what Melky meant. Mr. Spencer Levendale was certainly a Jew. His dark
hair and beard, his large dark eyes, the olive tint of his complexion,
the lines of his nose and lips all betrayed his Semitic origin. He was
evidently a man of position and of character; a quiet-mannered,
self-possessed man of business, not given to wasting words. He glanced
at the card which Ayscough had sent in, and turned to him with one word.
"Well?"
Ayscough went straight to the point.
"I called, Mr. Levendale, about that advertisement of yours which
appears in all this morning's newspapers," he said. "I may as well tell
you that that book of yours was found yesterday afternoon, under
strange circumstances. Mr. Daniel Multenius, the jeweller and
pawnbroker, of Praed Street--perhaps you know him, sir?"
"Not at all!" answered Levendale. "Never heard of him."
"He was well known in this part of the town," remarked Ayscough,
quietly. "Well, sir--Mr. Multenius was found dead in his back-parlour
yesterday afternoon, about five-thirty, by this young man, Mr.
Lauriston, who happened to look in there, and I myself was on the spot
a few minutes later. Your book--for it's certainly the same--was lying
on the table in the parlour. Now, this other young man, Mr. Rubinstein,
is a relation of Mr. Multenius's--from enquiries he's made, Mr.
Levendale, it's a fact that the book was neither pawned nor sold at
Multenius's, though it must certainly have been brought there between
the time you lost it and the time we found the old gentleman lying
dead. Now, we--the police--want to know how it came there. And so--I've
come round to you. What can you tell me, sir?"
Levendale, who had listened to Ayscough with great--and, as it seemed
to Lauriston, with very watchful--attention, pushed aside a letter he
was writing, and looked from one to the other of his callers.
"Where is my book?" he asked.
"It's all right--all safe, mister," said Melky. "It's locked up in a
cupboard, in the parlour where it was found, and the key's in my
pocket."
Levendale turned to the detective, glancing again at Ayscough's card.
"All I can tell you, sergeant," he said, "is--practically--what I've
told the public in my advertisement. Of course, I can supplement it a
bit. The book is a very valuable one--you see," he went on, with a
careless wave of his hand towards his book-shelves. "I'm something of a
collector of rare books. I bought this particular book yesterday
afternoon, at a well-known dealer's in High Holborn. Soon after buying
it, I got into a Cricklewood omnibus, which I left at Chapel Street--at
the corner of Praed Street, as a matter of fact: I wished to make a
call at the Great Western Hotel. It was not till I made that call that
I found I'd left the book in the 'bus--I was thinking hard about a
business matter--I'd placed the book in a corner behind me--and, of
course, I'd forgotten it, valuable though it is. And so, later on,
after telephoning to the omnibus people, who'd heard nothing, I sent
that advertisement round to all the morning papers. I'm very glad to
hear of it--and I shall be pleased to reward you," he concluded,
turning to Melky. "Handsomely!--as I promised."
But Melky made no sign of gratitude or pleasure. He was eyeing the rich
man before him in inquisitive fashion.
"Mister!" he said suddenly. "I'd like to ask you a question."
Levendale frowned a little.
"Well?" he asked brusquely. "What is it?"
"This here," replied Melky. "Was that there book wrapped up? Was it
brown-papered, now, when you left it?"
It seemed to Lauriston that Levendale was somewhat taken aback. But if
he was, it was only for a second: his answer, then, came promptly
enough.
"No, it was not," he said. "I carried it away from the shop where I
bought it--just as it was. Why do you ask?"
"It's a very fine-bound book," remarked Melky. "I should ha' thought,
now, that if it had been left in a 'bus, the conductor would ha'
noticed it, quick."
"So should I," said Levendale. "Anything else?" he added, glancing at
Ayscough.
"Well, no, Mr. Levendale, thank you," replied the detective. "At least
not just now. But--the fact is, Mr. Multenius appears to have come to
his death by violence--and I want to know if whoever took your book
into his shop had anything to do with it."
"Ah!--however, I can't tell you any more," said Levendale. "Please see
that my book's taken great care of and returned to me, sergeant.
Good-morning."
Outside, Ayscough consulted his watch and looked at his companions.
"Time we were going on to the inquest," he remarked. "Come on--we'll
step round there together. You're both wanted, you know."
