The Stowmarket Mystery Part 29

CHAPTER XVI

THE COUSINS

Brett was the only person present who kept his senses. Margaret was too shocked, the lovers too amazed, to speak coherently.

"Mr. Hume-Frazer has allowed himself to become run down," said the barrister, with the nonchalance of one who discussed the prospects of to-morrow's weather. "What he needs at the moment is some soup and a few biscuits. You, Mrs. Capella, might procure these without bringing the servants here, especially if Miss Layton were to help you."

Without a word, the two ladies quitted the room.

Robert looked up.

"You ring like good metal," he said to the barrister. "Is there any liquor in the dining-room? I feel a trifle hollow about the belt. A drink would do me good."

"Not until you have eaten something first," was the firm answer. "Are you so hard up that you could not buy food?"

"Well, the fact is, I have been on my beam ends during the past week.

To-day I p.a.w.ned a silver watch, but unfortunately returned to my lodgings, where my landlady made such a fiendish row about the bill that I gave her every penny. Then I p.a.w.ned my overcoat, raising the exact fare to Stowmarket. I could not even pay for a 'bus from Gower Street to Liverpool Street. All I have eaten to-day was a humble breakfast at 8.30 a.m., and I suppose the sun and the journey wore me out. Still, you must be jolly sharp to see what was the matter. I thought I kept my end up pretty well."

David sat down by his side.

"Forgive me, old chap," continued Robert. "It broke me up to see that you were happy after all your troubles. You are engaged to a nice girl; Alan is dead; I am the only unlucky member of the family."

The man was talking quite sincerely. He even envied his murdered cousin.

Nothing in his words, his suspicious mode of announcing his presence, the vague doubts that shadowed his past career, puzzled Brett so greatly as that chance phrase.

The ladies came back, laden with good things from the kitchen, which they insisted on carrying themselves, much to the astonishment of the servants.

All women are born actresses. Their behaviour before the domestics left the impression that some huge joke was toward in the library.

The tactful barrister drew Hume and Helen outside to discuss immediate arrangements. David promised faithfully to return from the rectory in fifteen minutes, and Brett re-entered the library.

Robert Hume-Frazer gave evidence of his semi-starvation. He tried to disguise his eagerness, but in vain. Biscuits, sandwiches, and soup vanished rapidly, until Margaret suggested a further supply.

"No, Rita," said her cousin; "I have fasted too often on the Pampas not to know the folly of eating too heartily. I will be all right now, especially when Mr. Brett produces the whisky he spoke about."

The barrister brought a decanter from the dining-room. The stranger was still an enigma. He placed bottle and gla.s.s on the table, wondering to what extent the man would help himself.

The quant.i.ty was small and well diluted. So this member of the family was not a drunkard.

"How did you come to be in such a state?" asked Margaret nervously. "It is hardly six months since I sent you 500; not a very large sum, I admit, but all you asked me for, and more than enough to live on for a much longer period."

Robert laughed pleasantly. It was the first token of returning confidence.

He reached for a cigar, and sought Margaret's permission to smoke.

"My dear girl," he answered, "I am really a very unfortunate person. I own a hundred thousand acres of the best land in South America, and I have been in England nearly two years trying to raise capital to develop it. If I owned a salted reef or an American brewery I could have got the money for the asking. Because my stock-raising proposition is a sound paying concern, requiring a delay of at least three years before a penny of profit can be realised, I have worn my boots out in climbing up and down office stairs to no purpose. Out of your 500, nearly 400 went out at once to pay arrears of Government taxation to save my property. Of the remaining hundred I spent fifty in a fortnight on dinners and suppers given to a gang of top-hatted scoundrels, who, I found subsequently, were not worth a red cent. They hoped to fleece me in some way, and their very a.s.sociation discredited me in the eyes of one or two honest men. Oh, I have had a bad time of it, I can a.s.sure you!"

"Why did you not write to me again?"

He looked at her steadily before he explained:

"Because you are a woman."

"What has that got to do with it? I am your relative, and rich. How much do you want? If your scheme is really sound, I imagine my solicitors might sanction my co-operation."

Again he hesitated.

"Thank you, Rita. You are a good sort. But I am not here on a matter of high finance. I want you to lend me, say, 250. I will return to the Argentine, and take twenty years to accomplish what I could do in five with the necessary capital."

"Come and see me in the morning. The sum you name is absurdly small, in any case. Perhaps Mr. Brett will accompany you. His advice will be useful to both of us. Come early. I leave here to-morrow."

"Going away! Where to?"

"To Whitby, in Yorks.h.i.+re."

"Well, that is curious," said Robert, who clearly did not like to question her about her husband.

"Mr. Capella is in Naples," she added. "I cannot say when he will return."

Her cousin's look was eloquent of his thoughts. He did not like the Italian, for some inexplicable reason, for to Margaret's knowledge they had never met.

The barrister naturally did not interfere in this family conclave. He listened intently, and had already drawn several inferences from the man's words. For the life of him he could not cla.s.sify Robert Hume-Frazer. The man was either a consummate scoundrel, the cold-blooded murderer of Margaret's brother, or a maligned and ill-used man.

Within a few minutes he would be called upon to treat him in one category or the other. A few questions might elucidate matters considerably.

The hiatus in the conversation created by the mention of Capella gave him an opportunity.

"Did you endeavour to raise the requisite capital for your estate in London only?" he inquired.

"No; I tried elsewhere," was the quick rejoinder.

"Here, for instance, on the New Year's Eve before last?"

"Now, how the blazes did you learn that?" came the fierce demand, the speaker's excitement rendering him careless of the words he used.

"It is true, then?"

"Yes, but--"

"Robert!--" Margaret's voice was choking, and her face was woefully white once more--"were you--here--when Alan--was killed?"

"No, not exactly. This thing bewilders me. Let me explain. I saw him that afternoon. We had a furious quarrel. I never told you about it, Rita. It was a family matter. I do not hold you responsible. I--"

"Hold me responsible! What do you mean? Did you kill my brother?"

She rose to her feet. Her eyes seemed to peer into his soul. He, too, rose and faced her.

"By G.o.d," he cried, "this is too much! Why didn't you ask your husband that question?"