CHAPTER III
"Cinnamon! what a corroboration--what a horrible corroboration!Cleek, you knock the last prop from under me; you make certain athing that I thought was only a woman's wild imaginings," saidNarkom, getting up suddenly, all a-tremble with excitement. "Goodheavens! to have Miss Valmond's story corroborated in this dreadfulway."
"Miss Valmond? Who's she? Any relation to that Miss Rose Valmondwhose name one sees in the papers so frequently in connection withgifts to Catholic Orphanages and Foundling Homes?"
"The same lady," replied Narkom. "Her charities are numberless,her life a psalm. I think she has done more good in her simple,undemonstrative way than half the guilds and missions in London.She has an independent fortune, and lives, in company with aninvalid and almost imbecile mother, and a brother who is, I am told,studying for the priesthood, in a beautiful home surrounded bysplendid grounds, the walls of which separate her garden from thatof Lemmingham House."
"Ah, I see. Then she is a neighbour of Barrington-Edwards?"
"Yes. From the back windows of her residence one can look intothe grounds of his. That is how--Cleek!" Mr. Narkom's voice shookwith agitation--"You will remember I said, a little time back, thatI would have something startling to tell you in connection withBarrington-Edwards--something that was not connected with that oldarmy scandal? If it had not been for the high character of myinformant; if it had been any other woman in all England I shouldhave thought she was suffering from nerves--fancying things as theresult of an overwrought mind sent into a state of hysteria throughall those abominable crimes in the neighbourhood; but when it wasshe, when it was Miss Valmond----"
"Oho!" said Cleek, screwing round suddenly. "Then Miss Valmond toldyou something with regard to Barrington-Edwards?"
"Yes--a horrible something. She came to me this morning lookingas I hope I shall never see a good woman look again--as if she hadbeen tortured to the last limit of human endurance. She had beenfighting a silent battle for weeks and weeks she said, but herconscience would not let her keep the appalling secret any longer,neither would her duty to Heaven. Wakened in the dead of night bya sense of oppression, she had gone to her window to open it forair, and, looking down by chance into the garden of LemminghamHouse, she had seen a man come rushing out of the rear door ofBarrington-Edwards' place in his pajamas, closely followed byanother, whom she believed to be Barrington-Edwards himself, andshe had seen that man unlock the door in the side wall and push thepoor wretch out into the road where he was afterward found bythe constable."
"By Jupiter!"
"Ah, you may be moved when you connect that circumstance with whatyou have yourself unearthed. But there is worse to come. Unableto overcome a frightful fascination which drew her night afternight to that window, she saw that same thing happen again to thefourth, and finally, the fifth man--the web-footed one--and thatlast time she saw the face of the pursuer quite plainly. It _was_Barrington-Edwards!"
"Sure of that, was she?"
"Absolutely. It was the positive certainty it was he that drove herat last to speak!"
Cleek made no reply, no comment; merely screwed round on his heel andtook to pacing the floor again. After a minute however:
"Mr. Narkom," he said halting abruptly. "I suppose all my old dudsare still in the locker of the limousine, aren't they? Good! Ithought so. Give Lennard the signal, will you? I must risk the oldcar in an emergency like this. Take me first to the cable office,please; then to the mortuary, and afterward to Miss Valmond's home.I hate to torture her further, poor girl, but I must get all thefacts of this, first hand."
He did. The limousine was summoned at once, and inside of an hour itset him down (looking the very picture of a solicitor's clerk) atthe cable office, then picked up and set him down at the Hampsteadmortuary, this time, making so good a counterpart of Petrie thateven Hammond, who was on guard beside the dead man, said "Hullo,Pete, that you? Thought you was off duty to-day," as he came in withthe superintendent.
