Sinister House by Fred M. White — Read

Phasy sat in the shabby bed-sitting-room of his obscure hotel in one of the streets off the Strand, contemplating the telegram with an air of satisfaction. This had arrived that afternoon from Beaucaire, couched in somewhat cryptic language, but between the lines Phasy could read that his confederate had been successful in his mission and that he had contrived to raise the second two thousand pounds which was required to carry out the great scheme. So far as it went this was highly satisfactory, but Phasy would have been a great deal better pleased had he known from whence the extra capital had come.

To a certain extent he could guess. To begin with, there was the postmark on the telegram which pointed to the fact that the sender had not been very far from Glentower at the time of dispatch and was, apparently, still in the neighbourhood. Then there was the matter of the gold snuff-box with its medallion and the fictitious marriage certificate concealed in the lid, all of which pointed to the conclusion that Beaucaire had gone north, not only with regard to the old mill, but with the full intention of calling upon the aged Ian Heronspey and getting as much out of him as was possible. Therefore Phasy was pretty certain that the extra capital had been found by Heronspey. It was blackmail, of course, though there was no reason to call the transaction by that particular name. Heronspey would not be much impressed by the document revealed in the gold snuff-box, but he would be anxious enough to prevent the revival of an old scandal and ready to pay a handsome sum of money to silence anybody who was in a position to make that scandal public.