13 - 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 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen of The Red Thumb Mark. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Richard Kilmer, The Red Thumb Mark by R.

(00:23):
Austin Freeman, Chapter thirteen, Murder by Post. The next few
days were perhaps the most unhappy that I have known
my life. Indeed, since I had left the hospital had
been one of many disappointments and much privation. Unfulfilled desires

(00:43):
and ambitions unrealized had combined with distaste for the daily
drudgery that had fallen to my lot, to embitter my
poverty and cause me to look with gloomy distrust upon
the unpromising future. But no sorrow that I had hither
too experienced could compare with the grief that I now

(01:03):
felt in contemplating the irretrievable ruin of what I knew
to be the greatest passion of my life. For to
a man like myself, of few friends and deep affections,
one great emotional upheaval exhausts the possibility of nature, leaving
only the capacity for feeble and ineffective echoes. The edifice

(01:25):
of love that is raised upon the ruins of a
great passion can compare with the original, no more than
can the paltry mosque that purchase upon the mound of
Jonah with the glories of the palace that lies entombed beneath.
I had made a pretext to write to Juliet, and
had received the reply, quite frank and friendly in tone,

(01:47):
by which I knew that she had not, as some
women would have done, set the blame upon me for
our temporary outburst of emotion. And yet there was a
subtle difference from her previous manner of writing that only
emphasized the finality of our separation. I think Thorndyke perceived
that something had gone awry, though I was at great

(02:11):
pains to maintain a cheerful exterior and keep myself occupied,
and he probably formed a pretty shrewd guess at the
nature of the trouble. But he said nothing, and I
only judged that he had observed some change in my
manner by the fact that there was blended with his
usual quiet geniality, an almost insensible note of sympathy and affection.

(02:34):
A couple of days after my last interview, with Juliet.
An event occurred which served certainly to relieve the tension
and distract my thoughts, though not in a very agreeable manner.
It was the pleasant, repulseful hour after dinner, when it
was our custom to sit in our respective easy chairs,
and as we smoked our pipes, discuss some of the

(02:57):
many topics in which we had a common inyatterest. The
postman had just discharged into the capricious letter box an
avalanche of letters and circulars, And as I sat glancing
through the solitary letter that had fallen to my share,
I looked from time to time at Thorndyke, and noticed,
as I had often done before, with some surprise, a

(03:21):
curious habit that he had of turning over and closely
scrutinizing every letter and package before he opened it. I
observe Thorndyke, I now ventured to remark that you always
examined the outside of a letter before looking at the inside.
I have seen other people do the same, and it
has always appeared to me a singularly foolish proceeding. Why

(03:44):
speculate over an unopened letter when a glance at the
contents will tell you all there is to know. You
are perfectly right, he answered, if the object of the
inspection is to discover who is the center of the letter,
but that is not my object. In my case, the
habit is one that has been deliberately cultivated, not in

(04:04):
reference to letters only, but to everything that comes into
my hands, the habit of allowing nothing to pass without
a certain amount of conscious attention. The observant man is
in reality the attentive man, and the so called power
of observation is simply the capacity for continuous attention. As

(04:25):
a matter of fact, I have found in practice that
the habit is a useful one, even in reference to letters.
More than once I have gleaned a hint from the
outside of a letter that has proved valuable when applied
to the contents. Here, for instance, is a letter which
has been opened after being fastened up, apparently by the

(04:46):
aid of steam. The envelope is soiled and rubbed, and
smells faintly of stale tobacco, and has evidently been carried
in a pocket along with a well used pipe. Why
should it have been opened? On reading it, I perceive
that it should have reached me two days ago, and
that the date has been skillfully altered from the thirteenth

(05:08):
to the fifteenth. The inference is that my correspondent has
a highly untrustworthy clerk. But the correspondent may have carried
the letter in his own pocket, I objected hardly, replied Thorndyke.
He would not have troubled to steam his own letter
open and close it again. He would have cut the
envelope and addressed a fresh one. This the clerk could

(05:30):
not do, because the letter was confidential and was addressed
in the principle's handwriting, and the principle would have almost
certainly added a PostScript. And moreover, he does not smoke. This, however,
is all very obvious. But here is something rather more subtle,
which I have put aside for a more detailed examination.

