Peril at Cranbury Hall by John Rhode

Author:John Rhode
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

On the morning following Muriel’s visit to Dr. Priestley, Mr. Gilroy was sitting as usual in his office in Yeoman’s Court. He was in a particularly cheerful mood, for things had been going very well with him lately. Several of his investments had paid better than he had ever expected them to, and it seemed likely that his small share in the Cranbury Hall syndicate would prove a real gold mine.

Besides, that awkward business of Oliver’s seemed to be settling down quite nicely. During the long seven years of his imprisonment Mr. Gilroy had been through many anxious hours, wondering what he would do with him on his release. He had known that, even had he succeeded in persuading Oliver to go abroad, he would have to support him, to avoid further scandal. And the project of having to devote an unspecified sum per annum to the upkeep of his half brother had been a continual source of irritation.

It was not until the death of his Aunt Hilda that he had seen a way of assisting Oliver without impoverishing himself. That old lady had refused to be shocked by the revelations made at Oliver’s trial. She roundly denounced the sufferers to be fools, and as such deserving that cleverer men should prey upon them. Her only criticism of Oliver was that he had been found out; a Gilroy ought to have behaved more cleverly than that. She had seen no reason whatever for cutting him out of her will.

Mr. Gilroy, her sole executor, reasoned thus. He could not, in any case, transfer Oliver’s share of the estate to him while he was in prison. Any such attempt could have ended only in the money falling into the hands of Oliver’s creditors. Far better keep the whole in his own hands for the present, at all events until Oliver’s release. Then, when he was safely abroad, the money could be transmitted to him.

Yet, upon further reflection, was Oliver to be trusted with the money? It was more than probable that he would spend it in some form or dissipation or other, and then, when it was gone, appeal to his half brother for maintenance. Would it not be better for Mr. Gilroy to keep Oliver’s share of the estate in his own hands, and to pay him an allowance out of it? Certainly it would. This would entail practising a harmless deception upon Oliver. Nothing would be easier than to prepare a bogus codicil. This had been done. Aunt Hilda’s signature had been carefully traced from another document, and Valentine Norton, to whom the advantages of the scheme had been explained in confidence, acted as one witness. As a second witness Norton had inscribed in a feigned hand the name of an entirely fictitious clerk.

It was a very simple, and, in Mr. Gilroy’s eyes, a perfectly justifiable action. He had only to show the codicil to Oliver to prove to him that he had been cut out of Aunt Hilda’s will.

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