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diff --git a/9902.txt b/9902.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..248abf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/9902.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9129 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Middle of Things, by J. S. Fletcher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Middle of Things + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Posting Date: December 5, 2011 [EBook #9902] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 29, 2003 +Last Updated: December 14, 2004 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIDDLE OF THINGS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + THE MIDDLE OF THINGS + + BY J.S. FLETCHER + + 1922 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + + I FACED WITH REALITY + + II NUMBER SEVEN IN THE SQUARE + + III WHO WAS ASHTON? + + IV THE RING AND THE KNIFE + + V LOOK FOR THAT MAN! + + VI SPECULATIONS + + VII WHAT WAS THE SECRET? + + VIII NEWS FROM ARCADIA + + IX LOOKING BACKWARD + + X THE PARISH REGISTER + + XI WHAT HAPPENED IN PARIS + + XII THE GREY MARE INN + + XIII THE JAPANESE CABINET + + XIV THE ELLINGHAM MOTTO + + XV THE PRESENT HOLDER + + XVI THE OUTHOUSE + + XVII THE CLAIMANT + + XVIII LET HIM APPEAR! + + XIX UNDER EXAMINATION + + XX SURPRISING READINESS + + XXI THE MARSEILLES MEETING + + XXII ON REMAND + + XXIII IS THIS MAN RIGHT? + + XXIV THE BROKEN LETTER + + XXV THROUGH THE TELEPHONE + + XXVI THE DISMAL STREET + + XXVII THE BACK WAY + + XXVIII THE TRUTH + + XXIX WHO IS TO TELL HER? + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FACED WITH REALITY + + +On that particular November evening, Viner, a young gentleman of means +and leisure, who lived in a comfortable old house in Markendale Square, +Bayswater, in company with his maiden aunt Miss Bethia Penkridge, had +spent his after-dinner hours in a fashion which had become a habit. Miss +Penkridge, a model housekeeper and an essentially worthy woman, whose +whole day was given to supervising somebody or something, had an +insatiable appetite for fiction, and loved nothing so much as that her +nephew should read a novel to her after the two glasses of port which she +allowed herself every night had been thoughtfully consumed and he and she +had adjourned from the dining-room to the hearthrug in the library. Her +tastes, however, in Viner's opinion were somewhat, if not decidedly, +limited. Brought up in her youth on Miss Braddon, Wilkie Collins and Mrs. +Henry Wood, Miss Penkridge had become a confirmed slave to the +sensational. She had no taste for the psychological, and nothing but +scorn for the erotic. What she loved was a story which began with crime +and ended with a detection--a story which kept you wondering who did it, +how it was done, and when the doing was going to be laid bare to the +light of day. Nothing pleased her better than to go to bed with a brain +titivated with the mysteries of the last three chapters; nothing gave her +such infinite delight as to find, when the final pages were turned, that +all her own theories were wrong, and that the real criminal was somebody +quite other than the person she had fancied. For a novelist who was so +little master of his trade as to let you see when and how things were +going, Miss Penkridge had little but good-natured pity; for one who led +you by all sorts of devious tracks to a startling and surprising +sensation she cherished a whole-souled love; but for the creator of a +plot who could keep his secret alive and burning to his last few +sentences she felt the deepest thing that she could give to any human +being--respect. Such a master was entered permanently on her mental +library list. + +At precisely ten o'clock that evening Viner read the last page of a novel +which had proved to be exactly suited to his aunt's tastes. A dead +silence fell on the room, broken only by the crackling of the logs in the +grate. Miss Penkridge dropped her knitting on her silk-gowned knees and +stared at the leaping flames; her nephew, with an odd glance at her, rose +from his easy-chair, picked up a pipe and began to fill it from a +tobacco-jar on the mantelpiece. The clock had ticked several times before +Miss Penkridge spoke. + +"Well!" she said, with the accompanying sigh which denotes complete +content. "So he did it! Now, I should never have thought it! The last +person of the whole lot! Clever--very clever! Richard, you'll get all the +books that that man has written!" + +Viner lighted his pipe, thrust his hands in the pockets of his trousers +and leaned back against the mantelpiece. + +"My dear aunt!" he said half-teasingly, half-seriously. "You're worse +than a drug-taker. Whatever makes a highly-respectable, shrewd old lady +like you cherish such an insensate fancy for this sort of stuff?" + +"Stuff?" demanded Miss Penkridge, who had resumed her knitting. "Pooh! +It's not stuff--it's life! Real life--in the form of fiction!" + +Viner shook his head, pityingly. He never read fiction for his own +amusement; his tastes in reading lay elsewhere, in solid directions. +Moreover, in those directions he was a good deal of a student, and he +knew more of his own library than of the world outside it. So he shook +his head again. + +"Life!" he said. "You don't mean to say that you think those things"--he +pointed a half-scornful finger to a pile of novels which had come in from +Mudie's that day--"really represent life?" + +"What else?" demanded Miss Penkridge. + +"Oh--I don't know," replied Viner vaguely. "Fancy, I suppose, and +imagination, and all that sort of thing--invention, you know, and so on. +But--life! Do you really think such things happen in real life, as those +we've been reading about?" + +"I don't think anything about it," retorted Miss Penkridge sturdily. "I'm +sure of it. I never had a novel yet, nor heard one read to me, that was +half as strong as it might have been!" + +"Queer thing, one never hears or sees of these things, then!" exclaimed +Viner. "I never have!--and I've been on this planet thirty years." + +"That sort of thing hasn't come your way, Richard," remarked Miss +Penkridge sententiously. "And you don't read the popular Sunday +newspapers. I do! They're full of crime of all sorts. So's the world. And +as to mysteries--well, I've known of two or three in my time that were +much more extraordinary than any I've ever read of in novels. I should +think so!" + +Viner dropped into his easy-chair and stretched his legs. + +"Such as--what?" he asked. + +"Well," answered Miss Penkridge, regarding her knitting with appraising +eyes, "there was a case that excited great interest when your poor mother +and I were mere girls. It was in our town--young Quainton, the banker. He +was about your age, married to a very pretty girl, and they'd a fine +baby. He was immensely rich, a strong healthy young fellow, fond of life, +popular, without a care in the world, so far as any one knew. One +morning, after breakfasting with his wife, he walked away from his house, +on the outskirts of the town--only a very small town, mind you--to go to +the bank, as usual. He never reached the bank--in fact, he was never seen +again, never heard of again. He'd only half a mile to walk, along a +fairly frequented road, but--complete, absolute, final disappearance! +And--never cleared up!" + +"Odd!" agreed Viner. "Very odd, indeed. Well--any more?" + +"Plenty!" said Miss Penkridge, with a click of her needles. "There was +the case of poor young Lady Marshflower--as sweet a young thing as man +could wish to see! Your mother and I saw her married--she was a +Ravenstone, and only nineteen. She married Sir Thomas Marshflower, a man +of forty. They'd only just come home from the honeymoon when +it--happened. One morning Sir Thomas rode into the market-town to preside +at the petty sessions--he hadn't been long gone when a fine, +distinguished-looking man called, and asked to see Lady Marshflower. He +was shown into the morning-room--she went to him. Five minutes later a +shot was heard. The servants rushed in--to find their young mistress shot +through the heart, dead. But the murderer? Disappeared as completely as +last year's snow! That was never solved, never!" + +"Do you mean to tell me the man was never caught?" exclaimed Viner. + +"I tell you that not only was the man never caught, but that although Sir +Thomas spent a fortune and nearly lost his senses in trying to find out +who he was, what he wanted and what he had to do with Lady Marshflower, +he never discovered one single fact!" affirmed Miss Penkridge. "There!" + +"That's queerer than the other," observed Viner. "A veritable mystery!" + +"Veritable mysteries!" said Miss Penkridge, with a sniff. "The world's +full of 'em! How many murders go undetected--how many burglaries are +never traced--how many forgeries are done and never found out? Piles of +'em--as the police could tell you. And talking about forgeries, what +about old Barrett, who was _the_ great man at Pumpney, when your mother +and I were girls there? That was a fine case of crime going on for years +and years and years, undetected--aye, and not even suspected!" + +"What was it?" asked Viner, who had begun by being amused and was now +becoming interested. "Who was Barrett?" + +"If you'd known Pumpney when we lived there," replied Miss Penkridge, +"you wouldn't have had to ask twice who Mr. Samuel Barrett was. He was +everybody. He was everything--except honest. But nobody knew that--until +it was too late. He was a solicitor by profession, but that was a mere +nothing--in comparison. He was chief spirit in the place. I don't know +how many times he wasn't mayor of Pumpney. He held all sorts of offices. +He was a big man at the parish church--vicar's warden, and all that. And +he was trustee for half the moneyed people in the town--everybody wanted +Samuel Barrett, for trustee or executor; he was such a solid, +respectable, square-toed man, the personification of integrity. And +he died, suddenly, and then it was found that he'd led a double life, +and had an establishment here in London, and was a gambler and a +speculator, and Heaven knows what, and all the money that had been +intrusted to him was nowhere, and he'd systematically forged, and +cooked accounts, and embezzled corporation money--and he'd no doubt +have gone on doing it for many a year longer if he hadn't had a stroke +of apoplexy. And that wasn't in a novel!" concluded Miss Penkridge +triumphantly. "Novels--Improbability--pooh! Judged by what some people +can tell of life, the novel that's improbable hasn't yet been written!" + +"Well!" remarked Viner after a pause, "I dare say you're right, Aunt +Bethia. Only, you see, I haven't come across the things in life that you +read about in novels." + +"You may yet," replied Miss Penkridge. "But when anybody says to me of a +novel that it's impossible and far-fetched and so on, I'm always inclined +to remind him of the old adage. For you can take it from me, Richard, +that truth is stranger than fiction, and that life's full of queer +things. Only, as you say, we don't all come across the strange things." + +The silvery chime of the clock on the mantelpiece caused Miss Penkridge, +at this point, to bring her work and her words to a summary conclusion. +Hurrying her knitting into the hand-bag which she carried at her belt, +she rose, kissed her nephew and departed bedward; while Viner, after +refilling his pipe, proceeded to carry out another nightly proceeding +which had become a habit. Every night, throughout the year, he always +went for a walk before going to bed. And now, getting into an overcoat +and pulling a soft cap over his head, he let himself out of the house, +and crossing the square, turned down a side-street and marched slowly in +the direction of the Bayswater Road. + +November though it was the night was fine and clear, and there was a +half-moon in the heavens; also there was rather more than a suspicion of +frost in the air, and the stars, accordingly, wore a more brilliant +appearance. To one who loved night strolling, as Viner did, this was +indeed an ideal night for the time of year; and on this occasion, +therefore, he went further than usual going along Bayswater Road as far +as Notting Hill Gate, and thence returning through the various streets +and terraces which lay between Pembridge Gardens and Markendale Square. +And while he strolled along, smoking his pipe, watching the twinkling +lights of passing vehicles and enjoying the touch of frost, he was +thinking, in a half-cynical, half-amused way, of his Aunt Bethia's taste +for the sensational fiction and of her evidently sincere conviction that +there were much stranger things in real life than could be found between +the covers of any novel. + +"Those were certainly two very odd instances which she gave me," he +mused, "those of the prosperous banker and the pretty bride. In the +first, how on earth did the man contrive to get away unobserved from a +town in which, presumably, every soul knew him? Why did he go? Did he go? +Is his body lying at the bottom of some hole by some roadside? Was he +murdered in broad daylight on a public road? Did he lose his reason or +his memory, and wander away and away? I think, as my aunt sagely +remarked, that nobody is ever going to find anything about that affair! +Then my Lady Marshflower--there's a fine mystery! Who was the man? What +did she know about him? Where had they met? Had they ever met? Why did he +shoot her? How on earth did he contrive to disappear without leaving some +trace? How--" + +At this point Viner's musings and questionings were suddenly and rudely +interrupted. Unconsciously he had walked back close to his own Square, +but on the opposite side to that by which he had left it, approaching it +by one of the numerous long terraces which run out of the main road in +the Westbourne Grove district--when his musings were rudely interrupted. +Between this terrace and Markendale Square was a narrow passage, little +frequented save by residents, or by such folk familiar enough with the +neighbourhood to know that it afforded a shortcut. Viner was about to +turn into this passage, a dark affair set between high walls, when a +young man darted hurriedly out of it, half collided with him, uttered a +hasty word of apology, ran across the road and disappeared round the +nearest corner. But just there stood a street-lamp, and in its glare +Viner caught sight of the hurrying young man's face. And when the +retreating footsteps had grown faint, Viner still stood staring in the +direction in which they had gone. + +"That's strange!" he muttered. "I've seen that chap somewhere--I know +him. Now, who is he? And what made him in such a deuce of a hurry?" + +It was very quiet at that point. There seemed to be nobody about. Behind +him, far down the long, wide terrace, he heard slow, measured +steps--that, of course, was a policeman on his beat. But beyond the +subdued murmur of the traffic in the Bayswater Road in one direction and +in Bishop's Road, Viner heard nothing but those measured steps. And after +listening to them for a minute, he turned into the passage out of which +the young man had just rushed so unceremoniously. + +There was just one lamp in that passage--an old-fashioned affair, fixed +against the wall, halfway down. It threw but little light on its +surroundings. Those surroundings were ordinary enough. The passage itself +was about thirty yards in length. It was inclosed on each-side by old +brick walls, so old that the brick had grown black with age and smoke. +These walls were some fifteen feet in height; here and there they were +pierced by doors--the doors of the yards at the rear of the big houses on +either side. The doors were set flush with the walls--Viner, who often +walked through that passage at night, and who had something of a +whimsical fancy, had thought more than once that after nightfall the +doors looked as if they had never been opened, never shut. There was an +air of queer, cloistral or prisonlike security in their very look. They +were all shut now, as he paced down the passage, as lonely a place at +that hour as you could find in all London. It was queer, he reflected, +that he scarcely ever remembered meeting anybody in that passage. + +And then he suddenly paused, pulling himself up with a strange +consciousness that at last he was to meet something. Beneath the feeble +light of the one lamp Viner saw a man. Not a man walking, or standing +still, or leaning against the wall, but lying full length across the +flagged pavement, motionless--so motionless that at the end of the first +moment of surprise, Viner felt sure that he was in the presence of death. +And then he stole nearer, listening, and looked down, and drawing his +match-box from his pocket added the flash of a match to the poor rays +from above. Then he saw white linen, and a bloodstain slowly spreading +over its glossy surface. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NUMBER SEVEN IN THE SQUARE + + +Before the sputter of the match had died out, Viner had recognized the +man who lay dead at his feet. He was a man about whom he had recently +felt some curiosity, a man who, a few weeks before, had come to live in a +house close to his own, in company with an elderly lady and a pretty +girl; Viner and Miss Penkridge had often seen all three in and about +Markendale Square, and had wondered who they were. The man looked as if +he had seen things in life--a big, burly, bearded man of apparently sixty +years of age, hard, bronzed; something about him suggested sun and wind +as they are met with in the far-off places. Usually he was seen in loose, +comfortable, semi-nautical suits of blue serge; there was a roll in his +walk that suggested the sea. But here, as he lay before Viner, he was in +evening dress, with a light overcoat thrown over it; the overcoat was +unbuttoned and the shirt-front exposed. And on it that sickening crimson +stain widened and widened as Viner watched. + +Here, without doubt, was murder, and Viner's thoughts immediately turned +to two things--one the hurrying young man whose face he thought he had +remembered in some vague fashion; the other the fact that a policeman +was slowly pacing up the terrace close by. He turned and ran swiftly up +the still deserted passage. And there was the policeman, twenty yards +away, coming along with the leisureliness of one who knows that he has a +certain area to patrol. He pulled himself to an attitude of watchful +attention as Viner ran up to him; then suddenly recognizing Viner as a +well-known inhabitant of the Square, touched the rim of his helmet. + +"I say!" said Viner in the hushed voice of one who imparts strange and +confidential tidings. "There's a man lying dead in the passage round +here. And without doubt murdered! There's blood all over his +shirt-front." + +The policeman stood stock still for the fraction of a second. Then he +pulled out his whistle and blew loudly and insistently. Before the +shrill call had died away, he was striding towards the passage, with +Viner at his side. + +"Did you find him, Mr. Viner?" he asked. + +"I found him," asserted Viner. "Just now--halfway down the passage!" + +"Sure he's dead, sir?" + +"Dead--yes! And murdered, too! And--" + +He was about to mention the hurrying young man, but they had just then +arrived at the mouth of the passage, and the policeman once more drew out +his whistle and blew more insistently than before. + +"There's my sergeant and inspector not far off," he remarked. "Some of +'em'll be on the spot in a minute or two. Now then, sir." + +He marched down the passage to the dead man, glanced at the lamp, and +turning on his own lantern, directed its light on the body. + +"God bless me!" he muttered. "Mr. Ashton!" + +"You know him?" said Viner. + +"Gent that came to live at number seven in your square a while back, +Mr. Viner," answered the policeman. "Australian or New Zealander, I +fancy. He's gone right enough, sir! And--knifed! You didn't see anybody +about, sir?" + +"Yes," replied Viner, "that's just it. As I turned into the passage, I +met a young fellow running out of it in a great hurry--he ran into me, +and then, shot off across the road, Westbourne Grove way. Then I came +along and found--this!" + +The policeman bent lower and suddenly put a knowing finger on certain of +the dead man's pockets. + +"Robbed!" he said. "No watch there, anyway, and nothing where you'd +expect to find his purse. Robbery and murder--murder for the sake of +robbery--that's what it is, Mr. Viner! Westbourne Grove way, you say this +fellow went? And five minutes' start!" + +"Is it any good getting a doctor?" asked Viner. + +"A thousand doctors'll do him no good," replied the policeman grimly. +"But--there's Dr. Cortelyon somewhere about here--number seven in the +terrace. One of these back doors is his. We might call him." + +He turned the light of his lantern on the line of doors in the +right-hand wall, and finding the number he wanted, pulled the bell. As +its tinkle sounded somewhere up the yard behind, he thrust his whistle +into Viner's hand. + +"Mr. Viner," he said, "go up to the end of the passage and blow on that +as loud as you can, three times. I'll stand by here till you come back. +If you don't hear or see any of our people coming from either direction, +blow again." + +Viner heard steps coming down the yard behind the door as he walked away. +And he heard more steps, hurrying steps, as he reached the end of the +passage. He turned it to find an inspector and a sergeant approaching +from one part of the terrace, a constable from another. + +"You're wanted down here," said Viner as they all converged on him. +"There's been murder! One of your men's there--he gave me this whistle to +summon further help. This way!" + +The police followed him in silence down the passage. Another figure had +come on the scene. Bending over the body and closely scrutinizing it in +the light of the policeman's lantern was a man whom Viner knew well +enough by sight--a tall, handsome man, whose olive-tinted complexion, +large lustrous eyes and Vandyke beard gave him the appearance of a +foreigner. Yet though he had often seen him, Viner did not know his name; +the police-inspector, however, evidently knew it well enough. + +"What is it, Dr. Cortelyon?" he asked as he pushed himself to the front. +"Is the man dead?" + +Dr. Cortelyon drew himself up from his stooping position to his full +height--a striking figure in his dress jacket and immaculate linen. He +glanced round at the expectant faces. + +"The man's been murdered!" he said in calm, professional accents. "He's +been stabbed clean through the heart. Dead? Yes, for several minutes." + +"Who found him here?" demanded the inspector. + +"I found him," answered Viner. He gave a hurried account of the whole +circumstances as he knew them, the police watching him keenly. "I should +know the man again if I saw him," he concluded. "I saw his face clearly +enough as he passed me." + +The inspector bent down and hastily felt the dead man's pockets. + +"Nothing at all here," he said as he straightened himself. "No watch or +chain or purse or anything. Looks like robbery as well as murder. Does +anybody know him?" + +"I know who this gentlemen is, sir," answered the policeman to whom Viner +had first gone. "He's a Mr. Ashton, who came to live not so long since at +number seven in Markendale Square, close by Mr. Viner there. I've heard +that he came from the Colonies." + +"Do you know him," asked the inspector, turning to Viner. + +"Only by sight," answered Viner. "I've seen him often, but I didn't know +his name. I believe he has a wife and daughter--" + +"No sir," interrupted the policeman. "He was a single gentleman. The +young lady at number seven is his ward, and the older lady looked after +her--sort of a companion." + +The Inspector looked round. Other policemen, attracted by the whistle, +were coming into the passage at each end, and he turned to his sergeant. + +"Put a man at the top and another at the bottom of this passage," he +said. "Keep everybody out. Send for the divisional surgeon. Dr. +Cortelyon, will you see him when he comes along? I want him to see the +body before its removal. Now, then, about these ladies--they'll have to +be told." He turned to Viner. "I understand you live close by them?" he +asked. "Perhaps you'll go there with me?" + +Viner nodded; and the inspector, after giving a few more words of +instruction to the sergeant, motioned him to follow; together they went +down the passage into Markendale Square. + +"Been resident here long, Mr. Viner?" asked the Inspector as they +emerged. "I noticed that some of my men knew you. I've only recently come +into this part myself." + +"Fifteen years," answered Viner. + +"Do you know anything of this dead man?" + +"Nothing--not so much as your constable knows." + +"Policemen pick things up. These ladies, now? It's a most unpleasant +thing to have to go and break news like this. You know nothing about +them, sir?" + +"Not even as much as your man knew. I've seen them often--with him, the +dead man. There's an elderly lady and a younger one, a mere girl. I took +them for his wife and daughter. But you heard what your man said." + +"Well, whatever they are, they've got to be told. I'd be obliged if you'd +come with me. And then--that fellow you saw running away! You'll have to +give us as near a description of him as you can. What number did my man +say it was--seven?" + +Viner suddenly laid a hand on his companion's sleeve. A smart car, of +the sort let out on hire from the more pretentious automobile +establishments, had just come round the corner and was being pulled up at +the door of a house in whose porticoed front hung a brilliant lamp. + +"That's number seven," said Viner. "And--those are the two ladies." + +The Inspector stopped and watched. The door of the house opened, letting +a further flood of light on the broad step beneath the portico and on +the pavement beyond; the door of the car opened too, and a girl stepped +out, and for a second or two stood in the full glare of the lamps. She +was a slender, lissome young creature, gowned in white, and muffled to +the throat in an opera cloak out of which a fresh, girlish face, bright +in colour, sparkling of eye, crowned by a mass of hair of the tint of +dead gold, showed clearly ere she rapidly crossed to the open door. +After her came an elderly, well-preserved woman in an elaborate evening +toilette, the personification of the precise and conventional chaperon. +The door closed; the car drove away; the Inspector turned to Viner with +a shake of his head. + +"Just home from the theatre!" he said. "And--to hear this! Well, it's got +to be done, Mr. Viner, anyhow." + +Viner, who had often observed the girl whom they had just seen with an +interest for which he had never troubled to account, found himself +wishing that Miss Penkridge was there in his place. He did not know what +part he was to play, what he was to do or say; worse than that, he did +not know if the girl in whose presence he would certainly find himself +within a minute or two was very fond of the man whom he had just found +done to death. In that case--but here his musings were cut short by the +fact that the Inspector had touched the bell in the portico of number +seven, and that the door had opened, to reveal a smart and wondering +parlour-maid, who glanced with surprise at the inspector's uniform. + +"Hush! This is Mr. Ashton's?" said the Inspector. "Yes--well, now, what +is the name of the lady--the elderly lady--I saw come in just now? Keep +quiet, there's a good girl,--the fact is, Mr. Ashton's had an accident, +and I want to see that lady." + +"Mrs. Killenhall," answered the parlour-maid. + +"And the young lady--her name?" asked the Inspector. + +"Miss Wickham." + +The Inspector walked inside the house. + +"Just ask Mrs. Killenhall and Miss Wickham if they'll be good enough to +see Inspector Drillford for a few minutes," he said. Then, as the girl +closed the door and turned away up the inner hall, he whispered to Viner. +"Better see both and be done with it. It's no use keeping bad news too +long; they may as well know--both." + +The parlour-maid reappeared at the door of a room along the hall; and the +two men, advancing in answer to her summons, entered what was evidently +the dining-room of the house. The two ladies had thrown off their wraps; +the younger one sat near a big, cheery fire, holding her slender fingers +to the blaze; the elder stood facing the door in evident expectancy. The +room itself was luxuriously furnished in a somewhat old-fashioned, heavy +style; everything about it betokened wealth and comfort. And that its +owner was expected home every minute was made evident to the two men by +the fact that a spirit-case was set on the centre table, with glasses and +mineral waters and cigars; Viner remembered, as his eyes encountered +these things, that a half-burned cigar lay close to the dead man's hand +in that dark passage so close by. + +"Mrs. Killenhall? Miss Wickham?" began Drillford, looking sharply from +one to the other. "Sorry to break in on you like this, ladies, but the +fact is, there has been an accident to Mr. Ashton, and I'm obliged to +come and tell you about it." + +Viner, who had remained a little in the background, was watching the +faces of the two to whom this initial breaking of news was made. And he +saw at once that there was going to be no scene. The girl by the fire +looked for an instant at the inspector with an expression of surprise, +but it was not the surprise of great personal concern. As for the elder +woman, after one quick glance from Drillford to Viner, whom she evidently +recognized, she showed absolute self-possession. + +"A bad accident?" she asked. + +Drillford again looked from the elder to the younger lady. + +"You'll excuse me if I ask what relation you ladies are to Mr. Ashton?" +he said with a significant glance at Mrs. Killenhall. + +"None!" replied Mrs. Killenhall. "Miss Wickham is Mr. Ashton's ward. I am +Miss Wickham's chaperon--and companion." + +"Well, ma'am," said Drillford, "then I may tell you that my news +is--just about as serious as it possibly could be, you understand." + +In the silence that followed, the girl turned toward the visitors, and +Viner saw her colour change a little. And it was she who first spoke. + +"Don't be afraid to tell us," she said. "Is Mr. Ashton dead?" + +Drillford inclined his head, and spoke as he was bidden. + +"I'm sorry to say he is," he replied. "And still more to be obliged to +tell you that he came to his death by violence. The truth is--" + +He paused, looking from one to the other, as if to gauge the effect of +his words. And again it was the girl who spoke. + +"What is the truth?" she asked. + +"Murder!" said Drillford. "Just that!" + +Mrs. Killenhall, who had remained standing until then, suddenly sat +down, with a murmur of horror. But the girl was watching the +inspector steadily. + +"When was this? and how, and where?" she inquired. + +"A little time ago, near here," answered Drillford. "This gentleman, Mr. +Viner, a neighbour of yours, found him--dead. There's no doubt, from what +we can see, that he was murdered for the sake of robbery. And I want some +information about him, about his habits and--" + +Miss Wickham got up from her chair and looked meaningly at Mrs. +Killenhall. + +"The fact is," she said, turning to Drillford; "strange as it may seem, +neither Mrs. Killenhall nor myself know very much about Mr. Ashton." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHO WAS MR. ASHTON? + + +For the first time since they had entered the room, Drillford turned and +glanced at Viner; his look indicated the idea which Miss Wickham's last +words had set up in his mind. Here was a mystery! The police instinct was +aroused by it. + +"You don't know very much about Mr. Ashton?" he said, turning back to the +two ladies. "Yet--you're under his roof? This is his house, isn't it?" + +"Just so," assented Miss Wickham. "But when I say we don't know much, I +mean what I say. Mrs. Killenhall has only known Mr. Ashton a few weeks, +and until two months ago I had not seen Mr. Ashton for twelve years. +Therefore, neither of us can know much about him." + +"Would you mind telling me what you do know?" asked Drillford. "We've got +to know something--who he is, and so on." + +"All that I know is this," replied Miss Wickham. "My father died in +Australia, when I was about six years old. My mother was already dead, +and my father left me in charge of Mr. Ashton. He sent me, very soon +after my father's death, to school in England, and there I remained for +twelve years. About two months ago Mr. Ashton came to England, took this +house, fetched me from school and got Mrs. Killenhall to look after me. +Here we've all been ever since--and beyond that I know scarcely +anything." + +Drillford looked at the elder lady. + +"I know, practically, no more than Miss Wickham has told you," said Mrs. +Killenhall. "Mr. Ashton and I got in touch with each other through his +advertisement in the _Morning Post_. We exchanged references, and I +came here." + +"Ah!" said Drillford. "And--what might his references be, now?" + +"To his bankers, the London and Orient, in Threadneedle Street," answered +Mrs. Killenhall promptly. "And to his solicitors, Crawle, Pawle and +Rattenbury, of Bedford Bow." + +"Very satisfactory they were, no doubt, ma'am?" suggested Drillford. + +Mrs. Killenhall let her eye run round the appointments of the room. + +"Eminently so," she said dryly. "Mr. Ashton was a very wealthy man." + +Drillford pulled out a pocketbook and entered the names which Mrs. +Killenhall had just mentioned. + +"The solicitors will be able to tell something," he murmured as he put +the book back. "We'll communicate with them first thing in the +morning. But just two questions before I go. Can you tell me anything +about Mr. Ashton's usual habits? Had he any business? What did he do +with his time?" + +"He was out a great deal," said Mrs. Killenhall. "He used to go down to +the City. He was often out of an evening. Once, since I came here, he +was away for a week in the country--he didn't say where. He was an active +man--always in and out. But he never said much as to where he went." + +"The other question," said Drillford, "is this: Did he carry much on him +in the way of valuables or money? I mean--as a rule?" + +"He wore a very fine gold watch and chain," answered Mrs. Killenhall; +"and as for money--well, he always seemed to have a lot in his purse. And +he wore two diamond rings--very fine stones." + +"Just so!" murmured Drillford. "Set upon for the sake of those things, no +doubt. Well, ladies, I shall telephone to Crawle's first thing in the +morning, and they'll send somebody along at once, of course. I'm sorry +to have brought you such bad news, but--" + +He turned toward the door; Miss Wickham stopped him. + +"Will Mr. Ashton's body be brought here--tonight?" she asked. + +"No," replied Drillford. "It will be taken to the mortuary. If you'll +leave everything to me, I'll see that you are spared as much as possible. +Of course, there'll have to be an inquest--but you'll hear all about that +tomorrow. Leave things to us and to Mr. Ashton's solicitors." + +He moved towards the door, and Viner, until then a silent spectator, +looked at Miss Wickham, something impelling him to address her instead of +Mrs. Killenhall. + +"I live close by you," he said. "If there is anything that I can do, or +that my aunt Miss Penkridge, who lives with me, can do? Perhaps you will +let me call in the morning." + +The girl looked at him steadily and frankly. + +"Thank you, Mr. Viner," she said. "It would be very kind if you would. +We've no men folk--yes, please do." + +"After breakfast, then," answered Viner, and went away to join the +Inspector, who had walked into the hall. + +"What do you think of this matter?" he asked, when they had got outside +the house. + +"Oh, a very clear and ordinary case enough, Mr. Viner," replied +Drillford. "No mystery about it at all. Here's this Mr. Ashton been +living here some weeks--some fellow, the man, of course, whom you saw +running away, has noticed that he was a very rich man and wore expensive +jewellery, has watched him, probably knew that he used that passage as a +short cut, and has laid in wait for him and murdered him for what he'd +got on him. It wouldn't take two minutes to do the whole thing. Rings, +now! They spoke of diamond rings, in there. Well, I didn't see any +diamond rings on his hands when I looked at his body, and I particularly +noticed his hands, to see if there were signs of any struggle. No +sir--it's just a plain case of what used to be called highway robbery +and murder. But come round with me to the police-station, Mr. +Viner--they'll have taken him to the mortuary by now, and I should like +to hear what our divisional surgeon has to say, and what our people +actually found on the body." + +As Viner and the Inspector walked into the police-station, Dr. Cortelyon +came out. Drillford stopped him. + +"Found out anything more, Doctor?" he asked. + +"Nothing beyond what I said at first," replied Cortelyon. "The man has +been stabbed through the heart, from behind, in one particularly +well-delivered blow. I should say the murderer had waited for him in that +passage, probably knowing his habits. That passage, now--you know it +really will have to be seen to! That wretched old lamp in the middle +gives no light at all. The wonder is that something of this sort hasn't +occurred before." + +Drillford muttered something about local authorities and property-owners +and went forward into an office, motioning Viner to follow. The +divisional surgeon was there in conversation with the sergeant whom +Drillford had left in charge of the body. "That is something on which I'd +stake my professional reputation," he said. "I'm sure of it." + +"What's that, Doctor?" asked Drillford. "Something to do with this +affair?" + +"I was saying that whoever stabbed this unfortunate man had some +knowledge of anatomy," remarked the doctor. "He was killed by one swift +blow from a particularly keen-edged, thin-bladed weapon which was driven +through his back at the exact spot. You ought to make a minute search +behind the walls on either side of that passage--the probability is that +the murderer threw his weapon away." + +"We'll do all that, Doctor," said Drillford. "As to your +suggestion--don't you forget that there are a good many criminals here in +London who are regular experts in the use of the knife--I've seen plenty +of instances of that myself. Now," he went on, turning to the sergeant, +"about that search? What did you find on him?" + +The sergeant lifted the lid of a desk and pointed to a sheet of foolscap +paper whereon lay certain small articles at which Viner gazed with a +sense of strange fascination. A penknife, a small gold matchbox, a +gold-mounted pencil-case, some silver coins, a handkerchief, and +conspicuous among the rest, a farthing. + +"That's the lot," said the sergeant, "except another handkerchief, and a +pair of gloves in the overcoat, where I've left them. Nothing else--no +watch, chain, purse or pocketbook. And no rings--but it's very plain +from his fingers that he wore two rings one on each hand, third finger +in each case." + +"There you are!" said Drillford with a glance at Viner. "Murdered and +robbed--clear case! Now, Mr. Viner, give us as accurate a description as +possible of the fellow who ran out of that passage." + +Viner did his best. His recollections were of a young man of about his +own age, about his own height and build, somewhat above the medium; it +was his impression, he said, that the man was dressed, if not shabbily, +at least poorly; he had an impression, too, that the clean-shaven face +which he had seen for a brief moment was thin and worn. + +"Got any recollection of his exact look?" inquired the Inspector. "That's +a lot to go by." + +"I'm trying to think," said Viner. "Yes--I should say he looked to be +pretty hard-up. There was a sort of desperate gleam in his eye. And--" + +"Take your time," remarked Drillford. "Anything you can suggest, +you know--" + +"Well," replied Viner. "I'd an idea at the moment, and I've had it since, +that I'd seen this man before. Something in his face was familiar. The +only thing I can think of is this: I potter round old bookshops and +curiosity-shops a good deal--I may have seen this young fellow on some +occasion of that sort." + +"Anyway," suggested Drillford, glancing over the particulars which he had +written down, "you'd know him again if you saw him?" + +"Oh, certainly!" asserted Viner. "I should know him anywhere." + +"Then that's all we need trouble you with now, sir," said Drillford. "The +next business will be--tomorrow." + +Viner walked slowly out of the police-station and still more slowly +homeward. When he reached the first lamp, he drew out his watch. +Half-past twelve! Just two hours ago he had been in his own comfortable +library, smiling at Miss Penkridge's ideas about the very matters into +one of which he was now plunged. He would not have been surprised if he +had suddenly awoke, to find that all this was a bad dream, induced by the +evening's conversation. But just then he came to the passage in which the +murder had been committed. A policeman was on guard at the terrace +end--and Viner, rather than hear any more of the matter, hastened past +him and made a circuitous way to Markendale Square. + +He let himself into his house as quietly as possible, and contrary +to taste and custom, went into the dining-room, switched on the +electric light and helped himself to a stiff glass of brandy and soda +at the sideboard. When the mixture was duly prepared, he forgot to +drink it. He stood by the sideboard, the glass in his hand, his eyes +staring at vacancy. Nor did he move when a very light foot stole down +the stairs, and Miss Penkridge, in wraps and curl-papers, looked +round the side of the door. + +"Heavens above, Richard!" she exclaimed, "What is the matter! I wondered +if you were burglars! Half-past twelve!" + +Viner suddenly became aware of the glass which he was unconsciously +holding. He lifted it to his lips, wondering whatever it was that made +his mouth feel so dry. And when he had taken a big gulp, and then +spoke, his voice--to himself--sounded just as queer as his tongue had +been feeling. + +"You were right!" he said suddenly. "There are queerer, stranger affairs +in life than one fancies! And I--I've been pitchforked--thrown--clean +into the middle of things! I!" + +Miss Penkridge came closer to him, staring. She looked from him to the +glass, from the glass to him. + +"No--I haven't been drinking," said Viner with a harsh laugh. "I'm +drinking now, and I'm going to have another, too. Listen!" + +He pushed her gently into a chair, and seating himself on the edge of the +table, told her the adventure. And Miss Penkridge, who was an admirable +listener to fictitious tales of horror, proved herself no less admirable +in listening to one of plain fact, and made no comment until her nephew +had finished. + +"That poor man!" she said at last. "Such a fine, strong, healthy-looking +man, too! I used to wonder about him, when I saw him in the square, I +used to think of him as somebody who'd seen things!" + +Viner made a sudden grimace. + +"Don't!" he said. "Ugh! I've seen things tonight that I never wished to +see! And I wish--" + +"What?" demanded Miss Penkridge after a pause, during which Viner had sat +staring at the floor. + +"I wish to God I'd never seen that poor devil who was running away!" +exclaimed Viner with sudden passion. "They'll catch him, and I shall have +to give evidence against him, and my evidence'll hang him, and--" + +"There's a lot to do, and a lot'll happen before that comes off, +Richard," interrupted Miss Penkridge. "The man may be innocent." + +"He'd have a nice job to prove it!" said Viner with a forced laugh. "No, +if the police get him--besides, he was running straight from the place! +Isn't it a queer thing?" he went on, laughing again. "I don't mind +remembering the--the dead man, but I hate the recollection of that chap +hurrying away! I wonder what it feels like when you've just murdered +another fellow, to slink off like--" + +"You've no business to be wondering any such thing!" said Miss Penkridge +sharply. "Here--get yourself another brandy and soda, and let us talk +business. These two women--did they feel it much?" + +"They puzzled me," replied Viner. He took his aunt's advice about the +extra glass, and obeyed her, too, when she silently pointed to a box of +cigars which lay on the sideboard. "All right," he said after a minute +or two. "I'm not going to have nerves. What was I saying? They puzzled +me? Yes, puzzled. Especially the girl; she seemed so collected about +everything. And yet, according to her own story, she's only just out of +the schoolroom. You'll go round there with me?" + +"If we can be of any service to them? certainly," assented Miss +Penkridge. + +"The girl said they'd no men folk," remarked Viner. + +"In that case I shall certainly go," said Miss Penkridge. "Now, Richard, +smoke your cigar, and think no more about all this till tomorrow." + +Viner flung himself into an easy-chair. + +"All right!" he said. "Don't bother! It's been a bit of a facer, but--" + +He was astonished when he woke the next morning, much later than was his +wont, to find that he had not dreamed about the events of the midnight. +And he was his usual practical and cool-headed self when, at eleven +o'clock, he stood waiting in the hall for Miss Penkridge to go round with +him to number seven. But the visit was not to be paid just then--as they +were about to leave the house, a police-officer came hurrying up and +accosted Viner. Inspector Drillford's compliments, and would Mr. Viner +come round? And then the messenger gave a knowing grin. + +"We've got the man, sir!" he whispered. "That's why you're wanted." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RING AND THE KNIFE + + +Viner was hoping that the police had got hold of the wrong man as he +reluctantly walked into Drillford's office, but one glance at the +inspector's confident face, alert and smiling, showed him that Drillford +himself had no doubts on that point. + +"Well, Mr. Viner," he said with a triumphant laugh, "we haven't been so +long about it, you see! Much quicker work than I'd anticipated, too." + +"Are you sure you've got the right man?" asked Viner. "I mean--have you +got the man I saw running away from the passage?" + +"You shall settle that yourself," answered Drillford. "Come this way." + +He led Viner down a corridor, through one or two locked doors, and +motioning him to tread softly, drew back a sliding panel in the door of a +cell and silently pointed. Viner, with a worse sickness than before, +stole up and looked through the barred opening. One glance at the man +sitting inside the cell, white-faced, staring at the drab, bare wall, was +enough; he turned to Drillford and nodded. Drillford nodded too, and led +him back to the office. + +"That's the man I saw," said Viner. + +"Of course!" assented Drillford. "I'd no doubt of it. Well, it's been +a far simpler thing than I'd dared to hope. I'll tell you how we got +him. This morning, about ten o'clock, this chap, who won't give his +name, went into the pawnbroker's shop in Edgware Road, and asked for a +loan on a diamond ring which he produced. Now, Pelver, who happened to +attend to him himself, is a good deal of an expert in diamonds--he's a +jeweller as well as a pawnbroker, and he saw at once that the diamond +in this ring was well worth all of a thousand pounds--a gem of the +first water! He was therefore considerably astonished when his customer +asked for a loan of ten pounds on it--still more so when the fellow +suggested that Pelver should buy it outright for twenty-five. Pelver +asked him some questions as to his property in the ring--he made some +excuses about its having been in his family for some time, and that he +would be glad to realize on it. Under pretence of examining it, Pelver +took the ring to another part of his shop and quietly sent for a +policeman. And the end was, this officer brought the man here, and +Pelver with him, and the ring. Here it is!" + +He opened a safe and produced a diamond ring at which Viner stared with +feelings for which he could scarcely account. + +"How do you know that's one of Mr. Ashton's rings?" he asked. + +"Oh, I soon solved that!" laughed Drillford. "I hurried round to +Markendale Square with it at once. Both the ladies recognized it--Mr. +Ashton had often shown it to them, and told them its value, and there's a +private mark of his inside it. And so we arrested him, and there he is! +Clear case!" + +"What did he say?" asked Viner. + +"He's a curious customer," replied Drillford. "I should say that whatever +he is now, he has been a gentleman. He was extremely nervous and so on +while we were questioning him about the ring, but when it came to the +crucial point, and I charged him and warned him, he turned strangely +cool. I'll tell you what he said, in his exact words. 'I'm absolutely +innocent of that!' he said. 'But I can see that I've placed myself in a +very strange position.' And after that he would say no more--he hasn't +even asked to see a solicitor." + +"What will be done next?" asked Viner. + +"He'll be brought before the magistrate in an hour or two," said +Drillford. "Formal proceedings--for a remand, you know. I shall want you +there, Mr. Viner; it won't take long. I wish the fellow would tell us +who he is." + +"And I wish I could remember where and when I have seen him before!" +exclaimed Viner. + +"Ah, that's still your impression?" remarked Drillford. "You're still +convinced of it?" + +"More than ever--since seeing him just now," affirmed Viner. "I know his +face, but that's all I can say. I suppose," he continued, looking +diffidently at the inspector, as if he half-expected to be laughed at for +the suggestion he was about to make, "I suppose you don't believe that +this unfortunate fellow may have some explanation of his possession of +Mr. Ashton's ring?" + +Drillford, who had been replacing the ring in a safe, locked the +door upon it with a snap, and turned on his questioner with a look +which became more and more businesslike and official with each +succeeding word. + +"Now, Mr. Viner," he said, "you look at it from our point of view. An +elderly gentleman is murdered and robbed. A certain man is seen--by you, +as it happens--running away as fast as he can from the scene of the +murder. Next morning that very man is found trying to get rid of a ring +which, without doubt, was taken from the murdered man's finger. What do +you think? Or--another question--what could we, police officials, do?" + +"Nothing but what you're doing, I suppose," said Viner. "Still--there may +be a good deal that's--what shall I say?