The Mystery of the Downs | Page 7

as a private, but had returned wounded and had been invalided out of the army. He had been captured by the Germans during a night attack, had been shot through the palm of his right hand to prevent him using a rifle again, and had been left behind when the Germans were forced to retreat from the village they had captured. After being invalided out of the Army he had returned home to live in the old farm-house--Cliff Farm it was called--which had been left to him by his grandfather, who had died while the young man was in France. The old man had lived in a state of terror during the last few months of his life, as he was convinced that the Germans were going to invade England, destroy everything, and murder the population as they had done in Belgium. He ceased to farm his land, he dismissed his men, and shut himself up in his house.
His housekeeper, Mrs. Thorpe, who had been in his service for thirty years, refused to leave him, and insisted on remaining to look after him. When he died as the result of injuries received in falling downstairs, it was found that he had left most of his property to his grandson, Frank, but he had also left legacies to Mrs. Thorpe and two of the men who had been in his employ for a generation. But these legacies had not been paid because there was no money with which to pay them. Soon after the outbreak of the war the old man had drawn all his money out of the bank and had realized all his investments. It was thought that he had done this because of his fear of a German invasion.
What he had done with the money no one knew. Most people thought he had buried it for safety, intending to dig it up when the war was over. There was a rumour that he had buried it on the farm. Another rumour declared that he had buried it in the sands at the foot of the cliffs, for towards the end of his life he was often seen walking alone on the sands. In his younger days he had combined fishing with farming, and there was still a boat in the old boat-house near the cliffs. Several people tried digging in likely places in the sands after his death, but they did not find any trace of the money. Other people said that Frank Lumsden knew where the money was hidden--that his grandfather had left a plan explaining where he had buried it.
"What about the piece of paper with the mysterious plan on it which we found on the staircase?" said Marsland. "Do you think that had anything to do with the hidden money?"
"I never thought of that," she said. "Perhaps it had."
"We left it on the table in the room downstairs," he said. "I think we ought to go back for it, as it may have something to do with the murder."
"Don't go back," she said. "I could not bear to go back. The paper will be there when the police go. No one will go there in the meantime, so it will be quite safe."
"But you remember that his pocket-book had been rifled," he said, as he halted to discuss the question of returning. "May not that plan have been taken from his pocket-book after he was dead?"
"But in that case how did it come on the staircase?"
"It was dropped there by the man who stole it from the pocket-book."
"He will be too frightened to go back for it," she declared confidently. "He would be afraid of being caught."
"But he may have been in the house while we were there," he replied. "We did not solve the mystery of the crash we heard when we were in the room upstairs."
"You said at the time it was possibly caused by the wind upsetting something."
He was amused at the inconsequence of the line of reasoning she adopted in order to prevent him going back for the plan.
"At the time we did not know there was a dead body upstairs," he said.
"Do you think the murderer was in the house while we were there?" she asked.
"It is impossible to say definitely. My own impression now is that some one was in the house--that the crash we heard was not caused by the wind."
"Then he must have been there while I was sitting downstairs before you came," she said, with a shiver at the thought of the danger that was past.
"Yes," he answered. "The fact that you had a candle alight kept him upstairs. He was afraid of discovery. When we went upstairs to the first floor he must have retreated to the second floor--the top story."
She remained deep in thought