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13 - Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers · Unnatural Death

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen of Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Hallelujah. Our ancestors are
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  Speaker 1: very good kind of folks, but they are the last
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  Speaker 1: people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with
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  Speaker 1: Sheridan the rivals. That excellent prelate. Bishop Lambert of the
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  Speaker 1: Orinoco Mission proved to be a practical and kind man.
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  Speaker 1: He did not know personally the Reverend Hallelujah Dawson, but
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  Speaker 1: thought he might belong to the Tabernacle Mission, a nonconformist
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  Speaker 1: body which was doing a very valuable work in those parts.
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  Speaker 1: He would himself communicate with the London headquarters of this
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  Speaker 1: community and let Lord Peter know the result. Two hours later,
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  Speaker 1: Bishop Lambert's secretary had duly rung up the Tabernacle Mission
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  Speaker 1: and received the very satisfactory information that the Reverend Howluja
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  Speaker 1: Dawson was in England and indeed available at their mission
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  Speaker 1: house in Stepney. He was an elderly minister living in
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  Speaker 1: very reduced circumstances. In fact, the bishop rather gathered that
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  Speaker 1: the story was a sad one. The Bishop's poor miserable
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  Speaker 1: slave of a secretary did all the work, very glad
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  Speaker 1: to hear from Lord Peter, and was he being good?
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  Speaker 1: Ha ha? And when was he coming to dine with
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  Speaker 1: the bishop? Lord Peter promptly gathered up Parker and swooped
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  Speaker 1: down with him upon the tabernacle mission, before whose dim
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  Speaker 1: and grim frontage, Missus Myrtle's long black bonnet and sweeping
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  Speaker 1: copper exhaust made an immense impression. The small fry of
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  Speaker 1: the name neighborhood had clustered about her and were practicing
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  Speaker 1: horn solos almost before Whimsy had rung the bell on
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  Speaker 1: Parker's threatening them with punishment and casually informing them that
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  Speaker 1: he was a police officer. They burst into ecstasies of delight,
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  Speaker 1: and joining hands, formed a ring of roses round him.
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  Speaker 1: Under the guidance of a sprightly young woman of twelve
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  Speaker 1: years old or thereabouts. Parker made a few harassed darts
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  Speaker 1: at them, but the ring only broke up, shrieking with
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  Speaker 1: laughter and re formed singing. The mission door opened at
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  Speaker 1: that moment, displaying this undignified exhibition to the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: a lank young man in spectacles, who shook a long
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  Speaker 1: finger disapprovingly and said, now you children, without the slightest effect,
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  Speaker 1: and apparently without the faintest expectation of producing any Lord
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  Speaker 1: Peter explained his errand oh, come in please, said the
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  Speaker 1: young man, who had one finger in a book of theology.
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  Speaker 1: I'm afraid your friend, Er, this is rather a noisy district.
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  Speaker 1: Parker shook himself free from his tormentors and advanced breathing
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  Speaker 1: threatening z aunt slaughter, to which the enemy responded by
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  Speaker 1: a derisive blast of the horn. They'll run those batteries down,
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  Speaker 1: said Whimsy. You can't do anything with the little devils,
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  Speaker 1: growled Parker. Why don't you treat them as human beings?
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  Speaker 1: Retorted Whimsy, children are creatures of like passions with politicians
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  Speaker 1: and financiers. Here as Maraalda, he added, beckoning to the ringleader.
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  Speaker 1: The young woman put her tongue out and made a
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  Speaker 1: rude gesture, but, observing the glint of coin in the
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  Speaker 1: outstretched hand, suddenly approached and stood challengingly before them. Look here,
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  Speaker 1: said Whimsy, here's half a crown thirty pennies. You know
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  Speaker 1: any use to you. The child promptly proved her kinship
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  Speaker 1: with humanity. She became abashed in the presence of wealth,
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  Speaker 1: and was silent rubbing one dusty shoe upon the calf
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  Speaker 1: her stocking. You appear pursued, Lord Peter, to be able
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  Speaker 1: to keep your young friends in order. If you choose,
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  Speaker 1: I take you, in fact for a woman of character
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  Speaker 1: very well. If you keep them from touching my car
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  Speaker 1: while I'm in the house, you get this half crown. See.
