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diff --git a/77243-h/77243-h.htm b/77243-h/77243-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce0162b --- /dev/null +++ b/77243-h/77243-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5974 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta charset="UTF-8"> +<title>Dorcas Dene, Detective: Her Adventures | Project Gutenberg</title> +<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> +<style> +.dinkus { + display: flex; + justify-content: center; + gap: 1.5em; + margin: 0.5em 0; + font-size: 1.5em; +} + +p { +margin: 5px 15% 15px; +} +</style> +</head> +<body style="text-align: justify;"> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77243 ***</div> + +<h1 style="text-align:center;"> + Dorcas Dene, Detective<br> + <span style="font-size:25px;"><em>Her Adventures</em></span> +</h1> +<h2 style="text-align:center;">by George R. Sims</h2> +<h3 style="text-align:center;">Table of Contents</h3> +<table style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td>I.</td><td> <a href="#C1">THE COUNCIL OF FOUR</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>II.</td><td> <a href="#C2">THE HELSHAM MYSTERY</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>III.</td><td> <a href="#C3">THE MAN WITH THE WILD EYES</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>IV.</td><td> <a href="#C4">THE SECRET OF THE LAKE</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>V.</td><td> <a href="#C5">THE DIAMOND LIZARD</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VI.</td><td> <a href="#C6">THE PRICK OF A PIN</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VII.</td><td> <a href="#C7">THE MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VIII.</td><td> <a href="#C8">THE EMPTY HOUSE</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>IX.</td><td> <a href="#C9">THE CLOTHES IN THE CUPBOARD</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>X.</td><td> <a href="#C10">THE HAVERSTOCK HILL MURDER</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>XI.</td><td> <a href="#C11">THE BROWN BEAR LAMP</a></td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C1">I. THE COUNCIL OF FOUR</h3> + +<p>When I first knew Dorcas Dene she was Dorcas Lester. She came to me +with a letter from a theatrical agent, and wanted one of the small parts +in a play we were then rehearsing at a West End theatre.</p> + +<p>She was quite unknown in the profession. She told me that she wanted +to act, and would I give her a chance? She was engaged for a maid-servant +who had about two lines to speak. She spoke them exceedingly well, and +remained at the theatre for nearly twelve months, never getting beyond +"small parts," but always playing them exceedingly well.</p> + +<p>The last part she had played was that of an old hag. We were all +astonished when she asked to be allowed to play it, as she was a young +and handsome woman, and handsome young women on the stage generally like +to make the most of their appearance.</p> + +<p>As the hag, Dorcas Lester was a distinct success. Although she was +only on the stage for about ten minutes in one act and five minutes in +another, everybody talked about her realistic and well-studied +impersonation.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the run of the play she left, and I understood that +she had married and quitted the profession.</p> + +<p>It was eight years before I met her again. I had business with a +well-known West End solicitor. The clerk, thinking his employer alone, +ushered me at once into his room. Mr. — was engaged in earnest +conversation with a lady. I apologised. "It's all right," said +Mr. —, "the lady is just going." The lady, taking the hint, rose, +and went out.</p> + +<p>I saw her features as she passed me, for she had not then lowered +her veil, and they seemed familiar to me.</p> + +<p>"Who do you think that was?" said Mr. — mysteriously, as the +door closed behind his visitor.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," I said; "but I think I've seen her before somewhere. +Who is she?"</p> + +<p>"That, my dear fellow, is Dorcas Dene, the famous lady detective. +<em>You</em> may not have heard of her; but with our profession and with +the police, she has a great reputation."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Is she a private inquiry agent, or a female member of the +Criminal Investigation Department?"</p> + +<p>"She holds no official position," replied my friend, "but works +entirely on her own account. She has been mixed up in some of the most +remarkable cases of the day—cases that sometimes come into court, +but which are far more frequently settled in a solicitor's office."</p> + +<p>"If it isn't an indiscreet question, what is she doing for you? You +are not in the criminal business."</p> + +<p>"No, I am only an old-fashioned, humdrum family solicitor, but I +have a very peculiar case in hand just now for one of my clients. I am +not revealing a professional secret when I tell you that young Lord +Helsham, who has recently come of age, has mysteriously disappeared. +The matter has already been guardedly referred to in the gossip column +of the society papers. His mother, Lady Helsham, who is a client of +mine, has been to me in the greatest distress of mind. She is satisfied +that her boy is alive and well. The poor lady is convinced that it is a +case of <em>cherchez la femme</em>, and she is desperately afraid that +her son, perhaps in the toils of some unprincipled woman, may be induced +to contract a disastrous <em>mésalliance</em>. That is the only +reason she can suggest to me for his extraordinary conduct."</p> + +<p>"And the famous lady detective who has just left your office is to +unravel the mystery—is that it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. All our own inquiries having failed, I yesterday decided to +place the case in her hands, as it was Lady Helsham's earnest desire that +no communication should be made to the police. She is most anxious that +the scandal shall not be made a public one. To-day Dorcas Dene has all +the facts in her possession, and she has just gone to see Lady Helsham. +And now, my dear fellow, what can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>My business was a very trifling matter. It was soon discussed and +settled, and then Mr. — invited me to lunch with him at a +neighbouring restaurant. After lunch I strolled back with him as far +as his office. As we approached, a hansom cab drove up to the door and +a lady alighted.</p> + +<p>"By Jove! it's your lady detective again," I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The lady detective saw us, and came towards us.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," she said to Mr. —, "I want just a word or two +with you."</p> + +<p>Something in her voice struck me then, and suddenly I remembered +where I had seen her before.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," I said, "but are we not old friends?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," replied the lady detective with a smile; "I knew you +at once, but thought you had forgotten me. I have changed a good deal +since I left the theatre."</p> + +<p>"You have changed your name and your profession, but hardly your +appearance—I ought to have known you at once. May I wait for you +here while you discuss your business with Mr. —? I should like to +have a few minutes' chat with you about old times."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Lester—or rather Dorcas Dene, as I must call her +now—gave a little nod of assent, and I walked up and down the +street smoking my cigar for fully a quarter of an hour before she +reappeared.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I've kept you waiting a long time," she said pleasantly, +"and now if you want to talk to me you will have to come home with me. +I'll introduce you to my husband. You needn't hesitate or think you'll +be in the way, because, as a matter of fact, directly I saw you I made +up my mind you could be exceedingly useful to me."</p> + +<p>She raised her umbrella and stopped a hansom, and before I quite +appreciated the situation, we were making our way to St. John's Wood as +fast as a very bad horse could take us.</p> + +<p>On the journey Dorcas Dene was confidential. She told me that she +had taken to the stage because her father, an artist, had died suddenly +and left her and her mother nothing but a few unmarketable pictures and +the unpaid tradesmen's bills to settle.</p> + +<p>"Poor dad!" she said. "He was very clever, and he loved us very +dearly, but he was only a great big boy to the last. When he was doing +well he spent everything he made and enjoyed life—and when he was +doing badly he did bills and pawned things, and thought it was rather +fun. At one time he would be treating us to dinner at the +Café Royal and the theatre afterwards, and at another time he +would be showing us how to live as cheaply as he used to do in his old +Paris days in the Quartier Latin, and cooking our meals himself at the +studio fire.</p> + +<p>"Well, when he died I got on to the stage, and at last—as +I daresay you remember—I was earning two guineas a week. On +that I and my mother lived in two rooms in St. Paul's-road, +Camden Town.</p> + +<p>"Then a young artist, a Mr. Paul Dene, who had been our friend and +constant visitor in my father's lifetime, fell in love with me. He +had risen rapidly in his profession, and was making money. He had no +relations, and his income was seven or eight hundred a year, and +promised to be much larger. Paul proposed to me, and I accepted him. He +insisted that I should leave the stage, and he would take a pretty +little house, and mother should come and live with us, and we could +all be happy together.</p> + +<p>"We took the house we are going to now—a sweet little place +with a lovely garden in Oak Tree-road, St. John's Wood—and for +two years we were very happy. Then a terrible misfortune happened. +Paul had an illness and became blind. He would never be able to +paint again.</p> + +<p>"When I had nursed him back to health I found that the interest +of what we had saved would barely pay the rent of our house. I did +not want to break up our home—what was to be done? I thought +of the stage again, and I had just made up my mind to see if I could +not get an engagement, when chance settled my future for me and gave +me a start in a very different profession.</p> + +<p>"In the next house to us there lived a gentleman, a Mr. Johnson, +who was a retired superintendent of police. Since his retirement he had +been conducting a high-class private inquiry business, and was employed +in many delicate family matters by a well-known firm of solicitors who +are supposed to have the secrets of half the aristocracy locked away in +their strong room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Johnson had been a frequent visitor of ours, and there was +nothing which delighted Paul more in our quiet evenings than a chat and +a pipe with the genial, good-hearted ex-superintendent of police. Many +a time have I and my husband sat till the small hours by our cosy +fireside listening to the strange tales of crime, and the unravelling +of mysteries which our kind neighbour had to tell. There was something +fascinating to us in following the slow and cautious steps with which +our kindly neighbour—who looked more like a jolly sea captain than +a detective—had threaded his way through the Hampton Court maze +in the centre of which lay the truth which it was his business +to discover.</p> + +<p>"He must have thought a good deal of Paul's opinion, for after a +time he would come in and talk over cases which he had in +hand—without mentioning names when the business was +confidential—and the view which Paul took of the mystery more +than once turned out to be the correct one. From this constant +association with a private detective we began to take a kind of +interest in his work, and when there was a great case in the papers +which seemed to defy the efforts of Scotland Yard, Paul and I would talk +it over together, and discuss it and build up our own theories +around it.</p> + +<p>"After my poor Paul lost his sight Mr. Johnson, who was a widower, +would come in whenever he was at home—many of his cases took him +out of London for weeks together—and help to cheer my poor boy up +by telling him all about the latest romance or scandal in which he had +been engaged.</p> + +<p>"On these occasions my mother, who is a dear, old-fashioned, +simple-minded woman, would soon make an excuse to leave us. She declared +that to listen to Mr. Johnson's stories made her nervous. She would soon +begin to believe that every man and woman she met had a guilty secret, +and the world was one great Chamber of Horrors with living figures +instead of waxwork ones like those of Madame Tussaud's.</p> + +<p>"I had told Mr. Johnson of our position when I found that it would be +necessary for me to do something to supplement the hundred a year which +was all that Paul's money would bring us in, and he had agreed with me +that the stage afforded the best opening.</p> + +<p>"One morning I made up my mind to go to the agent's. I had dressed +myself in my best and had anxiously consulted my looking-glass. I was +afraid that my worries and the long strain of my husband's illness might +have left their mark upon my features and spoilt my 'market value' in +the managerial eye.</p> + +<p>"I had taken such pains with myself, and my mind was so concentrated +upon the object I had in view, that when I was quite satisfied with my +appearance I ran into our little sitting-room, and, without thinking, +said to my husband, 'Now I'm off! How do you think I look, dear?"</p> + +<p>"My poor Paul turned his sightless eyes towards me, and his lip +quivered. Instantly I saw what my thoughtlessness had done. I flung my +arms round him and kissed him, and then, the tears in my eyes, I ran +out of the room and went down the little front garden. When I opened the +door Mr. Johnson was outside with his hand on the bell.</p> + +<p>"'Where are you going?' he said.</p> + +<p>"'To the agent, to see about an engagement.'</p> + +<p>"'Come back; I want to talk to you.'</p> + +<p>"I led the way back to the house, and we went into the dining-room +which was empty.</p> + +<p>"'What do you think you could get on the stage?' he said.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, if I'm lucky I may get what I had before—two guineas +a week. You see, I've never played anything but small parts.'</p> + +<p>"'Well then, put off the stage for a little and I can give you +something that will pay you a great deal better. I've just got a case +in which I must have the assistance of a lady. The lady who had worked +for me for the last two years has been idiot enough to get married, +with the usual consequences, and I'm in a fix.'</p> + +<p>"'You—you want me to be a lady detective—to watch +people?' I gasped. 'Oh, I couldn't!'</p> + +<p>"'My dear Mrs. Dene,' Mr. Johnson said gently, 'I have too much +respect for you and your husband to offer you anything that you need be +afraid of accepting. I want you to help me to rescue an unhappy man who +is being so brutally blackmailed that he has run away from his +broken-hearted wife and his sorrowing children. That is surely a +business transaction in which an angel could engage without soiling +its wings.'</p> + +<p>"'But I'm not clever at—at that sort of thing!'</p> + +<p>"'You are cleverer than you think. I have formed a very high opinion +of your qualifications for our business. You have plenty of shrewd +common sense, you are a keen observer, and you have been an actress. +Come, the wife's family are rich, and I am to have a good round sum if I +save the poor fellow and get him home again. I can give you a guinea a +day and your expenses, and you have only to do what I tell you.'</p> + +<p>"I thought everything over, and then I accepted—on one +condition. I was to see how I got on before Paul was told anything about +it. If I found that being a lady detective was repugnant to +me—if I found that it involved any sacrifice of my womanly +instincts—I should resign, and my husband would never know that +I had done anything of the sort.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Johnson agreed, and we left together for his office.</p> + +<p>"That was how I first became a lady detective. I found that the work +interested me, and that I was not so awkward as I had expected to be. I +was successful in my first undertaking, and Mr. Johnson insisted on my +remaining with him and eventually we became partners. A year ago he +retired, strongly recommending me to all his clients, and that is how +you find me to-day a professional lady detective."</p> + +<p>"And one of the best in England," I said, with a bow. "My friend +Mr. — has told me of your great reputation."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene smiled.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about my reputation," she said. "Here we are at my +house—now you've got to come in and be introduced to my husband +and to my mother and to Toddlekins."</p> + +<p>"Toddlekins—I beg pardon—that's the baby, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>A shade crossed Dorcas Dene's pretty womanly face, and I thought +I saw her soft grey eyes grow moist.</p> + +<p>"No—we have no family. Toddlekins is a dog."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>It was difficult for me to imagine, as I glanced around the delightful +little drawing-room and noted everywhere the evidences of artistic +simplicity and refinement, that I was in the house of the famous lady +detective. I had not been introduced to the blind husband many minutes +before I felt that we were old friends. Paul Dene, the blind artist, +interested me at once. A handsome man, well above the medium height, +with a mass of fair waving hair; there was something in the blind, gentle +face that riveted your attention and claimed your sympathy at once. He +rose as his wife entered the room, a questioning look upon his face, for +my footstep was unfamiliar to him. Dorcas Dene took his hand and led him +towards me. "Paul, dear," she said, "this is an old friend of mine. This +is the gentleman who gave me my first chance as an actress."</p> + +<p>We chatted together for a few minutes, and then a buxom, grey-haired +lady came bustling into the room, followed by a big brindle bulldog, +wagging the whole of his body. He ran to his mistress with a little snort +of joy, stood up on his hind-legs, and licked her hands affectionately, +and then turned and looked at me inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Friends, Toddlekins," said his mistress. Then turning to me, she +added with a smile, "You can pat him quite safely now I have +introduced you."</p> + +<p>"He would come in, Dorcas," exclaimed the middle-aged lady, "and I +didn't know you had company."</p> + +<p>"This is Mr. Saxon, the dramatist, mother."</p> + +<p>The old lady gave me a rather distant bow, and eyed me somewhat +suspiciously. "I've heard of you, sir," she said, "and I know how good +you were to my daughter years ago, but I don't hold with melodramas, +and I never shall; and how Christian people can pay money to see their +fellow-creatures blown up with dynamite, and murdered, and condemned to +death for what they never did, and turned out of house and home to die +in the snow, is what I shall never understand."</p> + +<p>I suppose I looked slightly uncomfortable, for Dorcas Dene broke in +with a merry little laugh. "Mother doesn't mean any harm, Mr. Saxon, +it's only her funny little way; she puts us all right here—don't +you mother dear?"</p> + +<p>"I always say what I think," replied the old lady. "It's old-fashioned +I dare say, but I'm one of the old-fashioned sort. But I'd better take +the dog out—Mr. Saxon's afraid of him."</p> + +<p>"No, no, I assure you," I exclaimed, reddening, "I—I +<em>love</em> dogs," and I stooped down and timidly patted Toddlekins, +who was sniffing suspiciously at my calves.</p> + +<p>"You needn't be ashamed of being afraid of Toddlekins," the old +lady exclaimed, with evident disbelief in my disclaimer. "Most people +are at first. He hates strangers coming to the place."</p> + +<p>I saw a shade of annoyance pass over the blind artist's gentle face. +"An old friend of my wife's won't be a stranger here very long," he +said quietly, then gave a little whistle, and the bulldog ran quickly +across the room and laid his great head on his master's knee.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose I'm wrong as usual!" exclaimed the old lady, tossing +her head, "but all the same, Mr. Saxon may just as well know that the +dog nearly killed a man once, and I'm as certain as I am that I'm alive +that one day he'll kill another if he's ever left alone with that young +man that comes to wind up the clocks. He's taken a dislike to that young +man, has Toddlekins, and, Dorcas, my dear, don't say I haven't warned +you. When it does happen, don't expect me to interfere; I was never +brought up to bite bulldogs' tails to make them leave go, and it's not +the sort of thing you can ask a respectable servant to do." And with +that, the old lady turned upon her heel and sailed out of the room, and +her daughter followed her, evidently to pacify her.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't mind Mrs. Lester," said Paul Dene, as the door closed +behind them. "She's a dear, good soul, really, and I don't know what we +should do without her; but she has an idea that she is the only person +in the house who has any sense, and she has a mania for speaking what +she calls 'her mind.' The dog's as gentle as a lamb, but he <em>did</em> +once nearly kill a man, and that is how my wife came by him. He was +reared from a puppy by a rough at the East End. This man was constantly +ill-using his wife, to whom the dog was devotedly attached. One day the +man, in a drunken frenzy, knocked his wife down. As she lay on the +floor, he bent over her, and was about to strike her with a poker, when +the dog suddenly sprang at him, and seized him by the throat, and held +him till the neighbours rushed in. The dog had saved the woman's life, +but the man was terribly injured, and it was a question with the police +of having the dog killed, when my wife, who had heard the story, asked +the officer in charge of the case to let her have him; and Toddlekins +has been our faithful friend and guardian ever since."</p> + +<p>I looked at Toddlekins, who had curled himself up at his master's +feet and was sleeping with one eye open, and I made up my mind that when +I said "Good-bye" to Dorcas Dene, I would put out my hand in a manner +that should not admit of the slightest misinterpretation, and I was +rather relieved when Paul Dene turned the conversation on to +another topic.</p> + +<p>He presumed I was aware of his wife's present profession. I explained +how I had met her at the solicitor's, and that she had told me I might +be of use to her in the case on which she was present engaged. Had he +heard the particulars?</p> + +<p>He said he had not, as his wife had only received her instructions +that day, but in all business matters she invariably consulted him. "You +see," he said, "my blindness is a very valuable quality. Seeing nothing +physically, my mental vision is intensified. I can think a problem out +undisturbed by the surroundings which distract people who have their +eyesight. When people want 'a good think,' as they call it, they often +shut themselves in a room and close their eyes. I am a man who is always +thinking with closed eyes. In all her difficulties my wife comes to me, +and generally we hold a council of four."</p> + +<p>"Of four?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, the council consists of myself, Dorcas, her mother, and +Toddlekins."</p> + +<p>I was obliged to give a little laugh. "I should hardly have thought +that Mrs. Lester could have been of much service in unravelling +a mystery."</p> + +<p>"That is where you are wrong. Mrs. Lester often hits the right nail +on the head before either of us. We are building up an elaborate theory, +and she takes a plain, straightforward, matter-of-fact, common-sense +view, and it turns out to be the right one. Detectives are only human, +you know, and, like the rest of the world, they frequently go looking +about in every direction for something that lies close to their hand +all the time."</p> + +<p>At that moment the door opened, and I started up in astonishment. A +dark-skinned old gipsy woman, such as one meets on the racecourses, had +come into the room.</p> + +<p>I gave a nervous look at the bulldog, expecting him to spring at the +intruder. But he only opened his eyes and wagged his tail, and then the +truth suddenly flashed upon me.</p> + +<p>It was Dorcas Dene. "Mr. Saxon," she said, "they are playing a gipsy +play at the theatre; I want you to go with me to the manager, and get +him to let me go on with the gipsy crowd at the end of the third act." +And then she added with a little laugh, "I told you you would be useful +to me."</p> + +<p>"But I thought you were going to investigate the mysterious +disappearance of young Lord Helsham?" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"Exactly—that's why I want to get behind the scenes of the +—— Theatre. Unless I am very much mistaken, that is where +'the lady in the case' is most likely to be found."</p> + +<p>"But we can't go together through the street with +you—ahem!—like that."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene laughed. "No, I want you to meet me outside the theatre +at eight o'clock, and get me engaged at once as a real gipsy super. I'm +sure you can manage that for me. I thought, before you left, you had +better see me exactly as I shall meet you to-night. And now, good afternoon +and <em>au revoir</em>."</p> + +<p>"You think you will find Lord Helsham, then? You have a clue to the +mystery already?"</p> + +<p>"I may find Lord Helsham to-night if you get me behind the scenes, +but as to the clue to the mystery of his disappearance, that is quite +another matter. And now I rely upon you. Until eight o'clock this evening, +<em>au revoir</em>."</p> + +<p>I shook hands cordially with Dorcas Dene and her blind husband, and +patted Toddlekins respectfully. A minute afterwards, I was out in the +quiet little road trying to think out the mystery for myself.</p> + +<p>Here was a young nobleman, his own master, and free to do as he chose, +and yet he had deliberately left his mother a prey to the greatest +anxiety as to his whereabouts. There was no necessity for him to +"disappear," to carry on an intrigue, or even to contract an +undesirable marriage.</p> + +<p>Not even in the days of my youthful romance had I waited so eagerly +for the hour and the lady, as I waited that evening for eight o'clock +and Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C2">II. THE HELSHAM MYSTERY</h3> + +<p>I sat in the stalls watching the third act of the great gipsy drama, +which had drawn all London to the —— Theatre. I had +persuaded the manager, with whom I was on friendly terms, to allow Dorcas +Dene, the famous lady detective, to have the use of his stage for her own +purposes, disguised as a gipsy super.</p> + +<p>But she had so far refused to tell me the name of the actress through +whom she expected to run young Lord Helsham to earth that evening, or at +least to be able to learn why he had disappeared.</p> + +<p>It had been agreed between us that after the third act was over I +should go behind, and she would then be able to communicate with me.</p> + +<p>Directly the curtain was down the manager joined me, and took me +through the private door and left me on the stage. The old gipsy woman +was waiting about for me in a quiet corner.</p> + +<p>"What success?" I asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>Without replying to my question, Dorcas Dene gripped me excitedly +by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Get a hansom to the stage-door," she said. "I want you to come with +me somewhere."</p> + +<p>I glanced hesitatingly at her costume.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid," she said. "The cloak I brought with me will cover +all this, and I have a thick veil in my pocket."</p> + +<p>I went out to get a hansom, and it was barely at the door before +Dorcas Dene was by my side. She sprang lightly in and motioned me to +follow, telling the cabman to drive to Grosvenor Square.</p> + +<p>"You are going to see Lady Helsham?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must. Lord Helsham is on the point of committing suicide."</p> + +<p>"How on earth have you found that out?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"By a very simple process. Lady Helsham, in our interview this +morning, gave me a photograph which she had found among her son's papers. +It was the photograph of a very beautiful girl taken in stage costume. On +the back of it was written, 'To dearest Bertie, from Nella.' The +photographer was Alfred Ellis, of Baker Street, who—it being a +theatrical photograph taken for public sale—had printed beneath it, +'Miss Nella Dalroy, in "The Gipsy Wife."'"</p> + +<p>"Ah, now I understand why you wanted to get behind the scenes +to-night. You wanted to see Nella Dalroy."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Lord Helsham's name is Bertie. Now a girl who puts 'To +dearest Bertie, from Nella,' is either engaged to him, or, for the sake +of her morals, ought to be. You understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—I begin to understand."</p> + +<p>"To-night I was able to watch Miss Dalroy narrowly. I could see that +she was prey to some great anxiety. Once she nearly broke down, and went +on with her part with the greatest difficulty. I was sure then that +young Lord Helsham's disappearance was not to the advantage of +Nella Dalroy.</p> + +<p>"During the second act she had to wait, and she stood at the wings. +One of the young ladies of the company, evidently her friend, came and +talked to her, and I managed to overhear a little of the conversation.</p> + +<p>"'Haven't you heard anything more?' said her friend.</p> + +<p>"'Yes—to-night just as I left home—a letter telling me +that he sees no way out of his trouble, and that I must forget him, and +that we shall never meet again—and—and'—here her voice +quivered—'he says he has left me all that he has a right to leave +me. Oh, what can he mean by that?'</p> + +<p>"At that moment Miss Dalroy's cue came, and she went on the stage. It +was fortunate for her that it was a tearful scene she was playing, or +her agitation must have been noticeable."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene leant back in the hansom, lost in thought.</p> + +<p>After a moment's silence I ventured to ask her how she arrived at +the conclusion that Lord Helsham contemplated suicide.</p> + +<p>"What else can it mean?" she answered, half speaking to herself. +"'I have left you all I have a right to leave.' If he thought of himself +in the future as a <em>living</em> man, he would have said, 'I will +<em>give</em> you all.'"</p> + +<p>I shook my head, and murmured that I really couldn't see any possible +reason why a wealthy young nobleman who was his own master should put an +end to his life after making a will in favour of a pretty actress who was +deeply in love with him.</p> + +<p>"Nor I," replied Dorcas Dene. "But I am engaged to restore her son to +Lady Helsham, and it is my duty to restore him alive if possible. But +here we are at Grosvenor Square."</p> + +<p>I got out and assisted Dorcas Dene to alight. "May I wait for you?" +I said.</p> + +<p>"Not here. But you will do me a great service if you will take the +cab and go on to Oak Tree Road, and tell my husband I shall be home some +time to-night."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>It was past midnight when Dorcas Dene joined the little family circle +at Oak Tree Road. Paul Dene, the blind artist, had invited me to stay and +keep him company until his wife returned.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, the lady detective, divested of her war-paint, +was leaning back in the arm-chair and "stating her case," in order that +she might have the opinion of her husband and her mother upon it.</p> + +<p>Briefly and concisely Dorcas Dene put her "points."</p> + +<p>"Here is the case so far as I've gone," she said. "Lord Helsham left +Grosvenor Square last week after a 'few words' with his mother. What +those 'words' were about, she will not tell me. 'Family matters' is all +the explanation I can get from her. He has not been to his club or to +his country house, or any hotel in his right name, because inquiries in +these directions had been exhausted before I was called in. He is in +great distress of mind about something, because he has written a +heart-broken letter to the girl he probably intended to marry. She is +evidently still devoted to him, so that love has nothing to do with his +mental condition. If love is not the cause of his extraordinary +behaviour, what <em>can</em> be?"</p> + +<p>The blind artist, who had sat silently listening, turned his +sightless eyes towards his wife. "Mr. Saxon has told us, Dorcas, that +you had an idea the poor fellow contemplated suicide, and he has told us +how you arrived at that conclusion. If you reject love and insanity there +is only one other thing that will drive a man to deliberate suicide."</p> + +<p>"And that is?"</p> + +<p>"Fear."</p> + +<p>Dorcas laid her hand gently on her husband's arm. "Yes, your thought +is mine, dear," she said softly, "but what does he fear?"</p> + +<p>"What did his mother say to-night, when you told her what your +discoveries had led you to believe?"</p> + +<p>"Although, of course, she was horrified, and for a time upset, she +really seemed—how shall I put it?—rather relieved in +her mind!"</p> + +<p>"Relieved to hear her son was likely to kill himself!" exclaimed +Mrs. Lester indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps relieved is hardly the word. She has seemed to me all +along to be in a state of nervous terror as to something <em>dreadful</em> +being likely to happen, and when I suggested suicide it seemed as +though <em>that</em> was not the worst that she had contemplated. That's +what I meant by its being a relief to her."</p> + +<p>"Whatever is it that Lord Helsham fears," murmured the blind artist, +"it is evident that his mother fears it also. No other theory would +account for her being 'relieved'—as you call it—by the idea +that he has suicide in his mind."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dorcas Dene, "and she can only feel that relief for two +reasons—either that his death would prevent his arrest for some +crime, or would prevent the discovery of something which would bring +terrible consequences to him."</p> + +<p>"Or to her," said Paul, quietly.</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene started.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" she cried, springing to her feet, "that's it—that +would account for everything."</p> + +<p>"What sort of person is this Lady Helsham?" I asked, venturing to +join in the council.