AN ECHO OF A TRAGEDY AND THE DRAINAGE OF A COTTAGE
As Edward was, after sending in his slip of paper, ushered into the
private office, a tall, gaunt man of unmistakable solicitor type rose
from his desk and crossed over to him with extended hand. Edward put
his out also and winced somewhat as it was tightly engulfed by the bony
fingers of the solicitor.
"Mr. Sydney, I understand."
Edward Povey bowed, he had no great liking for telling lies and he
preferred to act them where possible.
Mr. Abraham Nixon handed a chair to his visitor, and, reseating himself
at his desk, picked up a telephone receiver and inquired for Mr.
Crooks, asking that gentleman to kindly be sure that they were not
disturbed for at least one hour.
At this Edward grew cold with apprehension. It seemed to him that
there was something of an ordeal in front of him. Mr. Nixon's first
words, however, somewhat reassured him.
"I understand from Mr. Baxendale that you are entirely ignorant of the
subject referred to in his letter, Mr. Sydney."
"Entirely, Mr. Nixon, and it is perhaps better to say at once that,
however much I desire to help my old friend and to fall in with his
wishes, I cannot hold myself liable in any way--cannot commit myself."
Mr. Nixon held up a thin hand.
"A very sensible remark, Mr. Sydney, and one that I should have made
myself had I been placed as you are. You are not in any way bound by
what I am telling you except in the event of your refusal; in which
case I shall enjoin you to secrecy. Pray excuse me a moment."
Selecting a flat key from a ring he took from his pocket, Mr. Nixon
left the room, returning in a few minutes with a small deed-box on
which was painted in white letters--
GALVA--BAXENDALE
This, Mr. Nixon placed upon a small side table, and selecting a flat
key from the bunch on his ring inserted it in the lock.
"It is a curious story that I have to tell you, Mr. Sydney," he began
as he pushed open the creaking lid. "I suppose I'm the only person to
whom Mr. Baxendale told it. A very reserved and secretive man, Mr.
Sydney."
"Very," answered Edward Povey, much relieved to hear it. Then he kept
silent as he watched the solicitor remove from the box a few small
articles, each carefully sealed up and docketed in a neat handwriting,
the purport of which Edward could not make out at the distance. These
articles arranged in a row upon his desk, Mr. Nixon leant back in his
chair, and, placing the tips of his thin fingers together, began his
tale.
"Perhaps you will remember, Mr. Sydney, the era of bloodshed and murder
which attacked the little island kingdom of San Pietro some years back,
I think in the autumn of '93. It was, in its way, as virulent as the
Paris revolution, but San Pietro is a small kingdom, and although quite
independent was not able to withstand the pressure of her more powerful
neighbours. Spain, being the nearest, has always had a word to say in
the San Pietro politics. The result was that the crisis was as
short-lived as it was terrible. The reigning family had been put to
death at the outburst of the revolution. The king, rather a
pleasure-loving sort of person, had enjoyed some popularity among his
subjects, but his marriage with an actress whom he had met in Vienna
inflamed the ladies of the court, and, through them, their husbands.
"Most of these were officers standing high at court or in the army, and
considering their wives insulted by the presence of an actress upon the
throne, planned the assassination under the cloak of politics. The
result was the terrible doings at the Palace at Corbo on that night in
October.
"Baxendale, then a middle-aged man, traveling on business in Spain at
the time, took ship across to San Pietro, intending to send first-hand
news to a paper he was interested in in New York. Once arrived,
however, he found more difficulty in returning. The Dictator whom the
people had set up was very rigid in the matter of censorship, and not
only could poor Baxendale get no news through, but he himself was
politely but firmly told he could not leave the island.
"One afternoon about three or four days after the massacre he was
taking a walk through the Sebastin Park, which I understand is on the
edge of the capital, and merges from cultivation to the wild track of
forest land which lies to the north. Baxendale had walked further than
he had intended and was surprised to find of a sudden that the sun was
sinking. As he turned to retrace his steps a curious sound came to his
ears, that was for all the world like the cry of a child, The forest at
this place was very dense, the branches of the tall pines interlacing
overhead, whilst the undergrowth was thick enough to hide objects at a
few yards.
