The Magic Casket by R.Austin Freeman

Author:R.Austin Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Magic Casket
ISBN: 9780755128693
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2013-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

“When the pigs their wings have folded

And the cows are in their nest—”.

We all spun round in amazement, and at the first glance the mystery of the crime was solved. There stood Thorndyke with the red table-cover at his feet, and at his side, on the small table, a massively constructed phonograph of the kind used in offices for dictating letters, but fitted with a convoluted metal horn in place of the rubber ear-tubes.

A moment of astonished silence was succeeded by a wild confusion. Mrs Barnett uttered a piercing shriek and fell back on to a chair, her husband broke away and rushed at Thorndyke, who instantly gripped his wrist and pinioned him, while the superintendent, taking in the situation at a glance, fastened on the unresisting James and forced him down into a chair. I ran round, and having stopped the machine – for the preposterous song was hideously incongruous with the tragedy that was enacting – went to Thorndyke’s assistance and helped him to remove his prisoner from the neighbourhood of the instrument.

“Superintendent Miller,” said Thorndyke, still maintaining a hold on his squirming captive, “I believe you are a justice of the peace?”

“Yes,” was the reply, “ ex officio.”

“Then,” said Thorndyke, “I accuse these three persons of being concerned in the murder of Miss Millicent Fawcett; Frederick Barnett as the principal who actually committed the murder, James Barnett as having aided him by holding the arms of the deceased, and Mrs Barnett as an accessory before the fact in that she worked this phonograph for the purpose of establishing a false alibi.”

“I knew nothing about it!” Mrs Barnett shrieked hysterically. “They never told me why they wanted me to work the thing.”

“We can’t go into that now,” said Miller. “You will be able to make your defence at the proper time and place. Can one of you go for assistance or must I blow my whistle?”

“You had better go, Jervis,” said Thorndyke. “I can hold this man until reinforcements arrive. Send a constable up and then go on to the station. And leave the outer door ajar.”

I followed these directions and, having found the police station, presently returned to the flat with four constables and a sergeant in two taxis.

When the prisoners had been removed, together with the three animals – the latter in charge of a zoophilist constable – we searched the bedrooms. Frederick Barnett had changed his clothing completely, but in a locked drawer – the lock of which Thorndyke picked neatly, to the superintendent’s undisguised admiration – we found the discarded garments, including a pair of torn shepherd’s plaid trousers, covered with bloodstains, and a new, empty razor-case. These things, together with the wax cylinder of the Phonograph, Miller made up into a neat parcel and took away with him.

“Of course,” said I, as we walked homewards, “the general drift of this case is quite obvious. But it seemed to me that you went to the Barnett’s flat with a definite purpose already formed, and with a definite suspicion in your mind.

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