The Mystery of a Hansom Cab - Fergus Hume (the two towers ebook txt) 📗

of inculcating it into young men starting in life. “Diplomacy,” said Calton, to one young aspirant for legal honours, “is the oil we cast on the troubled waters of social, professional, and political life; and if you can, by a little tact, manage mankind, you are pretty certain to get on in this world.”

Calton was a man who practised what he preached. He believed Kilsip to have that feline nature, which likes to be stroked, to be made much of, and he paid him these little attentions, knowing full well they would bear their fruit. He also knew that Kilsip entertained no friendly feeling for Gorby, that, in fact, he bore him hatred, and he determined that this feeling which existed between the two men, should serve him to the end he had in view.

“I suppose,” he said, leaning back in his chair, and watching the wreaths of blue smoke curling from his cigar, “I suppose you know all the ins and the outs of the hansom cab murder?”

“I should rather think so,” said Kilsip, with a curious light in his queer eyes. “Why, Gorby does nothing but brag about it, and his smartness in catching the supposed murderer!”

“Aha!” said Calton, leaning forward, and putting his arms on the table. “Supposed murderer. Eh! Does that mean that he hasn’t been convicted by a jury, or that you think that Fitzgerald is innocent?”

Kilsip stared hard at the lawyer, in a vague kind of way, slowly rubbing his hands together.

“Well,” he said at length, in a deliberate manner, “before I got your note, I was convinced Gorby had got hold of the right man, but when I heard that you wanted to see me, and knowing you are defending the prisoner, I guessed that you must have found something in his favour which you wanted me to look after.”

“Right!” said Calton, laconically.

“As Mr. Fitzgerald said he met Whyte at the corner and hailed the cab—” went on the detective.

“How do you know that?” interrupted Calton, sharply.

“Gorby told me.”

“How the devil did he find out?” cried the lawyer, with genuine surprise.

“Because he is always poking and prying about,” said Kilsip, forgetting, in his indignation, that such poking and prying formed part of detective business. “But, at any rate,” he went on quickly, “if Mr. Fitzgerald did leave Mr. Whyte, the only chance he’s got of proving his innocence is that he did not come back, as the cabman alleged.”

“Then, I suppose, you think that Fitzgerald will prove an ALIBI,” said Calton.

“Well, sir,” answered Kilsip, modestly, “of course you know more about the case than I do, but that is the only defence I can see he can make.”

“Well, he’s not going to put in such a defence.”

“Then he must be guilty,” said Kilsip, promptly.

“Not necessarily,” returned the barrister, drily.

“But if he wants to save his neck, he’ll have to prove an ALIBI,” persisted the other.

“That’s just where the point is,” answered Calton. “He doesn’t want to save his neck.”

Kilsip, looking rather bewildered, took a sip of whisky, and waited to hear what Mr. Calton had to say.

“The fact is,” said Calton, lighting a fresh cigar, “he has some extraordinary idea in his head. He refuses absolutely to say where he was on that night.”

“I understand,” said Kilsip, nodding his head. “Woman?”

“No, nothing of the kind,” retorted Calton, hastily. “I thought so at first, but I was wrong. He went to see a dying woman, who wished to tell him something.”

“What about?”

“That’s just what I can’t tell you,” answered Calton quickly. “It must have been something important, for she sent for him in great haste—and he was by her bedside between the hours of one and two on Friday morning.”

“Then he did not return to the cab?”

“No, he did not, he went to keep his appointment, but, for some reason or other, he won’t tell where this appointment was. I went to his rooms to-day and found this half-burnt letter, asking him to come.”

Calton handed the letter to Kilsip, who placed it on the table and examined it carefully.

“This was written on Thursday,” said the detective.

“Of course—you can see that from the date; and Whyte was murdered on Friday, the 27th.”

“It was written at something Villa, Toorak,” pursued Kilsip, still examining the paper. “Oh! I understand; he went down there.”

“Hardly,” retorted Calton, in a sarcastic tone. “He couldn’t very well go down there, have an interview, and be back in East Melbourne in one hour—the cabman Royston can prove that he was at Russell Street at one o’clock, and his landlady that he entered his lodging in East Melbourne at two—no, he wasn’t at Toorak.”

“When was this letter delivered?”

“Shortly before twelve o’clock, at the Melbourne Club, by a girl, who, from what the waiter saw of her, appears to be a disreputable individual—you will see it says bearer will wait him at Bourke Street, and as another street is mentioned, and as Fitzgerald, after leaving Whyte, went down Russell Street to keep his appointment, the most logical conclusion is that the bearer of the letter waited for him at the corner of Bourke and Russell Streets. Now,” went on the lawyer, “I want to find out who the girl that brought the letter is!”

“But how?”

“God bless my soul, Kilsip! How stupid you are,” cried Calton, his irritation getting the better of him. “Can’t you understand—that paper came from one of the back slums—therefore it must have been stolen.”

A sudden light flashed into Kilsip’s eyes.

“Talbot Villa, Toorak,” he cried quickly, snatching up the letter again, and examining it with great attention, “where that burglary took place.”

