Death in Fancy Dress by Anthony Gilbert

Author:Anthony Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter VIII

1

We didn’t precisely get an answer to that in the message that came to us next morning, but we did get a reply to our question as to what could have kept Ralph away from the Abbey. A little before seven o’clock two labourers, making use of the right-of-way that runs through the extensive grounds of the property, found the body of a man in the deep pool near the western boundary. They took him out, but discovered him to be a stranger. He was shabbily dressed in very ragged clothes, was unshaven, with an untidy little mess of beard, blue cheeks and thick streaming dark hair. His nose was thickened like that of a prize-fighter, and one shoulder was slightly higher than its pair. They went up to the house, leaving the body lying in the long grass by the side of the road. Hook was the first to see them, and he demanded in some indignation what they thought they were doing, coming into the private part of the grounds, just because Sir James was good enough to concede his predecessor’s privilege of the right-of-way to the village.

The elder of the two said, with an expressive jerk of his thumb, “We’ve found a body down there. In the pond. It’s his estate, so I reckon we ought to bring the body here.”

Hook stared at them. “What are you talking about? A body…”

“That’s right. Tramp or something of the kind from his looks. My missus allus has said it was dangerous not to put a paling round that there pond. Right on the high-road it is, and as deep as hell. Any chap coming back a bit muzzy might go lolloping into it, and not know where he was till it was too late.”

“That sort of chap isn’t any great loss,” said Hook, jealous for the reputation of the estate. “Wait you here, and I’ll tell Sir James.”

I suppose the emergencies of an insurance office make a man cultivate both a philosophic and an impassive outlook. Nunn said, “A tramp? In the pond? What have they done with him?” with rather less excitement than Eleanor showed when a sapphire dragon-fly got into the greenhouse and filled the place with iridescent beauty.

“The men said they’d left him in the grass, if you please, sir; he was a biggish man, and dripping-wet. They hadn’t got a hurdle or anything of that sort, but if they could have a barn-door, say…”

They went down to collect the body, and Nunn went with them. They brought it up to the house, with Nunn’s handkerchief over the dead face, and Nunn himself walking like the chief mourner in an ancient funeral, beside the bier. The body was put in the barn, on a long trestle-table that Hook had arranged impromptu. There was no question about the fellow being dead. He was stone cold, heavy and stiff; the water streamed from his shocking clothes.

“Must ha’ missed his footing,” one of the labourers volunteered. “Hunger makes

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