John Rhode

“ Ludgrove. “Even in the brain of a homicidal maniac there is usually traceable some dim guiding principle. He either conceives a hatred for a certain class of person, or he kills indiscriminately, usually selecting the people nearest to hand. In this case the selection was anything, but indiscriminate. Mind, I am assuming for the moment, as apparently you are yourself, that the death of all six was the direct sequel of their receipt of a numbered counter. If you adopt the theory that a single man is responsible, you may as well believe in the existence of the black sailor.” ”

“ Inspector Whyland shrugged his shoulders impatiently. “That’s just it!” he exclaimed. “There doesn’t seem to have been anything about the man to provide a motive for his murder. Look here, Mr. Ludgrove, you’re not the sort of man to go round spinning yarns to your friends. I’ll make a bargain with you. You get to know all sorts of things that never come to our ears. Tell me your honest opinion about these murders, and I’ll tell you what we’ve found out so far.” ”

“ There would be no risk of discovery, those whose business led them to cross the heath kept strictly to the narrow paths, barely a foot wide, which meandered at wide intervals through the close growth of heather. A living man, so long as he avoided observation from these paths, might lie hidden for as long as he chose. And if a living man, why not a dead body? How easy to drag the damning evidence of crime into one of those dark thickets, to sink it into the silent depths of one of those black, unruffled pools! ”

“ You will no doubt go back to London and recount your experiences to your friend Hanslet and the rest of the police. Why not? I have no doubt they will be very pleased to learn the motive for these mysterious murders which have so sorely puzzled them. They may dimly realize that an apparent murder may sometimes be a just execution. But the knowledge won’t help them much, and it won’t help you, Dr. Priestley. In fact, it was Dr. Morlandson’s wish that the reasons for the deaths of his victims should be fully known. ”

“ It was a white counter, bearing the figure IV in red ink.
With a sudden access of fear he clutched at it, in order to examine it more closely. The string broke, and he stared at the counter in his hand, fascinated. He began to realize his position. He had been lured to this empty house, and the assassin was no doubt even now in the passage outside, waiting to plunge his deadly knife into him as he emerged. Thank heaven, he had brought his automatic with him!
Mr. Martin was no coward. His plan of defence was quickly made. ”

“ Ludgrove shook his head. “As you may suppose, the subject has occupied my thoughts ever since I found the counter,” he replied. “I am an old man, as I have said before, and for the last twenty years or more I have led a retired life, retired, I mean, in the sense that I have taken no part in the affairs of the world. I have had enemies as well as friends; few men who have reached my years could say otherwise. But most of the contemporaries of my youth are dead, and in any case I do not believe that any of the enemies I may have made would be so vindictive as to seek my life.” ”

“ But of Hanslet, since he had departed for New York during the previous year to co-operate with the American police in running to earth a gang of international swindlers, nothing had been heard.
Inspector Hanslet was rapidly becoming the foremost figure at Scotland Yard. He was a man who, without being brilliant, possessed more than the usual quickness of perception. He could, in his own phrase, see as far through a brick wall as most people, and to this attribute he added an agility of mind remarkable in a man whose training had been of a stereotyped kind. ”

“ Copperdock facetiously.
“If you like to call it so,” answered Mr. Ludgrove. “As you know, I employ most of my week-ends looking for our rarer English plants. It has become the custom to sneer at the simple remedies of our ancestors, but I assure you that there are plants growing in the hedgerow, if one can only find them, which will cure almost any human complaint, and it is my favourite practice to seek for them.”
Mr. Copperdock shook his head. “Can’t say as I should find much fun in it,” he said. “Too lonely a business altogether. I likes to have someone to talk to when I’m on a holiday. ”

“ The herbalist smiled. “I hardly get the chance,” he replied. “I have a habit of taking a brisk walk in the neighbourhood every evening. During this last week I have never gone more than a few steps before being accosted by a charming and talkative individual who insists upon accompanying me. I am not complaining, I have found his conversation most interesting.”
“And he yours, Mr. Ludgrove,” laughed Whyland. “I’m sorry, but what can we do? I don’t want to alarm you, but you know there is the chance that an attack might be made upon you. And that attack would give us the clue we want.” ”

