The Last Stroke: A Detective Story Read online

  CHAPTER VIII.

  TRICKERY.

  As was quite natural, the three men, thrown so strangely andunexpectedly together at the doctor's cottage, sat up late after theinquest, and discussed the strange death of Charles Brierly in all itsbearings. As a result of this they slept somewhat late, except thedetective, who let himself out of the house at sunrise, and lighting acigar, set off for a short walk, up one certain street, and downanother. He walked slowly, and looked indolently absorbed in his cigar.But it was a very observant eye that noted, from under the peak of hisEnglish cap, the streets, the houses, and the very few stray people whomhe passed. It was not the people, though, in whom he was chieflyinterested. Ferrars was intently studying the topography of the town, atleast of that portion of it which he was then traversing with suchseeming aimlessness.

  From the doctor's cottage he had sauntered north for several blocks,crossed over, until he reached the upper or terraced street, andfollowed it until he had reached the southern edge of the village andwas in sight of the school-house not far beyond. Turning here he crosseda street or two, and was nearing the house where the dead school teacherhad lived, when he saw the front door of the house open, and a womancome out and hasten away in the direction in which he was moving. Shehurried on like one intent upon some absorbing errand, and, knowing thehouse as the late home of Charles Brierly, and the woman as itsmistress, Ferrars quickened his steps that he might keep her in sight,and when she turned the corner leading directly to the doctor's cottagehe further increased his speed, feeling instinctively that her errand,whatever its nature, would take her there.

  He was not far behind her now, and he saw the doctor standing alone uponthe side porch, saw the woman enter at the side gate, and the meeting ofthe two.

  Mrs. Fry, with her back towards him, was making excited gestures, andthe face of the doctor, visible above her head, changed from a look ofmild wonder to such sudden anxiety and amazement that the detectivehalted at the gate, hesitating, and was seen at that instant by thedoctor, who beckoned him on with a look of relief.

  "Look here, Ferrars," he began, and then turned to assure himself thatBrierly had not arisen, and was not observing them from the officewindow. "Come this way a few steps," moving away from the porch andhalting where the shadow of the wing hid them from view from within themain dwelling. "And now, Mrs. Fry, please tell Mr. Grant what you hadbegun to tell me. I want his opinion on it. He's not a bad lawyer."

  "A good detective'd be the right thing, I think," declared the woman."It's about Mr. Brierly's room, sir. He had a small bedroom, and anotheropening out from it, where he used to read and study. You know how theywere, doctor!"

  The doctor nodded silently.

  "Well, last night, you remember, when you brought this gentleman and hisbrother to my place to look at the rooms. You or he decided not to go upthen, but told me to close the rooms, and he would cometo-morrow--to-day--that would be."

  "Yes, yes!" said the doctor, impatiently, "we remember all that, Mrs.Fry."

  "Well, I'd had the rooms locked ever since I heard that he was dead."Mrs. Fry was growing somewhat hazy as to her pronouns. "And I had thekey in my pocket. Then, well, after a while I lit the lamp in thesittin' room so's it wouldn't seem so gloomy in the house, and went outand sat on my side stoop, and after a little my neighbour on that side,Mrs. Robson, came acrost the lawn--there aint no fence between, yeknow--and we talked for some time, and my little girl fell asleep withher head in my lap."

  "Don't be too long with the story," broke in the doctor. "I don't wantit to spoil Mr. Brierly's breakfast, for he needs it badly."

  "Yes, sir. Well, just about that time--it must have been half-pasteight, I guess--and there was plenty of folks all along the street, aboy came running across the lawn and right up to me.

  "'If you please,' he says, touching his hat rim, 'Mr. Brierly, down tothe doctor's, forgot to get the key to his brother's room, and he sentme to get it for him.' I s'pose I was foolish. I felt hurt, thinkin' hecouldn't trust me with his brother's things, an' so I jest hands out thekey and no questions asked."

  A look of sudden alertness shot from the eyes of the detective, and hearrested the doctor's evident impatience by a quick shake of the headunperceived by the woman, who was addressing her narrative to thedoctor, as was natural.

  "I s'pose," she went on, "that I shouldn't a' done it, but I didn'tscent anything wrong then. Mrs. Robson went home in a few minutes, andthen I roused my little girl up and took her in and put her to bed. Shewas asleep again a'most as soon as her head touched the pillow, and thenight was so pleasant-like that I threw my shawl on my shoulders andwent out onto the front stoop. I felt sort o' lonesome in the house allalone."

  "Of course," commented Ferrars, seeing the dread of their criticism ordispleasure that was manifest in her face as she paused and looked fromone to the other. "One naturally would in your place."

  "Yes, I suppose so," she went on, reassured. "Well, I hadn't been outthere two minutes when that same boy came running up the walk, all outof breath, and says, sort of panting between words, 'Ma'am, the ladythat lives next the engine-house by the corner stopped me just now an'asked me to come back here an' beg you to come down there quick! Herlittle boy's got himself burned awful!'"

  "Ah! I see!" Ferrars spoke low, as if to himself, and his face wore thelook of one who is beginning to understand a riddle. "You went, ofcourse?"

  "Yes, I went."

  "Go on with the story, please. Tell it all as you have begun. Let ushave the details," and he again nodded toward the doctor, who wasregarding him with profound surprise, and put a finger to his lip.

