Thenceforward nothing was talked of but the home-coming of Colonel
Boyce. He touched the public imagination. All kinds of stories,
some apocryphal, some having a basis of truth, some authentic,
went the round of the little place. It simmered with martial
fervour. Elderly laggards enrolled themselves in the Volunteer
Training Corps. Young married men who had not attested under the
Derby Scheme rushed out to enlist. The Tribunal languished in
idleness for lack of claimants for exemption. Exempted men, with
the enthusiastic backing of employers, lost the sense of their
indispensability and joined the colours. An energetic lady who had
met the Serbian Minister in London conceived the happy idea of
organising a Serbian Flag Day in Wellingsford, and reaped a
prodigious harvest. We were all tremendously patriotic, living
under Boyce's reflected glory.
At first I had deprecated the proposal, fearing lest Boyce might
not find it acceptable. The reputation he had sought at the
cannon's mouth was a bubble of a different kind from that which
the good townsfolk were eager to celebrate. Vanity had no part in
it. For what the outer world thought of his exploits he did not
care a penny. He was past caring. His soul alone, for its own sore
needs, had driven him to the search. Before his own soul and not
before his fellow countrymen, had he craved to parade as a
recipient of the Victoria Cross. His own soul, as I knew, not
being satisfied, he would shrink from obtaining popular applause
under false pretences. No unhappy man ever took sterner measure of
himself. Of all this no one but myself had the faintest idea. In
explaining my opinion I had to leave out all essentials. I could
only hint that a sensitive man like Colonel Boyce might be averse
from exhibiting in public his physical disabilities; that he had
always shown himself a modest soldier with a dislike of self-
advertisement; that he would prefer to seek immediate refuge in
the quietude of his home. But they would not listen to me. Colonel
Boyce, they said, would be too patriotic to refuse the town's
recognition. It was part of the game which he, as a brave soldier,
no matter how modest, could not fail to play. He would recognise
that such public honourings of valour had widespread effect among
the population. In face of such arguments I had to withdraw my
opposition; otherwise it might have appeared that I was actuated
by petty personal motives. God knows I only desired to save Boyce
from undergoing a difficult ordeal. For the same reasons I could
not refuse to serve on the Reception Committee which was
immediately formed under the chairmanship of the Mayor.
Preliminaries having been discussed, the Mayor and the Town Clerk
waited on Boyce in Belton Square, and returned with the triumphant
tidings that they had succeeded in their mission.
"I can't make out what you were running your head against,
Duncan," said Sir Anthony. "Of course, as you say, he's a modest
chap and dislikes publicity. So do we all. But I quickly talked
him out of that objection. I talked him out of all sorts of
objections before he could raise them. At last what do you think
he said?"
"I should have told you to go to blazes and not worry me."
"He didn't. He said--now I like the chap for it, it was so simple
and honest--he said: 'If I were alone in the world I wouldn't have
it, for I don't like it. But I'll accept on one condition. My poor
old mother has had rather a thin time and she's going to have a
thinner. She never gets a look in. Make it as far as possible her
show, and I'll do what you like.' What do you think of that?"
"I think it's very characteristic," said I.
And it was. In my mental survey of the situation from Boyce's
point of view I had not taken into account the best and finest in
the man. His reason rang true against my exceptional knowledge of
him. I had worked myself into so sympathetic a comprehension that
I KNEW he would be facing something unknown and terrible in the
proposed ceremony; I KNEW that for his own sake he would have
unequivocably declined. But, ad najorem matris gloriam, he
assented.
The main question, at any rate, was settled. The hero would accept
the honour. It was for the Committee to make the necessary
arrangements. We corresponded far and wide in order to obtain
municipal precedents. We had interviews with the military and
railway authorities. We were in constant communication with the
local Volunteer Training Corps; with the Godbury Volunteers and
the Godbury School O.T.C., who both desired to take a part in the
great event. In compliance with the conditions imposed, we gave as
much publicity as we could to Mrs. Boyce. Lieutenant Colonel
Boyce, V.C., and Mrs. Boyce were officially associated in the
programme of the reception. How to disentangle them afterwards,
when the presentation of the address, engrossed on velluni and
enclosed in a casket, should be made to the Colonel, was the
subject of heated and confused discussion. Then the feminine
elements in town and county desired to rally to the side of Mrs.
