What Will He Do with It? — Volume 07Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
What Will He Do with It? — Volume 07
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
possession, and there being no sign of force. The lock was one of those
rude old-fashioned ones which are very easily picked, but to which a
modern key does not readily fit. In the passage there was found a long
nail crooked at the end; and that nail, the superintendent of the police
(who had been summoned) had the wit to apply to the lock of the bureau,
and it unlocked and re-locked it easily. It was clear that whoever had
so shaped the nail could not have used such an instrument for the first
time, and must be a practised picklock. That, one would suppose at
first, might exonerate Losely; but he was so clever a fellow at all
mechanical contrivances that, coupled with the place of finding, the nail
made greatly against him; and still more so when some nails precisely
similar were found on the chimney-piece of an inner room in his
apartment, a room between that in which he had received Guar ston and his
bed-chamber, and used by him both as study and workshop. The nails,
indeed, which were very long and narrow, with a Gothic ornamental head,
were at once recognised by the carpenter on the estate as having been
made according to Losely's directions, for a garden bench to be placed in
Gunston's favourite walk, Gunston having remarked, some days before, that
he should like a seat there, and Losely having undertaken to make one
from a design by Pugin. Still loth to believe in Losely's guilt, Gunston
went to London with the police superintendent, the valet, and the
neighbouring attorney. They had no difficulty in finding Losely; he was
at his son's lodgings in the City, near the commercial house in which the
son was a clerk. On being told of the robbery, he seemed at first
unaffectedly surprised, evincing no fear. He was asked whether he had
gone into the study about two o'clock in the morning. He said, 'No; why
should I?' The valet exclaimed: 'But I saw you--I knew you by that old
grey cloak, with the red lining. Why, there it is now--on that chair
yonder. I'll swear it is the same.' Losely then began to tremble
visibly, and grew extremely pale. A question was next put to him as to
the nail, but he secured quite stupefied, muttering: 'Good heavens! the
cloak--you mean to say you saw that cloak?' They searched his person-
found on him some sovereigns, silver, and one bank-note for five pounds.
The number on that bank-note corresponded with a number in Gunston's
pocket-book. He was asked to say where he got that five-pound note. He
refused to answer. Gunston said: 'It is one of the notes stolen from
me!' Losely cried fiercely: 'Take care what you say. How do you know?'
Gunston replied: 'I took an account of the numbers of my notes on leaving
your room. Here is the memorandum in my pocket-book--see--' Losely
looked, and fell back as if shot. Losely's brother-in-law was in the
room at the time, and he exclaimed, 'Oh, William! you can't be guilty.
You are the honestest fellow in the world. There must be some mistake,
gentlemen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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