They Hanged My Saintly Billy (26 page)

George
Bate's
account
suggested
to
me
that
Mr
Smith
had
been forcing
this
insurance
on
Dr
Palmer
for
a
joke,
and
that
the
Doctor
was
putting
as
good
a
face
on
it
as
possible,
but
not
liking
his situation
by
any
means.
Cook
seemed
to
have
played
his
part under
Smith's
direction;
but
I
couldn't
fathom
what
they
were
at. That
night,
however,
when
Inspector
Simpson
and
I
compared notes,
he
having
meanwhile
talked
not
only
with
Walkenden
and
Dr
Waddell—the
results
of
which
he's
already
told
you—but
also with
Mr
Lloyd,
the
landlord
of
The
Junction
Hotel,
I
came
to understand
the
case
better.

Jeremiah
Smith
had
involved
Dr
Palmer's
close
friends— Cheshire,
Cook
and
Saunders—in
the
practical
joke
on
George Bate,
by
way
of
warning
them
against
the
Doctor
as
one
who
had procured
his
own
brother's
death
for
the
sake
of
insurance
money and
might
do
the
same
again
with
any
other
simple
drunkard.
He was
at
the
same
time
warning
Dr
Palmer
not
to
press
The
Prince of
Wales
for
payment,
because
if
he
did,
the
truth
about
his
misdeeds
must
come
tumbling
out.
It
may
be
that
Mr
Smith
suspected
Dr
Palmer
of
hastening
Walter
Palmer's
death
with
prussic acid;
for
Inspector
Simpson
has
uncovered
some
odd
circumstances which
may
point
that
way.

To
be
explicit:
th
e
Boots
at
The
Junction
Hotel,
Stafford,
was entrusted
by
the
Doctor
on
Wednesday,
August
14th,
with
two bottl
es
wrapped
in
white
paper.
Boots
guessed
from
the
feel
that they
were
medicine
bottles.
Dr
Palmer
asked
him
to
keep
them unexposed
to
the
air
until
he
passed
by
again;
which
he
did
an hour
later,
and
fetched
them
away.
He
was
absent
for
perhaps another
hour,
then
left
them
in
Boots'
charge
once
more.
The next
morning,
Thursday,
he
came
for
the
bottles
again,
took
a very
small
phial
from
his
waistcoat
pocket
and,
having
poured
a little
of
its
contents
drop
by
drop
into
one
of
the
bottles,
which Boots
describes
as
having
been
four
inches
long,
returned
the
phial to
his
waistcoat
pocket.
Mr
Lloyd,
the
landlord,
happened
to
visit the
stables
while
the
Doctor
was
engaged
in
this
mixing
operation, and
reports
that
he
did
not
look
in
the
least
surprised
or
flurried by
the
interruption.
Mr
Lloyd
said:
'Good
morning,
Doctor,
and how
is
your
brother
today?'
Dr
Palmer
answered:
'He's
very
ill, very
low;
I'm
going
to
take
him
something
stimulating.
Day, who's
attending
him,
isn't
so
well
acquainted
with
his
habits
as
I am.
Taking
his
gin
away
and
giving
him
gruel
instead
won't
help a
man
who's
accustomed
to
drink
heavily;
but
I
hope
this
medicine
will
improve
matters.
He
went,
very
foolishly,
to
Wolverhampton
the
day
before
yesterday.
It
might
have
been
the
death of
him,
from
the
state
he
was
in.
What
a
sad
thing
it
is
that
honest folk
like
my
brother
deliberately
drink
themselves
to
perdition!'

That
was
the
Thursday
of
Walter's
death
.
Mr
Lloyd
told Inspector
Simpson
that
the
little
phial
seemed
to
contain
sal
volatile;
and
that
Dr
Palmer
had
bought
a
bottle
of
the
very
best
old brandy
from
him
on
the
previous
Saturday,
saying:'
If
my
brother wants
any
more
of
this,
let
him
have
it,
and
I'll
foot
the
bill.'

Inspector
Simpson
also
visited
Messrs
Mander
&
Company,
the wholesale
chemists
of
Stafford,
and
there
confirmed,
by
an
interview
with
George
Wyman
the
assistant,
a
story
current
at
The Lamb
and
Flag:
Dr
Palmer,
on
the
day
before
Walter's
death,
had purchased
an
ounce
of
prussic
acid
from
Mander's,
along
with certain
other
drugs.
Inspector
Simpson
gave
this
event
more
importance
than
I
cared
to
concede.
The
Doctor,
it
appeared
to
me, must
have
seen
clearly
enough
that
Walter
was
dying
of
drink,
as had
been
expected,
and
would
hardly
have
hastened
his
end
by
use of
a
poison
which
two
people
had
watched
him
mix.
I
refused, in
fact,
to
connect
the
prussic
acid
with
the
case.
He
might
well, however,
have
employed
the
poison
to
make
rival
racehorses 'safe';
and
that,
I
decided,
was
the
explanation.
What
sort
of medicine
Mr
Lloyd
saw
him
mixing,
I
cannot
say;
but
why
not sal
volatile,
a
harmless
stimulant
which
might
persuade
Dr
Day of
an
improvement
in
Walter's
health?
My
guess
is
that
Jerry Smith
had
heard
the
gossip,
which
not
only
decided
him
to
make a
game
of
Dr
Palmer
by
suggesting
the
insurance
on
George
Bate's life;
he
also
forwarded
the
signed
proposal
to
The
Midland
Company—so
that
the
jest
became
earnest.
He
counted,
I
mean,
on
The Midland
to
inquire
into
George
Bate's
health
and
financial
stability. They
would
soon
discover
that
the
proposal
was
fraudulent,
and all
eyes
would
then
be
focused
on
Walter's
death.
Smith
himself hoped
to
keep
in
the
background,
leaving
the
insurance
companies
to
carry
out
their
investigations
with
help
from
the
Police.