"I'll join you at the Coroner's court, Mr. Ayscough," said Melky. "I've
got a few minutes' business--shan't be long."
He hurried away by a short cut to Praed Street and turned into Mrs.
Goldmark's establishment.
Mrs. Goldmark herself was still ministering to Zillah, but the young
woman whom Melky had seen the night before was in charge. Melky drew
her aside.
"I say!" he said, with an air of great mystery. "A word with you,
miss!--private, between you and me. Can you tell me what like was that
fellow what you believed to ha' lost that there cuff stud you showed me
in Mrs. Goldmark's desk?--you know?"
"Yes!" answered the young woman promptly.
"Tall--dark--clean-shaved--very brown--looked like one of those
Colonials that you see sometimes--wore a slouch hat."
"Not a word to nobody!" warned Melky, more mysteriously than ever. And
nodding his head with great solemnity, he left the eating-house, and
hurried away to the Coroner's Court.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE INQUEST
Until he and Ayscough walked into this particular one, Lauriston had
never been in a Coroner's Court in his life. He knew very little about
what went on in such places. He was aware that the office of Coroner is
of exceeding antiquity; that when any person meets his or her death
under suspicious circumstances an enquiry into those circumstances is
held by a Coroner, who has a jury of twelve men to assist him in his
duties: but what Coroner and jury did, what the procedure of these
courts was, he did not know. It surprised him, accordingly, to find
himself in a hall which had all the outward appearance of a court of
justice--a raised seat, on a sort of dais, for the Coroner; a box for
the jury; a table for officials and legal gentlemen; a stand for
witnesses, and accommodation for the general public. Clearly, it was
evident that when any one died as poor old Daniel Multenius had died,
the law took good care that everybody should know everything about it,
and that whatever mystery there was should be thoroughly investigated.
The general public, however, had not as yet come to be greatly
interested in the death of Daniel Multenius. Up to that moment the
affair was known to few people beyond the police, the relations of the
dead man, and his immediate neighbours in Praed Street. Consequently,
beyond the interested few, there was no great assemblage in the court
that morning. A reporter or two, each with his note-book, lounged at
the end of the table on the chance of getting some good copy out of
whatever might turn up; some of the police officials whom Lauriston had
already seen stood chatting with the police surgeon and a sharp-eyed
legal looking man, who was attended by a clerk; outside the open door,
a group of men, evidently tradesmen and householders of the district,
hung about, looking as if they would be glad to get back to their
businesses and occupations. Melky, coming in a few minutes after
Lauriston had arrived, and sitting down by him, nudged his elbow as he
pointed to these individuals.
"There's the fellows what sits on the jury, mister!" whispered Melky.
"Half-a-crown each they gets for the job--and a nice mess they makes of
it, sometimes. They've the power to send a man for trial for his life,
has them chaps--all depends on their verdict. But lor' bless yer!--they
takes their tip from the Coroner--he's the fellow what you've got to
watch."
Then Melky looked around more narrowly, and suddenly espied the
legal-looking man who was talking to the police. He dug his elbow into
Lauriston.
"Mister!" he whispered. "You be careful what you say when you get into
that there witness-box. See that man there, a-talking to the
detectives?--him with the gold nippers on his blooming sharp nose?
That's Mr. Parminter!--I knows him, well enough. He's a lawyer chap,
what the police gets when there's a case o' this sort, to ask questions
of the witnesses, d'ye see? Watch him, Mr. Lauriston, if he starts
a-questioning you!--he's the sort that can get a tale out of a dead
cod-fish--s'elp me, he is! He's a terror, he is!--the Coroner ain't in
it with him--he's a good sort, the Coroner, but Parminter--Lord love
us! ain't I heard him turn witnesses inside out--not half! And here is
the Coroner."
Lauriston almost forgot that he was an important witness, and was
tempted to consider himself nothing but a spectator as he sat and
witnessed the formal opening of the Court, the swearing-in of the
twelve jurymen, all looking intensely bored, and the preliminaries
which prefaced the actual setting-to-work of the morning's business.
