CHECKLEY'S CASE
That evening Mr. Checkley was not in his customary place at the
_Salutation_, where his presence was greatly desired. He arrived late,
when it wanted only a quarter to eleven. The faded barrister was left
alone in the room, lingering over the day's paper with his empty glass
beside him. Mr. Checkley entered with an air of triumph, and something
like the elastic spring of a victor in his aged step. He called Robert,
and ordered at his own expense, for himself, a costly drink--a compound
of Jamaica rum, hot water, sugar and lemon, although it was an evening
in July and, for the time of year, almost pleasantly warm. Nor did he
stop here, for with the manner of a man who just for once--to mark a
joyful occasion--plunges, he rattled his money in his pocket and ordered
another for the barrister. 'For,' he said, 'this evening I have done a
good work, and I will mark the day.'
When the glasses were brought, he lifted his and cried: 'Come, let us
drink to the confusion of all Rogues, great and small. Down with 'em!'
'Your toast, Mr. Checkley,' replied the barrister, 'would make my
profession useless; if there were no rogues, there would be no Law.
That, however, would injure me less than many of my brethren. I drink,
therefore, confusion to Rogues, great and small. Down with 'em.--This is
excellent grog.--Down with 'em!' So saying, he finished his glass and
departed to his garret, where, thanks to the grog, he slept nobly, and
dreamed that he was a Master in Chancery.
The reason of this unaccustomed mirth was as follows: Checkley by this
time had fully established in his own mind the conclusion that the
prime mover in the deed--the act--the Thing--was none other than the new
partner, the young upstart, whom he hated with a hatred
unextinguishable. He was as certain about him as he had been certain
about Athelstan Arundel, and for much the same reasons. Very well. As
yet he had not dared to speak: King Pharaoh's chief scribe would have
had the same hesitation at proffering any theory concerning Joseph.
To-night, however---- But you shall hear.
Everybody was out of the office at half-past seven, when he left it. He
walked round the empty rooms, looking into unlocked drawers--one knows
not what he expected to find. He looked into Mr. Austin's room and shook
his fist and grinned at the empty chair.
'I'll have you yet,' he said. 'Oh, fox! fox! I'll have you, if I wait
for thirty years?'
It adds an additional pang to old age when one feels that if the end
comes prematurely, when one is only ninety or so, there may be a revenge
unfinished. I have always envied the dying hero who had no enemies to
forgive because he had killed them all.
When Checkley left the place he walked across the Inn and so into
Chancery Lane, where he crossed over and entered Gray's Inn by the
Holborn archway. He lingered in South Square: he walked all round it
twice: he read the names on the door-posts, keeping all the time an eye
on No. 22. Presently, he was rewarded. A figure which he knew, tall and
well proportioned, head flung back, walked into the Inn and made
straight for No. 22. It was none other than Athelstan Arundel.--The old
man crept into the entrance, where he was partly hidden; he could see
across the Square, himself unseen. Athelstan walked into the house and
up the stairs: the place was quiet: Checkley could hear his steps on the
wooden stairs: he heard him knock at a door--he heard the door open and
the voices of men talking.
'Ah!' said Checkley, 'now we've got 'em!'
Well--but this was not all. For presently there came into the Inn young
Austin himself.
'Oh!' said Checkley, finishing his sentence--'on toast. Here's the
other; here they are--both.'
In fact, George, too, entered the house known as No. 22 and walked up
the stairs.
Checkley waited for no more. He ran out of the Inn and he called a cab.
If he had waited a little longer, he would have seen the new partner
come out of the house and walk away: if he had followed him up the
stairs, he would have seen him knocking at the closed outer door of Mr.
Edmund Gray. If he had knocked at the door opposite, he would have found
Mr. Athelstan Arundel in the room with his own acquaintance, Mr. Freddy
Carstone, the Cambridge scholar and the ornament of their circle at the
_Salutation_. But being in a hurry, he jumped to a conclusion and called
a cab.
He drove to Palace Gardens, where Sir Samuel had his town-house. Sir
Samuel was still at dinner. He sat down in the hall, meekly waiting.
After a while the Service condescended to ask if he wished a message to
be taken in to Sir Samuel.
'From his brother's--from Mr. Dering's office, please tell him. From his
brother's office--on most important business--most important--say.'
Sir Samuel received him kindly, made him sit down, and gave him a glass
of wine. 'Now,' he said, 'tell me what it all means. My brother has had
a robbery--papers and certificates and things--of course they are
stopped. He won't lose anything. But it is a great nuisance, this kind
of thing.'
'He has already lost four months' dividends--four months, sir, on
thirty-eight thousand pounds. And do you really think that he will get
back his papers?'
'Certainly--or others. They are, after all, only vouchers. How is my
brother?'
