The Paradise Mystery Part 21

"Made an example of somebody," replied Sackville, with emphasis. "I believe there's law in this country, isn't there?--law against libel and slander, and that sort of thing, eh? Oh, yes!"

"Not been much time for that--yet," remarked Bryce.

"Piles of time," retorted Sackville, swinging his stick vigorously. "No, sir, Ransford is an a.s.s! However, if a man won't do things for himself, well, his friends must do something for him. Ransford, of course, must be pulled--dragged!--out of this infernal hole. Of course he's suspected! But my stepfather--he's going to take a hand. And my stepfather, Bryce, is a devilish cute old hand at a game of this sort!"

"n.o.body doubts Mr. Folliot's abilities, I'm sure," said Bryce. "But--you don't mind saying--how is he going to take a hand?"

"Stir things towards a clearing-up," announced Sackville promptly. "Have the whole thing gone into--thoroughly. There are matters that haven't been touched on, yet. You'll see, my boy!"

"Glad to hear it," said Bryce. "But--why should Mr. Folliot be so particular about clearing Ransford?"

Sackville swung his stick, and pulled up his collar, and jerked his nose a trifle higher.

"Oh, well," he said. "Of course, it's--it's a pretty well understood thing, don't you know--between myself and Miss Bewery, you know--and of course, we couldn't have any suspicions attaching to her guardian, could we, now? Family interest, don't you know--Caesar's wife, and all that sort of thing, eh?"

"I see," answered Bryce, quietly,--"sort of family arrangement. With Ransford's consent and knowledge, of course?"

"Ransford won't even be consulted," said Sackville, airily. "My stepfather--sharp man, that, Bryce!--he'll do things in his own fas.h.i.+on.

You look out for sudden revelations!"

"I will," replied Bryce. "By-bye!"

He turned off to his rooms, wondering how much of truth there was in the fatuous Sackville's remarks. And--was there some mystery still undreamt of by himself and Harker? There might be--he was still under the influence of Ransford's indignant and dramatic a.s.sertion of his innocence. Would Ransford have allowed himself an outburst of that sort if he had not been, as he said, utterly ignorant of the immediate cause of Braden's death? Now Bryce, all through, was calculating, for his own purposes, on Ransford's share, full or partial, in that death--if Ransford really knew nothing whatever about it, where did his, Bryce's theory, come in--and how would his present machinations result? And, more--if Ransford's a.s.sertion were true, and if Varner's story of the hand, seen for an instant in the archway, were also true--and Varner was persisting in it--then, who was the man who flung Braden to his death that morning? He realized that, instead of straightening out, things were becoming more and more complicated.

But he realized something else. On the surface, there was a strong case of suspicion against Ransford. It had been suggested that very morning before a coroner and his jury; it would grow; the police were already permeated with suspicion and distrust. Would it not pay him, Bryce, to encourage, to help it? He had his own score to pay off against Ransford; he had his own schemes as regards Mary Bewery. Anyway, he was not going to share in any attempts to clear the man who had bundled him out of his house unceremoniously--he would bide his time. And in the meantime there were other things to be done--one of them that very night.

But before Bryce could engage in his secret task of excavating a small portion of Paradise in the rear of Richard Jenkins's tomb, another strange development came. As the dark fell over the old city that night and he was thinking of setting out on his mission, Mitchington came in, carrying two sheets of paper, obviously damp from the press, in his hand. He looked at Bryce with an expression of wonder.

"Here's a queer go!" he said. "I can't make this out at all! Look at these big handbills--but perhaps you've seen 'em? They're being posted all over the city--we've had a bundle of 'em thrown in on us."

"I haven't been out since lunch," remarked Bryce. "What are they?"

Mitchington spread out the two papers on the table, pointing from one to the other.

"You see?" he said. "Five Hundred Pounds Reward!--One Thousand Pounds Reward! And--both out at the same time, from different sources!"

"What sources?" asked Bryce, bending over the bills. "Ah--I see. One signed by Phipps & Maynard, the other by Beachcroft. Odd, certainly!"

"Odd?" exclaimed Mitchington. "I should think so! But, do you see, doctor? that one--five hundred reward--is offered for information of any nature relative to the deaths of John Braden and James Collishaw, both or either. That amount will be paid for satisfactory information by Phipps & Maynard. And Phipps & Maynard are Ransford's solicitors! That bill, sir, comes from him! And now the other, the thousand pound one, that offers the reward to any one who can give definite information as to the circ.u.mstances attending the death of John Braden--to be paid by Mr. Beachcroft. And he's Mr. Folliot's solicitor! So--that comes from Mr. Folliot. What has he to do with it? And are these two putting their heads together--or are these bills quite independent of each other? Hang me if I understand it!"

Bryce read and re-read the contents of the two bills. And then he thought for awhile before speaking.

"Well," he said at last, "there's probably this in it--the Folliots are very wealthy people. Mrs. Folliot, it's pretty well known, wants her son to marry Miss Bewery--Dr. Ransford's ward. Probably she doesn't wish any suspicion to hang over the family. That's all I can suggest. In the other case, Ransford wants to clear himself. For don't forget this, Mitchington!--somewhere, somebody may know something! Only something.

