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I Argue with Kenneth · The Dalehouse Murder

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Chapter seven of The Dale House Murder by Francis Everton. This libervox recording is
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in the public domain. Read by yoganand The Dale House Murder, Chapter seven.
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I argue with Kenneth up to this point in my story. While as
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was only natural, I had some doubt about the Tundish, he certainly had
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all my sympathy. If Ethel was his most outspoken champion, I was more
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than ready to endorse her opinions. While she showed by every possible action and
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by every look, that she was sure of his innocence, desolated by his
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own plight, and ready to take his part against those of our party who
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were less inclined to ignore the evidence against him. I was less demonstrative,
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and I think a more tolerant of the opinions held by Kenneth, and to
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a less degree by Margaret and Ralph. But I was quite eager to feel
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as sure as she was about his innocence. I was ready to set down
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the finding of the key in his coat pocket, his unsatisfactory account of his
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dealings with Stella's father, and all the other evidence that indicated his guilt so
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strongly as nothing more than a string of coincidences, mere unfortunate accidents of circumstances
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that time and patience would be sure to explain away. Indeed, when I
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look back, I'm always astonished at the way the doctor dominated our little party.
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He made no effort to clear himself. He accepted all the damning facts
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that told so heavily against him, without either attempting to belittle or explain them
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away, and then he simply ignored the whole uncomfortable position. Kenneth and Ethel
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quarreled openly. Margaret, Ralph and I were worried and ill at ease,
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he in danger of immediate arrest, and the end of his medical career alone.
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Remained calm and undisturbed. But somehow I did not like the idea of
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his falling in love with Ethel, or at any rate, making any open
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declaration of his feelings. It was not only that I felt that it added
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yet another note to the general discord. It was unseemly and inappropriate. It
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was deliberately inconsiderate. And it was from the time that I began to wonder
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if Kenneth's attitude were not more reasonable than I had at first supposed it,
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and that my admiration for the doctor began to be more troubled in its quality.
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I admired him still, but I had the uncomfortable feeling that, just
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conceivably, my admiration might be misplaced. I returned to the dining room and
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reported on Ethel's condition. Kenneth sat at the end of the table in the
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chair that little Alport had been occupied. His arm still lay in the floor
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where he had hurled it. He was looking straight before him, a picture
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of plumb despair. It has often occurred to me that people of a quick
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and ready temper must be altogether lacking so far as any sense of humor is
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concerned, and these hot bursts of passion must leave such a feeling of ridicule
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and shame that only those insensible to both could afford to indulge. Kenneth,
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however, was not of the hot tempered type, and as I saw him
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seated morosely at the end of the table, I was both sorry and concerned,
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sorry for him whole artedly sorry concern for the future. How were we
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to get through the next few days? I wondered, with the doctor and
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Ethel and Kenneth all confined within the ten foot wall that circled Dale House and
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its secluded sun Bay garden. Barely six hours had passed since Ethel had left
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the breakfast able to waken Stella, and yet here we were all at loggerheads
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and enmity, Ethel's and Kenneth's engagement broken, probably beyond repair, the doctor
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making love to Ethel if my hearing had not played me trick, Kenneth giving
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way to violence, and the hurling of chess, each one of us busy
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with his own dark thoughts and conjectures. How were we to get through the
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hours that lay ahead. Al Port was writing up some notes in his note
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book and looked up as I made my statement. Well that's a mercy at
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any rate, he grumbled, and with a glance over his shoulder the clock.
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Will the doctor be long before he is back? I want to see
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him again, and I must leave the house by three o'clock. Would you
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mind telling him and ask Miss Sumrson to bring me the statement she has been
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writing out. I had forgotten all about Miss Summerson, but I hurried back
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along the passage to the consulting room to give the Tundish the detective's message.
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Ethel was still on the couch and lying on her back with the lower part
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of her face. Heavily bandaged her raised eyebrows by way of a smile of
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greeting. It was all she could do, poor girl. And in answer
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to my question as to the doctor's whereabouts, she pointed to the door of
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the dispensary. I found him standing against a desk, holding a sealed envelope
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in one hand. To my astonishment, he was humming a gentle air.
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Here's miss Summerson's report, he laughed. But where, oh, where is
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miss Summerson herself. I don't think our little friend will be over pleased.