</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene drew her notebook from her pocket. "Here is the family +history as I got it from Mr. — when I took up the case. The late +Lord Helsham married a young Scotch lady who was a member of a +travelling opera troupe."</p> + +<p>"Heredity again!" murmured Paul. "The son falls in love with an actress."</p> + +<p>"Two years after their marriage the Earl was killed by a fall from +his horse in the hunting-field. The next heir was the Earl's younger +brother, the Hon. John Farman, but the peerage had to remain in abeyance +pending the accouchement of Lady Helsham, an event which occurred +prematurely a month later."</p> + +<p>"And the child born a month after its father's death was the present +Lord Helsham?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dorcas Dene, "that is so. Here are some further +particulars. Lady Helsham some years later adopted her sister's little +girl, a child of the same age as her son, and the children were brought +up together until lately, when her ladyship endeavoured to bring about a +marriage between the two. But his lordship informed his mother that the +idea was entirely repugnant to him, and eventually the young lady left +the family mansion and went back to reside with her real mother in +Scotland. Mr. — said he gave me these particulars as it was +possible, though not probable, that ill-feeling had come between the +mother and son through this young lady. And it was concerning her that +the 'words' occurred which preceded Lord Helsham's departure from +his home."</p> + +<p>"And that view of the case you have not thought out at all, Dorcas?" +asked Paul Dene.</p> + +<p>"No, I thought it better to look for the girl Lord Helsham was +likely to go after than for the one he was likely to avoid. +But——" Dorcas Dene rose and began to pace the room. No one +spoke a word. Suddenly she came up to me and held out her hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," she said. "I am so much obliged to you for all your +help to-day. Come and see us again soon, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"But I should like to know more about this case," I said; "I am +much interested in it, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I quite understand that," replied the lady detective, "but +I am afraid it will turn out a far more difficult business than I +imagined when I undertook it. Good-night."</p> + +<p>There was nothing for me to do but shake hands all round and make as +dignified an exit as was possible under the circumstances.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>A few days afterwards business called me to Paris, and it was quite +a fortnight later that sitting one evening outside the Café de +la Paix reading the <em>Daily Telegraph</em> the name of Lord Helsham +caught my eye, and I turned eagerly to an article headed, "A Mystery +Cleared Up," and read the following:</p> + +<p>"The mystery surrounding the strange disappearance of Lord Helsham +has at last been elucidated. His lordship's clothes and watch and +scarf-pin have been found in a small cave on the coast near Cromer. +It is supposed that his lordship, who must have been staying in the +neighbourhood incognito, and who was an expert swimmer, had gone out +early in the morning to bathe from the shore. The supposition is that +he was seized with cramp and sank unobserved, that part of the coast +being a secluded and lonely one. It is not probable after this lapse of +time that the body will be recovered. The missing nobleman was traced, +and the discovery made, by the famous lady detective Mrs. Dorcas Dene. +Lord Helsham is succeeded by his uncle, the Hon. John Farman, who +is unmarried."</p> + +<p>Immediately on my return to town I hastened to call at Oak Tree +Road. Dorcas Dene was out in the pretty little garden at the back +reading to her husband, who was sitting under the trees in a great +wicker chair. Toddlekins, the bulldog, was lying stretched out in +the sunshine.</p> + +<p>As I looked at the little group from the dining-room window, I +could not help thinking how far removed the loving and tender wife +devoting herself to the blind husband seemed from the woman who had +unravelled the mystery of the tragic fate of young Lord Helsham.</p> + +<p>The servant took my card to her mistress, and Dorcas Dene came in +smiling and happy, and gave me a sweet, womanly welcome.</p> + +<p>"Won't you come into the garden? Paul will be so pleased," she said.</p> + +<p>I shook my head. "Presently. But first I want to know about the +Helsham case. I think you ought to tell me, because once—just for +a little time—we were partners in this business, you know."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene's gentle face became suddenly grave. "Yes," she said +thoughtfully, "I suppose I ought to tell you. Sit down and you shall +hear the story of what happened after you left that night in as few +words as possible, for I want to get back to the book I am reading to +Paul. It's a sweet book, and we're just in the middle of it. You ought +to read it. It is 'The Man who was Good.'"</p> + +<p>"Never mind about the man who was good, I want to hear about the +woman who was clever. How did you find poor Lord Helsham, and what was +the cause of his unhappy fate?"</p> + +<p>"You remember our conversation the night we parted," said Dorcas +Dene. "The next morning at nine o'clock I went straight to the residence +of the Hon. John Farman, the person who would succeed to the title if +anything happened to Lord Helsham. He had heard of the disappearance, but +concluded it was some temporary feminine entanglement. I showed him how +necessary it was that he should be one of the earliest to know of his +nephew's fate, and begged him to tell me anything that would assist me in +my enquiries. Having already certain ideas in my head, I asked him if he +knew where Lord Helsham was born, and he told me that Lady Helsham was +confined at the house of her sister, the wife of a captain in the +merchant service, who had at the time just sailed for Australia. This +sister was residing in Scotland, and Lady Helsham had gone to her in the +early days of her widowhood. Mr. Farman himself was absent from England +at the time on a hunting expedition in the Rockies, and it was not until +a later period that he received the news of his brother's death and the +birth of an heir.</p> + +<p>"'Had the child been a girl you would have inherited everything?'</p> + +<p>"'With the exception of the income secured to Lady Helsham, yes. As it +was a boy—'</p> + +<p>"'You accepted the situation. And when Lady Helsham returned to London +she brought her child with her, of course?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes. I arrived a few days after her return. We were not friendly +during my brother's lifetime, but I desired to show every courtesy I could +to the widow.'</p> + +<p>"'And as the child grew up you saw him——'</p> + +<p>"'Frequently. He was very much attached to me, and latterly my nephew +and myself have been on very friendly terms.'</p> + +<p>"'But you have not assisted in any way in endeavouring to find him?'</p> + +<p>"'No. I called on Lady Helsham, and she declared there was no cause for +alarm. It was an entanglement. She begged me to do nothing for fear of +making a scandal. That is why I am rather astonished to learn that she +has employed professional assistance' (he bowed to me) 'and let me know +nothing about it.'</p> + +<p>"'And Lady Helsham's sister and the captain?'</p> + +<p>"'The sister is the mother of the little girl Lady Helsham afterwards +adopted. I understood when this young lady left Grosvenor Square, she +had gone back to her mother, who is now a widow.'</p> + +<p>"'And now will you tell me what sort of a young man Lord Helsham was. +Was he flighty, weak-minded, dissipated, cunning?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, no,' replied Mr. Farman, 'he was a most lovable and amiable +young fellow—highly strung, and sensitive to a +degree—romantic undoubtedly, but the soul of honour.'</p> + +<p>"I bade Mr. Farman good-day, promising him the earliest information, +and went to the —— Theatre. There I ascertained the address +of Miss Dalroy, and at once sought an interview with her, telling her +frankly that I was trying to find her lover and restore him to +his friends.</p> + +<p>"With tears in her eyes she offered to give me any assistance she +could. She told me Lord Helsham had promised to marry her, and she showed +me the letters she had had since his disappearance. They all spoke of a +great shock he had received, and one of them of 'a terrible discovery +which must separate them for ever.' It was not concerning her, but a +matter relating to his own family.</p> + +<p>"By this time I was convinced that the idea which had come to me +when I so rudely asked you to take your departure was the key to the +mystery. I <em>knew</em> after reading those letters what the skeleton +in the Helsham family cupboard was, and I understood the dilemma in +which the high-spirited and honourable young man suddenly +found himself.</p> + +<p>"I asked Miss Dalroy to let me see the last envelope she had +received. Fortunately she had kept the letter in it, and showed it +to me.</p> + +<p>"The letter had been posted in Dunkeld. Dunkeld was in Scotland. +That was where Lady Helsham's adopted daughter was—that was where +Lady Helsham's sister lived, the sister in whose house Lord Helsham +had been born. It was there that I should probably get the latest +news of him.</p> + +<p>"I went home, and flinging a few things into a Gladstone bag, caught +the first train North. Twelve hours later I was in Dunkeld. A few +hurried inquiries of the railway porters at the station, and the +solitary flyman outside, and at the little station hotel, told me that I +was, as they say in the sensational detective stories, 'on the track.' A +young gentleman answering the description I have of Lord Helsham had +come there a few days previously. The flyman had driven him to the house +of Mrs. —, the merchant captain's widow, which was nearly five +miles from the station, and nothing had been seen of him since.</p> + +<p>"When the flyman had deposited me at the house, I made my way up the +pathway with a fluttering heart, for in spite of my profession, I have +still that feminine weakness in moments of excitement. The door was +opened by an old Scotch servant. I asked for Mrs. —, and without +waiting for an answer walked straight into a room where I could +hear voices.</p> + +<p>"An elderly spectacled man was talking with a widow lady. As I +entered I caught one sentence—but that was music in my ears.</p> + +<p>"'There's not the slightest danger—it's a feverish +cold—but the poor young fellow is very low and nervous. I should +not leave him alone.'</p> + +<p>"It was a doctor who was speaking. I didn't want to guess twice who +the poor young gentleman was.</p> + +<p>"The widow lady started as I entered and angrily asked me what +I wanted.</p> + +<p>"'A few words with you alone,' I answered. The doctor bowed and +left us together.</p> + +<p>"'Who are you?' exclaimed the widow, betraying her nervous agitation in +her manner, 'and what do you want with me?'</p> + +<p>"'My name is Dorcas Dene—I come from Lady Helsham with a +message for her son.</p> + +<p>"'You know——!' gasped the widow.</p> + +<p>"'That he is here and upstairs ill—yes. This +<em>terrible discovery</em> has been a severe shock to him.'</p> + +<p>"At the words 'terrible discovery' the widow lady reeled and caught +a chair for support.</p> + +<p>"'You know that—Lady Helsham has told you?'</p> + +<p>"'I had to know,' I answered, evading the question. 'Now for the +sake of everybody we must decide what is the best to be done to avoid +scandal. He talks of killing himself, but that is cowardly. What do +<em>you</em> think can be done?'</p> + +<p>"It was a trap and the woman fell into it.</p> + +<p>"'I don't know,' she gasped. 'Bertie declares that if he lives he +will not retain the title or the property. He says that his death is the +only thing that can save me and my sister from—from——' +She hesitated; then with a sudden terror that she had betrayed too much, +she cried, 'But if you know—tell me <em>what</em> you know.'</p> + +<p>"'Only what I was bound to know to be of any use in the case,' I +said, quietly. 'That the child which Lady Helsham bore in this house was +not the child she returned to London with as the heir. He has discovered +that he has unwittingly dispossessed another of the title and estates, +and he refuses to be a party to the fraud any longer. The only way in +which he can restore them is by dying. To publish the truth now would be +to put Lady Helsham in the dock, and, as you say, you also, for you were +a party to the imposture.'</p> + +<p>"'It was my sister who persuaded me—who took my baby boy from +me and left the girl at home with me. My husband was away. Only the old +servant you have just seen was with me, and she cannot read or write. +It was so simple and—and——'</p> + +<p>"'And the doctor?'</p> + +<p>"She hesitated. 'Why do you ask these questions of me? If you know +all Lady Helsham must have told you.'</p> + +<p>"'I have come from Lady Helsham to find her son—the rest I have +learned for myself. Now you must tell me everything or I cannot help you. +If I abandon the case it will be taken up by the police.'</p> + +<p>"I succeeded at last in showing the unhappy woman that she must make +a clean breast of it, and she confessed everything. There was no idea of +fraud at first. Lady Helsham came to her sister, who was alone and +expecting her confinement. It was the coincidence of her own child being +born prematurely, and within twenty-four hours of her sister's, that +made Lady Helsham grasp at the idea. Had she confessed that her child +was a girl she would have had to give up everything—except her +allowance under the will—to her husband's brother. The captain's +wife was attended by a local midwife. The doctor from the nearest town +sent for to Lady Helsham was away at a consultation, and only returned +twenty-four hours after the premature birth of her child. When he arrived +he simply saw that his patient was doing well. The sisters had by that +time agreed on the fraud with the assistance of the midwife, who received +a good allowance from Lady Helsham for her assistance. The doctor left, +fully assured that Lady Helsham had given birth to a son, and from that +hour the fraud became a simple one. The only person who might have +betrayed them was the simple Scotch servant, who probably was too +ignorant to understand what had been done or too terrified to open her +mouth afterwards, for fear of being looked upon as an accomplice.</p> + +<p>"This was the Helsham mystery. Lady Helsham had, it seems, in her +rage at her supposed son's refusal to marry her real daughter, whom she +loved and desired to benefit, involuntarily revealed her secret, +threatening the young fellow with the loss of everything if +he refused.</p> + +<p>"Thereupon he quitted the house, but he feared to tell the truth, +because he would be giving up his own mother to a long term of penal +servitude. In his overwrought frame of mind he saw only one +loophole—suicide. His death would allow the title and estates to +pass to the rightful owner without the fraud being discovered and the +guilty parties punished.</p> + +<p>"He had gone to bid his mother—whom he had hitherto only +regarded as his aunt—farewell, and tell her what he intended to +do, had broken down, and had been unable to leave the house again."</p> + +<p>"But he committed suicide after all!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene smiled. "No, I arranged that. I knew that for the young +man's sake the real Lord Helsham would spare the guilty mother if +possible. I persuaded the young man to let me take his watch and +clothes. I selected a place as far away from the hiding place of the +missing man as possible, and decided on the Norfolk coast, near Cromer. +I found the clothes where I put them."</p> + +<p>"And the real Lord Helsham knows?"</p> + +<p>"Everything. No good purpose would have been served by prosecuting +the two women. The new Lord Helsham insisted on a written confession +from all concerned, which he retains for his own protection. As I was +employed by one of the guilty parties, it would have been unprofessional +of me to give them to justice."</p> + +<p>"And the young man himself?"</p> + +<p>"Is rapidly recovering from his illness in that quiet and lonely +little house in his identity. Lord Helsham has behaved handsomely. +He wishes his 'nephew' to marry in his real name the girl he loves, and +the young couple will presently go by separate routes to America, and +there be united, and, as they love each other, will be able to live +happily on the income Lord Helsham will allow them. Of course if any +difficulty should arise with regard to the succession the truth will +have to be known. Until then it is 'our' secret. In the meantime Lady +Helsham has wisely decided to live abroad, and only her solicitor is +aware of her address.</p> + +<p>"And now you know all about the Helsham mystery. Come into the garden +and see Paul, and tell me what you think of the new collar I've bought +Toddlekins for his birthday."</p> + +<p>"But," I exclaimed, "the new Lord Helsham is compounding a felony, +and—well, is it wise of him, seeing that the young man +<em>is</em> still alive?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene shrugged her shoulders. "My dear Mr. Saxon," she said, +"if everybody did the legal thing and the wise thing, there would be +very little work left for a lady detective."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C3">III. THE MAN WITH THE WILD EYES</h3> + +<p>I had become a constant visitor at Oak Tree Road. I had conceived a +great admiration for the brave and yet womanly woman who, when her artist +husband was stricken with blindness, and the future looked dark for both +of them, had gallantly made the best of her special gifts and +opportunities and nobly undertaken a profession which was not only a +harassing and exhausting one for a woman, but by no means free from +grave personal risks.</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene was always glad to welcome me for her husband's sake. +"Paul has taken to you immensely," she said to me one afternoon, "and I +hope you will call in and spend an hour or two with him whenever you +can. My cases take me away from home so much—he cannot read, and +my mother, with the best intentions in the world, can never converse +with him for more than five minutes without irritating him. Her terribly +matter of fact views of life are, to use his own expression, absolutely +'rasping' to his dreamy, artistic temperament."</p> + +<p>I had plenty of spare time on my hands, and so it became my custom to +drop in two or three times a week, and smoke a pipe and chat with Paul +Dene. His conversation was always interesting, and the gentle +resignation with which he bore his terrible affliction quickly won my +heart. But I am not ashamed to confess that my frequent journeys to Oak +Tree Road were also largely influenced by my desire to see Dorcas Dene, +and hear more of her strange adventures and experiences as a +lady detective.</p> + +<p>From the moment she knew that her husband valued my companionship she +treated me as one of the family, and when I was fortunate enough to find +her at home, she discussed her professional affairs openly before me. I +was grateful for this confidence, and frequently I was able to assist +her by going about with her in cases where the presence of a male +companion was a material advantage to her. I had upon one occasion +laughingly dubbed myself her "assistant," and by that name I was +afterwards generally known. There was only one drawback to the pleasure +I felt at being associated with Dorcas Dene in her detective work. I saw +that it would be quite impossible for me to avoid reproducing my +experiences in some form or other. One day I broached the subject to +her cautiously.</p> + +<p>"Are you not afraid of the assistant one day revealing the +professional secrets of his chief?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," replied Dorcas (everybody called her Dorcas, and I fell +into the habit when I found that she and her husband preferred it to the +formal "Mrs. Dene"); "I am quite sure that you will not be able to resist +the temptation."</p> + +<p>"And you don't object?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, but with this stipulation, that you will use the material +in such a way as not to identify any of the cases with the real +parties concerned."</p> + +<p>That lifted a great responsibility from my shoulders, and made me +more eager than ever to prove myself a valuable "assistant" to the +charming lady who honoured me with her confidence.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>We were sitting in the dining-room one evening after dinner. +Mrs. Lester was looking contemptuously over the last number of the +<em>Queen</em>, and wondering out loud what on earth young women were +coming to with their tailor-mades and their bicycle costumes. Paul was +smoking the old briar-root pipe which had been his constant companion in +the studio when he was able to paint, poor fellow, and Dorcas was lying +down on the sofa. Toddlekins, nestled up close to her, was snoring +gently after the manner of his kind.</p> + +<p>Dorcas had had a hard and exciting week, and had not been ashamed to +confess that she felt a little played out. She had just succeeded in +rescuing a young lady of fortune from the toils of an unprincipled +Russian adventurer, and stopping the marriage almost at the altar rails +by the timely production of the record of the would-be bridegroom, which +she obtained with the assistance of M. Goron, the head of the French +detective police. It was a return compliment. Dorcas had only a short +time previously undertaken for M. Goron a delicate investigation, in +which the son of one of the noblest houses in France was involved, and +had nipped in the bud a scandal which would have kept the Boulevards +chattering for a month.</p> + +<p>Paul and I were conversing below our voices, for Dorcas's measured +breathing showed us that she had fallen into a doze.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Toddlekins opened his eyes and uttered an angry bark. He had +heard the front gate bell.</p> + +<p>A minute later the servant entered and handed a card to her mistress, +who, with her eyes still half closed, was sitting up on the sofa.</p> + +<p>"The gentleman says he must see you at once, ma'am, on business of +the greatest importance."</p> + +<p>Dorcas looked at the card. "Show the gentleman into the dining-room," +she said to the servant, "and say that I will be with him directly."</p> + +<p>Then she went to the mantel-glass and smoothed away the evidence of +her recent forty winks. "Do you know him at all?" she said, handing +me the card.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Hargreaves, Orley Park, near Godalming." I shook my head, +and Dorcas, with a little tired sigh, went to see her visitor.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later the dining-room bell rang, and presently the +servant came into the drawing-room. "Please, sir," she said, addressing +me, "mistress says will you kindly come to her at once?"</p> + +<p>When I entered the dining-room I was astonished to see an elderly, +soldierly-looking man lying back unconscious in the easy chair, and +Dorcas Dene bending over him.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it's anything but a faint," she said. "He's very +excited and over-wrought, but if you'll stay here I'll go and get some +brandy. You had better loosen his collar—or shall we send for +a doctor?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think it is anything serious," I said, after a hasty +glance at the invalid.</p> + +<p>As soon as Dorcas had gone I began to loosen the Colonel's cravat, +but I had hardly commenced before, with a deep sigh, he opened his eyes +and came to himself.</p> + +<p>"You're better now," I said. "Come—that's all right."</p> + +<p>The Colonel stared about him for a moment, and then said, +"I—I—where is the lady?"</p> + +<p>"She'll be here in a moment. She's gone to get some brandy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm all right now, thank you. I suppose it was the +excitement, and I've been travelling, had nothing to eat, and I'm so +terribly upset. I don't often do this sort of thing, I assure you."</p> + +<p>Dorcas returned with the brandy. The Colonel brightened up directly +she came into the room. He took the glass she offered him and drained +the contents.</p> + +<p>"I'm all right now," he said. "Pray let me get on with my story. I +hope you will be able to take the case up at once. Let me +see—where was I?"</p> + +<p>He gave a little uneasy glance at me. "You can speak without reserve +before this gentleman," said Dorcas. "It is possible he may be able to +assist us if you wish me to come to Orley Park at once. So far you have +told me that your only daughter, who is five-and-twenty, and lives with +you, was found last night on the edge of the lake in your grounds, half +in the water and half out. She was quite insensible, and was carried +into the house and put to bed. You were in London at the time, and +returned to Orley Park this morning in consequence of a telegram you +received. That is as far as you had got when you became ill."</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes!" exclaimed the Colonel, "but I am quite well again +now. When I arrived at home this morning shortly before noon I was +relieved to find that Maud—that is my poor girl's name—was +quite conscious, and the doctor had left a message that I was not to be +alarmed, and that he would return and see me early in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"I went at once to my daughter's room and found her naturally in a +very low, distressed state. I asked her how it had happened, as I could +not understand it, and she told me that she had gone out in the grounds +after dinner and must have turned giddy when by the edge of the lake and +fallen in."</p> + +<p>"Is it a deep lake?" asked Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"Yes, in the middle, but shallow near the edge. It is a largish lake, +with a small fowl island in the centre, and we have a boat upon it."</p> + +<p>"Probably it was a sudden fainting fit—such as you yourself +have had just now. Your daughter may be subject to them."</p> + +<p>"No, she is a thoroughly strong, healthy girl."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to have interrupted you," said Dorcas; "pray go on, for +I presume there is something behind this accident besides a fainting +fit, or you would not have come to engage my services in the matter."</p> + +<p>"There is a great deal more behind it," replied Colonel Hargreaves, +pulling nervously at his grey moustache. "I left my daughter's bedside +devoutly thankful that Providence had preserved her from such a dreadful +death, but when the doctor arrived he gave me a piece of information +which caused me the greatest uneasiness and alarm."</p> + +<p>"He didn't believe in the fainting fit?" said Dorcas, who had been +closely watching the Colonel's features.</p> + +<p>The Colonel looked at Dorcas Dene in astonishment. "I don't know how +you have divined that," he said, "but your surmise is correct. The +doctor told me that he had questioned Maud himself, and she had told him +the same story—sudden giddiness and a fall into the water. But he +had observed that on her throat there were certain marks, and that her +wrists were bruised.</p> + +<p>"When he told me this I did not at first grasp his meaning. 'It must +have been the violence of the fall,' I said.</p> + +<p>"The doctor shook his head and assured me that no accident would +account for the marks his experienced eye had detected. The marks round +the throat must have been caused by the clutch of an assailant. The +wrists could only have been bruised in the manner they were by being +held in a violent and brutal grip."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene, who had been listening apparently without much interest, +bent eagerly forward as the Colonel made this extraordinary statement. +"I see," she said. "Your daughter told you that she had fallen into the +lake, and the doctor assures you that she must have told you an untruth. +She had been pushed or flung in by someone else after a +severe struggle."</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>"And the young lady, when you questioned her further, with this +information in your possession, what did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She appeared very much excited, and burst into tears. When I +referred to the marks on her throat, which were now beginning to show +discoloration more distinctly, she declared that she had invented the +story of the faint in order not to alarm me—that she had been +attacked by a tramp who must have got into the grounds, and that he had +tried to rob her, and that in the struggle, which took place near the +edge of the lake, he had thrown her down at the water's edge and then +made his escape."</p> + +<p>"And that explanation you <em>do</em> accept?" said Dorcas, looking +at the Colonel keenly.</p> + +<p>"How can I? Why should my daughter try to screen a tramp? Why did +she tell the doctor an untruth? Surely the first impulse of a terrified +woman rescued from a terrible death would have been to have described +her assailant in order that he might have been searched for and brought +to justice."</p> + +<p>"And the police, have they made any inquiries? Have they learned if +any suspicious persons were seen about that evening?"</p> + +<p>"I have not been to the police. I talked the matter over with the +doctor. He says that the police inquiries would make the whole thing +public property, and it would be known everywhere that my daughter's +story, which has now gone all over the neighbourhood, was untrue. But +the whole affair is so mysterious, and to me so alarming, that I could +not leave it where it is. It was the doctor who advised me to come to +you and let the inquiry be a private one."</p> + +<p>"You need employ no one if your daughter can be persuaded to tell +the truth. Have you tried?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But she insists that it was a tramp, and declares that until +the bruises betrayed her she kept to the fainting-fit story in order to +make the affair as little alarming to me as possible."</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene rose. "What time does the last train leave for Godalming?"</p> + +<p>"In an hour," said the Colonel, looking at his watch. "At the station +my carriage will be waiting to take us to Orley Court. I want you to stay +beneath my roof until you have discovered the key to the mystery."</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas, after a minute's thought. "I could do no good +to-night, and my arrival with you would cause talk among the servants. +Go back by yourself. Call on the doctor. Tell him to say his patient +requires constant care during the next few days, and that he has sent for +a trained nurse from London. The trained nurse will arrive about +noon to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"And you?" exclaimed the Colonel, "won't you come?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas smiled. "Oh, yes; I shall be the trained nurse."</p> + +<p>The Colonel rose. "If you can discover the truth and let me know what +it is my daughter is concealing from me I shall be eternally grateful," +he said. "I shall expect you to-morrow at noon."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow at noon you will expect the trained nurse for whom the +doctor has telegraphed. Good evening."</p> + +<p>I went to the door with Colonel Hargreaves, and saw him down the +garden to the front gate.</p> + +<p>When I went back to the house Dorcas Dene was waiting for me in the +hall. "Are you busy for the next few days?" she said.</p> + +<p>"No—I have practically nothing to do."</p> + +<p>"Then come to Godalming with me to-morrow. You are an artist, and I +must get you permission to sketch that lake while I am nursing my patient +indoors."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>It was past noon when the fly, hired from the station, stopped at +the lodge gates of Orley Park, and the lodge-keeper's wife opened them +to let us in.</p> + +<p>"You are the nurse for Miss Maud, I suppose, miss?" she said, +glancing at Dorcas's neat hospital nurse's costume.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The Colonel and the doctor are both at the house expecting you, +miss—I hope it isn't serious with the poor young lady."</p> + +<p>"I hope not," said Dorcas, with a pleasant smile.</p> + +<p>A minute or two later the fly pulled up at the door of a picturesque +old Elizabethan mansion. The Colonel, who had seen the fly from the +window, was on the steps waiting for us, and at once conducted us into +the library. Dorcas explained my presence in a few words. I was her +assistant, and through me she would be able to make all the necessary +inquiries in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>"To your people Mr. Saxon will be an artist to whom you have given +permission to sketch the house and the grounds—I think that will +be best."</p> + +<p>The Colonel promised that I should have free access at all hours to +the grounds, and it was arranged that I should stay at a pretty little +inn which was about half a mile from the park. Having received full +instructions on the way down from Dorcas, I knew exactly what to do, and +bade her good-bye until the evening, when I was to call at the house to +see her.</p> + +<p>The doctor came into the room to conduct the new nurse to the +patient's bedside, and I left to fulfil my instructions.</p> + +<p>At "The Chequers," which was the name of the inn, it was no sooner +known that I was an artist, and had permission to sketch in the grounds +of Orley Park, than the landlady commenced to entertain me with accounts +of the accident which had nearly cost Miss Hargreaves her life.</p> + +<p>The fainting-fit story, which was the only one that had got about, had +been accepted in perfect faith.</p> + +<p>"It's a lonely place, that lake, and there's nobody about the grounds, +you see, at night, sir—it was a wonder the poor young lady was +found so soon."</p> + +<p>"Who found her?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"One of the gardeners who lives in a cottage in the park. He'd been +to Godalming for the evening, and was going home past the lake."</p> + +<p>"What time was it?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly ten o'clock. It was lucky he saw her, for it had been dark +nearly an hour then, and there was no moon."</p> + +<p>"What did he think when he found her?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, to tell you the truth, he thought at first it was suicide, +and that the young lady hadn't gone far enough in and had lost +her senses."</p> + +<p>"Of course, he couldn't have thought it was murder or anything of +that sort," I said, "because nobody could get in at night—without +coming through the lodge gates."