Chapter 8
chapter v of cleek the man of the forty faces this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by ruth golding cleek the man of the forty faces by thomas w hanshue chapter v on the morrow mrs baudry made known the rather surprising piece of news that mr rickaby had written her a note to say that he had received a communication of such vital importance that he had been obliged to leave the house that morning before anybody was up and might not be able to return to it for several days no very great hardship in that my dear commented mrs summerby miles for a more stupid and uninteresting person i never encountered fancy he never even offered to assist the gentleman to get poor mr bawdrey upstairs last night how is the poor old dear this morning darling better yes much said mrs bawdrey in reply dr philipson came to the house before four o'clock and brought some wonderful new medicine that has simply worked wonders of course he will have to stop in bed and be perfectly quiet for three or four days
but although the attack was by far the worst he has ever had the doctor feels quite confident that he will pull him safely through now although in the light of her apparent affection for her aged husband she ought one would have thought to be exceedingly happy over this it was distinctly noticeable that she was nervous and ill at ease that there was a hunted look in her eyes and that as the day wore on these things seemed to be accentuated more than that there seemed added proof of the truth of young bawdrey's assertion that she and captain travers were in league with each other for that day they were constantly together constantly getting off into out-of-the-way places and constantly talking in an undertone of something that seemed to worry them even when dinner was over and the whole party adjourned to the drawing-room for coffee and the lady ought in all conscience to have given herself wholly up to the entertainment of her guests it was observable that she devoted most of her time to whispered confidences with captain travers that they kept going to the window and looking up at the sky as if worried and annoyed that the twilight should be so long in fading and the night in coming on but worse than this at ten o'clock captain travers made an excuse of having letters to write and left the room
and it was scarcely six minutes later that she followed suit but the captain had not gone to write letters as it had happened instead he had gone straight to the morning-room an apartment immediately behind that in which the elder mr bawdry's collection was housed and from which a broad french window opened out upon the grounds and it might have caused a scandal had it been known that mrs bawdrey joined him there one minute after leaving the drawing-room it is the time walter it is the time she said in a breathless sort of way as she closed the door and moved across the room to where he stood a dimly seen figure in the dim light god help and pity me but i am so nervous i hardly know how to contain myself the note said at ten to-night in the morning-room and it is ten now the hour is here walter the hour is here so is the man mrs bawdrey answered a low voice from the outer darkness then a figure lifted itself above the screening shrubs just beyond the ledge of the open window and cleek stepped into the room
she gave a little hysterical cry and reached out her hands to him oh i am so glad to see you even though you hint at such awful things i am so glad so glad she said i almost died when i read your note to think that it is murder murder and but for you he might be dead even now you were like to know that the doctor brought the stuff you sent by him brought it at once and my darling is better better before cleek could venture any reply to this captain travers stalked across the room and gripped his hand and so you are that great man cleek are you he said bully boy bully boy and to think that all the time it wasn't some mysterious natural affliction to think that it was crime murder poison what poison man what poison what iope or as it is variously called in the several islands of the eastern archipelago poonupus antia and hippo said cleek in reply
the deadly venom which the malays use in poisoning the heads of their arrows what that awful stuff said mrs bawdrey with a little shuddering cry and some one in this house her voice broke she plucked at cleek's sleeve and looked up at him in an agony of entreaty she implored who in this house could you said you would tell to-night you said you would oh who could have the heart it is true if you have not heard it that once upon a time there was bad blood between mr murdock and him that mr murdock is a family connection but even he oh even he tell me me mr cleek mrs baudry i can't just yet he made reply in my heart i am as certain of it as though the criminal had confessed but i am waiting for a sign and until that comes absolute proof is not possible that it will come and may indeed come at any moment now that it is quite dark i am very certain when it does
he stopped and threw up a warning hand as he spoke a queer thudding sound struck one dull note through the stillness of the house he stood bent forward listening absolutely breathless then on the other side of the wall there rippled and rolled a something that was like the sound of a struggle between two voiceless animals and the sign that he had awaited had come follow me quickly as noiselessly as you can let no one hear let no one see he said in a breath of excitement then he sprang cat-like to the door whirled it open scudded round the angle of the passage to the entrance of the room where the fraudulent collection was kept and went in with the silent fleetness of a panther and a moment later when captain travers and mrs bawdry swung in through the door and joined him they came upon a horrifying sight for there leaning against the open door of the case where the skeleton of the nine-fingered man hung was dollops bleeding and faint and with a score of tooth-marks on his neck and throat
