10 - Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman

Dive into the mystery of missing diamonds, an untouched safe, two blood-streaked thumb prints, and the enigmatic Mr X. As these elements converge, the brilliant Dr. Thorndyke steps onto the scene. Will he crack the case? The Red Thumb Mark marks the thrilling debut of Freeman’s popular Thorndyke series. (Summary by Diana Majlinger)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of The Red Thumb Mark. This is a
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The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman, Chapter ten,
Polton is mystified. A couple of days sufficed to prove

(00:24):
that Thorndyke's mishap was not to be productive of any
permanent ill consequences. His wounds progressed favorably, and he was
able to resume his ordinary avocations. Miss Gibson's visit. But
why should I speak of her in these formal terms?
To me? When I thought of her, which I did
only too often, she was Juliet with perhaps an adjective

(00:47):
thrown in, And as Juliet, I shall henceforth speak of her,
but without the adjective in this narrative, wherein nothing has
been kept back from the reader. Juliette's visit, then, had
been a great success, for my colleague was really pleased
by the attention, and displayed a quiet geniality that filled
our visitor with delight. He talked a good deal of Reuben,

(01:10):
and I could see that he was endeavoring to settle
in his own mind the vexed question of her relations
with and sentiments towards our unfortunate client. But what conclusions
he arrived at I was unable to discover, for he
was by no means communicative after she had left, nor
was there any repetition of the visit. Greatly to my regret,

(01:32):
since as I have said, he was able in a
day or two to resume his ordinary mode of life.
The first evidence I had of his renewed activity appeared
when I returned to the chambers at about eleven o'clock
in the morning to find Polton hovering dejectedly about the
sitting room, apparently perpetrating as near an approach to a

(01:53):
spring clean as could be permitted in a bachelor establishment. Hello, Poulton,
I exclaimed, Have you contrived to tear yourself away from
the laboratory for an hour or two? No, sir, he
answered gloomily, The laboratory has torn itself away from me.
What do you mean, I asked, The doctor has shut

(02:14):
himself in and locked the door, and he says I
am not to disturb him. It will be a cold
lunch to day. What is he doing in there, I inquired, Ah,
said Poulton, that's just what I should like to know.
I'm fair eaten up with curiosity. He is making some
experiments in connection with some of his cases. And when

(02:36):
the doctor locks himself in to make experiments, something interesting
generally follows. I should like to know what it is.
This time, I suppose there is a key hole in
the laboratory door, I suggested with a grin Sir, he
exclaimed indignantly. Doctor Jervis, I am surprised at you then,

(02:57):
perceiving my facetious intent, he smiild also, and added, but
there is a keyhole if you'd like to try it,
though I'll wager the doctor would see more of you
than you would of him. You are mighty secret about
your doings, you and the doctor, I said yes, He answered,
you see, it's a queer trade, this of the doctors,

(03:18):
and there are some queer secrets in it. Now, for instance,
what do you make of this? He produced from his
pocket a leather case. Whence he took a piece of paper,
which he handed to me. On it was a neatly
executed drawing of what looked like one of a set
of chess men with the dimensions written on the margin.

(03:38):
It looks like a pawn, one of the Staunton pattern,
I said, just what I thought, But it isn't. I've
got to make twenty four of them, and what the
doctor is going to do with them fairly beats me.
Perhaps he has invented some new game, I suggested facetiously.
He is always inventing new games and playing them, mostly

(03:59):
in court of law, and then the other players generally lose.
But this is a puzzler, and no mistake, twenty four
of these to be turned up in the best seasoned boxwood.
What can they be for? Something to do with the
experiments he is carrying on upstairs at this very moment,
I expect. He shook his head, and, having carefully returned

(04:20):
the drawing to his pocket book, said in a solemn tone, Sir,
there are times when the Doctor makes me fairly dance
with curiosity, and this is one of them. Although not
afflicted with a curiosity so acute as that of Poulton,
I found myself speculating at intervals on the nature of
my colleague's experiments and the purpose of the singular little

(04:43):
objects which he had ordered to be made. But I
was unacquainted with any of the cases on which he
was engaged, excepting that of Reuben Hornby, and with the
latter I was quite unable to connect a set of
twenty four boxwood chess men. Moreover, on the I was
to accompany Juliet on her second visit to Holloway, and

(05:04):
that circumstance gave me abundant mental occupation of another kind.
At lunch, Thorndyke was animated and talkative, but not communicative.
He had some work in the laboratory that he must
do himself, he said, but gave no hint as to
its nature, And as soon as our meal was finished,

