The Middle of Things

by J. S. Fletcher

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE CLAIMANT

  Carless and Driver practised their profession of the law in one of theold houses on the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields--a house so old thatit immediately turned Viner's thought to what he had read of the dayswherein Inigo Jones exercised his art up the stately frontages, and duelswere fought in the gardens which London children now sport in. In one ofthese houses lived Blackstone; in another Erskine; one ancient roof oncesheltered John Milton; another heard the laughter of Nell Gwynn; up thepanelled staircase which Mr. Pawle and his companion were presentlyconducted, the feet of many generations had trod. And the room into whichthey were duly conducted was so old-world in appearance with its oakenwalls and carving and old-fashioned furniture that nothing but the factthat its occupants wore twentieth century garments would have convincedViner that he had not been suddenly thrown back to the days of Queen Anne.

  Lord Ellingham was already there when they arrived--in conference withhis solicitor, Mr. Carless, a plump, rosy, active gentleman who woremutton-chop whiskers and--secretly--prided himself on his likeness to thetype of fox-hunting squire. It was very evident to Viner that bothsolicitor and client were in a state of expectancy bordering on somethingvery like excitement; and Mr. Carless, the preliminary greetings beingover, plunged at once into the subject.

  "I say, Pawle," he exclaimed, turning at once to his fellow-practitioner,"this appears to be a most extraordinary business! His lordship has justbeen telling me all about the two calls he had yesterday--first from twomen whom he'd never seen before--then from you two, who were alsostrangers. He has also told me what both lots of his callers had to say,and hang me if I ever heard of two such curious unfoldings coming one ontop of the other. Sounds like a first-class mystery!"

  "You forget," remarked Mr. Pawle with a glance at Lord Ellingham, "thatwe don't know--Mr. Viner and myself--what it was that his lordship'sfirst couple of callers told him. He left that until today."

  Mr. Carless looked at his client, who nodded his head as if in assent tosomething in the glance.

  "Well, as I'm now in possession of the facts," said he, "I'll tell you,Pawle--His Lordship has given me a clear account of what his firstcallers said, and what you and Mr. Viner added to it. The two men whomyou saw coming away from Ellingham House were Methley and Woodlesford,two solicitors who are in partnership in Edgware Road--I know of them: Ithink we've had conveyancing business with them once or twice. Quite arespectable firm--in a smallish way, you know, but all right so far as Iknow anything of them. Now, they came to Lord Ellingham yesterdayafternoon with a most extraordinary story. His lordship tells me that helearned from your talk with him yesterday afternoon that you are prettywell acquainted, you and Mr. Viner, with his family history, so I'll gostraight to the point. What do you think Methley and Woodlesford came totell him? You'd never guess!"

  "I won't try!" answered Mr. Pawle. "What, then?"

  Mr. Carless smiled grimly.

  "That the long-lost Lord Marketstoke was alive and in England!" he said."Here, in fact, in London!"

  Mr. Pawle smiled too. But his smile was not grim--it was, rather, thesmile of a man who hears what he has been expecting to hear.

  "I thought it would be something of that sort!" he exclaimed. "Aye, Ifancied that would be the game!"

  "You think it a game?" suggested Mr. Carless.

  "And a highly dangerous one--as somebody will find out," responded Mr.Pawle. "But--what did these fellows really say!"

  "His lordship will correct me if I miss anything pertinent," answered Mr.Carless with a glance at his client. "They said this--that they had beencalled upon by a gentleman now staying at one of the private residentialhotels in Lancaster Gate, who was desirous of legal assistance in animportant matter and had been recommended to them by a fellow-boarder atthe hotel. He then told them that though he was now passing under thename of Cave--"

  "Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle, with a snort which denoted a certain sort ofsurprised satisfaction. "Ah, to be sure! Cave, of course! But I interruptyou--pray proceed."

  "I see your point," remarked Mr. Carless with a smile. "Well--although hewas passing under the name of Cave, he was, in strict reality, the LordMarketstoke who disappeared from England many years ago, who was neverheard of again, and whose death had been presumed. He was, therefore, therightful Earl of Ellingham, and as such entitled to the estates. Heproceeded to tell Methley and Woodlesford his adventures.

