The Mystery of the Hidden Room Page 6

  CHAPTER VI

  CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE

  How I wished that I had been born blind, or failing that, that I hadbeen a thousand miles away when that fatal shot was fired! A coward'sattitude? Perhaps, but for the life of me at that moment I could not seehow my testimony could be anything but damaging to the girl I loved.

  "Mr. Davies, will you tell the jury what happened last night," said thecoroner.

  Very calmly I told them all that had happened, saying that I was alife-long friend of Ruth, that she had asked me to come to the house,and that in the course of conversation I had urged her to get me a paperwhich was of value to me. She entered the study and almost immediatelythe shot rang out. I ran to the door and found her standing beside herhusband. The shock of his death caused her to faint and I carried herfrom the room.

  When I was through, the coroner stroked his chin reflectively. I washoping he would dismiss me without further parley, but instead he beganhis cross-examination.

  "Mr. Davies, did you not think it strange that she should send for youso late at night?" he commenced, after a slight pause.

  "Under the circumstances, no," I replied.

  "Under what circumstances?"

  "In the interview between Mr. and Mrs. Darwin, of which you have heard,Mr. Darwin threatened to ruin me. Mrs. Darwin sent for me because shedesired to warn me against her husband."

  I saw several of the jurymen nudging each other and even the coroner'sbrows shot up a trifle, but I decided that it was far better tostrengthen the case against her than to have them construing all mannerof scandal from my refusal to answer.

  "Could she not have written to warn you, just as well?" pursued thecoroner.

  "She believed that I would take no notice of such a warning unless itwere given in person," I replied.

  "Would not the next morning have been ample time?" caustically.

  "I can't presume to say," I shrugged.

  "You were acquainted with Mrs. Darwin before her marriage. Was it merelyin the capacity of her friend?" He spoke diffidently, as if anxious notto offend my sensibilities.

  I debated the point and finally came to the conclusion that there was noobject in airing the family skeleton, more particularly as it might getDick into trouble with the authorities and thus set at naught Ruth'sdearly bought sacrifice.

  I bowed therefore and replied quietly, "Yes, your honor, I was merelyher friend."

  The coroner gave me a swift glance from beneath half-closed lids as hefingered a sheet of paper thoughtfully.

  "You said that Mrs. Darwin entered the study to reclaim a paper whichwas of value to you, did you not?" he inquired.

  "Yes," I answered, briefly.

  "Is this the paper?" he continued in a peculiar tone, holding up theletter that Ruth had described to me.

  "I have no idea," I retorted.

  "What do you mean by that?" he continued sharply.

  "Mrs. Darwin simply told me that in the study-table drawer was a letterwhich her husband could use against me. I urged her to retrieve it.Never having seen it I cannot possibly say whether the paper in yourhand is the one or not," I returned, quietly.

  For a moment he was nonplussed, and then he asked: "You heard Mr. Ortonsay it was a love-letter written to you by Mrs. Darwin?"

  "Oh, yes, but I didn't hear you ask him how he knew this. No, nor did Ihear him tell you that he fished the torn scraps of Mrs. Darwin'sprivate correspondence from her basket and pieced it together for herhusband's delectation," I replied, scornfully, glad of the chance to letthe jury know the truth concerning that letter.

  I saw the look of disgust with which various of the members of the juryfavored Orton, and even the coroner was impressed to the point of layingthe letter aside and resuming his attack upon a different line.

  "When you sent Mrs. Darwin into the study you were both aware, ofcourse, of Mr. Darwin's presence in that room?"

  "No. Mr. Darwin had told his wife he was going out and we had no ideathere was anyone in the study."

  "But finding him there unexpectedly might she not have shot him tosecure the letter?" pursued the relentless voice.

  I shook my head and replied abruptly (I have learned since that he hadno right to ask that question, but I had no knowledge of legaltechnicalities): "Impossible. She was in the study only a minute beforethe shot was fired. This I am positive of, Mr. Orton's evidence to thecontrary. She had left the door slightly ajar and I remember listeningfor sounds from the study just before the clock struck twelve. I heardno voices. Besides, the study was in total darkness----"

  "You are sure the study was in darkness?" he interrupted with an oddlook.

