women. One of them dressed in deep black, thin lipped, with pale
round eyes and pursed-up mouth was Miss Amelia Smith, the sister with
whom the deceased had been living, and the other was Louisa Rumble
who held the position of housekeeper at the Woodforde Institute. The
latter was one of the first witnesses called: and her evidence was
intensely interesting because it gave one the first clue as to the
motive which underlay the hideous crime. The woman's testimony, you
must know, bore entirely on the question of housekeeping and of the
extraordinary scarcity of money in the richly-endowed Institute.
"'Often and often,' said the witness, a motherly old soul in a
flamboyant bonnet, 'did I complain to Miss Smith when she give me my
weekly allowance for the tradesmen's books: "'Tisn't enough, Miss
Smith," I says to 'er, "not to feed a family," I says, "let alone
thirty growin' boys and 'arf a dozen working girls." But Miss Smith
she just shook 'er 'ead and says: "Committee's orders, Mrs. Rumble, I
'ave no power." "Why don't you speak to the Captain?" I says to 'er,
"'e 'as the 'andling of the money, it is a scandal," I says. "Those
boys can't live on boiled bacon an' beans and not English nor Irish
bacon it ain't neither," I says. "Pore lambs! The money I 'ave
won't pay for beef or mutton for them, Miss Smith," I says, "and you
know it." But Miss Smith, she only shook 'er 'ead and says she would
speak to the Captain about it.'
"Asked whether she knew if deceased had actually spoken to the
secretary on the subject, Mrs. Rumble said most emphatically 'Yes!'
"'What's more, sir,' she went on, 'I can tell you that the very day
before she died, the pore lamb 'ad a reg'lar tiff with the Captain
about that there commissariat.'
"Mrs. Rumble had stumbled a little over the word, but strangely
enough no one tittered; the importance of the old woman's testimony
was impressed upon every mind and silenced every tongue. All eyes
were turned in the direction of the accused. He had flushed to the
roots of his hair, but otherwise stood quite still, with arms folded,
and a dull expression of hopelessness upon his good-looking face.
"The coroner had asked the witness how she knew that Miss Smith had
had words with Captain Marston: 'Because I 'eard them two 'aving
words, sir,' Mrs. Rumble replied. 'I'd been in the office to get my
money and my orders from Miss Smith, and we 'ad the usual talk about
American bacon and boiled beans, with which I don't 'old, not for
growing boys; then back I went to the kitchen, when I remembered I
'ad forgot to speak to Miss Smith about the scullery-maid, who'd been
saucy and given notice. So up I went again, and I was just a-goin'
to open the office door when I 'eard Miss Smith say quite loud and
distinck: "It is shameful," she says, "and I can't bear it," she
says, "and if you won't speak to the General then I will. He is
staying at the Queen's at Kurtmoor, I understand," she says, "and I
am goin' this very night to speak with him," she says, "as I can't
spend another night," she says, "with this on my mind." Then I give
a genteel cough and...'
"The worthy lady had got thus far in her story when her volubility
was suddenly checked by a violent expletive from the accused.
"'But this is damnable!' he cried, and no doubt would have said a lot
more, but a touch on his shoulder from the warders behind him quickly
recalled him to himself. He once more took up his outwardly calm
attitude, and Mrs. Rumble concluded her evidence amidst silence more
ominous than any riotous scene would have been.
"'I give a genteel cough,' she resumed with unruffled dignity, 'and
opened the door. Miss Smith, she was all flushed and I could see
that she'd been crying; but the Captain; 'e just walked out of the
room, and didn't say not another word.'
"By this time," the Old Man in the Corner went on dryly, "we must
suppose that the amateur detectives and the large body of
unintelligent public felt that they were being cheated. Never had
there been so simple a case. Here, with the testimony of Mrs.
Rumble, was the whole thing clear as daylight--motive, quarrel,
means, everything was there already. No chance of exercising those
powers of deduction so laboriously acquired by a systematic study of
detective fiction. Had it not been for the position of the accused
and his popularity in Broxmouth society, all interest in the case
would have departed in the wake of Mrs. Rumble, and at first, when
Miss Amelia Smith, sister of the deceased, was called, her appearance
only roused languid curiosity. Miss Amelia looked what, in fact, she
was: a retired school marm, and wore the regular hallmark of
impecunious and somewhat soured spinsterhood.