(05:24):
he returned to his labors, leaving me to pace up
and down the walk, listening with ridiculous eagerness for the
sound of the hansom that was to transport me to
the regions of the Blest and incidentally to Holloway Prison.
When I returned to the temple, the sitting room was
empty and hideously neat, as the result of Polton's spring

(05:46):
cleaning efforts. My colleague was evidently still at work in
the laboratory, and from the circumstance that the tea things
were set out on the table and a kettle of
water placed in readiness on the gas ring by the fireplace.
I gathered that Poulton also was full of business and
anxious not to be disturbed. Accordingly, I lit the gas

(06:07):
and made my tea, enlivening my solitude by turning over
in my mind the events of the afternoon. Juliet had
been charming, as she always was, frank, friendly, and unaffectedly
pleased to have my companionship. She evidently liked me, and
did not disguise the fact why should she, indeed, but

(06:28):
treated me with a freedom, almost affectionate, as though I
had been a favorite brother, which was very delightful, and
would have been more so if I could have accepted
the relationship. As to her feelings towards me, I had
not the slightest misgiving, and so my conscience was clear.
For Juliet was as innocent as a child, with the

(06:49):
innocence that belongs to the direct, straightforward nature that neither
does evil itself nor looks for evil motives in others.
For myself, I was past praying, for the thing was done,
and I must pay the price. Hereafter, content to reflect
that I had trespassed against no one but myself. It
was a miserable affair, and many a heartache did it

(07:11):
promise me in the lonely days that were to come,
when I should have said good bye to the temple
and gone back to my old nomadic life. And yet
I would not have changed it if I could, would
not have bartered the bitter sweet memories for dull forgetfulness.
But other matters had transpired in the course of our
drive than those that loomed so large to me in

(07:33):
the egotism of my love. We had spoken of mister
Hornby and his affairs, and from our talk there had
emerged certain facts of no little moment to the inquiry
on which I was engaged. Misfortunes are proverbially sociable. Juliet
had remarked, in reference to her adopted uncle, as if

(07:54):
this trouble about Reuben were not enough, there are worries
in the city. Perhaps you have heard of them. I
replied that Walter had mentioned the matter to me. Yes,
said Juliet, rather viciously. I am not quite clear as
to what part that good gentleman has played in the matter.
It has come out quite accidentally that he had a

(08:14):
large holding in the mines himself. But he seems to
have cut his loss, as the phrase goes, and got
out of them. Though how he managed to pay such
large differences is more than we can understand. We think
he must have raised money somehow to do it. Do
you know when the mines began to appreciate? I asked, yes.

(08:35):
It was quite a sudden affair, what Walter calls a slump,
and it occurred only a few days before the robbery.
Mister Hornby was telling me about it only yesterday, and
he recalled it to me by a ridiculous accident that
happened on that day. What was that? I inquired? Why
I cut my finger and nearly fainted? She answered with

(08:57):
a shame faced little laugh. It was rather a bad cut,
you know, but I didn't notice it until I found
my hand covered with blood. Then I turned suddenly faint
and had to lie down on the hearth rug. It
was in mister Hornby's study, which I was tidying up
at the time. Here I was found by Reuben and
a dreadful fright it gave him at first, and then
he tore up his handkerchief to tie up the wounded finger.

(09:20):
And you never saw such an awful mess. As he
got his hands in, he might have been arrested as
a murderer, poor boy, from the condition he was in.
It will make your professional gorge rise to learn that
he fastened up the extemporized bandage with red tape, which
he got from the writing table, after rooting about among
the sacred papers in the most ruthless fashion. When he

(09:42):
had gone, I tried to put the things on the
table straight again, and really you might have thought some
horrible crime had been committed. The envelopes and papers were
all smeared with blood and marked with the print of
gory fingers. I remembered it afterwards when Reuben's thumb mark
was identified, and thought that perhaps one of the papers
might have got into the safe by accident, But mister

(10:03):
Hornby told me that was impossible. He tore the leaf
off his memorandum block at the time when he put
away the diamonds. Such was the gist of our conversation
as the cab rattled through the streets on the way
to the prison, and certainly it contained matter sufficiently important
to draw away my thoughts from other subjects more agreeable
but less relevant to the case with a sudden remembrance

