Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
"I guess I can do that," said Tracey, stepping forward and producing a
photograph from his pocket. "I remained in that Hampstead house, Mr.
Brand-Fane, to search and see what I could find in order to set things
square. I found an old photograph of Mrs. Brand. I went to the
photographer's and learned that she had been taken at one time some
years ago along with her husband. Here's the photograph, and you will
see that you are the man."
Fane nervously snatched the photograph, and looked at it. There he
was in the company of Flora Brand. With a groan he dropped the
photograph, staggered to a chair, and covered his face. "It has come
out at last," he groaned.
CHAPTER XIX
STILL A MYSTERY
The two men stood in silence, looking down on the wretched creature
shivering in the chair. Walter Fane had never been much of a man, and
now that his guilt had been brought home to him, he looked more of a
craven than ever. A rat would have showed a braver front, for when in
a corner that animal will fight. But Fane did not even show his teeth.
He lay in the chair, huddled up, with his face covered, and moaned
like a rabbit taken in a trap.
There seemed no doubt as to his guilt, and none was in the mind of the
two men who had hunted him down. The evidence was without a flaw, and
if Fane escaped the gallows, he so richly-deserved, it would be more a
miracle than by any natural occurrence. The diary of his wife,
identified him with the husband who had grown weary of her. The
evidence of the key showed how she had entered the house, which had
originally been furnished for her, and it only remained to learn from
the lips of the assassin precisely how the crime had been committed.
Fane made no attempt to defend himself. He did not even state that he
had been at Westcliff-on-Sea on the night, and at the very time of the
murder. He simply lay there crushed, and in spite of the horror of the
cold-blooded crime he had committed, in spite of his cowardliness, the
two men pitied a human being who could fall so low, and behave so
basely. Even the courage of a rogue can be admired, but there was
nothing worthy of admiration in the conduct of the man who had thus
been caught.
Arnold spoke first, and even though he pitied in some ways the man, he
could not render his voice other than cold and harsh. "Well, Fane," he
said sharply, "and what is to be done?"
Fane did not reply. He only moaned. Tracey answered for him. "There's
only one thing to be done, I guess," said he; "hand him over to the
police. He deserves it."
The miserable man sprang to his feet with a shrill cry. "No! no! I
will kill myself first. You shall not--you shall not"; and he glared
at them with dishevelled hair and bloodshot eyes, his face white, his
lips grey in an extremity of fear. Calvert took no notice but turned
to the American.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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