Twenty-eight BOOTS

“But, my dear young lady,” said Mr. Kirkwood, “what can you possibly ex-pect to find at Hazelmoor? All Captain Trevelyan’s effects have been re-moved. The police have made a thorough search of the house. I quite un-derstand your position and your anxiety that Mr. Pearson shall be—er—cleared if possible. But what can you do?”
“I don’t expect to find anything,” Emily replied, “or to notice anythingthat the police have overlooked. I can’t explain to you, Mr. Kirkwood. Iwant—I want to get the atmosphere of the place. Please let me have thekey. There’s no harm in it.”
“Certainly there’s no harm in it,” said Mr. Kirkwood with dignity.
“Then please be kind,” said Emily.
So Mr. Kirkwood was kind and handed over the key with an indulgentsmile. He did his best to come with her, which catastrophe¹ was only aver-ted by great tact² and firmness on Emily’s part.
That morning Emily had received a letter. It was couched in the follow-ing terms:
“Dear Miss Trefusis,”—wrote Mrs. Belling. “You said ashow you would like to hear if anything at all should hap-pen that was in any way out of the common even if not im-portant, and, as this is peculiar³, though not in any wayimportant, I thought it my duty Miss to let you know atonce, hoping this will catch you by the last post tonight orthe first post tomorrow. My niece she came round and saidit wasn’t of any importance but peculiar which I agreedwith her. The police said, and it was generally agreed thatnothing was taken from Captain Trevelyan’s house andnothing was in a manner of speaking nothing that is ofany value, but something there is missing though not no-ticed at the time being unimportant. But it seems Missthat a pair of the Captain’s boots is missing which Evansnoticed when he went over the things with Major Burnaby.
Though I don’t suppose it is of any importance Miss Ithought you would like to know. It was a pair of boots Missthe thick kind you rubs oil into and which the Captainwould have worn if he had gone out in the snow but as hedidn’t go out in the snow it doesn’t seem to make sense. Butmissing they are and who took them nobody knows andthough I well know it’s of no importance I felt it my duty towrite and hoping this finds you as it leaves me at presentand hoping you are not worrying too much about theyoung gentleman I remain Miss Yours truly — Mrs. J.

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