TRAGEDY OP THIRD SMOKER

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11563, 16 June 1900, Page 5

TRAGEDY OP THIRD SMOKER

[BY CUTCLIPFE HYNE.] 'I abominate detective stories,' said the Q.C., layiofz down his oue along the corner of the billiard-table and going across to the shelf where tho cigar boxes stood. 'Yon sco, when a man makes a detective story to write down on paper, he begins at the butt-end and works backward. He notes his points and manufactures his olaes to suit 'em, so it's all bound to work oat right. In real life it's very different ' — he ohose a Partaga, looking at it through his glasses thonghtf ally — ' and I ought to know ; I've been studying the criminal mind for half my working life.' 'Bnt,' said O'Malley, a 'defending connsel is a different sort of animal from the common detective.' « Oh, is be P' said the Q. 0. ,' that's all you know about It.' He dragged one of i the big ohalrs np into the deep chimney corner and settled himself in It, after many luxurious shruggings; then he spoke on, between puffs at the Partaga. ' Now I'll juat state you a case and you'll see for yourself how we sometimes have to ravel out things. The solicitor who put the brief in my hands was, as solloltora go, a smart chap. He had ■ built up a big business out of nothing, but criminal work was slightly out of his line. He had only taken up this caße to oblige an old olient, and I must say he made an uncommonly poor show of it. I never had suoh a tbin brief given me in my life. 'The prisoner was to be tried on the capital oharge ; and if murder had been committed, it was one of a most coldblooded nature. Hanging would follow oonviotion as surely as night oomes on the heel of day ; and a olient who gets the noose given bim always damages his counsel's reputation, whether that counsel deserves it or not. 'As my brief put It, the oase fined down to thiß : ' Two men got into an empty third olass smoking compartment at Addison road. One of them, Guide, was a drain contractor ; the other, Walker, was a foreman in Guide's employ. The train took them past the Shepherd's Bush and Grove Boad Hammersmith stations without anything being reported ; but at Shaftesbury Boad Walker was found on the floor, atone dead, with a wound ln the skull, and on the seat of the carriage was a small miner's piokaxe with one of its points smeared with blood. 'It was proved that Guide had been seen to leave the Shaftesbury load station. He was dishevelled and agitated at the time, and this made the tioket collector notice him Bpeoially among the orowd of outgoing passengers. After it was found out who he was, inquiries were made at his home. His wife stated that she had not seeD him since Monday— the morning of Walker's death. She also let out tbat Walker had been causing him some annoyance of late, but she did not know what about. Subsequently— on the Friday, four days later — Guide was arrested at the West India dock. He was trying to obtain employ as coal trimmer on an Australian steamer, obviously to escape from the country, On being oharged he surrendered quietly, remarking that he supposed it was all up with him. ' Tbat was the gist of my case, and the solicitor suggested that I should enter a plea of insanity. 'Now, when I had conned the evidence over — additional evidence to what I've told you, but all tending to the name end — I came to the conclusion that Guide was as sane as any of us are, and that,' as a defence, insanity wouldn't have a leg to stand upon. ' The fellow,' I said, ' bad much better enter a plea of guilty nnd let me pile up a long_ list of extenuating ciroumstanoes. A jury will always listen to those, and, feeling grateful for being excused a long and wearisome trial, recommend to meroy out of sheer gratitude. I wrote a note to this effeot. On its receipt the solloitor oame to see me— by the way, he was Barnes, a man of my own year at Cambridge. "'My dear Grayson," said he, " I'm not altogether a fool. I know as well as you do that Guide would have the best ohsnoe if he pleaded guilty ; but the difficult part of it ls that he flatly refuses to do any suoh thing. He says he no more killed this fellow Walker thon you or I did. I pointed out to him that tbe man couldn't very conveniently have slain himself, as the wound was well over at the top of hi* head, and had obviously been tho result of a most terrlfio blow. At the post