The Shadow Witness ... Illustrated by C. Green

Front matter

*jq|i IB aB4ffln»cJBi^iiii^5iifl v ■: - ■i : 'Bi' i I • ': • -NDON : -BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., ST 2, 10, BQUVERM S^REF IMPORTANT TO ALL. As a -neaps of keeping the system clear, and thus taking away the groundwork of Malarious Diseases and all Liver Complaints, ENO'S FRUIT SALT is particularly valuable. No Traveller should leave home with out a supply ; for by its use the most dangerous forms of Fever, Gouty, Rheumatic, and other Blood Poisons, very frequently censing Apoplexy, Heart Disease, and sudden death, &c, are prevented and cured. It is, in truth, a FAMILY MEDICINE CHEST in the simplest yet most potent form. The FRUIT SALT acts as simpiy yet just as powerfully on the animal system as sunshine does on the vegetable world ; it has a natural action on the organs of digestion, absorption, cir culation, respiration, secretion, and excretion, pnd removes all impurities, thus preserving and restoring health.

Also as a Refreshing, "Cooling, and Invigorating Beverage, use ENO'S FRUIT SALT (PREPARED FROM SSUND RIPE FRUIT}. It is the best preventive and cure for BILIOUSNESS, SICK HEAD ACHE, SKIN ERUPTIONS, IMPURE BLOOD, PIMPLES on the FACE, GIDDINESS, FEVERISHNESS, MENTAL DEPRESSION, WANT of APPETITE, SOURNESS of the STOMACH, CONSTIPATION, VOMIT ING, THIRST, &c., and to remove the effects of ERRORS OF EATING AND DRINKING. If its great value in keeping the body in health were universally known, no family would be without it. Price 2s. _><_. and 4s. _<-. Prepared only by J. 0. ENO, N ewcastle-on-Tyne. May be lead through any Cliemist, as all Wlwlcsale Houses keep it in Sloek. A gentleman states : — In cases of bilious headaches, followed by severe attacks of fever, ENO'S . FRl.IT SALT has acted liko a charm w_-n all other treatments have failed.

The day is not far distant when the neglect of its u_e in all fevers and dise_ "• __..u_._ag from poisoned blood will be considered as criminal. See "Stomach and its Trials," 10th Edition, post-free for li stamps. Messrs. Gibson. & Son, Chemists, of Hexhain, writing for a further supply of the Fruit Salt, say : "Since we introduced your Fruit Salt in Hexham, a few months ago, we have sold about five hundred bottles, and it gives general satisfaction, as customers who get it almost always recommend it to their friends. We have had numerous instances of its efficacy in the cure of Bilious Headaches and Stomach complaints. It has had a greater sale than any other proprietary medicine that we know of." "Tour Fruit Salt is beyond all praise, I wish yon would sell it here; it would make its own way by its own merit.

Book I. Laying The Train

CHAPTER. FACE. CHAPTER. PAGF. I.— MR. DANIEL HARVEY, SOLICITOR 5 IV. — A LITTLE DINNER . . . . 19 IL — LINKS IN THE CHAIN . . 10 V.— SETTLING PRELIMINARIES . . 24 III.— A MEETING OF TWO OLD FRIENDS 18

Book II. Springing The Mine

I. — MALWIN MAKES MARK HIS V.— A VOICE FROM THE DEAD . . 45 CONFIDANT . . . . 32 VI. — A MEETING IN THE TARK . 4S II. — MARK'S ROMANCE . . .3= VII.— A LITTLE BUSINESS . . . 52 HI.— A CONSULTATION. . . . 38 VIII. — MARK'S FAREWELL ... 56 IV. — A FAMILY SECRET . . .42 IX.— A STROLL IN THE MOONLIGHT 60

Book III. Wilful Murder

I. — THE REPRESENTATIVE OF SCOT- IV.— THE TERMS OF A GENTLEMAN, 74 LAND YARD . . . .63 V.— THE TREHERNE TRAGEDY. — II. — FATHER AND DAUGHTER . . 67 LATEST INTELLIGENCE . . 77 III.— MR. RANFORD TURNS AUTHOR 70

