The Mystery of 31 New Inn Page 4

  Chapter IV

  The Official View

  I rose on the following morning still possessed by the determination tomake some oportunity during the day to call on Thorndyke and take hisadvice on the now urgent question as to what I was to do. I use the word"urgent" advisedly; for the incidents of the preceding evening had leftme with the firm conviction that poison was being administered for somepurpose to my mysterious patient, and that no time must be lost if hislife was to be saved. Last night he had escaped only by the narrowestmargin--assuming him to be still alive--and it was only my unexpectedlyfirm attitude that had compelled Mr. Weiss to agree to restorativemeasures.

  That I should be sent for again I had not the slightest expectation. Ifwhat I so strongly suspected was true, Weiss would call in some otherdoctor, in the hope of better luck, and it was imperative that heshould be stopped before it was too late. This was my view, but I meantto have Thorndyke's opinion, and act under his direction, but

  "The best laid plans of mice and men Gang aft agley."

  When I came downstairs and took a preliminary glance at the roughmemorandum-book, kept by the bottle-boy, or, in his absence, by thehousemaid, I stood aghast. The morning's entries looked already like asample page of the Post Office directory. The new calls alone were morethan equal to an ordinary day's work, and the routine visits remained tobe added. Gloomily wondering whether the Black Death had made a suddenreappearance in England, I hurried to the dining-room and made a hastybreakfast, interrupted at intervals by the apparition of the bottle-boyto announce new messages.

  The first two or three visits solved the mystery. An epidemic ofinfluenza had descended on the neighbourhood, and I was getting not onlyour own normal work but a certain amount of overflow from otherpractices. Further, it appeared that a strike in the building trade hadbeen followed immediately by a widespread failure of health among thebricklayers who were members of a certain benefit club; which accountedfor the remarkable suddenness of the outbreak.

  Of course, my contemplated visit to Thorndyke was out of the question. Ishould have to act on my own responsibility. But in the hurry and rushand anxiety of the work--for some of the cases were severe and evencritical--I had no opportunity to consider any course of action, nortime to carry it out. Even with the aid of a hansom which I chartered,as Stillbury kept no carriage, I had not finished my last visit untilnear on midnight, and was then so spent with fatigue that I fell asleepover my postponed supper.

  As the next day opened with a further increase of work, I sent atelegram to Dr. Stillbury at Hastings, whither he had gone, like a wiseman, to recruit after a slight illness. I asked for authority to engagean assistant, but the reply informed me that Stillbury himself was onhis way to town; and to my relief, when I dropped in at the surgery fora cup of tea, I found him rubbing his hands over the open day-book.

  "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," he remarked cheerfully as weshook hands. "This will pay the expenses of my holiday, including you.By the way, you are not anxious to be off, I suppose?"

  As a matter of fact, I was; for I had decided to accept Thorndyke'soffer, and was now eager to take up my duties with him. But it wouldhave been shabby to leave Stillbury to battle alone with this rush ofwork or to seek the services of a strange assistant.

  "I should like to get off as soon as you can spare me," I replied, "butI'm not going to leave you in the lurch."

  "That's a good fellow," said Stillbury. "I knew you wouldn't. Let ushave some tea and divide up the work. Anything of interest going?"

  There were one or two unusual cases on the list, and, as we marked offour respective patients, I gave him the histories in brief synopsis. Andthen I opened the subject of my mysterious experiences at the house ofMr. Weiss.

  "There's another affair that I want to tell you about; rather anunpleasant business."

  "Oh, dear!" exclaimed Stillbury. He put down his cup and regarded mewith quite painful anxiety.

  "It looks to me like an undoubted case of criminal poisoning," Icontinued.

  Stillbury's face cleared instantly. "Oh, I'm glad it's nothing more thanthat," he said with an air of relief. "I was afraid, it was someconfounded woman. There's always that danger, you know, when a locum isyoung and happens--if I may say so, Jervis--to be a good-looking fellow.Let us hear about this case."

