The Notting Hill Mystery Page 14

  The narrowness of Madame R**'s escape seems to have struck the Baron,and to have exercised a strong influence over his future proceedings.Whether or not he knew or believed her to be exposed to any peculiarinfluences which might tend to render her life less secure than thatof her delicate and invalid sister, it is impossible positively tosay. There was no question, however, that her death before that ofMrs. Anderton would destroy all prospect of his succession to the25,000_l_., and with this view he proceeded to take as speedily aspossible the necessary steps to secure himself against such an event.The obvious course, and indeed that suggested at once by Dr. Jones,was that of assurance, and this course he accordingly adopted, afterhaving previously, by a tour of several months, restored his wife toa state of health in which her life would probably be accepted bythe offices concerned. The insurances, therefore, with which we areconcerned, were effected in consequence of a previous administration ofpoison to Madame R**, producing an illness far more serious than couldhave been anticipated, and accompanied by precisely similar symptomson the part of her delicate sister, Mrs. Anderton, whose death, _ifpreceding that of Madame R**_, would more than double the Baron'sprospect of succession.

  Between him, therefore, and the sum of either 25,000_l_. or 50,000_l_.there now intervened three lives, those of Mr. and Mrs. Anderton,and of his own wife, Madame R**, and on the order in which they felldepended the amount of his gain by their demise. The death of Mr.Anderton before that of Mrs. Anderton, would open the possibility ofa second marriage, from which might arise issue, whose claim wouldprecede his; that of his own wife preceding that of either Mr. or Mrs.Anderton, would destroy altogether his own claim to the larger sum. Itwas only in the event of Mrs. Anderton's death being followed first bythat of her husband, and afterwards by that of her sister, that theBaron's entire claim would be secured.

  _Within one year from the time at which matters assumed this position,these three lives fell in, and in precisely the order in which theBaron would most largely and securely profit by their demise._

  We now proceed to examine the circumstances under which they fell.

  Immediately on his return to England, and before apparently completinghis arrangements with respect to the policies of insurance, the Baron,we find, calls upon Mr. Anderton, and by dint of minute inquiries drawsfrom him the entire history of the attack from which Mrs. Andertonhad suffered several months before. Supposing, therefore, that theinformation was of any practical interest, the Baron was now fullyaware of the perfect similarity, both of time and symptom, between thecases of his wife and her sister. It is essential that this should beborne in mind.

  He now proceeds to establish himself in lodgings in Russell Place (V.),in a house in which, for five days and every night in the week, he isentirely alone. The only other tenant is a medical man, whose visitsare confined to a few hours on two days in the week, and who lives attoo great a distance to be called in on any sudden emergency. Here heestablishes himself upon the first and second floors with a laboratoryin a small detached room upon the basement floor, where his chemicalexperiments can be carried on without inconvenience to the rest of thehouse. It is essential that the position of this laboratory should bevery clearly borne in mind, as it plays a most important part in thestory which is now to follow.

  In these lodgings, then, Madame R,** is again taken ill with a return,though in a greatly mitigated form, of the same symptoms from which shehad previously suffered at Bognor. The attack, however, though lessviolent in its immediate effects, was succeeded at regular intervalsof about a fortnight by others of a precisely similar character. Andhere we arrive at what is at once the most significant, the mostextraordinary, and the most questionable of the evidence we have beenable to collect.

  It appears, then, that upon a night in August, a young man of the nameof Aldridge, who, as a matter of special favour, had been taken intothe house since the arrival of the Baron (VII.), saw Madame R** leaveher bedroom, and, apparently in her sleep, walk down the stairs inthe dark to the lower part of the house. The room in which the Baronslept was next to hers, and on the wall of that room, projected by thenight-lamp burning on the table, the young man saw what seemed to bethe shadow of a man watching Madame R** as she went by. He looked againand the shadow was gone--so rapidly that at first he could scarcelybelieve his eyes, and was only, after consideration, satisfied thatit really had been there. He went down to the room, but the Baron wasasleep. He told him what had happened to Madame R**, and he at oncefollowed her. Young Aldridge watched him until he had descended thekitchen-stairs and returned, followed closely by the sleep-walker. Hethen went back to his room, to which the Baron shortly afterwards cameto thank him for his warning, and to tell him that, in some freak ofslumber, Madame R** _had visited the kitchen_.

