The Big Bow Mystery

by Израэль Зангвилл

  Mr. Spigot, Q. C., in presenting his case, said: "I propose to show that the prisoner murdered his friend and fellow-lodger, Mr. Arthur Constant, in cold blood, and with the most careful premeditation; premeditation so studied, as to leave the circumstances of the death an impenetrable mystery for weeks to all the world, though fortunately without altogether baffling the almost superhuman ingenuity of Mr. Edward Wimp, of the Scotland Yard Detective Department. I propose to show that the motives of the prisoner were jealousy and revenge; jealousy not only of his friend's superior influence over the workingmen he himself aspired to lead, but the more commonplace animosity engendered by the disturbing element of a woman having relations to both. If, before my case is complete, it will be my painful duty to show that the murdered man was not the saint the world has agreed to paint him, I shall not shrink from unveiling the truer picture, in the interests of justice, which cannot say nil nisi bonum even of the dead. I propose to show that the murder was committed by the prisoner shortly before half-past six on the morning of December 4th, and that the prisoner having, with the remarkable ingenuity which he has shown throughout, attempted to prepare an alibi by feigning to leave London by the first train to Liverpool, returned home, got in with his latch-key through the street-door, which he had left on the latch, unlocked his victim's bedroom with a key which he possessed, cut the sleeping man's throat, pocketed his razor, locked the door again, and gave it the appearance of being bolted, went downstairs, unslipped the bolt of the big lock, closed the door behind him, and got to Euston in time for the second train to Liverpool. The fog helped his proceedings throughout." Such was in sum the theory of the prosecution. The pale defiant figure in the dock winced perceptibly under parts of it.

  Mrs. Drabdump was the first witness called for the prosecution. She was quite used to legal inquisitiveness by this time, but did not appear in good spirits.

  "On the night of December 3d, you gave the prisoner a letter?"

  "Yes, your ludship."

  "How did he behave when he read it?"

  "He turned very pale and excited. He went up to the poor gentleman's room, and I'm afraid he quarreled with him. He might have left his last hours peaceful." (Amusement.)

  "What happened then?"

  "Mr. Mortlake went out in a passion, and came in again in about an hour."

  "He told you he was going away to Liverpool very early the next morning."

  "No, your ludship, he said he was going to Devonport." (Sensation.)

  "What time did you get up the next morning?"

  "Half-past six."

  "That is not your usual time?"

  "No, I always get up at six."

  "How do you account for the extra sleepiness?"

  "Misfortunes will happen."

  "It wasn't the dull, foggy weather?"

  "No, my lud, else I should never get up early." (Laughter.)

  "You drink something before going to bed?"

  "I like my cup o' tea. I take it strong, without sugar. It always steadies my nerves."

  "Quite so. Where were you when the prisoner told you he was going to Devonport?"

  "Drinkin' my tea in the kitchen."

  "What should you say if prisoner dropped something in it to make you sleep late?"

  Witness (startled): "He ought to be shot."

  "He might have done it without your noticing it, I suppose?"

  "If he was clever enough to murder the poor gentleman, he was clever enough to try and poison me."

  The Judge: "The witness in her replies must confine herself to the evidence."

  Mr. Spigot, Q. C.: "I must submit to your lordship that it is a very logical answer, and exactly illustrates the interdependence of the probabilities. Now, Mrs. Drabdump, let us know what happened when you awoke at half-past six the next morning."

  Thereupon Mrs. Drabdump recapitulated the evidence (with new redundancies, but slight variations) given by her at the inquest. How she became alarmed-how she found the street-door locked by the big lock-how she roused Grodman, and got him to burst open the door-how they found the body-all this with which the public was already familiar ad nauseam was extorted from her afresh.

  "Look at this key" (key passed to the witness). "Do you recognize it?"

  "Yes; how did you get it? It's the key of my first-floor front. I am sure I left it sticking in the door."