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Wally, do you mean to say she is gone? Yes, and after
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all, she wasn't definitely told to stay. However, let us take her
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report to Alport and hear what he has to say. We found the little
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man watch in hand. Oh here you are at last, he said.
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I've got exactly five minutes left, and these are my instructions. You,
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Doctor Wallace can go on your rounds as usual. It might appear too extraordinary
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to do not, but one of my men is to act as chauffeur.
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I've already arranged it with Inspector Brown. If anyone asks questions, as no
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doubt they will. You are to say that miss Palfreeman died in a sleep,
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and that the police are arranging for a post mortem to find out the
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cause. If they can, you can say it's a mystery, as indeed
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it is, and you need mention neither suicide nor murder, I don't know
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will be your best answer to most of the questions you are likely to be
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asked. Apart from the doctor, none of you is to leave the house
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in garden, and you are not to make any mention of Miss paul Freeman's
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death, either over the telephone or the letter. Miss Hansen, for instance,
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is not to write to a father or mother about it. There will
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be a formal inquest the day after tomorrow which you will have to attend,
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but I am arranging it so that practically no question at all will be asked
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you. It will be a purely formal affair postponedent laugh to my return.
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Then he added, after a brief pause, I've been wondering whether you should
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like one of my men to sleep in the house. What do you say,
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miss Hunter? Margaret looked at him wide eyed. Surely that is hardly
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necessary. She said, it shall be as you wish, if Miss Hanson
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and the others agree, I'll ask miss Hanson myself, how do you feel
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about it, mister Dane. Kenneth looked stnily ahead and refused to answer.
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Alport shrugged his shoulders, saying, well, if you feel safe, and
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the doctor here grees as well, miss Hunter shall have a way. I
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don't imagine you are likely to have any more trouble, at least no trouble
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that any man of mine could prevent. And now where's miss Summerson. She
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has gone, said the Tundish. I found this address to you on the
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desk in the dispensary just now, the devil she has. He tore open
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the envelope and hastily read the contents, a sarcastic smile, twisting his sloppy
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mouth. Then he included us all in a stiff former little bow and left
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the room. A few minutes later, we heard the front door bang,
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and we were alone, once more, left to our own resources. Another
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devastating silence, a silence which, awkward and uncomfortable as it was, it
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seemed yet more awkward to break settle down on us. Kenneth made no movement,
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and we for stood, tongue tied, looking first at him and then
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at one another. The doctor was at first to speak, A cold bath
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and a change is a proper prescription for all of us. I fancy,
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but if the inspector can lend me a bodyguard, I have one or two
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patients who will be feeling neglected. Ethel ought to go to a room and
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lie on. Margaret, will you try to persuade her too. She's to
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keep the bandage on until I come back. Then a piece of plaster will
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be all that is required. You needn't feel that she's badly hurt Kenneth.
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God to hell was Kenneth's comment. I'll go to my patience first. The
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Tundish replied pleasantly. I'll order a tea for half past four, and as
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this room is so hot, I'll tell Annie to set it in the garden.
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I was glad when he was gone. I could see that his good
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tempered tolerance acted like a red rag to a bull as far as Kenneth was
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concerned, and I feared another explosion. Margaret departed to see after Ethel,
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and I went to the telephone to explain my lengthened holiday as well as I
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might. To Brenda. I got through promptly, but I found my talk
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more difficult than I had anticipated. The lion was clear, and she was
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full of awkward questions. Are you in the finals? Then, she queried,
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in a jesting voice that was anything but complimentary. Now, but I
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am staying on over Thursday and perhaps until the end of the week. But
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I thought you were to be in London on Friday. That will have to
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be postponed. I can't help myself. I shall get back as soon as
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I can, but it may not be till Saturday. You do sound mysterious
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and all a better as if you were enjoying yourself. What a nurse's matter.
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There's nothing the matter, and I'll let you know more exactly when I
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shall be home as soon as I can. You must hold your curiosity in
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check. Aunt you see me? Oh, I say, And then,
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with the giggle that sounded doubly inane over the wire, have you gone and
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done it? At last? I put the receiver down with the bang.
