Part 60 (1/2)

The effect Mr. Skinner's information had upon the sheriff and his wife was extraordinary. ”No!” said he, shaking his head; ”one cannot think him capable of such a thing!” while Lady Rety, who was now more composed, remarked that ”One could not say what a man of the notary's pa.s.sionate character would not do, with such feelings of hatred as had always existed between him and the attorney.”

”Oh, we shall soon know all about it!” said the justice, with self-complacency. ”I would bring it out of this fellow if he were twice the vagabond he is.”

Here the culprit fixed his eye upon Lady Rety, and said, in a threatening tone of voice, ”If I am to be dealt with in this way, I'll confess everything.”

”Dealt with, you rascal!” said Mr. Skinner; ”if you don't speak out the truth freely, the haiduk shall deal his stick across your head!”

”Your ladys.h.i.+p has known me a long time,” said Jants.h.i.+, in a supplicating tone; ”I have always been an industrious and honest man.

But the justice treats me like a dog; from behind, the haiduk strikes me; in front, the justice kicks me and pulls my beard; rather than bear it any longer, I don't care who the devil I accuse!”

Lady Rety beckoned Mr. Skinner to the window, where she whispered to him that she thought the culprit was innocent, and that it would be well to treat him leniently: whereupon the justice swore that the Jew was a liar, and that he had treated him as kindly as possible. ”These Retys are a strange family; the young ones protect the Bohemians, and the old ones defend the Jews,” said the justice to himself. ”If things are to go on in this way, there'll be no use for a minister of justice.”

By this time the body was removed, and Lady Rety proceeded to the attorney's room, accompanied by the justice. Everything was in the same state as when found by the servants immediately after the murder, with the exception of the bed, which they had covered. The pool of blood on the side of the apartment, with the b.l.o.o.d.y knife lying beside it, presented an appalling sight on entering the room, and the lady stood for a moment aghast at the threshold. Mr. Rety and the justice remarked her terror, and advised her by all means to go away.

”Do not distress yourselves; it is only a womanly weakness,” answered she. ”It will soon be over. Mr. Catspaw was our faithful servant, and I cannot bring myself to believe in his untimely end!” And forcing herself forward, as if by a violent effort, she picked her way through the papers and articles lying on the floor, to the drawers; she then went to the box where the attorney kept all his law papers, but was equally unsuccessful in finding the much-desired doc.u.ments. A few letters lay there, which it will be remembered had been put aside by the attorney before the murder.

Lady Rety was well aware that these letters were only a small part of the Vandory papers, and in hopes to find the remainder, she searched with the greatest care and patience. Still all was in vain; and she began to believe that the attorney had burned the other papers, and only kept these few letters, which, as the perusal of one of them showed her, were sufficient to force the bills from her, when her husband's conversation with Mr. Skinner attracted her attention.

”Exactly as I said!” exclaimed the latter; ”the letters which we found on the floor, besmeared with blood, were directed to Tengelyi; and of those two notes there on the table, one is directed to you and the other to Tengelyi. And here I have found at my feet a bill covered with blood. It's in the notary's handwriting: 'Books for Vilma, eight florins; dress for Elizabeth, ten florins,'” said the justice, throwing the bill down with a laugh.

”It cannot be denied,” said the sheriff, looking more closely at the bill, ”that this is the notary's writing; but how came it here?”

”That could easily be accounted for by the evidence given in the examination.”

”Impossible! utterly impossible!” said the sheriff, who happened to be too honest a man to believe Mr. Tengelyi capable of the crime imputed to him. ”You surely do not, Mr. Skinner, seriously suspect the notary? You know he is not a favourite of mine; but I a.s.sure you he is the last of all my acquaintance whom I should suspect.”

Lady Rety, who had attentively listened to this conversation, understood at once the nature of the case. She knew that Catspaw had possession of the papers which had been stolen from Tengelyi's house, and it seemed but natural that some of the doc.u.ments should have been lost in the hurry and confusion of the scuffle which evidently had preceded Mr.

Catspaw's a.s.sa.s.sination. But what puzzled her was, that some unimportant letters, bearing the notary's address, had been found, and this circ.u.mstance drew her suspicions upon Tengelyi, as either the perpetrator of, or accessory to the crime. Her suspicions were confirmed by the fact that no trace of blood was found on Jants.h.i.+'s hands, face, or clothes. ”If,” thought she, ”Tengelyi has regained possession of his doc.u.ments, the best way to neutralise them is to accuse him of the murder; for he cannot in that case produce them, without proving his own guilt.” Led on by this idea, she protested that the case ought to be strictly examined, and that she was convinced that the Jew was innocent of the murder. ”Perhaps,” added she, ”the rascal meant to steal; but since there are no traces of blood on him, it is utterly impossible for him to have committed the murder. You see the room is full of blood!”

”Examine as much as you like!” said the sheriff, who was so irritated by the thought that the best friend of his youth should be accused, that he forgot his usual politeness to his wife, ”Yes, we will examine! I myself will examine, and refute, this very day, the base calumny against Tengelyi!”

”I am astonished at your unusual warmth!” said Lady Rety, with a soft but bitter tone, as she walked with her husband to the cook's room; ”you were not wont to defend Mr. Tengelyi in this manner.”

”Defend him?” answered the sheriff, firmly. ”I think we have done this man a great injustice: he was once my friend; he has lived in my house as part of myself; and, taking all in all, he never did a wrong thing against me, and yet he is the man on whom this horrid crime is sought to be fixed.”

Lady Rety saw, from the humour her husband was in, that it was best to say as little as possible on the subject then, and merely remarked that, at present, it was not a charge against Tengelyi, but only a ”supposition;” and, for her part, she hoped those suspicions would prove unfounded. Upon this Mr. Rety remarked, dryly, that she would certainly see her wish realised.

Mr. Sherer and Mr. Kenihazy had returned from the inquest, and were walking up and down the room debating on the largeness of the wound, which the surgeon had p.r.o.nounced to be mortal, because he had heard that a poor Jew had inflicted it; whereas, if a rich man had been supposed to have inflicted it, he would have declared that it was not mortal, and that death had been caused by apoplexy, or some other illness.

The Jew still stood in the same place in the room which he had from the first occupied, with the haiduk by his side, in anxious expectation of the moment when the examination would be adjourned.

Lady Rety summoned all the servants together, and desired them to relate to her, with the greatest care and attention, everything they knew respecting Catspaw's death.

Mrs. Cizmeasz said, in a timid voice, that she could not deny that she fancied she understood the attorney mentioned the name of Tengelyi when the cook questioned him about his murderer; but she supposed it was all a mistake; for that she was a poor silly woman, and never understood any thing properly. The testimony of the butler and boots was much the same, as was indeed the evidence of all the others: they adhered to their former statement, that the attorney shook his head when the Jew was brought; and everybody admitted that a violent quarrel had taken place on the evening of the murder between the attorney and Mr. Tengelyi, and that the notary had driven him out of his house with a stick.

”But the Jew must know all,” said the sheriff, who had been walking up and down the room in deep thought. ”He was found in the chimney; he cannot deny that; he must at least have heard everything that pa.s.sed.

Rascal!” said he, turning to the culprit, ”what did you want there?”

”You came to steal, did you not?” said Lady Rety, with evident emotion; ”deny it if you dare! It was for that purpose the false keys were to be used, which were found upon you!”