Although in some respects a plain man, there was a certain innate dignity of carriage and deportment which always distinguished Bernard Maddison among other men. Never had it been more apparent than at that moment. There was unconscious hauteur in his manner of meeting this awful charge, in his tone, and in the perfect calm of his demeanor, which was more powerful than any vehement protestations could have been.
Mr. Thurwell had long had his doubts, and very uneasy doubts, concerning this matter, but at that moment he felt ashamed of them. He made up his mind on impulse, but what he said he meant and adhered to.
"I believe you, Mr. Maddison," he said cordially, holding out his hand.
"I think that the charge is absurd. In any case, please reckon me amongst your friends. If there is no one else whom you would prefer to see, I will go and get Dewes down from town in the morning."
For the first time Bernard Maddison showed some slight sign of emotion.
He took Mr. Thurwell"s hand, but did not speak for a moment. Then, as they stood there in a little group, Helen glided up to them with a faint smile on her lips, and a strange look in her white face.
"Father," she said, "thank G.o.d for those words!"
Then she turned to her lover, and gave him both her hands, looking up at him through a mist of tears, but still with that ghostly smile upon her parted lips.
"Bernard," she said softly, "you know that I have no doubts. You must go now, but it will not be for long. You will come back to us, and we shall be glad to see you. You need not trouble about me. See, I am quite calm.
It is because I have no fear."
He stooped and kissed her hands, but she held up her face.
"Kiss me, Bernard," she said softly. "Father," she added, turning half round toward him, "I love him. We should have told you everything to-morrow."
Mr. Thurwell bowed his head, and turned away to speak to the detectives, who had remained discreetly outside the door. Sir Allan returned to his seat, and poured himself out a gla.s.s of wine. For a moment they were all alone, and he held her hands tightly.
"This will all come right, love," she whispered softly; "and it will make no difference, will it? Promise me that when it is over you will come straight to me. Promise me that, and I will be brave. If you do not, I shall break my heart."
"Then I promise it," he answered, with a slight tremble in his voice.
But looking at him anxiously, she was not satisfied. His white face, firm and resolute though it was, had a certain despair in it which chilled her. The hopefulness of her words seemed to have found no echo in his heart.
"Dearest," she whispered, "it will all come right."
His expression changed, but the effort of it was visible. His smile was forced, and his words, light though they were, troubled her.
"We must hope so. Nay, it will come right, dear. Wish me good-by now, or rather, _au revoir_. My guardians will be getting impatient."
They were virtually alone, and he drew from her lips one long, pa.s.sionate kiss. Then, with a few cheerful words, he turned resolutely away. Mr. Thurwell, who had been waiting outside, came to him at once.
"The brougham is at the door," he said, with an anxious glance at Helen, who was leaning back against a chair, her hands locked in one another, ghastly pale, and evidently on the point of fainting. "These men have only an open trap, and it is a cold drive across the moor. To-morrow you go to York to be brought before the magistrates. I shall be there."
"You are very good," Bernard Maddison said earnestly; "but, so far as defence is concerned, I will have no lawyer"s aid. What little there is to be said, I will say myself."
Mr. Thurwell shook his head.
"It does not do," he said. "But there will be time to consider that. The magistrates will be sure to commit you for trial. They must have evidence enough for that, or Mr. Malcolm would never have signed the warrant against anyone in your position."
"I am quite prepared for that," he answered. "Let us go."
They left the room at once. Helen had fainted in her chair. Sir Allan Beaumerville had apparently disappeared.
They stood on the doorstep for a moment while the carriage, which had been driven a little way down the avenue to quiet the mettlesome horses, returned, and Mr. Thurwell spoke a few more encouraging words.
"Jenkins has packed some things of mine, which may be useful to you, in a portmanteau," he said. "You will find it in the carriage, and also an ulster. Keep up your spirits, Maddison. All will be well."
"At any rate, I shall never forget your kindness," Bernard Maddison answered, grasping his hand. "Good-by, Mr. Thurwell!"
"Good night, Maddison, good night! I shall see you to-morrow."
The impatient horses leaped forward, and Mr. Thurwell turned back into the hall, and made his way back into the dining room. Helen had recovered sufficiently to be able to go to her room, he was told. Sir Allan was still sitting at the table, quietly sipping a cup of coffee.
His legs were crossed, and he was smoking one of his favorite Egyptian cigarettes.
"Has he gone?" he said, looking round languidly.
