The Just Men of Cordova

road again with no injury save a shattered mudguard that had caught a lamppost on a sharp turn. He went through Winchester at top speed⁠—again there was an attempt to stop him. Two big wagons had been drawn up in the main street, but he saw them in time and took a side turning, and cleared the town again more by good luck than otherwise. He knew now that his flight was known to the police. He must change his plans. He admitted to himself that he had few plans to change: he had arranged to leave England by one of two ports, Dover or Southampton.

He had hoped to reach the Havre boat without attracting attention, but that was now out of the question. The boats would be watched, and he had no disguise which would help him.

Eight miles south of Winchester he overtook another car and passed it before he realized that this must be the second car he had hired. With the realization came two reports⁠—the front tyres of his car had punctured.

His foot pressed on the brake and he slowed the car to a standstill.

Here was luck! To come to grief at the very spot where his relief was at hand!

He jumped out of the car and stood revealed in the glare of the lamps of the oncoming car, his arms outstretched.

The car drew up within a few feet of him.

“Take me on to Southampton; I have broken down,” he said, and the chauffeur said something unintelligible.

Black opened the door of the car and stepped in. The door slammed behind him before he was aware that there were other occupants.

“Who⁠—?” he began.

Then two hands seized him, something cold and hard snapped on his wrists, and a familiar voice said:

“I am Lord Francis Ledborough, an assistant-commissioner of police, and I shall take you into custody on a charge of wilful murder.”

“Ledborough?” repeated Black dully.

“You know me best as Constable Fellowe,” said the voice.

---

Black was hanged at Pentonville gaol on the 27th of March, 19⁠—, and Lord Francis Ledborough, sitting by the side of an invalid uncle’s bed, read such meagre descriptions as were given to the press.

“Did you know him, sir?” he asked.

The old earl turned fretfully.

“Know him?” he snarled. “Of course I knew him; he is the only friend of mine that has ever been hanged.”

“Where did you meet him?” persisted a sceptical A.C. of Police.

“I never met him,” said the old man grimly, “he met me.”

And he made a little grimace, for the wound in his shoulder was still painful.

Endnotes

1. At a bullfight the seats in the sun are the cheaper, those in the shade being double the price. ↩

2. In the story, as it appeared in serial form, the name of the poison occurred. It has been represented to the author (and he agrees) that it is wholly undesirable that the name of this drug should appear in a work of fiction. It is one well known to oculists and its action is faithfully described in these pages. ↩

3. Busy: a busy fellow, detective. ↩

Colophon

The Just Men of Cordova
was published in 1917 by
Edgar Wallace.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Norman C. Walz,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2021
Colin Choat, Gordon Hobley, and Roy Glashan
for
Project Gutenberg Australia
and on digital scans from
Google Books.

The cover page is adapted from
A Spanish Garden,
a painting completed in 1871 by
Martín Rico y Ortega.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
February 24, 2024, 6:44 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar-wallace/the-just-men-of-cordova.

The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.

Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

Copyright pages exist to tell you that you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The United States public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the United States to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission.

Copyright laws are different all over the world, and the source text or artwork in this ebook may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws before using this ebook. Standard Ebooks makes no representations regarding the copyright status of the source text or artwork in this ebook in any country other than the United States.

Non-authorship activities performed on items that are in the public domain⁠—so-called “sweat of the brow” work⁠—don’t create a new copyright. That means that nobody can claim a new copyright on an item that is in the public domain for, among other things, work like digitization, markup, or typography. Regardless, the contributors to this ebook release their contributions under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, thus dedicating to the worldwide public domain all of the work they’ve done on this ebook, including but not limited to metadata, the titlepage, imprint, colophon, this Uncopyright, and any changes or enhancements to, or markup on, the original text and artwork. This dedication doesn’t change the copyright status of the source text or artwork. We make this dedication in the interest of enriching our global cultural heritage, to promote free and libre culture