A Queen's Error. Henry Curties
there is another point too," he continued, "you say you left the old lady lying on the bed bleeding, not half an hour ago?"
"Certainly."
"Then the bed ought to be warm; let us come and see."
We walked back into the bedroom and examined the bed again.
It was very evident to me that a fresh coverlet had been put on the bed and fresh sheets. How it could have been done in so short a time was a marvel to me.
The doctor put his hand on the coverlet.
"That is quite cold," he reported, "there can be no question of a doubt about that."
"Let me try inside the bed," I suggested; "that may tell a different tale."
I turned down the bedclothes, and put my hand into the bed. It was distinctly warm!
"Now," I said, turning to the doctor, "do you believe me or not?"
He put his hand into the bed.
"Yes," he answered, "it is certainly warm. I don't know what to make of it."
I thrust my hand once more deep beneath the clothes, and this time it encountered something and closed on it. I glanced at it as I drew it out.
It was a lady's handkerchief.
I don't know what moved me to do it, but an impulse made me put it in my pocket, without showing it to the doctor.
"I don't know what to make of it at all," repeated Dr. Redfern, stroking his chin, "but one thing is certain, we must acquaint the police."
"Certainly," I answered. "I think we ought to have done that long ago."
"Well, will you promise me to remain here, Mr.—Mr.—?" he queried.
"Anstruther," I suggested. People in the middle class of life always assume that you are a "Mr." I might have been a Duke!
"Will you promise me to remain here, Mr. Anstruther," he asked, "while
I go and telephone the police?"
"Of course," I answered; "what should I want to run away for?"
"Very well, then," he said with a nod and a smile. "I will take it that you won't. I will be back inside a quarter of an hour."
We lit more of the candles on the walls, and then I took the candle lamp to light him upstairs to the front door.
I was standing there watching him going up Monmouth Street towards his house, when a sudden resolve took possession of me concerning the two packets I had in my trousers pockets! I did not know what turn affairs were going to take, and I thought I should like to put those two little parcels in a place of safety.
I had noticed a small dismal post office at the end of the street not fifty yards off. I would go and post them, registered to my lawyers, in whom I had the greatest confidence.
To the taking of this resolve and the carrying of it out, instead of returning to the downstairs room, I always attribute, in the light of subsequent events, the saving of my life. I left the door "on the jar" and ran quickly to the post office. There I demanded their largest sized registered envelope, and they fortunately had a big one.
Into this I crammed the two packets—which I noticed were both directed to me in a very neat lady's hand—and then, as an afterthought, the handkerchief which I had found in the bed. Finally I put the key of the safe in too. With my back to the ever curious clerk, I directed it to myself—
c/o Messrs. BLACKETT & SNOWDON,
Solicitors,
Lincoln's Inn,
London.
Then, slapping it down before the astonished official, I demanded a receipt for it.
This obtained, I hastened back to 190; the door was still as I had left it, but in a few moments the doctor returned, and at his heels a policeman.
"The inspector will be here directly," announced Dr. Redfern. "We had better wait outside until he arrives."
We walked up and down for nearly a quarter of an hour while the doctor smoked a cigarette, and meanwhile the policeman, a person of gigantic stature and a bucolic expression of countenance, eyed me suspiciously.
Presently the inspector arrived, and the doctor and I returned with him to the sitting-room downstairs. There the police official insisted upon my giving a full account of the whole matter, while he stood critically by with a notebook in his hand. I told him the whole truth from the time of my seeing the old lady at the door, to the time of my calling in the doctor, but I suppressed all mention of the two packets and the secret safe. These being confidential matters between me and the old lady, I did not feel at liberty to disclose them.
I saw very plainly from the looks the inspector gave me that he did not believe me; he even had doubts, it was very evident, whether I was staying at the Hotel Magnifique at all, as I had informed him at the commencement of my statement.
Having entered all the notes to his satisfaction, he thoroughly inspected both rooms and made more notes. Then he went outside and bawled up the stairs—
"Wilkins!"
"Sir," came the answer from the bucolic constable on duty above.
"Just step round to the 'Compasses,'" instructed his superior from the foot of the stairs, "and tell my brother I should be glad if he'd come round here for a few minutes. We've got a rather curious case."
"Very good, sir," came the reply, followed by the heavy tread of the man's boots as he went to carry out the orders.
"My brother's down 'ere on a bit of a 'oliday, sir," explained the inspector to the doctor, entirely ignoring me, "and being one of the tip-top detectives up in London, I thought we'd take the benefit of his opinion."
The "Compasses," as it turned out, being only a couple of streets off, we had not long to wait for the coming of the detective luminary from London. His heavy footsteps were soon heard on the stairs; preceded by the constable, he descended the flight with evident forethought and consideration. Emerging from the darkness into the light of the wax candles, he presented the appearance of a prosperous butcher, tall, broad-shouldered, red-necked, and with moustache and whiskers of a sandy hue. His face was very red, and the skin shining as if distended with good living.
"This is my brother, Inspector Bull of the Z Metropolitan Division," explained our inspector to the doctor, once more ignoring me, "down 'ere on a little 'oliday."
As I learned afterwards, this gentleman was one of the Guardian Angels who watched over the safety of the inhabitants of the Mile End Road.
The doctor having shaken hands with him, his brother put another question to him.
"'Ow's Alf?" he inquired.
The newcomer gently soothed the back of his red neck with a hand like a small leg of mutton, and displayed a set of massive front teeth in a gratified smile.
"'E's all right," he answered, "we wos having fifty up when you sent for me."
"You see," explained our inspector, "my brother's got so many friends in the licensed victuallers' line down here, through being a Mason, that it takes him 'arf his 'oliday to go round and see 'em all."
The doctor smiled indulgently but made no answer; then our inspector briefly informed his brother of the state of the case before him, stating the facts as I related them, in such a different light, and with so many evident aspersions on my veracity, that I hardly knew them again.
The two brothers made a further close inspection of the rooms, and then held a consultation on the hearthrug in whispers.
Though the words were unintelligible, the fact that the officer of the Z Division had been partaking liberally of whisky soon became apparent from the all-pervading odour of that stimulant diffused throughout the apartment.
They