Crossword Mystery by E.R. Punshon Read Free Book Online

believe, so it’s been rather a come-down – from a brilliant soldier already holding high rank, and marked for higher still, to a butler – and, though Cooper’s a very good servant, he’s hardly the stuff she can ever hope to make a success of. But she faces up to it very well.”
    Â â€œJolly hard lines,” Bobby said reflectively. “Rather awful to feel yourself let down like that.”
    â€œIt’s made her rather bitter in some ways,” Winterton observed. “She doesn’t say much, but now and then she lets something slip out that shows she hasn’t much faith left in anything, and it’s a little apt at times to make her forget herself – take rather a high hand with people. I had to give her notice once, she and her husband. Oh, good, there’s Miss Raby back at last. Excuse me a moment.”
    As he spoke he jumped up and crossed the room to one of the windows, on that warm day standing open. A girl was coming briskly up the drive. She was rather small and slight in build, with a vigorous, springing step. Winterton called to her, and she left the drive and came across to him. Bobby saw that she had small, dark, well-shaped features, with very bright, vivacious eyes, dark brown in colour, matching the dark brown of her hair. A distinctly pretty girl, Bobby decided, though a good deal of her prettiness depended as much on a certain bright vigour that seemed to hang about her as on any regularity or perfection of feature. She looked quick and capable, too, as if she could be thoroughly relied upon. As she came near she called out:
    â€œI found the book all right, Mr. Winterton. They only charged ten shillings.”
    â€œOh, good, good,” said Winterton. “I’m glad.”
    â€œIt’s in my suit-case,” she went on; “two big volumes of it. I left it for one of the village boys to bring up from the ’bus stop.”
    â€œYou came by the 5.55, then?” Winterton remarked. “I was going to send Adams with the car if you had missed that.”
    The girl went on to the front door of the house and Winterton turned back into the room.
    â€œThat was Miss Raby,” he explained, “my secretary; very clever girl. She does crossword puzzles for one of the London papers sometimes; gets a couple of guineas or so for each one they take, I believe. She’s been to London to try to get hold of an old work on the French assignat issue I wanted, and she’s found it, apparently. I thought she would have had to pay more for it,” he added, with considerable satisfaction.
    â€œIs there a good train service?” Bobby asked. “There’s no station nearer than Deneham, is there?”
    â€œNo, and that’s a good eight miles,” Mr. Winterton answered. “There’s a train Miss Raby evidently missed that gets in about three. The next gets in at 5.55, and there’s the last one at 8.20. If anyone comes by that I have to send the car, or they’ve got to walk, as the last ’bus has gone by then. The other two trains the ’bus waits for as a rule. Very convenient, too. Unfortunately, they’re talking of taking them off or reducing the service. They say it doesn’t pay; too little traffic. I’m glad Miss Raby got the 5.55, though; it’s a bore sending the car.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late,” he remarked; “time to dress. We generally dress for dinner here. I like to keep it up even if we are buried in the wilds. Black tie, of course.”

CHAPTER FIVE
The Missing Airedale
    The room assigned to Bobby was small but comfortable-looking, with a fine view from its one window out over the Cove to the open sea beyond. His suit-case had been brought up, and he was busy unpacking it and putting his things away when there came a knock at the door.
    When he opened it he found Mrs. Cooper there, composed and dignified, her strong white hands