But at last, after some opening remarks from the Coroner, who said that
the late Mr. Daniel Multenius was a well-known and much respected
tradesman of the neighbourhood, that they were all sorry to hear of his
sudden death, and that there were circumstances about it which
necessitated a careful investigation, the business began--and
Lauriston, who, for professional purposes, had heard a good many legal
cases, saw, almost at once, that the police, through the redoubtable
Mr. Parminter, now seated with his clerk at the table, had carefully
arranged the presenting of evidence on a plan and system of their own,
all of which, so it became apparent to him, was intended to either
incriminate himself, or throw considerable suspicion upon him. His
interest began to assume a personal complexion.
The story of the circumstances of Daniel Multenius's death, as unfolded
in the witness-box into which one person went after another, appeared
to be the fairly plain one--looked at from one point of view: there was
a certain fascination in its unfolding. It began with Melky, who was
first called--to identify the deceased, to answer a few general
questions about him, and to state that when he last saw him, a few
hours before his death, he was in his usual good health: as good, at
any rate, as a man of his years--seventy-five--who was certainly
growing feeble, could expect to be in. Nothing much was asked of Melky,
and nothing beyond bare facts volunteered by him: the astute Mr.
Parminter left him alone. A more important witness was the
police-surgeon, who testified that the deceased had been dead twenty
minutes when he was called to him, that he had without doubt been
violently assaulted, having been savagely seized by the throat and by
the left arm, on both of which significant marks were plainly visible,
and that the cause of death was shock following immediately on this
undoubted violence. It was evident, said this witness, that the old man
was feeble, and that he suffered from a weak heart: such an attack as
that which he had described would be sufficient to cause death, almost
instantly.
"So it is a case of murder!" muttered Melky, who had gone back to sit
by Lauriston. "That's what the police is leading up to. Be careful,
mister!"
But there were three witnesses to call before Lauriston was called
upon. It was becoming a mystery to him that his evidence was kept back
so long--he had been the first person to find the old man's dead body,
and it seemed, to his thinking, that he ought to have been called at a
very early stage of the proceedings. He was about to whisper his
convictions on this point to Melky, when a door was opened and Zillah
was escorted in by Ayscough, and led to the witness-box.
Zillah had already assumed the garments of mourning for her
grandfather. She was obviously distressed at being called to give
evidence, and the Coroner made her task as brief as possible. It
was--at that stage--little that he wanted to know. And Zillah told
little. She had gone out to do some shopping, at half-past-four on the
previous afternoon. She left her grandfather alone. He was then quite
well. He was in the front shop, doing nothing in particular. She was
away about an hour, when she returned to find Detective-Sergeant
Ayscough, whom she knew, and Mr. Lauriston, whom she also knew, in the
shop, and her grandfather dead in the parlour behind. At this stage of
her evidence, the Coroner remarked that he did not wish to ask Zillah
any further questions just then, but he asked her to remain in court.
Mrs. Goldmark had followed her, and she and Zillah sat down near Melky
and Lauriston--and Lauriston half believed that his own turn would now
come.
But Ayscough was next called--to give a brief, bald, matter-of-fact
statement of what he knew. He had gone to see Mr. Multenius on a
business affair--he was making enquiries about a stolen article which
was believed to have been pledged in the Edgware Road district. He told
how Lauriston ran into him as he entered the shop; what Lauriston said
to him; what he himself saw and observed; what happened afterwards. It
was a plain and practical account, with no indication of surprise,
bias, or theory--and nobody asked the detective any questions arising
out of it.
"Ain't nobody but you to call, now, mister," whispered Melky. "Mind
your p's and q's about them blooming rings--and watch that Parminter!"
But Melky was mistaken--the official eye did not turn upon Lauriston
but, upon the public benches of the court, as if it were seeking some
person there.
"There is a witness who has volunteered a statement to the police,"
said the Coroner. "I understand it is highly important. We had better
hear him at this point. Benjamin Hollinshaw!"
Melky uttered a curious groan, and glanced at Lauriston.
"Fellow what has a shop right opposite!" he whispered. "S'elp
me!--what's he got to say about it?"
Benjamin Hollinshaw came forward. He was a rather young, rather
self-confident, self-important sort of person, who strode up to the
witness-box as if he had been doing things of importance and moment all
his life, and was taking it quite as a matter of course that he should
do another. He took the oath and faced the court with something of an
air, as much as to imply that upon what he was about to say more
depended than any one could conceive. Invited to tell what he knew, he
told his story, obviously enjoying the telling of it. He was a
tradesman in Praed Street: a dealer in second-hand clothing, to be
exact; been there many years, in succession to his father. He
remembered yesterday afternoon, of course. About half-past-five o'clock
he was standing at the door of his shop. It was directly facing Daniel
Multenius's shop door. The darkness had already come on, and there was
also a bit of a fog in the street: not much, but hazy, as it were.