  So far the story is simple enough. There is nothing extraordinary in asick woman of exciteable nerves taking a sudden fit of somnambulism,and walking down even into the kitchen of a house that was not her own.The Baron's conduct--in all respects but that of the watching shadow--was precisely that which, from a sensible and affectionate husband,might most naturally have been expected. Nor is it very difficult, evensetting aside all idea of malice, to set down the shadow portion of thestory to a mere freak of imagination on the part of the young man who,though "not drunk," was nevertheless on his own admission, "perhaps alittle excited," and who had been "drinking a good deal of beer andshandy-gaff." But the evidence does not end here.

  By one of those extraordinary coincidences by which the simple courseof ordinary events so often baffles the best laid schemes of crime,there were others in the house, besides the young man Aldridge, whowitnessed the movements of the Baron and Madame R**. It so happenedthat, on the afternoon of that particular day, the woman of the househad hampered the little latch-lock by which young Aldridge usuallyadmitted himself, and, as this occurred late in the day, it is morethan probable that the Baron was unaware of it, as also of the factthat in consequence the servant-girl Susan Turner, sat up beyond theusual hour of going to bed for the purpose of letting the young manin. This girl, it seems, had a lover--a stoker on one of the northernlines--and him she appears to have invited to keep her company on herwatch. Aldridge returned and went up to bed, but the lover--who wasto be on duty with his engine at two o'clock, and who was doubtlesslyinterrupted in a most interesting conversation by the arrival of thelodger--still remained in the kitchen, and was only just leavingit when Madame R** came down stairs. Taking her at first to be themistress of, the house, and fearful lest the street-lamp gleamingthrough the glass partition should betray her "young man's" presence,Susan Turner draws him to the lumber-room, the window of which, itappears, looks into a sort of well between the house and the tworooms built out at the back, after a fashion not unusual in Londonhouses. Into this well, also, immediately opposite to the window ofthe lumber-room, looks that of the backroom or laboratory, furnishedwith what the witness describes as a "tin looking-glass," but which isreally one of those metal reflectors, in common use, for increasingthe light of rooms in such a position. The distance between the twowindows is little more than eight feet. The night was clear, with abright, full harvest moon, and its rays, thrown by the reflector intothe laboratory, made every part of its interior distinctly visiblefrom the lumber-room. The door of the latter room was open, and thestaircase illuminated by the Baron's approaching light. The hiders inthe lumber-room could see distinctly the whole proceedings of bothBaron and Madame R**, from the time Aldridge lost sight of them to themoment they again emerged into his view.

  And this was what they saw:

  _"Madame R** never went into the kitchen at all;" "she went straightinto the laboratory," and "the Baron watched her as she came out."_

  A glance at the place will show the bearing of this evidence and theimpossibility of the Baron (who, if he had not been in the kitchen,must at least have thoroughly known the position of his own laboratory)having made any mistake on this point.

  What, then, was his motive in thus imposi
ng upon Aldridge, to whoseinterference he professed himself so much indebted, with this falsestatement of the place to which Madame R** had been?

  There does not seem the slightest reason for discrediting the evidenceof these two witnesses. Their story is perfectly simple and coherent.There is neither malice against the Baron nor collusion with Aldridge,in whose case such malice is supposed to exist. The only weak point intheir position is the fact, that they were both doing wrong in being inthat place at that time; but the admission of this, in truth, ratherstrengthens than injures the testimony which involves it. We must seekthe clue, then, not in their motives, but in those of the Baron. Theerrand of Madame R**, in her strange expedition, may perhaps afford it.What did she do in the laboratory?

