Gerald bade farewell to his companion, who pressed him, if ever he returned to England again, to pay him a visit, and they parted. Gerald's first act, after fixing on a train at the railway station, was to send a wire to Depew. Have succeeded in every way. Coming by train, arriving Oakville at six. Let Tessie meet me with trap. Gerald Danvers . And Tessie was there to meet him—Tessie, bright, bonnie, and expectant. Their eyes spoke, but they just shook hands quietly and then drove away

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THIEF!

Gerald never moved, never took his eyes off that packet, never answered. Then he walked closer to it, picked it up, dropped it, and sank into a chair, still a white faced, speechless man. The farmer watched him for a whole minute. Then he sneeringly remarked: "Been robbed of the money, eh?" Gerald had to moisten his lips before he could ejaculate the word: "Yes." Then the farmer laughed, but it was not a pleasant laugh. He rose to his feet and pointed to the door. He uttered but one word: "Go!"

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A THEATRICAL MAKE-UP

We leave America for England, and turn back in our history a week or so—to Wimbledon and The Elms on the night of Gerald's adventure there. The police and Gerald are in the passage by the front door, and a haggard faced man is crouched below the steps listening. He hears all that Gerald says, and his fury rises to white heat as he realizes by his late clerk's reticence that he is not a detective at all! No policeman would speak as he speaks—concealing the facts from other officers. The police an

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NOT A MAN TO STICK AT TRIFLES

The lawyer then rolled up a sheet of stiff note paper from his bag into funnel shape, pinned it so, and made a tiny hole in the wall paper of the other room. Fitting the small end of his funnel to the hole, he commanded a perfect view of the next room. He was surprised, too, to find how it improved the sight looking through the tube—it was like a telescope, it seemed to bring things so near. With the framed text hanging on its hook again, there was not the slightest suspicious thing about the ro

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ONCE MORE ON THE TRACK

When Gerald was turned out of the farm, it was too late to catch a train to New York. He slept in a roadside shed. Early next morning he was in the city, and he had made up his mind to go to police headquarters, and tell sufficient of his story to justify a stoppage of the notes. He passed a money changer's on the other side of the way, and looked at the shop. As he did so, he saw something which turned him rigid. Emerging from the money changer's was his close companion of the voyage. It was no

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THE LAWYER LIFTED INTO ANOTHER SPHERE

Loide lifted himself on his elbow and looked round. Then he remembered—he was in his room at the New York hotel. He had entered the room and then—of course, some one had sprung on him from behind. A horrible thought smote him. He plunged his hand into his breast pocket and screamed with rage—the pocket was empty! The notes were gone! He sprang to his feet and thought. What should he do? Give information to the police—would it be safe? He had—foreseeing possession again—written the Bank of Englan

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MRS. DEPEW HOLDS THE REINS

At the farm bells jangled. The usual harmony was not prevailing. No one struck the right key in conversation. After the manner of mothers, Mrs. Depew sympathized with her daughter, with a result that things were not running smoothly with the farmer. A wife has facilities for disturbing a husband's tranquillity. Apart from the displeasure of his wife and daughter, George Depew was not that pleased with himself. Gerald's behavior when leaving had certainly not been that of a guilty man. And when t

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MRS. DEPEW HAS THINGS HER OWN WAY

Before five o'clock the three Depews—father, mother, and daughter—were in the New York lawyer's office, and punctually at the hour Gerald entered. The lawyer, who had guessed something of what had happened, judiciously left them together for a few minutes. Mrs. Depew carried out her threat; she walked straight over to Gerald, and gave him what she called a "smack." "You, Gerald," she said, "I'm as real pleased to see you as I am to see the snow go away in winter. I believed in you, my lad, from

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