  "He had, he said, never at any time from boyhood been on good terms withhis father: there had always been mutual dislike. As he grew to manhood,his father had thwarted him in every conceivable way. He himself as ayoung man, had developed radical and democratic ideas--this had caused afurther widening of the breach. Eventually he had made up his mind toclear out of England altogether. He had a modest amount of money of hisown, a few thousands which had been left him by his mother. So he tookthis and quietly disappeared.

  "According to his own account he became a good deal of a rolling stone,going to various out-of-the-way parts of the earth, and takingparticular pains, wherever he went, to conceal his identity. He toldthese people Methley and Woodlesford, that he had at one time or anotherlived and traded in South Africa, India, China, Japan and the MalaySettlement--finally he had settled down in Australia. He had kepthimself familiar with events at home--knew of his father's death, and hesaw no end of advertisements for himself. He was aware that legalproceedings were taken as regards the presumption of his death and theadministration of the estates; he was also aware of the death of hisyounger brother and that title and estates were now in possession of hisnephew--His Lordship there. In fact, he was very well up in the wholestory, according to Methley and Woodlesford," said Mr. Carless, with asmile. "And Lord Ellingham believed that Methley and Woodlesford weregenuinely convinced by him."

  "Seemed so, anyway, both of 'em," agreed Lord Ellingham.

  "However," continued Mr. Carless, "Methley and Woodlesford, like you andI, Pawle, are limbs of the law. They asked two very pertinent questions.First--why had he come forward after this long interval? Second--whatevidence had he to support and prove his claim?"

  "Good!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "And I'll be bound he had some excellentreplies ready for them."

  "He had," said Mr. Carless. "He answered as regards the first questionthat of late things had not gone well with him. He was still comfortablyoff, but he had lost a lot of money in Australia through speculation. Hereplied to the second by producing certain papers and documents."

  "Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle, nudging Viner. "Now we're warming to it!"

  "And according to what Methley and Woodlesford told Lord Ellingham,"continued Mr. Carless, "these papers and documents are of a veryconvincing nature. They said to His Lordship frankly that they weregreatly surprised by them. They had thought that this man might possiblybe a bogus claimant, who had somehow gained a thorough knowledge of thefacts he was narrating, but the papers he produced, which, he alleged,had never been out of his possession since his secret flight from London,were--well, staggering. After inspecting them, Methley and Woodlesfordcame to the conclusion that their caller really was what he claimed tobe--the missing man!"

  "What were the papers?" demanded Mr. Pawle.

  "Oh!" replied Mr. Carless, looking at his client. "Letters, certificates,and the like,--all, according to Methley and Woodlesford, excellentproofs of identity."

  "Did they show them to Your Lordship?" asked Mr. Pawle.

  "Oh, no! they only told me of them," answered Lord Ellingham. "They said,of course, that they would be shown to me, or to Mr. Carless."

  "Aye!" muttered Mr. Pawle. "Just so! Yes, and they will have to beshown!"

  "That follows as a matter of course," observed Mr. Carless. "But now,Pawle, we come to the real point of the case. Methley and Woodlesford,having informed His Lordship of all this when they called on himyesterday afternoon then proceeded to tell him precisely what theirclient, the claimant, as we will now call him, really wanted, for he hadbee
n at some pains, considerable pains, to make himself clear on thatpoint to them, and he desired them to make themselves clear to LordEllingham, whom he throughout referred to as his nephew. He had nodesire, he told them, to recover his title, nor the estates. He did notcare a cent--his own phrase--for the title. He was now sixty years ofage. The life he had lived had quite unfitted him for the positions andduties of an English nobleman. He wanted to go back to the country inwhich he had settled. But as title and estates really were his, he wantedhis nephew, the present holder, to make him a proper payment, inconsideration of the receipt of which he would engage to preserve thesilence which he had already kept so thoroughly and effectively forthirty-five years. Eh?"

  "In plain language," said Mr. Pawle, "he wanted to be bought."

  "Precisely!" agreed Mr. Carless. "Of course, Methley and Woodlesforddidn't quite put it in that light. They put it that their client had nowish to disturb his nephew, but suggested, kindly, that his nephew shouldmake him a proper payment out of his abundance."

