“NINE POINTS OF THE LAW”
THE man Franklin paused again for a few moments then, in response to my
repeated question, said—
“To the boy Charles old Mr. Burrell gave the name of Wooton, the
present-day corruption of Wollerton, and he was brought up by a farmer’s
wife at Sutton Bridge for the first ten years of his life, being
afterwards sent to school at Hythe, in Kent. At the time I discovered
all these facts Dorothy Wollerton, who is, of course, unaware of her
real name, was twenty-two, and her brother Charles a year and three
months younger—a smart young man, who had entered the office of a
ship-broker in Leadenhall Street. Having obtained this information in
secret, together with the whereabouts of both of them, I gave it to my
companions, whereupon they at once set to work upon an ingenious plan.
“Miss Drummond—as she believed herself to be—was informed by letter
from me as a solicitor that in future she would be under the
guardianship of Mr. Charles Purvis, of St. Peter’s Square, Hammersmith,
a gentleman who had been appointed by the late Mr. Burrell before his
death, while at the same time Bennett got on friendly terms with Charles
Wooton. Thus, for the second time in their lives, brother and sister met
at Purvis’ house, and, being unaware of their relationship, fell in love
with each other.”
The man paused for a moment, regarding the astonishment upon the faces
of all of us. Then he went on, saying—
“It must be borne in mind that Charles Wooton, being the youngest, was
heir to the estate of Bartholomew da Schorno. He was a shrewd young
fellow, however, and appears very soon to have entertained suspicions of
Bennett and the others, while having made inquiries regarding Purvis, he
found him to be scarcely the sort of man who should be guardian to
Dorothy. He therefore refused to associate with us, and for some weeks
we saw nothing of him. Bennett and Purvis, however, prevailed upon
Dorothy to invite him one evening to the house at Kilburn, which, by the
way, Bennett had taken furnished. He went there on an invitation to
supper, and—well, you know the rest. He was stabbed to the heart by
Bennett, while I, not knowing what was intended, escorted Dorothy to the
house, where the others compelled her to touch the dead man’s face,
after which Bennett and Purvis pointed out to her that she had acted as
accessory of the crime.”
“The fiends!” I cried. “And the body—how was it disposed of?”
“It was taken in one of those zinc-lined air-tight travelling chests and
left in the cloak-room at Euston, where, I believe, it will still be
found. Of course, the assassination of Charles served two distinct
purposes, first to conceal certain ugly facts which he had learnt about
both Purvis and Bennett, and secondly his death made Dorothy heiress. It
was the idea of my three companions that if the treasure were discovered
Purvis should at once marry her under threats of exposure and thus
obtain the money, distributing a certain portion to each of us.”
“An amazingly ingenious conspiracy!” I said, utterly bewildered at the
strange story he had related. “Then to this moment Dorothy is unaware
that Charles was her brother?”
“After his death Bennett told her, but she is in entire ignorance that
her real name is Wollerton, or that she is heiress to the Italian
treasure.”
A silence fell between us, but it was broken by Franklin, who,
continuing, declared—
“All that I have told you is absolutely the truth. Knowing that you will
keep faith with me I have attempted to conceal nothing. Purvis is aware
that you are Dorothy’s lover, and he and his friends also know that you
carry in your pocket the decipher of the document in the Record Office.
Hence their conspiracy to kill you and obtain it. Be warned,” he urged.
“Do not keep any appointment with Dorothy, otherwise it may prove fatal
to you.”
“Bennett is, I suppose, unaware that I am the man he marooned ten years
ago?” remarked Usher.
“I believe so. He does not know your name,” was Franklin’s response.
Whereat my companion smiled grimly at thought of the revenge that was to
be ours ere many days.
* * * * *
Martin Franklin, although an unscrupulous man, nevertheless kept his
word. Probably it was because he feared lest we should give information
to the police, and he believed it best to be on the side of the victors
rather than the vanquished.
Before we had allowed him to go he gave us his solemn promise to hold no
communication with Bennett or the others, so that they would not know of
our success or of how we had been forewarned of the fresh conspiracy
against me.
Leaving Reilly and Usher to guard the treasure I walked with the
scoundrelly lawyer to the edge of the wood, where, with a show of
politeness that I knew was feigned, he bade me good-day and left, not,
however, before I had warned him in a few plain words of the consequence
of any betrayal of our secret. If what he had told us were actually
true, then we had now no fear of the seizure of the gold as
treasure-trove. The story, however, seemed to us so romantic as to be
hardly credible.
However, the removal of the chests and bags was our next consideration,
and with that object I walked into Tickencote village, and there
obtained a cart and drove on to Stamford. There I purchased a quantity
of rope and coarse packing-canvas, conveying them to the spot where my
two companions still sat on the oak stump smoking, awaiting me. Together
we worked on during the whole afternoon packing both chests and bags in
the canvas so that their antique nature should attract no attention.
Then, in accordance with an arrangement I had made in Stamford, a
railway trolley met us on the high road at four o’clock, and we
conducted its driver around the wood until we came to a drift by which
the woodmen were evidently in the habit of entering with their drags. At
first the man seemed rather surprised at the nature of his load, but a
crisp five-pound note in his palm effectually closed his mouth, and in
an hour we had the satisfaction of getting the whole mounted on the
trolley, Reilly riding to Stamford Railway Station beside the carter. We
had sealed the knots of the cords of each packet with black sealing-wax,
which I had bought with the packing materials, therefore at the station
we ordered a closed truck, saw them stowed inside for London, and, as we
declared the freight to be valuable, the key was handed to me.