Richardson Scores Again

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Book: Richardson Scores Again Read Free
Author: Basil Thomson
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happened?”
    â€œYes, I had to attend the funeral of my brother-in-law at Redford.”
    â€œWhat was his name?”
    â€œThomas Ilford. My sister wrote to tell me that he had left me executor to his will—sole executor.”
    â€œHe had property to leave?”
    â€œYes, he owned a good deal of house property in Redford as well as invested money.”
    â€œWhat time did you leave home?”
    â€œIt must have been a few minutes after nine. I had to catch the ten-thirty train.”
    â€œYour servant did not mind being left alone in this big house?”
    â€œNo, 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€œHis name?” (Symington was taking notes.)
    â€œRonald Eccles.”
    â€œIs he still serving, or has he retired?”
    â€œHe’s still serving. His ship is the Dauntless , just back from the West Indies to refit.”
    â€œHad you any particular reason for asking him to come a day earlier?”
    â€œWell, yes, I had. There was a considerable sum of money in the house in Treasury notes—two thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds to be exact.”
    â€œAs much as that? Do you always keep such large amounts in the house?”
    â€œCertainly 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 don’t trust banks, but keep their money in an old stocking.”
    â€œThe farmer’s name?”
    â€œEdward Jackson.”
    â€œAnd the name of the farm you sold?”
    â€œTwo Ways Farm. That is the name in the title deeds and the Ordnance Survey, but everyone in Redford knows it as ‘Jackson’s Farm.’”
    â€œAnd this Mr. Jackson paid you in cash for it? Why did he not pay the money to your lawyer in Redford?”
    â€œI can’t answer that question. The old man was very anxious, he said, to complete the sale, and he doesn’t 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 o’clock—too late for me to pay the money into my bank.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you pay it in yesterday morning before you went to Redford for the funeral?”
    â€œBecause I couldn’t 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€œDid you tell him the reason?”
    â€œYes, 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€œBut he didn’t come?”
    â€œApparently not. I suppose that he had difficulty about getting leave. But it was unlike him not to telegraph and say so.”
    â€œHow did you address the letter?” 
    â€œTo his ship, the Dauntless , in Portsmouth Dock.”
    â€œWhere did you hide the money?”
    â€œIn my bedroom.”
    â€œBut where?”
    â€œIn a chest of drawers, under my clothes.”
    â€œAnd you found it all right?”
    â€œI haven’t been upstairs to look yet.”
    â€œYou haven’t looked ?” Symington’s tone showed his astonishment.
    â€œNo. In the face of the awful thing that’s happened I did not give a thought to the money. I suppose it was

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