Charlie Chan [5] Charlie Chan Carries On Page 22

  Mr. Minchin’s roving eye fell on Mr. Tait. That gentleman rose with the manner of the experienced speaker.

  “I am, perhaps, happier than any of you to be here,” he began. “There have been times when it seemed I must leave you long before this. But the determination to live is strong, and I promise that I shall finish with you, as I began.

  “In many ways I feel that I am lucky. I have much to be grateful for. For example, referring again to my friend Mr. Hugh Morris Drake, and the night of February sixth - the morning of the seventh - I might have been the occupant of the bed in room 28 - the innocent victim of a murder that was purely -“

  He stopped, and looked helplessly about him. “Pardon me. I am off on the wrong tack there. We are, I fear, making this a rather unhappy evening for the charming Miss Pamela. I only meant to say that I am happy to have survived thus far on our tour around the world, and that it has been a great pleasure to meet you all. Thank you very much.”

  He sat down abruptly amid subdued applause. Mrs. Luce obliged with a travelogue, and Pamela Potter said a few graceful words. Captain Keane arose.

  “Well, it’s been a great trip,” he said. “However, I guess it’s about over now, and those of us who have work to do can go and do it. We’ve had a lot of fun, and for my part I’d almost forgotten the incident at Broome’s Hotel. That was a bit of a strain, and no mistake. Inspector Duff acted for a while as though he intended to spoil the tour - for some of us at least. His questions were pretty personal. I don’t go in for murder myself, but I happened to be wandering about that night, as you may recall. I had my bad moments. And I guess some of the rest of us were on the anxious seat, too. I guess Mr. Elmer Benbow was a little bit worried - eh, Mr. Benbow? I haven’t said a word to anybody about this before, but now we’re all back in God’s country and I guess we can take care of ourselves. I saw Mr. Benbow at three o’clock the morning of the murder, just as he was slipping back into his room from the hall. I imagine you’re glad you didn’t have to explain that to Scotland Yard - eh, Benbow?”

  Keane’s air was one of light-hearted banter, but it deceived no one. Underneath was a cheap malice that was unpleasant to contemplate. Even Maxy Minchin, though he couldn’t have defined the feeling, knew that here was an exhibition of bad taste that took the palm. The little gangster leaped to his feet.

  “The way things is going you don’t need no toast-master here,” he announced. “Mr. Benbow, you been elected the next speaker.”

  The man from Akron got slowly to his feet. “I’ve been doing a lot of speaking the past few years,” he began, “but I don’t know that I ever had to make a speech like this before. It’s quite true - I was out of my room that night at Broome’s Hotel. After we got home and got to bed, I suddenly remembered that February sixth was my daughter’s birthday. We’d been intending all day to send her a cable, but we’d been so busy we both forgot. Well, I was upset, and no mistake. Then I remembered the change of time - that is was six hours earlier in Akron. It came to me that maybe I could still get my cable to her that day - late at night, perhaps, but still on her birthday. I jumped out of bed, dressed, and hustled out. There were some scrubwomen in the hotel lobby, but I didn’t meet any of the other servants, coming or going. Of course, I should have told the police about this, but I certainly didn’t feel like getting mixed up in the affair. It was a foreign country - different - you know how it is. If I’d been at home - well, I’d have told the chief of police all about it. But England. Scotland Yard. I got cold feet.

  “I’m glad Captain Keane brought the matter up here tonight. I’m glad to explain the thing, and I hope you believe me. Now - er - I had a speech ready, but it’s clean gone. Oh, yes - one thing I do remember. I’ve been taking pictures all the way around, as I guess you know. You’re all in ‘em. I bought a projector in Honolulu and Friday night - our last night aboard - well, Mrs. Benbow and I are entertaining then. We want you all to be our guests, and I’ll run off the whole trip for you. That’s - that’s about all, now.”

  He sat down amid loud and friendly applause. Several rebuking looks were cast at Keane, who received them nonchalantly. Mr. Minchin rose again.

  “I guess it’s up to me to make the next selection,” he remarked. “Mr. Ross, we ain’t heard from you yet.”

