The Borough Treasurer

Borough Treasurer, by Joseph
Smith Fletcher

Project Gutenberg's The Borough Treasurer, by Joseph Smith Fletcher
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Borough Treasurer
Author: Joseph Smith Fletcher
Release Date: February 19, 2007 [EBook #20630]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
BOROUGH TREASURER ***

Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE BOROUGH TREASURER
BY

J. S. FLETCHER
AUTHOR OF
THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER, THE PARADISE MYSTERY,
ETC.
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Made in the United States of America
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.
Published July, 1921 Second Printing, November, 1921
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
I BLACKMAIL, 1
II CRIME--AND SUCCESS, 11
III MURDER, 21
IV THE PINE WOOD, 31
V THE CORD, 41
VI THE MAYOR, 52
VII NIGHT WORK, 61
VIII RETAINED FOR THE DEFENCE, 71
IX ANTECEDENTS, 82
X THE HOLE IN THE THATCH, 91

XI CHRISTOPHER PETT, 101
XII PARENTAL ANXIETY, 111
XIII THE ANONYMOUS LETTER, 121
XIV THE SHEET OF FIGURES, 131
XV ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER, 141
XVI THE LONELY MOOR, 149
XVII THE MEDICAL OPINION, 159
XVIII THE SCRAP BOOK, 171
XIX A TALL MAN IN GREY CLOTHES, 181
XX AT BAY, 191
XXI THE INTERRUPTED FLIGHT, 203
XXII THE HAND IN THE DARKNESS, 211
XXIII COMFORTABLE CAPTIVITY, 221
XXIV STRICT BUSINESS LINES, 231
XXV NO FURTHER EVIDENCE, 242
XXVI THE VIRTUES OF SUSPICION, 251
XXVII MR. WRAYTHWAITE OF WRAYE, 260
XXVIII PAGES FROM THE PAST, 269
XXIX WITHOUT THOUGHT OF CONSEQUENCES, 277
XXX COTHERSTONE, 283

XXXI THE BARRISTER'S FEE, 302

THE BOROUGH TREASURER
CHAPTER I
BLACKMAIL
Half way along the north side of the main street of Highmarket an
ancient stone gateway, imposing enough to suggest that it was
originally the entrance to some castellated mansion or manor house,
gave access to a square yard, flanked about by equally ancient
buildings. What those buildings had been used for in other days was
not obvious to the casual and careless observer, but to the least
observant their present use was obvious enough. Here were piles of
timber from Norway; there were stacks of slate from Wales; here was
marble from Aberdeen, and there cement from Portland: the old
chambers of the grey buildings were filled to overflowing with all the
things that go towards making a house--ironwork, zinc, lead, tiles, great
coils of piping, stores of domestic appliances. And on a shining brass
plate, set into the wall, just within the gateway, were deeply engraven
the words: Mallalieu and Cotherstone, Builders and Contractors.
Whoever had walked into Mallalieu & Cotherstone's yard one October
afternoon a few years ago would have seen Mallalieu and Cotherstone
in person. The two partners had come out of their office and gone down
the yard to inspect half a dozen new carts, just finished, and now drawn
up in all the glory of fresh paint. Mallalieu had designed those carts
himself, and he was now pointing out their advantages to Cotherstone,
who was more concerned with the book-keeping and letter-writing side
of the business than with its actual work. He was a big, fleshy man,
Mallalieu, midway between fifty and sixty, of a large, solemn,
well-satisfied countenance, small, sly eyes, and an expression of steady
watchfulness; his attire was always of the eminently respectable sort,
his linen fresh and glossy; the thick gold chain across his ample front,
and the silk hat which he invariably wore, gave him an unmistakable

air of prosperity. He stood now, the silk hat cocked a little to one side,
one hand under the tail of his broadcloth coat, a pudgy finger of the
other pointing to some new feature of the mechanism of the new carts,
and he looked the personification of self-satisfaction and smug content.
"All done in one action, d'ye see, Cotherstone?" he was saying. "One
pull at that pin releases the entire load. We'd really ought to have a
patent for that idea."
Cotherstone went nearer the cart which they were examining. He was a
good deal of a contrast to his partner--a slightly built, wiry man,
nervous and quick of movement; although he was Mallalieu's junior he
looked older, and the thin hair at his temples was already whitening.
Mallalieu suggested solidity and almost bovine sleekness; in
Cotherstone, activity of speech and gesture was marked well-nigh to an
appearance of habitual anxiety. He stepped about the cart with the
quick action of an inquisitive bird or animal examining something
which it has never seen before.