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Why on earth did Brenda always imagine that it was on the brink of a
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matrimonial adventure. She was nearly as bad as a demnative Alpot. A bath
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and a change of clots brought some relief from the depressing heat. I had
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an encounter with Kenneth which went very far to nullify it, and I came
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to the conclusion that I had better leave matters alone, and that peace would
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be attained only if those of us who differed could keep apart. He was
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coming out of the bath room as I came out of my bedroom to go
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down stairs, his dark blue dressing gown open at the throat and showing the
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splendid proportions of his chest. I asked if I could come along with him
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and have a chat while he dressed. Why, yes, of course,
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he answered pleasantly enough. He found my cigarettes and matches and pulled out a
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wicker arm chair. Look here, how are we going to get through the
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time until Alpot releases us? I began with some little hesitation. Can't we
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arrange some sort of a compromise. Surely we have compromised at any rate.
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We have agreed to put up with him for a couple of days. Yes,
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but that's not much good if you and he are going to quarrel whenever
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you meet, I ventured, won't you try to believe that he may be
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innocent until Alport has gone into it a little further. No, I won't
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you mean well, Jeff Cork, I know, but it's no good.
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You think I'm unreasonable, But just ask yourself how we would like it if
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you were in my place. He commits a cold blooded murder and then takes
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advantage of Ethel's absurd hero worship to persuade her to break off her engagement with
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me. Ever since I first knew her, she has been singing his praises.
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But you can't be as certain as all that I insisted, And I
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don't believe he has said a single thing to try to persuade Ethel to break
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away from you. In fact, he asked me to do my best to
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keep you together, to prevent your falling apart over em. And besides that,
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even if most of the evidence points to him, we are all of
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us pretty well tired with the same brush. I knew all about the poison
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and sordid Ethel. The key of the bedroom door was found under your pillow,
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you know, I added, rather maliciously. Yes, and who put
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it there? He bursted, Why he did, of course he did.
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And the rest of you will be willing to believe every word he says.
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He's only to ask you to keep ethyl and meat together. Damn his impudence,
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and you immediately believe that he is a paragon OF's unselfish piety, a
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sort of martyr sacrificing himself for others. Do you honestly mean to tell me
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that you have no doubts about the man yourself? I can't conceive it possible
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that either he or you, or any of the other could have done such
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a thing. But Stella was murdered. You know. You simply can't get
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away from it. Opportunity, motive, Everything points as clearly as it can
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to the doctor. It's possible to overlook what he said, or rather what
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he didn't say, about his quarrel with his father. And then she's found
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poisoned the day after our arrival. And quite apart from all that, the
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way he allows Ether to slop over him is sufficient to damn him. In
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my opinion, no real man would encourage it. When she was engaged to
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me. Then he puts the key under my pillow so that she may begin
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to have doubts about me. Nonsense, I cried, Ethel hasn't any ideas
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of the kind even I know very well enough for that. As for the
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key, any one of us could have put it under your pillow, and
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we have only the detective's word for it that it was found there at all.
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Oh, don't be a fool. Of course it was found there.
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You can talk about it until you are blue in the gilts, but I
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shall still believe him a poisoning. He was lacing up his shoes and one
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of the lasers broke with a snap. It was a last raw cus Still,
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he cried, You say, how are we going to get through the
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time till Alport comes back. He'll be damned lucky if he gets through without
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a broken neck. And in Heaven's name, what good would that do you?
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I asked, good, Why the same sort of good that it does
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to me to tell you that you are nothing but a blinking fool. Clear
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out I went. I felt that I was doing more harm than good,
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and that I almost deserved his description. My original estimate of his character had
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been correct. There were no grays for Kenneth. On the landing. I
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stood for a moment, considering whether I would go back to my room and
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sit there till tea time or try to find some shady spot in the garden.
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I wanted to be alone, I wanted to think. But there was
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another little surprise of where in me. As I stood, I heard a
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swishing noise on the stairs leading up to the floor above. It was too
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intimate in to have been made by one of the maids sweeping down. A
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shuffle, and then a gentle pad pad, and then another shuffle. My
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curiosity was aroused. I couldn't make it out. I tiptoed along the landing
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to the foot of the stairs. It was Margaret. She was down on
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her hands and knees searching for something. She was patting the pile of the
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stair carpet, and that had made the padding noise that had attracted my attention.