"Jim Peabody fast enough, Mr. Narkom," commented Cleek, when theywere left together beside the dead man. "Changed, of course, inall the years, but still poor old Jim. Good-hearted, honest, butilliterate. Could barely more than write his name, and even thatwithout a capital, poor chap. Let me look at the hand. A violetsmudge on the top of the thumb as well as those marks on the palm, Isee. Hum-m-m! Any letters or writing of any sort in the pocketswhen found? None, eh? That old bone-handled pocket knife therehis? Yes, I'd like to look at it. Open it, please. Thanks. I thoughtso, I thought so. Those the socks he had on? Poor wretch! Down tothat at last, eh?--down to that! Let me have one of them for aday or so, will you? and--yes--the photographs of the other four,please. Thanks very much. No, that's all. Now then, to call onMiss Valmond, if you don't mind. Right you are. Let her go, Lennard.Down with the blinds and open with the locker again, Mr. Narkom,and we'll 'dig' Mr. George Headland out of his two-months' oldgrave." And at exactly ten minutes after eight o'clock, Mr. GeorgeHeadland _was_ 'dug up' and was standing with Mr. Narkom in RoseValmond's house listening to Rose Valmond's story from her own lips,and saying to himself, the while, that here surely was that oftentalked-of, seldom-seen creature, a woman with an angel's face.
How it distressed her, to tell again this story which might take awaya human life, was manifest from the trembling of her sweet voice, thepainful twitching of her tender mouth, and the tears that rose soreadily to her soft eyes.
"Oh, Mr. Headland, I can hardly reconcile myself to having doneit even yet," she said pathetically. "I do not know this Mr.Barrington-Edwards but by sight, and it seems such a horriblething to rise up against a stranger like that. But I couldn't keep itany longer; I felt that to do so would be equivalent to sharing hisguilt, and the thought that if I kept silent I might possibly bepaving the way to the sacrifice of other innocent lives almost droveme out of my mind."
"I can quite understand your feelings, Miss Valmond," said Cleek,touched to the very heart by the deep distress of her. "But may I sayI think you have done right? I never yet knew Heaven to be anythingbut tender to those who do their duty, and you certainly have doneyours--to yourself, to your fellow creatures, and to God!"
Before she could make any response to this, footsteps sounded fromthe outer passage, and a deep, rich, masculine voice said, "Rose,Rose dear, I am ready now," and almost in the same moment a tall,well-set-up man in priestly clothing crossed the threshold andentered the room. He stopped short as he saw the others and made ahasty apology.
"Oh, pardon me," he said. "I did not know that you had visitors,dear, otherwise----Eh, what? Mr. Narkom, is it not?"
"Yes, Mr. Valmond," replied the superintendent, holding out awelcoming hand. "It is I, and this is my friend and assistant, Mr.George Headland. We have just been talking with your sister overher trying experience."
"Terrible--terrible is the proper word, Mr. Narkom. Like you, Inever heard of it until to-day. It shocked me to the very soul,you may believe. Delighted to meet you, Mr. Headland. A new disciple,eh, Mr. Narkom? Another follower in the footsteps of the greatCleek? By the way, I see you have lost touch with that amazing man. Isaw your advertisement in the paper the other day. Any clue to hiswhereabouts as yet?"
"Not the slightest!"
"Ah, that's too bad. From what I have heard of him he would havemade short work of this present case had he been available. Butpray pardon me if I rush off, my time is very limited. Rose, dear, Iam going to visit Father Burns this evening and shall stop at theorphanage on the way, so if you have the customary parcel for thechildren----"
"It is upstairs, in my oratory, dear," she interposed. "Come withme--if the gentlemen will excuse us for a moment--and I will get itfor you."
"May we not all go up, Miss Valmond?" interposed Cleek. "I shouldlike, if you do not mind, to get a view of the garden of LemminghamHouse from the window where you were standing that night, and tohave you explain the positions of the two men if you will."
"Yes, certainly--come, by all means," she replied, and led the w
ayforthwith. They had scarcely gone halfway down the passage to thestaircase, however, when they came abreast of the open doorway ofa room, dimly lit by a shaded lamp, wherein an elderly woman sathuddled up in a deep chair, with her shaking head bowed over handsthat moved restlessly and aimlessly--after the uneasy manner ofan idiot's--and the shape of whose face could be but faintly seenthrough the veil of white hair that fell loosely over it.
Cleek had barely time to recall Narkom's statement regarding thesemi-imbecile mother, when Miss Valmond gave a little cry of wonderand ran into the room.