“ Inspector Whyland accepted the invitation, and sat down in the chair offered him. Mr. Ludgrove having pressed him to smoke, sat down in the opposite chair, and looked at him enquiringly.
“I daresay that you can guess what I have come to talk about,” began the Inspector, with a pleasant smile. “I may as well confess at once that I want your help. We policemen are not the super-men which some people think we ought to be, and most of us are only too anxious to ask for assistance wherever we are likely to get it. ”

“ Tovey, hospitable soul, had asked him to step in. It was no good stepping across to Elmer Ludgrove’s; Thursday afternoon was that gentleman’s busiest day of the week. The herbalist never closed on Thursday. His customers were for the most part people who were engaged in trade, and the weekly half-holiday was their only opportunity for consultations. Also it seemed a long time before it would be his usual hour for going to the Cambridge Arms. Mr. Copperdock consoled himself with the thought that, as one who had actually attended the inquest, he would not lack an attentive audience. ”

“ Although the unexplained murders which had taken place in Praed Street were soon forgotten by the general public, their shadow hung heavily over the neighbourhood in which they had been committed. The fact that the three deaths had taken place within comparatively few hundred yards of one another could not fail to have its effect upon the local imagination. A very noticeable change came over the usual cheerful and careless life of Praed Street. The evening pavements were no longer blocked by a strolling, noisy crowd. Women and children were rarely to be seen abroad after dark. ”

“ His son walked with him as far as the Cambridge Arms, and one at least of his cronies there walked back with him to the shop. Mr. Ludgrove, watching with some amusement, recognized every night the watcher that Whyland had promised to provide. It struck him that the man’s instructions were probably to keep an eye on Mr. Copperdock’s movements rather than to provide for his safety. But upon the tobacconist, who, now he had got over his fright, appeared to regard himself as something of a hero, the man’s presence produced an impression of importance and of security. ”

“ Ludgrove.”
The two passed through the shop into the road. As they crossed it, Mr. Ludgrove uttered an exclamation of surprise. “Why, the door of my shop is open!” he said. “I must have forgotten to shut it in my haste when Ted Copperdock came over for me.”
“Let’s hope no inquisitive visitor has been in to have a look round while we’ve been over the way,” replied Whyland.
Mr. Ludgrove smiled. “He will have found very little of value to reward him if he has,” he said. “No, I’m not afraid of burglars. In any case, it’s a very old-fashioned lock which anyone could force without any difficulty.” ”

“ As the Professor strode on through the silence, devoid of any vestige of human habitation, he noticed how admirably adapted was this barren heath to purposes of concealment. Spread over its surface were a series of shallow depressions, shaped like a saucer, and sometimes holding an abandoned gravel pit, now half filled with stagnant water after the winter rains. A man might lie concealed in one of these, secure from observation, for as long as he could keep himself supplied with food. ”

“ I wonder,” replied the Professor slowly. “If a man who gets a fixed idea into his head, and pursues it through every difficulty, is a madman, then I agree. But in that case some of the greatest names in history must be convicted of madness. I believe that Morlandson really believed that he was executing justice. Perhaps he was. Is that document valid, Inspector?”
“I suppose so,” replied Hanslet. ”

“ Then, before the Professor could guess his intention, he suddenly leapt from his chair, turned out the gas which was burning at a bracket by the mantelpiece, and with a powerful wrench tore the bracket itself from the wall. It fell with a crash into the fire-place.
Then the Professor understood. He, too, leapt from his chair with a shout, and dashed blindly for the door. But the Black Sailor was there before him. “It is useless, Dr. Priestley,” he said menacingly. “The door is fastened securely, as is the window. The chimney is blocked, and there is no possible escape for us. ”

