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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14332-0.txt b/14332-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24f2b27 --- /dev/null +++ b/14332-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11490 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14332 *** + + CLEEK: The Man of the Forty Faces + + By THOMAS W. HANSHEW + +AUTHOR OF "Cleek of Scotland Yard," "The Riddle of the Night," Etc. + + 1912 + + + +CLEEK: THE MAN OF THE FORTY FACES + + + + +PROLOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF HAMILTON CLEEK + + +The thing wouldn't have happened if any other constable than Collins had +been put on point duty at Blackfriars Bridge that morning. For Collins +was young, good-looking, and--knew it. Nature had gifted him with a +susceptible heart and a fond eye for the beauties of femininity. So when +he looked round and saw the woman threading her way through the maze of +vehicles at "Dead Man's Corner," with her skirt held up just enough to +show two twinkling little feet in French shoes, and over them a +graceful, willowy figure, and over that an enchanting, if rather too +highly tinted face, with almond eyes and a fluff of shining hair under +the screen of a big Parisian hat--that did for him on the spot. + +He saw at a glance that she was French--exceedingly French--and he +preferred English beauty, as a rule. But, French or English, beauty is +beauty, and here undeniably was a perfect type, so he unhesitatingly +sprang to her assistance and piloted her safely to the kerb, revelling +in her voluble thanks, and tingling as she clung timidly but rather +firmly to him. + +"Sair, I have to give you much gratitude," she said in a pretty, wistful +sort of way, as they stepped on to the pavement. Then she dropped her +hand from his sleeve, looked up at him, and shyly drooped her head, as +if overcome with confusion and surprise at the youth and good looks of +him. "Ah, it is nowhere in the world but Londres one finds these +delicate attentions, these splendid sergeants de ville," she added, with +a sort of sigh. "You are wonnerful--you are mos' wonnerful, you Anglais +poliss. Sair, I am a stranger; I know not ze ways of this city of +amazement, and if monsieur would so kindly direct me where to find the +Abbey of the Ves'minster--" + +Before P.C. Collins could tell her that if that were her destination, +she was a good deal out of her latitude; indeed, even before she +concluded what she was saying, over the rumble of the traffic there rose +a thin, shrill piping sound, which to ears trained to the call of it +possessed a startling significance. + +It was the shrilling of a police whistle, far off down the Embankment. + +"Hullo! That's a call to the man on point!" exclaimed Collins, all alert +at once. "Excuse me, mum. See you presently. Something's up. One of my +mates is a-signalling me." + +"Mates, monsieur? Mates? Signalling? I shall not understand the vords. +But yes, vat shall that mean--eh?" + +"Good Lord, don't bother me now! I--I mean, wait a bit. That's the call +to 'head off' someone, and--By George! There he is now, coming head on, +the hound, and running like the wind!" + +For of a sudden, through a break in the traffic, a scudding figure had +sprung into sight--the figure of a man in a grey frock-coat and a +shining "topper," a well-groomed, well-set-up man, with a small, +turned-up moustache and hair of that peculiar purplish-red one sees only +on the shell of a roasted chestnut. As he swung into sight, the distant +whistle shrilled again; far off in the distance voices sent up cries of +"Head him off!" "Stop that man!" _et cetera_; then those on the pavement +near to the fugitive took up the cry, joined in pursuit, and in a +twinkling, what with cabmen, tram-men, draymen, and pedestrians +shouting, there was hubbub enough for Hades. + +"A swell pickpocket, I'll lay my life," commented Collins, as he squared +himself for an encounter and made ready to leap on the man when he came +within gripping distance. "Here! get out of the way, madmazelly. +Business before pleasure. And, besides, you're like to get bowled over +in the rush. Here, chauffeur!"--this to the driver of a big, black +motor-car which swept round the angle of the bridge at that moment, and +made as though to scud down the Embankment into the thick of the +chase--"pull that thing up sharp! Stop where you are! Dead still. At +once, at once, do you hear? We don't want you getting in the way. Now, +then"--nodding his head in the direction of the running man--"come on +you bounder; I'm ready for you!" + +And, as if he really heard that invitation, and really was eager to +accept it, the red-headed man did "come on" with a vengeance. And all +the time, "madmazelly," unheeding Collins's advice, stood calmly and +silently waiting. + +Onward came the runner, with the whole roaring pack in his wake, dodging +in and out among the vehicles, "flooring" people who got in his way, +scudding, dodging, leaping, like a fox hard pressed by the +hounds--until, all of a moment he spied a break in the traffic, leapt +through it, and--then there was mischief. For Collins sprang at him like +a cat, gripped two big, strong-as-iron hands on his shoulders, and had +him tight and fast. + +"Got you, you ass!" snapped he, with a short, crisp, self-satisfied +laugh. "None of your blessed squirming now. Keep still. You'll get out +of your coffin, you bounder, as soon as out of my grip. Got you--got +you! Do you understand?" + +The response to this fairly took the wind out of him. + +"Of course I do," said the captive, gaily; "it's part of the programme +that you should get me. Only, for Heaven's sake, don't spoil the film by +remaining inactive, you goat! Struggle with me--handle me roughly--throw +me about. Make it look real; make it look as though I actually did get +away from you, not as though you let me. You chaps behind there, don't +get in the way of the camera--it's in one of those cabs. Now, then, +Bobby, don't be wooden! Struggle--struggle, you goat, and save the +film!" + +"Save the what?" gasped Collins. "Here! Good Lord! Do you mean to +say--?" + +"Struggle--struggle--struggle!" cut in the man impatiently. "Can't you +grasp the situation? It's a put-up thing: the taking of a kinematograph +film--a living picture--for the Alhambra to-night! Heavens above, +Marguerite, didn't you tell him?" + +"Non, non! There was not ze time. You come so quick, I could not. And +he--ah, le bon Dieu!--he gif me no chance. Officair, I beg, I entreat of +you, make it real! Struggle, fight, keep on ze constant move. +Zere!"--something tinkled on the pavement with the unmistakable sound of +gold--"zere, monsieur, zere is the half-sovereign to pay you for ze +trouble, only, for ze lof of goodness, do not pick it up while the +instrument--ze camera--he is going. It is ze kinematograph, and you +would spoil everything!" + +The chop-fallen cry that Collins gave was lost in a roar of laughter +from the pursuing crowd. + +"Struggle--struggle! Don't you hear, you idiot?" broke in the red-headed +man irritably. "You are being devilishly well paid for it, so for +goodness' sake make it look real. That's it! Bully boy! Now, once more +to the right, then loosen your grip so that I can push you away and make +a feint of punching you off. All ready there, Marguerite? Keep a clear +space about her, gentlemen. Ready with the motor, chauffeur? All right. +Now, then, Bobby, fall back, and mind your eye when I hit out, old chap. +One, two, three--here goes!" + +With that he pushed the chop-fallen Collins from him, made a feint of +punching his head as he reeled back, then sprang toward the spot where +the Frenchwoman stood, and gave a finish to the adventure that was +highly dramatic and decidedly theatrical. For "mademoiselle," seeing him +approach her, struck a pose, threw out her arms, gathered him into +them--to the exceeding enjoyment of the laughing throng--then both +looked back and behaved as people do on the stage when "pursued," +gesticulated extravagantly, and, rushing to the waiting motor, jumped +into it. + +"Many thanks, Bobby; many thanks, everybody!" sang out the red-headed +man. "Let her go, chauffeur. The camera men will pick us up again at +Whitehall, in a few minutes' time." + +"Right you are, sir," responded the chauffeur gaily. Then "toot-toot" +went the motor-horn as the gentleman in grey closed the door upon +himself and his companion, and the vehicle, darting forward, sped down +the Embankment in the exact direction whence the man himself had +originally come, and, passing directly through that belated portion of +the hurrying crowd to whom the end of the adventure was not yet known, +flew on and--vanished. + +And Collins, stooping to pick up the half-sovereign that had been thrown +him, felt that after all it was a poor price to receive for all the +jeers and gibes of the assembled onlookers. + +"Smart capture, Bobby, wasn't it?" sang out a deriding voice that set +the crowd jeering anew. "You'll git promoted, you will! See it in all +the evenin' papers--oh, yus! ''Orrible hand-to-hand struggle with a +desperado. Brave constable has 'arf a quid's worth out of an infuriated +ruffin!' My hat! won't your missis be proud when you take her to see +that bloomin' film?" + +"Move on, now, move on!" said Collins, recovering his dignity, and +asserting it with a vim. "Look here, cabby, I don't take it kind of you +to laugh like that; they had you just as bad as they had me. Blow that +Frenchy! She might have tipped me off before I made such an ass of +myself. I don't say that I'd have done it so natural if I had known, +but--Hullo! What's that? Blowed if it ain't that blessed whistle again, +and another crowd a-pelting this way; and--no!--yes, by Jupiter!--a +couple of Scotland Yard chaps with 'em. My hat! what do you suppose that +means?" + +He knew in the next moment. Panting and puffing, a crowd at their heels, +and people from all sides stringing out from the pavement and trooping +after them, the two "plain-clothes" men came racing through the grinning +gathering and bore down on P.C. Collins. + +"Hullo, Smathers, you in this, too?" began he, his feelings softened by +the knowledge that other arms of the law would figure on that film with +him at the Alhambra to-night. "Now, what are you after, you goat? That +French lady, or the red-headed party in the grey suit?" + +"Yes, yes, of course I am. You heard me signal you to head him off, +didn't you?" replied Smathers, looking round and growing suddenly +excited when he realized that Collins was empty-handed, and that the +red-headed man was not there. "Heavens! you never let him get away, did +you? You grabbed him, didn't you--eh?" + +"Of course I grabbed him. Come out of it. What are you giving me, you +josser?" said Collins with a wink and a grin. "Ain't you found out even +yet, you silly? Why, it was only a faked-up thing--the taking of a +kinematograph picture for the Alhambra. You and Petrie ought to have +been here sooner and got your wages, you goats. I got half a quid for my +share when I let him go." + +Smathers and Petrie lifted up their voices in one despairing howl. + +"When you what?" fairly yelled Smathers. "You fool! You don't mean to +tell me that you let them take you in like that--those two? You don't +mean to tell me that you had him--had him in your hands--and then let +him go? You did? Oh! you seventy-seven kinds of a double-barrelled ass! +Had him--think of it!--had him, and let him go! Did yourself out of a +share in a reward of two hundred quid when you'd only to shut your hands +and hold on to it!" + +"Two hundred quid? Two hun--W-what are you talking about? Wasn't it +true? Wasn't it a kinematograph picture, after all?" + +"No, you fool, no!" howled Smathers, fairly dancing with despair. "Oh, +you blithering idiot! You ninety-seven varieties of a fool! Do you know +who you had in your hands? Do you know who you let go? It was that devil +'Forty Faces'--'The Vanishing Cracksman'--the man who calls himself +'Hamilton Cleek'; and the woman was his pal, his confederate, his +blessed stool-pigeon--'Margot, the Queen of the Apache'; and she came +over from Paris to help him in that clean scoop of Lady Dresmer's jewels +last week!" + +"Heavens!" gulped Collins, too far gone to say anything else, too deeply +dejected to think of anything but that he had had the man for whom +Scotland Yard had been groping for a year--the man over whom all +England, all France, all Germany wondered--close shut in the grip of his +hands and then had let him go. The biggest and boldest criminal the +police had ever had to cope with, the almost supernatural genius of +crime, who defied all systems, laughed at all laws, mocked at all the +Vidocqs, and Dupins, and Sherlock Holmeses, whether amateur or +professional, French or English, German or American, that ever had been +or ever could be pitted against him, and who, for sheer devilry, for +diabolical ingenuity and for colossal impudence, as well as for a +nature-bestowed power that was simply amazing, had not his match in all +the universe. + +Who or what he really was, whence he came, whether he was English, +Irish, French, German, Yankee, Canadian, Italian or Dutchman, no man +knew and no man might ever hope to know unless he himself chose to +reveal it. In his many encounters with the police he had assumed the +speech, the characteristics, and, indeed, the facial attributes of each +in turn, and assumed them with an ease and a perfection that were simply +marvellous, and had gained for him the sobriquet of "Forty Faces" among +the police, and of "The Vanishing Cracksman" among the scribes and +reporters of newspaperdom. That he came, in time, to possess another +name than these was due to his own whim and caprice, his own bald, +unblushing impudence; for, of a sudden, whilst London was in a fever of +excitement and all the newspapers up in arms over one of the most daring +and successful coups, he chose to write boldly to both editors and +police complaining that the title given him by each was both vulgar and +cheap. + +"You would not think of calling Paganini a 'fiddler,'" he wrote; "why, +then, should you degrade me with the coarse term of 'cracksman'? I claim +to be as much an artist in my profession as Paganini was in his, and I +claim also a like courtesy from you. So, then, if in the future it +becomes necessary to allude to me--and I fear it often will--I shall be +obliged if you do so as 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.' In +return for that courtesy, gentlemen, I promise to alter my mode of +procedure, to turn over a new leaf, as it were, to give you at all times +hereafter distinct information, in advance, of such places as I elect +for the field of my operations, and of the time when I shall pay my +respects to them, and, on the morning after each such visit, to bestow +some small portion of the loot upon Scotland Yard as a souvenir of the +event." + +And to that remarkable programme he rigidly adhered from that time +forth--always giving the police twelve hours' notice, always evading +their traps and snares, always carrying out his plans in spite of them, +and always, on the morning after, sending some trinket or trifle to +Superintendent Narkom at Scotland Yard, in a little pink cardboard box, +tied up with rose-coloured ribbon, and marked "With the compliments of +The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek." + +The detectives of the United Kingdom, the detectives of the Continent, +the detectives of America--each and all had measured swords with him, +tried wits with him, spread snares and laid traps for him, and each and +all had retired from the field vanquished. + +And this was the man that he--Police Constable Samuel James Collins--had +actually had in his hands; nay, in his very arms, and then had given up +for half a sovereign and let go! + +"Oh, so help me! You make my head swim, Smathers, that you do!" he +managed to say at last. "I had him--I had the Vanishing Cracksman--in my +blessed paws--and then went and let that French hussy--But look here; I +say, now, how do you know it was him? Nobody can go by his looks; so how +do you know?" + +"Know, you footler!" growled Smathers, disgustedly. "Why shouldn't I +know when I've been after him ever since he left Scotland Yard half an +hour ago?" + +"Left what? My hat! You ain't a-going to tell me that he's been there? +When? Why? What for?" + +"To leave one of his blessed notices, the dare-devil. What a detective +he'd a made, wouldn't he, if he'd only a-turned his attention that way, +and been on the side of the law instead of against it? He walked in bold +as brass, sat down, and talked with the superintendent over some +cock-and-bull yarn about a 'Black Hand' letter that he said had been +sent to him, and asked if he couldn't have police protection whilst he +was in town. It wasn't until after he'd left that the super he sees a +note on the chair where the blighter had been sitting, and when he +opened it, there it was in black and white, something like this: + +"'The list of presents that have been sent for the wedding to-morrow of +Sir Horace Wyvern's eldest daughter make interesting reading, +particularly that part which describes the jewels sent--no doubt as a +tribute to her father's position as the greatest brain specialist in the +world--from the Austrian Court and the Continental principalities. The +care of such gems is too great a responsibility for the bride. I +propose, therefore, to relieve her of it to-night, and to send you the +customary souvenir of the event to-morrow morning. Yours faithfully, + +"'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek. + +"That's how I know, dash you! Superintendent sent me out after him, hot +foot; and after a bit I picked him up in the Strand, toddling along with +that French hussy as cool as you please. But, blow him! he must have +eyes all round his head, for he saw me just as soon as I saw him, and he +and Frenchy separated like a shot. She hopped into a taxi and flew off +in one direction; he dived into a crowd and bolted in another, and +before you could say Jack Robinson he was doubling and twisting, jumping +into cabs and jumping out again--all to gain time, of course, for the +woman to do what he'd put her up to doing--and leading me the devil's +own chase through the devil's own tangle till he was ready to bunk for +the Embankment. And you let him go, you blooming footler! Had him and +let him go, and chucked away a third of £200 for the price of half a +quid!" + +And long after Smathers and Petrie had left him, and the wondering crowd +had dispersed, and point duty at "Dead Man's Corner" was just point duty +again and nothing more, P.C. Collins stood there, chewing the cud of +bitter reflection over those words, and trying to reckon up just how +many pounds and how much glory had been lost to him. + + + + +II + + +"But, damme, sir, the thing's an outrage! I don't mince my words, Mr. +Narkom--I say plump and plain the thing's an outrage, a disgrace to the +police, an indignity upon the community at large; and for Scotland Yard +to permit itself to be defied, bamboozled, mocked at in this appalling +fashion by a paltry burglar--" + +"Uncle, dear, pray don't excite yourself in this manner. I am quite sure +that if Mr. Narkom could prevent the things--" + +"Hold your tongue, Ailsa--I will not be interfered with! It's time that +somebody spoke out plainly and let this establishment know what the +public has a right to expect of it. What do I pay my rates and taxes +for--and devilish high ones they are, too, b'gad--if it's not to +maintain law and order and the proper protection of property? And to +have the whole blessed country terrorised, the police defied, and +people's houses invaded with impunity by a gutter-bred brute of a +cracksman is nothing short of a scandal and a shame! Call this sort of +tomfoolery being protected by the police? God bless my soul! one might +as well be in charge of a parcel of doddering old women and be done with +it!" + +It was an hour and a half after that exciting affair at "Dead Man's +Corner." The scene was Superintendent Narkom's private room at +headquarters, the dramatis personae, Mr. Maverick Narkom himself, Sir +Horace Wyvern, and Miss Ailsa Lorne, his niece, a slight, fair-haired, +extremely attractive girl of twenty, the only and orphaned daughter of a +much-loved sister, who, up till a year ago, had known nothing more +exciting in the way of "life" than that which is to be found in a small +village in Suffolk, and falls to the lot of an underpaid vicar's only +child. A railway accident had suddenly deprived her of both parents, +throwing her wholly upon her own resources, without a penny in the +world. Sir Horace had gracefully come to the rescue and given her a home +and a refuge, being doubly repaid for it by the affection and care she +gave him and the manner in which she assumed control of a household +which hitherto had been left wholly to the attention of servants, Lady +Wyvern having long been dead, and her two daughters of that type which +devotes itself entirely to the pleasures of society and the demands of +the world. A regular pepper-box of a man--testy, short-tempered, +exacting--Sir Horace had flown headlong to Superintendent Narkom's +office as soon as that gentleman's note, telling him of the Vanishing +Cracksman's latest threat, had been delivered, and, on Miss Lorne's +advice, had withheld all news of it from the members of his household +and brought her with him. + +"I tell you that Scotland Yard must do something--must! must! must!" +stormed he as Narkom, resenting that stigma upon the institution, +puckered up his lips and looked savage. "That fellow has always kept his +word--always, in spite of your precious band of muffs--and if you let +him keep it this time, when there's upwards of £40,000 worth of jewels +in the house, it will be nothing less than a national disgrace, and you +and your wretched collection of bunglers will be covered with deserved +ridicule." + +Narkom swung round, smarting under these continued taunts, these +"flings" at the efficiency of his prided department, his nostrils +dilated, his temper strained to the breaking-point. + +"Well, he won't keep it this time--I promise you that!" he rapped out +sharply. "Sooner or later every criminal, no matter how clever, meets +his Waterloo--and this shall be his! I'll take this affair in hand +myself, Sir Horace. I'll not only send the pick of my men to guard the +jewels, but I'll go with them; and if that fellow crosses the threshold +of Wyvern House to-night, by the Lord, I'll have him. He will have to be +the devil himself to get away from me! Miss Lorne"--recollecting himself +and bowing apologetically--"I ask your pardon for this strong +language--my temper got the better of my manners." + +"It does not matter, Mr. Narkom, so that you preserve my cousin's +wedding-gifts from that appalling man," she answered with a gentle +inclination of the head and with a smile that made the superintendent +think she must certainly be the most beautiful creature in all the +world, it so irradiated her face and added to the magic of her glorious +eyes. "It does not matter what you say, what you do, so long as you +accomplish that." + +"And I will accomplish it--as I'm a living man, I will! You may go home +feeling assured of that. Look for my men some time before dusk, Sir +Horace--I will arrive later. They will come in one at a time. See that +they are admitted by the area door, and that, once in, not one of them +leaves the house again before I put in an appearance. I'll look them +over when I arrive to be sure that there's no wolf in sheep's clothing +amongst them. With a fellow like that--a diabolical rascal with a +diabolical gift for impersonation--one can't be too careful. Meantime, +it is just as well not to have confided this news to your daughters, +who, naturally, would be nervous and upset; but I assume that you have +taken some one of the servants into your confidence in order that nobody +may pass them and enter the house under any pretext whatsoever?" + +"No, I have not. Miss Lorne advised against it, and, as I am always +guided by her, I said nothing of the matter to anybody." + +"Was that wrong, do you think, Mr. Narkom?" queried Ailsa anxiously. "I +feared that if they knew they might lose their heads, and that my +cousins, who are intensely nervous and highly emotional, might hear of +it, and add to our difficulties by becoming hysterical and demanding our +attention at a time when we ought to be giving every moment to watching +for the possible arrival of that man. And as he has always lived up to +the strict letter of his dreadful promises heretofore, I knew that he +was not to be expected before nightfall. Besides, the jewels are locked +up in the safe in Sir Horace's consulting-room, and his assistant, Mr. +Merfroy, has promised not to leave it for one instant before we return." + +"Oh, well, that's all right, then. I dare say there is very little +likelihood of our man getting in whilst you and Sir Horace are here, and +taking such a risk as stopping in the house until nightfall to begin his +operations. Still, it was hardly wise, and I should advise hurrying back +as fast as possible and taking at least one servant--the one you feel +least likely to lose his head--into your confidence, Sir Horace, and +putting him on the watch for my men. Otherwise, keep the matter as quiet +as you have done, and look for me about nine o'clock. And rely upon this +as a certainty: the Vanishing Cracksman will never get away with even +one of those jewels if he enters that house to-night, and never get out +of it unshackled!" + +With that, he suavely bowed his visitors out and rang up the pick of his +men without an instant's delay. + +Promptly at nine o'clock he arrived, as he had promised, at Wyvern +House, and was shown into Sir Horace's consulting-room, where Sir Horace +himself and Miss Lorne were awaiting him, and keeping close watch before +the locked door of a communicating apartment in which sat the six men +who had preceded him. He went in and put them all and severally through +a rigid examination--pulling their hair and beards, rubbing their faces +with a clean handkerchief in quest of any trace of "make-up" or disguise +of any sort, examining their badges and the marks on the handcuffs they +carried with them to make sure that they bore the sign which he himself +had scratched upon them in the privacy of his own room a couple of hours +ago. + +"No mistake about this lot," he announced, with a smile. "Has anybody +else entered or attempted to enter the house?" + +"Not a soul," replied Miss Lorne. "I didn't trust anybody to do the +watching, Mr. Narkom--I watched myself." + +"Good. Where are the jewels? In that safe?" + +"No," replied Sir Horace. "They are to be exhibited in the +picture-gallery for the benefit of the guests at the wedding breakfast +to-morrow, and as Miss Wyvern wished to superintend the arrangement of +them herself, and there would be no time for that in the morning, she +and her sister are in there laying them out at this moment. As I could +not prevent that without telling them what we have to dread, I did not +protest against it; but if you think it will be safer to return them to +the safe after my daughters have gone to bed, Mr. Narkom--" + +"Not at all necessary. If our man gets in, their lying there in full +view like that will prove a tempting bait, and--well, he'll find there's +a hook behind it. I shall be there waiting for him. Now go and join the +ladies, you and Miss Lorne, and act as though nothing out of the common +was in the wind. My men and I will stop here, and you had better put out +the light and lock us in, so that there may be no danger of anybody +finding out that we are here. No doubt Miss Wyvern and her sister will +go to bed earlier than usual on this particular occasion. Let them do +so. Send the servants to bed, too. You and Miss Lorne go to your beds at +the same time as the others--or, at least, let them think that you have +done so; then come down and let us out." + +To this Sir Horace assented, and, taking Miss Lorne with him, went at +once to the picture-gallery and joined his daughters, with whom they +remained until eleven o'clock. Promptly at that hour, however, the house +was locked up, the bride-elect and her sister went to bed--the servants +having already gone to theirs--and stillness settled down over the +darkened house. At the end of a dozen minutes, however, it was faintly +disturbed by the sound of slippered feet coming along the passage +outside the consulting-room, then a key slipped into the lock, the door +was opened, the light switched on, and Sir Horace and Miss Lorne +appeared before the eager watchers. + +"Now, then, lively, my men--look sharp!" whispered Narkom. "A man to +each window and each staircase, so that nobody may go up or down or in +or out without dropping into the arms of one of you. Confine your +attention to this particular floor, and if you hear anybody coming, lay +low until he's within reach, and you can drop on him before he bolts. Is +this the door of the picture-gallery, Sir Horace?" + +"Yes," answered Sir Horace, as he fitted a key to the lock. "But surely +you will need more men than you have brought, Mr. Narkom, if it is your +intention to guard every window individually, for there are four to this +room--see!" + +With that he swung open the door, switched on the electric light, and +Narkom fairly blinked at the dazzling sight that confronted him. Three +long tables, laden with crystal and silver, cut glass and jewels, and +running the full length of the room, flashed and scintillated under the +glare of the electric bulbs which encircled the cornice of the gallery, +and clustered in luminous splendour in the crystal and frosted silver of +a huge central chandelier, and spread out on the middle one of these--a +dazzle of splintered rainbows, a very plain of living light--lay caskets +and cases, boxes and trays, containing those royal gifts of which the +newspapers had made so much and the Vanishing Cracksman had sworn to +make so few. + +Mr. Narkom went over and stood beside the glittering mass, resting his +hand against the table and feasting his eyes upon all that opulent +splendour. + +"God bless my soul! it's superb, it's amazing," he commented. "No wonder +the fellow is willing to take risks for a prize like this. You are a +splendid temptation; a gorgeous bait, you beauties; but the fish that +snaps at you will find that there's a nasty hook underneath in the shape +of Maverick Narkom. Never mind the many windows, Sir Horace. Let him +come in by them, if that's his plan. I'll never leave these things for +one instant between now and the morning. Good night, Miss Lorne. Go to +bed and to sleep--you do the same, Sir Horace. My lay is here!" + +With that he stooped and, lifting the long drapery which covered the +table and swept down in heavy folds to the floor, crept out of sight +under it, and let it drop back into place again. + +"Switch off the light and go," he called to them in a low-sunk voice. +"Don't worry yourselves, either of you. Go to bed, and to sleep if you +can." + +"As if we could," answered Miss Lorne agitatedly. "I shan't be able to +close an eyelid. I'll try, of course, but I know I shall not succeed. +Come, uncle, come! Oh, do be careful, Mr. Narkom; and if that horrible +man does come--" + +"I'll have him, so help me God!" he vowed. "Switch off the light, and +shut the door as you go out. This is 'Forty Faces'' Waterloo at last." + +And in another moment the light snicked out, the door closed, and he was +alone in the silent room. + +For ten or a dozen minutes not even the bare suggestion of a noise +disturbed the absolute stillness; then of a sudden, his trained ear +caught a faint sound that made him suck in his breath and rise on his +elbow, the better to listen--a sound which came, not without the house, +but from within, from the dark hall where he had stationed his men, to +be exact. As he listened he was conscious that some living creature had +approached the door, touched the handle, and by the swift, low rustle +and the sound of hard breathing, that it had been pounced upon and +seized. He scrambled out from beneath the table, snicked on the light, +whirled open the door, and was in time to hear the irritable voice of +Sir Horace say, testily: "Don't make an ass of yourself by your +over-zealousness. I've only come down to have a word with Mr. Narkom," +and to see him standing on the threshold, grotesque in a baggy suit of +striped pyjamas, with one wrist enclosed as in a steel band by the +gripped fingers of Petrie. + +"Why didn't you say it was you, sir?" exclaimed that crestfallen +individual, as the flashing light made manifest his mistake. "When I +heard you first, and see you come up out of that back passage, I made +sure it was him; and if you'd a struggled, I'd have bashed your head as +sure as eggs." + +"Thank you for nothing," he responded testily. "You might have +remembered, however, that the man's first got to get into the place +before he can come downstairs. Mr. Narkom," turning to the +superintendent, "I was just getting into bed when I thought of something +I'd neglected to tell you; and as my niece is sitting in her room with +the door open, and I wasn't anxious to parade myself before her in my +night clothes, I came down by the back staircase. I don't know how in +the world I came to overlook it, but I think you ought to know that +there's a way of getting into the picture gallery without using either +the windows or the stairs, and that way ought to be both searched and +guarded." + +"Where is it? What is it? Why in the world didn't you tell me in the +first place?" exclaimed Narkom irritably, as he glanced round the place +searchingly. "Is it a panel? a secret door? or what? This is an old +house, and old houses are sometimes a very nest of such things." + +"Happily, this one isn't. It's a modern innovation, not an ancient +relic, that offers the means of entrance in this case. A Yankee occupied +this house before I bought it from him--one of those blessed shivery +individuals his country breeds, who can't stand a breath of cold air +indoors after the passing of the autumn. The wretched man put one of +those wretched American inflictions, a hot-air furnace, in the cellar, +with huge pipes running to every room in the house--great tin +monstrosities bigger round than a man's body, ending in openings in the +wall, with what they call 'registers,' to let the heat in, or shut it +out as they please. I didn't have the wretched contrivance removed or +those blessed 'registers' plastered up. I simply had them papered over +when the rooms were done up (there's one over there near that settee), +and if a man got into this house, he could get into that furnace thing +and hide in one of those flues until he got ready to crawl up it as +easily as not. It struck me that perhaps it would be as well for you to +examine that furnace and those flues before matters go any further." + +"Of course it would. Great Scott! Sir Horace, why didn't you think to +tell me of this thing before?" said Narkom, excitedly. "The fellow may +be in it at this minute. Come, show me the wretched thing." + +"It's below--in the cellar. We shall have to go down the kitchen stairs, +and I haven't a light." + +"Here's one," said Petrie, unhitching a bull's-eye from his belt and +putting it into Narkom's hand. "Better go with Sir Horace at once, sir. +Leave the door of the gallery open and the light on. Fish and me will +stand guard over the stuff till you come back, so in case the man is in +one of them flues and tries to bolt out at this end, we can nab him +before he can get to the windows." + +"A good idea," commented Narkom. "Come on, Sir Horace. Is this the way?" + +"Yes, but you'll have to tread carefully, and mind you don't fall over +anything. A good deal of my paraphernalia--bottles, retorts and the +like--is stored in the little recess at the foot of the staircase, and +my assistant is careless and leaves things lying about." + +Evidently the caution was necessary, for a minute or so after they had +passed on and disappeared behind the door leading to the kitchen +stairway, Petrie and his colleagues heard a sound as of something being +overturned and smashed, and laughed softly to themselves. Evidently, +too, the danger of the furnace had been grossly exaggerated by Sir +Horace, for when, a few minutes later, the door opened and closed, and +Narkom's men, glancing toward it, saw the figure of their chief +reappear, it was plain that he was in no good temper, since his features +were knotted up into a scowl, and he swore audibly as he snapped the +shutter over the bull's-eye and handed it back to Petrie. + +"Nothing worth looking into, superintendent?" + +"No--not a thing!" he replied. "The silly old josser! pulling me down +there amongst the coals and rubbish for an insane idea like that! Why, +the flues wouldn't admit the passage of a child; and even then, there's +a bend--an abrupt 'elbow'--that nothing but a cat could crawl up. And +that's a man who's an authority on the human brain! I sent the old silly +back to bed by the way he came, and if--" + +There he stopped, stopped short, and sucked in his breath with a sharp, +wheezing sound. For, of a sudden, a swift pattering footfall and a +glimmer of moving light had sprung into being and drawn his eyes upward; +and there, overhead, was Miss Lorne coming down the stairs from the +upper floor in a state of nervous excitement, and with a bedroom candle +in her shaking hand, a loose gown flung on over her nightdress, and her +hair streaming over her shoulders in glorious disarray. + +He stood and looked at her, with ever-quickening breath, with +ever-widening eyes, as though the beauty of her had wakened some dormant +sense whose existence he had never suspected; as though, until now, he +had never known how fair it was possible for a woman to be, how fair, +how lovable, how much to be desired; and whilst he was so looking she +reached the foot of the staircase and came pantingly toward him. + +"Oh, Mr. Narkom, what was it--that noise I heard?" she said in a tone of +deepest agitation. "It sounded like a struggle--like the noise of +something breaking--and I dressed as hastily as I could and came down. +Did he come? Has he been here? Have you caught him? Oh! why don't you +answer me, instead of staring at me like this? Can't you see how +nervous, how frightened, I am? Dear Heaven! will no one tell me what has +happened?" + +"Nothing has happened, miss," answered Petrie, catching her eye as she +flashed round on him. "You'd better go back to bed. Nobody's been here +but Sir Horace. The noise you heard was me a-grabbing of him, and he and +Mr. Narkom a-tumbling over something as they went down to look at the +furnace." + +"Furnace? What furnace? What are you talking about?" she cried +agitatedly. "What do you mean by saying that Sir Horace came down?" + +"Only what the superintendent himself will tell you, miss, if you ask +him. Sir Horace came downstairs in his pyjamas a few minutes ago to say +as he'd recollected about the flues of the furnace in the cellar being +big enough to hold a man, and then him and Mr. Narkom went below to have +a look at it." + +She gave a sharp and sudden cry, and her face went as pale as a dead +face. + +"Sir Horace came down?" she repeated, moving back a step and leaning +heavily against the bannister. "Sir Horace came down to look at the +furnace? We have no furnace!" + +"What!" + +"We have no furnace, I tell you, and Sir Horace did not come down. He is +up there still. I know--I know, I tell you--because I feared for his +safety, and when he went to his room I locked him in!" + +"Superintendent!" The word was voiced by every man present, and six +pairs of eyes turned toward Narkom with a look of despairing +comprehension. + +"Get to the cellar. Head the man off! It's he--the Cracksman!" he +shouted out. "Find him! Get him! Nab him, if you have to turn the house +upside down!" + +They needed no second bidding, for each man grasped the situation +instantly, and in a twinkling there was a veritable pandemonium. +Shouting and scrambling like a band of madmen, they lurched to the door, +whirled it open, and went flying down the staircase to the kitchen and +so to a discovery which none might have foreseen. For, almost as they +entered they saw lying on the floor a suit of striped pyjamas, and close +to it, gagged, bound, helpless, trussed up like a goose that was ready +for the oven, gyves on his wrists, gyves on his ankles, their chief, +their superintendent, Mr. Maverick Narkom, in a state of collapse, and +with all his outer clothing gone! + +"After him! After that devil, and a thousand pounds to the man that gets +him!" he managed to gasp as they rushed to him and ripped loose the gag. +"He was here when we came! He has been in the house for hours. Get him! +get him! get him!" + +They surged from the room and up the stairs like a pack of stampeded +animals; they raced through the hall and bore down on the +picture-gallery in a body, and, whirling open the now closed door, went +tumbling headlong in. + +The light was still burning. At the far end of the room a window was +wide open, and the curtains of it fluttered in the wind. A collection of +empty cases and caskets lay on the middle table, but man and jewels were +alike gone! Once again the Vanishing Cracksman had lived up to his +promise, up to his reputation, up to the very letter of his name, and +for all Mr. Maverick Narkom's care and shrewdness, "Forty Faces" had +"turned the trick" and Scotland Yard was "done!" + + + + +III + + +Through all the night its best men sought him, its dragnets fished for +him, its tentacles groped into every hole and corner of London in quest +of him, but sought and fished and groped in vain. They might as well +have hoped to find last summer's partridges or last winter's snow as any +trace of him. He had vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared, and no +royal jewels graced the display of Miss Wyvern's wedding gifts on the +morrow. + +But it was fruitful of other "gifts," fruitful of an even greater +surprise, that "morrow." For the first time since the day he had given +his promise, no "souvenir" from "The Man Who Called Himself Hamilton +Cleek," no part of last night's loot came to Scotland Yard; and it was +while the evening papers were making screaming "copy" and glaring +headlines out of this that the surprise in question came to pass. + +Miss Wyvern's wedding was over, the day and the bride had gone, and it +was half-past ten at night, when Sir Horace, answering a hurry call from +headquarters, drove post haste to Superintendent Narkom's private room, +and passing in under a red and green lamp which burned over the doorway, +entered and met that "surprise." + +Maverick Narkom was there alone, standing beside his desk, with the +curtains of his window drawn and pinned together, and at his elbow an +unlighted lamp of violet-coloured glass, standing and looking +thoughtfully down at something which lay before him. He turned as his +visitor entered and made an open-handed gesture toward it. + +"Look here," he said laconically, "what do you think of this?" + +Sir Horace moved forward and looked; then stopped and gave a sort of +wondering cry. The electric bulbs overhead struck a glare of light down +on the surface of the desk, and there, spread out on the shining oak, +lay a part of the royal jewels that had been stolen from Wyvern House +last night. + +"Narkom! You got him, then--got him after all?" + +"No, I did not get him. I doubt if any man could, if he chose not to be +found," said Narkom bitterly. "I did not recover these jewels by any act +of my own. He sent them to me; gave them up voluntarily." + +"Gave them up? After he had risked so much to get them? God bless my +soul, what a man! Why, there must be quite half here of what he took." + +"There is half--an even half. He sent them to-night, and with them this +letter. Look at it, and you will understand why I sent for you and asked +you to come alone." + +"There's some good in even the devil, I suppose, if one but knows how to +reach it and stir it up," Sir Horace read. "I have lived a life of crime +from my very boyhood because I couldn't help it, because it appealed to +me, because I glory in risks and revel in dangers. I never knew where it +would lead me--I never thought, never cared--but I looked into the +gateway of heaven last night, and I can't go down the path to hell any +longer. Here is an even half of Miss Wyvern's jewels. If you and her +father would have me hand over the other half to you, and would have +'The Vanishing Cracksman' disappear forever, and a useless life +converted into a useful one, you have only to say so to make it an +accomplished thing. All I ask in return is your word of honour (to be +given to me by signal) that you will send for Sir Horace Wyvern to be at +your office at eleven o'clock to-night, and that you and he will grant +me a private interview unknown to any other living being. A red and +green lantern hung over the doorway leading to your office will be the +signal that you agree, and a violet light in your window will be the +pledge of Sir Horace Wyvern. When these two signals, these two pledges, +are given, I shall come in and hand over the remainder of the jewels, +and you will have looked for the first time in your life upon the real +face of 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.'" + +"God bless my soul! What an amazing creature--what an astounding +request!" exclaimed Sir Horace, as he laid the letter down. "Willing to +give up £20,000 worth of jewels for the mere sake of a private +interview! What on earth can be his object? And why should he include +me?" + +"I don't know," said Narkom in reply. "It's worth something, at all +events, to be rid of 'The Vanishing Cracksman' for good and all; and he +says that it rests with us to do that. It's close to eleven now. Shall +we give him the pledge he asks, Sir Horace? My signal is already hung +out; shall we agree to the conditions and give him yours?" + +"Yes, yes, by all means," Sir Horace made answer. And lighting the +violet lamp, Narkom flicked open the pinned curtains and set it in the +window. + +For ten minutes nothing came of it, and the two men, talking in whispers +while they waited, began to grow nervous. Then somewhere in the distance +a clock started striking eleven, and without so much as a warning sound, +the door flashed open, flashed shut again, a voice that was undeniably +the voice of breeding and refinement said quietly: "Gentlemen, my +compliments. Here are the diamonds and here am I!" and the figure of a +man, faultlessly dressed, faultlessly mannered, with the slim-loined +form, the slim-walled nose, and the clear-cut features of the born +aristocrat, stood in the room. + +His age might lie anywhere between twenty-five and thirty-five, his eyes +were straight-looking and clear, his fresh, clean-shaven face was +undeniably handsome, and, whatever his origin, whatever his history, +there was something about him, in look, in speech, in bearing, that +mutely stood sponsor for the thing called "birth." + +"God bless my soul!" exclaimed Sir Horace, amazed and appalled to find +the reality so widely different from the image he had drawn. "What +monstrous juggle is this? Why, man alive, you're a gentleman! Who are +you? What's driven you to a dog's life like this?" + +"A natural bent, perhaps; a supernatural gift, certainly, Sir Horace," +he made reply. "Look here! Could any man resist the temptation to use it +when he was endowed by Nature with the power to do this?" His features +seemed to writhe and knot and assume in as many moments a dozen +different aspects. "I've had the knack of doing that since the hour I +could breathe. Could any man 'go straight' with a fateful gift like that +if the laws of Nature said that he should not?" + +"And do they say that?" + +"That's what I want you to tell me--that's why I have requested this +interview. I want you to examine me, Sir Horace, to put me through those +tests you use to determine the state of mind of the mentally fit and +mentally unfit; I want to know if it is my fault that I am what I am, +and if it is myself I have to fight in future, or the devil that lives +within me. I'm tired of wallowing in the mire. A woman's eyes have lit +the way to heaven for me. I want to climb up to her, to win her, to be +worthy of her, and to stand beside her in the light." + +"Her? What 'her'?" + +"That's my business, Mr. Narkom, and I'll take no man into my confidence +regarding that." + +"Yes, my friend, but 'Margot'--how about her?" + +"I'm done with her! We broke last night, when I returned and she +learned--never mind what she learned! I'm done with her--done with the +lot of them. My life is changed forever." + +"In the name of Heaven, man, who and what are you?" + +"Cleek--just Cleek; let it go at that," he made reply. "Whether it's my +name or not is no man's business; who I am, what I am, whence I came, is +no man's business either. Cleek will do--Cleek of the Forty Faces. Never +mind the past; my fight is with the future, and so--examine me, Sir +Horace, and let me know if I or Fate's to blame for what I am." + +Sir Horace did. + +"Absolutely Fate," he said, when, after a long examination, the man put +the question to him again. "It is the criminal brain fully developed, +horribly pronounced. God help you, my poor fellow; but a man simply +could not be other than a thief and a criminal with an organ like that. +There's no hope for you to escape your natural bent except by death. You +can't be honest. You can't rise--you never will rise; it's useless to +fight against it!" + +"I will fight against it! I will rise! I will! I will! I will!" he cried +out vehemently. "There is a way to put such craft and cunning to +account; a way to fight the devil with his own weapons and crush him +under the weight of his own gifts, and that way I'll take!" + +"Mr. Narkom"--he whirled and walked toward the superintendent, his hand +outstretched, his eager face aglow--"Mr. Narkom, help me! Take me under +your wing. Give me a start--give me a chance--give me a lift on the way +up!" + +"Good heaven, man, you--you don't mean--?" + +"I do--I do! So help me heaven, I do. All my life I've fought against +the law--now let me switch over and fight with it. I'm tired of being +Cleek, the thief; Cleek, the burglar. Make me Cleek, the detective, and +let us work together, hand in hand, for a common cause and for the +public good. Will you, Mr. Narkom? Will you?" + +"Will I? Won't I!" said Narkom, springing forward and gripping his hand. +"Jove! what a detective you will make. Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +"It's a compact, then?" + +"It's a compact--Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said in a choked voice. "You've given me my chance; now +watch me live up to it. The Vanishing Cracksman has vanished forever, +Mr. Narkom, and it's Cleek, the detective--Cleek of the Forty Faces from +this time on. Now, give me your riddles--I'll solve them one by one." + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The sound came again--so unmistakably, this time, the sound of a +footstep in the soft, squashy ooze on the Heath, there could be no +question regarding the nature of it. Miss Lorne came to an instant +standstill and clutched her belongings closer to her with a shake and a +quiver; and a swift prickle of goose-flesh ran round her shoulders and +up and down the backs of her hands. There was good, brave blood in her, +it is true; but good, brave blood isn't much to fall back upon if you +happen to be a girl without escort, carrying a hand-bag containing +twenty-odd pounds in money, several bits of valuable jewellery--your +whole earthly possessions, in fact--and have lost your way on Hampstead +Heath at half-past eight o'clock at night, with a spring fog shutting +you in like a wall and shutting out everything else but a "mackerel" +collection of clouds that looked like grey smudges on the greasy-silver +of a twilit sky. + +She looked round, but she could see nothing and nobody. The Heath was a +white waste that might have been part of the scenery in Lapland for all +there was to tell that it lay within reach of the heart and pulse of the +sluggish leviathan London. Over it the vapours of night crowded, an +almost palpable wall of thick, wet mist, stirred now and again by some +atmospheric movement which could scarcely be called a wind, although, at +times, it drew long, lacey filaments above the level of the denser mass +of fog and melted away with them into the calm, still upper air. + +Miss Lorne hesitated between two very natural impulses--to gather up her +skirts and run, or to stand her ground and demand an explanation from +the person who was undoubtedly following her. She chose the latter. + +"Who is there? Why are you following me? What do you want?" she flung +out, keeping her voice as steady as the hard, sharp hammering of her +heart would permit. + +The question was answered at once--rather startlingly, since the +footsteps which caused her alarm, had all the while proceeded from +behind, and slightly to the left of her. Now there came a hurried rush +and scramble on the right; there was the sound of a match being +scratched, a blob of light in the grey of the mist, and she saw standing +in front of her, a ragged, weedy, red-headed youth, with the blazing +match in his scooped hands. + +He was thin to the point of ghastliness. Hunger was in his pinched face, +his high cheekbones, his gouged jaws; staring like a starved wolf, +through the unnatural brightness of his pale eyes, from every gaunt +feature of him. + +"'Ullo!" he said with a strong Cockney accent, as he came up out of the +fog, and the flare of the match gave him a full view of her, standing +there with her lips shut hard, and, the hand-bag clutched up close to +her with both hands. "You wot called, was it? Wot price me for +arnswerin' of you, eh?" + +"Yes, it was I that called," she replied, making a brave front of it. +"But I do not think it was you that I called to. Keep away, please. +Don't come any nearer. What do you want?" "Well, I'll take that blessed +'and-bag to go on with; and if there aren't no money in it--tumble it +out--let's see--lively now! I'll feed for the rest of this week--Gawd, +yuss!" + +She made no reply, no attempt to obey him, no movement of any sort. Fear +had absolutely stricken every atom of strength from her. She could do +nothing but look at him with big, frightened eyes, and shake. + +"Look 'ere, aren't you a-goin' to do it quiet, or are you a-goin' to +mike me tike the blessed thing from you?" he asked. + +"I'll do it if you put me to it--my hat! yuss! It aren't my gime--I'm +wot you might call a hammer-chewer at it, but when there's summink +inside you, wot tears and tears and tears, any gime's worth tryin' that +pulls out the claws of it." + +She did not move even yet. He flung the spent match from him, and made a +sharp step toward her, and he had just reached out his hand to lay hold +of her, when another hand--strong, sinewy, hard-shutting as an iron +clamp--reached out from the mist, and laid hold of him; plucking him by +the neckband and intruding a bunch of knuckles and shut fingers between +that and his up-slanted chin. + +"Now, then, drop that little game at once, you young monkey!" struck in +the sharp staccato of a semi-excited voice. "Interfering with young +ladies, eh? Let's have a look at you. Don't be afraid, Miss +Lorne--nobody's going to hurt you." + +Then a pocket torch spat out a sudden ray of light; and by it both the +half-throttled boy and the wholly frightened girl could see the man who +had thus intruded himself upon their notice. + +"Oh, it is you--it is you again, Mr. Cleek?" said Ailsa with something +between a laugh and a sigh of relief as she recognized him. + +"Yes, it is I. I have been behind you ever since you left the house in +Bardon Road. It was rash of you to cross the heath at this time and in +this weather. I rather fancied that something of this kind would be +likely to happen, and so took the liberty of following you." + +"Then it was you I heard behind me?" + +"It was I--yes. I shouldn't have intruded myself upon your notice if you +hadn't called out. A moment, please. Let's have a look at this young +highwayman, who so freely advertises himself as an amateur." + +The light spat full into the gaunt, starved face of the young man and +made it stare forth doubly ghastly. He had made no effort to get away +from the very first. Perhaps he understood the uselessness of it, with +that strong hand gripped on his ragged neckband. Perhaps he was, in his +way, something of a fatalist--London breeds so many among such as he: +starved things that find every boat chained, every effort thrust back +upon them unrewarded. At any rate, from the moment he had heard the girl +give to this man a name which every soul in England had heard at one +time or another during the past two years, he had gone into a sort of +mild collapse, as though realising the utter uselessness of battling +against fate, and had given himself up to what was to be. + +"Hello," said Cleek, as he looked the youth over. "Yours is a face I +don't remember running foul of before, my young beauty. Where did you +come from?" + +"Where I seem like to be goin' now you've got your currant-pickers on +me--Hell," answered the boy, with something like a sigh of despair. +"Leastways, I been in Hell ever since I can remember anyfink, so I +reckon I must have come from there." + +"What's your name?" + +"Dollops. S'pose I must a had another sometime, but I never heard of it. +Wot's that? Yuss--most nineteen. _Wot?_ Oh, go throw summink at +yourself! I aren't too young to be 'ungry, am I? And where's a cove +goin' to _find_ this 'ere 'honest work' you're a-talkin' of? I'm fair +sick of the gime of lookin' for it. Besides, you don't see parties as +goes in for the other thing walkin' round with ribs on 'em like +bed-slats, and not even the price of a cup of corfy in their pockets, do +you? No fear! I wouldn't've 'urt the young lydie; but I tell you strite, +I'd a took every blessed farthin' she 'ad on her if you 'adn't've +dropped on me like this." + +"Got down to the last ditch--down to the point of desperation, eh?" + +"Yuss. So would you if you 'ad a fing inside you tearin' and tearin' +like I 'ave. Aren't et a bloomin' crumb since the day before yusterday +at four in the mawnin' when a gent in an 'ansom--drunk as a lord, he +was--treated me and a parcel of others to a bun and a cup of corfy at a +corfy stall over 'Ighgate way. Stood out agin bein' a crook as long as +ever I could--as long as ever I'm goin' to, I reckon, now _you've_ got +your maulers on me. I'll be on the list after this. The cops 'ull know +me; and when you've got the nime--well, wot's the odds? You might as +well 'ave the gime as well, and git over goin' empty. All right, run me +in, sir. Any'ow, I'll 'ave a bit to eat and a bed to sleep in to-night, +and that's one comfort--" + +Cleek had been watching the boy closely, narrowly, with an +ever-deepening interest; now he loosened the grip of his fingers and let +his hand drop to his side. + +"Suppose I don't 'run you in,' as you put it? Suppose I take a chance +and lend you five shillings, will you do some work and pay it back to me +in time?" he asked. + +The boy looked up at him and laughed in his face. + +"Look 'ere, Gov'nor, it's playin' it low down to lark wiv a chap jist +before you're goin' to 'ang 'im," he said. "You come off your blessed +perch." + +"Right," said Cleek. "And now you get up on yours and let us see what +you're made of." Then he put his hand into his trousers pocket; there +was a chink of coins and two half-crowns lay on his outstretched palm. +"There you are--off with you now, and if you are any good, turn up some +time to-night at No. 204, Clarges Street, and ask for Captain Horatio +Burbage. He'll see that there's work for you. Toddle along now and get a +meal and a bed. And mind you keep a close mouth about this." + +The boy neither moved nor spoke nor made any sound. For a moment or two +he stood looking from the man to the coins and from the coins back to +the man; then, gradually, the truth of the thing seemed to trickle into +his mind and, as a hungry fox might pounce upon a stray fowl, he grabbed +the money and--bolted. + +"Remember the name and remember the street," Cleek called after him. + +"You take your bloomin' oath I will!" came back through the enfolding +mist; "Gawd, yuss!"--Just that; and the youth was gone. + +"I wonder what you will think of me, Miss Lorne," said Cleek, turning to +her; "taking a chance like this; and, above all, with a fellow who would +have stripped you of every jewel and every penny you have with you if +things hadn't happened as they have?" + +"And I can very ill afford to lose anything _now_--as I suppose you +know, Mr. Cleek. Things have changed sadly for me since that day Mr. +Narkom introduced us at Ascot," she said, with just a shadow of +seriousness in her eyes. "But as to what I think regarding your action +toward that dreadful boy.... Oh, of course, if there is a chance of +saving him from a career of crime, I think one owes him that as a duty. +In the circumstances, the temptation was very great. It must be a +horrible thing to be so hungry that one is driven to robbery to satisfy +the longing for food." + +"Yes, very horrible--very, very indeed. I once knew a boy who stood as +that boy stands--at the parting of the ways; when the good that was in +him fought the last great fight with the Devil of Circumstances. If a +hand had been stretched forth to help that boy at that time ... Ah, +well! it wasn't. The Devil took the reins and the game went _his_ way. +If five shillings will put the reins into that boy's hands to-night and +steer him back to the right path, so much the better for him and--for +me. I'll know if he's worth the chance I took to-morrow. Now let us talk +about something else. Will you allow me to escort you across the heath +and see you safely on your way home? Or would you prefer that I should +remain in the background as before?" + +"How ungrateful you must think me, to suggest such a thing as that," she +said with a reproachful smile. "Walk with me if you will be so kind. I +hope you know that this is the third time you have rendered me a service +since I had the pleasure of meeting you. It is very nice of you; and I +am extremely grateful. I wonder you find the time or--well, take the +trouble," rather archly; "a great man like you." + +"Shall I take off my hat and say 'thank you, ma'am'; or just the +hackneyed 'Praise from Sir Hubert is praise indeed'?" he said with a +laugh as he fell into step with her and they faced the mist and the +distance together. "I suppose you are alluding to my success in the +famous Stanhope Case--the newspapers made a great fuss over that, Mr. +Narkom tells me. But--please. One big success doesn't make a 'great man' +any more than one rosebush makes a garden." + +"Are you fishing for a compliment? Or is that really natural modesty? I +had heard of your exploits and seen your name in the papers, oh, dozens +of times before I first had the pleasure of meeting you; and since then +... No, I shan't flatter you by saying how many successes I have seen +recorded to your credit in the past two years. Do you know that I have a +natural predilection for such things? It may be morbid of me--is +it?--but I have the strongest kind of a leaning toward the tales of +Gaboriau; and I have always wanted to know a really great +detective--like Lecocq, or Dupin. And that day at Ascot when Mr. Narkom +told me that he would introduce me to the famous 'Man of the Forty +Faces' ... Mr. Cleek, why do they call you 'the Man of the Forty Faces'? +You always look the same to me." + +"Perhaps I shan't, when we come to the end of the heath and get into the +public street, where there are lights and people," he said. "That I +always look the same in your eyes, Miss Lorne, is because I have but one +face for you, and that is my real one. Not many people see it, even +among the men of The Yard whom I occasionally work with. You do, +however; so does Mr. Narkom, occasionally. So did that boy, +unfortunately. I had to show it when I came to your assistance, if only +to assure you that you were in friendly hands and to prevent you taking +fright and running off into the mist in a panic and losing yourself +where even I might not be able to find you. That is why I told the boy +to apply for work to 'Captain Burbage of Clarges Street.' _I_ am Captain +Burbage, Miss Lorne. Nobody knows that but my good friend Mr. Narkom +and, now, you." + +"I shall respect it, of course," she said. "I hope I need not assure you +of that, Mr. Cleek." + +"You need assure me of nothing, Miss Lorne," he made reply. "I owe so +much more to you than you are aware, that--Oh, well, it doesn't matter. +You asked me a question a moment ago. If you want the answer to it--look +here." + +He stopped short as he spoke; the pocket-torch clicked faintly and from +the shelter of a curved hand, the glow of it struck upward to his face. +It was not the same face for ten seconds at a time. What Sir Horace +Wyvern had seen in Mr. Narkom's private office at Scotland Yard on that +night of nights more than two years ago, Sir Horace Wyvern's niece saw +now. + +"Oh!" she said, with a sharp intaking of the breath as she saw the +writhing features knot and twist and blend. "Oh, don't! It is uncanny! +It is amazing. It is awful!" And, after a moment, when the light had +been shut off and the man beside her was only a shape in the mist: "I +hope I may never see you do it again," she merely more than whispered. +"It is the most appalling thing. I can't think how you do it--how you +came by the power to do such a thing." + +"Perhaps by inheritance," said Cleek, as they walked on again. "Once +upon a time, Miss Lorne, there was a--er--lady of extremely high +position who, at a time when she should have been giving her thoughts +to--well, more serious things, used to play with one of those curious +little rubber faces which you can pinch up into all sorts of distorted +countenances--you have seen the things, no doubt. She would sit for +hours screaming with laughter over the droll shapes into which she +squeezed the thing. Afterward, when her little son was born, he +inherited the trick of that rubber face as a birthright. It may have +been the same case with me. Let us say it was, and drop the subject, +since you have not found the sight a pleasing one. Now tell me +something, please, that I want to know about you." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"About me, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. You spoke about there being a change in your circumstances--spoke +as though you thought I knew. I do not; but I should like to if I may. +It will perhaps explain why you are out alone and in this neighbourhood +at this time of night." + +"It will," she said, with just a shadow of deeper colour coming into her +cheeks. "The house you saw me coming out of is the residence of a friend +and former schoolmate. I went there to inquire if she could help me in +any way to secure a position; and stopped later than I realised." + +"Procure you a position, Miss Lorne? A position as what?" + +"Companion, amanuensis, governess--anything that," with a laugh and a +blush, "'respectable young females' may do to earn a living when they +come down in the world. You may possibly have heard that my uncle, Sir +Horace, has married again. I think you must have done so, for the papers +were full of it at the time. But I forget"--quizzically--"you don't read +newspapers, do you, even when they contain accounts of your own +greatness." + +"I wonder if I deserve that? At any rate, I got it," said Cleek with a +laugh. "Yes, I heard all about Sir Horace's wedding. Some four or five +months ago, wasn't it?" + +"No, three--three, last Thursday, the fourteenth. A woman doesn't forget +the date of her enforced abdication. The new Lady Wyvern soon let me +know that I was a superfluous person in the household. To-day, I came to +the conclusion to leave it; and have taken the first actual step toward +doing so. A lucky step, too, I fancy; or, at least, it promises to be." + +"As how?" + +"My friend knows of two people who would be likely to need me: one, a +titled lady here in England, who might be 'very glad to have me'--I am +quoting that, please--as governess to her little boy. The other, a young +French girl who is returning shortly to Paris, who also might be 'glad +to have me' as companion. Of course, I would sooner remain in England, +but--well, it is nicer to be a companion than a governess; and the young +lady is very nearly my own age. Indeed, we were actually at the same +school together when we were very little girls." + +"I see," said Cleek, a trifle gloomily. "So then it is possible that it +will, eventually, be the young French lady and--Paris, in future. When, +do you fancy? Soon?" + +"Oh, I don't know about that. I haven't quite made up my mind as yet +which of the two it will be. And then there's the application to be sent +afterwards." + +"Still, it will be one of the two certainly?" + +"Oh, yes. I shall have to earn my living in future, you know; so, +naturally, of course--" She gave her shoulder an eloquent upward +movement, and let the rest go by default. + +Cleek did not speak for a moment: merely walked on beside her--a ridge +between his eyebrows and his lower lip sucked in; as if he were mentally +debating upon something and was afraid he might speak incautiously. But +of a sudden: + +"Miss Lorne," he said, in a curiously tense voice, "may I ask you +something? Let us say that you had set your heart upon obtaining one or +the other of these two positions--set it so entirely that life wouldn't +be worth a straw to you if you didn't get it. Let us say, too, that +there was something you had done, something in your past which, if +known, might utterly preclude the possibility of your obtaining what you +wanted--it is an absurd hypothesis, of course: but let us use it for the +sake of argument. We will say you had done your best to live down that +offensive 'something' done, and were still doing all that lay in your +power to atone for it; that nobody but one person shared the knowledge +of that 'something' with you, and upon his silence you could rely. Now +tell me: would you feel justified in accepting the position upon which +you had set your heart _without_ confessing the thing; or would you feel +in duty bound to speak, well knowing that it would in all human +probability be the end of all your hopes? I should like to have your +opinion upon that point, please." + +"I can't see that I or anybody else could have other than the one," she +replied. "It is an age-old maxim, is it not, Mr. Cleek, that two wrongs +cannot by any possibility constitute a right? I should feel in duty +bound, in honour bound, to speak, of course. To do the other would be to +obtain the position by fraud--to steal it, as a thief steals things that +_he_ wants. No sort of atonement is possible, is even worth the name, if +it is backed up by deceit, Mr. Cleek." + +"Even though that deceit is the only thing that could give you your +heart's desire? The only thing that could open the Gates of Heaven for +you?" + +"The 'Gates of Heaven,' as you put it, can never be opened with a lie, +Mr. Cleek. They might be opened by the very thing of which you +speak--confession. I think I should take my chances upon that. At any +rate, if I failed, I should at least have preserved my self-respect and +done more to merit what I wanted than if I had secured it by treachery. +Think of the boy you helped a little while ago. How much respect will +you have for him if he never lives up to his promise; never goes to +Clarges Street at all? Yet if he does live up to it, will he not be +doubly worth the saving? But please!" with a sudden change from +seriousness to gaiety, "if I am to be led into sermonizing, might I not +know what it is all about? I shall be right, shall I not, in supposing +that all this is merely the preface to something else?" + +"Either the Preface or--the Finis," said Cleek, with a deeply drawn +breath. "Still, as you say, no atonement is worth calling an atonement +if it is based upon fraud; and so--Miss Lorne, I am going to ask you to +indulge in yet another little flight of fancy. Carry your mind back, +will you, to the night when your cousin--to the night two years ago when +Sir Horace Wyvern's daughter had her wedding presents stolen and you, I +believe, had rather a trying moment with that fellow who was known as +'The Vanishing Cracksman.' You can remember it, can you not?" + +"Remember it? I shall never forget it. I thought, when the police ran +down stairs and left me with him, that I was talking to Mr. Narkom. I +think I nearly went daft with terror when I found out that it was he." + +"And you found it out only through his telling you, did you not? +Afterward, I am told, the police found you lying fainting at the foot of +the stairs. The man had touched you, spoken to you, even caught up your +hand and put it to his lips? Can you remember what he said when he did +that? Can you?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a little shudder of recollection. "For weeks +afterward I used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking of it +and going cold all over. He said, 'You have come down into Hell and +lifted me out. Under God, you shall lift me into Heaven as well!'" + +"And perhaps you shall," said Cleek, stopping short and uncovering his +head. "At any rate, I'll not attempt to win it by fraud. Miss Lorne, I +am that man. I am the 'Vanishing Cracksman' of those other days. I've +walked the 'straight path' since the moment I kissed your hand." + +She said nothing, made no faintest sound. She couldn't--all the +strength, all the power to do anything but simply stand and look at him +had gone out of her. But even so, she was conscious--dimly but yet +conscious--of a feeling of relief that they had come at last close to +the end of the heath, that there was the faint glow of lights dimly +observable through the enfolding mist, and that there was the rumble of +wheels, the pulse of life, the law-guarded paths of the city's streets +beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She could not herself have been more conscious of that feeling of relief +than he was of its coming. It spoke to him in the swift glance she gave +toward those distant, fog-blurred lights, in the white, drained face of +her, in the shrinking backward movement of her body when he spoke again; +and something within him voiced "the exceeding bitter cry." + +"I am not sure that I even hoped you would take the revelation in any +other way than this," he said. "A hawk--even a tamed one--must be a +thing of terror in the eyes of a dove. Still, I am not sorry that I have +made the confession, Miss Lorne. When the worst has been told, a burden +rolls away." + +"Yes," she acquiesced faintly, finding her voice; but finding it only to +lose it again. "But that you--that _you_...." And was faint and very +still again. + +"Shall we go on? It isn't more than fifty paces to the road; and you may +rely upon finding a taxicab there. Would you like me to show you the +way?" + +"Yes, please. I--oh, don't think me unsympathetic, unkind, severe. It is +such a shock; it is all so horrible--I mean--that is.... Let me get used +to it. I shall never tell, of course--no, never! Now, please, may we not +walk faster? I am very, very late as it is; and they will be worrying at +home." + +They did walk faster, and in a minute more were at the common's end. +Cleek stopped and again lifted his hat. + +"We will part here, Miss Lorne," he said. "I won't force my company on +you any further. From here, you are quite beyond all danger, and I am +sure you would rather I left you to find a taxi for yourself. Good +night." He did not even offer to put out his hand. "May I say again, +that I am not sorry I told you? Nor did I ever expect you would, take it +other than like this. It is only natural. Try to forgive me; or, at the +least, believe that I have not tried to keep your friendship by a lie, +or to atone in seeming only. Good night." + +He gave her no chance to reply, no time to say one single word. Deep +wounds require time in which to heal. He knew that he had wounded the +white soul of her so that it was sick with uncertainty, faint with +dread; and, putting on his hat, stepped sharply back and let the mist +take him and hide him from her sight. + +But, though she did not see, he was near her even then. + +He knew when she walked out into the light-filled street; he knew when +she found a taxicab; and he did not make an effort to go his way until +he was sure that she was safely started upon hers. Then he screwed round +on his heel and went back into the mist and loneliness of the heath, and +walked, and walked, and walked. Afterward--long afterward: when the +night was getting old and the town was going to sleep, he, too, fared +forth in quest of a taxi, and finding one went _his_ way as she had gone +hers. + +In the neighbourhood of Bond Street--now a place of darkness and +slow-tramping policemen--he dismissed the taxi and continued the journey +along Piccadilly afoot. It was close to one o'clock when he came at +length to Clarges Street and swung into it from the Piccadilly end, and +moved on in the direction of the house which sheltered him and his +secrets together. But, though he walked with apparent indifference, his +eye was ever on the lookout for some chance watcher in the windows of +the other houses; for "Captain Horatio Burbage" was supposed, in the +neighbourhood, to be a superannuated seaman who maintained a bachelor +establishment with the aid of an elderly housekeeper and a deaf-and-dumb +maid of all work. + +But no one was on the watch to-night; and it was only when he came at +last to the pillared portico of his own residence that he found any sign +of life from one end of the street to the other. He did find it then, +however; for the boy, Dollops, was sitting huddled up on the top step +with the thick shadow of the portico making a safe screen for him. + +He had made good use of the two half-crowns, for he had not only +feasted--and was feasting still: on a bag of winkles and a saveloy--but +was washed and brushed and had gone to the length of a shoe-shine and a +collar. + +"Been waitin' since eleven o'clock, sir," he said, getting up and +pulling his forelock as Cleek appeared. "Didn't knock and arsk for no +one, though--not me. Twigged as it would be you, sir, on account of your +sayin' to-night. I've read summink of the ways of 'tecs. Wot ho!" + +"You seem a sharp little customer, at all events," said Cleek with a +curious one-sided smile--a smile that was peculiar to him. "I somehow +fancy that I've made a good investment, Dollops. Filled up, eh?" + +"No, sir--never filled. Born 'ungry, I reckon. But filled as much as you +could fill me, bless your 'eart. I aren't never goin' to forget that, +Gov'nor--no fear. An eater and a scrapper I am, sir; and I'll scrap for +_you_, sir, while there's a bloomin' breff left in my blessed body! +Gimme the tip wot kind of work I _can_ do for you, Gov'nor, will you? I +want to get them two 'arf-crowns off my conscience as quick as I can." + +Cleek looked at him and smiled again. + +"Yes, I'm _sure_ I made a good bargain, Dollops," he said. "Come in." +And in this way the attachment which existed between them ever afterward +had its beginning. + +He took the boy in and up to the little room on the second floor which +he called his den; and, turning on the light, motioned him to a chair, +laid aside his hat and gloves, and was just about to pull up a chair for +himself when he caught sight of an unstamped letter lying upon his +writing-table. + +"Sit down there and wait a moment until I read this, my lad," he said; +and forthwith tore the letter open. + +It was from Superintendent Narkom. He had known that from the first, +however. No one but Narkom ever wrote him letters. This one was +exceedingly brief. It simply contained these two lines: + +"My dear Cleek. The Three Jolly Fishermen, Richmond, at tea-time +to-morrow. An astonishing affair. Yours, M. N." + +"Dollops, my lad, I think I'm going to make a man of you," he said as he +tore the letter into a dozen pieces and tossed the fragments into a +waste-basket. "At any rate, I'm going to have a try. Know anything about +Richmond?" + +"Yuss, sir." + +"Good. Well, we'll have a half-hour's talk and then I'll find a +temporary bed for you for the night, and to-morrow we'll take a pull on +the river at Richmond and see what we shall see." + +The half-hour, however, developed into a full one; for it was after two +o'clock when the talk was finished and a bed improvised for the boy; but +Cleek, saying good night to him at last and going to his own bedroom, +felt that it was a long, long way from being time wasted. + +What Dollops thought is, perhaps, best told by the fact that he burst +out crying when Cleek came in in the morning to ask how he had slept. + +"Slept, Gov'nor!" he said. "Why, bless your 'eart, sir, I couldn't a +slept better on a bed of roses, nor 'ad 'arf such comfort. Feel like I +needed someone to lend me a biff on the coco, sir, to make sure as I +aren't a dreamin'--it's so wot a cove fancies 'Eaven to be like, sir." + +And afterward, when the day was older, and they had gone to Richmond, +and Cleek--in his boating flannels--was pulling him up the shining river +and talking to him again as he had talked last night, he felt that it +was even more like Heaven than ever. + +It was after four--long after--when they finally separated and Cleek, +leaving the boy in charge of the boat, stepped ashore in the +neighbourhood of the inn of the Three Jolly Fishermen and went to keep +his appointment with Narkom. + +He found him enjoying tea at a little round table in the niche of a big +bay window in the small private parlour which lay immediately behind the +bar-room. + +"My dear chap, do forgive me for not waiting," said the superintendent +contritely, as Cleek came in, looking like a college-bred athlete in his +boating-flannels and his brim-tilted panama. "But the fact is you are a +little later than I anticipated; and I was simply famishing." + +"Share the blame of my lateness with me, Mr. Narkom," said Cleek as he +tossed aside his hat and threw the fag-end of his cigarette through the +open window. "You merely said 'tea-time,' not any particular hour; and I +improved the opportunity to take another spin up the river and to talk +like a Dutch uncle to a certain young man whom I shall introduce to your +notice in due time. It isn't often that duty calls me to a little Eden +like this. The air is like balm to-day; and the river--oh, the river is +a sheer delight." + +Narkom rang for a fresh pot of tea and a further supply of buttered +toast, and, when these were served, Cleek sat down and joined him. + +"I dare say," said the superintendent, opening fire at once, "that you +wonder what in the world induced me to bring you out here to meet me, my +dear fellow, instead of following the usual course and calling at +Clarges Street? Well, the fact is, Cleek, that the gentleman with whom I +am now about to put you in touch lives in this vicinity, and is so +placed that he cannot get away without running the risk of having the +step he is taking discovered." + +"Humph! He is closely spied upon, then?" commented Cleek. "The trouble +arises from someone or something in his own household?" + +"No--in his father's. The 'trouble,' so far as I can gather, seems to +emanate from his stepmother, a young and very beautiful woman, who was +born on the island of Java, where the father of our client met and +married her some two years ago, whither he had gone to probe into the +truth of the amazing statement that a runic stone had been unearthed in +that part of the globe." + +"Ah, then you need not tell me the gentleman's name, Mr. Narkom," +interposed Cleek. "I remember perfectly well the stir which that +ridiculous and unfounded statement created at the time. Despite the fact +that scholars of all nations scoffed at the thing, and pointed out that +the very term 'rune' is of Teutonic origin, one enthusiastic old +gentleman--Mr. Michael Bawdrey, a retired brewer, thirsting for +something more enduring than malt to carry his name down the +ages--became fired with enthusiasm upon the subject, and set forth for +Java 'hot foot,' as one might say. I remember that the papers made great +game of him; but I heard, I fancy, that, in spite of all, he was a dear, +lovable old chap, and not at all like the creature the cartoonists +portrayed him." + +"What a memory you have, my dear Cleek. Yes, that is the party; and he +_is_ a dear, lovable old chap at bottom. Collects old china, old +weapons, old armour, curiosities of all sorts--lots of 'em bogus, no +doubt; catch the charlatans among the dealers letting a chance like that +slip them--and is never so happy as when showing his 'collection' to his +friends and being mistaken by the ignorant for a man of deep learning." + +"A very human trait, Mr. Narkom. We all are anxious that the world +should set the highest possible valuation upon us. It is only when we +are underrated that we object. So this dear, deluded old gentleman, +having failed to secure a 'rune' in Java, brought back something equally +cryptic--a woman? Was the lady of his choice a native or merely an +inhabitant of the island?" + +"Merely an inhabitant, my dear fellow. As a matter of fact, she is +English. Her father, a doctor, long since deceased, took her out there +in her childhood. She was none too well off, I believe; but that did not +prevent her having many suitors, among whom was Mr. Bawdrey's own son, +the gentleman who is anxious to have you take up this case." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "So the lady was of +the careful and calculating kind? She didn't care for youth and all the +rest of it when she could have papa and the money-chest without waiting. +A common enough occurrence. Still, this does not make up an 'affair,' +and especially an 'affair' which requires the assistance of a detective, +and you spoke of 'a case.' What is the case, Mr. Narkom?" + +"I will leave Mr. Philip Bawdrey himself to tell you that," said Narkom, +as the door opened to admit a young man of about eight-and-twenty, +clothed in tennis flannels, and looking very much perturbed, a handsome, +fair-haired, fair-moustached young fellow, with frank, boyish eyes and +that unmistakable something which stamps the products of the 'Varsities. +"Come in, Mr. Bawdrey. You said we were not to wait tea, and you see +that we haven't. Let me have the pleasure of introducing Mr.--" + +"Headland," put in Cleek adroitly, and with a look at Narkom as much as +to say, "Don't give me away. I may not care to take the case when I hear +it, so what's the use of letting everybody know who I am?" Then he +switched round in his chair, rose, and held out his hand. "Mr. George +Headland, of the Yard, Mr. Bawdrey. I don't trust Mr. Narkom's +proverbially tricky memory for names. He introduced me as Jones once, +and I lost the opportunity of handling the case because the party in +question couldn't believe that anybody named Jones would be likely to +ferret it out." + +"Funny idea, that!" commented young Bawdrey, smiling, and accepting the +proffered hand. "Rum lot of people you must run across in your line, Mr. +Headland. Shouldn't take you for a detective myself, shouldn't even in a +room full of them. College man, aren't you? Thought so. Oxon or Cantab?" + +"Cantab--Emmanuel." + +"Oh, Lord! Never thought I'd ever live to appeal to an Emmanuel man to +do anything brilliant. I'm an Oxon chap; Brasenose is my alma mater. I +say, Mr. Narkom, do give me a cup of tea, will you? I had to slip off +while the others were at theirs, and I've run all the way. Thanks very +much. Don't mind if I sit in that corner and draw the curtain a little, +do you?" his frank, boyish face suddenly clouding. "I don't want to be +seen by anybody passing. It's a horrible thing to feel that you are +being spied upon, at every turn, Mr. Headland, and that want of caution +may mean the death of the person you love best in all the world." + +"Oh, it's that kind of case, is it?" queried Cleek, making room for him +to pass round the table and sit in the corner, with his back to the +window and the loosened folds of the chintz curtain keeping him in the +shadow. + +"Yes," answered young Bawdrey, with a half-repressed shudder and a +deeper clouding of his rather pale face. "Sometimes I try to make myself +believe that it isn't, that it's all fancy, that she never could be so +inhuman, and yet how else is it to be explained? You can't go behind the +evidence; you can't make things different simply by saying that you will +not believe." He stirred his tea nervously, gulped down a couple of +mouthfuls of it, and then set the cup aside. "I can't enjoy anything; it +takes the savour out of everything when I think of it," he added, with a +note of pathos in his voice. "My dad, my dear, bully old dad, the best +and dearest old boy in all the world! I suppose, Mr. Headland, that Mr. +Narkom has told you something about the case?" + +"A little--a very little indeed. I know that your father went to Java, +and married a second wife there; and I know, too, that you yourself were +rather taken with the lady at one time, and that she threw you over as +soon as Mr. Bawdrey senior became a possibility." + +"That's a mistake," he replied. "She never threw me over, Mr. Headland; +she never had the chance. I found her out long before my father became +anything like what you might call a rival, found her out as a mercenary, +designing woman, and broke from her voluntarily. I only wish that I had +known that he had one serious thought regarding her. I could have warned +him; I could have spoken then. But I never did find out until it was too +late. Trust her for that. She waited until I had gone up-country to look +after some fine old porcelains and enamels that the governor had heard +about; then she hurried him off and tricked him into a hasty marriage. +Of course, after that I couldn't speak--I wouldn't speak. She was my +father's wife, and he was so proud of her, so happy, dear old boy, that +I'd have been little better than a brute to say anything against her." + +"What could you have said if you had spoken?" + +"Oh, lots of things--the things that made me break away from her in the +beginning. She'd had more love affairs than one; her late father's +masquerading as a doctor for another. They had only used that as a +cloak. They had run a gambling-house on the sly--he as the card-sharper, +she as the decoy. They had drained one poor fellow dry, and she had +thrown him over after leading him on to think that she cared for him and +was going to marry him. He blew out his brains in front of her, poor +wretch. They say she never turned a hair. You wouldn't believe it +possible, if you saw her; she is so sweet and caressing, and so young +and beautiful, you'd almost believe her an angel. But there's Travers in +the background--always Travers." + +"Travers! Who is he?" + +"Oh, one of her old flames, the only one she ever really cared for, they +say. She was supposed to have broken with him out there in Java, because +they were too poor to marry; and now he's come over to England, and he's +there, in the house with the dear old dad and me, and they are as thick +as thieves together. I've caught them whispering and prowling about +together, in the grounds and along the lanes, after she has said 'Good +night,' and gone to her room and is supposed to be in bed. There's a +houseful of her old friends three parts of the time. They come and they +go, but Travers never goes. I know why"--waxing suddenly excited, +suddenly vehement--"yes! I know why. He's in the game with her!" + +"Game! What game, Mr. Bawdrey? What is it that she is doing?" + +"She's killing my old dad!" he answered, with a sort of sob in his +excited voice. "She's murdering him by inches, that's what she's doing, +and I want you to help me bring it home to her. God knows what it is +she's using or how she uses it; but you know what demons they are for +secret poisons, those Javanese, what means they have of killing people +without a trace. And she was out there for years and years. So, too, was +Travers, the brute! They know all the secrets of those beastly +barbarians, and between them they're doing something to my old dad." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I don't know it--that's the worst of it. But I couldn't be surer of it +if they took me into their secrets. But there's the evidence of his +condition; there's the fact that it didn't begin until after Travers +came. Look here, Mr. Headland, you don't know my dad. He's got the +queerest notions sometimes. One of his fads is that it's unlucky to make +a will. Well, if he dies without one, who will inherit his money, as I +am an only child?" + +"Undoubtedly you and his widow." + +"Exactly. And if I die at pretty nearly the same time--and they'll see +to that, never fear; it will be my turn the moment they are sure of +him--she will inherit everything. Now, let me tell you what's happening. +From being a strong, healthy man, my father has, since Travers's +arrival, begun to be attacked by a mysterious malady. He has periodical +fainting-fits, sometimes convulsions. He'll be feeling better for a day +or so; then, without a word of warning, whilst you're talking to him, +he'll drop like a shot bird and go into the most horrible convulsions. +The doctors can't stop it; they don't even know what it is. They only +know that he's fading away--turning from a strong, virile old man into a +thin, nervous, shivering wreck. But I know! I know! They're dosing him +somehow with some diabolical Javanese thing, those two. And +yesterday--God help me!--yesterday, I, too, dropped like a shot bird; I, +too, had the convulsions and the weakness and the fainting-fit. My time +has begun also!" + +"Bless my soul! what a diabolical thing!" put in Narkom agitatedly. "No +wonder you appealed to me!" + +"No wonder!" Bawdrey replied. "I felt that it had gone as far as I dared +to let it; that it was time to call in the police and to have help +before it was too late. That's the case, Mr. Headland. I want you to +find some way of getting at the truth, of looking into Travers's +luggage, into my stepmother's effects, and unearthing the horrible stuff +with which they are doing this thing; and perhaps, when that is known, +some antidote may be found to save the dear old dad and restore him to +what he was. Can't you do this? For God's sake, say that you can." + +"At all events, I can try, Mr. Bawdrey," responded Cleek. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Bawdrey gratefully. "I don't care a +hang what it costs, what your fees are, Mr. Headland. So long as you run +those two to earth, and get hold of the horrible stuff, whatever it is, +that they are using, I'll pay any price in the world, and count it cheap +as compared with the life of my dear old dad. When can you take hold of +the case? Now?" + +"I'm afraid not. Mysterious things like this require a little thinking +over. Suppose we say to-morrow noon? Will that do?" + +"I suppose it must, although I should have liked to take you back with +me. Every moment's precious at a time like this. But if it must be +delayed until to-morrow--well, it must, I suppose. But I'll take jolly +good care that nobody gets a chance to come within touching distance of +the pater--bless him!--until you do come, if I have to sit on the mat +before his door until morning. Here's the address on this card, Mr. +Headland. When and how shall I expect to see you again? You'll use an +alias, of course?" + +"Oh, certainly! Had you any old friend in your college days whom your +father only knew by name and who is now too far off for the imposture to +be discovered?" + +"Yes. Jim Rickaby. We were as inseparable as the Siamese twins in our +undergrad days. He's in Borneo now. Haven't heard from him in a dog's +age." + +"Couldn't be better," said Cleek. "Then 'Jim Rickaby' let it be. You'll +get a letter from him first thing in the morning saying that he's back +in England, and about to run down and spend the week-end with you. At +noon he will arrive, accompanied by his Borneo servant, +named--er--Dollops. You can put the 'blackie' up in some quarter of the +house where he can move about at will without disturbing any of your own +servants, and can get in and out at all hours; he will be useful, you +know, in prowling about the grounds at night and ascertaining if the +lady really does go to bed when she retires to her room. As for 'Jim +Rickaby' himself--well, you can pave the way for his operations by +informing your father, when you get the letter, that he has gone daft on +the subject of old china and curios and things of that sort, don't you +know." + +"What a ripping idea!" commented young Bawdrey. "I twig. He'll get +chummy with you, of course, and you can lead him on and adroitly 'pump' +him regarding her, and where she keeps her keys and things like that. +That's the idea, isn't it?" + +"Something of that sort. I'll find out all about her, never fear," said +Cleek in reply. Then they shook hands and parted, and it was not until +after young Bawdry had gone that either he or Narkom recollected that +Cleek had overlooked telling the young man that Headland was not his +name. + +"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Time enough to tell him that when it comes +to making out the cheque," said Cleek, as the superintendent remarked +upon the circumstance. Then he pushed back his chair and walked over to +the window, and stood looking silently out upon the flowing river. +Narkom did not disturb his reflections. He knew from past experience, as +well as from the manner in which he took his lower lip between his teeth +and drummed with his finger-tips upon the window-ledge, that some idea +relative to the working out of the case had taken shape within his mind, +and so, with the utmost discretion, went on with his tea and refrained +from speaking. Suddenly Cleek turned. "Mr. Narkom, do me a favour, will +you? Look me up a copy of Holman's 'Diseases of the Kidneys' when you go +back to town. I'll send Dollops round to the Yard to-night to get it." + +"Right you are," said Narkom, taking out his pocket-book and making a +note of it. "But, I say, look here, my dear fellow, you can't possibly +believe that it's anything of that sort--anything natural, I mean--in +the face of what we've heard?" + +"No, I don't. I think it's something confoundedly unnatural, and that +that poor old chap is being secretly and barbarously murdered. I think +that--and--I think, too--" His voice trailed off. He stood silent and +preoccupied for a moment, and then, putting his thoughts into words, +without addressing them to anybody: "Ayupee!" he said reflectively; +"Pohon-Upas, Antjar, Galanga root, Ginger and Black Pepper--that's the +Javanese method of procedure, I believe. Ayupee!--yes, assuredly, +Ayupee!" + +"What the dickens are you talking about, Cleek? And what does all that +gibberish and that word 'Ayupee' mean?" + +"Nothing--nothing. At least, just yet. I say, put on your hat, and let's +go for a pull on the river, Mr. Narkom. I've had enough of mysteries for +to-day and am spoiling for another hour in a boat." + +Then he screwed round on his heel and walked out into the brilliant +summer sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Promptly, at the hour appointed, "Mr. Jim Rickaby" and his black servant +arrived at Laburnam Villa; and certainly the former had no cause to +complain of the welcome he received at the hands of his beautiful young +hostess. + +He found her not only an extremely lovely woman to the eye, but one +whose gentle, caressing ways, whose soft voice and simple girlish charm +were altogether fascinating, and, judging from outward appearances, from +the tender solicitude for her elderly husband's comfort and well-being, +from the look in her eyes when she spoke to him, the gentleness of her +hand when she touched him, one would have said that she really and truly +loved him, and that it needed no lure of gold to draw this particular +May to the arms of this one December. + +He found Captain Travers a laughing, rollicking, fun-loving type of +man--at least, to all outward appearances--who seemed to delight in +sports and games and to have an almost childish love of card tricks and +that species of entertainment which is known as parlour magic. He found +the three other members of the little house-party--to wit: Mrs. +Somerby-Miles, Lieutenant Forshay, and Mr. Robert Murdock--respectively, +a silly, flirtatious, little gadfly of a widow; a callow, love-struck, +lap-dog, young army officer, with a budding moustache and a full-blown +idea of his own importance; and a dour Scotchman of middle age, with a +passion for chess, a glowering scorn of frivolities, and a deep and +abiding conviction that Scotland was the only country in the world for a +self-respecting human being to dwell in, and that everything outside of +the Established Church was foredoomed to flames and sulphur and the +perpetual prodding of red-hot pitchforks. And last, but not least by any +means, he found Mr. Michael Bawdrey just what he had been told he would +find him, namely, a dear, lovable, sunny-tempered old man, who fairly +idolised his young wife and absolutely adored his frank-faced, +affectionate, big boy of a son, and who ought not, in the common course +of things, to have an enemy or an evil wisher in all the world. + +The news, which, of course, had preceded Cleek's arrival, that this +whilom college chum of his son's was as great an enthusiast as he +himself on the subject of old china, old porcelain, bric-à -brac and +curios of every sort, filled him with the utmost delight, and he could +scarcely refrain from rushing him off at once to view his famous +collection. + +"Michael, dear, you mustn't overdo yourself just because you happen to +have been a little stronger these past two days," said his wife, laying +a gentle hand upon his arm. "Besides, we must give Mr. Rickaby time to +breathe. He has had a long journey, and I am sure he will want to rest. +You can take him in to see that wonderful collection after dinner, +dear." + +"Humph! Full of fakes, as I supposed--and she knows it," was Cleek's +mental comment upon this. And he was not surprised when, finding herself +alone with him a few minutes later, she said, in her pretty, pleading +way: + +"Mr. Rickaby, if you are an expert, don't undeceive him. I could not let +you go to see the collection without first telling you. It is full of +bogus things, full of frauds and shams that unscrupulous dealers have +palmed off on him. But don't let him know. He takes such pride in them, +and--and he's breaking down--God pity me, his health is breaking down +every day, Mr. Rickaby, and I want to spare him every pang, if I can, +even so little a pang as the discovery that the things he prizes are not +real." + +"Set your mind at rest, Mrs. Bawdrey," promised Cleek. "He will not find +it out from me. He will not find anything out from me. He is just the +kind of man to break his heart, to crumple up like a burnt glove, and +come to the end of all things, even life, if he were to discover that +any of his treasures, anything that he loved and trusted in, is a sham +and a fraud." + +His eyes looked straight into hers as he spoke, his hand rested lightly +on her sleeve. She sucked in her breath suddenly, a brief pallor chased +the roses from her cheeks, a brief confusion sat momentarily upon her. +She appeared to hesitate, then looked away and laughed uneasily. + +"I don't think I quite grasp what you mean, Mr. Rickaby," she said. + +"Don't you?" he made answer. "Then I will tell you--some +time--to-morrow, perhaps. But if I were you, Mrs. Bawdrey--well, no +matter. This I promise you: that dear old man shall have no ideal +shattered by me." + +And, living up to that promise, he enthused over everything the old man +had in his collection when, after dinner that night, they went, in +company with Philip, to view it. But bogus things were on every hand. +Spurious porcelains, fraudulent armour, faked china were everywhere. The +loaded cabinets and the glazed cases were one long procession of faked +Dresden and bogus faience, of Egyptian enamels that had been +manufactured in Birmingham, and of sixth-century "treasures" whose +makers were still plying their trade and battening upon the ignorance of +such collectors as he. + +"Now, here's a thing I am particularly proud of," said the gulled old +man, reaching into one of the cases and holding out for Cleek's +admiration an irregular disc of dull, hammered gold that had an +iridescent beetle embedded in the flat face of it. "This scarab, Mr. +Rickaby, has helped to make history, as one might say. It was once the +property of Cleopatra. I was obliged to make two trips to Egypt before I +could persuade the owner to part with it. I am always conscious of a +certain sense of awe, Mr. Rickaby, when I touch this wonderful thing. To +think, sir, to think! that this bauble once rested on the bosom of that +marvellous woman; that Mark Antony must have seen it, may have touched +it; that Ptolemy Auletes knew all about it, and that it is older, sir, +than the Christian religion itself!" + +He held it out upon the flat of his palm, the better for Cleek to see +and to admire it, and signed to his son to hand the visitor a magnifying +glass. + +"Wonderful, most wonderful!" observed Cleek, bending over the spurious +gem and focussing the glass upon it; not, however, for the purpose of +studying the fraud, but to examine something just noticed--something +round and red and angry-looking which marked the palm itself, at the +base of the middle finger. + +"No wonder you are proud of such a prize. I think I should go off my +head with rapture if I owned an antique like that. But, pardon me, have +you met with an accident, Mr. Bawdrey? That's an ugly place you have on +your palm." + +"That? Oh, that's nothing," he answered, gaily. "It itches a great deal +at times, but otherwise it isn't troublesome. I can't think how in the +world I got it, to tell the truth. It came out as a sort of red blister +in the beginning, and since it broke it has been spreading a great deal. +But, really, it doesn't amount to anything at all." + +"Oh, that's just like you, dad," put in Philip, "always making light of +the wretched thing. I notice one thing, however, Rickaby, it seems to +grow worse instead of better. And dad knows as well as I do when it +began. It came out suddenly about a fortnight ago, after he had been +holding some green worsted for my stepmother to wind into balls. Just +look at it, will you, old chap?" + +"Nonsense, nonsense!" chimed in the old man, laughingly. "Don't mind the +silly boy, Mr. Rickaby. He will have it that that green worsted is to +blame, just because he happened to spy the thing the morning after." + +"Let's have a look at it," said Cleek, moving nearer the light. Then, +after a close examination, "I don't think it amounts to anything, after +all," he added, as he laid aside the glass. "I shouldn't worry myself +about it if I were you, Phil. It's just an ordinary blister, nothing +more. Let's go on with the collection, Mr. Bawdrey; I'm deeply +interested in it, I assure you. Never saw such a marvellous lot. Got any +more amazing things--gems, I mean--like that wonderful scarab? I +say!"