Boyce. The Red Cross and Volunteer Aid Detachment Nurses claimed
representation. So did the munitions workers of Godbury. The
Countess of Laleham, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of the
County, a most imposing and masterful woman, signified (in genteel
though incisive language) her intention to take a leading part in
the proceedings and to bring along her husband, apparently as an
unofficial ornament. This, of course, upset our plans, which had
all to be reconsidered from the beginning.
"Who is giving the reception?" cried Lady Fenimore, who could
stand upon her dignity as well as anybody. "The County or
Wellingsford? I presume it's Wellingsford, and, so long as I am
Mayoress, that dreadful Laleham woman will have to take a back
seat."
So, you see, we had our hands full.
All this time I found Betty curiously elusive. Now and then I met
her for a few fugitive moments at the hospital. Twice she ran in
for dinner, in uniform, desperately busy, arriving on the stroke
of the dinner hour and rushing away five minutes after her coffee
and cigarette, alleging as excuse the epidemic of influenza,
consequent on the vile weather, which had woefully reduced the
hospital staff. She seemed to be feverish and ill at ease, and
tried to cover the symptoms by a reversion to her old offhand
manner. As I was so seldom alone with her I could find scant
opportunity for intimate conversation. I thought that she might
have regretted the frank exposition of her feelings regarding
Leonard Boyce. But she showed no sign of it. She spoke in the most
detached way of his blindness and the coming ceremony. Never once,
even on the first occasion when I met her--in the hospital
corridor--after my return from London, did her attitude vary from
that of any kind-hearted Englishwoman who deplores the mutilation
of a gallant social acquaintance. Sometimes I wanted to shake her,
though I could scarcely tell why. I certainly would not have had
her weep on my shoulder over Boyce's misfortune; nor would I have
cared for her to exhibit a vindictive callousness. She behaved
with perfect propriety. Perhaps that is what disturbed me. I was
not accustomed to associate perfect propriety with my dear Betty.
The days went on. The reception arrangements were perfected. We
only waited for the date of Boyce's arrival to be fixed. That
depended on the date of the particular Investiture by the King
which Boyce's convalescence should allow him to attend. At last
the date was fixed.
A few days before the Investiture I went to London and called at
Lady Fanshawe's in Eccleston Street, whither he had been removed
after leaving the hospital. I was received in the dining-room on
the ground floor by Boyce and his mother. He wore black glasses to
hide terrible disfigurement--he lifted them to show me. One eye
had been extracted. The other was seared and sightless. He greeted
me as heartily as ever, made little jests over his infirmity,
treating it lightly for his mother's sake. She, on her side,
deemed it her duty to exhibit equal cheerfulness. She boasted of
his progress in self-reliance and in the accomplishment of various
little blind man's tricks. At her bidding he lit a cigarette for
my benefit, by means of a patent fuse. He said, when he had
succeeded:
"Better than the last time you saw me, eh, Meredyth?"
"What was that?" asked Mrs. Boyce.
"He nearly burned his fingers," said I, shortly. I had no desire
to relate the incident.
We talked of the coming ceremony and I gave them the details of
the programme. Boyce had been right in accepting on the score of
his mother. Only once had she been the central figure in any
public ceremony--on her wedding day, in the years long ago. Here
was a new kind of wedding day in her old age. The prospect filled
her with a tremulous joy which was to both of them a compensation.
She bubbled over with pride and excitement at her inclusion in the
homage that was to be paid to the valour of her only son.
"After all," she said, "I did bring him into the world. So I can
claim some credit. I only hope I shan't cry and make a fool of
myself. They won't expect me to keep on bowing, will they? I once
saw Queen Victoria driving through the streets, and I thought how
dreadfully her poor old neck must have ached."
