The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts (feel good novels .txt) ๐
Description
During the unloading of an Insular and Continental Steam Navigation Company ship arrived from Rouen, the Bullfinch, a cask falls, splits, and reveals its unexpected contents. As the dockworkers try to work out what to do, Mr. Lรฉon Felix arrives and claims the cask as his own. His actions set into motion a complicated trail for the detectives of Londonโs Scotland Yard and Parisโs Sรปretรฉ to follow to the end.
Freeman Wills Crofts was one of many authors writing crime fiction in Britain in the 1920s and 30s, and was a contemporary and acquaintance of both Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler. The Cask, his first novel, was written during leave from his job as a railway engineer, but its reception was good enough to set Crofts on the course of a further thirty crime novels over his career as an author.
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- Author: Freeman Wills Crofts
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โOpening the cask again, I put in ยฃ52 10s. in English gold, to correspond with my slip. I hoped that, if the police got hold of the cask, they would assume that Felix had put in this money in order to strengthen his story that the cask had been sent to him. I put in sovereigns instead of French gold with the intention of making this theory more likely, as I hoped it would be argued that Felix in his agitation had overreached himself, and forgotten from what country the cask was supposed to be coming.
โCalling Franรงois, I told him I had unpacked the statue, and when Messrs. Dupierre sent for the cask he was to give it to them. Then, informing him that I would be from home for a couple of nights, I left next morning by the early train for London.
โOn the Monday I had purchased a false beard and arranged to get myself up to resemble Felix, and I wore this disguise all the time till my return. I brought with me on the journey the portmanteau containing my wifeโs clothes, and, on board the boat, from a quiet place on the lower deck, slipped these articles overboard without being observed. On arrival in London I arranged with a carting firm to carry about the cask on the next two days, as you already know. I then went out to St. Malo, Felixโs house, which I found after some judicious inquiries. A careful reconnoitre showed me it was unoccupied. I tried round the windows and had the luck to find one unhasped. Opening it, I crept into the house and went to the study. There by the light of an electric torch I carefully inked over the tracing I had made of the forged letter ordering the cask, and blotted it on Felixโs pad. This, I felt sure, would be found, and would seem to prove that he had written the order.
โI had foreseen that it would be argued that Felix must be innocent because not only would he have no motive to murder my wife, but also he would naturally be the last man in the world to do such a thing. It was necessary for me, therefore, to provide a motive. For this purpose I had written a letter purporting to be from a girl whom Felix had wronged. Having crumpled this letter I put it into the side pocket of one of Felixโs coats. I hoped this would be found, and that it would be argued that my wife had got hold of it and that there had been a quarrel which led to her death. Crumpling it was to suggest Felix had snatched it from her, thrust it into his pocket and forgotten it.
โAs I stood in the study a further idea occurred to me. I had thought of a use for a brooch that had dropped from my wifeโs clothes. It had fallen just behind the chair she had been sitting in, and I thought if I placed it on the floor behind a chair in his room, it would suggest she had been murdered here. My eye fell on a chair with a low back, standing in front of a curtain, and I saw at once it would suit my purpose. I dropped the brooch behind it and it caught on the braid at the bottom of the curtain. There it was hidden from casual inspection by the chair, but I knew the police would not overlook it. I withdrew without disturbing anything or leaving traces, closed the window, and returned to the city.
โSuch was my plot, and, but for your cleverness, it would have succeeded. Is there any other point on which you are not clear?โ
โOnly one, I think,โ answered La Touche. โYou were heard to telephone on the Monday from the Cafรฉ at Charenton to your butler and chief clerk. They received their messages on the Tuesday from Calais. How did you manage that?โ
โEasily. I never telephoned on Monday at all. I slipped a tiny wooden wedge into the instrument to prevent the hook rising when I lifted off the receiver. No call was therefore made on the exchange, though I went through the form of speaking. Any other point?โ
โI do not think so,โ returned La Touche, who again could not but feel a kind of rueful admiration for this ingenious ruffian. โYour statement has been very complete.โ
โIt is not quite complete,โ M. Boirac resumed. โThere are two more points of which I wish to speak. Read that.โ
He took a letter from his pocket and handed it to La Touche. Both men leaned a little forward to look. As they did so there was a slight click and the light went out. What sounded like Boiracโs chair was heard falling.
โHold the door!โ yelled La Touche, springing to his feet and fumbling for his electric torch. Mallet leaped for the door, but, tripping over the chair, missed it. As La Touche flashed on his light they could see it closing. There was a low, mocking laugh. Then the door slammed and they heard the key turn in the lock. La Touche fired rapidly through the panels, but there was no sound from without. Then Mallet flung himself on the handle. But at his first touch it came off. The holes for the screws had been enlarged so that they had no hold.
The door opened inwards, and presented to the imprisoned men a smooth, unbroken surface, with nothing on
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