I’ve only been a few hours in England, so to speak, but I’d thought of you, and wondered where I could get hold of you—you’re the only man of your profession I ever met, you see,’ he added, with a laugh. ‘And I want a bit of help in that way.’ ‘Well, Mr. Braden,’ I said, ‘I’ve retired, but if it’s an easy job—’ ‘It’s one you can do, easy enough,’ he said. ‘It’s just this—I met a man in Australia who’s extremely anxious to get some news of another man, named Falkiner Wraye, who hails from Barthorpe, in Leicestershire. I promised to make inquiries for him. Now, I have strong reasons why I don’t want to go near Barthorpe—Barthorpe has unpleasant memories and associations for me, and I don’t want to be seen there. But this thing’s got to be personal investigation—will you go here, for me? I’ll make it worth your while. All you’ve got to do,’ he went on, ‘is to go there—see the police authorities, town officials, anybody that knows the place, and ask them if they can tell you anything of one Falkiner Wraye, who was at one time a small estate agent in Barthorpe, left the place about seventeen years ago—maybe eighteen—and is believed to have recently gone back to the neighbourhood. That’s all. Get what information you can, and write it to me, care of my bankers in London. Give me a sheet of paper and I’ll put down particulars for you.’”
Harker paused at this point and nodded his head at an old bureau which stood in a corner of his room.
“The sheet of paper’s there,” he said. “It’s got on it, in his writing, a brief memorandum of what he wanted and the address of his bankers. When he’d given it to me, he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a purse in which I could see he was carrying plenty of money. He took out some notes. ‘Here’s five-and-twenty pounds on account, Harker,’ he said. ‘You might have to spend a bit. Don’t be afraid—plenty more where that comes from. You’ll do it soon?’ he asked. ‘Yes, I’ll do it, Mr. Braden,’ I answered. ‘It’ll be a bit of a holiday for me.’ ‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’m delighted I came across you.’ ‘Well, you couldn’t be more delighted than I was surprised,’ I said. ‘I never thought to see you in Wrychester. What brought you here, if one may ask—sight-seeing?’ He laughed at that, and he pulled out his purse again. ‘I’ll show you something—a secret,’ he said, and he took a bit of folded paper out of his purse. ‘What do you make of that?’ he asked. ‘Can you read Latin?’ ‘No—except a word or two,’ I said, ‘but I know a man who can.’ ‘Ah, never mind,’ said he. ‘I know enough Latin for this—and it’s a secret. However, it won’t be a secret long, and you’ll hear all about it.’ And with that he put the bit of paper in his purse again, and we began talking about other matters, and before long he said he’d promised to have a chat with a gentleman at the Mitre whom he’d come along with in the train, and away he went, saying he’d see me before be left the town.”
“Did he say how long he was going to stop here?” asked Bryce.
“Two or three days,” replied Harker.
“Did he mention Ransford?” inquired Bryce.
“Never!” said Harker.
“Did he make any reference to his wife and children?”
“Not the slightest!”
“Nor to the hint that his counsel threw out at the trial?”
“Never referred to that time except in the way I told you—that he hadn’t a penny of the money, himself and that he’d himself refunded it.”
Bryce meditated awhile. He was somewhat puzzled by certain points in the old detective’s story, and he saw now that there was much more mystery in the Braden affair than he had at first believed.
“Well,” he asked, after a while, “did you see him again?”
“Not alive!” replied Harker. “I saw him dead—and I held my tongue, and have held it. But—something happened that day. After I heard of the accident, I went into the Crown and Cushion tavern—the fact was, I went to get a taste of whisky, for the news had upset me. And in that long bar of theirs, I saw a man whom I knew—a man whom I knew, for a fact, to have been a fellow convict of Brake’s. Name of Glassdale—forgery. He got the same sentence that Brake got, about the same time, was in the same convict prison with Brake, and he and Brake would be released about the same date. There was no doubt about his identity—I never forget a face, even after thirty years I’d tell one. I saw him in that bar before he saw me, and I took a careful look at him. He, too, like Brake, was very well dressed, and very prosperous looking. He turned as he set down his glass, and caught sight of me—and he knew me. Mind you, he’d been through my hands in times past! And he instantly moved to a side-door and—vanished. I went out and looked up and down—he’d gone. I found out afterwards, by a little quiet inquiry, that he’d gone straight to the station, boarded the first train—there was one just giving out, to the junction—and left the city. But I can lay hands on him!”
“You’ve kept this quiet, too?” asked Bryce.
“Just so—I’ve my own game to play,” replied Harker. “This talk with you is part of it—you come in, now—I’ll tell you why, presently. But first, as you know, I went to Barthorpe. For, though Brake was dead, I felt I must go—for this reason. I was certain that he wanted that information for himself—the man in Australia was a fiction. I went, then—and learned nothing. Except that this Falkiner Wraye had been, as Brake said, a Barthorpe man, years ago. He’d left the town eighteen years since, and nobody knew anything about him. So I came home. And now then, doctor—your turn! What were you after, down there at Barthorpe?”
Bryce meditated his answer for a good five minutes. He had always intended to play the game off his own bat, but he had heard and seen enough since entering Harker’s little room to know that he was in company with an intellect which was keener and more subtle than his, and that it would be all to his advantage to go in with the man who had vast and deep experience. And so he made a clean breast of all he had done in the way of investigation, leaving his motive completely aside.
“You’ve got a theory, of course?” observed Harker, after listening quietly to all that Bryce could tell. “Naturally, you have! You couldn’t accumulate all that without getting one.”
“Well,” admitted Bryce, “honestly, I can’t say that I have. But I can see what theory there might be. This—that Ransford was the man who deceived Brake, that he ran away with Brake’s wife, that she’s dead, and that he’s brought up the children in ignorance of all that—and therefore—”
“And therefore,” interrupted Harker with a smile, “that when he and Brake met—as you seem to think they did—Ransford flung Brake through that open doorway; that Collishaw witnessed it, that Ransford’s found out about Collishaw, and that Collishaw has been poisoned by Ransford. Eh?”
“That’s a theory that seems to be supported by facts,” said Bryce.
“It’s a theory that would doubtless suit men like Mitchington,” said the old detective, with another smile. “But—not me, sir! Mind you, I don’t say there isn’t something in it—there’s doubtless a lot. But—the mystery’s a lot thicker than just that. And Brake didn’t come here to find Ransford. He came because of the secret in that scrap of paper. And as you’ve got it, doctor—out with it!”
Bryce saw no reason for concealment and producing the scrap of paper laid it on the table between himself and his host. Harker peered inquisitively at it.
“Latin!” he said. “You can read it, of course. What does it say?”
Bryce
