Read The Seven Dials Mystery for Free Online

asking eager, searching questions. How? When?
    Ronny answered her as gently as he could.
    â€œ Sleeping draught? Gerry?”
    The incredulity in her voice was plain. Jimmy gave her a glance. It was almost a glance of warning. He had a sudden feeling that Loraine in her innocence might say too much.
    In his turn he explained as gently as possible the need for an inquest. She shuddered. She declined their offer of taking her back to Chimneys with them, but explained she would come over later. She had a two-seater of her own.
    â€œBut I want to be—be alone a little first,” she said piteously.
    â€œI know,” said Ronny.
    â€œThat’s all right,” said Jimmy.
    They looked at her, feeling awkward and helpless.
    â€œThank you both ever so much for coming.”
    They drove back in silence and there was something like constraint between them.
    â€œMy God! that girl’s plucky,” said Ronny once.
    Jimmy agreed.
    â€œGerry was my friend,” said Ronny. “It’s up to me to keep an eye on her.”
    â€œOh! rather. Of course.”
    On returning to Chimneys Jimmy was waylaid by a tearful Lady Coote.
    â€œThat poor boy,” she kept repeating. “That poor boy.”
    Jimmy made all the suitable remarks he could think of.
    Lady Coote told him at great length various details about the decease of various dear friends of hers. Jimmy listened with a show of sympathy and at last managed to detach himself without actual rudeness.
    He ran lightly up the stairs. Ronny was just emerging from Gerald Wade’s room. He seemed taken aback at the sight of Jimmy.
    â€œI’ve been in to see him,” he said. “Are you going in?”
    â€œI don’t think so,” said Jimmy, who was a healthy young man with a natural dislike of being reminded of death.
    â€œI think all his friends ought to.”
    â€œOh! do you?” said Jimmy, and registered to himself an impression that Ronny Devereux was damned odd about it all.
    â€œYes. It’s a sign of respect.”
    Jimmy sighed, but gave in.”
    â€œOh! very well,” he said, and passed in, setting his teeth a little.
    There were white flowers arranged on the coverlet, and the room had been tidied and set to rights.
    Jimmy gave one quick, nervous glance at the still, white face. Could that be cherubic, pink Gerry Wade? That still peaceful figure. He shivered.
    As he turned to leave the room, his glance swept the mantelshelf and he stopped in astonishment. The alarum clocks had been ranged along it neatly in a row.
    He went out sharply. Ronny was waiting for him.
    â€œLooks very peaceful and all that. Rotten luck on him,” mumbled Jimmy.
    Then he said:
    â€œI say, Ronny, who arranged all those clocks like that in a row?”
    â€œHow should I know? One of the servants, I suppose.”
    â€œThe funny thing is,” said Jimmy, “that there are seven of them, not eight. One of them’s missing. Did you notice that?”
    Ronny made an inaudible sound.
    â€œSeven instead of eight,” said Jimmy, frowning. “I wonder why.”

Four
    A L ETTER
    â€œI nconsiderate, that’s what I call it,” said Lord Caterham.
    He spoke in a gentle, plaintive voice and seemed pleased with the adjective he had found.
    â€œYes, distinctly inconsiderate. I often find these self-made men are inconsiderate. Very possibly that is why they amass such large fortunes.”
    He looked mournfully out over his ancestral acres, of which he had today regained possession.
    His daughter, Lady Eileen Brent, known to her friends and society in general as “Bundle,” laughed.
    â€œYou’ll certainly never amass a large fortune,” she observed dryly, “though you didn’t do so badly out of old Coote, sticking him for this place. What was he like? Presentable?”
    â€œOne of those large men,” said Lord Caterham, shuddering slightly, “with a red square face and iron-grey