“ The story of the finding of the counter was by this time familiar to all the clientele of the Cambridge Arms, each individual member of which suspected some other member of having somehow conveyed it into Mr. Copperdock’s possession. It was absurd to think, as one of them remarked in his absence, that anybody could have a grudge against Sam Copperdock. Somebody must be pulling his leg, that was the only possible explanation. ”

“ Copperdock is the only person about here who will admit to knowing anything about this fellow Martin.”
“Well, I suppose that we are all under suspicion once more,” said Mr. Ludgrove, with a kindly smile. “No, Inspector, it’s no use protesting; I know exactly how I should look at the matter if I were in your place. Until you have some definite clue to the perpetrator of the crimes, the whole neighbourhood is equally guilty in your eyes. ”

“ The April sun lit up the room with a pale radiance, lending an air of Spring even to this dignified but rather gloomy house in Westbourne Terrace.
Dr. Priestley was thus engaged when the door opened and his secretary, Harold Merefield, came into the room. There was an air of heaviness about both men, the old and the young, as though the Spring had not yet touched them, and Winter held them still in its grip. One might have guessed that some absorbing work had monopolized their energies, leaving them no leisure for anything but the utmost concentration. ”

“ Mr. Copperdock nodded rather impatiently. “Just what I told you, all along,” he said.
“But, my dear sir, look at the difficulties which that theory entails,” objected Mr. Ludgrove. “We are agreed that it is impossible to think of any motive for the murder of Mr. Tovey, and I at least am inclined to say the same regarding the murder of Mr. Colburn. Yet now we are faced with the problem of finding a man who had a motive for murdering both of them. ”

“ As I mean to come up by an early train on Monday, I have taken the liberty of telling Mrs. Cooper, who comes in every week-day to tidy my place up, that I have left the key with you. I suppose that it is no use asking you to come with me?”
Mr. Copperdock fidgeted uncomfortably. “Leave the key by all means,” he replied heartily. “I’ll look after it for you. Sorry I can’t come with you, but you see about Christmas time I—we—there’s a lot of folk comes to the shop and I can’t very well leave Ted alone.” ”

“ Ludgrove. “I admit that they strengthen the supposition that Mr. Tovey and Mr. Pargent died by the same hand. But, admitting that this was the case, it only bears out my theory that the murders were the actions of a maniac. If they were not, if both men were killed with some definite motive, you have to discover some connection between them. Yet they moved in entirely distinct orbits, and, I should imagine, had nothing whatever in common.”
Inspector Whyland shook his head with a tolerant smile. “Theory’s all very well in its way, Mr. Ludgrove,” he said, as he replaced the knives in his pocket. ”

“ Ludgrove, but Daddy wasn’t that sort of man. I won’t say that he was above a mild flirtation, but I am sure that no woman was the cause of his being murdered.”
“Thank you, Miss Tovey,” replied the herbalist gravely. “That is a franker statement than I had any right to expect. And you, Ted?”
“No, I’ve told the police everything,” replied Ted wearily. “I know they think that Dad committed suicide. I believe they want people to think so, so that there won’t be another undetected murder up against them. But I know he didn’t. Dad wasn’t the sort of man to do a thing like that. ”

“ Elmer Ludgrove,” said Hanslet. “Rather an interesting personality, from what Whyland tells me. He keeps a herbalist’s shop, and is a bit of a character in his way. He’s a man of some education, between fifty and sixty, a very dignified old boy with a striking white beard, which I expect is a bit of an asset in his trade. He doesn’t say much about himself, but does a lot of good in his own quiet way. All the poorer people in the neighbourhood come to him if they’re in any sort of trouble, and he freely admits he hears a good many secrets. ”

“ If the Professor was correct in his assumption, Copperdock was a victim of the unknown assassin. How did this knife, which, as Whyland said, was exactly similar to those with which Tovey and Pargent had been killed, come into his possession? On the other hand, if Copperdock had been the murderer, what became of the Professor’s theory? Why should one of the jurymen wish to murder his colleagues? The problem became more complicated with every fresh discovery.
“This blessed case would drive an archangel to drink,” he observed disgustedly, as he wrapped up the knife again and put it in his pocket. ”