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No, sir! my belief is that Parslett saw some man enter and leave Multenius's shop; that he knew the man; that he went and plumped him with the affair, and that the man gave him that gold to get rid of him at the moment and contrived to poison him, too!" Purdie considered the proposition for awhile in silence.
This connection of Levendale with my late client as undoubted as it seems to have been secret needs investigation. According to Mr. Purdie here Levendale has suddenly disappeared or, at any rate, left home under mysterious circumstances. Has that disappearance anything to do with Multenius's death? Has it anything to do with the death of this next door man, Parslett, last night?
It arrived at Multenius's Multenius brought it to me at my city office and we examined it, after which Multenius deposited it in his bank. We decided to buy it ourselves I finding the money. We knew, from our messages from Stephen Purvis, that he would be in town on the 18th November, and we arranged everything for that date.
He remembered yesterday afternoon, of course. About half- past-five o'clock he was standing at the door of his shop. It was directly facing Daniel Multenius's shop door. The darkness had already come on, and there was also a bit of a fog in the street: not much, but hazy, as it were. Daniel Multenius's window was lighted, but the light was confined to a couple of gas-jets.
He saw Ayscough enter Multenius's front door and immediately pause then the door was shut, and he himself went back into his own shop, his wife just then calling him to tea. "You saw the young man you speak of quite clearly?" asked the Coroner. "As clearly as I see you, sir," replied the witness. "Do you see him here?" Hollinshaw turned instantly and pointed to Lauriston.
Multenius's house, opening into his back-parlour. Now, the previous afternoon, he, Parslett, had had a consignment of very fine mushrooms sent in rare things at that time of year and knowing that the old man had a great taste for them and didn't mind what price he paid, he stepped across with a dish of them to tempt him. He found Mr.
Melky nodded at Purdie, as much as to invite him to speak. "The authorities at New Scotland Yard have the Levendale affair in hand," said Purdie. "We've been in and out there, with Mr. Multenius's solicitor, all the afternoon and evening. But, of course, we couldn't tell anything about this other man because we didn't know anything, till now. You'll have no objection to going there tomorrow?"
That date, then, becomes of special importance what happened at Multenius's shop in Praed Street on the afternoon of November 18th, between half-past four and half-past five is, of course, the thing that really is of importance. Now, what did happen? I can tell you save as regards one detail which is, perhaps, of more importance than the other details.
John Purdie, who had already recognized his host as a character, as interesting as he was amusing, listened attentively while Melky told the story of Lauriston's doings and adventure from the moment of his setting out to pawn his watch at Multenius's pledge-office to that in which, on Melky's suggestion, he had made a secret and hurried departure for Peebles.
Certain circumstances told him by Melky about the rare book left in old Multenius's parlour inclined Purdie to be somewhat suspicious that Levendale was concealing something which he knew about that affair and now here was Miss Bennett writing what, on the face of it, looked like an appealing letter to him, as if something had happened.