Fergus Hume

“ Did you come across anyone likely to have murdered the man?”
“Well, no, sir. He made many enemies, owing to the way in which he snatched women from this man and that. But they were all afraid of their tyrant, as he was a scientific fighter, and fought on all and every occasion. In the kingdom of the Blind, the one-eyed is king,” said Bender, in his proverbial way of talking, “but Slanton had two eyes and knew how to use them.” ”

“ Thus adjured, Bender spoke his mind. "On the outskirts of the village of Wessbury, near Chelmsford, and at the end of a deeply-sunken and leafy lane, there stands a bungalow, inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. Brine, for some years before the war. They were greatly attached to one another, and when the husband was killed in action, the wife took his death so much to heart that three months later she committed suicide. This being a sin, she is condemned to haunt the place looking for him, but never finding him.”
“Does she haunt the bungalow as well as the lane?” inquired Dick, sceptically. ”

“ And then you admitted that, on her own confession, she had been sent to spy upon Miss Danby. Dr. Slanton only did what he did do, Mr. Hustings, sir, because the girl was useful to him in that capacity. No! No! The leopard cannot change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin,” ended the little man, sententiously, “there was no good in the man.”
“There lives some soul of good in all things evil,” retorted Dick, adopting Bender’s favourite method of illustrating his points by quotations. ”

“ Cuthbert Slanton.
Naturally the young man would have infinitely preferred to work single-handed, but his one and only visit to Old Wung’s opium-den, impressed him thoroughly with a sense of his incompetence as an amateur detective. An expert in gutter doings was needed, and he found such a one in Bender. The wary little fox was just the unscrupulous searcher-into-other-people’s affairs which the lawyer required for his purpose. Within four days from the date of hiring, Mr. Bender proved his value, since he learned more in that time than Dick could have learned in a month. ”

“ I never meddle with what isn’t my business.”
“Slanton must have gone to Wessbury, Mr. Hustings, sir,” insisted Bender, “else why should The Whispering Lane have dwelt so strongly in his mind as to make him speak about it, when just recovering from the drugging?”
“Yes! I agree, Bender. There is your fiver, Mrs. Grutch.” Dick passed along a Bank of England note to the medium, who grabbed it greedily. “Your information is worth all the spirit-chatter you favoured me with.” ”

“ Hyde side of Slanton’s complex character. With his strong will, powerful physique, and command of money, the man had dominated those wastrels of civilisation who ministered to his vicious tastes. But all the details of the man’s doings were so general, and so far from leading up to the point which Hustings wished to reach, that he interrupted Bender impatiently, “All this is interesting, but not sufficiently so to me. ”

“ For some three to four months they have been going on, as is well-known in Spirit circles. Not wishing publicity, which the Friends on the Other Side don’t like, we have kept this to ourselves, investigating it privately. ”