Latest / Unnatural Death / 14 - Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers. This LibriVox
- 0:06Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Sharp quillets of the law.
- 0:13Speaker 1: Things done without example in their issue are to be feared.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Henry the eighth Myrbles is coming round to dinner to night,
- 0:25Speaker 1: Charles said Whimsey. I wish you'd stop and have grub
- 0:29Speaker 1: with us too. I want to put all this family
- 0:32Speaker 1: history business before him. Where are you dining? Oh at
- 0:37Speaker 1: the flat. I'm sick of restaurant meals. Bunter does a
- 0:41Speaker 1: wonderful bloody steak, and there are new peas and potatoes
- 0:45Speaker 1: and genuine English grass. Gerald scent it up from Denver,
- 0:50Speaker 1: specially you can't buy it. Come along, ye old English fair,
- 0:56Speaker 1: don't you know? And a bottle of what peeps called
- 1:00Speaker 1: oh Byron, Do you good? Parker accepted, but he noticed
- 1:06Speaker 1: that even when speaking on his beloved subject of food,
- 1:11Speaker 1: Whimsy was vague and abstracted. Something seemed to be worrying
- 1:16Speaker 1: at the back of his mind, And even when mister
- 1:19Speaker 1: Marbles appeared full of mild legal humor, Whimsey listened to
- 1:24Speaker 1: him with extreme courtesy. Indeed, but with only half his attention.
- 1:31Speaker 1: They were partly through dinner when a propos of nothing
- 1:35Speaker 1: whimsy suddenly brought his fist down on the mahogany with
- 1:39Speaker 1: a crash that startled even Bunter, causing him to jerk
- 1:43Speaker 1: A great crimson splash of aubrion over the edge of
- 1:47Speaker 1: the glass upon the table. Got it, said Lord Peter. Bunter,
- 1:54Speaker 1: in a low shocked voice, begged his lordship's pardon. Myrbles,
- 2:00Speaker 1: said Whimsey, without heeding him. Isn't there a new Property Act?
- 2:06Speaker 1: My yes, said mister Marbles, in some surprise. He had
- 2:12Speaker 1: been in the middle of a story when the interruption occurred,
- 2:15Speaker 1: and was a little put out. I knew I'd read
- 2:19Speaker 1: that sentence somewhere, you know, Charles, about doing away with
- 2:24Speaker 1: the long lost claimant from overseas. It was in some
- 2:28Speaker 1: paper or other about a couple of years ago, and
- 2:32Speaker 1: it had to do with the New Act. Of course,
- 2:35Speaker 1: it said, what a blow it would be to romantic novelists.
- 2:39Speaker 1: Doesn't the act wash out the claims of distant relatives? Marbles?
- 2:45Speaker 1: In a sense it does, replied the solicitor, Not, of course,
- 2:51Speaker 1: in the case of entailed property, which has its own rules.
- 2:56Speaker 1: But I understand you to refer to ordinary personal property
- 3:01Speaker 1: or real estate not entailed. Yes, what happens to that now?
- 3:07Speaker 1: If the owner of the property dies without making a will,
- 3:11Speaker 1: it is rather a complicated matter, began mister Marbles. Well
- 3:18Speaker 1: look here, first of all, before the jolly old Act
- 3:21Speaker 1: was passed, the next of kin got it all, didn't he,
- 3:25Speaker 1: no matter if he was only a seventh cousin fifteen
- 3:29Speaker 1: times removed in a general way. That is correct. If
- 3:34Speaker 1: there was a husband or wife who wash up the
- 3:38Speaker 1: husband and wife, suppose the person is unmarried and has
- 3:42Speaker 1: no near relations living, it would have gone to the
- 3:47Speaker 1: next of kin, whoever that was, if he or she
- 3:51Speaker 1: could be traced, even if you had to burrow back
- 3:55Speaker 1: to William the conqueror to get out the relationship. Always
- 4:00Speaker 1: supposing you could get a clear record back to so
- 4:04Speaker 1: very early a date, replied mister Marples. It is, of course,
- 4:09Speaker 1: in the highest degree improbable. Yes, yes, I know, sir,
- 4:14Speaker 1: But what happens now in such a case. The new
- 4:18Speaker 1: Act makes inheritance on intestacy very much simpler, said mister Marbles,
- 4:25Speaker 1: setting his knife bent fork together, placing both elbows on
- 4:29Speaker 1: the table, and laying the index finger of his right
- 4:33Speaker 1: hand against his left thumb in a gesture of tabulation.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I bet it does, interpolated whimsy. I know what an
- 4:43Speaker 1: act to make things simpler means. It means that the
- 4:47Speaker 1: people who drew it up don't understand it themselves, and
- 4:51Speaker 1: that every one of its clauses needs a lawsuit to
- 4:54Speaker 1: disentangle it. But do go on Under the new Act
- 5:00Speaker 1: a pursued, mister Marbles, one half of the property goes
- 5:05Speaker 1: to the husband and wife, if living and subject to
- 5:09Speaker 1: his or her life interest, then all to the children equally.