</p> + +<p>"Oh! yes, they could at one place, but it'ud have to be somebody +who knew the dogs or was with someone who did. There's a couple of big +mastiffs have got a good run there, and no stranger 'ud try to clamber +over—it's a side gate used by the family, sir—after they'd +started barking."</p> + +<p>"Did they bark that night at all, do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes," said the landlady. "Now I come to think of it, +Mr. Peters—that's the lodge-keeper—heard 'em, but they was +quiet in a minute, so he took no more notice."</p> + +<p>That afternoon the first place I made up my mind to sketch was the +Lodge. I found Mr. Peters at home, and my pass from the Colonel +secured his good graces at once. His wife had told him of the strange +gentleman who had arrived with the nurse, and I explained that there +being only one fly at the station and our destination the same, the +nurse had kindly allowed me to share the vehicle with her.</p> + +<p>I made elaborate pencil marks and notes in my new sketching book, +telling Mr. Peters I was only doing something preliminary and rough, in +order to conceal the amateurish nature of my efforts, and keep the +worthy man gossiping about the "accident" to his young mistress.</p> + +<p>I referred to the landlady's statement that he had heard dogs bark +that night.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, but they were quiet directly."</p> + +<p>"Probably some stranger passing down by the side gate, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Most likely, sir. I was a bit uneasy at first, but when they quieted +down I thought it was all right."</p> + +<p>"Why were you uneasy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there'd been a queer sort of a looking man hanging about that +evening. My missus saw him peering in at the lodge gates about +seven o'clock."</p> + +<p>"A tramp?"</p> + +<p>"No, a gentlemanly sort of man, but he gave my missus a turn, he had +such wild, staring eyes. But he spoke all right. My missus asked him +what he wanted, and he asked her what was the name of the big house he +could see, and who lived there. She told him it was Orley Park, and +Colonel Hargreaves lived there, and he thanked her and went away. A +tourist, maybe, sir, or perhaps an artist gentleman, like yourself."</p> + +<p>"Staying in the neighbourhood and examining its beauties perhaps."</p> + +<p>"No; when I spoke about it the next day in the town I heard as he'd +come by the train that afternoon; the porters had noticed him, he +seemed so odd."</p> + +<p>I finished my rough sketch and then asked Mr. Peters to take me to +the scene of the accident. It was a large lake and answered the +description given by the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"That there's the place where Miss Maud was found," said Mr. Peters. +"You see it's shallow there, and her head was just on the bank here out +of the water."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. That's a delightful little island in the middle. I'll +smoke a pipe here and sketch. Don't let me detain you."</p> + +<p>The lodge-keeper retired, and obeying the instructions received from +Dorcas Dene, I examined the spot carefully.</p> + +<p>The marks of hobnailed boots were distinctly visible in the mud at +the side, near the place where the struggle, admitted by Miss Hargreaves, +had taken place. They might be the tramp's—they might be the +gardener's; I was not skilled enough in the art of footprints to +determine. But I had obtained a certain amount of information, and with +that, at seven o'clock, I went to the house and asked for the Colonel.</p> + +<p>I had, of course, nothing to say to him, except to ask him to let +Dorcas Dene know that I was there. In a few minutes Dorcas came to me +with her bonnet and cloak on.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to get a walk while it is light," she said; "come with me."</p> + +<p>Directly we were outside I gave her my information, and she at once +decided to visit the lake.</p> + +<p>She examined the scene of the accident carefully, and I pointed out +the hobnailed boot marks.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "those are the gardener's probably—I'm looking +for someone else's."</p> + +<p>"Whose?"</p> + +<p>"These," she said, suddenly stopping and pointing to a series of +impressions in the soil at the edge. "Look—here are a woman's +footprints, and here are larger ones beside them—now close +to—now a little way apart—now crossing each other. Do you +see anything particular in these footprints?"</p> + +<p>"No—except that there are no nails in them."</p> + +<p>"Exactly—the footprints are small, but larger than +Miss Hargreaves'—the shape is an elegant one, you see the toes +are pointed, and the sole is a narrow one. No tramp would have boots +like those. Where did you say Mrs. Peters saw that +strange-looking gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"Peering through the lodge gates."</p> + +<p>"Let us go there at once."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peters came out and opened the gates for us.</p> + +<p>"What a lovely evening," said Dorcas. "Is the town very far?"</p> + +<p>"Two miles, miss."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's too far for me to-night."</p> + +<p>She took out her purse and selected some silver.</p> + +<p>"Will you please send down the first thing in the morning and buy +me a bottle of Wood Violet scent at the chemist's. I always use it, +and I've come away without any."</p> + +<p>She was just going to hand some silver to Mrs. Peters, when she +dropped her purse in the roadway, and the money rolled in +every direction.</p> + +<p>We picked most of it up, but Dorcas declared there was another +half-sovereign. For fully a quarter of an hour she peered about in every +direction outside the lodge gates for that missing half-sovereign, and +I assisted her. She searched for quite ten minutes in one particular +spot, a piece of sodden, loose roadway close against the +right-hand gate.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she exclaimed that she had found it, and, slipping her hand +into her pocket, rose, and, handing Mrs. Peters a five-shilling piece +for the scent, beckoned me to follow her, and strolled down the road.</p> + +<p>"How came you to drop your purse? Are you nervous to-night?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," replied Dorcas, with a smile. "I dropped my purse that the +money might roll and give me an opportunity of closely examining the +ground outside the gates."</p> + +<p>"Did you really find your half-sovereign?"</p> + +<p>"I never lost one; but I found what I wanted."</p> + +<p>"And that was?"</p> + +<p>"The footprints of the man who stood outside the gates that night. +They are exactly the same shape as those by the side of the lake. The +person Maud Hargreaves struggled with that night, the person who flung +her into the lake and whose guilt she endeavoured to conceal by declaring +she had met with an accident, was the man who wanted to know the name of +the place, and asked who lived there—<em>the man with the +wild eyes.</em>"</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C4">IV. THE SECRET OF THE LAKE</h3> + +<p>"You are absolutely certain that the footprints of the man with the +wild eyes, who frightened Mrs. Peters at the gate, and the footprints +which are mixed up with those of Miss Hargreaves by the side of the +lake, are the same?" I said to Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely certain."</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps, if you describe him, the Colonel may be able to +recognise him."</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas Dene, "I have already asked him if he knew anyone +who could possibly bear his daughter a grudge, and he declares that +there is no one to his knowledge. Miss Hargreaves has scarcely +any acquaintances."</p> + +<p>"And has had no love affair?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"None, her father says, but of course he can only answer for the last +three years. Previously to that he was in India, and Maud—who was +sent home at the age of fourteen, when her mother died—had lived +with an aunt at Norwood."</p> + +<p>"Who do you think this man was who managed to get into the grounds and +meet or surprise Miss Hargreaves by the lake—a stranger to her?"</p> + +<p>"No; had he been a stranger, she would not have shielded him by +inventing the fainting fit story."</p> + +<p>We had walked some distance from the house, when an empty station fly +passed us. We got in, Dorcas telling the man to drive us to the station.</p> + +<p>When we got there, she told me to go and interview the porters and +try and find out if a man of the description of our suspect had left on +the night of the "accident."</p> + +<p>I found the man who had told Mr. Peters that he had seen such a person +arrive, and had noticed the peculiar expression of his eyes. This man +assured me that no such person had left from that station. He had told +his mates about him, and some of them would be sure to have seen him. The +stranger brought no luggage, and gave up a single ticket from Waterloo.</p> + +<p>Dorcas was waiting for me outside, and I gave her my information.</p> + +<p>"No luggage," she said; "then he wasn't going to an hotel or to stay +at a private house."</p> + +<p>"But he might be living somewhere about."</p> + +<p>"No; the porters would have recognised him if he had been in the +habit of coming here."</p> + +<p>"But he must have gone away after flinging Miss Hargreaves into the +water. He might have got out of the grounds again and walked to another +station, and caught a train back to London."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he might," said Dorcas, "but I don't think he did. Come, we'll +take the fly back to Orley Park."</p> + +<p>Just before we reached the park Dorcas stopped the driver, and we got +out and dismissed the man.</p> + +<p>"Whereabouts are those dogs—near the private wooden door in the +wall used by the family, aren't they?" she said to me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Peters pointed the spot out to me this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Very well, I'm going in. Meet me by the lake to-morrow morning about +nine. But watch me now as far as the gates. I'll wait outside five minutes +before ringing. When you see I'm there, go to that portion of the wall +near the private door. Clamber up and peer over. When the dogs begin to +bark, and come at you, notice if you could possibly drop over and escape +them without someone they knew called them off. Then jump down again and +go back to the inn."</p> + +<p>I obeyed Dorcas's instructions; and when I had succeeded in climbing +to the top of the wall, the dogs flew out of their kennel, and commenced +to bark furiously. Had I dropped I must have fallen straight into their +grip. Suddenly I heard a shout, and I recognised the voice—it was +the lodge-keeper. I dropped back into the road and crept along in the +shadow of the wall. In the distance I could hear Peters talking to +someone, and I knew what had happened. In the act of letting Dorcas in, +he had heard the dogs, and had hurried off to see what was the matter. +Dorcas had followed him.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>At nine o'clock next morning I found Dorcas waiting for me.</p> + +<p>"You did your work admirably last night," she said. "Peters was in a +terrible state of alarm. He was very glad for me to come with him. He +quieted the dogs, and we searched about everywhere in the shrubbery to see +if anyone was in hiding. That man wasn't let in at the door that night +by Miss Hargreaves; he dropped over. I found the impression of two deep +footprints close together, exactly as they would be made by a drop or +jump down from a height."</p> + +<p>"Did he go back that way—<em>were there return footprints?</em>"</p> + +<p>I thought I had made a clever suggestion, but Dorcas smiled, and shook +her head. "I didn't look. How could he return past the dogs when Miss +Hargreaves was lying in the lake? They'd have torn him to pieces."</p> + +<p>"And you still think this man with the wild eyes is guilty? Who can he +have been?"</p> + +<p>"His name was Victor."</p> + +<p>"You have discovered that!" I exclaimed. "Has Miss Hargreaves been +talking to you?"</p> + +<p>"Last night I tried a little experiment. When she was asleep, and +evidently dreaming, I went quietly in the dark and stood just behind the +bed, and in the gruffest voice I could assume, I said, bending down to +her ear, 'Maud!'</p> + +<p>"She started up, and cried out, 'Victor!'</p> + +<p>"In a moment I was by her side, and found her trembling violently. +'What's the matter, dear?' I said, 'have you been dreaming?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes—yes,' she said. 'I—I was dreaming.'</p> + +<p>"I soothed her, and talked to her a little while, and finally she +lay down again and fell asleep."</p> + +<p>"That's something," I said "to have got the man's Christian name."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a little, but I think we shall have the surname to-day. You +must go up to town and do a little commission for me presently. In the +meantime, pull that boat in and row me across to the fowl island. I want +to search it."</p> + +<p>"You don't imagine the man's hiding there," I said. "It's too small."</p> + +<p>"Pull me over," said Dorcas, getting into the boat.</p> + +<p>I obeyed, and presently we were on the little island.</p> + +<p>Dorcas carefully surveyed the lake in every direction. Then she +walked round and examined the foliage and the reeds that were at the +edge and drooping into the water.</p> + +<p>Suddenly pushing a mass of close overhanging growth aside, she thrust +her hand deep down under it into the water and drew up a black, +saturated, felt hat.</p> + +<p>"I thought if anything drifted that night, this is where it would +get caught and entangled," said Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"If it is that man's hat, he must have gone away bareheaded."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," replied Dorcas, "but first let us ascertain if it is +his. Row ashore at once."</p> + +<p>She wrung the water from the hat, squeezed it together and wrapped +it up in her pocket-handkerchief and put it under her cloak.</p> + +<p>When we were ashore, I went to the lodge and got Mrs. Peters on to +the subject of the man with the wild eyes. Then I asked what sort of a +hat he had on, and Mrs. Peters said it was a felt hat with a dent in the +middle, and I knew that our find was a good one.</p> + +<p>When I told Dorcas she gave a little smile of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"We've got his Christian name and his hat," she said; "now we want +the rest of him. You can catch the 11.20 easily."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>She drew an envelope from her pocket and took a carte de visite from it.</p> + +<p>"That's the portrait of a handsome young fellow," she said. "By the +style and size I should think it was taken four or five years ago. The + photographers are the London Stereoscopic Company—the number of the +negative is 111,492. If you go to Regent Street, they will search their +books and give you the name and address of the original. Get it, and +come back here."</p> + +<p>"Is that the man?" I said.</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"How on earth did you get it?"</p> + +<p>"I amused myself while Miss Hargreaves was asleep by looking over the +album in her boudoir. It was an old album, and filled with portraits of +relatives and friends. I should say there were over fifty, some of them +being probably her school-fellows. I thought I <em>might</em> find +something, you know. People have portraits given them, put them in an +album, and almost forget they are there. I fancied Miss Hargreaves +might have forgotten."</p> + +<p>"But how did you select this from fifty? There were other male +portraits, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, but I took out every portrait and examined the back and +the margin."</p> + +<p>I took the photo from Dorcas and looked at it. I noticed that a +portion of the back had been rubbed away and was rough.</p> + +<p>"That's been done with an ink eraser," said Dorcas. "That made me +concentrate on this particular photo. There has been a name written +there or some word the recipient didn't want other eyes to see."</p> + +<p>"That is only surmise."</p> + +<p>"Quite so—but there's a certainty in the photo itself. Look +closely at that little diamond scarf-pin in the necktie. What shape +is it?"</p> + +<p>"It looks like a small V."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. It was fashionable a few years ago for gentlemen to wear +a small initial pin. V. stands for Victor—take that and the erasure +together, and I think it's worth a return fare to town to find out what +name and address are opposite the negative number in the books of the +London Stereoscopic Company."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Before two o'clock I was interviewing the manager of the Stereoscopic +Company, and he readily referred to the books. The photograph had been +taken six years previously, and the name and address of the sitter were +"Mr. Victor Dubois, Anerley Road, Norwood."</p> + +<p>Following Dorcas Dene's instructions, I proceeded at once to the +address given, and made enquiries for a Mr. Victor Dubois. No one of +that name resided there. The present tenants had been in possession +for three years.</p> + +<p>As I was walking back along the road I met an old postman. I thought +I would ask him if he knew the name anywhere in the neighbourhood. He +thought a minute, then said, "Yes—now I come to think of it there +was a Dubois here at No. —, but that was five years ago or more. +He was an oldish, white-haired gentleman."</p> + +<p>"An old gentleman—Victor Dubois!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, no—the old gentleman's name was Mounseer Dubois, but there +was a Victor. I suppose that must have been his son as lived with him. +I know the name. There used to be letters addressed there for Mr. Victor +most every day—sometimes twice a day—always in the same +hand-writing, a lady's—that's what made me notice it."</p> + +<p>"And you don't know where M. Dubois and his son went to?"</p> + +<p>"No, I did hear as the old gentleman went off his head, and was put +in a lunatic asylum; but they went out o' my round."</p> + +<p>"You don't know what he was, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it said on the brass plate, 'Professor of Languages.'"</p> + +<p>I went back to town and took the first train to Godalming, and +hastened to Orley Court to report the results of my enquiries +to Dorcas.</p> + +<p>She was evidently pleased, for she complimented me. Then she rang +the bell—we were in the dining-room—and the +servant entered.</p> + +<p>"Will you let the Colonel know that I should like to see him?" +said Dorcas, and the servant went to deliver the message.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to tell him everything?" I said.</p> + +<p>"I am going to tell him nothing yet," replied Dorcas. "I want him +to tell me something."</p> + +<p>The Colonel entered. His face was worn, and he was evidently worrying +himself a great deal.</p> + +<p>"Have you anything to tell me?" he said eagerly. "Have you found out +what my poor girl is hiding from me?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I cannot tell you yet. But I want to ask you a +few questions."</p> + +<p>"I have given you all the information I can already," replied the +Colonel a little bitterly.</p> + +<p>"All you recollect, but now try and think. Your daughter, before +you came back from India, was with her aunt at Norwood. Where was she +educated from the time she left India?"</p> + +<p>"She went to school at Brighton at first, but from the time she was +sixteen she had private instruction at home."</p> + +<p>"She had professors, I suppose, for music, French, etc.?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe so. I paid bills for that sort of thing. My sister +sent them out to me to India."</p> + +<p>"Can you remember the name of Dubois?"</p> + +<p>The Colonel thought a little while.</p> + +<p>"Dubois? Dubois? Dubois?" he said. "I have an idea there was such a +name among the accounts my sister sent to me, but whether it was a +dressmaker or a French master I really can't say."</p> + +<p>"Then I think we will take it that your daughter had lessons at +Norwood from a French professor named Dubois. Now, in any letters that +your late sister wrote you to India, did she ever mention anything that +had caused her uneasiness on Maud's account?"</p> + +<p>"Only once," replied the Colonel, "and everything was satisfactorily +explained afterwards. She left home one day at nine o'clock in the +morning, and did not return until four in the afternoon. Her aunt was +exceedingly angry, and Maud explained that she had met some friends at +the Crystal Palace—she attended the drawing class there—had +gone to see one of her fellow students off at the station, and sitting in +the carriage, the train had started before she could get out and she had +had to go on to London. I expect my sister told me that to show me how +thoroughly I might rely upon her as my daughter's guardian."</p> + +<p>"Went on to London?" said Dorcas to me under her voice, "and she +could have got out in three minutes at the next station to Norwood!" +Then turning to the Colonel, she said, "Now, Colonel, when your wife +died, what did you do with her wedding ring?"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, madam!" exclaimed the Colonel, rising and pacing the +room, "what can my poor wife's wedding ring have to do with my +daughter's being flung into the lake yonder?"</p> + +<p>"I am sorry if my question appears absurd," replied Dorcas quietly, +"but will you kindly answer it?"</p> + +<p>"My wife's wedding ring is on my dead wife's finger in her coffin in +the graveyard at Simla," exclaimed the Colonel, "and now perhaps you'll +tell me what all this means!"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," said Dorcas. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take a walk +with Mr. Saxon. Miss Hargreaves' maid is with her, and she will be all +right until I return."</p> + +<p>"Very well, very well!" exclaimed the Colonel, "but I beg—I +pray of you to tell me what you know as soon as you can. I am setting +spies upon my own child, and to me it is monstrous—and yet—and +yet—what can I do? She won't tell me, and for her sake I must +know—I must know."</p> + +<p>"You shall, Colonel Hargreaves," said Dorcas, going up to him and +holding out her hand. "Believe me, you have my sincerest sympathy."</p> + +<p>The old Colonel grasped the proffered hand of Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said, his lips quivering.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Directly we were in the grounds Dorcas Dene turned eagerly to me.</p> + +<p>"I'm treating you very badly," she said, "but our task is nearly +over. You must go back to town to-night. The first thing to-morrow +morning go to Somerset House. You will find an old fellow named Daddy +Green, a searcher in the inquiry room. Tell him you come from me, and +give him this paper. When he has searched, telegraph the result to me, +and come back by the next train."</p> + +<p>I looked at the paper, and found written on it in Dorcas's hand:</p> + +<p style= "text-indent:50px; margin-bottom:0px;">"<em>Search wanted.</em></p> + +<p style= "text-indent:50px; margin-top:0px;">Marriage—Victor +Dubois and Maud Eleanor Hargreaves—probably between the years +1890 and 1893—London."</p> + +<p>I looked up from the paper at Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<p>"Whatever makes you think she is a married woman?" I said.</p> + +<p>"This," exclaimed Dorcas, drawing an unworn wedding-ring from her +purse. "I found it among a lot of trinkets at the bottom of a box her +maid told me was her jewel-case. I took the liberty of trying all her +keys till I opened it. A jewel-box tells many secrets to those who +know how to read them."</p> + +<p>"And you concluded from that——?</p> + +<p>"That she wouldn't keep a wedding-ring without it had belonged to +someone dear to her or had been placed on her own finger. It is quite +unworn, you see, so it was taken off immediately after the ceremony. +It was only to make doubly sure that I asked the Colonel where his +wife's was."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>I duly repaired to Somerset House, and soon after midday Daddy Green, +the searcher, brought a paper and handed it to me. It was a copy of the +certificate of the marriage of Victor Dubois, bachelor, aged twenty-six, +and Maud Eleanor Hargreaves, aged twenty-one, in London, in the year +1891. I telegraphed the news, wording the message simply "Yes," and +the date, and I followed my wire by the first train.</p> + +<p>When I arrived at Orley Park I rang several times before anyone +came. Presently Mrs. Peters, looking very white and excited, came from +the grounds and apologised for keeping me waiting.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir—such a dreadful thing!" she said—"a body in the lake!"</p> + +<p>"A body!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir—a man. The nurse as came with you here that day, +she was rowing herself on the lake, and she must have stirred it pushing +with her oar, for it come up all tangled with weeds. It's a man, sir, +and I do believe it's the man I saw at the gate that night."</p> + +<p>"<em>The man with the wild eyes!</em>" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes sir! Oh, it is dreadful—Miss Maud first, and then this. +Oh, what can it mean!"</p> + +<p>I found Dorcas standing at the edge of the lake, and Peters and two +of the gardeners lifting the drowned body of a man into the boat which +was alongside.</p> + +<p>Dorcas was giving instructions. "Lay it in the boat, and cover it +with a tarpaulin," she said. "Mind, nothing is to be touched till the +police come. I will go and find the Colonel."</p> + +<p>As she turned away I met her.</p> + +<p>"What a terrible thing! Is it Dubois?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Dorcas. "I suspected he was there yesterday, but I +wanted to find him myself instead of having the lake dragged."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't want anyone else to search the pockets. There might +have been papers or letters, you know, which would have been read at +the inquest, and might have compromised Miss Hargreaves. But there was +nothing—"</p> + +<p>"What—you searched!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, after I'd brought the poor fellow to the surface with the oars."</p> + +<p>"But how do you think he got in?"</p> + +<p>"Suicide—insanity. The father was taken to a lunatic +asylum—you learned that at Norwood yesterday. Son doubtless +inherited tendency. Looks like a case of homicidal mania—he +attacked Miss Hargreaves, whom he had probably tracked after years of +separation, and after he had as he thought killed her, he drowned +himself. At any rate, Miss Hargreaves is a free woman. She was evidently +terrified of her husband when he was alive, and so—"</p> + +<p>I guessed what Dorcas was thinking as we went together to the house. +At the door she held out her hand. "You had better go to the inn and +return to town to-night," she said. "You can do no more good, and had +better keep out of it. I shall be home to-morrow. Come to Oak Tree Road +in the evening."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>The next evening Dorcas told me all that had happened after I left. +Paul had already heard it, and when I arrived was profuse in his thanks +for the assistance I had rendered his wife. Mrs. Lester, however, felt +compelled to remark that she never thought a daughter of hers would go +gadding about the country fishing up corpses for a living.</p> + +<p>Dorcas had gone to the Colonel and told him everything. The Colonel +was in a terrible state, but Dorcas told him that the only way in which +to ascertain the truth was for them to go to the unhappy girl together, +and attempt, with the facts in their possession, to persuade her to +divulge the rest.</p> + +<p>When the Colonel told his daughter that the man she had married had +flung her into the lake that night, she was dumbfounded, and became +hysterical, but when she learned that Dubois had been found in the lake +she became alarmed and instantly told all she knew.</p> + +<p>She had been in the habit of meeting Victor Dubois constantly when +she was at Norwood, at first with his father—her French +master—and afterwards alone. He was handsome, young, romantic, +and they fell madly in love. He was going away for some time to an +appointment abroad, and he urged her to marry him secretly. She +foolishly consented, and they parted at the church, she returning to her +home and he going abroad the same evening.</p> + +<p>She received letters from him clandestinely from time to time. Then +he wrote that his father had become insane and had to be removed to a +lunatic asylum, and he was returning. He had only time to see to his +father's removal and return to his appointment. She did not hear from +him for a long time, and then through a friend at Norwood who knew the +Dubois and their relatives she made enquiries. Victor had returned to +England, and met with an accident which had injured his head severely. +He became insane and was taken to a lunatic asylum.</p> + +<p>The poor girl resolved to keep her marriage a secret for ever then, +especially as her father had returned from India, and she knew how +bitterly it would distress him to learn that his daughter was the +wife of a madman.</p> + +<p>On the night of the affair Maud was in the grounds by herself. She +was strolling by the lake after dinner, when she heard a sound, and +the dogs began to bark. Looking up, she saw Victor Dubois scaling the +wall. Fearful that the dogs would bring Peters or someone on the scene, +she ran to them and silenced them, and her husband leapt down and +stood by her.</p> + +<p>"Come away!" she said, fearing the dogs might attack him and begin +to bark again, and she led him round by the lake which was out of sight +of the house and the lodge.</p> + +<p>She forgot for the moment in her excitement that he had been mad. +At first he was gentle and kind. He told her he had been ill and in an +asylum, but had recently been discharged cured. Directly he regained +his liberty he set out in search of his wife, and ascertained from an +old Norwood acquaintance that Miss Hargreaves was now living with her +father at Orley Park, near Godalming.</p> + +<p>Maud begged him to go away quietly, and she would write to him. He +tried to take her in his arms and kiss her, but instinctively she shrank +from him. Instantly he became furious. Seized with a sudden mania, he +grasped her by the throat. She struggled and freed herself.</p> + +<p>They were at the edge of the lake. Suddenly the maniac got her by +the throat again, and hurled her down into the water. She fell in up to +her waist, but managed to drag herself towards the edge, but before she +emerged she fell senseless—fortunately with her head on the shore +just out of the water.</p> + +<p>The murderer, probably thinking that she was dead, must have waded +out into the deep water and drowned himself.</p> + +<p>Before she left Orley Park Dorcas advised the Colonel to let the +inquest be held without any light being thrown on the affair by him. +Only he was to take care that the police received information that a +man answering the description of the suicide had recently been discharged +from a lunatic asylum.</p> + +<p>We heard later that at the inquest an official from the asylum +attended, and the local jury found that Victor Dubois, a lunatic, got +into the grounds in some way, and drowned himself in the lake while +temporarily insane. It was suggested by the coroner that probably +Miss Hargreaves, who was too unwell to attend, had not seen the man, but +might have been alarmed by the sound of his footsteps, and that this +would account for her fainting away near the water's edge. At any rate, +the inquest ended in a satisfactory verdict, and the Colonel shortly +afterwards took his daughter abroad with him on a Continental tour for +the benefit of her health.</p> + +<p>But of this of course we knew nothing on the evening after the +eventful discovery, when I met Dorcas once more beneath her +own roof-tree.</p> + +<p>Paul was delighted to have his wife back again, and she devoted +herself to him, and that evening had eyes and ears for no one +else—not even for her faithful "assistant."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C5">V. THE DIAMOND LIZARD</h3> + +<p>I had received a little note from Dorcas Dene, telling me that Paul +and her mother had gone to the seaside for a fortnight, and that she was +busy on a case which was keeping her from home, so that it would not be +of any use my calling at Oak Tree Road at present, as I should find no +one there but the servants and whitewashers.</p> + +<p>It had been a very hot July, but I was unable to leave town myself, +having work on hand which compelled me to be on the spot. But I got +away from the close, dusty streets during the daytime as frequently as +I could, and one hot, broiling afternoon I found myself in a brown +holland suit on the terrace of the "Star and Garter" at Richmond, vainly +endeavouring to ward off the fierce rays of the afternoon sun with one +of those white umbrellas which are common enough on the Continent, but +rare enough to attract attention in a land where fashion is one thing +and comfort another.</p> + +<p>My favourite "Star and Garter" waiter, Karl, an amiable and voluble +little German, who, during a twenty years' residence in England, had +acquired the English waiter's love of betting on horse-races, had +personally attended to my wants, and brought me a cup of freshly-made +black coffee and a petit verre of specially fine Courvoisier, strongly +recommended by Mr. James, the genial and obliging manager. Comforted by +the coffee and overpowered by the heat, I was just dropping off into a +siesta, when I was attracted by a familiar voice addressing me by name.</p> + +<p>I raised my umbrella, and at first imagined that I must have made a +mistake. The voice was undoubtedly that of Dorcas Dene, but the lady who +stood smiling in front of me was to all outward appearance an American +tourist. There was the little courier bag attached to the waist-belt, +with which we always associate the pretty American accent during the +great American touring season. The lady in front of me was beautifully +dressed, and appeared through the veil she was wearing to be young and +well-favoured, but her hair was silvery grey and her complexion that of +a brunette. Now Dorcas Dene was a blonde with soft brown wavy hair, and +so I hesitated for a moment, imagining that I must have fallen into a +half doze and have dreamed that I heard Dorcas calling me.