17 - Ashiel Mystery - A Detective Story by Mrs. Charles Bryce

When Juliet Byrne, an adopted child, finally uncovers the truth about her familys mysterious past, her father is shockingly murdered. Its up to the brilliant and eccentric Detective Gimblet, with his penchant for chocolate, to untangle the enigmatic Ashiel Mystery.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seventeen of The Eshiel Mystery. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit www dot librevox dot org.
Recording by Garth Komira. The Ashiel Mystery by Missus Charles Bryce,

(00:24):
chapter seventeen. Behind the shrubberies which lay at the back
of the holly hedge that surrounded the little enclosed garden
outside the library, beyond the end of the battlements, and
reached by a disused footpath, a great tree stood upon
the edge of the steep hillside and thrust its sweeping
branches over the void. Its trunk was gray and moss grown.

(00:48):
Moss carpeted the ground between its protruding roots, but the
bracken and heather held back and left a half circle
beneath it, untenanted by their kind. It would seem that
all vegetation fears to venture beneath the shade of the beach,
and for the most part it stands solitary, shunned by
other growing things except moss, which creeps undaunted, where its

(01:11):
more vigorous brothers lack the courage to establish themselves. Here
came Juliet that morning. A week ago, David Southern had
shown her the path to the tree. It had been
a favorite haunt of his when he was a boy.
He told her. It was a private chamber to which
he resorted on the rare occasions when he was disposed
to solitude, when something had gone wrong with his world.

(01:35):
He had been used to retire there with his dog,
or more seldom a book. There he had been accustomed
to lie his back supported by the tree, and hold
forth to the dog upon the troubles and difficulties of
life and the general crookedness of things. Or if a
book were his companion, he would gaze out between the

(01:56):
pages at distant cryin on, clinging faintly to the knees
of Benguzi, and watched the swift change of passing cloud
and hanging curtain of mist upon the faces of the
hills and lock. It had been a place all his own,
secret from everyone, even from Mark, his companion, during all
those holidays that he had spent it in Verashiel. Somehow,

(02:19):
David told Juliet, and it was a confidence he had
seldom before imparted to any one. He had never quite
managed to hit it off with Mark. He couldn't say
why exactly, No doubt it was his own fault, but
there was no accounting for one's likes and dislikes, And
with quick regret at having betrayed his carefully suppressed feelings

(02:40):
in regard to his cousin, David had laughed apologetically and
spoken of other things. Here then, just as the steamer
robbery was drawing close to the wooden landing stage at
the edge of the loch, with Juliet Romaninov still standing
in the bows. Here because she had once been to
this place with him, because without her he had so

(03:02):
often sat upon these mossy roots, came Juliet to dream
of her love. Like him, she seated herself against the
tree trunk at the giddy brink of the precipitous rock.
Like him, her eyes rested on the smooth waters below her,
or on the far away misty distance were crying on slumbered.

(03:24):
But unlike him, her eyes as they looked, were filled
with tears. Where was he now? Oh, David poor unjustly
treated David in what narrow cell lighted only by a
high iron barred window. For so the scene shaped itself
in her mind, with uncovered floor of stone, bare walls,

(03:49):
in a bench to lie on. Was the man she loved,
wearing away his days under the burden of so frightful
an accusation For the thousandth time. Juliette's blood boiled within
her at the thought, and she grew hot with anger
and indignant scorn that anyone should have dared to suspect him.

(04:09):
Why were such fools, such wicked, evil, working imbeciles as
the police allowed to exist for one moment upon the
face of the globe. But no doubt they had some
hidden motive in arresting him, for it was quite incredible
that they really imagined he had committed this appalling crime.
She could not understand their motive, to be sure, but

(04:31):
without doubt there must have been some reason which was
not clear to her. Oh, David, David, was he thinking
of her as she was thinking of him? Did he
know by instinct that she would be doing all that
could be done to bring about his release? But was she? Again?
Her mind was filled with the disquieting question. Was there

(04:55):
nothing that might be done that she was leaving undone?
Had she forgotten something, neglected? Something She was sure Gimblet
did not believe David to be guilty, but was he
certain of being able to prove his innocence. He did
not seem to have discovered much at present. Suddenly, in
the midst of her distress, she smiled to herself, at

(05:17):
least Miss Tarbor had shown herself in her true colors
and was no more to be considered. Juliet felt that
she could almost forgive her for her readiness to believe
the worst. It was dreadful, yes, and shameful that anyone
else should think for a moment that David could be
capable of such a deed. But in Miss Tarbor, perhaps