--behind all this." + +"It's for him to speak," observed Drillford, nodding in the direction of +the cells. "He's got a bell within reach of his fingers; he's only got to +ring it and to ask for me or any solicitor he likes to name. But--we +shall see!" + +Nothing had been seen or heard, in the way hinted at by Drillford, when, +an hour later, Viner, waiting in the neighbouring police-court, was aware +that the humdrum, sordid routine was about to be interrupted by something +unusual. The news of an arrest in connection with the Lonsdale Passage +murder had somehow leaked out, and the court was packed to the doors +--Viner himself had gradually been forced into a corner near the +witness-box in which he was to make an unwilling appearance. And from +that corner he looked with renewed interest at the man who was presently +placed in the dock, and for the hundredth time asked himself what it was +in his face that woke some chord of memory in him. + +There was nothing of the criminal in the accused man's appearance. +Apparently about thirty years of age, spare of figure, clean-shaven, of a +decidedly intellectual type of countenance, he looked like an actor. His +much-worn suit of tweed was well cut and had evidently been carefully +kept, in spite of its undoubtedly threadbare condition. It, and the worn +and haggard look of the man's face, denoted poverty, if not recent actual +privation, and the thought was present in more than one mind there in +possession of certain facts: if this man had really owned the ring which +he had offered to the pawnbroker, why had he delayed so long in placing +himself in funds through its means? For if his face expressed anything, +it was hunger. + +Viner, who was now witnessing police-court proceedings for the first time +in his life, felt an almost morbid curiosity in hearing the tale unfolded +against the prisoner. For some reason, best known to themselves, the +police brought forward more evidence than was usual on first proceedings +before a magistrate. Viner himself proved the finding of the body; the +divisional surgeon spoke as to the cause of death; the dead man's +solicitor testified to his identity and swore positively as to the ring; +the pawnbroker gave evidence as to the prisoner's attempt to pawn or sell +the ring that morning. Finally, the police proved that on searching the +prisoner after his arrest, a knife was found in his hip-pocket which, in +the opinion of the divisional surgeon, would have caused the wound found +in the dead man's body. From a superficial aspect, no case could have +seemed clearer. + +But in Viner's reckoning of things there was mystery. Two episodes +occurred during the comparatively brief proceedings which made him +certain that all was not being brought out. The first was when he himself +went into the witness-box to prove his discovery of the body and to swear +that the prisoner was the man he had seen running away from the passage. +The accused glanced at him with evident curiosity as he came forward; on +hearing Viner's name, he looked at him in a strange manner, changed +colour and turned his head away. But when a certain question was put to +Viner, he looked round again, evidently anxious to hear the answer. + +"I believe you thought, on first seeing him, that the prisoner's face was +familiar to you, Mr. Viner?" + +"Yes--I certainly think that I have seen him before, somewhere." + +"You can't recollect more? You don't know when or where you saw him?" + +"I don't. But that I have seen him, perhaps met him, somewhere, I +am certain." + +This induced the magistrate to urge the accused man--who had steadfastly +refused to give name or address--to reveal his identity. But the prisoner +only shook his head. + +"I would rather not give my name at present," he answered. "I am +absolutely innocent of this charge of murder, but I quite realize that +the police are fully justified in bringing it against me. I had nothing +whatever to do with Mr. Ashton's death--nothing! Perhaps the police will +find out the truth; and meanwhile I had rather not give my name." + +"You will be well advised to reconsider that," said the magistrate. "If +you are innocent, as you say, it will be far better for you to say who +you are, and to see a solicitor. As things are, you are in a very +dangerous position." + +But the prisoner shook his head. + +"Not yet, at any rate," he answered. "I want to hear more." + +When the proceedings were over and the accused, formally remanded for a +week, had been removed to the cells previous to being taken away, Viner +went round to Drillford's office. + +"Look here!" he said abruptly, finding the Inspector alone, "I dare say +you think I'm very foolish, but I don't believe that chap murdered +Ashton. I don't believe it for one second!" + +Drillford who was filling up some papers, smiled. + +"No?" he said. "Now, why, Mr. Viner?" + +"You can call it intuition if you like," answered Viner. "But I don't! +And I shall be surprised if I'm not right. There are certain things that +I should think would strike you." + +"What, for instance?" asked Drillford. + +"Do you think it likely that a man who must have known that a regular hue +and cry would be raised about that murder, would be such a fool as to go +and offer one of the murdered man's rings within a mile of the spot where +the murder took place?" asked Viner. + +Drillford turned and looked steadily at his questioner. + +"Well, but that's precisely what he did, Mr. Viner!" he exclaimed. +"There's no doubt whatever that the ring in question was Ashton's; +there's also no doubt that this man did offer it to Pelver this morning. +Either the fellow is a fool or singularly ignorant, to do such a mad +thing! But--he did it! And I know why." + +"Why, then?" demanded Viner. + +"Because he was just starving," answered Drillford. "When he was brought +in here, straight from Pelver's, he hadn't a halfpenny on him, and in the +very thick of my questionings--and just think how important they +were!--he stopped me. 'May I say a word that's just now much more +important to me than all this?' he said. 'I'm starving! I haven't touched +food or drink for nearly three days. Give me something, if it's only a +crust of bread!' That's fact, Mr. Viner." + +"What did you do?" inquired Viner. + +"Got the poor chap some breakfast, at once," answered Drillford, "and let +him alone till he'd finished. Have you ever seen a starved dog eat? +No--well, I have, and he ate like that--he was ravenous! And when a man's +at that stage, do you think he's going to stop at anything? Not he! This +fellow, you may be sure, after killing and robbing Ashton, had but one +thought--how soon he could convert some of the property into cash, so +that he could eat. If Pelver had made him that advance, or bought the +ring, he'd have made a bee-line for the nearest coffee-shop. I tell you +he was mad for food!" + +"Another thing," said Viner. "Where is the rest of Mr. Ashton's +property--his watch, chain, the other ring, his purse, and--wasn't there +a pocketbook? How is it this man wasn't found in possession of them?" + +"Easy enough for him to hide all those things, Mr. Viner," said +Drillford, with an indulgent smile. "What easier? You don't know as much +of these things as I do--he could quite easily plant all those articles +safely during the night. He just stuck to the article which he could most +easily convert into money." + +"Well, I don't believe he's guilty," repeated Viner. "And I want to do +something for him. You may think me quixotic, but I'd like to help him. +Is there anything to prevent you from going to him, telling him that +I'm convinced of his innocence and that I should like to get him +help--legal help?" + +"There's nothing to prevent it, to be sure," answered Drillford. "But Mr. +Viner, you can't get over the fact that this fellow had Ashton's diamond +ring in his possession!" + +"How do I--how do you--know how he came into possession of it?" +demanded Viner. + +"And then--that knife!" exclaimed Drillford. "Look here! I've got it. +What sort of thing is that for an innocent, harmless man to carry about +him? It's an American bowie-knife!" + +He opened a drawer and exhibited a weapon which, lying on a pile of +paper, looked singularly suggestive and fearsome. + +"I don't care!" said Viner with a certain amount of stubbornness. "I'm +convinced that the man didn't kill Ashton. And I want to help him. I'm a +man of considerable means; and in this case--well, that's how I feel +about it." + +Drillford made no answer. But presently he left the room, after pointing +Viner to a chair. Viner waited--five, ten minutes. Then the door opened +again, and Drillford came back. Behind him walked the accused man, with +a couple of policemen in attendance upon him. + +"There, Mr. Viner!" said Drillford. "You can speak to him yourself!" + +Viner rose from his chair. The prisoner stepped forward, regarding him +earnestly. + +"Viner!" he said, in a low, concentrated tone, "don't you know me? +I'm Langton Hyde! You and I were at Rugby together. And--we meet +again, here!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOOK FOR THAT MAN! + + +At these words Viner drew back with an exclamation of astonishment, but +in the next instant he stepped forward again, holding out his hand. + +"Hyde!" he said. "Then--that's what I remembered! Of course I know you! +But good heavens, man, what does all this mean? What's brought you to +this--to be here, in this place?" + +The prisoner looked round at his captors, and back at Viner, and smiled +as a man smiles who is beginning to realize hopelessness to the full. + +"I don't know if I'm allowed to speak," he said. + +Drillford, who had been watching this episode with keen attention, +motioned to the two policemen. + +"Wait outside," he said abruptly. "Now, then," he continued when he, +Viner and Hyde were alone, "this man can say anything he likes to you, +Mr. Viner, so long as you've asked to see him. This is all irregular, but +I've no wish to stop him from telling you whatever he pleases. But +remember," he went on, glancing at the prisoner, "you're saying it before +me--and in my opinion, you'd a deal better have said something when you +were in court just now." + +"I didn't know what to say," replied Hyde doubtfully. "I'm pretty much +on the rocks, as you can guess; but--I have relatives! And if it's +possible, I don't want them to know about this." + +Drillford looked at Viner and shook his head, as if to signify his +contempt of Hyde's attitude. + +"Considering the position you're in," he said, turning again to Hyde, +"you must see that it's impossible that your relations should be kept +from knowing. You'll have to give particulars about yourself, sooner or +later. And charges of murder, like this, can't be kept out of the +newspapers." + +"Tell me, Hyde!" exclaimed Viner. "Look here, now, to begin with--you +didn't kill this man?" + +Hyde shook his head in a puzzled fashion--something was evidently causing +him surprise. + +"I didn't know the man was killed, or dead, until they brought me here, +from that pawnbroker's this morning!" he said. Then he laughed almost +contemptuously, and with some slight show of spirit. "Do you think I'd +have been such a fool as to try to pawn or sell a ring that belonged to +a man who'd just been murdered?" he demanded. "I'm not quite such an +ass as that!" + +Viner looked round at Drillford. + +"There!" he said quietly. "What did I tell you? Isn't that what I said? +You're on the wrong track, Inspector!" + +But Drillford, sternly official in manner, shook his head. + +"How did he come by the ring, then?" he asked, pointing at his prisoner. +"Let him say!" + +"Hyde!" said Viner. "Tell! I've been certain for an hour that you didn't +kill this man, and I want to help you. But--tell us the truth! What do +you know about it? How did you get that ring?" + +"I shall make use of anything he tells," remarked Drillford warningly. + +"He's going to tell--everything," said Viner. "Come now, Hyde, the +truth!" + +Hyde suddenly dropped into a chair by which he was standing, and pressed +his hand over his face with a gesture which seemed to indicate a certain +amount of bewilderment. + +"Let me sit down," he said. "I'm weak, tired, too. Until this morning I +hadn't had a mouthful of food for a long time, and I'd--well, I'd been +walking about, night as well as day. I was walking about all yesterday, +and a lot of last night. I'm pretty nearly done, if you want to know!" + +"Take your time," said Drillford. "Here, wait a bit," he went on after a +sudden glance at his prisoner. "Keep quiet a minute." He turned to a +cupboard in the corner of the room and presently came back with something +in a glass. "Drink that," he said not unkindly. "Drop of weak brandy and +water," he muttered to Viner. "Do him no harm--I see how it is with +him--he's been starving." + +Hyde caught the last word and laughed feebly as he handed the glass back. + +"Starving!" he said. "Yes--that's it! I hope neither of you'll know what +it means! Three days without--" + +"Now, Hyde!" interrupted Viner. "Never mind that--you won't starve again. +Come--tell us all about this--tell everything." + +Hyde bent forward in his chair, but after a look at the two men, his +eyes sought the floor and moved from one plank to another as if he found +it difficult to find a fixed point. + +"I don't know where to begin, Viner," he said at last. "You see, you've +never met me since we left school. I went in for medicine--I was at +Bart's for a time, but--well, I was no good, somehow. And then I went in +for the stage--I've had some fairly decent engagements, both here and in +the States, now and then. But you know what a precarious business that +is. And some time ago I struck a real bad patch, and I've been out of a +job for months. And lately it's gone from bad to worse--you know, or +rather I suppose you don't know, because you've never been in that +fix--pawning everything, and so on, until--well, I haven't had a penny in +my pockets for days now!" + +"Your relations?" questioned Viner. + +"Didn't want them to know," answered Hyde. "The fact is, I haven't been +on good terms with them for a long time, and I've got some pride +left--or I had, until yesterday. But here's the truth: I had to clear out +of my lodgings--which was nothing but an attic, three days since, and +I've been wandering about, literally hungry and homeless, since that. If +it hadn't been for that, I should never have been in this hole! And +that's due to circumstances that beat me, for I tell you again, I don't +know anything about this man's murder--at least, not about it actually." + +"What do you know?" asked Viner. "Tell us plainly." + +"I'm going to," responded Hyde. "I was hanging about the Park and around +Kensington Gardens most of yesterday. Then, at night, I got wandering +about this part--didn't seem to matter much where I went. You don't know, +either of you, what it means to wander round, starving. You get into a +sort of comatose state--you just go on and on. Well, last night I was +walking, in that way, in and out about these Bayswater squares. I got +into Markendale Square. As I was going along the top side of it, I +noticed a passage and turned into it--as I've said, when a man's in the +state I was in, it doesn't matter where he slouches--anywhere! I turned +into that passage, I tell you, just aimlessly, as a man came walking out. +Viner, look for that man! Find him! He's the fellow these police want! If +there's been murder--" + +"Keep calm, Hyde!" said Viner. "Go on, quietly." + +"This man passed me and went on into the square," continued Hyde. "I went +up the passage. It was very dark, except in the middle, where there's an +old-fashioned lamp. And then I saw another man, who was lying across the +flags. I don't know that I'd any impression about him--I was too sick and +weary. I believe I thought he was drunk, or ill or something. But you +see, at the same instant that I saw him, I saw something else which drove +him clean out of my mind. In fact, as soon as I'd seen it, I never +thought about him any more, nor looked at him again." + +"What was it?" demanded Viner, certain of what the answer would be. + +"A diamond ring," replied Hyde. "It was lying on the flags close by +the man. The light from the lamp fell full on it. And I snatched it up, +thrust it into my pocket and ran up the passage. I ran into somebody at +the far end--it turns out to have been you. Well, you saw me hurry +off--I got as far away as I could, lest you or somebody else should +follow. I wandered round Westbourne Grove, and then up into the Harrow +Road, and in a sort of back street there I sneaked into a shanty in a +yard, and stopped in it the rest of the night. And this morning I tried +to pawn the ring." + +"Having no idea of its value," suggested Viner, with a glance at +Drillford, who was listening to everything with an immovable countenance. + +"I thought it might be worth thirty or forty pounds," answered Hyde. "Of +course, I'd no idea that it was worth what's been said. You see, I'm +fairly presentable, and I thought I could tell a satisfactory story if I +was asked anything at the pawnshop. I didn't anticipate any difficulty +about pawning the ring--I don't think there'd have been any if it hadn't +been for its value. A thousand pounds! of course, I'd no idea of that!" + +"And that's the whole truth?" asked Viner. + +"It's the whole truth as far as I'm concerned," answered Hyde. "I +certainly picked up that ring in that passage, close by this man who was +lying there. But I didn't know he was dead; I didn't know he'd been +murdered. All I know is that I was absolutely famishing, desperate, in no +condition to think clearly about anything. I guess I should do the same +thing again, under the circumstances. I only wish--" + +He paused and began muttering to himself, and the two listeners glanced +at each other. "You only wish what, Hyde?" asked Viner. + +"I wish it had been a half-crown instead of that ring!" said Hyde with a +queer flashing glance at his audience. "I could have got a bed for +fourpence, and have lived for three days on the rest. And now--" + +Viner made no remark; and Drillford, who was leaning against his desk, +watching his prisoner closely, tapped Hyde on the shoulder. + +"Can you describe the man who came out of the passage as you entered it?" +he asked. "Be accurate, now!" + +Hyde's face brightened a little, and his eyes became more intelligent. + +"Yes!" he answered. "You know--or you don't know--how your mental +faculties get sharpened by hunger. I was dull enough, in one way, but +alert enough in another. I can describe the man--as much as I saw of him. +A tall man--neither broad nor slender--half-and-half. Dressed in black +from top to toe. A silk hat--patent leather boots--and muffled to the +eyes in a white silk handkerchief." + +"Could you see his face?" asked Drillford. "Was he clean-shaved, or +bearded, or what?" + +"I tell you he was muffled to the very eyes," answered Hyde. "One of +those big silk handkerchiefs, you know--he had it drawn up over his chin +and nose--right up." + +"Then you'd have difficulty in knowing him again," observed Drillford. +"There are a few thousand men in the West End of London who'd answer the +description you've given." + +"All right!" muttered Hyde doggedly. "But--I know what I saw. And if you +want to help me, Viner, find that man--because he must have come straight +away from the body!" + +Drillford turned to Viner, glancing at the same time at the clock. + +"Do you want to ask him any more questions?" he inquired. "No? Well, +there's just one I want to ask. What were you doing with that knife in +your possession?" he went on, turning to Hyde. "Be careful, now; you +heard what the doctor said about it, in court?" + +"I've nothing to conceal," replied Hyde. "You heard me say just now that +I'd had engagements in the States. I bought that knife when I was out +West--more as a curiosity than anything--and I've carried it in my pocket +ever since." + +Drillford looked again at Viner. + +"He'll have to go, now," he said. "If you're going to employ legal help +for him, the solicitor will know where and when he can see him." He +paused on his way to the door and looked a little doubtfully at his +prisoner. "I'll give you a bit of advice," he said, "not as an official, +but as an individual. If you want to clear yourself, you'd better give +all the information you can." + +"I'll send my own solicitor to you, Hyde, at once," said Viner. "Be +absolutely frank with him about everything." + +When Viner was once more alone with Drillford, the two men looked at +each other. + +"My own impression," said Viner, after a significant silence, "is that +we have just heard the plain truth! I'm going to work on it, anyway." + +"In that case, Mr. Viner, there's no need for me to say anything," +remarked Drillford. "It may be the plain truth. But as I am what I am, +all I know is the first-hand evidence against this young fellow. So he +really was a schoolmate of yours?" + +"Certainly!" said Viner. "His people live, or did live, in the north. I +shall have to get into communication with them. But now--what about the +information he gave you? This man he saw?" + +Drillford shook his head. + +"Mr. Viner," he answered, "you don't understand police methods. We've got +very strong evidence against Hyde. We know nothing about a tall man in a +white muffler. If you want to clear Hyde, you'd better do what he +suggested--find that man! I wish you may--if he ever existed!" + +"You don't believe Hyde?" asked Viner. + +"I'm not required to believe anything, sir, unless I've good proof of +it," said Drillford with a significant smile. "If there is any mystery in +this murder, well--let's hope something will clear it up." + +Viner went away troubled and thoughtful. He remembered Hyde well enough +now, though so many years had elapsed since their last meeting. And he +was genuinely convinced of his innocence: there had been a ring of truth +in all that he had said. Who, then, was the guilty man? And had robbery +been the real motive of the murder? Might it not have been that Ashton +had been murdered for some quite different motive, and that the murderer +had hastily removed the watch, chain, purse, and rings from the body +with the idea of diverting suspicion, and in his haste had dropped one of +the rings? + +"If only one knew more about Ashton and his affairs!" mused Viner. "Even +his own people don't seem to know much." + +This reminded him of his promise to call on Miss Wickham. He glanced at +his watch: it was not yet one o'clock: the proceedings before the +magistrate and the subsequent talk with Hyde had occupied comparatively +little time. So Viner walked rapidly to number seven in the square, +intent on doing something toward clearing Hyde of the charge brought +against him. The parlour-maid whom he had seen the night before admitted +him at once; it seemed to Viner that he was expected. She led him +straight to a room in which Mrs. Killenhall and Miss Wickham were in +conversation with an elderly man, who looked at Viner with considerable +curiosity when his name was mentioned, and who was presently introduced +to him as Mr. Ashton's solicitor, Mr. Pawle, of Crawle, Pawle and +Rattenbury. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SPECULATIONS + + +Mr. Pawle, an alert-looking, sharp-eyed little man, whom Viner at once +recognized as having been present in the magistrate's court when Hyde was +brought up, smiled as he shook hands with the new visitor. + +"You don't know me, Mr. Viner," he said. "But I knew your father very +well--he and I did a lot of business together in our time. You haven't +followed his profession, I gather?" + +"I'm afraid I haven't any profession, Mr. Pawle," answered Viner. "I'm a +student--and a bit, a very little bit, of a writer." + +"Aye, well, your father was a bit in that way too," remarked Mr. Pawle. +"I remember that he was a great collector of books--you have his library, +no doubt?" + +"Yes, and I'm always adding to it," said Viner. "I shall be glad to show +you my additions, any time." + +Mr. Pawle turned to the two ladies, waving his hand at Viner. + +"Knew his father most intimately," he said, as if he were guaranteeing +the younger man's status. "Fine fellow, was Stephen Viner. Well," he +continued, dropping into a chair, and pointing Viner to another, "this is +a sad business that we've got concerned in, young man! Now, what do you +think of the proceedings we've just heard? Your opinion, Mr. Viner, is +probably better worth having than anybody's, for you saw this fellow +running away from the scene, and you found my unfortunate client lying +dead. What, frankly, _is_ your opinion?" + +"I had better tell you something that's just happened," replied Viner. He +went on to repeat the statements which Hyde had just made to Drillford +and himself. "My opinion," he concluded, "is that Hyde is speaking the +plain truth--that all he really did was, as he affirms, to pick up that +ring and run away. I don't believe he murdered Mr. Ashton, and I'm going +to do my best to clear him." + +He looked round from one listener to another, seeking opinion from each. +Mr. Pawle maintained a professional imperturbability; Mrs. Killenhall +looked mildly excited on hearing this new theory. But from Miss Wickham, +Viner got a flash of intelligent comprehension. + +"The real thing is this," she said, "none of us know anything about Mr. +Ashton, really. He may have had enemies." + +Pawle rubbed his chin; the action suggested perplexity. + +"Miss Wickham is quite right," he said. "Mr. Ashton is more or less a man +of mystery. He had been here in England two months. His ward knows next +to nothing about him, except that she was left in his guardianship many a +year ago, that he sent her to England, to school, and that he recently +joined her here. Mrs. Killenhall knows no more than that he engaged her +as chaperon to his ward, and that they exchanged references. His +references were to his bankers and to me. But neither his bankers nor I +know anything of him, except that he was a very well-to-do man. I can +tell precisely what his bankers know. It is merely this: he transferred +his banking-account from an Australian bank to them on coming to London. +I saw them this morning on first getting the news. They have about two +hundred thousand pounds lying to his credit. That's absolutely all they +know about him--all!" + +"The Australian bankers would know more," suggested Viner. + +"Precisely!" agreed Mr. Pawle. "We can get news from them, in time. But +now, what do I know? No more than this--Mr. Ashton called on me about six +or seven weeks ago, told me that he was an Australian who had come to +settle in London, that he was pretty well off, and that he wanted to make +a will. We drafted a will on his instructions, and he duly executed it. +Here it is! Miss Wickham has just seen it. Mr. Ashton has left every +penny he had to Miss Wickham. He told me she was the only child of an old +friend of his, who had given her into his care on his death out in +Australia, some years ago, and that as he, Ashton, had no near relations, +he had always intended to leave her all he had. And so he has, without +condition, or reservation, or anything--all is yours, Miss Wickham, and +I'm your executor. But now," continued Mr. Pawle, "how far does this take +us toward solving the mystery of my client's death? So far as I can see, +next to nowhere! And I am certain of this, Mr. Viner: if we are going to +solve it, and if this old school friend of yours is being unjustly +accused, and is to be cleared, we must find out more about Ashton's +doings since he came to London. The secret lies--there!" + +"I quite agree," answered Viner. "But--who knows anything?" + +Mr. Pawle looked at the two ladies. + +"That's a stiff question!" he said. "The bankers tell me that Ashton only +called on them two or three times; he called on me not oftener; neither +they nor I ever had much conversation with him. These two ladies should +know more about him than anybody--but they seem to know little." + +Viner, who was sitting opposite to her, looked at Miss Wickham. + +"You must know something about his daily life?" he said. "What did he do +with himself?" + +"We told you and the police-inspector pretty nearly all we know, last +night," replied Miss Wickham. "As a rule, he used to go out of a +morning--I think, from his conversation, he used to go down to the City. +I don't think it was on business: I think, he liked to look about him. +Sometimes he came home to lunch; sometimes he didn't. Very often in the +afternoon he took us for motor-rides into the country--sometimes he took +us to the theatres. He used to go out a good deal, alone at night--we +don't know where." + +"Did he ever mention any club?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No, never!" replied Miss Wickham. "He was reticent about himself--always +very kind and thoughtful and considerate for Mrs. Killenhall and myself, +but he was a reserved man." + +"Did he ever have any one to see him?" inquired the solicitor. "Any men +to dine, or anything of that sort?" + +"No--not once. No one has ever even called on him," said Miss Wickham. +"We have had two or three dinner-parties, but the people who came were +friends of mine--two or three girls whom I knew at school, who are now +married and live in London." + +"A lonely sort of man!" commented Mr. Pawle. "Yet--he must have known +people. Where did he go when he went into the City? Where did he go at +night? There must be somebody somewhere who can tell more about him. I +think it will be well if I ask for information through the newspapers." + +"There is one matter we haven't mentioned," said Mrs. Killenhall. "Just +after we got settled down here, Mr. Ashton went away for some days--three +or four days. That, of course, may be quite insignificant." + +"Do you know where he went?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No, we don't know," answered Mrs. Killenhall. "He went away one Monday +morning, saying that now everything was in order we could spare him for a +few days. He returned on the following Thursday or Friday,--I forget +which,--but he didn't tell us where he had been." + +"You don't think any of the servants would know?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh, dear me, no!" replied Mrs. Killenhall. "He was the sort of man who +rarely speaks to his servants--except when he wanted something." + +Mr. Pawle looked at his watch and rose. + +"Well!" he said. "We shall have to find out more about my late client's +habits and whom he knew in London. There may have been a motive for this +murder of which we know nothing. Are you coming, Mr. Viner? I should like +a word with you!" + +Viner, too, had risen; he looked at Miss Wickham. + +"I hope my aunt called on you this morning?" he asked. "I was coming with +her, but I had to go round to the police-station." + +"She did call, and she was very kind indeed, thank you," said Miss +Wickham. "I hope she'll come again." + +"We shall both be glad to do anything," said Viner. "Please don't +hesitate about sending round for me if there's anything at all I can +do." He followed Mr. Pawle into the square, and turned him towards his +own house. "Come and lunch with me," he said. "We can talk over this at +our leisure." + +"Thank you--I will," answered Mr. Pawle. "Very pleased. Between you and +me, Mr. Viner, this is a very queer business. I'm quite prepared to +believe the story that young fellow Hyde tells. I wish he'd told it +straight out in court. But you must see that he's in a very dangerous +position--very dangerous indeed! The police, of course, won't credit a +word of his tale--not they! They've got a strong _prima facie_ case +against him, and they'll follow it up for all they're worth. The real +thing to do, if you're to save him, is to find the real murderer. And to +do that, you'll need all your wits! If one only had some theory!" + +Viner introduced Mr. Pawle to Miss Penkridge with the remark that she was +something of an authority in mysteries, and as soon as they had sat down +to lunch, told her of Langton Hyde and his statement. + +"Just so!" said Miss Penkridge dryly. "That's much more likely to be +the real truth than that this lad killed Ashton. There's a great deal +more in this murder than is on the surface, and I dare say Mr. Pawle +agrees with me." + +"I dare say I do," assented Mr. Pawle. "The difficulty is--how to +penetrate into the thick cloak of mystery." + +"When I was round there, at Number Seven, this morning," observed Miss +Penkridge, "those two talked very freely to me about Mr. Ashton. Now, +there's one thing struck me at once--there must be men in London who knew +him. He couldn't go out and about, as he evidently did, without meeting +men. Even if it wasn't in business, he'd meet men somewhere. And if I +were you, I should invite men who knew him to come forward and tell what +they know." + +"It shall be done--very good advice, ma'am," said Mr. Pawle. + +"And there's another thing," said Miss Penkridge. "I should find out what +can be told about Mr. Ashton where he came from. I believe you can get +telegraphic information from Australia within a few hours. Why not go to +the expense--when there's so much at stake? Depend upon it, the real +secret of this murder lies back in the past--perhaps the far past." + +"That too shall be done," agreed Mr. Pawle. "I shouldn't be surprised if +you're right." + +"In my opinion," remarked Miss Penkridge, dryly, "the robbing of this +dead man was all a blind. Robbery wasn't the motive. Murder was the thing +in view! And why? It may have been revenge. It may be that Ashton had to +be got out of the way. And I shouldn't wonder a bit if that isn't at the +bottom of it, which is at the top and bottom of pretty nearly +everything!" + +"And that, ma'am?" asked Mr. Pawle, who evidently admired Miss +Penkridge's shrewd observations, "that is what, now?" + +"Money!" said Miss Penkridge. "Money!" + +The old solicitor went away, promising to get to work on the lines +suggested by Miss Penkridge, and next day he telephoned to Viner asking +him to go down to his offices in Bedford Row. Viner hurried off, and on +arriving found Mr. Pawle with a cablegram before him. + +"I sent a pretty long message to Melbourne, to Ashton's old bankers, as +soon as I left you yesterday," he said. "I gave them the news of his +murder, and asked for certain information. Here's their answer. I rang +you up as soon as I got it." + +Viner read the cablegram carefully: + +Deeply regret news. Ashton well known here thirty years dealer in real +estate. Respected, wealthy. Quiet man, bachelor. Have made inquiries in +quarters likely to know. Cannot trace anything about friend named +Wickham. Ashton was away from Melbourne, up country, four years, some +years ago. May have known Wickham then. Ashton left here end July, by +_Maraquibo_, for London. Was accompanied by two friends Fosdick and +Stephens. Please inform if can do more. + +"What do you think of that?" asked Mr. Pawle. "Not much in it, is there?" + +"There's the mention of two men who might know something of Ashton's +habits," said Viner. "If Fosdick and Stephens are still in England and +were Ashton's friends, one would naturally conclude that he'd seen them +sometimes. Yet we haven't heard of their ever going to his house." + +"We can be quite certain that they never did--from what the two ladies +say," remarked Mr. Pawle. "Perhaps they don't live in London. I'll +advertise for both. But now, here's another matter. I asked these people +if they could tell me anything about Wickham, the father of this girl to +whom Ashton's left his very considerable fortune. Well, you see, they +can't. Now, it's a very curious thing, but Miss Wickham has no papers, +has, in fact, nothing whatever to prove her identity. Nor have I. Ashton +left nothing of that sort. I know no more, and she knows no more, than +what he told both of us--that her father died when she was a mere child, +her mother already being dead, that the father left her in Ashton's +guardianship, and that Ashton, after sending her here to school, +eventually came and took her to live with him. There isn't a single +document really to show who she is, who her father was, or anything about +her family." + +"Is that very important?" asked Viner. + +"It's decidedly odd!" said Mr. Pawle. "This affair seems to be getting +more mysterious than ever." + +"What's to be done next?" inquired Viner. + +"Well, the newspapers are always very good about that," answered the +solicitor. "I'm getting them to insert paragraphs asking the two men, +Fosdick and Stephens, to come forward and tell us if they've seen +anything of Ashton since he came to England; I'm also asking if anybody +can tell us where Ashton was when he went away from home on that visit +that Mrs. Killenhall spoke of. If--" + +Just then a clerk came into Mr. Pawle's room, and bending down to him, +whispered a few words which evidently occasioned him great surprise. + +"At once!" he said. "Bring them straight in, Parkinson. God bless me!" he +exclaimed, turning to Viner. "Here are the two men in question--Fosdick +and Stephens! Saw our name in the paper as Ashton's solicitors and want +to see me urgently." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHAT WAS THE SECRET? + + +The two men who were presently ushered in were typical Colonials--big, +hefty fellows as yet in early middle age, alert, evidently prosperous, if +their attire and appointments were anything to go by, and each was +obviously deeply interested in the occasion of his visit to Mr. Pawle. +Two pairs of quick eyes took in the old solicitor and his companion, and +the elder of the men came forward in a businesslike manner. + +"Mr. Pawle, I understand?" he said. "I'm Mr. Fosdick, of Melbourne, +Victoria; this is my friend Mr. Stephens, same place." + +"Take a seat, Mr. Fosdick--have this chair, Mr. Stephens," responded Mr. +Pawle. "You wish to see me--on business?" + +"That's so," answered Fosdick as the two men seated themselves by the +solicitor's desk. "We saw your name in the newspapers this morning in +connection with the murder of John Ashton. Now, we knew John Ashton--he +was a Melbourne man, too--and we can tell something about him. So we came +to you instead of the police. Because, Mr. Pawle, what we can tell is +maybe more a matter for a lawyer than for a policeman. It's mysterious." + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Pawle, "I'll be frank with you. I recognized your +names as soon as my clerk announced them. Here's a cablegram which I have +just received from Melbourne--you'll see your names mentioned in it." + +The two callers bent over the cablegram, and Fosdick looked up and +nodded. + +"Yes, that's right," he said. "We came over with John Ashton in the +_Maraquibo_. We knew him pretty well before that--most folk in Melbourne +did. But of course, we were thrown into his company on board ship rather +more than we'd ever been before. And we very much regret to hear of +what's happened to him." + +"You say there is something you can tell?" observed Mr. Pawle. "If it's +anything that will help to solve the mystery of this murder,--for there +is a mystery,--I shall be very glad to hear it." + +Fosdick and Stephens glanced at each other and then at Viner, who sat a +little in Mr. Pawle's rear. + +"Partner of yours?" asked Fosdick. + +"Not at all! This gentleman," replied Mr. Pawle, "is Mr. Viner. It was he +who found Ashton's dead body. They were neighbours." + +"Well, you found the body of a very worthy man, sir," remarked Fosdick +gravely. "And we'd like to do something toward finding the man who killed +him. For we don't think it was this young fellow who's charged with it, +nor that robbery was the motive. We think John Ashton was--removed. Put +out of the way!" + +"Why, now?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"I'll tell you," replied Fosdick. "My friend Stephens, here, is a man of +few words; he credits me with more talkativeness than he'll lay claim +to. So I'm to tell the tale. There mayn't be much in it, and there may be +a lot. We think there's a big lot! But this is what it comes to: Ashton +was a close man, a reserved man. However, one night, when the three of us +were having a quiet cigar in a corner of the smoking saloon in the +_Maraquibo_, he opened out to us a bit. We'd been talking about getting +over to England--we'd all three emigrated, you'll understand, when we +were very young--and the talk ran on what we'd do. Fosdick and Stephens, +d'ye see, were only on a visit,--which is just coming to an end, Mr. +Pawle; we sail home in a day or two,--but Ashton was turning home for +good. And he said to us, in a sort of burst of confidence, that he'd have +plenty to do when he landed. He said that he was in possession--sole +possession--of a most extraordinary secret, the revelation of which would +affect one of the first families in England, and he was going to bring it +out as soon as he'd got settled down in London. Well--you may be +surprised, but--that's all." + +"All you can tell?" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. + +"All! But we can see plenty in it," said Fosdick. "Our notion is that +Ashton was murdered by somebody who didn't want that secret to come out. +Now, you see if events don't prove we're right." + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Pawle, "allow me to ask you a few questions." + +"Many as you please, sir," assented Fosdick. "We'll answer anything." + +"He didn't tell you what the secret was?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No. He said we'd know more about it in time," replied Fosdick. "It +would possibly lead to legal proceedings, he said--in that case, it would +be one of the most celebrated cases ever known." + +"And romantic," added Stephens, speaking for the first time. "Romantic! +That was the term he used." + +"And romantic--quite so," assented Fosdick. "Celebrated and +romantic--those were the words. But in any case, he said, whether it got +to law matters or not, it couldn't fail to be in the papers, and we +should read all about it in due time." + +"And you know no more than that?" inquired Mr. Pawle. + +"Nothing!" said Fosdick with decision. + +Mr. Pawle looked at Viner as if to seek some inspiration. And Viner took +up the work of examination. + +"Do you know anything of Mr. Ashton's movements since he came to +London?" he asked. + +"Next to nothing," replied Fosdick. "Ashton left the _Maraquibo_ at +Naples, and came overland--he wanted to put in a day or two in Rome and a +day or two in Paris. We came round by sea to Tilbury. Then Stephens and I +separated--he went to see his people in Scotland, and I went to mine in +Lancashire. We met--Stephens and I--in London here last week. And we saw +Ashton for just a few minutes, down in the City." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "You have seen him, then! Did anything +happen?" + +"You mean relating to what he'd told _us_?" said Fosdick. "Well, no more +than I asked him sort of jokingly, how the secret was. And he said it was +just about to come out, and we must watch the papers." + +"There was a remark he made," observed Stephens. "He said it would be of +just as much interest, perhaps of far more, to our Colonial papers as to +the English." + +"Yes--he said that," agreed Fosdick. "He knew, you see, that we were just +about setting off home." + +"He didn't ask you to his house?" inquired Mr. Pawle. + +"That was mentioned, but we couldn't fix dates," replied Fosdick. +"However, we told him we were both coming over again on business, next +year, and we'd come and see him then." + +Mr. Pawle spread out his hands with a gesture of helplessness. + +"We're as wise as ever," he exclaimed. + +"No," said Fosdick emphatically, "wiser! The man had a secret, affecting +powerful interests. Many a man's been put away for having a secret." + +Mr. Pawle put his finger-tips together and looked thoughtfully at his +elder visitor. + +"Well, there's a good deal in that," he said at last. "Now, while you're +here, perhaps you can tell me something else about Ashton. How long have +you known him?" + +"Ever since we were lads," answered Fosdick readily. "He was a grown man, +then, though. Stephens and I are about forty--Ashton was sixty." + +"You've always known of him as a townsman of Melbourne?" + +"That's so. We were taken out there when we were about ten or +twelve--Ashton lived near where we settled down. He was a speculator in +property--made his money in buying and selling lots." + +"Was he well known?" + +"Everybody knew Ashton." + +"Did you ever know of his having a friend named Wickham?" inquired Mr. +Pawle with a side-glance at Viner. "Think carefully, now!" + +But Fosdick shook his head, and Stephens shook his. + +"Never heard the name," said Fosdick. + +"Did you ever hear Ashton mention the name!" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"Never!" + +"Never heard him mention it on board ship--when he was coming home?" + +"No--never!" + +"Well," said Mr. Pawle, "I happen to know that Ashton, some years ago, +had a very particular friend named Wickham, out in Australia." + +A sudden light came into Fosdick's keen grey-blue eyes. + +"Ah," he said. "I can tell how that may be. A good many years ago, when +we were just familiar enough with Melbourne to know certain people in it, +I remember that Ashton was away up country for some time--as that +cablegram says. Most likely he knew this Wickham then. Is that the +Wickham mentioned there?" + +"It is," assented Mr. Pawle, "and I want to know who he was." + +"Glad to set any inquiries going for you when we get back," said Fosdick. +"We sail in two days." + +"Gentlemen," answered Mr. Pawle gravely, "it takes, I believe, five or +six weeks to reach Australia. By the time you get there, this unfortunate +fellow Hyde, who's charged with the murder of Ashton, on evidence that is +quite sufficient to satisfy an average British jury, will probably have +been tried, convicted and hanged. No! I'm afraid we must act at once if +we're to help him, as Mr. Viner here is very anxious to do. And there's +something you can do. The coroner's inquest is to be held tomorrow. Go +there and volunteer the evidence you've just told us! It mayn't do a +scrap of good--but it will introduce an element of doubt into the case +against Hyde, and that will benefit him." + +"Tomorrow?" said Fosdick. "We'll do it. Give us the time and place. We'll +be there, Mr. Pawle. I see your point, sir--to introduce the idea that +there's more to this than the police think." + +When the two callers had gone, Mr. Pawle turned to Viner. + +"Now, my friend," he said, "you've already sent your own solicitor to +Hyde, haven't you? Who is he, by the by?" + +"Felpham, of Chancery Lane," replied Viner. + +"Excellent man! Now," said Mr. Pawle, "you go to Felpham and tell him +what these two Australians have just told us, and say that in my opinion +it will be well worth while, in his client's interest, to develop their +evidence for all it's worth. That theory of Fosdick's may have a great +deal in it. And another thing--Felpham must insist on Hyde being present +at the inquest tomorrow and giving evidence. That, I say, must be done! +Hyde must make his story public as soon as possible. He must be brought +to the inquest. He'll be warned by the coroner, of course, that he's not +bound to give any evidence at all, but he must go into the box and tell, +on oath, all that he told you and Drillford. Now be off to Felpham and +insist on all this being done." + +Viner went away to Chancery Lane more puzzled than ever. What was this +secret affecting one of the first families in England, of which Ashton +had told his two Melbourne friends? How was it, if legal proceedings were +likely to arise out of it, that Ashton had not told Pawle about it? Was +it possible that he had gone to some other solicitor? If so, why didn't +he come forward? And what, too, was this mystery about Miss Wickham and +her father? Why, as Pawle had remarked, were there no papers or +documents, concerning her to be found anywhere? Had she anything to do +with the secret? It seemed to him that the confusion was becoming more +confounded. But the first thing to do was to save Hyde. And he was +relieved to see that Felpham jumped at Pawle's suggestion. + +"Good!" said Felpham. "Of course, I'll have Hyde brought up at the +inquest, and he shall tell his story. And we'll save these Australian +chaps until Hyde's been in the box. I do wish Hyde himself could tell us +more about that man whom he saw leaving the passage. Of course, that man +is the actual murderer." + +"You think that?" asked Viner. + +"Don't doubt it for one moment--and a cool, calculating hand, too!" +declared Felpham. "A man who knew what he was doing. How long do you +suppose it would take to strike the life out of a man and to snatch a few +valuables from his clothing? Pooh! to a hand such as this evidently was, +a minute. Then, he walks calmly away. And--who is he? But--we're not +doing badly." + +That, too, was Viner's impression when he walked out of the coroner's +court next day. After having endured its close and sordid atmosphere for +four long hours, he felt, more from intuition than from anything +tangible, that things had gone well for Hyde. One fact was plain--nothing +more could be brought out against Hyde, either there, when the inquest +was resumed a week later, or before the magistrate, or before a judge and +jury. Every scrap of evidence against him was produced before the +coroner: it was obvious that the police could rake up no more, unless +indeed they could prove him to have hidden Ashton's remaining valuables +somewhere which was ostensibly an impossibility. And the evidence of Hyde +himself had impressed the court. Two days' rest and refreshment, even in +a prison and on prison fare, had pulled him together, and he had given +his evidence clearly and confidently. Viner had seen that people were +impressed by it: they had been impressed, too, by the evidence +volunteered by the two Australians. And when the coroner announced that +he should adjourn the inquiry for a week, the folk who had crowded the +court went away asking each other not if Hyde was guilty, but what was +this secret of which Ashton had boasted the possession? + +Drillford caught Viner up as he walked down the street and smiled +grimly at him. + +"Well, you're doing your best for him, and no mistake, Mr. Viner," he +said. "He's a lucky chap to have found such a friend!" + +"He's as innocent as I am," answered Viner. "Look here; if you +police want to do justice, why don't you try to track the man whom +Hyde has told of?" + +"What clue have we?" exclaimed Drillford almost contemptuously. "A tall +man in black clothes, muffled to his eyes! But I'll tell you what, Mr. +Viner," he added with a grin: "as you're so confident, why don't you +find him?" + +"Perhaps I shall," said Viner, quietly. + +He meant what he said, and he was thinking deeply what might be done +towards accomplishing his desires, when, later in the afternoon, Mr. +Pawle rang him up on the telephone. + +"Run down!" said Mr. Pawle cheerily. "There's a new development!