"Baxendale parted the bushes and forced a way through them in the
direction from which the cries seemed to come. The wailing had
stopped, and he was telling himself that it was some forest beast he
had heard when it was again taken up, and now he made out the low
crooning of one who hushes and soothes a baby. At this he moved
faster, and in a few moments came upon a tumble-down hut such as is
used by the charcoal-burners of the woods.
"He had not been heard, for the crooning still continued and was
evidently having the desired effect, as the child's cries had ceased.
His light tap at the crazy-hinged door was answered only by the sudden
cessation of the voice, and a dead silence. Then he cautiously pushed
open the door.
"It was a poor enough place--indeed, little more than a ruin, and, in
the dim light, Baxendale told me he could not at first make out any
definite object. As his eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom,
however, he made out the figure of a woman. She was standing facing
him; he could not see her face clearly, but her whole attitude was one
of defiance, and she seemed to be standing at bay, guarding something
behind her. Baxendale could make out a bench on which were rolled a
few clothes.
"Just then a ray of the setting sun pierced the branches and
illuminated the interior of the hut. On the heap of clothes was a
little baby girl about two years of age. The red rays played round the
curly head, and Baxendale was smitten to the heart as he looked from
the sleeping babe to the woman, who, seeing in Baxendale a friend, had
sunk down on the earth floor and was silently weeping."
Mr. Nixon paused, and cleared his throat. He looked at his listener
for signs of attention. The latter, who had almost forgotten the part
he was playing, in his interest in the tale that was being told to him,
nodded his head and asked if Mr. Nixon objected to tobacco. The two
men smoked for a few moments in silence, then the solicitor resumed the
tale.
"Beyond this I know very little and that little I will tell quickly.
Baxendale came into this office in the spring of '98 and told me all
this. The little child on wakening had held up her arms to him and
smiled. The good fellow could not withstand the mute appeal, and
resolved then and there that she should be his charge. Afterwards,
when he had got them safely across to England, the woman who was the
child's nurse told him the history. She had been afraid to do so
earlier for fear it would have altered Baxendale's intentions, and she
was too anxious to set her back to San Pietro to risk that.
"The baby girl was the Princess Miranda, only child of the ill-fated
king and queen of San Pietro. On the fatal night, the nurse told
Baxendale, she had been in the night nursery with the princess and her
own niece, little Miranda's foster-sister, a child only a few months
older than the princess. She told him of how she had seen the flare of
torches and heard the clamour, and how the distracted queen had rushed
in shrieking for her baby, and had caught up what she thought was her
little one, and with it under her robe had fled to what she fondly
considered was a place of safety.
"As events proved, there was no place of safety for that unhappy woman
that night, and when the next day the bodies were laid to rest in the
royal vault, a little dead child was buried with the queen, but it was
not the Princess Miranda, although the monument that was raised by the
tardy conscience of the San Pietro people is engraved with her name.
"Since the revolution, the political state of San Pietro has been
somewhat uncertain. The people are simple and loyal folk at heart, and
it was not long before they discovered the real reason of the uprising.
Then they cried loudly for a king again, and Spain, who had only been
waiting for this, put Prince Enrico upon the throne. You will have
heard of this man, whose follies and deviltries are the talk of Europe.
San Pietro tolerates him, for his court is brilliant, and has brought
much money to the place; in fact, the whole island, and more especially
the capital, is now one of the pleasure centres of Europe. This has
had a most beneficent effect upon the fortunes of the island, but there
are still some of the more sedate families who deplore the loss of
dignity of their beloved land.
"The rightful heir is of course Miranda, the little princess with whom
the poor nurse sought refuge in the forest.
"She is now living in England, the nurse is still with her, and Miranda
has no idea of her high birth. Baxendale never confided to me what his
projects were."