Book IV. Brought To Book, I

— WITNESSES FOR THE DEFENCE. 8l IV.— REGINA VERSUS TREHERNE . 93 H.— THE VEILED FIGURE ... 84 V.— AT LAST ! 96 III.— A STORY OF THE PAST . . . 89 [All rights reserved. ~\ AD VERTISEMENTS. "WANZER" SEWING MACHINES THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MEDALS. THE "WANZER" were THE ONLY MACHINES obtaining the CENTENNIAL MEDAL and DIPLOMA; together with the ONLY GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO SEWING MACHINES. "LITTLE WANZER," WITH MARBLE' SLAB. AS A HAND MACHINE SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHERS. Adopted by the Council of Education, and used throughout the Seven Thousand National Schools of Ireland. Half a Million in use. "WANZER" A. STRAIGHT RACE. WITH NEW PATENTED MOTION. SUITABLE FOR ALL KINDS OF WORK. The best Light Family Foot Machine. Is easily worked by hand. " Wanzer " A is the greatest success of 1876. It combines all the known advantages of other Machines, and several important improvements.

It is nearer perfection than any Machine yet made. "\y_ANZER" F. NEW FAMILY MACHINE. With Patent Reversible Feed Motion, and all the Latest Improvements. Specially adapted for Families, Dressmaking, and Light Manufacturing Purposes. "PANZER" E, WHEEL FEED MACHINE. With P.ollixg Presser for Boot-Closing and Heavy Leather Work, and with a Special Foot for Tailoring. CHIEF OFFICES- 4, GREAT PORTLAND STREET, LONDON, W 58, BOAR LANE, LEEDS. 131, BOULEVARD SEBASTOPOL, PARIS. "Ho started back with a cry of terror and despair. Reflected on the ground beside himself, with out-stretched Land, was the shadow of a figure standing beside the tree." rFre.nlisv.ef4_ (AU rights reserved.) LONDOTss: BRADBURY. AGNEW. <fe CO.. 8, 9. 10. BOUVERTE STREET, E.C. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. THE MURDER NEAR THE CAMEL ROCK, The murderer paused in his work.

His hated enemy was lying quite still in the moonlight, His clothes were disarranged, and the blood stained his shirt over the region of the heart. There had been a desperate struggle before the dead man had fallen under the rain of blows showered down upon him by his desperate opponent. A few minutes before, with white lips and trembling limbs, he had been praying for men-y. But the cruel knife had been forced into the heaving chest up to the very hilt, and the murdered man had fallen back stone dead. The murderer got up. He had been kneeling near the body. He shuddered as he threw the knife down and turned away. The distorted features looked ghastly in the moonlight. " He brought this up on himself," murmured the murderer. " Had he not possessed that paper, had he not known what he did know, he would have been living now.

How his eyes glare ! " He shuddered and walked away. His face was bathed in perspiration, and he looked as pale as death. It was a wild spot — the very place for such a deed. The stumps of trees looked weird in the blue green haze. A vast never-ending expanse of desolate rocks, bordered by a country road that seemed never to have known the weight of a carriage. There was a shadow thrown on the road by a bank opposite the rocky waste, and the body of the murdered man was lying just outside the shado v and just inside the moonlight. " What shall I do . " thought the murderer. " Here he may not be found fur weeks. Since the railway has run the coach off its wheels this old road is seldom used." And then he started, for he thought he heard a footstep. He looked right and left, but could see little, for at this moment the moon was covered by the clouds.

" Absurd," he murmured. " Why what a fool I have become. I am afraid of everything — even of that senseless, lifeless lump of clay over yonder." In a moment he was silent, for not twenty paces from him he saw the forms of a young man aud a young woman. They were evidently taking leave of one another. The man was in travelling costume. He carried in his right hand a carpet bag, aud over his left arm was thrown a light over-coat. As the man talked to the woman the over-coat was allowed to fall to the ground, and the left arm was slipped round a charming waist. !■ The murderer was concealing himself behind a clump of trees, but he saw all this. He smiled and waited until the time arrived for the last adieu. It was sorrowfully spoken, and then the pair separated. " Thank heaven ! " exclaimed the man in concealment.