(05:37):
the thought had not been inexcusable. On the whole. It
was so nice of her to break the engagement that
she might be forgiven the ridiculous reason she had advanced
for doing it. Of course, Juliet assured herself it was
a mere pretext, because no one could possibly believe it,
And in this manner she continued to reiterate her conviction

(05:59):
that the suspicions entertained of her lover were all assumed
for some darkly obscure purpose. So the morning wore away,
a shower or two passed down the valley, but under
the thick tent of the beech leaves, she scarcely felt it.
She was besides dressed for the bad weather, and the
gray and mournful face of the day was in harmony

(06:21):
with her mood. There was something comforting in this high perch.
She seemed more aloof from the troubles and despair of
the last few days than she had imagined possible. There
was a calm, a remoteness about the gray mountains, disappearing
and reappearing from behind their screen of cloud, but unchanged
and unmoved by what went on around and among them.

(06:44):
That was in some way reassuring the burn that ran
at the bottom of the hill on which she sat.
Hurrying down to the lock in such turbulent, foaming haste,
she was able to compare with a sad smile to herself.
The lock, she thought was white, an impassive hist justice
which did not allow itself to be influenced by the emotions.

(07:06):
The burn would get down just the same, without so
much turmoil and fuss, and she would see David's name
cleared equally surely if she waited calmly on events instead
of burning her heart out in hopeless impatience and anxiety.
As she gazed with some such thus as these, down
to the stream that splashed on its way below her,
her attention was caught by a movement in the bushes

(07:28):
halfway down the deep slope at the top of which
she was sitting. The day was windless, and no leaf
moved on any tree. There must be some animal among
the shrubs that covered the embankment, some large animals, since
its movements caused so much commotion. For as she watched,
first one bush and then another stirred and bent and
was shaken as if by something thrusting its way through

(07:52):
the dense growth. What could it be a sheep? Perhaps
there were many of them on the hillside. This must
be one that had strayed far from the rest. And
yet would a sheep make so much stir Juliet drew
back a little behind the trunk of the beech tree.
Could it be a deer? She could not hear any
sound of the creature's advance, for the air was full

(08:14):
of the clamor of the burn. But she could trace
the direction of its progress by shaking leaves and swinging boughs.
It seemed to be gradually mounting the slope. Suddenly a
head emerged from the waving mass of rhododendron, and with
astonishment Juliette saw that it was that of Julia Romaninov.
Her first impulse was to lean forward and call her,

(08:35):
but as she did so, the cry died upon her lips.
For the manner of Julia's advance struck her as very odd.
The girl was bending nearly double, and moving with a
caution that seemed very strange and unnecessary. What was the matter?
Was she stalking something? Crouching as she was in the
bushes she would not be seen by anyone on the

(08:56):
path below. Did she not want to be seen? It
looked more and more like it. But why in the
world should Julia creep along as if she feared to
be observed? Where was she going and why? Suddenly Juliette
came to a quick decision. She would find out what
Julia Romaninov was doing. She backed hurriedly into the bracket

(09:18):
and made her way slowly and cautiously around the clearing
under the beech tree to the edge of the hill,
again keeping under cover of the fern and heather. When
she peered over, Julia had disappeared. From view beneath the rhododendrons.
For a minute, Juliette's eyes searched the side of the
slope below. Then she drew back her head quickly, for

(09:39):
she had caught sight of another bush shaking uneasily, a
little way beyond the gap in which she had had
her first glimpse of the cause of the disturbance. Cowering
low in the bracken, she crept along the top, keeping
a foot or two from the edge, where the rock
fell nearly perpendicularly for a few yards before its angle
changed to the comparatively gradual, though actually steep, slope of

(10:02):
the hill which Julia was climbing. From time to time
she looked cautiously between clumps of fern or heath to
make sure that she was keeping level with her unconscious quarry.
The front of the hill swung around in a bold
curve till it reached the castle, and it soon became
evident that if both girls continued to advance along the
lines they were following, they would converge at a point

(10:25):
where the end of the battlemented wall met the great
holly hedge that formed two sides of the garden enclosure.
Juliette perceived this when she was not more than a
dozen yards from the corner, and dropped at full length
to the soft ground at a spot where she could
see between the stalks and under the leaves, and yet
herself remained concealed. She had not long to wait. In

(10:46):
a minute, Julia's face appeared over the brow of the hill.
She pulled herself up by a young fir sapling that
hung over the brink, and stood for a moment, flushed
and panting after her long climb. She was dressed in
a greenish tweed which blended with the woodland surroundings, and
her shoulder was turned to the place where Juliette lay,
wondering whether she would be discovered fronting them. The end