(05:51):
What do you make of it? He handed me a
small parcel to which was attached by a string a
typewritten address label, the back of which bore the printed
inscription James Bartlett and Sons, Cigar Manufacturers, London and Havana.
I'm afraid, said I, after turning the little packet over

(06:12):
and examining every part of it minutely, that this is
rather too subtle for me. The only thing that I
observe is that the typewriter has bungled the address considerably. Otherwise,
this seems to me a very ordinary packet. Indeed, well,
you have observed one point of interest at any rate,
said Thorndyke, taking the packet from me. But let us

(06:34):
examine the thing systematically and note down what we see.
In the first place, you will notice that the label
is an ordinary luggage label, such as you may buy
at any stationer's, with its own string attached. Now, manufacturers
commonly use a different and more substantial pattern, which is

(06:54):
attached by the string of the parcel, but that is
a small matter. What is much more striking is the
address on the label. It is typewritten, and as you say,
typed very badly. Do you know anything about typewriters very little?
Then you do not recognize the machine. Well, this label

(07:15):
was typed with a Blickendeavor, an excellent machine, but not
the form most commonly selected for the rough work of
a manufacturer's office. But we will let that pass. The
important point is this. The Blickenderfer company makes several forms
of machine, the smallest and lightest of which is the
literary specially designed for the use of journalists and men

(07:39):
of letters. Now this label was typed with the literary machine,
or at least with the literary type wheel, which is
really a very remarkable circumstance. Indeed, how do you know
that I asked by this asterisk which has been written
by mistake, the inexpert operator having pressed down the figure

(07:59):
lever instead of the one for capitals. The literary type
wheel is the only one that has an asterisk, as
I noticed when I was thinking of purchasing a machine. Here,
then we have a very striking fact. For even if
a manufacturer chose to use a blick in his factory,
it is inconceivable that he should select the literary form

(08:22):
in preference to the more suitable commercial machine. Yes, I agree,
it is certainly very singular. And now pursued Thorndyke to
consider the writing itself. It has been done by an
absolute beginner. He has failed to space in two places,
he has written five wrong letters, and he has written

(08:42):
figures instead of capitals in two instances. Yes, he has
made a shocking muddle of it. I wonder he didn't
throw the label away and type another. Precisely said Thorndyke,
and if we wish to find out why he did not,
we have only to look at the back of the label.
You see that the name of the firm, instead of
being printed on the label itself in the usual manner,

(09:05):
is printed on a separate slip of paper, which is
pasted on the label, a most foolish and clumsy arrangement
involving an immense waste of time. But if we look
closely at the printed slip itself, we perceive something still
more remarkable. For that slip has been cut down to
fit the label, and has been cut with a pair

(09:25):
of scissors. The edges are not quite straight, and in
one place the overlap, which is so characteristic of the
cut made with scissors, can be seen quite plainly. He
handed the packet to me with a reading lens, through
which I could distinctly make out the points he had mentioned.
Now I need not point out to you. He continued

(09:46):
that these slips would ordinarily have been trimmed by the
printer to the correct size in his machine, which would
leave an absolutely true edge. Nor need I say that
no sane business men would adopt such a device as this.
The slip of paper has been cut with scissors, to
fit the label, and it has then been pasted on
the surface that it has been made the fit. When

(10:09):
all this waste of time and trouble, which in practice
means money, could have been saved by printing the name
on the label itself. Yes, that is so, but I
still do not see why the fellow should not have
thrown away this label and typed another. Look at the
slip again, said Thorndyke. It is faintly but evenly discolored,
and to me has the appearance of having been soaked

