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diff --git a/old/12239.txt b/old/12239.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b49f84e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12239.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8486 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Men's Money, by J. S. Fletcher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dead Men's Money + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: May 3, 2004 [EBook #12239] +[Date last updated: March 5, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD MEN'S MONEY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + DEAD MEN'S MONEY + + BY J.S. FLETCHER + + 1920 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I THE ONE-EYED MAN + + II THE MIDNIGHT MISSION + + III THE RED STAIN + + IV THE MURDERED MAN + + V THE BRASS-BOUND CHEST + + VI MR. JOHN PHILLIPS + + VII THE INQUEST ON JOHN PHILLIPS + + VIII THE PARISH REGISTERS + + IX THE MARINE-STORE DEALER + + X THE OTHER WITNESS + + XI SIGNATURES TO THE WILL + + XII THE SALMON GAFF + + XIII SIR GILBERT CARSTAIRS + + XIV DEAD MAN'S MONEY + + XV FIVE HUNDRED A YEAR + + XVI THE MAN IN THE CELL + + XVII THE IRISH HOUSEKEEPER + + XVIII THE ICE AX + + XIX MY TURN + + XX THE SAMARITAN SKIPPER + + XXI MR. GAVIN SMEATON + + XXII I READ MY OWN OBITUARY + + XXIII FAMILY HISTORY + + XXIV THE SUIT OF CLOTHES + + XXV THE SECOND DISAPPEARANCE + + XXVI MRS. RALSTON OF CRAIG + + XXVII THE BANK BALANCE + + XXVIII THE HATHERCLEUGH BUTLER + + XXIX ALL IN ORDER + + XXX THE CARSTAIRS MOTTO + + XXXI NO TRACE + + XXXII THE LINK + + XXXIII THE OLD TOWER + + XXXIV THE BARGAIN + + XXXV THE SWAG + + XXXVI GOLD + + XXXVII THE DARK POOL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ONE-EYED MAN + + +The very beginning of this affair, which involved me, before I was aware +of it, in as much villainy and wickedness as ever man heard of, was, of +course, that spring evening, now ten years ago, whereon I looked out of +my mother's front parlour window in the main street of Berwick-upon-Tweed +and saw, standing right before the house, a man who had a black patch +over his left eye, an old plaid thrown loosely round his shoulders, and +in his right hand a stout stick and an old-fashioned carpet-bag. He +caught sight of me as I caught sight of him, and he stirred, and made at +once for our door. If I had possessed the power of seeing more than the +obvious, I should have seen robbery, and murder, and the very devil +himself coming in close attendance upon him as he crossed the pavement. +But as it was, I saw nothing but a stranger, and I threw open the window +and asked the man what he might be wanting. + +"Lodgings!" he answered, jerking a thickly made thumb at a paper which my +mother had that day set in the transom above the door. "Lodgings! You've +lodgings to let for a single gentleman. I'm a single gentleman, and I +want lodgings. For a month--maybe more. Money no object. Thorough +respectability--on my part. Few needs and modest requirements. Not likely +to give trouble. Open the door!" + +I went into the passage and opened the door to him. He strode in without +as much as a word, and, not waiting for my invitation, lurched +heavily--he was a big, heavy-moving fellow--into the parlour, where he +set down his bag, his plaid, and his stick, and dropping into an easy +chair, gave a sort of groan as he looked at me. + +"And what's your name?" he demanded, as if he had all the right in the +world to walk into folks' houses and ask his questions. "Whatever it is, +you're a likely-looking youngster!" + +"My name's Hugh Moneylaws," I answered, thinking it no harm to humour +him. "If you want to know about lodgings you must wait till my mother +comes in. Just now she's away up the street--she'll be back presently." + +"No hurry, my lad," he replied. "None whatever. This is a comfortable +anchorage. Quiet. Your mother'll be a widow woman, now?" + +"Yes," said I shortly. + +"Any more of you--brothers and sisters?" he asked. "Any--aye, of +course!--any young children in the house? Because young children is what +I cannot abide--except at a distance." + +"There's nobody but me and my mother, and a servant lass," I said. "This +is a quiet enough house, if that's what you mean." + +"Quiet is the word," said he. "Nice, quiet, respectable lodgings. In +this town of Berwick. For a month. If not more. As I say, a comfortable +anchorage. And time, too!--when you've seen as many queer places as I +have in my day, young fellow, you'll know that peace and quiet is meat +and drink to an ageing man." + +It struck me as I looked at him that he was just the sort of man that you +would expect to hear of as having been in queer places--a sort of gnarled +and stubbly man, with a wealth of seams and wrinkles about his face and +what could be seen of his neck, and much grizzled hair, and an eye--only +one being visible--that looked as if it had been on the watch ever since +he was born. He was a fellow of evident great strength and stout muscle, +and his hands, which he had clasped in front of him as he sat talking to +me, were big enough to go round another man's throat, or to fell a +bullock. And as for the rest of his appearance, he had gold rings in his +ears, and he wore a great, heavy gold chain across his waistcoat, and was +dressed in a new suit of blue serge, somewhat large for him, that he had +evidently purchased at a ready-made-clothing shop, not so long before. + +My mother came quietly in upon us before I could reply to the stranger's +last remark, and I saw at once that he was a man of some politeness and +manners, for he got himself up out of his chair and made her a sort of +bow, in an old-fashioned way. And without waiting for me, he let his +tongue loose on her. + +"Servant, ma'am," said he. "You'll be the lady of the house--Mrs. +Moneylaws. I'm seeking lodgings, Mrs. Moneylaws, and seeing your paper +at the door-light, and your son's face at the window, I came in. Nice, +quiet lodgings for a few weeks is what I'm wanting--a bit of plain +cooking--no fal-lals. And as for money--no object! Charge me what you +like, and I'll pay beforehand, any hand, whatever's convenient." + +My mother, a shrewd little woman, who had had a good deal to do since my +father died, smiled at the corners of her mouth as she looked the +would-be lodger up and down. + +"Why, sir," said she. "I like to know who I'm taking in. You're a +stranger in the place, I'm thinking." + +"Fifty years since I last clapped eyes on it, ma'am," he answered. "And I +was then a youngster of no more than twelve years or so. But as to who +and what I am--name of James Gilverthwaite. Late master of as good a ship +as ever a man sailed. A quiet, respectable man. No swearer. No +drinker--saving in reason and sobriety. And as I say--money no object, +and cash down whenever it's wanted. Look here!" + +He plunged one of the big hands into a trousers' pocket, and pulled it +out again running over with gold. And opening his fingers he extended +the gold-laden palm towards us. We were poor folk at that time, and it +was a strange sight to us, all that money lying in the man's hand, and +he apparently thinking no more of it than if it had been a heap of +six-penny pieces. + +"Help yourself to whatever'll pay you for a month," he exclaimed. "And +don't be afraid--there's a lot more where that came from." + +But my mother laughed, and motioned him to put up his money. + +"Nay, nay, sir!" said she. "There's no need. And all I'm asking at you is +just to know who it is I'm taking in. You'll be having business in the +town for a while?" + +"Not business in the ordinary sense, ma'am," he answered. "But there's +kin of mine lying in more than one graveyard just by, and it's a fancy of +my own to take a look at their resting-places, d'ye see, and to wander +round the old quarters where they lived. And while I'm doing that, it's a +quiet, and respectable, and a comfortable lodging I'm wanting." + +I could see that the sentiment in his speech touched my mother, who was +fond of visiting graveyards herself, and she turned to Mr. James +Gilverthwaite with a nod of acquiescence. + +"Well, now, what might you be wanting in the way of accommodation?" she +asked, and she began to tell him that he could have that parlour in which +they were talking, and the bedchamber immediately above it. I left them +arranging their affairs, and went into another room to attend to some of +my own, and after a while my mother came there to me. "I've let him the +rooms, Hugh," she said, with a note of satisfaction in her voice which +told me that the big man was going to pay well for them. "He's a great +bear of a man to look at," she went on, "but he seems quiet and +civil-spoken. And here's a ticket for a chest of his that he's left up at +the railway station, and as he's tired, maybe you'll get somebody +yourself to fetch it down for him?" + +I went out to a man who lived close by and had a light cart, and sent him +up to the station with the ticket for the chest; he was back with it +before long, and I had to help him carry it up to Mr. Gilverthwaite's +room. And never had I felt or seen a chest like that before, nor had the +man who had fetched it, either. It was made of some very hard and dark +wood, and clamped at all the corners with brass, and underneath it there +were a couple of bars of iron, and though it was no more than two and a +half feet square, it took us all our time to lift it. And when, under Mr. +Gilverthwaite's orders, we set it down on a stout stand at the side of +his bed, there it remained until--but to say until when would be +anticipating. + +Now that he was established in our house, the new lodger proved himself +all that he had said. He was a quiet, respectable, sober sort of man, +giving no trouble and paying down his money without question or murmur +every Saturday morning at his breakfast-time. All his days were passed in +pretty much the same fashion. After breakfast he would go out--you might +see him on the pier, or on the old town walls, or taking a walk across +the Border Bridge; now and then we heard of his longer excursions into +the country, one side or other of the Tweed. He took his dinner in the +evenings, having made a special arrangement with my mother to that +effect, and a very hearty eater he was, and fond of good things, which +he provided generously for himself; and when that episode of the day's +events was over, he would spend an hour or two over the newspapers, of +which he was a great reader, in company with his cigar and his glass. And +I'll say for him that from first to last he never put anything out, and +was always civil and polite, and there was never a Saturday that he did +not give the servant-maid a half-crown to buy herself a present. + +All the same--we said it to ourselves afterwards, though not at the +time--there was an atmosphere of mystery about Mr. Gilverthwaite. He made +no acquaintance in the town. He was never seen in even brief conversation +with any of the men that hung about the pier, on the walls, or by the +shipping. He never visited the inns, nor brought anybody in to drink and +smoke with him. And until the last days of his lodging with us he never +received a letter. + +A letter and the end of things came all at once. His stay had lengthened +beyond the month he had first spoken of. It was in the seventh week of +his coming that he came home to his dinner one June evening, complaining +to my mother of having got a great wetting in a sudden storm that had +come on that afternoon while he was away out in the country, and next +morning he was in bed with a bad pain in his chest, and not over well +able to talk. My mother kept him in his bed and began to doctor him; that +day, about noon, came for him the first and only letter he ever had while +he was with us--a letter that came in a registered envelope. The +servant-maid took it up to him when it was delivered, and she said later +that he started a bit when he saw it. But he said nothing about it to my +mother during that afternoon, nor indeed to me, specifically, when, later +on, he sent for me to go up to his room. All the same, having heard of +what he had got, I felt sure that it was because of it that, when I went +in to him, he beckoned me first to close the door on us and then to come +close to his side as he lay propped on his pillow. + +"Private, my lad!" he whispered hoarsely. "There's a word I have for you +in private!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MIDNIGHT MISSION + + +Before he said a word more, I knew that Mr. Gilverthwaite was very +ill--much worse, I fancied, than my mother had any notion of. It was +evidently hard work for him to get his breath, and the veins in his +temples and forehead swelled out, big and black, with the effort of +talking. He motioned to me to hand him a bottle of some stuff which he +had sent for from the chemist, and he took a swig of its contents from +the bottle neck before he spoke again. Then he pointed to a chair at the +bed-head, close to his pillow. + +"My lungs!" he said, a bit more easily. "Mortal bad! Queer thing, a great +man like me, but I was always delicate in that way, ever since I was a +nipper--strong as a bull in all else. But this word is private. Look +here, you're a lawyer's clerk?" + +He had known that, of course, for some time--known that I was clerk to a +solicitor of the town, and hoping to get my articles, and in due course +become a solicitor myself. So there was no need for me to do more than +nod in silence. + +"And being so," he went on, "you'll be a good hand at keeping a secret +very well. Can you keep one for me, now?" + +He had put out one of his big hands as he spoke, and had gripped my +wrist with it--ill as he was, the grip of his fingers was like steel, and +yet I could see that he had no idea that he was doing more than laying +his hand on me with the appeal of a sick man. + +"It depends what it is, Mr. Gilverthwaite," I answered. "I should like to +do anything I can for you." + +"You wouldn't do it for nothing," he put in sharply. "I'll make it well +worth your while. See here!" + +He took his hand away from my wrist, put it under his pillow, and drew +out a bank-note, which he unfolded before me. + +"Ten pound!" he said. "It's yours, if you'll do a bit of a job for me--in +private. Ten pound'll be useful to you. What do you say, now?" + +"That it depends on what it is," said I. "I'd be as glad of ten pounds as +anybody, but I must know first what I'm expected to do for it." + +"It's an easy enough thing to do," he replied. "Only it's got to be done +this very night, and I'm laid here, and can't do it. You can do it, +without danger, and at little trouble--only--it must be done private." + +"You want me to do something that nobody's to know about?" I asked. + +"Precisely!" said he. "Nobody! Not even your mother--for even the best of +women have tongues." + +I hesitated a little--something warned me that there was more in all this +than I saw or understood at the moment. + +"I'll promise this, Mr. Gilverthwaite," I said presently. "If you'll +tell me now what it is you want, I'll keep that a dead secret from +anybody for ever. Whether I'll do it or not'll depend on the nature of +your communication." + +"Well spoken, lad!" he answered, with a feeble laugh. "You've the makings +of a good lawyer, anyway. Well, now, it's this--do you know this +neighbourhood well?" + +"I've never known any other," said I. + +"Do you know where Till meets Tweed?" he asked. + +"As well as I know my own mother's door!" I answered. + +"You know where that old--what do they call it?--chapel, cell, something +of that nature, is?" he asked again. + +"Aye!--well enough, Mr. Gilverthwaite," I answered him. "Ever since I was +in breeches!" + +"Well," said he, "if I was my own man, I ought to meet another man near +there this very night. And--here I am!" + +"You want me to meet this other man?" I asked. + +"I'm offering you ten pound if you will," he answered, with a quick look. +"Aye, that is what I'm wanting!" + +"To do--what?" I inquired. + +"Simple enough," he said. "Nothing to do but to meet him, to give him a +word that'll establish what they term your bony fides, and a message from +me that I'll have you learn by heart before you go. No more!" + +"There's no danger in it?" I asked. + +"Not a spice of danger!" he asserted. "Not half as much as you'd find in +serving a writ." + +"You seem inclined to pay very handsomely for it, all the same," I +remarked, still feeling a bit suspicious. + +"And for a simple reason," he retorted. "I must have some one to do +the job--aye, if it costs twenty pound! Somebody must meet this +friend o' mine, and tonight--and why shouldn't you have ten pound as +well as another?" + +"There's nothing to do but what you say?" I asked. + +"Nothing--not a thing!" he affirmed. + +"And the time?" I said. "And the word--for surety?" + +"Eleven o'clock is the time," he answered. "Eleven--an hour before +midnight. And as for the word--get you to the place and wait about a bit, +and if you see nobody there, say out loud, 'From James Gilverthwaite as +is sick and can't come himself'; and when the man appears, as he will, +say--aye!--say 'Panama,' my lad, and he'll understand in a jiffy!" + +"Eleven o'clock--Panama," said I. "And--the message?" + +"Aye!" he answered, "the message. Just this, then: 'James Gilverthwaite +is laid by for a day or two, and you'll bide quiet in the place you know +of till you hear from him.' That's all. And--how will you get out there, +now?--it's a goodish way." + +"I have a bicycle," I answered, and at his question a thought struck me. +"How did you intend to get out there yourself, Mr. Gilverthwaite?" I +asked. "That far--and at that time of night?" + +"Aye!" he said. "Just so--but I'd ha' done it easy enough, my lad--if I +hadn't been laid here. I'd ha' gone out by the last train to the nighest +station, and it being summer I'd ha' shifted for myself somehow during +the rest of the night--I'm used to night work. But--that's neither here +nor there. You'll go? And--private?" + +"I'll go--and privately," I answered him. "Make yourself easy." + +"And not a word to your mother?" he asked anxiously. + +"Just so," I replied. "Leave it to me." + +He looked vastly relieved at that, and after assuring him that I had the +message by heart I left his chamber and went downstairs. After all, it +was no great task that he had put on me. I had often stayed until very +late at the office, where I had the privilege of reading law-books at +nights, and it was an easy business to mention to my mother that I +wouldn't be in that night so very early. That part of my contract with +the sick man upstairs I could keep well enough, in letter and spirit--all +the same, I was not going out along Tweed-side at that hour of the night +without some safeguard, and though I would tell no one of what my +business for Mr. Gilverthwaite precisely amounted to, I would tell one +person where it would take me, in case anything untoward happened and I +had to be looked for. That person was the proper one for a lad to go to +under the circumstances--my sweetheart, Maisie Dunlop. + +And here I'll take you into confidence and say that at that time Maisie +and I had been sweethearting a good two years, and were as certain of +each other as if the two had been twelve. I doubt if there was such +another old-fashioned couple as we were anywhere else in the British +Islands, for already we were as much bound up in each other as if we had +been married half a lifetime, and there was not an affair of mine that I +did not tell her of, nor had she a secret that she did not share with me. +But then, to be sure, we had been neighbours all our lives, for her +father, Andrew Dunlop, kept a grocer's shop not fifty yards from our +house, and she and I had been playmates ever since our school-days, and +had fallen to sober and serious love as soon as we arrived at what we at +any rate called years of discretion--which means that I was nineteen, and +she seventeen, when we first spoke definitely about getting married. And +two years had gone by since then, and one reason why I had no objection +to earning Mr. Gilverthwaite's ten pounds was that Maisie and I meant to +wed as soon as my salary was lifted to three pounds a week, as it soon +was to be, and we were saving money for our furnishing--and ten pounds, +of course, would be a nice help. + +So presently I went along the street to Dunlop's and called Maisie out, +and we went down to the walls by the river mouth, which was a regular +evening performance of ours. And in a quiet corner, where there was a +seat on which we often sat whispering together of our future, I told +her that I had to do a piece of business for our lodger that night and +that the precise nature of it was a secret which I must not let out +even to her. + +"But here's this much in it, Maisie," I went on, taking care that there +was no one near us that could catch a word of what I was saying; "I can +tell you where the spot is that I'm to do the business at, for a fine +lonely spot it is to be in at the time of night I'm to be there--an hour +before midnight, and the place is that old ruin that's close by where +Till meets Tweed--you know it well enough yourself." + +I felt her shiver a bit at that, and I knew what it was that was in her +mind, for Maisie was a girl of imagination, and the mention of a lonely +place like that, to be visited at such an hour, set it working. + +"Yon's a queer man, that lodger of your mother's, Hughie," she said. "And +it's a strange time and place you're talking of. I hope nothing'll come +to you in the way of mischance." + +"Oh, it's nothing, nothing at all!" I hastened to say. "If you knew it +all, you'd see it's a very ordinary business that this man can't do +himself, being kept to his bed. But all the same, there's naught like +taking precautions beforehand, and so I'll tell you what we'll do. I +should be back in town soon after twelve, and I'll give a tap at your +window as I pass it, and then you'll know all's right." + +That would be an easy enough thing to manage, for Maisie's room, where +she slept with a younger sister, was on the ground floor of her father's +house in a wing that butted on to the street, and I could knock at the +pane as I passed by. Yet still she seemed uneasy, and I hastened to say +what--not even then knowing her quite as well as I did later--I thought +would comfort her in any fears she had. "It's a very easy job, Maisie," I +said; "and the ten pounds'll go a long way in buying that furniture we're +always talking about." + +She started worse than before when I said that and gripped the hand that +I had round her waist. + +"Hughie!" she exclaimed. "He'll not be giving you ten pounds for a bit of +a ride like that! Oh, now I'm sure there's danger in it! What would a man +be paying ten pounds for to anybody just to take a message? Don't go, +Hughie! What do you know of yon man except that he's a stranger that +never speaks to a soul in the place, and wanders about like he was spying +things? And I would liefer go without chair or table, pot or pan, than +that you should be running risks in a lonesome place like that, and at +that time, with nobody near if you should be needing help. Don't go!" + +"You're misunderstanding," said I. "It's a plain and easy thing--I've +nothing to do but ride there and back. And as for the ten pounds, it's +just this way: yon Mr. Gilverthwaite has more money than he knows what to +do with. He carries sovereigns in his pockets like they were sixpenny +pieces! Ten pounds is no more to him that ten pennies to us. And we've +had the man in our house seven weeks now, and there's nobody could say an +ill word of him." + +"It's not so much him," she answered. "It's what you may meet--there! +For you've got to meet--somebody. You're going, then?" + +"I've given my word, Maisie," I said. "And you'll see there'll be no +harm, and I'll give you a tap at the window as I pass your house coming +back. And we'll do grand things with that ten pounds, too." + +"I'll never close my eyes till I hear you, then," she replied. "And I'll +not be satisfied with any tap, neither. If you give one, I'll draw the +blind an inch, and make sure it's yourself, Hughie." + +We settled it at that, with a kiss that was meant on my part to be one of +reassurance, and presently we parted, and I went off to get my bicycle in +readiness for the ride. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RED STAIN + + +It was just half-past nine by the town clocks when I rode out across the +old Border Bridge and turned up the first climb of the road that runs +alongside the railway in the direction of Tillmouth Park, which was, of +course, my first objective. A hot, close night it was--there had been +thunder hanging about all day, and folk had expected it to break at any +minute, but up to this it had not come, and the air was thick and +oppressive. I was running with sweat before I had ridden two miles along +the road, and my head ached with the heaviness of the air, that seemed to +press on me till I was like to be stifled. Under ordinary circumstances +nothing would have taken me out on such a night. But the circumstances +were not ordinary, for it was the first time I had ever had the chance of +earning ten pounds by doing what appeared to be a very simple errand; and +though I was well enough inclined to be neighbourly to Mr. Gilverthwaite, +it was certainly his money that was my chief inducement in going on his +business at a time when all decent folk should be in their beds. And for +this first part of my journey my thoughts ran on that money, and on what +Maisie and I would do with it when it was safely in my pocket. We had +already bought the beginnings of our furnishing, and had them stored in +an unused warehouse at the back of her father's premises; with Mr. +Gilverthwaite's bank-note, lying there snugly in waiting for me, we +should be able to make considerable additions to our stock, and the +wedding-day would come nearer. + +But from these anticipations I presently began to think about the +undertaking on which I was now fairly engaged. When I came to consider +it, it seemed a queer affair. As I understood it, it amounted to +this:--Here was Mr. Gilverthwaite, a man that was a stranger in Berwick, +and who appeared to have plenty of money and no business, suddenly +getting a letter which asked him to meet a man, near midnight, and in +about as lonely a spot as you could select out of the whole district. Why +at such a place, and at such an hour? And why was this meeting of so much +importance that Mr. Gilverthwaite, being unable to keep the appointment +himself, must pay as much as ten pounds to another person to keep it for +him? What I had said to Maisie about Mr. Gilverthwaite having so much +money that ten pounds was no more to him than ten pence to me was, of +course, all nonsense, said just to quieten her fears and suspicions--I +knew well enough, having seen a bit of the world in a solicitor's office +for the past six years, that even millionaires don't throw their money +about as if pounds were empty peascods. No! Mr. Gilverthwaite was giving +me that money because he thought that I, as a lawyer's clerk, would see +the thing in its right light as a secret and an important business, and +hold my tongue about it. And see it as a secret business I did--for what +else could it be that would make two men meet near an old ruin at +midnight, when in a town where, at any rate, one of them was a stranger, +and the other probably just as much so, they could have met by broad day +at a more convenient trysting-place without anybody having the least +concern in their doings? There was strange and subtle mystery in all +this, and the thinking and pondering it over led me before long to +wondering about its first natural consequence--who and what was the man I +was now on my way to meet, and where on earth could he be coming from to +keep a tryst at a place like that, and at that hour? + +However, before I had covered three parts of that outward journey, I was +to meet another man who, all unknown to me, was to come into this truly +extraordinary series of events in which I, with no will of my own, was +just beginning--all unawares--to be mixed up. Taking it roughly, and as +the crow flies, it is a distance of some nine or ten miles from Berwick +town to Twizel Bridge on the Till, whereat I was to turn off from the +main road and take another, a by-lane, that would lead me down by the old +ruin, close by which Till and Tweed meet. Hot as the night was, and +unpleasant for riding, I had plenty and to spare of time in hand, and +when I came to the cross-ways between Norham and Grindon, I got off my +machine and sat down on the bank at the roadside to rest a bit before +going further. It was a quiet and a very lonely spot that; for three +miles or more I had not met a soul along the road, and there being next +to nothing in the way of village or farmstead between me and Cornhill, I +did not expect to meet one in the next stages of my journey. But as I sat +there on the bank, under a thick hedge, my bicycle lying at my side, I +heard steps coming along the road in the gloom--swift, sure steps, as of +a man who walks fast, and puts his feet firmly down as with determination +to get somewhere as soon as he may. And hearing that--and to this day I +have often wondered what made me do it--I off with my cap, and laid it +over the bicycle-lamp, and myself sat as still as any of the wee +creatures that were doubtless lying behind me in the hedge. + +The steps came from the direction in which I was bound. There was a bit +of a dip in the road just there: they came steadily, strongly, up it. And +presently--for this was the height of June, when the nights are never +really dark--the figure of a man came over the ridge of the dip, and +showed itself plain against a piece of grey sky that was framed by the +fingers of the pines and firs on either side of the way. A strongly-built +figure it was, and, as I said before, the man put his feet, evidently +well shod, firmly and swiftly down, and with this alternate sound came +the steady and equally swift tapping of an iron-shod stick. Whoever this +night-traveller was, it was certain he was making his way somewhere +without losing any time in the business. + +The man came close by me and my cover, seeing nothing, and at a few +yards' distance stopped dead. I knew why. He had come to the +cross-roads, and it was evident from his movements that he was puzzled +and uncertain. He went to the corners of each way: it seemed to me that +he was seeking for a guide-post. But, as I knew very well, there was no +guide-post at any corner, and presently he came to the middle of the +roads again and stood, looking this way and that, as if still in a +dubious mood. And then I heard a crackling and rustling as of stiff +paper--he was never more than a dozen yards from me all the time,--and in +another minute there was a spurt up of bluish flame, and I saw that the +man had turned on the light of an electric pocket-torch and was shining +it on a map which he had unfolded and shaken out, and was holding in his +right hand. + +At this point I profited by a lesson which had been dinned into my ears +a good many times since boyhood. Andrew Dunlop, Maisie's father, was one +of those men who are uncommonly fond of lecturing young folk in season +and out of season. He would get a lot of us, boys and girls, together in +his parlour at such times as he was not behind the counter and give us +admonitions on what he called the practical things of life. And one of +his favourite precepts--especially addressed to us boys--was "Cultivate +your powers of observation." This advice fitted in very well with the +affairs of the career I had mapped out for myself--a solicitor should +naturally be an observant man, and I had made steady effort to do as +Andrew Dunlop counselled. Therefore it was with a keenly observant eye +that I, all unseen, watched the man with his electric torch and his +map, and it did not escape my notice that the hand which held the map +was short of the two middle fingers. But of the rest of him, except that +he was a tallish, well-made man, dressed in--as far as I could see +things--a gentlemanlike fashion in grey tweeds, I could see nothing. I +never caught one glimpse of his face, for all the time that he stood +there it was in shadow. + +He did not stay there long either. The light of the electric torch was +suddenly switched off; I heard the crackling of the map again as he +folded it up and pocketed it. And just as suddenly he was once more on +the move, taking the by-way up to the north, which, as I knew well, led +to Norham, and--if he was going far--over the Tweed to Ladykirk. He went +away at the same quick pace; but the surface in that by-way was not as +hard and ringing as that of the main road, and before long the sound of +his steps died away into silence, and the hot, oppressive night became as +still as ever. + +I presently mounted my bicycle again and rode forward on my last stage, +and having crossed Twizel Bridge, turned down the lane to the old ruin +close by where Till runs into Tweed. It was now as dark as ever it would +be that night, and the thunderclouds which hung all over the valley +deepened the gloom. Gloomy and dark the spot indeed was where I was to +meet the man of whom Mr. Gilverthwaite had spoken. By the light of my +bicycle lamp I saw that it was just turned eleven when I reached the +spot; but so far as I could judge there was no man there to meet +anybody. And remembering what I had been bidden to do, I spoke out loud. + +"From James Gilverthwaite, who is sick, and can't come himself," I +repeated. And then, getting no immediate response, I spoke the password +in just as loud a voice. But there was no response to that either, and +for the instant I thought how ridiculous it was to stand there and say +Panama to nobody. + +I made it out that the man had not yet come, and I was wheeling my +bicycle to the side of the lane, there to place it against the hedge and +to sit down myself, when the glancing light of the lamp fell on a great +red stain that had spread itself, and was still spreading, over the sandy +ground in front of me. And I knew on the instant that this was the stain +of blood, and I do not think I was surprised when, advancing a step or +two further, I saw, lying in the roadside grass at my feet, the still +figure and white face of a man who, I knew with a sure and certain +instinct, was not only dead but had been cruelly murdered. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MURDERED MAN + + +There may be folk in the world to whom the finding of a dead man, lying +grim and stark by the roadside, with the blood freshly run from it and +making ugly patches of crimson on the grass and the gravel, would be an +ordinary thing; but to me that had never seen blood let in violence, +except in such matters as a bout of fisticuffs at school, it was the +biggest thing that had ever happened, and I stood staring down at the +white face as if I should never look at anything else as long as I lived. +I remember all about that scene and that moment as freshly now as if the +affair had happened last night. The dead man lying in the crushed +grass--his arms thrown out helplessly on either side of him--the gloom of +the trees all around--the murmuring of the waters, where Till was pouring +its sluggish flood into the more active swirl and rush of the Tweed--the +hot, oppressive air of the night--and the blood on the dry road--all that +was what, at Mr. Gilverthwaite's bidding, I had ridden out from Berwick +to find in that lonely spot. + +But I knew, of course, that James Gilverthwaite himself had not foreseen +this affair, nor thought that I should find a murdered man. And as I at +last drew breath, and lifted myself up a little from staring at the +corpse, a great many thoughts rushed into my head, and began to tumble +about over each other. Was this the man Mr. Gilverthwaite meant me to +meet? Would Mr. Gilverthwaite have been murdered, too, if he had come +there in person? And had the man been murdered for the sake of robbery? +But I answered that last question as soon as I asked it, and in the +negative, for the light of my lamp showed a fine, heavy gold watch-chain +festooned across the man's waistcoat--if murderously inclined thieves had +been at him, they were not like to have left that. Then I wondered if I +had disturbed the murderers--it was fixed in me from the beginning that +there must have been more than one in at this dreadful game--and if they +were still lurking about and watching me from the brushwood; and I made +an effort, and bent down and touched one of the nerveless hands. It was +stiffened already, and I knew then that the man had been dead some time. + +And I knew another thing in that moment: poor Maisie, lying awake to +listen for the tap at her window, so that she might get up and peep round +the corner of her blind to assure herself that her Hughie was alive and +safe, would have to lie quaking and speculating through the dark hours of +that night, for here was work that was going to keep me busied till day +broke. I set to it there and then, leaving the man just as I had found +him, and hastening back in the direction of the main road. As luck would +have it, I heard voices of men on Twizel Bridge, and ran right on the +local police-sergeant and a constable, who had met there in the course of +their night rounds. I knew them both, the sergeant being one Chisholm, +and the constable a man named Turndale, and they knew me well enough from +having seen me in the court at Berwick; and it was with open-mouthed +surprise that they listened to what I had to tell them. Presently we were +all three round the dead man, and this time there was the light of three +lamps on his face and on the gouts of blood that were all about him, and +Chisholm clicked his tongue sharply at what he saw. + +"Here's a sore sight for honest folk!" he said in a low voice, as he bent +down and touched one of the hands. "Aye, and he's been dead a good hour, +I should say, by the feel of him! You heard nothing as you came down yon +lane, Mr. Hugh?" + +"Not a sound!" I answered. + +"And saw nothing?" he questioned. + +"Nothing and nobody!" I said. + +"Well," said he, "we'll have to get him away from this. You'll have to +get help," he went on, turning to the constable. "Fetch some men to help +us carry him. He'll have to be taken to the nearest inn for the +inquest--that's how the law is. I wasn't going to ask it while yon man +was about, Mr. Hugh," he continued, when Turndale had gone hurrying +towards the village; "but you'll not mind me asking it now--what were you +doing here yourself, at this hour?" + +"You've a good right, Chisholm," said I; "and I'll tell you, for by all I +can see, there'll be no way of keeping it back, and it's no concern of +mine to keep it back, and I don't care who knows all about it--not me! +The truth is, we've a lodger at our house, one Mr. James Gilverthwaite, +that's a mysterious sort of man, and he's at present in his bed with a +chill or something that's like to keep him there; and tonight he got me +to ride out here to meet a man whom he ought to have met himself--and +that's why I'm here and all that I have to do with it." + +"You don't mean to say that--that!" he exclaimed, jerking his thumb at +the dead man; "that--that's the man you were to meet?" + +"Who else?" said I. "Can you think of any other that it would be? And I'm +wondering if whoever killed this fellow, whoever he may be, wouldn't have +killed Mr. Gilverthwaite, too, if he'd come? This is no by-chance murder, +Chisholm, as you'll be finding out." + +"Well, well, I never knew its like!" he remarked, staring from me to the +body, and from it to me. "You saw nobody about close by--nor in the +neighbourhood--no strangers on the road?" + +I was ready for that question. Ever since finding the body, I had been +wondering what I should say when authority, either in the shape of a +coroner or a policeman, asked me about my own adventures that night. To +be sure, I had seen a stranger, and I had observed that he had lost a +couple of fingers, the first and second, of his right hand; and it was +certainly a queer thing that he should be in that immediate neighbourhood +about the time when this unfortunate man met his death. But it had been +borne in on my mind pretty strongly that the man I had seen looking at +his map was some gentleman-tourist who was walking the district, and had +as like as not been tramping it over Plodden Field and that historic +corner of the country, and had become benighted ere he could reach +wherever his headquarters were. And I was not going to bring suspicion on +what was in all probability an innocent stranger, so I answered +Chisholm's question as I meant to answer any similar one--unless, indeed, +I had reason to alter my mind. + +"I saw nobody and heard nothing--about here," said I. "It's not likely +there'd be strangers in this spot at midnight." + +"For that matter, the poor fellow is a stranger himself," said he, once +more turning his lamp on the dead face. "Anyway, he's not known to me, +and I've been in these parts twenty years. And altogether it's a fine +mystery you've hit on, Mr. Hugh, and there'll be strange doings before +we're at the bottom of it, I'm thinking." + +That there was mystery in this affair was surer than ever when, having +got the man to the nearest inn, and brought more help, including a +doctor, they began to examine him and his clothing. And now that I saw +him in a stronger light, I found that he was a strongly built, well-made +man of about Mr. Gilverthwaite's age--say, just over sixty years or +so,--dressed in a gentlemanlike fashion, and wearing good boots and linen +and a tweed suit of the sort affected by tourists. There was a good deal +of money in his pockets--bank-notes, gold, and silver--and an expensive +watch and chain, and other such things that a gentleman would carry; and +it seemed very evident that robbery had not been the motive of the +murderers. But of papers that could identify the man there was +nothing--in the shape of paper or its like there was not one scrap in all +the clothing, except the return half of a railway ticket between Peebles +and Coldstream, and a bit of a torn bill-head giving the name and address +of a tradesman in Dundee. + +"There's something to go on, anyway," remarked Chisholm, as he carefully +put these things aside after pointing out to us that the ticket was +dated on what was now the previous day (for it was already well past +midnight, and the time was creeping on to morning), and that the dead +man must accordingly have come to Coldstream not many hours before his +death; "and we'll likely find something about him from either Dundee or +Peebles. But I'm inclined to think, Mr. Hugh," he continued, drawing me +aside, "that even though they didn't rob the man of his money and +valuables, they took something else from him that may have been of much +more value than either." + +"What?" I asked. + +"Papers!" said he. "Look at the general appearance of the man! He's no +common or ordinary sort. Is it likely, now, such a man would be without +letters and that sort of thing in his pockets? Like as not he'd carry his +pocket-book, and it may have been this pocket-book with what was in it +they were after, and not troubling about his purse at all." + +"They made sure of him, anyway," said I, and went out of the room where +they had laid the body, not caring to stay longer. For I had heard what +the doctor said--that the man had been killed on the spot by a single +blow from a knife or dagger which had been thrust into his heart from +behind with tremendous force, and the thought of it was sickening me. +"What are you going to do now?" I asked of Chisholm, who had followed me. +"And do you want me any more, sergeant?--for, if not, I'm anxious to get +back to Berwick." + +"That's just where I'm coming with you," he answered. "I've my bicycle +close by, and we'll ride into the town together at once. For, do you see, +Mr. Hugh, there's just one man hereabouts that can give us some light on +this affair straightaway--if he will--and that the lodger you were +telling me of. And I must get in and see the superintendent, and we must +get speech with this Mr. Gilverthwaite of yours--for, if he knows no +more, he'll know who yon man is!" + +I made no answer to that. I had no certain answer to make. I was already +wondering about a lot of conjectures. Would Mr. Gilverthwaite know who +the man was? Was he the man I ought to have met? Or had that man been +there, witnessed the murder, and gone away, frightened to stop where the +murder had been done? Or--yet again--was this some man who had come upon +Mr. Gilverthwaite's correspondent, and, for some reason, been murdered +by him? It was, however, all beyond me just then, and presently the +sergeant and I were on our machines and making for Berwick. But we had +not been set out half an hour, and were only just where we could see +the town's lights before us in the night, when two folk came riding +bicycles through the mist that lay thick in a dip of the road, and, +calling to me, let me know that they were Maisie Dunlop and her brother +Tom that she had made to come with her, and in another minute Maisie and +I were whispering together. + +"It's all right now that I know you're safe, Hugh," she said +breathlessly. "But you must get back with me quickly. Yon lodger of yours +is dead, and your mother in a fine way, wondering where you are!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BRASS-BOUND CHEST + + +The police-sergeant had got off his bicycle at the same time that I +jumped from mine, and he was close behind me when Maisie and I met, and I +heard him give a sharp whistle at her news. And as for me, I was +dumbfounded, for though I had seen well enough that Mr. Gilverthwaite was +very ill when I left him, I was certainly a long way from thinking him +like to die. Indeed, I was so astonished that all I could do was to stand +staring at Maisie in the grey light which was just coming between the +midnight and the morning. But the sergeant found his tongue more readily. + +"I suppose he died in his bed, miss?" he asked softly. "Mr. Hugh here +said he was ill; it would be a turn for the worse, no doubt, after Mr. +Hugh left him?" + +"He died suddenly just after eleven o'clock," answered Maisie; "and your +mother sought you at Mr. Lindsey's office, Hugh, and when she found you +weren't there, she came down to our house, and I had to tell her that +you'd come out this way on an errand for Mr. Gilverthwaite. And I told +her, too, what I wasn't so sure of myself, that there'd no harm come to +you of it, and that you'd be back soon after twelve, and I went down to +your house and waited with her; and when you didn't come, and didn't +come, why, I got Tom here to get our bicycles out and we came to seek +you. And let's be getting back, for your mother's anxious about you, and +the man's death has upset her--he went all at once, she said, while she +was with him." + +We all got on our bicycles again and set off homewards, and Chisholm +wheeled alongside me and we dropped behind a little. + +"This is a strange affair," said he, in a low voice; "and it's like to be +made stranger by this man's sudden death. I'd been looking to him to get +news of this other man. What do you know of Mr. Gilverthwaite, now?" + +"Nothing!" said I. + +"But he's lodged with you seven weeks?" said he. + +"If you'd known him, sergeant," I answered, "you'd know that he was this +sort of man--you'd know no more of him at the end of seven months than +you would at the end of seven weeks, and no more at the end of seven +years than at the end of seven months. We knew nothing, my mother and I, +except that he was a decent, well-spoken man, free with his money and +having plenty of it, and that his name was what he called it, and that he +said he'd been a master mariner. But who he was, or where he came from, I +know no more than you do." + +"Well, he'll have papers, letters, something or other that'll throw some +light on matters, no doubt?" he suggested. "Can you say as to that?" + +"I can tell you that he's got a chest in his chamber that's nigh as heavy +as if it were made of solid lead," I answered. "And doubtless he'll have +a key on him or about him that'll unlock it. But what might be in it, I +can't say, never having seen him open it at any time." + +"Well," he said, "I'll have to bring the superintendent down, and we must +trouble your mother to let us take a look at this Mr. Gilverthwaite's +effects. Had he a doctor to him since he was taken ill?" + +"Dr. Watson--this--I mean yesterday--afternoon," I answered. + +"Then there'll be no inquest in his case," said the sergeant, "for the +doctor'll be able to certify. But there'll be a searching inquiry in this +murder affair, and as Gilverthwaite sent you to meet the man that's been +murdered--" + +"Wait a bit!" said I. "You don't know, and I don't, that the man who's +been murdered is the man I was sent to meet. The man I was to meet may +have been the murderer; you don't know who the murdered man is. So you'd +better put it this way: since Gilverthwaite sent me to meet some man at +the place where this murder's been committed--well?" + +"That'll be one of your lawyer's quibbles," said he calmly. "My meaning's +plain enough--we'll want to find out, if we can, who it was that +Gilverthwaite sent you to meet. And--for what reason? And--where it was +that the man was to wait for him? And I'll get the superintendent to +come down presently." + +"Make it in, say, half an hour," said I. "This is a queer business +altogether, sergeant, and I'm so much in it that I'm not going to do +things on my own responsibility. I'll call Mr. Lindsey up from his bed, +and get him to come down to talk over what's to be done." + +"Aye, you're in the right of it there," he said. "Mr. Lindsey'll know all +the law on such matters. Half an hour or so, then." + +He made off to the county police-station, and Maisie and Tom and I went +on to our house, and were presently inside. My mother was so relieved at +the sight of me that she forbore to scold me at that time for going off +on such an errand without telling her of my business; but she grew white +as her cap when I told her of what I had chanced on, and she glanced at +the stair and shook her head. + +"And indeed I wish that poor man had never come here, if it's this sort +of dreadfulness follows him!" she said. "And though I was slow to say +it, Hugh, I always had a feeling of mystery about him. However, he's +gone now--and died that suddenly and quietly!