Collected works of j s f.., p.370
Collected Works of J S Fletcher, page 370
“Buck up!” whispered Selwood, in the blunt language of irreverent, yet good-natured, youth. “He’s coming!”
Peggie looked up to see Barthorpe staring at her through the iron bars. He was not over good to look at. He had a two days’ beard on his face; his linen was not fresh; his clothes were put on untidily; he stood with his hands in his pockets lumpishly — the change wrought by incarceration, even of that comparative sort, was great. He looked both sulky and sheepish; he gave Selwood no more than a curt nod; his first response to his cousin was of the nature of a growl.
“Hanged if I know what you’ve come for!” he said. “What’s the good of it? You may mean well, but — —”
“Oh, Barthorpe, how can you!” exclaimed Peggie. “Of course we’ve come! Do you think it possible we shouldn’t come? You know very well we all believe you innocent.”
“Who’s all?” demanded Barthorpe, half-sneeringly. “Yourself, perhaps, and the parlour-maid!”
“All of us,” said Selwood, thinking it was time a man spoke. “Cox-Raythwaite, Mr. Tertius, myself. That’s a fact, anyhow, so you’d better grasp it.”
Barthorpe straightened himself and looked keenly at Selwood. Then he spoke naturally and simply.
“I’m much obliged to you, Selwood,” he said. “I’d shake hands with you if I could. I’m obliged to the others, too — especially to old Tertius — I’ve wronged him, no doubt. But” — here his face grew dark and savage— “if you only knew how I was tricked by that devil! Is he caught? — that’s what I want to know.”
“No!” answered Selwood. “But never mind him — we’ve come here to see what we can do for you. That’s the important thing.”
“What can anybody do?” said Barthorpe, with a mirthless laugh. “You know all the evidence. It’s enough — they’ll hang me on it!”
“Barthorpe, you mustn’t!” expostulated Peggie. “That’s not the way to treat things. Tell him,” she went on, turning to Selwood, “tell him all that Professor Cox-Raythwaite said the other night.”
Selwood repeated the gist of the Professor’s arguments and suggestions, and Barthorpe began to show some interest. But at the end he shook his head.
“I don’t know that there’s anything more that I can tell,” he said. “Whatever anybody may think, I told the entire truth about myself and this affair in that statement before the magistrate. Of course, you know they didn’t want me to say a word — my legal advisers, I mean. They were dead against it. But you see, I was resolved on it — I wanted it to get in the papers. I told everything in that. I tried to put it as plainly as I could. No — I’ve told the main facts.”
“But aren’t there any little facts, Barthorpe?” asked Peggie. “Can’t you think of any small thing — was there nothing that would give — I don’t know how to put it.”
“Anything that you can think of that would give a clue?” suggested Selwood. “Was there nothing you noticed — was there anything — —”
Barthorpe appeared to be thinking; then to be hesitating — finally, he looked at Selwood a little shamefacedly.
“Well, there were one or two things that I didn’t tell,” he said. “I — the fact is, I didn’t think they were of importance. One of them was about that key to the Safe Deposit. You know you and I couldn’t find it when we searched the office that morning. Well, I had found it. Or rather, I took it off the bunch of keys. I wanted to search the safe at the Safe Deposit myself. But I never did. I don’t know whether the detectives have found it or not — I threw it into a drawer at my office in which there are a lot of other keys. But, you know, there’s nothing in that — nothing at all.”
“You said one or two other things just now,” remarked Selwood. “That’s one — what’s the other?”
Barthorpe hesitated. The three were not the only occupants of that gloomy room, and though the official ears might have been graven out of stone, he felt their presence.
“Don’t keep anything back, Barthorpe,” pleaded Peggie.
