CHAPTER XXXIX.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 66, 6 September 1884, Page 4

CHAPTER XXXIX.

MB QRYCF,. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whoso solo name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest* —Macbeth. An hour later, as Mr Ferris was leaving the house in company with Dr. Tredwell, he felt himself stopped by a slight touch on his arm. Turning about, he saw Hickory. "Beg pardon, sirs," said the detective, with a short bow, " but there's a gentleman in the library who would like to see you before you go." , They at once turned to the room indicated. But at sight of its well-known features— its huge cases of books, its large centre-table profusely littered with papers, the burnt-out grate, the empty arm-chair— they paused, and it was with difficulty they could recover themselves sufficiently to enter. When they did, their first glance was^ toward the gentleman they saw standing in a distant window, apparently perusing a book. . "Who is it?" inquired Mr Ferris of his companion. "I cannot imagine," returned the other. Hearing voices, the gentleman advanced. " Ah, 1 ' said he, " allow me to introduce myself. lam Mr Gryce, of the New York Detective Service." "Mr Gryce !" repeated the District Attorney, in astonishment. The famous detective bowed. "I have come," said he, " upon a summons received by me in Utica not six hours ago. It was sent by a subordinate of mine interested in the trial now going on before the court. Horace Byrd is his name. I hope he is well liked here and has your confidence." "Mr Byrd is well enough liked," rejoined Mr Ferris, "but I gave him no orders to send for you. At what hour was the telegram dated ?" "At half-past eleven, immediately after the accident to Mr Orcutt." "1 see."' " He probably felt himself inadequate to meet this new emergency. He is a young man, and the affair is certainly a complicated one." The District Attorney, who had been studying the countenance of the able detective before him, bowed coui'teously. "lam not displeased to see you," said he. "If you have been in the room above )> The other gravely bowed. "You know probably of the outrageous accusation which has just been made against our best lawyer and most-esteemed citizen. It is but one of many which this same woman has made ; and while it is to be regarded as the ravings of lunacy, still your character and ability may weigh much iv lifting the opprobrium w hich any such accusation, however unfounded, is calculated to throw around the memory of my dying friend." "Sir," returned Mr Gryce, shifting his gaze uneasily from one small object to another in that dismal room, till all and every article it contained seemed to partake of his mysterious confidence, " this is a world of disappointment and deceit. Intellects we admired, hearts in which we trusted, turn out frequently to be the abodes of falsehood and violence. It is dreadful, but it is true." Mr Ferris, struck aghast, looked at the detective with severe disapprobation. "Is it possible," he asked, "that you have allowed yourself to give any credence to the delirious utterances of a man suffering from a wound on the head, or to the frantic words of a woman who has already abused the ears of the court by a deliberate perjury ?" While Dr. Tredwell, equally indignant and even more impatient, rapped with hU knuckles on the table by which he stood, and cried : " Pooh, pooh ! the man cannot be such a fool f A solemn smile crossed the features of the detective. "Many persons have listened to the aspersion you denounce. Active measures will be needed to prevent its going farther." "I have commanded silence," said Dr. Tredwell. "Respect for Mr Orcutt will cause my wishes to be obeyed.'" " Does Mr Orcutt enjoy the universal respect of the town ?" " He does," was the stern reply. "It behoves us, then," said Mr Gryce, "to clear his memory from every doubt by a strict inquiry into his relations with the murdered woman." c "They are known," returned Mr Ferris, with grim reserve. "They were such as any man might hold with the woman at whose house he finds it convenient to take his daily dinner. She was to him the provider of a good meal." Mr Gryce'a eye travelled slowly toward Mr Ferris's shirt stud. "Gentlemen," said he, "do you forget that Mr Orcutt was on the scene of murder some minutes before the rest of you arrived? Let the attention of people once be directed toward him as a suspicious party, and they will be likely to remember this fact." Astounded, both men drew back. " What do you mean by that remark?" they asked. "I mean," said Mr Gryce, "that Mr Orcutt's visit to Mrs Clemmens's house on the morning of the murder will be apt to be recalled by persons of a suspicious tendency as having given him an opportunity to commit the crime." "People are not such fools," cried Dr. Tredwell ; while Mr Ferris, in a tone of mingled incredulity and anger, exclaimed : "And do you, a reputable detective, and, as I have been told, a man of excellent judgment, presume to say that there could be found any one in this town, or even in this country, who could let his suspicions carry him so far as to hint that Mr Orcutt struck this woman with his own hand in the minute or two that elapsed between his going into her liou.se and his coming out again with tidings of her death ?" "Those who remember that he had been a participator in the lengthy discussion which had just taken place on the courthouse steps as to how a man might commit a crime without laying himself open to the risk of detection, might— yes, sir." Mr Ferris and the coroner, who, whatever their doubts or fears, had never for an inBtant seriously believed the dying words of Mr Orcutt to be those of confession, gazed in consternation at the detective, and finally inquired : " Do you realise what you are saying ?" Mr Gryce drew a deep breath, and shifted his gaze to the next stud in Mr Ferris's shirt-front. "I have never been accused of speaking lightly," he remarked. Then with quiet insistence, asked: " Where was Mrs Clemmens believed to get the money she lived on ?" " It is not known." rejoined the District Attorney.

