MRS3 The Velvet Hand

by Hulbert Footner

  Mr. Dockra stared. "What's it to be used for, then?"

  Dr. Brill looked at him as much as to say: "What a foolish question." "It solves the problem of the navigation of the air by heavier than air vessels," he went on, as one might explain to a child. "By the use of clarium airships may be made much smaller, hence more manageable, and the cost brought within the limits of commercial possibilities."

  "Where did the name come from?"

  "I called it after Mrs. Marlin, whose name is Clare."

  "You are engaged to marry Mrs. Marlin?"

  "Yes."

  "Why have you and she not got married before this? ... I hope you will pardon these personal questions, Doctor. In my position I have no choice but to ask them."

  "I have no objections to answering any proper question," said Dr. Brill simply. "We have not got married because we could not afford to."

  "Then clarium has not paid?"

  "I have not tried to realize on it as yet. I do not consider that my work is complete. Though I have tried to keep it as much of a secret as possible, such things will leak out; and I may say that I have been approached by an agent of the government with a handsome offer for the formula, besides a very good contract to take charge of the manufacture. But I declined the offer."

  "Why?" asked Mr. Dockra in astonishment.

  "Because of the poisonous nature of the gas."

  "Oh, you are afraid that it would kill everybody who handled it."

  "Not at all. Safeguards could easily be provided against that. I manufacture it and experiment with it without the slightest danger. What I fear is that, in case of any trouble, the government would turn it to the uses of chemical warfare. By increasing its density, a simple matter to a chemist, it could be made frightfully destructive. I could not take the responsibility."

  "What are you going to do, then?"

  "I shall not let the formula out of my hands until I have succeeded in making the gas harmless. It may be done. But it will take time."

  "Meanwhile you need money," suggested Mr. Dockra bluntly.

  "I do," returned Dr. Brill, with his admirable simplicity.

  "Mrs. Marlin tried to interest Mrs. Brager in the discovery."

  "She did."

  "Please describe what happened when you gave your demonstration in this house yesterday."

  "It was a very simple demonstration," said Dr. Brill. "That was all I was permitted. It was held in the double rooms downstairs. Besides Mrs. Brager, Madame La France, Mr. Chew and Mr. Oneto were present. And Mrs. Marlin, of course."

  "Had you ever met these people before?"

  "Never. But Mrs. Marlin had talked to me about them."

  "What do you mean by saying you were only permitted a very simple demonstration?"

  "The whole atmosphere was antagonistic. Of course, I had expected it would be. Mrs. Marlin had warned me that nobody yet had ever succeeded in getting Mrs. Brager to put up money for anything. So it was just a forlorn hope. Still, I might have succeeded in interesting the old lady if it had not been for her hangers-on. They acted as if I was threatening their interests."

  "Well, describe the experiments."

  "I had brought with me three little tanks containing respectively hydrogen, helium, and clarium; and a handful of rubber skins, such as are used for children's balloons. I blew up a red skin with my breath, a green skin with hydrogen, a yellow skin with helium, and a purple skin with clarium."

  "Suppose the purple balloon had burst?"

  "It would have done no harm—such a small quantity of the gas, unless it had burst directly in my face. And I took care of that. Clarium rises very quickly."

  "Go on."

  "The red balloon fell to the ground, of course; the other three rose. I then demonstrated, by using small boxes of matches as units, how much more weight the purple balloon would support than either of the others."

  "I suppose many questions were asked you."

  "Oh, innumerable questions," answered Dr. Brill ruefully. "Most of them quite beside the point."

  "And then?"

  "Mr. Chew said: 'But how do we know that this is clarium, this helium, this hydrogen?'"

  "A natural question?"

  "Oh, quite. I would not have expected Mrs. Brager to put up her money without engaging some qualified person to check up my claims. But Chew's tone suggested that I was trying to cheat her, and she believed it. And—well, that was all. I was given no opportunity to prove my claims."

  "It was a bitter disappointment?" suggested Mr. Dockra.

  "I can hardly say that," answered Dr. Brill composedly, "since I had expected nothing else."

  "I suppose you and Mrs. Marlin often talk about clarium?"