  "Did you know a Miss Dymond?"

  "Yes, Mr. Mortlake's sweetheart. But I knew he would never marry her, poor thing." (Sensation.)

  "Why not?"

  "He was getting too grand for her." (Amusement).

  "You don't mean anything more than that?"

  "I don't know; she only came to my place once or twice. The last time I set eyes on her must have been in October."

  "How did she appear?"

  "She was very miserable, but she wouldn't let you see it." (Laughter.)

  "How has the prisoner behaved since the murder?"

  "He always seemed very glum and sorry for it."

  Cross-examined: "Did not the prisoner once occupy the bedroom of Mr. Constant, and give it up to him, so that Mr. Constant might have the two rooms on the same floor?"

  "Yes, but he didn't pay as much."

  "And, while occupying this front bedroom, did not the prisoner once lose his key and have another made?"

  "He did; he was very careless."

  "Do you know what the prisoner and Mr. Constant spoke about on the night of December 3d?"

  "No; I couldn't hear."

  "Then how did you know they were quarreling?"

  "They were talkin' so loud."

  Sir Charles Brown-Harland, Q. C. (sharply): "But I'm talking loudly to you now. Should you say I was quarreling?"

  "It takes two to make a quarrel." (Laughter.)

  "Was the prisoner the sort of man who, in your opinion, would commit a murder?"

  "No, I never should ha' guessed it was him."

  "He always struck you as a thorough gentleman?"

  "No, my lud. I knew he was only a comp."

  "You say the prisoner has seemed depressed since the murder. Might not that have been due to the disappearance of his sweetheart?"

  "No, he'd more likely be glad to get rid of her."

  "Then he wouldn't be jealous if Mr. Constant took her off his hands?" (Sensation.)

  "Men are dog-in-the-mangers."

  "Never mind about men, Mrs. Drabdump. Had the prisoner ceased to care for Miss Dymond?"

  "He didn't seem to think of her, my lud. When he got a letter in her handwriting among his heap he used to throw it aside till he'd torn open the others."

  Brown-Harland, Q. C. (with a triumphant ring in his voice): "Thank you, Mrs. Drabdump. You may sit down."

  Spigot, Q. C.: "One moment, Mrs. Drabdump. You say the prisoner had ceased to care for Miss Dymond. Might not this have been in consequence of his suspecting for some time that she had relations with Mr. Constant?"

  The Judge: "That is not a fair question."

  Spigot, Q. C.: "That will do, thank you, Mrs. Drabdump."

  Brown-Harland, Q. C.: "No; one question more, Mrs. Drabdump. Did you ever see anything-say when Miss Dymond came to your house-to make you suspect anything between Mr. Constant and the prisoner's sweetheart?"

  "She did meet him once when Mr. Mortlake was out." (Sensation.)

  "Where did she meet him?"

  "In the passage. He was going out when she knocked and he opened the door." (Amusement.)

  "You didn't hear what they said?"

  "I ain't a eavesdropper. They spoke friendly and went away together."

  Mr. George Grodman was called and repeated his evidence at the inquest. Cross-examined, he testified to the warm friendship between Mr. Constant and the prisoner. He knew very little about Miss Dymond, having scarcely seen her. Prisoner had never spoken to him much about her. He should not think she was much in prisoner's thoughts. Naturally the prisoner had been depressed by the death of his friend. Besides, he was overworked. Wit
ness thought highly of Mortlake's character. It was incredible that Constant had had improper relations of any kind with his friend's promised wife. Grodman's evidence made a very favorable impression on the jury; the prisoner looked his gratitude; and the prosecution felt sorry it had been necessary to call this witness.

  Inspector Howlett and Sergeant Runnymede had also to repeat their evidence. Dr. Robinson, police-surgeon, likewise retendered his evidence as to the nature of the wound, and the approximate hour of death. But this time he was much more severely examined. He would not bind himself down to state the time within an hour or two. He thought life had been extinct two or three hours when he arrived, so that the deed had been committed between seven and eight. Under gentle pressure from the prosecuting counsel, he admitted that it might possibly have been between six and seven. Cross-examined, he reiterated his impression in favor of the later hour.

