The Leavenworth Case. John Curran

now to give a more detailed account of that discovery, he went on to say it was not till Mr Leavenworth failed to come to his breakfast at the call of the bell that any suspicion arose in the house that all was not right. Even then they waited some little time before doing anything, but as minute after minute went by and he did not come, Miss Eleanore grew anxious, and finally left the room saying she would go and see what was the matter, but soon returned looking very much frightened, saying she had knocked at her uncle’s door, and had even called to him, but could get no answer. At which Mr Harwell and himself had gone up and together tried both doors, and, finding them locked, burst open that of the library, when they came upon Mr Leavenworth, as he had already said, sitting at the table, dead.

      ‘And the ladies?’

      ‘Oh, they followed us up and came into the room and Miss Eleanore fainted away.’

      ‘And the other one—Miss Mary, I believe they call her?’

      ‘I don’t remember anything about her; I was so busy fetching water to restore Miss Eleanore, I didn’t notice.’

      ‘Well, how long was it before Mr Leavenworth was carried into the next room?’

      ‘Almost immediate, as soon as Miss Eleanore recovered, and that was as soon as ever the water touched her lips.’

      ‘Who proposed that the body should be carried from the spot?’

      ‘She, sir. As soon as ever she stood up she went over to it and looked at it and shuddered, and then calling Mr Harwell and me, bade us carry him in and lay him on the bed and go for the doctor, which we did.’

      ‘Wait a moment; did she go with you when you went into the other room?’

      ‘No, sir.’

      ‘What did she do?’

      ‘She stayed by the library table.’

      ‘What doing?’

      ‘I couldn’t see; her back was to me.’

      ‘How long did she stay there?’

      ‘She was gone when we came back.’

      ‘Gone from the table?’

      ‘Gone from the room.’

      ‘Humph! When did you see her again?’

      ‘In a minute. She came in at the library door as we went out.’

      ‘Anything in her hand?’

      ‘Not as I see.’

      ‘Did you miss anything from the table?’

      ‘I never thought to look, sir. The table was nothing to me. I was only thinking of going for the doctor, though I knew it was of no use.’

      ‘Whom did you leave in the room when you went out?’

      ‘The cook, sir, and Molly, sir, and Miss Eleanore.’

      ‘Not Miss Mary?’

      ‘No, sir.’

      ‘Very well. Have the jury any questions to put to this man?’

      A movement at once took place in that profound body.

      ‘I should like to ask a few,’ exclaimed a weazen-faced, excitable little man whom I had before noticed shifting in his seat in a restless manner strongly suggestive of an intense but hitherto repressed desire to interrupt the proceedings.

      ‘Very well, sir,’ returned Thomas.

      But the juryman stopping to draw a deep breath, a large and decidedly pompous man who sat at his right hand seized the opportunity to inquire in a round, listen-to-me sort of voice:

      ‘You say you have been in the family for two years. Was it what you might call a united family?’

      ‘United?’

      ‘Affectionate, you know—on good terms with each other.’ And the juryman lifted the very long and heavy watch-chain that hung across his vest as if that as well as himself had a right to a suitable and well-considered reply.

      The butler, impressed perhaps by his manner, glanced uneasily around. ‘Yes, sir, so far as I know.’

      ‘The young ladies were attached to their uncle?’

      ‘Oh yes, sir.’

      ‘And to each other?’

      ‘Well, yes, I suppose so; it’s not for me to say.’

      ‘You suppose so. Have you any reason to think otherwise?’ And he doubled the watch-chain about his fingers as if he would double its attention as well as his own.

      Thomas hesitated a moment. But just as his interlocutor was about to repeat his question, he drew himself up into a rather stiff and formal attitude and replied:

      ‘Well, sir, no.’

      The juryman, for all his self-assertion, seemed to respect the reticence of a servant who declined to give his opinion in regard to such a matter, and drawing complacently back, signified with a wave of his hand that he had no more to say.

      Immediately the excitable little man, before mentioned, slipped forward to the edge of his chair and asked, this time without hesitation: ‘At what time did you unfasten the house this morning?’

      ‘About six, sir.’

      ‘Now, could anyone leave the house after that time without your knowledge?’

      Thomas glanced a trifle uneasily at his fellow servants, but answered up promptly and as if without reserve:

      ‘I don’t think it would be possible for anybody to leave this house after six in the morning without either myself or the cook’s knowing of it. Folks don’t jump from second-storey windows in broad daylight, and as to leaving by the doors, the front door closes with such a slam all the house can hear it from top to bottom, and as for the back door, no one that goes out of that can get clear of the yard without going by the kitchen window, and no one can go by our kitchen window without the cook’s a-seeing of them, that I can just swear to.’ And he cast a half-quizzing, half-malicious look at the round, red-faced individual in question, strongly suggestive of late and unforgotten bickerings over the kitchen coffee-urn and castor.

      This reply, which was of a nature calculated to deepen the forebodings which had already settled upon the minds of those present, produced a visible effect. The house found locked, and no one seen to leave it! Evidently, then, we had not far to look for the assassin.

      Shifting on his chair with increased fervour, if I may so speak, the juryman glanced sharply around. But perceiving the renewed interest in the faces about him, declined to weaken the effect of the last admission, by any further questions. Settling, therefore, comfortably back, he left the field open for any other juror who might choose to press the inquiry. But no one seeming to be ready to do this, Thomas in his turn evinced impatience, and at last, looking respectfully around, inquired:

      ‘Would any other gentleman like to ask me anything?’

      No one replying, he threw a hurried glance of relief towards the servants at his side, then, while each one marvelled at the sudden change that had taken place in his countenance, withdrew with an eager alacrity and evident satisfaction for which I could not at the moment account.

      But the next witness proving to be none other than my acquaintance of the morning, Mr Harwell, I soon forgot both Thomas and the doubts his last movement had awakened, in the interest which the examination of so important a person as the secretary and right-hand man of Mr Leavenworth was likely to create.

      Advancing with the calm and determined air of one who realised that life and death itself might hang upon his words, Mr Harwell took his stand before the jury with a degree of dignity not only highly prepossessing in itself, but to me, who had not been over and above pleased with him in our first interview, admirable and surprising. Lacking, as I have said, any distinctive quality