Carolyn Wells

“ It was surely a tribute to the young man that all these people, who were fully prepared to treat the detective with a supercilious hauteur, were won at once by his affable and easy demeanor and involuntarily greeted him as a man of their own class and standing.
Mrs. Estey, the housekeeper, was also in the room, and at the moment of Bayliss? arrival, Coroner Spearman was about to begin his preliminary queries of investigation. Quite content to gain his knowledge of the case in this way, Bayliss settled himself to listen. ”

“ Hemmingway had perhaps been unfortunate in his investments. George Fiske became executor, as desired by the late millionaire, but probate of the will was deferred until after Everett Collins should have been tried at the bar of justice.
Collins himself was stubbornly quiet. He seemed rather dazed at the position in which he found himself, but had nothing to say except a simple assertion of his innocence.
“And he is innocent, Harris!” declared Bert Bayliss soundlessly. “No villain ever possessed that simple straightforward gaze. Villains are complex. ”

“ Hemmingway died without adding the codicil to his will in your favor,” observed Bayliss.
“Yes,” replied Fiske, “but that is a minor matter in the face of the present tragedy.”
Bayliss felt slightly rebuked, but he couldn’t help admiring the manly way in which Fiske had spoken.
“And this conversation occurred on Saturday,” went on Mr. Garson. “You took occasion to write to Mr. Hemmingway on Sunday?”
“I did,” agreed Fiske. “I was so surprised at the whole thing that I was unable to express myself at our interview. I am always tongue-tied under stress of great surprise or excitement. ”

“ Hemmingway feared both robbery and murder,” said Bayliss, and Mr. Fiske shuddered at this cold-blooded way of putting it.
“Yes, he did,” said the secretary frankly.
“And whom did he suspect as his enemy?”
“That I hope you will allow me not to answer.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Fiske,” broke in the Inspector, “but you have knowledge possessed by no one else. You must, therefore, in the interests of justice, tell us the name of the man whom Mr. Hemmingway feared.”
“The man,”said George Fiske slowly, “is the one who inherits the bulk of Mr. Hemmingway’s fortune.”
“Everett Collins, his nephew?” ”

“ He was a widower, and his household includes his ward, Miss Sheldon, his nephew, Everett Collins, a housekeeper, butler, and several under servants. This morning at six o’clock, the butler discovered the body of Mr. Hemmingway in his library, where the poor man had been strangled to death. Clapham, that’s the butler, raised an alarm, at once, and ever since then the house has been full of doctors, detectives and neighbors. We are almost there now, so I’ll tell you frankly, Bayliss, that I sent for you to look after my own interests. ”

“ Hemmingway feared that Mr. Collins was in haste to come into his inheritance, and—and——”
“You have done your duty, Mr. Fiske,” said Inspector Garson, “and I thank you. I quite appreciate your hesitancy, but a crime like this must be punished, if possible, and you need not appear further in the matter. After your evidence the law can take the whole affair into its own hands, and justice will be swift and certain.” ”

“ Hemmingway’s library I did not go to the room again—until this morning. I went to bed, sir, at about eleven o’clock, and at that time they were still there, as I heard them talking when I left the dining-room, sir.”
“Good servant, Harris,” commented Bayliss; “if this household is broken up, he’ll have no trouble in finding a new situation and yet—is he just a trifle too fluent?”
“Perhaps,” said Harris agreeably.
Mrs. Estey simply corroborated Clapham’s story, and was followed by Everett Collins, who had been the next to appear upon the scene of the tragedy. ”

“ That man may be a spendthrift and a ne’er-do-well, but I’ll swear he’s no murderer, and I’ll prove it!”
“Marvelous, Bayliss, marvelous!” said Harris.
Bayliss had come to Clearbrook on Tuesday, and on Wednesday Collins was arrested.
On Wednesday afternoon Bayliss shut himself up alone in the library to clue-hunt, as he called it. Acting on his conviction that Collins was innocent, he eagerly sought for evidence in some other direction. Seating himself at Mr. Hemmingway’s desk, he jotted down a few notes, using for the purpose a pencil from the pen-tray in front of him. ”

“ Hemmingway had died between twelve and one o’clock and the three men who had called, being asked over the telephone, asserted that they left the house about midnight. One of these, Mr. Carston, had tarried after the others and had talked a few moments with Mr. Hemmingway at his door, but though this would seem to make Mr. Carston the last person known to have had speech with the dead man, nobody dreamed for a moment of suspecting him. Bayliss’ eyes traveled over the assembled listeners.
“Pshaw,” he said silently to Harris, “there are too many suspects. ”

“ The pencil might have been borrowed from Fiske’s desk, but it was sharpened right there at Mr. Hemmingway’s desk after half-past six o’clock. Fiske, as you know, testified that he left at four and did not return until Tuesday morning.
BAYLISS’ deductions were true. Confronted suddenly with the story and with the traced envelope, Fiske broke down completely and confessed all. He had been planning it for weeks, and had the decoy letter ready to use when Mr. Hemmingway should have a large amount of bonds in his own home safe. ”

“ It reached his boarding-house Monday morning, of course, and then he erased the pencil-marks and boldly wrote Mr. Hemmingway’s name in ink. Then he cut off the end, in precisely the way Mr. Hemmingway opens his letters, and put the whole thing in his pocket. All day he carried it in his pocket (I am reconstructing this affair as it must have happened) , and at four o’clock he went home with the missive still there.
“Late Monday night he returned. After the three visitors had left, he strangled Mr. Hemmingway. You know he’s an athlete, and his employer was a frail old man. ”

“ CLEARBROOK was a small settlement of well-to-do society people, who wished to live near but not in New York. The houses were rather pretentious, with well-kept grounds, and picturesque flower-beds, but Bert Bayliss paid little attention to the landscape as he hurried to the Hemmingway mansion. Once in the drawing-room, Bayliss was presented by Mr. Hopkins to his wife and daughter, also to Miss Sheldon and Mr. ”

“ He then asked me if I would be willing to act as executor of his estate, when the time should come that such a service was necessary. He said it was his intention to bring the whole matter before his lawyer in a few days, but first he wished to be assured of my willingness to act as executor. He told me, too, that he would add a codicil to his will, leaving me a moderate sum of money. All of this was on Saturday morning, and when I left at noon, as I always do on Saturdays, he gave me a large bundle of securities, and also his will, asking me to keep them for him for a few days. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 81 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”

“ Moved by an excitement which he strove not to show, he returned it to Mr. Garson, saying: “You’ve no doubt, I suppose, as to the genuineness of that letter and all that it means and implies.”
“No, I haven’t,” said Mr. ”