A Clue in Wax by Fred M. White

Seagrane certainly lost no time in carrying out his promise to Cheriton as far as the cottage was concerned. He waved a fairy wand, which in this case, took the form of a cheque book, and immediately a small army of workmen descended upon the place and in the course of a week, had done marvels. It was an easy task to transform the two rooms downstairs into one large lounge-hall-sitting apartment, connected with the bedrooms above by a fine bit of oak stair-casing looted from somewhere in the recesses of Seagrane Holt. The garden was cleared of its weeds and planted, the electric light installed.

Then from the Holt came beautiful furniture, pictures, and hangings, and everything calculated to make the cottage an ideal residence. In all this the old man delighted because it gave him a chance of showing Cheriton what a fine business man he was when once he applied himself to anything. There was only one drawback, and that was in connection with the water supply.