  "Yes, I think I can safely say it was."

  "It has been proven that Mr. Darwin was writing just before he was shot.Do you think he was in the habit of writing in the dark?" he inquiredsarcastically.

  I reddened. The detective's statement had slipped my mind, but I refusedto be ridiculed into changing my opinion. I could have staked my lifeupon it that the study was dark.

  "Of course I was not in the room itself," I returned stiffly, "but bythe hesitating way in which Mrs. Darwin entered and from the fact thatno glow came through the doorway as she opened the door, I judged thatthe study was in darkness."

  "The lamp on this table could never give sufficient light to be seenfrom that doorway, Mr. Davies," remarked the coroner.

  I shook my head impatiently. "Nevertheless, I am convinced the study wasin darkness," I reiterated stubbornly.

  Seeing that he was getting nowhere he dropped the point, and asked: "Didyou also see the pistol in Mrs. Darwin's hand?"

  There was no use in quibbling since the fact was known, and I had noidea of what Ruth herself would say on this point, so I replied in theaffirmative, adding: "As I stood in the doorway I could see that Mr.Darwin had been shot as plainly as I could see that Mrs. Darwin wasstanding beside his chair."

  "I thought you said the study was in darkness?"

  "It was, but the lamp was lighted as I sprang for the door."

  "Then you think there may have been someone else in the room?"

  "Yes."

  "Could you see the door of the study from your position in thedrawing-room?"

  "Yes." What was he getting at, anyway?

  "So that you could see whether anyone came out of the study, or enteredit after Mrs. Darwin?"

  "Yes."

  "Did anyone come out or go in?"

  "No."

  "You heard the evidence concerning the windows?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you still persist in saying there was someone else in the study?"

  So that was it. He was trying to trap me into making a contradictorystatement to pay up for my stubbornness concerning the study. But I hadno intention of being trapped by him.

  "I cannot be absolutely positive, your honor," I said, "but of this I amcertain. I had no knowledge of Mr. Orton's presence until he lighted thestudy. Whether he was already in the room when Mrs. Darwin went in, orwhether he entered behind me, I am not prepared to say."

  "That's not so!" cried Orton, his face more pallid than ever. "I was outin the hall, your honor, I was out in the hall!"

  The detective said something to him in an undertone, whereupon hesubsided tremblingly, but it was very plain to be seen that the coroner,who had not been previously impressed with the man and who had sincecome to regard him in the light of a sycophant, began to be suspiciousof the secretary, eyeing him with great disfavor, wondering, no doubt,whether he were as innocent as he gave out. I began to breathe morefreely for Ruth, but at the coroner's next words my hopes were dashedonce more.

  "Knowing that Mrs. Darwin was in the study, why did you give the policethe impression last night that she had heard the shot from upstairs?"

  "She was ill. I didn't want her disturbed," I explained.

  "In other words, you feared to tell the truth," he commented.

  I made no answer. Protestations would only have made a bad matter worse.
<
br />   "Mr. Davies, you know, of course, that if a man dies intestate, his wifeinherits his property?"

  I nodded, but was decidedly puzzled.

  "Mr. Darwin died intestate," he continued quietly, watching to note theeffect upon me.

  "I don't understand you," I said, and I spoke the truth. I was out of mydepth, for he surely couldn't suppose that I was intimately acquaintedwith Philip Darwin's personal affairs! Either that, or else hepossessed information of which I had no knowledge. It proved to be thelatter case.

  "In the waste basket we found partially burned scraps of what waspresumably a will, Mr. Davies, and here," holding up a heavy paper, "iswhat Mr. Darwin was at work upon when he was shot. It is a will, Mr.Davies, or rather the beginning of one, and it is not in Mrs. Darwin'sfavor."

  I made no comment, but I could see what he was driving at. This wasanother powerful factor to be added to Ruth's motive in taking herhusband's life.

  "This will is in favor of Cora Manning. Did you ever hear of her, Mr.Davies?" continued the coroner.

  "I can't say that I have."

  "Do you also identify this handkerchief?"

  "No, I have never seen it before to my knowledge."

  "It might be Mrs. Darwin's?"

  "I don't know."

  "That is all at present. Mr. Cunningham, please."