"Davis, Richard Harding - The Lost House" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Richard Harding)

The last paragraph seemed especially to interest him, and he read
it twice, the second time slowly, and emphasizing the word
"doctor."

"A doctor!" he repeated. "Do you see where that leads us? It may
explain several things. The girl was in good health until went
abroad with her uncle, and he is a medical man."

The eyes of Cuthbert grew wide with excitement.

"You mean poison!" he whispered. "Slow poison!"

"Beware libel," laughed Ford nervously, his own eyes lit with
excitement. "Suppose," he exclaimed, "he has been using arsenic? He
would have many opportunities, and it's colorless, tasteless; and
arsenic would account for her depression and melancholia. The time
when he must turn over her money is very near, and, suppose he has
spent the money, speculated with it, and lost it, or that he still
has it and wants to keep it? In three months she will be of age,
and he must make an accounting. The arsenic does not work fast
enough. So what does he do? To save himself from exposure, or to
keep the money, he throws her into this private sanatorium, to make
away with her."

Ford had been talking in an eager whisper. While he spoke his cigar
had ceased to burn, and to light it, from a vase on the mantel he
took a spill, one of those spirals of paper that in English hotels,
where the proprietor is of a frugal mind, are still used to prevent
extravagance in matches. Ford lit the spill at the coal fire, and
with his cigar puffed at the flame. As he did so the paper
unrolled. To the astonishment of Cuthbert, Ford clasped it in both
hands, blotted out the tiny flame, and, turning quickly to a table,
spread out the charred paper flat. After one quick glance, Ford ran
to the fireplace, and, seizing a handfull of the spills, began
rapidly to unroll them. Then he turned to Cuthbert and, without
speaking, showed him the charred spill. It was a scrap torn from
the front page of a newspaper. The half- obliterated words at which
Ford pointed were DALESVILLE COUR ----

"His torn paper!" said Ford. "The DALESVILLE COURIER. Pearsall HAS
been in this hotel!" He handed another spill to Cuthbert.

"From that one," said Ford, "we get the date, December 3. Allowing
three weeks for the newspaper to reach London, Pearsall must have
seen it just three weeks ago, just when Miss Dale says he was in
the hotel. The landlord has lied to me."

Ford rang for a waiter, and told him to ask Mr. Gerridge to come to
the smoking-room.