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22 - Ashiel Mystery - A Detective Story by Mrs. Charles Bryce · Ashiel Mystery - A Detective Story

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of The AshEL Mystery. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Mary Herndon Bell. The Asheyl Mystery by Missus
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Speaker 1: Charles Bryce, chapter twenty two. It was after dinner that night,
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Speaker 1: as he sat in the little drawing room of the
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Speaker 1: cottage with Lady Ruth and Sir Arthur, that his hostess
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Speaker 1: asked him to explain to them how he had contrived
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Speaker 1: to detect the way in which the murder had been committed.
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Speaker 1: You promised to tell me all about it, Lady Ruth
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Speaker 1: reminded him. If I would keep silent about your finding
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Speaker 1: the papers in the statue, tell us the whole thing
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Speaker 1: from the beginning. Sir Arthur urged him, I will willingly
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Speaker 1: tell you anything that may interest you. Gimblet consented readily.
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Speaker 1: Every one enjoys talking about their work to sympathetic listeners
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Speaker 1: such as yourselves. It is a bad thing to start
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Speaker 1: on a case with a preconceived idea, and I can't
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Speaker 1: deny that when I first came here, I was very
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Speaker 1: near having an e day fix as to the origin
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Speaker 1: of the crime. I tried to deceive myself into thinking
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Speaker 1: that I kept an open mind on the subject, But
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Speaker 1: I don't think I ever really doubted for a minute
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Speaker 1: that the Kneilist's Society to which Lord Ashele had formerly belonged,
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Speaker 1: was responsible for the murder. Even after my conversation with
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Speaker 1: a new peer, which showed me that things looked blacker
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Speaker 1: against Sir David Southern than I had expected, I was
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Speaker 1: far from convinced that he was guilty, though I was
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Speaker 1: obliged to admit that there was some ground for the
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Speaker 1: conclusion come to by the police. But what was the
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Speaker 1: evidence against him? Sir David was known to have quarreled
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Speaker 1: with his uncle. He had even been heard to say
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Speaker 1: that he had a good mind to shoot him, but
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Speaker 1: that was more than twenty four hours previous to the crime,
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Speaker 1: and the words were uttered in a moment of anger
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Speaker 1: when he probably said the first thing that came into
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Speaker 1: his head was he likely to have hugged his rage
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Speaker 1: in silence for the hours that followed, and then to
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Speaker 1: have walked out into the garden and shot his uncle
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Speaker 1: in cold blood, and without further warning. It did not
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Speaker 1: appear to me probable, But then I did not know
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Speaker 1: the young man. He was not to be found. When
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Speaker 1: the deed was discovered and a hunt instituted for the murderer. Well,
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Speaker 1: he had an answer to that which fitted in with
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Speaker 1: my own theory. He said he saw some one hanging
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Speaker 1: about the grounds and went to look for him. But
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Speaker 1: it was said that the night was so dark as
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Speaker 1: to make it improbable that any one should have been seen,
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Speaker 1: even if there had been any one to see. That
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Speaker 1: cut both ways to my mind, for it would account
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Speaker 1: for the intruder making his escape undiscovered. Then there was
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Speaker 1: the matter of the rifle, which he had told miss
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Speaker 1: Byrne he had cleaned that evening in which it had
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Speaker 1: certainly been fired. Since then he owned that he had
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Speaker 1: locked it up and that the key never left his
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Speaker 1: possession afterwards, but now denied that he had told the
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Speaker 1: young lady that he had cleaned it. I asked young
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Speaker 1: Lord Ashwell if he could put any possible interpretation on
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Speaker 1: these facts, except the one accepted by the police, and
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Speaker 1: he replied that he could not. That for the first
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Speaker 1: time made me wonder if he were really anxious to
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Speaker 1: believe his cousin innocent, For I could put quite different
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Speaker 1: interpretations on them myself. In the first place, though it
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Speaker 1: was possible that Sir David lied in making his second
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Speaker 1: statement to the effect that he had not said he
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Speaker 1: had cleaned his rifle, it was equally possible that the
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Speaker 1: first statement that he had cleaned it was not strictly
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Speaker 1: accurate for some reason which he did not care to divulge.
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Speaker 1: He might have told Miss Byrne he had been cleaning
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Speaker 1: his gun when he had been really doing something entirely different.
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Speaker 1: But had he told her he had cleaned it, his words,
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Speaker 1: as repeated by her to me, were I went in
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Speaker 1: there to cling my rifle, but not I have been
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Speaker 1: cleaning my rifle, which would be another thing altogether. He
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Speaker 1: probably had not yet begun cleaning it when he heard
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Speaker 1: Miss Byrne coming and went out to speak to her.