(11:10):
of the little turret with which the wall of the
old fortress now came to a sudden termination, could be
seen rearing its gray stones above the dark, glossy foliage
of the hedge, which grew here with peculiar vigor and
continued to the extreme edge of the cliff and even farther.
What was Juliette's surprise to see Julia when she had
found her breath and taken one quick look round to

(11:33):
satisfy herself. She was unobserved, suddenly cast herself down in
her turn upon the damp earth, and, inserting her head
beneath the prickly barricade of the holly leaves, began to
crawl and wiggle forward until she had completely disappeared underneath it.
What in the world could she be doing? Minutes passed
and she did not reappear. Juliette waited, her nerves stretched

(11:57):
in expectation, but nothing happened. Overhead, little birds, tom tits,
and creepers played about the bank of the fir trees.
A robin came and looked at her consideringly with a bright,
sensible eye from two hundred feet below. The murmur of
the burn rose constant and insistent, but no other sound
broke the stillness, nor was there any sign of human

(12:18):
life upon the top of the cliff. At last, the
girl could stand it no longer. Her patience was exhausted.
Curiosity urged her like a goad, and if she had
not much expectation of making any important discovery, she was
at least determined to solve the mystery that now perplexed her.
Without more ado, she got to her feet and ran

(12:40):
to the holly hedge. There, throwing herself down once more,
she parted the leaves with a cautious hand and followed
the path taken by the Russian. The hedge was old
and very thick, more than three yards in width at
this end of it. In the middle, the trunks of
the trees that formed it rose in a close, growing
impassable barrier. But just opposite the place where Julia had vanished,

(13:03):
Juliet found that there was a gap, caused perhaps by
the death in earlier days of one of the trees, or,
as she afterwards thought more likely, by the intentional omission
or destruction of one of the young plants. It was
a narrow opening, but she managed to wriggle through it.
On the other side, progress was bounded by the wall,

(13:25):
whose massive granite blocks presented a smooth, unbroken surface where
then had Julia gone. The branches did not grow low
on this as on the outer side of the hedge,
and there was room to stand, though not to stand upright.
Stooping uncomfortably, the girl looked about her and saw in
the soft brown earth the plain print of many footsteps,

(13:47):
both going and coming between the place where she crouched
and the end of the wall. She looked behind her,
and there were no marks. Clearly Julia had gone to
the end. But what then? The corner of the wall
was at the very edge of the precipice. From what
she had remembered to have seen from below, the rock
was too sure to offer any foothold. Besides, why having

(14:11):
just climbed to the summit, should anyone immediately descend again,
and by such an extraordinary route. While these thoughts followed
one another in her mind, Juliette had advanced along the
track of the footsteps, and clinging tightly to the trunk
of the last holly bush, she leant forward and looked down.
As she thought the descent was impossible. The rock fell

(14:32):
away at her feet, sheer and smooth. There was no
path that a cat could take. It made her giddy
to look, and she drew back hurriedly. Where then could
Julia have gone? Not to the left, that was certain,
for then she would have emerged again into view. To
the right that seemed impossible. Still, Juliette leant forward again

(14:55):
and peered round the corner of the wall. There, not
more than a couple of feet away. It was a
small opening less than eighteen inches wide by about a
yard in height. Hidden by the overhanging edge of the hedge,
it would be invisible from below. Here was the road
juliet had taken. Juliette did not hesitate. She could reach

(15:15):
the aperture easily, and it would have been the simplest
thing in the world to climb into it, but for
the yawning chasm beneath. Holding firmly to the friendly holly,
and resisting with an effort the temptation to look down,
she swung herself bravely over the edge and scrambled into
the hole. With a gasp of relief. It was, after
all not very difficult. She found herself standing within the

(15:37):
entrance of a narrow passage built into the thickness of
the wall. Beside the opening through which she had come,
a little door of oak, gray with age and strengthened
with rusty bars and cross piece of iron, drooped upon
its one remaining hinge. Two huge slabs of stone leaning
near it against the wall showed how it had been
the custom in former centuries to fortify the entrance still

(16:00):
more effectively in time of danger. Juliette did not wait
to examine these fragments, interesting though they might be to archaeologists,
but hurried down the passage as quickly as she could
in the darkness that filled it, feeling her way with
an outstretched hand upon the stones on either side. As
her eyes became accustomed to the obscurity, she saw that
though the way was dark, it was yet not entirely so.

