In Ghostly Company (Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural) by David Stuart Davies, Amyas Northcote Page A
Authors: David Stuart Davies, Amyas Northcote
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stretched his resources to avert a stain being cast upon it. Mr Charles no doubt deliberately reckoned on his brother’s sensitiveness in this respect. We do not know exactly what passed between the brothers during this last visit, but I gather that Lady Margaret had been recently protesting strongly against the possible injury to her children’s interests that was being caused by Mr Charles’s extravagance and that this protest, coupled with the growing sense that his brother’s pocket was a bottomless pit, caused Lord D. to refuse to make any further payments. At any rate during the two or three days of Mr Charles’s stay the relations between the brothers, which had not been cordial for years, grew extremely strained and on the last night of his life Lord D., after a violent quarrel, ordered Mr Charles to leave the house the next morning for ever.
It now becomes necessary to tell exactly what took place during this fatal evening, as testified to by Mr Charles, by Sinnett and by a footman.
According to the testimony of all three, the two brothers dined together in almost total silence, broken only by a few forced remarks made for the benefit of the servants. Sinnett, who acted as personal attendant at meal-times on Lord D., was no doubt fully aware of the quarrel, but the other servants might not have been so. After dinner Lord D. was wheeled into the library and established in his chaise longue and the two brothers were left alone. When the footman took in the coffee at about nine o’clock, he heard angry voices and Lord D. exclaiming, ‘My patience and my purse are both exhausted. Tomorrow you go for good and all, and I’ll send £100 to your lodgings to take you to Canada or to the Devil as you choose.’
Very shortly after this Mr Charles left the library and went towards the smoking-room. To reach this room he had to pass that occupied by Sinnett, and the latter swore at the inquest on Lord D’s. body that Mr Charles had gone straight to this room and remained there. Sinnett further testified that at about half-past nine Lord D. had rung his bell; that he had gone in to him and found him much excited, and that Lord D. had said to him, ‘I have done with Mr Charles for ever. He has worn out my patience at last and I have told him to leave the house tomorrow morning. See to it that the dog-cart is got ready for the half-past ten train.’ He then added that he was feeling nervous and upset, asked Sinnett to hand him a book and said he would ring when he wished to go to bed. This he usually did at about half-past ten. Sinnett continued, that a little after ten Mr Charles had left the smoking-room and come to his room, where he had called his brother by a vile name and had said that he was being cast off for ever but that he would revenge himself by dragging the family name through the dirt and then, with more abuse of his brother and sister, had gone upstairs to his own room and shut the door. Sinnett remained in his room till nearly half-past eleven during which time he heard no sounds in the house (the servants, I should say, all slept and lived in another wing) and then, wondering at Lord D’s. not summoning him, he had gone to the library. On opening the door he saw his master extended in the chaise-longue and on approaching him he realised that he was dead. He thereupon at once gave the alarm.
Mr Charles was the nearest to the scene and appeared in a few minutes in his night-clothes and was completely overcome by the sad sight. A doctor was promptly sent for, a small country practitioner, who unhesitatingly gave a certificate of heart failure, and it was only at the new Lord D.’s earnest wish that an inquiry was held, the verdict at which was Death from Natural Causes.
I have given Sinnett’s story at the inquest at some length as he was really the only important witness. The new Lord D. himself testified readily enough to the fact of the quarrel with his brother, admitted that he had been in a
It now becomes necessary to tell exactly what took place during this fatal evening, as testified to by Mr Charles, by Sinnett and by a footman.
According to the testimony of all three, the two brothers dined together in almost total silence, broken only by a few forced remarks made for the benefit of the servants. Sinnett, who acted as personal attendant at meal-times on Lord D., was no doubt fully aware of the quarrel, but the other servants might not have been so. After dinner Lord D. was wheeled into the library and established in his chaise longue and the two brothers were left alone. When the footman took in the coffee at about nine o’clock, he heard angry voices and Lord D. exclaiming, ‘My patience and my purse are both exhausted. Tomorrow you go for good and all, and I’ll send £100 to your lodgings to take you to Canada or to the Devil as you choose.’
Very shortly after this Mr Charles left the library and went towards the smoking-room. To reach this room he had to pass that occupied by Sinnett, and the latter swore at the inquest on Lord D’s. body that Mr Charles had gone straight to this room and remained there. Sinnett further testified that at about half-past nine Lord D. had rung his bell; that he had gone in to him and found him much excited, and that Lord D. had said to him, ‘I have done with Mr Charles for ever. He has worn out my patience at last and I have told him to leave the house tomorrow morning. See to it that the dog-cart is got ready for the half-past ten train.’ He then added that he was feeling nervous and upset, asked Sinnett to hand him a book and said he would ring when he wished to go to bed. This he usually did at about half-past ten. Sinnett continued, that a little after ten Mr Charles had left the smoking-room and come to his room, where he had called his brother by a vile name and had said that he was being cast off for ever but that he would revenge himself by dragging the family name through the dirt and then, with more abuse of his brother and sister, had gone upstairs to his own room and shut the door. Sinnett remained in his room till nearly half-past eleven during which time he heard no sounds in the house (the servants, I should say, all slept and lived in another wing) and then, wondering at Lord D’s. not summoning him, he had gone to the library. On opening the door he saw his master extended in the chaise-longue and on approaching him he realised that he was dead. He thereupon at once gave the alarm.
Mr Charles was the nearest to the scene and appeared in a few minutes in his night-clothes and was completely overcome by the sad sight. A doctor was promptly sent for, a small country practitioner, who unhesitatingly gave a certificate of heart failure, and it was only at the new Lord D.’s earnest wish that an inquiry was held, the verdict at which was Death from Natural Causes.
I have given Sinnett’s story at the inquest at some length as he was really the only important witness. The new Lord D. himself testified readily enough to the fact of the quarrel with his brother, admitted that he had been in a
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