</p> + +<p>The lady, who evidently noticed my doubt and hesitation, smiled and +came close to the garden seat on which I had made myself as comfortable +as the temperature would allow me.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," she said. "I saw you lunching in the restaurant, +but I couldn't speak to you then. I'm here on business."</p> + +<p>It <em>was</em> Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<p>"I have half an hour to spare," she said. "My people are at the +little table yonder. They've just ordered their coffee, so they won't +be going yet."</p> + +<p>She sat down at the other end of the garden seat, and, following a +little inclination of her parasol, I saw that the "people" she alluded +to were a young fellow of about three-and-twenty, a handsome woman of +about five-and-thirty, rather loudly dressed, and a remarkably pretty +girl in a charming tailor-made costume of some soft white material, and +a straw hat with a narrow red ribbon round it. The young lady wore a +red sailor's-knot tie over a white shirt. The red of the hat-band and +the tie showed out against the whiteness of the costume, and were +conspicuous objects in the bright sunlight.</p> + +<p>"How beautiful the river is from here," said Dorcas, after I had +inquired how Paul was, and had learnt that he was at Eastbourne in +apartments with Mrs. Lester, and that the change had benefited his +health considerably.</p> + +<p>As she spoke Dorcas drew a small pair of glasses from her pocket, +and appeared very much interested in a little boat with a big white +sail, making its way lazily down the river, which glistened like a +sheet of silver in the sunlight.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "it's a scene that always delights our American +visitors, but I suppose you're not here to admire the beauties +of the Thames?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas, laughing. "If I had leisure for that I should +be at Eastbourne with my poor old Paul. I've a case in hand."</p> + +<p>"And the <em>case</em> is yonder—the young man, the lady, and +the pretty girl with the red tie?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas nodded assent. "Yes—she is pretty, isn't she? Take my +glasses and include her in the scenery, and then, if you are not too +fascinated to spare a glance for anybody else, look at the +young gentleman."</p> + +<p>I took the hint and the glasses. The young lady was more than +pretty; she was as perfect a specimen of handsome English girlhood as +I had ever seen. I looked from her to the elder lady, and was struck +by the contrast. She was much too bold-looking and showy to be the +companion of so modest-looking and bewitching a damsel.</p> + +<p>I shifted my glasses from the ladies to the young gentleman.</p> + +<p>"A fine, handsome young fellow, is he not?" said Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Who is he?"</p> + +<p>"His name is Claude Charrington. He is the son of Mr. Charrington, +the well-known barrister, and I am at the present moment a parlour-maid +in his stepmother's service."</p> + +<p>I looked at the silver-haired, smart American lady with astonishment.</p> + +<p>"A parlour-maid! Like that!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"No; I've been home and made up for Richmond. I have a day out. I +should like you to see me as a parlour-maid at the Charringtons—the +other servants think I can't have been in very good places; but they are +very kind to me, especially Johnson, the footman, and Mrs. Charrington +is quite satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Does she know you are not really a parlour-maid?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It was she who engaged me to investigate a little mystery which +is troubling her very much. I had to be in the house to make my +inquiries, and she consented that I should come as a parlour-maid. It +is a very curious case, and I am very interested in it."</p> + +<p>"Then so am I," I said, "and you must tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>"About ten days ago," said Dorcas, "just as I had arranged to have a +fortnight at the seaside with Paul, a lady called on me in a state of +great agitation.</p> + +<p>"She told me that her name was Mrs. Charrington, that she was the +second wife of Mr. Charrington, the barrister, and that she was in +great distress of mind owing to the loss of a diamond and ruby bracelet, +a diamond and ruby pendant, and a small diamond lizard, which had +mysteriously disappeared from her jewel case.</p> + +<p>"I asked her at once why she had not informed the police instead of +coming to me; and she explained that her suspicions pointed to a member +of her own family as the thief, and she was terrified to go to the +police for fear their investigations would be a terrible one.</p> + +<p>"I asked her if she had informed her husband of her loss, and if the +servants knew of it, and she told me that she had only just discovered +it, and had not said a word to anyone but her own family solicitor, who +had advised her to come to me at once, as the matter was a delicate one. +Her husband was away in the country, and she dreaded telling him until +she was quite sure the person she suspected was innocent, and she had +not yet said anything to the servants, as, of course, if she did they +would have a right to insist on the matter being investigated in order +that their characters might be cleared. It was a most unpleasant +situation, apart from the loss of the valuable jewels, which had been +given to her a few days previously as a birthday present. She was in the +position of being compelled to conceal her loss for fear of bringing the +guilt home to a member of her family."</p> + +<p>"And whom does she suspect?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"The young gentleman who is paying such marked attention yonder to +the pretty girl in the red tie—her stepson, Mr. Claude +Charrington," answered Dorcas, picking up her glasses and surveying the +"scenery."</p> + +<p>"Why does she suspect him?" I asked, following her gaze.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Charrington tells me that her stepson has lately caused his +father considerable anxiety owing to his extravagance and recklessness. +He has just left Oxford, and is going to the Bar, but he has been very +erratic, and lately has evidently been pressed for money. Mrs. +Charrington is very fond of him, and he has always appeared to return +her affection, and has frequently come to her with his troubles. +Mr. Charrington is an irritable man, and inclined to be severe with his +son, and the stepmother has frequently acted as peacemaker between them. +She has always endeavoured to make Claude look upon her as +his own mother.</p> + +<p>"A few days before the robbery was discovered Claude laughingly told +her that he was 'in a devil of a mess' again, and that in order to get +a little ready money to carry on with he had had to pawn his watch and +chain for ten pounds. His father had recently given him a sum of money +to satisfy some pressing creditors, but had insisted on deducting a +certain amount monthly from his allowance until it was paid. Claude +showed Mrs. Charrington the ticket for the watch and chain, and jokingly +said that if things didn't get better with him he would have to give up +all idea of the Bar and go to South Africa and look for a diamond mine. +He had told her that he hadn't dared tell the Governor how much he owed, +and that the assistance had only staved off the more pressing of +his creditors.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Charrington urged him to make a clean breast of everything +on his father's return. He shook his head, and presently laughed the +matter off, saying perhaps something would turn up. He wasn't going +to the Governor again if he could possibly help it.</p> + +<p>"That was the situation of affairs two days before the robbery was +discovered. But two days after he had let his stepmother see the ticket +for his watch and chain, Claude Charrington was in funds again. Mrs. +Charrington discovered it quite accidentally. Claude took out a +pocket-book at the breakfast table to look for a letter, and in taking +out an envelope he pulled out a packet of banknotes. He said, 'Oh, I've +had a stroke of luck,' but he coloured up and looked confused. That +evening Mrs. Charrington—who, by the bye, I should tell you was +in mourning for her brother, who had just died in India—went to her +jewel case, and to her horror discovered that a diamond and ruby +bracelet, a diamond and ruby pendant, and a diamond lizard had +disappeared. The cases were there, but empty.</p> + +<p>"Instantly the idea occurred to her that Claude, knowing she was in +mourning, and not likely to wear the jewels for some time, had abstracted +them and pawned them—perhaps intending to put them back again as +soon as he could get the money.</p> + +<p>"She was strengthened in her suspicion by his acquisition of banknotes +at a time when, according to his own account, he had pawned his watch +to tide over until his allowance became due; his confusion when she +noticed the banknotes; and finally by her suddenly remembering that two +evenings previously after she had dressed for dinner and was in the +drawing-room, she had gone upstairs again to fetch her keys, which she +remembered having left on the dressing-table. Outside her room she met +Claude with his dog, a fox-terrier, at his heels.</p> + +<p>"'I've been hunting all over the place for Jack, Mater,' he said, 'and +I heard him in your room. The little beggar was scratching away at the +wainscoting like mad. There must be rats there. I had to go in to get +him away—I was afraid he'd do some damage.'</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Charrington found her keys on the dressing-table, and thought +no more of Claude and his explanation until she missed the jewellery. +Then it occurred to her that Claude had been in her room and had had an +opportunity of using her keys, which not only opened the drawer in which +she kept her jewel case, but the case itself."</p> + +<p>Dorcas finished her story, and I sat for a moment gazing at the young +fellow, who seemed supremely happy. Could it be possible that if he were +guilty his crime could trouble him so little?</p> + +<p>"The circumstances are very suspicious," I said, presently, "but +don't you think Mrs. Charrington ought at once to have taxed her stepson, +and given him an opportunity of clearing himself?"</p> + +<p>"He would naturally have denied the charge under any circumstances. +But presuming him to be innocent, the bare idea that his stepmother +could have thought him guilty would have been most painful to him. That +is the sort of mistake one can never atone for. No, Mrs. Charrington did +the wisest thing she could have done. She decided, if possible, to be +sure of his guilt or innocence before letting anyone—even her +husband—know of her loss."</p> + +<p>"And how far do your investigations go in other directions?"</p> + +<p>"So far, I am still in the dark. I have had every opportunity of +mixing with the servants and studying them, and I don't believe for a +moment that they are concerned in the matter. The footman bets, but is +worried because he has not paid back a sovereign he borrowed last week +to put on a 'dead cert.,' which didn't come off. The lady's maid is an +honourable, high-minded girl, engaged to be married to a most respectable +man who has been in a position of trust for some years. I cannot find +the slightest suspicious circumstances connected with any of the +other servants."</p> + +<p>"Then you are inclined to take Mrs. Charrington's view?"</p> + +<p>"No, I am not. And yet—— Well, I shall be able to answer +more definitely when I have found out a little more about that young +lady with the red tie. I have had no opportunity of making inquiries +about her. I found out that Claude Charrington was coming to the 'Star +and Garter' this morning when Johnson came downstairs with a telegram to +the manager, 'Reserve window table for two o'clock'; and when I got here +the little party were already at luncheon."</p> + +<p>"But the young lady may have nothing to do with the matter. When a +young man pawns someone else's jewellery to provide himself with ready +money, surely the last person he would tell would be the young lady he +is entertaining at the 'Star and Garter.'"</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said Dorcas, "but I have seen the young lady rather more +closely than you have. I sat at the next table to them in the +restaurant. Let us take a little stroll and pass them now."</p> + +<p>Dorcas rose, and with her parasol shading her face strolled down on +the terrace, and I walked by her side.</p> + +<p>As we passed quite close to Claude Charrington and his friends I +looked at the young lady. The end of her red necktie was fastened to the +shirt <em>with a diamond lizard.</em></p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" I said to Dorcas when we were out of hearing, "is +that part of the missing jewellery?"</p> + +<p>"If it is not, it is at least a curious coincidence. Claude +Charrington has access to his stepmother's room and the keys of her +jewel case. Jewellery is missing. One of the articles is a diamond +lizard. He is here to-day with a young lady, and that young lady has on +jewellery which exactly answers the description of one of the missing +articles. Now you know why I am going to find out a little more +concerning that young lady and her female companion."</p> + +<p>"Do you want an 'assistant'?" I said eagerly.</p> + +<p>Dorcas smiled. "Not this time, thank you," she said; "but if I do +later I will send you a wire. Now I think I must say good-day, for my +'people' look like making a move, and I mustn't lose them."</p> + +<p>"Can't I see you this evening?"</p> + +<p>"No, this evening I expect I shall be back at Mrs. +Charrington's—you forget I am only a parlour-maid with +a day out."</p> + +<p>Dorcas nodded pleasantly, and I took the hint and left her.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later I saw the Charrington party going back into the +hotel, and Dorcas Dene following them at a respectful distance.</p> + +<p>I sat down once again on my old seat and fell into a reverie, which +was interrupted by Karl the waiter, who came ostensibly to know if there +was anything he could get me, but really to have a few minutes' chat on +his favourite subject—the Turf. Did I know anything good for +to-morrow at Sandown?</p> + +<p>I told Karl that I did not, and then he told me that he had had a +good tip himself—I ought to get on at once. I shifted the +conversation from the Turf to general gossip, and then quite innocently +I asked him if he knew who the people were who had lunched at the +window table and had just left the terrace.</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, he knew the young gentleman. That was Mr. Claude Charrington. +He was a frequent customer and had often given Karl a good tip. Only a +few days ago he had given him a horse at long odds and it had come off.</p> + +<p>"And the young lady with the red tie?"</p> + +<p>Karl wasn't quite sure—he had seen her only once or twice +before. He thought the young lady was an actress at one of the Comic +Opera theatres. The elder lady used to be often there years ago, but she +hadn't been for some time until to-day. He remembered her when she was +one of the handsomest women of the day.</p> + +<p>I lit a cigarette and said carelessly that I supposed they came with +Mr. Charrington.</p> + +<p>"No," said Karl; "they were here when he came, and he seemed rather +surprised to see the elder lady. I suppose," said Karl, with a grin, +"the young gentleman had only invited the younger lady to lunch, and he +thought that two was company and three was none, as your English +proverb says."</p> + +<p>A white napkin waved from the balcony of the restaurant summoned Karl +back to his duties, and looking at my watch I found that it was four +o'clock, and time for me to make a start for town, where I had an +appointment at six.</p> + +<p>I thought of nothing but the mystery of the Charrington jewellery in +the train, but when I got out at Waterloo I was still unable to find +any theory which would satisfactorily reconcile the two opposing +difficulties. If Claude Charrington had stolen his stepmother's +jewellery to raise money on it he wouldn't have given it away; and if +he had given it away it could have nothing to do with his sudden +possession of a bundle of banknotes, which his stepmother considered one +of the principal proofs of his guilt.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Two days later I received a telegram just before noon:</p> + +<p>"Marble Arch, four o'clock.—DORCAS."</p> + +<p>I was there punctually to the time, and a few minutes later +Dorcas joined me, and we turned into the park.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "you've found out who the young lady is. You've +traced the jewellery—and I suppose there can be no doubt that +Claude Charrington is the culprit?"</p> + +<p>"I've found out that the young lady is a Miss Dolamore. She is a +thoroughly good girl. Her mother, the widow of a naval officer, is in +poor circumstances and lives in the country. Miss Dolamore, having a +good voice, has gone on the stage. She is in lodgings in Fitzroy Street, +Fitzroy Square. The house is kept and let out in apartments by an +Italian, one Carlo Rinaldi, married to an English woman—the +English woman is the woman who was with Miss Dolamore at the 'Star and +Garter' that day."</p> + +<p>"Then the elder woman was her landlady?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And Claude Charrington is in love with Miss Dolamore!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. They have been about together a great deal. He calls +frequently to see her and take her out. It is understood in the house +that they are engaged."</p> + +<p>"How have you ascertained all this?"</p> + +<p>"I visit the house. The second <!-- This originally reads first +floor, changed for continuity with following lines -->floor was to let +and I took it yesterday morning for a friend of mine and paid the rent +in advance. I am getting little odds and ends and taking them there for +her. There is a delightfully communicative Irish housemaid at +the Rinaldi's."</p> + +<p>"Then of course it's quite clear that Claude Charrington gave +Miss Dolamore that diamond lizard. Have you found out if she has the +bracelet and the pendant too? If she hasn't, the lizard may be merely a +coincidence. There are plenty of diamond lizards about."</p> + +<p>"The bracelet and the pendant are at Attenborough's. They were pawned +some days ago by a person giving the name of Claude Charrington and +the Charringtons' correct address."</p> + +<p>"By Claude Charrington, of course?"</p> + +<p>"No; whoever the guilty party is it is not Claude Charrington."</p> + +<p>"<em>Not Claude Charrington!</em>" I exclaimed, my brain beginning +to whirl. "What do you mean? The jewels were in Mrs. Charrington's +case—she misses them—one article is in the possession of +Claude's sweetheart, a young lady who is on the stage, and the others +are pawned in the name of Claude Charrington, and yet you say Claude +Charrington had nothing to do with it. Whatever makes you come to such +a strange conclusion as that?"</p> + +<p>"One fact—and one fact alone. On the very day that we were at +Richmond Mr. Charrington, the barrister, returned to town. He arrived in +the afternoon, and seemed worried and out of sorts. His wife had made up +her mind to tell him everything, but he was so irritable that +she hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday she had an extraordinary story to tell me. When her +husband had gone to his chambers in the morning she began to worry about +not having told him. She felt that she really ought to do so now he had +come back. She went to her jewel case to go over everything once more in +order to be quite sure nothing else was missing before she told him her +trouble, and there, to her utter amazement, was all the missing +property, the bracelet, the pendant, and the diamond lizard."</p> + +<p>"Then," I said with a gasp, "Claude Charrington must have redeemed +them and put them back!"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. The diamond lizard is <em>still</em> in Miss Dolamore's +possession, and the diamond bracelet and pendant are <em>still at +Attenborough's</em>."</p> + +<p>I stared at Dorcas Dene for a moment in dumb amazement. When at last +I could find words to speak my thoughts I exclaimed: "What does this +mean? What can it mean? We shall never know now because Mrs. Charrington +has her jewels again and your task is ended."</p> + +<p>"No—my task is a double one now. Mrs. Charrington engaged me +to find out who stole her jewels. When I can tell her that I shall be +able to tell her also who endeavoured to conceal the robbery by putting +a similar set back in their place. This is no common case of jewel +stealing. There is a mystery and a romance behind it—a tangled +skein which a Lecoq or a Sherlock Holmes would have been proud to +unravel—<em>and I think I have a clue</em>."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C6">VI. THE PRICK OF A PIN</h3> + +<p>When Dorcas told me that she had a clue to the mystery of the +Charrington jewels, I pressed her to tell me what it was.</p> + +<p>"All in good time," she said; "meanwhile you can help me if you will. +There is a club in —— Street, Soho, of which most of the +members are foreigners. It is called 'The Camorra.' Carlo Rinaldi, the +landlord of the house in which Miss Dolamore is staying, spends his +evenings there. It is a gambling club. Visitors are admitted, and the +members are by no means averse to female society. I want you to take me +there to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Dorcas—I—I'm not a member."</p> + +<p>"No, but you can be a visitor."</p> + +<p>"But I don't <em>know</em> a member."</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense," said Dorcas, "you know a dozen. Ask your favourite +waiter at any foreign restaurant, and he will be pretty sure to be +able to tell you of one of his fellow-employés who can take you."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, after I had thought for a moment. "If that is so, I +think I can arrange it."</p> + +<p>"That's a bargain, then," she said. "I will meet you and your friend +the member outside Ketner's, in Church Street, to-morrow night at ten +o'clock. Till then, good-bye."</p> + +<p>"One question more," I said, retaining the hand that was placed in +mine. "I assume that your object in going to this club is to watch +Miss Dolamore's landlord; but if you have taken his second floor, won't +he recognise you and be suspicious?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas Dene smiled. "I'll take care there is no danger of his +recognising the lady of the second floor at the Camorra to-morrow night. +And now, good afternoon. The Charringtons dine at eight, and I have to +wait at table to-night."</p> + +<p>Then, with a little nod of adieu, she walked quickly away and left +me to think out my plans for capturing a member of the Camorra.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>I had very little difficulty in finding a waiter who was a member. +He turned up in a very old acquaintance, Guiseppe, of a well-known Strand +café and restaurant. Guiseppe easily obtained an evening off, but +he demurred when I told him that I wanted him to introduce a lady friend +of mine as well as myself to the club. He was nervous. Was she a lady +journalist? I pacified Guiseppe, and the preliminaries were +satisfactorily arranged, and at ten o'clock, leaving Guiseppe round the +corner, I strolled on to Ketner's, and looked for Dorcas Dene.</p> + +<p>There was no trace of her, and I was beginning to think she had been +detained, when a stout, rather elderly-looking woman came towards me. She +was dressed in a black silk dress, the worse for wear, a shabby black +velvet mantle, and a black bonnet, plentifully bedecked with short black +ostrich plumes, upon which wind and weather had told their tale. At her +throat was a huge cameo brooch. As she came into the light she looked +like one of the German landladies of the shilling table d'hôte +establishments in the neighbourhood. The woman looked at me searchingly, +and then asked me in guttural broken English if I was the gentleman who +had an appointment there with a lady.</p> + +<p>For a moment I hesitated. It might be a trap.</p> + +<p>"Who told you to ask me?"</p> + +<p>"Dorcas Dene."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," I said, still suspicious, "and who is Dorcas Dene?"</p> + +<p>"<em>I am</em>," replied the German frau. "Come, do you think Rinaldi +will recognise his second floor?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Dorcas," I gasped, as soon as I had recovered from my +astonishment, "why <em>did</em> you leave the stage?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind about the stage," said Dorcas. "Where's the member of +the Camorra?"</p> + +<p>"He's waiting at the corner."</p> + +<p>I had all my work to keep from bursting into a roar of laughter at +Guiseppe's face when I introduced him to my lady friend, +"Mrs. Goldschmidt." He evidently didn't think much of my choice of a +female companion, but he bowed and smiled at the stout, old-fashioned +German frau, and led the way to the club. After a few rough-and-ready +formalities at the door, Guiseppe signed for two guests in a book which +lay on the hall table, and we passed into a large room at the back of +the premises, in which were a number of chairs and small tables, a raised +platform with a piano, and a bar. A few men and women, mostly foreigners, +were sitting about talking or reading the papers, and a sleepy-looking +waiter was taking orders and serving drinks.</p> + +<p>"Where do they play cards?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Upstairs."</p> + +<p>"Can I play?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, if I introduce you as my friend."</p> + +<p>"May ladies play?"</p> + +<p>Guiseppe shrugged his shoulders. "If they have money to lose—why not?"</p> + +<p>I went to Dorcas. "Is he here?" I whispered.</p> + +<p>"No; he's where the playing is, I expect."</p> + +<p>"That's where we are going," I said.</p> + +<p>Dorcas rose, and she and I and Guiseppe made our way to the upstairs +room together.</p> + +<p>On the landing we were challenged by a big square-shouldered Italian. +"Only members pass here," he said, gruffly.</p> + +<p>Guiseppe answered in Italian, and the man growled out, "All right," +and we entered a room which was as crowded as the other was empty.</p> + +<p>One glance at the table was sufficient to show me that the game was +an illegal one.</p> + +<p>Dorcas stood by me among a little knot of onlookers. Presently she +nudged my elbow, and I followed her glance. A tall, swarthy Italian, the +wreck of what must once have been a remarkably handsome man, sat +scowling fiercely as he lost stake after stake. I asked her with my +eyebrows if she meant this was Rinaldi, and she nodded her head +in assent.</p> + +<p>A waiter was in the room taking orders, and bringing the drinks up +from the bar below.</p> + +<p>"Order two brandies and sodas," whispered Dorcas.</p> + +<p>Then Dorcas sat down at the end of the room away from the crowd, +and I joined her. The waiter brought the brandies and sodas and put +them down. I paid unchallenged.</p> + +<p>A dispute had arisen over at the big table, and the players were +shouting one against the other. Dorcas took advantage of the din, and +said, close to my ear, "Now you must do as I tell you—I'm going +back to the table. Presently Rinaldi will leap up; when he does, seize +him by the arms, and hold him—a few seconds will do."</p> + +<p>"But——"</p> + +<p>"It's all right. Do as I tell you."</p> + +<p>She rose, taking her glass, still full of brandy and soda, with her. +I wondered how on earth she could tell Rinaldi was going to jump up.</p> + +<p>The stout old German frau pushed in among the crowd till she was +almost leaning over Rinaldi's shoulder. Suddenly she lurched and tilted +the entire contents of her glass into the breast pocket of his coat. He +sprang up with a fierce oath, the rest of the company yelling with +laughter. Instantly I seized him by the arms, as though to prevent him +in his rage striking Dorcas. The German woman had her handkerchief out. +She begged a thousand pardons, and began to mop up the liquid which was +dripping down her victim. Then she thrust her hand into his +inner pocket.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the pocket-book! Ah, it must be dried!"</p> + +<p>Quick as lightning she opened the book, and began to pull out the +contents and wipe them with her handkerchief.</p> + +<p>Carlo Rinaldi, who had been bellowing like a bull, struggled from me +with an effort, and made a grab at the book. Dorcas, pretending to fear +he was going to strike her, flung the book to him, and, giving me a quick +glance, ran out of the room and down the stairs, and I followed, the +fierce oaths of Rinaldi and the laughter of the members of the Camorra +still ringing in my ears.</p> + +<p>I hailed a cab and dragged Dorcas into it.</p> + +<p>"Phew!" I said, "that was a desperate game to play, Dorcas. What did +you want to see in his pocket-book?"</p> + +<p>"What I found," said Dorcas quietly. "A pawnticket for a diamond and +ruby bracelet and a diamond and ruby pendant, pawned in the name of +Claude Charrington. I imagined from the description given me at the +pawnbroker's that the man was Rinaldi. Now I know that he pawned them on +his own account, because he still has the ticket."</p> + +<p>"How did he get them? Did Claude Charrington give them to him or sell +them to him, or——"</p> + +<p>"No. The person who gave them to Rinaldi is the person who put the +new set back in their place."</p> + +<p>"Do you know who that is?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, now. The fact of Rinaldi having the ticket in his possession +supplied the missing link. You remember my telling you how Mrs. +Charrington discovered just as she was going to tell her husband of her +loss that the jewels were no longer missing."</p> + +<p>"Yes; she found them the day after her husband's return."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Directly she told me I asked her to let me examine the +drawer in which the jewel-case was kept. It lay at the bottom of the +left-hand top drawer of a chest of drawers near the bed. It was locked, +and the keys were carried about by Mrs. Charrington and put on the +dressing-table at night after the bedroom door had been bolted.</p> + +<p>"As soon as possible I went with Mrs. Charrington to the bedroom. +Then I took the keys and opened the drawer. The box she told me was +where it was always kept, at the bottom of the drawer underneath +layers of pocket-handkerchiefs and several cardboard boxes of odds and +ends which she kept in the drawer.</p> + +<p>"I turned the things over carefully one by one, and on a +handkerchief which lay immediately on the top of the jewel-case I saw +something which instantly attracted my attention. It was a tiny red spot, +which looked like blood. Opening the jewel-case, I carefully examined the +jewellery inside, and I found that the pin of the diamond lizard extended +slightly beyond the brooch and was very sharp at the point.</p> + +<p>"I then examined the keys, and upon the handle of the key of the +jewel-box I found a tiny red smear. What had happened was as clear as +noonday. Whoever had put the jewels back had pricked his or her finger +with the pin of the lizard. The pricked finger had touched the +handkerchief and left the little blood-mark. Still bleeding slightly, +the finger had touched the key in turning it in the lock of +the jewel-case.</p> + +<p>"Saying nothing to Mrs. Charrington, who was in the room with me, +I cast my eyes searchingly in every direction. Suddenly I caught sight +of a tiny mark on the sheet which was turned over outside the +counterpane. It was a very minute little speck, and I knew it to be +a blood-stain.</p> + +<p>"'Who sleeps on this side near the chest of drawers?' I asked +Mrs. Charrington, and she replied that her husband did.</p> + +<p>"'Did he hear no noise in the night?'</p> + +<p>"'In the night!' she exclaimed with evident astonishment. 'Good +gracious! no one could have come into the room last night without our +hearing them. Whoever put my jewels back did it in the daytime.'</p> + +<p>"I didn't attempt to undeceive her, but I was certain that Mr. +Charrington himself had replaced the jewels. He had probably done it in +the night when his wife was fast asleep. A night-light burnt all +night—she was a heavy sleeper—he had risen +cautiously—the matter was a simple one. Only he had pricked his +finger with the brooch-pin."</p> + +<p>"But what was his motive?" I cried.</p> + +<p>"His motive! That was what I wanted to make sure to-night, and I did +so when I found the pawnticket in the name of Claude Charrington in the +pocket-book of Carlo Rinaldi—Claude Charrington is the father's +name as well as the sons."</p> + +<p>"Then you think Rinaldi pawned the original jewels for Mr. +Charrington? Absurd!"</p> + +<p>"It <em>would</em> be absurd to think that," said Dorcas, "but my +theory is not an absurd one. I have ascertained the history of Carlo +Rinaldi from sources at my command. Rinaldi was a valet at the West End. +He married a rich man's cast-off mistress. The rich man gave his mistress +a sum of money as a marriage portion. He gave her up not only because he +had ceased to care for her, but because he had fallen in love and was +about to marry again. He was a widower. He lost his first wife when +their only child, a son, was a few months old, and he was himself quite +a young man. The mistress was Madame Rinaldi, the rich man was Mr. +Claude Charrington."</p> + +<p>"Well, where does that lead you?"</p> + +<p>"To this. During the time that Mrs. Charrington is sure that the +jewels were not in her case I trace them. I find the diamond lizard in +the possession of a young lady who lodges in the house of Madame Rinaldi. +I find the pendant and bracelet at Attenborough's, and to-night I have +seen the pawnticket for them in the possession of Madame Rinaldi's +husband. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind that whoever took the +jewels out of Mrs. Charrington's case gave them to the Rinaldis. I have +proved by the prick of the finger and the blood-stain that Mr. +Charrington put a similar set of jewels to those abstracted back into +the empty cases in his wife's jewel-box, therefore he must have been +aware that they were missing. Mrs. Charrington has not breathed a word +of her loss to anyone but myself, therefore he must have been privy to +their abstraction, and it is only reasonable to conclude that he +abstracted them himself."</p> + +<p>"But the lizard in Miss Dolamore's possession must have been given +her by Claude, her sweetheart, and he was suddenly flush of money just +after the theft—remember that!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I have ascertained how he got that money. Johnson, the footman, +told me that the young fellow had given him a tip for the Leger. 