happened?â
âYes, I had to attend the funeral of my brother-in-law at Redford.â
âWhat was his name?â
âThomas Ilford. My sister wrote to tell me that he had left me executor to his willâsole executor.â
âHe had property to leave?â
âYes, he owned a good deal of house property in Redford as well as invested money.â
âWhat time did you leave home?â
âIt must have been a few minutes after nine. I had to catch the ten-thirty train.â
âYour servant did not mind being left alone in this big house?â
âNo, but she was not going to be alone all night. My nephew landed at Portsmouth the day before yesterday, and was coming to stay with me. He was really not due until to-day, but I sent him an express letter asking him to come and sleep here last night.â
âHis name?â (Symington was taking notes.)
âRonald Eccles.â
âIs he still serving, or has he retired?â
âHeâs still serving. His ship is the Dauntless , just back from the West Indies to refit.â
âHad you any particular reason for asking him to come a day earlier?â
âWell, yes, I had. There was a considerable sum of money in the house in Treasury notesâtwo thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds to be exact.â
âAs much as that? Do you always keep such large amounts in the house?â
âCertainly not. It worried me, but there was no way out of it. You see, I had just sold a dairy farm to the tenant who had rented it for years. You know what these farmers are. They donât trust banks, but keep their money in an old stocking.â
âThe farmerâs name?â
âEdward Jackson.â
âAnd the name of the farm you sold?â
âTwo Ways Farm. That is the name in the title deeds and the Ordnance Survey, but everyone in Redford knows it as âJacksonâs Farm.ââ
âAnd this Mr. Jackson paid you in cash for it? Why did he not pay the money to your lawyer in Redford?â
âI canât answer that question. The old man was very anxious, he said, to complete the sale, and he doesnât trust lawyers any more than he trusts bankers. He wanted to pay the money and get my receipt for it, so he did not waste money on a telegram. He got my letter accepting his offer for the farm on Monday morning, and he arrived here on Monday afternoon at four oâclockâtoo late for me to pay the money into my bank.â
âWhy didnât you pay it in yesterday morning before you went to Redford for the funeral?â
âBecause I couldnât be in two places at once. If I had waited until the bank opened I should have been too late for the funeral, and that would have distressed my poor sister terribly. I did the next best thing. I have no safe in the house, so I hid the money and wrote an express letter to my nephew telling him to come up yesterday and sleep in the house last night, instead of coming up to-day as he intended.â
âDid you tell him the reason?â
âYes, and I told him where the money was. I took the letter to the Hampstead Post Office myself and expressed it. He must have received it yesterday morning.â
âBut he didnât come?â
âApparently not. I suppose that he had difficulty about getting leave. But it was unlike him not to telegraph and say so.â
âHow did you address the letter?âÂ
âTo his ship, the Dauntless , in Portsmouth Dock.â
âWhere did you hide the money?â
âIn my bedroom.â
âBut where?â
âIn a chest of drawers, under my clothes.â
âAnd you found it all right?â
âI havenât been upstairs to look yet.â
âYou havenât looked ?â Symingtonâs tone showed his astonishment.
âNo. In the face of the awful thing thatâs happened I did not give a thought to the money. I suppose it was