by Robert Barr
4. _Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune_
The name of the late Lord Chizelrigg never comes to my mind withoutinstantly suggesting that of Mr. T.A. Edison. I never saw the late LordChizelrigg, and I have met Mr. Edison only twice in my life, yet thetwo men are linked in my memory, and it was a remark the latter oncemade that in great measure enabled me to solve the mystery which theformer had wrapped round his actions.
There is no memorandum at hand to tell me the year in which those twomeetings with Edison took place. I received a note from the ItalianAmbassador in Paris requesting me to wait upon him at the Embassy. Ilearned that on the next day a deputation was to set out from theEmbassy to one of the chief hotels, there to make a call in state uponthe great American inventor, and formally present to him variousinsignia accompanying certain honours which the King of Italy hadconferred upon him. As many Italian nobles of high rank had beeninvited, and as these dignitaries would not only be robed in thecostumes pertaining to their orders, but in many cases would wearjewels of almost inestimable value, my presence was desired in thebelief that I might perhaps be able to ward off any attempt on thepart of the deft-handed gentry who might possibly make an effort togain these treasures, and I may add, with perhaps some littleself-gratification, no _contretemps_ occurred.
Mr. Edison, of course, had long before received notification of thehour at which the deputation would wait upon him, but when we enteredthe large parlour assigned to the inventor, it was evident to me at aglance that the celebrated man had forgotten all about the function.He stood by a bare table, from which the cloth had been jerked andflung into a corner, and upon that table were placed several bits ofblack and greasy machinery--cog wheels, pulleys, bolts, etc. Theseseemingly belonged to a French workman who stood on the other side ofthe table, with one of the parts in his grimy hand. Edison's own handswere not too clean, for he had palpably been examining the material,and conversing with the workman, who wore the ordinary long blouse ofan iron craftsman in a small way. I judged him to be a man with alittle shop of his own in some back street, who did odd jobs ofengineering, assisted perhaps by a skilled helper or two, and a fewapprentices. Edison looked sternly towards the door as the solemnprocession filed in, and there was a trace of annoyance on his face atthe interruption, mixed with a shade of perplexity as to what thisgorgeous display all meant. The Italian is as ceremonious as theSpaniard where a function is concerned, and the official who held theornate box which contained the jewellery resting on a velvet cushion,stepped slowly forward, and came to a stand in front of the bewilderedAmerican. Then the Ambassador, in sonorous voice, spoke some graciouswords regarding the friendship existing between the United States andItaly, expressed a wish that their rivalry should ever take the formof benefits conferred upon the human race, and instanced the honouredrecipient as the most notable example the world had yet produced of aman bestowing blessings upon all nations in the arts of peace. Theeloquent Ambassador concluded by saying that, at the command of hisRoyal master, it was both his duty and his pleasure to present, and soforth and so forth.
Mr. Edison, visibly ill at ease, nevertheless made a suitable reply inthe fewest possible words, and the _etalage_ being thus at an end, thenoblemen, headed by their Ambassador, slowly retired, myself formingthe tail of the procession. Inwardly I deeply sympathised with theFrench workman who thus unexpectedly found himself confronted by somuch magnificence. He cast one wild look about him, but saw that hisretreat was cut off unless he displaced some of these gorgeousgrandees. He tried then to shrink into himself, and finally stoodhelpless like one paralysed. In spite of Republican institutions,there is deep down in every Frenchman's heart a respect and awe forofficial pageants, sumptuously staged and costumed as this one was.But he likes to view it from afar, and supported by his fellows, notthrust incongruously into the midst of things, as was the case withthis panic-stricken engineer. As I passed out, I cast a glance over myshoulder at the humble artisan content with a profit of a few francs aday, and at the millionaire inventor opposite him, Edison's face,which during the address had been cold and impassive, reminding mevividly of a bust of Napoleon, was now all aglow with enthusiasm as heturned to his humble visitor. He cried joyfully to the workman:--
'A minute's demonstration is worth an hour's explanation. I'll callround tomorrow at your shop, about ten o'clock, and show you how tomake the thing work.'
I lingered in the hall until the Frenchman came out, then, introducingmyself to him, asked the privilege of visiting his shop next day atten. This was accorded with that courtesy which you will always findamong the industrial classes of France, and next day I had thepleasure of meeting Mr. Edison. During our conversation I complimentedhim on his invention of the incandescent electric light, and this wasthe reply that has ever remained in my memory:--
'It was not an invention, but a discovery. We knew what we wanted; acarbonised tissue, which would withstand the electric current in avacuum for, say, a thousand hours. If no such tissue existed, then theincandescent light, as we know it, was not possible. My assistantsstarted out to find this tissue, and we simply carbonised everythingwe could lay our hands on, and ran the current through it in a vacuum.At last we struck the right thing, as we were bound to do if we kepton long enough, and if the thing existed. Patience and hard work willovercome any obstacle.'
