When Last I Died

There were tales of screams, shouts and moans, Mr. Justice Knowles continued, but if it were so, why had nothing been said or done about them at the time? Why were they dragged into the light of day for the first time more than six years afterwards ?

On the other hand, there was the actual evidence of the bodies. Two bodies had been found under the house in circumstances which indicated foul play. If the bodies had been left unburied it might be argued that a horrible accident or even criminal negligence had taken place. But the fact that the bodies of two starved children had actually been buried, and buried in secret, and in a place where it was most unlikely that they would ever be found, indicated—in fact, insisted—that there had been foul play.

There was also the evidence of the ex-Warden of the Institution. The jury would remember that this witness had stated that no trace of the missing boys had ever come to light. The jury would also remember that this witness had stated, further (and in this part of his evidence he was supported by the testimony of the present Warden), that for the police to fail to track down two such boys, of whom a full description could be circulated and who would be most unlikely to have money with them to assist them to get away from the environs of the Institution, was most unusual.

His Lordship elaborated this part of his theme, and concluded with an exhortation to the jury to remember to give the prisoner the benefit of any reasonable doubt. Then he invited them to retire and consider their verdict.

In the interval which followed this retirement, Mr. Pratt again scribbled a note to Mrs. Bradley.

"What a pity we couldn't produce the motive for the murder of the boys!"

Mrs. Bradley wrote in reply on the bottom of the same sheet of paper:

"What was the motive for the murder of the boys? If you could tell me that I should be delighted."

Pratt wrote on the other side of the paper (thus offending, Mrs. Bradley pointed out later, against all the canons of journalism and other authorship),

"Why, what about the murder of Cousin Tom? What a blight on us that it has to be hush-hush, isn't it?"

To this Mrs. Bradley wrote in reply:

"Cousin Tom was not murdered until after the boys were imprisoned in the cellar. You've got the wrong notion. I had, too, at first, and it led to Bella's arrest. Tom may not have been a party to the killing of the boys, therefore he may have been a nuisance; he may have known facts about the death of Aunt Flora, therefore he may have been a menace; but the death of the boys must have had some connection with another matter, I think, and certainly with another person."

"The thing is," said Ferdinand to his mother that evening, when, the jury having failed to agree, the trial was postponed until the next sessions—a matter of a few weeks—"you will have to go further into the alleged suicide of the sister. There's still some sort of mystery about that. Nobody is going to get me to believe that anyone as completely hard-boiled as Bella Foxley wanted to fake a suicide because people were sending her anonymous letters. Besides, the villagers didn't know who she was, did they?—Although, of course, you can never be sure about a thing like that. Because the shepherd doesn't know there's a wolf in the fold, it doesn't stand to reason the sheep don't."

"They would be likely to betray the fact to the shepherd, though, don't you think?" observed Mrs. Bradley. "But I think, all the same, dear child, it is your metaphor and not your reasoning which is at fault."

"Pratt showed me your note about the motive for the murder of the boys," continued Ferdinand. "I thought you had made up your mind that they were killed because they knew she had murdered Cousin Tom, until you suddenly presented me with that contrary opinion of yours the other week, about Muriel."

"I did think so at first, but the evidence of the caretaker and his daughter, plus the evidence of Miss Biddle, caused me to change my mind, and the medical evidence confirmed everything. You see, Bella Foxley was arrested so soon after the death of and the inquest on, Cousin Tom that she would have had no chance of returning to the house to bury the bodies of the two boys until they would have reached an advanced state of decomposition. Now the bodies, as I saw them when they were first disinterred by the police, did not bear out this theory. The boys had been buried, I should have said, before they were quite dead, and the medical evidence at the trial bore out this suggestion of mine. Q.E.D."

"It is indeed," agreed Ferdinand. "Well, it will be a very serious thing if you don't get her at the next attempt. What are you going to do?"