'Well, Sir Samuel, better than you'd think likely. This morning, to be
sure----' He stopped, being loth to tell how his master had lost
consciousness. 'Well, sir, I've been thinking that the property was
gone, and from what I know of them as had to do with the job, I thought
there was mighty little chance of getting it back. It kept me awake. Oh!
it's an awful sum. Close upon forty thousand pounds. He can stand that
and double that----'
'And double that again,' said Sir Samuel. 'I should hope so.'
'Certainly, sir. But it's a blow-- I can feel for him. I'm only a clerk;
but I've saved a bit and put out a bit, Sir Samuel. Cheese-parings,
you'd say; but I've enjoyed saving it up--oh! I've enjoyed it. I don't
think there is any pleasure in life like saving up--watching it
grow--and grow and grow--it grows like a pretty flower, doesn't it?--and
adding to it. Ah!' he sighed, and drank his glass of wine. 'Sir Samuel,
if I was to lose my little savings, it would break my heart. I'm an old
man, and so is he--it would break me up, it would indeed. Ever since
yesterday morning, I've been thinking whether anything could happen to
make me lose my money. There's Death in the thought. Sir Samuel--for an
old man--and a small man--like me--there's Death in the thought.'
'Don't tell anybody where your investments are, and lock up the papers,
Checkley.--Now, what do you want me to do for you?'
'I want you to listen to me for half an hour, Sir Samuel, and to give me
your advice, for the business is too much for me.'
'Go on, then. I am listening.'
'Very well. Now, sir, I don't know if I shall be able to make my case
clear--but I will try. I haven't been about Mr. Dering for fifty years
for nothing, I hope. The case is this. Nine years ago, a man calling
himself Edmund Gray took Chambers in South Square, Gray's Inn, forty
pounds a year. He is represented as being an elderly man. He has paid
his rent regularly, but he visits his Chambers at irregular intervals.
Eight years ago there was a forgery at your brother's. The cheque was
payable to the order of Edmund Gray; mark that. The money was paid----'
'I remember. Athelstan Arundel was accused or suspected of the thing.'
'He was. And he ran away to avoid being arrested. Remember that. And
he's never been heard of since. Well, the series of forgeries by which
the shares and stocks belonging to Mr. Dering have been stolen are all
written in the same handwriting as the first, and are all carried on in
the name and for the order of Edmund Gray. That you would acknowledge in
a moment if you saw the papers: there are the same lines and curves of
the letters----'
'Which proves, I should say, that Athelstan never did it.'
'Wait a minute. Don't let's be in a hurry. The forgers by themselves
could do nothing. They wanted some one in the office, some one always
about the place: some one who could get at the safe: some one who could
get from the office what the man outside wanted: some one to intercept
the letters----'
'Well?'
'That person, Sir Samuel, I have found.'
Sir Samuel sat up. 'You have found him?'
'I have. And here's my difficulty. Because, Sir Samuel, he is your
brother's new partner; and unless we lodge him in the Jug before many
days, he will be your own brother-in-law.'
Sir Samuel changed colour, and got up to see that the door behind the
screen was shut. 'This is a very serious thing to say, Checkley--a very
serious thing.'
'Oh! I will make it quite plain. First, as to opportunities; next, as to
motives; third, as to facts. For opportunities, then. Latterly, for the
last six months, he's been working in the Chief's office nearly all day
long. There he sat, at the little table between the windows, just half
turned round to catch the light, with the open safe within easy reach of
his hand when the Chief wasn't looking; or when--because he doesn't
always touch the bell--Mr. Dering would bring papers into my office and
leave him alone--ah! alone--with the safe. That's for opportunities. Now
for motives. He's been engaged for two years, I understand, to a young
lady----'
'To Lady Dering's sister.'
'Just so, sir. And I believe, until the unexpected luck of his
partnership, against the wish of Lady Dering's family.'
'That is true.'
'He had two hundred a year. And he had nothing else--no prospects and no
chances. So I think you will acknowledge that there's sufficient motive
here for him to try anything.'
'Well, if poverty is a motive--no doubt he had one.'
'Poverty was the motive. You couldn't have a stronger motive. There
isn't in the whole world a stronger motive--though, I admit, some young
men who are pore may keep honest. I did. Mr. Austin, I take it, is one
of those that don't keep honest. That's for motive. Now for facts. Mr.
Austin had nothing to do with the forgery eight years ago; he was only
an articled clerk beginning. But he knew young Arundel who did the
thing, remember. That cheque was written by young Arundel, who ran away.
The letters of this year are written by _the same hand_--by your
brother-in-law, Sir Samuel--by Mr. Athelstan Arundel.'
'But he is gone: he has disappeared: nobody knows where he is.'