Daniel Multenius's window was lighted, but the light was confined to a
couple of gas-jets. There was a light in the projecting sign over the
side entrance to the pawnshop, down the passage. For the first few
minutes while he stood at his door, looking across to Multenius's, he
did not see any one enter or leave that establishment. But he then saw
a young man come along, from the Edgware Road direction, whose conduct
rather struck him. The young man, after sauntering past Multenius's
shop, paused, turned, and proceeded to peer in through the top panel of
the front door. He looked in once or twice in that way. Then he went to
the far end of the window and looked inside in the same prying fashion,
as if he wanted to find out who was within. He went to various parts of
the window, as if endeavouring to look inside. Finally, he stepped down
the side-passage and entered the door which led to the compartments
into which people turned who took things to pledge. He, Hollinshaw,
remained at his shop door for some minutes after that--in fact, until
the last witness came along. He saw Ayscough enter Multenius's front
door and immediately pause--then the door was shut, and he himself went
back into his own shop, his wife just then calling him to tea.
"You saw the young man you speak of quite clearly?" asked the Coroner.
"As clearly as I see you, sir," replied the witness.
"Do you see him here?"
Hollinshaw turned instantly and pointed to Lauriston.
"That's the young man, sir," he answered, with confidence.
Amidst a general craning of necks, Melky whispered to Lauriston.
"You'd ought to ha' had a lawyer, mister!" he said. "S'elp me, I'm a
blooming fool for not thinking of it! Be careful--the Coroner's
a-looking at you!"
As a matter of fact, every person in the court was staring at
Lauriston, and presently the Coroner addressed him.
"Do you wish to ask this witness any questions?" he enquired.
Lauriston rose to his feet.
"No!" he replied. "What he says is quite correct. That is, as regards
myself."
The Coroner hesitated a moment; then he motioned to Hollinshaw to leave
the box, and once more turned to Lauriston.
"We will have your evidence now," he said. "And--let me warn you that
there is no obligation on you to say anything which would seem to
incriminate you."
CHAPTER NINE
WHOSE WERE THOSE RINGS?
Paying no attention to another attempted murmur of advice from Melky,
who seemed to be on pins and needles, Lauriston at once jumped to his
feet and strode to the witness-box. The women in the public seats
glanced at him with admiring interest--such a fine-looking young
fellow, whispered one sentimental lady to another, to have set about a
poor old gentleman like Mr. Multenius! And everybody else, from the
Coroner to the newspaper reporter--who was beginning to think he would
get some good copy, after all, that morning--regarded him with
attention. Here, at any rate, was the one witness who had actually
found the pawnbroker's dead body.
Lauriston, his colour heightened a little under all this attention,
answered the preliminary questions readily enough. His name was Andrew
Carruthers Lauriston. His age--nearly twenty-two. He was a native of
Peebles, in Scotland--the only son of the late Andrew Lauriston. His
father was a minister of the Free Church. His mother was dead, too. He
himself had come to London about two years ago--just after his mother's
death. For the past few weeks he had lodged with Mrs. Flitwick, in Star
Street--that was his present address. He was a writer of
fiction--stories and novels. He had heard all the evidence already
given, including that of the last witness, Hollinshaw. All that
Hollinshaw had said was quite true. It was quite true that he had gone
to Multenius's pawnshop about five-thirty of the previous afternoon, on
his own business. He had looked in through both doors and window before
entering the side-door: he wanted to know who was in the shop--whether
it was Mr. Multenius, or his grand-daughter. He wanted to know that for
a simple reason--he had never done business with Mr. Multenius, never
even seen him that he remembered, but he had had one transaction with
Miss Wildrose, and he wished, if possible, to do his business with her.
As a matter of fact he saw nobody inside the shop when he looked in
through the front door and the window--so he went round to the
side-entrance.
All this had come in answer to questions put by the Coroner--who now
paused and looked at Lauriston not unkindly.
"I daresay you are already aware that there is, or may be, some amount
of suspicious circumstances attaching to your visit to this place
yesterday afternoon," he said. "Do you care to tell the court--in your
own way--precisely what took place, what you discovered, after you
entered the pawnshop?"
