The Argosy — page 263: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

242 In the Dead of Night. By the time he had been a week in London he had made himself thoroughly master of the situation again, and almost felt as if he had never been away. ‘‘I have been so long used to an idle life,” he said to himself, about a week after his return, “that very little work seems to knock me up. Why not take the five o’clock train this afternoon, and run down as far as Gatehouse Farm, and spend a couple of days with old Li Dering? Where in the wide world is there any air equal to that which blows across the sandhills of the old farm ?” Between nine and ten o’clock on Sunday morning Tom Bristow knocked at the well-remembered door. After sleeping at the Station Hotel, he had walked leisurely across the fields, his heart beating high with the expectation of shortly being able to grasp his friend by the hand. Everything seemed as if he had left the farm but yesterday, except that then it was autumn and now it was spring. Mrs. Bevis an- swered his knock. She started at the sight of him, and could not repress an exclamation of surprise. ‘‘ Yes, here Iam once more,” said Tom, with his pleasant smile. ‘Don’t tell me that Mr. Dering is not at home.” Mrs. Bevis’s answer was a sudden burst of tears. ‘‘What has happened, Mrs. Bevis?” cried Tom, in alarm. ‘“‘ Not— not—?” His looks finished the question. ‘Oh, Mr. Bristow, haven’t you heard, sir?” cried Mrs. Bevis through her sobs. | * “ Tye heard nothing—not a word. I have only just returned from abroad.” : : ‘Mr. Dering, sir, is lying in Duxley goal, waiting to take his trial at the next assizes.” ‘“‘ His trial!” echoed Tom in amazed perplexity. “ Trial for what?” ‘¢ For wilful murder, sir!” “Can this be true?” cried Tom, as he sank back, with blanched face and staring eyes, on the old oaken seat in the porch. ‘Only too true, sir—only too true!” moaned Mrs. Bevis. “ But ll never believe that he did it—never!” she added emphatically. ‘*A kinder heart, a truer gentleman, never drew breath.” | “T']l say amen to that,” replied Tom, earnestly. ‘But Lionel} Dering committed for wilful murder | It seems an utter impossibility.” “ Why, all England’s been ringing with the story,” added Mrs. Beyis. “ And yet I’ve never heard of it. But, as I said before, I’ve only just got back from the East, where I was two months without seeing a newspaper.” | ‘“T couldn't bear to tell you about it, sir. My heart seems almost broken as it is. But I’ve got the newspapers here with all the account in. Perhaps you would like to read them for yourself, sir.” Ls | “T should indeed, Mrs. Bevis. But did I understand you aright when you said that Mr. Dering was in Duxley goal?” | Gomicbooks.co