The Sign of the Stranger

by William Le Queux

intention that she should;therefore I sprang forward, seized her, and at the same time shriekedwith all my might--

  "Murder! Murder! Help--_help_!"

  Her companion flung himself upon me, beating me about the head, but Ihad gripped them both, and in a few moments there sounded hurryingfootsteps and several persons, including the detective Bullen, cametearing round the street-corner.

  Next second the pair recognised how very neatly they had been trapped.

  CHAPTER TEN.

  THE EARL OF STANCHESTER SPEAKS HIS MIND.

  "Let me go!" cried the woman, speaking in French in her excitement."Let us cry quits and I will tell the truth. If I am arrested, LadyLolita must also fall into the hands of the police. You do not knoweverything or you would not do this! Let us go--and save her."

  There was something in her quick argument that struck me as truthful.If the pair were arrested they might certainly lay some counter-charge,true or false, against my love, therefore with as sudden an impulse as Ihad raised the alarm I released my hold, saying--

  "Very well. That's a bargain. I shall hold you both to it, remember.Get away as quickly as you can."

  And before the detective, the newsvendor and the two other men attractedby my shouts could reach the spot, the pair had sped along the ChelseaEmbankment as fast as their legs could carry them and turned into anarrow thoroughfare running parallel with Britten Street.

  The detective had, of course, not recognised them and when he inquiredwhat was the matter I merely explained that two drunken men had struckme on the head when passing, and that I had been alarmed.

  "Well," he grunted, "you needn't have kicked up such a fuss. We thoughtyou were being killed, at least!"

  "The fact is," I responded lamely, "I was frightened. I'm from thecountry, you see, and don't appreciate the horseplay of your Londonhooligans."

  "Then you'd better not take evening walks along this place," was the manBullen's response, while the ragged newsvendor picked up my batteredsilk hat, and handing it to me with a grim laugh, said--

  "You'll want a new 'un, sir. Them 'ooligans likes toppers. Some o'Jimmy Boyle's gang agin, I 'spect."

  To which the detective answered--

  "I expect so. They'll get into trouble one of these nights."

  And so the curious incident ended. I walked with them to the furtherend of Britten Street, taking leave of the unsuspecting detective in theKing's Road. He returned to his vigil, but I laughed within myselfknowing how ingeniously the wily pair had slipped through his fingers.

  On my drive back to the club I wondered whether I had acted wisely. Atany rate I had made the acquaintance of the woman Lejeune, and hadsucceeded in showing her that I was prepared to aid her in exchange forthe secret upon the knowledge of which Lolita's future depended.Whether she would keep faith with me was quite another matter.

  I deeply regretted that I had not been able to ascertain the name of theman who had been Lolita's companion and had talked so earnestly with herin the wood. Without doubt he knew of the tragedy in the park--if,indeed, he were not the actual murderer. This latter suspicion becamesomehow impressed upon me. His face had gone ashen grey when I hadrevealed to them that a detective was awaiting them round the corner.

  Was it possible that he had come to London in order to hide, knowingthat the Metropolis is the best place to secrete oneself in all theworld.

  Next day at noon I sat in the schoolroom at Sibberton, listening to theopening of the Coroner's inquiry into the tragedy. The facts havingalready got into the papers, the small room was crowded to suffocationby villagers and outsiders. The jury had viewed the body over at the_Stanchester Arms_ opposite, and after a few introductory remarks fromthe Coroner, a solicitor from Northampton, I was called as the firstwitness.

  I told how I had obtained the assistance of the publican Warr, anddescribed how we had found the body of the murdered man. Then, when Ihad concluded, the foreman of the jury, a man who combined the avocationof baker and local preacher, asked--

  "What first aroused your attention?"

  "I heard a noise," I replied. I did not intend to tell them the truth--that it was a woman's cry. "A noise from behind the trees in theavenue," I added. "It was very dark at that point."

  "You saw no one?"