"Yet sho loft a nice little sum behind^ her ?" " Five thousand dollars," declared the coroner. " Strange, that in a town like this no one should know Mhore it came from?" suggested the detective. The two gentlemen wore silent. "It was a good doal to coino from Mi Orcutt in payment of a single meal a day !' continued Mr Gryce. "No one has ever supposed it did come from Mr Orcutt," remarked Mr Ferris, witl. some severity. "But does anyone know it did not?' ventured the detective. Dr. Tredwell and the District Attorney looked at each other, but did not reply. "Gentlemen," pursued Mr Gryce, after c moment of quiet waiting, " this is, withoul exception, the most serious moment of mj life. Never in the course of my experience —and that includes much— have I beer placed in a more trying position than now, To allow one's self to doubt, much less te question, the integrity of so eminent a mar seems to me only less dreadful than it doej to you ; yet, for all that, were I his friend, as I certainly am his admirer, I would say • Sift this matter to the bottom ; let us know if this great lawyer has any more ir favour of his innocence than the othei gentlemen who have been publicly accused of this crime. ' " "But," protested Dr. Tredwell, seeing that the District Attorney was too mucl moved to speak, " you forget the evidence: which underlay the accusation of thes< other gentlemen ; also that of all the per sons who, from the day the widow wai struck till now, have been in any way as sociated with suspicion, Mr Orcutt is th< only one who could have had no earthl] motive for injuring this humble woman even if he were all he would have to be t< first perform such a brutal deed, and thei carry out his hypoci'isy to the point of usinj his skill as a criminal lawyer tv defend an other man falsely accused of the crime." " I beg your pardon, sir," said the detec tive, "but I forget nothing. I only brinj to the consideration of this subject a totally unprejudiced mind and an experieuc< which has taught me never to omit testing tho truth of a charge because it seems a first blush false, preposterous, and withou visible foundation. If you "will recall tin conversation to which I have just allndec as having been held on the court-housi steps on the morning Mrs Clemmens wai murdered, you will remember that it wa: the intellectual crime that was discussedthe crime of an intelligent man, safe in tin knowledge that his motive for doing such ! deed was a secret to the world." " My God !" exclaimed Mr Ferris, unde his breath, "the man seems to be ii earnest !" "Gentlemen," pursued Mr Gryce, witl more dignity than he had hitherto seen fi to assume, "it is not my usual practico t< express myself as openly as I have dom here to-day. In all ordinary cases I con sider it expedient to reserve intact my su3 picions and my doubts till I have completec my discoveries and arranged my argu ments so as to bear out with somi show of reason whatever statemen I may feel obliged to make. But thi extraordinary features of this affair, ant the fact that so many were present at th< scene we have just left, have caused me t< change my usual tactics. Though far front ready to say that Mr Orcutt's words wen those of confession, I still see much reasor to doubt his innocence, and, feeling thus am quite willing you should know it in time to prepare fer the worst." " Then you propose making what has oc curred here public ?" asked Mr Ferris, witl emotion, "Not so," was the detective's readj reply. "On the contrary, I was about te suggest that you did something more thai lay a command of silence upon those whe were present." The District Attorney, who, as he after ward said, felt as if he were labouring under some oppressive nightmare, turned te the coroner and said : " Dr. Tredwell, what do you advise me te do?TexTibleasthisshockhasbeen,andserioui as is the duty it possibly involves, I hav< never allowed myself to shrink from cloin^ what was right simply because it affordec suffering to myself or indignity to mj friends. Do you think lam called upon te pursue this matter?" The coroner, troubled, anxious, anc nearly as much overwhelmed as the Dis trict Attorney, did not immediately reply, Indeed, the situation was one to upset any man, of whatever calibre. Finally he turnec to Mr Gryce. "Mr Gryce," said he, "we are, as you have observed, friends of the dying man, and, being so, may miss our duty in oui sympathy. What do you think ought te be done, in justice to him, the prisoner, and the positions which we both occupy ?" " Well, sirs," rejoined Mr Gryce, "it is not usual, perhaps, for a man in my position to offer actual advice to gentlemen in yours ; but if you wish to know what course I should pursue if I were in your places, ] should say : First, require the witnesses still lingering around the dying man te promise that they will not divulge what was there said till a week has fully elapsed; next, adjourn the case now before the court for the same decent length of time ; and, lastly, trust me and the two men you have hitherto employed to find out if there is anything in Mr Orcutt's past history of a nature to make you tremble if the world hears of the words which escaped him or his death-bed. We shall probably need but a week." "And Miss Dare?" "Has already promised secrecy." Tlaere was nothing in all this to alarm their feai"3 ; everything, on the contrary, to allay them. The coroner gave a nod of approval to Mr Ferris, and both signified their acquiescence in the measures proposed. Mr Gryce at once assumed his usual genial air. "You may trust me," said he, "to exercise all the discretion you would yourselves show under the circumstances. I have no wish to see the name of such a man blasted by an ineffaceable stain." And he bowed as if about to leave the room. But Mr Ferris, who had observed this movement with an air of some uneasiness, suddenly stepped forward and stopped him. "I wish to ask," said he, "whether superstition has had anything to do with this readiness on your part to impute the worst meaning to the chance phrases which have fallen from the lips of our severely injured friend. Because his end seems in some regards to mirror that of the widow, have you allowed a remembrance of tho words she made use of in the face of death to influence your good judgment as to the identity of Mr Orcutt with her assassin ?" The face of Mr Gryce assumed its grimmest aspect. "Do you think this catastrophe was necessary to draw my attention to Mr Orcutt? To a man acquainted with the extraordinary coincidence that marked the discovery of Mrs Clemmens's murder, the mystery must be that Mr Orcutt has gone unsuspected for so long." And assuming an argumentative air, he asked : "Were either of you two gentlemen present at the conversation I have mentioned as taking place on the court-house steps the morning Mrs Clemmens was murdered ?"

" I was," said the District Attorney. "You remember, then, the hunchback who was so free with his views ?" " Most certainly." " And know, perhaps, who that hunchback was ?" "Yes." "You will not be surprised, then, if I recall to you tho speoial incidonts of that hour. A group of lawyers, among them Mr Orcutt, are amusing themselves with an off-hand chat concerning criminals and the clumsy way in which, as a rule, they plan and execute their crimes. All seem to agree that a murder is usually followed by detection, when suddenly a stranger speaks and tells them that the true way to make a success of the crime is to choose a thoroughfare for tho scene of tragedy, and employ a weapon that has been picked up on the &pot. What happens? Within five minutes after this piece of gratuitous information, or as soon as Mr Orcutt can cross the street, Mrs Clemmens is found lying in her blood, struck down by a stick of wood picked up from her own hearthstone. Is this chance ? If so, 'tis a very curious one. " "I don't deny it," said Dr. Tredwell. "I believe you never did deny it," quickly retorted the detective. "Ami not right in saying that it struck you so forcibly at the time as to lead you into supposing some collusion betwoen the hunchback and the murderer?" "It certainly did," admitted the coroner. "Very well," proceeded Mr Gryce. " Now, as thero could have been no collu sion between these parties, the hunchback being no other person than myself, \vhat are w e to think of this murder ? That it was a coincidence, or an actual result of the hunchback's words ?" Dr. Tredwell and Mr Ferris were both silent. "Sirs," continued Mr Gryce, feeling, perhaps, that perfect openness was necessary in order to win on tire confidence, "I am not given to boasting or to a too-free expression of my opinion, but if I had been ignorant of this affair, and one of my men had come to me and said : ' A mysterious murder has just taken place, marked by this extraordinary featuie, that it is a precise reproduction of a supposablo case of crime which has just been discussed by a group of indifferent persons in the public street,' and then had asked me where to look for the assassin, I should have said ; 4 Search for that man who heard the discussion through, was among the first to leave the group, and was the first to show j himself upon the scene of murder.' To be sure, when Byrddid come to me with this story, 1 was silent, for the man who fulfilled these conditions was Mr Orcutt." "Then," said Mr Ferris, "you mean to say that you would have suspected Mr Orcutt of this crime long ago if he had not been a man of such position and eminence ?" " Undoubtedly," was Mr Gryce's reply. If the expression wa3 unequivocal, his air was still more so. Shocked and disturbed, both gentlemen fell back. The detective at once advanced and opened the door. It was time. Mr Byrd had been tapping upon it for some minutes, and now hastily came in. His face told the nature of his errand before he spoke. "I am sorry to be obliged to inform you " he began. "Mr Orcutt is dead?" quickly interposed Mr Ferris. The young detective solemnly bowed.