Allen Upward

“ I had the strongest motive to kill the monster who was trying to put my secret to the basest use; I had been on the spot, and been there in disguise; and I had given him a drug which was only less dangerous than the one that had caused his death. Who would believe that I had stopped short there? And Sir Frank Tarleton had shown by this time that he did not believe me. To him, as to everyone else, it must appear evident that the man who was prepared to commit a crime in defence of a woman would be prepared to tell a lie as well. ”

“ While these thoughts were passing through my mind Miss Neobard was scrutinizing my companion’s face with suspicion.
“You are not saying what you really think, Sir Frank,” she pronounced boldly. “He has been murdered, and you know it, but you are afraid of shocking me by saying so outright. You needn’t mind. I look on this as a judgment, and I have seen it coming.”
The physician gazed at her as steadily as she was gazing at him.
“Have you any objection to telling me why?”
“No. Now that my mother isn’t here I don’t care what I tell you. Dr. Weathered never loved her, but she loved him. ”

“ Her bridal is like the glorious pyre on which the Hindu widow once expired in religious ecstasy. It was not until she realized that I was going that Violet broke down.
There the burden was shifted to the other side. Delay is the suffering of man, separation the suffering of woman. I had my work to go back to; I had my friends and all the distractions of life in London. ”

“ I looked round to see a capable middle-aged Frenchwoman dressed in black silk, emerging from a portière across the room. Very capable and businesslike she looked, with her well-arranged hair and commanding black eyes, and well-preserved face and figure, and that amazing air of respectability which only a Frenchwoman can keep up in an atmosphere charged with evil. In Madame Bonnell’s presence vice was deprived of its impropriety, and even murder took on the character of a business mischance about which the less fuss made the better. ”

“ I fancy Sir Frank himself felt some sympathy with me, though he was too wise to express it.
“A man must expect to be judged to some extent by the company he keeps,” he had hinted. “You can’t expect the head of a Department like the Home Office to feel easy at the idea of entrusting important secrets to a young man who spends his nights, I won’t say in disreputable company, but at all events in circles where a good many adventurers are found. These people”—the bitter note came back into his voice—“these people hate the shoulders on which they have climbed. ”

“ Our sad romance began in the purest innocence. I did not know of her existence on that morning when I set out with a knapsack on my back to explore the old borderland of England and Wales. I had formed no fixed plans; I meant to walk where fancy took me, and stop when I felt inclined; and the last thing I expected was that I should pass all my holiday on one spot. It was not till I reached the village that I heard of the ruins that lay hidden at the back of the Earl of Ledbury’s stately seat, and was persuaded to turn aside and see them. ”

“ I knew that my husband was capable of committing a murder, if he had anything to gain by it, and now I knew that he was actually scheming to obtain a poison that couldn’t be detected. I don’t think Mrs. Baker had an idea that her brother had parted with some to you. She wrote as though her bottle held all there was. And who was it that he was thinking of murdering? I couldn’t see anyone but myself.”
“Mother!” The word burst from Sarah’s agonized lips. If she had retained any lingering softness for the dead man it must have expired in that cry. Her mother did not turn her head. ”

“ I had left the doctor’s house and returned to it in my ordinary clothes. Not a soul in the Domino Club, except the member from whom I had obtained a ticket of admission, could have the least idea of my identity. So far as I could see I was absolutely secure from discovery. But it had been a dangerous game to play, and Tarleton was a dangerous man to play against. With all his kindness for me I trembled at the thought of coming [23] within the range of his uncanny powers of detection. ”

“ The physician read his rather white face with one swift glance, and came to his relief.
“You are not under any suspicion, Gerard. Provided you tell the truth, you have nothing to fear.”
The waiter braced himself up with a visible effort. Not, I fancied, that he had any objection to tell the truth, but that it was a rather novel exercise for him. From that moment he neglected the Inspector and me to concentrate his efforts to propitiate on Sir Frank.
“I hear that the man who is dead trusted you. Did he trust you with his real name?” ”