The solicitor leant over and picked up a letter which had been in the
deed-box and handed it over to Edward, who took it and sat with it
unopened in his hand waiting for Mr. Nixon to speak.
"You will read that when you leave here, Mr. Sydney, carefully, and I
shall expect to hear from you in the course of a few days. There is
the matter of money to be considered. My client has made adequate
provision"--Edward pricked up his ears at this--"for what he terms 'the
mission.'"
"In two days I will call on you again, Mr. Nixon. Good-afternoon."
Povey stood in Leadenhall Street at the entrance to St. Mary Axe and
tried to think things over. It seemed to him as though he had just
emerged from the gloom of romantic forests and the splendour of courts,
and the foggy atmosphere and hoard of hurrying clerks appeared to him
to be unreal. Then he pulled himself together and strolled quietly
westward.
Along Leadenhall Street and through the market he walked deep in
thought, making his way from force of habit in the direction of London
Bridge. It was not until the spars and masts of the shipping came in
sight that he remembered his changed conditions, when he hailed a
passing taxi and was driven to Euston.
He had not long to wait for a train to Bushey, and no sooner had it
left the platform than he had the letter out of his pocket and was
breaking the seal. It was written on the paper of the Waldorf Hotel,
New York, and was dated at the beginning of the year.
"_MY DEAR SYDNEY,_
"_I am addressing you in this letter, as I hope and devoutly trust that
yours will be the hands into which it will fall. My own health has
been so bad of late and has shown such unmistakable signs of breaking
up that I fear I must give up all hope of ever carrying out,
personally, my desires. Next to myself, I would wish you to do so;
failing you, Mr. Nixon has his instructions what to do. But you won't
fail me._
"_This gentleman will have told you the outlines of the history of the
Princess Miranda. It has always been my desire that on her eighteenth
birthday she should be told the story of her high origin. As this date
approaches--the_ 15_th of November--I feel that the seven or eight
months between us will see my finish, so while there is yet time I
write to you, my old friend, to act for me in this matter._
"_The Princess, I have named her Galva, after a carn in the vicinity of
her house, is at present living with her nurse at Tremoor, a few miles
from Penzance._
"_Mr. Nixon will give you, on your expressing your willingness to
undertake the mission, two or three objects which will prove beyond
doubt the claim of the dear girl to the throne of San Pietro. You will
go to her and tell her everything; I would not feel I had done my duty
were I to keep her in ignorance, although it might be kinder to do so._
"_If, after hearing you out, she elects to remain in her quiet peaceful
life, she shall do so. If, on the other hand, she decides on following
up her high destiny you will take her with her nurse to Corbo,
travelling as independent English tourists, and seek out Senor Luazo,
or his heir, at_ 66, _Calle Mendaro, and hand him a letter which Mr.
Nixon will give you. After that I can safely leave you in his keeping._
"_My fortune, I have divided equally between the man who undertakes
this mission and Galva herself, with the exception of an annuity to
Senora Paluda, the nurse who has done so much and been so much to
little Galva._
"_I can easily throw my mind back to that day in the forest, and the
smiling babe holding up her little arms is a picture that will always
be with me even at the end. Tell Galva that I will die thinking of her
and of all she has been to a lonely old bachelor._
"_When the end comes, too, I will think of you and of what you are
doing for me, and will bless you for it._
"_And now, my old friend, good-bye._
"_Yours ever,_
_HUBERT BAXENDALE._"
Edward Povey folded up the letter carefully and placed it in his
pocket. Then, leaning his head in his hand, gazed out at the flying
landscape and tried to think things out. It took him some little time
to appreciate who he really was.
He had felt, ever since Mr. Nixon had mentioned the financial aspect of
the undertaking, that he would be more than foolish to let slip such a
providential way out of his sea of difficulties. The moral side to the
question he was able to smooth over to his satisfaction. He knew Mr.
