1939-12-01 — Page 16

SHORT STORY

THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 1,' 1930

"FOOL-PROOF" By Frank H. Shaw

MARRYING a wealthy wife Charles thinking that if two apparently harm- sonal satisfaction.

3

pain which she averrod was indiges-

"I wonder if these foreign doctors are to be trusted?" said Charles with the utmost consideration.

Beeston discovered had draw- legs elements were mixed in the cor- "If you think you could stand the tion, she insisted on making an ex- backs. Being of a coldly calculating rect proportions-according to Lucre- fatigue of travel in that way, it would pensive shopping tour. She grew fas- nature, he had been prepared for zia Borgia, of blessed memory-a be splendid," he agreed. “After all, on cinated by embroideries in gold in some, but not quite so many as actual- deadly poison which left symptoms a cruise, one only meets one's own native workmanship whose prices ly transpired. Mrs. Beeston's inor- similar to heart-failure could be fa- sort of people, and my wish is to study made Charles purse his lips. The ex- dinate jealousy was, perhaps, the most bricated.

foreign types and habits.".

citement of such buying tired her, and outstanding drawback of them all. "How sweet!" Laura cooed. "But "I can stand any amount of fati- she complained of a fluttering in her There was a possessiveness about her I do hope you aren't overworking, gue," his wife said, rather firmly, as if breast. that aggravated; for she was consider- Charles. You look tired, I sometimes defying his hint that her age might ably older than her husband, and what think; and I've been wondering if a prove a handicap. good looks she had once possessed change wouldn't do you good."

So it was arranged. Under the ex- were now little better than shadowy "What sort of a change?" he asked, cuse of making further provision for "I think there is quite a famous. ruins of a distant past.

"Some foreign travel," she suggest- her comfort, Charles slipped up to German doctor practising here," Mrs.. Beeston had an appreciative eye for ed. "I've plenty of money in hand, town, and saw Betty. It was a per- Beeston answered. "I really believe a pretty, piquant face, too. Yet if he and we can well afford to have a tho- fectly satisfactory interview, for I would like to see him,. darling." so much as allowed his roving eyes to roughly good time together." That though Betty did mention that Soames Charles went to the manager of their rest for a perceptible minute on peach- meant, to be sure, that he would have Bayliss had taken her about a good de luxe hotel and asked questions.. bloom checks and dancing eyes, he no opportunities of seeing Betty; but deal-and Soames was a man of con- The manager tapped his nose, was invariably brought to task with Betty had already convinced him that siderable means-she presently forgot hinted that the foreign medico was. the utmost severity. When he met she was not averse from his admira- to talk about him and listened intent- Betty Truebridge he found such res- tion. He had begun to feel pretty ly to what Charles had to say. traiuts intolerable, and made up his certain, without definite word spoken, "So long as you don't ask me ever mind that his wife was in the way that, when he had plenty of money, to be a poor man's wife," she said. of his future enjoyment of life. Betty would smile still more langour- Charles fervently promised that he

ously upon him.

would never insult her to that extent, hinted at possible miracles, and they parted the best of friends.

"When I've finished the book, do you mean?” he asked.

To remove her from a world which she no longer ornamented, however, called for very considerable tact and shrewdness. In the first place her own suspicions would not have to be aroused, however shadowly, for in his own right Charles Beeston was re- "Why not right away?" she suggest- grettably poor, with a chronic dislike ed very amiably. "After all-what's if she were determined to buy all life's for any form of endeavour which, it a book?”

She smoothed his furrowed brow with hands that held a touch of real affection,

and

reputed to have left his native Berlin under a slight cloud.

"All the better," Charles thought, and arranged for a visit. Men under clouds are easier to handle than those of unblemished character. He was- neglecting not a single precaution, so that the result might leave no hint of suspicion in anyone's mind. If any- thing he was too elaborate.

"I think it may be trifling, but it might be as well to be very careful," diagnosed the doctor when he arrived.. To Charles, outside the suite, he said: "I do not wish to alarm you, but your lady's symptoms are disconcert- ing." Charles felt a glow of satisfac- tion permeate him. It was the pride of the true artist as a master-piece neared completion. "Has she been to heart-attacks?" he was asked; and was truthfully able to reply in the- negative.

