THE legitimate public interest in the Nownham Mystery suggested to us
the propriety of sending one of our young men down to interview all
parties. After having visited the Maori King, Mrs. Weldon, several
Eminent Advertisers, and the crew of the _Mignonette_, he felt that his
present task was a light one. He had to see the murderer, William Evans;
the murderess, Mrs. South, or Lady Errand; the accessory after the fact,
Dr. South; the victim, Sir Runan Errand; and Mrs. Thompson, the owner of
the key on which the case for the prosecution hinged.
His adventures in the various Asylums where those unhappy persons are
unconfined have little public interest. We print the Confessions just
as our young man took them down in shorthand from the lips of the
sufferers.
_The Confession of_ Sir Runan Errand.
‘I need not tell you that I never was even the husband of the woman
Phllippa at all. She stood in no relation to me, except as one of the
persons in the _troupe_ which I was foolish enough to manage. Instead of
visiting her in January last to settle her pecuniary claims against me,
I sent my valet. It appears that the man wore an old hat of mine,
which he lost in the storm. That was not the only article of property
belonging to me he carried off. I have since had a penitent letter from
him. He is doing well in the United States, and has been elected to the
Legislature. I have given up the freak of dabbling in the show business,
and merely keep a private theatre at such a distance from human abodes
that no one can complain of it as a nuisance. Since the disappearance of
my valet I have been travelling in my own yacht. I reached England the
day before the trial. ‘No. I never read the newspapers. Thank goodness I
am no bookworm.’
_The Confession of_ Philippa South, _calling herself_ Lady Errand.
‘I tell you again, as I told you before, I know nothing about what I did
that night. Go back to your employers.’
Nothing more of a nature suited to our columns could be extracted from
this lady.
_The Confession of_ Mrs. Thompson.
‘I lost my cellar key the night Philippa left my roof. I now recognise
it as the key in the possession of William Evans. How he got it I have
no idea whatever.’
_The Confession of_ Basil South, M.D.
‘I begin to understand it all at last. The key which I took from
Philippa on the night of the storm and supposed murder had not been
taken by her from Sir Runan.
‘She had brought it with her from the house of Mrs. Thompson, with whom
she had been residing.
‘When I threw away a key, which I believed to be the one I had taken
from Philippa, I made a mistake.
‘I threw away a key of my own. When I thought I was giving William Evans
the key of my cellar (with fatal intentions and designs, hoping that he
would never survive the contents of that cellar), I really gave him the
key I had taken from Philippa.
‘Consequently the key would not fit the cellar lock.
‘Consequently William Evans never tasted the fatal fluid, and so escaped
his doom.
‘I have nothing to add to this confession, except that I am deeply
penitent, and will never again offer a thoughtless public a Christmas
Annual so absurd, morbid, and incoherent.’
This last statement made it unnecessary to interview William Evans.
All the other persons in this dismal affair are detained during her
Majesty’s displeasure.