CHAPTER XXXVII. NO LONGER 'AT FAULT.'

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2254, 18 December 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XXXVII. NO LONGER 'AT FAULT. '

As soon as Phil Soames and Morant arrived in Baumfco r ough they hurried off to the home of the former, and had just time to tumble into their evening 1 clothes previous to joining the dinner table at which their unexpected ad vent occasioned nolittle nurprise on the part of Phil's parents. However, as this worthy pair were completely ignorant of what had taken th^ young men to towc, some vatrue oxcu.v about having changed their minds amply sufficed to allay their curiosity. The meal over, Phil and Morant adjourned to the former's sanctum, as they often did for an after-dinner cigar. No sooner had they gained it upon this occasion than Moraut said, 'Of course, Phil, we didn't come here to smoke to night We'll just light our cigarette-, and then we must go across to Dr. Ingleby'a and see if he has any news of Mr Unher. He should have.' 'All right,' rejoined Soames ; * you're n command, y3u know.' So off to Dr. Ingleby's only pome quarter of a mile away, the two started. The doctor was as much, astonished to see them as had been old Mr and Mrs Soamep. i " Why I thought you were not coming down till to-morrow," he exclaimed, the customary greetings over. " Quite right," replied Morant, " but 1 something we heard in London nwle us think it desirable to see Mr Usher as soon as possible. He promised me to be here to-night." " Aud he has been. He came, he said, to tell us the complete story of the Bunbury mystery ; but when he found you two were not here he asked permission to postpone his story, as he seemed to think I it probable you might clear up one or tyro

points about which he is still doabtful, if you only heard the story. He hasn't been gone a quarter of an hour." " How deuced unlucky." exclaimed Morant. "Nonsense, Herbert," cried Phil Soames. •' He cunt have left the town. Where docs he put up. Doctor?" "At the Woe 1 pack, and we shall probably find him there if I send for him." " Nonsense, Doctor, I'll go myself," exclaimed Morant. '* You two just wait quietly here and I'll be back with Mr. IMier in a quarter of an hour, at furthest," and with these words Herbert vanished. Little was said between the Dootorand PhU Soames during the interval of Morant's absence ; they were both too anxious to listen to the coming revelation to apeak much. The quarter of an hour had hardly elap3ed when Herbert entered triumphantly, closely followed by Sergeant Usher. ' Good evening, Mr Soamea, and once more pood evening, Doctor Ingleby. I'm very glad, gentlemen, you came back, and that Mr Morant came and fetched me, for I should like to tell you the who'e story of the Bnnbury murder before I leave Baumborough, as you have been, so to speak, all a bit mixed up in it, and are certainly all interested in the riddle. I must leave for town by the 11.30, but I've got a good hour and a half to spare, which will much more than suffice to tell my story. ' You can easily imagiue, Sergeant, we are all extremely anxious to hear it,' replied Dr. Ingleby ; ' iudeed these two gentlemen came back from London for nothing else.' ISo Mr Morant tells me, air, rejoined the Sergeant as he quietly seated himself and commenced hi 3 narrative. 'James Foxborough, and as far as I know that is bis real name, started in life as articled clerk to an attorney in London. Like many of that class, he had a gieat fondness for the theatre. Somehow or other, at one of the minor suburban theatres, he scraped acquaintance with Miss Nydia Willoughby, then a struggling young actress, and concerning whose earlier history I know no more than I learut from Mr Soames in this room a few weeks back. Nor is it in the least necessary I should. The two fell in love, and after a little married ; James Foxborough broke h's artie'es, and managed ~ through his wife's influence to obtain a small engagement on the stage. But unluckily he was not possessed of what the literary people call histrionic powers. His wife kept steadily fighting her way upwards, but he just .as steadily dropped into a mere super. He was entrusted with letters to carry on, and about two lines to say and his salary, gentlemen, was about as short as his part. Well, to do Foxborough justice, he was clear grit, he'd no idea of living on his wife's earnings, and as soon as he had satisfactorily ascertained that he couldn't earn bread and cheese on the stage, he announced his intention of seeking it elsewhere, and they parted, quite amicably. Mind now, you may ,isk how can I know all this. I only reply, I know the main facts of the case so far, and have filled in the remainder by inferences, as anyone of you might, aud probably you do.' ' Now,' coutinued the Sergeant, ' the idea that had occurred to James Foxboroueh, by way of earning his liviug, was to fall back upon his old profession. His expetience as an actor had made him pretty sick of the stage as a profession, the gilt was all off the ginger-bread, as far as he was concerned, but remember he nad broken his articles ; and though I don't suppose, though I honestly confess L don't know that there is any very severe penalty for that, still it was quite sufficient to mace him change his name