Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 19th century
and found a lock of hair, which I saw directly was Mr. Anderton's, and
there were a few words in writing which I copied down in my note-book,
and then I put the hair and the paper and all back where I found them.
The writing was, "Pray for me, darling, pray for me." I knew the hand
at once for Mr. Anderton's. His writing is very remarkable, by reason,
I suppose, of being so left-handed. Of course that wasn't evidence,
but somehow I got an idea out of it that a man wouldn't go on in that
way with his wife just after he'd been and murdered her. It struck me
that that would be against nature, leastways if he was in his right
mind. After I had finished with the coffin I took a look at the box.
As I expected, the top was covered ever so thick with dust, and it was
pretty clear that, at all events, the bit of paper had never lain atop
of it. I put a piece just like it on to try and blew it off again, and
it made a great mark and got all dirty. The paper picked up by the
nurse was quite clean, or very nearly so. Putting all this together
I came pretty nigh a conclusion that, at all events, it wasn't Mr.
Anderton as had dropped the paper there. The sides of the box were also
dusty, but there were marks on them like as if a brush or a broom had
brushed against them. I put the box and the bed back into their places,
and went down to question the housemaid.[4] I found that she had put
the room tidy the day Mrs. Anderton died, and had passed a short
hair-broom under the bed as there were several things lying about. She
said she was quite sure there was no bit of paper there then, as she
had stooped down and looked under. I tried with the same broom, and you
couldn't reach the box without stooping, as she said. I then inquired
who had been in the room between the time of the death and the finding
of the paper. No one had been there but the nurse, the doctor, the
housemaid, and Baron R**. I was determined to hunt it out if possible.
I questioned the nurse and the housemaid--on the quiet, not to excite
suspicion--but felt pretty clear they knew nothing more about it; and
when next Baron R** came I sounded him about different points. He did
not seem to know that Mr. Anderton was so left-handed, nor could I get
any information from him on the subject. He didn't seem at first to
see what I was driving at, and, of course, I didn't mean he should,
but after a while I saw he had struck out the same idea as I had about
the place where the paper was found, though I had not meant to let him
into that. He seemed quite struck of a heap by it. I fancied at the
moment that he turned regularly pale, but he was just blowing his nose
with a large yellow silk handkerchief, and I could not be sure. He said
nothing to me of what he had guessed, nor did I to him. I like to keep
those things as quiet as I can, particularly from parties' friends. I
have not been able to get any further clue, but I am convinced that
something is to be made out of that paper business yet. I generally
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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