Ngaio Marsh - Death At The Bar

by Ngaio Marsh

"Legge got on well in Illington and Ottercombe. He'd got his philatelic job, and he was treasurer to a growing society. We shall inspect the books of the Coombe Left Movement. If he has not yet fallen into his old ways on a smaller scale, it is, I am sure, only because the funds at his disposal are not yet large enough. All was going like clockwork until, out of a clear sky, came Watchman in his car. That collision of theirs must have given Legge an appalling shock. Watchman didn't recognise him, though, and later while Legge sat unseen in the taproom, he overheard Watchman tell Parish of the collision and say, as Parish admitted he said, that he did not know the man who ran into him. But before Legge could go out that night. Watchman came across and tried to make friends with him. Legge doesn't seem to have been very responsive but he stuck it out. The rat-poisoning party returned and Legge's skill with darts was discussed.

  Legge took up Watchman's bet and won. I think it must have amused him to do that. Now, it was soon after this that Watchman began to twit Legge about his job and his political opinions. I've gone over the events of this first evening with the witnesses. Though they are a bit hazy, they agree that Watchman's manner was offensive. He ended by inviting Legge to a game of round-the-clock and the manner of the invitation was this: he said, ' Have you ever done time, Mr. Legge?' I think that throughout the whole evening Watchman, having recognised Legge, played cat-and-mouse with him. I knew Watchman. He had a curious feline streak of cruelty in him. I think it must have been then that Legge made up his mind Watchman had recognised him. Legge went into the public bar for a time. I believe he also went into the garage and sucked up cyanide in the little dropper he used for his ear lotion. Just, as they say, in case." "Damned ingenious,"said Colonel Brammington, "but conjectural." "I know. We are only half-way through the case.

  It has changed its complexion with Oates's arrest of Legge for assault. We've only been here some thirty hours, you see. If we can check the time Legge appeared in the public bar with the time he left the private one, and all that dreary game, we shall be a step nearer. But dismiss all this conjecture and we still have the facts. We still know that only Legge controlled the flight of the dart." "Yes." "The next day was the fatal one. Legge stayed out of sight all day. Late in the afternoon, he left it as late as possible, and just before the others came in, he went down to the bar with a razor-cut on his chin and asked Abel for some iodine. Abel got the box out of the corner cupboard and gave it to Legge. Legge returned it a few minutes later. He had dabbed iodine on his chin. He had also substituted for the iodine bottle in the box, the iodine bottle he had taken from the bathroom. This he had doctored with prussic acid from the rat-hole. By this really neat manoeuvre he got Abel to do the dirty work and accounted for any prints of his own that might afterwards be found on the bottle. In the evening Legge had a perfectly genuine appointment in Illington. At about five o'clock the storm broke, and I think that like a good villain Mr. Legge made plans to the tune of thunder off-stage. The storm was a fair enough reason for staying indoors. The failing lights were propitious. The Pomeroys both told him he couldn't get through the tunnel. When Will Pomeroy went up to Legge's room in the evening, he found him rather thoughtful. However, he came down and joined the party in the bar. I think he had made up his mind that, if Watchman suggested the trick should be done that night, he would wound Watchman.

  Abel, so keen on antiseptic, would produce the first-aid set from the cupboard. So it worked out. Two points are interesting. The first is the appearance and the consumption of the brandy. That was an unexpected development but he turned it to good account. He sat in the ingle-nook and appeared to get quietly and thoroughly soaked. That would account nicely for his missing with the tricks. In the wood-basket beside his seat we "found a newspaper into which liquid had been poured. The newspaper had been there since that night.

  Fox and I think we can detect a trace of the fruitful vine in the stains. But he must have watched the others anxiously. Would they be too tight to remember he had no chance to monkey with the darts? Luckily for him, Will, Abel, Miss Darragh, and Miss Moore, all remained sober. That brings us to the second point. Legge's great object was to provide himself with an alibi for doctoring the darts. That was why he fell in with Abel's suggestion that he should use the new darts. Legge stood under the central light and waited for the darts to be handed to him. He was in his shirt sleeves and they were rolled back like a conjurer's. Parish, Will, Abel, and Watchman, all handled the darts. When Legge got them he at once threw them one by one into the board, as a trial. That was his first mistake but it would have looked odd for him not to do it. Then Watchman pulled them out and gave them to him. Watchman spread out his hand and the sequel followed. There were six people ready to swear Legge had done nothing to the darts." Alleyn paused.