--and we've laid him out in +his bed; and--and--what's to be done now?" she exclaimed. "We don't know +who he is!" + +"Don't trouble yourself, mother," said I. "You've done your duty by him. +And now that you've seen I'm safe, I'm away to bring Mr. Lindsey down and +he'll tell us all that should be done." + +I left Maisie and Tom Dunlop keeping my mother company and made haste to +Mr. Lindsey's house, and after a little trouble roused him out of his bed +and got him down to me. It was nearly daylight by that time, and the grey +morning was breaking over the sea and the river as he and I walked back +through the empty streets--I telling him of all the events of the night, +and he listening with an occasional word of surprise. He was not a native +of our parts, but a Yorkshireman that had bought a practice in the town +some years before, and had gained a great character for shrewdness and +ability, and I knew that he was the very man to turn to in an affair of +this sort. + +"There's a lot more in this than's on the surface, Hugh, my lad," he +remarked when I had made an end of my tale. "And it'll be a nice job +to find out all the meaning of it, and if the man that's been murdered +was the man Gilverthwaite sent you to meet, or if he's some other that +got there before you, and was got rid of for some extraordinary reason +that we know nothing about. But one thing's certain: we've got to get +some light on your late lodger. That's step number one--and a most +important one." + +The superintendent of police, Mr. Murray, a big, bustling man, was +outside our house with Chisholm when we got there, and after a word or +two between us, we went in, and were presently upstairs in +Gilverthwaite's room. He lay there in his bed, the sheet drawn about him +and a napkin over his face; and though the police took a look at him, I +kept away, being too much upset by the doings of the night to stand any +more just then. What I was anxious about was to get some inkling of what +all this meant, and I waited impatiently to see what Mr. Lindsey would +do. He was looking about the room, and when the others turned away from +the dead man he pointed to Gilverthwaite's clothes, that were laid tidily +folded on a chair. + +"The first thing to do is to search for his papers and his keys," he +said. "Go carefully through his pockets, sergeant, and let's see what +there is." + +But there was as little in the way of papers there, as there had been in +the case of the murdered man. There were no letters. There was a map of +the district, and under the names of several of the villages and places +on either side of the Tweed, between Berwick and Kelso, heavy marks in +blue pencil had been made. I, who knew something of Gilverthwaite's +habits, took it that these were the places he had visited during his +seven weeks' stay with us. And folded in the map were scraps of newspaper +cuttings, every one of them about some antiquity or other in the +neighbourhood, as if such things had an interest for him. And in another +pocket was a guide-book, much thumbed, and between two of the leaves, +slipped as if to mark a place, was a registered envelope. + +"That'll be what he got yesterday afternoon!" I exclaimed. "I'm certain +it was whatever there was in it that made him send me out last night, and +maybe the letter in it'll tell us something." + +However, there was no letter in the envelope--there was nothing. But on +the envelope itself was a postmark, at which Chisholm instantly pointed. + +"Peebles!" said he. "Yon man that you found murdered--his half-ticket's +for Peebles. There's something of a clue, anyway." + +They went on searching the clothing, only to find money--plenty of it, +notes in an old pocket-book, and gold in a wash-leather bag--and the +man's watch and chain, and his pocket-knife and the like, and a bunch of +keys. And with the keys in his hand Mr. Lindsey turned to the chest. + +"If we're going to find anything that'll throw any light on the question +of this man's identity, it'll be in this box," he said. "I'll take the +responsibility of opening it, in Mrs. Moneylaws' interest, anyway. Lift +it on to that table, and let's see if one of these keys'll fit the lock." + +There was no difficulty about finding the key--there were but a few on +the bunch, and he hit on the right one straightaway, and we all crowded +round him as he threw back the heavy lid. There was a curious aromatic +smell came from within, a sort of mingling of cedar and camphor and +spices--a smell that made you think of foreign parts and queer, far-off +places. And it was indeed a strange collection of things and objects that +Mr. Lindsey took out of the chest and set down on the table. There was an +old cigar-box, tied about with twine, full to the brim with money--over +two thousand pounds in bank-notes and gold, as we found on counting it up +later on,--and there were others filled with cigars, and yet others in +which the man had packed all manner of curiosities such as three of us at +any rate had never seen in our lives before. But Mr. Lindsey, who was +something of a curiosity collector himself, nodded his head at the sight +of some of them. + +"Wherever else this man may have been in his roving life," he said, +"here's one thing certain--he's spent a lot of time in Mexico and Central +America. And--what was the name he told you to use as a password once you +met his man, Hugh--wasn't it Panama?" + +"Panama!" I answered. "Just that--Panama." + +"Well, and he's picked up lots of these things in those parts--Panama, +Nicaragua, Mexico," he said. "And very interesting matters they are. +But--you see, superintendent?--there's not a paper nor anything in this +chest to tell us who this man is, nor where he came from when he came +here, nor where his relations are to be found, if he has any. There's +literally nothing whatever of that sort." + +The police officials nodded in silence. + +"And so--there's where things are," concluded Mr. Lindsey. "You've +two dead men on your hands, and you know nothing whatever about +either of them!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MR. JOHN PHILLIPS + + +He began to put back the various boxes and parcels into the chest as he +spoke, and we all looked at each other as men might look who, taking a +way unknown to them, come up against a blank wall. But Chisholm, who was +a sharp fellow, with a good headpiece on him, suddenly spoke. + +"There's the fact that the murdered man sent that letter from Peebles," +said he, "and that he himself appears to have travelled from Peebles but +yesterday. We might be hearing something of him at Peebles, and from what +we might hear, there or elsewhere, we might get some connection between +the two of them." + +"You're right in all that, sergeant," said Mr. Lindsey, "and it's to +Peebles some of you'll have to go. For the thing's plain--that man has +been murdered by somebody, and the first way to get at the somebody is to +find out who the murdered man is, and why he came into these parts. As +for him," he continued, pointing significantly to the bed, "his +secret--whatever it is--has gone with him. And our question now is, Can +we get at it in any other way?" + +We had more talk downstairs, and it was settled that Chisholm and I +should go on to Peebles by the first train that morning, find out what +we could there, and work back to the Cornhill station, where, according +to the half-ticket which had been found on him, the murdered man +appeared to have come on the evening of his death. Meanwhile, Murray +would have the scene of the murder thoroughly and strictly searched--the +daylight might reveal things which we had not been able to discover by +the light of the lamps. + +"And there's another thing you can do," suggested Lindsey. "That scrap of +a bill-head with a name and address in Dundee on it, that you found on +him, you might wire there and see if anything is known of the man. Any +bit of information you can get in that way--" + +"You're forgetting, Mr. Lindsey, that we don't know any name by which we +can call the man," objected Chisholm. "We'll have to find a name for him +before we can wire to Dundee or anywhere else. But if we can trace a name +to him in Peebles--" + +"Aye, that'll be the way of it," said Murray. "Let's be getting all the +information we can during the day, and I'll settle with the coroner's +officer for the inquest at yon inn where you've taken him--it can't be +held before tomorrow morning. Mr. Lindsey," he went on, "what are you +going to do as regards this man that's lying dead upstairs? Mrs. +Moneylaws says the doctor had been twice with him, and'll be able to give +a certificate, so there'll be no inquest about him; but what's to be done +about his friends and relations? It's likely there'll be somebody, +somewhere. And--all that money on him and in his chest?" + +Mr. Lindsey shook his head and smiled. + +"If you think all this'll be done in hole-and-corner fashion, +superintendent," he said, "you're not the wise man I take you for. Lord +bless you, man, the news'll be all over the country within forty-eight +hours! If this Gilverthwaite has folk of his own, they'll be here fast as +crows hurry to a new-sown field! Let the news of it once out, and you'll +wish that such men as newspaper reporters had never been born. You can't +keep these things quiet; and if we're going to get to the bottom of all +this, then publicity's the very thing that's needed." + +All this was said in the presence of my mother, who, being by nature as +quiet a body as ever lived, was by no means pleased to know that her +house was, as it were, to be made a centre of attraction. And when Mr. +Lindsey and the police had gone away, and she began getting some +breakfast ready for me before my going to meet Chisholm at the station, +she set on to bewail our misfortune in ever taking Gilverthwaite into the +house, and so getting mixed up with such awful things as murder. She +should have had references with the man, she said, before taking him in, +and so have known who she was dealing with. And nothing that either I or +Maisie--who was still there, staying to be of help, Tom Dunlop having +gone home to tell his father the great news--could say would drive out of +her head the idea that Gilverthwaite, somehow or other, had something to +do with the killing of the strange man. And, womanlike, and not being +over-amenable to reason, she saw no cause for a great fuss about the +affair in her own house, at any rate. The man was dead, she said, and let +them get him put decently away, and hold his money till somebody came +forward to claim it--all quietly and without the pieces in the paper that +Mr. Lindsey talked about. + +"And how are we to let people know anything about him if there isn't news +in the papers?" I asked. "It's only that way that we can let his +relatives know he's dead, mother. You're forgetting that we don't even +know where the man's from!" + +"Maybe I've a better idea of where he was from, when he came here, than +any lawyer-folk or police-folk either, my man!" she retorted, giving me +and Maisie a sharp look. "I've eyes in my head, anyway, and it doesn't +take me long to see a thing that's put plain before them." + +"Well?" said I, seeing quick enough that she'd some notion in her mind. +"You've found something out?" + +Without answering the question in words she went out of the kitchen and +up the stairs, and presently came back to us, carrying in one hand a +man's collar and in the other Gilverthwaite's blue serge jacket. And she +turned the inside of the collar to us, pointing her finger to some words +stamped in black on the linen. + +"Take heed of that!" she said. "He'd a dozen of those collars, +brand-new, when he came, and this, you see, is where he bought them; and +where he bought them, there, too, he bought his ready-made suit of +clothes--that was brand-new as well,--here's the name on a tab inside the +coat: Brown Brothers, Gentlemen's Outfitters, Exchange Street, Liverpool. +What does all that prove but that it was from Liverpool he came?" + +"Aye!" I said. "And it proves, too, that he was wanting an outfit when he +came to Liverpool from--where? A long way further afield, I'm thinking! +But it's something to know as much as that, and you've no doubt hit on a +clue that might be useful, mother. And if we can find out that the other +man came from Liverpool, too, why then--" + +But I stopped short there, having a sudden vision of a very wide world of +which Liverpool was but an outlet. Where had Gilverthwaite last come from +when he struck Liverpool, and set himself up with new clothes and linen? +And had this mysterious man who had met such a terrible fate come also +from some far-off part, to join him in whatever it was that had brought +Gilverthwaite to Berwick? And--a far more important thing,--mysterious as +these two men were, what about the equally mysterious man that was +somewhere in the background--the murderer? + +Chisholm and I had no great difficulty--indeed, we had nothing that you +might call a difficulty--in finding out something about the murdered man +at Peebles. We had the half-ticket with us, and we soon got hold of the +booking-clerk who had issued it on the previous afternoon. He remembered +the looks of the man to whom he had sold it, and described him to us well +enough. Moreover, he found us a ticket-collector who remembered that same +man arriving in Peebles two days before, and giving up a ticket from +Glasgow. He had a reason for remembering him, for the man had asked him +to recommend him to a good hotel, and had given him a two-shilling piece +for his trouble. So far, then, we had plain sailing, and it continued +plain and easy during the short time we stayed in Peebles. And it came to +this: the man we were asking about came to the town early in the +afternoon of the day before the murder; he put himself up at the best +hotel in the place; he was in and out of it all the afternoon and +evening; he stayed there until the middle of the afternoon of the next +day, when he paid his bill and left. And there was the name he had +written in the register book--Mr. John Phillips, Glasgow. + +Chisholm drew me out of the hotel where we had heard all this and pulled +the scrap of bill-head from his pocket-book. + +"Now that we've got the name to go on," said he, "we'll send a wire to +this address in Dundee asking if anything's known there of Mr. John +Phillips. And we'll have the reply sent to Berwick--it'll be waiting us +when we get back this morning." + +The name and address in Dundee was of one Gavin Smeaton, Agent, 131A Bank +Street. And the question which Chisholm sent him over the wire was plain +and direct enough: Could he give the Berwick police any information about +a man named John Phillips, found dead, on whose body Mr. Smeaton's name +and address had been discovered? + +"We may get something out of that," said Chisholm, as we left the +post-office, "and we may get nothing. And now that we do know that this +man left here for Coldstream, let's get back there, and go on with our +tracing of his movements last night." + +But when we had got back to our own district we were quickly at a dead +loss. The folk at Cornhill station remembered the man well enough. He had +arrived there about half-past eight the previous evening. He had been +seen to go down the road to the bridge which leads over the Tweed to +Coldstream. We could not find out that he had asked the way of +anybody--he appeared to have just walked that way as if he were well +acquainted with the place. But we got news of him at an inn just across +the bridge. Such a man--a gentleman, the inn folk called him--had walked +in there, asked for a glass of whisky, lingered for a few minutes while +he drank it, and had gone out again. And from that point we lost all +trace of him. We were now, of course, within a few miles of the place +where the man had been murdered, and the people on both sides of the +river were all in a high state of excitement about it; but we could learn +nothing more. From the moment of the man's leaving the inn on the +Coldstream side of the bridge, nobody seemed to have seen him until I +myself found his body. + +There was another back-set for us when we reached Berwick--in the reply +from Dundee. It was brief and decisive enough. "Have no knowledge +whatever of any person named John Phillips--Gavin Smeaton." So, for the +moment, there was nothing to be gained from that quarter. + +Mr. Lindsey and I were at the inn where the body had been taken, and +where the inquest was to be held, early next morning, in company with +the police, and amidst a crowd that had gathered from all parts of +the country. As we hung about, waiting the coroner's arrival, a +gentleman rode up on a fine bay horse--a good-looking elderly man, +whose coming attracted much attention. He dismounted and came towards +the inn door, and as he drew the glove off his right hand I saw that +the first and second fingers of that hand were missing. Here, without +doubt, was the man whom I had seen at the cross-roads just before my +discovery of the murder! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE INQUEST ON JOHN PHILLIPS + + +Several of the notabilities of the neighbourhood had ridden or driven to +the inn, attracted, of course, by curiosity, and the man with the maimed +hand immediately joined them as they stood talking apart from the rest of +us. Now, I knew all such people of our parts well enough by sight, but I +did not know this man, who certainly belonged to their class, and I +turned to Mr. Lindsey, asking him who was this gentleman that had just +ridden up. He glanced at me with evident surprise at my question. + +"What?" said he. "You don't know him? That's the man there's been so much +talk about lately--Sir Gilbert Carstairs of Hathercleugh House, the new +successor to the old baronetcy." + +I knew at once what he meant. Between Norham and Berwick, overlooking the +Tweed, and on the English side of the river, stood an ancient, +picturesque, romantic old place, half-mansion, half-castle, set in its +own grounds, and shut off from the rest of the world by high walls and +groves of pine and fir, which had belonged for many a generation to the +old family of Carstairs. Its last proprietor, Sir Alexander Carstairs, +sixth baronet, had been a good deal of a recluse, and I never remember +seeing him but once, when I caught sight of him driving in the town--a +very, very old man who looked like what he really was, a hermit. He had +been a widower for many long years, and though he had three children, it +was little company that he seemed to have ever got out of them, for his +elder son, Mr. Michael Carstairs, had long since gone away to foreign +parts, and had died there; his younger son, Mr. Gilbert, was, it was +understood, a doctor in London, and never came near the old place; and +his one daughter, Mrs. Ralston, though she lived within ten miles of her +father, was not on good terms with him. It was said that the old +gentleman was queer and eccentric, and hard to please or manage; however +that may be, it is certain that he lived a lonely life till he was well +over eighty years of age. And he had died suddenly, not so very long +before James Gilverthwaite came to lodge with us; and Mr. Michael being +dead, unmarried, and therefore without family, the title and estate had +passed to Mr. Gilbert, who had recently come down to Hathercleugh House +and taken possession, bringing with him--though he himself was getting on +in years, being certainly over fifty--a beautiful young wife whom, they +said, he had recently married, and was, according to various accounts +which had crept out, a very wealthy woman in her own right. + +So here was Sir Gilbert Carstairs, seventh baronet, before me, chatting +away to some of the other gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and there was +not a doubt in my mind that he was the man whom I had seen on the road +the night of the murder. I was close enough to him now to look more +particularly at his hand, and I saw that the two first fingers had +completely disappeared, and that the rest of it was no more than a claw. +It was not likely there could be two men in our neighbourhood thus +disfigured. Moreover, the general build of the man, the tweed suit of +grey that he was wearing, the attitude in which he stood, all convinced +me that this was the person I had seen at the cross-roads, holding his +electric torch to the face of his map. And I made up my mind there and +then to say nothing in my evidence about that meeting, for I had no +reason to connect such a great gentleman as Sir Gilbert Carstairs with +the murder, and it seemed to me that his presence at those cross-roads +was easily enough explained. He was a big, athletic man and was likely +fond of a walk, and had been taking one that evening, and, not as yet +being over-familiar with the neighbourhood--having lived so long away +from it,--had got somewhat out of his way in returning home. No, I would +say nothing. I had been brought up to have a firm belief in the old +proverb which tells you that the least said is soonest mended. We were +all packed pretty tightly in the big room of the inn when the coroner +opened his inquiry. And at the very onset of the proceedings he made a +remark which was expected by all of us that knew how these things are +done and are likely to go. We could not do much that day; there would +have to be an adjournment, after taking what he might call the surface +evidence. He understood, he remarked, with a significant glance at the +police officials and at one or two solicitors that were there, that there +was some extraordinary mystery at the back of this matter, and that a +good many things would have to be brought to light before the jury could +get even an idea as to who it was that had killed the man whose body had +been found, and as to the reason for his murder. And all they could do +that day, he went on, was to hear such evidence--not much--as had already +been collected, and then to adjourn. + +Mr. Lindsey had said to me as we drove along to the inn that I should +find myself the principal witness, and that Gilverthwaite would come into +the matter more prominently than anybody fancied. And this, of course, +was soon made evident. What there was to tell of the dead man, up to that +time, was little. There was the medical evidence that he had been stabbed +to death by a blow from a very formidable knife or dagger, which had been +driven into his heart from behind. There was the evidence which Chisholm +and I had collected in Peebles and at Cornhill station, and at the inn +across the Coldstream Bridge. There was the telegram which had been sent +by Mr. Gavin Smeaton--whoever he might be--from Dundee. And that was +about all, and it came to this: that here was a man who, in registering +at a Peebles hotel, called himself John Phillips and wrote down that he +came from Glasgow, where, up to that moment, the police had failed to +trace anything relating to such a person; and this man had travelled to +Cornhill station from Peebles, been seen in an adjacent inn, had then +disappeared, and had been found, about two hours later, murdered in a +lonely place. + +"And the question comes to this," observed the coroner, "what was this +man doing at that place, and who was he likely to meet there? We have +some evidence on that point, and," he added, with one shrewd glance at +the legal folk in front of him and another at the jurymen at his side, +"I think you'll find, gentlemen of the jury, that it's just enough to +whet your appetite for more." + +They had kept my evidence to the last, and if there had been a good deal +of suppressed excitement in the crowded room while Chisholm and the +doctor and the landlord of the inn on the other side of Coldstream Bridge +gave their testimonies, there was much more when I got up to tell my +tale, and to answer any questions that anybody liked to put to me. Mine, +of course, was a straight enough story, told in a few sentences, and I +did not see what great amount of questioning could arise out of it. But +whether it was that he fancied I was keeping something back, or that he +wanted, even at that initial stage of the proceedings, to make matters as +plain as possible, a solicitor that was representing the county police +began to ask me questions. + +"There was no one else with you in the room when this man Gilverthwaite +gave you his orders?" he asked. + +"No one," I answered. + +"And you've told me everything that he said to you?" + +"As near as I can recollect it, every word." + +"He didn't describe the man you were to meet?" + +"He didn't--in any way." + +"Nor tell you his name?" + +"Nor tell me his name." + +"So that you'd no idea whatever as to who it was that you were to meet, +nor for what purpose he was coming to meet Gilverthwaite, if +Gilverthwaite had been able to meet him?" + +"I'd no idea," said I. "I knew nothing but that I was to meet a man and +give him a message." + +He seemed to consider matters a little, keeping silence, and then he went +off on another tack. + +"What do you know of the movements of this man Gilverthwaite while he was +lodging with your mother?" he asked. + +"Next to nothing," I replied. + +"But how much?" he inquired. "You'd know something." + +"Of my own knowledge, next to nothing," I repeated. "I've seen him in the +streets, and on the pier, and taking his walks on the walls and over the +Border Bridge; and I've heard him say that he'd been out in the country. +And that's all." + +"Was he always alone?" he asked. + +"I never saw him with anybody, never heard of his talking to anybody, nor +of his going to see a soul in the place," I answered; "and first and +last, he never brought any one into our house, nor had anybody asked at +the door for him." + +"And with the exception of that registered letter we've heard of, he +never had a letter delivered to him all the time he lodged with +you?" he said. + +"Not one," said I. "From first to last, not one." + +He was silent again for a time, and all the folk staring at him and me; +and for the life of me I could not think what other questions he could +get out of his brain to throw at me. But he found one, and put it with a +sharp cast of his eye. + +"Now, did this man ever give you, while he was in your house, any reason +at all for his coming to Berwick?" he asked. + +"Yes," I answered; "he did that when he came asking for lodgings. He said +he had folk of his own buried in the neighbourhood, and he was minded to +take a look at their graves and at the old places where they'd lived." + +"Giving you, in fact, an impression that he was either a native of +these parts, or had lived here at some time, or had kindred that +had?" he asked. + +"Just that," I replied. + +"Did he tell you the names of such folk, or where they were buried, or +anything of that sort?" he suggested. + +"No--never," said I. "He never mentioned the matter again." + +"And you don't know that he ever went to any particular place to look at +any particular grave or house?" he inquired. + +"No," I replied; "but we knew that he took his walks into the country on +both sides Tweed." + +He hesitated a bit, looked at me and back at his papers, and then, with a +glance at the coroner, sat down. And the coroner, nodding at him as if +there was some understanding between them, turned to the jury. + +"It may seem without the scope of this inquiry, gentlemen," he said, +"but the presence of this man Gilverthwaite in the neighbourhood has +evidently so much to do with the death of the other man, whom we know as +John Phillips, that we must not neglect any pertinent evidence. There is +a gentleman present that can tell us something. Call the Reverend +Septimus Ridley." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PARISH REGISTERS + + +I had noticed the Reverend Mr. Ridley sitting in the room with some other +gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and had wondered what had brought him, a +clergyman, there. I knew him well enough by sight. He was a vicar of a +lonely parish away up in the hills--a tall, thin, student-looking man +that you might occasionally see in the Berwick streets, walking very fast +with his eyes on the ground, as if, as the youngsters say, he was seeking +sixpences; and I should not have thought him likely to be attracted to an +affair of that sort by mere curiosity. And, whatever he might be in his +pulpit, he looked very nervous and shy as he stood up between the coroner +and the jury to give his evidence. + +"Whatever are we going to hear now?" whispered Mr. Lindsey in my ear. +"Didn't I tell you there'd be revelations about Gilverthwaite, Hugh, my +lad? Well, there's something coming out! But what can this parson know?" + +As it soon appeared, Mr. Ridley knew a good deal. After a bit of +preliminary questioning, making things right in the proper legal fashion +as to who he was, and so on, the coroner put a plain inquiry to him. "Mr. +Ridley, you have had some recent dealings with this man James +Gilverthwaite, who has just been mentioned in connection with this +inquiry?" he asked. + +"Some dealings recently--yes," answered the clergyman. + +"Just tell us, in your own way, what they were," said the coroner. "And, +of course, when they took place." + +"Gilverthwaite," said Mr. Ridley, "came to me, at my vicarage, about a +month or five weeks ago. I had previously seen him about the church and +churchyard. He told me he was interested in parish registers, and in +antiquities generally, and asked if he could see our registers, offering +to pay whatever fee was charged. I allowed him to look at the registers, +but I soon discovered that his interest was confined to a particular +period. The fact was, he wished to examine the various entries made +between 1870 and 1880. That became very plain; but as he did not express +his wish in so many words, I humoured him. Still, as I was with him +during the whole of the time he was looking at the books, I saw what it +was that he examined." + +Here Mr. Ridley paused, glancing at the coroner. + +"That is really about all that I can tell," he said. "He only came to me +on that one occasion." + +"Perhaps I can get a little more out of you, Mr. Ridley," remarked the +coroner with a smile. "A question or two, now. What particular registers +did this man examine? Births, deaths, marriages--which?" + +"All three, between the dates I have mentioned--1870 to 1880," replied +Mr. Ridley. + +"Did you think that he was searching for some particular entry?" + +"I certainly did think so." + +"Did he seem to find it?" asked the coroner, with a shrewd glance. + +"If he did find such an entry," replied Mr. Ridley slowly, "he gave no +sign of it; he did not copy or make a note of it, and he did not ask any +copy of it from me. My impression--whatever it is worth--is that he did +not find what he wanted in our registers. I am all the more convinced of +that because--" + +Here Mr. Ridley paused, as if uncertain whether to proceed or not; but at +an encouraging nod from the coroner he went on. + +"I was merely going to say--and I don't suppose it is evidence--" he +added, "that I understand this man visited several of my brother +clergymen in the neighbourhood on the same errand. It was talked of at +the last meeting of our rural deanery." + +"Ah!" remarked the coroner significantly. "He appears, then, to have been +going round examining the parish registers--we must get more evidence of +that later, for I'm convinced it has a bearing on the subject of this +present inquiry. But a question or two more, Mr. Ridley. There are +stipulated fees for searching the registers, I believe. Did Gilverthwaite +pay them in your case?" + +Mr. Ridley smiled. + +"He not only paid the fees," he answered, "but he forced me to accept +something for the poor box. He struck me as being a man who was inclined +to be free with his money." + +The coroner looked at the solicitor who was representing the police. + +"I don't know if you want to ask this witness any questions?" he +inquired. + +"Yes," said the solicitor. He turned to Mr. Ridley. "You heard what the +witness Hugh Moneylaws said?--that Gilverthwaite mentioned on his coming +to Berwick that he had kinsfolk buried in the neighbourhood? You did? +Well, Mr. Ridley, do you know if there are people of that name buried in +your churchyard?" + +"There are not," replied Mr. Ridley promptly. "What is more, the name +Gilverthwaite does not occur in our parish registers. I have a complete +index of the registers from 1580, when they began to be kept, and there +is no such name in it. I can also tell you this," he added, "I am, I +think I may say, something of an authority on the parish registers of +this district--I have prepared and edited several of them for +publication, and I am familiar with most of them. I do not think that +name, Gilverthwaite, occurs in any of them." + +"What do you deduce from that, now?" asked the solicitor. + +"That whatever it was that the man was searching for--and I am sure he +was searching--it was not for particulars of his father's family," +answered Mr. Ridley. "That is, of course, if his name really was what he +gave it out to be--Gilverthwaite." + +"Precisely!" said the coroner. "It may have been an assumed name." + +"The man may have been searching for particulars of his mother's family," +remarked the solicitor. + +"That line of thought would carry us too far afield just now," said the +coroner. He turned to the jury. "I've allowed this evidence about the man +Gilverthwaite, gentlemen," he said, "because it's very evident that +Gilverthwaite came to this neighbourhood for some special purpose and +wanted to get some particular information; and it's more than probable +that the man into the circumstances of whose death we're inquiring was +concerned with him in his purpose. But we cannot go any further today," +he concluded, "and I shall adjourn the inquiry for a fortnight, when, no +doubt, there'll be more evidence to put before you." + +I think that the folk who had crowded into that room, all agog to hear +whatever could be told, went out of it more puzzled than when they came +in. They split up into groups outside the inn, and began to discuss +matters amongst themselves. And presently two sharp-looking young +fellows, whom I had seen taking notes at the end of the big table +whereat the coroner and the officials sat, came up to me, and telling me +that they were reporters, specially sent over, one from Edinburgh, the +other from Newcastle, begged me to give them a faithful and detailed +account of my doings and experiences on the night of the murder--there +was already vast interest in this affair all over the country, they +affirmed, and whatever I could or would tell them would make splendid +reading and be printed in big type in their journals. But Mr. Lindsey, +who was close by, seized my arm and steered me away from these +persistent seekers after copy. + +"Not just now, my lads!" said he good-humouredly. "You've got plenty +enough to go on with--you've heard plenty in there this morning to keep +your readers going for a bit. Not a word, Hugh! And as for you, +gentlemen, if you want to do something towards clearing up this mystery, +and assisting justice, there's something you can do--and nobody can do +it better." + +"What's that?" asked one of them eagerly. + +"Ask through your columns for the relations, friends, acquaintances, +anybody who knows them or aught about them, of these two men, James +Gilverthwaite and John Phillips," replied Mr. Lindsey. "Noise it abroad +as much as you like and can! If they've folk belonging to them, let them +come forward. For," he went on, giving them a knowing look, "there's a +bigger mystery in this affair than any one of us has any conception of, +and the more we can find out the sooner it'll be solved. And I'll say +this to you young fellows: the press can do more than the police. There's +a hint for you!" + +Then he led me off, and we got into the trap in which he and I had driven +out from Berwick, and as soon as we had started homeward he fell into a +brown study and continued in it until we were in sight of the town. + +"Hugh, my lad!" he suddenly exclaimed, at last starting out of his +reverie. "I'd give a good deal if I could see daylight in this affair! +I've had two-and-twenty years' experience of the law, and I've known some +queer matters, and some dark matters, and some ugly matters in my time; +but hang me if I ever knew one that promises to be as ugly and as dark +and as queer as this does--that's a fact!" + +"You're thinking it's all that, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked, knowing him as I +did to be an uncommonly sharp man. + +"I'm thinking there's more than meets the eye," he answered. "Bloody +murder we know there is--maybe there'll be more, or maybe there has been +more already. What was that deep old fish Gilverthwaite after? What took +place between Phillips's walking out of that inn at Coldstream Bridge and +your finding of his body? Who met Phillips? Who did him to his death? And +what were the two of 'em after in this corner of the country? Black +mystery, my lad, on all hands!" + +I made no answer just then. I was thinking, wondering if I should tell +him about my meeting with Sir Gilbert Carstairs at the cross-roads. Mr. +Lindsey was just the man you could and would tell anything to, and it +would maybe have been best if I had told him of that matter there and +then. But there's a curious run of caution and reserve in our family. I +got it from both father and mother, and deepened it on my own account, +and I could not bring myself to be incriminating and suspicioning a man +whose presence so near the place of the murder might be innocent enough. +So I held my tongue. + +"I wonder will all the stuff in the newspapers bring any one forward?" he +said, presently. "It ought to!--if there is anybody." + +Nothing, however, was heard by the police or by ourselves for the next +three or four days; and then--I think it was the fourth day after the +inquest--I looked up from my desk in Mr. Lindsey's outer office one +afternoon to see Maisie Dunlop coming in at the door, followed by an +elderly woman, poorly but respectably dressed, a stranger. + +"Hugh," said Maisie, coming up to my side, "your mother asked me to bring +this woman up to see Mr. Lindsey. She's just come in from the south, and +she says she's yon James Gilverthwaite's sister." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MARINE-STORE DEALER + + +Mr. Lindsey was standing just within his own room when Maisie and the +strange woman came into the office, and hearing what was said, he called +us all three to go into him. And, like myself, he looked at the woman +with a good deal of curiosity, wanting--as I did--to see some likeness to +the dead man. But there was no likeness to be seen, for whereas +Gilverthwaite was a big and stalwart fellow, this was a small and spare +woman, whose rusty black clothes made her look thinner and more meagre +than she really was. All the same, when she spoke I knew there was a +likeness between them, for her speech was like his, different altogether +from ours of the Border. + +"So you believe you're the sister of this man James Gilverthwaite, +ma'am?" began Mr. Lindsey, motioning the visitor to sit down, and +beckoning Maisie to stop with us. "What might your name be, now?" + +"I believe this man that's talked about in the newspapers is my brother, +sir," answered the woman. "Else I shouldn't have taken the trouble to +come all this way. My name's Hanson--Mrs. Hanson. I come from Garston, +near Liverpool." + +"Aye--just so--a Lancashire woman," said Mr. Lindsey, nodding. "Your +name would be Gilverthwaite, then, before you were married?" + +"To be sure, sir--same as James's," she replied. "Him and me was the +only two there was. I've brought papers with me that'll prove what I +say. I went to a lawyer before ever I came, and he told me to come at +once, and to bring my marriage lines, and a copy of James's birth +certificate, and one or two other things of that sort. There's no doubt +that this man we've read about in the newspapers was my brother, and of +course I would like to put in my claim to what he's left--if he's left +it to nobody else." + +"Just so," agreed Mr. Lindsey. "Aye--and how long is it since you last +saw your brother, now?" + +The woman shook her head as if this question presented difficulties. + +"I couldn't rightly say to a year or two, no, not even to a few years," +she answered. "And to the best of my belief, sir, it'll be a good thirty +years, at the least. It was just after I was married to Hanson, and that +was when I was about three-and-twenty, and I was fifty-six last +birthday. James came--once--to see me and Hanson soon after we was +settled down, and I've never set eyes on him from that day to this. +But--I should know him now." + +"He was buried yesterday," remarked Mr. Lindsey. "It's a pity you didn't +telegraph to some of us." + +"The lawyer I went to, sir, said, 'Go yourself!'" replied Mrs. Hanson. +"So I set off--first thing this morning." + +"Let me have a look at those papers," said Mr. Lindsey. + +He motioned me to his side, and together we looked through two or three +documents which the woman produced. + +The most important was a certified copy of James Gilverthwaite's birth +certificate, which went to prove that this man had been born in Liverpool +about sixty-two years previously; that, as Mr. Lindsey was quick to point +out, fitted in with what Gilverthwaite had told my mother and myself +about his age. + +"Well," he said, turning to Mrs. Hanson, "you can answer some questions, +no doubt, about your brother, and about matters in relation to him. First +of all, do you know if any of your folks hailed from this part?" + +"Not that I ever heard of, sir," she replied. "No, I'm sure they +wouldn't. They were all Lancashire folks, on both sides. I know all about +them as far back as my great-grandfather's and great-grandmother's." + +"Do you know if your brother ever came to Berwick as a lad?" asked Mr. +Lindsey, with a glance at me. + +"He might ha' done that, sir," said Mrs. Hanson. "He was a great, +masterful, strong lad, and he'd run off to sea by the time he was ten +years old--there'd been no doing aught with him for a couple of years +before that. I knew that when he was about twelve or thirteen he was on a +coasting steamer that used to go in and out of Sunderland and Newcastle, +and he might have put in here." + +"To be sure," said Mr. Lindsey. "But what's more important is to get on +to his later history. You say you've never seen him for thirty years, or +more? But have you never heard of him?" + +She nodded her head with decision at that question. + +"Yes," she replied, "I have heard of him--just once. There was a man, a +neighbour of ours, came home from Central America, maybe five years ago, +and he told us he'd seen our James out there, and that he was working as +a sub-contractor, or something of that sort, on that Panama Canal there +was so much talk about in them days." + +Mr. Lindsey and I looked at each other. Panama!--that was the password +which James Gilverthwaite had given me. So--here, at any rate, was +something, however little, that had the makings of a clue in it. + +"Aye!" he said, "Panama, now? He was there? And that's the last you +ever heard?" + +"That's the very last we ever heard, sir," she answered. "Till, of +course, we saw these pieces in the papers this last day or two." + +Mr. Lindsey twisted round on her with a sharp look. + +"Do you know aught of that man, John Phillips, whose name's in the papers +too?" he asked. + +"No, sir, nothing!" she replied promptly. "Never heard tell of him!" + +"And you've never heard of your brother's having been seen in Liverpool +of late?" he went on. "Never heard that he called to see any old friends +at all? For we know, as you have seen in the papers, Mrs. Hanson, that he +was certainly in Liverpool, and bought clothes and linen there, within +this last three months." + +"He never came near me, sir," she said. "And I never heard word of his +being there from anybody." + +There was a bit of a silence then, and at last the woman put the question +which, it was evident, she was anxious to have answered definitely. + +"Do you think there's a will, mister?" she asked. "For, if not, the +lawyer I went to said what there was would come to me--and I could +do with it." + +"We've seen nothing of any will," answered Mr. Lindsey. "And I should say +there is none, and on satisfactory proof of your being next-of-kin, +you'll get all he left. I've no doubt you're his sister, and I'll take +the responsibility of going through his effects with you. You'll be +stopping in the town a day or two? Maybe your mother, Hugh, can find Mrs. +Hanson a lodging?" + +I answered that my mother would no doubt do what she could to look after +Mrs. Hanson; and presently the woman went away with Maisie, leaving her +papers with Mr. Lindsey. He turned to me when we were alone. + +"Some folks would think that was a bit of help to me in solving the +mystery, Hugh," said he; "but hang me if I don't think it makes the whole +thing more mysterious than ever! And do you know, my lad, where, in my +opinion, the very beginning of it may have to be sought for?" + +"I can't put a word to that, Mr. Lindsey," I answered. "Where, sir?" + +"Panama!" he exclaimed, with a jerk of his head. "Panama! just that! It +began a long way off--Panama, as far as I see it. And what did begin, and +what was going on? The two men that knew, and could have told, are dead +as door-nails--and both buried, for that matter." + +So, in spite of Mrs. Hanson's coming and her revelations as to some, at +any rate, of James Gilverthwaite's history, we were just as wise as ever +at the end of the first week after the murder of John Phillips. And it +was just the eighth night after my finding of the body that I got into +the hands of Abel Crone. + +Abel Crone was a man that had come to Berwick about three years before +this, from heaven only knows where, and had set himself up in business as +a marine-store dealer, in a back street which ran down to the shore of +the Tweed. He was a little red-haired, pale-eyed rat of a man, with +ferrety eyes and a goatee beard, quiet and peaceable in his ways and +inoffensive enough, but a rare hand at gossiping about the beach and the +walls--you might find him at all odd hours either in these public places +or in the door of his shop, talking away with any idler like himself. And +how I came to get into talk with him on that particular night was here: +Tom Dunlop, Maisie's young brother, was for keeping tame rabbits just +then, and I was helping him to build hutches for the beasts in his +father's back-yard, and we were wanting some bits of stuff, iron and wire +and the like, and knowing I would pick it up for a few pence at Crone's +shop, I went round there alone. Before I knew how it came about, Crone +was deep into the murder business. + +"They'll not have found much out by this time, yon police fellows, no +doubt, Mr. Moneylaws?" he said, eyeing me inquisitively in the light of +the one naphtha lamp that was spurting and jumping in his untidy shop. +"They're a slow unoriginal lot, the police--there's no imagination in +their brains and no ingenuity in their minds. What's wanted in an affair +like this is one of those geniuses you read about in the storybooks--the +men that can trace a murder from the way a man turns out his toes, or by +the fashion he's bitten into a bit of bread that he's left on his plate, +or the like of that--something more than by ordinary, you'll understand +me to mean, Mr. Moneylaws?" + +"Maybe you'll be for taking a hand in this game yourself, Mr. Crone?" +said I, thinking to joke with him. "You seem to have the right instinct +for it, anyway." + +"Aye, well," he answered, "and I might be doing as well as anybody else, +and no worse. You haven't thought of following anything up yourself, Mr. +Moneylaws, I suppose?" + +"Me!" I exclaimed. "What should I be following up, man? I know no more +than the mere surface facts of the affair." + +He gave a sharp glance at his open door when I thus answered him, and +the next instant he was close to me in the gloom and looking sharply +in my face. + +"Are you so sure of that, now?" he whispered cunningly. "Come now, I'll +put a question to yourself, Mr. Moneylaws. What for did you not let on in +your evidence that you saw Sir Gilbert Carstairs at yon cross-roads just +before you found the dead man? Come!" + +You could have knocked me down with a feather, as the saying is, when he +said that. And before I could recover from the surprise of it, he had a +hand on my arm. + +"Come this way," he said. "I'll have a word with you in private." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE OTHER WITNESS + + +It was with a thumping heart and nerves all a-tingle that I followed Abel +Crone out of his front shop into a sort of office that he had at the back +of it--a little, dirty hole of a place, in which there was a ramshackle +table, a chair or two, a stand-up desk, a cupboard, and a variety of odds +and ends that he had picked up in his trade. The man's sudden revelation +of knowledge had knocked all the confidence out of me. It had never +crossed my mind that any living soul had a notion of my secret--for +secret, of course, it was, and one that I would not have trusted to +Crone, of all men in the world, knowing him as I did to be such a one for +gossip. And he had let this challenge out on me so sharply, catching me +unawares that I was alone with him, and, as it were, at his mercy, before +I could pull my wits together. Everything in me was confused. I was +thinking several things all at a time. How did he come to know? Had I +been watched? Had some person followed me out of Berwick that night? Was +this part of the general mystery? And what was going to come of it, now +that Abel Crone was aware that I knew something which, up to then, I had +kept back? + +I stood helplessly staring at him as he turned up the wick of an oil +lamp that stood on a mantelpiece littered with a mess of small things, +and he caught a sight of my face when there was more light, and as he +shut the door on us he laughed--laughed as if he knew that he had me in a +trap. And before he spoke again he went over to the cupboard and took out +a bottle and glasses. + +"Will you taste?" he asked, leering at me. "A wee drop, now? It'll do +you good." + +"No!" said I. + +"Then I'll drink for the two of us," he responded, and poured out a +half-tumblerful of whisky, to which he added precious little water. +"Here's to you, my lad; and may you have grace to take advantage of +your chances!" + +He winked over the rim of his glass as he took a big pull at its +contents, and there was something so villainous in the look of him that +it did me good in the way of steeling my nerves again. For I now saw +that here was an uncommonly bad man to deal with, and that I had best be +on my guard. + +"Mr. Crone," said I, gazing straight at him, "what's this you have to +say to me?" + +"Sit you down," he answered, pointing at a chair that was shoved under +one side of the little table. "Pull that out and sit you down. What we +shall have to say to each other'll not be said in five minutes. Let's +confer in the proper and comfortable fashion." + +I did what he asked, and he took another chair himself and sat down +opposite me, propping his elbow on the table and leaning across it, so +that, the table being but narrow, his sharp eyes and questioning lips +were closer to mine than I cared for. And while he leaned forward in his +chair I sat back in mine, keeping as far from him as I could, and just +staring at him--perhaps as if I had been some trapped animal that +couldn't get itself away from the eyes of another that meant presently to +kill it. Once again I asked him what he wanted. + +"You didn't answer my question," he said. "I'll put it again, and you +needn't be afraid that anybody'll overhear us in this place, it's safe! I +say once more, what for did you not tell in your evidence at that inquest +that you saw Sir Gilbert Carstairs at the cross-roads on the night of the +murder! Um?" + +"That's my business!" said I + +"Just so," said he. "And I'll agree with you in that. It is your +business. But if by that you mean that it's yours alone, and nobody +else's, then I don't agree. Neither would the police." + +We stared at each other across the table for a minute of silence, and +then I put the question directly to him that I had been wanting to put +ever since he had first spoken. And I put it crudely enough. + +"How did you know?" I asked. + +He laughed at that--sneeringly, of course. + +"Aye, that's plain enough," said he. "No fencing about that! How did I +know? Because when you saw Sir Gilbert I wasn't five feet away from you, +and what you saw, I saw. I saw you both!" + +"You were there?" I exclaimed. + +"Snug behind the hedge in front of which you planted yourself," he +answered. "And if you want to know what I was doing there, I'll tell you. +I was doing--or had been doing--a bit of poaching. And, as I say, what +you saw, I saw!" + +"Then I'll ask you a question, Mr. Crone," I said. "Why haven't you told, +yourself?" + +"Aye!" he said. "You may well ask me that. But I wasn't called as a +witness at yon inquest." + +"You could have come forward," I suggested. + +"I didn't choose," he retorted. + +We both looked at each other again, and while we looked he swigged off +his drink and helped himself, just as generously, to more. And, as I was +getting bolder by that time, I set to work at questioning him. + +"You'll be attaching some importance to what you saw?" said I. + +"Well," he replied slowly, "it's not a pleasant thing--for a man's +safety--to be as near as what he was to a place where another man's just +been done to his death." + +"You and I were near enough, anyway," I remarked. + +"We know what we were there for," he flung back at me. "We don't know +what he was there for." + +"Put your tongue to it, Mr. Crone," I said boldly. "The fact is, you +suspicion him?" + +"I suspicion a good deal, maybe," he admitted. "After all, even a man of +that degree's only a man, when all's said and done, and there might be +reasons that you and me knows nothing about. Let me ask you a question," +he went on, edging nearer at me across the table. "Have you mentioned it +to a soul?" + +I made a mistake at that, but he was on me so sharp, and his manner was +so insistent, that I had the word out of my lips before I thought. + +"No!" I replied. "I haven't." + +"Nor me," he said. "Nor me. So--you and me are the only two folk +that know." + +"Well?" I asked. + +He took another pull at his liquor and for a moment or two sat silent, +tapping his finger-nails against the rim of the glass. + +"It's a queer business, Moneylaws," he said at last. "Look at it anyway +you like, it's a queer business! Here's one man, yon lodger of your +mother's, comes into the town and goes round the neighbourhood reading +the old parish registers and asking questions at the parson's--aye, +and he was at it both sides of the Tweed--I've found that much out +for myself! For what purpose? Is there money at the back of +it--property--something of that sort, dependent on this Gilverthwaite +unearthing some facts or other out of those old books? And then comes +another man, a stranger, that's as mysterious in his movements as +Gilverthwaite was, and he's to meet Gilverthwaite at a certain lonely +spot, and at a very strange hour, and Gilverthwaite can't go, and he gets +you to go, and you find the man--murdered! And--close by--you've seen +this other man, who, between you and me--though it's no secret--is as +much a stranger to the neighbourhood as ever Gilverthwaite was or +Phillips was!" + +"I don't follow you at that," I said. + +"No?" said he. "Then I'll make it plainer to you. Do you know that until +yon Sir Gilbert Carstairs came here, not so long since, to take up his +title and his house and the estate, he'd never set foot in the place, +never been near the place, this thirty year? Man! his own father, old +Sir Alec, and his own sister, Mrs. Ralston of Craig, had never clapped +eyes on him since he went away from Hathercleugh a youngster of +one-and-twenty!" + +"Do you tell me that, Mr. Crone?" I exclaimed, much surprised at his +words. "I didn't know so much. Where had he been, then?" + +"God knows!" said he. "And himself. It was said he was a doctor in +London, and in foreign parts. Him and his brother--elder brother, you're +aware, Mr. Michael--they both quarrelled with the old baronet when they +were little more than lads, and out they cleared, going their own ways. +And news of Michael's death, and the proofs of it, came home not so long +before old Sir Alec died, and as Michael had never married, of course the +younger brother succeeded when his father came to his end last winter. +And, as I say, who knows anything about his past doings when he was away +more than thirty years, nor what company he kept, nor what secrets he +has? Do you follow me?" + +"Aye, I'm following you, Mr. Crone," I answered. "It comes to this--you +suspect Sir Gilbert?" + +"What I say," he answered, "is this: he may have had something to do +with the affair. You cannot tell. But you and me knows he was near the +place--coming from its direction--at the time the murder would be in the +doing. And--there is nobody knows but you--and me!" + +"What are you going to do about it?" I asked. + +He had another period of reflection before he replied, and when he spoke +it was to the accompaniment of a warning look. + +"It's an ill-advised thing to talk about rich men," said he. "Yon man not +only has money of his own, in what you might call considerable quantity, +but his wife he brought with him is a woman of vast wealth, they tell me. +It would be no very wise action on your part to set rumours going, +Moneylaws, unless you could substantiate them." + +"What about yourself?" I asked. "You know as much as I do." + +"Aye, and there's one word that sums all up," said he. "And it's a short +one. Wait! There'll be more coming out. Keep your counsel a bit. And when +the moment comes, and if the moment comes--why, you know there's me +behind you to corroborate. And--that's all!" + +He got up then, with a nod, as if to show that the interview was over, +and I was that glad to get away from him that I walked off without +another word. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SIGNATURES TO THE WILL + + +I was so knocked out of the usual run of things by this conversation with +Crone that I went away forgetting the bits of stuff I had bought for Tom +Dunlop's rabbit-hutches and Tom himself, and, for that matter, Maisie as +well; and, instead of going back to Dunlop's, I turned down the +riverside, thinking. It was beyond me at that moment to get a clear +understanding of the new situation. I could not make out what Crone was +at. Clearly, he had strong suspicions that Sir Gilbert Carstairs had +something to do with, or some knowledge of, the murder of Phillips, and +he knew now that there were two of us to bear out each other's testimony +that Sir Gilbert was near the scene of the murder at the time it was +committed. Why, then, should he counsel waiting? Why should not the two +of us go to the police and tell what we knew? What was it that Crone +advised we should wait for? Was something going on, some inquiry being +made in the background of things, of which he knew and would not tell me? +And--this, I think, was what was chiefly in my thoughts--was Crone +playing some game of his own and designing to use me as a puppet in it? +For there was a general atmosphere of subtlety and slyness about the man +that forced itself upon me, young as I was; and the way he kept eyeing me +as we talked made me feel that I had to do with one that would be hard to +circumvent if it came to a matter of craftiness. And at last, after a lot +of thinking, as I walked about in the dusk, it struck me that Crone might +be for taking a hand in the game of which I had heard, but had never seen +played--blackmail. + +The more I thought over that idea, the more I felt certain of it. His +hints about Sir Gilbert's money and his wealthy wife, his advice to wait +until we knew more, all seemed to point to this--that evidence might +come out which would but require our joint testimony, Crone's and mine, +to make it complete. If that were so, then, of course, Crone or I, +or--as he probably designed--the two of us, would be in a position to go +to Sir Gilbert Carstairs and tell him what we knew, and ask him how much +he would give us to hold our tongues. I saw all the theory of it at +last, clear enough, and it was just what I would have expected of Abel +Crone, knowing him even as little as I did. Wait until we were sure--and +then strike! That was his game. And I was not going to have anything to +do with it. + +I went home to my bed resolved on that. I had heard of blackmailing, and +had a good notion of its wickedness--and of its danger--and I was not +taking shares with Crone in any venture of that sort. But there Crone +was, an actual, concrete fact that I had got to deal with, and to come to +some terms with, simply because he knew that I was in possession of +knowledge which, to be sure, I ought to have communicated to the police +at once. And I was awake much during the night, thinking matters over, +and by the time I rose in the morning I had come to a decision. I would +see Crone at once, and give him a sort of an ultimatum. Let him come, +there and then, with me to Mr. Murray, and let the two of us tell what we +knew and be done with it: if not, then I myself would go straight to Mr. +Lindsey and tell him. + +I set out for the office earlier than usual that morning, and went round +by way of the back street at the bottom of which Crone's store stood +facing the river. I sometimes walked round that way of a morning, and I +knew that Crone was as a rule at his place very early, amongst his old +rubbish, or at his favourite game of gossiping with the fishermen that +had their boats drawn up there. But when I reached it, the shop was still +shut, and though I waited as long as I could, Crone did not come. I knew +where he lived, at the top end of the town, and I thought to meet him as +I walked up to Mr. Lindsey's; but I had seen nothing of him by the time I +reached our office door, so I laid the matter aside until noon, meaning +to get a word with him when I went home to my dinner. And though I could +have done so there and then, I determined not to say anything to Mr. +Lindsey until I had given Crone the chance of saying it with me--to him, +or to the police. I expected, of course, that Crone would fly into a rage +at my suggestion--if so, then I would tell him, straight out, that I +would just take my own way, and take it at once. + +But before noon there was another development in this affair. In the +course of the morning Mr. Lindsey bade me go with him down to my +mother's house, where Mrs. Hanson had been lodged for the night--we +would go through Gilverthwaite's effects with her, he said, with a view +to doing what we could to put her in possession. It might--probably +would--be a lengthy and a difficult business that, he remarked, seeing +that there was so much that was dark about her brother's recent +movements; and as the woman was obviously poor, we had best be stirring +on her behalf. So down we went, and in my mother's front parlour, the +same that Gilverthwaite had taken as his sitting-room, Mr. Lindsey +opened the heavy box for the second time, in Mrs. Hanson's presence, and +I began to make a list of its contents. At the sight of the money it +contained, the woman began to tremble. + +"Eh, mister!" she exclaimed, almost tearfully, "but that's a sight of +money to be lying there, doing naught! I hope there'll be some way of +bringing it to me and mine--we could do with it, I promise you!" + +"We'll do our best, ma'am," said Mr. Lindsey. "As you're next of kin +there oughtn't to be much difficulty, and I'll hurry matters up for you +as quickly as possible. What I want this morning is for you to see all +there is in this chest; he seems to have had no other belongings than +this and his clothes--here at Mrs. Moneylaws', at any rate. And as you +see, beyond the money, there's little else in the chest but cigars, and +box after box of curiosities that he's evidently picked up in his +travels--coins, shells, ornaments, all sorts of queer things--some of 'em +no doubt of value. But no papers--no letters--no documents of any sort." + +A notion suddenly occurred to me. + +"Mr. Lindsey," said I, "you never turned out the contents of any of +these smaller boxes the other night. There might be papers in one or +other of them." + +"Good notion, Hugh, my lad!" he exclaimed. "True--there might. Here goes, +then--we'll look through them systematically." + +In addition to the half-dozen boxes full of prime Havana cigars, which +lay at the top of the chest, there were quite a dozen of similar boxes, +emptied of cigars and literally packed full of the curiosities of which +Mr. Lindsey had just spoken. He had turned out, and carefully replaced, +the contents of three or four of these, when, at the bottom of one, +filled with old coins, which, he said, were Mexican and Peruvian, and +probably of great interest to collectors, he came across a paper, folded +and endorsed in bold letters. And he let out an exclamation as he took +this paper out and pointed us to the endorsement. + +"Do you see that?" said he. "It's the man's will!" + +The endorsement was plain enough--My will: _James Gilverthwaite_. And +beneath it was a date, 27-8-1904. + +There was a dead silence amongst the four of us--my mother had been with +us all the time--as Mr. Lindsey unfolded the paper--a thick, half-sheet +of foolscap, and read what was written on it. + +"This is the last will and testament of me, James Gilverthwaite, a +British subject, born at Liverpool, and formerly of Garston, in +Lancashire, England, now residing temporarily at Colon, in the Republic +of Panama. I devise and bequeath all my estate and effects, real and +personal, which I may be possessed of or entitled to, unto my sister, +Sarah Ellen Hanson, the wife of Matthew Hanson, of 37 Preston Street, +Garston, Lancashire, England, absolutely, and failing her to any children +she may have had by her marriage with Matthew Hanson, in equal shares. +And I appoint the said Sarah Ellen Hanson, or in the case of her death, +her eldest child, the executor of this my will; and I revoke all former +wills. Dated this twenty-seventh day of August, 1904. _James +Gilverthwaite_. Signed by the testator in the presence of us--" + +Mr. Lindsey suddenly broke off. And I, looking at him, saw his eyes screw +themselves up with sheer wonder at something he saw. Without another word +he folded up the paper, put it in his pocket, and turning to Mrs. Hanson, +clapped her on the shoulder. + +"That's all right, ma'am!" he said heartily. "That's a good will, duly +signed and attested, and there'll be no difficulty about getting it +admitted to probate; leave it to me, and I'll see to it, and get it +through for you as soon as ever I can. And we must do what's possible to +find out if this brother of yours has left any other property; and +meanwhile we'll just lock everything up again that we've taken out of +this chest." + +It was close on my dinner hour when we had finished, but Mr. Lindsey, at +his going, motioned me out into the street with him. In a quiet corner, +he turned to me and pulled the will from his pocket. + +"Hugh!" he said. "Do you know who's one of the witnesses to this will? +Aye, who are the two witnesses? Man!--you could have knocked me down with +a feather when I saw the names! Look for yourself!" + +He handed me the paper and pointed to the attestation clause with which +it ended. And I saw the two names at once--John Phillips, Michael +Carstairs--and I let out a cry of astonishment. + +"Aye, you may well exclaim!" said he, taking the will back. "John +Phillips!--that's the man was murdered the other night! Michael +Carstairs--that's the elder brother of Sir Gilbert yonder at +Hathercleugh, the man that would have succeeded to the title and estates +if he hadn't predeceased old Sir Alexander. What would he be doing now, a +friend of Gilverthwaite's?" + +"I've heard that this Mr. Michael Carstairs went abroad as a young man, +Mr. Lindsey, and never came home again," I remarked. "Likely he +foregathered with Gilverthwaite out yonder." + +"Just that," he agreed. "That would be the way of it, no doubt. To be +sure! He's set down in this attestation clause as Michael Carstairs, +engineer, American Quarter, Colon; and John Phillips is described as +sub-contractor, of the same address. The three of 'em'll have been +working in connection with the Panama Canal. But--God bless us!--there's +some queer facts coming out, my lad! Michael Carstairs knows +Gilverthwaite and Phillips in yon corner of the world--Phillips and +Gilverthwaite, when Michael Carstairs is dead, come home to the corner of +the world that Michael Carstairs sprang from. And Phillips is murdered as +soon as he gets here--and Gilverthwaite dies that suddenly that he can't +tell us a word of what it's all about! What is it all about--and who's +going to piece it all together? Man!--there's more than murder at the +bottom of all this!" + +It's a wonder that I didn't let out everything that I knew at that +minute. And it may have been on the tip of my tongue, but just then he +gave me a push towards our door. + +"I heard your mother say your dinner was waiting you," he said. "Go in, +now; we'll talk more this afternoon." + +He strode off up the street, and I turned back and made haste with my +dinner. I wanted to drop in at Crone's before I went again to the office: +what had just happened, had made me resolved that Crone and I should +speak out; and if he wouldn't, then I would. And presently I was hurrying +away to his place, and as I turned into the back lane that led to it I +ran up against Sergeant Chisholm. + +"Here's another fine to-do, Mr. Moneylaws!" said he. "You'll know yon +Abel Crone, the marine-store dealer? Aye, well, he's been found drowned, +not an hour ago, and by this and that, there's queer marks, that looks +like violence, on him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SALMON GAFF + + +I gave such a jump on hearing this that Chisholm himself started, and +he stared at me with a question in his eyes. But I was quick enough to +let him know that he was giving me news that I hadn't heard until he +opened his lips. + +"You don't tell me that!" I exclaimed. "What!--more of it?" + +"Aye!" he said. "You'll be thinking that this is all of a piece with the +other affair. And to be sure, they found Crone's body close by where you +found yon other man--Phillips." + +"Where, then?" I asked. "And when?" + +"I tell you, not an hour ago," he replied. "The news just came in. I was +going down here to see if any of the neighbours at the shop saw Crone in +any strange company last night." + +I hesitated for a second or two, and then spoke out. + +"I saw him myself last night," said I. "I went to his shop--maybe it was +nine o'clock--to buy some bits of stuff to make Tom Dunlop a door to his +rabbit-hutch, and I was there talking to him ten minutes or so. He was +all right then--and I saw nobody else with him." + +"Aye, well, he never went home to his house last night," observed +Chisholm. "I called in there on my way down--he lived, you know, in a +cottage by the police-station, and I dropped in and asked the woman that +keeps house for him had she seen him this morning, and she said he never +came home last night at all. And no wonder--as things are!" + +"But you were saying where it happened," I said. + +"Where he was found?" said he. "Well, and it was where Till runs into +Tweed--leastways, a bit up the Till. Do you know John McIlwraith's +lad--yon youngster that they've had such a bother with about the +school--always running away to his play, and stopping out at nights, and +the like--there was the question of sending him to a reformatory, you'll +remember? Aye, well, it turns out the young waster was out last night in +those woods below Twizel, and early this morning--though he didn't let on +at it till some time after--he saw the body of a man lying in one of them +deep pools in Till. And when he himself was caught by Turndale, who was +on the look out for him, he told of what he'd seen, and Turndale and some +other men went there, and they found--Crone!" + +"You were saying there were marks of violence," said I. + +"I haven't seen them myself," he answered. "But by Turndale's account--it +was him brought in the news--there is queer marks on the body. Like as +if--as near as Turndale could describe it--as if the man had been struck +down before he was drowned. Bruises, you understand." + +"Where is he?" I asked. + +"He's where they took Phillips," replied Chisholm. "Dod!--that's two of +'em that's been taken there within--aye, nearly within the week!" + +"What are you going to do, now?" I inquired. + +"I was just going, as I said, to ask a question or two down here--did +anybody hear Crone say anything last night about going out that way?" he +answered. "But, there, I don't see the good of it. Between you and me, +Crone was a bit of a night-bird--I've suspected him of poaching, time and +again. Well, he'll do no more of that! You'll be on your way to the +office, likely?" + +"Straight there," said I. "I'll tell Mr. Lindsey of this." + +But when I reached the office, Mr. Lindsey, who had been out to get his +lunch, knew all about it. He was standing outside the door, talking to +Mr. Murray, and as I went up the superintendent turned away to the police +station, and Mr. Lindsey took a step or two towards me. + +"Have you heard this about that man Crone?" he asked. + +"I've heard just now," I answered. "Chisholm told me." + +He looked at me, and I at him; there were questions in the eyes of both +of us. But between parting from the police-sergeant and meeting Mr. +Lindsey, I had made up my mind, by a bit of sharp thinking and +reflection, on what my own plan of action was going to be about all this, +once and for all, and I spoke before he could ask anything. + +"Chisholm," said I, "was down that way, wondering could he hear word of +Crone's being seen with anybody last night. I saw Crone last night. I +went to his shop, buying some bits of old stuff. He was all right then--I +saw nothing. Chisholm--he says Crone was a poacher. That would account, +likely, for his being out there." + +"Aye!" said Mr. Lindsey. "But--they say there's marks of violence on the +body. And--the long and short of it is, my lad!" he went on, first +interrupting himself, and then giving me an odd look; "the long and short +of it is, it's a queer thing that Crone should have come by his death +close to the spot where you found yon man Phillips! There may be nothing +but coincidence in it--but there's no denying it's a queer thing. Go and +order a conveyance, and we'll drive out yonder." + +In pursuance of the determination I had come to, I said no more about +Crone to Mr. Lindsey. I had made up my mind on a certain course, and +until it was taken I could not let out a word of what was by that time +nobody's secret but mine to him, nor to any one--not even to Maisie +Dunlop, to whom, purposely, I had not as yet said anything about my +seeing Sir Gilbert Carstairs on the night of Phillips's murder. And all +the way out to the inn there was silence between Mr. Lindsey and me, and +the event of the morning, about Gilverthwaite's will, and the odd +circumstance of its attestation by Michael Carstairs, was not once +mentioned. We kept silence, indeed, until we were in the place to which +they had carried Crone's dead body. Mr. Murray and Sergeant Chisholm had +got there before us, and with them was a doctor--the same that had been +fetched to Phillips--and they were all talking together quietly when we +went in. The superintendent came up to Mr. Lindsey. + +"According to what the doctor here says," he whispered, jerking his head +at the body, which lay on a table with a sheet thrown over it, "there's a +question as to whether the man met his death by drowning. Look here!" + +He led us up to the table, drew back the sheet from the head and face, +and motioning the doctor to come up, pointed to a mark that was just +between the left temple and the top of the ear, where the hair was +wearing thin. + +"D'ye see that, now?" he murmured. "You'll notice there's some sort of a +weapon penetrated there--penetrated! But the doctor can say more than I +can on that point." + +"The man was struck--felled--by some sort of a weapon," said the doctor. +"It's penetrated, I should say from mere superficial examination, to the +brain. You'll observe there's a bruise outwardly--aye, but this has been +a sharp weapon as well, something with a point, and there's the +puncture--how far it may extend I can't tell yet. But on the surface of +things, Mr. Lindsey, I should incline to the opinion that the poor +fellow was dead, or dying, when he was thrown into yon pool. Anyway, +after a blow like that, he'd be unconscious. But I'm thinking he was dead +before the water closed on him." + +Mr. Lindsey looked closer at the mark, and at the hole in the +centre of it. + +"Has it struck any of you how that could be caused?" he asked suddenly. +"It hasn't? Then I'll suggest something to you. There's an implement in +pretty constant use hereabouts that would do just that--a salmon gaff!" + +The two police officials started--the doctor nodded his head. + +"Aye, and that's a sensible remark," said he. "A salmon gaff would just +do it." He turned to Chisholm with a sharp look. "You were saying this +man was suspected of poaching?" he asked. "Likely it'll have been some +poaching affair he was after last night--him and others. And they may +have quarrelled and come to blows--and there you are!" + +"Were there any signs of an affray close by--or near, on the bank?" asked +Mr. Lindsey. + +"We're going down there now ourselves to have a look round," answered Mr. +Murray. "But according to Turndale, the body was lying in a deep pool in +the Till, under the trees on the bank--it might have lain there for many +a month if it hadn't been for yon young McIlwraith that has a turn for +prying into dark and out-of-the-way corners. Well, here's more matter for +the coroner." + +Mr. Lindsey and I went back to Berwick after that. And, once more, he +said little on the journey, except that it would be well if it came out +that this was but a poaching affair in which Crone had got across with +some companion of his; and for the rest of the afternoon he made no +further remark to me about the matter, nor about the discovery of the +morning. But as I was leaving the office at night, he gave me a word. + +"Say nothing about that will, to anybody," said he. "I'll think that +matter over to-night, and see what'll come of my thinking. It's as I said +before, Hugh--to get at the bottom of all this, we'll have to go +back--maybe a far way." + +I said nothing and went home. For now I had work of my own--I was going +to what I had resolved on after Chisholm told me the news about Crone. I +would not tell my secret to Mr. Lindsey, nor to the police, nor even to +Maisie. I would go straight and tell it to the one man whom it +concerned--Sir Gilbert Carstairs. I would speak plainly to him, and be +done with it. And as soon as I had eaten my supper, I mounted my bicycle, +and, as the dusk was coming on, rode off to Hathercleugh House. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SIR GILBERT CARSTAIRS + + +It was probably with a notion of justifying my present course of +procedure to myself that during that ride I went over the reasons which +had kept my tongue quiet up to that time, and now led me to go to Sir +Gilbert Carstairs. Why I had not told the police nor Mr. Lindsey of what +I had seen, I have already explained--my own natural caution and reserve +made me afraid of saying anything that might cast suspicion on an +innocent man; and also I wanted to await developments. I was not +concerned much with that feature of the matter. But I had undergone some +qualms because I had not told Maisie Dunlop, for ever since the time at +which she and I had come to a serious and sober understanding, it had +been a settled thing between us that we would never have any secrets from +each other. Why, then, had I not told her of this? That took a lot of +explaining afterwards, when things so turned out that it would have been +the best thing ever I did in my life if I only had confided in her; but +this explanation was, after all, to my credit--I did not tell Maisie +because I knew that, taking all the circumstances into consideration, she +would fill herself with doubts and fears for me, and would for ever be +living in an atmosphere of dread lest I, like Phillips, should be found +with a knife-thrust in me. So much for that--it was in Maisie's own +interest. And why, after keeping silence to everybody, did I decide to +break it to Sir Gilbert Carstairs? There, Andrew Dunlop came in--of +course, unawares to himself. For in those lecturings that he was so fond +of giving us young folk, there was a moral precept of his kept cropping +up which he seemed to set great store by--"If you've anything against a +man, or reason to mistrust him," he would say, "don't keep it to +yourself, or hint it to other people behind his back, but go straight to +him and tell him to his face, and have it out with him." He was a wise +man, Andrew Dunlop, as all his acquaintance knew, and I felt that I could +do no better than take a lesson from him in this matter. So I would go +straight to Sir Gilbert Carstairs, and tell him what was in my mind--let +the consequences be what they might. + +It was well after sunset, and the gloaming was over the hills and the +river, when I turned into the grounds of Hathercleugh and looked round me +at a place which, though I had lived close to it ever since I was born, I +had never set foot in before. The house stood on a plateau of ground high +above Tweed, with a deep shawl of wood behind it and a fringe of +plantations on either side; house and pleasure-grounds were enclosed by a +high ivied wall on all sides--you could see little of either until you +were within the gates. It looked, in that evening light, a romantic and +picturesque old spot and one in which you might well expect to see +ghosts, or fairies, or the like. The house itself was something between +an eighteenth-century mansion and an old Border fortress; its centre part +was very high in the roof, and had turrets, with outer stairs to them, at +the corners; the parapets were embattled, and in the turrets were +arrow-slits. But romantic as the place was, there was nothing gloomy +about it, and as I passed to the front, between the grey walls and a sunk +balustered garden that lay at the foot of a terrace, I heard through the +open windows of one brilliantly lighted room the click of billiard balls +and the sound of men's light-hearted laughter, and through another the +notes of a piano. + +There was a grand butler man met me at the hall door, and looked sourly +at me as I leaned my bicycle against one of the pillars and made up to +him. He was sourer still when I asked to see his master, and he shook his +head at me, looking me up and down as if I were some undesirable. + +"You can't see Sir Gilbert at this time of the evening," said he. "What +do you want?" + +"Will you tell Sir Gilbert that Mr. Moneylaws, clerk to Mr. Lindsey, +solicitor, wishes to see him on important business?" I answered, looking +him hard in the face. "I think he'll be quick to see me when you give him +that message." + +He stared and growled at me a second or two before he went off with an +ill grace, leaving me on the steps. But, as I had expected, he was back +almost at once, and beckoning me to enter and follow him. And follow him +I did, past more flunkeys who stared at me as if I had come to steal the +silver, and through soft-carpeted passages, to a room into which he led +me with small politeness. + +"You're to sit down and wait," he said gruffly. "Sir Gilbert will attend +to you presently." + +He closed the door on me, and I sat down and looked around. I was in a +small room that was filled with books from floor to ceiling--big books +and little, in fine leather bindings, and the gilt of their letterings +and labels shining in the rays of a tall lamp that stood on a big desk in +the centre. It was a fine room that, with everything luxurious in the way +of furnishing and appointments; you could have sunk your feet in the +warmth of the carpets and rugs, and there were things in it for comfort +and convenience that I had never heard tell of. I had never been in a +rich man's house before, and the grandeur of it, and the idea that it +gave one of wealth, made me feel that there's a vast gulf fixed between +them that have and them that have not. And in the middle of these +philosophies the door suddenly opened, and in walked Sir Gilbert +Carstairs, and I stood up and made my politest bow to him. He nodded +affably enough, and he laughed as he nodded. + +"Oh!" said he. "Mr. Moneylaws! I've seen you before--at that inquest the +other day, I think. Didn't I?" + +"That is so, Sir Gilbert," I answered. "I was there, with Mr. Lindsey." + +"Why, of course, and you gave evidence," he said. "I remember. Well, and +what did you want to see me about, Mr. Moneylaws? Will you smoke a +cigar?" he went on, picking up a box from the table and holding it out to +me. "Help yourself." + +"Thank you, Sir Gilbert," I answered, "but I haven't started that yet." + +"Well, then, I will," he laughed, and he picked out a cigar, lighted it, +and flinging himself into an easy chair, motioned me to take another +exactly opposite to him. "Now, then, fire away!" he said. "Nobody'll +interrupt us, and my time's yours. You've some message for me?" + +I took a good look at him before I spoke. He was a big, fine, handsome +man, some five-and-fifty years of age, I should have said, but uncommonly +well preserved--a clean-shaven, powerful-faced man, with quick eyes and a +very alert glance; maybe, if there was anything struck me particularly +about him, it was the rapidity and watchfulness of his glances, the +determination in his square jaw, and the extraordinary strength and +whiteness of his teeth. He was quick at smiling, and quick, too, in the +use of his hands, which were always moving as he spoke, as if to +emphasize whatever he said. And he made a very fine and elegant figure as +he sat there in his grand evening clothes, and I was puzzled to know +which struck me most--the fact that he was what he was, the seventh +baronet and head of an old family, or the familiar, easy, good-natured +fashion which he treated me, and talked to me, as if I had been a man of +his own rank. + +I had determined what to do as I sat waiting him; and now that he had +bidden me to speak, I told him the whole story from start to finish, +beginning with Gilverthwaite and ending with Crone, and sparing no detail +or explanation of my own conduct. He listened in silence, and with more +intentness and watchfulness than I had ever seen a man show in my life, +and now and then he nodded and sometimes smiled; and when I had made an +end he put a sharp question. + +"So--beyond Crone--who, I hear, is dead--you've never told a living soul +of this?" he asked, eyeing me closely. + +"Not one, Sir Gilbert," I assured him. "Not even--" + +"Not even--who?" he inquired quickly. + +"Not even my own sweetheart," I said. "And it's the first secret ever I +kept from her." + +He smiled at that, and gave me a quick look as if he were trying to get a +fuller idea of me. + +"Well," he said, "and you did right. Not that I should care two pins, Mr. +Moneylaws, if you'd told all this out at the inquest. But suspicion is +easily aroused, and it spreads--aye, like wildfire! And I'm a stranger, +as it were, in this country, so far, and there's people might think +things that I wouldn't have them think, and--in short, I'm much obliged +to you. And I'll tell you frankly, as you've been frank with me, how I +came to be at those cross-roads at that particular time and on that +particular night. It's a simple explanation, and could be easily +corroborated, if need be. I suffer from a disturbing form of +insomnia--sleeplessness--it's a custom of mine to go long walks late at +night. Since I came here, I've been out that way almost every night, as +my servants could assure you. I walk, as a rule, from nine o'clock to +twelve--to induce sleep. And on that night I'd been miles and miles out +towards Yetholm, and back; and when you saw me with my map and electric +torch, I was looking for the nearest turn home--I'm not too well +acquainted with the Border yet," he concluded, with a flash of his white +teeth, "and I have to carry a map with me. And--that's how it was; and +that's all." + +I rose out of my chair at that. He spoke so readily and ingenuously that +I had no more doubt of the truth of what he was saying than I had of my +own existence. + +"Then it's all for me, too, Sir Gilbert," said I. "I shan't say a word +more of the matter to anybody. It's--as if it never existed. I was +thinking all the time there'd be an explanation of it. So I'll be bidding +you good-night." + +"Sit you down again a minute," said he, pointing to the easy-chair. "No +need for hurry. You're a clerk to Mr. Lindsey, the solicitor?" + +"I am that," I answered. + +"Are you articled to him?" he asked. + +"No," said I. "I'm an ordinary clerk--of seven years' standing." + +"Plenty of experience of office work and routine?" he inquired. + +"Aye!" I replied. "No end of that, Sir Gilbert!" + +"Are you good at figures and accounts?" he asked. + +"I've kept all Mr. Lindsey's--and a good many trust accounts--for the +last five years," I answered, wondering what all this was about. + +"In fact, you're thoroughly well up in all clerical matters?" he +suggested. "Keeping books, writing letters, all that sort of thing?" + +"I can honestly say I'm a past master in everything of that sort," +I affirmed. + +He gave me a quick glance, as if he were sizing me up altogether. + +"Well, I'll tell you what, Mr. Moneylaws," he said. "The fact is, I'm +wanting a sort of steward, and it strikes me that you're just the man I'm +looking for!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DEAD MAN'S MONEY + + +I was so much amazed by this extraordinary suggestion, that for the +moment I could only stand staring at him, and before I could find my +tongue he threw a quick question at me. + +"Lindsey wouldn't stand in your way, would he?" he asked. "Such jobs +don't go begging, you know." + +"Mr. Lindsey wouldn't stand in my way, Sir Gilbert," I answered. "But--" + +"But what?" said he, seeing me hesitate. "Is it a post you wouldn't care +about, then? There's five hundred a year with it--and a permanency." + +Strange as it may seem, considering all the circumstances, it never +occurred to me for one moment that the man was buying my silence, buying +me. There wasn't the ghost of such a thought in my head--I let out what +was there in my next words. + +"I'd like such a post fine, Sir Gilbert," I said. "What I'm thinking +of--could I give satisfaction?" + +He laughed at that, as if my answer amused him. + +"Well, there's nothing like a spice of modesty, Moneylaws," said he. "If +you can do all we've just talked of, you'll satisfy me well enough. I +like the looks of you, and I'm sure you're the sort that'll do the thing +thoroughly. The post's at your disposal, if you like to take it." + +I was still struggling with my amazement. Five hundred pounds a +year!--and a permanency! It seemed a fortune to a lad of my age. And I +was trying to find the right words in which to say all that I felt, when +he spoke again. + +"Look here!" he said. "Don't let us arrange this as if we'd done it +behind your present employer's back--I wouldn't like Mr. Lindsey to think +I'd gone behind him to get you. Let it be done this way: I'll call on Mr. +Lindsey myself, and tell him I'm wanting a steward for the property, and +that I've heard good reports of his clerk, and that I'll engage you on +his recommendation. He's the sort that would give you a strong word by +way of reference, eh?" + +"Oh, he'll do that, Sir Gilbert!" I exclaimed. "Anything that'll +help me on--" + +"Then let's leave it at that," said he. "I'll drop in on him at his +office--perhaps to-morrow. In the meantime, keep your own counsel. +But--you'll take my offer?" + +"I'd be proud and glad to, Sir Gilbert," said I. "And if you'll make +allowance for a bit of inexperience--" + +"You'll do your best, eh?" he laughed. "That's all right, Moneylaws." + +He walked out with me to the door, and on to the terrace. And as I +wheeled my bicycle away from the porch, he took a step or two alongside +me, his hands in his pockets, his lips humming a careless tune. And +suddenly he turned on me. + +"Have you heard any more about that affair last night?" he asked. "I mean +about Crone?" + +"Nothing, Sir Gilbert," I answered. + +"I hear that the opinion is that the man was struck down by a gaff," he +remarked. "And perhaps killed before he was thrown into the Till." + +"So the doctor seemed to think," I said. "And the police, too, I +believe." + +"Aye, well," said he, "I don't know if the police are aware of it, but +I'm very sure there's night-poaching of salmon going on hereabouts, +Moneylaws. I've fancied it for some time, and I've had thoughts of +talking to the police about it. But you see, my land doesn't touch either +Till or Tweed, so I haven't cared to interfere. But I'm sure that it is +so, and it wouldn't surprise me if both these men, Crone and Phillips, +met their deaths at the hands of the gang I'm thinking of. It's a notion +that's worth following up, anyway, and I'll have a word with Murray about +it when I'm in the town tomorrow." + +Then, with a brief good night, he left me and went into the house, and I +got outside Hathercleugh and rode home in a whirl of thoughts. And I'll +confess readily that those thoughts had little to do with what Sir +Gilbert Carstairs had last talked about--they were not so much of +Phillips, nor of Crone, nor of his suggestion of a possible gang of +night-poachers, as about myself and this sudden chance of a great change +in my fortunes. For, when all is said and done, we must needs look after +ourselves, and when a young man of the age I was then arrived at is asked +if he would like to exchange a clerkship of a hundred and twenty a year +for a stewardship at more than four times as much--as a permanency--you +must agree that his mind will fix itself on what such an exchange means +to him, to the exclusion of all other affairs. Five hundred a year to me +meant all sorts of fine things--independence, and a house of my own, and, +not least by a long way, marriage with Maisie Dunlop. And it was a wonder +that I managed to keep cool, and to hold my tongue when I got home--but +hold it I did, and to some purpose, and more than once. During the half +hour which I managed to get with Maisie last thing that night, she asked +me why I was so silent, and, hard though it was to keep from doing so, I +let nothing out. + +The truth was, Sir Gilbert Carstairs had fascinated me, not only with his +grand offer, but with his pleasant, off-hand, companionable manners. He +had put me at my ease at once; he had spoken so frankly and with such +evident sincerity about his doings on that eventful night, that I +accepted every word he said. And--in the little that I had thought of +it--I was very ready to accept his theory as to how those two men had +come by their deaths--and it was one that was certainly feasible, and +worth following up. Some years before, I remembered, something of the +same sort had gone on, and had resulted in an affray between +salmon-poachers and river-watchers--why should it not have cropped up +again? The more I thought of it, the more I felt Sir Gilbert's +suggestion to have reason in it. And in that case all the mystery would +be knocked clean out of these affairs--the murder of Phillips, the death +of Crone, might prove to be the outcome of some vulgar encounter between +them and desperadoes who had subsequently scuttled to safety and were +doubtless quaking near at hand, in fear of their misdeeds coming to +light; what appeared to be a perfect tangle might be the simplest matter +in the world. So I judged--and next morning there came news that seemed +to indicate that matters were going to be explained on the lines which +Sir Gilbert had suggested. + +Chisholm brought that news to our office, just after Mr. Lindsey had come +in. He told it to both of us; and from his manner of telling it, we both +saw--I, perhaps, not so clearly as Mr. Lindsey--that the police were +already at their favourite trick of going for what seemed to them the +obvious line of pursuit. + +"I'm thinking we've got on the right clue at last, as regards the murder +of yon man Phillips," announced Chisholm, with an air of satisfaction. +"And if it is the right clue, as it seems to be, Mr. Lindsey, there'll be +no great mystery in the matter, after all. Just a plain case of murder +for the sake of robbery--that's it!" + +"What's your clue?" asked Mr. Lindsey quietly. + +"Well," answered Chisholm, with a sort of sly wink, "you'll understand, +Mr. Lindsey, that we haven't been doing nothing these last few days, +since yon inquest on Phillips, you know. As a matter of fact, we've +been making inquiries wherever there seemed a chance of finding +anything out. And we've found something out--through one of the banks +yonder at Peebles." + +He looked at us as if to see if we were impressed; seeing, at any rate, +that we were deeply interested, he went on. + +"It appears--I'll tell you the story in order, as it were," he said--"it +appears that about eight months ago the agent of the British Linen Bank +at Peebles got a letter from one John Phillips, written from a place +called Colon, in Panama--that's Central America, as you'll be +aware--enclosing a draft for three thousand pounds on the International +Banking Corporation of New York. The letter instructed the Peebles agent +to collect this sum and to place it in his bank to the writer's credit. +Furthermore, it stated that the money was to be there until Phillips came +home to Scotland, in a few months' time from the date of writing. This, +of course, was all done in due course--there was the three thousand +pounds in Phillips's name. There was a bit of correspondence between him +at Colon and the bank at Peebles--then, at last, he wrote that he was +leaving Panama for Scotland, and would call on the bank soon after his +arrival. And on the morning of the day on which he was murdered, Phillips +did call at the bank and established his identity, and so on, and he then +drew out five hundred pounds of his money--two hundred pounds in gold, +and the rest in small notes; and, Mr. Lindsey, he carried that sum away +with him in a little handbag that he had with him." + +Mr. Lindsey, who had been listening with great attention, nodded. + +"Aye!" he said. "Carried five hundred pounds away with him. Go on, then." + +"Now," continued Chisholm, evidently very well satisfied with himself for +the way he was marshalling his facts, "we--that is, to put it plainly, I +myself--have been making more searching inquiries about Cornhill and +Coldstream. There's two of the men at Cornhill station will swear that +when Phillips got out of the train there, that evening of the murder, he +was carrying a little handbag such as the bank cashier remembers--a +small, new, brown leather bag. They're certain of it--the +ticket-collector remembers him putting it under his arm while he searched +his pocket for his ticket. And what's more, the landlord of the inn +across the bridge there at Coldstream he remembers the bag, clearly +enough, and that Phillips never had his hand off it while he was in his +house. And of course, Mr. Lindsey, the probability is that in that bag +was the money--just as he had drawn it out of the bank." + +"You've more to tell," remarked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Just so," replied Chisholm. "And there's two items. First of all--we've +found that bag! Empty, you may be sure. In the woods near that old ruin +on Till side. Thrown away under a lot of stuff--dead stuff, you'll +understand, where it might have lain till Doomsday if I hadn't had a +most particular search made. But--that's not all. The second item is +here--the railway folk at Cornhill are unanimous in declaring that by +that same train which brought Phillips there, two men, strangers, that +looked like tourist gentlemen, came as well, whose tickets were +from--where d'ye think, then, Mr. Lindsey?" + +"Peebles, of course," answered Mr. Lindsey. + +"And you've guessed right!" exclaimed Chisholm, triumphantly; "Peebles it +was--and now, how do you think this affair looks? There's so many +tourists on Tweedside this time of the year that nobody paid any great +attention that night to these men, nor where they went. But what could be +plainer, d'ye think?--of course, those two had tracked Phillips from the +bank, and they followed him till they had him in yon place where he was +found, and they murdered him--to rob him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FIVE HUNDRED A YEAR + + +It was very evident that Chisholm was in a state of gleeful assurance +about his theory, and I don't think he was very well pleased when Mr. +Lindsey, instead of enthusiastically acclaiming it as a promising one, +began to ask him questions. + +"You found a pretty considerable sum on Phillips as it was when you +searched his body, didn't you?" he asked. + +"Aye--a good lot!" assented Chisholm. "But it was in a pocket-book in an +inner pocket of his coat, and in his purse." + +"If it was robbery, why didn't they take everything?" inquired Mr. +Lindsey. + +"Aye, I knew you'd ask that," replied Chisholm. "But the thing is that +they were interrupted. The bag they could carry off--but it's probable +that they heard Mr. Moneylaws here coming down the lane before they could +search the man's pockets." + +"Umph!" said Mr. Lindsey. "And how do you account for two men getting +away from the neighbourhood without attracting attention?" + +"Easy enough," declared Chisholm. "As I said just now, there's numbers of +strangers comes about Tweedside at this time of the year, and who'd +think anything of seeing them? What was easier than for these two to +separate, to keep close during the rest of the night, and to get away by +train from some wayside station or other next morning? They could manage +it easily--and we're making inquiries at all the stations in the district +on both sides the Tweed, with that idea." + +"Well--you'll have a lot of people to follow up, then," remarked Mr. +Lindsey drily. "If you're going to follow every tourist that got on a +train next morning between Berwick and Wooler, and Berwick and Kelso, and +Berwick and Burnmouth, and Berwick and Blyth, you'll have your work set, +I'm thinking!" + +"All the same," said Chisholm doggedly, "that's how it's been. And the +bank at Peebles has the numbers of the notes that Phillips carried off in +his little bag--and I'll trace those fellows yet, Mr. Lindsey." + +"Good luck to you, sergeant!" answered Mr. Lindsey. He turned to me when +Chisholm had gone. "That's the police all over, Hugh," he remarked. "And +you might talk till you were black in the face to yon man, and he'd stick +to his story." + +"You don't believe it, then?" I asked him, somewhat surprised. + +"He may be right," he replied. "I'm not saying. Let him attend to his +business--and now we'll be seeing to ours." + +It was a busy day with us in the office that, being the day before court +day, and we had no time to talk of anything but our own affairs. But +during the afternoon, at a time when I had left the office for an hour +or two on business, Sir Gilbert Carstairs called, and he was closeted +with Mr. Lindsey when I returned. And after they had been together some +time Mr. Lindsey came out to me and beckoned me into a little +waiting-room that we had and shut the door on us, and I saw at once from +the expression on his face that he had no idea that Sir Gilbert and I +had met the night before, or that I had any notion of what he was going +to say to me. + +"Hugh, my lad!" said he, clapping me on the shoulder; "you're evidently +one of those that are born lucky. What's the old saying--'Some achieve +greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them!'