" Stay, what have I to do witfe heaven after this night's work . I thought it was all up with me. Had they some by this way, my life would not have been worth three months' purchase." He walked towards the dell in which the lovers had held their meeting. As he moved along, his foot came into contact with some cloth. He stooped down and picked up a grey coat. " This is fortunate," he thought, and without a moment's hesitation he searched the pockets. He found a letter. Tt was written in pencil on a scrap of paper, and ran as follows : — " I will meet you near the Camel Rock. My darling Mark, I can scarcely realize it yet. Can that man's words be so disastrous to you ! Oh that we could forget the past ! " It was signed with an initial, aud was in a female's hand-writing. " My old business," murmured the murderer, " will here stand me in good stead.

When the body is found they will also find the coat. I know what is the meaning of circumstantial evidence too well not to value a chance like this." And for the first time he laughed. Such a laugh ! It sounded like an echo from the cries of the lost souls in perdition. Such a laugh—^so weird and inhuman that the laugher himself grew alarmed at the sounds of his own merriment. " Enough of this," he whispered, as he mopped his streaming forehead with his handkerchief. "Let me think. I have been in as bad things as this before, and I have got out of them successfully. Why shouldn't I be as lucky now > " And he sat down by the way-side and buried his face in his hands. There was a rustling in the trees behind him, which he attributed to the wind or the hurried movements of a frightened bird. The place was veiy silent after this, and he seemed to feel the loneliness of his surroundings.

He was alone at the dead of night with the body of his murdered victim. " Let me see," he thought ; " it may not be found for a week if I put it in a safe place. This road is little used now, and who would think of exploring that desolate waste over yonder. Near it I must put the coat with its tell-tale letter. ' My darling ' may yet have to paydearly for his pretty billing and cooing." And he smiled as he looked at the paper — smiled savagely. " It will be a grand revenge if he has to swing for it," He was still thinking, and seemed to be uncertain how to decide. At last he muttered : — " It will not be worth the risk. Business before pleasure. The body must net be found if I can help it, and if it is why then I leave the rest to fate." He took up the coat, which now once more held the letter, and retraced his steps.

He could not summon up courage to approach the corpse of the murdered man. He trembled in every limb, and once more acted over in thought the terrible tragedy. He saw himself following the man over yonder from the sleeping village He was following with a fixed idea, to get a certain paper into his own power, andto silence for ever its then possessor. He saw himself creeping along by the hedge- THE MURDER NEAR THE GAM EL ROCK. 3 rows with blood-shot eyes and a cruel sneer above his lips. He saw himself stop as his victim stopped, half apprehensive of approaching danger. He savs him self creeping on again steadily towards the goal which was to end in death, in the cruellest of deaths — iu murder ! He saw himself rushing with frantic haste across a field that promised to bring him in his victim's path.

And then the scene was acted once more before him. " You see we are not to part yet. Here I am. You thought to out-wit me but I would not let you go without wishing you at least good-night." He saw once again the terrified look of his companion, the hand once again sought the pocket, only to be caught by the wrist and to be nearly twisted off in an iron grasp. " Oh you want to anticipate me, do you % You carry a revolver with you in case of accidents, do you 1 Well, they make a noise, and had better be put out of harm's way." And once more the revolver was plucked away and thrown a dozen yards on the rocky waste. " This is better than a dozen pistols," and once more the large clasp-knife was gleaming in the moonlight. "Do .you know what I am going to do. Not you — well, I will tell you — I am going to murder you."

His victim knew him, and had guessed as much. He knew that he had lived too long, but yet there was a chance. Would promises do . Could he swear by all that was solemn, by his Maker, that he would do anything and everything that was demanded of him . Might he not give up his all in return for his life ! " No ! " Then was there no mercy for him ? Had the claims of friendship no power . Did he not remember past benefits received when he could have hanged him a score of times — had he no gratitude . " No ! " Then did he not fear the justice of man . Did he not know the murderer's fate -r-the judge, the prison, and the scaffold ! Had he no fear of a shameful death . "No ! " and then came explanations. " You see the chance of the murderer's fate, as you call it, is very small. We are here alone.

