CHAPTER XXXIV
MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS
Late that afternoon Marshall Allerdyke and Fullaway, responding to anurgent telephone call, went to New Scotland Yard, and were presentlyushered into the presence of the great man who had been so much inevidence that day. The great man was as self-possessed, as suave, andas calmly cheerful as ever. And on the desk in front of him he had twosmall and neatly made up parcels, tied and sealed in obviouslyofficial fashion.
"So we seem to have come to the end of this affair, gentlemen," heobserved as he waved his visitors to chairs on either side of him."Except, of course, for the unpleasant consequences which mustnecessarily result to the men we caught to-day. However, there will be noconsequences--of that sort--for one of them. Schmall has--escaped us!"
"Got away!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Great Scott you don't mean that!"
"Schmall committed suicide this afternoon," replied the chief calmly."Clever man--in his own line, which was a very bad line. He was searchedmost narrowly and carefully, so I've come to the conclusion that hecarried some of his subtle poison in his mouth--the hollow tooth dodge,no doubt. Anyway, he's dead--they found him dead in his cell. It's apity--for he richly deserved hanging. At least, according to Merrifield."
"Ah!" said Fullaway, with a start. "According to Merrifield, eh? Nowwhat may that mean? To find Merrifield in this at all was, of course, aregular shock to me!"
"Merrifield--just the type of man who would!--has made a clean breast ofthe whole thing," answered the chief. "He made it to me--an hour ago. Hethought it best. He wants--naturally enough--to save his neck."
"Will he?" growled Allerdyke. "A lot of necks ought to crack, afterall this!"
"Can't say--we mustn't prejudge the case," said the chief. "But that'shis desire of course. He would tell me everything--at once. I had it alltaken down. But I remember every scrap of it. You want to hear? Wellthere's a good deal of it, but I can epitomize it. You'll find that youwere much to blame, Mr. Fullaway--just as that smart young woman, yoursecretary, was candid enough to tell you."
"Oh, I know--I know!" asserted Fullaway. "But--this confession?"
"Very well," responded the chief. "Here it is, then but you must bear inmind that Merrifield could only tell what he knew--there'll probably bedetails to come out later. Anyway, Merrifield--whose chief object is, Imust also remind you, the clearing of himself from any charge ofmurder--he doesn't mind the other charge, but he does object to thegraver one!--says that though he's been playing it straight for sometime, ever since he went into Delkin's service, in fact--he'd hadnegotiations of a questionable sort with both Schmall and Van Koonbefore years ago, in this city and in New York. He renewed hisacquaintance with Schmall when he came over this time with Delkin--methim accidentally, and got going it with him again--and they bothresumed dealings with Van Koon--who, I may say, was wanted by Chilvertonon a quite different charge. Schmall had set up a business here in theEast End as a small manufacturing chemist--he'd evidently a perfect anda diabolical genius for chemistry, especially in secret poisons--anddown there Merrifield and Van Koon used to go. Also, there used to gothere the young man Ebers, or Federman--we'll stick to Ebers--who, fromMerrifield's account, seems to have been a tool of Schmall's. Ebers, afellow of evident acute perception, used to tell Schmall of things whichhis calling as valet at various hotels gave him knowledge--it strikes methat from what we now know we shall be able to trace to Schmall andEbers several robberies at hotels which have puzzled us a good deal. Andthere is no doubt that it was Ebers who told Schmall of the two mattersof which he obtained knowledge when he used to frequent your rooms. Mr.Fullaway--the pearls belonging to Miss Lennard, and the proposed jeweldeal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin. But in that lastMerrifield came in. He too, knew of it, and he told Schmall and VanKoon, but Ebers supplied the detailed information of what you weredoing, through access, as Miss Slade said, to your papers--which youleft lying about, you know."
"I know--I know!" groaned Fullaway. "Careless--careless!"
"Very!" said the chief, with a smile at Allerdyke "Teach you a lesson,perhaps. However, there this knowledge was. Now, Schmall, according toMerrifield, was the leading spirit. He had the man Lydenberg in hisemploy. He sent him off to Christiania to waylay James Allerdyke: hesupplied him with a photograph of James Allerdyke, which Ebers procured."
