Read Anna, Where Are You? for Free Online Page B

employer—”
    “It seemed like it. She was listening for a bit, and then she said, ‘What sort of place is it? The country is all very well in the summer, but that’s a long way off still, and we don’t always get one. Sounds as if it might be the depths of the country, a name like Deep End, doesn’t it?’ And she gave a silly kind of a laugh, as if she had made a joke. There was a bit of listening again, and then she said, ‘All those houses? Sounds funny to me. What do they call themselves a colony for?’ Well, I hadn’t the patience to listen to any more of it. I come out into the hall and I said, ‘If that’s a message, I’ll take it, Miss Ball, and if it’s anyone for Mrs. Dugdale you’d better put them through.’ Of course if I’d known—”
    An apposite quotation occurred to Miss Silver, but she kept it to herself—“Evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart.” She deplored the impatience which had made Agnes interrupt Anna Ball’s telephone conversation, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She said,
    “You are sure the name you heard was Deep End?”
    Agnes brightened.
    “Oh, yes, I’m quite positive about that, because one of my sister’s children was born at a place with a name like that. Her husband was gardener to a titled gentleman.”
    “And where was this place?”
    “Lincolnshire—a damp part of the world, my sister used to say —Deeping St. Nicholas. And they called the baby Nick, which isn’t a naine I’d care about. Seems silly too, because the old gentleman died and they moved right down to Devonshire no more than six months after.”
    “But the name mentioned by Miss Ball was not Deeping, but Deep End. You are really sure about that?”
    “Oh, yes, I’m sure. It just put me in mind of my sister and the baby.”
    “Was there any place called Deep End in the neighbourhood? Or did your sister ever mention anything in the way of a ‘colony’ in connection with the place?”
    Agnes shook her head.
    “I can’t call anything like that to mind. But she wasn’t there more than eight or nine months—and the best part of thirty years ago, so there’s no saying what there might be by this time.”
    Miss Silver’s needles clicked.
    “A great deal has come and gone in thirty years,” she said.
    Agnes nodded mournfully.
    “My brother-in-law for one, and that poor boy Nick for another—killed at Alamein, and a young wife at home with a twin of little girls. Nice children they are too—ever so bright. And I’ve nothing against her marrying again, but it don’t give my sister back her boy.”
    The interview, having been warmed by this human touch, came to an end in a manner very satisfactory to Agnes, who went away with another five pounds to divide between herself and Mrs. Harrison.
    Miss Silver also was not dissatisfied. If she had not got all she hoped for she had at least got something, which was more than the police had. She proceeded to call up Scotland Yard, and was fortunate enough to be put through to Inspector Abbott without delay. To his “Hullo, ma’am—what can I do for you?” she replied with reticence.
    “In the case of the missing person to which you introduced me—”
    “The elusive Anna? Yes?”
    “I have some information. There is reason to believe that she went from Mrs. Dugdale to a place called Deep End. To my informant this name suggested Deeping, there being some family connection with Deeping St. Nicholas in Lincolnshire. She overheard Miss Ball in conversation on the telephone with her prospective employer. Deep End was mentioned, and she is sure that she made no mistake about the name. I thought at once of the Deeping in Ledshire where I spent such a very interesting time with Colonel and Mrs. Abbott. There is not, I suppose, any spot called Deep End in that vicinity? I know that you spent a good deal of your time there when you were a boy.”
    “No, there’s no Deep End.”
    “From the context it would