  "I'm afraid this is heavy going,"he said. "I won't be much longer. Watchman, when hit, pulled out the dart and threw it into the floor. When Gates called for the dart Legge obligingly found it on the floor behind the table but not before Gates, who's a sharp fellow. Nick, had, as he says, spotted it a-laying there. You throw those darts down as often as you like and I'll guarantee they stick in. And moreover we've statements from them all that it did stick in. All right. The lights had been wavering on and off throughout the evening. Before Watchman died they went off. There was a homd interval during which Watchman made ghastly noises, everybody tramped about on broken glass, and Cubitt felt somebody's head butt against his legs. Miss Moore, she told me, heard somebody click the light to see if it would go on.

  Not very bright of Miss Moore. Legge clicked the light to make sure it would stay off. He then dived down to find the tell-tale iodine bottle and plant the innocent one under the bench. He must, as you say, have found the bottom of the bottle hard to smash and have thrown it in the fire. You remember he called out that he would throw wood on the fire in order to get a little light. Just as he did that the lights went on. There's a second switch in the ingle-nook, you know. He'd done another job of work in the dark. He'd picked up the dart and infected it with cyanide. The dart was sticking in the floor, well away from the others. He had only to feel for the table and then find the dart. Here he made the fatal mistake of adding a fancy-touch. We've proved that the dart was infected after the accident. Legge's fingerprints are all over it. If anyone else had pulled it out of the floor they would either have left prints of their own or smudged his.

  He should have left the dart alone, and we would have concluded that if it was ever poisoned the stuff was washed off by blood or had evaporated." "I cannot conceive,"said the colonel, "why he'd wanted to anoint the dart. Why implicate himself?

  Why? " "In order that we should think exactly what we did think. ' Why,' we cried, ' there was Legge, finding the dart, with every opportunity to wipe it clean and he didn't I It couldn't be Legge 1' Legge's plan, you see, depended on the theory of accident. He made it clear that he could have done nothing to the dart beforehand." "Then,"said the colonel, "if the rest of this tan-adiddle, forgive me, my dear fellow, is still in the air, we yet catch him on the point of the dart." "I think so. I explained to Harper this afternoon that I thought it better not to make an arrest at once. We realised that our case rested on a few facts and a mass of dubious conjecture. Fox and I pretend to despise conjecture, and we hoped to collect many more bits of evidence before we fired point-blank. We still hope to get them before Legge comes up for assault and battery.

  We hope, in a word, to turn conjecture into fact. Until this evening I also hoped to get more from Legge himself, and, by George, I nearly got a dose of prussic acid. He must have slipped into the taproom and put his last drop of poison in the decanter. He must also have had that last drop hidden away in a bottle somewhere ever since he murdered Watchman. Not on his person, for he was searched, and not in his room. Perhaps in his new room at Illington, perhaps in a cache somewhere outside the pub. Some time after Harper had searched his room, Legge got rid of a small glass dropper with a rubber top.

  If he used it to draw prussi
c acid from the rat-hole, he must have cleaned it and filled it with his lotion, emptied it and restored it to its place on his dressing-table. If he also used it to do his work with the decanter, he got rid of it this afternoon together with whatever vessel housed the teaspoonful of prussic acid. We'll search for them both." Alleyn paused and looked round the circle of attentive faces. He raised a long finger.

  "If we could find so much as the rubber top of that dropper,"he said, "hidden away in some unlikely spot, then it would be good-bye conjecture and welcome fact."

  "A needle,"cried Colonel Brammington after a long pause, "a needle in a haystack of gigantic proportions." "It's not quite so bad as that. It rained pretty heavily during the lunch-hour. Legge hasn't changed his shoes and he hasn't been out in them. They're slightly stained and damp. He crossed the yard several times, but he didn't get off cobble stones. The paths and roads outside the pub are muddy. He's therefore either thrown the bottle and dropp"r from the window or got rid of them in the house or garage." "Lavatory,"said Fox gloomily.

