The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation | Page 7

examine it now. No--I don't think anything had been taken from him, judging by what I've seen."
"You wouldn't like me to send for the police?" suggested the manager.
"Not at present," replied Allerdyke. "Not, at any rate, until these doctors say something more definite--they'll know more presently, no doubt. Of course, you've a list of all the people who came in last night?"
"They would all register," answered the manager. "But then, you know, sir, many of them will be going this morning--most of them are only breaking their journey. You can look over the register whenever you like."
"Later on," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime, I'll examine these things. Send me up some coffee as soon as your people are stirring."
He unlocked the hand-bag when the manager had left him. It seemed to his practical and methodical mind that his first duty was to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the various personal effects which he and Gaffney had found on the dead man. Of the valuables he took little notice; it was very evident, in his opinion, that if James Allerdyke's death had been brought about by some sort of foul play--a suspicion which had instantly crossed his mind as soon as he discovered that his cousin was dead--the object of his destroyer had not been robbery. James had always been accustomed to carrying a considerable sum of money on him; Gaffney's search had brought a considerable sum to light. James also wore a very valuable watch and chain and two fine diamond rings; there they all were. Not robbery--no; at least, not robbery of the ordinary sort. But--had there been robbery of another, a bigger, a subtle, and deep-designed sort? James was a man of many affairs and schemes--he might have had valuable securities, papers relating to designs, papers containing secrets of great moment; he was interested, for example, in several patents--he might have had documents pertinent to some affair of such importance that ill-disposed folk, eager to seize them, might have murdered him in order to gain possession of them. There were many possibilities, and there was always--to Allerdyke's mind--the improbability that James had died through sudden illness.
Now that Marshall Allerdyke's mind was clearing, getting free of the first effects of the sudden shock of finding his cousin dead, doubt and uneasiness as to the whole episode were rising strongly within him. He and James had been brought up together; they had never been apart from each other for more than a few months at a time during thirty-five years, and he flattered himself that he knew James as well as any man of James's acquaintance. He could not remember that his cousin had ever made any complaint of illness or indisposition; he had certainly never had any serious sickness in his life. As to heart trouble, Allerdyke knew that a few years previous to his death, James had taken out a life-policy with a first-rate office, and had been passed as a first-class life: he remembered, as he sat there thinking over these things, the self-satisfied grin with which James had come and told him that the examining doctor had declared him to be as sound as a bell. It was true, of course, that disease might have set in after that--still, it was only six weeks since he had seen James and James was then looking in a fit, healthy, hearty state. He had gone off on one of his Russian journeys as full of life and spirits as a man could be--and had not the hotel manager just said that he seemed full of health, full of go, at ten o'clock last night? And yet, within a couple of hours or so--according to what the medical men thought from their hurried examination--this active vigorous man was dead--swiftly and mysteriously dead.
Allerdyke felt--felt intensely--that there was something deeply strange in all this, and yet it was beyond him, with his limited knowledge, to account for James's sudden death, except on the hypothesis suggested by the two doctors. All sorts of vague, half-formed thoughts were in his mind. Was there any person who desired James's death? Had any one tracked him to this place--got rid of him by some subtle means? Had--
"Pshaw!" he muttered, suddenly interrupting his train of thought, and recognizing how shapeless and futile it all was. "It just comes to this--I'm asking myself if the poor lad was murdered! And what have I to go on? Naught--naught at all!"
Nevertheless, there were papers before him which had been taken from James's pocket; there was the little journal or diary which he always carried, and in which, to Allerdyke's knowledge, he always jotted down a brief note of each day's proceedings wherever he went. He could examine these, at any rate--they might cast some light on his cousin's recent