"'Janet often told me,' she said, in the course of her evidence,
'that she was quite sure there was roguery going on in the affairs of
the Institute, because she knew for a fact that subscriptions were
constantly pouring in from the public, far in excess of what was
being spent for the welfare of the boys. I often used to urge her to
go straight to the governors or even to the President himself about
the whole matter, but she would always give the same disheartened
reply. General Arkwright Jones, it seems, had made it a condition
when he accepted the presidency that he was never to be worried about
the administration of the place, and he refused to have anything to
do with the handling of the subscriptions; as for the governors, my
poor sister declared that they cared more for tennis parties than for
the welfare of a lot of poor officers' children.'
"But a moment or two later we realised that Miss Amelia Smith was
keeping her titbit of evidence until the end. It seems that she had
not even spoken about it to the police, determined as she was, no
doubt, to create a sensation for once in her monotonous and dreary
life. So now she pursed up her lips tighter than before, and after a
moment's dramatic silence, she said:
"'The day before her death, my poor sister was very depressed. In
the late afternoon, when she came in for tea, I could see that she
had been crying. I guessed, of course, what was troubling her, but I
didn't say much. Captain Franklin Marston was in the habit of
calling for Janet in the evening, and they would go for a walk
together; at eight o'clock on that sad evening I asked her whether
Captain Marston was coming as usual; whereupon she became quite
excited, and said: "No, no, I don't wish to see him!" and after a
while she added in a voice choked with tears: "Never again!"
"'About a quarter of an hour later,' Miss Amelia went on, 'Janet
suddenly took up her hat and coat. I asked her where she was going,
and she said to me: "I don't know, but I must put an end to all this.
I must know one way or the other." I tried to question her further,
but she was in an obstinate mood; when I remarked that it was raining
hard she said: "That's all right, the rain will do me good." And
when I asked her whether she wasn't going to meet Captain Marston
after all, she just gave me a look, but she made no reply. And so my
poor sister went out into the darkness and the rain, and I never
again saw her alive.'
"Miss Amelia paused just long enough to give true dramatic value to
her statement, and indeed there was nothing lukewarm now about the
interest which she aroused; then she continued:
"'As the clock was striking nine I was surprised to receive a visit
from the headmaster, Major Gubbins. He came with a message from
Captain Marston to my sister; I told him that Janet had gone out. He
appeared vexed, and told me that the Captain would be terribly
disappointed.'
"'What was this message?' the coroner asked, amidst breathless
silence.
"'That Janet would please meet Captain Marston at the Dog's Tooth
Cliff. He would wait for her there until nine o'clock.'"
The Old Man in the Corner gave a short, sharp laugh, and with loving
eyes contemplated his bit of string, in which he had just woven an
elegant and complicated knot. Then he said:
"Now it was at the foot of the Dog's Tooth Cliff that the dead body
of Janet Smith was found and some thirty yards further on the stick
which had last been seen in the hand of Captain Franklin Marston.
Nervous women gave a gasp, and scarcely dared to look at the accused,
for fear, no doubt, that they would see the hangman's rope around his
neck, but I took a good look at him then. He had uttered a loud
groan and buried his face in his hands, and I, with that unerring
intuition on which I pride myself, knew that he was acting. Yes,
deliberately acting a part--the part of shame and despair. You, no
doubt, would ask me why he should have done this. Well, you shall
understand presently. For the moment, and to all unthinking
spectators, the attitude of despair on the part of the accused
appeared fully justified.
"Later on we heard the evidence of Major Gubbins himself. He said
that about seven o'clock he met Captain Marston in the hall of the
Institute.
"'He appeared flushed and agitated,' the witness went on, very
reluctantly it seemed, but in answer to pressing questions put to him
by the coroner, 'and told me he was going for a walk. When I
remarked that it was raining hard, he retorted that the rain would do
him good. He didn't say where he was going, but presently he put his
hand on my shoulder and said in a tone of pleading and affection
which I shall never forget: "Old man," he said, "I want you to do
something for me. Tell Janet that I must see her again to-night; beg
her not to deny me. I will meet her at our usual place on the Dog's
Tooth Cliff. Tell her I will wait for her there until nine o'clock,
whatever the weather. But she must come. Tell her she must."
