A uniformed chauffeur got down and opened the car door. He helped an old gentleman to alight; an old gentleman wrapped in fleecy camel’s hair, and wearing a cap which matched the shepherd’s plaid of his trousers. Between cap and collar appeared a face crimsoned by good whiskey and golf in the sun; it was adorned by a cropped and snowy moustache.
Along the street and from across the way people surged up to the car; Mrs. Stapler, Willie Stapler, and Mrs. Broadbent; a gaffer on two sticks; Miss Studley from the north and Officer Adey from the south. The old gentleman stopped on his way across the sidewalk, one arm supported by the chauffeur, the other raised in benevolent salute to the peasantry.
Miss Studley rushed up and took his free arm.
Gamadge said: “The durbar.”
“What?” asked Yates.
“Last of the vintage crop.”
Three young men, certainly newsmen, dashed from the Tavern. The old gentleman was now proceeding up the walk to the Inn, and the newsmen got in front of him and walked backward as he advanced. He conversed with them in a hoarse and resonant voice:
“Compson, my name is Compson. Yes, that is my house opposite the Carringtons’—it is now a ladies’ seminary. Can’t run a house nowadays. Why am I here? Delighted to inform you: I am here to attend the funeral of my old friend George Carrington, and his son’s funeral, and also the funeral of Harriet Bluett. And I am here to offer my services, for what they are worth, to Miss Lydia Carrington. She will need support and comfort.
“By all means print what I say. It is all I have to say; and so, gentlemen, if you will be so good as to get to the devil out from under my feet…”
But the cortège had arrived at the foot of the porch steps, and the newsmen gleefully introduced Yates.
Mr. Compson stood still, looking up at the young man. He said, “Emeline Wakefield’s transient, who has my room.”
“I moved out this morning, Mr. Compson. I didn’t hurt anything.”
“I daresay not. You are not to blame, Mr. Yates, for Emeline’s cheeseparing. And if I see that remark in print”—he glanced ferociously to right and left—“I shall instruct my lawyer to sue in behalf of Emeline Wakefield, and I shall pay his bill.”
The reporters, highly gratified by this scoop on local color, hurried back to the Tavern and the telephone. Mr. Compson, with the assistance of his two helpers, slowly mounted the steps. Once safely on the porch, he stopped to look at Yates with fiery blue eyes.
“Very unfortunate that I wasn’t here on Thursday night,” he said. “If I had been, there would have been no murders.”
“No, sir?”
“No. I would have caught him.”
Miss Studley was a Descendant, with vestigial traces of feudalism; but she had done something to the wheel of destiny. Bravely, therefore, if faintly, she put in a word for her oddest inmate:
“This is Mr. Gamadge, Mr. Compson. Mr. Gamadge did catch him.”
Mr. Compson turned his head with deliberation, looked Gamadge slowly up and down, acknowledged his existence as a member of the human race with a slight nod, and remarked: “Yes. So I understand. Too late.”
“No,” said Gamadge, “not too late.”
“You mean for vengeance? Let me tell you, sir, that George Carrington—yes, and Hattie Bluett—would rest quieter in their graves if the newspapers could have stuck to the prowler.”
The trio disappeared into the house. Gamadge and Yates exchanged a glance of awe.
“Do you get the flavor now?” asked Yates.
“All of it; and the bouquet.”
For more“Henry Gamadge” and other “Vintage” books from Felony & Mayhem Press, including titles by Ngaio Marsh (the “Inspector Alleyn” series) and Margery Allingham (the “Albert Campion” series), please visit our website:FelonyAndMayhem.com
All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious.
NIGHT WALK
A Felony & Mayhem “Vintage” mystery
PUBLISHING HISTORY
First print edition (Rinehart): 1947
Felony & Mayhem print and electronic editions: 2014
Copyright © 1947 by Elizabeth Daly
Copyright renewed 1971 by Frances Daly Harris, Virginia Taylor, Eleanor Boylan, Elizabeth T. Daly, and Wilfrid Augustin Daly Jr.
All rights reserved
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63194-021-7
Night Walk Page 18