  Ross stood up, and leaned heavily on his stick. “I have no belated accusations to offer,” he remarked, and a little round of applause circled the table. “All I can say is, this has been an interesting tour. I’ve been looking forward to it for many years - how many, I wouldn’t like to tell you. It has been somewhat more exciting than I’d bargained for, but I have no regrets. I’m glad I came on this party with Doctor Lofton - and with all of you. I only wish I had been as wise as Mr. Benbow and made a record of my experiences, to solace the long hours when I get back to Tacoma. As for that unfortunate night in London, when poor Hugh Morris Drake lay dead in that stuffy room in Broome’s Hotel, with Doctor Lofton’s luggage strap about his throat -“

  Suddenly from far down the table, Vivian spoke. “Who says it was Doctor Lofton’s luggage strap?” he demanded bruskly.

  Ross hesitated. “Why - why - I understood at the inquest,” he replied, “that it was taken from the doctor’s closet -“

  “We’re all telling our real names tonight,” went on Vivian in a clear, cool voice. “That wasn’t Lofton’s luggage strap. In point of fact, it wasn’t a luggage strap at all. It was a camera strap - the kind you use to carry a motion picture camera over your shoulder. And I happen to know that it was the property of Mr. Elmer Benbow.”

  With one accord they all turned and stared at Benbow, sitting with a stricken look on his face near the foot of the table.

  Chapter XIX

  THE FRUITFUL TREE

  In the tense silence Maxy Minchin got slowly to his feet. He removed the Napoleonic hat from his head, and with a gesture of abdication, cast it aside.

  “Well, you bimbos are certainly making some dinner out of this,” he remarked. “Sadie, I guess we never give one like it before, did we? Way I figure it, guys that put on the feed-bag together ought to act nice and friendly at the table, even if they do pull a gat on the stairs going out. Still, I ain’t one to tell my guests how to behave. Mr. Benbow, you spoke once, but it looks to me like you gotta speak again.”

  Benbow leaped to his feet. The stricken look had faded, and he appeared grim and determined.

  “Well,” he said, “I guess I made a mistake. When I was telling you that about the cablegram to my daughter, it flashed through my mind I ought to say something about the strap -“

  “I suppose you sent her that as a birthday present,” Keane sneered.

  Benbow turned on him. “Captain Keane, I don’t know what I have done to win this hostility from you. I’ve regarded you from the first as a cheap and contemptible light-weight, but I thought I had kept my opinion of you hidden. I did not send that strap to my girl as a birthday present. I wish I had. Then it would not have been put to the use it ultimately was.”

  He took a sip of water, and continued. “I heard about Mr. Drake’s murder early that next morning, and I went to his room to see if there was anything I could do. That’s what I would have done in Akron - it seemed the neighborly and kindly thing. There was no one in the room at the moment but a hotel servant - the police hadn’t come. I went over and looked at Drake. I saw the strap about his throat, and I thought it was almighty like my camera strap. It gave me a shock, I can tell you. I went to my room, hunted up my camera - and found that the strap was missing from the case.

  “Well, we talked it over, Nettie and I. Our door was always unlocked - I didn’t like to go out and leave it that way, but the maid had requested us to do it. The camera had been there all the previous afternoon, as well as in the evening, when we went to the theater. It had been easy enough for somebody to slip in and get the strap. My wife suggested that I go and talk things over with Doctor Lofton.” He looked at the doctor. “I’m going to tell the whole
business,” he added.

  Lofton nodded. “By all means,” he remarked.

  “Well, the doctor pooh-poohed my fears at first, but when I told him I had been out the previous night to send that cablegram, he began to look serious. I asked him if he thought I’d better tell Scotland Yard it was my strap, and also that I had been away from my room between two and three o’clock on the morning of the murder. Men have been hung on less than that. And there I was, in a strange country, first time I’d ever been out of the good old United States, and - well, I was scared stiff. ‘It looks like I leave your party here and now,’ I said to the doctor. He patted me on the shoulder. ‘Say nothing,’ he told me. ‘Leave everything to me. I’m sure you didn’t kill Drake, and I’ll do all I can to keep you out of the investigation.’ Believe me - it was a good offer. I took it. The next thing I heard about the strap, Doctor Lofton had claimed it as his own. That’s all I’ve got to say. Oh, yes - Vivian asked me on the channel boat where my strap was. He asked in sort of a nasty way. When I bought another in Paris, he made some crack about it. I saw that he was on to the situation, but he didn’t seem inclined to do anything about it.”

