The Blythes Are Quoted Read Online Free PDF Page B

Blythe can give snubs when he wants to, I can assure you.”
    “Has anything happened lately?”
    “Well, the telephone has rung our call at midnight and three o’clock every night for a week. And I believe Alec found another curse ... written in blood ... written backward so that it could be read only in the mirror. Our ghost is strong on curses, Mr. Burns. This one was a peculiarly nasty one. You’ll find it in that little table drawer. I made Lucia give it to me ... it was she who found it. I wanted to show it to you ... and Dr. Blythe. Yes, that is it ... hold it up to my little hand mirror.”
    “‘Heaven and hell shall blast your happiness. You shall be smitten in the persons of those you love. Your life shall be recked and your house left unto you desolate.’ Mmm ... the ghost has a poor taste in stationery,” said Curtis, looking at the blue-lined sheet of paper on which the words were scribbled.
    “Yes ... rather. You notice the spelling of ‘wrecked.’ But even so the whole composition seems to me beyond Jock ... or even Julia. So far I agree with Mr. Sheldon and Dr. Blythe. The coal oil that was poured into the cold chicken broth in the pantry night before last was more in his line. Also the delicate humour of a jug of molasses spilled all over the parlour carpet. It cost poor Lucia a hard day’s work to get it cleaned up. Of course that might have been Julia. She really hates poor Lucia because she is mistress here.”
    “But surely the doer of a trick like that could be easily caught.”
    “If we knew when it was going to be done ... oh, yes. But we can’t watch every night. And generally when anyone is watching nothing happens.”
    “That proves it must be someone in the house. An outsider wouldn’t know when there was to be a watch.”
    “In a gossipy neighbourhood like Mowbray Narrows that proves nothing. And yet, Mr. Burns, the cradle was rocked and the violin played weirdly all night in the garret two weeks ago when Julia was away and Jock was out in the stable with Alec, working over a sick cow. They were never parted for a minute. When I told Dr. Blythe that he merely shrugged his shoulders.”
    “You quote Dr. Blythe very often. What about Mrs. Blythe?”
    “The doctor often comes here to talk with Alec. I don’t know Mrs. Blythe so well. Some people don’t like her ... but from the little I’ve seen of her I should judge her a very charming woman.”
    “Is it true that the voices of ... supposedly dead people have been heard?”
    “Yes.” Alice shivered. “It doesn’t happen often ... but it has happened. I don’t like to talk of that.”
    “Nevertheless, I must learn all about this if I am to be of any help in solving the mystery.”
    “Well, I heard Uncle Winthrop outside my door one night saying, ‘Alice, would you like anything? Have they done everything you want?’ He used to do that when he was alive. Very gently so as not to disturb me if I was really asleep. Of course it couldn’t have really been his voice ... someone was imitating him. You see,” she added with a return of her whimsicality, “our ghost is so extremely versatile. If it would stick to one line ... but eerieness and roguery together is a hard combination to solve.”
    “Which proves that there is more than one person concerned in this.”
    “So I’ve often said ... but ... well, never mind, let it go. The curse has worried Alec, Lucia tells me. His nerves are not good lately ... things ‘get on’ them. And there have been so many curses ... mostly Bible verses. Our spooks know their Bible, Mr. Burns ... which is another count against the Jock and Julia theories.”
    “But this is intolerable ... this persecution. Someone must hate your family very bitterly.”
    “In Mowbray Narrows? Oh, no. And we are all used to it, more or less. At least, Lucia and Alec are. Or seem to be. I didn’t mind so much until the binder house was burned last fall. I admit that got me down. Since then I’ve