mortem it was shown that Walker's skull was of abnormal thickness, and the foroe required to drive through it even a heavy, sharp-pointed instrument like tbe pickaxe mußt have bean Bornething tremendous. " ' I tell you, Grayson, I impressed upon the fellow that the oase was as blaok as ink against bim, and that he'd only Irritate the jury by holding out ; but I couldn't move him. He held doggedly to his tale— he had not killed Andrew Walker." I' He's not the first man who's stuok to an UDlikely lie like that,' I remarked. '"The curious part of it is," said Barnes, "' I'm qonvinoed that the man believes himself to be telling the absolute truth,"' 'Then what explanation haß he to offer 1' * " None worth listening to. He owns that he and Walker had a fieroe quarrel over money matters, whioh I culminated in a personal struggle. He knows that he bad one blow on the head whioh dazed him, and fancies that he must have had a seoond whioh reduced him to unconsciousness. When next he knew what was happening, he saw Walker lying on the floor, stone dead, though hp waß still warm and s.pple. On the floor was the piokaxe, with one of the points Blimy with blood, flow It oame to be so he oouldn'fc tell He picked it up and laid it on a seit. Then in an instant the thought flashed •loross him how terribly black thinglooked against himself. He saw absolutely no oh.uoo of disproving them, md with the usual impulse of crude minds resolved at once to emit the oountry. With that idea he got out at the Shaft-bury road station, and, being an ignorant man and without money, made his way down to Batcliffi highway —beg its pardon — St. George's, High street. Using that ca *> .centre, he smel about the docks at Limehonse amji Millwall trying for a job in the stokehold ; but as that neighborhood is one of the best watohed spots on earth, it is not a matter of surprise th&t he was very soon oaptured. yiiat's about all I can tell yon/ •"I'm afrai.d it doesn't lighten matters up very much." ' " I never said it would. The gist of this is down in your brief, Grayson. I only cima round to chambers beoause of yonr letter." '*' Still,' I persisted, ' you threw out a hint that Guide had offered somo explanation." ' " Oh, ya*i j but suoh a flimsy, improbable theory that no sane man could entertain it for a minute. In fact, he knew it to be absurd himself. After pressing him again and again to suggest how Walker could havo been killed (with a view of escorting a confession), i he said, in his slow, heavy way : ' Why ! I suppose, Mr Barnes, somo one else [ must ha' done it. Don't you think as a ) man could ha' got into the carriage I while I was lying thejee stupid, and hit Walker with the plok and got out again 1 afore I come to ? Would that do, sir?' " '"I didn't think," added Barnes j dryly, " that it was worth following that theory any deeper. What do you sayF ' I thought for a minute and then spoke up. " Look here, Barnes ; if in the face of this cook-and-bull story Guide persists in his innooenoe, there may be something in it after all, and if by any 1000 to 1 chance we could bring bim dear it would be a red feather in the caps of both ol us. Do you object to my seeing the man personally P" " ' It's a bit irregular/ said Barnes doubtfully. "'I know It is bang in ithe teeth of etiquette. But supose we compromise and you come with me?" '"No, I" won't do that. My time's busy just now, and, besides, I don't want to run np the coats In this oase higher than necessary. But if you choose to shove your other work aside and waste a couple of hoars, jnst go and interview him by yourself and we'll waive the oeremony. I'll get the necessary prison order apd send it round to you to-morrow." ' Next afternoon I went down to see

Guide in the waiting-room at the Old I B*iley. He was a middle-aged man, I htmry-f-tced, and evidently knocked I half -stupid by the situation In whioh he found himself, He was perhaps &3 great a fool to bis own interests as one might of ten meet with. There was no getting the simplest tale out of him exoept for regular question-and-answer cross » examination. What little he did tell seemed rather to confirm his guilt than otherwise; though, strange to say, I was beginning to believe him when he kept on; assuring me between every other sen-' tenoe that he did not commit the murder. Perhaps it was the stolid earnestness of the fellow in denying the crime