On the latter point I reassured her. On the drive from the station
Boyce would take the salute of the troops on the line of route. If
she smiled charmingly on them, their hearts would be satisfied,
and if she just nodded at them occasionally in a motherly sort of
way, they would be enchanted. She informed me that she was having
a new dress made for the occasion. She had also bought a new hat,
which I must see. A servant was summoned and dispatched for it.
She tried it on girlishly before the mirror over the mantelpiece,
and received my compliments.
"Tell me what it looks like," said Boyce.
You might as well ask a savage in Central Africa to describe the
interior of a submarine as the ordinary man to describe a woman's
hat. My artless endeavours caused considerable merriment. To hear
Boyce's gay laughter one would have thought he had never a care in
the world ...
When I took my leave, Mrs. Boyce accompanied Marigold and myself
to the front door.
"Did you ever hear of anything so dreadful?" she whispered, and I
saw her lips quivering and the tears rolling down her cheeks. "If
he weren't so brave and wonderful, I should break my heart."
"What do you suppose you are yourself, my dear old friend," said I
over Marigold's shoulder.
I went away greatly comforted. Both of them were as brave as could
be. For the first time I took a more cheerful view of Boyce's
future.
On the evening before the Reception Betty was shown into the
library. It was late, getting on towards my bedtime, and I was
nodding in front of the fire.
"I'm just in and out, Majy dear," she said. "I had to come. I
didn't want to give you too many shocks." At my expression of
alarm, she laughed. "I've only run in to tell you that I've made
up my mind to come to the Town Hall tomorrow."
I looked at her, and I suppose my hands moved in a slight gesture.
"By that," she said, "I suppose you mean you can never tell what
I'm going to do next."
"You've guessed it, my dear," said I.
"Do you disapprove?"
"I couldn't be so presumptuous."
She bent over me and caught the lapels of my jacket.
"Oh, don't be so dreadfully dignified. I want you to understand.
Everybody is going to pay honour to-morrow to a man who has given
everything he could to his country. Don't you think it would be
petty of me if I stood out? What have the dead things that have
passed between us to do with my tribute as an Englishwoman?"
What indeed? I asked her whether she was attending in her private
capacity or as one of the representatives of the V.A.D. nurses. I
learned for the thousandth time that Betty Connor did not deal in
half measures. If she went at all, it was as Betty Connor that she
would go. Her aunts would accompany her. It was part of the
municipal ordering of things that the Town Clerk should have sent
them the special cards of invitation.
"I think it my duty to go," said Betty.
"If you think so, my dear," said I, "then it is your duty. So
there's nothing more to be said about it."
Betty kissed the top of my head and went off.
We come now to the morning of the great day. Everything had been
finally settled. The Mayor and Aldermen, Lady Fenimore and the
Aldermen's wives, the Lord Lieutenant (in unofficial mufti) and
Lady Laleham (great though officially obscure lady), the General
of the Division quartered in the neighbourhood and officers of his
staff, and a few other magnates to meet the three o'clock train by
which the Boyces were due to arrive. The station hung with flags
and inscriptions. A guard of honour and a band in the station-
yard, with a fleet of motor cars in waiting. Troops lining the
route from station to Town Hall. More troops in the decorated
Market Square, including the Godbury School O.T.C. and the
Wellingsford and Godbury Volunteers. I heard that the latter were
very anxious to fire off a feu de joie, but were restrained owing
to lack of precedent. The local fire-brigade in freshly burnished
helmets were to follow the procession of motor cars, and behind
them motor omnibuses with the nurses.
Marigold, although his attendance on me precluded him from taking
part in the parade of Volunteers, appeared in full grey uniform
with all his medals and the black patch of ceremony over his
eyeless socket. I must confess to regarding him with some
jealousy. I too should have liked to wear my decorations. If a man
swears to you that he is free from such little vanities, he is
more often than not a mere liar. But a broken-down old soldier,
although still drawing pay from the Government, is not allowed to
wear uniform (which I think is outrageous), and he can't go and
plaster himself with medals when he is wearing on his head a hard
felt hat. My envy of the martial looking Marigold is a proof that
my mind was not busied with sterner preoccupations. I ate my
breakfast with the serene conscience not only of a man who knows
he has done his duty, but of an organiser confident in the success
of his schemes. The abominable weather of snows and tempests from
which we had suffered for weeks had undergone a change. It was a
mild morning brightened by a pale convalescent sort of sun, and
there was just a little hope of spring in the air. I felt content
with everything and everybody.
