THE CHAMBERLAYNE STORY
"I perceive, sir," said Mr. Quarterpage, as Spargo entered the library, "that you have read the account of the Maitland trial."
"Twice," Spargo.
"And you have come to the that—but what have you come to?" asked Mr. Quarterpage.
"That the ticket in my was Maitland's property," said
Spargo, who was not going to give all his at once.
"Just so," the old gentleman. "I think so—I can't think anything else. But I was under the that I have for that ticket, just as I am sure I can account for the other forty-nine."
"Yes—and how?" asked Spargo.
Mr. Quarterpage to a and in produced a and two curiously-shaped old wine-glasses. He the with a cloth which he took from a drawer, and set and on a table in the window, Spargo to take a chair in thereto. He himself up his own elbow-chair.
"We'll take a of my old sherry," he said. "Though I say it as shouldn't, as the saying goes, I don't think you than that from Land's End to Berwick-upon-Tweed, Mr. Spargo—no, north either, where they used to have good taste in in my days! Well, here's your good health, sir, and I'll tell you about Maitland."
"I'm curious," said Spargo. "And about more than Maitland. I want to know about a of out of that newspaper report. I want to know something about the man to so much—the stockbroker, Chamberlayne."
"Just so," Mr. Quarterpage, smiling. "I that would touch your of the inquisitive. But Maitland first. Now, when Maitland to prison, he left him a child, a boy, just then about two years old. The child's mother was dead. Her sister, a Miss Baylis, appeared on the scene—Maitland had married his wife from a distance—and took of the child and of Maitland's personal effects. He had been while he was his trial, and all his were sold. But this Miss Baylis took some small personal things, and I always that she took the ticket. And she may have done, for anything I know to the contrary. Anyway, she took the child away, and there was an end of the Maitland family in Market Milcaster. Maitland, of course, was in of to Dartmoor, and there he his term. There were people who were very to of him when he came out—the bank people, for they that he more about the of that money than he'd told, and they wanted to him to tell what they he knew—between ourselves, Mr. Spargo, they were going to make it his while to tell."
Spargo the newspaper, which he had while the old talked.
"Then they didn't what his said—that Chamberlayne got all the money?" he asked.
Mr. Quarterpage laughed.
"No—nor else!" he answered. "There was a idea in the town—you'll see why afterwards—that it was all a put-up job, and that Maitland his that there was a waiting for him when he came out. And as I say, the bank people meant to of him. But though they sent a special agent to meet him on his release, they did of him. Some mistake arose—when Maitland was released, he got clear away. Nobody's a word of him from that day to this. Unless Miss Baylis has."
"Where this Miss Baylis live?" asked Spargo.
"Well, I don't know," Mr. Quarterpage. "She did live in Brighton when she took the child away, and her address was known, and I have it somewhere. But when the bank people her out after Maitland's release, she, too, had clean disappeared, and all to her failed. In fact, according to the who near her in Brighton, she'd disappeared, with the child, five years before. So there wasn't a to Maitland. He his time—made a model prisoner—they did that much out!—earned the maximum remission, was released, and vanished. And for that very there's a about him in this very town to this very day!"
"What?" asked Spargo.
"This. That he's now comfortably, on what he got from the bank," Mr. Quarterpage. "They say that the sister-in-law was in at the game; that when she with the child, she and a home for Maitland, and that he off to them as soon as he came out. Do you see?"
"I that was possible," said Spargo.
"Quite possible, sir. But now," the old gentleman, the glasses, "now we come on to the Chamberlayne story. It's a good more to do with the Maitland than at sight, I'll tell it to you and you can your own conclusions. Chamberlayne was a man who came to Market Milcaster—I don't know from where—in 1886—five years the Maitland smash-up. He was then about Maitland's age—a man of thirty-seven or eight. He came as to old Mr. Vallas, the rope and manufacturer: Vallas's place is still there, at the of the High Street, near the river, though old Vallas is dead. He was a smart, cute, pushing chap, this Chamberlayne; he himself to old Vallas, and old Vallas paid him a good salary. He settled in the town, and he married a town girl, one of the Corkindales, the saddlers, when he'd been here three years. Unfortunately she died in a year of their marriage. It was very soon after that that Chamberlayne up his post at Vallas's, and started as a stock-and-share broker. He'd been a saving man; he'd got a of money with his wife; he always let it be that he had money of his own, and he started in a good way. He was a man of the most manners: he'd have out of a dog's if he'd wanted to. The men of the town in him—I in him myself, Mr. Spargo—I'd many a with him, and I by him—on the contrary, he did very well for me. He did well for most of his clients—there were, of course, and downs, but on the whole he satisfied his clients well. But, naturally, nobody what was going on him and Maitland."
