The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn

  CHAPTER XVI

  All the newspapers had published as full accounts as they could compileof the Lincoln's Inn Mystery, dwelling on and emphasizing theextraordinary features of the case. Determined now to give it the utmostpublicity, Inspector Gale had supplied them with most of the informationat his command, but he took good care to say not a word about themission on which he had despatched Brydges. What he did communicate tothe Press was sufficient, however, to arouse the public to a stillhigher pitch of excitement regarding the whole strange story of MorrisThornton. As a natural consequence, the room in which the inquest washeld was packed as densely as it could be.

  In the mean time Gale had been exceedingly active. He had not yetreceived any message from Brydges; he did not, in fact, expect to hearfrom him for a day or two, if so soon. But he had interviewed Miss KittyThornton and Francis Eversleigh.

  From the former he had obtained her father's letter announcing hiscoming to England, but he saw the missive was of no particularimportance in itself. From the latter person he had been able to learnnothing fresh, but he had a feeling that Francis Eversleigh's state ofcollapse was much more complete than the occasion, sad and painful asit was, quite accounted for, and he asked himself if it were possiblethat the solicitor was holding back something from him.

  Both Miss Kitty and Eversleigh had somewhat puzzled the detective, butfor entirely different reasons. Both of them were present in the room atthe inquest--indeed, they sat side by side; and Gale, secretly watchingthem, found himself puzzled again by what had puzzled him before.

  What puzzled him was, on the one hand, the quiet strength shown by thegirl; and on the other, the superlative weakness exhibited by the man.He was astounded by the firm, composed demeanour of Miss Thornton, buthe was even more astounded by the nervous, perturbed, and almosthysterical condition of Eversleigh. Gale thought that if the positionsof the two had been reversed, he would have understood it better.

  The truth was, so far as Kitty was concerned, that having concluded sometime before that her father was dead, and also, after hearing thedetails of the finding of the body in Stone Buildings, that it was inthe highest degree improbable that he had been murdered by CooperSilwood, she had made up her mind, in spite of her grief, to take acertain stand. For she saw that, as the case stood, Francis Eversleigh,her lover Gilbert, and the rest of the Eversleighs, to all of whom sheoccupied almost the relation of a member of their family, must restunder a heavy cloud until such time as the darkness should be lifted.Therefore, she nerved herself to face this crisis in her and theiraffairs with all the courage and determination she possessed, and todemonstrate by her attitude that she, the daughter of Morris Thornton,had every confidence in them. Gilbert, who knew what was in her mind,thanked and blessed her, and admired and loved her more than ever.

  Highly intelligent, she did not fail to know that popular opinionpronounced Cooper Silwood, the partner of Francis Eversleigh, themurderer of her father, and she was set on making it plain to all theworld that she did not take that view. As she sat by the side of FrancisEversleigh she took his hand, and tried to assure him of her sympathyand support.

  As for Francis Eversleigh, his lamentable state was so evident that noone could behold him without pity. His face was full of suffering, hiseyes were heavy and dull, his frame was bent and bowed. He tried toconcentrate his thoughts, to fix his wandering wits on some definiteidea, but the slightest effort exhausted him. All that he was reallyconscious of was that he was the victim of an incredibly cruel andmalicious destiny that was slowly grinding the life out of him. In ablurr of emotions he hazily wondered how he was to get through theordeal of the day. And further, he had a faint suspicion--he was notable to formulate it clearly--that, when Gale had spoken to him aboutthe date on which Cooper Silwood had left for his Italian holiday, hehad said something unguardedly--he could not remember exactly what--tothe inspector, which that officer had regarded as peculiar. He wastrying, with such strength as was left him, to recall it when thecoroner took his seat.

  When the jury had been impanelled and sworn, they, according to custom,went to view the remains--now hardly recognizable, but in the dead man'sclothes had been found letters which further identified him, had therebeen any doubt. But there was no doubt whatever that the remains werethe remains of Morris Thornton.

  Thereafter evidence was given.

  Inspector Gale, between whom and the coroner there chanced to be a tacitfeud, on account of former differences--a circumstance which later wasto have its effect on the inquest--followed every word with the closestattention.

  First came the tale of the finding of the body.

  The locksmith was called, and he recounted his share in the discovery inStone Buildings, as already set forth in this narrative. But he wasparticularly questioned about the difficulty he had experienced inopening the door of Silwood's chambers. In reply, he described the Yalelock which he had forced to gain admission to the rooms; it was a lockof a special kind, and could only be opened and locked by a special key.

  The lock was now produced and identified by the locksmith.

  A clerk from the makers was then put in the box. He stated that the lockbore a number in addition to the name of the firm to which he belonged,and by tracing the number in their books, they were able to state thatthe lock had been supplied to Mr. Cooper Silwood some four years before,and he mentioned the precise date. And with the lock they had suppliedtwo keys; they had not retained a triplicate. One of their men, he said,had fixed the lock on the door of Mr. Silwood's chambers. Asked by thecoroner if the lock was of the kind that would shut of itself on theswinging-to of the door, he answered that it was not; it could neitherbe opened nor locked without the proper key being used. The door waslocked, witness volunteered, after Mr. Thornton was dead.

  "I don't know that you can say that!" exclaimed the coroner, sharply."The door was certainly locked by some one on Mr. Thornton, alive ordead; a key was used, it is plain, but you do not know that Mr. Thorntonwas dead at the time; you have no right to say that."

  "Perhaps not," said the clerk, humbly; "but it occurred to me, sir, thatif Mr. Thornton had been alive when he was locked in, he would havetried to get out. When he found he could not get out by the door, wouldhe not have broken one of the windows? Or maybe he would not have hadmore to do than lift a window and cry for help to some one without."