Checkley laughed. This was a moment of triumph. 'He is back again, Sir
Samuel. I have seen him.'
'Where? Athelstan back again?'
'I will tell you. All these forgeries use the name of Edmund Gray, of 22
South Square, Gray's Inn. I have told you that before. When the thing is
discovered, young Austin goes off and makes himself mighty busy tracking
and following up, hunting down, doing detective work, and so on. Oh! who
so busy as he? Found out that Edmund Gray was an old man, if you please;
and this morning again, so cheerful and lively that it does your heart
good--going to settle it all in a day or two. Yah! As if I couldn't see
through his cunning! Why! I'm seventy-five years old. I'm up to every
kind of dodge: what will happen next, unless you cut in? First, we shall
hear that Mr. Edmund Gray has gone abroad, or has vanished, or
something. When he's quite out of the way, we shall find out that he did
the whole thing--him and nobody else. And then if there's no more money
to be made by keeping the papers, they will all come back--from Edmund
Gray, penitent--oh! I know.'
'But about Athelstan Arundel?'
'To be sure. I'm an old man, Sir Samuel, and I talk too much. Well, I go
most nights to a parlour in Holborn--the _Salutation_ it is--where the
company is select and the liquor good. There I saw him a week ago. He
was brought in by one of the company. I knew him at once, and he wasn't
in hiding. Used his own name. But he didn't see me. No--no, thinks I. We
won't give this away. I hid my face behind a newspaper. He's been
staying in Camberwell for the last eight years, I believe, all the
time.'
'In Camberwell? Why in Camberwell?'
'In bad company--as I was given to understand. In Prodigal Son's
company.'
'You don't mean this, Checkley? Is it really true?'
'It is perfectly true, Sir Samuel. I have seen him. He was dressed like
a Prince--velvet jacket and crimson tie and white waistcoat. And he
walked in with just his old insolence--nose up, head back, looking round
as if we were not fit to be in the same room with him--just as he used
to do.'
'By Jove!' said Sir Samuel, thrusting his hands into his pockets. 'What
will Hilda say--I mean--Lady Dering, say, when she hears it?'
'There is more to hear, Sir Samuel--not much more. But it drives the
nail home--a nail in their coffin, I hope and trust.'
'Go on. Let me hear all.'
'You've caught on, have you, to all I said about Edmund Gray of 22 South
Square--him as was mentioned eight years ago--and about the handwriting
being the same now as then?'
'Yes.'
'So that the same hand which forged the cheque then has forged the
letters now?'
'Quite so.'
'I said then--and I say now--that young Arundel forged that cheque. I
say now that he is the forger of these letters, and that Austin stood in
with him and was his confidant. What do you think of this? To-night,
after office, I thought I would go and have a look at 22 South Square.
So I walked up and down on the other side: my eyes are pretty good
still: I thought I should perhaps see something presently over the way.
So I did. Who should come into the Square, marching along as if the old
place, Benchers and all, belonged to him, but Mr. Athelstan Arundel! He
pulled up at No. 22--No. 22, mind--Edmund Gray's number--he walked
up-stairs--I heard him--to the second floor--Edmund Gray's floor.'
'Good Lord!' cried Sir Samuel. 'This is suspicious with a vengeance.'
'Oh! but I haven't done. I stayed where I was, wondering if he would
come down, and whether I should meet him and ask him what he was doing
with Edmund Gray. And then--I was richly rewarded--oh! rich was the
reward, for who should come into the Square but young Austin himself!
He, too, went up the stairs of No. 22. And there I left them both, and
came away--came to put the case into your hands.'
'What do you want me to do?'
'I want you to advise me. What shall I do? There is my case complete--I
don't suppose you want a more complete case--for any Court of Justice.'
'Well, as for that, I'm not a lawyer. As a City man, if a clerk of mine
was in such a suspicious position as young Austin, I should ask him for
full explanations. You've got no actual proof, you see, that he, or
Athelstan either, did the thing.'
'I beg your pardon, Sir Samuel. I'm only a clerk, and you're a great
City Knight, but I don't know what better proof you want. Don't I see
young Austin pretending not to know who Edmund Gray is, and then going
up to his Chambers to meet his pal Athelstan Arundel? Ain't that proof?
Don't I tell you that the same hand had been at work in both forgeries?
Isn't that hand young Arundel's?'
'Checkley, I see that you are greatly interested in this matter----'
'I would give--ah!--twenty pounds--yes, twenty hard-earned pounds to see
those two young gentlemen in the Dock--where they shall be--where they
shall be,' he repeated. His trembling voice, cracked with old age,
seemed unequally wedded to the malignity of his words and his
expression.
'One of these young gentlemen,' said Sir Samuel, 'is my brother-in-law.