and leave London. To begin upou he was not an attorney, and how he managed to get his uame on the rolls I can't eay — I lose sight of him there for two years or more ; when I next pick him up he's practising in Baumborough uuder the name of John Fossdyke.' ' What !' oried Dr. Ingloby, ' you mean to tell us that John Fo«sdyke and James Foxborough are the same man !' ' Not a doubt about it,' rejoined Mr XJaher. ' Impossible,' exclaimed Morant, • very much alike if you will, but the same ra.au, ridiculoup,' • I told you ifc was a beautiful case, ' rejoined the Sergeant, 'and the reason we could never find the slightest trace of James Fox r >orough is that he is buried in John Fossdyke'a grave.' ' But, good God, Mr Uglier, if your story i< true,' said Hr. Ingleby, • poor Mrs Fos^dyke was never married.' ' Undoubtedly not. Her husband's name wasn't Fossdyke for one thing, and he was already married for another. Now Foxborough,' continued the Sergeant, 1 when he firnt came to Baumborough was a very poor man. He constantly ran up to town, and received, I fancy, a good bit of assistance still from his wife, and now Dr. Ingleby, I nhould feel much obliged if you would continue the btory.' ' Certainly,' replied the Doctor, ' and the bit you want nobody can piece in better than myself. Fossdyke, or I suppose I should say Foxborough, srradually began to acquire a fair practice here ; he was a pushing 1 man, who would have his finger in every pie that was baking. He wai a plausible man, with great command of words, a popular man, and to some extent a clever man, and the farmers around especially took to him. You see he had some sporting proclivities, liked a day's hunting, a day's shooting, or a day's steplechasing, when he could find time for it, and in those clays he was clever enough to know that it paid in the long run to make time for it. His practice rapidly increased, and he became a man of mark in the town ; then he made his yreat hit in life — I'm speaking of him as Fossdyke— he married Mary Kimberley. This at once gave a status it would have taken him some years yet to acquire, and thanks to the interest his marriage gave him he shortly afterwards acquired the post of Town Clerk. I have got nothing further to add than this, that though his income was an exceedingly handsome one, and though he apparently lived well within it, yet there were invariably tiles about the difficulty the tradesmen had in getting money from him.' 'Yes, Doctor,' interposed Mr Usher. 1 that's where it was, that'll be about the time he went iuto a cood many provincial specs which terminated all the wrong way, and it was on these speculations he contrived to make away with the best part of Mrs Fossdykr's money. Then at last came the first theatrical hit — he built and started the Syringa Music Hall, and to do that, doctor, he appropriated between five and six thousand pounds of thn Corporation funds.' ' Impossible, Mr Usher, if such a thing had not come out in his lifetime it must have done at his death.' 'And that is just what has happened,' replied the sergeant, ' that wearisome Totterdell creature has discovered it, though he is not exactly aware of the real meaning of his discovery. When the Corporation, as I'm told at Mr Totterdell's instance, voted for the calling in of that mortgage on tho hou-cs and buildiugs belonging to the railway company near tho Station in order to pay for their new theatre, the discovery of FoxVorough's fraudulent appropriation of their moneys was imminent. It was thon that he we'it to one Cudeimi'e, tn whom he had often applied before, indeed

had recourse to him about the building of the Syringa, the misappropriated moucy not proving sufficient, und raised from him with the assistance of Mr Sturton, tho great Bond-street tiiilor, the requisite sum to cover his deficiencies, and but for Mr Totterdell, who is always nosing round liku a truffle dog about his neighbour's affairs, I don't suppose anyone would have ever known anything about that quiet borrowing of the Corporation money. He somehow found out that no such was ever effected, though five per cent, interest was regularly credited to the Corporation on account of it.' • Most extraordinary,' said Dr Inglcby. ' I can't conceive this never having corae to my oais.' As for Phil Soimes and Morant, they s.it bilent and absorbed iv the extraordinary history that Mr Usher was slowly unfolding for their edification. ' Not at all, sir,' replied tho Sergeant. ' Mr Totterdell so very imperfectly understands his discovery that ho is actually unable to talk about it. You must bear in mind, gentlemen, that though I can prove all my loading poiuts, I am filling in my story here ani there from what I supposo to have been the case. We next come to the opening of the Biumborough Theatre, and here for the fir»t time the author of the Buubury mystery appears upon the scene. What brought Mr Cudemore there I honestly say I don't know, but 'Good gracious ! you mean to say, then, that the money -lender was the murderer of poi.r Fossdyke? 1 should say Foxborough ?' exclaimed Dr. Insrleby. "Just so," replied the Sergeant, perfectly unmoved. 