The Red Thumb Mark Read online

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  THE RED THUMB MARK

  BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN

  PREFACE

  In writing the following story, the author has had in view no purposeother than that of affording entertainment to such readers as areinterested in problems of crime and their solutions; and the storyitself differs in no respect from others of its class, excepting in thatan effort has been made to keep within the probabilities of ordinarylife, both in the characters and in the incidents.

  Nevertheless it may happen that the book may serve a useful purpose indrawing attention to certain popular misapprehensions on the subject offinger-prints and their evidential value; misapprehensions the extent ofwhich may be judged when we learn from the newspapers that severalContinental commercial houses have actually substituted finger-printsfor signed initials.

  The facts and figures contained in Mr. Singleton's evidence, includingthe very liberal estimate of the population of the globe, are, ofcourse, taken from Mr. Galton's great and important work onfinger-prints; to which the reader who is interested in the subject isreferred for much curious and valuable information.

  In conclusion, the author desires to express his thanks to his friendMr. Bernard E. Bishop for the assistance rendered to him in certainphotographic experiments, and to those officers of the Central CriminalCourt who very kindly furnished him with details of the procedure incriminal trials.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER IMY LEARNED BROTHER

  CHAPTER IITHE SUSPECT

  CHAPTER IIIA LADY IN THE CASE

  CHAPTER IVCONFIDENCES

  CHAPTER VTHE "THUMBOGRAPH"

  CHAPTER VICOMMITTED FOR TRIAL

  CHAPTER VIISHOALS AND QUICKSANDS

  CHAPTER VIIIA SUSPICIOUS ACCIDENT

  CHAPTER IXTHE PRISONER

  CHAPTER XPOLTON IS MYSTIFIED

  CHAPTER XITHE AMBUSH

  CHAPTER XIIIT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

  CHAPTER XIIIMURDER BY POST

  CHAPTER XIVA STARTLING DISCOVERY

  CHAPTER XVTHE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS

  CHAPTER XVITHORNDYKE PLAYS HIS CARD

  CHAPTER XVIIAT LAST

  CHAPTER I

  MY LEARNED BROTHER

  "Conflagratam Anno 1677. Fabricatam Anno 1698. Richardo Powell ArmigerThesaurar." The words, set in four panels, which formed a frieze beneaththe pediment of a fine brick portico, summarised the history of one ofthe tall houses at the upper end of King's Bench Walk and as I, somewhatabsently, read over the inscription, my attention was divided betweenadmiration of the exquisitely finished carved brickwork and the quietdignity of the building, and an effort to reconstitute the dead and goneRichard Powell, and the stirring times in which he played his part.

  I was about to turn away when the empty frame of the portico becameoccupied by a figure, and one so appropriate, in its wig and obsoletehabiliments, to the old-world surroundings that it seemed to completethe picture, and I lingered idly to look at it. The barrister had haltedin the doorway to turn over a sheaf of papers that he held in his hand,and, as he replaced the red tape which bound them together, he looked upand our eyes met. For a moment we regarded one another with theincurious gaze that casual strangers bestow on one another; then therewas a flash of mutual recognition; the impassive and rather severe faceof the lawyer softened into a genial smile, and the figure, detachingitself from its frame, came down the steps with a hand extended incordial greeting.

  "My dear Jervis," he exclaimed, as we clasped hands warmly, "this is agreat and delightful surprise. How often have I thought of my oldcomrade and wondered if I should ever see him again, and lo! here he is,thrown up on the sounding beach of the Inner Temple, like the proverbialbread cast upon the waters."

  "Your surprise, Thorndyke, is nothing to mine," I replied, "for yourbread has at least returned as bread; whereas I am in the position of aman who, having cast his bread upon the waters, sees it return in theform of a buttered muffin or a Bath bun. I left a respectable medicalpractitioner and I find him transformed into a bewigged and begownedlimb of the law."

  Thorndyke laughed at the comparison.

