"Seems to be studying law in very pleasant fashion up here, anyway," said Rathbury. "Mr. Breton's chambers, too. And the door's open."
The outer oak door of Ronald Breton's chambers stood thrown wide; the inner one was well ajar; through the opening thus made Spargo and the detective obtained a full view of the interior of Mr. Ronald Breton's rooms. There, against a background of law books, bundles of papers tied up with pink tape, and black-framed pictures of famous legal notabilities, they saw a pretty, vivacious-eyed girl, who, perched on a chair, wigged and gowned, and flourishing a mass of crisp paper, was haranguing an imaginary judge and jury, to the amusement of a young man who had his back to the door, and of another girl who leant confidentially against his shoulder.
"I put it to you, gentlemen of the juryI put it to you with confidence, feeling that you must be, must necessarily be, some, perhaps brothers, perhaps husbands, and fathers, can you, on your consciences do my client the great wrong, the irreparable injury, thethe"
"Think of some more adjectives!" exclaimed the young man. "Hot and strong 'unspile 'em up. That's what they liketheyHullo!"
This exclamation arose from the fact that at this point of the proceedings the detective rapped at the inner door, and then put his head round its edge. Whereupon the young lady who was orating from the chair, jumped hastily down; the other young lady withdrew from the young man's protecting arm; there was a feminine giggle and a feminine swishing of skirts, and a hasty bolt into an inner room, and Mr. Ronald Breton came forward, blushing a little, to greet the interrupter.
"Come in, come in!" he exclaimed hastily. "I"
Then he paused, catching sight of Spargo, and held out his hand with a look of surprise.
"OhMr. Spargo?" he said. "How do you do?weIwe were just having a larkI'm off to court in a few minutes. What can I do for you, Mr. Spargo?"
He had backed to the inner door as he spoke, and he now closed it and turned again to the two men, looking from one to the other. The detective, on his part, was looking at the young barrister. He saw a tall, slimly-built youth, of handsome features and engaging presence, perfectly groomed, and immaculately garbed, and having upon him a general air of well-to-do-ness, and he formed the impression from these matters that Mr. Breton was one of those fortunate young men who may take up a profession but are certainly not dependent upon it. He turned and glanced at the journalist.
"How do you do?" said Spargo slowly. "Ithe fact is, I came here with Mr. Rathbury. Hewants to see you. Detective-Sergeant Rathburyof New Scotland Yard."
Spargo pronounced this formal introduction as if he were repeating a lesson. But he was watching the young barrister's face. And Breton turned to the detective with a look of surprise.
"Oh!" he said. "You wish"
Rathbury had been fumbling in his pocket for the scrap of grey paper, which he had carefully bestowed in a much-worn memorandum-book. "I wished to ask a question, Mr. Breton," he said. "This morning, about a quarter to three, a manelderly manwas found dead in Middle Temple Lane, and there seems little doubt that he was murdered. Mr. Spargo herehe was present when the body was found."
"Soon after," corrected Spargo. "A few minutes after."
"When this body was examined at the mortuary," continued Rathbury, in his matter-of-fact, business-like tones, "nothing was found that could lead to identification. The man appears to have been robbed. There was nothing whatever on himbut this bit of torn paper, which was found in a hole in the lining of his waistcoat pocket. It's got your name and address on it, Mr. Breton. See?"
Ronald Breton took the scrap of paper and looked at it with knitted brows.
"By Jove!" he muttered. "So it has; that's queer. What's he like, this man?"
Rathbury glanced at a clock which stood on the mantelpiece.
"Will you step round and take a look at him, Mr. Breton?" he said.
"It's close by."
"WellIthe fact is, I've got a case on, in Mr. Justice Borrow's court," Breton answered, also glancing at his clock. "But it won't be called until after eleven. Will"
"Plenty of time, sir," said Rathbury; "it won't take you ten minutes to go round and back againa look will do. You don't recognize this handwriting, I suppose?"
Breton still held the scrap of paper in his fingers. He looked at it again, intently.
"No!" he answered. "I don't. I don't know it at allI can't think, of course, who this man could be, to have my name and address. I thought he might have been some country solicitor, wanting my professional services, you know," he went on, with a shy smile at Spargo; "but, threethree o'clock in the morning, eh?"
"The doctor," observed Rathbury, "the doctor thinks he had been dead about two and a half hours."
Breton turned to the inner door.
"I'llI'll just tell these ladies I'm going out for a quarter of an hour," he said. "They're going over to the court with meI got my first brief yesterday," he went on with a boyish laugh, glancing right and left at his visitors. "It's nothing muchsmall casebut I promised my fiancée and her sister that they should be present, you know. A moment."
