REVELATIONS
Hume and Winter did not meet on terms that might be strictly described as
cordial.
Brett, on quitting the Hall, had surrendered himself to a spell of vacant
bewilderment. He haled the unwilling Hume from Helen's society, and picked
up the detective at the Wheat Sheaf Inn. Then the barrister, from sheer
need of mental relief, determined to have some fun with them.
"You two ought to know each other," he said good-humouredly. "At one time
you took keen interest in matters of mutual concern. Allow me to introduce
you. Hume--this is Mr. Winter, of Scotland Yard."
David was quite unprepared for the meeting.
"What?" he exclaimed, his upper lip stiffening, "the man who concocted all
sorts of imaginary evidence against me!"
"'Concocted' is not the right word, nor 'imaginary' either," growled
Winter.
"Quite right," said Brett. "Really, Hume, you should be more careful in
your choice of language. Had Winter been as careless in his statements at
the Assizes, he would certainly have hanged you."
Hume was too happy, after a prolonged _tête-à-tête_ with his beloved, to
harbour malice against any person.
"What are we supposed to do--shake hands?" he inquired blandly.
"It might be a good preliminary to a better understanding of one another.
You think Winter is an unscrupulous ruffian. He described you to me as a
swine not two hours ago. Now, you are both wrong. Winter is the best
living police detective, and a most fair-minded one. He will be a valuable
ally. Before many days are over you will be deeply in his debt in every
sense of the word. On the other hand, you, Hume, are a much-wronged man,
whom Winter must help to regain his rightful position. This is one of the
occasions when Justice is compelled to take the bandage off her eyes. She
may be impartial, but she is often blind. Now be friends, and let us start
from that basis."
Silently the two men exchanged a hearty grip.
"Excellent!" cried the barrister. "Hume, take Winter with you in front. I
will seat myself beside the groom, and please oblige me, both of you, by
not addressing a word to me between here and Stowmarket."
Hume and the detective got along comfortably once the ice was broken.
Naturally, they steered clear of all reference to the tragedy in the
presence of the servant. Their talk dealt chiefly with sporting matters.
Brett, carried swiftly along the level road, kept his eyes fixed on
Beechcroft and its contiguous hamlet until they vanished in the middle
distance.
"This is the most curious inquiry I was ever engaged in," he communed.
"Winter, of course, will fasten on to Capella like a horse leech when he
knows the facts. Yet Capella is neither a coward nor an ordinary villain.
For some ridiculous reason, I have a sneaking sympathy with him. Had he
stormed and blustered when I pitched into him to-day I would have thought
less of him. And his wife! What mysterious workings of Fate brought those
two together and then disunited them? They become fascinated one with the
other whilst the brother's corpse is still palpitating beneath that
terrible stroke. They get married, with not unreasonable haste, but no
sooner do they reach Beechcroft, a house of evil import if ever bricks and
mortar had such a character, than they are driven asunder by some malign
influence.
"And now, after eighteen months, I am asked to take up the tangled clues,
if such may be said to exist. It is a difficult, perhaps an impossible,
undertaking. Yet if I have done so much in a day, what may not happen in a
fortnight!"
Long afterwards, recalling that soliloquy, he wondered whether or not,
were he suddenly endowed with the gift of prophecy, he would,
nevertheless, have pursued his quest. He never could tell.
Once securely entrenched in a private sitting-room of the Stowmarket
Hotel, the three men began to discuss crime and tobacco.
Mr. Winter commenced by being confidential and professional.
"Now, Mr. Hume," he said, "as misunderstandings have been cleared, to some
extent, by Mr. Brett's remarks, I will, with your permission, ask you a
few questions."
"Fire away."
"In the first place, your counsel tried to prove--did prove, in fact--that
you walked straight from the ball-room to the Hall, sat down in the
library, and did not move from your chair until Fergusson, the butler,
told you how he had found Sir Alan's body on the lawn."
"Exactly."
"So if a man comes forward now and swears that he watched you for nearly
ten minutes standing in the shadow of the yews on the left of the house,
he will not be telling the truth?"
"That is putting it mildly."
"Yet there is such a witness in existence, and I am certain he is not a
liar in this matter."
"What!"