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Speaker 1: It is possible some feeling akin to shyness might have
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Speaker 1: made him reluctant to confess this afterwards in public. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: I now feel quite sure that this is the explanation
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Speaker 1: of the matter. Later on, when I questioned her again,
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Speaker 1: she did not appear certain which of the two forms
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Speaker 1: of words he had used. But there was at all
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Speaker 1: events a considerable doubt. There were other possibilities also, some
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Speaker 1: one might possess a duplicate key to the gun cabinet.
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Speaker 1: It seemed to me impossible that none of these considerations
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Speaker 1: should have occurred to Young Ashey if he were really
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Speaker 1: reluctant to believe in Sir David's guilt. But at the
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Speaker 1: same time I remembered the almost incredible lack of reasoning
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Speaker 1: powers shown by most members of the public where a
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Speaker 1: deed of violence has been committed, and knowing that there
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Speaker 1: is nothing so improbable that it will not find a
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Speaker 1: host of ready believers, I did not attach much importance
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Speaker 1: to the circumstance until later, still on the whole, after
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Speaker 1: talking to young Lord Ashell, I felt more disposed to
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Speaker 1: believe that there might be some truth in the accusation
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Speaker 1: that had been made than I had previously thought likely.
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Speaker 1: But on that point I reserved my opinion till I
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Speaker 1: should have had an opportunity of examining the scene of
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Speaker 1: the tragedy for myself. So I prevailed upon the new
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Speaker 1: owner of the castle to leave me alone, which he
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Speaker 1: was more ready to do, since he had urgent need
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Speaker 1: to be first in examining some papers of his uncle's,
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Speaker 1: which were in another room, and proceeded to make a
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Speaker 1: cast round the garden from which the shot had been fired,
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Speaker 1: in the hope of lighting upon some trifle which had
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Speaker 1: escaped the notice of Macross. It was when I came
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Speaker 1: across the footprints in the rose bed, which had done
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Speaker 1: so much to prove the guilt of Sir David Southern
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Speaker 1: in the eyes of his accusers, that I began to
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Speaker 1: be certain of his innocence, And a very little examination
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Speaker 1: convinced me absolutely that whoever had shot Lord Ashele it
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Speaker 1: was not his youngest nephew. For the tracks on the
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Speaker 1: flower bed left no room for doubt. It is true
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Speaker 1: they corresponded exactly with the shooting boots Sir David had
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Speaker 1: been wearing on the day the crime was committed. I
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Speaker 1: had provided myself with a pair that I was assured
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Speaker 1: was exactly like those particular boots which fitted the tracks,
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Speaker 1: and which the police had taken away with them, and
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Speaker 1: I found that there was indeed no difference, except for
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Speaker 1: the matter of an extra nail or two on the soles.
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Speaker 1: There was no doubt that Sir David's boots had made
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Speaker 1: those impressions. But to my mind, there was equally no
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Speaker 1: doubt that Sir David had not been in them when
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Speaker 1: they made them. For the track, which was so plainly
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Speaker 1: distinguishable on the soft mold of the flower bed, had
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Speaker 1: certain peculiarities which I could hardly overlook. There was first
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Speaker 1: a row of foot marks leading from the lawn to
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Speaker 1: the middle of the bed, Then more marks, as if
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Speaker 1: the wearer of the boots had moved from one position
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Speaker 1: to another hard by, and finally a track leading back
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Speaker 1: again to the mossy lawn at the side. Now all
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Speaker 1: this was well enough till it came to the last
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Speaker 1: row of footsteps, those which led off the bed, and
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Speaker 1: which had presumably been taken after the fatal shot was fired.
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Speaker 1: But was it conceivable that a man who had that
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Speaker 1: moment committed a cold blooded murder should leave the scene
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Speaker 1: of his crime with the same slow, deliberate footsteps with
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Speaker 1: which he had approached it. Surely not, And yet this
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Speaker 1: is what the wearer of the boots had done. The imprints,
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Speaker 1: as they advanced towards the lawn were deep and well
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Speaker 1: defined from toe to heel. Not only that, but they were,
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Speaker 1: if anything, closer together than those which preceded them. Now
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Speaker 1: a man running leaves a deeper impression of his toe
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Speaker 1: than he does of his heel, and his steps are
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Speaker 1: much farther apart in proportion to his increase in speed.
