I was alone at the moment , though we were two in the household . my younger brother Tom shared our holding of some two hundred acres , but he &apos;d gone out to see about the barn door which was banging in the wind , so if anyone had concluded that we two bachelors were also wealthy , here was I another such opportunity for murder . it was fancy I know , but its possibility made me nervous . Tom was a man you could never be sure of . he was eccentric , moody , and shrewd , secretive to a fault , fond of company and very fond of liquor . he made every trifling incident an excuse for a celebration , as he called it , though he was steady enough when it suited him to be . but as I said , he was most unreliable . I was the eldest of the surviving sons , and three years Tom &apos;s senior . I had a different temperament ; I was always one to count the costs beforehand , I seldom smoked , I &apos;d no taste for it , and as to strong drink , well it did n&apos;t appeal to me , though I took it when I considered it to be in my interests to do so , otherwise I looked on it as a sheer waste of good money . I enjoyed work for work &apos;s sake ; a violin well played , or a well told story . Tom was the reverse of my tastes , though good at heart . he was thoughtless , more than selfish ; an unknown quantity would I think best describe him . as I sat there musing and waiting his return , a sudden and powerful gust of wind shook the entire cottage , which trembled violently and was accompanied by a sound of tearing , which terminated in a dull thud in an adjacent room . at this I jumped to my feet in alarm , as I &apos;d not have been at all surprised if the entire roof had collapsed . it was very old and in need of repair . however nothing further happened and I became curious as to what had apparently fallen . taking the lamp from the table I went to investigate , but no sooner had I opened the room door than my lamp was nigh extinguished by a violent draught . I was able to see that the gable end of the roof had been ripped off and swept away . luckily it was a fine though windy night , or we would certainly have been flooded . it was a room seldom used however , so things might have been worse . the room contained little furniture - in fact I knew its contents by heart , so that when I saw an unfamiliar parcel lying on the floor I was mystified , and before another gust of wind came I had hurriedly lifted up that loosely tied parcel and returned to my room as I was fearful of my lamp &apos;s chimney being destroyed by the draught . the parcel was of a light though rustly nature , and appeared to have been carelessly packed . its cord was useless in effect , so I &apos;d no trouble in its removal , on doing so I was dumbfounded by its unexpected contents . I must have stood some time motionless in awe . on examination I found it contained about twenty bundles of one pound notes , which I later discovered amounted to &amp;pound;2,010 in all . when my sudden excitement had subsided , I found I was becoming very nervous , which later developed into anxiety as to what I ought to do . I felt I could not consult anyone for advice , and I was equally uncertain if I should even tell Tom my brother , for if we did share it he might talk in his cups , or indeed drink its entirety , and if I kept it secret , I could not use it without he in time asking awkward questions as to where I had obtained all the money . to lodge it in the bank might also make for embarrassment so I thought at the time . now I know better . there was only one alternative and that was to inform the police . I did n&apos;t relish that . as a final solution I was undecided . its destruction by fire , although I was loath to destroy wealth . before however I had made up my mind as to what I would do with it , the room door unexpectedly opened and Tom entered , sober and silently . I &apos;d been so engrossed in my thoughts that I never heard his step above the high winds . when he saw the pile of notes , he rushed over and picked up a bundle in silence examining it thoroughly as if to see if they were real . then he spoke hoarsely to me , saying where did you get these ? are they yours , and were you counting your wealth in my absence ? or maybe you &apos;ve stolen them , eh ? his eyes were staring at me wildly as if he &apos;d not hesitate to do me an injury if I gave him what he might think was a false explanation . I could see that he had already made himself a satisfactory answer . that had always been his piggish way - judgment before , and in spite of , any evidence . I replied at once . to have hesitated would have meant suspicion , and he had a tinge of that already . I told him that I &apos;d found the money , relating in detail all I &apos;ve said before . he kept watching me all the time incredulously . I could quite understand this . it did appear fantastic and almost improbable . but when I &apos;d ceased talking he said , well Jim I believe you , I do n&apos;t like it . I agreed it certainly was unpleasant and peculiar . suddenly he pressed down the brown paper wrapper and said look there ! see it has poor old David Tuns &apos; name written on it . I followed his pointing finger , and sure enough the name and address was there , showing also a cancelled revenue stamp . a thought flashed through my mind , but before I could give it expression Tom banged his fist down on the table and exclaimed it &apos;s surely blood money and will bring bad luck on us ! &apos;t is plain that the murderer wrapped his ill-gotten gains in the first thing that he could find and placed it in our thatch . but why did n&apos;t he ever return ? was it to throw suspicion on us two lone men ? again he eyed me - I thought suspiciously as if he thought &apos;t was I who had done the deed and hid the money , but as I could give no explanation , I said so . I was always a man to speak out my mind straight , asking him what we &apos;d do with the money now that it was here . he paused long at that . then he said perhaps it were a bank robbery , and if so the number of the notes would be known . it was possible , though hardly probable , I said , yet the late David was not believed to have been a man of means , so it was , I added , quite possible that &apos;t was never his and the wrapper a mere coincidence . I was quite convinced and Tom agreed , that David had never hidden it in our thatch with his address on it , though some people are queer , and &apos;t would have saved him income tax to have done so . we could form no conclusion as to its origin , but had to face the fact of its disposal . when I suggested the police , Tom would not even listen to me , so after a long debate far into the night we decided to leave it till morning and then decide . next morning however he was up earlier than usual and was attending the live stock when I came into the room at my customary time . when I &apos;d finished breakfast and went to find him I did so , and commenced to repair our damaged roof , as the wind had ceased although it was still overcast . I questioned him as to why he had n&apos;t asked Hattie , our local expert thatcher to do the job . he muttered something about not wanting strangers about our home as they knew too much of others domestic affairs already . I could perceive that he was in a very sour mood , so decided not to pursue the matter , nor indeed to refer to our agreement of the previous night about the disposal of my find . there was no hurry anyway , I thought . it seems hard to believe now , but it was not till five months later that I brought up the subject in desperation . Tom made no reference ever to it , and it was early spring , with a lot of urgent improvements due on our farm . extra money could be usefully spent on it , and if it was a thing that Tom agreed , I &apos;d decided to spend a discreet figure on this objective , so as not to arouse local suspicions or talk . to make a big outlay was to start the busybody neighbours tongues with Jim Kogh &apos;s sudden wealth , and indeed - where did he get it ? - &apos;t was easily started , but mighty hard to stop . mid-February then it was , when I again approached Tom asking him why it was that he did n&apos;t help me to decide our windfall of over five months ago . he said that he &apos;d been waiting for me , and so I saw that one was waiting for the other , in some kind of awkward fear . it was that he eventually agreed with me that , barring telling either the police , or any of our neighbours , we were quite within our rights in equally dividing it , as &apos;t was found unclaimed on our premises , and so it was that we had a mutual share out of the &amp;pound;2,010 . he took it without a murmur , but turned as he made to leave the room . at the door he said : I hope this does not get me into any trouble . I do n&apos;t pretend to know what he meant by saying it , but it again entered my mind that he might spend it recklessly on drink , and give our secret away , for he was , as I &apos;ve already said , a very intemperate man when it suited him . I replied that I hoped it would not , unless he ran the way of trouble . I thought my hint would be sufficient , but he only looked at me and said that there were more ways of getting into troubles than drink , and money was one of them , especially as it had been queerly come by . with that he went out . I could n&apos;t understand him at all . he appeared to be both nervous and vexed , but why , I could n&apos;t even imagine . sometime later - &apos;t would be at least eighteen months I &apos;d say - to my great surprise I saw Tom emerging from the delapidated old house of the late Dave Tuns , the neighbour whom I &apos;ve already referred to who had been found murdered and whose house was still unoccupied and a ruin . we locals would n&apos;t enter it . it was the late owner &apos;s property and he had died without issue or relatives . it could not therefore be legally disposed of , though Tom and I had acquired the adjacent lands by local authority . I saw Tom coming out of this dreaded house one day , but I refrained from mentioning it to him for a time , as &apos;t was really none of my business . about a month later than this , he told me one morning that he had had several bad dreams about the late David and that he was going to have him prayed for , and to put a stone or suchlike to his memory . why he should decide to do this was beyond me . David was no relation of ours , and a long time dead , but I did n&apos;t pursue this . nevertheless I was mystified as to why Tom took a sudden interest after such a lapse of time as eighteen years . I was equally surprised that he was not drinking . this was contrary indeed to my expectations , for he was not one to hold money , much or little . later I heard in a roundabout way that he was visiting a nearby widow and her daughter , both considered to be well off in property and gilt-edged investments , and above criticism . 