whioh convinoed me. One gets to read a good deal from facial expression when a man has watohed what goes on in the criminal dook as long as I have done ; and one oan usually spot guilt under any mask. •"But tell me," I said, "what did you quarrel about in the first instance," ' " Money," said, Guide moodily. < " That's vague. Tell me more. Did he owe you money ? " ' ' " No, sir, It was t'other way on." ' " Wages in arrear P " ' " No, it was money he advanced me for the working of my business. Tou see Walker, had always been a hard man, and he'd saved, tie said he wanted bis money back, he knowing that I was pinched a bit jußt then and couldn't pay. Then he tried to thrust himself into partnership with me ln the business, whioh was a thing I didnt want. I'd good contracts on hand whioh I expeoted would bring me in a matter of nine thousand pounds, and I didn't want to share it with any man, least of all him. I told bim so, and that's how the trouble began. Bat it was him) that hit me first.'* ' "Still, you returned the blow ?" Guide passed a hand wearily over his forehead. ' I may have struok him baok, sir — I was dazed, and I don't rightly remember. But before God I'll swear I never lifted that pick to Andrew Walker—it was his pick.' ' " But," I persisted, " Walker could not 'very conveniently have murdered himself." '"No, sir, no— no, he couldn't. I thought of that myself sin cc I been id here, and I said to Mr Barnes that perhaps somebody came into tbe oarriage when I was knocked silly, and killed him ; but Mr Barnes be said that was absurd. Besides, who oould have done it?" '"Don't you know anybody, then, J who would hare wished ,for Walker's death P" "'There was them that didn't like him," said Guide, drearily. ' That was all I could get out of him, and I went away from the prison feeling very dissatisfied, I was stronger than ever in the belief that Guide was in no degree guilty, and yet for the life of me I did not see how to prove his innooenoe. He had not been a man of any strong charaoter to begin with, and that shook of what he had gone through had utterly dazed him. It was hopeless to expect any reasonable explanation from him ; he had resigned himself to puzzlement, If he had gone melancholy mad before he came np for trial, I should not have been one whit surprised. 'I brooded over the matter for a couple of days, putting all the rest of my practice out of thought, but I didn't get any forwarder with it. I hate to give anything up bb a bad job, and in this case I felt that there was on my Bhoulders a huge load of responsibility. Guide, I had thoroughly persuaded myself, had not murdered Andrew Walker; assure as the case went into court, on Its present grounding, the man would be hanged out of hand ; and then I persuaded myself that then I, and I alone, should be responsible for an Innocent man's death. ' At the end of those two days only one couase seemed open to me. It was foreign to the brief I held, but the only method left to bring ln my client's innocence. ' I must find out who really did murder the man. I mußt try to implicate some third aotor in the tragedy. 'To begin with, there was a railway j carriage; but a little thought showed , me that nothing was to be done , there. The compartment would have , been inspeoted by the polioe, and then swept and cleaned and garnished, and '. ooupled on to ita train once more, and used by unoonsclous passengers for i weeks since the uproar oocurred in it. I ' All that I had got to go upon were , the notes and relics at Scotland Yard. 'The police authorities were very good. Tbey were keen enough to bring l off the prosecution with professional eclat, over a poor wretoh to the hangman if he was riot thoroughly deserving of a dance on nothing. They plaoed at my disposal every Borap of their evidence, and said tbat they thought that the reading of it all was plain beyond dispute. I thought bo, too, at first. They sent an inspeotor to my ohambers sb their envoy. 