  I gave him a condensed narrative of my connection with the mysteriouspatient, omitting any reference to Thorndyke, and passing lightly overmy efforts to fix the position of the house, and wound up with theremark that the facts ought certainly to be communicated to the police.

  "Yes," he admitted reluctantly, "I suppose you're right. Deucedunpleasant though. Police cases don't do a practice any good. They wastea lot of time, too; keep you hanging about to give evidence. Still, youare quite right. We can't stand by and see the poor devil poisonedwithout making some effort. But I don't believe the police will doanything in the matter."

  "Don't you really?"

  "No, I don't. They like to have things pretty well cut and dried beforethey act. A prosecution is an expensive affair, so they don't care toprosecute unless they are fairly sure of a conviction. If they fail theyget hauled over the coals."

  "But don't you think they would get a conviction in this case?"

  "Not on your evidence, Jervis. They might pick up something fresh, but,if they didn't they would fail. You haven't got enough hard-baked factsto upset a capable defence. Still, that isn't our affair. You want toput the responsibility on the police and I entirely agree with you."

  "There ought not to be any delay," said I.

  "There needn't be. I shall look in on Mrs. Wackford and you have to seethe Rummel children; we shall pass the station on our way. Why shouldn'twe drop in and see the inspector or superintendent?"

  The suggestion met my views exactly. As soon as we had finished tea, weset forth, and in about ten minutes found ourselves in the bare andforbidding office attached to the station.

  The presiding officer descended from a high stool, and, carefully layingdown his pen, shook hands cordially.

  "And what can I do for you gentlemen?" he asked, with an affable smile.

  Stillbury proceeded to open our business.

  "My friend here, Dr. Jervis, who has very kindly been looking after mywork for a week or two, has had a most remarkable experience, and hewants to tell you about it."

  "Something in my line of business?" the officer inquired.

  "That," said I, "is for you to judge. I think it is, but you may thinkotherwise"; and hereupon, without further preamble, I plunged into thehistory of the case, giving him a condensed statement similar to thatwhich I had already made to Stillbury.

  He listened with close attention, jotting down from time to time a briefnote on a sheet of paper; and, when I had finished, he wrote out in ablack-covered notebook a short precis of my statement.

  "I have written down here," he said, "the substance of what you havetold me. I will read the deposition over to you, and, if it is correct,I will ask you to sign it."

  He did so, and, when I had signed the document, I asked him what waslikely to be done in the matter.

  "I am afraid," he replied, "that we can't take any active measures. Youhave put us on our guard and we shall keep our eyes open. But I thinkthat is all we can do, unless we hear something further."

  "But," I exclaimed, "don't you think that it is a very suspiciousaffair?"

  "I do," he replied. "A very fishy business indeed, and you were quiteright to come and tell us about it."

  "It seems a pity not to take some measures," I said. "While you arewaiting to hear something further, they may give the poor wretch a freshdose and kill him."

  "In which case we should hear something further, unless some fool of adoctor were to give a death certificate."

  "But that is very unsatisfactory. The man ought not to be allowed todie."

  "I quite agree with you, sir. But we've no evidence that he is going todie. His friends sent for you, and you trea
ted him skilfully and lefthim in a fair way to recovery. That's all that we really know about it.Yes, I know," the officer continued as I made signs of disagreement,"you think that a crime is possibly going to be committed and that weought to prevent it. But you overrate our powers. We can only act onevidence that a crime has actually been committed or is actually beingattempted. Now we have no such evidence. Look at your statement, andtell me what you can swear to."

  "I think I could swear that Mr. Graves had taken a poisonous dose ofmorphine."

  "And who gave him that poisonous dose?"

  "I very strongly suspect--"

  "That's no good, sir," interrupted the officer. "Suspicion isn'tevidence. We should want you to swear an information and give us enoughfacts to make out a prima facie case against some definite person. Andyou couldn't do it. Your information amounts to this: that a certainperson has taken a poisonous dose of morphine and apparently recovered.That's all. You can't swear that the names given to you are real names,and you can't give us any address or even any locality."