About eleven o'clock the buzz of the library telephone disturbed
my comfortable perusal of the newspaper. I wheeled towards the
instrument. Sir Anthony was speaking.
"Can you come round at once? Very urgent. The car is on its way to
you."
"What's the matter?" I asked.
He could not tell me over the wires. I was to take it that my
presence was urgently needed.
"I'll come along at once," said I.
Some hitch doubtless had occurred. Perhaps the War Office (whose
ways were ever weird and unaccountable) had forbidden the General
to take part in such a village-pump demonstration. Perhaps Lady
Laleham had insisted on her husband coming down like a uniformed
Lord Lieutenant on the fold. Perhaps the hero himself was laid up
with measles.
With the lightest heart I drove to Wellings Park. Marigold,
straight as a ramrod, sitting in front by the chauffeur. As soon
as Pardoe, the butler, had brought out my chair and Marigold had
settled me in it, Sir Anthony, very red and flustered, appeared
and, shaking me nervously by the hand, said without preliminary
greeting:
"Come into the library."
He, I think, had come from the morning room on the right of the
hall. The library was on the left. He flung open the door. I
steered myself into the room; and there, standing on the white
bearskin hearthrug, his back to the fire, his hands in his
pockets, his six inches of stiff white beard stuck aggressively
outward, I saw Daniel Gedge.
While I gaped in astonishment, Sir Anthony shut the door behind
him, drew a straight-backed chair from the wall, planted it
roughly some distance away from the fire, and, pointing to it,
bade Gedge sit down. Gedge obeyed. Sir Anthony took the hearthrug
position, his hands behind his back, his legs apart.
"This man," said he, "has come to me with a ridiculous, beastly
story. At first I was undecided whether I should listen to him or
kick him out. I thought it wiser to listen to him in the presence
of a reputable witness. That's why I've sent for you, Duncan. Now
you just begin all over again, my man," said he, turning to Gedge,
"and remember that anything you say here will be used against you
at your trial."
Gedge laughed--I must admit, with some justification.
"You forget, Sir Anthony, I'm not a criminal and you're not a
policeman."
"I'm the Mayor to this town, sir," cried Sir Anthony. "I'm also a
Justice of the Peace."
"And I'm a law-abiding citizen," retorted Gedge.
"You're an infernal socialistic pro-German," exclaimed Sir
Anthony.
"Prove it. I only ask you to prove it. No matter what my private
opinions may be, you just try to bring me up under the Defence of
the Realm Act, and you'll find you can't touch me."
I held out a hand. "Forgive me for interrupting," said I, "but
what is all this discussion about?"
Gedge crossed one leg over the other and drew his beard through
his fingers. Sir Anthony was about to burst into speech, but I
checked him with a gesture and turned to Gedge.
"It has nothing to do with political opinions," said he. "It has
to do with the death, nearly two years ago, of Miss Althea
Fenimore, Sir Anthony's only daughter."
Sir Anthony, his face congested, glared at him malevolently. I
started, with a gasp of surprise, and stared at the man who,
caressing his beard, looked from one to the other of us with an
air of satisfaction.
"Get on," said Sir Anthony.
"You are going to give a civic reception to-day to Colonel Boyce,
V.C., aren't you?"
"Yes, I am," snapped Sir Anthony.
"Do you think you ought to do it when I tell you that Colonel
Boyce, V.C., murdered Miss Althea Fenimore on the night of the
25th June, two years ago?"
"Yes," said Sir Anthony. "And do you know why? Because I know you
to be a liar and a scoundrel."
I can never describe the awful horror that numbed me to the heart.
For a few moments my body seemed as lifeless as my legs. The
charge, astounding almost to grotesqueness in the eyes of Sir
Anthony, and rousing him to mere wrath, deprived me of the power
of speech. For I knew, in that dreadful instant, that the man's
words contained some elements of truth.