Mrs. Beeston enjoyed the first weeks of her holiday. A mood of extrava- gance possessed her. Nothing but the best would suit her whim. It was as

pleasures in one abounding heap. is popularly believed, sets poverty at "My protest against dependence," he Charles felt uneasily on one or two bay.

He was bone-idle, luxury-lov- smiled. Foreign doctors and officials, occasions that she might have a pre- ing, and quite dead to all sense of would hardly be likely to make such monition that this was to be her final shame. But Betty Truebridge was intricate enquiries as the suspicious extravagance; as if the shadow of hardly the type of girl to marry such people at home do when rich women death were already brushing her soul. a pauper as he would be if his wife die. It so often happens that wealthy Yet she had never displayed any un- suspected his intentions and ruled women's deaths give rise to gossip canny intuition, nor had she often him out of her will. Up to the pre- that ends in police proceedings. Es- questioned his thoughts in a discon sent he believed himself Mrs. Besston's pecially when their widowers are still certing way. sole beneficiary. She frequently re- youngish and eligible. "Of course," It was in Vienna that he bought the "I will cause the chemist to send a ferred to that fact, sometimes in a Charles Beeston added, taking her first element of the fatal mixture. He palliative," said the doctor labouredly. threatening manner, when he had caressing hands in his and kissing had carefully written down the Latin But Charles got that palliative first offended her.

them, "I might pick up some new, symbols-Latin being the universal and added to it a little more of his own From the moment when Betty True- some really interesting atmosphere.” language in so far as the practice of concoction. He felt no compunction.. bridge flashed across his horizon he It was therefore decided that they medicine is concerned; and the high- although in her altered state of health, began to increase his attentions to his should go abroad. At once a restless- foreheaded chemist nodded sapiently. his wife's affection shewn towards wife. He assured her that young ness possessed Mrs. Beeston; she would "An excellent tonic," he observed him increased. She looked even older. charms made no appeal to him: that not be content until things were in- in laboured English. "Not often used than her years; and by contrast his her sagacity, coupled with her delight- stantly set in train. There was a to-day, but some old-fashioned pres- remembrance of Betty glowed with a ful wit and her radiant charm, amply magnificence about her preparations criptions were not to be ignored." The suggestion of abounding youth. satisfied his desires. Mrs. Beeston that appealed to Charles' luxury-lov- cost of the drug was considerable, but It was only after his wife died that glowed under his flattery.

ing nature. She was lavish, she was never had Charles parted with money he felt cold and frightened. So long In the second place, the law of the unstinting. Once or twice he had been more cheerfully.

as a single breath of life was in her land took a curious view of wife- required-it made his gorge rise--to He purchased the other component he did not consciously consider him- murder; and Charles Beeston was a ask her for money; but now, with the in Athens. He thought he had him- self a murderer; but with her dead he physical coward. Consequently it was idea fretting in her mind, she fore- self perfectly in control; but when the bad a twinge of conscience that was extremely necessary that his wife be stalled all his desires.

Greek chemist peered at him through partly fear. He would not have been removed from her present sphere. The notion of a luxury cruise round powerfully magnifiying spectacles, his surprised if she had opened her eyes without a single finger of suspicion the world at first appealed to her heart for a brief instant stood quite and shouted an accusation at him with being pointed at the bereaved spouse. but ship's surgeons are often very still in his breast. It was an unusual others present in the room. As he But Charles did not make the mistake clever men, Charles remembered; and drug, certainly; but his researches had moved about the streets he had a feel- of buying books on medieval poisons, with nothing much to occupy them- shown him that it had no injurious ing that the swaggering police were in case dusty booksellers remembered selves, since holiday-makers are no- qualities in itself.

evincing an inordinate interest in him. him as a fruitful customer. He an- toriously healthy, they might display "It is seldom that an English asks If steps sounded behind, he shivered nounced to Laura-his wife-that, so a far too complicated interest in any for that specific,” the chemist said. slightly, expecting an accusing hand far from being content to live on her death coming under their notice. One "Fortunately, I carry a stock," Charles to be laid on his shoulder. bounty for ever, he intended to write advantage of a cruise was, certainly, breathed freely again, paid his ac- "Nerves!" he thought, and tasted salt a novel, involving intricate research. that the sea does not permit of ex- count, and rejoined his wife who had blood on his lips where he had bitten