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Speaker 1: I myself ran from the middle of the bed to
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Speaker 1: the lawn alongside of the footmarks of the Sois des
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Speaker 1: sent murderer. And though I am a short man, while
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Speaker 1: Sir David's legs are reported long, I left only two
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Speaker 1: footprints to his five. To me, it was as certain
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Speaker 1: as if I had seen it happen, that the wearer
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Speaker 1: of the boots trampled his way off the rose bed
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Speaker 1: as slowly as he had trampled on. Those footprints had
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Speaker 1: been made by some one who was determined they should
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Speaker 1: be seen, not by some one whose only thought was
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Speaker 1: to get away from the place. Not, in short, by
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Speaker 1: a man who had that moment fired a murderous shot
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Speaker 1: through the darkness. The tracks had undoubtedly been made as
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Speaker 1: a blind and with the intention of diverting suspicion to
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Speaker 1: the wrong man, probably after the deed itself was done.
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Speaker 1: I was satisfied then that the shot had not been
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Speaker 1: fired from this particular part of the rose bed, and
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Speaker 1: I proceeded to search for other footprints farther down the bed.
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Speaker 1: I did not feel much hope of being successful, since
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Speaker 1: if our man had had the forethought to leave so
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Speaker 1: many traces of some one else's presence, it was unlikely
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Speaker 1: he would have neglected to ensure that his own should
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Speaker 1: be absent. And as I expected, I found none. But
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Speaker 1: at the end of the garden, where it is bounded
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Speaker 1: by the holly hedge, I came across something which puzzled me.
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Speaker 1: There were two narrow depressions on the flower bed, about
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Speaker 1: an inch wide by less than a foot long. They
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Speaker 1: were parallel to each other and at right angles to
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Speaker 1: the hedge, and separated by a distance of six or
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Speaker 1: seven feet. Near one, which was almost in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the bed, was another mark which I could not understand.
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Speaker 1: It was only a few inches long and in shape
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Speaker 1: a narrow oval. I could not at first imagine what
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Speaker 1: any of them represented, and it was only quite suddenly,
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Speaker 1: as I was giving it up and going away, that
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Speaker 1: the truth flashed across my mind. I had been looking
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Speaker 1: regretfully at the track I myself had left by the
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Speaker 1: side of the hedge on my way to and from
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Speaker 1: the middle of the bed. What I want, I said,
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Speaker 1: to myself, is one of those planks raised off the
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Speaker 1: ground by two little supports, one at each end, that
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Speaker 1: gardeners use to avoid stepping on the beds when they
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Speaker 1: are going through the process of bedding out. And even
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Speaker 1: as I said it, I realized that the same idea
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Speaker 1: had occurred to some one else, and that the marks
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Speaker 1: I had been examining might have been made by just
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Speaker 1: such a contrivance as the one I was thinking of.
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Speaker 1: A short search showed me the plank itself, kept in
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Speaker 1: a tool house conveniently near the spot, and with a
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Speaker 1: rake taken from the same place, I seized the opportunity
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Speaker 1: of raking out my own footprints from the rose bed.
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Speaker 1: And now, who could this be who had so carefully
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Speaker 1: manufactured a false scent and so cleverly avoided being himself suspected?
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Speaker 1: My previous theory that some envoy of the Niilist had
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Speaker 1: been lurking in the neighborhood seemed not to meet the
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Speaker 1: new conditions. For how could a mere stranger have gained
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Speaker 1: possession of the misleading boots, or how returned them to
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Speaker 1: their proper place, And how, for that matter, could a
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Speaker 1: stranger have obtained the use of Sir David's rifle. If
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Speaker 1: his rifle had indeed been used, That brought me to
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Speaker 1: consider again whether, after all, there was any proof that
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Speaker 1: his rifle had been used by any one, Supposing, as
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Speaker 1: I saw no reason to doubt, he spoke the truth
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Speaker 1: when he said that miss Byrne had misunderstood him, and
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Speaker 1: that he had not cleaned the weapons since coming in
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Speaker 1: from stalking. Was I driven back on the theory that
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Speaker 1: some one possessed a duplicate key to the case where
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Speaker 1: the guns were kept. Not in the least the shot
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Speaker 1: might have been fired from a rifle that had never
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Speaker 1: at any time been within the walls of the castle.
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Speaker 1: Certainly the bullet fitted Sir David's unlike a rifle, but that,
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Speaker 1: as young Lord asheletaid himself, was equally true of his
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Speaker 1: own rifle, or probably of a dozen others in the
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Speaker 1: neighboring forests. Since a sporting maniker is a weapon in
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Speaker 1: common use in the Highlands, the shot then might well
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Speaker 1: have been fired by my hypothetical Russian as far as
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Speaker 1: the rifle was concerned, But he would have found it
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Speaker 1: difficult to borrow Sir David's boots, and it seemed unlikely
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Speaker 1: that any stranger would not only have dared to do so,
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Speaker 1: but afterwards have had the audacity to return them. No.
