The clerk who had accepted the message could not recall the person who had passed it in for dispatch. He was not positively sure, but had a faint recollection of seeing the name “Sunflower” before. Much questioning, however, could not dig from the depths of his mind the purpose for which the name had been used, and Bony felt sure it was used in sending similar telegrams calling Mr Jelly to the various cities of Australia.
He was sure, too, thatDulcie Jelly had not dispatched the telegram, neither had her sister nor Mr Jelly himself. The farmer must have known, though, what the summons to Perth implied, and he must have known who sent the summons in his daughter’s name.
Of course it would have been a woman, for had a man signed a girl’s name the fact would have been remembered by the clerk. Undoubtedly a woman had sent the command to Mr Jelly. She had handed it to the clerk at 2.20 P.M., 16th November.
Bony’s progress in the affair of George Loftus appeared to have been stopped by a wall as unscaleable as that which so effectually hid the strange absences of Robert Jelly. He began to doubt the efficacy of that sense of intuition upon which, as he told Sergeant Westbury, he so much relied.
The scales had been slightly tilted towards the fact of Loftus’s murder and now seemed tilted the other way to the man’s planned disappearance. Sergeant Westbury obstinately clung to this latter theory, and, despite the sergeant’s placid and contented outlook on life in general, he was, nevertheless, a shrewd and clever policeman. Against Westbury were opposed both Inspector Gray and Mr Jelly, who had expressed belief that GeorgeLoftus had been killed, but they were not in the position occupied by the trained Westbury, who had been first on the case. Even beyond this circle were people like Mr Thorn and Mrs Poole, equally divergent in their opinions.
So far Bony had no more than they on which to base a definite opinion. Yet despite this he was far from hopeless. This philosophy taught him, and experience had shown him, that of all classes of crime murder investigation is assisted the most by time. It would be a matter of time only when the thoughts of two people would clash and produce a result commonly known as coincidence, to become another link of an incomplete chain. Bury a stone how deep youwill, and Time will bring it to the surface. So it is with secret crime. Time will reveal it, no matter how deeply it is pushed into the black pit of mystery.
While the train was slowly losing speed in its climb to the summit of the highest ridge of the railway system, Bony produced his notebook and turned up those entries under the date 16th November.
That day he had thoroughly examined the wrecked car and the surrounding ground. It was the day Ginger, the dog, caught two rabbits, one of which Bony had buried. During the evening of this day he had met Mr Thorn and the Spirit of Australia and, later, had watched Mr Jelly and another man change a tyre and proceed towards Merredin. It was now reasonable to assume:
That at 2.20 P.M. on 16th November a woman had handed in at the Merredin post office a telegram directed to Jelly, South Burracoppin, after having complied with the regulations by writing a name and address on the back of the form. One minute later the telegram was dispatched to Burracoppin by telephone, since at Burracoppin there was no telegraph instrument. The person to whom the message was directed lived four miles south of the town, yet he must have received it shortly after its transmission, for he had obeyed the summons that night. Either Mr Jelly, expecting the message, had waited for it at Burracoppin or had arranged with a truck driver to bring it out, an act which proved that he expected it the day it was sent. The point made clear was that the farmer knew the summons would probably arrive that day and had made his arrangements to obey it. Had he been positively sure it would arrive when it did, there would have been no necessity for its having been sent at all.
The car in which the farmer had departed doubtless was the car in which he had returned. Bony had noted that it was a four-door sedan, probably of English make, because its outlines were not American. The fact that no number plates were attached was not singular. A good many car owners in the bush and country are like the wheat-truck drivers, who leave open the gates in the rabbit fence in a gamble against being caught.
Actually cheerful, for the greater the mystery the more he enjoyedit, Bony left the train at Burracoppin when the sun was setting. The wheat traffic had stopped, and thelumpers were gathered in a group near the weighbridge smoking a hard-earned cigarette before dispersing for a shower bath and dinner. The hotel bar was crowded with drivers and farmers when he passed. Inside the Depot yard Mrs Gray waited with a letter.