--eh? Here's +greatness--in a degree--thrusting itself on you!" + +"What's this you're talking about, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked. "There's not +much greatness about me, I'm thinking!" + +"Well, it's not what you're thinking in this case," he answered; "it's +what other folks are thinking of you. Here's Sir Gilbert Carstairs in my +room yonder. He's wanting a steward--somebody that can keep accounts, and +letters, and look after the estate, and he's been looking round for a +likely man, and he's heard that Lindsey's clerk, Hugh Moneylaws, is just +the sort he wants--and, in short, the job's yours, if you like to take +it. And, my lad, it's worth five hundred a year--and a permanency, too! A +fine chance for a young fellow of your age!" + +"Do you advise me to take it, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked, endeavouring to +combine surprise with a proper respect for the value of his counsel. +"It's a serious job that for, as you say, a young fellow." + +"Not if he's got your headpiece on him," he replied, giving me another +clap on the shoulder. "I do advise you to take it. I've given you the +strongest recommendations to him. Go into my office now and talk it over +with Sir Gilbert by yourself. But when it comes to settling details, call +me in--I'll see you're done right to." + +I thanked him warmly, and went into his room, where Sir Gilbert was +sitting in an easy-chair. He motioned me to shut the door, and, once that +was done, he gave a quick, inquiring look. + +"You didn't let him know that you and I had talked last night?" he +asked at once. + +"No," said I. + +"That's right--and I didn't either," he went on. "I don't want him to +know I spoke to you before speaking to him--it would look as if I were +trying to get his clerk away from him. Well, it's settled, then, +Moneylaws? You'll take the post?" + +"I shall be very glad to, Sir Gilbert," said I. "And I'll serve you to +the best of my ability, if you'll have a bit of patience with me at the +beginning. There'll be some difference between my present job and this +you're giving me, but I'm a quick learner, and--" + +"Oh, that's all right, man!" he interrupted carelessly. "You'll do all +that I want. I hate accounts, and letter-writing, and all that sort +of thing--take all that off my hands, and you'll do. Of course, +whenever you're in a fix about anything, come to me--but I can explain +all there is to do in an hour's talk with you at the beginning. All +right!--ask Mr. Lindsey to step in to me, and we'll put the matter on +a business footing." + +Mr. Lindsey came in and took over the job of settling matters on my +behalf. And the affair was quickly arranged. I was to stay with Mr. +Lindsey another month, so as to give him the opportunity of getting a new +head clerk, then I was to enter on my new duties at Hathercleugh. I was +to have five hundred pounds a year salary, with six months' notice on +either side; at the end of five years, if I was still in the situation, +the terms were to be revised with a view to an increase--and all this was +to be duly set down in black and white. These propositions, of course, +were Mr. Lindsey's, and Sir Gilbert assented to all of them readily and +promptly. He appeared to be the sort of man who is inclined to accept +anything put before him rather than have a lot of talk about it. And +presently, remarking that that was all right, and he'd leave Mr. Lindsey +to see to it, he rose to go, but at the door paused and came back. + +"I'm thinking of dropping in at the police-station and telling Murray my +ideas about that Crone affair," he remarked. "It's my opinion, Mr. +Lindsey, that there's salmon-poaching going on hereabouts, and if my land +adjoined either Tweed or Till I'd have spoken about it before. There are +queer characters about along both rivers at nights--I know, because I go +out a good deal, very late, walking, to try and cure myself of insomnia; +and I know what I've seen. It's my impression that Crone was probably +mixed up with some gang, and that his death arose out of an affray +between them." + +"That's probable," answered Mr. Lindsey. "There was trouble of that sort +some years ago, but I haven't heard of it lately. Certainly, it would be +a good thing to start the idea in Murray's mind; he might follow it up +and find something out." + +"That other business--the Phillips murder--might have sprung out of the +same cause," suggested Sir Gilbert. "If those chaps caught a stranger in +a lonely place--" + +"The police have a theory already about Phillips," remarked Mr. Lindsey. +"They think he was followed from Peebles, and murdered for the sake of +money that he was carrying in a bag he had with him. And my experience," +he added with a laugh, "is that if the police once get a theory of their +own, it's no use suggesting any other to them--they'll ride theirs, +either till it drops or they get home with it." + +Sir Gilbert nodded his head, as if he agreed with that, and he suddenly +gave Mr. Lindsey an inquiring look. + +"What's your own opinion?" he asked. + +But Mr. Lindsey was not to be drawn. He laughed and shrugged his +shoulders, as if to indicate that the affair was none of his. + +"I wouldn't say that I have an opinion, Sir Gilbert," he answered. +"It's much too soon to form one, and I haven't the details, and I'm not +a detective. But all these matters are very simple--when you get to the +bottom of them. The police think this is going to be a very simple +affair--mere vulgar murder for the sake of mere vulgar robbery. We +shall see!" + +Then Sir Gilbert went away, and Mr. Lindsey looked at me, who stood a +little apart, and he saw that I was thinking. + +"Well, my lad," he said; "a bit dazed by your new opening? It's a fine +chance for you, too! Now, I suppose, you'll be wanting to get married. Is +it that you're thinking about?" + +"Well, I was not, Mr. Lindsey," said I. "I was just wondering--if you +must know--how it was that, as he was here, you didn't tell Sir +Gilbert about that signature of his brother's that you found on +Gilverthwaite's will." + +He shared a sharp look between me and the door--but the door was +safely shut. + +"No!" he said. "Neither to him nor to anybody, yet a while! And don't +you mention that, my lad. Keep it dark till I give the word. I'll +find out about that in my own way. You understand--on that point, +absolute silence." + +I replied that, of course, I would not say a word; and presently I +went into the office to resume my duties. But I had not been long at +that before the door opened, and Chisholm put his face within and +looked at me. + +"I'm wanting you, Mr. Moneylaws," he said. "You said you were with +Crone, buying something, that night before his body was found. You'd be +paying him money--and he might be giving you change. Did you happen to +see his purse, now?" + +"Aye!" answered I. "What for do you ask that?" + +"Because," said he, "we've taken a fellow at one of those riverside +publics that's been drinking heavily, and, of course, spending money +freely. And he has a queer-looking purse on him, and one or two men +that's seen it vows and declares it was Abel Crone's." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MAN IN THE CELL + + +Before I could reply to Chisholm's inquiry, Mr. Lindsey put his head out +of his door and seeing the police-sergeant there asked what he was after. +And when Chisholm had repeated his inquiry, both looked at me. + +"I did see Crone's purse that night," I answered, "an old thing that he +kept tied up with a boot-lace. And he'd a lot of money in it, too." + +"Come round, then, and see if you can identify this that we found on the +man," requested Chisholm. "And," he added, turning to Mr. Lindsey, +"there's another thing. The man's sober enough, now that we've got +him--it's given him a bit of a pull-together, being arrested. And he's +demanding a lawyer. Perhaps you'll come to him, Mr. Lindsey." + +"Who is he?" asked Mr. Lindsey. "A Berwick man?" + +"He isn't," replied Chisholm. "He's a stranger--a fellow that says he was +seeking work, and had been stopping at a common lodging-house in the +town. He vows and declares that he'd nothing to do with killing Crone, +and he's shouting for a lawyer." + +Mr. Lindsey put on his hat, and he and I went off with Chisholm to the +police-station. And as we got in sight of it, we became aware that there +was a fine to-do in the street before its door. The news of the arrest +had spread quickly, and folk had come running to get more particulars. +And amongst the women and children and loafers that were crowding around +was Crone's housekeeper, a great, heavy, rough-haired Irishwoman called +Nance Maguire, and she was waving her big arms and shaking her fists at a +couple of policemen, whom she was adjuring to bring out the murderer, so +that she might do justice on him then and there--all this being mingled +with encomiums on the victim. + +"The best man that ever lived!" she was screaming at the top of her +voice. "The best and kindest creature ever set foot in your murdering +town! And didn't I know he was to be done to death by some of ye? Didn't +he tell me himself that there was one would give his two eyes to be +seeing his corpse? And if ye've laid hands on him that did it, bring him +out to me, so, and I'll--" + +Mr. Lindsey laid a quiet hand on the woman's arm and twisted her round in +the direction of her cottage. + +"Hold your wisht, good wife, and go home!" he whispered to her. "And if +you know anything, keep your tongue still till I come to see you. Be +away, now, and leave it to me." + +I don't know how it was, but Nance Maguire, after a sharp look at Mr. +Lindsey, turned away as meekly as a lamb, and went off, tearful enough, +but quiet, down the street, followed by half the rabble, while Mr. +Lindsey, Chisholm, and myself turned into the police-station. And there +we met Mr. Murray, who wagged his head at us as if he were very well +satisfied with something. + +"Not much doubt about this last affair, anyhow," said he, as he took us +into his office. "You might say the man was caught red-handed! All the +same, Mr. Lindsey, he's in his rights to ask for a lawyer, and you can +see him whenever you like." + +"What are the facts?" asked Mr. Lindsey. "Let me know that much first." + +Mr. Murray jerked his thumb at Chisholm. + +"The sergeant there knows them," he answered. "He took the man." + +"It was this way, d'ye see, Mr. Lindsey," said Chisholm, who was becoming +an adept at putting statements before people. "You know that bit of a +public there is along the river yonder, outside the wall--the Cod and +Lobster? Well, James Macfarlane, that keeps it, he came to me, maybe an +hour or so ago, and said there was a fellow, a stranger, had been in and +out there all day since morning, drinking; and though he wouldn't say the +man was what you'd rightly call drunk, still he'd had a skinful, and he +was in there again, and they wouldn't serve him, and he was getting +quarrelsome and abusive, and in the middle of it had pulled out a purse +that another man who was in there vowed and declared, aside, to +Macfarlane, was Abel Crone's. So I got a couple of constables and went +back with Macfarlane, and there was the man vowing he'd be served, and +with a handful of money to prove that he could pay for whatever he +called for. And as he began to turn ugly, and show fight, we just clapped +the bracelets on him and brought him along, and there he is in the +cells--and, of course, it's sobered him down, and he's demanding his +rights to see a lawyer." + +"Who is he?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"A stranger to the town," replied Chisholm. "And he'll neither give name +nor address but to a lawyer, he declares. But we know he was staying at +one of the common lodging-houses--Watson's--three nights ago, and that +the last two nights he wasn't in there at all." + +"Well--where's that purse?" demanded Mr. Lindsey. "Mr. Moneylaws here +says he can identify it, if it's Crone's." + +Chisholm opened a drawer and took out what I at once knew to be Abel +Crone's purse--which was in reality a sort of old pocket-book or wallet, +of some sort of skin, with a good deal of the original hair left on it, +and tied about with a bit of old bootlace. There were both gold and +silver in it--just as I had seen when Crone pulled it out to find me some +change for a five-shilling piece I had given him--and more by token, +there was the five-shilling piece itself! + +"That's Crone's purse!" I exclaimed. "I've no doubt about that. And +that's a crown piece I gave him myself; I've no doubt about that either!" + +"Let us see the man," said Mr. Lindsey. + +Chisholm led us down a corridor to the cells, and unlocked a door. He +stepped within the cell behind it, motioning us to follow. And there, on +the one stool which the place contained, sat a big, hulking fellow that +looked like a navvy, whose rough clothes bore evidence of his having +slept out in them, and whose boots were stained with the mud and clay +which they would be likely to collect along the riverside. He was sitting +nursing his head in his hands, growling to himself, and he looked up at +us as I have seen wild beasts look out through the bars of cages. And +somehow, there was that in the man's eyes which made me think, there and +then, that he was not reflecting on any murder that he had done, but was +sullenly and stupidly angry with himself. + +"Now, then, here's a lawyer for you," said Chisholm. "Mr. Lindsey, +solicitor." + +"Well, my man!" began Mr. Lindsey, taking a careful look at this queer +client. "What have you got to say to me?" + +The prisoner gave Chisholm a disapproving look. + +"Not going to say a word before the likes of him!" he growled. "I know my +rights, guv'nor! What I say, I'll say private to you." + +"Better leave us, sergeant," said Mr. Lindsey. He waited till Chisholm, a +bit unwilling, had left the cell and closed the door, and then he turned +to the man. "Now, then," he continued, "you know what they charge you +with? You've been drinking hard--are you sober enough to talk sense? Very +well, then--what's this you want me for?" + +"To defend me, of course!" growled the prisoner. He twisted a hand round +to the back of his trousers as if to find something. "I've money of my +own--a bit put away in a belt," he said; "I'll pay you." + +"Never mind that now," answered Mr. Lindsey. "Who are you?--and what do +you want to say?" + +"Name of John Carter," replied the man. "General labourer--navvy +work--anything of that sort. On tramp--seeking a job. Came here, going +north, night before last. And--no more to do with the murder of yon man +than you have!" + +"They found his purse on you, anyway," remarked Mr. Lindsey bluntly. +"What have you got to say to that?" + +"What I say is that I'm a damned fool!" answered Carter surlily. "It's +all against me, I know, but I'll tell you--you can tell lawyers anything. +Who's that young fellow?" he demanded suddenly, glaring at me. "I'm not +going to talk before no detectives." + +"My clerk," replied Mr. Lindsey. "Now, then--tell your tale. And just +remember what a dangerous position you're in." + +"Know that as well as you do," muttered the prisoner. "But I'm sober +enough, now! It's this way--I stopped here in the town three nights +since, and looked about for a job next day, and then I heard of something +likely up the river and went after it and didn't get it, so I started +back here--late at night it was. And after crossing that bridge at a +place called Twizel, I turned down to the river-bank, thinking to take a +short cut. And--it was well after dark, then, mind you, guv'nor--in +coming along through the woods, just before where the little river runs +into the big one, I come across this man's body--stumbled on it. That's +the truth!" + +"Well!" said Mr. Lindsey. + +"He was lying--I could show you the place, easy--between the edge of the +wood and the river-bank," continued Carter. "And though he was dead +enough when I found him, guv'nor, he hadn't been dead so long. But dead +he was--and not from aught of my doing." + +"What time was this?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"It would be past eleven o'clock," replied Carter. "It was ten when I +called by Cornhill station. I went the way I did--down through the woods +to the river-bank--because I'd noticed a hut there in the morning that I +could sleep in--I was making for that when I found the body." + +"Well--about the purse?" demanded Mr. Lindsey shortly. "No lies, now!" + +The prisoner shook his head at that, and growled--but it was evident he +was growling at himself. + +"That's right enough," he confessed. "I felt in his pockets, and I did +take the purse. But--I didn't put him in the water. True as I'm here, +guv'nor. I did no more than take the purse! I left him there--just as he +was--and the next day I got drinking, and last night I stopped in that +hut again, and today I was drinking, pretty heavy--and I sort of lost my +head and pulled the purse out, and--that's the truth, anyway, whether you +believe it or not. But I didn't kill yon man, though I'll admit I robbed +his body--like the fool I am!" + +"Well, you see where it's landed you," remarked Mr. Lindsey. "All +right--hold your tongue now, and I'll see what I can do. I'll appear for +you when you come before the magistrate tomorrow." + +He tapped at the door of the cell, and Chisholm, who had evidently waited +in the corridor, let us out. Mr. Lindsey said nothing to him, nor to the +superintendent--he led me away into the street. And there he clapped me +on the arm. + +"I believe every word that man said!" he murmured. "Come on, now--we'll +see this Nance Maguire." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE IRISH HOUSEKEEPER + + +I was a good deal surprised that Mr. Lindsey should be--apparently--so +anxious to interview Crone's housekeeper, and I said as much. He turned +on me sharply, with a knowing look. + +"Didn't you hear what the woman was saying when we came across her there +outside the police-station?" he exclaimed. "She was saying that Crone had +said to her that there was some man who would give his two eyes to be +seeing his corpse! Crone's been telling her something. And I'm so +convinced that that man in the cells yonder has told us the truth, as +regards himself, that I'm going to find out what Crone did tell her. Who +is there--who could there be that wanted to see Crone's dead body? Let's +try to find that out." + +I made no answer--but I was beginning to think; and to wonder, too, in a +vague, not very pleasant fashion. Was this--was Crone's death, murder, +whatever it was--at all connected with the previous affair of Phillips? +Had Crone told me the truth that night I went to buy the stuff for Tom +Dunlop's rabbit-hutches? or had he kept something back? And while I was +reflecting on these points, Mr. Lindsey began talking again. + +"I watched that man closely when he was giving me his account of what +happened," he said, "and, as I said just now, I believe he told us the +truth. Whoever it was that did Crone to death, he's not in that cell, +Hugh, my lad; and, unless I'm much mistaken, all this is of a piece with +Phillips's murder. But let's hear what this Irishwoman has to say." + +Crone's cottage was a mean, miserable shanty sort of place down a narrow +alley in a poor part of the town. When we reached its door there was a +group of women and children round it, all agog with excitement. But the +door itself was closed, and it was not opened to us until Nance Maguire's +face had appeared at the bit of a window, and Nance had assured herself +of the identity of her visitors. And when she had let us in, she shut the +door once more and slipped a bolt into its socket. + +"I an't said a word, your honour," said she, "since your honour told me +not to, though them outside is sharp on me to tell 'em this and that. And +I wouldn't have said what I did up yonder had I known your honour would +be for supporting me. I was feeling there wasn't a soul in the place +would see justice done for him that's gone--the poor, good man!" + +"If you want justice, my good woman," remarked Mr. Lindsey, "keep your +tongue quiet, and don't talk to your neighbours, nor to the police--just +keep anything you know till I tell you to let it out. Now, then, what's +this you were saying?--that Crone told you there was a man in the place +would give his two eyes to see him a corpse?" + +"Them very words, your honour; and not once nor twice, but a good many +times did he say it," replied the woman. "It was a sort of hint he was +giving me, your honour--he had that way of speaking." + +"Since when did he give you such hints?" asked Mr. Lindsey. "Was it +only lately?" + +"It was since that other bloody murder, your honour," said Nance Maguire. +"Only since then. He would talk of it as we sat over the fire there at +nights. 'There's murder in the air,' says he. 'Bloody murder is all +around us!' he says. 'And it's myself will have to pick my steps +careful,' he says, 'for there's him about would give his two eyes to see +me a stark and staring corpse,' he says. 'Me knowing,' he says, 'more +than you'd give me credit for,' says he. And not another word than them +could I get out of him, your honour." + +"He never told you who the man was that he had his fears of?" inquired +Mr. Lindsey. + +"He did not, then, your honour," replied Nance. "He was a close man, and +you wouldn't be getting more out of him than he liked to tell." + +"Now, then, just tell me the truth about a thing or two," said Mr. +Lindsey. "Crone used to be out at nights now and then, didn't he?" + +"Indeed, then, he did so, your honour," she answered readily. "'Tis true, +he would be out at nights, now and again." + +"Poaching, as a matter of fact," suggested Mr. Lindsey. + +"And that's the truth, your honour," she assented. "He was a clever hand +with the rabbits." + +"Aye; but did he never bring home a salmon, now?" asked Mr. Lindsey. +"Come, out with it." + +"I'll not deny that, neither, your honour," admitted the woman. "He was +clever at that too." + +"Well, now, about that night when he was supposed to be killed," +continued Mr. Lindsey; "that's Tuesday last--this being Thursday. Did he +ever come home that evening from his shop?" + +I had been listening silently all this time, and I listened with +redoubled attention for the woman's answer to the last question. It was +on the Tuesday evening, about nine o'clock, that I had had my talk with +Crone, and I was anxious to know what happened after that. And Nance +Maguire replied readily enough--it was evident her memory was clear on +these events. + +"He did not, then," she said. "He was in here having his tea at six +o'clock that evening, and he went away to the shop when he'd had it, and +I never put my eyes on him again, alive, your honour. He was never home +that night, and he didn't come to his breakfast next morning, and he +wasn't at the shop--and I never heard this or that of him till they come +and tell me the bad news." + +I knew then what must have happened. After I had left him, Crone had gone +away up the river towards Tillmouth--he had a crazy old bicycle that he +rode about on. And most people, having heard Nance Maguire's admissions, +would have said that he had gone poaching. But I was not so sure of that. +I was beginning to suspect that Crone had played some game with me, and +had not told me anything like the truth during our conversation. There +had been more within his knowledge than he had let out--but what was it? +And I could not help feeling that his object in setting off in that +direction, immediately after I had left him, might have been, not +poaching, but somebody to whom he wished to communicate the result of his +talk with me. And, in that case, who was the somebody? + +But just then I had to leave my own thoughts and speculations alone, and +to attend to what was going on between my principal and Nance Maguire. +Mr. Lindsey, however, appeared to be satisfied with what he had heard. He +gave the woman some further advice about keeping her tongue still, told +her what to do as regards Crone's effects, and left the cottage. And when +we were out in the main street again on our way back to the office he +turned to me with a look of decision. + +"I've come to a definite theory about this affair, Hugh," he said. "And +I'll lay a fiver to a farthing that it's the right one!" + +"Yes, Mr. Lindsey?" said I, keenly interested at hearing that. + +"Crone knew who killed Phillips," he said. "And the man who killed +Phillips killed Crone, too, because Crone knew! That's been the way of +it, my lad! And now, then, who's the man?" + +I could make no reply to such a question, and presently he went +on--talking as much to himself, I think, as to me. + +"I wish I knew certain things!" he muttered. "I wish I knew what Phillips +and Gilverthwaite came here for. I wish I knew if Gilverthwaite ever had +any secret dealings with Crone. I wish--I do wish!--I knew if there has +been--if there is--a third man in this Phillips-Gilverthwaite affair who +has managed, and is managing, to keep himself in the background. +But--I'll stake my professional reputation on one thing--whoever killed +Phillips, killed Abel Crone! It's all of a piece." + +Now, of course I know now--have known for many a year--that it was at +this exact juncture that I made a fatal, a reprehensible mistake in my +share of all this business. It was there, at that exact point, that I +ought to have made a clean breast to Mr. Lindsey of everything that I +knew. I ought to have told him, there and then, of what I had seen at the +cross-roads that night of the murder of Phillips; and of my conversation +about that with Abel Crone at his shop; and of my visit to Sir Gilbert +Carstairs at Hathercleugh House. Had I done so, matters would have become +simplified, and much more horror and trouble avoided, for Mr. Lindsey was +just then at the beginning of a straight track and my silence turned him +away from it, to get into more twisted and obscure ones. But--I said +nothing. And why? The answer is simple, and there's the excuse of human +nature in it--I was so much filled with the grand prospects of my +stewardship, and of all it would bring me, and was so highly pleased with +Sir Gilbert Carstairs for his advancement of my fortunes, that--here's +the plain truth--I could not bring myself to think of, or bother with, +anything else. Up to then, of course, I had not said a word to my mother +or to Maisie Dunlop of the stewardship--I was impatient to tell both. So +I held my peace and said nothing to Mr. Lindsey--and presently the office +work for the day was over and I was free to race home with my grand news. +Is it likely that with such news as that I would be troubling my head any +longer about other folks' lives and deaths? + +That, I suppose, was the most important evening I had ever spent in my +life. To begin with, I felt as if I had suddenly become older, and +bigger, and much more important. I became inclined to adopt magisterial +airs to my mother and my sweetheart, laying down the law to them as to +the future in a fashion which made Maisie poke fun at me for a crowing +cockerel. It was only natural that I should suffer a little from swelled +head that night--I should not have been human otherwise. But Andrew +Dunlop took the conceit out of me with a vengeance when Maisie and I told +him the news, and I explained everything to him in his back-parlour. He +was at times a man of many words, and at times a man of few words--and +when he said little, he meant most. + +"Aye!" said he. "Well, that's a fine prospect, Hugh, my man, and I wish +you well in it. But there'll be no talk of any wedding for two years--so +get that notion out of your heads, both of you! In two years you'll just +have got settled to your new job, and you'll be finding out how you suit +your master and how he suits you--we'll get the preliminaries over, and +see how things promise in that time. And we'll see, too, how much money +you've saved out of your salary, my man--so you'll just not hear the +wedding-bells calling for a couple of twelvemonths, and'll behave +yourselves like good children in the meanwhile. There's a deal of things +may happen in two years, I'm thinking." + +He might have added that a deal of things may happen in two weeks--and, +indeed, he would have had good reason for adding it, could he have looked +a few days ahead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ICE AX + + +The police put Carter in the dock before a full bench of magistrates next +morning, and the court was so crowded that it was all Mr. Lindsey and I +could do to force our way to the solicitors' table. Several minor cases +came on before Carter was brought up from the cells, and during this +hearing I had leisure to look round the court and see who was there. And +almost at once I saw Sir Gilbert Carstairs, who, though not yet a justice +of the peace--his commission to that honourable office arrived a few days +later, oddly enough,--had been given a seat on the bench, in company with +one or two other local dignitaries, one of whom, I observed with some +curiosity, was that Reverend Mr. Ridley who had given evidence at the +inquest on Phillips. All these folk, it was easy to see, were in a high +state of inquisitiveness about Crone's murder; and from certain whispers +that I overheard, I gathered that the chief cause of this interest lay in +a generally accepted opinion that it was, as Mr. Lindsey had declared to +me more than once, all of a piece with the crime of the previous week. +And it was very easy to observe that they were not so curious to see +Carter as to hear what might be alleged against him. + +There appeared to be some general surprise when Mr. Lindsey quietly +announced that he was there on behalf of the prisoner. You would have +thought from the demeanour of the police that, in their opinion, there +was nothing for the bench to do but hear a bit of evidence and commit +Carter straight away to the Assizes to take his trial for wilful murder. +What evidence they did bring forward was, of course, plain and +straightforward enough. Crone had been found lying in a deep pool in the +River Till; but the medical testimony showed that he had met his fate by +a blow from some sharp instrument, the point of which had penetrated the +skull and the frontal part of the brain in such a fashion as to cause +instantaneous death. The man in the dock had been apprehended with +Crone's purse in his possession--therefore, said the police, he had +murdered and robbed Crone. As I say, Mr. Murray and all of them--as you +could see--were quite of the opinion that this was sufficient; and I am +pretty sure that the magistrates were of the same way of thinking. And +the police were not over well pleased, and the rest of the folk in court +were, to say the least, a little mystified, when Mr. Lindsey asked a few +questions of two witnesses--of whom Chisholm was one, and the doctor who +had been fetched to Crone's body the other. And before setting down what +questions they were that Mr. Lindsey asked, I will remark here that there +was a certain something, a sort of mysterious hinting in his manner of +asking them, that suggested a lot more than the mere questions +themselves, and made people begin to whisper amongst each other that +Lawyer Lindsey knew things that he was not just then minded to let out. + +It was to Chisholm that he put his first questions--casually, as if they +were very ordinary ones, and yet with an atmosphere of meaning behind +them that excited curiosity. + +"You made a very exhaustive search of the neighbourhood of the spot where +Crone's body was found, didn't you?" he inquired. + +"A thorough search," answered Chisholm. + +"You found the exact spot where the man had been struck down?" + +"Judging by the marks of blood--yes." + +"On the river-bank--between the river and a coppice, wasn't it?" + +"Just so--between the bank and the coppice." + +"How far had the body been dragged before it was thrown into the river?" + +"Ten yards," replied Chisholm promptly. + +"Did you notice any footprints?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"It would be difficult to trace any," explained Chisholm. "The grass is +very thick in some places, and where it isn't thick it's that close and +wiry in texture that a boot wouldn't make any impression." + +"One more question," said Mr. Lindsey, leaning forward and looking +Chisholm full in the face. "When you charged the man there in the dock +with the murder of Abel Crone, didn't he at once--instantly!--show the +greatest surprise? Come, now, on your oath--yes or no?" + +"Yes!" admitted Chisholm; "he did." + +"But he just as readily admitted he was in possession of Crone's purse? +Again--yes or no?" + +"Yes," said Chisholm. "Yes--that's so." + +That was all Mr. Lindsey asked Chisholm. It was not much more that he +asked the doctor. But there was more excitement about what he did ask +him--arising out of something that he did in asking it. + +"There's been talk, doctor, as to what the precise weapon was which +caused the fatal injury to this man Crone," he said. "It's been suggested +that the wound which occasioned his death might have been--and probably +was--caused by a blow from a salmon gaff. What is your opinion?" + +"It might have been," said the doctor cautiously. + +"It was certainly caused by a pointed weapon--some sort of a spiked +weapon?" suggested Mr. Lindsey. + +"A sharp, pointed weapon, most certainly," affirmed the doctor. + +"There are other things than a salmon gaff that, in your opinion, could +have caused it?" + +"Oh, of course!" said the doctor. + +Mr. Lindsey paused a moment, and looked round the court as if he were +thinking over his next question. Then he suddenly plunged his hand under +the table at which he was standing, and amidst a dead silence drew out a +long, narrow brown-paper parcel which I had seen him bring to the office +that morning. Quietly, while the silence grew deeper and the interest +stronger, he produced from this an object such as I had never seen +before--an implement or weapon about three feet in length, its shaft made +of some tough but evidently elastic wood, furnished at one end with a +strong iron ferrule, and at the other with a steel head, one extremity of +which was shaped like a carpenter's adze, while the other tapered off to +a fine point. He balanced this across his open palms for a moment, so +that the court might see it--then he passed it over to the witness-box. + +"Now, doctor," he said, "look at that--which is one of the latest forms +of the ice-ax. Could that wound have been caused by that--or something +very similar to it?" + +The witness put a forefinger on the sharp point of the head. + +"Certainly!" he answered. "It is much more likely to have been caused by +such an implement as this than by a salmon gaff." + +Mr. Lindsey reached out his hand for the ice-ax, and, repossessing +himself of it, passed it and its brown-paper wrapping to me. + +"Thank you, doctor," he said; "that's all I wanted to know." He turned to +the bench. "I wish to ask your worships, if it is your intention, on the +evidence you have heard, to commit the prisoner on the capital charge +today?" he asked. "If it is, I shall oppose such a course. What I do ask, +knowing what I do, is that you should adjourn this case for a week--when +I shall have some evidence to put before you which, I think, will prove +that this man did not kill Abel Crone." + +There was some discussion. I paid little attention to it, being +considerably amazed at the sudden turn which things had taken, and +astonished altogether by Mr. Lindsey's production of the ice-ax. But the +discussion ended in Mr. Lindsey having his own way, and Carter was +remanded in custody, to be brought up again a week later; and presently +we were all out in the streets, in groups, everybody talking excitedly +about what had just taken place, and speculating on what it was that +Lawyer Lindsey was after. Mr. Lindsey himself, however, was more +imperturbable and, if anything, cooler than usual. He tapped me on the +arm as we went out of court, and at the same time took the parcel +containing the ice-ax from me. + +"Hugh," he said; "there's nothing more to do today, and I'm going out of +town at once, until tomorrow. You can lock up the office now, and you +and the other two can take a holiday. I'm going straight home and then +to the station." + +He turned hurriedly away in the direction of his house, and I went off to +the office to carry out his instructions. There was nothing strange in +his giving us a holiday--it was a thing he often did in summer, on fine +days when we had nothing much to do, and this was a gloriously fine day +and the proceedings in court had been so short that it was not yet noon. +So I packed off the two junior clerks and the office lad, and locked up, +and went away myself--and in the street outside I met Sir Gilbert +Carstairs. He was coming along in our direction, evidently deep in +thought, and he started a little as he looked up and saw me. + +"Hullo, Moneylaws!" he said in his off-hand fashion. "I was just wanting +to see you. I say!" he went on, laying a hand on my arm, "you're dead +certain that you've never mentioned to a soul but myself anything about +that affair of yours and Crone's--you know what I mean?" + +"Absolutely certain, Sir Gilbert!" I answered. "There's no living being +knows--but yourself." + +"That's all right," he said, and I could see he was relieved. "I don't +want mixing up with these matters--I should very much dislike it. What's +Lindsey trying to get at in his defence of this man Carter?" + +"I can't think," I replied. "Unless it is that he's now inclining to the +theory of the police that Phillips was murdered by some man or men who +followed him from Peebles, and that the same man or men murdered Crone. I +think that must be it: there were some men--tourists--about, who haven't +been found yet." + +He hesitated a moment, and then glanced at our office door. + +"Lindsey in?" he asked. + +"No, Sir Gilbert," I replied. "He's gone out of town and given us +a holiday." + +"Oh!" he said, looking at me with a sudden smile. "You've got a holiday, +have you, Moneylaws? Look here--I'm going for a run in my bit of a +yacht--come with me! How soon can you be ready?" + +"As soon as I've taken my dinner, Sir Gilbert," I answered, pleased +enough at the invitation. "Would an hour do?" + +"You needn't bother about your dinner," he said. "I'm having a lunch +basket packed now at the hotel, and I'll step in and tell them to put in +enough for two. Go and get a good thick coat, and meet me down at the +front in half an hour." + +I ran off home, told my mother where I was going, and hurried away to the +river-side. The Tweed was like a mirror flashing back the sunlight that +day, and out beyond its mouth the open sea was bright and blue as the sky +above. How could I foresee that out there, in those far-off dancing +waters, there was that awaiting me of which I can only think now, when it +is long past, with fear and horror? + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MY TURN + + +I had known for some time that Sir Gilbert Carstairs had a small yacht +lying at one of the boathouses on the riverside; indeed, I had seen her +before ever I saw him. She was a trim, graceful thing, with all the +appearance of an excellent sea-boat, and though she looked like a craft +that could stand a lot of heavy weather, she had the advantage of being +so light in draught--something under three feet--that it was possible for +her to enter the shallowest harbour. I had heard that Sir Gilbert was +constantly sailing her up and down the coast, and sometimes going well +out to sea in her. On these occasions he was usually accompanied by a +fisherlad whom he had picked up somehow or other: this lad, Wattie Mason, +was down by the yacht when I reached her, and he gave me a glowering look +when he found that I was to put his nose out for this time at any rate. +He hung around us until we got off, as a hungry dog hangs around a table +on the chance of a bone being thrown to him; but he got no recognition +from Sir Gilbert, who, though the lad had been useful enough to him +before, took no more notice of him that day than of one of the pebbles on +the beach. And if I had been more of a student of human nature, I should +have gained some idea of my future employer's character from that small +circumstance, and have seen that he had no feeling or consideration for +anybody unless it happened to be serving and suiting his purpose. + +But at that moment I was thinking of nothing but the pleasure of taking a +cruise in the yacht, in the company of a man in whom I was naturally +interested. I was passionately fond of the sea, and had already learned +from the Berwick sea-going folk how to handle small craft, and the +management of a three-oar vessel like this was an easy matter to me, as I +soon let Sir Gilbert know. Once outside the river mouth, with a nice +light breeze blowing off the land, we set squaresail, mainsail, and +foresail and stood directly out to sea on as grand a day and under as +fair conditions as a yachtsman could desire; and when we were gaily +bowling along Sir Gilbert bade me unpack the basket which had been put +aboard from the hotel--it was a long time, he said, since his breakfast, +and we would eat and drink at the outset of things. If I had not been +hungry myself, the sight of the provisions in that basket would have made +me so--there was everything in there that a man could desire, from cold +salmon and cold chicken to solid roast beef, and there was plenty of +claret and whisky to wash it down with. And, considering how readily and +healthily Sir Gilbert Carstairs ate and drank, and how he talked and +laughed while we lunched side by side under that glorious sky, gliding +away over a smooth, innocent-looking sea, I have often wondered since if +what was to come before nightfall came of deliberate intention on his +part, or from a sudden yielding to temptation when the chance of it +arose--and for the life of me I cannot decide! But if the man had murder +in his heart, while he sat there at my side, eating his good food and +drinking his fine liquor, and sharing both with me and pressing me to +help myself to his generous provision--if it was so, I say, then he was +of an indescribable cruelty which it makes me cringe to think of, and I +would prefer to believe that the impulse to bring about my death came +from a sudden temptation springing from a sudden chance. And yet--God +knows it is a difficult problem to settle! + +For this was what it came to, and before sunset was reddening the western +skies behind the Cheviots. We went a long, long way out--far beyond the +thirty-fathom line, which is, as all sailors acquainted with those waters +know, a good seven miles from shore; indeed, as I afterwards reckoned, we +were more than twice that distance from Berwick pier-end when the affair +happened--perhaps still further. We had been tacking about all the +afternoon, first south, then north, not with any particular purpose, but +aimlessly. We scarcely set eyes on another sail, and at a little after +seven o'clock in the evening, when there was some talk of going about and +catching the wind, which had changed a good deal since noon and was now +coming more from the southeast, we were in the midst of a great waste of +sea in which I could not make out a sign of any craft but ours--not even +a trail of smoke on the horizon. The flat of the land had long since +disappeared: the upper slopes of the Cheviots on one side of Tweed and +of the Lammermoor Hills on the other, only just showed above the line of +the sea. There was, I say, nothing visible on all that level of scarcely +stirred water but our own sails, set to catch whatever breeze there was, +when that happened which not only brought me to the very gates of death, +but, in the mere doing of it, gave me the greatest horror of any that I +have ever known. + +I was standing up at the moment, one foot on the gunwale, the other on +the planking behind me, carelessly balancing myself while I stared across +the sea in search of some object which he--this man that I trusted so +thoroughly and in whose company I had spent so many pleasant hours that +afternoon, and who was standing behind me at the moment--professed to see +in the distance, when he suddenly lurched against me, as if he had +slipped and lost his footing. That was what I believed in that startling +moment--but as I went head first overboard I was aware that his fall was +confined to a sprawl into the scuppers. Overboard I went!--but he +remained where he was. And my weight--I was weighing a good thirteen +stone at that time, being a big and hefty youngster--carried me down and +down into the green water, for I had been shot over the side with +considerable impetus. And when I came up, a couple of boat's-lengths from +the yacht, expecting to find that he was bringing her up so that I could +scramble aboard, I saw with amazed and incredulous affright that he was +doing nothing of the sort; instead, working at it as hard as he could +go, he was letting out a couple of reefs which he had taken up in the +mainsail an hour before--in another minute they were out, the yacht moved +more swiftly, and, springing to the tiller, he deliberately steered her +clear away from me. + +I suppose I saw his purpose all at once. Perhaps it drove me wild, mad, +frenzied. The yacht was going away from me fast--faster; good swimmer +though I was, it was impossible for me to catch up to her--she was making +her own length to every stroke I took, and as she drew away he stood +there, one hand on the tiller, the other in his pocket (I have often +wondered if it was fingering a revolver in there!), his eyes turned +steadily on me. And I began first to beg and entreat him to save me, and +then to shout out and curse him--and at that, and seeing that we were +becoming further and further separated, he deliberately put the yacht +still more before the freshening wind, and went swiftly away, and looked +at me no more. + +So he left me to drown. + +We had been talking a lot about swimming during the afternoon, and I had +told him that though I had been a swimmer ever since boyhood, I had never +done more than a mile at a stretch, and then only in the river. He knew, +therefore, that he was leaving me a good fourteen miles from land with +not a sail in sight, not a chance of being picked up. Was it likely that +I could make land?--was there ever a probability of anything coming along +that would sight me? There was small likelihood, anyway; the likelihood +was that long before the darkness had come on I should be exhausted, +give up, and go down. + +You may conceive with what anger, and with what fierce resentment, I +watched this man and his yacht going fast away from me--and with what +despair too. But even in that moment I was conscious of two facts--I now +knew that yonder was the probable murderer of both Phillips and Crone, +and that he was leaving me to die because I was the one person living who +could throw some light on those matters, and, though I had kept silence +up to then, might be tempted, or induced, or obliged to do so--he would +silence me while he had so good a chance. And the other was, that +although there seemed about as much likelihood of my ever seeing Berwick +again as of being made King of England, I must do my utmost to save my +strength and my life. I had a wealth of incentives--Maisie, my mother, +Mr. Lindsey, youth, the desire to live; and now there was another added +to them--the desire to circumvent that cold-hearted, cruel devil, who, I +was now sure, had all along been up to some desperate game, and to have +my revenge and see justice done on him. I was not going to give in +without making a fight for it. + +But it was a poor chance that I had--and I was well aware of it. There +was small prospect of fishing boats or the like coming out that evening; +small likelihood of any coasting steamer sighting a bit of a speck like +me. All the same, I was going to keep my chin up as long as possible, and +the first thing to do was to take care of my strength. I made shift to +divest myself of a heavy pea-jacket that I was wearing and of the +unnecessary clothing beneath it; I got rid, too, of my boots. And after +resting a bit on my back and considering matters, I decided to make a try +for land--I might perhaps meet some boat coming out. I lifted my head +well up and took a glance at what I could see--and my heart sank at what +I did see! The yacht was a speck in the distance by that time, and far +beyond it the Cheviots and the Lammermoors were mere bits of grey outline +against the gold and crimson of the sky. One thought instantly filled and +depressed me--I was further from land than I had believed. + +At this distance from it I have but confused and vague recollections of +that night. Sometimes I dream of it--even now--and wake sweating with +fear. In those dreams I am toiling and toiling through a smooth sea--it +is always a smooth, oily, slippery sea--towards something to which I make +no great headway. Sometimes I give up toiling through sheer and desperate +aching of body and limbs, and let myself lie drifting into helplessness +and a growing sleep. And then--in my dream--I start to find myself going +down into strange cavernous depths of shining green, and I wake--in my +dream--to begin fighting and toiling again against my compelling desire +to give up. + +I do not know how long I made a fight of it in reality; it must have been +for hours--alternately swimming, alternately resting myself by floating. +I had queer thoughts. It was then about the time that some men were +attempting to swim the Channel. I remember laughing grimly, wishing them +joy of their job--they were welcome to mine! I remember, too, that at +last in the darkness I felt that I must give up, and said my prayers; and +it was about that time, when I was beginning to feel a certain numbness +of mind as well as weariness of body, that as I struck out in the +mechanical and weakening fashion which I kept up from what little +determination I had left, I came across my salvation--in the shape of a +piece of wreckage that shoved itself against me in the blackness, as if +it had been some faithful dog, pushing its nose into my hand to let me +know it was there. It was no more than a square of grating, but it was +heavy and substantial; and as I clung to and climbed on to it, I knew +that it made all the difference to me between life and death. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SAMARITAN SKIPPER + + +I clung to that heaven-sent bit of wreckage, exhausted and weary, until +the light began to break in the east. I was numbed and shivering with +cold--but I was alive and safe. That square yard of good and solid wood +was as much to me as if it had been a floating island. And as the light +grew and grew, and the sun at last came up, a ball of fire out of the far +horizon, I looked across the sea on all sides, hoping to catch sight of a +sail, or of a wisp of smoke--of anything that would tell me of the near +presence of human beings. And one fact I realized at once--I was further +away from land than when I had begun my battle with death. There was no +sign of land in the west. The sky was now clear and bright on all sides, +but there was nothing to break the line where it met the sea. Before the +fading of the light on the previous evening, I had easily made out the +well-known outlines of the Cheviots on one hand and of Says Law on the +other--now there was not a vestige of either. I knew from that fact that +I had somehow drifted further and further away from the coast. There was +accordingly nothing to do but wait the chance of being sighted and picked +up, and I set to work, as well as I could on my tiny raft, to chafe my +limbs and get some warmth into my body. And never in my life did I bless +the sun as I did that morning, for when he sprang out of bed in the +northeast skies, it was with his full and hearty vigour of high +springtide, and his heat warmed my chilled blood and sent a new glow of +hope to my heart. But that heat was not an unmixed blessing--and I was +already parched with thirst; and as the sun mounted higher and higher, +pouring his rays full upon me, the thirst became almost intolerable, and +my tongue felt as if my mouth could no longer contain it. + +It was, perhaps, one hour after sunrise, when my agony was becoming +almost insupportable, that I first noticed a wisp of smoke on the +southern rim of the circle of sea which just then was all my world. I +never strained my eyes for anything as I did for that patch of grey +against the cloudless blue! It grew bigger and bigger--I knew, of course, +that it was some steamer, gradually approaching. But it seemed ages +before I could make out her funnels; ages before I saw the first bit of +her black bulk show up above the level of the dancing waves. Yet there +she was at last--coming bows on, straight in my direction. My nerves must +have given out at the sight--I remember the tears rolling down my cheeks; +I remember hearing myself make strange sounds, which I suppose were those +of relief and thankfulness. And then the horror of being unseen, of being +left to endure more tortures of thirst, of the steamer changing her +course, fell on me, and long before she was anywhere near me I was +trying to balance myself on the grating, so that I could stand erect and +attract her attention. + +She was a very slow-going craft that--not able to do more than nine or +ten knots at best--and another hour passed before she was anywhere near +me. But, thank God! she came within a mile of me, and I made shift to +stand up on my raft and to wave to her. And thereon she altered her +course and lumbered over in my direction. She was one of the ugliest +vessels that ever left a shipyard, but I thought I had never seen +anything so beautiful in my life as she looked in those moments, and I +had certainly never been so thankful for anything as for her solid and +dirty deck when willing and kindly hands helped me up on it. + +Half an hour after that, with dry clothes on me, and hot coffee and rum +inside me, I was closeted with the skipper in his cabin, telling him, +under a strict pledge of secrecy, as much of my tale as I felt inclined +to share with him. He was a sympathetic and an understanding man, and he +swore warmly and plentifully when he heard how treacherously I had been +treated, intimating it as the--just then--dearest wish of his heart to +have the handling of the man who had played me the trick. + +"But you'll be dealing with him yourself!" said he. "Man!