Chapter 14 of Trent's Last Case This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Red Abriss Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley Chapter 14 Double Cunning The old, open desk with a deep body stood by the window in a room that overlooked St. James Park from a height. The room was large, furnished and decorated in the mode by someone who had brought taste to the work, but the hand of the bachelor lay heavy upon it. John Marlowe unlocked the desk and drew a long stout envelope from the back of the well. I understand, he said to Mr. Couples, that you have read this. I read it for the first time two days ago, replied Mr. Couples, who, seated on a sofa, was peering about the room with a benignant face. We have discussed it fully. Marlowe turned to Trent. There is your manuscript, he said, laying the envelope on the table. I have gone over it three times. I do not believe there is another man who could have got at as much of the truth as you have set down there. Trent ignored the compliment. He sat by the table, gazing stonily at the fire, his long legs twisted beneath his chair. You mean, of course, he said, drawing the envelope towards him, that there is more of the truth to be disclosed now. We are ready to hear you as soon as you like. I expect it will be a long story, and the longer the better. So far as I am concerned, I want to understand thoroughly. What we should both like, I think, is some preliminary account of Manderson and your relations with him. It seemed to me, from the first, that the character of the dead man must be somehow an element in the business. You were right, Marlowe answered grimly. He crossed the room and seated himself on a corner of the tall cushion-topped fender. I will begin as you suggest. I ought to tell you beforehand, said Trent, looking him in the eyes, that although I am here to listen to you, I have not as yet any reason to doubt the conclusions I have stated here. He tapped the envelope. It is a defense that you will be putting forward. You understand that? Perfectly, Marlowe was cool and in complete possession of himself. A man different indeed from the worn-out, nervous being Trent remembered at Marlstone a year and a half ago. His tall, lithe figure was held with the perfection of muscular tone. His brow was scandid. His blue eyes were clear. Though they still had, as he paused collecting his ideas, the look that had troubled Trent at their first meeting. Only the lines of his mouth showed that he knew himself in a position of difficulty and meant to face it. Six B. Manderson was not a man of normal mind. Marlowe began in his quiet voice. Most of the very rich men I met with in America had become so by virtue of abnormal greed or abnormal industry or abnormal personal force or abnormal luck. None of them had remarkable intellects. Manderson delighted too in heaping up wealth. He worked incessantly at it. He was a man of dominant will. He had quite his share of luck. But what made him singular was his brain power.  But there are hundreds of them who would have carried out his plans with just as little consideration for others if they could have formed the plans. I used to think that his strain of Indian blood, remote as it was, might have something to do with the cunning and pitilessness of the man. Strangely enough, the existence of that strain was unknown to anyone but himself and me. It was when he asked me to apply my taste for genealogical work to his own obscure family history that I made the discovery that he had in him a share of the blood of the Iroquois chief Montaure and his French wife, a terrible woman who ruled the savage politics of the tribes of the wilderness two hundred years ago. The Mandersons were active in the fur trade on the Pennsylvania border in those days and more than one of them married Indian women. Other Indian blood than Montaurs may have descended to Mandersons. For all I can say, through previous and subsequent unions, some of the wives' antecedents were quite untraceable. And there were so many generations of pioneering before the whole country was brought under civilization. Mandersons was thunderstruck at what I told him and was anxious to conceal it from every soul. Of course, I never gave it away while he lived and I don't think he supposed I would. But I have thought since that his mind took a turn against me from that time onward. It happened about a year before his death. Had Mandersons asked Mr. Couples so unexpectedly that the other started any definable religious attitude? Marlow considered a moment. None that I ever heard of, he said. Worship and prayer were quite unknown to him so far as I could see and I never heard him mention religion. I should doubt if he had any real sense of God at all or if he was capable of knowing God through the emotions. But I understood that as a child he had had a religious upbringing with a strong moral side to it. His private life was, in the usual limited sense, blameless. He was almost ascetic in his habits except as to smoking. I lived with him five years without ever knowing him to tell a direct verbal falsehood, constantly as he used to practice deceit in other forms. Can you understand the soul of a man who never hesitated to take steps that would have the effect of hoodwinking people? Who would use every trick of the markets to mislead and who was at the same time scrupless never to utter a direct lie on the most insignificant matter? Mandersons was like that and he was not the only one. I suppose you might compare the state of mind to that of a soldier who is personally a truthful man but who will stick at nothing to deceive the enemy. The words of the game allow it and the same may be said of business as many businessmen regard it. Only with them it is always wartime. It is a sad world, observed Mr. Cuppes. As you say, Marlowe agreed. Now I was saying that one could always take Mandersons word if he gave it in a definite form. The first time I ever heard him utter a downright lie was on the night he died and hearing it, I believe, saved me from being hanged as his murderer. Marlowe stared at the light above his head and Trent moved impatiently in his chair. Before we come to that, he said, Will you tell us exactly on what footing you were with Mandersons during the years you were with him? We were on very good terms from beginning to end, answered Marlowe. Nothing like friendship. He was not a man for making friends but the best of terms as between a trusted employee and his chief. I went to him as private secretary just after getting my degree at Oxford. For a long time I liked the position greatly. When one is attached to an active American plutocrat in the prime of life one did not have many dull moments. Besides it made me independent. My father had some serious business reverses about that time and I was glad to be able to do without an allowance from him. At the end of the first year, Mandersons doubled my salary. It's big money, he said, but I guess I don't lose. You see, by that time I was doing a great deal more than accompanying him on horseback in the morning and play chess in the evening, which was mainly what he had required. I was attending to his houses, his farm in Ohio, his shooting in Maine, his horses, his cars and his yatch. I had become a walking railway guide and an expert cigar buyer. I was always learning something. Well now you understand what my position was in regard to Mandersons during the last few years of my connection with him. It was a happy life for me on the whole. I was busy. My work was varied and interesting. I had time to amuse myself too and money to spend. At one time I made a fool of myself about a girl and that was not a happy time, but it taught me to understand the great goodness of Mrs. Mandersons. Marlowe inclined his head to Mr. Couples as he said this. She may choose to tell you about it. As for her husband, he had never varied in his attitude towards me, in spite of the change that came over him in the last months of his life. As you know, he treated me well and generously in his unsympathetic way and I never had a feeling that he was less than satisfied with his bargain. That was the sort of footing we lived upon. And it was that continuance of his attitude right up to the end that made the revelation so shocking when I was suddenly shown on the night on which he met his end the depth of crazy hatred of myself that was in Mandersons' soul. The eyes of Trent and Mr. Couples met for an instant.  Asked Trent and Mr. Couples asked at the same moment. To what did you attribute it? I never guessed until that night, answered Marlowe, that he had the smallest ill-feeling toward me. How long it had existed, I do not know. I cannot imagine why it was there. I was forced to think, when I considered the thing in those awful days after his death, that it was a case of a madman's delusion, that he believed me to be plotting against him, as they so often do. Some such insane conviction must have been at the root of it. But who can sound the abysses of a lunatic's fancy? Can you imagine the state of mind in which a man dooms himself to death with the object of delivering someone he hates to the hangman? Mr. Couples moved sharply in his chair. You say Mandersons was responsible for his own death? He asked.  