All the pieces of the puzzle that had worried me at odd times for
months fitted themselves together in a vivid flash. Boyce and
Althea! I had never dreamed of associating their names. That
association was the key of the puzzle. Out of the darkness
disturbing things shone clear. Boyce's abrupt retirement from
Wellingsford before the war; his cancellation by default of his
engagement; his morbid desire, a year ago, to keep secret his
presence in his own house; Gedge's veiled threat to me in the
street to use a way "that'll knock all you great people of
Wellingsford off your high horses;" his extraordinary interview
with Boyce; his generally expressed hatred of Boyce. Was this too
the secret which he let out in his cups to Randall Holmes and
which drove the young man from his society? And Betty? Boyce was a
devil. She wished he were dead. And her words: "You have behaved
worse to others. I don't wonder at your shrinking from showing
your face here." How much did Betty know? There was the lost week
--in Carlisle?--in poor Althea's life. And then there were Boyce's
half confessions, the glimpses he had afforded me into the
tormented soul. To me he had condemned himself out of his own
mouth.
I repeat that, sitting there paralysed by the sudden shock of it,
I knew--not that the man was speaking the literal truth--God
forbid!--but that Boyce was, in some degree, responsible for
Althea's death.
"Calling me names won't alter the facts, Sir Anthony," said
Gedge, with a touch of insolence. "I was there at the time. I saw
it."
"If that's true," Sir Anthony retorted, "you're an accessory after
the fact, and in greater danger of being hanged than ever." He
turned to me in his abrupt way. "Now that we've heard this
blackguard, shall we hand him over to the police?"
Being directly addressed, I recovered my nerve.
"Before doing that," said I, "perhaps it would be best for us to
hear what kind of a story he has to tell us. We should also like
to know his motives in not denouncing the supposed murderer at
once, and in keeping his knowledge hidden all this time."
"With regard to the last part of your remarks, I dare say you
would," said Gedge. "Only I don't know whether I'll go so far as
to oblige you. Anyhow you may have discovered that I don't
particularly care about your class. I've been preaching against
your idleness and vanity and vices, and the strangling grip you
have on the throats of the people, ever since I was a young man.
If one of your lot chose to do in another of your lot--a common
story of seduction and crime--"
At this slur in his daughter's honour Sir Anthony broke out
fiercely, and, for a moment, I feared lest he would throw himself
on Gedge and wring his neck. I managed to check his outburst and
bring him to reason. He resumed his attitude on the hearthrug.
"As I was saying," Gedge continued, rather frightened, "from my
sociological point of view I considered the affair no business of
mine. I speak of it now, because ever since war broke out your
class and the parasitical bourgeoisie have done your best to
reduce me to starvation. I thought it would be pleasant to get a
bit of my own back. Just a little bit," he added, rubbing his
hands.
"If you think you've done it, you'll find yourself mistaken."
Gedge shrugged his shoulders and pulled his beard. I hated the
light in his little crafty eyes. I feel sure he had been looking
forward for months to this moment of pure happiness.
"Having given us an insight into your motives, which seem
consistent with what we know of your character," said I,
judicially, "will you now make your statement of facts?"
"What's the good of listening further to his lies?" interrupted
Sir Anthony. "I'm a magistrate. I can give the police at once a
warrant for his arrest."
Again I pacified him. "Let us hear what the man has to say."
Gedge began. He spoke by the book, like one who repeats a
statement carefully prepared.