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  Speaker 1: But if you let them blow the horn, I shall
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  Speaker 1: hear it. Every time the horn goes, you lose a penny.
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  Speaker 1: Got that. If the horn blows six times, you'll I
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  Speaker 1: get to bob. If I hear it thirty times, you
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  Speaker 1: don't get anything. And I shall look out from time
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  Speaker 1: to time. And if I see anybody mauling the car
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  Speaker 1: about or sitting in it, then you don't get anything.
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  Speaker 1: Do I make myself clear? I takes carrier car for
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  Speaker 1: arfur Kron. And if the orne goes, you doc's copper orphan.
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  Speaker 1: Right you are, mister, I'll see none of em putches.
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  Speaker 1: Good girl, now, sir. The spectacled young man led them
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  Speaker 1: into a gloomy little waiting room suggestive of a railway
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  Speaker 1: station and hung with old testament prints. I'll tell mister
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  Speaker 1: Dawson you're here, he said, and vanished. With the volume
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  Speaker 1: of theology still clutched in his hand. Presently, a shuffling
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  Speaker 1: step was heard on the coconut matting and whimsy, and
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  Speaker 1: Parker braced themselves to confront the villainous claimant. The door, however,
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  Speaker 1: opened to admit an elderly West Indian of so humble
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  Speaker 1: and inoffensive an appearance that the hearts of the two
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  Speaker 1: detectives sank into their boots. Anything less murderous could scarcely
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  Speaker 1: be imagined, as he stood, blinking nervously at them from
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  Speaker 1: behind a pair of steel rimmed spectacles, the frames of
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  Speaker 1: which had at one time been broken and bound with twine.
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  Speaker 1: The Reverend Halleluja Dawson was undoubtedly a man of color.
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  Speaker 1: He had the pleasant, slightly aquiline features and brown olive
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  Speaker 1: skin of the Polynesian. His hair was scanty and grayish,
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  Speaker 1: not wooly, but closely curled. His stooping shoulders were clad
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  Speaker 1: in a threadbare clerical coat. His black eyes, yellow about
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  Speaker 1: the whites and slightly protruding, rolled amiably at them, and
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  Speaker 1: his smile was open and frank. You asked to see me,
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  Speaker 1: he began in perfect English, but with the soft native intonation.
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  Speaker 1: I think I have not the pleasure. How do you do,
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  Speaker 1: mister Dawson. Yes, we are making certain inquiries in connection
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  Speaker 1: with the family of the Dawsons of Crofton in Warwickshire,
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  Speaker 1: and it has been suggested that you might be able
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  Speaker 1: to enlighten us what as to their West Indian connections,
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  Speaker 1: if you would be so good. Ah. Yes, the old
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  Speaker 1: man drew himself up slightly. I am myself in a
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  Speaker 1: way a descendant of the family. Won't you sit down?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you? We thought you might be. You do not
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  Speaker 1: come from miss Whittaker. There was something eager yet defensive
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  Speaker 1: in the tone. Whimsy, not quite knowing what was behind it,
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  Speaker 1: chose the discreeter part. Oh no, we are preparing a
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  Speaker 1: work on county families, don't you know, tombstones and genealogies
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  Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. Oh yes, I hoped. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: the mild tones died away in a sigh. But I
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  Speaker 1: shall be very happy to help you in any way. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the question now is what became of Simon Dawson. We
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  Speaker 1: know that he left his family and sailed for the
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  Speaker 1: West Indies in ah in seventeen eighteen hundred and ten,
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  Speaker 1: said the old man with surprising quickness, yes, he got
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  Speaker 1: into trouble when he was a lad of sixteen. He
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  Speaker 1: took up with bad men older than himself and became
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  Speaker 1: involved in a very terrible affair. It had to do
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  Speaker 1: with gaming, and a man was killed, not in a
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  Speaker 1: duel in those days that would not have been considered disgraceful,
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  Speaker 1: though violence is always displeasing to the lord. But the
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  Speaker 1: man was foully murdered, and Simon Dawson and his friends
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  Speaker 1: fled from justice. Simon fell in with the press gang
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  Speaker 1: and was carried off to sea. He served fifteen years
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  Speaker 1: and was then taken by a French privateer. Later on
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  Speaker 1: he escaped, and, to cut a long story short, got
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  Speaker 1: away to Trinidad under another name. Some English people there
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  Speaker 1: were kind to him and gave him work on their
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  Speaker 1: sugar plantation. He did well there and eventually became owner
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  Speaker 1: of a small plantation of his own. What was the
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  Speaker 1: name he went by, hark Away. I suppose he was
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  Speaker 1: afraid that they would get hold of him as a
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  Speaker 1: deserter from the navy if he went by his own name.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt he should have reported his escape anyway. He
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  Speaker 1: liked plantation life and was quite satisfied to stay where
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  Speaker 1: he was. I don't suppose he would have cared to
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  Speaker 1: go home, even to claim his inheritance. And then there
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  Speaker 1: was always the matter of the murder, you know, though,
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  Speaker 1: I dare say they would not have brought that trouble
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  Speaker 1: up against him, seeing he was so young when it happened,
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  Speaker 1: and it was not his hand that did the awful deed.
