The Solitary House Read Online Free PDF Page B

door of the room. Tulkinghorn bows solemnly and leads the way to a smaller ante-chamber. They cross the floor under the opulent if rather faded ceiling, which seems to depict some sort of allegorical figure, reclining among flowers, clouds, and chubby pink-cheeked cherubs, and pointing with a plump arm which—from where we’re standing, at least—seems oddly foreshortened. Tulkinghorn’s new visitor admires the ceiling, having seen it many times. He considers it rather fine, of its type; Charles thought it obscene.
    There are three other gentlemen already seated at the round table in the ante-room, two of them smoking, and a third man with a finely trimmed beard, who has just emerged from the recess behind that extremely useful Oriental screen.
    “So?” It is the oldest of the men, upright and self-possessed, with fine white hair and an equally fine white shirt-frill, perfectly starched. “Is he our man, or not?”
    Mr Tulkinghorn takes his place at the table. “I think, Sir Amyas, that young Mr Maddox is ideal for our purposes. Bright, but notdangerously so, and very much in need of gainful employ. He has sufficient astuteness to do what we ask, and judgement enough not to probe any further.”
    There is a silence. The last gentleman to arrive shifts in his seat, clearly not yet convinced. “I am sure I need not remind you why it is absolutely imperative that my own particular part in this business should remain a matter of the utmost secrecy. You say this young man is unlikely to discover the truth, but what if he should—”
    Mr Tulkinghorn holds up a hand. “He will not. Indeed he cannot. As far as he is concerned, he is investigating a distressing but ultimately inconsequential incident, involving only Sir Julius Cremorne. It is impossible he should discover the full extent of the affair. He knows enough to locate the culprit, nothing more.”
    “That’s all very well,” says the bearded man quickly, looking round the table, and shifting rather stiffly on his old-fashioned mahogany-and-horsehair chair. “None of you face the m-meddling of a vulgar and impertinent upstart—”
    “Hardly that, surely,” murmurs Tulkinghorn.
    “—none of you run anything like the risk you expect me to assume. We’ve all had those damnable letters, but I’m the only one menaced with exposure by this plan. I told you before, Tulkinghorn, and I’ll tell you again—I d-don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. And as for that latest abomination—”
    “My dear Sir Julius, we have, as you say, discussed this already, and at some length. In the first place, your letters are among the most recent, and we may hope that their trail has not, therefore, gone completely cold. In the second place, it will be far easier to convince our young man that, for a gentleman in your position, such letters are little more than an occupational commonplace. No-one, after all, has any great love for bankers.”
    Sir Julius sits back in his chair, his face very red. “To speak frankly, I fail to see why we need this Maddox at all. That other f-fellow has always given perfect satisfaction in the past.”
    “The circumstances have changed, Sir Julius, as well you know.What is it that good Mrs Glasse says in her housekeeping compendium? ‘First catch your hare’. Mr Maddox has the skills we require to complete that particular task, but you have my assurance that I will—as always—make my own arrangements thereafter. And if he proves foolish enough to delve deeper into the affair than the task demands, I will make it my business to ensure that he does not live to profit by it.”
    “You m-mean—”
    The lawyer gives a small grim smile. “It would not be the first time such a problem has occurred, Sir Julius, and I hope the other gentlemen will do me the justice of acknowledging that whenever such a circumstance has arisen, I have never once scrupled to take whatever steps were necessary to eliminate it. If young Maddox insists on