  For the first time in many moments, Chan spoke. He turned to Vivian with interest.

  “Is this true, sir?” he inquired.

  “Yes, it is,” replied Vivian. “I knew from the first it was Benbow’s strap. But there we were, in a foreign country - and I didn’t really think Benbow was guilty. I didn’t know what to do. So I consulted the one man in our party who ought to know about such things. A celebrated criminal lawyer. Mr. Tait, I mean. I outlined the matter to him, and he advised me to say nothing.”

  “And now you disregard his advice?” Charlie said.

  “Not precisely. He and I were speaking about it to-day, and he told me he thought it was about time to get to the bottom of the strap business. He suggested I tell you. He said he thought yours the best mind that had yet come into the case.”

  Chan bowed. “Mr. Tait does me too much honor,” he protested.

  “Well, there’s nothing more I can say,” Benbow went on, mopping his perspiring brow. “Doctor Lofton claimed the strap, and that let me out.” He sat down.

  They all looked at Lofton. His manner showed that he was decidedly annoyed; his eyes were flashing.

  “Everything that Mr. Benbow has told you is true,” he remarked. “But consider my position, if you will. There I was, with a murder in my party, and up against the most celebrated man-hunting organization in the world. My only object was to cut off their investigation at the earliest possible moment, and get out of England with my party intact. I felt that if Mr. Benbow admitted those two damaging facts, he would certainly be held in London. One of them alone might not have sufficed, but both together - well, that would have been too much. I saw myself losing at the very start of the tour a couple of my best clients. And I was morally certain Mr. Benbow was entirely innocent.

  “When the matter of the strap was brought up by Inspector Duff, I saw my way out immediately. I had not left my room the night before, and no one could say I had. True, there had been a little matter of warm words between Mr. Drake and myself, but that meant nothing, as the inspector was quick to see. I was not connected with the crime in any way. The strap was not unlike one I had about an old bag - not quite so wide, but the same color, black. I told Duff I possessed a strap similar to the one he was showing me. I went to my room, removed it from my bag, and hid it beneath a wardrobe that reached nearly to the floor. If my plan failed, I could pretend to discover it there and simply tell Duff I had been mistaken. Then I went back to Drake’s room and told the inspector that I believed the strap used to strangle the old gentleman was mine.

  “It worked like a charm. From that point on the matter of the strap was of no further interest to Scotland Yard. Mr. Benbow was safe and -“

  “And so were you,” suggested Captain Keane, blowing a ring of smoke toward the ceiling.

  “I beg your pardon, sir,” glowered Lofton.

  “I say, Benbow was safe, and so were you,” Keane went on calmly. “If there had been any disposition on the part of Duff to suspect you of the crime, you rather took him aback by claiming that strap on the spot. He figured that if you’d been guilty, you’d hardly have committed the murder with your own strap, and then admitted the ownership immediately. Yes, my dear Doctor, it worked like a charm -“

  Lofton’s face was scarlet. “What the devil are you driving at -“

  “Oh, nothing, nothing. Don’t get excited. But nobody’s been paying much attention to you in this affair. There you were - broken-hearted because such a thing had happened on a tour of yours. But were you? Mightn’t there have been something more important to you than your tour -“

  Lofton tossed aside his chair, and strode over to where Keane sat.

  “Stand up,” he cried. “Stand up, you dirty cur. I’m an old man, but by heaven -“

  “Gentlemen, gentlemen,” shouted Maxy Minchin. “Remember they’s ladies present.”

  Charlie inserted his great bulk between Doctor Lofton and the captain. “Let the refreshing breeze of reason blow over this affair,” he suggested gently. “Doctor Lofton, you are foolish man to listen to unresponsible talk of this plenty flippant person. He has no basis whatever for evil insinuations.” He took the doctor by the arm and led him a few feet away.

