Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight of The Double by Edgar Wallace. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Atolsharma, Winnipeg, Canada,
Speaker 1: chapter twenty eight. Nobody has ever described the scene which
Speaker 1: followed the real Walter Derrick's discovery that his father had
Speaker 1: married again. The quarrel was a bitter one. There was
Speaker 1: money behind it, for Walter was extravagant. This extravagance had
Speaker 1: a curious cause. He had the same experimental mind as
Speaker 1: his father, but his pet experiments cost money, since they
Speaker 1: were devoted to the study of metallurgy and particularly to
Speaker 1: gold recovery. He left his father's house, never to see
Speaker 1: him again, and sailed for South Africa in the Steerage.
Speaker 1: A year's wandering brought him to the Tanganika area and
Speaker 1: to the most extraordinary adventure. For eighteen months he prospected,
Speaker 1: living summer and winter in a tent, scraping enough from
Speaker 1: the ground to pay his boys, and replaced the horses
Speaker 1: that died like flies. And then chance brought him into
Speaker 1: the company of a wanderer who had sought this thinly
Speaker 1: populated region for quite another reason, Joe Cleave. This man
Speaker 1: called himself and he made an agreeable companion. He was
Speaker 1: at first taciturn a little nervous, and Walter Derreck had
Speaker 1: the uncomfortable impression, for no particular reason, that he was
Speaker 1: a fugitive from justice. But in his wanderings through northern
Speaker 1: Rhodesia he had met several men into whose antecedents it
Speaker 1: was undesirable to pry. Cleave was down on his luck
Speaker 1: and once hinted that the Cape Town police wanted him,
Speaker 1: probably for the robbery of silver for which men's had
Speaker 1: been held responsible. This was one of the peculiarities of
Speaker 1: the man. It seemed that time and time again he
Speaker 1: escaped the processes of justice by the simple method of
Speaker 1: leading suspicion to innocent men. He was a murderer, a thief,
Speaker 1: a hold up man, and above all a deadly gun fighter.
Speaker 1: He knew something about gold digging, and apparently had been
Speaker 1: in Johannesburg for a period, and once spoke vaguely of
Speaker 1: the platinum mines in the Caucases. Derek discovered that he
Speaker 1: had a knowledge of several languages, but he did not
Speaker 1: allow his suspicions to interfere with the amity of his
Speaker 1: daily intercourse. The two men came upon a patch of
Speaker 1: alluvial ground which promised to make them rich. Three months
Speaker 1: later led to a disillusionment. The gold, which had been
Speaker 1: plentiful in the first washings, petered out to nothing, and
Speaker 1: they were thinking of breaking up their camp and going
Speaker 1: their several ways when Walter, ranging the felt in search
Speaker 1: of food, was attacked by an old lion. He succeeded
Speaker 1: in driving the animal off, but not until he had
Speaker 1: been badly mauled in the calf, an injury which led
Speaker 1: to a permanent limp, a peculiar coincidence since his father
Speaker 1: was similarly afflicted. It was true that lordy Brown had
Speaker 1: come to his aid and carried him back to camp.
Speaker 1: It was also true that Lord he had disappeared after
Speaker 1: three or four days, taking with him a small bag
Speaker 1: of gold that the two men had accumulated with much labor.
Speaker 1: Derec became seriously ill from his wound and delirious. It
Speaker 1: is probable that during this period of time he divulged
Speaker 1: his identity and told the interesting criminal who was his companion,
Speaker 1: the story of his father. It was certain that while
Speaker 1: he was ill, letters to Derec found their way into
Speaker 1: the camp, and one was undoubtedly from the old man.
Speaker 1: He had almost lost his sight, could scarcely hear, and,
Speaker 1: feeling the hand of death upon him, sought a reconciliation
Speaker 1: with his only son. That this letter was read by
Speaker 1: Cleve admits of no doubt. It was while he was
Speaker 1: waiting for his companion to die that his scheme took shape.
