"I found these on the top of my letters, Checkley," said Mr. Dering.
"You were the first in the room. You put the letters on the table. I found them on the top of the heap. n.o.body had been in the room except you and me. You must have put them there."
Checkley looked at the envelopes, and began to tremble. "I don"t know,"
he said. "I put the letters on the table. They were not among them.
Somebody must have put them there"--he looked at the new Partner--"some friend of Mr. Edmund Gray, between the time that I left the room and the time when you came."
"I entered the room," Mr. Dering replied, "as you were leaving it."
"Observe," said George, "that in the whole conduct of this business there has been one man engaged who has control of the letters. That man--the only man in the office--is, I believe, the man before us--your clerk--Checkley."
"How came the letters here?" Mr. Dering repeated angrily.
"I don"t know," answered Checkley. "He"--indicating George--"must have put them there."
"The Devil is in the office, I believe. How do things come here? How do they vanish? Who put the notes in the safe? Who took the certificates out of the safe? All you can do is to stand and accuse each other. What good are you--any of you? Find out. Find out. Yesterday, there was a handbill about Edmund Gray in the safe. The day before there was a handful of Socialist tracts on the letters. Find out, I say."
"Give the things to detectives," said George.
"Let me take the case in hand, brother." Sir Samuel laid hands on the papers. "I flatter myself that I will very soon have the fellow under lock and key. And then, sir"--he turned to George--"scandal or no scandal, there shall be no pity--no mercy--none."
George laughed. "Well, Sir Samuel, in a fortnight or so I shall call myself your brother-in-law. Till then, farewell." He left the office and returned to his own room, the ripple of the laughter still upon his lips and in his eyes, so that the clerks marvelled, and the faith of those who believed in him was strengthened.
"Before then, young crowing bantam," cried Sir Samuel after him, "I shall have you under lock and key."
"Ah!" This was Checkley. The little interjection expressed, far more than any words could do, his satisfaction at the prospect. Then he left the room grumbling and muttering.
"I believe that this business will finish me off." Mr. Dering sighed again, and pa.s.sed his hand over his forehead. "Night and day it worries me. It makes my forgetfulness grow upon me. I am as good as gone. This hour I cannot remember the last hour. See--I had breakfast at home as usual. I remember that. I remember setting out. It is ten minutes walk from Bedford Row to here. I have taken an hour and a half. How? I do not know. What did I do last night? I do not know; and I am pursued by this forger--robber--demon. He puts things in my safe--yesterday, a placard that Edmund Gray was going to give a lecture on something or other--the day before, a bundle of tracts by Edmund Gray. What do these things mean? What can I do?"
CHAPTER XX
HE COMES FROM EDMUND GRAY
"Nothing," said Athelstan, "could possibly happen more fortunately. We have turned whispering conspirators into declared enemies. Now you are free to investigate in your own way without having to report progress every day."
"About this new business about the letters and the things in the safe,"
said Elsie. "It looks to me like _diablerie_. Checkley couldn"t do it.
No conjuror in the world could do it. There must be somebody else in the office to do these things. They mean defiance. The forger says: "See--I do what I please with you. I return your letters addressed to Edmund Gray. I place placards about Edmund Gray in your safe--for which n.o.body has a key except yourself. Find me, if you can.""
"Yes; it is very mysterious."
"A Person on Two Sticks might manage it. Very likely, he is concerned in the business. Or a boy under the table would be able to do it. Perhaps there is a boy under the table. There must be. Mr. Dering"s table is like the big bed of Ware. I daresay fifty boys might creep under that table and wait there for a chance. But perhaps there is only one--a comic boy."
"I should like to catch the joker," said George. "I would give him something still more humorous to laugh at."
"If there is no comic boy--and no Person on Two Sticks," Elsie continued, "we are thrown back upon Checkley. He seems to be the only man who receives the letters and goes in and out of the office all day.
Well--I don"t think it is Checkley. I don"t think it can be-- George, you once saw Mr. Dering in a very strange condition, unconscious, walking about with open eyes seeing n.o.body. Don"t you think that he may have done this more than once?"
