The theory therefore had its defects. It had, though, this in its favor--the lock of one of the gates might have been picked. It had something else in its favor. It suited the Loftus clan.
Mrs. Loftus, though childless now, was not otherwise alone. Behind her were all the Loftuses, a contingent of relatives socially eminent, ponderable politically, super-respectable, synonymous with the best.
To them the death of Royal, however dismal, was not disgraceful--not disgraceful, that is, a.s.suming that it was a footpad"s work. On their escutcheon it put a mourning band but not a blackening blot. That blot they feared. They had cause to. The dark, donjuanesque story about Marie Leroy might have been followed by other stories darker still, dirtier if possible, that would begrime them all.
The footpad theory they accepted therefore at once. Had they been able, had circ.u.mstances favored them, had the man, for instance, been shot in some way or in some place unknowable to the police, they would have arranged to have had him die decorously, if suddenly, of some genteel complaint, of appendicitis or pleuro-pneumonia. Then there would have been no stories, no extras, no pictures, no notoriety, no fear of that blot.
The fear subsisting, they accepted the footpad theory, glad to find it ready-made, declining to consider any other, desisting from further effort, hushing the matter as well as they could, refusing, though urged, to offer a reward.
Yet, though the theory suited them it did not satisfy the public. It was too tame. They demanded something else. That demand the press, as was its duty, attempted to supply. Through methods unfathomably vidocqesque, the young gentleman connected with the _Chronicle_--one of the most enterprising sheets--discovered more about Loftus dead than Loftus living could himself have known. They discovered that in the panic he had dropped a bagatelle of five millions, and announced that he had committed suicide. But while at the autopsy it was not demonstrated that Loftus could not have shot himself, at the inquest it was shown that the obligatory instrument had not been found. Even to vidocqesque young gentlemen the suicide theory ceased then to appeal.
But that only deepened the mystery. To dissipate it and, at the same time, to display an endearing pro bono publicanism, the _Chronicle_ offered a reward of five thousand dollars for such information as would lead to the arrest and conviction of the a.s.sa.s.sin.
Immediately there was a clue.
It was Harris who produced it. Under the guidance of a reporter he was led to the office of the _Chronicle_, where the young gentleman turned him over to the managing editor quite as though the clue were his own.
"Here, Mr. Digby, is a party that knows who shot Loftus."
Mr. Digby was a small man with a big beard, very well dressed, remarkably civil.
"Yes," he said. "And who did?"
"Mr. Arthur Annandale."
Mr. Digby smiled. He did not believe it. But it stirred him pleasurably. The _Chronicle_ stood for the people. Annandale represented the predatory rich. Besides, it was in front of Annandale"s house that Loftus had been found. At once he saw scoops, extras, headlines. Also the possible libel. Meanwhile at a glance he had taken Harris in.
"You are in his employment?"
"Yes, sir," Harris, amazed at such perspicacity, replied. "I am the butler."
"And you saw him do it?"
"No, sir, but I heard him say he would."
"When?"
"The night Mr. Loftus was shot."
"To whom did he say it? To you?"
"To Mrs. Annandale, sir."
"Oho! How was that?"
"It was after dinner, sir. I was in the dining-room. The second man was with me cleaning up. On the floor under the table he found a necklace. I took it in through the hall to the drawing-room. Mrs.
Annandale was there with Mr. Annandale. When I was just at the door I heard him say, "I"ll kill Loftus." I went in and gave him the necklace."
"But why?" Mr. Digby interrupted. "What was he going to kill him for?
What was the motive?"
"Mr. Loftus had just gone, sir. He had been dining with us. He and several others."
"Well?"
"Well, sir, when I was in the hall I heard Mrs. Annandale say as how she wanted a divorce."
"Aha!" exclaimed Mr. Digby. "The plot thickens. Was she in love with Loftus?"
"She was that, sir. Anyone could see it."
"Then what?"
"Mr. Annandale went upstairs, came down again and went out."
"Did you attach any importance to his going upstairs?"
"He went to get his pistol, sir."
"Oho! He had a pistol, had he?"
"Yes, sir. A 32-calibre. I bought it for him myself."
"That is a very good story," said Mr. Digby, who was a judge.
CHAPTER VII
HELD WITHOUT BAIL
The theories and clues in the now celebrated case Orr related to Sylvia one after another as they reached him through different channels. To the story of Marie Leroy she listened, her face averted, without a word. The footpad theory she dismissed. It was absurd. But the suicide theory impressed her. Even to her mind it was not logical.
Loftus was too cavalier, too supremely indifferent, to make it plausible. On the other hand, it disposed of the whole matter.
Moreover, as she put it to Orr, what is suicide but the sinful end of a sinful life? "Who knows," she asked, "what sudden remorse he may have experienced that last night when he was alone there in the park?"
"Suicide," Orr had replied, "is a.s.sa.s.sination driven in. It is the crisis of a pre-existing condition, a condition wholly pathological, one which remorse may complicate but which it cannot directly induce.
There was nothing whatever the matter with Loftus. He may have been sinful, as you express it, but he was sound. Besides, the man had no more conscience than a tom cat."
Nevertheless Sylvia clung to the theory. She had no other. Hopelessly she hoped that time would verify it. But she suffered acutely. Orr"s account of f.a.n.n.y"s att.i.tude frightened her. What frightened her most was the tale that Harris told. The latter she learned from the press.
Meanwhile she had gone to Mrs. Loftus. The old lady had not recognized her, or, rather, had mistaken her for someone else. "My boy is away, f.a.n.n.y," she said, her head shaking as she spoke. "He is away. I don"t know where." She began to whimper.
Sylvia, too, had wept. It was pitiful. The proud, arrogant woman Fate had reduced to a cowering crone.
Meanwhile also Sylvia had tried to see f.a.n.n.y. But at the hotel where Mrs. Price had been stopping she was informed that both were away. An address was given her to which she wrote. For a time no answer came.
Finally from a different address Mrs. Price replied saying that f.a.n.n.y was ill and asking that their whereabouts be a secret. In spite of the little threat f.a.n.n.y was not anxious to be subpoenaed.
But that was much later, long after Harris had told the story which Mr. Digby declared to be very good.