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Speaker 1: On the whole the footmarks seemed to clear the character
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Speaker 1: of the Russian nation from any reasonable suspicion of being
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Speaker 1: directly concerned in the crime. And yet in spite of reason,
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Speaker 1: I could not help feeling that the society of the
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Speaker 1: friends of man must be at the bottom of the
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Speaker 1: whole thing, in some way I had not yet fathomed.
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Speaker 1: I made every inquiry as to whether any foreigner had
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Speaker 1: visited the castle or been seen in the neighborhood, But
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Speaker 1: the only strangers among the visitors had been Miss Julia
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Speaker 1: Romaninov and Miss Juliet Burns's French maid, both of whose
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Speaker 1: alibis appeared so far unimpeachable. I had it on Lady
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Speaker 1: Ruth's authority that Miss Romaninov had been in the drawing
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Speaker 1: room with the other ladies at the time of the murder,
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Speaker 1: and all the servants were at supper in the servants hall.
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Speaker 1: Otherwise I should have been inclined to look on Julia
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Speaker 1: Romaninov with a suspicious eye, as being the only Russian
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Speaker 1: I knew to be on the spot. The last word
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Speaker 1: the dying man had been able to pronounce too, was,
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Speaker 1: according to miss Byrne, steps which might very well have
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Speaker 1: been intended four steps and have some connection with the
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Speaker 1: enemies he dreaded. With these considerations running in my mind,
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Speaker 1: I made my way to the gun room, not indeed
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Speaker 1: with much expectation of its having anything to tell me,
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Speaker 1: but as part of the day's work of inspection, which
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Speaker 1: must not be shirked. I took down young Ashele's rifle
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Speaker 1: to examine. He had told me it was of the
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Speaker 1: same description as his cousin's, and I was not very
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Speaker 1: familiar with the make it was, owing to my wish
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Speaker 1: to see for myself with what kind of weapon the
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Speaker 1: deed had been done that a very important clue fell
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Speaker 1: into my hands. As I put the rifle down on
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Speaker 1: the bare deal table which forms the principal piece of
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Speaker 1: furniture in the gun room, I saw a grain of
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Speaker 1: something dark which looked like earth, fall off the butt
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Speaker 1: end on to the boards beneath. I picked up the
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Speaker 1: rifle and looked closely at the butt It was criss
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Speaker 1: crossed with small cuts, as they sometimes are, with the
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Speaker 1: idea of preventing them from slipping, and in the cuts
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Speaker 1: some dust or earth seemed as I expected to be adhering.
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Speaker 1: I knocked the rifle upon the table, and a little
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Speaker 1: shower fell from it. Except for the first grain, it
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Speaker 1: might have been nothing but the ordinary dust of disuse,
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Speaker 1: but I could not help thinking it was of a
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Speaker 1: darker hue than the accumulations of years generally take upon them.
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Speaker 1: And further, I knew that the rifle had lately been
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Speaker 1: used for stalking. It was moreover specklessly clean. In every
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Speaker 1: other part. I felt certain it had been leaned upon
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Speaker 1: the ground at no distant date, and I remembered the
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Speaker 1: mark I had not been able to account for at
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Speaker 1: the foot of the rose bush, near the place where
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Speaker 1: the plank had been used, and as I was persuaded
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Speaker 1: the cowardly shot actually fired. If a gun had been
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Speaker 1: lenked against the large standard rows that grew there, it
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Speaker 1: would have left just such a mark upon the soft ground.
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Speaker 1: All this, of course, was a mere surmise, and rather
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Speaker 1: wild at that. But the dear forest of Scotland are
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Speaker 1: not muddy, whatever else they may be, and I felt
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Speaker 1: an unreasoning conviction that the rifle had not accumulated dust.
15:47
Speaker 1: While engaged upon its legitimate business on the mountain tops.
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Speaker 1: The peaty moorland soil on which the castle stood would
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Speaker 1: hardly be the best thing in the world for rose trees,
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Speaker 1: I imagined, and it seemed aimed not too much to
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Speaker 1: hope that some other kind of earth might be artificially
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Speaker 1: mingled with it. I carefully collected the dust in a
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Speaker 1: pill box and promised myself to lose no time in
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Speaker 1: obtaining the opinion of an expert analyst as to whether
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Speaker 1: or no some trace of patent fertilizer or other chemical
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Speaker 1: could not be traced in it. It was now for
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Speaker 1: the first time that suspicion of young Lord Ashwell began
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Speaker 1: to oust my theory of the Niolis Society's responsibility for
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Speaker 1: the murder. He had, as I remembered, struck me as
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Speaker 1: taking his cousin's guilt for granted with somewhat unnecessary alacrity.
