The mystery of Angelina Frood
“Examination of the basement showed that I was right as to the
communication. Both houses had a side door opening into the
passage-way, and both doors were fitted with Yale latches which looked
as if they were opened with the same key. The passage was little used,
but the gravel between the two doors was a good deal trodden, and
there were numerous finger-prints on Angelina’s side-door. In the
kitchen was a large cupboard fitted with a Yale lock on the door and
pegs inside. I assumed that when Angelina was at home that cupboard
contained a suit of Mr. Bundy’s clothes, and that when Mr. Bundy was
in the office it contained a wig and a dress and a pair of lady’s
shoes.
“Well, that made the evidence fairly complete with one exception. We
had to get a set of Bundy’s finger-prints to compare with Angelina’s.
That was where the brooch came in. I knew that when Mr. Bundy saw a
portrait of his former self with a brooch that he had never possessed,
his curiosity would be aroused, and he would examine that portrait
closely. And so he did. And on my asking him to compare the two
prints, he took the opportunity to pick them both up, one in each
hand, to scrutinize them more minutely, and find out who the
photographer was. When he put them down, they bore a complete, though
invisible, set of his finger-prints. Later, Mr. Bundy went home,
escorted by Strangeways. As soon as they were gone, I took the
photographs up to my room, developed up the finger-prints with powder,
and compared them minutely, line by line, with the photographs of
those on the tumbler and bottle. They were identical. The
finger-prints of Bundy were the finger-prints of Angelina Frood.
“That completed the case; and if I had known what Angelina’s
intentions were I should have notified Bundy that ‘the game was up.’
But I was in the dark. I could do nothing until I knew whether she was
going to produce a body, and if so, whose body it would be. The city
wall was in my mind as a possibility, since I had noted the curious
disappearance of the gate-key on that significant date and I had heard
of the story of Bill the bargee and knew that Bundy had heard it, and
apparently taken it seriously. But one can’t act on conjecture. I
could only watch Angelina play her game and try to follow the moves.
When the paper-chase turned up Black Boy-lane, I knew that the
wall-burial was intended to be discovered. But I didn’t know what was
in the wall, and I may say that I was rather alarmed. For if Angelina
had taken the story of Bill as a reliable precedent and had buried a
real body in quicklime, there was going to be a catastrophe. It was an
immense relief to me when I got Strangeways’ report that only a
skeleton had been found; for I knew then that only a skeleton had been
buried and that no crime had been committed. That is all I have to
tell; and now it is Angelina’s turn to enter the confessional.”
“You haven’t left me much to tell,” said Angelina. “I feel as if I had
been doing the thimble and pea trick with glass thimbles. However, I
will fill in a few details. This scheme first occurred to me when I
came down here to take over the property that had been left to me. I
put it confidentially to Uncle Japp, but he was so shocked that he has
never been able to get his hair to lie down since. He wouldn’t hear of
it. So I asked him to lunch with poor Nicholas; and after that he was
ready to agree to anything. Accordingly I made my preparations. I got
a theatrical wig-maker to cut off my hair and make it into a wig (I
told him I had a man’s part and it was expected to be a long run), got
a suit made by a theatrical costumier, and down I came as Mr. Bundy.
Uncle J. had already had the new plate put up. The next door offices
and basement were empty, so we got them furnished for Angelina, and as
soon as the wig was ready, down she came and took possession.
“Up to this time the third act was a bit sketchy. I had arranged the
disappearance, and the recovery of the clues from the river, and I had
a plan of buying a mummy, dressing it in my clothes, and burying it in
the marshes close to the shore, where I could discover it when it had
matured sufficiently. But I didn’t much like the plan. I didn’t know
enough about mummies, and some other people might know too much. It
looked as if I should have to do without a body, and leave my death to
mere rumour; which would be unsatisfactory. I did want a tombstone.
“About this time an angel of the name of Turcival--he lives in Adam
and Eve-street, Adelphi, bless him!--sent a Dr. Strangeways down here.
He was a regular windfall--a new doctor--and I gave him my entire
attention. I took him to his own proposed premises, and kept him in
conversation, to let my personality soak well in. That evening I
interviewed him in the office, and let him suppose that I was going to
take him to Mrs. Frood’s house and introduce him to her. Then, when I
suddenly remembered an engagement elsewhere, I went out, and as soon
as the office door was shut, down I darted into our basement, out at
the side door, in at the other side door, and into Mrs. Frood’s
kitchen. There I did a lightning change; slipped on my dress and wig,
stuck on my eyebrows, and made up my complexion; flew up the stairs,
lighted the lamp in the sitting-room, and spread myself out with my
needle-work. But I hadn’t been settled more than two or three minutes
when Uncle Japp arrived, leading the lamb to the slaughter.
“Then it turned out that I had struck a bit of luck that I hadn’t
bargained for. John had attended me in London and knew something of my
affairs; so I appointed him my physician in ordinary on the spot. It
was rare sport. The concern poor old John showed for my grease-paint
was quite touching. I sat there squeaking complaints to him and
receiving his sympathy until I was ready to screech with laughter. But
I felt rather a pig all the same, for John was so sweet, and he was
such a man and such a gentleman. However, I had to go on when once I
had begun.