He disappeared into the next room and came back a moment later in all the glory of a new silk hat. Spargo, a young man who was never very particular about his dress, began to contrast his own attire with the butterfly appearance of this youngster; he had been quick to notice that the two girls who had whisked into the inner room had been similarly garbed in fine raiment, more characteristic of Mayfair than of Fleet Street. Already he felt a strange curiosity about Breton, and about the young ladies whom he heard talking behind the inner door.
"Well, come on," said Breton. "Let's go straight there."
The mortuary to which Rathbury led the way was cold, drab, repellent to the general gay sense of the summer morning. Spargo shivered involuntarily as he entered it and took a first glance around. But the young barrister showed no sign of feeling or concern; he looked quickly about him and stepped alertly to the side of the dead man, from whose face the detective was turning back a cloth. He looked steadily and earnestly at the fixed features. Then he drew back, shaking his head.
"No!" he said with decision. "Don't know himdon't know him from Adam.
Never set eyes on him in my life, that I know of."
Rathbury replaced the cloth.
"I didn't suppose you would," he remarked. "Well, I expect we must go on the usual lines. Somebody'll identify him."
"You say he was murdered?" said Breton. "Is thatcertain?"
Rathbury jerked his thumb at the corpse.
"The back of his skull is smashed in," he said laconically. "The doctor says he must have been struck down from behindand a fearful blow, too. I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Breton."
"Oh, all right!" said Breton. "Well, you know where to find me if you want me. I shall be curious about this. Good-byegood-bye, Mr. Spargo."
The young barrister hurried away, and Rathbury turned to the journalist.
"I didn't expect anything from that," he remarked. "However, it was a thing to be done. You are going to write about this for your paper?"
Spargo nodded.
"Well," continued Rathbury, "I've sent a man to Fiskie's, the hatter's, where that cap came from, you know. We may get a bit of information from that quarterit's possible. If you like to meet me here at twelve o'clock I'll tell you anything I've heard. Just now I'm going to get some breakfast."
"I'll meet you here," said Spargo, "at twelve o'clock."
He watched Rathbury go away round one corner; he himself suddenly set off round another. He went to the Watchman office, wrote a few lines, which he enclosed in an envelope for the day-editor, and went out again. Somehow or other, his feet led him up Fleet Street, and before he quite realized what he was doing he found himself turning into the Law Courts.
"I'll meet you here," said Spargo, "at twelve o'clock."
He watched Rathbury go away round one corner; he himself suddenly set off round another. He went to the Watchman office, wrote a few lines, which he enclosed in an envelope for the day-editor, and went out again. Somehow or other, his feet led him up Fleet Street, and before he quite realized what he was doing he found himself turning into the Law Courts.
CHAPTER THREE
THE CLUE OF THE CAPHaving no clear conception of what had led him to these scenes of litigation, Spargo went wandering aimlessly about in the great hall and the adjacent corridors until an official, who took him to be lost, asked him if there was any particular part of the building he wanted. For a moment Spargo stared at the man as if he did not comprehend his question. Then his mental powers reasserted themselves.
"Isn't Mr. Justice Borrow sitting in one of the courts this morning?" he suddenly asked.
"Number seven," replied the official. "What's your casewhen's it down?"
"I haven't got a case," said Spargo. "I'm a pressmanreporter, you know."
The official stuck out a finger.
"Round the cornerfirst to your rightsecond on the left," he said automatically. "You'll find plenty of roomnothing much doing there this morning."
He turned away, and Spargo recommenced his apparently aimless perambulation of the dreary, depressing corridors.
"Upon my honour!" he muttered. "Upon my honour, I really don't know what I've come up here for. I've no business here."
Just then he turned a corner and came face to face with Ronald Breton. The young barrister was now in his wig and gown and carried a bundle of papers tied up with pink tape; he was escorting two young ladies, who were laughing and chattering as they tripped along at his side. And Spargo, glancing at them meditatively, instinctively told himself which of them it was that he and Rathbury had overheard as she made her burlesque speech: it was not the elder one, who walked by Ronald Breton with something of an air of proprietorship, but the younger, the girl with the laughing eyes and the vivacious smile, and it suddenly dawned upon him that somewhere, deep within him, there had been a notion, a hope of seeing this girl againwhy, he could not then think.
Spargo, thus coming face to face with these three, mechanically lifted his hat. Breton stopped, half inquisitive. His eyes seemed to ask a question.
