The Big Bow Mystery

to as early as possible after about half-past five. The Defense spent all its strength upon pinning the experts to the conclusion that death could not have been earlier than seven. Evidently the Prosecution was going to fight hard for the hypothesis that Mortlake had committed the crime in the interval between the first and second trains for Liverpool; while the Defense was concentrating itself on an alibi, showing that the prisoner had traveled by the second train which left Euston Station at a quarter-past seven, so that there could have been no possible time for the passage between Bow and Euston. It was an exciting struggle. As yet the contending forces seemed equally matched. The evidence had gone as much for as against the prisoner. But everybody knew that worse lay behind.

“Call Edward Wimp.”

The story Edward Wimp had to tell began tamely enough with thrice-threshed-out facts. But at last the new facts came.

“In consequence of suspicions that had formed in your mind you took up your quarters, disguised, in the late Mr. Constant’s rooms?”

“I did; at the commencement of the year. My suspicions had gradually gathered against the occupants of No. 11, Glover Street, and I resolved to quash or confirm these suspicions once for all.”

“Will you tell the jury what followed?”

“Whenever the prisoner was away for the night I searched his room. I found the key of Mr. Constant’s bedroom buried deeply in the side of prisoner’s leather sofa. I found what I imagine to be the letter he received on December 3rd, in the pages of a Bradshaw lying under the same sofa. There were two razors about.”

Mr. Spigot, Q.C., said: “The key has already been identified by Mrs. Drabdump. The letter I now propose to read.”

It was undated, and ran as follows:

“Dear Tom⁠—This is to bid you farewell. It is the best for us all. I am going a long way, dearest. Do not seek to find me, for it will be useless. Think of me as one swallowed up by the waters, and be assured that it is only to spare you shame and humiliation in the future that I tear myself from you and all the sweetness of life. Darling, there is no other way. I feel you could never marry me now. I have felt it for months. Dear Tom, you will understand what I mean. We must look facts in the face. I hope you will always be friends with Mr. Constant. Good by, dear. God bless you! May you always be happy, and find a worthier wife than I. Perhaps when you are great, and rich, and famous, as you deserve, you will sometimes think not unkindly of one who, however faulty and unworthy of you, will at least love you till the end. Yours, till death, Jessie.”

By the time this letter was finished numerous old gentlemen, with wigs or without, were observed to be polishing their glasses. Mr. Wimp’s examination was resumed.

“After making these discoveries what did you do?”

“I made inquiries about Miss Dymond, and found Mr. Constant had visited her once or twice in the evening. I imagined there would be some traces of a pecuniary connection. I was allowed by the family to inspect Mr. Constant’s checkbook, and found a paid check made out for £25 in the name of Miss Dymond. By inquiry at the Bank, I found it had been cashed on November 12th of last year. I then applied for a warrant against the prisoner.”

Cross-examined: “Do you suggest that the prisoner opened Mr. Constant’s bedroom with the key you found?”

“Certainly.”

Brown-Harland, Q.C. (sarcastically): “And locked the door from within with it on leaving?”

“Certainly.”

“Will you have the goodness to explain how the trick was done?”

“It wasn’t done. (Laughter.) The prisoner probably locked the door from the outside. Those who broke it open naturally imagined it had been locked from the inside when they found the key inside. The key would, on this theory, be on the floor as the outside locking could not have been effected if it had been in the lock. The first persons to enter the room would naturally believe it had been thrown down in the bursting of the door. Or it might have been left sticking very loosely inside the lock so as not to interfere with the turning of the outside key in which case it would also probably have been thrown to the ground.”

“Indeed. Very ingenious. And can you also explain how the prisoner could have bolted the door within from the outside?”

“I can. (Renewed sensation.) There is only one way in which it was possible⁠—and that was, of course, a mere conjurer’s illusion. To cause a locked door to appear bolted in addition, it would only be necessary for the person on the inside of the door to wrest the staple containing the bolt from the woodwork. The bolt in Mr. Constant’s bedroom worked perpendicularly. When the staple was torn off, it would simply remain at rest on the pin of the bolt instead of supporting it or keeping it fixed. A person bursting open the door and finding the staple resting on the pin and torn away from the lintel of the door, would, of course, imagine he had torn it away, never dreaming the wresting off had been done beforehand.” (Applause in court, which was instantly checked by the ushers.) The counsel for the defense felt he had been entrapped in attempting to be sarcastic with the redoubtable detective. Grodman seemed green with envy. It was the one thing he had not thought of.

Mrs. Drabdump, Grodman, Inspector Howlett, and Sergeant Runnymede were recalled and reexamined by the embarrassed Sir Charles Brown-Harland as to the exact condition of the lock and the bolt and the position of the key. It turned out as Wimp had suggested; so prepossessed were the witnesses with the conviction that the door was locked and bolted from the inside when it was burst open that they were