‘Let me finish,’ said Raphael Craig. ‘When I came into my uncle’s fortune I was at a loss what to do with it. The small house which I then had over at Sewell, near Chalk Hill, had no accommodation for such a valuable and ponderous collection. I made a confidante of my daughter. She sympathized with me, and suggested that, at any rate for a time, I should conceal the hoard in a disused chalk-pit which lay a few hundred yards from our house. The idea, at first sight rather wild, grew upon me. I adopted it. Then I took this house, and gradually I have removed my silver from the chalk-pit to Queen’s Farm. It is hidden in various quarters of the place. We brought the last load to-night.’
‘This is very interesting,’ said Richard, who had nothing else to say.
‘I have told you this,’ the old man concluded, ‘in order to account to you for what you saw to-night in that stable. It is but just that you should know. I thank you again for your prompt services in the matter of the fire, and I ask you, Mr. Redgrave, to pity the infirmity—the harmless infirmity—of an old man.’
Raphael Craig stood up and gazed at Richard with his deep-set melancholy eyes.
‘It is an infirmity which draws suspicion upon this house as a magnet draws iron. Once already I have had the local police up here making stupid inquiries. I put them off as well as I could. Daily I am expecting that the directors of the bank will call me up to explain my conduct. Yet I cannot do otherwise.’
‘Why,’ said Richard, ‘if you are rich, do you still care to serve the bank? Pardon my impertinence, but, surely, if you left the bank one source of your apprehensions would be stopped?’
‘I cannot leave the bank,’ said Raphael Craig, with solemn pathos; ‘it would break my heart.’
With these words he sank back into a chair, and appeared to be lost in thought So the two sat for some time. Then Richard rose and went quietly towards the door.
‘You are the only person, save Teresa, who knows my secret. Remember that, Mr. Redgrave.’
The manager’s voice sounded weak and distant. Richard bowed and stole from the room. He sucked at his cigar, but it had gone out.