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NEWS FROM ARCADIA + + +When Viner, half an hour later, walked into the waiting-room at Crawle, +Pawle and Rattenbury's, he was aware of a modestly attired young woman, +evidently, from her dress and appearance, a country girl, who sat shyly +turning over the pages of an illustrated paper. And as soon as he got +into Pawle's private room, the old solicitor jerked his thumb at the door +by which Viner had entered, and smiled significantly. + +"See that girl outside?" he asked. "She's the reason of my ringing you +up." + +"Yes?" said Viner. "But what--why? More mystery?" + +"Don't know," said Mr. Pawle. "I've kept her story till you came. She +turned up here about three-quarters of an hour ago, and said that her +grandmother, who keeps an inn at Marketstoke, in Buckinghamshire, had +seen the paragraph in the papers this morning in which I asked if anybody +could give any information about Mr. John Ashton's movements, and had +immediately sent her off to me with the message that a gentleman of that +name stayed at their house for a few days some weeks since, and that if I +would send somebody over there, she, the grandmother, could give some +particulars about him. So that solves the question we were talking of at +Markendale Square, as to where Ashton went during the absence Mrs. +Killenhall told us of." + +"If this is the same Ashton," suggested Viner. + +"We'll soon decide that," answered Mr. Pawle as he touched the bell on his +desk. "I purposely awaited your coming before hearing what this young +woman had to tell. Now, my dear," he continued as a clerk brought the +girl into the room, "take a chair and tell me what your message is, more +particularly. You're from Marketstoke eh? Just so--and your grandmother, +who sent you here, keeps an inn there?" + +"Yes, sir, the Ellingham Arms," replied the girl as she sat down and +glanced a little nervously at her two interviewers. + +"To be sure. And your grandmother's name is--what?" + +"Hannah Summers, sir." + +"Mrs. Hannah Summers. Grandfather living?" + +"No, sir." + +"Very well--Mrs. Hannah Summers, landlady at the Ellingham Arms, +Marketstoke, in Buckinghamshire. Now then--but what's your name, my +dear?" + +"Lucy Summers, sir." + +"Very pretty name, I'm sure! Well, and what's the message your +grandmother sent me? I want this gentleman to hear it." + +"Grandmother wished me to say, sir, that we read the piece in the paper +this morning asking if anybody could give you any news about a Mr. John +Ashton, and that as we had a gentleman of that name staying with us for +three or four days some weeks since, she sent me to tell you, and to say +that if you would send somebody down to see her, she could give some +information about him." + +"Very clearly put, my dear--much obliged to you," said Mr. Pawle. "Now, I +suppose you were at the Ellingham Arms when this Mr. Ashton came there?" + +"Oh, yes, sir; I live there!" + +"To be sure! Now, what sort of man was he--in appearance?" + +"A tall, big gentleman, sir, with a beard, going a little grey. He was +wearing a blue serge suit." + +Mr. Pawle nodded at Viner. + +"Seems like our man," he remarked. "Now," he went on, turning again to +Lucy Summers, "you say he stayed there three or four days. What did he do +with himself while he was there?" + +"He spent a good deal of time about the church, sir," answered the girl, +"and he was at Ellingham Park a good deal--" + +"Whose place is that?" interrupted Mr. Pawle. + +"Lord Ellingham's, sir." + +"Do you mean that Mr. Ashton called on Lord Ellingham, or what?" + +"No, sir, because Lord Ellingham wasn't there--he scarcely ever is +there," replied Lucy Summers. "I mean that Mr. Ashton went into the park +a good deal and looked over the house--a good many people come to see +Ellingham Park, sir." + +"Well, and what else?" asked Mr. Pawle. "Did he go to see people in the +town at all?" + +"I don't know, sir--but he was out most of the day. And at night he +talked a great deal with my grandmother, in her sitting-room, I think," +added the girl with a glance which took in both listeners. "I think +that's what she wants to tell about. She would have come here herself, +but she's over seventy and doesn't like travelling." + +Mr. Pawle turned to Viner. + +"Now we know where we are," he said. "There's no doubt that this is our +Ashton, and that Mrs. Summers has something she can tell about him. +Viner, I suggest that you and I go down to Marketstoke this afternoon. +You've accommodations for a couple of gentlemen, I suppose, my dear?" he +added, turning to the girl. "Couple of nice bedrooms and a bit of +dinner, eh?" + +"Oh, yes sir!" replied Lucy Summers. "We constantly have gentlemen +there, sir." + +"Very well," said Mr. Pawle. "Now, then, you run away home to +Marketstoke, my dear, and tell your grandmother that I'm very much +obliged to her, and that I am coming down this evening, with this +gentleman, Mr. Viner, and that we shall be obliged if she'll have a nice, +plain, well-cooked dinner ready for us at half-past seven. We shall come +in my motorcar--you can put that up for the night, and my driver too? +Very well--that's settled. Now, come along, and one of my clerks shall +get you a cab to your station. Great Central, isn't it? All right--mind +you get yourself a cup of tea before going home." + +"Viner," Pawle continued when he had taken the girl into the outer +office, "we can easily run down to Marketstoke in under two hours. I'll +call for you at your house at half-past five. That'll give us time to +wash away the dirt before our dinner. And then--we'll hear what this old +lady has to tell." + +Viner, who was musing somewhat vaguely over these curious developments, +looked at Mr. Pawle as if in speculation about his evident optimism. + +"You think we shall hear something worth hearing?" he asked. + +"I should say we probably shall," replied Mr. Pawle. "Put things +together. Ashton goes away--as soon as he's got settled down in +Markendale Square--on a somewhat mysterious journey. Now we hear that he +had a secret. Perhaps something relating to that secret is mixed up with +his visit to Marketstoke. Depend upon it, an old woman of over +seventy--especially a landlady of a country-town inn, whose wits are +presumably pretty sharp--wouldn't send for me unless she'd something to +tell. Before midnight, my dear sir, we may have learnt a good deal." + +Viner picked up his hat. + +"I'll be ready for you at half-past five," he said. Then, halfway to the +door, he turned with a question: "By the by," he added, "you wouldn't +like me to tell the two ladies that we've found out where Ashton went +when he was away?" + +"I think not until we've found out why he went away," answered the old +lawyer with a significant smile. "We may draw the covert blank, you know, +after all. When we've some definite news--" + +Viner nodded, went out, into the afternoon calm of Bedford Row. As he +walked up it, staring mechanically at the old-fashioned red brick fronts, +he wondered how many curious secrets had been talked over and perhaps +unravelled in the numerous legal sanctuaries approached through those +open doorways. Were there often as strange ones as that upon which he had +so unexpectedly stumbled? And when they first came into the arena of +thought and speculation did they arouse as much perplexity and mental +exercise as was now being set up in him? Did every secret, too, possibly +endanger a man's life as his old schoolfellow's was being endangered? He +had no particular affection or friendship for Langton Hyde, of whom, +indeed, he had known very little at school, but he had an absolute +conviction that he was innocent of murder, and that conviction had +already aroused in him a passionate determination to outwit the police. +He had been quick to see through Drillford's plans. There was a case, a +strong _prima facie_ case against Hyde, and the police would work it up +for all they were worth. Failing proofs in other directions, failing the +discovery of the real murderer, how was that case going to be upset? And +was it likely that he and Pawle were going to find any really important +evidence in an obscure Buckinghamshire market-town? + +He jumped into a cab at the top of Bedford Row and hastened back to +Markendale Square to pack a bag and prepare for his journey. Miss +Penkridge called to him from the drawing-room as he was running upstairs; +he turned into the room to find her in company with two ladies--dismal, +pathetic figures in very plain and obviously countrified garments, both +in tears and evident great distress, who, as Viner walked in, rose from +their chairs and gazed at him sadly and wistfully. They reminded him at +once of the type of spinster found in quiet, unpretentious cottages in +out-of-the-way villages--the neither young nor old women, who live on +circumscribed means and are painfully shy of the rude world outside. And +before either he or Miss Penkridge could speak, the elder of the two +broke into an eager exclamation. + +"Oh, Mr. Viner, we are Langton's sisters! And we are so grateful to +you--and oh, do you think you can save him?" + +Viner was quick to seize the situation. He said a soothing word or two, +begged his visitors to sit down again, and whispered to Miss Penkridge to +ring for tea. + +"You have come to town today?" he asked. + +"We left home very, very early this morning," replied the elder sister. +"We learned this dreadful news last night in the evening paper. We came +away at four o'clock this morning--we live in Durham, Mr. Viner,--and we +have been to Mr. Felpham's office this afternoon. He told us how kind you +had been in engaging his services for our unfortunate brother, and we +came to thank you. But oh, do you think there is any chance for him?" + +"Every chance!" declared Viner, pretending more conviction than he felt. +"Don't let yourselves be cast down. We'll move heaven and earth to prove +that he's wrongly accused. I gather--if you don't mind my asking--that +your brother has been out of touch with you for some time?" + +The two sisters exchanged mournful glances. + +"We had not heard anything of Langton for some years," replied the +elder. "He is much--much younger than ourselves, and perhaps we are too +staid and old-fashioned for him. But if we had known that he was in +want! Oh, dear me, we are not at all well-to-do, Mr. Viner, but we would +have sacrificed anything. Mr. Felpham says that we shall be allowed to +visit him--he is going to arrange for us to do so. And of course we must +remain in London until this terrible business is over--we came prepared +for that." + +"Prepared for that!" repeated the other sister, who seemed to be a +fainter replica of the elder. "Yes, prepared, of course, Mr. Viner." + +"Now that we have found Langton, though in such painful circumstances," +said the first speaker, "we must stand by him. We must find some quiet +lodging, and settle down to help. We cannot let all the burden fall on +you, Mr. Viner." + +Viner glanced at Miss Penkridge. They were quick to understand each +other, these two, and he knew at once that Miss Penkridge saw what was +in his mind. + +"You must stay with us," he said, turning to the two mournful +figures. "We have any amount of room in this house, and we shall be +only too glad--" + +"Oh, but that is too--" began both ladies. + +"I insist," said Viner, with a smile. + +"We both insist!" echoed Miss Penkridge. "We are both given to having +our own way, too; so say no more about it. We are all in the same boat +just now, and its name is _Mystery_, and we must pull together until +we're in harbour." + +"Listen!" said Viner. "I have to go away tonight, on a matter closely +connected with this affair. Let me leave you in my aunt's charge, and +tomorrow I may be able to give you some cheering news. You'll be much +more comfortable here than in any lodgings or hotel and--and I should +like to do something for Hyde; we're old schoolfellows, you know." + +Then he escaped from the room and made ready for his journey; and at +half-past five came Mr. Pawle in his private car and carried him off into +the dark. And hour and a half later the car rolled smoothly into the main +street of a quiet, wholly Arcadian little town, and pulled up before an +old-fashioned many-gabled house over the door of which was set up one of +those ancient signs which, in such places, display the coat of arms of +the lord of the manor. Viner had just time to glance around him, and in a +clear, starlit evening, to see the high tower of a church, the timbered +fronts of old houses, and many a tall, venerable tree, before following +Mr. Pawle into a stone hall filled with dark oak cabinets and bright with +old brass and pewter, on the open hearth of which burnt a fine and cheery +fire of logs. + +"Excellent!" muttered the old lawyer as he began to take off his +multitudinous wraps. "A real bit of the real old England! Viner, if the +dinner is as good as this promises, I shall be glad we've come, whatever +the occasion." + +"Here's the landlady, I suppose," said Viner as a door opened. + +A tall, silver-haired old woman, surprisingly active and vivacious in +spite of her evident age, came forward with a polite, old-fashioned bow. +She wore a silk gown and a silk apron and a smart cap, and her still +bright eyes took in the two visitors at a glance. + +"Your servant, gentlemen," she said. "Your rooms are ready, and dinner +will be ready, too, when you are. This way, if you please." + +"A very fine old house this, ma'am," observed Mr. Pawle as they followed +her up a curious staircase, all nooks and corners. "And you have, no +doubt, been long in it?" + +"Born in it, sir," said the landlady, with a laugh. "Our family--on one +side--has been here two hundred years. This is your room, sir--this is +your friend's." She paused, and with a significant look, pointed to +another door. "That," she said, "is the room which Mr. Ashton had when he +was here." + +"Ah! We are very anxious to know what you can tell us about him, ma'am," +said Mr. Pawle. + +Mrs. Summers paused, and again glanced significantly at her visitors. + +"I wish I knew the meaning of what I shall tell you," she answered. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LOOKING BACKWARD + + +On the principle that business should never be discussed when one is +dining, Mr. Pawle made no reference during dinner to the matter which had +brought Viner and himself to the Ellingham Arms. He devoted all his +attention and energies to the pleasures of the table; he praised the +grilled soles and roast mutton and grew enthusiastic over some old +Burgundy which Mrs. Summers strongly recommended. But when dinner was +over and he had drunk a glass or two of old port, his eyes began to turn +toward the door of the quaint little parlour in which he and Viner had +been installed, and to which the landlady had promised to come. + +"I confess I'm unusually curious about what we're going to hear, Viner," +he said, as he drew out a well-filled cigar-case. "There's an atmosphere +of mystery about our presence and our surroundings that's like an +aperitif to an already hungry man. Ashton, poor fellow, comes over to +this quiet, out-of-the-way place; why, we don't know; what he does here +we don't know, yet--but all the circumstances, up to now, seem to point +to secrecy, if not to absolute romance and adventure." + +"Is it going, after all, to clear up the mystery of his death?" asked +Viner. "That's what concerns me--I'm afraid I'm a bit indifferent to the +rest of it. What particular romance, do you think, could be attached to +the mere fact that Ashton paid a three days' visit to Marketstoke?" + +Mr. Pawle drew out a well-filled cigar-case. + +"In my profession," he answered, "we hear a great deal more of romance +than most folk could imagine. Now, here's a man who returns to this +country from a long residence in Australia. The first thing he does, +after getting settled down in London, is to visit Marketstoke. Why +Marketstoke? Marketstoke is an obscure place--there are at least five or +six towns in this very county that are better known. Again, I say--why +Marketstoke? And why this, the very first place in England? For what +reason? Now, as a lawyer, a reason does suggest itself to me; I've been +thinking about it ever since that rosy-cheeked lass called at my office +this afternoon. What does the man who's been away from his native land +for the best part of his life do, as a rule, when at last he sets foot on +it again--eh?" + +"I'm not greatly experienced," replied Viner, smiling at the old +solicitor's professional enthusiasm. "What does he do--usually?" + +"Makes his way as soon as possible to his native place!" exclaimed Mr. +Pawle, with an expressive flourish of his cigar. "That, usually, is the +first thing he thinks of. You're not old enough to remember the +circumstances, my boy, but I have, of course, a very distinct +recollection of the Tichborne affair in the early seventies. Now, if you +ever read the evidence in that _cause celebre_, you'll remember that the +claimant, Orton, on arriving in England, posing as the missing heir, Sir +Roger Tichborne, did a certain thing, the evidence of which, I can assure +you, was not lost on the jury before whom he eventually came. Instead of +going direct to Tichborne, where you'd naturally have thought all his +affection and interests rested, where did he go? To Whitechapel! Why? +Because the Ortons were Whitechapel folk! The native place called him, do +you see? The first thought he had on setting foot on English soil +was--Whitechapel!" + +"Are you suggesting that Ashton was probably a native of Marketstoke?" +asked Viner. + +"I mean to find out--no matter what we hear from the landlady--if that +name is to be found in the parish register here, anyway," answered Mr. +Pawle. "You can be sure of this--Ashton came to this obscure country town +for some special purpose. What was it? And--had it anything to do with, +did it lead up to, his murder? That--" + +A light tap at the door heralded the approach of Mrs. Summers. + +"That," repeated Mr. Pawle, as he jumped up from his chair and politely +threw the door open, "is what I mean to endeavour--endeavour, at any +rate--to discover. Come in, ma'am," he continued, gallantly motioning the +old landlady to the easiest chair in the room. "We are very eager, +indeed, to hear what you can tell us. Our cigars, now--" + +"Pray, don't mention them, sir," responded Mrs. Summers. "I hope you are +quite comfortable, and that you are having everything you wish?" + +"Nothing ma'am, could be more pleasant and gratifying, as far as +material comfort goes," answered Mr. Pawle with conviction. "The dinner +was excellent; your wine is sound; this old room is a veritable haven! I +wish we were visiting you under less sad conditions. And now about your +recollections of this poor gentleman, ma'am?" + +The landlady laid a large book on the table, and opening it at a page +where at she had placed a marker, pointed to a signature. + +"That is the writing of the Mr. John Ashton who came here," she said. +"He registered his name and address the day he came--there it is: 'John +Ashton, 7 Markendale Square, London, W.' You gentlemen will recognise +it, perhaps?" + +Mr. Pawle put up his glasses, glanced once at the open book, and turned +to Viner with a confirmatory nod. + +"That's Ashton's writing, without a doubt," he said. "It's a signature +not to be forgotten when you've once seen it. Well, that establishes the +fact that he undoubtedly came here on that date. Now, ma'am, what can you +tell about him?" + +Mrs. Summers took the chair which Viner drew forward to the hearth and +folded her hands over her silk apron. + +"Well sir," she answered, "a good deal. Mr. Ashton came here one Monday +afternoon, in a motorcar, with his luggage, and asked if I could give him +rooms and accommodation for a few days. Of course I could--he had this +room and the room I pointed out upstairs, and he stayed here until the +Thursday, when he left soon after lunch--the same car came for him. And +he hadn't been in the house an hour, gentlemen, before I wondered if he +hadn't been here before." + +"Interesting--very!" said Mr. Pawle. "Now, why, ma'am did you +wonder that?" + +"Well, sir," replied Mrs. Summers, "because, after he'd looked round the +house, and seen his room upstairs, he went out to the front door, and +then I followed him, to ask if he had any particular wishes about his +dinner that evening. Our front door, as you will see in the morning, +fronts the market square, and from it you can see about all there is to +see of the town. He was standing at the door, under the porch, looking +all round him, and I overheard him talking to himself as I went up +behind him. + +"'Aye!' he was saying, as he looked this way and that, 'there's the old +church, and the old moot-hall, and the old market-place, and the old +gabled and thatched houses, and even the old town pump--they haven't +changed a bit, I reckon, in all these years!' Then he caught sight of me, +and he smiled. 'Not many changes in this old place, landlady, in your +time?' he said pleasantly. 'No, sir,' I answered. 'We don't change much +in even a hundred years in Marketstoke.' 'No!' he said, and shook his +head. 'No--the change is in men, in men!' And then he suddenly set +straight off across the square to the churchyard. 'You've known +Marketstoke before,' I said to myself." + +"You didn't ask him that?" inquired Mr. Pawle, eagerly. + +"I didn't, sir," replied Mrs. Summers. "I never asked him a question all +the time he was here. I thought that if I was correct in what I fancied, +I should hear him say something. But he never did say anything of that +sort--all the same, I felt more and more certain that he did know the +place. And during the time he was here, he went about in it in a fashion +that convinced me that my ideas were right. He was in and around the +church a great deal--the vicar and the parish clerk can tell you more +about his visits there than I can--and he was at the old moot-hall +several times, looking over certain old things they keep there, and he +visited Ellingham Park twice, and was shown over the house. And before +he'd been here two days I came to a certain conclusion about him, and +I've had it ever since, though he never said one word, or did one thing +that could positively confirm me in it." + +"Yes!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "And that, ma'am, was--" + +"That he was somebody who disappeared from Marketstoke thirty-five years +ago," answered the landlady, "disappeared completely, and has never been +heard of from that day to this!" + +Mr. Pawle turned slowly and looked at Viner. He nodded his head several +times, then turned to Mrs. Summers and regarded her fixedly. + +"And that somebody?" he asked in hushed accents. "Who was he?" + +The landlady smoothed her silk apron and shook her head. + +"It's a long story, sir," she answered. "I think you must have heard +something of it--though to be sure, it was not talked of much at the +time, and didn't become public until legal proceedings became necessary, +some years ago. You're aware, of course, that just outside the town here +is Ellingham Park, the seat of the Earl of Ellingham. Well, what I have +to tell you has to do with them, and I shall have to go back a good way. +Thirty-five years ago the head of the family was the seventh Earl, who +was then getting on in life. He was a very overbearing, harsh old +gentleman, not at all liked--the people here in Marketstoke, nearly all +of them his tenants, used to be perpetually at variance with him about +something or other; he was the sort of man who wanted to have his own way +about everything. And he had trouble at home, at any rate with his elder +son,--he only had two sons and no daughter,--and about the time I'm +talking of it came to a head. Nobody ever knew exactly what it was all +about, but it was well known that Lord Marketstoke--that was the elder +son's name--and his father, the Earl, were at cross purposes, if not +actually at daggers drawn, about something or other. And when Lord +Marketstoke was about twenty five or twenty-six there was a great quarrel +between them; it broke out one night, after dinner; the servants heard +angry words between them. That night, gentlemen, Lord Marketstoke left +the house and set off to London, and from that day to this he has never +been heard of or seen again--hereabouts, at any rate." + +Mr. Pawle, who was listening with the deepest interest and attention, +glanced at Viner as if to entreat the same care on his part. + +"I do remember something of this, now I come to think of it," he said. +"There were some legal proceedings in connection with this disappearance, +I believe, some years ago." + +"Yes, sir--they were in the newspapers," asserted the old landlady. "But +of course, those of us about here knew of how things stood long before +that. Lord Marketstoke went away, as I have said. It was known that he +had money of his own, that had come to him from his mother, who had died +years before all this. But it wasn't known where he went. Some said he'd +gone to the Colonies; some said to America. And at one time there was a +rumour that he'd taken another name and joined some foreign army, and +been killed in its service. Anyway, nobody ever heard a word of him--Mr. +Marcherson, who was steward at Ellingham Park for over forty years (he +died last year, a very old man) assured me that from the day on which +Lord Marketstoke left his father's house not one word of him, not a +breath, ever reached any of those he'd left behind him. There was +absolute silence--he couldn't have disappeared more completely if they'd +laid him in the family vault in Marketstoke church." + +"And evident intention to disappear!" observed Mr. Pawle. "You'll mark +that, Viner--it's important. Well, ma'am," he added, turning again to +Mrs. Summers. "And--what happened next?" + +"Well sir, there was nothing much happened," continued the landlady. +"Matters went on in pretty much the usual way. The old Earl got older, of +course, and his temper got worse. Mr. Marcherson assured me that he was +never known to mention his missing son--to anybody. And in the end, +perhaps about fifteen years after Lord Marketstoke had gone away, he +died. And then there was no end of trouble and bother. The Earl had left +no will; at any rate, no will could be found, and no lawyer could be +heard of who had ever made one. And of course, nobody knew where the new +Earl was, nor even if he was alive or dead. There were advertisements +sent out all over the world--Mr. Marcherson told me that they were +translated into I don't know how many foreign languages and published in +every quarter of the globe--asking for news of him and stating that his +father was dead. That was done for some time." + +"With no result?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No result whatever, sir--I understand that the family solicitors never +had one single reply," answered Mrs. Summers. "I understand, too, that +for some time before the old Earl's death they'd been trying to trace +Lord Marketstoke from his last known movements. But that had failed too. +He had chambers in London, and he kept a manservant there; the manservant +could only say that on the night on which his young master left Ellingham +Park he returned to his chambers, went to bed--and had gone when he, the +manservant, rose in the morning. No, sir; all the efforts and +advertisements were no good whatever, and after some time--some +considerable time--the younger brother, the Honourable Charles +Cave-Gray--" + +"Cave-Gray? Is that the family name?" interrupted Mr. Pawle. + +"That's the family name, sir--Cave-Gray," replied Mrs. Summers. "One of +the oldest families in these parts, sir--the earldom dates from Queen +Anne. Well, the Honourable Charles Cave-Gray, and his solicitors, of +course, came to the conclusion that Lord Marketstoke was dead, and so--I +don't understand the legal niceties, gentlemen, but they went to the +courts to get something done which presumed his death and let Mr. +Charles come into the title and estates. And in the end that had been +done, and Mr. Charles became the eighth Earl of Ellingham." + +"I remember it now," muttered Mr. Pawle. "Yes--curious case. But it was +proved to the court, I recollect, that everything possible had been done +to find the missing heir--and without result." + +"Just so, sir, and so Mr. Charles succeeded," asserted Mrs. Summers. "He +was a very nice, pleasant man, not a bit like his father--a very good and +considerate landlord, and much respected. But he's gone now--died three +years ago; and his son, a young man of twenty-two or three, succeeded +him--that's the present Earl, gentlemen. And of him we see very little; +he scarcely ever stayed at Ellingham Park, except for a bit of shooting, +since he came to the title. And now," she concluded, with a shrewd glance +at the old lawyer, "I wonder if you see, sir, what it was that came into +my mind when this Mr. John Ashton came here a few weeks ago, especially +after I heard him say what he did, and after I saw how he was spending +his time here?" + +"I've no inkling, ma'am; I've no inkling!" said Mr. Pawle. "You +wondered--" + +"I wondered," murmured Mrs. Summers, bending closer to her listeners, "if +the man who called himself John Ashton wasn't in reality the long-lost +Lord Marketstoke." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PARISH REGISTER + + +Mr. Pawle, after a glance at Viner which seemed to be full of many +meanings, bent forward in his chair and laid a hand on the old +landlady's arm. + +"Now, have you said as much as that to anybody before?" he asked, eking +her significantly. "Have you mentioned it to your neighbours, for +instance, or to any one in the town?" + +"No, sir!" declared Mrs. Summers promptly. "Not to a soul! I'm given to +keeping my ideas to myself, especially on matters of importance. There is +no one here in Marketstoke that I would have mentioned such a thing to, +now that the late steward, Mr. Marcherson, is dead. I shouldn't have +mentioned it to you two gentlemen if it hadn't been for this dreadful news +in the papers. No, I've kept my thoughts at home." + +"Wise woman!" said Mr. Pawle. "But now let me ask you a few questions. +Did you know this Lord Marketstoke before he disappeared?" + +"I only saw him two or three times," replied the landlady. "It was seldom +that he came to Ellingham Park, after his majority. Of course, I saw him +a good deal when he was a mere boy. But after he was grown up, only, as I +say, a very few times." + +"But you remember him?" suggested Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh, very well indeed!" said Mrs. Summers. "I saw him last a day or two +before he went away for good." + +"Well, now, did you think you recognized anything of him--making +allowance for the difference in age--in this man who called himself John +Ashton?" asked Mr. Pawle. "For that, of course, is important!" + +"Mr. Ashton," answered Mrs. Summers, "was just such a man as Lord +Marketstoke might have been expected to become. Height, build--all the +Cave-Grays that I've known were big men--colour, were alike. Of course, +Mr. Ashton had a beard, slightly grey, but he was a grey-haired man. All +the family had crown hair; the present Lord Ellingham is crown-haired. +And Mr. Ashton had grey eyes--every Cave-Gray that I remember was +grey-eyed. I should say that Mr. Ashton was just what I should have +expected Lord Marketstoke to be at sixty." + +"I suppose Ashton never said or did anything here to reveal his secret, +if he had one?" asked Mr. Pawle, after a moment's thoughtful pause. + +"Oh, nothing!" replied Mrs. Summers. "He occupied himself, as I tell you, +while he was here, and finally he went away in the car in which he had +come, saying that he had greatly enjoyed his stay, and that we should see +him again sometime. No--he never said anything about himself, that is. +But he asked me several questions; I used to talk to him sometimes, of an +evening, about the present Lord Ellingham." + +"What sort of questions?" inquired Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh--as to what sort of young man he was, and if he was a good landlord +and so on," replied Mrs. Summers. "And I purposely told him about the +disappearance of thirty-five years ago, just to see what he would say +about it." + +"Ah! And what did he say?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"Nothing--except that it was extraordinary how people could disappear in +this world," said Mrs. Summers. "Whether he was interested or not, he +didn't show it." + +"Probably felt that he knew more about it than you did," chuckled the old +solicitor. "Well, ma'am, we're much obliged to you. Now take my advice +and keep to your very excellent plan of saying nothing. Tomorrow morning +we will just have a look into certain things, and see if we can discover +anything really pertinent, and you shall know what conclusion we come to. +Viner!" Pawle went on, when the old landlady had left them alone, "what +do you think of this extraordinary story? Upon my word, I think it quite +possible that the old lady's theory might be right, and that Ashton may +really have been the missing Lord Marketstoke!" + +"You think it probable that a man who was heir to an English earldom and +to considerable estates could disappear like that, for so many years, and +then reappear?" asked Viner. + +"I won't discuss the probability," answered Mr. Pawle, "but that it's +possible I should steadily affirm. I've known several very extraordinary +cases of disappearance. In this particular instance--granting things to +be as Mrs. Summers suggests--see how easy the whole thing is. This young +man disappears. He goes to a far-off colony under an assumed name. +Nobody knows him. It is ten thousand to one against his being recognized +by visitors from home. All the advertising in the world will fail to +reveal his identity. The only person who knows who he is is himself. And +if he refuses to speak--there you are!" + +"What surprises me," remarked Viner, "is that a man who evidently lived a +new life for thirty-five years and prospered most successfully in it, +should want to return to the old one." + +"Ah, but you never know!" said the old lawyer. "Family feeling, old +associations, loss of the old place--eh? As men get older, their thoughts +turn fondly to the scenes and memories of their youth, Viner. If Ashton +was really the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared, he may have come down +here with no other thought than that of just revisiting his old home for +sentimental reasons. He may not have had the slightest intention, for +instance, of setting up a claim to the title and estates." + +"I don't understand much about the legal aspect of this," said Viner, +"but I've been wondering about it while you and the landlady talked. +Supposing Ashton to be the long-lost Lord Marketstoke--could he have +established a claim such as you speak of?" + +"To be sure!" answered Mr. Pawle. "Had he been able to prove that he was +the real Simon pure, he would have stepped into title and estates at +once. Didn't the old lady say that the seventh Earl died intestate? Very +well--the holders since his time, that is to say, Charles, who, his +brother's death being presumed, became eighth Earl, and his son, the +present holder, would have had to account for everything since the day +of the seventh Earl's death. When the seventh Earl died, his elder son, +Lord Marketstoke, _ipso facto_, stepped into his shoes, and if he were, +or is, still alive, he's in them still. All he had to do, at any moment, +after his father's death, no matter who had come into title and estates, +was to step forward and say: 'Here I am!--now I want my rights!'" + +"A queer business altogether!" commented Viner. "But whoever Ashton +was, he's dead. And the thing that concerns me is this: if he really +was Earl of Ellingham, do you think that fact's got anything to do with +his murder?" + +"That's just what we want to find out," answered Mr. Pawle eagerly. "It's +quite conceivable that he may have been murdered by somebody who had a +particular interest in keeping him out of his rights. Such things have +been known. I want to go into all that. But now here's another matter. If +Ashton really was the missing Lord Marketstoke, who is this girl whom he +put forward as his ward, to whom he's left his considerable fortune, and +about whom nobody knows anything? I've already told you there isn't a +single paper or document about her that I can discover. Was he really her +guardian?" + +"Has this anything to do with it?" asked Viner. "Does it come into +things?" + +Mr. Pawle did not answer for a moment; he appeared to have struck a new +vein of thought and to be exploring it deeply. + +"In certain events, it would come into it pretty strongly!" he muttered +at last. "I'll tell you why, later on. Now I'm for bed--and first thing +after breakfast, in the morning, Viner, we'll go to work." + +Viner had little idea of what the old solicitor meant as regards going to +work; it seemed to him that for all practical purposes they were already +in a maze out of which there seemed no easy way. And he was not at all +sure of what they were doing when, breakfast being over next morning, Mr. +Pawle conducted him across the square to the old four-square churchyard, +and for half an hour walked him up one path and down another and in and +around the ancient yew-trees and gravestones. + +"Do you know what I've been looking for, Viner?" asked Mr. Pawle at +last as he turned towards the church porch. "I was looking for +something, you know." + +"Not the faintest notion!" answered Viner dismally. "I wondered!" + +"I was looking," replied Mr. Pawle with a faint chuckle, "to see if I +could find any tombstones or monuments in this churchyard bearing the +name Ashton. There isn't one! I take it from that significant fact that +Ashton didn't come down here to visit the graves of his kindred. But now +come into the church--Mrs. Summers told me this morning that there's a +chapel here in which the Cave-Gray family have been interred for two or +three centuries. Let's have a look at it." + +Viner, who had a dilettante love of ancient architecture, was immediately +lost in admiration of the fine old structure into which he and his +companion presently stepped. He stood staring at the high rood, the fine +old rood screen, the beauty of the clustered columns--had he been alone, +and on any other occasion, he would have spent the morning in wandering +around nave and aisles and transepts. But Mr. Pawle, severely practical, +at once made for the northeast chapel; and Viner, after another glance +round, was forced to follow him. + +"The Ellingham Chapel!" whispered the old solicitor as they passed a fine +old stone screen which Viner mentally registered as fifteenth-century. +"No end of Cave-Grays laid here. What a profusion of monuments!" + +Viner began to examine those monuments as well as the gloom of the +November morning and the dark-painted glass of the windows would permit. +And before very long he turned to his companion, who was laboriously +reading the inscription on a great box-tomb which stood against the +north wall. + +"I say!" he whispered. "Here's a curious fact which, in view of what we +heard last night, may be of use to us." + +"What's that?" demanded Mr. Pawle. + +Viner took him by the elbow and led him over to the south wall, on which +was arranged a number of ancient tablets, grouped around a great +altar-tomb whereon were set up the painted effigies of a gentleman, his +wife, and several sons and daughters, all in ruffs, kneeling one after +the other, each growing less in size and stature, in the attitude of +prayer. He pointed to the inscription on this, and from it to several of +the smaller monuments. + +"Look here!" he said. "There are Cave-Grays commemorated here from 1570 +until 1820. No end of 'em--men and women. And now, see--there's a +certain Christian name--a woman's name--which occurs over and over +again. There it is--and there--and here--and here--and here again; it's +evidently been a favourite family name among the Cave-Gray women for +three hundred years at least. You see what it is? Avice!" + +Mr. Pawle peered at the various places to which his companion's +finger pointed. + +"Yes," he answered, "I see it--several times, as you say. Avice! Yes?" + +"Miss Wickham's Christian name is Avice," said Viner. + +Mr. Pawle started. + +"God bless me!" he exclaimed. "So it is! I'd forgotten that. Dear me! +Now, that's very odd--too odd, perhaps, to be a coincidence. Very +interesting, indeed! Favourite family name without a doubt." + +Viner silently went round the chapel, inspecting every monument its four +walls sheltered. + +"It occurs just nineteen times," he announced at last. "Now, is it a +coincidence that Miss Wickham's name should be Avice? Or is it that +there's some connection between her and all these dead and gone Avices?" + +"Very strange!" admitted Mr. Pawle. "Viner--we'll go next and have a look +at the parish registers. But look here! Not a word to parson or clerk +about our business! We merely wish to make search for a certain legal +purpose, eh?" + +Three hours later Viner, heartily weary of turning over old registers +full of crabbed writing, was glad when Mr. Pawle closed the one on +which he was engaged, intimated that he had seen all he wanted, paid +the fees for his search, and whispered to his companion that they would +go to lunch. + +"Well?" asked Viner as they walked across the square to the Ellington +Arms. "Have we done anything?" + +"Probably!" answered Mr. Pawle. "For you never know how these little +matters might help. We've established two facts, anyway. One--that there +have never been any folk of the name of Ashton in this town since the +registers came into being in 1567; the other, that the name Avice was a +very favourite one indeed amongst the women of the Cave-Gray family. And +there's just another little fact which I discovered, and said nothing +about while the vicar and clerk were about--it may be nothing, and it may +be something." + +"What is it?" asked Viner. + +"Well," answered Mr. Pawle pausing a few yards away from the porch of the +hotel, and speaking in a confidential voice, "it's this: In turning up +the records of the Cave-Gray family, as far as they are shown in their +parish registers, I found that Stephen John Cave-Gray, sixth Earl of +Ellingham, married one Georgina Wickham. Now, is that another +coincidence? There you get the two names in combination--Avice Wickham. +That particular Countess of Ellingham would, of course, be the +grandmother of the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared. Did he think of her +maiden name, Wickham, when he wanted a new one for himself? Possibly! And +when he married, and had a daughter, did he think of the Christian name +so popular with his own womenfolk of previous generations, and call his +daughter Avice? And are Marketstoke and Wickham and Ashton all one and +the same man?" + +"Upon my word, it's a strange muddle!" exclaimed Viner. + +"Nothing as yet to what it will be," remarked Mr. Pawle sententiously. +"Come on--I'm famishing. Let's lunch--and then we'll go back to town." + +Another surprise awaited them when they walked into Mr. Pawle's office in +Bedford Row at four o'clock that afternoon. A card lay on the old +lawyer's blotting-pad, and after glancing at it, he passed it to Viner. + +"See that?" he said. "Now, who on earth is Mr. Armitstead Ashton +Armitstead, of Rouendale House, Rawtenstall? Who left this?" he went on, +as a clerk entered the room with some letters. + +"A gentleman who called at three o'clock, sir," replied the clerk. "He +said he's travelled specially from Lancashire to see you about the Ashton +affair. He's going to call again, sir. In fact," concluded the clerk, +glancing into the anteroom, "I think he's here now." + +"Bring him in," commanded Mr. Pawle. He made a grimace at Viner as the +clerk disappeared. "You see how things develop," he murmured. "What are +we going to hear next?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WHAT HAPPENED IN PARIS + + +The man who presently walked in, a tall, grey-bearded, evidently +prosperous person, dressed in the height of fashion, glanced keenly from +one to the other of the two men who awaited him. + +"Mr. Pawle?" he inquired as he dropped into the chair which the old +lawyer silently indicated at the side of his desk. "One of your partners, +no doubt!" he added, looking again at Viner. + +"No sir," replied Mr. Pawle. "This is Mr. Viner, who gave evidence in the +case you want to see me about. You can speak freely before him. What is +it you have to say, Mr. Armitstead?" + +"Not, perhaps, very much, but it may be of use," answered the visitor. +"The fact is that, like most folk, I read the accounts of this Ashton +murder in the newspapers, and I gave particular attention to what was +said by the man Hyde at the inquest the other day. It was what he said in +regard to the man whom he alleges he saw leaving Lonsdale Passage that +made me come specially to town to see you. I don't know," he went on, +glancing at the card which still lay on Mr. Pawle's blotting-pad, "if you +know my name at all? I'm a pretty well-known Lancashire manufacturer, and +I was a member of Parliament for some years--for the Richdale Valley +division. I didn't put up again at the last General Election." + +Mr. Pawle bowed. + +"Just so, Mr. Armitstead," he answered. "And there's something you know +about this case?" + +"I know this," replied Mr. Armitstead. "I met John Ashton in Paris some +weeks ago. We were at the Hotel Bristol together. In fact, we met and +introduced ourselves to each other in an odd way. We arrived at the Hotel +Bristol at the same time--he from Italy, I from London, and we registered +at the same moment. Now, I have a habit of always signing my name in +full, Armitstead Ashton Armitstead. I signed first; he followed. He +looked at me and smiled. 'You've got one of my names, anyway, sir,' he +remarked. 'And I see you hail from where I hailed from, many a long year +ago.' 'Then you're a Lancashire man?' I said. 'I left Lancashire more +years ago than I like to think of,' he answered, with a laugh. And then +we got talking, and he told me that he had emigrated to Australia when he +was young, and that he was going back to England for the first time. We +had more talk during the two or three days that we were at the Bristol +together, and we came to the conclusion that we were distantly related--a +long way back. But he told me that, as far as he was aware, he had no +close relations living, and when I suggested to him that he ought to go +down to Lancashire and look up old scenes and old friends, he replied +that he'd no intention of doing so--he must, he said, have been +completely forgotten in his native place by this time." + +"Did he tell you what his native place was, Mr. Armitstead?" asked Mr. +Pawle, who had given Viner two or three expressive glances during the +visitor's story. + +"Yes," replied Mr. Armitstead. "He did--Blackburn. He left it as a very +young man." + +"Well," said Mr. Pawle, "there's a considerable amount of interest in +what you tell us, for Mr. Viner and myself have been making certain +inquiries during the last twenty-four hours, and we formed, or nearly +formed, a theory which your information upsets. Ashtons of Blackburn? We +must go into that. For we particularly want to know who Mr. John Ashton +was--there's a great deal depending on it. Did he tell you more?" + +"About himself, no," replied the visitor, "except that he'd been +exceedingly fortunate in Australia, and had made a good deal of money and +was going to settle down here in London. He took my address and said he'd +write and ask me to dine with him as soon as he got a house to his +liking, and he did write, only last week, inviting me to call next time I +was in town. Then I saw the accounts of his murder in the papers--a very +sad thing!" + +"A very mysterious thing!" remarked Mr. Pawle. "I wish we could get some +light on it!" + +The visitor looked from one man to the other and lowered his voice a +little. + +"It's possible I can give you a little," he said. "That, indeed, is the +real reason why I set off to see you this morning. You will remember +that Hyde, the man who is charged with the murder, said before the +Coroner that as he turned into Lonsdale Passage, he saw coming out of +it a tall man in black clothes who was swathed to the very eyes in a big +white muffler?" + +"Yes!" said Mr. Pawle. "Well?" + +"I saw such a man with Ashton in Paris," answered Mr. Armitstead. "Hyde's +description exactly tallies with what I myself should have said." + +Mr. Pawle looked at his visitor with still more interest and attention. + +"Now, that really is of importance!" he exclaimed. "If Hyde saw such a +man--as I believe he did--and you saw such a man, then that man must +exist, and the facts that you saw him with Ashton, and that Hyde saw him +in close proximity to the place where Ashton was murdered, are of the +highest consequence. But--you can tell us more, Mr. Armitstead?" + +"Unfortunately, very little," replied the visitor. "What I saw was on the +night before I left Paris--after it I never saw Ashton again to speak to. +It was late at night. Do you know the Rue Royale? There is at the end of +it a well-known restaurant, close to the Place de la Concorde--I was +sitting outside this about a quarter to eleven when I saw Ashton and the +man I am speaking of pass along the pavement in the direction of the +Madeleine. What made me particularly notice the man was the fact that +although it was an unusually warm night, he was closely muffled in a big +white silk handkerchief. It was swathed about his throat, his chin, his +mouth; it reached, in fact, right up to his eyes. An odd thing, on such a +warm night--Ashton, who was in evening dress, had his light overcoat +thrown well back. He was talking very volubly as they passed me--the +other man was listening with evident attention." + +"Would you know the man if you saw him again?" asked Viner. + +"I should most certainly know him if I saw him dressed and muffled in the +same way," asserted Mr. Armitstead. "And I believe I could recognize him +from his eyes--which, indeed, were all that I could really see of him. He +was so muffled, I tell you, that it was impossible to see if he was a +clean-shaven man or a bearded man. But I did see his eyes, for he turned +them for an instant full on the light of the restaurant. They were +unusually dark, full and brilliant--his glance would best be described as +flashing. And I should say, from my impression at the time, and from what +I remember of his dress, that he was a foreigner--probably an Italian." + +"You didn't see this man at your hotel?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No--I never saw him except on this one occasion," replied Mr. +Armitstead. "And I did not see Ashton after that. I left Paris very early +the next morning, for Rouen, where I had some business. You think this +matter of the man in the muffler important?" + +"Now that you've told us what you have, Mr. Armitstead, I think it's of +the utmost importance and consequence--to Hyde," answered Mr. Pawle. "You +must see his solicitor--he's Mr. Viner's solicitor too--and offer to give +evidence when Hyde's brought up again; it will be of the greatest help. +There's no doubt, to me, at any rate, that the man Hyde saw leaving the +scene of the murder is the man you saw with Ashton in Paris. But now, who +is he? Ashton, as we happen to know, left his ship at Naples, and +travelled to England through Italy and France. Is this man some fellow +that he picked up on the way? His general appearance, now--how did that +strike you?" + +"He was certainly a man of great distinction of manner," declared Mr. +Armitstead. "He had the air and bearing of--well, of a personage. I +should say he was somebody--you know what I mean--a man of superior +position, and so on." + +"Viner," exclaimed Mr. Pawle, "that man must be found! There must be +people in London who saw him that night. People can't disappear like +that. We'll set to work on that track--find him we must! Now, all the +evidence goes to show that he and Ashton were in company that +night--probably they'd been dining together, and he was accompanying +Ashton to his house. How is it that no one at all has come forward to say +that Ashton was seen with this man? It's really extraordinary!" + +Mr. Armitstead shook his head. + +"There's one thing you're forgetting, aren't you?" he said. "Ashton and +this man mayn't have been in each other's company many minutes when the +murder took place. Ashton may have been trapped. I don't know much +about criminal affairs, but in reading the accounts of the proceedings +before the magistrate and the coroner, an idea struck me which, so far +as I could gather from the newspapers, doesn't seem to have struck any +one else." + +"What's that?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "All ideas are welcome." + +"Well, this," replied Mr. Armitstead: "In one of the London newspapers +there was a plan, a rough sketchmap of the passage in which the murder +took place. I gathered from it that on each side of that passage there +are yards or gardens, at the backs of houses--the houses on one side +belong to some terrace; on the other to the square--Markendale Square--in +which Ashton lived. Now, may it not be that the murder itself was +actually committed in one of those houses, and that the body was carried +out through a yard or garden to where it was found?" + +"Ashton was a big and heavy man," observed Viner. "No one man could have +carried him." + +"Just so!" agreed Mr. Armitstead. "But don't you think there's a +probability that more than one man was engaged in this affair! The man in +the muffler, hurrying away, may have only been one of several." + +"Aye!" said Mr. Pawle, with a deep sigh. "There's something in all that. +It may be as you say--a conspiracy. If we only knew the real object of +the crime! But it appears to be becoming increasingly difficult to find +it.... What is it?" he asked, as his clerk came into the room with a +card. "I'm engaged." + +The clerk came on, however, laid the card before his employer, and +whispered a few words to him. + +"A moment, then--I'll ring," said Mr. Pawle. He turned to his two +companions as the clerk retired and closed the door, and smiled as he +held up the card. "Here's another man who wants to tell me something +about the Ashton case!" he exclaimed. + +"It's been quite a stroke of luck having that paragraph in the +newspapers, asking for information from anybody who could give it!" + +"What's this?" asked Viner. + +"Mr. Jan Van Hoeren, Diamond Merchant," read Mr. Pawle from the card, +"583 Hatton Garden--" + +"Ah!" Mr. Armitstead exclaimed. "Diamonds!" + +"I shouldn't wonder if you're right," remarked Mr. Pawle. "Diamonds, I +believe, are to Hatton Garden what cabbages and carrots are to Covent." +He touched his bell, and the clerk appeared. "Bring Mr. Van Hoeren this +way," he said. + +There entered, hat in hand, bowing all round, a little fat, beady-eyed +man, whose beard was blue-black and glossy, whose lips were red, whose +nose was his most decided feature. His hat was new and shining, his black +overcoat of superfine cloth was ornamented with a collar of undoubted +sable; he carried a gold-mounted umbrella. But there was one thing on him +that put all the rest of his finery in the shade. In the folds of his +artistically-arranged black satin stock lay a pearl--such a pearl as few +folk ever have the privilege of seeing. It was as big as a moderately +sized hazel nut, and the three men who looked at it knew that it was +something wonderful. + +"Take a chair, Mr. Van Hoeren," said Mr. Pawle genially. "You want to +tell me something about this Ashton case? Very much obliged to you, I'm +sure. These gentlemen are both interested--considerably--in that case, +and if you can give me any information that will throw any light on it--" + +Mr. Van Hoeren deposited his plump figure in a convenient chair and +looked round the circle of faces. + +"One thing there is I don't see in them newspapers, Mr. Pawle," he said +in strongly nasal accents. "Maybe nobody don't know nothings about it, +what? So I come to tell you what I know, see? Something!" + +"Very good of you, I'm sure," replied Mr. Pawle. "What may it be?" + +Mr. Van Hoeren made a significant grimace; it seemed to imply that there +was a great deal to be told. + +"Some of us, my way, we know Mr. Ashton," he said. "In Hatton Garden, you +understand. Dealers in diamonds, see? Me, and Haas, and Aarons, and one +or two more. Business!" + +"You've done business with Mr. Ashton?" asked the old lawyer. "Just so!" + +"No--done nothing," replied Mr. Van Hoeren. "Not a shilling's worth. But +we know him. He came down there. And we don't see nothing in them papers +that we expected to see, and today two or three of us, we lunch together, +and Haas, he says: 'Them lawyer men,' he says, 'they want information. +You go and give it to 'em. So!" + +"Well--what is it?" demanded Mr. Pawle. + +Mr. Van Hoeren leaned forward and looked from one face to another. + +"Ashton," he said, "was carrying a big diamond about--in his pocketbook!" + +Mr. Armitstead let a slight exclamation escape his lips. Viner glanced at +Mr. Pawle. And Mr. Pawle fastened his eyes on his latest caller. + +"Mr. Ashton was carrying a big diamond about in his pocketbook?" he said. +"Ah--have you seen it?" + +"Several times I see it," replied Mr. Van Hoeren. "My trade, don't it? +Others of us--we see it too." + +"He wanted to sell it?" suggested Mr. Pawle. + +"There ain't so many people could afford to buy it," said Mr. Van Hoeren. + +"Why!