Scandal at High Chimneys Read Online Free PDF

exist.”
    “Didn’t exist? May I ask why you say that?”
    “You may. When I had finished questioning Penelope, Burbage and the two footmen returned. They had searched every inch of the house from cellars to roof. No person was hidden there. And every door and window still securely locked and barred on the inside.”
    Clive sat up straight.
    “But that’s conclusive, isn’t it?”
    “I wonder!”
    “Really, Matthew—!” began Georgette.
    “My wife has an explanation, of course.”
    “Yes, to be sure I have,” declared Georgette, with a trembling kind of dignity. “Much as I really and truly dislike to mention it—”
    “Mention it, my dear. Pray mention it, by all means.”
    “Matthew, she invented the whole story! Despite her so-called virtues your Penelope Burbage is a sly-boots, and anyone but a man would have seen it long ago.”
    “Indeed, my love?”
    “Oh, whim-wham!” cried Georgette, not without vulgarity. The auburn curls danced at the back of her flat oval hat. “Who else saw this mysterious prowler? No one, I think. Miss Penelope is too plain-faced and dowdy to attract men’s notice in any other way, and so she invents this fable to have you all at her feet. I know her. You will at least allow the possibility?”
    “It is a possibility, let us grant. At the same time, since I am familiar with the girl’s character, it is a possibility I cannot credit.”
    “Just a moment, sir!” Clive intervened hastily, before the other’s temper should rise too far. “Was this the reason you asked about Victor? Why should you think the prowler might have been Victor?”
    The question caught Matthew Damon in mid-flight, one unsteady hand at his side-whisker, giving Clive an odd, indecipherable look.
    “In my heart, Mr. Strickland, I could not credit that either. My son has been addicted to pranks, stupid and indefensible pranks. But the most ingenious young gentleman cannot leave a house locked and barred behind him; I have never known the boy to be malicious; and I accept your word that he was with you last night. Question for question, Mr. Strickland! A moment ago you said the evidence of the locked house was ‘conclusive.’ Conclusive of what?”
    “Well, sir, that’s fairly clear.”
    “Is it? Be good enough to explain.”
    “The prowler, if a prowler existed, must have been someone at High Chimneys. For instance, how many menservants live in the house?”
    “Only Burbage and the two footmen. Do you suspect one of those?”
    Clive stared at him.
    “Confound it, Mr. Damon, I don’t suspect anybody! I only said—”
    “Apart from the fact that Burbage has the appearance and mind of a non-conformist clergyman, not one of those three could have frightened Penelope, run up to the top of the house, doffed the prowler’s costume, and descended again in different clothes at the time each did descend. Am I under suspicion, young man? Or is my friend Dr. Thompson Bland? We were the only other men in the house.”
    “It must have been someone, you know. If you won’t allow a ghost, as I hope you won’t, then where are we left?”
    “We are left, it would seem, with a frock-coat, a dark waistcoat, and patterned trousers described as being of a red-and-white chequered design. Explain it how you can or will.”
    Patterned trousers of a red-and-white chequered design. Patterned trousers of a red-and-white chequered design. Those words droned in Clive’s mind to the click and bump of wheels, creating grotesque images. All of a sudden he laughed.
    “Do you find this so very amusing, Mr. Strickland?”
    “No, I do not,” said Clive, catching the mood and retorting in the same tone. “But it occurred to me that there might be one other explanation.”
    “I should be interested to hear it.”
    “Thank you, no. It’s so absurd that I prefer to keep it to myself.”
    “For the last time, young man, I will not be trifled with. What is your explanation?”
    Again Clive stared at him.
    The whistle