Detective and mystery stories; Trent, Philip (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
(3.) He had considerable aptitude for mimicry and acting—probably some
experience too.
(4.) He had a minute acquaintance with the ways of the Manderson
household.
(5.) He was under a vital necessity of creating the belief that
Manderson was alive and in that house until some time after midnight on
the Sunday night.
So much I took as either certain or next door to it. It was as far as I
could see. And it was far enough.
I proceed to give, in an order corresponding with the numbered
paragraphs above, such relevant facts as I was able to obtain about Mr.
John Marlowe, from himself and other sources:
(1.) He had been Mr. Manderson’s private secretary, upon a footing of
great intimacy, for nearly four years.
(2.) The two men were nearly of the same height, about five feet eleven
inches; both were powerfully built and heavy in the shoulder. Marlowe,
who was the younger by some twenty years, was rather slighter about the
body, though Manderson was a man in good physical condition. Marlowe’s
shoes (of which I examined several pairs) were roughly about one
shoemaker’s size longer and broader than Manderson’s.
(3.) In the afternoon of the first day of my investigation, after
arriving at the results already detailed, I sent a telegram to a
personal friend, a Fellow of a college at Oxford, whom I knew to be
interested in theatrical matters, in these terms:
_Please wire John Marlowe’s record in connection with acting at Oxford
some time past decade very urgent and confidential._
My friend replied in the following telegram, which reached me next
morning (the morning of the inquest):
_Marlowe was member O.U.D.S for three years and president 19— played
Bardolph Cleon and Mercutio excelled in character acting and imitations
in great demand at smokers was hero of some historic hoaxes._
I had been led to send the telegram which brought this very helpful
answer by seeing on the mantel-shelf in Marlowe’s bedroom a photograph
of himself and two others in the costume of Falstaff’s three followers,
with an inscription from _The Merry Wives_, and by noting that it bore
the imprint of an Oxford firm of photographers.
(4.) During his connection with Manderson, Marlowe had lived as one of
the family. No other person, apart from the servants, had his
opportunities for knowing the domestic life of the Mandersons in
detail.
(5.) I ascertained beyond doubt that Marlowe arrived at a hotel in
Southampton on the Monday morning at 6.30, and there proceeded to carry
out the commission which, according to his story, and according to the
statement made to Mrs. Manderson in the bedroom by the false Manderson,
had been entrusted to him by his employer. He had then returned in the
car to Marlstone, where he had shown great amazement and horror at the
news of the murder.
These, I say, are the relevant facts about Marlowe. We must now examine
fact number 5 (as set out above) in connection with conclusion number 5
about the false Manderson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account