and on the floor at his feet cleek was kneeling on the rising figure of a man who bit and tore and snarled like a cornered wolf and fought with teeth and feet and hands alike in the wild effort to get free from the grip of destiny a locked handcuff clamped one wrist and from it swung at the end of the connecting chain its unlocked mate the marks of dollop's fists were on his lips and cheeks and at the foot of the case where the hanging skeleton dodded and shook to the vibration of the floor lay a shattered phial of deep blue glass got you you hound said cleek through his teeth as he wrenched the man's two wrists together and snapped the other handcuff in place you beast of ingratitude you judas kissing and betraying like any other iscariot and a dear old man like that look here mrs bawdrey look here captain travers what do you think of a little rat like this they came forward at his word and looking down saw that the figure he was bending over was the figure of philip bawdrey gulped mrs
and then shut her two hands over her eyes and fell away weak and shivering oh mr cleek it can't be can't do a thing like that oh he'd have done worse the little reptile if he hadn't been pulled up short said cleek in reply he'd have hanged you for it if it had gone the way he planned you look in your boxes you too captain travers i'll wager each of you finds a file of i a p hidden among them somewhere came in to put more of the cursed stuff on the ninth finger of the skeleton so that it would be ready for the next time didn't he dollops yes guv'nor i waited for him behind the case just as you told me to sir and when he ups and slips the finger of the skilligan into the neck of the bottle i nips out and whacks the bracelet on him but he was too quick for me sir so i only got one on and then the ound he turns on me like a blessed hyena sir and begins a choin of me windpipe i say guv'nor take off his silver wristlets will you sir and lemme have jist ten minutes with him on me own five for me sir and five for his poor old dad
not i said cleek i wouldn't let you soil those honest hands of yours on his vile little body dollops thought you had a noodle to deal with didn't you mr philip thought you could lead me by the nose and push me into finding those files just where you wanted them found didn't you well you've got a few more thoughts coming look here captain travers what do you think of this fellow's little game tried to take me in about you and mrs bawdrey being lovers and trying to do away with him and his father to get the old man's money why the contemptible little hound bless my sole man i'm engaged to mrs bawdrey's cousin and as for his stepmother why she threw the little worm over as soon as he began making love to her and tried to make her take up with him by telling her how much he'd be worth when his father died I guessed as much. I didn't fancy him from the first moment, and he was so blessed eager to have me begin by suspecting you two that I smelt a rat at once. Ah, but he's been crafty enough in other things, putting that devilish stuff on the ninth finger of the skeleton, and never losing an opportunity to get his poor old father to handle it and show it to people.
"'It's a strong, irritant poison—sap of the upas tree is the base of it—producing first an irritation of the skin, then a blister, and, when that broke, communicating the poison directly to the blood every time the skeleton hand touched it. a weak solution at first so that the decline would be natural the growth of the malady gradual but if i had found that file in your room last night as he hoped and believed i had done well look for yourself the finger of the skeleton is thick with the beastly gummy stuff to-night double strength of course the next time his father touched it he'd have died before morning and the old chap fairly worshipping him i suspected him and suspected what the stuff that was being used really was from the beginning last night i drugged him and then i knew knew mr cleek why how could you The most virulent poisons have their remedial uses, Captain, he made reply.
You can kill a man with strychnine, you can put him in his grave with arsenic. You can also use both these powerful agents to cure and to save, in their proper proportions and in the proper way. The same rule applies to Iope. Properly diluted and properly used, it is one of the most powerful agents for the relief,
and in some cases the cure, of Bright's disease of the kidneys. But the government guards this unholy drug most carefully. You can't get a drop of it in Java for love or money, unless on the order of a recognised physician. And you can't bring it into the ports of England unless backed by that physician's sworn statement and the official stamp of the Javanese authorities. A man undeniably afflicted with Bright's disease could get these things. No other could.
Well, I wanted to know who had succeeded in getting I.O.P. into this country and into this house. Last night I drugged every man in it, and I found out. But how? By finding the one who could not sleep stretched out at full length. "'One of the strongest symptoms of Bright's disease is a tendency to draw the knees up close to the body in sleep, Captain, and to twist the arms above the head. Of all the men under this roof, this man here was the only one who slept like that last night.'
he paused and looked down at the scowling sullen creature on the floor you wretched little cur he said with a gesture of unspeakable contempt and all for the sake of an old man's money if i did my duty i'd jail you but if i did it would be punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty it would kill that dear old man to learn this and so he's not going to learn it and the law's not going to get its own he twitched out his hand and something tinkled on the floor "'Get up,' he said sharply. "'There's the key of the handcuffs.
"'Take it, and set yourself free. "'Do you know what's going to happen to you? "'Tomorrow morning Dr. Philipson is going to examine you, "'and to report that you'll be a dead man in a year's time "'if you stop another week in this country.
"'You are going out of it, and you are going to stop out of it. "'Do you understand? "'Stop out of it to the end of your days. For if ever you put your foot in it again, I'll handle you as a terrier handles a rat.' "'Dollops?' "'Yes, Governor?'
"'My thing's packed and ready?' "'Yes, sir, and waiting in the arbour, sir, as you told me to have them.' "'Good lad. Get them, and we'll catch the first train back. "'Mrs. Baudry, my best respects. Captain?' all good luck to you said cleek and swung out into the darkness and the moist warm fragrance of the night his mental poise a bit unsteady his nerves raw
it was not in him to have stopped longer to have remained under the same roof with a monster like young bawdrey and keep his temper in check chapter five
