Fergus Hume

“ Sir Simon chuckled yet again. "I am quite of Julius's opinion," he declared. "Bernard has behaved shamefully. I wanted him to marry a Miss Perry, who is rich."
"Why can't you let him marry the woman he loves?" said Durham, with some heat. "They can live on ten thousand a year and be happy. What is the use of getting more money than is needed? Besides, from what I hear, this Miss Malleson is a charming girl."
"With no name and no position," said Sir Simon, "a mere paid companion. I don't want my grandson to make such a bad match. If he does, he must take the consequences. ”

“ Yes, you may all look, but that tramp, ragged and torn, was Mr. Gore. Don't I know him as well as I know myself?"
"Sarah," said James, while the cook turned pale and Jerry listened more eagerly than ever, "you rave in a crazy way."
"Oh, well, there's no knowing," cried Sarah, hysterically, "but the tramp was Mr. Gore, and I forgot he was dead. His ghost—it must have been his ghost. No wonder Jane wanted to fly at him."
"Mr. Bernard's ghost wanting to see Miss Alice!" said cook. "Get along with you, Sarah! He must be alive. ”

“ I'll never learn wisdom. Heaven knows I have had a severe lesson. I will try and control this beastly temper of mine. But, after all, seeing that I love Alice so much, it is not to be wondered at that I should be annoyed at another man taking my place."
"He didn't," replied Conniston, calmly and soothingly. "Miss Malleson guessed the truth about him straight off. She has only used him as an instrument to learn what she could. Don't you fuss, Bernard. What we have to do is to question Judas, and see if he can supplement the revelations of Michael, your half-brother." ”

“ Read! Everything is against him—everything. Oh, how can I bear my life? How can I live?"
"Alice," said the old dame again, although she was very white, "if this lying paper means to say that Bernard murdered Sir Simon, I tell you again that I don't believe a word of it. You, who love him, ought to believe in his innocence."
"But the evidence."
"A fig for evidence. Circumstantial evidence has hanged an innocent man before now. Bernard Gore kill that old tyrant——?"
"Hush! He is dead!"
"And so we are to speak well of him," snapped Miss Berengaria. ”

“ As he quite expected, Miss Plantagenet never sent for any of the servants. "They'll manage the job themselves," thought Jerry, playing cheerfully. When he retired to bed he had a wonderful lot to think about, and more than ever he determined to watch which way the wind blew so as to make as much money out of his knowledge as possible. Jerry was a marvellously precocious criminal and knew much more than was good for him. Miss Berengaria would have fainted—unaccustomed as she was to indulge in such weakness—had she known the kind of youth she sheltered under her roof. ”

“ He was always hard up. Sir Simon hated him, but if Guiseppe was hard up he wouldn't mind that. I daresay Tolomeo did see Sir Simon, and did have a row, as both he and grandfather were hot-blooded. But I don't believe my uncle killed Sir Simon," said Bernard, striking the table.
"Well," drawled Conniston, slipping his precis and the diary itself into an envelope, "I don't see what he had to gain. Tolomeo, from your account of him, would not commit a murder without getting some money from doing it. But the best thing to do, is to take this up to Durham and see what he thinks." ”

“ Had she been a mother, her dauntless nature was of the sort that would have bred brave sons for the motherland. The old lady was one of those strong people always to be relied upon in time of calamity. The worse the trouble the quicker Miss Berengaria rose to the occasion. She prided herself on facing facts, alleging that only in this way could things be settled. At the present moment she acknowledged silently to herself that things looked black against Bernard Gore and that he really might be dead for all she knew. But to Alice she refused to admit these thoughts. ”

“ Julius, with a certain malignancy, brought it back to her recollection.
"Even if Bernard is not dead he cannot inherit as a felon," said he.
"Pardon me," interposed the lawyer. "You have yet to prove his guilt."
"It was proved at the inquest."
"A jury at an inquest has not the right to condemn a man," said Durham, sharply. "If Sir Bernard"—Julius winced at the title—"is alive and comes forward, I shall do my best to prove his innocence."
"And in any case," said Miss Berengaria in clear tones, "Mr. Beryl does not benefit." ”