'On one point, though, after a lot of thought, I did not quite agree with them. I held a grisly relio in my hand, gazing at It fixedly. It was a portion of Walker's Bkull— a diso of dry bone with a splintered aperture ln the mtddls. '"And so you think the pickaxe made that hole?" I said to the Inspeotor. ' " I don't think there can be any doubt about it, Mr Grayson. Nothing else oould have done it, and the point of the piok was smeared with blood." ' *' But would there be room to swing suoh a weapon in a third-olass metropolitan railway carriage P " ' " We thought of that, and at first it seemed a poser. The roof is low, and both Guide and Walker are tall men ; but if Guide had gripped the shaft by the end, so, with his ' right hand pretty near against the head, so, he'd haye had heaps of room to drive it with a sideways swing. I tried the thing for myself ; it aoted perfeotly. Here's the I pickaxe ; you can see for yourself." I ' I did see, and I wasn't satisfied ; I but I didn't tell the inspeotor what I j thought. It was clearer to me than 1 ever that Guide had not committed the fi murder. What I asked the inspector was this : " Had either of the men got any luggage itj the carriage ? " 'The inspector answered, with a laugh, " Not quite, Mr Grayson, or you would see it here.' ' Then I took on paper a rough outlioe of that fragment of bone, and an -iccurate sketch of the exact size of the gash in it, and the inspeotor went away. One thing his visit had shown me. Andrew Walker was not slain by a blow 8 from behind by the piokaxe. ' I met B.rues while I was nibbling lunoh, and told him this. He heard me doubtfully. '' Tou may be right," said he, "but I'm bothered if I see what you've got to go upon." ' " You know what a piokaxe iB like ? " I said. '"Certainly." ' " A orosß-seotion of one of the blades wonld be whttP" ' " Sqi; are— or perhaps oblong." "•'Quite so. Reotangular. What I want to get at ip this : It wouldn't even 8 be diamond shape, with the angles obtuse and apute alternately." ' " Gert'ajinly not. The angles would be clean right-angles.'* '"Very good. Now look at this sketch of the hole in the skull, and tell me what you see." ' Barnes put on his glasses, and gazed attentively for a minute or so, and then looked up. ' The pick point has crashed through without leaving any marks of its edges whatpver." ' " That is to say, there are none of yonr right-angles showing,'' ' " None. But that does not go to prove anything." ' " JSo. It's only about a tenth of my proof, It gives the vague initial Idea. It made me look more carefully, and I saw this'— l point.cd with my pencil to a corner of the sketch. ' Barnes whistled. '.'A olean arc of a oirole," said he, " out in tbe bone as though a knife bad done it. You saw thp piokaxe. Was it muoh worn ? Were the angles muoh rounded near the point .? " '•" They were not. On the oontrary, I the piok, thongh an old one, had just been through the blacksmith's shop to be re-sharpened, and had not been used sinoe. There was not a traoe of wear upon it $ of that I am oertain." ' IJarnes whistlod again ln muoh perplexity. At length, said he "It's an absolutely certain thing thst Walker waa not killed In the way they imtfgifle. But I don't think this will get (jfuido off soot-free. There's too muoh othe; eirOutDßitantial eytdence against him. Of course, you'll do your best, but—" ' "It would be more than a tosß up if I could avoid a conviction. Quite so, we mußfc find opt "aore. ?ho Question '■ is, how was this wound madeP Was ■ there a third man in it ?'' { ' " Guide may have jabbed him from behind with some other instrument, and afterwards thrown It out tlie window. '

'"Yes," Bald I, " but that ia going on the assumption that Guide did the trick, which I don't for a moment think ia the case. Besides, if he did throw anything ont of the window, It wonld moat assuredly have been found. They keep the permanent way very thoroughly inspected upon the Metropolitan. No, Barnes. There is some other agent in tbis oase, animate or inanimate, which so far wo have overlooked completely ; and an innocent man's life depends on our raveling it out." 'Barnes lifted his shoulders helplessly, and took another aandwlohi. "I don't see what we can do.a * Nor I, very dearly. But we mußt start from the commencement, and go over the ground inch by mob,' 1 So wrapped up was I in the case by this time, that I could not fix my mind to anything else, Then and there I went out and set about my inquiries. 