The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (reading diary TXT) đ
- Author: Fergus Hume
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âOnce I get hold of the first the other two wonât be very hard to find out, for one can tell pretty well from a manâs life whether itâs to anyoneâs interest that he should be got off the books. The man that murdered that chap must have had some strong motive, and I must find out what that motive was. Love? No, it wasnât thatâmen in love donât go to such lengths in real lifeâthey do in novels and plays, but Iâve never seen it occurring in my experience. Robbery? No, there was plenty of money in his pocket. Revenge? Now, really it might be thatâitâs a kind of thing that carries most people further than they want to go. There was no violence used, for his clothes, werenât torn, so he must have been taken sudden, and before he knew what the other chap was up to. By the way, I donât think I examined his clothes sufficiently, there might be something about them to give a clue; at any rate itâs worth looking after, so Iâll start with his clothes.â
So Mr. Gorby, having dressed and breakfasted, walked quickly to the police station, where he asked for the clothes of the deceased to be shown to him. When he received them he retired into a corner, and commenced an exhaustive examination of them.
There was nothing remarkable about the coat. It was merely a well-cut and well-made dress coat; so with a grunt of dissatisfaction Mr. Gorby threw it aside, and picked up the waistcoat. Here he found something to interest him, in the shape of a pocket made on the left-hand side and on the inside, of the garment.
âNow, what the deuce is this for?â said Mr. Gorby, scratching his head; âit ainât usual for a dress waistcoat to have a pocket on its inside as Iâm aware of; and,â continued the detective, greatly excited, âthis ainât tailorâs work, he did it himself, and jolly badly he did it too. Now he must have taken the trouble to make this pocket himself, so that no one else would know anything about it, and it was made to carry something valuableâso valuable that he had to carry it with him even when he wore evening clothes. Ah! hereâs a tear on the side nearest the outside of the waistcoat; something has been pulled out roughly. I begin to see now. The dead man possessed something which the other man wanted, and which he knew the dead one carried about with him. He sees him drunk, gets into the cab with him, and tries to get what he wants. The dead man resists, upon which the other kills him by means of the chloroform which he had with him, and being afraid that the Gab will stop, and he will be found out, snatches what he wants out of the pocket so quickly that he tears the waistcoat and then makes off. Thatâs clear enough, but the question is, What was it he wanted? A case with jewels? No! It could not have been anything so bulky, or the dead man would never have carried it about inside his waistcoat. It was something Hat, which could easily lie in the pocketâa paperâsome valuable paper which the assassin wanted, and for which he killed the other.â
âThis is all very well,â said Mr. Gorby, throwing down the waistcoat, and rising. âI have found number two before number one. The first question is: Who is the murdered man. Heâs a stranger in Melbourne, thatâs pretty clear, or else some one would have been sure to recognise him before now by the description given in the reward. Now, I wonder if he has any relations here? No, he canât, or else they would have made enquiries, before this. Well, thereâs one thing certain, he must have had a landlady or landlord, unless he slept in the open air. He canât have lived in an hotel, as the landlord of any hotel in Melbourne would have recognised him from the description, especially when the whole place is ringing with the murder. Private lodgings more like, and a landlady who doesnât read the papers and doesnât gossip, or sheâd have known all about it by this time. Now, if he did live, as I think, in private lodgings, and suddenly disappeared, his landlady wouldnât keep quiet. Itâs a whole week since the murder, and as the lodger has not been seen or heard of, the landlady will naturally make enquiries. If, however, as I surmise, the lodger is a stranger, she will not know where to enquire; therefore, under these circumstances, the most natural thing for her to do would be to advertise for him, so Iâll have a look at the newspapers.â
Mr. Gorby got a file of the different newspapers, and looked carefully through those columns in which missing friends and people who will hear âsomething to their advantageâ are generally advertised for.
âHe was murdered,â said Mr. Gorby to himself, âon a Friday morning, between one and two oâclock, so he might stay away till Monday without exciting any suspicion. On Monday, however, the landlady would begin to feel uneasy, and on Tuesday she would advertise for him. Therefore,â said Mr. Gorby, running his fat finger down the column, âWednesday it is.â
It did not appear in Wednesdayâs paper, neither did it in Thursdayâs, but in Fridayâs issue, exactly one week after the murder, Mr. Gorby suddenly came upon the following advertisement:â
âIf Mr. Oliver Whyte does not return to Possum Villa, Grey Street, St. Kilda, before the end of the week, his rooms will be let again.â Rubina Hableton.â
âOliver Whyte,â repeated Mr. Gorby slowly, âand the initials on the pocket-handkerchief which was proved to have belonged to the deceased were âO.W.â So his name is Oliver Whyte, is it? Now, I wonder if Rubina Hableton knows anything about this matter. At any rate,â said Mr. Gorby, putting on his hat, âas Iâm fond of sea breezes, I think Iâll go down, and call at Possum Villa, Grey Street, St. Kilda.â
CHAPTER V.