--halting suddenly before a long, narrow case, with a glass front, +which stood on end in a far corner, and, being lined with black velvet, +brought into ghastly prominence the suspended shape of a human skeleton +contained within--"I say! What the dickens is this? Looks like a +doctor's specimen, b'gad. You haven't let anybody--I mean, you haven't +been buying any prehistoric bones, have you, Mr. Bawdrey?" + +"Oh, that?" laughed the old man, turning round and seeing to what he was +alluding. "Oh, that's a curiosity of quite a different sort, Mr. +Rickaby. You are right in saying it looks like a doctor's specimen. It +is--or, rather, it was. Mrs. Bawdrey's father was a doctor, and it once +belonged to him. Properly, it ought to have no place in a collection of +this sort, but--well, it's such an amazing thing I couldn't quite refuse +it a place, sir. It's a freak of nature. The skeleton of a nine-fingered +man." + +"Of a what?" + +"A nine-fingered man." + +"Well, I can't say that I see anything remarkable in that. I've got nine +fingers myself, nine and one over, when it comes to that." + +"No, you haven't, you duffer!" put in young Bawdrey, with a laugh. +"You've got eight fingers--eight fingers and two thumbs. This bony +johnny has nine fingers and two thumbs. That's what makes him a freak. I +say, dad, open the beggar's box, and let Rickaby see." + +His father obeyed the request. Lifting the tiny brass latch which alone +secured it, he swung open the glazed door of the case, and, reaching in, +drew forward the flexible left arm of the skeleton. + +"There you are," he said, supporting the bony hand upon his palm, so +that all its fingers were spread out and Cleek might get a clear view of +the monstrosity. "What a trial he must have been to the glove trade, +mustn't he?" laughing gaily. "Fancy the confusion and dismay, Mr. +Rickaby, if a fellow like this walked into a Bond Street shop in a hurry +and asked for a pair of gloves." + +Cleek bent over and examined the thing with interest. At first glance, +the hand was no different from any other skeleton hand one might see any +day in any place where they sold anatomical specimens for the use of +members of the medical profession; but as Mr. Bawdrey, holding it on the +palm of his right hand, flattened it out with the fingers of his left, +the abnormality at once became apparent. Springing from the base of the +fourth finger, a perfectly developed fifth appeared, curling inward +toward what had once been the palm of the hand, as though, in life, it +had been the owner's habit of screening it from observation by holding +it in that position. It was, however, perfectly flexible, and Mr. +Bawdrey had no difficulty in making it lie out flat after the manner of +its mates. + +The sight was not inspiring--the freaks of mother Nature rarely are. No +one but a doctor would have cared to accept the thing as a gift, and no +one but a man as mad on the subject of curiosities and with as little +sense of discrimination as Mr. Bawdrey would have dreamt for a moment of +adding it to a collection. + +"It's rather uncanny," said Cleek, who had no palate for the abnormal in +Nature. "For myself, I may frankly admit that I don't like things of +that sort about me." + +"You are very much like my wife in that," responded the old man. "She +was of the opinion that the skeleton ought to have been destroyed or +else handed over to some anatomical museum. But--well, it is a +curiosity, you know, Mr. Rickaby. Besides, as I have said, it was once +the property of her late father, a most learned man, sir, most learned, +and as it was of sufficient interest for him to retain it--oh, well, we +collectors are faddists, you know, so I easily persuaded Mrs. Bawdrey to +allow me to bring it over to England with me when we took our leave of +Java. And now that you have seen it, suppose we have a look at more +artistic things. I have some very fine specimens of neolithic implements +and weapons which I am most anxious to show you. Just step this way, +please." + +He let the skeleton's hand slip from his own, swing back into the case, +and forthwith closed the glass door upon it; then, leading the way to +the cabinet containing the specimens referred to, he unlocked it, and +invited Cleek's opinion of the flint arrow-heads, stone hatchets, and +granite utensils within. + +For a minute they lingered thus, the old man talking, laughing, exulting +in his possessions, the detective examining and pretending to be deeply +impressed. Then, of a sudden, without hint or warning to lessen the +shock of it, the uplifted lid of the cabinet fell with a crash from the +hand that upheld it, shivering the glass into fifty pieces, and Cleek, +screwing round on his heel with a "jump" of all his nerves, was in time +to see the figure of his host crumple up, collapse, drop like a thing +shot dead, and lie foaming and writhing on the polished floor. + +"Dad! Oh, heavens! Dad!" The cry was young Bawdrey's. He seemed fairly +to throw himself across the intervening space and to reach his father in +the instant he fell. "Now you know! Now you know!" he went on wildly, as +Cleek dropped down beside him and began to loosen the old man's collar. +"It's like this always; not a hint, not a sign, but just this utter +collapse. My God, what are they doing it with? How are they managing it, +those two? They're coming, Headland. Listen! Don't you hear them?" + +The crash of the broken glass and the jar of the old man's fall had +swept through all the house, and a moment later, headed by Mrs. Bawdrey +herself, all the members of the little house-party came piling excitedly +into the room. + +The fright and suffering of the young wife seemed very real as she threw +herself down beside her husband and caught him to her with a little +shuddering cry. Then her voice, uplifting in a panic, shrilled out a +wild appeal for doctor, servants--help of any kind. And, almost as she +spoke, Travers was beside her, Travers and Forshay and Robert +Murdock--yes, and silly little Mrs. Somerby-Miles, too, forgetting in +the face of such a time as this to be anything but helpful and +womanly--and all of these gave such assistance as was in their power. + +"Help me get him up to his own room, somebody, and send a servant +post-haste for the doctor," said Captain Travers, taking the lead after +the fashion of a man who is used to command. "Calm yourself as much as +possible, Mrs. Bawdrey. Here, Murdock, lend a hand and help him." + +"Eh, mon, there is nae help but Heaven's in sic a case as this," +dolefully responded Murdock, as he came forward and solemnly stooped to +obey. "The puir auld laddie! The Laird giveth and the Laird taketh awa', +and the weel o' mon is as naething." + +"Oh, stow your croaking, you blundering old fool!" snapped Travers, as +Mrs. Bawdrey gave a heart-wrung cry and hid her face in her hands. "You +and your eternal doldrums! Here, Bawdrey, lend a hand, old chap. We can +get him upstairs without the assistance of this human trombone, I know." + +But "this human trombone" was not minded that they should; and so it +fell out that, when Lieutenant Forshay led Mrs. Somerby-Miles from the +room, and young Bawdrey and Captain Travers carried the stricken man up +the stairs to his own bed-chamber, his wife flying in advance to see +that everything was prepared for him, Cleek, standing all alone beside +the shattered cabinet, could hear Mr. Robert Murdock's dismal croakings +rumbling steadily out as he mounted the staircase with the others. + +For a moment after the closing door of a room overhead had shut them +from his ears, he stood there, with puckered brows and pursed-up lips, +drumming with his finger-tips a faint tattoo upon the framework of the +shattered lid; then he walked over to the skeleton case, and silently +regarded the gruesome thing within. + +"Nine fingers," he muttered sententiously, "and the ninth curves inward +to the palm!" He stepped round and viewed the case from all points--both +sides, the front, and even the narrow space made at the back by the +angle of the corner where it stood. And after this he walked to the +other end of the room, took the key from the lock, slipped it in his +pocket, and went out, closing the door behind him, that none might +remember it had not been locked when the master of the place was carried +above. + +It was, perhaps, twenty minutes later that young Bawdrey came down and +found him all alone in the smoking-room, bending over the table whereon +the butler had set the salver containing the whiskey decanter, the soda +siphon, and the glasses that were always laid out there, that the +gentlemen might help themselves to the regulation "night-cap" before +going to bed. + +"I've slipped away to have a word in private with you, Headland," he +said, in an agitated voice, as he came in. "Oh, what consummate actors +they are, those two. You'd think her heart was breaking, wouldn't you? +You'd think--Hullo! I say! What on earth are you doing?" For, as he came +nearer, he could see that Cleek had removed the glass stopper of the +decanter, and was tapping with his finger-tips a little funnel of white +paper, the narrow end of which he had thrust into the neck of the +bottle. + +"Just adding a harmless little sleeping-draught to the nightly +beverage," said Cleek, in reply, as he screwed up the paper funnel and +put it in his pocket. "A good sound sleep is an excellent thing, my dear +fellow, and I mean to make sure that the gentlemen of this house-party +have it--one gentleman in particular: Captain Travers." + +"Yes; but--I say! What about me, old chap? I don't want to be drugged, +and you know I have to show them the courtesy of taking a 'night-cap' +with them." + +"Precisely. That's where you can help me out. If any of them remark +anything about the whiskey having a peculiar taste, you must stoutly +assert that you don't notice; and, as they've seen you drinking from the +same decanter--why, there you are. Don't worry over it. It's a very, +very harmless draught; you won't even have a headache from it. Listen +here, Bawdrey. Somebody is poisoning your father." + +"I know it. I told you so from the beginning, Headland," he answered, +with a sort of wail. "But what's that got to do with drugging the +whiskey?" + +"Everything. I'm going to find out to-night whether Captain Travers is +that somebody or not. Sh-h-h! Don't get excited. Yes, that's my game. I +want to get into his rooms whilst he is sleeping, and be free to search +his effects. I want to get into every man's room here, and wherever I +find poison--well, you understand?" + +"Yes," he replied, brightening as he grasped the import of the matter. +"What a ripping idea! And so simple." + +"I think so. Once let me find the poison, and I'll know my man. Now one +other thing: the housekeeper must have a master-key that opens all the +bedrooms in the place. Get it for me. It will be easier and swifter than +picking the locks." + +"Right you are, old chap. I'll slip up to Mrs. Jarret's room and fetch +it to you at once." + +"No; tuck it under the mat just outside my door. As it won't do for me +to be drugged as well as the rest of you. I shan't put in an appearance +when the rest come down. Say I've got a headache, and have gone to bed. +As for my own 'night-cap'--well, I can send Dollops down to get the +butler to pour me one out of another decanter, so that will be all +right. Now, toddle off and get the key, there's a good chap. And, I say, +Bawdrey, as I shan't see you again until morning--good-night." + +"Good-night, old chap!" he answered in his impulsive, boyish way. "You +are a friend, Headland. And--you'll save my dad, God bless you! A true, +true friend--that's what you are. Thank God I ran across you." + +Cleek smiled and nodded to him as he passed out and hurried away; then, +hearing the other gentlemen coming down the stairs, he, too, made haste +to get out of the room and to creep up to his own after they had +assembled, and the cigar cabinet and the whiskey were being passed +round, and the doctor was busy above with the man who was somebody's +victim. + + * * * * * + +The big old grandfather clock at the top of the stairs pointed ten +minutes past two, and the house was hushed of every sound save that +which is the evidence of deep sleep, when the door of Cleek's room swung +quietly open, and Cleek himself, in dressing-gown and wadded bedroom +slippers, stepped out into the dark hall, and, leaving Dollops on guard, +passed like a shadow over the thick, unsounding carpet. + +The rooms of all the male occupants of the house, including that of +Philip Bawdrey himself, opened upon this. He went to each in turn, +unlocked it, stepped in, closed it after him, and lit the bedroom +candle. + +The sleeping-draught had accomplished all that was required of it; and +in each and every room he entered--Captain Travers's, Lieutenant +Forshay's, Mr. Robert Murdock's--there lay the occupant thereof +stretched out at full length in the grip of that deep and heavy sleep +which comes of drugs. + +Cleek made the round of the rooms as quietly as any shadow, even +stopping as he passed young Bawdrey's on his way back to his own to peep +in there. Yes; he, too, had got his share of the effective draught, for +there he lay snarled up in the bed-clothes, with his arms over his head +and his knees drawn up until they were on a level with his waist, and +his handsome, boyish face a little paler than usual. + +Cleek didn't go into the room, simply looked at him from the threshold, +then shut the door, and went back to Dollops. + +"All serene, Gov'nor?" questioned that young man, in an eager whisper. + +"Yes, quite," his master replied, as he turned to a writing-table +whereon there lay a sealed note, and, pulling out the chair, sat down +before it and took up a pen. "Wait a bit, and then you can go to bed. +I'll give you still another note to deliver. While I'm writing it you +may lay out my clothes." + +"Slipping off, sir?" + +"Yes. You will stop here, however. Now, then, hold your tongue; I'm +busy." + +Then he pulled a sheet of paper to him and wrote rapidly: + +"DEAR MR. BAWDREY: + +"I've got my man, and am off to consult with Mr. Narkom and to have what +I've found analysed. I don't know when I shall be back--probably not +until the day after to-morrow. You are right. It is murder, and Java is +at the bottom of it. Dollops will hand you this. Say nothing--just wait +till I get back." + +This he slipped, unsigned in his haste, into an envelope, handed it to +Dollops, and then fairly jumped into his clothes. Ten minutes later, he +was out of the house, and--the end of the riddle was in sight. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +On the morrow, Mrs. Bawdrey made known the rather surprising piece of +news that Mr. Rickaby had written her a note to say that he had received +a communication of such vital importance that he had been obliged to +leave the house that morning before anybody was up, and might not be +able to return to it for several days. + +"No very great hardship in that, my dear," commented Mrs. Somerby-Miles, +"for a more stupid and uninteresting person I never encountered. Fancy! +he never even offered to assist the gentlemen to get poor Mr. Bawdrey +upstairs last night. How is the poor old dear this morning, darling? +Better?" + +"Yes--much," said Mrs. Bawdrey, in reply. "Doctor Phillipson came to the +house before four o'clock, and brought some wonderful new medicine that +has simply worked wonders. Of course, he will have to stop in bed and be +perfectly quiet for three or four days; but, although the attack was by +far the worst he has ever had, the doctor feels quite confident that he +will pull him safely through." + +Now although, in the light of her apparent affection for her aged +husband, she ought, one would have thought, to be exceedingly happy over +this, it was distinctly noticeable that she was nervous and ill at ease, +that there was a hunted look in her eyes, and that, as the day wore on, +these things seemed to be accentuated. More than that, there seemed +added proof of the truth of young Bawdrey's assertion that she and +Captain Travers were in league with each other, for that day they were +constantly together, constantly getting off into out-of-the-way places, +and constantly talking in an undertone of something that seemed to worry +them. + +Even when dinner was over, and the whole party adjourned to the +drawing-room for coffee, and the lady ought, in all conscience, to have +given herself wholly up to the entertainment of her guests it was +observable that she devoted most of her time to whispered confidences +with Captain Travers, that they kept going to the window and looking up +at the sky, as if worried and annoyed that the twilight should be so +long in fading and the night in coming on. But worse than this, at ten +o'clock Captain Travers made an excuse of having letters to write, and +left the room, and it was scarcely six minutes later that she followed +suit. + +But the Captain had not gone to write letters, as it had happened. +Instead, he had gone straight to the morning-room, an apartment +immediately behind that in which the elder Mr. Bawdrey's collection was +housed, and from which a broad French window opened out upon the +grounds, and it might have caused a scandal had it been known that Mrs. +Bawdrey joined him there one minute after leaving the drawing-room. + +"It is the time, Walter, it is the time!" she said, in a breathless sort +of way, as she closed the door and moved across the room to where he +stood, a dimly seen figure in the dim light. "God help and pity me! but +I am so nervous, I hardly know how to contain myself. The note said at +ten to-night in the morning-room, and it is ten now. The hour is here, +Walter, the hour is here!" + +"So is the man, Mrs. Bawdrey," answered a low voice from the outer +darkness; then a figure lifted itself above the screening shrubs just +beyond the ledge of the open window, and Cleek stepped into the room. + +She gave a little hysterical cry and reached out her hands to him. + +"Oh, I am so glad to see you, even though you hint at such awful things, +I am so glad, so glad!" she said. "I almost died when I read your note. +To think that it is murder--murder! And but for you he might be dead +even now. You will like to know that the doctor brought the stuff you +sent by him--brought it at once--and my darling is better--better." + +Before Cleek could venture any reply to this, Captain Travers stalked +across the room and gripped his hand. + +"And so you are that great man Cleek, are you?" he said. "Bully boy! +Bully boy! And to think that all the time it wasn't some mysterious +natural affliction; to think that it was crime--murder--poison. What +poison, man, what poison--what?" + +"Ayupee, or, as it is variously called in the several islands of the +Eastern Archipelago, Pohon-Upas, Antjar, and Ipo," said Cleek, in reply. +"The deadly venom which the Malays use in poisoning the heads of their +arrows." + +"What! that awful stuff!" said Mrs. Bawdrey, with a little shuddering +cry. "And someone in this house--" Her voice broke. She plucked at +Cleek's sleeve and looked up at him in an agony of entreaty. "Who?" she +implored. "Who in this house could? You said you would tell +to-night--you said you would. Oh, who could have the heart? Ah! Who? It +is true, if you have not heard it, that once upon a time there was bad +blood between Mr. Murdock and him--that Mr. Murdock is a family +connection; but even he, oh, even he--Tell me--tell me, Mr. Cleek!" + +"Mrs. Bawdrey, I can't just yet," he made reply. "In my heart I am as +certain of it as though the criminal had confessed; but I am waiting for +a sign, and, until that comes, absolute proof is not possible. That it +will come, and may, indeed, come at any moment now that it is quite +dark, I am very certain. When it does--" + +He stopped and threw up a warning hand. As he spoke a queer thudding +sound struck one dull note through the stillness of the house. He stood, +bent forward, listening, absolutely breathless; then, on the other side +of the wall, there rippled and rolled a something that was like the +sound of a struggle between two voiceless animals, and--the sign that he +awaited had come! + +"Follow me--quickly, as noiselessly as you can. Let no one hear, let no +one see!" he said in a breath of excitement. Then he sprang cat-like to +the door, whirled it open, scudded round the angle of the passage to the +entrance of the room where the fraudulent collection was kept, and went +in with the silent fleetness of a panther. And a moment later, when +Captain Travers and Mrs. Bawdrey swung in through the door and joined +him, they came upon a horrifying sight. + +For there, leaning against the open door of the case where the skeleton +of the nine-fingered man hung, was Dollops, bleeding and faint, and with +a score of tooth-marks on his neck and throat, and on the floor at his +feet Cleek was kneeling on the writhing figure of a man, who bit and +tore and snarled like a cornered wolf and fought with teeth and feet and +hands alike in the wild effort to get free from the grip of destiny. A +locked handcuff clamped one wrist, and from it swung, at the end of the +connecting chain, its unlocked mate; the marks of Dollops' fists were on +his lips and cheeks, and at the foot of the case, where the hanging +skeleton doddered and shook to the vibration of the floor, lay a +shattered phial of deep-blue glass. + +"Got you, you hound!" said Cleek, through his teeth as he wrenched the +man's two wrists together and snapped the other handcuff into place. +"You beast of ingratitude--you Judas! Kissing and betraying like any +other Iscariot! And a dear old man like that! Look here, Mrs. Bawdrey; +look here Captain Travers; what do you think of a little rat like this?" + +They came forward at his word, and, looking down, saw that the figure he +was bending over was the figure of Philip Bawdrey. + +"Oh!" gulped Mrs. Bawdrey, and then shut her two hands over her eyes and +fell away weak and shivering. "Oh, Mr. Cleek, it can't be--it can't! To +do a thing like that?" + +"Oh, he'd have done worse, the little reptile, if he hadn't been pulled +up short," said Cleek in reply. "He'd have hanged you for it, if it had +gone the way he planned. You look in your boxes; you, too, Captain +Travers. I'll wager each of you finds a phial of Ayupee hidden among +them somewhere. Came in to put more of the cursed stuff on the ninth +finger of the skeleton, so that it would be ready for the next time, +didn't he, Dollops?" + +"Yes, Gov'nor. I waited for him behind the case just as you told me to, +sir, and when he ups and slips the finger of the skilligan into the neck +of the bottle, I nips out and whacks the bracelet on him. But he was too +quick for me, sir, so I only got one on; and then, the hound, he turns +on me like a blessed hyena, sir, and begins a-chawin' of me windpipe. I +say, Gov'nor, take off his silver wristlets, will you, sir, and lemme +have jist ten minutes with him on my own? Five for me, sir, and five for +his poor old dad!" + +"Not I," said Cleek. "I wouldn't let you soil those honest hands of +yours on his vile little body, Dollops. Thought you had a noodle to deal +with, didn't you, Mr. Philip Bawdrey? Thought you could lead me by the +nose, and push me into finding those phials just where you wanted them +found, didn't you? Well, you've got a few more thoughts coming. Look +here, Captain Travers: what do you think of this fellow's little game? +Tried to take me in about you and Mrs. Bawdrey being lovers, and trying +to do away with him and his father to get the old man's money." + +"Why, the contemptible little hound! Bless my soul, man, I'm engaged to +Mrs. Bawdrey's cousin. And as for his stepmother--why, she threw the +little worm over as soon as he began making love to her, and tried to +make her take up with him by telling her how much he'd be worth when his +father died." + +"I guessed as much. I didn't fancy him from the first moment; and he was +so blessed eager to have me begin by suspecting you two, that I smelt a +rat at once. Oh, but he's been crafty enough in other things. Putting +that devilish stuff on the ninth finger of the skeleton, and never +losing an opportunity to get his poor old father to handle it and show +it to people. It's a strong, irritant poison--sap of the upas-tree is +the base of it--producing first an irritation of the skin, then a +blister, and, when that broke, communicating the poison directly to the +blood every time the skeleton hand touched it. A weak solution at first, +so that the decline would be natural, the growth of the malady gradual. +But if I'd found that phial in your room last night, as he hoped and +believed I had done--well, look for yourself. The finger of the skeleton +is thick with the beastly, gummy stuff to-night. Double strength, of +course. The next time his father touched it he'd have died before +morning. And the old chap fairly worshipping him. I suspected him, and +suspected what the stuff that was being used really was from the +beginning. Last night I drugged him, and then--I knew." + +"Knew, Mr. Cleek? Why, how could you?" + +"The most virulent poisons have their remedial uses, Captain," he made +reply. "You can kill a man with strychnine; you can put him in his grave +with arsenic; you can also use both these powerful agents to cure and to +save, in their proper proportions and in the proper way. The same rule +applies to Ayupee. Properly diluted and properly used, it is one of the +most powerful agents for the relief, and, in some cases, the cure, of +Bright's disease of the kidneys. But the Government guards this unholy +drug most carefully. You can't get a drop of it in Java for love or +money, unless on the order of a recognized physician; and you can't +bring it into the ports of England unless backed by that physician's +sworn statement and the official stamp of the Javanese authorities. A +man undeniably afflicted with Bright's disease could get these +things--no other could. Well, I wanted to know who had succeeded in +getting Ayupee into this country and into this house. Last night I +drugged every man in it, and--I found out." + +"But how?" + +"By finding the one who could not sleep stretched out at full length. +One of the strongest symptoms of Bright's disease is a tendency to draw +the knees up close to the body in sleep, Captain, and to twist the arms +above the head. Of all the men under this roof, this man here was the +only one who slept like that last night!" He paused and looked down at +the scowling, sullen creature on the floor. "You wretched little cur!" +he said, with a gesture of unspeakable contempt. "And all for the sake +of an old man's money! If I did my duty, I'd gaol you. But if I did, it +would be punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. It would +kill that dear old man to learn this; and so he's not going to learn it, +and the law's not going to get its own." He twitched out his hand, and +something tinkled on the floor. "Get up!" he said sharply. "There's the +key of the handcuffs; take it and set yourself free. Do you know what's +going to happen to you? To-morrow morning Dr. Phillipson is going to +examine you, and to report that you'll be a dead man in a year's time if +you stop another week in this country. You are going out of it, and you +are going to stop out of it. Do you understand? _Stop_ out of it to the +end of your days. For if ever you put foot in it again I'll handle you +as a terrier handles a rat! Dollops!" + +"Yes, Gov'nor?" + +"My things packed and ready?" + +"Yes, sir. And all waitin' in the arbour, sir, as you told me to have +'em." + +"Good lad! Get them, and we'll catch the first train back. Mrs. Bawdrey, +my best respects. Captain, all good luck to you," said Cleek--and swung +out into the darkness and the moist, warm fragrance of the night; his +mental poise a bit unsteady, his nerves raw. It was not in him to have +stopped longer, to have remained under the same roof with a monster like +young Bawdrey and keep his temper in check. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The stillness, the balm, the soothing influences of the night worked +their own spell; and, after a time, rubbed out the mental wrinkles and +brought a sense of restfulness and peace. It could not well do otherwise +with such a nature as his. The night was all a-musk with mignonette and +roses, the sky all a-glitter with stars. A gunshot distant the river +ran--a silver thing ribboning along between the dark of bending trees; +somewhere in the darkness a nightingale shook out the scale of Nature's +Anthem to the listening Night, and, farther afield, others took up the +chorus of it and sang and sang with the sheer joy of living. + +What a world--God, what a world for parricides to exist in, and for the +sons of men to forget the Fifth Commandment! + +He walked on faster, and made his way to the arbour where Dollops +waited. The boy rose to meet him. + +"Everythink all ready, sir--see!" he said, holding up a kit bag. "Wot's +it now, Gov'nor?--the railway station? Good enough. Shall I nip off +ahead or keep with you till we get there?" + +"Suit yourself, my lad." + +"Thanky, sir; then I'll walk at your heels, if you don't mind. I'd like +to walk at your heels all the rest of my blessed life. Did I carry it +off all right, Gov'nor? Did I do it jist as you wanted of it done?" + +"To a T, my lad," said Cleek, smiling and patting him on the shoulder. +"You'll do, Dollops--you'll do finely. I think I did a good job for the +pair of us, my boy, when I gave you those two half-crowns." + +"Advanced, Gov'nor, advanced," corrected Dollops, with a look of sheer +affection. "Let me work 'em off, sir, like you said I might. I don't +want nothin' but wot I earns, Gov'nor; nothin' but wot I've got a right +to have; for when I sees wot wantin' money as don't belong to you leads +to; when I thinks wot that young Bawdrey chap was willin' to do for the +love of havin' it--" + +"Don't!" struck in Cleek, a trifle roughly. "Drop the man's name--I +can't trust myself to think of it. That the one world, the one self-same +world, could hold two such widely dissimilar creations of God as that +monster and ... No matter. Thank God, I've been able to do something +to-night for a good woman--I owe so much to another of her kind. No; +don't speak--just walk quietly and"--jerking his thumb in the direction +of the fluting nightingales--"listen to that. God! the man who could +think evil things when a nightingale sings, isn't fit to stand even in +the Devil's presence." + +Dollops looked at him--half-puzzled, half-awed. He could not understand +the character of the man: there were so many sides to it; and they came +and went so oddly. One minute, a very brute-beast in his ferocity, the +next, a woman in his tenderness and a poet in his thoughts. But if the +boy was puzzled, he was, at least, discreet. He put nothing into words: +merely walked on in silence, and left the man to his thoughts and the +nightingales to their melody. + +And Cleek was unusually thoughtful from that period onward; speaking +hardly a word through all the journey home. For now that the events +which had occupied his mind for the past two or three days were over and +done with, his memory harked back to those things which had to do with +his own affairs, and he caught himself wondering how matters had gone +with Ailsa Lorne; which of the two positions--the English one or the +French--she had finally elected to apply for; and if time had as yet +softened the shock of that disclosure made in the mist and darkness at +Hampstead Heath. + +He had, of course, heard nothing of her since that time; and the days he +had spent at Richmond had utterly precluded the possibility of giving +himself that small pleasure--so often indulged in--of adopting a safe +disguise, prowling about the neighbourhood where she lived until she +should come forth upon one errand or another, and then following her, +unsuspected. + +That she could have taken the knowledge of what he once had been in no +other way than she had done; that to such a woman, such a man must at +the first blush be an object of abhorrence--a thing to be put out of her +life as completely and as expeditiously as possible--he fully realised; +yet, at bottom, he was conscious of a hope that Time--even so little as +had passed--might lend a softening influence that should lead eventually +to Pity, and from that to a day when the word Forgiveness might be +spoken. + +He wanted that forgiveness--the soul of the man needed it, as parched +plants need water. He had not climbed up out of himself without some +struggle, some moments when he wavered between what he had become, and +what Nature had written that he was meant to be; for no Soul is purged +all in a moment, no man may conquer himself with just one solitary +fight. He needed her forgiveness, the thought of her, the hope of her, +to rivet his armour for the long, brave fight. He needed her +Friendship--if he might never have her love he needed _that_. And if she +were to pass like this from his life.... If the Light were to go out ... +and all the long, dark way of the Future still to be faced.... Something +within him seemed to writhe. He took his lower lip between his thumb and +forefinger and squeezed it hard. + +That he had hoped for some token, some word--forwarded through Mr. +Narkom--he did not quite realise until he got back to Clarges Street and +found that there was none. + +Followed a sense of despair, a moment of deep dejection, that passed in +turn and gave place to a feeling of personal injury, of savage +resentment, and of the ferocity which comes when the half-tamed wolf +wakes to the realisation that here is nothing before it evermore, but +the bars of the cage and the goad of the keeper; and that far and away +in the world there are still the free woods, the naked body of Nature, +and the savage company of its kind. + +Under the stress of that gust of passion, he sent Dollops flying from +the room. He wrenched open the drawer of his writing-table, and scooped +up in his hands some trifles of faded ribbon and trinkets of +gold--things that he treasured, none knew why or for what--and holding +them thus, looked down on them and laughed, bitterly and savagely, as +though a devil were within him. + +"Me! She scorns me!" he said, and laughed again, and flung them all back +and shut the drawer upon them. And presently he knew that he held her +all the higher because she did scorn him; because her life was such that +she _could_ scorn him; and the bitterness dropped out of him, his eyes +softened, and though he still laughed, it was for an utterly different +reason, and in a wholly different way. + +Some pots of tulips and mignonette stood on the ledge of his window. He +walked over to see that they were watered before he went to bed. And +between the time when he got down on his knees to fish out his +bath-slippers from beneath the bed-stead and the creak of the springs +when he lay down for the night, he was so long and so still that one +might have believed he was doing something else. + +He slept long, and rose in the morning soothed and subdued in +spirit--better and brighter in every way; for now no affair, for The +Yard hampered his movements and claimed his time. He was free; he was +back in the Town--beautiful because it contained her--and he might hark +back to the old trick of watching and following and being close to her +without her knowledge. + +It was a vain hope that, however. For, although he dressed and went out +and haunted the neighbourhood of Sir Horace Wyvern's house for hours on +end, he saw nothing of her that day. Nor did he see her the next, nor +the next, nor yet the next again. At first, he began to think that she +must come out and return during the times when he was obliged to go off +guard and get his meal--for he could not bring himself to play the part +of the spy or the common policeman, and filch news from the +servants--but when a week had gone by in this manner, he set all +question upon that point at rest by remaining at his post from sunrise +to ten o'clock at night. She did not appear. He wondered what that +meant--whether it indicated that she had already accepted one of the two +positions, or had gone to stop with her friend on the other side of +Hampstead Heath. + +The result of that wondering was that, for the next five days, the +gentleman who was known in Clarges Street as "Captain Horatio Burbage," +became a regular visitor to the neighbourhood of the house in Bardon +Road. The issue was exactly the same. Miss Lorne did not appear. + +He could no longer doubt that she had accepted one or other of the two +positions; but steadfastly refrained from making any personal inquiry. +She would hear of it if anybody called to inquire her whereabouts; and +she would guess who had done it. He would not have her feel that he was +thrusting himself upon her, inquiring about her as one might inquire +about a common servant. If it was her will that he should know, then +that knowledge should come from her, not be picked up as one picks up +clues to missing people of the criminal class. + +So then, it was good-bye to Bardon Road, just as it had been good-bye to +Mayfair. He turned his back upon it in the very moment he came to that +conclusion, and had just set his face in the direction of the heath when +he was brought to a standstill by the sound of someone calling out +sharply: "Burbage--I say, Captain Burbage: stop a moment, please." And, +screwing round instantly, he saw a red limousine pelting toward him, and +an excited chauffeur waving a gloved hand. + +He knew that red limousine, and he knew that chauffeur. Both belonged to +Mr. Maverick Narkom. + +He stood waiting until the motor was abreast of him--had, in fact, come +to a standstill--then spoke in a guarded tone: + +"What is it, Lennard?" he asked. "The Yard?" + +"Yessir. Young Dollops told us where to look for you. Hop in quickly, +sir. Superintendent inside." + +Cleek opened the door of the vehicle at once, stepped in, shut it after +him, and sat down beside Mr. Narkom with the utmost composure. + +"My dear fellow, I _have_ had a chase!" said the superintendent, with a +long deep breath of relief, as the limousine swung out into the roadway, +and pelted off westward at a pace that brushed the very fringes of the +speed limit. "I made certain I should find you at home. Fairly floored +when I discovered that you weren't. If it hadn't been for that boy, +Dollops--bright young button, that Dollops, Cleek; exceedingly bright, +b'gad." + +"Yes," agreed Cleek, quietly. "Bright, faithful, and--inventive." + +"Really? What has the young beggar invented, then?" + +"An original appliance which may possibly be of a good deal of service +one of these days. But, never mind that at present. It is fair to +suppose, from your rushing out here in quest of me, that you've got +something on hand, isn't it?" + +"Yes--rather! An amazing 'something,' old chap. It's a letter. Arrived +at headquarters about an hour and a half ago. Not an affair for The Yard +this time, Cleek, but a thing you must take up on your own, if you take +it up at all; and I tell you frankly, I don't like it." + +"Why?" + +"For one thing, it's from Paris; and--well, you know what dangers Paris +would have for _you_. There's that she-devil you broke with--that woman +Margot. You know what she swore, what she wrote when you sent her that +letter telling her that you were done with her and her lot, and warning +her never to set foot on English soil again? If you were to run foul of +her--if she were ever to get any hint of your real identity--" + +"She can't. She knows no more of my real history than you do; no more +than I actually know of hers. Our knowledge of each other began when we +started to 'pal' together--it ended when we split, eighteen months ago. +But about that letter? What is it? Why do you say that you don't like +it?" + +"Well, to begin with, I'm afraid it is some trap of hers to decoy you +over there--get you into some unknown place--" + +"There are no 'unknown places' in Paris so far as I am concerned. I know +every hole and corner of it, from the sewers on. I know it as well as I +know London, as well as I know Berlin--New +York--Vienna--Edinburgh--Rome. You couldn't lose me or trap me in any +one of them. Is that the letter in your hand? Good--then read it, +please." + +"To the Superintendent of Police, Scotland Yard," read Narkom, obeying +the request. + +"'DISTINGUISHED MONSIEUR: + +"'Of your grace and pity, I implore you to listen to the prayer of an +unhappy man whose honour, whose reason, whose very life are in deadly +peril, not alone of "The Red Crawl," but of things he may not even name, +dare not commit to writing, lest this letter should go astray. It shall +happen, monsieur, that the whole world shall hear with amazement of that +most marvellous "Cleek"--that great reader of riddles and unmasker of +evil-doers who, in the past year, has made the police department of +England the envy of all nations; and it shall happen also that I who +dare not appeal to the police of France appeal to the mercy, the +humanity, of this great man, as it is my only hope. Monsieur, you have +his ear, you have his confidence, you have the means at your command. +Ah! ask him, pray him, implore him for the love of God, and the sake of +a fellow-man, to come alone to the top floor of the house number 7 of +the Rue Toison d'Or, Paris, at nine hours of the night of Friday, the +26th inst., to enter into the darkness and say but the one word "Cleek" +as a signal it is he, and I may come forward and throw myself upon his +mercy. Oh, save me, Monsieur Cleek--save me! save me!' + +"There, that's the lot, and there's no signature," said Narkom, laying +down the letter. "What do you make of it, Cleek?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"A very real, a very moving thing, Mr. Narkom," he replied. "The cry of +a human heart in deep distress; the agonised appeal of a man so wrought +up by the horrors of his position that he forgets to offer a temptation +in the way of reward, and speaks of outlandish things as though they +must be understood of all. As witness his allusion to something which he +calls 'The Red Crawl,' without attempting to explain the meaningless +phrase. Whatever it is, it is so real to him that it seems as if +everybody must understand." + +"You think, then, that the thing is genuine?" + +"So genuine that I shall answer its call, Mr. Narkom, and be alone in +the dark on the top floor of No. 7, Rue Toison d'Or, to-morrow night as +surely as the clock strikes nine." + +And that was how the few persons who happened to be in the quiet upper +reaches of the Rue Bienfaisance at half-past eight o'clock the next +evening came to see a fat, fussing, red-faced Englishman in a grey +frock-coat, white spats, and a shining topper, followed by a liveried +servant with a hat-box in one hand and a portmanteau in the other--so +conspicuous, the pair of them, that they couldn't have any desire to +conceal themselves--cross over the square before the Church of St. +Augustine, fare forth into the darker side passages, and move in the +direction of the street of the Golden Fleece. + +They were, of course, Cleek and the boy Dollops. + +"Lumme, Gov'nor," whispered he, as they turned at last into the utter +darkness and desertion of the narrow Rue Toison d'Or, "if this is wot +yer calls Gay Paree--this precious black slit between two rows of +houses--I'll take a slice of the Old Kent Road with thanks. Not even so +much as a winkle-stall in sight, and me that empty my shirt-bosom's +a-chafing my blessed shoulder-blades!" + +"You'll see plenty of life before the game's over, I warrant you, +Dollops. Now then, my lad, here's a safe spot. Sit down on the hat-box +and wait. That's No. 7, that empty house with the open door, just across +the way. Keep your eye on it. I don't know how long I'll be, but if +anybody comes out before I do, mind you don't let him get away." + +"No fear!" said Dollops sententiously. "I'll be after him as if he was a +ham sandwich, sir. Look out for my patent 'Tickle Tootsies' when you +come out, Gov'nor. I'll sneak over and put 'em round the door as soon as +you've gone in." For Dollops, who was of an inventive turn of mind, had +an especial "man-trap" of his own, which consisted of heavy brown paper, +cut into squares, and thickly smeared over with a viscid varnish-like +substance that would adhere to the feet of anybody incautiously stepping +upon it, and so interfere with flight that it was an absolute necessity +to stop and tear the papers away before running with any sort of ease +and swiftness was possible. This was the "invention" to which Cleek had +alluded. Dollops, who was rather proud of the achievement, carried with +him a full supply of ready-cut papers and a big collapsible tube of the +viscid, ropy, varnish-like glue. + +Meantime, Cleek, having left the boy sitting on the hat-box in the +darkness, crossed the narrow street to the open doorway of No. 7, and, +without hesitation, stepped in. The place was as black as a pocket, and +had that peculiar smell which belongs to houses that have long stood +vacant. The house, nevertheless, was a respectable one, and, like all +the others, fronted on another street--this dark Toison d'Or being +merely a back passage used principally by the tradespeople for the +delivery of supplies. Feeling his way to the first of the three flights +of stairs which led upward into the stillness and gloom above, Cleek +mounted steadily until he found himself at length in a sort of +attic--quite windowless, and lit only by a skylight through which shone +the ineffectual light of the stars. It was the top at last. Bracing his +back against the wall, so that nobody could get behind him, and holding +himself ready for any emergency, he called out in a clear, calm voice: +"Cleek!" + +Almost simultaneously there was a sharp metallic "snick," an electric +bulb hanging from the ceiling flamed out luminously, a cupboard door +flashed open, a voice cried out in joyous, perfect English: "Thank God +for a man!" And, switching round with a cry of amazement, he found +himself looking into the face and eyes of a woman. + +And of all women in the world--Ailsa Lorne! + +He sucked in his breath and his heart began to hammer. + +"Miss Lorne!" he exclaimed, so carried out of himself that he scarcely +knew what he did. "It was the French position that you chose, then? It +is you--_you_--that calls upon me?" + +"No, it is not," she made reply, a rush of colour reddening her cheeks, +a feeling of embarrassment and of a natural restraint making her shake +visibly. "I am merely the envoy of another. I should not know you, +disguised as you are, but for that. Yes, I chose the French position, as +you see, Mr. Cleek. I am now the companion to Mademoiselle Athalie, +daughter of the Baron de Carjorac." + +"Baron de Carjorac? Do you mean the French Minister of the Interior, the +President of the Board of National Defences, Miss Lorne--that +enthusiastic old patriot, that rabid old spitfire, whose one dream is +the wresting back of Alsace-Lorraine, the driving of the hated Germans +into the sea? Do you mean that ripping old firebrand?" + +"Yes. But you'd not call him that if you were to see him now; if you +could see the wreck, the broken and despairing wreck, that six weeks of +the Château Larouge, six weeks of that horrible 'Red Crawl' have made of +him." + +"'The Red Crawl'! Good heavens! then that letter, that appeal for +help--" + +"Came from him!" she finished excitedly. "It was he who was to have met +you here to-night, Mr. Cleek. This house is one he owns; he thought he +might with safety risk coming here, but--he can't! he can't! He knows +now that there is danger for him everywhere; that his every step is +tracked; that the snare which is about him has been about him, +unsuspected, for almost a year; that he dare not, absolutely dare not, +appeal to the French police, and that if it were known he had appealed +to you, he would be a dead man inside of twenty-four hours, and not only +dead, but--disgraced. Oh, Mr. Cleek!"--she stretched out two shaking +hands and laid them on his arm, lifted a white, imploring face to +his--"save him! save that dear broken old man! Ah, think! think! They +are our friends, our dear country's friends, these French people. Their +welfare is our welfare, ours is theirs. Oh, help him, save him, Mr. +Cleek--for his own sake--for mine--for France. Save him, and win my +gratitude for ever!" + +"That is a temptation that would carry me to the ends of the earth, Miss +Lorne. Tell me what the work is, and I will carry it through. What is +this incomprehensible thing of which both you and Baron de Carjorac have +spoken--this thing you allude to as 'The Red Crawl'?" + +She gave a little shuddering cry and fell back a step, covering her face +with both hands. + +"Oh!" she said, with a shiver of repulsion. "It is loathly--it is +horrible--it is necromancy--beyond belief! Why, oh, why were we ever +driven to that horrible Château Larouge! Why could not fate have spared +the Villa de Carjorac? It could not have happened then!" + +"Villa de Carjorac? That was the name of the baron's residence, I +believe. I remember reading in the newspapers some five or six weeks ago +that it was destroyed by fire, which originated--nobody knew how--in the +apartments of the late baroness in the very dead of the night. I thought +at the time it read suspiciously like the work of an incendiary, +although nobody hinted at such a thing. The Château Larouge I also have +a distinct memory of, as an old historic property in the neighbourhood +of St. Cloud. Speaking from past experience, I know that, although it is +in such a state of decay, and supposed to be uninhabitable, it has, in +fact, often been occupied at a period when the police and the public +believed it to be quite empty. Gentlemen of the Apache persuasion have +frequently made it a place of retreat. There is also an underground +passage--executed by those same individuals--which connects with the +Paris sewers. That, too, the police are unaware of. What can the ruined +Château Larouge possibly have to do with the affairs of the Baron de +Carjorac, Miss Lorne, that you connect them like this?" + +"They have everything to do with them--everything. The Château is no +longer a ruin, however. It was purchased, rebuilt, refitted by the +Comtesse Susanne de la Tour, Mr. Cleek, and she and her brother live +there. So do we--Athalie, Baron de Carjorac, and I. So, also, does the +creature--the thing--the abominable horror known as 'The Red Crawl.'" + +"My dear Miss Lorne, what are you saying?" + +"The truth, nothing but the truth!" she answered hysterically. "Oh, let +me begin at the beginning--you'll never understand unless I do. I'll +tell you in as few words as possible--as quickly as I can. It all began +last winter, when Athalie and her father were at Monte Carlo. There they +met Madame la Comtesse de la Tour and her brother, Monsieur Gaston +Merode. The baron has position but he has not wealth, Mr. Cleek. Athalie +is ambitious. She loves luxury, riches, a life of fashion--all the +things that boundless money can give; and when Monsieur Merode--who is +young, handsome, and said to be fabulously wealthy--showed a distinct +preference for her over all the other marriageable girls he met, she was +flattered out of her silly wits. Before they left Monte Carlo for Paris +everybody could see that he had only to ask her hand, to have it +bestowed upon him. For although the baron never has cared for the man, +Athalie rules him, and her every caprice is humoured. + +"But for all he was so ardent a lover, Monsieur Merode was slow in +coming to the important point. Perhaps his plans were not matured. At +any rate, he did not propose to Athalie at Monte Carlo; and, although he +and his sister returned to Paris at the same time as the baron and his +daughter, he still deferred the proposal." + +"Has he not made it yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. He made it six weeks ago--to be exact, two nights +before the Villa de Carjorac was fired." + +"You think it was fired, then?" + +"I do now, although I had no suspicion of it at the time. Athalie +received her proposal on the Saturday, the baron gave his consent on the +Sunday, and on Monday night the villa was mysteriously burnt, leaving +all three of us without an immediate refuge. In the meantime, Madame la +Comtesse had purchased the ruin of the Château Larouge, and during the +period of her brother's deferred proposal was engaged in fitting it up +as an abode for herself and him. On the very day it was finished, +Monsieur Merode asked for Athalie's hand." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "I think I begin to +smell the toasting of the cheese. Of course, when the villa was burnt +out, Madame la Comtesse insisted that, as the _fiancée_ of her brother, +Mlle. de Carjorac must make her home at the Château until the necessary +repairs could be completed; and, of course, the baron had to go with +her?" + +"Yes," admitted Ailsa. "The baron accepted--Athalie would not have +allowed him to decline had he wished to--so we all three went there and +have been residing there ever since. On the night after our arrival an +alarming, a horrifying thing occurred. It was while we were at dinner +that the conversation turned upon the supernatural--upon houses and +places that were reputed to be haunted--and then Madame la Comtesse made +a remarkable statement. She laughingly asserted that she had just +learned that, in purchasing the Château Larouge, she had also become the +possessor of a sort of family ghost. She said that she had only just +heard--from an outside source--that there was a horrible legend +connected with the place; in short, that for centuries it had been +reputed to be under a sort of spell of evil and to be cursed by a +dreadful visitant known as 'The Red Crawl'--a hideous and loathsome +creature, neither spider nor octopus, but horribly resembling +both--which was supposed to 'appear' at intervals in the middle of the +night, and, like the fabled giants of fairy tales, carry off 'lovely +maidens and devour them.'" + +"Who is responsible for that ridiculous assertion, I wonder? I think I +may say that I know as much about the Château Larouge and its history as +anybody, Miss Lorne, but I never heard of this supposed 'legend' before +in all my life." + +"So the baron, too, declared, laughing as derisively as any of us over +the story, although it is well known that he has a natural antipathy to +all crawling things--an abhorrence inherited from his mother--and has +been known to run like a frightened child from the appearance of a mere +garden spider." + +"Oho!" said Cleek again. "I see! I see! The toasted cheese smells +stronger, and there's a distinct suggestion of the Rhine about it this +time. There's something decidedly German about that fabulous 'monster' +and that haunted château, Miss Lorne. They are clever and careful +schemers, those German Johnnies. Of course, this amazing 'Red Crawl' was +proved to have an absolute foundation in fact, and equally, of course, +it 'appeared' to the Baron de Carjorac?" + +"Yes--that very night. After we had all gone to bed, the house was +roused by his screams. Everybody rushed to his chamber, only to find him +lying on the floor in a state of collapse. The thing had been in his +room, he said. He had seen it--it had even touched him--a horrible, +hideous red reptile, with squirming tentacles, a huge, glowing body, and +eyes like flame. It had crept upon him out of the darkness--he knew not +from where. It had seized him, resisted all his wild efforts to tear +loose from it, and when he finally sank, overcome and fainting, upon the +floor, his last conscious recollection was of the loathsome thing +settling down upon his breast and running its squirming 'feelers' up and +down his body." + +"Of course! Of course! That was part of the game. It was after +something. Something of the utmost importance to German interests. +That's why the Château Larouge was refitted, why the Villa de Carjorac +was burnt down, and why this Monsieur Gaston Merode became engaged to +Mademoiselle Athalie." + +"Oh, how could you know that, Mr. Cleek? Nobody ever suspected. The +baron never confessed to any living soul until he did so to me, +to-day--and then only because he had to tell somebody, in order that the +appointment with you might be kept. How, then, could you guess?" + +"By putting two and two together, Miss Lorne, and discovering that they +do not make five. The inference is very clear: Baron de Carjorac is +President of the Board of National Defences; Germany, in spite of its +public assurances to the contrary, is known by those who are 'on the +inside' to harbour a very determined intention of making a secret +attack, an unwarned invasion, upon England. France is the key to the +situation. If, without the warning that must come through the delay of +picking a quarrel and entering into an open war with the Republic, the +German army can swoop down in the night, cross the frontier, and gain +immediate possession of the ports of France, in five hours' time it can +be across the English Channel, and its hordes pouring down upon a +sleeping people. To carry out this programme, the first step would, of +course, be to secure knowledge of the number, location, manner of the +secret defences of France--the plans of fortification, the maps of the +'danger zone,' the documentary evidence of her strongest and weakest +points--and who so likely to be the guardian of these as the Baron de +Carjorac? That is how I know that 'The Red Crawl' was after something of +vital importance to German interests, Miss Lorne. That he got it, I know +from the fact that the baron, while hinting at disgrace and speaking of +peril to his own life, dared not confide in the French authorities and +ask the assistance of the French police. Moreover, if 'The Red Crawl' +had failed to secure anything, the baron, with his congenital loathing +of all crawling things, would have left the Château Larouge +immediately." + +"Oh, to think that you guessed it so easily--and it was all such a +puzzle to me. I could not think, Mr. Cleek, why he did remain--why he +would not be persuaded to go, although every night was adding to the +horror of the thing and it seemed clear to me that he was going mad. Of +course, Madame la Comtesse and her brother tried to reason him out of +what he declared, tried to make him believe that it was all fancy--that +he did not really see the fearful thing; it was equally in vain that I +myself tried to persuade him to leave the place before his reason became +unsettled. Last night"--she paused, shuddered, put both hands over her +face, and drew in a deep breath--"last night, I, too, saw 'The Red +Crawl,' Mr. Cleek--I, too!" + +"You, Miss Lorne?" + +"Yes. I made up my mind that I would--that, if it existed, I would have +absolute proof of it. The countess and her brother had scoffed so +frequently, had promised the baron so often that they would set a +servant on guard in the corridor to watch, and then had said so often to +poor, foolish, easily persuaded Athalie that it was useless doing +anything so silly, as it was absolutely certain that her father only +imagined the thing, that I--I determined to take the step myself, +unknown to any of them. After everybody had gone to bed, I threw on a +loose, dark gown, crept into the corridor, and hid in a niche from which +I could see the door of the baron's room. I waited until after +midnight--long after--and then--and then--" + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. Then the thing appeared, I suppose?" + +"Yes; but not before something equally terrible had happened. I saw the +door of the countess's room open; I saw the countess herself come out, +accompanied by the man who up till then I had believed, like everybody +else, was her brother." + +"And who is not her brother, after all?" + +"No, he is not. Theirs is a closer tie. I saw her kiss him. I saw her go +with him to an angle of the corridor, lift a rug, and raise a trap in +the floor." + +"Hullo! Hullo!" ejaculated Cleek. "Then she, too; knows of the passage +which leads to the sewers. Clearly, then, this Countess de la Tour is +not what she seems, when she knows secrets that are known only to the +followers of--well, never mind. Go on, Miss Lorne, go on. You saw her +lift that trap; and--what then?" + +"Then there came up out of it--oh, the most loathsome-looking creature I +ever saw; a huge, crawling, red shape that was like a blood-red spider, +with the eyes, the hooked beak, and the writhing tentacles of an +octopus. It made no sound, but it seemed to know her, to understand her, +for when she waved her hand toward the open door of her own room it +crawled away and, obeying that gesture, dragged its huge bulk over the +threshold, and passed from sight. Then the man she called her brother +kissed her again, and as he descended into the darkness below the trap I +heard her say quite distinctly: 'Tell Marise that I will come as soon as +I can; but not to delay the revel. If I am compelled to forego it +to-night, there shall be a wilder one to-morrow, when Clodoche +arrives.'" + +"Clodoche! By Jupiter!" Cleek almost jumped as he spoke. "Now I know the +'lay'! No; don't ask me anything yet. Go on with the story, please. What +then, Miss Lorne, what then?" + +"Then the man below said something which I could not hear--something to +which she answered in these words: 'No, no; there is no danger. I will +guard it safely, and it shall go into no hands but Clodoche's. He and +Count von Hetzler will be there about midnight to-morrow to complete the +deal and pay over the money. Clodoche will want the fragment, of course, +to show to the count as a proof that it is the right one, as "an +earnest" of what the remainder is worth. And you must bring me that +"remainder" without fail, Gaston--you hear me?--without fail! I shall be +there, at the rendezvous, awaiting you, and the thing must be in our +hands when von Hetzler comes. The thing must be finished to-morrow +night, even if you and Serpice have to throw all caution to the winds +and throttle the old fool.' Then, as if answering a further question, +she laughingly added: 'Oh, get that fear out of your head. I'm not a +bat, to be caught napping. I'll give it to no one but Clodoche--and not +even to him until he gives the secret sign.' And then, Mr. Cleek, as she +closed the trap I heard the man call back to her 'Good night' and give +her a name I had not heard before. We had always supposed that she had +been christened 'Suzanne,' but as that man left he called her--" + +"I know before you tell me--'Margot'!" interjected Cleek. "I guessed the +identity of this 'Countess de la Tour' from the moment you spoke of +Clodoche and that secret trap. Her knowledge of those two betrayed her +to me. Clodoche is a renegade Alsatian, a spy in the pay of the German +Government, and an old _habitué_ of 'The Inn of the Twisted Arm,' where +the Queen of the Apaches and her pals hold their frequent revels. I can +guess the remainder of your story now. You carried this news to the +Baron de Carjorac, and he, breaking down, confessed to you that he had +lost something." + +"Yes, yes--a dreadful 'something,' Mr. Cleek: the horrible thing that +has been making life an agony to him ever since. On the night when that +abominable 'Red Crawl' first overcame him, there was upon his person a +most important document--a rough draft of the maps of fortification and +the plan of the secret defences of France, the identical document from +which was afterwards transcribed the parchment now deposited in the +secret archives of the Republic. When Baron de Carjorac recovered his +senses after his horrifying experience--" + +"That document was gone?" + +"Part of it, Mr. Cleek--thank God, only a part! If it had been the +parchment itself, no such merciful thing could possibly have happened. +But the paper was old, much folding and handling had worn the creases +through, and when, in his haste, the secret robber grabbed it, whilst +that loathsome creature held the old man down, it parted directly down +the middle, and he got only a vertical section of each of its many +pages." + +"Victoria! 'And the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,'" +quoted Cleek. "So, then, the hirelings of the enemy have only got half +what they are after; and, as no single sentence can be complete upon a +paper torn like that, nothing can be made of it until the other half is +secured, and--our German friends are still 'up a gum-tree.' I know now +why the baron stayed on at the Château Larouge, and why 'The Red Crawl' +is preparing to pay him another visit to-night: he hoped, poor chap, to +find a clue to the whereabouts of the fragment he had lost; and that +thing is after the fragment he still retains. Well, it will be a long, +long day before either of those two fragments fall into German hands." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, you think you can get the stolen paper back? You believe +you can outwit those dreadful people and save the Baron de Carjorac's +honour and his life?" + +"Miss Lorne"--he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips--"Miss +Lorne, I thank you for giving me the chance! If you will do what I ask +you, be where I ask you in two hours' time, so surely as we two stand +here this minute, I will put back the German calendar by ten years at +least. They drink 'To the day,' those German Johnnies, but by to-morrow +morning the English hand you are holding will have given them reason to +groan over the night!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It was half-past eleven o'clock. Madame la Comtesse, answering a reputed +call to the bedside of a dying friend, had departed early, and was not +to be expected back, she said, until to-morrow noon. The servants--given +permission by the gentleman known in the house as Monsieur Gaston +Merode, and who had graciously provided a huge char-à -banc for the +purpose--had gone in a body to a fair over in the neighbourhood of +Sèvres, and darkness and stillness filled the long, broad corridor of +the Château Larouge. Of a sudden, however, a mere thread of sound +wavered through the silence, and from the direction of Miss Lorne's room +a figure in black, with feet muffled in thick, woollen stockings, padded +to an angle of the passage, lifted a trap carefully hidden beneath a +huge tiger-skin rug, and almost immediately Cleek's head rose up out of +the gap. + +"Thank God you managed to do it. I was horribly afraid you would not," +said Ailsa in a palpitating whisper. + +"You need not have been," he answered. "I know a dozen places beside +'The Inn of the Twisted Arm' from which one can get into the sewers. +I've screwed a bolt and socket on the inner side of this trap in case of +an emergency, and I've carried a few things into the passage for +'afterwards.' I suppose that fellow Merode, as he calls himself, is in +his room, waiting?" + +"Yes; and, although he pretends to be alone to-night, he--he has other +men with him, hideous, ruffianly looking creatures, whom I saw him admit +after the servants had gone. The countess has left the house and gone I +don't know where." + +"I do, then. Make certain she's at 'The Twisted Arm,' waiting, first, +for the coming of Clodoche, and, second, for the arrival of this +precious 'Merode' with the remaining half of the document. I've sent +Dollops there to carry out his part of the programme, and when once I +get the password Margot requires before she will hand over the paper, +the game will be in my hands entirely. They are desperate to-night, Miss +Lorne, and will stop at nothing--not even murder. There! the rug's +replaced. Quick! lead me to the baron's room--there's not a minute to +waste." + +She took his hand and led him tiptoe through the darkness, and in +another moment he was in the Baron de Carjorac's presence. + +"Oh, monsieur, God for ever bless you!" exclaimed the broken old man, +throwing himself on his knees before Cleek. + +"Out with the light--out with the light!" exclaimed he, ducking down +suddenly. "Were you mad to keep it burning till I came, with +that"--pointing to a huge bay window opening upon a +balcony--"uncurtained and the grounds, no doubt, alive with spies?" + +Miss Lorne sprang to the table where the baron's reading-lamp stood, +jerked the cord of the extinguisher, and darkness enveloped the room, +darkness tempered only by the faint gleams of the moon streaming over +the balcony, and through the panes of the uncurtained window. + +Cleek, on his knees beside the kneeling baron, whipped a tiny electric +torch from his pocket, and, shielding its flare with his scooped hands, +flashed it upon the old man's face. + +"Simple as rolling off a log--exactly like your pictures," he commented. +"I'll 'do' you as easily as I 'do' Clodoche--and I could 'do' him in the +dark from memory. Quick"--snicking off the light of the electric torch +and rising to his feet--"into your dressing-room, baron. I want that +suit of clothes; I want that ribbon, that cross--and I want them at +once. You're a bit thicker-set than me, but I've got my Clodoche rig on +underneath this, and it will fill out your coat admirably and make us as +like as two peas. Give me five minutes, Miss Lorne, and I promise you a +surprise." + +He flashed out of sight with the baron as he ceased speaking; and Ailsa, +creeping to the window and peering cautiously out, was startled +presently by a voice at her elbow saying, in a tone of extreme +agitation: "Oh, mademoiselle, I fear, even yet I fear, that this Anglais +monsieur attempts too much, and that the papier he is gone for ever." + +"Oh, no, baron, no!" she soothed, as she laid a solicitous hand upon his +arm. "Do believe in him; do have faith in him. Ah, if you only knew--" + +"Thanks. I reckon I shall pass muster!" interposed Cleek's voice; and it +was only then she realised. "You'll find the baron in the other room, +Miss Lorne, looking a little grotesque in that grey suit of mine. In +with you, quickly; go with him through the other door, and get below +before those fellows begin to stir. Get out of the house as quietly and +as expeditiously as you can. With God's help, I'll meet you at the Hôtel +du Louvre in the morning, and put the missing fragment in the baron's +hands." + +"And may God give you that help!" she answered fervently as she moved +towards the dressing-room door. "Ah, what a man! what a man!" + +Then, in a twinkling she was gone, and Cleek stood alone in the silent +room. Giving her and the baron time to get clear of the other one, he +went in on tiptoe, locked the door through which they had passed, put +the key in his pocket, and returned. Going to the door which led from +the main room into the corridor, he took the key from the lock of that, +too, replacing it upon the outer side, and leaving the door itself +slightly ajar. + +"Now then for you, Mr. 'The Red Crawl,'" he said, as he walked to the +baron's table, and, sinking down into a deep chair beside it, leaned +back with his eyes closed as if in sleep, and the faint light of the +moon half-revealing his face. "I want that password, and I'll get it, if +I have to choke it out of your devil's throat! And she said that she +would be grateful to me all the rest of her life! Only 'grateful,' I +wonder? Is nothing else possible? What a good, good thing a real woman +is!" + + * * * * * + +How long was it that he had been reclining there waiting before his +strained ears caught the sound of something like the rustling of silk +shivering through the stillness, and he knew that at last it was coming? +It might have been ten minutes, it might have been twenty--he had no +means of determining--when he caught that first movement, and, peering +through the slit of a partly opened eye, saw the appalling thing drag +its huge bulk along the balcony, and, with squirming tentacles writhing, +slide over the low sill of the window, and settle down in a glowing red +heap upon the floor; and--fake though he knew it to be--he could not +repress a swift rush and prickle of "goose-flesh" at sight of it. + +For a few seconds it lay dormant; then one red feeler shot out, then +another, and another, and it began to edge its way across the carpet to +the chair. Cleek lay still and waited, his heavy breathing sounding +regularly, his head thrown back, his limp hands lying loosely, palms +upward, beside him; and nearer and nearer crept the loathsome, red, +glowing thing. + +It crawled to his feet, and still he was quiet; it slid first one +tentacle, and then another, over his knees and up toward his breast, and +still he made no movement; then, as it rose higher--rose until its +hideous beaked countenance was close to his own, his hands flashed +upward and clamped together like a vice--clamped on a palpitating human +throat--and in the twinkling of an eye the tentacles were wrapped about +him, and he and "The Red Crawl" were rolling over and over on the floor +and battling together. + +"Serpice, you low-bred hound, I know you!" he whispered, as they +struggled. "You can't utter a cry--you shan't utter a cry--to bring +help. I'll throttle you, you beastly renegade, that's willing to sell +his own country--throttle you, do you hear?--before you shall bring any +of your mates to the rescue. Oh, you've not got a weak old man to fight +with this time! Do you know me? It's the 'cracksman'--the 'cracksman' +who went over to the police. If you doubt it, now that we're in the +moonlight, look up and see my face. Oho! you recognise me, I see. Well, +you will die looking at me, you dog, if you deny me what I'm after. I'll +loosen my grip enough for you to whisper, and no more. Now what's the +password that Clodoche must give to Margot to-night at 'The Twisted +Arm'? Tell me what it is; if you want your life, tell me what it is." + +"I'll see you dead first!" came in a whisper from beneath the hideous +mask. Then, as Cleek's fingers clamped tight again and the battle began +anew, one long, thin arm shot out from amongst the writhing tentacles, +one clutching hand gripped the leg of the table, and, with a wrench and +a twist, brought it crashing to the ground with a sound that a deaf man +might have heard. + +And in an instant there was pandemonium. + +A door flung open, and clashing heavily against the wall, sent an echo +reeling along the corridor; then came a clatter of rushing feet, a voice +cried out excitedly: "Come on! come on! He's had to kill the old fool to +get it!" and Cleek had just time to tear loose from the shape with which +he was battling, and dodge out of the way when the man Merode lurched +into the room, with half a dozen Apaches tumbling in at his heels. + +"Serpice!" he cried, rushing forward, as he saw the gasping red shape +upon the floor; "Serpice! Mon Dieu! what is it?" + +"The cracksman!" he gulped. "Cleek!--the cracksman who went against us! +Catch him! stop him!" + +"The cracksman!" howled out Merode, twisting round in the darkness and +reaching blindly for the haft of his dirk. "Nom de Dieu! Where?" + +And almost before the last word was uttered a fist like a sledge-hammer +shot out, caught him full in the face, and he went down with a whole +smithy of sparks flashing and hissing before his eyes. + +"There!" answered Cleek, as he bowled him over. "Gentlemen of the +sewers, my compliments. You'll make no short cut to 'The Twisted Arm' +to-night!" + +Then, like something shot from a catapult, he sprang to the door, +whisked through it, banged it behind him, turned the key, and went +racing down the corridor like a hare. + +"It must be sheer luck now!" he panted, as he reached the angle and, +kicking aside the rug, pulled up the trap. "They'll have that door down +in a brace of shakes, and be after me like a pack of ravening wolves. +The race is to the swift this time, gentlemen, and you'll have to take a +long way round if you mean to head me off." + +Then he passed down into the darkness, closed the trap-door after him, +shot into its socket the bolt he had screwed there, flashed up the light +of his electric torch, and, _without_ the password, turned toward the +sewers, and ran, and ran, and ran! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +It lacked but a minute of the stroke of twelve, and the revels at "The +Twisted Arm"--wild at all times, but wilder to-night than ever--were at +their noisiest and most exciting pitch. And why not? It was not often +that Margot could spend a whole night with her rapscallion crew, and she +had been here since early evening--was to remain here until the dawn +broke grey over the house-tops and the murmurs of the workaday world +awoke anew in the streets of the populous city. It was not often that +each man and each abandoned woman present knew to a certainty that he or +she would go home through the mists of the grey morning with a fistful +of gold that had been won without labour or the taking of any personal +risk; and to-night the half of four hundred thousand francs was to be +divided among them. + +No wonder they had made a carnival of it, and tricked themselves out in +gala attire; no wonder they had brought a paste tiara and crowned +Margot--Margot, who was in flaming red to-night, and looked a devil's +daughter indeed, with her fire-like sequins and her red ankles twinkling +as she threw herself into the thick of the dance and kicked, and +whirled, and flung her bare arms about to the lilt of the music and the +fluting of her own happy laughter. + +"Per Bacco! The devil's in her to-night!" grinned old Marise, the +innkeeper, from her place behind the bar, where the lid of the +sewer-trap opened. "She has not been like it since the cracksman broke +with her, Toinette. But that was before your time, _ma fille_. Mother of +the heavens! but there was a man for you! There was a king that was +worthy of such a queen. Name of disaster! that she could not hold him, +that the curse of virtue sapped such a splendid tree, and that she could +take up with another after him!" + +"Why not?" cried Toinette, as she tossed down the last half of her +absinthe and twitched her flower-crowned head. "A kingdom must have a +king, _ma mère_; and Dieu: but he is handsome, this Monsieur Gaston +Merode! And if he carries out his part of the work to-night he will be +worthy of the homage of all." + +"'If' he carries it out--'if'!" exclaimed Marise, with a lurch of the +shoulders and a flirt of her pudgy hand. "Soul of me! that's where the +difference lies. Had it been the cracksman, there would have been no +'if'--it were done as surely as he attempted it. Name of misfortune! I +had gone into a nunnery had I lost such a man. But she--" + +The voice of Margot shrilled out and cut into her words. "Absinthe, +Marise, absinthe for them all--and set the score down to me!" she cried. +"Drink up, my bonny boys; drink up, my loyal maids. Drink--drink till +your skins will hold no more. No one pays to-night but me!" + +They broke into a cheer, and bearing down in a body upon Marise, threw +her into a fever of haste to serve them. + +"To Margot!" they shouted, catching up the glasses and lifting them +high. "_Vive la Reine des Apaches! Vive la compagnie!_ To Margot! To +Margot!" + +She swept them a merry bow, threw them a laughing salute, and drank the +toast with them. + +"Messieurs, my love--mesdames et mademoiselles, my admiration," she +cried, with a ripple of joy-mad laughter. "To the success of the +Apaches, to the glory of four hundred thousand francs, and to the quick +arrival of Serpice and Gaston!" Then, her upward glance catching sight +of the musicians sipping their absinthe in the little gallery above, she +flung her empty glass against the wall behind them, and shook with +laughter as they started in alarm and spilled the green poison when they +dodged aside. "Another dance, you dawdlers!" she cried. "Does Marise pay +you to sit there like mourners? Strike up, you mummies, or you pay +yourselves for what you drink to-night. Soul of desires!"--as the +musicians grabbed up their instruments, and a leaping, lilting, +quick-beating air went rollicking out over the hubbub--"a quadrille, you +angels of inspiration! Partners, gentlemen! Partners, ladies! A +quadrille! A quadrille!" + +They set up a many-throated cheer and flocked out with her upon the +floor; and in one instant feet were flying, skirts were whirling, +laughter and jest mingling with waving arms and kicking toes, and the +whole place was in one mad riot of delirious joy. + +And in the midst of this there rolled up suddenly a voice crying, as +from the bowels of the earth, "Hola! Hola! La la! loi!" the cry of the +Apache to his kind. + +"Mother of delights! It is one of us, and it comes from the sewer +passage--from the sewer!" shrilled out Marise, as the dancers halted and +Margot ran, with fleet steps, towards the bar. "Listen! listen! They +come to you, Margot--Serpice and Gaston. The work is done." + +"And before even Clodoche or von Hetzler have arrived!" she replied +excitedly. "Give them light, give them welcome. Be quick!" + +Marise ducked down, loosened the fastenings of the trap-door, flung it +back, and, leaning over the gap with a light in her hand, called down +into the darkness, "Hola! Hola! La! la! loi! Come on, comrades, come +on!" + +The caller obeyed instantly. A hand reached up and gripped the edge of +the flooring, and out of the darkness into the light emerged the figure +of a man in a leather cap and the blue blouse of a mechanic--a pale, +fox-faced, fox-eyed fellow, with lank, fair hair, a brush of ragged, +yellow beard, and with the look and air of the sneak and spy indelibly +branded upon him. + +It was Cleek. + +"Clodoche!" exclaimed Marise, falling back in surprise. + +"Clodoche!" echoed Margot. "Clodoche--and from the sewers?" + +"Yes--why not?" he answered, his tongue thick-burred with the accent of +Alsace, his shifting eyes flashing toward the huge window behind the +bar, where, in the moonlight, the narrow passage leading down to the +door of "The Twisted Arm" gaped evilly between double rows of scowling, +thief-sheltering houses. "Name of the fiend! Is this the welcome you +give the bringer of fortune, Margot?" + +"But from the sewer?" she repeated. "It is incomprehensible, _cher ami_. +You were to pilot von Hetzler over from the Café Dupin to the square +beyond there"--pointing to the window--"to leave him waiting a moment +while you came on to see if it were safe for him to enter; and now you +come from the sewer--from the opposite direction entirely!" + +"Mother of misfortunes! You had done the same yourself--you, Lantier; +you, Clopin; you, Cadarousse; any of you--had you been in my boots," he +made answer. "I stole a leaf from your own book, earlier in the evening. +Garotted a fellow with jewels on him--in the Rue Noir, near the Market +Place--and nearly got into 'the stone bottle' for doing it. He was a +decoy, set there by the police for some of you fellows, and there was a +sergeant de ville after me like a whirlwind. I was not fool enough to +turn the chase in this direction, so I doubled and twisted until it was +safe to dive into the tavern of Fouchard, and lay in hiding there. +Fouchard let his son carry a message to the count for me, and will guide +him to the square. When it grew near the time to come, Fouchard let me +down into the sewer passage from there. Get on with your dance--silence +is always suspicious. An absinthe, Marise! Have Gaston and Serpice +arrived yet with the rest of the document, Margot la reine?" + +"Not yet," she answered. "But one may expect them at any minute." + +"Where is the fragment we already possess?" + +"Here," tapping her bodice and laughing, "tenderly shielded, _mon ami_, +and why not? Who would not mother a thing that is to bring one four +hundred thousand francs?" + +"Let me see it. It must be shown to the count, remember. He will take no +risks, come not one step beyond the square, until he is certain that it +is the paper his Government requires. Let me have it--let me take it to +him--quick!" + +She waved aside airily the hand he stretched toward her, and danced into +the thick of the resumed quadrille. + +"Ah, non! non! non!" she laughed, as he came after her. "The conditions +were of your own making, _cher ami_; we break no rules even among +ourselves." + +"Soul of a fool! But if the count comes to the square--he is due there +now, mignonne--and I am not there to show him the thing--Margot, for the +love of God, let me have the paper!" + +"Let me have the sign, the password!" + +Cleek snapped at a desperate chance because there was nothing else to +do, because he knew that at any moment now the end might come. + +"'When the purse will not open, slit it!'" he hazarded, +desperately--choosing, on the off-chance of its correctness, the +password of the Apache. + +"It is not the right one! It is by no means the right one!" she made +reply, backing away from him suddenly, her absinthe-brightened eyes +deriding him, her absinthe-sharpened laughter mocking him. "Your +thoughts are in the Bois, _cher ami_. What is the password of the +brotherhood to the cause of Germany, stupid? It is not right, non! non! +It is not right!" + +The cause of Germany! At the words the truth rushed like a flash of +inspiration across Cleek's mind. The cause of Germany! What a dolt he +was not to have thought of that before! There was but one phrase ever +used for that among the Kaiser's people, and that phrase-- + +"'To the day!'" he said, with a burst of sudden laughter. "My wits are +in the moon to-night, _la reine_. 'To the day,' of course--'To the +day!'" And even before she replied to him, he knew that he had guessed +aright. + +"Bravo!" she said, with a little hiccough--for the absinthe, of which +she had imbibed so freely to-night, was beginning to take hold of her. +"A pretty conspirator to forget how to open the door he himself locked! +It is well I know thee--it is well it was the word of les Apaches in the +beginning, or I had been suspicious, silly! Wait but a moment!"--putting +her hand to her breast and beginning to unfasten her bodice--"wait but a +moment, Monsieur Twitching-Fingers, and the thing shall be in your +hand." + +The strain, the relief, were all too great for even such nerves as +Cleek's, and if he had not laughed aloud, he knew that he must have +cheered. + +"Oho! you grin because one's fingers blunder with eagerness," hiccoughed +Margot, thinking his laughter was for the trouble she had in getting the +fastenings of her bodice undone. "Peste, monsieur! may not a lady well +be modestly careful, when--Name of the devil! what's that?" + +It was the note of a whistle shrilling down the narrow passage +without--the passage where Dollops, in Apache garb, had been set on +watch; and, hearing it, Cleek clamped his jaws together and breathed +hard. A single whistle--short and sharp, such as this one was--was the +signal agreed upon that the real Clodoche was coming, and that he and +Count von Hetzler had already appeared in the square beyond. + +"Soul of a sloth! Will not that hurry you, _la reine_?" he said +excitedly, in reply to Margot's startled question. "It is the signal +Fouchard's son was to give when he and von Hetzler arrived at the place +where I am to meet them. Give me the paper--quick! quick! Tear the +fastenings, if they will not come undone else. One cannot keep a von +Hetzler waiting like a lackey for a scrap of ribbon and a bit of lace." + +"Pardieu! they have kept better men than he waiting many an hour before +this," she made reply. "But you shall have the thing in a twinkling now. +There! but one more knot, and then it is in your hands." + +And, had the fates not decreed otherwise, so, indeed, it would have +been. But then, just then, when another second would have brought the +paper into view, another moment seen it shut tight in the grip of his +itching fingers, disaster came and blotted out his hopes! + +Without hint or warning, without sign or sound to lessen the shock of +it, the trap-door behind the bar flew up and backward with a crash that +sent Marise and her assistants darting away from it in shrieking alarm; +a babel of excited voices sounded, a scurry of rushing feet scuffled and +flashed along the shaking floor, and Merode and his followers tumbled +helter-skelter into the room. + +Cleek, counting on the bolt which kept them from entering the passage +from the corridor of the Château Larouge--forcing them to take a long, +roundabout journey to "The Twisted Arm"--had not counted on their +shortening that journey by entering the passage from Fouchard's tavern, +doing, in fact, the very thing which he had declared to Margot he +himself had done. And lo! here they were, howling and crowding about +him--dirks in their hands and devils in their eyes and hearts--and the +paper not his yet! + +A clamour rose as they poured in; the dancers ceased to dance; the music +ceased to play; and Margot, shutting a tight clutch on the loosened part +of her half-unfastened bodice, swung away from Cleek's side, and flew in +a panic to Merode. + +"Gaston!" she cried, knowing from his wild look and the string of oaths +and curses his followers were blurting out that something had gone +amiss. "Gaston, _mon coeur_! Name of disaster! what is wrong?" + +"Everything is wrong!" he flung back excitedly. "That devil--that +renegade--that fury, Cleek, the cracksman, is here. He came to the +rescue--came out of the very skies--and all but killed Serpice!" + +"Cleek!" Fifty shrill voices joined Margot's in that screaming cry; +fifty more dirks flashed into view. "Cleek in France? Cleek? Where is +he? Which way did he go? Where's the narker--where--where?" + +"Here, if anywhere!" + +"Here?" + +"Yes--unless you've been fooled, and let him get away. He knows about +the paper, and is after it, Margot; and if anyone has come up from the +sewers within the past twenty minutes--" + +They knew--they grasped the situation instantly--and a roar of excited +voices yelled out: "Clodoche! Clodoche! Clodoche!" as, snarling and +howling like a pack of wolves, they bore down with a rush on the +blue-bloused figure that was creeping towards the door. + +But as they sprang it sprang also! It was neck or nothing now. Cleek +realised it, and, throwing himself headlong over the bar, clutched +frantically at the lever which he knew controlled the flow of gas, +jammed it down with all his strength, shut off the light, and, grabbing +up a chair, sent it crashing through the window. + +The crowd surged on towards the wrecked bar with a yell, surged from all +directions, and then abruptly stopped and huddled together in one. For +the sudden flashing down of the darkness within, had made more +prominent, the moon-lighted passage without; and there, scuttling away +in alarm from this sudden uproar, and the outward flying of that hurled +chair, a figure which but a moment before had come skulking to the +window, could now be seen. + +"There he goes--there! there!" shrilled out a chorus of excited voices, +as the yellow-bearded, blue-bloused figure came into view. "After him! +Catch him! Knife him!" + +In an instant they were at the door, tumbling out into the darkness, +pouring up the passage in hot pursuit. And it was at that moment the +balance changed again. Those who were in the front rank of the pursuers +were in time to see a lithe, thin figure--dressed as one of their own +kind--spring up in the path of that other figure, jump on it, grip it, +clap a huge square of sticky brown paper over the howling mouth of it, +and bear it, struggling and kicking, to the ground. + +In another second they, too, were upon it--swarming over it like rats, +and digging and hacking at it with their dirks. And so they were still +hacking at it--although it had long since ceased to move, or to make any +sound--when Merode came up and called them to a halt. + +"Drag it inside; let Margot have a thrust at it--it is her right. Pull +off the dog's disguise, and bring me the plucky one that captured him. +He shall have absinthe enough to swim in, the little king! Off with it +all, Lanchere. First, the plaster--that's right. Now, the wig and beard, +and after that--What's that you say? The beard is real? The hair is +real? They will not come off? Name of the devil! what are you saying?" + +"The truth, _mon roi_, the truth! Mother of disasters! It is not the +cracksman--it is the real Clodoche we have killed!" + +For one moment a sort of panic held them, swayed them, befogged the +brains of them; then, of a sudden, Merode howled out, "Get back! Get +back! The fellow's in there still!" and led a blind race down the +passage to the bar, where they had seen Cleek last. It was still in +darkness; but an eager hand gripping the lever, turned on the gas again, +and matches everywhere were lifted to the jets. + +And when the light flamed out and the room was again ablaze they knew +that they might as well hope to call back yesterday as dream of finding +Cleek again. For there on the floor, her limp hands turned palms upward, +a chloroformed cloth folded over her mouth and nose, lay, in a deep +stupor, the figure of Margot, her bodice torn wide open and the paper +forever gone! + + * * * * * + +It was five minutes later when the Count von Hetzler, crouching back in +the shadow of the square and waiting for the return of Clodoche, heard a +dull, whirring sound that was unmistakably the purr of a motor throb +through the stillness; and, leaning forward, saw an automobile whirl up +out of the darkness, cut across the square, and dash off westward like a +flash. Yet in the brief instant it took to go past the place where he +waited there was time for him to catch the sharp click of a lowered +window, see the clear outlines of a man's face looking out, and to hear +a voice from within the vehicle speak. + +"Herr Count," it said in clear, incisive tones. "A positively infallible +recipe for the invasion of England: Wait until the Channel freezes and +then skate over. Good night!" + +"One for his nob that, Gov'nor--my hat, yuss!" said Dollops, with a +shrill laugh, as he stuck a red head and a face all shiny with cocoa +butter and half-removed grease-paint out of the window, and, despite the +fact that the swift pace of the automobile had already carried it far +past the place where the count had been in hiding, made a fan of his +five fingers and his snub nose. "Oh, Mother 'Ubbard! Did you see him, +sir? Bunked back in his 'ole like somebody had 'give him the hook,' and +cleared the blessed stage before the eggs began to fly. I don't think +them Germans 'ull be sittin' on the steps of St. Paul's this year, +sir--not them!" + +Cleek laughed; and, ordering the boy to shut down the window and get on +with the work of changing his clothes, set about doing the same thing +himself. + +"I suppose you know, you clever little monkey, that I should have been +floating down the Seine with a slit throat and enough lead in me to sink +a barrel by this time, if it hadn't been for you," he said, as he pushed +the outward semblance of Clodoche into the kit-bag, and began to get +into ordinary civilian's dress as expeditiously as possible. "If you had +slipped up--if you had been one-half minute late--or if that fellow had +had a chance to make one cry before you covered his mouth--" + +"Please, sir--_don't_!" interposed Dollops, with a sort of shiver. "If +anythink had've happened to you, Gov'nor ..." Then stopped short and +made a sound as if he were swallowing something, and then grew very, +very still. + +Cleek looked at him out of the corner of his eye--moved in spite of +himself--hesitated a moment and then, obeying an impulse, leaned over +and gently tapped him on the shoulder. + +"Dollops, shake hands," he said. + +"Sir!" + +"Shake hands." + +"Gawd, Gov'nor! You don't never _mean_ that, sir?" + +"Shake hands," said Cleek for the third time. "Do you know, you little +monkey, that you're the only soul in all God's world that could ever +muster up a tear for me? Thank you, my lad--you're a brick!"--then +gripped the grimy hand that was reached out with a sort of awe, wrung it +heartily, patted the astonished boy on the shoulder; and fell to +whistling merrily as he went on with his dressing. + +"Sir, you do lick me, you fair do," said Dollops, laughing unsteadily, +and drawing his sleeve across his eyes. "Arfter wot you've been and went +through, a-sittin' there and whistlin' as merry as can be--like as if +life was all beer and skittles, and you hadn't a care in the world." + +"I haven't--for the minute, my lad," said Cleek with a laugh of utter +happiness. "Beer and skittles? Lord, it's all roses my boy, roses! I've +had the good luck to accomplish a thing that's going to give me--well, +at least one moment in Paradise--and when a man has a prospect like that +in view ..." His voice trailed off; he laughed again; then fell to +whistling once more--noisily, joyously, as if some schoolboy sort of +madness was in his blood to-night--and was still whistling when the +automobile pulled up sharply in front of the Hôtel du Louvre. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +By this time he had concluded the alteration in his toilet which was +necessary to assure his entrance into the hotel without occasioning +comment; and as Dollops had followed suit they readily passed muster, +when they alighted, for an ordinary English gentleman accompanied by an +ordinary English manservant. + +"What was the charge at the garage?" inquired Cleek of Dollops just +previously to alighting. + +"I dunno wot it runs to in this 'ere rum lingo of francs and sous, sir," +said Dollops, "but the garage gent he said it would amount to two pounds +ten in English money, so I'll have to leave you to work it out for +yourself. The shuvver, he said sommink about 'poor boars'--which I've +heard is wot you has to give 'em as a tip to themselves, Gov'nor--so I +promised him 'arf a crown to stop at 'tother end of that passage leadin' +up from The Twisted Arm till he was wanted, sir. Made it a good tip +because I wanted him to be there sure--it would have been a case of +'nab' for us if he hadn't. Wasn't too much, was it, sir?" + +"No," said Cleek--and let him see that it wasn't by giving the chauffeur +a pourboire of ten francs and sending him back to the garage with the +impression that he had had dealings with a millionaire. + +Ten minutes later the hotel register bore the record of the arrival of +"Mr. Philip Barch and servant"; and one attendant was engaged in showing +the servant into a neat little bedroom which was to be his resting-place +until morning while another was ushering the master into the suite +engaged by the Baron de Carjorac. + +Three persons were there: the Baron, his daughter, and his daughter's +companion; but Cleek saw but one--and that the only one who made no +movement, uttered no sound, when he came into the room. Curiously pale +and curiously quiet, she stood with one arm resting on the mantelpiece +and the other hanging by her side, looking at him--looking _for_ him, in +fact--but not saying one word, not making one sound. That she left +wholly to the baron and his daughter. + +They, too, maintained, although with an effort, an appearance of +composure so long as the hotel servant was present; but in the moment +the door closed and the man was gone an overpowering excitement seized +and mastered them. + +"Monsieur, for the love of God, don't tell me you have failed," implored +the baron. "I have died a hundred deaths of torture and suspense since +your card was carried up. But if I am to hear bad news ... Oh, my +country!" + +"Don't cross bridges, baron, until you come to them," said Cleek +composedly. "I gave Miss Lorne my promise that I would not leave France +until I had done what she asked me to do; and--I am returning to England +to-morrow by the noon boat. I have had an exciting evening, but it has +had its compensation. Here is something for you. I had a bit of a fight +for it, baron--look out that it doesn't get into the wrong hands again." + +He had taken a small packet of torn papers from his pocket while he was +speaking; now he put it into the baron's hand--not wholly without a +certain sense of gratification, however, in the excitement and delight +which the act called forth; for no man is utterly devoid of personal +vanity, personal pride in his achievements, and this man was no less +human than his kind. + +He let the tumult of excitement and joy wear itself out; he suffered the +baron's embraces--even the two rapturous kisses the man planted upon +first one and then the other of his cheeks--he endured Mlle. Athalie's +exuberant hand-clapping and hand-shaking and the cyclonic and wholly +Gallic manner in which she deported herself when comparison with the +fragments which the baron had still retained proved beyond all question +that these were indeed the missing portions of the all-important +document; and not until these things were over did he so much as look at +Ailsa Lorne again. + +She had taken no part in the general excitement, moved not one foot from +where she had been standing from the first. Even when Athalie danced +over and hugged her and showed the important fragments; even when she +reproved her with a wondering, "Ah, you strange Anglais--you stone-cold +Anglais! Is it possible that you can have blood in your veins and yet +take wondrous things like this so calmly?"--even then, she merely smiled +and remained standing just as she still was; her pallor not one whit +lessened, her reserve but the merest shadow less apparent than it had +been before. + +Cleek chose that moment to walk over to her, to lift his eyes to hers, +and to stand looking at her questioningly. For now that he was close to +her he could see that she was trembling nervously; that her calmness was +merely an outward thing, and that under it nerves writhed and a +frightened heart was beating thick and fast. + +Was even the fancied moment in Paradise to be denied him then? That such +a woman could not, all in a moment--could not by just one act of heroism +on his part--be won over and lured into complete forgetfulness of such a +past as his, he realized to the fullest extent. Always he had been +conscious of that; but even so ... Ah, well, the meanest may hope, the +lowest may at least look up; and even saints and angels were not above +saying, "Well done!" to a soul that had struggled, to a sinner that had +done his best. + +"I managed it, you see, Miss Lorne," he said, in a slightly lowered +voice, while the baron busied himself in looking for his cheque-book and +Athalie bustled about in quest of ink and a pen. "It wasn't an easy +night's work, and I'm a bit fagged out. So, as I leave in the morning, +it will be good-bye as well as good-night." + +She moved for the first time. The hand that lay upon the shelf of the +mantelpiece shook and closed quickly. She lifted up her head and looked +at him. Her eyes were misty and faint clouds of color were coming and +going over her face. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Surely, Miss Lorne, you--are not afraid of me?" + +"No," she said, averting her face again. "Not of you but of myself. That +is--I--" trying to laugh, but making a parody of it--"I was always more +or less of a coward, Mr. Cleek, but ..." She faced round again sharply +and held out her hand to him. "Will you let me thank you? Will you let +me say that I must be merely a little child in intellect since it is +only now that I have begun to understand how natural it is that a pound +of gold should inevitably outweigh an ounce of dirt? And will you please +understand that I am trying to thank you, trying to let you know that I +am very, very sorry if I ever hurt your feelings. I don't think I meant +to. I couldn't see then so clearly as I do now. Please forgive me." + +He took the hand she held out to him; and so had his moment in Paradise +after all. + +"Hurt me as often as you like, if it will always end like this," he said +with a queer little laugh that seemed to come from the very depths of +his chest. "As for that other time ... How could I have expected that +you would take it in any other way, being what you are and I what I had +been? I am glad I told you. You could never have respected me for an +instant if you had found it out in any other way; and I want your +respect: I want it very, very earnestly, Miss Lorne. If you can ever +give it to me I'll do my best to be worthy of it." + +She had withdrawn her hand from his and was drumming with her +finger-tips upon the mantelshelf. A little pucker was between her +eyebrows, she was biting her under lip perplexedly, and appeared to be +hesitating. But of a sudden she twitched round her head sharply and a +sweep of red went up over her face. + +"Shall I show you how much I do respect you, then?" she said. "One may +ask of a friend things one would not dream of asking of a mere +acquaintance, and so--Mr. Cleek, this night of horror has been too much +for me. I know now that I can no longer remain in this position in this +dreadful city. I have already resigned my post, and will return to +England, and--if I am not too late for it--make an effort to secure the +post of governess to Lady Chepstow's little son. I shall start in the +morning. Will you play the part of friend and guide and see me safely +across the Channel?" + +"Do you mean that?" he asked, his face alight, his eyes shining. "You +will let me have the privilege, the honour? What a queen you are! You +give largesse with both hands when a simple coin would have been enough. +Shall I secure your tickets? When will you have your luggage ready? Is +there anything you will need before you leave?" + +She smiled at his enthusiasm, coloured anew, and again held out her +hand. + +"We will talk of all that in the morning," she said. "There will be +plenty of time. Mlle. de Carjorac has promised to look after my effects +and to see that they are shipped on to me in due course. But now it +really must be good-night. I shall see you again at breakfast." + +"At breakfast?" repeated Cleek, with a happy laugh. "I wonder if you +understand that I shall be kicking my heels on my bedside until it is +ready?--that I shan't sleep a wink all night?" + +And as events proved he came respectably close to living up to that +exuberant assertion--merely napping now and again, to wake up suddenly +and "moon" for an hour or so; and, between periodical inspections of his +watch, to wonder if God ever made a night so long and slow-dragging as +this one. + +It had its recompense, however; for all--or nearly all--the next day was +passed in company with _her_; and more than that he would not have asked +of Heaven. Long before she rose he had made all arrangements for the +journey to Calais; and she was not a little gratified--yes, and touched +if the truth must be told--on arriving at the train, to find that he had +made no effort to secure accommodations which would compel her to endure +his companionship alone from the Gare du Nord to the steamer, but had +considerately reserved seats in a compartment containing other +travellers, and had done everything in his power to relieve her of any +possible embarrassment and to insure her all possible comforts. Even +magazines and pictorial papers were not omitted, but were there for her +in plenty lest she might prefer an excuse for not indulging much in +conversation; and there was also a huge bunch of La France roses bought +at the temporary flower market beside the Madeleine at daybreak that +morning. + +"They are beautiful, aren't they?" he said, as he laid them in her lap. +"Will it surprise you to learn that flowers are a passion with me, and +that I am a living refutation of the fallacy that 'there can be nothing +very wrong about a man who can cultivate a garden'?" + +She looked up at him and smiled. + +"I think nothing about you will surprise me--you are so many-sided +and--if you will pardon me saying it--so different from what one +imagines men of--of your calling to be," she said; and laughed a little, +colouring divinely until her face was like the roses themselves. "You +treat me as if I were a queen; and I am not used to Court manners. +Where, if you please, did you acquire yours?" + +"In the vast Kingdom of the World," he made answer, with just a +momentary change of countenance--a mere suspicion of embarrassment: +laughed off before she could be quite sure that it had had any real +existence. "Please remember that to appear to be what one is not, and to +ape manners foreign to one's real self is part of what you have so +nicely, so euphemistically, termed 'my calling.' I am an Actor on the +World's Stage, Miss Lorne; I should be but a very poor one if I could +not accommodate myself to many rôles." + +"If you play them all so well as you do that of the _preux chevalier_, +it is no wonder you are a success," she replied gaily, slipping thus +into easy conversation with him. + +And so it fell out that the magazines and the illustrated papers were +not so much of a boon as both had fancied they might be when Cleek +brought them to her; for they had not even been opened when the train +ran up to the quay side at Calais and brought them almost abreast of the +channel steamer. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was not until they were aboard the boat and the shores of France were +slipping off into the distance that Miss Lorne saw anything at all of +Dollops. As he had travelled down from Paris to Calais in a separate +compartment there had been no opportunity to do so. He had, too, held +himself respectfully aloof even after they had boarded the steamer; and, +but that once, when a lurch of the vessel had unexpectedly disturbed +Cleek's equilibrium and knocked his hat off, she might not have seen him +even then. + +But the manner in which he pounced upon that hat, the tender care with +which he brushed it, and the affectionate interest in both voice and +eyes when he handed it back and inquired eagerly, "Didn't hurt yourself, +Gov'nor, did you, sir?" compelled her to take notice of him, and, in +doing so, to understand the position in which they stood to each other. + +"You are travelling with a servant?" she enquired. + +"More than a servant--a devoted henchman, Miss Lorne. They say you can't +purchase fidelity for all the money in the world, but I secured the +finest brand of it in the Universe by the simple outlay of two half +crowns. It is the boy of that night on Hampstead Heath--the boy who +stood at the turning point. The Devil didn't get him, you see. He kept +his promise and has been walking the straight road ever since." + +She turned round and looked at him; realizing more of the man's +character in that moment than a hundred deeds of bravery, a thousand +acts of gentle courtesy, could ever have made her understand. + +"And you took him in?" she said slowly. "You gave him a chance? You +helped him to redeem himself? How good of you." + +"How good _for_ me, you mean," he laughed, "It was 'bread on the waters' +with a vengeance, Miss Lorne. I should have lost my life last night but +for that boy."--And told her briefly and airily how the thing had come +to pass. + +"Don't think it vindictive of me, but I am sorry, I am very, very sorry +you were not able to hand that dreadful woman, Margot, over to the +authorities, Mr. Cleek," she said, with an expression of great +seriousness. "She is not likely to forget or to forgive what you have +done; and some day, perhaps ... Oh, do be on your guard. It was really +foolhardy to have attempted the thing alone. Surely you might have +appealed for assistance to the Paris police and not only have minimised +your personal risk but made sure of the woman's arrest." + +"Not without allowing the authorities to learn exactly what the Baron de +Carjorac was so anxious to keep them _from_ learning, Miss Lorne. They +must have found out what I was after, what really had been lost, if I +had applied to them for assistance. I had either to do the thing alone +or drop the case entirely. And drop it I would not after _you_ had asked +me to accept it, and--Pardon? No, Miss Lorne, I do not know who the +woman Margot really is. Even that name may be fictitious, as was the one +of 'Comtesse de la Tour.' I only know of her that she is one of the +great figures of the Underworld; that money is her game--money alone; +money first, last, and all the time; that her personal history is as +much of a mystery to her closest associates as was--well, no matter; +people of that ilk are not fit subjects to discuss with you. All that I +know of the woman is that she has travelled pretty well over the world; +that some six or eight months ago she was in Ceylon with a--er--a +certain member of her crew, and came within an ace of falling foul of +the law. She had put up a plan to loot the depository of the Pearl +Fisheries Company at a period when there were thousands of pounds worth +of gems awaiting transport. With her usual luck she slipped out of the +net and left the country before she could be arrested. But she will have +found something there that will repay her for the visit in one way or +another. Luck of that kind seems to follow her always." + +And a long time afterward he had reason to remember what he said. For +the present, however, he had banished from his mind all things but the +happiness which was his to-day; and gave himself up to that happiness +with his whole heart. + +Not once did he again intrude anything that had to do with himself, his +exploits, or his future upon Ailsa's attention until all the voyage +across the channel and all the journey from Dover up to London had come +to an end; and even then, eager though he was to know how matters might +shape themselves for _her_ future--he was tactful, considerate, careful +not to force her into any embarrassing position or to claim from her +more than the merest acquaintance might. + +"You are going to your friend at Hampstead, I suppose," he said as he +handed her into a taxicab at Charing Cross. "I shall like to know if you +succeed in getting the position with Lady Chepstow; and if you send no +word to Mr. Narkom, I shall take silence as an assent and know that you +have." + +And afterward, when the days grew in number and late April merged into +early May and no word came, he knew that she had succeeded; and was +comforted, thinking of her safely housed and perhaps in a position more +congenial than the last. At any rate, she was in England, she was again +in the same land with him; and that of itself was comfort. + +But other comforts were not wanting. The full glory of tulip time was +here; The Yard had no immediate occasion for his services, and time was +his to dawdle in the public parks among the children, the birds, and the +flowers. + +"And, lord, how he do love 'em all, bless his heart!" commented Dollops +in confidence to himself as he bustled about, putting the Den in order, +watering the plants and touching lovingly the things that belonged to +the master he adored--his daily task when Cleek was in the Park and had +no need for his services. It was a pleasure to the boy, that service. +His whole heart was in it. He resented anything that interfered with it +even for an instant; and as at this particular time he was in the very +midst of preparing a small surprise against his master's return, he was +by no means pleased when a sharp whirring sound of a telephone bell +shrilled out from the adjoining room and called him from his labour of +love. + +"Oh, blow that thing! A body don't have a minute to call his own since +it's been put in," he blurted out disgustedly, and answered the call. +"'Ullo! Yuss; this is Cap'n Burbage's. Wot? No, he aren't in. Dunno when +he will be. Dunno where he is. But if there's any messidge--I say, who +wants him? Wot? Oh, s'elp me. You, is it, Mr. Narkom? Yuss, it's me, +sir--Dollops. Wot? No, sir. Went out two hours ago. Gone to Kensington +Palace Gardens. Tulips is in full bloom and you couldn't hold him +indoors with a chain at tulip-time, bless his heart. Yuss, sir. Top hat, +white spats--same as the 'Cap'n' always wears, sir." + +Narkom, at the other end of the line, called back: "If I miss him, if he +comes in without seeing me, tell him to wait; I'll be round before +three. Good-bye!" then hung up the receiver and turned to the gentleman +who stood by the window on the other side of the private office, +agitatedly twirling the end of his thick grey-threaded moustache with +one hand, while with the other he drummed a nervous tattoo upon the +broad oaken sill. "Not at home, Sir Henry; but, fortunately, I know +where to find him with but little loss of time," he said, and pressed +twice upon an electric button beside his desk. "My motor will be at the +door in a couple of minutes, and with ordinary luck we ought to be able +to pick him up inside of the next half-hour." + +Sir Henry--Sir Henry Wilding, Bart., to give him his full name and +title--a handsome, well-set-up man of about forty years of age, well +groomed, and with the upright bearing which comes of military training, +twisted round on his heel at this and gave the superintendent an almost +grateful look. + +"I hope so--God knows I hope so, Mr. Narkom," he said agitatedly. "Time +is the one important thing at present. The suspense and uncertainty are +getting on my nerves so horribly that the very minutes seem endless. +Remember, there are only three days before the race, and if those +rascals, whoever they are, get at Black Riot before then, God help +me--that's all! And if this man Cleek can't probe the diabolical +mystery, they _will_ get at her, too, and put Logan where they put +Tolliver, the brutes!" + +"You may trust Cleek to see that they don't, Sir Henry. It is just the +kind of case he will glory in; and if Black Riot is all that you believe +her, you'll carry off the Derby in spite of these enterprising gentry +who--Hallo! here's the motor. Clap on your hat, Sir Henry, and come +along. Mind the step! Kensington Palace Gardens, Lennard--and as fast as +you can streak it." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The chauffeur proved that he could "streak it" as close to the margin of +the speed limit as the law dared wink at, even in the case of the +well-known red limousine, and in a little over ten minutes pulled up +before the park gates. Narkom jumped out, beckoned Sir Henry to follow +him, and together they hurried into the grounds in quest of Cleek. + +Where the famous tulip beds made splotches of brilliant colour against +the clear emerald of the closely clipped grass they came upon him--a +solitary figure in the garb of the elderly seaman, "Captain Burbage, of +Clarges Street"--seated on one of the garden benches, his hands folded +over the knob of his thick walking-stick and his chin resting upon them, +staring fixedly at the gorgeous flowers and apparently deaf and blind to +all else. + +He was not, however; for as the superintendent approached he, without +altering his gaze or his attitude in the slightest particle, said with +the utmost calmness: "Superb, are they not, my friend? What a pity they +should be scentless. It is as though Heaven had created a butterfly and +deprived it of the secret of flight. Walk on, please, without addressing +me. I am quite friendly with that policeman yonder and I do not wish him +to suspect that the elderly gentleman he is so kind to is in any way +connected with The Yard. Examine the tulips. That's right. You came in +your limousine, of course? Where is it?" + +"Just outside the gates, at the end of the path on the right," replied +Narkom, halting with Sir Henry and appearing to be wholly absorbed in +pointing out the different varieties of tulips. + +"Good," replied Cleek, apparently taking not the slightest notice. "I'll +toddle on presently, and when you return from inspecting the flowers you +will find me inside the motor awaiting you." + +"Do, old chap--and please hurry; time is everything in this case. Let me +introduce you to your client. (Keep looking at the flowers, please, Sir +Henry.) I have the honour to make you acquainted with Sir Henry Wilding, +Cleek; he needs you, my dear fellow." + +"Delighted--in both instances. My compliments, Sir Henry. By any chance +that Sir Henry Wilding whose mare, Black Riot, is the favourite for next +Wednesday's Derby?" + +"Yes--that very man, Mr. Cleek; and if--" + +"Don't get excited and don't turn, please; our friend the policeman is +looking this way. What's the case? One of 'nobbling'? Somebody trying to +get at the mare?" + +"Yes. A desperate 'somebody,' who doesn't stop even at murder. A very +devil incarnate who seems to possess the power of invisibility, and who +strikes in the dark. Save me, Mr. Cleek! All I've got in the world is at +stake, and if anything happens to Black Riot, I'm a ruined man." + +"Yar-r-r!" yawned the elderly sea captain, rising and stretching. "I do +believe, constable, I've been asleep. Warm weather, this, for May. A +glorious week for Epsom. Shan't see you to-morrow, I'm afraid. Perhaps +shan't see you until Thursday. Here, take that, my lad, and have +half-a-crown's worth on Black Riot for the Derby; she'll win it, sure." + +"Thanky, sir. Good luck to you, sir." + +"Same to you, my lad. Good day." Then the old gentleman in the top hat +and white spats moved slowly away, passed down the tree-shaded walk, +passed the romping children, passed the Princess Louise's statue of +Queen Victoria, and, after a moment, vanished. Ten minutes later, when +Narkom and Sir Henry returned to the waiting motor, they found him +seated within it awaiting them, as he had promised. Giving Lennard +orders to drive about slowly in the least frequented quarters, while +they talked, the superintendent got in with Sir Henry, and opened fire +on the "case" without further delay. + +"My dear Cleek," he said, "as you appear to know all about Sir Henry and +his famous mare, there's no need to go into that part of the subject, so +I may as well begin by telling you at once that Sir Henry has come up to +town for the express purpose of getting you to go down to his place in +Suffolk to-night in company with him, as his only hope of outwitting a +diabolical agency which has set out to get at the horse and put it out +of commission before Derby Day, and in the most mysterious, the most +inscrutable manner ever heard of, my dear chap. Already one groom who +sat up to watch with her has been killed, another hopelessly paralysed, +and to-night Logan, the mare's trainer, is to sit up with her in the +effort to baulk the almost superhuman rascal who is at the bottom of it +all. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, a power so crafty, so +diabolical, that it gets into a locked and guarded stable, gets in, my +dear Cleek, despite four men constantly pacing back and forth before +each and every window and door that leads into the place and with a +groom on guard inside, and then gets out again in the same mysterious +manner without having been seen or heard by a living soul. In addition +to all the windows being small and covered with a grille of iron, a fact +which would make it impossible for anyone to get in or out once the +doors were closed and guarded, Sir Henry himself will tell you that the +stable has been ransacked from top to bottom, every hole and every +corner probed into, and not a living creature of any sort discovered. +Yet only last night the groom, Tolliver, was set upon inside the place +and killed outright in his efforts to protect the horse; killed, Cleek, +with four men patrolling outside, and willing to swear--each and every +one of them--that nothing and no one, either man, woman, child or beast, +passed them going in or getting out from sunset until dawn." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, sucking in his lower lip. "Mysterious, to say the +least. Was there no struggle? Did the men on guard hear no cry?" + +"In the case of the first groom, Murple, the one that was +paralysed--no," said Sir Henry, as the question was addressed to him. +"But in the case of Tolliver--yes. The men heard him cry out, heard him +call out 'Help!' but by the time they could get the doors open it was +all over. He was lying doubled up before the entrance to Black Riot's +stall, with his face to the floor, as dead as Julius Caesar, poor +fellow, and not a sign of anybody anywhere." + +"And the horse? Did anybody get at that?" + +"No; for the best of reasons. As soon as these attacks began, Mr. Cleek, +I sent up to London. A gang of twenty-four men came down, with steel +plates, steel joists, steel posts, and in seven hours' time Black Riot's +box was converted into a sort of safe, to which I alone hold the key the +instant it is locked up for the night. A steel grille about half a foot +deep, and so tightly meshed that nothing bigger than a mouse could pass +through, runs all round the enclosure close to the top of the walls, and +this supplies ventilation. When the door is closed at night, it +automatically connects itself with an electric gong in my own bedroom, +so that the slightest attempt to open it, or even to touch it, would +hammer out an alarm close to my head." + +"Has it ever done so?" + +"Yes--last night, when Tolliver was killed." + +"How killed, Sir Henry? Stabbed or shot?" + +"Neither. He appeared to have been strangled, poor fellow, and to have +died in most awful agony." + +"Strangled? But, my dear sir, that would hardly have been possible in so +short a time. You say your men heard him call out for help. Granted that +it took them a full minute--and it probably did not take them half +one--to open the doors and come to his assistance, he would not be stone +dead in so short a time; and he was stone dead when they got in, I +believe you said?" + +"Yes. God knows what killed him--the coroner will find that out, no +doubt--but there was no blood shed and no mark upon him that I could +see." + +"Hum-m-m! Was there any mark on the door of the steel stall?" + +"Yes. A long scratch, somewhat semi-circular, and sweeping downwards at +the lower extremity. It began close to the lock and ended about a foot +and a half lower." + +"Undoubtedly, you see, Cleek," put in Narkom, "someone tried to force an +entrance to the steel room and get at the mare, but the prompt arrival +of the men on guard outside the stable prevented his doing so." + +Cleek made no response. Just at that moment the limousine was gliding +past a building whose courtyard was one blaze of parrot tulips, and, his +eye caught by the flaming colours, he was staring at them and +reflectively rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. +After a moment, however: + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," he said abruptly. "Is anybody interested +in your not putting Black Riot into the field on Derby Day? Anybody with +whom you have a personal acquaintance, I mean, for of course I know +there are other owners who would be glad enough to see him scratched. +But is there anybody who would have a particular interest in your +failure?" + +"Yes--one. Major Lambson-Bowles, owner of Minnow. Minnow's second +favourite, as perhaps you know. It would delight Lambson-Bowles to see +me 'go under'; and as I'm so certain of Black Riot that I've mortgaged +every stick and stone I have in the world to back her, I should go under +if anything happened to the mare. That would suit Lambson-Bowles down to +the ground." + +"Bad blood between you, then?" + +"Yes--very. The fellow's a brute, and--I thrashed him once, as he +deserved, the bounder. It may interest you to know that my only sister +was his first wife. He led her a dog's life, poor girl, and death was a +merciful release to her. Twelve months ago he married a rich American +woman--widow of a man who made millions in hides and leather. That's +when Lambson-Bowles took up racing, and how he got the money to keep a +stud. Had the beastly bad taste, too, to come down to Suffolk--within a +gunshot of Wilding Hall--take Elmslie Manor, the biggest and grandest +place in the neighbourhood, and cut a dash under my very nose, as it +were." + +"Oho!" said Cleek; "then the major is a neighbour as well as a rival for +the Derby plate. I see! I see!" + +"No, you don't--altogether," said Sir Henry quickly. "Lambson-Bowles is +a brute and a bounder in many ways, but--well, I don't believe he is +low-down enough to do this sort of thing--and with murder attached to +it, too--although he did try to bribe poor Tolliver to leave me. Offered +my trainer double wages, too, to chuck me and take up his horses." + +"Oh, he did that, did he? Sure of it, Sir Henry?" + +"Absolutely. Saw the letter he wrote to Logan." + +"Hum-m-m! Feel that you can rely on Logan, do you?" + +"To the last gasp. He's as true to me as my own shadow. If you want +proof of it, Mr. Cleek, he's going to sit in the stable and keep guard +himself to-night--in the face of what happened to Murple and Tolliver." + +"Murple is the groom who was paralysed, is he not?" said Cleek, after a +moment. "Singular thing, that. What paralysed him, do you think?" + +"Heaven knows. He might just as well have been killed as poor Tolliver +was, for he'll never be any use again, the doctors say. Some injury to +the spinal column, and with it a curious affection of the throat and +tongue. He can neither swallow nor speak. Nourishment has to be +administered by tube, and the tongue is horribly swollen." + +"I'm of the opinion, Cleek," put in Narkom, "that strangulation is +merely part of the procedure of the rascal who makes these diabolical +nocturnal visits. In other words, that he is armed with some +quick-acting infernal poison, which he forces into the mouths of his +victims. That paralysis of the muscles of the throat is one of the +symptoms of prussic acid poisoning, you must remember." + +"I do remember, Mr. Narkom," replied Cleek enigmatically. "My memory is +much stimulated by these details, I assure you. I gather from them that, +whatever is administered, Murple did not get quite so much of it as +Tolliver, or he, too, would be dead. Sir Henry"--he turned again to the +baronet--"do you trust everybody else connected with your establishment +as much as you trust Logan?" + +"Yes. There's not a servant connected with the hall that hasn't been in +my service for years, and all are loyal to me." + +"May I ask who else is in the house besides the servants?" + +"My wife, Lady Wilding, for one; her cousin, Mr. Sharpless, who is on a +visit to us, for another; and, for a third, my uncle, the Rev. Ambrose +Smeer, the famous revivalist." + +"Mr. Smeer does not approve of the race track, of course?" + +"No, he does not. He is absurdly 'narrow' on some subjects, and 'sport' +of all sorts is one of them. But, beyond that, he is a dear, lovable old +fellow, of whom I am amazingly fond." + +"Hum-m-m! And Lady Wilding and Mr. Sharpless--do they, too, disapprove +of racing?" + +"Quite to the contrary. Both are enthusiastic upon the subject, and both +have the utmost faith in Black Riot's certainty of winning. Lady Wilding +is something more than attached to the mare; and as for Mr. Sharpless, +he is so upset over these rascally attempts that every morning when the +steel room is opened and the animal taken out, although nothing ever +happens in the daylight, he won't let her get out of his sight for a +single instant until she is groomed and locked up for the night. He is +so incensed, so worked up over this diabolical business, that I verily +believe if he caught any stranger coming near the mare he'd shoot him in +his tracks." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek abstractedly, and then sat silent for a long time, +staring at his spats and moving one thumb slowly round the breadth of +the other, his fingers interlaced and his lower lip pushed upwards over +the one above. + +"There, that's the case, Cleek," said Narkom, after a time. "Do you make +anything out of it?" + +"Yes," he replied; "I make a good deal out of it, Mr. Narkom, but, like +the language of the man who stepped on the banana skin, it isn't fit for +publication. One question more, Sir Henry. Heaven forbid it, of course, +but if anything should happen to Logan to-night, whom would you put on +guard over the horse to-morrow?" + +"Do you think I could persuade anybody if a third man perished?" said +the baronet, answering one question with another. "I don't believe +there's a groom in England who'd take the risk for love or money. There +would be nothing for it but to do the watching myself. What's that? Do +it? Certainly, I'd do it! Everybody that knows me knows that." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, and lapsed into silence again. + +"But you'll come, won't you?" exclaimed Sir Henry agitatedly. "It won't +happen if you take up the case; Mr. Narkom tells me he is sure of that. +Come with me, Mr. Cleek. My motor is waiting at the garage. Come back +with me, for God's sake--for humanity's sake--and get to the bottom of +the thing." + +"Yes," said Cleek in reply. "Give Lennard the address of the garage, +please; and--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Pull up at the first grocer's shop you see, will you, and buy me a +couple of pounds of the best white flour that's milled; and if you can't +manage to get me either a sieve or a flour dredger, a tin pepper-pot +will do!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +It was two o'clock when Sir Henry Wilding's motor turned its back upon +the outskirts of London, and it was a quarter past seven when it whirled +up to the stables of Wilding Hall, and the baronet and his grey-headed, +bespectacled and white-spatted companion alighted, having taken five +hours and a quarter to make a journey which the trains which run daily +between Liverpool Street and Darsham make in four. + +As a matter of fact, however, they really had outstripped the train, but +it had been Cleek's pleasure to make two calls on the way, one at +Saxmundham, where the paralysed Murple lay in the infirmary of the local +practitioner, the other at the mortuary where the body of Tolliver was +retained, awaiting the sitting of the coroner. Both the dead and the +still living man Cleek had subjected to a critical personal examination, +but whether either furnished him with any suggested clue he did not say; +indeed, the only remark he made upon the subject was when Sir Henry, on +hearing from Murple's wife that the doctor had said he would probably +not last the week out, had inquired if the woman knew where to "put her +hand on the receipt for the payment of the last premium, so that her +claim could be sent into the life assurance company without delay when +the end came." + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," said Cleek when he heard that, and +noticed how gratefully the woman looked at the baronet when she replied, +"Yes, Sir Henry, God bless you, sir!" "Tell me, if it is not an +impertinent question, did you take out an insurance policy on Murple's +life and pay the premium on it yourself? I gathered the idea that you +did from the manner in which the woman spoke to you." + +"Yes, I did," replied Sir Henry. "As a matter of fact, I take out a +similar policy--payable to the widow--for every married man I employ in +connection with my racing stud." + +"May I ask why?" + +"Well, for one thing, they usually are too poor and have too many +children to support to be able to take it out for themselves, and +exercising racers has a good many risks. Then, for another thing, I'm a +firm believer in the policy of life assurance. It's just so much money +laid up in safety, and one never knows what may happen." + +"Then it is fair," said Cleek, "to suppose, in that case, that you have +taken out one on your own life?" + +"Yes--rather! And a whacking big one, too." + +"And Lady Wilding is, of course, the beneficiary?" + +"Certainly. There are no children, you know. As a matter of fact, we +have been married only seven months. Before the date of my wedding the +policy was in my uncle Ambrose's--the Rev. Mr. Smeer's--favour." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. Then fell to thinking deeply over +the subject, and was still thinking of it when the motor whizzed into +the stable yard at Wilding Hall and brought him into contact for the +first time with the trainer, Logan. He didn't much fancy Logan at first +blush--and Logan didn't fancy him at all at any time. + +"Hur!" he said disgustedly, in a stage aside to his master, as Cleek +stood on the threshold of the stable, with his head thrown back and his +chin at an angle, sniffing the air somewhat after the manner of a +bird-dog. "Hur! If un's the best Scotland Yard could let out to ye, +sir--a half-baked old softy like that!--the rest of 'em must be a +blessed poor lot, Ah'm thinkin'. What's un doin' now, the +noodle?--snuffin' the air like he did not understand the smell of it! +He'd not be expectin' a stable to be scented with eau de cologne, would +he? What's un name, sir?" + +"Cleek." + +"Hur! Sounds like a golf-stick--an' Ah've no doubt he's got a head like +one: main thick and with a twist in un. I dunna like 'tecs, Sir Henry, +and I dunna like this one especial. Who's to tell as he aren't in with +they devils as is after Black Riot? Naw! I dunna like him at all." + +Meantime, serenely unconscious of the displeasure he had excited in +Logan's breast, Cleek went on sniffing the air and "poking about," as he +phrased it, in all corners of the stable; and when, a moment later, Sir +Henry went in and joined him, he was standing before the door of the +steel room examining the curving scratch of which the baronet had +spoken. + +"What do you make of it, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Not much in the way of a clue, Sir Henry--a clue to any possible +intruder, I mean. If your artistic soul hadn't rebelled against bare +steel--which would, of course, have soon rusted in this +ammonia-impregnated atmosphere--and led you to put a coat of paint over +the metal, there would have been no mark at all, the thing is so slight. +I am of the opinion that Tolliver himself caused it. In short, that it +was made by either a pin or a cuff button in his wristband when he was +attacked and fell. But, enlighten me upon a puzzling point, Sir Henry: +What do you use coriander and oil of sassafras for in a stable?" + +"Coriander? Oil of sassafras? I don't know what the dickens they are. +Have you found such things here?" + +"No; simply smelt them. The combination is not usual--indeed, I know of +but one race in the world who make any use of it, and they merely for a +purpose which, of course, could not possibly exist here, unless--" + +He allowed the rest of the sentence to go by default, and turning, +looked all round the place. For the first time he seemed to notice +something unusual for the equipment of a stable, and regarded it with +silent interest. It was nothing more nor less than a box, covered with +sheets of virgin cork, and standing on the floor just under one of the +windows, where the light and air could get to a weird-looking, +rubbery-leaved, orchid-like plant, covered with ligulated scarlet +blossoms which grew within it. + +"Sir Henry," he said, after a moment, "may I ask how long it is since +you were in South America?" + +"I? Never was there in my life, Mr. Cleek--never." + +"Ah! Then who connected with the hall has been?" + +"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Sir Henry, following the +direction of his gaze. "That Patagonian plant, eh? That belonged to poor +Tolliver. He had a strange fancy for ferns and rock plants and things of +that description, and as that particular specimen happens to be one that +does better in the atmosphere of a stable than elsewhere, he kept it in +here." + +"Who told him that it does better in the atmosphere of a stable?" + +"Lady Wilding's cousin, Mr. Sharpless. It was he who gave Tolliver the +plant." + +"Oho! Then Mr. Sharpless has been to South America, has he?" + +"Why, yes. As a matter of fact, he comes from there; so also does Lady +Wilding. I should have thought you would have remembered that, Mr. +Cleek, when--But perhaps you have never heard? She--they--that is," +stammering confusedly and colouring to the temples, "up to seven months +ago, Mr. Cleek, Lady Wilding was on the--er--music-hall stage. She and +Mr. Sharpless were known as 'Signor Morando and La Belle Creole'--they +did a living statue turn together. It was highly artistic; people raved; +I--er--fell in love with the lady and--that's all!" + +But it wasn't; for Cleek, reading between the lines, saw that the mad +infatuation which had brought the lady a title and an over-generous +husband had simmered down--as such things always do sooner or later--and +that the marriage was very far from being a happy one. As a matter of +fact, he learned later that the county, to a woman, had refused to +accept Lady Wilding; that her ladyship, chafing under this ostracism, +was for having a number of her old professional friends come down to +visit her and make a time of it, and that, on Sir Henry's objecting, a +violent quarrel had ensued, and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer had come down to +the hall in the effort to make peace. And he learned something else that +night which gave him food for deep reflection: the Rev. Ambrose Smeer, +too, had been to South America, and when he met that gentleman--well, in +spite of the fact that Sir Henry thought so highly of him, and it was +known that his revival meetings had done a world of good, Cleek did not +fancy the Rev. Ambrose Smeer any more than he fancied the trainer, +Logan. + +But to return to the present. By this time the late falling twilight of +May had begun to close in, and presently--as the day was now done and +the night approaching--Logan led in Black Riot from the paddock, +followed by a slim, sallow-featured, small-moustached man, bearing a +shotgun, and dressed in grey tweeds. Sir Henry, who, it was plain to +see, had a liking for the man, introduced this newcomer to Cleek as the +South American, Mr. Andrew Sharpless. + +"That's the English of it, Mr. Cleek," said the latter jovially, but +with an undoubted Spanish twist to the tongue. "I wouldn't have you risk +breaking your jaw with the Brazilian original. Delighted to meet you, +sir. I hope to Heaven you will get at the bottom of this diabolical +thing. What do you think, Henry? Lambson-Bowles's jockey was over in +this neighbourhood this afternoon. Trying to see how Black Riot shapes, +of course, the bounder! Fortunately I saw him skulking along on the +other side of the hedge, and gave him two minutes in which to make +himself scarce. If he hadn't, if he had come a step nearer to the mare, +I'd have shot him down like a dog. That's right, Logan, put her up for +the night, old chap, and I'll get out your bedding." + +"Aye," said Logan, through his clamped teeth, "and God help man or devil +that comes a-nigh her this night--God help him, Lunnon Mister, that's +all Ah say!" Then he passed into the steel room with the mare, attended +her for the night, and coming out a minute or two later, locked her up +and gave Sir Henry the key. + +"Broke her and trained her, Ah did; and willin' to die for her, Ah am, +if Ah can't pull un through no other way," he said, pausing before Cleek +and giving him a black look, "A Derby winner her's cut out for, Lunnon +Mister, and a Derby winner her's goin' to be, in spite of all the +Lambson-Bowleses and the low-down horse-nobblers in Christendom!" Then +he switched round and walked over to Sharpless, who had taken a pillow +and a bundle of blankets from a convenient cupboard, and was making a +bed of them on the floor at the foot of the locked steel door. + +"Thanky, sir, 'bliged to un, sir," said Logan as Sharpless hung up the +shotgun and, with a word to the baronet, excused himself and went in to +dress for dinner. Then he faced round again on Cleek, who was once more +sniffing the air, and pointed to the rude bed: "There's where Ted Logan +sleeps this night--there!" he went on suddenly; "and them as tries to +get at Black Riot comes to grips with me first, me and the shotgun Mr. +Sharpless has left Ah. And if Ah shoot, Lunnon Mister, Ah shoot to +kill!" + +"Do me a favour, Sir Henry," said Cleek. "For reasons of my own, I want +to be in this stable alone for the next ten minutes, and after that let +no one come into it until morning. I won't be accountable for this man's +life if he stops in here to-night, and for his sake, as well as for your +own, I want you to forbid him to do so." + +Logan seemed to go nearly mad with rage at this. + +"Ah won't listen to it! Ah will stop here--Ah will! Ah will!" he cried +out in a passion. "Who comes ull find Ah here waitin' to come to grips +with un. Ah won't stop out--Ah won't! Don't un listen to Lunnon Mister, +Sir Henry--for God's sake, don't!" + +"I am afraid I must in this instance, Logan. You are far too suspicious, +my good fellow. Mr. Cleek doesn't want to 'get at' the mare; he wants to +protect her; to keep anybody else from getting at her, so--join the +guard outside if you are so eager. You must let him have his way." And, +in spite of all Logan's pleading, Cleek did have his way. + +Protesting, swearing, almost weeping, the trainer was turned out and the +doors closed, leaving Cleek alone in the stable; and the last Logan and +Sir Henry saw of him until he came out and rejoined them he was standing +in the middle of the floor, with his hands on both hips, staring fixedly +at the impromptu bed in front of the steel-room door. + +"Put on the guard now and see that nobody goes into the place until +morning, Sir Henry," he said when he came out and rejoined them some +minutes later. "Logan, you silly fellow, you'll do no good fighting +against Fate. Make the best of it and stop where you are." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +That night Cleek met Lady Wilding for the first time. He found her what +he afterwards termed "a splendid animal," beautiful, statuesque, more of +Juno than of Venus, and freely endowed with the languorous temperament +and the splendid earthy loveliness which grows nowhere but under +tropical skies and in the shadow of palm groves and the flame of cactus +flowers. She showed him but scant courtesy, however, for she was but a +poor hostess, and after dinner carried her cousin away to the +billiard-room, and left her husband to entertain the Rev. Ambrose and +the detective as best he could. Cleek needed but little entertaining, +however, for in spite of his serenity he was full of the case on hand, +and kept wandering in and out of the house and upstairs and down until +eleven o'clock came and bed claimed him with the rest. + +His last wakeful recollection was of the clock in the lower corridor +striking the first quarter after eleven; then sleep claimed him, and he +knew no more until all the stillness was suddenly shattered by a +loud-voiced gong hammering out an alarm and the sound of people tumbling +out of bed and scurrying about in a panic of fright. He jumped out of +bed, pulled on his clothing, and rushed out into the hall, only to find +it alive with people, and at their head Sir Henry, with a dressing-gown +thrown on over his pyjamas and a bedroom candle in his shaking hand. + +"The stable!" he cried out excitedly. "Come on, come on, for God's sake! +Someone has touched the door of the steel room; and yet the place was +left empty--empty!" + +But it was no longer empty, as they found out when they reached it, for +the doors had been flung open, the men who had been left on guard +outside the stables were now inside it, the electric lights were in full +blaze, the shotgun still hanging where Sharpless had left it, the +impromptu bed was tumbled and tossed in a man's death agony, and at the +foot of the steel door Logan lay, curled up in a heap and stone dead! + +"He would get in, Sir Henry, he'd have shot one or the other of us if we +hadn't let him," said one of the outer guards as Sir Henry and Cleek +appeared. "He would lie before the door and watch, sir--he simply would; +and God have mercy on him, poor chap; he was faithful to the last!" + +"And the last might not have come for years, the fool, if he had only +obeyed," said Cleek; then lapsed into silence and stood staring at a +dust of white flour on the red-tiled floor and at a thin wavering line +that broke the even surface of it. + +It was perhaps two minutes later when the entire household--mistress, +guests, and servants alike--came trooping across the open space between +the hall and the stables in a state of semi-deshabille, but in that +brief space of time friendly hands had reverently lifted the body of the +dead man from its place before the steel door, and Sir Henry was +nervously fitting the key to the lock in a frantic effort to get in and +see if Black Riot was safe. + +"Dios! what is it? What has happened?" cried Lady Wilding as she came +hurrying in, followed closely by Sharpless and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer. +Then, catching sight of Logan's body, she gave a little scream and +covered her eyes. "The trainer, Andrew, the trainer now!" she went on +half hysterically. "Another death--another! Surely they have got the +wretch at last?" + +"The mare! The mare, Henry! Is she safe?" exclaimed Sharpless excitedly +as he whirled away from his cousin's side and bore down upon the +baronet. "Give me the key--you're too nervous." And, taking it from him, +unlocked the steel room and passed swiftly into it. + +In another instant Black Riot was led out--uninjured, untouched, in the +very pink of condition--and, in spite of the tragedy and the dead man's +presence, one or two of the guards were so carried away that they +essayed a cheer. + +"Stop that! Stop it instantly!" rapped out Sir Henry, facing round upon +them. "What's a horse--even the best--beside the loss of an honest life +like that?" and flung out a shaking hand in the direction of dead Logan. +"It will be the story of last night over again, of course? You heard his +scream, heard his fall, but he was dead when you got to him--dead--and +you found no one here?" + +"Not a soul, Sir Henry. The doors were all locked; no grille is missing +from any window; no one is in the loft; no one in any of the stalls; no +one in any crook or corner of the place." + +"Send for the constable--the justice of the peace--anybody!" chimed in +the Rev. Ambrose Smeer at this. "Henry, will you never be warned, never +take these awful lessons to heart? This sinful practice of racing horses +for money--" + +"Oh, hush, hush! Don't preach me a sermon now, uncle," interposed Sir +Henry. "My heart's torn, my mind crazed by this abominable thing. Poor +old Logan! Poor, faithful old chap! Oh!" He whirled and looked over at +Cleek, who still stood inactive, staring at the flour-dusted floor. "And +they said that no mystery was too great for you to get to the bottom of +it, no riddle too complex for you to find the answer! Can't you do +something? Can't you suggest something? Can't you see any glimmer of +light at all?" + +Cleek looked up, and that curious smile which Narkom knew so well--and +would have known had he been there was the "danger signal"--looped up +one corner of his mouth. + +"I fancy it is _all_ 'light,' Sir Henry," he said. "I may be wrong, but +I fancy it is merely a question of comparative height. Do I puzzle you +by that? Well, let me explain. Lady Wilding there is one height, Mr. +Sharpless is another, and I am a third; and if they two were to place +themselves side by side and, say, about four inches apart, and I were to +stand immediately behind them, the difference would be most apparent. +There you are. Do you grasp it?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Bothered if I do either," supplemented Sharpless. "It all sounds like +tommy rot to me." + +"Does it?" said Cleek. "Then let me explain it by illustration"--and he +walked quietly towards them. "Lady Wilding, will you oblige me by +standing here? Thank you very much. Now, if you please, Mr. Sharpless, +will you stand beside her ladyship while I take up my place here +immediately behind you both? That's it exactly. A little nearer, +please--just a little, so that your left elbow touches her ladyship's +right. Now then"--his two hands moved briskly, there was a click-click, +and after it: "There you are--that explains it, my good Mr. and Mrs. +Filippo Bucarelli; that explains it completely!" + +And as he stepped aside on saying this, those who were watching, those +who heard Lady Wilding's scream and Mr. Sharpless's snarling oath and +saw them vainly try to spring apart and dart away, saw also that a steel +handcuff was on the woman's right wrist, its mate on the man's left one, +and that they were firmly chained together. + +"In the name of Heaven, man," began Sir Henry, appalled by this, and +growing red and white by rapid turns. + +"I fancy that Heaven has very little to do with this precious pair, Sir +Henry," interposed Cleek. "You want the two people who are accountable +for these diabolical crimes, and--there they stand." + +"What! Do you mean to tell me that Sharpless, that my wife--" + +"Don't give the lady a title to which she has not and never had any +legal right, Sir Henry. If it had ever occurred to you to emulate my +example to-night and search the lady's effects, you would have found +that she was christened Enriqua Dolores Torjado, and that she was +married to Señor Filippo Bucarelli here, at Valparaiso, in Chili, three +years ago, and that her marriage to you was merely a clever little +scheme to get hold of a pot of money and share it with her rascally +husband." + +"It's a lie!" snarled out the male prisoner. "It's an infernal +policeman's lie! You never found any such thing!" + +"Pardon me, but I did," replied Cleek serenely. "And what's more, I +found the little phial of coriander and oil of sassafras in your room, +señor, and--I shall finish off the Mynga Worm in another ten minutes!" + +Bucarelli and his wife gave a mingled cry, and, chained together though +they were, made a wild bolt for the door; only, however, to be met on +the threshold by the local constable, to whom Cleek had dispatched a +note some hours previously. + +"Thank you, Mr. Philpotts; you are very prompt," he said. "There are +your prisoners nicely trussed and waiting for you. Take them away--we +are quite done with them here. Sir Henry"--he turned to the baronet--"if +Black Riot is fitted to win the Derby she will win it, and you need have +no more fear for her safety. No one has ever for one moment tried to get +at her. You yourself were the one that precious pair were after, and the +bait was your life assurance. By killing off the watchers over Black +Riot one by one they knew that there would come a time when, being able +to get no one else to take the risk of guarding the horse and sleeping +on that bed before the steel-room door, you would do it yourself; and +when that time came they would have had you." + +"But how? By what means?" + +"By one of the most diabolical imaginable. Among the reptiles of +Patagonia, Sir Henry, there is one--a species of black adder, known in +the country as the Mynga Worm--whose bite is more deadly than that of +the rattler or the copperhead, and as rapid in its action as prussic +acid itself. It has, too, a great velocity of movement and a peculiar +power of springing and hurling itself upon its prey. The Patagonians are +a barbarous people in the main and, like all barbarous people, are +vengeful, cunning, and subtle. A favourite revenge of theirs upon +unsuspecting enemies is to get within touch of them and secretly to +smear a mixture of coriander and oil of sassafras upon some part of +their bodies, and then either to lure or drive them into the forest; for +by a peculiar arrangement of Mother Nature this mixture has a +fascination, a maddening effect upon the Mynga Worm--just as a red rag +has on a bull--and, enraged by the scent, it finds the spot smeared with +it and delivers its deadly bite." + +"Good heaven! How horrible! And you mean to tell me--" + +"That they employed one of these deadly reptiles in this case? Yes, Sir +Henry. I suspected it the very moment I smelt the odour of the coriander +and sassafras; but I suspected that an animal or a reptile of some kind +was at the bottom of the mystery at a prior period. That is why I wanted +the flour. Look! Do you see where I sifted it over this spot near the +Patagonian plant? And do you see those serpentine tracks through the +middle of it? The Mynga Worm is there--in that box, at the roots of that +plant. Now see!" + +He caught up a horse blanket, spread it on the floor, lifted the box and +plant, set them down in the middle of it, and with a quick gathering up +of the ends of the blanket converted it into a bag and tied it round +with a hitching strap. + +"Get spades, forks, anything, and dig a hole outside in the paddock," he +went on. "A deep hole--a yard deep at the least--then get some straw, +some paraffin, turpentine--anything that will burn furiously and +quickly--and we will soon finish the little beast." + +The servants flew to obey, and when the hole was dug he carried the bag +out and lowered it carefully into it, covered it with straw, drenched +this with a gallon or more of lamp oil, and rapidly applied a match to +it and sprang back. + +A moment later those who were watching saw a small black snake make an +ineffectual effort to leap out of the blazing mass, fall back into the +flames and disappear for ever. + +"The method of procedure?" said Cleek, answering the baronet's query as +the latter was pouring out what he called "a nerve settler," prior to +following the Rev. Ambrose's example and going to bed. "Very cunning, +and yet very, very simple, Sir Henry. Bucarelli made a practice, as I +saw this evening, of helping the chosen watcher to make his bed on the +floor in front of the door to the steel room, but during the time he was +removing the blankets from the cupboard his plan was to smear them with +the coriander and sassafras and so arrange the top blanket that when the +watcher lay down the stuff touched his neck or throat and made that the +point of attack for the snake, whose fangs make a small round spot not +bigger than a knitting needle, which is easily passed over by those not +used to looking for such a thing. There was such a spot on Tolliver's +throat; such another at the base of Murple's skull, and there is a third +in poor Logan's left temple. No, thank you--no more to-night, Sir Henry. +Alcohol and I are never more than speaking acquaintances at the best of +times. But if you really wish to do me a kindness--" + +"I don't think there is room to doubt that, Mr. Cleek. If I am certain +of anything in this world I am certain of Black Riot's success on +Wednesday; and that success I feel I shall owe to you. Money can't +offset some debts, you know; and if there is anything in the world I can +do, you have only to let me know." + +"Thank you," said Cleek. "Then invite me to spend to-morrow here, and +give me the freedom of those superb gardens. My senses are drunk already +with the scent of your hyacinths; and if I might have a day among them, +I should be as near happy as makes no difference." + +He had his day--breaking it only to 'phone up to Clarges Street and +quiet any possible fears upon Dollops's part--and if ever man was +satisfied, that man was he. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +It was late on the afternoon of the day following when he turned up at +Clarges Street and threw Dollops into a very transport of delight at the +bare sight of him. + +"Crumbs, Gov'nor, but I am glad to see you, sir!" said the boy, with a +look of positive adoration. "A fish out o' water ain't a patch to wot +I've felt like--Lord, no! Why, sir, it's the first time you've ever been +away from me since you took me on; and the dreams I've had is enough to +drive a body fair dotty. I've seen parties a-stickin' knives in your +back and puttin' poison in your food and doin' the Lord knows wot not to +you, sir; and every blessed nerve in my body has been a doin' of a +constant shake--like a jelly-fish on a cold day." + +Cleek laughed, and catching him by the shoulder whirled him round, +looked at him, and then clapped him on the back. + +"Look here, don't you get to worrying and to developing nerves, young +man," he said, "or I shall have to ship you off somewhere for a long +rest; and I'm just beginning to feel as if I couldn't do without you. +What you want is a change; and what I want is the river, so, if there is +no message from The Yard--" + +"There isn't, sir." + +"Good. Then 'phone through to Mr. Narkom and tell him that you and I are +going for a few days up the river as far as Henley, and that we are +going to break it on Wednesday to go to the Derby." + +"Gov'nor! Gawd's truth, sir, you aren't never a-goin' to give me two +sich treats as that? From now till Thursday with jist you--jist _you_, +sir? I'll go balmy on the crumpet--I'll get to stickin' straws in my +bloomin' 'air!" + +"You 'get to' the telephone and send that message to The Yard, if you +know when you're well off," said Cleek, laughing. "And, after that, out +with the kit bag and in with such things as we shall need; and--Hullo! +what's this thing?" + +"A necktie and a rose bush wot I took the liberty of buyin' for you, +sir, bein' as you give me ten shillin's for myself," said Dollops +sheepishly. "I been a-keepin' of my eye on that rose bush and that +necktie for a week past, sir. I 'ope you'll take 'em, Gov'nor, and not +think me presumin', sir." + +Cleek faced round and looked at him--a long look--without saying +anything, then he screwed round on his heel and walked to the window. + +"It is very nice and very thoughtful of you, Dollops," he said +presently, his voice a little thick, his tones a little uneven. "But +don't be silly and waste your money, my lad. Lay it by. You may need it +one day. Now toddle on and get things ready for our outing." But +afterwards--when the boy had gone and he was alone in the room--he +walked back to the potted rose bush and touched its buds lovingly, and +stood leaning over it and saying nothing for a long time. And though the +necktie that hung on its branches was a harlequin thing of red and green +and violent purple, when he came to dress for that promised outing he +put it on and adjusted it as tenderly, wore it as proudly as ever knight +of old wore the colours of his lady. + +"You look a fair treat in it, sir," said Dollops, delightedly and +admiringly, when he came in later and saw that he had it on. And if +anything had been wanting to make him quite, quite happy, it was wanting +no more. Or, if it had been, the night that came down and found them +housed in a little old-world inn, with a shining river at its door and +the hush and the odorous darkness of the country lanes about it, must of +itself have supplied the omission; for when all the house was still and +all the lights were out, he crept from his bed and curled up like a dog +on the mat before Cleek's door, and would not have changed places with +an emperor. + +They were up and on the river, master and man, almost as soon as the +dawn itself; taking their morning plunge under a sky that was but just +changing the tints of rose to those of saffron before they merged into +the actual light of day; and to the boy the man seemed almost a god in +that dim light, which showed but an ivory shoulder lifting now and again +as he struck outwards and deft his way through a yielding, yellow-grey +waste that leaped in little lilac-hued ripples to his chin, and thence +wavered off behind him in dancing lines of light. And once, when he +heard him lift up his voice and sing as he swam, he felt sure that he +_must_ be a god--that that alone could explain why he had found him so +different from other men, and cared for him as he had never cared for +any human thing before. + +From dawn to dark that day was one of unalloyed delight to him. Never +before had the starved soul of him--fed, all his life, when it was fed +at all, from the drippings of the flesh-pots and the "leavings" of the +City--found any savour in the insipid offerings of the Country; never +before had he known what charms lie on a river's breast, what spells of +magic a blossoming hedge and the white "candles" of a horse-chestnut +tree may weave, and never before had a meadow been anything to him but a +simple grass-grown field. To-day Nature--through this man who was so +essentially bred in the very womb of her--spoke to his understanding and +found her words not lost on air. The dormant things within the boy had +awakened. Life spoke; Hope sang; and between them all the world was +changed. Yesterday, he had looked upon this day of idling in the country +as a pleasant interlude, as a happy prologue to those greater delights +that would come when he at last went to Epsom and really saw the famous +race for the Derby. To-day, he was sorry that anything--even so great a +thing as that--must come to disturb such placid happiness as this. + +And yet, when the wondrous "Wednesday" came and he was actually on his +way to Epsom Downs at last ... Ah, well, Joy is elastic; Youth is a time +of many dreams, and who blames a boy for being delighted that one of +them is coming true at last? + +Cleek did not, at all events. Indeed, Cleek aided and abetted him in all +his boisterous outbursts from first to last; and was quite as excited as +he when the event of the meeting--the great race for the famous Derby +Stakes--was put up at last. Indeed, he was a bit wilder, if anything, +than the boy himself when the flag fell and the whole field swept by in +one thunderous rush, with Minnow in the lead and Black Riot far and away +behind. Nor did his excitement abate when, as the whole cavalcade swung +onwards over the green turf with the yelling thousands waving and +shouting about it, Sir Henry Wilding's mare began to lessen that lead, +and foot by foot to creep up towards the head. + +He shouted then--as wildly as Dollops himself, as wildly as any man +present. He jumped up on his seat and waved his hat; he thumped Dollops +on the back and cried: "She's creeping up! She's creeping up! Stick to +it, old chap, stick to it! Give her her head, you fool! She'll do it--by +God, she'll do it! Hurrah! Hurrah!" And was shouted down, and even +seized and pulled down by others whose view he obstructed, and whose +interest and excitement were as great as his. + +Onwards they flew, horses and riders, the whole pounding, mixing, +ever-changing mass of them; jackets and caps of every hue flashing here +and there--now in a huddled mass, now with this one in the lead, and +again with that: a vast, ever-moving, ever-altering kaleidoscope that +was, presently, hidden entirely from the main mass of the onlookers, by +the surging crowd, the mass of drags and carriages of all sorts in the +huge square of the central enclosure, and most of all by the people who +stood up on seats and wheels and even the tops of the vehicles. Then, +for a little time, the roars came from a distance only--from those in +the enclosure who alone could see--then neared and neared and grew in +volume, as the unseen racers pounded onward and came pelting up the long +stretch toward Tattenham Corner. And by and bye they swung into view +again--still a huddled mass, still so closely packed together that the +positions of the individual horses was a matter of uncertainty--but +always the roaring sound went on and always it came nearer and nearer, +until a thousand voices took it up at the foot of the grand stand, and +other thousands bellowed it up and up from tier to tier to the very +roof. + +For, of a sudden, that blaze of caps and jackets, that huddle of horses +red and horses grey, horses black and horses roan, piebald, white--every +colour that a horse may be--had come at last to Tattenham Corner and +burst into the full view of everybody. Yet, as they came, a black mare, +hugging the railed enclosure on the inner side of the sweep, arrowed +forward with a sudden spurt, came like a rocket to the fore, and all the +earth and all the sky seemed to ring with the cry: "Wilding! Wilding! +Black Riot leads! Black Riot leads!" + +She did--and kept it to the end! + +In half a minute her number was up, yelling thousands were tumbling out +upon the field to cheer her, to cheer her rider, to cheer her proud +owner when he came out to lead her to the paddock and the weighing room, +and to feel in that moment the proudest and the happiest man in England; +and of those, not the least excited and delighted was Cleek. + +Carried away by enthusiasm, he had risen again in his seat and, with his +hat held aloft upon a walking stick, was waving and stamping and +shouting enthusiastically: "Black Riot wins! Black Riot! Black Riot! +Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +And so he was still shouting when he felt a hand touch him, and looking +round saw Mr. Narkom. + +"Ripping, wasn't it, old chap?" said the superintendent. "No wonder you +are excited, considering what interest you have. Been looking for you, +my dear fellow. Knew of course, from your telling me, that you would be +here to-day, but shouldn't have been able to identify you but for the +presence of young Dollops here. I say: you're not going to stop now that +the great race is over, are you? The rest won't amount to anything." + +"No, I shall not stop," said Cleek. "Why? Do you want me?" + +"Yes. Lennard's outside with the limousine. Hop into it, will you, and +meet me at the Fiddle and Horseshoe, between Shepherd's Bush and Acton? +It's only half-past three and the limousine can cover the distance in +less than no time. Can't go with you. Got to round up my men here, +first. Join you shortly, however. McTavish has a sixty-horse-power +Mercedes, and he'll rush me over almost on your heels. Let Dollops go +home by train, and you meet me as I've asked, will you?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. + +And so the joyous holiday came to an unexpected end. + +Parting from Dollops, and leaving the boy to journey on to Clarges +Street alone, he fared forth to find Lennard and the red limousine, and +was whirled away in record time to the inn of the Fiddle and Horseshoe. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It had but just gone five when Narkom walked into the little bar parlour +and found him standing there, looking out on the quaint, old-fashioned +bowling green that lay all steeped in sunshine and zoned with the froth +of pear and apple blossoms thick piled above the time-stained bricks of +an enclosing wall. + +"What a model of punctuality you are, old chap," the superintendent +said, nodding approvingly. "Wait a moment while I go and order tea, and +then we will get down to business in real earnest. Shan't be long." + +"Pray, don't hurry yourself on my account, Mr. Narkom," returned Cleek, +"coming down to earth" out of a mental airship. "I could do with another +hour of that"--nodding toward the view--"and still wonder where the time +had gone. These quaint old inns, which the march of what we are pleased +to call 'Progress' is steadily crowding off the face of the land, are +always deeply interesting to me; I love them. What a day! What a +picture! What a sky! As blue as what Dollops calls the 'Merry Geranium +Sea.' I'd give a Jew's eye for a handful of those apple blossoms--they +are divine!" + +Narkom hastened from the room without replying. The strain of poetry +underlying the character of this strange, inscrutable man, his amazing +love of Nature, his moments of almost womanish weakness and sentiment, +astonished and mystified him. It was as if a hawk had acquired the +utterly useless trick of fluting like a nightingale, and being himself +wholly without imagination, he could not comprehend it in the smallest +degree. + +When he returned a few minutes later, however, the idealist seemed to +have simmered down into the materialist, the extraordinary to have +become merged in the ordinary, for he found his famous ally no longer +studying the beauties of Nature, but giving his whole attention to the +sordid commonplaces of man, for he was standing before a glaringly +printed bill one of many that were tacked upon the walls, which set +forth in amazing pictures and double-leaded type the wonders that were +to be seen daily and nightly at Olympia, where, for a month past, "Van +Zant's Royal Belgian Circus and World-famed Menagerie" had been holding +forth to "Crowded and delighted audiences." Much was made of two "star +turns" upon this lurid bill: "Mademoiselle Marie de Zanoni, the +beautiful and peerless bare-back equestrienne, the most daring lady +rider in the universe," for the one; and for the other, "Chevalier +Adrian di Roma, king of the animal world, with his great aggregation of +savage and ferocious wild beasts, including the famous man-eating +African lion, Nero, the largest and most ferocious animal of its species +in captivity." And under this latter announcement there was a picture of +a young and handsome man, literally smothered with medals, lying at full +length, with his arms crossed and his head in the wide-open jaws of a +snarling, wild-eyed lion. + +"My dear chap, you really do make me believe that there actually is such +a thing as instinct," said Narkom, as he came in. "Fancy your selecting +that particular bill out of all the others in the room! What an abnormal +individual you are!" + +"Why? Has it anything to do with the case you have in hand?" + +"Anything to do with it? My dear fellow, it _is_ 'the case.' I can't +imagine what drew your attention to it." + +"Can't you?" said Cleek, with a half-smile. Then he stretched forth his +hand and touched the word "Nero" with the tip of his forefinger. "That +did. Things awaken a man's memory occasionally, Mr. Narkom, and--Tell +me, isn't that the beast there was such a stir about in the newspapers a +fortnight or so ago--the lion that crushed the head of a man in full +view of the audience?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom, with a slight shudder. "Awful thing, wasn't it? +Gave me the creeps to read about it. The chap who was killed, poor +beggar, was a mere boy, not twenty, son of the Chevalier di Roma +himself. There was a great stir about it. Talk of the authorities +forbidding the performance, and all that sort of thing. They never did, +however, for on investigation--Ah, the tea at last, thank fortune. Come, +sit down, my dear fellow, and we'll talk whilst we refresh ourselves. +Landlady, see that we are not disturbed, will you, and that nobody is +admitted but the parties I mentioned?" + +"Clients?" queried Cleek, as the door closed and they were alone +together. + +"Yes. One, Mlle. Zelie, the 'chevalier's' only daughter, a slack-wire +artist; the other, Signor Scarmelli, a trapeze performer, who is the +lady's fiancé." + +"Ah, then our friend the chevalier is not so young as the picture on the +bill would have us believe he is." + +"No, he is not. As a matter of fact, he is considerably past forty, and +is--or, rather, was, up to six months ago, a widower with three +children, two sons and a daughter." + +"I suppose," said Cleek, helping himself to a buttered scone, "I am to +infer from what you say that at the period you mentioned, six months +ago, the intrepid gentleman showed his courage yet more forcibly by +taking a second wife? Young or old?" + +"Young," said Narkom in reply. "Very young, not yet four-and-twenty, in +fact, and very, very beautiful. That is she who is 'featured' on the +bill as the star of the equestrian part of the programme: 'Mlle. Marie +de Zanoni.' So far as I have been able to gather, the affair was a love +match. The lady, it appears, had no end of suitors, both in and out of +the profession; it has even been hinted that she could, had she been so +minded, have married an impressionable young Austrian nobleman of +independent means who was madly in love with her; but she appears to +have considered it preferable to become 'an old man's darling,' so to +speak, and to have selected the middle-aged chevalier rather than +someone whose age is nearer her own." + +"Nothing new in that, Mr. Narkom. Young women before Mlle. Marie de +Zanoni's day have been known to love elderly men sincerely: young Mrs. +Bawdrey, in the case of 'The Nine-fingered Skeleton,' is an example of +that. Still, such marriages are not common, I admit, so when they occur +one naturally looks to see if there may not be 'other considerations' at +the bottom of the attachment. Is the chevalier well-to-do? Has he +expectations of any kind?" + +"To the contrary; he has nothing but the salary he earns--which is by no +means so large as the public imagines; and as he comes of a long line of +circus performers, all of whom died early and poor, 'expectations,' as +you put it, do not enter into the affair at all. Apparently the lady did +marry him for love of him, as she professes and as he imagines; +although, if what I hear is true, it would appear that she has lately +outgrown that love; in short, that a Romeo more suitable to her age has +recently joined the show in the person of a rider called Signor Antonio +Martinelli; that he has fallen desperately in love with her, and that--" + +He bit off his words short and rose to his feet. The door had opened +suddenly to admit a young man and a young woman, who entered in a state +of nervous excitement. "Ah, my dear Mr. Scarmelli, you and Miss Zelie +are most welcome," continued the superintendent. "My friend and I were +this moment talking about you." + +Cleek glanced across the room, and, as was customary with him, made up +his mind instantly. The girl, despite her association with the arena, +was a modest, unaffected little thing of about eighteen; the man was a +straight-looking, clear-eyed, boyish-faced young fellow of about +eight-and-twenty; well, but by no means flashily, dressed, and carrying +himself with the air of one who respects himself and demands the respect +of others. He was evidently an Englishman, despite his Italian _nom de +théâtre_, and Cleek decided out of hand that he liked him. + +"We can shelve 'George Headland' in this instance, Mr. Narkom," he said, +as the superintendent led forward the pair for the purpose of +introducing them, and suffered himself to be presented in the name of +Cleek. + +The effect of this was electrical; would, in fact, had he been a vain +man, have been sufficient to gratify him to the fullest, for the girl, +with a little "Oh!" of amazement, drew back and stood looking at him +with a sort of awe that rounded her eyes and parted her lips, while the +man leaned heavily upon the back of a convenient chair and looked and +acted as one utterly overcome. + +"Cleek!" he repeated, after a moment's despairful silence. "You, sir, +are that great man? This is a misfortune, indeed." + +"A misfortune, my friend? Why a 'misfortune,' pray? Do you think the +riddle you have brought is beyond my powers?" + +"Oh, no; not that--never that!" he made reply. "If there is any one man +in the world who could get at the bottom of it, could solve the mystery +of the lion's change, the lion's smile, you are that man, sir, you. That +is the misfortune: that you could do it, and yet--I cannot expect it, +cannot avail myself of this great opportunity. Look! I am doing it all +on my own initiative, sir--all for the sake of Zelie and that dear, +lovable old chap, her father. I have saved fifty-eight pounds, Mr. +Cleek. I had hoped that that might tempt a clever detective to take up +the case; but what is such a sum to such a man as you?" + +"If that is all that stands in the way, don't let it worry you, my good +fellow," said Cleek, with a smile. "Put your fifty-eight pounds in your +pocket against your wedding-day, and--good luck to you. I'll take the +case for nothing. Now then, what is it? What the dickens did you mean +just now when you spoke about 'the lion's change' and 'the lion's +smile'? What lion--Nero? Here, sit down and tell me all about it." + +"There is little enough to tell, Heaven knows," said young Scarmelli, +with a sigh, accepting the invitation after he had gratefully wrung +Cleek's hand, and his fiancée, with a burst of happy tears, had caught +it up as it slipped from his and had covered it with thankful kisses. +"That, Mr. Cleek, is where the greatest difficulty lies--there is so +little to explain that has any bearing upon the matter at all. It is +only that the lion--Nero, that is, the chevalier's special pride and +special pet--seems to have undergone some great and inexplicable change, +as though he is at times under some evil spell, which lasts but a moment +and yet makes that moment a tragical one. It began, no one knows why nor +how, two weeks ago, when, without hint or warning, he killed the person +he loved best in all the world--the chevalier's eldest son. Doubtless +you have heard of that?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. "But what you are now telling me sheds a new light +upon the matter. Am I to understand, then, that all that talk, on the +bills and in the newspapers, about the lion being a savage and a +dangerous one is not true, and that he really is attached to his owner, +and his owner's family?" + +"That is the truth," replied Scarmelli; "Nero is, in fact, the gentlest, +most docile, most intelligent beast of his kind living. In short, sir, +there's not a 'bite' in him; and, added to that, he is over thirty years +old. Zelie--Miss di Roma--will tell you that he was born in captivity; +that from his earliest moment he has been the pet of her family; that he +was, so to speak, raised with her and her brothers; that, as children, +they often slept with him; that he will follow those he loves like any +dog, fight for them, protect them, let them tweak his ears and pull his +tail without showing the slightest resentment, even though they may +actually hurt him. Indeed, he is so general a favourite, Mr. Cleek, that +there isn't an attendant connected with the show who would not, and, +indeed, has not at some time, put his head in the beast's mouth, just as +the chevalier does in public, certain that no harm could possibly come +of the act. + +"You may judge, then, sir, what a shock, what a horrible surprise it was +when the tragedy of two weeks ago occurred. Often, to add zest to the +performance, the chevalier varies it by allowing his children to put +their heads into Nero's mouth instead of doing so himself, merely making +a fake of it that he has the lion under such control that he will +respect any command given by him. That is what happened on that night. +Young Henri was chosen to put his head into Nero's mouth, and did so +without fear or hesitation. He took the beast's jaws and pulled them +apart, and laid his head within them, as he had done a hundred times +before; but of a sudden an appalling, an uncanny, thing happened. It was +as though some supernatural power laid hold of the beast and made a +thing of horror of what a moment before had been a noble-looking animal; +for suddenly a strange hissing noise issued from its jaws, its lips +curled upward until it smiled--smiled, Mr. Cleek!--oh, the ghastliest, +most awful, most blood-curdling smile imaginable--and then, with a sort +of mingled snarl and bark, it clamped its jaws together and crushed the +boy's head as though it were an egg-shell!" + +He put up his hands and covered his eyes as if to shut out some +appalling vision, and for a moment or two nothing was heard but the low +sobbing of the victim's sister. + +"As suddenly as that change had come over the beast, Mr. Cleek," +Scarmelli went on presently, "just so suddenly it passed, and it was the +docile, affectionate animal it had been for years. It seemed to +understand that some harm had befallen its favourite--for Henri was its +favourite--and, curling itself up beside his body, it licked his hands +and moaned disconsolately in a manner almost human. That's all there is +to tell, sir, save that at times the horrid change, the appalling smile, +repeat themselves when either the chevalier or his son bend to put a +head within its jaws, and but for their watchfulness and quickness the +tragedy of that other awful night would surely be repeated. Sir, it is +not natural; I know now, as surely as if the lion itself had spoken, +that someone is at the bottom of this ghastly thing, that some human +agency is at work, some unknown enemy of the chevalier's is doing +something, God alone knows what or why, to bring about his death as his +son's was brought about." + +And here, for the first time, the chevalier's daughter spoke. + +"Ah, tell him all, Jim, tell him all," she said, in her pretty broken +English. "Monsieur, may the good God in heaven forgive me, if I wrong +her; but--but--Ah, Monsieur Cleek, sometimes I feel that she, my +stepmother, and that man, that 'rider' who knows not how to ride as the +artist should--monsieur, I cannot help it, but I feel that they are at +the bottom of it." + +"Yes, but why?" queried Cleek. "I have heard of your father's second +marriage, mademoiselle, and of this Signor Antonio Martinelli, to whom +you allude. Mr. Narkom has told me. But why should you connect these two +persons with this inexplicable thing? Does your father do so, too?" + +"Oh, no! Oh, no!" she answered excitedly. "He does not even know that we +suspect, Jim and I. He loves her, monsieur. It would kill him to doubt +her." + +"Then why should you?" + +"Because I cannot help it, monsieur. God knows, I would if I could, for +I care for her dearly--I am grateful to her for making my father happy. +My brothers, too, cared for her. We believed she loved him; we believed +it was because of that she married him. And yet--and yet--Ah, monsieur, +how can I fail to feel as I do when this change in the lion came with +that man's coming? And she--ah, monsieur, she is always with him. Why +does she curry favour of him and his rich friend?" + +"He has a rich friend, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. The company was in difficulties; Monsieur van Zant, the +proprietor, could not make it pay, and it was upon the point of +disbanding. But, suddenly, this indifferent performer, this rider who +is, after all, but a poor amateur and not fit to appear with a company +of trained artists, suddenly this Signor Martinelli comes to Monsieur +van Zant to say that, if he will engage him, he has a rich friend--one +Señor Sperati, a Brazilian coffee planter--who will 'back' the show with +his money and buy a partnership in it. Of course, M. van Zant accepted; +and since then this Señor Sperati has travelled everywhere with us, has +had the entrée like one of us, and his friend, the bad rider, has fairly +bewitched my stepmother, for she is ever with him, ever with them both, +and--and--Ah, mon Dieu! the lion smiles, and my people die! Why does it +'smile' for no others? Why is it only they--my father, my brother--they +alone?" + +"Is that a fact?" said Cleek, turning to young Scarmelli. "You say that +all connected with the circus have so little fear of the beast that even +attendants sometimes do this foolhardy trick. Does the lion never +'smile' for any of those?" + +"Never, Mr. Cleek--never under any circumstances. Nor does it always +smile for the chevalier and his son. That is the mystery of it. One +never knows when it is going to happen--one never knows why it does +happen. But if you could see that uncanny smile--" + +"I should like to," interposed Cleek. "That is, if it might happen +without any tragical result. Hum-m-m! Nobody but the chevalier and the +chevalier's son! And when does it happen in their case--during the +course of the show, or when there is nobody about but those connected +with it?" + +"Oh, always during the course of the entertainment, sir. Indeed, it has +never happened at any other time--never at all." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Then it is only when they are dressed and made up +for the performance, eh? Hum-m-m! I see." Then he relapsed into silence +for a moment, and sat tracing circles on the floor with the toe of his +boot. But, of a sudden: "You came here directly after the matinee, I +suppose?" he queried, glancing up at young Scarmelli. + +"Yes; in fact, before it was wholly over." + +"I see. Then it is just possible that all the performers have not yet +got into their civilian clothes. Couldn't manage to take me round behind +the scenes, so to speak, if Mr. Narkom will lend us his motor to hurry +us there? Could, eh? That's good. I think I'd like to have a look at +that lion and, if you don't mind, an introduction to the parties +concerned. No! don't fear; we won't startle anybody by revealing my +identity or the cause of the visit. Let us say that I'm a vet, to whom +you have appealed for an opinion, regarding Nero's queer conduct. All +ready, Mr. Narkom? Thanks--then let's be off." + +Two minutes later the red limousine was at the door, and, stepping into +it with his two companions, he was whizzed away to Olympia and the first +step towards the solution of the riddle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +As it is the custom of those connected with the world of the circus to +eat, sleep, have their whole being, as it were, within the environment +of the show, to the total exclusion of hotels, boarding-houses, or +outside lodgings of any sort, he found on his arrival at his destination +the entire company assembled in what was known as the "living-tent," +chatting, laughing, reading, playing games, and killing time generally +whilst waiting for the call to the "dining-tent," and this gave him an +opportunity to meet all the persons connected with the "case," from the +"chevalier" himself to the Brazilian coffee planter who was "backing" +the show. + +He found this latter individual a somewhat sullen and taciturn man of +middle age, who had more the appearance of an Austrian than a Brazilian, +and with a swinging gait and an uprightness of bearing which were not to +be misunderstood. + +"Humph! Known military training," was Cleek's mental comment as soon as +he saw the man walk. "Got it in Germany, too; I know that peculiar +'swing.' What's his little game, I wonder? And what's a Brazilian doing +in the army of the Kaiser? And, having been in it, what's he doing +dropping into this line--backing a circus, and travelling with it like a +Bohemian?" + +But although these thoughts interested him, he did not put them into +words nor take anybody into his confidence regarding them. + +As for the other members of the company, he found "the indifferent +rider," known as Signor Antonio Martinelli, an undoubted Irishman of +about thirty years of age, extremely handsome, but with a certain +"shiftiness" of the eye which was far from inspiring confidence, and +with a trick of the tongue which suggested that his baptismal +certificate probably bore the name of Anthony Martin. He found, too, +that all he had heard regarding the youth and beauty of the chevalier's +second wife was quite correct, and although she devoted herself a great +deal to the Brazilian coffee planter and the Irish-Italian "Martinelli," +she had a way of looking over at her middle-aged spouse, without his +knowledge, that left no doubt in Cleek's mind regarding the real state +of her feelings towards the man. And last, but not least by any means, +he found the chevalier himself a frank, open-minded, open-hearted, +lovable man who ought not, in the natural order of things, to have an +enemy in the world. Despite his high-falutin' _nom de théâtre_, he was +Belgian--a big, soft-hearted, easy-going, unsuspicious fellow, who +worshipped his wife, adored his children, and loved every creature of +the animal world. + +How well that love was returned, Cleek saw when he went with him to that +part of the building where his animals were kept, and watched them +"nose" his hand or lick his cheek whenever the opportunity offered. But +Nero, the lion, was perhaps the greatest surprise of all, for so tame, +so docile, so little feared was the animal, that its cage-door was open, +and they found one of the attendants squatting cross-legged inside and +playing with it as though it were a kitten. + +"There he is, doctor," said the chevalier, waving his hand towards the +beast. "Ah, I will not believe that it was anything but an accident, +sir. He loved my boy. He would hurt no one that is kind to him. Fetch +him out, Tom, and let the doctor see him at close quarters." + +Despite all these assurances of the animal's docility, Cleek could not +but remember what the creature had done, and, in consequence, did not +feel quite at ease when it came lumbering out of the cage with the +attendant and ranged up alongside of him, rubbing its huge head against +the chevalier's arm after the manner of an affectionate cat. + +"Don't be frightened, sir," said Tom, noticing this. "Nothing more'n a +big dog, sir. Had the care of him for eight years, I have--haven't I, +chevalier?--and never a growl or scratch out of him. No 'smile' for your +old Tom, is there, Nero, boy, eh? No fear! Ain't a thing as anybody does +with him, sir, that I wouldn't do off-hand and feel quite safe." + +"Even to putting your head in his mouth?" queried Cleek. + +"Lord yes!" returned the man, with a laugh. "That's nothing. Done it +many a day. Look here!" With that he pulled the massive jaws apart, and, +bending down, laid his head within them. The lion stood perfectly +passive, and did not offer to close his mouth until it was again empty. +It was then that Cleek remembered and glanced round at young Scarmelli. + +"He never 'smiles' for any but the chevalier and his son, I believe you +said," he remarked. "I wonder if the chevalier himself would be as safe +if he were to make a feint of doing that?" For the chevalier, like most +of the other performers, had not changed his dress after the matinee, +since the evening performance was soon to begin; and if, as Cleek had an +idea, that the matter of costume and make-up had anything to do with the +mystery of the thing, here, surely, was a chance to learn. + +"Make a feint of it? Certainly I will, doctor," the chevalier replied. +"But why a feint? Why not the actual thing?" + +"No, please--at least, not until I have seen how the beast is likely to +take it. Just put your head down close to his muzzle, chevalier. Go +slow, please, and keep your head at a safe distance." + +The chevalier obeyed. Bringing his head down until it was on a level +with the animal's own, he opened the ponderous jaws. The beast was as +passive as before; and, finding no trace of the coming of the mysterious +and dreaded "smile," he laid his face between the double row of gleaming +teeth, held it there a moment, and then withdrew it uninjured. Cleek +took his chin between his thumb and forefinger and pinched it hard. What +he had just witnessed would seem to refute the idea of either costume or +make-up having any bearing upon the case. + +"Did you do that to-day at the matinee performance, chevalier?" he +hazarded, after a moment's thoughtfulness. + +"Oh, yes," he replied. "It was not my plan to do so, however. I alter my +performance constantly to give variety. To-day I had arranged for my +little son to do the trick; but somehow--Ah! I am a foolish man, +monsieur; I have odd fancies, odd whims, sometimes odd fears, +since--since that awful night. Something came over me at the last +moment, just as my boy came into the cage to perform the trick I changed +my mind. I would not let him do it. I thrust him aside and did the trick +myself." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Will the boy do it to-night, then, chevalier?" + +"Perhaps," he made reply. "He is still dressed for it. Look, here he +comes now, monsieur, and my wife, and some of our good friends with him. +Ah, they are so interested, they are anxious to hear what report you +make upon Nero's condition." + +Cleek glanced round. Several members of the company were advancing +towards them from the "living-tent." In the lead was the boy, a little +fellow of about twelve years of age, fancifully dressed in tights and +tunic. By his side was his stepmother, looking pale and anxious. But +although both Signor Martinelli and the Brazilian coffee planter came to +the edge of the tent and looked out, it was observable that they +immediately withdrew, and allowed the rest of the party to proceed +without them. + +"Dearest, I have just heard from Tom that you and the doctor are +experimenting with Nero," said the chevalier's wife, as she came up with +the others and joined him. "Oh, do be careful, do! Much as I like the +animal, doctor, I shall never feel safe until my husband parts with it +or gives up that ghastly 'trick.'" + +"My dearest, my dearest, how absurdly you talk!" interrupted her +husband. "You know well that without that my act would be commonplace, +that no manager would want either it or me. And how, pray, should we +live if that were to happen?" + +"There would always be my salary; we could make that do." + +"As if I would consent to live upon your earnings and add nothing +myself! No, no! I shall never do that--never. It is not as though that +foolish dream of long ago had come true, and I might hope one day to +retire. I am of the circus, and of it I shall always remain." + +"I wish you might not; I wish the dream might come true, even yet," she +made reply. "Why shouldn't it? Wilder ones have come true for other +people; why should they not for you?" + +Before her husband could make any response to this, the whole trend of +the conversation was altered by the boy. + +"Father," he said, "am I to do the trick to-night? Señor Sperati says it +is silly of me to sit about all dressed and ready if I am to do nothing, +like a little super, instead of a performer and an artist." + +"Oh, but that is not kind of the señor to say that," his father replied, +soothing his ruffled feelings. "You are an artist, of course; never +super--no, never. But if you shall do the trick or not, I cannot say. It +will depend, as it did at the matinee. If I feel it is right, you shall +do it; but if I feel it is wrong, then it must be no. You see, doctor," +catching Cleek's eye, "what a little enthusiast he is, and with how +little fear." + +"Yes, I do see, chevalier; but I wonder if he would be willing to humour +me in something? As he is not afraid, I've an odd fancy to see how he'd +go about the thing. Would you mind letting him make the feint you +yourself made a few minutes ago? Only, I must insist that in this +instance it be nothing more than a feint, chevalier. Don't let him go +too near at the time of doing it. Don't let him open the lion's jaws +with his own hands. You do that. Do you mind?" + +"Of a certainty not, monsieur. Gustave, show the good doctor how you go +about it when papa lets you do the trick. But you are not really to do +it just yet, only to bend the head near to Nero's mouth. Now then, come, +see." + +As he spoke he divided the lion's jaws and signalled the child to bend. +He obeyed. Very slowly the little head drooped nearer to the gaping, +full-fanged mouth, very slowly and very carefully, for Cleek's hand was +on the boy's shoulder, Cleek's eyes were on the lion's face. The huge +brute was as meek and as undisturbed as before, and there was actual +kindness in its fixed eyes. But of a sudden, when the child's head was +on a level with those gaping jaws, the lips curled backward in a ghastly +parody of a smile, a weird, uncanny sound whizzed through the bared +teeth, the passive body bulked as with a shock, and Cleek had just time +to snatch the boy back when the great jaws struck together with a snap +that would have splintered a skull of iron had they closed upon it. + +The hideous and mysterious "smile" had come again, and, brief though it +was, its passing found the boy's sister lying on the ground in a dead +faint, the boy's stepmother cowering back, with covered eyes and shrill, +affrighted screams, and the boy's father leaning, shaken and white, +against the empty case and nursing a bleeding hand. + +In an instant the whole place was in an uproar. "It smiled again! It +smiled again!" ran in broken gasps from lip to lip; but through it all +Cleek stood there, clutching the frightened child close to him, but not +saying one word, not making one sound. Across the dark arena came a rush +of running footsteps, and presently Señor Sperati came panting up, +breathless and pale with excitement. + +"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he cried. "Is it the lion again? Is +the boy killed? Speak up!" + +"No," said Cleek very quietly, "nor will he be. The father will do the +trick to-night, not the son. We've had a fright and a lesson, that's +all." And, putting the sobbing child from him, he caught young +Scarmelli's arm and hurried him away. "Take me somewhere that we can +talk in safety," he said. "We are on the threshold of the end, +Scarmelli, and I want your help." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, have you any idea--any clue?" + +"Yes, more than a clue. I know how, but I have not yet discovered why. +Now, if you know, tell me what did the chevalier mean, what did his wife +mean, when they spoke of a dream that might have come true, but didn't? +Do you know? Have you any idea? Or, if you have not, do you think your +fiancée has?" + +"Why, yes," he made reply. "Zelie has told me about it often. It is of a +fortune that was promised and never materialized. Oh, such a long time +ago, when he was quite a young man, the chevalier saved the life of a +very great man, a Prussian nobleman of great wealth. He was profuse in +his thanks and his promises, that nobleman; swore that he would make him +independent for life, and all that sort of thing." + +"And didn't?" + +"No, he didn't. After a dozen letters promising the chevalier things +that almost turned his head, the man dropped him entirely. In the midst +of his dreams of wealth a letter came from the old skinflint's steward +enclosing him the sum of six hundred marks, and telling him that as his +master had come to the conclusion that wealth would be more of a curse +than a blessing to a man of his class and station, he had thought better +of his rash promise. He begged to tender the enclosed as a proper and +sufficient reward for the service rendered, and 'should not trouble the +young man any further.' Of course, the chevalier didn't reply. Who +would, after having been promised wealth, education, everything one had +confessed that one most desired? Being young, high-spirited, and +bitterly, bitterly disappointed, the chevalier bundled the six hundred +marks back without a single word, and that was the last he ever heard of +the Baron von Steinheid from that day to this." + +"The Baron von Steinheid?" repeated Cleek, pulling himself up as though +he had trodden upon something. "Do you mean to say that the man whose +life he saved--Scarmelli--tell me something: Does it happen by any +chance that the 'Chevalier di Roma's' real name is Peter Janssen +Pullaine?" + +"Yes," said Scarmelli, in reply. "That is his name. Why?" + +"Nothing, but that it solves the riddle, and--the lion has smiled for +the last time! No, don't ask me any questions; there isn't time to +explain. Get me as quickly as you can to the place where we left Mr. +Narkom's motor. Will this way lead me out? Thanks! Get back to the +others, and look for me again in two hours' time; and--Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"One last word--don't let that boy get out of your sight for one +instant, and don't, no matter at what cost, let the chevalier do his +turn to-night before I get back. Good-bye for a time. I'm off." + +Then he moved like a fleetly-passing shadow round the angle of the +building, and two minutes later he was with Narkom in the red limousine. + +"To the German embassy as fast as we can fly," he said as he scrambled +in. "I've something to tell you about that lion's smile, Mr. Narkom, and +I'll tell it while we're on the wing." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +It was nine o'clock and after. The great show at Olympia was at its +height; the packed house was roaring with delight over the daring +equestrianship of "Mlle. Marie de Zanoni," and the sound of the cheers +rolled in to the huge dressing-tent, where the artists awaited their +several turns, and the chevalier, in spangled trunks and tights, all +ready for his call, sat hugging his child and shivering like a man with +the ague. + +"Come, come, buck up, man, and don't funk it like this," said Señor +Sperati, who had graciously consented to assist him with his dressing +because of the injury to his hand. "The idea of you losing your nerve, +you of all men, and because of a little affair like that. You know very +well that Nero is as safe as a kitten to-night, that he never has two +smiling turns in the same week, much less the same day. Your act's the +next on the programme. Buck up and go at it like a man." + +"I can't, señor, I can't!" almost wailed the chevalier. "My nerve is +gone. Never, if I live to be a thousand, shall I forget that awful +moment, that appalling 'smile.' I tell you, there is wizardry in the +thing; the beast is bewitched. My work in the arena is done--done for +ever, señor. I shall never have courage to look into the beast's jaws +again." + +"Rot! You're not going to ruin the show, are you, and after all the +money I've put into it? If you have no care for yourself, it's your duty +to think about me. You can at least try. I tell you you must try! Here, +take a sip of brandy, and see if that won't put a bit of courage into +you. Hello!" as a burst of applause and the thud of a horse's hoofs down +the passage to the stables came rolling in, "there's your wife's turn +over at last; and there--listen! the ringmaster is announcing yours. Get +up, man; get up and go out." + +"I can't, señor--I can't! I can't!" + +"But I tell you you must." + +And just here an interruption came. + +"Bad advice, my dear captain," said a voice--Cleek's voice--from the +other end of the tent; and with a twist and a snarl the "señor" screwed +round on his heel in time to see that other intruders were putting in an +appearance as well as this unwelcome one. + +"Who the deuce asked you for your opinion?" rapped out the "señor" +savagely. "And what are you doing in here, anyhow? If we want the +service of a vet., we're quite capable of getting one for ourselves +without having him shove his presence upon us unasked." + +"You are quite capable of doing a great many things, my dear captain, +even making lions smile!" said Cleek serenely. "It would appear that the +gallant Captain von Gossler, nephew, and, in the absence of one who has +a better claim, heir to the late Baron von Steinheid--That's it, nab the +beggar. Played, sir, played! Hustle him out and into the cab, with his +precious confederate, the Irish-Italian 'signor,' and make a clean sweep +of the pair of them. You'll find it a neck-stretching game, captain, I'm +afraid, when the jury comes to hear of that poor boy's death and your +beastly part in it." + +By this time the tent was in an uproar, for the chevalier's wife had +come hurrying in, the chevalier's daughter was on the verge of +hysterics, and the chevalier's prospective son-in-law was alternately +hugging the great beast-tamer and then shaking his hand and generally +deporting himself like a respectable young man who had suddenly gone +daft. + +"Governor!" he cried, half laughing, half sobbing. "Bully old governor. +It's over--it's over. Never any more danger, never any more hard times, +never any more lion's smiles." + +"No, never," said Cleek. "Come here, Madame Pullaine, and hear the good +news with the rest. You married for love, and you've proved a brick. The +dream's come true, and the life of ease and of luxury is yours at last, +Mr. Pullaine." + +"But, sir, I--I do not understand," stammered the chevalier. "What has +happened? Why have you arrested the Señor Sperati? What has he done? I +cannot comprehend." + +"Can't you? Well, it so happens, chevalier, that the Baron von Steinheid +died something like two months ago, leaving the sum of sixty thousand +pounds sterling to one Peter Janssen Pullaine and the heirs of his body, +and that a certain Captain von Gossler, son of the baron's only sister, +meant to make sure that there was no Peter Janssen Pullaine and no heirs +of his body to inherit one farthing of it." + +"Sir! Dear God, can this be true?" + +"Perfectly true, chevalier. The late baron's solicitors have been +advertising for some time for news regarding the whereabouts of Peter +Janssen Pullaine, and if you had not so successfully hidden your real +name under that of your professional one, no doubt some of your +colleagues would have put you in the way of finding it out long ago. The +baron did not go back on his word and did not act ungratefully. His +will, dated twenty-nine years ago, was never altered in a single +particular. I rather suspect that that letter and that gift of money +which came to you in the name of his steward, and was supposed to close +the affair entirely, was the work of his nephew, the gentleman whose +exit has just been made. A crafty individual that, chevalier, and he +laid his plans cleverly and well. Who would be likely to connect him +with the death of a beast-tamer in a circus, who had perished in what +would appear an accident of his calling? Ah, yes, the lion's smile was a +clever idea--he was a sharp rascal to think of it." + +"Sir! You--you do not mean to tell me that he caused that? He never went +near the beast--never--even once." + +"Not necessary, chevalier. He kept near you and your children; that was +all that he needed to do to carry out his plan. The lion was as much his +victim as anybody else--you or your children. What it did it could not +help doing. The very simplicity of the plan was its passport to success. +All that was required was the unsuspected sifting of snuff on the hair +of the person whose head was to be put in the beast's mouth. The lion's +smile was not, properly speaking, a smile at all, chevalier; it was the +torture which came of snuff getting into its nostrils, and when the +beast made that uncanny noise and snapped its jaws together, it was +simply the outcome of a sneeze. The thing would be farcical if it were +not that tragedy hangs on the thread of it, and that a life, a useful +human life, was destroyed by means of it. Yes, it was clever, it was +diabolically clever; but you know what Bobby Burns says about the best +laid schemes of mice and men. There's always a Power--higher up--that +works the ruin of them." + +With that he walked by, and, going to young Scarmelli, put out his hand. + +"You're a good chap and you've got a good girl, so I expect you will be +happy," he said; and then lowered his voice so that the rest might not +reach the chevalier's ears. "You were wrong to suspect the little +stepmother," he added. "She's true blue, Scarmelli. She was only playing +up to those fellows because she was afraid the 'señor' would drop out +and close the show if she didn't, and that she and her husband and the +children would be thrown out of work. She loves her husband--that's +certain--and she's a good little woman; and, Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek?" + +"There's nothing better than a good woman on this earth, my lad. Always +remember that. I think you, too, have found one. I hope you have. I hope +you'll be happy. What's that? Owe me? Not a rap, my boy. Or, if you feel +that you must give me something, give me your prayers for equal luck, +and--send me a slice of the wedding cake. Good-night!" + +And twisted round on his heel and walked out; making his way out to the +streets and facing the journey to Clarges Street afoot. For to be +absolutely without envy of any sort is not given to anything born of +woman; and the sight of this man's happiness, the knowledge of this +man's reward, brought upon him a bitter recollection of how far he still +was from his own. + +Would he ever get that reward? he wondered. Would he ever be nearer to +it than he was to-night? It hurt--yes, it hurt horribly, sometimes, this +stone-cold silence, this walking always in shadowed paths without a ray +of light, without the certainty of arriving _anywhere_, though he plod +onward for a lifetime--and the old feeling of savage resentment, the old +sense of self-pity--the surest thing on God's earth to blaze a trail for +the oncoming of the worst that is in a man--bit at the soul of him and +touched him on the raw again. + +He knew what that boded; and he also knew the antidote. + +"Dollops, they broke into our holiday--they did us out of a part of it, +didn't they, old chap?" he said, when he reached home at last and found +the boy anxiously awaiting him. "Well, we'll have a day for every hour +they deprived us of, a whole day, bonny boy. Pack up again and we'll be +off to the land as God made it, and where God's things still live; and +we'll have a fortnight of it--a whole blessed fortnight, my boy, with +the river and the fields and the flowers and the dreams that hide in +trees." + +Dollops made no reply. He simply bolted for the kit-bag and began to +pack at once. And the morrow, when it came, found these two--the servant +who was still a boy, and the master who had discovered the way back to +boyhood's secrets--forging up the shining river and seeking the Land of +Nightingales again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +The spring had blossomed itself out and the summer had bloomed itself +in. The holiday up the river was a thing of the past; the dreams of the +Dreamer had given place to those sterner phases of life which must be +coped with by the Realist; and Cleek was "back in harness" again. + +A half-dozen more or less important cases had occupied his time since +his return; but, although he had carried these to a successful issue and +had again been lauded to the skies by the daily papers, the one word of +praise from the one quarter whence he so earnestly desired to hear was +never forthcoming. + +Of Ailsa Lorne he had heard not a solitary thing, either directly or +indirectly, since that day when he had put her into the taxicab at +Charing Cross Station and saw her safely on her way to Hampstead before +he went his own. + +True, her silence was, as he had agreed, an admission that all was well +with her and that she had secured the position in question; true it was +also that it was not for her to take the initiative and break that +silence; that he fully realised how impossible, for a girl born and bred +as she had been, to voluntarily open up a correspondence with a man who +was as yet little more than a mere acquaintance; but, all the same, he +chafed under that silence and spent many a wakeful hour at night +brooding on it. + +In his heart he knew that if any advance was to be made, that advance +was the man's duty, not the woman's; but the fear that she would think +he was thrusting himself upon her, the dread that even yet the white +soul of her could not but shrink from a closer association with him, +kept him from taking one step towards breaking the silence he deplored. + +The French have a proverb which says: "It is always the unexpected that +happens." And it was the unexpected that happened in this case. + +In the midst of his dejection, in the very depths of returning despair, +there came to him this note from Mr. Narkom: + +"My Dear Cleek, + +"Kindly refrain from going out this evening. I shall call about nine +o'clock, bringing with me Miss Ailsa Lorne, whom you doubtless remember, +and her present patron, Angela, Countess Chepstow, the young widow of +that ripping old warhorse, who, as you may recall, quelled that +dangerous and fanatical rising of the Cingalese at Trincomalee. These +ladies wish to see you with reference to a most extraordinary case, an +inexplicable mystery, which both they and I believe no man but yourself +can satisfactorily probe. + +"Yours in haste, + +"Maverick Narkom." + +So, then, he was to see her again, to touch her hand, hear her voice, +look into the eyes that had lighted him back from the path to +destruction! Cleek's heart began to hammer and his pulses to drum. +Needless to say, he took extraordinary care with his toilet that +evening, with the result that when the ladies arrived there was nothing +even vaguely suggestive of the detective about him. + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do help us--please do," implored Ailsa, after the first +greetings were over. "Lady Chepstow is almost beside herself with dread +and anxiety over the inexplicable thing, and I have persuaded her that +if anybody on earth can solve the mystery of it, avert the new and +appalling danger of it, it is you! Oh, say that you will take the case, +say that you will save little Lord Chepstow and put an end to this +maddening mystery!" + +"Little Lord Chepstow?" repeated Cleek, glancing over at the countess, +who stood, a very Niobe in her grief and despair, holding out two +imploring hands in silent supplication. "That is your ladyship's son, is +it not?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a sort of wail; "my only son--my only child. +All that I have to love--all that I have to live for in this world." + +"And you think the little fellow is in peril?" + +"Yes--in deadly peril." + +"From what source? From whose hand?" + +"I don't know--I don't know!" she answered, distractedly. "Sometimes I +am wild enough to suspect even Captain Hawksley, unjust and unkind as it +seems." + +"Captain Hawksley? Who is he?" + +"My late husband's cousin; heir, after my little son, to the title and +estates. He is very poor, deeply in debt, and the inheritance would put +an end to all his difficulties. But he is fond of my son; they seem +almost to worship each other. I, too, am fond of him. But, for all that, +I have to remember that he and he alone would benefit by Cedric's death, +and--and--wicked as it seems--Oh, Mr. Cleek, help me! Direct me! +Sometimes I doubt him. Sometimes I doubt everybody. Sometimes I think of +those other days, that other mystery, that land which reeks of them; and +then--and then--Oh, that horrible Ceylon! I wish I had never set foot in +it in all my life!" + +Her agitation and distress were so great as to make her utterances only +half coherent; and Ailsa, realising that this sort of thing must only +perplex Cleek, and leave him in the dark regarding the matter upon which +they had come to consult him, gently interposed. + +"Do try to calm yourself and to tell the story as briefly as possible, +dear Lady Chepstow," she advised. Then, taking the initiative, added +quietly, "It begins, Mr. Cleek, at a period when his little lordship, +whose governess I have the honour to be, was but two years old, and at +Trincomalee, where his late father was stationed with his regiment four +years ago. Somebody, for some absurd reason, had set afoot a ridiculous +rumour that the English had received orders from the Throne to stamp out +every religion but their own--in short, if the British were not +exterminated, dreadful desecrations would occur, as they were +determined--" + +"To loot all the temples erected to Buddha, destroy the images, and make +a bonfire of all the sacred relics," finished Cleek himself. "I rarely +forget history, Miss Lorne, especially when it is such recent history as +that memorable Buddhist rising at Trincomalee. It began upon an utterly +unfounded, ridiculous rumour; it terminated, if my memory serves me +correctly, in something akin to the very thing it was supposed to avert. +That is to say, during the outburst of fanaticism, that most sacred of +all relics--the holy tooth of Buddha--disappeared mysteriously from the +temple of Dambool, and in spite of the fact that many lacs of rupees +were offered for its recovery, it has never, I believe, been found, or +even traced, to this day, although a huge fortune awaits the restorer, +and, with it, overpowering honours from the native princes. Those must +have been trying times, Lady Chepstow, for the commandant's wife, the +mother of the commandant's only child?" + +"Horrible! horrible!" she answered, with a shudder, forgetting for an +instant the dangers of the present in the recollection of the tragical +past. "For a period, our lives were not safe; murder hid behind every +bush, skulked in the shadow of every rock and tree, and we knew not at +what minute the little garrison might be rushed under cover of the +darkness and every soul slaughtered before the relief force could come +to our assistance. I died a hundred deaths in a day in my anxiety for +husband and child. And once the very zealousness of our comrades almost +brought about the horror I feared. Oh!"