  Supplementary evidence from medical experts proved as dubious and uncertain as if the court had confined itself to the original witness. It seemed to be generally agreed that the data for determining the time of death of anybody were too complex and variable to admit of very precise inference; rigor mortis and other symptoms setting in within very wide limits and differing largely in different persons. All agreed that death from such a cut must have been practically instantaneous, and the theory of suicide was rejected by all. As a whole the medical evidence tended to fix the time of death, with a high degree of probability, between the hours of six and half-past eight. The efforts of the Prosecution were bent upon throwing back the time of death to as early as possible after about half-past five. The Defense spent all its strength upon pinning the experts to the conclusion that death could not have been earlier than seven. Evidently the Prosecution was going to fight hard for the hypothesis that Mortlake had committed the crime in the interval between the first and second trains for Liverpool; while the Defense was concentrating itself on an alibi, showing that the prisoner had traveled by the second train which left Euston Station at a quarter-past seven, so that there could have been no possible time for the passage between Bow and Euston. It was an exciting struggle. As yet the contending forces seemed equally matched. The evidence had gone as much for as against the prisoner. But everybody knew that worse lay behind.

  "Call Edward Wimp."

  The story Edward Wimp had to tell began tamely enough with thrice-threshed-out facts. But at last the new facts came.

  "In consequence of suspicions that had formed in your mind you took up your quarters, disguised, in the late Mr. Constant's rooms?"

  "I did; at the commencement of the year. My suspicions had gradually gathered against the occupants of No. 11, Glover Street, and I resolved to quash or confirm these suspicions once for all."

  "Will you tell the jury what followed?"

  "Whenever the prisoner was away for the night I searched his room. I found the key of Mr. Constant's bedroom buried deeply in the side of prisoner's leather sofa. I found what I imagine to be the letter he received on December 3d, in the pages of a 'Bradshaw' lying under the same sofa. There were two razors about."

  Mr. Spigot, Q. C., said: "The key has already been identified by Mrs. Drabdump. The letter I now propose to read."

  It was undated, and ran as follows:

  "Dear Tom-This is to bid you farewell. It is the best for us all.

  I am going a long way, dearest. Do not seek to find me, for it will

  be useless. Think of me as one swallowed up by the waters, and be

  assured that it is only to spare you shame and humiliation in the

  future that I tear myself from you and all the sweetness of life.

  Darling, there is no other way. I feel you could never marry me

  now. I have felt it for months. Dear Tom, you will understand what

  I mean. We must look facts in the face. I hope you will always be

  friends with Mr. Constant. Good by, dear. God bless you! May you

  always be happy, and find a worthier wife than I. Perhaps when you

  are great, and rich, and famous, as you deserve, you will sometimes

  think not unkindly of one who, however faulty and unworthy of you,

  will at least love you till the end. Yours, till death,

  "Jessie."

  By the time this letter was finished numerous old gentlemen, with wigs or without, were observed to be polishing their glasses. Mr. Wimp's examination was resumed.

  "After making these discoveries what did you do?"

  "I made inquiries about Miss Dymond, and found Mr. Constant had visited her once or twice in the evening. I imagined there would be some traces of a pecuniary connection. I was allowed by the family to inspect Mr. Constant's check-book, and found a paid check made out for £25 in the name of Miss Dymond. By inquiry at the Bank, I found it had been cashed on November 12th of last year. I then applied for a warrant against the prisoner."

  Cross-examined: "Do you suggest that the prisoner opened Mr. Constant's bedroom with the key you found?"

  "Certainly."

  Brown-Harland, Q. C. (sarcastically): "And locked the door from within with it on leaving?"

  "Certainly."