  “Well, folks,” announced Maxy Minchin, “I guess the dinner’s over. I was going to suggest we all join hands and sing Auld Lang Syne at the finish, but mebbe we better chop that. Open the doors. An’ for the sake of my boy at school, I hope they won’t be no rods drawn in the hallway.”

  Chan quickly escorted Lofton outside. Behind him, as he left, he heard the scraping of chairs, the breaking up of Maxy’s interesting dinner party.

  “Hot words will cool here on windy deck,” he suggested. “Accepting my advice, you will abstain from presence of Keane until you feel less fiery.”

  “Yes, I fancy I’d better,” the doctor admitted. “I’ve hated that sneering whelp from the moment I saw him. But of course, I mustn’t forget my position.” He gave Charlie a searching look. “I was happy to hear you say that he had no basis for his accusations.”

  “None whatever that I discover,” answered Chan blandly.

  “I don’t know - now that I come to think of it, it was a rather silly move, my claiming that strap. I can’t explain it except for the fact that after you’ve traveled with groups like this for a few years, you begin to look upon them as children. Somewhat stupid children, too, helpless and needing protection. My first instinct is always to furnish the protection. One of my people was in trouble so, as had happened many times before, I simply shifted his burden to my own shoulders, and carried on.”

  Charlie nodded. “I understand plenty well,” he reassured the older man.

  “Thank you, Mr. Chan,” Lofton replied. “You seem an understanding person. I’m inclined to think I underrated you when we met.”

  Charlie smiled. “That is customary. I do not let it distress me. My object is to arrange so people are not still underrating me when we part.”

  “I imagine your object is usually attained,” the doctor bowed. “I think I’ll go to my cabin now. I have a lot of work to do.”

  They parted, and Chan set out on a walk about the deck. His step was brisk, his manner serene and composed. Much had happened at Maxy Minchin’s dinner. Charlie smiled to himself as he recalled how much had happened. Some one called to him from a steamer chair.

  “Ah, Mr. Tait,” he remarked. “I will sit down at your side, if you have no inclination for objecting.”

  “I am delighted,” replied Tait.

  “Ah, yes. You were kind enough to speak to Mr. Vivian in flattering terms of my poor brain power.”

  “I meant every word of it,” the lawyer assured him.

  “Then you judge on the smallest grounds.”

  “No, I never do that.” Tait struggled with his rug, and Chan assisted him.
“Thanks,” he said. “Well, that was quite a little dinner, as it turned out. Was it, by any chance, another of your experiments?”

  Chan shook his head. “No - it was idea of hospitable Mr. Minchin. But who knows - I may be able to turn it to my purpose.”

  “I’m sure you can.”

  “Detective is in happy luck,” Charlie continued, “when he can stand aside and hear murderer talk about incidents attending crime. Tonight many men spoke - possibly murderer among them. Was there some indiscreet admission?”

  “Did you note any?” inquired Tait.

  “I am much afraid I did. It came - you will pardon my rudeness - it came from you.”

  The lawyer nodded. “You justify my belief in you. I hardly expected you would overlook my indiscretion.”

  “We are talking, no doubt, about same thing?”

  “Oh, no doubt at all.”

  “Will you tell me, then, of what we speak?”

  “Gladly. It was rather a slip for me to admit that any one of us might have been in Hugh Morris Drake’s position that night in Broome’s Hotel.”

  “It was, indeed. You knew, of course, that Honywood and Drake changed rooms that night. Inspector Duff told you same on train between Nice and San Remo.”

  “Yes - that was where he told me about the change. You know Duff’s notes pretty thoroughly, I perceive?”

  “I must. They are my only hope. I find no record that you ever read a letter written by late Mr. Honywood to his wife.”

  “I didn’t even know there was such a letter.”

  “Yet you knew that Drake was killed by some one seeking to kill Honywood. You understand that poor man’s taking off was, as you started to say, purely accidental. That it might have happened to any man in the party.”

  “Yes - I’ll have to admit that I knew that. I’m sorry I let it out, but it’s too late now for regrets.”

  “How did you know it? Duff never told you.”

  “No, of course - Duff never told me.”

  “Then who did?”