1 With gome trouble I found the compartment in which the tragedy had taken plaoe, but learned nothing new from it. The station and the railway people at Addison Boad, Kensington, were similarly drawn blank. The tjoket inspeotor at Shaftsbury Boad, who distinctly remembered Guide's passage, at first seemed inclined to tell me nothing new, till I dragged it out of him by a regular emetic of qnestloning. ' Then he did remember that Guide had been carrying in his hand a carpenter's straw bass, as he passed through the wioket. He did not reoolleot whether he had mentioned this to the police; he didn't see that it mattered. ' I thought differently, and with anew vaguehope in my heart, posted baok to the prison. I had heard no other word of this hand-baggage from Guide. It remained to be seen ]what he had dont with it. 'They remembered me from my previous visit, and let me in the prison without muoh demur. Guide owned up to the basket at once, ' Yes,' he said, I had some few odd tools to carry home, and as I couldn't find anything else handy to pnt them ;'n I used the old carpenter's bass, I had an iron eye to splice on to the end of a windless rope, a job that I like to do myself, to make sure Its done safe. I never thought about telling you of that bass before, sir. I didn't see as how it mattered.' ' ' Where is the bass now . ' ' ' In the left luggage offioe at Shaftsbury Boad station. Name of Hopkins. I've loßt the tioket.' ' ' Where did you put your basket or entering the oarriage at Addison road P ' ' ' On the seat, sir, in the corner by the window.' 'And with that I lopt him. ' * Now,' thought I, ' I believe I oan find out whether you murdered Walker or not,' and drove baok to Hammersmith.'] ' I inquired at the cloakroom. Yes, the carpenter's bass was there, beneath a dusty heap of other unclaimed luggage. There was demurrage to pay oo it, whioh I offered promptly to hand over, but as I oould produce no counterfoil bearing the name of Hopkins, the olerk with a smile, said that he could not let me have it. However, when he heard what I wanted, he mado no objection to my having an overhaul. 'The two Jugs of the bass were threaded together with a hammer, I took thiß away and opened the sides. Within was a ball of marline, another of spun yam, a greasepot, and Beveral large iron eyes. Also a large marline spike. It waa this last that fixed my attention. It was brand new, with a bone handle and a bright brass ferrule, Most of the Iron also was bright, but three inohes of the point were stained with a faint dark brown. From a casual inspeotion I should have put this down to tbe marline spike having been used to make a splice on tarred rope, but now my suspicions made me think of something else. 'I raised the stained point to my nose. There was no smell of tar whatever. On tbe bright part there was the indefinable odour of Iron ; at the tip, that thin coat of dark brown varnish had blotted this scent completely away, i ' I think my fingers trembled when I turned to the bass again. Yes, there opposite to where the point of the marline spike had been , lying — it was tilted up over the ball of , spun yarn— was a dosed up gash in the side of the bass. The spike had passed through there and then been withdrawn. Bound the gash was a dim discoloration whioh I knew to be dried human blood. 'In my mind's eye I saw the whole ghastly aocident dearly enough now. The two men had beon standing np struggling. Guide had gone down under a blow, knocked senseless, and Walker stumbled over him. Pitohtnjj forward, faoe downward, on to the seat before he conld reoover, his head had dashed violently against the carpenter's bass._ The sharp marline pin inside, with its heel resting against the solid wall of the carriage, had entered the top of his skull like a bayonet. No human hand had been raised against him, and yet he bad been killed. ' I kept my own particular ramblings in this case remarkably quiet, and in court led up to the facts through ordinary cross-examination. ' At. the proper psychological moment I oalled attention to the shape of the punoture la Walker's skull, and then dramatically sprang the bass and the marline spike upon them unawares. After that, as the papers pnt It, ' there was applause In oourt, which was in" itantly suppressed." •Oh the conceit of the man,' said O'Malley, laughing. Grayson laughed, too. 'Well,' he said, ' I was younger then, and I suppose I was a trifle ooncaited. The orown didn't throw np. But the jury ohuoked us a 'Not guilty' without leaving the box, and then leading counsel for the other eide came aoross and congratulated me on having saved I Guide from the gallows. 'Now, I'd have bet anything on hanging that man,' said he,' [The End.] S