'And he +gets good information sometimes from a friend of his,' said Johnson. +'Why, only last week he backed a thirty-three to one chance, and won a +couple of hundred. But don't say anything to the missis,' said Johnson. +'She might tell the governor, and Mr. Claude isn't in his good books +just at present.'"</p> + +<p>I agreed with Dorcas that that would account for the young fellow's +confusion when his step-mother saw the notes, but I urged there was +still the lizard to get over.</p> + +<p>"I think that is pretty clear. The Irish housemaid tells me that +Madame is very friendly with Miss Dolamore. I shouldn't be surprised if +she went down to Richmond with her that day to show Claude the lizard +and get him to buy it for more than it was worth. I know the Rinaldis +were pressed at the time for ready money."</p> + +<p>I confessed to Dorcas that her theory cleared Claude Charrington of +suspicion, but it in no way explained why Mr. Charrington, senior, +should send his former mistress his present wife's jewels.</p> + +<p>At that moment the cab stopped. We were at Oak Tree Road. Dorcas got +out and put out her hand. "I can't tell you why Mr. Charrington stole +his wife's jewellery," she said, "because he hasn't told me."</p> + +<p>"And isn't likely to," I replied with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"You are mistaken," said Dorcas. "I am going to his chambers +to-morrow to ask him, and then my task will be done. If you want to know +how it ends, come to Eastbourne on Sunday. I am going to spend the day +there with Paul."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>The sunshine was streaming into the pretty seaside apartments +occupied by the Denes, the midday Sunday meal was over, and Paul and +Dorcas were sitting by the open window.</p> + +<p>I had only arrived at one o'clock, and Dorcas had postponed her story +until dinner was over.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Dorcas, as she filled Paul's pipe and lighted it for him, +"if you want to know the finish of the 'Romance of the Charrington +Jewels,' smoke and listen."</p> + +<p>"Did you go to Mr. Charrington as you said you would?" I asked as I +lit my cigar.</p> + +<p>"<em>Smoke and listen!</em>" said Dorcas with mock severity in her +tone of command. "Of course I went. I sent up my card to +Mr. Charrington.</p> + +<p>"Ushered into his room he gave me a searching glance and his face changed.</p> + +<p>"'This card says 'Dorcas Dene, Detective'?' he exclaimed. 'But +surely—you—you are very like someone I have seen lately!'</p> + +<p>"'I had the pleasure of being your wife's parlour-maid, Mr. +Charrington,' I replied quietly.</p> + +<p>"'You have dared to come spying in my house!' exclaimed the barrister angrily.</p> + +<p>"'I came to your house, Mr. Charrington, at your wife's request. She +had missed some jewellery which you presented to her a day or two +before you went into the country. Circumstances pointed to your son Claude +as the thief, and your wife, anxious to avoid a scandal, called me in +instead of the police.'</p> + +<p>"The barrister dropped into his chair and rubbed his hands together nervously.</p> + +<p>"'Indeed—and she said nothing to me. You are probably aware +that you have been investigating a mare's nest—my wife's +jewellery is not missing.'</p> + +<p>"'No, it is not missing now, because when you returned from the +country you put a similar set in its place.'</p> + +<p>"'Good heavens, madame!' exclaimed Mr. Charrington, leaping to +his feet, 'what do you mean?'</p> + +<p>"'Pray be calm, sir. I assure you that I have come here not to make +a scandal but to avoid one. After you gave your wife the jewellery, you +for some reason secretly abstracted it. The jewellery you abstracted +passed into the possession of Mrs. Rinaldi, whose husband pawned two of +the articles at Attenborough's. As your wife is quite aware that for +many days her jewellery was missing, I am bound to make an explanation +of some kind to her. I have come to you to know what I shall say. You +cannot wish her to believe that your son took the jewellery?'</p> + +<p>"'Of course Claude must be cleared—but what makes you believe +that I put the jewellery back?'</p> + +<p>"'On the night you did it you pricked your finger with the pin of the +lizard. You left a small bloodstain on the linen that was in the drawer, +and when you turned down the sheet to get back into bed again your +finger was still bleeding, and left its mark as evidence against you. +Come Mr. Charrington, explain the circumstances under which you +committed this rob— well, let us say, made this exchange, and I +will do my best to find a means of explaining matters to your wife.'</p> + +<p>"Mr. Charrington hesitated a moment, and then, having probably made +up his mind that it was better to have me on his side than against him, +told me his story.</p> + +<p>"At the time that he kept up an irregular establishment he made the +lady who is now Mrs. Rinaldi many valuable presents of jewellery. Among +them were the articles which had resulted in my becoming temporarily a +parlour-maid under his roof. When the lady married Rinaldi, he provided +for her. But the man turned out a rascal, squandered and gambled away +his wife's money, and forced her to pawn her jewellery for him. He then +by threats compelled her to forward the tickets to her former protector, +and implore him to redeem them for her as she was without ready money +to do so herself. The dodge succeeded two or three times, but +Mr. Charrington grew tired, and on the last occasion redeemed the +jewellery and put it in a drawer in his desk, and replied that he could +not return it, as it would only be pawned again. He would keep it until +the Rinaldis sent the money to redeem it, and then they could have it.</p> + +<p>"Then came his wife's birthday, and he wished to make her a present +of some jewellery. He selected a bracelet and a pendant in diamonds and +sapphires and a true-lovers'-knot brooch in diamonds, and ordered them +to be sent to his chambers.</p> + +<p>"He was busy when they came, and put them away for safety in a drawer +immediately below the one in which he had some weeks previously placed +the jewellery belonging to Mrs. Rinaldi. Mrs. Rinaldi's jewellery, each +article in its case, he had wrapped up in brown paper and marked outside +'jewellery,' to distinguish it from other packets which he kept there, +and which contained various articles belonging to his late wife.</p> + +<p>"On the eve of his wife's birthday he found he would have to leave +town for the day without going to his office. He had to appear in a case +at Kingston-on-Thames, which had come on much sooner than he had expected. +Knowing he would not be back till late at night, he sent a note and his +keys to his clerk, telling him to open his desk, take out the jewellery +which had recently been forwarded from Streeter's, and send it up to him +at his house. He wished his wife many happy returns of the day, +apologised for not having his present ready, but said it would be sent +up, and she should have it that evening.</p> + +<p>"The clerk went to the desk and opened the wrong drawer first. Seeing +a neatly tied-up parcel labelled 'jewellery,' he jumped to the +conclusion that it was the jewellery wanted. Not caring to trust it to a +messenger, he went straight up to the house with it, and handed it to +Mrs. Charrington herself, who concluded it was her husband's present. +When she opened the parcel she noticed that the cases were not new, and +supposed that her husband had bought the things privately. She was +delighted with the jewellery—a bracelet and pendant in diamonds +and rubies and a diamond lizard.</p> + +<p>"When her husband returned to dinner he was horrified to find his +wife wearing his former mistress's jewellery. But before he could say a +word she kissed him and told him that these things were just what +she wanted.</p> + +<p>"He hesitated after that to say a mistake had been made, and thought +that silence was best. The next day Mrs. Charrington received news of +her brother's death, and had to go into deep mourning. The new jewellery +was put away, as she would not be able to wear it for many months.</p> + +<p>"That afternoon at Mr. Charrington's chambers Rinaldi called upon him. +Desperately hard up, he had determined to try and bully Mr. Charrington +out of the jewellery. He shouted and swore, and talked of an action at +law and exposure, and was delighted to find that his victim was nervous. +Mr. Charrington declared that he could not give him the jewellery back. +Whereupon Mr. Rinaldi informed him that if by twelve o'clock the next day +it was not in his possession he should summon him for detaining it.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Charrington rushed off to his jewellers. How long would it take +them to find the exact counterpart of certain jewellery if he brought +them the things they had to match? And how long would they want the +originals? The jewellers said if they had them for an hour and made a +coloured drawing of them they could make up or find a set within +ten days.</p> + +<p>"That night Charrington abstracted the birthday present he had given +his wife from her jewel-box. The next morning at ten o'clock it was in +the hands of the jewellers, and at mid-day when Rinaldi called to make +his final demand the jewellery was handed over to him.</p> + +<p>"Then Mr. Charrington went out of town. On his return the new +jewellery was ready and was delivered to him. In the dead of the night +while his wife was asleep he put it back in the empty cases. And that," +said Dorcas, "is—as Dr. Lynn, at the Egyptian Hall, used to +say—'how it was done.'"</p> + +<p>"And the wife?" asked Paul, turning his blind eyes towards Dorcas; +"you did not make her unhappy by telling her the truth?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear," said Dorcas. "I arranged the story with Mr. Charrington. +He went home and asked his wife for her birthday present. She brought +the jewels out nervously, wondering if he had heard or suspected +anything. He took the bracelet and the pendant from the cases.</p> + +<p>"'Very pretty, indeed, my dear,' he said. 'And so you've never +noticed the difference?'</p> + +<p>"'Difference?' she exclaimed. 'Why—why—what do you mean?'</p> + +<p>"'Why, that I made a dreadful mistake when I bought them and only +found it out afterwards. The first that I gave you, my dear, were +imitation. I wouldn't confess to you that I had been done, so I took them +without your knowing and had real ones made. The real ones I put back +the other night while you were fast asleep.'</p> + +<p>"Oh, Claude, Claude,' she cried, 'I am so glad. I did miss them, +dear, and I was afraid there was a thief in the house, and I dared not +tell you I'd lost them. And now—oh, how happy you've made me!'"</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Two months later Dorcas told me that young Claude Charrington was +engaged to Miss Dolamore with his father's consent, but he had insisted +that she should leave Fitzroy Street at once, and acting on private +information which Dorcas had given him, he assured Claude that diamond +lizards were unlucky, and as he had seen Miss Dolamore with one on he +begged to offer her as his first present to his son's intended a very +beautiful diamond true-lovers'-knot in its place. At the same time he +induced his wife to let him have her diamond lizard for a much more +valuable diamond poodle with ruby eyes.</p> + +<p>So those two lizards never met under Mrs. Charrington's roof, and +perhaps, all things considered, it was just as well.</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C7">VII. THE MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE</h3> + +<p>I had received an invitation to spend the evening at Oak Tree Road, +but I had been detained by business, and it was past nine o'clock when +my cabman, making a mistake in the number, pulled up at a house short +of the Denes'. While I was feeling in all my pockets for the odd +sixpence to make up the cabman's fare—as usual with the fraternity +he had no change—the door opened, and an elegantly-dressed lady +came hurriedly out.</p> + +<p>She started back nervously as she saw me, and I at once jumped to +the conclusion that it was a lady who was paying her first visit to a +private detective, and was fearful that someone might see her and +recognise her.</p> + +<p>She seemed to hesitate for a moment, till she saw me hand the fare +to the cabman, then she hailed him and got in, lifted the trap door, +and said, "Drive to St. John's Wood Chapel."</p> + +<p>"She'll tell him where to drive her when she gets to the chapel," I +said to myself, as I stood and watched the cab out of sight.</p> + +<p>The lady, in her agitation, had forgotten to pull the door to, so I +entered without ringing, walked up the little garden path, and found +Dorcas waiting for me in the hall with the house door wide open.</p> + +<p>"You've been having a good look at my lady visitor, Mr. Saxon," she +said with a smile. "Well, she will probably think you are +another client."</p> + +<p>"And pray how do you know that I have been having 'a good look,' +as you call it, at your visitor?" I said laughingly.</p> + +<p>"I heard your cab drive up just as I was letting her out; she left +the door ajar, and you would have come in at once if you had not been +otherwise engaged. You didn't even come in, you know, when the cab +drove away, so I conclude that you looked after it for some time, +probably making a mental note of the number."</p> + +<p>"You have guessed exactly what passed in my mind. I saw you had an +aristocratic visitor, and a nervous one, and I wondered if there was +anything for me to do this time."</p> + +<p>"I don't know yet," said Dorcas, "but come into the drawing-room. +Mother is spending the evening with some friends of hers, and Paul has +been alone for nearly an hour. My new client's first visit has been +rather a long one."</p> + +<p>Dorcas led the way to the drawing-room, where Paul was sitting on +the sofa with Toddlekins, the bulldog, stretched out across his knees.</p> + +<p>Paul put the dog gently down, and rising as I entered, held out his +hand. "We expected you two hours ago," he said, "but better late than +not at all. I thought Dorcas's visitor was going to stay for hours, +and that you weren't coming, and that I should really begin to recognise +the value of Mrs. Lester as a conversationalist in my +solitary condition."</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully sorry, dear," said Dorcas, taking her husband's arm, +and drawing him gently down on the sofa beside her, "but it's always +the way. Directly I've made up my mind to have a quiet evening with you, +somebody is sure to call."</p> + +<p>"Is it a case?" asked Paul.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'm afraid it will be rather a difficult one; but it won't +take me away from home altogether, thank goodness. At least, I hope not. +But I'll tell you all about it, and see what you think. I haven't made +up my mind yet how to start on my task."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it isn't a pressing case, then?" I said. "I was hoping that I'd +arrived just in the nick of time for an 'engagement.'"</p> + +<p>"It isn't particularly pressing <em>now</em>," replied Dorcas, +looking at the clock on the mantelpiece, "but it will be at midnight, +for at that hour I have to be under a lamp-post in Berkeley Square."</p> + +<p>"Under a lamp-post in Berkeley Square at midnight! Then I'm sure Paul +will agree with me that it <em>is</em> a case for my assistance. I'm to +be under that lamp-post with Dorcas, am I not, Paul?"</p> + +<p>Paul smiled. "That's for Dorcas to say, old fellow. She knows her +business better than we do. But we'll leave the lamp-post for further +consideration. Let us have the case, Dorcas."</p> + +<p>"It is simple so far," said the famous lady detective, "but none the +less mysterious for that. The lady who has just left me is the wife of +Mr. Judkins Barraclough."</p> + +<p>"What—the mysterious millionaire, who three years ago fell +apparently from the clouds and descended on London in a shower of +gold?—the Crœsus who seems to have discovered the royal road +to the perpetual paragraph?"</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"Then the lady I met at the gate was Lady Anna Barraclough. He married +her about a year ago. She was a young widow. Her first husband ran +through all his money on the turf and left her very badly off when +he died at the age of seven-and-twenty of—let me see, what did +they call it?—typhoid, I think."</p> + +<p>"Quite right," said Dorcas, "your account agrees with the short +sketch of her career Lady Anna Barraclough has already given me."</p> + +<p>"What could she have married a man like Judkins Barraclough +for?—his money, I suppose. He must be five-and-forty, and he has +all the worst qualities of the ostentatious parvenu. Is it about him +that she has come to you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor girl—for she is only five-and-twenty now—she +made me feel quite sorry for her when she told me her story. She has had +a terrible experience of marriage. Her first husband she loved, and he +spent every shilling of her money as well as his own. When Mr. Judkins +Barraclough met her she was dependent on a married brother, the Earl of +Dashton, whose wife detested her. When the millionaire proposed to her, +the poor girl, worried and embittered by the constant humiliation of her +dependent position, accepted his offer in the recklessness of despair. +She didn't expect to be happy with a man whom she felt it was impossible +she could ever love, but at least she hoped for peace. And +now—guess why she has come to me to-night."</p> + +<p>"To get a divorce, I should think. It would be about the best thing +you <em>could</em> get for her, if all I hear of Mr. Judkins +Barraclough's manners and habits is correct. I suppose he married her +because he thought a wife who was a lady of title would be a good +advertisement for him. <em>Is</em> it to get a divorce she has +come to you?"</p> + +<p>"No, Lady Anna has a haunting suspicion that the man she married +is not her legal husband—that he had a wife living when he +married her."</p> + +<p>"Then if she thinks that why doesn't she go to the police?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas shook her head. "You forget the man is a millionaire living +in Berkeley Square—the police would hardly take up a charge +against him made by his wife merely because she <em>suspects</em>. 'If +I am really this man's wife,' said Lady Anna, 'I have no right to go +to the police, for he is my husband. I have come to you to find out +everything for me first. Oh, if you can only tell me that I am a free +woman, that I owe no further allegiance to this wretch whom I +despise—whom I loathe—you will have done me the greatest +service one woman can do for another!' Poor girl! It was a cry from the +heart. I felt sorry for her, and I promised that I would do anything I +could to ease her mind, or, at any rate, to put an end to the dreadful +state of suspicion and uncertainty in which she is at present living. +Oh!" said Dorcas, with a shudder, "how horrible it must be, to have to +go about before the world with a smiling face bearing the name of a man +you detest—to have to submit alike to the curses and the caresses +of a man whom in your heart you believe to be the husband of +another woman!"</p> + +<p>"And what is your idea?" I said, looking scrutinisingly at Dorcas's face.</p> + +<p>"To-night I shall start on my voyage of discovery. I shall see Mr. +Judkins Barraclough, the famous millionaire, and then I shall begin to +trace him back and back until I find out——"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Who he was before he arrived in London from South America and +set up as a millionaire."</p> + +<p>"But you say Lady Anna Barraclough suspects her husband of being a +bigamist—what has put such an unpleasant idea +into her head?"</p> + +<p>"Something that has occurred lately. Mr. Judkins Barraclough, who +has been coarse and cruel for some time past, has suddenly altered his +demeanour. He has lost all his old over-bearing brutality. He is nervous, +and has evidently something on his mind. One night her ladyship retired +late to her own apartment, which is separated from her husband's by his +dressing-room. At two in the morning she heard the front door close, +and a few minutes later she heard her husband enter the dressing-room. +It seemed to her that he must be in pain, for she distinctly heard him +every now and then utter a low groan.</p> + +<p>"She rose and went quietly into the dressing-room and found +Mr. Judkins Barraclough washing a wound in his right arm with Condy. +Lady Anna Barraclough saw at once that the wound looked like a +bite—the marks of teeth were distinctly visible.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Judkins Barraclough stammered out an explanation. A savage dog +had attacked him as he was coming through a back street on his way home. +He had raised his umbrella to beat it off, and it had flown at him and +fastened its teeth in his arm. Then, somewhat angrily, he told his wife +to go back to her own room; he was all right.</p> + +<p>"Instantly Lady Anna Barraclough's suspicions were aroused. If a dog +had bitten him her husband would have gone to a doctor's at once and had +the wound dressed. Why should he come home and attend to it himself? +There was only one solution—that the bite had been received under +circumstances which he would be unable to explain satisfactorily."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Paul, "it is a woman who bites as a rule, not a man."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Dorcas, "that was her ladyship's idea. Her husband had +been bitten by a woman, and a woman only bites when she is mad with rage +and her hands are being held.</p> + +<p>"Since that night Mr. Judkins Barraclough had been out nearly all day +and has not returned till late. But he has not ordered his carriage to +take or fetch him on one single occasion. These circumstances aroused her +ladyship's suspicions that something was wrong, and that there was trouble +in which a woman was concerned. Her husband had evidently quarrelled with +one who had attacked him.</p> + +<p>"The attack—and what else could the bitten arm +suggest?—would hardly be that of a mistress. A millionaire is not +so shabbily treated in his gallantries, because a millionaire of the +Judkins Barraclough type is only attractive on account of his wealth, and +to bite a millionaire's arm is not exactly the way to retain his good +graces. The man's altered demeanour, his evident fear of +<em>something</em>, the bitten arm, the long absences from home, and the +non-employment of the carriages and horses all point, in Lady Anna's +idea, to one thing—the power of some woman to interfere with him, +perhaps to ruin him. Supposing in the old days, before he became +wealthy, this man had a wife whom he had left in poverty, and she had +discovered him, a wealthy bigamist, that would account for everything. +But," said Dorcas, quietly, "supper's ready, and after supper I +must be off."</p> + +<p>Paul lifted his sightless eyes to his wife's face.</p> + +<p>"There's a little invitation I should like you to give our guest +to-night," he said, "I'm sure he'd like it, and I'm sure +he deserves it."</p> + +<p>"And what is that, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Dorcas Dene requests the pleasure of Mr. Saxon's company at +11.45 for midnight, underneath the lamp-post immediately opposite the +residence of Mr. Judkins Barraclough, in Berkeley Square."</p> + +<p>Dorcas laughed quite a ringing little laugh.</p> + +<p>"Of course, if <em>you</em> wish it, dear," she said.</p> + +<p>Then turning to me with a quick resumption of her former seriousness +of expression, she added:</p> + +<p>"Honestly I shall be glad of your company, From what her ladyship has +told me I don't think this South American millionaire is exactly the +sort of wild animal for a woman to hunt alone."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>It was half-past twelve when a hansom drove up to the door of +No. —, Berkeley Square, and a gentleman with a long, loose summer +overcoat got out and paid the cabman and ran up the steps.</p> + +<p>Dorcas had told me that Mr. Barraclough would probably arrive in a +cab, as for several nights recently he had not ordered the carriage to +meet him anywhere, so Lady Anna had informed her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Barraclough had let himself in with the latchkey before the +cabman had pocketed his fare and picked up his reins to drive away.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Dorcas, "we must find out where that man took +Mr. Barraclough up. It is somewhere he doesn't want known. That is the +reason he doesn't order his carriage to fetch him. It may be only a +street corner. But wherever it is, it is the first step backwards +towards the goal that lies far away in the past."</p> + +<p>"But we can't tell the cabman to take us to where he picked his +fare up, can we?" I said, hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Leave that to me," replied Dorcas. "You call the cabman."</p> + +<p>I obeyed, and the cabman turned his horse round and drew up to the +kerb. Dorcas got half way in and then got out again and +looked at the horse.</p> + +<p>"You've been driving too fast, cabman," she said; "why, your poor +horse is breathing quite hard."</p> + +<p>"Lor' bless you, ma'am!" said the cabman, "that's +nothing—that's his natural breathing! Why, he only come out of +the yard half an hour ago, and I've only had one fare."</p> + +<p>"One fare? It must have been a good journey by the look of the horse."</p> + +<p>Then turning to me, she said:</p> + +<p>"Don't let us take this cab—we'll get another—the horse +is done up."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed the cabman. "That's a good one. Why, +how far do you think the horse has come?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Dorcas, "perhaps from Hampstead or Brixton."</p> + +<p>"Hampstead or Brixton!" exclaimed the driver, wrathfully. "This here +horse came out of the yard in St. Pancras just afore twelve o'clock, and +a gent hailed me as was coming out of a house in Burton Crescent, and +I drove him here, and that's all the work my horse has done to-night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," said Dorcas. Then turning to me, she said:</p> + +<p>"Give the man a shilling and let him go. I'm not going to ride +behind that horse."</p> + +<p>The man took the shilling and drove off, muttering to himself, +and Dorcas and I strolled a little way along.</p> + +<p>"He came out of a house in Burton Crescent," she muttered; +"that's something."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you ask him which house?"</p> + +<p>"Too risky. The man might think something was up and find +Barraclough to-morrow and tell him, in hope of a reward. But I took +the man's number in case I want him later."</p> + +<p>"Very well. What are you going to do now?" I asked. "Are you going home?"</p> + +<p>"No—let us go to Burton Crescent."</p> + +<p>"What on earth's the good of that? You can't find out the house +Mr. Barraclough came out of to-night. There's not the +slightest clue."</p> + +<p>"There may be. Did you notice that when he put his umbrella up to +stop the cabman he held it in his left hand?"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"When he got out he shifted his umbrella to his right hand, and +felt with his left hand in his left pocket for the silver. Mr. Judkins +Barraclough is still feeling the effects of that bitten right arm."</p> + +<p>"Possibly—probably. But how on earth can his being temporarily +left-handed guide us to the particular house he came out of in +Burton Crescent?"</p> + +<p>"I don't say it will—but it may. Let us go."</p> + +<p>We took a cab, and got out at the end of Burton Crescent. We walked +entirely round it, Dorcas Dene going up the steps of each house in turn, +and examining them carefully.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she uttered a little cry of delight.</p> + +<p>"This is the house," she exclaimed. "Look!"</p> + +<p>She pointed to three or four rose leaves lying on the steps of No. —.</p> + +<p>I looked at them bewildered, remembering that when Mr. Barraclough +got out of the cab he had a large rose in the button-hole +of his overcoat.</p> + +<p>"I see the leaves," I said. "But what on earth made you imagine +they would be there, and—and where does the left hand come in?"</p> + +<p>"It's very simple," replied Dorcas. "I looked at Mr. Judkins +Barraclough very carefully when he got out of the cab, and I noticed +that the rose in his buttonhole was rather dilapidated. It had evidently +been in contact with something, and several of the leaves were gone. Of +course they might have dropped accidentally, but I instantly evolved a +theory to account for the missing leaves. I glanced inside the cab while +I was looking the horse up and down, there weren't any leaves there, so +he hadn't crushed his rose in getting into it. If he had, some of the +leaves would have fallen on the matting. I noticed that he used his +left hand. The probability was that he hailed the cab with the umbrella +in his left hand. The cabman said he was coming out of the house when he +hailed him, so he would be on the steps at the time. Now, if you lifted +your left hand hurriedly, as if hailing a cab that was passing, you +would probably bring your arm up against the left side of your overcoat. +Your arm would probably brush against a flower if you had one as large +as a rose, and particularly if it projected as far forward as +Mr. Barraclough's did. I said to myself, 'He might have knocked the +leaves off that rose when he hailed the cab on a door-step in +Burton Crescent.' My surmise fortunately turns out to be correct. Here +are the rose leaves, and therefore this is the house."</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful!" I said, "but after all, it's just one chance in a thousand."</p> + +<p>"It is that one chance," replied Dorcas, quietly, "that in ninety-nine +cases out of a hundred brings the criminal into the hands of justice. +Chance is the most successful detective the world has ever known."</p> + +<p>Dorcas stepped back and looked up at the house.</p> + +<p>"There are no lights anywhere," she said, "but we'll see what the +inhabitants are like."</p> + +<p>She seized the bell and rang it violently, and then gave a loud +double knock. There was no sound inside the house. We waited a few +minutes, then Dorcas knocked again, this time loud enough to wake up +everybody in the Crescent. Still no one came, and the house +remained in darkness.</p> + +<p>"I'll try again," she said. "I'm sure to wake the people up on one +side or other, and they'll think, perhaps, it's their knocker, and look +out of the window."</p> + +<p>Dorcas knocked this time for fully a couple of minutes, and at last +she produced the desired effect.</p> + +<p>A third floor window in the next house opened, and a woman put her head out.</p> + +<p>"What's the good of your knocking there, a-frightening people out +of their seven senses;" she called out angrily. "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Robinson," replied Dorcas. "A relative of his is dying, and I've +come to fetch him."</p> + +<p>"You've come to the wrong house, then," said the woman, snappishly. +"There ain't no Mr. Robinson there, 'cos the house is empty. Leastways, +there ain't nobody sleepin' there."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Robinson was here this evening," replied Dorcas, unabashed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mean the gent as has taken the place and ain't moved in yet, +perhaps—I don't know his name. He ain't there now, I tell you. He +only comes there now and then, and nobody's living there, and the +tradespeople don't call. If you can't believe me, ask a policeman, only +for goodness' sake leave off knocking. You're making yourself a noosance +to the neighbourhood."</p> + +<p>Dorcas thanked her informant, and we moved away. "Good-night," said +Dorcas, as we got to the corner. "I'll take a cab and go home now. +Mr. Barraclough is renting an empty house. I must find out why +he does so."</p> + +<p>"When shall we do that?"</p> + +<p>"The day after to-morrow. I must have a couple of days to myself now. +If you've nothing to do, come to Oak Tree Road in the evening the day +after to-morrow, at ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>I assured Dorcas that I should be delighted. I saw her into a cab, +and wished her good-night, and went home, wondering to myself what on +earth a millionaire with a magnificent establishment in Berkeley Square +could want with an empty house in Burton Crescent.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>During the afternoon of the appointed day I received a +telegram—"Come evening dress. Dorcas."</p> + +<p>When I arrived at Oak Tree Road at ten o'clock in the evening, I +found Dorcas busily engaged in trying the wick of a dark lantern, and +on the floor beside her lay an open brown paper parcel filled +with goloshes.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious," I exclaimed, "are you going burgling?"</p> + +<p>"Something very like it," she replied, lighting the lantern to +satisfy herself that it was all right. "Just try on those goloshes and +see if any of them will fit over your boots."</p> + +<p>"But what do I want with goloshes? It's a perfectly dry night."</p> + +<p>"You are going burgling with me—that is, of course, if you are not afraid."</p> + +<p>"Burgling in evening dress!" I exclaimed. "I'm not afraid to do +anything that you tell me is right, but I haven't been brought up to +the profession, you know."</p> + +<p>I selected a pair of goloshes which I thought likely to suit, and +found they fitted over my boots perfectly.</p> + +<p>"That's all right—put them in that bag," said Dorcas, pointing +to a black bag on the sofa. Then she blew the lamp out, and fastening it +to a leather belt, fitted it round her waist.</p> + +<p>"You look like a female policeman," I exclaimed, "but you're not +going through the streets with that on!"</p> + +<p>"Nobody will see it under my long cloak. Here is a box of silent +matches, put that in the bag too."</p> + +<p>I obeyed mechanically.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Dorcas. "come to supper. Paul is in the dining-room +waiting for us. We don't start till twelve."</p> + +<p>"But where are we going?"</p> + +<p>"To look over that empty house in Burton Crescent," replied Dorcas, +quite calmly. "I have seen Lady Anna Barraclough to-day. Her husband +wears his keys on a chain. The chances are that the key he uses to let +himself into Burton Crescent will be on the bunch. He wouldn't carry it +loose for fear of leaving it in his pocket when he changed his clothes, +and perhaps forgetting it just when he wanted it. I shall have his +keys directly he is asleep to-night, so Heaven grant him sweet repose +directly he lays his head on the pillow. I reckon on having his keys +before two o'clock in the morning."