- 5:15Speaker 1: But if there be no spouse and no children, then
- 5:19Speaker 1: it goes to the father or mother of the deceased.
- 5:23Speaker 1: If the father and mother are both dead, then everything
- 5:28Speaker 1: goes to the brothers and sisters of the whole blood
- 5:31Speaker 1: who are living at the time. But if any brother
- 5:35Speaker 1: or sister dies before the intestate, then to his or
- 5:40Speaker 1: her issue. In case there are no brothers or sisters
- 5:45Speaker 1: of the Stop. Stop, you needn't go any further. You're
- 5:50Speaker 1: absolutely sure of that it goes to the brothers or
- 5:53Speaker 1: sister's issue. Yes, that is to say, if it were
- 5:59Speaker 1: you that died intestate, and your brother Gerald and your
- 6:04Speaker 1: sister Mary were already dead, your money would be equally
- 6:09Speaker 1: divided among your nieces and nephews. Yes, but suppose they
- 6:14Speaker 1: were dead too. Suppose I'd gone tediously living on till
- 6:19Speaker 1: I'd nothing left, but great nephews and great nieces. Would
- 6:24Speaker 1: they inherit? Why? Why? Yes, I suppose they would, said
- 6:30Speaker 1: mister Marbles, with less certainty. However, Oh yes, I think
- 6:35Speaker 1: they would. Clearly they would, said Parker, a little impatiently.
- 6:40Speaker 1: If it says to the issue of the deceased's brothers
- 6:43Speaker 1: and sisters. Ah, but we must not be precipitate, said
- 6:49Speaker 1: mister Marbles, rounding upon him. To the lay mind, doubtless,
- 6:54Speaker 1: the word issue appears a simple one. But in law, Marbles,
- 7:00Speaker 1: who up till this point had held the index finger
- 7:04Speaker 1: of the right hand poised against the ring finger of
- 7:07Speaker 1: the left in recognition of the claims of the brothers
- 7:10Speaker 1: and sisters of the half Blood, now placed his left
- 7:15Speaker 1: palm upon the table and wagged his right index finger
- 7:19Speaker 1: admonishingly in Parker's direction. In law, the word may bear
- 7:26Speaker 1: one or two, or indeed several interpretations, according to the
- 7:31Speaker 1: nature of the document in which it occurs and the
- 7:35Speaker 1: date of that document. But in the new Act, urged
- 7:40Speaker 1: Lord Peter. I am not, particularly, said mister Marbles, a
- 7:47Speaker 1: specialist in the law concerning property, and I should not
- 7:52Speaker 1: like to give a decided opinion as to its interpretation.