"I from this report," said Spargo, "that came out suddenly—unexpectedly?"
"That was so, sir," Mr. Quarterpage. "Sudden? Unexpected? Aye, as a of on a winter's day. Nobody had the of a that anything was wrong. John Maitland was much in the town; much of by everybody; well to everybody. I can you, Mr. Spargo, that it was no thing to have to on that as I did—I was its foreman, sir,—and a man that you'd as a friend. But there it was!"
"How was the thing discovered?" asked Spargo, to at facts.
"In this way," Mr. Quarterpage. "The Market Milcaster Bank is in almost the property of two old families in the town, the Gutchbys and the Hostables. Owing to the death of his father, a Hostable, fresh from college, came into the business. He was a shrewd, fellow; he got some suspicion, somehow, about Maitland, and he on the other partners to a special investigation, and on their making it suddenly. And Maitland was he had a chance. But we're talking about Chamberlayne."
"Yes, about Chamberlayne," Spargo.
"Well, now, Maitland was one evening," Mr. Quarterpage. "Of course, the news of his ran through the town like wild-fire. Everybody was astonished; he was at that time—aye, and had been for years—a at the Parish Church, and I don't think there have been more if we'd that the Vicar had been for bigamy. In a little town like this, news is all over the place in a minutes. Of course, Chamberlayne would that news like else. But it was remembered, and often upon afterwards, that from the moment of Maitland's nobody in Market Milcaster had speech with Chamberlayne again. After his wife's death he'd taken to an hour or so of an across there at the 'Dragon,' where you saw me and my friends last night, but on that night he didn't go to the 'Dragon.' And next he the eight o'clock train to London. He to to the as he got into the train that he to be late that night, and that he should have a day of it. But Chamberlayne didn't come that night, Mr. Spargo. He didn't come to Market Milcaster for four days, and when he did come it was in a coffin!"
"Dead?" Spargo. "That was sudden!"
"Very sudden," Mr. Quarterpage. "Yes, sir, he came in his coffin, did Chamberlayne. On the very on which he'd spoken of being back, there came a here to say that he'd died very at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. That came to his brother-in-law, Corkindale, the saddler—you'll him the street, opposite the Town Hall. It was sent to Corkindale by a nephew of Chamberlayne's, another Chamberlayne, Stephen, who in London, and was to be on the Stock Exchange there. I saw that telegram, Mr. Spargo, and it was a long one. It said that Chamberlayne had had a seizure, and though a doctor had been got to him he'd died afterwards. Now, as Chamberlayne had his nephew and friends in London, his brother-in-law, Tom Corkindale, didn't that there was any for him to go up to town, so he just sent off a wire to Stephen Chamberlayne if there was he do. And next came another wire from Stephen saying that no would be necessary, as the doctor had been present and able to the of death, and would Corkindale make all for the two days later. You see, Chamberlayne had a in our when he his wife, so naturally they to him in it, with her."
Spargo nodded. He was to all of and theories; he was taking in.
"Well," Mr. Quarterpage, "on the second day after that, they Chamberlayne's down. Three of 'em came with it—Stephen Chamberlayne, the doctor who'd been called in, and a solicitor. Everything was done according to proper and usage. As Chamberlayne had been well in the town, a good number of met the at the station and it to the cemetery. Of course, many of us who had been clients of Chamberlayne's were to know how he had come to such a end. According to Stephen Chamberlayne's account, our Chamberlayne had to him and to his to meet him at the Cosmopolitan to do some business. They were him there when he arrived, and they had together. After that, they got to their in a private room. Towards the end of the afternoon, Chamberlayne was taken ill, and though they got a doctor to him at once, he died evening. The doctor said he'd a heart. Anyhow, he was able to the of his death, so there was no and they him, as I have told you."
The old paused and, taking a at his sherry, at some which to him.
"Well," he said, presently going on, "of course, on that came all the Maitland revelations, and Maitland and that Chamberlayne had not only had nearly all the money, but that he was that most of it was in his hands in hard cash. But Chamberlayne, Mr. Spargo, had left nothing. All that be was about three or four thousand pounds. He'd left to his nephew, Stephen. There wasn't a trace, a to the with which Maitland had him. And then people to talk, and they said what some of them say to this very day!"
"What's that?" asked Spargo.
Mr. Quarterpage and his guest on the arm.
"That Chamberlayne did die, and that that was with lead!" he answered.
