Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven of The Double by Edgar Wallace. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by A Toolsharma, Winnipeg, Canada,
Speaker 1: chapter twenty seven. It was at that moment that a
Speaker 1: police officer burst into the room. I think they've settled
Speaker 1: men's he said. Mary uttered an exclamation of horror. Daddy,
Speaker 1: that was the way he went. Where is he asked Dick.
Speaker 1: He's in the kitchen next door. I think he's been shot.
Speaker 1: In a minute, Dick was by the wounded man's side.
Speaker 1: Mins lay on his back. He was unconscious and his
Speaker 1: coat was soddened with blood. Let me see, please, it
Speaker 1: was Mary. She knelt by the man, removed his coat
Speaker 1: and vest, and made a quick examination of the wound.
Speaker 1: I don't think it is really bad. Will you get
Speaker 1: one of your people to ring for the ambulance? With quick,
Speaker 1: skillful fingers, she bandaged the wound, and Dick, watching her,
Speaker 1: realized that he was seeing a repetition of the scene
Speaker 1: that had been enacted on the night Lordy Brown had
Speaker 1: been found in the room upstairs. But how did this happen?
Speaker 1: If you look at the pantry, I think you'll understand,
Speaker 1: she said in a low voice. Dick went into the
Speaker 1: inner room adjoining the kitchen, which, though it was designated
Speaker 1: with the name of pantry, was in fact a small
Speaker 1: bed sitting room. It was plainly furnished, and Dick saw
Speaker 1: that the bed, which ordinarily must have stood in the corner,
Speaker 1: was drawn to the center of the room. The carpet
Speaker 1: had been rolled away, and a small aperture showed in
Speaker 1: the stone floor. He put down the light of his
Speaker 1: lamp and saw that the butler's pantry was immediately above
Speaker 1: Deryck's wine cellar. There must have been a time when
Speaker 1: the cellar was common to both houses. He remembered now
Speaker 1: that there was no basement to Tommy's residence, a circumstance
Speaker 1: which struck him as peculiar when the fact was first
Speaker 1: brought to his notice. While he was making his inspection,
Speaker 1: the girl joined him. That is the way we came in,
Speaker 1: she said, Mins led us through your house quite a
Speaker 1: number of times. At his questioning look, she shook her head. No,
Speaker 1: we only used that underground passage, poor Min's. But why
Speaker 1: on earth he knew, mister Walter Derrick, she said quietly.
Speaker 1: They were once fellow servants in Cape Town. Then Dick
Speaker 1: remembered the butler's confidence. Walter Derreck is really our friend
Speaker 1: up stairs, She went on, you call him Cornfort. The
Speaker 1: other Walter Derrick is Hermann. Levinsky said, Dick, I guess
Speaker 1: that I was certain of it tonight when I found
Speaker 1: them at the door after he had made his quick
Speaker 1: shoot up. We're stupid fellows, both of us, myself for
Speaker 1: not arresting him and he for imagining that I hadn't
Speaker 1: noticed that there were no wet footsteps on either step.
Speaker 1: It said, as plainly as though it had been printed,
Speaker 1: that he had not been out in the rain and
Speaker 1: therefore could not have come in from the rain. There
Speaker 1: was another casualty besides Min's, he learned immediately afterward. At
Speaker 1: the first faint sound of shooting, the detectives in the
Speaker 1: mews had closed toward the garage door. Immediately after they
Speaker 1: did so, the wicket door had opened, and an excited
Speaker 1: voice had called them inside. Two men had hardly dashed
Speaker 1: through the opening before the door was closed upon them.
Speaker 1: While one was searching for the bolt that unfastened the gate,
Speaker 1: they heard the sound of the machine moving. At the
Speaker 1: end of the mews was a third officer who had
Speaker 1: attempted to bar the way and had been knocked sprawling
Speaker 1: for his pains. Walter is not at his hotel. Of course,
Speaker 1: there's only one chance of catching him before he does
Speaker 1: a little more mischief, and that is to phone the
Speaker 1: Sussex police. Do you think he'll make for keiehy nodded Mary.