  "Possibly, Br'er Fox. We may have to resort to plumbing. His whole object would be to get rid of them immediately. He didn't know when we mightn't take a glass of sherry. Now there's a valuable axiom which you, Colonel, have pointed out. The criminal is very prone to repetition. How did Legge get rid of the iodine bottle?

  He smashed it and threw the thick pieces into the fire.

  When be bad more glass to get rid of in a hurry, wouldn't he at once think of his former method? He's a very unusual criminal if he didn't. There was no fire here, but during the afternoon he made several trips to the garage. He was packing some of his books in the car. I think our first move is to search the car and the garage.

  It's full of junk so it will be a delightful task." Alleyn turned to Gates.

  "Would you like to begin. Gates? " "Yes, sir, thank you, sir." "Search the car and garage thoroughly. I'll join you in ten minutes." "Methodical, now,"said Harper, "remember what I've told you." "Yes, sir." Oates vent out.

  "I think Mrs. Ives is still about,"said Alleyn. "She works late," "I'll see if I can find her, sir,"said Fox.

  "You'll stay where you are. I'll go,"said Alleyn.

  Mrs. Ives had gone to her room but had got no further than her first row of curling pins. Alleyn interviewed her in Legge'sroom. She'd taken a cup of tea up to him in the afternoon when he was packing his books. She couldn't say exactly when, but knew it was after three and before four o'clock. She had noticed the ear-lotion and dropper on top of his dressing-table.

  "Particular, I noticed it,"said Mrs. Ives, "along of it being wet and marking wood. Usually, of a morning, it's all mucky with that pink stuff he puts in his ears. ' About time you washed that thing,' I said, ' and I see you've done it.' He seemed quite put-about. Well, you know, put-about, like, at my noticing." "And did you go away soon after that, Mrs. Ives? " "Well, sir, seeing I was not welcome,"said Mrs.

  Ives, bridling a little, "I went. I offered to help him with his books but he seemed like he didn't fancy it, so I went on with my work upstairs. Polishing floor, I was." "Which floor did you polish when you left Mr.

  Legge? " "Passage, sir, and I might of saved myself the trouble, seeing he come and went to and fro from yard half a dozen times, stepping round me and dropping muck from his papers and passels." "Did he go into the bathroom or any other room upstairs? " Mrs. Ives blushed. "He didn't, then. He made two or three trips and after last trip he went into private tap.

  The gentlemen were down there, Mr. Parish and Mr.

  Cubitt. You come up here soon after that to change your clothes." Alleyn thanked her, spent an uncomfortable quarter of an hour on the roof outside Legge's window, and returned to the parlour.

  "We're in luck,"he said, and gave them Mrs. Ives' story of the ear-dropper.

  "That's why he didn't fill it with lotion again and leave it. He'd just washed it when Mrs. Ives walked in, and when she noticed it, he lost his nerve and decided to get rid of it." "The dropper,"said Harper, "had a rubber top." ' It'd float,"said Fox.

  "He didn't go there, Br'er Fox. Mrs. Ives would have seen him. And there isn't one downstairs. It's the garage or the yard. Hallo, here's Oates 1 " Oates came in. He was slightly flushed with triumph.

  "Well? "said Harper.

  "In accordance with instructions, sir,"said Oates, "I proceeded to search the premises——" "A truce to these vain repetitions,"began Colonel Brammington with some violence.

  "Never mind all that, Oates,"said Harper. "Have you found anything? " "Smashed glass, sir. Powdered to scatters and under a bit of sacking. The sacking's been newly shifted, sir." "We'll look at it,"said Alleyn. "Anything else? " "I searched the car, sir, without success. I noted she was low in water, sir, and I took the liberty of filling her up. When she was full, sir, this come up to the top." He opened his great hand.

  Lying on the palm was a small wet indiarubber cap such as is used on chemist's lotion droppers for the eye or ear.

  "Good-bye conjecture,"said Alleyn, "and welcome fact." May 3rd, 1939, New Zealand.

  The End