This belief has been of great assistance to me in my profession. Iknow the idea is prevalent that a detective arrives at his solutionsin a dramatic way through following clues invisible to the ordinaryman. This doubtless frequently happens, but, as a general thing, thepatience and hard work which Mr. Edison commends is a much safer guide.Very often the following of excellent clues had led me to disaster, aswas the case with my unfortunate attempt to solve the mystery of thefive hundred diamonds.
As I was saying, I never think of the late Lord Chizelrigg withoutremembering Mr. Edison at the same time, and yet the two were verydissimilar. I suppose Lord Chizelrigg was the most useless man thatever lived, while Edison is the opposite.
One day my servant brought in to me a card on which was engraved 'LordChizelrigg.'
'Show his lordship in,' I said, and there appeared a young man ofperhaps twenty-four or twenty-five, well dressed, and of most charmingmanners, who, nevertheless, began his interview by asking a questionsuch as had never before been addressed to me, and which, if put to asolicitor, or other professional man, would have been answered withsome indignation. Indeed, I believe it is a written or unwritten lawof the legal profession that the acceptance of such a proposal asLord Chizelrigg made to me, would, if proved, result in the disgraceand ruin of the lawyer.
'Monsieur Valmont,' began Lord Chizelrigg, 'do you ever take up caseson speculation?'
'On speculation, sir? I do not think I understand you.'
His lordship blushed like a girl, and stammered slightly as heattempted an explanation.
'What I mean is, do you accept a case on a contingent fee? That is tosay, monsieur--er--well, not to put too fine a point upon it, noresults, no pay.'
I replied somewhat severely:--
'Such an offer has never been made to me, and I may say at once that Ishould be compelled to decline it were I favoured with theopportunity. In the cases submitted to me, I devote my time andattention to their solution. I try to deserve success, but I cannotcommand it, and as in the interim I must live, I am reluctantlycompelled to make a charge for my time, at least. I believe the doctorsends in his bill, though the patient dies.'
The young man laughed uneasily, and seemed almost too embarrassed toproceed, but finally he said:--
'Your illustration strikes home with greater accuracy than probablyyou imagined when you uttered it. I have just paid my last penny tothe physician who attended my late uncle, Lord Chizelrigg, who diedsix months ago. I am fully aware that the suggestion I made may seemlike a reflection upon your skill, or rather, as implying a doubtregarding it. But I should be grieved, monsieur, if you fell into suchan error. I could have come here and commissioned
you to undertakesome elucidation of the strange situation in which I find myself, andI make no doubt you would have accepted the task if your numerousengagements had permitted. Then, if you failed, I should have beenunable to pay you, for I am practically bankrupt. My whole desire,therefore, was to make an honest beginning, and to let you knowexactly how I stand. If you succeed, I shall be a rich man; if you donot succeed, I shall be what I am now, penniless. Have I made it plainnow why I began with a question which you had every right to resent?'
'Perfectly plain, my lord, and your candour does you credit.'
I was very much taken with the unassuming manners of the young man,and his evident desire to accept no service under false pretences.When I had finished my sentence the pauper nobleman rose to his feet,and bowed.
'I am very much your debtor, monsieur, for your courtesy in receivingme, and can only beg pardon for occupying your time on a futile quest.I wish you good-morning, monsieur.'
'One moment, my lord,' I rejoined, waving him to his chair again.'Although I am unprepared to accept a commission on the terms yousuggest, I may, nevertheless, be able to offer a hint or two that willprove of service to you. I think I remember the announcement of LordChizelrigg's death. He was somewhat eccentric, was he not?'
'Eccentric?' said the young man, with a slight laugh, seating himselfagain--'well, _rather_!'
'I vaguely remember that he was accredited with the possession ofsomething like twenty thousand acres of land?'
'Twenty-seven thousand, as a matter of fact,' replied my visitor.
'Have you fallen heir to the lands as well as to the title?'
'Oh, yes; the estate was entailed. The old gentleman could not divertit from me if he would, and I rather suspect that fact must have beenthe cause of some worry to him.'
'But surely, my lord, a man who owns, as one might say, a principalityin this wealthy realm of England, cannot be penniless?'
Again the young man laughed.
'Well, no,' he replied, thrusting his hand in his pocket and bringingto light a few brown coppers, and a white silver piece. 'I possessenough money to buy some food tonight, but not enough to dine at theHotel Cecil. You see, it is like this. I belong to a somewhat ancientfamily, various members of whom went the pace, and mortgaged theiracres up to the hilt. I could not raise a further penny on my estateswere I to try my hardest, because at the time the money was lent, landwas much more valuable than it is today. Agricultural depression, andall that sort of thing, have, if I may put it so, left me a good manythousands worse off than if I had no land at all. Besides this, duringmy late uncle's life, Parliament, on his behalf, intervened once ortwice, allowing him in the first place to cut valuable timber, and inthe second place to sell the pictures of Chizelrigg Chase atChristie's for figures which make one's mouth water.'
'And what became of the money?' I asked, whereupon once more thisgenial nobleman laughed. 'That is exactly what I came up in the liftto learn if Monsieur Valmont could discover.'
'My lord, you interest me,' I said, quite truly, with an uneasyapprehension that I should take up his case after all, for I liked theyoung man already. His lack of pretence appealed to me, and thatsympathy which is so universal among my countrymen enveloped him, as Imay say, quite independent of my own will.
