Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of The Double by Edgar Wallace. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Atulsharma, Winnipeg, Canada,
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two, mister Walter Derreck confessed to having an
Speaker 1: equable nature. Few men whose houses were marked by gangs
Speaker 1: of arm burglars, who had suffered the outrages which had
Speaker 1: been his, had been subjected to the horror of having
Speaker 1: murdered done in their drawing rooms, would have accepted so
Speaker 1: philosophically the amazing sequence of events which had punctured recent weeks.
Speaker 1: My equanimity, he told the reporter of the Post Herald,
Speaker 1: is nine tenths laziness, a sheer disinclination to trouble my
Speaker 1: head about things I cannot rectify or put right. Laziness
Speaker 1: is my pet vice. My house is an extraordinary house.
Speaker 1: Something alarming is always happening there. A week ago, a
Speaker 1: man who claimed acquaintance with me during my stay in
Speaker 1: Africa was found dead there. A few nights later, a
Speaker 1: portion of the wall of my drawing room was excavated,
Speaker 1: and certain rumors I have heard, coupled with mysterious inquiries
Speaker 1: which have come to me from the police and especially
Speaker 1: from my friend Inspector Staines, lead me to suppose that
Speaker 1: yet another outrage was attempted or committed only a couple
Speaker 1: of nights ago. Is the house haunted? One of my
Speaker 1: servants swears that he has seen the ghost of my father.
Speaker 1: But that, of course is a trick, and a particularly
Speaker 1: cruel trick. What do you imagine the burglars are after,
Speaker 1: asked the newspaper man. Mister Derrick smiled broadly, what are
Speaker 1: we all? After? He demanded money. The theory has been
Speaker 1: advanced by one of the most brilliant police officers at
Speaker 1: Scotland Yard that my father hoarded a large sum of
Speaker 1: money in some secret place. That may, of course be true.
Speaker 1: If it is, then it is better that I should
Speaker 1: find it than my persecutors. I at least would pay
Speaker 1: to the inn Land Revenue the additional death duties. I do, not, however,
Speaker 1: imagine for one moment that my father did anything so
Speaker 1: stupid or so secretive. His death, though he was an invalid,
Speaker 1: was very sudden, and he had no opportunity of discussing
Speaker 1: his affairs at the last. But I feel sure that
Speaker 1: if there had been any money hidden, he would have
Speaker 1: told me during the last years of his life. Dick
Speaker 1: Staines read his interview while he was still in bed.
Speaker 1: He had been in a state of wonder that the
Speaker 1: murder in Loundes Square, and all the peculiar events which
Speaker 1: had preceded and followed, had attracted so little attention. Reporters
Speaker 1: had called and had received the usual vague statements which
Speaker 1: police officers issue on such occasions, but the episode of
Speaker 1: the spring gun, which had not been reported, had shaken him. Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: neither Larkin nor Walter Derreck could offer him any explanation.
Speaker 1: Dereck was certain that when he had walked down the
Speaker 1: stairs five minutes before he left the house, no such
Speaker 1: trap had been laid. Larkin was equally emphatic. Unless there
Speaker 1: was another way into the house as yet undiscovered, how
Speaker 1: could the gun have been placed in position and the
Speaker 1: leads so carefully adjusted. There had been workmen in the house.
Speaker 1: Dick saw the foreman, who assured him that none of
Speaker 1: the men had ascended beyond the drawing room floor. Examined
Speaker 1: at Scotland Yard, the gun proved to be of a
Speaker 1: type common enough six years ago in country districts, a
Speaker 1: muzzle loaded, big jawed musket. The barrel sought off to
Speaker 1: within a few inches of the lock. On his return
Speaker 1: to town, after giving an interview with the reporters in
Speaker 1: Loundes Square, Walter accompanied Dick to Scotland Yard and examined
Speaker 1: the gun. No sooner did his eyes fall upon it
Speaker 1: than he uttered an exclamation. That is mine, he said,
Speaker 1: when he had bought Keighley, he had found in the stable,
Speaker 1: among a lot of other rubbish, this old spring gun.
Speaker 1: He pointed out, the half obliterated crown stamped in the
Speaker 1: brass butt plate and two notches cut in the grip.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it for months years. Oh yes, I have,
Speaker 1: he corrected himself quickly. I showed it to Tommy Wheel
Speaker 1: last Sunday week and he suggested I should send it
Speaker 1: to a museum. Which was rather like Tommy. He was
Speaker 1: very public spirited with other people's properties. There was also
Speaker 1: an old powder horn, which probably belongs to the set.
