Читать книгу The Carson Loan Mystery - Aidan de Brune - Страница 8

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"YOU MEAN to say Mr. Carson left Sydney without advising you where he was going, and did not return?" asked Rugh, perplexedly.

"Exactly." Wilbur Orchard had lost the air of irritableness that had characterised him during the first part of the interview, and now spoke with the direct crispness of the successful business man. "We made every endeavour to find him. Advertised. Employed detectives, but to no purpose. He literally vanished from the face of the earth."

"Leaving behind him the sum of fifty thousand pounds!" said Rugh, astonished.

"Considerably more than that," corrected the insurance director. "There was interest due, amounting to three thousand pounds."

"I take it that your directors were anxious to repay the loan at the end of the first year?"

"Yes," Wilbur Orchard smiled slightly. "You must remember that there would be a further amount of compound interest, at the rate of seven per cent., falling due the following year, if we failed to make the repayment at the time stated. Seven per cent. on a loan not required is good money thrown away."

"The loan agreement does not provide for the absence of the lender?" asked Rugh. He was seeking a motive for the peculiar business methods of Colin Carson.

"The direct stipulation provided for in the loan deed required that repayment must be made to the lender, or in the event of his death to his heirs, personally."

"It would be open to the Company to apply to the Courts to presume the death of Mr. Carson," said the assurance investigator.

"That action must, undoubtedly, be taken at an early date." The managing director shifted, uneasily, in his seat. "Do you realise, Mr. Thornton, that we are compelled to provide interest on the compounded total of the loan at the rate of seventeen per cent. Its enormous. This last year we had to set aside out of our profits a sum of over £23,000 as interest on this loan. At the interest for next year—18 per cent.—we shall be liable for a sum considerably over £30,000. A few years and the yearly interest will rapidly exceed the original capital sum.

"Why have you allowed the total to amount up in this way?" Rugh asked, curiously. "It would have been but common sense to go to the Courts for relief—to presume the death of the lender, and pay the money into some fund—years ago."

Wilbur Orchard hesitated, before replying.

"To the average man such action would appear most natural. But great organisations, such as the Balmain and South, exist on too precarious a commercial plane. You would be surprised, Mr. Thornton, if you were told the large sums of money a company such as this parts with every year rather than go to law. Cases the average commercial man would fight tooth and nail are compounded by us. Our business is too complicated and insecure to allow of law publicity."

"Insecure?" Rugh thought of the millions held in reserve by the assurance companies in Australia, alone.

"Yes. Insecure. We must be continually seeking new business, and from a fickle public. If we made a practice of resisting claims made on us we should quickly forfeit public favour. The statement would be broadcast that we were resisting legitimate claims, and a large quantity of the new business would go to our competitors."

Rugh thought deeply for a few minutes.

"You are asking a difficult thing, Mr. Orchard," he said, at length. "From what you tell me the trail is so old I shall have great difficulty in finding people who may have come in contact with Colin Carson. For instance, the solicitors who drew up the loan deed?"

"Mr. Carson asked that our solicitors should do that."

"Still, they must have interviewed him, as to details?"

"Weston, Sons and Hamilton, are our solicitors." Again Wilbur Orchard answered hesitatingly. "I believe Mr. Hamilton attended to the matter personally. He looked after our business. I regret to say he died some years ago."

"I presume you conducted the preliminary negotiations for the loan," said Rugh.

"I did. Mr. Carson called on me at this office twice. Other details were arranged by letter."

"Then you should be able to give a fairly accurate description of the man."

Wilbur Orchard laughed, shortly.

"There you have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Thornton," he exclaimed. "When Mr. Carson came to see me he was muffled up to the eyes. Said he was suffering from a severe attack of influenza, and he certainly looked like it. When I mentioned the matter to Mr. Weston he informed me he had caught but a glimpse of Mr. Carson when he called at his offices and he was then muffled in the same manner."

"But you can surely give me some description of the man?" exclaimed Rugh, in surprise.

The assurance director turned to the papers on his desk.

"The detectives we employed asked of me the same thing," he remarked, picking out a paper. "Here is the description of Colin Carson I drew up then. You will remember it was drawn up some years ago, so it is more likely to be accurate than my memory to-day."