"That's exactly what I wish to do," answered Lauriston, readily. "I've
already told it, more than once, to the police and Mr. Multenius's
relatives--I'll tell it again, as plainly and briefly as I can. I went
into one of the compartments just within the side-door of the place. I
saw no one, and heard no one. I rapped on the counter--nobody came. So
I looked round the partition into the front shop. There was no one
there. Then I looked round the other partition into the back parlour,
the door of which was wide open. I at once saw an old man whom I took
to be Mr. Multenius. He was lying on the floor--his feet were towards
the open door, and his head on the hearth-rug, near the fender. I
immediately jumped over the counter, and went into the parlour. I saw
at once that he was dead--and almost immediately I hurried to the front
door, to summon assistance. At the door I ran into Mr. Ayscough, who
was entering as I opened the door. I at once told him of what I had
found. That is the plain truth as to all I know of the matter."
"You heard nothing of any person in or about the shop when you
entered?" asked the Coroner.
"Nothing!" replied Lauriston. "It was all perfectly quiet."
"What had you gone there to do?"
"To borrow some money--on two rings."
"Your own property?"
"My own property!"
"Had you been there before, on any errand of that sort?"
"Only once."
"When was that?"
"Last week," answered Lauriston. "I pawned my watch there."
"You have, in fact, been short of money?"
"Yes. But only temporarily--I was expecting money."
"I hope it has since arrived," said the Coroner.
"Mr. Ayscough was with me when it did arrive," replied Lauriston,
glancing at the detective. "We found it--two letters--at my lodgings
when he walked round there with me after what I have just told you of."
"You had done your business on that previous occasion with the
grand-daughter?" asked the Coroner. "You had not seen the old man,
then?"
"I never to my knowledge saw Mr. Multenius till I found him lying dead
in his own parlour," answered Lauriston.
The Coroner turned from the witness, and glanced towards the table at
which Mr. Parminter and the police officials sat. And Mr. Parminter
slowly rose and looked at Lauriston, and put his first question--in a
quiet, almost suave voice, as if he and the witness were going to have
a pleasant and friendly little talk together.
"So your ambition is to be a writer of fiction?" he asked.
"I am a writer of fiction!" replied Lauriston.
Mr. Parminter pulled out a snuff-box and helped himself to a pinch.
"Have you published much?" he enquired, drily.
"Two or three stories--short stories."
"Did they bring in much money?"
"Five pounds each."
"Have you done anything else for a living but that since you came to
London two years ago?"
"No, I haven't!"
"How much have you earned by your pen since you came, now?"
"About thirty pounds."
"Thirty pounds in two years. What have you lived on, then?"
"I had money of my own," replied Lauriston. "I had two hundred pounds
when I left home."
"And that gave out--when?" demanded Mr. Parminter.
"Last week."
"And so--you took your watch to the pawnshop. And--yesterday--your
expected money not having arrived, you were obliged to visit the
pawnshop again? Taking with you, you said just now, two rings--your own
property. Am I correct?"
"Quite correct--two rings--my own property."
Mr. Parminter turned and spoke to a police official, who, lifting aside
a sheet of brown paper which lay before him, revealed the tray of rings
which Lauriston and Ayscough had found on the table in Multenius's
parlour. At the same time, Mr. Parminter, lifting his papers, revealed
Lauriston's rings. He picked them up, laid them on the palm of his
hand, and held them towards the witness.
"Are these the rings you took to the pawnshop?" he asked.
"Yes!" replied Lauriston. "They were my mother's."
Mr. Parminter indicated the tray.
"Did you see this tray lying in the parlour in which you found the dead
man?" he enquired.
"I did."
"Did it strike you that your own rings were remarkably like the rings
in this tray?"
"No, it did not," answered Lauriston. "I know nothing about rings."
Mr. Parminter quietly passed the tray of rings to the Coroner, with
Lauriston's rings lying on a sheet of paper.
"Perhaps you will examine these things and direct the attention of the
jurymen to them?" he said, and turned to the witness-box again. "I want
to ask you a very particular question," he continued. "You had better
consider it well before answering it--it is more important--to
you--than may appear at first hearing. Can you bring any satisfactory
proof that those two rings which you claim to be yours, really are
yours?"