In the relief of speech it was now less pale and drawn. I do say so, Marlowe answered concisely and looked his questioner in the face. Mr. Couples nodded. Before we proceed to the elucidation of your statement, observe the old gentleman in the tone of one discussing a point of abstract science. It may be remarked that the state of mind which you attribute to Mandersons, suppose we have the story first Trent interrupted, gently laying a hand on Mr. Couples arm. You were telling us, he went on, turning to Marlowe, how things stood between you and Mandersons. Now, will you tell us the facts of what happened that night? Marlowe flushed at the barely perceptible emphasis which Trent laid upon the word facts. He drew himself up. Bonner and myself dined with Mr. and Mrs. Mandersons that Sunday evening, he began, speaking carefully. It was just like the other dinners at which the four of us had been together. Mandersons was taciturn and gloomy, as we had laterally been accustomed to see him. We others kept a conversation going. We rose from the table, I suppose, about nine. Mrs. Mandersons went to the drawing room and Bonner went up to the hotel to see an acquaintance. Mandersons asked me to come into the orchard behind the house, saying he wished to have a talk. We paced up and down the pathway there, out of ear-shirt, from the house, and Mandersons, as he smoked his cigar, spoke to me in his cool, deliberate way. He had never seemed more sane or more well-disposed to me. He said he wanted me to do him an important service. There was a big thing on. It was a secret affair. Bonner knew nothing of it, and the less I knew, the better.  This, I may say, was quite characteristic of Mandersons' method of going to work. If at times he required a man to be a mere tool in his hand, he would tell him so. He had used me in the same kind of way a dozen times. I assured him he could rely on me and said I was ready. Right now, he asked. I said, of course I was. He nodded and said, I tell you his words as well as I can recollect them. Well, attend to this. There is a man in England now who is in this thing with me. He was to have left tomorrow for Paris by the noon boat from Southampton to Havre. His name is George Harris. At least that's the name he is going by. Do you remember that name? Yes, I said. When I went up to London a week ago, you asked me to book a cabin in that name on the boat that goes tomorrow. I gave you the ticket. Here it is, he said, producing it from his pocket. Now, Mandersons said to me, poking his cigar butt at me with each sentence in a way he used to have. George Harris cannot leave England tomorrow. I find I shall want him where he is and I want Bonner where he is. But somebody has to go by that boat and take certain papers to Paris. Or else, my plan is going to fall to pieces. Will you go? I said, certainly, I am here to obey orders. He bit his cigar and said, that's all right, but these are not just ordinary orders. Not the kind of thing one can ask of a man in the ordinary way of his duty to an employer. The point is this. The deal I am busy with is one in which neither myself nor anyone known to be connected with me must appear as yet. That is vital. But these people I am up against know your face as well as they know mine. If my secretary is known in certain quarters to have crossed to Paris at this time and to have interviewed certain people and that would be known as soon as it happened, then the game is up. He threw away his cigar and looked at me questioningly. I didn't like it much. But I liked failing Manderson at a pinch still less. I spoke lightly. I said, I supposed I should have to conceal my identity and I would do my best. I told him I used to be pretty good at makeup. He nodded in approval. He said, that's good. I judged you would not let me down. Then he gave me my instructions. You take the car right now and start for Southampton. There is no train that will fit in. You will be driving all night. Barring accidents, you ought to get there by six in the morning. But whenever you arrive, drive straight to the Grand Hotel and ask for George Harris. If he is there, tell him you were to go over instead of him and ask him to telephone me here. It is very important he should know that at the earliest moment possible. But if he isn't there, that means he has got the instructions I wired today and hasn't gone to Southampton. In that case, you don't want to trouble about him anymore but just wait for the boat. You can leave the car at a garage under a fancy name. Mine must not be given. See about changing your appearance. I don't care how, so you do it well. Travel by the boat as George Harris. Let on to be anything you like, but be careful and don't talk much to anybody. When you arrive, take a room at the hotel St. Petersburg. You will receive a note or message there, addressed to George Harris, telling you where to take the wallet I shall give you. The wallet is locked and you want to take good care of it. Have you got all that clear? I repeated the instructions. I asked if I should return from Paris after handing over the wallet. As soon as you like, he said, and mind this, whatever happens, don't communicate with me at any stage of the journey. If you don't get the message in Paris at once, just wait until you do. Days if necessary. But not a line of any sort to me. Understand? Now get ready as quick as you can. I will go with you in the car a little way. Hurry. That is, so far as I can remember, the exact substance of what Madison said to me that night. I went to my room, changed into day clothes and hastily threw a few necessaries into a kit bag. My mind was in a world, not so much at the nature of the business as at the suddenness of it. I think I remember telling you the last time we met, he turned to Trent, that Madison had rather a fondness for doing things in a storybook style. Other things being equal, he delighted in a bit of mystification and melodrama and I told myself that this was Madison all over.  He handed me a stout leather lettercase about eight inches by six, fastened with a strap with a lock on it. I could just squeeze it into my side pocket. Then I went to get out the car from the garage behind the house. As I was bringing it round to the front, a disconcerting thought struck me. I remembered that I had only a few shillings in my pocket. For some time past, I had been keeping myself very short of cash and for this reason, which I tell you because it is a vital point as you will see in a minute, I was living temporarily unborrowed money. I had always been careless about money while I was with Madison.  Still, I was very well paid and I was too busy even to attempt to go very far with them in that amusing occupation. I was still well on the right side of the ledger until I began, merely out of curiosity, to play at speculation. It's a very old story, particularly in Wall Street. I thought it was easy. I was lucky at first. I would always be prudent and so on. Then came the day when I went out of my depth. In one week I was separated from my role, as Bonner expressed it when I told him and I owed money too. I had had my lesson. Now in this pass I went to Madison and told him what I had done and how I stood. He heard me with a very grim smile and then with the nearest approach to sympathy I had ever found in him he advanced me a sum on account of my salary that would clear me. Don't play the markets anymore was all he said. Now on that Sunday night Madison knew that I was practically without any money in the world. He knew that Bonner knew it too. He may have known that I had even borrowed a little more from Bonner for pocket money until my next check was due, which owing to my anticipation of my salary would not have been a large one. Beared this knowledge of Madison's in mind. As soon as I had brought the car round I went into the library and stated the difficulty to Madison. What followed gave me slight as it was my first impression of something odd being a foot. As soon as I mentioned the word expenses his hand went mechanically to his left hip pocket where he always kept a little case containing notes to the value of about a hundred pounds in our money. This was such a rooted habit in him that I was astonished to see him check the movement suddenly. In my greater amazement he swore viciously under his breath. I had never heard him do this before but Bonner had told me that off late he had often shown irritation in this way when they were alone. Has he misled his note case? Was the question that flashed through my mind but it seemed to me that it could not affect his plan at all and I'll tell you why. The week before when I had gone up to London to carry out various commissions including the booking of a birth for Mr. George Harris I had drawn a thousand pounds for Manderson from his bankers and all at his request in notes of small amounts. I did not know what this unusually large sum in cash was for but I did know that the packets of notes were in his locked desk in the library or had been earlier in the day when I had seen him fingering them as he sat at the desk but instead of turning to the desk Manderson stood looking at me there was fury in his face and it was a strange sight to see him gradually master it until his eyes grew cold again. Wait in the car he said slowly I'll get some money. We both went out and as I was getting into my overcoat in the hall I saw him enter the drawing room which you remember was on the other side of the entrance hall. I stepped out onto the lawn before the house and smoked a cigarette pacing up and down. I saw myself again and again where that thousand pounds was whether it was in the drawing room and if so why? Presently as I passed one of the drawing room windows I noticed Mrs. Manderson's shadow on the thin silk curtain she was standing at her escritoir. The window was open and as I passed I heard her say I have not quite 30 pounds here will that be enough? I did not hear the answer but next moment Mrs. Manderson's shadow was mingled with hers and I heard the chink of money then as he stood by the window and as I was moving away these words of his came to my ears and these at least I can repeat exactly for astonishment stamped them on my memory. I am going out now