The Treasure at Poldarrow Point (An Angela Marchmont Mystery) by Benson Clara

Author:Benson, Clara [Benson, Clara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781291653731
Publisher: Clara Benson
Published: 2013-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

Barbara remained rooted to the spot for several minutes, indignant thoughts tumbling one after another through her mind. Mr. Maynard was in league with the Dorseys! He had been letting them into the house every night to allow them to search for the necklace. They must be planning to find it and steal Miss Trout’s rightful property from under her very nose! Barbara’s mouth fell open as she marvelled at the audacity of it, and she spent a good few minutes applying unrepeatable epithets to Clifford in her mind. Of all the low-down, contemptible tricks to play on a sweet old lady! What kind of despicable rotter would steal his own aunt’s birthright and turn her out of her family home and onto the streets?

Barbara stood there in astonished rage, desperate to act. First, she contemplated marching into Tregarrion that instant and reporting Clifford to the police, but quickly realized that by the time she got there, made her report and returned, the Dorseys would most likely be gone. And what exactly could she say to the police? ‘I want you to arrest a man on suspicion of allowing a respectable couple to enter his own house to search for Marie Antoinette’s necklace’? Even Barbara had to admit that it sounded pretty ridiculous. They would just laugh at her and take her home—or worse, give her a ticking-off for wasting their time. But she couldn’t just do nothing. She had to stop them searching for the treasure before they had a chance to find it—but how? Several ideas came into her head and were immediately abandoned as being impractical or downright dangerous. For one mad second she even considered setting fire to the house, criminals and all—but of course, that would never do since firstly, Miss Trout was in there and might not get out in time, and secondly, she might, in destroying the house, destroy the necklace too.

After a minute or two, however, Barbara calmed down and began to think more rationally. There was no need to panic. The necklace had defied both her own searches and those of the intruders up to now, and there was no reason to suppose that it would be found that night. Surely, therefore, the first thing to do was to try and see what the Dorseys were up to, and to make sure that they were in fact doing what she suspected them of doing. After all, she thought fairly, perhaps they were merely friends of Clifford’s who happened to have dropped in that night to pay him a social visit. She rejected that thought immediately, however. What, at almost midnight? And why all the hole-and-corner business with the flashing light signals, when the house was in darkness? Where was Miss Trout? Presumably in bed, or all the sneaking around would not be necessary. Had it been a simple friendly visit then they would have walked up to the front door quite openly and knocked. No: clearly they were up to no good, and Barbara was determined to prove it.

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