  The coroner agreed that there was something in what the clerk had said,but he did not pursue this branch of inquiry further.

  "You said," remarked the coroner, "that your firm supplied Mr. Silwoodwith two keys?"

  "Yes."

  "He never told you that he had lost one of the keys?"

  "I am positive he never did. If he had lost one, he would have sent tous for another, surely; and then I must have heard of it, for it is myduty to keep the record of the keys. We have a regular registry."

  "On the other hand, he might lose a key and say nothing about it; isthat not so?"

  "Certainly, sir."

  Inspector Gale wondered not a little at the unusual line the coroner wastaking in his questions.

  The clerk was now dismissed, and the Lincoln's Inn porter summoned. Theporter corroborated in the main the evidence of the locksmith, the onlynew point he made being to state that he had been sent for by Mr.Francis Eversleigh to open Silwood's door. He was aware that thisparticular door had a special lock, and he had informed Mr. Eversleighof the fact.

  Then Francis Eversleigh was called, and as he was plainly very ill, hewas given a chair.

  The coroner, who knew him perfectly, invited him to make a statement,and in a weak, halting, hesitating manner he did so. When it wasfinished he was asked a few questions.

  "You were aware that Mr. Thornton intended coming to London?"

  "He wrote to us to that effect, but he specified no date on which wemight look for him."

  "You did not know of his arrival in London--until when?"

  "Until my son, Gilbert, who had been making inquiries, told me
of Mr.Thornton's coming to the Law Courts Hotel, and of the subsequentdisappearance. Thereafter my firm offered a reward for any informationwhich might lead us to know what had become of him."

  "Your son Gilbert had been making inquiries--why?"

  Francis Eversleigh, stumbling at every second or third word, gave anaccount of the circumstances which had resulted in the discovery thatMorris Thornton had come to London, and had thereafter disappeared.

  "I was naturally very anxious," said Eversleigh. "Mr. Thornton was anold and dear friend, and his only child, a daughter, had lived with usfor some years."

  "Was Mr. Silwood also a friend of the deceased?"

  "Almost as much as I was."

  "There was no ill feeling between them?"

  "I am quite sure there was not."

  "Have you any explanation to offer, or any suggestion to make, regardingthe finding of Mr. Thornton's body in your partner's privateapartments?"

  "I can account for it in no way. It is a profound mystery to me. No onewas more surprised than I was when the body was discovered in Mr.Silwood's sitting-room. The shock was so great, indeed, that I faintedaway."

  "What was the date on which Mr. Silwood departed for his holiday--Iunderstand he went to Italy?"

  "He went on the very night that Mr. Thornton disappeared, or thefollowing morning. A note was received from him on the Saturday morningsaying he was off--that was the day after Mr. Thornton's disappearance."

  Here Inspector Gale interposed, and said it would be proved that Mr.Silwood left on the Saturday morning.

  The words caused an immense sensation in the room; the feeling wasgeneral that this had an important bearing on the case; in the breast ofalmost every one present there was the impression that the dead man hadbeen murdered by Silwood. Black despair clutched at Francis Eversleigh'sheart-strings.

  Gilbert was next called, and said what he had to say in a manly,straightforward manner.

  Inspector Gale now came upon the stand, and put before the jury thefacts as he knew them. In brief, he said the facts were that Mr.Thornton, on the Friday night in question, left his hotel with thedeclared intention of going for a walk in Holborn or in Chancery Lane;that he did not return; and that his body, fifteen days later, was foundin Stone Buildings, which was a part of Lincoln's Inn, practically inChancery Lane. Also, that the room in which the body was discoveredbelonged to Mr. Silwood, who had left London the morning next after thedisappearance of Mr. Thornton. The conclusion was obvious; yet, on theother hand, there were two considerations to which importance must beattached: one was the absence of motive on the part of Silwood, theother was that on the very night of the disappearance, a man, dressed asa workman, had been seen to issue from Lincoln's Inn, from the StoneBuildings end of the Inn, and that he had not been able to find outanything about this workman. In these circumstances he suggested thatthe jury should return an open verdict.

  Gale's reference to the mysterious workman was the first intimation thepublic had received of that person; it had the effect somewhat ofcasting doubt on the certainty of Silwood's guilt.

  "An open verdict," said the coroner, with a curious inflection of voice."Wait till we have heard the medical evidence."

  Dr. Gilson, an eminent man, called and sworn, said that he had made anautopsy on the body, according to instructions from the coroner.

  "With what result?" asked the coroner.

  "I found no trace of violence on the body; there was absolutely nothingto indicate Mr. Thornton came by his death by foul means. On thecontrary, my examination showed conclusively that death came from thebursting of an aneurism. Mr. Thornton undoubtedly died of heart-disease.In other words, he died from natural causes."

  "From natural causes!"

  The thing seemed beyond belief.

  The coroner, who had been prepared for what was coming, glanced at Gale,and on his face was the ghost of a smile.

  Every one in the room looked at every one else with blank amazement.

  "From natural causes!" they repeated to each other. Then Morris Thorntonhad not been murdered after all. But on reflection they saw that themystery was not solved, and now they inquired, how had he come to die"from natural causes" _in Cooper Silwood's rooms_?

  When Francis Eversleigh heard the doctor's words, a light of gladnesscame upon his face. For the first time for days he seemed to breathemore like a man; but like the rest he was astonished and asked the samequestion all were asking.

  A second doctor, of equal eminence with the other expert, confirmed thestatement of his colleague.

  "There is not the faintest shadow of doubt," said he, "that Mr. Thorntondied from the bursting of an aneurism. He was not murdered, he died fromnatural causes--so much is absolutely certain."

  After this there was very little to be done.

  The jury brought in a verdict that Morris Thornton died from naturalcauses.

  But the Lincoln's Inn Mystery was as great as ever.