American Sherlocks by Nick Rennison (reading like a writer .TXT) 📕

‘I remember it very graphically, at all events,’ he replied. ‘Come, gentlemen.’

We followed him up the stairs and into the room where the murder had taken place. It was darkened, but he stepped to the window and pulled up the shade.

‘There is a stain beneath that rug near you,’ he said. ‘We have been unable to remove it, even with acids. I shall have to have a section of the floor taken up. It is not a pleasant thing to see.’

Conners looked about the chamber critically.

‘Where was the gun found?’

‘Here,’ and the doctor indicated the spot at the corner of the mantel.

‘How did the piece of brass wire become attached to the stock, which the officers noticed when they first entered the room?’

‘Which officer noticed it?’ asked Sadler.

‘I believe it was Flynn who spoke of it. You were present at the inquest?’

Sadler smiled.

‘This is the first I have heard of it,’ he said.

‘Of the wire?’

‘No; of the fact that it was noticed. It was a loop used to hold back a refractory shutter yonder, and it must have fallen from the frame about the gun when Dr Haslam placed it upon the floor. It was not a very gentle deed which he had just perpetrated, and his actions were not studied. The matter has no significance.’

‘Do you think that Dr Haslam was concealed – ?’

‘Concealed?’ The young man answered quickly, with his note of query.

‘I mean, do you think he entered from his rooms at the moment of Mrs Sands’s coming, or was he waiting for her here in the study?’

Dr Sadler looked at him scornfully.

‘It surely matters little, but Dr Haslam could come or go at pleasure in his own house; and he had little difficulty in seeing Mrs Sands at any moment. He would have killed her in the parlour, in the presence of the whole world, having once resolved to do so. He made no attempt at concealment.’

‘But he fled.’

The lids of the young man drooped.

‘It is the habit of criminals to flee,’ he replied.

‘Have you learned to think of your benefactor in the light of a criminal?’

The eyes of the young man flashed, but he held his temper in check. I saw, however, that it was by an effort, and that he resented the question.

‘I shall always think of him with gratitude,’ he answered, ‘criminal or not.’

‘Did Dr Haslam speak to you?’

‘He said nothing, but looked unutterable things.’

‘I have thought it strange,’ observed Conners, musingly, and I fancied his manner assumed, ‘that the doctor should have escaped so readily from the house.’

The young man gave a whiff of disgust.

‘Who are here who would have presumed to stop him?’ he said. ‘No one knew of a crime.’

I thought the observation a trivial one myself, but my companion continued his questions.

‘Did the servants speak to Dr Haslam as he passed through the kitchen – did they not inquire of him the meaning of the gunshot they had heard?’

Dr Sadler hesitated. He fumbled with his handkerchief, which he had taken from his pocket, and stared vacantly at the floor.

‘It is difficult to recall all these details,’ he replied, ‘but not the one in question. I have thought it strange that the police did not make that inquiry. The truth is that Dr Haslam left the house unseen. The officers took it for granted that he left the house by the back stairway, because I said so; and I thought so until I found out differently. I did not fail to question the servants as to this.’

‘Did not the servants ask this question of their fellow, Gray, Doctor? What the murderer said, and how he acted, as he passed through the front?’

The eyes of the young man flashed viciously.

‘It is quite possible,’ he answered. ‘As I have said, it is difficult to recall these details.’

‘You appear to have attached some importance to this yourself,’ persisted Conners.

‘Of course,’ replied Dr Sadler. ‘It was natural that I should, since I found that I was mistaken in the manner in which my benefactor, as you designate him, made his escape.’

‘How did he escape?’ asked Conners.

The young man did not resent the question, and I listened with intense interest. I could not anticipate what was coming, and I expected little; but the facts were revealing themselves in strangely different form. I knew, of course, that this could matter little, but to me the whole subject was absorbing.

‘The police found every window bolted,’ said the doctor, speaking slowly, and choosing his words carefully. ‘As I stated to them that my father passed down the back stairway, they presumed it to be true, and that ended it. I thought it the truth myself until, as I have said, I learned differently from the servants. There was but one other mode of egress, since the windows were bolted, and that was by means of a trap in the attic roof. It is low to the eaves, and a ladder leads from the main structure to the back building. The descent from here to the yard is without difficulty. There is a trellis near, upon which vines grow. I investigated, and found that Dr Haslam had used this avenue of escape. The vines on the trellis were torn and pulled aside, and I discovered his slipper on the roof of the back building. It is here.’

He stepped to a closet and, taking the slipper from a shelf, exhibited it to us.

‘You did not think it necessary to correct the erroneous impression of the police?’ observed Conners.

‘No,’ returned Sadler, coolly. ‘It was entirely unimportant, and you must recollect that I was deeply attached to Dr Haslam. I preferred that it be thought that the deed was done in a moment of aberration of mind, as I in truth believe.’

‘Very singular,’ muttered Conners, ‘when, as you say. Dr Haslam was master in his