You left the village yonder unseen ; I followed unseen. We are here alone, as I have already said. The mad you have chosen for your escape is all but deserted. Tramps avoid it because there are not houses for miles, and it is not the place for labourers. When you are dead your body may not be found for days, weeks, months." " When I am dead ! " Oh what a terror-stricken cry ! *' When you are dead, for dead you will be as truly as you stand there with your cowardly face, and cowardly heart, and cowardly hands. Why man you have put it out of my power to save you. You have threatened me, and I never allow a man to threaten me twice." The other uttered a cry of despair, and then quick as lightning flew at the speaker. He was a strong square-built man, aud for a moment the shock was almost overpowering, but the man who held the knife clasped his opponent round the neck and gradually recovered himself.

It was a dreadful struggle. Every nerve, every tissue was strained to the utmost. The one fought with all the strength of despair, the other with the power of a mighty hatred. The man who n held the knife, and was now beginning to use it, was the stronger of the two. He was taller and younger, but in other respects they were fairly matched, but for the knife. The other was panting and crying and fighting, like a wolf in the fangs of a score of blood-tasting hounds. The man with the knife hacked away at his opponent's fingers with his cruel weapon. For a long while the latter managed to keep the blade away from his body, but at last the assailer's strength was too much for him. He gave one piercing cry, which was muffled immediately by the blood-stained hand, and then threw up his arms towards the skj7.

In a moment and the knife had forced its way through broad-cloth aud linen, through skin and veins, to find its passage to a quickly beating heart. And then the body, lifeless and bleeding, had sunk down on the road w7here it was now lying, pale and ghastly in the moonlight. The murderer was no coward, and he felt that before leaving a spot which had now a nameless terror for him he must do two things. Firstly, he must possess himself of a certain paper that was in his victim's pocket : and secondly, he must remove the body into some more secluded spot than this lonely country road. Having decided this he wralked on, in the direction of the scene of the assassination. He carried with him the coat he had found at the lovers' trysting place. "A strange spot to choose," he murmured. " I suppose they knew that they would be free from interruption.

And yet it proves one thing, that this road, lonely though it be, has sometimes its frequenters." He was now within a few paces of the body. It was lying perfectly still in the moonlight, as he had left it a few minutes' before. The shadow of the rock with its bush was still resting on the ground, within a couple of yards of the corpse. " I wish it had been in the shadow," he thought. '•' Now that he is dead I fear him more than I ever did when he was alive. AVhat nonsense ! I am becoming aa superstitious as an old woman of eighty ! " And he tried to laugh. As he moved on again he heard a' rustling in the leaves. He stopped. " I am frightened by everything. Even a bird startles me. I am unnerved. One would imagine that the— the— well, why not have done with it and call it murder 1— had been seen by all thew7orld, instead of being committed iu the loneliest spot and without a soul within a couple of miles.

Of course I except the lovers, but they have their own business to attend to, and doubtless attended to it." Again he tried to laugh, and then he forced himself by a mighty effort to approach the body of the murdered man. He knelt down beside it, and quickly possessed himself of a paper. Then he started back with a cry of terror and despair. When he had last looked at the shadow of the bank he had only seen a tree. Now reflected on the grouud beside himself, with outstretched hand, was the shadow of a figure standing beside the tree. In another moment the clouds covered the moon, and all was dark. Still ho knew this, that his crime had been seen, and that there was a witness, living, ready at any moment to denounce him. MR. DANIEL HARVEY, SOLICITOR. 5

Chapter I. Mb

DANIEL HARVEY, SOLICITOR. Daniel Harvey was a quiet, respectable-looking man, in an apparently quiet and respectable business. He had a dingy office, in a dingy square in the legal neighbour hood of Grays' Inn, Holborn, where he was known as Mr. Daniel Harvey, Solicitor. He had the reputation of jbeing a person well-to-do in the world, though some few, envious perhaps, chose to regard him as a miser ; and there were not wanting those who were ready to hint, that -fair and open means were not the only ones employed by Mr. Harvey for filling his own pockets, and draining the purses of his numerous clients. But the professional world is so jealous ! aud, after all, these were only hints and whispers, at which a respectable practitioner could afford to laugh in his sleeve. Rubicon Square is a nice, dirty, mouldy nook in the vast metropolis ; the very place, of all others, in which a crafty and cowardly spider would delight to spin his web and mesh unwary flies.