Speaker 1: He left the camp one night, believing his friend to
Speaker 1: be in extremists, and carrying with him as much of
Speaker 1: Deryck's goods as he could travel with. He had a
Speaker 1: long tramp before him, and he needed money not only
Speaker 1: to get to the coast, but to make some sort
Speaker 1: of appearance in England. The ground had to be reconnoitered,
Speaker 1: he had to discover something about the old man, and
Speaker 1: mostly he had to be sure that theo Walter had
Speaker 1: babbled to him that he had no friends. This was
Speaker 1: substantially correct in this dilemma. He reached the outskirts of
Speaker 1: a mining camp and found a prospector lying drunk by
Speaker 1: the side of the road. There was nobody in sight,
Speaker 1: and Cleave searched his pockets and was well rewarded, for
Speaker 1: the man had recently sold a number of claims to
Speaker 1: a Tanganika Syndicate. He was making his getaway when the
Speaker 1: drunkard became dimly aware of what had happened. The first
Speaker 1: intimation Cleave had that his man was alive and alert
Speaker 1: was a pistol bullet that zip passed his head. He
Speaker 1: shot back, dropping the man in his tracks, but he
Speaker 1: had not realized that he was as near the little
Speaker 1: township as he was, and there were scores of people
Speaker 1: with an ear shot. He had hardly reached the cover
Speaker 1: of a wood before he was under heavy fire. He
Speaker 1: ran through the wood with his pursuers on his heels,
Speaker 1: and flew in the only direction of which he was
Speaker 1: perfectly sure, toward the camp where he had left his
Speaker 1: dying friend. With the fleetest of his pursuers not a
Speaker 1: hundred yards away. He came panting into the tent and
Speaker 1: found Walter Derreck sitting up on the side of his bed,
Speaker 1: fully dressed. Derec had no recollection of what happened. When
Speaker 1: he became conscious. He was lying in the prison hospital
Speaker 1: on the charge of murder and robbery. A pistol was
Speaker 1: in his hand when the pursuers came up. There were
Speaker 1: two exploded shells. There was the booty that he had
Speaker 1: taken from the murdered man lying on the bed. Nobody
Speaker 1: had seen the face of the murderer. Half dazed, Walter
Speaker 1: Derreck found himself in a hot, stuffy court listening to
Speaker 1: a death sentence. He had been charged in the name
Speaker 1: of Cleave, a name that he accept. He himself half
Speaker 1: believed that, in his delirium he had been guilty of
Speaker 1: the crime, and wished to save his father's name from
Speaker 1: this ignominy. It was in the second year of his
Speaker 1: imprisonment the death sentence was commuted that he began to
Speaker 1: piece together the fragments of recollection. He learned too why
Speaker 1: he was called Cleave. On being asked his name on
Speaker 1: his arrest, that was the one he gave. Probably he
Speaker 1: was calling for his lost companion, but the local sheriff
Speaker 1: seemed quite unaware that he had a companion with him.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Cleave had made his way to the coast,
Speaker 1: leaving behind him a trail of burgled stores in Cape Town.
Speaker 1: He disappeared. Two years passed in the central prison, and
Speaker 1: then the real Walter Derreck gradually built up the shattered
Speaker 1: pieces of recollection. He was allowed newspapers. He spent a
Speaker 1: great deal of his time in hospital, and one day
Speaker 1: he read in a newspaper of his father's death, and
Speaker 1: underneath the photograph was the caption mister Walter Derrick, who
Speaker 1: inherits an enormous fortune by the death of his late father.
Speaker 1: He recognized the photograph instantly it was cleave, and then
Speaker 1: the whole dastardly plot became clear. He was in prison.
Speaker 1: It was impossible to prove his innocence. He tried to
Speaker 1: interest the prison doctor and the chaplain. The first was
Speaker 1: frankly amused, and the second was maddeningly soothing, For in
Speaker 1: the jail he was regarded as being a little crazy. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it was the suspicion of madness which had saved him
Speaker 1: from the gallows. For three months, he plotted and planned.
Speaker 1: One stormy night, when the thunder did not cease and
Speaker 1: the lightning flickered incessantly, he dropped over the prison wall
Speaker 1: and made his way into the wilderness. It took him
Speaker 1: five months to reach Cape Town, a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: three days of privation and terror. He was half mad,
Speaker 1: wholly exhausted when one night he found his way into
Speaker 1: a beautiful rene de Boche garden, and fell on the
Speaker 1: step of the only man who could help him. It
Speaker 1: was Mary de Villiers who found him. She had been
Speaker 1: a nurse in a Cape Town hospital and had recently
Speaker 1: left her profession to help her father in his rapidly
Speaker 1: growing business. De Villiers was the greatest detective that South
Speaker 1: Africa had produced. Originally a detective inspector in Kimberly, he
Speaker 1: had left the police force and opened his agency when
Speaker 1: his two girls were young children. They carried the unconscious