“ Alice was the first to make a remark.
"If I hadn't seen Bernard this very day, I should have been deceived, aunt. Did you ever see so wonderful a likeness?"
"Never," admitted Miss Berengaria. "But how the deuce"—she was always a lady given to strong expressions—"does the man expect to pass himself off to you as Bernard? There's lots of things Bernard has said about which he must know nothing."
"I can't understand it myself. Perhaps he came to tell the truth."
"Humph!" Miss Berengaria rubbed her nose. "I don't think a man who would commit a murder would tell the truth. ”

“ Miss Plantagenet treats her like a niece, but it is an understood thing that Alice is to receive no money."
"That looks promising for me," said Conniston, pulling his mustache, "but my old aunt is so healthy that I'll be gray in the head before I get a cent. So you've fallen in love with Alice?"
"Yes," sighed Gore, drawing figures with his cane. "I love her dearly and she loves me. But my grandfather objects. I insisted upon marrying Alice, so he cut me off with a shilling. I expect the money will go to my cousin, Julius Beryl, and, like you, I'll have to content myself with a barren title." ”

“ If he makes her Lady Conniston, it will be a good day's work. Only marriage will tame Conniston. I have had no end of trouble with him. He is a trial."
"Oh, Lucy is a clever girl, and can guide him if she becomes his wife, Mr. Durham. And now that her engagement is broken with Mr. Beryl, I daresay it will come off—the marriage I mean. She seems to be attracted by Lord Conniston."
"And small wonder," said Miss Berengaria, entering at this moment. "I really think Conniston is a nice fellow—much better than Bernard, here."
"I won't hear that, aunt," said Alice, indignantly. ”

“ Jerry in answer to a look of Beryl's began to weep ostentatiously.
"I saw his lordship dressed as a soldier," he snuffled, "and I told Mr. Beryl. His lordship was so angry that he got me turned off, saying I was ungrateful."
"You should always hold your tongue," said Miss Berengaria, angrily. "You had no right to tell what Lord Conniston wished kept secret. It was only a freak on his part. He left the army at my request."
"At your request?" said Julius, looking at her directly.
Forearmed as she was, Miss Berengaria, with the consciousness of Bernard's secret, flushed through her withered skin. ”

“ Look at Bernard there. He is—"
"Pax! Pax!" cried Gore, laughing. "Leave me alone, Conniston. But are you really engaged, Mark?"
"No," said Mark, rubbing his knees rather dismally. "I should like to be. A home-loving man like myself needs a wife to smile at him across the hearth."
"And just now you talked of going to the front," put in the young lord. "You don't know your own mind. But, I say, this is jolly. Back I go to barracks to-morrow and shall remember this comfortable room and this glimpse of civilized life."
"You were stupid to enlist," said Durham, sharply. ”

“ That old scamp—no, we must talk better of him—that the good old man who is dead repented and left the money to his rightful heir. What a joke!" Miss Berengaria chuckled. "There! there!" she went on, catching Durham's eyes. "It's all right. You have told me nothing. I can guess. Well, well, we must wait till the will is read. Then we shall see what is to be done to prove Bernard's innocence."
"That will be a hard task," said Durham, with a sigh; then added, with some little hesitation, "Miss Plantagenet, should Beryl make advances to you in the way of friendship receive them." ”

“ Both the terrified women looked at one another, for even Miss Berengaria, strong-minded as she was, felt her nerve give way under this unexpected catastrophe. Then Alice advanced to the bedside, and from sheer force of habit addressed Michael by the false name he had assumed. "Bernard——"
"I am not Bernard," he screamed, rocking and rocking. "I will confess all. I am a dead man. Beryl won't give me the money now. He wants it all to himself. He has made Jerry poison me. I am to die as Sir Simon died. ”

“ When the door closed on the arch plotter the solicitor went at once to wash his hands.
"What a complete scoundrel!" said Durham to himself. "And how confoundedly clever. Of course, if the real Bernard were dead this will might stand. At all events, even if Miss Malleson could prove that Michael is not her lover, the new will might lead to litigation. However, as Bernard is alive and well we can produce him at the eleventh hour to frighten Beryl. I am afraid that young man will be hanged after all, though I am unwilling, for the sake of the family, that things should come to that pass." ”