Speaker 1: So do I I have an idea he has everything planned.
Speaker 1: I've seen him twice creeping in a large motor boat,
Speaker 1: but I've never been able to trace where he keeps it.
Speaker 1: And then Dick asked a question that had been puzzling
Speaker 1: him ever since he had come into the case. Why
Speaker 1: on earth didn't you go to the police right away?
Speaker 1: She shook her head. That question is very easily answered.
Speaker 1: It was the one thing we couldn't do, although we
Speaker 1: could do it now. You don't realize that mister Cormfort,
Speaker 1: as you call him, is an escaped convict. He was
Speaker 1: under life sentence in Rhodesia for murder. Dick was staggered.
Speaker 1: But my dear girl, he said, at last he must
Speaker 1: be re arrested. I think that is inevitable, replied this
Speaker 1: amazing girl. The Sussex police were difficult to reach, and
Speaker 1: when they had spent three quarters of an hour in
Speaker 1: getting through the proper authority. There are two divisions to Sussex,
Speaker 1: and either would have been the wrong one. They learned
Speaker 1: that Keighley was not in the Sussex area. He was,
Speaker 1: in point of fact, in Surrey. We shall waste another
Speaker 1: hour before we reached the Surrey people, said Dick. We
Speaker 1: will go on to Keighley. By this time Borg had arrived.
Speaker 1: The Big Man seemed singularly unimpressed when he learned of
Speaker 1: what had happened. We shall want a fast car, began Dick.
Speaker 1: I have it on the corner, said Mary. My dear boy,
Speaker 1: how do you imagine I got to Brighton from Loundest
Speaker 1: Square three minutes ahead of Tommy and you? And how
Speaker 1: do you suppose I've beaten your train time and time again?
Speaker 1: Who drives? Asked Dick, and she smiled. He had never
Speaker 1: moved as fast in his life as he moved. That night.
Speaker 1: Mary sat at the wheel, her eyes fixed on the
Speaker 1: road ahead. The country seemed to fly past them. Once.
Speaker 1: Dick stirred uneasily, but Henry's voice reassured him. My daughter
Speaker 1: is rather a good driver, he said. She has won
Speaker 1: three endurance trials in Africa. In an incredibly short space
Speaker 1: of time, they came to the lodge gates of Keighly,
Speaker 1: and Dick heaved a sigh of relief, for the last
Speaker 1: two miles of the journey had been made with the
Speaker 1: aid of the dimmest of headlights. Anyway, he would have
Speaker 1: heard us, she said. As they got down, the three
Speaker 1: plain clothes officers who also occupied the car were volubly
Speaker 1: thankful that their perilous journey was over. Silently, and in
Speaker 1: single file, they passed up the dark drive to the house,
Speaker 1: keeping close to the hedges that fringed the gravel path.
Speaker 1: There was no light in the house and no sign
Speaker 1: or evidence that it was occupied. Dick was in no
Speaker 1: doubt that the man was here. He had stopped to
Speaker 1: examine the gravel on the path with the aid of
Speaker 1: his lamp, and had seen fresh wheel tracks drawn up
Speaker 1: near the portico. They found the car, its lights extinguished,
Speaker 1: its radiator still burning hot. Then, as they stood talking
Speaker 1: in low tones, a light appeared simultaneously behind three shaded
Speaker 1: windows on the ground floor the drawing room. Dick noted
Speaker 1: mentally and waited. Another light glowed in the semicircular transom
Speaker 1: above the front door. Dick waited and saw the door
Speaker 1: open slowly. Mister Walter Derreck stood on the doorstep. He
Speaker 1: was in his shirt sleeves, one hand was heavily bandaged.
Speaker 1: Come in please. He was the jovial Walter that Dick
Speaker 1: had known the day he was introduced at Brighton. I
Speaker 1: saw your lights and I heard your engine. Have you
Speaker 1: got the decrepit mister Cornfort with you? You haven't. What
Speaker 1: a pity do I see Miss Mary Dane or miss
Speaker 1: Mary de Villiers, and my dear old friend Henry the chairman.