'My uncle,' went on Lord Chizelrigg, 'was somewhat of an anomaly inour family. He must have been a reversal to a very, very ancient type;a type of which we have no record. He was as miserly as hisforefathers were prodigal. When he came into the title and estate sometwenty years ago, he dismissed the whole retinue of servants, and,indeed, was defendant in several cases at law where retainers of ourfamily brought suit against him for wrongful dismissal, or dismissalwithout a penny compensation in lieu of notice. I am pleased to say helost all his cases, and when he pleaded poverty, got permission tosell a certain number of heirlooms, enabling him to make compensation,and giving him something on which to live. These heirlooms at auctionsold so unexpectedly well, that my uncle acquired a taste, as it were,of what might be done. He could always prove that the rents went tothe mortgagees, and that he had nothing on which to exist, so onseveral occasions he obtained permission from the courts to cut timberand sell pictures, until he denuded the estate and made an empty barnof the old manor house. He lived like any labourer, occupying himselfsometimes as a carpenter, sometimes as a blacksmith; indeed, he made ablacksmith's shop of the library, one of the most noble rooms inBritain, containing thousands of valuable books which again and againhe applied for permission to sell, but this privilege was nevergranted to him. I find on coming into the property that my uncle quitepersistently evaded the law, and depleted this superb collection, bookby book, surreptitiously through dealers in London. This, of course,would have got him into deep trouble if it had been discovered beforehis death, but now the valuable volumes are gone, and there is noredress. Many of them are doubtless in America, or in museums andcollections of Europe.'
'You wish me to trace them, perhaps?' I interpolated.
'Oh, no; they are past praying for. The old man made tens of thousandsby the sale of the timber, and other thousands by disposing of thepictures. The house is denuded of its fine old furniture, which wasimmensely valuable, and then the books, as I have said, must havebrought in the revenue of a prince, if he got anything like theirvalue, and you may be sure he was shrewd enough to know their worth.Since the last refusal of the courts to allow him further relief, ashe termed it, which was some seven years ago, he had quite evidentlybeen disposing of books and furniture by a private sale, in defianceof the law. At that time I was under age, but my guardians opposed hisapplication to the courts, and demanded an account of the moneysalready in his hands. The judges upheld the opposition of myguardians, and refused to allow a further spoliation of the estate,but they did not grant the accounting my guardians asked, because theproceeds of the former sales were entirely at the disposal of myuncle, and were sanctioned by the law to permit him to live asbefitted his station. If he lived meagrely instead of lavishly, as myguardians contended, that, the judges said, was his affair, and therethe matter ended.
'My uncle took a violent dislike to me on account of this oppositionto his last application, although, of course, I had nothing whateverto do with the matter. He lived like a hermit, mostly in the library,and was waited upon by an old man and his wife, and these three werethe only inhabitants of a mansion that could comfortably house ahundred. He visited nobody, and would allow no one to approachChizelrigg Chase. In order that all who had the misfortune to havedealing with him should continue to endure trouble after his death, heleft what might be called a will, but which rather may be termed aletter to me. Here is a copy of it.
'"MY DEAR TOM,--You will find your fortune between a couple of sheets of paper in the library.
'"Your affectionate uncle, '"REGINALD MORAN, EARL OF CHIZELRIGG."'
'I should doubt if that were a legal will,' said I.
'It doesn't need to be,' replied the young man with a smile. 'I amnext-of-kin, and heir to everything he possessed, although, of course,he might have given his money elsewhere if he had chosen to do so. Whyhe did not bequeath it to some institution, I do not know. He knew noman personally except his own servants, whom he misused and starved,but, as he told them, he misused and starved himself, so they had nocause to grumble. He said he was treating them like one of the family.I suppose he thought it would cause me more worry and anxiety if heconcealed the money, and put me on the wrong scent, which I amconvinced he has done, than to leave it openly to any person orcharity.'
'I need not ask if you have searched the library?'
'Searched it? Why, there never was such a search since the worldbegan!'
'Possibly you put the task into incompetent hands?'
'You are hinting, Monsieur Valmont, that I engaged others until mymoney was gone, then came to you with a speculative proposal. Let meassure you such is not the case. Incompetent hands, I grant you, butthe hands were my own. For the past si
x months I have livedpractically as my uncle lived. I have rummaged that library from floorto ceiling. It was left in a frightful state, littered with oldnewspapers, accounts, and what-not. Then, of course, there were thebooks remaining in the library, still a formidable collection.'
'Was your uncle a religious man?'
'I could not say. I surmise not. You see, I was unacquainted with him,and never saw him until after his death. I fancy he was not religious,otherwise he could not have acted as he did. Still, he proved himselfa man of such twisted mentality that anything is possible.'
'I knew a case once where an heir who expected a large sum of moneywas bequeathed a family Bible, which he threw into the fire, learningafterwards, to his dismay, that it contained many thousands of poundsin Bank of England notes, the object of the devisor being to inducethe legatee to read the good Book or suffer through the neglect ofit.'