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Speaker 1: His rifle, I already believed, perhaps in my turn, with
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Speaker 1: needless alacrity, had fired the fatal bullet, and it seemed
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Speaker 1: perfectly possible that it was his finger that pressed upon
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Speaker 1: the trigger. He was I knew in the billiard room
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Speaker 1: and alone, both before and after the murder was committed,
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Speaker 1: it would have been quite easy for him to fetch
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Speaker 1: his rifle, place the gardener's plank in position, fire his shot,
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Speaker 1: and return to the house, provided miss Byrne did not
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Speaker 1: rush immediately from the room. He knew her to be
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Speaker 1: a brave girl and not likely to fly without making
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Speaker 1: some attempt at offering assistance. But if she had rushed
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Speaker 1: from the spot and met the murderer outside the library door,
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Speaker 1: it would be simple enough to convey the impression that
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Speaker 1: he had heard the shot, and that he was either
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Speaker 1: dashing to their help or making for the garden in
17:23
Speaker 1: the attempt to catch the villain red handed. The rifle
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Speaker 1: was the only thing likely to provoke an awkward question,
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Speaker 1: But he could have dropped it in the dark and
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Speaker 1: returned for it afterwards without much fear of detection. As
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Speaker 1: it happened, he thought it safer to risk carrying it
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Speaker 1: indoors and hid it under the billiard room sofa till
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Speaker 1: he had a chance to clean it and take it
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Speaker 1: to the gun room. As we now know, you can
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Speaker 1: imagine the scene, Lord Ashell falling forward upon the writing
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Speaker 1: table under the light of the lamp, the scoundrel leaping
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Speaker 1: from his post upon the plank, but not so quickly
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Speaker 1: that he did not see the girl throw herself on
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Speaker 1: her knees at the side of the fallen man. I
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Speaker 1: can fancy the frenzied haste with which mc conachan thrust
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Speaker 1: the plank into the hedge and ran like a deer
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Speaker 1: towards the door, which he had no doubt left open.
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Speaker 1: I imagine him then tiptoeing to the door of the
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Speaker 1: library and bending to listen every nerve a stretch. What
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Speaker 1: he heard, no doubt, reassured him. It may have been
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Speaker 1: the voice of the girl calling upon her father, or
18:25
Speaker 1: it may have been the thud of her body falling
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Speaker 1: upon the floor when she fainted. Perhaps even he might
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Speaker 1: have stayed outside long enough to see her sink to
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Speaker 1: the ground. Then he would steal back shut the door
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Speaker 1: as gently as he had opened it, and not breathe
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Speaker 1: again till he found himself in the empty billiard room,
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Speaker 1: his tail tail rifle still in his hand. No doubt
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Speaker 1: he wished he had left it in the hedge at
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Speaker 1: that moment, for he must have opened the billiard room
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Speaker 1: door with most lively apprehensions, supposing the shot had been
18:56
Speaker 1: heard and the household was rushing to the scene of
18:58
Speaker 1: the disaster. Suppose he opened the door to find the
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Speaker 1: room full of people demanding an explanation of himself and
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Speaker 1: his weapon. What explanation had he ready? I wonder it
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Speaker 1: must have taken all his nerve to turn the handle
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Speaker 1: of the door. But no one can deny the man
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Speaker 1: his full share of courage and decision. I felt more
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Speaker 1: and more sure that in some such manner the crime
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Speaker 1: had been gone about. And yet there were many complications,
19:25
Speaker 1: and more than once it seemed as if my convictions
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Speaker 1: had been too hastily formed. Later that same afternoon, I
19:32
Speaker 1: found upon the sand of a little bay below the castle,
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Speaker 1: marks that told me, as plainly as they told one
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Speaker 1: of the keepers who joined me there, that a strange
19:40
Speaker 1: man had landed from a boat on the night of
19:42
Speaker 1: the murder. And even if our calculations were right, not
19:46
Speaker 1: far off the very hour in which the deed was done.
19:49
Speaker 1: From the tracks left by his boots, which were large
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Speaker 1: and without nails, and extraordinarily pointed for those of a man,
19:56
Speaker 1: I felt sure that here one had landed who was
19:58
Speaker 1: no native of these arts. And the theory of the
20:01
Speaker 1: unknown Russians seemed to take on new life and vigor.
20:05
Speaker 1: The tracts, as we now know, were no doubt those
20:08
Speaker 1: of the member of the Society of the Friends of Man,
20:11
Speaker 1: who was living at Cryannon, and who hoped to have
20:14
Speaker 1: word with Julia Romaninov. It was no doubt he whom
20:18
Speaker 1: Sir David saw lurking in the grounds, and it is
20:21
Speaker 1: natural to suppose that when he perceived himself to be observed,
20:24
Speaker 1: he retreated to his boat and made off, abandoning his
20:28
Speaker 1: proposed meeting for that night. I was to be further bewildered.