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "Was it so valuable, then?" + +The diamond merchant shrugged his shoulders and waved the gold-mounted +umbrella which he was carefully nursing in his tightly-gloved hands. + +"Oh, well!" he answered. "Fifty or sixty thousand pounds it was +worth--yes!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GREY MARE INN + + +The three men who heard this announcement were conscious that at this +point the Ashton case entered upon an entirely new phase. Armitstead's +mind was swept clean away from the episode in Paris, Viner's from the +revelations at Marketstoke, Mr. Pawle suddenly realized that here, at +last, was something material and tangible which opened out all sorts of +possibilities. And he voiced the thoughts of his two companions as he +turned in amazement on the fat little man who sat complacently nursing +his umbrella. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "You mean to tell me that Ashton was walking about +London with a diamond worth fifty thousand pounds in his pocket? +Incredible!" + +"Don't see nothing so very incredible about it," retorted Mr. Van Hoeren. +"I could show you men what carries diamonds worth twice that much in +their pockets about the Garden." + +"That's business," said Mr. Pawle. "I've heard of such things--but you +all know each other over there, I'm told. Ashton wasn't a diamond +merchant. God bless me--he was probably murdered for that stone!" + +"That's just what I come to you about, eh?" suggested Mr. Van Hoeren. +"You see 'tain't nothing if he show that diamond to me, and such as me; +we don't think nothing of that--all in our way of business. But if he +gets showing it to other people, in public places--what?" + +"Just so!" asserted Mr. Pawle. "Sheer tempting of Providence! I'm amazed! +But--how did you get to know Mr. Ashton and to hear of this diamond? Did +he come to you?" + +"Called on me at my office," answered Mr. Van Hoeren laconically. "Pulled +out the diamond and asked me what I thought it was worth. Well, I +introduce him to some of the other boys in the Garden, see? He show them +the diamond too. We reckon it's worth what I say--fifty to sixty +thousand. So!" + +"Did he want to sell it?" demanded Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh, well, yes--he wouldn't have minded," replied the diamond merchant. +"Wasn't particular about it, you know--rich man." + +"Did he tell you anything about it--how he got it, and so on?" asked Mr. +Pawle. "Was there any history attached to it?" + +"Oh, nothing much," answered Mr. Van Hoeren. "He told me he'd had it some +years--got it in Australia, where he come from to London. Got it cheap, +he did--lots of things like that in our business." + +"And carried it in his pocket!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. He stared hard at +Mr. Van Hoeren, as if his mind was revolving some unpleasant idea. "I +suppose all the people you introduced him to are--all right?" he asked. + +"Oh, they're all right!" affirmed Mr. Van Hoeren, with a laugh. "Give my +word for any of 'em, eh? But Ashton--if he pulls that diamond out to +show to anybody--out of the trade, you understand--well, then, there's +lots of fellows in this town would settle him to get hold of it--what?" + +"I think you're right," said Mr. Pawle. He glanced at Viner. "This puts a +new complexion on affairs," he remarked. "We shall have to let the police +know of this. I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Van Hoeren. You won't mind +giving evidence about this if it's necessary?" + +"Don't mind nothing," said Mr. Van Hoeren. "Me and the other boys, we +think you ought to know about that diamond, see?" + +He went away, and Mr. Pawle turned to Viner and Armitstead. + +"I shouldn't wonder if we're getting at something like a real clue," he +said. "It seems evident that Ashton was not very particular about showing +his diamond to people! If he'd show it--readily--to a lot of Hatton +Garden diamond merchants, who, after all, were strangers to him, how do +we know that he wouldn't show it to other men? The fact is, wealthy men +like that are often very careless about their possessions. Possibly a +diamond worth fifty or sixty thousand pounds wasn't of so much importance +in Ashton's eyes as it would have been in--well, in mine. And how do we +know that he didn't show the diamond to the man with the muffler, in +Paris, and that the fellow followed him here and murdered him for it?" + +"Possible!" said Armitstead. + +"Doesn't it strike you as strange, though," suggested Viner, "that the +first news of this diamond comes from Van Hoeren? One would have thought +that Ashton would have mentioned it--and shown it--to Miss Wickham and +Mrs. Killenhall. Yet apparently--he never did." + +"Yes, that does seem odd," asserted Mr. Pawle. "But there seems to be no +end of oddity in this case. And there's one thing that must be done at +once: we must have a full and thorough search and examination of all +Ashton's effects. His house must be thoroughly searched for papers and so +on. Viner, I suppose you're going home? Do me the favour to call at Miss +Wickham's, and tell her that I propose to come there at ten o'clock +tomorrow morning, to go through Ashton's desk and his various belongings +with her--surely there must be something discoverable that will throw +more light on the matter. And in the meantime, Viner, don't say anything +to her about our journey to Marketstoke--leave that for a while." + +Viner went away from Crawle, Pawle, and Rattenbury's in company +with Armitstead. Outside, the Lancashire business man gave him a +shrewd glance. + +"I very much doubt if that diamond has anything whatever to do with +Ashton's murder," he said. "From what I saw of him, he seemed to me to +be a very practical man, full of business aptitude and common sense, and +I don't believe that he'd make a practice of walking about London with a +diamond of that value in his pocket. It's all very well that he should +have it in his pocket when he went down to Hatton Garden--he had a +purpose. But that he should always carry it--no, I don't credit that, +Mr. Viner." + +"I can scarcely credit such a foolish thing myself," said Viner. +"But--where is the diamond?" + +"Perhaps you'll find it tomorrow," suggested Armitstead. "The man would +be sure to have some place in his house where he kept his valuables. I +shall be curious to hear." + +"Are you staying in town?" inquired Viner. + +"I shall be at the Hotel Cecil for a fortnight at least," answered +Armitstead. "And if I can be of any use to you or Mr. Pawle, you've only +to ring me up there. You've no doubt yourself, I think, that the +unfortunate fellow Hyde is innocent?" + +"None!" said Viner. "No doubt whatever! But--the police have a strong +case against him. And unless we can find the actual murderer, I'm afraid +Hyde's in a very dangerous position." + +"Well," said Armitstead, "in these cases, you never know what a sudden +and unexpected turn of events may do. That man with the muffler is the +chap you want to get hold of--I'm sure of that!" + +Viner went home and dined with his aunt and their two guests, Hyde's +sisters, whom he endeavoured to cheer up by saying that things were +developing as favourably as could be expected, and that he hoped to +have good news for them ere long. They were simple souls, pathetically +grateful for any scrap of sympathy and comfort, and he strove to +appear more confident about the chances of clearing this unlucky +brother than he really felt. It was his intention to go round to +Number Seven during the evening, to deliver Mr. Pawle's message to +Miss Wickham, but before he rose from his own table, a message arrived +by Miss Wickham's parlour-maid--would Mr. Viner be kind enough to +come to the house at once? + +At this, Viner excused himself to his guests and hurried round to Number +Seven, to find Miss Wickham and Mrs. Killenhall, now in mourning +garments, in company with a little man whom Viner at once recognized as a +well-known tradesman of Westbourne Grove--a florist and fruiterer named +Barleyfield, who was patronized by all the well-to-do folk of the +neighbourhood. He smiled and bowed as Viner entered the room, and turned +to Miss Wickham as if suggesting that she should explain his presence. + +"Oh, Mr. Viner!" said Miss Wickham, "I'm so sorry to send for you so +hurriedly, but Mr. Barleyfield came to tell us that he could give some +information about Mr. Ashton, and as Mr. Pawle isn't available, and I +don't like to send for a police-inspector, I thought that you, perhaps--" + +"To be sure!" said Viner. "What is it, Mr. Barleyfield?" + +Mr. Barleyfield, who had obviously attired himself in his Sunday raiment +for the purposes of his call, and had further shown respect for the +occasion by wearing a black cravat, smiled as he looked from the two +ladies to Viner. + +"Well, Mr. Viner," he answered, "I'll tell you what it is--it may help a +bit in clearing up things, for I understand there's a great deal of +mystery about Mr. Ashton's death. Now, I'm told, sir, that +nobody--especially these good ladies--knows nothing about what the +deceased gentleman used to do with himself of an evening--as a rule. Just +so. Well, you know, Mr. Viner, a tradesman like myself generally knows a +good deal about the people of his neighbourhood. I knew Mr. Ashton very +well indeed--he was a good customer of mine, and sometimes he'd stop and +have a bit of chat with me. And I can tell you where he very often spent +an hour or two of an evening." + +"Yes--where?" asked Viner. + +"At the Grey Mare Inn, sir," answered Barleyfield promptly. "I have often +seen him there myself." + +"The Grey Mare Inn!" exclaimed Viner, while Mrs. Killenhall and Miss +Wickham looked at each other wonderingly. "Where is that? It sounds like +the name of some village tavern." + +"Ah, but you don't know this part of London as I do, sir!" said +Barleyfield, with a knowing smile. "If you did, you'd know the Grey Mare +well enough--it's an institution. It's a real old-fashioned place, +between Westbourne Grove and Notting Hill--one of the very last of the +old taverns, with a tea-garden behind it, and a bar-parlour of a very +comfortable sort, where various old fogies of the neighbourhood gather of +an evening and smoke churchwarden pipes and tell tales of the olden +days--I rather gathered from what I saw that it was the old atmosphere +that attracted Mr. Ashton--made him think of bygone England, you know, +Mr. Viner." + +"And you say he went there regularly?" asked Viner. + +"I've seen him there a great deal, sir, for I usually turn in there for +half an hour or so, myself, of an evening, when business is over and I've +had my supper," answered Barleyfield. "I should say that he went there +four or five nights a week." + +"And no doubt conversed with the people he met there?" suggested Viner. + +"He was a friendly, sociable man, sir," said Barleyfield. "Yes, he was +fond of a talk. But there was one man there that he seemed to +associate with--an elderly, superior gentleman whose name I don't +know, though I'm familiar enough with his appearance. Him and Mr. +Ashton I've often seen sitting in a particular corner, smoking their +cigars, and talking together. And--if it's of any importance--I saw +them talking like that, at the Grey Mare, the very evening that--that +Mr. Ashton died, Mr. Viner." + +"What time was that?" asked Viner. + +"About the usual time, sir--nine-thirty or so," replied Barleyfield. "I +generally look in about that time--nine-thirty to ten." + +"Did you leave them talking there?" inquired Viner. + +"They were there when I left, sir, at a quarter past ten," answered +Barleyfield. "Talking in their usual corner." + +"And you say you don't know who this man is?" + +"I don't! I know him by sight--but he's a comparatively recent comer to +the Grey Mare. I've noticed him for a year or so--not longer." + +Viner glanced at the two ladies. + +"I suppose you never heard Mr. Ashton mention the Grey Mare?" he asked. + +"We never heard Mr. Ashton say anything about his movements," answered +Miss Wickham. "We used to wonder, sometimes, if he'd joined a club or if +he had friends that we knew nothing about." + +"Well," said Viner, turning to the florist, "do you think you could take +me to the Grey Mare, Mr. Barleyfield?" + +"Nothing easier, sir--open to one and all!" + +"Then, if you've the time to spare, we'll go now," said Viner. He lingered +behind a moment to tell Miss Wickham of Mr. Pawle's appointment for the +morning, and then went away with Barleyfield in the Notting Hill +direction. "I suppose you've been at the Grey Mare since Mr. Ashton's +death?" he asked as they walked along. + +"Once or twice, sir," replied Barleyfield. + +"And you've no doubt heard the murder discussed?" suggested Viner. + +"I've heard it discussed hard enough, sir, there and elsewhere," replied +the florist. "But at the Gray Mare itself, I don't think anybody knew +that this man who'd been murdered was the same as the grey-bearded +gentleman who used to drop in there sometimes. They didn't when I was +last in, anyway. Perhaps this gentleman I've mentioned to you might +know--Mr. Ashton might have told his name to him. But you know how it is +in these places, Mr. Viner--people drop in, even regularly, and +fellow-customers may have a bit of talk with them without having the +least idea who they are. Between you and me, sir, I came to the +conclusion that Mr. Ashton was a man who liked to see a bit of what we'll +call informal, old-fashioned tavern life, and he hit on this place by +accident, in one of his walks round, and took to coming where he could be +at his ease--amongst strangers." + +"No doubt," agreed Viner. + +He followed his guide through various squares and streets until they came +to the object of their pilgrimage--a four-square, old-fashioned house set +back a little from the road, with a swinging sign in front, and a garden +at the side. Barleyfield led him through this garden to a side-door, +whence they passed into a roomy, low-ceilinged parlour which reminded +Viner of old coaching prints--he would scarcely have believed it possible +that such a pre-Victorian room could be found in London. There were +several men in it, and he nudged his companion's elbow. + +"Let us sit down in a quiet corner and have something to drink," he said. +"I just want to take a look at this place--and its frequenters." + +Barleyfield led him to a nook near the chimney-corner and beckoned to +an aproned boy who hung about with a tray under his arm. But before +Viner could give an order, his companion touched his arm and motioned +towards the door. + +"Here's the gentleman Mr. Ashton used to talk to!" he whispered. "The +tall man--just coming in." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE JAPANESE CABINET + + +Remembering that Barleyfield had said that the man who now entered had +been in Ashton's company in that very room on the evening of the murder, +Viner looked at him with keen interest and speculation. He was a tall, +well-built, clean-shaven man, of professional appearance and of a large, +heavy, solemn face the evidently usual pallor of which was deepened by +his black overcoat and cravat. An eminently respectable, slow-going, +unimaginative man, in Viner's opinion, and of a type which one may see by +the dozen in the precincts of the Temple; a man who would be content to +do a day's work in a placid fashion, and who cherished no ambition to set +the Thames on fire; certainly, so Viner thought from appearances, not the +man to commit a peculiarly daring murder. Nevertheless, knowing what he +did, he watched him closely. + +The newcomer, on entering, glanced at once at a quiet corner of the room, +and seeing it unoccupied, turned to the bar, where the landlord, who was +as old-fashioned as his surroundings, was glancing over the evening +paper. He asked for whisky and soda, and when he took up the glass, drank +slowly and thoughtfully. Suddenly he turned to the landlord. + +"Have you seen that gentleman lately that I've sometimes talked to in +the corner there?" he asked. + +The landlord glanced across the room and shook his head. + +"Can't say that I have, sir," he answered. "The tallish gentleman with a +grey beard? No, he hasn't been in this last night or two." + +The other man sat down his glass and drew something from his pocket. + +"I promised to bring him a specimen of some cigars I bought lately," he +said, laying an envelope on the counter. "I can't stop tonight. If he +should come in, will you give him that--he'll know what it is." + +"Good heavens!" muttered Viner, as he turned in surprise to Barleyfield. +"These men evidently don't know that the man they're talking about is--" + +"Murdered!" whispered Barleyfield, with a grim smile. "Nothing wonderful +in that, Mr. Viner. They haven't connected Mr. Ashton with the man +they're mentioning--that's all." + +"And yet Ashton's portrait has been in the papers!" exclaimed Viner. "It +amazes me!" + +"Aye, just so, sir," said Barleyfield. "But--a hundred yards in London +takes you into another world, Mr. Viner. For all practical purposes, +Lonsdale Passage, though it's only a mile away, is as much separated +from this spot as New York is from London. Well--that's the man I told +you of, sir." + +The man in question drank off the remaining contents of his glass, nodded +to the landlord, and walked out. And Viner was suddenly minded to do +something towards getting information. + +"Look here!" he said. "I'm going to ask that landlord a question or two. +Come with me." + +He went up to the bar, Barleyfield following in close attendance, and +gave the landlord a significant glance. + +"Can I have a word with you, in private?" he asked. + +The landlord looked his questioner over and promptly opened a flap in +the counter. + +"Step inside, sir," he said, indicating a door in the rear. "Private room +there, sir." + +Viner and Barleyfield walked into a little snugly furnished sitting-room; +the landlord followed and closed the door. + +"Do you happen to know the name of the gentleman who was speaking to you +just now?" asked Viner, going straight to his point. "I've a very +particular reason for wishing to know it." + +"No more idea than I have of yours, sir," replied the landlord with a +shrewd glance. + +Viner pulled out a card and laid it on the table. + +"That is my name," he said. "You and the gentleman who has just gone out +were speaking just now of another gentleman whom he used to meet +here--who used to sit with him in that far corner. Just so--you don't +know the name of that gentleman, either?" + +"No more than I know the others', sir," replied the landlord, shaking +his head. "Lord bless you, folks may come in here for a year or two, and +unless they happen to be neighbours of mine, I don't know who they are. +Now, there's your friend there," he went on, indicating Barleyfield with +a smile, "I know his face as that of a customer, but I don't know who he +is! That gentleman who's just gone out, he's been in the habit of +dropping in here for a twelvemonth, maybe, but I never remember hearing +his name. As for the gentleman he referred to, why, I know him as one +that's come in here pretty regular for the last few weeks, but I don't +know his name, either." + +"Have you heard of the murder in Lonsdale Passage?" asked Viner. + +"Markendale Square way? Yes," answered the landlord, with awakening +interest. "Why, is it anything to do--" + +Viner saw an illustrated paper lying on a side-table and caught it +up. There was a portrait of Ashton in it, and he held it up before +the landlord. + +"Don't you recognize that?" he asked. + +The landlord started and stared. + +"Bless my life and soul!" he exclaimed. "Why, surely that's very like the +gentleman I just referred to--I should say it was the very man!" + +"It is the very man!" said Viner with emphasis, "the man for whom your +customer who's just gone out left the envelope. Now, this man who was +murdered in Lonsdale Passage was here in your parlour for some time on +the evening of the night on which he was murdered, and he was then in +conversation with the man who has just gone out. Naturally, therefore, I +should like to know that man's name." + +"You're not a detective?" suggested the landlord. + +"Not at all!" replied Viner. "I was a neighbour of Mr. Ashton's, and I am +interested--deeply interested--in an attempt to clear up the mystery of +his death. Things keep coming out. I didn't know until this evening that +Ashton spent some time here, at your house, the night he was killed. But +when I got to know, I came along to make one or two inquiries." + +"Bless me!" said the landlord, who was still staring at the portrait. +"Yes, that's the gentleman, sure enough! I've often wondered who he +was--pleasant, sociable sort, he was, poor fellow. Now I come to think of +it I remember him being in here that night--last time, of course, he was +ever in. He was talking to that gentleman who's just gone; in fact, they +left together." + +"They left together, did they!" exclaimed Viner with a sharp glance at +Barleyfield. "Ah! What time was that, now?" + +"As near as I can recollect, about ten-fifteen to ten-thirty," answered +the landlord. "They'd been talking together for a good hour in that +corner where they usually sat. But dear me," he went on, looking from one +to the other of his two visitors, "I'm quite sure that gentleman who's +just left doesn't know of this murder! Why, you heard him ask for the +other gentleman, and leave him some cigars that he'd promised!" + +"Just so--which makes it all the stranger," said Viner. "Well, I'm much +obliged to you, landlord--and for the time being, just keep the matter +of this talk strictly to yourself. You understand?" + +"As you wish, sir," assented the landlord. "I shan't say anything. You +wouldn't like me to find out this gentleman's name? Somebody'll know him. +My own idea is that he lives in this part--he began coming in here of an +evening about a year since." + +"No--do nothing at present," said Viner. "The inquiries are only +beginning." + +He impressed the same obligation of silence on Barleyfield as they went +away, and the florist readily understood. + +"No hard work for me to hold my tongue, Mr. Viner," he said. "We +tradespeople are pretty well trained to that, sir! There's things and +secrets I could tell! But upon my word, I don't ever remember quite such +a case as this. And I expect it'll be like most cases of the sort!" + +"What do you mean?" asked Viner. + +"Oh, there'll be a sudden flash of light on it, sir, all of a sudden," +replied Barleyfield. "And then--it'll be as clear as noonday." + +"I don't know where it's coming from!" muttered Viner. "I don't even see +a rift in the clouds yet." + +He had been at work for an hour or two with Miss Wickham and Mr. Pawle +next morning, searching for whatever might be discovered among Ashton's +effects, before he saw any reason to alter this opinion. The bunch of +keys discovered in the murdered man's pocket had been duly delivered to +Miss Wickham by the police, and she handed them over to the old solicitor +with full license to open whatever they secured. But both Mr. Pawle and +Viner saw at once that Ashton had been one of those men who have no habit +of locking up things. In all that roomy house he had but one room which +he kept to himself--a small, twelve-foot-square apartment on the ground +floor, in which, they said, he used to spend an hour or two of a +morning. It contained little in the way of ornament or comfort--a solid +writing-desk with a hard chair, an easy-chair by the fireplace, a sofa +against the wall, a map of London and a picture or two, a shelf of old +books, a collection of walking-sticks, and umbrellas: these made up all +there was to see. + +And upon examination the desk yielded next to nothing. One drawer +contained a cash-box, a checkbook, a pass-book. Some sixty or seventy +pounds in notes, gold and silver lay in the cash-box; the stubs of +the checks revealed nothing but the payment of tradesmen's bills; the +pass-book showed that an enormous balance lay at the bank. In another +drawer rested a collection of tradesmen's books--Mr. Ashton, said +Mrs. Killenhall, used to pay his tradesmen every week; these books +had been handed to him on the very evening of his death for +settlement next morning. + +"Evidently a most methodical man!" remarked Mr. Pawle. "Which makes it +all the more remarkable that so few papers are discoverable. You'd have +thought that in his longish life he'd have accumulated a good many +documents that he wanted to keep." + +But documents there were next to none. Several of the drawers of the desk +were empty, save for stationery. One contained a bunch of letters, tied +up with blue ribbon--these, on examination, proved to be letters written +by Miss Wickham, at school in England, to her guardian in Australia. Miss +Wickham, present while Mr. Pawle and Viner searched, showed some emotion +at the sight of them. + +"I used to write to him once a month," she said. "I had no idea that he +had kept the letters, though!" + +The two men went silently on with their search. But there was no further +result. Ashton did not appear to have kept any letters or papers relative +to his life or doings prior to his coming to England. Private documents +of any sort he seemed to have none. And whatever business had taken him +to Marketstoke, they could find no written reference to it; nor could +they discover anything about the diamond of which Mr. Van Hoeren had +spoken. They went upstairs to his bedroom and examined the drawers, +cabinets and dressing-case--they found nothing. + +"This is distinctly disappointing," remarked Mr. Pawle when he and Viner +returned to the little room. "I never knew a man who left such small +evidence behind him. It's quite evident to me that there's nothing +whatever in this house that's going to be of any use to us. I wonder if +he rented a box at any of the safe-deposit places? He must have had +documents of some sort." + +"In that case, we should surely have found a key, and perhaps a receipt +for the rent of the box," suggested Viner. "I should have thought he'd +have had a safe in his own house," he added, "but we don't hear of one." + +Mr. Pawle looked round the room, as if suspicious that Ashton might have +hidden papers in the stuffing of the sofa or the easy-chair. + +"I wonder if there's anything in that," he said suddenly. "It looks like +a receptacle of some sort." + +Viner turned and saw the old lawyer pointing to a curious Japanese +cabinet which stood in the middle of the marble mantelpiece--the only +really notable ornament in the room. Mr. Pawle laid hold of it and +uttered a surprised exclamation. "That's a tremendous weight for so small +a thing!" he said. "Feel it!" + +Viner took hold of the cabinet--an affair of some eighteen inches in +height and twelve in depth--and came to the conclusion that it was +heavily weighted with lead. He lifted it down to the desk, giving it a +slight shake. + +"I took it for a cigar cabinet," he remarked. "How does it open? Have you +a key that will fit it?" + +But upon examination there was no keyhole, and nothing to show how the +door was opened. + +"I see what this is," said Viner, after looking closely over the cabinet, +back, front and sides. "It opens by a trick--a secret. Probably you press +something somewhere and the door flies open. But--where?" + +"Try," counselled Mr. Pawle. "There's something inside--I heard it when +you shook the thing." + +It took Viner ten minutes to find out the secret. He would not have found +it at all but for accident. But pressing here and pulling there, he +suddenly touched what appeared to be no more than a cleverly inserted +rivet in the ebony surface; there was a sharp click, and the panelled +front flew open. + +"There is something!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "Papers!" + +He drew out a bundle of papers, folded in a strong sheet of +cartridge-paper and sealed back and front. The enveloping cover +was old and faded; the ribbon which had been tied round the +bundle was discoloured by age; the wax of the seals was cracked +all over the surface. + +"No inscription, no writing," said Mr. Pawle. "Now, I wonder +what's in here?" + +"Shall I fetch Miss Wickham?" suggested Viner. Mr. Pawle hesitated. + +"No!" he said at last. "I think not. Let us first find out what this +packet contains. I'll take the responsibility." + +He cut the ribbons beneath the seals, and presently revealed a number of +letters, old and yellow, in a woman's handwriting. And after a hasty +glance at one or two of the uppermost, he turned to Viner with an +exclamation that signified much. + +"Viner!" he said, "here is indeed a find! These are letters written by +the Countess of Ellingham to her son, Lord Marketstoke, when he was a +schoolboy at Eton!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE ELLINGHAM MOTTO + + +Viner looked over Mr. Pawle's shoulder at the letters--there were numbers +of them, all neatly folded and arranged; a faint scent of dried flowers +rose from them as the old lawyer spread them out on the desk. + +"Which Countess of Ellingham, and which Lord Marketstoke?" asked Viner. +"There have been--must have been--several during the last century." + +"The Lord Marketstoke I mean is the one who disappeared," answered Mr. +Pawle. "We've no concern with any other. Look at these dates! We know +that if he were living, he would now be a man of sixty-one or so; +therefore, he'd be at school about forty-five years ago. Now, look here," +he went on, rapidly turning the letters over. "Compare these dates--they +run through two or three years; they were all of forty-three to forty-six +years since. You see how they're signed--you see how they're addressed? +There's no doubt about it, Viner--this is a collection of letters written +by the seventh Countess of Ellingham to her elder son, Lord Marketstoke, +when he was at Eton." + +"How came they into Ashton's possession, I wonder!" asked Viner. + +"It's all of a piece!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "All of a piece with +Ashton's visit to Marketstoke--all of a piece with the facts that Avice +was a favourite name with the Cave-Gray family, and that one of the +holders of the title married a Wickham. Viner, there's no doubt +whatever--in my mind--that either Ashton was Lord Marketstoke or that he +knew the man who was!" + +"You remember what Armitstead told us," remarked Viner. "That Ashton told +him, in Paris, that he, Ashton, hailed from Lancashire?" + +"Then--he knew the missing man, and got these papers from him!" declared +the old lawyer. "But why? Ah!--now I have an idea! It may be that +Marketstoke, dying out there in Australia, handed these things to Ashton +and asked him to give them to some members of the Cave-Gray +family--perhaps an aunt, or a cousin, or so on--and that Ashton went down +to Marketstoke to find out what relations were still in existence. That +may be it--that would solve the problem!" + +"No!" said Viner with sudden emphasis. He made sure that the door of the +little room was closed, and then went up to the old lawyer's elbow. "Is +that really all you can think of?" he asked, with a keen glance. "As for +me--why, I'm thinking of something that seems absolutely--obvious!" + +"What, then?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "Tell me!" + +Viner pointed towards the door. + +"Haven't we heard already, that a man named Wickham handed over his +daughter Avice to Ashton's care and guardianship?" he asked. "Doesn't +that seem to be an established fact?" + +"No doubt of it!" assented Mr. Pawle. "Well?" + +"In my opinion," said Viner, quietly, "Wickham was the missing Lord of +Marketstoke!" + +Mr. Pawle, who was still turning over the letters, examining their dates, +let them slip out of his hands and gasped. + +"By George!" he exclaimed in a wondering voice. "It may be--possibly is! +Then, in that case, that girl outside there--" + +"Well?" asked Viner, after a pause. + +Mr. Pawle made a puzzled gesture and shook his head, as if in amazement. + +"In that case, if Wickham was the missing Lord Marketstoke, and this girl +is his daughter, she's--" He broke off, and became still more puzzled. +"Upon my honour," he exclaimed, "I don't know who she is!" + +"What do you mean?" asked Viner. "She's his daughter, of +course--Wickham's. Only, in that case--I mean, if he was really Lord +Marketstoke--her proper name, I suppose, is Cave-Gray." + +Mr. Pawle looked his young assistant over with an amused expression. + +"You haven't the old practitioner's _flair_, Viner, my boy!" he said. +"When one's got to my age, and seen a number of queer things and +happenings, one's quick to see possible cases. Look here!--if Wickham +was really Lord Marketstoke, and that girl across the hall is his +daughter, she's probably--I say probably, for I don't know if the +succession in this case goes with the female line--Countess of +Ellingham, in her own right!" + +Viner looked his surprise. + +"Is that really so--would it be so?" he asked. + +"It may be--I'm not sure," replied Mr. Pawle. "As I say, I don't know +how the succession runs in this particular instance. There are, as you +are aware, several peeresses in their own rights--twenty-four or five, at +least. Some are very ancient peerages. I know that three--Furnivale and +Fauconberg and Conyers--go right back to the thirteenth century; three +others--Beaumont, Darcy da Knayth, and Zorch of Haryngworth--date from +the fourteenth. I'm not sure of this Ellingham peerage--but I'll find out +when I get back to my office. However, granting the premises, and if the +peerage does continue in the female line, it will be as I say--this +girl's the rightful holder of the title!" + +Viner made no immediate answer and Mr. Pawle began to put up the letters +in their original wrappings. + +"Regular romance, isn't it--if it is so?" he exclaimed. "Extraordinary!" + +"Shall you tell her?" asked Viner. + +Mr. Pawle considered the direct question while he completed his task. + +"No," he said at last, "not at present. She evidently knows nothing, and +she'd better be left in complete ignorance for a while. You see, Viner, +as I've pointed out to you several times, there isn't a paper or a +document of any description extant which refers to her. Nothing in my +hands, nothing in the banker's hands, nothing here! And yet, supposing +her father, Wickham, to have been Lord Marketstoke, and to have entrusted +his secret to Ashton at the same time that he gave him the guardianship +of his daughter, he must have given Ashton papers to prove his and her +identity--must! Where are they?" + +"Do you know what I think?" said Viner. "I think--if I'm to put it in +plain language--that Ashton carried those papers on him, and that he was +murdered for the possession of them!" + +Mr. Pawle nodded, and put the packet of letters in his pocket. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," he answered. "It's a very probable theory, +my boy. But it presupposes one thing, and makes one horribly suspicious +of another." + +"Yes?" inquired Viner. + +"It presupposes that Ashton let somebody into the secret," replied Mr. +Pawle, "and it makes one suspect that the person to whom he did reveal it +had such personal interest in suppressing it that he went to the length +of murdering Ashton before Ashton could tell it to any one else. How does +that strike you, Viner?" + +"It's this--and not the diamond!" declared Viner doggedly. "I've a sort +of absolute intuition that I'm right." + +"I think so too," assented the old lawyer, dryly. "The +fifty-thousand-pound diamond is a side-mine. Very well, now we know a +lot, you and I. And, we're going to solve matters. And we're not going to +say a word to this young lady, at present--that's settled. But I want to +ask her some questions--come along." + +He led the way across the hall to the dining-room where a reminder of +Ashton's death met his and Viner's view as soon as they had crossed the +threshold. The funeral was to take place next day, and Mrs. Killenhall +and Miss Wickham were contemplating a massive wreath of flowers which had +evidently just arrived from the florist's and been deposited on the +centre-table. + +"All we can do for him, you know!" murmured Mrs. Killenhall, with a +glance at the two men. "He--he had so few friends here, poor man!" + +"That remark, ma'am," observed Mr. Pawle, "is apropos of a subject that I +want to ask Miss Wickham two or three questions about. Friends, now? Miss +Wickham, you always understood that Mr. Ashton and your father were very +close friends, I believe?" + +"I always understood so--yes, Mr. Pawle," replied Miss Wickham. + +"Did he ever tell you much about your father?" + +"No, very little indeed. He never told me more than that they knew each +other very well, in Australia, that my father died out there, +comparatively young, and that he left me in his, Mr. Ashton's care." + +"Did he ever tell you whether your father left you any money?" demanded +the old lawyer. + +Miss Wickham looked surprised. + +"Oh, yes!" she answered. "I thought you'd know that. My father left me a +good deal of money. Didn't Mr. Ashton tell you?" + +"Never a word!" said Mr. Pawle. "Now--where is it, then?" + +"In my bank," replied Miss Wickham promptly. "The London and Universal. +When Mr. Ashton fetched me away from school and brought me here, he told +me that he had twelve thousand pounds of mine which my father had left +me, and he handed it over to me then and there, and took me to the London +and Universal Bank, where I opened an account with it." + +"Spent any of it?" asked Mr. Pawle dryly. + +"Only a few pounds," answered Miss Wickham. + +The old solicitor glanced at Viner, who, while these private matters were +being inquired into, was affecting to examine the pictures on the walls. + +"Most extraordinary!" he muttered. "All this convinces me that Ashton +must have had papers and documents! These must have been--however, we +don't know where they are. But there would surely be, for instance, your +father's will, Miss Wickham. I suppose you've never seen such a +document? No, to be sure! You left all to Ashton. Well, now, do you +remember your father?" + +"Only just--and very faintly, Mr. Pawle," replied Miss Wickham. "You must +remember I was little more than five years old." + +"Can you remember what he was like?" + +"I think he was a big, tall man--but it's a mere impression." + +"Listen!" said Mr. Pawle. "Did you ever, at any time, hear Mr. Ashton +make any reference--I'm talking now of the last few weeks--to the +Ellingham family, or to the Earl of Ellingham?" + +"Never!" replied Miss Wickham. "Never heard of them. He never--" + +Mrs. Killenhall was showing signs of a wish to speak, and Mr. Pawle +turned to her. + +"Have you, ma'am?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Killenhall, "I have! It was one night when Miss Wickham +was out--you were at Mrs. Murray-Sinclair's, my dear--and Mr. Ashton and +I dined alone. He asked me if I remembered the famous Ellingham case, +some years ago--something about the succession to the title--he said he'd +read it in the Colonial papers. Of course, I remembered it very well." + +"Well, ma'am," said Mr. Pawle, "and what then?" + +"I think that was all," answered Mrs. Killenhall. "He merely remarked +that it was an odd case, and said no more." + +"What made him mention it?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh, we'd been talking about romances of the peerage," replied Mrs. +Killenhall. "I had told him of several." + +"You're well up in the peerage, ma'am?" suggested the old lawyer. + +"I know my Burke and my Debrett pretty thoroughly," said Mrs. Killenhall. +"Very interesting, of course." + +Mr. Pawle, who was sitting close to Miss Wickham, suddenly pointed to a +gold locket which she wore. + +"Where did you get that, my dear?" he asked. "Unusual device, isn't it?" + +"Mr. Ashton gave it to me, a few weeks ago," answered Miss Wickham. "He +said it had belonged to my father." + +The old lawyer bent nearer, looked more closely at the locket, and got +up. + +"Elegant old thing!" he said. "Not made yesterday, that! Well, ladies, +you will see me, for this very sad occasion"--he waved a hand at the +wreath of flowers--"tomorrow. In the meantime, if there is anything you +want done, our young friend here is close at hand. Just now, however, I +want him." + +"Viner," observed Pawle when they had left the house, "it's very odd how +unobservant some people are! Now, there's that woman we've just left, +Mrs. Killenhall, who says that she's well up in her Debrett, and her +Burke,--and there, seen by her many a time, is that locket which Miss +Wickham is wearing, and she's never noticed it! Never, I mean, noticed +what's on it. Why, I saw it--and its significance--instantly, just now, +which was the first time I'd seen it!" + +"What is it that's on it?" asked Viner. + +"After we came back from Marketstoke," replied Mr. Pawle, "I looked up +the Cave-Gray family and their peerage. That locket bears their device +and motto. The device is a closed fist, grasping a handful of blades of +wheat; the motto is _Have and Hold_. Viner, as sure as fate, that girl's +father was the missing Lord Marketstoke, and Ashton knew the secret! I'm +convinced of it--I'm positive of it. And now see the extraordinary +position in which we're all placed. Ashton's dead, and there isn't one +scrap of paper to show what it was that he really knew. Nothing--not one +written line!" + +"Because, as I said before, he was murdered for his papers," affirmed +Viner. "I'm sure of that as you are of the rest." + +"I dare say you're right," agreed Mr. Pawle. "But, as _I've_ said +before, that presupposes that Ashton told somebody the secret. +Now--who? Was it the man he was with in Paris? And if so, who is that +man? But it's useless speculating. I've made up my mind to a certain +course, Viner. Tomorrow, after the funeral, I'm going to call on the +present Lord Ellingham--his town house is in Hertford Street, and I +know he's in town--and ask him if he has heard anything of a mysterious +nature relating to his long-missing uncle. We may hear something--you +come with me." + +Next day, toward the middle of the afternoon, Mr. Pawle and Viner got out +of a taxicab in Park Lane and walked down Hertford Street, the old lawyer +explaining the course he was about to take. + +"This is a young man--not long come of age," he said. "He'll be quite +well acquainted, however, with the family history, and if anything's +happened lately, I dare say I can get him to talk. He--What is it?" + +Viner had suddenly gripped his companion's arm and pulled him to a halt. +He was looking ahead--at the house at which they were about to call. And +there, just being shown out by a footman, was the man whom he had seen at +the old-fashioned tavern in Notting Hill, and with him a tall, +good-looking man whom he had never seen before. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PRESENT HOLDER + + +Mr. Pawle turned sharply on his companion as Viner pulled him up. He saw +the direction of Viner's suddenly arrested gaze and looked from him to +the two men who had now walked down the steps of the house and were +advancing towards them. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Those fellows are coming away from Lord +Ellingham's house. You seem to know them?" + +"One of them," murmured Viner. "The clean-shaven man. Look at him!" + +The two men came on in close, evidently absorbed conversation, passed Mr. +Pawle and Viner without as much as a glance at them, and went along in +the direction of Park Lane. + +"Well?" demanded Mr. Pawle. + +"The clean-shaven man is the man I told you of--the man who was in +conversation with Ashton at that tavern in Notting Hill the night Ashton +was murdered," answered Viner. "The other man I don't know." + +Mr. Pawle turned and looked after the retreating figures. + +"You're sure of that?" he asked. + +"Certain!" replied Viner. "I should know him anywhere." + +Mr. Pawle came to another halt, glancing first at the two men, now well +up the street, and then at the somewhat sombre front of Ellingham House. + +"Now, this is an extraordinary thing, Viner!" he exclaimed. "There's the +man who, you say, was with Ashton not very long before he came to his +end, and we find him coming away--presumably--from Lord Ellingham, +certainly from Lord Ellingham's house! What on earth does it mean? And I +wonder who the man is?" + +"What I'd like to know," said Viner, "is--who is the other man? But as +you say, it is certainly a very curious thing that we should find the +first man evidently in touch with Lord Ellingham--considering our recent +discoveries. But--what are you going to do?" + +"Going in here," affirmed Mr. Pawle, "to the fountain-head. We may get to +know something. Have you a card?" + +The footman who took the cards looked doubtfully at them and their +presenters. + +"His Lordship is just going out," he said, glancing over his shoulder. "I +don't know--" + +Mr. Pawle pointed to the name of his firm at the corner of his card. + +"I think Lord Ellingham will see me," he said. "Tell his lordship I shall +not detain him many minutes if he will be kind enough to give me an +interview." + +The man went away--to return in a few minutes and to lead the callers +into a room at the rear of the hall, wherein, his back to the fire, his +look and attitude one of puzzled surprise, stood a very young man, +dressed in the height of fashion, who, as his servant had said, was +obviously just ready to go out. Viner, remembering what had brought him +and Mr. Pawle there, looked at Lord Ellingham closely--he seemed to be +frank, ingenuous, and decidedly youthful. But there was something +decidedly practical and business-like in his greeting of his visitors. + +"I'm afraid I can't give you very long, Mr. Pawle," he said, glancing +instinctively at the old lawyer. "I've a most important engagement in +half an hour, and it won't be put off. But I can give you ten minutes." + +"I am deeply obliged to your lordship," answered Mr. Pawle. "As your +lordship will have seen from my card, I am one of the partners in Crawle, +Pawle and Rattenbury--a firm not at all unknown, I think. Allow me to +introduce my friend Mr. Viner, a gentlemen who is deeply concerned and +interested in the matter I want to mention to your lordship." + +Lord Ellingham responded politely to Viner's bow and drew two +chairs forward. + +"Sit down, Mr. Pawle; sit down, Mr. Viner," he said. He dropped into a +chair near a desk which stood in the centre of the room and looked +interrogatively at his elder visitor. "Have you some business to discuss, +Mr. Pawle?" he asked. + +"Some business, my lord, which, I confess at once, is of extraordinary +nature," answered the old lawyer. "I will go straight to it. Your +lordship has doubtless read in the newspapers of the murder of a man +named Ashton in Lonsdale Passage, in the Bayswater district?" + +Lord Ellingham glanced at a pile of newspapers which lay on a +side-table. + +"Yes," he answered, "I have. I've been much interested in it--as a +murder. A curious and mysterious case, don't you think?" + +"We," replied Mr. Pawle, waving a hand toward Viner, "know it to be a +much more mysterious case than anybody could gather from the newspaper +accounts, for they know little who have written them, and we, who are +behind the scenes, know a great deal. Now, your lordship will have seen +that a young man, an actor named Langton Hyde, has been arrested and +charged, and is on remand. This unfortunate fellow was an old schoolmate +of Mr. Viner--they were at Rugby together; and Mr. Viner--and I may say I +myself also--is convinced beyond doubt of his entire innocence, and we +want to clear him; we are doing all we can to clear him. And it is +because of this that we have ventured to call on your lordship." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Lord Ellingham. "But--what can I do! How do I come in?" + +"My lord," said Mr. Pawle in his most solemn manner, "I will go straight +to this point also. We have reason to feel sure, from undoubted evidence, +that Mr. John Ashton, a very wealthy man, who had recently come from +Australia, where he had lived for a great many years, to settle here in +London, had in his possession when he was murdered certain highly +important papers relating to your lordship's family, and that he was +murdered for the sake of them!" + +The puzzled expression which Viner had noted in Lord Ellingham's boyish +face when they entered the room grew more and more marked as Mr. Pawle +proceeded, and he turned on the old lawyer at the end with a stare of +amazement. + +"You really think that!" he exclaimed. + +"I shall be very much surprised if I'm not right!" declared Mr. Pawle. + +"But what papers?" asked Lord Ellingham. "And what--how could this Mr. +Ashton, who, you say, came from Australia, be in possession of papers +relating to my family? I never heard of him." + +"Your lordship," said Mr. Pawle, "is doubtless well aware that some years +ago there was a very strange--shall we call it romance?--in your family. +A very remarkable episode, anyway, a most unusual--" + +"You mean the strange disappearance of my uncle--this Lord Marketstoke?" +interrupted Lord Ellingham with a smile. "Oh, of course, I know all +about that." + +"Very well, my lord," continued Mr. Pawle. "Then your lordship is +aware that Lord Marketstoke was believed to have gone to the +Colonies--Australia or New Zealand--and was--lost there. His death was +presumed. Now, Ashton came from Australia, and as I say, we believe him +to have brought with him certain highly important papers relative to Lord +Marketstoke, whom we think to have been well known to him at one time. +Indeed, we felt sure that Ashton knew Lord Marketstoke's secret. Now, my +lord, we are also confident that whoever killed John Ashton did so in +order to get hold of certain papers which, I feel certain, Ashton made a +habit of carrying on his person--papers relating to his friend Lord +Marketstoke's identity." + +Lord Ellingham remained silent for a moment, looking from one visitor to +another. It was very clear to Viner that some train of thought had been +aroused in him and that he was closely pursuing it. He fixed his gaze at +last on the old lawyer. + +"Mr. Pawle," he said quietly, "have you any proof--undoubted proof--that +Mr. Ashton did possess papers relating to my long-missing uncle?" