I “How are you getting on with Wattle?” asked Ezra. “Very well.”
She’s happy, I think. There’s something very special about that little filly, Jessica. “I know it.”
“Bright as a button. All there, as they say. That’s our Wattle.”
“She still remembers you.” - a She’ll remember me till the day she dies. Faithful creatures, horses. That’s more than you can say for some human beings, v, eh? “
I looked at him sharply, wondering whether he was referring to Isa.
” You have a way with animals. That’s perfectly dear. Even the peacocks on the lawn seem to be aware of you. In a mild it way, of course, because they can’t think very much about anything but themselves. ” He laughed.
“I always have had this. Was born with it.
Funny. I was never much to look at. I could never make out why Isa fancied me in the first place. Mind you, when I came out here I had big dreams . everyone has. I was going to find the crock of gold.”
“Well, you’ve done very well, haven’t you?”
“I know my job, and there’s nothing I’d rather work with than opals.”
Then you’re fortunate. It’s not everyone who finds satisfaction in his work. Where are we going?“
“Into the gallery. There’s bound to be something in the gallery.”
“I suppose so, but I expect others will think the same.”
We opened the door. There was no one there. Six candles flickered in their sconces. It looked eerie and remarkably like the gallery at Oakland Hall. My eyes went to the spinet at one end and I thought of how my mother used to pretend to be a ghost and play the spinet and then hide when the servants came.
“It looks as if it ought to be haunted,” said Ezra.
“But I don’t suppose it’s old enough for that. Why are those drapes placed at intervals around the room?”
That’s how they are at Oakland. There the walls are partially panelled and the drapes hang where there is no panelling. It’s quite effective.”
“Can you play the spinet, Jessica ?”
“A little. I had lessons when I was a child. My aunt Miriam taught me.
I was not very good. “
“Play something now.”
I sat down and played a Chopin waltz as well as I could remember it.
“Hello! This place is haunted then.” It was Joss’s voice. I swung round sharply for he and Isa had come into the gallery.
“Why,” he went on, ‘the ghost is Jessica. “
“Why did you think I was a ghost?” I demanded.
“I didn’t. I don’t believe in them. But Ben used to say in his sentimental moments that he used to fancy he could hear the spinet being played and he’d like someone who used to play it at Oakland to come back and play for him here. He had strange fancies sometimes for such a practical man.”
“He always said he had an open mind about everything,” said Ezra.
“Yes.” went on Joss, “Ben was prepared to believe anything if it could be proved to him, so he believed that if he built a gallery just like the one at Oakland and put a spinet in it, his ghost might come.”
“How are you getting on with my husband?” asked Isa with j: a hint of mischief in her voice.
Tolerably well,” I replied.
“We’ve solved three so far. How are you getting on with mine?”
“More than tolerably well,” she replied.
“Come along, Joss. I want that opal.”
“It won’t be worthy of your collection,” he told her. "Then I shall ask you to swop it for one that is. “
I said to Ezra: “We should be going. I don’t think there’s , anything here.”
We went out. Joss and Isa had disappeared and shortly afterwards we found ourselves at the top of the house in a section which was unfamiliar to me. The rooms here were smaller and there was one which was furnished as a sitting-room. A lighted oil lamp stood on the table on which stood a pot of dried leaves and a wooden workbox with the lid open. A piece of needlework lay on the table with a needle case cottons and scissors. A door leading from this room was half open and I looked out on to a narrow terrace bounded by a low wall. We were at the very top of the house.
“I believe these are the Lauds’ quarters,” I said.
“Sounds rather holy,” answered Ezra with a chuckle. a “LAUD,” I spelt out.
“I don’t know whether we’re supposed to be here.”
“Isn’t where you’re not supposed to be the very spot where I you’re most likely to find the vital clue ?"
“I shouldn’t think so. The Lauds are so unobtrusive. I doubt whether Mrs. Laud would have allowed any dues to be placed in their apartments.”
“Nevertheless we’ll look round.”
“I’m interested in this little terrace,” I said.
“I had no idea it existed.” a I stepped out on it and looked up at the sky where the Southern Cross shone down reminding me that I was far from Home, where no one would be missing me very much-and I thought, with a trace of bitterness, no one here cared either. I looked over the side of the terrace wall to the sheer drop below. We were indeed very high. Then I heard voices. Mrs. Laud was speaking and I stepped back into the room. Ezra was standing at the table and Mrs. Laud was at the door. She was saying: “I had no idea anyone was here.
There’s nothing up here, you know. I wouldn’t have dreamed of letting them put clues here. Oh, there’s Mrs. Madden. “
“I’m sorry we intruded,” I said.
“Oh no, it’s not that. But there simply isn’t anything here.”
Then we’d better get on,” I said.
“We’ve wasted our time, it seems.”
Mrs. Laud laughed apologetically.
“It’s of no importance. I was just startled when I opened my door and saw a man in the room.”
Ezra apologized in his hearty way and we went downstairs.
“You’ve got a treasure in that woman,” he said.
“I remember old Ben’s saying what a manager she was. Mind you, he’s done a lot for her children … brought them up, you might say. She’s very grateful, is Mrs. Laud. I’ve heard her say it again and again.”
“I don’t know what we’d do without her.”
“And Jimson’s good. The way he can juggle with figures just takes your breath away. It’s rare to find people out here who can do that. Most of them want to do the exciting things … but to find someone who really likes figures … that’s a godsend. We thought we were lucky to get Paling but Jimson beats him … as we discovered after the buggy accident.”
“Do you know the daughter?”
“Lilias. Why, yes. Sweet on Jeremy Dickson if you ask me. I reckon they might well make a match of it I don’t know. Lilias seems to blow hot and cold.”
“Does she? I thought she liked him.”
“Well, I reckon it’s just a bit of coyness or something. It would be nice to see them wed. Married men are much better in the town. They get more settled and stable.”
“I can hear sounds from below,” I put in.
“I believe they’ve got a winner.”
I was right and delighted that it was the little fair-haired woman and her partner-the one who had left her new baby in the charge of her pregnant sister.
Joss made me stand with him to present the prizes.
“Don’t forget,” he whispered to me.
“You own half of this now and everyone must be made to realize it.”
The fair-haired woman came up with her partner, the opals were presented and everyone crowded round to examine them.
Joss said to me: Tactful of you not to win. “
“You too,” I answered.
“But did this please your acquisitive friend ?
“My acquisitive friend was forced to accept the inevitable.”