  Mr. Pawle turned to Lord Ellingham.

  "Did they mention a sum to Your Lordship?" he asked.

  "Yes," replied Lord Ellingham, with a smile at Carless. "Theydid--tentatively."

  "How much?" asked Mr. Pawle.

  "One hundred thousand pounds!"

  "On receipt of which, I suppose," observed Mr. Pawle dryly, "nothingwould ever be heard again of your lordship's long-lost uncle, therightful owner of all that Your Lordship possesses?"

  Lord Ellingham laughed.

  "So I gathered!" he answered.

  "I wish I'd been present when Methley and Woodlesford put forward thatproposition," exclaimed the old lawyer. "Did they seem serious?"

  "Oh, I think they were quite serious," replied Lord Ellingham. "Theyseemed so; they spoke of it as what they called a domestic arrangement."

  "Excellent phrase!" remarked Mr. Pawle. "And what said your lordship totheir--or the claimant's proposition?"

  "I told them that the matter was so serious that they and I must see mysolicitors about it," answered Lord Ellingham, "and I arranged to meetthem here at one o'clock today. They quite agreed that that was theproper thing to do, and went away. Then--you and Mr. Viner called."

  "With, I understand, another extraordinary story," remarked Mr. Carless."The particulars of which His Lordship has also told me. Now, Pawle, whatdo you really say about all this?"

  Mr. Pawle smote his clenched right fist on the palm of his openleft hand.

  "I will tell you what I say, Carless!" he exclaimed with emphasis. "Isay that whatever the papers and documents were which were produced bythis man to Methley and Woodlesford, they were stolen from the body ofJohn Ashton, who was foully murdered in Lonsdale Passage only last week.I'll stake all I have on that! Now, then, did this claimant steal them?Did he murder John Ashton for them? No--a thousand times no, for no manwould have been such a fool as to come forward with them so soon afterhis victim's death! This claimant doesn't know how or where or when theywere obtained--he doesn't suspect that murder's in it. Now, then--wheredid he get them? Who's at the back of him? Who--to be plain--who'smaking a cat's-paw of him? Find that out, and we shall know who murderedJohn Ashton!"

  Viner, glancing at Lord Ellingham and at Mr. Carless, saw that Mr.Pawle's words had impressed them greatly, the solicitor especially. Henodded sympathetically, and Mr. Pawle went on speaking.

  "Listen here, Carless!" he continued. "Mr. Viner and I have beeninvestigating this case as far as we could, largely to save a man whom weboth believe to be absolutely innocent of murder. I have come to certainconclusions. John Ashton, many years ago, fell in with the missing LordMarketstoke, then living under the name of Wickham, in Australia, andthey became close friends. At some time or other, Wickham told Ashton thereal truth about himself, and when he died, left his little daughter--"

  Carless looked sharply round.

  "Ah!" he exclaimed. "So there's a daughter?"

  "There is a daughter, and her name is Avice--a name borne by a good manywomen of the Cave-Gray family," answered Mr. Pawle with a significantglance at his fellow-practitioner. "But let me go on: Wickham left hisdaughter, her mother being dead, in Ashton's guardianship. She was thenabout six years of age. Ashton sent her to school here in England. Abouttwelve or thirteen years later, he came home and settled in MarkendaleSquare. He brought Avice Wickham to live with him. He handed over to hera considerable sum, which, he said, her father had left in his hands forher. And then, secretly, Ashton went down to Marketstoke and evidentlymade certain inquiries and investigations. Whether he was going to revealthe truth as to what I have just told you, we don't know--probably hewas. But he was murdered, and we all know when and where. And I say hewas murdered for the sake of these very papers which we now know wereproduced to Methley and Woodlesford by this claimant. Now, then--"

  Mr. Carless suddenly bent forward.

  "A moment, Pawle!" he said. "If this man Wickham really was the lostLord Marketstoke, and he's dead, and he left a daughter, and thedaughter's alive--"

  "Well?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "Well?"

  "Why, then, of course, that daughter," said Mr. Carless slowly, "thatdaughter is--"

  A clerk opened the door and glanced at his employer.

  "Mr. Methley and Mr. Woodlesford, sir," he announced. "By appointment."