The Herapath PropertyFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
The Herapath Property
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Detective and mystery stories
"I know--you can tell the name of the man whom you drove that morning
from the corner of Orchard Street to Kensington High Street," replied
Triffitt. "It may be important--it mayn't. You see, the police haven't
been in any hurry to approach you, have they? Come now, give it a name?"
The informant summoned up his resolution.
"Cash down--on the spot, guv'nor?" he asked.
"Spot cash," replied Triffitt. "On this table!"
"Well--how would a couple o' fivers be, now?" asked the anxious one.
"It's good stuff, guv'nor."
"A couple of fivers will do," answered Triffitt. "And here they are." He
took two brand-new, crackling five-pound notes from his pocket, folded
them up, laid them on the table, and set a glass on them. "Now, then!"
he said. "Tell your tale--there's your money when it's told."
The taxi-cab driver eyed the notes, edged his chair further into the
half-lighted corner in which Triffitt and Carver sat, and dropped his
voice to a whisper.
"All right, guv'nor," he said. "Thanking you. Then it's this here--the
man what I drove that morning was the nephew!"
"You mean Mr. Barthorpe Herapath?" said Triffitt, also in a whisper.
"That's him--that's the identical, sir! Of course," continued the
informant, "I didn't know nothing of that when I told the old gent in
Portman Square what I did tell him. Now, you see, I wasn't called at
that inquest down there at Kensington--after what I'd told the old gent,
I expected to be, but I wasn't. All the same, there's been a deal of
talk around about the corner of Orchard Street, and, of course, there is
them in that quarter as knows all the parties concerned, and this man
Barthorpe, as you call him, was pointed out to me as the nephew--nephew
to him as was murdered that night. And then, of course, I knew it was
him as I took up at two o'clock that morning."
"How did you know?" asked Triffitt.
The taxi-cab driver held up a hand and tapped a brass ring on its third
finger.
"Where I wears that ring, gentlemen," he said triumphantly, "he wears a
fine diamond--a reg'lar swell 'un. That morning, when he got into my
cab, he rested his hand a minute on the door, and the light from one o'
the lamps across the street shone full on the stone. Now, then, when
this here Barthorpe was pointed out to me in Orchard Street, a few days
ago, as the nephew of Jacob Herapath, he was talking to another
gentleman, and as they stood there he lighted a cigar, and when he put
his hand up, I see that ring again--no mistaking it, guv'nor! He was
the man. And, from what I've read, it seems to me it was him as put on
his uncle's coat and hat after the old chap was settled, and----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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