"What do you mean, Elsie?"
"Don"t you think that some of these things--things put in the safe, for instance, may have been put there by Mr. Dering himself? You saw him open the safe. Afterwards he knew nothing about it. Could he not do this more than once--might it be a habit?"
"Well--but if he puts the things in the safe--things that belonged to Edmund Gray, he must know Edmund Gray. For instance, how did he get my note to Edmund Gray, left by me on his table in Gray"s Inn? That must have been given to him by Edmund Gray himself."
"Or by some friend of Edmund Gray. Yes; that is quite certain."
"Come," said Athelstan. "This infernal Edmund Gray is too much with us.
Let us leave off talking about him for a while. Let him rest for this evening.--Elsie, put on your things. We will go and dine somewhere, and go to the play afterwards."
They did so. They had the quiet little restaurant dinner that girls have learned of late to love so much--the little dinner, where everything seems so much brighter and better served than one can get at home. After the dinner they went to a theatre, taking places in the Dress Circle, where, given good eyes, one sees quite as well as from the stalls at half the money. After the theatre they went home and there was an exhibition of tobacco and soda water. Those were very pleasant days in the Piccadilly lodgings, even allowing for the troubles which brought them about. Athelstan was the most delightful of brothers, and every evening brought its feast of laughter and of delightful talk. But all through the evening, all through the play, Elsie saw nothing but Mr.
Dering and him engaged in daylight somnambulism. She saw him as George described him, opening the safe, closing it again, and afterwards wholly forgetful of what he had done.
She thought about this all night. Now, when one has a gleam or glimmer of an idea, when one wants to disengage a single thought from the myriads which cross the brain, and to fix it and to make it clear, there is nothing in the world so good as to talk about it. The effort of finding words with which to drag it out makes it clearer. Every story-teller knows that the mere telling of a story turns his characters, who before were mere shadows, and shapeless shadows, into creatures of flesh and blood. Therefore, in the morning she began upon the thought which haunted her.
"Athelstan," she said, "do you know anything about somnambulism?"
"I knew a man once in California who shot a grizzly when he was sleep-walking. At least, he said so. That"s the sum of my knowledge on the subject."
"I want to know if people often walk about in the daytime unconscious?"
"They do. It is called wool-gathering."
"Seriously, Athelstan. Consider. George saw Mr. Dering arrive in a state of unconsciousness. He saw n.o.body in the room. He opened the safe and placed some papers there. Then he locked the safe. Then he sat down at the window. Presently he awoke, and became himself again. If he did that once, he might do it again."
"Well? And then?"
"You heard yesterday about the letters, and the placard and the Socialist tracts. Now Checkley couldn"t do that. He couldn"t, and he wouldn"t."
"Well?"
"But Mr. Dering could. If he had that attack once, he might have it again and again. Why, he constantly complains of forgetting things."
"But the letters yesterday were addressed to Edmund Gray. How do you connect Edmund Gray with Edward Dering?"
"I don"t know. But, my dear brother, the more I think of this business, the more persuaded I am that Checkley is not the prime mover, or even a confederate."
"The same hand has doubtless been at work throughout. If not Checkley"s aid to make that hand possible and successful, who is there? And look at the malignity with which he tries to fix it on some one else."
"That may be because he is afraid of its being fixed upon him. Consider that point about the control of the letters. The business could only be done by some one through whose hands pa.s.sed all the letters."
"Checkley is the only person possible."
"Yes; he understands that. It makes him horribly afraid. He therefore lies with all his might in order to pa.s.s on suspicion to another person.
You and George think him guilty--well, I do not. If I were trying to find out the man, I should try a different plan altogether."
Her brother had work to do which took him out directly after an early breakfast. When Elsie was left alone, she began again to think about Mr. Dering"s strange daylight somnambulism; about his continual fits of forgetfulness; about the odd things found on his table and in his safe, all connected with Edmund Gray. Checkley could not have placed those letters on the table: he could not have put those things in the safe.