Read "The Mystery of Crocksands" by Fred M. White online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
All this time Ellen had been at Crocksands without catching sight of Rollo Bly or his friend Evors, though their bungalow on the side of the cliff looking over the west bay was not more than three hundred yards from the big house itself. But she knew that it was only a question of time. She had heard Evor's name mentioned, of course, by Wrath, who spoke contemptuously enough about him, because the two men were at daggers drawn, and Wrath had done his best to get rid of his tenant, so far without avail.
"He is an impudent scoundrel, Miss Marchant," he said. "One of the worst type of Australians. Why he should elect to settle himself down here heaven only knows. But he managed to get round my predecessor, and until his lease is up I can't shift him. The brute wanders all over the place trespassing in the woods after moths and butterflies. Some of these nights when I catch him I shall shoot the bounder. And now he has got another man staying with him who is almost as mad as he is himself. Last night I caught them fooling about the Tower with their lanterns and the stuff they smear on the trees. If they hadn't cleared out pretty quick we should have come to blows. I have got some machinery in the Tower--it's an invention of mine--and I don't want anybody to know anything about it until I am perfectly satisfied the thing is perfect."