- 7:57Speaker 1: All the more as up to the present no case
- 8:00Speaker 1: has come before the courts bearing on the present issue
- 8:05Speaker 1: no pun intended ha. But my immediate and entirely tentative opinion,
- 8:13Speaker 1: which however, I should advise you not to accept without
- 8:17Speaker 1: the support of some weightier authority, would be I think
- 8:22Speaker 1: that issue in this case means issue add infinitum, and
- 8:27Speaker 1: that therefore the great nephews and great nieces would be
- 8:31Speaker 1: entitled to inherit. But there might be another opinion. Yes,
- 8:37Speaker 1: the question is a complicated one. What did I tell you,
- 8:42Speaker 1: groaned Peter. I knew this simplifying act would cause a
- 8:47Speaker 1: shock and lot of muddle. May I ask, said mister Marbles,
- 8:53Speaker 1: exactly why you want to know all this? Why, sir,
- 8:58Speaker 1: said Whimsy, taking from his pocket book the genealogy of
- 9:02Speaker 1: the Dawson family, which she had received from the Reverend
- 9:06Speaker 1: Hallelujah Dawson. Here is the point. We have always talked
- 9:12Speaker 1: about Mary Whittaker as Agatha Dawson's niece. She was always
- 9:17Speaker 1: called so, and she speaks of the old lady as
- 9:20Speaker 1: her aunt. But if you look at this you will
- 9:23Speaker 1: see that actually she was no nearer to her than
- 9:28Speaker 1: great niece. She was the grand daughter of Agatha's sister Harriet.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Quite true, said mister Marbles. But still she was apparently
- 9:41Speaker 1: the nearest surviving relative. And since Agatha Dawson died in
- 9:47Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five, the money passed without any question to
- 9:51Speaker 1: Mary Whittaker under the old Property Act. There is no ambiguity. There,
- 9:58Speaker 1: no said whimsy, none whatever. That's the point. But good
- 10:05Speaker 1: God broke in Parker. I see what you are driving at.
- 10:10Speaker 1: When did the new Act come into force, sir? In
- 10:14Speaker 1: January nineteen twenty six, replied mister Marbles. And miss Dawson
- 10:20Speaker 1: died rather unexpectedly, as we know, in November nineteen twenty five,
- 10:27Speaker 1: went on Peter. But supposing she had lived as the
- 10:32Speaker 1: doctor fully expected her to do, till February or March
- 10:36Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty six, are you absolutely positive, sir, that
- 10:41Speaker 1: Mary Whittaker would have inherited? Then mister Marbles opened his
- 10:47Speaker 1: mouth to speak and shut it again. He rubbed his
- 10:51Speaker 1: hands very slowly, the one over the other. He removed
- 10:55Speaker 1: his eye glasses and resettled them more firmly on his nose.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Then you are quite right, Lord Peter, he said in
- 11:05Speaker 1: a grave tone. This is a very serious and important point,
- 11:11Speaker 1: much too serious for me to give an opinion on.
- 11:15Speaker 1: If I understand you rightly, you are suggesting that any
- 11:20Speaker 1: ambiguity in the interpretation of the New Act might provide
- 11:25Speaker 1: an interested party with a very good and sufficient motive
- 11:30Speaker 1: for hastening the death of Agatha Dawson. I do mean
- 11:35Speaker 1: that exactly, of course, if the Great Niece inherits anyhow,
- 11:40Speaker 1: the old lady might as well die under the new
- 11:42Speaker 1: Act as under the old. But if there was any
- 11:46Speaker 1: doubt about it, how tempting don't you see to give
- 11:50Speaker 1: her a little push over the edge so as to
- 11:53Speaker 1: make her die in nineteen twenty five, especially as she
- 11:57Speaker 1: couldn't live long anyhow, and there were no other relatives
- 12:01Speaker 1: to be defrauded. That reminds me. Put in Parker, suppose
- 12:07Speaker 1: the Great Niece is excluded from the inheritance, where does
- 12:12Speaker 1: the money go? It goes to the Duchy of Lancaster,
- 12:17Speaker 1: or in other words, to the Crown. In fact, said
- 12:22Speaker 1: whimsy to no one in particular upon my soul. I
- 12:27Speaker 1: really can't see that it's very much of a crime
- 12:30Speaker 1: to bump a poor old thing off a bit previously,
- 12:34Speaker 1: when she's sufferin horribly, just to get the money she
- 12:38Speaker 1: intends you to have. Why the devil should the Duchy
- 12:42Speaker 1: of Lancaster have it? Who cares about the Duchy of Lancaster.
- 12:47Speaker 1: It's like defrauding the income tax ethically, observed mister Marbles.