"I know that!" muttered Allerdyke. "Clever, too!"
"Exactly," agreed the chief. "Now at the same time Schmall learned ofMiss Lennard's return. He sent Ebers, who already knew and had beencultivating the French maid, down to Hull to meet her and bring her awaywith Miss Lennard's jewel-box. That was done easily. The Lydenbergaffair, however, did not come off--through Lydenberg. Because, as we nowknow, James Allerdyke sent the Nastirsevitch jewels off to you, Mr.Fullaway. But there, fortune favoured these fellows Van Koon, forpurposes of theirs, had taken up his quarters close by you--in yourabsence the box came into his hands. And--we know how the ingenious MissSlade despoiled him of it!"
The chief paused for a moment, and mechanically shifted the two parcelswhich stood before him. He seemed to be reflecting, and when he spokeagain he prefaced his words with a shake of the head.
"Now here, from this point," he continued, "I don't know if Mr.Merrifield is telling the truth. Probably he isn't. But I confess that,at present, I don't see how we're going to prove that he isn't. Hestrenuously declares that neither he nor Van Koon had anything whateverto do with the murder of Lisette Beaurepaire, Lydenberg, or Ebers. Hefurther says that he does not know if Lydenberg poisoned James Allerdyke.He declares that he does not know if it was ever intended to poison JamesAllerdyke, though he confesses that it was intended to rob him at Hull.Schmall, he says, was the active partner in all this--he took all thatinto his own hands. According to Merrifield, he does not know, nor VanKoon either, if it was Schmall who went down to Hull and shot Lydenberg,or if Lydenberg was murdered by some person who had a commission for hisdestruction from some secret society--Lydenberg, he believed, was mixedup with that sort of thing."
"I know that, I think!" exclaimed Allerdyke.
"I daresay we all three know what we think," observed the chief. "Schmallseems to have had a genius for putting his tools out of the way when hehad done with them. It was undoubtedly Schmall who took LisetteBeaurepaire to that hotel in Paddington and poisoned her; it was just asundoubtedly Schmall who took Ebers to the hotel in London Docks and gotrid of him. But, I tell you, Merrifield swears that neither he nor VanKoon knew of these things, and did not connive at them."
"Did they know of them--afterwards?" asked Fullaway.
"Ah!" replied the chief. "That's what they'll have to satisfy a judge andjury about! I think they'll find it difficult. But--that's about all.Except this--that they were all three about to clear out when theenterprising Miss Slade turned up and told Schmall she'd got theNastirsevitch jewels. That was a stiff proposition for them. But theywere equal to it. For you see Miss Slade let him know that she was opento do a deal--for sixty thousand pounds! How were they to get sixtythousand pounds? Ah!--now came a confession from Merrifield which hasalready--for I've told him of it--made Mr. Delkin stare. Delkin, itappears, keeps a very big banking account here in London--so big, thathis bankers think nothing of his drawing what we should call enormouscash cheques. Now Merrifield--you see what a clean breast he'smade--admitted to me that he was an expert forger--so he calmly forged acheque of Delkin's, drew sixty thousand in notes--and they had them onthem--at least Merrifield had--when we took all three a few hours ago.Nice people, eh!"
There was a silence of much significance for a few minutes; thenAllerdyke got up from his chair with a growl.
"I'd have given a good deal if that fellow Schmall had saved his neck forthe gallows!" he muttered. "He's cheated me!"
"It's my impression," said the chief, "that if Miss Slade hadn't been sosmart, Schmall would have cheated his two accomplices. He had what hebelieved to be the parcel containing the Nastirsevitch jewels in hispossession, a
nd he also had Miss Lennard's pearls locked up in his safe.We got those this afternoon, on searching his premises; Miss Slade gaveus the real Nastirsevitch jewels from her bank. Here they are--both lots,in these parcels. And if you two gentlemen will go through the formalityof signing receipts for them, you, Mr. Fullaway, can take her parcel tothe Princess, and you, Mr. Allerdyke, can carry hers to Miss Lennard.And, er--" he added, with a quiet smile, as he rose and produced somepapers--"you won't mind, either of you, I'm sure, if a couple of my menaccompany you--just to see that you accomplish your respective missionsin safety?"