" Daniel Harvey " was written up on the side of the door, with an intimation that the owner of the name might be found in the Second Floor Chambers. And to the uninitiated, who only sought him for legal advice, there was Daniel, ever at his post, from ten till four, or close at hand within his clerk's hail. The demands made upon him, however, by the legitimate clients who reached his landing-place did not satisfy the capacity of our estimable attorney, who was, as the saying is, a perfect glutton for work. The meals provided for his maw, in Rubicon Square, did little more than whet his inordinate appetite. \V "ith a view, perhaps, to amusing his leisure hours with some lighter professional fancy work, he had, in quite a friendly and pleasant spirit, advanced a considerable sum to an enterprising young man from Jersey, who had conceived the brilliant notion of making a fortune by establishing an agency, on a large and liberal scale, for the foreign and home professoriat — a most excellent title which sounded like a little gold-mine in itself.

The Entrepreneur of this work, Mr. Herbert De Gex — quite a romantic name — sat in a neat inner chamber in a highly respectable house in a highly respectable street (everything that Daniel Harvey had anything to do with was eminently respectable — he would not have touched it had it not been "so nominated in the bond ") — with papers methodically arranged on a desk before him, while a small clerk (a boy being brought up iu the way he should go) occupied a high stool in an outer room, always engaged in copying something out of one big book into another big book, filing letters, or drawing up advertisements. This business was carried on under the trading name of " De Gex, Herve' and Co. ;" but, some how or another, the Jersey man with the romantic name had gradually slipped out of the principal ship, and was now working out his indebtedness, as, nominally, the active partner, but, in reality, as merely head clerk at such a salary as might accrue to him out of the profits of the surely developing business, which, after having invented it, he had found himself unable to carry out.

A very few initiated ones were aware that "De Gex, Herve and Cic.," had long ago resolved itself into plain Mr. Daniel Harvey of Rubicon Square, Holborn, E.C. But this was a matter between Mr. De Gex and Mr. Harvey ; and as to the " Cie.'- — well, that might be represented by the clerk, and the clients. There was also a branch in the city which paraded another manager's name, and styled itself " The City Clerks' Agency Office." Besides this most useful establishment, our friend Daniel had a servant market, in a central position, and a " Home for Female Servants out of employment," founded not only on the most philanthropic, but even on the most Christian principles, as an anti-diabolic agency, ever on the qui vive to find honest employment for the " idle hands" for whom, as the fmmortal Dr. Watts has sung, or said, " Satan finds some mischief still."

This " Home " had been placed under the superintendence of a most respectable matron, the widow of a Swiss pastor, and was able to display a long and most effective list of distinguished lady-patronesses ; but its true patron was Mr. Daniel Harvey, of Rubicon Square, Solicitor, who, with the assistance of another similar house for male servants, was thus enabled to keep himself sufficiently au courant with the home affairs of many of the best families, whether of nobility or gentry, in London and in the country. Daniel, a thick-set man, of about the middle height, with sparse black hair, bright dark eyes, and a pale face, without a tinge of any colour in it save yellow-, " had a pleasant manner with him," as his clients used to say, and rightly too, for his smile was perpetual, his way of speaking soft and persuasive, and his bearing generally that of a good kind creature, who would not wilfully injure even the most persevering fly at the end of August.

