A DANGEROUS CATSPAW.*
THROUGHOUT the greater part of this clever story, in which Mr. Christie Murray has used his happiest art in delineating a first-rate detective in the police force,—the kind of officer • A Dangerous Catepaw. By David Christie Murray and Henry Murray. London: Longmans and Co.
who is conspicuous by his absence in Whitechapel murders, bnt who must have existed, or he would never have been painted so vividly by Mr. Christie Murray and his colleague, —we took it for granted that the " dangerous catspaw" would turn out to be the person who is really the dangerous cats- paw's victim. Was it not the first intention of the novelist to paint Gale, the burglar, as the " dangerous catspaw," and Mr. Wyncott Esden as the man who would try to make a catspaw of Gale ? We do not say that it was so ; but certainly Mr. Wyncott Esden does not show himself to be very dangerous as a catspaw. It is not he, but his friends, to whom it is due that he fails to be a pliant tool in the burglar's hands ; while if Wyncott Esden had tried to make Gale a catspaw, as we supposed for• some time that he was about to do, Gale would certainly have been a most dangerous catspaw ; and, indeed, so far as Wyncott Esden tried to turn him to account, that is exactly what he proved to be. The phrase appears to us to be a misnomer as applied to Esden, except only as regards the accident of the result ; it would have been a felicitous description of Gale if the parts, at the conclusion of the story, had been interchanged.
However, as we have said, the interest of the story turns much more on the detective Prickett than even on the burglar Gale, and more on Gale than on the weak and wicked young man who claims at the close of the story to be the " dangerous catspaw." Not that Wyncott Esden, the impecunious barrister, with his frankly flattering ways to the jurors whom he addresses, as well as to his relations and friends and the heiress whom he would gladly win, is badly sketched. He is skilfully drawn, though not so skilfully as to create in us much sympathy for his sufferings under• the consequences
of his sins. His wonderful success in retaining his own good opinion long after every reader's opinion of him has become as bad as it could possibly be, is alone enough to prejudice us deeply against him. But Prickett's self-satis- faction is really in its way quite legitimate. And the curious mixture of feelings with which he regards Wyncott Esden after the latter had put himself into his power,—the lingering admiration for his powers as an advocate to make the worse appear the better cause, the professional self-congratulation with which he discovers Wyncott Esden's share in the crime, the pity with which he contemplates the position of the man
who has so thrown away a great career as a barrister, and the contempt with which he looks on Esden's effort to commit suicide,—are all painted with a masterly hand. Here is Mr. Prickett's explanation of how he came to rise in the police force :
" You take no notes ?' said Arnold, more for the sake of saying something, than because he was interested.—` Well, as a matter of fact, sir,' responded Mr. Prickett, a man in my line has got to spend his time in taking notes, but I don't find as I need trouble to write 'em down.'—' Don't you find that your memory betrays you sometimes ?'—' No,' said Prickett, reflectively, don't think it ever did, sir. The major part of people ruins their memories with reading novels, and songs, and trash. There's a chap at the Yard as can recite by the hour. I should think as he knows Lord Byron from beginning to end, but his head's that full of that kind of tack there's no room in it for anything else. You tell him what time a train starts, tell him what complexion a man's got, tell him what height he is, show him the plan of a building. If he don't write down what you tell him he'll be in a fog about it in twenty minutes. Many's the time I've told him : " If you'd leave the wheels inside your head-piece free to act, you'd make a first-rate officer, but you clogs 'em up with all them treacly verses, and what d'ye expect ?" Do you never read at all, then ?' asked Arnold, beginning to be interested.—` Criminal cases,' responded Mr. Prickett. Law reports. Takes a look at the advertisements in the Daily Telegraph sometimes. Ye see, sir,' he continued, growing suddenly warm and confidential, and laying a gloved forefinger lightly on his companion's arm, 'all day long the inside of a man's head is like a piece of machinery in motion. It's bound to go, and it must have something to work at. Now, when I went into the force, sir, I made up my mind as I wasn't going to stop on the bottom rung of the ladder all my life, and I says to myself, "Now, what's the first thing wanted to make a tip-top officer ?" I wasn't long in making up my mind. He's got to be notice-taking more than any other man alive, and he's never got to forget any person or any thing as he's once set eyes on. When I was on duty in the Strand—I was there for the best part of three years—I used to practise myself watching faces in the street. I spotted a man only yesterday that I see go by me seven years ago. I never see him before nor since, till yesterday, and I could ha' picked him out among a million. You tell that to some folks, and they'd think it was a lie, but it's just as true as gospel. Leave books alone, keep your head clear and your eyes open, and when you look at a thing, look at it. That's the secret, if there is one. Don't you think, sir,' continued Mr. Prickett, who had evidently mounted his pet hobby-4 don't you think as I'm such a fool as to despise book learning. If I should live to be old-aged, and can afford the time, I mean to have a real burst at it, but just now I've got my way to make, and I can't afford it.'