“Oh, well!” responded Barthorpe. “I’ll tell you, though I don’t know what good it will do. I didn’t tell this, because — well, of course, it’s not exactly a thing a man likes to tell. When I looked over Uncle Jacob’s desk, just after I found him dead, you know, I found a hundred-pound note lying there. I put it in my pocket. Hundred-pound notes weren’t plentiful, you know,” he went on with a grim smile. “Of course, it was a shabby thing to do, sort of robbing the dead, you know, but — —”
“Do you see any way in which that can help?” asked Selwood, whose mind was not disposed to dwell on nice questions of morality or conduct. “Does anything suggest itself?”
“Why, this,” answered Barthorpe, rubbing his chin. “It was a brand-new note. That’s puzzled me — that it should be lying there amongst papers. You might go to Uncle Jacob’s bank and find out when he drew it — or rather, if he’d been drawing money that day. He used, as you and I know, to draw considerable amounts in notes. And — it’s only a notion — if he’d drawn anything big that day, and he had it on him that night, why, there’s a motive there. Somebody may have known he’d a considerable amount on him and have followed him in there. Don’t forget that I found both doors open when I went there! That’s a point that mustn’t be overlooked.”
“There’s absolutely nothing else you can think of?” asked Selwood.
Barthorpe shook his head. No — there was nothing — he was sure of that. And then he turned eagerly to the question of finding Burchill. Burchill, he was certain, knew more than he had given him credit for, knew something, perhaps, about the actual murder. He was a deep, crafty dog, Burchill — only let the police find him! ——
Time was up, then, and Peggie and Selwood had to go — their last impression that of Barthorpe thrusting his hands in his pockets and lounging away to his enforced idleness. It made the girl sick at heart, and it showed Selwood what deprivation of liberty means to a man who has hitherto been active and vigorous.
“Have we done any good?” asked Peggie, drawing a deep breath of free air as soon as they were outside the gates. “Any bit of good?”
“There’s the affair of the bank-note,” answered Selwood. “That may be of some moment. I’ll go and report progress on that, anyway.”
He put Peggie into her car to go home, and himself hailed a taxi-cab and drove straight to Mr. Halfpenny’s office, where Professor Cox-Raythwaite and Mr. Tertius had arranged to meet him.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE LAST CHEQUE
THE THREE ELDERLY gentlemen, seated in Mr. Halfpenny’s private room, listened with intense, if silent, interest to Selwood’s account of the interview with Barthorpe. It was a small bundle of news that he had brought back and two of his hearers showed by their faces that they attached little importance to it. But Professor Cox-Raythwaite caught eagerly at the mere scrap of suggestion.
“Tertius! — Halfpenny!” he exclaimed. “That must be followed up — we must follow it up at once. That bank-note may be a most valuable and effective clue.”
Mr. Halfpenny showed a decided incredulity and dissent.
“I don’t see it,” he answered. “Don’t see it at all, Cox-Raythwaite. What is there in it? What clue can there be in the fact that Barthorpe picked up a hundred pound bank-note from his uncle’s writing-desk? Lord bless me! — why, every one of us four men knows very well that hundred pound notes were as common to Jacob Herapath as half-crowns are to any of us! He was a man who carried money in large amounts on him always — I’ve expostulated with him about it. Don’t you know — no, I dare say you don’t though, because you never had business dealings with him, and perhaps Tertius doesn’t, either, because he, like you, only knew him as a friend — you don’t know that Jacob had a peculiarity. Perhaps Mr. Selwood knows of it, though, as he was his secretary.”
“What peculiarity?” asked the Professor. “I know he had several fads, which one might call peculiarities.”