--you'll not +spare him--promise me you'll not spare him! And you'll send me a +newspaper with the full account of all that's done to him when you've set +the law to work--dod! I hope they'll quarter him! Them was grand days +when there was more licence and liberty in punishing malefactors--oh! I'd +like fine to see this man put into boiling oil, or something of that +sort, the cold-hearted, murdering villain! You'll be sure to send me the +newspaper?" + +I laughed--for the first time since--when? It seemed years since I had +laughed--and yet it was only a few hours, after all. + +"Before I can set the law to work on him, I must get on dry land, +captain," I answered. "Where are you going?" + +"Dundee," he replied. "Dundee--and we're just between sixty and seventy +miles away now, and it's near seven o'clock. We'll be in Dundee early in +the afternoon, anyway. And what'll you do there? You'll be for getting +the next train to Berwick?" + +"I'm not so sure, captain," I answered. "I don't want that man to know +I'm alive--yet. It'll be a nice surprise for him--later. But there are +those that I must let know as soon as possible--so the first thing I'll +do, I'll wire. And in the meantime, let me have a sleep." + +The steamer that had picked me up was nothing but a tramp, plodding along +with a general cargo from London to Dundee, and its accommodation was as +rough as its skipper was homely. But it was a veritable palace of delight +and luxury to me after that terrible night, and I was soon hard and fast +asleep in the skipper's own bunk--and was still asleep when he laid a +hand on me at three o'clock that afternoon. + +"We're in the Tay," he said, "and we'll dock in half an hour. And +now--you can't go ashore in your underclothing, man! And where's +your purse?" + +He had rightly sized up the situation. I had got rid of everything but +my singlet and drawers in the attempt to keep going; as for my purse, +that was where the rest of my possessions were--sunk or floating. + +"You and me's about of a build," he remarked. "I'll fit you up with a +good suit that I have, and lend you what money you want. But what is it +you're going to do?" + +"How long are you going to stop here in Dundee, captain?" I asked. + +"Four days," he answered. "I'll be discharging tomorrow, and loading the +next two days, and then I'll be away again." + +"Lend me the clothes and a sovereign," said I. "I'll wire to my +principal, the gentleman I told you about, to come here at once with +clothes and money, so I'll repay you and hand your suit back first thing +tomorrow morning, when I'll bring him to see you." + +He immediately pulled a sovereign out of his pocket, and, turning to a +locker, produced a new suit of blue serge and some necessary linen. + +"Aye?" he remarked, a bit wonderingly. "You'll be for fetching him along +here, then? And for what purpose?" + +"I want him to take your evidence about picking me up," I answered. +"That's one thing--and--there's other reasons that we'll tell you about +afterwards. And--don't tell anybody here of what's happened, and pass the +word for silence to your crew. It'll be something in their pockets when +my friend comes along." + +He was a cute man, and he understood that my object was to keep the news +of my escape from Sir Gilbert Carstairs, and he promised to do what I +asked. And before long--he and I being, as he had observed, very much of +a size, and the serge suit fitting me very well--I was in the streets of +Dundee, where I had never been before, seeking out a telegraph office, +and twiddling the skipper's sovereign between thumb and finger while I +worked out a problem that needed some little thought. + +I must let my mother and Maisie know of my safety--at once. I must let +Mr. Lindsey know, too. I knew what must have happened there at Berwick. +That monstrous villain would sneak home and say that a sad accident had +happened me. It made me grind my teeth and long to get my hands at his +lying tongue when I thought of what Maisie and my mother must have +suffered after hearing his tales and excuses. But I did not want him to +know I was safe--I did not want the town to know. Should I telephone to +Mr. Lindsey's office, it was almost certain one of my fellow-clerks there +would answer the ring, and recognize my voice. Then everything would be +noised around. And after thinking it all over I sent Mr. Lindsey a +telegram in the following words, hoping that he would fully understand:-- + +"Keep this secret from everybody. Bring suit of clothes, linen, money, +mother, and Maisie by next train to Dundee. Give post-office people +orders not to let this out, most important. H.M." + +I read that over half a dozen times before I finally dispatched it. It +seemed all wrong, somehow--and all right in another way. And, however +badly put it was, it expressed my meaning. So I handed it in, and my +borrowed sovereign with it, and jingling the change which was given back +to me, I went out of the telegraph office to stare around me. + +It was a queer thing, but I was now as light-hearted as could be--I +caught myself laughing from a curious feeling of pleasure. The truth +was--if you want to analyse the sources--I was vastly relieved to be able +to get in touch with my own people. Within an hour, perhaps sooner, they +would have the news, and I knew well that they would lose no time in +setting off to me. And finding myself just then in the neighbourhood of +the North British Railway Station, I went in and managed to make out that +if Mr. Lindsey was at the office when my wire arrived, and acted promptly +in accordance with it, he and they could reach Dundee by a late train +that evening. That knowledge, of course, made me in a still more +light-hearted mood. But there was another source of my satisfaction and +complaisance: things were in a grand way now for my revenge on Sir +Gilbert Carstairs, and what had been a mystery was one no longer. + +I went back to the dock where I had left the tramp-steamer, and told its +good-natured skipper what I had done, for he was as much interested in +the affair as if he had been my own brother. And that accomplished, I +left him again and went sight-seeing, having been wonderfully freshened +up and restored by my good sleep of the morning. I wandered up and down +and about Dundee till I was leg-weary, and it was nearly six o'clock of +the afternoon. And at that time, being in Bank Street, and looking about +me for some place where I could get a cup of tea and a bite of food, I +chanced by sheer accident to see a name on a brass plate, fixed amongst +more of the same sort, on the outer door of a suite of offices. That name +was Gavin Smeaton. I recalled it at once--and, moved by a sudden impulse, +I went climbing up a lot of steps to Mr. Gavin Smeaton's office. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MR. GAVIN SMEATON + + +I walked into a room right at the top of the building, wherein a young +man of thirty or thereabouts was sitting at a desk, putting together a +quantity of letters which a lad, standing at his side, was evidently +about to carry to the post. He was a good-looking, alert, businesslike +sort of young man this, of a superior type of countenance, very well +dressed, and altogether a noticeable person. What first struck me about +him was, that though he gave me a quick glance when, having first tapped +at his door and walked inside his office, I stood there confronting him, +he finished his immediate concern before giving me any further attention. +It was not until he had given all the letters to the lad and bade him +hurry off to the post, that he turned to me with another sharp look and +one word of interrogation. + +"Yes?" he said. + +"Mr. Gavin Smeaton?" asked I. + +"That's my name," he answered. "What can I do for you?" + +Up to that moment I had not the least idea as to the exact reasons which +had led me to climb those stairs. The truth was I had acted on impulse. +And now that I was actually in the presence of a man who was obviously a +very businesslike and matter-of-fact sort of person, I felt awkward and +tongue-tied. He was looking me over all the time as if there was a wonder +in his mind about me, and when I was slow in answering he stirred a bit +impatiently in his chair. + +"My business hours are over for the day," he said. "If it's business--" + +"It's not business in the ordinary sense, Mr. Smeaton," I made shift to +get out. "But it is business for all that. The fact is--you'll remember +that the Berwick police sent you a telegram some days ago asking did you +know anything about a man named John Phillips?" + +He showed a sudden interest at that, and he regarded me with a +slight smile. + +"You aren't a detective?" he inquired. + +"No--I'm a solicitor's clerk," I replied. "From Berwick--my principal, +Mr. Lindsey, has to do with that case." + +He nodded at a pile of newspapers, which stood, with a heavy book on top +of it, on a side table near his desk. + +"So I see from these papers," he remarked. "I've read all I could about +the affairs of both Phillips and Crone, ever since I heard that my name +and address had been found on Phillips. Has any further light been +thrown on that? Of course, there was nothing much in my name and address +being found on the man, nor would there be if they were found on any +man. As you see, I'm a general agent for various sorts of foreign +merchandise, and this man had likely been recommended to me--especially +if he was from America." + +"There's been no further light on that matter, Mr. Smeaton," I +answered. He had pointed me to a chair at his desk side by that time, +and we were mutually inspecting each other. "Nothing more has been +heard on that point." + +"Then--have you come purposely to see me about it?" he asked. + +"Not at all!" said I. "I was passing along this street below, and I saw +your name on the door, and I remembered it--and so I just came up." + +"Oh!" he said, looking at me rather blankly. "You're staying in +Dundee--taking a holiday?" + +"I came to Dundee in a fashion I'd not like to follow on any other +occasion!" said I. "If a man hadn't lent me this suit of clothes and a +sovereign, I'd have come ashore in my undergarments and without a penny." + +He stared at me more blankly than ever when I let this out on him, and +suddenly he laughed. + +"What riddle's all this?" he asked. "It sounds like a piece out of a +story-book--one of those tales of adventure." + +"Aye, does it?" said I. "Only, in my case, Mr. Smeaton, fact's been a lot +stranger than fiction! You've read all about this Berwick mystery in the +newspapers?" + +"Every word--seeing that I was mentioned," he answered. + +"Then I'll give you the latest chapter," I continued. "You'll know my +name when you hear it--Hugh Moneylaws. It was I discovered Phillips's +dead body." + +I saw that he had been getting more and more interested as we +talked--at the mention of my name his interest obviously increased. And +suddenly he pulled a box of cigars towards him, took one out, and +pushed the box to me. + +"Help yourself, Mr. Moneylaws--and go ahead," he said. "I'm willing to +hear as many chapters as you like of this story." + +I shook my head at the cigars and went on to tell him of all that had +happened since the murder of Crone. He was a good listener--he took in +every detail, every point, quietly smoking while I talked, and never +interrupting me. And when I had made an end, he threw up his head with a +significant gesture that implied much. + +"That beats all the story-books!" he exclaimed. "I'm glad to see you're +safe, anyway, Mr. Moneylaws--and your mother and your young lady'll be +glad too." + +"They will that, Mr. Smeaton," I said. "I'm much obliged to you." + +"You think that man really meant you to drown?" he asked. + +"What would you think yourself, Mr. Smeaton?" I replied. "Besides--didn't +I see his face as he got himself and his yacht away from me? Yon man is a +murderer!" + +"It's a queer, strange business," he remarked, nodding his head. "You'll +be thinking now, of course, that it was he murdered both Phillips and +Crone--eh?" + +"Aye, I do think that!" said I. "What else? And he wanted to silence me +because I'm the only living person that could let out about seeing him at +the cross-roads that night and could prove that Crone saw him too. My own +impression is that Crone went straight to him after his talk with me--and +paid the penalty." + +"That's likely," he assented. "But what do you think made him turn on you +so suddenly, yesterday, when things looked like going smoothly about +everything, and he'd given you that stewardship--which was, of course, to +stop your mouth?" + +"I'll tell you," I said. "It was Mr. Lindsey's fault--he let out too much +at the police-court. Carstairs was there--he'd a seat on the bench--and +Mr. Lindsey frightened him. Maybe it was yon ice-ax. Mr. Lindsey's got +some powerful card up his sleeve about that--what it is I don't know. But +I'm certain now--now!--that Carstairs took a fear into his head at those +proceedings yesterday morning, and he thought he'd settle me once and for +all before I could be drawn into it and forced to say things that would +be against him." + +"I daresay you're right," he agreed. "Well!--it is indeed a strange +affair, and there'll be some stranger revelations yet. I'd like to see +this Mr. Lindsey--you're sure he'll come to you here?" + +"Aye!--unless there's been an earthquake between here and Tweed!" I +declared. "He'll be here, right enough, Mr. Smeaton, before many hours +are over. And he'll like to see you. You can't think, now, of how, or +why, yon Phillips man could have got that bit of letter paper of yours +on him? It was like that," I added, pointing to a block of memorandum +forms that stood in his stationery case at the desk before him. "Just +the same!" + +"I can't," said he. "But--there's nothing unusual in that; some +correspondent of mine might have handed it to him--torn it off one of my +letters, do you see? I've correspondents in a great many seaports and +mercantile centres--both here and in America." + +"These men will appear to have come from Central America," I remarked. +"They'd seem to have been employed, one way or another, on that Panama +Canal affair that there's been so much in the papers about these last few +years. You'd notice that in the accounts, Mr. Smeaton?" + +"I did," he replied. "And it interested me, because I'm from those parts +myself--I was born there." + +He said that as if this fact was of no significance. But the news made me +prick up my ears. + +"Do you tell me that!" said I. "Where, now, if it's a fair question?" + +"New Orleans--near enough, anyway, to those parts," he answered. "But I +was sent across here when I was ten years old, to be educated and brought +up, and here I've been ever since." + +"But--you're a Scotsman?" I made bold to ask him. + +"Aye--on both sides--though I was born out of Scotland," he answered with +a laugh. And then he got out of his chair. "It's mighty interesting, all +this," he went on. "But I'm a married man, and my wife'll be wanting +dinner for me. Now, will you bring Mr. Lindsey to see me in the +morning--if he comes?" + +"He'll come--and I'll bring him," I answered. "He'll be right glad to see +you, too--for it may be, Mr. Smeaton, that there is something to be +traced out of that bit of letter paper of yours, yet." + +"It may be," he agreed. "And if there's any help I can give, it's at your +disposal. But you'll be finding this--you're in a dark lane, with some +queer turnings in it, before you come to the plain outcome of all this +business!" + +We went down into the street together, and after he had asked if there +was anything he could do for me that night, and I had assured him there +was not, we parted with an agreement that Mr. Lindsey and I should call +at his office early next morning. When he had left me, I sought out a +place where I could get some supper, and, that over, I idled about the +town until it was time for the train from the south to get in. And I was +on the platform when it came, and there was my mother and Maisie and Mr. +Lindsey, and I saw at a glance that all that was filling each was sheer +and infinite surprise. My mother gripped me on the instant. + +"Hugh!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here, and what does all this +mean? Such a fright as you've given us! What's the meaning of it?" + +I was so taken aback, having been certain that Carstairs would have gone +home and told them I was accidentally drowned, that all I could do was to +stare from one to the other. As for Maisie, she only looked wonderingly +at me; as for Mr. Lindsey, he gazed at me as scrutinizingly as my mother +was doing. + +"Aye!" said he, "what's the meaning of it, young man? We've done your +bidding and more--but--why?" + +I found my tongue at that. + +"What!" I exclaimed. "Haven't you seen Sir Gilbert Carstairs? Didn't you +hear from him that--" + +"We know nothing about Sir Gilbert Carstairs," he interrupted. "The fact +is, my lad, that until your wire arrived this afternoon, nobody had even +heard of you and Sir Gilbert Carstairs since you went off in his yacht +yesterday. Neither he nor the yacht have ever returned to Berwick. Where +are they?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +I READ MY OWN OBITUARY + + +It was my turn to stare again--and stare I did, from one to the other in +silence, and being far too much amazed to find ready speech. And before I +could get my tongue once more, my mother, who was always remarkably sharp +of eye, got her word in. + +"What're you doing in that new suit of clothes?" she demanded. "And +where's your own good clothes that you went away in yesterday noon? I +misdoubt this stewardship's leading you into some strange ways!" + +"My own good clothes, mother, are somewhere in the North Sea," retorted +I. "Top or bottom, sunk or afloat, it's there you'll find them, if you're +more anxious about them than me! Do you tell me that Carstairs has never +been home?" I went on, turning to Mr. Lindsey, "Then I don't know where +he is, nor his yacht either. All I know is that he left me to drown last +night, a good twenty miles from land, and that it's only by a special +mercy of Providence that I'm here. Wherever he is, yon man's a +murderer--I've settled that, Mr. Lindsey!" + +The women began to tremble and to exclaim at this news, and to ask one +question after another, and Mr. Lindsey shook his head impatiently. + +"We can't stand talking our affairs in the station all night," said he. +"Let's get to an hotel, my lad--we're all wanting our suppers. You don't +seem as if you were in very bad spirits, yourself." + +"I'm all right, Mr. Lindsey," I answered cheerfully. "I've been down to +Jericho, it's true, and to worse, but I chanced across a good Samaritan +or two. And I've looked out a clean and comfortable hotel for you, and +we'll go there now." + +I led them away to a good hotel that I had noticed in my walks, and while +they took their suppers I sat by and told them all my adventure, to the +accompaniment of many exclamations from my mother and Maisie. But Mr. +Lindsey made none, and I was quick to notice that what most interested +him was that I had been to see Mr. Gavin Smeaton. + +"But what for did you not come straight home when you were safely on +shore again?" asked my mother, who was thinking of the expense I was +putting her to. "What's the reason of fetching us all this way when +you're alive and well?" + +I looked at Mr. Lindsey--knowingly, I suppose. + +"Because, mother," I answered her, "I believed yon Carstairs would go +back to Berwick and tell that there'd been a sad accident, and I was +dead--drowned--and I wanted to let him go on thinking that I was +dead--and so I decided to keep away. And if he is alive, it'll be the +best thing to let the man still go on thinking I was drowned--as I'll +prove to Mr. Lindsey there. If Carstairs is alive, I say, it's the right +policy for me to keep out of his sight and our neighbourhood." + +"Aye!" agreed Mr. Lindsey, who was a quick hand at taking up things. +"There's something in that, Hugh." + +"Well, it's beyond me, all this," observed my mother, "and it all comes +of me taking yon Gilverthwaite into the house! But me and Maisie'll away +to our beds, and maybe you and Mr. Lindsey'll get more light out of the +matter than I can, and glad I'll be when all this mystery's cleared up +and we'll be able to live as honest folk should, without all this flying +about the country and spending good money." + +I contrived to get a few minutes with Maisie, however, before she and my +mother retired, and I found then that, had I known it, I need not have +been so anxious and disturbed. For they had attached no particular +importance to the fact that I had not returned the night before; they had +thought that Sir Gilbert had sailed his yacht in elsewhere, and that I +would be turning up later, and there had been no great to-do after me +until my own telegram had arrived, when, of course, there was +consternation and alarm, and nothing but hurry to catch the next train +north. But Mr. Lindsey had contrived to find out that nothing had been +seen of Sir Gilbert Carstairs and his yacht at Berwick; and to that point +he and I at once turned when the women had gone to bed and I went with +him into the smoking-room while he had his pipe and his drop of whisky. +By that time I had told him of the secret about the meeting at the +cross-roads, and about my interview with Crone at his shop, and Sir +Gilbert Carstairs at Hathercleugh, when he offered me the stewardship; +and I was greatly relieved when Mr. Lindsey let me down lightly and said +no more than that if I'd told him these things, at first, there might +have been a great difference. + +"But we're on the beginning of something," he concluded. "That Sir +Gilbert Carstairs has some connection with these murders, I'm now +convinced--but what it is, I'm not yet certain. What I am certain about +is that he took fright yesterday morning in our court, when I produced +that ice-ax and asked the doctor those questions about it." + +"And I'm sure of that, too, Mr. Lindsey," said I. "And I've been +wondering what there was about yon ice-ax that frightened him. You'll +know that yourself, of course?" + +"Aye, but I'm not going to tell you!" he answered. "You'll have to await +developments on that point, my man. And now we'll be getting to bed, and +in the morning we'll see this Mr. Gavin Smeaton. It would be a queer +thing now, wouldn't it, if we got some clue to all this through him? But +I'm keenly interested in hearing that he comes from the other side of the +Atlantic, Hugh, for I've been of opinion that it's across there that the +secret of the whole thing will be found." + +They had brought me a supply of clothes and money with them, and first +thing in the morning I went off to the docks and found my Samaritan +skipper, and gave him back his sovereign and his blue serge suit, with +my heartiest thanks and a promise to keep him fully posted up in the +development of what he called the case. And then I went back to +breakfast with the rest of them, and at once there was the question of +what was to be done. My mother was all for going homeward as quickly as +possible, and it ended up in our seeing her and Maisie away by the next +train; Mr. Lindsey having made both swear solemnly that they would not +divulge one word of what had happened, nor reveal the fact that I was +alive, to any living soul but Andrew Dunlop, who, of course, could be +trusted. And my mother agreed, though the proposal was anything but +pleasant or proper to her. + +"You're putting on me more than any woman ought to be asked to bear, Mr. +Lindsey," said she, as we saw them into the train. "You're asking me to +go home and behave as if we didn't know whether the lad was alive or +dead. I'm not good at the playacting, and I'm far from sure that it's +either truthful or honest to be professing things that isn't so. And I'll +be much obliged to you if you'll get all this cleared up, and let Hugh +there settle down to his work in the proper way, instead of wandering +about on business that's no concern of his." + +We shook our heads at each other as the train went off, Maisie waving +good-bye to us, and my mother sitting very stiff and stern and +disapproving in her corner of the compartment. + +"No concern of yours, d'ye hear, my lad?" laughed Mr. Lindsey. "Aye, but +your mother forgets that in affairs of this sort a lot of people are +drawn in where they aren't concerned! It's like being on the edge of a +whirlpool--you're dragged into it before you're aware. And now we'll go +and see this Mr. Smeaton; but first, where's the telegraph office in this +station? I want to wire to Murray, to ask him to keep me posted up during +today if any news comes in about the yacht." + +When Mr. Lindsey was in the telegraph office, I bought that morning's +_Dundee Advertiser_, more to fill up a few spare moments than from any +particular desire to get the news, for I was not a great newspaper +reader. I had scarcely opened it when I saw my own name. And there I +stood, in the middle of the bustling railway station, enjoying the +sensation of reading my own obituary notice. + +"Our Berwick-on-Tweed correspondent, telegraphing late last night, +says:--Considerable anxiety is being felt in the town respecting the fate +of Sir Gilbert Carstairs, Bart., of Hathercleugh House, and Mr. Hugh +Moneylaws, who are feared to have suffered a disaster at sea. At noon +yesterday, Sir Gilbert, accompanied by Mr. Moneylaws, went out in the +former's yacht (a small vessel of light weight) for a sail which, +according to certain fishermen who were about when the yacht left, was to +be one of a few hours only. The yacht had not returned last night, nor +has it been seen or heard of since its departure. Various Berwick +fishing craft have been out well off the coast during today, but no +tidings of the missing gentlemen have come to hand. Nothing has been +heard of, or from, Sir Gilbert at Hathercleugh up to nine o'clock this +evening, and the only ray of hope lies in the fact that Mr. Moneylaws' +mother left the town hurriedly this afternoon--possibly having received +some news of her son. It is believed here, however, that the light vessel +was capsized in a sudden squall, and that both occupants have lost their +lives. Sir Gilbert Carstairs, who was the seventh baronet, had only +recently come to the neighbourhood on succeeding to the title and +estates. Mr. Moneylaws, who was senior clerk to Mr. Lindsey, solicitor, +of Berwick, was a very promising young man of great ability, and had +recently been much before the public eye as a witness in connection with +the mysterious murders of John Phillips and Abel Crone, which are still +attracting so much attention." + +I shoved the newspaper into Mr. Lindsey's hand as he came out of the +telegraph office. He read the paragraph in silence, smiling as he read. + +"Aye!" he said at last, "you have to leave home to get the home news. +Well--they're welcome to be thinking that for the present. I've just +wired Murray that I'll be here till at any rate this evening, and that +he's to telegraph at once if there's tidings of that yacht or of +Carstairs. Meanwhile, well go and see this Mr. Smeaton." + +Mr. Smeaton was expecting us--he, too, was reading about me in the +_Advertiser_ when we entered, and he made some joking remark about it +only being great men that were sometimes treated to death-notices before +they were dead. And then he turned to Mr. Lindsey, who I noticed had been +taking close stock of him. + +"I've been thinking out things since Mr. Moneylaws was in here last +night," he remarked. "Bringing my mind to bear, do you see, on certain +points that I hadn't thought of before. And maybe there's something more +than appears at first sight in yon man John Phillips having my name and +address on him." + +"Aye?" asked Mr. Lindsey, quietly. "How, now?" + +"Well," replied Mr. Smeaton, "there may be something in it, and there may +be nothing--just nothing at all. But it's the fact that my father hailed +from Tweedside--and from some place not so far from Berwick." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +FAMILY HISTORY + + +I was watching Mr. Lindsey pretty closely, being desirous of seeing how +he took to Mr. Gavin Smeaton, and what he made of him, and I saw him +prick his ears at this announcement; clearly, it seemed to suggest +something of interest to him. + +"Aye?" he exclaimed. "Your father hailed from Berwick, or thereabouts? +You don't know exactly from where, Mr. Smeaton?" + +"No, I don't," replied Smeaton, promptly. "The truth is, strange as it +may seem, Mr. Lindsey, I know precious little about my father, and what I +do know is mostly from hearsay. I've no recollection of having ever seen +him. And--more wondrous still, you'll say--I don't know whether he's +alive or dead!" + +Here, indeed, was something that bordered on the mysterious; and Mr. +Lindsey and myself, who had been dealing in that commodity to some +considerable degree of late, exchanged glances. And Smeaton saw us look +at each other, and he smiled and went on. + +"I was thinking all this out last night," he said, "and it came to me--I +wonder if that man, John Phillips, who had, as I hear, my name and +address in his pocket, could have been some man who was coming to see +me on my father's behalf, or--it's an odd thing to fancy, and, +considering what's happened him, not a pleasant one!--could have been my +father himself?" + +There was silence amongst us for a moment. This was a new vista down +which we were looking, and it was full of thick shadow. As for me, I +began to recollect things. According to the evidence which Chisholm had +got from the British Linen Bank at Peebles, John Phillips had certainly +come from Panama. Just as certainly he had made for Tweedside. And--with +equal certainty--nobody at all had come forward to claim him, to assert +kinship with him, though there had been the widest publicity given to the +circumstances of his murder. In Gilverthwaite's instance, his sister had +quickly turned up--to see what there was for her. Phillips had been just +as freely mentioned in the newspapers as Gilverthwaite; but no one had +made inquiries after him, though there was a tidy sum of money of his in +the Peebles bank for his next-of-kin to claim. Who was he, then? + +Mr. Lindsey was evidently deep in thought, or, I should perhaps say, in +surmise. And he seemed to arrive where I did--at a question; which was, +of course, just that which Smeaton had suggested. + +"I might answer that better if I knew what you could tell me about your +father, Mr. Smeaton," he said. "And--about yourself." + +"I'll tell you all I can, with pleasure," answered Smeaton. "To tell you +the truth, I never attached much importance to this matter, in spite of +my name and address being found on Phillips, until Mr. Moneylaws there +came in last night--and then, after what he told me, I did begin to think +pretty deeply over it, and I'm coming to the opinion that there's a lot +more in all this than appears on the surface." + +"You can affirm that with confidence!" remarked Mr. Lindsey, drily. +"There is!" + +"Well--about my father," continued Smeaton. "All I know is this--and I +got it from hearsay: His name--the name given to me, anyway--was Martin +Smeaton. He hailed from somewhere about Berwick. Whether it was on the +English side or the Scottish side of the Tweed I don't know. But he +went to America as a young man, with a young wife, and they were in New +Orleans when I was born. And when I was born, my mother died. So I +never saw her." + +"Do you know her maiden name?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"No more than that her Christian name was Mary," replied Smeaton. +"You'll find out as I go on that it's very little I do know of +anything--definitely. Well, when my mother died, my father evidently left +New Orleans and went off travelling. I've made out that he must have been +a regular rolling stone at all times--a man that couldn't rest long in +one place. But he didn't take me with him. There was a Scotsman and his +wife in New Orleans that my father had forgathered with--some people of +the name of Watson,--and he left me with them, and in their care in New +Orleans I remained till I was ten years old. From my recollection he +evidently paid them well for looking after me--there was never, at any +time, any need of money on my account. And of course, never having known +any other, I came to look on the Watsons as father and mother. When I was +ten years old they returned to Scotland--here to Dundee, and I came with +them. I have a letter or two that my father wrote at that time giving +instructions as to what was to be done with me. I was to have the best +education--as much as I liked and was capable of--and, though I didn't +then, and don't now, know all the details, it's evident he furnished +Watson with plenty of funds on my behalf. We came here to Dundee, and I +was put to the High School, and there I stopped till I was eighteen, and +then I had two years at University College. Now, the odd thing was that +all that time, though I knew that regular and handsome remittances came +to the Watsons on my behalf from my father, he never expressed any +wishes, or made any suggestions, as to what I should do with myself. But +I was all for commercial life; and when I left college, I went into an +office here in the town and began to study the ins and outs of foreign +trade. Then, when I was just twenty-one, my father sent me a considerable +sum--two thousand pounds, as a matter of fact--saying it was for me to +start business with. And, do you know, Mr. Lindsey, from that day--now +ten years ago--to this, I've never heard a word of him." + +Mr. Lindsey was always an attentive man in a business interview, but I +had never seen him listen to anybody so closely as he listened to Mr. +Smeaton. And after his usual fashion, he at once began to ask questions. + +"Those Watsons, now," he said. "They're living?" + +"No," replied Smeaton. "Both dead--a few years ago." + +"That's a pity," remarked Mr. Lindsey. "But you'll have recollections of +what they told you about your father from their own remembrance of him?" + +"They'd little to tell," said Smeaton. "I made out they knew very little +indeed of him, except that he was a tall, fine-looking fellow, evidently +of a superior class and education. Of my mother they knew less." + +"You'll have letters of your father's?" suggested Mr. Lindsey. + +"Just a few mere scraps--he was never a man who did more than write down +what he wanted doing, and as briefly as possible," replied Smeaton. "In +fact," he added, with a laugh, "his letters to me were what you might +call odd. When the money came that I mentioned just now, he wrote me the +shortest note--I can repeat every word of it: 'I've sent Watson two +thousand pounds for you,' he wrote. 'You can start yourself in business +with it, as I hear you're inclined that way, and some day I'll come over +and see how you're getting along.' That was all!" + +"And you've never heard of or from him since?" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey. +"That's a strange thing, now. But--where was he then? Where did he send +the money from?" + +"New York," replied Smeaton. "The other letters I have from him are from +places in both North and South America. It always seemed to me and the +Watsons that he was never in any place for long--always going about." + +"I should like to see those letters, Mr. Smeaton," said Mr. Lindsey. +"Especially the last one." + +"They're at my house," answered Smeaton. "I'll bring them down here this +afternoon, and show them to you if you'll call in. But now--do you think +this man Phillips may have been my father?" + +"Well," replied Mr. Lindsey, reflectively, "it's an odd thing that +Phillips, whoever he was, drew five hundred pounds in cash out of the +British Linen Bank at Peebles, and carried it straight away to +Tweedside--where you believe your father came from. It looks as if +Phillips had meant to do something with that cash--to give it to +somebody, you know." + +"I read the description of Phillips in the newspapers," remarked Smeaton. +"But, of course, it conveyed nothing to me." + +"You've no photograph of your father?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"No--none--never had," answered Smeaton. "Nor any papers of his--except +those bits of letters." + +Mr. Lindsey sat in silence for a time, tapping the point of his stick on +the floor and staring at the carpet. + +"I wish we knew what that man Gilverthwaite was wanting at Berwick and in +the district!" he said at last. + +"But isn't that evident?" suggested Smeaton. "He was looking in the +parish registers. I've a good mind to have a search made in those +quarters for particulars of my father." + +Mr. Lindsey gave him a sharp look. + +"Aye!" he said, in a rather sly fashion. "But--you don't know if your +father's real name was Smeaton!" + +Both Smeaton and myself started at that--it was a new idea. And I saw +that it struck Smeaton with great force. + +"True!" he replied, after a pause. "I don't! It might have been. And in +that case--how could one find out what it was?" + +Mr. Lindsey got up, shaking his head. + +"A big job!" he answered. "A stiff job! You'd have to work back a long +way. But--it could be done. What time can I look in this afternoon, Mr. +Smeaton, to get a glance at those letters?" + +"Three o'clock," replied Smeaton. He walked to the door of his office +with us, and he gave me a smile. "You're none the worse for your +adventure, I see," he remarked. "Well, what about this man +Carstairs--what news of him?" + +"We'll maybe be able to tell you some later in the day," replied Mr. +Lindsey. "There'll be lots of news about him, one way or another, before +we're through with all this." + +We went out into the street then, and at his request I took Mr. Lindsey +to the docks, to see the friendly skipper, who was greatly delighted to +tell the story of my rescue. We stopped on his ship talking with him +for a good part of the morning, and it was well past noon when we went +back to the hotel for lunch. And the first thing we saw there was a +telegram for Mr. Lindsey. He tore the envelope open as we stood in the +hall, and I made no apology for looking over his shoulder and reading +the message with him. + +"Just heard by wire from Largo police that small yacht answering +description of Carstairs' has been brought in there by fishermen who +found it early this morning in Largo Bay, empty." + +We looked at each other. And Mr. Lindsey suddenly laughed. + +"Empty!" he exclaimed. "Aye!--but that doesn't prove that the +man's dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SUIT OF CLOTHES + + +Mr. Lindsey made no further remark until we were half through our +lunch--and it was not to me that he then spoke, but to a waiter who was +just at his elbow. + +"There's three things you can get me," he said. "Our bill--a railway +guide--a map of Scotland. Bring the map first." + +The man went away, and Mr. Lindsey bent across the table. + +"Largo is in Fife," said he. "We'll go there. I'm going to see that +yacht with my own eyes, and hear with my own ears what the man who found +it has got to say. For, as I remarked just now, my lad, the mere fact +that the yacht was found empty doesn't prove that Carstairs has been +drowned! And we'll just settle up here, and go round and see Smeaton to +get a look at those letters, and then we'll take train to Largo and make +a bit of inquiry." + +Mr. Smeaton had the letters spread out on his desk when we went in, and +Mr. Lindsey looked them over. There were not more than half a dozen +altogether, and they were mere scraps, as he had said--usually a few +lines on half-sheets of paper. Mr. Lindsey appeared to take no great +notice of any of them but the last--the one that Smeaton had quoted to us +in the morning. But over that he bent for some time, examining it +closely, in silence. + +"I wish you'd lend me this for a day or two," he said at last. "I'll take +the greatest care of it; it shan't go out of my own personal possession, +and I'll return it by registered post. The fact is, Mr. Smeaton, I want +to compare that writing with some other writing." + +"Certainly," agreed Smeaton, handing the letter over. "I'll do anything I +can to help. I'm beginning, you know, Mr. Lindsey, to fear I'm mixed up +in this. You'll keep me informed?" + +"I can give you some information now," answered Mr. Lindsey, pulling out +the telegram. "There's more mystery, do you see? And Moneylaws and I are +off to Largo now--we'll take it on our way home. For by this and that, +I'm going to know what's become of Sir Gilbert Carstairs!" + +We presently left Mr. Gavin Smeaton, with a promise to keep him posted +up, and a promise on his part that he'd come to Berwick, if that seemed +necessary; and then we set out on our journey. It was not such an easy +business to get quickly to Largo, and the afternoon was wearing well into +evening when we reached it, and found the police official who had wired +to Berwick. There was not much that he could tell us, of his own +knowledge. The yacht, he said, was now lying in the harbour at Lower +Largo, where it had been brought in by a fisherman named Andrew +Robertson, to whom he offered to take us. Him we found at a little inn, +near the harbour--a taciturn, somewhat sour-faced fellow who showed no +great desire to talk, and would probably have given us scant information +if we had not been accompanied by the police official, though he +brightened up when Mr. Lindsey hinted at the possibility of reward. + +"When did you come across this yacht?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Between eight and nine o'clock this morning," replied Robertson. + +"And where?" + +"About seven miles out--a bit outside the bay." + +"Empty?" demanded Mr. Lindsey, looking keenly at the man. "Not a +soul in her?" + +"Not a soul!" answered Robertson. "Neither alive nor dead!" + +"Were her sails set at all?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"They were not. She was just drifting--anywhere," replied the man. "And I +put a line to her and brought her in." + +"Any other craft than yours about at the time?" inquired Mr. Lindsey. + +"Not within a few miles," said Robertson. + +We went off to the yacht then. She had been towed into a quiet corner of +the harbour, and an old fellow who was keeping guard over her assured us +that nobody but the police had been aboard her since Robertson brought +her in. We, of course, went aboard, Mr. Lindsey, after being assured by +me that this really was Sir Gilbert Carstairs' yacht, remarking that he +didn't know we could do much good by doing so. But I speedily made a +discovery of singular and significant importance. Small as she was, the +yacht possessed a cabin--there was no great amount of head-room in it, +it's true, and a tall man could not stand upright in it, but it was +spacious for a craft of that size, and amply furnished with shelving and +lockers. And on these lockers lay the clothes--a Norfolk suit of grey +tweed--in which Sir Gilbert Carstairs had set out with me from Berwick. + +I let out a fine exclamation when I saw that, and the other three turned +and stared at me. + +"Mr. Lindsey!" said I, "look here! Those are the clothes he was wearing +when I saw the last of him. And there's the shirt he had on, too, and the +shoes. Wherever he is, and whatever happened to him, he made a complete +change of linen and clothing before he quitted the yacht! That's a plain +fact, Mr. Lindsey!" + +A fact it was--and one that made me think, however it affected the +others. It disposed, for instance, of any notion or theory of suicide. A +man doesn't change his clothes if he's going to drown himself. And it +looked as if this had been part of some premeditated plan: at the very +least of it, it was a curious thing. + +"You're sure of that?" inquired Mr. Lindsey, eyeing the things that had +been thrown aside. + +"Dead sure of it!" said I. "I couldn't be mistaken." + +"Did he bring a portmanteau or anything aboard with him, then?" asked +he. + +"He didn't; but he could have kept clothes and linen and the like in +these lockers," I pointed out, beginning to lift the lids. "See +here!--here's brushes and combs and the like. I tell you before ever +he left this yacht, or fell out of it, or whatever's happened him, +he'd changed everything from his toe to his top--there's the very cap +he was wearing." + +They all looked at each other, and Mr. Lindsey's gaze finally fastened +itself on Andrew Robertson. + +"I suppose you don't know anything about this, my friend?" he asked. + +"What should I know?" answered Robertson, a bit surlily. "The yacht's +just as I found it--not a thing's been touched." + +There was the luncheon basket lying on the cabin table--just as I had +last seen it, except that Carstairs had evidently finished the provisions +which he and I had left. And I think the same thought occurred to Mr. +Lindsey and myself at the same moment--how long had he stopped on board +that yacht after his cruel abandoning of me? For forty-eight hours had +elapsed since that episode, and in forty-eight hours a man may do a great +deal in the way of making himself scarce--which now seemed to me to be +precisely what Sir Gilbert Carstairs had done, though in what particular +fashion, and exactly why, it was beyond either of us to surmise. + +"I suppose no one has heard anything of this yacht having been seen +drifting about yesterday, or during last night?" asked Mr. Lindsey, +putting his question to both men. "No talk of it hereabouts?" + +But neither the police nor Andrew Robertson had heard a murmur of that +nature, and there was evidently nothing to be got out of them more than +we had already got. Nor had the police heard of any stranger being seen +about there--though, as the man who was with us observed, there was no +great likelihood of anybody noticing a stranger, for Largo was nowadays a +somewhat popular seaside resort, and down there on the beach there were +many strangers, it being summer, and holiday time, so that a strange man +more or less would pass unobserved. + +"Supposing a man landed about the coast, here," asked Mr. Lindsey--"I'm +just putting a case to you--and didn't go into the town, but walked along +the beach--where would he strike a railway station, now?" + +The police official replied that there were railway stations to the +right and left of the bay--a man could easily make Edinburgh in one +direction, and St. Andrews in the other; and then, not unnaturally, he +was wanting to know if Mr. Lindsey was suggesting that Sir Gilbert +Carstairs had sailed his yacht ashore, left it, and that it had drifted +out to sea again? + +"I'm not suggesting anything," answered Mr. Lindsey. "I'm only +speculating on possibilities. And that's about as idle work as +standing here talking. What will be practical will be to arrange +about this yacht being locked up in some boat-house, and we'd best +see to that at once." + +We made arrangements with the owner of a boat-house to pull the yacht in +there, and to keep her under lock and key, and, after settling matters +with the police to have an eye on her, and see that her contents were +untouched until further instructions reached them from Berwick, we went +off to continue our journey. But we had stayed so long in Largo that when +we got to Edinburgh the last train for Berwick had gone, and we were +obliged to turn into an hotel for the night. Naturally, all our talk was +of what had just transpired--the events of the last two days, said Mr. +Lindsey, only made these mysteries deeper than they were before, and why +Sir Gilbert Carstairs should have abandoned his yacht, as he doubtless +had, was a still further addition to the growing problem. + +"And I'm not certain, my lad, that I believe yon man Robertson's tale," +he remarked, as we were discussing matters from every imaginable point of +view just before going to bed. "He may have brought the yacht in, but we +don't know that he didn't bring Carstairs aboard her. Why was that change +of clothes made? Probably because he knew that he'd be described as +wearing certain things, and he wanted to come ashore in other things. For +aught we know, he came safely ashore, boarded a train somewhere in the +neighbourhood, or at Largo itself--why not?--and went off, likely here, +to Edinburgh--where he'd mingle with a few thousand of folk, +unnoticed." + +"Then--in that case, you think he's--what, Mr. Lindsey?" I asked. "Do you +mean he's running away?" + +"Between you and me, that's not far from what I do think," he replied. +"And I think I know what he's running away from, too! But we'll hear a +lot more before many hours are over, or I'm mistaken." + +We were in Berwick at an early hour next morning, and we went straight to +the police station and into the superintendent's office. Chisholm was +with Mr. Murray when we walked in, and both men turned to us with +eagerness. + +"Here's more mystery about this affair, Mr. Lindsey!" exclaimed Murray. +"It's enough to make a man's wits go wool-gathering. There's no news of +Sir Gilbert, and Lady Carstairs has been missing since twelve o'clock +noon yesterday!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE SECOND DISAPPEARANCE + + +Mr. Lindsey was always one of the coolest of hands at receiving news of a +startling nature, and now, instead of breaking out into exclamations, he +just nodded his head, and dropped into the nearest chair. + +"Aye?" he remarked quietly. "So her ladyship's disappeared, too, has she? +And when did you get to hear that, now?" + +"Half an hour ago," replied Murray. "The butler at Hathercleugh House +has just been in--driven over in a hurry--to tell us. What do you make +of it at all?" + +"Before I answer that, I want to know what's been happening here while +I've been away," replied Mr. Lindsey. "What's happened within your own +province--officially, I mean?" + +"Not much," answered Murray. "There began to be talk evening before last, +amongst the fishermen, about Sir Gilbert's yacht. He'd been seen, of +course, to go out with Moneylaws there, two days ago, at noon. And--there +is Moneylaws! Doesn't he know anything? Where's Sir Gilbert, Moneylaws?" + +"He'll tell all that--when I tell him to," said Mr. Lindsey, with a +glance at me. "Go on with your story, first." + +The superintendent shook his head, as if all these things were beyond his +comprehension. + +"Oh, well!" he continued. "I tell you there was talk--you know how they +gossip down yonder on the beach. It was said the yacht had never come in, +and, though many of them had been out, they'd never set eyes on her, and +rumours of her soon began to spread. So I sent Chisholm there out to +Hathercleugh to make some inquiry--tell Mr. Lindsey what you heard," he +went on, turning to the sergeant. "Not much, I think." + +"Next to nothing," replied Chisholm. "I saw Lady Carstairs. She laughed +at me. She said Sir Gilbert was not likely to come to harm--he'd been +sailing yachts, big and little, for many a year, and he'd no doubt gone +further on this occasion than he'd first intended. I pointed out that +he'd Mr. Moneylaws with him, and that he'd been due at his business early +that morning. She laughed again at that, and said she'd no doubt Sir +Gilbert and Mr. Moneylaws had settled that matter between them, and that, +as she'd no anxieties, she was sure Berwick folk needn't have any. And so +I came away." + +"And we heard no more until we got your wire yesterday from Dundee, Mr. +Lindsey," said Murray; "and that was followed not so very long after by +one from the police at Largo, which I reported to you." + +"Now, here's an important question," put in Mr. Lindsey, a bit +hurriedly, as if something had just struck him. "Did you communicate the +news from Largo to Hathercleugh?" + +"We did, at once," answered Murray. "I telephoned immediately to Lady +Carstairs--I spoke to her over the wire myself, telling her what the +Largo police reported." + +"What time would that be?" asked Mr. Lindsey, sharply. + +"Half-past eleven," replied Murray. + +"Then, according to what you tell me, she left Hathercleugh soon after +you telephoned to her?" said Mr. Lindsey. + +"According to what the butler told us this morning," answered Murray, +"Lady Carstairs went out on her bicycle at exactly noon yesterday--and +she's never been seen or heard of since." + +"She left no message at the house?