  "Liken not your old friend unto a Bath bun," said he. "Say, rather, thatyou left him a chrysalis and come back to find him a butterfly. But thechange is not so great as you think. Hippocrates is only hiding underthe gown of Solon, as you will understand when I explain mymetamorphosis; and that I will do this very evening, if you have noengagement."

  "I am one of the unemployed at present," I said, "and quite at yourservice."

  "Then come round to my chambers at seven," said Thorndyke, "and we willhave a chop and a pint of claret together and exchange autobiographies.I am due in court in a few minutes."

  "Do you reside within that noble old portico?" I asked.

  "No," replied Thorndyke. "I often wish I did. It would add severalinches to one's stature to feel that the mouth of one's burrow wasgraced with a Latin inscription for admiring strangers to ponder over.No; my chambers are some doors further down--number 6A"--and he turnedto point out the house as we crossed towards Crown Office Row.

  At the top of Middle Temple Lane we parted, Thorndyke taking his waywith fluttering gown towards the Law Courts, while I directed my stepswestward towards Adam Street, the chosen haunt of the medical agent.

  The soft-voiced bell of the Temple clock was telling out the hour ofseven in muffled accents (as though it apologised for breaking thestudious silence) as I emerged from the archway of Mitre Court andturned into King's Bench Walk.

  The paved footway was empty save for a single figure, pacing slowlybefore the doorway of number 6A, in which, though the wig had now givenplace to a felt hat and the gown to a jacket, I had no difficulty inrecognising my friend.

  "Punctual to the moment, as of old," said he, meeting me half-way. "Whata blessed virtue is punctuality, even in small things. I have just beentaking the air in Fountain Court, and will now introduce you to mychambers. Here is my humble retreat."

  We passed in through the common entrance and ascended the stone stairsto the first floor, where we were confronted by a massive door, abovewhich my friend's name was written in white letters. "Rather aforbidding exterior," remarked Thorndyke, as he inserted the latchkey,"but it is homely enough inside."

  The heavy door swung outwards and disclosed a baize-covered inner door,which Thorndyke pushed open and held for me to pass in.

  "You will find my chambers an odd mixture," said Thorndyke, "for theycombine the attractions of an office, a museum, a laboratory and aworkshop."

  "And a restaurant," added a small, elderly man, who was decanting abottle of claret by means of a glass syphon: "you forgot that, sir."

  "Yes, I forgot that, Polton," said Thorndyke, "but I see you have not."He glanced towards a small table that had been placed near the fire andset out with the requisites for our meal.

  "Tell me," said Thorndyke, as we made the initial onslaught on theproducts of Polton's culinary experiments, "what has been happening toyou since you left the hospital six years ago?"

  "My story is soon told," I answered, somewhat bitterly. "It is not anuncommon one. My funds ran out, as you know, rather unexpectedly. When Ihad paid my examination and registration fees the coffer was absolutelyempty, and though, no doubt, a medical diploma contains--to useJohnson's phrase--the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams ofavarice, there is a vast difference in practice between the potentialand the actual. I have, in fact, been earning a subsistence, sometimesas an assistant, sometimes as a _locum tenens_. Just now I've got nowork to do, and so have entered my name on Turcival's list ofeligibles."

  Thorndyke pursed up his lips and frowned.

  "It's a wicked shame, Jervis," said he presently, "that a man
of yourabilities and scientific acquirements should be frittering away histime on odd jobs like some half-qualified wastrel."

  "It is," I agreed. "My merits are grossly undervalued by a stiff-neckedand obtuse generation. But what would you have, my learned brother? Ifpoverty steps behind you and claps the occulting bushel over your thirtythousand candle-power luminary, your brilliancy is apt to be obscured."

  "Yes, I suppose that is so," grunted Thorndyke, and he remained for atime in deep thought.

  "And now," said I, "let us have your promised explanation. I ampositively frizzling with curiosity to know what chain of circumstanceshas converted John Evelyn Thorndyke from a medical practitioner into aluminary of the law."

