BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10127, 9 May 1896, Page 3 (Supplement)

BETRAYAL OF JOHN FORDHAM.

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED,

BY B. I. FASJEON, Anther of "No. 119, Great Porter Square," "Grif," "The March of Fate," "For the Defence,"" Aaron the Jew," etc [All Bights Beserved.] PART 11. CHAPTER XXIX.-{ Continued.) On the following day I paid a visit to John Fordham. He looked at me suspiciously, and was not satisfied with my friendly professions until I related the manner of my introduction into the business, When I mentioned Miss Cameron's name his eyes became suffused with tears.

" What do you expect to do for me," he asked, " when my own evidence proves my guilt!" " Do you believe yourself to be guilty of murder?'-1 asked in return.

"No," he answered. " Would it not bo a good thing to coiv vince others of that ?''

"Indeed it would,"he said, but shaking bis head at the same time, as though it were not possible. " At all events," I continued, " it is your clear duty to do all you canto remove tho stigma from those you love. There is a mystery to be solved ; at Miss Cameron's request I have undertaken the task— what success remains to be seen. If you will have confidence in mo it will make the task all the easier. Surely it is not for you to throw difficulties in the way of your friends."

" Forgivo me," he said. "I am ungrateful. I will tell you anything you wish to know."

" First, as to Maxwell. Had he any suspicion of vour intention to give yourself up ?" "I do'not think so." "It will come upon him as a blow. Can you give me his address ?" " I do not know it." " Since your arrival in England have you never visited him?" j "Never," "Nor written to him?" "No." " He visited you frequently ?" " Two or threo times a week for the purpose of obtaining money from mo." " lie wrote to you ?" ''Occasionally." " Was there no address on his letters ?" " None." "Did it not strike you as somewhat singular ?" " I never gave it a thought." " And of courso you did not examine the postmarks on the envelopes?" "I did not."

*' Did you destroy his letters " Not all. There may be one or two in a desk in my lodgings." I scribbled an order which he signed. It gave me authority to enter his rooms and look through the desk, the lock of which he informed me was broken. He then furnished me with a precise description of the personal appearance of Maxwell. " Your wife's maid, Annette, bad another name?" " Her full name was Annette Lourbefc." " Have you any idea what has become of tier " No." " I want you now to take your mind back to the night of the struggle. It appears very strange to me that in the course of the fight you should both have ascended a flight of stairs. Much more likely to have stumbled down than up. Can you account for it?" "No." " When you finally left the house Louis Fordbam's body was lying at the end of the room opposite the door. Can you be sure Of that?" " I am quite sure." "The table was in the middle of the room ?" " Yes." " Some significant details have escaped your notice. Do you not recollect that in the newspaper reports ib was stated that Louis' body was beneath the table ?" He started at this, and I perceived that he was becoming more interested. " I recollect it, bat it did not strike me at the time, my mind being occupied by tub one thought, Louis was dead. I had killed him." " It appears strange to you now ?'' " Very strange," ne answered, thoughtfully. " In order to argue this oat," I continued, " I will suppose that when you left the house you were mistaken in your belief that Louis was dead. Shortly afterwards be came to his senses. Getting upon his feet be staggered about the room in the dark till his hands touched the table. In his endeavours to reach the door the table was upset." "Ye 3, thafc explains it." I smiled at his readiness and simplicity. " But the fairer assumption is that he would have fallen upon the table, not under it." He stared at me; a light seemed to be breaking upon him. In Jin unsteady voice he asked, "What deduction do you draw from that ?"

" That another person entered the house after your departure; thaft another person hurled the table—a massive oak table, according to the newspaper reports—upon the body in such a way as to purposely mutilate the features." "Another person did enter," said John Ford ham. "I know. Maxwell." " Yes, Maxwell. Ho happened, as he Eaid, to be passing through the street on the nisrht of the snowstorm, and found the street door open." " I have read the particulars in tho document you sent to Miss Cameron. Do you believe his stutement?" "What reason is there for disbelief?" he asked, "when he was acquainted with so many things which I thought no one knew but myself?"