It is needless to recount the past of Daniel Harvey. He had known poverty ; he had known the direst privation. Good Luck, in which he implicitly believed, had kept him, as a boy, out of the clutches of the police, and the same angel — for there are guardian angels or angel-companions of both colours— had watched over his subsequent career. Under this tutelage Daniel had thriven. He was a Daniel who had never been in the lions' den ; but had he been placed there, we feel sure that it would have been a bad day for the lions. Our Daniel would have mesmerised them with his dulcet tone, and as a serpent charmer renders powerless the most poisonous vipers, so would the noble beasts, the kings of the forest, have yielded to the blan dishments of Daniel Harvey. But this excellent man's line was not among lions ; he had never attempted the conquest of such splendid game.

He had the power of scenting possessed by the truffle dog, combined with the deadly perseverance of the bloodhound. But having achieved success in several grooves in the same plane, there he remained. " The prudent man," he said to himself as he sat in his cool shaded room on one hot evening towards the end of the July of 1 8— , looking over certain memoranda and private papers, " the prudent man on whom Fortune has smiled does not attempt familiarities w7ith her. She is a woman ; a capricious woman ; a flirt— a fickle flirt is Fortune, and nothing delights her more than to revenge herself on those who rashly presume on a continuance of her favours in some novel enterprise." His clerk had gone. Office hours were over, and business at Rubicon Square was finished for the day, that is, as far as business ever did finish for so indefatig able a practitioner as Daniel Harvey.

MR. DANIEL HARVEY, SOLICITOR. 7 He leant back in his chair, and considered. He passed his right hand slowly baokwaxds' and forwards across his closely shaven chin. Then he regarded the ceiliug ; then he looked towards the dirty window-panes, then once more his eye. dropped, and rested on the old writing-table before him. Still he seemed undecided. Whatever problem was occupying his thoughts at that moment, it was clearly a difficult one to solve. He rose from his chair, thrust both hands into his trousers' pockets, and walked three times backwards and forwards, up and down his room. Then he paused by the door, listened as though he scented an eaves-dropper at the keyhole. Then he opened it suddenly, aud looked out. Nobody ; not a soul. To be quite sure, he entered the clerk's office. It was vacant.

The presses were empty. The outer door of the chambers was closed ; not the "sporting" door, so that to any visitor who chose to knock anet ring, he was still at home. Then he shut himself in aud returned t ... his chair. Raising the lid of his desk with one hand, he pushed his right awn fa-ward, and pressing a spring, the situation of which was indicated to him by touch and not by sight, a piece of wood flew back, revealing the handle of a small drawer behind it. This he drew oat. It was empty. Those who might have taken the trouble to discover so much of his secrets, would have had this empty drawer for their pains. Again pressing, and this time towards him, his hand bein_; entirely concealed from view, he lifted up a small ingeniously contrived trap of the most exquisitely finished make, and from the shallow recess which it had covered, he brought out a single paper, about two inches aud a half wide, by seven in length, slightly soiled, and partly covered with writing.

This is what appeared on the face of the document : — ■ Daniel spread it out before him, and conned it with au air of immense satisfaction. " It's a little above my line," murmured Daniel to himself, " but it's a big thing, a very big thing." Then again, after a pause, which he filled up by rubbing his chin, his invariable action when communing with himself on any matter of great importance, a habit, by the way, which boded no good to those whose interests were in question with him at the moment— he went on holding a dialogue with that other self, who plays so large a part as the adviser, or the confidante in most men's lives. " Yes," he said, " it is a big thing. Phox and Chauncey would have worked it well ; but they're broken, and I bought this of them at a sacrifice. Phox and Chauncey came to grief— how .

By going out of their line. They were induced to have a stake in that Bank affair, aud there were too many in the secret. Phox and Chauncey won't come back to England for nearly a life-time, I imagine the climate 'ud be too hot for them. They'll have a field in America ; not a large one, as it's over worked already, and they haven't sufficient experience. But it was a first-rate firm. And that Chauncey ! such a gentlemanly fellow ! why it was a pleasure for a young man about town, a young nobleman perhaps, to do business with him. Ah ! there's the advantage of having been born and bred a gentleman ! " Here Daniel sighed deeply over the irreparable past. For him the private school had been the close, dirty alley, and the public school the gutters of the thorough fores. Often and often had he recognised in himself that great want which nothing iu after-life could ever supply.