“But it was a troublesome business, worse than any stage job I ever
had, to keep these two people going. I had to rush through from the
office into the kitchen and cook things that I didn’t want, just to
make a noise and a smell of cooking, and listen to Mrs. Gillow so that
I could pop up the stairs at the psychological moment and remind her
that I lived there; and then to fly down and change and dart through
into the office, so that people could see that I was occupied there.
It was frightfully hard work, and anxious, too. I can tell you, it was
a relief when I heard from Miss Cumbers that Nicholas was starting for
Brighton, and that I could disappear without implicating him. However,
there is no need for me to go into any more details. Your imaginations
can fill those in.”
“The man with the mole, I take it,” said Thorndyke, “was----”
“Yes. I got a suit of slops in the Minories. The mole, of course, was
built up, with toupee-paste.”
“By the way,” said Thorndyke, “was there any necessity for Bundy at
all?”
“Well, I had to be somebody, you know, and I had to stay on the spot
to work the clues and keep an eye on the developments. I couldn’t be a
woman because that would have required a heavy make-up that would
almost certainly have been spotted, and would have been an intolerable
bore; whereas Bundy, as you have pointed out, was not a disguise at
all. When once I had got my hair cut and had provided myself with the
clothes and eye-glass, there was no further trouble. I could have
lived comfortably as Bundy for the rest of my life.
“So that is my story,” Angelina concluded; “and,” she added, with a
sudden change of manner, “I am your grateful debtor for ever. You have
done far more for me even than you know. Only this morning, poor Peter
Bundy was a forlorn little wretch, miserably anxious about the present
and looking to a future that had nothing but empty freedom to offer.
And now I am the happiest of women--for I should be a hypocrite if I
pretended to have any regrets for poor Nicholas. I will say good-bye
to him in his coffin and give him a decent funeral, and try to think
of him as he was before he sank into the depths. But I am frankly glad
that he is gone; out of his own miserable life and out of mine. And
his going, which would never have been known but for the wisdom of the
benevolent serpent, has left me free, with a promise of a happiness
that even he does not guess.”
“I am not so sure of that,” said Thorndyke, with a sly smile.
“Well, neither am I, now you come to mention it,” said she, smiling at
him in return. “He is an inquiring and observant serpent, with a way
of nosing out all sorts of things that he is not supposed to be aware
of. And after all, perhaps he has a right to know. It is proper that
the giver should have the satisfaction of realizing the preciousness
of that which he has given.”
Here endeth the Mystery of Angelina Frood. And yet it is not quite the
end. Indeed, the end is not yet; for the blessed consequences still
continue to develop like the growth of a fair tree. The story has
dwindled to a legend whose harmless whispers call but a mischievous
smile to that face that, like the dial in our garden, acknowledges
only the sunshine. Mrs. Dunk, it is true, still wages public war, but
it is tempered by private adoration; and almost daily baskets of
flowers, and even tomatoes and summer cabbages, arrive at our house,
accompanied by the beaming smile and portly person of Inspector
Cobbledick.
[The End]
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Minor spelling inconsistencies (_e.g._ footfalls/foot-falls,
north-east/southwest, quicklime/quick-lime/quick lime, etc.) have
been preserved.
Alterations to the text:
Abandon the use of drop-caps.
Adjust some quotation mark pairings and nestings.
Capitalize five instances of _doctor_ when used in direct addresses.
[Chapter II]
“threw a fresh light, if any were needed on the sinister events” add
comma after _needed_.
[Chapter III]
Change (“By _jove_!” he exclaimed, “I’m afraid I can’t.) to _Jove_.
[Chapter IV]
“and he began to chant in an _absurb_, Punch-like voice” to _absurd_.
[Chapter V]
“he had taken temporary charge of my uncle’s _practise_” to
_practice_.
[Chapter VIII]
“throw at least a glimmer of light on _his_ dreadful and baffling
mystery” to _this_.
[Chapter IX]
“We followed him, picking our way _daintly_, and, having” to
_daintily_.
[Chapter X]
(“that it seems perfectly _conceivable_ that Mrs. Frood could have”)
to _inconceivable_.
(“Don’t rub it.” said Thorndyke, as Bundy clapped his hand) change
the period to a comma.
[Chapter XI]
“The _sergant_ turned away with a sort of benevolent contempt” to
_sergeant_.
[Chapter XIII]
(“Yes, it _seem_ undeniable,” I answered.) to _seems_.
[Chapter XIV]
(“Let me see,” said _Thondyke_. “Isn’t that the lane that) to
_Thorndyke_.
[Chapter XVI]
“replied Polton, with a smile of _ladyrinthine_ wrinkliness” to
_labyrinthine_.
“It is a dreadful thought?” change question mark to an exclamation
mark.
[Chapter XVII]
“after a few _moment’s_ reflection with knitted brows, he stated” to
_moments’_.
[End of text]