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"None! And," added the superintendent, significantly, "she didn't mention +to the butler that I'd just telephoned to her. It's a queer business, +this, I'm thinking, Mr. Lindsey. But--what's your own news?--and what's +Moneylaws got to tell about Sir Gilbert?" + +Mr. Lindsey took no notice of the last question. He sat in silence for a +while, evidently thinking. And in the end he pointed to some telegram +forms that lay on the superintendent's desk. + +"There's one thing must be done at once, Murray," he said; "and I'll +take the responsibility of doing it myself. We must communicate with the +Carstairs family solicitors." + +"I'd have done it, as soon as the butler brought me the news about Lady +Carstairs," remarked Murray, "but I don't know who they are." + +"I do!" answered Mr. Lindsey. "Holmshaw and Portlethorpe of Newcastle. +Here," he went on, passing a telegram form to me. "Write out this +message: 'Sir Gilbert and Lady Carstairs are both missing from +Hathercleugh under strange circumstances please send some authorized +person here at once.' Sign that with my name, Hugh--and take it to the +post-office, and come back here." + +When I got back, Mr. Lindsey had evidently told Murray and Chisholm all +about my adventures with Sir Gilbert, and the two men regarded me with a +new interest as if I had suddenly become a person of the first +importance. And the superintendent at once fell upon me for my reticence. + +"You made a bad mistake, young man, in keeping back what you ought to +have told at the inquest on Phillips!" he said, reprovingly. "Indeed, you +ought to have told it before that--you should have told us." + +"Aye!--if I'd only known as much as that," began Chisholm, "I'd have--" + +"You'd probably have done just what he did!" broke in Mr. Lindsey--"held +your tongue till you knew more!--so let that pass--the lad did what he +thought was for the best. You never suspected Sir Gilbert of any share +in these affairs, either of you--so come, now!" + +"Why, as to that, Mr. Lindsey," remarked Murray, who looked somewhat +nettled by this last passage, "you didn't suspect him yourself--or, if +you did, you kept it uncommonly quiet!" + +"Does Mr. Lindsey suspect him now?" asked Chisholm, a bit maliciously. +"For if he does, maybe he'll give us a hand." + +Mr. Lindsey looked at both of them in a way that he had of looking at +people of whose abilities he had no very great idea--but there was some +indulgence in the look on this occasion. + +"Well, now that things have come to this pass," he said, "and after Sir +Gilbert's deliberate attempt to get rid of Moneylaws--to murder him, in +fact--I don't mind telling you the truth. I do suspect Sir Gilbert of the +murder of Crone--and that's why I produced that ice-ax in court the other +day. And--when he saw that ice-ax, he knew that I suspected him, and +that's why he took Moneylaws out with him, intending to rid himself of a +man that could give evidence against him. If I'd known that Moneylaws was +going with him, I'd have likely charged Sir Gilbert there and +then!--anyway, I wouldn't have let Moneylaws go." + +"Aye!--you know something, then?" exclaimed Murray. "You're in possession +of some evidence that we know nothing about?" + +"I know this--and I'll make you a present of it, now," answered Mr. +Lindsey. "As you're aware, I'm a bit of a mountaineer--you know that +I've spent a good many of my holidays in Switzerland, climbing. +Consequently, I know what alpenstocks and ice-axes are. And when I came +to reflect on the circumstances of Crone's murder, I remember that not so +long since, happening to be out along the riverside, I chanced across Sir +Gilbert Carstairs using a very late type of ice-ax as a walking-stick--as +he well could do, and might have picked up in his hall as some men'll +pick up a golf-stick to go walking with, and I've done that myself, +hundred of times. And I knew that I had an ice-ax of that very pattern at +home--and so I just shoved it under the doctor's nose in court, and asked +him if that hole in Crone's head couldn't have been made by the spike of +it. Why? Because I knew that Carstairs would be present in court, and I +wanted to see if he would catch what I was after!" + +"And--you think he did?" asked the superintendent, eagerly. + +"I kept the corner of an eye on him," answered Mr. Lindsey, knowingly. +"He saw what I was after! He's a clever fellow, that--but he took the +mask off his face for the thousandth part of a second. I saw!" + +The two listeners were so amazed by this that they sat in silence for a +while, staring at Mr. Lindsey with open-mouthed amazement. + +"It's a dark, dark business!" sighed Murray at last. "What's the true +meaning of it, do you think, Mr. Lindsey?" + +"Some secret that's being gradually got at," replied Mr. Lindsey, +promptly. "That's what it is. And there's nothing to do, just now, but +wait until somebody comes from Holmshaw and Portlethorpe's. Holmshaw is +an old man--probably Portlethorpe himself will come along. He may know +something--they've been family solicitors to the Carstairs lot for many a +year. But it's my impression that Sir Gilbert Carstairs is away!--and +that his wife's after him. And if you want to be doing something, try to +find out where she went on her bicycle yesterday--likely, she rode to +some station in the neighbourhood, and then took train." + +Mr. Lindsey and I then went to the office, and we had not been there long +when a telegram arrived from Newcastle. Mr. Portlethorpe himself was +coming on to Berwick immediately. And in the middle of the afternoon he +arrived--a middle-aged, somewhat nervous-mannered man, whom I had seen +two or three times when we had business at the Assizes, and whom Mr. +Lindsey evidently knew pretty well, judging by their familiar manner of +greeting each other. + +"What's all this, Lindsey?" asked Mr. Portlethorpe, as soon as he walked +in, and without any preliminaries. "Your wire says Sir Gilbert and Lady +Carstairs have disappeared. Does that mean--" + +"Did you read your newspaper yesterday?" interrupted Mr. Lindsey, who +knew that what we had read in the _Dundee Advertiser_ had also appeared +in the _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_. "Evidently not, Portlethorpe, or +you'd have known, in part at any rate, what my wire meant. But I'll tell +you in a hundred words--and then I'll ask you a couple of questions +before we go any further." + +He gave Mr. Portlethorpe an epitomized account of the situation, and Mr. +Portlethorpe listened attentively to the end. And without making any +comment he said three words: + +"Well--your questions?" + +"The first," answered Mr. Lindsey, "is this--How long is it since you saw +or heard from Sir Gilbert Carstairs?" + +"A week--by letter," replied Mr. Portlethorpe. + +"The second," continued Mr. Lindsey, "is much more important--much! What, +Portlethorpe, do you know of Sir Gilbert Carstairs?" + +Mr. Portlethorpe hesitated a moment. Then he replied, frankly and with +evident candour. + +"To tell you the truth, Lindsey," he said, "beyond knowing that he is Sir +Gilbert Carstairs--nothing!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +MRS. RALSTON OF CRAIG + + +Mr. Lindsey made no remark on this answer, and for a minute or two he and +Mr. Portlethorpe sat looking at each other. Then Mr. Portlethorpe bent +forward a little, his hands on his knees, and gave Mr. Lindsey a sort of +quizzical but earnest glance. + +"Now, why do you ask that last question?" he said quietly. "You've +some object?" + +"It's like this," answered Mr. Lindsey. "Here's a man comes into these +parts to take up a title and estates, who certainly had been out of +them for thirty years. His recent conduct is something more than +suspicious--no one can deny that he left my clerk there to drown, without +possibility of help! That's intended murder! And so I ask, What do you, +his solicitor, know of him--his character, his doings during the thirty +years he was away? And you answer--nothing!" + +"Just so!" assented Mr. Portlethorpe. "And nobody does hereabouts. Except +that he is Sir Gilbert Carstairs, nobody in these parts knows anything +about him--how should they? We, I suppose, know more than anybody--and we +know just a few bare facts." + +"I think you'll have to let me know what these bare facts are," remarked +Mr. Lindsey. "And Moneylaws, too. Moneylaws has a definite charge to +bring against this man--and he'll bring it, if I've anything to do with +it! He shall press it!--if he can find Carstairs. And I think you'd +better tell us what you know, Portlethorpe. Things have got to come out." + +"I've no objection to telling you and Mr. Moneylaws what we know," +answered Mr. Portlethorpe. "After all, it is, in a way, common +knowledge--to some people, at any rate. And to begin with, you are +probably aware that the recent history of this Carstairs family is a +queer one. You know that old Sir Alexander had two sons and one +daughter--the daughter being very much younger than her brothers. When +the two sons, Michael and Gilbert, were about from twenty-one to +twenty-three, both quarrelled with their father, and cleared out of this +neighbourhood altogether; it's always believed that Sir Alexander gave +Michael a fair lot of money to go and do for himself, each hating the +other's society, and that Michael went off to America. As to Gilbert, he +got money at that time, too, and went south, and was understood to be +first a medical student and then a doctor, in London and abroad. There +is no doubt at all that both sons did get money--considerable +amounts,--because from the time they went away, no allowance was ever +paid to them, nor did Sir Alexander ever have any relations with them. +What the cause of the quarrel was, nobody knows; but the quarrel itself, +and the ensuing separation, were final--father and sons never resumed +relations. And when the daughter, now Mrs. Ralston of Craig, near here, +grew up and married, old Sir Alexander pursued a similar money policy +towards her--he presented her with thirty thousand pounds the day she was +married, and told her she'd never have another penny from him. I tell +you, he was a queer man." + +"Queer lot altogether!" muttered Mr. Lindsey. "And interesting!" + +"Oh, it's interesting enough!" agreed Mr. Portlethorpe, with a chuckle. +"Deeply so. Well, that's how things were until about a year before old +Sir Alexander died--which, as you know, is fourteen months since. As I +say, about six years before his death, formal notice came of the death of +Michael Carstairs, who, of course, was next in succession to the title. +It came from a solicitor in Havana, where Michael had died--there were +all the formal proofs. He had died unmarried and intestate, and his +estate amounted to about a thousand pounds. Sir Alexander put the affair +in our hands; and of course, as he was next-of-kin to his eldest son, +what there was came to him. And we then pointed out to him that now that +Mr. Michael Carstairs was dead, Mr. Gilbert came next--he would get the +title, in any case--and we earnestly pressed Sir Alexander to make a +will. And he was always going to, and he never did--and he died +intestate, as you know. And at that, of course, Sir Gilbert Carstairs +came forward, and--" + +"A moment," interrupted Mr. Lindsey. "Did anybody know where he was at +the time of his father's death?" + +"Nobody hereabouts, at any rate," replied Mr. Portlethorpe. "Neither +his father, nor his sister, nor ourselves had heard of him for many a +long year. But he called on us within twenty-four hours of his +father's death." + +"With proof, of course, that he was the man he represented himself to +be?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Oh, of course--full proof!" answered Mr. Portlethorpe. "Papers, letters, +all that sort of thing--all in order. He had been living in London for a +year or two at that time; but, according to his own account, he had gone +pretty well all over the world during the thirty years' absence. He'd +been a ship's surgeon--he'd been attached to the medical staff of more +than one foreign army, and had seen service--he'd been on one or two +voyages of discovery--he'd lived in every continent--in fact, he'd had a +very adventurous life, and lately he'd married a rich American heiress." + +"Oh, Lady Carstairs is an American, is she?" remarked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Just so--haven't you met her?" asked Mr. Portlethorpe. + +"Never set eyes on her that I know of," replied Mr. Lindsey. "But go on." + +"Well, of course, there was no doubt of Sir Gilbert's identity," +continued Mr. Portlethorpe; "and as there was also no doubt that Sir +Alexander had died intestate, we at once began to put matters right. +Sir Gilbert, of course, came into the whole of the real estate, and he +and Mrs. Ralston shared the personalty--which, by-the-by, was +considerable: they both got nearly a hundred thousand each, in cash. +And--there you are!" + +"That all?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +Mr. Portlethorpe hesitated a moment--then he glanced at me. + +"Moneylaws is safe at a secret," said Mr. Lindsey. "If it is a secret." + +"Well, then," answered Mr. Portlethorpe, "it's not quite all. There is a +circumstance which has--I can't exactly say bothered--but has somewhat +disturbed me. Sir Gilbert Carstairs has now been in possession of his +estates for a little over a year, and during that time he has sold nearly +every yard of them except Hathercleugh!" + +Mr. Lindsey whistled. It was the first symptom of astonishment that he +had manifested, and I glanced quickly at him and saw a look of +indescribable intelligence and almost undeniable cunning cross his +face. But it went as swiftly as it came, and he merely nodded, as if +in surprise. + +"Aye!" he exclaimed. "Quick work, Portlethorpe." + +"Oh, he gave good reasons!" answered Mr. Portlethorpe. "He said, from the +first, that he meant to do it--he wanted, and his wife wanted too, to get +rid of these small and detached Northern properties, and buy a really +fine one in the South of England, keeping Hathercleugh as a sort of +holiday seat. He'd no intention of selling that, at any time. +But--there's the fact!--he's sold pretty nearly everything else." + +"I never heard of these sales of land," remarked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Oh, they've all been sold by private treaty," replied Mr. Portlethorpe. +"The Carstairs property was in parcels, here and there--the last two +baronets before this one had bought considerably in other parts. It was +all valuable--there was no difficulty in selling to adjacent owners." + +"Then, if he's been selling to that extent, Sir Gilbert must have large +sums of money at command--unless he's bought that new estate you're +talking of," said Mr. Lindsey. + +"He has not bought anything--that I know of," answered Mr. Portlethorpe. +"And he must have a considerable--a very large--sum of money at his +bankers'. All of which," he continued, looking keenly at Mr. Lindsey, +"makes me absolutely amazed to hear what you've just told me. It's very +serious, this charge you're implying against him, Lindsey! Why should he +want to take men's lives in this fashion! A man of his position, his +great wealth--" + +"Portlethorpe!" broke in Mr. Lindsey, "didn't you tell me just now that +this man, according to his own account, has lived a most adventurous +life, in all parts of the world? What more likely than that in the +course of such a life he made acquaintance with queer characters, +and--possibly--did some queer things himself? Isn't it a significant +thing that, within a year of his coming into the title and estates, +two highly mysterious individuals turn up here, and that all this foul +play ensues? It's impossible, now, to doubt that Gilverthwaite and +Phillips came into these parts because this man was already here! If +you've read all the stuff that's been in the papers, and add to it just +what we've told you about this last adventure with the yacht, you can't +doubt it, either." + +"It's very, very strange--all of it," agreed Mr. Portlethorpe. "Have you +no theory, Lindsey?" + +"I've a sort of one," answered Mr. Lindsey. "I think Gilverthwaite and +Phillips probably were in possession of some secret about Sir Gilbert +Carstairs, and that Crone may have somehow got an inkling of it. Now, as +we know, Gilverthwaite died, suddenly--and it's possible that Carstairs +killed both Phillips and Crone, as he certainly meant to kill this lad. +And what does it all look like?" + +Before Mr. Portlethorpe could reply to that last question, and while he +was shaking his head over it, one of our junior clerks brought in Mrs. +Ralston of Craig, at the mention of whose name Mr. Lindsey immediately +bustled forward. She was a shrewd, clever-looking woman, well under +middle age, who had been a widow for the last four or five years, and +was celebrated in our parts for being a very managing and interfering +sort of body who chiefly occupied herself with works of charity and +philanthropy and was prominent on committees and boards. And she looked +over the two solicitors as if they were candidates for examination, and +she the examiner. + +"I have been to the police, to find out what all this talk is about Sir +Gilbert Carstairs," she began at once. "They tell me you know more than +they do, Mr. Lindsey. Well, what have you to say? And what have you to +say, Mr. Portlethorpe? You ought to know more than anybody. What does it +all amount to!" + +Mr. Portlethorpe, whose face had become very dismal at the sight of +Mrs. Ralston, turned, as if seeking help, to Mr. Lindsey. He was +obviously taken aback by Mrs. Ralston's questions, and a little afraid +of her; but Mr. Lindsey was never afraid of anybody, and he at once +turned on his visitor. + +"Before we answer your questions, Mrs. Ralston," he said, "there's one +I'll take leave to ask you. When Sir Gilbert came back at your father's +death, did you recognize him?" + +Mrs. Ralston tossed her head with obvious impatience. + +"Now, what ridiculous nonsense, Mr. Lindsey!" she exclaimed. "How on +earth do you suppose that I could recognize a man whom I hadn't seen +since I was a child of seven--and certainly not for at least thirty +years? Of course I didn't!--impossible!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE BANK BALANCE + + +It was now Mr. Portlethorpe and I who looked at each other--with a mutual +questioning. What was Mr. Lindsey hinting, suggesting? And Mr. +Portlethorpe suddenly turned on him with a direct inquiry. + +"What is it you are after, Lindsey?" he asked. "There's something in +your mind." + +"A lot," answered Mr. Lindsey. "And before I let it out, I think we'd +better fully inform Mrs. Ralston of everything that's happened, and of +how things stand, up to and including this moment. This is the position, +Mrs. Ralston, and the facts"--and he went on to give his caller a brief +but complete summary of all that he and Mr. Portlethorpe had just talked +over. "You now see how matters are," he concluded, at the end of his +epitome, during his delivery of which the lady had gradually grown more +and more portentous of countenance. "Now,--what do you say?" + +Mrs. Ralston spoke sharply and decisively. + +"Precisely what I have felt inclined to say more than once of late!" she +answered. "I'm beginning to suspect that the man who calls himself Sir +Gilbert Carstairs is not Sir Gilbert Carstairs at all! He's an +impostor!" + +In spite of my subordinate position as a privileged but inferior member +of the conference, I could not help letting out a hasty exclamation of +astonishment at that. I was thoroughly and genuinely astounded--such a +notion as that had never once occurred to me. An impostor!--not the real +man? The idea was amazing--and Mr. Portlethorpe found it amazing, too, +and he seconded my exclamation with another, and emphasized it with an +incredulous laugh. + +"My dear madam!" he said deprecatingly. "Really! That's impossible!" + +But Mr. Lindsey, calmer than ever, nodded his head confidently. + +"I'm absolutely of Mrs. Ralston's opinion," he declared. "What she +suggests I believe to be true. An impostor!" + +Mr. Portlethorpe flushed and began to look very uneasy. + +"Really!" he repeated. "Really, Lindsey!--you forget that I examined into +the whole thing! I saw all the papers--letters, documents--Oh, the +suggestion is--you'll pardon me, Mrs. Ralston--ridiculous! No man could +have been in possession of those documents unless he'd been the real +man--the absolute Simon Pure! Why, my dear lady, he produced letters +written by yourself, when you were a little girl--and--and all sorts of +little private matters. It's impossible that there has been any +imposture--a--a reflection on me!" + +"Cleverer men than you have been taken in, Portlethorpe," remarked Mr. +Lindsey. "And the matters you speak of might have been stolen. But let +Mrs. Ralston give us her reasons for suspecting this man--she has some +strong ones, I'll be bound." + +Mr. Portlethorpe showed signs of irritation, but Mrs. Ralston promptly +took up Mr. Lindsey's challenge. + +"Sufficiently strong to have made me very uneasy of late, at any rate," +she answered. She turned to Mr. Portlethorpe. "You remember," she went +on, "that my first meeting with this man, when he came to claim the title +and estates, was at your office in Newcastle, a few days after he first +presented himself to you. He said then that he had not yet been down to +Hathercleugh; but I have since found out that he had--or, rather, that he +had been in the neighbourhood, incognito. That's a suspicious +circumstance, Mr. Portlethorpe." + +"Excuse me, ma'am--I don't see it," retorted Mr. Portlethorpe. "I don't +see it at all." + +"I do, then!" said Mrs. Ralston. "Suspicious, because I, his sister, and +only living relation, was close by. Why didn't he come straight to me? He +was here--he took a quiet look around before he let any one know who he +was. That's one thing I have against him--whatever you say, it was very +suspicious conduct; and he lied about it, in saying he had not been here, +when he certainly had been here! But that's far from all. The real +Gilbert Carstairs, Mr. Lindsey, as Mr. Portlethorpe knows, lived at +Hathercleugh House until he was twenty-two years old. He was always at +Hathercleugh, except when he was at Edinburgh University studying +medicine. He knew the whole of the district thoroughly. But, as I have +found out for myself, this man does not know the district! I have +discovered, on visiting him--though I have not gone there much, as I +don't like either him or his wife--that this is a strange country to him. +He knows next to nothing--though he has done his best to learn--of its +features, its history, its people. Is it likely that a man who had lived +on the Border until he was two-and-twenty could forget all about it, +simply because he was away from it for thirty years? Although I was only +seven or eight when my brother Gilbert left home, I was then a very sharp +child, and I remember that he knew every mile of the country round +Hathercleugh. But--this man doesn't." + +Mr. Portlethorpe muttered something about it being very possible for a +man to forget a tremendous lot in thirty years, but Mrs. Ralston and Mr. +Lindsey shook their heads at his dissent from their opinion. As for me, +I was thinking of the undoubted fact that the supposed Sir Gilbert +Carstairs had been obliged in my presence to use a map in order to find +his exact whereabouts when he was, literally, within two miles of his +own house. + +"Another thing," continued Mrs. Ralston: "in my few visits to +Hathercleugh since he came, I have found out that while he is very well +posted up in certain details of our family history, he is unaccountably +ignorant of others with which he ought to have been perfectly +familiar. I found out, too, that he is exceedingly clever in avoiding +subjects in which his ignorance might be detected. But, clever as he +is, he has more than once given me grounds for suspicion. And I tell +you plainly, Mr. Portlethorpe, that since he has been selling property +to the extent you report, you ought, at this juncture, and as things +are, to find out how money matters stand. He must have realized vast +amounts in cash! Where is it!" + +"At his bankers'--in Newcastle, my dear madam!" replied Mr. Portlethorpe. +"Where else should it be? He has not yet made the purchase he +contemplated, so of course the necessary funds are waiting until he does. +I cannot but think that you and Mr. Lindsey are mistaken, and that there +will be some proper and adequate explanation of all this, and--" + +"Portlethorpe!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey, "that's no good. Things have gone +too far. Whether this man's Sir Gilbert Carstairs or an impostor, he did +his best to murder my clerk, and we suspect him of the murder of Crone, +and he's going to be brought to justice--that's flat! And your duty at +present is to fall in with us to this extent--you must adopt Mrs. +Ralston's suggestion, and ascertain how money matters stand. As Mrs. +Ralston rightly says, by the sale of these properties a vast amount of +ready money must have been accumulated, and at this man's disposal, +Portlethorpe!--we must know if it's true!" + +"How can I tell you that?" demanded Mr. Portlethorpe, who was growing +more and more nervous and peevish. "I've nothing to do with Sir Gilbert +Carstairs' private banking account. I can't go and ask, point blank, of +his bankers how much money he has in their hands!" + +"Then I will!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey. "I know where he banks in +Newcastle, and I know the manager. I shall go this very night to the +manager's private house, and tell him exactly everything that's +transpired--I shall tell him Mrs. Ralston's and my own suspicions, and I +shall ask him where the money is. Do you understand that?" + +"The proper course to adopt!" said Mrs. Ralston. "The one thing to do. It +must be done!" + +"Oh, very well--then in that case I suppose I'd better go with you," said +Mr. Portlethorpe. "Of course, it's no use going to the bank--they'll be +closed; but we can, as you say, go privately to the manager. And we shall +be placed in a very unenviable position if Sir Gilbert Carstairs turns up +with a perfectly good explanation of all this mystery." + +Mr. Lindsey pointed a finger at me. + +"He can't explain that!" he exclaimed. "He left that lad to drown! Is +that attempted murder, or isn't it? I tell you, I'll have that man in the +dock--never mind who he is! Hugh, pass me the railway guide." + +It was presently settled that Mr. Portlethorpe and Mr. Lindsey should go +off to Newcastle by the next train to see the bank manager. Mr. Lindsey +insisted that I should go with them--he would have no hole-and-corner +work, he said, and I should tell my own story to the man we were going +to see, so that he would know some of the ground of our suspicion. Mrs. +Ralston supported that; and when Mr. Portlethorpe remarked that we were +going too fast, and were working up all the elements of a fine scandal, +she tartly remarked that if more care had been taken at the beginning, +all this would not have happened. + +We found the bank manager at his private house, outside Newcastle, that +evening. He knew both my companions personally, and he listened with +great attention to all that Mr. Lindsey, as spokesman, had to tell; he +also heard my story of the yacht affair. He was an astute, elderly man, +evidently quick at sizing things up, and I knew by the way he turned to +Mr. Portlethorpe and by the glance he gave him, after hearing everything, +that his conclusions were those of Mr. Lindsey and Mrs. Ralston. + +"I'm afraid there's something wrong, Portlethorpe," he remarked quietly. +"The truth is, I've had suspicions myself lately." + +"Good God! you don't mean it!" exclaimed Mr. Portlethorpe. "How, then?" + +"Since Sir Gilbert began selling property," continued the bank manager, +"very large sums have been paid in to his credit at our bank, where, +previous to that, he already had a very considerable balance. But at +the present moment we hold very little--that is, comparatively +little--money of his." + +"What?" said Mr. Portlethorpe. "What? You don't mean that?" + +"During the past three or four months," said the bank manager, "Sir +Gilbert has regularly drawn very large cheques in favour of a Mr. John +Paley. They have been presented to us through the Scottish-American Bank +at Edinburgh. And," he added, with a significant look at Mr. Lindsey, "I +think you'd better go to Edinburgh--and find out who Mr. John Paley is." + +Mr. Portlethorpe got up, looking very white and frightened. + +"How much of all that money is there left in your hands?" he +asked, hoarsely. + +"Not more than a couple of thousand," answered the bank manager with +promptitude. + +"Then he's paid out--in the way you state--what?" demanded Mr. +Portlethorpe. + +"Quite two hundred thousand pounds! And," concluded our informant, with +another knowing look, "now that I'm in possession of the facts you've +just put before me, I should advise you to go and find out if Sir Gilbert +Carstairs and John Paley are not one and the same person!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HATHERCLEUGH BUTLER + + +The three of us went away from the bank manager's house struggling with +the various moods peculiar to our individual characters--Mr. +Portlethorpe, being naturally a nervous man, given to despondency, was +greatly upset, and manifested his emotions in sundry ejaculations of a +dark nature; I, being young, was full of amazement at the news just given +us and of the excitement of hunting down the man we knew as Sir Gilbert +Carstairs. But I am not sure that Mr. Lindsey struggled much with +anything--he was cool and phlegmatic as usual, and immediately began to +think of practical measures. + +"Look here, Portlethorpe," he said, as soon as we were in the motor car +which we had chartered from Newcastle station, "we've got to get going in +this matter at once--straight away! We must be in Edinburgh as early as +possible in the morning. Be guided by me--come straight back to Berwick, +stop the night with me at my house, and we'll be on our way to Edinburgh +by the very first train--we can get there early, by the time the banks +are open. There's another reason why I want you to come--I've some +documents that I wish you to see--documents that may have a very +important bearing on this affair. There's one in my pocket-book now, and +you'll be astonished when you hear how it came into my possession. But +it's not one-half so astonishing as another that I've got at my house." + +I remembered then that we had been so busily engaged since our return +from the North that morning that we had had no time to go into the +matter of the letter which Mr. Gavin Smeaton had entrusted to Mr. +Lindsey--here, again, was going to be more work of the ferreting-out +sort. But Mr. Portlethorpe, it was clear, had no taste for mysteries, +and no great desire to forsake his own bed, even for Mr. Lindsey's +hospitality, and it needed insistence before he consented to go back to +Berwick with us. Go back, however, he did; and before midnight we were +in our own town again, and passing the deserted streets towards Mr. +Lindsey's home, I going with the others because Mr. Lindsey insisted +that it was now too late for me to go home, and I should be nearer the +station if I slept at his place. And just before we got to the house, +which was a quiet villa standing in its own grounds, a little north of +the top end of the town, a man who was sauntering ahead of us, suddenly +turned and came up to Mr. Lindsey, and in the light of a street lamp I +recognized in him the Hathercleugh butler. + +Mr. Lindsey recognized the man, too--so also did Mr. Portlethorpe; and +they both came to a dead halt, staring. And both rapped out the same +inquiry, in identical words: + +"Some news?" + +I looked as eagerly at the butler as they did. He had been sour enough +and pompous enough in his manner and attitude to me that night of my call +on his master, and it surprised me now to see how polite and suave +and--in a fashion--insinuating he was in his behaviour to the two +solicitors. He was a big, fleshy, strongly-built fellow, with a rather +flabby, deeply-lined face and a pallid complexion, rendered all the paler +by his black overcoat and top hat; and as he stood there, rubbing his +hands, glancing from Mr. Lindsey to Mr. Portlethorpe, and speaking in +soft, oily, suggestive accents, I felt that I disliked him even more than +when he had addressed me in such supercilious accents at the doors of +Hathercleugh. + +"Well--er--not precisely news, gentlemen," he replied. "The fact is, I +wanted to see you privately, Mr. Lindsey, sir--but, of course, I've no +objections to speaking before Mr. Portlethorpe, as he's Sir Gilbert's +solicitor. Perhaps I can come in with you, Mr. Lindsey?--the truth is, +I've been waiting about, sir--they said you'd gone to Newcastle, and +might be coming back by this last train. And--it's--possibly--of +importance." + +"Come in," said Mr. Lindsey. He let us all into his house with his +latch-key, and led us to his study, where he closed the door. "Now," he +went on, turning to the butler. "What is it? You can speak freely--we are +all three--Mr. Portlethorpe, Mr. Moneylaws, and myself--pretty well +acquainted with all that is going on, by this time. And--I'm perhaps not +far wrong when I suggest that you know something?" + +The butler, who had taken the chair which Mr. Lindsey had pointed out, +rubbed his hands, and looked at us with an undeniable expression of +cunning and slyness. + +"Well, sir!" he said in a low, suggesting tone of voice. "A man in my +position naturally gets to know things--whether he wants to or not, +sometimes. I have had ideas, gentlemen, for some time." + +"That something was wrong?" asked Mr. Portlethorpe. + +"Approaching to something of that nature, sir," replied the butler. "Of +course, you will bear in mind that I am, as it were, a stranger--I have +only been in Sir Gilbert's Carstairs' employ nine months. But--I have +eyes. And ears. And the long and short of it is, gentlemen, I believe Sir +Gilbert--and Lady Carstairs--have gone!" + +"Absolutely gone?" exclaimed Mr. Portlethorpe. "Good gracious, +Hollins!--you don't mean that!" + +"I shall be much surprised if it is not found to be the case, sir," +answered Hollins, whose name I now heard for the first time. +"And--incidentally, as it were--I may mention that I think it will be +discovered that a good deal has gone with them!" + +"What--property?" demanded Mr. Portlethorpe. "Impossible!--they couldn't +carry property away--going as they seem to have done--or are said to +have done!" + +Hollins coughed behind one of his big, fat hands, and glanced knowingly +at Mr. Lindsey, who was listening silently but with deep attention. + +"I'm not so sure about that, sir," he said. "You're aware that there were +certain small matters at Hathercleugh of what we may term the heirloom +nature, though whether they were heirlooms or not I can't say--the +miniature of himself set in diamonds, given by George the Third to the +second baronet; the necklace, also diamonds, which belonged to a Queen of +Spain; the small picture, priceless, given to the fifth baronet by a Czar +of Russia; and similar things, Mr. Portlethorpe. And, gentlemen, the +family jewels!--all of which had been reset. They've got all those!" + +"You mean to say--of your own knowledge--they're not at Hathercleugh?" +suddenly inquired Mr. Lindsey. + +"I mean to say they positively are not, sir," replied the butler. "They +were kept in a certain safe in a small room used by Lady Carstairs as her +boudoir. Her ladyship left very hastily and secretly yesterday, as I +understand the police have told you, and, in her haste, she forgot to +lock up that safe--which she had no doubt unlocked before her departure. +That safe, sir, is empty--of those things, at any rate." + +"God bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Portlethorpe, greatly agitated. "This +is really terrible!" + +"Could she carry those things--all of them--on her bicycle--by which I +hear she left?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Easily, sir," replied Hollins. "She had a small luggage-carrier on her +bicycle--it would hold all those things. They were not bulky, of course." + +"You've no idea where she went on that bicycle?" inquired Mr. Lindsey. + +Hollins smiled cunningly, and drew his chair a little nearer to us. + +"I hadn't--when I went to Mr. Murray, at the police-station, this +morning," he answered. "But--I've an idea, now. That's precisely why I +came in to see you, Mr. Lindsey." + +He put his hand inside his overcoat and produced a pocket-book, from +which he presently drew out a scrap of paper. + +"After I'd seen Mr. Murray this morning," he continued, "I went back to +Hathercleugh, and took it upon myself to have a look round. I didn't find +anything of a remarkably suspicious nature until this afternoon, pretty +late, when I made the discovery about the safe in the boudoir--that all +the articles I'd mentioned had disappeared. Then I began to examine a +waste-paper basket in the boudoir--I'd personally seen Lady Carstairs +tear up some letters which she received yesterday morning by the first +post, and throw the scraps into that basket, which hadn't been emptied +since. And I found this, gentlemen--and you can, perhaps, draw some +conclusion from it--I've had no difficulty in drawing one myself." + +He laid on the table a torn scrap of paper, over which all three of us at +once bent. There was no more on it than the terminations of lines--but +the wording was certainly suggestive:-- + +".... at once, quietly +.... best time would be before lunch +.... at Kelso +.... usual place in Glasgow." + +Mr. Portlethorpe started at sight of the handwriting. + +"That's Sir Gilbert's!" he exclaimed. "No doubt of that. What are we to +understand by it, Lindsey?" + +"What do you make of this?" asked Mr. Lindsey, turning to Hollins. "You +say you've drawn a deduction?" + +"I make this out, sir," answered the butler, quietly. "Yesterday morning +there were only four letters for Lady Carstairs. Two were from +London--in the handwriting of ladies. One was a tradesman's letter--from +Newcastle. The fourth was in a registered envelope--and the address was +typewritten--and the post-mark Edinburgh. I'm convinced, Mr. Lindsey, +that the registered one contained--that! A letter, you understand, from +Sir Gilbert--I found other scraps of it, but so small that it's +impossible to piece them together, though I have them here. And I +conclude that he gave Lady Carstairs orders to cycle to Kelso--an easy +ride for her,--and to take the train to Glasgow, where he'd meet her. +Glasgow, sir, is a highly convenient city, I believe, for people who +wish to disappear. And--I should suggest that Glasgow should be +communicated with." + +"Have you ever known Sir Gilbert Carstairs visit Glasgow recently?" asked +Mr. Lindsey, who had listened attentively to all this. + +"He was there three weeks ago," replied Hollins. + +"And--Edinburgh?" suggested Mr. Lindsey. + +"He went regularly to Edinburgh--at one time--twice a week," said the +butler. And then, Mr. Lindsey not making any further remark, he glanced +at him and at Mr. Portlethorpe. "Of course, gentlemen," he continued, +"this is all between ourselves. I feel it my duty, you know." + +Mr. Lindsey answered that we all understood the situation, and presently +he let the man out, after a whispered sentence or two between them in the +hall. Then he came back to us, and without a word as to what had just +transpired, drew the Smeaton letter from his pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ALL IN ORDER + + +So that we might have it to ourselves, we had returned from Newcastle to +Berwick in a first-class compartment, and in its privacy Mr. Lindsey had +told Mr. Portlethorpe the whole of the Smeaton story. Mr. Portlethorpe +had listened--so it seemed to me--with a good deal of irritation and +impatience; he was clearly one of those people who do not like +interference with what they regard as an established order of things, and +it evidently irked him to have any questions raised as to the Carstairs +affairs--which, of course, he himself had done much to settle when Sir +Gilbert succeeded to the title. In his opinion, the whole thing was cut, +dried, and done with, and he was still impatient and restive when Mr. +Lindsey laid before him the letter which Mr. Gavin Smeaton had lent us, +and invited him to look carefully at the handwriting. He made no proper +response to that invitation; what he did was to give a peevish glance at +the letter, and then push it aside, with an equally peevish exclamation. + +"What of it?" he said. "It conveys nothing to me!" + +"Take your time, Portlethorpe," remonstrated Mr. Lindsey, who was +unlocking a drawer in his desk. "It'll perhaps convey something to you +when you compare that writing with a certain signature which I shall now +show you. This," he continued, as he produced Gilverthwaite's will, and +laid it before his visitor, "is the will of the man whose coming to +Berwick ushered in all these mysteries. Now, then--do you see who was one +of the witnesses to the will? Look, man!" + +Mr. Portlethorpe looked--and was startled out of his peevishness. + +"God bless me!" he exclaimed. "Michael Carstairs!" + +"Just that," said Mr. Lindsey. "Now then, compare Michael Carstairs' +handwriting with the handwriting of that letter. Come here, Hugh!--you, +too, have a look. And--there's no need for any very close or careful +looking, either!--no need for expert calligraphic evidence, or for the +use of microscopes. I'll stake all I'm worth that that signature and that +letter are the work of the same hand!" + +Now that I saw the Smeaton letter and the signature of the first witness +to Gilverthwaite's will, side by side, I had no hesitation in thinking +as Mr. Lindsey did. It was an exceptionally curious, not to say +eccentric, handwriting--some of the letters were oddly formed, other +letters were indicated rather than formed at all. It seemed impossible +that two different individuals could write in that style; it was rather +the style developed for himself by a man who scorned all conventional +matters, and was as self-distinct in his penmanship as he probably was +in his life and thoughts. Anyway, there was an undeniable, an +extraordinary similarity, and even Mr. Portlethorpe had to admit that it +was--undoubtedly--there. He threw off his impatience and irritability, +and became interested--and grave. + +"That's very strange, and uncommonly important, Lindsey!" he said. +"I--yes, I am certainly inclined to agree with you. Now, what do you +make of it?" + +"If you want to know my precise idea," replied Mr. Lindsey, "it's just +this--Michael Carstairs and Martin Smeaton are one and the same man--or, +I should say, were! That's about it, Portlethorpe." + +"Then in that case--that young fellow at Dundee is Michael Carstairs' +son?" exclaimed Mr. Portlethorpe. + +"And, in my opinion, that's not far off the truth," said Mr. Lindsey. +"You've hit it!" + +"But--Michael Carstairs was never married!" declared Mr. Portlethorpe. + +Mr. Lindsey picked up Gilverthwaite's will and the Smeaton letter, and +carefully locked them away in his drawer. + +"I'm not so sure about that," he remarked, drily. "Michael Carstairs was +very evidently a queer man who did a lot of things in a peculiar fashion +of his own, and--" + +"The solicitor who sent us formal proof of his death, from Havana, +previous to Sir Alexander's death, said distinctly that Michael had never +been married," interrupted Mr. Portlethorpe. "And surely he would know!" + +"And I say just as surely that from all I've heard of Michael Carstairs +there'd be a lot of things that no solicitor would know, even if he sat +at Michael's dying bed!" retorted Mr. Lindsey. "But we'll see. And +talking of beds, it's time I was showing you to yours, and that we were +all between the sheets, for it's one o'clock in the morning, and we'll +have to be stirring again at six sharp. And I'll tell you what we'll do, +Portlethorpe, to save time--we'll just take a mere cup of coffee and a +mouthful of bread here, and we'll breakfast in Edinburgh--we'll be there +by eight-thirty. So now come to your beds." + +He marshalled us upstairs--he and Mr. Portlethorpe had already taken +their night-caps while they talked,--and when he had bestowed the senior +visitor in his room, he came to me in mine, carrying an alarm clock which +he set down at my bed-head. + +"Hugh, my man!" he said, "you'll have to stir yourself an hour before +Mr. Portlethorpe and me. I've set that implement for five o'clock. Get +yourself up when it rings, and make yourself ready and go round to +Murray at the police-station--rouse him out of his bed. Tell him what we +heard from that man Hollins tonight, and bid him communicate with the +Glasgow police to look out for Sir Gilbert Carstairs. Tell him, too, +that we're going on to Edinburgh, and why, and that, if need be, I'll +ring him up from the Station Hotel during the morning with any news we +have, and I'll ask for his at the same time. Insist on his getting in +touch with Glasgow--it's there, without doubt, that Lady Carstairs went +off, and where Sir Gilbert would meet her; let him start inquiries +about the shipping offices and the like. And that's all--and get your +bit of sleep." + +I had Murray out of his bed before half-past five that morning, and I +laid it on him heavily about the Glasgow affair, which, as we came to +know later, was the biggest mistake we made, and one that involved us in +no end of sore trouble; and at a quarter-past six Mr. Lindsey and Mr. +Portlethorpe and I were drinking our coffee and blinking at each other +over the rims of the cups. But Mr. Lindsey was sharp enough of his wits +even at that hour, and before we set off from Berwick he wrote out a +telegram to Mr. Gavin Smeaton, asking him to meet us in Edinburgh during +the day, so that Mr. Portlethorpe might make his acquaintance. This +telegram he left with his housekeeper--to be dispatched as soon as the +post-office was open. And then we were off, and by half-past eight were +at breakfast in the Waverley Station; and as the last stroke of ten was +sounding from the Edinburgh clocks we were walking into the premises of +the Scottish-American Bank. + +The manager, who presently received us in his private rooms, looked at +Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Portlethorpe with evident surprise--it may have been +that there was mystery in their countenances. I know that I, on my part, +felt as if a purblind man might have seen that I was clothed about with +mystery from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot! And he appeared +still more surprised when Mr. Lindsey, briefly, but fully, explained why +we had called upon him. + +"Of course, I've read the newspapers about your strange doings at +Berwick," he observed, when Mr. Lindsey--aided by some remarks from Mr. +Portlethorpe--had come to the end of his explanation. "And I gather that +you now want to know what we, here, know of Sir Gilbert Carstairs and Mr. +John Paley. I can reply to that in a sentence--nothing that is to their +discredit! They are two thoroughly estimable and trustworthy gentlemen, +so far as we are aware." + +"Then there _is_ a Mr. John Paley?" demanded Mr. Lindsey, who was +obviously surprised. + +The manager, evidently, was also surprised--by the signs of Mr. +Lindsey's surprise. + +"Mr. John Paley is a stockbroker in this city," he replied. "Quite well +known! The fact is, we--that is, I--introduced Sir Gilbert Carstairs to +him. Perhaps," he continued, glancing from one gentleman to the other, "I +had better tell you all the facts. They're very simple, and quite of an +ordinary nature. Sir Gilbert Carstairs came in here, introducing himself, +some months ago. He told me that he was intending to sell off a good deal +of the Carstairs property, and that he wanted to reinvest his proceeds in +the very best American securities. I gathered that he had spent a lot of +time in America, that he preferred America to England, and, in short, +that he had a decided intention of going back to the States, keeping +Hathercleugh as a place to come to occasionally. He asked me if I could +recommend him a broker here in Edinburgh who was thoroughly well +acquainted with the very best class of American investments, and I at +once recommended Mr. John Paley. And--that's all I know, gentlemen." + +"Except," remarked Mr. Lindsey, "that you know that considerable +transactions have taken place between Mr. Paley and Sir Gilbert +Carstairs. We know that, from what we heard last night in Newcastle." + +"Precisely!--then you know as much as I can tell you," replied the +manager. "But I have no objection to saying that large sums of money, +coming from Sir Gilbert Carstairs, have certainly been passed through Mr. +Paley's banking account here, and I suppose Mr. Paley has made the +investments which Sir Gilbert desired--in fact, I know he has. And--I +should suggest you call on Mr. Paley himself." + +We went away upon that, and it seemed to me that Mr. Lindsey was somewhat +taken aback. And we were no sooner clear of the bank than Mr. +Portlethorpe, a little triumphantly, a little maliciously, turned on him. + +"There! what did I say?" he exclaimed. "Everything is in order, you see, +Lindsey! I confess I'm surprised to hear about those American +investments; but, after all, Sir Gilbert has a right to do what he likes +with his own. I told you we were running our heads against the +wall--personally, I don't see what use there is in seeing this Mr. Paley. +We're only interfering with other people's business. As I say, Sir +Gilbert can make what disposal he pleases of his own property." + +"And what I say, Portlethorpe," retorted Mr. Lindsey, "is that I'm going +to be convinced that it is his own property! I'm going to see Paley +whether you do or not--and you'll be a fool if you don't come." + +Mr. Portlethorpe protested--but he accompanied us. And we were very soon +in Mr. John Paley's office--a quiet, self-possessed sort of man who +showed no surprise at our appearance; indeed, he at once remarked that +the bank manager had just telephoned that we were on the way, and why. + +"Then I'll ask you a question at once," said Mr. Lindsey. "And I'm sure +you'll be good enough to answer it. When did you last see Sir Gilbert +Carstairs?" + +Mr. Paley immediately turned to a diary which lay on his desk, and +gave one glance at it. "Three days ago," he answered promptly. +"Wednesday--eleven o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE CARSTAIRS MOTTO + + +Mr. Lindsey reflected a moment after getting that precise answer, and he +glanced at me as if trying to recollect something. + +"That would be the very morning after the affair of the yacht?" he +asked of me. + +But before I could speak, Mr. Paley took the words out of my mouth. + +"Quite right." he said quietly. "I knew nothing of it at the time, of +course, but I have read a good deal in the newspapers since. It was the +morning after Sir Gilbert left Berwick in his yacht." + +"Did he mention anything about the yacht to you?" inquired Mr. Lindsey. + +"Not a word! I took it that he had come in to see me in the ordinary +way," replied the stockbroker. "He wasn't here ten minutes. I had no idea +whatever that anything had happened." + +"Before we go any further," said Mr. Lindsey, "may I ask you to tell us +what he came for? You know that Mr. Portlethorpe is his solicitor?