MRS. HAMILTON UNBOSOMS HERSELF.
Mrs. Hableton was a lady with a grievance, as anybody who happened to become acquainted with her, soon found out. It is Beaconsfield who says, in one of his novels, that no one is so interesting as when he is talking about himself; and, judging Mrs. Hableton by this statement, she was an extremely fascinating individual, as she never by any chance talked upon any other subject. What was the threat of a Russian invasion to her so long as she had her special grievanceâonce let that be removed, and she would have time to attend to such minor details as affected the colony.
Mrs. Habletonâs particular grievance was want of money. Not by any means an uncommon one, you might remind her; but she snappishly would tell you that âshe knowd that, but some people werenât like other people.â In time one came to learn what she meant by this. She had come to the Colonies in the early daysâdays when the making of money in appreciable quantity was an easier matter than it is now. Owing to a bad husband, she had failed to save any. The late Mr. Habletonâfor he had long since departed this lifeâhad been addicted to alcohol, and at those times when he should have been earning, he was usually to be found in a drinking shanty spending his wifeâs earnings in âshoutingâ for himself and his friends. The constant drinking, and the hot Victorian climate, soon carried him off, and when Mrs. Hableton had seen him safely under the ground in the Melbourne Cemetery, she returned home to survey her position, and see how it could be bettered. She gathered together a little money from the wreck of her fortune, and land being cheap, purchased a small âsectionâ at St. Kilda, and built a house on it. She supported herself by going out charing, taking in sewing, and acting as a sick nurse, So, among this multiplicity of occupations, she managed to exist fairly well.
And in truth it was somewhat hard upon Mrs. Hableton. For at the time when she should have been resting and reaping the fruit of her early industry, she was obliged to toil more assiduously than ever. It was little consolation to her that she was but a type of many women, who, hardworking and thrifty themselves, are married to men who are nothing but an incubus to their wives and to their families. Small wonder, then, that Mrs. Hableton should condense all her knowledge of the male sex into the one bitter aphorism, âMen is brutes.â
Possum Villa was an unpretentious-looking place, with one, bow-window and a narrow verandah in front. It was surrounded by a small garden in which were a few sparse flowersâthe especial delight of Mrs. Hableton. It was, her way to tie an old handkerchief round her head and to go out into the garden and dig and water her beloved flowers until, from sheer desperation at the overwhelming odds, they gave up all attempt to grow. She was engaged in this favourite occupation about a week after her lodger had gone. She wondered where he was.
âLyinâ drunk in a public-âouse, Iâll be bound,â she said, viciously pulling up a weed, âa-spendinâ âis, rent and a-spilinâ âis inside with beerâah, men is brutes, drat âem!â
Just as she said this, a shadow fell across the garden, and on looking up, she saw a man leaning over the fence, staring at her.
âGit out,â she said, sharply, rising from her knees and shaking her trowel at the intruder. âI donât want no apples to-day, anâ I donât care how cheap you sells âem.â
Mrs. Hableton evidently laboured under the delusion that the man was a hawker, but seeing no hand-cart with him, she changed her mind.
âYouâre takinâ a plan of the âouse to rob it, are you?â she said. âWell, you neednât, âcause there ainât nothinâ to rob, the silver spoons as belonged to my fatherâs mother âavinâ gone down my âusbandâs, throat long ago, anâ I ainât âad money to buy more. Iâm a lone pusson as is put on by brutes like you, anâ Iâll thank you to leave the fence I bought with my own âard earned money alone, and git out.â
Mrs. Hableton stopped short for want of breath, and stood shaking her trowel, and gasping like a fish out of water.
âMy dear lady,â said the man at the fence, mildly, âare youââ
âNo, I ainât,â retorted Mrs. Hableton, fiercely, âI ainât neither a member of the âOuse, nor a school teacher, to answer your questions. Iâm a woman as pays my rates anâ taxes, and donât gossip nor read yer rubbishinâ newspapers, nor care for the Russings, no how, so git out.â
âDonât read the papers?â repeated the man, in a satisfied tone, âah! that accounts for it.â
Mrs. Hableton stared suspiciously at the intruder. He was a burly-looking man, with a jovial red face, clean shaven, and his sharp, shrewd-looking grey eyes twinkled like two stars. He was, well-dressed in a suit of light clothes, and wore a stiffly-starched white waistcoat, with a massive gold chain stretched across it. Altogether he gave Mrs. Hableton finally the impression of being a well-to-do tradesman, and she mentally wondered what he wanted.
âWhat dây want?â she asked, abruptly.
âDoes Mr. Oliver Whyte live here?â asked the stranger.
âHe do, anâ he donât,â answered Mrs. Hableton, epigrammatically. âI
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