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Pawle, "I have!" He pulled out the bundle of letters +which he and Viner had unearthed from the Japanese cabinet. "This! It is +a packet of letters written by the seventh Countess of Ellingham to her +elder son, the Lord Marketstoke we are talking of, when he was a boy at +Eton. Your Lordship will probably recognize your grandmother's +handwriting." + +Lord Ellingham bent over the letter which Mr. Pawle spread before him. + +"Yes," he said, "I know the writing quite well. And--these were in Mr. +Ashton's possession?" + +"We have just found them--Mr. Viner and I--in a cabinet in his house," +replied Mr. Pawle. "They are the only papers we have so far been able to +bring to light. But as I have said, we are convinced there were +others--much more important ones!--in his possession, probably in his +pocketbook." + +Lord Ellingham handed the letters back. + +"You think that this Mr. Ashton was in possession of a secret relating to +the missing man--my uncle, Lord Marketstoke?" he asked. + +"I am convinced of it!" declared Mr. Pawle. + +Lord Ellingham glanced shrewdly at his visitors. + +"I should like to know what it was!" he said. + +"Your lordship feels as I do," remarked Mr. Pawle. "But now I should +like to ask a question which arises out of this visit. As we approached +your lordship's door, just now, we saw, leaving it, two men. One of +them, my friend Mr. Viner immediately recognized. He does not know who +the man is--" + +"Which of the two men do you mean!" interrupted Lord Ellingham. "I may as +well say that they had just left me." + +"The clean-shaven man," answered Viner. + +"Whom Mr. Viner knows for a fact," continued Mr. Pawle, "to have been in +Ashton's company only an hour or so before Ashton's murder!" + +Lord Ellingham looked at Viner in obvious surprise. + +"But you do not know who he is?" he exclaimed. + +"No," replied Viner, "I don't. But there is no doubt of the truth of what +Mr. Pawle has just said. This man was certainly with Mr. Ashton at a +tavern in Notting Hill from about nine-thirty to ten-thirty on the +evening of Ashton's death. In fact, they left the tavern together." + +The young nobleman suddenly pulled open a drawer in his desk, produced a +box of cigarettes and silently offered it to his visitors. He lighted a +cigarette himself, and for a moment smoked in silence--it seemed to Viner +that his youthful face had grown unusually grave and thoughtful. + +"Mr. Pawle," he said at last, "I'm immensely surprised by what you've +told me, and all the more so because this is the second surprise I've had +this afternoon. I may as well tell you that the two gentlemen whom you +saw going away just now brought me some very astonishing news--yours +comes right on top of it! And, if you please, I'd rather not say any +more about it, just now, but I'm going to make a proposal to you. Will +you--and Mr. Viner, if he'll be so good--meet me tomorrow morning, say at +noon, at my solicitors' offices?" + +"With pleasure!" responded Mr. Pawle. "Your lordship's solicitors are--" + +"Carless and Driver, Lincoln's Inn Fields," answered Lord Ellingham. + +"Friends of ours," said Mr. Pawle. "We will meet your lordship there at +twelve o 'clock to the minute." + +"And--you'll bring that with you?" suggested Lord Ellingham, pointing to +the packet of letters which Mr. Pawle held in his hand. + +"Just so, my lord," assented Mr. Pawle. "And we'll be ready to tell all +we know--for there are further details." + +Outside the house the old lawyer gripped Viner's elbow. + +"That boy knows something!" he said with a meaning smile. "He's astute +enough for his age--smart youngster! But--what does he know? Those two +men have told him something. Viner, we must find out who that clean-shaven +man is. I have some idea that I have seen him before--I shouldn't be at +all surprised if he's a solicitor, may have seen him in some court or +other. But in that case I wonder he didn't recognize me." + +"He didn't look at you," replied Viner. "He and the other man were too +much absorbed in whatever it was they were talking about. I have been +wondering since I first saw him at the tavern," he continued, "if I +ought not to tell the police what I know about him--I mean, that he +was certainly in Ashton's company on the evening of the murder. What +do you think?" + +"I think not, at present," replied Mr. Pawle. "It seems evident--unless, +indeed, it was all a piece of bluff, and it may have been--that this man +is, or was when you saw him, just as ignorant as the landlord of that +place was that the man who used to drop in there and Ashton were one and +the same person. No, let the police go on their own lines--we're on +others. We shall hear of this man again, whoever he is. Now I must get +back to my office--come there at half-past eleven tomorrow morning, +Viner, and we'll go on to Carless and Driver's." + +Viner went thoughtfully homeward, ruminating over the events of the day, +and entered his house to find his two guests, the sisters of the unlucky +Hyde, in floods of tears, and Miss Penkridge looking unusually grave. The +elder Miss Hyde sprang up at sight of him and held a tear-soaked +handkerchief towards him in pantomimic appeal. + +"Oh, Mr. Viner," she exclaimed, "you are so kind, and so clever. I'm sure +you'll see a way out of this! It looks, oh, so very black, and so very +much against him; but oh, dear Mr. Viner, there must be some +explanation!" + +"But what is it?" asked Viner, looking from one to the other. "What has +happened! Has any one been here?" + +Miss Penkridge silently handed to her nephew an early edition of one of +the evening newspapers and pointed to a paragraph in large type. And +Viner rapidly read it over, to the accompaniment of the younger Miss +Hyde's sobs. + +A sensational discovery in connection with the recent murder of Mr. +Ashton in Lonsdale Passage, Bayswater, was made in the early hours of +this morning. Charles Fisher, a greengrocer, carrying on business in the +Harrow Road, found in his woodshed, concealed in a nook in the wall, a +parcel containing Mr. Ashton's gold watch and chain and a diamond ring. +He immediately communicated with the police, and these valuables are now +in their possession. It will be remembered that Langton Hyde, the young +actor who is charged with the crime, and who is now on remand, stated at +the coroner's inquest that he passed the night on which the crime was +committed in a shed in this neighbourhood. + +Viner read this news twice over. Then a sudden idea occurred to him, and +he turned to leave the room. + +"I don't think you need be particularly alarmed about this," he said +to the weeping sisters. "Cheer up, till I return--I am going round to +the police." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE OUTHOUSE + + +Near the police-station Viner fell in with his solicitor, Felpham, who +turned a corner in a great hurry. Felpham's first glance showed his +client that their purposes were in common. + +"Seen that paragraph in the evening papers?" said Felpham without +preface. "By George! that's serious news! What a pity that Hyde ever made +that statement about his doings on the night of the murder! It would have +been far better if he'd held his tongue altogether." + +"He insisted on it--in the end," answered Viner. "And in my opinion he +was right. But--you think this is very serious?" + +"Serious? Yes!" exclaimed Felpham. "He says he spent the night in a shed +in the Harrow Road district. Now the things that were taken from Ashton's +body are discovered in such a place--nay, the very place; for if you +remember, Hyde particularized his whereabouts. What's the obvious +conclusion? What can anybody think?" + +"I see two or three obvious conclusions, and I think several things," +remarked Viner. "I'll tell you what they are when we've seen Drillford. +I'm not alarmed about this discovery, Felpham. I think it may lead to +finding the real murderer." + +"You see further than I do, then," muttered Felpham. "I only see that +it's highly dangerous to Hyde's interests. And I want first-handed +information about it." + +Drillford, discovered alone in his office, smiled as the two men walked +in--there was an irritating I-told-you-so air about him. + +"Ah!" he said. "I see you gentlemen have been reading the afternoon +papers! What do you think about your friend now, Mr. Viner?" + +"Precisely what I thought before and shall continue to think," retorted +Viner. "I've seen no reason to alter my opinion." + +"Oh--but I guess Mr. Felpham doesn't think that way?" replied Drillford +with a shrewd glance at the solicitor. "Mr. Felpham knows the value of +evidence, I believe!" + +"What is it that's been found, exactly?" asked Felpham. + +Drillford opened a locked drawer, lifted aside a sheet of cardboard, and +revealed a fine gold watch and chain and a diamond ring. These lay on two +or three sheets of much crumpled paper of a peculiar quality. + +"There you are!" said Drillford. "Those belonged to Mr. Ashton; there's +his name on the watch, and a mark of his inside the ring. They were found +early this morning, hidden, in the very place in which Hyde confessed +that he spent most of the night after Ashton's murder--a shed belonging +to one Fisher, a greengrocer, up the Harrow Road. + +"Who found them?" demanded Felpham. + +"Fisher himself," answered Drillford. "He was pottering about in his +shed before going to Covent Garden. He wanted some empty boxes, and in +pulling things about he found--these! Couldn't have made a more important +find, I think. + +"Were these things loose?" asked Viner. + +"Wrapped loosely in the paper they're lying on," replied Drillford. + +Viner took the paper out of the drawer, examined it and lifted it +to his nose. + +"I wonder, if Hyde really did put those things there," he said, "how Hyde +came to be carrying about with him these sheets of paper which had +certainly been used before for the wrappings of chemicals or drugs?" + +Felpham pricked his ears. + +"Eh?" he said. "What's that?" + +"Smell for yourself," answered Viner. "Let the inspector smell too. I +draw the attention to both of you to the fact, because we'll raise that +point whenever it's necessary. Those papers have at some time been used +to wrap some strong-smelling drug." + +"No doubt of it!" said Felpham, who was applying the papers to his nose. +"Smell them, Drillford! As Mr. Viner says, what would Hyde be doing with +this stuff in his pocket?" + +"That's a mere detail," remarked Drillford impatiently. "These chaps that +mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He +may have pinched them from a chemist's shop. Anyway, there's the +fact--and we'll hang him on it! You'll see!" + +"We shall never see anything of the sort!" said Viner. "You're on the +wrong tack, Inspector. Let me put two or three things to your +intelligence. Where's Ashton's purse? I know for a fact that Ashton had a +purse full of money when he went out of his house that night--Mrs. +Killenhall and Miss Wickham saw him take it out just before he left to +give some cash to the parlourmaid, and they saw him replace it in his +trousers pocket; I also know for another fact where he spent money that +evening--in short, I know now a good deal about his movements for some +hours before his death." + +"Then you ought to tell us, Mr. Viner," said Drillford a little sulkily. +"You oughtn't to keep any information to yourself." + +"You're going on the wrong tack, or I might," retorted Viner. "But you'll +know all in good time. Now, I ask you again--where's Ashton's purse? You +know as well as I do that when his clothing was examined, almost +immediately after his death, all his effects were gone--watch, chain, +rings, pocketbook, purse. If Hyde took the whole lot, do you think he +would ever have been such a consummate ass as to wait until next morning +to pawn that ring in Edgware Road? The idea is preposterous!" + +"And why, pray?" demanded Drillford, obviously nettled at the turn which +the conversation was taking. + +"I wonder your own common sense doesn't tell you," said Viner with +intentional directness. "If Hyde took everything from his victim, as +you say he did, he would have had a purse full of ready money. He could +have gone off to some respectable lodging-house. He could have put a +hundred miles between himself and London by breakfast-time. He would +have had ready money to last him for months. But--he was starving when +he went to the pawnbrokers! Hyde told you the truth--he never had +anything but that ring." + +"Good!" muttered Felpham. "Good, Viner! That's one in the eye for you, +Drillford." + +"Another thing that you're forgetting, Inspector," continued Viner: "I +suppose you attach some value to probabilities? Do you, as a sensible +man, believe for one moment that Hyde, placed in the position he is, +would be such a fool, such a suicidal fool, as to tell you about that +particular shed if he'd really hidden those things there? The mere idea +is absurd--ridiculous!" + +"Good again, Viner!" said Felpham. "He wouldn't!" + +Drillford, obviously ill-pleased, put the strongly-smelling paper and +the valuables which had been wrapped in it, back in the drawer and +turned the key. + +"All very well talking and theorizing, Mr. Viner," he said sullenly. "We +know from his own lips that Hyde did spend the night in that shed. If he +didn't put these things there, who did?" + +Viner gave him a steady look. + +"The man who murdered and robbed Ashton!" he answered. "And that man was +not Hyde." + +"You'll have that to prove," retorted Drillford, derisively. "I know what +a jury'll think with all this evidence before it!" + +"We shall prove a good many things that'll surprise you," said Viner +quietly. "And you'll see, then, the foolishness of jumping at what seems +to be an obvious conclusion." + +He motioned Felpham to follow, and going outside, turned in the direction +of the Harrow Road. + +"I'm going to have a look at the place where these things were found," he +said. "Come with me. You see for yourself," he continued as they walked +on, "how ridiculous it is to suppose that Hyde planted them. The whole +affair is plain enough, to me. The real murderer read--or may have +heard--Hyde's statement before the coroner, and in order to strengthen +the case against Hyde and divert suspicion from himself, sought out this +shed and put the things there. Clumsy! If Hyde had ever had the purse, +which more certainly disappeared with the rest of the property, he'd +never have gone to that shed at all." + +"We'll make the most of all that," said Felpham. "But I gathered, from +what you said just now to Drillford, that you know more about this case +than you've let out. If it's in Hyde's favour--" + +"I can't tell you what I know," answered Viner. "I do know some strange +things, which will all come out in good time. If we bring the murder home +to the right man, Hyde of course will be cleared. I'll tell everything as +soon as I can, Felpham." + +They walked quickly forward until they came to the higher part of the +Harrow Road; there, at a crowded point of that dismal thoroughfare, where +the shops were small and mean, Felpham suddenly lifted a finger towards a +sign which hung over an open front filled with the cheaper sorts of +vegetables. + +"Here's the place," he said, "a corner shop. The shed, of course, will +be somewhere behind." + +Viner looked with interest at the refuge which Hyde had chosen after +his hurried flight from the scene of the murder. A shabby looking +street ran down from the corner of the greengrocer's shop; the first +twenty yards of it on that side were filled with palings, more or less +broken and dilapidated; behind them lay a yard in which stood a van, +two or three barrows, a collection of boxes and baskets and crates, and +a lean-to shed, built against the wall of the adjoining house. The door +of this yard hung loosely on its rusty hinges; Viner saw at once that +nothing could be easier than for a man to slip into this miserable +shelter unseen. + +"Let's get hold of the tenant," he said. "Better show him your card, and +then he'll know we're on professional business." + +The greengrocer, a dull-looking fellow who was measuring potatoes, showed +no great interest on hearing what his callers wanted. Summoning his wife +to mind the shop, he led Viner and Felpham round to the yard and opened +the door of the shed. This was as untidy as the yard, and filled with a +similar collection of boxes, baskets and crates. In one corner lay a +bundle of empty potato sacks--the greengrocer at once pointed to it. + +"I reckon that's where the fellow got a bit of a sleep that night," he +said. "There was nothing to prevent him getting in here--no locks or +bolts on either gate of the yard or that door. He may have been in here +many a night, for all I know." + +"Where did you find those valuables this morning?" asked Viner. + +The greengrocer pointed to a shelf in a corner above the bundle +of sacking. + +"There!" he answered. "I wanted some small boxes to take down to Covent +Garden, and in turning some of these over I came across a little parcel, +wrapped in paper--slipped under a box that was turned top downwards on +the shelf, you understand? So of course I opened it, and there was the +watch and chain and ring." + +"Just folded in the papers that you handed to the police?" +suggested Viner. + +"Well, there was more paper about 'em than what I gave to Inspector +Drillford," said the greengrocer. "A well-wrapped-up bit of parcel it +was--there's the rest of the paper there, where I threw it down." + +He pointed to some loose sheets of paper which lay on the sacking, and +Viner went forward, picked them up, looked quickly at them, and put them +in his pocket. + +"I suppose you never heard anybody about, that night?" he asked turning +to the greengrocer. + +"Not I!" the man replied. "I sleep too sound to hear aught of that sort. +There's nothing in here that's of any value. No--a dozen folk could come +into this yard at night and we shouldn't hear 'em--we sleep at the front +of the house." + +Viner slipped some silver into the greengrocer's hand and led Felpham +away. And when they reached a quieter part of the district, he pulled out +the papers which he had picked out of the corner in the shed and held +them in front of his companion's eyes. + +"We did some good in coming up here, after all, Felpham!" he said, with +a grim smile. "It wasn't a mere desire to satisfy idle curiosity that +made me come. I thought I might, by sheer good luck, hit on something, or +some idea that would help. Now then, look at these things. That's a piece +of newspaper from out of a copy of the _Melbourne Argus_ of September 6th +last. Likely thing for Langton Hyde to be carrying in his pocket, eh?" + +"Good heavens, that's certainly important!" exclaimed Felpham. + +"And so is this, and perhaps much more so," said Viner, making a second +exhibit. "That's a sheet of brown wrapping-paper with the name and +address of a famous firm of wholesale druggists and chemical +manufacturers on one side--printed. It's another likely thing for Hyde to +possess, and to carry about, isn't it?" + +"And the same bitter, penetrating smell about it!" said Felpham. + +"Hyde, of course, if Drillford is correct, had all this paper in his +pocket when he went into that shed," said Viner. "But I have a different +idea, and a different theory. Here," he went on, folding his discoveries +together neatly, "you take charge of these--and take care of them. They +may be of more importance than we think." + +He went home full of thought, restored the sisters to something like +cheerfulness by assuring them that the situation was no worse, and +possibly rather better, and spent the rest of the evening in his study, +silently working things out. Viner, by the time he went to bed, had +evolved an idea, and it was still developing and growing stronger when he +set out next morning to accompany Mr. Pawle to Lord Ellingham's +solicitors. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CLAIMANT + + +Carless and Driver practised their profession of the law in one of the +old houses on the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields--a house so old that +it immediately turned Viner's thought to what he had read of the days +wherein Inigo Jones exercised his art up the stately frontages, and duels +were fought in the gardens which London children now sport in. In one of +these houses lived Blackstone; in another Erskine; one ancient roof once +sheltered John Milton; another heard the laughter of Nell Gwynn; up the +panelled staircase which Mr. Pawle and his companion were presently +conducted, the feet of many generations had trod. And the room into which +they were duly conducted was so old-world in appearance with its oaken +walls and carving and old-fashioned furniture that nothing but the fact +that its occupants wore twentieth century garments would have convinced +Viner that he had not been suddenly thrown back to the days of Queen Anne. + +Lord Ellingham was already there when they arrived--in conference with +his solicitor, Mr. Carless, a plump, rosy, active gentleman who wore +mutton-chop whiskers and--secretly--prided himself on his likeness to the +type of fox-hunting squire. It was very evident to Viner that both +solicitor and client were in a state of expectancy bordering on something +very like excitement; and Mr. Carless, the preliminary greetings being +over, plunged at once into the subject. + +"I say, Pawle," he exclaimed, turning at once to his fellow-practitioner, +"this appears to be a most extraordinary business! His lordship has just +been telling me all about the two calls he had yesterday--first from two +men whom he'd never seen before--then from you two, who were also +strangers. He has also told me what both lots of his callers had to say, +and hang me if I ever heard of two such curious unfoldings coming one on +top of the other. Sounds like a first-class mystery!" + +"You forget," remarked Mr. Pawle with a glance at Lord Ellingham, "that +we don't know--Mr. Viner and myself--what it was that his lordship's +first couple of callers told him. He left that until today." + +Mr. Carless looked at his client, who nodded his head as if in assent to +something in the glance. + +"Well, as I'm now in possession of the facts," said he, "I'll tell you, +Pawle--His Lordship has given me a clear account of what his first +callers said, and what you and Mr. Viner added to it. The two men whom +you saw coming away from Ellingham House were Methley and Woodlesford, +two solicitors who are in partnership in Edgware Road--I know of them: I +think we've had conveyancing business with them once or twice. Quite a +respectable firm--in a smallish way, you know, but all right so far as I +know anything of them. Now, they came to Lord Ellingham yesterday +afternoon with a most extraordinary story. His lordship tells me that he +learned from your talk with him yesterday afternoon that you are pretty +well acquainted, you and Mr. Viner, with his family history, so I'll go +straight to the point. What do you think Methley and Woodlesford came to +tell him? You'd never guess!" + +"I won't try!" answered Mr. Pawle. "What, then?" + +Mr. Carless smiled grimly. + +"That the long-lost Lord Marketstoke was alive and in England!" he said. +"Here, in fact, in London!" + +Mr. Pawle smiled too. But his smile was not grim--it was, rather, the +smile of a man who hears what he has been expecting to hear. + +"I thought it would be something of that sort!" he exclaimed. "Aye, I +fancied that would be the game!" + +"You think it a game?" suggested Mr. Carless. + +"And a highly dangerous one--as somebody will find out," responded Mr. +Pawle. "But--what did these fellows really say!" + +"His lordship will correct me if I miss anything pertinent," answered Mr. +Carless with a glance at his client. "They said this--that they had been +called upon by a gentleman now staying at one of the private residential +hotels in Lancaster Gate, who was desirous of legal assistance in an +important matter and had been recommended to them by a fellow-boarder at +the hotel. He then told them that though he was now passing under the +name of Cave--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle, with a snort which denoted a certain sort of +surprised satisfaction. "Ah, to be sure! Cave, of course! But I interrupt +you--pray proceed." + +"I see your point," remarked Mr. Carless with a smile. "Well--although he +was passing under the name of Cave, he was, in strict reality, the Lord +Marketstoke who disappeared from England many years ago, who was never +heard of again, and whose death had been presumed. He was, therefore, the +rightful Earl of Ellingham, and as such entitled to the estates. He +proceeded to tell Methley and Woodlesford his adventures. + +"He had, he said, never at any time from boyhood been on good terms with +his father: there had always been mutual dislike. As he grew to manhood, +his father had thwarted him in every conceivable way. He himself as a +young man, had developed radical and democratic ideas--this had caused a +further widening of the breach. Eventually he had made up his mind to +clear out of England altogether. He had a modest amount of money of his +own, a few thousands which had been left him by his mother. So he took +this and quietly disappeared. + +"According to his own account he became a good deal of a rolling stone, +going to various out-of-the-way parts of the earth, and taking +particular pains, wherever he went, to conceal his identity. He told +these people Methley and Woodlesford, that he had at one time or another +lived and traded in South Africa, India, China, Japan and the Malay +Settlement--finally he had settled down in Australia. He had kept +himself familiar with events at home--knew of his father's death, and he +saw no end of advertisements for himself. He was aware that legal +proceedings were taken as regards the presumption of his death and the +administration of the estates; he was also aware of the death of his +younger brother and that title and estates were now in possession of his +nephew--His Lordship there. In fact, he was very well up in the whole +story, according to Methley and Woodlesford," said Mr. Carless, with a +smile. "And Lord Ellingham believed that Methley and Woodlesford were +genuinely convinced by him." + +"Seemed so, anyway, both of 'em," agreed Lord Ellingham. + +"However," continued Mr. Carless, "Methley and Woodlesford, like you and +I, Pawle, are limbs of the law. They asked two very pertinent questions. +First--why had he come forward after this long interval? Second--what +evidence had he to support and prove his claim?" + +"Good!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "And I'll be bound he had some excellent +replies ready for them." + +"He had," said Mr. Carless. "He answered as regards the first question +that of late things had not gone well with him. He was still comfortably +off, but he had lost a lot of money in Australia through speculation. He +replied to the second by producing certain papers and documents." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle, nudging Viner. "Now we're warming to it!" + +"And according to what Methley and Woodlesford told Lord Ellingham," +continued Mr. Carless, "these papers and documents are of a very +convincing nature. They said to His Lordship frankly that they were +greatly surprised by them. They had thought that this man might possibly +be a bogus claimant, who had somehow gained a thorough knowledge of the +facts he was narrating, but the papers he produced, which, he alleged, +had never been out of his possession since his secret flight from London, +were--well, staggering. After inspecting them, Methley and Woodlesford +came to the conclusion that their caller really was what he claimed to +be--the missing man!" + +"What were the papers?" demanded Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh!" replied Mr. Carless, looking at his client. "Letters, certificates, +and the like,--all, according to Methley and Woodlesford, excellent +proofs of identity." + +"Did they show them to Your Lordship?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"Oh, no! they only told me of them," answered Lord Ellingham. "They said, +of course, that they would be shown to me, or to Mr. Carless." + +"Aye!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "Just so! Yes, and they will have to be +shown!" + +"That follows as a matter of course," observed Mr. Carless. "But now, +Pawle, we come to the real point of the case. Methley and Woodlesford, +having informed His Lordship of all this when they called on him +yesterday afternoon then proceeded to tell him precisely what their +client, the claimant, as we will now call him, really wanted, for he had +been at some pains, considerable pains, to make himself clear on that +point to them, and he desired them to make themselves clear to Lord +Ellingham, whom he throughout referred to as his nephew. He had no +desire, he told them, to recover his title, nor the estates. He did not +care a cent--his own phrase--for the title. He was now sixty years of +age. The life he had lived had quite unfitted him for the positions and +duties of an English nobleman. He wanted to go back to the country in +which he had settled. But as title and estates really were his, he wanted +his nephew, the present holder, to make him a proper payment, in +consideration of the receipt of which he would engage to preserve the +silence which he had already kept so thoroughly and effectively for +thirty-five years. Eh?" + +"In plain language," said Mr. Pawle, "he wanted to be bought." + +"Precisely!" agreed Mr. Carless. "Of course, Methley and Woodlesford +didn't quite put it in that light. They put it that their client had no +wish to disturb his nephew, but suggested, kindly, that his nephew should +make him a proper payment out of his abundance." + +Mr. Pawle turned to Lord Ellingham. + +"Did they mention a sum to Your Lordship?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Lord Ellingham, with a smile at Carless. "They +did--tentatively." + +"How much?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"One hundred thousand pounds!" + +"On receipt of which, I suppose," observed Mr. Pawle dryly, "nothing +would ever be heard again of your lordship's long-lost uncle, the +rightful owner of all that Your Lordship possesses?" + +Lord Ellingham laughed. + +"So I gathered!" he answered. + +"I wish I'd been present when Methley and Woodlesford put forward that +proposition," exclaimed the old lawyer. "Did they seem serious?" + +"Oh, I think they were quite serious," replied Lord Ellingham. "They +seemed so; they spoke of it as what they called a domestic arrangement." + +"Excellent phrase!" remarked Mr. Pawle. "And what said your lordship to +their--or the claimant's proposition?" + +"I told them that the matter was so serious that they and I must see my +solicitors about it," answered Lord Ellingham, "and I arranged to meet +them here at one o'clock today. They quite agreed that that was the +proper thing to do, and went away. Then--you and Mr. Viner called." + +"With, I understand, another extraordinary story," remarked Mr. Carless. +"The particulars of which His Lordship has also told me. Now, Pawle, what +do you really say about all this?" + +Mr. Pawle smote his clenched right fist on the palm of his open +left hand. + +"I will tell you what I say, Carless!" he exclaimed with emphasis. "I +say that whatever the papers and documents were which were produced by +this man to Methley and Woodlesford, they were stolen from the body of +John Ashton, who was foully murdered in Lonsdale Passage only last week. +I'll stake all I have on that! Now, then, did this claimant steal them? +Did he murder John Ashton for them? No--a thousand times no, for no man +would have been such a fool as to come forward with them so soon after +his victim's death! This claimant doesn't know how or where or when they +were obtained--he doesn't suspect that murder's in it. Now, then--where +did he get them? Who's at the back of him? Who--to be plain--who's +making a cat's-paw of him? Find that out, and we shall know who murdered +John Ashton!" + +Viner, glancing at Lord Ellingham and at Mr. Carless, saw that Mr. +Pawle's words had impressed them greatly, the solicitor especially. He +nodded sympathetically, and Mr. Pawle went on speaking. + +"Listen here, Carless!" he continued. "Mr. Viner and I have been +investigating this case as far as we could, largely to save a man whom we +both believe to be absolutely innocent of murder. I have come to certain +conclusions. John Ashton, many years ago, fell in with the missing Lord +Marketstoke, then living under the name of Wickham, in Australia, and +they became close friends. At some time or other, Wickham told Ashton the +real truth about himself, and when he died, left his little daughter--" + +Carless looked sharply round. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed. "So there's a daughter?" + +"There is a daughter, and her name is Avice--a name borne by a good many +women of the Cave-Gray family," answered Mr. Pawle with a significant +glance at his fellow-practitioner. "But let me go on: Wickham left his +daughter, her mother being dead, in Ashton's guardianship. She was then +about six years of age. Ashton sent her to school here in England. About +twelve or thirteen years later, he came home and settled in Markendale +Square. He brought Avice Wickham to live with him. He handed over to her +a considerable sum, which, he said, her father had left in his hands for +her. And then, secretly, Ashton went down to Marketstoke and evidently +made certain inquiries and investigations. Whether he was going to reveal +the truth as to what I have just told you, we don't know--probably he +was. But he was murdered, and we all know when and where. And I say he +was murdered for the sake of these very papers which we now know were +produced to Methley and Woodlesford by this claimant. Now, then--" + +Mr. Carless suddenly bent forward. + +"A moment, Pawle!" he said. "If this man Wickham really was the lost +Lord Marketstoke, and he's dead, and he left a daughter, and the +daughter's alive--" + +"Well?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "Well?" + +"Why, then, of course, that daughter," said Mr. Carless slowly, "that +daughter is--" + +A clerk opened the door and glanced at his employer. + +"Mr. Methley and Mr. Woodlesford, sir," he announced. "By appointment." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LET HIM APPEAR! + + +The meeting between the solicitors suggested to Viner and to Lord +Ellingham, who looked on curiously while they exchanged formal greetings +and explanations, a certain solemnity--each of them seemed to imply in +look and manner that this was an unusually grave occasion. And Mr. +Carless, assuming the direction of things, became almost judicial in his +deportment. + +"Well, gentlemen," he said, when they had all gathered about his desk. +"Lord Ellingham has informed me of what passed between you and himself at +his house yesterday. In plain language, the client whom you represent +claims to be the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared so completely many +years ago, and therefore the rightful Earl of Ellingham. Now, a first +question--do you, as his legal advisers, believe in his claim?" + +"Judging by the proofs with which he has furnished us, yes," answered +Methley. "There seems to be no doubt of it." + +"We'll ask for these proofs presently," remarked Mr. Carless. "But now a +further question: Your client--whom we'll now call the claimant--had, I +understand, no desire to take up his rightful position, and suggests +that the secret shall remain a secret, and that he shall be paid a +hundred thousand pounds to hold his tongue?" + +"If you put it that way--yes," replied Methley. + +"I don't know in what other way it could be put," said Mr. Carless +grimly. "It's the plain truth. But now, if Lord Ellingham refuses that +offer, does your client intend to commence proceedings?" + +"Our instructions are--yes," answered Methley. + +"Very good," said Mr. Carless. "Now, then--what are these proofs?" + +Methley turned to his partner, who immediately thrust a hand in his +breastpocket and produced a long envelope. + +"I have them here," said Woodlesford. "Our client intrusted them to us so +that we might show them to Lord Ellingham, if necessary. There are not +many documents--they all relate to the period of our client's life before +he left England. There are one or two important letters from his father, +the seventh Earl, two or three from his mother; there is also his +mother's will. There is one letter from his younger brother, to whom he +had evidently, more than once, announced his determination of leaving +home for a considerable time. There are two letters from your own firm, +relating to some property which Lord Marketstoke disposed of before he +left London. There is a schedule or memorandum of certain personal +effects which he left in his rooms at Ellingham Hall: there is also a +receipt from his bankers for a quantity of plate and jewellery which he +had deposited with them before leaving--these things had been left him by +his mother. There are also two documents which he seems to have +considered it worth while to preserve all these years," concluded +Woodlesford with a smile. "One is a letter informing him that he had been +elected a member of the M.C.C.; the other is his commission as a justice +of the peace for the county of Buckinghamshire." + +As he detailed these things, Woodlesford laid each specified paper before +Mr. Carless, and then they all gathered round, and examined each exhibit. +The various documents were somewhat faded with age, and the edges of some +were worn as if from long folding and keeping in a pocketbook. Mr. +Carless hastily ran his eye over them. + +"Very interesting, gentlemen," he remarked. "But you know, as well as I +do, that these things don't prove your client to be the missing Lord +Marketstoke. A judge and jury would want a lot more evidence than that. +The mere fact that your man is in possession of all these documents +proves nothing whatever. He may have stolen them!" + +"From what we have seen of our client, Mr. Carless," observed Methley, +with some stiffness of manner, "there is no need for such a suggestion." + +"I dare say we shall all see a good deal of your client before this +matter is settled, Mr. Methley," retorted Mr. Carless. "And even when I +have seen a lot of him, I should still say the same--he _may_ have stolen +them! What else has he to prove that he's what he says he is?" + +"He is fully conversant with his family history," said Woodlesford. "He +can give a perfectly full and--so far as we can judge--accurate account +of his early life and of his subsequent doings. He evidently knows all +about Ellingham Hall, Marketstoke and the surroundings. I think if you +were to examine him on these points, you would find that his memory is +surprisingly fresh." + +"I have no doubt that it will come to his being examined on a great many +points and in much detail," said Mr. Carless with a dry smile. "Of +course, I shall be much interested in seeing him. You see, I remember the +missing Lord Marketstoke very well indeed--he was often in here when I, +as a lad of nineteen or twenty, was articled to my own father. And now, +gentlemen, I'll ask you a question and commend it to your intelligence +and common sense: if your client is this man he claims to be, why didn't +he come straight to Carless and Driver, whom he would remember well +enough, instead of going to Methley and Woodlesford? Come, now?" + +Neither visitor answered this question, and Mr. Pawle suddenly turned on +them with another. + +"Did your client mention to you that he knew Carless and Driver as the +family solicitors?" he asked. + +"No, I can't say that he did," admitted Methley. "After all, thirty-five +years' absence, you know--" + +"You said just now that his memory was surprisingly fresh," interrupted +Mr. Pawle. + +"Surely," replied Woodlesford, "surely you can't expect a man who has +been away from England all that time to remember everything!" + +"I should have expected Lord Marketstoke to have gone straight to the +family solicitors, anyway," retorted Mr. Pawle. "Obvious thing to do--if +his story is a true one." + +Woodlesford glanced at his partner, and repossessing himself of the +documents, began to arrange them in the envelope from which he had +drawn them. + +"We cannot, of course, say positively who our client is or who he is +not," he said. "All we can say is that he came to us with an introduction +from an old client of ours whom we knew very well, and that his story +seems to us to be quite credible. No doubt he can bring further proof. +That he did not come here in the first instance--" + +"I'll tell you why I, personally, am very much surprised that he didn't," +interrupted Mr. Carless. "You told Lord Ellingham yesterday that your +client saw no end of advertisements for him at the time of his father's +death. Now, we, Carless and Driver, sent out those advertisements--our +name was appended to every one of them, wherever they appeared. Why, +then, when this man--if he is the real man--returned home, did he not +come to us? For there are three persons in this office who--but wait!" + +He touched a bell; the clerk who had announced Methley and Woodlesford +put his head in at the door. + +"Ask Mr. Portlethwaite to come here," commanded Mr. Carless. "And just +find out if Mr. Driver is in his room. Portlethwaite can tell me when +he comes." + +An elderly, grey-haired man presently appeared and closed the door behind +him as if aware of the sacred nature of the proceedings. + +"Mr. Driver is out, Mr. Carless," he said. "You wanted me, I think?" + +"Our senior clerk," observed Mr. Carless, by way of introduction. +"Portlethwaite, you remember the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared some +thirty-five years ago?" + +Mr. Portlethwaite smiled. + +"Quite well, Mr. Carless!" he answered. "As if it were yesterday. He used +to come here a good deal, you know." + +"Do you think you'd know him again, Portlethwaite, after all these +years?" asked Mr. Carless. "Thirty-five years, mind!" + +The elderly clerk smiled--more assuredly than before. Then he looked +significantly at a corner of the room, and Mr. Carless took the hint, and +rising from his chair, went aside with him. Portlethwaite whispered +something in his employer's ear, and Carless suddenly laughed and nodded. + +"To be sure--to be sure--I remember now!" he said aloud. "Thank you, +Portlethwaite: that's all. Well, gentlemen," he continued, returning to +his desk when the clerk had gone. "I think the best thing you can do is +to bring your client here--if he is the real and genuine article, he +will, I am sure, be very glad indeed to meet three persons who knew him +quite intimately in the old days--Mr. Driver, Mr. Portlethwaite and +myself. And I really don't know that there's any more to do or say." + +The two visitors rose, and Methley looked at Mr. Carless in a +questioning fashion. + +"Am I to go away with the impression that you believe our client to be an +impostor?" he said quietly. + +"Frankly I do!" answered Mr. Carless. + +"So do I!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "Emphatically so!" + +"In that case," said Methley, "I see no advantage in bringing him here." + +"Not even anything to your own advantage?" suggested Mr. Carless, with a +keen glance which passed from one partner to the other. "You, as +reputable practitioners of our profession, don't want to be mixed up with +an impostor?" + +"We should be very sorry to be mixed up in any way with an impostor, Mr. +Carless!" said Methley. + +Mr. Carless pursed his lips for a moment as if he were never going to +open them again; then he suddenly relaxed them. + +"I tell you what it is, gentlemen!" he said. "I'm only anticipating +matters in saying what I'm going to say, and I'm saying it because I feel +sure you are quite sincere and genuine in this affair and are being +deceived. If you will bring your client here, there are three of us in +this office who, as my old clerk has just reminded me, can positively +identify him on the instant if he is the man he claims to be. Positively, +I say, and at once! There!" + +"May one ask how?" said Woodlesford. + +"No!" exclaimed Mr. Carless. "Bring him! Telephone an appointment--and +we'll settle the matter as soon as he sets foot inside that door." + +"May we tell him that?" asked Methley. + +"You can do as you like," answered Mr. Carless. "Between ourselves, I +shouldn't! But I assure you--we can tell in one glance! That's a fact!" + +The two solicitors went away; and Viner, who had closely watched Methley +during the interview, followed them out and hailed Methley in the +corridor outside Mr. Carless' room. + +"May I have a word with you?" he asked, drawing him aside. "I don't know +if you remember, but I saw you the other night in the parlour of that old +tavern in Notting Hill--you came in while I was there?" + +"I had some idea that I remembered your face when we were introduced just +now," said Methley. "Yes, I think I do remember--you were sitting in a +corner near the hearth?" + +"Just so," agreed Viner. "And I heard you ask the landlord a question +about a gentleman whom you used to meet there sometimes--you left some +specimen cigars with the landlord for him." + +"Yes," assented Methley wonderingly. + +"You never knew that man's name?" continued Viner. "Nor who he was? Just +so--so I gathered. Then I'll tell you. There was a good reason why he had +not been to that tavern for some nights. He was John Ashton, the man who +was murdered in Lonsdale Passage!" + +Viner was watching his man with all the keenness of which he was capable, +and he saw that this announcement fell on Methley as an absolute +surprise. He started as only a man can start who has astounding news +given to him suddenly. + +"God bless me!" he exclaimed. "You don't mean it! Of course, I know about +that murder--our own district. And I saw Ashton's picture in the +paper--but then there are so many elderly men of that type--broad +features, trimmed grey beard! Dear me, dear me! A very pleasant, genial +fellow. I'm astonished, Mr. Viner." + +Viner resolved on a bold step--he would take it without consulting Mr. +Pawle or anybody. He drew Methley further aside. + +"Mr. Methley," he said. "You're a man of honour, and I trust you with a +secret, to be kept until I release you from the obligation of secrecy. +I have reasons for getting at the truth about Ashton's murder--so has +Mr. Pawle. He and I have been making investigations and inquiries, and +we are convinced, we are positive, that these papers which your partner +now has in his pocket were stolen from Ashton's dead body--that, in +fact, Ashton was murdered for the possession of them. And I tell you, +for your own sake--find out who this client of yours is! That he was +the actual murderer I don't believe for a second--he is probably a mere +cat's-paw. But--who's behind him? If you can do anything to find out +the truth, do it!" + +That Methley was astonished beyond belief was so evident that Viner was +now absolutely convinced of his sincerity. He stood staring open-mouthed +for a moment: then he glanced at Woodlesford, who was waiting at some +distance along the corridor. + +"Mr. Viner!" he said. "You amaze me! Listen: my partner is as sound and +honest a fellow as there is in all London. Let me tell him this--I'll +engage for his secrecy. If you'll consent to that, I'll see that, without +a word from us as to why, this man who claims to be the missing Lord +Marketstoke is brought here. If what you say is true, we are not going to +be partners to a crime. Let me tell Woodlesford--I'll answer for him." + +Viner considered this proposition for a moment. + +"Very well!" he said at last. "Tell him--I shall trust you both. +Remember--it's between the three of us. I shan't say a word to Pawle, nor +to Carless. You know there's a man's life at stake--Hyde's! Hyde is as +innocent as I am--he's an old schoolfellow of mine." + +"I understand," said Methley. "Very well, trust to me, Mr. Viner." + +He went off with a reassuring nod, and Viner returned to Mr. Carless' +room. The three men he had left there were deep in conversation, and as +he entered, Mr. Carless smote his hand on the desk before him. + +"This is certain!" he exclaimed. "We must have this Miss Avice Wickham +here--at once!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +UNDER EXAMINATION + + +Mr. Pawle nodded assent to this proposition and rose from his chair. + +"It's the only thing to do," he said. "We must get to the bottom of this +as quickly as possible--whether Miss Wickham can tell us much or little, +we must know what she can tell. Let us all meet here again at three +o'clock--I will send one of my clerks to fetch her. But let us be clear +on one point--are we to tell this young lady what our conclusions are, +regarding herself?" + +"Your conclusions!" said Mr. Carless, with a sly smile. "We know nothing +yet, you know, Pawle." + +"My conclusions, then," assented Mr. Pawle. "Are we--" + +Lord Ellingham quietly interrupted the old lawyer. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Pawle," he said, "but before we go any further, do you +mind telling me, briefly, what your conclusions really are!" + +"I will tell your lordship in a few words," answered Mr. Pawle, readily. +"Wrong or right, my conclusions are these: From certain investigations +which Mr. Viner and I have made since this affair began--with the murder +of Ashton--and from certain evidence which we have unearthed, I believe +that Ashton's friend Wickham, the father of the girl we are going to +produce this afternoon, was in reality your lordship's uncle, the missing +Lord Marketstoke. I believe that Ashton came to England in order to prove +this, and that he was probably about to begin proceedings when he was +murdered--for the sake of those papers which we have just seen. And I +believe, too, that we have not seen all the papers which were stolen from +his dead body. What was produced to us just now by Methley and +Woodlesford was a selection--the probability is that there are other and +more important papers in the hands of the murderer, whose cat's-paw or +accomplice this claimant, whoever he may be, is. I believe," concluded +Mr. Pawle, with emphasis, "that my conclusions will be found to be +correct ones, based on indisputable fact." + +Lord Ellingham looked from one solicitor to the other. + +"Then," he said, with something of a smile, "if Wickham was really my +uncle, Lord Marketstoke, and this young lady you tell me of is his +daughter--what, definitely, is my position?" + +Mr. Pawle looked at Mr. Carless, and Mr. Carless shook his head. + +"If Mr. Pawle's theory is correct," he said, "and mind you, Pawle, it +will take a lot of proving. If Mr. Pawle's theory is correct, the +position, my lord, is this. The young lady we hear of is Countess of +Ellingham in her own right! She would not be the first woman to succeed +to the title: there was a Countess of Ellingham in the time of George the +Third. She would, of course, have to prove her claim before the House of +Lords--if made good, she succeeds to titles and estates. That's the plain +English of it--and upon my honour," concluded Mr. Carless, "it's one of +the most extraordinary things I ever heard of. This other affair is +nothing to it!" + +Lord Ellingham again inspected the legal countenances. + +"I see nothing at all improbable about it," he said. "We may as well face +that fact at once. I will be here at three o'clock, Mr. Carless. I +confess I should like to meet my cousin--if she really is that!" + +"Your Lordship takes it admirably!" exclaimed Mr. Carless. "But +really--well, I don't know. However, we shall see. But, 'pon my honour, +it's most odd! One claimant disposed of, another, a more formidable one, +comes on!" + +"But we have not disposed of the first, have we?" suggested Lord +Ellingham. + +"I don't anticipate any trouble in that quarter," answered Mr. Carless. +"As I said to those two who have just gone out--send or bring the man +here, and we'll tell in one minute if he's what he claims to be!" + +"But--how?" asked Lord Ellingham. "You seem very certain." + +"Dead certain!" asserted Mr. Carless. He looked round his callers and +laughed. "I may as well tell you," he said. "Portlethwaite drew me aside +to remind me of it. The real Lord Marketstoke, if he were alive, could +easily be identified. He lost a finger when a mere boy." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "Good--excellent! Best bit of evidence I've +heard of. Hang this claimant! Now we can tell if Wickham really was Lord +Marketstoke. If necessary, we can have his body exhumed and examined." + +"It was a shooting accident," continued Mr. Carless. "He was out shooting +in the park at Ellingham when a boy of fourteen or fifteen; he was using +an old muzzle-loading gun; it burst, and he lost his second finger--the +right hand. It was, of course, very noticeable. Now, that small but very +important fact is most likely not known to Methley and Woodlesford's +client--but it's known to Driver and to Portlethwaite and to me, and now +to all of you. If this man comes here--look at his right hand! If he +possesses his full complement of fingers, well--" + +Mr. Carless ended with a significant grimace, and Mr. Pawle, nodding +assent, returned to the question which he was putting when Lord Ellingham +interrupted him. + +"Now let us settle the point I raised," he said. "Are we to tell Miss +Wickham what my conclusions are, or are we to leave her in ignorance +until we get proof that they are correct?" + +"Or--incorrect!" answered Mr. Carless with an admonitory laugh. "I should +say--at present, tell her nothing. Let us find out all we can from her; +there are several questions I should like to ask her, myself, arising out +of what you have told us. Leave all the rest until a later period. If +your theory is correct, Pawle, it can be established, if it isn't, the +girl may as well be left in ignorance that you ever raised it." + +"Until three o'clock, then," said Mr. Pawle. + +Three o'clock found the old lawyer and Viner pacing the pavement of +Lincoln's Inn Fields in expectation of Miss Wickham's arrival. She came +at last in the taxicab which Mr. Pawle had sent for her, and her first +words on stepping out of it were of surprise and inquiry. + +"What is it, Mr. Pawle?" she demanded as she shook hands with her two +squires. "More questions? What's it all about?" + +Mr. Pawle nudged Viner's arm. + +"My dear young lady," he answered in grave and fatherly fashion, "you +must bear in mind that a man's life is in danger. We are doing all we can +to clear that unfortunate young fellow Hyde of the dreadful charge which +has been brought against him, and to do that we must get to know all we +can about your late guardian, you know." + +"I know so little about Mr. Ashton," said Miss Wickham, looking +apprehensively at the building towards which she was being conducted. +"Where are you taking me?" + +"To a solicitor's office--friends of mine," answered Mr. Pawle. "Carless +and Driver--excellent people. Mr. Carless wants to ask you a few +questions in the hope that your answers will give us a little more light +on Ashton's history. You needn't be afraid of Carless," he added as they +began to climb the stairs. "Carless is quite a pleasant fellow--and he +has with him a very amiable young gentleman, Lord Ellingham, of whom you +needn't be afraid, either." + +"And why is Lord Ellingham, whoever he may be, there?" inquired Miss +Wickham. + +"Lord Ellingham is also interested in your late guardian," replied Mr. +Pawle. "In fact, we are all interested. So now, rub up your memory--and +answer Mr. Carless' questions." + +Viner remained in the background, quietly watching, while Mr. Pawle +effected the necessary introductions. He was at once struck by what +seemed to him an indisputable fact--between Lord Ellingham and Miss +Wickham there was an unmistakable family likeness. And he judged from the +curious, scrutinizing look which Mr. Carless gave the two young people as +they shook hands that the same idea struck him--Mr. Carless wound up that +look in a significant glance at Mr. Pawle, to whom he suddenly muttered a +few words which Viner caught. + +"By Jove!" he whispered. "I shouldn't wonder if you're right." + +Then he placed Miss Wickham in an easy-chair on his right hand, and cast +a preliminary benevolent glance on her. + +"Mr. Pawle," he began, "has told us of your relationship with the late +Mr. Ashton--you always regarded him as your guardian?" + +"He was my guardian," answered Miss Wickham. "My father left me in +his charge." + +"Just so. Now, have you any recollection of your father?" + +"Only very vague recollections. I was scarcely six, I think, when he +died." + +"What do you remember about him?" + +"I think he was a tall, handsome man--I have some impression that he +was. I think, too, that he had a fair complexion and hair. But it's all +very vague." + +"Do you remember where you lived?" + +"Only that it was in a very big town--Melbourne, of course. I have +recollections of busy streets--I remember, too, that when I left there it +was very, very hot weather." + +"Do you remember Mr. Ashton at that time?" + +"Oh, yes--I remember Mr. Ashton. I had nobody else, you see; my mother +had died when I was quite little; I have no recollection whatever of +her. I remember Mr. Ashton's house, and that he used to buy me lots of +toys. His house was in a quiet part of the town, and he had a big, +shady garden." + +"How long, so far as you remember, did you live with Mr. Ashton there?" + +"Not very long, I think. He told me that I was to go to England, to +school. For a little time before we sailed, I lived with Mrs. +Roscombe, with whom I came to England. She was very kind to me; I was +very fond of her." + +"And who was Mrs. Roscombe?" + +"I didn't know at the time, of course--I only knew she was Mrs. Roscombe. +But Mr. Ashton told me, not long before his death, who she was. She was +the widow of some government official, and she was returning to England +in consequence of his death. So she took charge of me and brought me +over. She used to visit me regularly at school, every week, and I used to +spend my holidays with her until she died." + +"Ah!" said Mr. Carless. "She is dead?" + +"She died two years ago," answered Miss Wickham. + +"I wish she had been living," observed Mr. Carless, with a glance at Mr. +Pawle. "I should have liked to see Mrs. Roscombe. Well," he continued, +turning to Miss Wickham, "so Mrs. Roscombe brought you to England, to +school. What school?" + +"Ryedene School." + +"Ryedene! That's one of the most expensive schools in England, isn't it?" + +"I don't know. I--perhaps it is." + +"I happen to know it is," said Mr. Carless dryly. "Two of my clients have +daughters there, now. I've seen their bills! Do you know who paid yours?" + +"No," she answered, "I don't know. Mr. Ashton, I suppose." + +"You had everything you wanted, I dare say! Clothes, pocket-money, +and so on?" + +"I've always had everything I wanted," replied Miss Wickham. + +"And you were at Ryedene twelve years?" + +"Except for the holidays--yes." + +"You must be a very learned young lady," suggested Mr. Carless. + +Miss Wickham looked round the circle of attentive faces. + +"I can play tennis and hockey very well," she said, smiling a little. +"And I wasn't bad at cricket the last season or two--we played cricket +there. But I'm not up to much at anything else, except that I can talk +French decently." + +"Physical culture, eh?" observed Mr. Carless, smiling. "Very well! Now, +then, in the end Mr. Ashton came home to England, and of course came to +see you, and in due course you left school, and came to his house in +Markendale Square, where he got a Mrs. Killenhall to look after you. All +that correct? Yes? Well, then, I think, from what Mr. Pawle tells me, +Mr. Ashton handed over a lot of money to you, and told you it had been +left to you, or left in his charge for you, by your father? That is +correct too? Very well. Now, did Mr. Ashton never tell you anything much +about your father?" + +"No, he never did. Beyond telling me that my father was an Englishman who +had gone out to Australia and settled there, he never told me anything. +But," here Miss Wickham paused and hesitated for a while, "I have an +idea," she continued in the end, "that he meant to tell me +something--what, I, of course, don't know. He once or twice--hinted that +he would tell me something, some day." + +"You didn't press him?" suggested Mr. Carless. + +"I don't think I am naturally inquisitive," replied Miss Wickham. "I +certainly did not press him. I knew he'd tell me, whatever it was, in +his own way." + +"One or two other questions," said Mr. Carless. "Do you know who your +mother was?" + +"Only that she was some one whom my father met in Australia." + +"Do you know what her maiden name was?" + +"No, only her Christian name; that was Catherine. She and my father are +buried together." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Carless. "That is something else I was going to ask. +You know where they are buried?" + +"Oh, yes! Because, before we sailed, Mrs. Roscombe took me to the +churchyard, or cemetery, to see my father's and mother's grave. I +remembered that perfectly. Her own husband was buried there too, close +by. I remember how we both cried." + +Mr. Carless suddenly pointed to the ornament which Miss Wickham +was wearing. + +"Will you take that off, and let me look at it?" he asked. "Thank you," +he said, as she somewhat surprisedly obeyed. "I believe," he continued, +as he quietly passed the ornament to Lord Ellingham, "that Mr. Ashton +gave you this and told you it had belonged to your father? Just so! +Well," he concluded, handing the ornament back, "I think that's all. Much +obliged to you, Miss Wickham. You won't understand all this, but you +will, later. Now, one of my clerks will get you a car, and we'll escort +you down to it." + +"No," said Lord Ellingham, promptly jumping to his feet. "Allow me--I'm +youngest. If Miss Wickham will let me--" + +The two young people went out of the room together, and the three +men left behind looked at each other. There was a brief and +significant silence. + +"Well, Carless?" said Mr. Pawle at last. "How now?" + +"'Pon my honour," answered Mr. Carless, "I shouldn't wonder if +you're right!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SURPRISING READINESS + + +Mr. Pawle made a gesture which seemed to denote a certain amount of +triumphant self-satisfaction. + +"I'm sure I'm right!" he exclaimed. "You'll find out that I'm right! But +there's a tremendous lot to do, Carless. If only that unfortunate man, +Ashton, had lived, he could have cleared this matter up at once. I feel +convinced that he possessed papers which would have proved this girl's +claim beyond dispute. Those papers, of course--" + +"Now, what particular papers are you thinking of?" interrupted Mr. +Carless. + +"Well," replied Mr. Pawle, "such papers as proofs of her father's +marriage, and of her own birth. According to what she told us just now, +her father was married in Australia, and she herself was born there. +There must be documentary proof of that." + +"Her father was probably married under his assumed name of Wickham," +observed Mr. Carless. "You'll have to prove that Wickham and Lord +Marketstoke were identical--were one and the same person. The fact is, +Pawle, if this girl's claim is persisted in, there'll have to be a very +searching inquiry made in Australia. However much I may feel that your +theory may be--probably is--right, I should have to advise my client, +Lord Ellingham, to insist on the most complete investigation." + +"To be sure, to be sure!" assented Mr. Pawle. "That's absolutely +necessary. But my own impression is that as we get into the secret of +Ashton's murder, as I make no doubt we shall, there will be more evidence +forthcoming. Now, as regards this man, whoever he is, who claims to be +the missing Lord Marketstoke--" + +At that moment a clerk entered the room and glanced at Mr. Carless. + +"Telephone message from Methley and Woodlesford, sir," he announced. "Mr. +Methley's compliments, and if agreeable to you, he can bring his client +on to see you this afternoon--at once, if convenient." + +Mr. Carless looked at Mr. Pawle, and Mr. Pawle nodded a silent assent. + +"Tell Mr. Methley it's quite agreeable and convenient," answered Mr. +Carless. "I shall be glad to see them both--at once. Um!" he muttered +when the clerk had withdrawn. "Somewhat sudden, eh, Pawle? You might +almost call it suspicious alacrity. Evidently the gentleman has no fear +of meeting us!" + +"You may be quite certain, Carless, if my theory about the whole thing is +a sound theory, that the gentleman will have no fear of meeting anybody, +not even a judge and jury!" answered Mr. Pawle sardonically. "If I +apprehend things rightly, he'll have been very carefully coached and +prepared." + +"You think there's a secret conspiracy behind all this?" suggested Mr. +Carless. "With this claimant as cat's-paw--well tutored to his task?" + +"I do!" affirmed Mr. Pawle. "Emphatically, I do!" + +"Aye, well!" said Mr. Carless. "Don't forget what I told you about the +missing finger--middle finger of the right hand. And I'll have Driver in +here, and Portlethwaite, too; we'll see if he knows which is which of the +three of us. I'll go and prepare them." + +He returned presently with his partner, a quiet, elderly man; a few +minutes later Portlethwaite, evidently keenly interested, joined them. +They and Mr. Pawle began to discuss certain legal matters connected +with the immediate business, and Viner purposely withdrew to a corner +of the room, intent on silently watching whatever followed on the +arrival of the visitors. A quarter of an hour later Methley was shown +into the room, and the five men gathered there turned with one accord +to look at his companion, a tall, fresh-coloured, slightly grey-haired +man of distinctly high-bred appearance, who, Viner saw at once, was +much more self-possessed and assured in manner than any of the men who +rose to meet him. + +"My client, Mr. Cave, who claims to be Earl of Ellingham," said Methley, +by way of introduction. "Mr. Car--" + +But the other man smiled quietly and immediately assumed a lead. + +"There is no need of introduction, Mr. Methley," he said. "I remember all +three gentlemen perfectly! Mr. Carless--Mr. Driver--and--yes, to be sure, +Mr. Portlethwaite! I have a good memory for faces." He bowed to each man +as he named him, and smiled again. "Whether these gentlemen remember me +as well as I remember them," he remarked, "is another question!" + +"May I offer you a chair?" said Mr. Carless. + +The visitor bowed, sat down, and took off his gloves. And in the silence +which followed, Viner saw that the eyes of Driver, Carless, Pawle and +Portlethwaite were all steadily directed on the claimant's right +hand--he himself turned to it, too, with no small interest. The next +instant he was conscious that an atmosphere of astonishment and surprise +had been set up in that room. For the middle finger of the man's right +hand was missing! + +Viner felt, rather than saw, that the three solicitors and the elderly +clerk were exchanging glances of amazement. And he fancied that Mr. +Carless' voice, which had sounded cold and noncommittal as he offered the +visitor a seat, was somewhat uncertain when he turned to address him. + +"You claim, sir, to be the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared so many years +ago?" he asked, eyeing the claimant over. + +"I claim to be exactly what I am, Mr. Carless," answered the visitor +with another ready and pleasant smile. "I hope your memory will come to +your aid." + +"When a man has disappeared--absolutely--for something like thirty-five +years," remarked Mr. Carless, "those whom he has left behind may well be +excused if their memories don't readily respond to sudden demands. But I +should like to ask you some questions? Did you see the advertisements +which were issued, broadcast, at the time of the seventh Earl of +Ellingham's death?" + +"Yes--in several English and Colonial papers," answered the claimant. + +"Why did you not reply to them?" + +"At that time I still persevered in my intention of never again having +anything to do with my old life. I had no desire--at all--to come forward +and claim my rights. So I took no notice of your advertisements." + +"And since then--of late, to be exact--you have changed your mind?" +suggested Mr. Carless dryly. + +"To a certain extent only," replied the visitor, whose calm assurance was +evidently impressing the legal practitioners around him. "I have already +told Mr. Methley and his partner, Mr. Woodlesford, that I have no desire +to assume my title nor to require possession of the estates which are +certainly mine. I have lived a free life too long to wish for--what I +should come in for if I established my claim. But I have a right to a +share in the property which I quite willingly resign to my nephew--" + +"In plain language," said Mr. Carless, "if you are paid a certain +considerable sum of money, you will vanish again into the obscurity from +whence you came? Am I right in that supposition?" + +"I don't like your terminology, Mr. Carless," answered the visitor with a +slight frown. "I have not lived in obscurity, and--" + +"If you are what you claim to be, sir, you are Earl of Ellingham," said +Mr. Carless firmly, "and I may as well tell you at once that if you prove +to us that you are, your nephew, who now holds title and estates, will at +once relinquish both. There will be no bargaining. It is all or nothing. +Our client, whom we know as Earl of Ellingham, is not going to traffic. +If you are what you claim to be, you are head of the family and must take +your place." + +"We could have told you that once for all, if you had come to us in the +first instance," remarked Mr. Driver. "Any other idea is out of the +question. It seems to me most remarkable that such a notion as that which +you suggest should ever enter your head, sir. If you are Earl of +Ellingham, you are!" + +"And that reminds me," said Mr. Carless, "that there is another +question I should like to ask. Why, knowing that we have been legal +advisers to your family for several generations, did you not come +straight to us, instead of going--Mr. Methley, I'm sure, will pardon +me--to a firm of solicitors which, as far as I know, has never had any +connection with it!" + +"I thought it best to employ absolutely independent advice," replied the +visitor. "And I still think I was right. For example, you evidently do +not admit my claim?" + +"We certainly admit nothing, at present!" declared Mr. Carless with a +laugh. "It would be absurd to expect it. The proofs which your solicitors +showed us this morning are no proofs at all. That those papers belonged +to the missing Lord Marketstoke there is no doubt, but your possession of +them at present does not prove that you are Lord Marketstoke or Lord +Ellingham. They may have been stolen!" + +The claimant rose from his chair with a good deal of dignity. He glanced +at Methley. + +"I do not see that any good can come of this interview, Mr. Methley," he +remarked in quiet, level tones. "I am evidently to be treated as an +impostor. In that case,"--he bowed ceremoniously to the men gathered +around Mr. Carless' desk--"I think it best to withdraw." + +Therewith he walked out of the room; and Methley, after a quiet word with +Carless, followed--to be stopped in the corridor, for a second time that +day, by Viner, who had hurried after him. + +"I'm not going to express any opinion on what we've just heard," +whispered Viner, drawing Methley aside, "but in view of what I told you +this morning, there's something I want you to do for me." + +"Yes!" said Methley. "What?" + +"That unlucky fellow Hyde, who is on remand, is to be brought before the +magistrate tomorrow morning," answered Viner. "Get him--this claimant +there, to attend the court as a spectator--go with him! Use any argument +you like, but get him there! I've a reason--which I'll explain later." + +"I'll do my best," promised Methley. "And I've an idea of what's on your +mind. You want to find out if Hyde can recognize him as the man whom he +met at the Markendale Square end of Lonsdale Passage?" + +"Well, that is my idea!" assented Viner. "So get him there." + +Methley nodded and turned away; then he turned back and pointed at +Carless' room. + +"What do they really think in there?" he whispered. "Tell me--between +ourselves?" + +"That he is an impostor, and that there's a conspiracy," replied Viner. + +Methley nodded again, and Viner went back. The men whom he had left were +talking excitedly. + +"It was the only course to take!" Mr. Carless was declaring. +"Uncompromising hostility! We could do no other. You saw--quite +well--that he was all for money. I will engage that we could have settled +with him for one half of what he asked. But--who is he?" + +"The middle finger of his right hand is gone!" said Mr. Pawle, who had +been very quiet and thoughtful during the recent proceedings. "Remember +that, Carless!" + +"A most extraordinary coincidence!" exclaimed Mr. Carless excitedly. "I +don't care twopence what anybody says--we all know that the most +surprising coincidences do occur. Nothing but a coincidence! I +assert--what is it, Portlethwaite?" + +The elderly clerk had been manifesting a strong desire to get in a word, +and he now rapped his senior employer's elbow. + +"Mr. Carless," he said earnestly, "you know that before I came to you, +now nearly forty years ago, I was a medical student: you know, too, you +and Mr. Driver, why I gave up medicine for the law. But--I haven't +forgotten all of that I learned in the medical schools and the +hospitals." + +"Well, Portlethwaite," demanded Mr. Carless, "what is it? You've +some idea?" + +"Gentlemen," answered the elderly clerk. "I was always particularly +interested in anatomy in my medical student days. I've been looking +attentively at what I could see of that man's injured finger since he sat +down at that desk. And I'll lay all I have that he lost the two joints of +that finger within the last three months! The scar over the stump had not +long been healed. That's a fact!" + +Mr. Carless looked round with a triumphant smile. + +"There!" he exclaimed. "What did I tell you? Coincidence--nothing but +coincidence!" + +But Portlethwaite shook his head. + +"Why not say design, Mr. Carless?" he said meaningly. "Why not say +design? If this man, or the people who are behind him, knew that the real +Lord Marketstoke had a finger missing, what easier--in view of the stake +they're playing for--than to remove one of this man's fingers? Design, +sir, design. All part of the scheme!" + +The elderly clerk's listeners looked at each other. + +"I'll tell you what it is!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle with sudden emphasis. +"The more we see and hear of this affair, the more I'm convinced that it +is, as Portlethwaite says, a conspiracy. You know, that fellow who has +just been here was distinctly taken aback when you, Carless, informed him +that it was going to be a case of all or nothing. He--or the folk behind +him--evidently expected that they'd be able to effect a money settlement. +Now, I should say that the real reason of his somewhat hasty retirement +was that he wanted to consult his principal or principals. Did you notice +that he was not really affronted by your remark? Not he! His personal +dignity wasn't ruffled a bit. He was taken aback! He's gone off to +consult. Carless, you ought to have that man carefully shadowed, to see +where and to whom he goes." + +"Good idea!" muttered Mr. Driver. "We might see to that." + +"I can put a splendid man on to him, at once, Mr. Carless," remarked +Portlethwaite. "If you could furnish me with his address--" + +"Methley and Woodlesford know it," said Mr. Carless. "Um--yes, that might +be very useful. Ring Methley's up, Portlethwaite, and ask if they would +oblige us with the name of Mr. Cave's hotel--some residential hotel in +Lancaster Gate, I believe." + +Mr. Pawle and Viner went away, ruminating over the recent events, and +walked to the old lawyer's offices in Bedford Row. Mr. Pawle's own +particular clerk met them as they entered. + +"There's Mr. Roland Perkwite, of the Middle Temple, in your room, sir," +he said, addressing his master. "You may remember him, sir--we've briefed +him once or twice in some small cases. Mr. Perkwite wants to see you +about this Ashton affair--he says he's something to tell you." + +Mr. Pawle looked at Viner and beckoned him to follow. + +"Here a little, and there a little!" he whispered. "What are we going to +hear this time?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE MARSEILLES MEETING + + +The man who was waiting in Mr. Pawle's room, and who rose from his chair +with alacrity as the old lawyer entered with Viner at his heels, was an +alert, sharp-eyed person of something under middle-age, whose +clean-shaven countenance and general air immediately suggested the Law +Courts. And he went straight to business before he had released the hand +which Mr. Pawle extended to him. + +"Your clerk has no doubt already told you what I came about, Mr. Pawle?" +he said. "This Ashton affair." + +"Just so," answered Mr. Pawle. "You know something about it? This +gentleman is Mr. Richard Viner, who is interested in it--considerably." + +"To be sure," said the barrister. "One of the witnesses, of course. I +read the whole thing up last night. I have been on the Continent--the +French Riviera, Italy, the Austrian Tyrol--for some time, Mr. Pawle, and +only returned to town yesterday. I saw something, in an English +newspaper, in Paris, the other day, about this Ashton business, and as my +clerk keeps the _Times_ for me when I am absent, last night I read over +the proceedings before the magistrate and before the coroner. And of +course I saw your request for information about Ashton and his recent +movements." + +"And you've some to give?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"I have some to give," assented Mr. Perkwite, as the three men sat down +by Mr. Pawle's desk. "Certainly--and I should say it's of considerable +importance. The fact is I met Ashton at Marseilles, and spent the better +part of the week in his company at the Hotel de Louvre there." + +"When was that?" asked Mr. Pawle. + +"About three months ago," replied the barrister. "I had gone straight to +Marseilles from London; he had come there from Italy by way of Monte +Carlo and Nice. We happened to get into conversation on the night of my +arrival, and we afterwards spent most of our time together. And finding +out that I was a barrister, he confided certain things to me and asked +my advice." + +"Aye--and on what, now?" enquired the old lawyer. + +"It was the last night we were together," replied Mr. Perkwite. "We had +by that time become very friendly, and I had promised to renew our +acquaintance on my return to London, where, Ashton told me, he intended +to settle down for the rest of his life. Now on that last evening at +Marseilles I had been telling him, after dinner, of some curious legal +cases, and he suddenly remarked that he would like to tell me of a matter +which might come within the law, and on which he should be glad of +advice. He then asked me if I had ever heard of the strange disappearance +of Lord Marketstoke, heir to the seventh Earl of Ellingham. I replied +that I had at the time when application was made to the courts for leave +to presume Lord Marketstoke's death. + +"Thereupon, pledging me to secrecy for the time being, Ashton went on +to tell me that Lord Marketstoke was well known to him and that he +alone knew all the facts of the matter, though a certain amount of them +was known to another man, now living in London. He said that +Marketstoke, after a final quarrel with his father, left England in +such a fashion that no one could trace him, taking with him the fortune +which he had inherited from his mother, and eventually settled in +Australia, where he henceforth lived under the name of Wickham. +According to Ashton, he and Marketstoke became friends, close friends, +at a very early period of Marketstoke's career in Australia, and the +friendship deepened and existed until Marketstoke's death some twelve +or thirteen years ago. But Ashton never had the slightest notion of +Marketstoke's real identity until his friend's last days. Then +Marketstoke told him the plain truth; and the fact who he really was at +the same time was confided to another man--who, however, was not told +all the details which were given to Ashton. + +"Now, Marketstoke had married in Australia. His wife was dead. But he had +a daughter who was about six years of age at the time of her father's +death. Marketstoke confided her to Ashton, with a wish that she should be +sent home to England to be educated. He also handed over to Ashton a +considerable sum of money for this child. Further, he gave him a quantity +of papers, letters, family documents, and so on. He had a purpose. He +left it to Ashton--in whom he evidently had the most absolute +confidence--as to whether this girl's claim to the title and estates +should be set up. And when Ashton had finished telling me all this, I +found that one of his principal reasons in coming to England to settle +down, was the wish to find out how things were with the present holder of +the title: if, he said, he discovered that he was a worthy sort of young +fellow, he, Ashton, should be inclined to let the secret die with him. He +told me that the girl already had some twelve thousand pounds of her own, +and that it was his intention to leave her the whole of his own fortune, +and as she was absolutely ignorant of her real position, he might perhaps +leave her so. But in view of the possibility of his setting up her claim, +he asked me some questions on legal points, and of course I asked him to +let me see the papers of which he had spoken." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle, with a sigh of relieved satisfaction. "Then +you saw them?" + +"Yes--he showed me the whole lot," replied Mr. Perkwite. "Not so many, +after all--those that were really pertinent, at any rate. He carried +those in a pocketbook; had so carried them, he told me, ever since +Marketstoke had handed them to him; they had never, he added, been out of +his possession, day or night, since Marketstoke's death. Now, on +examining the papers, I at once discovered two highly important facts. +Although Marketstoke went to and lived in Australia under the name of +Wickham, he had taken good care to get married in his own proper name, +and there, amongst the documents, was the marriage certificate, in which +he was correctly described. Further, his daughter had been correctly +designated in the register of her birth; there was a copy, properly +attested, of the entry." + +Mr. Pawle glanced at Viner, and Viner knew what he was thinking of. The +two documents just described by Mr. Perkwite had not been among the +papers which Methley and Woodlesford had exhibited at Carless & +Driver's office. + +"A moment," said Mr. Pawle, lifting an arresting finger. "Did you happen +to notice where this marriage took place?" + +"It was not in Melbourne," replied Mr. Perkwite. + +"My recollection is that it was at some place of a curious name. Ashton +told me that Marketstoke's wife had been a governess in the family of +some well-to-do-sheep-farmer--she was an English girl, and an orphan. The +child, however, was certainly born in Melbourne and registered in +Melbourne." + +"Now, that's odd!" remarked Mr. Pawle. "You'd have thought that when Lord +Marketstoke was so extensively advertised for some years ago, on the +death of his father, some of these officials--" + +"Ah! I put that point to Ashton," interrupted Mr. Perkwite. "He said that +Marketstoke, though he had taken good care to be married in his own name +and had exercised equal precaution about his daughter, had pledged +everybody connected with his marriage and the child's birth to secrecy." + +"Aye!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "He would do that, of course. But continue." + +"Well," said the barrister, "after seeing these papers, I had no doubt +whatever that the case as presented by Ashton was quite clear, and that +his ward Miss Avice Wickham is without doubt Countess of Ellingham (the +title, I understand, going in the female as well as the male line) and +rightful owner of the estates. And I told him that his best plan, on +reaching England, was to put the whole matter before the family +solicitors. However, he said that before doing that, there were two +things he wanted to do. One was to find out for himself how things +were--if the young earl was a satisfactory landlord and so on, and +likely to be a credit to the family; the other was that he wanted to +consult the man who shared with him the bare knowledge that the man who +had been known in Melbourne as Wickham was really the missing Lord +Marketstoke. And he added that he had already telegraphed to this man to +meet him in Paris." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle with a look in Viner's direction. "Now we are +indeed coming to something! He was to meet him in Paris! Viner, I'll wager +the world against a China orange that that's the man whom Armitstead saw +in company with Ashton in the Rue Royale, and--no doubt--the man of +Lonsdale Passage! Mr. Perkwite, this is most important. Did Ashton tell +you the name of this man?" + +The old lawyer was tremulous with excited interest, and Mr. Perkwite was +obviously sorry to disappoint him. + +"Unfortunately, he did not!" he replied. "He merely told me that he was a +man who had lived in Melbourne for some time and had known Marketstoke +and himself very intimately--had left Melbourne just after Marketstoke's +death, and had settled in London. No, he did not mention his name." + +"Disappointing!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "That's the nearest approach to a +clue that we've had, Perkwite. If we only knew who that man was! +But--what more can you tell us?" + +"Nothing more, I'm afraid," answered the barrister. "I promised to call +on Ashton when I returned to London, and when he'd started housekeeping, +and we parted--I went on next morning to Genoa, and he set off for Paris. +He was a pleasant, kindly, sociable fellow," concluded Mr. Perkwite, "and +I was much grieved to hear of his sad fate." + +"He didn't correspond with you at all after you left him at Marseilles?" +asked Mr. Pawle. + +"No," replied the barrister. "No--I never heard of or from him until I +read of his murder." + +Pawle turned to Viner. + +"I think we'd better tell Perkwite of all that's happened, within our own +ken," he said, and proceeded to give the visitor a brief account of the +various important details. "Now," he concluded, "it seems to me there's +only one conclusion to be arrived at. The man who shared the secret with +Ashton is certainly the man whom Armitstead saw with him in Paris. He is +probably the man whom Hyde saw leaving Londsdale Passage, just before +Hyde found the body. And he is without doubt the murderer, and is the man +to whom this claimant fellow is acting as cat's-paw. And--who is he?" + +"There must be some way of finding that out," observed Mr. Perkwite. "If +your theory is correct, that this claimant is merely a man who is being +put forward, then surely the thing to do is to get at the person or +persons behind him, through him!" + +"Aye, there's that to be thought of," asserted Mr. Pawle. "But it may be +a tougher job than we think for. It would have been a tremendous help if +Ashton had only mentioned a name to you." + +"Sorry, but he didn't," said Mr. Perkwite. "You feel," he continued after +a moment's silence, "you feel that this affair of the Ellingham +succession lies at the root of the Ashton mystery--that he was really +murdered by somebody who wanted to get possession of those papers?" + +"And to remain sole repository of the secret," declared Mr. Pawle. "Isn't +it established that beyond yourself and this unknown man nobody but +Ashton knew the secret?" + +"There is another matter, though," remarked Viner. He turned to the +visitor. "You said that you and Ashton became very friendly and +confidential during your stay in Marseilles. Pray, did he never show you +anything of a valuable nature which he carried in his pocketbook?" + +The barrister's keen eyes suddenly lighted up with recollection. + +"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Now you come to suggest it, he did! A diamond!" + +"Ah!" said Mr. Pawle. "So you saw that!" + +"Yes, I saw it," assented Mr. Perkwite. "He showed it to me as a sort of +curiosity--a stone which had some romantic history attaching to it. But I +was not half as much interested in that as in the other affair." + +"All the same," remarked Mr. Pawle, "that diamond is worth some fifty or +sixty thousand pounds, Perkwite--and it's missing!" + +Mr. Perkwite looked his astonishment. + +"You mean--he had it on him when he was murdered?" he asked. + +"So it's believed," replied Mr. Pawle. + +"In that case it might form a clue," said the barrister. + +"When it's heard of," admitted Mr. Pawle, with a grim smile. "Not +till then!" + +"From what we have heard," remarked Viner, "Ashton carried that +diamond in the pocketbook which contained his papers--the papers you +have told me of, and some of which have certainly come into possession +of this claimant person. Now, whoever stole the papers, of course got +the diamond." + +Mr. Perkwite seemed to consider matters during a moment's silence; +finally he turned to the old lawyer. + +"I have been thinking over something that might be done," he said. "I see +that the coroner's inquest was adjourned. Now, as that inquest is, of +course, being held to inquire into the circumstances of Ashton's death, I +suggest that I should come forward as a witness and should prove that +Ashton showed certain papers relating to the Ellingham peerage to me at +Marseilles; I can tell the story, as a witness. It can then be proved by +you, or by Carless, that a man claiming to be the missing Lord +Marketstoke showed these stolen papers to you. In the meantime, get the +coroner to summon this man as a witness, and take care that he's brought +to the court. Once there, let him be asked how he came into possession of +these papers? Do you see my idea?" + +"Capital!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "An excellent notion! Much obliged to +you, Perkwite. It shall be done--I'll see to it at once. Yes, to be sure, +that will put this fellow in a tight corner." + +"Don't be surprised if he hasn't some very clever explanation to give," +said the barrister warningly. "The whole thing is evidently a +well-concocted conspiracy. But when is the adjourned inquest?" + +"Day after tomorrow," replied Mr. Pawle, after glancing at his +desk-diary. + +"And tomorrow morning," remarked Viner, "Hyde comes up before the +magistrate again, on remand." + +He was half-minded to tell Mr. Pawle there and then of his secret +dealings with Methley that day, but on reflection he decided that he +would keep the matter to himself. Viner had an idea which he had not +communicated even to Methley. It had struck him that the mysterious +_deux ex machina_ who was certainly at the back of all this business +might not improbably be so anxious about his schemes that he would, +unknown and unsuspected, attend the magistrates' court. Would Hyde, his +wits sharpened by danger, be able to spot him as the muffled man of +Lonsdale Passage? + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ON REMAND + + +When Langton Hyde was brought up before the magistrate next morning, the +court was crowded to its utmost limits; and Viner, looking round him from +his seat near the solicitors' table saw that most of the people +interested in the case were present. Mr. Carless was whispering with Mr. +Pawle; Lord Ellingham had a seat close by; in the front of the public +gallery Miss Penkridge, grim and alert, was in charge of the timid and +shrinking sisters of the unfortunate prisoner. There, too, were Mr. +Armitstead and Mr. Isidore Rosenbaum, and Mr. Perkwite, all evidently +very much alive to certain possibilities. But Viner looked in vain for +either Methley or Woodlesford or their mysterious client; they were +certainly not present when Hyde was put into the dock, and Viner began to +wonder if the events of the previous day had warned Mr. Cave and those +behind him to avoid publicity. + +Instructed by Viner, who was determined to spare neither effort nor +money to clear his old schoolmate, Felpham had engaged the services +of one of the most brilliant criminal barristers of the day, Mr. +Millington-Bywater, on behalf of his client; and he and Viner had sat up +half the night with him, instructing him in the various mysteries and +ramifications of the case. A big, heavy-faced, shrewd-eyed man, Mr. +Millington-Bywater made no sign, and to all outward appearance showed no +very great interest while the counsel who now appeared on behalf of the +police, completed his case against the prisoner. + +The only new evidence produced by the prosecution was that of the +greengrocer on whose premises Hyde had admitted that he passed most of +the night of the murder, and in whose shed the missing valuables had been +found. The greengrocer's evidence as to his discovery was given in a +plain and straightforward fashion--he was evidently a man who would just +tell what he actually saw, and brought neither fancy nor imagination to +bear on his observation. But when the prosecution had done with him, Mr. +Millington-Bywater rose and quietly asked the police to produce the +watch, chain and ring which the greengrocer had found, in their original +wrappings. He held up the wrapping-papers to the witness and asked him if +he could swear that this was what he had found the valuables in and had +given to the police. The greengrocer was positive as to this; he was +positive, too, that the other wrappings which Felpham had carefully +preserved were those which had been on the outside of the parcel and had +been thrown aside by himself on its discovery and afterwards picked up by +Viner. Mr. Millington-Bywater handed all these papers up to the +magistrate, directing his attention to the strong odour of drugs or +chemicals which still pervaded them, and to the address of the +manufacturing chemists which appeared on the outer wrapping. The +magistrate seemed somewhat mystified. + +"What is the object of this?" he asked, glancing at the defending +counsel. "It is admitted that these are the wrappings in which the watch, +and chain and ring were found in the witness's shed, but"--he paused, +with another inquiring look--"you propose to--what?" he asked. + +"I propose, Your Worship, to prove that these things were never put there +by the prisoner at all!" answered Mr. Millington-Bywater, promptly and +with an assurance which was not lost on the spectators. "I intend to show +that they were purposely placed in that outhouse by the real murderer of +John Ashton after the statement made by the prisoner at the inquest +became public--placed there, of course, to divert any possible suspicion +of himself. + +"And now," he continued, after the greengrocer had left the box and the +prosecuting counsel had intimated that he had no more evidence to bring +forward at present, "now I will outline the defence which I shall set up +on behalf of my client. I intend to prove that John Ashton was murdered +by some man not yet discovered, who killed him in order to gain +possession of certain papers which he carried on him--papers of extreme +importance, as will be shown. We know where certain of those papers are, +and we hope before very long to know where the rest are, and also +where a certain very valuable diamond is, which the murdered man had +on him at the time of his death. I shall, indeed, prove that the +prisoner--certainly through his own foolishness--is wrongly accused. It +will be within your worship's recollection that when the prisoner was +first before you, he very unwisely refused to give his name and address +or any information--he subsequently repented of that and made a +statement, not only to the police but before the coroner. Now, I propose +to put him into that box so that he may give evidence, and I shall then +call certain witnesses who will offer evidence which will go to prove +that what I say as regards the murder of Ashton is more than +probable--namely, that he was murdered for the sake of the documents he +had on him, and that the spoiling of his money and valuables was a mere +piece of bluff, intended to mislead. Let the prisoner go into the box!" + +There was a continued deep silence in court while Hyde, under +examination, repeated the story which he had told to Viner and Drillford +and before the coroner and his jury. It was a plain, consecutive story, +in which he set forth the circumstances preceding the evening of the +murder and confessed his picking up of the ring which lay on the pavement +by Ashton's body. He kept his eyes steadily fixed on Mr. +Millington-Bywater under this examination, never removing them from him +save when the magistrate interposed with an occasional remark or +question. But at one point a slight commotion in court caused him to look +among the spectators, and Viner, following the direction of his eyes, saw +him start, and at the same instant saw what it was that he started at. +Methley, followed by the claimant, was quietly pushing a way through the +throng between the door and the solicitor's table. + +Viner leaned closer to Mr. Pawle. + +"Do you see?" he whispered. "Hyde evidently recognizes one of those two! +Now--which?" + +Mr. Pawle glanced at the prisoner. Hyde's face, hitherto pale, had +flushed a little, and his eyes had grown bright; he looked as if he had +suddenly seen a friend's face in a hostile crowd. But Mr. +Millington-Bywater, who had been bending over his papers, suddenly looked +up with another question, and Hyde again turned his attention to him. + +"All that you really know of this matter," asked Mr. Millington-Bywater, +"is that you chanced to turn up Lonsdale Passage, saw a man lying on the +pavement and a ring close by, and that, being literally starving and +desperate, you snatched up that ring and ran away as fast as you could?" + +"Yes--that is all," asserted Hyde. "Except that I had met a man, as I +have already told you, at the end of the passage by which I entered." + +"You did not even know whether this man lying on the pavement was +alive or dead?" + +"I thought he might be drunk," replied Hyde. "But after I had snatched up +the ring I never thought at all until I had run some distance. I was +afraid of being followed." + +"Now why were you afraid of being followed?" + +"I was famishing!" answered Hyde. "I knew I could get something, some +money, on that ring, in the morning, and I wanted to stick to it. I was +afraid that the man whom I met as I ran out of the passage, whom I now +know to have been Mr. Viner, might follow me and make me give up the +ring. And the ring meant food." + +Mr. Millington-Bywater let this answer sink into the prevalent atmosphere +and suddenly turned to another matter. The knife which had been found in +Hyde's possession was lying with certain other exhibits on the +solicitor's table, and Mr. Millington-Bywater pointed to it. + +"Now about that knife," he said. "It is yours? Very well--how long have +you had it?" + +"Three or four years," replied Hyde, promptly. "I bought it when I was +touring in the United States, at a town called Guthrie, in Oklahoma. +And," he added suddenly and with a triumphant smile as of a man who is +unexpectedly able to clinch an argument, "there is a gentleman there who +was with me when I bought it--Mr. Nugent Starr!" + +From the magistrate on his bench to the policeman at the door every +person in court turned to look at the man to whom the prisoner pointed an +out-stretched finger. And Mr. Pawle let out an irrepressible exclamation. + +"Good God!" he said. "The claimant fellow!" + +But Viner said nothing. He was staring, as everybody else was, at the man +who sat by Methley. He, suddenly aware that Hyde had pointed to him, was +obviously greatly taken aback and embarrassed--he looked sharply at the +prisoner, knitted his brows, shook his head, and turning to Methley +muttered something which no one else caught. Mr. Millington-Bywater +looked at him and turned to his client. + +"You say there is a gentleman here--that gentleman!--who was with you +when you bought that knife?" he asked. "A friend of yours, then?" + +"Well--we were playing in the same company," asserted Hyde. "Mr. +Moreby-Bannister's company. He was heavy lead--I was juvenile. He knows +me well enough. He was with me when I bought that knife in a hardware +store in Guthrie." + +The magistrate's eye was on the man who sat by Methley, and there was a +certain amount of irritation in it. And suddenly Methley whispered +something to his companion and the man shyly but with a noticeable +composure stood up. + +"I beg Your Worship's pardon," he said, quietly, with a polite bow to the +bench, "but really, the witness is under a mistaken impression! I don't +know him, and I have never been in the town he mentions--in fact, I have +never been in the United States. I am very sorry, but, really, there is +some strange mistake--I--the witness is an absolute stranger to me!" + +The attention of all present was transferred to Hyde. And Hyde flushed, +leaned forward over the ledge of the witness-box and gave the claimant a +long, steady stare. + +"No mistake at all!" he suddenly exclaimed in a firm voice. "That's Mr. +Nugent Starr! I played with him for over twelve months." + +While this had been going on, Felpham on one side, and Carless on the +other, had been whispering to Mr. Millington-Bywater, who listened to +both with growing interest, and began to nod to each with increasing +intelligence--and then, suddenly, the prosecuting counsel played +unexpectedly and directly into his hand. + +"If Your Worship pleases," said the prosecuting counsel, "I should +like to have the prisoner's assertion categorically denied--it may be +of importance. Perhaps this gentleman will go into the box and deny +it on oath." + +Mr. Millington-Bywater sat down as quickly as if a heavy hand had forced +him into his seat, and Viner saw a swift look of gratification cross his +features. Close by, Mr. Pawle chuckled with joy. + +"By the Lord Harry!" he whispered, "the very thing we wanted! No +need to wait for the adjourned coroner's inquest, Viner--the +thing'll come out now!" + +Viner did not understand. He saw Hyde turned out of the box; he saw the +claimant, after an exchange of remarks with Methley, step into it; he +heard him repeat on oath the denial he had just uttered, after stating +that his name was Cave, and that he lived at the Belmead Hotel, Lancaster +Gate; and he saw Mr. Millington-Bywater, after exchanging a few questions +and answers in whispers with Hyde over the ledge of the dock, turn to the +witness as he was about to step down. + +"A moment, sir," he said. "I want to ask you a few questions, with the +permission of His Worship, who will soon see that they are very +pertinent. So," he went on, "you reside at the Belmead Hotel, in +Lancaster Gate, and your name is Edward Cave?" + +"At present," answered the witness, stiffly. + +"Do you mean that your name is Edward Cave--at present?" + +"My name is Edward Cave, and at present I live--as I have stated," +replied the witness with dignity. + +"You have just stated, on oath, that you are not Nugent Starr, have never +been so called, don't know the prisoner, never met him in America, have +never set foot in America! Now, then--mind, you're on your oath!