Brett and Hume ejaculated the word simultaneously; the one surprised,
because he knew how careful Winter was in matters of fact, the other
indignant at the seeming disbelief in his statement.
"Please, gentlemen," appealed the detective, secretly gratified by the
sensation he caused, "wait until I have finished. If I did not fully
accept Mr. Brett's views on this remarkable case, I would not be sitting
here this minute. My conscience would not permit it"
"Be virtuous, Winter, but not too virtuous," broke in Brett drily.
"There you go again, sir, questioning my motives. But I am of a forgiving
disposition. Now, there cannot be the slightest doubt that a poacher named
John Wise, better known as 'Rabbit Jack,' who resides in this town, chose
that New Year's Eve as an excellent time to net the meadows behind the
Hall. He had heard about Mrs. Eastham's dance, and knew that on such a
night the estate keepers would have more liking for fun with the coachmen
and maids than for game-watching. He entered the park soon after midnight,
and saw a gentleman walk up the avenue towards the house. He waited a few
minutes, and crept quietly along the side of the hedge--in the park, of
course. Being winter time, the trees and bushes were bare, and he was
startled to see the same gentleman, with his coat buttoned up, standing in
the shade of the yews close to the Hall. 'Rabbit Jack' naturally thought
he had been spotted. He gripped his lurcher's collar and stood still for
nearly ten minutes. Then it occurred to him that he was mistaken. He had
not been seen, so he stole off towards the plantation and started
operations. He is a first-rate poacher, and always works alone. About
three o'clock he was alarmed by a policeman's lantern--the search of the
grounds after the murder, you see--and made off. He entered Stowmarket on
the far side of the town, and ran into a policeman's arms. They fought for
twenty minutes. The P.C. won, and 'Rabbit Jack' got six months' hard
labour for being in unlawful possession of game and assaulting the police.
Consequently, he never heard a syllable about the 'Stowmarket Mystery,' as
this affair was called by the Press, until long after Mr. Hume's second
trial and acquittal. Yet the first thing 'Rabbit Jack' did after his
release was to go straight to the police and tell them what he had seen. I
think, Mr. Hume, that even you will admit a good deal depended on the
result of the fight between the poacher and the bobby, for 'Rabbit Jack'
described a man of your exact appearance and dressed as you were that
night."
There was silence for a moment when Winter ended his recital.
"It is evident," said Brett, otherwise engaged in making smoke-rings,
"that 'Rabbit Jack' saw the real murderer."
"A man like me--in evening dress! Who on earth could he be?" was Hume's
natural exclamation.
"We must test this chap's story," said Brett.
"How?"
"Easily enough. There is a garden outside. Can you bring this human bunny
here to-night?"
"I think so."
"Very well. Stage him about nine o'clock. Anything else?"
Mr. Winter pondered a little while; then he addressed Hume hesitatingly:
"Does Mr. Brett know everything that happened after the murder?"
"I think so. Yes."
"Everything! Say three-quarters of an hour afterwards?"
The effect of this remark on Hume was very pronounced. His habitual air of
reserve gave place to a state of decided confusion.
"What are you hinting at?" he cried, striving hard to govern his voice.
"Well, it must out, sooner or later. Why did you go to meet Miss Helen
Layton in the avenue about 1.30 a.m.--soon after Sir Alan's body had been
examined by the doctor?'
"Oh, damn it, man, how did you ascertain that?" groaned Hume.
"I knew it all along, but I did not see that it was very material to the
case, and I wanted to keep the poor young lady's name out of the affair as
far as possible. I did not want to suggest that she was an accessory after
the crime."
Hume was blushing like a schoolboy. He glanced miserably at Brett, but the
barrister was still puffing artistic designs in big and little rings.