"'Unfortunately,' the Major continued, 'I was unable to deliver the
message immediately, as I had work to do in my office which kept me
till close on nine o'clock. Then I hurried down to the Smiths'
house, and just missed Miss Janet who, it seems, had already gone
out.'
"Asked why he had not spoken about this before, the Major replied
that he did not intend to give evidence at all unless he was
absolutely forced to do so, as a matter of duty. Captain Marston was
his friend, and he did not think that any man was called upon to give
what might prove damnatory evidence against his friend.
"All this sounded very nice and very loyal until we learned that
William Peryer, batman at the Institute, testified to having
overheard violent words between the headmaster and the secretary at
the very same hour when the latter was supposed to have made so
pathetic an appeal to his friend to deliver a message on his behalf.
Peryer swore that the two men were quarrelling and quarrelling
bitterly. The words he overheard were: 'You villain! You shall pay
for this!' But he was so upset and so frightened that he could not
state positively which of the two gentlemen had spoken them, but he
was inclined to think that it was Major Gubbins.
"And so the tangle grew, a tangled web that was dexterously being
woven around the secretary of the Institute. The two Broxmouth
visitors were recalled, and they once more swore positively to having
met Captain Marston on the Lovers' Walk at about eight o'clock of
that fateful evening. They spoke to him and they noticed the stick
which he was carrying. They were on their way home from Kurtmoor,
and they met the Captain some two hundred yards or so before they
came to the Dog's Tooth Cliff. Of this they were both quite
positive. The lady remembered coming to the cliff a few minutes
later: she was nervous in the dark and therefore the details of the
incident impressed themselves upon her memory. Subsequently when
they were nearing home they met a lady who might or might not have
been the deceased; they did not know her by sight and the person they
met had her hat pulled down over her eyes and the collar of her coat
up to her ears. It was raining hard then, and they themselves were
hurrying along and paid no attention to passers-by.
"We also heard that at about nine o'clock James Hoggs and his wife,
who live in a cottage not very far from the Dog's Tooth Cliff, heard
a terrifying scream. They were just going to bed and closing up for
the night. Hoggs had the front door open at the moment and was
looking at the weather. It was raining, but nevertheless he picked
up his hat and ran out toward the cliff. A moment or two later he
came up against a man whom he hailed; it was very dark, but he
noticed that the man was engaged in wrapping a muffler round his
neck. He asked him whether he had heard a scream, but the man said:
'No, I've not!' then hurried quickly out of sight. As Hoggs heard
nothing more, or saw anything, he thought that perhaps, after all, he
and his missis had been mistaken, so he turned back home and went to
bed.
"I think," the Old Man in the Corner continued thoughtfully, "that I
have now put before you all the most salient points in the chain of
evidence collected by the police against the accused. There were not
many faulty links in the chain, you will admit. The motive for the
hideous crime was clear enough: for there was the fraudulent
secretary and the unfortunate girl who had suspected the defalcations
and was threatening to go and denounce her lover either to the
President of the Institute or to the governors. And the method was
equally clear: the meeting in the dark and the rain on the lonely
cliff, the muffler quickly thrown around the victim's mouth to
smother her screams, the blow with the stick, the push over the edge
of the cliff. The stick stood up as an incontestable piece of
evidence. The absence from home of the accused during the greater
part of that night had been testified by his landlady, whilst his
presence on the scene of the crime some time during the evening was
not disputed.
"As a matter of fact, the only points in the man's favour were the
strands of wool found sticking to the girl's hatpin, and Hoggs's
story of the man whom he had seen in the dark, engaged in readjusting
a muffler around his neck. Unfortunately Hoggs, when more closely
questioned on that subject, became incoherent and confused, as men of
his class are apt to do when pinned down to a definite statement.
"Anyway, the accused was committed for trial on the coroner's
warrant, and, of course, reserved his defence. You probably, like
the rest of the public, kept up a certain amount of interest in the
Cliff murder, as it was popularly called, for a time, and then
allowed your mind to dwell on other matters and forgot poor Captain
Franklin Marston who was languishing in gaol under such a horrible
accusation. Subsequently your interest in him revived when he was
brought up for trial the other day at the Barchester Assizes. In the
meanwhile he had secured the services of Messrs. Charnton and
Inglewood, the noted solicitors, who had engaged Mr. Provost Boon,
K.C., to defend their client.