20:32
Speaker 1: Before my first day of investigation came to an end.
20:36
Speaker 1: Young Lord Ashwell had spent the day in searching for
20:39
Speaker 1: the will, and if my inward certainty that he himself
20:42
Speaker 1: would prove to be the guilty man should turn out
20:44
Speaker 1: to be right, I could very well understand that he
20:48
Speaker 1: was anxious to find it. For from what his uncle
20:51
Speaker 1: had said to miss Byrne, it seemed possible that he
20:54
Speaker 1: had so worded his last will and testament that whoever
20:57
Speaker 1: succeeded to the great fortune he had to bequeath it
21:00
Speaker 1: might not be Mark mc conachan. But the will was
21:03
Speaker 1: not to be found, and there was no doubt to
21:06
Speaker 1: whose interest it was that it should never be found,
21:09
Speaker 1: so that I felt pretty sure that if the successor
21:11
Speaker 1: to the title were once able to lay his hands
21:13
Speaker 1: on it, no one else would ever do so. However,
21:18
Speaker 1: he had not found it yet, or the search would
21:20
Speaker 1: not be continued with such unmistakable ardor now I had
21:25
Speaker 1: a fancy myself to have a look for the will.
21:27
Speaker 1: I took the last words of the dead men to
21:30
Speaker 1: be an effort to indicate how I was to do so,
21:33
Speaker 1: And I had no idea of prosecuting my search under
21:36
Speaker 1: the eye of his nephew. Young Ashell was to dine
21:39
Speaker 1: at the cottage here with Lady Ruth. So I excused myself,
21:43
Speaker 1: under pretense of a headache, from appearing at dinner, and
21:45
Speaker 1: hurried back to the castle as soon as I could
21:48
Speaker 1: do so. Unobserved, I got in by a window which
21:51
Speaker 1: I had purposely left open, and made my way to
21:54
Speaker 1: the library. The words that Lord Ashell, as he lay dying,
21:58
Speaker 1: had managed to stammer out to his daughter were only
22:01
Speaker 1: five gimblet the clock eleven steps. I had decided to
22:09
Speaker 1: take the clock in the library as the starting point
22:12
Speaker 1: of investigation. He might of course have referred to any
22:16
Speaker 1: other clock, but only one could be dealt with at
22:18
Speaker 1: a time, and a beginning must be made somewhere. Moreover,
22:23
Speaker 1: I had noticed a curious feature about that particular time piece.
22:27
Speaker 1: It was clamped to the wall, which struck me as
22:29
Speaker 1: very suggestive, and I thought it quite likely I should
22:32
Speaker 1: be able to discover some kind of a secret drawer
22:35
Speaker 1: concealed within or behind the tall, black lacquered case, where
22:39
Speaker 1: the will and other papers of which Lord Ashele had
22:42
Speaker 1: told me might be hidden. But in spite of my
22:45
Speaker 1: best efforts, I came across nothing of the kind. I
22:49
Speaker 1: then examined the floor of the room at spots on
22:51
Speaker 1: its surface, which were at a distance of about eleven
22:54
Speaker 1: steps from the clock, in the hope of finding some
22:57
Speaker 1: opening between the oak boards, but all to no purpose.
23:02
Speaker 1: I began to think that, by some specially contrived mechanism,
23:06
Speaker 1: the hiding place might only be discernible at eleven o'clock.
23:10
Speaker 1: And though the idea seemed far fetched, I don't like
23:13
Speaker 1: to leave any possibility untested, so I sat down to
23:17
Speaker 1: wait till the hour should strike. While I was waiting,
23:21
Speaker 1: I suddenly heard footsteps which appeared to come from inside
23:25
Speaker 1: the wall of the room or from below the floor.
23:28
Speaker 1: I concluded instantly that there was a secret passage within
23:31
Speaker 1: the walls, although I had failed to find the entrance.