  "Will you have the goodness to explain how the trick was done?"

  "It wasn't done. (Laughter.) The prisoner probably locked the door from the outside. Those who broke it open naturally imagined it had been locked from the inside when they found the key inside. The key would, on this theory, be on the floor as the outside locking could not have been effected if it had been in the lock. The first persons to enter the room would naturally believe it had been thrown down in the bursting of the door. Or it might have been left sticking very loosely inside the lock so as not to interfere with the turning of the outside key in which case it would also probably have been thrown to the ground."

  "Indeed. Very ingenious. And can you also explain how the prisoner could have bolted the door within from the outside?"

  "I can. (Renewed sensation.) There is only one way in which it was possible-and that was, of course, a mere conjurer's illusion. To cause a locked door to appear bolted in addition, it would only be necessary for the person on the inside of the door to wrest the staple containing the bolt from the woodwork. The bolt in Mr. Constant's bedroom worked perpendicularly. When the staple was torn off, it would simply remain at rest on the pin of the bolt instead of supporting it or keeping it fixed. A person bursting open the door and finding the staple resting on the pin and torn away from the lintel of the door, would, of course, imagine he had torn it away, never dreaming the wresting off had been done beforehand." (Applause in court, which was instantly checked by the ushers.) The counsel for the defense felt he had been entrapped in attempting to be sarcastic with the redoubtable detective. Grodman seemed green with envy. It was the one thing he had not thought of.

  Mrs. Drabdump, Grodman, Inspector Howlett, and Sergeant Runnymede were recalled and re-examined by the embarrassed Sir Charles Brown-Harland as to the exact condition of the lock and the bolt and the position of the key. It turned out as Wimp had suggested; so prepossessed were the witnesses with the conviction that the door was locked and bolted from the inside when it was burst open that they were a little hazy about the exact details. The damage had been repaired, so that it was all a question of precise past observation. The inspector and the sergeant testified that the key was in the lock when they saw it, though both the mortise and the bolt were broken. They were not prepared to say that Wimp's theory was impossible; they would even admit it was quite possible that the staple of the bolt had been torn off beforehand. Mrs. Drabdump could give no clear account of such petty facts in view of her immediate engrossing interest in the horrible sight of the corpse. Grodman alone was positive that the key was in the door when he burst it open. No, he did not remember picking it up from the floor and putting it in. And he was certain that the staple of the bolt was not broken, from the resistance he experienced in trying to shake the upper panels of the door.

&nb
sp; By the Prosecution: "Don't you think, from the comparative ease with which the door yielded to your onslaught, that it is highly probable that the pin of the bolt was not in a firmly fixed staple, but in one already detached from the woodwork of the lintel?"

  "The door did not yield so easily."

  "But you must be a Hercules."

  "Not quite; the bolt was old, and the woodwork crumbling; the lock was new and shoddy. But I have always been a strong man."

  "Very well, Mr. Grodman. I hope you will never appear at the music-halls." (Laughter.)

  Jessie Dymond's landlady was the next witness for the prosecution. She corroborated Wimp's statements as to Constant's occasional visits, and narrated how the girl had been enlisted by the dead philanthropist as a collaborator in some of his enterprises. But the most telling portion of her evidence was the story of how, late at night, on December 3d, the prisoner called upon her and inquired wildly about the whereabouts of his sweetheart. He said he had just received a mysterious letter from Miss Dymond saying she was gone. She (the landlady) replied that she could have told him that weeks ago, as her ungrateful lodger was gone now some three weeks without leaving a hint behind her. In answer to his most ungentlemanly raging and raving, she told him it served him right, as he should have looked after her better, and not kept away for so long. She reminded him that there were as good fish in the sea as ever came out, and a girl of Jessie's attractions need not pine away (as she had seemed to be pining away) for lack of appreciation. He then called her a liar and left her, and she hoped never to see his face again, though she was not surprised to see it in the dock.