Complete Short Stories of Miss Marple Read Online Free PDF Page A

some time. Then the lorry drove on, and, he thought, passed out through another gate some quarter of a mile nearer the village. He could give no description of his assailants except that they were certainly seafaring men, and, by their speech, Cornishmen.
    'Inspector Badgworth was very interested.
    ''Depend upon it that is where the stuff has been hidden,' he cried. 'Somehow or other it has been salvaged from the wreck and has been stored in some lonely cave somewhere. It is known that we have searched all the caves in Smugglers' Cove, and that we are now going farther afield, and they have evidently been moving the stuff at night to a cave that has been already searched and is not likely to be searched again. Unfortunately they have had at least eighteen hours to dispose of the stuff. If they got Mr. Newman last night I doubt if we will find any of it there by now.'
    'The inspector hurried off to make a search. He found definite evidence that the bullion had been stored as supposed, but the gold had been once more removed, and there was no clue as to its fresh hiding-place.
    'One clue there was, however, and the inspector himself pointed it out to me the following morning.
    ''That lane is very little used by motor vehicles,' he said, 'and in one or two places we get the traces of the tyres very clearly. There is a three-cornered piece out of one tyre, leaving a mark which is quite unmistakable. It shows going into the gate; here and there is a faint mark of it going out of the other gate, so there is not much doubt that it is the right vehicle we are after. Now, why did they take it out through the farther gate? It seems quite clear to me that that lorry came from the village. Now, there aren't many people who own a lorry in the village – not more than two or three at most. Kelvin, the landlord of the Three Anchors, has one.'
    ''What was Kelvin's original profession?' asked Newman.
    ''It is curious that you should ask me that, Mr. Newman. In his younger days Kelvin was a professional diver.'
    'Newman and I looked at each other. The puzzle seemed to be fitting itself together piece by piece.
    ''You didn't recognize Kelvin as one of the men on the beach?' asked the inspector.
    'Newman shook his head.
    ''I am afraid I can't say anything as to that,' he said regretfully. 'I really hadn't time to see anything.'
    'The inspector very kindly allowed me to accompany him to the Three Anchors. The garage was up a side street. The big doors were closed, but by going up a little alley at the side we found a small door that led into it, and that door was open. A very brief examination of the tyres sufficed for the inspector. 'We have got him, by Jove!' he exclaimed. 'Here is the mark as large as life on the rear left wheel. Now, Mr. Kelvin, I don't think you will be clever enough to wriggle out of this.''
    Raymond West came to a halt.
    'Well?' said Joyce. 'So far I don't see anything to make a problem about – unless they never found the gold.'
    'They never found the gold certainly,' said Raymond, 'and they never got Kelvin either. I expect he was too clever for them, but I don't quite see how he worked it. He was duly arrested – on the evidence of the tyre mark. But an extraordinary hitch arose. Just opposite the big doors of the garage was a cottage rented for the summer by a lady artist.'
    'Oh, these lady artists!' said Joyce, laughing.
    'As you say, 'Oh these lady artists!' This particular one had been ill for some weeks, and, in consequence, had two hospital nurses attending her. The nurse who was on night duty had pulled her arm-chair up to the window, where the blind was up. She declared that the motor lorry could not have left the garage opposite without her seeing it, and she swore that in actual fact it never left the garage that night.'
    Sir Henry suddenly gave vent to a great roar of laughter and slapped his knee. 'Got you this time, Raymond,' he said.
    'Miss Marple you are wonderful. Your friend Newman, my boy, has