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  Speaker 1: His inheritance? Was he the eldest son? Then no Barnabas
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  Speaker 1: was the eldest, but he was killed at Waterloo and
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  Speaker 1: left no fen. Then there was a second son, Roger,
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  Speaker 1: but he died of smallpox as a child. Simon was
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  Speaker 1: the third son. Then it was the fourth son who
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  Speaker 1: took the estate. Yes, Frederick. He was Henry Dawson's father.
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  Speaker 1: They tried, of course to find out what became of Simon,
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  Speaker 1: but in those days it was very difficult, you understand,
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  Speaker 1: to get information from foreign places, and Simon had quite disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: so they had to pass him over. And what happened
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  Speaker 1: to Simon's children? Asked Parker, did he have any The
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  Speaker 1: clergyman nodded, and a deep dusky flush showed under his
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  Speaker 1: dark skin. I am his grandson, he said, simply. That
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  Speaker 1: is why I came over to England when the Lord
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  Speaker 1: called me feed his lambs among my own people. I
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  Speaker 1: was in quite good circumstances. I had the little sugar plantation,
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  Speaker 1: which had come down to me through my father, and
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  Speaker 1: I married and was very happy. But we fell on
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  Speaker 1: bad times. The sugar crop failed, and our little flock
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  Speaker 1: became smaller and poorer and could not give so much
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  Speaker 1: support to their minister. Besides, I was getting too old
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  Speaker 1: and frail to do my work, and I have a
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  Speaker 1: sick wife too, and God has blessed us with many
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  Speaker 1: daughters who need our care. I was in great straits.
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  Speaker 1: And then I came upon some old family papers belonging
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  Speaker 1: to my grandfather Simon, and learned that his name was
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  Speaker 1: not Harkaway but Dawson. And I thought maybe I had
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  Speaker 1: a family in England, and that God would yet raise
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  Speaker 1: up a table in the wilderness. Accordingly, when the time
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  Speaker 1: came to send a representative home to our London headquarters,
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  Speaker 1: I asked permission to resign my ministry out there and
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  Speaker 1: come over to England. Did you get in touch with anybody? Yes.
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  Speaker 1: I went to Crafton, which was mentioned in my grandfather's letters,
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  Speaker 1: and saw a lawyer in the town. There a mister
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  Speaker 1: Probin of Craftover. You know him, I have heard of him. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: He was very kind and very much interested to see me.
