The Detective Club: Trent Intervenes by E. C. Bentley

Author:E. C. Bentley [E. C. Bentley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2017-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

VII

THE OLD-FASHIONED APACHE

WHEN Dr Francis Howland was attacked and left for dead in Stark Wood, near his house at Wargate, none of his many friends could imagine an explanation of the apparently motiveless crime. Among them was Sir James Molloy, editor of that powerful morning newspaper the Record, who often made one of the little company that welcomed Dr Howland whenever he appeared at the Russell Club; and it was at Sir James’s request that Philip Trent went down to Wargate next day ‘to see what he could make of the mystery’ for Sir James’s paper.

Trent, once on the spot, could make little enough of it at the outset; and the police, so far as he could discover, were equally at a loss. But he was able to add to the few bare facts reported in the first accounts of the crime, and to supply from his own knowledge, as Sir James had suggested, some details of the victim’s unusual career. Sitting in his room at the Packhorse and Talbot Inn, he drew up a dispatch to reach London by train that evening.

‘Dr Howland (he wrote) has lived for some two years in this charming corner of Sussex at his little house Fairfield, his establishment consisting of a secretary, a housekeeper, and a domestic servant. Fairfield lies on the outskirts of Wargate village, and it has been his habit to take an hour’s walk, usually alone, each evening before dinner in the surrounding country. Yesterday (Sunday) he went out as usual about 5:30.

‘At about 6:15 Mr Derek Scotson, walking on the main road from Wargate to Bridlemere with his spaniel, heard the dog barking excitedly behind him, and turning back he was guided by the sound to a spot, not far from the road, in Stark Wood, which lies to the left of it. He found the dog standing by a man’s body, lying prone on the footpath, but with the right side of the face visible; and he at once recognized Dr Howland, who was well known to him. He could see that the back of the head was terribly injured, and at first he believed that Dr Howland was dead; but a movement of the features told him that it was not so, and Mr Scotson, ordering his dog to stand guard over the victim, hurried off to the roadside telephone-box which he knew to be not far away.

‘He rang up the police in Bridlemere, reporting the facts and asking them to send a doctor, as there is none living in Wargate; then rang up Dr Howland’s, intending to ask that Mr Gemmell, the secretary, should bring first-aid equipment to Stark Wood immediately. Neither Mr Gemmell nor the maid, however, was in the house at the time, and the housekeeper, who is very deaf, did not hear the bell. Mr Scotson had therefore to leave the unconscious man still in charge of his dog while he stood at the roadside to halt the police car when it should arrive.

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.