HERON FOLLOWS THE TRAIL.
Ruth could not rid herself of a haunting doubt that her father knew more of the Jenner murder than he chose to confess. If he himself had not killed the man in a fit of impetuous rage--and the girl could not bring herself to think this--he knew who had struck the fatal blow. Ruth was certain now that Mrs. Jenner was innocent, notwithstanding the fact that she had been found guilty. This being so, she argued to herself that if her father were aware of the truth he should at once take steps to remedy the grave miscarriage of justice which had taken place. But as he made no move, Ruth, perplexed and doubtful, became quite ill with suspense. It was no wonder then that Geoffrey had found her poor company, and had failed to understand her constant melancholy. Under these circumstances he had taken his departure, wondering what had befallen the house which had formerly been so bright and pleasant. But no satisfaction was to be had either from Mr. Cass or from his daughter.
On arriving at his own place he went at once to the library to look for some document with his father's signature in order to compare it with that on the bill. And after a close inspection of some half-dozen autographs of the late Mr. Heron, he came to the conclusion that the signature to the bill was a forgery. Once convinced of this, he began to see daylight, and argued out the case that evening, alone and undisturbed.
"Jenner was at one time a clerk in the firm of Cass and Marshall," he thought; "therefore he must have known Marshall very well; he was dismissed, and so had no cause to love his employers. Mr. Cass, so far as I know, was always an upright man, and Jenner had no chance of injuring him in any way. With Marshall the case was different. If I remember rightly, Mrs. Jenner told me that her husband and Marshall were as thick as thieves; the master patronising the clerk on account of the man's beautiful voice and musical accomplishments. Marshall, too, lived a gay life, and was given to spending pretty freely. It is quite possible that he might have made use of Jenner as a tool to get more money through this bill! Five hundred pounds," said Geoffrey, looking at the document in question. "Humph! Just the sum he might require for an emergency." He turned over the bill, and found it endorsed by Julius Roper. "Ah!" he went on, "where have I heard that name? Roper--Roper--I am sure someone spoke of Roper."
Suddenly it flashed into his mind that Roper was the moneylender in whose employment Jenner had been after he had failed on the stage.
"The bill was discounted in the office in which Jenner was employed," he thought, with growing excitement, for the matter was becoming more interesting every minute, "and Jenner, knowing it was forged, stole it from Roper. He meant to use it as a means of extorting blackmail! Ah!" He stopped short. "Blackmail? It was of that he boasted to his wife--this, then, was the material for getting money that he said he had in the red pocket-book. The pocket-book has disappeared; but the bill?--Humph! How did it get inside the horse? Could Jenner himself have put it there? If so, why? What was his reason? I must see Mrs. Jenner and ask her. Between the two of us we may get at the truth."
But although he was satisfied that his father's signature had been forged, he could not be absolutely certain that Marshall had been the forger. He had drawn the bill, it was true, but Jenner might have counterfeited the signature and have assisted Marshall to get the money.
Then Geoffrey recollected that his father--a particularly precise man--had been in the habit of keeping a diary in which he was accustomed to set down the most trivial details of his somewhat uninteresting life. No sooner had this thought struck him than he went to a certain press and pulled out the series of little books which contained these entries. Glancing at the date of the bill, he set to work, and after an hour's search found the evidence.
The late Mr. Heron had made no attempt to conceal Marshall's rascality; for it was plainly set down that a certain Mr. Roper had called upon him to shew a bill of exchange and to ask if the signature were his. Mr. Heron had replied that he had never signed a bill in his life, where upon Roper had intimated that the bill had been presented by Frank Marshall, and that the money had been paid to him. Roper had also expressed his intention of having Marshall arrested, but to this Mr. Heron had objected. Bad as he thought the man, he wanted to avoid any serious trouble, less for Marshall's own sake than for that of Miss Inez Cass, to whom he was engaged, and who was deeply in love with him. Roper had left the house with the avowed intention of making things hot for him, so Mr. Heron had called on Marshall at his house near Hollyoak and told him what had happened. Then Marshall had confessed that, being in want of money, he had forged Mr. Heron's name. But he stated that he was going to pay the money back to Roper very shortly, and he implored Mr. Heron to take no steps against him; it would break Miss Cass's heart, he said, and Mr. Heron, pitying Inez, and having a great respect for her brother, had promised to say no more about it, and had agreed to refrain from assisting Roper on condition that the five hundred pounds were repaid. This--as a later entry in the diary-proved--had been done. After that there was no further mention of the matter.
"Well," Geoffrey said to himself, as he put away the books, "all this is quite plain. It seems that Mr. Frank Marshall is a pretty scoundrel! Oh, there is no doubt that this bill is the blackmailing document referred to by Jenner. Now, I wonder if Marshall murdered him to get possession of it; but if he did the bill would not have been concealed in the toy horse. Ah! no doubt Marshall thought it was in the red pocket-book, and stole that after he had killed him; that was why the pocket-book disappeared. Probably Marshall himself destroyed it. Humph! I have gone so far with very good results; now, before I can proceed further, I must see Mrs. Jenner and Roper. I wonder if that scoundrel is still alive?"