- 12:54Speaker 1: There may be much to be said for your point
- 12:57Speaker 1: of view. Legally, I am afraidid murder is murder, however
- 13:03Speaker 1: frail the victim or convenient the result. And Agathadawsen didn't
- 13:10Speaker 1: want to die, added Parker. She said so, No, said
- 13:15Speaker 1: Whimsy thoughtfully, and I suppose she had a right to
- 13:19Speaker 1: an opinion. I think, said mister Marbles, that before we
- 13:26Speaker 1: go any further, we ought to consult a specialist in
- 13:30Speaker 1: this branch of the law. I wonder whether Tallkington is
- 13:35Speaker 1: at home. He is quite the ablest authority I could
- 13:39Speaker 1: name greatly. As I dislike that modern invention the telephone,
- 13:45Speaker 1: I think it might be advisable to wring him up.
- 13:51Speaker 1: Mister Tlkington proved to be at home and at liberty
- 13:55Speaker 1: the case of the Great Niece was put to him
- 13:58Speaker 1: over the phone. Mister Tulkington, taken at a disadvantage without
- 14:04Speaker 1: his authorities, and hazarding an opinion on the spur of
- 14:08Speaker 1: the moment, thought that in all probability the Great Niece
- 14:13Speaker 1: would be excluded from the succession under the new Act.
- 14:17Speaker 1: But it was an interesting point, and he would be
- 14:21Speaker 1: glad of an opportunity to verify his references. Would not
- 14:25Speaker 1: mister Myrbles come round and talk it over with him?
- 14:30Speaker 1: Mister Marbles explained that he was at that moment dining
- 14:34Speaker 1: with two friends who were interested in the question. In
- 14:38Speaker 1: that case, would not the two friends also come round
- 14:42Speaker 1: to see mister Tulkington. Tulkington has some very excellent port,
- 14:47Speaker 1: said mister Marbles, in a cautious aside, and clapping his
- 14:52Speaker 1: hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone. Then why not
- 14:57Speaker 1: go and try it, said Whimsey cheerfully. It's only as
- 15:03Speaker 1: far as Gray's Inn, continued mister Marbles, all the better.
- 15:09Speaker 1: Mister Marbles released the telephone and thanked mister Talkington. The
- 15:14Speaker 1: party would start at once for Gray's Inn. Mister Talkington
- 15:18Speaker 1: was heard to say good good in a hearty manner
- 15:22Speaker 1: before ringing off. On their arrival at mister Tulkington's chambers,
- 15:29Speaker 1: the oak was found to be hospitably unsported, and almost
- 15:35Speaker 1: before they could knock, mister Tulkington himself flung open the
- 15:39Speaker 1: door and greeted them in a loud and cheerful tone.
- 15:44Speaker 1: He was a large, square man with a florid face
- 15:47Speaker 1: and a harsh voice. In court, he was famous for
- 15:52Speaker 1: a way of saying come now, as a preface to
- 15:57Speaker 1: tying recalcitrant witnesses into tight knots, which he would then
- 16:01Speaker 1: proceed to slash open with a brilliant confutation. He knew
- 16:06Speaker 1: whimsy by sight, expressed himself delighted to meet Inspector Parker,
- 16:12Speaker 1: and bustled his guests into the room with jovial shouts.
- 16:18Speaker 1: I've been going into this little matter while you were
- 16:20Speaker 1: coming along, he said. Awkward, eh ha. Astonishing thing that
- 16:26Speaker 1: people can't say what they mean when they draw acts.
- 16:29Speaker 1: Eh ha. Why do you suppose it is, Lord Peter?
- 16:33Speaker 1: Eh ha? I come now, I suspect it's because acts
- 16:38Speaker 1: are drawn up by lawyers, said Whimsy with a grin
- 16:43Speaker 1: to make work for themselves. Eh I dare say you're right?
- 16:47Speaker 1: Even lawyers must live. Eh, very good. Well, now, Merbles,
- 16:53Speaker 1: let's just have this case again in greater detailed mind.