"Why, mother!" she said in her gentle way, "whatever are you doingdown here, dearest? I thought you were still asleep in the oratory.When did you come down?"
The imbecile merely mumbled and muttered, and shook her nodding head,neither answering nor taking any notice whatsoever.
"It is one of her bad nights," explained Miss Valmond, as she cameout and rejoined them. "We can do nothing with her when she islike this. Horace, you will have to come home earlier than usualto-night and help me to get her to bed." Then she went on, leadingthe way upstairs, until they came at length to a sort of sanctuarywhere Madonna faces looked down from sombre niches, and wax lightsburnt with a scented flame on a draped and cushioned prie dieu.Here Miss Valmond, who was in the lead, went in, and, taking apaper-wrapped parcel from beside the little altar, came back and putit in her brother's hand and sent him on his way.
"Was it from there you saw the occurrence, Miss Valmond?" askedCleek, looking past her into "the dim religious light" of thesanctuary.
"Oh, no," she made reply. "From the window of my bedroom, just onthe other side of the wall. In here, look, see!" And she opened adoor to the right and led them in, touching a key that flashed anelectric lamp into radiance and illuminated the entire room.
It was a large room furnished in dull oak and dark green after thestately, sombre style of a Gothic chapel, and at one end therewas a curtained recess leading to a large bow window. At the otherthere was a sort of altar banked high with white flowers, and atthe side there was a huge canopied bed over the head of which hungan immense crucifix fastened to the wall that backed upon theoratory. It was a majestic thing, that crucifix, richly carvedand exquisitely designed. Cleek went nearer and looked at it, hisartistic eye captured by the beauty of it; and Miss Valmond, notinghis interest, smiled.
"My brother brought me that from Rome," she said. "Is it not divine,Mr. Headland?"
"Yes," he said. "But you must be more careful of it, I fear, MissValmond. Is it not chipping? Look! Isn't this a piece of it?" Hebent and picked a tiny curled sliver of wood from the narrow spacebetween the two down-filled pillows of the bed, holding it out toher upon his palm. But, of a sudden, he smiled, lifted the sliverto his nose, smelt it, and cast it away. "The laugh is on me, Ifear--it's only a cedar paring from a lead pencil. And now, please,I'd like to investigate the window."
She led him to it at once, explaining where she stood on the eventfulnight; where she had seen the two figures pass, and where was thewall door through which the dying man had been thrust.
"I wish I might see that door clearer," said Cleek; for night hadfallen and the moon was not yet up. "Don't happen to have such athing as a telescope or an opera glass, do you, Miss Valmond?"
"My brother has a pair of field glasses downstairs in his room. ShallI run and fetch them for you?"
"I'd be very grateful if you would," said Cleek; and a moment aftershe had gone. "Run down and get my sketching materials out of thelocker, will you, Mr. Narkom?" he added. "I want to make a diagramof that house and garden." Then he sat down on the window-seat andfor five whole minutes was alone.
The field glasses and the sketching materials were brought, thegarden door examined and the diagram made, Miss Valmond and Narkomstanding by and watching eagerly the whole proceeding.
"That's all!" said Cleek, after a time, brushing the charcoal dustfrom his fingers, and snapping the elastic band over the sketchbook. "I know my man at last, Mr. Narkom. Give me until ten o'clockto-morrow night, and then, if Miss Valmond will let us in here again,I'll capture Barrington-Edwards red-handed."
"You are sure of him, then?"
"As sure as I am that I'm alive. I'll lay a trap that will catch him.I promise you that. So if Miss Valmond will let us in here again----"
"Yes, Mr. Headland, I will."
"Good! Then let us say at ten o'clock to-morrow night--here inthis room; you, I, your brother, Mr. Narkom--all concerned!" saidCleek. "At ten to the tick, remember. Now come along, Mr. Narkom,and let me be about weaving the snare that shall pull this Mr.Barrington-Edwards to the scaffold." Speaking, he bowed to MissValmond, and taking Mr. Narkom's arm, passed out and went down thestairs to prepare for the last great act of tragedy.