“This came for you this afternoon,” she explained. “A truck driver brought it in from Lucy Jelly. Are you cutting Eric Hurley out?”
“Madam, I am a married man,” Bony told her with smiling reproof. “I am expecting an invitation to play bridge, and this must be it.”
“If you are going out this evening you might be able to secure a lift with Mrs Loftus as far as her gate. She’s come to town to take Mr Loftus’s damaged car home from the garage.”
“It has been moved from the pipeline and repaired?”
“Yes. The police gave permission last week.”
Knowing this, Bony continued to feign ignorance.
“The damage could not have beenso great as it looked,” he ventured.
“Oh no! The garage-men have had it only two days. Go along and find Mrs Loftus now, if you are going.”
“Please excuse me. I will accept your advice,” Bony said, raising his hat and smiling. Again on the road, he opened the envelope and read the note. It was signed with Lucy Jelly’s initials.
Please come out this evening. Father is very strange, and we are all frightened.
With pursed lips he rounded the hotel, declined Mr Thorn’s invitation to enter the bar with him, and, walking on, came to the once wrecked car, now staunch, but still dilapidated, standing outside one of the stores. Here he waited five minutes till Mrs Loftus came out of the store, followed by the storeman, carrying a heavy parcel of goods. Bony said:
“I have been invited to spend the evening at Mr Jelly’s house. I wonder if you could find it convenient to give me a lift as far as your gate.”
The greenish-blue eyes of this pretty woman stared into his beaming blue ones. She saw a mild, guileless personality behind the sharp-featured brown face.
“Very well,” she said, consenting with a smile. “I shall be leaving about six o’clock. I cannot wait a minute later than that. I have seen you before, haven’t I?”
The question was asked in the superior manner of one who looks down from a social height. There was that inflexion of voice which proved that the woman often had spoken to aborigines from the plane of a squatter’s homestead veranda. Still beaming, Bony replied:
“Yes. You kindly gave me a pannikin of water when I called one afternoon.”
“Ah yes! You were on your way to theJellys ’ that afternoon, were you not?”
“Yes, I spent the evening there.”
“A very nice girl, Lucy Jelly, isn’t she?”
“Very,” he agreed seriously, adding: “MissDulcie is equally charming.”
Mrs Loftus turned away, but not in time to prevent Bony seeing the sneer disfiguring her mouth. The expression was so different from the impish smile Mrs Gray had given when she surmised Bony was cutting out Hurley.
Passing through the railway enclosure, he reached the garage when the two owner mechanics were washing the grease from their hands preparatory to closing the building for the night.
“Hullo, Bony! You’ve got a good job. A Sunday today?” asked the elder.
“No. I took the day off because the weather fatigues me,” Bony answered with a chuckle. “I’ve been to Merredin, and there I meant to send my wife five pounds. I quite forgot about it. Can you change a ten-pound note? I must retain a few shillings for myself, you know.”
“A ten-pound note! Hi, Fred, he’s flashing ten-pound notes!”
“It’s about time we saw Gray and got a government job. Private enterpri
se is dead,” complained Fred, a shock-haired pale-faced man of forty.
“Well, you’re always lucky,” announced the other. “Some of these cockies do pay up sometimes. We had a bill paid this afternoon, so we can fix your little difficulty. Wait a tick.”
“I saw Mrs Loftus standing by a car just now,” Bony said to Fred. “That’s not the car Loftus smashed, is it?”
“The same, Bony. It cost her fifteen quid, and, knowing how she’s placed financially, wewasn’t going to let her have it till she paid up. But up she comes with the wad, fifteen of the best, and six pounds off the old bill.”
Fred’s partner returned with a sheaf of pound notes. He counted into Bony’suntrembling hand ten of them and accepted the ten-pound note in exchange.
“Thank you very much,” Bony said calmly. “See you at dinner, I suppose. I must go now, as I have an appointment with a lady at six o’clock.”
