XIV
A SUDDEN TURN
Dr. Frisbie's point had been made. As we separated to our severaldestinations for the night, it was with the universally expressedconviction that this young girl, for all her beauty and attractivequalities, had been an apple of discord in her uncle's house, and thatin this fact, rather than in an impatient desire to enjoy the wealthof a man who was never close with his sons, the unnatural crime wewere considering had originated.
The evidence elicited from the first witness called to the stand onthe following morning tended to substantiate this conclusion.
Nellie Stryker, an old inmate of the Gillespie house, answered thecoroner's questions with great reluctance. She had been maid to Mrs.Gillespie, nurse to all the children, and a trusted servant in thehousehold ever since the latter grew beyond her care. Of the attemptsmade upon her master's life, the last of which had been only toosuccessful, she knew little and that only by hearsay, but she was notquite so ignorant concerning a certain conversation which had beenheld one morning in Mr. Gillespie's room between that gentleman andhis youngest son. She was sitting at her needle in the adjoiningdressing-closet, and, whether her presence there was unsuspected byher master or simply ignored, they both talked quite freely and sheheard every word.
Urged to repeat this conversation, the good old soul showed ashamefaced reluctance which bore out her reputation for honesty anddiscretion. But she was not allowed to escape the examination set forher. After repeated questions and a show of extreme patience on thepart of the coroner, she admitted that the topic discussed was thestate of Mr. Alfred's affections. This young gentleman, as waspublicly known, had lately engaged himself to a Southern lady of greatpride and high social distinction; and his present disagreement withhis father arose out of his wish to break this engagement. His fatherhad no patience with such fickleness, and their words ran high.Finally, Alfred threatened to follow his own wishes in the matter,whether it gave satisfaction all round or no; declaring that he hadbeen a fool to tie himself to a girl he cared nothing about, but thathe would be a still greater one if he let the mistake of a moment marhis happiness for life. But the old gentleman's sense of honour wasvery keen, and he continued to urge the claims of the Southern lady,till his son impetuously blurted out:
"I thought you wanted one of us to marry Hope?"
This caused a break in the conversation.
"Do you care for Hope?" the old gentleman asked. "I thought it waswell understood in this house that George, not you, was to be giventhe first opportunity of winning her."
The oath with which Alfred answered was shocking to Nellie's ears,and affected her so deeply that she heard nothing more till thesewords caught her attention:
"George has everything he wants; unlimited indulgence in each andevery fancy, the liking of all the men, and the love of all the women.I am not so fortunate; I am neither a favourite with my mates nor thepetted darling of their sisters; I like my ease, but I could give thatup for Hope. She is the only woman I have ever seen capable ofinfluencing me. I have been quite a different man since she came intothe house. If that is love, it is a very strong love; such love asmakes a man out of a nobody. Father, let me have this darling girl formy wife. George does not care for her,--not as I do. He would be abetter fellow if he did."
Mr. Gillespie seemed quite upset. He loved this son as the apple ofhis eye, and would very possibly have been glad to see the matter soadjusted, but it did not tally with his idea of what people had aright to expect from his sons, and he told Alfred so in rather stronglanguage.
"Can you remember that language?" asked the coroner.
She tried to make him believe, and herself too, no doubt, that hermemory would not serve her to this extent; but her honesty eventuallytriumphed over her devotion to the family interests, and she finallyadmitted that the old gentleman had said:
"While I live I will not put up with rivalry of any kind between mysons. George is fond of Hope, and I long ago gave him my permission towoo and marry her. That you are the child of my heart shall not makeme blind to the rights of one I loved before you ever saw the light.Were I to permit such shilly-shallying, George would have a right toreproach me with his wasted life. No; the influence which you call sogreat must be exerted in his behalf rather than yours. He needs it,Alfred, as much, if not more than you do. As to your presentengagement, you may break it or you may keep it, but do not expect meto uphold you in any love-making with your brother's choice till Hopehas openly signified her absolute refusal of his attentions. This sheis not likely to do; George has too many conspicuous attractions."
"She has refused him once."
"Not because her fancy was caught by his younger brother, but becauseshe wished to see some reformation in his habits. In this she wasperfectly right. George will have to change his mode of life verymaterially before he can be regarded as worthy of such a wife."
"The same might be said of me; but I am no George. I am anxious tomake such a change. Yet you give me no encouragement in my efforts,and even deny me the opportunity of winning her affections."
"You were not the first to enter the field. Your older brother has theprior right, and, as I view the matter, the only right, to approachHope in the attitude of a lover."
The oaths which this excited turned the poor old listener cold. Alfredcould not see the justice of his brother's course, and stormed awayabout fairness being shown to the young girl herself, who possiblylooked upon the matter in another light than he did.
"Then you have been making love to her on the sly!" vociferated Mr.Gillespie, totally forgetting himself.
