THE YORK MYSTERY
THE YORK MYSTERY
Baroness Orczy
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CHAPTER VII. THE YORK MYSTERY
CHAPTER VIII. THE CAPITAL CHARGE
CHAPTER IX. A BROKEN-HEARTED WOMAN
CHAPTER VII. THE YORK MYSTERY
THE man in the corner looked quite cheerful that morning; he had had two glasses
of milk and had even gone to the extravagance of an extra cheese-cake. Polly
knew that he was itching to talk police and murders, for he east furtive glances
at her from time to time, produced a bit of string, tied and untied it into
scores of complicated knots, and finally, bringing out his pocket-book, he
placed two or three photographs before her.
"Do you know who that is?" he asked, pointing to one of these.
The girl looked at the face on the picture. It was that of a woman, not exactly
pretty, but very gentle and childlike, with a strange pathetic look in the large
eyes which was wonderfully appealing.
"That was Lady Arthur Skelmerton," he said, and in a flash there flitted before
Polly's mind the weird and tragic history which had broken this loving woman's
heart. Lady Arthur Skelmerton! That name recalled one of the most bewildering,
most mysterious passages in the annals of undiscovered crimes.
"Yes. It was sad, wasn't it?" he commented, in answer to Polly's thoughts.
"Another case which but for idiotic blunders on the part of the police must have
stood clear as daylight before the public and satisfied general anxiety. Would
you object to my recapitulating its preliminary details?"
She said nothing, so he continued without waiting further for a reply.
"It all occurred during the York racing week, a time which brings to the quiet
cathedral city its quota of shady characters, who congregate wherever money and
wits happen to fly away from their owners. Lord Arthur Skelmerton, a very
well-known figure in London society and in racing circles, had rented one of the
fine houses which overlook the racecourse. He had entered Peppercorn, by St.
Armand?Notre Dame, for the Great Ebor Handicap. Peppercorn was the winner of the
Newmarket, and his chances for the Ebor were considered a practical certainty.
"If you have ever been to York you will have noticed the fine houses which have
their drive and front entrances in the road called 'The Mount,' and the gardens
of which extend as far as the racecourse, commanding a lovely view over the
entire track. It was one of these houses, called 'The Elms,' which Lord Arthur
Skelmerton had rented for the summer.
"Lady Arthur came down some little time before the racing week with her
servants?she had no children; but she had many relatives and friends in York,
since she was the daughter of old Sir John Etty, the cocoa manufacturer, a rigid
Quaker, who, it was generally said, kept the tightest possible hold on his own
purse-strings and looked with marked disfavour upon his aristocratic
son-in-law's fondness for gaming tables and betting books.
"As a matter of fact, Maud Etty had married the handsome young lieutenant in the
?th Hussars, quite against her father's wishes. But she was an only child, and
after a good deal of demur and grumbling, Sir John, who idolized his daughter,
gave way to her whim, and a reluctant consent to the marriage was wrung from
him.
"But, as a Yorkshireman, he was far too shrewd a man of the world not to know
that love played but a very small part in persuading a Duke's son to marry the
daughter of a cocoa manufacturer, and as long as he lived he determined that
since his daughter was being wed because of her wealth, that wealth should at
least secure her own happiness. He refused to give Lady Arthur any capital,
which, in spite of the most carefully worded settlements, would inevitably,
sooner or later, have found its way into the pockets of Lord Arthur's racing
friends. But he made his daughter a very handsome allowance, amounting to over
?3000 a year, which enabled her to keep up an establishment befitting her new
rank.
"A great many of these facts, intimate enough as they are, leaked out, you see,
during that period of intense excitement which followed the murder of Charles
Lavender, and when the public eye was fixed searchingly upon Lord Arthur
Skelmerton, probing all the inner details of his idle, useless life.
"It soon became a matter of common gossip that poor little Lady Arthur continued
to worship her handsome husband in spite of his obvious neglect, and not having
as yet presented him with an heir, she settled herself down into a life of
humble apology for her plebeian existence, atoning for it by condoning all his
faults and forgiving all his vices, even to the extent of cloaking them before
the prying eyes of Sir John, who was persuaded to look upon his son-in-law as a
paragon of all the domestic virtues and a perfect model of a husband.
"Among Lord Arthur Skelmerton's many expensive tastes there was certainly that
for horseflesh and cards. After some successful betting at the beginning of his
married life, he had started a racing-stable which it was generally believed?as
he was very lucky?was a regular source of income to him.
"Peppercorn, however, after his brilliant performances at Newmarket did not
continue to fulfil his master's expectations. His collapse at York was
attributed to the hardness of the course and to various other causes, but its
immediate effect was to put Lord Arthur Skelmerton in what is popularly called a
tight place, for he had backed his horse for all he was worth, and must have
stood to lose considerably over ?5000 on that one day.
"The collapse of the favourite and the grand victory of King Cole, a rank
outsider, on the other hand, had proved a golden harvest for the bookmakers, and
all the York hotels were busy with dinners and suppers given by the
confraternity of the Turf to celebrate the happy occasion. The next day was
Friday, one of few important racing events, after which the brilliant and the
shady throng which had flocked into the venerable city for the week would fly to
more congenial climes, and leave it, with its fine old Minster and its ancient
walls, as sleepy, as quiet as before.
