Suspects—Nine by E.R. Punshon Read Free Book Online

that of some one of small or no emotional control. As a matter of fact, Tamar, like a good many other of those prominent in the world of ‘big business’ was remarkable chiefly for those qualities that make the successful gambler, a happy mixture of prudence and recklessness that induced him to take risks and yet never allowed him to push that risk too far. Experience and a certain small, narrow shrewdness he possessed, but little real intelligence or any wide range of information. For brains, indeed, he and many of his friends had small respect. “If we want brains, we buy ’em,” they were accustomed to say. As for knowledge, what were secretaries paid five pounds a week for but to dig up information as and when required? Though Mr. Tamar was chairman and managing director of the important Internal Combustion Engine Co., a company the Prime Minister had referred to in the House of Commons as being one of the ‘bulwarks of Empire’, he knew just as much or as little about that engine, and the principles on which it ran, as did any of the young lady typists in his office. But he had a quick eye for figures, almost indeed an affection for them, a gift for ready decision, the greater gift of never changing a decision once made, and a self confidence that in this modern world of bluff, bullying, and advertisement is two-thirds the battle.
    His weakness was a tendency to hysteria and a lack of self-control characteristic of all gamblers, whether they operate on the London Stock Exchange or in the Monte Carlo casino. Bobby thought to himself that young Judy Patterson had made a bad enemy, but that was the young man’s own affair. More serious, perhaps, that Miss Maddox had made a friend whose friendship she might not desire and yet might find it difficult and even dangerous to refuse, since apparently it was she who was the cause of Tamar’s enmity towards young Patterson; and what, Bobby wondered, did Flora know about that? Did this unexpected complication account in any way for Lady Alice Belchamber’s dark hints and the black anger she had shown in speaking of Flora?
    Interesting to know what was Lady Alice’s attitude towards this niece who seemed to have in her turn aroused the interest of ‘Judy’ Patterson, who again on his side had apparently aroused so strongly the interest of Lady Alice.
    An odd situation, Bobby thought, not so much the eternal triangle as a modern roundabout. No business of his, however, even though it interested him, and he wondered whether he ought not to depart? Clearly he was here through a misunderstanding and yet he was anxious to deliver his message, if possible.
    But how to find Mrs. Tamar in this crowd, even though now it was beginning to thin with the advancing hour?
    The next moment he saw her, knowing who it must be the very instant that his eyes lighted on her, since indeed it seemed to him, as it had seemed to others, that nowhere else in all the world could there be another like her.
    Yet it was a little hard to say just why that impression she made was so swift, so general and so profound. Her features, taken one by one, could have been criticized: the wide, lovely eyes of so strange and deep a hue might have been set further apart, the fascinating little nose might have been called a snub—indeed was so described by her many enemies among her closer, dearer, more intimate friends—her mouth was certainly too large, though the teeth were perfect in every way, small, regular, perfectly shaped, dazzlingly white. Of her ‘make-up’ one may truthfully say that it was all the beauty parlours strive, not always with complete success, to attain, and in addition she possessed an exquisite taste in dress and a grace in movement that seemed like great poetry expressed in gesture.
    She moved, indeed, as in a glory, a goddess among lesser mortals, and by her side walked a man, tall, slim, and handsome, almost as distinguished in