But this the young man denied. If he understood her better than othersdid, it was because he loved her better. He was positive that she didnot care for his brother, and all but certain she did care forhimself. At all events he flattered himself to this extent. Thiscalled forth a few more bitter words from his father, and Alfred wentout, banging the door behind him.
"And did you see any change in the manner of Mr. Gillespie towards hissons after this misunderstanding with Alfred?"
The witness appeared to weigh her words; but, when she answered, itwas evident her care arose from a desire to present the subjectfairly.
"I thought Mr. Gillespie talked less and looked about him more. Andthe young gentlemen seemed conscious of this change in him, for theywere very careful not to show their feelings too plainly in hispresence."
"Yet there was a manifested distrust between them?"
"I fear so."
"Amounting to animosity?"
"That I cannot say. I never heard them exchange hard words; onlyneither of them would leave the field open to the other. If Mr. Georgestayed home, Mr. Alfred found some excuse for doing so also; and ifMr. Alfred showed a disposition to linger in the parlour, Mr. Georgebrought in his friends and made a social evening of it."
"And is this all you can tell us?"
"On this topic? Yes."
"You never saw Miss Meredith speaking apart to either of these twomen?"
"No, sir; on the contrary, she appeared to avoid all privateconversation with any of them."
"Nor ever heard either of these men swear he would have Miss Meredithfor his wife, no matter who stood in the way, or what means were takento stop him?"
"Oh, I once heard Mr. Alfred make use of some violent expressions as Iwas passing his door, but I can not be sure he spoke the precise wordsyou mention. He falls into fits of anger at times and then is liableto forget himself. But his ill-temper does not last, sir. It is quiteunusual for him to show unkindness for any length of time."
After the close of this examination, so painful to the witnesses andso humiliating to the three persons whose most cherished feelings werethus exposed to the public eye, the three sons of Mr. Gillespie werecalled up, one after the other, and questioned.
Leighton made the best impression. Not being involved in the delicatequestion which had just come up, he had no blushes to conceal nor anysecret animosities to hold in check. George, on
the contrary, seemedto have reached a state of exasperation which made it difficult forhim to preserve any semblance of self-possession. He stammered whenhe talked, and looked much more like having it out with his brother ina hand-to-hand fight than submitting to an examination tending toincriminate one or both of them on a charge of murder. Alfred showedless bitterness, possibly because he felt securer in his positiontowards the woman whose beauty had occasioned this rivalry. Of thefacts brought out by their accumulated testimony I need say little.They added nothing to the general knowledge, and the inquiry adjournedwith promise of still more serious work for the morrow.
Hitherto the evidence had been of a nature to show, first, that acrime had been committed, and, secondly, that the relations betweenAlfred and his father had been such as to occasion a desire on theformer's part to be free from the watchful eye of one who stoodbetween him and any attempt he might make to win the affections of thewoman upon whom he had set his heart. On this morning the testimonytook a turn, and an endeavour was made to show a positive connectionbetween Alfred Gillespie and the drug which had ended his father'slife,--or so it appeared at the time. The visit he paid to thedining-room during the fatal hour preceding his father's death wasbrought out, and the acknowledgment reached that he went there insearch of his missing pencil.
Then the detectives were called to the stand and requested to relatethe circumstances connected with the finding of a certain cork andphial, the one under the edge of the dining-room rug, and the otherunder the clock on the mantel-shelf. These aforementioned articleswere then produced, and after positive declaration had been made thatthey had not been allowed to come in contact since falling into thehands of the police, they were severally handed down to the jury, whoimmediately proceeded to satisfy themselves that the scent of bitteralmonds was nearly as marked in one as the other. This point havingbeen reached and universal expectation raised, Sweetwater handed upanother article to the coroner, saying:
"In this box, which is as nearly air-tight as I could procure offhand,I caused to be placed, as soon as possible after finding it, thepencil which we came upon in our search of the dining-room floor. Likethe phial and the cork, it was kept isolated in a perfectly cleanglass till this box could be procured, and, with this fact in mind,may I ask you to open the box and hand the pencil round among thejury?"
Instantly a great stir took place in the whole body of spectators.Necks were stretched, heads were craned, and a general sigh swept fromend to end of the room as the coroner wrenched the cover from the box,lifted out the pencil, raised it to his nose, and then passed it downto the jury. Only one person in sight failed to follow thesesignificant movements with looks of curious interest; and that was theunhappy man who thus saw the finger of suspicion, which had beensimply wavering in his direction, settle into immobility and pointinexorably towards him. A white face and a sinking heart were shown byAlfred Gillespie at that moment; and in the features of Hope,disclosed for one instant under the stress of her mortal anxiety, Isaw his anxiety reflected as in a mirror.