'I have searched the Scriptures,' said the youthful Earl with a laugh,'but the benefit has been moral rather than material.'
'Is there any chance that your uncle has deposited his wealth in abank, and has written a cheque for the amount, leaving it between twoleaves of a book?'
'Anything is possible, monsieur, but I think that highly improbable. Ihave gone through every tome, page by page, and I suspect very few ofthe volumes have been opened for the last twenty years.'
'How much money do you estimate he accumulated?'
'He must have cleared more than a hundred thousand pounds, butspeaking of banking it, I would like to say that my uncle evinced adeep distrust of banks, and never drew a cheque in his life so far asI am aware. All accounts were paid in gold by this old steward, whofirst brought the receipted bill in to my uncle, and then received theexact amount, after having left the room, and waited until he was rungfor, so that he might not learn the repository from which my uncledrew his store. I believe if the money is ever found it will be ingold, and I am very sure that this will was written, if we may call ita will, to put us on the wrong scent.'
'Have you had the library cleared out?'
'Oh, no, it is practically as my uncle left it. I realised that if Iwere to call in help, it would be well that the newcomer found itundisturbed.'
'You were quite right, my lord. You say you examined all the papers?'
'Yes; so far as that is concerned, the room has been very fairly goneover, but nothing that was in it the day my uncle died has beenremoved, not even his anvil.'
'His anvil?'
'Yes; I told you he made a blacksmith's shop, as well as bedroom, ofthe library. It is a huge room, with a great fireplace at one endwhich formed an excellent forge. He and the steward built the forge inthe eastern fireplace of brick and clay, with their own hands, anderected there a second-hand blacksmith's bellows.'
'What work did he do at his forge?'
'Oh, anything that was required about the place. He seems to have beena very expert ironworker. He would never buy a new implement for thegarden or the house so long as he could get one second-hand, and henever bought anything second-hand while at his forge he might repairwhat was already in use. He kept an old cob, on which he used to ridethrough the park, and he always put the shoes on this cob himself, thesteward informs me, so he must have understood the use of blacksmith'stools. He made a carpenter's shop of the chief drawing-room anderected a bench there. I think a very useful mechanic was spoiled whenmy uncle became an earl.'
'You have been living at the Chase since your uncle died?'
'If you call it living, yes. The old steward and his wife have beenlooking after me, as they looked after my uncle, and, seeing me dayafter day, coatless, and covered with dust, I imagine they think me asecond edition of the old man.'
'Does the steward know the money is missing?'
'No; no one knows it but myself. This will was left on the anvil, inan envelope addressed to me.'
'Your statement is exceedingly clear, Lord Chizelrigg, but I confess Idon't see much daylight through it. Is there a pleasant country aroundChizelrigg Chase?'
'Very; especially at this season of the year. In autumn and winter thehouse is a little draughty. It needs several thousand pounds to put itin repair.'
'Draughts do not matter in the summer. I have been long enough inEngland not to share the fear of my countrymen for a _courant d'air._Is there a spare bed in the manor house, or shall I take down a cotwith me, or let us say a hammock?'
'Really,' stammered the earl, blushing again, 'you must not think Idetailed all these circumstances in order to influence you to take upwhat may be a hopeless case. I, of course, am deeply interested, and,therefore, somewhat prone to be carried away when I begin a recital ofmy uncle's eccentricities. If I receive your permission, I will callon you again in a month or two. To tell you the truth, I borrowed alittle money from the old steward, and visited London to see my legaladvisers, hoping that in the circumstances I may get permission tosell something that will keep me from starvation. When I spoke of thehouse being denuded, I meant relatively, of course. There are still agood many antiquities which would doubtless bring me in a comfortablesum of money. I have been borne up by the belief that I should find myuncle's gold. Lately, I have been beset by a suspicion that the oldgentleman thought the library the only valuable asset left, and forthis reason wrote his note, thinking I would be afraid to sellanything from that room. The old rascal must have made a pot of moneyout of those shelves. The catalogue shows that there was a copy of thefirst book printed in England by Caxton, and several pricelessShakespeares, as well as many other volumes that a collector wouldgive a small fortune for. All these are gone. I think when I show thisto be the case, the authorities cannot refuse me the right to sellsomething, and, if I get this permission, I shall at once call uponyou.'
'Nonsense, Lord Chizelrigg. Put your application in motion, if youlike. Meanwhile I beg of you to look upon me as a more substantialbanker than your old steward. Let us enjoy a good dinner together atthe Cecil tonight, if you will do me the honour to be my guest.Tomorrow we can leave for Chizelrigg Chase. How far is it?'
'About three hours,' replied the young man, becoming as red as a newQueen Anne villa. 'Really, Monsieur Valmont, you overwhelm me withyour kindness, but nevertheless I accept your generous offer.'
'Then that's settled. What's the name of the old steward?'
'Higgins.'
'You are certain he has no knowledge of the hiding-place of thistreasure?'
'Oh, quite sure. My uncle was not a man to make a confidant of anyone,least of all an old babbler like Higgins.'
