The Chestermarke Instinct
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Оглавление
Fletcher Joseph Smith. The Chestermarke Instinct
CHAPTER I. THE MISSING BANK MANAGER
CHAPTER II. THE ELLERSDEANE DEPOSIT
CHAPTER III. MR. CHESTERMARKE DISCLAIMS LIABILITY
CHAPTER IV. THE MODERN YOUNG WOMAN
CHAPTER V. THE SEARCH BEGINS
CHAPTER VI. ELLERSDEANE HOLLOW
CHAPTER VII. THE TRAVELLING TINKER
CHAPTER VIII. THE SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGER
CHAPTER IX. NO FURTHER INFORMATION
CHAPTER X. THE CHESTERMARKE WAY
CHAPTER XI. THE SEARCH-WARRANT
CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST FIND
CHAPTER XIII. THE PARTNERS UNBEND
CHAPTER XIV. THE MIDNIGHT SUMMONS
CHAPTER XV. MR. FREDERICK HOLLIS
CHAPTER XVI. THE LEAD MINE
CHAPTER XVII. ACCIDENT OR MURDER?
CHAPTER XVIII. THE INCOMPLETE CHEQUE
CHAPTER XIX. THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER
CHAPTER XX. THE OTHER CHEQUE
CHAPTER XXI. ABOUT CENT PER CENT
CHAPTER XXII. SPECULATION – AND CERTAINTY
CHAPTER XXIII. THE AGGRIEVED VICTIM
CHAPTER XXIV. MRS. CARSWELL?
CHAPTER XXV. THE PORTRAIT
CHAPTER XXVI. THE LIGHTNING FLASH
CHAPTER XXVII. THE OLD DOVE-COT
CHAPTER XXVIII. SOUND-PROOF
CHAPTER XXIX. THE SPARROWS AND THE SPHERE
CHAPTER XXX. WRECKAGE
CHAPTER XXXI. THE PRISONER SPEAKS
Отрывок из книги
Had the three young men waiting in that hall not been so familiar with him by reason of daily and hourly acquaintance, the least observant amongst them would surely have paused in whatever task he was busied with, if Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke had crossed his path for the first time. The senior partner of Chestermarke's Bank was a noticeable person. Wallington Neale, who possessed some small gift of imagination, always felt that his principal suggested something more than was accounted for by his mere presence. He was a little, broadly built man, somewhat inclined to stoutness, who carried himself in very upright fashion, and habitually wore the look of a man engaged in operations of serious and far-reaching importance, further heightened by an air of reserve and a trick of sparingness in speech. But more noticeable than anything else in Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke was his head, a member of his body which was much out of proportion to the rest of it. It was a very big, well-shaped head, on which, out of doors, invariably rested the latest-styled and glossiest of silk hats – no man had ever seen Gabriel Chestermarke in any other form of head-gear, unless it was in a railway carriage, there he condescended to assume a checked cap. Underneath the brim of the silk hat looked out a countenance as remarkable as the head of which it was a part. A broad, smooth forehead, a pair of large, deep-set eyes, the pupils of which were black as sloes, a prominent, slightly hooked nose, a firm, thin-lipped mouth, a square, resolute jaw – these features were thrown into prominence by the extraordinary pallor of Mr. Chestermarke's face, and the dark shade of the hair which framed it. That black hair, those black eyes, burning always with a strange, slumbering fire, the colourless cheeks, the vigorous set of the lips, these made an effect on all who came in contact with the banker which was of a not wholly comfortable nature. It was as if you were talking to a statue rather than to a fellow-creature.
Mr. Chestermarke stepped quietly from his brougham and walked up the steps. He was one of those men who are never taken aback and never show surprise, and as his eyes ran over the three young men, there was no sign from him that he saw anything out of the common. But he turned to Neale, as senior clerk, with one word.
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Neale obeyed – more because he was under order than because he was hungry. He was too much bothered, too full of vague fears, to think of his midday dinner. He took the glass which Joseph handed to him, and picked a couple of biscuits out of the box. And at the first sip Gabriel spoke again.
"Neale!" he said. "You've been here five years, so one can speak confidentially. There's something wrong – seriously wrong. Securities are missing. Securities representing – a lot!"
.....