(10:31):
in water. Let us, for the moment assume that it
has been. That would look as if it had been
removed from some other package, which again would suggest that
the pursing using it had only the one slip which
he had soaked off the original package, dried, cut down,
and paste it on the present label. If he pasted

(10:52):
it on before typing the address, which he would most
probably have done, he might well be unwilling to risk
destroying it by soaking it a second time. You think,
then there is a suspicion that the package may have
been tampered with. There is no need to jump to conclusions,
replied Thorndyke. I merely gave this case as an instance

(11:12):
showing that careful examination of the outside of a package
or letter may lead us to bestow a little extra
attention on the contents. Now, let us open it and
see what those contents are. With a sharp knife, he
divided the outside cover, revealing a stout cardboard box wrapped
in a number of advertisement sheets. The box, when the

(11:34):
lid was raised, was seen to contain a single cigar,
a large cherot packed in cotton wool. A tricky by jove,
I exclaimed your own special fancy Thorndyke. Yes, and another
anomaly at once, you see, which might have escaped our
notice if we had not been on the quiviva. As

(11:57):
a matter of fact, I don't see, said I. You
will think me an awful blockhead, but I don't perceive
anything singular in a cigar manufacturer sending a sample cigar,
he read the label, I think, replied Thorndyke. However, let
us look at one of these leaflets and see what
they say. Ah. Here we are Messrs Bartlet and sons,

(12:19):
who own extensive plantations on the island of Cuba, manufacture
their cigars exclusively from selected leaves grown by themselves, they
would hardly make a trichinopoly cherot from leaf grown in
the West Indies. So we have here a striking anomaly
of an East Indian cigar sent to us by a
West Indian grower. And what do you infer from that?

(12:42):
Principally that this cigar, which by the way, is an
uncommonly fine specimen, and which I would not smoke for
ten thousand pounds, is deserving a very attentive examination. He
produced from his pocket a powerful doublet lens, with the
aid of which he examined every part of the surface
of the cigar, and finally both ends. Look at the

(13:05):
small end, he said, handing me the cigar and the lens,
and tell me if you notice anything. I focused a
lens on the flush cut surface of closely rolled leaf
and explored every part of it minutely. It seems to me,
I said, that the leaf is opened slightly in the center,
as if a fine wire had been passed up it.

(13:26):
So it appears to me, replied Thorndyke. And as we
are in agreement so far, we will carry our investigations
a step further. He laid the cigar down on the
table and with a keen, thin bladed pen knife neatly
divided it lengthwise into two halves. A k signum, exclaimed Thorndyke.

(13:47):
Has the two parts fell asunder, And for a few
moments we stood silently regarding the dismembered root. For about
half an inch from the small end there appeared a
little circular patch of white chalk material, which, by the
even manner in which it was diffused among the leaf,
had evidently been deposited from a solution. Our ingenious friend, again,

(14:10):
I surmise, said Thorndyke, at length, taking up one of
the halves and examining the white patch through his lens.
A thoughtful soul, jervis an original too. I wish his
talents could be applied in some other direction. I shall
have to remonstrate with him if he becomes troublesome. It
is your duty to society, Thorndyke, I exclaimed passionately, to

(14:32):
have this infernal, cold blooded scoundrel arrested instantly. Such a
man is a standing menace to the community. Do you
really know who scent this thing? I can form a
pretty shrewd guess, which, however, is not quite the same thing.
But you see, he has not been quite so clever
this time, for he has left one or two traces

(14:55):
by which his identity might be ascertained. Indeed, what traces
has he left? Ah, Now there is a nice little
problem for us to consider. He settled himself in his
easy chair and proceeded to fill his spipe with the
air of a man who was about to discuss a
matter of merely general interest. Let us consider what information

(15:16):
this ingenious person has given us about himself. In the
first place, he evidently has a strong interest in my
immediate decease. Now why should he feel so urgent a
desire for my death? Can it be a question of property? Hardly,
for I am far from a rich man, and the
provisions of my will are known to me alone. Can