Speaker 1: Walter went on, but I don't remember seeing any bullets.
Speaker 1: He had taken the surprising resolution, At least it was
Speaker 1: surprising to Dick. I am trying to decide to spend
Speaker 1: a week in my haunted house and do a little
Speaker 1: gold digging myself. He smiled. I can't persuade my servants
Speaker 1: at Keighley to come back to Lounde to Square, for
Speaker 1: the reputation of the house has been quite sufficient to
Speaker 1: scare them stiff. So I'm relying on Larkin to assist.
Speaker 1: If you would care for me to share your watch,
Speaker 1: said Dick Walter nodded. That was my idea. I can't
Speaker 1: make you as comfortable as Wheel does, but I may
Speaker 1: be able to give you a more exciting time. They
Speaker 1: walked up to the house together, and just before Derreck
Speaker 1: went in, you were telling me the other day about
Speaker 1: old Enred, the local inspector. He seems to know a
Speaker 1: great deal more about my father than I do. I
Speaker 1: suppose there is no objection to my having a chat
Speaker 1: with him. Don't you know him? Asked Dick Walter shook
Speaker 1: his head. No, I have no recollection of him so
Speaker 1: far as I can ascertain. Although he knew my father
Speaker 1: very well, he never met me. I was at school
Speaker 1: in Northumberland until I was seventeen. With the aid of
Speaker 1: Larkin and a couple of charwomen that the caretaker was
Speaker 1: able to engage, mister Derrick had restored something like order
Speaker 1: and tidiness to his outraged drawing room. A square of
Speaker 1: canvas still covered the hole in the wall. When old
Speaker 1: Inspector Enred called that afternoon, he was in mufti for
Speaker 1: he was off duty, as he blamed, I never make
Speaker 1: any private calls in uniform, mister Derrick, said the grim
Speaker 1: old man. I am one of those old fashioned police
Speaker 1: officers who do not mix business with pleasure. He looked
Speaker 1: round the drawing room curiously. It must be fifteen years
Speaker 1: since I was here as a visitor, he said, fifteen years,
Speaker 1: and it seems like yesterday. He pointed to an old
Speaker 1: grandfather's chair near the fireplace. That was your respected father's
Speaker 1: favorite chair. He said, I'd like a fiver for every
Speaker 1: time I've seen him there. Did we ever meet, asked Walter, interested.
Speaker 1: The inspector shook his head. No, sir, you were at
Speaker 1: school at the time, if I remember rightly. The only
Speaker 1: occasion you were down in London, I was away on leave.
Speaker 1: But I knew your father very well, and a very
Speaker 1: nice man he was. He wasn't popular with some people,
Speaker 1: but I speak of a man as I find him.
Speaker 1: The inspector was a loquacious old gentleman with a fund
Speaker 1: of reminiscences the sort of man Walter supposed to live
Speaker 1: on as well as in the past. Yes, I know
Speaker 1: him quite well, but I had no idea that he
Speaker 1: married again. I suppose you didn't know either, No, replied
Speaker 1: mister Derrick. That was news to me. It was news
Speaker 1: to a lot of us, said the Inspector, shaking his head.
Speaker 1: But I always say that nobody really knows anybody. How
Speaker 1: did you come to be acquainted with my father? He
Speaker 1: is hardly likely to have been very much interested in
Speaker 1: police affairs, The inspector smiled broadly. We came in to
Speaker 1: touch over the finger print business, and after I was
Speaker 1: shifted to end a vision, I still used to correspond
Speaker 1: with him. As a matter of fact, mister Derrick, I
Speaker 1: am of the same opinion as your father. I believe
Speaker 1: there are duplicates to finger prints. It stands to reason
Speaker 1: that the present system can't be infallible when less than
Speaker 1: a fortieth part of the population can be examined and checked.
Speaker 1: Do you see what I mean? No, I don't, said
Speaker 1: Walter frankly. The Inspector was now riding his hobby horse,
Speaker 1: and apparently he held views even more drastic than those
Speaker 1: held by the late mister Deryck. It was more than
Speaker 1: possible that old Deryck had had his first lessons in
Speaker 1: skepticism and had been started on his hobby as a
Speaker 1: result of his acquaintance with this gray haired police officer.