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There was a something feverish and urgent about the way she searched. Hallo
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lost anything. I called out. She stopped the search quite suddenly and did
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not answer me at once. The posset was perhaps no longer then a second,
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but it was there. Why yes, I've dropped a sixpence. It's
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so unlucky on the stairs, you know, And I think it must have
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rolled into a crack. I've just been up to tell Annie that Ethel wants
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a tea in a room. Never mind it, I'll tell Annie to keep
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her eyes open for it. We went downstairs, She to her bedroom and
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I to the hole below, where I nearly ran full tilt into Annie.
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At the top of the basement stairs. I sorted out into the garden and
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lighted my pipe. I had paced once along the lawn in the shade of
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the cedar, and was retracing my steps towards the house when Margaret came to
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meet me. Have you seen Annie anywhere? She queried, Yes. She
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came up the basement stairs as he came down. Just now, Oh,
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did you tell her about eatles tea? No? I thought you had been
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up to the top landing to tell her that I did, but she wasn't
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there in a room. I'll just run in a teller and then come back
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to you. I do so want a quiet talk with someone sensible insane.
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She hurried back to the house and opened a couple of deck chairs and sat
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down to await her return. How I wanted an opportunity for an ask,
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quite thought, But heat and the midges were terrible. They were all pervading.
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They swamp, thought and everything else they must be. I thought some
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pernicious influence at work on my previous visits. I had always been impressed with
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a calm and ordered life at Dale House. I I enjoyed sitting out in
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this lovely sheltered garden after dinner with handsen pipes, going conversation natural and unlabored,
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while the light faded away to leave the Great Cathedral silhouetted in black against
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the sky. The cathedral still towered up above the garden wall. But that
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was all of calm and peace that remained. Even before the awful discovery of
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Stella's death, I had sensed an uncomfortable restraint in the air, and now
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every little incident and every simple conversation seemed fraught with some hidden meaning and double
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purpose. I could not even accept Margaret's simple assertion that she had lost a
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sixpenny bit on the stairs without wondering why she should have been handling money on
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the way to speak to Annie. Could she have pulled it out with a
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handkerchief. I began to ponder on how and where girls carried them. I
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found that I was very vague about it, but I had a general impression
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that pockets no longer existed, and that even if they carried purses at all,
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they did not have to extract them when a handkerchief was required. What
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did they do with their money? No, at some or the not seemed
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natural and reasonable that she should have dropped of sixpence on those stairs, But
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why she should lie to me about it? Or for what else she could
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have been looking so urgently if she had lied, I could not guess.
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Thinking over a conversation, I found that I could not remember whether she told
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me she had actually given Annie a message or not. But I almost certainly
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had the impression that Annie was upstairs in her room. Or why should I
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have been so surprised when I ran into her A moment later, at the
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top of the basement stairs, Margaret came and sat down in the deck chair
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beside me. She had brought out a red parasol with her, and as
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she lay back in a chair, it heightened the rosy color in her pink
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and white cheeks and tinted her golden hair a ruddy bronze. She heaved a
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little sigh of satisfaction as she settled down against her cushions. Rather like a
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cat, she was a thought where cushions and comfort were concerned. She made
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a luxury of them. I wonder how long this is going to last,
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she said pensively, and then after a pause, you know, I have
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a sort of feeling that it's this awfully that is me making things so terrible.
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It gives to everything a feverish, unnatural kind of air. I am
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so glad to hear they are having prayers for rain in the cathedral. I
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assented, and continued to puff away silently at my pipe. Annie came out
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with a tray and began to set out the tea things on a little table
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in the shade of the house. The cathedral chimed the quarter after four,
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and so hot and still was it that the last fading note left the air
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pregnant with unvoiced vibrations, the clash of clapper and hot metal in the high
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cathedral tower, the dull boom of the note, and then the air thicked
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with cows of sound. It came to me that there was some similar quality
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in the embarrassed silences that seemed to stand out so sharply from all the conversations.
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The air was full of the thoughts we were all fraid to voice.
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Mister cheffcock, she continued, after time, I wanted to promise not to
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be vexed, but I do so long to ask you a question. I
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nodded. Are you sure you won't mind? Promise? She repeated, holding
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up one finger with the coquettish air. I promise I won't show it anyhow,
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I returned, Well, she continued, you remember, tell me did
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you put the key under Kenneth's pillow? I was aghast. There was a
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little puzzle frown on her face. I looked at her closely, but she
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gave me a look for look, I did no such thing. What on
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earth made you think that I did? I replied, trying to keep my
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voice pleasant and unconcerned. Why I have been thinking it over and it simply
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can't have been any one else. Oh, it's all so thrilling. You
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remember just before doctor Wallace went out to see his patient this morning, I
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came up from the basement with some things for Ethel and met you in the
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hall. Yes, I remember that. Well, you know how the basement
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stairs go down under the main stairs up from the hall to the first landing.