Fred grinned. Bony actually chuckled and winked. All three laughed.
On his way to Mrs Poole’s boarding-house he examined the notes with which Mrs Loftus had paid her garage account. They were quite new notes, and all were of one series-K/11. It was from this serial number that the cashier of the Bank of New South Wales had paid George Loftus one hundred pounds.
Chapter Thirteen
Bony’s Invitations
IT WAS half-past six when Mrs Loftus came along to the car beside which Bony waited, and he was thankful to see her accompanied by the woman he had learned was Miss Waldron. The back seat of the car was given him, and after some arrangement of the numerous parcels he made himself fairly comfortable, whilst Miss Waldron sat beside her sister who drove.
He was thankful for the presence of Miss Waldron because it obviated the necessity of talking with Mrs Loftus at a time when his mind was busy with two developments of this dual mystery. What lay behind Lucy Jelly’s call for assistance he resolutely deferred to the time she herself should explain, leaving his mind clear to decide the matter of those new notes received by the garage-men and of the serial
K/11.
The possibility of the notes paid out by Mrs Loftus from the same serial as those paid by the bank to her husband being a coincidence was more than probable. Notes of the same issue very likely were being handled by a dozen banks in Western Australia and a hundred business arms. The total number of one serial may be tens of thousands. Yet there was a significance in the fact that Mrs Loftus, for whom a benefit dance recently had been held which produced for her the sum of seven pounds and two shillings, was able to pay a debt of some twenty-one pounds and had bought heavily from one storekeeper whom, too, she might have paid money off a long-standing account.
What was the source of Mrs Loftus’s affluence? Her father, a pastoralist near Cobar, might have sent her a cheque. Or she might have sold a valuable piece of jewellery in order to meet the expenses of the farm, for it was a fact that she had been financially much better off before her marriage to Loftus.
Still, supposing the notes she had paid away at the garage were identical with some of those paid out to George Loftus by the bank cashier. In this case how did she come in possession of them? Not being a woman stupid enough to act without thinking, it seemed unlikely that she had come by them through any crime, because she was intelligent enough to know that the police would take great pains to ascertain how much money her husband had on him when he disappeared and to trace the source of that money. The most obvious explanation-the obvious very often is correct-was that George Loftus had sent the money to his wife.
Bony’s faith in intuition further waned. Sergeant Westbury must be right. There was no other logical explanation than that Loftus was alive to send the money to Mrs Loftus. It was possible, nay, probable, that she knew his precise whereabouts; knew, too, the reason behind his disappearance.
It was not long after this disturbing conclusion was reached that they arrived at the open gate giving entry to the Loftus farm. The crimson reflection from the western sky was quickly turning to purple.
“Thank you very much,” Bony said when he stood on the road beside Mrs Loftus.
“That’s quite all right. I hope you enjoy the evening. Convey my regards to Miss Jelly, won’t you?” she said sweetly, yet unable to keep the mockery from her voice and laughter.
“I shall not forget, madam. Again thank you.”
The car sped away down the stubble-bordered track leading to the house, Bony looking after it with a quizzical smile touching his lips and pain in his heart. Whenever he came in contact with this type of Australian woman the ever-present wound of his mid-race broke open to red rawness, recalling his inferior parentage which was the real foundation of his vanity. Knowing that snobbery is but the mask of ignorance, the sign of mental shallowness, the sole crude weapon of the stupidly spiteful, nonetheless an exhibition of it hurt him as nothing else could.
In this lay the explanation for his one failing as an investigator of crime. It explains his admiration of Mrs Thornton of Barrakee, of Miss Marian Stanton of Windee, and of the two Jelly girls. Women as these were the salve to the wound of his impurity of race which so fiercely at all times attacked his pride, and it was his pride which kept him aloof from the savagery of his aboriginal ancestors.