Speaker 1: man to a bed, and Henry de Villiers would have
Speaker 1: rung for an ambulance to send them to the local hospital,
Speaker 1: but Mary intervened. Four days later, a weak and desperate
Speaker 1: man told Henry de Villiers the story told him everything,
Speaker 1: including the tale of his prison breaking. De Villiers was
Speaker 1: at first skeptical, but Mary, with her quick woman's intuition,
Speaker 1: was assured that this wild wanderer spoke the truth. There
Speaker 1: was only one proof of his identity, and there was
Speaker 1: slender hope of securing this the family book he knew
Speaker 1: his father had it. Knew dimly there was a concealed
Speaker 1: safe in the house, and that in the safe the
Speaker 1: old man kept such intimate documents as he possessed. If
Speaker 1: the spurry as Walter Derrick had found the secret hiding place,
Speaker 1: there was no hope. De Villiers considered the story and
Speaker 1: made a few inquiries through a London agent. He himself
Speaker 1: went to the scene of the crime, questioned local natives
Speaker 1: and discovered that Clive had had an existence. He traced
Speaker 1: the murderer's progress southward. He checked dates, and then one evening,
Speaker 1: I'm taking a chance with you, Derrick. The doctors told
Speaker 1: me to go on a holiday, and I think this
Speaker 1: is the kind of holiday I want. It's going to
Speaker 1: cost me five thousand pounds and it will probably land
Speaker 1: us all in jail. My fee will be fifty thousand
Speaker 1: pounds if we succeed, nothing if we fail in a
Speaker 1: most businesslike manner. A remarkable document to this effect was completed,
Speaker 1: came to England, and it was Mary who suggested the
Speaker 1: yellow bath chair. It would keep Deryck out of sight
Speaker 1: and give these four people an excuse to be together. Jane,
Speaker 1: who was a year younger than her sister, was the
Speaker 1: night nurse, and it was Mary who designed her for
Speaker 1: a double. She was my everlasting alibi whenever I was
Speaker 1: likely to be seen in London. I made absolutely sure
Speaker 1: that she should be seen somewhere fifty miles away. It
Speaker 1: was she who danced at the Brighton Ball. I took
Speaker 1: her place ten minutes before you arrived. Poor Jane, she
Speaker 1: loathed it. She is naturally nervous. And then the awful
Speaker 1: girl complicated matters by falling in love with Tommy. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: it was her ring I was wearing. That is why
Speaker 1: Tommy's fiancee was so affectionate by night and so cold
Speaker 1: by day. I like Tommy, but I hate being pawed
Speaker 1: by him. Poor dear, he was very hurt. I don't
Speaker 1: know when Levinsky began to suspect. We knew him rather
Speaker 1: fancy until somebody told him about the family book. Old
Speaker 1: Inspector Entred was the culprit, said Dick. She nodded. Even
Speaker 1: before then, Perhaps he may have recognized the real Derrick
Speaker 1: in the bath chair. He may have cabled to South
Speaker 1: Africa to ask for information about de Villiers. Probably Lordy
Speaker 1: brown told him you found Lordy Browne. She nodded again.
Speaker 1: He died soon after we got him to the house.
Speaker 1: When I heard his groan, I was terrified. We did
Speaker 1: all we could to make him a little happy. He
Speaker 1: recognized me, of course, and asked me to send the
Speaker 1: money he had in his pocket to his wife. But
Speaker 1: he refused to tell me who had shot him. He
Speaker 1: had the old criminal's code of never tell. Daddy asked
Speaker 1: him twice to make a statement, but he refused. So
Speaker 1: far as I could gather, there had been a quarrel,
Speaker 1: and I am sure the lord he did not tell
Speaker 1: us that he was asked to come secretly to the
Speaker 1: house where Levinsky was waiting for him, perhaps to bribe
Speaker 1: him to silence. When did you guess, she asked, I
Speaker 1: half guessed, said Dick. When Levinski did not know that
Speaker 1: his father limped on his return. The old man must
Speaker 1: have been bedridden. He used to do all his business
Speaker 1: in what I call the office room, which I believe
Speaker 1: must have been the room where he had his clandestine
Speaker 1: meetings and his secret wife, and Levinsky knew nothing about her.
Speaker 1: That was the second jar to me. He invented her name,
Speaker 1: miss Constable on the spur of the moment. What will
Speaker 1: happen to him? Asked Mary. After a pause. Dick shook
Speaker 1: his head. I don't know. It is going to be
Speaker 1: terribly difficult to convict him. The public prosecutor will not
Speaker 1: allow the charge of murder to go through. He thinks
Speaker 1: the jury would fail to convict, and after that we
Speaker 1: could not, of course make any other charge. He will
Speaker 1: probably get a lifer. She shivered. All my childhood has
Speaker 1: been spent in this atmosphere of detection. And I suppose
Speaker 1: I must expected to continue all my life and Dick
Speaker 1: that idea of our being married together, You and I
Speaker 1: and Tommy and Jane. We've got to give it up.
Speaker 1: Tommy won't hear of it. He's scared to death. He'll
Speaker 1: get me by mistake. The end end of chapter twenty eight,
Speaker 1: End of The Double by Edgar Wallace