Marlow has persuaded me to go for a moonlight run in the car he is very urgent about it he says it will help me sleep and I guess he is right. I have told you that in the course of four years I had never once heard Manderson utter a direct lie about anything great or small. I believe that I understood the man's queer skin deep morality and I could have sworn that if he was firmly pressed with a question that could not be weighted he would either refuse to answer or tell the truth but what had I just heard? No answer to any question a voluntary statement precise in terms that was utterly false the unimaginable had happened it was almost as if once dearest friend in a moment of closest sympathy had suddenly struck one in the face the blood rushed to my head and I stood still on the grass I stood there until I heard his step at the front door and then I pulled myself together and stepped quickly to the car. I gave me a bankers paper bag with gold and notes in it there is more than you will want there he said and I pocketed it mechanically. For a minute or so I stood discussing with Manderson it was by one of those tours day force of which once mind is capable under great excitement certain points above the root of the long drive before me I had made the run several times by day and I believe I spoke quite calmly and naturally about it while I spoke my mind was seething in a flood of suddenly born such person and fear I did not know what I feared I simply felt fear somehow I did not know how connected with Manderson my soul once opened to it fear rushed in like an assaulting army. I felt I knew that something was altogether wrong and sinister and I felt myself to be the object of it yet Manderson was surely afraid of me of mine then my thoughts reached out widely for an answer to the question why he had told that lie and all the time the blood hammered in my ears where is that money reason struggled hard to set up the suggestion that the two things were not necessarily connected the instinct of a man in danger would not listen to it as we started and the car took the curve into the road it was merely the unconscious and that made occasional empty remarks as we slid along in the moonlight within me was a confusion and vague alarm that was far worse than any definite terror I ever felt about a mile from the house you remember one passed on once left a gate on the other side of which was the golf course there Manderson said he would get down and I stopped the car you have got it all clear he asked with a sort of wrench I forced myself to remember and repeat the directions given me that's okay he said goodbye then stay with that wallet those were the last words I heard him speak as the car moved gently away from him Marlow rose from his chair and pressed his hands to his eyes he was flushed with excitement of his own narrative and there was in his look a horror of recollection that held both the listeners silent he shook himself with a movement like a dog's and then his hands behind him stood erect before the fire as he continued his day I expect you both know what the back reflector of a motor car is Trent nodded quickly his face alive with anticipation but Mr. Couples who cherished a mild but obstinate prejudice against motor cars readily confessed to ignorance it is a small round more often rectangular mirror Marlow explained rigged out from the right side of the screen in front of the driver and adjusted in such a way that he can see without turning around if anything is coming up behind to pass him it is quite an ordinary appliance and there was one on this car as the car moved on and Manderson sees speaking behind me I saw in that mirror a thing that I wish I could forget Marlow was silent for a moment staring at the wall before him Manderson's face he said in a low tone he was standing in the road looking after me only a few yards behind and the moonlight was full on his face the mirror happened to catch it for an instant physical habit is a wonderful thing I did not shift hand or foot on the controlling mechanism of the car indeed I dare say it stared me against the shock to have myself braced to the business of driving you have read in books I dare say of hell looking out of a man's eyes but perhaps you don't know what a good metaphor that is if I had not known Manderson was there I should not have recognized the face it was that of a mad man distorted, hideous in the imbecility of hate the teeth bared in a simian grin of ferocity and trimf the eyes in the little mirror I had the glimpse of the face alone I saw nothing of whatever gesture there may have been as that ridding white mask glared after me and I saw it only for a flash the car went on gathering speed and as it went my brain suddenly purged of the vapors of doubt and perplexity was as busy as the throbbing engine before my feet I knew you say something in that manuscript of yours Mr. Trent about the swift automatic way in which once ideas arranged themselves about some new illuminating thought it is quite true the awful intensity of ill will that had flamed after me from those straining eyeballs had poured over my mind like a search light I was thinking quite clearly now and almost codily for I knew what at least I knew whom I had to fear an instinct warned me that it was not a time to give room to the emotions that were fighting to possess me the man hated me insanely that incredible fact I suddenly knew but the face had told me it would have told anybody more than that it was a face of hatred gratified it proclaimed some damnable triumph it had gloated over me driving away to my fate this too was plain to me and to what fate I stopped the car for 250 yards and a sharp bend of the road hit the spot where I had set Madison down I lay back in the seat and thought it out something was to happen to me in Paris? probably why else should I be sent there with money and a ticket but why Paris that puzzled me for I had no melodramatic ideas about Paris I put the point aside for a moment I turned to the other things I mentioned that evening the lie about my persuading him to go for a moonlight run what was the intention of that Madison I said to myself will be returning without me while I am on my way to Southampton what will he tell them about me how account for his returning alone and without the car as I asked myself that sinister question they are rushed into my mind the last of my difficulties where are the thousand pounds and in the same instant came the answer the thousand pounds are in my pocket I got up and stepped from the car my knees trembled and I felt very sick I saw the plot now as I thought the whole of the story about the papers and the necessity of their being taken to Paris was a blind with Madison's money about me of which he would declare I had robbed him I was to all appearance attempting to escape from England with every precaution that guilt could suggest he would communicate with the police at once and would know how to put them on my track I should be arrested in Paris if I got so far living under a false name after having left the car under a false name disguised myself and travelled in a cabin which I had booked in advance also under a false name it would be plainly the crime of a man without money and for some reason desperately in want of it as for my account of the affair it would be too preposterous as this costly array of incriminating circumstances rose up before me I dragged the stout letter case from my pocket in the intensity of the moment I never entertained the faintest doubt that I was right and that the money was there it would easily hold the packets of notes but as I felt it and weighed it in my hands it seemed to me there must be more than this it was too bulky what more was to be laid to my charge after all a thousand pounds was not much to tempt a man like myself to run the risk of penal servitude in this new agitation scarcely knowing what I did I caught the surrounding strap in my fingers just above the fastening and tore the staple out of the lock these locks you know are pretty flimsy as a rule here Marlo paused at the open desk before the window opening a drawer full of miscellaneous objects he took out a box of odd keys and selected a small one distinguished by a piece of pink tape he handed it to Trent I keep that by me as a sort of morbid memento it is the key to the lock I smashed I might have saved myself the trouble if I had known that this key was at that moment in the left hand side pocket of my overcoat I might have slipped it in either while the coat was hanging in the hall or while he sat at my side in the car I might not have found the tiny thing there for weeks as a matter of fact I did find it two days after Madison was dead but a police search would have found it in five minutes and then I I with the case and its contents in my pocket my false name and my sham spectacles and the rest of it I should have had no explanation to offer a highly convincing one that I didn't know the keys was there Trent dangled the key up by its tape idly then how do you know this is the key of that case he asked quickly I tried it as soon as I found it I went up and fitted it to the lock I knew where I had left the thing so do you I think Mr. Trent don't you there was a faint shade of mockery in Marlow's voice touch Trent said with a dry smile I found a large empty letter case with a burst lock lying with the other odds and ends on the dressing table in Madison's room your statement is that you put it there I could make nothing of it he closed his lips there was no reason for hiding it said Marlow but to get back to my story I burst the lock off the strap I opened the case before one of the lamps of the car the first thing I found in it I ought to have expected of course but