The tint of wine in the still air was being slowly replaced by the grey-blue tint of early night whilst he walked rapidly southward along the rabbit fence. His mood lightened as the distance between Mrs Loftus andhimself lengthened and shortened between himself and little Sunflower Jelly.
A narrow ribbon of the palest yellow lay along the western horizon, and the sky was aglitter with stars when he reached the Jelly’s farmhouse. Although he did not see them till they were jumping up against him, he knew that the two dogs had come racing round the house corner. He knew that Lucy followed after them, although he did not see her white dress until she was close to him.
“Thank you for coming, Mr Bony,” was her simple, heartfelt greeting. “Please come in, and if you should see Father let him know that you called quite casually, will you?”
“Yes, I will manage that,” he told her with assurance. “How is your father?”
“We haven’t seen him since he went to his room last Saturday.”
“Dear me! And today is Wednesday. Have you heard him moving about in his room?”
“Yes. Moving about and talking tohimself. He has taken in the food and drink I have been leaving outside his door, and we have heard him leave and re-enter the house long after we have gone to bed.” When she placed a trembling hand on his arm he could see her white and troubled face upturned to his. She began to speak more hurriedly.
“This time has been no worse than some of the other times, but this time I have thought much of you and of your promise to help. Before, I have had to bear it alone; wonder what he has been doing to worry him like this. I have kept on smiling and trying to be brave for Sunflower’s sake; but it is hard to smile now she is growing up, and harder now to answer her questions. Oh, I have wanted someone to help, someone I could lean upon! Eric I cannot wholly trust, even though I love him. We have known each other such a little while. I know you even less, but I felt that I could not go through another night without calling on you, and I am so glad you’ve come. You don’t think me silly, do you?”
Bony detected the hint of hysteria in her voice. He forgot entirely the sneering Mrs Loftus. He wanted to place an arm about this girl’s shoulders and comfort her as he could have comforted Sunflower and would have comforted little Ed. From the lowborn half-caste in the presence of Mrs Loftus, in this girl’s presence he was again Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, his chiefs most trusted officer, the friend of a State governor.
“Leave your father to me,” he said quietly. “There is no further need to fear or to worry. Let us go in and see Sunflower and Mrs Saunders, who, I suppose, is still with you.”
“Thank you. Thank you very, very much.”
He felt the pressure of her fingers on his arm before her hand was taken
from it. The little friendly gesture so plainly told him of the load of responsibility she had had to bear since her mother had died. On the top of the veranda steps they found Sunflower waiting, her burned foot still swathed in bandages.
“Why, it’s Mr Bony!” she exclaimed, her dove-grey eyes alight with pleasure. “Oh, I am glad you have called!”
“Really, I have called especially to see you,” Bony valiantly lied. He was triumphantly escorted to the dining-room and urged to be seated on the sofa at the child’s side. When Mrs Saunders offered a cup of tea he said: “Thank you-thank you!” and was reminded of Sergeant Westbury’s jerky repetition of speech.
“How is the poor foot?” he asked.
“Better. Much better. Lucy says I may leave off the bandage on Friday.”
“Can you? That’s splendid, because I wanted to ask you and Miss Lucy and Mrs Saunders to accompany me to the dance at the Jilbadgie Hall on Saturday evening. Will you?”
Sunflower gazed at her sister with shining eyes. Lucy’s eyes were misty.
“You can take me for one, Mr Bony,” announced Mrs Saunders with emphasis.
“I shall be delighted,” agreed the detective. To the maid he said with raised brows: “Well, what shall you do?”
Again Sunflower regarded her sister appealingly.
“Oh, Lucy! Say yes, please,” she almost whispered. And Lucy said:
“We shall be very glad to accept your invitation, Mr Bony.”
“Good! Then that is settled,” he said lightly, with assumed relief in his voice. “The dance is timed to start at nine o’clock. I will call for you at half-past eight, so be ready.”
“How are we going?” Sunflower asked.
“Why, we will go in a car. Fred, the garage owner, has a beautiful car.”
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