The Mystery of the Downs | Page 7

of enlightening him on this point. Her thoughts
centred round the dead man to such an extent that her conversation
related chiefly to him. Half-unconsciously she revealed that she knew
him well, but her acquaintance with him seemed to be largely based on
the circumstance that the dead man had been acquainted with a friend
of her family: a soldier of the new army, who lived at Staveley.
She had told Marsland that the name of the murdered man was Frank
Lumsden, but she did not mention the name of the soldier at Staveley.
Lumsden had served in France 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