Mr. Thurwell frowned. He was a man of somewhat imperturbable manners himself, but he was far from being unfeeling, and Sir Allan"s silence and non-expression of any sympathy toward Bernard Maddison annoyed him not a little.
"Yes, he"s gone," he answered shortly. "I can"t believe that there"s the slightest vestige of truth in that ridiculous charge. The man is innocent; I"m sure of it."
Sir Allan shrugged his shoulders.
"I don"t believe he"s guilty myself," he answered; "but one never knows."
CHAPTER x.x.xV
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL
Early on the following morning Mr. Thurwell ordered his dog cart, and drove into Mallory. The arrest of Bernard Maddison had been kept quite secret, and nothing was known as yet of the news which was soon to throw the little town into a state of great excitement. But in the immediate vicinity of the courthouse there was already some stir. The lord lieutenant"s carriage was drawn up outside, and there was an unusual muster of magistrates. As a rule the cases brought before their jurisdiction were trivial in the extreme, consisting chiefly of drunkenness, varied by an occasional petty a.s.sault. There was scarcely one of them who remembered having sat upon so serious a charge. Lord Lathon came over to Mr. Thurwell directly he entered the retiring room.
"You have heard of this matter, I suppose?" he inquired, as they shook hands.
"Yes," Mr. Thurwell answered gravely. "He was arrested at my house last night."
"I can"t believe the thing possible," Lord Lathon continued. "Still, from what I hear, we shall certainly have to send it for trial."
"I am afraid you will," Mr. Thurwell answered. "I shall not sit myself; I am prejudiced."
"In his favor or the reverse?" his lordship inquired.
"In his favor, decidedly," Mr. Thurwell answered, pa.s.sing out behind the others, and taking a seat in the body of the room.
The general impatience was doomed to be aggravated. The first prisoner was an old man charged with a.s.saulting his wife. The bench listened for a few minutes to her garrulous tale, and managed to gather from it that a caution from their worships was what she chiefly desired. Having arrived at this point, Lord Lathon ruthlessly stopped her, and dismissed the case, with a few stern words to the elderly reprobate, who departed muttering threats against his better half which, for her bodily comfort, it is to be hoped that he did not put into execution.
Then there was a few minutes" expectation, at the conclusion of which Bernard Maddison was brought in between two policemen, very calm and self-possessed, but very pale. Directly he appeared Mr. Thurwell rose and shook hands with him, a friendly demonstration which brought a faint glow into his cheeks.
He was offered a chair, and the services of the solicitor of the place, the latter of which he declined. Then the chief constable, a little flurried and nervous at the unwonted importance of his office, rose, and addressed the bench.
The case against the prisoner was, he said, still altogether incomplete, and he had only one witness, whose evidence, however, he felt sure, would be such as to justify their sending the matter to be decided before a judicial tribunal. No doubt they all remembered the painful circ.u.mstances of Sir Geoffrey Kynaston"s death, and the mystery with which it was surrounded. That death took place within a stone"s throw of the cottage where the prisoner was then living, under an a.s.sumed name, and more than three miles away from any other dwelling place or refuge of any sort. He reminded them of the speedy search that had been made, and its extraordinary non-success. Under those circ.u.mstances a certain amount of suspicion naturally attached itself to the prisoner, and a search warrant was duly applied for, and duly carried out. At that time nothing suspicious was discovered, owing in some measure, he was bound to say, to the scrupulous delicacy with which the magistrate who had signed it--looking toward Mr. Thurwell--had insisted upon its being carried out. Subsequently, however, and acting upon later information, Detective Robson of Scotland Yard was appointed to look into the case, and the result of his investigation was the issuing of the warrant under which the prisoner stood charged with the murder of Sir Geoffrey Kynaston. Their worships would hear the evidence of Detective Robson, who was now present.
Detective Robson stepped forward, and was sworn. On the 15th of June last, he said, he searched the prisoner"s cottage on the Thurwell Court estate. He there found in the secret recess of a cabinet, which had apparently not been opened for some time, a dagger, produced, in a case evidently intended to hold two, and which was an exact facsimile of the one, also produced, with which the murder was committed. He found also a towel, produced, which was stained with blood, and several letters. With regard to the towel, he here added, that in one corner of the room was fixed a small basin, and on the floor just beneath, covered over by a carpet, and bearing several signs of attempted obliteration, was a large blood stain. The woman who had cleaned the cottage prior to Mr.