(15:38):
it then be a question of private enmity or revenge?
I think not, To the best of my belief, I
have no private enemies whatever. There remains only my vocation
as an investigator in the fields of legal and criminal research.
His interest in my death must therefore be connected with
my professional activities. Now I am at present conducting an

(16:02):
exhumation which may lead to a charge of murder. But
if I were to die to night, the inquiry would
be carried on with equal efficiency by Professor Spicer or
some other toxicologist. My death would not affect the prospects
of the accused, and so in one or two other
cases that I have in hand, they could be equally

(16:23):
well conducted by some one else. The inference is that
our friend is not connected with any of these cases,
but that he believes me to possess some exclusive information
concerning him, believes me to be the one person in
the world who suspects and can convict him. Let us
assume that the existence of such a person, a person

(16:45):
of whose guilt I alone have evidence. Now, this person,
being unaware that I have communicated my knowledge to a
third party, would reasonably suppose that by making a way
with me, he had put himself in a position of security. Here, then,
is our first point. The center of this offering is
probably a person concerning whom I hold certain exclusive information.

(17:09):
But see now the interesting corollary that follows from this,
I alone suspect this person. Therefore I have not published
my suspicions, or others would suspect him too. Why then,
does he suspect me of suspecting him? Since I have
not spoken. Evidently, he too must be in possession of

(17:30):
exclusive information. In other words, my suspicions are correct, for
if they were not, he could not be aware of
their existence. The next point is the selection of this
rather unusual type of cigar. Why should he have sent
the trichinopoly instead of an ordinary havana such as Bartlett's

(17:50):
actually manufacture. It looks as if he were aware of
my peculiar predilection, and thus consulting my personal tastes has
guarded against the chance of my giving the cigar to
some other person. We may therefore infer that our friend
probably has some knowledge of my habits. The third point
is what is the social standing of this gentle stranger,

(18:13):
whom we will call X. Now, Bartletts do not send
their advertisements in samples to Thomas, Richard and Henry. They
send chiefly to members of the professions and men of
means and position. It is true that the original package
might have been annexed by a clerk, office boy, or

(18:33):
domestic servant. But the probabilities are that X receive the
package himself, and this is borne out by the fact
that he was able to obtain access to a powerful
alkaloid poison such as this undoubtedly is. In that case,
he would probably be a medical man or a chemist.
I suggested, not necessarily, replied Thorndyke. The laws relating to

(18:57):
poisons are so badly framed and administered that any well
to do person who has a necessary knowledge can obtain
almost any poison that he wants. But social position is
an important factor. Whence we may conclude that X belongs
at least to the middle class. The fourth point relates
to the personal qualities of X. Now it is evident

(19:20):
from this instance alone that he is a man of
exceptional intelligence, of considerable general information, and both ingenious and resourceful.
This cigar device is not only clever and original, but
it has been adapted to the special circumstances with remarkable forethought.
Thus the cherute was selected apparently for two excellent reasons,

(19:45):
First that it was the most likely form to be
smoked by the person intended, and second that it did
not require to have the end cut off, which might
have led to the discovery of the poison. The plan
also shows a certain knowledge of chemistry. The poison was
not intended merely to besolved in the moisture of the mouth.
The idea, evidently was that the steam generated by the

(20:08):
combustion of the leaf at the distal end would condense
in the cooler part of the cigar and dissolve the poison,
and the solution would then be drawn into the mouth. Then,
the nature of the poison and certain similarities of procedure
seemed to identify X with the cyclist who used that
ingenious bullet. The poison in this case is a white

(20:30):
non crystalline solid. The poison contained in the bullet was
a solution of white non crystalline solid, which analysis showed
to be the most poisonous of all alkaloids. The bullet
was virtually a hypodermic syringe. The poison in this cigar
has been introduced in the form of an alcoholic or
ethereal solution by a hypodermic syringe. We shall thus be

