The Darrow Enigma by Melvin L. Severy (best fiction novels of all time TXT) 📖

Darrow’s curious notice in the

newspaper, offering, in the event of his murder, a most liberal

reward to anyone who would bring the assassin to justice.

 

“Mon Dieu! How I needed money. I would have bartered my soul for

a tithe of that amount. It was the old, old story, only new in Eden.

Ah! but how I loved her! She must have money, money, always money!

That was ever her cry. When I could not supply it she sought it of

others, and this drove me mad. If, I said to myself, I could only

get this reward! This was something really worth working for, and if

I could but get it, she should be mine only. I at once set to work

upon the problem.

 

“It was not an easy thing to solve. I might be able to hire a man

to do the deed for me, but he would hardly be willing to hang for

it without disclosing my part in the transaction. It was at this

time that I first met M. Latour on Decatur Street. He at once

impressed me as being just the man I wanted, and I began to gradually

subdue his will. In this circumstances greatly aided me. When I

found him he was in very poor health and without any means of

sustenance. His daughter was able to earn a little, but not nearly

enough to keep the wolf from the door. Add to this that he had a

cancer, which several physicians had assured him would prove fatal

within a year, that he was afflicted with an almost insane fear that

his daughter would come to want after his death, and you have before

you the conditions which determined my course. My first thought

was to influence him to do the deed himself, but, recalling the

researches of M. Charcot in these matters, I came to the conclusion

that such a course would be almost certain to lead to detection,

since a hypnotic subject can only be depended upon so long as the

conditions under which he acts are precisely those which have been

suggested to him. Any unforeseen variations in these conditions

and he fails to act, exposes everything, and the whole carefully

planned structure falls to the ground. When, therefore, the time

came which I had set for the deed, I found it possible to drug M.

Latour, abduct him from his home, and to keep him confined and

unconscious until I had killed Mr. Darrow in a manner I will describe

in due course. As soon as I had committed the murder and established

what I fondly believed would be a perfect alibi in my attendance at

the examination, I secretly conveyed the still unconscious M. Latour

to his rooms and awaited his return to consciousness. I then asked

him how he came in such a state and what he was doing in Dorchester.

He was, of course, ignorant of everything. Little by little I

worked upon him till he came to believe himself guilty of John

Darrow’s murder.

 

“I had availed myself of his interest in the subject of cancer to

get him to the library. It is one of my maxims never to take an

avoidable risk, for which reason I made Latour apply for the books

I wanted, as well as for the medical works he desired to peruse.

As he was ambidextrous, I suggested the use of the two names Weltz

and Rizzi, the former to be written with his right and the latter

with his left hand. I was actuated in all this by two motives.

First, I was manufacturing evidence which might stand me in good

stead later, as well as minimising somewhat my own risk in getting

the information I needed; and, secondly, I was getting Latour into

a good atmosphere for my hypnotic influence. Not a word of all

these matters did he relate to his daughter, whom he loves with a

devotion I have never seen equalled. Indeed, it was this very

affection that made my plan feasible. When I had convinced him he

was a murderer I showed him Mr. Darrow’s curious advertisement

offering a reward, should he be assassinated, to anyone bringing

about the conviction of his assailant.

 

“‘In a year,’ I said to him, ‘you will die of cancer, if your crime

be not previously discovered and punished. Your daughter will then

be penniless. How much better for you to permit me in a few months

to accuse you of the murder. You then confess; I claim and secure

the reward and secretly divide with you; you are sentenced; but as

considerable time will transpire between this and the date set for

your execution, you in the meantime will die of cancer, leaving

Jeannette well provided for.’

 

“I think my influence over him would have been sufficient to have

compelled him to all this, could he have reasoned out no benefit

accruing to himself or daughter by such a course, but with

circumstances thus in my favour my task was an easy one. The

public knows all it need know of what occurred after this. This

man, Maitland, was in the next room to Latour’s, overheard our

conversation, and even phonographed our words and photographed our

positions. It has always been a matter of pride with me to

gracefully acknowledge that three aces are not so good as a full

house, therefore I confess myself beaten, though not subdued.

