I’ll meet the jade?”
They were his last words. Doctor Syn knelt by him and felt the
heart. Then he slowly rose and said, “He is dead.”
“Well, I’ll be no hypocrite,” said Nicholas. “I always hated him.”
He picked up the dead man’s waistcoats and felt in the pockets. In
one of them he found a key, which he carried to a cabinet by the
fireplace. This he unlocked and searched amongst the many papers it
contained. At last he lit on a document, which he opened in haste. He
scanned it through and then said aloud, “To my nephew Nicholas Tappitt,
all my estate.” Then he looked at the others with a smile and added,
“So the rascal did not alter his will. My visit to the lawyer was not
true. I said it to frighten him. I think he could have left his money
where he would. However, it seems that I am safe. And now, gentlemen,
let us see about giving him a more regular death than he enjoyed. If
you gentlemen will agree to my plan, there will be no question of
murder. At dawn tomorrow Doctor Syn, with Mr. Cobtree here as second,
will meet my uncle in an affair of honour. As his nephew I will act for
him. I know a surgeon in the town who for a purse of guineas wi ll keep
his mouth shut, and certify death as regular. We’ll play the farce in
Magdalen Fields. It would seem a natural meeting-place. No possible
blame can fall on Doctor Syn for killing him, unless it is a rap over
the knuckles from the University Authorities. What do you say?”
The effrontery of this suggestion seemed to the others so
preposterous that they at first emphatically refused. But gradually
Nicholas made them see that only by such means could Sommers be saved
from trial.
“You may safely leave this to me to carry through,” said Nicholas.
“All you have to do is escort the ladies back to Oxford, and await me at
dawn in the Fields.”
“But why in Magdalen Fields,” asked Cobtree. “It could be managed
better here.”
“The pistol-shots must be heard in a more public place,” explained
Nicholas. “It will be the publicity of the affair that will deceive. I
will bring the body by coach. The surgeon and I will lay it on the
sward. Doctor Syn and I will fire the pistols into the air. The corpse
will be lifted back into the coach, and Sommers is at liberty to stay in
bed if he wishes. As to my servants here, they will obey me implicity.
They ever had a good regard for me, and hated my uncle. Let us release
your mother, Imogene, and I will send you by coach back to Oxford.”
- 44 -
“The dominance of Nicholas succeeded, and since nobody had a better
plan, they all took an oath of secrecy and agreed to carry out the grim
game. Vastly relieved at his salvation and accomplishment, the man
Sommers went the way he came, by boat. They found Imogene’s mother in
sad condition. The terror which she had gone through, added to the
physical pains from the brutalities that had been practiced on her, had
affected her poor brain, and they took her back to White Friars only
half conscious. Nicholas, who had locked the door upon his uncle’s
body, accompanied them in order to arrange with the surgeon, whom he
proposed to take back with him to Iffley. The good landlady at White
Friars was awaiting news anxiously, and was overjoyed to find the rescue
had been accomplished. The three men then left the ladies to her care,
and proceeded to the house of the questionable surgeon.
Accustomed to be called out in the night, they found no difficulty in
awakenin g him.
“It is by no means the first time that the rogue has done a dirty
piece of work at Iffley,” whispered Nicholas as they waited for him to
dress. “He’ll do whatever I ask of him, for I know enough to get the
rascal’s name struck off the Rolls.”
And so it proved. For twenty guineas he promised to arrange things
to their liking. He was perfectly willing to accompany Nicholas to
Iffley, for he was promised good wine upon arrival and so they went
their way, while Tony went back to Queen’s College w ith Doctor Syn,
where they kept vigil waiting for the dawn.
As they watched the night sky, Tony said, “I only hope that the
killing of this bully will not ruin your career, Christopher.”
“I might have killed him there,” said Syn. “At least I have not his
blood on my conscience. And I honestly think it would have gone hard
with Sommers at a trail. A jury seldom finds a murder justifiable,
though this one was, I think. I wonder what the Chancellor’s views will
be. My good Tony, how glad I shall be when we know the upshot of this
somewhat deceitful business!”
At the first paling of the sky, the two companions, muffled in heavy
cloaks, crossed the Courtyard, and let themselves through the gate with
the key which they had borrowed from the porter’s lodge some hours
before, for Doctor Syn had realized that the rousing of a sleepy porter
would occasion noise and attract attention from the students. Once in
the street, they walked briskly toward Magdalen.
On the way Tony rallied his friend upon his gloom y countenance:
“At least you are about to fight a duel, with absolute certainty of
killing your man, and the finest fighter can hardly say that.”
“I only hope this Nicholas Tappitt will not bungle things,” replied
the Doctor.
“Not he,” said Cobtre e. “He is as anxious as we are to save this
Sommers.”
“I have been wondering about his motives,” went on Syn. “He did not
strike me as a man who would take much risk for another than himself.
And I think this plot of his is to insure his own safety. A fter all, he
was in the room when the shot was fired. He was admitted by the
servants in the hall. He was known to have a hatred for his uncle, and
he had everything to gain by this death. It occurs to me that he does
not altogether trust us. Suppose we had chosen to side with the man
Sommers, our Nicholas would have been in an ugly case.”
“How could we have done that?” cried honest Tony.
“Of course we could have done no such thing, but I think he measured
us by his own character.”
- 45 -
In this Doctor Syn was right, for despite his easy manner, Nicholas
realized that his situation might be dangerous. There were those on his
ship now moored in London Docks who knew he had gone in haste to Oxford
on a quarrel with his uncle, and where his own safety was concerned he
trusted no one. Doctor Syn’s cloth, and Cobtree’s legal profession, and
the fact that both were men of honour, did not weigh with him. He
imagined that anybody would commit perjury if it could be safely done.
After all, he di d not wish his uncle’s death to be too questionable, and
the duel he was staging would satisfy the public mind. They would say
that Bully Tappitt had reaped what he had sown, and that the noted
duelist, who had been a menace too long, had met just desserts.
Whatever may be said of Nicholas Tappitt—and all through his life
bad things were said of him—he did not bungle things. Hardly had
Doctor Syn and Cobtree taken their positions by the field gate when they
saw the Iffley coach approaching. They approaching. They opened the
gate in readiness, and the coachman drove his team to the centre of the
field. The surgeon alighted with his case of instruments, followed by
Nicholas with the case of pistols.
Syn and Cobtree went to aid them in the grim task of removing the
body from the coach.