The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation Part 2

"There will have to be an inquest later on," answered the doctor. "I can give evidence for you, if you like--I am staying in Hull for a few days--for I can certainly testify to what I had observed. But that comes later--at present you had better acquaint the manager of the hotel, and I should suggest sending for a local medical man--there are some eminent men of my profession in this town. And--the body should be laid out. I'll go and dress, and then do what I can for you."

"Much obliged," responded Allerd.y.k.e. "Very kind of you. What name, sir?"

"My name is Lydenberg," replied the stranger. "I will give you my card presently. I have the honour of addressing--?"

Allerd.y.k.e pulled out his own card-case.

"My name's Marshall Allerd.y.k.e," he answered. "I'm his cousin," he went on, with another glance at the still figure. "And, my conscience, I never thought to find him like this! I never heard of any weakness on his part--I always thought him a particularly strong man."

"You will send for another medical man?" asked Dr. Lydenberg. "It will be more satisfactory to you."

"Yes, I'll see to that," replied Allerd.y.k.e. He turned to look at the night-porter, who was still hanging about as if fascinated. "Look here!"

he said. "We don't want any fuss. Just rouse the manager quietly, and ask him to come here. And find that chauffeur of mine, and tell him I want him. Now, then, what about a doctor? Do you know a real, first-cla.s.s one?"

"There's several within ten minutes, sir," answered the night-porter.

"There's Dr. Orwin, in Coltman Street--he's generally fetched here. I can get a man to go for him at once."

"Do!" commanded Allerd.y.k.e. "But send me my driver first--I want him. Tell him what's happened."

He waited, standing and staring at his dead cousin until Gaffney came hurrying along the corridor. Allerd.y.k.e beckoned him into the room and closed the door.

"Gaffney," he said. "You see how things are? Mr. James is dead--I found him sitting there, dead. He's been dead some time--hours. There's a doctor, a foreigner, I think, across the pa.s.sage there, who says it's been heart failure. I've sent for another doctor. Now in the meantime, I want to see what my cousin's got on him, and I want you to help me. We'll take everything off him in the way of valuables, papers, and so on, and put 'em in that small hand-bag of his."

Master and man went methodically to work; and an observer of an unduly sentimental shade of mind might have said that there was something almost callous about their measured, business-like proceedings. But Marshall Allerd.y.k.e was a man of eminently thorough and practical habits, and he was doing what he did with an idea and a purpose. His cousin might have died from sudden heart failure; again, he might not, there might have been foul play; there might have been one of many reasons for his unexpected death--anyway, in Allerd.y.k.e's opinion it was necessary for him to know exactly what James was carrying about his person when death took place. There was a small hand-bag on the dressing-table; Allerd.y.k.e opened it and took out all its contents. They were few--a m.u.f.fler, a travelling-cap, a book or two, some foreign newspapers, a Russian word-book, a flask, the various odds and ends, small unimportant things which a voyager by sea and land picks up. Allerd.y.k.e took all these out, and laying them aside on the table, directed Gaffney to take everything from the dead man's pockets. And Gaffney, solemn of face and tight of lip, set to his task in silence.

There was comparatively little to bring to light. A watch and chain--the small pocket articles which every man carries--keys, a monocle eyegla.s.s, a purse full of gold, loose silver, a note-case containing a considerable sum in bank-notes, some English, some foreign, letters and papers, a pocket diary--these were all. Allerd.y.k.e took each as Gaffney produced them, and placed each in the bag with no more than a mere glance.

"Everything there is, sir," whispered the chauffeur at last. "I've been through every pocket."

Allerd.y.k.e found the key of the bag, locked it, and set it aside on the mantelpiece. Then he went over to the suit-case lying on the bench at the foot of the bed, closed and locked it, and dropped the bunch of keys in his pocket. And just then Dr. Lydenberg came back, dressed, and on his heels came the manager of the hotel, startled and anxious, and with him an elderly professional-looking man whom he introduced as Dr. Orwin.

When James Allerd.y.k.e's dead body had been lifted on to the bed, and the two medical men had begun a whispered conversation beside it, Allerd.y.k.e drew the hotel manager aside to a corner of the room.

"Did you see anything of my cousin when he arrived last night?" he asked.

"Not when he arrived--no," replied the manager. "But later--yes. I had some slight conversation with him after he had taken supper. It was nothing much--he merely wished to know if there was always a night-porter on duty. He said he expected a friend, who might turn up at any hour of the night, and he wanted to leave a card for him. That would be you, I suppose, sir?"

"Just so," replied Allerd.y.k.e. "Now, how did he seem at that time? And what time was that?"

"Ten o'clock," said the manager. "Seem? Well, sir, he seemed to be in the very best of health and spirits! I was astonished to hear that he was dead. I never saw a man look more like living. He was--"

The elderly doctor came away from the bed approaching Allerd.y.k.e.

