"I want to see 'em," he whispered. "That's one thing. And I want to find
out how that last cheque of theirs got into our back-parlour! Was it sent
by post--or was it delivered by hand? And if by hand--who delivered it?"
"You're a cute 'un, you are!" observed Ayscough. "You'd better join us."
"Thank you, Mr. Ayscough, but events has happened which'll keep me busy at
something else," said Melky, cheerfully. "Do you know that my good old
relative has divided everything between me and my cousin?--I'm a rich man,
now, Mr. Ayscough. S'elp me!--I don't know how rich I am. It'll take a bit
o' reckoning."
"Good luck to you!" exclaimed the detective heartily. "Glad to hear it!
Then I reckon you and your cousin'll be making a match of it--keeping the
money in the family, what?"
Melky laid his finger on the side of his nose.
"Then you think wrong!" he said. "There'll be marriages before long--for
both of us--but it'll not be as you suggest! There's Molteno Lodge, across
the road there--s'elp me, I've often seen that bit of a retreat from the
top of a 'bus, but I never knew it belonged to the poor old man!"
They had now come to the lower part of Maida Vale, where many detached
houses stand in walled-in gardens, isolated and detached from each other--
Melky pointed to one of the smaller ones--a stucco villa, whose white
walls shone in the November moonlight.
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