The Leavenworth Case

‘And yet you seemed to be prepared for it?’

‘Prepared?’

‘The servants say you were much agitated at finding that your uncle did not make his appearance at the breakfast table.’

‘The servants!’ Her tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of her mouth; she could hardly speak.

‘That when you returned from his room you were very pale.’

Was she beginning to realise that there was some doubt, if not actual suspicion, in the mind of the man who could assail her with questions like these? I had not seen her so agitated since that one memorable instant up in her room. But her mistrust, if she felt any, did not long betray itself. Calming herself by a great effort, she replied, with a quiet gesture:

‘That is not so strange. My uncle was a very methodical man; the least change in his habits would be likely to awaken our apprehensions.’

‘You were alarmed, then?’

‘To a certain extent I was.’

‘Miss Leavenworth, who is in the habit of overseeing the regulation of your uncle’s private apartments?’

‘I am, sir.’

‘You are doubtless, then, acquainted with a certain stand in his room containing a drawer?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘How long is it since you had occasion to go to this drawer?’

‘Yesterday,’ visibly trembling at the admission.

‘At what time?’

‘Near noon, I should judge.’

‘Was the pistol he was accustomed to keep there in its place at the time?’

‘I presume so; I did not observe.’

‘Did you turn the key upon closing the drawer?’

‘I did.’

‘Take it out?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Miss Leavenworth, that pistol, as you have perhaps observed, lies on the table before you. Will you look at it?’ And lifting it up into view, he held it towards her.

If he had meant to startle her by the sudden action, he amply succeeded. At the first sight of the murderous weapon she shrank back, and a horrified but quickly suppressed shriek burst from her lips. ‘Oh, no, no!’ she moaned, flinging out her hands before her.

‘I must insist upon your looking at it, Miss Leavenworth,’ pursued the coroner. ‘When it was found just now, all the chambers were loaded.’

Instantly the agonised look left her countenance. ‘Oh, then—’ She did not finish, but put out her hand for the weapon.

But the coroner, looking at her steadily, continued: ‘It has been lately fired off, for all that. The hand that cleaned the barrel forgot the cartridge-chamber, Miss Leavenworth.’

She did not shriek again, but a hopeless, helpless look slowly settled over her face, and she seemed about to sink; but like a flash the reaction came, and lifting her head with a steady, grand action I have never seen equalled, she exclaimed, ‘Very well, what then?’

The coroner laid the pistol down; men and women glanced at each other; everyone seemed to hesitate to proceed. I heard a tremulous sigh at my side, and, turning, beheld Mary Leavenworth staring at her cousin with a startled flush on her cheek, as if she began to recognise that the public, as well as herself, detected something in this woman, calling for explanation.

At last the coroner summoned up courage to continue.

‘You ask me, Miss Leavenworth, upon the evidence given, what then? Your question obliges me to say that no burglar, no hired assassin, would have used this pistol for a murderous purpose, and then taken the pains, not only to clean it, but to reload it, and lock it up again in the drawer from which he had taken it.’

She did not reply to this; but I saw Mr Gryce make a note of it with that peculiar emphatic nod of his.

‘Nor,’ he went on, even more gravely, ‘would it be possible for anyone who was not accustomed to pass in and out of Mr Leavenworth’s room at all hours, to enter his door so late at night, procure this pistol from its place of concealment, traverse his apartment, and advance as closely upon him as the facts show to have been necessary, without causing him at least to turn his head to one side; which, in consideration of the doctor’s testimony, we cannot believe he did.’

It was a frightful suggestion, and we looked to see Eleanore Leavenworth recoil. But that expression of outraged feeling was left for her cousin to exhibit. Starting indignantly from her seat, Mary cast one hurried glance around her, and opened her lips to speak; but Eleanore, slightly turning, motioned her to have patience, and replied in a cold and calculating voice: ‘You are not sure, sir, that this was done. If my uncle, for some purpose of his own, had fired the pistol off yesterday, let us say—which is surely possible, if not probable—the like results would be observed, and the same conclusions drawn.’

‘Miss Leavenworth,’ the coroner went on, ‘the ball has been extracted from your uncle’s head!’

‘Ah!’

‘It corresponds with those in the cartridges found in his stand drawer, and is of the number used with this pistol.’

Her head fell forward on her hands; her eyes sought the floor; her whole attitude expressed disheartenment. Seeing it, the coroner grew still more grave.

‘Miss Leavenworth,’ said he, ‘I have now some questions to put you concerning last night. Where did you spend the evening?’

‘Alone, in my own room.’

‘You, however, saw your uncle or your cousin during the course of it?’

‘No, sir; I saw no one after leaving the dinner table—except Thomas,’ she added, after a moment’s pause.

‘And how came you to see him?’

‘He came to bring me the card of a gentleman who called.’

‘May I ask the name of the gentleman?’

‘The name on the card was Mr LeRoy Robbins.’

The matter seemed trivial; but the sudden start given by the lady at my side made me remember it.

‘Miss Leavenworth, when seated in your room, are you in the habit of leaving your door open?’

A startled look at this, quickly suppressed. ‘Not in the habit; no, sir.’