  Thorndyke smiled indulgently.

  "The fact is," said he, "that no such transformation has occurred. JohnEvelyn Thorndyke is still a medical practitioner."

  "What, in a wig and gown!" I exclaimed.

  "Yes, a mere sheep in wolf's clothing," he replied. "I will tell you howit has come about. After you left the hospital, six years ago, I stayedon, taking up any small appointments that were going--assistantdemonstrator--or curatorships and such like--hung about the chemical andphysical laboratories, the museum and post mortem room, and meanwhiletook my M.D. and D.Sc. Then I got called to the bar in the hope ofgetting a coronership, but soon after this, old Stedman retiredunexpectedly--you remember Stedman, the lecturer on medicaljurisprudence--and I put in for the vacant post. Rather to my surprise,I was appointed lecturer, whereupon I dismissed the coronership from mymind, took my present chambers and sat down to wait for anything thatmight come." "And what has come?" I asked.

  "Why, a very curious assortment of miscellaneous practice," he replied."At first I only got an occasional analysis in a doubtful poisoningcase, but, by degrees, my sphere of influence has extended until it nowincludes all cases in which a special knowledge of medicine or physicalscience can be brought to bear upon law."

  "But you plead in court, I observe," said I.

  "Very seldom," he replied. "More usually I appear in the character ofthat _bete noir_ of judges and counsel--the scientific witness. But inmost instances I do not appear at all; I merely direct investigations,arrange and analyse the results, and prime the counsel with facts andsuggestions for cross-examination."

  "A good deal more interesting than acting as understudy for an absentg.p.," said I, a little enviously. "But you deserve to succeed, for youwere always a deuce of a worker, to say nothing of your capabilities."

  "Yes, I worked hard," replied Thorndyke, "and I work hard still; but Ihave my hours of labour and my hours of leisure, unlike you poor devilsof general practitioners, who are liable to be dragged away from thedinner table or roused out of your first sleep by--confound it all! whocan that be?"

  For at this moment, as a sort of commentary on his self-congratulation,there came a smart rapping at the outer door.

  "Must see who it is, I suppose," he continued, "though one expectspeople to accept the hint of a closed oak."

  He strode across the room and flung open the door with an air of by nomeans gracious inquiry.

  "It's rather late for a business call," said an apologetic voiceoutside, "but my client was anxious to see you without delay."

  "Come in, Mr. Lawley," said Thorndyke, rather stiffly, and, as he heldthe door open, the two visitors entered. They were both men--onemiddle-aged, rather foxy in appearance and of a typically legal aspect,and the other a fine, handsome young fellow of very prepossessingexterior, though at present rather pale and wild-looking, and evidentlyin a state of profound agitation.

  "I am afraid," said the latter, with a glance at me and the dinnertable, "that our visit--for which I am alone responsible--is a mostunseasonable one. If we are really inconveniencing you, Dr. Thorndyke,pray tell us, and my business must wait."

  Thorndyke had cast a keen and curious glance at the young man, and henow replied in a much more genial tone--

  "I take it that your business is of a kind that will not wait, and as toinconveniencing us, why, my friend and I are both doctors, and, as youare aware, no doctor expects to call any part of the twenty-four hourshis own unreservedly."

  I had risen on the entrance of the two strangers, and now proposed totake a walk on the Embankment and return later, but the young maninterrupted me.

  "Pray don't go away on my account," he said. "The facts that I am aboutto lay before Dr. Thorndyke will be known to all the world by this timeto-morrow, so there is no occasion for any show of secrecy."

  "In that case," said Thorndyke, "let us draw our chairs up to the fireand fall to business forthwith. We had just finished our dinner and werewaiting for the coffee, which I hear my man bringing down at thismoment."

  We accordingly drew up our chairs, and when Polton had set the coffee onthe table and retired, the lawyer plunged into the matter withoutpreamble.