Tempest-Driven: A Romance (Vol. 1 of 3)Dowling, Richard
General
Tempest-Driven: A Romance (Vol. 1 of 3)
Dowling, Richard
Fiction
"And you heard from him? You received communications from him?"
"Yes."
"And money?"
"Yes, from time to time I received money from him by letter."
"Was that money black-mail?"
"I wrote him saying I was in want of money, and he sent me money
accompanied by friendly letters. You are at liberty to call it what
you like. If you search his papers, no doubt you will find my letters
to him. I did not keep copies of them, nor did I keep his replies.
"Yes; I had an object in calling on him the night he died. I had
heard he was in London, or coming to London, and I got the address in
Dulwich. I had business with him. It was to get more money from him.
You may say 'extract more money from him' if you like.
"I knocked at the door. He opened it himself. He complained of his
asthma, said there was no servant in the house, and that Mrs.
Davenport had gone to bed. He asked me to go into the dining-room,
which I found as has been described, and we sat and chatted for some
time in a most agreeable manner. We talked of indifferent things. Of
course we spoke of Mrs. Davenport. He said, in talking of her, that
although theirs had not been a love-match, they had got on
wonderfully well together, and that he was quite happy, and he
believed she was contented. He asked how long I purposed staying in
London, and I said only a few days. Then he invited me to call on
Mrs. Davenport and himself when they were in better trim----"
"What--what is that you say?" shouted Mr. Edward Davenport, starting
to his feet and gesticulating wildly. "It's perjury--wilful and
corrupt perjury!"
It was with the greatest difficulty Bertram Spencer could prevail
upon his client to resume his seat and keep silent. After a while
Blake was allowed to continue his evidence:
"I promised to come the next evening but one, and he said that would
suit them admirably. Then he smiled and said he was sure this was not
merely a visit of ceremony, and that he supposed I would allow him to
be of any use I chose. I told him he was quite right, that I had no
money, and that two hundred pounds would be of the greatest service
to me at that moment. He said he had not so much by him, but that he
would give me a hundred now and another hundred when I called the
next day but one. 'That will be,' said he, 'the 19th of February.' He
added that he'd make a memorandum of it, and he did so in the
pocket-book which has been produced here by the police. After that
nothing passed but 'Good-nights' on both sides, and then I went away,
closing the front door after me."
Here reference was made to the pocket-book, but no such entry as that
described could be found. There was no such entry in the book.
Then, having cautioned the witness again, the coroner said two leaves
of the book had been torn out, one of which had been found. On the
leaf found appeared words of the gravest import. They were:
"_Pretended death. Blake gone. He emptied chloroform over me--held me
down. Can't stir. Dying_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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