"Lord Arthur Skelmerton also intended to leave York on the Saturday, and on the
Friday night he gave a farewell bachelor dinner party at 'The Elms,' at which
Lady Arthur did not appear. After dinner the gentlemen settled down to bridge,
with pretty stiff points, you may be sure. It had just struck eleven at the
Minster Tower, when constables McNaught and Murphy, who were patrolling the
racecourse, were startled by loud cries of 'murder' and 'police.'
"Quickly ascertaining whence these cries proceeded, they hurried on at a gallop,
and came up?quite close to the boundary of Lord Arthur Skelmerton's grounds?upon
a group of three men,
two of whom seemed to be wrestling vigorously with one
another, whilst the third was lying face downwards on the ground. As soon as the
constables drew near, one of the wrestlers shouted more vigorously, and with a
certain tone of authority:
"'Here, you fellows, hurry up, sharp; the brute is giving me the slip!'
"But the brute did not seem inclined to do anything of the sort; he certainly
extricated himself with a violent jerk from his assailant's grasp, but made no
attempt to run away. The constables had quickly dismounted, whilst he who had
shouted for help originally added more quietly:
"'My name is Skelmerton. This is the boundary of my property. I was smoking a
cigar at the pavilion over there with a friend when I heard loud voices,
followed by a cry and a groan. I hurried down the steps, and saw this poor
fellow lying on the ground, with a knife sticking between his shoulder-blades,
and his murderer,' he added, pointing to the man who stood quietly by with
Constable McNaught's firm grip upon his shoulder, 'still stooping over the body
of his victim. I was too late, I fear, to save the latter, but just in time to
grapple with the assassin??"
"'It's a lie!' here interrupted the man hoarsely. 'I didn't do it, constable; I
swear I didn't do it. I saw him fall?I was coming along a couple of hundred
yards away, and I tried to see if the poor fellow was dead. I swear I didn't do
it.'
"'You'll have to explain that to the inspector presently, my man,' was Constable
McNaught's quiet comment, and, still vigorously protesting his innocence, the
accused allowed himself to be led away, and the body was conveyed to the
station, pending fuller identification.
"The next morning the papers were full of the tragedy; a column and a half of
the York Herald was devoted to an account of Lord Arthur Skelmerton's plucky
capture of the assassin The latter had continued to declare his innocence but
had remarked, it appears, with grim humour, that he quite saw he was in a tight
place, out of which, however, he would find it easy to extricate himself. He had
stated to the police that the deceased's name was Charles Lavender, a well-known
bookmaker, which fact was soon verified, for many of the murdered man's 'pals'
were still in the city.
"So far the most pushing of newspaper reporters had been unable to glean further
information from the police; no one doubted, however, but that the man in
charge, who gave his name as George Higgins, had killed the bookmaker for
purposes of robbery. The inquest had been fixed for the Tuesday after the
murder.
"Lord Arthur had been obliged to stay in York a few days, as his evidence would
be needed. That fact gave the case, perhaps, a certain amount of interest as far
as York and London 'society' were concerned. Charles Lavender, moreover, was
well known on the turf; but no bombshell exploding beneath the walls of the
ancient cathedral city could more have astonished its inhabitants than the news
which, at about five in the afternoon on the day of the inquest, spread like
wildfire throughout the town. That news was that the inquest had concluded at
three o'clock with a verdict of 'Wilful murder against some person or persons
unknown,' and that two hours later the police had arrested Lord Arthur
Skelmerton at his private residence, 'The Elms,' and charged him on a warrant
with the murder of Charles Lavender, the bookmaker."
CHAPTER VIII. THE CAPITAL CHARGE
THE police, it appears, instinctively feeling that some mystery lurked round the
death of the bookmaker and his supposed murderer's quiet protestations of
innocence, had taken a very considerable amount of trouble in collecting all the
evidence they could for the inquest which might throw some light upon Charles
Lavender's life, previous to his tragic end. Thus it was that a very large array
of witnesses was brought before the coroner, chief among whom was, of course,
Lord Arthur Skelmerton.
"The first witnesses called were the two constables, who deposed that, just as
the church clocks in the neighbourhood were striking eleven, they had heard the
cries for help, had ridden to the spot whence the sounds proceeded, and had
found the prisoner in the tight grasp of Lord Arthur Skelmerton, who at once
accused the man of murder, and gave him in charge. Both constables gave the same
version of the incident, and both were positive as to the time when it occurred.
"Medical evidence went to prove that the deceased had been stabbed from behind
between the shoulder-blades whilst he was walking, that the wound was inflicted
by a large hunting knife, which was produced, and which had been left sticking
in the wound.
"Lord Arthur Skelmerton was then called and substantially repeated what he had
already told the constables. He stated, namely, that on the night in question he
had some gentlemen friends to dinner, and afterwards bridge was played. He
himself was not playing much, and at a few minutes before eleven he strolled out
with a cigar as far as the pavilion at the end of his garden; he then heard the
voices, the cry and the groan previously described by him, and managed to hold
the murderer down until the arrival of the constables.