Speaker 1: He turned his back upon his visitors and walked ahead
Speaker 1: of them into the drawing room. That pistol is quite
Speaker 1: unnecessary de Villiers, he said, with a portentous smile. But
Speaker 1: that admonition had no effect upon Henry. His long barreled
Speaker 1: automatic covered the man. Now, I suppose you're going to
Speaker 1: arrest me on what charge? He asked the question quite casually,
Speaker 1: as though it were a subject which barely interested him. Murder,
Speaker 1: without a doubt, will be one charge, said Dick. There
Speaker 1: is also a charge of fraudulent impersonation, but I think
Speaker 1: we shall have you on the murder. Derek shrugged his
Speaker 1: broad shoulders a black mailer and a poor simpleton, an
Speaker 1: unworthy cause for an execution. There I fear you will
Speaker 1: have a difficulty inspector. If I am a murderer, must
Speaker 1: I also be a bungler? I could have got you
Speaker 1: two or three times, Henry. Apparently you credit me with
Speaker 1: a taste for the spectacular. The bomb I presume you
Speaker 1: suspect me of that would certainly have been an excellent
Speaker 1: way of disposing of an unpleasant little party. Do you
Speaker 1: mind shutting the door? There's a draft. One of the detectives,
Speaker 1: at a signal from Dick, closed the door. Another Dick
Speaker 1: placed on the far side of the room, near the windows.
Speaker 1: I am unarmed, as I say de Villiers, this is
Speaker 1: sheer melodrama, said Dereck, glancing at the South Africans automatic.
Speaker 1: What happens now? Something had already happened to the man.
Speaker 1: He seemed to be in pain, His face was haggard,
Speaker 1: and his geniality was perhaps the hardest pose he had
Speaker 1: ever assumed. Are you hurt? Derrick shook his head. Nothing
Speaker 1: very much, he said, airily. What shall I get for
Speaker 1: all this? Seven years? After all? Impersonation is a very
Speaker 1: small thing. I shall want you for the murder of
Speaker 1: Lordy Browne, said Dick, and the man smiled. No human
Speaker 1: eye ever saw me kill Lordie or any other kind
Speaker 1: of brown, he said. The fellow was a burglar in
Speaker 1: my house. He was armed. I had every justification for
Speaker 1: killing him, even supposing I shot him. I am going
Speaker 1: to suggest that you have no evidence that I killed brown.
Speaker 1: I am also going to suggest that your friend mister
Speaker 1: Henry de Villiers and his daughter were also in the
Speaker 1: house that night and might be as guilty as I.
Speaker 1: I am sufficiently well acquainted with the law, Inspector Staines
Speaker 1: to know that you haven't got sufficient evidence to hang
Speaker 1: a cab. Dick knew this equally well. I salute you
Speaker 1: was my benefactor. Derek flashed a grin in Dick's direction.
Speaker 1: That shot of yours did me a marvelous service. I
Speaker 1: note that you were a little baffled by my statement,
Speaker 1: but you will understand later. Have you any other charge
Speaker 1: to lay against me? Bomb throwing that you cannot prove?
Speaker 1: I simply state that I was not the culprit. There
Speaker 1: is one other little matter, mister Hermann Levinsky, said Dick quietly,
Speaker 1: and that is the slow murder a cashier shot in
Speaker 1: cold blood and his money stolen. There was a thumb
Speaker 1: print on that pistol. A week after the killing, you
Speaker 1: sailed for South Africa in the name of Cleave. Again,
Speaker 1: that crooked smile. Where is the proof against me? There
Speaker 1: the proof is easily supplied. A print of your thumb
Speaker 1: will be quite sufficient evidence to convict you. The man
Speaker 1: was still smiling, and then slowly he unwrapped the bloody
Speaker 1: bandage from his hand. A lucky shot for me, he said,
Speaker 1: and Dick looked and winced. His chance. Bullet had removed
Speaker 1: all proof. End of Chapter twenty seven.