(16:23):
A gloomy light penetrated at intervals through ivy covered loopholes
pierced in the thickness of the outer wall, and she
imagined bygone Maconicans pouring boiling oil or other hospitable greeting
through those slits onto the heads of their neighbors. But surely,
she reflected, no one would ever have attacked the castle
from that side, where the precipice already offered an impregnable defense.

(16:46):
The passage must have been used as a means of
communication with the outer world, or perhaps as a last
resort for the purpose of escape by the beleaguered forces.
After fifty yards or so of comparatively easy progress, the
shafts of twilight from the loopholes ceased to permeate the
murky darkness in which she walked, and she was obliged

(17:07):
to go more slowly and to feel her way dubiously
by the touch of hands and feet. The floor appeared
to her to be sloping away beneath her, and as
she advanced, the descent became more and more rapid, till
she could hardly keep her feet. She went very gingerly,
with a vague fear lest the path should stop unexpectedly,
and she herself stepped into space. Presently, she found herself

(17:31):
once more upon level ground, when another difficulty confronted her.
The walls came suddenly to an end. Feeling cautiously about
her in the darkness, she made out that she had
come to a point where another passage crossed the one
she was following, a sort of cross road in this
unknown country of shade and stone. Here then were three

(17:52):
possible routes to take, and no means of knowing which
of them Julia Romaninov had gone by. After a little
head visitation, she decided to keep straight on. It would,
at all events, be easier to return if she did,
and she would be less likely to make a mistake
and loose her way. So on she stumbled, And who
shall say that fate had not a hand in this

(18:14):
chance decision. Though the distance she traversed was inconsiderable, the
darkness and uncertainty made it appear to her immense. In
each moment, she expected to come upon the Russian girl.
At every other step, she paused and listened, But no
sound met her ears, except a slight, regular thudding noise,

(18:35):
which she presently discovered with something of a shock, to
be the beating of her own heart. The sound of
her progress was almost inaudible, as the day was damp
and she was wearing galoshes, and her small rubber shod
feet fell upon the stone floor with a gentle pattern
that was scarcely perceptible. At last, she fell over the

(18:57):
first step of a flight of stairs, to them, one
by one, with every precaution her fears could suggest, For
by now the first enthusiasm of the chase had worn off,
and the solitude and darkness of this strange place had
worked upon her nerves till she was terrified if she
knew not what, and ready to scream at a touch.

(19:19):
Already she bitterly regretted having started out upon this enterprise
of spying. Why had she not gone and reported what
she had seen to mister gimblet that surely would have
been the obvious, the sensible course. It was, she reflected,
a course still open to her, and in another moment
she would have turned and taken it. But even as

(19:40):
the thought crossed her mind, she was aware that the
darkness was sensibly decreased, and in another second she had
risen into comparative daylight. As she stood still debating what
she should do, and taking in all that could now
be distinguished of her surroundings, she saw that the stairs
ended in an open one trap door leading to a high,

(20:02):
black lined shaft, like the inside of a chimney, in which,
some two feet above the trap, an odd, narrow curve
of glass acted as a window and admitted a very
small quantity of light. A streak of light seemed to
come also from the wall beside it. Juliette drew herself
cautiously up till her head was in the chimney and

(20:24):
her eyes level with the slip of glass. With a
sudden shock of surprise, she saw that she was looking
into the room which, above all others, she had so
much cause to remember ever having entered. It was indeed
the library of the castle, and she was looking at
it from the inside of that clock into which Gimblet

(20:46):
had once before seen Juliet romaninov Vanish. The curtains were
drawn in the room, but after the absolute blackness of
the stone corridors, the semidusk looked nearly as bright as
full daylight to Juliet, and she had no difficulty in
distinguishing that there was but one person in the library,

(21:07):
and that person Julia. She was standing by a bookshelf
at the far end, near the window, and seemed to
be methodically engaged in an examination of the books. Juliet
saw her take out first one then another musty leather
bound volume, shake it, turn over the leaves, and put
it back in its place, after groping with her hand

(21:29):
at the back of the shelf. Plainly, she was hunting
for something, but for what she had no business where
she was in any case, and Juliette's indignation gathered and
swelled within her as she watched this unwarrantable intrusion. She
would confront the girl and ask her what she meant
by such behavior, but how to get into the library.

(21:52):
Looking about her, she saw that the streak of light
in the wall beside her came through a perpendicular crack,
which might well be the edge of a little door.
She pushed gently, and the wood yielded to her fingers.
End of Chapter seventeen. Recording by Garth Komra