(20:54):
justified in assuming that the bullet and the cigar came
from the same person. And if this be so, we
may say that X is a person of considerable knowledge,
of great ingenuity, and no mean skill has a mechanician
has shown by the manufacture of the bullet. These are
our principal facts to which we may add the surmise

(21:18):
that he has recently purchased a second hand Blickensderfer of
the literary form, or at least fit it with a
literary type wheel. I don't quite see how you arrive
at that, I said, in some surprise. It's merely a guess,
you know, he replied, though a probable one. In the
first place, he is obviously unused to typing, as a

(21:39):
numerous mistakes show. Therefore, he has not had that machine
very long. The type is that which is peculiar to
the Blickensderfer, and in one of the mistakes an asterix
has been printed in place of a letter, but the
literary type wheel is the only one that has the asterix.
As to the age of the machine, there are evident
signs of for some of the letters have lost their sharpness,

(22:03):
and this is most evident in the case of those
letters which are the most used. The E, you will notice,
for instance, is much worn, and E occurs more frequently
than any other letter of the alphabet. Hence, the machine,
if recently purchased, was bought second hand. But I objected,
it may not have been his own machine at all.

(22:25):
That is quite possible, answered Thorndyke, though, considering the secrecy
that would be necessary, the probabilities are in favor of
his having bought it. But in any case, we have
here a means of identifying the machine, should we ever
meet with it. He picked up the label and handed
it to me together with his pocket lens. Look closely

(22:46):
at the e that we have been discussing. It occurs
five times in Thorndyke, in bench, in inner, and in temple.
Now in each case you will notice a minute break
in the loop just at the summit. That break corresponds
to a tiny dent in the type, caused probably by

(23:07):
its striking some small hard object. I can make it
out quite distinctly, I said, And it should be a
most valuable point for identification. It should be almost conclusive,
Thorndyke replied, especially when joined the other facts that would
be elicited by a search of his premises. And now
let us just recapitulate the facts which our friend X

(23:28):
has placed at our disposal. First, X is a person
concerning whom I possess certain exclusive information. Second, he is
some knowledge of my personal habits. Third, he is a
man of some means in social position, Fourth, he is
a man of considerable knowledge, ingenuity, and mechanical skill. Fifth,

(23:52):
he has probably purchased quite recently a second hand blick
fitted with a literary type wheel. Sixth that the machine,
whether his own or some other person's property, can be
identified by a characteristic mark on the small e. If
you will note down those six points and add that
X is probably an expert cyclist and a fairly good

(24:15):
shot with a rifle, you may possibly be able presently
to complete the equation X equals question mark. I am afraid,
I said, I do not possess the necessary data, but
I suspect you do, And if it is so, I
repeat that it is your duty to society to say
nothing of your clients, whose interests would suffer by your death.

(24:39):
To have this fellow laid by the heels before he
does any mischief. Yes, I shall have to interfere if
he becomes really troublesome, but I have reasons for wishing
to leave him alone at present. You do really know
who he is, then well, I think I can solve
the equation that I have just offered to you. For solution.
You see, I have certain data, as you suggest, which

(25:02):
you do not possess. There is, for instance, a certain
ingenious gentleman concerning whom I hold what I believed to
be exclusive information, and my knowledge of him does not
make it appear unlikely that he might be the author
of these neat little plans. I am much impressed, I said,
as I put away my note book, after having jotted

(25:24):
down the points that Thorndyke had advised me to consider.
I am much impressed by your powers of observation and
your capacity for reasoning from apparently trivial data. But I
do not see even now why you viewed that cigar
with such immediate and decided suspicion. There was nothing actually
to suggest the existence of poison in it, and yet

(25:46):
you seem to form the suspicion at once, and to
search for it as though you expected to find it. Yes,
replied Thorndyke, to a certain extent, you are right. The
idea of a poisoned cigar was not new to me,
and thereby hangs a tale. He laughed softly, and gazed
into the fire with eyes that twinkled with quiet amusement.