--I am +asking the question on his behalf as well as my own." + +"I don't know why I shouldn't tell you," answered Mr. Paley. "He came on +perfectly legitimate business. It was to call for some scrip which I +held--scrip of his own, of course." + +"Which he took away with him?" suggested Mr. Lindsey. + +"Naturally!" replied the stockbroker. "That was what he came for." + +"Did he give you any hint as to where he was going?" asked Mr. +Lindsey. "Did he, for instance, happen to mention that he was leaving +home for a time?" + +"Not at all," answered Mr. Paley. "He spoke of nothing but the business +that had brought him. As I said just now, he wasn't here ten minutes." + +It was evident to me that Mr. Lindsey was still more taken aback. What we +had learned during the last half-hour seemed to surprise him. And Mr. +Portlethorpe, who was sharp enough of observation, saw this, and made +haste to step into the arena. + +"Mr. Lindsey," he said, "has been much upset by the apparently +extraordinary circumstances of Sir Gilbert Carstairs' disappearance--and +so, I may say, has Sir Gilbert's sister, Mrs. Ralston. I have pointed out +that Sir Gilbert himself may have--probably has--a quite proper +explanation of his movements. Wait a minute, Lindsey!" he went on, as Mr. +Lindsey showed signs of restiveness. "It's my turn, I think." He looked +at Mr. Paley again. "Your transactions with Sir Gilbert have been quite +in order, all through, I suppose--and quite ordinary?" + +"Quite in order, and quite ordinary," answered the stockbroker readily. +"He was sent to me by the manager of the Scottish-American Bank, who +knows that I do a considerable business in first-class American +securities and investments. Sir Gilbert told me that he was disposing of +a great deal of his property in England and wished to re-invest the +proceeds in American stock. He gave me to understand that he wished to +spend most of his time over there in future, as neither he nor his wife +cared about Hathercleugh, though they meant to keep it up as the family +estate and headquarters. He placed considerable sums of money in my hands +from time to time, and I invested them in accordance with his +instructions, handing him the securities as each transaction was +concluded. And--that's really all I know." + +Mr. Lindsey got in his word before Mr. Portlethorpe could speak again. + +"There are just two questions I should like to ask--to which nobody can +take exception, I think," he said. "One is--I gather that you've invested +all the money which Sir Gilbert placed in your hands?" + +"Yes--about all," replied Mr. Paley. "I have a balance--a small balance." + +"And the other is this," continued Mr. Lindsey: "I suppose all these +American securities which he now has are of such a nature that they could +be turned into cash at any time, on any market?" + +"That is so--certainly," assented Mr. Paley. "Yes, certainly so." + +"Then that's enough for me!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey, rising and beckoning +me to follow. "Much obliged to you, sir." + +Without further ceremony he stumped out into the street, with me at his +heels, to be followed a few minutes later by Mr. Portlethorpe. And +thereupon began a warm altercation between them which continued until all +three of us were stowed away in a quiet corner of the smoking-room in the +hotel at which it had been arranged Mr. Gavin Smeaton was to seek us on +his arrival--and there it was renewed with equal vigour; at least, with +equal vigour on Mr. Lindsey's part. As for me, I sat before the two +disputants, my hands in my pockets, listening, as if I were judge and +jury all in one, to what each had to urge. + +They were, of course, at absolutely opposite poles of thought. One man +was approaching the matter from one standpoint; the other from one +diametrically opposed to it. Mr. Portlethorpe was all for minimizing +things, Mr. Lindsey all for taking the maximum attitude. Mr. Portlethorpe +said that even if we had not come to Edinburgh on a fool's errand--which +appeared to be his secret and private notion--we had at any rate got the +information which Mr. Lindsey wanted, and had far better go home now and +attend to our proper business, which, he added, was not to pry and peep +into other folks' affairs. He was convinced that Sir Gilbert Carstairs +was Sir Gilbert Carstairs, and that Mrs. Ralston's and Mr. Lindsey's +suspicions were all wrong. He failed to see any connection between Sir +Gilbert and the Berwick mysteries and murders; it was ridiculous to +suppose it. As for the yacht incident, he admitted it looked at least +strange; but, he added, with a half-apologetic glance at me, he would +like to hear Sir Gilbert's version of that affair before he himself made +up his mind about it. + +"If we can lay hands on him, you'll be hearing his version from the +dock!" retorted Mr. Lindsey. "Your natural love of letting things go +smoothly, Portlethorpe, is leading you into strange courses! Man +alive!--take a look at the whole thing from a dispassionate attitude! +Since the fellow got hold of the Hathercleugh property, he's sold +everything, practically, but Hathercleugh itself; he's lost no time in +converting the proceeds--a couple of hundred thousand pounds!--into +foreign securities, which, says yon man Paley, are convertible into cash +at any moment in any market! Something occurs--we don't know what, +yet--to make him insecure in his position; without doubt, it's mixed +up with Phillips and Gilverthwaite, and no doubt, afterwards, with +Crone. This lad here accidentally knows something which might be +fatal--Carstairs tries, having, as I believe, murdered Crone, to drown +Moneylaws! And what then? It's every evident that, after leaving +Moneylaws, he ran his yacht in somewhere on the Scottish coast, and +turned her adrift; or, which is more likely, fell in with that +fisher-fellow Robertson at Largo, and bribed him to tell a cock-and-bull +tale about the whole thing--made his way to Edinburgh next morning, and +possessed himself of the rest of his securities, after which, he clears +out, to be joined somewhere by his wife, who, if what Hollins told us +last night is true--and it no doubt is,--carried certain valuables off +with her! What does it look like but that he's an impostor, who's just +made all he can out of the property while he'd the chance, and is now +away to enjoy his ill-gotten gains? That's what I'm saying, +Portlethorpe--and I insist on my common-sense view of it!" + +"And I say it's just as common-sense to insist, as I do, that it's all +capable of proper and reasonable explanation!" retorted Mr. Portlethorpe. +"You're a good hand at drawing deductions, Lindsey, but you're bad in +your premises! You start off by asking me to take something for granted, +and I'm not fond of mental gymnastics. If you'd be strictly logical--" + +They went on arguing like that, one against the other, for a good hour, +and it seemed to me that the talk they were having would have gone on for +ever, indefinitely, if, on the stroke of noon, Mr. Gavin Smeaton had not +walked in on us. At sight of him they stopped, and presently they were +deep in the matter of the similarity of the handwritings, Mr. Lindsey +having brought the letter and the will with him. Deep, at any rate, Mr. +Lindsey and Mr. Portlethorpe were; as for Mr. Gavin Smeaton, he appeared +to be utterly amazed at the suggestion which Mr. Lindsey threw out to +him--that the father of whom he knew so little was, in reality, Michael +Carstairs. + +"Do you know what it is you're suggesting, Lindsey?" demanded Mr. +Portlethorpe, suddenly. "You've got the idea into your head now that this +young man's father, whom he's always heard of as one Martin Smeaton, was +in strict truth the late Michael Carstairs, elder son of the late Sir +Alexander--in fact, being the wilful and headstrong man that you are, +you're already positive of it?" + +"I am so!" declared Mr. Lindsey. "That's a fact, Portlethorpe." + +"Then what follows?" asked Mr. Portlethorpe. "If Mr. Smeaton there is the +true and lawful son of the late Michael Carstairs, his name is not +Smeaton at all, but Carstairs, and he's the true holder of the baronetcy, +and, as his grandfather died intestate, the legal owner of the property! +D'you follow that?" + +"I should be a fool if I didn't!" retorted Mr. Lindsey. "I've been +thinking of it for thirty-six hours." + +"Well--it'll have to be proved," muttered Mr. Portlethorpe. He had been +staring hard at Mr. Gavin Smeaton ever since he came in, and suddenly he +let out a frank exclamation. "There's no denying you've a strong +Carstairs look on you!" said he. "Bless and save me!--this is the +strangest affair!" + +Smeaton put his hand into his pocket, and drew out a little package which +he began to unwrap. + +"I wonder if this has anything to do with it," he said. "I remembered, +thinking things over last night, that I had something which, so the +Watsons used to tell me, was round my neck when I first came to them. +It's a bit of gold ornament, with a motto on it. I've had it carefully +locked away for many a long year!" + +He took out of his package a heart-shaped pendant, with a much-worn gold +chain attached to it, and turned it over to show an engraved inscription +on the reverse side. + +"There's the motto," he said. "You see--_Who Will, Shall_. Whose is it?" + +"God bless us!" exclaimed Mr. Portlethorpe. "The Carstairs motto! +Aye!--their motto for many a hundred years! Lindsey, this is an +extraordinary thing!--I'm inclined to think you may have some right in +your notions. We must--" + +But before Mr. Portlethorpe could say what they must do, there was a +diversion in our proceedings which took all interest in them clean away +from me, and made me forget whatever mystery there was about Carstairs, +Smeaton, or anybody else. A page lad came along with a telegram in his +hand asking was there any gentleman there of the name of Moneylaws? I +took the envelope from him in a whirl of wonder, and tore it open, +feeling an unaccountable sense of coming trouble. And in another minute +the room was spinning round me; but the wording of the telegram was +clear enough: + +"Come home first train Maisie Dunlop been unaccountably missing since +last evening and no trace of her. Murray." + +I flung the bit of paper on the table before the other three, and, +feeling like my head was on fire, was out of the room and the hotel, and +in the street and racing into the station, before one of them could find +a word to put on his tongue. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +NO TRACE + + +That telegram had swept all the doings of the morning clear away from me. +Little I cared about the Carstairs affairs and all the mystery that was +wrapping round them in comparison with the news which Murray had sent +along in that peculiarly distressing fashion! I would cheerfully have +given all I ever hoped to be worth if he had only added more news; but he +had just said enough to make me feel as if I should go mad unless I could +get home there and then. I had not seen Maisie since she and my mother +had left Mr. Lindsey and me at Dundee--I had been so fully engaged since +then, what with the police, and Mrs. Ralston, and Mr. Portlethorpe, and +the hurried journeys, first to Newcastle and then to Edinburgh, that I +had never had a minute to run down and see how things were going on. +What, of course, drove me into an agony of apprehension was Murray's use +of that one word "unaccountably." Why should Maisie be "unaccountably" +missing? What had happened to take her out of her father's house?--where +had she gone, that no trace of her could be got?--what had led to this +utterly startling development?--what-- + +But it was no use speculating on these things--the need was for action. +And I had seized on the first porter I met, and was asking him for the +next train to Berwick, when Mr. Gavin Smeaton gripped my arm. + +"There's a train in ten minutes, Moneylaws," said he quietly. "Come away +to it--I'll go with you--we're all going. Mr. Lindsey thinks we'll do as +much there as here, now." + +Looking round I saw the two solicitors hurrying in our direction, Mr. +Lindsey carrying Murray's telegram in his hand. He pulled me aside as we +all walked towards the train. + +"What do you make of this, Hugh?" he asked. "Can you account for any +reason why the girl should be missing?" + +"I haven't an idea," said I. "But if it's anything to do with all the +rest of this business, Mr. Lindsey, let somebody look out! I'll have no +mercy on anybody that's interfered with her--and what else can it be? I +wish I'd never left the town!" + +"Aye, well, we'll soon be back in it," he said, consolingly. "And we'll +hope to find better news. I wish Murray had said more; it's a mistake to +frighten folk in that way--he's said just too much and just too little." + +It was a fast express that we caught for Berwick, and we were not long in +covering the distance, but it seemed like ages to me, and the rest of +them failed to get a word out of my lips during the whole time. And my +heart was in my mouth when, as we ran into Berwick station, I saw +Chisholm and Andrew Dunlop on the platform waiting us. Folk that have +had bad news are always in a state of fearing to receive worse, and I +dreaded what they might have come to the station to tell us. And Mr. +Lindsey saw how I was feeling, and he was on the two of them with an +instant question. + +"Do you know any more about the girl than was in Murray's wire?" he +demanded. "If so, what? The lad here's mad for news!" + +Chisholm shook his head, and Andrew Dunlop looked searchingly at me. + +"We know nothing more," he answered. "You don't know anything yourself, +my lad?" he went on, staring at me still harder. + +"I, Mr. Dunlop!" I exclaimed. "What do you think, now, asking me a +question like yon! What should I know?" + +"How should I know that?" said he. "You dragged your mother and my lass +all the way to Dundee for nothing--so far as I could learn; and--" + +"He'd good reason," interrupted Mr. Lindsey. "He did quite right. Now +what is this about your daughter, Mr. Dunlop? Just let's have the plain +tale of it, and then we'll know where we are." + +I had already seen that Andrew Dunlop was not over well pleased with +me--and now I saw why. He was a terrible hand at economy, saving every +penny he could lay hands on, and as nothing particular seemed to have +come of it, and--so far as he could see--there had been no great reason +for it, he was sore at my sending for his daughter to Dundee, and all the +sorer because--though I, of course, was utterly innocent of it--Maisie +had gone off on that journey without as much as a by-your-leave to him. +And he was not over ready or over civil to Mr. Lindsey. + +"Aye, well!" said he. "There's strange doings afoot, and it's not my will +that my lass should be at all mixed up in them, Mr. Lindsey! All this +running up and down, hither and thither, on business that doesn't +concern--" + +Mr. Lindsey had the shortest of tempers on occasion, and I saw that he +was already impatient. He suddenly turned away with a growl and +collared Chisholm. + +"You're a fool, Dunlop," he exclaimed over his shoulder; "it's your +tongue that wants to go running! Now then, sergeant!--what is all this +about Miss Dunlop? Come on!" + +My future father-in-law drew off in high displeasure, but Chisholm +hurriedly explained matters. + +"He's in a huffy state, Mr. Lindsey," he said, nodding at Andrew's +retreating figure. "Until you came in, he was under the firm belief that +you and Mr. Hugh had got the young lady away again on some of this +mystery business--he wouldn't have it any other way. And truth to tell, I +was wondering if you had, myself! But since you haven't, it's here--and I +hope nothing's befallen the poor young thing, for--" + +"For God's sake, man, get it out!" said I. "We've had preface +enough--come to your tale!" + +"I'm only explaining to you, Mr. Hugh," he answered, calmly. "And I +understand your impatience. It's like this, d'ye see?--Andrew Dunlop +yonder has a sister that's married to a man, a sheep-farmer, whose place +is near Coldsmouth Hill, between Mindrum and Kirk Yetholm--" + +"I know!" I said. "You mean Mrs. Heselton. Well, man?" + +"Mrs. Heselton, of course," said he. "You're right there. And last +night--about seven or so in the evening--a telegram came to the Dunlops +saying Mrs. Heselton was taken very ill, and would Miss Dunlop go over? +And away she went there and then, on her bicycle, and alone--and she +never reached the place!" + +"How do you know that?" demanded Mr. Lindsey. + +"Because," answered Chisholm, "about nine o'clock this morning in comes +one of the Heselton lads to Dunlop to tell him his mother had died during +the night; and then, of course, they asked did Miss Dunlop get there in +time, and the lad said they'd never set eyes on her. And--that's all +there is to tell, Mr. Lindsey." + +I was for starting off, with, I think, the idea of instantly mounting +my bicycle and setting out for Heselton's farm, when Mr. Lindsey +seized my elbow. + +"Take your time, lad," said he. "Let's think what we're doing. Now then, +how far is it to this place where the girl was going?" + +"Seventeen miles," said I, promptly. + +"You know it?" he asked. "And the road?" + +"I've been there with her--many a time, Mr. Lindsey," I answered. "I +know every inch of the road." + +"Now then!" he said, "get the best motor car there is in the town, and be +off! Make inquiries all the way along; it'll be a queer thing if you +can't trace something--it would be broad daylight all the time she'd be +on her journey. Make a thorough search and full inquiry--she must have +been seen." He turned to Mr. Smeaton, who had stood near, listening. "Go +with him!" he said. "It'll be a good turn to do him--he wants company." + +Mr. Smeaton and I hurried outside the station--a car or two stood in the +yard, and we picked out the best. As we got in, Chisholm came up to us. + +"You'd better have a word or two with our men along the road, Mr. Hugh," +said he. "There's not many between here and the part you're going to, but +you'd do no harm to give them an idea of what it is you're after, and +tell them to keep their eyes open--and their ears, for that matter." + +"Aye, we'll do that, Chisholm," I answered. "And do you keep eyes and +ears open here in Berwick! I'll give ten pounds, and cash in his hand, to +the first man that gives me news; and you can let that be known as much +as you like, and at once--whether Andrew Dunlop thinks it's throwing +money away or not!" + +And then we were off; and maybe that he might draw me away from over much +apprehension, Mr. Smeaton began to ask me about the road which Maisie +would take to get to the Heseltons' farm--the road which we, of course, +were taking ourselves. And I explained to him that it was just the +ordinary high-road that ran between Berwick and Kelso that Maisie would +follow, until she came to Cornhill, where she would turn south by way of +Mindrum Mill, where--if that fact had anything to do with her +disappearance--she would come into a wildish stretch of country at the +northern edge of the Cheviots. + +"There'll be places--villages and the like--all along, I expect?" he +asked. + +"It's a lonely road, Mr. Smeaton," I answered. "I know it well--what +places there are, are more off than on it, but there's no stretch of it +that's out of what you might term human reach. And how anybody could +happen aught along it of a summer's evening is beyond me!--unless indeed +we're going back to the old kidnapping times. And if you knew Maisie +Dunlop, you'd know that she's the sort that would put up a fight if she +was interfered with! I'm wondering if this has aught to do with all yon +Carstairs affair? There's been such blackness about that, and such +villainy, that I wish I'd never heard the name!" + +"Aye!" he answered. "I understand you. But--it's coming to an end. And in +queer ways--queer ways, indeed!" + +I made no reply to him--and I was sick of the Carstairs matters; it +seemed to me I had been eating and drinking and living and sleeping with +murder and fraud till I was choked with the thought of them. Let me only +find Maisie, said I to myself, and I would wash my hands of any further +to-do with the whole vile business. + +But we were not to find Maisie during the long hours of that weary +afternoon and the evening that followed it. Mr. Lindsey had bade me keep +the car and spare no expense, and we journeyed hither and thither all +round the district, seeking news and getting none. She had been seen just +once, at East Ord, just outside Berwick, by a man that was working in his +cottage garden by the roadside--no other tidings could we get. We +searched all along the road that runs by the side of Bowmont Water, +between Mindrum and the Yetholms, devoting ourselves particularly to that +stretch as being the loneliest, and without result. And as the twilight +came on, and both of us were dead weary, we turned homeward, myself +feeling much more desperate than even I did when I was swimming for my +very life in the North Sea. + +"And I'm pretty well sure of what it is, now, Mr. Smeaton!" I exclaimed +as we gave up the search for that time. "There's been foul play! And I'll +have all the police in Northumberland on this business, or--" + +"Aye!" he said, "it's a police matter, this, without doubt, Moneylaws. +We'd best get back to Berwick, and insist on Murray setting his men +thoroughly to work." + +We went first to Mr. Lindsey's when we got back, his house being on our +way. And at sight of us he hurried out and had us in his study. There was +a gentleman with him there--Mr. Ridley, the clergyman who had given +evidence about Gilverthwaite at the opening of the inquest on Phillips. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE LINK + + +I knew by one glance at Mr. Lindsey's face that he had news for us; but +there was only one sort of news I was wanting at that moment, and I was +just as quick to see that, whatever news he had, it was not for me. And +as soon as I heard him say that nothing had been heard of Maisie Dunlop +during our absence, I was for going away, meaning to start inquiries of +my own in the town, there and then, dead-beat though I was. But before I +could reach the door he had a hand on me. + +"You'll just come in, my lad, and sit you down to a hot supper that's +waiting you and Mr. Smeaton there," he said, in that masterful way he +had which took no denial from anybody. "You can do no more good just +now--I've made every arrangement possible with the police, and they're +scouring the countryside. So into that chair with you, and eat and +drink--you'll be all the better for it. Mr. Smeaton," he went on, as he +had us both to the supper-table and began to help us to food, "here's +news for you--for such news as it is affects you, I'm thinking, more +than any man that it has to do with. Mr. Ridley here has found out +something relating to Michael Carstairs that'll change the whole course +of events!--especially if we prove, as I've no doubt we shall, that +Michael Carstairs was no other than your father, whom you knew as +Martin Smeaton." + +Smeaton turned in his chair and looked at Mr. Ridley, who--he and Mr. +Lindsey having taken their supper before we got in--was sitting in a +corner by the fire, eyeing the stranger from Dundee with evident and +curious interest. + +"I've heard of you, sir," said he. "You gave some evidence at the inquest +on Phillips about Gilverthwaite's searching of your registers, I think?" + +"Aye; and it's a fortunate thing--and shows how one thing leads to +another--that Gilverthwaite did go to Mr. Ridley!" explained Mr. +Lindsey. "It set Mr. Ridley on a track, and he's been following it up, +and--to cut matters short--he's found particulars of the marriage of +Michael Carstairs, who was said to have died unmarried. And I wish +Portlethorpe hadn't gone home to Newcastle before Mr. Ridley came to me +with the news." + +Tired as I was, and utterly heart-sick about Maisie, I pricked up my ears +at that. For at intervals Mr. Lindsey and I had discussed the +probabilities of this affair, and I knew that there was a strong +likelihood of its being found out that the mysterious Martin Smeaton was +no other than the Michael Carstairs who had left Hathercleugh for good as +a young man. And if it were established that he was married, and that +Gavin Smeaton was his lawful son, why, then--but Mr. Ridley was speaking, +and I broke off my own speculations to listen to him. + +"You've scarcely got me to thank for this, Mr. Smeaton," he said. "There +was naturally a good deal of talk in the neighbourhood after that inquest +on Phillips--people began wondering what that man Gilverthwaite wanted to +find in the parish registers, of which, I now know, he examined a good +many, on both sides the Tweed. And in the ordinary course of things--and +if some one had made a definite search with a definite object--what has +been found now could have been found at once. But I'll tell you how it +was. Up to some thirty years ago there was an old parish church away in +the loneliest part of the Cheviots which had served a village that +gradually went out of existence--though it's still got a name, Walholm, +there's but a house or two in it now; and as there was next to no +congregation, and the church itself was becoming ruinous, the old parish +was abolished, and merged in the neighbouring parish of Felside, whose +rector, my friend Mr. Longfield, has the old Walholm registers in his +possession. When he read of the Phillips inquest, and what I'd said then, +he thought of those registers and turned them up, out of a chest where +they'd lain for thirty years anyway; and he at once found the entry of +the marriage of one Michael Carstairs with a Mary Smeaton, which was by +licence, and performed by the last vicar of Walholm--it was, as a matter +of fact, the very last marriage which ever took place in the old church. +And I should say," concluded Mr. Ridley, "that it was what one would call +a secret wedding--secret, at any rate, in so far as this: as it was by +licence, and as the old church was a most lonely and isolated place, far +away from anywhere, even then there'd be no one to know of it beyond the +officiating clergyman and the witnesses, who could, of course, be asked +to hold their tongues about the matter, as they probably were. But +there's the copy of the entry in the old register." + +Smeaton and I looked eagerly over the slip of paper which Mr. Ridley +handed across. And he, to whom it meant such a vast deal, asked but +one question: + +"I wonder if I can find out anything about Mary Smeaton!" + +"Mr. Longfield has already made some quiet inquiries amongst two or three +old people of the neighbourhood on that point," remarked Mr. Ridley. "The +two witnesses to the marriage are both dead--years ago. But there are +folk living in the neighbourhood who remember Mary Smeaton. The facts are +these: she was a very handsome young woman, not a native of the district, +who came in service to one of the farms on the Cheviots, and who, by a +comparison of dates, left her place somewhat suddenly very soon after +that marriage." + +Smeaton turned to Mr. Lindsey in the same quiet fashion. + +"What do you make of all this?" he asked. + +"Plain as a pikestaff," answered Mr. Lindsey in his most confident +manner. "Michael Carstairs fell in love with this girl and married her, +quietly--as Mr. Ridley says, seeing that the marriage was by licence, +it's probable, nay, certain, that nobody but the parson and the witnesses +ever knew anything about it. I take it that immediately after the +marriage Michael Carstairs and his wife went off to America, and that he, +for reasons of his own, dropped his own proper patronymic and adopted +hers. And," he ended, slapping his knee, "I've no doubt that you're the +child of that marriage, that your real name is Gavin Carstairs, and that +you're the successor to the baronetcy, and--the real owner of +Hathercleugh,--as I shall have pleasure in proving." + +"We shall see," said Smeaton, quietly as ever. "But--there's a good deal +to do before we get to that, Mr. Lindsey! The present holder, or +claimant, for example? What of him?" + +"I've insisted on the police setting every bit of available machinery to +work in an effort to lay hands on him," replied Mr. Lindsey. "Murray not +only communicated all that Hollins told us last night to the Glasgow +police this morning, first thing, but he's sent a man over there with +the fullest news; he's wired the London authorities, and he's asked +for special detective help. He's got a couple of detectives from +Newcastle--all's being done that can be done. And for you too, Hugh, my +lad!" he added, turning suddenly to me. "Whatever the police are doing in +the other direction, they're doing in yours. For, ugly as it may sound +and seem, there's nothing like facing facts, and I'm afraid, I'm very +much afraid, that this disappearance of Maisie Dunlop is all of a piece +with the rest of the villainy that's been going on--I am indeed!" + +I pushed my plate away at that, and got on my feet. I had been dreading +as much myself, all day, but I had never dared put it into words. + +"You mean, Mr. Lindsey, that she's somehow got into the hands +of--what?--who?" I asked him. + +"Something and somebody that's at the bottom of all this!" he answered, +shaking his head. "I'm afraid, lad, I'm afraid!" + +I went away from all of them then, and nobody made any attempt to stop +me, that time--maybe they saw in my face that it was useless. I left the +house, and went--unconsciously, I think--away through the town to my +mother's, driving my nails into the palms of my hands, and cursing Sir +Gilbert Carstairs--if that was the devil's name!--between my teeth. And +from cursing him, I fell to cursing myself, that I hadn't told at once of +my seeing him at those crossroads on the night I went the errand for +Gilverthwaite. + +It had been late when Smeaton and I had got to Mr. Lindsey's, and the +night was now fallen on the town--a black, sultry night, with great +clouds overhead that threatened a thunderstorm. Our house was in a +badly-lighted part of the street, and it was gloomy enough about it as I +drew near, debating in myself what further I could do--sleep I knew I +should not until I had news of Maisie. And in the middle of my +speculations a man came out of the corner of a narrow lane that ran from +the angle of our house, and touched me on the elbow. There was a shaft of +light just there from a neighbour's window; in it I recognized the man as +a fellow named Scott that did odd gardening jobs here and there in the +neighbourhood. + +"Wisht, Mr. Hugh!" said he, drawing me into the shadows of the lane; +"I've been waiting your coming; there's a word I have for you--between +ourselves." + +"Well?" said I. + +"I hear you're promising ten pounds--cash on the spot--to the man that +can give you some news of your young lady?" he went on eagerly. "Is it +right, now?" + +"Can you?" I asked. "For if you can, you'll soon see that it's right." + +"You'd be reasonable about it?" he urged, again taking the liberty to +grip my arm. "If I couldn't just exactly give what you'd call exact and +definite news, you'd consider it the same thing if I made a suggestion, +wouldn't you, now, Mr. Hugh?--a suggestion that would lead to something?" + +"Aye, would I!" I exclaimed. "And if you've got any suggestions, Scott, +out with them, and don't beat about! Tell me anything that'll lead to +discovery, and you'll see your ten pound quickly." + +"Well," he answered, "I have to be certain, for I'm a poor man, as you +know, with a young family, and it would be a poor thing for me to hint at +aught that would take the bread out of their mouths--and my own. And I +have the chance of a fine, regular job now at Hathercleugh yonder, and I +wouldn't like to be putting it in peril." + +"It's Hathercleugh you're talking of, then?" I asked him eagerly. "For +God's sake, man, out with it! What is it you can tell me?" + +"Not a word to a soul of what I say, then, at any time, present or +future, Mr. Hugh?" he urged. + +"Oh, man, not a word!" I cried impatiently. "I'll never let on that I had +speech of you in the matter!" + +"Well, then," he whispered, getting himself still closer: "mind you, I +can't say anything for certain--it's only a hint I'm giving you; but if I +were in your shoes, I'd take a quiet look round yon old part of +Hathercleugh House--I would so! It's never used, as you'll know--nobody +ever goes near it; but, Mr. Hugh, whoever and however it is, there's +somebody in it now!" + +"The old part!" I exclaimed. "The Tower part?" + +"Aye, surely!" he answered. "If you could get quietly to it--" + +I gave his arm a grip that might have told him volumes. + +"I'll see you privately tomorrow, Scott," I said. "And if your news is +any good--man! there'll be your ten pound in your hand as soon as I set +eyes on you!" + +And therewith I darted away from him and headlong into our house doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE OLD TOWER + + +My mother was at her knitting, in her easy-chair, in her own particular +corner of the living-room when I rushed in, and though she started at the +sight of me, she went on knitting as methodically as if all the world was +regular as her own stitches. + +"So you've come to your own roof at last, my man!" she said, with a touch +of the sharpness that she could put into her tongue on occasion. "There's +them would say you'd forgotten the way to it, judging by experience--why +did you not let me know you were not coming home last night, and you in +the town, as I hear from other folks?" + +"Oh, mother!" I exclaimed. "How can you ask such questions when you know +how things are!--it was midnight when Mr. Lindsey and I got in from +Newcastle, and he would make me stop with him--and we were away again to +Edinburgh first thing in the morning." + +"Aye, well, if Mr. Lindsey likes to spend his money flying about the +country, he's welcome!" she retorted. "But I'll be thankful when you +settle down to peaceful ways again. Where are you going now?" she +demanded. "There's a warm supper for you in the oven!" + +"I've had my supper at Mr. Lindsey's, mother," I said, as I dragged my +bicycle out of the back-place. "I've just got to go out, whether I will +or no, and I don't know when I'll be in, either--do you think I can sleep +in my bed when I don't know where Maisie is?" + +"You'll not do much good, Hugh, where the police have failed," she +answered. "There's yon man Chisholm been here during the evening, and he +tells me they haven't come across a trace of her, so far." + +"Chisholm's been here, then?" I exclaimed. "For no more than that?" + +"Aye, for no more than that," she replied. "And then this very noon +there was that Irishwoman that kept house for Crone, asking at the +door for you." + +"What, Nance Maguire!" I said. "What did she want?" + +"You!" retorted my mother. "Nice sort of people we have coming to our +door in these times! Police, and murderers, and Irish--" + +"Did she say why she wanted me?" I interrupted her. + +"I gave her no chance," said my mother. "Do you think I was going to hold +talk with a creature like that at my steps?" + +"I'd hold talk with the devil himself, mother, if I could get some +news of Maisie!" I flung back at her as I made off. "You're as bad as +Andrew Dunlop!" + +There was the house door between her and me before she could reply to +that, and the next instant I had my bicycle on the road and my leg over +the saddle, and was hesitating before I put my foot to the pedal. What +did Nance Maguire want of me? Had she any news of Maisie? It was odd that +she should come down--had I better not ride up the town and see her? But +I reflected that if she had any news--which was highly improbable--she +would give it to the police; and so anxious was I to test what Scott had +hinted at, that I swung on to my machine without further delay or +reflection and went off towards Hathercleugh. + +And as I crossed the old bridge, in the opening murmur of a coming storm, +I had an illumination which came as suddenly as the first flash of +lightning that followed just afterwards. It had been a matter of +astonishment to me all day long that nobody, with the exception of the +one man at East Ord, had noticed Maisie as she went along the road +between Berwick and Mindrum on the previous evening--now I remembered, +blaming myself for not having remembered it before, that there was a +short cut, over a certain right-of-way, through the grounds of +Hathercleugh House, which would save her a good three miles in her +journey. She would naturally be anxious to get to her aunt as quickly as +possible; she would think of the nearest way--she would take it. And now +I began to understand the whole thing: Maisie had gone into the grounds +of Hathercleugh, and--she had never left them! + +The realization made me sick with fear. The idea of my girl being trapped +by such a villain as I firmly believed the man whom we knew as Sir +Gilbert Carstairs to be was enough to shake every nerve in my body; but +to think that she had been in his power for twenty-four hours, alone, +defenceless, brought on me a faintness that was almost beyond sustaining. +I felt physically and mentally ill--weak. And yet, God knows! there never +was so much as a thought of defeat in me. What I felt was that I must get +there, and make some effort that would bring the suspense to an end for +both of us. I was beginning to see how things might be--passing through +those grounds she might have chanced on something, or somebody, or Sir +Gilbert himself, who, naturally, would not let anybody escape him that +could tell anything of his whereabouts. But if he was at Hathercleugh, +what of the tale which Hollins had told us the night before?--nay, that +very morning, for it was after midnight when he sat there in Mr. +Lindsey's parlour. And, suddenly, another idea flashed across me--Was +that tale true, or was the man telling us a pack of lies, all for some +end? Against that last notion there was, of course, the torn scrap of +letter to be set; but--but supposing that was all part of a plot, meant +to deceive us while these villains--taking Hollins to be in at the other +man's game--got clear away in some totally different direction? If it +was, then it had been successful, for we had taken the bait, and all +attention was being directed on Glasgow, and none elsewhere, and--as far +as I knew--certainly none at Hathercleugh itself, whither nobody expected +Sir Gilbert to come back. + +But these were all speculations--the main thing was to get to +Hathercleugh, acting on the hint I had just got from Scott, and to take +a look round the old part of the big house, as far as I could. There was +no difficulty about getting there--although I had small acquaintance with +the house and grounds, never having been in them till the night of my +visit to Sir Gilbert Carstairs. I knew the surroundings well enough to +know how to get in amongst the shrubberies and coppices--I could have got +in there unobserved in the daytime, and it was now black night. I had +taken care to extinguish my lamp as soon as I got clear of the Border +Bridge, and now, riding along in the darkness, I was secure from the +observation of any possible enemy. And before I got to the actual +boundaries of Hathercleugh, I was off the bicycle, and had hidden it in +the undergrowth at the roadside; and instead of going into the grounds by +the right-of-way which I was convinced Maisie must have taken, I climbed +a fence and went forward through a spinny of young pine in the direction +of the house. Presently I had a fine bit of chance guidance to it--as I +parted the last of the feathery branches through which I had quietly made +my way, and came out on the edge of the open park, a vivid flash of +lightning showed me the great building standing on its plateau right +before me, a quarter of a mile off, its turrets and gables vividly +illuminated in the glare. And when that glare passed, as quickly as it +had come, and the heavy blackness fell again, there was a gleam of light, +coming from some window or other, and I made for that, going swiftly and +silently over the intervening space, not without a fear that if anybody +should chance to be on the watch another lightning flash might reveal my +advancing figure. + +But there had been no more lightning by the time I reached the plateau on +which Hathercleugh was built; then, however, came a flash that was more +blinding than the last, followed by an immediate crash of thunder right +overhead. In that flash I saw that I was now close to the exact spot I +wanted--the ancient part of the house. I saw, too, that between where I +stood and the actual walls there was no cover of shrubbery or coppice or +spinny--there was nothing but a closely cropped lawn to cross. And in the +darkness I crossed it, there and then, hastening forward with +outstretched hands which presently came against the masonry. In the same +moment came the rain in torrents. In the same moment, too, came something +else that damped my spirits more than any rains, however fierce and +heavy, could damp my skin--the sense of my own utter helplessness. There +I was--having acted on impulse--at the foot of a mass of grey stone which +had once been impregnable, and was still formidable! I neither knew how +to get in, nor how to look in, if that had been possible; and I now saw +that in coming at all I ought to have come accompanied by a squad of +police with authority to search the whole place, from end to end and top +to bottom. And I reflected, with a grim sense of the irony of it, that to +do that would have been a fine long job for a dozen men--what, then, was +it that I had undertaken single-handed? + +It was at this moment, as I clung against the wall, sheltering myself as +well as I could from the pouring rain, that I heard through its steady +beating an equally steady throb as of some sort of machine. It was a very +subdued, scarcely apparent sound, but it was there--it was unmistakable. +And suddenly--though in those days we were only just becoming familiar +with them--I knew what it was--the engine of some sort of automobile; but +not in action; the sound came from the boilers or condensers, or whatever +the things were called which they used in the steam-driven cars. And it +was near by--near at my right hand, farther along the line of the wall +beneath which I was cowering. There was something to set all my curiosity +aflame!--what should an automobile be doing there, at that hour--for it +was now nearing well on to midnight--and in such close proximity to a +half-ruinous place like that? And now, caring no more for the rain than +if it had been a springtide shower, I slowly began to creep along the +wall in the direction of the sound. + +And here you will understand the situation of things better, if I say +that the habitable part of Hathercleugh was a long way from the old part +to which I had come. The entire mass of building, old and new, was of +vast extent, and the old was separated from the new by a broken and +utterly ruinous wing, long since covered over with ivy. As for the old +itself, there was a great square tower at one corner of it, with walls +extending from its two angles; it was along one of these walls that I was +now creeping. And presently--the sound of the gentle throbbing growing +slightly louder as I made my way along--I came to the tower, and to the +deep-set gateway in it, and I knew at once that in that gateway there was +an automobile drawn up, all ready for being driven out and away. + +Feeling quietly for the corner of the gateway, I looked round, +cautiously, lest a headlight on the car should betray my presence. But +there was no headlight, and there was no sound beyond the steady throb of +the steam and the ceaseless pouring of the rain behind me. And then, as I +looked, came a third flash of lightning, and the entire scene was lighted +up for me--the deep-set gateway with its groined and arched roof, the +grim walls at each side, the dark massive masonry beyond it, and there, +within the shelter, a small, brand-new car, evidently of fine and +powerful make, which even my inexperienced eyes knew to be ready for +departure from that place at any moment. And I saw something more during +that flash--a half-open door in the wall to the left of the car, and the +first steps of a winding stair. + +As the darkness fell again, blacker than ever, and the thunder crashed +out above the old tower, I stole along the wall to that door, intending +to listen if aught were stirring within, or on the stairs, or in the +rooms above. And I had just got my fingers on the rounded pillar of the +doorway, and the thunder was just dying to a grumble, when a hand seized +the back of my neck as in a vice, and something hard, and round, and cold +pressed itself insistingly into my right temple. It was all done in the +half of a second; but I knew, just as clearly as if I could see it, that +a man of no ordinary strength had gripped me by the neck with one hand, +and was holding a revolver to my head with the other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE BARGAIN + + +It may be that when one is placed in such a predicament as that in which +I then found myself, one's wits are suddenly sharpened, and a new sense +is given to one. Whether that is so or not, I was as certain as if I +actually saw him that my assailant was the butler, Hollins. And I should +have been infinitely surprised if any other voice than his had spoken--as +he did speak when the last grumble of the thunder died out in a sulky, +reluctant murmur. + +"In at that door, and straight up the stairs, Moneylaws!" he commanded. +"And quick, if you don't want your brains scattering. Lively, now!" + +He trailed the muzzle of the revolver round from my temple to the back of +my head as he spoke, pressing it into my hair in its course in a fashion +that was anything but reassuring. I have often thought since of how I +expected the thing to go off at any second, and how I was--for it's a +fact--more curious than frightened about it. But the sense of +self-preservation was on me, self-assertive enough, and I obliged him, +stumbling in at the door under the pressure of his strong arm and of the +revolver, and beginning to boggle at the first steps--old and much worn +ones, which were deeply hollowed in the middle. He shoved me forward. + +"Up you go," he said, "straight ahead! Put your arms up and out--in front +of you till you feel a door--push it open." + +He kept one hand on the scruff of my neck--too tightly for comfort--and +with the other pressed the revolver into the cavity just above it, and in +this fashion we went up. And even in that predicament I must have had my +wits about me, for I counted two-and-twenty steps. Then came the door--a +heavy, iron-studded piece of strong oak, and it was slightly open, and as +I pushed it wider in the darkness, a musty, close smell came from +whatever was within. + +"No steps," said he, "straight on! Now then, halt--and keep halting! If +you move one finger, Moneylaws, out fly your brains! No great loss to the +community, my lad--but I've some use for them yet." + +He took his hand away from my neck, but the revolver was still pressed +into my hair, and the pressure never relaxed. And suddenly I heard a snap +behind me, and the place in which we stood was lighted up--feebly, but +enough to show me a cell-like sort of room, stone-walled, of course, and +destitute of everything in the furnishing way but a bit of a cranky old +table and a couple of three-legged stools on either side of it. With the +released hand he had snapped the catch of an electric pocket-lamp, and in +its blue glare he drew the revolver away from my head, and stepping +aside, but always covering me with his weapon, motioned me to the further +stool. I obeyed him mechanically, and he pulled the table a little +towards him, sat down on the other stool, and, resting his elbow on the +table ledge, poked the revolver within a few inches of my nose. + +"Now, we'll talk for a few minutes, Moneylaws," he said quietly, "Storm +or no storm, I'm bound to be away on my business, and I'd have been off +now if it hadn't been for your cursed peeping and prying. But I don't +want to kill you, unless I'm obliged to, so you'll just serve your own +interests best if you answer a question or two and tell no lies. Are +there more of you outside or about?" + +"Not to my knowledge!" said I. + +"You came alone?" he asked. + +"Absolutely alone," I replied. + +"And why?" he demanded. + +"To see if I could get any news of Miss Dunlop," I answered. + +"Why should you think to find Miss Dunlop here--in this old ruin?" he +argued; and I could see he was genuinely curious. "Come now--straight +talk, Moneylaws!--and it'll be all the better for you." + +"She's missing since last night," I replied. "It came to me that she +likely took a short cut across these grounds, and that in doing so she +fell in with Sir Gilbert--or with you--and was kept, lest she should let +out what she'd seen. That's the plain truth, Mr. Hollins." + +He was keeping his eyes on me just as steadily as he kept the revolver, +and I saw from the look in them that he believed me. + +"Aye!" he said. "I see you can draw conclusions, if it comes to it. +But--did you keep that idea of yours strictly to yourself, now?" + +"Absolutely!" I repeated. + +"You didn't mention it to a soul?" he asked searchingly. + +"Not to a soul!" said I. "There isn't man, woman, or child knows +I'm here." + +I thought he might have dropped the muzzle of the revolver at that, but +he still kept it in a line with my nose and made no sign of relaxing +his vigilance. But, as he was silent for the moment, I let out a +question at him. + +"It'll do you no harm to tell me the truth, Mr. Hollins," I said. "Do you +know anything about Miss Dunlop? Is she safe? You've maybe had a young +lady yourself one time or another--you'll understand what I'm feeling +about it?" + +He nodded solemnly at that and in quite a friendly way. + +"Aye!" he answered. "I understand your feelings well enough, +Moneylaws--and I'm a man of sentiment, so I'll tell you at once that the +lass is safe enough, and there's not as much harm come to her as you +could put on a sixpence--so there! But--I'm not sure yet that you're safe +yourself," he went on, still eyeing me consideringly. "I'm a soft-hearted +man, Moneylaws--or else you wouldn't have your brains in their place at +this present minute!" + +"There's a mighty lot of chance of my harming you, anyway!" said I, with +a laugh that surprised myself. "Not so much as a penknife on me, and you +with that thing at my head." + +"Aye!--but you've got a tongue in that head," said he. "And you might be +using it! But come, now--I'm loth to harm you, and you'd best tell me a +bit more. What's the police doing?" + +"What police do you mean?" I inquired. + +"Here, there, everywhere, anywhere!" he exclaimed. "No quibbles, +now!