  _"She drank something from a bottle." "It smelt and tasted likesherry." "It was marked VIN. ANT. POT. TART." That label designatesantimonial wine, which is a mixture of sherry and tartar emetic._

  Let us see if from this point we can feel our way, as it were,backwards, to the motive for concealment. The life of Madame R** was,as we know, heavily insured. It had already been seriously endangeredby the effects of precisely the same drug as that she was now seen totake. If the Baron knew or suspected the motive of her visit, here isat once a motive sufficient, if not perhaps very creditable, for theconcealment of a fact, the knowledge of which might very probably leadto difficulty with respect to payment of the policy in case of death.

  But here another difficulty meets us. The incident in question occurredat about the middle of the long illness of Madame R**. That illnessconsisted of a series of attacks, occurring as nearly as possible atintervals of a fortnight, and exhibiting the exact symptoms of thepoison here shown to have been taken. One of these attacks followedwithin a very few hours of the occurrence into which we are examining.Was it the only one of the kind?

  The evidence of the night-nurse bears with terrible weight upon thispoint. Her orders are strict, on no account to close her eyes. Herhours of watch are short, and the repose of the entire day leaves herwithout the slightest cause for unusual drowsiness. The testimonials oftwenty years bear unvarying witness to her care and trustworthiness.Yet every alternate Saturday for eight or ten, or it may even havebeen nearly twelve weeks, at one regular hour she falls asleep. Itis in vain that she watches and fights against it--in vain eventhat, suspecting "some trick" she on one occasion abstains entirelyfrom food, and drinks nothing but that peculiarly wakeful decoction,strong green tea. On every other night she keeps awake with ease,but surely as the fatal Saturday comes round she again succumbs, andsurely as sleep steals over her is it followed by a fresh attack ofthe symptoms we so plainly recognise. She cannot in any way accountfor such an extraordinary fatality. She is positive that such a thingnever happened to her before. We also are at an equal loss. We can butpause upon the reflection that twice before the periodic drowsinessbegan, a similarly irresistible sleep had been induced by the so-calledmesmeric powers of the Baron himself. And then we pass naturally to herwho had been for years habituated to such control, and we cannot butcall to mind the statement of Mr. Hands--"I have often _willed_ her(S. Parsons) to go into a dark room and pick up a pin, or some articleequally minute."

  _And then we again remember the watching shadow on the wall._

  And yet, after all, at what have we arrived? Grant that the Baron knewthe nature of his wife's errand in the laboratory; that the singularpower--call it what we will--by which he had before in jest compelledthe nurse to sleep, was really employed in enabling the somnambulist toelude her watch. Grant even that the pretensions of the mesmerist aretrue, and that it was in obedience to his direct will that Madame R**acted as she did, we are no nearer a solution than before.

  _It was not the Baron's interest that his wife should die._

  We must then seek further afield for any explanation of this terribleenigma. Let us see how it fared with Mrs. Anderton while these eventswere passing at her sister's house.

  And here we seem to have another instance of the manner in which thewisest precautions so often turn against those by whom they are taken(III. and V.). Admitting that the illness of Madame R** was reallycaused by criminal means, nothing could be wiser than the precautionwhich selected for their first essay a night on which they could betried without fear of observation. Yet this very circumstance enablesus to fix a date of the last importance, which without it must haveremained uncertain. Madame R**, then, was taken ill on Saturday, the5th April. On that very night--at, as nearly as can be ascertained, thevery same hour, Mrs. Anderton was unaccountably seized with an illnessin all respects resembling hers. Like hers, too, the attacks returnedat fortnightly intervals: For a few days, on the Baron's advice, aparticular medicine is given, and at first with apparently good effect.At the same date the diary of Dr. Marsden shows a similar ameliorationof symptoms in the case of Madame R**. In both cases the amendment isbut short, and the disease again pursues its course. The result in bothis utter exhaustion. In the case of Madame R** reducing the sufferer todeath's door; in the _weaker constitution_ of her sister terminating indeath. Examination is made. The appearances of the body, no less thanthe symptoms exhibited in life, are all those of antimonial poisoning.No antimony is, however, found; and from this and other circumstances,results a verdict of "Natural Death." On the 12th October, then, Mrs.Anderton's story ends.