"At this point the police proposed to call a witness, James Terry by name and a
bookmaker by profession, who had been chiefly instrumental in identifying the
deceased, a 'pal ' of his. It was his evidence which first introduced that
element of sensation into the case which culminated in the wildly exciting
arrest of a Duke's son upon a capital charge.
"It appears that on the evening after the Ebor, Terry and Lavender were in the
bar of the Black Swan Hotel having drinks.
"'I had done pretty well over Peppercorn's fiasco,' he explained, 'but poor old
Lavender was very much down in the dumps; he had held only a few very small bets
against the favourite, and the rest of the day had been a poor one with him. I
asked him if he had any bets with the owner of Peppercorn, and he told me that
he only held one for less than ?500.
"'I laughed and said that if he held one for ?6000 it would make no difference,
as from what I had heard from the other fellows, Lord Arthur Skelmerton must be
about stumped. Lavender seemed terribly put out at this, and swore he would get
that ?500 out of Lord Arthur, if no one else got another penny from him.
"'It's the only money I've made to-day,' he says to me. 'I mean to get it.'
"'You won't,' I says.
"'I will,' he says.
"'You will have to look pretty sharp about it then,' I says, 'for every one will
be wanting to get something, and first come first served.'
"'Oh! He'll serve me right enough, never you mind!' says Lavender to me with a
laugh. 'If he don't pay up willingly, I've got that in my pocket which will make
him sit up and open my lady's eyes and Sir John Etty's too about their precious
noble lord.'
"'Then he seemed to think he had gone too far, and wouldn't say anything more to
me about that affair. I saw him on the course the next day. I asked him if he
/>
had got his ?500. He said: "No, but I shall get it to-day."'
"Lord Arthur Skelmerton, after having given his own evidence, had left the
court; it was therefore impossible to know how he would take this account, which
threw so serious a light upon an association with the dead man, of which he
himself had said nothing.
"Nothing could shake James Terry's account of the facts he had placed before the
jury, and when the police informed the coroner that they proposed to place
George Higgins himself in the witness-box, as his evidence would prove, as it
were, a complement and corollary of that of Terry, the jury very eagerly
assented.
"If James Terry, the bookmaker, loud, florid, vulgar,was an unprepossessing
individual, certainly George Higgins, who was still under the accusation of
murder, was ten thousand times more so.
"None too clean, slouchy, obsequious yet insolent, he was the very
personification of the cad who haunts the racecourse and who lives not so much
by his own wits as by the lack of them in others. He described himself as a turf
commission agent, whatever that may be.
"He stated that at about six o'clock on the Friday afternoon, when the
racecourse was still full of people, all hurrying after the day's excitements,
he himself happened to be standing close the hedge which marks the boundary of
Lord Arthur Skelmerton's grounds. There is a pavilion there at the end of the
garden, he explained, on slightly elevated ground, and he could hear and see a
group of ladies and gentlemen having tea. Some steps lead down a little to the
left of the garden on to the course, and presently he noticed at the bottom of
these steps Lord Arthur Skelmerton and Charles Lavender standing talking
together. He knew both gentlemen by sight, but he could not see them very well
as they were both partly hidden by the hedge. He was quite sure that the
gentlemen had not seen him, and he could not help overhearing some of their
conversation.
"'That's my last word, Lavender,' Lord Arthur was saying very quietly. 'I
haven't got the money and I can't pay you now. You'll have to wait.'
"'Wait? I can't wait,' said old Lavender in reply. 'I've got my engagements to
meet, same as you. I'm not going to risk being posted up as a defaulter while
you hold ?500 of my money, You'd better give it me now or??'
"But Lord Arthur interrupted him very quietly, and said:
"'Yes, my good man .... or?'
"'Or I'll let Sir John have a good look at that little bill I had of yours a
couple of years ago. If you'll remember, my lord, it has got at the bottom of it
Sir John's signature in your handwriting. Perhaps Sir John, or perhaps my lady,
would pay me something for that little bill. If not the police can have a squint
at it. I've held my tongue long enough, and??' "' Look here, Lavender,' said
Lord Arthur, 'do you know what this little game of yours is called in law?'
"'Yes, and I don't care,' says Lavender. 'If I don't have that ?500 I am a
ruined man. If you ruin me I'll do for you, and we shall be quits. That's my
last word.'
"He was talking very loudly, and I thought some of Lord Arlhur's friends up in
the pavilion must have heard. He thought so too, I think, for he said quickly:
"'If you don't hold your confounded tongue, I'll give you in charge for
blackmail this instant.'
"'You wouldn't dare,' says Lavender, and he began to laugh. But just then a lady
from the top of the steps said: 'Your tea is getting cold,' and Lord Arthur
turned to go; but just before he went, Lavender says to him: 'I'll come back
to-night. You'll have the money then.'
"George Higgins, it appears, after he had heard this interesting conversation,
pondered as to whether he could not turn what he knew into some sort of profit.
Being a gentleman who lives entirely by his wits, this type of knowledge forms
his chief source of income. As a preliminary to future moves he decided not to