THE SECRET ENTRANCE
When Jenkins arrived with the keys, McKelvie looked them over
critically, selected a couple, and tried them on the door. The first was
too large, but the second turned the trick. Cautioning us to stoop to
avoid the shelves, McKelvie pushed open the back of the safe, which
swung away from him into the darkness beyond. With the flash to guide
him he stepped through the opening, then beckoned us to follow him.
Though it was too dark to see, I knew I was in a room of some sort, for
I felt the velvet softness of a carpet beneath my feet, and I also
tripped over some article of furniture. By this time McKelvie had
located the light and I saw that my room was really an alcove fitted up
with a luxurious divan heaped high with pillows, beside which stood a
small smoking-stand. But ornate and sumptuous as the alcove was I should
not personally have cared for it, since the atmosphere was close and
smoke-laden and there was no means of letting in the light of day.
McKelvie glanced hastily about and then striding to the divan he bent
down and sniffed at it critically. Instantly I imitated him. To my
amazement the same fragrance clung to the Persian cover of the couch
that I had detected on the blood-stained handkerchief. I smelled it
again to make sure and then as my memory still played me false I turned
to ask McKelvie what it was. He was trying his key in the lock of a door
at the rear of the room, and if he heard my question he failed to reply
to it.
With less difficulty this time he unlocked this second door, which swung
inwards and stood at the head of a flight of rather steep and dark
stairs. As before, McKelvie preceded Jenkins and myself, but we kept as
close as possible to him that his flash might guide us as well. At the
bottom of the steps was another door of similar make, which also opened
inwards, and to my astonishment it gave exit onto the garden at the side
of the house between the first study window and the corner. So
skillfully had it been cut in the masonry, however, that only one
initiated into the secret of the entrance would have known it was there.
McKelvie examined the ground around the door and as at this point also
the cement walk reached clear to the wall, I wondered what he hoped to
discover. Whatever it was, his scrutiny satisfied him, for he stood up
with a smile and applied his lens to the key-hole of the door. Then he
nodded his head in a contented manner and remarked that we had better
return to the study. I noticed that he locked all the doors scrupulously
behind him, leaving the secret entrance exactly as he had found it, even
to replacing the round disk which counterfeited the knot-hole.
Once in the room he knelt down and examined minutely the dial of the
safe.
"Interesting and unique," he commented. "Look here, Mr. Davies!" He
pointed to the inside of the door, and I noticed to my astonishment that
the dial was duplicated within. "Do you get the significance?" he asked
quickly.
"Why, that safe can be opened or closed by combination from the inside
as well as the outside," I hazarded.
"Naturally, to be of any use as an entrance it would have to be capable
of being opened from the inside," he said caustically. "No, what I meant
was this. Supposing we want to lock the safe. Give me a combination."
"I gave him 'Darwin,' the first word that occurred to me, for it was one
of those old style safes with the six-letter combination. He twirled the
knob of the dial on the outside and pointed as he did so to the inside.
Just as the inside handle of a door will revolve when the outer one is
turned, so the inner knob of the dial duplicated the revolutions of the
outer.
"Now, don't you see that in order to use this entrance it is necessary
to know what combination was used to lock the safe from the study and
vice versa?" he questioned.
"Yes, that's plain enough. To use the entrance the criminal had to know
the combination. Well, what of it? A clever man would hardly be balked
by so small a thing."
"You still don't get what I'm driving at," he returned. "I'll try to
explain. You have arrived at the conclusion that I held a while ago;
namely, that the criminal came in and went out by the secret entrance.
Am I right?"
"Yes, that is my opinion."
"Now we come to my point," he said, rising and beginning to pace the
room. "If the criminal entered by the safe, he must have been cognizant
of three things: first, that there was such an entrance; secondly, that
three of the doors were opened by a key of a certain size and make;
thirdly, that the safe door was unlocked by a certain combination, that
combination being the one which Philip Darwin himself had used. That
the criminal should know of one, or perhaps of two of these facts, yes.
But that he should be aware of all three of them seems incredible!"
"Why incredible?" I objected. "He may have known of the entrance. He
could easily then take an impression of the outer lock and have a key
made, and Philip Darwin himself may have revealed the combination to
him."
"Very good, but not carried quite far enough," he said with his
quizzical smile. "Before I show you where you are at fault, answer me a
question. How do you suppose that entrance came to be there so very
handy for the criminal's purpose?"
"I presume it was built with the house," I answered.
"Precisely. When?"
"Almost a hundred years ago--1830, to be exact."