</p> + +<p>"But how will you manage it?"</p> + +<p>"I have arranged it with her ladyship. They occupy, you remember, +two rooms separated by Mr. Barraclough's dressing-room. There he leaves +all his clothes for his valet to brush and attend to in the morning. +After he is asleep, Lady Barraclough will go quietly into the +dressing-room from her room, and detach the keys from the chain, which +is attached to his braces. I shall be on the opposite side of the square +in a four-wheel cab, which will be driven by a cabman whom I frequently +engage and whom I can trust. Sitting in the cab I shall avoid the +attention of the policeman, who might otherwise wonder why you and I +were loitering about so long in one place. But from the cab I shall be +watching the windows of No. —, Berkeley Square. When I see a +corner of the blind pulled up in Lady Barraclough's room, and a lighted +candle shown for a moment, I shall know she has the keys."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "that's all very well. But how is she going to give you the keys?"</p> + +<p>"She isn't—she is going to give them to you."</p> + +<p>"To me!" I exclaimed; "where?—when?—how?"</p> + +<p>"You will be strolling about smoking a cigar. Being in evening dress +you will not attract the notice of any inquisitive policeman, should one +happen to be about. You will watch for that signal, too, and when you +see it, you will go up the steps of No. — as if you were going to +ring to be let in.</p> + +<p>"Lady Anna will come quietly downstairs, open the door, and give you +the keys. Then you will walk away quietly into Piccadilly. My cab will +follow and stop opposite Walsingham House. Then you will get in and we +shall drive to the top of Burton Crescent. Our cabman will wait for us +round the corner."</p> + +<p>"In case of our having to make a run for it?"</p> + +<p>"No—because at five o'clock in the morning Lady Anna Barraclough +will creep downstairs again and feel in the letter box."</p> + +<p>"What for—a note from you?"</p> + +<p>"No—the keys. You will put them there when we have done with +them. Then she will go back into her husband's dressing-room, fasten them +on to the chain on his braces again, and he will get up in the morning +and see them and never dream that they have been having a +'night out.'"</p> + +<p>"And suppose the key of the house isn't on the bunch?"</p> + +<p>"Then we shall have had our journey for nothing. But the +reasonable supposition is that it will be. Now come to supper, and +make a good one, for we have a rough night's work before us."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Two hours later a light flashed in a second floor window of +No. —, Berkeley Square, and with a beating heart I went up the +steps. The door opened quietly, and a woman's hand came cautiously +through the opening and touched mine. I clutched the keys, slipped them +into my pocket, and strode away in the direction of Piccadilly.</p> + +<p>When the four-wheel cab stopped I got in and gave the keys to Dorcas. +"So far, so good," she said. "Now with average luck we shall get into +that empty house without attracting attention, and discover the +millionaire's secret."</p> + +<p>Dorcas was holding the keys up to the light that came through the +cab window and examining them carefully.</p> + +<p>"There are two latchkeys at any rate," she said. "Let us hope that +one of them will unlock the cupboard in which Mr. Judkins Barraclough +keeps his skeleton."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C8">VIII. THE EMPTY HOUSE</h3> + +<p>As the cab made its way towards Burton Crescent I am not ashamed to +confess that I had misgivings as to the success of our enterprise. Not +having been brought up to burglary, I contemplated with something akin +to nervousness my début as a "cracksman," and I pictured to myself +the awkward predicament in which we should find ourselves if we were +discovered by a watchful policeman, creeping about a house with goloshes +over our boots and a dark lantern and silent matches in our possession.</p> + +<p>I put the point to Dorcas. As we had probably the key of the house +in Burton Crescent with us, why should we compromise our position by +taking the implements of burglary with us?</p> + +<p>"Because," said Dorcas, "it is better to be over-cautious than +over-bold in my profession. If there <em>should</em> be anyone in the +house I want to <em>see</em> them before they hear me, and that is why I +have taken precautions with our boots and with our light."</p> + +<p>"Do you think Mr. Barraclough has visited the house since we were there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I watched the house for a short time last evening. A +dark-complexioned, white-haired old gentleman, with a closely cropped +white moustache and gold spectacles, let himself in about nine o'clock. +No such person came out again. But towards midnight the door was opened, +and a gentleman in a long grey overcoat came out. That person I did not +see enter; but of course that is not conclusive, as I only commenced to +watch about eight in the evening."</p> + +<p>"And the person who came out was——?"</p> + +<p>"Judkins Barraclough."</p> + +<p>"Do you think the dark old man will be in the house to-night?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas, in an emphatic tone, "I don't! But I have some +more interesting information gathered during the last two days round the +neighbourhood. The local tradespeople, who are always on the watch when +the 'To Let' is taken out of the windows of a house, saw a van at the +door delivering goods one day last week. The person who was +superintending the disposal of the goods was an old gentleman with very +white hair and gold spectacles, and a closely-cropped, white moustache. +His face and hands were very dark, and he looked like a native of India +in European clothes. The baker's man, seeing the door open and cases +being delivered, presented his master's card. The Indian gentleman +replied in excellent English that the family would not be coming in +for a month or six weeks."</p> + +<p>"Then this Indian gentleman must be the dark man you saw go in. Have +you any clue to his identity?"</p> + +<p>"I have ascertained certain particulars concerning him. To find out +who delivered the goods at Burton Crescent was my next object. It is +the general custom for policemen to take the name on a van that is +delivering or removing goods from a house. Many robberies have been +traced in this way. The constable on duty in the neighbourhood at that +time was able to tell me to whom the van belonged. I went at once to a +retired police sergeant whom I frequently employ to make ordinary +private inquiries, and gave him instructions to find out where the van +took the goods from, and if possible what they were.</p> + +<p>"In a few hours he sent me his report. The van had brought two cases +of brandy from a firm of wine merchants; hammers, saws, nails, etc., +from an ironmonger's; half a dozen large indiarubber mats, and several +rolls of wire netting. All these things, it was found, had been +purchased and paid for by a white-haired gentleman in gold spectacles, +having the appearance of a native of India. He gave his name and +address as Mr. Aleem Mohammed, No. —, Burton Crescent."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can soon find out who Mr. Aleem Mohammed is by the +numbers of the notes he paid to the house agents. Banknotes are +always useful clues."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Aleem Mohammed has evidently thought of that," replied Dorcas. +"I <em>have</em> traced the notes. They were obtained at a +money-changer's at Charing Cross, by a gentleman answering to our +Indian friend's description. He gave sovereigns for them. I have also +been to the house agents. The house was let to Mr. Aleem Mohammed, who +had paid a year's rent in advance in bank-notes, having no one in this +country to whom he could refer."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think," I said, after a pause, "the whole business may be +capable of a very simple explanation? After all, Barraclough hailed a +cab from the doorstep, and the cab drove him direct to his own +residence. Would he, if he were mixed up in any crime in connection +with this house, establish a direct trail?"</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking that out myself," replied Dorcas; "but I am +inclined to believe it was one of those slips that very cunning people +do make occasionally. Coming out late at night, there was nobody about, +and he hailed a cab barely thinking what he was doing, and said, +'Berkeley Square.' He stopped it as his own door with his umbrella +mechanically, as one is in the habit of doing."</p> + +<p>"And the Indian gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"I believe is Barraclough. He is a dark man, browned with the sun of +South America. He could easily carry a white wig and a false moustache +and a pair of gold spectacles in a Gladstone bag coming out of the +house at night. When he goes into it in the daylight as the Indian he +can have that light overcoat and his flower in the same bag."</p> + +<p>"But the night we saw him he had no bag."</p> + +<p>"No; but he might easily have had the wig and moustache in his +overcoat pocket. At any rate, I am pretty sure that Aleem Mohammed and +Judkins Barraclough are the same person."</p> + +<p>"That is your theory, but you may be wrong."</p> + +<p>"Of course—I am not infallible."</p> + +<p>The cab stopped suddenly. We had reached Mabledon Place, where the +man had orders to pull up. We got out and Dorcas gave him instructions +to wait for us where he was, saying we might be a couple of +hours or more.</p> + +<p>Taking the black bag with us, we made our way towards the Crescent, +which was quite deserted. Dorcas took her goloshes out of the bag and +put them on, and handed me mine, just as we got close to the house. +Glancing round to see no one was about, she went noiselessly up the +steps and tried the latchkeys. The first did not fit. It was probably +the key of Berkeley Square. The second, to our intense relief, fitted +perfectly. In a moment we were inside the hall and had closed the door +noiselessly behind us.</p> + +<p>Dorcas, taking the dark lantern from her belt, struck a silent match +and lighted the wick.</p> + +<p>The hall was bare, the stairs were uncarpeted, the whole atmosphere +of the house suggested that it was uninhabited.</p> + +<p>The keys were on the outside of the doors of the two rooms on the +ground floor.</p> + +<p>We opened the door of the front parlour. It was quite bare. Dorcas +looked about it in every direction.</p> + +<p>Then she turned the tap of the gas on. There was no sound.</p> + +<p>"Gas cut off and meter taken away when last tenant left," said +Dorcas. "The occupant must have used candles or a lamp."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing in that," I said. "A good many people prefer them."</p> + +<p>"Quite so. <em>I</em> hope he used candles. But let us have a peep +at the next room."</p> + +<p>Dorcas went first and opened the door of the back parlour.</p> + +<p>The room was empty.</p> + +<p>Dorcas looked carefully round it, then turned the light of the +bull's-eye to the floor. Suddenly she stooped down.</p> + +<p>"He's used this room," she said; "see, here is the tallow trail."</p> + +<p>She pointed to some small blobs of tallow grease near the doors of +a cupboard, which was in one corner of the room.</p> + +<p>"He has used candles here," she said. "The candle has stood some +time on the floor and guttered. That was while the person who had been +carrying it was busy with both hands inside this cupboard."</p> + +<p>The cupboard was locked, but the lock was a paltry one, and drawing +a little instrument from the bag Dorcas soon had it open.</p> + +<p>"How odd to take the trouble to lock up such rubbish as this!" +exclaimed Dorcas, drawing out a bundle of ragged female clothing.</p> + +<p>I stared at the articles as Dorcas held them up.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" I said. "These are the clothes of some wretched +creature who must have been in the last stage of poverty. The dress is +ragged and mud-stained, the old red flannel petticoat almost in +ribbons, the bonnet battered and black with grease. Faugh! +put the things down."</p> + +<p>Dorcas was not inclined to abandon her find so readily, but +presently she put the rags slowly back in the cupboard. "I wonder +what he's done with the body?" she said quietly.</p> + +<p>I must confess that when Dorcas said that, I had an uncomfortable, +creepy sensation. Could it be possible that such a wretched creature +as these locked-up rags had once belonged to had been done to death +in an empty house by the millionaire of Berkeley Square?</p> + +<p>Dorcas must have divined my thoughts. "Are you wondering if the +body of the woman who wore these things is concealed on the premises?" +she said.</p> + +<p>"Something of the sort was in my mind."</p> + +<p>"And I don't know what to think," said Dorcas. "If the body is +buried, why on earth were not these accusing rags buried with it?"</p> + +<p>We went downstairs, and as we walked through the silent, deserted +passages of the basement, I felt suspiciously uncomfortable. A rat +ran squeaking behind the wainscot, and I am ashamed to say that in my +overwrought nervous condition I couldn't help giving a +little cry of alarm.</p> + +<p>I tried to excuse my cowardice to Dorcas, but she stopped me.</p> + +<p>"Don't apologise," she said. "I am a great deal more afraid of +rats than I am of human beings."</p> + +<p>We had passed into the back kitchen or scullery.</p> + +<p>"He has been here," she said.</p> + +<p>"How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"By the tallow trail. The guttering candle has left its traces here."</p> + +<p>She pointed out three blobs of tallow on the edge of the sink, and +turned the light of the bull's-eye full on the trap. Then she passed +her hand carefully over the surface and drew it away. A few exceedingly +small damp atoms of pulpy water adhered to her palm. Dorcas examined +the atoms carefully. "Probably red on one side and white on the other," +she said. "I wonder where the bottles are?"</p> + +<p>"What bottles?"</p> + +<p>There were two short wooden shelves on each side of the sink. From +the one on the left-hand side Dorcas took a chisel. It was evidently +new, by the handle, but the edge was slightly rusty.</p> + +<p>"The bottles that the labels have been scraped from with this +chisel," she said. "The labels have been damped at the sink. It is the +wet on the label that has rusted the chisel."</p> + +<p>Suddenly she stooped down, and let the lantern flash round the room. +Something among some rubbish in one corner attracted her attention. It +was a small empty bottle, about the size of the bottles in which +chemists sell toothache tincture. She picked the bottle up and +examined it carefully.</p> + +<p>"It has been washed out," she said, "and there is nothing to tell us +what it contained."</p> + +<p>"Does it matter?" I exclaimed. "It is hardly likely that Mr. Judkins +Barraclough came here to wash bottles. That may have been done by the +former tenants."</p> + +<p>"No, bottles have been scraped here recently. Fragments of the pulped +paper are still in the sink, and that chisel is probably one of the +tools that the Indian gentleman ordered from the ironmonger's."</p> + +<p>"Well, whatever the bottle contained we can't find it out here," I said.</p> + +<p>"No, let's go into the front kitchen."</p> + +<p>In the front kitchen there were two cupboards and a kitchen dresser. +The cupboards were not quite empty—on one shelf was a packet of +coffee and a bag of sugar. On the kitchen dresser was a brown paper package +open at one end. It contained eleven boxes of ordinary matches—the +twelfth half empty, was lying on one of the dresser shelves.</p> + +<p>"The coffee bothers me," said Dorcas, "but the matches show that this +is where the bottle washer lighted his candles of an evening. The +candles themselves can't be far off."</p> + +<p>She looked at the dresser drawers. They had round wooden painted +handles. She turned the light of the bull's-eye on to each handle. Then +she touched the handle of the top left-hand drawer.</p> + +<p>"This is one he uses," she said.</p> + +<p>"How can you tell that?" I said, gazing curiously on the handle, and +failing to see any indication which could have guided Dorcas +in her selection.</p> + +<p>"Look at this handle carefully," she said, "and you will see a tiny +atom of paper still adhering to it. The person who washed bottles has +come from the sink with a wet hand and opened that drawer. A scrap of +the label has adhered to his hand and come off on the drawer handle, as +he grasped it to pull it open. And now I am sure that the person who +washed the bottles and opened this drawer was Mr. Judkins Barraclough."</p> + +<p>I stared at Dorcas in amazement. "How can the drawer handle +tell you that?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You remember that Barraclough's right arm was evidently too painful +to use, and he was using his left the night we saw him get out of the +cab. Well, the rusty chisel was thrown after use on the left-hand side +of the sink, and here the drawer has been pulled open with the left hand."</p> + +<p>"Surely a left hand doesn't mark itself on a drawer handle."</p> + +<p>"No, but this drawer stuck and was difficult to open. The person +trying it rested one hand—a wet and dirty one—on the +dresser. See, here are five dirty finger-marks on the +<em>right-hand</em> side of the drawer."</p> + +<p>I looked where Dorcas had pointed, and indications were undoubtedly +there. Dorcas had some difficulty in pulling the drawer open, and had +to rest her own hand on the dresser. She tried with her left hand, and +her right hand then fell exactly on the finger-marks.</p> + +<p>When the drawer at last yielded we looked eagerly inside it. There +were two packets of common candles and back in the corner of the drawer +half a dozen small bottles similar to the one we had found +empty in the sink.</p> + +<p>Dorcas drew them out and examined them carefully. "All red labels, +you see, with 'Poison' printed on them, 'Hydrate of Chloral' written +above. They have all been purchased from different chemists—though +one doesn't have to sign for chloral. Mr. Judkins Barraclough is using +chloral for some purpose in this house, and after each bottle is used he +removes the label."</p> + +<p>"Why should he do that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, he may not think it wise to leave empty labelled chloral +bottles about. He is a cunning man, and is guarding +against contingencies."</p> + +<p>"But what can he be doing with chloral here—in an empty house?"</p> + +<p>"We may find out before we leave it. At any rate, let us see if he +uses any of the upper rooms."</p> + +<p>"We haven't searched the coal cellar yet," I said, suddenly +recollecting the Euston-square mystery, and the discovery of the +corpse of the poor "Canterbury Belle."</p> + +<p>"To get to the coal cellar you have to go out into the area in +these houses," replied Dorcas. "He wouldn't do that."</p> + +<p>"The wine cellar, then?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas shook her head. "I looked at the door of that as we came by. +It was ajar. If there was anything to conceal there it would be shut +and locked."</p> + +<p>"But the cases of brandy——"</p> + +<p>"May be there—we'll go and see."</p> + +<p>The wine cellar was small and filled with old rubbish evidently +left behind by the last tenants.</p> + +<p>But the brandy cases were there. One was opened and the lid +off. There were only six bottles left. The straw envelopes of the other +six lay on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Where are the empty bottles?" I said. "We ought to look for them."</p> + +<p>"Yes—that is what we will do next. I have an idea they are upstairs."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"As we came down the kitchen stairs I noticed a short straw lying on +one of them. When the bottle was being taken out of the straw envelope +in the cellar a loose straw or two caught on the clothes of the person +handling it. As he went up the stairs the straw became disengaged by +the action of walking and fell. We've searched the parlours +carefully—now let us go upstairs to the first floor."</p> + +<p>There were two doors on the first floor. We tried the front room one +first and found it unlocked and the room quite empty.</p> + +<p>"Now for the back room," said Dorcas.</p> + +<p>We went out on to the landing and tried the back room door. +<em>It was locked.</em></p> + +<p>"If there is anything more to be found it will be here," exclaimed +Dorcas, her face, which had been pale until now, suddenly +flushing with excitement.</p> + +<p>"What can we do?—burst the door open?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—I came prepared for emergencies."</p> + +<p>Dorcas produced an instrument which is technically known as a +"jemmy" from her bag and handed it to me.</p> + +<p>I had once burst open a door, but I was not a skilled workman, so it +was a good ten minutes before the door yielded, bursting open with a +crash and tearing away with it a portion of the lock, which fell with +a clatter to the ground.</p> + +<p>As the door fell it seemed as though there was an echo of it downstairs.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" exclaimed Dorcas. "It sounded like the front door shutting."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," I said, "it's the echo—the house is empty."</p> + +<p>Dorcas had turned her lantern on the staircase, and was peering +over the balustrade. All was silent as the grave.</p> + +<p>"I must have been mistaken," she said. "Good heavens, there can't +have been someone in the house all this time—someone who has +slipped past us and escaped. If I thought that I——"</p> + +<p>She paused and uttered a little cry. She had turned the lantern right +round, and it lit up the room, the door of which we had just +burst open.</p> + +<p>As the light of the bull's-eye dimly illuminated the apartment an +extraordinary sight met our eyes. The centre of the room was entirely +occupied by what looked like a huge wire cage. Wire netting nearly six +feet high was stretched from side to side of the room on ropes which +were fastened in the walls by iron rings. Across the inside, at the top +and bottom of what was practically a wired-off passage was wire netting +of the same height securely fixed and lashed firmly in its place, and +to prevent the occupant of the cage from climbing over the top it was +roofed in with a double thickness of coarse sacking securely fastened +to the wirework. The floor was covered with indiarubber mats nailed +down to keep them in place.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" I exclaimed. "Is it a menagerie, or a cage for some +wild animal, or what?"</p> + +<p>Suddenly Dorcas grasped my arm, and put her finger to her lips. +In one corner of the cage, on a rug, covered over by a scarlet blanket, +lay a woman.</p> + +<p>"She must be dead!" I exclaimed, starting back with horror. "Only a +corpse could sleep through the crash of that door."</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas, creeping up close to the wire netting. "She is +breathing—see, the blanket rises and falls."</p> + +<p>"What can it mean? Is she some mad woman whom Barraclough is keeping here?"</p> + +<p>Dorcas did not answer. She was gazing earnestly at the face of the +sleeper. It was the face of a woman of about forty—a dark woman +who must once have been strikingly handsome. Dorcas let the light fall +upon it for a minute or two, but the sleeper made no movement. Her +breathing was strangely heavy. Suddenly Dorcas touched my arm and pointed +to an open bottle which stood near the rug.</p> + +<p>"Brandy," she said. "That's where the six bottles have gone to."</p> + +<p>"Is she in a drunken stupor, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Drunken, perhaps, is hardly the word," replied Dorcas; "you forget +the empty chloral bottles."</p> + +<p>"You think that the chloral is for her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; this woman is under the influence of it now. A man or a woman +who takes chloral would sleep through an earthquake. A drunken man or +woman would certainly have been startled by the noise we made just now. +In some mysterious way she has been got into this house, and is being +kept here a prisoner by Mr. Judkins Barraclough. He probably dissolves a +dose of chloral and puts it into each bottle of brandy he brings to +the poor creature."</p> + +<p>"What can be the object of that?"</p> + +<p>"The chloral is given, I take it, with the same object as this wire +cage has been built around her (probably while she lay helpless and +insensible under the influence of the drug)—to keep her from +making a noise, shouting or beating against the walls, or going to the +windows and attracting the attention of the neighbours. The man who has +got this woman in his power comes here daily, but probably only after +dark, and has to leave her alone at night and for many hours during the +day. She is caged in to keep her from beating the walls, and she is +dosed with chloral in order to keep her from moving about or making +the slightest noise."</p> + +<p>"And the object?"</p> + +<p>"To let her kill herself with the brandy."</p> + +<p>"Then why the chloral?—that sends her to sleep and prevents her +from drinking as much as she would."</p> + +<p>"If she were left with the brandy alone she would become violent and +be able to shriek. She might in an access of delirium tear down her cage +and get free. No—kept here without food and with a plentiful +supply of brandy she will die slowly of alcoholic poisoning. But she +must die quietly—hence the chloral."</p> + +<p>"What an infamous villain!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and a desperate one. This is the woman who bit him that +night. There must have been a violent struggle after he got her here. +This woman is probably his first wife. There cannot be any other reason +for Mr. Barraclough's mysterious proceedings."</p> + +<p>"But now we have found her," I exclaimed, "what do you propose to do?"</p> + +<p>"We must break through this netting, and try to rouse her first," +replied Dorcas. "Her gaoler doesn't go near her—see here is where +he evidently picks up the corner of the network to put in the bottles of +drugged brandy. The nail has been pulled out and hammered in +again several times."</p> + +<p>Dorcas went to the shutters, which were closed, and wrenched off the +iron bar. "Take this," she said, "and break the netting down +sufficiently for us to get in. It will make less noise than forcing out +the staples."</p> + +<p>I took the bar, and several violent blows broke the lower portion of +the cage loose from the fastenings in the floor. Then I pulled it up +sufficiently high to allow Dorcas to crawl underneath.</p> + +<p>"This must be the woman whose clothes are downstairs in the cupboard," +I said. "Fancy a woman reduced to such poverty as that—the wife of +a millionaire. Why, she must have been a homeless outcast."</p> + +<p>Dorcas had gone to the sleeping woman's side. Gently she turned down +the top of the scarlet blanket. Then she started back in astonishment. +The woman was fully dressed in clothes of the best quality.</p> + +<p>Dorcas lifted the almost lifeless arm from the sleeper's side and +pointed to her fingers. On one was a worn wedding-ring, and above it a +diamond ring. A gold bangle set with jewels was round her wrist.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" said Dorcas, knitting her brows. "The rags +concealed in the cupboard downstairs never belonged to +<em>this</em> woman."</p> + +<p>At that moment a church clock struck five.</p> + +<p>"Quick!" cried Dorcas, thrusting Mr. Barraclough's keys through the +broken wirework into my hand. "You must go. The cab will be waiting in +Mabledon Place. Go to Berkeley Square at once and put the keys in the +letter-box. I wouldn't have that man suspect anything for all the money +in the world!"</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I shall stay here. Come back as soon as you can. Ring the bell +gently and I will let you in. Ah! wait a moment!"</p> + +<p>She tore a leaf from her note-book, and scribbled something in lead +pencil, then folded it, and gave it to me. It was addressed to a doctor +in Endsleigh Gardens.</p> + +<p>"It's close by; call there on your way. Ring the doctor up and give +him this. He is an old friend of mine and will come at once. Then go to +Berkeley Square as fast as the horse can take you, and put the keys in +the letter-box."</p> + +<p>There was nothing for it but to obey. When I closed the door of +No. — softly behind me it was broad daylight, and the birds were +singing gaily in the trees.</p> + +<p>As I reached the pavement I involuntarily turned back to take a +parting glance at the closely shuttered house in which I had left Dorcas +Dene alone with the caged woman.</p> + +<p>As I did so I suddenly became aware of something which rooted me to +the spot, and paralysed me beyond the power of uttering a cry.</p> + +<p>Crouching in the shadow of the next doorway was a dark man with white +hair, a closely-cropped white moustache, and gold spectacles.</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C9">IX. THE CLOTHES IN THE CUPBOARD</h3> + +<p>I stood for a moment paralysed. Could it be possible that standing +there watching me as I emerged from the house in Burton Crescent was the +mysterious Indian whom Dorcas Dene believed to be no other than Judkins +Barraclough himself? Judkins Barraclough in a false wig and a moustache +and a pair of gold spectacles.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly I recollected the sound we had heard as of the shutting +of the front door. Someone <em>had</em> been in the house at the time. +Someone had slipped past when we were in the front room, and as the door +of the room in which the drugged woman lay yielded with a crash, that +person had crept out into the street.</p> + +<p>And that person was the man with the white hair and moustache, whose +dark eyes were gleaming at me through his gold spectacles now.</p> + +<p>What was I to do? To seize the Indian and call for the police? I +hesitated to do that without Dorcas's authority. I went up the step of +No. —, and rang the bell gently.</p> + +<p>In a moment I heard Dorcas's voice saying, "Who's there?"</p> + +<p>"Openly quickly!" I exclaimed. "It is I."</p> + +<p>The door opened and I dashed into the hall and gasped out that the +Indian was there—outside—what should I do?</p> + +<p>Dorcas frowned. "There was someone in the house, then!" she +exclaimed. "Oh, if I had only known it! But go to the doctor at once, and +then get back with those keys."</p> + +<p>"And the Indian?"</p> + +<p>"Will probably get at Judkins Barraclough at the earliest opportunity +and warn him."</p> + +<p>"You don't think the Indian is Barraclough disguised, now, then?"</p> + +<p>"No—that's impossible. I've been off the track a little, but +I'm on it right enough now. Get away now, every minute is of value."</p> + +<p>Dorcas shut the door and I went down the steps again.</p> + +<p>I looked about for the Indian. While I was talking to Dorcas he had +slipped out of the doorway and disappeared. I found the cab waiting, +drove to the doctor in Endsleigh Gardens, left the note, and then told +the cabman to drive me with all speed to the top of Berkeley Square.</p> + +<p>It was half-past five when I slipped the keys quietly into Mr. +Barraclough's letter box. It was six o'clock when the cab stopped again +in Mabledon Place.</p> + +<p>There were one or two people passing through the Crescent—people +on the way to work. Outside some of the houses sleepy-looking girls +were shaking the mats and beginning the household duties of the day.</p> + +<p>A policeman passed me and bade me good morning. I returned his +salutation and walked past No. — to the end of the Crescent. When +I looked round he had sauntered away, and I returned and rang the bell.</p> + +<p>Dorcas greeted me with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Come along," she said, "come and have some coffee, for you must be faint."</p> + +<p>"But the woman?"</p> + +<p>"The doctor is with her and is bringing her round. I hope presently +she will be able to give us a little information."</p> + +<p>Dorcas led the way and I followed her. To my astonishment, instead +of going downstairs, where I presumed the coffee would be waiting for +us, she went upstairs to the second floor.</p> + +<p>Dorcas opened a door and I found myself in a little back room that +had evidently been inhabited. On a small Oriental table was a French +coffee-making machine, and underneath it a spirit lamp. In the corner +lay a couple of Oriental rugs, and on a small table by the side of it a +box of cigarettes.</p> + +<p>"I've taken the liberty of using Mr. Aleem Mohammed's private +apartments," said Dorcas. "He evidently furnished them for himself +before he made his preparations for a lady visitor below."</p> + +<p>"Then he was here all the time?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think he was here that night when we nearly knocked the +neighbourhood up. But he probably came in later, and he was certainly +here last night when we were examining the house. It was only when we +began to make a noise that he became aware of our presence. When he +heard the locked door of the room on the first floor go, he let himself +out, and kept watch from the outside."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Probably to see what we were going to do."</p> + +<p>"But Judkins Barraclough we know has the key of the house. How did +the Indian get in?"</p> + +<p>"That's simple," replied Dorcas. "They had a latchkey each."</p> + +<p>I flung myself down on the rugs and drank the coffee which Dorcas had made.</p> + +<p>The coffee revived my drooping energies, and set my brain working +again. If the Indian was living in the house and had escaped, what was +there to prove that not he but Barraclough was the person who was +helping the unhappy creature downstairs to her death?</p> + +<p>I asked Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"There is no doubt in my mind that Barraclough is the principal, and +the Indian only an accomplice," she replied. "But we're not going to +let the Indian escape."</p> + +<p>"We have done so."</p> + +<p>"No. Scotland Yard has him in hand."</p> + +<p>"Scotland Yard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; directly the doctor came, which was almost immediately after +he received my note, I went out and sent a message. Hark! there's a +knock at the door."</p> + +<p>Dorcas ran downstairs bidding me follow her. She opened the front +door, and a handsome foreign-looking dark man, of about eight-and-thirty, +stepped into the hall, and politely raised his hat.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. Stromberg, I am glad," exclaimed Dorcas, shaking hands +heartily with the new arrival. "I was wondering who would be on duty. +Allow me to introduce my friend Mr. Saxon. Mr. Saxon, this is +Inspector Stromberg, of the Criminal Investigation Department."