  "My sister-in-law lives in the house by the engine-house," Mrs. Fryhurried on, "and knowing how careless she is about keepin' things in thehouse against such times, I ran back into my bedroom and got a bottle ofcamphor and a roll of cotton batt. 'Run ahead, boy,' I says to the boy,'an' tell her I am coming; I must lock up my doors and winders.' 'She'sin an awful hurry,' he says, 'cryin' fit to kill. I'll set right downhere and watch your house, ma'am; I can do no good there.' The boy spokeso honest, and Mary's boy is such a dear little fellow, that I jest lostmy head complete, and ran off down the sidewalk. At the corner I lookedback. The boy was sittin' on the doorstep, an' I heard him whistlin';someway it made me feel quite easy. But when I got to the house andfound them all in the sitting-room, and Neddy not hurt at all, but soundasleep on the floor, I was so took back that I just dropped down on achair and acted like a wild woman. Instead of rushin' back that veryminute, I sat there and told how I had been tricked, and scolded aboutthat boy, an' vowed I'd have him well punished, and so on, until Maryreminded me that I'd better get back home and see if the house was allright, or if 'twas only a boy's trick."

  "It looked like one, surely," was the detective's easy comment.

  "That's what Mr. Jones said. He's my neighbour. He was just going home,and we overtook him. Mary told him about the boy and he laughed and saidthat some boys had played that sort of trick last summer two or threetimes, sending people running across the town on some such fool'serrand. He thought maybe 'twas some boy that I had offended some way;and then I thought about how crisp I was about givin' the boy Mr.Brierly's key, and it made me feel sort of easier. But Mr. Jones went inwith us when we got to my house. We looked all around downstairs andeverything was all right. Nellie was fast asleep still, and not a thinghad been disturbed. Then we went upstairs, 'just for form's sake,' Mr.Jones said, and looked in all the bedrooms, and even tried Mr. Brierly'sdoor. Everything seemed right, and so Mr. Jones and Mary went away, andI went to bed. But someway I couldn't sleep sound. I felt provoked andangry about that boy, and the more I thought of him, of his being astranger and all, the uneasier I got. Then I began to imagine I heardqueer sounds, and creaking doors, and, right on the heels of all that,came a loud slam that waked Nellie, and made me skip right out of bed."

  "A shutter, of course," said the doctor, as she paused for breath.

  "Yes, a shutter, and I knew wel
l that every shutter on my house waseither shut tight or locked open. I look to that every night, as soonas it's lamp-lighting time; them downstairs I shut, them upstairs Iopen, sometimes. I knew where that slammin' shutter was by the sound,and it set me to dressing quick. I had opened the shutters on Mr.Brierly's windows that very afternoon, thinking the rooms would not seemquite so dreary and lonesome when his brother came to look through 'emand they was locked open, I knew well! All the same, it was themshutters, or one of 'em, that was clattering then, and I knew it."

  "Were you alone in the house, you and your little girl?" asked Ferrars.

  "All alone, yes, sir; and I took Nellie with me and went out into thehall----"

  "You mean downstairs?"

  "Yes, sir. We sleep downstairs. Now, I thought I had seen thateverything was right when Mr. Jones and Mary was with me, but when wewent into that hall--Doctor--" turning again toward that gentlemen, forshe had addressed her later remarks to Ferrars,--"I guess you mayremember a shelf just at the foot of the stairs. It's right behind thedoor, when it stands open, and that's why we hadn't seen it, or I hadn'tbefore. Well, I always set the lamp for Mr. Brierly's room--his bedroomlamp, that is--on that shelf for him every morning, as soon as it hadbeen filled for the night's burning; and the morning he was killed Ihad put it there as usual, and it had been there ever since. It wasthere when Mr. Brierly and you two gentlemen called, after the inquest."

  A queer little sound escaped the detective's throat, and again hechecked the doctor's impatience with that slight movement of the head.

  "I don't call myself brave," the woman went on, "but I caught Nellie bythe hand--I was carrying my bedroom lamp--and ran up the stairs andstraight to Mr. Brierly's door. I don't know what made me do it, but Istooped down to look through the keyhole, and there in the door was thevery key I had given to that boy to take to Mr. Brierly's brother."

  "What did you do?" asked the doctor, breathlessly.

  "I set down my lamp very softly, told Nellie in a whisper not to make anoise, and then very carefully tried the key. It turned in the lock. Ididn't dare go in, but I locked the door, left the key in it, and wentdownstairs and out at the front door. I went around the house and stoodunder the window of that room. The side window shutter that I hadfastened back was swinging loose. I went back to the sitting-room,locking the front door and the doors from the hall into the front roomand sitting-room, taking out the key of the front door, and leaving theother keys in the locks, on my side. Then I lit the big lamp, pulleddown the curtains, fixed the side door so I could open it quick, and setthe big dinner bell close by it. I made Nellie lie down on the loungewith her clothes on, and there I sat till morning. Before daylight Iwent into the kitchen and moved about very softly to get myself a cup ofcoffee, and a bite of breakfast for Nellie. I had been careful not tolet her see how I was scared, and she went sound asleep right away. Assoon as I thought you would be up I awoke my little girl, and left hersitting upon the side stoop, while I came here to you. Mr. Brierly'sbrother ought to be first to enter that room, and--if there was anyonethere last night--they're there yet."

  "What room is that which I ought to enter, Mrs. Fry?" said a voicebehind them, and turning, all together, they saw Robert Brierly standingat the edge of the porch where it joined the wall of the doctor's room.

  "I was afraid of this," muttered Doctor Barnes. But the detective seemedin nowise disconcerted. Neither did he seem inclined to listen, or allowBrierly to listen to a repetition of Mrs. Fry's story.

  "You are here just in time, Mr. Brierly," he said, briskly. "Mrs. Frybelieves that someone has paid a visit to your brother's room during thenight, and as she says, you are the one who should investigate, and Ithink it ought to be done at once, if you feel up to it."

  "I'll be with you in a moment," replied Brierly, promptly, and he wentindoors by way of the French windows which had given him egress.