“ Waiting for me outside the door I found my friendly manservant.
“You’ll find the other gentleman inside,” he whispered. “He’s been back about five minutes.”
I went in trying to look unconcerned, and found Tarleton comfortably seated in an armchair engaged in the familiar rite of waving his mascot to and fro as if it were a censer with which he was offering invisible incense to the Sphinx. ”

“ I was puzzled to understand the specialist’s theory. Did he consider that Weathered had succumbed to a dose that would not have killed a man in ordinary health? And if so, was his death due to some organic weakness, as I had myself suggested when we were viewing the corpse? Or was it possible that Weathered was in the habit of taking the pellets found upon him, after all, and that he had just absorbed such a quantity of the poison into his system that the extra dose proved mortal in consequence? ”

“ And now Tarleton proceeded to astonish me. I think he astonished the Earl of Ledbury as well.
“My lord,” he said in a tone of deep gravity, “it is clear to me that you have no idea of the danger in which your daughter stands.”
“Danger!” The Earl fairly started.
“Danger,” the consultant repeated firmly. “The man whose death has brought us down here was an unscrupulous scoundrel. He laid traps for women. Under the pretence of soothing their nerves he induced them to tell him their secrets, and to write him letters containing their inmost thoughts. ”

“ Such a wife could only be a serious handicap to an ambitious man making his way upward in London society. It was possible to at least understand one of the doctor’s temptations to lead a secret life which brought him into more congenial company than his homely wife’s. Yet there was something touching in her pale, worn face; and her mild blue eyes searched our faces with a pitiful anxiety [64] that convinced me that her husband still had a hold on her affection. ”

“ Sir Frank’s voice was perfectly bland as he continued:
“Lady Violet is worthy of any man’s admiration, and I am quite as determined as you are to protect her from any dastardly use of her correspondence. I should not have blamed you severely for anything you might have done for her protection if you had been acting in a private capacity. But you are here in a responsible position. You owe it to the Home Office and to me to conduct the inquiry into this murder without fear or favour, whatever may be the consequences, and whoever may be guilty. You must ask yourself if you have done so.” ”

“ Her chaperon has shown herself to be incompetent, and I shouldn’t let her into your house again. Look out for some bright, sympathetic woman of the world, and don’t engage her unless Lady Violet takes to her as a friend. And let it be seen that your daughter is under your personal protection. A blackmailer who would find a solitary girl an easy prey will think twice before he threatens one who is guarded by a father in your position. Take her with you to the theatres and picture galleries. Believe me, as a doctor, she is in need of distraction just now. ”

“ Miss Sebright told me that she had felt a longing to become a mother, which she had no hope of satisfying because she suffered from a depravity, a club foot. She had been told as a child that no man would ever want to marry her, except for her money, and the result had been to make her distrust every man who came near her. ”

“ The Bolsheviks are working their hardest to upset the monarchy in Slavonia, and it is believed that one of their agents in this country obtained admission to the club last night disguised as a woman.”
“Zenobia!” I could no more keep in the ejaculation than I could still the beating of my heart as I gave it vent.
My two companions turned sharply and looked at me, the Inspector with a certain grudging respect, my chief with a slight frown of something very like disdain. I bit my tongue too late.
“Zenobia seems to have made a bad guess at the Prince’s identity,” Tarleton said mercilessly. ”

“ I gazed at my chief in stupefaction greater than the Inspector’s.
“The problem for Dr. Cassilis and myself is this,” he continued, addressing his explanation to Captain Charles, although I realized that he was speaking at least as much for my benefit. “The corpse shows all the usual symptoms of poisoning by opium. But if the deceased had accustomed his system to opium it is not easy to understand how anyone could have given him enough to produce death. The dose must have been enormous, and he must have detected the taste at once in any ordinary medium such as a cup of coffee.” ”