I hadn't he paused and glanced at Trent it was began Trent mechanically and then stopped himself try not to bring me in anymore if you don't mind he said meeting the other's eye I have complimented you already in the document on your cleverness you need not prove it by making the judge help you out with your evidence alright agreed Marlow I couldn't resist just that much if you had been in my place you would have known before I did that Madison's little pocket case was there as soon as I saw it of course I remembered his not having had it about him when I asked for money and his surprising anger he had made a false step he had already fastened his note case up with the rest of what was to figure as my plunder and placed it in my hands I opened it it contained a few notes I didn't count them tucked into the flaps of the big case and packets where the other notes just I had brought them from London and with them were two small washed leather bags the look of which I knew well my heart jumped sickeningly again for this too was utterly unexpected in those bags Madison kept the diamonds in which he had been investing for some time past I didn't open them I could feel the tiny stones shifting under the pressure of my fingers how many thousands of pounds worth there where there I have no idea we had regarded Madison's diamond buying as merely a speculative fad I believe now that it was the earliest movement in the scheme for my ruin for anyone like myself to be represented as having robbed him there ought to be a strong inducement shown that had been provided with the vengeance now I thought I have the whole thing and I must act I saw instantly what I must do I had left Madison about a mile from the house it would take him 20 minutes 15 if he walked fast to get back to the house where he would of course immediately tell his story of robbery and probably telephone at once to the police in Bishop Bridge I had left him only five or six minutes ago for all that I have just told you was as quick thinking as I ever did it would be easy to overtake him in the car before he neared the house there would be an awkward interview I set my teeth as I thought of it and all my fears vanished as I began to savor the gratification of telling him my opinion of him there are probably few people who ever positively looked forward to an awkward interview with Madison but I was mad with rage my honor and my liberty had been plotted against with detestable treachery I did not consider what would follow the interview that would arrange itself I had started and turned the car and I was already going fast when I heard the sound of a shot in front of me to the right instantly I stopped the car my first wild thought was that Madison was shooting at me then I realized that the noise had not been closed at hand I could see nobody on the road though the moonlight flooded it I left Madison at a spot just round a corner that was now some 50 yards ahead of me I started again and turned the corner at a slow pace then I stopped again with a jar and for a moment I sat perfectly still Madison lay dead a few steps from me on the turf within the gate clearly visible to me in the moonlight Marlowe made another pause and Trent with a puckered bro inquired on the golf course obviously remarked Mr. Couples the eighth green is just there he had grown more and more interested as Marlowe went on and was now playing feverishly with his thin beard on the green quite close to the flag said Marlowe he lay on his back his arms were stretched abroad his jacket and heavy overcoat were open the light shone hideously on his white face and his shirt front it glistened on his bare teeth and one of the eyes the other you saw it the man was suddenly dead as I sat there stunned unable for a moment to think at all I could even see a thin dark line of blood running down from the shattered socket to the ear close by lay his soft black hat and at his feet a pistol I suppose it was only a few seconds that I sat helplessly staring at the body then I rose and moved to it with dragging feet for now the truth had come to me at last and I realised the fullness of my appalling danger it was not only my liberty or my honour that the maniac had undermined it was death that he had planned for me death with the degradation of the scaffold to strike me down with certainty he had not hesitated to end his life a life which was no doubt already threatened by a melancholic pulse to self destruction and the last agony of the suicide had been turned perhaps to a devilish joy by the thought that he dragged down my life with his for so far as I could see at the moment my situation was utterly hopeless if it had been desperate on the assumption that Manderson meant to denounce me as a thief what was it now that his corpse denounced me as a murderer I picked up the revolver and saw almost without emotion that it was my own Manderson had taken it from my room I suppose while I was getting out the car at the same moment I remembered that it was by Manderson's suggestion that I had had it engraved with my initials to distinguish it from a precise similar weapon which he had of his own I went over the body and satisfied myself that there was no life left in it I must tell you here that I did not notice then or afterwards the scratches and marks on the wrists which were taken as evidence of a struggle with an assolent but I have no doubt that Manderson deliberately endured himself in this way before firing the shot it was a part of his plan though I never perceived that detail however it was evident enough as I looked at the body that Manderson had not forgotten in his last act on earth he tried to try me tighter by putting out of court the question of suicide he had clearly been at pains to hold the pistol at arm's length and there was not a trace of smoke or of burning on the face the wound was absolutely clean and was already seizing to bleed outwardly I rose and paced the green reckoning up the points in the crushing case against me I was the last to be seen with Manderson I had persuaded him so he had lied to his wife and as I afterwards knew to the butler to go with me for the drive from which he never returned my pistol had killed him it was true that by discovering his plot I had saved myself from heaping up further incriminating facts flight concealment the possession of the treasure but what need of them after all as I stood there what could I do Marlow came to the table and leaned forward with his hands upon it I want he said very earnestly to try to make you understand what was in my mind when I decided to do what I did I hope you won't be bored because I must do it you may both have thought I acted like a fool but after all the police never suspected me I walked that green for a quarter of an hour I suppose to think out like a game of chess I had to think ahead and think coolly for my safety dependent on upsetting the plans of one of the longest headed men who ever lived and remember that for all I knew there were details of the scheme still hidden from me waiting to crush me two plain courses presented themselves at once either of them I thought would suddenly prove fatal I could in first place do the completely straightforward thing take back the dead man tell my story hand over the notes and diamonds and trust to the saving power of truth and innocence I could have laughed as I thought of it I saw myself bringing home the corpse and giving an account of myself boggling with sheer shame over the absurdity of my wholly unsupported tale as I brought a charge of mad hatred and fiendish treachery against a man who had never so far as I knew had a ward to say against me at every turn the cunning of Manderson had forestalled me his careful concealment of such a hatred was a characteristic feature of the stratagem only a man of his iron self-restraint could have done it you can see for yourselves how every fact in my statement would appear in the shadow of Manderson's death a clumsy lie I tried to imagine myself telling such a story to the council for my defense I could see the face with which he would listen to it I could read in the lines of it his thought that to put forward such an impudent farago would mean merely the disappearance of any chance there might be of a commutation of the capital sentence true I had not fled I had brought back the body I had handed over the property but how did that help me it would only suggest that I had yielded to a sudden funk after killing my man and had no nerve left to clutch at the fruits of the crime it would suggest perhaps that I had not set out to kill but only threaten and that when I found that I had done murder the heart went out of me turn it in which way I would I could see no hope of escape by this plan of action the second of the obvious things that I might do was to take the hint offered by the situation and to fly it once that too must prove fatal there was the body I had no time to hide it in such a way that it would not be found at the first systematic search but whatever I should do with the body Manderson's not returning to the house would cause uneasiness in two or three hours at most Martin would suspect an accident to the car and would telephone to the police at daybreak the roads would be scoured and inquiries telegraphed in every direction the police would act on the possibility of there being foul play they would spread their nets with energy in such a big business as the disappearance of Manderson ports and railway terminal would be watched within 24 hours the body would be found and the whole country would be on the alert for me all Europe's cars lay less I did not believe there was a spot in the Christendom where the man accused of Manderson's murder could pass unchallenged with every