A Case of Conspiracy in Clerkenwell by Clara Benson

Author:Clara Benson [Benson, Clara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mount Street Press
Published: 2017-05-03T21:31:33+00:00

Freddy froze and shut his eyes for a second as the sound of footsteps crossed the room. He expected to be hauled out and at the very least forced to explain why he had made the unforgivable faux pas of snooping around the Schusters’ private apartments. To his surprise, however, the footsteps did not pause, but crossed the room and passed through a door. He opened his eyes and saw from the reflection in the window that the room was empty. Whoever it was must not have seen him. He emerged cautiously from behind the wardrobe and noticed for the first time that there was a door in the far wall, partially concealed behind a large heap of boxes. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, he tiptoed across to the typewriter and carefully removed the paper from it, but did not dare risk putting the machine back where he had found it. He was about to leave the room before he was caught, but the sound of voices from the other side of the inner door aroused his curiosity. He silently moved towards it, and, after a moment’s hesitation, applied his ear to the crack. He recognized Leonard Peacock’s loud voice immediately, but the person to whom he was talking spoke more quietly and Freddy was unable to identify who it was, although it was certainly a man. He chided himself for his own cowardice in having closed his eyes as the newcomers had crossed the room, for had he kept them open he might have seen who the other person was.

‘—simply won’t work,’ Peacock was saying. ‘I told you it was no good, and that he can’t be trusted. I’ve had my suspicions about him for some time. He’s going to blow the whole thing wide open, I tell you.’

There came the muffled sound of the other speaker, then Peacock replied:

‘You’d better take care of it, then. Not I—it would be too obvious. Tonight, preferably. Or soon, at any rate.’

The other speaker talked for a few moments, but Freddy could hear none of it, then:

‘I’ve thought of a way round that,’ said Peacock. ‘I was speaking to that ass Bagshawe—’

His voice fell, and Freddy strained to hear, but could distinguish nothing more than the sound of murmuring.

‘Oh, there’s no doubt of it,’ came Peacock’s voice, raised again. ‘He was spotted, you see. He’ll be easy enough to fool. I know the type—will say yes to anything. No—not just yet; we’ll leave it till closer to the time, I think. We don’t want him to suspect anything. Now, about the other thing—’

The other man spoke, then Peacock’s voice came again:

‘What about Thursday night? Is this fellow square? Can we be sure he won’t talk out of turn? Very well, I’ll get it, then. You’d better give me his name—oh, and some money, too. All right—I’ll see you at Russell Square at seven o’clock. I’ll wait on the corner opposite the hotel.’

There came the sound of footsteps and Freddy darted back from the door and out onto the landing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.