  "It is often mentioned between us, naturally. We do not discuss it because my thoughts on the subject are of a highly technical nature that she could not follow."

  "But she is fully informed as to the properties of clarium?"

  "In a general way, yes."

  "Dr. Brill, are you prepared to give me a demonstration of clarium?"

  "I am." The doctor opened his satchel and showed us a small tank. "I have brought the same container that I used yesterday." He then produced a small pasteboard box and opened it. "I have also several ounces of the powder of clarium."

  "Be careful! Be careful!" cried the prosecutor sharply.

  "In powder form it is entirely harmless," said Dr. Brill with a smile. To prove it, he put the powder to his nose and smelled of it. Little prickles ran up and down my spine.

  "How is the gas produced?" asked Mr. Dockra, still fearful of the stuff.

  "By heating the powder in a retort."

  Mr. Dockra sent outside the room, and one of his men came in carrying a cage with a canary in it. I do not know whether they had found it in the house, or had sent out for it. I foresaw what was coming, and shivered.

  "What I want," said Mr. Dockra, "is a demonstration of the effect of clarium gas on a breathing organism, such as this bird."

  "Nothing easier," said Dr. Brill, rising.

  "Not here!" said Mr. Dockra.

  "There is no danger," said the chemist. "An infinitesimal amount will be sufficient. If the cage is placed up high the gas will lose itself under the ceiling. A few minutes after its release it becomes innocuous. All I require is a piece of impervious material such as rubberized cloth."

  One of the detectives handed him a raincoat.

  "You have not given Dr. Brill the customary warning," remarked Mme Storey.

  Mr. Dockra looked annoyed. "You understand that the result of this experiment may be used against you later."

  "Nothing is to be gained by refusing to make it," said Dr. Brill simply.

  Mrs. Marlin's writing desk had a high back, with pigeonholes, etc., and shelves for books above that. Such an article used to be called an escritoire when I was a child. Removing the books from the top shelf Dr. Brill placed the cage upon it, and covered it carefully with the raincoat. I had a final glimpse of the tiny bird hopping from perch to perch in wild affright. The doctor then ran a rubber tube from the cock of the gas container into the cage under the covering, and sat down. Mr. Dockra made believe to have business out in the hall at that moment. I was nervous myself; but as my mistress remained sitting quietly in her chair I had to do likewise.

  Dr. Brill turned the cock of the gas tank. There was a tiny hiss, and he shut it off again. He looked around him, saw Mr. Dockra's walking stick, where he had laid it on the bed; lifted the raincoat off the cage with the stick; carried the coat to the door, gave it a shake, and handed it back to the man who had lent it to him. The little bird lay dead on the floor of the cage.

  Mr. Dockra called for Dr. Patten. When the physician entered, the prosecutor said to him significantly:

  "You know what you have to do."

  Dr. Patten carried the cage with the dead bird in it into Mrs. Brager's room and closed the door behind him. There was a long wait. Dr. Brill sat throughout without moving, his head lowered, lo
st in thought. Mr. Dockra whispered with two of his men. Mme Storey left the room.

  Dr. Patten returned, and made a whispered communication to the prosecutor. "You can testify to that?" asked Mr. Dockra. Dr. Patten nodded.

  My mistress returned in time for Mr. Dockra's announcement. "Dr. Patten has established the fact that the two birds in Mrs. Brager's room met their deaths in the same manner as the bird you have just seen killed by Dr. Brill. There are certain peculiarities in the effects upon the respiratory organs. It follows therefore that Mrs. Brager was killed by inhaling clarium gas."

  VIII

  Dr. Brill was still under examination. "Can anybody have stolen the formula for making clarium gas?" asked Mr. Dockra.

  He shook his head. "It has never been written down. It is all in here," he tapped his forehead.

  "When you were in this house yesterday, did you leave any of the gas or the powder here?"

  "No."

  "Could it have been abstracted from among your things without your knowledge?"

  "No."

  "Have you at any time ever allowed any of the gas or the powder out of your possession?"

  This was evidently the question that Dr. Brill dreaded. He became very pale. "Yes," he murmured low.