"Very well. My reason for concealment disappears now," he blurted out, for
the young man was both vexed and ashamed. "That wretched night, after she
returned home, Helen thought she had behaved foolishly in creating a
scene. She put on a cloak, changed her shoes, and slipped back again to
Mrs. Eastham's, where she met Alan just coming away. She implored him to
make up the quarrel with me. He apologised for his conduct, and promised
to do the same to me when we met. He explained that other matters had
upset his temper that day, and he had momentarily yielded to an irritated
belief that everything was against him. Helen watched him enter the park;
she pretended that she was going in to Mrs. Eastham's. She could see the
lighted windows of the library, and she wondered why he did not go inside,
but imagined that at the distance she might easily be mistaken. At last
she ran off to the rectory. Again she lingered in the garden, devoutly
wishing that all might be well between Alan and me. Then she became
conscious that something unusual had taken place, owing to the lights and
commotion. For a long time she was at a loss to conjecture what could have
happened. At last, yielding to curiosity, she came back to the lodge. The
gates were wide open. Mrs. Eastham's dance was still in progress. She is
not a timid girl, so she walked boldly up the avenue until she met
Fergusson, the butler, who was then going to tell Mrs. Eastham. When she
heard his story she was too shocked to credit it, and asked him to bring
me. I came. By that time I was beginning to realise that I might be
implicated in the affair, and I begged her to return home at once, alone.
She did so. Subsequently she asked me not to refer to the escapade, for
obvious reasons. It was a woman's little secret, Brett, and I was
compelled to keep it."
"Anything else, Winter?" demanded the barrister, wrapped in a cloud of his
own creation.
"That is all, sir, except the way in which I heard of Miss Layton's
meeting with Mr. Hume."
"Not through Fergusson, eh?"
"Not a bit. The old chap is as close as wax. He seems to think that a
Hume-Frazer must die a violent death outside that library window, and if
the cause of the trouble is another Hume-Frazer, it is their own blooming
business, and no other person's. Most extraordinary old chap. Have you met
him?"
"No. Indeed, I am only just beginning to hear the correct details of the
story."
Hume winced, but passed no remark.
"Well, my information came through an anonymous letter."
"You don't say so! How interesting! Have you got it?"
"I brought it with me, for a reason other than that which actuates me now,
I must confess."
He produced a small envelope, frayed at the edges, and closely compressed.
It bore the type-written address, "Police Office, Scotland Yard," and the
postal stamp was "West Strand, January 18, 9 p.m."
Within, a small slip of paper, also typed, gave this message:--
"About Stowmarket. David Hume Frazer
killed cousin. Cousin talked girl in road.
Girl waited wood. David Hume Frazer met
girl in wood after 1 a.m."
Brett jumped up in instant excitement. Ha placed the two documents on a
table near the window, where the afternoon sun fell directly on them.
"Written by the murderer!" he cried "The result of perusing the evening
papers containing a report of the first proceedings before the
magistrates! The production of an illiterate man, who knew neither the use
of a hyphen nor the correct word to describe the avenue! Not wholly exact
either, if your story be true, Hume."
"My story is true. Helen herself will tell it you, word for word."
"This is most important. Look at that broken small 'c,' and the bent
capital 'D.' The letter 'a,' too, is out of gear, and does not register
accurately. Do you note the irregular spacing in 'market,' 'Frazer,'
'talked'? You got that letter, Winter, and yet you did not test every
Remington type-writer in London."
"Oh, of course it's my fault!"
Mr. Winter's _coup_ has fallen on himself, and he knew it.
"Oh, Winter, Winter! Come to me twice a week from six to seven, Tuesdays
and Fridays, and I will give you a night-school training. Now, I wonder if
that type-writer has been repaired?"
The detective had seldom seen Brett so thoroughly roused. His eyes were
brilliant, his nose dilated as if he could smell the very scent of the
anonymous scribe.
"An illiterate man," he repeated, "in evening dress; the same height and
appearance as Hume; in a village like Sleagill on a New Year's Eve; four
miles from everywhere. Was ever clue so simple provided by a careless
scoundrel! And eighteen months have elapsed. This is positively
maddening!"
"Look here, old chap," said Hume, still smarting under the recollections
of Brett's caustic utterance, "say you forgive me for keeping that thing
back. There is nothing else, believe me. It was for Helen's sake."
"Rubbish!" cried the barrister. "The only wonder is that you are not long
since assimilated in quicklime in a prison grave. You are all cracked, I
think--living spooks, human March hares. As for you, Winter, I weep for
you."
He strode rapidly to and fro along the length of the room, smoking
prodigiously, with frowning brows and concentrated eyes. The others did
not speak, but Winter treated Hume to an informing wink, as one might say.
"Now you will hear something."