Proof of the Pudding by Taylor Phoebe Atwood
Author:Taylor, Phoebe Atwood [Taylor, Phoebe Atwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780881501933
Google: gbchHAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0860150089
Goodreads: 1562697
Publisher: Detective Novels Magazine
Published: 1946-11-07T06:00:00+00:00
HE should have wasted his time and tired his brain thinking about flaws, Asey told himself! Flaws, indeed! The Tinsbury lawyers would be taking everything over and running it, all right, but apparently they would be running it for the sole benefit of the Steward family!
âBut,â Elsie said, âsuppose the lawyers ask us what we know?â
âMy dear, they knew Ann. They knew King. And his whims. And hers. We donât have to make any explanations for Ann, or for what Ann should have done, and didnât. We will simply be dazed to discover that Ann made no new will, as she was sharply and repeatedly advised to, and that through a series of extraordinary situations and mischances and what not, the bulk of her estateâwhich now of course includes, Kingâsâreverts to us.â
âIt really is extraordinary, isnât it?â Elsie said slowly.
âNot particularly,â Steward answered. âFor an otherwise intelligent man, King made rather an unimaginative will. I always wondered in my heart if he thought himself immortal. And, of course, Ann was young. Ann spent the last four years of her life watching people die under the most frightful circumstances, but it never seemed to occur to her that it could happen to her, too. The ramifications of a will that interlocked with Kingâs were far more important to the lawyers than to her. She had forty years more to live, according to the tables. No, we donât need to worry about a thing, Elsie. Except that damned paper hanger!â
âYou donât think we should try to shut him upâjust,â she added hurriedly, âin some small way? Couldnât we set him up in a store, or some little business, perhaps? Donât you suppose he longs for a store of his own? King always said people did.â
âRegretfully,â Steward said, âhe doesnât need a store, my dear. If you had troubled to listen to him, you would have learned that skill alone is what counts in his infernal trade, and that he can carry all his tools in his hip pocket. He is also strongly against business, and he particularly dislikes little businesses, and little businessmen.â
âWhat?â Elsie sounded shocked. âHeâs against business?â
âHeâs anti-business and pro-skill, as far as I could make out,â Steward said. âThereâs quite a dash of William Morris in him. Heâs also a devout single-taxer and suffers terribly from migraineâhis symptoms are very much like yours. Weâll simply have to keep our hands off him, Elsie, and let him firmly aloneâand hope that Hanson wonât choose to take him very seriously. I really feel itâs fate that we should be faced in this situation with such an incredibly honest individual.â
âBut King always said that every man had hisââ Elsie began.
âYes, yes, I know. His price. Itâs also fate, however,â Steward said, âthat the other person weâre faced with is the only person on earth whom King was really unable to buy.â
âThat Mayo man?â
âYes,â Steward said briefly.
In the silence that followed, something like the point of a razor-sharp knife jabbed itself into Aseyâs left ankle.
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