Scarhaven Keep

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Scarhaven Keep

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Title: Scarhaven Keep
Author: J. S. Fletcher
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SCARHAVEN KEEP
BY J.S. FLETCHER
1922

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
WANTED AT REHEARSAL II GREY ROOK AND GREY SEA III
THE MAN WHO KNEW SOMETHING IV THE ESTATE AGENT V
THE GREYLE HISTORY VI THE LEADING LADY VII LEFT ON
GUARD VIII RIGHT OF WAY IX HOBKIN'S HOLE X THE
INVALID CURATE XI BENEATH THE BRAMBLES XII GOOD
MEN AND TRUE XIII MR. DENNIE XIV BY PRIVATE TREATY
XV THE CABLEGRAM FROM NEW YORK XVI IN TOUCH WITH

THE MISSING XVII THE OLD PLAYBILL XVIII THE LIE ON
THE TOMBSTONE XIX THE STEAM YACHT XX THE
COURTEOUS CAPTAIN XXI MAROONED XXII THE OLD HAND
XXIII THE YACHT COMES BACK XXIV THE TORPEDO-BOAT
DESTROYER XXV THE SQUIRE XXVI THE REAVER'S GLEN
XXVII THE PEEL TOWER XXVIII THE FOOTPRINTS XXIX
SCARVELL'S CUT XXX THE GREENGROCER'S CART XXXI
AMBASSADRESS EXTRAORDINARY
CHAPTER I
WANTED AT REHEARSAL
Jerramy, thirty years' stage-door keeper at the Theatre Royal, Norcaster,
had come to regard each successive Monday morning as a time for the
renewal of old acquaintance. For at any rate forty-six weeks of the
fifty-two, theatrical companies came and went at Norcaster with
unfailing regularity. The company which presented itself for patronage
in the first week of April in one year was almost certain to present itself
again in the corresponding week of the next year. Sometimes new faces
came with it, but as a rule the same old favourites showed themselves
for a good many years in succession. And every actor and actress who
came to Norcaster knew Jerramy. He was the first official person
encountered on entering upon the business of the week. He it was who
handed out the little bundles of letters and papers, who exchanged the
first greetings, of whom one could make useful inquiries, who always
knew exactly what advice to give about lodgings and landladies. From
noon onwards of Mondays, when the newcomers began to arrive at the
theatre for the customary one o'clock call for rehearsal, Jerramy was
invariably employed in hearing that he didn't look a day older, and was
as blooming as ever, and sure to last another thirty years, and his
reception always culminated in a hearty handshake and genial greeting
from the great man of the company, who, of course, after the fashion of
magnates, always turned up at the end of the irregular procession, and
was not seldom late for the fixture which he himself had made.
At a quarter past one of a certain Monday afternoon in the course of a

sunny October, Jerramy leaned over the half-door of his sanctum in
conversation with an anxious-eyed man who for the past ten minutes
had hung about in the restless fashion peculiar to those who are waiting
for somebody. He had looked up the street and down the street a dozen
times; he had pulled out his watch and compared it with the clock of a
neighbouring church almost as often; he had several times gone up the
dark passage which led to the dressing-rooms, and had come back
again looking more perplexed than ever. The fact was that he was the
business manager of the great Mr. Bassett Oliver, who was opening for
the week at Norcaster in his latest success, and who, not quite satisfied
with the way in which a particular bit of it was being played called a
special rehearsal for a quarter to one. Everything and everybody was
ready for