--you'll have had plenty of information." + +"They're acting on yours," I retorted. "Searching about Glasgow for Sir +Gilbert and Lady Carstairs--you put us on to that, Mr. Hollins." + +"I had to," he answered. "Aye, I put Lindsey on to it, to be sure--and he +took it all in like it was gospel, and so did all of you! It gained time, +do you see, Moneylaws--it had to be done." + +"Then--they aren't in Glasgow?" I asked. + +He shook his big head solemnly at that, and something like a smile came +about the corners of his lips. + +"They're not in Glasgow, nor near it," he answered readily, "but where +all the police in England--and in Scotland, too, for that matter--'ll +find it hard to get speech with them. Out of hand, Moneylaws!--out of +hand, d'ye see--for the police!" + +He gave a sort of chuckle when he said this, and it emboldened me to come +to grips with him--as far as words went. + +"Then what harm can I do you, Mr. Hollins?" I asked. "You're not in any +danger that I know of." + +He looked at me as if wondering whether I wasn't trying a joke on him, +and after staring a while he shook his head. + +"I'm leaving this part--finally," he answered. "That's Sir Gilbert's +brand-new car that's all ready for me down the stairs; and as I say, +whether it's storm or no storm, I must be away. And there's just two +things I can do, Moneylaws--I can lay you out on the floor here, with +your brains running over your face, or I can--trust to your honour!" + +We looked at each other for a full minute in silence--our eyes meeting in +the queer, bluish light of the electric pocket-lamp which he had set on +the table before us. Between us, too, was that revolver--always pointing +at me out of its one black eye. + +"If it's all the same to you, Mr. Hollins," said I at length, "I'd prefer +you to trust to my honour. Whatever quality my brains may have, I'd +rather they were used than misused in the way you're suggesting! If it's +just this--that you want me to hold my tongue--" + +"I'll make a bargain with you," he broke in on me. "You'd be fine and +glad to see your sweetheart, Moneylaws, and assure yourself that she's +come to no harm, and is safe and well?" + +"Aye! I would that!" I exclaimed. "Give me the chance, Mr. Hollins!" + +"Then give me your word that whatever happens, whatever comes, you'll +not mention to the police that you've seen me tonight, and that whenever +you're questioned you'll know nothing about me!" he said eagerly. +"Twelve hours' start--aye, six!--means safety to me, Moneylaws. Will +you keep silence?" + +"Where's Miss Dunlop?" asked I. + +"You can be with her in three minutes," he answered, "if you'll give me +your word--and you're a truthful lad, I think--that you'll both bide +where you are till morning, and that after that you'll keep your tongue +quiet. Will you do that?" + +"She's close by?" I demanded. + +"Over our heads," he said calmly. "And you've only to say the word--" + +"It's said, Mr. Hollins!" I exclaimed. "Go your ways! I'll never breathe +a syllable of it to a soul! Neither in six, nor twelve, nor a thousand +hours!--your secret's safe enough with me--so long as you keep your word +about her--and just now!" + +He drew his free hand off the table, still watching me, and still keeping +up the revolver, and from a drawer in the table between us pulled out a +key and pushed it over. + +"There's a door behind you in yon corner," he said. "And you'll find a +lantern at its foot--you've matches on you, no doubt. And beyond the door +there's another stair that leads up to the turret, and you'll find her +there--and safe--and so--go your ways, now, Moneylaws, and I'll go mine!" + +He dropped the revolver into a side pocket of his waterproof coat as he +spoke, and, pointing me to the door in the corner, turned to that by +which he had entered. And as he turned he snapped off the light of his +electric lamp, while I myself, having fumbled for a box of matches, +struck one and looked around me for this lantern he had mentioned. In +its spluttering light I saw his big figure round the corner--then, just +as I made for the lantern, the match went out and all was darkness again. +As I felt for another match, I heard him pounding the stair--and suddenly +there was a sort of scuffle and he cried out loudly once, and there was +the sound of a fall, and then of lighter steps hurrying away, and then a +heavy, rattling groan. And with my heart in my mouth and fingers +trembling so that I could scarcely hold the match, I made shift to light +the candle in the lantern, and went fearfully after him. There, in an +angle of the stairway, he was lying, with the blood running in dark +streams from a gap in his throat; while his hands, which he had +instinctively put up to it, were feebly dropping away and relaxing on his +broad chest. And as I put the lantern closer to him he looked up at me in +a queer, puzzled fashion, and died before my very eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE SWAG + + +I shrank back against the mouldy wall of that old stairway shivering as +if I had been suddenly stricken with the ague. I had trembled in every +limb before ever I heard the sound of the sudden scuffle, and from a +variety of reasons--the relief of having Hollins's revolver withdrawn +from my nose; the knowledge that Maisie was close by; the gradual +wearing-down of my nerves during a whole day of heart-sickening +suspense,--but now the trembling had deepened into utter shaking: I heard +my own teeth chattering, and my heart going like a pump, as I stood +there, staring at the man's face, over which a grey pallor was quickly +spreading itself. And though I knew that he was as dead as ever a man can +be, I called to him, and the sound of my own voice frightened me. + +"Mr. Hollins!" I cried. "Mr. Hollins!" + +And then I was frightened still more, for, as if in answer to my summons, +but, of course, because of some muscular contraction following on death, +the dead lips slightly parted, and they looked as if they were grinning +at me. At that I lost what nerve I had left, and let out a cry, and +turned to run back into the room where we had talked. But as I turned +there were sounds at the foot of the stair, and the flash of a bull's-eye +lamp, and I heard Chisholm's voice down in the gateway below. + +"Hullo, up there!" he was demanding. "Is there anybody above?" + +It seemed as if I was bursting my chest when I got an answer out to him. + +"Oh, man!" I shouted, "come up! There's me here--and there's murder!" + +I heard him exclaim in a dismayed and surprised fashion, and mutter some +words to somebody that was evidently with him, and then there was heavy +tramping below, and presently Chisholm's face appeared round the corner; +and as he held his bull's-eye before him, its light fell full on Hollins, +and he jumped back a step or two. + +"Mercy on us!" he let out. "What's all this? The man's lying dead!" + +"Dead enough, Chisholm!" said I, gradually getting the better of my +fright. "And murdered, too! But who murdered him, God knows--I don't! He +trapped me in here, not ten minutes ago, and had me at the end of a +revolver, and we came to terms, and he left me--and he was no sooner down +the stairs here than I heard a bit of a scuffle, and him fall and groan, +and I ran out to find--that! And somebody was off and away--have you seen +nobody outside there?" + +"You can't see an inch before your eyes--the night's that black," he +answered, bending over the dead man. "We've only just come--round from +the house. But whatever were you doing here, yourself?" + +"I came to see if I could find any trace of Miss Dunlop in this old +part," I answered, "and he told me--just before this happened--she's in +the tower above, and safe. And I'll go up there now, Chisholm; for if +she's heard aught of all this--" + +There was another policeman with him, and they stepped past the body and +followed me into the little room and looked round curiously. I left them +whispering, and opened the door that Hollins had pointed out. There was a +stair there, as he had said, set deep in the thick wall, and I went a +long way up it before I came to another door, in which there was a key +set in the lock. And in a moment I had it turned, and there was Maisie, +and I had her in my arms and was flooding her with questions and holding +the light to her face to see if she was safe, all at once. + +"You've come to no harm?--you're all right?--you've not been frightened +out of your senses?--how did it all come about?" I rapped out at her. +"Oh, Maisie, I've been seeking for you all day long, and--" + +And then, being utterly overwrought, I was giving out, and I suddenly +felt a queer giddiness coming over me; and if it had not been for her, I +should have fallen and maybe fainted, and she saw it, and got me to a +couch from which she had started when I turned the key, and was holding a +glass of water to my lips that she snatched up from a table, and +encouraging me, who should have been consoling her--all within the +minute of my setting eyes on her, and me so weak, as it seemed, that I +could only cling on to her hand, making sure that I had really got her. + +"There, there, it's all right, Hugh!" she murmured, patting my arm as if +I had been some child that had just started awake from a bad dream. +"There's no harm come to me at all, barring the weary waiting in this +black hole of a place!--I've had food and drink and a light, as you +see--they promised me I should have no harm when they locked me in. But +oh, it's seemed like it was ages since then!" + +"They? Who?" I demanded. "Who locked you in?" + +"Sir Gilbert and that butler of his--Hollins," she answered. "I took the +short cut through the grounds here last night, and I ran upon the two of +them at the corner of the ruins, and they stopped me, and wouldn't let me +go, and locked me up here, promising I'd be let out later on." + +"Sir Gilbert!" I exclaimed. "You're sure it was Sir Gilbert?" + +"Of course I'm sure!" she replied. "Who else? And I made out they were +afraid of my letting out that I'd seen them--it was Sir Gilbert himself +said they could run no risks." + +"You've seen him since?" I asked. "He's been in here?" + +"No--not since last night," she answered. "And Hollins not since this +morning when he brought me some food--I've not wanted for that," she went +on, with a laugh, pointing to things that had been set on the table. +"And he said, then, that about midnight, tonight, I'd hear the key +turned, and after that I was free to go, but I'd have to make my way home +on foot, for he wasn't wanting me to be in Berwick again too soon." + +"Aye!" I said, shaking my head. "I'm beginning to see through some of it! +But, Maisie, you'll be a good girl, and just do what I tell you?--and +that's to stay where you are until I fetch you down. For there's more +dreadfulness below--where Sir Gilbert may be, Heaven knows, but Hollins +is lying murdered on the stair; and if I didn't see him murdered, I saw +him take his last breath!" + +She, too, shook a bit at that, and she gripped me tighter. + +"You're not by yourself, Hugh?" she asked anxiously. "You're in no +danger?" + +But just then Chisholm called up the stair of the turret, asking was Miss +Dunlop safe, and I bade Maisie speak to him. + +"That's good news!" said he. "But will you tell Mr. Hugh to come down to +us?--and you'd best stop where you are yourself, Miss Dunlop--there's no +very pleasant sight down this way. Have you no idea at all who did this?" +he asked, as I went down to him. "You were with him?" + +"Man alive, I've no more idea than you have!" I exclaimed. "He was making +off somewhere in yon car that's below--he threatened me with the loss of +my life if I didn't agree to let him get away in peace, and he was going +down the stairs to the car when it happened. But I'll tell you this: +Miss Dunlop says Sir Gilbert was here last night!--and it was he and +Hollins imprisoned her above there--frightened she'd let out on them if +she got away." + +"Then the Glasgow tale was all lies?" he exclaimed. "It came from +this man, too, that's lying dead--it's been a put-up thing, d'ye +think, Mr. Hugh?" + +"It's all part of a put-up thing, Chisholm," said I. "Hadn't we better +get the man in here, and see what's on him? And what made you come here +yourselves?--and are there any more of you about?" + +"We came asking some information at the house," he answered, "and we were +passing round here, under the wall, on our way to the road, when we heard +that car throbbing, and then saw your bit of a light. And that's a good +idea of yours, and we'll bring him into this place and see if there's +aught to give us a clue. Slip down," he went on, turning to the other +man, "and bring the headlights off the car, so that we can see what we're +doing. Do you think this is some of Sir Gilbert's work, Mr. Hugh?" he +whispered when we were alone. "If he was about here, and this Hollins was +in some of his secrets--?" + +"Oh, don't ask me!" I exclaimed. "It seems like there was nothing but +murder on every hand of us! And whoever did this can't be far away--only +the night's that black, and there's so many holes and corners hereabouts +that it would be like searching a rabbit-warren--you'll have to get help +from the town." + +"Aye, to be sure!" he agreed. "But we'll take a view of things +ourselves, first. There may be effects on him that'll suggest +something." + +We carried the body into the room when the policeman came up with the +lamps from the car, and stretched it out on the table at which Hollins +and I had sat not so long before; though that time, indeed, now seemed to +me to belong to some other life! And Chisholm made a hasty examination of +what there was in the man's pockets, and there was little that had any +significance, except that in a purse which he carried in an inner pocket +of his waistcoat there was a considerable sum of money in notes and gold. + +The other policeman, who held one of the lamps over the table while +Chisholm was making this search, waited silently until it was over, and +then he nodded his head at the stair. + +"There's some boxes, or cases, down in yon car," he remarked. "All +fastened up and labelled--it might be worth while to take a look into +them, sergeant. What's more, there's tools lying in the car that looks +like they'd been used to fasten them up." + +"We'll have them up here, then," said Chisholm. "Stop you here, Mr. Hugh, +while we fetch them--and don't let your young lady come down while that's +lying here. You might cover him up," he went on, with a significant nod. +"It's an ill sight for even a man's eyes, that!" + +There were some old, moth-eaten hangings about the walls here and there, +and I took one down and laid it over Hollins, wondering while I did this +office for him what strange secret it was that he had carried away into +death, and why that queer and puzzled expression had crossed his face in +death's very moment. And that done, I ran up to Maisie again, bidding her +be patient awhile, and we talked quietly a bit until Chisholm called me +down to look at the boxes. There were four of them--stout, new-made +wooden cases, clamped with iron at the corners, and securely screwed +down; and when the policemen invited me to feel the weight, I was put in +mind, in a lesser degree, of Gilverthwaite's oak-chest. + +"What do you think's like to be in there, now, Mr. Hugh?" asked Chisholm. +"Do you know what I think? There's various heavy metals in the +world--aye, and isn't gold one of the heaviest?--it'll not be lead that's +in here! And look you at that!" + +He pointed to some neatly addressed labels tacked strongly to each +lid--the writing done in firm, bold, print-like characters: + +_John Harrison, passenger, by S.S. Aerolite. +Newcastle to Hamburg_. + +I was looking from one label to the other and finding them all alike, +when we heard voices at the foot of the stair, and from out of them came +Superintendent Murray's, demanding loudly who was above. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +GOLD + + +There was quite a company of men came up the stair with Murray, crowding, +all of them, into the room, with eyes full of astonishment at what they +saw: Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Gavin Smeaton, and a policeman or two, and--what +was of more interest to me--a couple of strangers. But looking at these +more closely, I saw that I had seen one of them before--an elderly man, +whom I recognized as having been present in court when Carter was brought +up before the magistrates; a quiet, noticing sort of man whom I +remembered as appearing to take great and intelligent interest in the +proceedings. And he and the other man now with him seemed to take just as +keen an interest in what Chisholm and I had to tell; but while Murray was +full of questions to both of us, they asked none. Only--during that +questioning--the man whom I had never seen before quietly lifted the +hanging which I had spread over Hollins's dead body, and took a searching +look at his face. + +Mr. Lindsey drew me aside and pointed at the elderly man whom I +remembered seeing in the police court. + +"You see yon gentleman?" he whispered. "That's a Mr. Elphinstone, +that was formerly steward to old Sir Alexander Carstairs. He's +retired--a good many years, now, and lives the other side of Alnwick, +in a place of his own. But this affair's fetched him into the light +again--to some purpose!" + +"I saw him in the court when Carter was before the bench, Mr. Lindsey," +I remarked. + +"Aye!--and I wish he'd told me that day what he could have told!" +exclaimed Mr. Lindsey under his breath. "But he's a cautious, a very +cautious man, and he preferred to work quietly, and it wasn't until very +late tonight that he came to Murray and sent for me--an hour, it was, +after you'd gone home. The other man with him is a London detective. Man! +there's nice revelations come out!--and pretty much on the lines I was +suspecting. We'd have been up here an hour ago if it hadn't been for yon +storm. And--but now that the storm's over, Hugh, we must get Maisie +Dunlop out of this; come up, now, and show me where she is--that first, +and the rest after." + +We left the others still grouped around the dead man and the boxes which +had been brought up from the car, and I took Mr. Lindsey up the stairs to +the room in the turret which had served Maisie for a prison all that +weary time. And after a word or two with her about her sore adventures, +Mr. Lindsey told her she must be away, and he would get Murray to send +one of the policemen with her to see her safe home--I myself being still +wanted down below. But at that Maisie began to show signs of distinct +dislike and disapproval. + +"I'll not go a yard, Mr. Lindsey," she declared, "unless you'll give me +your word that you'll not let Hugh out of your sight again till all this +is settled and done with! Twice within this last few days the lad's been +within an inch of his life, and they say the third time pays for all--and +how do I know there mightn't be a third time in his case? And I'd rather +stay by him, and we'll take our chances together--" + +"Now, now!" broke in Mr. Lindsey, patting her arm. "There's a good +half-dozen of us with him now, and we'll take good care no harm comes to +him or any of us; so be a good lass and get you home to Andrew--and tell +him all about it, for the worthy man's got a bee in his bonnet that we've +been in some way responsible for your absence, my girl. You're sure you +never set eyes on Sir Gilbert again after he and Hollins stopped you?" he +asked suddenly, as we went down the stair. "Nor heard his voice down +here--or anywhere?" + +"I never saw him again, nor heard him," answered Maisie. "And till Hugh +came just now, I'd never seen Hollins himself since morning and--Oh!" + +She had caught sight of the still figure stretched out in the lower room, +and she shrank to me as we hurried her past it and down to the gateway +below. Thither Murray followed us, and after a bit more questioning he +put her in a car in which he and some of the others had come up, and sent +one of his men off with her; but before this Maisie pulled me away into +the darkness and gripped me tight by the arm. + +"You'll promise me, Hugh, before ever I go, that you'll not run yourself +into any more dangers?" she asked earnestly. "We've been through enough +of that, and I'm just more than satisfied with it, and it's like as if +there was something lurking about--" + +She began to shiver as she looked into the black night about us--and it +was indeed, although in summer time, as black a night as ever I saw--and +her hand got a tighter grip on mine. + +"How do you know yon bad man isn't still about?" she whispered. "It was +he killed Hollins, of course!--and if he wanted to kill you yon time in +the yacht, he'll want again!" + +"It's small chance he'll get, then, now!" I said. "There's no fear of +that, Maisie--amongst all yon lot of men above. Away you go, now, and get +to your bed, and as sure as sure I'll be home to eat my breakfast with +you. It's my opinion all this is at an end." + +"Not while yon man's alive!" she answered. "And I'd have far rather +stayed with you--till it's daylight, anyway." + +However, she let me put her into the car; and when I had charged the +policeman who went with her not to take his eyes off her until she was +safe in Andrew Dunlop's house, they went off, and Mr. Lindsey and I +turned up the stair again. Murray had preceded us, and under his +superintendence Chisholm was beginning to open the screwed-up boxes. The +rest of us stood round while this job was going on, waiting in silence. +It was no easy or quick job, for the screws had been fastened in after a +thoroughly workmanlike fashion, and when he got the first lid off we saw +that the boxes themselves had been evidently specially made for this +purpose. They were of some very strong, well-seasoned wood, and they were +lined, first with zinc, and then with thick felt. And--as we were soon +aware--they were filled to the brim with gold. There it lay--roll upon +roll, all carefully packed--gold! It shone red and fiery in the light of +our lamps, and it seemed to me that in every gleam of it I saw devils' +eyes, full of malice, and mockery, and murder. + +But there was one box, lighter than the rest, in which, instead of gold, +we found the valuable things of which Hollins had told Mr. Lindsey and +Mr. Portlethorpe and myself when he came to us on his lying mission, only +the previous midnight. There they all were--the presents that had been +given to various of the Carstairs baronets by royal donors--carefully +packed and bestowed. And at sight of them, Mr. Lindsey looked +significantly at me, and then at Murray. + +"He was a wily and a clever man, this fellow that's lying behind us," he +muttered. "He pulled our hair over our eyes to some purpose with his tale +of Lady Carstairs and her bicycle--but I'm forgetting," he broke off, and +drew me aside. "There's another thing come out since you left me and +Smeaton tonight," he whispered. "The police have found out something for +themselves--I'll give them that credit. That was all lies--lies, nothing +but lies!--that Hollins told us,--all done to throw us off the scent. You +remember the tale of the registered letter from Edinburgh?--the police +found out last evening from the post folks that there never was any +registered letter. You remember Hollins said Lady Carstairs went off on +her bicycle? The police have found out she never went off on any +bicycle--she wasn't there to go off. She was away early that morning; she +took a train south from Beal station before breakfast--at least, a veiled +woman answering her description did,--and she's safe hidden in London, or +elsewhere, by now, my lad!" + +"But him--the man--Sir Gilbert, or whoever he is?" I whispered. "What of +him, Mr. Lindsey?" + +"Aye, just so!" he said. "I'm gradually piecing it together, as we go on. +It would seem to me that he made his way to Edinburgh after getting rid +of you, as he thought and hoped--probably got there the very next +morning, through the help of yon fisherman at Largo, Robertson, who, of +course, told us and the police a pack of lies!--and when he'd got the +last of these securities from Paley, he worked back here, secretly, and +with the help of Hollins, and has no doubt kept quiet in this old tower +until they could get away with that gold! Of course, Hollins has been in +at all this--but now--who's killed Hollins? And where's the chief +party--the other man?" + +"What?" I exclaimed. "You don't think he killed Hollins, then?" + +"I should be a fool if I did, my lad," he answered. "Bethink +yourself!--when all was cut and dried for their getting off, do you +think he'd stick a knife in his confederate's throat? No!--I can see +their plan, and it was a good one. Hollins would have run those cases +down to Newcastle in a couple of hours; there'd have been no suspicion +about them, and no questions which he couldn't answer--he'd have gone +across to Hamburg with them himself. As for the man we know as Sir +Gilbert, you'll be hearing something presently from Mr. Elphinstone +yonder; but my impression is, as Maisie never saw or heard of him during +the night and day, that he got away after his wife last night--and with +those securities on him!" + +"Then--who killed Hollins?" I said in sheer amazement. "Are there others +in at all this?" + +"You may well ask that, lad," he responded, shaking his head. "Indeed, +though we're nearing it, I think we're not quite at the end of the lane, +and there'll be a queer turning or two in it, yet, before we get out. But +here's Murray come to an end of the present business." + +Murray had finished his inspection of the cases and was helping Chisholm +to replace the lids. He, Chisholm, and the detective were exchanging +whispered remarks over this job; Mr. Elphinstone and Mr. Gavin Smeaton +were talking together in low voices near the door. Presently Murray +turned to us. + +"We can do no more here, now, Mr. Lindsey," he said, "and I'm going to +lock this place up until daylight and leave a man in the gateway below, +on guard. But as to the next step--you haven't the least idea in your +head, Moneylaws, about Hollins's assailant?" he went on, turning to me. +"You heard and saw--nothing?" + +"I've told you what I heard, Mr. Murray," I answered. "As to seeing +anything, how could I? The thing happened on the stair there, and I was +in this corner unlocking the inner door." + +"It's as big a mystery as all the rest of it!" he muttered. "And it's +just convincing me there's more behind all this than we think for. And +one thing's certain--we can't search these grounds or the neighbourhood +until the light comes. But we can go round to the house." + +He marched us all out at that, and himself locked up the room, leaving +the dead man with the chests of gold; and having stationed a constable in +the gateway of the old tower, he led us off in a body to the habited part +of the house. There were lights there in plenty, and a couple of +policemen at the door, and behind them a whole troop of servants in the +hall, half dressed, and open-mouthed with fright and curiosity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE DARK POOL + + +As I went into that house with the rest of them, I had two sudden +impressions. One was that here at my side, in the person of Mr. Gavin +Smeaton, was, in all probability, its real owner, the real holder of the +ancient title, who was coming to his lawful rights in this strange +fashion. The other was of the contrast between my own coming at that +moment and the visit which I had paid there, only a few evenings +previously, when Hollins had regarded me with some disfavour and the +usurper had been so friendly. Now Hollins was lying dead in the old ruin, +and the other man was a fugitive--and where was he? + +Murray had brought us there to do something towards settling that point, +and he began his work at once by assembling every Jack and Jill in the +house and, with the help of the London detective, subjecting them to a +searching examination as to the recent doings of their master and +mistress and the butler. But Mr. Lindsey motioned Mr. Elphinstone, and +Mr. Gavin Smeaton, and myself into a side-room and shut the door on us. + +"We can leave the police to do their own work," he remarked, motioning +us to be seated at a convenient table. "My impression is that they'll +find little out from the servants. And while that's afoot, I'd like to +have that promised story of yours, Mr. Elphinstone--I only got an idea of +it, you know, when you and Murray came to my house. And these two would +like to hear it--one of them, at any rate, is more interested in this +affair than you'd think or than he knew of himself until recently." + +Now that we were in a properly lighted room, I took a more careful look +at the former steward of Hathercleugh. He was a well-preserved, +shrewd-looking man of between sixty and seventy: quiet and observant, the +sort of man that you could see would think a lot without saying much. He +smiled a little as he put his hands together on the table and glanced at +our expectant faces--it was just the smile of a man who knows what he is +talking about. + +"Aye, well, Mr. Lindsey," he responded, "maybe there's not so much +mystery in this affair as there seems to be once you've got at an idea. +I'll tell you how I got at mine and what's come of it. Of course, you'll +not know, for I think you didn't come to Berwick yourself until after I'd +left the neighbourhood--but I was connected with the Hathercleugh estate +from the time I was a lad until fifteen years ago, when I gave up the +steward's job and went to live on a bit of property of my own, near +Alnwick. Of course, I knew the two sons--Michael and Gilbert; and I +remember well enough when, owing to perpetual quarrelling with their +father, he gave them both a good lot of money and they went their +several ways. And after that, neither ever came back that I heard of, nor +did I ever come across either, except on one occasion--to which I'll +refer in due course. In time, as I've just said, I retired; in time, too, +Sir Alexander died, and I heard that, Mr. Michael being dead in the West +Indies, Sir Gilbert had come into the title and estates. I did think, +once or twice, of coming over to see him; but the older a man gets, the +fonder he is of his own fireside--and I didn't come here, nor did I ever +hear much of him; he certainly made no attempt to see me. And so we come +to the beginning of what we'll call the present crisis. That beginning +came with the man who turned up in Berwick this spring." + +"You mean Gilverthwaite?" asked Mr. Lindsey. + +"Aye--but I didn't know him by that name!" assented Mr. Elphinstone, with +a sly smile. "I didn't know him by any name. What I know is this. It must +have been about a week--certainly not more--before Gilverthwaite's death +that he--I'm sure of his identity, because of his description--called on +me at my house, and with a good deal of hinting and such-like told me +that he was a private inquiry agent, and could I tell him something about +the late Michael Carstairs?--and that, it turned out, was: Did I know if +Michael was married before he left England, and if so, where, and to +whom? Of course, I knew nothing about it, and as the man wouldn't give me +the least information I packed him off pretty sharply. And the next thing +I heard was of the murder of John Phillips. I didn't connect that with +the visit of the mysterious man at first; but of course I read the +account of the inquest, and Mr. Ridley's evidence, and then I began to +see there was some strange business going on, though I couldn't even +guess at what it could be. And I did nothing, and said nothing--there +seemed nothing, then, that I could do or say, though I meant to come +forward later--until I saw the affair of Crone in the newspapers, and I +knew then that there was more in the matter than was on the surface. So, +when I learnt that a man named Carter had been arrested on the charge of +murdering Crone, I came to Berwick, and went to the court to hear what +was said when Carter was put before the magistrates. I got a quiet seat +in the court--and maybe you didn't see me." + +"I did!" I exclaimed. "I remember you perfectly, Mr. Elphinstone." + +"Aye!" he said with an amused smile. "You're the lad that's had his +finger in the pie pretty deep--you're well out of it, my man! Well--there +I was, and a man sitting by me that knew everybody, and before ever the +case was called this man pointed out Sir Gilbert Carstairs coming in and +being given a seat on the bench. And I knew that there was a fine to-do, +and perhaps nobody but myself knowing of it, for the man pointed out to +me was no Sir Gilbert Carstairs, nor any Carstairs at all--not he! But--I +knew him!" + +"You knew him!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey. "Man!--that's the first direct bit +of real illumination we've had! And--who is he, then, Mr. Elphinstone?" + +"Take your time!" answered Mr. Elphinstone. "We'll have to go back a bit: +you'll put the police court out of your mind a while. It's about--I +forget rightly how long since, but it was just after I gave up the +stewardship that I had occasion to go up to London on business of my own. +And there, one morning, as I was sauntering down the lower end of Regent +Street, I met Gilbert Carstairs, whom I'd never seen since he left home. +He'd his arm in mine in a minute, and he would have me go with him to his +rooms in Jermyn Street, close by--there was no denying him. I went, and +found his rooms full of trunks, and cases, and the like--he and a friend +of his, he said, were just off on a sort of hunting-exploration trip to +some part of Central America; I don't know what they weren't going to do, +but it was to be a big affair, and they were to come back loaded up with +natural-history specimens and to make a pile of money out of the venture, +too. And he was telling me all about it in his eager, excitable way when +the other man came in, and I was introduced to him. And, gentlemen, +that's the man I saw--under the name of Sir Gilbert Carstairs--on the +bench at Berwick only the other day! He's changed, of course--more than I +should have thought he would have done in fifteen years, for that's about +the time since I saw him and Gilbert together there in Jermyn +Street,--but I knew him as soon as I clapped eyes on him, and whatever +doubt I had went as soon as I saw him lift his right hand to his +moustache, for there are two fingers missing on that hand--the middle +ones--and I remembered that fact about the man Gilbert Carstairs had +introduced to me. I knew, I tell you, as I sat in that court, that the +fellow there on the bench, listening, was an impostor!" + +We were all bending forward across the table, listening +eagerly--and there was a question in all our thoughts, which Mr. +Lindsey put into words. + +"The man's name?" + +"It was given to me, in Jermyn Street that morning, as Meekin--Dr. +Meekin," answered Mr. Elphinstone. "Gilbert Carstairs, as you're aware, +was a medical man himself--he'd qualified, anyway--and this was a friend +of his. But that was all I gathered then--they were both up to the eyes +in their preparations, for they were off for Southampton that night, +and I left them to it--and, of course, never heard of them again. But +now to come back to the police court the other day: I tell you, I +was--purposely--in a quiet corner, and there I kept till the case was +over; but just when everybody was getting away, the man on the bench +caught sight of me--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey, looking across at me. "Ah! that's another +reason--that supplements the ice-ax one! Aye!--he caught sight of you, +Mr. Elphinstone--" + +"And," continued Mr. Elphinstone, "I saw a queer, puzzled look come into +his face. He looked again--looked hard. I took no notice of his look, +though I continued to watch him, and presently he turned away and went +out. But I knew he had recognized me as a man he had seen somewhere. Now +remember, when Gilbert Carstairs introduced me to this man, Gilbert did +not mention any connection of mine with Hathercleugh--he merely spoke +of me as an old friend; so Meekin, when he came into these parts, would +have no idea of finding me here. But I saw he was afraid--badly +afraid--because of his recognition and doubt about me. And the next +question was--what was I to do? I'm not the man to do things in haste, +and I could see this was a black, deep business, with maybe two murders +in it. I went off and got my lunch--and thought. At the end of it, rather +than go to the police, I went to your office, Mr. Lindsey. And your +office was locked up, and you were all away for the day. And then an idea +struck me: I have a relative--the man outside with Murray--who's a +high-placed officer in the Criminal Investigation Department at New +Scotland Yard--I would go to him. So--I went straight off to London by +the very next South express. Why? To see if he could trace anything about +this Meekin." + +"Aye!" nodded Mr. Lindsey admiringly. "You were in the right of it, +there--that was a good notion. And--you did?" + +"Not since the Jermyn Street affair," answered Mr. Elphinstone. "We +traced him in the medical register all right up to that point. His name +is Francis Meekin--he's various medical letters to it. He was in one of +the London hospitals with Gilbert Carstairs--he shared those rooms in +Jermyn Street with Gilbert Carstairs. We found--easily--a man who'd +been their valet, and who remembered their setting off on the hunting +expedition. They never came back--to Jermyn Street, anyway. Nothing was +ever heard or seen of them in their old haunts about that quarter from +that time. And when we'd found all that out, we came straight down, +last evening, to the police--and that's all, Mr. Lindsey. And, of +course, the thing is plain to me--Gilbert probably died while in this +man's company; this man possessed himself of his letters and papers and +so on; and in time, hearing how things were, and when the chance came, +he presented himself to the family solicitors as Gilbert Carstairs. +Could anything be plainer?" + +"Nothing!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey. "It's a sure case--and simple when you +see it in the light of your knowledge; a case of common personation. But +I'm wondering what the connection between the Gilverthwaite and Phillips +affair and this Meekin has been--if we could get at it?" + +"Shall I give you my theory?" suggested Mr. Elphinstone. "Of course, I've +read all there's been in the newspapers, and Murray told me a lot last +night before we came to you, and you mentioned Mr. Ridley's +discovery,--well, then, I've no doubt whatever that this young gentleman +is Michael Carstairs' son, and therefore the real owner of the title and +estates! And I'll tell you how I explain the whole thing. Michael +Carstairs, as I remember him--and I saw plenty of him as a lad and a +young man--was what you'd call violently radical in his ideas. He was a +queer, eccentric, dour chap in some ways--kindly enough in others. He'd a +most extraordinary objection to titles, for one thing; another, he +thought that, given a chance, every man ought to make himself. Now, my +opinion is that when he secretly married a girl who was much below him in +station, he went off to America, intending to put his principles in +practice. He evidently wanted his son to owe nothing to his birth; and +though he certainly made ample and generous provision for him, and gave +him a fine start, he wanted him to make his own life and fortune. That +accounts for Mr. Gavin Smeaton's bringing-up. But now as regards the +secret. Michael Carstairs was evidently a rolling stone who came up +against some queer characters--Gilverthwaite was one, Phillips--whoever +he may have been--another. It's very evident, from what I've heard from +you, that the three men were associates at one time. And it may be--it's +probably the case--that in some moment of confidence, Michael let out his +secret to these two, and that when he was dead they decided to make more +inquiries into it--possibly to blackmail the man who had stepped in, and +whom they most likely believed to be the genuine Sir Gilbert Carstairs. +Put it this way: once they'd found the documentary evidence they wanted, +the particulars of Michael's marriage, and so on, what had they to do but +go to Sir Gilbert--as they thought him to be--and put it to him that, if +he didn't square them to keep silence, they'd reveal the truth to his +nephew, whom, it's evident, they'd already got to know of as Mr. Gavin +Smeaton. But as regards the actual murder of Phillips--ah, that's a +mystery that, in my opinion, is not like to be solved! The probability is +that a meeting had been arranged with Sir Gilbert--which means, of +course, Meekin--that night, and that Phillips was killed by him. As to +Crone--it's my opinion that Crone's murder came out of Crone's own greed +and foolishness; he probably caught Meekin unawares, told what he knew, +and paid the penalty." + +"There's another possible theory about the Phillips murder," remarked Mr. +Gavin Smeaton. "According to what you know, Mr. Elphinstone, this Meekin +is a man who has travelled much abroad--so had Phillips. How do we know +that when Meekin and Phillips met that night, Meekin wasn't recognized by +Phillips as Meekin--and that Meekin accordingly had a double incentive to +kill him?" + +"Good!" exclaimed Mr. Lindsey. "Capital theory!--and probably the right +one. But," he continued, rising and making for the door, "all the +theories in the world won't help us to lay hands on Meekin, and I'm going +to see if Murray has made out anything from his search and his +questioning." + +Murray had made out nothing. There was nothing whatever in the private +rooms of the supposed Sir Gilbert Carstairs and his wife to suggest any +clue to their whereabouts: the servants could tell nothing of their +movements beyond what the police already knew. Sir Gilbert had never been +seen by any of them since the morning on which he went into Berwick to +hear the case against Carter: Lady Carstairs had not been seen since her +departure from the house secretly, two mornings later. Not one of all the +many servants, men or women, could tell anything of their master or +mistress, nor of any suspicious doings on the part of Hollins during the +past two days, except that he had been away from the house a good deal. +Whatever share the butler had taken in these recent events, he had played +his part skilfully. + +So--as it seemed--there was nothing for it but to look further away, the +impression of the police being that Meekin had escaped in one direction +and his wife in another, and that it had been their plan that Hollins +should foregather with them somewhere on the Continent; and presently we +all left Hathercleugh House to go back to Berwick. As we crossed the +threshold, Mr. Lindsey turned to Mr. Gavin Smeaton with a shrewd smile. + +"The next time you step across here, sir, it'll be as Sir Gavin +Carstairs!" he said. "And we'll hope that'll not long be delayed!" + +"I'm afraid there's a good deal to do before you'll be seeing that, Mr. +Lindsey," answered the prospective owner. "We're not out of the wood yet, +you know." + +We certainly were not out of the wood--so far as I was concerned, those +last words might have been prophetic, as, a little later, I was inclined +to think Maisie's had been before she went off in the car. The rest of +them, Mr. Lindsey and his group, Murray and his, had driven up from +Berwick in the first conveyances they could get at that time of night, +and they now went off to where they had been waiting in a neighbouring +shed. They wanted me to go with them--but I was anxious about my bicycle, +a nearly new machine. I had stowed it away as securely as I could under +some thick undergrowth on the edge of the woods, but the downpour of rain +had been so heavy that I knew it must have soaked through the foliage, +and that I should have a nice lot of rust to face, let alone a saturated +saddle. So I went away across the park to where I had left it, and the +others drove off to Berwick--and so both Mr. Lindsey and myself broke our +solemn words to Maisie. For now I was alone--and I certainly did not +anticipate more danger. + +But not only danger, but the very threatening of death was on me as I +went my way. We had stayed some time in Hathercleugh House, and the dawn +had broken before we left. The morning came clear and bright after the +storm, and the newly-risen sun--it was just four o'clock, and he was +nicely above the horizon--was transforming the clustering raindrops on +the firs and pines into glistening diamonds as I plunged into the thick +of the woods. I had no other thought at that moment but of getting home +and changing my clothes before going to Andrew Dunlop's to tell the +news--when, as I crossed a narrow cut in the undergrowth, I saw, some +distance away, a man's head slowly look out from the trees. I drew back +on the instant, watching. Fortunately--or unfortunately--he was not +looking in my direction, and did not catch even a momentary glance of me, +and when he twisted his neck in my direction I saw that he was the man +we had been talking of, and whom I now knew to be Dr. Meekin. And it +flashed on me at once that he was hanging about for Hollins--all +unconscious that Hollins was lying dead there in the old tower. + +So--it was not he who had driven that murderous knife into +Hollins's throat! + +I watched him--myself securely hidden. He came out of his shelter, +crossed the cut, went through the belt of wood which I had just passed, +and looked out across the park to the house--all this I saw by cautiously +edging through the trees and bushes behind me. He was a good forty yards +away from me at that time, but I could see the strained, anxious +expression on his face. Things had gone wrong--Hollins and the car had +not met him where he had expected them--and he was trying to find out +what had happened. And once he made a movement as if he would skirt the +coppices and make for the tower, which lay right opposite, but with an +open space between it and us--and then he as suddenly drew back, and +began to go away among the trees. + +I followed him, cautiously. I had always been a bit proud of what I +called my woodcraft, having played much at Red Indians as a youngster, +and I took care to walk lightly as I stalked him from one brake to +another. He went on and on--a long way, right away from Hathercleugh, and +in the direction of where Till meets Tweed. And at last he was out of the +Hathercleugh grounds, and close to the Till, and in the end he took to a +thin belt of trees that ran down the side of the Till, close by the place +where Crone's body had been found, and almost opposite the very spot, on +the other bank, where I had come across Phillips lying dead; and suddenly +I saw what he was after. There, right ahead, was an old boat, tied up to +the bank--he was making for it, intending doubtless to put himself across +the two rivers, to get the north bank of the Tweed, and so to make for +safety in other quarters. + +It was there that things went wrong. I was following cautiously, from +tree to tree, close to the river-bank, when my foot caught in a trail of +ground bramble, and I went headlong into the brushwood. Before I was well +on my feet, he had turned and was running back at me, his face white with +rage and alarm, and a revolver in his hand. And when he saw who it was, +he had the revolver at the full length of his arm, covering me. + +"Go back!" he said, stopping and steadying himself. + +"No!" said I. + +"If you come a yard further, Moneylaws, I'll shoot you dead!" he +declared. "I mean it! Go back!" + +"I'm not coming a foot nearer," I retorted, keeping where I was. "But I'm +not going back. And whenever you move forward, I'm following. I'm not +losing sight of you again, Mr. Meekin!" + +He fairly started at that--and then he began looking on all sides of me, +as if to find out if I was accompanied. And all of a sudden he plumped +me with a question. + +"Where is Hollins?" he asked. "I'll be bound you know!" + +"Dead!" I answered him. "Dead, Mr. Meekin! As dead as Phillips, or as +Abel Crone. And the police are after you--all round--and you'd better +fling that thing into the Till there and come with me. You'll not get +away from me as easily now as you did yon time in your yacht." + +It was then that he fired at me--from some twelve or fifteen yards' +distance. And whether he meant to kill me, or only to cripple me, I don't +know; but the bullet went through my left knee, at the lower edge of the +knee-cap, and the next thing I knew I was sprawling on all-fours on the +earth, and the next--and it was in the succeeding second, before even I +felt a smart--I was staring up from that position to see the vengeance +that fell on my would-be murderer in the very instant of his attempt on +me. For as he fired and I fell, a woman sprang out of the bushes at his +side, and a knife flashed, and then he too fell with a cry that was +something between a groan and a scream--and I saw that his assailant was +the Irishwoman Nance Maguire, and I knew at once who it was that had +killed Hollins. + +But she had not killed Meekin. He rose like a badly wounded thing--half +rose, that is, as I have seen crippled animals rise, and he cried like a +beast in a trap, fighting with his hands. And the woman struck again +with the knife--and again he sank back, and again he rose, and ... I +shut my eyes, sick with horror, as she drove the knife into him for the +third time. + +But that was nothing to the horror to come. When I looked again, he was +still writhing and crying, and fighting blindly for his life, and I cried +out on her to leave him alone, for I saw that in a few minutes he would +be dead. I even made an effort to crawl to them, that I might drag her +away from him, but my knee gave at the movement and I fell back +half-fainting. And taking no more notice of me than if I had been one of +the stocks and stones close by, she suddenly gripped him, writhing as he +was, by the throat, and drawing him over the bank as easily as if he had +been a child in her grasp, she plunged knee-deep into the Till and held +him down under the water until he was drowned. + +There was a most extraordinary horror came over me as I lay there, +powerless to move, propped up on my elbow, watching. The purposeful +deliberation with which the woman finished her work; the dead silence +about us, broken only by an occasional faint lapping of the river against +its bank; the knowledge that this was a deed of revenge--all these things +produced a mental state in me which was as near to the awful as ever I +approached it. I could only lie and watch--fascinated. But it was over at +last, and she let the body go, and stood watching for a moment as it +floated into a dark pool beneath the alders; and then, shaking herself +like a dog, she came up the bank and looked at me, in silence. + +"That was--in revenge for Crone," I managed to get out. + +"It was them killed Crone," she answered in a queer dry voice. "Let the +pollis find this one where they found Crone! You're not greatly hurt +yourself--and there's somebody at hand." + +Then she suddenly turned and vanished amongst the trees, and, twisting +myself round in the direction to which she had pointed, I saw a +gamekeeper coming along. His gun was thrown carelessly in the crook of +his arm, and he was whistling, gaily and unconcernedly. + +I have a perpetual memento of that morning in my somewhat crippled knee. +And once, two years ago, when I was on business in a certain English +town, and in a quarter of it into which few but its own denizens +penetrate, I met for one moment, at a slum corner, a great raw-boned +Irishwoman who noticed my bit of a limp, and turned her eyes for an +instant to give me a sharp look that won as sharp an answer. And there +may have been mutual understanding and sympathy in the glance we thus +exchanged--certainly, when it had passed between us, we continued on our +separate ways, silent. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Men's Money, by J. S. 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