Five Red Herrings Read Free

fellow at any price.’
    ‘Och, that’s a’richt,’ said McAdam. ‘Ye meant no harm, Mr. Waters. What’ll ye have?’
    ‘Oh, a double Scotch,’ replied Waters, with rather a shamefaced grin.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Wimsey, ‘drown remembrance of the insult in the wine of the country.’
    A man named McGeoch, who had held aloof from the disturbance, rose up and came to the bar.
    ‘Another Worthington,’ he said briefly. ‘Campbell will be getting into trouble one of these days, I shouldn’t wonder. The manners of him are past all bearing. You heard what he said to Strachan up at the golf-course the other day. Making himself out the boss of the whole place. Strachan told him if he saw him on the course again, he’d wring his neck.’
    The others nodded silently. The row between Campbell and the golf-club secretary at Gatehouse had indeed become local history.
    ‘And I would not blame Strachan, neither,’ went on McGeoch. ‘Here’s Campbell only lived two seasons in Gatehouse, and he’s setting the whole place by the ears. He’s a devil when he’s drunk and a lout when he’s sober. It’s a great shame. Our little artistic community has always gotten on well together, without giving offence to anybody. And now there are nothing but rows and bickerings — all through this fellow Campbell.’
    ‘Och,’ said Murdoch, ‘he’ll settle down in time. The man’s no a native o’ these parts and he doesna verra weel understand his place. Forbye, for all his havers, he’s no a Scotsman at a’, for everybody knows he’s fra’ Glasgow, and his mother was an Ulsterwoman, by the name of Flanagan.’
    ‘That’s the sort that talks loodest,’ put in Murray, the banker, who was a native of Kirkwall, and had a deep and not always silent contempt for anybody born south of Wick. ‘But it’s best to pay no attention to him. If he gets what is coming to him, I’m thinking it’ll no be from anybody here.’
    He nodded meaningly.
    ‘Ye’ll be thinking of Hugh Farren?’ suggested McAdam.
    ‘I’ll be naming no names,’ said Murray, ‘but it’s well known that he has made trouble for himself with a certain lady.’
    ‘It’s no fault of the lady’s,’ said McGeoch, emphatically.
    ‘I’m not saying it is. But there’s some gets into trouble without others to help them to it.’
    ‘I shouldn’t have fancied Campbell in the rôle of a home-breaker,’ said Wimsey, pleasantly.
    ‘I shouldn’t fancy him at all,’ growled Waters, ‘but he fancies himself quite enough, and one of these days—’
    ‘There, there,’ said Murdoch, hastily. ‘It’s true he’s no a verra popular man, is Campbell, but it’s best to be patient and tak’ no notice of him.’
    ‘That’s all very well,’ said Waters.
    ‘And wasn’t there some sort of row about fishing?’ interrupted Wimsey. If the talk had to be about Campbell, it was best to steer it away from Waters at all costs.
    ‘Och, ay,’ said McAdam. ‘Him and Mr. Jock Graham is juist at daggers drawn aboot it. Mr. Graham will be fishing the pool below Campbell’s hoose. Not but there’s plenty pools in the Fleet wi’out disturbin’ Campbell, if the man wad juist be peaceable aboot it. But it’s no his pool when a’s said and dune — the river’s free — and it’s no to be expectit that Mr. Graham will pay ony heed to his claims, him that pays nae heed to onybody.’
    ‘Particularly,’ said McGeoch, ‘after Campbell had tried to duck him in the Fleet.’
    ‘Did he though, by Jove?’ said Wimsey, interested.
    ‘Ay, but he got weel duckit himsel’,’ said Murdoch, savouring the reminiscence. ‘And Graham’s been fushin’ there every nicht since then, wi’ yin or twa of the lads. He’ll be there the nicht, I wadna wonder.’
    ‘Then if Campbell’s spoiling for a row, he’ll know where to go for it,’ said Wimsey. ‘Come on, Waters, we’d better make tracks.’
    Waters, still sulky, rose and followed him. Wimsey steered him home to his lodgings, prattling cheerfully, and tucked him into bed.
    ‘And I shouldn’t let Campbell get on your nerves,’ he