The Middle Temple Murder, J. S. Fletcher [best books to read for knowledge .txt] 📗

the solicitor. But now I’ll tell you something about those three. There was a man here in the town, a gentleman of your own profession, who came to edit that paper you’ve got on your knee. He got interested in this Chamberlayne case, and he began to make enquiries with the idea of getting hold of some good⁠—what do you call it?”

“I suppose he’d call it ‘copy,’ ” said Spargo.

“ ‘Copy’⁠—that was his term,” agreed Mr. Quarterpage. “Well, he took the trouble to go to London to ask some quiet questions of the nephew, Stephen. That was just twelve months after Chamberlayne had been buried. But he found that Stephen Chamberlayne had left England⁠—months before. Gone, they said, to one of the colonies, but they didn’t know which. And the solicitor had also gone. And the doctor⁠—couldn’t be traced, no, sir, not even through the Medical Register. What do you think of all that, Mr. Spargo?”

“I think,” answered Spargo, “that Market Milcaster folk are considerably slow. I should have had that death and burial enquired into. The whole thing looks to me like a conspiracy.”

“Well, sir, it was, as I say, nobody’s business,” said Mr. Quarterpage. “The newspaper gentleman tried to stir up interest in it, but it was no good, and very soon afterwards he left. And there it is.”

“Mr. Quarterpage,” said Spargo, “what’s your own honest opinion?”

The old gentleman smiled.

“Ah!” he said. “I’ve often wondered, Mr. Spargo, if I really have an opinion on that point. I think that what I probably feel about the whole affair is that there was a good deal of mystery attaching to it. But we seem, sir, to have gone a long way from the question of that old silver ticket which you’ve got in your purse. Now⁠—”

“No!” said Spargo, interrupting his host with an accompanying wag of his forefinger. “No! I think we’re coming nearer to it. Now you’ve given me a great deal of your time, Mr. Quarterpage, and told me a lot, and, first of all, before I tell you a lot, I’m going to show you something.”

And Spargo took out of his pocketbook a carefully-mounted photograph of John Marbury⁠—the original of the process-picture which he had had made for the Watchman. He handed it over.

“Do you recognize that photograph as that of anybody you know?” he asked. “Look at it well and closely.”

Mr. Quarterpage put on a special pair of spectacles and studied the photograph from several points of view.

“No, sir,” he said at last with a shake of the head. “I don’t recognize it at all.”

“Can’t see in it any resemblance to any man you’ve ever known?” asked Spargo.

“No, sir, none!” replied Mr. Quarterpage. “None whatever.”

“Very well,” said Spargo, laying the photograph on the table between them. “Now, then, I want you to tell me what John Maitland was like when you knew him. Also, I want you to describe Chamberlayne as he was when he died, or was supposed to die. You remember them, of course, quite well?”

Mr. Quarterpage got up and moved to the door.

“I can do better than that,” he said. “I can show you photographs of both men as they were just before Maitland’s trial. I have a photograph of a small group of Market Milcaster notabilities which was taken at a municipal garden-party; Maitland and Chamberlayne are both in it. It’s been put away in a cabinet in my drawing-room for many a long year, and I’ve no doubt it’s as fresh as when it was taken.”

He left the room and presently returned with a large mounted photograph which he laid on the table before his visitor.

“There you are, sir,” he said. “Quite fresh, you see⁠—it must be getting on to twenty years since that was taken out of the drawer that it’s been kept in. Now, that’s Maitland. And that’s Chamberlayne.”

Spargo found himself looking at a group of men who stood against an ivy-covered wall in the stiff attitudes in which photographers arrange masses of sitters. He fixed his attention on the two figures indicated by Mr. Quarterpage, and saw two medium-heighted, rather sturdily-built men about whom there was nothing very specially noticeable.

“Um!” he said, musingly. “Both bearded.”

“Yes, they both wore beards⁠—full beards,” assented Mr. Quarterpage. “And you see, they weren’t so much alike. But Maitland was a much darker man than Chamberlayne, and he had brown eyes, while Chamberlayne’s were rather a bright blue.”

“The removal of a beard makes a great difference,” remarked Spargo. He looked at the photograph of Maitland in the group, comparing it with that of Marbury which he had taken from his pocket. “And twenty years makes a difference, too,” he added musingly.

“To some people twenty years makes a vast difference, sir,” said the old gentleman. “To others it makes none⁠—I haven’t changed much, they tell me, during the past twenty years. But I’ve known men change⁠—age, almost beyond recognition!⁠—in five years. It depends, sir, on what they go through.”

Spargo suddenly laid aside the photographs, put his hands in his pockets, and looked steadfastly at Mr. Quarterpage.

“Look here!” he said. “I’m going to tell you what I’m after, Mr. Quarterpage. I’m sure you’ve heard all about what’s known as the Middle Temple Murder⁠—the Marbury case?”

“Yes, I’ve read of it,” replied Mr. Quarterpage.

“Have you read the accounts of it in my paper, the Watchman?” asked Spargo.

Mr. Quarterpage shook his head.

“I’ve only read one newspaper, sir, since I was a young man,” he replied. “I take the Times, sir⁠—we always took it, aye, even in the days when newspapers were taxed.”

“Very good,” said Spargo. “But perhaps I can tell you a little more than you’ve read, for I’ve been working up that case ever since the body of the man known as John Marbury was found. Now, if you’ll just give me your attention, I’ll tell you the whole story from that moment until⁠—now.”

And Spargo, briefly, succinctly, retold the story of the Marbury case from the first instant of his own connection with it until the discovery of the silver ticket, and Mr. Quarterpage listened in rapt attention, nodding his head from time