—` I suppose,' said Arnold, 'that you don't mean to say that you never forget anything you have seen ?' = Well, no, sir,' returned the theorist, I don't say that, of course. But I never forget anything I've looked at. You'll notice, sir, that most people see things without taking the trouble to look at 'em, and so they don't rightly remember the things as ought to be most familiar. Now, for instance, sir, you ought to know that room we've been sitting in a good deal better than I do. I'm not bragging, but I'll bet you don't.'—` Well,' said Arnold, let us see.'—' Carpet,' said Prickett, as if he were dictating an inventory to a shorthand clerk= Brussels, whitish ground, sprinkled with largish roses. Wall paper same shade as carpet, diamond pattern in dull gold. Facing door, water-colour : girl crossing stream on stepping-stone, making signs to little chap on bank. Over door, water-colour : old gentleman, knee-breeches, reading book in a wood. Twelve chairs, various—four easy, three spider-legged, in gold. Little round-topped table near window, microscope on it, and a bracket full o' books : Tennyson's poems, green and gold, seven vellums ; " Imitation of Christ," white vellum, gold letters ; foreign book in a yellow cover, don't know the name ; " Leaders from the Times," two vellums, name of Phillips. Little cabinet in the corner, seven drawers, key in the middle drawer, basket of flowers and lady's photo on top. Chimley ornaments Dresden china, stag with antlers caught in a tree, left antler broke—'—' I will not compete with you, Mr. Prickett,' said Arnold."
And Mr. Prickett is painted so that the reader feels that he lives up to his own ideal. For instance, after the loss of the j ewels,—a loss on which the story turns,—the lady who has lost them receives a letter from " A Greiving Father," which is quoted, with Mr. Prickett's comments upon it, in the following amusing passage :- " On his arrival he found the full family conclave assembled. Everybody except Wyneott appeared mightily serious, but the barrister wore a look of amusement. This,' he said to Prickett, handing him a broken envelope, arrived this morning. We want your opinion on it.' Prickett took the envelope and inspected it gravely. Then he drew from it a soiled and crumpled sheet of paper and silently perused its contents. Respected Miss,' the letter ran. Greived I am to the coare to aknolige, that my onely son was in this days crime the stones is now in his position thuogh long a burclin to a fathers hart , had not lookt to find him gloting on illgott ganes. he say respected miss Thuogh of good education he will nott yeild to A father's prairs & ristoar the objecks of his trim without soMe ricomphence. he wil take a thousan and cryquits if agreeable respected miss in tomorrow standards A.gny collumn say this is square to A GREIVING FATHER.' Prickett stood examining this singular document for some time after it was evident that he had read it through.—' Well, Prickett,' said
Wyncott, smilingly, what do you think about it ? I think a good many things about it, sir,' he answered. It's bond fide up to a certain point. The parties it comes from have got the stones, because this was posted in London last night, before anybody but us here knew as the robbery had been committed. But outside that the letter's a flam.'—' What do you mean by that, Mr. Prickett,' Janet asked him.—` Why, miss,' he answered, if you'll take a careful look at it you'll find the paper's been soiled and crumpled after it was wrote upon. You can't write on paper that's crumpled as much as that without the pen being a bit guided by the creases. These stains ain't natural dirt. They're coffee, they are, and they're put on afterwards. You can see where they've rim the ink a little.'—' But what does all that lead to in your mind?' she asked. = It leads,' he answered,' to this, miss. The party that wrote this is trying to look ignorant and poor. It's a false hand to a certainty. A party as was really poor wouldn't want to take pains to show it. "Education," " without," "father," and " respected " is all spelt properly. A man wouldn't be likely to spell " recompense " like this person does, and then know how to spell " education." He's watered his ink, you notice. I should say that letter was wrote by a man better up in the world than he pretends, that the bad spelling was done a-purpose, and that it was wrote in these printing letters with the left hand.' "
And not only is Mr. Prickett's shrewdness as a detective admirably sketched, but also his feelings as a man are admir- ably painted, and that is just the part of the story which an ordinary student of accomplished detectives is quite sure to forget. Students of such a theme are so eager to glorify the faculty which pieces together the small traces of crime, that they merge the human being in the detective. Mr. Christie Murray knows better, and he is as true to the human nature of Prickett as he is to the professional nature.
All the accessory features of the story are also cleverly given. A cleverer one-volume tale, though it is one of no very ambitious type, we have not recently read. But the title is a mistake. Mr•. Wyncott Esden becomes only by accident a " dangerous catspaw." He obviously had the making in
him of a most accommodating catspaw.
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