'Well, I should like to be introduced to Higgins as a benightedforeigner. That will make him despise me and treat me like a child.'
'Oh, I say,' protested the earl, 'I should have thought you'd livedlong enough in England to have got out of the notion that we do notappreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the worldthat extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'
'_Certainement_, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you nottake me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regardingthe contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon meas a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not makingEngland my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I amin his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I willgossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings provechilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned agreat deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins willtalk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, howevermuch he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, hewill babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that henever would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'
* * * * *
The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he hadgiven me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,one corner of which he inhabited. It is such a place as you read of inromances of the Middle Ages; not a pinnacled or
turreted Frenchchateau of that period, but a beautiful and substantial stone manorhouse of a ruddy colour, whose warm hue seemed to add a softness tothe severity of its architecture. It is built round an outer and aninner courtyard and could house a thousand, rather than the hundredwith which its owner had accredited it. There are many stone-mullionedwindows, and one at the end of the library might well have graced acathedral. This superb residence occupies the centre of a heavilytimbered park, and from the lodge at the gates we drove at least amile and a half under the grandest avenue of old oaks I have everseen. It seemed incredible that the owner of all this should actuallylack the ready money to pay his fare to town!
Old Higgins met us at the station with a somewhat rickety cart, towhich was attached the ancient cob that the late earl used to shoe. Weentered a noble hall, which probably looked the larger because of theentire absence of any kind of furniture, unless two complete suits ofvenerable armour which stood on either hand might be considered asfurnishing. I laughed aloud when the door was shut, and the soundechoed like the merriment of ghosts from the dim timbered roof aboveme.
'What are you laughing at?' asked the earl.
'I am laughing to see you put your modern tall hat on that mediaevalhelmet.'
'Oh, that's it! Well, put yours on the other. I mean no disrespect tothe ancestor who wore this suit, but we are short of the harmless,necessary hat-rack, so I put my topper on the antique helmet, andthrust the umbrella (if I have one) in behind here, and down one ofhis legs. Since I came in possession, a very crafty-looking dealerfrom London visited me, and attempted to sound me regarding the saleof these suits of armour. I gathered he would give enough money tokeep me in new suits, London made, for the rest of my life, but when Iendeavoured to find out if he had had commercial dealings with myprophetic uncle, he became frightened and bolted. I imagine that if Ihad possessed presence of mind enough to have lured him into one ofour most uncomfortable dungeons, I might have learned where some ofthe family treasures went to. Come up these stairs, Monsieur Valmont,and I will show you your room.'
We had lunched on the train coming down, so after a wash in my ownroom I proceeded at once to inspect the library. It proved, indeed, amost noble apartment, and it had been scandalously used by the oldreprobate, its late tenant. There were two huge fireplaces, one in themiddle of the north wall and the other at the eastern end. In thelatter had been erected a rude brick forge, and beside the forge hunga great black bellows, smoky with usage. On a wooden block lay theanvil, and around it rested and rusted several hammers, large andsmall. At the western end was a glorious window filled with ancientstained glass, which, as I have said, might have adorned a cathedral.Extensive as the collection of books was, the great size of thischamber made it necessary that only the outside wall should be coveredwith book cases, and even these were divided by tall windows. Theopposite wall was blank, with the exception of a picture here andthere, and these pictures offered a further insult to the room, forthey were cheap prints, mostly coloured lithographs that had appearedin Christmas numbers of London weekly journals, encased inpoverty-stricken frames, hanging from nails ruthlessly driven in abovethem. The floor was covered with a litter of papers, in some placesknee-deep, and in the corner farthest from the forge still stood thebed on which the ancient miser had died.
'Looks like a stable, doesn't it?' commented the earl, when I hadfinished my inspection. 'I am sure the old boy simply filled it upwith this rubbish to give me the trouble of examining it. Higginstells me that up to within a month before he died the room wasreasonably clear of all this muck. Of course it had to be, or theplace would have caught fire from the sparks of the forge. The old manmade Higgins gather all the papers he could find anywhere about theplace, ancient accounts, newspapers, and what not, even to the brownwrapping paper you see, in which parcels came, and commanded him tostrew the floor with this litter, because, as he complained, Higgins'sboots on the boards made too much noise, and Higgins, who is not inthe least of an inquiring mind, accepted this explanation as entirelymeeting the case.'
Higgins proved to be a garrulous old fellow, who needed no urging totalk about the late earl; indeed, it was almost impossible to deflecthis conversation into any other channel. Twenty years' intimacy withthe eccentric nobleman had largely obliterated that sense of deferencewith which an English servant usually approaches his master. AnEnglish underling's idea of nobility is the man who never by anypossibility works with his hands. The fact that Lord Chizelrigg hadtoiled at the carpenter's bench; had mixed cement in the drawing-room;had caused the anvil to ring out till midnight, aroused no admirationin Higgins's mind. In addition to this, the ancient nobleman had beenpenuriously strict in his examination of accounts, exacting theuttermost farthing, so the humble servitor regarded his memory withsupreme contempt. I realised before the drive was finished from thestation to Chizelrigg Chase that there was little use of introducingme to Higgins as a foreigner and a fellow-servant. I found myselfcompletely unable to understand what the old fellow said. His dialect,was as unknown to me as the Choctaw language would have been, and theyoung earl was compelled to act as interpreter on the occasions whenwe set this garrulous talking-machine going.