newspaper crying the fact of his death into the years of all the world every stranger would be suspected every man woman and child would be a detective the car wherever I should abandon it would put people on my track if I had to choose between two utterly hopeless courses I decided I would take that of telling the preposterous truth but now I cast about desperately for some tale that would seem more plausible than the truth could I save my neck by a lie one after another came into my mind I need not trouble to remember them now each had its own futilities and pills but every one split upon the fact or what would be taken for fact that I had induced Manderson to go out with me and the fact that he had never returned alive notion after notion I swiftly rejected as I paced there by the dead man and doom seemed to settle down upon me more heavily as the moments passed then a strange thought came to me several times I had repeated to myself half-consciously as a sort of refrain the words in which I had heard Manderson tell his wife that I had induced him to go out Marlowe has persuaded me to go for a moonlight run in the car he is very urgent about it all at once it struck me that without meaning to do so I was saying this in Manderson's voice as you found out for yourself Mr. Trent I have a natural gift of mimicry I had imitated Manderson's voice many times so successfully as to deceive even Bonner who had been much more in his company than his own wife it was you remember Marlowe turned to Mr. Couples a strong metallic voice of great shining power so unusual as to make it a very fascinating voice to imitate and at the same time very easy I said the words carefully to myself again like this he uttered them and Mr. Couples opened his eyes in amazement and then I struck my hand upon the low wall beside me Manderson never returned alive I said aloud but Manderson shall return alive in 30 seconds the bare outline of the plan was complete in my mind I did not wait to think over details every instant was precious now I lifted the body and laid it on the floor of the car covered with a rug I took the hat and the revolver not one trace remained on the green I believe of that night's work as I drove back to white cables my design took shape before me with the rapidity and ease that filled me with a wild excitement I should escape yet it was all so easy if I kept my pluck putting aside the unusual and unlikely I should not fail I wanted to shout to scream nearing the house I slackened speed and carefully reconnectered the road nothing was moving I turned the car into the open field on the other side of the road about 20 paces short of the little door out of the grounds I brought it to the rest behind a stack when with Manderson's hat on my head and the pistol in my pocket I had staggered with the body across the moonlit road and through that door I left much of my apprehension behind me with swift action and an unbroken nerve I thought I ought to succeed with a long shy Marlowe threw himself into one of the deep chairs at the fireside and passed his handkerchief over his damp forehead each of his hearers too drew a deep breath but not audibly everything else you know he said he took a cigarette from a box beside him and lighted it Trent watched the very slight quiver of the hand that held the match and privately noted that his own at the moment was not so steady the shoes that betrayed me to you pursued Marlowe after a short silence were painful all the time I wore them but I never dreamed that they had given anywhere I knew that no footsteps of mine must appear by an accident in the soft ground about the hut where I laid the body or between the hut and the house so I took the shoes off and crammed my feet into them as soon as I was inside the little door I left my own shoes with my own jacket and overcoat near the body ready to be resumed later a clear footmark on the soft gravel outside the French window and several on the draget around the carpet the stripping of the outer clothing of the body and the dressing of it afterwards in the brown suit and shoes and putting the things into the pockets was a horrible business and getting the teeth out of the mouth was worse the head but you don't want to hear about it I didn't feel it much at the time I was wriggling my own head out of a noose you see I wish I had thought of pulling down the cuffs and had tied the shoes more neatly and putting the watch in the wrong pocket was a bad mistake it had all to be done so hurriedly you were wrong by the way about the whiskey after one stiffish drink I had no more but I filled up a flask that was in the cupboard and pocketed it I had a night of peculiar anxiety and effort in front of me and I didn't know how I should stand it I had to take some once at once during the drive speaking of that you give rather generous allowance of time in your document for doing that run by night you say that to get to Southampton by half past six in that car under the conditions a man must even if he drove like a demon have left milestone by twelve at latest I had not got the body dressed in the other suit with tie and watch chain and so forth until nearly ten minutes past and then I had to get to the car and started going but then I don't suppose any demon would have taken the risks I did in that car at night without a headlight it turns me cold to think of it now there's nothing much to say about what I did in the house I spent the time after Martin had left me in carefully thinking over the remaining steps in my plan while I unloaded and thoroughly cleaned the revolver using my handkerchief and a pen holder from the desk I also placed the packets of notes the note case and the diamonds in the roll top desk which I opened and relocked with Manderson's key when I went upstairs it was a trying moment for though I was safe from the eyes of Martin as he sat in his pantry there was a faint possibility of somebody being about on the bedroom floor I had sometimes found the French maid wondering about there when the other servants were in bed burner I knew was a deep sleeper Mrs. Manderson I gathered from things I had heard her say was usually asleep by 11 I had thought it possible that her gift of sleep had helped her to retain all her beauty and vitality in spite of a marriage which we all knew was an unhappy one still it was uneasy work mounting the stairs and holding myself ready to retreat to the library again at the least sound from above but nothing happened the first thing I did on reaching the corridor was to enter my room and put the revolver and cartridges back in the case then I turned off the light and went quietly into Manderson's room what I had to do there you know I had to take off the shoes and put them outside the door leave Manderson's jacket, waistcoat trousers and black tie after taking everything out of the pockets select the suit and tie and shoes for the body and place the dental plate in the bowl which I moved from the washing stand to the bedside leaving those riniest finger marks as I did so the marks on the drawer must have been made when I shut it after taking out the tie then I had to lie down in the bed and tumble it you know all about it all except my state of mind which you couldn't imagine and I couldn't describe the worst came when I had hardly begun my operations the moment when Mrs. Manderson spoke from the room where I supposed her to sleep I was prepared for it happening it was a possibility but I nearly lost my nerve all the same however by the way I may tell you this in the extremely unlikely contingency of Mrs. Manderson remaining awake and so putting out of the question of my escape by way of her window I had planned simply to remain where I was a few hours and then not speaking to her to leave the house quickly and quietly in every way Martin would have been in bed by the time I might have been heard to leave but not seen I should have done just as I had planned with the body and then made the best time I could in the car to Southampton the difference would have been that I couldn't have furnished an unquestionable alibi by turning up at the hotel at 6.30 I should have made the best of it by driving straight to the docks where is there I could in any case have got there long before the boat left at noon I couldn't see that anybody could suspect me of the supposed murder in any case but if anyone had and if I hadn't arrived until 10 o'clock say I shouldn't have been able to answer it is impossible for me to have got to Southampton so soon after shooting him I should simply have had to say I was delayed by a breakdown after leaving bus 10 and challenged anyone to produce any fact connecting me with the crime they couldn't have done it the pistol left openly in my room might have been used by anybody even if it could be proved that that particular pistol was used nobody could reasonably connect me with the shooting as long as it was believed that it was Manderson who had returned to the house the suspicion could not I was confident enter anyone's mind I wanted to introduce the element of absolute physical impossibility I knew I should feel 10 times as safe with that so when I knew from the sound of her breathing that mrs. Manderson was asleep again I walked quickly across her room in my stocking feed and was on the grass with my bundle in 10 seconds I don't think I made the least noise the curtain before the window was off soft thick stuff and didn't rustle and when I pushed the glass doors further open there was not a sound tell me said Trent as others stopped to light a new cigarette why you took the risk of going through mrs. Manderson's room to escape from the house I could see when I looked into the thing on the spot why it had to be on that side of the house there was a danger