The First R. Austin Freeman MEGAPACK ®. R. Austin Freeman

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СКАЧАТЬ as the victims, and on each murder I brought to bear all the special knowledge, skill and ingenuity at my command. I inquired minutely into the habits of my hypothetical victims; ascertained who were their associates, friends, enemies and servants; considered their diet, their residences, their modes of conveyance, the source of their clothing and, in fact, everything which it was necessary to know in order to achieve their deaths with certainty and with absolute safety to the murderer.”

      “How deeply gratified and flattered those great personages would have felt,” I remarked, “if they had known how much attention they were receiving.”

      “Yes; I suppose it would have been somewhat startling, to the Prime Minister, for instance, to have learned that he was being watched and studied by an attentive observer and that the ar­rangements for his decease had been completed down to the minutest detail. But, of course, the application of the method to a particular case was the essential thing, for it brought into view all the incidental difficulties, in meeting which all the really interesting and instructive details were involved. Well, the particulars of these crimes I wrote out at length, in my private shorthand, in a journal which I kept for the purpose—and which, I need not say, I locked up securely in my safe when I was not using it. After completing each case, it was my custom to change sides and play the game over again from the opposite side of the board; that is to say, I added, as an appendix to each case, an analysis with a complete scheme for the detection of the crime. I have in my safe at the present moment six volumes of cases, fully indexed; and I can assure you that they are not only highly instructive reading, but are really valuable as works of reference.”

      “That I can readily believe,” I replied, laughing heartily, nevertheless, at the grotesqueness of the whole proceeding, “though they might have proved rather incriminating documents if they had passed out of your possession.”

      “They would never have been read,” rejoined Thorndyke. “My shorthand is, I think, quite undecipherable; it has been so made intentionally with a view to secrecy.”

      “And have any of your theoretical cases ever turned up in real life?”

      “Several of them have, though very imperfectly planned and carried out as a rule. The poisoned cigar is one of them, though, of course I should never have adopted such a conspicuous device for presenting it; and the incident of the other night is a modification—for the worse—of another. In fact, most of the intricate and artistic crimes with which I have had to deal professionally have had their more complete and elaborate prototypes in my journals.”

      I was silent for some time, reflecting on the strange personality of my gifted friend and the singular fitness that he presented for the part he had chosen to play in the drama of social life; but presently my thoughts returned to the peril that overshadowed him, and I came back, once more, to my original question.

      “And now, Thorndyke,” I said, “that you have penetrated both the motives and the disguise of this villain, what are you going to do? Is he to be put safely under lock and key, or is he to be left in peace and security to plan some other, and perhaps more successful, scheme for your destruction?”

      “For the present,” replied Thorndyke, “I am going to put these things in a place of safety. Tomorrow you shall come with me to the hospital and see me place the ends of the cigar in the custody of Dr. Chandler, who will make an analysis and report on the nature of the poison. After that we shall act in whatever way seems best.”

      Unsatisfactory as this conclusion appeared, I knew it was useless to raise further objections, and, accordingly, when the cigar with its accompanying papers and wrappings had been deposited in a drawer, we dismissed it, if not from our thoughts, at least from our conversation.

      CHAPTER XIV

      A STARTLING DISCOVERY

      The morning of the trial, so long looked forward to, had at length arrived, and the train of events which it has been my business to chronicle in this narrative was now fast drawing to an end. To me those events had been in many ways of the deepest moment. Not only had they transported me from a life of monotonous drudgery into one charged with novelty and dramatic interest; not only had they introduced me to a renascence of scien­tific culture and revived under new conditions my intimacy with the comrade of my student days; but, far more momentous than any of these, they had given me the vision—all too fleeting—of happiness untold, with the reality of sorrow and bitter regret that promised to be all too enduring.

      Whence it happened that on this morning my thoughts were tinged with a certain greyness. A chapter in my life that had been both bitter and sweet was closing, and already I saw myself once more an Ishmaelite and a wanderer among strangers.

      This rather egotistical frame of mind, however, was soon dispelled when I encountered Polton, for the little man was in a veritable twitter of excitement at the prospect of witnessing the clear­ing up of the mysteries that had so severely tried his curiosity; and even Thorndyke, beneath his habitual calm, showed a trace of expectancy and pleasurable anticipation.

      “I have taken the liberty of making certain little arrangements on your behalf,” he said, as we sat at breakfast, “of which I hope you will not disapprove. I have written to Mrs. Hornby, who is one of the witnesses, to say that you will meet her at Mr. Lawley’s office and escort her and Miss Gibson to the court. Walter Horn­by may be with them, and, if he is, you had better leave him, if possible, to come on with Lawley.”

      “You will not come to the office, then?”

      “No. I shall go straight to the court with Anstey. Besides, I am expecting Superintendent Miller from Scotland Yard, who will probably walk down with us.”

      “I am glad to hear that,” I said; “for I have been rather uneasy at the thought of your mixing in the crowd without some kind of protection.”

      “Well, you see that I am taking precautions against the as­saults of the too-ingenious X, and, to tell the truth—and also to commit a flagrant bull—I should never forgive myself if I allowed him to kill me before I had completed Reuben Hornby’s defence. Ah, here is Polton—that man is on wires this morning; he has been wandering in and out of the rooms ever since he came, like a cat in a new house.”

      “It’s quite true, sir,” said Polton, smiling and unabashed, “so it’s no use denying it. I have come to ask what we are going to take with us to the court.”

      “You will find a box and a portfolio on the table in my room,” replied Thorndyke. “We had better also take a microscope and the micrometers, though we are not likely to want them; that is all, I think.”

      “A box and a portfolio,” repeated Polton in a speculative tone. “Yes, sir, I will take them with me.” He opened the door and was about to pass out, when, perceiving a visitor ascending the stairs, he turned back.

      “Here’s Mr. Miller, from Scotland Yard, sir; shall I show him in?”

      “Yes, do.” He rose from his chair as a tall, military-looking man entered the room and saluted, casting, at the same time, an inquiring glance in my direction.

      “Good morning, Doctor,” he said briskly. “I got your letter and couldn’t make such of it, but I have brought down a couple of plain-clothes men and a uniform man, as you suggested. I understand you want a house watched?”

      “Yes, and a man, too. I will give you the particulars presently—that is, if you think you can agree to my conditions.”

      “That I act entirely on my own account and make no communication to anybody? Well, of СКАЧАТЬ