- 16:58Speaker 1: Mister Myrbles explained the matter again, displaying the genealogical table
- 17:03Speaker 1: and putting forward the point as regards a possible motive
- 17:08Speaker 1: or murder. Eh huh, exclaimed mister Tulkington, much delighted. That's good,
- 17:15Speaker 1: very good your idea, Lord Peter. Very ingenious, too ingenious.
- 17:22Speaker 1: The dock at the Old Bailey is peopled by gentlemen
- 17:25Speaker 1: who are too ingenious. Ha, come to a bad end
- 17:29Speaker 1: one of these days, young man. Eh. Yes, well, now, Merbles.
- 17:34Speaker 1: The question here turns on the interpretation of the word issue.
- 17:39Speaker 1: You grasp that eh ha, yes, well, you seem to
- 17:43Speaker 1: think it means issue ad infinitum. How do you make
- 17:48Speaker 1: that out come? Now? I didn't say I thought it did.
- 17:54Speaker 1: I said I thought it might, remonstrated mister Irbles mildly.
- 18:00Speaker 1: The general intention of the act appears to be to
- 18:04Speaker 1: exclude any remote kin where the common ancestor is further
- 18:09Speaker 1: back than the grandparents, not to cut off the descendants
- 18:14Speaker 1: of the brothers and sisters. Intention snapped mister Tulkington. I'm
- 18:20Speaker 1: astonished at you, Marbles. The law has nothing to do
- 18:25Speaker 1: with good intentions. What does the Act say? It says
- 18:31Speaker 1: to the brothers and sisters of the whole Blood and
- 18:34Speaker 1: their issue. Now, in the absence of any new definition,
- 18:39Speaker 1: I should say that the word is here to be
- 18:42Speaker 1: construed as before the Act it was construed on intestacy,
- 18:47Speaker 1: in so far at any rate, as it refers to
- 18:50Speaker 1: personal property, which I understand the property in question to be.
- 18:55Speaker 1: Eh yes, said mister Marbles. Then I don't see that
- 19:01Speaker 1: you and your great niece have a leg to stand on.
- 19:04Speaker 1: Come now, excuse me, said Whimsy, But do you mind?
- 19:09Speaker 1: I know lay people are awful ignorant nuisances, but if
- 19:13Speaker 1: you would be so good as to explain what the
- 19:16Speaker 1: beastly word did or does mean, it would be frightfully helpful,
- 19:21Speaker 1: don't you know? Ah? Well, it's like this, said mister
- 19:25Speaker 1: Tulkington graciously, before eighteen thirty seven Queen Victoria, I know,
- 19:32Speaker 1: said Peter intelligently. Quite so, at the time when Queen
- 19:37Speaker 1: Victoria came to the throne, the word issue had no
- 19:41Speaker 1: legal meaning, no legal meaning at all. You surprise me,
- 19:46Speaker 1: You are too easily surprised, said mister Tulkington. Many words
- 19:52Speaker 1: have no legal meaning. Others have a legal meaning very
- 19:56Speaker 1: unlike their ordinary meaning. For example, the word daffy down dilly.
- 20:02Speaker 1: It is a criminal libel to call a lawyer a
- 20:06Speaker 1: daffy down dilly. Hah, Yes, I advise you never to
- 20:10Speaker 1: do such a thing. Nope, I certainly advise you never
- 20:14Speaker 1: to do it. Then again, words which are quite meaningless
- 20:18Speaker 1: in your ordinary conversation may have a meaning in law.
- 20:22Speaker 1: For instance, I might say to a young man like yourself,
- 20:26Speaker 1: you wish to leave such and such property to so
- 20:30Speaker 1: and so, and you would very likely reply, oh, yes, absolutely,
- 20:36Speaker 1: meaning nothing in particular by that. But if you were
- 20:40Speaker 1: to write it in your will, I leave such and
- 20:43Speaker 1: such property to so and so absolutely, then that word
- 20:48Speaker 1: would bear a definite legal meaning, and would condition your
- 20:52Speaker 1: bequest in a certain manner, and might even prove an
- 20:56Speaker 1: embarrassment and produce results very far from your actual intentions.