"It was past ten o'clock on the night of the 25th June, 1914. I
had just finished supper when I was rung up by the landlord of The
Three Feathers on the Farfield road--it's the inn about a quarter
of a mile from the lock gates. He said that the District Secretary
of the Red Democratic Federation was staying there--his brother-
in-law, if you want to know--and he hadn't received my report. I
must explain that I am the local secretary, and as there was to be
an important conference of the Federation at Derby the next day,
the District Secretary ought to have been in possession of my
report on local affairs. I had drawn up the report. My daughter
Phyllis had typed it, and she ought to have posted it. On
questioning her, I found she had neglected to do so. I explained
this over the wires and said I would bring the report at once to
The Three Feathers. I only tell you all this, in which you can't
be interested, so that you can't say: 'What were you doing on a
lonely road at that time of night?' My daughter and the landlord
of The Three Feathers can corroborate this part of my story. I set
out on my bicycle. It was bright moonlight. You know that for
about two hundred yards before the lock gate, and for about twenty
after, the towing-path is raised above the level of the main road
which runs parallel with it a few yards away. There are strips of
market garden between. When I got to this open bit I saw two
persons up on the towing-path. One was a girl with a loose kind of
cloak and a hat. The other was a man wearing a soft felt hat and a
light overcoat. The overcoat was open and I saw that he was
wearing it over evening dress. That caught my attention. What was
this swell in evening dress doing there with a girl? I slowed down
and dismounted. They didn't see me. I got into the shadow of a
whitethorn. They turned their faces so that the moon beat full on
them. I saw them as plain as I see you. They were Colonel Boyce,
V.C.,--Major then--and your daughter, Mr. Mayor, Miss Althea
Fenimore."
He paused as though to point the dramatic effect, and twisted
round, sticking out his horrible beard at Sir Anthony. Sir
Anthony, his hands thrust deep in his trouser-pockets and his
bullet head bent forward, glared at him balefully out of his old
blue eyes. But he said never a word. Gedge continued.
"They didn't speak very loud, so I could only hear a scrap or two
of their conversation. They seemed to be quarrelling--she wanted
him to do something which he wouldn't do. I heard the words
'marriage' and 'disgrace.' They stood still for a moment. Then
they turned back. I had overtaken them, you know. I remounted my
bicycle and rode to The Three Feathers. I was there about a
quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Then I rode back for home.
When I came in sight of the lock, there I saw a man standing
alone, sharp in the moonlight. As I came nearer I recognised the
same man, Major Boyce. There were no lights in the lock-keeper's
cottage. He and his wife had gone to bed long before. I was so
interested that I forgot what I was doing and ran into the hedge
so that I nearly came down. There was the noise of the scrape and
drag of the machine which must have sounded very loud in the
stillness. It startled him, for he looked all round, but he didn't
see me, for I was under the hedge. Then suddenly he started
running. He ran as if the devil was after him. I saw him squash
down his Trilby hat so that it was shapeless. Then he disappeared
along the path. I thought this a queer proceeding. Why should he
have taken to his heels? I thought I should like to see him again.
If he kept to the towing-path, his shortest way home, he was bound
to go along the Chestnut Avenue, where, as you know, the road and
the path again come together. On a bicycle it was easy to get
there before him. I sat down on a bench and waited. Presently he
comes, walking fast, his hat still squashed in all over his ears.
I walked my bicycle slap in front of him.
"'Good-night, Major,' I said.
"He stared at me as if he didn't know me. Then he seemed to pull
himself together and said: 'Good-night, Gedge. What are you doing
out at this time of night?'
"'If it comes to that, sir,' said I, 'what are you?'
"Then he says, very haughty, as if I was the dirt under his feet--
I suppose, Sir Anthony Fenimore and Major Meredyth, you think that
me and my class are by divine prescription the dirt beneath your
feet, but you're damn well mistaken--then he says: 'What the devil
do you mean?' and catches hold of the front wheel of the bicycle
and swings it and me out of his way so that I had a nasty fall,
with the machine on top of me, and he marches off. I picked myself
up furious with anger. I am an elderly man and not accustomed to
that sort of treatment. I yelled out: 'What have you been doing
with the Squire's daughter on the towing-path?' It pulled him up
short. He made a step or two towards me, and again he asked me
what I meant. And this time I told him. He called me a liar, swore
he had never been on any tow-path or had seen any squire's
daughter, and threatened to murder me. As soon as I could mount my
bicycle I left him and made for home. The next afternoon, if you
remember, the unfortunate young lady's body was found at the
bottom of three fathoms of water by the lock gates."
He had spoken so clearly, so unfalteringly, that Sir Anthony had
been surprised into listening without interruption. The bull-dog
expression on his face never changed. When Gedge had come to the
end, he said:
"Will you again tell me your object in coming to me with this
disgusting story?"
