The Sittaford Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

hands half clenched. He was clean shaven with small, rather piglike eyes, yet he had a look of cheerfulness and efficiency that redeemed his bulldog appearance.
    Inspector Narracott mentally tabulated his impressions. “Intelligent. Shrewd and practical. Looks rattled.”
    Then he spoke:
    “You're Evans, eh?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Christian names?”
    “Robert Henry.”
    “Ah! Now what do you know about this business?”
    “Not a thing, sir. It's fair knocked me over. To think of the Capting being done in!”
    “When did you last see your master?”
    “Two o'clock I should say it was, sir. I cleared away the lunch things and laid the table here as you see for supper. The Capting, he told me as I needn't come back.”
    “What do you usually do?”
    “As a general rule, I come back about seven for a couple of hours. Not always - sometimes the Capting would say as I needn't.”
    “Then you weren't surprised when he told you that yesterday you wouldn't be wanted again?”
    “No, sir. I didn't come back the evening before either - on account of the weather. Very considerate gentleman, the Capting was, as long as you didn't try to shirk things. I knew him and his ways pretty well.”
    “What exactly did he say?”
    “Well, he looked out of the window and he says, 'Not a hope of Burnaby today.' 'Shouldn't wonder,' he says, 'if Sittaford isn't cut off altogether. Don't remember such a winter since I was a boy.' That was his friend Major Burnaby over to Sittaford that he was referring to. Always comes on a Friday, he does, he and the Capting play chess and do acrostics. And on Tuesdays the Capting would go to Major Burnaby's. Very regular in his habits was the Capting. Then he said to me: 'You can go now, Evans, and you needn't come till tomorrow morning.'”
    “Apart from his reference to Major Burnaby, he didn't speak of expecting anyone that afternoon?”
    “No, sir, not a word.”
    “There was nothing unusual or different in any way in his manner.”
    “No, sir, not that I could see.”
    “Ah! Now I understand, Evans, that you have lately got married.”
    “Yes, sir. Mrs Belling's daughter at the Three Crowns. Matter of two months ago, sir.”
    “And Captain Trevelyan was not overpleased about it.”
    A very faint grin appeared for a moment on Evans' face.
    “Cut up rough about it, he did, the Capting. My Rebecca is a fine girl, sir, and a very good cook. And I hoped we might have been able to do for the Capting together, but he - he wouldn't hear of it. Said he wouldn't have women servants about his house. In fact, sir, things were rather at a deadlock when this South African lady came along and wanted to take Sittaford House for the winter. The Capting he rented this place, I came in to do for him every day, and I don't mind telling you, sir, that I had been hoping that by the end of the winter the Capting would have come round to the idea; and that me and Rebecca would go back to Sittaford with him. Why, he would never even know she was in the house. She would keep to the kitchen, and she would manage so that he would never meet her on the stairs.”
    “Have you any idea what lay behind Captain Trevelyan's dislike of women?”
    “Nothing to it, sir. Just an 'abit, sir, that's all. I have seen many a gentleman like it before. If you ask me, it's nothing more or less than shyness. Some young lady or other gives them a snub when they are young - and they gets the 'abit.”
    “Captain Trevelyan was not married?”
    “No, indeed, sir.”
    “What relations had he? Do you know?”
    “I believe he had a sister living at Exeter, sir, and I think I have heard him mention a nephew or nephews.”
    “None of them ever came to see him?”
    “No, sir. I think he quarreled with his sister at Exeter.”
    “Do you know her name?”
    “Gardner, I think, sir, but I wouldn't be sure.”
    “You don't know her address?”
    “I'm 'afraid I don't, sir.”
    “Well, doubtless we shall come across that in looking through