of being seen by Martin or by some servant at a bedroom window if you got out by a window on one of the other sides but there were three unoccupied rooms on that side two spare bedrooms and mrs. Manderson's sitting room I should have thought it would have been safer after you had done what was necessary to your plan in Madison's room to leave it quietly and escape through one of those three rooms the fact that you went through her window you know he added coldly might have suggested if it became known a certain suspicion in regard to the lady herself I think you understand me Marlowe turned face and I think you will understand me mr. Trent he said in a voice that shook a little when I say that if such a possibility had occurred to me then I would have taken any risk rather than make my escape by that way oh well he went on more coolly I suppose that to anyone who didn't know her the idea of her being private to her husband's murder might not seem so indescribably fatuous forgive the expression he looked attentively at the burning end of his cigarette studiously unconscious of the red flag that flew in Trent's eyes for an instant at his words and the tone of them that emotion however was conquered at once your remark is perfectly just Trent said with answering coolness I can quite believe too that at the time you didn't think of the possibility I mentioned but surely apart from that it would have been safer to do as I said go by the window of an unoccupied room do you think so said Marlow all I can say is I hadn't the nerve to do it I tell you when I entered Madison's room I shut the door of it on more than half my terrors I had the problem confined before me in a closed space with only one danger in it and that unknown danger the danger of Mrs. Madison the thing was most done I had only to wait until she was certainly asleep after her few moments of waking up for which as I told you I was prepared as a possibility barring accidents the way was clear but now suppose that I carrying Madison's clothes and shoes had opened the door again and gone in my shirt sleeves and socks to enter one of the empty rooms the moonlight was flooding the corridor through the end window even if they were concealed nobody could mistake my standing figure for Madison's Martin might be going about the house in his silent way Bonner might come out of his bedroom one of the servants who was supposed to be in bed might come round the corner from the other passage I had found Celestine prowling about quite as late as it was then none of these things was very likely but they were all too likely for me they were entities shut up from the household in Madison's room I knew exactly what I had to face as I lay in my clothes in Madison's bed and listened for the almost inaudible breathing through the open door I felt far more ease of mind terrible as my anxiety was then I had felt since I saw the dead body on the turf I even congratulated myself that I had had the chance through Mrs. Madison speaking to me of tightening one of the screws in my scheme by repeating the statement about my having been sent to Southampton Marlowe looked at Trent who nodded as who should say that his point was met as for Southampton pursued Marlowe you know what I did when I got there I have no doubt I had decided to take Madison's story about the mysterious Harris and acted out on my own lies it was a carefully prepared lie better than anything I could improvise I even went so far as to get through a trunk call to the hotel to Southampton from the library before starting and ask if Harris was there as I expected he wasn't was that why you telephoned Trent inquired quickly the reason for telephoning was to get myself into an attitude in which Martin couldn't see my face or anything but the jacket and hat yet which was a natural and familiar attitude but while I was about it it was obviously better to make a genuine call if I had simply pretended to be telephoning the people at the exchange could have told you at once that there hadn't been a call from white gables that night one of the first things I did was to make that inquiry said Trent that telephone call and the wire you sent from Southampton to the dead man to say Harris hadn't turned up and you were returning both those appealed to me a constrained smile lighted Marlowe's face for a moment I don't know that there is anything more to tell I returned to Marlstone and faced your friend and detective with such nerve as I had left the worst was when I heard you had been put on the case no that wasn't the worst the worst was when I saw you walk out of the shrubbery the next day coming away from the shed where I had laid the body for one ghastly moment I thought you were going to give me in charge on the spot now I have told you everything you don't look so terrible he closed his eyes and there was a short silence then Trent caught suddenly to his feet cross examination inquired Marlowe looking at him gravely not at all said Trent stretching his long limbs only stiffness of the legs I don't want to ask any questions I believe what you have told us I don't believe it simply because I always liked your face or because it saves awkwardness which are the most usual reasons for believing a person but because my vanity will have it that no man could lie to me steadily for an hour without my perceiving it your story is an extraordinary one but Manderson was an extraordinary man and so are you you acted like a lunatic in doing what you did but I quite agree with you that if you had acted like a sane man you wouldn't have had the power for a dog's chance with a judge and jury one thing is beyond dispute on any leading of the affair you are a man of courage the color rushed into Marlowe's face and he hesitated for words before he could speak Mr. Couples arose with a dry cough for my part he said I never supposed you guilty for a moment Marlowe turned to him in a grateful amazement Trent with an incredulous stare pursued Mr. Couples holding up his hand there is one question which I should like to put Marlowe Bode saying nothing suppose said Mr. Couples that someone else had been suspected of the crime and put upon trial what would you have done I think my duty was clear I should have gone with my story to the lawyers for the defense and put myself in their hands Trent laughed aloud now that the thing was over his spirits were rapidly becoming ungovernable I can see their faces he said as a matter of fact though nobody else was ever in danger there wasn't a shred of evidence against anyone I looked up merch at the yard this morning and he told me he had come round to Banner's view that it was a case of revenge on the part of some American black hand gang so there's the end of the innocent case holy suffering Moses what an ass a man can make himself when he thinks he's being pretty naturally clever he seized the bulky envelope from the table and stuffed it into the heart of the fire there's for you old friend for want of you the world's course will not fail but look here it's getting late nearly seven and Couples and I have an appointment at half past we must go Mr. Marlow goodbye he looked into the other's eyes I am a man who has worked hard to put a rope round your neck considering the circumstances I don't know whether you will blame me shake hands end of chapter 14 recording by red abras January 2008 Chapter 15 of Trent's last case this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information auto-volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by red abras Trent's last case by E.C. Bentley Chapter 15 the last straw what was that you said about our having an appointment at half past seven asked Mr. Couples as the two came out of the great gateway of the pile of flats have we such an appointment certainly we have replied Trent you were dining with me only one thing can properly celebrate this occasion and that is a dinner for which I pay no no I asked you first I have got right down to the bottom of a case that must be unique a case that has troubled even my mind for over a year and if that isn't a good reason for standing a dinner I don't know what is Couples we will not go to my club this is to be a festival and to be seen in a London club in a state of pleasurable emotion is more than enough to shatter any man's career besides that the dinner there is always the same or at least they always make it taste the same I know not how the eternal dinner at my club hath bored millions of members like me and shall bore but tonight let the feast be spread in vain so far as we are concerned we will not go where the satraps throng the hall we will go to shepherds who is shepherd asked Mr. Couples mildly as the proceeded up Victoria street the canyon went with an unnatural likeness and a policeman observing his face smiled indulgently at a look of happiness which he could only attribute to alcohol who is shepherd he could rent with bitter emphasis that question if you will pardon me for saying so Couples is thoroughly characteristic of the spirit of aimless inquiry prevailing in this restless day I suggest our dining at shepherds and instantly you fold your arms and demand in a frenzy of intellectual pride to know who shepherd is before you will cross the threshold of shepherds I am not going to pander to the vices of the modern mind shepherds is a place where one can dine I do not know shepherd it never occurred to me that shepherd existed probably he is a myth of totemistic origin all I know is that you can get a bit of saddle of mutton at shepherds that has made many an American visitor curse the day that Christopher Columbus was born Taxi a cab rolled smoothly to the curb and the driver received his instruction with a majestic nod another reason I have for suggesting shepherds