The other, unless this business prevents, will be my brother-in-law
before many days. You will, therefore, understand that my endeavours
will be to keep them both out of the Dock.'
'The job will be only half complete without; but still--to see young
Austin drove out of the place--with disgrace--same as the other one
was--why, that should be something--something to think about
afterwards.'
Checkley went away. Sir Samuel sat thinking what was best to be done.
Like everybody else, he quite believed in Athelstan's guilt. Granted
that fact, he saw clearly that there was another very black-looking case
against him and against George Austin. What should be done? He would
consult his wife. He did so.
'What will Elsie say?' she asked. 'Yet, sooner or later, she must be
told. I suppose that will be my task. But she can wait a little. Do you
go to-morrow morning to Mr. Dering and tell him. The sooner he knows the
better.'
* * * * *
You now understand why Mr. Checkley was so joyous when he arrived at the
_Salutation_, and why he proposed that toast.
In the morning Sir Samuel saw his brother and whispered in his ear the
whole of the case, as prepared and drawn up by Checkley. 'What do you
say?' he asked when he had concluded.
'I say nothing.' Mr. Dering had heard all the points brought out one
after the other without the least emotion. 'There is nothing to be
said.'
'But, my dear brother, the evidence!'
'There is no evidence. It is all supposition. If Athelstan committed the
first forgery--there is no evidence to show that he did--if he has been
living all these years a life of profligacy in England--I have evidence
to the contrary in my own possession--if he was tempted by poverty--if
young Austin was also tempted by poverty--if the two together--or either
separately--could undertake, under temptation, risks so terrible--you
see, the whole case is built upon an "if."'
'Yet it holds together at every point. It is a perfect case. Who else
could do it? Checkley certainly could not. That old man--that old
servant.'
'I agree with you, Checkley could not do it. Not because he is too
old--age has nothing to do with crime--nor because he is an old servant.
He could not do it because he is not clever enough. This kind of thing
wants grasp and vision. Checkley hasn't got either. He might be a
confederate. He may have stopped the letters. He is miserly--he might be
tempted by money. Yet I do not think it possible.'
'No--I cannot believe that,' said Sir Samuel.
'Yet it is quite as difficult to believe such a thing of young Austin.
Oh! I know everything is possible. He belongs to a good family: he has
his own people to think of: he is engaged--he has always led a blameless
life. Yet--yet--everything is possible.'
'I have known cases in the City where the blameless seeming was only a
pretence and a cloak--most deplorable cases, I assure you--the cloak to
hide a profligate life.'
'I think if that were so, I should not be deceived. Outward signs in
such cases are not wanting. I know the face of the profligate, open or
concealed. Young Austin presents no sign of anything but a regular and
blameless life. For all these reasons, I say, we ought to believe him
incapable of any dishonourable action. But I have been in practice for
fifty years--fifty years--during this long period I know not how many
cases--what are called family cases--have been in my hands. I have had
in this room the trembling old profligate of seventy, ready to pay any
price rather than let the thing be known to his old wife, who believes
in him, and his daughters, who worship him. I have had the middle-aged
man of standing in the City imploring me to buy back the paper--at any
price--which would stamp him with infamy. I have had the young man on
his knees begging me never to let his father know the forgery, the
theft, the villainy, the seduction--what not. And I have had women of
every age sitting in that chair confessing their wickedness, which they
do for the most part with hard faces and cold eyes, not like the men,
with shame and tears. The men fall being tempted by want of money, which
means loss of pride and self-respect, and position, and comfort. There
ought to have been a clause in the Litany, "From want of money at all
ages and on all occasions, Good Lord, deliver us."'
'True--most true,' said Sir Samuel. '"From want of money"--I shall say
this next time I go to church--"from want of money at all ages, and
particularly when one is getting on in years, and has a title to keep
up--Good Lord, deliver us." Very good indeed, brother. I shall quote
this in the City. To-morrow, I have to make a speech at the Helmet
Makers' Company. I shall quote this very remarkable saying of yours.'
Mr. Dering smiled gravely. 'A simple saying, indeed. The greatest
temptation of any is the want of money. Why, there is nothing that the
average man will not do rather than be without money. He is helpless: he
is a slave: he is in contempt: without money.--Austin, you tell me, was
tempted by want of money. I think not. He was poor: he had enough to
keep him: he was frugal: he had simple wants: he had never felt the want
of money. No--I do not think that he was tempted by poverty. Everything
is possible--this is possible.--But, brother, silence. If you speak
about this, you may injure the young man, supposing him to be innocent.
If he is guilty, you will put him on his guard. And, mind, I shall show
no foolish mercy--none--when we find the guilty parties. All the more
reason, therefore, for silence.'
Sir Samuel promised. But he had parted with the secret--he had given it
into the keeping of a woman.