Gedge lifted his bushy eyebrows. "Don't you believe it even now?"
"Not a word of it," replied Sir Anthony.
"I ought to remind you of another point." said Gedge. "Was Major
Boyce ever seen in Wellingsford after that night? No. He went off
by the first train the next morning. Went abroad and stayed there
till the outbreak of war."
"I happen to know he had made arrangements to start for Norway
that morning," said Sir Anthony. "He had called here a day or two
before to say good-bye."
"Did he write you any letter of condolence?" Gedge asked
sneeringly.
I saw a sudden spasm pass over Sir Anthony's features. But he said
in the same tone as before:
"I am not going to answer insolent questions."
Gedge turned to me with the air of a man giving up argument with a
child.
"What do you think of it, Major Meredyth?"
What could I say? I had kept a grim iron face all through the
proceedings. I could only reply:
"I agree entirely with Sir Anthony."
Gedge rose and thrust his hand into his jacket pocket. "You
gentlemen are hard to convince. If you want proof positive, just
read that." And he held a letter out to Sir Anthony.
Sir Anthony glared at him and abruptly plucked the letter out of
his hand; for the fraction of a second he stood irresolute; then
he threw it behind him into the blazing fire.
"Do you think I'm going to soil my mind with your dirty
forgeries?"
Gedge laughed. "You think you've queered my pitch, I suppose. You
haven't. I've heaps more incriminating letters. That was only a
sample."
"Publish one of them at your peril," said I.
"Pray, Mister Major Meredyth," said he, "what is to prevent me?"
"Penal servitude for malicious slander."
"I should win my case."
"In that event they would get you, on your own showing, for being
an accessory after the fact of murder, and for blackmail."
"Suppose I risk it?"
"You won't," said I.
Sir Anthony turned to the bell-push by the side of the
mantelpiece.
"What's the good of talking to this double-dyed scoundrel?" He
pointed to the door. "You infamous liar, get out. And if I ever
catch you prowling round this house, I'll set the dogs on you."
Gedge marched to the door and turned on the threshold and shook
his fist.
"You'll repent your folly till your dying day!"
"To Hell with you," cried Sir Anthony.
The door slammed. We were left alone. An avalanche of silence
overwhelmed us. Heaven knows how long we remained speechless and
motionless--I in my wheel-chair, he standing on the hearthrug
staring awfully in front of him. At last he drew a deep breath and
threw up his arms and flung himself down on a leather-covered
couch, where he sat, elbows on knees and his head in his hands.
After a while he lifted a drawn face.
"It's true, Duncan," said he, "and you know it."
"I don't know it," I replied stoutly, "any more than you do."
He rose in his nervous way and came swiftly to me and clapped both
his hands on my frail shoulders and bent over me--he was a little
man, as I have told you--and put his face so close to mine that I
could feel his breath on my cheek.
"Upon your soul as a Christian you know that man wasn't lying."
I looked into his eyes--about six inches from mine.
"Boyce never murdered Althea," I said.
"But he is the man--the man I've been looking for."
I pushed him away with both hands, using all my strength. It was
too horrible.
"Suppose he is. What then?"
He fell back a pace or two. "Once I remember saying: 'If ever I
get hold of that man--God help him!'"
He clenched his fists and started to pace up and down the library,
passing and repassing my chair. At last my nerves could stand it
no longer and I called on him to halt.
"Gedge's story is curiously incomplete," said I. "We ought to have
crossexamined him more closely. Is it likely that Boyce should
have gone off leaving behind him a witness of his crime whom he
had threatened to murder, and who he must have known would have
given information as soon as the death was discovered? And don't
you think Gedge's reason for holding his tongue very unconvincing?
His fool hatred of our class, instead of keeping him cynically
indifferent, would have made him lodge information at once and
gloat over our discomfiture."
I could not choose but come to the defence of the unhappy man whom
I had learned to call my friend, although, for all my trying, I
could conjure up no doubt as to his intimate relation with the
tragedy. As Sir Anthony did not speak, I went on.