  _From that time dates the recovery of Madame R**._

  The first life is now removed from between Baron R** and the full sumof 50,000_l_ (VI.). Let us examine briefly the circumstances attendingthe lapse of the second. Here again events each in itself quite simpleand natural, combine to form a story fraught with terrible suspicion.I have alluded to the inquest which followed on the death of Mrs.Anderton. That inquiry originated in circumstances which cast upon herhusband the entire suspicion of her murder. To whose agency, whetherdirect or indirect, voluntary or involuntary, is an after question, mayevery one of these circumstances be traced? Mr. Anderton insists onbeing the only one from whom the patient shall receive either medicineor food. It is the Baron who applauds and encourages a line of conductdiametrically opposed to his own, and tending more than any othercircumstance to fix suspicion on his friend. A remedy is suggested, therecommending of which points strongly to the idea of poison, and it isfrom the Baron that the suggestion comes. Two papers are found, the onebearing in part the other in full, the name of the poison suspected tohave been used. The first of these is brought to light by the Baronhimself,--the second is found in a place where he has just been,and by a person whom he has himself despatched to search there forsomething else. He draws continual attention to that point of exclusiveattendance from which suspicion chiefly springs. His replies to Dr.Dodsworth respecting the recommendation of the antimonial antidote areso given as to confirm the worst interpretation to which it had givenrise, and even when, on the discovery of the second paper, he advisesthe nurse that it should be destroyed, he does so in a manner thatensures not only its preservation but its immediate employment in themanner most dangerous to his friend.

  The evidence fails. What is the Baron's connection with the catastrophethat follows? He knows well the accused man's nervous anxiety for hisown good name. He procures, on the ground of his friendly anxiety, theearliest intelligence of his friend's probable acquittal. He entersthat friend's room to acquaint him with the good news. Returninghe takes measures to secure the prisoner throughout the night frominterruption or interference. In the morning Mr. Anderton is a corpse,and on his pillow is found the phial in which the poison had beencontained, and a written statement that the desperate step had beentaken in despair of an acquittal. By what marvellous accident was thehopeful news of the chemical investigation thus misinterpreted? By whatnegligence or connivance was the fatal drug placed within his reach?One thing only we know--

  _It was the Baron who conveyed the news. It was from his pocketmedicine case, left by him within the sick man's reach, that the poisoncame._

  Thus fell the second of the two lives which st
ood between the Baron andthe full sum of 50,000_l_. Of this sum the 25,000_l_. which accruesfrom the relationship between Mrs. Anderton and Madame R** is alreadyhis as soon as claimed, but there is no immediate necessity for theclaim to be preferred. He may perhaps have thought it better to waitbefore making such a claim until the first sensation occasioned by thedouble deaths through which he inherited had passed away. He may havebeen merely putting in train some plausible story to account for hisonly now proclaiming a fact of which he had certainly been aware for atleast a year. Whatever his reason, however, he certainly for some weeksafter Mr. Anderton's death made no movement to establish his claim uponthe property, and during this time Madame R** was slowly but surelyrecovering her strength.

  But while wisdom thus dictated a policy of delay, the irresistiblecourse of events hurried on the crisis. A letter comes (VII.) filledwith threats of the vengeance of jealous love if its cause be not thatnight removed. It is but a fragment of that letter that is preserved,but its meaning is clear enough, and it is that under threat ofrevelation of some capital crime, the connection between himself andMadame R** should be finally brought to an end.

  "_N'en sais-tu bien le moyen?_"

  That night the condition is fulfilled. Once more the sleeping ladytakes her midnight journey to her husband's laboratory. Once more herunconscious hand pours out the deadly draught. But this time it is noslow poison that she takes. It is a powerful and burning acid thateven as it awakes her from her trance, shrivels her with a horribleand instant death. One shrill and quickly stifled shriek alarms theinmates of the house, and when they hurry to the spot they find onlya disfigured corpse, lying with bare feet and disordered night dressin the darkness of the stormy November night, and with the fatal glassstill clasped in its hand.