'These two gentlemen have heard his name before, I tancy, at all events Mr Morant has. As I was saying, what brought him down to that ceremony I cannot fathom, but I do know this, that for the first time he became aware that John Fossdyke and James Foxborough were one, were the same individual. That a man of Cudemore's stamp should attempt to make capital out of such knowledge is a mere matter of course ; that he wrote the note which took Mr Fossdyke over to Buubury I can prove. Mr Morant, there, can swear to the, handwriting for one, and I have another unimpeachable witness to testify to it besides. Now, gentlemen, just consider what that note meant to the dead man. He, of course, recognised the handwriting and the signature. James Foxborough told him his secret was discovered. He goes over to Bnnbury to see what terms h<> can make with the mail who has surprised his secret. He knows Cudemore well, and no doubt is prepared for exhorbitant demands on the part of the money lender. What Cudemore did ask we shall perhaps never know. It may be he demanded a very large slice back of that six thousand which he, in conjunction with Mr Sturton, had lent. That, as we know, Foxborouirh could not comply with. He had already used the whole of the money to conceal his breach of trust in connection with the funds of the Municipal Council. But whatever Cudemore wanted, we may feel pretty cei tain it was not Foxborough's life. That he did slay him I believe, but it was undoubtedly an unpremeditated murder. When men of this stamp get a hold over their fellows, and intend to ma Ice them what my brethren in Paris call ' sing,' or, as we term it, blackmail them, of course the victim's life is the last tiling aimed at. They want perpetual hush money from him, and his death naturally puts an end to all that. Now, gentlemen, if any of you can give mo any clue to what Cudemore's motive can have been — that i>s to say, what it was ho wanted to wring from Foxborough — I shall be obliged to you ?' 'All we know amounts to this,' said Soamos. 'Ever since tho murder Cudemore has shown a great dot-ire to got the Syring* Music Hall into his own hands. He has given notice of foreclosing the mortgage, evidently relying upon Mrs Foxborough'a inability to find the six thousand pounds with which to meet it.' The Sergeant thought for a few minutes, and then said to Mr Soaines, ' I can't think that could have been the cause of the nmrder. Has Cudemore any quarrel with Mrs Foxborough tbat you know of?" 'Certainly. Mrs Foxborough thinks he has treated her very badly about the Syringa,' replied Morant, ♦ and declines to have anything to do with him, saying when tho time comes if she cannot find the money he must take tho music hall.' Neither Soames nor Morant were in the least aware of the money-lender's mad passion for Nid. 11 No,'' said Mr. Usher, " that is a consequence of the murder, but certainly not the cause of it. Even iv his first moments of exasperation at finding he couldn't have his slice back of the six thousand he had lent, Cudemore would never have been such a fool as that. With the hold he had over Foxborough he could have become a partner in the Syringa on his own terms. Well, gentlemen, it's no use trying t» guess a riddle now, which the trial will probably solve. We have brought the thing down now to this : Cudemore, at the opening of the Baum borough Theatre, convinced himself that James Foxborough and John Fossdyke were one man. Whether he suspected it before I don't know, nor does it matter. Taking advantage of his discovery, he summons Fossdyke to dine with him at Bunbury, and what concession he demanded to hod his tongue we don't know, but in the sitting-room the two men quarreled, and either by accident or design Cudemore stabbed his companion to the heart. He then carried him into the adjoining room divested him of his dress coat, and placed him as he was found." "But don't you think," said Soames, "That a man like poor Fossdyke might be stung to such madness by finding his secret at the mercy of a man like Cudemore as to lay violent hands on himself ?" ' Quite possible, sir, but first Dr. Ingleby will tell you that from the peculiar direction of the wound it could hardly have been self-inflicted. Secondly, if he is an innocent man why did not Mr Cudemore come forward and tell his story, and lastly, there's that third point, which was pretty well proved at the inquest, if the door was not locked from the outside, where was the key?" 'It might have been tin own out of the window, ' said Heibeit. 'Now really, Mr Morant,' rejoined the Sergeant, with a deprecatory smile, ' that's a cutting observation to a crack oflicer of the Yard. You can't suppose but what I had every inch of ground under that window searched that very afternoon as far round as it was possible tor a man to throw a key. No, it was an off chance, but I didn't overlook it ; and now, gentlemen, I must say good night, as I have to catch the mail train.' 'One word more, Mr Usher,' said Soames. 'I suppose Mrs Foxborough need fear no further molestation from Mr Cudemore ?' 'Neither she nor anyone else for a very considerable time to come. Mr Cudemoro will be in custody about breakfast time to-morrow morning. Once more, good night, gentlemen.' ' Usher's case is beautifully clear,' said the doctor, as the detective left tho loom, ' but there'll be no conviot.O'i ot murder, I fancy.' 'No.' said Soam^s, 'he'll set off with manslaughter, I'm inclined t) think.'