by Sax Rohmer
“What!” shouted Wessex, in sudden excitement. “What!”
“I said a frame-up,” repeated Harley, quietly. “An American term, but one which will be familiar to you.”
“Good God!” muttered the detective, “you have turned all my ideas upside down.”
“What may be termed the physical evidence,” continued Harley, “is complete, I admit: too complete. There lies the weak spot. But what I will call the psychological evidence points in a totally different direction. A man clever enough to have planned this crime, and Camber undoubtedly is such a man, could not — it is humanly impossible — have been fool enough, deliberately to lay such a train of damning facts. It’s a frame-up, Wessex! I had begun to suspect this even before I met Camber. Having met him, I knew that I was right. Then came an inspiration. I saw where there must be a flaw in the plan. It was geographically impossible that this could be otherwise.”
“Geographically impossible?” I said, in a hushed voice, for Harley had truly astounded me.
“Geographical is the term, Knox. I admit that the discovery of the rifle beneath the floor of the hut appalled me.”
“I could see that it did.”
“It was the crowning piece of evidence, Knox, evidence of such fiendish cleverness on the part of those who had plotted Menendez’s death that I began to wonder whether after all it would be possible to defeat them. I realized that Camber’s life hung upon a hair. For the production of that rifle before a jury of twelve moderately stupid men and true could not fail to carry enormous weight. Whereas the delicate point upon which my counter case rested might be more difficult to demonstrate in court. To-night, however, we shall put it to the test, and there are means, no doubt, which will occur to me later, of making its significance evident to one not acquainted with the locality. The press photographs, which I understand have been taken, may possibly help us in this.”
Bewildered by my friend’s revolutionary ideas, which explained the hitherto mysterious nature of his enquiries, I scarcely knew what to say; but:
“If it’s a frame-up, Mr. Harley,” said Wessex, “and the more I think about it the more it has that look to me, practically speaking, we have not yet started on the search for the murderer.”
“We have not,” replied Harley, grimly. “But I have a dawning idea of a method by which we shall be enabled to narrow down this enquiry.”
It must be unnecessary for me to speak of the state of suppressed excitement in which we passed the remainder of that afternoon and evening. Dr. Rolleston called again to see Madame de Stämer, and reported that she was quite calm. In fact, he almost echoed Val Beverley’s words spoken earlier in the day.
“She is unnaturally calm, Mr. Knox,” he said in confidence. “I understand that the dead man was a cousin, but I almost suspect that she was madly in love with him.”
I nodded shortly, admiring his acute intelligence.
“I think you are right, doctor,” I replied, “and if it is so, her amazing fortitude is all the more admirable.”
“Admirable?” he echoed. “As I said before, she has the courage of ten men.”
A formal dinner was out of the question, of course; indeed, no one attempted to dress. Val Beverley excused herself, saying that she would dine in Madame’s room, and Harley, Wessex, and I, partook of wine and sandwiches in the library.
Inspector Aylesbury arrived about eight o’clock in a mood of repressed irritation. Pedro showed him in to where the three of us were seated, and:
“Good evening, gentlemen,” said he, “here I am, as arranged, but as I am up to my eyes in work on the case, I will ask you, Mr. Harley, to carry out this experiment of yours as quickly as possible.”
“No time shall be lost,” replied my friend, quietly. “May I request you to accompany Detective-Inspector Wessex and Mr. Knox to the Guest House by the high road? Do not needlessly alarm Mrs. Camber. Indeed, I think you might confine your attention to Mrs. Powis. Merely request permission to walk down the garden to the hut, and be good enough to wait there until I join you, which will be in a few minutes after your arrival.”
Inspector Aylesbury uttered an inarticulate, grunting sound, but I, who knew Harley so well, could see that he felt himself to be upon the eve of a signal triumph. What he proposed to do, I had no idea, save that it was designed to clear Colin Camber. I prayed that it might also clear his pathetic girl-wife; and in a sort of gloomy silence I set out with Wessex and Aylesbury, down the drive, past the lodge, which seemed to be deserted to-night, and along the tree-lined high road, cool and sweet in the dusk of evening.