Speaker 1: Suppose there was a dance on at the Albert Hall,
Speaker 1: said Andred with Relish, and there were two thousand people present,
Speaker 1: and a complaint came that a lady had lost a
Speaker 1: diamond necklace. Do you follow me, mister Derrick Walter nodded.
Speaker 1: Suppose I had permission to search the crowd, the whole
Speaker 1: two thousand, and instead of searching two thousand, I searched
Speaker 1: fifty and gave the others a clean bill. Would that
Speaker 1: be fair? It is the same with the finger print system.
Speaker 1: The only prince we have are criminals. The law abiding
Speaker 1: population never comes under review. And it is any odds
Speaker 1: that as you were to take the finger prints of
Speaker 1: the forty million people in this country, you'd find duplicates,
Speaker 1: and once you'd found a solitary duplicate, the whole finger
Speaker 1: print system would collapse. That was my father's view, too,
Speaker 1: said Derec thoughtfully. And it was a good view, insisted
Speaker 1: Inspector Andred emphatically. That is what your revered father was
Speaker 1: trying to prove. He had fingerprints by the thousand, by
Speaker 1: the hundreds of thousands, non criminals, clergymen, bankers, everybody he
Speaker 1: could get to give him a print. He was amused
Speaker 1: at a recollection. It's curious how people gibbed at it,
Speaker 1: though even the most innocent people objected to giving themselves away.
Speaker 1: I must confess he chuckled that when he asked me
Speaker 1: for my own finger impressions for the family book. I
Speaker 1: didn't at all like the idea the family book, said
Speaker 1: Derek quickly, what do you mean? Andred's eyes were dancing
Speaker 1: with laughter. You've forgotten it too. I forget nothing. I've
Speaker 1: got a memory like a card index. Mister Derrick. I
Speaker 1: remember that book, a little red book with padded leather covers.
Speaker 1: His fingerprint was in it, and yours and his housekeeper
Speaker 1: you wouldn't remember, she died when you were a child,
Speaker 1: and miss Belfer, and his sister she's dead too, and
Speaker 1: his partner, Old Carlew. I suppose it was a great
Speaker 1: honor for him to ask me at all, but I
Speaker 1: didn't like putting my finger on the pad. And that's
Speaker 1: the truth. There was a silence, and then Derek said, slowly,
Speaker 1: of course, I remember now, his little private book, the
Speaker 1: family book. I must have been about fifteen when he
Speaker 1: called me up to his study and asked me to
Speaker 1: put my fingerprint on the page. Four fingers and a
Speaker 1: thumb nodded Edred, just the same as they do at
Speaker 1: the police station. The fact is your father was a
Speaker 1: fanatic on the subject. Derek sighed heavily. Yes, a strange man.
Speaker 1: It is curious how I'd forgotten that little incident. I
Speaker 1: don't remember having seen the book, since it isn't the
Speaker 1: house somewhere, I'll bet said Andred. I wonder you don't
Speaker 1: find it. It would be rather a curiosity, mister Dereck.
Speaker 1: Derek was looking out of the window, his attention concentrated
Speaker 1: upon a horse drawn milk cart. The horse, unattended, was
Speaker 1: straying across the road. That's very dangerous, he said, pointing
Speaker 1: the way those milkmen allow their horses to wander. A
Speaker 1: little red book with padded covers, I recall it now,
Speaker 1: rather like an autograph album. Do you remember if my
Speaker 1: mother's was there? The inspector shook his head, no, sir,
Speaker 1: that it's hardly likely he hadn't got the fingerprint craze
Speaker 1: when your respected mother died. But I believe there was
Speaker 1: an old aunt because he pointed the prince out to
Speaker 1: me and said that the index finger was almost exactly
Speaker 1: like another print that he had taken of a chimpanzee
Speaker 1: at the zoo. Mister Derreck turned the conversation to the
Speaker 1: neighborhood in the old religious order that had occupied his house,
Speaker 1: and mister Enrid plunged immediately into a learned and authoritative dissertation,
Speaker 1: enriched by his recollections of diverse eccentric religious bodies he
Speaker 1: had met in his time. As the inspector was leaving
Speaker 1: the house, Dick Stains came from the house next door. Hullo. Inspector.