"With a

woman exactly like you, humations. But on the whole it been watching the vivid crowds in the them. But he need not have fretted. sweetheart, as heroine," he flattered. seemed to him best that his wife street. "It's something to keep the The German doctor was quite content "I'll have to do a lot of reading at the should die decently in a bed ashore; wretched files away," he explained to to return a certificate; and at the semi- Museum, of course." Laura flashed and since his was a twisted nature, he her, having also bought an aromatic formal enquiry into Laura Beeston's him a suspicious glance. Men made glowingly dilated on the mirth, the oil used for that commendable pur-death-the British Consul being pre- excuses to be relieved of their wives' dancing, the happy youth that were pose.

sent he related how he had been first·· too-frequent companionship, and spent associated with this type of holiday- "You are always so kind, dearest," called in to advise on a case of un-- the leisure thus won in riotous living. making.

she cooed. "The flies are a nuisance; questionably progressive heart-dis- "Why not help me in my re- "One gets to know so many people but isn't that man in petticoat trousers ease. The symptoms he described tal- searches?" Charles asked disarmingly. so well in so short a time, my dear," picturesque?"

lied to a hair with those Charles had And Laura did help for some time, he offered. "It must be the limited "That's a mightly pretty girl with committed to memory. It was all most until satisfied that he was seriously space, I suppose. You can't get away him," Charles said unthinkingly; and satisfactory. The Consul, sympathising engaged. By slow degrees Charles from people and so you learn to make his wife bit her lip and suggested with Charles' quiet, self-controlled altered the type of volume borrowed the best of them and find they are visiting some more classical ruins. grief, said that so far as he was con- from the shelves, until he flattered really likeable. I remember that "All right!" Charles thought vici-cerned, there was not the slightest ob-.. himself that he had gleaned as much Swallow-you remember him?-met ously, fondling the small phial in his Jection to cremation, since Laura had abstruse information as he needed for his wife on a cruise; she was quite pocket. “All right!”

expressed a death-bed wish that what his purpose. He grew familiar with young and charming. And True-

was mortal of her should lie in Eng- black lettering, with alchemical sym- body, too-but then that was differ-

lish earth. bols and forecasts; and as he had a ent." memory like a sensitised plate, every- "His divorce resulted from a cruise," thing he read remained with him. said Mrs. Beeston. "I should prefer, Laura preferred to read the chap- I think, a wandering holiday ashore. ters of the book as they were written, We might go across Europe; see Vien- so that she could offer comments, and na and the Dalmatian Coast; we could Charles welcomed her assistance. His winter in the Aegean." herolie was recognisable as Laura, if Beeston thrilled with quiet enthu Laura had been more like Betty, flian alasm. The farther East they went in she actually was; but Laura was flat- their peregrinations the less the like- tered.

hood of suspicious, skilled attention, Dou really care for me as much The more probable the idea that even as this be asked coquettishly, after disciples of Aesculapius might be sus - "I like this wine," Mrs. Beeston ap perusing a particularly sticky chapter. ceptible to bribes-If hecessary. Only proved. But next morning she wasn't "My darling, I'm only an amateur if necessary, however; he had no wish quite sure that the wine had exactly at expressing myself, and that doesn't to waste money that might much more agreed with her. To take her mind do justice to the subject," he said, profitably be spent on his own per off a numbness in one arm and a slight

sure.

According to the medieval experts, the potion was best administered in wine; and Mrs. Beeston had no aver- Even so, when Charles started for sion from the thick, somewhat unctu- home with the accompanying casket, ous mastika which is the wine of he was not sure he was not Greece. But Charles was cautious. There was not a great deal of Laura's He put only a small quantity of the stock of cash remaining, after all de mixture in the first glass of wine he tails had been attended to; and the- offered his wife. Lucerzia Borgia ad- shopkeepers from whom she had' vised that course. A small dose would bought so lavishly quite refused to re- bring on minor symptoms which could purchase her extravagances at any- be described to a later visiting physi- thing other than a thieving price. cian by the patient herself, A very Moreover, Laura's solicitor, apprised valuable alibil

by cable of her death, did not reply to Charles hint that a sum of money should be forwarded to him to cover^. expenses. But it was not the tempor ary shortage of cash that perturbed. (Continued on -Page •17)_