“ I am not an ordinary doctor. I have made a special study of poisons, as the pupil, I may say the favourite pupil, of the greatest expert alive. I am prepared to swear to you or in any court of justice that the dose I gave him would not have killed any man in a normal condition of health. Sir Frank Tarleton and I both observed symptoms that point to some other drug having been administered to Weathered. ”

“ The dead man had married a widow, an unattractive one, with a daughter old enough to resent her mother’s action and show it. There could be no reasonable doubt that she must have had money, probably a good deal, and that her daughter’s fortune had gone to enrich the step-father. I could pretty well guess the whole story. A provincial doctor with more brains than wealth had courted his rich patient to obtain the means of coming to London and setting up as a consultant in the West End. That was why neither Tarleton nor I had heard of him as a man distinguished in the profession. ”

“ The moment after Weathered’s appointment-book was lying open, and my chief’s keen eyes were rapidly searching the pages.
I ought not to have felt so intensely anxious as I watched those bushy eyebrows knitting themselves over a meagre list of names and dates. The dead man’s patients had been numerous, and most of them no doubt had come and gone without the least suspicion of anything irregular in the doctor’s practice, and without compromising themselves by any indiscrete confidences. What evidence could such a book afford against anyone? ”

“ But I had to choose between trusting him and trusting the chauffeur who had driven [159] us out from Hereford; and he had impressed me favourably. I followed him into the Castle, while Tarleton moved off down an avenue of beeches in the park.
The servant brought me through a dreary hall full of old suits of armour and ancient high-backed chairs, but lacking in those little touches of modern comfort that are needed to make such a place home-like and attractive to the eye. ”

“ I was confident that Lady Violet’s alibi was genuine. If the question of her guilt or innocence could be made to depend on that, I had no fear of the result.
“In that case, sir, wouldn’t it be best for the police to go down to Herefordshire, and make sure whether she was there or not?”
To my surprise Tarleton raised the objection that had held me back before.
“I think not. Captain Charles isn’t a particularly tactful man himself, and we can’t trust to his employing a very tactful agent. Whether Lady Violet is innocent or guilty she ought not to be alarmed. ”

“ Tarleton promptly raised his hand.
“Not another word,” he enjoined to my intense relief. But my relief was qualified when he proceeded. “A confidence made to a medical man is as sacred in my view as a confession made to a priest. You will understand that, Captain Charles, I am sure. We must not ask Dr. Cassilis to tell us anything more.”
Captain Charles assented rather reluctantly I thought. His original disapproval of me seemed to revive at the same time. ”

“ And I might fail. I might find that the world sided with him instead of me. I knew him well enough to know exactly what he would do. He would say that I had spied on his professional work, that I had pried into the secrets of his patients and that jealousy had made me insane. And he would have found plenty of people to believe him. A wife who betrays her husband is not likely to be forgiven.
“If I left him I doubted if my own daughter would have come with me.”
This was the first allusion the mother had made to her daughter’s unhappy infatuation. ”

“ Baker opened her eyes in a way that showed more offence than gratitude. I had gone the wrong way to work to disabuse her.
“I am much obliged to you, Dr. Cassidy,” she said stiffly, “but I much prefer to be on the safe side. We none of us know the secrets of our own hearts, it seems to me. I consider Dr. Witheredge a cruel man, and I have done with him; but he was extremely clever; and I am satisfied that there is something in the science of psycho-analysis.”
Tarleton came to my rescue. “The more there is in it the more dangerous it may be in the hands of a clever man without scruples. ”

“ Baker your man reported on for me. I want you to see her at once, using my name if necessary, and get her authority to deal with these solicitors on her behalf. Ask for the letters first, and if they make some excuse for not parting with them, ask who is instructing them. If they refuse to give you their client’s name we shall know the worst.”
It seemed to me that we knew the worst already, if my chief was right. As he had said, an honest woman, finding such letters after her husband’s death, would have put them in the fire. It was more than ever imperative that I should see Violet at once. ”