"You know as well as I do what happened at the trial, and how Mr.
Boon turned the witnesses for the Crown inside out and round about
until they contradicted themselves and one another all along the
line. The defence was conducted in a masterly fashion. To begin
with, the worthy housekeeper, Mrs. Rumble, after a stiff
cross-examination, which lasted nearly an hour, was forced to admit
that she could not swear positively to the exact words which she
overheard between the deceased and Captain Marston. All that she
could swear to was that the Captain and his sweetheart had apparently
had a tiff. Then, as to Miss Amelia Smith's evidence; it also merely
went to prove that the lovers had had a quarrel; there was nothing
whatever to say that it was on the subject of finance, nor that
deceased had any intention either of speaking to the President about
it or of handing in her resignation to the governors.
"Next came the question of Major Gubbins's story of the message which
he had been asked by his friend to deliver to the deceased. Now
accused flatly denied that story, and denied it on oath. The whole
thing, he declared, was a fabrication on the part of the Major who,
far from being his friend, was his bitter enemy and unsuccessful
rival. In support of this theory William Peryer's evidence was cited
as conclusive. He had heard the two men quarrelling at the very
moment when accused was alleged to have made a pathetic appeal to his
friend. Peryer had heard one of them say to the other: 'You villain!
You shall pay for this!' And in very truth, the unfortunate Captain
was paying for it, in humiliation and racking anxiety.
"Then there came the great, the vital question of the stick and of
the strands of wool so obviously torn out of a muffler. With regard
to the stick, the accused had stated that in the course of his walk
he had caught his foot against a stone and stumbled, and that the
stick had fallen out of his hand and over the edge of the cliff. Now
this statement was certainly borne out by the fact that, as eminent
counsel reminded the jury, the stick was found more than thirty yards
away from the body. As for the muffler, it was a graver point still;
strands of wool were found sticking to the girl's hatpin, and James
Hoggs, after hearing a scream at nine o'clock that evening, ran out
towards the cliff and came across a man who was engaged in
readjusting a muffler round his throat. That was incontestable.
"Of course, Mr. Boon argued, it was easy enough to upset a witness of
the type of James Hoggs, but an English jury's duty was not to fasten
guilt on the first man who happens to be handy, but to see justice
meted out to innocent and guilty alike. The evidence of the muffler,
argued the eminent counsel, was proof positive of the innocence of
the accused. The witnesses who saw him in the Lovers' Walk on that
fateful night had declared most emphatically that he was not wearing
a muffler. Then where was the man with the muffler? Where was the
man who was within a few yards of the scene of the crime five minutes
after James Hoggs had heard the scream--the man who had denied
hearing the scream although both Hoggs and his wife heard it over a
quarter of a mile away?
"'Yes, gentlemen of the jury,' the eminent counsel concluded with a
dramatic gesture, 'it is the man with the muffler who murdered the
unfortunate girl. If he is innocent why is he not here to give
evidence? There are no side tracks that lead to the cliffs at this
point, so the man with the muffler must have seen something or some
one; he must know something that would be of invaluable assistance in
the elucidation of this sad mystery. Then why does he not come
forward? I say because he dare not. But let the police look for
him, I say. The accused is innocent; he is the victim of tragic
circumstances, but his whole life, his war-record, his affection for
the deceased, all proclaim him to be guiltless of such a dastardly
crime, and above all there stands the incontestable proof of his
innocence, the muffler, gentlemen of the jury--the muffler!'
"He said a lot more than that, of course," the Old Man in the Corner
went on, chuckling dryly to himself, "and said it a lot better than
ever I can repeat it, but I have given you the gist of what he said.
You know the result of the trial. The accused was acquitted, the
jury having deliberated less than a quarter of an hour. There was no
getting away from that muffler, even though every other circumstance
pointed to Marston as the murderer of Janet Smith.