The jury whispered together with nods and significant looks as thissmall pencil passed from hand to hand--I had almost said from nose tonose. Then silence was restored, and the coroner, with a sudden changeof manner startling to observe in one whose bearing and tone reflectedhis feelings almost too openly, called an expert in poisons to thestand.
His testimony established three facts: that the smell of prussic acidis unmistakable; that this poison, though volatile in its character,preserves its own individual odour for a long time if not subjected totoo much air; and, lastly, that if the pencil smelt of the bottle, thepocket in which they both had lain would also give out the same odourof bitter almonds.
When the expert was seated, Detective Sweetwater was called back. Andthen for the first time I noticed a large package encumbering thecoroner's desk. As this package was being unrolled, I stole a look atthe witness, who, from his assured air, evidently had the thread ofAlfred's future destiny in his hand, and was astonished to see howattractive a very plain man can sometimes become.
Perhaps I have not spoken of this young detective's plainness. It wasso marked and of such an unrelieved type that, after once seeing theman, you could never again think of him without recalling his lankframe and inharmonious features.
Yet as he stood there, calm amidst the tremor of this throng, his eyesparkled with such intelligence that I trembled for the man whosecause he was expected to damage with his testimony. Seeing that myfeelings were shared by those about me, I glanced back at thecoroner's table to see what the unrolling of that package hadrevealed, and saw, hanging from the coroner's hands, three vests,which he proceeded to display, one by one, before the witness.
"What are these?" he asked, with a stern look down the room,calculated to suppress any too open demonstration of interest.
"Vests; the property of the three gentlemen members of the presentGillespie household; in other words, those severally worn by Messrs.George, Leighton, and Alfred Gillespie on the evening of theirfather's death."
"How do you know these particular vests to be the ones then worn?"
"From their material and cut, of which I took especial note at thetime."
"No other way?"
"Yes, sir. Foreseeing the difficulties which might arise if it everbecame necessary to distinguish the vests then worn from the halfdozen others which we should doubtless find in their well-suppliedwardrobes, I took the precaution of secretly running my finger over afreshly inked pen before taking hold of their vests in the search Ihad been commanded to make of their persons. If the marks of my fingercan be seen on the white linings of the vests now in your hand, youmay be sure they are the ones subjected to my search on that night, asI communicated my intention to no one and have since been exceedinglycareful not to take anyone into my confidence concerning this littletrick."
The coroner turned the vests. On the back of each a black spot wasplainly visible to the remotest observer in the room. A murmur ofmingled admiration and suspense responded to this discovery, and thecoroner turned again to Sweetwater.
"May I ask," said he, "if you are in a position to tell us to which ofthese young gentlemen these several vests belong?"
"The Messrs. Gillespie can be trusted to identify their own property,"was the answer. "But I doubt if you will consider this a necessaryformality. There is no scent of bitter almonds lingering about any ofthese pockets. There was none on that night. This I made it myespecial business to ascertain." And he glanced at Alfred as much asto say, "Thank me for doing you what justice I can."
Such surprise followed this unexpected acknowledgment from one whosemanner had given promise of a very different result, that it was hardto tell where the effect was greatest. Hope's veil was shifted again,and the three brothers looked up simultaneously and with an equal showof relief.
But their countenances fell again as they noted the witness still onthe stand--waiting.
My countenance fell too, or rather my heart began to throbapprehensively as I now perceived the face and form of Mr. Gryceslowly appearing round the corner of a certain jut in the wall wherehe had held himself partially concealed during most of the day'sproceedings. If this sagacious but sickly old detective thought itworth his while to come forward, I thought it worth mine to note uponwhom or on what his glance first fell. But I had forgotten his habit,known to most men who have had anything to do with this celebrateddetective. He had looks for nothing save the umbrella he rolled roundand round between his palms; though his face--if this indicatedanything--was turned towards the seat where the three Gillespies sat,rather than towards the witness with whose testimony past, present,and to come he was probably fully acquainted.
Meantime the coroner was speaking.
"When you failed to find the tell-tale scent of bitter almondstainting the pockets of any of the clothes worn by these younggentlemen at the time you searched them, what did you do?"
"As soon as opportunity offered, that is, as soon as I found myselfunobs
erved, I searched the wardrobes of these young gentlemen forother vests and pockets."
"Ah, and did you come upon any article of clothing giving signs ofhaving at any time come in contact with this pencil or this bottle?"
"I found _that_," he returned, indicating a fourth garment, which thecoroner now deftly drew forth from the paper where it had hithertolain concealed.
This garment was a vest like the others, and, like them, of a plainand inconspicuous pattern. As it was lifted into sight, a groan washeard which seemed to spring from the united breasts of the threeyoung men behind him. Then one bounded to his feet.
"That is my vest," he shouted. "What damned villain says there isanything the matter with it?"
It was George. The two other brothers had shrunk back out of sight.