  "Ha!" cried Mr. Dockra. "Under what circumstances, please?"

  Dr. Brill hesitated painfully. "What I am about to say has an ugly look," he said slowly: "but there could not be anything in it; there could not!"

  We pricked up our ears at this.

  "Never mind about the look of it. Say it."

  "Yesterday, shortly after I had returned to my laboratory from this house," Dr. Brill continued, "I was called to the telephone. A man who said he was the Honourable Shep Chew was on the wire. He told me that Mrs. Brager had changed her mind in respect to clarium gas; that if I was willing to fulfil the condition she laid down, she would advance the money I required. The condition was that I mail to Mrs. Marlin sufficient of the powder to experiment with; Mrs. Marlin was to carry it to a firm of independent chemists, and if their findings agreed with my claims the money would be placed at my disposal."

  "Well, what did you do?"

  "I immediately did up three ounces of the powder in a tin box and put it in the mail."

  Mr. Dockra's lip curled incredulously. I confess that the story sounds far-fetched when I repeat it; but no observant person who watched the simplicity with which it was told could very well have disbelieved it.

  "Did you recognize Mr. Chew's voice?" asked Mr. Dockra.

  "I cannot say that I did," said Dr. Brill with his dogged honesty.

  "You had heard him speaking an hour before."

  "I know; but his voice had not impressed me."

  "Did it not seem strange to you that Mrs. Marlin herself had not called you up?"

  "Mr. Chew had appeared to be Mrs. Brager's principal mouthpiece."

  "And you did not question this telephone call at all?"

  "No, I was too happy about it," said Dr. Brill simply. "When a thing that you wish for so much comes about, you do not naturally question it."

  "It appears not," said Mr. Dockra sarcastically.

  "May I ask a question?" put in Mme Storey.

  Mr. Dockra bowed to her gallantly.

  "Was it not strange that Mrs. Marlin should not call you up afterward about such an important thing, such a fortunate thing?" she asked.

  "I have an aversion to talking on the telephone," said Dr. Brill.

  "Is that generally known?"

  "Mrs. Marlin knows it. We never talk over the telephone.... I sent her a note and enclosed it between the tin box and the paper wrapping."

  "That is against the postal regulations," said Mme Storey, smiling.

  "Well, I couldn't find an envelope."

  "At what hour did this conversation take place?" asked Mr. Dockra.

  "My laboratory is in Fordham. I reached there at six o'clock. It would be about ten minutes later."

  Mr. Chew was called into the room.

  "Mr. Chew," said Mr. Dockra, "Dr. Brill states that he was called up at his laboratory at six ten last evening by a man who gave your name."

  "It's a lie!" cried Mr. Chew excitedly. "I never called him up in my life. At ten minutes past six, you say? At ten minutes past six I was talking to a friend in the lobby of the Stanfield Arms. I can prove it! What does he say that I said to him?"

  Mr. Dockra motioned to him to be silent. "Now, Dr. Brill," he said to the other, "you have heard his voice again. Was that the voice that spoke to you over the telephone last evening?"

  "I don't think so," said Dr. Brill heavily. "It was a sort of growling voice."

  I glanced at Mme Storey in astonishment. Was it the growling voice we knew? Her face gave nothing away.

  Mr. Chew, much against his will, was dismissed from the room, and the maidservant Maud Pickens was brought in. The girl was paralyzed with fright, and it was with the greatest difficulty that we could get anything out of her. However, we finally established that: she had taken the mail in at a few minutes before nine; she had laid it on the hall table; she remembered seeing the little package addressed to Mrs. Marlin; Mrs. Marlin had already gone to market when the mail came; she thought that Mr. Chew, Mr. Oneto, and Mme La France had all come out into the hall to see what was in the mail; Mrs. Marlin had returned from market at five minutes past ten; she had come into the kitchen; she had a number of packages; the witness could not state if she then had the little package that had come in the mail.

  Afterward Mr. Chew, Mme La France, and Oneto each stated in turn that they had seen the little package when it arrived, and that it was still lying on the hall table when they had gone out.

  "Well, my case is beginning to shape up," remarked Mr. Dockra, glancing at my mistress as much as to say: "We won't need you in this."