"You can't judge a man with Leonard Boyce's record on the EX PARTE
statement of a malevolent beast like Gedge. Look back. If there
had been any affair between Althea and Boyce, the merest foolish
flirtation, even, do you think it would have passed unnoticed?
You, Edith, Betty--I myself--would have cast an uneasy eye. When
we were looking about, some months ago, at the time of your
sister-in-law's visit, for a possible man, the thought of Leonard
Boyce never entered our heads. The only man you could rush at was
young Randall Holmes, and I laughed you out of the idea. Just
throw your mind back, Anthony, and try to recall any suspicious
incident. You can't."
I paused rhetorically, expecting a reply. None came. He just sat
looking at me in a dead way. I continued my special pleading; and
the more I said, the more was I baffled by his dead stare and the
more unconvincing platitudes did I find myself uttering. Some
people may be able to speak vividly to a deaf and dumb creature.
On this occasion I tried hard to do so, and failed. After a while
my words dribbled out with difficulty and eventually ceased. At
last he spoke, in the dull, toneless way of a dead man--presuming
that the dead could speak:
"You may talk till you're black in the face, but you know as well
as I do that the man told the truth--or practically the truth.
What he said he saw, he saw. What motives have been at the back of
his miserable mind, I don't know. You say I can't recall
suspicious incidents. I can. I'll tell you one. I came across them
once--about a month before the thing happened--among the
greenhouses. I think we were having one of our tennis parties. I
heard her using angry words, and when I appeared her face was
flushed and there were tears in her eyes. She was taken aback for
a second and then she rushed up to me. 'I think he's perfectly
horrid. He says that Jingo--' pointing to the dog; you remember
Jingo the Sealingham--she was devoted to him--he died last year--
'He says that Jingo is a mongrel--a throw back.' Boyce said he
was only teasing her and made pretty apologies. I left it at that.
Hit a dog or a horse belonging to Althea, and you hit Althea. That
was her way. The incident went out of my mind till this morning.
Other incidents, too. One thinks pretty quick at times. Again,
this scoundrel hit me on the raw. Boyce never wrote to us. Sent us
through his mother a conventional word of condolence. Edith and I
were hurt. That was one of the things that made me speak so
angrily of him when he wouldn't come and dine with us."
Once more I pleaded. "Your Sealingham incident doesn't impress me.
Why not take it at its face value? As for the letter of
condolence, that may have twenty explanations."
He passed his hand over his cropped iron-grey head. "What are you
driving at, Duncan? You know as well as I do--you know more than I
do. I saw it in your face ever since that man opened his mouth."
"If you're so sure of everything," said I foolishly, relaxing grip
on my self-control, "why did you hound him out of the place for a
liar?"
He leaped to his feet and spread himself into a fighting attitude,
for all the world like a half-dead bantam cock springing into a
new lease of combative life.
"Do you think I'd let a dunghill beast like that crow over me? Do
you think I'd let him imagine for a minute that anything he said
could influence me in my public duty? By God, sir, what kind of a
worm do you think I am?"
His sudden fury disconcerted me. All this time I had been
wondering what kind of catastrophe was going to happen during the
next few hours. I am afraid I haven't made clear to you the
ghastly racket in my brain. There was the town all beflagged,
everyone making holiday, all the pomp and circumstance at our
disposal awaiting the signal to be displayed. There was the blind
conquering hero almost on his way to local apotheosis. And here
were Sir Anthony and I with the revelation of the man Gedge. It
was a fantastic, baffling situation. I had been haunted by the
dread of discussing it. So in reply to his outburst I simply said:
"What are you going to do?"
He drew himself up, with his obstinate chin in the air, and looked
at me straight.
"If God gives me strength, I am going to do what lies before me."
At this moment Lady Fenimore came in.
"Mr. Winterbotham would like to speak to you a minute, Anthony.
It's something about the school children."
"All right, my dear. I'll go to him at once," said Sir Anthony.
"You'll stay and lunch with us, Duncan?"
I declined on the plea that I should have to nurse myself for a
strenuous day. Sir Anthony might play the Roman father, but it was
beyond my power to play the Roman father's guest.