The new Earl of Chizelrigg, with the enthusiasm of a boy, proclaimedhimself my pupil and assistant, and said he would do whatever he wastold. His thorough and fruitless search of the library had convincedhim that the old man was merely chaffing him, as he put it, by leavingsuch a letter as he had written. His lordship was certain that themoney had been hidden somewhere else; probably buried under one of thetrees in the park. Of course this was possible, and represented theusual method by which a stupid person conceals treasure, yet I did notthink it probable. All conversations with Higgins showed the earl tohave been an extremely suspicious man; suspicious of banks, suspiciouseven of Bank of England notes, suspicious of every person on earth,not omitting Higgins himself. Therefore, as I told his nephew, themiser would never allow the fortune out of his sight and immediatereach.
From the first the oddity of the forge and anvil being placed in hisbedroom struck me as peculiar, and I said to the young man,--
'I'll stake my reputation that forge or anvil, or both, contain thesecret. You see, the old gentleman worked sometimes till midnight, forHiggins could hear his hammering. If he used hard coal on the forgethe fire would last through the night, and being in continual terrorof thieves, as Higgins says, barricading the castle every eveningbefore dark as if it were a fortress, he was bound to place thetreasure in the most unlikely spot for a thief to get at it. Now, thecoal fire smouldered all night long, and if the gold was in the forgeunderneath the embers, it would be extremely difficult to get at. Arobber rummaging in the dark would burn his fingers in more sensesthan one. Then, as his lordship kept no less than four loadedrevolvers under his pillow, all he had to do, if a thief entered hisroom was to allow the search to go on until the thief started at theforge, then doubtless, as he had the range with reasonable accuracynight or day, he might sit up in bed and blaze away with revolverafter revolver. There were twenty-eight shots that could be fired inabout double as many seconds, so you see the robber stood littlechance in the face of such a fusillade. I propose that we dismantlethe forge.'
Lord Chizelrigg was much taken by my reasoning, and one morning earlywe cut down the big bellows, tore it open, found it empty, then tookbrick after brick from the forge with a crowbar, for the old man hadbuilded better than he knew with Portland cement. In fact, when wecleared away the rubbish between the bricks and the core of thefurnace we came upon one cube of cement which was as hard as granite.With the aid of Higgins, and a set of rollers and levers, we managedto get this block out into the park, and attempted to crush it withthe sledge-hammers belonging to the forge, in which we were entirelyunsuccessful. The more it resisted our efforts, the more certain webecame that the coins would be found within it. As this would not betreasure-trove in the sense that the Government might make a claimupon it, there was no particular necessity for secrecy, so we
had up aman from the mines near by with drills and dynamite, who speedilyshattered the block into a million pieces, more or less. Alas! therewas no trace in its debris of 'pay dirt,' as the western miner putsit. While the dynamite expert was on the spot, we induced him toshatter the anvil as well as the block of cement, and then theworkman, doubtless thinking the new earl was as insane as the old onehad been, shouldered his tools, and went back to his mine.
The earl reverted to his former opinion that the gold was concealed inthe park, while I held even more firmly to my own belief that thefortune rested in the library.
'It is obvious,' I said to him, 'that if the treasure is buriedoutside, someone must have dug the hole. A man so timorous and soreticent as your uncle would allow no one to do this but himself.Higgins maintained the other evening that all picks and spades weresafely locked up by himself each night in the tool-house. The mansionitself was barricaded with such exceeding care that it would have beendifficult for your uncle to get outside even if he wished to do so.Then such a man as your uncle is described to have been wouldcontinually desire ocular demonstration that his savings were intact,which would be practically impossible if the gold had found a grave inthe park. I propose now that we abandon violence and dynamite, andproceed to an intellectual search of the library.'
'Very well,' replied the young earl, 'but as I have already searchedthe library very thoroughly, your use of the word "intellectual",Monsieur Valmont, is not in accord with your customary politeness.However, I am with you. 'Tis for you to command, and me to obey.'
'Pardon me, my lord,' I said, 'I used the word "intellectual" incontradistinction to the word "dynamite". It had no reference to yourformer search. I merely propose that we now abandon the use ofchemical reaction, and employ the much greater force of mentalactivity. Did you notice any writing on the margins of the newspapersyou examined?'
'No, I did not.'
'Is it possible that there may have been some communication on thewhite border of a newspaper?'
'It is, of course, possible.'
'Then will you set yourself to the task of glancing over the margin ofevery newspaper, piling them away in another room when your scrutinyof each is complete? Do not destroy anything, but we must clear outthe library completely. I am interested in the accounts, and willexamine them.'