</p> + +<p>The inspector bowed and smiled.</p> + +<p>"I am always delighted to work with the famous Dorcas Dene," he said +to me. "My only regret is that she is not one of us." Then turning to +Dorcas, he said, "And now what is the mystery we are to have the +pleasure of unravelling together this time?"</p> + +<p>"The mystery is, I hope, already unravelled," replied Dorcas +demurely, "but I must not go any farther with it. It is now a matter +for the police."</p> + +<p>"And the particulars?"</p> + +<p>Clearly and concisely Dorcas gave the famous detective officer the +details of the great Barraclough mystery.</p> + +<p>When she had finished the Inspector rose and grasped Dorcas warmly +by the hand.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Dene," he said, "you have done wonders. Of course, I +must take charge of the case now as it is practically an attempt to +murder, but I shall do nothing without your approval. The woman is in +charge of the doctor still, I presume?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He will call me as soon as she is able to converse coherently."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Judkins Barraclough—what is your idea of the time to +make the arrest?"</p> + +<p>"To-night."</p> + +<p>"To-night?—but why give him so much law as that?"</p> + +<p>"I am very much interested in some ragged feminine garments concealed +in a cupboard here. I want to find out what object Barraclough can have +in keeping them there." She added something in a whisper that I was +evidently not intended to hear. The great man looked grave.</p> + +<p>"It is a desperate thing to do," he said.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that unless we find the Indian and get him to turn +Queen's Evidence, the mere fact of Barraclough having a latchkey will not +bring the attempted murder home to him. I like to clear up my cases +thoroughly, and I confess that these pauper rags completely baffle me. +By the bye, you acted on my information with regard to the Indian?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Inspector. "What was your idea in asking me to have +enquiries made at the post-offices you named?"</p> + +<p>"They are the only ones within reasonable distance which are opened +before eight in the morning. My idea was that the man would go to a +telegraph office and send a warning wire to Barraclough. You sent a +messenger to the receiving offices near Berkeley Square?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; no telegram will be delivered to Barraclough without our +knowledge of its contents."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Dorcas, "and of course, by some +unaccountable accident, that telegram won't reach Mr. Barraclough."</p> + +<p>Inspector Stromberg shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"The Post Office is a sacred institution in this country," he said. +"The police do not tamper with letters and telegrams."</p> + +<p>"No," said Dorcas, sweetly, "but sometimes accidents happen—a +careless clerk, for instance, puts a wrong address on the envelope and +that causes somebody else to open the telegram <em>after</em> the boy +has gone."</p> + +<p>The Inspector gazed at Dorcas admiringly.</p> + +<p>A door on the first floor opened, and a voice called "Mrs. Dene."</p> + +<p>Presently she came down again.</p> + +<p>"The woman is better and able to talk. But the doctor says that for +many reasons it would be as well to get her to a hospital at once."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the Inspector. "Perhaps your friend will go and +get a four-wheel cab?"</p> + +<p>I took the hint and went out. There were plenty of cabs near +St. Pancras, and I was back with one in about five minutes.</p> + +<p>Wrapped in a blanket and a rug, which we brought down from the +Indian's room, the doctor, myself, and Stromberg carried the woman, +rescued from a lingering death, out of the house, and got her into the +cab without attracting the attention of anyone but a small boy who was +delivering newspapers. The doctor drove away with his patient, and we +returned to the house, Dorcas taking the Inspector upstairs to see the +cage and the Indian's apartment.</p> + +<p>At a quarter to eight a man arrived to see Stromberg and made a +communication to him.</p> + +<p>"That's all right," exclaimed the Inspector, and calling Dorcas, he +told her that the Indian had just sent a telegram to Barraclough.</p> + +<p>"It won't be delivered till ten minutes past eight. I'll go up to the +receiving office and arrange for that mistake in the address. I shall be +there by eight o'clock, which is the time they open. Stop here till +I come back."</p> + +<p>In an hour Stromberg returned radiant. He had the telegram:</p> + +<p>"Don't go house. See me at once old place. Important. M."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Dorcas. "Now I want to send another telegram +to Barraclough." Dorcas tore a leaf from her pocket-book and wrote: +"All over. Come Crescent, ten to-night."</p> + +<p>"I understand," said the Inspector. "I'll send it at once. In the +meantime the men who are trying to track the Indian, will, I hope, +succeed. They will bring him straight to the Yard to me. You had better +be there this afternoon at three. There's only one thing that may upset +<em>your</em> plan. Suppose Barraclough comes here this afternoon, lets +himself in, and finds the woman gone."</p> + +<p>"I've thought of that," said Dorcas. "But is he likely to in the +daylight? It is easy to make him alter his determination if he does. +Put a special policeman on with instructions to keep his eye on the door, +and directly he sees anyone going towards it let him stroll up. +Barraclough won't risk letting himself in with a latchkey under the eyes +of a policeman. He'll go away again and come after dark and then we +shall be ready for him."</p> + +<p>"You're right," said the Inspector. "I'll have the policeman put on. +But there's one thing more—we know what we <em>want</em> +Barraclough to do, but how about the broken-open door—that will +rouse his suspicions at once?"</p> + +<p>"Send some workmen you can trust to put it right again. He's not +likely to examine it very closely."</p> + +<p>"I'll send the workmen at once. You'll have to stay and let them in. +A couple of hours will see them through. But who is going to stay here +to let <em>us</em> in?"</p> + +<p>"You'll want help to-night," replied Dorcas. "Send a plain clothes +officer with the men—he can stay on in charge of the house."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that will do—and now—Au revoir."</p> + +<p>"What is this mysterious plan of yours?" I said to Dorcas, when +the Inspector had gone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I only wanted to see what Barraclough wanted with those old +clothes. Now, I'm going to lie down for an hour in the Indian's +room—I'm tired. You had better go home."</p> + +<p>"Aren't you going to let me see the end of it?" I asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, if you wish it. I shall be back here at seven +o'clock—come then."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>At seven o'clock that evening, I rang cautiously at No. —, +Burton Crescent. The Inspector opened the door to me.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Dene's upstairs," he said, "front room, first floor."</p> + +<p>I went upstairs, found the door open and started back in astonishment. +Dorcas was there, sitting on one of the small tables which had been +brought down from the Indian's room, and in the corner sitting +cross-legged and smoking a cigarette was Mr. Aleem Mohammed. Near him +was a man, who was, I concluded the plain clothes officer from the Yard.</p> + +<p>Dorcas beckoned me out on to the landing.</p> + +<p>"You see, we've got Aleem," she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, how did you manage it?"</p> + +<p>"The Yard promptly ran him down and brought him to Stromberg. The man, +seeing his game is up, has given us every information. Stromberg has +promised that if he helps us to-night he may get off lightly."</p> + +<p>"What has he told you?"</p> + +<p>"All we wanted to know. He is a man whom Barraclough employed in +South America, and brought over here with him when he came. Barraclough +made wealth rapidly in South America, and in fact accumulated a vast +fortune equal to two or three millions of money, but he made the +foundation of that fortune by unscrupulous means. Once in possession of +money his natural ability enabled him to conduct his operations with +skill, and his later successes were legitimate enough. But Aleem knew +him in his shady days, so he tells us, and he didn't mean to be left in +South America.</p> + +<p>"About a fortnight ago Barraclough went to him—he had a little +flat in Great Russell Street—and offered him £5,000 if he would +consent to get a house and take charge of a woman who was drinking +herself to death. The rest you know. Aleem swears that he only got the +house and the things Barraclough ordered him to, and that he has never +interfered in any way with the woman."</p> + +<p>"But who got her here?"</p> + +<p>"Barraclough himself—but that we have learned from the woman +herself. Stromberg interviewed her at the hospital. Her name is Judkins. +Twenty years ago she married John Judkins, a clever but improvident +clerk in the employ of a firm of financiers in the City. Judkins got +into debt and difficulties and one day disappeared, and she never saw +him again until lately.</p> + +<p>"She managed as well as she could for herself, and being a handsome +woman did fairly well. One evening some weeks ago she was at the Empire +when she heard a gentleman behind her call out 'Hullo, Judkins!' She +turned and saw two gentlemen in evening dress greet each other. The name +Judkins caused her eagerly to scrutinise the features of the elder of +them. She recognised him in a moment as her husband——"</p> + +<p>I interrupted Dorcas with a remark which rose to my lips:</p> + +<p>"Why did the gentleman call Mr. Barraclough 'Judkins'?"</p> + +<p>"Most of his friends clip his double barrel name to that, I expect. +But let me go on. After the two gentlemen separated, Mrs. Judkins +followed her husband until he was in a quiet part of the promenade and +then touched him on the shoulder and said 'Jack!'</p> + +<p>"Judkins started and turned as pale as his bronzed face would let him. +Then he took her arm and they went out into Leicester Square together. +He explained that he had intended to write to his wife after he decamped, +but he had got into fresh trouble and had to clear out of the country. He +had come back some years ago intending to find his wife, but he was in +with a bad set and for his share in a fraud he had been sentenced to ten +years' imprisonment. He had been out for a year, but he was still getting +his living by his wits.</p> + +<p>"He had promised her he would do what he could for her, and gave +her £50 in bank-notes. He met her by appointment some time after +that, and made her a present of some jewellery and quite won her +confidence, only he was always careful to warn her that he was still +what the fraternity call 'crook,' and the police were keeping an +eye on him.</p> + +<p>"One day he said he should have to lie quiet for a bit, and he told +her to come to him where he was staying at No. —, Burton Crescent. +She was to come at midnight. He would, he hoped, have some money and +jewellery to give her which he wanted her to take care of while +he was away.</p> + +<p>"The woman fell into the trap. At midnight her husband let her in. +The house was in darkness. He took her by the hand and led +her upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly the idea came to her that all was not right—she grew +nervous and tried to drag her hand away. The man seized her forcibly and +thrust his arm across her mouth to stop her screaming. She struggled and +bit fiercely into his flesh. He uttered a cry of rage, and thrust his +pocket-handkerchief into her mouth. Then he held something to her nose, +which she supposed must have been chloroform, for she remembers no more. +When she came to herself she felt weak and unable to move, and was lying +in a kind of cage in one of the rooms. She saw brandy by her side and she +drank. The brandy was all she had, and she drank to drive away her +terror. She confesses that she had been a hard drinker, and that on +several occasions when Judkins met her she had been drinking heavily. It +was probably this discovery which gave him the idea of letting her drink +herself to death quietly, using the chloral as a means to an end."</p> + +<p>"And now?" I said as Dorcas finished her narrative.</p> + +<p>"And now she is getting round——Well?"</p> + +<p>The last word was addressed to Inspector Stromberg, who had +come upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Everything is ready," he said. "I've two men posted out of sight in +front, and there's no chance of an escape at the back."</p> + +<p>We went into the room all three together.</p> + +<p>"Now," said the Inspector to the Indian, "you quite understand what +you are to do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand," replied Mr. Mohammed with a sickly grin.</p> + +<p>"And remember you can't save him. If you warn him and he tries to +bolt, my men are outside—so you'll let him come in and do exactly +as he tells you."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Now, once more you are sure you have no idea to whom those old +clothes in the cupboard belong, nor why Barraclough brought +them here!"</p> + +<p>"No; he must have brought them and put them there when I did not see."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>At ten o'clock there was the sound of a key turning in the lock +downstairs. The house was in darkness. In the centre of the first-floor +back room the cage, restored to its former condition, stood as before; +only one side had been torn away by Aleem in order that he might +ascertain if the woman was really dead. Covered over with a scarlet +blanket lay something that looked like a human form. A cloth was flung +over the face.</p> + +<p>Dorcas and I were sitting with the front room door open when we +heard the key. Stromberg and the plain-clothes officer were nowhere +to be seen.</p> + +<p>The Indian had taken down the sacking that formed the roof of the +cage, and flung it into the corner. Through the thin partition that +separated the back and front rooms two gimlet-holes had been bored. +Dorcas knelt down and fixed her eyes to these. We could hear every +word that was spoken.</p> + +<p>Barraclough called out softly, "Aleem, Aleem, are you there?"</p> + +<p>"I am here," answered Aleem. "Come up—all is over."</p> + +<p>Barraclough came quickly up the stairs. Aleem opened the door of +the back room.</p> + +<p>"She died this morning early. Now, what are we to do? Bury +her here?"</p> + +<p>"No; it would look like murder if the body was ever found, and one +never knows. She'll be much safer buried in a cemetery."</p> + +<p>"In a cemetery?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—after an inquest. We had better let the law establish our +innocence <em>in case</em> of accidents. It's always safer to do the +bold thing, Aleem—I've always found it so. Take this key, go +downstairs, unlock the cupboard in the parlour, and bring me up a bundle +of old clothes you'll find there—and bring a light."</p> + +<p>I almost thought I heard Dorcas give a sigh of relief. She had +forgotten that she had burst the cupboard open. Had Barraclough gone +himself he would have noticed it.</p> + +<p>Aleem went downstairs, and Dorcas rose quietly, went out softly, and +stopped him as he came up. "Leave the door ajar," she said under her +breath. Aleem evidently obeyed, for she remained outside.</p> + +<p>I took her vacant place at the peepholes.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Barraclough, as the Indian handed him the bundle and put +the candle on the floor, "you're quicker-fingered than I am—go in +and strip the body."</p> + +<p>The Indian hesitated. "Why should I do this?"</p> + +<p>"Why? Because you're going to have five thousand pounds. I'm not +going to pay you and do the dirty work myself. Off with every +rag—the jewels you can keep for yourself."</p> + +<p>Still the Indian hesitated. "But why should we strip the body?" +he said.</p> + +<p>"Why?—to put those rags on it."</p> + +<p>"And then?"</p> + +<p>"Well, then all we've got to do is wait till there isn't a soul +about and then pop the body outside on the doorstep."</p> + +<p>"But the police—they will make inquiries."</p> + +<p>"The police will do nothing of the sort. A wretched, ragged outcast +will be found on a doorstep dead. She will be taken to the mortuary and +a post-mortem made. The cause of death will be found to be starvation +and drink, and the body will be buried. The law doesn't trouble itself +about paupers found dead on a doorstep."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" exclaimed Aleem, "that is what you wanted with those rags then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Now, then, let me see what sort of a lady's maid you make."</p> + +<p>At that moment the corpse moved slightly under the scarlet blanket.</p> + +<p>Barraclough sprang back. "You fool—she's <em>not</em> dead!" +he cried.</p> + +<p>"No," exclaimed Inspector Stromberg, leaping up and flinging the +blanket from him. "We're all very much alive."</p> + +<p>At the same moment the sacking in the corner lifted up, and the +plain-clothes officer slipped from under it, and Dorcas, pushing the +door open, ran into the room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barraclough," said the Inspector. "I arrest you on a charge of +attempting to murder your wife, Marian Judkins."</p> + +<p>The millionaire grasped the situation in a moment.</p> + +<p>"You infernal traitor!" he hissed at the mild Mohammed. +"I'll—I'll——"</p> + +<p>In a moment the two officers had him by the arms.</p> + +<p>"Come along," said the Inspector. "We'll get a four-wheeler to the +door. I presume you haven't got your brougham waiting outside?"</p> + +<p>As the men went downstairs with their prisoner, Dorcas nodded +pleasantly to the Inspector.</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much," she said, "for helping me to find out what those +clothes in the cupboard were for." Then she turned to me and said, +"You've had twenty-four hours' excitement straight off—you must be +tired. Go home and go to bed."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to Berkeley Square to tell the lady this scoundrel married +that she is a free woman, and to offer her my sincere congratulations."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C10">X. THE HAVERSTOCK HILL MURDER</h3> + +<p>The blinds had been down at the house in Oak Tree Road and the house +shut for nearly six weeks. I had received a note from Dorcas saying that +she was engaged on a case which would take her away for some little time, +and that as Paul had not been very well lately she had arranged that he +and her mother should accompany her. She would advise me as soon as they +returned. I called once at Oak Tree Road and found it was in charge of +the two servants and Toddlekins, the bulldog. The housemaid informed me +that Mrs. Dene had not written, so that she did not know where she was or +when she would be back, but that letters which arrived for her were +forwarded by her instructions to Mr. Jackson, of Penton Street, +King's Cross.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jackson, I remembered, was the ex-police-sergeant who was +generally employed by Dorcas when she wanted a house watched or certain +inquiries made among tradespeople. I felt that it would be unfair to go +to Jackson. Had Dorcas wanted me to know where she was she would +have told me in her letter.</p> + +<p>The departure had been a hurried one. I had gone to the North in +connection with a business matter of my own on a Thursday evening, +leaving Dorcas at Oak Tree Road, and when I returned on Monday afternoon +I found Dorcas's letter at my chambers. It was written on the Saturday, +and evidently on the eve of departure.</p> + +<p>But something that Dorcas did not tell me I learned quite accidentally +from my old friend Inspector Swanage, of Scotland Yard, whom I met one +cold February afternoon at Kempton Park Steeplechases.</p> + +<p>Inspector Swanage has a greater acquaintance with the fraternity +known as "the boys" than any other officer. He has attended race +meetings for years, and the "boys" always greet him respectfully, though +they wish him further. Many a prettily-planned coup of theirs has he +nipped in the bud, and many an unsuspecting greenhorn has he saved from +pillage by a timely whisper that the well-dressed young gentlemen who +are putting their fivers on so merrily and coming out of the enclosure +with their pockets stuffed full of bank-notes are men who get their +living by clever swindling, and are far more dangerous than the ordinary +vulgar pickpocket.</p> + +<p>On one occasion not many years ago I found a well-known publisher at +a race meeting in earnest conversation with a beautifully-dressed, +grey-haired sportsman. The publisher informed me that his new acquaintance +was the owner of a horse which was certain to win the next race, and that +it would start at ten to one. Only in order not to shorten the price +nobody was to know the name of the horse, as the stable had three in the +race. He had obligingly taken a fiver off the publisher to put on with +his own money.</p> + +<p>I told the publisher that he was the victim of a "tale-pitcher," and +that he would never see his fiver again. At that moment Inspector Swanage +came on the scene, and the owner of race horses disappeared as if by +magic. Swanage recognised the man instantly, and having heard my +publisher's story said, "If I have the man taken will you prosecute?" +The publisher shook his head. He didn't want to send his authors mad with +delight at the idea that somebody had eventually succeeded in getting a +fiver the best of him. So Inspector Swanage strolled away. Half an hour +later he came to us in the enclosure and said, "Your friend's horse +doesn't run, so he's given me that fiver back again for you." And with a +broad grin he handed my friend a bank-note.</p> + +<p>It was Inspector Swanage's skill and kindness on this occasion that +made me always eager to have a chat with him when I saw him at a race +meeting, for his conversation was always interesting.</p> + +<p>The February afternoon had been a cold one, and soon after the +commencement of racing there were signs of fog. Now a foggy afternoon is +dear to the hearts of the "boys." It conceals their operations, and helps +to cover their retreat. As the fog came up the Inspector began to look +anxious, and I went up to him.</p> + +<p>"You don't like the look of things?" I said.</p> + +<p>"No, if this gets worse the band will begin to play—there are +some very warm members of it here this afternoon. It was a day just like +this last year that they held up a bookmaker going to the station, +and eased him of over £500. Hullo?"</p> + +<p>As he uttered the exclamation the Inspector pulled out his race card +and seemed to be anxiously studying it.</p> + +<p>But under his voice he said to me, "Do you see that tall man in a fur +coat talking to a bookmaker? See, he's just handed him a bank-note."</p> + +<p>"Where?—I don't see him."</p> + +<p>"Yonder. Do you see that old gipsy-looking woman with race cards? +She has just thrust her hand through the railings and offered one +to the man."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes—I see him now."</p> + +<p>"That's Flash George. I've missed him lately, and I heard he was +broke, but he's in funds again evidently by his get-up."</p> + +<p>"One of the boys?"</p> + +<p>"Has been—but he's been on another lay lately. He was mixed up +in that big jewel case—£10,000 worth of diamonds stolen from a +demi-mondaine. He got rid of some of the jewels for the thieves, but we +could never bring it home to him. But he was watched for a long time +afterwards and his game stopped. The last we heard of him he was hard up +and borrowing from some of his pals. He's gone now. I'll just go and ask +the bookie what he's betting to."</p> + +<p>The Inspector stepped across to the bookmaker and presently returned.</p> + +<p>"He <em>is</em> in luck again," he said. "He's put a hundred ready on +the favourite for this race. By the bye, how's your friend Mrs. Dene +getting on with her case?"</p> + +<p>I confessed my ignorance as to what Dorcas was doing at the present +moment—all I knew was that she was away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I thought you'd have known all about it," said the Inspector. +"She's on the Hannaford case."</p> + +<p>"What, the murder?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But surely that was settled by the police? The husband was arrested +immediately after the inquest."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and the case against him was very strong, but we know that +Dorcas Dene has been engaged by Mr. Hannaford's family, who have made up +their minds that the police, firmly believing him guilty, won't look +anywhere else for the murderer—of course they are convinced of his +innocence. But you must excuse me—the fog looks like thickening, +and may stop racing—I must go and put my men to work."</p> + +<p>"One moment before you go—why did you suddenly ask me how Mrs. +Dene was getting on? Was it anything to do with Flash George that put +it in your head?"</p> + +<p>The Inspector looked at me curiously.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "though I didn't expect you'd see the connection. It +was a mere coincidence. On the night that Mrs. Hannaford was murdered +Flash George, who had been lost sight of for some time by our people, was +reported to have been seen by the Inspector who was going his rounds in +the neighbourhood. He was seen about half-past two o'clock in the morning +looking rather dilapidated and seedy. When the report of the murder came +in the Inspector at once remembered that he had seen Flash George in +Haverstock Hill. But there was nothing in it—as the house hadn't +been broken into and there was nothing stolen. You understand now why +seeing Flash George carried my train of thought on to the Hannaford +murder and Dorcas Dene. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>The Inspector hurried away and a few minutes afterwards the favourite +came in alone for the second race on the card. The stewards immediately +afterwards announced that racing would be abandoned on the account of the +fog increasing, and I made my way to the railway station and went home +by the members' train.</p> + +<p>Directly I reached home I turned eagerly to my newspaper file and +read up the Hannaford murder. I knew the leading features, but every +detail of it had now a special interest to me, seeing that Dorcas Dene +had taken the case up.</p> + +<p>These were the facts as reported in the Press:</p> + +<p>Early in the morning of January 5 a maid-servant rushed out of the +house, standing in its own grounds on Haverstock Hill, calling "Murder!" +Several people who were passing instantly came to her and inquired what +was the matter, but all she could gasp was, "Fetch a policeman." When +the policeman arrived he followed the terrified girl into the house and +was conducted to the drawing-room, where he found a lady lying in her +night-dress in the centre of the room covered with blood, but still +alive. He sent one of the servants for a doctor, and another to the +police-station to inform the superintendent. The doctor came immediately +and declared that the woman was dying. He did everything that could be +done for her, and presently she partially regained consciousness. The +superintendent had by this time arrived, and in the presence of the +doctor asked her who had injured her.</p> + +<p>She seemed anxious to say something, but the effort was too much for +her, and presently she relapsed into unconsciousness. She died two hours +later, without speaking.</p> + +<p>The woman's injuries had been inflicted with some heavy instrument. +On making a search of the room the poker was found lying between the +fireplace and the body. The poker was found to have blood upon it, and +some hair from the unfortunate lady's head.</p> + +<p>The servants stated that their master and mistress, Mr. and Mrs. +Hannaford, had retired to rest at their usual time, shortly before +midnight. The housemaid had seen them go up together. She had been +working at a dress which she wanted for next Sunday, and sat up late, +using her sewing-machine in the kitchen. It was one o'clock in the +morning when she passed her master and mistress's door, and she judged +by what she heard that they were quarrelling. Mr. Hannaford was not in +the house when the murder was discovered. The house was searched +thoroughly in every direction, the first idea of the police being that +he had committed suicide. The telegraph was then set to work, and at +ten o'clock a man answering to Mr. Hannaford's description was arrested +at Paddington Station, where he was taking a ticket for Uxbridge.</p> + +<p>Taken to the police-station and informed that he would be charged +with murdering his wife, he appeared to be horrified, and for some time +was a prey to the most violent emotion. When he had recovered himself +and was made aware of the serious position in which he stood, he +volunteered a statement. He was warned, but he insisted on making it. He +declared that he and his wife had quarrelled violently after they had +retired to rest. Their quarrel was about a purely domestic matter, but he +was in an irritable, nervous condition, owing to his health, and at last +he had worked himself up into such a state, that he had risen, dressed +himself, and gone out into the street. That would be about two in the +morning. He had wandered about in a state of nervous excitement until +daybreak. At seven he had gone into a coffee-house and had breakfast, and +had then gone into the park and sat on a seat and fallen asleep. When he +woke up it was nine o'clock. He had taken a cab to Paddington, and had +intended to go to Uxbridge to see his mother, who resided there. Quarrels +between himself and his wife had been frequent of late, and he was ill +and wanted to get away, and he thought perhaps if he went to his mother +for a day or two he might get calmer and feel better. He had been very +much worried lately over business matters. He was a stockjobber, and the +market in the securities in which he had been speculating was +against him.</p> + +<p>At the conclusion of the statement, which was made in a nervous, +excited manner, he broke down so completely that it was deemed desirable +to send for the doctor and keep him under close observation.</p> + +<p>Police investigation of the premises failed to find any further clue. +Everything pointed to the supposition that the result of the quarrel had +been an attack by the husband—possibly in a sudden fit of homicidal +mania—on the unfortunate woman. The police suggestion was that the +lady, terrified by her husband's behaviour, had risen in the night and +run down the stairs to the drawing-room, and that he had followed her +there, picked up the poker, and furiously attacked her. When she fell, +apparently lifeless, he had run back to his bedroom, dressed himself, and +made his escape quietly from the house. There was nothing missing so far +as could be ascertained—nothing to suggest in any way that any +third party, a burglar from outside or some person inside, had had +anything to do with the matter.</p> + +<p>The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder, and the +husband was charged before a magistrate and committed for trial. But in +the interval his reason gave way, and, the doctors certifying that he +was undoubtedly insane, he was sent to Broadmoor.</p> + +<p>Nobody had the slightest doubt of his guilt, and it was his mother +who, broken-hearted, and absolutely refusing to believe in her son's +guilt, had come to Dorcas Dene and requested her to take up the case +privately and investigate it. The poor old lady declared that she was +perfectly certain that her son could not have been guilty of such a +deed, but the police were satisfied, and would make no further +investigation.</p> + +<p>This I learnt afterwards when I went to see Inspector Swanage. All +I knew when I had finished reading up the case in the newspapers was that +the husband of Mrs. Hannaford was in Broadmoor, practically condemned for +the murder of his wife, and that Dorcas Dene had left home to try and +prove his innocence.</p> + +<p>This history of the Hannafords as given in the public Press was as +follows: Mrs. Hannaford was a widow when Mr. Hannaford, a man of +six-and-thirty, married her. Her first husband was a Mr. Charles Drayson, +a financier, who had been among the victims of the fire at the Paris +Opéra Comique. His wife was with him in a loge that fatal night. When the +fire broke out they both tried to escape together. They became separated +in the crush. She was only slightly injured, and succeeded in getting +out; he was less fortunate. His gold watch, a presentation one, with an +inscription, was found among a mass of charred, unrecognisable remains +when the ruins were searched.</p> + +<p>Three years after this tragedy the widow married Mr. Hannaford. The +death of her first husband did not leave her well off. It was found that +he was heavily in debt, and had he lived a serious charge of fraud would +undoubtedly have been preferred against him. As it was, his partner, a +Mr. Thomas Holmes, was arrested and sentenced to five years' penal +servitude in connection with a joint fraudulent transaction.</p> + +<p>The estate of Mr. Drayson went to satisfy the creditors, but +Mrs. Drayson, the widow, retained the house at Haverstock Hill, which he +had purchased and settled on her, with all the furniture and contents, +some years previously. She wished to continue living in the house when +she married again, and Mr. Hannaford consented, and they made it their +home. Hannaford himself, though not a wealthy man, was a fairly +successful stockjobber, and until the crisis, which had brought on great +anxiety and helped to break down his health, had had no financial +worries. But the marriage, so it was alleged, had not been a very happy +one and quarrels had been frequent. Old Mrs. Hannaford was against it +from the first, and to her her son always turned in his later matrimonial +troubles. Now that his life had probably been spared by this mental +breakdown, and he had been sent to Broadmoor, she had but one object in +life—to set her son free, some day restored to reason, and with his +innocence proved to the world.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>It was about a fortnight after my interview with Inspector Swanage, +and my study of the details of the Haverstock Hill murder, that one +morning I opened a telegram and to my intense delight found that it was +from Dorcas Dene. It was from London, and informed me that in the +evening they would be very pleased to see me at Oak Tree Road.