continued trend feverishly lighting a cigarette is that I am going to be married to the most wonderful woman in the world I trust the connection of ideas is clear you are going to marry meable cried Mr. Couples my dear friend what good news this is shake hands trend this is glorious I congratulate you both from the bottom of my heart and may I say I do not want to interrupt your flow of high spirits which is very natural indeed and I remember being just the same in similar circumstances long ago but may I say how earnestly I have hoped for this Mabel has seen so much unhappiness yet she is surely a woman formed in the great purpose of humanity to be the best influence in the life of a good man but I did not know her mind as regarded yourself your mind I have known for some time Mr. Couples went on twinkle in his eye that would have done credit to the worldliest of creatures I saw it at once when you were both dining at my house and you sat listening to professor Pepmuller and looking at her some of us older fellows have our wits about us still my dear boy Mabel says she knew it before that replied Trent with a slightly crestfallen air and I thought I was acting the part of a person who was not mad about her to the life well I never was any good at dissembling I shouldn't wonder if even old Pepmuller noticed something through his double convex lenses but however crazy I may have been as an undeclared suitor I am going to be much worse now here's the place he broke off as the cab rushed down a side street and swung around a corner into a broad and populous thoroughfare we are there already the cab drew up here we are said Trent as he paid the man and led Mr. Couples into a long paneled room set with many tables and filled with a hum of talk this is the house of fulfillment of craving this is the bower with the roses around it I see there are three bookmakers eating pork at my favorite table we will have that one in the opposite corner he conferred earnestly with a waiter while Mr. Couples in a pleasant meditation warmed himself before the great fire the wine here Trent resumed as the seated themselves is almost certainly made out of grapes what shall we drink Mr. Couples came out of his rivery I think he said I'll have milk and soda water like lower urged Trent the head waiter has a weak heart and he might hear you milk and soda water Couples you may think you have a strong constitution and I don't say you have not but I warn you that this habit of mixing drinks has been the death of many a robuster man than you be wise in time fill high the bowl with Samian wine leave soda to the Turkish hordes here comes our food he gave another order to the waiter who arranged the dishes before them and darted away Trent was it seemed a respected customer I have sent he said for wine that I know and I hope you will try it if you have taken a vow then in the name of all the tea total saints drink water which stands at your elbow but don't seek a cheap notoriety by demanding milk and soda I have never taken any pledge said Mr Couples examining his mutton with a favourable eye I simply don't care about wine I bought a bottle once and drank it to see what it was like and it made me ill but very likely it was bad wine I'll taste some of yours as it is your dinner and I do assure you my dear Trent I should like to do something to show how strongly I feel on the present occasion I have not been so delighted for many years to think he reflected aloud as the waiter filled his glass of the mandasin mystery disposed of the innocent exculpated and your own and Mabel's happiness crown all coming upon me together I drink to you my dear friend and Mr Couples took a very small sip of the wine you have a great nature said Trent much moved your outward semblance doth belie your soul's immensity I should have expected as soon to see an elephant conducting at the opera as you drinking my health dear Couples may his beak retain ever that delicate rose stain no cursed all he broke out surprising a shade of discomfort that melted over his companion's face as he tasted the wine again I have no business to meddle with your taste I apologize you shall have what you want even if it causes the head waiter to perish in his bride when Mr Couples had been supplied with his monastic drink and the waiter had retired Trent looked across the table with significance in this babble of many conversations said we can speak as freely as if we were on a bare hillside the waiter is whispering soft nothings into the ear of the young woman at the pay desk we are alone what do you think of that interview of this afternoon he began to dine with an appetite without pausing in the task of cutting his mutton into very small pieces Mr Couples replied the most curious feature of it in my judgement was the irony of the situation and the mad hatred of Mandasins which Marlowe found so mysterious we knew of his jealous obsession which knowledge we withheld as was very proper if only in consideration of Mabel's feelings Marlowe will never know of what he was suspected by that person strange nearly all of us I venture to think move unconsciously among a network of opinions often quite erroneous which other people entertain about us with regard to Marlowe's story it appeared to me entirely straight forward and not in its essential features especially remarkable once we have admitted as we surely must that in the case of Mandasins we have to deal with a more or less discarded mind it was Mr Bonner I think you said who told you of his rooted and apparently hereditary temper of suspicious jealousy when the pressure of his business labours brought on mental derangement that abnormality increased until it dominated him entirely Trent laughed loudly not especially remarkable he said I confess that the affair struck me as a little unusual only in the development of the details argued Mr Couples what is there abnormal in the essential facts a mad man conceives a crazy suspicion he hatches a cunning plot against his fancied injurer it involves his own destruction put thus what is there that any man with the least knowledge of the ways of lunatics would call remarkable turn now to Marlowe's proceedings he finds himself in a perilous position from which though he is innocent telling the truth will not save him is that an unheard of situation he escapes by means of a bold and ingenious piece of deception that seems to me a thing that might happen every day and probably does so he attacked his now unrecognisable mutton I should like to know said Trent after an elementary pause in the conversation whether there is anything that ever happened on the face of the earth that you could not represent as quite ordinary and commonplace by such a line of argument as that you may say what you like but the idea of impersonating Manderson in those circumstances was an extraordinarily ingenious idea ingenious certainly replied Mr. Couples extraordinarily so no in those circumstances your own words it was really not strange that it should occur to a clever man it lay almost on the surface of the situation Marlowe was famous for his imitation of Manderson's voice he had a talent for acting he knew the ways of the establishment intimately I grant you that the idea was brilliantly carried out but everything favored it as for the essential idea I do not place it as regards ingenuity in the same class with for example the idea of utilizing the force of a recoil in a discharged firearm to actuate the mechanism of ejecting and reloading I do however admit as I did at the outset that in respect of details the case had unusual features it developed a high degree of complexity did it really strike you in that way in quiet trend with a desperate sarcasm the affair became complicated the plot was quite unmoved because after Marlowe's suspicions were awakened a second subtle mind came in to interfere with the plans of the first that sort of duel often happens in business and politics but less frequently I imagine in the world of crime one disturbing reflection was left on my mind by what we learned today if Marlowe had suspected nothing and walked into the trap it would certainly have been hanged now how often may not a plan to throw the guilt of murder on an innocent person have been practiced successfully there are I imagine numbers of cases in which the accused being found guilty on circumstantial evidence have died protesting their innocence I shall never approve again of a death sentence imposed in a case decided upon such evidence I never have done so for my part said Trent to hang in such cases seems to me flying in the face of the perfectly obvious and sound principle expressed in the saying that you never can tell I agree with the American jurist who lays it down that we should not hang a yellow dog for stealing jam on circumstantial evidence not even if he has jam all over his nose as for attempts being made by malevolent persons to fix crimes upon innocent men of course it is constantly happening Mr. Couples mused a few moments we know he said from the things Mabel and Mr. Bonner told you what may be termed the spiritual truth underlying this matter the insane depth of jealous hatred which Manderson concealed we can understand that he was capable of such a scheme but as a rule it is in the task of penetrating to the spiritual truth that the administration of justice breaks down sometimes that truth is deliberately concealed as in Manderson's case sometimes I think it is concealed because simple people are actually unable to express it and nobody else divides it the law certainly does not shine when it comes to a case requiring much delicacy of perception said Trent it goes wrong easily enough over the common place criminal as for the people with temperaments who get