The just Men of Cordova

The just Men of Cordova by Edgar Wallace

The Just Men of Cordova opens with a bearded stranger in black taking coffee at a café in Cordova, unmoved by a whining, bandaged beggar until the beggar drops into flawless English and asks whether he knows Dr. Essley. The stranger, Manfred, follows the beggar through Cordova's streets to the Calahorra Bridge, where the beggar reveals himself as Leon Gonsalez. Gonsalez explains that Poiccart is also in Cordova, watching an English doctor named Essley who has arrived only to consult the sorcerer-like Dr. Cajalos before returning to England. Manfred, Gonsalez and Poiccart reunite at Manfred's rooms, where Poiccart recounts Essley's obscure past: a mediocre medical graduate who went to Australia with a friend named Henley, who died on the road, then wandered mining camps as "Dr. S." before vanishing from Coolgardie and reappearing in London eight years later, patronized by the financier Colonel Black. Essley himself then calls on Manfred, posing as "de la Monte," anxiously asking whether the legendary "Four Just Men" are active in Spain, since he fears their justice. Unsettled by Manfred's answers, he storms off, strikes at the beggar Gonsalez in fury, and that night visits Dr. Cajalos, who demonstrates a poison so refined it leaves no trace—unaware he is being secretly overheard. The scene shifts to London, where Colonel Black, an outside broker whose company profits are built on a trail of convenient deaths among his associates, discusses business with his crony Sir Isaac Tramber, a disgraced baronet living off Black's money while courting Lady Mary Cassilirs, ward of the sharp-tongued Earl of Verlond. Black demonstrates the poison on Augustus Fanks, a partner who had grown suspicious of him, killing him instantly and blaming it on heart failure. Constable Frank Fellowe, a mysterious, well-educated policeman, is reprimanded by the corrupt Sergeant Gurden for investigating Black, who is secretly bribing Gurden for protection. Fellowe shadows Black's associates to a house in Pimlico where Black holds a clandestine board meeting with Sir Isaac and hired men Sparks and Jakobs. Recognized and lured inside, Fellowe is bound and threatened with imprisonment in Black's cellars unless he takes a bribe to stop investigating—until the Four Just Men themselves appear, masked, at the boardroom table, terrifying Black and rescuing Fellowe. Fellowe is romantically involved with May Sandford, daughter of ironmaster Theodore Sandford, who is at odds with Black over a business amalgamation. Essley, secretly working for Black to intimidate or poison Sandford's associates, visits May under the pretext of medical concern. Meanwhile Fellowe's insistence on remaining a policeman strains his relationship with May, who breaks off with him. Essley narrowly escapes a trap laid by mysterious pursuers (implied to be the Four) while meeting a man named Weld outside the British Museum, and returns home to find a letter from the Four warning him he has seven days to prepare for punishment. Sandford refuses to join Black's amalgamation scheme, worsening Black's desperate financial position. Subplots develop around Sir Isaac's courtship of Lady Mary, opposed by her true love Horace Gresham; Lord Verlond's cutting manipulation of both suitors; and a racing episode at Lincoln, where Gresham's filly Nemesis defeats Sir Isaac's Timbolino in a dead heat and then decisively in the run-off, ruining Sir Isaac financially until an anonymous gift from Lord Verlond bails him out. Black, scheming to identify the Four, bribes a servant posing as an informant—actually Gonsalez in disguise—who feeds him false leads implicating Gresham as the group's fourth member. Verlond reveals to Mary that her brother Con, long thought dead after fleeing to America, may still be alive, altering her inheritance prospects. Jakobs, Black's former pensioner turned blackmailer, attempts to warn May Sandford about Black and Essley but is turned away; he then confronts Black demanding money, revealing he has stolen the incriminating poison bottle, and is murdered by Black with a stiletto in a back street. Jakobs is carried dying to the free dispensary run by Gonsalez and Poiccart under assumed names, where he dies without regaining consciousness before he can name his killer. Black, learning May knew of Jakobs's visit, moves urgently to contain the fallout while police scrutiny and the unseen hand of the Four continue to close around him.

By Edgar Wallace · First published 1885 · Genre: Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thriller · 17 chapters · 63,677 words

First lines

The man who sat at the marble-topped table of the Café of the Great Captain -- if I translate the sign aright -- was a man of leisure. A tall man, with a trim beard and grave grey eyes that searched the street absently as though not quite certain of his quest. He sipped a coffee con leche and drummed a little tune on the table with his slender white hands.

He was dressed in black, which is the conventional garb in Spain, and his black cloak was lined with velvet. His cravat was of black satin, and his well-fitting trousers were strapped under his pointed boots, in the manner affected by certain caballero.

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Adventure · Mystery · Thriller · Crime · Espionage · Action · Suspense · Plot Twist · Clandestine Organization · Secret Society · Conspiracy · Betrayal

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