Slipping on his glasses, Wilbur Orchard commenced to read slowly.

"Height, nearly six feet, very thin. Bald in front. Hair, scanty and black. High forehead. Eyebrows, thin and straight. Eyes, very dark brown, enlarged pupils. Nose, Roman. Remainder of face covered by thick woollen muffler. Voice, very husky and low, due to severe influenza attack. Hands, encased in thick woollen gloves, dark grey. Wore a heavy dark brown overcoat, with big collar; turned up. Kept it buttoned while in my office. Trousers, dark grey, indefinite pattern. Boots, lace-up, black. Carried an umbrella with an ivory skull as handle."

"Umbrella with ivory skull handle," repeated Rugh. "There's not many of them about."

"You must remember I am speaking of at least ten years ago," reminded Wilbur Orchard. "That umbrella is, no doubt, destroyed by this time. By the way, there is one thing I remember now I did not tell the detectives. The man had a mole high up on the left cheek-bone."

Rugh finished his notes and placed them in his pocket.

"Now, Mr. Orchard," he said, "we will go back to the two photographs. You asked me if I could trace any resemblance between them. What reason had you for such a question?"

"I thought you would come back to that," remarked the assurance director, with a smile. "Before I answer I should inform you of a conversation I had with Mr. Carson prior to the completion of the loan."

The managing director fidgeted with his papers for a while, and then continued:

"When Mr. Carson informed me of the terms he proposed I was somewhat taken aback. In particular, I questioned the clauses relating to the repayment of the loan. The fact of retaining the money for twelve months at the low rate of interest proposed was acceptable, although we had anticipated making the repayment in three or four months. I may say here, the terms proposed by the financial house we approached were, for three months' loan, at the rate of ten per cent."

"For the three months?"

"Yes. I questioned, particularly, the personal repayment clause. Mr. Carson would not give way. In conversation he stated he had a daughter, a schoolgirl, and that he had no other relatives. In the event of his death within the twelve months the money would be repayable to the trustees of his child."

"Did Mr. Carson say where the child was? If she was at school, or where?" asked Rugh.

"He promised me full particulars at a later date. Unfortunately the matter slipped my memory."

The assurance director hesitated, and then added:

"You will understand, Mr. Thornton, an institution, such as the Balmain and South was at that time, can use any amount of capital. Six, seven, and even ten per cent. are reasonable interests in building up a large business. Once we realised we were out of touch with Mr. Carson we allowed the matter to drift. It was inexcusable of us, I admit, but we thought Mr. Carson might turn up at any time, and we could come to some arrangement in regard to the accumulated and increased interest. It was only when the interest began to mount up abnormally, we began to get anxious."

"Then you have no knowledge of the daughter?"

"None, whatever."

"Yet you connect her, in some way, with the woman who was murdered on the sandhills at Little Bay. So far as I can see, Mr. Orchard, there are no grounds for such connection."

"You can see no likeness between the two women?" Wilbur Orchard asked the question, anxiously.

"There is no likeness. You have forgotten the big difference in ages."

"They are not the same women?"

"No."

"Yet I have been advised, by telephone, that a call will shortly be made on this Company for the repayment of the Carson Loan."

"That in no way connects the two women." Rugh spoke impatiently. The man before him appeared wishful to conceal information he had.

"I asked, over the 'phone, if I was speaking to Colin Carson, and received a reply in the negative. I then asked if my informant was speaking on behalf of Colin Carson's heiress."

"Yes?"

A brutal laugh came to my ears over the wire. Then the voice said: "Oh, she's on the sandhills at Little Bay!"

"You asked who was speaking?"

"Twice. The first time the question was ignored; the second time the answer was: 'You'll know soon enough.'"

"Did you recognise the voice? Have you any remembrance of it? Was it a man, or a woman, speaking?" Rugh asked the questions rapidly.

"A man spoke. I seem to have a recollection of the voice, but at present I cannot place it."

"When did this conversation take place?"

"This morning," replied the managing director, his face blanching. "I had been reading about the murder coming in on the train. Immediately I telephoned for you."