“Lord Arthur had been obliged to stay in York
a few days, as his evidence would be needed.
That fact gave the case, perhaps, a certain amount
of interest as far as York and London ‘society’
were concerned. Charles Lavender, moreover, was
well known on the turf; but no bombshell exploding
beneath the walls of the ancient cathedral city could
more have astonished its inhabitants than the news
which, at about five in the afternoon on the day of
the inquest, spread like wildfire throughout the town.
That news was that the inquest had concluded at three
o’clock with a verdict of ’Wilful murder
against some person or persons unknown,’ and
that two hours later the police had arrested Lord Arthur
Skelmerton at his private residence, ‘The Elms,’
and charged him on a warrant with the murder of Charles
Lavender, the bookmaker.”
THE CAPITAL CHARGE
“The police, it appears, instinctively feeling
that some mystery lurked round the death of the bookmaker
and his supposed murderer’s quiet protestations
of innocence, had taken a very considerable amount
of trouble in collecting all the evidence they could
for the inquest which might throw some light upon
Charles Lavender’s life, previous to his tragic
end. Thus it was that a very large array of witnesses
was brought before the coroner, chief among whom was,
of course, Lord Arthur Skelmerton.
“The first witnesses called were the two constables,
who deposed that, just as the church clocks in the
neighbourhood were striking eleven, they had heard
the cries for help, had ridden to the spot whence the
sounds proceeded, and had found the prisoner in the
tight grasp of Lord Arthur Skelmerton, who at once
accused the man of murder, and gave him in charge.
Both constables gave the same version of the incident,
and both were positive as to the time when it occurred.
“Medical evidence went to prove that the deceased
had been stabbed from behind between the shoulder-blades
whilst he was walking, that the wound was inflicted
by a large hunting knife, which was produced, and which
had been left sticking in the wound.
“Lord Arthur Skelmerton was then called and
substantially repeated what he had already told the
constables. He stated, namely, that on the night
in question he had some gentlemen friends to dinner,
and afterwards bridge was played. He himself
was not playing much, and at a few minutes before
eleven he strolled out with a cigar as far as the pavilion
at the end of his garden; he then heard the voices,
the cry and the groan previously described by him,
and managed to hold the murderer down until the arrival
of the constables.
“At this point the police proposed to call a
witness, James Terry by name and a bookmaker by profession,
who had been chiefly instrumental in identifying the
deceased, a ‘pal’ of his. It was his
evidence which first introduced that element of sensation
into the case which culminated in the wildly exciting
arrest of a Duke’s son upon a capital charge.