"After hearing what Dr. Lydenberg tells me, and examining the body--a mere perfunctory examination as yet, you know--I have little doubt that this gentleman died of what is commonly called heart failure," he said.

"There will have to be an inquest, of course, and it may be advisable to make a post-mortem examination. You are a relative?"

"Cousin," replied Allerd.y.k.e. He hesitated a moment, and then spoke bluntly. "You don't think it's been a case of poisoning, do you?" he said.

Dr. Orwin pursed his lips and regarded his questioner narrowly.

"Self-administered, do you mean?" he asked.

"Administered any way," answered Allerd.y.k.e. "Self or otherwise." He squared his shoulders and spoke determinedly. "I don't understand about this heart-failure notion," he went on. "I never heard him complain of his heart. He was a strong, active man--hearty and full of go. I want to know--everything."

"There should certainly be an autopsy," murmured Dr. Orwin. He turned and looked at his temporary colleague, who nodded as if in a.s.sent. Then he turned back to Allerd.y.k.e. "If you'll leave us for a while, we will just make a further examination--then we'll speak to you later."

Allerd.y.k.e signified his a.s.sent with a curt nod of the head. Accompanied by the manager and Gaffney he left the room, and with him he carried the small hand-bag in which he had placed the dead man's personal effects.

CHAPTER III

THE SHOE BUCKLE

Once outside the death-chamber, Allerd.y.k.e asked the manager to give him a bedroom with a sitting-room attached to it, and to put Gaffney in another room close by--he should be obliged, he said, to stay at the hotel until the inquest was over and arrangements had been made for his cousin's funeral. The manager at once took him to a suite of three rooms at the end of the corridor which they were then in. Allerd.y.k.e took it at once, sent Gaffney down to bring up certain things from the car, and detained the manager for a moment's conversation.

"I suppose you'd a fair lot of people come in last night from that Christiania boat?" he asked.

"Some fifteen or twenty," answered the manager.

"Did you happen to see my cousin in conversation with any of them?"

inquired Allerd.y.k.e.

The manager shrugged his shoulders. He was not definitely sure about that; he had a notion that he had seen Mr. James Allerd.y.k.e talking with some of the _Perisco_ pa.s.sengers, but the notion was vague.

"You know how it is," he went on. "People come in--they stand about talking in the hall--groups, you know--they go from one to another. I think I saw him talking to that doctor who's in there now with Dr.

Orwin--the man with the big beard--and to a lady who came at the same time. There were several ladies in the party--the pa.s.sengers were all about in the hall, and in the coffee-room, and so on. There are a lot of other people in the house, too, of course."

"It's this way," said Allerd.y.k.e. "I'm not at all satisfied about what these doctors say, so far. They may be right, of course--probably are.

Still I want to know all I can, and, naturally, I'd like to know who the people were that my cousin was last in company with. You never know what may have happened--there's often something that doesn't show at first."

"There was--nothing missing in his room, I hope?" asked the manager with professional anxiety.

"Nothing that I know of," answered Allerd.y.k.e. "My man and I have searched him, and taken possession of everything--all that he had on him is in that bag, and I'm going to examine it now. No--I don't think anything had been taken from him, judging by what I've seen."

"You wouldn't like me to send for the police?" suggested the manager.

"Not at present," replied Allerd.y.k.e. "Not, at any rate, until these doctors say something more definite--they'll know more presently, no doubt. Of course, you've a list of all the people who came in last night?"

"They would all register," answered the manager. "But then, you know, sir, many of them will be going this morning--most of them are only breaking their journey. You can look over the register whenever you like."

"Later on," said Allerd.y.k.e. "In the meantime, I'll examine these things.

Send me up some coffee as soon as your people are stirring."

He unlocked the hand-bag when the manager had left him. It seemed to his practical and methodical mind that his first duty was to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the various personal effects which he and Gaffney had found on the dead man. Of the valuables he took little notice; it was very evident, in his opinion, that if James Allerd.y.k.e's death had been brought about by some sort of foul play--a suspicion which had instantly crossed his mind as soon as he discovered that his cousin was dead--the object of his destroyer had not been robbery. James had always been accustomed to carrying a considerable sum of money on him; Gaffney's search had brought a considerable sum to light. James also wore a very valuable watch and chain and two fine diamond rings; there they all were. Not robbery--no; at least, not robbery of the ordinary sort.

But--had there been robbery of another, a bigger, a subtle, and deep-designed sort? James was a man of many affairs and schemes--he might have had valuable securities, papers relating to designs, papers containing secrets of great moment; he was interested, for example, in several patents--he might have had doc.u.ments pertinent to some affair of such importance that ill-disposed folk, eager to seize them, might have murdered him in order to gain possession of them. There were many possibilities, and there was always--to Allerd.y.k.e's mind--the improbability that James had died through sudden illness.