Agnes: A Tale of the Streets — page 267: what you’re looking at

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516 introduced him to Sergeant Wrightson of the De teotive Force as a fit and proper person to conduol the plans which were now requisite to bring home the crime to Mr. Timperley. Accordingly, the Sergoant set two of his subordinates to work to ferret out whatsoovor fresh details they might pos: sibly obtain in the clue which was being followed up; while a third was appointed to keep watch on Mr. Timperley’s movements. At half-past eight o’clock on the ensuing even- ing, Lord Ormsby and Sergeant Wrightson called at the house in Norton Street; and they gave Mrs. Maddox full instructions how she was to act when Mr. Timperley should make his appearance. Two rooms separated by folding-doors, presonted arrangements by moans of which the nobleman and the detective could overhear everything which might take place. At nine o’clock Mr. Timperley knocked at the door of the house; and he was shown into the room whore Mrs. Maddox awaited him. It is scarcely necessary to observe that his guilty soul was full of alarm ; for he knew full weil that this was the house where Mrs. Chicklado had dwelt; and the wording of the landlady’s letter had shown him that she considered him to be in her power. She must therefore have disco- vered something ! But that the matter could be settled for money, he had every reason to hope and believe from the private and stealthy way in which he was thus sent for. Mrs. Maddox faithfully followed out the course which Ormsby and the detective had suggested. Bhe spoke to Mr. Timperley of the letter he had written to Mrs. Chicklade, and in which he had promised the sum of five thousand pounds as the purchase-money of her silence in respect to some discovery she had made materially damaging to his reputation ae well as perilous to his personal safety. Mrs. Maddox likewise spoke of the visit of his niece Cicely Neale to procure Mrs, Chick- Jade’s papers; and then sho said, “ You know, Mr. Timperloy, your niece obtaincd that letter ‘¥Lich you penped to the woman; and you gave your':jece a dowry of thirty thousand pounda, either as a bribe for her silence, or else as the actual purchase-money for the damnatory docu- ment!" “Ah, then Cicely has betrayed mo !” ejaculated the lawyer, who was thrown completely off his guard. “* No—she did not intentionally botray you,” re- plied Mrs. Maddox: “ but I discovered the secret —it matters not how.” Then Mr. Timperley began to sound Mrs. Mad- dox as to what her views might be,—though at the same time he endeavoured to impress upon hor that he was really innocent of the crime, but that for the sake of avoiding thp chance of incurring disagreeable suspiciun ho had no objection to place the seal of silence upon her lips. He proposed that she should depart forthwith fur Amorica—that he would give her five hundred pounds on the day that she act off—and that he would annually remit her one-half of that sum. and he suggested that she should leave London on the morrow. To thie also she agreed ; and he took his departure, with the tuderstanding that hoe should be there at seven o'clock inthe morning to see her off. Aud at seven o'clock in the mokning Ormsby She gavo ber consent ; ' AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. and the detective were again concealed ih the inner room separated from the front ono by the folding: doors; and Mr, Timperley was punctual to the ap- pointment, He gave Mre, Meddox tho promised amount; and he said, “I am evon dealing with you more liberally than I had undertaken or than you could have expected; for there is a draft upon an American house—one of the principal firms in New York—for a further sum of five hundred pounds, which will be paid to you the instant you arrive in that city.” He accompanied the woman in acab to Euston Square: he paid her fare to Liverpool—he saw her ake ber seat in the railway carriage—and he vitnessed the departure of the trian. His mind was then easy ; and he felt convinced there was nothing more to apprehend in that quarter. As "or Mrs. Maddox herself, she left the train at some tation at no great distance down the line, and on tho ensuing night returned to London, where she iook a temporary lodging in the suburbs that sho - might hold herself at the disposal of Sergeant Wrightson whenever the coy%3e of justice should require her presence 7 (© witness-box. The money and the drafter 4in America which she had received ,“rom, Mr. Timperley, she surrendered up into the offjcer’s keeping, Lord Ormsby guarantee- ‘og that she should not be a loser by the procecd- ing. In the mean time the two detectives who had een set to work to ferret out fresh details, had not been idle. They had communicated with the vlicemen who discovered the body of Mrs. Chick- lade at the time when the murder was committed : ‘hey obtained all requisite information from that source; and they procured copies of the deposi- ions taken at the examination of Winifred before he police-magistrate. The incident was then ought back to recollection that Mr. Timperley nad actually presented himself at the time in the ‘olice-court—that he had ‘voluntarily stood for- vard ¢o announce himself as the attorney engaged io conduct the accused girl’s defence; and this proceeeding on his part was now regarded as a mere cloak to shield himself against the possibility ff suspicion. ‘Then, too, there was a portion of Mr. Meadowbank the surgeon’s evidence, at the ‘ime of that cxamination, which now engaged tho serious attention of the detectives ; inasmuch as t tended to prove that it was really more consis- ent to believe that the murder had been com- mitted by the strong bands of a man than by the delicate fingers of a young female. We will quote, ‘or the benefit. of the reader, the particular part of ‘he examination to which we now refer, and which ‘a8 given in the fifteenth chapter of our narra- 1v@. “Do you think,” Mr, Wardour, the barrister, , had asked of Mr. Meadowbank, “ that variate if the prisoner were those whic '-?s'¥heir marks pon the neck of the decease¥y?” “I should indeed be very‘Sorry to aay that they were,” was Mr. Meadem?d .k’s answer: “but as an honest man, I am compfiled to admit that they night have been.” t “You must endeavgr) gir,” Mr. Wardour had ‘one on to say, “to Are us a positive opinion. , I rill ahape my ques(dof in another way. Do you hink that these dlicate fingers”—pointing to- wards ‘ho-ptisonerp=‘could have left upon the oO MIKGIOO C© S C©