Speaker 1: Dick's curiosity was piqued. Is anything wrong? Nothing? Nothing, said
Speaker 1: the old man genially. I've just been having a little
Speaker 1: chat with mister Derrick about old times. Oh lord, yes,
Speaker 1: said Dick, remembering I gave him your address. He was
Speaker 1: going in the same direction as the older man, and
Speaker 1: they walked away together, calling at the yard, are you
Speaker 1: mister Staines. That's curious, so am I I'm finishing the
Speaker 1: last thirty five days of my service, and there's some
Speaker 1: talk of getting me a testimonial. In principle, I am
Speaker 1: against allowing constables to subscribe to presentations. It is against
Speaker 1: the best interests of the service. But but smiled Dick,
Speaker 1: when a veteran of your record retires, I'm all for
Speaker 1: producing a silver teapot and a nicely inscribed salver. You've
Speaker 1: got to surrender your principles, inspector, he called a taxi,
Speaker 1: and Andred protesting, he pushed him in exercise is a
Speaker 1: splendid thing, but it can be overdone. He said, well,
Speaker 1: how is mister Walter Derrick looking? A fine man? That
Speaker 1: said Edred, solemnly, a regular chip of the old block.
Speaker 1: I never met a more good natured gentleman in my life.
Speaker 1: I happened to mention about the presentation, and he offered
Speaker 1: to subscribe a hundred guineas. Andred gasped, did he tell
Speaker 1: you no? I guess, said Dick, a twinkle in his eye.
Speaker 1: Of course, I couldn't allow that began, Andred. I should
Speaker 1: surrender my principles once more, anyway you deserve it. There
Speaker 1: are no rich prizes for a footslogging uniformed inspector. And
Speaker 1: if the taxpayer who has helped to sturb you all
Speaker 1: his life wants to make up for his neglect and
Speaker 1: give you a little bonus, well let him. Old Endred
Speaker 1: looked relieved. As a matter of fact, he confided, I've
Speaker 1: got his check in my pocket. That's what I'm seeing
Speaker 1: the assistant commissioner about. I don't want to break any
Speaker 1: regulations so near to the end of my service. But
Speaker 1: if he says it's all right. Dick knew the old
Speaker 1: inspector rather well, and guessed that many influential and moneyed
Speaker 1: people in the neighborhood had heard the story of his
Speaker 1: retirement and his objection to presentations on principle, but his
Speaker 1: willingness if his superiors agreed to accept some small honorarium.
Speaker 1: Probably Derreck was to be a test case, and if
Speaker 1: the principle was admitted, Inspector Endred would carry quite a
Speaker 1: number of handsome little checks to solace his days of retirement.
Speaker 1: Mostly we discussed finger prints, which was his old father's hobby.
Speaker 1: As I've told you before, it's funny what Trick's memory
Speaker 1: plays on a fellow. He didn't even remember the family book.
Speaker 1: What was the family book? Asked Dick, who was hardly
Speaker 1: listening to the voluble officer's recital. Inspector Enred told him
Speaker 1: of the little read book with the padded covers. He
Speaker 1: described its binding, its shape, and the approximate number of
Speaker 1: its pages. Oh, Dick sat bolt upright, looking at the
Speaker 1: old man. Do you remember it very well? He asked quickly.
Speaker 1: Who else was in the book? Andred recited the names
Speaker 1: he could remember. It was doubtful if he missed one.
Speaker 1: And I think there were no more, unless there were
Speaker 1: some after mine, he said proudly. I forget nothing. I've
Speaker 1: a memory like a card index, as I told mister Derrick,
Speaker 1: I can see the old man sitting down there and
Speaker 1: writing underneath the print of my name the year I
Speaker 1: was born, where I lived, and everything. And I remember
Speaker 1: him limping up and down the room, laying down the
Speaker 1: law about the system, Enred, he says to me. At
Speaker 1: that moment, Dick signaled the cab to stop. They had
Speaker 1: turned into the Thames Embankment and were within a short
Speaker 1: distance of Scotland Yard. I'll go in if you don't mind.
Speaker 1: The Assistant commissioner gave me an appointment, Andred looked at
Speaker 1: his large watch, dear me, I've only a minute. Dick
Speaker 1: let him go and paid the cabman. At his leisure,
Speaker 1: he walked slowly down toward the entrance of the yard,
Speaker 1: and then noticed a man standing on the curb. His
Speaker 1: back was toward the detective, but the figure was familiar.
Speaker 1: Where had he seen him? He walked slowly past and
Speaker 1: looked at him sideways, and then stopped. Why, Henry, he said,
Speaker 1: in amazement. It was the unshaven bath chairman who was
Speaker 1: drawing meditatively at a clay pipe, and his eyes were
Speaker 1: fixed upon the pageant of the river. End of Chapter
Speaker 1: twenty two.