"Yes," said Spargo. "Ithe fact is, I remembered that you said you were coming up here, and I came after you. I wantwhen you've timeto have a talk, to ask you a few questions. Aboutthis affair of the dead man, you know."
Breton nodded. He tapped Spargo on the arm.
"Look here," he said. "When this case of mine is over, I can give you as much time as you like. Can you wait a bit? Yes? Well, I say, do me a favour. I was taking these ladies round to the galleryround there, and up the stairsand I'm a bit pressed for timeI've a solicitor waiting for me. You take themthere's a good fellow; then, when the case is over, bring them down here, and you and I will talk. HereI'll introduce you allno ceremony. Miss AylmoreMiss Jessie Aylmore. Mr. Spargoof the Watchman. Now, I'm off!" Breton turned on the instant; his gown whisked round a corner, and Spargo found himself staring at two smiling girls. He saw then that both were pretty and attractive, and that one seemed to be the elder by some three or four years.
"That is very cool of Ronald," observed the elder young lady. "Perhaps his scheme doesn't fit in with yours, Mr. Spargo? Pray don't"
"Oh, it's all right!" said Spargo, feeling himself uncommonly stupid. "I've nothing to do. Butwhere did Mr. Breton say you wished to be taken?"
"Into the gallery of number seven court," said the younger girl promptly. "Round this cornerI think I know the way."
Spargo, still marvelling at the rapidity with which affairs were moving that morning, bestirred himself to act as cicerone, and presently led the two young ladies to the very front of one of those public galleries from which idlers and specially-interested spectators may see and hear the proceedings which obtain in the badly-ventilated, ill-lighted tanks wherein justice is dispensed at the Law Courts. There was no one else in that gallery; the attendant in the corridor outside seemed to be vastly amazed that any one should wish to enter it, and he presently opened the door, beckoned to Spargo, and came half-way down the stairs to meet him.
"Nothing much going on here this morning," he whispered behind a raised hand. "But there's a nice breach case in number fiveget you three good seats there if you like."
Spargo declined this tempting offer, and went back to his charges. He had decided by that time that Miss Aylmore was about twenty-three, and her sister about eighteen; he also thought that young Breton was a lucky dog to be in possession of such a charming future wife and an equally charming sister-in-law. And he dropped into a seat at Miss Jessie Aylmore's side, and looked around him as if he were much awed by his surroundings.
"I suppose one can talk until the judge enters?" he whispered. "Is this really Mr. Breton's first case?"
"His very firstall on his own responsibility, any way," replied Spargo's companion, smiling. "And he's very nervousand so's my sister. Aren't you, now, Evelyn?"
Evelyn Aylmore looked at Spargo, and smiled quietly.
"I suppose one's always nervous about first appearances," she said. "However, I think Ronald's got plenty of confidence, and, as he says, it's not much of a case: it isn't even a jury case. I'm afraid you'll find it dull, Mr. Spargoit's only something about a promissory note."
"Oh, I'm all right, thank you," replied Spargo, unconsciously falling back on a favourite formula. "I always like to hear lawyersthey manage to say such a lot aboutabout"
"About nothing," said Jessie Aylmore. "But thereso do gentlemen who write for the papers, don't they?"
Spargo was about to admit that there was a good deal to be said on that point when Miss Aylmore suddenly drew her sister's attention to a man who had just entered the well of the court.
"Look, Jessie!" she observed. "There's Mr. Elphick!"
Spargo looked down at the person indicated: an elderly, large-faced, smooth-shaven man, a little inclined to stoutness, who, wigged and gowned, was slowly making his way to a corner seat just outside that charmed inner sanctum wherein only King's Counsel are permitted to sit. He dropped into this in a fashion which showed that he was one of those men who loved personal comfort; he bestowed his plump person at the most convenient angle and fitting a monocle in his right eye, glanced around him. There were a few of his professional brethren in his vicinity; there were half a dozen solicitors and their clerks in conversation with one or other of them; there were court officials. But the gentleman of the monocle swept all these with an indifferent look and cast his eyes upward until he caught sight of the two girls. Thereupon he made a most gracious bow in their direction; his broad face beamed in a genial smile, and he waved a white hand.
"Do you know Mr. Elphick, Mr. Spargo?" enquired the younger Miss Aylmore.
"I rather think I've seen him, somewhere about the Temple," answered Spargo. "In fact, I'm sure I have."
"His chambers are in Paper Buildings," said Jessie. "Sometimes he gives tea-parties in them. He is Ronald's guardian, and preceptor, and mentor, and all that, and I suppose he's dropped into this court to hear how his pupil goes on."
"Here is Ronald," whispered Miss Aylmore.