Was He the Man?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10202, 1 April 1911, Page 2

Was He the Man?

OUR SERIAL.

BY F. L. DACRE, Author of "A Phar.com of the Past," "Tronholrne's Trust," "The Doctor's Secret," "A Loveless Marriage," "Sir .John's Heiress," etc.

CHAPTER Vll.—Continued. "That certainly looks like innocence, but of itself does not count for much, Jt would all depend on how the living man. behaved himself with regard to the dagger. If he produced the hilt fearlessly, and openly admitted having killed his other self with it in New York, the presumptive evidence would be rather in his favour. On tho other hand, if he denied all knowledge of it, said lie had lost it, or prevaricated in any way, it would look decidedly suspicious. But if ho were to do this, and then the hilt could be traced to him, that, I think, would be fatal."

"And that," I said, "can only be cleared up by the course of events. Now we come to the second alibi. One man was at St. Malo with an accomplice. The other wes in England with his lawyers."

"By the way," interrupted Fenton, "are they the same lawyers that drew up the will?"

"Y,es," I replied. "The firm is Morton and Lane. But they have been Denver's lawyers since he came into the property of his cousin, two years ago, and therefore know very little of him. It was Mr Morton who came down with the will to Gravesend. They have an office there, as well as in London." "Was he also the one that went to St. Malo at the time of the murder?" "Yes; and he took with him one of his clerks, and the estate agent, with whom Denver had had several interviews." "Where were you at the time —in Australia, were you not?" "Yes, unfortunately. I had been back,only a couple of months when;l got Denver's telegram." "So you know nothing positively of the events of the year previous to Denver's death, and that, you see, is just about the period mentioned by him when all this happened." "Nothing, I'm sorry to say.". ' "Then you understand that tho fact makes it impossible for you to be more than morally sure of the identity of the man who died," said Fenton coolly. There was no escape from the unpleasant conclusion to which Fenton's line of argument had so directly led. Perfectly convinced as I was in my own mind that the living man was Fitzgerald and not Denver, I was absolutely unable to give any real proof that I was not labouring under a delusion. I sat for some time in' silence, struggling against my doubts ; suddenly a ray of light seemed to pierce the gathering gloom. "If the living man is Denver," I said at last, "why did he not recognise me to-night?" "Did ho look at you?" asked Fenton, " or was he too much engrossed with his precious companion? You must remember, also, that you were behind him."

pond upon tho accomplice. If we can get Mr .Tamos Kohson to turn King's evidence, or whatever they call it- " "Yes," interrupted Fenton, * : that would help us considerably; but I suspect that if it is Mr Fitzgerald. Mr Robson is pretty .sate, and it will be no easy task, either, to lay hands upon him, or to establish any connection between them, if we do lay hands upon him. However, we can do nothing tonight, if wo talk till daylight. We cannot make the. first move, for everything will depend upon tho action of the enemy—if such he should turn out to be. Meanwhile I advise you to go down to Gravesend the first thing tomorrow and go through everything carefully. And now I'll say goodnight. It's getting late, and I have to bo in court to-morrow." For more than an hour after Fenton had gone I sat thinking, and vainly seeking a reasonable solution of the terrible problem my friend's legal impartiality had placed before me. My own conviction remained unshaken, but. I could not help seeing that it was unsupported by any proof which would serve to defeat designs of the man who, I felt confident, was an impostor, but whose imposture I now felt myself utterly unable to expose. If this man should claim Denver's identity,

and succeed in establishing his claim, not only would my difficulties in performing my promise to my dead friend bo infinitely increased, but personally I should lose £IOO,OOO, a loss which would reduce me to the necessity of regaining all that I had relinquished at Denver's death. With aching head and sinking heart I went to bed, to spend a miserable night on the borderland between sleeping and waking,, haunted by phantoms that took no definite shape, but whose very vagueness made them the more tormenting. Toward morning '• dozed off, and for the first time really lost consciousness. But for my over-excited brain there was to l>o no rest that night. Tho phantoms took definite shape at last. I was wandering about the garden of Denver's house at Gravesend, possesed by tho.idea that some one

"But what would Denver be doing talking to James Robson, Fitzgerald's accomplice?" I returned. "That, at least, is conclusive proof that the man I saw was not Denver."

"Conclusive proof to you, no doubt; bat you have only your own conviction to build upon—a conviction based upon a momentary glanee of an utter stranger by artificial light, and a very deceptive light, too. You might have been deceived, or you might not;.but, at any rate, your word would be worth no more than that of the man you think'you saw, should he choose to swear that he was a thousand miles away. By the way, have you examined the trunks, etc., belonging to Major Denver, since the funeral?" "No," I replied. "I didn't see any necessity to do so at once. Why, what has that to do with the case?"

was in the house, doing my friend some deadly injury. Vainly I sought for some means of , entrance. I tried all the doors, but all wero fast—fast as though they | were portions of the solid wall. Then I made desperate efforts to climb to the window sills; but tho moment that I gained one I fell back to earth. At last I found a window opn. It was a smal 1 window, leading into.the and only about four feet from the ground. In an instant I was struggling through this narrow space. When jmr than half my body wa,s inside my j hand .slipped, and I fell, en a couch | undery tho window, catching my coat on the top of the screw which held iho sliding bar and tcarino off a button, which I heard roll on to the couch. Growling out a curse in a; voice which seemed as strange to ..'.jiie as tho horrible language I used,:"*! rose to my feet and—there stood Denver at my elbow, holding a.' lighted match inside a dark lantern. "You clumsy fool," he said. "A good job the crib's empty, or you'd have roused the whole house."

"Simply this. You have told me that the house has been shut up for some days. Suppose the man you saw last night to be Fitzgerald, the practised housebreaker—what if he or his accomplice have possessed themselves of all the papers and property in these trunks, by which means the identity of Denver may be established ? You won't know whether or not any change in their contents has been effected; so what is to prevent Denver—or Fitzgerald, whichever he is—from proving his case in every particular, and snapping his fingers at you?"

As Fenton said this, my spirits sank lower and lower, and my doubts were gathering thicker and thicker with every word he uttered.

"Well," I exclaimed at last, in despair, "everything seems now to de-

It was Denver's voice that spoke, but whoso were tho. coarse, slangv words? Somehow I took no notice of the strange contrast between, the voiee and the language, and after pulling the window to, I followed him out of the loom without a word. He led the way upstairs to a bedroom which I seemed dimly to remember. As we entered the faint light from the halfshut lantern fell upon a mirror, and I caught sight of a facte that was not my own, but one that I recognised as j having seen somewhere before. I After Denver had made sure that the j curtains were closely drawn across the windows, he turned back the slide of the lantern to the full, and proceeded to try several skeleton keys in the lock of a large travelling trunk which stood at the foot of the bed. In a few moments he found one to fit, and silently raised the lid. . "Now then," he said, in a whisper, "out with everything—there's no time to lose." I obeyed, and in a few moments the contents of the trunk were lying on + ho floor. (To Be Continued.)