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  Speaker 1: He showed me the genealogy of the family and how
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  Speaker 1: my grandfather should have been the heir to the property,
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  Speaker 1: but the property had been lost by that time, had
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  Speaker 1: it not, Yes, And unfortunately, when I showed him my
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  Speaker 1: grandmother's marriage certificate, he he told me that it was
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  Speaker 1: no certificate at all. I fear that Simon Dawson was
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  Speaker 1: a sad sinner. He took my grandmother to live with him,
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  Speaker 1: as many of the planters did take women of color,
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  Speaker 1: and he gave her a document which was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be a certificate of marriage signed by the governor of
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  Speaker 1: the country. But when mister Probin inquired into it, he
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  Speaker 1: found that it was all a sham, and no such
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  Speaker 1: governor had ever existed. It was distressing to my feelings
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  Speaker 1: as a Christian, of course, but since there was no property,
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  Speaker 1: it didn't make any actual difference to us. That was
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  Speaker 1: bad luck, said Peter sympathetically. I called resignation to my aid,
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  Speaker 1: said the old Indian with a dignified little bow. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Probin was also good enough to send me with a
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  Speaker 1: letter of introduction to Miss Agatha Dawson, the only surviving
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  Speaker 1: member of our family. Yes, she lived at Leehampton. She
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  Speaker 1: received me in the most charming way, and when I
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  Speaker 1: told her who I was, acknowledging of course that I
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  Speaker 1: had not the slightest claim upon her, she was good
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  Speaker 1: enough to make me an allowance of one hundred pounds
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  Speaker 1: a year, which she continued till her death. Was that
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  Speaker 1: the only time you saw her? Oh, yes, I would
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  Speaker 1: not intrude upon her. It could not be agreeable to
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  Speaker 1: her to have a relative of my complexion continually at
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  Speaker 1: her house, said the reverend Hallelujah, with a kind of
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  Speaker 1: proud humility. But she gave me lunch and spoke very kindly,
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  Speaker 1: and forgive my asking the hope it isn't impertinent. But
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  Speaker 1: does Miss Whittaker keep up the allowance? Well? No, I
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  Speaker 1: perhaps I should not expect it, but it would have
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  Speaker 1: made a great difference to our circumstances. And Miss Dawson
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  Speaker 1: rather led me to hope that it might be continued.
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  Speaker 1: She told me that she did not like the idea
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  Speaker 1: of making a will, but she said it is not
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  Speaker 1: necessary at all. Cousin. Hallelujah. Mary will have all my
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  Speaker 1: money when I am gone, and she can continue the
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  Speaker 1: allowance on my behalf. But perhaps miss Whittaker did not
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  Speaker 1: get the money after all. Oh, yes she did. It
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  Speaker 1: is very odd she may have forgotten about it. I
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  Speaker 1: took the liberty of writing her a few words of
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  Speaker 1: spiritual comfort when her aunt died. Perhaps that did not
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  Speaker 1: please her. Of course I did not write again. Yet
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  Speaker 1: I am loath to believe that she has hardened her
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  Speaker 1: heart against the unfortunate. No doubt there is some explanation,
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  Speaker 1: No doubt, said Lord Peter. Well, I'm very grateful to
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  Speaker 1: you for your kindness that has quite cleared up the
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  Speaker 1: little matter of Simon and his descendants. I'll just make
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  Speaker 1: a note of the names and dates if I may. Certainly,
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  Speaker 1: I will bring you the paper which mister Probin kindly
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  Speaker 1: made out for me, showing the whole of the family.
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  Speaker 1: Excuse me. He was not gone long and soon reappeared
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  Speaker 1: with a genealogy neatly typed out on a legal looking
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  Speaker 1: sheets of blue paper. Whimsy began to note down the
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  Speaker 1: particulars concerning Simon Dawson and his son Bosun and his
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  Speaker 1: grandson Allelujah. Suddenly he put his finger on an entry
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  Speaker 1: further along. Look here, Charles, he said, here is our
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  Speaker 1: father Paul, the bad boy who turned our sea and
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  Speaker 1: became a monk. So he is, but he's dead. Peter
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  Speaker 1: died in nineteen twenty two, three years before Agatha Dawson. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: we must wash him out. Well, these little setbacks will occur.
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  Speaker 1: They finished their notes, bade farewell to the reverend Hallelujah,
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  Speaker 1: and emerged to find as moralda valiantly defending Missus Myrtle
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  Speaker 1: against all comers. Lord Peter handed over the half crown
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  Speaker 1: and took delivery of the The more I hear of
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  Speaker 1: Mary Whittaker, he said, the less I like her, she
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  Speaker 1: might at least have given poor old cousin Hallelujah his
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  Speaker 1: hundred quid. She's a rapacious female, agreed Parker. Well, anyway,
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  Speaker 1: father Paul's safely dead, and cousin Allelujah is illegitimately descended,
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  Speaker 1: So there's an end of the long lost claimant from overseas.
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  Speaker 1: Damn it all, cried Whimsy, taking both hands from the
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  Speaker 1: steering wheel and scratching his head. To Parker's extreme alarm,
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  Speaker 1: that strikes a familiar chord. Now, where in thunder have
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  Speaker 1: I heard those words before? End of Chapter thirteen,