- 21:01Speaker 1: Eh huh, you see quite very well. Prior to eighteen
- 21:08Speaker 1: thirty seven, the word issue meant nothing a grant to
- 21:13Speaker 1: a and his issue merely gave a a life a state.
- 21:19Speaker 1: But this was altered by the Will's Act of eighteen
- 21:22Speaker 1: thirty seven, as far as a will was concerned, put
- 21:27Speaker 1: in mister Marbles, precisely after eighteen thirty seven. In a will,
- 21:34Speaker 1: issue meant heirs of the body, that is to say,
- 21:37Speaker 1: issue add infinitum. In a deed, on the other hand,
- 21:42Speaker 1: issue retained its old meaning or lack of meaning. You follow, yes,
- 21:49Speaker 1: said mister Marbles. And on intestacy of personal property, I
- 21:54Speaker 1: am coming to that, said mister Tulkington. The word issue
- 22:00Speaker 1: continued to mean airs of the body, and that held
- 22:04Speaker 1: good till nineteen twenty six. Stop, said mister Tulkington. Issue
- 22:11Speaker 1: of the child or children of the deceased certainly meant
- 22:15Speaker 1: issue ad infinitum. But issue of any person not a
- 22:21Speaker 1: child of the deceased only meant the child of that
- 22:25Speaker 1: person and did not include other descendants, and that undoubtedly
- 22:31Speaker 1: held good till nineteen twenty six. And since the new
- 22:35Speaker 1: Act contains no statement to the contrary, I think we
- 22:39Speaker 1: must presume that it continues to hold good. Ha. Come now,
- 22:45Speaker 1: in the case before us, you observe that the claimant
- 22:49Speaker 1: is not the child of the deceased, nor issue of
- 22:53Speaker 1: the child of the deceased, nor is she the child
- 22:57Speaker 1: of the deceased's sister she is merely the grand child
- 23:02Speaker 1: of the deceased, sister of the deceased. Accordingly, I think
- 23:08Speaker 1: she is debarred from inheriting under the new Act. Eh huh,
- 23:13Speaker 1: I see your point, said mister Myrtles, and moreover went
- 23:19Speaker 1: on mister Tulkington after nineteen twenty five, issue in a
- 23:24Speaker 1: will or deed does not mean issue add infinitum. That
- 23:30Speaker 1: at least is clearly stated, and the Will's Act of
- 23:34Speaker 1: eighteen thirty seven is revoked on that point. Not that
- 23:39Speaker 1: that has any direct bearing on the question, but it
- 23:42Speaker 1: may be an indication of the tendency of modern interpretation,
- 23:47Speaker 1: and might possibly affect the mind of the court in
- 23:51Speaker 1: deciding how the word issue was to be construed or
- 23:55Speaker 1: the purposes of the new Act. Well, said mister Irbles,
- 24:01Speaker 1: I bow to your superior knowledge. In any case, broke
- 24:06Speaker 1: In Parker, any uncertainty in the matter would provide as
- 24:11Speaker 1: good a motive for murder as the certainty of exclusion
- 24:15Speaker 1: from inheritance. If Mary Whittaker only thought she might lose
- 24:20Speaker 1: the money in the event of her great aunts surviving
- 24:24Speaker 1: into nineteen twenty six, she might quite well be tempted
- 24:28Speaker 1: to polish her off a little earlier, and make sure
- 24:33Speaker 1: that's true enough, said mister Marbles. Shrewd, very shrewd, added
- 24:40Speaker 1: mister Tulkington. But you realize that all this theory of
- 24:45Speaker 1: yours depends on Mary Whittaker's having known about the new
- 24:49Speaker 1: Act and its probable consequences as early as October nineteen
- 24:55Speaker 1: twenty five. A huh, there's no reason why she shouldn't,
- 25:01Speaker 1: said Whimsy. I remember reading an article in the evening Banner.
- 25:05Speaker 1: I think it was some months earlier, about the time
- 25:08Speaker 1: when the Act was having its second reading. That's what
- 25:12Speaker 1: put the thing into my head. I was trying to
- 25:15Speaker 1: remember all evening where I'd seen that thing about washing
- 25:19Speaker 1: out the long lost air. You know, Mary Whittaker may
- 25:22Speaker 1: easily have seen it too well. She probably have taken
- 25:28Speaker 1: advice about it. If she did, said mister Marbles, who
- 25:32Speaker 1: is her usual man of affairs. Whimsy shook his head.
