CHAPTER XIX
GERALD PUTS HIS NOSE TO THE TRAIL
The intelligence of Gerald Danvers has been remarked on.
He had a long interview with Tessie, and told her that her father hadengaged him to do certain work, in which, if successful, his reward washer engagement to himself. Which was true.
What the work was he did not say. The farmer, after giving his promise,was rather ashamed of having done so, and bound Danvers down to secrecyon the subject of his mission.
He did not want his wife to laugh at him for throwing fifty pounds away.A wife's mirth under such circumstances is irritating. It is not a thingeasy to get away from.
Gerald cashed his fifty pound check, and, arrived in New York, sat downand thought.
It was clear to him that Josh Todd--if he were one of the murderedmen--could not have had about him any writing to lead to identificationwith the man whose name he had assumed; because no shadow of an inquiryhad been made at the farm.
The latter was some way from Oakville, and Oakville was a long way fromNew York. So although the papers after the time that the news reachedthem were full of the name of Depew, taken from the passenger list, nota copy of any journal had found its way to the farm.
That made Gerald ponder.
Was it wise in going to the New York police at all? He knew that amurderer had escaped at Queenstown--it had been common talk on theship--and that the murder was done in English waters.
Why then wake up the American police by giving them identification cluesto Josh, and so possibly foul a trail in England?
It was just possible that the murderer was lulled to an idea of securityby the absence of discovery. That would make his own work easier.
The news in the American papers would be copied by the English press,and Gerald's first work was to secure copies of the _New York Herald_and _World_ daily editions dating from the day of the arrival of theship.
He perused these papers with all their sensational hydra headed columns,from first to last.
Nothing had been discovered more than he knew. Not the faintest trace ofthe identity of the man in the portmanteau could be found.
It was known that two berths had been booked in the name of Depew, butwho Depew was or where he had lived was still unascertained.
The man who had been found lying dead in his berth had beenphotographed, and the picture was sent to England for the inspection ofthe passenger agent where the berth had been booked.
He in no way recognized it--had never seen the face! That had deepenedthe mystery.
It was plain that the New York police knew nothing.
Gerald felt that no good purpose would be served by enlightening them,and that the sooner he got to England, the sooner he would be getting atthe root of the matter.
The newspapers gave portraits reproduced by the half tone process fromthe photograph taken, and Gerald cut one of these out and pasted it on acard.
It went with him to England. He went there himself by the next outgoingsteamer.
A photograph of only one of the dead men had been taken--for reasonswhich will be readily understood. That photograph in no way resembledJosh Todd.
Gerald knew that, because he had brought away from the farm adaguerreotype of the missing man. Comparison showed its unlikeness tothe picture of the man with the cut throat.
By personating a man with a missing friend--thereby receivinginformation and giving none--he obtained from the police a descriptionof the head of the man found in the portmanteau.
He told the police that it in no way resembled the person for whom hewas looking. All the same he was convinced it was Josh.
Josh packed dead in England and despatched to America, meant that thepackers were in Europe with the nineteen thousand pounds.
Danvers was keen on getting that money. The steamer on which the murderhad been committed bore him in the direction of it.
He was keen on it, because it meant the possession of Tessie. He wantedher badly.
On board the boat he learned everything there was to be learned.
He checked the evidence of the boat people as it had appeared in thepapers by what they said now.
From Liverpool to London. There he rented a cheap room.
He did not communicate with his own friends in any way, but put his noseto the trail.
His first visit was to Somerset House. He paid a fee, and read the willof Aunt Depew.
From it he learned that the farmer was the sole legatee, and that LawyerLoide was sole executor. The property left was described--certain eastend houses.
Should he go straight to the lawyer? No, he would go down and see thehouses first.
He did. Knocked at the doors and asked who, before the sale of theproperty, had managed it.
"Lawyer Loide," was the answer.
Managed the property, and was sole executor.
Danvers chewed that over. The end was juicy.
He wanted to see Loide--before Loide saw him. He believed in surprises,and he liked to be the surprise party.
He went to Liverpool Street where the lawyer's offices were.Interviewed, and subsequently had a drink with the janitor there. Fromhim obtained a description of Loide.
Loide was no believer in Christmas boxes or tips of any description--howgreat events from little causes spring!
The janitor did not reverence the lawyer for this want of belief. He waswilling to say anything against him he could.
Told Danvers--over the third glass--that he had never been in arrearswith his rent before, that he had discharged his two clerks, and hadonly a junior working for him now, and that even he was under notice toleave.
They parted. Danvers went home and wrote a letter to Loide. It ran:
DEAR SIR:
I happened to hear that your clerk is leaving you. At the end of the year I am going to Germany to join (as junior partner) a commercial house, where a knowledge of the rudiments of English commercial law may be of much use to me. May I offer my services as your clerk?
You can see I write well, and am quick at figures, and willing to make myself useful. Of course I shall not expect any salary.
Yours truly, G. DANVERS.
"If he is hard up," muttered the writer, "that last line may appeal tohim. It may come off: it may not. If it does, a week will enable me toturn the place inside out for any clue there may be. Was the nineteenthousand pounds ever handed Josh Todd?"
Therein lay the reason for the course Danvers was taking. It seemed tohim a reasonable solution of the matter.
Instead of handing Todd the money, the lawyer had killed him, bribedanother man to help him, and to divert suspicion, had sent that manwith Todd's body on the ship for America, telling him to return andshare the spoil.
But before the ship left English waters, Loide had managed to kill hisaccomplice, and so, as he thought, destroy all trace of his crime.
But, thought the pursuer, he has Gerald Danvers to deal with!
Gerald said this to himself, with a note of exclamation at the end ofit. Most of us have a trace of melodrama in our natures. Gerald was notwithout it.
He had a description of the perky, red haired, rough voiced, flashilydressed man who had left the boat at Queenstown, and he quite reckonedthat when he saw Lawyer Loide he would--mentally--exclaim, "Thou art theman!"
With that melodramatic trait aforesaid, he no doubt would.
If he found it so, he would not betray the faintest sign of hisknowledge. He must work quietly, and give his man no pretext for flight.
He must find where that nineteen thousand pounds was deposited, and drawthe meshes of his net so closely around that the bird could notescape--anyway, with the money.
As a matter of fact, Gerald was more concerned about the money than themurder. Because it concerned Tessie more closely.
Moreover, it was but human to expect that a nineteen thousand poundfather-in-law would be generous in the way of wedding presents.
He guessed that the housekeeper's story of Loide's poverty was a pieceof acting on Loide's part to divert suspicion.
Perhaps the discharge of the clerks meant only the gradual winding up ofhis business, and that presently he would sail away to another land.Danvers felt cold at the fear of this. If it were true, there was notthe faintest chance of a reply to his application for a situation. Hisletter could only appeal to a poor man.
And while he was thinking this again the next morning, an answer came.