</p> + +<p>In the evening I presented myself about eight o'clock. Paul was alone +in the drawing-room when I entered, but his face and his voice when he +greeted me showed me plainly that he had benefited greatly by +the change.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been, to look so well?" I asked. "The South of Europe, +I suppose—Nice or Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Paul smiling, "we haven't been nearly so far as that. But +I mustn't tell tales out of school. You must ask Dorcas."</p> + +<p>At that moment Dorcas came in and gave me a cordial greeting.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, after the first conversational preliminaries, "who +committed the Haverstock Hill murder?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, so you know that I have taken that up, do you? I imagined it +would get about through the Yard people. You see, Paul dear, how wise +I was to give out that I had gone away."</p> + +<p>"Give out!" I exclaimed. "<em>Haven't</em> you been away then?"</p> + +<p>"No, Paul and mother have been staying at Hastings, and I have been +down whenever I have been able to spare a day, but as a matter of fact +I have been in London the greater part of the time."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see the use of your pretending you were going away."</p> + +<p>"I did it on purpose. I knew the fact that old Mrs. Hannaford had +engaged me would get about in certain circles, and I wanted certain +people to think that I had gone away to investigate some clue which I +thought I had discovered. In order to baulk all possible inquirers I +didn't even let the servants forward my letters. They went to Jackson, +who sent them on to me."</p> + +<p>"Then you were really investigating in London?"</p> + +<p>"Now shall I tell you where you heard that I was on this case?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You heard it at Kempton Park Steeplechases, and your informant was +Inspector Swanage."</p> + +<p>"You have seen him and he has told you."</p> + +<p>"No; I saw you there talking to him."</p> + +<p>"<em>You</em> saw me? You were at Kempton Park? I never saw you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you did, for I caught you looking full at me. I was trying to +sell some race cards just before the second race, and was holding them +between the railings of the enclosure."</p> + +<p>"What! You were that old gipsy woman? I'm certain Swanage didn't +know you."</p> + +<p>"I didn't want him to, or anybody else."</p> + +<p>"It was an astonishing disguise. But come, aren't you going to tell +me anything about the Hannaford case? I've been reading it up, but I +fail entirely to see the slightest suspicion against anyone but the +husband. Everything points to his having committed the crime in a moment +of madness. The fact that he has since gone completely out of his mind +seems to me to show that conclusively."</p> + +<p>"It is a good job he did go out of his mind—but for that I am +afraid he would have suffered for the crime, and the poor broken-hearted +old mother for whom I working would soon have followed him to +the grave."</p> + +<p>"Then you don't share the general belief in his guilt?"</p> + +<p>"I did at first, but I don't now."</p> + +<p>"You have discovered the guilty party?"</p> + +<p>"No—not yet—but I hope to."</p> + +<p>"Tell me exactly all that has happened—there may still be a +chance for your 'assistant.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is quite possible that now I may be able to avail myself of +your services. You say you have studied the details of this +case—let us just run through them together, and see what you think +of my plan of campaign so far as it has gone. When old Mrs. Hannaford +came to me, her son had already been declared insane and unable to plead, +and had gone to Broadmoor. That was nearly a month after the commission +of the crime, so that much valuable time had been lost. At first I +declined to take the matter up—the police had so thoroughly +investigated the affair. The case seemed so absolutely conclusive that +I told her that it would be useless for her to incur the heavy expense +of a private investigation. But she pleaded so earnestly—her faith +in her son was so great—and she seemed such a sweet, dear old lady, +that at last she conquered my scruples, and I consented to study the +case, and see if there was the slightest alternative theory to go on. +I had almost abandoned hope, for there was nothing in the published +reports to encourage it, when I determined to go to the fountain-head, +and see the Superintendent who had had the case in hand.</p> + +<p>"He received me courteously, and told me everything. He was certain +that the husband committed the murder. There was an entire absence of +motive for anyone else in the house to have done it, and the husband's +flight from the house in the middle of the night was absolutely damning. +I inquired if they had found anyone who had seen the husband in the +street—anyone who could fix the time at which he had left the +house. He replied that no such witness had been found. Then I asked if +the policeman on duty that night had made any report of any suspicious +characters being seen about. He said No, the only person he had noticed +at all was a man well known to the police—a man named Flash +George. I asked what time Flash George had been seen and whereabouts, +and I ascertained that it was at half-past two in the morning, and about +a hundred yards below the scene of the crime, that when the policeman +spoke to him he said he was coming from Hampstead, and was going to +Covent Garden Market. He walked away in the direction of the Chalk Farm +Road. I enquired what Flash George's record was, and I ascertained that +he was the associate of thieves and swindlers, and he was suspected of +having disposed of some jewels, the proceeds of a robbery which had made +a nine days' sensation. But the police had failed to bring the charge +home to him, and the jewels had never been traced. He was also a gambler, +a frequenter of racecourses and certain night-clubs of evil repute, and +had not been seen about for some time previous to that evening."</p> + +<p>"And didn't the police make any further investigations in +that direction?"</p> + +<p>"No. Why should they? There was nothing missing from the +house—not the slightest sign of an attempted burglary. All +their efforts were directed to proving the guilt of the unfortunate +woman's husband."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I had a different task—mine was to prove the husband's +innocence. I determined to find out something more of Flash George. +I shut the house up, gave out that I had gone away, and took, amongst +other things, to selling cards and pencils on racecourses. The day that +Flash George made his reappearance on the turf after a long absence was +the day he backed the winner of the second race at Kempton Park for a +hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>"But surely that proves that if he had been connected with any crime +it must have been one in which money was obtained. No one has attempted +to associate the murder of Mrs. Hannaford with robbery."</p> + +<p>"No. But one thing is certain—that on the night of the crime +Flash George was in the neighbourhood. Two days previously he had +borrowed a few pounds of a pal because he was 'stoney broke.' When he +reappears as a racing man he has on a fur coat, is evidently in +first-class circumstances, and he bets in hundred-pound notes. He is a +considerably richer man after the murder of Mrs. Hannaford than he was +before, and he was seen within a hundred yards of the house at +half-past two o'clock on the night that the crime was committed."</p> + +<p>"That might have been a mere accident. His sudden wealth may be the +result of a lucky gamble, or a swindle of which you know nothing. I can't +see that it can possibly have any bearing on the Hannaford crime, because +nothing was taken from the house."</p> + +<p>"Quite true. But here is a remarkable fact. When he went up to the +betting man he went to one who was betting close to the rails, and I +pushed my cards in between and asked him to buy one. Flash George is a +'suspected character,' and quite capable on a foggy day of trying to +swindle a bookmaker. The bookmaker took the precaution to open that note, +it being for a hundred pounds, and examined it carefully. That enabled me +to see the number. I had sharpened pencils to sell, and with one of them +I hastily took down the number of that note—— + <span role="img" aria-label="two over x"> + <span aria-hidden="true" style="display:inline-block; text-align:center; line-height:1; font-size:0.75em; vertical-align:middle;"> + <span style="display:block;">2</span> + <span style="display:block;">x</span> + </span> + </span> + <span style="font-size:0.6em; vertical-align:middle;">|</span> + 35421." +</p> + +<p>"That was clever. And you have traced it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And has that furnished you with any clue?"</p> + +<p>"It has placed me in possession of a most remarkable fact. The +hundred-pound note which was in Flash George's possession on Kempton Park +racecourse was one of a number which were paid over the counter of the +Union Bank of London for a five-thousand-pound cheque over seven years +ago. And that cheque was drawn by the murdered woman's husband."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hannaford!"</p> + +<p>"No; her first husband—Mr. Charles Drayson."</p> + +<h3 style="text-align:center;" id="C11">XI. THE BROWN BEAR LAMP</h3> + +<p>When Dorcas Dene told me that the £100 note Flash George had +handed to the bookmaker at Kempton Park was one which had some years +previously been paid to Mr. Charles Drayson, the first husband of the +murdered woman, Mrs. Hannaford, I had to sit still and think for +a moment.</p> + +<p>It was curious certainly, but after all much more remarkable +coincidences than that occur daily. I could not see what practical value +there was in Dorcas's extraordinary discovery, because Mr. Charles +Drayson was dead, and it was hardly likely that his wife would have kept +a £100 note of his for several years. And if she had, she had not +been murdered for that, because there were no signs of the house having +been broken into. The more I thought the business over the more confused +I became in my attempt to establish a clue from it, and so after a +minute's silence I frankly confessed to Dorcas that I didn't see where +her discovery led to.</p> + +<p>"I don't say that it leads very far by itself," said Dorcas. "But you +must look at <em>all</em> the circumstances. During the night of January +5 a lady is murdered in her own drawing-room. Round about the time that +the attack is supposed to have been made upon her a well-known bad +character is seen close to the house. That person, who just previously +has been ascertained to have been so hard up that he had been borrowing +of his associates, reappears on the turf a few weeks later expensively +dressed and in possession of money. He bets with a £100 note, and +that £100 note I have traced to the previous possession of the +murdered woman's first husband, who lost his life in the Opéra Comique +disaster in Paris, while on a short visit to that capital."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it certainly is curious, but——"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute—I haven't finished yet. Of the +bank-notes—several of them for £100—which were paid +some years ago to Mr. Charles Drayson, not one had come back to the +bank <em>before</em> the murder."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Since the murder <em>several</em> of them have come in. Now, is it +not a remarkable circumstance that during all those years £5,000 +worth of bank-notes should have remained out!"</p> + +<p>"It is remarkable, but after all bank-notes circulate—they may +pass through hundreds of hands before returning to the bank."</p> + +<p>"Some may, undoubtedly, but it is highly improbable that <em>all</em> +would under ordinary circumstances—especially notes for £100. +These are sums which are not passed from pocket to pocket. As a rule they +go to the bank of one of the early receivers of them, and from that bank +into the Bank of England."</p> + +<p>"You mean that is an extraordinary fact that for many years not one of +the notes paid to Mr. Charles Drayson by the Union Bank came back to the +Bank of England."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that <em>is</em> an extraordinary fact, but there is a fact +which is more extraordinary still, and that is that soon after the murder +of Mrs. Hannaford that state of things ceases. It looks as though the +murderer had placed the notes in circulation again."</p> + +<p>"It does, certainly. Have you traced back any of the other notes that +have come in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but they have been cleverly worked. They have nearly all been +circulated in the betting ring; those that have not have come in from +money-changers in Paris and Rotterdam. My own belief is that before long +the whole of those notes will come back to the bank."</p> + +<p>"Then, my dear Dorcas, it seems to me that your course is plain, and +you ought to go to the police and get them to get the bank to circulate +a list of the notes."</p> + +<p>Dorcas shook her head. "No, thank you," she said. "I'm going to carry +this case through on my own account. The police are convinced that the +murderer is Mr. Hannaford, who is at present in Broadmoor, and the bank +has absolutely no reason to interfere. No question has been raised of the +notes having been stolen. They were paid to the man who died over seven +years ago, not to the woman who was murdered last January."</p> + +<p>"But you have traced one note to Flash George, who is a bad lot, and +he was near the house on the night of the tragedy. You suspect Flash +George and——"</p> + +<p>"I do not suspect Flash George of the actual murder," she said, "and +I don't see how he is to be arrested for being in possession of a +bank-note which forms no part of the police case, and which he might +easily say he had received in the betting ring."</p> + +<p>"Then what <em>are</em> you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Follow up the clue I have. I have been shadowing Flash George all +the time I have been away. I know where he lives—I know who are +his companions."</p> + +<p>"And do you think the murderer is among them?"</p> + +<p>"No. They are all a little astonished at his sudden good fortune. I +have heard them 'chip' him, as they call it, on the subject. I have +carried my investigations up to a certain point and there they stop +short. I am going a step further to-morrow evening, and it is in that +step that I want assistance."</p> + +<p>"And you have come to me?" I said eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What do you want me to do?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning I am going to make a thorough examination of the +room in which the murder was committed. To-morrow evening I have to meet +a gentleman of whom I know nothing but his career and his name. I want +you to accompany me."</p> + +<p>"Certainly; but if I am your assistant in the evening I shall expect +to be your assistant in the morning—I should very much like to +see the scene of the crime."</p> + +<p>"I have no objection. The house on Haverstock Hill is at present shut +up and in charge of a caretaker, but the solicitors who are managing the +late Mrs. Hannaford's estate have given me permission to go over it +and examine it."</p> + +<p>The next day at eleven o'clock I met Dorcas outside Mrs. Hannaford's +house, and the caretaker, who had received his instructions, admitted us. +He was the gardener, and an old servant, and had been present during +the police investigation.</p> + +<p>The bedroom in which Mr. Hannaford and his wife slept on the fatal +night was on the floor above. Dorcas told me to go upstairs, shut the +door, lie down on the bed, and listen. Directly a noise in the room +attracted my attention, I was to jump up, open the door and call out.</p> + +<p>I obeyed her instructions and listened intently, but lying on the bed +I heard nothing for a long time. It must have been quite a quarter of an +hour when suddenly I heard a sound as of a door opening with a cracking +sound. I leapt up, ran to the balusters, and called over, "I heard that!"</p> + +<p>"All right, then, come down," said Dorcas, who was standing in the +hall with the caretaker.</p> + +<p>She explained to me that she had been moving about the drawing-room +with the man, and they had both made as much noise with their feet as +they could. They had even opened and shut the drawing-room door, but +nothing had attracted my attention. Then Dorcas had sent the man to +open the front door. It had opened with the cracking sound that I +had heard.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Dorcas to the caretaker, "you were here when the police +were coming and going—did the front door always make a sound +like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam. The door had swollen or warped, or something, and it +was always difficult to open. Mrs. Hannaford spoke about it once and +was going to have it eased."</p> + +<p>"That's it, then," said Dorcas to me. "The probability is that it was +the noise made by the opening of that front door which first attracted +the attention of the murdered woman."</p> + +<p>"That was Hannaford going out—if his story is correct."</p> + +<p>"No; Hannaford went out in a rage. He would pull the door open +violently, and probably bang it too. That she would understand. It was +when the door <em>opened again</em> with a sharp crack that she listened, +thinking it was her husband come back."</p> + +<p>"But she was murdered in the drawing-room?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. My theory, therefore, is that after the opening of the front +door she expected her husband to come upstairs. He didn't do so, and +she concluded that he had gone into one of the rooms downstairs to spend +the night, and she got up and came down to find him and ask him to get +over his temper and come back to bed. She went into the drawing-room to +see if he was there, and was struck down from behind before she had time +to utter a cry. The servants heard nothing, remember."</p> + +<p>"They said so at the inquest—yes."</p> + +<p>"Now come into the drawing-room. This is where the caretaker tells me +the body was found—here in the centre of the room—the poker +with which the fatal blow had been struck was lying between the body and +the fireplace. The absence of a cry and the position of the body show +that when Mrs. Hannaford opened the door she <em>saw no one</em> (I am of +course presuming that the murderer was <em>not</em> her husband) and she +came in further. But there must have been someone in the room or she +couldn't have been murdered in it."</p> + +<p>"That is indisputable; but he might not have been in the room at the +time—the person might have been hiding in the hall and followed +her in."</p> + +<p>"To suppose that we must presume that the murderer came into the room, +took the poker from the fireplace, and went out again in order to come +in again. That poker was secured, I am convinced, when the intruder heard +footsteps coming down the stairs. He picked up the poker then concealed +himself <em>here</em>."</p> + +<p>"Then why, my dear Dorcas, shouldn't he have remained concealed until +Mrs. Hannaford had gone out of the room again?"</p> + +<p>"I think she was turning to go when he rushed out and struck her down. +He probably thought that she had heard the noise of the door, and might +go and alarm the servants."</p> + +<p>"But just now you said she came in believing that her husband had +returned and was in one of the rooms."</p> + +<p>"The intruder could hardly be in possession of <em>her thoughts</em>."</p> + +<p>"In the meantime he could have got out at the front door."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but if his object was robbery he would have to go without the +plunder. He struck the woman down in order to have time to get what +he wanted."</p> + +<p>"Then you think he left her here senseless while he searched the house?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody got anything by searching the house, ma'am," broke in the +caretaker. "The police satisfied themselves that nothing had been +disturbed. Every door was locked, the plate was all complete, not a bit +of jewellery or anything was missing. The servants were all examined +about that, and the detectives went over every room and every cupboard +to prove it wasn't no burglar broke in or anything of that sort. Besides, +the windows were all fastened."</p> + +<p>"What he says is quite true," said Dorcas to me, "but something +alarmed Mrs. Hannaford in the night and brought her to the drawing-room +in her nightdress. If it was as I suspect, the opening of the front door, +that is how the guilty person got in."</p> + +<p>The caretaker shook his head. "It was the poor master as did it, +ma'am, right enough. He was out of his mind."</p> + +<p>Dorcas shrugged her shoulders. "If he had done it, it would have been +a furious attack, there would have been oaths and cries, and the poor +lady would have received a rain of blows. The medical evidence shows that +death resulted from <em>one</em> heavy blow on the <em>back</em> of the +skull. But let us see where the murderer could have concealed himself +ready armed with the poker here in the drawing-room."</p> + +<p>In front of the drawing-room window were heavy curtains, and I at once +suggested that curtains were the usual place of concealment on the stage +and might be in real life.</p> + +<p>As soon as I had asked the question Dorcas turned to the caretaker. +"You are certain that every article of furniture is in its place exactly +as it was that night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; the police prepared a plan of the room for the trial, and since +then by the solicitors' orders we have not touched a thing."</p> + +<p>"That settles the curtains then," continued Dorcas. "Look at the +windows for yourself. In front of one, close by the curtains, is an +ornamental table covered with china and glass and bric-à-brac; and in +front of the other a large settee. No man could have come from behind +those curtains without shifting that furniture out of his way. That would +have immediately attracted Mrs. Hannaford's attention and given her time +to scream and rush out of the room. No, we must find some other place for +the assassin. Ah!—I wonder if——"</p> + +<p>Dorcas's eyes were fixed on a large brown bear which stood nearly +against the wall near the fireplace. The bear, a very fine, big specimen, +was supported in its upright position by an ornamental iron pole, at the +top of which was fixed an oil lamp covered with a yellow silk shade.</p> + +<p>"That's a fine bear lamp," exclaimed Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the caretaker, "it's been here ever since I've been in the +family's service. It was bought by the poor mistress's first husband, +Mr. Drayson, and he thought a lot of it. But," he added, looking at it +curiously, "I always thought it stood closer to the wall than that. It used +to—right against it."</p> + +<p>"Ah," exclaimed Dorcas, "that's interesting. Pull the curtains right +back and give me all the light you can."</p> + +<p>As the man obeyed her directions she went down on her hands and knees +and examined the carpet carefully.</p> + +<p>"You are right," she said. "This has been moved a little forward, +and not so very long ago—the carpet for a square of some inches is +a different colour to the rest. The brown bear stands on a square +mahogany stand, and the exact square now shows in the colour of the +carpet that has been hidden by it. Only here is a discoloured portion and +the bear does not now stand on it."</p> + +<p>The evidence of the bear having been moved forward from a position it +had long occupied was indisputable. Dorcas got up and went to the door +of the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Go and stand behind that bear," she said. "Stand as compact as you +can, as though you were endeavouring to conceal yourself."</p> + +<p>I obeyed, and Dorcas, standing in the drawing-room doorway, declared +that I was completely hidden.</p> + +<p>"Now," she said, coming to the centre of the room and turning her back +to me, "reach down from where you are and see if you can pick up the +shovel from the fireplace without making a noise."</p> + +<p>I reached out carefully and had the shovel in my hand without making a sound.</p> + +<p>"I have it," I said.</p> + +<p>"That's right. The poker would have been on the same side as the +shovel, and much easier to pick up quietly. Now, while my back is turned, +grasp the shovel by the handle, leap out at me, and raise the shovel as +if to hit me—but don't get excited and do it, because I don't want +to realise the scene <em>too</em> completely."</p> + +<p>I obeyed. My footsteps were scarcely heard on the heavy-pile +drawing-room carpet. When Dorcas turned round the shovel was above her +head ready to strike.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for letting me off," she said, with a smile. Then her face +becoming serious again, she exclaimed: "The murderer of Mrs. Hannaford +concealed himself behind that brown bear lamp, and attacked her in +exactly the way I have indicated. But why had he moved the bear two or +three inches forward?"</p> + +<p>"To conceal himself behind it."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! His concealment was a sudden act. That bear is +heavy—the glass chimney of the lamp would have rattled if it had +been done violently and hurriedly while Mrs. Hannaford was coming +downstairs—that would have attracted her attention and she would +have called out, 'Who's there?' at the doorway, and not have come in +looking about for her husband."</p> + +<p>Dorcas looked the animal over carefully, prodded it with her fingers, +and then went behind it.</p> + +<p>After a minute or two's close examination, she uttered a little cry +and called me to her side.</p> + +<p>She had found in the back of the bear a small straight slit. This was +quite invisible. She had only discovered it by an accidentally violent +thrust of her fingers into the animal's fur. Into this slit she thrust +her hand, and the aperture yielded sufficiently for her to thrust her arm +in. The interior of the bear was hollow, but Dorcas's hand as it went +down struck against a wooden bottom. Then she withdrew her arm and the +aperture closed up. It had evidently been specially prepared as a place +of concealment, and only the most careful examination would have +revealed it.</p> + +<p>"Now," exclaimed Dorcas, triumphantly, "I think we are on a straight +road! This, I believe, is where those missing bank-notes lay concealed +for years. They were probably placed there by Mr. Drayson with the idea +that some day his frauds might be discovered or he might be made a +bankrupt. This was his little nest-egg, and his death in Paris before his +fraud was discovered prevented his making use of them. Mrs. Hannaford +evidently knew nothing of the hidden treasure, or she would speedily have +removed it. But <em>someone</em> knew, and that someone put his knowledge +to practical use the night that Mrs. Hannaford was murdered. The man who +got in at the front door that night, got in to relieve the bear of its +valuable stuffing; he moved the bear to get at the aperture, and was +behind it when Mrs. Hannaford came in. The rest is easy to understand."</p> + +<p>"But how did he get in at the front door?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I have to find out. I am sure now that Flash George was +in it. He was seen outside, and some of the notes that were concealed +in the brown bear lamp have been traced to him. Who was Flash George's +accomplice we may discover to-night. I think I have an idea, and if that +is correct we shall have the solution of the whole mystery before dawn +to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"Why do you think you will learn so much to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Because Flash George met a man two nights ago outside the Criterion. +I was selling wax matches, and followed them up, pestering them. I heard +George say to his companion, whom I had never seen with him before, 'Tell +him Hungerford Bridge, midnight, Wednesday. Tell him to bring the lot +and I'll cash up for them!'"</p> + +<p>"And you think the 'him'——?"</p> + +<p>"Is the man who rifled the brown bear and killed Mrs. Hannaford."</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>At eleven o'clock that evening I met Dorcas Dene in Villiers Street. +I knew what she would be like, otherwise her disguise would have +completely baffled me. She was dressed as an Italian street musician, +and was with a man who looked like an Italian organ-grinder.</p> + +<p>Dorcas took my breath away by her first words.</p> + +<p>"Allow me to introduce you," she said, "to Mr. Thomas Holmes. This is +the gentleman who was Charles Drayson's partner, and was sentenced to +five years' penal servitude over the partnership frauds."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the organ-grinder in excellent English. "I suppose I +deserved it for being a fool, but the villain was Drayson—he had +all my money, and involved me in a fraud at the finish."</p> + +<p>"I have told Mr. Holmes the story of our discovery," said Dorcas. +"I have been in communication with him ever since I discovered the notes +were in circulation. He knew Drayson's affairs, and he has given me some +valuable information. He is with us to-night because he knew Mr. +Drayson's former associates, and he may be able to identify the man who +knew the secret of the house at Haverstock Hill."</p> + +<p>"You think that is the man Flash George is to meet?"</p> + +<p>"I do. What else can 'Tell him to bring the lot and I'll cash up' +mean but the rest of the bank-notes?"</p> + +<p>Shortly before twelve we got on to Hungerford Bridge—the +narrow footway that runs across the Thames by the side of the railway.</p> + +<p>I was to walk ahead and keep clear of the Italians until I heard +a signal.</p> + +<p>We crossed the bridge after that once or twice, I coming from one +end and the Italians from the other, and passing each other about +the centre.</p> + +<p>At five minutes to midnight I saw Flash George come slowly along from +the Middlesex side. The Italians were not far behind. A minute later an +old man with a grey beard, and wearing an old Inverness cape, passed me, +coming from the Surrey side. When he met Flash George the two stopped and +leant over the parapet, apparently interested in the river. Suddenly I +heard Dorcas's signal. She began to sing the Italian song, +"Santa Lucia."</p> + +<p>I had my instructions. I jostled up against the two men and begged +their pardon.</p> + +<p>Flash George turned fiercely round. At the same moment I seized the +old man and shouted for help. The Italians came hastily up. Several foot +passengers rushed to the scene and inquired what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"He was going to commit suicide," I cried. "He was just going to jump +into the water."</p> + +<p>The old man was struggling in my grasp. The crowd were keeping back +Flash George. They believed the old man was struggling to get free to +throw himself into the water.</p> + +<p>The Italian rushed up to me.</p> + +<p>"Ah, poor old man!" he said. "Don't let him get away!"</p> + +<p>He gave a violent tug to the grey beard. It came off in his hands. +Then with an oath he seized the supposed would-be suicide by +the throat.</p> + +<p>"You infernal villain!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" asked Dorcas.</p> + +<p>"Who is he!" exclaimed Thomas Holmes, "why, the villain who +brought me to ruin—<em>my precious +partner</em>—<em>Charles Drayson!</em>"</p> + +<p>As the words escaped from the supposed Italian's lips, Charles +Drayson gave a cry of terror, and leaping on to the parapet, +plunged into the river.</p> + +<p>Flash George turned to run, but was stopped by a policeman +who had just come up.</p> + +<p>Dorcas whispered something in the man's ear, and the officer, +thrusting his hand in the rascal's pocket, drew out a bundle of +bank-notes.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later the would-be suicide was brought ashore. He +was still alive, but had injured himself terribly in his fall, and +was taken to the hospital.</p> + +<p>Before he died he was induced to confess that he had taken +advantage of the Paris fire to disappear. He had flung his watch down +in order that it might be found as evidence of his death. He had, +previously to visiting the Opéra Comique, received a letter at +his hotel which told him pretty plainly the game was up, and he knew +that at any moment a warrant might be issued against him. After reading +his name amongst the victims, he lived as best he could abroad, but after +some years, being in desperate straits, he determined to do a bold thing, +return to London and endeavour to get into his house and obtain +possession of the money which was lying unsuspected in the interior of +the brown bear lamp. He had concealed it, well knowing that at any time +the crash might come, and everything belonging to him be seized. The +hiding-place he had selected was one which neither his creditors nor his +relatives would suspect.</p> + +<p>On the night he entered the house, Flash George, whose acquaintance he +had made in London, kept watch for him <em>while he let himself in with +his latch-key</em>, which he had carefully preserved. Mr. Hannaford's +leaving the house was one of those pieces of good fortune which +occasionally favour the wicked.</p> + +<p>With his dying breath Charles Drayson declared that he had no +intention of killing his wife. He feared that, having heard a noise, she +had come to see what it was, and might alarm the house in her terror, and +as she turned to go out of the drawing-room he struck her, intending only +to render her senseless until he had secured the booty.</p> + +<div class="dinkus"> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> + <span>*</span> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Hannaford, completely recovered and in his right mind, was in due +time released from Broadmoor. The letter from his mother to Dorcas Dene, +thanking her for clearing her son's character and proving his innocence +of the terrible crime for which he had been practically condemned, +brought tears to my eyes as Dorcas read it aloud to Paul and myself. It +was touching and beautiful to a degree.</p> + +<p>As she folded it up and put it away, I saw that Dorcas herself +was deeply moved.</p> + +<p>"These are the <em>rewards</em> of my profession," she said. +"They compensate for everything."</p> + +<p style="text-align:center;">THE END</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77243 ***</div> +</body> +</html>
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