"Which you thought. It would, perhaps, be more correct to say that you accepted his statement without thinking. Mr. Fordham, it is not my habit to throw discredit upon coincidences; at the same time 1 do not accept them blindly, and I decline to accept this. In an enquiry such as this upon which I am engaged _ my mind is open not only to probabilities but to possibilities; everything humanly Eassible must be taken into account, et one of the reins slip through your fingers, and you upset the coach. Maxwell say's he found the street door open ; you state that when you left the house you closed it behind you. I ranged myself on your side. The street door was shut. " Then to enter the bouse Maxwell must have had a key ?" " Exactly. He had a key, and he and your half-brother were accomplices. From your experience of them, probably or possibly?" - " Probable. But this will not exculpate me." " I do not know where it will lead, but I intend to follow it up if I can ;| By the way, where was your wife buried ?" "In the Highgate Cemetery," he answered, with a look of surprise, " where my father lies. Wo havo a family grave there." . " Your stepmother must have been buried In that grave." v " Very likely— these are idle questions." "Not so idle as they seem, perhaps. Another question, more to the point. Maxwell states that he found three articles belonging to you in the Rye-street house— your watch, your gold-digger's knife, and your matchbox. Did he return them to you "No. Ho retained them as evidence against mo." "J, shall be astonished if they are ever brought against you. My impression is that lie will keep out of the way. I may not havo time to see you again this week. If you have anything to communicate— anything occurs to you that may assist mo— write to my office." I proceeded immediately to John Fordham's lodgings, where ho was known as John Fletcher, and had a chat with the hndlady. She spoko in the highest terms of her lodger; he was polite, and civil, "a perfect gentleman," and gave no trouble; but she knew "all along than there was something on his mind." He always paid in advance, and there was a fortnight of his last: payment still to run. In his desk I found only one letter from Maxwell the envelope had been destroyed.

lb was friendly, and oontoiiied nothing' in* criminating. Thoro \ua a reference in it to (> low spirits'' from wbich " dear John" was suffering, and the writer, who signed himself [•• M.," could not understand why John Fordham should be so melancholy. " Cheer up, old follow," said " M." " I shall come aud see you to-morrow, and shall try to put Borne life into yon." I understood why the letter was so carefully worded ; Maxwell was guarding himself against the chance oi his correspondence falling into other hands Before I left the house, with tho lottor ii my pocket, I enquired of the landlady whether she had seen Maxwell and ha( spoken to him.

"Oh, yes," she answered. "Mr. Maxwell ißa very pleasant) gentleman, and often asked me if I know what made Mr. Fletcher so low-spirited, but of coarse I couldn't tell him."

Maxwell had evidently acted with great caution.

A few hours afterwards I got out at the Liverpool station. My business in that city did not take me long, but it led to something of the greatest importance In Fordham's written story of his life which bo had sent to Miss Cameron ho says he is uncertain whether the man who attacked him rushed out of a courtway or a house. There is no court near the house in which tho struggle took plac, therefore that point is settled. The house is still uninhabited, and I had no difficulty in obtaining admission. Mentally following the course of the fatal strugglo between John and Louis Fordham from the street door to the room on the first floor in which Louis' body was found, I was struck by the peculiar formation of the staircase. There wore two sharp turns in it, one of them being nearly an acute angle, That two men striking blindly at each other and fighting for life or death in dense darkness should have ascended this staircase seemed to me exceedingly improbable, and the doubt presentod itself whether John Fordham's account of the conflict was to bo depended upon. \V hen a man's sober senses are at fault, be is apt to be misled by this J imagination. Was it so in this iustanco ? I ; I examined tho oak table in the room. It i 9 of unusual size, six feet square, exceedingly heavy, and set on four massivo legs. All the pressure I could bring to bear upon it was ineffective in tilting it, and I came to the positive conclusion that it could only have been overturned by a powerful efforo from beneath. This proved that neither John nor Louis was responsible for the position in which the table was found by the police. I was convinced that a third person was implicated in the tragic affair ; but though it was inevitable that my suspicions should point to Maxwell, I did not pledge myself to it, There might have been a fourth.

My interview with the agent who had let the house to a " Mr. Mollison" for a month upon triar"opened up the field of conjecture, and was the means of leading to a direct clue—in fact, to two. He hud seen Mr. Mollison on one occasion only, and he gave me such a confused and bungling description of that person that I felt it would be foolish to place any dependence upon it. In relation to this description I pub but one question to him. " Did you observe a scar upon Mr. Mollison's forehead ?"

