



Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by
Google Books (University of Wisconsin--Madison)











Transcriber's Notes:
   1. Page Scan Source: Google Books
      https://books.google.com/books?id=f0g2AQAAMAAJ
      (University of Wisconsin--Madison)







The Black Patch







By the same Author


THE SILENT HOUSE IN PIMLICO
THE CRIMSON CRYPTOGRAM
THE BISHOP'S SECRET
THE JADE EYE
THE TURNPIKE HOUSE
A TRAITOR IN LONDON
THE GOLDEN WANG-HO
WOMAN THE SPHINX
THE SECRET PASSAGE
THE LONELY CHURCH
THE OPAL SERPENT
THE SILVER BULLET




JOHN LONG, Publisher, London







The Black Patch




By
Fergus Hume
Author of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," etc.





London
John Long
13 and 14 Norris Street, Haymarket


[All rights reserved]







First Published in 1906







CONTENTS
CHAP.

1.
IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
2.
THE HINTS OF DURBAN.
3.
MR. ALPENNY'S PROPOSAL.
4.
SEEN IN THE LIGHTNING.
5.
MRS. SNOW'S DISCOVERY.
6.
THE INQUEST.
7.
THE INQUEST--continued.
8.
THE WILL.
9.
LADY WATSON.
10.
MRS. LILLY'S STORY.
11.
MAJOR RUCK.
12.
VIVIAN EXPLAINS.
13.
THE EX-BUTLER.
14.
MRS. SNOW'S PAST.
15.
A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE.
16.
AN INTERRUPTION.
17.
A STORY OF THE PAST.
18.
WHAT ORCHARD KNEW.
19.
DURBAN SPEAKS AT LAST.
20.
A GREAT SURPRISE.
21.
LADY WATSON'S STORY.
22.
REVELATION.
23.
NEMESIS.
24.
THE NECKLACE.
25.
WATERLOO.
26.
WHAT TOOK PLACE.







The Black Patch





CHAPTER I
IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN


"Of course he's a wretch, dear; but oh!"--with an ecstatic
expression--"what a nice wretch!"

"I see; you marry the adjective."

"The man, Beatrice, the man. Give me a real man and I ask for nothing
better. But the genuine male is so difficult to find nowadays."

"Really! Then you have been more successful than the majority."

"How sarcastic, how unfriendly! I did look for sympathy."

Beatrice embraced her companion affectionately. "You have it, Dinah. I
give all sympathy and all good wishes to yourself and Jerry. May you be
very happy as Mr. and Mrs. Snow!"

"Oh, we shall, we shall! Jerry would make an undertaker happy!"

"Undertakers generally are--when business is good."

"Oh! you are quite too up-to-date in your talk, Beatrice Hedge."

"That is strange, seeing how I live in a dull country garden like a
snail, or a cabbage."

"Like a wild rose, dear. At least Vivian would say so."

"Mr. Paslow says more than he means," responded Beatrice, blushing
redder than the flower mentioned, "and I dare say Jerry does also."

"No, dear. Jerry hasn't sufficient imagination."

"He ought to have, being a journalist."

"Those are the very people who never imagine anything. They find their
facts on every hedge."

"Is that an unworthy pun on my name?"

"Certainly not, Miss Hedge," said the other with dignity; "Jerry
shan't find anything on you, or in you, save a friend, else I shall
be horribly jealous. As to Vivian, he would murder his future
brother-in-law if he caught him admiring you; and I don't want to begin
my married life with a corpse."

"Naturally. You wisely prefer the marriage service to the burial ditto,
my clever Dinah."

"I'm not clever, and I really don't know how to answer your sharp
speeches, seeing that I am a plain country girl."

"Not plain--oh! not plain. Jerry doesn't think so, I'm sure."

"It's very sweet and flattering of Jerry, but he's mercifully
colour-blind and short-sighted. I am plain, with a pug nose, drab
hair, freckles, and teeny-weeny eyes. You are the reverse, Beatrice,
being all that is lovely--quite a gem."

"Don't tell my father that I am any sort of jewel," remarked Beatrice
dryly, "else he will want to sell me at an impossible price."

Dinah laughed, but did not reply. Her somewhat flighty brain could
not concentrate itself sufficiently to grasp the subtle conversation
of Miss Hedge, so she threw herself back on the mossy stone seat and
stared between half-closed eyelids at the garden. This was necessary,
for the July sunshine blazed down on a mass of colour such as is
rarely seen in sober-hued England. The garden might have been that of
Eden, as delineated by Martin or Doré, from the tropical exuberance
of flower and leaf. But the buildings scattered about this pleasance