--with a shudder of horrified +recollection and a covering of the eyes, as if to shut out the memory of +it--"Oh! that night--that horrible night! Unknown to any of us, my baby, +rising from the bed where I had left him sleeping, whilst I went outside +to stand by Lord Chepstow, wandered beyond the line of defence, and, +before anybody realised it, was out in the open, alone and unprotected. + +"Ferralt, the cook, saw him first; saw, too, the crouching figure of a +native, armed with a gun, in the shadow of the undergrowth. Without +hesitation the brave fellow rushed out, fell upon the native before he +could dart away, wrenched the gun from him, and brained him with the +butt. A cry of the utmost horror rang out upon the air, and, uttering +it, another native bounded out from a hiding-place close to where the +first had been killed, and flew zigzagging across the open, where Cedric +was. Evidently he had no intention of molesting the little fellow, for +he fled straight on past him, still shrieking after the accident +occurred; but to Ferralt it seemed as if his intention were to murder +the boy, and, clapping the gun to his shoulder, in a panic of +excitement, he fired. If it had been one of the soldiers, +someone--anyone--who understood marksmanship and was not likely to be in +a nervous quake over the circumstances, the thing could not have +happened, although the fugitive was careering along in a direct line +with my precious little one. But, with Ferralt--Oh, Mr. Cleek, can you +imagine my horror when I saw the flash of that shot, heard a shrill cry +of pain, and saw my child drop to the ground?" + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed Cleek, agitated in spite of himself. "Then the +blunderer shot the child instead of the native?" + +"Yes; and was so horrified by the mishap that, without waiting to learn +the result, he rushed blindly to the brink of a deep ravine, and threw +himself headlong to death. But the injury to Cedric was only a trifling +one after all. The bullet seemed merely to have grazed him in passing, +and, beyond a ragged gash in the fleshy part of the thigh, he was not +harmed at all. That I myself dressed and bandaged, and in a couple of +weeks it was quite healed. But it taught me a lesson, that night of +horror, and I never let my baby out of my sight for one instant from +that time until the rising was entirely quelled. + +"As suddenly as it had started, the trouble subsided. Native priests +came under a flag of truce to Lord Chepstow, and confessed their error, +acknowledged that they had never any right to suspect the British of any +design upon their gods, for the loot of the temple had actually taken +place in the midst of the rising, and they knew that it could not have +come from the hands of the soldiers, for they had had them under +surveillance all the time, and not one person of the race had ventured +within a mile of the temple. + +"Yet the tooth of Buddha had been taken, the sacred tooth which is more +holy to Buddhists than the statue of Gautama Buddha itself. Their +remorse was very real, and after that, to the day of his death from +fever, eighteen months afterward, they could never show enough honour to +Lord Chepstow. And even then their favour continued. They transferred to +the little son the homage they had done the father, but in a far, far +greater degree. If he had been a king's son they could have shown him no +greater honour. Native princes showered him with rich gifts; if he +walked out, his path was strewn with flowers by bowing maidens; if he +went into the market-place, the people prostrated themselves before him. + +"When I questioned Buddhist women of this amazing homage to Cedric, they +gave me a full explanation. My son was sacred, they said. Buddha had +withdrawn his favour from his people because of the evil they had done +in suspecting the father and of the innocent life--Ferralt's--which had +been sacrificed, and they had been commanded of the priests to do homage +to the child and thereby appease the offended god, who, doubtless, had +himself spirited away the holy tooth, and would not restore it until +full recompense was made to the sacred son of the sacred dead. + +"When it became known that I had decided to return to England with my +boy, native princes offered me fabulous sums to remain, and when they +found that I could not be tempted to stay, the populace turned out in +every town and village through which we passed on our way to the ship, +and bowing multitudes followed us to the very last. Nor did it cease +with that, for in all the years that have followed, even here in London, +the homage and worship have continued. My son can go nowhere but that he +is followed by Cingalese; can see no man or woman of the race, but he or +she prostrates herself before him and murmurs, 'Holy, most holy!' And +daily, almost hourly, rich gifts are showered upon him from unknown +hands, and he is watched over and guarded constantly. I tell you all +this, Mr. Cleek, that you may the better understand how appalling is the +horror which now assails us, how frightful is the knowledge that someone +now seeks his life, and is using every means to take it." + +"In other words, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom, as her ladyship, +overcome with emotion, broke down suddenly, "there appears to be a +sudden and inexplicable change of front on the part of these fanatics, +and they now seem as anxious to bring evil to his little lordship as +they formerly were to protect and cherish him. At any rate, someone of +their order has, upon three separate occasions within the last month, +endeavoured to kidnap him, and, in one instance, even attempted to +murder him." + +"Is that a fact?" queried Cleek sharply, glancing over at Miss Lorne. +"You are certain it is not a fancy, but an absolute fact?" + +"Yes; oh, yes!" she made answer, agitatedly. "Twice when I have gone +into the Park with him, attempts have been made to separate us, to get +him away from me; and once they did get him away--so swiftly, so +adroitly, that he had vanished before I could turn round. But, although +a bag had been thrown over his head to stifle his cries, he managed to +make a very little one. I plunged screaming into the undergrowth from +which that cry had come, and was just in time to save him. He was lying +on the ground all bundled up in a bag, and his assailant, who must have +heard me coming, had gone as if by magic. His little lordship, however, +was able to tell me that the man was a Cingalese, and that he had 'tried +to cut him with a knife.'" + +"Cut him with a knife?" repeated Cleek in a reflective tone, and blew +out a long, low whistle. + +"Oh! but that is not the worst, Mr. Cleek," went on Ailsa. "Three days +ago a woman--a very beautiful and distinguished-looking woman--called to +see Lady Chepstow regarding the reference of a former servant, one Jane +Catherboys, who used to be her ladyship's maid. After the caller left, a +box of sugared violets was found lying temptingly open on a table in the +main hall. Little Cedric is passionately fond of sugared violets, and, +had he happened to pass that way before the box was discovered, he +surely would have yielded to the temptation and eaten some. In removing +the box the parlour-maid accidentally upset it, and before she could +gather all the violets up her ladyship's little Pomeranian dog snapped +up one and ate it. It was dead in six minutes' time! The sweets were +simply loaded with prussic acid. When we came to inquire into the matter +in the hope of tracing the mysterious caller, we found that Jane +Catherboys was no longer in need of a position; that she had been +married for eight months; that she knew nothing whatever of the woman, +and had sent no one to inquire into her references." + +"All of which shows, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom significantly, "that, +whatever hand is directing these attempts, it belongs to one who knows +more than a mere outsider possibly could: in short, to one who is aware +of his little lordship's excessive fondness for sugared violets, and is +aware that Lady Chepstow once did have a maid named Jane Catherboys." + +"If," said Cleek, "you mean to suggest by that that this points +suspiciously in Captain Hawksley's direction, Mr. Narkom, permit me to +say that it does not necessarily follow. The clever people of the +under-world do nothing by halves nor without careful inquiry beforehand; +that is what makes the difference between the common pickpocket and the +brilliant swindler." He turned to Ailsa. "Is that all, Miss Lorne, or am +I right in supposing that there is even worse to come?" + +"Oh, much worse--much, Mr. Cleek! The knowledge that these would-be +murderers, whoever they are, whatever may be their mysterious motive, +have grown desperate enough to invade the house itself has driven Lady +Chepstow well-nigh frantic. Of course, orders were immediately given to +the servants that no stranger, no matter how well dressed, how well +seeming, nor what the plea, was, from that moment, to be allowed past +the threshold. We felt secure in that, knowing that no servant of the +household would betray his or her trust, and that all would be on the +constant watch for any further attempt. The unknown enemy must have +found out about these precautions, for no stranger came again to the +door. But last night a thing we had never counted upon happened. In the +dead of the night the unknown broke into the house--into the very +nursery itself--and but that Lady Chepstow, impelled she does not know +by what, only that she was nervous and wakeful, and felt the need of +some companionship, rose and carried the sleeping child into her own +bed, he would assuredly have been murdered. The nurse, awakened by a +horrible suffocating sensation, opened her eyes to find a man bending +over her with a chloroform-soaked cloth, which he was about to lay over +her face. She shrieked and fainted, but not before she saw the man +spring to the little bed on the other side of her own, hack furiously at +it with a long, murderous knife, then dart to the window and vanish. In +the darkness he had not, of course, been able to see that that little +bed was empty, for its position kept it in deep shadow, and hearing the +household stir at the sound of the nurse's shriek, he struck out blindly +and flew to save himself from detection. The nurse states that he was +undoubtedly a foreigner--a dark-skinned Asiatic--and her description of +him tallies with that his little lordship gave of the man who attempted +to kill him that day in the Park. There, Mr. Cleek," she concluded, +"that's the whole story. Can't you do something to help us--something to +lift this constant state of dread and to remove this terrible danger +from little Lord Chepstow's life?" + +"I'll try, Miss Lorne; but it is a most extraordinary case. Where is the +boy, now?" + +"At home, closely guarded. We appealed to Mr. Narkom, and he generously +appointed two detective officers to sit with his little lordship and +keep constant watch over him whilst we are away." + +"And in the meantime," added Mr. Narkom, "I've issued orders for a +general rounding-up of all the Cingalese who can be traced or are known +to be in town. Petrie and Hammond have that part of the job in hand, and +if they hit upon any Asiatic who answers to the description of this +murderous rascal--" + +"I don't believe they will," interposed Cleek; "or, if they do, I don't +for a moment believe he will turn out to be the guilty party. In other +words, I have an idea that the fellow will prove to be a European." + +"But, my dear fellow, both his little lordship and the nurse saw the +man, and, as you have heard, they both agree that he was dark-skinned +and quite Oriental in appearance." + +"One of the easiest possible disguises, Mr. Narkom. A wig, a stick of +grease-paint, a threepenny twist of crepe hair, and there you are! No, I +do not believe that the man is a Cingalese at all; and, far from his +having any connection with what you were pleased to term just now a +change of front on the part of the Buddhists who have so long held the +little chap as something sacred, I don't believe that they know anything +about him. I base that upon the fact that the child is still treated +with homage whenever he goes out, according to what Miss Lorne says, and +that, with the single exception of that one woman who tried to poison +him, nobody but just one man--this particular one man--has ever made any +attempt to harm the boy. Fanatics, like those Cingalese, cleave to an +idea to the end, Mr. Narkom; they don't cast it aside and go off at +another tangent. You have heard what Lady Chepstow says the native women +told her; the boy was sacred; their priests had commanded them to +appease Buddha by doing homage to him until the tooth was found, and the +tooth has not been found up to the present day! That means that nothing +on earth could change their attitude toward him, that not one of the +Buddhist sect would harm a solitary hair of his head for a king's +ransom; so you may eliminate the Cingalese from the case entirely so far +as the attempts upon the child's life are concerned. Whoever is making +the attempts is doing so without their knowledge and for a purely +personal reason." + +"Then, in that case, this Captain Hawksley--" + +"I'll have a look at that gentleman before I tumble into bed to-night, +and you shall have my views upon that point to-morrow morning, Mr. +Narkom. Frankly, things point rather suspiciously in the captain's +direction, since he is apparently the only person likely to be benefited +by the boy's death, and if a motive cannot be traced to some other +person--" He stopped abruptly and held up his hand. Outside in the dim +halls of the house a sudden noise had sprung into being, the noise of +someone running upstairs in great haste, and, stepping quickly to the +door, Cleek drew it sharply open. As he did so, Dollops came puffing up +out of the lower gloom, a sheep's trotter in one hand, and a letter in +the other. + +"Law, Gov'nor!" groaned he, from midway on the staircase, "I don't +believe as I'm ever goin' to be let get a square tuck-in this side of +the buryin' ground! Jist finished wot was left of that there steak and +kidney puddin', sir, and started on my seckint trotter, when I sees a +pair o' legs nip parst the area railin's to the front door, and then nip +off again like greased lightnin', and when I ups and does a flyin' leap +up the kitchen stairs, there was this here envellup in the letter-box, +and them there blessed legs nowheres in sight. I say, sir," agitatedly, +"look wot's wrote on the envellup, will yer? And us always keepin' of it +so dark." + +Cleek plucked the letter from his extended hand, glanced at it, and +puckered up his lips; then, with a gesture, he sent Dollops back below +stairs, and, returning to the room, closed the door behind him. + +"The enemy evidently knows all Lady Chepstow's movements, Mr. Narkom," +he said. "I expect she and Miss Lorne have been under surveillance all +day and have been followed here. Look at that!" He flung the letter down +on a table as he spoke, and Narkom, glancing at it, saw printed in rude, +illiterate letters upon the envelope the one word "Cleek." The identity +of "Captain Burbage" was known to someone, and the secret of the house +in Clarges Street was a secret no longer! + +"Purposely disguised, you see. No one, not even a little child, would +make such a botch of copying the alphabet as that," Cleek said, as he +took the letter up and opened it. The sheet it contained was lettered in +the same uncouth manner, and bore these words: + +"Cleek, take a fool's advice and don't accept the Chepstow case. Be +warned. If you interfere, somebody you care about will pay the price. +You'll find it more satisfactory to buy a wedding bouquet than a funeral +wreath!" + +"Oh!" shuddered the two ladies in one breath. "How horrible! How +cowardly!" And then, feeling that her last hope had gone, Lady Chepstow +broke into a fit of violent weeping and laid her head on Ailsa's +shoulder. + +"Oh, my baby! My darling baby boy!" she sobbed. "And now they are +threatening somebody that you, too, love. Of course, Mr. Cleek, I can't +expect you to risk the sacrifice of your own dear ones for the sake of +me and mine, and so--and so--Oh, take me away, Miss Lorne! Let me go +back to my baby and have him while I may." + +"Good-night, Mr. Cleek!" said Ailsa, stretching out a shaking hand to +him. "Thank you so much for--for what you would have done but for this. +And you were our last hope, too!" + +"Why give it up then, Miss Lorne?" he said, holding her hand and looking +into her eyes. "Why not go on letting me be your last hope--your only +hope?" + +"Yes, but they--they spoke of a funeral wreath." + +"And they also spoke of a wedding bouquet! I am going to take the case, +Miss Lorne--take it, and solve it, as I'm a living man. Thank you!" as +her brimming eyes uplifted in deep thankfulness and her shaking hand +returned the pressure of his. "Now, just give me five minutes' time in +the next room--it's my laboratory, Lady Chepstow--and I'll tell you +whether I shall begin with Captain Hawksley or eliminate him from the +case entirely. You might go in ahead, Mr. Narkom, and get the acid bath +and the powder ready for me. We'll see what the finger-prints of our +gentle correspondent have to tell, and, if they are not in the records +of Scotland Yard or down in my own private little book, we'll get a +sample of Captain Hawksley's in the morning." + +Then, excusing himself to the ladies, he passed into the inner room in +company with Narkom, and carried the letter with him. When he returned +it was still in his hand, but there were greyish smudges all over it. + +"There's not a finger-print in the lot that is worth anything as a means +of identification, Miss Lorne," he said. "But you and Lady Chepstow may +accept my assurance that Captain Hawksley is not the man. The writer of +this letter belongs to the criminal classes; he is on his guard against +the danger of finger-prints, and he wore rubber gloves when he penned +this message. When I find him, rest assured I shall find a man who has +had dealings with the police before and whose finger-prints are on their +records. I don't know what his game is nor what he's after yet, but I +will inside of a week. I've an idea; but it's so wild a thing I'm almost +afraid to trust myself to believe it possible until I stumble over +something that points the same way. Now, go home with Lady Chepstow, and +begin the work of helping me." + +"Helping you? Oh, Mr. Cleek, can we? Is there anything we can do to +help?" + +"Yes. When you leave the house, act as though you are in the utmost +state of dejection--and keep that up indefinitely. Make it appear, for I +am certain you will be followed and spied upon, as if I had declined the +case. But don't have any fear about the boy. The two constables will +sleep in the room with him to-night and every night until the thing is +cleared up and the danger past. To-morrow about dusk, however, you, +personally, take him for a walk near the Park, and if, among the other +Cingalese you may meet, you should see one dressed as an Englishman, and +wearing a scarlet flower in his buttonhole, take no notice of how often +you see him nor of what he may do." + +"It will be you, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. Now go, please; and don't forget to act as if you and her ladyship +were utterly broken-hearted. Also"--his voice dropped lower, his hand +met her hand, and in the darkness of the hall a little silver-plated +revolver was slipped into her palm--"also, take this. Keep it always +with you, never be without it night or day, and if any living creature +offers you violence, shoot him down as you would a mad dog. Good-night, +and--remember!" + +And long after she and Lady Chepstow had gone down and passed out into +the night he stood there, looking the situation straight in the face and +thinking his own troubled thoughts. + +"A wedding bouquet! A threat against her, and the mention of a wedding +bouquet!" he said, as he went back into the room and sat down to figure +the puzzle out. "Only one creature in the world knows of my feelings in +that direction, and only one creature in the world would be capable of +that threat--Margot! But what interest could she or any of her tribe +have in the death of Lady Chepstow's little son? Her game is always +money. If she were after a ransom she would try to abduct the child, not +to kill him, and if"--A sudden thought came and wrenched away his voice. +He sat a moment twisting his fingers one through the other and frowning +at the floor; then, of a sudden, he gave a cry and jumped to his feet. +"Five lacs of rupees--a fortune! By George, I've got it!" he fairly +shouted. "The wild guess was a correct one, I'll stake my life. Let's +put it to the test." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The summer twilight was deepening into the summer dusk when Ailsa, +acting upon Cleek's advice, set forth with his little lordship the +following evening, and turned her steps in the direction of the Park; +but although, on her way there, she observed more than once that a +swarthy-skinned man in European dress who wore a scarlet flower in his +coat, and was so perfect a type of the Asiatic that he would have passed +muster for one even among a gathering of Cingalese, kept appearing and +disappearing at irregular intervals, it spoke well for the powers of +imitation and self-effacement possessed by Dollops, that she never once +thought of associating that young man with the dawdling messenger boy +who strolled leisurely along with a package under his arm and patronised +every bun-shop, winkle-stall, and pork-pie purveyor on the line of +march. + +For upward of an hour this sort of thing went on without any +interruption or any solitary thing out of the ordinary, Ailsa strolling +along leisurely, with the boy's hands in hers and his innocent prattle +running on ceaselessly; then, of a sudden, whilst they were moving along +close to the Park railings and in the shadow of the overhanging trees, +the figure of an undersized man in semi-European costume, but wearing on +his head the twisted turban of a Cingalese, issued from one of the +gates, and well-nigh collided with them. + +He drew back, murmuring an apology in pidgin-English, then, seeing the +child, he salaamed profoundly and murmured in a voice of deep reverence, +"Holy, most holy!" and prostrated himself, with his forehead touching +the ground, until Ailsa and the child had passed on. But barely had they +taken five steps before Cleek appeared upon the scene, and did exactly +the same thing as the Cingalese. + +"All right. You may go home now. I've got my man," he whispered, as +Ailsa and the boy passed by. "Look for me at Chepstow House some time +to-night." Then rose, as she walked on, and went after the man who first +had prostrated himself before the child. + +He had risen and gone on his way, but not before witnessing Cleek's +obeisance, and flashing upon him a sharp, searching look. Cleek +quickened his steps and shortened the distance between them. Now or +never was the time to put to the test that wild thought which last night +had hammered on his brain, for it was certain that this man was in very +truth a Cingalese, and, as such, must know! He stretched forth his hand +and touched the man, who drew back sharply, half indignantly, but +changed his attitude entirely when Cleek, who knew Hindustani more than +well, spoke to him in the native tongue. + +"Unto thee, oh, brother!" Cleek said. "Thou, too, art of us, for thou, +too, dost acknowledge the sacred shrine. These eyes have beheld thee." + +All his hopes rested on the slim pillar of that one word, "shrine," and +his heart almost ceased to beat as he watched to see how it was +received. It broke, however, into a very tumult of disturbance in the +next instant, for the man positively beamed as he gave reply. + +"Sacred be the shrine!" he answered in Hindustani. "Clearly thou art of +us--not of those others." + +"Others? What others? I am but newly come to this country." + +"Walk with me, then, to my abode, sup with me, eat of my salt, and I +will tell thee then, oh, brother. But I forget: thou hast no knowledge +of me. Listen, then. I am Arjeeb Noosrut, father of the High Priest +Seydama, and it is among the people of my house that the gun is yet +preserved. Nor has the blood of Seydama been ever washed from the wood +of it. Come." + +All in a moment a light seemed to break over Cleek's brain. The missing +link had been supplied--the one thing that could make possible the wild +thought which had come to him last night had been given into his hands, +and here at last was the key to the amazing mystery! He turned without a +word and went with Arjeeb Noosrut. + +"What an ass!" he said to himself in the soundless words of thought +"What an ass never to have suspected it when it is all so clear!" + +Meantime Ailsa and the boy, dismissed from any further need of service, +walked on through the deepening dusk and turned their faces homeward. +But they had not gone twenty yards from the spot where Cleek had seen +them last when his little lordship set up a joyful cry and pointed +excitedly to a claret-coloured limousine which at that moment swung in +from the middle of the roadway and slowed down as it neared the kerb. + +"Oh, look, Miss Lorne; here's mummie's motor car; and I do believe +that's Bimbi peeping out of it!" exclaimed the child--"Bimbi" being his +pet name for Captain Hawksley--then broke, in wild excitement, from +Ailsa's detaining hand and fled to a tall, military-looking man with a +fair beard and moustache who had just that moment alighted from the +vehicle. "It is Bimbi--it is!--it is!" he shouted as he ran. "Oh, Bimbi, +I _am_ glad!" + +"Ceddie, dear, you mustn't be so boisterous!" chided Ailsa, coming up +with him at the kerb. "How fond he is of you to be sure, Captain +Hawksley. You've come for us, I suppose? Ceddie recognised the car at +once." + +"Yes; jump in," he answered. "Lady Chepstow sent me after you. She's +nervous, poor soul, every moment the boy's away from her. Jump in, old +chap!"--catching up his little lordship and swinging him inside. "Better +take the back seat, Miss Lorne; it's more comfortable. Quite settled, +both of you? That's good. All right, chauffeur--Home!" + +Then he jumped in after them, closed the door, dropped into a seat, and +the motor, making a wide curve out into the road, pelted away into the +fast-gathering darkness. + +"Bimbi says maybe he's going to be my daddy one day--didn't you, Bimbi?" +said his little lordship, climbing up on to "Bimbi's" knee and snuggling +close to him. + +"I say, you know, you mustn't tell secrets, old chap!" was the laughing +response. "Miss Lorne will hand you over to Nursie with orders to put +you to bed if you do, _I_ know--won't you, Miss Lorne?" + +"He ought to be in bed, anyhow," responded Ailsa gaily; and then, this +giving the conversation a merry turn, they talked and laughed and kept +up such a chatter that three-quarters of an hour went like magic and +nobody seemed aware of it. But suddenly Ailsa thought, and then put her +thoughts into words. + +"What a long time we are in getting home," she said, and bent forward so +that the light from the window might fall upon the dial of her wrist +watch, then gave a little startled cry and half rose from her seat. For +the darkness was now tempered by moonlight, and she could see that they +were no longer in the populous districts of the town, but were speeding +along past woodlands and open fields in the very depths of the country. +"Good gracious! Johnston must have lost his senses!" she exclaimed +agitatedly. "Look where we are, Captain Hawksley!--out in the country +with only a farmhouse or two in sight. Johnston! Johnston!" She bent +forward and rapped wildly on the glass panel. "Johnston, stop!--turn +round!--are you out of your head? Captain Hawksley, stop him--stop him +for pity's sake!" + +"Sit down, Miss Lorne." He made reply in a low, level voice, a voice in +which there was something that made her pluck the child to her and hold +him right to her breast. "You are not going home to-night. You are going +for a ride with me; and if--Oh, that's your little game, is it?" +lurching forward as she made a frantic clutch at the handle of the door. +"Sit down, do you hear me?--or it will be worse for you! There!"--the +cold bore of a revolver barrel touched her temple and wrung a quaking +gasp of terror from her--"Do you feel that? Now you sit down and be +quiet! If you make a single move, utter a single cry, I'll blow your +brains out before you've half finished it. Look here, do you know who +you're dealing with now? See!" + +His hand reached up and twitched away the fair beard and moustache; he +bent forward so that the moonlight through the glass could fall on his +face. It had changed as his voice had now changed, and she saw that she +was looking at the man who in those other days of stress and trial had +posed as "Gaston Merode," brother to the fictitious "Countess de la +Tour." + +"You!" she said in a bleak voice of desolation and fright. "Dear heaven, +that horrible Margot's confederate, the King of the Apaches!" + +"Yes!" he rapped out. "You and that fellow Cleek came between us in one +promising game, but I'm hanged if you shall do it in this one! I want +this boy, and--I've got him. Now, you call off Cleek and tell him to +drop this case--to make no effort to follow us or to come between us and +the kid--or I'll slit your throat after I've done with his little +lordship here. Lanisterre!"--to the chauffeur--"Lanisterre, do you +hear?" + +"_Oui, monsieur_." + +"Give her her head--full speed--and get to the mill as fast as you can. +Margot will be with us in another two hours' time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Through the ever-deepening dusk Cleek and Arjeeb Noosrut moved onward +together; and onward behind them moved, too, the same dilatory messenger +boy who had loitered about in the neighbourhood of the park, squandering +his halfpence now as then, leaving a small trail of winkle shells and +trotter bones to mark the record of his passage, and never seeming to +lose one iota of his appetite, eat as much and as often as he would. + +The walk led down into the depths of Soho, that refuge of the foreign +element in London; but long before they halted at the narrow doorway of +a narrow house in a narrow side street--a street that seemed to have +gone to sleep in an atmosphere of gloom and smells--Cleek had adroitly +"pumped" Arjeeb Noosrut dry, and the riddle of the sacred son was a +riddle to him no longer. He was now only anxious to part from the man +and return with the news to Lady Chepstow, and was casting round in his +mind for some excuse to avoid going indoors with him and wasting +precious time in breaking bread and eating salt, when there lurched out +of an adjoining doorway an ungainly figure in turban and sandals and the +full flower of that grotesque regalia which passes muster at cheap +theatres and masquerade balls for the costume of a Cingalese. The fellow +had bent forward out of the deeper darkness of the house-passage into +the murk and gloom of the ill-lit street, and was straining his eyes as +if in search for someone long expected. + +"Dog of an infidel!" exclaimed Arjeeb Noosrut, speaking in Hindustani, +and spitting on the pavement as he caught sight of the man. "See, +well-beloved, he is of those 'others' of which I spoke when I first met +thee. There are many of them, but true believers none. They dwell in a +room huddled up as unclean things in the house there; they drink and +make merry far into the night, and a woman veiled and in European garb +comes to them and drinks with them sometimes--and sometimes a man of her +kind with her; and they speak a tongue that is not the tongue of our +people; yet have I seen them go forth into the city and do homage as we +to the sacred son." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and, twitching round, stared at the dim +figure leaning forward in the dim light. + +"By George!" he said to himself; "if I know anything, I ought to know +the slouch and the low-sunk head of the Apache! And the woman +comes!--And a man comes!--And there are five lacs of rupees! I wonder! I +wonder! But no--she wouldn't come here, to a place like this, if she had +ventured back into England and had called some of the band over to help. +She'd go to the old spot--to the old haunt where she and I used to lie +low and laugh whilst the police were hunting for me. She'd go there, I'm +sure, to the old Burnt Acre Mill, where, if you were 'stalked,' you +could open the sluice gates and let the Thames and the mill stream rush +in and meet, and make a hell of whirling waters that would drown a fish. +She would go there if it were she. And yet--it is an Apache: I swear it +is an Apache!" + +He turned and looked back at Arjeeb Noosrut, then raised his hand and +brushed it down the back of his head, which was always the sign "Wait!" +to Dollops--and then spoke as calmly as he could. + +"Brother, I will go in and break bread and eat salt with thee," he said. +"But I may do no more, for to-night I am in haste." + +"Come then," the man answered; and taking him by the hand, led him in +and up to a room at the back of the second storey, where, hot as the +night was, the windows were closed and a woman squatted before a lighted +brasier, was dripping the contents of an oil cruse over the roasting +carcass of a young kid. + +"It is to shut out the sounds of the vile infidel orgies from the house +adjoining," explained Arjeeb Noosrut, as Cleek walked to the tightly +closed window and leant his forehead against it. "Yet, if the heat +oppresses thee--" + +"It does," interposed Cleek, and leant far out into the darkness as +though sucking in the air when the sash was raised and the thing which +had been only a dim babel of wordless sounds a moment before, became now +the riotous laughter and the ribald comments of men upon the verses of a +comic song which one of their number was joyously singing. + +"French!" said Cleek under his breath, as he caught the notes of the +singer and the words of his audience--"French--I knew it!" + +Then he drew in his head, and having broken of the bread and eaten of +the salt which, at a word from Arjeeb Noosrut, the woman brought on a +wicker tray and laid before them, he moved hastily to the door. + +"Brother and son of the faithful, peace be with thee--I must go," he +said. "But I come again; and it is written that thou shalt be honoured +above all men when I return to thee, and that the true believers--the +true sons of Holy Buddha--shall have cause to set thy name at the head +of the records of those who are most blest of him!" + +Then he salaamed and passed out; and, closing the door behind him, ran +like a hare down the narrow stairs. At the door Dollops rose up like the +imp in a pantomime and jumped toward him. + +"Law, Gov'nor, I'm nigh starved a-waitin' for yer!" he said in a +whisper. "Wot's the lay now? A double-quick change? I've got the stuff +here, look!"--holding up the package he was carrying--"or a chance for +me to do some fly catchin' with me bloomin' tickle tootsies?" + +The man in the Cingalese costume had vanished from the doorway of the +adjoining house, and, catching the boy by the arm, Cleek hurried him to +it and drew him into the dark passage. + +"I'm going to the back; I'm going to climb up to the windows of the +second storey and see who's there and what's going on," he whispered. +"Lie low and watch. I think it's Margot's gang." + +"Oh, colour me blue! Them beauties? And in London? I'd give a tanner for +a strong cup o' tea!" + +"Sh-h-h! Be quiet--speak low. Don't be seen, but keep a close watch; and +if anybody comes downstairs--" + +"He's mine!" interjected Dollops, stripping up his sleeves. "Glue to the +eyebrows and warranted to stick! Nip away, Gov'nor, and leave it to the +tickle tootsies and me!" Then, as Cleek moved swiftly and silently down +the passage and slipped out into a sort of yard at the back of the +house, he pulled out his roll of brown paper squares and his tube of +adhesive, and crawling upstairs on his hands and knees, began operations +at the top step. But he had barely got the first "plaster" fairly made +and ready to apply when there came a rush of footsteps behind him and he +was obliged to duck down and flatten himself against the floor of the +landing to escape being run down by a man who dashed in through the +lower floor, flew at top speed up the stairs, and, with a sort of +blended cheer and yell, whirled open a door on the landing above and +vanished. In a twinkling other cheers rang out, there was the sound of +hastily moving feet and the uproar of general excitement. + +"Oh, well, if you won't stop to be waited on, gents, help yourselves!" +said Dollops with a chuckle. Then he began backing hastily down the +stairs, squirting the contents of the tube all over the steps, and +concluded the operation by scattering all the loose sheets of paper on +the floor at the foot of them before slipping out into the street and +composedly waiting. + +Meantime Cleek, sneaking out through the rear door, found himself in a +small, brick-paved yard hemmed in by a high wall thickly fringed on the +top with a hedge of broken bottles. At one time in its history the house +had been occupied by a catgut maker, and the rickety shed in which he +had carried on his calling still clung, sagging and broken-roofed, to +the building itself, its rotten slates all but vanished, and its +interior piled high with mildewed bedding, mouldy old carpet, broken +furniture, and refuse of every sort. + +A foot or two above the roof-level of this glowed--two luminous +rectangles in the blackness of darkness--the windows of the back room on +the second storey; and out of these came floating still the song, the +laughter, and the jabbered French he had heard in the house next door. +It did not take him long to make up his mind. Gripping the swaying +supports of the sagging shed, he went up it with the agility of a +monkey, crawled to the nearer of the two windows, and, cautiously +raising himself, peeped in. What he saw made him suck in his breath +sharply and sent his heart hammering hard and fast. + +A dozen men were in the room--men whose faces, despite an inartistic +attempt to appear Oriental, he recognized at a glance and knew better +than he knew his own. About them lay discarded portions of Cingalese +attire, thrown off because of the heat, and waiting to be resumed at any +moment. The air was thick with tobacco smoke and rank with spirituous +odours. Sprawled figures were everywhere, and on a sort of couch against +the opposite wall, a cigarette between her fingers, a glass of absinthe +at her elbow, her laughter and badinage ringing out as loudly as any, +lay the lissom figure of Margot! + +But even as Cleek looked in upon it the picture changed. Swift, sharp, +and sudden came the rattle of flying feet on the outer stairs. Margot +flung aside her cigarette and jumped up, the song and the laughter came +to an abrupt end, the door flew open, and with a shout and a cheer a man +bounced into the room. + +"Serpice! Ah, _le bon Dieu!_ it is Serpice at last!" cried out Margot in +joyous excitement, as she and the others crowded round him. "Soul of a +sluggard, don't waste time in laughing and capering like this! Speak up, +speak up, you hear? Are we to fly at once to the mill and join him? Has +he succeeded? Is it done?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" shouted back Serpice, throwing up his cap and capering. +"It is done! It is done! Under the very nose of the cracksman, too! +Merode's got them--got them both! The little lordship and the +Mademoiselle Lorne, too! They took the bait like gudgeons; they stepped +into the automobile without a fear, and--whizz! it was off to the mill +like that! La, la, la! We win, we win, we win!" + +The shock of the thing was too much for Cleek. Carried out of himself by +the knowledge that the woman he loved was now in peril of her life, +discretion forsook him, blind rage mastered him, and he did one of the +few foolish things of his life. + +"You lie, you brute--you lie!" he shouted, jumping up into full view. +"God help the man who lays a hand on her! Let him keep his life from me +if he can!" + +"The cracksman!" yelled out Serpice. "The cracksman! The cracksman!" +echoed Margot and the rest. Then a pistol barked and spat, the light was +swept out, a bullet sang past Cleek's ear, and he realised how foolish +he had been. For part of the crowd came surging to the window, part went +in one blind rush for the door to head him off and hem him in, and, +through the din and hubbub rang viciously the voice of Margot shrilling +out: "Kill him! Kill him!" as though nothing but the sight of his blood +would glut the malice of her. + +It was neck or nothing now, and the race was to the swift. He dropped +through a gap in the ragged roof--sheer down, like a shot--into the +rubble and refuse below; he lurched through the shed to the door, and +through that to the black passage leading to the street--the clatter on +the higher staircase giving warning of the crowd coming after him--and +flew like a hare hard pressed toward the outer door, and then--just +then, when every little moment counted--there was a scrambling sound, a +chorus of oaths, a slipping, a sliding, a bang on one step and a bump on +another; and, as he darted by, and sprang out into the street, the hall +was filled with a writhing, scuffling, swearing mass of glue-covered men +struggling in a whirling waste of loose brown paper. + +"This way! come quickly, for your life!" he shouted to Dollops, as he +came plunging out into the street. "They've got them--got his little +lordship! Got Miss Lorne--in spite of me. Come on! come on! come +on!"--and flew like an arrow from crossing to crossing and street to +street with Dollops, like a shadow, at his heels. + +A sudden swerve to the right brought them into a lighted and populous +thoroughfare. Italian restaurants, German delicatessen shops, eating +places of a dozen other nationalities lined the pavements on both sides +of the street, and, in front of these a high-power motor stood, +protected by the watchful eye of an accommodating policeman while the +chauffeur sampled Chianti in a wine-shop close by. With a rush and a +leap Cleek was upon it, and with another rush and a leap the constable +was upon him, only to be greeted with the swift flicking open of a coat +and the gleam of a badge that every man in the force knew. + +"Cleek?" + +"Yes! In the name of The Yard; in the name of the king! get out of the +way! In with you, Dollops! We'll get the brutes yet!" + +Then he bent over, threw in the clutch, and discarding all speed laws, +sent the car humming and tearing away. + +"Hold tight!" he said, through his teeth. "Whatever comes, we've got to +get to Burnt Acre Mill inside of an hour. If you know any prayers, +Dollops, say them." + +"The Lord fetch us home in time for supper!" gulped the boy obediently. +"S'help me, Gov'nor, the wind's goin' through my teeth like I was a +mouth organ--and I'm hollow enough for a flute!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +It is strange how, in moments of stress and trial, even in times of +tragedy, the most commonplace thoughts will intrude themselves and the +mind separate itself from the immediate events. As Merode put the cold +muzzle of the revolver to Ailsa's temple and she ought, one would have +supposed, to have been deaf and blind to all things but the horror of +her position, one of these strange mental lapses occurred, and her mind, +travelling back over the years of her early schooldays, dwelt on a +punishment task set her by her preceptress--the task of copying three +hundred times the phrase "Discretion is the better part of valour." + +As the recollection of that time rose before her mental vision, the +value of the phrase itself forced its worth upon her and, huddling back +in the corner of the limousine, she clutched the frightened child to her +and gave implicit obedience to Merode's command to make no effort to +attract attention either by word or deed. And he, fancying that he had +thoroughly cowed her, withdrew the touch of the weapon from her temple, +but held it ready for possible use in the grip of his thin, strong hand. + +For a time the limousine kept straight on in its headlong course, then, +of a sudden, it swerved to the left, the gleam of a river--all silver +with moonlight--struck up through a line of trees on one side of the +car, the blank unbroken dreariness of a stretch of waste land spread out +upon the other; and presently, by the slowing down of the motor, Ailsa +guessed that they were nearing their destination. They reached it a few +moments later, and a peep from the window, as the vehicle stopped, +showed her the outlines of a ruined watermill--ghostly, crumbling, +owl-haunted--looming black against the silver sky. + +A crumbled wheel hung, rotten and moss-grown, over a dry water-course, +where straggling willows stretched out from the bank and trailed their +long, feathery ends a yard or so above the level of the weeds and +grasses that carpeted the sandy bed of it, and along its edge--once +built as a protection for the heedless or unwary, but now a ruin and a +wreck--a moss-grown wall with a narrow, gateless archway made an +irregular shadow on the moon-drenched earth. She saw that archway and +that dry water-course, and a new, strong hope arose within her. +Discretion had played its part; now it was time for Valour to take the +stage. + +"Come, get out--this is the end," said Merode, as he unlatched the door +of the limousine and alighted. "You may yell here until your throat +splits, for all the good it will do you. Lanisterre, show us a light; +the path to the door is uncertain, and the floor of the mill is unsafe. +This way, if you please, Miss Lorne. Let me have the boy--I'll look +after him!" + +"No, no!--not yet! Please, not yet!" said Ailsa, with a little catch in +her voice as she plucked his little lordship to her and smothered his +frightened cries against her breast. "Let me have him whilst I may--let +me hold him to--the last, Monsieur Merode. His mother trusts me. She +will want to know that I--I stood by him until I could stand no longer. +Please!--we are so helpless--I am so fond of him, and--he is such a very +little boy. Listen! You want me to write to Mr. Cleek; you want me to +ask something of him. I won't do it for myself--no, not if you kill me +for refusing. I'll never do it for myself; but--but I will do it if you +won't separate us until he has had time to say his prayers." + +"Oh, all right, then," he agreed. "If it's any consolation doing a +fool's trick like that, why--do it! Now come along, and let's get inside +the mill without any more nonsense. Lanisterre, bring that lantern here +so that mademoiselle can see the path to the door. This way, if you +please, Miss Lorne." + +"Thank you," she said as she alighted and moved slowly in the direction +of the door, soothing the child as they crept along almost within touch +of the crumbling wall. "Ceddie, darling, don't cry. You are a brave +little hero, I know, and heroes are never afraid to die." From the tail +of her eye she watched Merode. He seemed to realise from these words to +the child that she was reconciled to the inevitable, and with an air of +satisfaction he put the pistol back into his pocket and walked beside +her. She kept straight on with her soothing words; and, in the +half-shadow, neither Merode nor Lanisterre could see that one hand was +lost in the folds of her skirt. + +"Ceddie, darling, let Miss Lorne be able to tell mummie that her little +man was a hero; that he died, as heroes always die, without a fear or a +weakening to the very last. I'll stand by you, precious; I'll hold your +hand; and, when the time comes--" + +It came then! The gateless archway was reached at last; and the thing +she had been planning all along now became possible. With one sudden +push she sent the boy reeling down the incline into the dry +water-course, flashed round sharply, and before Merode really knew how +the thing happened, she was standing with her back to the arch and a +revolver in her levelled hand. + +"Throw up your arms--throw them up at once, or, as God hears me, I'll +shoot!" she cried. "Run, Ceddie--run, baby! He shan't follow you--I'll +kill him if he tries!" + +"You idiot!" began Merode, and made a lurch toward her. But the pistol +barked, and something white-hot zigzagged along his arm and bit like a +flame into his shoulder. + +"Up with your hands--up with them!" she said in a voice that shook with +excitement as he howled out and made a reeling backward step. "Next time +it will be the head I aim at, not the arm!" Then, lifting up her voice +in one loud shriek that made the echoes bound, she called with all her +strength; "Help, somebody--for God's sake help! Scream, Ceddie--scream! +Help! Help!" + +And lo! as she called, as if a miracle had been wrought, out of the +darkness an answering voice called back to her, and the wild, swift +notes of a motor horn bleated along the lonely road. + +"I'm coming--I--Cleek!" that voice rang out. "Hold your own--hold it to +the last, Miss Lorne, and God help the man who lays a finger on you!" + +"Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, oh, thank God!" she flung back with all the +rapture a human voice could contain. "Come on, come on! I've got +him--got that man Merode, and the boy is safe, the boy is safe! Come on! +come on! come on!" + +"We're a-comin', miss, you gamble on that--and the lightnin's a fool to +us!" shouted Dollops in reply. "Let her have it, Gov'nor! Bust the +bloomin' tank. Give her her head; give her her feet; give her her +blessed merry-thought if she wants it! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +And then, just then, when she most needed her strength and her courage, +Ailsa's evaporated. The reaction came and with the despairing cries of +Merode and Lanisterre ringing in her ears, she sank back, weak, white, +almost fainting--and, leaning against the side of the archway, began to +laugh and to sob hysterically. Merode seized that one moment and sprang +to the breach. + +Realising that the game was all but up, that there was nothing for him +now but to save his own skin if he could, he called out to Lanisterre to +follow him, then plunged into the mill, swung over the lever which +controlled the sluice gates, and, darting out by the back way, fled +across the waste. + +But behind him he left a scene of indescribable horror, and the shrill +screaming of a little child told him when that horror began. For as the +sluice gates opened a sullen roar sounded; on one side the diverted +millstream, and on the other the river, rose as two solid walls of +water, rushed forward and--met; and in the twinkling of an eye the old +water-course was one wild, leaping, roaring, gyrating whirlpool of +up-flung froth and twisting waves that bore in their eddying clutch the +battling figure of a drowning child. + +Even before he came in sight of it the roaring waters and the fearful +splash of their impact told Cleek what had been done. He could hear +Ailsa's screams; he could hear the boy's feeble cries, and a moment +later, when the whizzing motor panted up through the moonlight and sped +by the broken wall, there was Ailsa, fairly palsied with fright, +clinging weakly to the crumbling arch and uttering little sobbing, +wordless, incoherent moans of fright as she stared down into the hell of +waters; and below, in the foam, a little yellow head was spinning round +and round and round, in dizzying circles of torn and leaping waves. + +"Heavens, Gov'nor!" began Dollops in a voice of appalling despair; but +before he could get beyond that, Cleek's coat was off, Cleek's body had +described a sort of semi-circle, and--the child was no longer alone in +the whirlpool! + +Battling, struggling, fairly leaping, as a fish leaps in a torrent, one +moment half out of the water, the next wholly submerged, Cleek struck +from eddy to eddy, from circle to circle; until that little yellow head +was within reach, then put forth his hand and gripped it, pulled it to +him, and in another moment he was whirling round and round the +whirlpool's course with the child clutched to him and his wet, white +face gleaming wax-like over the angle of his shoulder. + +They had not made the half of the first circle thus before Dollops had +leaped to the bending willows, had scrambled up the rough trunk of the +nearest of them, and, pushing his weight out upon a strong and supple +bough, bent it downward until the half of its strongest withes were deep +in the whirling waters. + +"Grab 'em, Gov'nor--grab 'em when you come by!" he sang out over the +roar of the waters. "They'll hold you, sir--hold a dozen like you; and +if--Well played! Got 'em the first grab! Hang on! Get a tight grip! Now +then, sir, hand over hand till you're at the bank! Good biz! Good biz! +Blest if you won't be goin' in for the circus trade next! Steady does +it, sir--steady, steady! Goal, by Jupiter! Now then, hand me up the +nipper--I should say the young gent--and in two minutes' time--Right! +Got him! 'Ere you are, Miss Lorne--lay hold of his little lordship, will +you? I've got me blessed hands full a keepin' to me perch whilst the +guv'nor's a-wobbling of the branch like this. Good biz! Now then, sir, +another 'arf a yard. That's the call! Hands on this bough and foot on +the bank there. One, two, three--knew you'd do it! Safe as houses, Gawd +bless yer bully heart!" + +And then as Cleek, wet, white, panting, dragged himself out of the +clutch of the whirlpool and lay breathing heavily on the ground: + +"By gums, Gov'nor," Dollops added as he looked down on the whirling +waters, "what an egg-beater it would make, wouldn't it, sir? Ain't got +such a thing as a biscuit about yer, have you? Me spine's a rasping +holes in me necktie, and I'm so flat you could slip me into a pillar box +and they'd take me home for a penny stamp." + +But Cleek made no reply. Wet and spent after his fierce struggle with +the whirling fury he had just escaped, he lay looking up into Ailsa's +eyes as she came to him with the sobbing child close pressed to her +bosom and all heaven in her beaming face. + +"It is not the 'funeral wreath' after all, you see, Miss Lorne," he +said. "It came near to being it; but--it is not, it is not. I wonder, +oh, I wonder!" + +Then he laughed the foolish, vacuous laugh of a man whose thoughts are +too happy for the banality of words. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +It was midnight and after. In the close-curtained library of Chepstow +House, Cleek, with his little lordship sleeping in his arms, sat in +solemn conclave with Lady Chepstow, Captain Hawksley, and Maverick +Narkom; and while they talked, Ailsa, like a restless spirit, wandered +to and fro, now lifting the curtains to peep out into the darkness, now +listening as if her whole life's hope lay in the coming of some expected +sound. And in her veins there burned a fever of suspense. + +"So you failed to get the rascals, did you, Mr. Narkom?" Cleek was +saying. "I feared as much; but I couldn't get word to you sooner. We +injured the machine in that mad race to the mill, and of course we had +to come at a snail's pace afterwards. I'm sorry we didn't get +Margot--sorrier still that that hound Merode got away. They are bound to +make more trouble before the race is run. Not for her ladyship, however, +and not for this dear little chap. Their troubles are at an end, and the +sacred son will be a sacred son no longer." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do tell me what you mean," implored Lady Chepstow. "Do +tell me how--" + +"Doctor Fordyce, at last!" struck in Ailsa excitedly, as the door-bell +and knocker clashed and the butler's swift footsteps went along the +hall. "Now we shall know, Mr. Cleek--oh, now we shall know for certain!" + +"And so shall all the world," he replied as the door opened and the +doctor was ushered into the room. "I don't think you were ever so +welcome anywhere or at any time before, doctor," he added with a smile. +"Come and look at this little chap. Bonny little specimen of a +Britisher, isn't he?" + +"Yes; but my dear sir, I--I was under the impression that I was called +to a scene of excitement; and you seem as peaceful as Eden here. The +constable who came for me said it was something to do with Scotland +Yard." + +"So it is, doctor. I had Mr. Narkom send for you to perform a very +trifling but most important operation upon his little lordship here." + +"Upon Cedric!" exclaimed Lady Chepstow, rising in a panic of alarm. "An +operation to be performed upon my baby boy? Oh, Mr. Cleek, in the name +of Heaven--" + +"No, your ladyship, in the name of Buddha. Don't be alarmed. It is only +to be a trifling cut--a mere re-opening of that little wound in the +thigh which you dressed and healed so successfully at Trincomalee. You +made a mistake, all of you, that night when the boy was shot. The native +poor Ferralt saw skulking along with the gun was not a mere tribesman +and had not the very faintest thought of discharging that weapon at your +little son, or, indeed, at anybody else in the world. He was the High +Priest Seydama, guardian of the Holy Tooth--the one living being who +dared by right to touch it or to lay hands upon the shrine that +contained it. Fearful, when the false rumour of that intended loot was +circulated, that infidel eyes should look upon it, infidel hands profane +the sacred relic, he determined to remove it from Dambool to the +rock-hewn temple of Galwihara and to enshrine it there. For the purpose +of giving no clue to his movements, he chose to abandon his priestly +vestments, to disguise himself as a common tribesman, and, the better to +defeat the designs of any who might penetrate that disguise and +endeavour to take the sacred relic from him and hold it for ransom, he +hid the Holy Tooth in the barrel of a gun. That gun was in his hands, +your ladyship, when Ferralt rushed out and brained him." + +"In his hands? Oh, Mr. Cleek, then--then--" Her voice all but failed her +as a sudden realization came. "That relic, that fetish! If it was in +that gun at that time, then it is now--" + +"Embedded in the fleshy part of the boy's thigh," said Cleek, finishing +the sentence for her. "Inclosed, doubtless, in a sac or cyst which +Mother Nature has wrapped round it, the tooth is there--in your little +son's body; and for five whole years he has been the living shrine that +held it!" + +It was quite true--as events rapidly and completely proved. + +Ten minutes later, the trifling operation was concluded; the boy lay +whimpering in his mother's arms and the long-lost relic was on the +surgeon's palm. + +"Take it, Captain Hawksley," said Cleek, lifting it between his thumb +and forefinger and carrying it to him. "There is a man in Soho--one +Arjeeb Noosrut--who will know it when he sees it; and there is a vast +reward. Five lacs of rupees will pay off no end of debts, my friend; and +a man with that balance at his banker's can't be thought a mere +fortune-hunter when he asks for the hand of the woman he loves." + +The Captain didn't ask for _his_, however--he simply jumped up and +grabbed it. + +"By George, you're a brick!" he said, with something uneven in his +voice--something that was like laughter and tears all jumbled up +together; then he glanced over at Lady Chepstow, and flushed, and +floundered, and stammered confusedly, but went on shaking Cleek's hand +all the time. "It's ripping of you--it's bully, dear chap, but--I say, +you know, it isn't fair. It's jolly uneven. _You_ found out. You ought +at least to have a share in the reward." + +"Not I," said Cleek, with an airy laugh. "Like the fellow who was born +with a third leg, 'I have no use for it,' Captain. But if you really +want to give any part of it away, bank a thousand to the credit of my +boy Dollops to be turned over to him when he's twenty-one. And you might +make Mr. Narkom, and, if she will accept the post, Miss Lorne, his +trustees." + +Miss Lorne faced round and looked at him; and even from that distance he +could see that her mouth was moving tremulously and there was something +shining in the corner of her eye. + +"I accept that position with pleasure, Mr. Cleek," she said. "It is the +act of a man and--a gentleman. Thank you! Thank you." And came down the +long length of the room with her hand outstretched to take his. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +He took it with that grave courtesy, that gentle dignity of bearing +which at times distinguished his deportment and was, indeed, as puzzling +to her as it was to Mr. Maverick Narkom. It came but rarely, that +peculiar air, but it was very noticeable when it did come, although the +man himself seemed totally oblivious of it. Miss Lorne noticed it now, +just as she had noticed it that day in the train when she had said +banteringly: "I am not used to Court manners. Where, if you please, did +you acquire yours?" + +"I can't say how deeply indebted I feel--you must imagine that, Miss +Lorne," he said, bending over the hand that lay in his, with an air that +made Lady Chepstow lift her eyebrows and look at him narrowly. "It is +one of the kindest things you could do for the boy and--for me. I thank +you very, very much indeed. My thanks are due to you, too, Captain; for +I feel that you will gladly do the favour I have asked." + +"Do it? Yes, like a shot, old chap. What a ripping fellow you are!" + +"I'm a tired one at all events," replied Cleek. "So, if you--and the +ladies"--bowing to them--"will kindly excuse me, I'll be off home for a +needed rest. Lady Chepstow, my very best respects. I feel sure that his +little lordship will be quite all right in a day or two, although I +shall, of course, be glad to learn how he progresses. May I? Perhaps +Miss Lorne might be persuaded to send me a word or two through--Mr. +Narkom." + +Lady Chepstow was still looking at him as she had been from the moment +he had taken Ailsa's hand. Now she put out her own to him. + +"Why wait for written reports, Mr. Cleek? Why not call in person and +see?" she asked. "It will be more satisfactory than writing; and you +will be welcome always." + +"I thank your ladyship," he said gravely--though all the soul of him +rioted and laughed and longed to shout out for sheer joy. "It is a +privilege I shall be happy to enjoy." + +But afterward, when he came to take his leave, a dearer one was granted +him; for Ailsa herself accompanied him to the door. + +"I couldn't let the butler show you out, Mr. Cleek," she said, as they +stood together in the wide entrance hall. "I couldn't let you go until I +had said something that is on my mind--something that has been pricking +my conscience all evening. I want to tell you that from this night on I +am going to forget those other nights: that one in the mist at +Hampstead, that other on the stairway at Wyvern House--forget them +utterly and entirely, Mr. Cleek. Whatever you may have been _once_, I +know that now you are indeed a man!" + +Then gave him her hand again, smiled at him, and sent him home feeling +that he was as near to the threshold of heaven as any mortal thing may +hope to be. + +Followed a time of such happiness as only they may know who having lived +in darkness first know that there is such a thing as Light; followed +days and weeks that went like magic things, blest to the uttermost +before they go. For now he was a welcome visitor at the house that +sheltered her; now the armour of reserve had dropped from her, and they +were finding out between them that they had many tastes in common. + +It was in August when the first interruption to this happy state of +affairs occurred and they came to know that separation was to be endured +again. Lady Chepstow, planning already for a wedding that was to take +place in the early winter, decided to spend the last few months of her +widowhood at her country house in Devonshire, and retired to it taking +her servants, her little son, and her son's governess with her. + +For a day or two, Cleek "mooned" about--restless, lonely despite +Dollops's presence, finding no savour in anything; and it came as a +positive relief when a call from The Yard sent him to a modest little +house in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common. The "call" in question +took the shape of a letter from Mr. Narkom. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran, "a most amazing case--probably _the_ most +amazing you have yet tackled--has just cropped up. The client is one +Captain Morrison, a retired Army officer living solely on his half pay. +His daughter is involved in the astonishing affair. Indeed, it is at her +earnest appeal that the matter has been brought to my notice. As the +Captain is in too weak a state of health to journey any distance, I am +going to ask you to meet me at No. 17, Sunnington Crescent, +Wandsworth--a house kept by one Mrs. Culpin, widow of one of my Yard +men, at three o'clock this afternoon. Knowing your reluctance to have +your identity disclosed, I have taken the liberty of giving you the name +you adopted in the Bawdrey affair, to wit: 'George Headland.' I have +also taken the same precaution with regard to the Morrisons, leaving you +to disclose your identity or not, as you see fit." + +Glad enough for anything to distract his thoughts from the brooding +state of melancholy into which they had sunk, Cleek looked up a +time-table, caught the 2:47 train from Victoria Station; and Narkom, +walking into Mrs. Culpin's modest little drawing-room at two minutes +past three, found him standing in the window and looking thoughtfully +out at the groups of children romping on the near-by common. + +"Well, here I am at last, you see, my dear fellow," he said, as he +crossed the room and shook hands with him. "Ripping day, isn't it? What +are you doing? Admiring the view or taking stock of Mrs. Culpin's +roses?" + +"Neither. I was speculating in futures," replied Cleek, glancing back at +the sunlit common, and then glancing away again with a faintly audible +sigh. "How happy, how care-free they are, those merry little beggars, +Mr. Narkom. What you said in your letter set my thoughts harking +backward, and ... I was wondering what things the coming years might +hold for them and for their parents. At one time, you know, Philip +Bawdrey was as innocent and guileless as any of those little shavers; +and yet, in after years he proved a monster of iniquity, a beast of +ingratitude, and--Oh, well, let it pass. He paid, as thankless children +always do pay under God's good rule. I wonder what his thoughts were +when his last hour came." + +"It did come, then?" + +"Yes. Got playing some of his games with those short-tempered chaps out +in Buenos Ayres and got knifed a fortnight after his arrival. I had a +letter from Mrs. Bawdrey yesterday. His father never knew of--well, the +other thing; and never will now, thank God. The longer I live, Mr. +Narkom, the surer I become that straight living always pays; and that +the chap who turns into the other lane gets what he deserves before the +game is played out." + +"Ten years of Scotland Yard have enabled me to endorse that statement +emphatically," replied Narkom. "'The riddle of the ninth finger' was no +different in that respect from nine hundred other riddles that have come +my way since I took office. Now sit down, old chap, and let us take up +the present case. But I say, Cleek; speaking of rewards reminds me of +what I wrote you. There's very little chance of one in this affair. All +the parties connected with it are in very moderate circumstances. The +sculptor fellow, Van Nant, who figures in it, was quite well-to-do at +one time, I believe, but he ran through the greater part of his money, +and a dishonest solicitor did him out of the rest. Miss Morrison herself +never did have any, and, as I have told you, the Captain hasn't anything +in the world but his pension; and it takes every shilling of that to +keep them. In the circumstances, I'd have made it a simple 'Yard' +affair, chargeable to the Government, and put one of the regular staff +upon it. But--well, it's such an astounding, such an unheard-of-thing, I +knew you'd fairly revel in it. And besides, after all the rewards you +have won you must be quite a well-to-do man by this time, and able to +indulge in a little philanthropy." + +Cleek smiled. + +"I will indulge in it, of course," he said, "but not for that reason, +Mr. Narkom. I wonder how much it will surprise you to learn that, at the +present moment, I have just one hundred pounds in all the world?" + +"My dear fellow!" Narkom exclaimed, with a sort of gasp, staring at him +in round-eyed amazement. "You fairly take away my breath. Why, you must +have received a fortune since you took up these special cases. Fifty or +sixty thousand pounds at the smallest calculation." + +"More! To be precise, I have received exactly seventy-two thousand +pounds, Mr. Narkom. But, as I tell you, I have to-day but one hundred +pounds of that sum left. Lost in speculation? Oh, dear no! I've not +invested one farthing in any scheme, company, or purchase since the +night you gave me my chance and helped me to live an honest life." + +"Then in the name of Heaven, Cleek, what has become of the money?" + +"It has gone in the cause of my redemption, Mr. Narkom," he answered in +a hushed voice. "My good friend--for you really _have_ been a good +friend to me, the best I ever had in all the world--my good friend, let +us for only just this one minute speak of the times that lie behind. You +know what redeemed me--a woman's eyes, a woman's rose-white soul! I +said, did I not, that I wanted to win her, wanted to be worthy of her, +wanted to climb up and stand with her in the light? You remember that, +do you not, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes, I remember. But, my dear fellow, why speak of your 'vanishing +cracksman' days when you have so utterly put them behind you, and since +lived a life beyond reproach? Whatever you did in those times you have +amply atoned for. And what can that have to do with your impoverished +state?" + +"It has everything to do with it. I said I would be worthy of that one +dear woman, and--I can never be, Mr. Narkom, until I have made +restitution; until I can offer her a clean hand as well as a clean life. +I can't restore the actual things that the 'vanishing cracksman' stole; +for they are gone beyond recall, but--I can, at least, restore the value +of them, and--that I have been secretly doing for a long time." + +"Man alive! God bless my soul! Cleek, my dear fellow, do you mean to +tell me that all the rewards, all the money you have earned--" + +"Has gone to the people from whom I stole things in the wretched old +days that lie behind me," he finished very gently. "It goes back, in +secret gifts, as fast as it is earned, Mr. Narkom. Don't you see the +answers, the acknowledgments, in the 'Personal' columns of the papers +now and again? Wheresoever I robbed in those old days, I am repaying in +these. When the score is wiped off, when the last robbery is paid for, +my hand will be clean, and--I can offer it; never before." + +"Cleek! My dear fellow! What a man! What a _man_! Oh, more than ever am +I certain _now_ that old Sir Horace Wyvern was right that night when he +said that you were a gentleman. Tell me--I'll respect it--tell me, for +God's sake, man, who are you? _What_ are you, dear friend?" + +"Cleek," he made reply. "Just Cleek! The rest is my secret and--God's! +We've never spoken of the past since _that_ night, Mr. Narkom, and, with +your kind permission, we never will speak of it again. I'm Cleek, the +detective--at your service once more. Now, then, let's have the new +strange case on which you called me here. What's it all about?" + +"Necromancy--wizardry--fairy-lore--all the stuff and nonsense that goes +to the making of 'The Arabian Nights'!" said Narkom, waxing excited as +his thoughts were thus shoved back to the amazing affair he had in hand. +"All your 'Red Crawls' and your 'Sacred Sons' and your 'Nine-fingered +Skeletons' are fools to it for wonder and mystery. Talk about +witchcraft! Talk about wizards and giants and enchanters and the things +that witches did in the days of Macbeth! God bless my soul, they're +nothing to it. Those were the days of magic, anyhow, so you can take it +or leave it, as you like; but this--look here, Cleek, you've heard of a +good many queer things and run foul of a good many mysteries, I'll +admit, but did you ever--in this twentieth century, when witchcraft and +black magic are supposed to be as dead as Queen Anne--did you ever, my +dear fellow, hear of such a marvel as a man putting on a blue leather +belt that was said to have the power of rendering the wearer invisible +and then forthwith melting into thin air and floating off like a cloud +of pipe smoke?" + +"Gammon!" + +"Gammon nothing! Facts!" + +"Facts? You're off your head, man. The thing couldn't possibly happen. +Somebody's having you!" + +"Well, somebody had _him_, at all events. Young Carboys, I mean--the +chap that's engaged, or, rather was engaged, to Captain Morrison's +daughter; and the poor girl's half out of her mind over it. He put the +belt on in the presence of her and her father--in their own house, mind +you--walked into a bedroom, and vanished like smoke. Doors locked, +windows closed, room empty, belt on the floor, and man gone. Not a trace +of him from that moment to this; and yesterday was to have been his +wedding-day. There's a 'mystery,' if you like. What do you make of +that?" + +Cleek looked at him for an instant. Then: + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, for the moment I thought you were fooling," he said +in a tone of deep interest. "But I see now that you are quite in +earnest, although the thing sounds so preposterous, a child might be +expected to scoff at it. A man to get a magic belt, to put it on, and +then to melt away? Why, the 'Seven-league Boots' couldn't be a greater +tax on one's credulity. Sit down and tell me all about it." + +"The dickens of it is there doesn't seem to be much to tell," said +Narkom, accepting the invitation. "Young Carboys, who appears to have +been a decent sort of chap, had neither money, position, nor enemies, so +that's an end to any idea of somebody having a reason for wishing to get +rid of him; and, as he was devotedly attached to Miss Morrison, and was +counting the very hours to the time of their wedding, and, in addition, +had no debts, no entanglements of any sort, and no possible reason for +wishing to disappear, there isn't the slightest ground for suspecting +that he did so voluntarily." + +"Suppose you tell me the story from the beginning, and leave me to draw +my own conclusions regarding that," said Cleek. "Who and what was the +man? Was he living in the same house with his fiancée, then? You say the +disappearance occurred there, at night, and that he went into a bedroom. +Was the place his home, as well as Captain Morrison's, then?" + +"On the contrary. His home was a matter of three or four miles distant. +He was merely stopping at the Morrison's on that particular night; I'll +tell you presently why and how he came to do that. For the present, +let's take things in their proper order. Once upon a time this George +Carboys occupied a fair position in the world, and his parents--long +since dead--were well to do. The son, being an only child, was well +looked after--sent to Eton and then to Brasenose, and all that sort of +thing--and the future looked very bright for him. Before he was +twenty-one, however, his father lost everything through unlucky +speculations, and that forced the son to make his own living. At the +'Varsity he had fallen in with a rich young Belgian--fellow named +Maurice Van Nant--who had a taste for sculpture and the fine arts +generally, and they had become the warmest and closest of friends." + +"Maurice Van Nant? That's the sculptor fellow you said in the beginning +had gone through his money, isn't it?" + +"Yes. Well, when young Carboys was thrown on the world, so to speak, +this Van Nant came to the rescue, made a place for him as private +secretary and companion, and for three or four years they knocked round +the world together, going to Egypt, Persia, India, _et cetera_, as Van +Nant was mad on the subject of Oriental art, and wished to study it at +the fountain-head. In the meantime both Carboys' parents went over to +the silent majority, and left him without a relative in the world, +barring Captain Morrison, who is an uncle about seven times removed and +would, of course, naturally be heir-at-law to anything he left if he had +anything to leave, poor beggar, which he hadn't. But that's getting +ahead of the story. + +"Well, at the end of four years or so Van Nant came to the bottom of his +purse--hadn't a stiver left; and from dabbling in art for pleasure, had +to come down to it as a means of earning a livelihood. And he and +Carboys returned to England, and, for purposes of economy, pooled their +interests, took a small box of a house over Putney way, set up a regular +'bachelor establishment,' and started in the business of bread-winning +together. Carboys succeeded in getting a clerk's position in town; Van +Nant set about modelling clay figures and painting mediocre pictures, +and selling both whenever he could find purchasers. + +"Naturally, these were slow in coming, few and far between; but with +Carboys' steady two pounds a week coming in, they managed to scrape +along and to keep themselves going. They were very happy, too, despite +the fact that Carboys had got himself engaged to Miss Morrison, and was +hoarding every penny he could possibly save in order to get enough to +marry on; and this did not tend to make Van Nant overjoyed, as such a +marriage would, of course, mean the end of their long association and +the giving up of their bachelor quarters." + +"To say nothing of leaving Van Nant to rub along as best he could +without any assistance from Carboys," commented Cleek. "I think I can +guess a portion of what resulted, Mr. Narkom. Van Nant did not, of +course, in these circumstances have any tender regard for Miss +Morrison." + +"No, he did not. In point of fact, he disliked her very much indeed, and +viewed the approaching wedding with extreme disfavour." + +"And yet you say that nobody had an interest in doing Carboys some sort +of mischief in order to prevent that wedding from being consummated, Mr. +Narkom," said Cleek with a shrug of the shoulders. "Certainly, Van Nant +would have been glad to see a spoke put in that particular wheel; though +I freely confess I do not see what good could come of preventing it by +doing away with Carboys, as he would then be in as bad a position as if +the marriage had been allowed to proceed as planned. Either way he loses +Carboys' companionship and assistance; and his one wish would be to +preserve both. Well, go on. What next? I'm anxious to hear about the +belt. Where and how does that come in?" + +"Well, it appears that Miss Morrison got hold of a humorous book called +'The Brass Bottle,' a fantastic, farcical thing, about a genie who had +been sealed up in a bottle for a thousand years getting out and causing +the poor devil of a hero no end of worry by heaping riches and honours +upon him in the most embarrassing manner. It happened that on the night +Miss Morrison got this book, and read it aloud for the amusement of her +father and lover, Carboys had persuaded Van Nant to spend the evening +with them. Apparently he enjoyed himself, too, for he laughed as +boisterously as any of them over the farcical tale, and would not go +home until he had heard the end of it. When it was finished Miss +Morrison tells me, Carboys, after laughing fit to split his sides over +the predicament of the hero of the book, cried out: 'By George! I wish +some old genie would take it into his head to hunt me up, and try the +same sort of a dodge with me. He wouldn't find this chicken shying his +gold and his gems back at his head, I can tell you. I'd accept all the +Arab slaves and all the palaces he wanted to thrust on me; and then I'd +make 'em all over to you, Mary dear, so you'd never have to do another +day's worrying or pinching in all your life. But never you nor anybody +else depend upon an Arab's gratitude or an Arab's generosity. He'll +promise you the moon, and then wriggle out of giving you so much as a +star--just as Abdul ben Meerza did with me.' And upon Miss Morrison +asking what he meant by that, he replied, laughingly: 'Ask Van, he knew +the old codger better than I--knew his whole blessed family, blow +him!--and was able to talk to the old skinflint in his own outlandish +tongue.' + +"Upon Miss Morrison's acting on this suggestion, Van Nant told of an +adventure Carboys had had in Persia some years previously. It appears +that he saved the life of a miserly old Arab called Abdul ben Meerza at +the risk of his own; that the old man was profuse in his expressions of +gratitude, and, on their parting, had said: 'By the Prophet, thou shalt +yet find the tree of this day's planting bear rich fruit for thee and +thy feet walk upon golden stones.' But, in spite of this promise, he had +walked away, and Carboys had never heard another word from nor of him +from that hour until three nights ago." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "And he did hear of +him, then?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom. "Quite unexpectedly, and while he was preparing +to spend a dull evening at home with Van Nant--for the night was, as you +must recollect, my dear fellow, a horribly wet and stormy one--a message +came to him from Miss Morrison asking him to come over to Wandsworth +without delay, as a most amazing thing had happened. A box marked 'From +Abdul ben Meerza' had been delivered there, of all astonishing places. +The message concluded by saying that as it was such a horrible night, +the Captain, her father, would not hear of his returning, so begged him +to bring his effects, and come prepared to remain until morning. + +"He went, of course, carrying with him a small bag containing his +pyjamas, his shaving tackle, and such few accessories as would be +necessary, since, if he stopped, he must start from there to business in +the morning; and on his arrival was handed a small leather case +addressed as he had been told. Imagining all sorts of wonders, from +jewels of fabulous value to documents entitling him to endless wealth, +he unfastened the case, and found within it a broad belt of blue +enamelled leather secured with a circular brass clasp, on which was +rudely scratched in English the words, 'The wizards of the East grew +rich by being unseen. Whoso clasps this belt about his waist may become +invisible for the wishing. So does ben Meerza remember.' + +"Of course, Carboys treated it as the veriest rubbish--who wouldn't? +Indeed, suspected Van Nant of having played a joke upon him, and +laughingly threw it aside; and, finding that he had taken an +uncomfortable journey for nothing, got some good out of it by spending a +pleasant evening with the Captain and his daughter. A room had been made +ready for him--in fact, although he did not know it, Miss Morrison had +given him hers, and had herself gone to a less attractive one--and in +due time he prepared to turn in for the night. As they parted Miss +Morrison, in a bantering spirit, picked up the belt and handed it to +him, remarking that he had better keep it, as, after marriage, he might +some time be glad to creep into the house unseen; and, in the same +bantering spirit, he had replied that he had better begin learning how +the thing worked in case of necessity, and taking the belt, clasped it +round his waist, said good-night, and stepped into the room prepared for +him. Miss Morrison and her father heard him close the door and pull down +the blind, and--that was the last that was seen or heard of him. + +"In the morning the bed was found undisturbed, his locked bag on a +chair, and in the middle of the floor the blue leather belt; but of the +man himself there was not one trace to be found. There, that's the +story, Cleek. Now what do you make of it?" + +"I shall be able to tell you better after I have seen the parties +concerned," said Cleek, after a moment's pause. "You have brought your +motor, of course? Let us step into it, then, and whizz round to Captain +Morrison's house. What's that? Oh, undoubtedly a case of foul play, Mr. +Narkom. But as to the motive and the matter of who is guilty, it is +impossible to decide until I have looked further into the evidence. Do +me a favour, will you? After you have left me at the Captain's house, +'phone up The Yard, and let me have the secret cable code with the East; +also, if you can, the name of the chief of the Persian police." + +"My dear chap, you can't really place any credence in that absurd +assertion regarding the blue belt? You can't possibly think that Abdul +ben Meerza really sent the thing?" + +"No, I can't," said Cleek in reply. "Because, to the best of my belief, +it is impossible for a dead man to send anything; and, if my memory +doesn't betray me, I fancy I read in the newspaper accounts of that big +Tajik rising at Khotour a couple of months ago, that the leader, one +Abdul ben Meerza, a rich but exceedingly miserly merchant of the +province of Elburz, was, by the Shah's command, bastinadoed within an +inch of his life, and then publicly beheaded." + +"By Jove! I believe you are right, my dear fellow," asserted Narkom. "I +thought the name had a familiar sound--as if I had, somewhere, heard it +before. I suppose there is no likelihood, by any chance, that the old +skinflint could have lived up to his promise and left poor Carboys +something, after all, Cleek? Because, you know, if he did--" + +"Captain Morrison would, as heir-at-law, inherit it," supplemented +Cleek, dryly. "Get out the motor, Mr. Narkom, and let's spin round and +see him. I fancy I should like a few minutes' conversation with the +Captain. And--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes." + +"We'll stick to the name 'George Headland,' if you please. When you are +out for birds it doesn't do to frighten them off beforehand." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +It did not take more than five minutes to cover the distance between +Sunnington Crescent and the modest little house where Captain Morrison +and his daughter lived; so in a very brief time Cleek had the +satisfaction of interviewing both. + +Narkom's assertion, that Miss Morrison was "half out of her mind over +the distressing affair" had prepared him to encounter a weeping, +red-eyed, heart-broken creature of the most excitable type. He found +instead a pale, serious-faced, undemonstrative girl of somewhat +uncertain age--sweet of voice, soft of step, quiet of demeanour--who was +either one of those persons who repress all external evidence of +internal fires, and bear their crosses in silence, or was as +cold-blooded as a fish and as heartless as a statue. He found the father +the exact antithesis of the daughter, a nervous, fretful, irritable +individual (gout had him by the heels at the time), who was as full of +"yaps" and snarls as any Irish terrier, and as peevish and fussy as a +fault-finding old woman. Added to this, he had a way of glancing all +round the room, and avoiding the eye of the person to whom he was +talking. And if Cleek had been like the generality of people, and hadn't +known that some of the best and "straightest" men in the world have been +afflicted in this manner, and some of the worst and "crookedest" could +look you straight in the eyes without turning a hair, he might have +taken this for a bad sign. Then, too, he seemed to have a great many +more wrappings and swaddlings about his gouty foot than appeared to be +necessary--unless it was done to make his helpless state very apparent, +and to carry out his assertion that he hadn't been able to walk a foot +unassisted for the past week, and could not, therefore, be in any way +connected with young Carboys' mysterious vanishment. Still, even that +had its contra aspect. He might be one of those individuals who make a +mountain out of a molehill of pain, and insist upon a dozen poultices +where one would do. + +But Cleek could not forget that, as Narkom had said, there was not the +shadow of doubt that in the event of Carboys having died possessed of +means, the Captain would be the heir-at-law by virtue of his kinship; +and it is a great deal more satisfactory to be rich oneself than to be +dependent upon the generosity of a rich son-in-law. So, after adroitly +exercising the "pump" upon other matters: + +"I suppose, Miss Morrison," said Cleek in a casual off-hand sort of way, +"you don't happen to know if Mr. Carboys ever made a will, do you? I am +aware, from what Mr. Narkom has told me of his circumstances, that he +really possessed nothing that would call for the execution of such a +document; but young men have odd fancies sometimes--particularly when +they become engaged--so it is just possible that he might have done such +a thing; that there was a ring or something of that sort he wanted to +make sure of your getting should anything happen to him. Of course, it +is an absurd suggestion, but--" + +"It is not so absurd as you think, Mr. Headland," she interrupted. "As +it happens, Mr. Carboys did make a will. But that was a very long time +ago--in fact, before he knew me, so my name did not figure in it at all. +He once told me of the circumstances connected with it. It was executed +when he was about three-and-twenty. It appears that there were some +personal trinkets, relics of his more prosperous days: a set of jewelled +waistcoat buttons, a scarf-pin, a few choice books and things like that, +which he desired Mr. Van Nant to have in the event of his death (they +were then going to the Orient, and times there were troublous); so he +drew up a will, leaving everything that he might die possessed of to Mr. +Van Nant, and left the paper with the latter's solicitor when they bade +good-bye to England. So far as I know, that will still exists, Mr. +Headland; so"--here the faintest suggestion of a quiver got into her +voice--"if anything of a tragical nature had happened to him, and--and +the trinkets hadn't disappeared with him, Mr. Van Nant could claim them +all, and I should have not even one poor little token to cherish in +memory of him. And I am sure--I am very sure--that if he had known--if +he had thought--" + +"Mary, for goodness' sake, don't begin to snivel!" chimed in her father +querulously. "It gets on my nerves. And you know very well how I am +suffering! Of course, it was most inconsiderate of Carboys not to +destroy that will as soon as you and he were engaged; but he knew that +marriage invalidates any will a man may have made previously, and--well, +you can't suppose that he ever expected things to turn out as they have +done. Besides, Van Nant would have seen that you got something to +treasure as a remembrance. He's a very decent chap, is Van Nant, Mr. +Headland, although my daughter has never appeared to think so. But +there's no arguing with a woman any way." + +Cleek glanced at Narkom. It was a significant glance, and said as +plainly as so many words: "What do you think of it? You said there was +no motive, and, provided Carboys fell heir to something of which we know +nothing as yet, here are _two_! If that will was destroyed, one man +would, as heir-at-law, inherit; ditto the other man if it was not +destroyed and not invalidated by marriage. And here's the 'one' man +singing the praises of the 'other' one!" + +"Collusion?" queried Narkom's answering look. "Perhaps," said Cleek's in +response, "one of these two men has made away with him. The question is, +which? and, also, why? when? where?" Then he turned to the Captain's +daughter, and asked quietly: "Would you mind letting me see the room +from which the young man disappeared? I confess I haven't the ghost of +an idea regarding the case, Captain; but if you don't mind letting your +daughter show me the room--" + +"Mind? Good Lord, no!" responded the Captain. "All I want to know is, +what became of the poor boy, and if there's any likelihood of his ever +coming back alive. I'd go up with you myself, only you see how helpless +I am. Mary, take Mr. Headland to the room. And please don't stop any +longer than is necessary. I'm suffering agonies and not fit to be left +alone." + +Miss Morrison promised to return as expeditiously as possible, and then +forthwith led the way to the room in question. + +"This is it, Mr. Headland," she said as she opened the door and ushered +Cleek in. "Everything is just exactly as it was when George left it. I +couldn't bring myself to touch a thing until after a detective had seen +it. Father said it was silly and sentimental of me to go on sleeping in +a little box of a hall bedroom when I could be so much more comfortable +if I returned to my own. But--I couldn't! I felt that I might possibly +be unconsciously destroying something in the shape of a clue if I moved +a solitary object, and so--Look! there is the drawn blind just as he +left it; there his portmanteau on that chair by the bedside, and +there--" Her voice sank to a sort of awed whisper, her shaking finger +extended in the direction of a blue semi-circle in the middle of the +floor. "There is the belt! He had it round his waist when he crossed +this threshold that night. It was lying there just as you see it when +the servant brought up his tea and his shaving-water the next morning, +and found the room empty and the bed undisturbed." + +Cleek walked forward and picked up the belt. + +"Humph! Unfastened!" he said as he took it up; and Miss Morrison, +closing the door, went below and left them. "Our wonderful wizard does +not seem to have mastered the simple matter of making a man vanish out +of the thing without first unfastening the buckle, it appears. I should +have thought he could have managed that, shouldn't you, Mr. Narkom, if +he could have managed the business of making him melt into thin air? +Hur-r-r!" reflectively, as he turned the belt over and examined it. "Not +seen much use, apparently; the leather's quite new, and the inside quite +unsoiled. British manufactured brass, too, in the buckle. Shouldn't have +expected that in a Persian-made article. Inscription scratched on with +the point of a knife, or some other implement not employed in metal +engraving. May I trouble you for a pin? Thank you. Hum-m-m! Thought so. +Some dirty, clayey stuff rubbed in to make the letters appear old and of +long standing. Look here, Mr. Narkom: metal quite bright underneath when +you pick the stuff out. Inscription very recently added; leather, +American tanned; brass, Birmingham; stitching, by the Blake shoe and +harness machine; wizard--probably born in Tottenham Court Road, and his +knowledge of Persia confined to Persian powder in four-penny tins." + +He laid the belt aside, and walked slowly round the room, inspecting its +contents before turning his attention to the portmanteau. + +"Evidently the vanishing qualities of the belt did not assert themselves +very rapidly, Mr. Narkom," he said, "for Mr. Carboys not only prepared +to go to bed, but had time to get himself ready to hurry off to business +in the morning with as little delay as possible. Look here; here are his +pyjamas on the top of this chest of drawers, neatly folded, just as he +lifted them out of his portmanteau; and as a razor has been wiped on +this towel (see this slim line of dust-like particles of hair), he +shaved before going to bed in order to save himself the trouble of doing +so in the morning. But as there is no shaving-mug visible, and he +couldn't get hot water at that hour of the night, we shall probably +discover a spirit-lamp and its equipment when we look into the +portmanteau. Now, as he had time to put these shaving articles away +after using, and as no man shaves with his collar and necktie on, if we +do not find those, too, in the portmanteau, we may conclude that he put +them on again; and, as he wouldn't put them on again if he were going to +bed, the inference is obvious--something caused him to dress and prepare +to leave the house voluntarily. That 'something' must have manifested +itself very abruptly, and demanded great haste--either that, or he +expected to return; for you will observe that, although he replaced his +shaving tackle in the portmanteau, he did not put his sleeping-suit back +with it. While I am poking about, do me the favour of looking in the +bag, Mr. Narkom; and tell me if you find the collar and necktie there." + +"Not a trace of them," announced the superintendent a moment or two +later. "Here are the shaving-mug, the brush, and the spirit-lamp, +however, just as you suggested; and--Hallo! what have you stumbled upon +now?" For Cleek, who had been "poking about," as he termed it, had +suddenly stooped, picked up something, and was regarding it fixedly as +it lay in the palm of his hand. + +"A somewhat remarkable thing to discover in a lady's bed-chamber, Mr. +Narkom, unless--Just step downstairs, and ask Miss Morrison to come up +again for a moment, will you?" And then held out his hand so that Narkom +could see, in passing, that a hempseed, two grains of barley, and an oat +lay upon his palm. "Miss Morrison," he inquired as Mary returned in +company with the superintendent, "Miss Morrison, do you keep pigeons?" + +She gave a little cry, and clasped her hands together, as if reproaching +herself for some heartless act. + +"Oh!" she said, moving hastily forward toward the window. "Poor dears! +How good of you to remind me. To think that I should forget to feed them +for three whole days. They may be dead by now. But at such a time I +could think of nothing but this hideous mystery. My pigeons--my poor, +pretty pigeons!" + +"Oh, then you do keep them?" + +"Yes; oh, yes. In a wire-enclosed cote attached to the house just +outside this window. Homing pigeons, Mr. Headland. George bought them +for me. We had an even half dozen each. We used to send messages to each +other that way. He would bring his over to me, and take mine away with +him at night when he went home, so we could correspond at any moment +without waiting for the post. That's how I sent him the message about +the arrival of the belt. Oh, do unlock the window, and let me see if the +pretty dears are still alive." + +"It doesn't need to be unlocked, Miss Morrison," he replied, as he +pulled up the blind. "See, it can be opened easily--the catch is not +secured." + +"Not secured? Why, how strange. I myself fastened it after I despatched +the bird with the message about the belt. And nobody came into the room +after that until George did so that night. Oh, do look and see if the +pretty creatures are dead. They generally coo so persistently; and now I +don't hear a sound from them." + +Cleek threw up the sash and looked out. A huge wistaria with tendrils as +thick as a man's wrist covered the side of the house, and made a +veritable ladder down to the little garden; and, firmly secured to this, +on a level with the window-sill and within easy reach therefrom, was the +dovecote in question. He put in his hand, and slowly drew out four +stiff, cold, feathered little bodies, and laid them on the +dressing-table before her; then, while she was grieving over them, he +groped round in all corners of the cote and drew forth still another. + +"Five?" she exclaimed in surprise. "Five? Oh, but there should be only +four, Mr. Headland. It is true that George brought over all six the day +before; but I 'flew' one to him in the early morning, and I 'flew' a +second at night, with the message about the belt; so there should be but +four." + +"Oh, well, possibly one was 'flown' by him to you, and it 'homed' +without your knowledge." + +"Yes, but it couldn't get inside the wired enclosure unassisted, Mr. +Headland. See! that spring-door has to be opened when it is returned to +the cote after it has carried its message home. You see, I trained them, +by feeding them in here, to come into this room when they were flown +back to me. They always flew directly in if the window was opened, or +gave warning of their presence by fluttering about and beating against +the panes if the sash was closed. And for a fifth pigeon to be inside +the enclosure--I can't understand the thing at all. Oh, Mr. Headland, do +you think it is anything in the nature of a clue?" + +"It may be," he replied evasively. "Clues are funny things, Miss +Morrison; you never know when you may pick one up, nor how. I shouldn't +say anything to anybody about this fifth pigeon if I were you. Let that +be our secret for awhile; and if your father wants to know why I sent +for you to come up here again--why, just say I have discovered that your +pigeons are dead for want of food." And for a moment or two, after she +had closed the door and gone below again, he stood looking at Mr. Narkom +and slowly rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. Then, +of a sudden: + +"I think, Mr. Narkom, we can fairly decide, on the evidence of that +fifth pigeon, that George Carboys left this room voluntarily," returned +Cleek; "that the bird brought him a message of such importance it was +necessary to leave this house at once, and that, not wishing to leave it +unlocked while he was absent, and not--because of the Captain's +inability to get back upstairs afterward--having anybody to whom he +could appeal to get up and lock it after him, he chose to get out of +this window, and to go down by means of that wistaria. I think, too, we +may decide that, as he left no note to explain his absence, he expected +to return before morning, and that, as he never did return, he has met +with foul play. Of course, it is no use looking for footprints in the +garden in support of this hypothesis, for the storm that night was a +very severe one and quite sufficient to blot out all trace of them; +but--Look here, Mr. Narkom, put two and two together. If a message was +sent him by a carrier pigeon, where must that pigeon have come from, +since it was one of Miss Morrison's?" + +"Why, from Van Nant's place, of course. It couldn't possibly come from +any other place." + +"Exactly. And as Van Nant and Carboys lived together--kept Bachelor +Hall--and there was never anybody but their two selves in the house at +any time, why, nobody but Van Nant himself could have despatched the +bird. Look at that fragment of burnt paper lying in the basin of that +candlestick on the washstand. If that isn't all that's left of the paper +that was tied under the pigeon's wing, and if Carboys didn't use it for +the purpose of lighting the spirit-lamp by which he heated his +shaving-water, depend upon it that, in his haste and excitement, he +tucked it into his pocket, and if ever we find his body we shall find +that paper on it." + +"His body? My dear Cleek, you don't believe that the man has been +murdered?" + +"I don't know--yet. I shall, however, if this Van Nant puts anything in +the way of my searching that house thoroughly or makes any pretence to +follow me whilst I am doing so. I want to meet this Maurice Van Nant +just as soon as I can, Mr. Narkom, just as soon as I can." + +And it was barely two minutes after he had expressed this wish that Miss +Morrison reappeared upon the scene, accompanied by a pale, nervous, +bovine-eyed man of about thirty-five years of age, and said in a tone of +agitation: "Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Headland, but this is Mr. +Maurice Van Nant. He is most anxious to meet you, and father would have +me bring him up at once." + +Narkom screwed round on his heel, looked at the Belgian, and lost faith +in Miss Morrison's powers of discrimination instantly. On the +dressing-table stood Carboys' picture--heavy-jowled, sleepy-eyed, +dull-looking--and on the threshold stood a man with the kindest eyes, +the sweetest smile, and the handsomest and most sympathetic countenance +he had seen in many a day. If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if +the face is the index of the character, then here was a man weak as +water, as easily led as any lamb, and as guileless. + +"You are just the man I want to see, Mr. Van Nant," said Cleek, after +the first formalities were over, and assuming, as he always did at such +times, the heavy, befogged expression of incompetence. "I confess this +bewildering affair altogether perplexes me; but you, I understand, were +Mr. Carboys' close friend and associate, and as I can find nothing in +the nature of a clue here, I should like, with your permission, to look +over his home quarters and see if I can find anything there." + +If he had looked for any sign of reluctance or of embarrassment upon Van +Nant's part when such a request should be made, he was wholly +disappointed, for the man, almost on the point of tears, seized his +hand, pressed it warmly, and said in a voice of eager entreaty: "Oh, do, +Mr. Headland, do. Search anywhere, do anything that will serve to find +my friend and to clear up this dreadful affair. I can't sleep for +thinking of it; I can't get a moment's peace night or day. You didn't +know him or you would understand how I am tortured--how I miss him. The +best friend, the dearest and the lightest-hearted fellow that ever +lived. If I had anything left in this world, I'd give it all--all, Mr. +Headland, to clear up the mystery of this thing and to get him back. One +man could do that, I believe, could and would if I had the money to +offer him." + +"Indeed? And who may he be, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"The great, the amazing, the undeceivable man, Cleek. He'd get at the +truth of it. Nothing could baffle and bewilder him. But--oh, well, it's +the old, old tale of the power of money. He wouldn't take the case--a +high-and-mighty 'top-notcher' like that--unless the reward was a +tempting one, I'm sure." + +"No, I'm afraid he wouldn't," agreed Cleek, with the utmost composure. +"So you must leave him out of your calculations altogether, Mr. Van +Nant. And now, if you don't mind accompanying us and showing the +chauffeur the way, perhaps Mr. Narkom will take us over to your house in +his motor." + +"Mind? No, certainly I don't mind. Anything in the world to get at a +clue to this thing, Mr. Headland, anything. Do let us go at once." + +Cleek led the way from the room. Halfway down the stairs, however, he +excused himself on the plea of having forgotten his magnifying glass, +and ran back to get it. Two minutes later he rejoined them in the little +drawing-room, where the growling Captain was still demanding the whole +time and attention of his daughter, and, the motor being ready, the +three men walked out, got into it, and were whisked away to the house +which once had been the home of the vanished George Carboys. + +It proved to be a small, isolated brick house in very bad condition, +standing in an out-of-the-way road somewhere between Putney and +Wimbledon. It stood somewhat back from the road, in the midst of a +little patch of ground abounding in privet and laurel bushes, and it was +evident that its cheapness had been its chief attraction to the two men +who had rented it, although, on entering, it was found to possess at the +back a sort of extension, with top and side lights, which must have +appealed to Van Nant's need of something in the nature of a studio. At +all events, he had converted it into a very respectable apology for one; +and Cleek was not a little surprised by what it contained. + +Rich stuffs, bits of tapestry, Persian draperies, Arabian +prayer-mats--relics of his other and better days and of his Oriental +wanderings--hung on the walls and ornamented the floor; his rejected +pictures and his unsold statues, many of them life-sized and all of +clay, coated with a lustreless paint to make them look like marble, were +disposed about the place with an eye to artistic effect, and near to an +angle, where stood (on a pedestal, half concealed, half revealed by +artistically arranged draperies) the life-size figure of a Roman +senator, in toga and sandals, there was the one untidy spot, the one +utterly inartistic thing the room contained. + +It was the crude, half-finished shape of a recumbent female figure, of +large proportions and abominable modelling, stretched out at full length +upon a long, low, trestle-supported "sculptor's staging," on which also +lay Van Nant's modelling tools and his clay-stained working blouse. +Cleek looked at the huge unnatural thing--out of drawing, anatomically +wrong in many particulars--and felt like quoting Angelo's famous remark +anent his master Lorenzo's faun: "What a pity to have spoilt so much +expensive material," and Van Nant, observing, waved his hand toward it. + +"A slumbering nymph," he explained. "Only the head and shoulders +finished as yet, you see. I began it the day before, yesterday, but my +hand seems somehow to have lost its cunning. Here are the keys of all +the rooms, Mr. Headland. Carboys' was the one directly at the head of +the stairs, in the front. Won't you and Mr. Narkom go up and search +without me? I couldn't bear to look into the place and see the things +that belonged to him and he not there. It would cut me to the heart if I +did. Or, maybe, you would sooner go alone, and leave Mr. Narkom to +search round this room. We used to make a general sitting-room of it at +nights when we were alone together, and some clue may have been +dropped." + +"A good suggestion, Mr. Narkom," commented Cleek, as he took the keys. +"Look round and see what you can find whilst I poke about upstairs." +Then he walked out of the studio and searching every nook and corner, +whilst Van Nant, for the want of something to occupy his mind and his +hands, worked on the nymph, and could hear him moving about overhead in +quest of possible clues. + +For perhaps twenty minutes Cleek was away; then he came down and walked +into the room looking the very picture of hopeless bewilderment. + +"Mr. Narkom," he said, "this case stumps me. I believe there's magic in +it, if you ask me; and as the only way to find magic is with magic, I am +going to consult a clairvoyante, and if one of those parties can't give +me a clue, I don't believe the mystery will ever be solved. I know of a +ripping one, but she is over in Ireland, and as it's a dickens of a way +to go, I shan't be able to get back before the day after to-morrow at +the earliest. But--look here, sir, I'll tell you what! This is Tuesday +evening, isn't it? Now if you and Mr. Van Nant will be at Captain +Morrison's house on Thursday evening at seven o'clock, and will wait +there until I come, I'll tell you what that clairvoyante says, and +whether there's any chance of this thing being solved or not. Is that +agreeable, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"Quite, Mr. Headland. I'll be there promptly." + +"And stop until you hear from me?" + +"And stop until I hear from you--yes." + +"Right you are, sir. Now then, Mr. Narkom, if you'll let the chauffeur +whisk me over to the station, I'll get back to London and on to the +earliest possible train for Holyhead so as to be on hand for the first +Irish packet to-morrow. And while you're looking for your hat, sir--good +evening, Mr. Van Nant--I'll step outside and tell Lennard to start up." + +With that, he passed out of the studio, walked down the hall, and went +out of the house. And half a minute later, when the superintendent +joined him, he found him sitting in the limousine and staring at his +toes. + +"My dear Cleek, did you find anything?" he queried, as he took a seat +beside him, and the motor swung out into the road and whizzed away. "Of +course, I know you've no more idea of going to Ireland than you have of +taking a pot-shot at the moon: but there's something on your mind. I +know the signs, Cleek. What is it?" + +The response to this was rather startling. + +"Mr. Narkom," said Cleek, answering one question with another, "what's +the best thing to make powdered bismuth stick--lard, cold cream, or +cocoa butter?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +If punctuality is a virtue, then Mr. Maurice Van Nant deserved to go on +record as one of the most virtuous men in existence. For the little +Dutch clock in Captain Morrison's drawing-room had barely begun to +strike seven on the following Thursday evening when he put in an +appearance there, and found the Captain and his daughter anxiously +awaiting him. But, as virtue is, on most excellent authority, its own +reward, he had to be satisfied with the possession of it, since neither +Narkom nor Cleek was there to meet him. + +But the reason for this defection was made manifest when Miss Morrison +placed before him a telegram which had arrived some ten minutes earlier +and read as follows: "Unavoidably delayed. Be with you at nine-thirty. +Ask Mr. Van Nant to wait. Great and welcome piece of news for +him.