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Page 107
"I mean about recent matters," replied Bryce. "I've
interested myself in them--for reasons of my own. Ever since
Braden was found at the foot of those stairs in Paradise, and
I was fetched to him, I've interested myself. And--I've
discovered a great deal--more, much more than's known to
anybody."
Folliot threw one leg over the other and began to jog his
foot.
"Oh!" he said after a pause. "Dear me! And--what might you
know, now, doctor? Aught you can tell me eh?"
"Lots!" answered Bryce. "I came to tell you--on seeing that
Glassdale had been with you. Because--I was with Glassdale
this morning."
Folliot made no answer. But Bryce saw that his cool, almost
indifferent manner was changing--he was beginning, under the
surface, to get anxious.
"When I left Glassdale--at noon," continued Bryce, "I'd no
idea--and I don't think he had--that he was coming to see you.
But I know what put the notion into his head. I gave him
copies of those two reward bills. He no doubt thought he
might make a bit--and so he came in to town, and--to you."
"Well?" asked Folliot.
"I shouldn't wonder," remarked Bryce, reflectively, and almost
as if speaking to himself, "I shouldn't at all wonder if
Glassdale's the sort of man who can be bought. He, no doubt,
has his price. But all that Glassdale knows is nothing--to
what I know."
Folliot had allowed his cigar to go out. He threw it away,
took a fresh one from the box, and slowly struck a match and
lighted it.
"What might you know, now?" he asked after another pause.
"I've a bit of a faculty for finding things out," answered
Bryce boldly. "And I've developed it. I wanted to know all
about Braden--and about who killed him--and why. There's only
one way of doing all that sort of thing, you know. You've got
to go back--a long way back--to the very beginnings. I went
back--to the time when Braden was married. Not as Braden, of
course--but as who he really was--John Brake. That was at a
place called Braden Medworth, near Barthorpe, in Leicestershire."
He paused there, watching Folliot. But Folliot showed no more
than close attention, and Bryce went on.
"Not much in that--for the really important part of the
story," he continued. "But Brake had other associations with
Barthorpe--a bit later. He got to know--got into close touch
with a Barthorpe man who, about the time of Brake's marriage,
left Barthorpe end settled in London. Brake and this man
began to have some secret dealings together. There was
another man in with them, too--a man who was a sort of partner
of the Barthorpe man's. Brake had evidently a belief in these
men, and he trusted them--unfortunately for himself he
sometimes trusted the bank's money to them. I know what
happened--he used to let them have money for short financial
transactions--to be refunded within a very brief space. But
--he went to the fire too often, and got his fingers burned in
the end. The two men did him--one of them in particular--and
cleared out. He had to stand the racket. He stood it--to the
tune of ten years' penal servitude. And, naturally, when he'd
finished his time, he wanted to find those two men--and began
a long search for them. Like to know the names of the men,
Mr. Folliot?"
"You might mention 'em--if you know 'em," answered Folliot.
"The name of the particular one was Wraye--Falkiner Wraye,"
replied Bryce promptly. "Of the other--the man of lesser
importance--Flood."
The two men looked quietly at each other for a full moment's
silence. And it was Bryce who first spoke with a ring of
confidence in his tone which showed that he knew he had the
whip hand.
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