23:35
Speaker 1: So I left the library quickly and quietly, and made
23:38
Speaker 1: my way to the garden, from which I was able
23:39
Speaker 1: to look back into the room through the window. By
23:43
Speaker 1: the time I took up my post of observation, the
23:46
Speaker 1: person I had heard approaching had entered. To my surprise,
23:49
Speaker 1: it was a young lady about whom I seemed to
23:52
Speaker 1: recognize something vaguely familiar, but whom I was not aware
23:56
Speaker 1: of ever having seen before. She was occupied and examined
24:00
Speaker 1: the papers in Lord Ashele's writing bureau, and after watching
24:03
Speaker 1: her for some time, I concluded that she must be
24:06
Speaker 1: Julia romaninoff, partly from certain foreign ways and gestures which
24:11
Speaker 1: she displayed, and partly from her present employment. As I
24:15
Speaker 1: knew of no one else who was interested in the
24:17
Speaker 1: papers of the dead man, I imagined that she knew
24:20
Speaker 1: of the possible relationship which Lord Ashele supposed might exist
24:24
Speaker 1: between himself and her, and that she was searching for
24:27
Speaker 1: evidence of her birth. Whether she was staying at the
24:30
Speaker 1: castle which I was told all visitors had left, or
24:33
Speaker 1: whether like myself, she had made her way into it
24:36
Speaker 1: from outside was a question I could not then determine,
24:39
Speaker 1: though the next day I discovered that she was stopping
24:42
Speaker 1: with Missus Clutson at the fishing lodge near by. The
24:46
Speaker 1: fact of her being still in the neighborhood. The business
24:49
Speaker 1: I found her engaged upon an unusual one, to put
24:51
Speaker 1: it mildly, for a young girl, and the hour at
24:54
Speaker 1: which she had chosen to go about it all gave
24:56
Speaker 1: me much food for thought, and I felt that she
24:59
Speaker 1: could tell me of the stranger who had landed in
25:01
Speaker 1: the bay and who wore such uncommonly pointed boots. When
25:05
Speaker 1: I recognized her on the following day, a young person
25:08
Speaker 1: who had a few weeks previously made me the victim
25:11
Speaker 1: of a bare faced and audacious robbery, I could no
25:14
Speaker 1: longer doubt that she and the unknown boatmen were in
25:17
Speaker 1: league together, And since no Englishman would be likely to
25:21
Speaker 1: wear boots so excessively pointed at the toes, I did
25:24
Speaker 1: not hesitate to conclude that they were both members of
25:27
Speaker 1: the Society of the Friends of Man, a conclusion which
25:30
Speaker 1: became a certainty when I subsequently saw them together. This
25:35
Speaker 1: discovery rather shook my belief in the guilt of young Asheyle,
25:38
Speaker 1: though I had an inward conviction that in spite of everything,
25:41
Speaker 1: he would turn out to be the murderer. Still, I
25:44
Speaker 1: was after the Kneelis brotherhood as well, and I determined,
25:47
Speaker 1: if possible, to put a spoke in the wheel of
25:49
Speaker 1: that association when I had finished with the first and
25:52
Speaker 1: most important business. In the meantime, as I stood in
25:56
Speaker 1: the dark garden watching the girl ransack the private papers
25:59
Speaker 1: of her dead host, I felt no fear of her
26:01
Speaker 1: finding what she was looking for. Lord Ashele had convinced
26:05
Speaker 1: me that he would hide his secret affairs more carefully
26:07
Speaker 1: than that, and as I expected, the time came when
26:10
Speaker 1: she gave up the search and departed the way she
26:12
Speaker 1: had come, And that way, to my astonishment, was through
26:16
Speaker 1: the Grandfather's clock I had spent so much time in examining.
26:20
Speaker 1: No sooner had she gone than I returned to the library,
26:23
Speaker 1: where I soon discovered that the hidden entrance lay through
26:26
Speaker 1: the one part of the clock I had not investigated.
26:29
Speaker 1: A trap in the floor could be opened by turning
26:32
Speaker 1: a small knob, and I found beneath it the top
26:35
Speaker 1: of that flight of stairs which we now know leads
26:37
Speaker 1: out to the door under the battlements. There were fifteen
26:41
Speaker 1: steps in the flight, and my first idea was to
26:44
Speaker 1: examine the eleventh one of them. I was rewarded by
26:48
Speaker 1: the discovery of a concealed drawer, which in its turn
26:51
Speaker 1: disclosed a single sheet of paper. On it were written
26:54
Speaker 1: some words that I could not at first understand, but
26:58
Speaker 1: of which finally, by good luck and with your help,
27:00
Speaker 1: Lady Ruth I was able to decipher the meaning. They
27:04
Speaker 1: referred in an obscure and veiled fashion to the great
27:07
Speaker 1: statue erected by Lord Ashele in that glen of which
27:10
Speaker 1: his wife had been so fond, where the beginning of
27:13
Speaker 1: the track used by the cattle drivers and robbers of old,
27:16
Speaker 1: which is known as the Green Way, leads up over
27:18
Speaker 1: the hills to the south. Guided by Lady Ruth, I
27:22
Speaker 1: found on the pedestal of the statue a spring which
27:25
Speaker 1: has only to be pressed when a door in one
27:27
Speaker 1: end of the erection swings open and discloses the hollow
27:30
Speaker 1: chamber in the middle of the pedestal. At the far
27:33
Speaker 1: end of the cavity was the tin box of which
27:36
Speaker 1: the key lay temptingly on the top. I lost no
27:39
Speaker 1: time in springing towards it, for here I felt sure
27:43
Speaker 1: was all I wanted to find. But as I inserted
27:45
Speaker 1: the key in the lock, the door slammed too behind me,
27:48
Speaker 1: and I found myself shut in the dark interior of
27:51
Speaker 1: the pedestal. Luckily, Lady Ruth was with me and quickly
27:55
Speaker 1: let me out. I found the door was controlled by
27:59
Speaker 1: an elaborate piece of clockwork, which was set in motion
28:02
Speaker 1: by the pressure upon the floor of the feet of
28:04
Speaker 1: any intruder, causing the door to shut almost immediately behind him.