Kyser, and Mr. Kyser's ways, and told himself that that gentleman would
not welcome, at his time of life, an adventure such as the one that the
solicitor had put before him that afternoon. Again, he told himself
that it was not possible for him to communicate with Mr. Kyser until
the eighteenth birthday of the princess had passed. He said it would
be wrong and unkind to let the poor lonely girl think that she was
forgotten.
Further self-discussion on the matter was taken out of his hands by a
watching Fate who suggested something refreshing as he breasted the
first part of the straggling hill that led from the railway station up
to Bushey Heath. He paused at the Merry Month of May, then decided to
push on to a little hostelry that he had noticed on the way down that
morning.
He entered the door of the White Hart and turned to the right through
the tiny bar into the smoke-room. Two tweed-clad artists from the
near-by studios lounged in more or less elegant poses at the
red-clothed table, they looked up and nodded as Edward entered, then
returned to the perusal of the evening papers which had evidently just
arrived.
The host of the inn came from the bar and attended to the new-comer's
wants, and Edward took from his pocket an _Evening News_ that he had
bought in town. He read it listlessly for some minutes, then the two
bored-looking youths looked up suddenly as the man gave a gasp. They
stared at him so curiously that he felt an explanation was necessary.
"Went the wrong way--gentlemen," he said, pointing to his glass of
beer--"windpipe, I think."
The elder of the two youths grunted and leaning back lit a cigarette.
He watched Edward, at first carelessly, but as he saw the man take out
a penknife and cut from the paper a paragraph, he grew more interested.
In a few moments Edward gulped down his beer, and, without a word, made
his way outside.
"Bertie," it was the elder artist who was speaking, "that chap saw
something in the paper that upset him a little--is that the _News_
you're reading?"
"Yes--why?"
"Look at page five, will you, the third paragraph from the bottom on
column two. Read it out loud if you don't mind."
The paper rustled as the other young man turned to the desired portion,
then in a blase voice read:--
"MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN PARIS.
"A gentleman who arrived at the Hotel Meurice from London two days ago
has met with a fate such as is becoming more and more frequent in the
streets of Paris. A gendarme passing down the Rue des Batignolles last
evening about ten o'clock, came upon the body of the unfortunate man
huddled into an angle of a doorway. Assistance was forthcoming, but
was too late to be of any service to the victim, who had suffered
terrible injuries to the head, and to which he succumbed within an hour
after his admission to the hospital. The outrage points undoubtedly to
being the work of the dreaded Apaches. The deceased gentleman, who was
about fifty years of age, had registered under the name of Sydney
Kyser, but it has been impossible to trace among his belongings any
clue to his home address. The French police, however, are in
communication with Scotland Yard, and are in the mean time actively
engaged in searching for the perpetrators of the outrage."
"Bet you that chap knew this Kyser, or whoever it is----" a yawn--"none
of our business, what! See you in Peter's studio, there's a game of
bridge on, I think. Ta-ta."
Meanwhile Edward Povey was walking up Clay Hill in a ferment of
thought. It seemed ten years rather than one week since he had been on
his stool in the dingy Eastcheap counting-house. He had hoped for a
little excitement to enter into his life, and he was getting excitement
to the full. He had not looked upon the borrowing of Adderbury Cottage
as a crime; the advent of Uncle Jasper and Aunt Eliza was nothing more
than a farce--but now tragedy was playing a hand in the game in the
shape of a Parisian murder.
He stopped suddenly as a thought struck him. It could not be long
before Mr. Kyser's business friends heard of his death, when visits
would be paid to his houses, to Grosvenor Square and to Adderbury
Cottage. It was easy enough quietly to leave the place himself and to
take Charlotte; with Uncle and Aunt it was different. Various schemes
entered into his head for effecting their departure, schemes that made
poor Edward think that given opportunities he would have made a
first-class criminal.
The ruse upon which he finally decided was an inspiration. He laughed
to himself as the absurd simplicity of it all came home to him.
