The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [5875]
"Did you see him?" asked her aunt, when Viola, much dispirited, returned home.
"No, and I suppose you're glad of it!"
"I am. There's no use saying I'm not."
"Aunt Mary, I think it's perfectly horrid of you to think, even for a moment, that Harry had anything to do with this terrible thing. He'd never dream of it, not if he had quarreled with my father a dozen times. And I don't see what they quarreled about, either. I'm sure I was with Harry a good deal of the time before the game, and I didn't hear him and my father have any words."
"Perhaps, as it was about you, they took care you shouldn't hear."
"Who says it was about me?"
"Can't you easily guess that it was, and that's why Harry doesn't want to tell?" asked Miss Mary.
"I don't believe anything of the sort!" declared Viola.
"Well," sighed Miss Carwell, "I don't know what to believe. If your poor, dear father wasn't a suicide, some one must have killed him, and it may well have been - "
"Don't dare say it was Harry!" cried Viola excitedly. "Oh, this is terrible! I'm going to see Colonel Ashley and ask him if he can't end this horrible suspense."
"I wish that as eagerly as you do," said Miss Mary. "You'll find the colonel in the library. He's poring over some papers, and Shag, that funny colored man, is getting some fish lines ready; so it's easy enough to guess where the colonel is going. If you want to speak to him you'd better hurry. But there's another matter I want to call to your attention. What about our business affairs? Have we money enough to go on living here and keeping up our big winter house? We must think of that, Viola."
"Yes, we must think of that," agreed the girl. "That's one of the reasons why I wanted to come back. Father's affairs must be gone into carefully. He left no will, and the lawyer says it will take quite a while to find out just how things stand. If only Harry were here to help. He's such a good business man."
"There are others," sniffed Miss Mary. "Why don't you ask the colonel - or Captain Poland?"
"Captain Poland !" exclaimed Viola, startled. "Yes. He helped us out in the matter of the bank when more collateral was asked for, and he'll be glad to go over the affairs with us, I'm sure."
"I don't want him to!" snapped Viola. "Mr. Blossom is the proper one to do that. He is the chief clerk, and since he was going to form a partnership with father he will, most likely, know all the details. We'll have him up here and ask him how matters stand."
"Perhaps that will be wise," agreed Miss Carwell. "But I can't forget how careless LeGrand Blossom was in the matter of the loan your father had from the bank. If he's that careless, his word won't be worth much, I'm afraid."
"Oh, any one is likely to make a mistake," said Viola. "I'll telephone to Mr. Blossom and ask him to come here and have a talk with us. It will give me something to think about. Besides - "
She did not finish, but went to the instrument and was soon talking to the chief clerk in the office Mr. Carwell maintained while at his summer home.
"He'll be up within an hour," Viola reported. "Now I'm going to have a talk with the colonel," and she hastened to the library.
The old detective was smoking a cigar, which he hastened to lay aside when Viola made her entrance, but she raised a restraining hand.
"Smoke as much as you like," she said. "I am used to it."
"Thank you," and he pulled forward a chair for her.
"Oh, haven't you found out anything yet?" she burst out. "Can't you say anything definite?"
Colonel Ashley shook his head in negation.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I'm just as sorry about it as you are. But I have seldom had a case in which there were so many clews that lead into blind allies. I was just trying to arrange a plan of procedure that I thought might lead to something."
"Can you?" she asked eagerly.
"I haven't finished yet. What I need most is a book on poisons-a comprehensive chemistry