- 25:38Speaker 1: I don't think she'd have asked him, he objected, not
- 25:42Speaker 1: if she was wise. That is. You see, if she did,
- 25:46Speaker 1: and he said, she probably wouldn't get anything unless miss
- 25:50Speaker 1: Dawson either made a will or died before January nineteen
- 25:55Speaker 1: twenty six, and if after that the old lady did
- 25:59Speaker 1: on extra spectedly pop off in October nineteen twenty five.
- 26:04Speaker 1: Wouldn't the Solicitor Johnny feel inclined to ask questions? It
- 26:09Speaker 1: wouldn't be safe, don't you know? I s'pect she went
- 26:13Speaker 1: to some stranger and asked a few innocent little questions
- 26:16Speaker 1: under another name? What probably said, mister Tulkington, You show
- 26:23Speaker 1: a remarkable disposition for crime, don't you. Eh? Well, if
- 26:28Speaker 1: I did go in for it, I'd take reasonable precautions,
- 26:33Speaker 1: retorted Whimsy. So wonderful, of course, the tom fool things
- 26:37Speaker 1: murderers do do. But I have the highest opinion of
- 26:40Speaker 1: miss Whittaker's brains. I bet she covered her tracks pretty well.
- 26:47Speaker 1: You don't think mister Crobin mentioned the matter, suggested Parker
- 26:52Speaker 1: the time he went down and tried to get miss
- 26:54Speaker 1: Dawson to make her will. I don't said Whimsy with energy,
- 27:00Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure he tried to explain matters to
- 27:03Speaker 1: the old lady. Only she was so terrified of the
- 27:07Speaker 1: very idea of a will she wouldn't let him get
- 27:10Speaker 1: a word in. But I fancy Old Probin was too
- 27:14Speaker 1: downy a bird to tell the air that her only
- 27:17Speaker 1: chance of getting the dollars was to see that her
- 27:21Speaker 1: grandaunt died off before the act went through. Would you
- 27:26Speaker 1: tell anybody that, mister Tulkington, Not if I knew it,
- 27:31Speaker 1: said that gentleman grinning, It would be highly undesirable, agreed
- 27:37Speaker 1: mister Myrbles. Anyway, said Whimsy. We can easily find out
- 27:44Speaker 1: probins in Italy. I was going to write to him,
- 27:47Speaker 1: but perhaps you'd better do it, Myrbles. And in the meanwhile,
- 27:52Speaker 1: Charles and I will think up a way to find
- 27:55Speaker 1: whoever it was that did give miss Whittaker an opinion
- 27:59Speaker 1: on the matter. You're not forgetting, I suppose, said Parker
- 28:05Speaker 1: rather dryly, that before penning down a murder to any
- 28:09Speaker 1: particular motive, it is usual to ascertain that a murder
- 28:14Speaker 1: has been committed. So far, all we know is that,
- 28:19Speaker 1: after a careful post mortem analysis, two qualified doctors have
- 28:24Speaker 1: agreed that miss Dawson died a natural death. I wish
- 28:29Speaker 1: you wouldn't keep on saying the same thing, Charles. It
- 28:33Speaker 1: bores me. So It's like the raven never flitting, which,
- 28:38Speaker 1: as the poet observes, still is sitting. Still is sitting
- 28:43Speaker 1: inviting one to heave the pallid bust of palace at
- 28:47Speaker 1: him and have done with it. You wait till I
- 28:50Speaker 1: publish my epoch making work, the Murderer's Vadamaicum, or one
- 28:56Speaker 1: Hundred Ways of Causing Sudden Death. That'll show you I'm
- 29:00Speaker 1: not a man to be trifled with. Oh well, said Parker.
- 29:06Speaker 1: But he saw the Chief Commissioner next morning and reported
- 29:10Speaker 1: that he was at last disposed to take the Dawson
- 29:13Speaker 1: case seriously. End of Chapter fourteen