“Exactly,” said Calton, smiling complacently. “Now do you understand what I want—you must take me to the crib in the back slums where the articles stolen from the house in Toorak were hidden. This paper”—pointing to the letter—“is part of the swag left behind, and must have been used by someone there. Brian Fitzgerald obeyed the directions given in the letter, and he was there, at the time of the murder.”

“I understand,” said Kilsip, with a gratified purr. “There were four men engaged in that burglary, and they hid the swag at Mother Guttersnipe’s crib, in a lane off Little Bourke Street—but hang it, a swell like Mr. Fitzgerald, in evening dress, couldn’t very well have gone down there unless—”

“He had some one with him well-known in the locality,” finished Calton, rapidly. “Exactly, that woman who delivered the letter at the Club guided him. Judging from the waiter’s description of her appearance, I should think she was pretty well known about the slums.”

“Well,” said Kilsip, rising and looking at his watch, “it is now nine o’clock, so if you like we will go to the old hag’s place at once—dying woman,” he said, as if struck by a sudden thought, “there was a woman who died there about four weeks ago.”

“Who was she?” asked Calton, who was putting on his overcoat.

“Some relation of Mother Guttersnipe’s, I fancy,” answered Kilsip, as they left the office. “I don’t know exactly what she was—she was called the ‘Queen,’ and a precious handsome woman she must have been—came from Sydney about three months ago, and from what I can make out, was not long from England, died of consumption on the Thursday night before the murder.”

 

CHAPTER XV.

 

A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE.

 

Bourke Street is a more crowded thoroughfare than Collins Street, especially at night. The theatres that it contains are in themselves sufficient for the gathering of a considerable crowd. It is a grimy crowd for the most part. Round the doors of the hotels a number of ragged and shabby-looking individuals collect, waiting till some kind friend shall invite them to step inside. Further on a knot of horsey-looking men are to be seen standing under the Opera House verandah giving and taking odds about the Melbourne Cup, or some other meeting. Here and there are ragged street Arabs, selling matches and newspapers; and against the verandah post, in the full blaze of the electric light, leans a weary, draggled-looking woman, one arm clasping a baby to her breast, and the other holding a pile of newspapers, while she drones out in a hoarse voice, “‘ERALD, third ‘dition, one penny!” until the ear wearies of the constant repetition. Cabs rattle incessantly along the street; here, a fast-looking hansom, with a rakish horse, bearing some gilded youth to his Club—there, a dingy-looking vehicle, drawn by a lank quadruped, which staggers blindly down the street. Alternating with these, carriages dash along with their well-groomed horses, and within, the vision of bright eyes, white dresses, and the sparkle of diamonds. Then, further up, just on the verge of the pavement, three violins and a harp are playing a German waltz to an admiring crowd of attentive spectators. If there is one thing which the Melbourne folk love more than another, it is music. Their fondness for it is only equalled by their admiration for horse-racing. Any street band which plays at all decently, may be sure of a good audience, and a substantial remuneration for their performance. Some writer has described Melbourne, as Glasgow with the sky of Alexandria; and certainly the beautiful climate of Australia, so Italian in its brightness, must have a great effect on the nature of such an adaptable race as the Anglo-Saxon. In spite of the dismal prognostications of Marcus Clarke regarding the future Australian, whom he describes as being “a tall, coarse, strong-jawed, greedy, pushing, talented man, excelling in swimming and horsemanship,” it is more likely that he will be a cultured, indolent individual, with an intense appreciation of the arts and sciences, and a dislike to hard work and utilitarian principles. Climatic influence should be taken into account with regard to the future Australian, and our posterity will no more resemble us than the luxurious Venetians resembled their hardy forefathers, who first started to build on those lonely sandy islands of the Adriatic.

This was the conclusion at which Mr. Calton arrived as, he followed his guide through the crowded streets, and saw with what deep interest the crowd listened to the rhythmic strains of Strauss and the sparkling melodies of Offenbach. The brilliantly-lit street, with the never-ceasing stream of people pouring along; the shrill cries of the street Arabs, the rattle of vehicles, and the fitful strains of music, all made up a scene which fascinated him, and he could have gone on wandering all night, watching the myriad phases of human character constantly passing before his eyes. But his guide, with whom familiarity with the proletarians had, in a great measure, bred indifference, hurried him away to Little Bourke Street, where the narrowness of the thoroughfare, with the high buildings on each side, the dim light of the sparsely scattered gas-lamps, and the few ragged-looking figures slouching along, formed a strong contrast to the brilliant and crowded scene they had just left. Turning off Little Bourke Street, the detective led the way down a dark lane. It was as hot as a furnace from the accumulated heat of the day. To look up at the clear starlit sky was to experience a sensation of delicious coolness.

“Keep close to me,” whispered Kilsip, touching the barrister on the arm; “we may meet some nasty customers about here.”

It was not quite dark, for the atmosphere had that luminous kind of haze so observable in Australian twilights, and this weird light was just sufficient to make the darkness visible. Kilsip and the barrister kept for safety in the middle of the alley, so that no one could spring upon them unaware, and they could see sometimes on the one side, a man cowering back into the black shadow, or on