" No," lie answered, after a little hesitation, " I do not think there was any scar." We then spoke of the London reference which Mr. Mollison had given him, and ho produced the letter he had received in reply to his own. It was signed "R. Lambert," and addressed 214, Adelaide Road, N.W. From subsequent enquiries I learned that this house had been inhabited for only a few weeks during the last six or seven years, and then nob by a person of the name of Lambert.

Wow, I do not profess to be an expert in handwriting, but placing F. Lambert's letter by the side of Maxwell's, which I had taken from John Fordbam's desk, a certain resemblance (by no means perfect) forced itself upon my attention. Accompanied by the agent, I went to the office of an export, who partially confirmed ray suspicion, but declined to pledge himself to ib without a more minute examination. I left the letters with him, and directed him to forward them to London with his report. This was one of the clues I obtained during my brief stay in Liverpool. The more important one (which led to a startling result) was obtained in the following manner: On our way from the office of tbe expert in handwriting to that of the agent, the latter mentioned that, although he had seen Mr. Molliion only once, a olerk in his employ had mot him in the street after the house was taken. Without delay I interviewed this clerk, who admitted that he had seen Mr. Mollison a fortnight after the agreement was signed. Having taken no particular notice of the gentleman, he could furnish me with no better description of bim than his master had supplied, except that he looked liked a gentleman. " Which was more than the man who was with him did," he added. " Ob," I said, " he was not alone ?" "No," was the reply, "he was walking with a friend."

" With a friend I said. " Though one was a gentleman and the other was not?" " Well, I suppose they were friends, because they were laughing at somothing." " What, did tbe other man look like."

" A common sort of man; but he was dressed well enough. I can't say he seemed easy in his clothes. 1 ' "What made you notice him particularly ?" "As I came np to them Mr. Mollison said, 'You did it cleverly, Jack.' Oh, I can show 'em a trick or two,' said the man he called Jack ; and then they burst out laughing. That made me turn round and look at the clever one," " What did you notice in him "That his face was pock-marked, and that he had a club foot." " Was he tall or short ?"

"Short." " Did they see you looking at them?" "I think so, because just then they turned the other way." " And you did not"follow them ?" " What should I follow them for ?" I pressed him hard, but he could toll me nothing; more. All the way up to London my thoughts ran chiefly on this club-footed, pock-marked Jack. Such a business as mine brings a man into queer company, and, without boasting, I may say that I am acquainted with half the bad characters in London, Some years ago I was a detective in the police forco, but thinking I could do bettor, I said good-bye to Scotland Yard, and started a private office of my own. I like a free hand, and I got it and have done woll with it.

Jack. With a club foot, A short man who did not seem easy in good clothes. His face pock-marked. What better marks of identification could a detective desire? I was on the threshold of discovery, and yet some perverso streak kept mo from seeing it. Not till the train was a mile from Sr. Pancras did I suddenly cry aloud—for all the world as though tho name flashed itself out on one of the advertisements in the carriage—" Jack Skinner!" Yes, Jack Skinner. Ho answered the description perfectly. He was short, ho was pock-marked, ho had a club foot, ho was accustomed to wear fustian, I was really annoyed with myself that I had not thought of him at once. But it happens so sometimes.

Jack was his proper name. I daresay, Skinner was a nickname, bestowed upon him for certain peculiarities by which he was distinguished. The house-agent's clerk hoard him say, " I can show 'em a trick or two." I should think ho could. No man better. But for all that he hadn't done any good for himeolf, Jack and 1 were old friends. I nicked him once as clean as a whistle, and gob him three months. " You'ro too much for me, guv'nor," he said, with a grin. He had a wholesome fear of me, but it was a long time since I sot eyes on him. The board was boforo me with a lob of Sieces on it, My next move was to hunt ack down, I will not waste time by relating how I did it. A fortnighb it took me before I had him under my thumb. I don't mind confessing (I didn't bell him as much) that I was not prepared for the disclosures he made. They took me fairly by surprise, and let a lot of light on tho Ryestreet Mystery. I shall let Jack speak for himself. The story he related shall be told in hie own words. ITo be continued on Wednesday next,]