Samuel Boyd of Catchpole Square: A Mystery

by B. L. Farjeon

"It is not true! It is Dr. Vinsen!"

A wave of excitement passed over the court; the spectators craned their necks, exclamations of astonishment escaped their lips, and for a few moments all was confusion. When order was restored, Mr. Pallaret said,--

"I have done with you for the present, Dr. Pye. I must ask your worship not to allow the witness, or any of the witnesses, to leave the court."

The Magistrate: "They will all remain. The officers will see to it."

Apparently unmoved and unruffled, Dr. Pye returned to his seat. Those of the spectators who were in a position to see observed a smile on his lips.

Mr. Pallaret, turning to the magistrate, then said that it was not customary in such cases as the present for the defence to make a long speech in a police court, but he was induced by special circumstances to deviate from the usual custom, and he was influenced also by the accused, whose earnest desire it was that all their proceedings should be made public with as little delay as possible. The only important witness brought forward by the prosecution against Mr. Reginald Boyd was Dr. Pye, and he should be able to prove that this witness was utterly unworthy of credit. Evidence of a startling nature would be presented which would suggest the gravest doubts in connection with him. (At this moment a slight bustle took place in court, caused by the hurried entrance of a messenger bearing a note for Mr. Pallaret. The learned counsel paused to receive and read the note, and then wrote a line in reply, which was handed to the messenger, who immediately departed.)

"I do not disguise from your worship," continued Mr. Pallaret, "that my object is to obtain the immediate acquittal of the accused at your hands, or, in the event of their being committed for trial, to show that the case against them is so flimsy and unreliable, that to refuse bail would be a distinct injustice. Stripped of the defence which I am in a position to make, I admit that the circumstantial evidence would be sufficiently strong to render their detention necessary, but even without the defence it would not be strong enough to prove their guilt. I take the opportunity of emphasising the extreme danger that lies in evidence of this character. One of our greatest writers has said, 'Circumstances may accumulate so strongly even against an innocent man, that, directed, sharpened, and pointed, they may slay him.' Such might have been the issue of the charge brought against the men I am defending, but happily they are in a position to meet it in a conclusive manner, and, I do not hesitate to say, to prove their innocence. Although not quite relevant to the issue affecting themselves, I cannot refrain from saying that in establishing their innocence they will also establish the innocence of an absent man against whom the finger of suspicion has been pointed. I refer to Mr. Abel Death. With respect to one of the accused I shall unfold a story which has in it many of the elements of romance."

Mr. Pallaret then described the part which Dick had played in the Mystery. With breathless interest the spectators listened to the recital, the effect of which was heightened by the eloquence of the narrator.

"Mr. Richard Remington" (proceeded Mr. Pallaret), "convinced of the innocence of his cousin's husband, recognising the dangerous position in which he stood, and with a certain suspicion in his mind, conceived and carried out a plan as novel, as ingenious, and as bizarre, as has ever been disclosed in a court of justice. On two nights, when he was in the house of the murdered man, he had observed that a flashlight had been thrown upon the windows from the back room of the house inhabited by Dr. Pye. He resolved to present a problem to that person. As skilful in disguise--I may mention that he had been a short time on the stage--as the villain who personated Samuel Boyd, and robbed Lady Wharton of her jewels in Bournemouth, he dressed himself in a suit of Samuel Boyd's clothes, and, in theatrical parlance, 'made up' his face to resemble that of the murdered man. Thus disguised he stationed himself at the front window of Samuel Boyd's house, and upon more than one occasion experienced the satisfaction of having the flashlight thrown upon him. He put into execution another and a bolder idea, the successful result of which led to his arrest under circumstances which you have heard described by Constable Applebee and Detective Lambert. He was convinced that persons found access to the house by some means and in some way unknown to him. If his suspicions were verified the natural conclusion would be that those persons (I use the plural advisedly) were the murderers. He determined to set watch for them, and to remain hidden in the house for several days and nights. In order to carry this out successfully, and to throw dust into the eyes of the suspected persons, he affixed a notice to the street door, to the effect that he would be absent from the house for some time.

"In the room on the first floor which had been used as an office there is, among other singular articles, the wax figure of a Chinaman, suitably attired. This figure is sitting in a hooded chair, what is called, I believe, a grandmother's chair. Mr. Remington had procured from a theatrical costumier in Covent Garden the mask of a Chinaman's face and a costume similar to that which clothed the wax figure. His design was, when he heard sounds of any person or persons moving in any part of the house, to place the wax figure in a cupboard in the office, and take its place. It was a bold and hazardous design, fraught with danger to himself, but, determined if possible to bring the miscreants to justice, he allowed no considerations for his personal safety to stand in his way. He entered the house on the Thursday night of last week, and did not leave it until the Monday night of this week. Animated by his high resolve, stern and fixed in his purpose, behold him in that lonely house, on the watch! Thursday and Friday nights passed, and nothing occurred. Neither was he disturbed on the nights of Saturday and Sunday. He remained there in absolute darkness, confident that the time would come.