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Literary
April 8, 1931
The Daily Alaska Empire
Juneau, Juneau County, Alaska
What is this article about?
In this excerpt from Percival Christopher Wren's novel, Dr. Charters explains to Mr. James a scheme with Maud Lauderdell to poison her husband's niece, Marjorie, with arsenic to secure a 100,000-pound inheritance for Lauderdell before Marjorie turns 21. Tensions rise due to John Waye's interference and revelations.
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By Percival Christopher Wren
Author of
BEAU GEST
MYSTERIOUS WAYE
BEAU
DEAL
SYNOPSIS: John Waye tells Dr. Charters that he will stay in the latter's nursing home until the hanging of the man whose name Waye has signed to a confession placed beside the murdered "Spider" Schlitz. His cloak of respectability menaced by the intruder's knowledge of his criminal record, Charters has been compelled to admit him to this safe hideaway. Here Waye gives to the evil Dr. MacAdoo a hint that Charters is to receive 10,000 pounds in the Lauderdell case. After Charters learns through the incensed MacAdoo of Waye's revelation, he tells MacAdoo that the deal is off and that Marjorie Lauderdell, whose illness has been growing worse, is now recovering. Informed by MacAdoo, Mr. James, Charters' associate, demands that the doctor explain why he apparently had been "playing his own game" in the Lauderdell case.
Chapter 21
"A SCRAP OF PAPER"
Dr. Charters paused for a moment and scrutinized the menacing face of Mr. James before he resumed.
"An old friend of mine"—he began—“Maudie Lauderdell nowadays, who knows a lot about me—in fact, I worked with her once—saw a clear chance of big money, and came to me as the right man . . . trustworthy, sagacious and with the ideal facilities for the job. I fell for it at once—an absolutely safe job. Now, does it occur to your bright brain that this nice safe 10,000 pound job was all the safer for the fact that not a soul in the world could possibly know it was a job?
"The idea had come into Maud's brain, and Maud had got it to mine with a wink to a horse that's never been blind. Why, she didn't even mention the fee in words.
"Do you see any good reason why I should shout about it to MacAdoo and Fanny, and Louie and you? Not that I suggest that any member of our splendid team would ever be careless, but accidents happen in the best regulated families. A remark overheard—and then two and two put together and made into five and then the fat's in the fire.
"Of course, I trust each one of you as I trust myself, but if six people know a thing, there's three times as much chance of an accident as there is if only two know it."
The face of Mr. James retained its unpleasantness, and his skeptical silence gave no consent to the Doctor's platitudes.
"And," continued Dr. Charters, "might I now ask how you presume to think you know that the $10,000 wasn't going into the pool?"
"Oh?" sneered Mr. James. "Oh? Then how was 5,000 of it going into Manoel's pouch as soon as he got wise to the game? 'All going into the pool!' Like hell it was."
"Ho! Ho! So you've been talking to Manoel, and you've been thinking again. But thinking isn't your strong point, Jimmy."
"Can the funny stuff and answer a plain question," growled Mr. James. "Where did I come in, if Manoel was to go fifty-fifty, because he caught you out?"
"Do you want to sit there and tell me you think I'd reward him with 5,000 pounds? Like hell I would."
"You stopped his mouth, eh?" inquired Mr. James. "Put him off with a promise that you'd shut his mouth with a wad of $25,000 eh?"
"You've said it," smiled the Doctor.
"So? And where does all this lovely trust and fair-play come in, then?"
"Jimmy, you make me tired. Once again, who's running this outfit, you or I? If Manoel's fool enough to butt-in on my game—our game—aren't I free to put him off how I like? What's biting you? You don't want to start something when I'm at my wits' end over this infernal Waye. That man'll succeed in breaking this firm up, if we aren't careful—especially with you helping him by playing his game of sowing suspicion among—"
"Playing his game!" exclaimed Mr. James indignantly. "What about you playing his game by letting him come here, threaten us, fool us, rob us, and get away with it . . ."
"But you don't pull wool over my eyes like that . . . Say, now, suppose all that bunk—about meaning to pool that 10,000—is the goods, why must you cut it right out because Waye put Manoel wise?"
"Can't you see that that's the most disturbing and frightening thing in the whole world for us?"
The Doctor, with outstretched finger, pointed at the face of his young colleague.
"Get this, James. And then try to realize what it means. Waye never in his life set eyes on Maud. Not a living human being except her and me had the glimmering of an idea of this Lauderdell scheme. It only existed in her brain and mine. And what follows: Mr. Mysterious Waye drops in on Manoel, and not only sells him the plot, but mentions the exact sum that I'm to get!"
The Doctor threw himself back in his chair.