Aylesbury was very morose, and Wessex, who had lighted his pipe, did not seem to be in a talkative mood either. He had the utmost faith in Paul Harley, but it was evident enough that he was oppressed by the weight of evidence against Camber. I divined the fact that he was turning over in his mind the idea of the frame-up, and endeavouring to re-adjust the established facts in accordance with this new point of view.
We were admitted to the Guest House by Mrs. Powis, a cheery old soul; one of those born optimists whose special task in life seems to be that of a friend in need.
As she opened the door, she smiled, shook her head, and raised her finger to her lips.
“Be as quiet as you can, sir,” she said. “I have got her to sleep.”
She spoke of Mrs. Camber as one refers to a child, and, quite understanding her anxiety:
“There will be no occasion to disturb her, Mrs. Powis,” I replied. “We merely wish to walk down to the bottom of the garden to make a few enquiries.”
“Yes, gentlemen,” she whispered, quietly closing the door as we all entered the hall.
She led us through the rear portion of the house, and past the quarters of Ah Tsong into that neglected garden which I remembered so well.
“There you are, sir, and may Heaven help you to find the truth.”
“Rest assured that the truth will be found, Mrs. Powis,” I answered.
Inspector Aylesbury cleared his throat, but Wessex, puffing at his pipe, made no remark whatever until we were all come to the hut overhanging the little ravine.
“This is where I found the rifle, Detective-Inspector,” explained Aylesbury.
Wessex nodded absently.
It was another perfect night, with only a faint tracery of cloud to be seen like lingering smoke over on the western horizon. Everything seemed very still, so that although we were several miles from the railway line, when presently a train sped on its way one might have supposed, from the apparent nearness of the sound, that the track was no farther off than the grounds of Cray’s Folly.
Toward those grounds, automatically, our glances were drawn; and we stood there staring down at the ghostly map of the gardens, and all wondering, no doubt, what Harley was doing and when he would be joining us.
Very faintly I could hear the water of the little stream bubbling beneath us. Then, just as this awkward silence was becoming intolerable, there came a scraping and scratching from the shadows of the gully, and:
“Give me a hand, Knox!” cried the voice of Harley from below. “I want to avoid the barbed wire if possible.”
He had come across country, and as I scrambled down the slope to meet him I could not help wondering with what object he had sent us ahead by the high road. Presently, when he came clambering up into the garden, this in a measure was explained, for:
“You are all wondering,” he began, rapidly, “what I am up to, no doubt. Let me endeavour to make it clear. In order that my test should be conclusive, and in no way influenced by pre-knowledge of certain arrangements which I had made, I sent you on ahead of me. Not wishing to waste time, I followed by the shorter route. And now, gentlemen, let us begin.”
“Good,” muttered Inspector Aylesbury.
“But first of all,” continued Harley, “I wish each one of you in turn to look out of the window of the hut, and down into the Tudor garden of Cray’s Folly. Will you begin, Wessex?”
Wessex, ta
king his pipe out of his mouth, and staring hard at the speaker, nodded, entered the hut, and kneeling on the wooden seat, looked out of the window.
“Open the panes,” said Harley, “so that you have a perfectly clear view.”
Wessex slid the panes open and stared intently down into the valley.
“Do you see anything unusual in the garden?”
“Nothing,” he reported.
“And now, Inspector Aylesbury.”
Inspector Aylesbury stamped noisily across the little hut, and peered out, briefly.
“I can see the garden,” he said.
“Can you see the sun-dial?”
“Quite clearly.”
“Good. And now you, Knox.”
I followed, filled with astonishment.
“Do you see the sun-dial?” asked Harley, again.
“Quite clearly.”
“And beyond it?”
“Yes, I can see beyond it. I can even see its shadow lying like a black band on the path.”