mixed up in legal proceedings they must feel as if they were in a forest of apes whether they win or lose well I dare say it is good for them and they are sought to have their noses rubbed in reality now and again but what would 12 red faced realities in a jury box have done to Marlo his story would as he says have been a great deal worse than no defense at all it is not as if there were a single piece of evidence in support of a stale can't you imagine how the prosecution would tear it to rags can't you see the judge simply taking it in his stride when it came to the summing up and the jury you have served on juries I expect in their room snorting with indignation over the feebleness of the lie telling each other it was the clearest case they ever heard of and that they would have thought better of him if he hadn't lost his nerve at the crisis and had cleared off with the swag as he intended imagine yourself on that duty not knowing Marlo and trembling with indignation at the record unrolled before you cupidity murder robbery sudden card is shameless impenitent desperate lying why you and I believed him to be guilty until I beg your pardon I beg your pardon interjected Mr. Couples laying down his knife and fork I was most careful when we talked it all over the other night to say nothing indicating such a belief I was always certain that he was innocent you said something of the sort at Marlo's just now I wondered what on earth you could mean certain that he was innocent how can you be certain you were generally more careful about terms than that couples I said certain Mr. Couples repeated firmly Trent shrugged his shoulders if you really were after reading my manuscript and discussing the whole thing as we did he rejoined then I can only say that you must have totally renounced all trust in the operations of the reason an attitude which while it is bad Christianity and also infernal nonsense is oddly enough bad positivism too unless I misunderstand that system why man let me say a word Mr. Couples interposed again folding his hands above his plate I assure you I am far from abandoning reason I'm certain he is innocent and I always was certain of it because of something that I know and knew from the very beginning you asked me just now to imagine myself on the jury at Marlo's trial that would be an unprofitable exercise of the mental powers because I know that I should be present in another capacity I should be in the witness box giving evidence for the defense you said just now if there were a single piece of evidence in support of his tail there is and it is my evidence and he added quietly it is conclusive he took up his knife and fork and went contentedly on with his dinner the pallor of excitement had turned trend to marble while Mr. Couples led laboriously up to the statement at the last word the blood rushed to his face again and he struck the table with an unnatural laugh it can't be he exploded it's something you fancied something you dreamed after one of those debauchess of soda and milk you can't really mean that all the time I was working on the case down there you knew Marlo was innocent Mr. Couples busy with his last mouthful nodded brightly he made an end of eating wiped his sparse moustache and then leaned forward over the table it's very simple he said I shot Madison myself I'm afraid I startled you Trent heard the voice of Mr. Couples say he forced himself out of his stupefaction like a diver striking upward for the surface and with a rigid movement raised his glass but half of the wine splashed upon the cloth and he put it carefully down again untasted he drew a deep breath which was exhaled in a laugh wholly without merriment go on he said it was not murder began Mr. Couples slowly measuring of inches with a fork on the edge of the table I'll tell you the whole story on that Sunday night I was taking my before bedtime constitutional having set out from the hotel about a quarter past 10 I went along the field path that runs behind white cables cutting off the great curve of the road and came out on the road nearby opposite that gate that is just by the eighth hole on the golf course then I turned in there meaning to walk along the turf to the edge of the cliff and go back that way I had only gone a few steps when I heard the car coming and then I heard it stop near the gate I saw Madison at once do you remember my telling you I had seen him once alive after our quarrel in front of the hotel well this was the time you asked me if I had and I did not care to tell a false hood a slight groan came from Trent he drank a little wine and said stonily go on please it was as you know pursued Mr. Couples a moonlight night but I was in shadow under the trees by the stone wall and anyhow I could not suppose there was anyone near them I heard all that passed just as Marlowe has narrated it to us and I saw the car go off towards Bishop bridge I did not see Madison's face as it went because his back was to me but he shook his left hand at the car with extraordinary violence greatly to my amazement then I waited for him to go back to white cables as I did not want to again but he did not go he opened the gate through which I had just passed and he stood there on the turf of the green quite still his head was bent his arms hung at his sides and he looked somehow rigid for a few moments he remained in this tense attitude then all of a sudden his right arm moved swiftly and his hand was at the pocket of his overcoat I saw his face raised in the moonlight the teeth bad and eyes glittering and all at once I knew that the man was mad almost as quickly as that flashed across my mind something else flashed in the moonlight he held the pistol before him pointing at his breast now I may say here I shall always be doubtful whether Madison intended to kill himself then Marlow naturally thinks so knowing nothing of my intervention but I think it quite likely he only meant to wound himself and to charge Marlow with attempted murder and robbery at that moment however I assumed it was suicide before I knew what I was doing I had leapt out of the shadows and seized his arm he shook me off with a furious snarling noise giving me a terrific blow in the chest and presented the revolver at my head but I seized his wrists before he could fire and clung with all my strength you remember how bruised and scratched they were I knew I was fighting for my own life now for murder was in his eyes we struggled like two beasts with an articulate word I holding his pistol hand down and keeping a grip on the other I never dreamed that I had strength for such an encounter then with a perfectly instinctive movement I never knew I meant to do it I flung away his free hand and clutched like lightning at the weapon tearing it from his fingers by a miracle it did not go off I darted back a few steps he sprang at my throat like a wildcat and I fired blindly in his face he would have been about a yard away I suppose his knees gave way instantly and he fell in a heap on the turf I flung the pistol down and bent over him the heart's motion seized under my hand I knelt there staring struck motionless and I don't know how long it was before I heard the noise of the car returning Trent all the time that Marlowe paced that green with the moonlight on his white and working face I was within a few yards of him crouching in the shadow of the furs by the ninth tree I dared not show myself I was thinking my public quarrel with Madison the same morning was I suspected the talk of the hotel I assure you that every horrible possibility of the situation for me had rushed across my mind the moment I saw Madison fall I became cunning I knew what I must do I must get back to the hotel as fast as I could I became somehow unperceived and play a part to save myself I must never tell a word to anyone of course I was assuming that Marlowe would tell everyone how he had found the body I knew he would suppose it was suicide I thought everyone would suppose so when Marlowe began at last to lift the body I stole away down the wall and got out into the road by the clubhouse where he could not see me I felt perfectly cool and collected I crossed the road climbed the fence and ran across the middle to pick up the field path I had come by that runs to the hotel behind wide cables I got back to the hotel very much out of breath out of breath repeated Trent mechanically still staring at his companion as if hypnotized I had had a sharp run said Mr. Couples while approaching the hotel from the back I could see into the writing room through the open window there was nobody in there so I climbed over the sill walked to the bell and rang it and then sat down to write a letter I had meant to write the next day I saw by the clock that it was a little past 11 when the waiter answered the bell I asked for a glass of milk and a postage stamp soon afterwards I went up to bed but I could not sleep Mr. Couples having nothing more to say seized speaking he looked in mild surprise at Trent who now sat silent supporting his bent head in his hands he could not sleep murmured Trent at last in a hollow tone a frequent result of over exertion during the day nothing to be alarmed about he was silent again then looked up with a pale face Couples I am cured I will never touch a crime mystery again the Manderson Affair shall be Philip Trent's last case his high blown pride at length breaks under him Trent's smile suddenly returned I could have borne everything but that last revelation of the importance of human reason Couples I have absolutely nothing left to say except this you have beaten me I drink your health in a spirit of self-abasement and you shall pay for the dinner End of Chapter 15 Recording by Red Abrace January 2008 Trent's last case by E. C. Bentley