"God bless my sinful soul," he concluded explosively, "I begin to think the man's from Scotland Yard—or else the Archangel Gabriel."
"Bump him off, I say," growled Mr. James.
"It would do us a lot of good, wouldn't it, if a detective from Scotland Yard disappeared here. Better for us if it was the Archangel. Less likely to be missed."
"Put me wise on the whole story anyway," continued Mr. James. "What's the Maud female get, that she can slip for $50,000?"
"Well—Maud roped a steer called Lauderdell. Not much to him except that he's going to be Sir Something Lauderdell when the old guy dies. Maud's sick of the racket and wants to retire in the odor of sanctity among the London Four Hundred.
"But there's not more money than will keep up the old Tudor place.
Then what does Maud find?
"Lauderdell's brother has died and left Lauderdell this girl Marjorie for keeps, and a 100,000 pounds. Marjorie can't touch this until she comes of age. If she dies before she's 21, Brother Lauderdell scoops it."
"And if she marries?"
"Nix till she's of age," replied the Doctor.
"What a wicked will," observed Mr. James indignantly. "Didn't the guy want the poor girl to live to be 21?"
Dr. Charters smiled.
"Well, you see, he trusted Brother Lauderdell . . . and rightly. There isn't enough money in the world to make him hurt a hair of the girl's head.
"So Maud comes to see me. She's worried about her husband's niece, who lives with them. Such a lovely girl . . . So rich, if she lives to be 21. Quite sad to see her health failing like this. And mind you, Maud might have said it to Sir Bernard Matthieson like she said it to me. Well, as Maud describes the symptoms, the illness sounds like recurring attacks of arsenic. And so they are.
"Maud and Lauderdell bring her and I put her in Manoel's care for special treatment. She's to be the one case we lose, after devoted care. That's all Manoel knows—that she's to get a quite complete and final cure for all her aches and pains."
"Second or third time Maud and Lauderdell come Maudie reminds me how dreadful it would be if the poor child died within a few weeks of her birthday when she would come into a 100,000 pounds—and I tell you, Jimmie, we
Author of
BEAU GEST
MYSTERIOUS WAYE
BEAU
DEAL
SYNOPSIS: John Waye tells Dr. Charters that he will stay in the latter's nursing home until the hanging of the man whose name Waye has signed to a confession placed beside the murdered "Spider" Schlitz. His cloak of respectability menaced by the intruder's knowledge of his criminal record, Charters has been compelled to admit him to this safe hideaway. Here Waye gives to the evil Dr. MacAdoo a hint that Charters is to receive 10,000 pounds in the Lauderdell case. After Charters learns through the incensed MacAdoo of Waye's revelation, he tells MacAdoo that the deal is off and that Marjorie Lauderdell, whose illness has been growing worse, is now recovering. Informed by MacAdoo, Mr. James, Charters' associate, demands that the doctor explain why he apparently had been "playing his own game" in the Lauderdell case.
Chapter 21
"A SCRAP OF PAPER"
Dr. Charters paused for a moment and scrutinized the menacing face of Mr. James before he resumed.
"An old friend of mine"—he began—“Maudie Lauderdell nowadays, who knows a lot about me—in fact, I worked with her once—saw a clear chance of big money, and came to me as the right man . . . trustworthy, sagacious and with the ideal facilities for the job. I fell for it at once—an absolutely safe job. Now, does it occur to your bright brain that this nice safe 10,000 pound job was all the safer for the fact that not a soul in the world could possibly know it was a job?
"The idea had come into Maud's brain, and Maud had got it to mine with a wink to a horse that's never been blind. Why, she didn't even mention the fee in words.
"Do you see any good reason why I should shout about it to MacAdoo and Fanny, and Louie and you? Not that I suggest that any member of our splendid team would ever be careless, but accidents happen in the best regulated families. A remark overheard—and then two and two put together and made into five and then the fat's in the fire.
"Of course, I trust each one of you as I trust myself, but if six people know a thing, there's three times as much chance of an accident as there is if only two know it."
The face of Mr. James retained its unpleasantness, and his skeptical silence gave no consent to the Doctor's platitudes.
"And," continued Dr. Charters, "might I now ask how you presume to think you know that the $10,000 wasn't going into the pool?"
"Oh?" sneered Mr. James. "Oh? Then how was 5,000 of it going into Manoel's pouch as soon as he got wise to the game? 'All going into the pool!' Like hell it was."
"Ho! Ho! So you've been talking to Manoel, and you've been thinking again. But thinking isn't your strong point, Jimmy."
"Can the funny stuff and answer a plain question," growled Mr. James. "Where did I come in, if Manoel was to go fifty-fifty, because he caught you out?"