(26:07):
You have heard me say, He resumed, after a short pause,
that when I first took these chambers, I had practically
nothing to do. I had invented a new variety of
medical legal practice, and had to build it up by
slow degrees. And the natural consequence was that for a
long time it yielded nothing but almost unlimited leisure. Now

(26:30):
that leisure was by no means wasted, for I employed
it in considering the class of cases in which I
was likely to be employed, and in working out theoretical examples,
and seeing the crimes against the person having nearly always
a strong medical interest, I gave them special attention. For instance,
I planned a series of murders, selecting royal personages and

(26:54):
great ministers as the victims, and on each murder I
brought to bear all the special knowledge, skill and ingenuity
at my command. I inquired minutely into the habits of
my hypothetical victims, ascertained who were their associates, friends, enemies,
and servants, considered their diet, their residences, their modes of conveyance,

(27:18):
the source of their clothing, and in fact everything which
it was necessary to know in order to achieve their
deaths with certainty and with absolute safety to the murderer.
How deeply gratified and flattered those great personages would have felt,
I remarked, if they had known how much attention they
were receiving. Yes, I suppose it would have been somewhat

(27:39):
startling to the Prime Minister, for instance, to have learned
that he was being watched and studied by an attentive observer,
and that the arrangements for his decease had been completed
down to the minutest detail. But of course the application
of the method to a particular case was the essential thing,
for it brought in the view all the incident dental

(28:00):
difficulties in meeting which all the really interesting and instructive
details were involved. Well. The particulars of these crimes I
wrote out at length in my private shorthand, in a
journal which I kept for the purpose, and which I
need not say I locked up securely in my safe
when I was not using it. After completing each case,

(28:21):
it was my custom to change sides and play the
game over again from the opposite side of the board.
That is to say, I added as an appendix to
each case an analysis with a complete scheme for the
detection of the crime. I have in my safe at
the present moment six volumes of cases fully indexed and

(28:42):
I can assure you that they are not only highly
instructive reading, but are really valuable as works of reference
that I can readily believe, I replied, laughing heartily, nevertheless
at the grotesqueness of the whole proceeding. Though they might
have proved rather incriminating documents if they had passed out
of your possession, they would never have been read rejoined. Thorndyke.

(29:04):
My shorthand is I think quite undecipherable, and has been
so made intentionally with a view to secrecy. And have
any of your theoretical cases ever turned up in real life?
Several of them have, though very imperfectly planned and carried out.
As a rule, the poisoned cigar is one of them,
though of course I should never have adopted such a

(29:26):
conspicuous device for presenting it, and the incident of the
other night is a modification for the worst of another.
In fact, most of the intricate and artistic crimes with
which I have had to deal professionally have had their
more complete and elaborate prototypes in my journals. I was
silent for some time, reflecting on the strange personality of

(29:49):
my gifted friend and the singular fitness that he presented
for the part that he had chosen to play in
the drama of social life. But presently my thoughts returned
to the peril that overshadowed him, and I came back
once more to my original question. And now Thorndyke, I
said that you have penetrated both the motives and the

(30:09):
disguise of this villain. What are you going to do?
Is he to be put safely under lock and key,
or is he to be left in peace and security
to plan some other and perhaps more successful scheme for
your destruction? For the present, replied Thorndyke, I am going
to put these things in a place of safety. Tomorrow,
you shall come with me to the hospital and see

(30:32):
me place the ends of the cigar in the custody
of doctor Chandler, who will make an analysis and report
on the nature of the poison. After that we shall
act in whatever way seems best unsatisfactory. As this conclusion appeared,
I knew it was useless to raise further objections, And accordingly,
when the cigar, with its accompanying papers and wrappings had

(30:55):
been deposited in a drawer, we dismissed it. If not
from our thoughts, at least from our conversation. End of
Chapter thirteen. Recording by Richard Kilmer, Realmedina, Texas,