“And you can see the yew trees?”
“Of course.”
“But nothing else? Nothing unusual?”
“Nothing.”
“Very well,” said Harley, tersely. “And now, gentlemen, we take to the rough ground, proceeding due east. Will you be good enough to follow?”
Walking around the hut he found an opening in the hedge, and scrambled down into the place where rank grass grew and through which he and I on a previous occasion had made our way to the high road. To-night, however, he did not turn toward the high road, but proceeded along the crest of the hill.
I followed him, excited by the novelty of the proceedings. Wessex, very silent, came behind me, and Inspector Aylesbury, swearing under his breath, waded through the long grass at the rear.
“Will you all turn your attention to the garden again, please?” cried Harley.
We all paused, looking to the right.
“Anything unusual?”
We were agreed that there was not.
“Very well,” said my friend. “You will kindly note that from this point onward the formation of the ground prevents our obtaining any other view of Cray’s Folly or its gardens until we reach the path to the valley, or turn on to the high road. From a point on the latter the tower may be seen but that is all. The first part of my experiment is concluded, gentlemen. We will now return.”
Giving us no opportunity for comment, he plunged on in the direction of the stream, and at a point which I regarded as unnecessarily difficult, crossed it, to the great discomfiture of the heavy Inspector Aylesbury. A few minutes later we found ourselves once more in the grounds of Cray’s Folly.
Harley, evidently with a definite objective in view, led the way up the terraces, through the rhododendrons, and round the base of the tower. He crossed to the sunken garden, and at the top of the steps paused.
“Be good enough to regard the sun-dial from this point,” he directed.
Even as he spoke, I caught my breath, and I heard Aylesbury utter a sort of gasping sound.
Beyond the sun-dial and slightly to the left of it, viewed from where we stood, a faint, elfin light flickered, at a point apparently some four or five feet above the ground!
“What’s this?” muttered Wessex.
“Follow again, gentlemen,” said Harley quietly.
He led the way down to the garden and along the path to the sun-dial. This he passed, pausing immediately in front of the yew tree in which I knew the bullet to be embedded.
He did not speak, but, extending his finger, pointed.
A piece of candle, some four inches long, was attached by means of a nail to the bark of the tree, so that its flame burned immediately in front of the bullet embedded there!
For perhaps ten seconds no one spoke; indeed I think no one moved. Then:
“Good God!” murmured Wessex. “You have done some clever things to my knowledge, Mr. Harley, but this crowns them all.”
“Clever things!” said Inspector Aylesbury. “I think it’s a lot of damned tomfoolery.”
“Do you, Inspector?” asked the Scotland Yard man, quietly. “I don’t. I think it has saved the life of an innocent man.”
“What’s that? What’s that?” cried Aylesbury.
“This candle was burning here on the yew tree,” explained Harley, “at the time that you looked out of the window of the hut. You could not see it. You could not see it from the crest adjoining the Guest House — the only other spot in the neighbourhood from which this garden is visible. Now, since the course of a bullet is more or less straight, and since the nature of the murdered man’s wound proves that it was not deflected in any way, I submit that the one embedded in the yew tree before you could not possibly have been fired from the Guest House! The second part of my experiment, gentlemen, will be designed to prove from whence it was fired.”
CHAPTER XXXIII. PAUL HARLEY’S EXPERIMENT CONCLUDED
Up to the very moment that Paul Harley, who had withdrawn, rejoined us in the garden, Inspector Aylesbury had not grasped the significance of that candle burning upon the yew tree. He continued to stare at it as if hypnotized, and when my friend re-appeared, carrying a long ash staff and a sheet of cardboard, I could have laughed to witness the expression upon the Inspector’s face, had I not been too deeply impressed with that which underlay this strange business.
Wessex, on the other hand, was watching my friend eagerly, as an earnest student in the class-room might watch a demonstration by some celebrated lecturer.