“He had a business peculiarity,” replied Mr. Halfpenny, “and it was well known to people in his line of business. You know that Jacob Herapath had extensive, unusually extensive, dealings in real property — land and houses. Quite apart from the Herapath Flats, he dealt on wide lines with real estate; he was always buying and selling. And his peculiarity was that all his transactions in this way were done by cash — bank-notes or gold — instead of by cheque. It didn’t matter if he was buying a hundred thousand pounds’ worth of property, or selling two hundred thousand pounds’ worth — the affairs had to be completed by payment in that fashion. I’ve scolded him about it scores of times; he only laughed at me; he said that had been the custom when he went into the business, and he’d stuck to it, and wasn’t going to give it up. God bless me!” concluded Mr. Halfpenny, with emphasis. “I ought to know, for Jacob Herapath has concluded many an operation in this very room, and at this very table — I’ve seen him handle many a hundred thousand pounds’ worth of notes in my time, paying or receiving! And, as I said, the mere picking up of a hundred pound note from his desk is — why, it’s no more than if I picked up a few of those coppers that are lying there on my chimney-piece!”
“Just so, just so!” observed Mr. Tertius mildly. “Jacob was a very wealthy man — the money evidence was everywhere.”
But Professor Cox-Raythwaite only laughed and smote the table with his big fist.
“My dear Halfpenny!” he exclaimed. “Why, you’ve just given us the very best proof of what I’ve been saying! You’re not looking deeply enough into things. The very fact to which you bear testimony proves to me that a certain theory which is assuming shape in my mind may possibly have a great deal in it. That theory, briefly, is this — on the day of his death, Jacob Herapath may have had upon his person a large amount of money in bank-notes. He may have had them paid to him. He may have drawn them from his bank, to pay to somebody else. Some evil person may have been aware of his possession of those notes and have tracked him to the estate offices, or gained entrance, or — mark this! — have been lurking — lurking! — there, in order to rob him. Don’t forget two points, my friend — one, that Barthorpe (if he’s speaking the truth, and I, personally, believe he is) tells us that the doors of the offices and the private room were open when he called at twelve o’clock; and, too, that, according to Mountain, the coachman, Jacob Herapath had been in those offices since twenty-five minutes to twelve — plenty of time for murder and robbery to take place. I repeat — Jacob may have had a considerable sum of money on him that night, some one may have known it, and the motive of his murder may have been — probably was — sheer robbery. And we ought to go on that, if we want to save the family honour.”
Mr. Tertius nodded and murmured assent, and Mr. Halfpenny stirred uneasily in his chair.
“Family honour!” he said. “Yes, yes, that’s right, of course. It would be a dreadful thing to see a nephew hanged for the murder of his uncle — quite right!”
“A much more dreadful thing to stand by and see an innocent man hanged, without moving heaven and earth to clear him,” commented the Professor. “Come now, I helped to establish the fact that Barthorpe visited Portman Square that night — Tertius there helped too, by his quickness in seeing that the half-eaten sandwich had been bitten into by a man who had lost two front teeth, which, of course, was Barthorpe’s case — so the least we can do is to bestir ourselves now that we believe him to have told the truth in that statement.”
“But how exactly are we to bestir ourselves?” asked Mr. Halfpenny.
“I suggest a visit to Jacob Herapath’s bankers, first of all,” answered the Professor. “I haven’t heard that any particular inquiry has been made. Did you make any, Halfpenny?”
“Jacob’s bankers are Bittleston, Stocks and Bittleston,” replied the old lawyer. “I did make it in my way to drop in there and to see Mr. Playbourne, the manager of their West End branch, in Piccadilly. He assured me that there was nothing whatever out of the common in Jacob Herapath’s transactions with them just before his death, and nothing at all in their particulars of his banking account which could throw any possible light on his murder.”
“In his opinion,” said the Professor, caustically, “in his opinion, Halfpenny! But — you don’t know what our opinion might be. Now, I suggest that we all go at once to see this Mr. Playbourne; there’s ample time before the bank closes for the day.”
“Very well,” assented Mr. Halfpenny. “All the same, I’m afraid Playbourne will only say just what he said before.”
Mr. Playbourne, a good typical specimen of the somewhat old-fashioned bank manager, receiving this formidable deputation of four gentlemen in his private room, said precisely what he had said before, and seemed astonished to think that any light upon such an unpleasant thing as a murder could possibly be derived from so highly respectable a quarter as that in which he moved during the greater part of the day.