--is +Edward Cave your real or full name?" + +"Well, strictly speaking," answered the witness, after some hesitation, +"no, it is not. My full name is Cave-Gray--my family name; but for the +present--" + +"For the present you wish to be called Mr. Cave. Now, sir, are you not +the person who claims to be the rightful Earl of Ellingham?" + +A murmur of excited interest ran round the court, and everybody +recognized that a new stage of the case had been entered upon. Every eye, +especially the observant eyes on the bench, were fixed on the witness, +who now looked considerably ruffled. He glanced at Methley--but Methley +sat with averted look and made no sign; he looked at the magistrate; the +magistrate, it was plain, expected the question to be answered. And the +answer came, almost sullenly. + +"Yes, I am!" + +"That is to say, you are really--or you claim to be really--the Lord +Marketstoke who disappeared from England some thirty-five years ago, and +you have now returned, though you are legally presumed to be dead, to +assert your rights to titles and estates? You absolutely claim to be the +ninth Earl of Ellingham?" + +"Yes!" + +"Where have you been during the last thirty-five years?" + +"In Australia." + +"What part?" + +"Chiefly in Melbourne. But I was for four or five years up-country." + +"What name did you go under there?" + +Mr. Pawle, Mr. Carless and the rest of the spectators who were in these +secrets regarded the witness with keen attention when this question was +put to him. But his answer came promptly. + +"At first, under the name of Wickham. Later under the one I now +use--Cave." + +"Did you marry out there?" + +"Never!" + +"And so, of course, you never had a daughter?" + +"I have never been married and have never had daughter or son!" + +Mr. Millington-Bywater turned to Mr. Carless, at his left elbow, and +exchanged two or three whispered remarks with him. At last he looked +round again at the witness. + +"Yesterday," he said, "in your character of claimant to the Ellingham +title and estates you showed to Messrs. Carless & Driver, of Lincoln's +Inn Fields, and to the present holder of the title, certain documents, +letters, papers, which would go some way toward establishing your claim +to be what you profess to be. Now, I will say at once that we believe +these papers to have been stolen from the body of John Ashton when he was +murdered. And I will ask you a direct question, on your oath! Have those +papers always been in your possession since you left England thirty-five +years ago?" + +The witness drew himself up and looked steadily at his questioner. + +"No!" he answered firmly. "They were stolen from me almost as soon as I +arrived in Australia. I have only just regained possession of them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +IS THIS MAN RIGHT? + + +A murmur of astonishment ran through the court as the witness made +his last reply, and those most closely interested in him turned and +looked at each other with obvious amazement. And for a moment Mr. +Millington-Bywater seemed to be at a loss; in the next he bent forward +toward the witness-box and fixed the man standing there with a +piercing look. + +"Do you seriously tell us, on your oath, that these papers--your papers, +if you are what you claim to be--were stolen from you many years ago, and +have only just been restored to you?" he asked. "On your oath, mind!" + +"I do tell you so," answered the witness quietly. "I am on oath." + +The magistrate glanced at Mr. Millington-Bywater. + +"What is the relevancy of this--in relation to the prisoner and the +charge against him?" he inquired. "You have some point, of course?" + +"The relevancy is this, Your Worship," replied Mr. Millington-Bywater: +"Our contention is that the papers referred to were until recently in the +custody of John Ashton, the murdered man--I can put a witness in the box +who can give absolute proof of that, a highly reputable witness, who is +present,--and that John Ashton was certainly murdered by some person or +persons who, for purposes of their own, wished to gain possession of +them. Now, we know that they are in possession of the present witness, or +rather, of his solicitors, to whom he has handed them. I mean to prove +that Ashton was murdered in the way, and for the reason I suggest, and +that accordingly the prisoner is absolutely innocent of the charge +brought against him. I should therefore like to ask this witness to tell +us how he regained possession of these papers, for I am convinced that in +what he can tell us lies the secret of Ashton's murder. Now," he +continued, turning again to the witness as the magistrate nodded assent, +"we will assume for the time being that you are what you represent +yourself to be--the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared from England +thirty-five years ago. You have just heard what I said to His +Worship--about these papers, and what I put forward as regards their +connection with the murder of John Ashton? Will you tell us how you lost +those papers, and more particularly, how you recently regained possession +of them? You see the immense, the vital importance of this to the +unfortunate young fellow in the dock?" + +"Who," answered the witness with a calm smile, "is quite and utterly +mistaken in thinking that he knew me in America, for I have certainly +never set foot in America, neither North nor South, in my life! I am very +much surprised indeed to be forced into publicity as I have been this +morning--I came here as a merely curious spectator and had no idea +whatever that I should be called into this box. But if any evidence of +mine can establish, or help to establish, the prisoner's innocence, I +will give it only too gladly." + +"Much obliged to you, sir," said Mr. Millington-Bywater, who, in Viner's +opinion, was evidently impressed by the witness's straightforward tone +and candid demeanour. + +"Well, if you will tell us--in your own way--about these papers, +now--always remembering that we have absolute proof that until recently +they were in the possession of John Ashton? Let me preface whatever you +choose to tell us with a question: Do you know that they were in +possession of John Ashton?" + +"I have no more idea or knowledge of whose hands they were in, and had +been in, for many years, until they were restored to me, than the man in +the moon has!" affirmed the witness. "I'll tell you the whole +story--willingly: I could have told it yesterday to certain gentlemen, +whom I see present, if they had not treated me as an impostor as soon as +they saw me. Well,"--here he folded his hands on the ledge of the +witness-box, and quietly fixing his eyes on the examining counsel, +proceeded to speak in a calm, conversational tone--"the story is this: I +left England about five-and-thirty years ago after certain domestic +unpleasantnesses which I felt so much that I determined to give up all +connection with my family and to start an absolutely new life of my own. +I went away to Australia and landed there under the name of Wickham. I +had a certain amount of money which had come to me from my mother. I +speculated with it on my arrival, somewhat foolishly, no doubt, and I +lost it--every penny. + +"So then I was obliged to work for my living. I went up country, and for +some time worked as a miner in the Bendigo district. I had been working +in this way perhaps fourteen months when an accident occurred in the mine +at which I was engaged. There was a serious fall of earth and masonry; +two or three of my fellow-workers were killed on the spot, and I was +taken up for dead. I was removed to a local hospital--there had been some +serious injury to my head and spine, but I still had life in me, and I +was brought round. But I remained in hospital, in a sort of semiconscious +state, for a long time--months. When I went back, after my discharge, to +my quarters--nothing but a rough shanty which I had shared with many +other men--all my possessions had vanished. Among them, of course, were +the papers I had kept, and a packet of letters written to me by my mother +when I was a schoolboy at Eton. + +"Of course, I knew at once what had happened--some one of my mates, +believing me to be dead, had appropriated all my belongings and gone off +with them. There was nothing at all to be wondered at in that--it was the +usual thing in such a society. And I knew there was nothing to do but to +accept my loss philosophically." + +"Did you make no effort to recover your possessions?" asked Mr. +Millington-Bywater. + +"No," answered the witness with a quiet smile. "I didn't! I knew too much +of the habits of men in mining centers to waste time in that way. A great +many men had left that particular camp during my illness--it would have +been impossible to trace each one. No--after all, I had left England in +order to lose my identity, and now, of course, it was gone. I went away +into quite another part of the country--into Queensland. I began trading +in Brisbane, and I did very well there, and remained there many years. +Then I went farther south, to Sydney--and I did very well there too. It +was in Sydney, years after that, that I saw the advertisements in the +newspapers, English and Colonial, setting forth that my father was dead, +and asking for news of myself. I took no notice of them--I had not the +least desire to return to England, no wish for the title, and I was quite +content that my youngest brother should get that and the estates. So I +did nothing; nobody knew who I really was--" + +"One moment!" said Mr. Millington-Bywater. "While you were at the +mining-camp, in the Bendigo district, did you ever reveal your secret to +any of your fellow-miners?" + +"Never!" answered the witness. "I never revealed it to a living soul +until I told my solicitor there, Mr. Methley, after my recent arrival +in London." + +"But of course, whoever stole your letters and so on, would discover, or +guess at, the truth?" suggested Mr. Millington-Bywater. + +"Oh, of course, of course!" said the witness. "Well as I was saying, I +did nothing--except to keep an eye on the papers. I saw in due course +that leave to presume my death had been given, and that my younger +brother had assumed the title, and administered the estate, and I was +quite content. The fact was, I was at that time doing exceedingly well, +and I was too much interested in my doings to care about what was going +on in England. All my life," continued the witness, with a slight smile, +"I have had a--I had better call it a weakness--for speculating; and +when I had got a goodly sum of money together by my trading venture in +Brisbane and Sydney, I began speculating again, in Melbourne chiefly. +And--to cut my story short--last year I had one of my periodic bad turns +of fortune: I lost a lot of money. Now, I am, as you see, getting on in +life, over sixty--and it occurred to me that if I came over to England +and convinced my nephew, the present holder of the title and estates, +that I am really who I am, he would not be averse--we have always been a +generous family--to giving me enough to settle down on in Australia for +the rest of my days. Perhaps I had better say at once, since we are +making matters so very public, that I do not want the title, nor the +estate; I will be quite candid and say what I do want--enough to let me +live in proper comfort in Australia, whither I shall again repair as soon +as I settle my affairs here." + +Mr. Millington-Bywater glanced at the magistrate and then at the witness. + +"Well, now, these papers?" he said. "You didn't bring them to London +with you?" + +"Of course not!" answered the witness. "I had not seen or heard of them +for thirty-two years! No I relied, on coming to this country, on other +things to prove my identity, such as my knowledge of Marketstoke and +Ellingham, my thorough acquaintance with the family history, my +recollection of people I had known, like Mr. Carless, Mr. Driver, and +their clerk, Mr. Portlethwaite, and on the fact that I lost this finger +through a shooting accident when I was a boy, at Ellingham. Curiously," +he added with another smile, "these things don't seem to have much +weight. But no! I had no papers when I landed here." + +"How did they come into your possession, then?" asked Mr. +Millington-Bywater. "That is what we most earnestly desire to know. Let +me impress upon you, sir, that this is the most serious and fateful +question I can possibly put to you! How did you get them?" + +"And--from whom?" said the magistrate. "From whom?" + +The witness shook his head. + +"I can tell you exactly how I got them," he answered. "But I can't tell +you from whom, for I don't know! What I can tell you is this: When I +arrived at Tilbury from Melbourne, I asked a fellow-passenger with whom I +came along to London if he could tell me of a quiet, good hotel in the +neighbourhood of the parks--he recommended the Belfield, in Lancaster +Gate. I went there and put myself up, and from it I went out and about a +good deal, looking up old haunts. I also lunched and dined a good many +times at some of the new restaurants which had sprung into being since I +left London. I mention this to show you that I was where I could be seen +and noticed, as I evidently was. One afternoon, while I was sitting in +the smoking-room at my hotel, the page-boy came in with a letter on his +tray, approached me, and said that it had been brought by a district +messenger. It was addressed simply, 'Mr. Cave'--the name by which I had +registered at the hotel--and was sealed; the inclosure, on a half-sheet +of note-paper, was typewritten. I have it here," continued the witness, +producing a pocketbook and taking out an envelope. "I will read its +contents, and I shall be glad to let any one concerned see it. There is +no address and no date, and it says this: 'If you wish to recover the +papers and letters which were lost by you when you went into hospital at +Wirra-Worra, Bendigo, thirty-two years ago, be at the Speke Monument in +Kensington Gardens at five o'clock this afternoon.' There was no +signature." + +Another murmur of intense and excited interest ran round the court as the +witness handed the letter up to the magistrate, who, after looking it +over, passed it on to the counsel below. They, in their turn, showed it +to Mr. Carless, Mr. Pawle and Lord Ellingham, Mr. Pawle, showing it to +Viner, whispered in his ear: + +"If this man's telling the truth," he said, "this is the most +extraordinary story I ever heard in my life." + +"It seems to me that it is the truth!" muttered Viner. "And I'm pretty +certain that at last we're on the way-to finding out who killed Ashton. +But let's hear the end." + +Mr. Millington-Bywater handed the letter back with a polite bow--it was +very obvious to more than one observer that he had by this time quite +accepted the witness as what he claimed to be. + +"You kept the appointment?" he asked. + +"I did, indeed!" exclaimed the witness. "As much out of greatly excited +curiosity as anything! It seemed to me a most extraordinary thing that +papers stolen from me in Australia thirty-two years ago should be +returned to me in London! Yes, I walked down to the Speke Monument. I saw +no one about there but a heavily veiled woman who walked about on one +side of the obelisk while I patrolled the other. Eventually she +approached me, and at once asked me if I had kept secret the receipt of +the mysterious letter? I assured her that I had. She then told me that +she was the ambassadress of the people who had my letters and papers, and +who had seen and recognized me in London and tracked me to my hotel. She +was empowered to negotiate with me for the handing over of the papers. +There were stipulations. I was to give my solemn word of honour that I +would not follow her, or cause her to be followed. I was not to ask +questions. And I was to give a post-dated check on the bank at which I +had opened an account in London, on receipt of the papers. The check was +to be post-dated one month; it was to be made out to bearer, and the +amount was ten thousand pounds. I agreed!" + +"You really agreed!" exclaimed Mr. Millington-Bywater. + +"I agreed! I wanted my papers. We parted, with an agreement that we were +to meet two days later at the same place. I was there--so was the woman. +She handed me a parcel, and I immediately took it to an adjacent seat and +examined it. Everything that I could remember was there, with two +exceptions. The packet of letters from my mother, to which I referred +just now, was missing; so was a certain locket, which had belonged to +her, and of which I had taken great care since her death, up to the time +of my accident in the mining-camp. I pointed out these omissions to the +woman: she answered that the papers which she had handed over were all +that had been in her principal's possession. Thereupon I gave her the +check which had been agreed upon, and we parted." + +"And that is all you know of her?" asked Mr. Millington-Bywater. + +"All!" + +"Can you describe her?" + +"A tallish, rather well-built woman, but so veiled that I could see +nothing of her features; it was, moreover, nearly dark on both occasions. +From her speech and manner, she was, I should say, a woman of education +and refinement." + +"Did you try to trace her, or her principals, through the district +messenger who brought the letter?" + +"Certainly not! I told you, just now, that I gave my word of honour: I +couldn't." + +Mr. Millington-Bywater turned to the magistrate. + +"I can, if Your Worship desires it, put a witness in the box who can +prove beyond doubt that the papers of which we have just heard this +remarkable story, were recently in the possession of John Ashton," he +said. "He is Mr. Cecil Perkwite, of the Middle Temple--a member of my own +profession." + +But the magistrate, who appeared unusually thoughtful, shook his head. + +"After what we have heard," he said, "I think we had better adjourn. The +prisoner will be remanded--as before--for another week." + +When the magistrate had left the bench, and the court was humming with +the murmur of tongues suddenly let free, Mr. Pawle forced his way to the +side of the last witness. + +"Whoever you are, sir," he said, "there's one thing certain--nobody but +you can supply the solution of the mystery about Ashton's death! Come +with me and Carless at once." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE BROKEN LETTER + + +The man whose extraordinary story had excited such intense interest had +become the object of universal attention. Hyde, hitherto the centre of +attraction, was already forgotten, and instead of people going away from +the court to canvass his guilt or his innocence, they surged round the +witness whose testimony, strange and unexpected, had so altered the +probabilities of the case. It was with difficulty that Methley got his +client away into a private room; there they were joined by Mr. Carless, +Mr. Pawle, Mr. Perkwite, Lord Ellingham and Viner, and behind a locked +door these men looked at each other and at this centre of interest with +the air of those to whom something extraordinary has just been told. +After a moment of silence Mr. Carless spoke, addressing the man whose +story had brought matters to an undeniable crisis. + +"I am sure," he said gravely, and with a side glance at Lord Ellingham, +"that if your story is true, sir,--and after what we have just heard, I +am beginning to think that my first conclusions may have been wrong +ones,--no one will welcome your reappearance more warmly than the young +gentleman whom you will turn out of title and property! But you must see +for yourself that your claims must be thoroughly investigated--and as +what you have now just told affects other people, and we must invite you +to full discussion, I propose that, for the time being, we address you as +Mr. Cave." + +The claimant smiled, and nodded genially to the young man whose uncle he +alleged himself to be. + +"I wish to remain Mr. Cave," he said. "I don't want to turn my nephew out +of title and property, so long as he will do something for his old uncle. +Call me Mr. Cave, by all means." + +"We must talk--and at once," said Mr. Carless. "There are several points +arising out of your evidence on which you must give me information. +Whoever is at the back of that woman who handed you those papers is +probably the murderer of John Ashton--and that is what must be got at. +Now, where can we have a conference--immediately?--Your office, Methley, +is not far away, I think." + +"My house is nearer," said Viner. "Come--we shall be perfectly quiet in +my study, and there will be nothing to interrupt us. Let us go now." + +A police official let them out by a side-door, and Viner and Mr. Pawle +led the way through some side-streets to Markendale Square, the others +coming behind, conversing eagerly about the events of the morning. Mr. +Pawle, on his part, was full of excitement. + +"If we can only trace that woman, Viner!" he exclaimed. "That's the next +thing! Get hold of her, whoever she is, and then--ah, we shall be in +sight of the finishing-part." + +"What about tracing the whole lot through the check he has given?" +suggested Viner. "Wouldn't that be a good way?" + +"We should have to wait nearly a month," answered Mr. Pawle. "And even +then it would be difficult--simple though it seems at first sight. There +are folk who deal in post-dated checks, remember! This may have been +dealt with already--aye, and that diamond too; and the man who has got +the proceeds may already be many a mile away. Deep, cunning folk they are +who have been in this, Viner. And now--speed is the thing!" + +Viner led his guests into his library, and as he placed chairs for them +round a centre table, an idea struck him. + +"I have a suggestion to make," he said with a shy smile at the legal men. +"My aunt, Miss Penkridge, who lives with me, is an unusually sharp, +shrewd woman. She has taken vast interest in this affair, and I have kept +her posted up in all its details. She was in court just now and heard Mr. +Cave's story. If no one has any objection, I should like her to be +present at our deliberations--as a mysterious woman has entered into the +case, Miss Penkridge may be able to suggest something." + +"Excellent idea!" exclaimed Mr. Carless. "A shrewd woman is worth her +weight in gold! By all means bring Miss Penkridge in--she may, as you +say, make some suggestion." + +Miss Penkridge, fetched into the room and duly introduced, lost no +time in making a suggestion of an eminently practical nature--that as +all these gentlemen had been cooped up in that stuffy police-court for +two or three hours, they would be none the worse for a glass of wine, +and she immediately disappeared, jingling a bunch of keys, to reappear +a few minutes later in charge of the parlour-maid carrying decanters +and glasses. + +"A very comfortable suggestion, that, ma'am," observed Mr. Carless, +bowing to his hostess over a glass of old sherry. "Your intuition does +you credit! But now, gentlemen, and Miss Penkridge, straight to business! +Mr. Cave, the first question I want to put to you is this: on what date +did you receive the letter which you exhibited in court this morning?" + +Mr. Cave produced a small pocket diary and turned over its pages. + +"I can tell you that," he answered. "I made a note of it at the time. It +was--yes, here we are--on the twenty-first of November." + +"And you received these papers, I think you said, two days later?" + +"Yes--on the twenty-third. Here is the entry." + +Mr. Carless looked round at the assembled faces. + +"John Ashton was murdered on the night of the twenty-second of November," +he remarked significantly. "Therefore he had not been murdered when the +veiled woman first met Mr. Cave for the first time, and he had been +murdered when she met Mr. Cave the second time!" + +There was a silence as significant as Mr. Carless' tone upon this--broken +at last by Mr. Cave. + +"If I may say a word or two," he remarked diffidently. "I don't +understand matters about this John Ashton. The barrister who asked me +questions--Mr. Millington-Bywater, is it--said that he, or somebody, had +positive proof that Mr. Ashton had my papers in his possession for some +time previous to his death. Is that really so?" + +Mr. Carless pointed to Mr. Perkwite. + +"This is the gentleman whom Mr. Millington-Bywater could have put in the +box this morning to prove that," he replied. "Mr. Perkwite, of the Middle +Temple--a barrister-at-law, Mr. Cave. Mr. Perkwite met Mr. Ashton some +three months ago at Marseilles, and Mr. Ashton then not only asked his +advice about the Ellingham affair, alleging that he knew the missing Lord +Marketstoke, but showed him the papers which you have recently deposited +with Mr. Methley here--which papers, Ashton alleged, were intrusted to +him by Lord Marketstoke on his deathbed. Ashton, according to Mr. +Perkwite, took particular care of these papers, and always carried them +about with him in a pocketbook." + +Mr. Cave appeared to be much exercised in thought on hearing this. + +"It is, of course, absurd to say that Lord Marketstoke +--myself!--intrusted papers to any one on his deathbed, since I am very +much alive," he said. "But it is, equally of course, quite possible that +Ashton had my papers. Who was Ashton?" + +"A man who had lived in Australia for some thirty-five or forty years at +least," replied Mr. Carless, "and who recently returned to England and +settled down in London, in this very square. He lived chiefly in +Melbourne, but we have heard that for some four or five years he was +somewhere up country. You never heard of him out there? He was evidently +well known in Melbourne." + +"No, I never heard of him," replied Mr. Cave. "But I don't know +Melbourne very well; I know Sydney and Brisbane better. However, an idea +strikes me--Ashton may have had something to do with the purloining of +my letters and effects at Wirra-Worra, when I met with the accident I +told you of." + +"So far as we are aware," remarked Mr. Carless, "Ashton was an eminently +respectable man!" + +"So far as you know!" said Mr. Cave. "There is a good deal in the saving +clause, I think. I have known a good many men in Australia who were +highly respectable in the last stages of life who had been anything but +that in their earlier ones! Of what class was this Ashton?" + +"I met him, occasionally," said Methley, "though I never knew who he was +until after his death. He was a very pleasant, kindly, good-humoured +man--but," he added, "I should say, from his speech and manners, a man +who had risen from a somewhat humble position of life. I remember +noticing his hands--they were the hands of a man who at some period had +done hard manual labour." + +Mr. Cave smiled knowingly. + +"There you are!" he said. "He had probably been a miner! Taking +everything into consideration, I am inclined to believe that he was +most likely one of the men, or the man, who stole my papers thirty-two +years ago." + +"There may be something in this," remarked Mr. Pawle, glancing uneasily +at Mr. Carless. "It is a fact that the packet of letters to which Mr. +Cave referred this morning as having been written by the Countess of +Ellingham to Lord Marketstoke when a boy at school, was found by Mr. +Viner and myself in Ashton's house, and that the locket which he also +mentioned is in existence--facts which Mr. Cave will doubtless be glad to +know of. But," added the old lawyer, shaking his head, "what does all +this imply? That Ashton, of whom up to now we have heard nothing but +good, was not only a thief, but an impostor who was endeavouring, or +meant to endeavour, to palm off a bogus claimant on people, who, but for +Mr. Cave's appearance and evidence, would certainly have been deceived! +It is most amazing." + +"Don't forget," said Viner quietly, "that Mr. Perkwite says that Ashton +showed him at Marseilles a certain marriage certificate and a birth +certificate." + +Mr. Carless started. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten that. Um! However, don't let us +forget, just now, that our main object in meeting was to do something +towards tracking these people who gave Mr. Cave these papers. Now, Mr. +Cave, you got no information out of the woman?" + +"None!" answered Mr. Cave. "I was not to ask questions, you remember." + +"You took her for a gentlewoman?" + +"Yes--from her speech and manner." + +"Did she imply to you that she was an intermediary?" + +"Yes--she spoke of some one, indefinitely, you know, for whom she +was acting." + +"And she told you, I think, that you had been recognized, in +London, since your arrival, by some one who had known you in +Australia years before?" + +"Yes--certainly she told me that." + +"Just let me look at that typewritten letter again, will you?" asked Mr. +Carless. "It seems impossible, but we might get something out of that." + +Mr. Cave handed the letter over, and once more it was passed from hand to +hand: finally it fell into the hands of Miss Penkridge, who began to +examine it with obvious curiosity. + +"Afraid there's nothing to be got out of that!" sighed Mr. Carless. "The +rogues were cunning enough to typewrite the message--if there'd been any +handwriting, now, we might have had a chance! You say there was nothing +on the envelope but your name, Mr. Cave?" + +Mr. Cave opened his pocketbook again. + +"There is the envelope," he said. "Nothing but _Mr. Cave_, as you +see--that is also typewritten." + +Miss Penkridge picked up the envelope as Mr. Cave tossed it across the +table. She appeared to examine it carefully, but suddenly she turned to +Mr. Carless. + +"There _is_ a clue in these things!" she exclaimed. "A plain clue! One +that's plain enough to me, anyway. I could follow it up. I don't know +whether you gentlemen can." + +Mr. Carless, who had, up to that point, treated Miss Penkridge with +good-humoured condescension, turned sharply upon her. + +"What do you mean, ma'am?" he asked. "You really see something in--in a +typewritten letter?" + +"A great deal!" answered Miss Penkridge. "And in the stationery on +which it's typed, and in the envelope in which it's inclosed. Now look +here: This letter has been typed on a half-sheet of notepaper. Hold +the half-sheet up to the light--what do you see? One half of the name +and address of the stationer who supplied it, in watermark. What is +that one half?" + +Mr. Carless held the paper to the light and saw on the top line, ... +"_sforth,"_ on the middle line, ... "_nd Stationer_" and, ... "_n Hill_" +on the bottom line. + +"My nephew there," went on Miss Penkridge, "knows what that would be, in +full, if the other half of the sheet were here. It would be precisely +what it is under the flap of this envelope--there you are! +'_Bigglesforth, Bookseller and Stationer, Craven Hill.'_ Everybody in +this district knows Bigglesforth--we get our stationery from him. Now, +Bigglesforth has not such a very big business in really expensive +notepaper like this--the other half of the sheet, of course, would have a +finely engraved address on it--and you can trace the owner of this paper +through him, with patience and trouble. + +"But here's a still better clue! Look at this typewritten letter. In +it, the letter _o_ occurs with frequency. Now, notice--the letter is +broken, imperfect; the top left-hand curve has been chipped off. Do +you mean to tell me that with time and trouble and patience you can't +find out to whom that machine belongs? Taking the fact that this +half-sheet of notepaper came from Bigglesforth's, of Craven Hill," +concluded Miss Penkridge with emphasis, "I should say that this +document--so important--came from somebody who doesn't live a million +miles from here!" + +Mr. Carless had followed Miss Penkridge with admiring attention, and he +now rose to his feet. + +"Ma'am," he exclaimed, "Mr. Viner's notion of having you to join our +council has proved invaluable! I'll have that clue followed up instantly! +Gentlemen, we can do no more just now--let us separate. Mr. Cave--you'll +continue to be heard of at the Belfield Hotel?" + +"I shall be at your service any time, Mr. Carless," responded Mr. Cave. +"A telephone message will bring me at once to Lincoln's Inn Fields." + +The assembly broke up, and Viner was left alone with Miss Penkridge. + +"That was clever of you!" he said, admiringly. "I should never have +noticed that. But--there are a lot of typewriting machines in London!" + +"Not so many owned by customers of Bigglesforth's!" retorted Miss +Penkridge. "I'd work it out, if I were a detective!" + +The parlour-maid looked in and attracted Viner's attention. + +"Mr. Felpham wants you at the telephone, sir," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THROUGH THE TELEPHONE + + +Events had crowded so thick and fast upon Viner during the last day +or two, that he went to the telephone fully expecting to hear of some +new development. But he was scarcely prepared for his solicitor's +first words. + +"Viner!" said Felpham, whose voice betrayed his excitement. "Is that man +Cave still with you?" + +"No!" answered Viner. "Why?" + +"Listen carefully," responded Felpham. "In spite of all he asserts, and +his long tale this morning at the police-court, I believe he's a rank +impostor! I've just had another talk with Hyde." + +"Well?" demanded Viner. + +"Hyde," answered Felpham, "persists that he's not mistaken. He swears +that the man is Nugent Starr. He says there's no doubt of it! And he's +told me of another actor, a man named George Bellingham, who's now +somewhere in London, who can positively identify him as Starr. I'm going +to find Bellingham this afternoon--there's some deep-laid plot in all +this, and that fellow had been cleverly coached in the event of his being +unexpectedly tackled.... Viner!" + +"Well--I'm listening carefully," replied Viner. + +"Where's this man gone?" demanded Felpham. + +"To his hotel, I should think," answered Viner. "He left here just +before one." + +"Listen!" said Felpham. "Do you think it would be wise to post New +Scotland Yard on to him--detectives, you know?" + +Viner considered swiftly. In the rush of events he had forgotten +that Carless had already given instructions for the watching of the +pseudo Mr. Cave. + +"Why not find this man Bellingham first?" he suggested. "If he can prove, +positively, that the fellow is Nugent Starr, you'd have something +definite to work on. Where can Bellingham be found?" + +"Hyde's given me the address of a theatrical agent in Bedford Street +who's likely to know of his whereabouts," replied Felpham. "I'm going +over there at once. Hyde saw Bellingham in town three weeks ago." + +"Let me know at once," said Viner. "If you find Bellingham, take him to +the Belfield Hotel and contrive to show him the man. Call me up later." + +He went away from his telephone and sought Miss Penkridge, whom he found +in her room, arraying herself for out of doors. + +"Here's a new development!" he exclaimed, shutting the door on them. +"Felpham's just telephoned to say that Hyde persists that the man who +calls himself Cave is Nugent Starr! In that case, he won't--" + +Miss Penkridge interrupted her nephew with a sniff. + +"My dear Richard," she said, with a note of contemptuous impatience, "in +a case like this, you don't know who's who or who isn't who! It wouldn't +surprise me in the slightest if the man turns out to be Nugent Starr." + +"How did he come by such a straight tale, then?" asked Viner doubtfully. + +"Carefully prepared--in case of need," declared Miss Penkridge as she +tied her bonnet-strings with a decisive tug. "The whole thing's a plant!" + +"That's what Felpham says," remarked Viner. "But--where are you going?" +he broke off as Miss Penkridge, seizing an umbrella, started for the +door. "Lunch is just going in." + +"My lunch can wait--I've had a biscuit and a glass of sherry," asserted +Miss Penkridge. "I'm going round to Bigglesforth the stationer's, to +follow up that clue I suggested just now. I dare say I can do a bit of +detective work as well as another, and in my opinion, Richard, there's no +time to be lost. I have been blessed and endowed," continued Miss +Penkridge, as she laid hold of the door-handle, "with exceedingly acute +perceptions, and I saw something when I made that suggestion which I'm +quite sure none of you men, with all your brains, saw!" + +"What?" demanded Viner. + +"I saw that my suggestion wasn't at all pleasing to the man who calls +himself Cave!" exclaimed Miss Penkridge. "It was only a flash of his eye, +a sudden droop at the corners of his lips--but I saw! And I saw something +else, too--that he got away as quickly as ever he could after I'd made +that suggestion." + +Viner looked at his aunt with amused wonder. He thought she was unduly +suspicious, and Miss Penkridge guessed his thoughts. + +"You'll see," she said as she opened the door. + +"There are going to be strange revelations, Richard Viner, my boy! You +said at the beginning of this that you'd suddenly got plunged into the +middle of things--well, in my opinion, we're now coming to the end of +things, and I'm going to do my bit to bring it about." + +With that Miss Penkridge sailed away, her step determined and her head +high, and Viner, pondering many matters, went downstairs to entertain his +visitors, the unlucky Hyde's sisters, with stories of the morning's +proceedings and hopes of their brother's speedy acquittal. The poor +ladies were of that temperament which makes its possessors clutch eagerly +at any straw of hope floating on the sea of trouble, and they listened +eagerly to all that their host could tell. + +"Langton has an excellent memory!" declared the elder Miss Hyde. "Don't +you remember, sister, what a quantity of poetical pieces he knew by heart +when he was quite a child?" + +"Before he was seven years of age!" said the younger sister. "And at ten +he could recite the whole of the trial scene from 'The Merchant of +Venice.' Oh, yes, he always had a marvellous memory! If Langton says he +remembers this man in America, dear Mr. Viner, I am sure Langton will be +right, and that this is the man. But what a very dreadful person to utter +such terrible falsehoods!" + +"And on oath!" said the elder Miss Hyde, solemnly. "On oath, sister!" + +"Sad!" murmured the younger lady. "Most sad! We find London life very +disturbing, dear Mr. Viner, after our quiet country existence." + +"There are certainly some disturbing elements in it," admitted Viner. + +Just then came another interruption; for the second time since his return +from the police-court, he was summoned to the telephone. To his great +surprise, the voice that hailed him was Mrs. Killenhall's. + +"Is that Mr. Viner?" the voice demanded in its usual brisk, clear tones. + +"Yes," answered Viner. "Is that Mrs. Killenhall?" + +"Yes!" came the prompt reply. "Mr. Viner, can you be so very kind? Miss +Wickham and I have come down to the City on some business connected +with Mr. Ashton, and we do so want somebody's help. Can you run down at +once and join us? So sorry to trouble you, but we really do want a +gentleman here." + +"Certainly!" responded Viner. "I'll come to you at once. But where are +you?" + +"Come to 23 Mirrapore Street, off Whitechapel Road," answered Mrs. +Killenhall. "There is some one here who knew Mr. Ashton, and I +should like you to see him. Can you come at once? And have you the +address right?" + +"A moment--repeat it, please," replied Viner, pulling out a memorandum +book. He noted the address and spoke again: "I'll be there in half an +hour, Mrs. Killenhall," he said. "Sooner, if it's possible." + +"Thank you so much," responded Mrs. Killenhall's steady voice. "So good +of you--good-bye for the present, then." + +"Good-bye," said Viner. He hurried away into the hall, snatched up a +hat, and letting himself out of the house, ran to the nearest cab-stand +and beckoned to a chauffeur who often took him about. "I want to get +along to Mirrapore Street, Whitechapel Road," he said, as he sprang into +the car. "Do you know whereabouts it is?" + +The chauffeur knitted his brows and shook his head. + +"There's a sight of small streets running off Whitechapel Road, both +sides, sir," he answered. "It'll be one of them--I'll find it. Mirrapore +Street? Right, sir." + +"Get there as quickly as possible," said Viner. "The quicker the better." + +It was not until he had gone a good half of his journey that Viner began +to wonder whatever it was that had taken Miss Wickham and her chaperon +down to the far boundaries of the City--or, indeed, farther. Mrs. +Killenhall had said the City, but Viner knew his London well enough to +know that Whitechapel Road lies without the City confines. She had said, +too, that a man who knew Mr. Ashton was there with her and Miss +Wickham--what man, wondered Viner, and what doing in a district like that +toward which he was speeding? + +The chauffeur did the run to Whitechapel Road in unusually good time; it +was little more than two o'clock when the car passed the parish church. +But the man had gone from one end of the road to the other, from the end +of High Street to the beginning of Mile End Road, without success, when +he stopped and looked in at his passenger. + +"Can't see no street of that name on either side, Mr. Viner," he said. +"Have you got it right, sir?" + +"That's the name given me," answered Viner. He pointed to a policeman +slowly patrolling the side walk. "Ask him," he said. "He'll know." + +The policeman, duly questioned, seemed surprised at first; then +recollection evidently awoke in him. + +"Mirrypoor Street?" he said. "Oh, yes! Second to your left, third to the +right--nice sort o' street for a car like yours to go into, too!" + +Viner overheard this and put his head out of the window. + +"Why?" he demanded. + +The policeman, quick to recognize a superior person, touched his helmet +and stepped off the curb toward his questioner. + +"Pretty low quarter down there, sir," he said, with a significant glance +in the direction concerned. "If you've business that way, I should advise +you to look after yourself--some queer places down those streets, sir." + +"Thanks," responded Viner with a grim smile. "Go on, driver, as quick as +you can, and stop at the corner of the street." + +The car swung out of Whitechapel Road into a long, dismal street, the +shabbiness of which increased the further the main thoroughfare was left +behind; and Viner, looking right and left, saw that the small streets +running off that which he was traversing were still more dismal, still +more shabby. Suddenly the car twisted to the right and stopped, and Viner +was aware of a long, narrow street, more gloomy than the rest, wherein +various doubtful-looking individuals moved about, and groups of poorly +clad children played in the gutters. + +"All right," he said as he got down from the car, and the chauffeur made +a grimace at the unlovely vista. "Look here--I don't want you to wait +here. Go back to Whitechapel Road and hang about the end of the street +we've just come down. I'll come back there to you." + +"Not afraid of going down here alone, then, sir?" asked the chauffeur. +"It's a bit as that policeman said." + +"I'm all right," repeated Viner. "You go back and wait. I may be some +time. I mayn't be long." + +He turned away down the street--and in spite of his declaration, he felt +that this was certainly the most doubtful place he had ever been in. +There were evil and sinister faces on the sidewalks; evil and sinister +eyes looking out of dirty windows; here and there a silent-footed figure +went by him in the gloom of the December day with the soft step of a wild +animal; here and there, men leaning against the wall, glared suspiciously +at him or fixed rapacious eyes on his good clothes. There were shops in +this street such as Viner had never seen the like of--shops wherein +coarse, dreadful looking food was exposed for sale; and there were +public-houses from which came the odour of cheap gin and bad beer and +rank tobacco; an atmosphere of fried fish and something far worse hung +heavily above the dirty pavements, and at every step he took Viner asked +himself the same question--what on earth could Miss Wickham and Mrs. +Killenhall be doing in this wretched neighbourhood? + +Suddenly he came to the house he wanted--Number 23. It was just like +all the other houses, of sombre grey brick, except for the fact that +it looked somewhat cleaner than the rest, was furnished with blinds +and curtains, and in the front downstairs window had a lower wire +blind, on which was worked in tarnished gilt letters, the word +_Surgery_. On the door was a brass plate, also tarnished, across which +ran three lines in black: + +"Dr. Martincole. +Attendance: 3 to 6 p. m. +Saturdays. 5 to 9.30 p. m." + +Before Viner took the bell in hand, he glanced at the houses which +flanked this East-end surgery. One was a poor-looking, meanly equipped +chemist's shop; the other a second-hand clothing establishment. And +comforting himself with the thought that if need arose the apparently +fairly respectable proprietors of these places might reasonably be called +upon for assistance, he rang the bell of Number 23 and awaited the +opening of the door with considerable curiosity. + +The door was opened by Mrs. Killenhall herself, and Viner's quick eye +failed to notice anything in her air or manner that denoted uneasiness. +She smiled and motioned him to enter, shutting the door after him as he +stepped into the narrow entrance hall. + +"So very good of you to come, Mr. Viner, and so quickly," she said. "You +found your way all right?" + +"Yes, but I'm a good deal surprised to find you and Miss Wickham in this +neighbourhood," answered Viner. "This is a queer place, Mrs. +Killenhall. I hope--" + +"Oh, we're all right!" said Mrs. Killenhall, with a reassuring smile. "It +is certainly a queer neighbourhood, but Dr. Martincole is an old friend +of mine, and we're safe enough under his roof. He'll be here in a few +minutes, and then--" + +"This man who knew Mr. Ashton?" interrupted Viner. "Where is he?" + +"Dr. Martincole will bring him in," said Mrs. Killenhall, "Come upstairs, +Mr. Viner." + +Viner noticed that the house through which he was led was very quiet, and +larger than he should have guessed at from the street frontage. From what +he could see, it was well furnished, but dark and gloomy; gloomy, too, +was a back room, high up the stairs, into which Mrs. Killenhall presently +showed him. There, looking somewhat anxious, sat Miss Wickham, alone. + +"Here's Mr. Viner," said Mrs. Killenhall. "I'll tell Dr. Martincole +he's come." + +She motioned Viner to a chair and went out. But the next instant Viner +swung quickly round. As the door closed, he had heard the unmistakable +click of a patent lock. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE DISMAL STREET + + +Unknown to those who had taken part in the conference at Viner's house, +unknown even to Carless, who in the multiplicity of his engagements, had +forgotten the instructions which he had given on the previous afternoon +to Portlethwaite, a strict watch was being kept on the man around whom +all the events of that morning had centred. Portlethwaite, after Methley +and his client had left Carless and Driver's office, had given certain +instructions to one of his fellow-clerks, a man named Millwaters, in +whose prowess as a spy he had unlimited belief. Millwaters was a fellow +of experience. He possessed all the qualities of a sleuth-hound and was +not easily baffled in difficult adventures. In his time he had watched +erring husbands and doubtful wives; he had followed more than one +high-placed wrong-doer running away from the consequences of forgery or +embezzlement; he had conducted secret investigations into the behaviour +of persons about whom his employers wanted to know something. In person +and appearance he was eminently fitted for his job--a little, +inconspicuous, plain-featured man who contrived to look as if he never +saw anything. And to him, knowing that he was to be thoroughly depended +upon, Portlethwaite had given precise orders. + +"You'll go up to Lancaster Gate tonight, Millwaters, and get a good look +at that chap," Portlethwaite had told him. "Take plenty of money--I'll +speak to the cashier about that--and be prepared for anything, even to +following, if he bolts. Once you've seen him, you're not to lose sight of +him; make sure of him last thing today and first thing tomorrow. Follow +him wherever he goes, make a note of wherever he goes, and particularly +of whoever he meets. And if there's need, ring me up here, and let's know +what's happening, or if you want assistance." + +There was no need for Millwaters to promise faithful compliance; +Portlethwaite knew well enough that to put him on a trail was equivalent +to putting a hound on the scent of a fox or a terrier to the run of a +rat. And that evening, Millwaters, who had clever ways of his own, made +himself well acquainted with the so-called Mr. Cave's appearance, and +assured himself that his man had gone peacefully to rest at his hotel, +and he had seen him again before breakfast next morning and had been in +quiet and unobtrusive attendance upon him when, later, he visited +Methley's office and subsequently walked away with Methley to the +police-court. And Millwaters was in the police-court, meditatively sucking +peppermint lozenges in a corner, when Mr. Cave was unexpectedly asked to +give evidence; he was there, too, until Mr. Cave left the court. + +Cave's remarkable story ran off Millwaters' mentality like raindrops off +a steep roof. It mattered nothing to him. He did not care the value of a +brass button if Cave was Earl of Ellingham or Duke of Ditchmoor; his job +was to keep his eye on him, whoever he was. And so when Viner and his +party went round to Markendale Square, Millwaters slunk along in their +rear, and at a corner of the Square he remained, lounging about, until +his quarry reappeared. Two or three of the other men came out with Cave, +but Millwaters noticed that Cave immediately separated from them. He was +evidently impressing upon them that he was in a great hurry about +something or other, and sped away from them, Millwaters's cold eye upon +him. And within a minute Millwaters had observed what seemed to him +highly suspicious circumstance--Cave, on leaving the others, had shot off +down a side-street in the direction of Lancaster Gate, but as soon as he +was out of sight of Markendale Square, had doubled in his tracks, hurried +down another turning and sped away as fast as he could walk towards +Paddington Station. + +Millwaters, shorter in the leg than the tall man in front, had to hurry +to keep him in sight, but he was never far behind as Cave hastened along +Craven Road and made for the terminus. Once or twice in this chase the +quarry lifted a hand to an approaching taxicab, only to find each was +engaged; it was not until he and his pursuer were in front of the Great +Western Hotel that Cave found an empty cab, hailed it, and sprang in. +Millwaters grinned quietly at that; he was used to this sort of chase, +and he had memorized car and number before Cave had been driven off. It +was a mere detail to charter the next, and to give a quiet word and wink +to its chauffeur, who was opening its door for Millwaters when a third +person came gently alongside and tapped the clerk's shoulder. Millwaters +turned sharply and encountered Mr. Perkwite's shrewd eyes. + +"All right, Millwaters!" said the barrister. "I know what you're after! +I'm after the same bird. We'll go together." + +Millwaters knew Mr. Perkwite very well as a promising young barrister +whom Carless and Driver sometimes favoured with briefs. Mr. +Perkwite's presence did not disturb him; he moved into the farther +corner, and Mr. Perkwite slipped inside. The car moved off in pursuit +of the one in front. + +"So you're on that game, Mr. Perkwite?" remarked Millwaters. "Ah! And who +might have got you on to it, if one may ask?" + +"You know that I was at your people's office yesterday?" said Perkwite. + +"Saw you there," replied Millwaters. + +"It was about this business," said the barrister. "Did you see me in the +police-court this morning?" + +"I did--listening for all you were worth," answered the clerk. + +"And I dare say you saw me go with the rest of them to Mr. Viner's, in +Markendale Square?" said Perkwite. + +"Right again, sir," assented Millwaters. "I did." + +"This fellow in front," observed Perkwite, "made some statements at +Viner's, in answer to your principal, Mr. Carless, which incline me +to the opinion that he's an impostor in spite of his carefully +concocted stories." + +"Shouldn't wonder, Mr. Perkwite." said Millwaters. "But that's not my +business. My job is to keep him under observation." + +"That's what I set out to do when I came out of Viner's," said the +barrister. "He's up to something. He assured us as we left the house that +he'd a most pressing engagement at his hotel in Lancaster Gate; the next +minute, happening to glance down a side-street, I saw him cutting off in +the direction of Paddington. And now he's evidently making for the City." + +"Well, I'm after him," remarked Millwaters. He leaned out of his window, +called the chauffeur, and gave him some further instructions. +"Intelligent chap, this, Mr. Perkwite," he said as he sat down again. "He +understands--some of 'em are poor hands at this sort of game." + +"You're a pretty good hand yourself, I think?" suggested the barrister, +with a smile. + +"Ought to be," said Millwaters. "Had plenty of experience, anyway." + +It seemed to Perkwite that his companion kept no particular observation +on the car in front as it sped along to and through the northern edge of +the City and beyond. But Millwaters woke to action as their own car +progressed up Whitechapel Road, and suddenly he gave a warning word to +the barrister and a smart tap on the window behind their driver. The car +came to a halt by the curb; and Millwaters, slipping out, pushed some +money into the man's hand and drew Perkwite amongst the people who were +crowding the sidewalk. The barrister looked in front and around and +seemed at a loss. + +"Where is he?" he asked. "Hang it, I've lost him!" + +"I haven't!" said Millwaters. "He left his car before we left ours. Our +man knew what he was after--he slowed up and passed him until I saw where +he went." He twisted Perkwite round and pointed to the mouth of a street +which they had just passed. + +"He's gone down there," he said. "Nice neighbourhood, too! I know +something of it. Now, Mr. Perkwite, if you please, we'll separate. You +take the right of that street--I'll take the left. Keep a look out for my +gentleman's Homburg hat--grey, with a black band--and keep the tail of +your eye on me, too." + +Cave's headgear was easily followed down the squalid street. Its owner +went swiftly ahead, with Millwaters in pursuit on one pavement, and the +barrister on the other, until he finally turned into a narrower and +shabbier thoroughfare. Then the clerk hurried across the road, attracted +Perkwite's attention, winked at him as he passed without checking his +pace, and whispered two or three words. + +"Wait--by the street-corner!" + +Perkwite pulled up, and Millwaters went down the dismal street in +pursuit of the Homburg hat. This excellent indication of its owner's +presence suddenly vanished from Perkwite's sight, and presently +Millwaters came back. + +"Ran him to earth--for the time being, anyway," he said. "He's gone into +a surgery down there--a Dr. Martincole's. Number 23--brass plate on +door--next to a drug-shop. Suspicious sort of spot, altogether." + +"Well?" demanded Perkwite. "What next? You know best, Millwaters." + +The clerk jerked a thumb down the side of the dismal street on which they +were standing. + +"There's a public-house down there," he said, "almost opposite this +surgery. Fairly decent place for this neighbourhood--bar-parlour looking +out on the street. Better slip in there and look quietly out. But +remember, Mr. Perkwite--don't seem to be watching anything. We're just +going in for a bottle of ale, and talking business together. + +"Whatever you recommend," said Perkwite. + +He followed his companion down the street to the tavern, a joyless and +shabby place, the bar-parlour of which, a dark and smoke-stained room was +just then empty, and looked over its torn half-blind across the way. + +"Certainly a queer place for a man who professes to be a peer of the +realm to visit!" he muttered. "Well, now, what do you propose to do, +Millwaters?" + +"Hang about here and watch," whispered the clerk. "Look out!" + +A face, heavy and bloated, appeared at a hatch-window at the back of the +room, and a gruff voice made itself heard. + +"Any orders, gents?" + +"Two bottles o' Bass, gov'nor," responded Millwaters promptly, dropping +into colloquial Cockney speech. He turned to Perkwite and winked. "Well, +an' wot abaht this 'ere bit o' business as I've come rahnd abaht, +Mister?" he went on, nudging his companion, in free-and-easy style. + +"Yer see, it's this ere wy wiv us--if yer can let us have that there +stuff reasonable, d'yer see--" He drew Perkwite over to the window and +began to whisper, "That'll satisfy him," he said with a sharp glance at +the little room behind the hatch where the landlord was drawing corks. +"He'll think we're doing a bit of trade, so we've nothing to do but stand +in this window and keep an eye on the street. Out of this I'm not going +till I see whether that fellow comes out or stops in!" + +Some time had passed, and Millwaters had been obliged to repeat his order +for bottled Bass before anything took place in the street outside. +Suddenly he touched his companion's elbow. + +"Here's a taxicab coming along and slowing up for somewhere about +here," he whispered. "And--Lord, if there aren't two ladies in it--in a +spot like this! And--whew!" he went on excitedly. "Do you see 'em, Mr. +Perkwite? The young un's Miss Wickham, who came to our office about +this Ashton affair. I don't know who the old un is--but she evidently +knows her way." + +The berry-faced landlord had now shut down the hatch, and his two +bar-parlour customers were alone and unobserved. Perkwite drew away from +the window, pulling Millwaters by the sleeve. + +"Careful!" he said. "There's something seriously wrong here, Millwaters! +What's Miss Wickham being brought down here for? See, they've gone into +that surgery, and the car's going off. Look here--we've got to do +something, and at once!" + +But Millwaters shook his head. + +"Not my job, Mr. Perkwite!" he answered. "My business is with the +man--Cave! I've nothing to do with Miss Wickham, sir, nor with the old +lady that's taken her in there. Cave's my mark! Queer that the young lady's +gone there, no doubt, but--no affair of mine." + +"It's going to be an affair of mine, then," said Perkwite. "I'm going off +to the police!" + +Millwaters put out a detaining hand. + +"Don't, Mr. Perkwite!" he said. "To get police into a quarter like this +is as bad as putting a light to dry straw. I'll tell you a better plan +than that, sir--find the nearest telephone-box and call up our +people--call Mr. Carless, tell him what you've seen and get him to come +down and bring somebody with him. That'll be far better than calling the +police in." + +"Give me your telephone-number, then," said Perkwite, "and keep a strict +watch while I'm away." + +Millwaters repeated some figures and a letter, and Perkwite ran off up +the street and toward the Whitechapel Road, anxiously seeking for a +telephone booth. It was not until he had got into the main thoroughfare +that he found one; he then had some slight delay in getting in +communication with Carless and Driver's office; twenty minutes had +elapsed by the time he got back to the dismal street. At its corner he +encountered Millwaters, lounging about hands in pockets. Millwaters +wagged his head. + +"Here's another queer go!" he said. "There's been another arrival at +Number 23--not five minutes since. Another of our little lot!" + +"Who?" demanded Perkwite. + +"Viner!" replied Millwaters. "Came peeping and perking along the +street, took a glimpse of the premises and the adjacent purlieus, rang at +Number 23, and was let in by--the party that came with Miss Wickham! Now, +whatever can he be doing there, Mr. Perkwite?" + +"Whatever can any of them be doing there!" muttered Perkwite. "Viner! +What business can he have in this place? It seems--by George, +Millwaters," he suddenly exclaimed, "what if this is some infernal +plant--trap--something of that sort? Do you know, in spite of what you +say, I really think we ought to get hold of the nearest police and +tell them--" + +"Wait, Mr. Perkwite!" counselled Millwaters. "Our governor is a pretty +cute and smart sort, and he's vastly interested in this Miss Wickham; so +Portlethwaite and he'll be on their way down here now, hot foot; and with +help, too, if he thinks she's in any danger. Now, _he_ can go straight to +that door and demand to see her, and--" + +"Why can't we?" interrupted Perkwite. "I'd do it! Lord, man, she may be +in real peril--" + +"Not while Viner's in there," said Millwaters quietly. "I might possibly +have gone and rung the bell myself, but for that. But Viner's in +there--wait!" + +And Perkwite waited, chafing, at the corner of the dismal street, until a +quarter of an hour had passed. Then a car came hurrying along and pulled +up as Millwaters and his companion were reached, and from it sprang Mr. +Carless, Lord Ellingham and two men in plain-clothes, at the sight of +whom Perkwite heaved a huge sigh of intense relief. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE BACK WAY + + +Viner was so sure that the sound which he had heard on Mrs. Killenhall's +retirement was that caused by the turning of a key or slipping of a lock +in the door by which he had entered, that before speaking to Miss Wickham +he instantly stepped back and tried it. To his astonishment it opened +readily, but the anteroom outside was empty; Mrs. Killenhall had +evidently walked straight through it and disappeared. + +"That's odd!" he said, turning to Miss Wickham. "I distinctly thought +I heard something like the snap of a lock, or a bolt or something. +Didn't you?" + +"I certainly heard a sound of that sort," admitted Miss Wickham. +"But--the door's open, isn't it?" + +"Yes--that is so," answered Viner, who was distinctly puzzled. "Yet--but +then, all this seems very odd. When did you come down here?" + +"About an hour ago," replied Miss Wickham, "in a hurry." + +"Do you know why?" asked Viner. + +"To see a Dr. Martincole, who is to tell us something about Mr. Ashton," +replied his fellow-sharer in these strange quarters. "Didn't Mrs. +Killenhall ask you to come down for the same purpose, Mr. Viner?" + +Viner, before he replied, looked round the room. Considering the extreme +shabbiness and squalour of the surrounding district, he was greatly +surprised to find that the apartment in which he and Miss Wickham waited +was extremely well furnished, if in an old-fashioned and rather heavy +way. The walls were panelled in dark, age-stained oak, to the height of +several feet; above the panelling were arranged good oil pictures, which +Viner would have liked to examine at his leisure; here and there, in +cabinets, were many promising curiosities; there were old silver and +brass things, and a shelf or two of well-bound books--altogether the +place and its effects were certainly not what Viner had expected to find +in such a quarter. + +"Yes," he said at last, turning to his companion, "that's what I was +brought here for. Well--have you seen this doctor?" + +"No," answered Miss Wickham. "Not yet." + +"Know anything about him?" suggested Viner. + +"Nothing whatever! I have heard of him," said Miss Wickham with a glance +of surprise. "I suppose he--somehow--got into touch with Miss +Killenhall." + +"Queer!" remarked Viner. "And why doesn't he come in?" + +Then, resolved to know more, he walked into the anteroom, and after a +look round it, tried the door by which Mrs. Killenhall had admitted him +after coming up the stairs from the street; a second later he went back +to Miss Wickham and shook his head. + +"It's just as I supposed," he remarked quietly. "We're trapped! Anyway, +the door of that anteroom is locked--and it's a strong lock. There's +something wrong." + +The girl started, and paled a little, but Viner saw at once that she was +not likely to be seriously frightened, and presently she laughed. + +"How very queer!" she said. "But--perhaps Mrs. Killenhall turned the key +in the outer lock so that no--patients, or other callers, +perhaps--should come in?" + +"Sorry, but that doesn't strike me as a good suggestion," replied Viner. +"I'm going to have a look at that window!" + +The one window of the room, a long, low one, was set high in the wall, +above the panelling; Viner had to climb on a bookcase to get at it. And +when he had reached it, he found it to be securely fastened, and to have +in front of it, at a distance of no more than a yard, a blank whitewashed +wall which evidently rose from a passage between that and the next house. + +"I don't like the look of this at all!" he said as he got down from the +bookcase. "It seems to me that we might be kept here for a long time." + +Miss Wickham showed more astonishment than fear. + +"But why should any one want to keep us here for any time?" she asked. +"What's it mean?" + +"I wish I knew!" exclaimed Viner. He pulled out his watch and made a +mental note of the time. "We're being kept much longer than we should be +in any ordinary case," he remarked. + +"Of course!" admitted Miss Wickham. "Well past three o'clock, isn't +it? If we're delayed much longer, Mrs. Killenhall will be too late +for the bank." + +"What bank?" asked Viner. + +"My bank. I always give Mrs. Killenhall a check for the weekly bills +every Friday, and as we were coming through the City to get here, she +said, just before we left home, that I might as well give her the check +and she could call and cash it as we drove back. And," concluded Miss +Wickham, "the bank closes at four." + +Viner began to be suspicious. + +"Look here!" he said suddenly. "Don't think me inquisitive, but what was +the amount of the check you gave her?" + +"There was no amount stated," replied Miss Wickham. "I always give her a +blank check--signed, of course--and she fills in the amount herself. It +varies according to what she wants." + +Without expressing any opinion on the wisdom of handing checks to +other people on this plan, Viner turned to Miss Wickham with a +further question. + +"Do you know anything about Mrs. Killenhall's movements this morning?" he +asked. "Did she go out anywhere?" + +"Yes," replied Miss Wickham. "She went to the police-court, to hear the +proceedings against Mr. Hyde. She wanted me to go, but I wouldn't--I +dislike that sort of thing. She was there all the morning." + +"So was I," said Viner. "I didn't see her. But the place was crowded." + +"And she was veiled," remarked Miss Wickham. "Naturally, she didn't want +people to see her in a place like that." + +"Do you know whether she went to the previous sitting? I mean when Hyde +was brought up the first time?" inquired Viner. "I remember there were +some veiled ladies there--and at the coroner's inquest, too." + +"She was at the coroner's inquest, I know," replied Miss Wickham. "I +don't know about the other time." + +Viner made no remark, and Miss Wickham suddenly lowered her voice and +bent nearer to him. + +"Why?" she asked. "Are you--suspecting Mrs. Killenhall of anything, +Mr. Viner?" + +Viner gave her a quick glance. + +"Are you?" he said in low tones. + +Miss Wickham waved a hand towards the anteroom. + +"Well!" she whispered. "What's it look like? She brings me down here +in a hurry, on a message which I myself never heard nor saw delivered +in any way; after I get here, you are fetched--and here we are! +And--where is she?" + +"And--possibly a much more pertinent question," said Viner, "where is +this Dr. Martincole? Look here: this is a well-furnished room; those +pictures are good; there are many valuable things here; yet the man who +practises here is only in attendance for an hour or two in an afternoon, +and once a week for rather longer in the evening. He can't earn much +here; certainly an East End doctor could not afford to buy things like +this or that. Do you know what I think? I think this man is some West End +man, who for purposes of his own has this place down here--a man who +probably lives a double life, and may possibly be mixed up in some +nefarious practices. And so I propose, as we've waited long enough, to +get out of it, and I'm going to smash that window and yell as loud as I +can--somebody will hear it!" + +Miss Wickham pointed to a door in the oak panelling, a door set in a +corner of the room, across which hung a heavy curtain of red plush, only +halfdrawn. + +"There's a door there," she remarked, "but I suppose it's only a +cupboard." + +"Sure to be," said Viner. "However, we'll see." He went across, drew the +curtain aside, tried the door, looked within, and uttered an exclamation. +"I say!" he called back. "Stairs!" + +Miss Wickham came across and looked past his shoulder. There was +certainly the head of a staircase before him, and a few stairs to be seen +before darkness swallowed up the rest--but the darkness was deep and the +atmosphere that came up from below decidedly musty. + +"Are you going down there?" she asked. "I don't like it!" + +"It seems our only chance," answered Viner. He looked back into the room, +and seeing some wax candles standing on a writing-table, seized one and +lighted it. "Come along!" he said. "Let's get out of this altogether." + +Miss Wickham gathered up her skirts and followed down the stairs, Viner +going cautiously in front, with the light held before him in such a +fashion that he could see every step. At a turn in the stairway he came +across a door, and opening it, saw that it stood at the end of a narrow +passage running through the house; at the farther end of the passage he +recognized an oak cabinet which he had noticed when Mrs. Killenhall +first admitted him. + +"I see how these people, whoever they are, manage matters," he remarked +over his shoulder as he led his companion forward. "This place has a +front and a back entrance. If you don't want to be seen, you know, well, +it's convenient. We're approaching the back--and here it is." + +The stairs came to an end deep down in the house, terminating in a door +which Viner, after leaving his silver-sticked candle, only blown out, on +the last step, carefully opened. There before him lay a narrow +whitewashed yard, at the end of which they could see a street, evidently +pretty much like the rest of the streets in that district. But in the +yard a pale-cheeked, sharp-eyed urchin was feeding a couple of rabbits in +a wire-faced soap-box, and him Viner immediately hailed. + +"You're a smart-looking lad," he said. "Would you like five shillings? +Well, have you seen Dr. Martincole this afternoon? You know, the doctor +who comes to the house behind us?" + +"See him go out abaht an hour ago, guv'nor--wiv anuvver gent," said the +lad eagerly, his bright eyes wavering between Viner's face and the hand +which he had thrust in his pocket. He pointed to the distant entrance of +the yard. "Went aht that way, they did." + +"Ah! And what was the other gentleman like?" asked Viner. + +"Swell!" answered the informant. "Proper swell, he was!" + +"And Dr. Martincole?" Viner continued. "You've seen him many a time, of +course. Now what's he like!" + +"He's a tall gentleman," said the boy, after some evidently +painful thought. + +"Yes, but what else--has he got a beard?" asked Viner. + +"Couldn't tell you that, guv'nor, d'yer see," said the lad, "'cause he's +one o' them gents what allus wears a white silk handkercher abaht his +face--up to his eyes. But he's a big man--wears black clothes." + +Viner gave the boy his promised reward, and was passing on when Miss +Wickham touched his arm. + +"Ask if he's seen a lady go out this way," she said. "That's equally +important." + +The boy, duly questioned nodded his head. + +"I see Mrs. Killerby go out not so long since," he answered. "Her what +used to live here one time. Know her well enough." + +"Come along!" muttered Viner. "We've hit it! Mrs. Killerby--who is Mrs. +Killenhall--used to live here at one time! Good--which means very bad, +considering that without doubt the doctor who wears a white silk +handkerchief about his face is the muffled man of Lonsdale Passage. Miss +Wickham, something has alarmed these birds and they've flown." + +"But why were we brought here?" asked Miss Wickham. + +"I've an idea as to why you were," said Viner, "and I propose to find out +at once if I'm right. Let's get away, find a taxicab, and go to +your--but, good heavens!" he went on, breaking off as two men came into +the yard. "Here's one of Carless' clerks, and Perkwite the +barrister.--What are you doing here?" he demanded, as Millwaters and +Perkwite hurried up. "Are you after anybody along there--in that +house--the one at the end?" + +"We're after a good many things and people in Dr. Martincole's place, Mr. +Viner," answered Millwaters. "Mr. Perkwite and I traced Mr. Cave here +early in the afternoon; he went in, but he's never come out; we saw you +enter--here you are. We saw Miss Wickham and Mrs. Killenhall--there's +Miss Wickham, but where's the other lady? And where--" + +Viner stopped the clerk's questions with a glance, and he laughed a +little as he gave him his answer. + +"My dear fellow," he said, "you should have posted somebody at the back +here. Why, we don't quite know yet, but Miss Wickham and myself were +trapped in there. As for Cave, he must be the man who went away with +Martincole. As for Mrs. Killenhall, she too has gone. That boy down there +saw all three go, some time ago, while we were locked up. But--what made +you watch these people?" + +"We followed Cave," said Perkwite, "because Millwaters had been ordered +to do so, and because I considered his conduct mysterious. Then, when +we saw what was going on here,--your arrival following on that of Miss +Wickham and Mrs. Killenhall,--we telephoned for Mr. Carless and more +help. Carless and Lord Ellingham, and a couple of detectives, are at +the front now. Millwaters and I heard from a denizen of these unlovely +parts that there was a back entrance. We'd tried in vain for admittance +at the front--" + +"But they've got in now, Mr. Perkwite!" exclaimed Millwaters suddenly. +"See, there's Mr. Carless at a back window, waving to us to come in. I +suppose we can get in by the back, Mr. Viner?" + +"Yes--if you like to take the risk of entering people's houses without +permission!" said Viner sardonically. "I don't think you'll find anybody +or anything there. As for Miss Wickham and myself, we've an engagement +elsewhere." + +He hurried his companion away, through the street on which they emerged +from the whitewashed yard, and out into the Whitechapel Road; he hurried +her, too, into the first taxicab which came along empty. + +"Now," he said, as they stepped in, "tell this man the name of your bank, +and let him go there, quick!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE TRUTH + + +Four o'clock had struck, and the doors of the bank were closed when Miss +Wickham and Viner hurried up to it, but there was a private entrance at +the side, and the man who answered their summons made no difficulty about +admitting them when Miss Wickham said who she was. And within a few +minutes they were closeted with a manager, who, surprised when they +entered, was astonished before many words had been exchanged. For during +their dash from the Whitechapel streets Viner had coached his companion +as to the questions he wished her to put on arrival at the bank, and she +went straight to the point. + +"I wanted to know if my companion, Mrs. Killenhall, had called here this +afternoon?" begun Miss Wickham. + +"She has," answered the manager. "I happened to see her, and I attended +to her myself." + +"Did she present a check from me?" inquired Miss Wickham. + +"Certainly--and I cashed it," said the manager. He gave his customer +and her companion a look of interrogation which had a good deal of +surprise in it. "Why?" he continued, glancing at Miss Wickham, "wasn't +it in order?" + +"That," replied Miss Wickham, "depends upon the amount." + +"The amount!" he exclaimed. "You know--if the drawer! It was for ten +thousand pounds!" + +"Then Mrs. Killenhall has done me, or you, out of that," said Miss +Wickham. "The check I gave her was to have been filled up for the amount +of the usual weekly bills--twenty pounds or so. Ten thousand? +Ridiculous!" + +"But--it all seemed in order!" exclaimed the concerned manager. "She was +as plausible, and all that--and really, you know, Miss Wickham, we know +her very well--and, in addition to that, you have a very large balance +lying here. Mrs. Killenhall merely mentioned that you wanted this amount, +in notes, and that she had called for it--and of course, I cashed the +check--your check, remember!--at once." + +"I hadn't filled in the amount," remarked Miss Wickham. + +"Mrs. Killenhall had often presented checks bearing your signature in +which you hadn't filled in the amount," said the manager. "There was +nothing unusual, I assure you, in any detail of the affair." + +"The most important detail, now," observed Viner dryly, "is to find Mrs. +Killenhall." + +The manager, who was obviously filled with amazement at Mrs. Killenhall's +audacity, looked from one to the other of his visitors, as if he could +scarcely credit their suggestion. + +"You really mean me to believe that Mrs. Killenhall has got ten thousand +pounds out of Miss Wickham by a trick?" he asked, fixing his gaze at +last on Viner. + +"What I really mean you to believe," said Viner, rising, "is that a +rapid series of events this afternoon has proved to me that Mrs. +Killenhall is one of a gang who are responsible for the murder of John +Ashton, who stole his diamond and certain papers, and who have +endeavoured, very cleverly, to foist one of their number, a scoundrelly +clever actor, on the public, as a peer of the realm who had been missing. +Mrs. Killenhall--who has another name--probably got wind of possible +detection about noon today, and took advantage of Miss Wickham's habit of +giving her a weekly check, to provide herself with ample funds. That's +really about the truth--and I think Miss Wickham and I had better be +seeing the police." + +"The very best thing you can do!" responded the manager with alacrity. +"And take my advice and go straight to headquarters--go to New Scotland +Yard. Just think what this woman--and her accomplices--could do! If she +or they had one hour's start of you, they can have already put a good +distance between themselves and London; they can be halfway to Dover, or +Harwich, or Southampton. And therefore--" + +"And therefore all the more reason why we should set somebody on their +trail," interrupted Viner, and hurried Miss Wickham out of the manager's +room and away to the taxicab which he had purposely kept in waiting. "I +don't think Mrs. Killenhall, or Killerby, or whatever her name is, will +have hurried away as quickly as all that," he remarked as they sped along +toward Whitehall. "My own idea is that, having got hold of your money, +she'll probably have made for the headquarters of this precious gang, she +and they are sure to have one, for I should say the place in Whitechapel +was only an outpost,--and they'll be better able to arrange an escape +from there than she would to make an immediate flight. She--but what are +you thinking?" + +"That I seem to be involved, somehow, in a very strange and curious +combination of things," answered Miss Wickham. + +"Just so!" agreed Viner. "So do I--and I was literally pitchforked into +the very midst of it all by sheer accident. If I hadn't happened to go +out for a late stroll on the night on which it began, I should never +have--but here we are!" + +The official of the Criminal Investigation Department with whom +they were shortly closeted, listened carefully and silently to +Viner's account of all that had happened. He was one of those +never-to-be-sufficiently-praised individuals who never interrupt and +always understand, and at the close of Viner's story he said exactly what +the narrator was thinking. "The real truth of all this, Mr. Viner," he +said, "is that this is probably one of the last chapters in the history +of the Lonsdale Passage murder. For if you find this woman and the men +who are undoubtedly her accomplices, you will most likely have found, in +one or other of them, the murderer of John Ashton!" + +"Precisely!" agreed Viner. "Precisely!" + +The official rose from his seat and turned to the door. + +"Drillford, of your nearest police-station, had this case in charge," he +remarked. "I'll just call him on the telephone." + +He left the room and was away for several minutes; when he returned +there was something like a smile on his face. + +"If you and Miss Wickham will drive along and see Drillford, Mr. Viner," +he said. "I think you'll find he's some news for you." + +"Has he told it to you?" demanded Viner. + +"Well--just a little," answered the official with another smile. "But +I won't rob him of the pleasure of telling you himself. You ought to +be disappointed. However, I'll just tell you enough to whet your +appetite for more--Drillford is confident that he's just arrested the +real man! No--no more!" he added, with a laugh. "You'll run up there +in twenty minutes." + +Drillford, cool and confident as ever, was alone in his office when Viner +and his companion were shown in. He looked at Miss Wickham with +considerable curiosity as he handed her a chair, and Viner noticed that +the bow he made her was unusually respectful. But he immediately plunged +into the pertinent subject, and turned to Viner with a laugh of +self-deprecation. + +"Well, Mr. Viner!" he said. "You were right, and I was wrong. It wasn't +that young fellow Hyde who killed Mr. Ashton. And now that I know who +did, I don't mind saying that I'm jolly glad that his innocence will be +established." + +"But do you know who did?" asked Viner eagerly. + +"I do!" answered Drillford. + +"Who, then?" exclaimed Viner. + +"He's in the cells at the back, now," said Drillford, "and I only hope +he's not one of those chaps who are so clever that they can secrete +poison to the very last moment and then cheat the gallows, for now that I +know as much as I do, I should say he's as pretty a specimen of the +accomplished scoundrel as ever put on fine clothes. Dr. Cortelyon, of +your square!" + +This sudden and surprising revelation, made in ordinary matter-of-fact +tones, produced different effects on the two people to whom it was made. +Viner, after a start and a smothered exclamation, stared silently at +Drillford as if he scarcely comprehended his meaning. But Miss Wickham, +with a quick flush which evidently denoted suddenly-awakened +recollection, broke into words. + +"Dr. Cortelyon!" she exclaimed. "Ah--I remember now. Mr. Ashton once told +me, in quite a casual way as we were passing through the square, that he +had known Dr. Cortelyon in Australia, years and years ago!" + +Drillford glanced at Viner and smiled. + +"I wish you'd remembered that little matter before, Miss Wickham!" he +said. "It might have saved a lot of trouble. Well--Cortelyon's the man! +And it all came about quite suddenly, this afternoon. Through your aunt, +Mr. Viner--Miss Penkridge. Smart lady, sir!" + +"My aunt!" exclaimed Viner. "Why, how on earth--" + +"Some of your gentlemen had a conference with that fellow Cave at your +house, after you left court this morning," said Drillford. "Miss +Penkridge was present. Cave told more of his cock-and-bull story, and +produced a certain letter which he said had been handed to him at the +hotel he'd put up at. All that, and all the stuff he told at the +police-court, was bluff--carefully concocted by himself and Cortelyon in +case Cave was ever put in a tight corner. Now, according to what she +tells me, Miss Penkridge immediately spotted something about that letter +which none of you gentlemen were clever enough to see--" + +"I know!" interrupted Viner. "She saw that the envelope and paper had +been supplied by Bigglesforth, of Craven Gardens, and that a certain +letter in the typewriter which had been used was defective." + +"Just so," laughed Drillford, "and so, being, as I say, a smart woman, +she went round to Bigglesforth, got him to herself, and made some +inquiries. And--it's very queer, Mr. Viner, how some of these apparently +intricate cases are easily solved by one chance discovery!--she hadn't +been talking to Bigglesforth ten minutes before she was on the right +track. Bigglesforth, when he'd got to know the main features of the case, +was willing enough to help, and your aunt immediately brought him round +here to see me. And I knew at once that we'd got right there!" + +"Yes--but how, exactly?" asked Viner. + +"Bigglesforth," answered Drillford, "told me that he'd supplied +stationery to Dr. Cortelyon for some time, and he'd no doubt that the +paper and envelope described by Miss Penkridge was some which he'd +specially secured for the Doctor. But he told something far more +important: Six months ago Cortelyon went to Bigglesforth and asked him if +he could get him a good second-hand typewriter. Now, Bigglesforth had a +very good one for which he'd no use, and he at once sold it to Cortelyon. +Bigglesforth didn't mention the matter to his customer, for the machine +was perfect in all other respects, but one of the letters was +defective--broken. That was the same letter, Mr. Viner, which was +defective in the document which Cave showed to you gentlemen and spoke of +previously in court!" + +"Extraordinary!" muttered Viner. "What a piece of luck!" + +"No, sir!" said Drillford, stoutly. "No luck at all--just a bit of good +common-sense thinking on the part of a shrewd woman. But you'll want to +know what we did. I was so absolutely certain of the truth of Miss +Penkridge's theory that I immediately made preparations for a descent on +Cortelyon's house. I got a number of our best men--detectives, of +course--and we went round to Markendale Square, back and front. Inquiry +showed that Cortelyon was out, but we'd scarcely got that fact +ascertained when he drove up in a taxicab with Cave himself. They +hurriedly entered the house--I myself was watching from a good point of +vantage, and I saw that both men were, to say the least, anxious and +excited. Then I began to make final preparations. But before I'd finished +telling my men exactly what to do, another party drove up--your +companion, Miss Wickham, Mrs. Killenhall. She too entered. Then I +moved--quick. Some of us went to the front--I with the others went in by +the back. We made straight for Cortelyon's surgery, and we were on him +and the other two before they'd time to move, literally. The two men +certainly tried to draw revolvers, but we were too many for 'em, and as +they'd tried that game, I had 'em handcuffed there and then. It was all +an affair of a moment--and of course, they saw it was all up. Now, +equally of course, Mr. Viner, in all these cases, in my experience, the +subordinates immediately try to save their own skins by denouncing the +principal, and it was so in this instance. Mrs. Killenhall and Cave at +once denounced Cortelyon as the mainspring, and the woman, who's a +regular coward, got me aside and offered to turn King's evidence, and +whispered that Cortelyon actually killed Ashton himself, unaided, as he +let him out of his back door into Lonsdale Passage!" + +"So--that's settled!" exclaimed Viner. + +"Yes, I think so," agreed Drillford. "Well, we brought 'em all here, and +charged 'em, and examined 'em. Nothing much on Cave, who, of course, is +precisely what Hyde said he was--a man named Nugent Starr, an old +actor--if he was as good a performer on the stage as he is in private +life, he ought to have done well. But on Mrs. Killenhall we found ten +thousand pounds in Bank of England notes, and one or two letters from +Cortelyon, which she was a fool for keeping, for they clearly prove that +she was an accessory. And on Cortelyon we'd a big find! That diamond that +Ashton used to carry about, the other ring that Ashton was wearing when +he was murdered, and--perhaps most important of all--certain papers which +he'd no doubt taken from Ashton's body." + +"What are they?" demanded Viner. + +Drillford glanced at Miss Wickham. + +"Well," he said, "I've only just had time to glance at them, but I should +say that they affect Miss Wickham in a very surprising fashion, and I +shall be glad to hand them over to her solicitors as soon as they come +for them. They're birth certificates, burial certificates, marriage +certificates, and a complete memorandum of a certain case, evidently +written out with great care by Ashton himself. And of course, knowing +what I do now, it's very clear to me how Ashton's murder came about. +Cortelyon knew that if Ashton was out of the way, and he himself in +possession of the papers, he could use some, suppress others, and foist +off an accomplice of his own as claimant to a title which, from what I've +seen, appears without doubt to belong to--" + +Drillford was again glancing at Miss Wickham, but Viner contrived to stop +any further revelations and got to his feet. + +"Extraordinary!" he said. "But--my aunt? Where is she?" + +"She remained here until we'd safely caged the birds," answered +Drillford. "Then she said she'd go home. And I suppose you'll find +her there." + +Viner took his companion away from the police-station in silence. But at +the end of the street Miss Wickham looked back. + +"Are those three people really locked up--in cells--close by where we +were sitting with the inspector?" she asked. + +"Just so," answered Viner. + +"And will they all be hanged?" she whispered. + +"I sincerely hope one will!" exclaimed Viner. + +"What," she inquired, "did the inspector mean about the papers found on +Dr. Cortelyon? I have some uneasy feeling that--" + +"I think you 'd better wait," said Viner. "There'll have to be some +queer explanations. We must let Mr. Pawle and Mr. Carless know of what's +happened--they're the proper people to deal with this affair." + +And then, as they turned into Markendale Square, they saw Mr. Pawle and +Mr. Carless, who, with Lord Ellingham, were hurrying from Miss Wickham's +house in the direction of Viner's. Mr. Carless quickened his pace and +came toward them. + +"I was so upset when I heard from Perkwite that Miss Wickham has been in +that house in Whitechapel," he said, "that, on learning she'd gone off +with you, Viner, Lord Ellingham and I drove to Pawle's and brought him on +here to learn if she'd got home and what had happened." + +"What had happened?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "What is it, Viner?" + +Viner gathered them round him with a look. + +"This has happened!" he said. "The whole thing's solved. Ashton's +murderer is found, and he and his accomplices are under lock and key. +Listen, and I'll tell you all that's been done since one o'clock, up +here--while we've been at the other end of the town. But I'll only give +you an outline. Well, then--" + +The three men listened in dead silence until Viner had repeated +Drillford's story; then Mr. Pawle glanced round at the window of +Viner's house. + +"Miss Penkridge, by all that's wonderful!" he said in a deep voice. "Most +extraordinary! Where is she?" + +"At home, I should imagine," answered Viner with a laugh. + +"Then, my dear sir, by all means let us pay our respects to her!" said +Mr. Pawle. "A tribute!" + +"By all means!" exclaimed Mr. Carless. "A just tribute--richly +deserved!" + +"I should like to add my small quota," said Lord Ellingham. + +Viner led the way into his house and to the drawing-room. Miss +Penkridge, in her best cap, was calmly dispensing tea to the two Hyde +sisters, who were regarding her with obvious admiration. She looked +round on her nephew and the flood of callers as if to ask what most of +them were doing there. And Viner, knowing Miss Penkridge's peculiar +humour, rose to the occasion. + +"My dear aunt," he said in a hushed voice, "these gentlemen, having heard +of your extraordinary achievement this afternoon, have come to lay at +your feet their united tribute of--" + +Miss Penkridge shot a warning glance through her steel-rimmed spectacles. + +"Don't talk nonsense, Richard!" she exclaimed sharply. "Ring the bell for +more cups and saucers!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +WHO IS TO TELL HER? + + +But Viner, instead of ordering the teacups, whispered a word or two to +Miss Penkridge, and then beckoned Lord Ellingham and the two solicitors +to follow him out of the room. He silently led them to his study and +closed the door. + +"Miss Wickham will be all right for a while under my aunt's care," he +said, with a smile that had a certain meaning in it which was not lost +on Mr. Pawle or on Mr. Carless, "but there are matters connected with +her which ought not to wait, even for ten minutes hanging round Miss +Penkridge's tea-table. Now, I have been thrown headlong into this case, +and like all the rest of you, I am pretty well acquainted with it. And I +take it that now that the murder of Ashton has been solved, the real +question is--what is the truth about the young lady who was certainly +his ward?" + +"That is right!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "Carless--and Lord Ellingham--I am +sure, agree with me." + +"Absolutely--as far as I'm concerned," asserted Mr. Carless. "His +Lordship will speak for himself." + +Lord Ellingham answered Viner's smile with one equally frank. + +"I don't know whether I'm Lord Ellingham or not!" he said. "I have had +considerable doubt on that point ever since our conference the other +day. But I will say this, gentlemen: I had some conversation with Miss +Wickham the other day, after we left your office, Mr. Carless, when she +was kind enough to allow me to escort her home, and--well, to be frank, +gentlemen, whether she is my cousin or not, I--to me an old-fashioned +phrase--desire her better acquaintance! And if she is my cousin, why, +then--the title is not mine but hers!" + +The two lawyers exchanged significant glances. + +"Admirably spoken, My Lord!" said Mr. Pawle. "Excellent!" + +"It is just what I would have expected of his Lordship," remarked Mr. +Carless. "I have known His Lordship since he was first breeched! But I +believe Mr. Viner has something to say?" + +"Yes--this," answered Viner. "Drillford found on Cortelyon the papers +which are missing from those which Ashton had evidently kept together +with a view to proving his ward's right to the title and estates. He is a +sharp, fellow, Drillford, and he told me just now that he had glanced +over those papers since Cortelyon's arrest, and he--well, I only just +stopped him from letting out to Miss Wickham who--if the papers and the +deduction to be drawn from them are correct--she really is. I am right +in supposing," he continued, suddenly interrupting himself, "that the +Ellingham title runs in the female as in the male line?" + +"Quite right, Mr. Viner," said Mr. Carless. "Quite right. It does! I +believe I mentioned the other day that there has already been one +Countess of Ellingham in her own right. The male line came to an end at +one period--the daughter of the last male holder succeeded, and the man +whom she married took the family name of Cave-Gray, and their eldest son, +of course, succeeded on the death of his mother. Quite right, sir." + +"Then," suggested Viner, "don't you think it would be advisable, rather +than that Lord Ellingham should be kept in suspense, that we should go +round to the police-station and inspect the documents? I don't know +whether Drillford will give them up until his prisoners have been brought +before the magistrate, but he said he would give them to the proper +persons eventually, and in any case he will show them to you three +gentlemen." + +"Good!" said Mr. Pawle. "Let us go at once--it is only a few +minutes' walk." + +"And in the meantime," suggested Mr. Carless, "Miss Wickham might be +asked to remain here--under the wing of the excellent Miss Penkridge?" + +Viner laughingly remarked that he had no doubt whatever that Miss +Penkridge would willingly assume this position of trust, and leading his +callers into the hall, left them for a moment while he returned to the +drawing-room. He was smiling when he returned. + +"I think Miss Wickham will be safe for some time," he said. "Horrified as +she is at the conduct of the wicked Mrs. Killenhall, she is sufficiently +feminine to be taking a vast interest in my aunt's account of how she +brought off her wonderful stroke of genius this afternoon. So--shall we +go round?" + +Drillford, found alone in his office, showed no surprise when Viner +brought in and introduced his companions. He already knew the two +lawyers, and exchanged comprehending words with them, but he looked at +Lord Ellingham with the same interest which Viner had seen in him when +Miss Wickham was present. + +"Of course, you may see the whole lot, gentlemen," he said as he unlocked +the drawer. "I don't want you to take these things away now, though, +because we'd like to produce them when these people are brought up +tomorrow morning. But after they've been shown, I'll hand them over--and +in the meantime you can rely on it that they'll be taken care of--rather! +Well, now, here's the missing ring! Hyde, you know, admitted to picking +up one--this is the other, without doubt. And--there's the +fifty-thousand-pound diamond. Of course, Cortelyon robbed Ashton after +he'd killed him as a piece of bluff--what he wanted was these papers. He +evidently gave Cave, or Starr, his accomplice, certain of the papers, to +play the game with, but the really important ones he kept in his own +pocket, where I found 'em. There you are, gentlemen." + +He handed over a stout linen-lined foolscap envelope to Mr. Carless, and +that gentleman, whose fingers trembled a little in spite of his +determined attempt to preserve his professional coolness, drew certain +papers from it, and laying them on a desk close by, beckoned the other +men to his elbows, and began to examine them. For several minutes the +four pairs of eyes ran over the various documents, Mr. Carless' finger +pointing to one particular passage or another during their hasty perusal, +and he and Mr. Pawle nodding assent as they exchanged glances and +muttered remarks. + +"Not a doubt of it!" exclaimed Mr. Carless suddenly. "Not one doubt! +Observe the extraordinary care which the missing Lord Marketstoke took to +safeguard his own interests and those of his daughter, in case he ever +wished to revive his claims. Here, for instance is his marriage +certificate. You see, he took good care to be married in his own real, +proper, legal name! Here, again, is the birth certificate of his +daughter. You see how she is described--Avice Wickham Cave-Gray, daughter +of, et cetera, et cetera. And here is his death certificate--that too is +all in order. You see, all these are duly attested copies--we could, of +course, insist on having them verified over there, but I've no doubt +about their genuineness--what do you say, Pawle?" + +"I should say there's no doubt whatever," answered Mr. Pawle readily. +"But now, this memorandum, evidently written by Ashton himself, in +London, soon after he got here?" + +Mr. Carless ran his eye over the document which Mr. Pawle indicated. + +"Aye!" he said. "A most important, most valuable piece of evidence. You +see that Cortelyon's name is mentioned in it. What's he say--'_The only +man besides myself who is in full possession of the facts_,' Gad--that'll +hang this scoundrel! Yes, here it is--the full history of the case, very +lucidly summarized; he must have been a very good business man, this +unfortunate Ashton, poor fellow! But what's this he's put at the end, as +a sort of note?" + +"'Since arriving in England and making inquiries in London and about +Marketstoke and Ellingham as to the character and abilities of the young +man who is the present holder of the title and estates which are by right +my ward's I have had considerable doubt as to whether or not I should +exercise the discretion extended to me by her father. Having nobody of my +own, I have left her all my fortune, which is a handsome one, and she +will be a rich woman. The young man seems to be an estimable and +promising young fellow, and I am much exercised in mind as to whether it +might not be best if Cortelyon and I kept the secret to ourselves until +our deaths.'" + +Mr. Carless read this passage aloud, and then smote the desk heavily +with his hand. + +"There's the secret of the murder!" he exclaimed. "You see, gentlemen, +Ashton, one holder of the secret, was honest; the other, Cortelyon, was a +rogue. Ashton wanted nothing for himself; Cortelyon wanted to profit. +Cortelyon saw that by killing Ashton he alone would have the secret; he +evidently got two accomplices who were necessary to him, and he meant, by +suppressing certain facts and enlarging on others, to palm off an +impostor who--mark this!--could be squared by one hundred thousand +pounds! Oh, a bad fellow! Keep him tight, Mr. Inspector, keep him tight!" + +"You needn't bother yourself, Mr. Carless," answered Drillford +laconically. "We'll see to that!" + +Mr. Carless again cast an eye on the passage he had just read, and then, +touching Lord Ellingham's arm, drew his attention to it again, whispering +something in his ear at which the young man's cheek reddened. Then he +gathered up the papers, carefully replaced them in their linen-lined +envelope, and handed them to Drillford. + +"Much obliged to you," he said. "Now, at what time are these miscreants +to be put in the dock tomorrow? Ten sharp? Then," he declared, with a +shrewd glance, "I shall be there--and in all my experience I shall never +have set eyes on a worse scoundrel than the chief one of 'em! Now, +gentlemen, shall we go?" + +Outside, Mr. Carless took Lord Ellingham's arm. + +"You know what this really means--to you?" he said. + +Lord Ellingham laughed. + +"Of course!" he answered. + +"Remember," continued Mr. Carless, with a knowing glance at Mr. Pawle, +"you needn't give in without a struggle! You can make a big fight. You're +in possession; it would take a long time to turn you out. You can have +litigation--as much as ever you wish. But--I don't think there's the +least doubt that the young woman we're going back to is your cousin, and +therefore Countess of Ellingham." + +"Neither do I!" said his client with a smile. "Nor, I think, does +Mr. Pawle?" + +"Not a doubt of it!" affirmed Mr. Pawle. + +"Very well," said Mr. Carless, and pulled his companions to a halt. +"Then--the question now is--who is to tell her?" + +The two lawyers and Viner looked from one another to Lord Ellingham--but +Lord Ellingham was already eager and responsive. + +"Gentlemen," he said quickly, "I claim that right! If I am to abdicate +in favour of another, let me have at any rate the privilege of first +greeting the new sovereign! Besides, as I have already said to you--" + +Mr. Carless interrupted him by pointing toward Viner's house, of which +they were now in sight. + +"I dare say our friend Viner, who has, as he says, been strangely mixed +up in this strange affair, can manage matters," he said dryly. "And as +things are, nothing could be better!" + +Viner took his companions back into his library, and opening a door, +showed Lord Ellingham a small study which lay beyond. + +"I'll bring Miss Wickham to you at once," he said. Then, with a glance at +the two lawyers, which went round again to Lord Ellingham, he added +quietly, "When you have told her, you'll let us know what she says?" + +"Aye, aye!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "Good--we must know that!" + +Viner went away to the drawing-room and presently brought Miss Wickham +back with him. She looked from one solicitor to the other with something +of a smile. + +"More mystery?" she asked. + +Mr. Carless, with a courtly bow, took the girl's hand. + +"My dear young lady," he said, "there is, this time, a mystery to be +explained. And--allow me to hand you into this room--there is a young +gentleman in here who will explain it, all of it, a thousand times better +than we old fogies possibly could!" + +He closed the door on her, and turned to Mr. Pawle. + +"I'll trouble you for a pinch of that old snuff of yours, Pawle!" he +said. "Um--dear me! What extraordinary moments we do pass through! +Viner, my dear fellow, you're a book-collector, I know. To--er--pass the +time, show me some of your treasures." + +Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, went by, while Viner showed +some of his most treasured possessions in the way of print and binding to +the two old lawyers. They were both past masters in the art of +make-believe, and they contrived to show great interest in what was +exhibited to them, but Viner knew very well that when Mr. Pawle was +expatiating on the merits of an Elzevir or Mr. Carless on the beauties of +a Grolier, they were really wondering what the two young people in the +next room, so strangely thrown together, were saying to each other. And +then, as he was about to unlock a cabinet, and bring out a collection of +autograph letters, the door of the inner room was opened, and the two +appeared on the threshold, one looking extremely confident, and the other +full of blushes and surprise. And--they were holding each other's hands. + +"Gentlemen--our very good friends," said Lord Ellingham, "it is only +right that we should take you into our confidence at once. There will be +no litigation, Mr. Carless--no difficulties, Mr. Pawle. I absolutely +insist on resigning--what is not mine--to my cousin, the Countess of +Ellingham. And--not in any return, gentlemen!--she has promised to give +me something which I shall prize far more than any title or any +estate--you understand? And now, if Mr. Viner will excuse me, there are +just a few more things we have to say to each other, and then--" + +He drew the girl back into the room and closed the door, and the three +men, once more left to themselves, solemnly shook hands with each other, +heaving sighs of infinite delight and gratification. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Middle of Things, by J. S. 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