  "I took some compass bearings in the carriage," I said. "You couldlocate the house, I think, without much difficulty."

  The officer smiled faintly and fixed an abstracted gaze on the clock.

  "You could, sir," he replied. "I have no doubt whatever that youcould. I couldn't. But, in any case, we haven't enough to go upon. Ifyou learn anything fresh, I hope you will let me know; and I am verymuch obliged to you for taking so much trouble in the matter. Goodevening sir. Good evening, Dr. Stillbury."

  He shook hands with us both genially, and, accepting perforce this verypolite but unmistakable dismissal, we took our departure.

  Outside the station, Stillbury heaved a comfortable sigh. He wasevidently relieved to find that no upheavals were to take place in hisdomain.

  "I thought that would be their attitude," he said, "and they are quiteright, you know. The function of law is to prevent crime, it is true;but prophylaxis in the sense in which we understand it is not possiblein legal practice."

  I assented without enthusiasm. It was disappointing to find that noprecautionary measures were to be taken. However, I had done all that Icould in the matter. No further responsibility lay upon me, and, as itwas practically certain that I had seen and heard the last of Mr. Gravesand his mysterious household, I dismissed the case from my mind. At thenext corner Stillbury and I parted to go our respective ways; and myattention was soon transferred from the romance of crime to therealities of epidemic influenza.

  The plethora of work in Dr. Stillbury's practice continued longer than Ihad bargained for. Day after day went by and still found me tramping thedingy streets of Kennington or scrambling up and down narrow stairways;turning in at night dead tired, or turning out half awake to the hideousjangle of the night bell.

  It was very provoking. For months I had resisted Thorndyke's persuasionto give up general practice and join him. Not from lack of inclination,but from a deep suspicion that he was thinking of my wants rather thanhis own; that his was a charitable rather than a business proposal. Nowthat I knew this not to be the case, I was impatient to join him; and,as I trudged through the dreary thoroughfares of this superannuatedsuburb, with its once rustic villas and its faded gardens, my thoughtswould turn enviously to the quiet dignity of the Temple and my friend'schambers in King's Bench Walk.

  The closed carriage appeared no more; nor did any whisper either of goodor evil reach me in connection with the mysterious house from which ithad come. Mr. Graves had apparently gone out of my life for ever.

  But if he had gone out of my life, he had not gone out of my memory.Often, as I walked my rounds, would the picture of that dimly-lit roomrise unbidden. Often would I find myself looking once more into thatghastly face, so worn, so wasted and haggard, and yet so far fromrepellent. All the incidents of that last night would reconstitutethemselves with a vividness that showed the intensity of the impressionthat they had made at the time. I would have gladly forgotten the wholeaffair, for every incident of it was fraught with discomfort. But itclung to my memory; it haunted me; and ever as it returned it bore withit the disquieting questions: Was Mr. Graves still alive? And, if he wasnot, was there really nothing which could have been done to save him?

  Nearly a month passed before the practice began to show signs ofreturning to its normal condition. Then the daily lists became more andmore contracted and the day's work proportionately shorter. And thus theterm of my servitude came to an end. One evening, as we were writing upthe day-book, Stillbury remarked:

  "I almost think, Jervis, I could manage by myself now. I know you areonly staying on for my sake."

  "I am staying on to finish my engagement, but I shan't be sorry to clearout if you can do without me."

  "I think I can. When would you like to be off?"

  "As soon as possible. Say to-morrow morning, after I have made a fewvisits and transferred the patients to you."

  "Very well," said Stillbury. "Then I will give you your cheque andsettle up everything to-night, so that you shall be free to go off whenyou like to-morrow morning."

  Thus ended my connection with Kennington Lane. On the following day atabout noon, I found myself strolling across Waterloo Bridge with thesensations of a newly liberated convict and a cheque for twenty-fiveguineas in my pocket. My luggage was to follow when I sent for it. Now,unhampered even by a hand-bag, I joyfully descended the steps at thenorth end of the bridge and headed for King's Bench Walk by way of theEmbankment and Middle Temple Lane.