The Quest of Julian Day by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online Page B

having located the tablet. Yet I could not swear that the package I had felt was actually it, and my elation was a little damped as I thought what a fool I should look if I went to the Captain with my story and charged O’Kieff with being concerned in the murder, if the thing in his trunk turned out not to be the tablet at all.
    The situation was a decidedly tricky one. I had to keep on reminding myself that poor Sir Walter’s death was really a side-issue as far as I was concerned. My objective was to get O’Kieff either gaoled or put out of the way altogether. Nothing could have suited my purpose better than proving him guilty of murder, but if he were innocent precipitate action might ruin my whole campaign. At the moment I had the inestimable advantage of his not having recognised me, but once I allowed myself to be drawn into personal contact with him, which would be inevitable if I charged him with the crime, it was almost certain that he would do so; and that would mean goodbye to any hope of catching him out in one of his nefarious operations during the coming weeks in Egypt. In consequence I decided that I dared not risk carrying my suspicions to the Captain.
    I would have cheerfully given a year of my life for another five minutes alone in O’Kieff’s cabin but, unfortunately, people were now starting to make themselves comfortable on the deck in considerable numbers, and there was little chance of its being deserted again before we reached Alexandria, where we were due that afternoon.
    O’Kieff came on deck, fetched a book from his cabin and sat down to read. His lean, clever face with that unscrupulous, rat-trap mouth made an interesting study, but I knew it well enough already and had little chance to examine it further, even had I wished, as I was kept busy for the next hour or more on the unpleasant job of fobbing off all sort of curious people who wanted particulars about the murder.
    I don’t doubt the Captain had done his best to keep the matter dark, but it is impossible to conceal such things in the close intimacy of life on board ship, and it had leaked out together with the fact that I was concerned in it. The whole ship was agog with excited speculation and every sort of tittle-tattle.
    To my great relief Harry and Clarissa put in an appearance a little after eleven. Her red curls startled the eye with more than usual violence in the brightness of the morning sunshine but her piquant features showed no trace of the trying night she had been through, except in unusual gravity. On the other hand, Harry’s good-natured, rather stolid countenance gave ample indication of worry and curtailed sleep. Their arrival gave me a chance to break away from the morbid seekers after gory details, and the three of us moved to the ship’s side, where we could talk without being overheard.
    â€˜Anything fresh?’ Harry asked. ‘We tried to sleep late, but the row out on the deck got us up much as usual.’
    â€˜Nothing official as far as I know,’ I said. ‘But I believe I’m on to the murderer.’
    â€˜Good God! Not really?’ His blue eyes popped, while Clarissa gave a little squeal of excitement.
    â€˜Yes. It was pure chance but I happened to know that there’s a crook on board. I came up against him once before, although how doesn’t matter for the moment and I don’t want you to give it away to anyone that I even know him. While he was at breakfast I had a look round his cabin and there’s a package there which may, or may not, be the tablet. That’s the trouble. I was disturbed and had to make a bolt for it before I could find out for certain.’
    â€˜We must tell the Captain, at once,’ said Harry quickly.
    Without disclosing anything of my own past I told them the bare facts about my vendetta against O’Kieff and my reasonsfor preferring not to broadcast my suspicions at the moment.
    Clarissa nodded. ‘All