Murder in the Bookshop

by Carolyn Wells

  ‘Only that there might be a positive identification if anything happened to Mr Herenden’s book. The defects of those comma-tails are scarcely noticeable.’

  ‘Can you tell me on what pages you made these erasures?’

  ‘Oh, yes—five, nineteen, thirty-three, forty-seven.’

  ‘I can’t look them up as fast as that. How do you remember them?’

  ‘I added fourteen each time.’

  ‘I see. Now, I am looking on page five, but I can’t find a tailless comma.’

  ‘Haven’t you a lens? A document lens? Here is one.’

  She handed over the lens, and the tailless commas showed up.

  Pierson then drew attention to the bookplates. ‘You rather slipped up here, too, Mr Sheldon. Mr Gorman is too particular to use glue on a bookplate. He uses paste.’

  ‘That is a special gum I use on my own bookplates. I know nothing of what Mr Herenden has on his.’

  ‘Well, then, note this. With this document lens I can see clearly the gum at the edges of the bookplate in both volumes. Moreover, this glass shows me that you used a blotter to press down the bookplate. This made the gum ooze out a bit, and it caught a little purple fuzz from the blotter.’

  ‘What’s all this nonsense?’ Rand suddenly looked angry. ‘Who used blotters to mount a bookplate? I never heard of such a thing!’

  ‘You hear of it now,’ Pierson told him. ‘Take this glass. Look at the gum and the specks of purple blotter on the edges of these two bookplates.’

  ‘He knows all about it,’ Sheldon said, suddenly. ‘He put in those bookplates, both of them. He was over here helping me one day, and he put in a lot of bookplates for me. I hate to do it myself. And I assume he may put in bookplates for Mr Herenden.’

  ‘Do you know, Rand,’ said Pierson, ‘I believe you can’t do better than to spill the whole business.’

  Rand looked frightened. ‘How can you ever pay me or pay for your book, Mr Sheldon?’ he almost groaned. ‘The second, you know.’

  ‘Squeal on me, will you, you young thief! Then I’ll beat you to it. That is your book, Mr Herenden—Rand thought it would be a fine thing to do what he calls a switch. He—’

  ‘That will do, Sheldon.’ Herenden assumed charge. ‘Herbert, tell the whole story, briefly and truly.’

  ‘Yes, Mr Herenden. Mr Sheldon said he knew where he could get a second edition of Venus and Adonis—just like the first, except for the date. He said if I would fix that, he would pay me a thousand dollars to have a new title-page printed, using one of the fly-leaves. And he made me make a sort of stain on the back cover, like the ink stain on your book. He got me in deeper and deeper. He said if I didn’t obey him, he’d tell you and make it all seem my doing. And he made me switch the books on Sunday afternoon, before the guests came.’

  ‘Where did Mr Sheldon get his second edition?’ Herenden asked.

  ‘I bought it.’ Sheldon was now trembling. ‘I intended to pay for it from the proceeds of the one which I took from you.’

  ‘And now you have spoiled that second edition, which you still owe for, and you have nothing to pay with.’

  ‘That’s about the size of it.’

  ‘Hand over Mr Herenden’s property to him,’ Pierson said, sternly.

  ‘Let him take it himself,’ Sheldon screamed, as Herenden did so. ‘You can’t prove it’s your property. You’re afraid to tell where you got it.’

  One of the men at the back of the room interrupted him.

  ‘Mr Sheldon, it’s for you to tell us what you had to do with the murder of Godfrey Kent.’

  Sheldon collapsed as he recognized the Assistant District Attorney, who took him in custody and kept Herbert Rand for further questioning.

  Sherry Biggs was passing as the others left that stricken house. He took Muriel off for a drive, to teach her more Shakespearean slang. Herenden took the path home, with his true first Venus, flanked by faithful Gorman and Pierson.

  ‘I want to tell you about my book,’ Leigh told the man who had helped them, ‘though it’s really Gorman’s story. What was your English cousin’s name, Gorman?’