“You will notice,” said Paul Harley, “that I have had a number of boards laid down upon the ground yonder, near the sun-dial. They cover a spot where the turf has worn very thin. Now, this garden, because of its sunken position, is naturally damp. Perhaps, Wessex, you would take up these planks for me.”
Inspector Wessex obeyed, and Harley, laying the ash stick and cardboard upon the ground, directed the ray of an electric torch upon the spot uncovered.
“The footprints of Colonel Menendez!” he explained. “Here he turned from the tiled path. He advanced three paces in the direction of the sun-dial, you observe, then stood still, facing we may suppose, since this is the indication of the prints, in a southerly direction.”
“Straight toward the Guest House,” muttered Inspector Aylesbury.
“Roughly,” corrected Harley. “He was fronting in that direction, certainly, but his head may have been turned either to the right or to the left. You observe from the great depth of the toe-marks that on this spot he actually fell. Then, here” — he moved the light— “is the impression of his knee, and here again—”
He shone the white ray upon a discoloured patch of grass, and then returned the lamp to his pocket.
“I am going to make a hole in the turf,” he continued, “directly between these two footprints, which seem to indicate that the Colonel was standing in the military position of attention at the moment that he met his death.”
With the end of the ash stick, which was pointed, he proceeded to do this.
“Colonel Menendez,” he went on, “stood rather over six feet in his shoes. The stick which now stands upright in the turf measures six feet, from the chalk mark up to which I have buried it to the slot which I have cut in the top. Into this slot I now wedge my sheet of cardboard.”
As he placed the sheet of cardboard in the slot which he had indicated, I saw that a round hole was cut in it some six inches in diameter. We watched these proceedings in silence, then:
“If you will allow me to adjust the candle, gentlemen,” said Harley, “which has burned a little too low for my purpose, I shall proceed to the second part of this experiment.”
He walked up to the yew tree, and by means of bending the nail upward he raised the flame of the candle level with the base of the embedded bullet.
“By heavens!” cried Wessex, suddenly divining the object of these proceedings, “Mr. Harley, this is genius!”
“Thank you, Wessex,” Harley replied, quie
tly, but nevertheless he was unable to hide his gratification. “You see my point?”
“Certainly.”
“In ten minutes we shall know the truth.”
“Oh, I see,” muttered Inspector Aylesbury; “we shall know the truth, eh? If you ask me the truth, it’s this, that we are a set of lunatics.”
“My dear Inspector Aylesbury,” said Harley, good humouredly, “surely you have grasped the lesson of experiment number one?”
“Well,” admitted the other, “it’s funny, certainly. I mean, it wants a lot of explaining, but I can’t say I’m convinced.”
“That’s a pity,” murmured Wessex, “because I am.”
“You see, Inspector,” Harley continued, patiently, “the body of Colonel Menendez as it lay formed a straight line between the sun-dial and the hut in the garden of the Guest House. That is to say: a line drawn from the window of the hut to the sun-dial must have passed through the body. Very well. Such an imaginary line, if continued beyond the sun-dial, would have terminated near the base of the seventh yew tree. Accordingly, I naturally looked for the bullet there. It was not there. But I found it, as you know, in the ninth tree. Therefore, the shot could not possibly have been fired from the Guest House, because the spot in the ninth yew where the bullet had lodged is not visible from the Guest House.”
Inspector Aylesbury removed his cap and scratched his head vigorously.
“In order that we may avoid waste of valuable time,” said Harley, finally, “let us take a hasty observation from here. As a matter of fact, I have done so already, as nearly as was possible, without employing this rough apparatus.”
He knelt down beside the yew tree, lowering his head so that the candlelight shone upon the brown, eager face, and looked upward, over the top of the sun-dial and through the hole in the cardboard.
“Yes,” he muttered, a note of rising excitement in his voice. “As I thought, as I thought. Come, gentlemen, let us hurry.”
He walked rapidly out of the garden, and up the steps, whilst we followed dumb with wonder — or such at any rate was the cause of my own silence.