(10:27):
of my duty. I drew forth my notebook and was
in the act of committing the statements to writing when
Thorndyke entered the room. Don't let me interrupt you, Jervis
said he. I will make myself a cup of tea
while you finish your writing, and then you shall exhibit
the day's catch and hang your nets out to dry.
I was not long in finishing my notes, for I

(10:49):
was in a fever of impatience to hear Thorndyke's comments
on my latest addition to our store of information. By
the time the kettle was boiling, my entries were completed,
and I proceeded forthwith to retail to my colleague those
extracts from my conversation with Juliet that I have just recorded.
He listened, as usual, with deep and critical attention. This

(11:14):
is very interesting and important, he said, when I had finished. Really, Jervis,
you are a most invaluable coadjutor. It seems that information
which would be strictly withheld from the forbidding Jorkins trickles
freely and unasked into the ear of the genial Spenlow.
Now I suppose you regard your hypothesis as having received

(11:35):
very substantial confirmation. Certainly I do, and very justifiably. You
see now how completely you were in the right when
you allowed yourself to entertain this theory of the crime,
in spite of its apparent improbability. By the light of
these new facts, it has become quite a probable explanation

(11:56):
of the whole affair. And if it could only be
shown that mister Hornby's memorandum block was among the papers
on the table, it would rise to a high degree
of probability. The obvious moral is never disregard the improbable.
By the way, it is odd that Reuben failed to
recall this occurrence when I questioned him. Of course, the

(12:17):
bloody finger marks were not discovered until he had gone,
but one would have expected him to recall the circumstance
when I asked him pointedly if he had never left
bloody finger prints on any papers, I must try to
find out if mister Hornby's memorandum block was on the
table and among the marked papers. I said, yes, that
would be wise. He answered, though I don't suppose the

(12:39):
information will be forthcoming. My colleague's manner rather disappointed me.
He had heard my report with the greatest attention. He
had discussed it with animation. But yet he seemed to
attach to the new and as they appeared to me,
highly important facts, an interest that was academic rather than practical.

(12:59):
Of course, his calmness might be assumed, but this did
not seem likely. For John Thorndyke was far too sincere
and dignified a character to cultivate in private life the
artifices of the actor to strangers. Indeed, he presented habitually
a calm and impassive exterior. But this was natural to
him and was but the outward sign of his even

(13:22):
and judicial habit of mind. No, there was no doubt
that my startling news had left him unmoved. And this
must be for one of two reasons. Either he already
knew all that I had told him, which was perfectly possible,
or he had some other and better means of explaining
the crime. I was turning over. These two alternatives not

(13:44):
unobserved by my watchful colleague. When Polton entered the room,
A broad grin was on his face, and a drawing
board that he carried like a tray bore twenty four
neatly turned boxwood pieces. Thorndyke at once entered into the
un spoken jest that beamed from the countenance of his subordinate.

(14:05):
Here is Polton with a problem for you, Jervis, he said.
He assumes that I have invented a new parlor game
and has been trying to work out the moves. Have
you succeeded yet, Poulton, No, sir, I haven't, but I
suspect that one of the players will be a man
in a wig and gown. Perhaps you are right, said Thorndyke,
But that doesn't take you very far. Let us hear

(14:27):
what doctor Jervis has to say. I can make nothing
of them, I answered. Polton showed me the drawing this
morning and then was terrified lest he had committed a
breach of confidence. And I have been trying ever since,
without a glimmer of success, to guess what they can
before humph, grunted Thorndyke as he sauntered up and down

(14:48):
the room, teacup in hand, to guess. Eh, I like
not that word guess in the mouth of a man
of science. What do you mean by a guess? Manner
was wholly facetious, But I professed to take his question
seriously and replied by a guess. I mean a conclusion

(15:09):
arrived at without data. Impossible, he exclaimed, with a mock sternness.
Nobody but an utter fool arrives at a conclusion without data.
Then I must revise my definition instantly, I rejoined. Let
us say that a guess is a conclusion drawn from
insufficient facts. That is better, said he. But perhaps it

(15:32):
would be better still to say that a guess is
a particular and definite conclusion deduced from facts which properly
yield only a general and indefinite one. Let us take
an instance, he continued, looking out of the window, I
see a man walking round paper buildings. Now suppose I say,
after the fashion of the inspired detective of the Romances,

(15:55):
that man is a station master or inspector. That would
be a guess. The observed facts do not yield the conclusion,
though they do warrant a conclusion less definite and more general.
You'd have been right, though, sir, exclaimed Polton, who had
stepped forward with me to examine the unconscious subject of
the demonstration. That gent used to be the station master