But that something might clear Ransford of the suspicion that's undoubtedly been cast upon him. If you're thinking to get a strong case against Ransford, you've got your work set. He gave your theory a nasty knock this morning by his few words about that pill. Did Coates and Everest find a pill, now?"

"Not at liberty to say, sir," answered Mitchington. "At present, anyway.

Um! I dislike these private offers of reward--it means that those who make 'em get hold of information which is kept back from us, d'you see!

They're inconvenient."

Then he went away, and Bryce, after waiting awhile, until night had settled down, slipped quietly out of the house and set off for the gloom of Paradise.

CHAPTER XVI. BEFOREHAND

In accordance with his undeniable capacity for contriving and scheming, Bryce had made due and careful preparations for his visit to the tomb of Richard Jenkins. Even in the momentary confusion following upon his discovery of Collishaw's dead body, he had been sufficiently alive to his own immediate purposes to notice that the tomb--a very ancient and dilapidated structure--stood in the midst of a small expanse of stone pavement between the yew-trees and the wall of the nave; he had noticed also that the pavement consisted of small squares of stone, some of which bore initials and dates. A sharp glance at the presumed whereabouts of the particular spot which he wanted, as indicated in the sc.r.a.p of paper taken from Braden's purse, showed him that he would have to raise one of those small squares--possibly two or three of them.

And so he had furnished himself with a short crowbar of tempered steel, specially purchased at the iron-monger's, and with a small bull's-eye lantern. Had he been arrested and searched as he made his way towards the cathedral precincts he might reasonably have been suspected of a design to break into the treasury and appropriate the various ornaments for which Wrychester was famous. But Bryce feared neither arrest nor observation. During his residence in Wrychester he had done a good deal of prowling about the old city at night, and he knew that Paradise, at any time after dark, was a deserted place. Folk might cross from the close archway to the wicket-gate by the outer path, but no one would penetrate within the thick screen of yew and cypress when night had fallen. And now, in early summer, the screen of trees and bushes was so thick in leaf, that once within it, foliage on one side, the great walls of the nave on the other, there was little likelihood of any person overlooking his doings while he made his investigation. He antic.i.p.ated a swift and quiet job, to be done in a few minutes.

But there was another individual in Wrychester who knew just as much of the geography of Paradise as Pemberton Bryce knew. d.i.c.k Bewery and Betty Campany had of late progressed out of the schoolboy and schoolgirl hail-fellow-well-met stage to the first dawnings of love, and in spite of their frequent meetings had begun a romantic correspondence between each other, the joy and mystery of which was increased a hundredfold by a secret method of exchange of these missives. Just within the wicket-gate entrance of Paradise there was an old monument wherein was a convenient cavity--d.i.c.k Bewery's ready wits transformed this into love's post-office. In it he regularly placed letters for Betty: Betty stuffed into it letters for him. And on this particular evening d.i.c.k had gone to Paradise to collect a possible mail, and as Bryce walked leisurely up the narrow path, enclosed by trees and old masonry which led from Friary Lane to the ancient enclosure, d.i.c.k turned a corner and ran full into him. In the light of the single lamp which illumined the path, the two recovered themselves and looked at each other.

"Hullo!" said Bryce. "What's your hurry, young Bewery?"

d.i.c.k, who was panting for breath, more from excitement than haste, drew back and looked at Bryce. Up to then he knew nothing much against Bryce, whom he had rather liked in the fas.h.i.+on in which boys sometimes like their seniors, and he was not indisposed to confide in him.

"Hullo!" he replied. "I say! Where are you off to?"

"Nowhere!--strolling round," answered Bryce. "No particular purpose, why?"

"You weren't going in--there?" asked d.i.c.k, jerking a thumb towards Paradise.

"In--there!" exclaimed Bryce. "Good Lord, no!--dreary enough in the daytime! What should I be going in there for?"

d.i.c.k seized Bryce's coat-sleeve and dragged him aside.

"I say!" he whispered. "There's something up in there--a search of some sort!"

Bryce started in spite of an effort to keep unconcerned.

"A search? In there?" he said. "What do you mean?"

d.i.c.k pointed amongst the trees, and Bryce saw the faint glimmer of a light.

"I was in there--just now," said d.i.c.k. "And some men--three or four--came along. They're in there, close up by the nave, just where you found that chap Collishaw. They're--digging--or something of that sort!"

"Digging!" muttered Bryce. "Digging?"'

"Something like it, anyhow," replied d.i.c.k. "Listen."

Bryce heard the ring of metal on stone. And an unpleasant conviction stole over him that he was being forestalled, that somebody was beforehand with him, and he cursed himself for not having done the previous night what he had left undone till this night.

"Who are they?" he asked. "Did you see them--their faces?"

"Not their faces," answered d.i.c.k. "Only their figures in the gloom. But I heard Mitchington's voice."

"Police, then!" said Bryce. "What on earth are they after?"

"Look here!" whispered d.i.c.k, pulling at Bryce's arm again. "Come on! I know how to get in there without their seeing us. You follow me."