"On the whole, his acquittal was a popular one, although many who
were present at the trial shook their heads, and thought that if they
had been on the jury Marston would not have got off so easily, but
for the most part these sceptics were not Broxmouth people. In
Broxmouth the Captain was personally liked, and the proclamation of
his innocence was hailed with enthusiasm; and, what's more, those
same champions of the good-looking secretary--they were the women
mostly--looked askance on the headmaster, who, they averred, had
woven a Machiavellian net for trapping and removing from his path for
ever a hated and successful rival.
"The police have received a perfect deluge of anonymous
communications suggesting that Major Gubbins was identical with the
mysterious man with the muffler, but, of course, such a suggestion is
perfectly absurd, since at the very hour when James Hoggs heard the
scream, and a very few minutes before he met the man with the
muffler, Major Gubbins was paying his belated visit to Miss Amelia
Smith and delivering the alleged message. Even those ladies who
disliked the headmaster most cordially had to admit that he could not
very well have been in two places at the same time. The Dog's Tooth
Cliff is a good half hour's walk from Miss Smith's house, and the
Lovers' Walk itself is not accessible to cyclists or motors.
"And thus, to all intents and purposes, the Cliff murder has remained
a mystery, but it won't be one for long. Have I not told you that
you may expect important developments within the next few days? And
I am seldom wrong. Already in this evening's paper you will have
read that the entire executive of the Woodforde Institute has placed
its resignation in the hands of the governors, that several august
personages have withdrawn their names from the list of patrons, and
that though the President has been implored not to withdraw his name,
he has proved adamant on the subject, and even refused to recommend
successors to the headmaster, the secretary, or the matron; in fact,
he has seemingly washed his hands of the whole concern."
"But surely," I now broke in, seeing that the Old Man in the Corner
threatened to put away his piece of string and to leave me without
the usual epilogue to his interesting narrative, "surely General Sir
Arkwright Jones cannot be blamed for the scandal which undoubtedly
has dimmed the fortunes of the Woodforde Institute?"
"Cannot be blamed?" the Old Man in the Corner retorted sarcastically.
"Cannot be blamed for entering into a conspiracy with his secretary
and his head-master to defraud the Institute, and then to silence for
ever the one voice that might have been raised in accusation against
him."
"Sir Arkwright Jones?" I exclaimed incredulously, for indeed the idea
appeared to me preposterous then, as the General's name was almost a
household word before the catastrophe. "Impossible!"
"Impossible!" he reiterated. "Why? He murdered Janet Smith; of that
you will be as convinced within the next few days as I am at this
hour. That the three men were in collusion I have not the shadow of
doubt. Marston only made love to Janet Smith in order to secure her
silence; but in this he failed, and the girl boldly accused him of
roguery as soon as she found him out. It would be inconceivable to
suppose that being the bright, intelligent girl that she admittedly
was, she could remain for ever in ignorance of the defalcations in
the books; she must and did tax her lover of irregularities, she must
have and indeed did threaten to put the whole thing before the
governors. So much for the lovers' quarrel overheard by Mrs. Rumble.
"I believe that the fate of the poor girl was decided on then and
there by two of the scoundrels; it only remained to consult with
their other accomplice as to the best means for carrying their
hideous project through. Janet had announced her determination to go
to Kurtmoor that self-same evening, the only question was which of
those three miscreants would meet her in the darkness and solitude of
the Lovers' Walk. But in order at the outset to throw dust in the
eyes of the public and the police and not appear to be in any way
associated with one another, Marston and Gubbins made pretence of a
violent quarrel which Peryer overheard; then Gubbins, in order to
make sure that the poor girl would carry out her intention of going
over to Kurtmoor that evening, went to her house with the supposed
message from Marston, and incidentally secured thereby his own alibi.
This made him safe.
"Marston in the meanwhile went to arrange matters with Arkwright
Jones. His position was, of course, more difficult than that of
Gubbins. If there was to be murder--and my belief is that the
scoundrels had been resolved on murder for some time before--the
first suspicion would inevitably fall on the secretary who had kept
the books and who had had the handling of the money. The miscreants
had some sort of vague plan in their heads: of this there can be no
doubt; they were only procrastinating, hoping against hope that
chance would continue to favour them. But now the hour had come, the
danger was imminent; within the next four-and-twenty hours Janet
Smith, being promised no redress on the part of the President, would
place the whole matter before the governors. _Unless she was
effectually made to hold her tongue_.