--NARKOM." + +Van Nant smiled. + +"Great and welcome news," he repeated. "Then Mr. Headland must have +found something in the nature of a clue in Ireland, captain, though what +he could find there I can't imagine. Frankly, I thought him a stupid +sort of fellow, but if he has managed to find a clue to poor George's +whereabouts over in Ireland, he must be sharper than I believed. Well, +we shall know about that at half-past nine, when Mr. Narkom comes. I +hope nothing will happen to make him disappoint us again." + +Nothing did. Promptly at the hour appointed, the red limousine whizzed +up to the door, and Mr. Narkom made his appearance. But, contrary to the +expectations of the three occupants of the little drawing-room, he was +quite alone. + +"So sorry I couldn't come earlier," he said, as he came in, looking and +acting like the bearer of great good news; "but you will appreciate the +delay when I tell you what caused it. What's that, Mr. Van Nant? +Headland? No, he's not with me. As a matter of fact, I've dispensed with +his services in this particular case. Fancy, Miss Morrison, the muff +came back from Ireland this evening, said the clairvoyante he consulted +went into a trance, and told him that the key to the mystery could only +be discovered in Germany, and he wanted me to sanction his going over +there on no better evidence than that. Of course, I wouldn't; so I took +him off the case forthwith, and set out to get another and a better man +to handle it. That's what delayed me. And now, Mr. Van Nant"--fairly +beaming, and rubbing his palms together delightedly--"here's where the +great and welcome news I spoke of comes in. I remembered what you said +the other day--I remembered how your heart is wrapped up in the solving +of this great puzzle--what you said about it being a question of money +alone; and so, what do you think I did? I went to that great man, Cleek. +I laid the matter before him, told him there was no reward, that it was +just a matter of sheer humanity--the consciousness of doing his duty and +helping another fellow in distress--and, throw up your hat and cheer, my +dear fellow, for you've got your heart's desire: Cleek's consented to +take the case!" + +A little flurry of excitement greeted this announcement. Miss Morrison +grabbed his hand and burst into tears of gratitude; the Captain, +forgetting in his delight the state of his injured foot, rose from his +chair, only to remember suddenly and sit down again, his half-uttered +cheer dying on his lips; and Van Nant, as if overcome by this unexpected +boon, this granting of a wish he had never dared to hope would be +fulfilled, could only clap both hands over his face and sob +hysterically. + +"Cleek!" he said, in a voice that shook with nervous catches and the +emotion of a soul deeply stirred, "Cleek to take the case? The great, +the amazing, the undeceivable Cleek! Oh, Mr. Narkom, can this be true?" + +"As true as that you are standing here this minute, my dear sir. Not so +much of a money grabber as that muff Headland wanted you to believe, is +he--eh? Waived every hope of a reward, and took the case on the spot. +He'll get at the root of it--Lord, yes! Lay you a sovereign to a +sixpence, Mr. Van Nant, he gets to the bottom of it and finds out what +became of George Carboys in forty-eight hours after he begins on the +case." + +"And when will he begin, Mr. Narkom? To-morrow? The next day? Or not +this week at all? When, sir--when?" + +"When? Why, bless your heart, man, he's begun already--or, at least, +will do so in another hour and a half. He's promised to meet us at your +house at eleven o'clock to-night. Chose that place because he lives at +Putney, and it's nearer. Eleven was the hour he set, though, of course, +he may arrive sooner; there's no counting on an erratic fellow like that +chap. So we'll make it eleven, and possess our souls in patience until +it's time to start." + +"But, my dear Mr. Narkom, wouldn't it be better, or, at least, more +hospitable if I went over to meet him, in case he does come earlier? +There's no one in the house, remember, and it's locked up." + +"Lord bless you, that won't bother him! Never travels without his tools, +you know--skeleton keys, and all that--and he'll be in the house before +you can wink an eye. Still, of course, if you'd rather be there to admit +him in the regulation way--" + +"It would at least be more courteous, Mr. Narkom," Miss Morrison +interposed. "So great a man doing so great a favour--Oh, yes, I really +think that Mr. Van Nant should." + +"Oh, well, let him then, by all means," said Narkom. "Go, if you choose, +Mr. Van Nant. I'd let you have my motor, only I must get over to the +station and 'phone up headquarters on another affair in five minutes." + +"It doesn't matter, thank you all the same. I can get a taxi at the top +of the road," said Van Nant; and then, making his excuses to Miss +Morrison and her father, he took up his hat and left the house. As a +matter of fact, it was only courtesy that made him say that about the +taxi, for there is rarely one to be found waiting about in the +neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common after half-past nine o'clock at +night, and nobody could have been more surprised than he when he +actually did come across one, loitering about aimlessly and quite empty, +before he had gone two dozen yards. + +He engaged it on the spot, jumped into it, gave the chauffeur his +directions, and a minute later was whizzing away to the isolated house. +It was eight minutes past ten when he reached it, standing as black and +lightless as when he left it four hours ago, and, after paying off the +chauffeur and dismissing the vehicle, he fumbled nervously for his +latchkey, found it, unlocked the door, and went hurriedly in. + +"Have you come yet, Mr. Cleek?" he called out, as he shut the door and +stood in the pitch-black hall. "Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, are you here? It +is I--Maurice Van Nant. Mr. Narkom has sent me on ahead." + +Not a sound answered him, not even an echo. He sucked in his breath with +a sort of wheezing sound, then groped round the hall table till he found +his bedroom candle, and, striking a match, lit it. The staircase leading +to the upper floors gaped at him out of the partial gloom, and he fairly +sprang at it--indeed, was halfway up it when some other idea possessed +him, brought him to a sudden standstill, and, facing round abruptly, he +went back to the lower hall again, glimmering along it like a shadow, +with the inadequate light held above him, and moving fleetly to the +studio in the rear. + +The door stood partly open, just as he had left it. He pushed it inward +and stepped over the threshold. + +"Mr. Cleek!" he called again. "Mr. Cleek! Are you here?" + +And again the silence alone answered him. The studio was as he had seen +it last, save for those fantastic shadows which the candle's wavering +flame wreathed in the dim corners and along the pictured walls. There, +on its half-draped pedestal, the Roman senator stood--dead white against +the purple background--and there, close to the foot of it, the great +bulk of the disproportionate nymph still sprawled, finished and +whitewashed now, and looking even more of a monstrosity than ever in +that waving light. + +He gave one deep gulping sigh of relief, flashed across the room on +tiptoe, and went down on his knees beside the monstrous thing, moving +the candle this way and that along the length of it, as if searching for +something, and laughing in little jerky gasps of relief when he found +nothing that was not as it had been--as it should be--as he wanted it to +be. And then, as he rose and patted the clay, and laughed aloud as he +realised how hard it had set, then, at that instant, a white shape +lurched forward and swooped downward, carrying him down with it. The +candle slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor, a pair of +steel handcuffs clicked as they closed round his wrists, a voice above +him said sharply: "You wanted Cleek I believe? Well, Cleek's got you, +you sneaking murderer. Gentlemen, come in! Allow me to turn over to you +the murderer of George Carboys! You'll find the body inside that +slumbering nymph!" + +And the last thing that Mr. Maurice Van Nant saw, as he shrieked and +fainted, the last thing he realised, was that lights were flashing up +and men tumbling in through the opening windows; that the Roman +senator's pedestal was empty, and the figure which once had stood upon +it was bending over him--alive! + +And just at that moment the red limousine flashed up out of the +darkness, the outer door whirled open and Narkom came pelting up. + +"He took the bait, then, Cleek?" he cried, as he saw the manacled figure +on the floor, with the "Roman senator" bending over and the policemen +crowding in about it. "I guessed it when I saw the lights flash up. I've +been on his heels ever since he snapped at that conveniently placed taxi +after he left Miss Morrison and her father." + +"You haven't brought them with you, I hope, Mr. Narkom? I wouldn't have +that poor girl face the ordeal of what's to be revealed here to-night +for worlds." + +"No, I've not. I made a pretext of having to 'phone through to +headquarters, and slipped out a moment after him. But, I say, my dear +chap"--as Cleek's hands made a rapid search of the pockets of the +unconscious man, and finally brought to light a folded paper--"what's +that thing? What are you doing?" + +"Compounding a felony in the interest of humanity," he made reply as he +put the end of the paper into the flame of the candle and held it there +until it was consumed. "We all do foolish things sometimes when we are +young, Mr. Narkom, and--well, George Carboys was no exception when he +wrote the little thing I have just burned. Let us forget all about +it--Captain Morrison is heir-at-law, and that poor girl will benefit." + +"There was an estate, then?" + +"Yes. My cable yesterday to the head of the Persian police set all doubt +upon that point at rest. Abdul ben Meerza, parting with nothing while he +lived, after the manner of misers in general, left a will bequeathing +something like £12,000 to George Carboys, and his executor communicated +that fact to the supposed friend of both parties--Mr. Maurice Van Nant; +and exactly ten days ago, so his former solicitor informed me, Mr. +Maurice Van Nant visited him unexpectedly, and withdrew from his keeping +a sealed packet which had been in the firm's custody for eight years. If +you want to know why he withdrew it--Dollops!" + +"Right you are, Gov'nor." + +"Give me the sledge-hammer. Thanks! Now, Mr. Narkom, look!" And, +swinging the hammer, he struck at the nymph with a force that shattered +the monstrous thing to atoms; and Narkom, coming forward to look when +Cleek bent over the ruin he had wrought, saw in the midst of the dust +and rubbish the body of a dead man, fully clothed, and with the gap of a +bullet-hole in the left temple. + +Again Cleek's hands began a rapid search, and again, as before, they +brought to light a paper, a little crumpled ball of paper that had been +thrust into the right-hand pocket of the dead man's waistcoat, as though +jammed there under the stress of strong excitement and the pressure of +great haste. He smoothed it out and read it carefully, then passed it +over to Mr. Narkom. + +"There!" he said, "that's how he lured him over to his death. That's the +message the pigeon brought. Would any man have failed to fly to face the +author of a foul lie like that?" + +"Beloved Mary," the message ran, "come to me again to-night. How sweet +of you to think of such a thing as the belt to get him over and to make +him stop until morning! Steal out after he goes to bed, darling. I'll +leave the studio window unlocked, as usual. With a thousand kisses. + +"Your own devoted, + +"MAURICE." + +"The dog!" said Narkom fiercely. "And against a pure creature like Mary +Morrison! Here, Smathers, Petrie, Hammond, take him away. Hanging's too +good for a beastly cur like that!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know that the body was inside the statue?" said Cleek, +answering Narkom's query, as they drove back in the red limousine toward +London and Clarges Street. "Well, as a matter of fact, I never did know +for certain until he began to examine the thing to-night. From the first +I felt sure he was at the bottom of the affair, that he had lured +Carboys back to the house, and murdered him; but it puzzled me to think +what could possibly have been done with the body. I felt pretty certain, +however, when I saw that monstrous statue." + +"Yes, but why?" + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, you ought not to ask that question. Did it not +strike you as odd that a man who was torn with grief over the +disappearance of a loved friend should think of modelling any sort of a +statue on that very first day, much less such an inartistic one as that? +Consider: the man has never been a first-class sculptor, it is true, but +he knew the rudiments of his art, he had turned out some fairly +presentable work; and that nymph was as abominably conceived and as +abominably executed as if it had been the work of a raw beginner. Then +there was another suspicious circumstance. Modelling clay is not exactly +as cheap as dirt, Mr. Narkom. Why, then, should this man, who was +confessedly as poor as the proverbial church mouse, plunge into the wild +extravagance of buying half a ton of it--and at such a time? Those are +the things that brought the suspicion into my mind; the certainty, +however, had to be brought about beyond dispute before I could act. + +"I knew that George Carboys had returned to that studio by the dry marks +of muddy footprints, that were nothing like the shape of Van Nant's, +which I found on the boards of the verandah and on the carpet under one +of the windows; I knew, too, that it was Van Nant who had sent that +pigeon. You remember when I excused myself and went back on the pretext +of having forgotten my magnifying glass the other day? I did so for the +purpose of looking at that fifth pigeon. I had observed something on its +breast feathers which I thought, at first glance, was dry mud, as though +it had fallen or brushed against something muddy in its flight. As we +descended the stairs I observed that there was a similar mark on Van +Nant's sleeve. I brushed against him and scraped off a fleck with my +finger-nails. It was the dust of dried modelling clay. That on the +pigeon's breast proved to be the same substance. I knew then that the +hands of the person who liberated that pigeon were the hands of someone +who was engaged in modelling something or handling the clay of the +modeller, and--the inference was clear. + +"As for the rest; when Van Nant entered that studio to-night, frightened +half out of his wits at the knowledge that he would have to deal with +the one detective he feared, I knew that if he approached that statue +and made any attempts to examine it I should have my man, and that the +hiding-place of his victim's body would be proved beyond question. When +he did go to it, and did examine it--Clarges Street at last, thank +fortune; for I am tired and sleepy. Stop here, Lennard; I'm getting out. +Come along, Dollops. Good-night, Mr. Narkom! 'And so, to bed,' as good +old Pepys says." + +And passed on, up the street, with his hand on the boy's shoulder and +the stillness and the darkness enfolding them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +For the next five or six weeks life ran on merrily enough for Cleek; so +merrily, in fact, that Dollops came to be quite accustomed to hear him +whistling about the house and to see him go up the stairs two steps at a +time whenever he had occasion to mount them for any purpose whatsoever. + +It would not have needed any abnormally acute mind, any process of +subtle reasoning, to get at the secret of all this exuberance, this +perennial flow of high spirits; indeed, one had only to watch the letter +box at Number 204, Clarges Street, to get at the bottom of it instantly; +for twice a week the postman dropped into it a letter addressed in an +undoubtedly feminine "hand" to Captain Horatio Burbage, and invariably +postmarked "Lynhaven, Devon." + +Dollops had made that discovery long ago and had put his conclusions +regarding it into the mournfully-uttered sentence: "A skirt's got him!" +But, after one violent pang of fierce and rending jealousy, was grateful +to that "skirt" for bringing happiness to the man he loved above all +other things upon earth and whose welfare was the dearest of his heart's +desires. Indeed, he grew, in time, to watch as eagerly for the coming of +those letters as did his master himself; and he could have shouted with +delight whenever he heard the postman's knock, and saw one of the +regulation blue-grey envelopes drop through the slit into the wire cage +on the door. + +Cleek, too, was delighted when he saw them. It was nothing to him that +the notes they contained were of the briefest--mere records of the state +of the weather, the progress of his little lordship, the fact that Lady +Chepstow wished to be remembered and that the writer was well "and hoped +he, too, was." They were written by _her_--that was enough. He gave so +much that very little sufficed him in return; and the knowledge that he +had been in her mind for the five or ten minutes which it had taken to +write the few lines she sent him, made him exceedingly happy. + +But she was not his only correspondent in these days--not even his most +frequent one. For a warm, strong friendship--first sown in those +ante-Derby days--had sprung up between Sir Henry Wilding and himself and +had deepened steadily into a warm feeling of comradeship and mutual +esteem. Frequent letters passed between them; and the bond of fellowship +had become so strong a thing that Sir Henry never came to town without +their meeting and dining together. + +"Gad! you know, I can't bring myself to think of you as a +police-officer, old chap!" was the way Sir Henry put it on the day when +he first invited him to lunch with him at his club. "I'd about as soon +think of sitting down with one of my grooms as breaking bread with one +of that lot; and I shall never get it out of my head that you're a +gentleman going in for this sort of thing as a hobby--never b'Gad! if I +live to be a hundred." + +"I hope you will come nearer to doing that than you have to guessing the +truth about me," replied Cleek, with a smile. "Take my word for it, +won't you?--this thing is my profession. I don't do it as a mere hobby: +I live by it--I have no other means of living _but_ by it. I am--what I +am, and nothing more." + +"Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper +and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a +turnip--at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old +chap. I know a man of birth when I meet him. Tell me who you are, +Cleek--I'll respect it." + +"I don't doubt that--the addition is superfluous." + +"Then who are you? What are you, Cleek? Eh?" + +"What you have called me--'Cleek.' Cleek the detective, Cleek of the +Forty Faces, if you prefer it; but just 'Cleek' and nothing more. Don't +get to building romances about me merely because I have the _instincts_ +of a gentleman, Sir Henry. Just simply remember that Nature _does_ make +mistakes sometimes; that she has been known to put a horse's head on a +sheep's shoulders and to make a navvy's son look more royal than a +prince. I am Cleek, the detective--simply Cleek. Let it go at that." + +And as there was no alternative, Sir Henry did. + +It made no difference in their friendship, however. Police officer or +not, he liked and he respected the man, and made no visit to town +without meeting and entertaining him. + +So matters stood between them when on a certain Thursday in mid +September he came up unexpectedly from Wilding Hall and 'phoned through +to Clarges Street, asking Cleek to dine with him that night at the Club +of the Two Services. + +Cleek accepted the invitation gladly and was not a little surprised on +arriving to find that, in this instance, dinner was to be served in a +little private room and that a third party was also to partake of it. + +"Dear chap, pardon me for taking you unawares," said Sir Henry, as Cleek +entered the private room and found himself in the presence of a +decidedly military-looking man long past middle life, "but the fact is +that immediately after I had telephoned you, I encountered a friend and +a--er--peculiar circumstance arose which impelled me to secure a private +room and to--er--throw myself upon your good graces as it were. Let me +have the pleasure, dear chap, of introducing you to my friend, Major +Burnham-Seaforth. Major, you are at last in the presence of the +gentleman of whom I spoke--Mr. Cleek." + +"Mr. Cleek, I am delighted," said the Major, offering his hand. "I have +heard your praises sung so continuously the past two hours that I feel +as if I already knew you." + +"Ah, you mustn't mind all that Sir Henry says," replied Cleek, as he +shook hands with him. "He makes mountains out of millstones, and would +panegyrize the most commonplace of men if he happened to take a fancy to +him. You mustn't believe all that Sir Henry says and thinks, Major." + +"I shall be happy, Mr. Cleek, if I can really hope to believe the half +of it," replied the Major, enigmatically--and was prevented from saying +more by the arrival of the waiter and the serving of dinner. + +It was not until the meal was over and coffee and cigars had been served +and the too attentive waiter had taken his departure that Cleek +understood that remark or realised what it portended. But even then, it +was not the Major who explained. + +"My dear Cleek," said Sir Henry, lowering his voice and leaning over the +table, "I hope you will not think I have taken a mean advantage of you, +but I have brought the Major here to-night for a purpose. He has, in +fact, come to consult you professionally; and upon my recommendation. Do +you object to that, or may I go on?" + +"Go on by all means," replied Cleek. "I fancy you know very well that +there is nothing you might ask of me that I would not at least attempt +to do, dear chap." + +"Thanks very much. Well then, the Major has come, my dear Cleek, to ask +you to help in unravelling a puzzle of singular and mystifying interest. +Now you may or may not have heard of a Music Hall artiste--a sort of +conjurer and impersonator combined--called Zyco the Magician, who was +once very popular and was assisted in his illusions by a veiled but +reputedly beautiful Turkish lady who was billed on the programmes and +posters as 'Zuilika, the Caliph's Daughter.'" + +"I remember the pair very well indeed," said Cleek. "They toured the +Music Halls for years, and I saw their performance frequently. They were +among the first, I believe, to produce that afterwards universal +illusion known as 'The Vanishing Lady.' As I have not heard anything of +them nor seen their names billed for a couple of years past, I fancy +they have either retired from the profession or gone to some other part +of the world. The man was not only a very clever magician, but a master +of mimicry. I always believed, however, that in spite of his name he was +of English birth. The woman's face I never saw, of course, as she was +always veiled to the eyes after the manner of Turkish ladies. But +although a good many persons suspected that her birthplace was no nearer +Bagdad than Peckham, I somehow felt that she was, after all, a genuine, +native-born Turk." + +"You are quite right in both suspicions, Mr. Cleek," put in the Major +agitatedly. "The man _was_ an Englishman; the lady _is_ a Turk." + +"May I ask, Major, why you speak of the lady in the present tense and of +the man in the past? Is he dead?" + +"I hope so," responded the Major fervently. "God knows I do, Mr. Cleek. +My every hope in life depends upon that." + +"May I ask why?" + +"I am desirous of marrying his widow!" + +"My dear Major, you cannot possibly be serious! A woman of that class?" + +"Pardon me, sir, but you have, for all your cleverness, fallen a victim +to the prevailing error. The lady is in every way my social equal--in +her own country my superior. She _is_ a caliph's daughter. The title +which the playgoing public imagined was of the usual bombastic, +just-on-the-programme sort, is hers by right. Her late father, Caliph Al +Hamid Sulaiman, was one of the richest and most powerful Mohammedans in +existence. He died five months ago, leaving an immense fortune to be +conveyed to England to his exiled but forgiven child." + +"Ah, I see. Then, naturally, of course--" + +"The suggestion is unworthy of you, Sir Henry, and anything but +complimentary to me. The inheritance of this money has had nothing +whatever to do with my feelings for the lady. That began two years ago, +when, by accident, I was permitted to look upon her face for the first, +last, and only time. I should still wish to marry her if she were an +absolute pauper. I know what you are saying to yourself, sir: 'There is +no fool like an old fool.' Well, perhaps there isn't. But--" he turned +to Cleek--"I may as well begin at the beginning and confess that even if +I did not desire to marry the lady I should still have a deep interest +in her husband's death, Mr. Cleek. He is--or was, if dead--the only son +of my cousin, the Earl of Wynraven, who is now over ninety years of age. +I am in the direct line, and if this Lord Norman Ulchester, whom you and +the public know only as 'Zyco the Magician,' were in his grave there +would only be that one feeble old man between me and the title." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, in reply; then, seating himself at the table, +he arranged the shade of the lamp so that the light fell full upon the +Major's face while leaving his own in the shadow. "Then your interest in +the affair, Major, may be said to be a double one." + +"More, sir--a triple one. I have a rival in the shape of my own son. He, +too, wishes to marry Zuilika--is madly enamoured of her, in fact; so +wildly that I have always hesitated to confess my own desires to him for +fear of the consequences. He is almost a madman in his outbursts of +temper; and where Zuilika is concerned--Perhaps you will understand, Mr. +Cleek, when I tell you that once when he thought her husband had +ill-used her, he came within an ace of killing the man. There was bad +blood between them always--even as boys--and, as men, it was bitterer +than ever because of _her_." + +"Suppose you begin at the beginning and tell me the whole story, Major," +suggested Cleek, studying the man's face narrowly. "How did the Earl of +Wynraven's son come to meet this singularly fascinating lady, and +where?" + +"In Turkey--or Arabia--I forget which. He was doing his theatrical +nonsense in the East with some barn-storming show or other, having been +obliged to get out of England to escape arrest for some shady +transaction a year before. He was always a bad egg--always a disgrace to +his name and connections. That's why his father turned him off and never +would have any more to do with him. As a boy he was rather clever at +conjuring tricks and impersonations of all sorts--he could mimic +anything or anybody he ever saw, from the German Emperor down to a +Gaiety chorus girl, and do it to absolute perfection. When his father +kicked him out he turned these natural gifts to account, and, having +fallen in with some professional dancing-woman, joined her for a time +and went on the stage with her. + +"It was after he had parted from this dancer and was knocking about +London and leading a disgraceful life generally that he did the thing +which caused him to hurry off to the East and throw in his lot with the +travelling company I have alluded to. He was always a handsome fellow +and had a way with him that was wonderfully taking with women, so I +suppose that that accounts as much as anything for Zuilika's infatuation +and her doing the mad thing she did. I don't know when nor where nor how +they first met; but the foolish girl simply went off her head over him, +and he appears to have been as completely infatuated with her. Of +course, in that land, the idea of a woman of her sect, of her standing, +having anything to do with a Frank was looked upon as something +appalling, something akin to sacrilege; and when they found that her +father had got wind of it and that the fellow's life would not be safe +if he remained within reach another day, they flew to the coast +together, shipped for England, and were married immediately after their +arrival." + +"A highly satisfactory termination for the lady," commented Cleek. "One +could hardly have expected that from a man so hopelessly unprincipled as +you represent him to have always been. But there's a bit of good in even +the devil, we are told." + +"Oh, be sure that he didn't marry her from any principle of honour, my +dear sir," replied the Major. "If it were merely a question of that, +he'd have cut loose from her as soon as the vessel touched port. +Consideration of self ruled him in that as in all other things. He knew +that the girl's father fairly idolised her; knew that, in time, his +wrath would give way to his love, and, sooner or later, the old man--who +had been mad at the idea of any marriage--would be moved to settle a +large sum upon her so that she might never be in want. But let me get on +with my story. Having nothing when he returned to England, and being +obliged to cover up his identity by assuming another name, Ulchester, +after vainly appealing to his father for help on the plea that he was +now honourably married and settled down, turned again to the stage, and, +repugnant though such a thing was to the delicately-nurtured woman he +had married, compelled Zuilika to become his assistant and to go on the +boards with him. That is how the afterwards well-known music-hall 'team' +of 'Zyco and the Caliph's Daughter' came into existence. + +"The novelty of their 'turn' caught on like wild fire, and they were a +success from the first, not a little of that success being due to the +mystery surrounding the identity and appearance of Zuilika; for, true to +the traditions of her native land, she never appeared, either in public +or in private, without being closely veiled. Only her 'lord' was ever +permitted to look upon her uncovered face; all that the world at large +might ever hope to behold of it was the low, broad forehead and the two +brilliant eyes that appeared above the close-drawn line of her yashmak. +Of course she shrank from the life into which she was forced; but it had +its reward, for it kept her in close contact with her husband, whom she +almost worshipped. So, for a time, she was proportionately happy; +although, as the years passed by and her father showed no inclination to +bestow the coveted 'rich allowance' upon his daughter, Ulchester's +ardour began to cool. He no longer treated her with the same +affectionate deference; he neglected her, in fact, and, in the end, even +began to ill-use her. + +"About two years ago, matters assumed a worse aspect. He again met Anita +Rosario, the Spanish dancer, under whose guidance he had first turned to +the halls for a livelihood, and once more took up with her. He seemed to +have lost all thought or care for the feelings of his wife, for, after +torturing her with jealousy over his attentions to the dancer, he took a +house adjoining my own--on the borders of the most unfrequented part of +the common at Wimbledon--established himself and Zuilika there, and +brought the woman Anita home to live with them. From that period matters +went from bad to worse. Evidently having tired of the stage, both +Ulchester and Anita abandoned it, and turned the house into a sort of +club where gambling was carried on to a disgraceful extent. +Broken-hearted over the treatment she was receiving, Zuilika appealed to +me and to my son to help her in her distress--to devise some plan to +break the spell of Ulchester's madness and to get that woman out of the +house. It was then that I first beheld her face. In her excitement she +managed, somehow, to snap or loosen the fastening which held her +yashmak, and it fell--fell, and let my son realise, as I realised, how +wondrously beautiful it is possible for the human face to be!" + +"Steady, Major, steady! I can quite understand your feelings--can +realise better than most men!" said Cleek with a sort of sigh. "You +looked into heaven, and--well, what then? Let's have the rest of the +story." + +"I think my son must have put it into her head to give Ulchester a taste +of his own medicine--to attempt to excite his jealousy by pretending to +find interests elsewhere. At any rate, she began to show him a great +deal of attention--or, at least, so he says, although I never saw it. +All I know is that she--she--well, sir, she deliberately led _me_ on +until I was half insane over her, and--that's all!" + +"What do you mean by 'that's all'? The matter couldn't possibly have +ended there, or else why this appeal to me?" + +"It ended for me, so far as her affectionate treatment of me was +concerned; for in the midst of it the unexpected happened. Her father +died, forgiving her, as Ulchester had hoped, but doing more than his +wildest dreams could have given him cause to imagine possible. In a +word, sir, the caliph not only bestowed his entire earthly possessions +upon her, but had them conveyed to England by trusted allies and placed +in her hands. There were coffers of gold pieces, jewels of fabulous +value--sufficient, when converted into English money, as they were +within the week, and deposited to her credit in the Bank of England, to +make her the sole possessor of nearly three million pounds." + +"Phew!" whistled Cleek. "When these Orientals do it they certainly do it +properly. That's what you might call 'giving with both hands,' Major, +eh?" + +"The gift did not end with that, sir," the Major replied with a gesture +of repulsion. "There was a gruesome, ghastly, appalling addition in the +shape of two mummy cases--one empty, the other filled. A parchment +accompanying these stated that the caliph could not sleep elsewhere but +in the land of his fathers, nor sleep _there_ until his beloved child +rested beside him. They had been parted in life, but they should not be +parted in death. An Egyptian had, therefore, been summoned to his +bedside, had been given orders to embalm him after death, to send the +mummy to Zuilika, and with it a case in which, when her own death should +occur, _her_ body should be deposited; and followers of the prophet had +taken oath to see that both were carried to their native land and +entombed side by side. Until death came to relieve her of this ghastly +duty, Zuilika was charged to be the guardian of the mummy and daily to +make the orisons of the faithful before it, keeping it always with its +face towards the East." + +"By George! it sounds like a page from the 'Arabian Nights,'" exclaimed +Cleek. "Well, what next? Did Ulchester take kindly to this housing of +the mummy of his father-in-law and the eventual coffin of his wife? Or +was he willing to stand for anything so long as he got possession of the +huge fortune the old man left?" + +"He never did get it, Mr. Cleek--he never touched so much as one +farthing of it. Zuilika took nobody into her confidence until everything +had been converted into English gold and deposited in the bank to her +credit. Then she went straight to him and to Anita, showed them proof of +the deposit, reviled them for their treatment of her, and swore that not +one farthing's benefit should accrue to Ulchester until Anita was turned +out of the house in the presence of their guests and the husband took +oath on his knees to join the wife in those daily prayers before the +caliph's mummy. Furthermore, Ulchester was to embrace the faith of the +Mohammedans that he might return with her at once to the land and the +gods she had offended by marriage with a Frankish infidel." + +"Which, of course, he declined to do?" + +"Yes. He declined utterly. But it was a case of the crushed worm, with +Zuilika. Now was _her_ turn; and she would not abate one jot or tittle. +There was a stormy scene, of course. It ended by Ulchester and the woman +Anita leaving the house together. From that hour Zuilika never again +heard his living voice, never again saw his living face! He seems to +have gone wild with wrath over what he had lost and to have plunged +headlong into the maddest sort of dissipation. It is known--positively +known, and can be sworn to by reputable witnesses--that for the next +three days he did not draw one sober breath. On the fourth, a note from +him--a note which he was _seen_ to write in a public house--was carried +to Zuilika. In that note he cursed her with every conceivable term; told +her that when she got it he would be at the bottom of the river, driven +there by her conduct, and that if it was possible for the dead to come +back and haunt people he'd do it. Two hours after he wrote that note he +was seen getting out of the train at Tilbury and going towards the +docks; but from that moment to this every trace of him is lost." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. "And you want to find out if he +really carried out that threat and did put an end to himself, I suppose? +That's why you have come to me, eh? Frankly, I don't believe that he +did, Major. That sort of a man never commits suicide upon so slim a +pretext as that. If he commits it at all, it's because he is at the end +of his tether--and our friend 'Zyco' seems to have been a long way from +the end of his. How does the lady take it? Seriously?" + +"Oh, very, sir, very. Of course, to a woman of her temperament and with +her Oriental ideas regarding the supernatural, _et cetera_, that threat +to haunt her was the worst he could have done to her. At first she was +absolutely beside herself with grief and horror; swore that she had +killed him by her cruelty; that there was nothing left her but to die, +and all that sort of thing; and for three days she was little better +than a mad woman. At the end of that time, after the fashion of her +people, she retired to her own room, covered herself with sackcloth and +ashes, and remained hidden from all eyes for the space of a fortnight, +weeping and wailing constantly and touching nothing but bread and +water." + +"Poor wretch! She suffers like that, then, over a rascally fellow not +worth a single tear. It's marvellous, Major, what women do see in men +that they can go on loving them. Has she come out of her retirement +yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. She came out of it five days ago, to all appearances a +thoroughly heart-broken woman. Of course as she was all alone in the +world, my son and I considered it our duty, during the time of her +wildness and despair, to see that a thoroughly respectable female was +called in to take charge of the house and to show respect for the +proprieties, and for us to take up our abode there in order to prevent +her from doing herself an injury. We are still domiciled there, but it +will surprise you to learn that a most undesirable person is there also. +In short, sir, that the woman Anita Rosario, the cause of all the +trouble, is again an inmate of the house; and what is more remarkable +still, this time by Zuilika's own request." + +"What's that? My dear Major, you amaze me! What can possibly have caused +the good lady to do a thing like that?" + +"She hopes, she says, to appease the dead and to avert the threatened +'haunting.' At all events, she sent for Anita some days ago. Indeed, I +believe it is her intention to take the Spaniard with her when she +returns to the East." + +"She intends doing that, then? She is so satisfied of her husband's +death that she deems no further question necessary. Intends to take no +further step toward proving it?" + +"It has been proved to her satisfaction. His body was recovered the day +before yesterday." + +"Oho! then he is dead, eh? Why didn't you say so in the beginning? When +did you learn of it?" + +"This very evening. That is what brings me here. I learned from Zuilika +that a body answering the description of his had been fished from the +water at Tilbury and carried to the mortuary. It was horribly +disfigured--by contact with the piers and passing vessels--but she and +Anita--and--and my son--" + +"Your son, Major? Your son?" + +"Yes!" replied the Major in a sort of half-whisper. "They--they took him +with them when they went, unknown to me. He has become rather friendly +with the Spanish woman of late. All three saw the body; all three +identified it as being Ulchester's beyond a doubt." + +"And you? Surely when you see it you will be able to satisfy any +misgivings you may have?" + +"I shall never see it, Mr. Cleek. It was claimed when identified and +buried within twelve hours," said the Major, glancing up sharply as +Cleek, receiving this piece of information, blew out a soft, low +whistle. "I was not told anything about it until this evening, and what +I have done--in coming to you, I mean--I have done with nobody's +knowledge. I--I am so horribly in the dark--I have such fearful thoughts +and--and I want to be sure. I must be sure or I shall go out of my mind. +That's the 'case,' Mr. Cleek--tell me what you think of it." + +"I can do that in a very few words, Major," he replied. "It is either a +gigantic swindle or it is a clear case of murder. If a swindle, then +Ulchester himself is at the bottom of it and it will end in murder just +the same. Frankly, the swindle theory strikes me as being the more +probable; in other words, that the whole thing is a put-up game between +Ulchester and the woman Anita; that they played upon Zuilika's fear of +the supernatural for a purpose; that a body was procured and sunk in +that particular spot for the furtherance of that purpose; and if the +widow attempts to put into execution this plan--no doubt instilled into +her mind by Anita--of returning with her wealth to her native land, she +will simply be led into some safe place and then effectually put out of +the way for ever. That is what I think of the case if it is to be +regarded in the light of a swindle; but if Ulchester is really dead, +murder, not suicide, is at the back of his taking off, and--Oh, well, we +won't say anything more about it just yet awhile. I shall want to look +over the ground before I jump to any conclusions. You are still stopping +in the house, you and your son, I think you remarked? If you could +contrive to put up an old army friend's son there for a night, Major, +give me the address. I'll drop in on you to-morrow and have a little +look round." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +When, next morning, Major Burnham-Seaforth announced the dilemma in +which, through his own house being temporarily closed, he found himself +owing to the proposed visit of Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn, son of an +old army friend, Zuilika was the first to suggest the very thing he was +fishing for. + +"Ah, let him come here, dear friend," she said in that sad, sweetly +modulated voice which so often wrung this susceptible old heart. "There +is plenty of room!--plenty, alas now--and any friend of yours can only +be a friend of mine. He will not annoy. Let him come here." + +"Yes, let him," supplemented young Burnham-Seaforth, speaking with his +eyes on Señorita Rosario, who seemed nervous and ill-pleased by the news +of the expected arrival. "He won't have to be entertained by us if he +only comes to see the pater; and we can easily crowd him aside if he +tries to thrust himself upon us--a fellow with a name like 'Rupert St. +Aubyn' is bound to be a silly ass." And when, in the late afternoon, +"Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn," in the person of Cleek, arrived with his +snubnosed manservant, a kit-bag, several rugs and a bundle of golf +sticks, young Burnham-Seaforth saw no reason to alter that assertion. +For, a "silly ass"--albeit an unusually handsome one with his fair, +curling hair and his big blonde moustache--he certainly was; a lisping +"ha-ha-ing" "don't-cher-knowing" silly ass, whom the presence of ladies +seemed to cover with confusion and drive into a very panic of shy +embarrassment. + +"_Dios!_ but he is handsome, this big, fair lieutenant!" whispered the +Spaniard to young Burnham-Seaforth. "A great, handsome fool--all beauty +and no brains, like a doll of wax!" Then she bent over and murmured +smilingly to Zuilika: "I shall make a bigger nincompoop of this big, +fair sap-head than Heaven already has done before he leaves here, just +for the sake of seeing him stammer and blush!" + +Only the sad expression of Zuilika's eyes told that she so much as +heard, as she rose to greet the visitor. Garbed from head to foot in the +deep violet-coloured stuff which is the mourning of Turkish women, her +little pointed slippers showing beneath the hem of her frock, and only +her dark, mournful eyes visible between the top of the shrouding yashmak +and the edge of her sequined snood, she made a pathetic picture as she +stood there waiting to greet the unknown visitor. + +"Sir, you are welcome--you are most welcome," she said in a voice whose +modulations were not lost upon Cleek's ears as he put forth his hand and +received the tips of her little, henna-stained fingers upon his palm. +"Peace be with you, who are of his people--he that I loved and mourn!" +Then, as if overcome with grief at the recollection of her widowhood, +she plucked away her hand, covered her eyes, and moved staggeringly out +of the room. And Cleek saw no more of her that day; but he knew when she +performed her orisons before the mummy case--as she did each morning and +evening--by the strong, pungent odour of incense drifting through the +house and filling it with a sickly scent. + +Her absence seemed to make but little impression upon him, however; for, +following up a well-defined plan of action, he devoted himself wholly to +the Spanish woman, and both amazed her and gratified her vanity by +allowing her to learn that a man may be the silliest ass imaginable and +yet quite understand how to flirt and to make love to a woman. And so it +fell out that instead of "Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn" being elbowed out +by young Burnham-Seaforth, it was "Lieutenant St. Aubyn" who elbowed +_him_ out; and without being in the least aware of it, the flattered +Anita, like an adroitly hooked trout, was being "played" in and out and +round about the eddies and the deeps until the angler had her quite +ready for the final dip of the net at the landing point. + +All this was to accomplish exactly what it _did_ accomplish, namely, the +ill temper, the wrath, the angry resentment of young Burnham-Seaforth. +And when the evening had passed and bedtime arrived, Cleek took his +candle and retired in the direction of the rooms set apart for him, with +the certainty of knowing that he had done that which would this very +night prove beyond all question the guilt or innocence of one person at +least who was enmeshed in this mysterious tangle. He was not surprised, +therefore, at what followed his next step. + +Reaching the upper landing he blew out the light of his candle, slammed +the door to his own room, noisily turned the key, and shot the bolt of +another, then tiptoed his way back to the staircase and looked down the +well-hole into the lower hall. + +Zuilika had retired to her room, the Major had retired to his, and now +Anita was taking up her candle to retire to hers. She had barely touched +it, however, when there came a sound of swift footsteps and young +Burnham-Seaforth lurched out of the drawing-room door and joined her. He +was in a state of great excitement and was breathing hard. + +"Anita--Miss Rosario!" he began, plucking her by the sleeve and +uplifting a pale, boyish face--he was not yet twenty-two--to hers with a +look of abject misery. "I want to speak to you--I simply must speak to +you. I've been waiting for the chance, and now that it's come--Look +here! You're not going back on me, are you?" + +"Going back on you?" repeated Anita, showing her pretty white teeth in +an amused smile. "What shall you mean by that 'going back on you'--eh? +You are a stupid little donkey, to be sure. But then I do not care to +get on the back of one--so why?" + +"Oh, you know very well what I mean," he rapped out angrily. "It is not +fair the way you have been treating me ever since that yellow-headed +bounder came. I've had a night of misery--Zuilika never showing herself; +you doing nothing, absolutely nothing, although you promised--you _know_ +you did!--and I heard you, I absolutely heard you persuade that St. +Aubyn fool to stop at least another night." + +"Yes, of course you did. But what of it? He is good company--he talks +well, he sings well, he is very handsome and--well, what difference can +it make to you? You are not interested in _me, amigo_?" + +"No, no; of course I'm not. You are nothing to me at all--you--Oh, I beg +your pardon; I didn't quite mean that. I--I mean you are nothing to me +in that way. But you--you're not keeping to your word. You promised, you +know, that you'd use your influence with Zuilika; that you'd get her to +be more kind to me--to see me alone and--and all that sort of thing. And +you've not made a single attempt--not one. You've just sat round and +flirted with that tow-headed brute and done nothing at all to help me +on; and--and it's jolly unkind of you, that's what!" + +Cleek heard Anita's soft rippling laughter; but he waited to hear no +more. Moving swiftly away from the well-hole of the staircase he passed +on tiptoe down the hall to the Major's rooms, and, opening the door, +went in. The old soldier was standing, with arms folded, at the window +looking silently out into the darkness of the night. He turned at the +sound of the door's opening and moved toward Cleek with a white, +agonised face and a pair of shaking, outstretched hands. + +"Well?" he said with a sort of gasp. + +"My dear Major," said Cleek quietly. "The wisest of men are sometimes +mistaken--that is my excuse for my own short-sightedness. I said in the +beginning that his was either a case of swindling or a case of murder, +did I not? Well, I now amend my verdict. It is a case of swindling _and_ +murder; and your son has had nothing to do with either!" + +"Oh, thank God! thank God!" the old man said; then sat down suddenly and +dropped his face between his hands and was still for a long time. When +he looked up again his eyes were red, but his lips were smiling. + +"If you only knew what a relief it is," he said. "If you only knew how +much I have suffered, Mr. Cleek. His friendship with that Spanish woman; +his going with her to identify the body--even assisting in its hurried +burial! These things all seemed so frightfully black--so utterly without +any explanation other than personal guilt." + +"Yet they are all easily explained, Major. His friendship for the +Spanish woman is merely due to a promise to intercede for him with +Zuilika. She is his one aim and object, poor little donkey! As for his +identification of the body--well, if the widow herself could find points +of undisputed resemblance, why not he? A nervous, excitable, impetuous +boy like that--and anxious, too, that the lady of his heart should be +freed from the one thing, the one man, whose existence made her +everlastingly unattainable--why, in the hands of a clever woman like +Anita Rosario such a chap could be made to identify anything and to +believe it as religiously as he believes. Now, go to bed and rest easy, +Major. I'm going to call up Dollops and do a little night prowling. If +it turns out as I hope, this little riddle will be solved to-morrow." + +"But how, Mr. Cleek? It seems to me that it is as dark as ever. You put +my poor old head in a whirl. You say there is swindling; you hint one +moment that the body was not that of Ulchester, and in the next that +murder has been done. Do, pray, tell me what it all means--what you make +of this amazing case." + +"I'll do that to-morrow, Major; not to-night. The answer to the +riddle--the answer that's in my mind, I mean--is at once so simple and +yet so appallingly awful that I'll hazard no guess until I'm sure. Look +here"--he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gold piece--"do +you know what that is, Major?" + +"It looks like a spade guinea, Mr. Cleek." + +"Right; it is a spade guinea--a pocket piece I've carried for years. +You've heard, no doubt, of vital things turning upon the tossing of a +coin. Well, if you see me toss this coin to-morrow, something of that +sort will occur. It will be tossed up in the midst of a riddle, Major; +when it comes down it will be a riddle no longer." + +Then he opened the door, closed it after him, and, before the Major +could utter a word, was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +The promise was so vague, so mystifying, indeed, so seemingly absurd, +that the Major did not allow himself to dwell upon it. As a matter of +fact, it passed completely out of his mind; nor did it again find +lodgment there until it was forced back upon his memory in a most +unusual manner. + +Whatsoever had been the result of what Cleek had called his "night +prowling," he took nobody into his confidence when he and the Major and +the Major's son and Señorita Rosario met at breakfast the next day +(Zuilika, true to her training and the traditions of her people, never +broke morning bread save in the seclusion of her own bed-chamber, and +then on her knees with her face towards the east) nor did he allude to +it at any period throughout the day. + +He seemed, indeed, purposely, to avoid the Major, and to devote himself +to the Spanish woman with an ardour that was positively heartless, +considering that as they two sang and flirted and played several sets of +singles on the tennis court, Zuilika, like a spirit of misery, kept +walking, walking, walking through the halls and the rooms of the house, +her woeful eyes fixed on the carpet, her henna-stained fingers +constantly locking and unlocking, and moans of desolation coming now and +again from behind her yashmak as her swaying body moved restlessly to +and fro. For to-day was memorable. Five weeks ago this coming nightfall +Ulchester had flung himself out of this house in a fury of wrath, and +this time of bitter regret and ceaseless mourning had begun. + +"She will go out of her mind, poor creature, if something cannot be done +to keep her from dwelling on her misery like this," commented the +housekeeper, coming upon that restless figure pacing the darkened hall, +moaning, moaning--seeing nothing, hearing nothing, doing nothing but +walk and sorrow, sorrow and walk, hour in and hour out. "It's enough to +tear a body's heart to hear her, poor dear. And that good-for-nothing +Spanish piece racing and shrieking round the tennis court like a she +tom-cat, the heartless hussy. Her and that simpering silly that's +trotting round after her had ought to be put in a bag and shaken up, +that they ought. It's downright scandalous to be carrying on like that +at such a time." + +And so both the Major and his son thought too, and tried their best to +solace the lonely mourner and to persuade her to sit down and rest. + +"Zuilika, you will wear yourself out, child, if you go on walking like +this," said the Major solicitously. "Do rest and be at peace for a +little time at least." + +"I can never have peace in this land--I can never forget the day!" she +answered drearily. "Oh, my beloved! Oh, my lord, it was I who sent thee +to it--it was I, it was I! Give me my own country--give me the gods of +my people; here there is only memory and pain, and no rest, no rest +ever!" + +She could not be persuaded to sit down and rest until Anita herself took +the matter into her own hands and insisted that she should. That was at +tea-time. Anita, showing some little trace of feeling now that Cleek had +gone to wash his hands and was no longer there to occupy her thoughts, +placed a deep, soft chair near the window, and would not yield until the +violet-clad figure of the mourner sank down into the depths of it and +leaned back with its shrouded face drooping in silent melancholy. + +And it was while she was so sitting that Cleek came into the room and +did a most unusual, a most ungentlemanly thing, in the eyes of the Major +and his son. + +Without hesitating, he walked to within a yard or two of where she was +sitting, and then, in the silliest of silly tones, blurted out suddenly: +"I say, don't you know, I've had a jolly rum experience. You know that +blessed room at the angle just opposite the library--the one with the +locked door?" + +The drooping, violet figure straightened abruptly, and the Major felt +for the moment as if he could have kicked Cleek with pleasure. Of course +they knew the room. It was there that the two mummy cases were kept, +sacred from the profaning presence of any but this stricken woman. No +wonder that she bent forward, full of eagerness, full of the dreadful +fear that Frankish feet had crossed the threshold, Frankish eyes looked +within the sacred shrine. + +"Well, don't you know," went on Cleek, without taking the slightest +notice of anything, "just as I was going past that door I picked up a +most remarkable thing. Wonder if it's yours, madam?" glancing at +Zuilika. "Just have a look at it, will you? Here, catch!" And not until +he saw a piece of gold spin through the air and fall into Zuilika's lap +did the Major remember that promise of last night. + +"Oh, come, I say, St. Aubyn, that's rather thick!" sang out young +Burnham-Seaforth indignantly, as Zuilika caught the coin in her lap. +"Blest if I know what you call manners, but to throw things at a lady is +a new way of passing them in this part of the world, I can assure you." + +"Awfully sorry, old chap, no offence, I assure you," said Cleek, more +asinine than ever, as Zuilika, having picked up the piece and looked at +it, disclaimed all knowledge of it, and laid it on the edge of the table +without any further interest in it or him. "Just to show, you know, that +I--er--couldn't have meant anything disrespectful, why--er--you all +know, don't you know, how jolly much I respect Señorita Rosario, by +Jove! and so--Here, señorita, you catch, too, and see if the blessed +thing's yours." And, picking up the coin, tossed it into her lap just as +he had done with Zuilika. + +She, too, caught it and examined it, and laughingly shook her head. + +"No--not mine!" she said. "I have not seen him before. To the finder +shall be the keep. Come, sit here. Will you have the tea?" + +"Yes, thanks," said Cleek; then dropped down on the sofa beside her, and +took tea as serenely as though there were no such things in the world as +murder and swindling and puzzling police-riddles to solve. + +And the Major, staring at him, was as amazed as ever. He had said, last +night, that when the coin fell the answer would be given--and yet it had +fallen, and nothing had happened, and he was laughing and flirting with +Señorita Rosario as composedly and as persistently as ever. More than +that; after he had finished his second cup of tea, and immediately +following the sound of someone just beyond the verandah rail whistling +the lively, lilting measures of "There's a Girl Wanted There"--the +"silly ass" seemed to become a thousand times sillier than ever; for he +forthwith set down his cup, and, turning to Anita, said with an inane +sort of giggle, "I say, you know, here's a lark. Let's have a game of +'Slap Hand,' you and I--what? Know it, don't you? You try to slap my +hands, and I try to slap yours, and whichever succeeds in doing it first +gets a prize. Awful fun, don't you know. Come on--start her up." + +And, Anita agreeing, they fell forthwith to slapping away at the backs +of each other's hands with great gusto, until, all of a sudden, the +whistler outside gave one loud, shrill note, and--there was a great and +mighty change. + +Those who were watching saw Anita's two hands suddenly caught, heard a +sharp, metallic "click," and saw them as suddenly dropped again to the +accompaniment of a shrill little scream from her ashen lips, and the +next moment Cleek had risen and jumped away from her side--clear across +to where Zuilika was; and those who were watching saw Anita jump up with +a pair of steel handcuffs on her wrists, just as Dollops vaulted up over +the verandah rail and appeared at one window, whilst Petrie appeared at +another, Hammond poked his body through a third, and the opening door +gave entrance to Superintendent Narkom. + +"The police!" shrilled out Anita in a panic of fright. "_Madre de Dios_, +the police!" + +The Major and his son were on their feet like a shot; Zuilika, with a +faint, startled cry, bounded bolt upright, like an imp shot through a +trap-door; but before the little henna-stained hands could do more than +simply move, Cleek's arms went round her from behind, tight and fast as +a steel clamp, there was another metallic "click," another shrill cry, +and another pair of wrists were in gyves. + +"Come in, Mr. Narkom; come in, constables," said Cleek, with the utmost +composure. "Here are your promised prisoners--nicely trussed, you see, +so that they can't get at the little popguns they carry--and a worse +pair of rogues never went into the hands of Jack Ketch!" + +"And Jack Ketch will get them, Cleek, if I know anything about it. Your +hazard was right. I've examined the caliph's mummy-case; the mummy +itself has been removed--destroyed--done away with utterly--and the poor +creature's body is there!" + +And here the poor, dumfounded, utterly bewildered Major found voice to +speak at last. + +"Mummy-case! Body! Dear God in heaven, Mr. Cleek, what are you hinting +at?" he gasped. "You--you don't mean that she--that Zuilika--killed +him?" + +"No, Major, I don't," he made reply. "I simply mean that he killed her! +The body in the mummy-case is the body of Zuilika, the caliph's +daughter! This is the creature you have been wasting your pity on--see!" + +With that he laid an intense grip on the concealing yashmak, tore it +away, and so revealed the close-shaven, ghastly-hued countenance of the +cornered criminal. + +"My God!--Ulchester--Ulchester himself!" said the Major in a voice of +fright and surprise. + +"Yes, Ulchester himself, Major. In a few more days he'd have withdrawn +the money, and got out of the country, body and all, if he hadn't been +nabbed, the rascal. There'd have been no tracing the crime then; and he +and the Señorita here would have been in clover for the rest of their +natural lives. But there's always that bright little bit of Bobby Burns +to be reckoned with. You know: 'The best laid schemes of mice and men,' +_et cetera_--that bit. But the Yard's got them, and--they'll never leave +the country now. Take them, Mr. Narkom, they're yours!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I guess it?" said Cleek, replying to the Major's query, as they +sat late that night discussing the affair. "Well, I think the first +faint inkling of it came when I arrived here yesterday, and smelt the +overpowering odour of the incenses. There was so much of it, and it was +used so frequently--twice a day--that it seemed to suggest an attempt to +hide other odours of a less pleasant kind. When I left you last night, +Dollops and I went down to the mummy-chamber, and a skeleton key soon +let us in. The unpleasant odour was rather pronounced in there. But even +that didn't give me the cue, until I happened to find in the fireplace a +considerable heap of fine ashes, and in the midst of them small lumps of +gummy substance, which I knew to result from the burning of myrrh. I +suspected from that and from the nature of the ashes that a mummy had +been burnt, and as there was only one mummy in the affair, the inference +was obvious. I laid hands on the two cases and tilted them. One was +quite empty. The weight of the other told me that it contained something +a little heavier than any mummy ought to be. I came to the conclusion +that there was a body in it, injected full of arsenic, no doubt, to +prevent as much as possible the processes of decay, the odour of which +the incense was concealing. I didn't attempt to open the thing; I left +that until the arrival of the men from The Yard, for whom I sent Dollops +this afternoon. I had a vague notion that it would not turn out to be +Ulchester's, and I had also a distinct recollection of what you said +about his being able to mimic a Gaiety chorus-girl and all that sort of +thing, and the more I thought over it, the more I realized what an +excellent thing to cover a bearded face a yashmak is. Still, it was all +hazard. I wasn't sure--indeed, I never was sure--until tea-time, when I +caught this supposed 'Zuilika' sitting at last, and gave the spade +guinea its chance to decide it." + +"But, Mr. Cleek, how could it have decided it? That's the thing which +amazes me most of all. How could the tossing of that coin have decided +the sex of the wearer of those garments?" + +"My dear Major, it is an infallible test. Did you ever notice that if +you throw anything for a man to catch in his lap, he pulls his knees +together to _make_ a lap in order to catch it; whereas a woman--used to +wearing skirts and, thereby, having a lap already prepared--immediately +broadens that lap by the exactly opposite movement, knowing that +whatever is thrown has no chance of slipping through and falling to the +floor. When I tossed the coin to Ulchester, he instinctively jerked his +knees together. That settled it, of course. And now, if you won't mind +my saying it, I'm a bit sleepy and it is about time I took myself off to +home and bed." + +"But not at this late hour, surely? You will never catch a train." + +"I shan't need one, Major. They are holding a horse and trap ready for +me at the stables of the 'Coach and Horses.' Mr. Narkom promised to look +out for that, and--I beg pardon? No, I can't stop over night. Thank you +for the invitation, but Dollops would raise half London if I didn't turn +up after promising to do so." + +"I should have thought you might have simplified matters and obviated +that by keeping the boy when you had him here," said the Major. "We +could easily have found a place to put him up for the night." + +"Thanks very much, but I wouldn't interrupt the course of his studies +for the world," replied Cleek. "I've found an old chap--an +ex-schoolmaster, down on his luck and glad for the chance to turn an +honest penny--who takes him on every night from eight to ten; and the +young monkey is so eager and is absorbing knowledge at such a rate that +he positively amazes me. But now, really, it must be good-night. The boy +will be waiting and I must hear his lessons before I go to bed." + +"Not surely when you are so tired as you say?" + +"Never too tired for that, Major. It makes me sleep better and sounder +to know that the lad's getting on and that I've cheated the Devil in +just one more instance. Good-night and good luck to you. It's a bully +old world after all, isn't it, Major?" Then laughed and shook hands with +him and fared forth into the starlight, whistling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Who feeds on Hope alone makes but a sorry banquet; and for the next few +weeks Hope was all--or nearly all--that came Cleek's way. + +For some unexplained reason, Miss Lorne's letters--never very frequent, +and always very brief--had, of late been gradually growing briefer: as +if written in haste and from a mere sense of duty and at odd moments +snatched from the call of more absorbing things; and, finally, there +came a dropping off altogether and a week that brought no message from +her at all. + +The old restlessness, the almost outlived sense of personal injury and +rebellion against circumstances, took hold of Cleek again when that time +came; and the soul of him drank deep of the waters of bitterness. + +So, then, it was all to be in vain, was it, this long struggle with the +Devil of Circumstances, this long striving for a Goal? And after all, +"Thou shalt not enter" was to be written over the gateway of his +ambition? He had been lifted only to be dropped again, redeemed only to +let him see how vain it was for the leopard, even though he achieved the +impossible and changed his spots, to be other than a leopard always; how +impossible it was for a man to override the decrees of Nature or evade +the edicts of Providence? That was what it meant, eh? + +To a nature such as his, Life was always a picture drawn out of +perspective. There was never any Middle Distance; never any proper +gradation. It was always either the Highest Heights or the Lowest +Depths; the glare of fierce light or the black of deepest darkness. He +could not plod; he must either fly or fall; either loll at the Gates of +Paradise or groan in the depths of Hell. And the failure of Ailsa +Lorne's letters sent him to the darkest and most hopeless corner of it. + +Not that he blamed her--wholly; but that he blamed that Fate which had +so persistently dogged him from childhood on. For now that the letters +had ceased altogether, he recalled things which otherwise would have +been forgotten; and, his sense of proportion being distorted, made +mountains out of sand dunes. + +In one of those letters, he recollected, she had spoken of meeting +unexpectedly an old friend whom she had not seen since the days of his +boyhood; in another, she had casually remarked, "I met Captain Morford +again to-day and we spent a very pleasant half hour together," and in a +third had written, "The Captain promised to call and take tea to-day but +didn't. I rather fancy he divines the fact that Lady Chepstow does not +care for him. Indeed, she dislikes him immensely. Why, I wonder? +Personally, I think him exceedingly pleasant, and there are things in +his character for which I have the deepest respect and admiration." + +And out of these trifling circumstances--lo! the darkest corner that +darkest Hell contained. + +So that was how it was to end, was it? That was the card which Fate had +all along kept up her sleeve while she stood off laughing at his +endeavours, his hopes, his struggles against the inevitable? In the end, +another man was to appear, another man was to win her, and the dream was +to turn out nothing more than a dream after all. + +Once again the voices of the Wild called out to the Caged Wolf; once +again, the old things beckoned and the new things lost their savour and +the Devil said, as before, "What is the use? What _is_ the use?" and the +Savage cried out to be stripped and flung back into the wilderness as +God made him, and called and called and called for an end to the things +that stank in his nostrils and for the fierce companionship of his kind. +And but that Time had staled these things a little and blunted the keen +edge of them so that they could not endure for long, and there was +Dollops and the lessons and Dollops' future to recollect, the Wolf and +the Savage and the Devil might not have hungered in vain. + +Followed a period of intense depression when all things seemed to lose +their savour and when Narkom, amazed, said to himself that the man had +come to the end of his usefulness and had lost every attribute of the +successful criminologist. For the next three cases he brought him Cleek +botched in a manner that would have disgraced the merest tyro. Two, he +failed utterly to solve, although the solutions were eventually worked +out by the ordinary forces of the Yard; and in the third he let his man +get away under his very nose and convey Government secrets to a foreign +Power. It was but natural that these three dismal failures should find +their way to the newspapers and that, in the hysterical condition of +modern journalism, they should be flung out to the world at large with +all the ostentation of leaded type and panicky scare heads, and that +learned editors should discourse knowingly of "the limitations of +mentality" and "the well-authenticated cases of the sudden warping of +abnormal intelligences resulting in the startling termination of amazing +careers," or snivel dismally over "the complete collapse of that +imaginative power which, hitherto, had been this detective's greatest +asset, and which now, on the principle that however deep a well may be +if a force-pump be put into it it must some time suck gravel, seemed to +have come to its end." + +These things, when Cleek heard of them, affected him not at all. He +seemed not to care whether his career was ended or not, whether the +world praised or censured. Neither his pride nor his vanity was stirred +even to the very smallest degree. + +But Narkom, loyal still, took these gloomy prophecies and editorial +vapourings much to heart and strove valiantly to confound the man's +detractors and to put the spur to the man himself. He would not believe +that the end had come, that his mental powers had run suddenly against a +dead wall beyond which there was no possibility of proceeding. Something +was weighing upon his mind and damping his spirits that was all; and it +must be the business of those who were his friends to take steps to +discover what that something was and, if possible, to eliminate it. He +therefore sought out Dollops and held secret conclave with him; and +Dollops dolefully epitomized the difficulty thus: "A skirt--that's +what's at the bottom of it, sir. No letter at all these ten days past. +She's chucked him, I'm afraid." And with this brief preface told all +that he was able to tell; which, after all, was not much. + +He could only explain about the letter that used to come off and on in +the other days and which brought such a flow of high spirits to the man +for whom it was intended; he could only say that it was addressed in a +woman's hand and bore always the one postmark; and when Narkom heard +what that postmark was and recollected where Lady Chepstow's country +seat lay, and who was with her, he puckered up his lips as if he were +about to whistle and made two slim arches with his uplifted eyebrows. + +"Sir, if only you could sneak off and run down there without his knowing +of it--it wouldn't do to write a letter, Mr. Narkom: he'd be on to that +before you could turn round, sir," the boy ventured hopefully; "but if +only you could run down there and give her a tip what she's a doing of +and what she's a chuckin' away, what a Man she's a throwin' down, maybe, +sir, maybe--" + +"Yes, 'maybe,'" agreed the superintendent, after a moment's reflection. +"At any rate it's worth a trial." And went, forthwith. + +Not that it was a prudent thing to do; not that it is wise for any man +at any time to interfere, even with the best intentions, with the course +of another man's love affairs; and, finally, not that it was at all +necessary or had any influence whatsoever upon the events which +succeeded the step. Indeed, he might have spared himself the trouble, +for he had barely covered a fifth of the distance when the country post +was delivered in London, and Cleek, rocketing up in one sweep from the +Pit to the Gateway, stood laughing huskily with a letter from Ailsa in +his hand. + +He ripped off the envelope and read it greedily. + +"Dear Friend," she wrote, "I cannot imagine what you must think of my +silence; but whatsoever you do think cannot be half so terrible as the +actual cause of it. I have been in close touch with misery and death, +with things so appalling that heart and mind have had room to hold +nothing else. Indeed, I am still so horribly nervous and upset that I +scarcely know how to think coherently much less write. I can only +remember that you once said that if ever I needed your help I was to +ask; and oh, Mr. Cleek, I need it very very much indeed now. Not for +myself--let me find time to add that--but for a dear, dear friend--the +friend I have so often written about: Captain Morford--who is involved +in an affair of the most distressing and mysterious character and whose +only hope lies, I feel, in you. Will you come to the rescue, for my +sake? That is what I am asking. Let me say, however, that there is no +possibility of a reward, for the captain is in no position to offer one; +but I seem to feel that that will not weigh with you. Neither can I ask +you to call at the house, for, as I have already told you, Lady Chepstow +does not care for the Captain and under those circumstances it would be +embarrassing to ask him there to meet you. So then, if no other case +intervenes, and you really _can_ grant me this great favour, will you be +in the neighbourhood of the lich-gate of Lyntonhurst Old Church at nine +o'clock in the morning of Thursday, you will win the everlasting +gratitude of, Your sincere friend--AILSA LORNE." + +Would he be there? He laughed aloud as he put the question to himself. A +Bradshaw was on his table. He caught it up, found that there was a train +that could be caught in thirty-five minutes' time, and clapped on his +hat and--caught it. + +That night he slept at the inn of the Three Desires--which, as you may +possibly know, lies but a gunshot beyond the boundary wall of the glebe +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--slept with an alarm clock at his head and +every servant at the inn from the boots to the barmaid tipped a shilling +to see that he did not oversleep himself. + +He was up before any of them, however--up and out into the pearl-dusk of +the morning before ever the alarm-clock shrilled its first note, or the +sun's sheen slid lower than the spurs of the weather-cock on the spire +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--and twice he had walked past the big gates +and looked up the still avenue to the windows of the huge house whose +roof covered her before Lyntonhurst Old Church spoke up through the +dawn-hush and told the parish it was half-past four o'clock. + +By five, he had found a pool cupped in the beech woods with mallows and +marsh marigolds and a screen of green things all round it and a tent of +blue sky over the sun-touched tree tops; and had stripped and splashed +into it and set all the birds to flight with the harsher song of human +things; by seven he was back at the Three Desires; by eight he had +shaved and changed and breakfasted and was out again in the fields and +the leafy lanes, and by nine he was at the lich-gate of the church. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +She was there already; sitting far back at the end of one of the narrow +wooden side benches with the shadow of the gate's moss-grown roof and of +the big cypress above it partly screening her, her shrinking position +evincing a desire to escape general observation as clearly as her pale +face and nervously drumming hand betrayed a state of extreme agitation. + +She rose as Cleek lifted the latch and came in, and advanced to meet him +with both hands outstretched in greeting and a rich colour staining all +her face. + +"I knew that you would come--I was as certain of it as I am now this +minute," she said with a little embarrassed laugh, then dropped her eyes +and said no more, for he had taken those two hands in his and was +holding them tightly and looking at her with an expression that was half +a reproach and half a caress. + +"I am glad you did not doubt," he said, with an odd, wistful little +smile. "It is good to know one's friends have faith in one, Miss Lorne. +I had almost come to believe that you had forgotten me." + +"Because I did not write? Oh, but I could not--indeed I could not. I +have been spending days and nights in a house of mourning--Lady Chepstow +gave me leave of absence; and my heart was so full I did not write even +to her. I have been trying to soothe and to comfort a distracted girl, a +half-crazed old man, a bereft and horribly smitten family. I have been +doing all in my power to put hope and courage into the heart of a +despairing and most unhappy lover." + +"Meaning Captain Morford?" + +"Yes. He has been almost beside himself. And since this last blow +fell.... Oh, I had been so sure that it would not, that between us all +we would manage to avert it; yet in spite of everything it did fall--it +did!--and if I live to be a hundred I shall never forget it." + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. You are shaking like a leaf. Try to tell me +plainly what it is that has happened; what the danger is that threatens +this--er--Captain Morford." + +"Oh, nothing threatens _him_, personally," she replied. "He says he +could stand it better if it were only that; and I believe him--I truly +do. The thing that nearly drives him out of his mind is the thought that +one day she--the girl he loves--the girl he is to marry--the girl for +whose dear sake he stands ready to give up so much--the thought that one +day _her_ turn will come, that one day she, too, will be stricken down +as mother and brothers have been is almost driving him frantic." + +"Mother and brothers?--_brothers_?" Cleek looked up sharply, and there +was a curious break in his voice, a yet more curious brightening of his +eyes. "Miss Lorne, am I to understand that this Captain Morford is +engaged to a girl who has _brothers_?" + +"Yes. That is--no. She has 'brothers' no longer. There is only one left +living now, Mr. Cleek, only one. Ah, think of it! of that whole family +of six persons, but three are left: Miriam, Flora, and Ronald." + +"Miriam, Flora, and ... Miss Lorne, will you tell me please the name of +the lady to whom Captain Morford is engaged?" + +"Why Miriam Comstock, of course--did I forget to mention it?" + +"I think so," said Cleek; and shook out a little jerky laugh, and stood +looking at her foolishly; not quite knowing what to do with his feet and +hands. But suddenly--"Oh come, let's have the case--let's have it at +once," he broke out impetuously. "Tell me what it is, what I'm to do for +this Captain Morford, and I'll do it if mortal man can." + +"And no mortal man can if you cannot--I've faith enough in you for +that," she began, then stopped short and sucked in her breath, and crept +back to the extreme end of the lich-gate and stood shaking and very +pale. Someone had come suddenly round the angle of the church and was +moving up the road that ran past the gate. + +"Please--no--let me get away as quickly as possible," she said in a +swift whisper as Cleek, startled by the change in her, made an eager +step forward. "It is known that I have been with them--the +Comstocks--and it is all so mysterious and awful.... Oh, who can tell +whose hand it may be? who may be spying? or what? It is best that I +should give no hint that assistance has been asked for; best that nobody +should see me talking with _you_--Mr. Narkom says that it is." + +"Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes. He was in the neighbourhood accidentally. He called last night. I +told him and he was glad that I had sent for you. He is over there, on +the other side of the churchyard. Oh, please will you go to him? Captain +Morford is within easy call and has agreed to come when he is wanted. Do +go, do go quickly, Mr. Cleek. There's someone coming up the road and I +am horribly frightened." + +"But why? It is merely a farm labourer," said Cleek, glancing through +the open side of the lich-gate and down the road. "You can see that for +yourself." + +"Yes, but--who knows? who can tell? There is no clue to the actual +person and he is so cunning, so crafty--Oh, please, will you go? +Afterward, if you like, we can meet here again. To-day I am too +frightened to stay." + +He saw that she was in a state of extreme nervous terror; that it would +be cruel to subject her to any further suffering, and without one more +word, walked past her into the Churchyard and made his way over the +green ridge that rose immediately behind the building and down the slope +beyond until he came to the extreme other side. And there in the shade +of a thickly grown spinney, he found Mr. Marverick Narkom sitting with +his back against a beech-tree smoking a nerve-soothing cigar and +expectantly awaiting him. + +"My dear fellow, I never was so glad," he said, tossing away his smoke +and jumping up as Cleek appeared. "Happy coincidence my motoring down +here--eh, what? Wife in these parts visiting. Rum, my turning up just +after Miss Lorne had written you and at a time when we both are needed, +wasn't it?" + +"Very," said Cleek, pulling out a cigarette and stretching himself full +length upon the ground. "Would as soon have expected to run foul of a +specimen of the Great Auk endeavouring to rear a family in the +neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square. Well, what's it now, Mr. Narkom?--I'm +told you know the details. A match please, if you have one. Thanks very +much. Now then let's have the facts. What sort of a case is it?" + +"The knottiest in all my experience, the strangest that even you have +ever handled," replied the Superintendent, impressively. "It's a +murder--three murders, in fact, with a possible fourth and a fifth in +the near future if the diabolical rascal who is at the bottom of it +isn't pulled up sharp and his amazing _modus operandi_ discovered. + +"The case will interest you, my dear chap; it is so startlingly original +in its methods of procedure, so complex, so weird, and so appallingly +mysterious. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, an individual so +supernaturally cunning that he not only kills without a trace, but kills +in the presence of watchers--kills whilst the victim is in the very arms +of those watchers! And yet escapes, unseen, unknown, without a clue to +tell when, where, or how he entered the room or left it; when, where, or +how he struck the blow, or why; yet did strike it, despite the sleepless +vigil of a man who not only sat up all night with the victim, but held +him in his arms to be sure that nobody could get at him; nobody so much +as approach him without his guardian's knowledge!" + +Cleek twitched round sharply and sat up, leaning upon his elbow and +looking at Narkom as though he doubted his sanity. + +"Let me have that again!" he said in sharp, crisp tones. "A man killed +whilst another man held him--held him in his arms--and watched over him, +and yet the other man saw nothing of the murderer? Is that what you +said?" + +"That's it, precisely. Only I must tell you that, in the instance when +the victim was held in the arms of the person watching him, it was not a +man that was killed, but a boy. There had been a man killed, however, +four weeks previously in the same house, in the same mysterious manner, +and by the same unknown agency. A month earlier a woman, too, had been +done to death there in the same way. The man was the brother of that +boy, and the woman was the mother of both." + +Cleek moved so quickly that he might fairly have been said to flash from +a sitting to a standing position, and then began to feel round in his +pockets for his cigarette case with a nervous sort of haste, which +Narkom knew and understood. + +"Ah," he said, in a tone of satisfaction, "I thought the case would +interest you. You've been down in the dumps lately and needed something +to buck you up a bit. I told Captain Morford that this would be sure to +do it. Heard of him, haven't you? Extremely nice chap. Home on leave +from Bombay. Only recently got his captaincy. Grandson and heir to that +fine old snob, Sir Gilbert Morford, who's known everywhere as 'The +Titled Teapot.' You know, 'Morford & Morford's Unrivalled Tea.' Knighted +for something or other--the Lord knows what or why--and puts on more +side over his tin-plate title than Royalty itself. The Captain is a +decent sort, however. He'll give you the full particulars of this +astounding case. Wait a bit. I'll call him"--pausing a moment to put the +first two fingers of each hand into his mouth and blow out a shrill, +ear-splitting whistle. "That'll fetch him! He'll be here before you can +say Jack Robinson!" + +He wasn't, of course; but you couldn't have said it half a hundred times +before he was; or, at least, before Cleek, startled by a rustling of the +boughs, glanced round and saw a tall, fairish young man who had no more +the appearance of a soldier than a currant has of a gooseberry. He +looked more like a bank clerk than anything else that Cleek could think +of at the minute, and a none too prepossessing bank clerk at that, for +Nature had not been any too lavish of her gifts as regards personal +attractiveness, seeming to prefer to make up for her miserliness in the +bestowal of good looks by an absolute prodigality in the gifts of +ears--ears as big as an oyster-shell and so prominent that they seemed +even larger than they were, and that is saying a great deal. + +Still, unprepossessing as the man was, there was a certain charm of +manner about him and a certain attractiveness in his voice Cleek +discovered when he was introduced to him and found himself being "sized +up," so to speak, by a pair of keen grey eyes. + +"Now let us have the details of the case, if you please, Captain," said +Cleek, coming to the point of the interview with as little beating about +the bush as possible. "Mr. Narkom has given me a vague idea of the +nature of it, but I want something more than that, of course. I am told +that three persons in one family have been done to death in a most +mysterious manner, and without any clue to the assassin or his motive; +indeed that the hand which strikes strikes even in the presence of +others, yet remains unknown and invisible. Frankly, I never heard of but +one instance which at all resembles this or--No, Mr. Narkom, it is +nothing that ever came your way, no affair that has happened since you +and I first met, sir. It was a long time ago--eight or ten years, to be +exact--and a good many miles from England. The cases were somewhat +similar, judging from the scanty outline you have given me, and--What's +that? No, the criminal was never apprehended. He got away, and his +methods were never generally known. Even if they had been, they were not +those which any desperado might have emulated, any tyro practised. They +required a certain knowledge of anatomy, chemical action--even surgery. +I don't believe that ten people in the world knew about the thing at +that time. I stumbled upon what I believed was the solution of the +mystery whilst I was taking a course of chemistry for--well, for the +purpose of demonstrating the possibility of manufacturing precious +stones of a size and weight to make them a profitable--er--speculation. +The science in medicine was not so advanced in those days as it is now, +and when I ventured to suggest to certain doctors what I believed to +have been the cause of the mysterious deaths and the _modus operandi_ of +the murderer, I simply got laughed at for my pains. I felt pretty +certain of my facts, however, and pretty certain of the man who was +guilty. Pardon? No, not alive now; that fellow had his brains blown out +in a bar-room brawl before I left New Zealand." + +"New Zealand?" struck in Captain Morford agitatedly. "I say, that's a +rum go, isn't it, Mr. Narkom. New Zealand is where the Comstocks come +from--or, rather, the father and mother did." + +"By Jove! Cleek, that looks suspicious, old chap," chimed in Narkom. +"Don't think, do you, that there can possibly be any connection between +the two cases? In other words, that that fellow you suspected in New +Zealand didn't really die after all?" + +"Shortly, the chemist? Not a doubt about his death, Mr. Narkom. I was in +the bar-room when he was killed. Three bullets went through his head, +and he was as dead as Napoleon Bonaparte by the time he struck the +floor. The methods may be the same, but not the man--there is not the +ghost of possibility of there being any connection between the two. But +let us give the Captain a chance to explain the case. When, where, and +how did these mysterious murders begin, Captain, if you please?" + +"At Lilac Lodge, over Windsor way," replied the Captain, trying to +answer all three questions at once. "They started about a week after the +Comstocks went to live there. And the thing was so appalling, the place +seemed so certainly under a curse, that although he had paid a good +round sum for it, and had spent a pot of money having the house +decorated and the garden laid out just as Miriam and her mother fancied +it--Miriam is Miss Comstock, my fiancée, Mr. Cleek--nothing would induce +Mr. Harmstead to stop in it another hour after the second murder +occurred." + +"Mr. Harmstead! Who is Mr. Harmstead, Captain?" + +"The late Mrs. Comstock's bachelor uncle--a very rich old chap, who was +once a sheep-farmer in New Zealand, and afterwards in Australia. Mrs. +Comstock hadn't seen him since she was a very little girl until he came +to England some few months ago to settle down and to take care of her +children and her." + +"How did it happen that she hadn't seen him in all that time? I take it +there must have been some good reason, Captain?" + +"Yes, rather. You see it was like this: The Harmsteads--Mrs. Comstock +was a Harmstead by birth, and Uncle Phil was her father's only +brother--the Harmsteads had never been well to-do as a family: indeed +none of them but dear old Uncle Phil ever had a hundred pounds they +could call their own, so when Miss Harmstead's father died, which was +about eight months after his brother left New Zealand and went to +Australia, she married a young joiner and cabinet-maker, George +Comstock, to whom she had long been engaged, and a few weeks later, +fancying there would be a better chance for advancement in his trade in +England than out there, Mr. Comstock sold out what few belongings he had +in the world and brought his wife over here." + +"Oh, I see. Then of course she had no opportunity of seeing her uncle +until he came here?" + +"No, not a ghost of one. She corresponded with him for a time, +however--wrote him after the first child was born--and christened +'Philip' in honour of him. In those days it used to take six months to +get a letter to Australia, and another six to get word back, so the baby +was more than a year old when Uncle Phil wrote that if he didn't marry +in the meantime and have a son of his own--which was very unlikely--he +would make young Phil his heir and come out after him, too, one of these +fine days." + +"One moment. Was the person you allude to as 'Young Phil' one of the +sons that was murdered?" + +"Yes. He was the first victim, poor, chap!" + +"Oh, I see!" said Cleek. "I see! So there is money in the background, +eh? Well go on. What next? Hear any more from Uncle Phil after that?" + +"Oh, yes--for a long time. Miriam and Flora were born, and word of their +arrival in the world was sent out to him before the final letter for +years and years reached them. In that letter he wrote that he was doing +better and better every year, and getting so rich that he didn't have +time to do anything but just stop where he was and 'gather in the +shekels.' There'd be enough for all when he did come, however, and he +was altering his will so that in case anything should happen to young +Phil--'which God forbid,' he wrote--the girls would come next, and so on +to all the heirs of his niece. After that letter years went by, and +never another one. They, thinking that he had married after all--for in +his last letter he had spoken of a young widow who had lately been +engaged to fill the post of housekeeper at his ranch--gave up all hope +when after three times writing no reply came, and finally desisted +entirely. He says, however, that it was just the other way about. That +he did write--wrote six or seven times--but could get no reply; and as +he afterwards found the housekeeper in question a designing and +deceitful person, and shipped her off about her business, he makes no +doubt that she received and destroyed Mrs. Comstock's letter to him and +burnt his to her, hoping, no doubt, to inveigle him into marrying her." + +"Quite likely, if she were a designing woman," commented Cleek. "But go +on, please. What next?" + +"Oh, years of hardship, during which Mr. Comstock died and his widow had +to earn their own living unaided. Young Phil got a post as bookkeeper, +Flora taught music and painting, Mrs. Comstock did needlework, and +Miriam became a governess in the family of a distant connection of my +grandfather, Sir Gilbert Morford. That's where and how I met her, Mr. +Cleek, and--Well, that's another story!" his cheeks reddening and a +flash of fire coming into his eyes. "My grandfather says he will 'chuck +me out neck and crop' if I marry her; but it does not matter--I will!" + +"Yes, you will--if the cut of that chin stands for anything," commented +Cleek. "Well, to get on: the Comstocks were down in the deeps, and no +hope of hearing any more from Australia and Uncle Phil, eh? What next?" + +"Why, all of a sudden he dropped in on them, bless his bully old +heart!--and then good-bye to hard times and any more struggling for +them. He'd been in England searching for them for seven months before he +found them; but when he did find them there was a time! Inside of ten +hours, the whole world was changed for them. Made the boys and the girls +give up their positions and come home to live with him and their mother, +poured money out by the handful, bought Lilac Lodge and fitted it up +like a little palace, dressed his niece and her daughters like queens, +and settled down with them to what seemed about to be a life of glorious +and luxurious ease, and in the midst of all this peace and plenty, +brightness and hope, the first blow fell. Mrs. Comstock, going to bed at +night in perfect health, was found in the morning stone-dead! Of course, +as no doctor could give a death certificate when none had been in +attendance upon her, the Law stepped in, the coroner held an inquest, an +autopsy was decided upon, and the result of it was a deeper and more +amazing mystery than ever. She had died--but from what? Every organ was +found to be in a thoroughly healthy condition. The heart was sound, the +lungs betrayed no sign of an anesthetic, the blood and kidneys not the +faintest trace of poison--everything about her was perfectly normal. She +had not died through drugs, she had not died through strangulation, +suffocation, electrical shock, or failure of the heart. She had not been +stabbed, she had not been shot, she had not succumbed to any mortal +disease--yet there she was, stone-dead, slain by something which no one +could trace and for which Science could find no name." + +Narkom opened his lips to speak, but Cleek signalled him to silence, and +stood studying the Captain from under down-drawn brows, looking and +listening and thoughtfully rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down +his chin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +"Of course the family was horribly shocked and upset by this sudden and +mysterious interruption to the dream of peace," went on the Captain; +"but nothing was left but to accept the verdict of 'Death from unknown +causes,' and to believe it the will of God. The body was buried a few +days later, and, comforting each other as best they could, the sorrowing +uncle and heart-broken nieces and nephews settled down to living their +lives without the one who had been the sunshine of the home, and whose +loss seemed the greatest blow that could have been dealt them. A month +passed and they were just beginning to forget details of the tragedy +when a second and equally mysterious and horrifying one occurred, and +the eldest son of the dead woman--Philip--was stricken down precisely as +his mother had been, and, as his horrified brother, sisters, and uncle +now recalled, like her, on the tenth day of the month!" + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, reflectively. "Rather significant, that. It was, +I assume, that circumstance which first suggested the idea of something +more than mere chance being at the back of these sudden and mysterious +deaths?" + +"That and one other circumstance. The condition of the bedclothing, Mr. +Cleek, showed that in Philip's case there had been something in the +nature of a struggle before he had succumbed to the Power which had +assailed him. In other words, he had not been, as doubtless the poor +mother had, so infinitely inferior in point of strength to the murderer +as to be absolutely powerless in the wretch's grip from the very first +instant of the attack. He had fought for his life, poor fellow, but it +must have been a brief fight and death itself almost instantaneous; for +although the bedclothing was tangled round his feet in a manner which +could only have occurred in a struggle, he did not live long enough to +get off the bed itself or slide so much as one foot to the floor. He +died as his mother had died, and the verdict of the doctors and of the +coroner's jury was the same: 'Death from unknown causes'!" + +"Hm-m-m!" said Cleek again. "And were all the symptoms--or, rather, the +absence of symptoms--the same?" + +"Precisely. All the organs were discovered to be in a normal condition, +the blood was untainted by any suggestion of either mineral or animal +poison, the heart was sound, the lungs healthy--there was neither an +internal disturbance nor an external wound, unless one could call a +'wound' a slight, a very slight, swelling upon the left side of the +neck; a small thing, not so big as a sixpence." + +"And appearing very much like the inflammation resulting from the bite +of a gnat or a spider, Captain?" + +"Exactly like it, Mr. Cleek. In fact, the doctors fancied at first that +it was the result of his having been bitten by some poisonous insect, +and were for accounting for his death that way. But, of course, the +entire absence of poison in the blood soon put an end to that idea, so +it was certain that whatever he died from, it was not from a bite or a +sting of any sort." + +"Clever chaps, those doctors," commented Cleek with a curious one-sided +smile. "However, they were quite correct in that, I imagine, poison, +either animal, vegetable, or mineral, was not the means of destruction. +Still, I should have thought that at this second post-mortem the +likeness of the son's case to that of the mother's would have impelled +them to extra vigilance, and resulted in a much more careful searching, +and minute examination of the viscera. If my theory is correct, I do not +suppose they would have found anything in the contents of the thorax or +the abdomen, but it is just possible that analysis of the matter removed +from the cranial cavity might have revealed a small blood-clot in the +brain." + +The Captain twitched up his eyebrows and stared at him in open-mouthed +amazement. + +"Of all the--By Jove! you know, this beats me! To think of your guessing +that!" he said. "As a matter of fact, that's precisely what they did do, +Mr. Cleek. But as they couldn't arrive at any conclusion nor trace a +probable cause of its origin they were more in the dark than ever. +Selwin, the local practitioner, was for putting it down as a case of +apoplexy on the strength of that small blood-clot, but as there was an +entire absence of every other symptom of apoplectic conditions the other +doctors scouted the suggestion as preposterous--pointed out the +generally healthy state of the brain and of the heart, lungs, arterial +walls, _et cetera_, as utterly refuting such a theory--and in the end +the verdict on the son was the verdict given on the mother: 'Death from +unknown causes'; and he was buried as she had been buried, with the +secret of the murder undiscovered." + +"And then what, Captain?" + +"What I have already told you, Mr. Cleek. Nothing under God's heaven +would or could persuade Mr. Harmstead to let his nieces and their two +surviving brothers remain another hour in that house of disaster. He +removed them from it instantly--fled the very neighbourhood, hired a +house down here--at Dalehampton; a dozen miles or so on the other side +of the Tor, yonder--and carried them there to live. The family now +consisted of Miriam and Flora, the two girls, Paul, a boy of +thirteen--old Mr. Harmstead's special pride and pet--and Ronald, a +little chap of eleven. In this new home they hoped and prayed to be free +from the horrible visitant who had made the memory of the old one a +nightmare to them, but--they couldn't forget, Mr. Cleek, what the Tenth +of each month had taken from them, and grew sick with dread at the +steady approach of the Tenth of this one." + +"And as this is the Twelfth," said Cleek, "the day before yesterday +_was_ the Tenth. Did anything happen?" + +"Yes," replied the Captain, his voice dropping until it was little more +than a whisper. "I tried to cheer them; Miss Lorne tried to cheer them. +We sat with them, tried to make them think that our presence there would +act as a shield and a guard--and tried to think so ourselves. But old +Mr. Harmstead took even stronger measures. 'Nothing shall touch +Paul--nothing that lives and breathes,' he said, desperately. 'I'll take +him into my room; I'll sit up with him in my arms all night!'" + +"And did so?" + +"Yes. At twelve o'clock, Miss Lorne, Miss Comstock, and I went in to say +good-night to him. He was sitting in a deep chair with the boy fast +asleep in his arms--sitting and looking all about him with the dumb +agony of a trapped mouse. I'll never forget how he clutched the boy to +him nor the cry he gave when the door opened to admit us, the sob of +relief when he saw it was only us. His cry and his movement awoke the +boy, but he dropped off to sleep again before I left, and was breathing +healthily and peacefully. The last look I had at the picture as I went +out, Mr. Cleek, the dear old chap was holding his pet in his arms and +smiling down into his boyish face. So he was still sitting, Miss +Comstock tells me, when she came down this morning. 'Look,' he said to +her, 'I watched him--I held him--the tenth day is past and the death +didn't get him, my bonnie!' Then called her to his side and shook the +little fellow to awaken him. It was then only that he discovered the +truth. The boy was stone-dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +"There, Mr. Cleek," resumed the Captain, after he could master his +emotion. "That is the case--that is the riddle I am praying to Heaven +that you may be able to solve. What the mysterious power is, when, +where, or how it got into the room and got at the boy, God alone knows. +Mr. Harmstead will swear that he never let the little fellow out of his +arms for one solitary instant between the time of our leaving him just +after midnight, and Miss Comstock's coming in in the morning. He admits, +however, that twice during that period he fell asleep, but it was only +for a few minutes each time; and long years of being constantly alert +for possible marauders--out there in the wilds of Australia--have tended +to make his sleep so light that anything heavier than a cat's footfall +wakes him on the instant. Yet last night something--man or spirit--came +and went, and he neither heard nor saw either sound or shape from +midnight until morning. One thing I must tell you, however, which may +throw some light upon the movements of the appalling thing. Whereas Mr. +Harmstead not only closed, but locked, both of the two windows in the +room, and pinned the thick plushette curtains of them together--as Miss +Comstock and I saw them pinned when we left the room last night--when +those curtains came to be drawn this morning one of the windows was +found to be partly open, and there was a smear of something that looked +like grease across the sill and the stone coping beyond." + +"Of course, of course!" commented Cleek enigmatically. "Provided my +theory is correct, I should have expected that. A thing that comes and +goes through windows must, at some period, leave some mark of its +passage. Of course that particular window opened upon a balcony or +something of that sort, didn't it?" + +"No, it is a perfectly unbroken descent from the window sill to the +ground. But there's a big tree close by, and the branches of that brush +the pane of glass." + +"Ah! I see! I see! All the soap dishes in the house left filled last +night and found filled this morning, captain?" + +"Good heavens! I don't know. What on earth can soap dishes have to do +with it, man?" + +"Possibly nothing, probably a great deal--particularly if there's found +to be a cake of soap in each. But that we can discover later. Now one +word more. Was that same minute swelling--the mark like a gnat's +bite--on the neck of the boy's body, too? And had it been on that of the +mother's as well?" + +"I can't answer either question, Mr. Cleek. I don't remember to have +heard about it being remarked in the case of Mrs. Comstock's death; and +the murder of little Paul was such a horrible thing and so upset +everybody that none of us thought to look." + +"An error of judgment that; however, it is one easily rectified, since +the body is not yet interred," said Cleek. "Ever read Harvey's +'Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Sanguinis,' Captain?--the volume in which +William Harvey first gave to the world at large his discovery regarding +the circulation of the blood." + +"Good heavens, no! What would I be doing reading matters of that kind? +I'm not a medico, Mr. Cleek--I'm a soldier." + +"I know. But, still--well, I thought it just possible that you might +have read the work, or, at least, heard something regarding the contents +of the volume. Men who have a hobby are rather given to riding it and +boring other people with discussions and dissertations upon it; and I +seem to think that I have heard it said that Sir Gilbert Morford's +greatest desire in the time of his youth was to become a medical man. In +fact, that he put in two or three years as a student at St. +Bartholomew's, and would have qualified, but that the sudden death of +his father compelled him to abandon the hope and to assume the +responsibilities of the head of the house of Morford & Morford, tea +importers, of Mincing Lane." + +"Yes; that's quite correct. He bitterly resented the compulsion--the +'pitchforking of a man out of a profession into the abomination of +trade,' as he always expresses it--but of course, he was obliged to +yield, and the 'dream of his life' dropped off into nothing but a dream. +But the old love and the old recollection still linger, and, although he +no longer personally follows either trade or profession, he keeps up his +laboratory work, subscribes to every medical journal in Christendom, and +if you want to tickle his vanity or to get on the right side of him all +you have to do is to address him as 'doctor.' With all due respect to +him, he's a bit of a prig, Mr. Cleek, and hates people of no +position--'people of the lower order,' as he always terms them--as the +gentleman down under is said to hate holy water." + +"So that he, naturally, would move heaven and earth to prevent his +grandson and heir from marrying a young woman of that class? I see!" +supplemented Cleek. "The dear gentleman would like the name of Morford +to go down to posterity linked to duchesses or earls' daughters, and +surrounded by a blaze of glory. Ah, it's a queer world, Captain. There +is no bitterer hater of the 'common herd' than the snob who has climbed +up from it! The snob and the sneak are closely allied, Captain, and men +of that stamp have been known to do some pretty ugly things to uphold +their pinchbeck dignity, and to keep the tinsel of the present over the +cheap gingerbread of the past." + +"Good God, man! You don't surely mean to suggest--" + +"Gently, gently, Captain. Your indignation does you credit; but it is +never well to have a shot at a rabbit before he's fairly out of the +hole, and you are sure that it isn't the ferret you sent in after him. +Anything in the way of a conveyance handy, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes--the limousine. I came down in it yesterday. It's over at the Rose +and Crown." + +"Good! Then perhaps Captain Morford will meet us there in a half hour's +time. Meanwhile, I've got a few things to throw into my kit-bag, and as +that's over at the Three Desires, perhaps you won't mind coming along +and giving me a hand. Then we'll run over to that house at Dalehampton +and have a look at the body of that poor little shaver as expeditiously +as possible. Will you come?