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I don't know if you have noticed how plainly you can hear anyone on
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the stairs just above. But I could swear that as I came up from
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the kitchen I heard someone tiptoeing down them over my head. I did,
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really, mister jeff Cock. Then I found you in the hall. Wasn't
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it queer? Do you really mean to say that it wasn't you? No,
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it most certainly was not I. I was at the telephone until just
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before you appeared, and I never left the hall at all. I hesitated
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whether to tell her how I too had fancied that I heard a stealthy tread
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on the stair. But a good five minutes must have passed between what I
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heard and the time when she came up from the basement, For I had
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continued to speak to the police station, and then I had spoken to the
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Tundish. After that. Could the noise I thought I had heard have been
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some one creeping up the stairs, not down them. But in that case,
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who could it possibly have been? Every One, including the Tundish could
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then be accounted for. I decided to say nothing at all about it.
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Instead, I asked her as pleasantly as I could, and have you conveyed
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your rather unkind suspicions to any one of the others. No, oh,
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no, she replied, and I really did not mean to be unkind.
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But the whole affair is so puzzling. Things happened, there's no one to
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make them happen. There's no good, solid reason for anything. Then,
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after a little pause, she added, do you think then that Kenneth threw
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away the medicine glass. I suppose that he must have done it, and
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then have locked the door to stell last room and put the key under the
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pillow in his own, meaning to throw it away as well a little later
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on. But why, oh, why should he do it. He can't
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have done it, I reminded her. He was in the dining room with
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Ethel and Ralph all the time. Don't worry your head about it. Leave
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it to Alport. Yes, Annie, with the tea. Annie put the
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teapot on the table and was just on the point of returning to the house
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when she turned round and called out, good naturedly, Oh, please,
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miss I found your sixpence, Thank you so much. Annie. Where was
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it on the landing mess? Oh, it must have rolled down then,
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after all, I'm so glad. It's so unlucky in the stairs. It
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was the first time I had heard the teary that ill luck followed the dropping
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of money on a staircase. But Margaret was famous for such quaint little superstitions
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about ladders, umbrellas, the moon, and so forth, and she was
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continually throwing salt over her shoulders or doing something equally sory to save herself from
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catastrophe. She was half a generation behind the times, I think, But
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she was so good natured and simple over it all, and we readily forgive
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her upsidities and the many conversational bricks she dropped. Anyhow, I thought to
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myself that solved the mystery of the girl who searched the stairs and fevered haste.
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And I wondered how many of the other little incidents on which I had
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pondered, and how many of the intriguing remarks I had overheard, might not
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be capable of explaining in a similarly simple manner. We found that the table
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had been laid for three Kenneth and Ralph, doubtless with the view of avoiding
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the doctor, having decided to stay indoors for their tea, we moved the
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little table from the back of the house to the shade of the cedar tree,
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and the Tundish joined us just as we were sitting down. I envied
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the easy way in which he kept the conversation going without once touching or obviously
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appearing to avoid the unhappy subject of all the thoughts. There had been a
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stag fire the Catesen's, a mile or two out of the city. A
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horse had been burned to death. Cannonsell had been nearly drowned on holiday at
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Bournemouth Cramp when he was swimming out of his depth. So on and so
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forth for a full twenty minutes. It was a relief to hear some one
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talking naturally and lightly about nothing in particular. And then he pulled up sharply
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in the middle of a sentence. I looked up to see what had caught
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his attention. Two men were coming in through the door in the wall at
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the end of the surgery wing. Each held one end of a ladder.
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They proceeded to rear it up against a coping of the flat top roof on
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to which Stella's bedroom window looked. Then they produced a pair of shears and
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a small saw and began to clip the tangled mass of large leaved ivy are
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The gardeners Margaret asked police. The Tundish replied laconically and added proning for glass.
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Margaret emitted a little oh. We heard the telephone ring faintly in the
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hall, and the doctor left us. We two continued to wash the gardeners.
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The thing that we longed to forget was back with this again the end
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of chapter seven,