  ‘Baines. He’s my second cousin. One night there was an unusually heavy air raid over London, and many homes fell to the ground. The next day, when Baines was walking around the ruins, he saw a chap sitting on a bit of fallen timber, reading an old book. The boy offered to sell it to him.’

  ‘Baines knew nothing about old books, but he knew Gorman did. So he sent it to America, saying that if we liked such silly old things, to sell it and send him half of whatever it brought.’

  ‘How did he get the book over here?’ Pierson was deeply interested.

  ‘Baines wrapped it up in newspaper and gave it to a lad who was coming over—a refugee. He sent word to Gorman what ship the boy was on. Gorman met the boy, took the book, and brought it to me. Here it is. Now, let me hear your opinion as to the ethics of all this. We don’t know in whose ruined library the book was found, and we’ve no way of finding that out. So, what can I do but keep it?’

  ‘Until the war is over and we can trace the real owner, it is your book, Mr Herenden. The precious little volume is also a refugee, and a refugee is ever a sacred trust.’

  THE END

  THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB

  E. C. BENTLEY • TRENT’S LAST CASE • TRENT INTERVENES

  E. C. BENTLEY & H. WARNER ALLEN • TRENT’S OWN CASE

  ANTHONY BERKELEY • THE WYCHFORD POISONING CASE • THE SILK STOCKING MURDERS

  ERNEST BRAMAH • THE BRAVO OF LONDON

  LYNN BROCK • THE DETECTIONS OF COLONEL GORE • NIGHTMARE

  BERNARD CAPES • THE MYSTERY OF THE SKELETON KEY

  AGATHA CHRISTIE • THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD • THE BIG FOUR

  WILKIE COLLINS • THE MOONSTONE

  HUGH CONWAY • CALLED BACK • DARK DAYS

  EDMUND CRISPIN • THE CASE OF THE GILDED FLY

  FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS • THE CASK • THE PONSON CASE • THE PIT-PROP SYNDICATE • THE GROOTE PARK MURDER

  MAURICE DRAKE • THE MYSTERY OF THE MUD FLATS

  FRANCIS DURBRIDGE • BEWARE OF JOHNNY WASHINGTON

  J. JEFFERSON FARJEON • THE HOUSE OPPOSITE

  RUDOLPH FISHER • THE CONJURE-MAN DIES

  FRANK FROËST • THE GRELL MYSTERY

  FRANK FROËST & GEORGE DILNOT • THE CRIME CLUB • THE ROGUES’ SYNDICATE

  ÉMILE GABORIAU • THE BLACKMAILERS

  ANNA K. GREEN • THE LEAVENWORTH CASE

  DONALD HENDERSON • MR BOWLING BUYS A NEWSPAPER • A VOICE LIKE VELVET

  FERGUS HUME • THE MILLIONAIRE MYSTERY

  GASTON LEROUX • THE MYSTERY OF THE YELLOW ROOM

  VERNON LODER • THE MYSTERY AT STOWE • THE SHOP WINDOW MURDERS

  PHILIP MACDONALD • THE RASP • THE NOOSE • THE RYNOX MYSTERY • MURDER GONE MAD • THE MAZE

  NGAIO MARSH • THE NURSING HOME MURDER

  G. ROY McRAE • THE PASSING OF MR QUINN

  R. A. V. MORRIS • THE LYTTLETON CASE

  ARTHUR B. REEVE • THE ADVENTURESS

  JOHN RHODE • THE PADDINGTON MYSTERY

  FRANK RICHARDSON • THE MAYFAIR MYSTERY

  R. L. STEVENSON • DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

  J. V. TURNER • BELOW THE CLOCK

  EDGAR WALLACE • THE TERROR

  CAROLYN WELLS • MURDER IN THE BOOKSHOP

  ISRAEL ZANGWILL • THE PERFECT CRIME

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