  "Nobody. I came to the village at once for assistance."

  "Any other questions to ask?" inquired the Coroner of the jury.

  "I would like, sir, to inquire whether Mr Woodhouse had any suspicionof the body having been searched before he discovered it?" asked Redway,the police officer.

  My answer was a negative one. I feared he was about to question meregarding the footprints, and held my breath in fear and expectation.

  "What time elapsed between the hour when you heard the noise and thediscovery of the tragic occurrence?" the Coroner asked.

  "About half an hour."

  A dozen other questions upon points of detail were put to me, but theywere of no importance. Neither was the evidence given by Warr or anyother of the witnesses, except perhaps that of Dr Pink, who, in hissharp way and using many medical terms which conveyed no meaning to themajority of those in the room, explained that the result of thepost-mortem was that the man had been fatally stabbed.

  "The instrument used was not an ordinary knife," the doctor continued."From the appearance of the wound it must have been inflicted by a longthin triangular instrument almost like a skewer. With a sharp pointthis would penetrate the man's clothing much more easily than a knife ordagger, which requires considerable force to drive to the heart. Mycolleague, Doctor Newman, agrees with me that such an instrument as wasused could be used fatally with very little force. It was, at thepoint, almost as sharp as a needle, and each of the three sides werekeen-edged as razors--a terrible weapon. I don't think it was much morethan a quarter of an inch across at its widest part."

  The public heard this and sat mystified.

  "Then it would appear very much as though the crime were a premeditatedone," remarked the Coroner, looking up when he had finished laboriouslywriting down the depositions with his scratchy quill.

  "Undoubtedly," replied the doctor. "The man is a complete stranger, andno doubt kept an appointment at that spot and was done to death. Thesteel inflicted a mortal wound, and he must have expired in a fewmoments."

  "Any questions to ask the doctor?" inquired the Coroner turning to thetwelve villagers who sat in a row in their Sunday clothes.

  There was no response, therefore Redway was called, and the public, towhom he was well-known, were instantly on the alert.

  "Philip Redway, inspector, Northamptonshire Constabulary," he commenced,giving his evidence with the business-like air of police officials. "Iwas called by Constable Knight of Sibberton at five AM on the 18th ofAugust and drove back with him to a spot in Sibberton Park where thedeceased had been discovered. I examined the ground carefully and foundcertain marks of footprints, casts of which I have taken. I afterwardssaw the body of the deceased, but do not identify him. His descriptionhas been circulated throughout the Kingdom, but up to the present no onehas recognised him. I have also had the body photographed."

  "These footprints?" asked the Coroner, laying down his pen and lookingat the inspector. "Are you of opinion that they will form anysubstantial clue to the assassin?"

  "The marks were those of a woman's feet," Redway explained, whereatthere was a stir of sensation among the public, who sat so quiet andopen-mouthed that the proverbial pin might hitherto have been heard hadit been dropped.

  "Recent?"

  "No doubt," was his reply. "There were also the marks of the boots wornby deceased--and of others. The latter were probably those of MrWoodhouse, Mr Warr and Constable Knight. They were so overtrodden thatit was very difficult to recognise any distinctly. One fact, however,that I might mention, sir, and which adds a peculiar mystery to thiscase, is that I discovered that certain footprints had been deliberatelyerased."

  "Erased!" exclaimed t
he Coroner, surprised. "How do you mean?"

  "Scratched over by some person who was able to visit the spot before Icould arrive there."

  "Some accomplice?"

  "It seems so. The spot was unfortunately left unguarded during Knight'sabsence to warn me, and in that time it would appear that some one wentthere and deliberately set about to defeat the ends of justice."

  "This seems very curious and suspicious, gentlemen," remarked theCoroner, re-adjusting his gold pince-nez as he turned to the twelveexpectant jurymen. "If the theory of the police is true, then somesecond person, having knowledge of the crime, risked arrest and actuallywent to the spot and effaced those tell-tale marks.