CHAPTER XXV
A WOULD BE SUICIDE
At Finsbury Circus next morning dentist Lennox was in attendance.
He had been growing very ill lately, mentally and physically, and thismorning he had turned over in his bed with the intention of remaining init for the day.
Dental patients were so few and far between that he did not fear losingmuch by his absence.
But when his wife--as was her custom--brought up his cup of tea, andmorning letters, there was a post-card from Sawyer--his boy. It was totell him that a patient would call about his teeth at eleven o'clock.
Despite his really ill condition, he bathed and dressed, and got to thecity somehow.
He was in time for his appointment, and waited long for the comingpatient. But eleven o'clock struck and he came not.
Calling Sawyer in, he questioned him minutely as to the person makingthe appointment, and the likelihood of his turning up later.
"Oh, he meant coming right enough, sir. Had been recommended here by afriend who had been."
"Oh, who was that?"
"Dunno his name, sir. That American agent, sir, what came the day Mr.Arthur went away."
The dentist controlled his emotion, checked an exhibition of it bygripping the arms of his chair, and inquired:
"What did he say?"
"Said the American gent had spoken very 'ighly of the painless manner inwhich you treated him when he called here."
The dead man, the cut up man, had spoken highly of his treatment!
The dentist's lip was kept from trembling by the grip of his teeth onit. He wiped away the beads of perspiration from his brow, and inquired:
"This gentleman who called was a friend of his?"
"Yus, sir; was most interested about him. Arst a lot of questions, sir,and showed me his picture which he had in his pocket."
Not a word from the dentist; he seemed frozen to his chair.
His head was turned from the boy. Could Sawyer have seen it, he wouldhave wondered at the stony look of fright in his master's face.
For the dentist feared the worst. He guessed that the man coming was adetective. Conscience doth make cowards of us all.
He sat there, waiting--a prey to indescribable fear. Useless, he knew,to attempt to escape--perhaps even now the place was being watched.
Well! let them arrest him; it would be the end of all--of all the worryand trouble which he felt was hastening him to the grave.
And then he thought of his wife, of his girl child, and groaned aloud.
Was his widow to be shamed by his death; was he to cast a cloud over hischild's life, to give people a chance of saying of her: "Her father washanged for murder."
He groaned again in his mental agony.
Suicide! Ah! why had he not thought of that?
It would save all--the exposure, the torture of the trial, thedisgraceful death at the hangman's hand. What a fool that the idea hadnot occurred to him before!
His brother died with his throat cut, why should he not do the same?Life with its overhanging fears and terrors was not worth the living tohim. He would shuffle off this mortal coil.
He walked quietly to the door, and gently turned the key in the lock.Then he unlocked a small safe in the corner of the room, and from thedrawer thereof he took out the nineteen Bank of England notes he hadalways been afraid to attempt to cash.
He looked at them and shuddered--blood money! Their rustle gave him nopleasure now.
To his desk--then inserting the notes in an envelope, he directed it onthe outside, "To the Police, Scotland Yard."
His hand trembled so he could not write more. He had intended giving anexplanation of the whole thing, but as he asked himself--who wouldbelieve so wildly improbable--so incredible--a story?
He sat, pen in his trembling fingers, intending to write to his wife,and then it occurred to him that to do so would mean ruin to her--thatwere his death ascribed to suicide, the moneys payable under hisinsurance policies would be forfeited.
The thought made him pause.
No, he must run no risk. Those scraped together premiums on the policiesmust not be lost.
He reflected that it was better to die. That then there would be an endto that grinding, scraping, pinching poverty at home--that looking atevery sixpence before it was spent.
He was insured for fifteen hundred pounds--a policy issued for thebenefit of his wife, so that she would get the whole sum without hiscreditors being able to touch a penny of it, or any deduction for deathdues.
He thought how it would lighten the burden of the woman to whom he hadbeen bound till death should them part.
Death! He feared it--feared it horribly. He loathed himself for hiscowardice all the while he feared. It was his duty to destroy himself.
His daughter Edith, too--his little Edie--how different her future wouldbe! She would be sent to a first-class school, where they turned outwomen, and not mechanical scholars, the result of the cramming processof the brass plated Seminary for Young Ladies.
He thought of all this as he considered how he should compass the deathwhich was to bring about these things.
He must do it in such a way that no suspicion should arise; there mustbe no doubt about the death--it must be ascribed to an accident.
He looked around. His eyes rested on his dead brother's case of surgicalinstruments.
The case had remained in his rooms since--he shuddered at therecollection of their use. He walked to the side table and opened thebox.
The cold glitter of the polished steel made him shudder again, and fromhis lips came the whispered prayer:
"Oh, God, give me courage to do this thing."
How should he make assurance doubly sure? By Sawyer's aid.
It was certain there would be an inquest, the boy's evidence would beessential--the last human being to see him alive. He must supply thatwitness with material.
He took one of the knives in his hand, gently turned the key in thelock, and walked into the outer room.
Sawyer hurriedly concealed the pages of "The Brass Bound Pirate of thePacific, or the One Eyed Man in the Crimson Mask."
It was the sort of mental food his taste ran to. Exciting andcheap--dirt cheap.
"Do you know that fancy shop--bazar--just opposite the entrance toLiverpool Street Station, Sawyer?"
"Two or three doors from the corner? Yussir."
"They have some hones in the window."
"Some which, sir?"
"Sharpening stones. You will see them in the window at a shilling each."
"Yussir."
"Get me one. Here's a shilling. I want to sharpen this knife."
"Yussir."
"You understand what I want it for. To sharpen this knife."
"Yussir."
Sawyer went out, procured the required article, and returned with it tohis employer.
"You will be going to dinner in half an hour, Sawyer?"
"Yussir."
"When you do so, go into the post-office and register this letter--it isalready stamped."
"Yussir."
"Now, I'll sharpen my knife."
The dentist went into his room. His fingers rested on the key in thelock for a moment.
"No," he muttered; "a locked door would create suspicion. Besides, thereis no need."
He unfastened his sleeve link, and rolled back the cuff of his shirt.
He was surgeon enough to know which opened vein would drain his body thequickest, for he intended to bleed to death.
It was an almost painless way--the drawback to it, its slowness.
Thrice he poised the knife, thrice the hand holding it dropped to hisside, thrice he groaned in his despair--at his own cowardice.
"Oh, God," he prayed--and if ever heartfelt prayer ascended to theheavenly throne, one went up then--"give me strength and courage to dothis thing. My life has been a useless one. Give me courage, God, to endit for my wife and child's sake."
A loud rapping at the door broke in on
his prayer.
He had disregarded--had not heard the previous tapping. Relieved at theinterruption, he opened the door.
He started when he did so. Was he too late?
For behind Sawyer, who had been knocking, there stood two men in theuniform of the police.