Part 22 (1/2)

Drillford opened a locked drawer, lifted aside a sheet of cardboard, and revealed a fine gold watch and chain and a diamond ring. These lay on two or three sheets of much crumpled paper of a peculiar quality.

”There you are!” said Drillford. ”Those belonged to Mr. Ashton; there's his name on the watch, and a mark of his inside the ring. They were found early this morning, hidden, in the very place in which Hyde confessed that he spent most of the night after Ashton's murder--a shed belonging to one Fisher, a greengrocer, up the Harrow Road.

”Who found them?” demanded Felpham.

”Fisher himself,” answered Drillford. ”He was pottering about in his shed before going to Covent Garden. He wanted some empty boxes, and in pulling things about he found--these! Couldn't have made a more important find, I think.

”Were these things loose?” asked Viner.

”Wrapped loosely in the paper they're lying on,” replied Drillford.

Viner took the paper out of the drawer, examined it and lifted it to his nose.

”I wonder, if Hyde really did put those things there,” he said, ”how Hyde came to be carrying about with him these sheets of paper which had certainly been used before for the wrappings of chemicals or drugs?”

Felpham p.r.i.c.ked his ears.

”Eh?” he said. ”What's that?”

”Smell for yourself,” answered Viner. ”Let the inspector smell too. I draw the attention to both of you to the fact, because we'll raise that point whenever it's necessary. Those papers have at some time been used to wrap some strong-smelling drug.”

”No doubt of it!” said Felpham, who was applying the papers to his nose.

”Smell them, Drillford! As Mr. Viner says, what would Hyde be doing with this stuff in his pocket?”

”That's a mere detail,” remarked Drillford impatiently. ”These chaps that mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He may have pinched them from a chemist's shop. Anyway, there's the fact--and we'll hang him on it! You'll see!”

”We shall never see anything of the sort!” said Viner. ”You're on the wrong tack, Inspector. Let me put two or three things to your intelligence. Where's Ashton's purse? I know for a fact that Ashton had a purse full of money when he went out of his house that night--Mrs.

Killenhall and Miss Wickham saw him take it out just before he left to give some cash to the parlourmaid, and they saw him replace it in his trousers pocket; I also know for another fact where he spent money that evening--in short, I know now a good deal about his movements for some hours before his death.”

”Then you ought to tell us, Mr. Viner,” said Drillford a little sulkily.

”You oughtn't to keep any information to yourself.”

”You're going on the wrong tack, or I might,” retorted Viner. ”But you'll know all in good time. Now, I ask you again--where's Ashton's purse? You know as well as I do that when his clothing was examined, almost immediately after his death, all his effects were gone--watch, chain, rings, pocketbook, purse. If Hyde took the whole lot, do you think he would ever have been such a consummate a.s.s as to wait until next morning to p.a.w.n that ring in Edgware Road? The idea is preposterous!”

”And why, pray?” demanded Drillford, obviously nettled at the turn which the conversation was taking.

”I wonder your own common sense doesn't tell you,” said Viner with intentional directness. ”If Hyde took everything from his victim, as you say he did, he would have had a purse full of ready money. He could have gone off to some respectable lodging-house. He could have put a hundred miles between himself and London by breakfast-time. He would have had ready money to last him for months. But--he was starving when he went to the p.a.w.nbrokers! Hyde told you the truth--he never had anything but that ring.”

”Good!” muttered Felpham. ”Good, Viner! That's one in the eye for you, Drillford.”

”Another thing that you're forgetting, Inspector,” continued Viner: ”I suppose you attach some value to probabilities? Do you, as a sensible man, believe for one moment that Hyde, placed in the position he is, would be such a fool, such a suicidal fool, as to tell you about that particular shed if he'd really hidden those things there? The mere idea is absurd--ridiculous!”

”Good again, Viner!” said Felpham. ”He wouldn't!”

Drillford, obviously ill-pleased, put the strongly-smelling paper and the valuables which had been wrapped in it, back in the drawer and turned the key.

”All very well talking and theorizing, Mr. Viner,” he said sullenly. ”We know from his own lips that Hyde did spend the night in that shed. If he didn't put these things there, who did?”

Viner gave him a steady look.