"Do you want to sit there and tell me you think I'd reward him with 5,000 pounds? Like hell I would."
"You stopped his mouth, eh?" inquired Mr. James. "Put him off with a promise that you'd shut his mouth with a wad of $25,000 eh?"
"You've said it," smiled the Doctor.
"So? And where does all this lovely trust and fair-play come in, then?"
"Jimmy, you make me tired. Once again, who's running this outfit, you or I? If Manoel's fool enough to butt-in on my game—our game—aren't I free to put him off how I like? What's biting you? You don't want to start something when I'm at my wits' end over this infernal Waye. That man'll succeed in breaking this firm up, if we aren't careful—especially with you helping him by playing his game of sowing suspicion among—"
"Playing his game!" exclaimed Mr. James indignantly. "What about you playing his game by letting him come here, threaten us, fool us, rob us, and get away with it . . ."
"But you don't pull wool over my eyes like that . . . Say, now, suppose all that bunk—about meaning to pool that 10,000—is the goods, why must you cut it right out because Waye put Manoel wise?"
"Can't you see that that's the most disturbing and frightening thing in the whole world for us?"
The Doctor, with outstretched finger, pointed at the face of his young colleague.
"Get this, James. And then try to realize what it means. Waye never in his life set eyes on Maud. Not a living human being except her and me had the glimmering of an idea of this Lauderdell scheme. It only existed in her brain and mine. And what follows: Mr. Mysterious Waye drops in on Manoel, and not only sells him the plot, but mentions the exact sum that I'm to get!"
The Doctor threw himself back in his chair.
"God bless my sinful soul," he concluded explosively, "I begin to think the man's from Scotland Yard—or else the Archangel Gabriel."
"Bump him off, I say," growled Mr. James.
"It would do us a lot of good, wouldn't it, if a detective from Scotland Yard disappeared here. Better for us if it was the Archangel. Less likely to be missed."
"Put me wise on the whole story anyway," continued Mr. James. "What's the Maud female get, that she can slip for $50,000?"
"Well—Maud roped a steer called Lauderdell. Not much to him except that he's going to be Sir Something Lauderdell when the old guy dies. Maud's sick of the racket and wants to retire in the odor of sanctity among the London Four Hundred.
"But there's not more money than will keep up the old Tudor place.
Then what does Maud find?
"Lauderdell's brother has died and left Lauderdell this girl Marjorie for keeps, and a 100,000 pounds. Marjorie can't touch this until she comes of age. If she dies before she's 21, Brother Lauderdell scoops it."
"And if she marries?"
"Nix till she's of age," replied the Doctor.
"What a wicked will," observed Mr. James indignantly. "Didn't the guy want the poor girl to live to be 21?"
Dr. Charters smiled.
"Well, you see, he trusted Brother Lauderdell . . . and rightly. There isn't enough money in the world to make him hurt a hair of the girl's head.
"So Maud comes to see me. She's worried about her husband's niece, who lives with them. Such a lovely girl . . . So rich, if she lives to be 21. Quite sad to see her health failing like this. And mind you, Maud might have said it to Sir Bernard Matthieson like she said it to me. Well, as Maud describes the symptoms, the illness sounds like recurring attacks of arsenic. And so they are.
"Maud and Lauderdell bring her and I put her in Manoel's care for special treatment. She's to be the one case we lose, after devoted care. That's all Manoel knows—that she's to get a quite complete and final cure for all her aches and pains."
"Second or third time Maud and Lauderdell come Maudie reminds me how dreadful it would be if the poor child died within a few weeks of her birthday when she would come into a 100,000 pounds—and I tell you, Jimmie, we
What sub-type of article is it?
Prose Fiction
What themes does it cover?
Commerce Trade
Death Mortality
Moral Virtue
What keywords are associated?
Crime Novel
Poisoning Plot
Inheritance Scheme
Deception
Lauderdell Case
Arsenic Murder
What entities or persons were involved?
By Percival Christopher Wren
Literary Details
Title
A Scrap Of Paper
Author
By Percival Christopher Wren
Subject
The Lauderdell Case
Key Lines
"God Bless My Sinful Soul," He Concluded Explosively, "I Begin To Think The Man's From Scotland Yard—Or Else The Archangel Gabriel."
"Bump Him Off, I Say," Growled Mr. James.
"Well—Maud Roped A Steer Called Lauderdell. Not Much To Him Except That He's Going To Be Sir Something Lauderdell When The Old Guy Dies."
"And So They Are. Maud And Lauderdell Bring Her And I Put Her In Manoel's Care For Special Treatment. She's To Be The One Case We Lose, After Devoted Care."