28:09
Speaker 1: But for you, Lady Ruth, I should be there now.
28:13
Speaker 1: But the incident gave me an idea. I returned to
28:16
Speaker 1: the cottage with the papers and found two telegrams. One
28:20
Speaker 1: was from the analyst in Edinburgh, to whom I had
28:22
Speaker 1: sent the grains of dust collected in the gun room,
28:25
Speaker 1: saying that among other ingredients, lime was very predominant. Now
28:29
Speaker 1: there is no lime in a peaty soil such as this.
28:32
Speaker 1: And the gardener, to whom I talked of soils and manures,
28:36
Speaker 1: with an air of wisdom which I hope deceived him,
28:39
Speaker 1: told me that the rose bed outside the library had
28:41
Speaker 1: received a strong dressing of it. There was also said
28:46
Speaker 1: the report traces of steel and phosphates, of which there
28:49
Speaker 1: is a combination known as basic slag, which the gardener
28:53
Speaker 1: had mentioned as being occasionally used. I considered that it
28:57
Speaker 1: was tolerably certain therefore, that young Ashles rifle had been
29:00
Speaker 1: the weapon, the imprint of whose butt was still discernible
29:03
Speaker 1: on the bed when I went over it. The second
29:07
Speaker 1: telegram contained an answer from the colonel of his regiment
29:10
Speaker 1: to whom I had written, asking if there was anything
29:12
Speaker 1: in the record of Mark mc conachan which would make
29:15
Speaker 1: it appear conceivable that he was badly in need of
29:17
Speaker 1: money and likely to go to extreme lengths to obtain it.
29:21
Speaker 1: I had told the colonel as much about the case
29:24
Speaker 1: as I then knew, and pointed out that the life
29:26
Speaker 1: or death of a man whom I had strong reason
29:29
Speaker 1: to think innocent might depend upon his withholding nothing that
29:32
Speaker 1: he might know which could possibly bear upon the matter.
29:36
Speaker 1: The telegram I received in reply was short but emphatic.
29:41
Speaker 1: Record very bad, it said, am writing this was enough
29:45
Speaker 1: for me. I went over to Crianan, saw the police
29:49
Speaker 1: and imparted my conclusions to the local inspector. I then
29:53
Speaker 1: proposed that a little trap should be laid into which,
29:57
Speaker 1: if he were not guilty and had no intention of
29:59
Speaker 1: dis drawing his uncle's will, there was no reason to
30:02
Speaker 1: imagine young Lord ashele would step. The inspector consented, and
30:07
Speaker 1: I returned with himself and two of his men to Inveraschel.
30:12
Speaker 1: You know how successful was the ruse I indulged in.
30:15
Speaker 1: I simply went to the young man and told him
30:18
Speaker 1: I had discovered the place where his uncle had put
30:20
Speaker 1: his will and other valuable papers. I explained to him
30:23
Speaker 1: where it was and how the pedestal could be opened,
30:26
Speaker 1: but I said nothing about it shutting again. Neither I
30:30
Speaker 1: am afraid did I confess that I had already visited
30:34
Speaker 1: the statue and taken away the documents. I said, on
30:38
Speaker 1: the contrary, that I preferred not to touch the contents
30:41
Speaker 1: except in the presence of a magistrate, and suggested he
30:45
Speaker 1: should send a note to General Tenby at glen Liquet
30:48
Speaker 1: and tell him to come over and be present when
30:50
Speaker 1: we removed the papers. This he did, and I then
30:54
Speaker 1: left him, after he had promised to join us at
30:56
Speaker 1: the cottage in a couple of hours. I knew very
30:59
Speaker 1: well where we should findin him. At the end of
31:00
Speaker 1: those hours, and as I expected, he was caught by
31:04
Speaker 1: the clockwork machinery of the pedestal door. End of Chapter
31:11
Speaker 1: twenty two