He retraced his steps to the village, this time choosing the Red Lion,
and engaged a fly to carry him down into Watford, where he entered the
same hotel that he had patronized in the morning. He made straight for
the writing-room where he remembered having seen some headed
note-paper. Then he wrote himself a letter, signing himself Henry
Birkett, Public Analyst for the County of Herts. In the letter he said
that the sample of water submitted to him from Adderbury Cottage was of
a very dangerous description. He said that any one living in the
afore-mentioned Adderbury Cottage was running a grave risk. The place,
he added, must be in a deplorable sanitary condition, and that steps
must be taken at once to overhaul the drainage.
With this missive in his pocket, Edward Povey reached Adderbury Cottage
about eight o'clock.
The party were just sitting down to dinner, and were, with the
exception of Charlotte, in a genial mood. Mrs. Povey, poor woman,
showed plainly the anxiety and strain of the time she had been through,
but Uncle Jasper was in fine form. He had already started operations
on the garden, and was full of projects for the morrow. Edward smiled
grimly as he listened to his talk of roses and cucumbers.
When dinner was over, the two men sat smoking and talking of various
things, still mostly gardens. Aunt Eliza had gone to her re-arranged
bedroom, whilst Charlotte could be heard in the kitchen, to which place
the poor woman had flown many times in the course of the day as to a
harbour of refuge.
Purposely allowing his pipe to go out, Edward took from his pocket the
letter he had written to himself, and tearing off the blank sheet made
a spool with which he relit his pipe. Then leaving the rest of the
letter on the table, he made some excuse and went from the room. He
left the door ajar, and watched the reflection of his uncle in the
mirror of the sideboard. In less than three minutes he found that his
faith in the inquisitiveness of his uncle had not been misplaced.
Edward Povey tiptoed to the kitchen, and, hastily warning his wife,
awaited developments. They were not long in coming.
A chair was thrust hastily back and agitated steps left the dining-room
and creaked upstairs. Voices in discussion were heard above. Then
Uncle Jasper came down. He was boiling over with wrath as he entered
the kitchen, and to Edward, who knew the circumstances, the old man's
efforts to disguise his feelings were not without their humour. The
old man felt at that moment that he would have given half his fortune
to tell the pair before him what he thought of them. But for once in
his life Jasper Jarman had met his match. To admit that he had read
another man's letter was not to be thought of. Equally impossible was
it for his wife and himself to remain another night in the pestilential
atmosphere of Adderbury Cottage. He made a gurgling noise in his
throat, then:
"I'm sorry, Edward, but I had forgotten this is the 3rd. I have to be
in Kidderminster by twelve o'clock to-morrow--I--I--it means thousands
to me."
He glared at them in impotent rage for a moment, then went on.
"You must get us a cab, Edward--now. There's only one way, and that is
to drive into Watford and stay there and catch the early train to
Birmingham in the morning."
"But surely, uncle----" Charlotte began.
"The only way, Charlotte, my dear, I assure you. Edward, there is a
cab to be had, I suppose?" The old fellow was clenching and
unclenching his hands, his eyes were round with anger.
"If you must, uncle, you must. I know what business is. Charlotte,
give me my boots, I'll get a conveyance here in half-an-hour."
Charlotte never could tell how she got through that dreadful half-hour.
Uncle Jasper, muffled in his coat, was treading the gravel of the path
furiously. Aunt Eliza, her lips a thin thread, was seated on her box
in the porch. From time to time they addressed a few words to their
hostess, the very forced civility of which was obvious from the way
they were jerked out. Then, at last, a rattling old landau appeared,
and the last scene of Uncle Jasper's visit to Adderbury Cottage was
reached.
As the vehicle rattled away Edward heard the explosion of his uncle's
wrath and the restraining _hssh_ of Aunt Eliza.
At seven the next morning Edward Povey borrowed a farm cart from an
adjacent cottager and sent on their things to Harrow Station. It being
a fine morning, they elected to walk.
At ten-thirty the representatives of the late Mr. Sydney Kyser paid a
visit to Adderbury Cottage and made an inventory of the contents of
that desirable residence.