“I can’t think of anything in our transactions with the late Mr. Herapath that gives any clue, any idea, anything at all,” he said, somewhat querulously. “Mr. Herapath’s transactions with us, right up to the day of his death, were just what they had been for years. Of course, I’m willing to tell you anything, show you anything. You’re acting for Miss Wynne, aren’t you, Mr. Halfpenny?”
“I have a power of attorney from Miss Wynne, for that matter,” answered Mr. Halfpenny. “Everything of that sort’s in my hands.”
“I’ll tell you what, then,” said the bank manager, laying his hand on a bell at his side. “You’d better see Jacob Herapath’s pass-book. I recently had it posted up to the day of his death, and of course we’ve retained it until you demanded it. You can’t have a better index to his affairs with us than you’ll find in it. Sellars,” he went on, as a clerk appeared, “bring me the late Mr. Herapath’s pass-book — Mr. Ravensdale has it.”
The visitors presently gathered round the desk on which Mr. Playbourne laid the parchment-bound book — one of a corresponding thickness with the dead man’s transactions. The manager turned to the pages last filled in.
“You’re aware, of course, some of you at any rate,” he said, “you, Mr. Halfpenny, and you, Mr. Selwood, that the late Jacob Herapath dealt in big sums. He always had a very large balance at this branch of our bank; he was continually paying in and drawing out amounts which, to men of less means, must needs seem tremendous. Now, you can see for yourselves what his transactions with us were during the last few days of his life; I, as I have said, see nothing out of the way in them — you, of course,” he continued, with a sniff, “may see a good deal!”
Professor Cox-Raythwaite ran his eye over the neatly-written pages, passing rapidly on to the important date — November 12th. And he suddenly thrust out his arm and put the tip of a big yellow finger on one particular entry.
“There!” he exclaimed. “Look at that. ‘Self, £5,000.’ Paid out, you see, on November 12th. Do you see?”
Mr. Playbourne laughed cynically.
“My dear sir!” he said. “Do you mean to say that you attach any importance to an entry like that? Jacob Herapath constantly drew cheques to self for five, ten, twenty, thirty — aye, fifty thousand pounds! He dealt in tens of thousands — he was always buying or selling. Five thousand pounds! — a fleabite!”
“All the same, if you please,” said the Professor quietly, “I should like to know if Jacob Herapath presented that self cheque himself, and if so, how he took the money it represents.”
“Oh, very well!” said the manager resignedly. He touched his bell again, and looked wearily at the clerk who answered it. “Find out if the late Mr. Herapath himself presented a cheque for five thousand on November 12th, and if so, how he took it,” he said. “Well,” he continued, turning to his visitors. “Do you see anything with any further possible mystery attached to it?”
“There’s an entry there — the last,” observed Mr. Halfpenny. “That. ‘Dimambro: three thousand guineas.’ That’s the same date.”
Mr. Playbourne suddenly showed some interest and animation. His eyes brightened; he sat up erect.
“Ah!” he said. “Well, now, that is somewhat remarkable, that entry! — though of course there’s nothing out of the common in it. But that cheque was most certainly the very last ever drawn by Jacob Herapath, and according to strict law, it never ought to have been paid out by us.”
“Why?” asked Professor Cox-Raythwaite.
“Because Jacob Herapath, the drawer, was dead before it was presented,” replied the manager. “But of course we didn’t know that. The cheque, you see, was drawn on November 12th, and it was presented here as soon as ever the doors were opened next morning and before any of us knew of what had happened during the night, and it was accordingly honoured in the usual way.”
“The payee, of course, was known?” observed Mr. Halfpenny.
“No, he was not known, but he endorsed the cheque with name and address, and there can be no reason whatever to doubt that it had come to him in the ordinary way of business,” replied the manager. “Quite a usual transaction, but, as I say, noteworthy, because, as you know, a cheque is no good after its drawer’s demise.”
