“The case Mr. Fisher had got up against the accused briefly amounted to this:
“On the night of February 6th, soon after midnight, play began to run very high at the Harewood Club, in Hanover Square. Mr. Aaron Cohen held the bank at roulette against some twenty or thirty of his friends, mostly young fellows with no wits and plenty of money. ‘The Bank’ was winning heavily, and it appears that this was the third consecutive night on which Mr. Aaron Cohen had gone home richer by several hundreds than he had been at the start of play.
“Young John Ashley, who is the son of a very worthy county gentleman who is M.F.H. somewhere in the Midlands, was losing heavily, and in his case also it appears that it was the third consecutive night that Fortune had turned her face against him.
“Remember,” continued the man in the corner, “that when I tell you all these details and facts, I am giving you the combined evidence of several witnesses, which it took many days to collect and to classify.
“It appears that young Mr. Ashley, though very popular in society, was generally believed to be in what is vulgarly termed ‘low water’; up to his eyes in debt, and mortally afraid of his dad, whose younger son he was, and who had on one occasion threatened to ship him off to Australia with a £5 note in his pocket if he made any further extravagant calls upon his paternal indulgence.
“It was also evident to all John Ashley’s many companions that the worthy M.F.H. held the purse-strings in a very tight grip. The young man, bitten with the desire to cut a smart figure in the circles in which he moved, had often recourse to the varying fortunes which now and again smiled upon him across the green tables in the Harewood Club.
“Be that as it may, the general consensus of opinion at the Club was that young Ashley had changed his last ‘pony’ before he sat down to a turn of roulette with Aaron Cohen on that particular night of February 6th.
“It appears that all his friends, conspicuous among whom was Mr. Walter Hatherell, tried their very best to dissuade him from pitting his luck against that of Cohen, who had been having a most unprecedented run of good fortune. But young Ashley, heated with wine, exasperated at his own bad luck, would listen to no one; he tossed one £5 note after another on the board, he borrowed from those who would lend, then played on parole for a while. Finally, at half-past one in the morning, after a run of nineteen on the red, the young man found himself without a penny in his pockets, and owing a debt—gambling debt—a debt of honour of £1500 to Mr. Aaron Cohen.
“Now we must render this much maligned gentleman that justice which was persistently denied to him by press and public alike; it was positively asserted by all those present that Mr. Cohen himself repeatedly tried to induce young Mr. Ashley to give up playing. He himself was in a delicate position in the matter, as he was the winner, and once or twice the taunt had risen to the young man’s lips, accusing the holder of the bank of the wish to retire on a competence before the break in his luck.
“Mr. Aaron Cohen, smoking the best of Havanas, had finally shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘As you please!’
“But at half-past one he had had enough of the player, who always lost and never paid—never could pay, so Mr. Cohen probably believed. He therefore at that hour refused to accept Mr. John Ashley’s ‘promissory’ stakes any longer. A very few heated words ensued, quickly checked by the management, who are ever on the alert to avoid the least suspicion of scandal.
“In the meanwhile Mr. Hatherell, with great good sense, persuaded young Ashley to leave the Club and all its temptations and go home; if possible to bed.
“The friendship of the two young men, which was very well known in society, consisted chiefly, it appears, in Walter Hatherell being the willing companion and helpmeet of John Ashley in his mad and extravagant pranks. But tonight the latter, apparently tardily sobered by his terrible and heavy losses, allowed himself to be led away by his friend from the scene of his disasters. It was then about twenty minutes to two.
“Here the situation becomes interesting,” continued the man in the corner in his nervous way. “No wonder that the police interrogated at least a dozen witnesses before they were quite satisfied that every statement was conclusively proved.
“Walter Hatherell, after about ten minutes’ absence, that is to say at ten minutes to two, returned to the club room. In reply to several inquiries, he said that he had parted with his friend at the corner of New Bond Street, since he seemed anxious to be alone, and that Ashley said he would take a turn down Piccadilly before going home—he thought a walk would do him good.
“At two o’clock or thereabouts Mr. Aaron Cohen, satisfied with his evening’s work, gave up his position at the bank and, pocketing his heavy winnings, started on his homeward walk, while Mr. Walter Hatherell left the club half an hour later.
“At three o’clock precisely the cries of ‘Murder’ and the report of firearms were heard in Park Square West, and Mr. Aaron Cohen was found strangled outside the garden railings.”
XXIX
The Motive
“Now at first sight the murder in the Regent’s Park appeared both to police and public as one of those silly, clumsy crimes, obviously the work of a novice, and absolutely purposeless, seeing that it could but inevitably lead its perpetrators, without any difficulty, to the gallows.
“You see, a motive had been established. ‘Seek him whom