"Exactly, and old Elias Darwin, the great-grandfather of Philip, who was
a firm believer in the established order of affairs, modeled his home in
the country (for this stretch of land was country then) on that which
was built by his ancestors in pre-revolutionary days, secret entrance
and all; for, of course, in those times secret entrances were
indispensable for the concealment of friends, whether Tories or Whigs."
"Where did you learn all this?" I asked in amazement.
"I have a book home which details the histories of various mansions in
New York," he replied.
"That accounts for the entrance. But what about the safe?" I continued.
"The safe is decidedly more recent. Doubtless the secret entrance had
been blocked up, if it was ever cut through, and no one knew of its
existence until Philip Darwin stumbled on the knowledge. I looked up the
family history of the Darwins this morning while I was awaiting your
arrival. Who's Who describes Mr. Frank Darwin, the father, as having
been a strait-laced, Puritanical man, and you yourself know what the son
was. Can't you imagine the clash between them?"
In view of Mr. Trenton's story concerning Dick's mother I could well
believe that father and son had not agreed.
"In 1906 there is record that Frank Darwin went to Europe for a year. Of
course, this is mere conjecture, but it is reasonable to suppose that
Philip, who was then twenty-one, took the occasion to have the safe
built, and the secret entrance unblocked."
"Mason should know," I said.
"I don't think so, or he would have mentioned it at the inquest.
However, there is no harm in questioning him. Go and get him, Jenkins."
When Mason stood before us McKelvie said quietly, though his eyes
sparkled: "You testified that you had been with the Darwin family thirty
years. Did you remain in the house when Mr. Frank Darwin went to Europe
in 1906?"
"Yes, sir. I remained as caretaker."
"Then you can tell us when that safe was built?"
"Yes, sir. It was that same year, sir. Mr. Phil complained he had no
private safe and his father told him to have one built while he was
gone. He chose that place, sir, because he liked the study. His father
used the den upstairs."
"Why did he build such a large safe?"
"I don't know, sir. He sent me away to visit some of my folks, sir,
while it was being built. He told his father it was to hold his fortune,
sir."
McKelvie looked across at me with a triumphant expression which said as
plainly as words, "Notice how accurately I deduced the truth," but his
voice was subdued enough as he continued his questions.
"He did not get along with his father, I understand?"
"No, sir. They had different ideas on every subject, sir."
"Why didn't Philip Darwin live at his club then, when he came of age?"
McKelvie inquired.
"Because his father told him, sir, that if he left the house it would be
for good, and not one penny of his money would he get, sir. Mr. Phil
knew that his father always carried out his threats, sir."
"That is all, Mason."
"Yes, sir."
The moment the door closed behind the old butler McKelvie said, with a
smile, "Just as I thought. And what came in handy when his father was
alive was doubly useful after his marriage. And thus we come back to the
original discussion, whether the criminal would know the three necessary
facts to enter by the safe."
"A member of the family might," I said.
"Yes, a member of the family. Lee, for instance, or even Orton might
discover that there was such a passage and secure a key to it. Would
either of them know the combination?"
"Orton was Darwin's private secretary."
"As far as his business down-town went, but not his secretary, as far as
his personal affairs were concerned. Besides, recall Mason's testimony.
He was surprised to find Orton in the study because Darwin always kept
it religiously locked, to preserve his secret, of course. Then, too,
Orton was Darwin's creature and, therefore, he would be doubly careful
not to place himself in the fellow's power. He evidently considered he
was running no risk, since he let Orton into the study that night.
Besides, if you did not want anyone prying into your safe, what
precaution would you take to prevent it?"
"I'd change the combination frequently."
"Exactly; and there you have an answer to my problem. Granted that the
criminal knew the first two facts, was he going to depend on a
combination that might be changed five minutes before he wished to use
the entrance? No, no, we're dealing with a person too clever not to
foresee that contingency. Besides, as far as I could detect, no one has
recently taken an impression of the outer lock."
"Then we get back where we started and the entrance is of no value to us
at all," I pointed out.
"You jump back too far. It merely shows that the criminal did not enter
by the safe. That he left that way is proved by the fact that he
vanished from the study without using door or windows, and that he very
evidently took Darwin's key with him."
"But--the combination?"
"The safe was open, for Darwin had just removed the will from it. Even
if it had been closed, a clever man could find an excuse for making his
victim open the safe. Once inside any combination of six letters would
close the door effectually against intruders."
"I suppose you are right, but how did he get in then?"
"Darwin let him in himself, either through the window or the door. Most
probably through the window, since you would have otherwise heard steps
in the hall. Recall Orton's testimony. He went to the garage to follow
the maid. When he returned he heard voices in the study."
"And when he went in at eleven-thirty, Philip Darwin was alone," I
remarked with a smile.
"Yes, to be sure, Philip Darwin was alone," he repeated, crestfallen.