“ Will you leave us for a moment, Conniston?"
The name slipped out before he was aware, and he could have stamped with vexation to see how quickly Miss Berengaria grasped the situation. With a grim smile she looked at the astonished young man. "So you are Dick," she said looking at him through a double eyeglass. "I haven't seen you since you made yourself sick in my garden. Bernard told Alice by letter that he met you. Where are you staying?"
"I don't understand," stammered Conniston, while Durham, giving up Miss Plantagenet as impossible, sat shuffling his papers.
"You ought not to be dense. ”

“ A look, unseen by the baronet, passed between the two, and then Lucy left the room. When alone, Sir Simon turned to his nephew. "Where is Bernard?" he asked.
A less clever man than Julius would have fenced and feigned surprise, but this astute young gentleman answered at once. "He has enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry and goes out to the war in a month."
Sir Simon turned pale and rose. "He must not—he must not," he said, considerably agitated. "He will be killed, and then—"
"What does it matter?" said Julius coolly—"you have disinherited him—at least, I understand so." ”

“ I have read detective novels," added the old lady, emphatically, "and I never liked them. To have one in real life and under my respectable roof is more than I can bear. Durham, you have an hour before you need catch your train. Tell us all. Then you can clear out, and you, Conniston, can go also. Lucy, I shall send Jerry back to the Hall with you."
"No, please not, Jerry," said Lucy.
"He is a scamp," replied Miss Berengaria, after a pause. "Well—well, we shall see. Meantime, freeze our blood, Durham." ”

“ Bernard, your grandfather was a silly fool—no, I won't say that—but he was an upsetting peacock. The idea of not thinking Alice good enough for you!"
"She is too good for me."
"I quite agree with you," said the lawyer, laughing; "but you see, Miss Berengaria, it was not the personality of Miss Malleson that Sir Simon objected to, but her——"
"I know—I know," said the old lady tartly. "Bless the man, does he take me for an idiot." She sat down. "I'm a fool." ”

“ If you know the story of Miss Malleson's life, you must know that there isn't the slightest chance of her inheriting the money."
"Ah, but, you see, Bernard, I don't know the story."
"You know Miss Plantagenet. She sometimes talks of you."
"How good of her, seeing that I've hardly been in her company for the last ten years. I remember going to "The Bower" when a small boy, and making myself ill with plums in a most delightful kitchen garden. I was scolded by a wonderful old lady as small as a fairy and rather like one in looks—a regular bad fairy."
"No! no. She is very kind." ”

“ Julius stared at the fire. "I can't understand Durham's attitude," he said evasively. "He must know that Bernard is dead, seeing that the coat and hat were found on the banks of the river. No man could have lived in the cold and the fog. Yet if Durham was sure he would not hold the estate against Bernard's coming."
"Mr. Durham requires proof of the death," rejoined Lucy, sharply; "and until then, he is bound to administer the estate according to the will. As Bernard's body has not been found, there is always a chance that he may have escaped." ”

“ He is in America."
"He is in England, and he masqueraded as Bernard when courting Jane the housemaid," said Durham, excitedly. "You say yourself he resembled Walter Gore. Bernard is exactly like his father, so Michael must resemble him sufficiently to pass as him."
"It is absolutely false!" cried Mrs. Gilroy, seeing she had fallen into the trap of her own words. "My son is in America. You shall not prove him guilty. I opened the door to Bernard."
"To Michael. You perhaps mistook him for Bernard."
"A mother can't mistake her own son. But Michael is the heir. ”

“ Now Michael will disappear to allow Beryl to get the estates."
"He will have to supply a corpse then," said Conniston, coolly.
"Oh, I daresay he will," rejoined Durham, shrugging. "After the disappearance of Michael I know exactly what will happen. A body much decomposed will be found in the Thames, and will be recognized by Julius as that of Bernard's. Any corpse will do, so long as the face cannot be recognized."
"Drat the man!" said Miss Berengaria, emphatically. "You can't get a corpse without murdering someone, and I should think that Beryl creature has had enough of that sort of work." ”

“ You have rather an Italian look."
"That's clever of you, Dick. My mother was Italian, the daughter of a noble Florentine family; but in England was nothing but a poor governess. My father married her, and Sir Simon—his father—cut him off. Then when my parents died, my grandfather sent for me, and brought me up. We have never been good friends," sighed Bernard again, "and when I wanted to marry Alice there was a row. I fear I lost my temper. You know from my mother I inherit a fearful temper, nor do I think the Gores are the calmest of people. ”