  "I congratulate you," said Mme Storey dryly.

  After the last three had testified, Mr. Dockra allowed them to remain in the room. He was not averse to making a grand-stand play, as you have seen, and he thus made sure of his gallery. During all this Dr. Brill had remained sitting at the foot of the bed in an attitude of the deepest sadness, arms folded, chin sunk on his breast. I have never seen a man sit so still under stress of emotion.

  "Now, Dr. Brill," said Mr. Dockra briskly.

  The young chemist raised his pale, drawn face. He foresaw, of course, that worse was coming.

  "You have stated," the prosecutor went on, "that you were in need of money. Within the past few days, has not that need become acute?"

  Dr. Brill did not answer immediately.

  "Is it not a fact that you have been given notice to quit your laboratory unless you can pay the arrears of rent?"

  "Yes."

  "May I ask a question?" put in Mme Storey.

  Mr. Dockra was none too well pleased to be interrupted; however, he bowed.

  "You spoke of answering many questions yesterday," said Mme Storey, "when you were demonstrating clarium. Did you describe to the company how to produce the gas from the powder?"

  "Yes, Madame."

  "Well, who asked you that question?"

  One could feel the suspense tighten in the breast of every hearer. Unfortunately Dr. Brill made the worst possible witness for himself. He spread out his hands helplessly.

  "I cannot tell you, Madame. It is possible that I volunteered the information without being asked."

  "But everybody in the room heard you describe how to do it?"

  "Yes, Madame."

  Mme Storey bowed to Mr. Dockra; and he proceeded, after letting his eyes travel around the circle to make sure that he had our attention.

  "Dr. Brill, have you ever discussed with Mrs. Marlin the possibility of using a makeshift retort for releasing the gas?"

  "I cannot recollect doing so."

  "Be careful what you say, sir!"

  Dr. Brill looked at him suddenly and full. "I am always careful what I say, sir."

  Mr. Dockra wagged an inquisitorial
forefinger at him. "Have you ever discussed the possibility of using a common kettle for the purpose?" This was where the prosecutor sprung his great surprise. "Such a kettle as this, for instance?" He snatched up the brass kettle from its stand and handed it to the doctor.

  It was not a complete surprise to me, because Mme Storey had warned me about that kettle. But it made me anxious, to see the prosecutor thus stealing our thunder. I stole a glance at Mme Storey. She was calm.

  Dr. Brill turned the kettle over in his hands unsuspectingly. "Certainly we have never discussed this," he said.

  "Examine it closely!" said the prosecutor raspingly.

  Dr. Brill removed the cover and looked inside. Suddenly his eyes became intent. He carried the kettle hastily to his nose and sniffed it. Turning it upside down, he examined the bottom. A startling change came over his face; his eyes bolted; I saw the fine drops of sweat spring out on his forehead.

  "Well, sir, what do you find?" barked the prosecutor.

  The tortured man moistened his pale lips. "Nothing," he stammered.

  Mr. Dockra pressed him mercilessly. "Do you not find that clarium powder has lately been burned in that kettle? It has not even been washed out! A fatal error, but perhaps there was no time!"

  "I refuse to answer," muttered Dr. Brill.

  "You have already answered me sufficiently for the present," said Mr. Dockra, with a satisfied smile. "Later you will have to answer."

  Dr. Brill suddenly rose. "Let me see Clare," he said hoarsely, "here, before you all. Then I will answer you!"

  "Oh, very well," said Mr. Dockra, not at all displeased by the suggestion. He expected further disclosures. One of the detectives was sent upstairs to fetch Mrs. Marlin.

  I dreaded what was coming. I never doubted the innocence of that little woman; but I was terrified at the strength of the case which the wily prosecutor had built up against her. I could see no loophole of escape. When all that was presented to a jury, how could they do otherwise than convict? I looked at my mistress. How I longed to have her uncover her guns! But she gave no sign. From her I looked at that precious trio: Chew, La France, and Oneto; each of their faces bore a similar ratlike look of mean exultation. They were delighted to see Mrs. Marlin, as they would have said, getting hers.