Read Online The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume - Free Book Online Page B

the drawing room, but finally dropped it for more agreeable subjects. The gentlemen, however, when the cloth had been removed, filled their glasses and continued the discussion with unabated vigour. Brian, alone, did not take part in the conversation. He sat moodily staring at his untasted wine, and wrapped in a brown study.
    â€˜What I can’t make out,’ observed Rolleston, who was amusing himself with cracking nuts, ‘is how they did not find out who he was before.’
    â€˜That is not hard to answer,’ said Frettlby, filling his glass, ‘he was comparatively little known here, as he had been out from England such a short time, and I fancy that this was the only house he visited at.’
    â€˜And look here, Rolleston,’ said Calton, who was sitting near him, ‘if you were to find a man dead in a hansom cab, dressed in evening clothes—which nine men out of ten are in the habit of wearing in the evening—no cards in his pockets, and no name on his linen, I rather think you would find it hard to discover who he was. I consider it reflects great credit on the police for finding out so quickly.’
    â€˜Puts one in mind of “The Leavenworth Case,” and all that sort of thing,’ said Felix, whose reading was of the lightest description. ‘Awfully exciting, like putting a Chinese puzzle together. Gad, I wouldn’t mind being a detective myself.’
    â€˜I’m afraid if that was the case,’ said Mr Frettlby, with an amused smile, ‘criminals would be pretty safe.’
    â€˜Oh, I don’t know so much about that,’ answered Felix shrewdly, ‘some fellows are like trifle at a party—froth on top, but something better underneath.’
    â€˜What a greedy simile,’ said Calton, sipping his wine, ‘but I’m afraid the police will have a more difficult task in discovering the man who committed the crime; in my opinion, he’s a deuced clever fellow.’
    â€˜Then you don’t think he will be discovered?’ asked Brian, rousing himself out of his brown study.
    â€˜Well, I don’t go as far as that,’ rejoined Calton, ‘but he has certainly left no trace behind him; and even the Red Indian, in whom instinct for tracking is so highly developed, needs some sort of a trail to find out his enemies. Depend upon it,’ went on Calton, warming to his subject, ‘the man who murdered Whyte is no ordinary criminal; the place he chose for the committal of the crime was such a safe one.’
    â€˜Do you think so?’ said Rolleston. ‘Why I should think that a hansom cab in a public street would be very unsafe.’
    â€˜It is that very fact that makes it safer,’ replied Mr Calton, epigrammatically. ‘You read De Quincey’s account of the Marr murders in London, and you will see that the more public the place the less risk there is of detection. There was nothing about the gentleman in the light coat who murdered Whyte to excite Royston’s suspicions. He got into the cab with Whyte, no noise or anything likely to attract attention was heard, and then he got out. Naturally enough, Royston drove down to St Kilda, and never suspected Whyte was dead till he looked inside and touched him. As to the man in the light coat, he doesn’t live in Powlett Street—no—nor in East Melbourne either.’
    â€˜Why not?’ asked Frettlby.
    â€˜Because he wouldn’t have been such a fool as to leave a trail to his own door; he did what the fox often does—he doubled. My opinion is that he either went right through East Melbourne to Fitzroy, or he walked back through the Fitzroy Gardens into town. There was no one about at that time of the morning, and he could walk home to his lodgings, hotel, or wherever it was, with impunity. Of course this is a theory that may be wrong; but from what insight into human nature my profession has given me, I think that my idea is a