(16:18):
at Camberwell. I remember him well. The little man was
evidently greatly impressed. I happened to be right, you see,
said Thorndyke. But I might as easily have been wrong.
You weren't, though, Sir, said Polton, you spotted him at
a glance. In his admiration of the result. He cared

(16:39):
not a fig for the correctness of the means by
which it had been attained. Now, why do I suggest
that he is a station master, pursued Thorndyke, disregarding his
assistant's comment. I suppose you were looking at his feet,
I answered, I seem to have noticed that peculiar splay
footed gait in steadation masters. Now that you mention it,

(17:03):
quite so. The arch of the foot has given way
the plant. Our ligaments have become stretched and the deep
calf muscles weakened. Then, since bending of the weakened arch
causes discomfort, the feet have become turned outwards, by which
the bending of the foot is reduced to a minimum.
And as the left foot is the more flattened, so

(17:23):
it is turned out more than the right. Then the
turning out of the toes causes the legs display outward
from the knees downwards, a very conspicuous condition in a
tall man like this one, and you notice that the
left legs splays out more than the other. But we
know that depression of the arch of the foot is
brought about by standing for long periods. Continuous pressure on

(17:46):
a living structure weakens it, while intermittent pressure strengthens it.
So the man who stands on his feet continuously develops
a flat instep and a weak calf, while the professional
dancer or runner acquires a high in step and a
strong calf. Now there are many occupations which involve prolonged
standing and so induce the condition of flat foot. Waiters,

(18:10):
hall porters, hawkers, policemen, shop walkers, salesmen, and station officials
are examples. But the waiter's gait is characteristic a quick
shuffling walk, which enables him to carry liquids without spilling them.
This man walks with a long, swinging stride. He is
obviously not a waiter. His dress and appearance in general

(18:33):
exclude the idea of a hawker or even a hall porter.
He is a man of poor physique and so cannot
be a policeman. The shop walker or salesman is accustomed
to move in relatively confined spaces and so acquires a short,
brisk step, and his dress tends to rather exuberant smartness.
The station official patrols long platforms, often at a rapid pace,

(18:57):
and so tends to take long strides, while his dress
is dignified and neat rather than florid. The last mentioned
characteristics you see appear in the subject of our analysis.
He agrees with the general description of a station master.
But if we therefore conclude that he is a station master,
we fall into the time honored fallacy of the undistributed

(19:21):
middle term, the fallacy that haunts all brilliant guessers, including
the detective, not only of romance, but too often also
of real life. All that the observed facts justify us
in inferring is that this man is engaged in some
mode of life that necessitates a good deal of standing.
The rest is mere guess work. It's wonderful, said Polton,

(19:45):
gazing at the now distant figure, perfectly wonderful. I should
never have known he was a station master. With this
and a glance of deep admiration at his employer, he
took his departure. You will also observe, said Thorndyke, with
a smile, that a fortunate guess often brings more credit

(20:05):
than a piece of sound reasoning with a less striking result. Yes,
that is unfortunately the case, and it is certainly true
in the present instance. Your reputation, as far as Polton
is concerned, is now firmly established, even if it was
not before. In his eyes, you are a wizard from
whom nothing is hidden. But to return to these little pieces,

(20:28):
as I must call them for the lack of a
better name, I can form no hypothesis as to their use.
I seem to have no departure, as the nautical phrase goes,
from which to start an inquiry. I haven't even the
material for guesswork, ought I to be able to arrive
at any opinion on the subject. Thorndyke picked up one

(20:49):
of the pieces, fingering it delicately and inspecting with a
critical eye the flat bass on which it stood and
reflected for a few moments. It is easy to trace
a connection when one knows all the facts, he said
at length. But it seems to me that you have
the materials from which to fore may conjecture. Perhaps I
am wrong, but I think when you have had more experience,

(21:12):
you will find yourself able to work out a problem
of this kind. What is required is constructive imagination and
a rigorous exactness in reasoning. Now you are a good reasoner,
and you have recently shown me that you have the
necessary imagination. You merely lack experience in the use of
your faculties. When you learn my purpose in having these

(21:34):
things made, as you will before long, you will probably
be surprised that their use did not occur to you.
And now let us go forth and take a brisk
walk to refresh ourselves, or perhaps I should say myself
after the day's labor. End of Chapter ten, read by

(21:55):
Kara Shallenberg www dot kay dot org, November twenty six,
two thousand nine, in San Diego, California,