Colonel Towton nodded and pushed back his chair to rise. "There's something in that, I'll admit. However, we can say nothing until we interview Miss Hest. I have already sent her a note saying that we have arrived and will see her to-day."
Matters having been thus arranged, the two men lighted their pipes and strolled out into the grounds. It was a bright autumnal morning with a cloudless blue sky and a radiant sun; the moorland air was keen, and Vernon drew long invigorating breaths into his lungs. Notwithstanding the somewhat bleak surroundings, The Grange was a remarkably comfortable house, and the original Towton who had built the same had striven to render it as bright as possible, so as to contrast with the sombre moors. The Grange, indeed, was more like an Italian villa than a Yorkshire mansion, as it was constructed of white stone and every window had green shutters, while the roof was formed of cheerful red tiles. Both rooms and corridors were spacious and decorated in brilliant tints, and the furniture was of the most modern description.
"It isn't at all like an ancestral home, is it?" said Towton cheerfully. "And all the better for that, since the word suggests oak parlours, comfortable gloom, and cumbersome furniture."
"Those would suit the situation better," said Vernon, glancing at the pines and fir-trees, which formed a screen to keep away the too keen moorland winds. "Your brilliant walls and red roofs look out of place in these stern solitudes, where Nature seems to be acting the anchorite."
"I love the scenery and solitude and all that, Vernon, but I like to be comfortably housed. My great-grand-father left the original family seat, which is in the valley almost below the Bolly Dam, and built this place after a long sojourn in Italy. My cousin, from whom I inherit, cleared out all the old Victorian furniture and redecorated the house as you see it. It's all very modern, and perhaps, in contrast with the grandeur of the moors, somewhat frivolous. But, at all events, it is cheerful and comfortable. I could scarcely ask Ida to inherit a kind of Ogre's Castle like Gerby Hall."
"Where is that?"
"You will see shortly. It's a real old Yorkshire Manor House, dating, I believe, from the Wars of the Roses. There was a lot of fighting went on during those days in Yorkshire, and the original Hest procured a grant of Bowderstyke Valley from Edward IV. But my ancestors came along later and seized a portion of it and built the mansion near the dam. I understand that the Hests and the Towtons fought like cat and dog over the valley. However, the most of the property belongs to me, and I live in this very up-to-date Grange, while they' still cling to the remnants of their lands and to Gerby Hall."
"From whom does our criminal friend inherit?"
"His grandfather. Hest's father was an officer in the Indian army, and had quarrelled with the old man. Then he died, together with his wife, some spinster he had married at Simla. The twin children were sent home to the grandfather, who brought them up and left the estates to Francis. Now that he has been shown up, he has had the sense, as I told you yesterday, to hand them over to his sister. Perhaps she'll marry and carry on the family."
"And Hest?"