The Doings of Raffles Haw

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Артур Конан Дойл. The Doings of Raffles Haw

CHAPTER I. A DOUBLE ENIGMA

CHAPTER II. THE TENANT OF THE NEW HALL

CHAPTER III. A HOUSE OF WONDERS

CHAPTER IV. FROM CLIME TO CLIME

CHAPTER V. LAURA’S REQUEST

CHAPTER VI. A STRANGE VISITOR

CHAPTER VII. THE WORKINGS OF WEALTH

CHAPTER VIII. A BILLIONAIRE’S PLANS

CHAPTER IX. A NEW DEPARTURE

CHAPTER X. THE GREAT SECRET

CHAPTER XI. A CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION

CHAPTER XII. A FAMILY JAR

CHAPTER XIII. A MIDNIGHT VENTURE

CHAPTER XIV. THE SPREAD OF THE BLIGHT

CHAPTER XV. THE GREATER SECRET

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The snow had ceased to fall, but for a week a hard frost had held the country side in its iron grip. The roads rang under the horses’ hoofs, and every wayside ditch and runlet was a street of ice. Over the long undulating landscape the red brick houses peeped out warmly against the spotless background, and the lines of grey smoke streamed straight up into the windless air. The sky was of the lightest palest blue, and the morning sun, shining through the distant fog-wreaths of Birmingham, struck a subdued glow from the broad-spread snow fields which might have gladdened the eyes of an artist.

It did gladden the heart of one who viewed it that morning from the summit of the gently-curving Tamfield Hill Robert McIntyre stood with his elbows upon a gate-rail, his Tam-o’-Shanter hat over his eyes, and a short briar-root pipe in his mouth, looking slowly about him, with the absorbed air of one who breathes his fill of Nature. Beneath him to the north lay the village of Tamfield, red walls, grey roofs, and a scattered bristle of dark trees, with his own little Elmdene nestling back from the broad, white winding Birmingham Road. At the other side, as he slowly faced round, lay a vast stone building, white and clear-cut, fresh from the builders’ hands. A great tower shot up from one corner of it, and a hundred windows twinkled ruddily in the light of the morning sun. A little distance from it stood a second small square low-lying structure, with a tall chimney rising from the midst of it, rolling out a long plume of smoke into the frosty air. The whole vast structure stood within its own grounds, enclosed by a stately park wall, and surrounded by what would in time be an extensive plantation of fir-trees. By the lodge gates a vast pile of debris, with lines of sheds for workmen, and huge heaps of planks from scaffoldings, all proclaimed that the work had only just been brought to an end.

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“I cannot possibly, papa,” said Laura, with decision. “I should not think of parting with it.”

“What is the world coming to?” cried the old man, with his thin hands held up in protest. “You grow more undutiful every day, Laura. This money would be of use to me – of use, you understand. It may be the corner-stone of the vast business which I shall re-construct. I will use it, Laura, and I will pay something – four, shall we say, or even four and a-half – and you may have it back on any day. And I will give security – the security of my – well, of my word of honour.”

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