It was exasperatingly tedious work, but after several days myassistant reported every margin scanned without result, while I hadcollected each bill and memorandum, classifying them according todate. I could not get rid of a suspicion that the contrary old beasthad written instructions for the finding of the treasure on the backof some account, or on the fly-leaf of a book, and as I looked at thethousands of volumes still left in the library, the prospect of such apatient and minute search appalled me. But I remembered Edison's wordsto the effect that if a thing exist, search, exhaustive enough, willfind it. From the mass of accounts I selected several; the rest Iplaced in another room, alongside the heap of the earl's newspapers.
'Now,' said I to my helper, 'if it please you, we will have Higginsin, as I wish some explanation of these accounts.'
'Perhaps I can assist you,' suggested his lordship drawing up a chairopposite the table on which I had spread the statements. 'I have livedhere for six months, and know as much about things as Higgins does. Heis so difficult to stop when once he begins to talk. What is the firstaccount you wish further light upon?'
'To go back thirteen years I find that your uncle bought a second-handsafe in Sheffield. Here is the bill. I consider it necessary to findthat safe.'
'Pray forgive me, Monsieur Valmont,' cried the young man, springing tohis feet and laughing; 'so heavy an article as a safe should not slipreadily from a man's memory, but it did from mine. The safe is empty,and I gave no more thought to it.'
Saying this the earl went to one of the bookcases that stood againstthe wall, pulled it round as if it were a door, books and all, anddisplayed the front of an iron safe, the door of which he also drewopen, exhibiting the usual empty interior of such a receptacle.
'I came on this,' he said, 'when I took down all these volumes. Itappears that there was once a secret door leading from the libraryinto an outside room, which has long since disappeared; the walls arevery thick. My uncle doubtless caused this door to be taken off itshinges, and the safe placed in the aperture, the rest of which he thenbricked up.'
'Quite so,' said I, endeavouring to conceal my disappointment. 'Asthis strong box was bought second-hand and not made to order, Isuppose there can be no secret crannies in it?'
'It looks like a common or garden safe,' reported my assistant, 'butwe'll have it out if you say so.'
'Not just now,' I replied; 'we've had enough of dynamiting to make usfeel like housebreakers already.'
'I agree with you. What's the next item on the programme?'
'Your uncle's mania for buying things at second-hand was broken inthree instances so far as I have been able to learn from a scrutiny ofthese accounts. About four years ago he purchased a new book fromDenny and Co., the well-known booksellers of the Strand. Denny and Co.deal only in new books. Is there any comparatively new volume in thelibrary?'
'Not one.'
'Are you sure of that?'
'Oh, quite; I searched all the literature in the house. What is thename of the volume he bought?'
'That I cannot decipher. The initial letter looks like "M", but the restis a mere wavy line. I see, however, that it cost twelve-and-sixpence,while the cost of carriage by parcel post was sixpence, which shows itweighed something under four pounds. This, with the price of the book,induces me to think that it was a scientific work, printed on heavypaper and illustrated.'
'I know nothing of it,' said the earl.
'The third account is for wallpaper; twenty-seven rolls of anexpensive wallpaper, and twenty-seven rolls of a cheap paper, thelatter being just half the price of the former. This wallpaper seemsto have been supplied by a tradesman in the station road in thevillage of Chizelrigg.'
'There's your wallpaper,' cried the youth, waving his hand; 'he wasgoing to paper the whole house, Higgins told me, but got tired afterhe had finished the library, which took him nearly a year toaccomplish, for he worked at it very intermittently, mixing the pastein the boudoir, a pailful at a time as he needed it. It was ascandalous thing to do, for underneath the paper is the most exquisiteoak panelling, very plain, but very rich in colour.'
I rose and examined the paper on the wall. It was dark brown, andanswered the description of the expensive paper on the bill.
'What became of the cheap paper?' I asked.
'I don't know.'
'I think,' said I, 'we are on the track of the mystery. I believe thatpaper covers a sliding panel or concealed door.'
'It is very likely,' replied the earl. 'I intended to have the paperoff, but I had no money to pay a workman, and I am not so industriousas was my uncle. What is your remaining account?'
'The last also pertains to paper, but comes from a firm in Budge Row,London, E.C. He has had, it seems, a thousand sheets of it, and itappears to have been frightfully expensive. This bill is alsoillegible, but I take it a thousand sheets were supplied, although ofcourse it may have been a thousand quires, which would be a littlemore reasonable for the price charged, or a thousand reams, whichwould be exceedingly cheap.'
'I don't know anything about that. Let's turn on Higgins.'
Higgins knew nothing of this last order of paper either. The wallpapermystery he at once cleared up. Apparently the old earl had discoveredby experiment that the heavy, expensive wallpaper would not stick tothe glossy panelling, so he had purchased a cheaper paper, and hadpasted that on first. Higgins said he had gone all over the panellingwith a yellowish-white paper, and after that was dry, he pasted overit the more expensive rolls.
'But,' I objected, 'the two papers were bought and delivered at thesame time; therefore, he could not have found by experiment that theheavy paper would not stick.'