 

“I consider this the very best tribute I can pay to the genius of

the man who has undone me. I take my punishment, however, into my

own hands.

 

“In my haste to have done with all this and to start on my long and

chartless journey, I had well-nigh forgotten to tell just how I

killed Mr. Darrow. No hypodermic syringe had anything to do with

it. The while plan came to me while reading that fatal page upon

which I left my telltale thumb-signature in my search for some

feasible plan of making away with my victim. I need not go into

particulars, for I know perfectly well that this Maitland knows to

a nicety how the thing was done. The Daboia Russellii, or Russell’s

viper, is one of the best known and most deadly of Indian vipers.

I procured one of these reptiles at the cost of great delay and some

slight risk. That is the whole story. On the night of the murder

I took the viper in a box and went down to the water-front, near the

Darrow estate. Here I cut a small pole from a clump of alders, made

a split in one end of it, and thrust it over the tail of the viper.

It pinched him severely and held him fast despite his angry struggles

to free himself and to attack anything within his reach. All that

remained to be done was to thrust this through the window into the

darkened room and to bring the viper within reach of Mr. Darrow.

This I did, being careful to crouch so as not to obstruct the light

of the window. When I heard my victim’s outcry I withdrew the pole,

and with it, of course, the viper, and made good my escape. That

the reptile bit Mr. Darrow under the chin while his back was toward

the window was mere chance, though I regarded it as a very lucky

occurrence, since it seemed to render the suicide theory at first

inevitable.

 

“I had had some fear lest the hissing of the viper might have been

heard, for which reason I hazarded the only question I asked at the

examination, and was completely reassured by its answer. I should

perhaps state that my purpose in keeping in the background at this

examination was my desire to avoid attracting attention to my

deformed foot and my halting gait. This latter I had taken pains to

conceal at my entrance, but I knew that the first step I took in

forgetfulness would expose my halting habit. I had no fear of either

Osborne or Allen, but there was something about this Maitland that

bade me at once be on my guard, and, as I have said before, I never

take an avoidable risk. For this reason I sat at once in the darkest

corner I could find and remained there throughout the examination. I

thought it extremely unlikely, though possible, that an attempt might

be made to track the assassin with dogs, yet, since that is precisely

the first thing I myself would have done, I decided that the risk was

worth avoiding. I accordingly set the boat adrift to indicate an

escape by water, and then waded along the beach for half a mile or

so, carrying the pole, boards, etc., with me. As I kept where the

water was at least six inches deep I knew no dog could follow my

trail. At the point where I left the water I sat down upon a rock

and put on my stockings and shoes, thoroughly saturating them at the

same time with turpentine, and pouring the remainder of the bottle

upon the rock where I had sat. As I had known prisoners escaped

from Libby Prison to pass in this way undetected within twenty feet

of bloodhounds upon their trail, I felt that my tracks had been well

covered, and made all possible haste to get ready to attend the

examination with the special detail.

 

“And now I have finished. Before this meets any other eye than mine

I shall be dead - beyond the punishment of this world and awaiting

the punishment of the next. Lest some may fancy I do not believe

this, - thinking that if I did I could not so have acted, - let me

say there is no moral restraining power in fear. Fear is essentially

selfish, and selfishness is at the bottom of all crimes, my own among

the rest. I leave behind me none who will mourn me, and have but one

satisfaction, viz.: the knowledge that I shall be regarded as an

artist in crime. I take this occasion to bid the public an adieu

not altogether, I confess, unmixed with regrets. I am now on that

eminence called ‘Life’; in a few minutes I shall have jumped off into

the darkness, and then - all is mystery.”

 

When I had finished reading this article we all remained silent for

a long time. Gwen was the first to speak, and then only to say

slowly, as if thinking aloud: ” And so it is all over.”