'I don't think there is m
uch in that,' commented the earl; 'the heavypaper may have been bought first, and found to be unsuitable, and thenthe coarse, cheap paper bought afterwards. The bill merely shows thatthe account was sent in on that date. Indeed, as the village ofChizelrigg is but a few miles away, it would have been quite possiblefor my uncle to have bought the heavy paper in the morning, tried it,and in the afternoon sent for the commoner lot; but in any case, thebill would not have been presented until months after the order, andthe two purchases were thus lumped together.'
I was forced to confess that this seemed reasonable.
Now, about the book ordered from Denny's. Did Higgins rememberanything regarding it? It came four years ago.
Ah, yes, Higgins did; he remembered it very well indeed. He had comein one morning with the earl's tea, and the old man was sitting up inbed reading his volume with such interest that he was unaware ofHiggins's knock, and Higgins himself, being a little hard of hearing,took for granted the command to enter. The earl hastily thrust thebook under the pillow, alongside the revolvers, and rated Higgins in amost cruel way for entering the room before getting permission to doso. He had never seen the earl so angry before, and he laid it all tothis book. It was after the book had come that the forge had beenerected and the anvil bought. Higgins never saw the book again, butone morning, six months before the earl died, Higgins, in raking outthe cinders of the forge, found what he supposed was a portion of thebook's cover. He believed his master had burnt the volume.
Having dismissed Higgins, I said to the earl,--
'The first thing to be done is to enclose this bill to Denny and Co.,booksellers, Strand. Tell them you have lost the volume, and ask themto send another. There is likely someone in the shop who can decipherthe illegible writing. I am certain the book will give us a clue. Now,I shall write to Braun and Sons, Budge Row. This is evidently a Frenchcompany; in fact, the name as connected with paper-making runs in mymind, although I cannot at this moment place it. I shall ask them theuse of this paper that they furnished to the late earl.'
This was done accordingly, and now, as we thought, until the answerscame, we were two men out of work. Yet the next morning, I am pleasedto say, and I have always rather plumed myself on the fact, I solvedthe mystery before replies were received from London. Of course, boththe book and the answer of the paper agents, by putting two and twotogether, would have given us the key.
After breakfast, I strolled somewhat aimlessly into the library, whosefloor was now strewn merely with brown wrapping paper, bits of string,and all that. As I shuffled among this with my feet, as if tossingaside dead autumn leaves in a forest path, my attention was suddenlydrawn to several squares of paper, unwrinkled, and never used forwrapping. These sheets seemed to me strangely familiar. I picked oneof them up, and at once the significance of the name Braun and Sonsoccurred to me. They are paper makers in France, who produce a smooth,very tough sheet, which, dear as it is, proves infinitely cheapcompared with the fine vellum it deposed in a certain branch ofindustry. In Paris, years before, these sheets had given me theknowledge of how a gang of thieves disposed of their gold withoutmelting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougherprocesses of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating ofthe hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once thereflashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He wastransforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of arude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce hestill needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, ofwhich we had found no trace.
'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of theroom; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh commonsense.'
'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usualgood-natured, jocular expression.
'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchasedthirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, ofthis tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set ofincidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anviland the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related toone another. Here are some sheets of paper he got from Budge Row. Haveyou ever seen anything like it? Try to tear this sample.'
'It's reasonably tough,' admitted his lordship, fruitlesslyendeavouring to rip it apart.
'Yes. It was made in France, and is used in gold beating. Your unclebeat his sovereigns into gold-leaf. You will find that the book fromDenny's is a volume on gold beating, and now as I remember thatscribbled word which I could not make out, I think the title of thevolume is "Metallurgy". It contains, no doubt, a chapter on themanufacture of gold-leaf.'
'I believe you,' said the earl; 'but I don't see that the discoverysets us any further forward. We're now looking for gold-leaf insteadof sovereigns.'
'Let's examine this wallpaper,' said I.
I placed my knife under a corner of it at the floor, and quite easilyripped off a large section. As Higgins had said, the brown paper wason top, and the coarse, light-coloured paper underneath. But even thatcame away from the oak panelling as easily as though it hung therefrom habit, and not because of paste.
'Feel the weight of that,' I cried, handing him the sheet I had tornfrom the wall.
'By Jove!' said the earl, in a voice almost of awe.
I took it from him, and laid it, face downwards, on the wooden table,threw a little water on the back, and with a knife scraped away theporous white paper. Instantly there gleamed up at us the balefulyellow of the gold. I shrugged my shoulders and spread out my hands.The Earl of Chizelrigg laughed aloud and very heartily.
'You see how it is,' I cried. 'The old man first covered the entirewall with this whitish paper. He heated his sovereigns at the forgeand beat them out on the anvil, then completed the process rudelybetween the sheets of this paper from France. Probably he pasted thegold to the wall as soon as he shut himself in for the night, andcovered it over with the more expensive paper before Higgins enteredin the morning.'
We found afterwards, however, that he had actually fastened the thicksheets of gold to the wall with carpet tacks.
His lordship netted a trifle over a hundred and twenty-three thousandpounds through my discovery, and I am pleased to pay tribute to theyoung man's generosity by saying that his voluntary settlement made mybank account swell stout as a City alderman.