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Narkom; and having given a few necessary +directions to the Captain walked on and followed Cleek. He knew very +well the suggestion that he should do so was merely an excuse to have a +few words with him in private--for no man would be likely to need +another man's assistance in simply putting a few things into a bag--and +he was rather puzzled to account for Cleek's desire to say anything to +him which the Captain was not to hear. However, he kept his curiosity in +check and his tongue behind his teeth until they were on the other side +of the lich-gate and in the road leading to the Three Desires. + +"There's something you want to say to me, isn't there?" he inquired. +"Something you want attended to on the quiet?" + +"Yes," admitted Cleek, tersely. "There's a public telephone station a +mile or two on the other side of this place--I saw it this morning when +I was out tramping. Slip off down there, ring up the head of the +Dalehampton Constabulary, and tell him to have a man at the house ready +to pop up when wanted. I'll be long enough over my supposed 'packing' to +cover the time of your going and returning without the Captain's +knowledge." + +"Without--Good Heaven! My dear Cleek, you were serious, then? You meant +it? You--you really believe that suspicion points to Sir Gilbert +Morford?" + +"Not any more than it points to Sir Gilbert Morford's grandson, Mr. +Narkom." + +"Good Lord! To him? To that boy? Why, man alive, what possible motive +could he have for bringing grief and anguish to Miss Comstock when he's +willing to give up a fortune to marry her?" + +"Ah, but don't forget that another fortune descends to all the heirs, +male and female alike, of the late Mrs. Comstock, Mr. Narkom, and that +if the Captain's fiancée becomes, in course of time, the only surviving +child of that unfortunate lady, the Captain's sacrifice will not be such +an overpowering hardship for him, after all." + +"Great Scott! I never thought of that before, Cleek--never." + +"Didn't you? Well, don't think too much of it now that you have. For +circumstantial evidence is tricky and treacherous, and he mayn't be the +man, after all!" + +"Mayn't be? What a beggar you are for damping a man's ardour after +you've fanned it up to the blazing point. Any light in the darkness, old +chap? Any idea of what--and how?" + +"Yes," said Cleek, quietly. "If there's a mark on that poor little +shaver's neck, Mr. Narkom, I shall know the means. And if there's soap +on the window sill I shall know the man!" And then, having reached the +doorway of the inn, he dived into it and went up the staircase two steps +at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The little house of Dalehampton was something more than a mere house of +grief, they found, when the long drive came to an end and Cleek and his +two companions entered it, for the very spirit of desolation and despair +seemed to have taken up its abode there; and, like an Incarnate Woe, +Miss Comstock paced through the hush and darkness, hour in and hour out, +as she had been doing since daybreak. + +"My darling, you mustn't--you really mustn't, dear. You'll lose your +mind if you brood over the thing like this," said the Captain, flying to +her the very instant they arrived; and, disregarding the presence of his +two companions, caught her in his arms and kissed her. "Miriam, dearest, +don't! It breaks my heart. I know it's awful; but do try to have +strength and hope. I am sure we shall get at the bottom of the thing +now--sure that there will be no more--that this is truly the end. These +gentlemen are from Scotland Yard, dearest, and they say it surely will +be." + +"Heaven knows I hope so," replied Miss Comstock, acknowledging the +introduction to Cleek and Narkom by a gentle inclination of the head. +"But indeed, I can't hope, Jim--indeed, I cannot, gentlemen. The tenth +of next month will take its toll as the tenth of this one has done. I +feel persuaded that it will. For who can fight a thing unseen and +unknown?" + +Her grief was so great, her despair so hopeless, that Cleek forbore +attempting to assuage either by any words of sympathy or promise. He +seemed to feel that hers was an anguish upon which even the kindliest +words must fall only as an intrusion, and the heart of the man--that +curiously created heart, which at times could be savage even to the +point of brutality, and again tender and sympathetic as any +woman's--went out to her in one great surge of human feeling. And two +minutes later--when all the Law's grim business of inquiry and inquest +had been carried out by Narkom, and she, in obedience to his expressed +desire, led them to the room where the dead boy lay--that wave of +sympathetic feeling broke over his soul again. For the gentle opening of +the door had shown him a small, dimly lit room, a kneeling figure, bent +of back and bowed of head, that leant over a little white bed in a very +agony of tearless woe. + +"He can hardly tear himself away for an instant--he loved him so!" she +said in a quavering whisper to Cleek. "Must we disturb him? It seems +almost cruel." + +"I know it," he whispered back; "but the place must be searched in quest +of possible clues, Miss Comstock. The--the little boy, too, must be +examined, and it would be crueller still if he were to stay and see +things like that. Lead him out if you can. It will be for a few minutes +only. Tell him so--tell him he can come back then." And turned his face +away from that woeful picture as she went over and spoke to the +sorrowing old man. + +"Uncle!" she said softly. "Uncle Phil! You must come away for a little +time, dear. It is necessary." + +"Oh, I can't, Mirry--I can't, lovie, dear!" he answered without lifting +his head or loosening his folded hands. "My bonnie, my bonnie, that I +loved so well! Ah, let me have him while I may, Mirry--they'll take him +from me soon enough--soon enough, my bonnie boy!" + +"But, dearest, you must. The--the Law has stepped in. Gentlemen from +Scotland Yard are here. Jim has brought them. They must have the room +for a little time. There--there's the window to be examined, you know; +and if they can find out anything--" + +"I'll give them the half of all I have in the world!" broke in the old +man with a little burst of tears. "Tell them that. The half of +everything--everything--if they can get at the creature. If they can +find out. But"--collapsing suddenly, with his elbows on his knees and +his face between his hands--"they can't, they can't; nobody can! It +kills and kills and kills; and God help us! we all shall go the same +way! It will be my turn, too, some time soon. I wish it were mine now. I +wish it had been mine long ago--before I lost my bonnie own!" + +"Takes it hard, poor old chap, doesn't he?" whispered Narkom, glancing +round and getting something of a shock when he saw that Cleek, who a +moment before had appeared to be almost on the verge of tears, was now +fumbling in his coat pockets, and, with indrawn lips and knotted brows, +was scowling--absolutely scowling--in the direction where Captain +Morford stood, biting his lips and drumming with his finger nails upon +the edge of the washstand. But Cleek made no reply. Instead, he walked +quickly across to the Captain's side, stretched forth his hand, took up +a tablet of soap, turned it over, laid it down again, stepped to the +window, stepped back, and laid a firm hand on the young man's shoulder. + +"Captain," he said suddenly, in sharp, crisp tones, that sounded +painfully harsh after the old man's broken cries, "Captain, there's a +little game of cards called 'Bluff,' and it's an excellent amusement if +you don't get caught at it. We shan't have to go any further with the +search for clues in this case; but I think I shall have to ask you, my +friend, a few little questions in private, and in the interests of a +gentleman called Jack Ketch!" + +This unexpected outburst produced something like a panic. Miss Comstock, +hearing the words, cried out, put both hands to her temples, as though +her head were reeling; old Mr. Harmstead straightened suddenly and flung +a look of blank amazement across the room; and the Captain, twitching +away from the man who gripped him, went first deathly white and then red +as any beet. + +"Good God!" he gulped. "You--I--Look here, I say now, what does this +mean? What the dickens are you talking about?" + +"Bluff, Captain! Simply 'bluff'!" responded Cleek serenely. "And as I +said before, it's a clever little game. Stand where you are--keep an eye +on him, Mr. Narkom. What I've got to say to you, my friend, we'll talk +about in private, and after I have assisted Miss Comstock to lead her +uncle out of the room." + +With that he swung away from the Captain's side and went over to that of +the old man. + +"Come, Mr. Harmstead, let me help you to rise," he began; then stopped +as the old man put up a knotted and twisted hand in supplication and +protested agitatedly: "But--but, sir, I do not want to go. Good Heaven! +What can you be hinting against that poor, dear boy? Surely you do not +mean--you cannot mean--" + +"That the little game of 'Bluff' has worked, Dr. Finch, and you'll never +draw a revolver on me," rapped in Cleek, giving him a backward push that +carried him to the floor, and in the twinkling of an eye he had pounced +upon him like a cat and was saying, as he snapped the handcuffs upon his +wrists: "Got you, you brute-beast; got you tight and fast! Do you +remember Hamilton, the medical student, in New Zealand, eight years ago? +Do you? Well, that's the man you're dealing with now!" + +The man, struggling and kicking, biting and clawing like any other +cornered wild cat, flung out a cry of utter despair at this, and +collapsed suddenly; and in the winking of an eye Cleek's hands had +flashed into the two pockets of the dressing-gown the fellow was +wearing, and flashed out again with a revolver in one and a shining +nickel thing in the other. + +"Got your 'bark,' doctor, and got your 'bite' as well!" he said, as he +rose to his feet. "You'd have put a bullet through me at the first word, +wouldn't you, but for that little 'bluff' of suspecting and arresting +another man? Captain, look to Miss Comstock--I think she has fainted. +You wanted the murderer of Mrs. Comstock and her children, didn't you? +Well, here he is, the rascal!" + +"Good God! Then it--it's not a mistake? You mean it--mean it? And Uncle +Phil! You accuse Uncle Phil?" + +"Uncle Nothing!" flung back Cleek with a sort of laugh--and, hazarding a +guess which afterwards was proved to be the truth--"I'll lay my life, +Captain, that when you apply to the Australian authorities you will find +that old Mr. Philip Harmstead is in his grave; that he was attended in +his last illness by one Dr. Frederick Finch, to whom his fortune would +revert in the event of Mrs. Comstock and her children dying. Finch is +the fellow's name--isn't it, doctor, eh?" + +"Finch?" repeated the Captain. "Good Heaven! Why that was the name of +the woman who was old Mr. Harmstead's housekeeper--you know, the widow I +told you about to-night." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "That's possibly where the threads join and this +little game begins. Or perhaps it may really be said to begin again +where Shorty, the chemist, died, and the celebrated Spofford mystery +ended--eh, doctor? Look here, Captain, look here, Mr. Narkom, you +remember what I told you this morning about that case in New Zealand +which so strongly resembled this one? That was the Spofford mystery. Do +you remember what I said about hitting upon a theory and offering it to +the medical fraternity, only to get laughed at for my pains? Well, it +was to this man, Dr. Frederick Finch, I advanced that theory, and it was +Dr. Frederick Finch who jeered at it, but has now made deadly use of it, +the hound. Do you want to know how he killed his victims, and what he +used? Look at this thing that you saw me take from the pocket of his +dressing-gown. It is a hypodermic syringe, but there is nothing in +it--there never has been anything in it. Air was his poison--air his +shaft of death; and he killed by injecting it into the veins of his +victims. The result of air coming into contact with the circulating +blood of a human being is the formation of a blood-clot, and death is +instantaneous the instant the clot reaches either the brain or the +heart! That was his method. But thank God it's done with for ever now, +and the next tenth day of the month will pass over this stricken family +and leave it unscathed!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know the man?" said Cleek, answering Narkom's query, as they +came down the Tor-side afoot and forged on in the direction of +Lyntonhurst Old Church--whither Captain Morford and the limousine had +long ago preceded them--with the low-dropped sun behind them and +lengthening shadows streaming on before. "Well, as a matter of fact, I +never did know him until I actually touched him. I was certain of the +method, of course; but the man--no. I got my first suspicion of 'Uncle +Phil' when I heard him speak. I knew I had heard that voice somewhere, +and I realised that it was much too young a voice for a man who +appeared--and must be, if he were the real 'Uncle Phil'--extremely old; +but it was only when I saw his hand, and the peculiar knotted and +twisted little finger that I really knew who he was. What's that? The +soap? Well, of course I knew that if, as I suspected, someone in the +house was the real culprit, an attempt would be made to make it look as +though the criminal entered from without, so naturally the window would +be opened, and something of some sort would be smeared on the +sill--something that wouldn't blow away and wouldn't wash off in the +event of a sudden rainstorm coming up. Soap would do--and soap is always +handy in a bedroom. I knew whose hand had made the smear as soon as I +looked at the cake of soap in 'Uncle Phil's' room--it was badly rubbed +on one side where it had been scraped over the stone coping and along +the outer edge of the sill where--Pardon me: this is the turning--I +leave you here. Pick me up at the inn of the Three Desires in an hour's +time, please, and we'll motor back to town together. So long!" + +And swung round into the branching lane and down the green slope, and +round under the shadow of Lyntonhurst Old Church to the quiet country +road and the lich-gate where Ailsa Lorne was waiting. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +She was sitting in the very same place she had occupied when first he +saw her this morning, with the cypress tree and the roof making shadows +above and about her; and now, as then, she rose when she heard the latch +click and came toward him with hands outstretched and eyes aglow and +little gusts of colour sweeping in rose waves over throat and cheeks. + +"Oh, to think that you have solved it! To think that it is the end! And +to think that it was he--that dear, kind 'uncle' of whom they all were +so fond!" she said. "I could scarcely believe it when Captain Morford +brought the news. It made me quite faint for the moment--it was so +unexpected, so horrible!" + +"And after all, there was nothing to fear from that farm labourer who +frightened you so this morning, you see," he smiled, holding her two +hands in his and looking down at her from his greater height. "Yet I +find your crouching back in the shadow as if you were still frightened +to be seen. Are you?" + +"A little," she admitted. "You see, the road is a public one. People are +always passing, and--How good it was of you to come all this long +distance out of your way. Indeed, I am very, very grateful, Mr. Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said gravely. "But you need not be. Indeed, the +gratitude should be all on my side. I said I would come if ever you +wanted me, and you gave me an opportunity to keep my word. As for it +being out of my way to come here, it is but a little distance to the +Three Desires and a long one to Lady Chepstow's place, so it is you, not +I, that have 'gone out of the way!' It was good of you to give me this +grace--I should have been sorry to go back to town without saying +good-bye." + +"But need you go so soon?" she asked. "Lady Chepstow will feel slighted, +I know, if she hears that you have been in the neighbourhood and have +not called. She is a friend, you know, a warm, true friend--always +grateful for what you did, always glad to see you. Why not stop on a day +or two and call and see her?" + +A robin flicked down out of the cypress tree and perched on the gate +top, looked up at Cleek with bright, sharp eyes, flung out a wee little +trill, and was off again. + +"I'm afraid it is out of the question--I'm afraid I'm not so deeply +interested in Lady Chepstow as, perhaps, I ought to be," said Cleek, +noticing in a dim subconscious way that the robin had flown on to the +church door and perched there, and was in full song now. "Besides, she +does not know of me what you do. Perhaps, if she did.... Oh, well, it +doesn't matter. Thank you for coming to say good-bye, Miss Lorne. It was +kind of you. Now I must emulate Poor Jo, and 'move on' again." + +"And without any reward!" said Ailsa with a smile and a sigh. "Without +expecting any; without asking any; without wanting any!" + +He stood a moment, twisting his heel round and round in the gravel of +the pathway, and breathing hard, his eyes on the ground, and his lips +indrawn. Then, of a sudden--"Perhaps I did want one. Perhaps I've always +wanted one. And hoped to get it some day perhaps from--you!" he said. +And looked up at her as a man looks but once at one woman ever. + +She had come a step nearer; she was standing there with the shadows +behind her and the light on her face, warm colour in her cheeks, and a +smile on her lips and in her eyes. She spoke no word, made no sound; +merely stood there and smiled and, somehow, he seemed to know what the +smile of her meant and what the bird's note said. + +"Miss Lorne--Ailsa," he said, very, very gently, "if some day ... when +all the wrongs I did in those other days are righted, and all that a man +can do on this earth to atone for such a past as mine has been done ... +if then, in that time, I come to you and ask for that reward, do you +think, oh, do you think that you can find it in your heart to give it?" + +"When that day dawns, come and see," she said, "if you wish to wait so +long!" + + + + +EPILOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO HAD BEEN CALLED HAMILTON CLEEK + + +"Note for you, sir--messenger just fetched it. Addressed to 'Captain +Burbage,' so it'll be from The Yard," said Dollops, coming into the room +with a doughnut in one hand and a square envelope in the other. + +Cleek, who had been sitting at his writing-table, with a litter of +folded documents, bits of antique jewellery, and what looked like odds +and ends of faded ribbon lying before him, swept the whole collection +into the table drawer as Dollops spoke and stretched forth his hand for +the letter. + +It was one of Narkom's characteristic communications, albeit somewhat +shorter than those communications usually were--a fact which told Cleek +at once that the matter was one of immense importance. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran. "For the love of goodness don't let anything +tempt you into going out to-night. I shall call about ten. Foreign +government affair--reward simply enormous. Look out for me. Yours, in +hot haste--MAVERICK NARKOM." + +"Be on the lookout for the red limousine," said Cleek, glancing over at +Dollops, who stood waiting for orders. "It will be along about ten. +That's all. You may go." + +"Right you are, Gov'nor. I'll keep my eyes peeled, sir. Lor'! I do hope +it's summink to do with a restaurant or a cookshop this time. I could do +with a job of that sort--my word, yes! I'm fair famishin'. And, beggin' +pardon, but you don't look none too healthy yourself this evening, +Gov'nor. Ain't et summink wot's disagreed with you, have you, sir?" + +"I? What nonsense! I'm as fit as a fiddle. What could make you think +otherwise?" + +"Oh, I dunno, sir--only--Well, if you don't mind my sayin' of it, sir, +whenever you gets to unlocking of that draw and lookin' at them things +you keep in there--wotever they is--you always gets a sort of +solemncholy look in the eyes; and you gets white about the gills, and +your lips has a pucker to 'em that I don't like to see." + +"Tommy rot! Imagination's a splendid thing for a detective to possess, +Dollops, but don't let yours run away with you in this fashion, my lad, +or you'll never rise above what you are. Toddle along now, and look out +for Mr. Narkom's arrival. It's after nine already, so he'll soon be +here." + +"Anybody a-comin' with him, sir?" + +"I don't know--he didn't say. Cut along, now; I'm busy!" said Cleek. +Nevertheless, when Dollops had gone and the door was shut and he had the +room to himself again, and, if he really did have any business on hand, +there was no reason in the world why he should not have set about it, he +remained sitting at the table and idly drumming upon it with his finger +tips, a deep ridge between his brows and a far-away expression in his +fixed, unwinking eyes. And so he was still sitting when, something like +twenty minutes later, the sharp "Toot-toot!" of a motor horn sounded. + +Narkom's note lay on the table close to his elbow. He took it up, +crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into his waste basket. "A foreign +government affair," he said with a curious one-sided smile. "A strange +coincidence, to be sure!" Then, as if obeying an impulse, he opened the +drawer, looked at the litter of things he had swept into it, shut it up +again and locked it securely, putting the key into his pocket and rising +to his feet. Two minutes later, when Narkom pushed open the door and +entered the room, he found Cleek leaning against the edge of the +mantelpiece and smoking a cigarette with the air of one whose feet trod +always upon rose petals, and who hadn't a thought beyond the affairs of +the moment, nor a care for anything but the flavour of Egyptian tobacco. + +"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't think what a relief it was to catch you. +I had but a moment in which to dash off the note, and I was on thorns +with fear that it would miss you; that on a glorious night like this +you'd be off for a pull up the river or something of that sort," said +the superintendent, as he bustled in and shook hands with him. "You are +such a beggar for getting off by yourself and mooning." + +"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Narkom, I came within an ace of doing +the very thing you speak of," replied Cleek. "It's full moon, for one +thing, and it's primrose time for another. Happily for your desire to +catch me, however, I--er--got interested in the evening paper, and that +delayed me." + +"Very glad, dear chap; very glad, indeed," began Narkom. Then, as his +eye fell upon the particular evening paper in question lying on the +writing-table, a little crumpled from use, but with a certain +"displayed-headed" article of three columns length in full view, he +turned round and stared at Cleek with an air of awe and mystification. +"My dear fellow, you must be under the guardianship of some uncanny +familiar. You surely must, Cleek!" he went on. "Do you mean to tell me +that is what kept you at home? That you have been reading about the +preparations for the forthcoming coronation of King Ulric of +Mauravania?" + +"Yes; why not? I am sure it makes interesting reading, Mr. Narkom. The +kingdom of Mauravania has had sufficient ups and downs to inspire a +novelist, so its records should certainly interest a mere reader. To be +frank, I found the account of the amazing preparations for the +coronation of his new Majesty distinctly entertaining. They are an +excitable and spectacular people, those Mauravanians, and this time they +seem bent upon outdoing themselves." + +"But, my dear Cleek, that you should have chosen to stop at home and +read about that particular affair! Bless my soul man, it's--it's +amazing, abnormal, uncanny! Positively uncanny, Cleek!" + +"My dear Narkom, I don't see where the uncanny element comes in, I must +confess," replied Cleek with an indulgent smile. "Surely an Englishman +must always feel a certain amount of interest in Mauravian affairs. Have +the goodness to remember that there should be an Englishman upon that +particular throne. Aye, and there would be, too, but for one of those +moments of weak-backed policy, of a desire upon the part of the +'old-woman' element which sometimes prevails in English politics to keep +friendly relations with other powers at any cost. Brush up your history, +Mr. Narkom, and give your memory a fillip. Eight-and-thirty years ago +Queen Karma of Mauravania had an English consort and bore him two +daughters, and one son. You will perhaps recall the mad rebellion, the +idiotic rising which disgraced that reign. That was the time for England +to have spoken. But the peace party had it by the throat; they, with +their mawkish cry for peace--peace at any price!--drowned the voices of +men and heroes, and the end was what it was! Queen Karma was +deposed--she and her children fled, God knows how, God knows where--fled +and left a dead husband and father, slain like a hero and an Englishman, +fighting for his own, and with his face to the foe. Avenge his death? +Nonsense, declared the old women. He had no right to defy the will of +Heaven, no right to stir up strife with a friendly people and expect his +countrymen to embroil themselves because of his lust for power. It would +be a lasting disgrace to the nation if England allowed a lot of howling, +bloodthirsty meddlers to persuade it to interfere. + +"The old women had their way. Queen Karma and her children vanished; her +uncle Duke Sforza came to the throne as Alburtus III., and eight months +ago his son, the present King Ulric, succeeded him. The father had been +a bad king, the son a bad crown-prince. Mauravania has paid the price. +Let her put up with it! I don't think in the light of these things, Mr. +Narkom, there is any wonder that an Englishman finds interest in reading +of the affairs of a country over which an Englishman's son might, and +ought to, have ruled. As for me, I have no sympathy, my friend, with +Mauravania or her justly punished people." + +"Still, my dear fellow, that should not count when the reward for taking +up this case is so enormous--and I dare say it will not." + +"Reward? Case?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by that?" + +"That I am here to enlist your services in the cause of King Ulric of +Mauravania," replied Narkom, impressively. "Something has happened, +Cleek, which, if not cleared up before the coronation day--now only one +month hence, as you must have read--will certainly result in his +Majesty's public disgrace, and may result in his overthrow and death! +His friend and chief adviser, Count Irma, has come all the way from +Mauravania, and is at this moment downstairs in this house, to put the +case in your hands and to implore you to help and to save his royal +master!" + +"His royal master? The son of the man who drove an Englishman's wife and +an Englishman's children into exile--poverty--misery--despair?" said +Cleek, pulling himself up. "I won't take it, Mr. Narkom! If he offers me +millions, I'll lift no hand to help or to save Mauravania's king!" + +The response to this came from an unexpected quarter. + +"But to save Mauravania's queen, monsieur? Will you do nothing for her?" +said an excited and imploring voice. And as Cleek, startled by the +interruption, switched round and glanced in the direction of the sound, +the half-dosed door swung inward and a figure, muffled to the very eyes, +moved over the threshold into the room. "Have pardon, monsieur--I could +not but overhear," went on the newcomer, turning to Narkom. "I should +scarcely be worthy of his Majesty's confidence and favour had I remained +inactive. I simply had to come up unbidden. _Had_ to, monsieur"--turning +to Cleek--"and so--" His words dropped off suddenly. A puzzled look +first expanded and then contracted his eyes, and his lips tightened +curiously under the screen of his white, military moustache. "Monsieur," +he said, presently putting into words the sense of baffling familiarity +which perplexed him. "Monsieur, you then are the great, the astonishing +Cleek? You, monsieur? Pardon, but surely I have had the pleasure of +meeting monsieur before? No, not here, for I have never been in England +until to-day; but in my own country--in Mauravania. Surely, monsieur, I +have seen you there?" + +"On the contrary," said Cleek, speaking the simple truth. "I have never +set foot in Mauravania in all my life, sir. And as you have overheard my +words you may see that I do not intend to even now. The difficulties of +Mauravania's king do not in the least appeal to me." + +"Ah, but Mauravania's queen, monsieur--Mauravania's queen." + +"The lady interests me no more than does her royal spouse." + +"But, monsieur, she must--she really must--if you are honest in what you +say, and your sympathies are all with the deposed and exiled ones--the +ex-queen Karma and her children. Surely, monsieur, you who seem to know +so well the history of that sad time cannot be ignorant of what has +happened since to her ex-Majesty and her children?" + +"I know only that Queen Karma died in France, in extreme poverty, +befriended to the last by people of the very humblest birth and of not +too much respectability. What became of her son I do not know; but her +daughters, the two princesses, mere infants at the time, were sent, one +to England, where she subsequently died, and the other to Persia, where, +I believe, she remained up to her ninth year, and then went no one seems +to know where." + +"Then, monsieur, let me tell you what became of her. The late King +Alburtus discovered her whereabouts, and, to prevent any possible +trouble in the future, imprisoned her in the Fort of Sulberga up to the +year before his death. Eleven months ago she became the Crown Prince +Ulric's wife. She is now his consort. And by saving her, monsieur, you +who feel so warmly upon the subject of the rights of her family's +succession, will be saving her, helping Mauravania's queen, and +defeating those who are her enemies." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and regarded the man silently, steadily, for +a long time. Then: + +"Is that true, Count?" he asked. "On your word of honour as a soldier +and a gentleman, is that true?" + +"As true as Holy Writ, monsieur. On my word of honour. On my hopes of +heaven!" + +"Very well, then," said Cleek quietly. "Tell me the case, Count. I'll +take it." + +"Monsieur, my eternal gratitude. Also the reward is--" + +"We will talk about that afterward. Sit down, please, and tell me what +you want me to do." + +"Oh, monsieur, almost the impossible," said the Count despairfully. "The +outwitting of a woman who must in very truth be the devil's own +daughter, so subtle, so appalling are the craft and cunning of her. +That, for one thing. For another, the finding of a paper, which, if +published--as the woman swears it shall be if her terms are not acceded +to--will be the signal for his Majesty's overthrow. And, for the +third"--emotion mastered him; his voice choked up and failed; he +deported himself for a moment like one afraid to let even his own ears +hear the thing spoken of aloud, then governed his cowardice and went +on--"For the third thing, monsieur," he said, lowering his tone until it +was almost a whisper, "the recovery--the restoration to its place of +honour before the coronation day arrives--of that fateful gem, +Mauravania's pride and glory--'the Rainbow Pearl!'" + +Cleek clamped his jaws together like a bloodhound snapping and over his +hardening face there came a slow-creeping, unnatural pallor. + +"Has that been lost?" he said in a low, bleak voice. "Has he, this +precious royal master of yours, this usurper--has he parted with that +thing--the wondrous Rainbow Pearl?" + +"Monsieur knows of the gem, then?" + +"Know of it? Who does not? Its fame is world-wide. Wars have been fought +for it, lives sacrificed for it. It is more valuable than England's +Koh-i-noor, and more important to the country and the crown that possess +it. The legend runs, does it not, that Mauravania falls when the Rainbow +Pearl passes into alien hands. An absurd belief, to be sure, but who can +argue with a superstitious people or hammer wisdom into the minds of +babies? And _that_ has been lost--that gem so dear to Mauravania's +people, so important to Mauravania's crown?" + +"Yes, monsieur--ah, the good God help my country!--yes!" said the Count +brokenly. "It has passed from his Majesty's hands; it is no longer among +the crown jewels of Mauravania--a Russian has it." + +"A Russian?" Cleek's cry was like to nothing so much as the snarl of a +wild animal. "A Russian to hold it--a Russian?--the sworn enemy of +Mauravania--the race most hated of her people! God help your wretched +king, Count Irma, if this were known to his subjects." + +"Ah, monsieur, it is that we dread--it is that against which we +struggle," replied the Count. "If that jewel were missing on the +coronation day, if it were known that a Russian holds it--Dear God! the +populace would rise--rise, monsieur, and tear his Majesty to pieces." + +"He deserves no better!" said Cleek, through his close-shut teeth. "To a +Russian--a Russian! As heaven hears me, but for his queen--Well, let it +pass. Tell me, how did this Russian get the jewel, and when?" + +"Oh, long ago, monsieur--long ago; many months before King Alburtus +died." + +"Was it his hand that gave it up?" + +"No, monsieur. He died without knowing of its loss, without suspecting +that the stone in the royal parure is but a sham and an imitation," +replied the count. "It all came of the youth, the recklessness, the +folly of the crown prince. Monsieur may have heard of his--his many wild +escapades--his thoughtless acts, his--his--" + +"Call them dissipations, Count, and give them their real name. His acts +as crown prince were a scandal and a disgrace. To whom did he part with +this gem--a woman?" + +"Monsieur, yes! It was during the time he was stopping in +Paris--incognito to all but a trusted few. He--he met the woman there, +became fascinated with her--bound to her--an abject slave to her." + +"A slave to a Russian? Mauravania's heir and--a Russian?" + +"Monsieur, he did not know that until afterward. In a mad freak--there +was to be a masked ball--he yielded to the lady's persuasions to let her +wear the famous Rainbow Pearl for that one night. He journeyed back to +Mauravania and abstracted it from among the royal jewels--putting a mere +imitation in its place so that it should not be missed until he could +return the original. Monsieur, he was never able to return it at any +time, for, once she had got it, the Russian made away with it in some +secret manner and refused to give it up. Her price for returning it was +his royal father's consent to ennoble her, to receive her at the +Mauravanian Court, and so to alter the constitution that it would be +possible for her to become the crown prince's wife." + +"The proposition of an idiot. The thing could not possibly be done." + +"No, monsieur, it could not. So the crown prince broke from her and bent +all his energies upon the recovery of the pearl and the keeping of its +loss a secret from the king and his people. Bravos, footpads, +burglars--all manner of men--were employed before he left Paris. The +woman's house was broken into, the woman herself waylaid and searched, +but nothing came of it--no clue to the lost jewel could be found." + +"Why then did he not appeal to the police?" + +"Monsieur, he--he dared not. In one of his moments of madness +he--she--that is--Oh, monsieur, remember his youth! It appears that the +woman had got him to put into writing something which, if made public, +would cause the people of Mauravania to rise as one man and to do with +him as wolves do with things that are thrown to them in their fury." + +"The dog! Some treaty with a Russian, of course!" said Cleek +indignantly. "Oh, fickle Mauravania, how well you are punished for your +treasonable choice! Well, go on, Count. What next?" + +"Of a sudden, monsieur, the woman disappeared. Nothing was heard of her, +no clue to her whereabouts discovered for two whole years. She was as +one dead and gone until last week." + +"Oho! She returned, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. Without hint or warning she turned up in Mauravania, +accompanied by a disreputable one-eyed man who has the manner and +appearance of one bred in the gutters of Paris, albeit he is well +clothed, well-looked after, and she treats him and his wretched +collection of parakeets with the utmost consideration." + +"Parakeets?" put in Narkom excitedly. "My dear Cleek, couldn't a +parakeet be made to swallow a pearl?" + +"Perhaps; but not this one, Mr. Narkom," he made reply. "It is quite the +size of a pigeon's egg, I believe; is it not, Count?" + +"Yes, monsieur, quite. To see it is to remember it always. It has the +changing lights of the rainbow, and--" + +"Never mind that; go on with the story, please. This woman and this +one-eyed man appeared last week in Mauravania, you say?" + +"Yes, monsieur; and with them a bodyguard of at least ten servants. Her +demand now is that his Majesty make her his morganatic wife; that he +establish her at the palace under the same roof with his queen; and that +she be allowed to ride with them in the state carriage on the coronation +day. Failing that, she swears that she will not only publish the +contents of that dreadful letter, but send the original to the chief of +the Mauravanian police and appear in public with the Rainbow Pearl upon +her person." + +"The Jezebel! What steps have you taken, Count, to prevent this?" + +"All that I can imagine, monsieur. To prevent her from getting into +close touch with the public, I have thrown open my own house to her, and +received her and her retinue under my own roof rather than allow them to +be quartered at an hotel. Also, this has given me the opportunity to +have her effects and those of her followers secretly searched; but no +clue to the letter, no clue to the pearl has anywhere been discovered." + +"Still she must have both with her, otherwise she could not carry out +her threat. No doubt she suspects what motive you had in taking her into +your own house, Count--a woman like that is no fool. But tell me, does +she show no anxiety, no fear of a search?" + +"None, monsieur. She knows that my people search her effects; indeed, +she has told me so. But it alarms her not a whit. As she told me two +days ago, I shall find nothing; but if I did it would be useless, for, +on the moment anything of hers was touched, her servants would see that +the finder never carried it from the house." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "A little searching +party of her own, eh? The lady is clever, at all events. The moment +either pearl or letter should be removed from its hiding-place her +servants would allow nobody to leave the house without being searched to +the very skin?" + +"Yes, monsieur. So if by any chance you were to discover either--" + +"My friend, set your mind at rest," interposed Cleek. "If I find either, +or both, they will leave the house with me, I promise you. Mr. Narkom--" +he turned to the superintendent--"keep an eye on Dollops for me, will +you? There are reasons why I can't take him--can't take anybody--with me +in the working out of this case. I may be a couple of days or I may be a +week--I can't say as yet; but I start with Count Irma for Mauravania in +the morning. And, Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Do me a favour, please. Be at Charing Cross station when the first +boat-train leaves to-morrow morning, will you, and bring me a small pot +of extract of beef--a very small pot, the smallest they make--not bigger +than a shilling nor thicker than one if they make them that size. What's +that? Hide the pearl in it? What nonsense! I don't want one half big +enough for that. Besides, they'd be sure to find it when they searched +me if I tried any such fool's trick as that. Dollops isn't the only +creature in the world that gets hungry, my friend, and beef extract is +very sustaining, very, I assure you, sir." + + + + +II + + +"A beautiful city, Count--an exceedingly beautiful city," said Cleek, as +the carriage which had been sent to meet them at the station rolled into +the broad Avenue des Arcs, which is at once the widest and most ornate +thoroughfare the capital city of Mauravania boasts. "Ah, what a +heritage! No wonder King Ulric is so anxious to retain his sovereignty; +no wonder this--er--Madame Tcharnovetski, I think you said the name +is--" + +"Yes, monsieur. It is oddly spelled, but it is pronounced a little +broader than you give it--quite as though it were written +Shar-no-vet-skee, in fact, with the accent on the third syllable." + +"Ah, yes. Thanks very much. No wonder she is anxious to become a power +here. Mauravania is a fairyland in very truth; and this beautiful avenue +with its arches, its splendid trees, its sculpture, its--Ah! _cocher_, +pull up at once. Stop, if you please, stop!" + +"Oui, monsieur," replied the driver, reining in his horses and glancing +round. "_Dix mille pardons, M'sieur_, there is something amiss?" + +"Yes; very much amiss--from the dog's point of view," replied Cleek, +indicating by a wave of the hand a mongrel puppy which crouched, forlorn +and hungry, in the shadow of an imposing building. "He should be a +Socialist among dogs, that little fellow, Count. The mere accident of +birth has made him what he is, and that poodled monstrosity the lady +yonder is leading the pet and pride of a thoughtless mistress. I want +that little canine outcast, Count, and with your permission I will +appropriate him, and give him his first carriage ride." With that, he +stepped down from the vehicle, whistled the cur to him, and taking it up +in his arms, returned with it to his seat. + +"Monsieur, you are to me the most astonishing of men," said the Count, +noticing how he patted the puppy and settled it in his lap as the +carriage resumed its even rolling down the broad, beautiful avenue. "One +moment upholding the rights of birth, the next rebelling against the +injustice of it. Are your sympathies with the unfortunate so keen, +monsieur, that even this stray cur may claim them?" + +"Perhaps," replied Cleek enigmatically. "You must wait and see, Count. +Just now I pity him for his forlornity; to-morrow--next day--a week +hence--I may hold it a better course to put an end to his hopeless lot +by chloroforming him into a painless and peaceful death." + +"Monsieur, I cannot follow you--you speak in riddles." + +"I deal in riddles, Count; you must wait for the solution of them, I'm +afraid." + +"I wish I could grasp the solution of one which puzzles me a great deal, +monsieur. What is it that has happened to your countenance? You have +done nothing to put on a disguise; yet, since we left the train and +entered the landau, some subtle change has occurred. What is it? How has +it come about? The night before last, when I saw you for the first time, +your face was one that impressed me with a sense of familiarity--now, +monsieur, you are like a different man." + +"I am a different man, Count. Like puppy, here, I am a waif and a stray; +yet, at the same time, I have my purpose and am part of a carefully-laid +scheme." + +The Count made no reply. He could not comprehend the man at all, and at +times--but for the world-wide reputation of him--he would have believed +him insane. Not a question as to the great and important case he was on, +but merely incomprehensible remarks, trifling fancies, apparently +aimless whims! Two nights ago a pot of beef extract; to-day a mongrel +puppy; and all the time the hopes of a kingdom, the future of a monarch +resting in his hands! + +For twenty minutes longer the landau rolled on; then it came to a halt +under the broad _porte cochère_ of the Villa Irma, and two minutes after +that Cleek and the Count stood in the presence of Madame Tcharnovetski, +her purblind associate, and her retinue of servant-guards. + +A handsome woman, this madame, a woman of about two-and-thirty, with the +tar-black eyes and the twilight coloured tresses of Northern Russia; +bold as brass, flippant as a French cocotte, steel-nerved and +calm-blooded as a professional gambler. It had been her whim that all +the women of the Count's family should be banished from the house during +her stay; that the great salon of the villa--a wondrous apartment, hung +in blue and silver, and lit by a huge crystal chandelier--should be put +at her disposal night and day; that the electric lights should be +replaced with dozens of wax candles (after the manner of the ballrooms +of her native Russia), and that her one-eyed companion, with his wicker +cage of screeching parakeets, should come and go when and where and how +he listed, and that an electric alarm bell be connected with her +sleeping apartment and his. + +"Your hirelings will tamper with his birds and his effects in the +night--I know that, Monsieur le Comte," she had said when she demanded +this. "He is a nervous fellow, this poor Clopin; I wish him to be able +to ring for help if you and your men go too far." + +Clopin was sitting by the window chattering to his birds when Cleek +entered, and a glance at him was sufficient to decide two points: first, +he was not disguised, nor was his partial blindness in any way a sham, +for an idiot could have seen that the droop of the left eyelid over the +staring, palpably artificial eye which glazed over the empty socket +beneath was due to perfectly natural causes; and, second, that the man +was indeed what the Count had said he resembled, namely, a gutter-bred +outcast. + +"French!" was Cleek's silent comment upon him. "One of those charlatans +who infest the streets of Paris with their so-called 'fortune-telling +birds,' who, for ten centimes, pick out an envelope with their beaks as +a means of telling you what the future is supposed to hold. What has +made a woman like this pick up a fellow of his stamp? Hum-m-m! Puppy, I +think you are a good move," stroking the ears of the mongrel dog; "a +very much better move than a cage of useless parakeets that are meant to +throw suspicion in the wrong direction and have a seed-cup so large and +so obviously overfilled that it is safe to say there is nothing hidden +in it and never has been! And madame has a fancy for waxlights," his +gaze travelling upward to the glittering chandelier. "Hum-m-m! How well +they know, these women whose beauty is going off, that waxlights show +less of Time's ravages than gas or electricity. Candles in the +chandelier; candles in the sconces, candles on the mantelpieces. This +room should be very charming when it is lighted at night." + +It was--as he learned later. Just now things not quite so charming +filled the bill, for madame was jeering at him in a manner not to be +understood. + +"A police spy--that is what you are, monsieur!" she said, coming up to +him and impudently snapping her fingers under his nose. "Such a fool, +this white-headed old dotard of a Count, to think that he can take me in +with a silly yarn about going to visit a nephew and bringing him back +here to stay. Monsieur, you are a police spy. Well, good luck to you. +Get what the Mauravanian king wants, if--you--can!" + +"Madame," replied Cleek, with a deeply deferential bow and with an +accent that seemed born of Paris, "madame, that is what I mean to do, I +assure you." + +"Ah, do you?" she answered, with a scream of laughter. "You hear that, +Clopin? You hear that, my good servitors? This silly French noodle is +going to get the things in spite of us. Oho, but you have a fine opinion +of yourself, monsieur. You need work fast, too, pretty boaster, I can +tell you. For the royal jewellers will require the Rainbow Pearl very +soon to fix it in its place in the crown for the coronation ceremony, +and if that thing his Majesty holds is offered to them, how long, think +you, will it be before all Mauravania knows that it is an imitation? +Look you," waxing suddenly vicious, "I'll make it shorter still, the +time you have to strive. Monsieur le Comte, take this message to his +Majesty from me: If in three days he does not promise to accede to my +demands and give me a public proof of it over his royal seal, I leave +Mauravania--the pearl and letter leave with me, and they shall not come +back until I return with them for the coronation." + +"For the love of God, madame," said the Count, "don't make it harder +still. Oh, wait, wait, I beseech you!" + +"Not an hour longer than I have now said!" she flung back at him. "I +have waited until I am tired of it, and my patience is worn out. Three +days, Count; three days, monsieur with the puppy dog; three days, and +not an instant longer, do you hear?" + +"Quite enough, madame," replied Cleek, with a courtly bow, "I promise to +have them in two!" + +She threw back her head and fairly shook with laughter. + +"Of a truth, monsieur, you are a candid boaster!" she cried. "Look you, +my good fellows, and you too, my poor dumb Clopin, pretty monsieur here +will have the letter and the pearl in two days' time. Look to it that he +never leaves this house at any minute from this time forth that you do +not search him from top to toe. If he resists--ah, well, a pistol may go +off accidentally, and things that Mauravania's king would give his life +to keep hidden will come to light if any charge of murder is preferred. +Monsieur the police spy, I wish you joy of your task." + +"Madame, I shall take joy in it," Cleek replied. "But why should we talk +of unpleasant things when the future looks so bright? Come, may we not +give ourselves a pleasant evening? Look, there is a piano, and--Count, +hold my puppy for me, and please see that no one feeds him at any time. +I am starving him so that he may devour some of Clopin's parakeets, +because I hate the sight of the little beasts. Thank you. Madame, do you +like music? Listen, then: I'll sing you Mauravania's national anthem: +'God guard the throne; God shield the right!'" and, dropping down upon +the seat before the open instrument, he did so. + + * * * * * + +That night was ever memorable at the Villa Irma, for the detective +seemed somehow to have given place to the courtier, and so merry was his +mood, so infectious his good nature, that even madame came under the +spell of it. She sang with him, she even danced a Russian polka with +him; she sat with him at dinner, and flirted with him in the salon +afterward; and when the time came for her to retire, it was he who took +her bedroom candle from the shelf and put it into her hand. + +"Of a truth, you are a charming fellow, monsieur," she said, when he +bent and kissed her hand. "What a pity you should be a police spy and +upon so hopeless a case." + +"Hopeless cases are my delight, madame. Believe me, I shall not fail." + +"Only three days, remember, _cher ami_--only three days!" + +"Madame is too kind. I have said it: two will do. On the morning of the +third madame's passport will be ready and the Rainbow Pearl be in the +royal jeweller's hands. A thousand pleasant dreams--_bon soir_!" And +bowed her out and kissed his hand to her as she went up the stairs to +bed. + + + + +III + + +Thrice during the next twenty-four hours Cleek, who seemed to have +become so attached to the mongrel dog that he kept it under his arm +continually, had reason to leave the house, and thrice was he seized by +madame's henchmen, bundled unceremoniously into a convenient room, and +searched to the very skin before he was suffered to pass beyond the +threshold. And if so much as a pin had been hidden upon his person, it +must have been discovered. + +"You see, monsieur, how hopeless it is!" said the Count despairfully. +"One dare not rebel: one dare not lift a finger, or the woman speaks and +his Majesty's ruin falls. Oh, the madness of that boast of yours! Only +another twenty-four hours--only another day--and then God help his +Majesty!" + +"God has helped him a great deal better than he deserves, Count," +replied Cleek. "By to-morrow night at ten o'clock be in the square of +the Aquisola, please. Bring with you the passports of madame and her +companions, also a detachment of the Royal Guard, and his Majesty's +cheque for the reward I am to receive." + +"Monsieur! You really hope to get the things? You really do?" + +"Oh, I do more than 'hope,' Count--I have succeeded. I knew last night +where both pearl and letter were. To-morrow night--ah, well, let +to-morrow tell its own tale. Only be in the square at the hour I +mention, and when I lift a lighted candle and pass it across the salon +window, send the guard here with the passports. Let them remain +outside--within sight, but not within range of hearing what is said and +done. You are alone to enter--remember that." + +"To receive the jewel and the letter?" eagerly. "Or, at least, to have +you point out the hiding-place of them?" + +"No; we should be shot down like dogs if I undertook a mad thing like +that." + +"Then, monsieur, how are we to seize them? How get them into our +possession, his Majesty and I?" + +"From my hand, Count; this hand which held them both before I went to +bed last night." + +"Monsieur!" The Count fell back from him as if from some supernatural +presence. "You found them? You held them? You took possession of them +last night? How did you get them out of the house?" + +"I have not done so yet." + +"But can you? Oh, monsieur, wizard though you are, can you get them past +her guards? Can you, monsieur--can you?" + +"Watch for the light at the window, Count. It will not be waved unless +it is safe for you to come and the pearl is already out of the house." + +"And the letter, monsieur--the damning letter?" + +Cleek smiled one of his strange, inscrutable smiles. + +"Ask me that to-morrow, Count," he said. "You shall hear something, you +and madame, that will surprise you both," then twisted round on his heel +and walked hurriedly away. + +And all that day and all that night he danced attendance upon madame, +and sang to her, and handed her bedroom candle to her as he had done the +night before, and gave back jest for jest and returned her merry +badinage in kind. + +Nor did he change in that when the fateful to-morrow came. From morning +to night he was at her side, at her beck and call, doing nothing that +was different from the doings of yesterday, save that at evening he +locked the mongrel dog up in his room instead of carrying him about. And +the dog, feeling its loneliness, or, possibly, famishing--for he had +given it not a morsel of food since he found it--howled and howled until +the din became unbearable. + +"Monsieur, I wish you would silence that beast or else feed it," said +madame pettishly. "The howling of the wretched thing gets on my nerves. +Give it some food for pity's sake." + +"Not I," said Cleek. "Do you remember what I said, madame? I am getting +it hungry enough to eat one--or perhaps all--of Clopin's wretched little +parakeets." + +"You think they have to do with the hiding of the paper or the pearl, +cher ami? Eh?" + +"I am sure of it. He would not carry the beastly little things about for +nothing." + +"Ah, you are clever--you are very, very clever, monsieur," she made +answer, with a laugh. "But he must begin his bird-eating quickly, that +nuisance-dog, or it will be too late. See, it is already half-past nine; +I retire to my bed in another hour and a half, as always, and then your +last hope he is gone--z-zic! like that; for it will be the end of the +second day, monsieur, and your promise not yet kept. Pestilence, +monsieur," with a little outburst of temper, "do stop the little beast +his howl. It is unbearable! I would you to sing to me like last night, +but the noise of the dog is maddening." + +"Oh, if it annoys you like that, madame," said Cleek, "I'll take him +round to the stable and tie him up there, so we may have the song +undisturbed. Your men will not want to search me of course, when I am +merely popping out and popping in again like that, I am sure?" + +Nevertheless they did, for although they had heard and did not stir when +he left the room and ran up for the dog, when he came down with it under +his arm and made to leave the house, he was pounced upon, dragged into +an adjoining apartment by half a dozen burly fellows, stripped to the +buff, and searched, as the workers in a diamond mine are searched, +before they suffered him to leave the house. There was neither a sign of +a pearl nor a scrap of a letter to be found upon him--they made sure of +that before they let him go. + +"An enterprising lot, those lackeys of yours, madame," he said, when he +returned from tying the dog up in the stable and rejoined her in the +salon. "It will be an added pleasure to get the better of them, I can +assure you." + +"Oui! if you can!" she answered, with a mocking laugh. "Clopin, cher +ami, your poor little parakeets are safe for the night--unless monsieur +grows desperate and eats them for himself." + +"Even that, if it were necessary to get the pearl, madame," said Cleek, +with the utmost sang-froid. "Faugh!" looking at his watch, "a good +twenty minutes wasted by the zealousness of those idiotic searchers of +yours. Ten minutes to ten! Just time for one brief song. Let us make hay +while the sun lasts, madame, for it goes down suddenly in Mauravania; +and for some of us--it never comes up again!" Then, throwing himself +upon the piano-seat, he ran his fingers across the keys and broke into +the stately measures of the national anthem. And, of a sudden, while the +song was yet in progress, the clock in the corridor jingled its musical +chimes and struck the first note of the hour. + +He jumped to his feet and lifted both hands above his head. + +"Mauravania!" he cried. "Oh, Mauravania! For you! For you!" Then jumped +to the mantelpiece, and catching up a lighted candle, flashed it twice +across the window's width, and broke again into the national hymn. + +"Monsieur," cried out madame, "monsieur, what is the meaning of that? +Have you lost your wits? You give a signal! For what? To whom?" + +"To the guards of Mauravania's king, madame, in honour of his safe +escape from you!" he made reply; then twitched back the window curtains +until the whole expanse of glass was bared. "Look! do you see them--do +you, madame? His Majesty of Mauravania sends Madame Tcharnovetski a +command to leave his kingdom, since he no longer has cause to fear a +wasp whose sting has been plucked out." + +Her swift glance flashed to the fireplace, then to the corner where +Clopin still sat with his jabbering parakeets, then flashed back to +Cleek, and--she laughed in his face. + +"I think not, monsieur," she said, with a swaggering air. "Truly, I +think not, my excellent friend." + +"What a pity you only think so, madame! As for me--Ah, welcome, Count, +welcome a thousand times. The paper, my friend; you have brought it? +Good! Give it to me. Madame, your passport--yours and your associates'. +You leave Mauravania by the midnight train, and you have but little time +to pack your effects. Your passport, madame, and--your bedroom candle. +Oh, yes, the paper is still round it--see!" slipping off a sheet of note +paper that was wrapped round the full length of the candle from top to +bottom, "but if you will examine it, madame, you will find it is blank. +I burned the real letter the night before last when I put this in its +place." + +"You what?" she snapped; then caught the tube-shaped covering he had +stripped from the candle, uncurled it, and--screamed. + +"Blank, madame, quite blank, you see," said Cleek serenely. "For one so +clever in other things, you should have been more careful. A little +pinch of powder in the punch at dinner-time--just that--and on the first +night, too! It was so easy afterward to get into your room, remove the +real paper, and wrap the candle in a blank piece while you slept." + +"You--you dog!" she snapped out viciously. "You drugged me?" + +"Yes, madame; you and the one-eyed man as well! Oh, don't excite +yourself--don't pull at the poor wretch like that. The glass eye will +come out quite easily, but--I assure you there is only a small lump of +beeswax in the socket now. I removed the Rainbow Pearl from poor +Monsieur Clopin's blind eye ten minutes after I burnt the letter, +madame, and--it passed out of this house to-night! A clever idea to pick +up a one-eyed pauper, madame, and hide the pearl in the empty socket of +the lost eye, but--it was too bad, you had to supply a glass eye to keep +it in, after the lid and the socket had withered and shrunk from so many +years of emptiness. It worried the poor man, madame; he was always +feeling it, always afraid that the lump behind would force it out; and, +what is an added misfortune for your plans, the glass shell did not +allow you to see the change when the pearl vanished and the bit of +beeswax took its place. Madame Tcharnovetski, your passport. I know +enough of the King of Mauravania to be sure that your life will not be +safe if you are not past the frontier before daybreak!" + + * * * * * + +"Monsieur le comte--no! I thank you, but I cannot wait to be presented +to his Majesty, for I, too, leave Mauravania to-night, and, like Madame +yonder, return to other and more promising fields," said Cleek, an hour +later, as he stood on the terrace of the Villa Irma and watched the slow +progress down the moonlit avenue of the carriage which was bearing +Madame Tcharnovetski and her effects to the railway station. "Give me +the cheque, please; I have earned that, and--there is good use for it. I +thank you, Count. Now do an act of charity, my friend: give the little +dog in the stable a good meal, and then have a surgeon chloroform him +into a peaceful and merciful death. They will find the Rainbow Pearl in +his intestines when they come to dissect the body. I starved him, +Count--starved him purposely, poor little wretch, so that he could be +hungry enough to snap at anything in the way of food and bolt it +instantly. To-night, when I went up to take him out to the stable, a +thick smearing of beef extract over the surface of the pearl was +sufficient; he swallowed it in a gulp! For a double reason, Count, there +should be a cur quartered on the royal arms of this country after +to-night." + +His voice dropped off into silence. The carriage containing madame had +swung out through the gateway, and its shadow no longer blotted the +broad, unbroken space of moonlit avenue. He turned and looked far out, +over the square of the Aquisola, along the light-lined esplanade, to the +palace gates and the fluttering flag that streamed against the sky above +and beyond them. + +"Oh, Mauravania!" he said. "An Englishman's heritage! Dear country, how +beautiful! My love to your Queen--my prayers for you." + +"Monsieur!" exclaimed the Count, "monsieur, what juggle is this? Your +face is again the face of that other night--the face that stirs memory +yet does not rivet it. Monsieur, speak, I beg of you. What are you? Who +are you?" + +"Cleek," he made answer. "Just Cleek! It will do. Oh, Mauravania, dear +land of desolated hopes, dear grave of murdered joys!" + +"Monsieur!" + +"Hush! Let me alone. There are things too sacred; and this--" His hands +reached outward as if in benediction; his face, upturned, was as a face +transfigured, and something that shone as silver gleamed in the corner +of his eye. "Mauravania!" he said. "Oh, Mauravania! My country--my +people--good-bye!" + +"Monsieur! Dear Heaven--_Majesty!_" + +Then came a rustling sound, and when Cleek had mastered himself and +looked down, a figure with head uncovered knelt on one knee at his feet. + +"Get up, Count," he said, with a little shaky laugh. "I appreciate the +honour, but--your fancy is playing you a trick. I tell you I never set +foot in Mauravania before, my friend." + +"I know--I know. How should you. Majesty, when it was as a child at +Queen Karma's breast Mauravania last saw--Don't leave like this! +Majesty! Majesty! 'God guard the right'--the pearl and the kingdom are +here." + +"Wrong, my good friend. The kingdom is there--where you found me--in +England; and so, too, is the pearl. For there is no kingdom like the +kingdom of love, no pearl like a good woman. Good night, Count, and many +thanks for your hospitality. You are a little upset to-night, but no +doubt you will be all right again in the morning. I will walk to the +station and--alone, if it is all the same to you." + +"Majesty!" + +"Dreams, Count, dreams. The riddle is solved, my friend. Good luck to +your country and--good-bye!" + +And, setting his back to the palace and the lights and the fluttering +flag, and his face to the land that held her, turned and went his +way--to the West--to England--and to those things which are higher than +crowns and better than sceptres and more precious than thrones and +ermine. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces +by Thomas W. 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Hanshew + +Release Date: December 12, 2004 [EBook #14332] +[Last updated: November 17, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEEK: THE MAN OF THE FORTY FACES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + CLEEK: The Man of the Forty Faces + + By THOMAS W. HANSHEW + +AUTHOR OF "Cleek of Scotland Yard," "The Riddle of the Night," Etc. + + 1912 + + + +CLEEK: THE MAN OF THE FORTY FACES + + + + +PROLOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF HAMILTON CLEEK + + +The thing wouldn't have happened if any other constable than Collins had +been put on point duty at Blackfriars Bridge that morning. For Collins +was young, good-looking, and--knew it. Nature had gifted him with a +susceptible heart and a fond eye for the beauties of femininity. So when +he looked round and saw the woman threading her way through the maze of +vehicles at "Dead Man's Corner," with her skirt held up just enough to +show two twinkling little feet in French shoes, and over them a +graceful, willowy figure, and over that an enchanting, if rather too +highly tinted face, with almond eyes and a fluff of shining hair under +the screen of a big Parisian hat--that did for him on the spot. + +He saw at a glance that she was French--exceedingly French--and he +preferred English beauty, as a rule. But, French or English, beauty is +beauty, and here undeniably was a perfect type, so he unhesitatingly +sprang to her assistance and piloted her safely to the kerb, revelling +in her voluble thanks, and tingling as she clung timidly but rather +firmly to him. + +"Sair, I have to give you much gratitude," she said in a pretty, wistful +sort of way, as they stepped on to the pavement. Then she dropped her +hand from his sleeve, looked up at him, and shyly drooped her head, as +if overcome with confusion and surprise at the youth and good looks of +him. "Ah, it is nowhere in the world but Londres one finds these +delicate attentions, these splendid sergeants de ville," she added, with +a sort of sigh. "You are wonnerful--you are mos' wonnerful, you Anglais +poliss. Sair, I am a stranger; I know not ze ways of this city of +amazement, and if monsieur would so kindly direct me where to find the +Abbey of the Ves'minster--" + +Before P.C. Collins could tell her that if that were her destination, +she was a good deal out of her latitude; indeed, even before she +concluded what she was saying, over the rumble of the traffic there rose +a thin, shrill piping sound, which to ears trained to the call of it +possessed a startling significance. + +It was the shrilling of a police whistle, far off down the Embankment. + +"Hullo! That's a call to the man on point!" exclaimed Collins, all alert +at once. "Excuse me, mum. See you presently. Something's up. One of my +mates is a-signalling me." + +"Mates, monsieur? Mates? Signalling? I shall not understand the vords. +But yes, vat shall that mean--eh?" + +"Good Lord, don't bother me now! I--I mean, wait a bit. That's the call +to 'head off' someone, and--By George! There he is now, coming head on, +the hound, and running like the wind!" + +For of a sudden, through a break in the traffic, a scudding figure had +sprung into sight--the figure of a man in a grey frock-coat and a +shining "topper," a well-groomed, well-set-up man, with a small, +turned-up moustache and hair of that peculiar purplish-red one sees only +on the shell of a roasted chestnut. As he swung into sight, the distant +whistle shrilled again; far off in the distance voices sent up cries of +"Head him off!" "Stop that man!" _et cetera_; then those on the pavement +near to the fugitive took up the cry, joined in pursuit, and in a +twinkling, what with cabmen, tram-men, draymen, and pedestrians +shouting, there was hubbub enough for Hades. + +"A swell pickpocket, I'll lay my life," commented Collins, as he squared +himself for an encounter and made ready to leap on the man when he came +within gripping distance. "Here! get out of the way, madmazelly. +Business before pleasure. And, besides, you're like to get bowled over +in the rush. Here, chauffeur!"--this to the driver of a big, black +motor-car which swept round the angle of the bridge at that moment, and +made as though to scud down the Embankment into the thick of the +chase--"pull that thing up sharp! Stop where you are! Dead still. At +once, at once, do you hear? We don't want you getting in the way. Now, +then"--nodding his head in the direction of the running man--"come on +you bounder; I'm ready for you!" + +And, as if he really heard that invitation, and really was eager to +accept it, the red-headed man did "come on" with a vengeance. And all +the time, "madmazelly," unheeding Collins's advice, stood calmly and +silently waiting. + +Onward came the runner, with the whole roaring pack in his wake, dodging +in and out among the vehicles, "flooring" people who got in his way, +scudding, dodging, leaping, like a fox hard pressed by the +hounds--until, all of a moment he spied a break in the traffic, leapt +through it, and--then there was mischief. For Collins sprang at him like +a cat, gripped two big, strong-as-iron hands on his shoulders, and had +him tight and fast. + +"Got you, you ass!" snapped he, with a short, crisp, self-satisfied +laugh. "None of your blessed squirming now. Keep still. You'll get out +of your coffin, you bounder, as soon as out of my grip. Got you--got +you! Do you understand?" + +The response to this fairly took the wind out of him. + +"Of course I do," said the captive, gaily; "it's part of the programme +that you should get me. Only, for Heaven's sake, don't spoil the film by +remaining inactive, you goat! Struggle with me--handle me roughly--throw +me about. Make it look real; make it look as though I actually did get +away from you, not as though you let me. You chaps behind there, don't +get in the way of the camera--it's in one of those cabs. Now, then, +Bobby, don't be wooden! Struggle--struggle, you goat, and save the +film!" + +"Save the what?" gasped Collins. "Here! Good Lord! Do you mean to +say--?" + +"Struggle--struggle--struggle!" cut in the man impatiently. "Can't you +grasp the situation? It's a put-up thing: the taking of a kinematograph +film--a living picture--for the Alhambra to-night! Heavens above, +Marguerite, didn't you tell him?" + +"Non, non! There was not ze time. You come so quick, I could not. And +he--ah, le bon Dieu!--he gif me no chance. Officair, I beg, I entreat of +you, make it real! Struggle, fight, keep on ze constant move. +Zere!"--something tinkled on the pavement with the unmistakable sound of +gold--"zere, monsieur, zere is the half-sovereign to pay you for ze +trouble, only, for ze lof of goodness, do not pick it up while the +instrument--ze camera--he is going. It is ze kinematograph, and you +would spoil everything!" + +The chop-fallen cry that Collins gave was lost in a roar of laughter +from the pursuing crowd. + +"Struggle--struggle! Don't you hear, you idiot?" broke in the red-headed +man irritably. "You are being devilishly well paid for it, so for +goodness' sake make it look real. That's it! Bully boy! Now, once more +to the right, then loosen your grip so that I can push you away and make +a feint of punching you off. All ready there, Marguerite? Keep a clear +space about her, gentlemen. Ready with the motor, chauffeur? All right. +Now, then, Bobby, fall back, and mind your eye when I hit out, old chap. +One, two, three--here goes!" + +With that he pushed the chop-fallen Collins from him, made a feint of +punching his head as he reeled back, then sprang toward the spot where +the Frenchwoman stood, and gave a finish to the adventure that was +highly dramatic and decidedly theatrical. For "mademoiselle," seeing him +approach her, struck a pose, threw out her arms, gathered him into +them--to the exceeding enjoyment of the laughing throng--then both +looked back and behaved as people do on the stage when "pursued," +gesticulated extravagantly, and, rushing to the waiting motor, jumped +into it. + +"Many thanks, Bobby; many thanks, everybody!" sang out the red-headed +man. "Let her go, chauffeur. The camera men will pick us up again at +Whitehall, in a few minutes' time." + +"Right you are, sir," responded the chauffeur gaily. Then "toot-toot" +went the motor-horn as the gentleman in grey closed the door upon +himself and his companion, and the vehicle, darting forward, sped down +the Embankment in the exact direction whence the man himself had +originally come, and, passing directly through that belated portion of +the hurrying crowd to whom the end of the adventure was not yet known, +flew on and--vanished. + +And Collins, stooping to pick up the half-sovereign that had been thrown +him, felt that after all it was a poor price to receive for all the +jeers and gibes of the assembled onlookers. + +"Smart capture, Bobby, wasn't it?" sang out a deriding voice that set +the crowd jeering anew. "You'll git promoted, you will! See it in all +the evenin' papers--oh, yus! ''Orrible hand-to-hand struggle with a +desperado. Brave constable has 'arf a quid's worth out of an infuriated +ruffin!' My hat! won't your missis be proud when you take her to see +that bloomin' film?" + +"Move on, now, move on!" said Collins, recovering his dignity, and +asserting it with a vim. "Look here, cabby, I don't take it kind of you +to laugh like that; they had you just as bad as they had me. Blow that +Frenchy! She might have tipped me off before I made such an ass of +myself. I don't say that I'd have done it so natural if I had known, +but--Hullo! What's that? Blowed if it ain't that blessed whistle again, +and another crowd a-pelting this way; and--no!--yes, by Jupiter!--a +couple of Scotland Yard chaps with 'em. My hat! what do you suppose that +means?" + +He knew in the next moment. Panting and puffing, a crowd at their heels, +and people from all sides stringing out from the pavement and trooping +after them, the two "plain-clothes" men came racing through the grinning +gathering and bore down on P.C. Collins. + +"Hullo, Smathers, you in this, too?" began he, his feelings softened by +the knowledge that other arms of the law would figure on that film with +him at the Alhambra to-night. "Now, what are you after, you goat? That +French lady, or the red-headed party in the grey suit?" + +"Yes, yes, of course I am. You heard me signal you to head him off, +didn't you?" replied Smathers, looking round and growing suddenly +excited when he realized that Collins was empty-handed, and that the +red-headed man was not there. "Heavens! you never let him get away, did +you? You grabbed him, didn't you--eh?" + +"Of course I grabbed him. Come out of it. What are you giving me, you +josser?" said Collins with a wink and a grin. "Ain't you found out even +yet, you silly? Why, it was only a faked-up thing--the taking of a +kinematograph picture for the Alhambra. You and Petrie ought to have +been here sooner and got your wages, you goats. I got half a quid for my +share when I let him go." + +Smathers and Petrie lifted up their voices in one despairing howl. + +"When you what?" fairly yelled Smathers. "You fool! You don't mean to +tell me that you let them take you in like that--those two? You don't +mean to tell me that you had him--had him in your hands--and then let +him go? You did? Oh! you seventy-seven kinds of a double-barrelled ass! +Had him--think of it!--had him, and let him go! Did yourself out of a +share in a reward of two hundred quid when you'd only to shut your hands +and hold on to it!" + +"Two hundred quid? Two hun--W-what are you talking about? Wasn't it +true? Wasn't it a kinematograph picture, after all?" + +"No, you fool, no!" howled Smathers, fairly dancing with despair. "Oh, +you blithering idiot! You ninety-seven varieties of a fool! Do you know +who you had in your hands? Do you know who you let go? It was that devil +'Forty Faces'--'The Vanishing Cracksman'--the man who calls himself +'Hamilton Cleek'; and the woman was his pal, his confederate, his +blessed stool-pigeon--'Margot, the Queen of the Apache'; and she came +over from Paris to help him in that clean scoop of Lady Dresmer's jewels +last week!" + +"Heavens!" gulped Collins, too far gone to say anything else, too deeply +dejected to think of anything but that he had had the man for whom +Scotland Yard had been groping for a year--the man over whom all +England, all France, all Germany wondered--close shut in the grip of his +hands and then had let him go. The biggest and boldest criminal the +police had ever had to cope with, the almost supernatural genius of +crime, who defied all systems, laughed at all laws, mocked at all the +Vidocqs, and Dupins, and Sherlock Holmeses, whether amateur or +professional, French or English, German or American, that ever had been +or ever could be pitted against him, and who, for sheer devilry, for +diabolical ingenuity and for colossal impudence, as well as for a +nature-bestowed power that was simply amazing, had not his match in all +the universe. + +Who or what he really was, whence he came, whether he was English, +Irish, French, German, Yankee, Canadian, Italian or Dutchman, no man +knew and no man might ever hope to know unless he himself chose to +reveal it. In his many encounters with the police he had assumed the +speech, the characteristics, and, indeed, the facial attributes of each +in turn, and assumed them with an ease and a perfection that were simply +marvellous, and had gained for him the sobriquet of "Forty Faces" among +the police, and of "The Vanishing Cracksman" among the scribes and +reporters of newspaperdom. That he came, in time, to possess another +name than these was due to his own whim and caprice, his own bald, +unblushing impudence; for, of a sudden, whilst London was in a fever of +excitement and all the newspapers up in arms over one of the most daring +and successful coups, he chose to write boldly to both editors and +police complaining that the title given him by each was both vulgar and +cheap. + +"You would not think of calling Paganini a 'fiddler,'" he wrote; "why, +then, should you degrade me with the coarse term of 'cracksman'? I claim +to be as much an artist in my profession as Paganini was in his, and I +claim also a like courtesy from you. So, then, if in the future it +becomes necessary to allude to me--and I fear it often will--I shall be +obliged if you do so as 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.' In +return for that courtesy, gentlemen, I promise to alter my mode of +procedure, to turn over a new leaf, as it were, to give you at all times +hereafter distinct information, in advance, of such places as I elect +for the field of my operations, and of the time when I shall pay my +respects to them, and, on the morning after each such visit, to bestow +some small portion of the loot upon Scotland Yard as a souvenir of the +event." + +And to that remarkable programme he rigidly adhered from that time +forth--always giving the police twelve hours' notice, always evading +their traps and snares, always carrying out his plans in spite of them, +and always, on the morning after, sending some trinket or trifle to +Superintendent Narkom at Scotland Yard, in a little pink cardboard box, +tied up with rose-coloured ribbon, and marked "With the compliments of +The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek." + +The detectives of the United Kingdom, the detectives of the Continent, +the detectives of America--each and all had measured swords with him, +tried wits with him, spread snares and laid traps for him, and each and +all had retired from the field vanquished. + +And this was the man that he--Police Constable Samuel James Collins--had +actually had in his hands; nay, in his very arms, and then had given up +for half a sovereign and let go! + +"Oh, so help me! You make my head swim, Smathers, that you do!" he +managed to say at last. "I had him--I had the Vanishing Cracksman--in my +blessed paws--and then went and let that French hussy--But look here; I +say, now, how do you know it was him? Nobody can go by his looks; so how +do you know?" + +"Know, you footler!" growled Smathers, disgustedly. "Why shouldn't I +know when I've been after him ever since he left Scotland Yard half an +hour ago?" + +"Left what? My hat! You ain't a-going to tell me that he's been there? +When? Why? What for?" + +"To leave one of his blessed notices, the dare-devil. What a detective +he'd a made, wouldn't he, if he'd only a-turned his attention that way, +and been on the side of the law instead of against it? He walked in bold +as brass, sat down, and talked with the superintendent over some +cock-and-bull yarn about a 'Black Hand' letter that he said had been +sent to him, and asked if he couldn't have police protection whilst he +was in town. It wasn't until after he'd left that the super he sees a +note on the chair where the blighter had been sitting, and when he +opened it, there it was in black and white, something like this: + +"'The list of presents that have been sent for the wedding to-morrow of +Sir Horace Wyvern's eldest daughter make interesting reading, +particularly that part which describes the jewels sent--no doubt as a +tribute to her father's position as the greatest brain specialist in the +world--from the Austrian Court and the Continental principalities. The +care of such gems is too great a responsibility for the bride. I +propose, therefore, to relieve her of it to-night, and to send you the +customary souvenir of the event to-morrow morning. Yours faithfully, + +"'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek. + +"That's how I know, dash you! Superintendent sent me out after him, hot +foot; and after a bit I picked him up in the Strand, toddling along with +that French hussy as cool as you please. But, blow him! he must have +eyes all round his head, for he saw me just as soon as I saw him, and he +and Frenchy separated like a shot. She hopped into a taxi and flew off +in one direction; he dived into a crowd and bolted in another, and +before you could say Jack Robinson he was doubling and twisting, jumping +into cabs and jumping out again--all to gain time, of course, for the +woman to do what he'd put her up to doing--and leading me the devil's +own chase through the devil's own tangle till he was ready to bunk for +the Embankment. And you let him go, you blooming footler! Had him and +let him go, and chucked away a third of £200 for the price of half a +quid!" + +And long after Smathers and Petrie had left him, and the wondering crowd +had dispersed, and point duty at "Dead Man's Corner" was just point duty +again and nothing more, P.C. Collins stood there, chewing the cud of +bitter reflection over those words, and trying to reckon up just how +many pounds and how much glory had been lost to him. + + + + +II + + +"But, damme, sir, the thing's an outrage! I don't mince my words, Mr. +Narkom--I say plump and plain the thing's an outrage, a disgrace to the +police, an indignity upon the community at large; and for Scotland Yard +to permit itself to be defied, bamboozled, mocked at in this appalling +fashion by a paltry burglar--" + +"Uncle, dear, pray don't excite yourself in this manner. I am quite sure +that if Mr. Narkom could prevent the things--" + +"Hold your tongue, Ailsa--I will not be interfered with! It's time that +somebody spoke out plainly and let this establishment know what the +public has a right to expect of it. What do I pay my rates and taxes +for--and devilish high ones they are, too, b'gad--if it's not to +maintain law and order and the proper protection of property? And to +have the whole blessed country terrorised, the police defied, and +people's houses invaded with impunity by a gutter-bred brute of a +cracksman is nothing short of a scandal and a shame! Call this sort of +tomfoolery being protected by the police? God bless my soul! one might +as well be in charge of a parcel of doddering old women and be done with +it!" + +It was an hour and a half after that exciting affair at "Dead Man's +Corner." The scene was Superintendent Narkom's private room at +headquarters, the dramatis personae, Mr. Maverick Narkom himself, Sir +Horace Wyvern, and Miss Ailsa Lorne, his niece, a slight, fair-haired, +extremely attractive girl of twenty, the only and orphaned daughter of a +much-loved sister, who, up till a year ago, had known nothing more +exciting in the way of "life" than that which is to be found in a small +village in Suffolk, and falls to the lot of an underpaid vicar's only +child. A railway accident had suddenly deprived her of both parents, +throwing her wholly upon her own resources, without a penny in the +world. Sir Horace had gracefully come to the rescue and given her a home +and a refuge, being doubly repaid for it by the affection and care she +gave him and the manner in which she assumed control of a household +which hitherto had been left wholly to the attention of servants, Lady +Wyvern having long been dead, and her two daughters of that type which +devotes itself entirely to the pleasures of society and the demands of +the world. A regular pepper-box of a man--testy, short-tempered, +exacting--Sir Horace had flown headlong to Superintendent Narkom's +office as soon as that gentleman's note, telling him of the Vanishing +Cracksman's latest threat, had been delivered, and, on Miss Lorne's +advice, had withheld all news of it from the members of his household +and brought her with him. + +"I tell you that Scotland Yard must do something--must! must! must!" +stormed he as Narkom, resenting that stigma upon the institution, +puckered up his lips and looked savage. "That fellow has always kept his +word--always, in spite of your precious band of muffs--and if you let +him keep it this time, when there's upwards of £40,000 worth of jewels +in the house, it will be nothing less than a national disgrace, and you +and your wretched collection of bunglers will be covered with deserved +ridicule." + +Narkom swung round, smarting under these continued taunts, these +"flings" at the efficiency of his prided department, his nostrils +dilated, his temper strained to the breaking-point. + +"Well, he won't keep it this time--I promise you that!" he rapped out +sharply. "Sooner or later every criminal, no matter how clever, meets +his Waterloo--and this shall be his! I'll take this affair in hand +myself, Sir Horace. I'll not only send the pick of my men to guard the +jewels, but I'll go with them; and if that fellow crosses the threshold +of Wyvern House to-night, by the Lord, I'll have him. He will have to be +the devil himself to get away from me! Miss Lorne"--recollecting himself +and bowing apologetically--"I ask your pardon for this strong +language--my temper got the better of my manners." + +"It does not matter, Mr. Narkom, so that you preserve my cousin's +wedding-gifts from that appalling man," she answered with a gentle +inclination of the head and with a smile that made the superintendent +think she must certainly be the most beautiful creature in all the +world, it so irradiated her face and added to the magic of her glorious +eyes. "It does not matter what you say, what you do, so long as you +accomplish that." + +"And I will accomplish it--as I'm a living man, I will! You may go home +feeling assured of that. Look for my men some time before dusk, Sir +Horace--I will arrive later. They will come in one at a time. See that +they are admitted by the area door, and that, once in, not one of them +leaves the house again before I put in an appearance. I'll look them +over when I arrive to be sure that there's no wolf in sheep's clothing +amongst them. With a fellow like that--a diabolical rascal with a +diabolical gift for impersonation--one can't be too careful. Meantime, +it is just as well not to have confided this news to your daughters, +who, naturally, would be nervous and upset; but I assume that you have +taken some one of the servants into your confidence in order that nobody +may pass them and enter the house under any pretext whatsoever?" + +"No, I have not. Miss Lorne advised against it, and, as I am always +guided by her, I said nothing of the matter to anybody." + +"Was that wrong, do you think, Mr. Narkom?" queried Ailsa anxiously. "I +feared that if they knew they might lose their heads, and that my +cousins, who are intensely nervous and highly emotional, might hear of +it, and add to our difficulties by becoming hysterical and demanding our +attention at a time when we ought to be giving every moment to watching +for the possible arrival of that man. And as he has always lived up to +the strict letter of his dreadful promises heretofore, I knew that he +was not to be expected before nightfall. Besides, the jewels are locked +up in the safe in Sir Horace's consulting-room, and his assistant, Mr. +Merfroy, has promised not to leave it for one instant before we return." + +"Oh, well, that's all right, then. I dare say there is very little +likelihood of our man getting in whilst you and Sir Horace are here, and +taking such a risk as stopping in the house until nightfall to begin his +operations. Still, it was hardly wise, and I should advise hurrying back +as fast as possible and taking at least one servant--the one you feel +least likely to lose his head--into your confidence, Sir Horace, and +putting him on the watch for my men. Otherwise, keep the matter as quiet +as you have done, and look for me about nine o'clock. And rely upon this +as a certainty: the Vanishing Cracksman will never get away with even +one of those jewels if he enters that house to-night, and never get out +of it unshackled!" + +With that, he suavely bowed his visitors out and rang up the pick of his +men without an instant's delay. + +Promptly at nine o'clock he arrived, as he had promised, at Wyvern +House, and was shown into Sir Horace's consulting-room, where Sir Horace +himself and Miss Lorne were awaiting him, and keeping close watch before +the locked door of a communicating apartment in which sat the six men +who had preceded him. He went in and put them all and severally through +a rigid examination--pulling their hair and beards, rubbing their faces +with a clean handkerchief in quest of any trace of "make-up" or disguise +of any sort, examining their badges and the marks on the handcuffs they +carried with them to make sure that they bore the sign which he himself +had scratched upon them in the privacy of his own room a couple of hours +ago. + +"No mistake about this lot," he announced, with a smile. "Has anybody +else entered or attempted to enter the house?" + +"Not a soul," replied Miss Lorne. "I didn't trust anybody to do the +watching, Mr. Narkom--I watched myself." + +"Good. Where are the jewels? In that safe?" + +"No," replied Sir Horace. "They are to be exhibited in the +picture-gallery for the benefit of the guests at the wedding breakfast +to-morrow, and as Miss Wyvern wished to superintend the arrangement of +them herself, and there would be no time for that in the morning, she +and her sister are in there laying them out at this moment. As I could +not prevent that without telling them what we have to dread, I did not +protest against it; but if you think it will be safer to return them to +the safe after my daughters have gone to bed, Mr. Narkom--" + +"Not at all necessary. If our man gets in, their lying there in full +view like that will prove a tempting bait, and--well, he'll find there's +a hook behind it. I shall be there waiting for him. Now go and join the +ladies, you and Miss Lorne, and act as though nothing out of the common +was in the wind. My men and I will stop here, and you had better put out +the light and lock us in, so that there may be no danger of anybody +finding out that we are here. No doubt Miss Wyvern and her sister will +go to bed earlier than usual on this particular occasion. Let them do +so. Send the servants to bed, too. You and Miss Lorne go to your beds at +the same time as the others--or, at least, let them think that you have +done so; then come down and let us out." + +To this Sir Horace assented, and, taking Miss Lorne with him, went at +once to the picture-gallery and joined his daughters, with whom they +remained until eleven o'clock. Promptly at that hour, however, the house +was locked up, the bride-elect and her sister went to bed--the servants +having already gone to theirs--and stillness settled down over the +darkened house. At the end of a dozen minutes, however, it was faintly +disturbed by the sound of slippered feet coming along the passage +outside the consulting-room, then a key slipped into the lock, the door +was opened, the light switched on, and Sir Horace and Miss Lorne +appeared before the eager watchers. + +"Now, then, lively, my men--look sharp!" whispered Narkom. "A man to +each window and each staircase, so that nobody may go up or down or in +or out without dropping into the arms of one of you. Confine your +attention to this particular floor, and if you hear anybody coming, lay +low until he's within reach, and you can drop on him before he bolts. Is +this the door of the picture-gallery, Sir Horace?" + +"Yes," answered Sir Horace, as he fitted a key to the lock. "But surely +you will need more men than you have brought, Mr. Narkom, if it is your +intention to guard every window individually, for there are four to this +room--see!" + +With that he swung open the door, switched on the electric light, and +Narkom fairly blinked at the dazzling sight that confronted him. Three +long tables, laden with crystal and silver, cut glass and jewels, and +running the full length of the room, flashed and scintillated under the +glare of the electric bulbs which encircled the cornice of the gallery, +and clustered in luminous splendour in the crystal and frosted silver of +a huge central chandelier, and spread out on the middle one of these--a +dazzle of splintered rainbows, a very plain of living light--lay caskets +and cases, boxes and trays, containing those royal gifts of which the +newspapers had made so much and the Vanishing Cracksman had sworn to +make so few. + +Mr. Narkom went over and stood beside the glittering mass, resting his +hand against the table and feasting his eyes upon all that opulent +splendour. + +"God bless my soul! it's superb, it's amazing," he commented. "No wonder +the fellow is willing to take risks for a prize like this. You are a +splendid temptation; a gorgeous bait, you beauties; but the fish that +snaps at you will find that there's a nasty hook underneath in the shape +of Maverick Narkom. Never mind the many windows, Sir Horace. Let him +come in by them, if that's his plan. I'll never leave these things for +one instant between now and the morning. Good night, Miss Lorne. Go to +bed and to sleep--you do the same, Sir Horace. My lay is here!" + +With that he stooped and, lifting the long drapery which covered the +table and swept down in heavy folds to the floor, crept out of sight +under it, and let it drop back into place again. + +"Switch off the light and go," he called to them in a low-sunk voice. +"Don't worry yourselves, either of you. Go to bed, and to sleep if you +can." + +"As if we could," answered Miss Lorne agitatedly. "I shan't be able to +close an eyelid. I'll try, of course, but I know I shall not succeed. +Come, uncle, come! Oh, do be careful, Mr. Narkom; and if that horrible +man does come--" + +"I'll have him, so help me God!" he vowed. "Switch off the light, and +shut the door as you go out. This is 'Forty Faces'' Waterloo at last." + +And in another moment the light snicked out, the door closed, and he was +alone in the silent room. + +For ten or a dozen minutes not even the bare suggestion of a noise +disturbed the absolute stillness; then of a sudden, his trained ear +caught a faint sound that made him suck in his breath and rise on his +elbow, the better to listen--a sound which came, not without the house, +but from within, from the dark hall where he had stationed his men, to +be exact. As he listened he was conscious that some living creature had +approached the door, touched the handle, and by the swift, low rustle +and the sound of hard breathing, that it had been pounced upon and +seized. He scrambled out from beneath the table, snicked on the light, +whirled open the door, and was in time to hear the irritable voice of +Sir Horace say, testily: "Don't make an ass of yourself by your +over-zealousness. I've only come down to have a word with Mr. Narkom," +and to see him standing on the threshold, grotesque in a baggy suit of +striped pyjamas, with one wrist enclosed as in a steel band by the +gripped fingers of Petrie. + +"Why didn't you say it was you, sir?" exclaimed that crestfallen +individual, as the flashing light made manifest his mistake. "When I +heard you first, and see you come up out of that back passage, I made +sure it was him; and if you'd a struggled, I'd have bashed your head as +sure as eggs." + +"Thank you for nothing," he responded testily. "You might have +remembered, however, that the man's first got to get into the place +before he can come downstairs. Mr. Narkom," turning to the +superintendent, "I was just getting into bed when I thought of something +I'd neglected to tell you; and as my niece is sitting in her room with +the door open, and I wasn't anxious to parade myself before her in my +night clothes, I came down by the back staircase. I don't know how in +the world I came to overlook it, but I think you ought to know that +there's a way of getting into the picture gallery without using either +the windows or the stairs, and that way ought to be both searched and +guarded." + +"Where is it? What is it? Why in the world didn't you tell me in the +first place?" exclaimed Narkom irritably, as he glanced round the place +searchingly. "Is it a panel? a secret door? or what? This is an old +house, and old houses are sometimes a very nest of such things." + +"Happily, this one isn't. It's a modern innovation, not an ancient +relic, that offers the means of entrance in this case. A Yankee occupied +this house before I bought it from him--one of those blessed shivery +individuals his country breeds, who can't stand a breath of cold air +indoors after the passing of the autumn. The wretched man put one of +those wretched American inflictions, a hot-air furnace, in the cellar, +with huge pipes running to every room in the house--great tin +monstrosities bigger round than a man's body, ending in openings in the +wall, with what they call 'registers,' to let the heat in, or shut it +out as they please. I didn't have the wretched contrivance removed or +those blessed 'registers' plastered up. I simply had them papered over +when the rooms were done up (there's one over there near that settee), +and if a man got into this house, he could get into that furnace thing +and hide in one of those flues until he got ready to crawl up it as +easily as not. It struck me that perhaps it would be as well for you to +examine that furnace and those flues before matters go any further." + +"Of course it would. Great Scott! Sir Horace, why didn't you think to +tell me of this thing before?" said Narkom, excitedly. "The fellow may +be in it at this minute. Come, show me the wretched thing." + +"It's below--in the cellar. We shall have to go down the kitchen stairs, +and I haven't a light." + +"Here's one," said Petrie, unhitching a bull's-eye from his belt and +putting it into Narkom's hand. "Better go with Sir Horace at once, sir. +Leave the door of the gallery open and the light on. Fish and me will +stand guard over the stuff till you come back, so in case the man is in +one of them flues and tries to bolt out at this end, we can nab him +before he can get to the windows." + +"A good idea," commented Narkom. "Come on, Sir Horace. Is this the way?" + +"Yes, but you'll have to tread carefully, and mind you don't fall over +anything. A good deal of my paraphernalia--bottles, retorts and the +like--is stored in the little recess at the foot of the staircase, and +my assistant is careless and leaves things lying about." + +Evidently the caution was necessary, for a minute or so after they had +passed on and disappeared behind the door leading to the kitchen +stairway, Petrie and his colleagues heard a sound as of something being +overturned and smashed, and laughed softly to themselves. Evidently, +too, the danger of the furnace had been grossly exaggerated by Sir +Horace, for when, a few minutes later, the door opened and closed, and +Narkom's men, glancing toward it, saw the figure of their chief +reappear, it was plain that he was in no good temper, since his features +were knotted up into a scowl, and he swore audibly as he snapped the +shutter over the bull's-eye and handed it back to Petrie. + +"Nothing worth looking into, superintendent?" + +"No--not a thing!" he replied. "The silly old josser! pulling me down +there amongst the coals and rubbish for an insane idea like that! Why, +the flues wouldn't admit the passage of a child; and even then, there's +a bend--an abrupt 'elbow'--that nothing but a cat could crawl up. And +that's a man who's an authority on the human brain! I sent the old silly +back to bed by the way he came, and if--" + +There he stopped, stopped short, and sucked in his breath with a sharp, +wheezing sound. For, of a sudden, a swift pattering footfall and a +glimmer of moving light had sprung into being and drawn his eyes upward; +and there, overhead, was Miss Lorne coming down the stairs from the +upper floor in a state of nervous excitement, and with a bedroom candle +in her shaking hand, a loose gown flung on over her nightdress, and her +hair streaming over her shoulders in glorious disarray. + +He stood and looked at her, with ever-quickening breath, with +ever-widening eyes, as though the beauty of her had wakened some dormant +sense whose existence he had never suspected; as though, until now, he +had never known how fair it was possible for a woman to be, how fair, +how lovable, how much to be desired; and whilst he was so looking she +reached the foot of the staircase and came pantingly toward him. + +"Oh, Mr. Narkom, what was it--that noise I heard?" she said in a tone of +deepest agitation. "It sounded like a struggle--like the noise of +something breaking--and I dressed as hastily as I could and came down. +Did he come? Has he been here? Have you caught him? Oh! why don't you +answer me, instead of staring at me like this? Can't you see how +nervous, how frightened, I am? Dear Heaven! will no one tell me what has +happened?" + +"Nothing has happened, miss," answered Petrie, catching her eye as she +flashed round on him. "You'd better go back to bed. Nobody's been here +but Sir Horace. The noise you heard was me a-grabbing of him, and he and +Mr. Narkom a-tumbling over something as they went down to look at the +furnace." + +"Furnace? What furnace? What are you talking about?" she cried +agitatedly. "What do you mean by saying that Sir Horace came down?" + +"Only what the superintendent himself will tell you, miss, if you ask +him. Sir Horace came downstairs in his pyjamas a few minutes ago to say +as he'd recollected about the flues of the furnace in the cellar being +big enough to hold a man, and then him and Mr. Narkom went below to have +a look at it." + +She gave a sharp and sudden cry, and her face went as pale as a dead +face. + +"Sir Horace came down?" she repeated, moving back a step and leaning +heavily against the bannister. "Sir Horace came down to look at the +furnace? We have no furnace!" + +"What!" + +"We have no furnace, I tell you, and Sir Horace did not come down. He is +up there still. I know--I know, I tell you--because I feared for his +safety, and when he went to his room I locked him in!" + +"Superintendent!" The word was voiced by every man present, and six +pairs of eyes turned toward Narkom with a look of despairing +comprehension. + +"Get to the cellar. Head the man off! It's he--the Cracksman!" he +shouted out. "Find him! Get him! Nab him, if you have to turn the house +upside down!" + +They needed no second bidding, for each man grasped the situation +instantly, and in a twinkling there was a veritable pandemonium. +Shouting and scrambling like a band of madmen, they lurched to the door, +whirled it open, and went flying down the staircase to the kitchen and +so to a discovery which none might have foreseen. For, almost as they +entered they saw lying on the floor a suit of striped pyjamas, and close +to it, gagged, bound, helpless, trussed up like a goose that was ready +for the oven, gyves on his wrists, gyves on his ankles, their chief, +their superintendent, Mr. Maverick Narkom, in a state of collapse, and +with all his outer clothing gone! + +"After him! After that devil, and a thousand pounds to the man that gets +him!" he managed to gasp as they rushed to him and ripped loose the gag. +"He was here when we came! He has been in the house for hours. Get him! +get him! get him!" + +They surged from the room and up the stairs like a pack of stampeded +animals; they raced through the hall and bore down on the +picture-gallery in a body, and, whirling open the now closed door, went +tumbling headlong in. + +The light was still burning. At the far end of the room a window was +wide open, and the curtains of it fluttered in the wind. A collection of +empty cases and caskets lay on the middle table, but man and jewels were +alike gone! Once again the Vanishing Cracksman had lived up to his +promise, up to his reputation, up to the very letter of his name, and +for all Mr. Maverick Narkom's care and shrewdness, "Forty Faces" had +"turned the trick" and Scotland Yard was "done!" + + + + +III + + +Through all the night its best men sought him, its dragnets fished for +him, its tentacles groped into every hole and corner of London in quest +of him, but sought and fished and groped in vain. They might as well +have hoped to find last summer's partridges or last winter's snow as any +trace of him. He had vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared, and no +royal jewels graced the display of Miss Wyvern's wedding gifts on the +morrow. + +But it was fruitful of other "gifts," fruitful of an even greater +surprise, that "morrow." For the first time since the day he had given +his promise, no "souvenir" from "The Man Who Called Himself Hamilton +Cleek," no part of last night's loot came to Scotland Yard; and it was +while the evening papers were making screaming "copy" and glaring +headlines out of this that the surprise in question came to pass. + +Miss Wyvern's wedding was over, the day and the bride had gone, and it +was half-past ten at night, when Sir Horace, answering a hurry call from +headquarters, drove post haste to Superintendent Narkom's private room, +and passing in under a red and green lamp which burned over the doorway, +entered and met that "surprise." + +Maverick Narkom was there alone, standing beside his desk, with the +curtains of his window drawn and pinned together, and at his elbow an +unlighted lamp of violet-coloured glass, standing and looking +thoughtfully down at something which lay before him. He turned as his +visitor entered and made an open-handed gesture toward it. + +"Look here," he said laconically, "what do you think of this?" + +Sir Horace moved forward and looked; then stopped and gave a sort of +wondering cry. The electric bulbs overhead struck a glare of light down +on the surface of the desk, and there, spread out on the shining oak, +lay a part of the royal jewels that had been stolen from Wyvern House +last night. + +"Narkom! You got him, then--got him after all?" + +"No, I did not get him. I doubt if any man could, if he chose not to be +found," said Narkom bitterly. "I did not recover these jewels by any act +of my own. He sent them to me; gave them up voluntarily." + +"Gave them up? After he had risked so much to get them? God bless my +soul, what a man! Why, there must be quite half here of what he took." + +"There is half--an even half. He sent them to-night, and with them this +letter. Look at it, and you will understand why I sent for you and asked +you to come alone." + +"There's some good in even the devil, I suppose, if one but knows how to +reach it and stir it up," Sir Horace read. "I have lived a life of crime +from my very boyhood because I couldn't help it, because it appealed to +me, because I glory in risks and revel in dangers. I never knew where it +would lead me--I never thought, never cared--but I looked into the +gateway of heaven last night, and I can't go down the path to hell any +longer. Here is an even half of Miss Wyvern's jewels. If you and her +father would have me hand over the other half to you, and would have +'The Vanishing Cracksman' disappear forever, and a useless life +converted into a useful one, you have only to say so to make it an +accomplished thing. All I ask in return is your word of honour (to be +given to me by signal) that you will send for Sir Horace Wyvern to be at +your office at eleven o'clock to-night, and that you and he will grant +me a private interview unknown to any other living being. A red and +green lantern hung over the doorway leading to your office will be the +signal that you agree, and a violet light in your window will be the +pledge of Sir Horace Wyvern. When these two signals, these two pledges, +are given, I shall come in and hand over the remainder of the jewels, +and you will have looked for the first time in your life upon the real +face of 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.'" + +"God bless my soul! What an amazing creature--what an astounding +request!" exclaimed Sir Horace, as he laid the letter down. "Willing to +give up £20,000 worth of jewels for the mere sake of a private +interview! What on earth can be his object? And why should he include +me?" + +"I don't know," said Narkom in reply. "It's worth something, at all +events, to be rid of 'The Vanishing Cracksman' for good and all; and he +says that it rests with us to do that. It's close to eleven now. Shall +we give him the pledge he asks, Sir Horace? My signal is already hung +out; shall we agree to the conditions and give him yours?" + +"Yes, yes, by all means," Sir Horace made answer. And lighting the +violet lamp, Narkom flicked open the pinned curtains and set it in the +window. + +For ten minutes nothing came of it, and the two men, talking in whispers +while they waited, began to grow nervous. Then somewhere in the distance +a clock started striking eleven, and without so much as a warning sound, +the door flashed open, flashed shut again, a voice that was undeniably +the voice of breeding and refinement said quietly: "Gentlemen, my +compliments. Here are the diamonds and here am I!" and the figure of a +man, faultlessly dressed, faultlessly mannered, with the slim-loined +form, the slim-walled nose, and the clear-cut features of the born +aristocrat, stood in the room. + +His age might lie anywhere between twenty-five and thirty-five, his eyes +were straight-looking and clear, his fresh, clean-shaven face was +undeniably handsome, and, whatever his origin, whatever his history, +there was something about him, in look, in speech, in bearing, that +mutely stood sponsor for the thing called "birth." + +"God bless my soul!" exclaimed Sir Horace, amazed and appalled to find +the reality so widely different from the image he had drawn. "What +monstrous juggle is this? Why, man alive, you're a gentleman! Who are +you? What's driven you to a dog's life like this?" + +"A natural bent, perhaps; a supernatural gift, certainly, Sir Horace," +he made reply. "Look here! Could any man resist the temptation to use it +when he was endowed by Nature with the power to do this?" His features +seemed to writhe and knot and assume in as many moments a dozen +different aspects. "I've had the knack of doing that since the hour I +could breathe. Could any man 'go straight' with a fateful gift like that +if the laws of Nature said that he should not?" + +"And do they say that?" + +"That's what I want you to tell me--that's why I have requested this +interview. I want you to examine me, Sir Horace, to put me through those +tests you use to determine the state of mind of the mentally fit and +mentally unfit; I want to know if it is my fault that I am what I am, +and if it is myself I have to fight in future, or the devil that lives +within me. I'm tired of wallowing in the mire. A woman's eyes have lit +the way to heaven for me. I want to climb up to her, to win her, to be +worthy of her, and to stand beside her in the light." + +"Her? What 'her'?" + +"That's my business, Mr. Narkom, and I'll take no man into my confidence +regarding that." + +"Yes, my friend, but 'Margot'--how about her?" + +"I'm done with her! We broke last night, when I returned and she +learned--never mind what she learned! I'm done with her--done with the +lot of them. My life is changed forever." + +"In the name of Heaven, man, who and what are you?" + +"Cleek--just Cleek; let it go at that," he made reply. "Whether it's my +name or not is no man's business; who I am, what I am, whence I came, is +no man's business either. Cleek will do--Cleek of the Forty Faces. Never +mind the past; my fight is with the future, and so--examine me, Sir +Horace, and let me know if I or Fate's to blame for what I am." + +Sir Horace did. + +"Absolutely Fate," he said, when, after a long examination, the man put +the question to him again. "It is the criminal brain fully developed, +horribly pronounced. God help you, my poor fellow; but a man simply +could not be other than a thief and a criminal with an organ like that. +There's no hope for you to escape your natural bent except by death. You +can't be honest. You can't rise--you never will rise; it's useless to +fight against it!" + +"I will fight against it! I will rise! I will! I will! I will!" he cried +out vehemently. "There is a way to put such craft and cunning to +account; a way to fight the devil with his own weapons and crush him +under the weight of his own gifts, and that way I'll take!" + +"Mr. Narkom"--he whirled and walked toward the superintendent, his hand +outstretched, his eager face aglow--"Mr. Narkom, help me! Take me under +your wing. Give me a start--give me a chance--give me a lift on the way +up!" + +"Good heaven, man, you--you don't mean--?" + +"I do--I do! So help me heaven, I do. All my life I've fought against +the law--now let me switch over and fight with it. I'm tired of being +Cleek, the thief; Cleek, the burglar. Make me Cleek, the detective, and +let us work together, hand in hand, for a common cause and for the +public good. Will you, Mr. Narkom? Will you?" + +"Will I? Won't I!" said Narkom, springing forward and gripping his hand. +"Jove! what a detective you will make. Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +"It's a compact, then?" + +"It's a compact--Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said in a choked voice. "You've given me my chance; now +watch me live up to it. The Vanishing Cracksman has vanished forever, +Mr. Narkom, and it's Cleek, the detective--Cleek of the Forty Faces from +this time on. Now, give me your riddles--I'll solve them one by one." + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The sound came again--so unmistakably, this time, the sound of a +footstep in the soft, squashy ooze on the Heath, there could be no +question regarding the nature of it. Miss Lorne came to an instant +standstill and clutched her belongings closer to her with a shake and a +quiver; and a swift prickle of goose-flesh ran round her shoulders and +up and down the backs of her hands. There was good, brave blood in her, +it is true; but good, brave blood isn't much to fall back upon if you +happen to be a girl without escort, carrying a hand-bag containing +twenty-odd pounds in money, several bits of valuable jewellery--your +whole earthly possessions, in fact--and have lost your way on Hampstead +Heath at half-past eight o'clock at night, with a spring fog shutting +you in like a wall and shutting out everything else but a "mackerel" +collection of clouds that looked like grey smudges on the greasy-silver +of a twilit sky. + +She looked round, but she could see nothing and nobody. The Heath was a +white waste that might have been part of the scenery in Lapland for all +there was to tell that it lay within reach of the heart and pulse of the +sluggish leviathan London. Over it the vapours of night crowded, an +almost palpable wall of thick, wet mist, stirred now and again by some +atmospheric movement which could scarcely be called a wind, although, at +times, it drew long, lacey filaments above the level of the denser mass +of fog and melted away with them into the calm, still upper air. + +Miss Lorne hesitated between two very natural impulses--to gather up her +skirts and run, or to stand her ground and demand an explanation from +the person who was undoubtedly following her. She chose the latter. + +"Who is there? Why are you following me? What do you want?" she flung +out, keeping her voice as steady as the hard, sharp hammering of her +heart would permit. + +The question was answered at once--rather startlingly, since the +footsteps which caused her alarm, had all the while proceeded from +behind, and slightly to the left of her. Now there came a hurried rush +and scramble on the right; there was the sound of a match being +scratched, a blob of light in the grey of the mist, and she saw standing +in front of her, a ragged, weedy, red-headed youth, with the blazing +match in his scooped hands. + +He was thin to the point of ghastliness. Hunger was in his pinched face, +his high cheekbones, his gouged jaws; staring like a starved wolf, +through the unnatural brightness of his pale eyes, from every gaunt +feature of him. + +"'Ullo!" he said with a strong Cockney accent, as he came up out of the +fog, and the flare of the match gave him a full view of her, standing +there with her lips shut hard, and, the hand-bag clutched up close to +her with both hands. "You wot called, was it? Wot price me for +arnswerin' of you, eh?" + +"Yes, it was I that called," she replied, making a brave front of it. +"But I do not think it was you that I called to. Keep away, please. +Don't come any nearer. What do you want?" "Well, I'll take that blessed +'and-bag to go on with; and if there aren't no money in it--tumble it +out--let's see--lively now! I'll feed for the rest of this week--Gawd, +yuss!" + +She made no reply, no attempt to obey him, no movement of any sort. Fear +had absolutely stricken every atom of strength from her. She could do +nothing but look at him with big, frightened eyes, and shake. + +"Look 'ere, aren't you a-goin' to do it quiet, or are you a-goin' to +mike me tike the blessed thing from you?" he asked. + +"I'll do it if you put me to it--my hat! yuss! It aren't my gime--I'm +wot you might call a hammer-chewer at it, but when there's summink +inside you, wot tears and tears and tears, any gime's worth tryin' that +pulls out the claws of it." + +She did not move even yet. He flung the spent match from him, and made a +sharp step toward her, and he had just reached out his hand to lay hold +of her, when another hand--strong, sinewy, hard-shutting as an iron +clamp--reached out from the mist, and laid hold of him; plucking him by +the neckband and intruding a bunch of knuckles and shut fingers between +that and his up-slanted chin. + +"Now, then, drop that little game at once, you young monkey!" struck in +the sharp staccato of a semi-excited voice. "Interfering with young +ladies, eh? Let's have a look at you. Don't be afraid, Miss +Lorne--nobody's going to hurt you." + +Then a pocket torch spat out a sudden ray of light; and by it both the +half-throttled boy and the wholly frightened girl could see the man who +had thus intruded himself upon their notice. + +"Oh, it is you--it is you again, Mr. Cleek?" said Ailsa with something +between a laugh and a sigh of relief as she recognized him. + +"Yes, it is I. I have been behind you ever since you left the house in +Bardon Road. It was rash of you to cross the heath at this time and in +this weather. I rather fancied that something of this kind would be +likely to happen, and so took the liberty of following you." + +"Then it was you I heard behind me?" + +"It was I--yes. I shouldn't have intruded myself upon your notice if you +hadn't called out. A moment, please. Let's have a look at this young +highwayman, who so freely advertises himself as an amateur." + +The light spat full into the gaunt, starved face of the young man and +made it stare forth doubly ghastly. He had made no effort to get away +from the very first. Perhaps he understood the uselessness of it, with +that strong hand gripped on his ragged neckband. Perhaps he was, in his +way, something of a fatalist--London breeds so many among such as he: +starved things that find every boat chained, every effort thrust back +upon them unrewarded. At any rate, from the moment he had heard the girl +give to this man a name which every soul in England had heard at one +time or another during the past two years, he had gone into a sort of +mild collapse, as though realising the utter uselessness of battling +against fate, and had given himself up to what was to be. + +"Hello," said Cleek, as he looked the youth over. "Yours is a face I +don't remember running foul of before, my young beauty. Where did you +come from?" + +"Where I seem like to be goin' now you've got your currant-pickers on +me--Hell," answered the boy, with something like a sigh of despair. +"Leastways, I been in Hell ever since I can remember anyfink, so I +reckon I must have come from there." + +"What's your name?" + +"Dollops. S'pose I must a had another sometime, but I never heard of it. +Wot's that? Yuss--most nineteen. _Wot?_ Oh, go throw summink at +yourself! I aren't too young to be 'ungry, am I? And where's a cove +goin' to _find_ this 'ere 'honest work' you're a-talkin' of? I'm fair +sick of the gime of lookin' for it. Besides, you don't see parties as +goes in for the other thing walkin' round with ribs on 'em like +bed-slats, and not even the price of a cup of corfy in their pockets, do +you? No fear! I wouldn't've 'urt the young lydie; but I tell you strite, +I'd a took every blessed farthin' she 'ad on her if you 'adn't've +dropped on me like this." + +"Got down to the last ditch--down to the point of desperation, eh?" + +"Yuss. So would you if you 'ad a fing inside you tearin' and tearin' +like I 'ave. Aren't et a bloomin' crumb since the day before yusterday +at four in the mawnin' when a gent in an 'ansom--drunk as a lord, he +was--treated me and a parcel of others to a bun and a cup of corfy at a +corfy stall over 'Ighgate way. Stood out agin bein' a crook as long as +ever I could--as long as ever I'm goin' to, I reckon, now _you've_ got +your maulers on me. I'll be on the list after this. The cops 'ull know +me; and when you've got the nime--well, wot's the odds? You might as +well 'ave the gime as well, and git over goin' empty. All right, run me +in, sir. Any'ow, I'll 'ave a bit to eat and a bed to sleep in to-night, +and that's one comfort--" + +Cleek had been watching the boy closely, narrowly, with an +ever-deepening interest; now he loosened the grip of his fingers and let +his hand drop to his side. + +"Suppose I don't 'run you in,' as you put it? Suppose I take a chance +and lend you five shillings, will you do some work and pay it back to me +in time?" he asked. + +The boy looked up at him and laughed in his face. + +"Look 'ere, Gov'nor, it's playin' it low down to lark wiv a chap jist +before you're goin' to 'ang 'im," he said. "You come off your blessed +perch." + +"Right," said Cleek. "And now you get up on yours and let us see what +you're made of." Then he put his hand into his trousers pocket; there +was a chink of coins and two half-crowns lay on his outstretched palm. +"There you are--off with you now, and if you are any good, turn up some +time to-night at No. 204, Clarges Street, and ask for Captain Horatio +Burbage. He'll see that there's work for you. Toddle along now and get a +meal and a bed. And mind you keep a close mouth about this." + +The boy neither moved nor spoke nor made any sound. For a moment or two +he stood looking from the man to the coins and from the coins back to +the man; then, gradually, the truth of the thing seemed to trickle into +his mind and, as a hungry fox might pounce upon a stray fowl, he grabbed +the money and--bolted. + +"Remember the name and remember the street," Cleek called after him. + +"You take your bloomin' oath I will!" came back through the enfolding +mist; "Gawd, yuss!"--Just that; and the youth was gone. + +"I wonder what you will think of me, Miss Lorne," said Cleek, turning to +her; "taking a chance like this; and, above all, with a fellow who would +have stripped you of every jewel and every penny you have with you if +things hadn't happened as they have?" + +"And I can very ill afford to lose anything _now_--as I suppose you +know, Mr. Cleek. Things have changed sadly for me since that day Mr. +Narkom introduced us at Ascot," she said, with just a shadow of +seriousness in her eyes. "But as to what I think regarding your action +toward that dreadful boy.... Oh, of course, if there is a chance of +saving him from a career of crime, I think one owes him that as a duty. +In the circumstances, the temptation was very great. It must be a +horrible thing to be so hungry that one is driven to robbery to satisfy +the longing for food." + +"Yes, very horrible--very, very indeed. I once knew a boy who stood as +that boy stands--at the parting of the ways; when the good that was in +him fought the last great fight with the Devil of Circumstances. If a +hand had been stretched forth to help that boy at that time ... Ah, +well! it wasn't. The Devil took the reins and the game went _his_ way. +If five shillings will put the reins into that boy's hands to-night and +steer him back to the right path, so much the better for him and--for +me. I'll know if he's worth the chance I took to-morrow. Now let us talk +about something else. Will you allow me to escort you across the heath +and see you safely on your way home? Or would you prefer that I should +remain in the background as before?" + +"How ungrateful you must think me, to suggest such a thing as that," she +said with a reproachful smile. "Walk with me if you will be so kind. I +hope you know that this is the third time you have rendered me a service +since I had the pleasure of meeting you. It is very nice of you; and I +am extremely grateful. I wonder you find the time or--well, take the +trouble," rather archly; "a great man like you." + +"Shall I take off my hat and say 'thank you, ma'am'; or just the +hackneyed 'Praise from Sir Hubert is praise indeed'?" he said with a +laugh as he fell into step with her and they faced the mist and the +distance together. "I suppose you are alluding to my success in the +famous Stanhope Case--the newspapers made a great fuss over that, Mr. +Narkom tells me. But--please. One big success doesn't make a 'great man' +any more than one rosebush makes a garden." + +"Are you fishing for a compliment? Or is that really natural modesty? I +had heard of your exploits and seen your name in the papers, oh, dozens +of times before I first had the pleasure of meeting you; and since then +... No, I shan't flatter you by saying how many successes I have seen +recorded to your credit in the past two years. Do you know that I have a +natural predilection for such things? It may be morbid of me--is +it?--but I have the strongest kind of a leaning toward the tales of +Gaboriau; and I have always wanted to know a really great +detective--like Lecocq, or Dupin. And that day at Ascot when Mr. Narkom +told me that he would introduce me to the famous 'Man of the Forty +Faces' ... Mr. Cleek, why do they call you 'the Man of the Forty Faces'? +You always look the same to me." + +"Perhaps I shan't, when we come to the end of the heath and get into the +public street, where there are lights and people," he said. "That I +always look the same in your eyes, Miss Lorne, is because I have but one +face for you, and that is my real one. Not many people see it, even +among the men of The Yard whom I occasionally work with. You do, +however; so does Mr. Narkom, occasionally. So did that boy, +unfortunately. I had to show it when I came to your assistance, if only +to assure you that you were in friendly hands and to prevent you taking +fright and running off into the mist in a panic and losing yourself +where even I might not be able to find you. That is why I told the boy +to apply for work to 'Captain Burbage of Clarges Street.' _I_ am Captain +Burbage, Miss Lorne. Nobody knows that but my good friend Mr. Narkom +and, now, you." + +"I shall respect it, of course," she said. "I hope I need not assure you +of that, Mr. Cleek." + +"You need assure me of nothing, Miss Lorne," he made reply. "I owe so +much more to you than you are aware, that--Oh, well, it doesn't matter. +You asked me a question a moment ago. If you want the answer to it--look +here." + +He stopped short as he spoke; the pocket-torch clicked faintly and from +the shelter of a curved hand, the glow of it struck upward to his face. +It was not the same face for ten seconds at a time. What Sir Horace +Wyvern had seen in Mr. Narkom's private office at Scotland Yard on that +night of nights more than two years ago, Sir Horace Wyvern's niece saw +now. + +"Oh!" she said, with a sharp intaking of the breath as she saw the +writhing features knot and twist and blend. "Oh, don't! It is uncanny! +It is amazing. It is awful!" And, after a moment, when the light had +been shut off and the man beside her was only a shape in the mist: "I +hope I may never see you do it again," she merely more than whispered. +"It is the most appalling thing. I can't think how you do it--how you +came by the power to do such a thing." + +"Perhaps by inheritance," said Cleek, as they walked on again. "Once +upon a time, Miss Lorne, there was a--er--lady of extremely high +position who, at a time when she should have been giving her thoughts +to--well, more serious things, used to play with one of those curious +little rubber faces which you can pinch up into all sorts of distorted +countenances--you have seen the things, no doubt. She would sit for +hours screaming with laughter over the droll shapes into which she +squeezed the thing. Afterward, when her little son was born, he +inherited the trick of that rubber face as a birthright. It may have +been the same case with me. Let us say it was, and drop the subject, +since you have not found the sight a pleasing one. Now tell me +something, please, that I want to know about you." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"About me, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. You spoke about there being a change in your circumstances--spoke +as though you thought I knew. I do not; but I should like to if I may. +It will perhaps explain why you are out alone and in this neighbourhood +at this time of night." + +"It will," she said, with just a shadow of deeper colour coming into her +cheeks. "The house you saw me coming out of is the residence of a friend +and former schoolmate. I went there to inquire if she could help me in +any way to secure a position; and stopped later than I realised." + +"Procure you a position, Miss Lorne? A position as what?" + +"Companion, amanuensis, governess--anything that," with a laugh and a +blush, "'respectable young females' may do to earn a living when they +come down in the world. You may possibly have heard that my uncle, Sir +Horace, has married again. I think you must have done so, for the papers +were full of it at the time. But I forget"--quizzically--"you don't read +newspapers, do you, even when they contain accounts of your own +greatness." + +"I wonder if I deserve that? At any rate, I got it," said Cleek with a +laugh. "Yes, I heard all about Sir Horace's wedding. Some four or five +months ago, wasn't it?" + +"No, three--three, last Thursday, the fourteenth. A woman doesn't forget +the date of her enforced abdication. The new Lady Wyvern soon let me +know that I was a superfluous person in the household. To-day, I came to +the conclusion to leave it; and have taken the first actual step toward +doing so. A lucky step, too, I fancy; or, at least, it promises to be." + +"As how?" + +"My friend knows of two people who would be likely to need me: one, a +titled lady here in England, who might be 'very glad to have me'--I am +quoting that, please--as governess to her little boy. The other, a young +French girl who is returning shortly to Paris, who also might be 'glad +to have me' as companion. Of course, I would sooner remain in England, +but--well, it is nicer to be a companion than a governess; and the young +lady is very nearly my own age. Indeed, we were actually at the same +school together when we were very little girls." + +"I see," said Cleek, a trifle gloomily. "So then it is possible that it +will, eventually, be the young French lady and--Paris, in future. When, +do you fancy? Soon?" + +"Oh, I don't know about that. I haven't quite made up my mind as yet +which of the two it will be. And then there's the application to be sent +afterwards." + +"Still, it will be one of the two certainly?" + +"Oh, yes. I shall have to earn my living in future, you know; so, +naturally, of course--" She gave her shoulder an eloquent upward +movement, and let the rest go by default. + +Cleek did not speak for a moment: merely walked on beside her--a ridge +between his eyebrows and his lower lip sucked in; as if he were mentally +debating upon something and was afraid he might speak incautiously. But +of a sudden: + +"Miss Lorne," he said, in a curiously tense voice, "may I ask you +something? Let us say that you had set your heart upon obtaining one or +the other of these two positions--set it so entirely that life wouldn't +be worth a straw to you if you didn't get it. Let us say, too, that +there was something you had done, something in your past which, if +known, might utterly preclude the possibility of your obtaining what you +wanted--it is an absurd hypothesis, of course: but let us use it for the +sake of argument. We will say you had done your best to live down that +offensive 'something' done, and were still doing all that lay in your +power to atone for it; that nobody but one person shared the knowledge +of that 'something' with you, and upon his silence you could rely. Now +tell me: would you feel justified in accepting the position upon which +you had set your heart _without_ confessing the thing; or would you feel +in duty bound to speak, well knowing that it would in all human +probability be the end of all your hopes? I should like to have your +opinion upon that point, please." + +"I can't see that I or anybody else could have other than the one," she +replied. "It is an age-old maxim, is it not, Mr. Cleek, that two wrongs +cannot by any possibility constitute a right? I should feel in duty +bound, in honour bound, to speak, of course. To do the other would be to +obtain the position by fraud--to steal it, as a thief steals things that +_he_ wants. No sort of atonement is possible, is even worth the name, if +it is backed up by deceit, Mr. Cleek." + +"Even though that deceit is the only thing that could give you your +heart's desire? The only thing that could open the Gates of Heaven for +you?" + +"The 'Gates of Heaven,' as you put it, can never be opened with a lie, +Mr. Cleek. They might be opened by the very thing of which you +speak--confession. I think I should take my chances upon that. At any +rate, if I failed, I should at least have preserved my self-respect and +done more to merit what I wanted than if I had secured it by treachery. +Think of the boy you helped a little while ago. How much respect will +you have for him if he never lives up to his promise; never goes to +Clarges Street at all? Yet if he does live up to it, will he not be +doubly worth the saving? But please!" with a sudden change from +seriousness to gaiety, "if I am to be led into sermonizing, might I not +know what it is all about? I shall be right, shall I not, in supposing +that all this is merely the preface to something else?" + +"Either the Preface or--the Finis," said Cleek, with a deeply drawn +breath. "Still, as you say, no atonement is worth calling an atonement +if it is based upon fraud; and so--Miss Lorne, I am going to ask you to +indulge in yet another little flight of fancy. Carry your mind back, +will you, to the night when your cousin--to the night two years ago when +Sir Horace Wyvern's daughter had her wedding presents stolen and you, I +believe, had rather a trying moment with that fellow who was known as +'The Vanishing Cracksman.' You can remember it, can you not?" + +"Remember it? I shall never forget it. I thought, when the police ran +down stairs and left me with him, that I was talking to Mr. Narkom. I +think I nearly went daft with terror when I found out that it was he." + +"And you found it out only through his telling you, did you not? +Afterward, I am told, the police found you lying fainting at the foot of +the stairs. The man had touched you, spoken to you, even caught up your +hand and put it to his lips? Can you remember what he said when he did +that? Can you?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a little shudder of recollection. "For weeks +afterward I used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking of it +and going cold all over. He said, 'You have come down into Hell and +lifted me out. Under God, you shall lift me into Heaven as well!'" + +"And perhaps you shall," said Cleek, stopping short and uncovering his +head. "At any rate, I'll not attempt to win it by fraud. Miss Lorne, I +am that man. I am the 'Vanishing Cracksman' of those other days. I've +walked the 'straight path' since the moment I kissed your hand." + +She said nothing, made no faintest sound. She couldn't--all the +strength, all the power to do anything but simply stand and look at him +had gone out of her. But even so, she was conscious--dimly but yet +conscious--of a feeling of relief that they had come at last close to +the end of the heath, that there was the faint glow of lights dimly +observable through the enfolding mist, and that there was the rumble of +wheels, the pulse of life, the law-guarded paths of the city's streets +beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She could not herself have been more conscious of that feeling of relief +than he was of its coming. It spoke to him in the swift glance she gave +toward those distant, fog-blurred lights, in the white, drained face of +her, in the shrinking backward movement of her body when he spoke again; +and something within him voiced "the exceeding bitter cry." + +"I am not sure that I even hoped you would take the revelation in any +other way than this," he said. "A hawk--even a tamed one--must be a +thing of terror in the eyes of a dove. Still, I am not sorry that I have +made the confession, Miss Lorne. When the worst has been told, a burden +rolls away." + +"Yes," she acquiesced faintly, finding her voice; but finding it only to +lose it again. "But that you--that _you_...." And was faint and very +still again. + +"Shall we go on? It isn't more than fifty paces to the road; and you may +rely upon finding a taxicab there. Would you like me to show you the +way?" + +"Yes, please. I--oh, don't think me unsympathetic, unkind, severe. It is +such a shock; it is all so horrible--I mean--that is.... Let me get used +to it. I shall never tell, of course--no, never! Now, please, may we not +walk faster? I am very, very late as it is; and they will be worrying at +home." + +They did walk faster, and in a minute more were at the common's end. +Cleek stopped and again lifted his hat. + +"We will part here, Miss Lorne," he said. "I won't force my company on +you any further. From here, you are quite beyond all danger, and I am +sure you would rather I left you to find a taxi for yourself. Good +night." He did not even offer to put out his hand. "May I say again, +that I am not sorry I told you? Nor did I ever expect you would, take it +other than like this. It is only natural. Try to forgive me; or, at the +least, believe that I have not tried to keep your friendship by a lie, +or to atone in seeming only. Good night." + +He gave her no chance to reply, no time to say one single word. Deep +wounds require time in which to heal. He knew that he had wounded the +white soul of her so that it was sick with uncertainty, faint with +dread; and, putting on his hat, stepped sharply back and let the mist +take him and hide him from her sight. + +But, though she did not see, he was near her even then. + +He knew when she walked out into the light-filled street; he knew when +she found a taxicab; and he did not make an effort to go his way until +he was sure that she was safely started upon hers. Then he screwed round +on his heel and went back into the mist and loneliness of the heath, and +walked, and walked, and walked. Afterward--long afterward: when the +night was getting old and the town was going to sleep, he, too, fared +forth in quest of a taxi, and finding one went _his_ way as she had gone +hers. + +In the neighbourhood of Bond Street--now a place of darkness and +slow-tramping policemen--he dismissed the taxi and continued the journey +along Piccadilly afoot. It was close to one o'clock when he came at +length to Clarges Street and swung into it from the Piccadilly end, and +moved on in the direction of the house which sheltered him and his +secrets together. But, though he walked with apparent indifference, his +eye was ever on the lookout for some chance watcher in the windows of +the other houses; for "Captain Horatio Burbage" was supposed, in the +neighbourhood, to be a superannuated seaman who maintained a bachelor +establishment with the aid of an elderly housekeeper and a deaf-and-dumb +maid of all work. + +But no one was on the watch to-night; and it was only when he came at +last to the pillared portico of his own residence that he found any sign +of life from one end of the street to the other. He did find it then, +however; for the boy, Dollops, was sitting huddled up on the top step +with the thick shadow of the portico making a safe screen for him. + +He had made good use of the two half-crowns, for he had not only +feasted--and was feasting still: on a bag of winkles and a saveloy--but +was washed and brushed and had gone to the length of a shoe-shine and a +collar. + +"Been waitin' since eleven o'clock, sir," he said, getting up and +pulling his forelock as Cleek appeared. "Didn't knock and arsk for no +one, though--not me. Twigged as it would be you, sir, on account of your +sayin' to-night. I've read summink of the ways of 'tecs. Wot ho!" + +"You seem a sharp little customer, at all events," said Cleek with a +curious one-sided smile--a smile that was peculiar to him. "I somehow +fancy that I've made a good investment, Dollops. Filled up, eh?" + +"No, sir--never filled. Born 'ungry, I reckon. But filled as much as you +could fill me, bless your 'eart. I aren't never goin' to forget that, +Gov'nor--no fear. An eater and a scrapper I am, sir; and I'll scrap for +_you_, sir, while there's a bloomin' breff left in my blessed body! +Gimme the tip wot kind of work I _can_ do for you, Gov'nor, will you? I +want to get them two 'arf-crowns off my conscience as quick as I can." + +Cleek looked at him and smiled again. + +"Yes, I'm _sure_ I made a good bargain, Dollops," he said. "Come in." +And in this way the attachment which existed between them ever afterward +had its beginning. + +He took the boy in and up to the little room on the second floor which +he called his den; and, turning on the light, motioned him to a chair, +laid aside his hat and gloves, and was just about to pull up a chair for +himself when he caught sight of an unstamped letter lying upon his +writing-table. + +"Sit down there and wait a moment until I read this, my lad," he said; +and forthwith tore the letter open. + +It was from Superintendent Narkom. He had known that from the first, +however. No one but Narkom ever wrote him letters. This one was +exceedingly brief. It simply contained these two lines: + +"My dear Cleek. The Three Jolly Fishermen, Richmond, at tea-time +to-morrow. An astonishing affair. Yours, M. N." + +"Dollops, my lad, I think I'm going to make a man of you," he said as he +tore the letter into a dozen pieces and tossed the fragments into a +waste-basket. "At any rate, I'm going to have a try. Know anything about +Richmond?" + +"Yuss, sir." + +"Good. Well, we'll have a half-hour's talk and then I'll find a +temporary bed for you for the night, and to-morrow we'll take a pull on +the river at Richmond and see what we shall see." + +The half-hour, however, developed into a full one; for it was after two +o'clock when the talk was finished and a bed improvised for the boy; but +Cleek, saying good night to him at last and going to his own bedroom, +felt that it was a long, long way from being time wasted. + +What Dollops thought is, perhaps, best told by the fact that he burst +out crying when Cleek came in in the morning to ask how he had slept. + +"Slept, Gov'nor!" he said. "Why, bless your 'eart, sir, I couldn't a +slept better on a bed of roses, nor 'ad 'arf such comfort. Feel like I +needed someone to lend me a biff on the coco, sir, to make sure as I +aren't a dreamin'--it's so wot a cove fancies 'Eaven to be like, sir." + +And afterward, when the day was older, and they had gone to Richmond, +and Cleek--in his boating flannels--was pulling him up the shining river +and talking to him again as he had talked last night, he felt that it +was even more like Heaven than ever. + +It was after four--long after--when they finally separated and Cleek, +leaving the boy in charge of the boat, stepped ashore in the +neighbourhood of the inn of the Three Jolly Fishermen and went to keep +his appointment with Narkom. + +He found him enjoying tea at a little round table in the niche of a big +bay window in the small private parlour which lay immediately behind the +bar-room. + +"My dear chap, do forgive me for not waiting," said the superintendent +contritely, as Cleek came in, looking like a college-bred athlete in his +boating-flannels and his brim-tilted panama. "But the fact is you are a +little later than I anticipated; and I was simply famishing." + +"Share the blame of my lateness with me, Mr. Narkom," said Cleek as he +tossed aside his hat and threw the fag-end of his cigarette through the +open window. "You merely said 'tea-time,' not any particular hour; and I +improved the opportunity to take another spin up the river and to talk +like a Dutch uncle to a certain young man whom I shall introduce to your +notice in due time. It isn't often that duty calls me to a little Eden +like this. The air is like balm to-day; and the river--oh, the river is +a sheer delight." + +Narkom rang for a fresh pot of tea and a further supply of buttered +toast, and, when these were served, Cleek sat down and joined him. + +"I dare say," said the superintendent, opening fire at once, "that you +wonder what in the world induced me to bring you out here to meet me, my +dear fellow, instead of following the usual course and calling at +Clarges Street? Well, the fact is, Cleek, that the gentleman with whom I +am now about to put you in touch lives in this vicinity, and is so +placed that he cannot get away without running the risk of having the +step he is taking discovered." + +"Humph! He is closely spied upon, then?" commented Cleek. "The trouble +arises from someone or something in his own household?" + +"No--in his father's. The 'trouble,' so far as I can gather, seems to +emanate from his stepmother, a young and very beautiful woman, who was +born on the island of Java, where the father of our client met and +married her some two years ago, whither he had gone to probe into the +truth of the amazing statement that a runic stone had been unearthed in +that part of the globe." + +"Ah, then you need not tell me the gentleman's name, Mr. Narkom," +interposed Cleek. "I remember perfectly well the stir which that +ridiculous and unfounded statement created at the time. Despite the fact +that scholars of all nations scoffed at the thing, and pointed out that +the very term 'rune' is of Teutonic origin, one enthusiastic old +gentleman--Mr. Michael Bawdrey, a retired brewer, thirsting for +something more enduring than malt to carry his name down the +ages--became fired with enthusiasm upon the subject, and set forth for +Java 'hot foot,' as one might say. I remember that the papers made great +game of him; but I heard, I fancy, that, in spite of all, he was a dear, +lovable old chap, and not at all like the creature the cartoonists +portrayed him." + +"What a memory you have, my dear Cleek. Yes, that is the party; and he +_is_ a dear, lovable old chap at bottom. Collects old china, old +weapons, old armour, curiosities of all sorts--lots of 'em bogus, no +doubt; catch the charlatans among the dealers letting a chance like that +slip them--and is never so happy as when showing his 'collection' to his +friends and being mistaken by the ignorant for a man of deep learning." + +"A very human trait, Mr. Narkom. We all are anxious that the world +should set the highest possible valuation upon us. It is only when we +are underrated that we object. So this dear, deluded old gentleman, +having failed to secure a 'rune' in Java, brought back something equally +cryptic--a woman? Was the lady of his choice a native or merely an +inhabitant of the island?" + +"Merely an inhabitant, my dear fellow. As a matter of fact, she is +English. Her father, a doctor, long since deceased, took her out there +in her childhood. She was none too well off, I believe; but that did not +prevent her having many suitors, among whom was Mr. Bawdrey's own son, +the gentleman who is anxious to have you take up this case." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "So the lady was of +the careful and calculating kind? She didn't care for youth and all the +rest of it when she could have papa and the money-chest without waiting. +A common enough occurrence. Still, this does not make up an 'affair,' +and especially an 'affair' which requires the assistance of a detective, +and you spoke of 'a case.' What is the case, Mr. Narkom?" + +"I will leave Mr. Philip Bawdrey himself to tell you that," said Narkom, +as the door opened to admit a young man of about eight-and-twenty, +clothed in tennis flannels, and looking very much perturbed, a handsome, +fair-haired, fair-moustached young fellow, with frank, boyish eyes and +that unmistakable something which stamps the products of the 'Varsities. +"Come in, Mr. Bawdrey. You said we were not to wait tea, and you see +that we haven't. Let me have the pleasure of introducing Mr.--" + +"Headland," put in Cleek adroitly, and with a look at Narkom as much as +to say, "Don't give me away. I may not care to take the case when I hear +it, so what's the use of letting everybody know who I am?" Then he +switched round in his chair, rose, and held out his hand. "Mr. George +Headland, of the Yard, Mr. Bawdrey. I don't trust Mr. Narkom's +proverbially tricky memory for names. He introduced me as Jones once, +and I lost the opportunity of handling the case because the party in +question couldn't believe that anybody named Jones would be likely to +ferret it out." + +"Funny idea, that!" commented young Bawdrey, smiling, and accepting the +proffered hand. "Rum lot of people you must run across in your line, Mr. +Headland. Shouldn't take you for a detective myself, shouldn't even in a +room full of them. College man, aren't you? Thought so. Oxon or Cantab?" + +"Cantab--Emmanuel." + +"Oh, Lord! Never thought I'd ever live to appeal to an Emmanuel man to +do anything brilliant. I'm an Oxon chap; Brasenose is my alma mater. I +say, Mr. Narkom, do give me a cup of tea, will you? I had to slip off +while the others were at theirs, and I've run all the way. Thanks very +much. Don't mind if I sit in that corner and draw the curtain a little, +do you?" his frank, boyish face suddenly clouding. "I don't want to be +seen by anybody passing. It's a horrible thing to feel that you are +being spied upon, at every turn, Mr. Headland, and that want of caution +may mean the death of the person you love best in all the world." + +"Oh, it's that kind of case, is it?" queried Cleek, making room for him +to pass round the table and sit in the corner, with his back to the +window and the loosened folds of the chintz curtain keeping him in the +shadow. + +"Yes," answered young Bawdrey, with a half-repressed shudder and a +deeper clouding of his rather pale face. "Sometimes I try to make myself +believe that it isn't, that it's all fancy, that she never could be so +inhuman, and yet how else is it to be explained? You can't go behind the +evidence; you can't make things different simply by saying that you will +not believe." He stirred his tea nervously, gulped down a couple of +mouthfuls of it, and then set the cup aside. "I can't enjoy anything; it +takes the savour out of everything when I think of it," he added, with a +note of pathos in his voice. "My dad, my dear, bully old dad, the best +and dearest old boy in all the world! I suppose, Mr. Headland, that Mr. +Narkom has told you something about the case?" + +"A little--a very little indeed. I know that your father went to Java, +and married a second wife there; and I know, too, that you yourself were +rather taken with the lady at one time, and that she threw you over as +soon as Mr. Bawdrey senior became a possibility." + +"That's a mistake," he replied. "She never threw me over, Mr. Headland; +she never had the chance. I found her out long before my father became +anything like what you might call a rival, found her out as a mercenary, +designing woman, and broke from her voluntarily. I only wish that I had +known that he had one serious thought regarding her. I could have warned +him; I could have spoken then. But I never did find out until it was too +late. Trust her for that. She waited until I had gone up-country to look +after some fine old porcelains and enamels that the governor had heard +about; then she hurried him off and tricked him into a hasty marriage. +Of course, after that I couldn't speak--I wouldn't speak. She was my +father's wife, and he was so proud of her, so happy, dear old boy, that +I'd have been little better than a brute to say anything against her." + +"What could you have said if you had spoken?" + +"Oh, lots of things--the things that made me break away from her in the +beginning. She'd had more love affairs than one; her late father's +masquerading as a doctor for another. They had only used that as a +cloak. They had run a gambling-house on the sly--he as the card-sharper, +she as the decoy. They had drained one poor fellow dry, and she had +thrown him over after leading him on to think that she cared for him and +was going to marry him. He blew out his brains in front of her, poor +wretch. They say she never turned a hair. You wouldn't believe it +possible, if you saw her; she is so sweet and caressing, and so young +and beautiful, you'd almost believe her an angel. But there's Travers in +the background--always Travers." + +"Travers! Who is he?" + +"Oh, one of her old flames, the only one she ever really cared for, they +say. She was supposed to have broken with him out there in Java, because +they were too poor to marry; and now he's come over to England, and he's +there, in the house with the dear old dad and me, and they are as thick +as thieves together. I've caught them whispering and prowling about +together, in the grounds and along the lanes, after she has said 'Good +night,' and gone to her room and is supposed to be in bed. There's a +houseful of her old friends three parts of the time. They come and they +go, but Travers never goes. I know why"--waxing suddenly excited, +suddenly vehement--"yes! I know why. He's in the game with her!" + +"Game! What game, Mr. Bawdrey? What is it that she is doing?" + +"She's killing my old dad!" he answered, with a sort of sob in his +excited voice. "She's murdering him by inches, that's what she's doing, +and I want you to help me bring it home to her. God knows what it is +she's using or how she uses it; but you know what demons they are for +secret poisons, those Javanese, what means they have of killing people +without a trace. And she was out there for years and years. So, too, was +Travers, the brute! They know all the secrets of those beastly +barbarians, and between them they're doing something to my old dad." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I don't know it--that's the worst of it. But I couldn't be surer of it +if they took me into their secrets. But there's the evidence of his +condition; there's the fact that it didn't begin until after Travers +came. Look here, Mr. Headland, you don't know my dad. He's got the +queerest notions sometimes. One of his fads is that it's unlucky to make +a will. Well, if he dies without one, who will inherit his money, as I +am an only child?" + +"Undoubtedly you and his widow." + +"Exactly. And if I die at pretty nearly the same time--and they'll see +to that, never fear; it will be my turn the moment they are sure of +him--she will inherit everything. Now, let me tell you what's happening. +From being a strong, healthy man, my father has, since Travers's +arrival, begun to be attacked by a mysterious malady. He has periodical +fainting-fits, sometimes convulsions. He'll be feeling better for a day +or so; then, without a word of warning, whilst you're talking to him, +he'll drop like a shot bird and go into the most horrible convulsions. +The doctors can't stop it; they don't even know what it is. They only +know that he's fading away--turning from a strong, virile old man into a +thin, nervous, shivering wreck. But I know! I know! They're dosing him +somehow with some diabolical Javanese thing, those two. And +yesterday--God help me!--yesterday, I, too, dropped like a shot bird; I, +too, had the convulsions and the weakness and the fainting-fit. My time +has begun also!" + +"Bless my soul! what a diabolical thing!" put in Narkom agitatedly. "No +wonder you appealed to me!" + +"No wonder!" Bawdrey replied. "I felt that it had gone as far as I dared +to let it; that it was time to call in the police and to have help +before it was too late. That's the case, Mr. Headland. I want you to +find some way of getting at the truth, of looking into Travers's +luggage, into my stepmother's effects, and unearthing the horrible stuff +with which they are doing this thing; and perhaps, when that is known, +some antidote may be found to save the dear old dad and restore him to +what he was. Can't you do this? For God's sake, say that you can." + +"At all events, I can try, Mr. Bawdrey," responded Cleek. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Bawdrey gratefully. "I don't care a +hang what it costs, what your fees are, Mr. Headland. So long as you run +those two to earth, and get hold of the horrible stuff, whatever it is, +that they are using, I'll pay any price in the world, and count it cheap +as compared with the life of my dear old dad. When can you take hold of +the case? Now?" + +"I'm afraid not. Mysterious things like this require a little thinking +over. Suppose we say to-morrow noon? Will that do?" + +"I suppose it must, although I should have liked to take you back with +me. Every moment's precious at a time like this. But if it must be +delayed until to-morrow--well, it must, I suppose. But I'll take jolly +good care that nobody gets a chance to come within touching distance of +the pater--bless him!--until you do come, if I have to sit on the mat +before his door until morning. Here's the address on this card, Mr. +Headland. When and how shall I expect to see you again? You'll use an +alias, of course?" + +"Oh, certainly! Had you any old friend in your college days whom your +father only knew by name and who is now too far off for the imposture to +be discovered?" + +"Yes. Jim Rickaby. We were as inseparable as the Siamese twins in our +undergrad days. He's in Borneo now. Haven't heard from him in a dog's +age." + +"Couldn't be better," said Cleek. "Then 'Jim Rickaby' let it be. You'll +get a letter from him first thing in the morning saying that he's back +in England, and about to run down and spend the week-end with you. At +noon he will arrive, accompanied by his Borneo servant, +named--er--Dollops. You can put the 'blackie' up in some quarter of the +house where he can move about at will without disturbing any of your own +servants, and can get in and out at all hours; he will be useful, you +know, in prowling about the grounds at night and ascertaining if the +lady really does go to bed when she retires to her room. As for 'Jim +Rickaby' himself--well, you can pave the way for his operations by +informing your father, when you get the letter, that he has gone daft on +the subject of old china and curios and things of that sort, don't you +know." + +"What a ripping idea!" commented young Bawdrey. "I twig. He'll get +chummy with you, of course, and you can lead him on and adroitly 'pump' +him regarding her, and where she keeps her keys and things like that. +That's the idea, isn't it?" + +"Something of that sort. I'll find out all about her, never fear," said +Cleek in reply. Then they shook hands and parted, and it was not until +after young Bawdry had gone that either he or Narkom recollected that +Cleek had overlooked telling the young man that Headland was not his +name. + +"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Time enough to tell him that when it comes +to making out the cheque," said Cleek, as the superintendent remarked +upon the circumstance. Then he pushed back his chair and walked over to +the window, and stood looking silently out upon the flowing river. +Narkom did not disturb his reflections. He knew from past experience, as +well as from the manner in which he took his lower lip between his teeth +and drummed with his finger-tips upon the window-ledge, that some idea +relative to the working out of the case had taken shape within his mind, +and so, with the utmost discretion, went on with his tea and refrained +from speaking. Suddenly Cleek turned. "Mr. Narkom, do me a favour, will +you? Look me up a copy of Holman's 'Diseases of the Kidneys' when you go +back to town. I'll send Dollops round to the Yard to-night to get it." + +"Right you are," said Narkom, taking out his pocket-book and making a +note of it. "But, I say, look here, my dear fellow, you can't possibly +believe that it's anything of that sort--anything natural, I mean--in +the face of what we've heard?" + +"No, I don't. I think it's something confoundedly unnatural, and that +that poor old chap is being secretly and barbarously murdered. I think +that--and--I think, too--" His voice trailed off. He stood silent and +preoccupied for a moment, and then, putting his thoughts into words, +without addressing them to anybody: "Ayupee!" he said reflectively; +"Pohon-Upas, Antjar, Galanga root, Ginger and Black Pepper--that's the +Javanese method of procedure, I believe. Ayupee!--yes, assuredly, +Ayupee!" + +"What the dickens are you talking about, Cleek? And what does all that +gibberish and that word 'Ayupee' mean?" + +"Nothing--nothing. At least, just yet. I say, put on your hat, and let's +go for a pull on the river, Mr. Narkom. I've had enough of mysteries for +to-day and am spoiling for another hour in a boat." + +Then he screwed round on his heel and walked out into the brilliant +summer sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Promptly, at the hour appointed, "Mr. Jim Rickaby" and his black servant +arrived at Laburnam Villa; and certainly the former had no cause to +complain of the welcome he received at the hands of his beautiful young +hostess. + +He found her not only an extremely lovely woman to the eye, but one +whose gentle, caressing ways, whose soft voice and simple girlish charm +were altogether fascinating, and, judging from outward appearances, from +the tender solicitude for her elderly husband's comfort and well-being, +from the look in her eyes when she spoke to him, the gentleness of her +hand when she touched him, one would have said that she really and truly +loved him, and that it needed no lure of gold to draw this particular +May to the arms of this one December. + +He found Captain Travers a laughing, rollicking, fun-loving type of +man--at least, to all outward appearances--who seemed to delight in +sports and games and to have an almost childish love of card tricks and +that species of entertainment which is known as parlour magic. He found +the three other members of the little house-party--to wit: Mrs. +Somerby-Miles, Lieutenant Forshay, and Mr. Robert Murdock--respectively, +a silly, flirtatious, little gadfly of a widow; a callow, love-struck, +lap-dog, young army officer, with a budding moustache and a full-blown +idea of his own importance; and a dour Scotchman of middle age, with a +passion for chess, a glowering scorn of frivolities, and a deep and +abiding conviction that Scotland was the only country in the world for a +self-respecting human being to dwell in, and that everything outside of +the Established Church was foredoomed to flames and sulphur and the +perpetual prodding of red-hot pitchforks. And last, but not least by any +means, he found Mr. Michael Bawdrey just what he had been told he would +find him, namely, a dear, lovable, sunny-tempered old man, who fairly +idolised his young wife and absolutely adored his frank-faced, +affectionate, big boy of a son, and who ought not, in the common course +of things, to have an enemy or an evil wisher in all the world. + +The news, which, of course, had preceded Cleek's arrival, that this +whilom college chum of his son's was as great an enthusiast as he +himself on the subject of old china, old porcelain, bric-à-brac and +curios of every sort, filled him with the utmost delight, and he could +scarcely refrain from rushing him off at once to view his famous +collection. + +"Michael, dear, you mustn't overdo yourself just because you happen to +have been a little stronger these past two days," said his wife, laying +a gentle hand upon his arm. "Besides, we must give Mr. Rickaby time to +breathe. He has had a long journey, and I am sure he will want to rest. +You can take him in to see that wonderful collection after dinner, +dear." + +"Humph! Full of fakes, as I supposed--and she knows it," was Cleek's +mental comment upon this. And he was not surprised when, finding herself +alone with him a few minutes later, she said, in her pretty, pleading +way: + +"Mr. Rickaby, if you are an expert, don't undeceive him. I could not let +you go to see the collection without first telling you. It is full of +bogus things, full of frauds and shams that unscrupulous dealers have +palmed off on him. But don't let him know. He takes such pride in them, +and--and he's breaking down--God pity me, his health is breaking down +every day, Mr. Rickaby, and I want to spare him every pang, if I can, +even so little a pang as the discovery that the things he prizes are not +real." + +"Set your mind at rest, Mrs. Bawdrey," promised Cleek. "He will not find +it out from me. He will not find anything out from me. He is just the +kind of man to break his heart, to crumple up like a burnt glove, and +come to the end of all things, even life, if he were to discover that +any of his treasures, anything that he loved and trusted in, is a sham +and a fraud." + +His eyes looked straight into hers as he spoke, his hand rested lightly +on her sleeve. She sucked in her breath suddenly, a brief pallor chased +the roses from her cheeks, a brief confusion sat momentarily upon her. +She appeared to hesitate, then looked away and laughed uneasily. + +"I don't think I quite grasp what you mean, Mr. Rickaby," she said. + +"Don't you?" he made answer. "Then I will tell you--some +time--to-morrow, perhaps. But if I were you, Mrs. Bawdrey--well, no +matter. This I promise you: that dear old man shall have no ideal +shattered by me." + +And, living up to that promise, he enthused over everything the old man +had in his collection when, after dinner that night, they went, in +company with Philip, to view it. But bogus things were on every hand. +Spurious porcelains, fraudulent armour, faked china were everywhere. The +loaded cabinets and the glazed cases were one long procession of faked +Dresden and bogus faience, of Egyptian enamels that had been +manufactured in Birmingham, and of sixth-century "treasures" whose +makers were still plying their trade and battening upon the ignorance of +such collectors as he. + +"Now, here's a thing I am particularly proud of," said the gulled old +man, reaching into one of the cases and holding out for Cleek's +admiration an irregular disc of dull, hammered gold that had an +iridescent beetle embedded in the flat face of it. "This scarab, Mr. +Rickaby, has helped to make history, as one might say. It was once the +property of Cleopatra. I was obliged to make two trips to Egypt before I +could persuade the owner to part with it. I am always conscious of a +certain sense of awe, Mr. Rickaby, when I touch this wonderful thing. To +think, sir, to think! that this bauble once rested on the bosom of that +marvellous woman; that Mark Antony must have seen it, may have touched +it; that Ptolemy Auletes knew all about it, and that it is older, sir, +than the Christian religion itself!" + +He held it out upon the flat of his palm, the better for Cleek to see +and to admire it, and signed to his son to hand the visitor a magnifying +glass. + +"Wonderful, most wonderful!" observed Cleek, bending over the spurious +gem and focussing the glass upon it; not, however, for the purpose of +studying the fraud, but to examine something just noticed--something +round and red and angry-looking which marked the palm itself, at the +base of the middle finger. + +"No wonder you are proud of such a prize. I think I should go off my +head with rapture if I owned an antique like that. But, pardon me, have +you met with an accident, Mr. Bawdrey? That's an ugly place you have on +your palm." + +"That? Oh, that's nothing," he answered, gaily. "It itches a great deal +at times, but otherwise it isn't troublesome. I can't think how in the +world I got it, to tell the truth. It came out as a sort of red blister +in the beginning, and since it broke it has been spreading a great deal. +But, really, it doesn't amount to anything at all." + +"Oh, that's just like you, dad," put in Philip, "always making light of +the wretched thing. I notice one thing, however, Rickaby, it seems to +grow worse instead of better. And dad knows as well as I do when it +began. It came out suddenly about a fortnight ago, after he had been +holding some green worsted for my stepmother to wind into balls. Just +look at it, will you, old chap?" + +"Nonsense, nonsense!" chimed in the old man, laughingly. "Don't mind the +silly boy, Mr. Rickaby. He will have it that that green worsted is to +blame, just because he happened to spy the thing the morning after." + +"Let's have a look at it," said Cleek, moving nearer the light. Then, +after a close examination, "I don't think it amounts to anything, after +all," he added, as he laid aside the glass. "I shouldn't worry myself +about it if I were you, Phil. It's just an ordinary blister, nothing +more. Let's go on with the collection, Mr. Bawdrey; I'm deeply +interested in it, I assure you. Never saw such a marvellous lot. Got any +more amazing things--gems, I mean--like that wonderful scarab? I +say!"--halting suddenly before a long, narrow case, with a glass front, +which stood on end in a far corner, and, being lined with black velvet, +brought into ghastly prominence the suspended shape of a human skeleton +contained within--"I say! What the dickens is this? Looks like a +doctor's specimen, b'gad. You haven't let anybody--I mean, you haven't +been buying any prehistoric bones, have you, Mr. Bawdrey?" + +"Oh, that?" laughed the old man, turning round and seeing to what he was +alluding. "Oh, that's a curiosity of quite a different sort, Mr. +Rickaby. You are right in saying it looks like a doctor's specimen. It +is--or, rather, it was. Mrs. Bawdrey's father was a doctor, and it once +belonged to him. Properly, it ought to have no place in a collection of +this sort, but--well, it's such an amazing thing I couldn't quite refuse +it a place, sir. It's a freak of nature. The skeleton of a nine-fingered +man." + +"Of a what?" + +"A nine-fingered man." + +"Well, I can't say that I see anything remarkable in that. I've got nine +fingers myself, nine and one over, when it comes to that." + +"No, you haven't, you duffer!" put in young Bawdrey, with a laugh. +"You've got eight fingers--eight fingers and two thumbs. This bony +johnny has nine fingers and two thumbs. That's what makes him a freak. I +say, dad, open the beggar's box, and let Rickaby see." + +His father obeyed the request. Lifting the tiny brass latch which alone +secured it, he swung open the glazed door of the case, and, reaching in, +drew forward the flexible left arm of the skeleton. + +"There you are," he said, supporting the bony hand upon his palm, so +that all its fingers were spread out and Cleek might get a clear view of +the monstrosity. "What a trial he must have been to the glove trade, +mustn't he?" laughing gaily. "Fancy the confusion and dismay, Mr. +Rickaby, if a fellow like this walked into a Bond Street shop in a hurry +and asked for a pair of gloves." + +Cleek bent over and examined the thing with interest. At first glance, +the hand was no different from any other skeleton hand one might see any +day in any place where they sold anatomical specimens for the use of +members of the medical profession; but as Mr. Bawdrey, holding it on the +palm of his right hand, flattened it out with the fingers of his left, +the abnormality at once became apparent. Springing from the base of the +fourth finger, a perfectly developed fifth appeared, curling inward +toward what had once been the palm of the hand, as though, in life, it +had been the owner's habit of screening it from observation by holding +it in that position. It was, however, perfectly flexible, and Mr. +Bawdrey had no difficulty in making it lie out flat after the manner of +its mates. + +The sight was not inspiring--the freaks of mother Nature rarely are. No +one but a doctor would have cared to accept the thing as a gift, and no +one but a man as mad on the subject of curiosities and with as little +sense of discrimination as Mr. Bawdrey would have dreamt for a moment of +adding it to a collection. + +"It's rather uncanny," said Cleek, who had no palate for the abnormal in +Nature. "For myself, I may frankly admit that I don't like things of +that sort about me." + +"You are very much like my wife in that," responded the old man. "She +was of the opinion that the skeleton ought to have been destroyed or +else handed over to some anatomical museum. But--well, it is a +curiosity, you know, Mr. Rickaby. Besides, as I have said, it was once +the property of her late father, a most learned man, sir, most learned, +and as it was of sufficient interest for him to retain it--oh, well, we +collectors are faddists, you know, so I easily persuaded Mrs. Bawdrey to +allow me to bring it over to England with me when we took our leave of +Java. And now that you have seen it, suppose we have a look at more +artistic things. I have some very fine specimens of neolithic implements +and weapons which I am most anxious to show you. Just step this way, +please." + +He let the skeleton's hand slip from his own, swing back into the case, +and forthwith closed the glass door upon it; then, leading the way to +the cabinet containing the specimens referred to, he unlocked it, and +invited Cleek's opinion of the flint arrow-heads, stone hatchets, and +granite utensils within. + +For a minute they lingered thus, the old man talking, laughing, exulting +in his possessions, the detective examining and pretending to be deeply +impressed. Then, of a sudden, without hint or warning to lessen the +shock of it, the uplifted lid of the cabinet fell with a crash from the +hand that upheld it, shivering the glass into fifty pieces, and Cleek, +screwing round on his heel with a "jump" of all his nerves, was in time +to see the figure of his host crumple up, collapse, drop like a thing +shot dead, and lie foaming and writhing on the polished floor. + +"Dad! Oh, heavens! Dad!" The cry was young Bawdrey's. He seemed fairly +to throw himself across the intervening space and to reach his father in +the instant he fell. "Now you know! Now you know!" he went on wildly, as +Cleek dropped down beside him and began to loosen the old man's collar. +"It's like this always; not a hint, not a sign, but just this utter +collapse. My God, what are they doing it with? How are they managing it, +those two? They're coming, Headland. Listen! Don't you hear them?" + +The crash of the broken glass and the jar of the old man's fall had +swept through all the house, and a moment later, headed by Mrs. Bawdrey +herself, all the members of the little house-party came piling excitedly +into the room. + +The fright and suffering of the young wife seemed very real as she threw +herself down beside her husband and caught him to her with a little +shuddering cry. Then her voice, uplifting in a panic, shrilled out a +wild appeal for doctor, servants--help of any kind. And, almost as she +spoke, Travers was beside her, Travers and Forshay and Robert +Murdock--yes, and silly little Mrs. Somerby-Miles, too, forgetting in +the face of such a time as this to be anything but helpful and +womanly--and all of these gave such assistance as was in their power. + +"Help me get him up to his own room, somebody, and send a servant +post-haste for the doctor," said Captain Travers, taking the lead after +the fashion of a man who is used to command. "Calm yourself as much as +possible, Mrs. Bawdrey. Here, Murdock, lend a hand and help him." + +"Eh, mon, there is nae help but Heaven's in sic a case as this," +dolefully responded Murdock, as he came forward and solemnly stooped to +obey. "The puir auld laddie! The Laird giveth and the Laird taketh awa', +and the weel o' mon is as naething." + +"Oh, stow your croaking, you blundering old fool!" snapped Travers, as +Mrs. Bawdrey gave a heart-wrung cry and hid her face in her hands. "You +and your eternal doldrums! Here, Bawdrey, lend a hand, old chap. We can +get him upstairs without the assistance of this human trombone, I know." + +But "this human trombone" was not minded that they should; and so it +fell out that, when Lieutenant Forshay led Mrs. Somerby-Miles from the +room, and young Bawdrey and Captain Travers carried the stricken man up +the stairs to his own bed-chamber, his wife flying in advance to see +that everything was prepared for him, Cleek, standing all alone beside +the shattered cabinet, could hear Mr. Robert Murdock's dismal croakings +rumbling steadily out as he mounted the staircase with the others. + +For a moment after the closing door of a room overhead had shut them +from his ears, he stood there, with puckered brows and pursed-up lips, +drumming with his finger-tips a faint tattoo upon the framework of the +shattered lid; then he walked over to the skeleton case, and silently +regarded the gruesome thing within. + +"Nine fingers," he muttered sententiously, "and the ninth curves inward +to the palm!" He stepped round and viewed the case from all points--both +sides, the front, and even the narrow space made at the back by the +angle of the corner where it stood. And after this he walked to the +other end of the room, took the key from the lock, slipped it in his +pocket, and went out, closing the door behind him, that none might +remember it had not been locked when the master of the place was carried +above. + +It was, perhaps, twenty minutes later that young Bawdrey came down and +found him all alone in the smoking-room, bending over the table whereon +the butler had set the salver containing the whiskey decanter, the soda +siphon, and the glasses that were always laid out there, that the +gentlemen might help themselves to the regulation "night-cap" before +going to bed. + +"I've slipped away to have a word in private with you, Headland," he +said, in an agitated voice, as he came in. "Oh, what consummate actors +they are, those two. You'd think her heart was breaking, wouldn't you? +You'd think--Hullo! I say! What on earth are you doing?" For, as he came +nearer, he could see that Cleek had removed the glass stopper of the +decanter, and was tapping with his finger-tips a little funnel of white +paper, the narrow end of which he had thrust into the neck of the +bottle. + +"Just adding a harmless little sleeping-draught to the nightly +beverage," said Cleek, in reply, as he screwed up the paper funnel and +put it in his pocket. "A good sound sleep is an excellent thing, my dear +fellow, and I mean to make sure that the gentlemen of this house-party +have it--one gentleman in particular: Captain Travers." + +"Yes; but--I say! What about me, old chap? I don't want to be drugged, +and you know I have to show them the courtesy of taking a 'night-cap' +with them." + +"Precisely. That's where you can help me out. If any of them remark +anything about the whiskey having a peculiar taste, you must stoutly +assert that you don't notice; and, as they've seen you drinking from the +same decanter--why, there you are. Don't worry over it. It's a very, +very harmless draught; you won't even have a headache from it. Listen +here, Bawdrey. Somebody is poisoning your father." + +"I know it. I told you so from the beginning, Headland," he answered, +with a sort of wail. "But what's that got to do with drugging the +whiskey?" + +"Everything. I'm going to find out to-night whether Captain Travers is +that somebody or not. Sh-h-h! Don't get excited. Yes, that's my game. I +want to get into his rooms whilst he is sleeping, and be free to search +his effects. I want to get into every man's room here, and wherever I +find poison--well, you understand?" + +"Yes," he replied, brightening as he grasped the import of the matter. +"What a ripping idea! And so simple." + +"I think so. Once let me find the poison, and I'll know my man. Now one +other thing: the housekeeper must have a master-key that opens all the +bedrooms in the place. Get it for me. It will be easier and swifter than +picking the locks." + +"Right you are, old chap. I'll slip up to Mrs. Jarret's room and fetch +it to you at once." + +"No; tuck it under the mat just outside my door. As it won't do for me +to be drugged as well as the rest of you. I shan't put in an appearance +when the rest come down. Say I've got a headache, and have gone to bed. +As for my own 'night-cap'--well, I can send Dollops down to get the +butler to pour me one out of another decanter, so that will be all +right. Now, toddle off and get the key, there's a good chap. And, I say, +Bawdrey, as I shan't see you again until morning--good-night." + +"Good-night, old chap!" he answered in his impulsive, boyish way. "You +are a friend, Headland. And--you'll save my dad, God bless you! A true, +true friend--that's what you are. Thank God I ran across you." + +Cleek smiled and nodded to him as he passed out and hurried away; then, +hearing the other gentlemen coming down the stairs, he, too, made haste +to get out of the room and to creep up to his own after they had +assembled, and the cigar cabinet and the whiskey were being passed +round, and the doctor was busy above with the man who was somebody's +victim. + + * * * * * + +The big old grandfather clock at the top of the stairs pointed ten +minutes past two, and the house was hushed of every sound save that +which is the evidence of deep sleep, when the door of Cleek's room swung +quietly open, and Cleek himself, in dressing-gown and wadded bedroom +slippers, stepped out into the dark hall, and, leaving Dollops on guard, +passed like a shadow over the thick, unsounding carpet. + +The rooms of all the male occupants of the house, including that of +Philip Bawdrey himself, opened upon this. He went to each in turn, +unlocked it, stepped in, closed it after him, and lit the bedroom +candle. + +The sleeping-draught had accomplished all that was required of it; and +in each and every room he entered--Captain Travers's, Lieutenant +Forshay's, Mr. Robert Murdock's--there lay the occupant thereof +stretched out at full length in the grip of that deep and heavy sleep +which comes of drugs. + +Cleek made the round of the rooms as quietly as any shadow, even +stopping as he passed young Bawdrey's on his way back to his own to peep +in there. Yes; he, too, had got his share of the effective draught, for +there he lay snarled up in the bed-clothes, with his arms over his head +and his knees drawn up until they were on a level with his waist, and +his handsome, boyish face a little paler than usual. + +Cleek didn't go into the room, simply looked at him from the threshold, +then shut the door, and went back to Dollops. + +"All serene, Gov'nor?" questioned that young man, in an eager whisper. + +"Yes, quite," his master replied, as he turned to a writing-table +whereon there lay a sealed note, and, pulling out the chair, sat down +before it and took up a pen. "Wait a bit, and then you can go to bed. +I'll give you still another note to deliver. While I'm writing it you +may lay out my clothes." + +"Slipping off, sir?" + +"Yes. You will stop here, however. Now, then, hold your tongue; I'm +busy." + +Then he pulled a sheet of paper to him and wrote rapidly: + +"DEAR MR. BAWDREY: + +"I've got my man, and am off to consult with Mr. Narkom and to have what +I've found analysed. I don't know when I shall be back--probably not +until the day after to-morrow. You are right. It is murder, and Java is +at the bottom of it. Dollops will hand you this. Say nothing--just wait +till I get back." + +This he slipped, unsigned in his haste, into an envelope, handed it to +Dollops, and then fairly jumped into his clothes. Ten minutes later, he +was out of the house, and--the end of the riddle was in sight. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +On the morrow, Mrs. Bawdrey made known the rather surprising piece of +news that Mr. Rickaby had written her a note to say that he had received +a communication of such vital importance that he had been obliged to +leave the house that morning before anybody was up, and might not be +able to return to it for several days. + +"No very great hardship in that, my dear," commented Mrs. Somerby-Miles, +"for a more stupid and uninteresting person I never encountered. Fancy! +he never even offered to assist the gentlemen to get poor Mr. Bawdrey +upstairs last night. How is the poor old dear this morning, darling? +Better?" + +"Yes--much," said Mrs. Bawdrey, in reply. "Doctor Phillipson came to the +house before four o'clock, and brought some wonderful new medicine that +has simply worked wonders. Of course, he will have to stop in bed and be +perfectly quiet for three or four days; but, although the attack was by +far the worst he has ever had, the doctor feels quite confident that he +will pull him safely through." + +Now although, in the light of her apparent affection for her aged +husband, she ought, one would have thought, to be exceedingly happy over +this, it was distinctly noticeable that she was nervous and ill at ease, +that there was a hunted look in her eyes, and that, as the day wore on, +these things seemed to be accentuated. More than that, there seemed +added proof of the truth of young Bawdrey's assertion that she and +Captain Travers were in league with each other, for that day they were +constantly together, constantly getting off into out-of-the-way places, +and constantly talking in an undertone of something that seemed to worry +them. + +Even when dinner was over, and the whole party adjourned to the +drawing-room for coffee, and the lady ought, in all conscience, to have +given herself wholly up to the entertainment of her guests it was +observable that she devoted most of her time to whispered confidences +with Captain Travers, that they kept going to the window and looking up +at the sky, as if worried and annoyed that the twilight should be so +long in fading and the night in coming on. But worse than this, at ten +o'clock Captain Travers made an excuse of having letters to write, and +left the room, and it was scarcely six minutes later that she followed +suit. + +But the Captain had not gone to write letters, as it had happened. +Instead, he had gone straight to the morning-room, an apartment +immediately behind that in which the elder Mr. Bawdrey's collection was +housed, and from which a broad French window opened out upon the +grounds, and it might have caused a scandal had it been known that Mrs. +Bawdrey joined him there one minute after leaving the drawing-room. + +"It is the time, Walter, it is the time!" she said, in a breathless sort +of way, as she closed the door and moved across the room to where he +stood, a dimly seen figure in the dim light. "God help and pity me! but +I am so nervous, I hardly know how to contain myself. The note said at +ten to-night in the morning-room, and it is ten now. The hour is here, +Walter, the hour is here!" + +"So is the man, Mrs. Bawdrey," answered a low voice from the outer +darkness; then a figure lifted itself above the screening shrubs just +beyond the ledge of the open window, and Cleek stepped into the room. + +She gave a little hysterical cry and reached out her hands to him. + +"Oh, I am so glad to see you, even though you hint at such awful things, +I am so glad, so glad!" she said. "I almost died when I read your note. +To think that it is murder--murder! And but for you he might be dead +even now. You will like to know that the doctor brought the stuff you +sent by him--brought it at once--and my darling is better--better." + +Before Cleek could venture any reply to this, Captain Travers stalked +across the room and gripped his hand. + +"And so you are that great man Cleek, are you?" he said. "Bully boy! +Bully boy! And to think that all the time it wasn't some mysterious +natural affliction; to think that it was crime--murder--poison. What +poison, man, what poison--what?" + +"Ayupee, or, as it is variously called in the several islands of the +Eastern Archipelago, Pohon-Upas, Antjar, and Ipo," said Cleek, in reply. +"The deadly venom which the Malays use in poisoning the heads of their +arrows." + +"What! that awful stuff!" said Mrs. Bawdrey, with a little shuddering +cry. "And someone in this house--" Her voice broke. She plucked at +Cleek's sleeve and looked up at him in an agony of entreaty. "Who?" she +implored. "Who in this house could? You said you would tell +to-night--you said you would. Oh, who could have the heart? Ah! Who? It +is true, if you have not heard it, that once upon a time there was bad +blood between Mr. Murdock and him--that Mr. Murdock is a family +connection; but even he, oh, even he--Tell me--tell me, Mr. Cleek!" + +"Mrs. Bawdrey, I can't just yet," he made reply. "In my heart I am as +certain of it as though the criminal had confessed; but I am waiting for +a sign, and, until that comes, absolute proof is not possible. That it +will come, and may, indeed, come at any moment now that it is quite +dark, I am very certain. When it does--" + +He stopped and threw up a warning hand. As he spoke a queer thudding +sound struck one dull note through the stillness of the house. He stood, +bent forward, listening, absolutely breathless; then, on the other side +of the wall, there rippled and rolled a something that was like the +sound of a struggle between two voiceless animals, and--the sign that he +awaited had come! + +"Follow me--quickly, as noiselessly as you can. Let no one hear, let no +one see!" he said in a breath of excitement. Then he sprang cat-like to +the door, whirled it open, scudded round the angle of the passage to the +entrance of the room where the fraudulent collection was kept, and went +in with the silent fleetness of a panther. And a moment later, when +Captain Travers and Mrs. Bawdrey swung in through the door and joined +him, they came upon a horrifying sight. + +For there, leaning against the open door of the case where the skeleton +of the nine-fingered man hung, was Dollops, bleeding and faint, and with +a score of tooth-marks on his neck and throat, and on the floor at his +feet Cleek was kneeling on the writhing figure of a man, who bit and +tore and snarled like a cornered wolf and fought with teeth and feet and +hands alike in the wild effort to get free from the grip of destiny. A +locked handcuff clamped one wrist, and from it swung, at the end of the +connecting chain, its unlocked mate; the marks of Dollops' fists were on +his lips and cheeks, and at the foot of the case, where the hanging +skeleton doddered and shook to the vibration of the floor, lay a +shattered phial of deep-blue glass. + +"Got you, you hound!" said Cleek, through his teeth as he wrenched the +man's two wrists together and snapped the other handcuff into place. +"You beast of ingratitude--you Judas! Kissing and betraying like any +other Iscariot! And a dear old man like that! Look here, Mrs. Bawdrey; +look here Captain Travers; what do you think of a little rat like this?" + +They came forward at his word, and, looking down, saw that the figure he +was bending over was the figure of Philip Bawdrey. + +"Oh!" gulped Mrs. Bawdrey, and then shut her two hands over her eyes and +fell away weak and shivering. "Oh, Mr. Cleek, it can't be--it can't! To +do a thing like that?" + +"Oh, he'd have done worse, the little reptile, if he hadn't been pulled +up short," said Cleek in reply. "He'd have hanged you for it, if it had +gone the way he planned. You look in your boxes; you, too, Captain +Travers. I'll wager each of you finds a phial of Ayupee hidden among +them somewhere. Came in to put more of the cursed stuff on the ninth +finger of the skeleton, so that it would be ready for the next time, +didn't he, Dollops?" + +"Yes, Gov'nor. I waited for him behind the case just as you told me to, +sir, and when he ups and slips the finger of the skilligan into the neck +of the bottle, I nips out and whacks the bracelet on him. But he was too +quick for me, sir, so I only got one on; and then, the hound, he turns +on me like a blessed hyena, sir, and begins a-chawin' of me windpipe. I +say, Gov'nor, take off his silver wristlets, will you, sir, and lemme +have jist ten minutes with him on my own? Five for me, sir, and five for +his poor old dad!" + +"Not I," said Cleek. "I wouldn't let you soil those honest hands of +yours on his vile little body, Dollops. Thought you had a noodle to deal +with, didn't you, Mr. Philip Bawdrey? Thought you could lead me by the +nose, and push me into finding those phials just where you wanted them +found, didn't you? Well, you've got a few more thoughts coming. Look +here, Captain Travers: what do you think of this fellow's little game? +Tried to take me in about you and Mrs. Bawdrey being lovers, and trying +to do away with him and his father to get the old man's money." + +"Why, the contemptible little hound! Bless my soul, man, I'm engaged to +Mrs. Bawdrey's cousin. And as for his stepmother--why, she threw the +little worm over as soon as he began making love to her, and tried to +make her take up with him by telling her how much he'd be worth when his +father died." + +"I guessed as much. I didn't fancy him from the first moment; and he was +so blessed eager to have me begin by suspecting you two, that I smelt a +rat at once. Oh, but he's been crafty enough in other things. Putting +that devilish stuff on the ninth finger of the skeleton, and never +losing an opportunity to get his poor old father to handle it and show +it to people. It's a strong, irritant poison--sap of the upas-tree is +the base of it--producing first an irritation of the skin, then a +blister, and, when that broke, communicating the poison directly to the +blood every time the skeleton hand touched it. A weak solution at first, +so that the decline would be natural, the growth of the malady gradual. +But if I'd found that phial in your room last night, as he hoped and +believed I had done--well, look for yourself. The finger of the skeleton +is thick with the beastly, gummy stuff to-night. Double strength, of +course. The next time his father touched it he'd have died before +morning. And the old chap fairly worshipping him. I suspected him, and +suspected what the stuff that was being used really was from the +beginning. Last night I drugged him, and then--I knew." + +"Knew, Mr. Cleek? Why, how could you?" + +"The most virulent poisons have their remedial uses, Captain," he made +reply. "You can kill a man with strychnine; you can put him in his grave +with arsenic; you can also use both these powerful agents to cure and to +save, in their proper proportions and in the proper way. The same rule +applies to Ayupee. Properly diluted and properly used, it is one of the +most powerful agents for the relief, and, in some cases, the cure, of +Bright's disease of the kidneys. But the Government guards this unholy +drug most carefully. You can't get a drop of it in Java for love or +money, unless on the order of a recognized physician; and you can't +bring it into the ports of England unless backed by that physician's +sworn statement and the official stamp of the Javanese authorities. A +man undeniably afflicted with Bright's disease could get these +things--no other could. Well, I wanted to know who had succeeded in +getting Ayupee into this country and into this house. Last night I +drugged every man in it, and--I found out." + +"But how?" + +"By finding the one who could not sleep stretched out at full length. +One of the strongest symptoms of Bright's disease is a tendency to draw +the knees up close to the body in sleep, Captain, and to twist the arms +above the head. Of all the men under this roof, this man here was the +only one who slept like that last night!" He paused and looked down at +the scowling, sullen creature on the floor. "You wretched little cur!" +he said, with a gesture of unspeakable contempt. "And all for the sake +of an old man's money! If I did my duty, I'd gaol you. But if I did, it +would be punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. It would +kill that dear old man to learn this; and so he's not going to learn it, +and the law's not going to get its own." He twitched out his hand, and +something tinkled on the floor. "Get up!" he said sharply. "There's the +key of the handcuffs; take it and set yourself free. Do you know what's +going to happen to you? To-morrow morning Dr. Phillipson is going to +examine you, and to report that you'll be a dead man in a year's time if +you stop another week in this country. You are going out of it, and you +are going to stop out of it. Do you understand? _Stop_ out of it to the +end of your days. For if ever you put foot in it again I'll handle you +as a terrier handles a rat! Dollops!" + +"Yes, Gov'nor?" + +"My things packed and ready?" + +"Yes, sir. And all waitin' in the arbour, sir, as you told me to have +'em." + +"Good lad! Get them, and we'll catch the first train back. Mrs. Bawdrey, +my best respects. Captain, all good luck to you," said Cleek--and swung +out into the darkness and the moist, warm fragrance of the night; his +mental poise a bit unsteady, his nerves raw. It was not in him to have +stopped longer, to have remained under the same roof with a monster like +young Bawdrey and keep his temper in check. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The stillness, the balm, the soothing influences of the night worked +their own spell; and, after a time, rubbed out the mental wrinkles and +brought a sense of restfulness and peace. It could not well do otherwise +with such a nature as his. The night was all a-musk with mignonette and +roses, the sky all a-glitter with stars. A gunshot distant the river +ran--a silver thing ribboning along between the dark of bending trees; +somewhere in the darkness a nightingale shook out the scale of Nature's +Anthem to the listening Night, and, farther afield, others took up the +chorus of it and sang and sang with the sheer joy of living. + +What a world--God, what a world for parricides to exist in, and for the +sons of men to forget the Fifth Commandment! + +He walked on faster, and made his way to the arbour where Dollops +waited. The boy rose to meet him. + +"Everythink all ready, sir--see!" he said, holding up a kit bag. "Wot's +it now, Gov'nor?--the railway station? Good enough. Shall I nip off +ahead or keep with you till we get there?" + +"Suit yourself, my lad." + +"Thanky, sir; then I'll walk at your heels, if you don't mind. I'd like +to walk at your heels all the rest of my blessed life. Did I carry it +off all right, Gov'nor? Did I do it jist as you wanted of it done?" + +"To a T, my lad," said Cleek, smiling and patting him on the shoulder. +"You'll do, Dollops--you'll do finely. I think I did a good job for the +pair of us, my boy, when I gave you those two half-crowns." + +"Advanced, Gov'nor, advanced," corrected Dollops, with a look of sheer +affection. "Let me work 'em off, sir, like you said I might. I don't +want nothin' but wot I earns, Gov'nor; nothin' but wot I've got a right +to have; for when I sees wot wantin' money as don't belong to you leads +to; when I thinks wot that young Bawdrey chap was willin' to do for the +love of havin' it--" + +"Don't!" struck in Cleek, a trifle roughly. "Drop the man's name--I +can't trust myself to think of it. That the one world, the one self-same +world, could hold two such widely dissimilar creations of God as that +monster and ... No matter. Thank God, I've been able to do something +to-night for a good woman--I owe so much to another of her kind. No; +don't speak--just walk quietly and"--jerking his thumb in the direction +of the fluting nightingales--"listen to that. God! the man who could +think evil things when a nightingale sings, isn't fit to stand even in +the Devil's presence." + +Dollops looked at him--half-puzzled, half-awed. He could not understand +the character of the man: there were so many sides to it; and they came +and went so oddly. One minute, a very brute-beast in his ferocity, the +next, a woman in his tenderness and a poet in his thoughts. But if the +boy was puzzled, he was, at least, discreet. He put nothing into words: +merely walked on in silence, and left the man to his thoughts and the +nightingales to their melody. + +And Cleek was unusually thoughtful from that period onward; speaking +hardly a word through all the journey home. For now that the events +which had occupied his mind for the past two or three days were over and +done with, his memory harked back to those things which had to do with +his own affairs, and he caught himself wondering how matters had gone +with Ailsa Lorne; which of the two positions--the English one or the +French--she had finally elected to apply for; and if time had as yet +softened the shock of that disclosure made in the mist and darkness at +Hampstead Heath. + +He had, of course, heard nothing of her since that time; and the days he +had spent at Richmond had utterly precluded the possibility of giving +himself that small pleasure--so often indulged in--of adopting a safe +disguise, prowling about the neighbourhood where she lived until she +should come forth upon one errand or another, and then following her, +unsuspected. + +That she could have taken the knowledge of what he once had been in no +other way than she had done; that to such a woman, such a man must at +the first blush be an object of abhorrence--a thing to be put out of her +life as completely and as expeditiously as possible--he fully realised; +yet, at bottom, he was conscious of a hope that Time--even so little as +had passed--might lend a softening influence that should lead eventually +to Pity, and from that to a day when the word Forgiveness might be +spoken. + +He wanted that forgiveness--the soul of the man needed it, as parched +plants need water. He had not climbed up out of himself without some +struggle, some moments when he wavered between what he had become, and +what Nature had written that he was meant to be; for no Soul is purged +all in a moment, no man may conquer himself with just one solitary +fight. He needed her forgiveness, the thought of her, the hope of her, +to rivet his armour for the long, brave fight. He needed her +Friendship--if he might never have her love he needed _that_. And if she +were to pass like this from his life.... If the Light were to go out ... +and all the long, dark way of the Future still to be faced.... Something +within him seemed to writhe. He took his lower lip between his thumb and +forefinger and squeezed it hard. + +That he had hoped for some token, some word--forwarded through Mr. +Narkom--he did not quite realise until he got back to Clarges Street and +found that there was none. + +Followed a sense of despair, a moment of deep dejection, that passed in +turn and gave place to a feeling of personal injury, of savage +resentment, and of the ferocity which comes when the half-tamed wolf +wakes to the realisation that here is nothing before it evermore, but +the bars of the cage and the goad of the keeper; and that far and away +in the world there are still the free woods, the naked body of Nature, +and the savage company of its kind. + +Under the stress of that gust of passion, he sent Dollops flying from +the room. He wrenched open the drawer of his writing-table, and scooped +up in his hands some trifles of faded ribbon and trinkets of +gold--things that he treasured, none knew why or for what--and holding +them thus, looked down on them and laughed, bitterly and savagely, as +though a devil were within him. + +"Me! She scorns me!" he said, and laughed again, and flung them all back +and shut the drawer upon them. And presently he knew that he held her +all the higher because she did scorn him; because her life was such that +she _could_ scorn him; and the bitterness dropped out of him, his eyes +softened, and though he still laughed, it was for an utterly different +reason, and in a wholly different way. + +Some pots of tulips and mignonette stood on the ledge of his window. He +walked over to see that they were watered before he went to bed. And +between the time when he got down on his knees to fish out his +bath-slippers from beneath the bed-stead and the creak of the springs +when he lay down for the night, he was so long and so still that one +might have believed he was doing something else. + +He slept long, and rose in the morning soothed and subdued in +spirit--better and brighter in every way; for now no affair, for The +Yard hampered his movements and claimed his time. He was free; he was +back in the Town--beautiful because it contained her--and he might hark +back to the old trick of watching and following and being close to her +without her knowledge. + +It was a vain hope that, however. For, although he dressed and went out +and haunted the neighbourhood of Sir Horace Wyvern's house for hours on +end, he saw nothing of her that day. Nor did he see her the next, nor +the next, nor yet the next again. At first, he began to think that she +must come out and return during the times when he was obliged to go off +guard and get his meal--for he could not bring himself to play the part +of the spy or the common policeman, and filch news from the +servants--but when a week had gone by in this manner, he set all +question upon that point at rest by remaining at his post from sunrise +to ten o'clock at night. She did not appear. He wondered what that +meant--whether it indicated that she had already accepted one of the two +positions, or had gone to stop with her friend on the other side of +Hampstead Heath. + +The result of that wondering was that, for the next five days, the +gentleman who was known in Clarges Street as "Captain Horatio Burbage," +became a regular visitor to the neighbourhood of the house in Bardon +Road. The issue was exactly the same. Miss Lorne did not appear. + +He could no longer doubt that she had accepted one or other of the two +positions; but steadfastly refrained from making any personal inquiry. +She would hear of it if anybody called to inquire her whereabouts; and +she would guess who had done it. He would not have her feel that he was +thrusting himself upon her, inquiring about her as one might inquire +about a common servant. If it was her will that he should know, then +that knowledge should come from her, not be picked up as one picks up +clues to missing people of the criminal class. + +So then, it was good-bye to Bardon Road, just as it had been good-bye to +Mayfair. He turned his back upon it in the very moment he came to that +conclusion, and had just set his face in the direction of the heath when +he was brought to a standstill by the sound of someone calling out +sharply: "Burbage--I say, Captain Burbage: stop a moment, please." And, +screwing round instantly, he saw a red limousine pelting toward him, and +an excited chauffeur waving a gloved hand. + +He knew that red limousine, and he knew that chauffeur. Both belonged to +Mr. Maverick Narkom. + +He stood waiting until the motor was abreast of him--had, in fact, come +to a standstill--then spoke in a guarded tone: + +"What is it, Lennard?" he asked. "The Yard?" + +"Yessir. Young Dollops told us where to look for you. Hop in quickly, +sir. Superintendent inside." + +Cleek opened the door of the vehicle at once, stepped in, shut it after +him, and sat down beside Mr. Narkom with the utmost composure. + +"My dear fellow, I _have_ had a chase!" said the superintendent, with a +long deep breath of relief, as the limousine swung out into the roadway, +and pelted off westward at a pace that brushed the very fringes of the +speed limit. "I made certain I should find you at home. Fairly floored +when I discovered that you weren't. If it hadn't been for that boy, +Dollops--bright young button, that Dollops, Cleek; exceedingly bright, +b'gad." + +"Yes," agreed Cleek, quietly. "Bright, faithful, and--inventive." + +"Really? What has the young beggar invented, then?" + +"An original appliance which may possibly be of a good deal of service +one of these days. But, never mind that at present. It is fair to +suppose, from your rushing out here in quest of me, that you've got +something on hand, isn't it?" + +"Yes--rather! An amazing 'something,' old chap. It's a letter. Arrived +at headquarters about an hour and a half ago. Not an affair for The Yard +this time, Cleek, but a thing you must take up on your own, if you take +it up at all; and I tell you frankly, I don't like it." + +"Why?" + +"For one thing, it's from Paris; and--well, you know what dangers Paris +would have for _you_. There's that she-devil you broke with--that woman +Margot. You know what she swore, what she wrote when you sent her that +letter telling her that you were done with her and her lot, and warning +her never to set foot on English soil again? If you were to run foul of +her--if she were ever to get any hint of your real identity--" + +"She can't. She knows no more of my real history than you do; no more +than I actually know of hers. Our knowledge of each other began when we +started to 'pal' together--it ended when we split, eighteen months ago. +But about that letter? What is it? Why do you say that you don't like +it?" + +"Well, to begin with, I'm afraid it is some trap of hers to decoy you +over there--get you into some unknown place--" + +"There are no 'unknown places' in Paris so far as I am concerned. I know +every hole and corner of it, from the sewers on. I know it as well as I +know London, as well as I know Berlin--New +York--Vienna--Edinburgh--Rome. You couldn't lose me or trap me in any +one of them. Is that the letter in your hand? Good--then read it, +please." + +"To the Superintendent of Police, Scotland Yard," read Narkom, obeying +the request. + +"'DISTINGUISHED MONSIEUR: + +"'Of your grace and pity, I implore you to listen to the prayer of an +unhappy man whose honour, whose reason, whose very life are in deadly +peril, not alone of "The Red Crawl," but of things he may not even name, +dare not commit to writing, lest this letter should go astray. It shall +happen, monsieur, that the whole world shall hear with amazement of that +most marvellous "Cleek"--that great reader of riddles and unmasker of +evil-doers who, in the past year, has made the police department of +England the envy of all nations; and it shall happen also that I who +dare not appeal to the police of France appeal to the mercy, the +humanity, of this great man, as it is my only hope. Monsieur, you have +his ear, you have his confidence, you have the means at your command. +Ah! ask him, pray him, implore him for the love of God, and the sake of +a fellow-man, to come alone to the top floor of the house number 7 of +the Rue Toison d'Or, Paris, at nine hours of the night of Friday, the +26th inst., to enter into the darkness and say but the one word "Cleek" +as a signal it is he, and I may come forward and throw myself upon his +mercy. Oh, save me, Monsieur Cleek--save me! save me!' + +"There, that's the lot, and there's no signature," said Narkom, laying +down the letter. "What do you make of it, Cleek?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"A very real, a very moving thing, Mr. Narkom," he replied. "The cry of +a human heart in deep distress; the agonised appeal of a man so wrought +up by the horrors of his position that he forgets to offer a temptation +in the way of reward, and speaks of outlandish things as though they +must be understood of all. As witness his allusion to something which he +calls 'The Red Crawl,' without attempting to explain the meaningless +phrase. Whatever it is, it is so real to him that it seems as if +everybody must understand." + +"You think, then, that the thing is genuine?" + +"So genuine that I shall answer its call, Mr. Narkom, and be alone in +the dark on the top floor of No. 7, Rue Toison d'Or, to-morrow night as +surely as the clock strikes nine." + +And that was how the few persons who happened to be in the quiet upper +reaches of the Rue Bienfaisance at half-past eight o'clock the next +evening came to see a fat, fussing, red-faced Englishman in a grey +frock-coat, white spats, and a shining topper, followed by a liveried +servant with a hat-box in one hand and a portmanteau in the other--so +conspicuous, the pair of them, that they couldn't have any desire to +conceal themselves--cross over the square before the Church of St. +Augustine, fare forth into the darker side passages, and move in the +direction of the street of the Golden Fleece. + +They were, of course, Cleek and the boy Dollops. + +"Lumme, Gov'nor," whispered he, as they turned at last into the utter +darkness and desertion of the narrow Rue Toison d'Or, "if this is wot +yer calls Gay Paree--this precious black slit between two rows of +houses--I'll take a slice of the Old Kent Road with thanks. Not even so +much as a winkle-stall in sight, and me that empty my shirt-bosom's +a-chafing my blessed shoulder-blades!" + +"You'll see plenty of life before the game's over, I warrant you, +Dollops. Now then, my lad, here's a safe spot. Sit down on the hat-box +and wait. That's No. 7, that empty house with the open door, just across +the way. Keep your eye on it. I don't know how long I'll be, but if +anybody comes out before I do, mind you don't let him get away." + +"No fear!" said Dollops sententiously. "I'll be after him as if he was a +ham sandwich, sir. Look out for my patent 'Tickle Tootsies' when you +come out, Gov'nor. I'll sneak over and put 'em round the door as soon as +you've gone in." For Dollops, who was of an inventive turn of mind, had +an especial "man-trap" of his own, which consisted of heavy brown paper, +cut into squares, and thickly smeared over with a viscid varnish-like +substance that would adhere to the feet of anybody incautiously stepping +upon it, and so interfere with flight that it was an absolute necessity +to stop and tear the papers away before running with any sort of ease +and swiftness was possible. This was the "invention" to which Cleek had +alluded. Dollops, who was rather proud of the achievement, carried with +him a full supply of ready-cut papers and a big collapsible tube of the +viscid, ropy, varnish-like glue. + +Meantime, Cleek, having left the boy sitting on the hat-box in the +darkness, crossed the narrow street to the open doorway of No. 7, and, +without hesitation, stepped in. The place was as black as a pocket, and +had that peculiar smell which belongs to houses that have long stood +vacant. The house, nevertheless, was a respectable one, and, like all +the others, fronted on another street--this dark Toison d'Or being +merely a back passage used principally by the tradespeople for the +delivery of supplies. Feeling his way to the first of the three flights +of stairs which led upward into the stillness and gloom above, Cleek +mounted steadily until he found himself at length in a sort of +attic--quite windowless, and lit only by a skylight through which shone +the ineffectual light of the stars. It was the top at last. Bracing his +back against the wall, so that nobody could get behind him, and holding +himself ready for any emergency, he called out in a clear, calm voice: +"Cleek!" + +Almost simultaneously there was a sharp metallic "snick," an electric +bulb hanging from the ceiling flamed out luminously, a cupboard door +flashed open, a voice cried out in joyous, perfect English: "Thank God +for a man!" And, switching round with a cry of amazement, he found +himself looking into the face and eyes of a woman. + +And of all women in the world--Ailsa Lorne! + +He sucked in his breath and his heart began to hammer. + +"Miss Lorne!" he exclaimed, so carried out of himself that he scarcely +knew what he did. "It was the French position that you chose, then? It +is you--_you_--that calls upon me?" + +"No, it is not," she made reply, a rush of colour reddening her cheeks, +a feeling of embarrassment and of a natural restraint making her shake +visibly. "I am merely the envoy of another. I should not know you, +disguised as you are, but for that. Yes, I chose the French position, as +you see, Mr. Cleek. I am now the companion to Mademoiselle Athalie, +daughter of the Baron de Carjorac." + +"Baron de Carjorac? Do you mean the French Minister of the Interior, the +President of the Board of National Defences, Miss Lorne--that +enthusiastic old patriot, that rabid old spitfire, whose one dream is +the wresting back of Alsace-Lorraine, the driving of the hated Germans +into the sea? Do you mean that ripping old firebrand?" + +"Yes. But you'd not call him that if you were to see him now; if you +could see the wreck, the broken and despairing wreck, that six weeks of +the Château Larouge, six weeks of that horrible 'Red Crawl' have made of +him." + +"'The Red Crawl'! Good heavens! then that letter, that appeal for +help--" + +"Came from him!" she finished excitedly. "It was he who was to have met +you here to-night, Mr. Cleek. This house is one he owns; he thought he +might with safety risk coming here, but--he can't! he can't! He knows +now that there is danger for him everywhere; that his every step is +tracked; that the snare which is about him has been about him, +unsuspected, for almost a year; that he dare not, absolutely dare not, +appeal to the French police, and that if it were known he had appealed +to you, he would be a dead man inside of twenty-four hours, and not only +dead, but--disgraced. Oh, Mr. Cleek!"--she stretched out two shaking +hands and laid them on his arm, lifted a white, imploring face to +his--"save him! save that dear broken old man! Ah, think! think! They +are our friends, our dear country's friends, these French people. Their +welfare is our welfare, ours is theirs. Oh, help him, save him, Mr. +Cleek--for his own sake--for mine--for France. Save him, and win my +gratitude for ever!" + +"That is a temptation that would carry me to the ends of the earth, Miss +Lorne. Tell me what the work is, and I will carry it through. What is +this incomprehensible thing of which both you and Baron de Carjorac have +spoken--this thing you allude to as 'The Red Crawl'?" + +She gave a little shuddering cry and fell back a step, covering her face +with both hands. + +"Oh!" she said, with a shiver of repulsion. "It is loathly--it is +horrible--it is necromancy--beyond belief! Why, oh, why were we ever +driven to that horrible Château Larouge! Why could not fate have spared +the Villa de Carjorac? It could not have happened then!" + +"Villa de Carjorac? That was the name of the baron's residence, I +believe. I remember reading in the newspapers some five or six weeks ago +that it was destroyed by fire, which originated--nobody knew how--in the +apartments of the late baroness in the very dead of the night. I thought +at the time it read suspiciously like the work of an incendiary, +although nobody hinted at such a thing. The Château Larouge I also have +a distinct memory of, as an old historic property in the neighbourhood +of St. Cloud. Speaking from past experience, I know that, although it is +in such a state of decay, and supposed to be uninhabitable, it has, in +fact, often been occupied at a period when the police and the public +believed it to be quite empty. Gentlemen of the Apache persuasion have +frequently made it a place of retreat. There is also an underground +passage--executed by those same individuals--which connects with the +Paris sewers. That, too, the police are unaware of. What can the ruined +Château Larouge possibly have to do with the affairs of the Baron de +Carjorac, Miss Lorne, that you connect them like this?" + +"They have everything to do with them--everything. The Château is no +longer a ruin, however. It was purchased, rebuilt, refitted by the +Comtesse Susanne de la Tour, Mr. Cleek, and she and her brother live +there. So do we--Athalie, Baron de Carjorac, and I. So, also, does the +creature--the thing--the abominable horror known as 'The Red Crawl.'" + +"My dear Miss Lorne, what are you saying?" + +"The truth, nothing but the truth!" she answered hysterically. "Oh, let +me begin at the beginning--you'll never understand unless I do. I'll +tell you in as few words as possible--as quickly as I can. It all began +last winter, when Athalie and her father were at Monte Carlo. There they +met Madame la Comtesse de la Tour and her brother, Monsieur Gaston +Merode. The baron has position but he has not wealth, Mr. Cleek. Athalie +is ambitious. She loves luxury, riches, a life of fashion--all the +things that boundless money can give; and when Monsieur Merode--who is +young, handsome, and said to be fabulously wealthy--showed a distinct +preference for her over all the other marriageable girls he met, she was +flattered out of her silly wits. Before they left Monte Carlo for Paris +everybody could see that he had only to ask her hand, to have it +bestowed upon him. For although the baron never has cared for the man, +Athalie rules him, and her every caprice is humoured. + +"But for all he was so ardent a lover, Monsieur Merode was slow in +coming to the important point. Perhaps his plans were not matured. At +any rate, he did not propose to Athalie at Monte Carlo; and, although he +and his sister returned to Paris at the same time as the baron and his +daughter, he still deferred the proposal." + +"Has he not made it yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. He made it six weeks ago--to be exact, two nights +before the Villa de Carjorac was fired." + +"You think it was fired, then?" + +"I do now, although I had no suspicion of it at the time. Athalie +received her proposal on the Saturday, the baron gave his consent on the +Sunday, and on Monday night the villa was mysteriously burnt, leaving +all three of us without an immediate refuge. In the meantime, Madame la +Comtesse had purchased the ruin of the Château Larouge, and during the +period of her brother's deferred proposal was engaged in fitting it up +as an abode for herself and him. On the very day it was finished, +Monsieur Merode asked for Athalie's hand." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "I think I begin to +smell the toasting of the cheese. Of course, when the villa was burnt +out, Madame la Comtesse insisted that, as the _fiancée_ of her brother, +Mlle. de Carjorac must make her home at the Château until the necessary +repairs could be completed; and, of course, the baron had to go with +her?" + +"Yes," admitted Ailsa. "The baron accepted--Athalie would not have +allowed him to decline had he wished to--so we all three went there and +have been residing there ever since. On the night after our arrival an +alarming, a horrifying thing occurred. It was while we were at dinner +that the conversation turned upon the supernatural--upon houses and +places that were reputed to be haunted--and then Madame la Comtesse made +a remarkable statement. She laughingly asserted that she had just +learned that, in purchasing the Château Larouge, she had also become the +possessor of a sort of family ghost. She said that she had only just +heard--from an outside source--that there was a horrible legend +connected with the place; in short, that for centuries it had been +reputed to be under a sort of spell of evil and to be cursed by a +dreadful visitant known as 'The Red Crawl'--a hideous and loathsome +creature, neither spider nor octopus, but horribly resembling +both--which was supposed to 'appear' at intervals in the middle of the +night, and, like the fabled giants of fairy tales, carry off 'lovely +maidens and devour them.'" + +"Who is responsible for that ridiculous assertion, I wonder? I think I +may say that I know as much about the Château Larouge and its history as +anybody, Miss Lorne, but I never heard of this supposed 'legend' before +in all my life." + +"So the baron, too, declared, laughing as derisively as any of us over +the story, although it is well known that he has a natural antipathy to +all crawling things--an abhorrence inherited from his mother--and has +been known to run like a frightened child from the appearance of a mere +garden spider." + +"Oho!" said Cleek again. "I see! I see! The toasted cheese smells +stronger, and there's a distinct suggestion of the Rhine about it this +time. There's something decidedly German about that fabulous 'monster' +and that haunted château, Miss Lorne. They are clever and careful +schemers, those German Johnnies. Of course, this amazing 'Red Crawl' was +proved to have an absolute foundation in fact, and equally, of course, +it 'appeared' to the Baron de Carjorac?" + +"Yes--that very night. After we had all gone to bed, the house was +roused by his screams. Everybody rushed to his chamber, only to find him +lying on the floor in a state of collapse. The thing had been in his +room, he said. He had seen it--it had even touched him--a horrible, +hideous red reptile, with squirming tentacles, a huge, glowing body, and +eyes like flame. It had crept upon him out of the darkness--he knew not +from where. It had seized him, resisted all his wild efforts to tear +loose from it, and when he finally sank, overcome and fainting, upon the +floor, his last conscious recollection was of the loathsome thing +settling down upon his breast and running its squirming 'feelers' up and +down his body." + +"Of course! Of course! That was part of the game. It was after +something. Something of the utmost importance to German interests. +That's why the Château Larouge was refitted, why the Villa de Carjorac +was burnt down, and why this Monsieur Gaston Merode became engaged to +Mademoiselle Athalie." + +"Oh, how could you know that, Mr. Cleek? Nobody ever suspected. The +baron never confessed to any living soul until he did so to me, +to-day--and then only because he had to tell somebody, in order that the +appointment with you might be kept. How, then, could you guess?" + +"By putting two and two together, Miss Lorne, and discovering that they +do not make five. The inference is very clear: Baron de Carjorac is +President of the Board of National Defences; Germany, in spite of its +public assurances to the contrary, is known by those who are 'on the +inside' to harbour a very determined intention of making a secret +attack, an unwarned invasion, upon England. France is the key to the +situation. If, without the warning that must come through the delay of +picking a quarrel and entering into an open war with the Republic, the +German army can swoop down in the night, cross the frontier, and gain +immediate possession of the ports of France, in five hours' time it can +be across the English Channel, and its hordes pouring down upon a +sleeping people. To carry out this programme, the first step would, of +course, be to secure knowledge of the number, location, manner of the +secret defences of France--the plans of fortification, the maps of the +'danger zone,' the documentary evidence of her strongest and weakest +points--and who so likely to be the guardian of these as the Baron de +Carjorac? That is how I know that 'The Red Crawl' was after something of +vital importance to German interests, Miss Lorne. That he got it, I know +from the fact that the baron, while hinting at disgrace and speaking of +peril to his own life, dared not confide in the French authorities and +ask the assistance of the French police. Moreover, if 'The Red Crawl' +had failed to secure anything, the baron, with his congenital loathing +of all crawling things, would have left the Château Larouge +immediately." + +"Oh, to think that you guessed it so easily--and it was all such a +puzzle to me. I could not think, Mr. Cleek, why he did remain--why he +would not be persuaded to go, although every night was adding to the +horror of the thing and it seemed clear to me that he was going mad. Of +course, Madame la Comtesse and her brother tried to reason him out of +what he declared, tried to make him believe that it was all fancy--that +he did not really see the fearful thing; it was equally in vain that I +myself tried to persuade him to leave the place before his reason became +unsettled. Last night"--she paused, shuddered, put both hands over her +face, and drew in a deep breath--"last night, I, too, saw 'The Red +Crawl,' Mr. Cleek--I, too!" + +"You, Miss Lorne?" + +"Yes. I made up my mind that I would--that, if it existed, I would have +absolute proof of it. The countess and her brother had scoffed so +frequently, had promised the baron so often that they would set a +servant on guard in the corridor to watch, and then had said so often to +poor, foolish, easily persuaded Athalie that it was useless doing +anything so silly, as it was absolutely certain that her father only +imagined the thing, that I--I determined to take the step myself, +unknown to any of them. After everybody had gone to bed, I threw on a +loose, dark gown, crept into the corridor, and hid in a niche from which +I could see the door of the baron's room. I waited until after +midnight--long after--and then--and then--" + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. Then the thing appeared, I suppose?" + +"Yes; but not before something equally terrible had happened. I saw the +door of the countess's room open; I saw the countess herself come out, +accompanied by the man who up till then I had believed, like everybody +else, was her brother." + +"And who is not her brother, after all?" + +"No, he is not. Theirs is a closer tie. I saw her kiss him. I saw her go +with him to an angle of the corridor, lift a rug, and raise a trap in +the floor." + +"Hullo! Hullo!" ejaculated Cleek. "Then she, too; knows of the passage +which leads to the sewers. Clearly, then, this Countess de la Tour is +not what she seems, when she knows secrets that are known only to the +followers of--well, never mind. Go on, Miss Lorne, go on. You saw her +lift that trap; and--what then?" + +"Then there came up out of it--oh, the most loathsome-looking creature I +ever saw; a huge, crawling, red shape that was like a blood-red spider, +with the eyes, the hooked beak, and the writhing tentacles of an +octopus. It made no sound, but it seemed to know her, to understand her, +for when she waved her hand toward the open door of her own room it +crawled away and, obeying that gesture, dragged its huge bulk over the +threshold, and passed from sight. Then the man she called her brother +kissed her again, and as he descended into the darkness below the trap I +heard her say quite distinctly: 'Tell Marise that I will come as soon as +I can; but not to delay the revel. If I am compelled to forego it +to-night, there shall be a wilder one to-morrow, when Clodoche +arrives.'" + +"Clodoche! By Jupiter!" Cleek almost jumped as he spoke. "Now I know the +'lay'! No; don't ask me anything yet. Go on with the story, please. What +then, Miss Lorne, what then?" + +"Then the man below said something which I could not hear--something to +which she answered in these words: 'No, no; there is no danger. I will +guard it safely, and it shall go into no hands but Clodoche's. He and +Count von Hetzler will be there about midnight to-morrow to complete the +deal and pay over the money. Clodoche will want the fragment, of course, +to show to the count as a proof that it is the right one, as "an +earnest" of what the remainder is worth. And you must bring me that +"remainder" without fail, Gaston--you hear me?--without fail! I shall be +there, at the rendezvous, awaiting you, and the thing must be in our +hands when von Hetzler comes. The thing must be finished to-morrow +night, even if you and Serpice have to throw all caution to the winds +and throttle the old fool.' Then, as if answering a further question, +she laughingly added: 'Oh, get that fear out of your head. I'm not a +bat, to be caught napping. I'll give it to no one but Clodoche--and not +even to him until he gives the secret sign.' And then, Mr. Cleek, as she +closed the trap I heard the man call back to her 'Good night' and give +her a name I had not heard before. We had always supposed that she had +been christened 'Suzanne,' but as that man left he called her--" + +"I know before you tell me--'Margot'!" interjected Cleek. "I guessed the +identity of this 'Countess de la Tour' from the moment you spoke of +Clodoche and that secret trap. Her knowledge of those two betrayed her +to me. Clodoche is a renegade Alsatian, a spy in the pay of the German +Government, and an old _habitué_ of 'The Inn of the Twisted Arm,' where +the Queen of the Apaches and her pals hold their frequent revels. I can +guess the remainder of your story now. You carried this news to the +Baron de Carjorac, and he, breaking down, confessed to you that he had +lost something." + +"Yes, yes--a dreadful 'something,' Mr. Cleek: the horrible thing that +has been making life an agony to him ever since. On the night when that +abominable 'Red Crawl' first overcame him, there was upon his person a +most important document--a rough draft of the maps of fortification and +the plan of the secret defences of France, the identical document from +which was afterwards transcribed the parchment now deposited in the +secret archives of the Republic. When Baron de Carjorac recovered his +senses after his horrifying experience--" + +"That document was gone?" + +"Part of it, Mr. Cleek--thank God, only a part! If it had been the +parchment itself, no such merciful thing could possibly have happened. +But the paper was old, much folding and handling had worn the creases +through, and when, in his haste, the secret robber grabbed it, whilst +that loathsome creature held the old man down, it parted directly down +the middle, and he got only a vertical section of each of its many +pages." + +"Victoria! 'And the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,'" +quoted Cleek. "So, then, the hirelings of the enemy have only got half +what they are after; and, as no single sentence can be complete upon a +paper torn like that, nothing can be made of it until the other half is +secured, and--our German friends are still 'up a gum-tree.' I know now +why the baron stayed on at the Château Larouge, and why 'The Red Crawl' +is preparing to pay him another visit to-night: he hoped, poor chap, to +find a clue to the whereabouts of the fragment he had lost; and that +thing is after the fragment he still retains. Well, it will be a long, +long day before either of those two fragments fall into German hands." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, you think you can get the stolen paper back? You believe +you can outwit those dreadful people and save the Baron de Carjorac's +honour and his life?" + +"Miss Lorne"--he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips--"Miss +Lorne, I thank you for giving me the chance! If you will do what I ask +you, be where I ask you in two hours' time, so surely as we two stand +here this minute, I will put back the German calendar by ten years at +least. They drink 'To the day,' those German Johnnies, but by to-morrow +morning the English hand you are holding will have given them reason to +groan over the night!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It was half-past eleven o'clock. Madame la Comtesse, answering a reputed +call to the bedside of a dying friend, had departed early, and was not +to be expected back, she said, until to-morrow noon. The servants--given +permission by the gentleman known in the house as Monsieur Gaston +Merode, and who had graciously provided a huge char-à-banc for the +purpose--had gone in a body to a fair over in the neighbourhood of +Sèvres, and darkness and stillness filled the long, broad corridor of +the Château Larouge. Of a sudden, however, a mere thread of sound +wavered through the silence, and from the direction of Miss Lorne's room +a figure in black, with feet muffled in thick, woollen stockings, padded +to an angle of the passage, lifted a trap carefully hidden beneath a +huge tiger-skin rug, and almost immediately Cleek's head rose up out of +the gap. + +"Thank God you managed to do it. I was horribly afraid you would not," +said Ailsa in a palpitating whisper. + +"You need not have been," he answered. "I know a dozen places beside +'The Inn of the Twisted Arm' from which one can get into the sewers. +I've screwed a bolt and socket on the inner side of this trap in case of +an emergency, and I've carried a few things into the passage for +'afterwards.' I suppose that fellow Merode, as he calls himself, is in +his room, waiting?" + +"Yes; and, although he pretends to be alone to-night, he--he has other +men with him, hideous, ruffianly looking creatures, whom I saw him admit +after the servants had gone. The countess has left the house and gone I +don't know where." + +"I do, then. Make certain she's at 'The Twisted Arm,' waiting, first, +for the coming of Clodoche, and, second, for the arrival of this +precious 'Merode' with the remaining half of the document. I've sent +Dollops there to carry out his part of the programme, and when once I +get the password Margot requires before she will hand over the paper, +the game will be in my hands entirely. They are desperate to-night, Miss +Lorne, and will stop at nothing--not even murder. There! the rug's +replaced. Quick! lead me to the baron's room--there's not a minute to +waste." + +She took his hand and led him tiptoe through the darkness, and in +another moment he was in the Baron de Carjorac's presence. + +"Oh, monsieur, God for ever bless you!" exclaimed the broken old man, +throwing himself on his knees before Cleek. + +"Out with the light--out with the light!" exclaimed he, ducking down +suddenly. "Were you mad to keep it burning till I came, with +that"--pointing to a huge bay window opening upon a +balcony--"uncurtained and the grounds, no doubt, alive with spies?" + +Miss Lorne sprang to the table where the baron's reading-lamp stood, +jerked the cord of the extinguisher, and darkness enveloped the room, +darkness tempered only by the faint gleams of the moon streaming over +the balcony, and through the panes of the uncurtained window. + +Cleek, on his knees beside the kneeling baron, whipped a tiny electric +torch from his pocket, and, shielding its flare with his scooped hands, +flashed it upon the old man's face. + +"Simple as rolling off a log--exactly like your pictures," he commented. +"I'll 'do' you as easily as I 'do' Clodoche--and I could 'do' him in the +dark from memory. Quick"--snicking off the light of the electric torch +and rising to his feet--"into your dressing-room, baron. I want that +suit of clothes; I want that ribbon, that cross--and I want them at +once. You're a bit thicker-set than me, but I've got my Clodoche rig on +underneath this, and it will fill out your coat admirably and make us as +like as two peas. Give me five minutes, Miss Lorne, and I promise you a +surprise." + +He flashed out of sight with the baron as he ceased speaking; and Ailsa, +creeping to the window and peering cautiously out, was startled +presently by a voice at her elbow saying, in a tone of extreme +agitation: "Oh, mademoiselle, I fear, even yet I fear, that this Anglais +monsieur attempts too much, and that the papier he is gone for ever." + +"Oh, no, baron, no!" she soothed, as she laid a solicitous hand upon his +arm. "Do believe in him; do have faith in him. Ah, if you only knew--" + +"Thanks. I reckon I shall pass muster!" interposed Cleek's voice; and it +was only then she realised. "You'll find the baron in the other room, +Miss Lorne, looking a little grotesque in that grey suit of mine. In +with you, quickly; go with him through the other door, and get below +before those fellows begin to stir. Get out of the house as quietly and +as expeditiously as you can. With God's help, I'll meet you at the Hôtel +du Louvre in the morning, and put the missing fragment in the baron's +hands." + +"And may God give you that help!" she answered fervently as she moved +towards the dressing-room door. "Ah, what a man! what a man!" + +Then, in a twinkling she was gone, and Cleek stood alone in the silent +room. Giving her and the baron time to get clear of the other one, he +went in on tiptoe, locked the door through which they had passed, put +the key in his pocket, and returned. Going to the door which led from +the main room into the corridor, he took the key from the lock of that, +too, replacing it upon the outer side, and leaving the door itself +slightly ajar. + +"Now then for you, Mr. 'The Red Crawl,'" he said, as he walked to the +baron's table, and, sinking down into a deep chair beside it, leaned +back with his eyes closed as if in sleep, and the faint light of the +moon half-revealing his face. "I want that password, and I'll get it, if +I have to choke it out of your devil's throat! And she said that she +would be grateful to me all the rest of her life! Only 'grateful,' I +wonder? Is nothing else possible? What a good, good thing a real woman +is!" + + * * * * * + +How long was it that he had been reclining there waiting before his +strained ears caught the sound of something like the rustling of silk +shivering through the stillness, and he knew that at last it was coming? +It might have been ten minutes, it might have been twenty--he had no +means of determining--when he caught that first movement, and, peering +through the slit of a partly opened eye, saw the appalling thing drag +its huge bulk along the balcony, and, with squirming tentacles writhing, +slide over the low sill of the window, and settle down in a glowing red +heap upon the floor; and--fake though he knew it to be--he could not +repress a swift rush and prickle of "goose-flesh" at sight of it. + +For a few seconds it lay dormant; then one red feeler shot out, then +another, and another, and it began to edge its way across the carpet to +the chair. Cleek lay still and waited, his heavy breathing sounding +regularly, his head thrown back, his limp hands lying loosely, palms +upward, beside him; and nearer and nearer crept the loathsome, red, +glowing thing. + +It crawled to his feet, and still he was quiet; it slid first one +tentacle, and then another, over his knees and up toward his breast, and +still he made no movement; then, as it rose higher--rose until its +hideous beaked countenance was close to his own, his hands flashed +upward and clamped together like a vice--clamped on a palpitating human +throat--and in the twinkling of an eye the tentacles were wrapped about +him, and he and "The Red Crawl" were rolling over and over on the floor +and battling together. + +"Serpice, you low-bred hound, I know you!" he whispered, as they +struggled. "You can't utter a cry--you shan't utter a cry--to bring +help. I'll throttle you, you beastly renegade, that's willing to sell +his own country--throttle you, do you hear?--before you shall bring any +of your mates to the rescue. Oh, you've not got a weak old man to fight +with this time! Do you know me? It's the 'cracksman'--the 'cracksman' +who went over to the police. If you doubt it, now that we're in the +moonlight, look up and see my face. Oho! you recognise me, I see. Well, +you will die looking at me, you dog, if you deny me what I'm after. I'll +loosen my grip enough for you to whisper, and no more. Now what's the +password that Clodoche must give to Margot to-night at 'The Twisted +Arm'? Tell me what it is; if you want your life, tell me what it is." + +"I'll see you dead first!" came in a whisper from beneath the hideous +mask. Then, as Cleek's fingers clamped tight again and the battle began +anew, one long, thin arm shot out from amongst the writhing tentacles, +one clutching hand gripped the leg of the table, and, with a wrench and +a twist, brought it crashing to the ground with a sound that a deaf man +might have heard. + +And in an instant there was pandemonium. + +A door flung open, and clashing heavily against the wall, sent an echo +reeling along the corridor; then came a clatter of rushing feet, a voice +cried out excitedly: "Come on! come on! He's had to kill the old fool to +get it!" and Cleek had just time to tear loose from the shape with which +he was battling, and dodge out of the way when the man Merode lurched +into the room, with half a dozen Apaches tumbling in at his heels. + +"Serpice!" he cried, rushing forward, as he saw the gasping red shape +upon the floor; "Serpice! Mon Dieu! what is it?" + +"The cracksman!" he gulped. "Cleek!--the cracksman who went against us! +Catch him! stop him!" + +"The cracksman!" howled out Merode, twisting round in the darkness and +reaching blindly for the haft of his dirk. "Nom de Dieu! Where?" + +And almost before the last word was uttered a fist like a sledge-hammer +shot out, caught him full in the face, and he went down with a whole +smithy of sparks flashing and hissing before his eyes. + +"There!" answered Cleek, as he bowled him over. "Gentlemen of the +sewers, my compliments. You'll make no short cut to 'The Twisted Arm' +to-night!" + +Then, like something shot from a catapult, he sprang to the door, +whisked through it, banged it behind him, turned the key, and went +racing down the corridor like a hare. + +"It must be sheer luck now!" he panted, as he reached the angle and, +kicking aside the rug, pulled up the trap. "They'll have that door down +in a brace of shakes, and be after me like a pack of ravening wolves. +The race is to the swift this time, gentlemen, and you'll have to take a +long way round if you mean to head me off." + +Then he passed down into the darkness, closed the trap-door after him, +shot into its socket the bolt he had screwed there, flashed up the light +of his electric torch, and, _without_ the password, turned toward the +sewers, and ran, and ran, and ran! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +It lacked but a minute of the stroke of twelve, and the revels at "The +Twisted Arm"--wild at all times, but wilder to-night than ever--were at +their noisiest and most exciting pitch. And why not? It was not often +that Margot could spend a whole night with her rapscallion crew, and she +had been here since early evening--was to remain here until the dawn +broke grey over the house-tops and the murmurs of the workaday world +awoke anew in the streets of the populous city. It was not often that +each man and each abandoned woman present knew to a certainty that he or +she would go home through the mists of the grey morning with a fistful +of gold that had been won without labour or the taking of any personal +risk; and to-night the half of four hundred thousand francs was to be +divided among them. + +No wonder they had made a carnival of it, and tricked themselves out in +gala attire; no wonder they had brought a paste tiara and crowned +Margot--Margot, who was in flaming red to-night, and looked a devil's +daughter indeed, with her fire-like sequins and her red ankles twinkling +as she threw herself into the thick of the dance and kicked, and +whirled, and flung her bare arms about to the lilt of the music and the +fluting of her own happy laughter. + +"Per Bacco! The devil's in her to-night!" grinned old Marise, the +innkeeper, from her place behind the bar, where the lid of the +sewer-trap opened. "She has not been like it since the cracksman broke +with her, Toinette. But that was before your time, _ma fille_. Mother of +the heavens! but there was a man for you! There was a king that was +worthy of such a queen. Name of disaster! that she could not hold him, +that the curse of virtue sapped such a splendid tree, and that she could +take up with another after him!" + +"Why not?" cried Toinette, as she tossed down the last half of her +absinthe and twitched her flower-crowned head. "A kingdom must have a +king, _ma mère_; and Dieu: but he is handsome, this Monsieur Gaston +Merode! And if he carries out his part of the work to-night he will be +worthy of the homage of all." + +"'If' he carries it out--'if'!" exclaimed Marise, with a lurch of the +shoulders and a flirt of her pudgy hand. "Soul of me! that's where the +difference lies. Had it been the cracksman, there would have been no +'if'--it were done as surely as he attempted it. Name of misfortune! I +had gone into a nunnery had I lost such a man. But she--" + +The voice of Margot shrilled out and cut into her words. "Absinthe, +Marise, absinthe for them all--and set the score down to me!" she cried. +"Drink up, my bonny boys; drink up, my loyal maids. Drink--drink till +your skins will hold no more. No one pays to-night but me!" + +They broke into a cheer, and bearing down in a body upon Marise, threw +her into a fever of haste to serve them. + +"To Margot!" they shouted, catching up the glasses and lifting them +high. "_Vive la Reine des Apaches! Vive la compagnie!_ To Margot! To +Margot!" + +She swept them a merry bow, threw them a laughing salute, and drank the +toast with them. + +"Messieurs, my love--mesdames et mademoiselles, my admiration," she +cried, with a ripple of joy-mad laughter. "To the success of the +Apaches, to the glory of four hundred thousand francs, and to the quick +arrival of Serpice and Gaston!" Then, her upward glance catching sight +of the musicians sipping their absinthe in the little gallery above, she +flung her empty glass against the wall behind them, and shook with +laughter as they started in alarm and spilled the green poison when they +dodged aside. "Another dance, you dawdlers!" she cried. "Does Marise pay +you to sit there like mourners? Strike up, you mummies, or you pay +yourselves for what you drink to-night. Soul of desires!"--as the +musicians grabbed up their instruments, and a leaping, lilting, +quick-beating air went rollicking out over the hubbub--"a quadrille, you +angels of inspiration! Partners, gentlemen! Partners, ladies! A +quadrille! A quadrille!" + +They set up a many-throated cheer and flocked out with her upon the +floor; and in one instant feet were flying, skirts were whirling, +laughter and jest mingling with waving arms and kicking toes, and the +whole place was in one mad riot of delirious joy. + +And in the midst of this there rolled up suddenly a voice crying, as +from the bowels of the earth, "Hola! Hola! La la! loi!" the cry of the +Apache to his kind. + +"Mother of delights! It is one of us, and it comes from the sewer +passage--from the sewer!" shrilled out Marise, as the dancers halted and +Margot ran, with fleet steps, towards the bar. "Listen! listen! They +come to you, Margot--Serpice and Gaston. The work is done." + +"And before even Clodoche or von Hetzler have arrived!" she replied +excitedly. "Give them light, give them welcome. Be quick!" + +Marise ducked down, loosened the fastenings of the trap-door, flung it +back, and, leaning over the gap with a light in her hand, called down +into the darkness, "Hola! Hola! La! la! loi! Come on, comrades, come +on!" + +The caller obeyed instantly. A hand reached up and gripped the edge of +the flooring, and out of the darkness into the light emerged the figure +of a man in a leather cap and the blue blouse of a mechanic--a pale, +fox-faced, fox-eyed fellow, with lank, fair hair, a brush of ragged, +yellow beard, and with the look and air of the sneak and spy indelibly +branded upon him. + +It was Cleek. + +"Clodoche!" exclaimed Marise, falling back in surprise. + +"Clodoche!" echoed Margot. "Clodoche--and from the sewers?" + +"Yes--why not?" he answered, his tongue thick-burred with the accent of +Alsace, his shifting eyes flashing toward the huge window behind the +bar, where, in the moonlight, the narrow passage leading down to the +door of "The Twisted Arm" gaped evilly between double rows of scowling, +thief-sheltering houses. "Name of the fiend! Is this the welcome you +give the bringer of fortune, Margot?" + +"But from the sewer?" she repeated. "It is incomprehensible, _cher ami_. +You were to pilot von Hetzler over from the Café Dupin to the square +beyond there"--pointing to the window--"to leave him waiting a moment +while you came on to see if it were safe for him to enter; and now you +come from the sewer--from the opposite direction entirely!" + +"Mother of misfortunes! You had done the same yourself--you, Lantier; +you, Clopin; you, Cadarousse; any of you--had you been in my boots," he +made answer. "I stole a leaf from your own book, earlier in the evening. +Garotted a fellow with jewels on him--in the Rue Noir, near the Market +Place--and nearly got into 'the stone bottle' for doing it. He was a +decoy, set there by the police for some of you fellows, and there was a +sergeant de ville after me like a whirlwind. I was not fool enough to +turn the chase in this direction, so I doubled and twisted until it was +safe to dive into the tavern of Fouchard, and lay in hiding there. +Fouchard let his son carry a message to the count for me, and will guide +him to the square. When it grew near the time to come, Fouchard let me +down into the sewer passage from there. Get on with your dance--silence +is always suspicious. An absinthe, Marise! Have Gaston and Serpice +arrived yet with the rest of the document, Margot la reine?" + +"Not yet," she answered. "But one may expect them at any minute." + +"Where is the fragment we already possess?" + +"Here," tapping her bodice and laughing, "tenderly shielded, _mon ami_, +and why not? Who would not mother a thing that is to bring one four +hundred thousand francs?" + +"Let me see it. It must be shown to the count, remember. He will take no +risks, come not one step beyond the square, until he is certain that it +is the paper his Government requires. Let me have it--let me take it to +him--quick!" + +She waved aside airily the hand he stretched toward her, and danced into +the thick of the resumed quadrille. + +"Ah, non! non! non!" she laughed, as he came after her. "The conditions +were of your own making, _cher ami_; we break no rules even among +ourselves." + +"Soul of a fool! But if the count comes to the square--he is due there +now, mignonne--and I am not there to show him the thing--Margot, for the +love of God, let me have the paper!" + +"Let me have the sign, the password!" + +Cleek snapped at a desperate chance because there was nothing else to +do, because he knew that at any moment now the end might come. + +"'When the purse will not open, slit it!'" he hazarded, +desperately--choosing, on the off-chance of its correctness, the +password of the Apache. + +"It is not the right one! It is by no means the right one!" she made +reply, backing away from him suddenly, her absinthe-brightened eyes +deriding him, her absinthe-sharpened laughter mocking him. "Your +thoughts are in the Bois, _cher ami_. What is the password of the +brotherhood to the cause of Germany, stupid? It is not right, non! non! +It is not right!" + +The cause of Germany! At the words the truth rushed like a flash of +inspiration across Cleek's mind. The cause of Germany! What a dolt he +was not to have thought of that before! There was but one phrase ever +used for that among the Kaiser's people, and that phrase-- + +"'To the day!'" he said, with a burst of sudden laughter. "My wits are +in the moon to-night, _la reine_. 'To the day,' of course--'To the +day!'" And even before she replied to him, he knew that he had guessed +aright. + +"Bravo!" she said, with a little hiccough--for the absinthe, of which +she had imbibed so freely to-night, was beginning to take hold of her. +"A pretty conspirator to forget how to open the door he himself locked! +It is well I know thee--it is well it was the word of les Apaches in the +beginning, or I had been suspicious, silly! Wait but a moment!"--putting +her hand to her breast and beginning to unfasten her bodice--"wait but a +moment, Monsieur Twitching-Fingers, and the thing shall be in your +hand." + +The strain, the relief, were all too great for even such nerves as +Cleek's, and if he had not laughed aloud, he knew that he must have +cheered. + +"Oho! you grin because one's fingers blunder with eagerness," hiccoughed +Margot, thinking his laughter was for the trouble she had in getting the +fastenings of her bodice undone. "Peste, monsieur! may not a lady well +be modestly careful, when--Name of the devil! what's that?" + +It was the note of a whistle shrilling down the narrow passage +without--the passage where Dollops, in Apache garb, had been set on +watch; and, hearing it, Cleek clamped his jaws together and breathed +hard. A single whistle--short and sharp, such as this one was--was the +signal agreed upon that the real Clodoche was coming, and that he and +Count von Hetzler had already appeared in the square beyond. + +"Soul of a sloth! Will not that hurry you, _la reine_?" he said +excitedly, in reply to Margot's startled question. "It is the signal +Fouchard's son was to give when he and von Hetzler arrived at the place +where I am to meet them. Give me the paper--quick! quick! Tear the +fastenings, if they will not come undone else. One cannot keep a von +Hetzler waiting like a lackey for a scrap of ribbon and a bit of lace." + +"Pardieu! they have kept better men than he waiting many an hour before +this," she made reply. "But you shall have the thing in a twinkling now. +There! but one more knot, and then it is in your hands." + +And, had the fates not decreed otherwise, so, indeed, it would have +been. But then, just then, when another second would have brought the +paper into view, another moment seen it shut tight in the grip of his +itching fingers, disaster came and blotted out his hopes! + +Without hint or warning, without sign or sound to lessen the shock of +it, the trap-door behind the bar flew up and backward with a crash that +sent Marise and her assistants darting away from it in shrieking alarm; +a babel of excited voices sounded, a scurry of rushing feet scuffled and +flashed along the shaking floor, and Merode and his followers tumbled +helter-skelter into the room. + +Cleek, counting on the bolt which kept them from entering the passage +from the corridor of the Château Larouge--forcing them to take a long, +roundabout journey to "The Twisted Arm"--had not counted on their +shortening that journey by entering the passage from Fouchard's tavern, +doing, in fact, the very thing which he had declared to Margot he +himself had done. And lo! here they were, howling and crowding about +him--dirks in their hands and devils in their eyes and hearts--and the +paper not his yet! + +A clamour rose as they poured in; the dancers ceased to dance; the music +ceased to play; and Margot, shutting a tight clutch on the loosened part +of her half-unfastened bodice, swung away from Cleek's side, and flew in +a panic to Merode. + +"Gaston!" she cried, knowing from his wild look and the string of oaths +and curses his followers were blurting out that something had gone +amiss. "Gaston, _mon coeur_! Name of disaster! what is wrong?" + +"Everything is wrong!" he flung back excitedly. "That devil--that +renegade--that fury, Cleek, the cracksman, is here. He came to the +rescue--came out of the very skies--and all but killed Serpice!" + +"Cleek!" Fifty shrill voices joined Margot's in that screaming cry; +fifty more dirks flashed into view. "Cleek in France? Cleek? Where is +he? Which way did he go? Where's the narker--where--where?" + +"Here, if anywhere!" + +"Here?" + +"Yes--unless you've been fooled, and let him get away. He knows about +the paper, and is after it, Margot; and if anyone has come up from the +sewers within the past twenty minutes--" + +They knew--they grasped the situation instantly--and a roar of excited +voices yelled out: "Clodoche! Clodoche! Clodoche!" as, snarling and +howling like a pack of wolves, they bore down with a rush on the +blue-bloused figure that was creeping towards the door. + +But as they sprang it sprang also! It was neck or nothing now. Cleek +realised it, and, throwing himself headlong over the bar, clutched +frantically at the lever which he knew controlled the flow of gas, +jammed it down with all his strength, shut off the light, and, grabbing +up a chair, sent it crashing through the window. + +The crowd surged on towards the wrecked bar with a yell, surged from all +directions, and then abruptly stopped and huddled together in one. For +the sudden flashing down of the darkness within, had made more +prominent, the moon-lighted passage without; and there, scuttling away +in alarm from this sudden uproar, and the outward flying of that hurled +chair, a figure which but a moment before had come skulking to the +window, could now be seen. + +"There he goes--there! there!" shrilled out a chorus of excited voices, +as the yellow-bearded, blue-bloused figure came into view. "After him! +Catch him! Knife him!" + +In an instant they were at the door, tumbling out into the darkness, +pouring up the passage in hot pursuit. And it was at that moment the +balance changed again. Those who were in the front rank of the pursuers +were in time to see a lithe, thin figure--dressed as one of their own +kind--spring up in the path of that other figure, jump on it, grip it, +clap a huge square of sticky brown paper over the howling mouth of it, +and bear it, struggling and kicking, to the ground. + +In another second they, too, were upon it--swarming over it like rats, +and digging and hacking at it with their dirks. And so they were still +hacking at it--although it had long since ceased to move, or to make any +sound--when Merode came up and called them to a halt. + +"Drag it inside; let Margot have a thrust at it--it is her right. Pull +off the dog's disguise, and bring me the plucky one that captured him. +He shall have absinthe enough to swim in, the little king! Off with it +all, Lanchere. First, the plaster--that's right. Now, the wig and beard, +and after that--What's that you say? The beard is real? The hair is +real? They will not come off? Name of the devil! what are you saying?" + +"The truth, _mon roi_, the truth! Mother of disasters! It is not the +cracksman--it is the real Clodoche we have killed!" + +For one moment a sort of panic held them, swayed them, befogged the +brains of them; then, of a sudden, Merode howled out, "Get back! Get +back! The fellow's in there still!" and led a blind race down the +passage to the bar, where they had seen Cleek last. It was still in +darkness; but an eager hand gripping the lever, turned on the gas again, +and matches everywhere were lifted to the jets. + +And when the light flamed out and the room was again ablaze they knew +that they might as well hope to call back yesterday as dream of finding +Cleek again. For there on the floor, her limp hands turned palms upward, +a chloroformed cloth folded over her mouth and nose, lay, in a deep +stupor, the figure of Margot, her bodice torn wide open and the paper +forever gone! + + * * * * * + +It was five minutes later when the Count von Hetzler, crouching back in +the shadow of the square and waiting for the return of Clodoche, heard a +dull, whirring sound that was unmistakably the purr of a motor throb +through the stillness; and, leaning forward, saw an automobile whirl up +out of the darkness, cut across the square, and dash off westward like a +flash. Yet in the brief instant it took to go past the place where he +waited there was time for him to catch the sharp click of a lowered +window, see the clear outlines of a man's face looking out, and to hear +a voice from within the vehicle speak. + +"Herr Count," it said in clear, incisive tones. "A positively infallible +recipe for the invasion of England: Wait until the Channel freezes and +then skate over. Good night!" + +"One for his nob that, Gov'nor--my hat, yuss!" said Dollops, with a +shrill laugh, as he stuck a red head and a face all shiny with cocoa +butter and half-removed grease-paint out of the window, and, despite the +fact that the swift pace of the automobile had already carried it far +past the place where the count had been in hiding, made a fan of his +five fingers and his snub nose. "Oh, Mother 'Ubbard! Did you see him, +sir? Bunked back in his 'ole like somebody had 'give him the hook,' and +cleared the blessed stage before the eggs began to fly. I don't think +them Germans 'ull be sittin' on the steps of St. Paul's this year, +sir--not them!" + +Cleek laughed; and, ordering the boy to shut down the window and get on +with the work of changing his clothes, set about doing the same thing +himself. + +"I suppose you know, you clever little monkey, that I should have been +floating down the Seine with a slit throat and enough lead in me to sink +a barrel by this time, if it hadn't been for you," he said, as he pushed +the outward semblance of Clodoche into the kit-bag, and began to get +into ordinary civilian's dress as expeditiously as possible. "If you had +slipped up--if you had been one-half minute late--or if that fellow had +had a chance to make one cry before you covered his mouth--" + +"Please, sir--_don't_!" interposed Dollops, with a sort of shiver. "If +anythink had've happened to you, Gov'nor ..." Then stopped short and +made a sound as if he were swallowing something, and then grew very, +very still. + +Cleek looked at him out of the corner of his eye--moved in spite of +himself--hesitated a moment and then, obeying an impulse, leaned over +and gently tapped him on the shoulder. + +"Dollops, shake hands," he said. + +"Sir!" + +"Shake hands." + +"Gawd, Gov'nor! You don't never _mean_ that, sir?" + +"Shake hands," said Cleek for the third time. "Do you know, you little +monkey, that you're the only soul in all God's world that could ever +muster up a tear for me? Thank you, my lad--you're a brick!"--then +gripped the grimy hand that was reached out with a sort of awe, wrung it +heartily, patted the astonished boy on the shoulder; and fell to +whistling merrily as he went on with his dressing. + +"Sir, you do lick me, you fair do," said Dollops, laughing unsteadily, +and drawing his sleeve across his eyes. "Arfter wot you've been and went +through, a-sittin' there and whistlin' as merry as can be--like as if +life was all beer and skittles, and you hadn't a care in the world." + +"I haven't--for the minute, my lad," said Cleek with a laugh of utter +happiness. "Beer and skittles? Lord, it's all roses my boy, roses! I've +had the good luck to accomplish a thing that's going to give me--well, +at least one moment in Paradise--and when a man has a prospect like that +in view ..." His voice trailed off; he laughed again; then fell to +whistling once more--noisily, joyously, as if some schoolboy sort of +madness was in his blood to-night--and was still whistling when the +automobile pulled up sharply in front of the Hôtel du Louvre. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +By this time he had concluded the alteration in his toilet which was +necessary to assure his entrance into the hotel without occasioning +comment; and as Dollops had followed suit they readily passed muster, +when they alighted, for an ordinary English gentleman accompanied by an +ordinary English manservant. + +"What was the charge at the garage?" inquired Cleek of Dollops just +previously to alighting. + +"I dunno wot it runs to in this 'ere rum lingo of francs and sous, sir," +said Dollops, "but the garage gent he said it would amount to two pounds +ten in English money, so I'll have to leave you to work it out for +yourself. The shuvver, he said sommink about 'poor boars'--which I've +heard is wot you has to give 'em as a tip to themselves, Gov'nor--so I +promised him 'arf a crown to stop at 'tother end of that passage leadin' +up from The Twisted Arm till he was wanted, sir. Made it a good tip +because I wanted him to be there sure--it would have been a case of +'nab' for us if he hadn't. Wasn't too much, was it, sir?" + +"No," said Cleek--and let him see that it wasn't by giving the chauffeur +a pourboire of ten francs and sending him back to the garage with the +impression that he had had dealings with a millionaire. + +Ten minutes later the hotel register bore the record of the arrival of +"Mr. Philip Barch and servant"; and one attendant was engaged in showing +the servant into a neat little bedroom which was to be his resting-place +until morning while another was ushering the master into the suite +engaged by the Baron de Carjorac. + +Three persons were there: the Baron, his daughter, and his daughter's +companion; but Cleek saw but one--and that the only one who made no +movement, uttered no sound, when he came into the room. Curiously pale +and curiously quiet, she stood with one arm resting on the mantelpiece +and the other hanging by her side, looking at him--looking _for_ him, in +fact--but not saying one word, not making one sound. That she left +wholly to the baron and his daughter. + +They, too, maintained, although with an effort, an appearance of +composure so long as the hotel servant was present; but in the moment +the door closed and the man was gone an overpowering excitement seized +and mastered them. + +"Monsieur, for the love of God, don't tell me you have failed," implored +the baron. "I have died a hundred deaths of torture and suspense since +your card was carried up. But if I am to hear bad news ... Oh, my +country!" + +"Don't cross bridges, baron, until you come to them," said Cleek +composedly. "I gave Miss Lorne my promise that I would not leave France +until I had done what she asked me to do; and--I am returning to England +to-morrow by the noon boat. I have had an exciting evening, but it has +had its compensation. Here is something for you. I had a bit of a fight +for it, baron--look out that it doesn't get into the wrong hands again." + +He had taken a small packet of torn papers from his pocket while he was +speaking; now he put it into the baron's hand--not wholly without a +certain sense of gratification, however, in the excitement and delight +which the act called forth; for no man is utterly devoid of personal +vanity, personal pride in his achievements, and this man was no less +human than his kind. + +He let the tumult of excitement and joy wear itself out; he suffered the +baron's embraces--even the two rapturous kisses the man planted upon +first one and then the other of his cheeks--he endured Mlle. Athalie's +exuberant hand-clapping and hand-shaking and the cyclonic and wholly +Gallic manner in which she deported herself when comparison with the +fragments which the baron had still retained proved beyond all question +that these were indeed the missing portions of the all-important +document; and not until these things were over did he so much as look at +Ailsa Lorne again. + +She had taken no part in the general excitement, moved not one foot from +where she had been standing from the first. Even when Athalie danced +over and hugged her and showed the important fragments; even when she +reproved her with a wondering, "Ah, you strange Anglais--you stone-cold +Anglais! Is it possible that you can have blood in your veins and yet +take wondrous things like this so calmly?"--even then, she merely smiled +and remained standing just as she still was; her pallor not one whit +lessened, her reserve but the merest shadow less apparent than it had +been before. + +Cleek chose that moment to walk over to her, to lift his eyes to hers, +and to stand looking at her questioningly. For now that he was close to +her he could see that she was trembling nervously; that her calmness was +merely an outward thing, and that under it nerves writhed and a +frightened heart was beating thick and fast. + +Was even the fancied moment in Paradise to be denied him then? That such +a woman could not, all in a moment--could not by just one act of heroism +on his part--be won over and lured into complete forgetfulness of such a +past as his, he realized to the fullest extent. Always he had been +conscious of that; but even so ... Ah, well, the meanest may hope, the +lowest may at least look up; and even saints and angels were not above +saying, "Well done!" to a soul that had struggled, to a sinner that had +done his best. + +"I managed it, you see, Miss Lorne," he said, in a slightly lowered +voice, while the baron busied himself in looking for his cheque-book and +Athalie bustled about in quest of ink and a pen. "It wasn't an easy +night's work, and I'm a bit fagged out. So, as I leave in the morning, +it will be good-bye as well as good-night." + +She moved for the first time. The hand that lay upon the shelf of the +mantelpiece shook and closed quickly. She lifted up her head and looked +at him. Her eyes were misty and faint clouds of color were coming and +going over her face. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Surely, Miss Lorne, you--are not afraid of me?" + +"No," she said, averting her face again. "Not of you but of myself. That +is--I--" trying to laugh, but making a parody of it--"I was always more +or less of a coward, Mr. Cleek, but ..." She faced round again sharply +and held out her hand to him. "Will you let me thank you? Will you let +me say that I must be merely a little child in intellect since it is +only now that I have begun to understand how natural it is that a pound +of gold should inevitably outweigh an ounce of dirt? And will you please +understand that I am trying to thank you, trying to let you know that I +am very, very sorry if I ever hurt your feelings. I don't think I meant +to. I couldn't see then so clearly as I do now. Please forgive me." + +He took the hand she held out to him; and so had his moment in Paradise +after all. + +"Hurt me as often as you like, if it will always end like this," he said +with a queer little laugh that seemed to come from the very depths of +his chest. "As for that other time ... How could I have expected that +you would take it in any other way, being what you are and I what I had +been? I am glad I told you. You could never have respected me for an +instant if you had found it out in any other way; and I want your +respect: I want it very, very earnestly, Miss Lorne. If you can ever +give it to me I'll do my best to be worthy of it." + +She had withdrawn her hand from his and was drumming with her +finger-tips upon the mantelshelf. A little pucker was between her +eyebrows, she was biting her under lip perplexedly, and appeared to be +hesitating. But of a sudden she twitched round her head sharply and a +sweep of red went up over her face. + +"Shall I show you how much I do respect you, then?" she said. "One may +ask of a friend things one would not dream of asking of a mere +acquaintance, and so--Mr. Cleek, this night of horror has been too much +for me. I know now that I can no longer remain in this position in this +dreadful city. I have already resigned my post, and will return to +England, and--if I am not too late for it--make an effort to secure the +post of governess to Lady Chepstow's little son. I shall start in the +morning. Will you play the part of friend and guide and see me safely +across the Channel?" + +"Do you mean that?" he asked, his face alight, his eyes shining. "You +will let me have the privilege, the honour? What a queen you are! You +give largesse with both hands when a simple coin would have been enough. +Shall I secure your tickets? When will you have your luggage ready? Is +there anything you will need before you leave?" + +She smiled at his enthusiasm, coloured anew, and again held out her +hand. + +"We will talk of all that in the morning," she said. "There will be +plenty of time. Mlle. de Carjorac has promised to look after my effects +and to see that they are shipped on to me in due course. But now it +really must be good-night. I shall see you again at breakfast." + +"At breakfast?" repeated Cleek, with a happy laugh. "I wonder if you +understand that I shall be kicking my heels on my bedside until it is +ready?--that I shan't sleep a wink all night?" + +And as events proved he came respectably close to living up to that +exuberant assertion--merely napping now and again, to wake up suddenly +and "moon" for an hour or so; and, between periodical inspections of his +watch, to wonder if God ever made a night so long and slow-dragging as +this one. + +It had its recompense, however; for all--or nearly all--the next day was +passed in company with _her_; and more than that he would not have asked +of Heaven. Long before she rose he had made all arrangements for the +journey to Calais; and she was not a little gratified--yes, and touched +if the truth must be told--on arriving at the train, to find that he had +made no effort to secure accommodations which would compel her to endure +his companionship alone from the Gare du Nord to the steamer, but had +considerately reserved seats in a compartment containing other +travellers, and had done everything in his power to relieve her of any +possible embarrassment and to insure her all possible comforts. Even +magazines and pictorial papers were not omitted, but were there for her +in plenty lest she might prefer an excuse for not indulging much in +conversation; and there was also a huge bunch of La France roses bought +at the temporary flower market beside the Madeleine at daybreak that +morning. + +"They are beautiful, aren't they?" he said, as he laid them in her lap. +"Will it surprise you to learn that flowers are a passion with me, and +that I am a living refutation of the fallacy that 'there can be nothing +very wrong about a man who can cultivate a garden'?" + +She looked up at him and smiled. + +"I think nothing about you will surprise me--you are so many-sided +and--if you will pardon me saying it--so different from what one +imagines men of--of your calling to be," she said; and laughed a little, +colouring divinely until her face was like the roses themselves. "You +treat me as if I were a queen; and I am not used to Court manners. +Where, if you please, did you acquire yours?" + +"In the vast Kingdom of the World," he made answer, with just a +momentary change of countenance--a mere suspicion of embarrassment: +laughed off before she could be quite sure that it had had any real +existence. "Please remember that to appear to be what one is not, and to +ape manners foreign to one's real self is part of what you have so +nicely, so euphemistically, termed 'my calling.' I am an Actor on the +World's Stage, Miss Lorne; I should be but a very poor one if I could +not accommodate myself to many rôles." + +"If you play them all so well as you do that of the _preux chevalier_, +it is no wonder you are a success," she replied gaily, slipping thus +into easy conversation with him. + +And so it fell out that the magazines and the illustrated papers were +not so much of a boon as both had fancied they might be when Cleek +brought them to her; for they had not even been opened when the train +ran up to the quay side at Calais and brought them almost abreast of the +channel steamer. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was not until they were aboard the boat and the shores of France were +slipping off into the distance that Miss Lorne saw anything at all of +Dollops. As he had travelled down from Paris to Calais in a separate +compartment there had been no opportunity to do so. He had, too, held +himself respectfully aloof even after they had boarded the steamer; and, +but that once, when a lurch of the vessel had unexpectedly disturbed +Cleek's equilibrium and knocked his hat off, she might not have seen him +even then. + +But the manner in which he pounced upon that hat, the tender care with +which he brushed it, and the affectionate interest in both voice and +eyes when he handed it back and inquired eagerly, "Didn't hurt yourself, +Gov'nor, did you, sir?" compelled her to take notice of him, and, in +doing so, to understand the position in which they stood to each other. + +"You are travelling with a servant?" she enquired. + +"More than a servant--a devoted henchman, Miss Lorne. They say you can't +purchase fidelity for all the money in the world, but I secured the +finest brand of it in the Universe by the simple outlay of two half +crowns. It is the boy of that night on Hampstead Heath--the boy who +stood at the turning point. The Devil didn't get him, you see. He kept +his promise and has been walking the straight road ever since." + +She turned round and looked at him; realizing more of the man's +character in that moment than a hundred deeds of bravery, a thousand +acts of gentle courtesy, could ever have made her understand. + +"And you took him in?" she said slowly. "You gave him a chance? You +helped him to redeem himself? How good of you." + +"How good _for_ me, you mean," he laughed, "It was 'bread on the waters' +with a vengeance, Miss Lorne. I should have lost my life last night but +for that boy."--And told her briefly and airily how the thing had come +to pass. + +"Don't think it vindictive of me, but I am sorry, I am very, very sorry +you were not able to hand that dreadful woman, Margot, over to the +authorities, Mr. Cleek," she said, with an expression of great +seriousness. "She is not likely to forget or to forgive what you have +done; and some day, perhaps ... Oh, do be on your guard. It was really +foolhardy to have attempted the thing alone. Surely you might have +appealed for assistance to the Paris police and not only have minimised +your personal risk but made sure of the woman's arrest." + +"Not without allowing the authorities to learn exactly what the Baron de +Carjorac was so anxious to keep them _from_ learning, Miss Lorne. They +must have found out what I was after, what really had been lost, if I +had applied to them for assistance. I had either to do the thing alone +or drop the case entirely. And drop it I would not after _you_ had asked +me to accept it, and--Pardon? No, Miss Lorne, I do not know who the +woman Margot really is. Even that name may be fictitious, as was the one +of 'Comtesse de la Tour.' I only know of her that she is one of the +great figures of the Underworld; that money is her game--money alone; +money first, last, and all the time; that her personal history is as +much of a mystery to her closest associates as was--well, no matter; +people of that ilk are not fit subjects to discuss with you. All that I +know of the woman is that she has travelled pretty well over the world; +that some six or eight months ago she was in Ceylon with a--er--a +certain member of her crew, and came within an ace of falling foul of +the law. She had put up a plan to loot the depository of the Pearl +Fisheries Company at a period when there were thousands of pounds worth +of gems awaiting transport. With her usual luck she slipped out of the +net and left the country before she could be arrested. But she will have +found something there that will repay her for the visit in one way or +another. Luck of that kind seems to follow her always." + +And a long time afterward he had reason to remember what he said. For +the present, however, he had banished from his mind all things but the +happiness which was his to-day; and gave himself up to that happiness +with his whole heart. + +Not once did he again intrude anything that had to do with himself, his +exploits, or his future upon Ailsa's attention until all the voyage +across the channel and all the journey from Dover up to London had come +to an end; and even then, eager though he was to know how matters might +shape themselves for _her_ future--he was tactful, considerate, careful +not to force her into any embarrassing position or to claim from her +more than the merest acquaintance might. + +"You are going to your friend at Hampstead, I suppose," he said as he +handed her into a taxicab at Charing Cross. "I shall like to know if you +succeed in getting the position with Lady Chepstow; and if you send no +word to Mr. Narkom, I shall take silence as an assent and know that you +have." + +And afterward, when the days grew in number and late April merged into +early May and no word came, he knew that she had succeeded; and was +comforted, thinking of her safely housed and perhaps in a position more +congenial than the last. At any rate, she was in England, she was again +in the same land with him; and that of itself was comfort. + +But other comforts were not wanting. The full glory of tulip time was +here; The Yard had no immediate occasion for his services, and time was +his to dawdle in the public parks among the children, the birds, and the +flowers. + +"And, lord, how he do love 'em all, bless his heart!" commented Dollops +in confidence to himself as he bustled about, putting the Den in order, +watering the plants and touching lovingly the things that belonged to +the master he adored--his daily task when Cleek was in the Park and had +no need for his services. It was a pleasure to the boy, that service. +His whole heart was in it. He resented anything that interfered with it +even for an instant; and as at this particular time he was in the very +midst of preparing a small surprise against his master's return, he was +by no means pleased when a sharp whirring sound of a telephone bell +shrilled out from the adjoining room and called him from his labour of +love. + +"Oh, blow that thing! A body don't have a minute to call his own since +it's been put in," he blurted out disgustedly, and answered the call. +"'Ullo! Yuss; this is Cap'n Burbage's. Wot? No, he aren't in. Dunno when +he will be. Dunno where he is. But if there's any messidge--I say, who +wants him? Wot? Oh, s'elp me. You, is it, Mr. Narkom? Yuss, it's me, +sir--Dollops. Wot? No, sir. Went out two hours ago. Gone to Kensington +Palace Gardens. Tulips is in full bloom and you couldn't hold him +indoors with a chain at tulip-time, bless his heart. Yuss, sir. Top hat, +white spats--same as the 'Cap'n' always wears, sir." + +Narkom, at the other end of the line, called back: "If I miss him, if he +comes in without seeing me, tell him to wait; I'll be round before +three. Good-bye!" then hung up the receiver and turned to the gentleman +who stood by the window on the other side of the private office, +agitatedly twirling the end of his thick grey-threaded moustache with +one hand, while with the other he drummed a nervous tattoo upon the +broad oaken sill. "Not at home, Sir Henry; but, fortunately, I know +where to find him with but little loss of time," he said, and pressed +twice upon an electric button beside his desk. "My motor will be at the +door in a couple of minutes, and with ordinary luck we ought to be able +to pick him up inside of the next half-hour." + +Sir Henry--Sir Henry Wilding, Bart., to give him his full name and +title--a handsome, well-set-up man of about forty years of age, well +groomed, and with the upright bearing which comes of military training, +twisted round on his heel at this and gave the superintendent an almost +grateful look. + +"I hope so--God knows I hope so, Mr. Narkom," he said agitatedly. "Time +is the one important thing at present. The suspense and uncertainty are +getting on my nerves so horribly that the very minutes seem endless. +Remember, there are only three days before the race, and if those +rascals, whoever they are, get at Black Riot before then, God help +me--that's all! And if this man Cleek can't probe the diabolical +mystery, they _will_ get at her, too, and put Logan where they put +Tolliver, the brutes!" + +"You may trust Cleek to see that they don't, Sir Henry. It is just the +kind of case he will glory in; and if Black Riot is all that you believe +her, you'll carry off the Derby in spite of these enterprising gentry +who--Hallo! here's the motor. Clap on your hat, Sir Henry, and come +along. Mind the step! Kensington Palace Gardens, Lennard--and as fast as +you can streak it." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The chauffeur proved that he could "streak it" as close to the margin of +the speed limit as the law dared wink at, even in the case of the +well-known red limousine, and in a little over ten minutes pulled up +before the park gates. Narkom jumped out, beckoned Sir Henry to follow +him, and together they hurried into the grounds in quest of Cleek. + +Where the famous tulip beds made splotches of brilliant colour against +the clear emerald of the closely clipped grass they came upon him--a +solitary figure in the garb of the elderly seaman, "Captain Burbage, of +Clarges Street"--seated on one of the garden benches, his hands folded +over the knob of his thick walking-stick and his chin resting upon them, +staring fixedly at the gorgeous flowers and apparently deaf and blind to +all else. + +He was not, however; for as the superintendent approached he, without +altering his gaze or his attitude in the slightest particle, said with +the utmost calmness: "Superb, are they not, my friend? What a pity they +should be scentless. It is as though Heaven had created a butterfly and +deprived it of the secret of flight. Walk on, please, without addressing +me. I am quite friendly with that policeman yonder and I do not wish him +to suspect that the elderly gentleman he is so kind to is in any way +connected with The Yard. Examine the tulips. That's right. You came in +your limousine, of course? Where is it?" + +"Just outside the gates, at the end of the path on the right," replied +Narkom, halting with Sir Henry and appearing to be wholly absorbed in +pointing out the different varieties of tulips. + +"Good," replied Cleek, apparently taking not the slightest notice. "I'll +toddle on presently, and when you return from inspecting the flowers you +will find me inside the motor awaiting you." + +"Do, old chap--and please hurry; time is everything in this case. Let me +introduce you to your client. (Keep looking at the flowers, please, Sir +Henry.) I have the honour to make you acquainted with Sir Henry Wilding, +Cleek; he needs you, my dear fellow." + +"Delighted--in both instances. My compliments, Sir Henry. By any chance +that Sir Henry Wilding whose mare, Black Riot, is the favourite for next +Wednesday's Derby?" + +"Yes--that very man, Mr. Cleek; and if--" + +"Don't get excited and don't turn, please; our friend the policeman is +looking this way. What's the case? One of 'nobbling'? Somebody trying to +get at the mare?" + +"Yes. A desperate 'somebody,' who doesn't stop even at murder. A very +devil incarnate who seems to possess the power of invisibility, and who +strikes in the dark. Save me, Mr. Cleek! All I've got in the world is at +stake, and if anything happens to Black Riot, I'm a ruined man." + +"Yar-r-r!" yawned the elderly sea captain, rising and stretching. "I do +believe, constable, I've been asleep. Warm weather, this, for May. A +glorious week for Epsom. Shan't see you to-morrow, I'm afraid. Perhaps +shan't see you until Thursday. Here, take that, my lad, and have +half-a-crown's worth on Black Riot for the Derby; she'll win it, sure." + +"Thanky, sir. Good luck to you, sir." + +"Same to you, my lad. Good day." Then the old gentleman in the top hat +and white spats moved slowly away, passed down the tree-shaded walk, +passed the romping children, passed the Princess Louise's statue of +Queen Victoria, and, after a moment, vanished. Ten minutes later, when +Narkom and Sir Henry returned to the waiting motor, they found him +seated within it awaiting them, as he had promised. Giving Lennard +orders to drive about slowly in the least frequented quarters, while +they talked, the superintendent got in with Sir Henry, and opened fire +on the "case" without further delay. + +"My dear Cleek," he said, "as you appear to know all about Sir Henry and +his famous mare, there's no need to go into that part of the subject, so +I may as well begin by telling you at once that Sir Henry has come up to +town for the express purpose of getting you to go down to his place in +Suffolk to-night in company with him, as his only hope of outwitting a +diabolical agency which has set out to get at the horse and put it out +of commission before Derby Day, and in the most mysterious, the most +inscrutable manner ever heard of, my dear chap. Already one groom who +sat up to watch with her has been killed, another hopelessly paralysed, +and to-night Logan, the mare's trainer, is to sit up with her in the +effort to baulk the almost superhuman rascal who is at the bottom of it +all. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, a power so crafty, so +diabolical, that it gets into a locked and guarded stable, gets in, my +dear Cleek, despite four men constantly pacing back and forth before +each and every window and door that leads into the place and with a +groom on guard inside, and then gets out again in the same mysterious +manner without having been seen or heard by a living soul. In addition +to all the windows being small and covered with a grille of iron, a fact +which would make it impossible for anyone to get in or out once the +doors were closed and guarded, Sir Henry himself will tell you that the +stable has been ransacked from top to bottom, every hole and every +corner probed into, and not a living creature of any sort discovered. +Yet only last night the groom, Tolliver, was set upon inside the place +and killed outright in his efforts to protect the horse; killed, Cleek, +with four men patrolling outside, and willing to swear--each and every +one of them--that nothing and no one, either man, woman, child or beast, +passed them going in or getting out from sunset until dawn." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, sucking in his lower lip. "Mysterious, to say the +least. Was there no struggle? Did the men on guard hear no cry?" + +"In the case of the first groom, Murple, the one that was +paralysed--no," said Sir Henry, as the question was addressed to him. +"But in the case of Tolliver--yes. The men heard him cry out, heard him +call out 'Help!' but by the time they could get the doors open it was +all over. He was lying doubled up before the entrance to Black Riot's +stall, with his face to the floor, as dead as Julius Caesar, poor +fellow, and not a sign of anybody anywhere." + +"And the horse? Did anybody get at that?" + +"No; for the best of reasons. As soon as these attacks began, Mr. Cleek, +I sent up to London. A gang of twenty-four men came down, with steel +plates, steel joists, steel posts, and in seven hours' time Black Riot's +box was converted into a sort of safe, to which I alone hold the key the +instant it is locked up for the night. A steel grille about half a foot +deep, and so tightly meshed that nothing bigger than a mouse could pass +through, runs all round the enclosure close to the top of the walls, and +this supplies ventilation. When the door is closed at night, it +automatically connects itself with an electric gong in my own bedroom, +so that the slightest attempt to open it, or even to touch it, would +hammer out an alarm close to my head." + +"Has it ever done so?" + +"Yes--last night, when Tolliver was killed." + +"How killed, Sir Henry? Stabbed or shot?" + +"Neither. He appeared to have been strangled, poor fellow, and to have +died in most awful agony." + +"Strangled? But, my dear sir, that would hardly have been possible in so +short a time. You say your men heard him call out for help. Granted that +it took them a full minute--and it probably did not take them half +one--to open the doors and come to his assistance, he would not be stone +dead in so short a time; and he was stone dead when they got in, I +believe you said?" + +"Yes. God knows what killed him--the coroner will find that out, no +doubt--but there was no blood shed and no mark upon him that I could +see." + +"Hum-m-m! Was there any mark on the door of the steel stall?" + +"Yes. A long scratch, somewhat semi-circular, and sweeping downwards at +the lower extremity. It began close to the lock and ended about a foot +and a half lower." + +"Undoubtedly, you see, Cleek," put in Narkom, "someone tried to force an +entrance to the steel room and get at the mare, but the prompt arrival +of the men on guard outside the stable prevented his doing so." + +Cleek made no response. Just at that moment the limousine was gliding +past a building whose courtyard was one blaze of parrot tulips, and, his +eye caught by the flaming colours, he was staring at them and +reflectively rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. +After a moment, however: + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," he said abruptly. "Is anybody interested +in your not putting Black Riot into the field on Derby Day? Anybody with +whom you have a personal acquaintance, I mean, for of course I know +there are other owners who would be glad enough to see him scratched. +But is there anybody who would have a particular interest in your +failure?" + +"Yes--one. Major Lambson-Bowles, owner of Minnow. Minnow's second +favourite, as perhaps you know. It would delight Lambson-Bowles to see +me 'go under'; and as I'm so certain of Black Riot that I've mortgaged +every stick and stone I have in the world to back her, I should go under +if anything happened to the mare. That would suit Lambson-Bowles down to +the ground." + +"Bad blood between you, then?" + +"Yes--very. The fellow's a brute, and--I thrashed him once, as he +deserved, the bounder. It may interest you to know that my only sister +was his first wife. He led her a dog's life, poor girl, and death was a +merciful release to her. Twelve months ago he married a rich American +woman--widow of a man who made millions in hides and leather. That's +when Lambson-Bowles took up racing, and how he got the money to keep a +stud. Had the beastly bad taste, too, to come down to Suffolk--within a +gunshot of Wilding Hall--take Elmslie Manor, the biggest and grandest +place in the neighbourhood, and cut a dash under my very nose, as it +were." + +"Oho!" said Cleek; "then the major is a neighbour as well as a rival for +the Derby plate. I see! I see!" + +"No, you don't--altogether," said Sir Henry quickly. "Lambson-Bowles is +a brute and a bounder in many ways, but--well, I don't believe he is +low-down enough to do this sort of thing--and with murder attached to +it, too--although he did try to bribe poor Tolliver to leave me. Offered +my trainer double wages, too, to chuck me and take up his horses." + +"Oh, he did that, did he? Sure of it, Sir Henry?" + +"Absolutely. Saw the letter he wrote to Logan." + +"Hum-m-m! Feel that you can rely on Logan, do you?" + +"To the last gasp. He's as true to me as my own shadow. If you want +proof of it, Mr. Cleek, he's going to sit in the stable and keep guard +himself to-night--in the face of what happened to Murple and Tolliver." + +"Murple is the groom who was paralysed, is he not?" said Cleek, after a +moment. "Singular thing, that. What paralysed him, do you think?" + +"Heaven knows. He might just as well have been killed as poor Tolliver +was, for he'll never be any use again, the doctors say. Some injury to +the spinal column, and with it a curious affection of the throat and +tongue. He can neither swallow nor speak. Nourishment has to be +administered by tube, and the tongue is horribly swollen." + +"I'm of the opinion, Cleek," put in Narkom, "that strangulation is +merely part of the procedure of the rascal who makes these diabolical +nocturnal visits. In other words, that he is armed with some +quick-acting infernal poison, which he forces into the mouths of his +victims. That paralysis of the muscles of the throat is one of the +symptoms of prussic acid poisoning, you must remember." + +"I do remember, Mr. Narkom," replied Cleek enigmatically. "My memory is +much stimulated by these details, I assure you. I gather from them that, +whatever is administered, Murple did not get quite so much of it as +Tolliver, or he, too, would be dead. Sir Henry"--he turned again to the +baronet--"do you trust everybody else connected with your establishment +as much as you trust Logan?" + +"Yes. There's not a servant connected with the hall that hasn't been in +my service for years, and all are loyal to me." + +"May I ask who else is in the house besides the servants?" + +"My wife, Lady Wilding, for one; her cousin, Mr. Sharpless, who is on a +visit to us, for another; and, for a third, my uncle, the Rev. Ambrose +Smeer, the famous revivalist." + +"Mr. Smeer does not approve of the race track, of course?" + +"No, he does not. He is absurdly 'narrow' on some subjects, and 'sport' +of all sorts is one of them. But, beyond that, he is a dear, lovable old +fellow, of whom I am amazingly fond." + +"Hum-m-m! And Lady Wilding and Mr. Sharpless--do they, too, disapprove +of racing?" + +"Quite to the contrary. Both are enthusiastic upon the subject, and both +have the utmost faith in Black Riot's certainty of winning. Lady Wilding +is something more than attached to the mare; and as for Mr. Sharpless, +he is so upset over these rascally attempts that every morning when the +steel room is opened and the animal taken out, although nothing ever +happens in the daylight, he won't let her get out of his sight for a +single instant until she is groomed and locked up for the night. He is +so incensed, so worked up over this diabolical business, that I verily +believe if he caught any stranger coming near the mare he'd shoot him in +his tracks." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek abstractedly, and then sat silent for a long time, +staring at his spats and moving one thumb slowly round the breadth of +the other, his fingers interlaced and his lower lip pushed upwards over +the one above. + +"There, that's the case, Cleek," said Narkom, after a time. "Do you make +anything out of it?" + +"Yes," he replied; "I make a good deal out of it, Mr. Narkom, but, like +the language of the man who stepped on the banana skin, it isn't fit for +publication. One question more, Sir Henry. Heaven forbid it, of course, +but if anything should happen to Logan to-night, whom would you put on +guard over the horse to-morrow?" + +"Do you think I could persuade anybody if a third man perished?" said +the baronet, answering one question with another. "I don't believe +there's a groom in England who'd take the risk for love or money. There +would be nothing for it but to do the watching myself. What's that? Do +it? Certainly, I'd do it! Everybody that knows me knows that." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, and lapsed into silence again. + +"But you'll come, won't you?" exclaimed Sir Henry agitatedly. "It won't +happen if you take up the case; Mr. Narkom tells me he is sure of that. +Come with me, Mr. Cleek. My motor is waiting at the garage. Come back +with me, for God's sake--for humanity's sake--and get to the bottom of +the thing." + +"Yes," said Cleek in reply. "Give Lennard the address of the garage, +please; and--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Pull up at the first grocer's shop you see, will you, and buy me a +couple of pounds of the best white flour that's milled; and if you can't +manage to get me either a sieve or a flour dredger, a tin pepper-pot +will do!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +It was two o'clock when Sir Henry Wilding's motor turned its back upon +the outskirts of London, and it was a quarter past seven when it whirled +up to the stables of Wilding Hall, and the baronet and his grey-headed, +bespectacled and white-spatted companion alighted, having taken five +hours and a quarter to make a journey which the trains which run daily +between Liverpool Street and Darsham make in four. + +As a matter of fact, however, they really had outstripped the train, but +it had been Cleek's pleasure to make two calls on the way, one at +Saxmundham, where the paralysed Murple lay in the infirmary of the local +practitioner, the other at the mortuary where the body of Tolliver was +retained, awaiting the sitting of the coroner. Both the dead and the +still living man Cleek had subjected to a critical personal examination, +but whether either furnished him with any suggested clue he did not say; +indeed, the only remark he made upon the subject was when Sir Henry, on +hearing from Murple's wife that the doctor had said he would probably +not last the week out, had inquired if the woman knew where to "put her +hand on the receipt for the payment of the last premium, so that her +claim could be sent into the life assurance company without delay when +the end came." + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," said Cleek when he heard that, and +noticed how gratefully the woman looked at the baronet when she replied, +"Yes, Sir Henry, God bless you, sir!" "Tell me, if it is not an +impertinent question, did you take out an insurance policy on Murple's +life and pay the premium on it yourself? I gathered the idea that you +did from the manner in which the woman spoke to you." + +"Yes, I did," replied Sir Henry. "As a matter of fact, I take out a +similar policy--payable to the widow--for every married man I employ in +connection with my racing stud." + +"May I ask why?" + +"Well, for one thing, they usually are too poor and have too many +children to support to be able to take it out for themselves, and +exercising racers has a good many risks. Then, for another thing, I'm a +firm believer in the policy of life assurance. It's just so much money +laid up in safety, and one never knows what may happen." + +"Then it is fair," said Cleek, "to suppose, in that case, that you have +taken out one on your own life?" + +"Yes--rather! And a whacking big one, too." + +"And Lady Wilding is, of course, the beneficiary?" + +"Certainly. There are no children, you know. As a matter of fact, we +have been married only seven months. Before the date of my wedding the +policy was in my uncle Ambrose's--the Rev. Mr. Smeer's--favour." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. Then fell to thinking deeply over +the subject, and was still thinking of it when the motor whizzed into +the stable yard at Wilding Hall and brought him into contact for the +first time with the trainer, Logan. He didn't much fancy Logan at first +blush--and Logan didn't fancy him at all at any time. + +"Hur!" he said disgustedly, in a stage aside to his master, as Cleek +stood on the threshold of the stable, with his head thrown back and his +chin at an angle, sniffing the air somewhat after the manner of a +bird-dog. "Hur! If un's the best Scotland Yard could let out to ye, +sir--a half-baked old softy like that!--the rest of 'em must be a +blessed poor lot, Ah'm thinkin'. What's un doin' now, the +noodle?--snuffin' the air like he did not understand the smell of it! +He'd not be expectin' a stable to be scented with eau de cologne, would +he? What's un name, sir?" + +"Cleek." + +"Hur! Sounds like a golf-stick--an' Ah've no doubt he's got a head like +one: main thick and with a twist in un. I dunna like 'tecs, Sir Henry, +and I dunna like this one especial. Who's to tell as he aren't in with +they devils as is after Black Riot? Naw! I dunna like him at all." + +Meantime, serenely unconscious of the displeasure he had excited in +Logan's breast, Cleek went on sniffing the air and "poking about," as he +phrased it, in all corners of the stable; and when, a moment later, Sir +Henry went in and joined him, he was standing before the door of the +steel room examining the curving scratch of which the baronet had +spoken. + +"What do you make of it, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Not much in the way of a clue, Sir Henry--a clue to any possible +intruder, I mean. If your artistic soul hadn't rebelled against bare +steel--which would, of course, have soon rusted in this +ammonia-impregnated atmosphere--and led you to put a coat of paint over +the metal, there would have been no mark at all, the thing is so slight. +I am of the opinion that Tolliver himself caused it. In short, that it +was made by either a pin or a cuff button in his wristband when he was +attacked and fell. But, enlighten me upon a puzzling point, Sir Henry: +What do you use coriander and oil of sassafras for in a stable?" + +"Coriander? Oil of sassafras? I don't know what the dickens they are. +Have you found such things here?" + +"No; simply smelt them. The combination is not usual--indeed, I know of +but one race in the world who make any use of it, and they merely for a +purpose which, of course, could not possibly exist here, unless--" + +He allowed the rest of the sentence to go by default, and turning, +looked all round the place. For the first time he seemed to notice +something unusual for the equipment of a stable, and regarded it with +silent interest. It was nothing more nor less than a box, covered with +sheets of virgin cork, and standing on the floor just under one of the +windows, where the light and air could get to a weird-looking, +rubbery-leaved, orchid-like plant, covered with ligulated scarlet +blossoms which grew within it. + +"Sir Henry," he said, after a moment, "may I ask how long it is since +you were in South America?" + +"I? Never was there in my life, Mr. Cleek--never." + +"Ah! Then who connected with the hall has been?" + +"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Sir Henry, following the +direction of his gaze. "That Patagonian plant, eh? That belonged to poor +Tolliver. He had a strange fancy for ferns and rock plants and things of +that description, and as that particular specimen happens to be one that +does better in the atmosphere of a stable than elsewhere, he kept it in +here." + +"Who told him that it does better in the atmosphere of a stable?" + +"Lady Wilding's cousin, Mr. Sharpless. It was he who gave Tolliver the +plant." + +"Oho! Then Mr. Sharpless has been to South America, has he?" + +"Why, yes. As a matter of fact, he comes from there; so also does Lady +Wilding. I should have thought you would have remembered that, Mr. +Cleek, when--But perhaps you have never heard? She--they--that is," +stammering confusedly and colouring to the temples, "up to seven months +ago, Mr. Cleek, Lady Wilding was on the--er--music-hall stage. She and +Mr. Sharpless were known as 'Signor Morando and La Belle Creole'--they +did a living statue turn together. It was highly artistic; people raved; +I--er--fell in love with the lady and--that's all!" + +But it wasn't; for Cleek, reading between the lines, saw that the mad +infatuation which had brought the lady a title and an over-generous +husband had simmered down--as such things always do sooner or later--and +that the marriage was very far from being a happy one. As a matter of +fact, he learned later that the county, to a woman, had refused to +accept Lady Wilding; that her ladyship, chafing under this ostracism, +was for having a number of her old professional friends come down to +visit her and make a time of it, and that, on Sir Henry's objecting, a +violent quarrel had ensued, and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer had come down to +the hall in the effort to make peace. And he learned something else that +night which gave him food for deep reflection: the Rev. Ambrose Smeer, +too, had been to South America, and when he met that gentleman--well, in +spite of the fact that Sir Henry thought so highly of him, and it was +known that his revival meetings had done a world of good, Cleek did not +fancy the Rev. Ambrose Smeer any more than he fancied the trainer, +Logan. + +But to return to the present. By this time the late falling twilight of +May had begun to close in, and presently--as the day was now done and +the night approaching--Logan led in Black Riot from the paddock, +followed by a slim, sallow-featured, small-moustached man, bearing a +shotgun, and dressed in grey tweeds. Sir Henry, who, it was plain to +see, had a liking for the man, introduced this newcomer to Cleek as the +South American, Mr. Andrew Sharpless. + +"That's the English of it, Mr. Cleek," said the latter jovially, but +with an undoubted Spanish twist to the tongue. "I wouldn't have you risk +breaking your jaw with the Brazilian original. Delighted to meet you, +sir. I hope to Heaven you will get at the bottom of this diabolical +thing. What do you think, Henry? Lambson-Bowles's jockey was over in +this neighbourhood this afternoon. Trying to see how Black Riot shapes, +of course, the bounder! Fortunately I saw him skulking along on the +other side of the hedge, and gave him two minutes in which to make +himself scarce. If he hadn't, if he had come a step nearer to the mare, +I'd have shot him down like a dog. That's right, Logan, put her up for +the night, old chap, and I'll get out your bedding." + +"Aye," said Logan, through his clamped teeth, "and God help man or devil +that comes a-nigh her this night--God help him, Lunnon Mister, that's +all Ah say!" Then he passed into the steel room with the mare, attended +her for the night, and coming out a minute or two later, locked her up +and gave Sir Henry the key. + +"Broke her and trained her, Ah did; and willin' to die for her, Ah am, +if Ah can't pull un through no other way," he said, pausing before Cleek +and giving him a black look, "A Derby winner her's cut out for, Lunnon +Mister, and a Derby winner her's goin' to be, in spite of all the +Lambson-Bowleses and the low-down horse-nobblers in Christendom!" Then +he switched round and walked over to Sharpless, who had taken a pillow +and a bundle of blankets from a convenient cupboard, and was making a +bed of them on the floor at the foot of the locked steel door. + +"Thanky, sir, 'bliged to un, sir," said Logan as Sharpless hung up the +shotgun and, with a word to the baronet, excused himself and went in to +dress for dinner. Then he faced round again on Cleek, who was once more +sniffing the air, and pointed to the rude bed: "There's where Ted Logan +sleeps this night--there!" he went on suddenly; "and them as tries to +get at Black Riot comes to grips with me first, me and the shotgun Mr. +Sharpless has left Ah. And if Ah shoot, Lunnon Mister, Ah shoot to +kill!" + +"Do me a favour, Sir Henry," said Cleek. "For reasons of my own, I want +to be in this stable alone for the next ten minutes, and after that let +no one come into it until morning. I won't be accountable for this man's +life if he stops in here to-night, and for his sake, as well as for your +own, I want you to forbid him to do so." + +Logan seemed to go nearly mad with rage at this. + +"Ah won't listen to it! Ah will stop here--Ah will! Ah will!" he cried +out in a passion. "Who comes ull find Ah here waitin' to come to grips +with un. Ah won't stop out--Ah won't! Don't un listen to Lunnon Mister, +Sir Henry--for God's sake, don't!" + +"I am afraid I must in this instance, Logan. You are far too suspicious, +my good fellow. Mr. Cleek doesn't want to 'get at' the mare; he wants to +protect her; to keep anybody else from getting at her, so--join the +guard outside if you are so eager. You must let him have his way." And, +in spite of all Logan's pleading, Cleek did have his way. + +Protesting, swearing, almost weeping, the trainer was turned out and the +doors closed, leaving Cleek alone in the stable; and the last Logan and +Sir Henry saw of him until he came out and rejoined them he was standing +in the middle of the floor, with his hands on both hips, staring fixedly +at the impromptu bed in front of the steel-room door. + +"Put on the guard now and see that nobody goes into the place until +morning, Sir Henry," he said when he came out and rejoined them some +minutes later. "Logan, you silly fellow, you'll do no good fighting +against Fate. Make the best of it and stop where you are." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +That night Cleek met Lady Wilding for the first time. He found her what +he afterwards termed "a splendid animal," beautiful, statuesque, more of +Juno than of Venus, and freely endowed with the languorous temperament +and the splendid earthy loveliness which grows nowhere but under +tropical skies and in the shadow of palm groves and the flame of cactus +flowers. She showed him but scant courtesy, however, for she was but a +poor hostess, and after dinner carried her cousin away to the +billiard-room, and left her husband to entertain the Rev. Ambrose and +the detective as best he could. Cleek needed but little entertaining, +however, for in spite of his serenity he was full of the case on hand, +and kept wandering in and out of the house and upstairs and down until +eleven o'clock came and bed claimed him with the rest. + +His last wakeful recollection was of the clock in the lower corridor +striking the first quarter after eleven; then sleep claimed him, and he +knew no more until all the stillness was suddenly shattered by a +loud-voiced gong hammering out an alarm and the sound of people tumbling +out of bed and scurrying about in a panic of fright. He jumped out of +bed, pulled on his clothing, and rushed out into the hall, only to find +it alive with people, and at their head Sir Henry, with a dressing-gown +thrown on over his pyjamas and a bedroom candle in his shaking hand. + +"The stable!" he cried out excitedly. "Come on, come on, for God's sake! +Someone has touched the door of the steel room; and yet the place was +left empty--empty!" + +But it was no longer empty, as they found out when they reached it, for +the doors had been flung open, the men who had been left on guard +outside the stables were now inside it, the electric lights were in full +blaze, the shotgun still hanging where Sharpless had left it, the +impromptu bed was tumbled and tossed in a man's death agony, and at the +foot of the steel door Logan lay, curled up in a heap and stone dead! + +"He would get in, Sir Henry, he'd have shot one or the other of us if we +hadn't let him," said one of the outer guards as Sir Henry and Cleek +appeared. "He would lie before the door and watch, sir--he simply would; +and God have mercy on him, poor chap; he was faithful to the last!" + +"And the last might not have come for years, the fool, if he had only +obeyed," said Cleek; then lapsed into silence and stood staring at a +dust of white flour on the red-tiled floor and at a thin wavering line +that broke the even surface of it. + +It was perhaps two minutes later when the entire household--mistress, +guests, and servants alike--came trooping across the open space between +the hall and the stables in a state of semi-deshabille, but in that +brief space of time friendly hands had reverently lifted the body of the +dead man from its place before the steel door, and Sir Henry was +nervously fitting the key to the lock in a frantic effort to get in and +see if Black Riot was safe. + +"Dios! what is it? What has happened?" cried Lady Wilding as she came +hurrying in, followed closely by Sharpless and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer. +Then, catching sight of Logan's body, she gave a little scream and +covered her eyes. "The trainer, Andrew, the trainer now!" she went on +half hysterically. "Another death--another! Surely they have got the +wretch at last?" + +"The mare! The mare, Henry! Is she safe?" exclaimed Sharpless excitedly +as he whirled away from his cousin's side and bore down upon the +baronet. "Give me the key--you're too nervous." And, taking it from him, +unlocked the steel room and passed swiftly into it. + +In another instant Black Riot was led out--uninjured, untouched, in the +very pink of condition--and, in spite of the tragedy and the dead man's +presence, one or two of the guards were so carried away that they +essayed a cheer. + +"Stop that! Stop it instantly!" rapped out Sir Henry, facing round upon +them. "What's a horse--even the best--beside the loss of an honest life +like that?" and flung out a shaking hand in the direction of dead Logan. +"It will be the story of last night over again, of course? You heard his +scream, heard his fall, but he was dead when you got to him--dead--and +you found no one here?" + +"Not a soul, Sir Henry. The doors were all locked; no grille is missing +from any window; no one is in the loft; no one in any of the stalls; no +one in any crook or corner of the place." + +"Send for the constable--the justice of the peace--anybody!" chimed in +the Rev. Ambrose Smeer at this. "Henry, will you never be warned, never +take these awful lessons to heart? This sinful practice of racing horses +for money--" + +"Oh, hush, hush! Don't preach me a sermon now, uncle," interposed Sir +Henry. "My heart's torn, my mind crazed by this abominable thing. Poor +old Logan! Poor, faithful old chap! Oh!" He whirled and looked over at +Cleek, who still stood inactive, staring at the flour-dusted floor. "And +they said that no mystery was too great for you to get to the bottom of +it, no riddle too complex for you to find the answer! Can't you do +something? Can't you suggest something? Can't you see any glimmer of +light at all?" + +Cleek looked up, and that curious smile which Narkom knew so well--and +would have known had he been there was the "danger signal"--looped up +one corner of his mouth. + +"I fancy it is _all_ 'light,' Sir Henry," he said. "I may be wrong, but +I fancy it is merely a question of comparative height. Do I puzzle you +by that? Well, let me explain. Lady Wilding there is one height, Mr. +Sharpless is another, and I am a third; and if they two were to place +themselves side by side and, say, about four inches apart, and I were to +stand immediately behind them, the difference would be most apparent. +There you are. Do you grasp it?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Bothered if I do either," supplemented Sharpless. "It all sounds like +tommy rot to me." + +"Does it?" said Cleek. "Then let me explain it by illustration"--and he +walked quietly towards them. "Lady Wilding, will you oblige me by +standing here? Thank you very much. Now, if you please, Mr. Sharpless, +will you stand beside her ladyship while I take up my place here +immediately behind you both? That's it exactly. A little nearer, +please--just a little, so that your left elbow touches her ladyship's +right. Now then"--his two hands moved briskly, there was a click-click, +and after it: "There you are--that explains it, my good Mr. and Mrs. +Filippo Bucarelli; that explains it completely!" + +And as he stepped aside on saying this, those who were watching, those +who heard Lady Wilding's scream and Mr. Sharpless's snarling oath and +saw them vainly try to spring apart and dart away, saw also that a steel +handcuff was on the woman's right wrist, its mate on the man's left one, +and that they were firmly chained together. + +"In the name of Heaven, man," began Sir Henry, appalled by this, and +growing red and white by rapid turns. + +"I fancy that Heaven has very little to do with this precious pair, Sir +Henry," interposed Cleek. "You want the two people who are accountable +for these diabolical crimes, and--there they stand." + +"What! Do you mean to tell me that Sharpless, that my wife--" + +"Don't give the lady a title to which she has not and never had any +legal right, Sir Henry. If it had ever occurred to you to emulate my +example to-night and search the lady's effects, you would have found +that she was christened Enriqua Dolores Torjado, and that she was +married to Señor Filippo Bucarelli here, at Valparaiso, in Chili, three +years ago, and that her marriage to you was merely a clever little +scheme to get hold of a pot of money and share it with her rascally +husband." + +"It's a lie!" snarled out the male prisoner. "It's an infernal +policeman's lie! You never found any such thing!" + +"Pardon me, but I did," replied Cleek serenely. "And what's more, I +found the little phial of coriander and oil of sassafras in your room, +señor, and--I shall finish off the Mynga Worm in another ten minutes!" + +Bucarelli and his wife gave a mingled cry, and, chained together though +they were, made a wild bolt for the door; only, however, to be met on +the threshold by the local constable, to whom Cleek had dispatched a +note some hours previously. + +"Thank you, Mr. Philpotts; you are very prompt," he said. "There are +your prisoners nicely trussed and waiting for you. Take them away--we +are quite done with them here. Sir Henry"--he turned to the baronet--"if +Black Riot is fitted to win the Derby she will win it, and you need have +no more fear for her safety. No one has ever for one moment tried to get +at her. You yourself were the one that precious pair were after, and the +bait was your life assurance. By killing off the watchers over Black +Riot one by one they knew that there would come a time when, being able +to get no one else to take the risk of guarding the horse and sleeping +on that bed before the steel-room door, you would do it yourself; and +when that time came they would have had you." + +"But how? By what means?" + +"By one of the most diabolical imaginable. Among the reptiles of +Patagonia, Sir Henry, there is one--a species of black adder, known in +the country as the Mynga Worm--whose bite is more deadly than that of +the rattler or the copperhead, and as rapid in its action as prussic +acid itself. It has, too, a great velocity of movement and a peculiar +power of springing and hurling itself upon its prey. The Patagonians are +a barbarous people in the main and, like all barbarous people, are +vengeful, cunning, and subtle. A favourite revenge of theirs upon +unsuspecting enemies is to get within touch of them and secretly to +smear a mixture of coriander and oil of sassafras upon some part of +their bodies, and then either to lure or drive them into the forest; for +by a peculiar arrangement of Mother Nature this mixture has a +fascination, a maddening effect upon the Mynga Worm--just as a red rag +has on a bull--and, enraged by the scent, it finds the spot smeared with +it and delivers its deadly bite." + +"Good heaven! How horrible! And you mean to tell me--" + +"That they employed one of these deadly reptiles in this case? Yes, Sir +Henry. I suspected it the very moment I smelt the odour of the coriander +and sassafras; but I suspected that an animal or a reptile of some kind +was at the bottom of the mystery at a prior period. That is why I wanted +the flour. Look! Do you see where I sifted it over this spot near the +Patagonian plant? And do you see those serpentine tracks through the +middle of it? The Mynga Worm is there--in that box, at the roots of that +plant. Now see!" + +He caught up a horse blanket, spread it on the floor, lifted the box and +plant, set them down in the middle of it, and with a quick gathering up +of the ends of the blanket converted it into a bag and tied it round +with a hitching strap. + +"Get spades, forks, anything, and dig a hole outside in the paddock," he +went on. "A deep hole--a yard deep at the least--then get some straw, +some paraffin, turpentine--anything that will burn furiously and +quickly--and we will soon finish the little beast." + +The servants flew to obey, and when the hole was dug he carried the bag +out and lowered it carefully into it, covered it with straw, drenched +this with a gallon or more of lamp oil, and rapidly applied a match to +it and sprang back. + +A moment later those who were watching saw a small black snake make an +ineffectual effort to leap out of the blazing mass, fall back into the +flames and disappear for ever. + +"The method of procedure?" said Cleek, answering the baronet's query as +the latter was pouring out what he called "a nerve settler," prior to +following the Rev. Ambrose's example and going to bed. "Very cunning, +and yet very, very simple, Sir Henry. Bucarelli made a practice, as I +saw this evening, of helping the chosen watcher to make his bed on the +floor in front of the door to the steel room, but during the time he was +removing the blankets from the cupboard his plan was to smear them with +the coriander and sassafras and so arrange the top blanket that when the +watcher lay down the stuff touched his neck or throat and made that the +point of attack for the snake, whose fangs make a small round spot not +bigger than a knitting needle, which is easily passed over by those not +used to looking for such a thing. There was such a spot on Tolliver's +throat; such another at the base of Murple's skull, and there is a third +in poor Logan's left temple. No, thank you--no more to-night, Sir Henry. +Alcohol and I are never more than speaking acquaintances at the best of +times. But if you really wish to do me a kindness--" + +"I don't think there is room to doubt that, Mr. Cleek. If I am certain +of anything in this world I am certain of Black Riot's success on +Wednesday; and that success I feel I shall owe to you. Money can't +offset some debts, you know; and if there is anything in the world I can +do, you have only to let me know." + +"Thank you," said Cleek. "Then invite me to spend to-morrow here, and +give me the freedom of those superb gardens. My senses are drunk already +with the scent of your hyacinths; and if I might have a day among them, +I should be as near happy as makes no difference." + +He had his day--breaking it only to 'phone up to Clarges Street and +quiet any possible fears upon Dollops's part--and if ever man was +satisfied, that man was he. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +It was late on the afternoon of the day following when he turned up at +Clarges Street and threw Dollops into a very transport of delight at the +bare sight of him. + +"Crumbs, Gov'nor, but I am glad to see you, sir!" said the boy, with a +look of positive adoration. "A fish out o' water ain't a patch to wot +I've felt like--Lord, no! Why, sir, it's the first time you've ever been +away from me since you took me on; and the dreams I've had is enough to +drive a body fair dotty. I've seen parties a-stickin' knives in your +back and puttin' poison in your food and doin' the Lord knows wot not to +you, sir; and every blessed nerve in my body has been a doin' of a +constant shake--like a jelly-fish on a cold day." + +Cleek laughed, and catching him by the shoulder whirled him round, +looked at him, and then clapped him on the back. + +"Look here, don't you get to worrying and to developing nerves, young +man," he said, "or I shall have to ship you off somewhere for a long +rest; and I'm just beginning to feel as if I couldn't do without you. +What you want is a change; and what I want is the river, so, if there is +no message from The Yard--" + +"There isn't, sir." + +"Good. Then 'phone through to Mr. Narkom and tell him that you and I are +going for a few days up the river as far as Henley, and that we are +going to break it on Wednesday to go to the Derby." + +"Gov'nor! Gawd's truth, sir, you aren't never a-goin' to give me two +sich treats as that? From now till Thursday with jist you--jist _you_, +sir? I'll go balmy on the crumpet--I'll get to stickin' straws in my +bloomin' 'air!" + +"You 'get to' the telephone and send that message to The Yard, if you +know when you're well off," said Cleek, laughing. "And, after that, out +with the kit bag and in with such things as we shall need; and--Hullo! +what's this thing?" + +"A necktie and a rose bush wot I took the liberty of buyin' for you, +sir, bein' as you give me ten shillin's for myself," said Dollops +sheepishly. "I been a-keepin' of my eye on that rose bush and that +necktie for a week past, sir. I 'ope you'll take 'em, Gov'nor, and not +think me presumin', sir." + +Cleek faced round and looked at him--a long look--without saying +anything, then he screwed round on his heel and walked to the window. + +"It is very nice and very thoughtful of you, Dollops," he said +presently, his voice a little thick, his tones a little uneven. "But +don't be silly and waste your money, my lad. Lay it by. You may need it +one day. Now toddle on and get things ready for our outing." But +afterwards--when the boy had gone and he was alone in the room--he +walked back to the potted rose bush and touched its buds lovingly, and +stood leaning over it and saying nothing for a long time. And though the +necktie that hung on its branches was a harlequin thing of red and green +and violent purple, when he came to dress for that promised outing he +put it on and adjusted it as tenderly, wore it as proudly as ever knight +of old wore the colours of his lady. + +"You look a fair treat in it, sir," said Dollops, delightedly and +admiringly, when he came in later and saw that he had it on. And if +anything had been wanting to make him quite, quite happy, it was wanting +no more. Or, if it had been, the night that came down and found them +housed in a little old-world inn, with a shining river at its door and +the hush and the odorous darkness of the country lanes about it, must of +itself have supplied the omission; for when all the house was still and +all the lights were out, he crept from his bed and curled up like a dog +on the mat before Cleek's door, and would not have changed places with +an emperor. + +They were up and on the river, master and man, almost as soon as the +dawn itself; taking their morning plunge under a sky that was but just +changing the tints of rose to those of saffron before they merged into +the actual light of day; and to the boy the man seemed almost a god in +that dim light, which showed but an ivory shoulder lifting now and again +as he struck outwards and deft his way through a yielding, yellow-grey +waste that leaped in little lilac-hued ripples to his chin, and thence +wavered off behind him in dancing lines of light. And once, when he +heard him lift up his voice and sing as he swam, he felt sure that he +_must_ be a god--that that alone could explain why he had found him so +different from other men, and cared for him as he had never cared for +any human thing before. + +From dawn to dark that day was one of unalloyed delight to him. Never +before had the starved soul of him--fed, all his life, when it was fed +at all, from the drippings of the flesh-pots and the "leavings" of the +City--found any savour in the insipid offerings of the Country; never +before had he known what charms lie on a river's breast, what spells of +magic a blossoming hedge and the white "candles" of a horse-chestnut +tree may weave, and never before had a meadow been anything to him but a +simple grass-grown field. To-day Nature--through this man who was so +essentially bred in the very womb of her--spoke to his understanding and +found her words not lost on air. The dormant things within the boy had +awakened. Life spoke; Hope sang; and between them all the world was +changed. Yesterday, he had looked upon this day of idling in the country +as a pleasant interlude, as a happy prologue to those greater delights +that would come when he at last went to Epsom and really saw the famous +race for the Derby. To-day, he was sorry that anything--even so great a +thing as that--must come to disturb such placid happiness as this. + +And yet, when the wondrous "Wednesday" came and he was actually on his +way to Epsom Downs at last ... Ah, well, Joy is elastic; Youth is a time +of many dreams, and who blames a boy for being delighted that one of +them is coming true at last? + +Cleek did not, at all events. Indeed, Cleek aided and abetted him in all +his boisterous outbursts from first to last; and was quite as excited as +he when the event of the meeting--the great race for the famous Derby +Stakes--was put up at last. Indeed, he was a bit wilder, if anything, +than the boy himself when the flag fell and the whole field swept by in +one thunderous rush, with Minnow in the lead and Black Riot far and away +behind. Nor did his excitement abate when, as the whole cavalcade swung +onwards over the green turf with the yelling thousands waving and +shouting about it, Sir Henry Wilding's mare began to lessen that lead, +and foot by foot to creep up towards the head. + +He shouted then--as wildly as Dollops himself, as wildly as any man +present. He jumped up on his seat and waved his hat; he thumped Dollops +on the back and cried: "She's creeping up! She's creeping up! Stick to +it, old chap, stick to it! Give her her head, you fool! She'll do it--by +God, she'll do it! Hurrah! Hurrah!" And was shouted down, and even +seized and pulled down by others whose view he obstructed, and whose +interest and excitement were as great as his. + +Onwards they flew, horses and riders, the whole pounding, mixing, +ever-changing mass of them; jackets and caps of every hue flashing here +and there--now in a huddled mass, now with this one in the lead, and +again with that: a vast, ever-moving, ever-altering kaleidoscope that +was, presently, hidden entirely from the main mass of the onlookers, by +the surging crowd, the mass of drags and carriages of all sorts in the +huge square of the central enclosure, and most of all by the people who +stood up on seats and wheels and even the tops of the vehicles. Then, +for a little time, the roars came from a distance only--from those in +the enclosure who alone could see--then neared and neared and grew in +volume, as the unseen racers pounded onward and came pelting up the long +stretch toward Tattenham Corner. And by and bye they swung into view +again--still a huddled mass, still so closely packed together that the +positions of the individual horses was a matter of uncertainty--but +always the roaring sound went on and always it came nearer and nearer, +until a thousand voices took it up at the foot of the grand stand, and +other thousands bellowed it up and up from tier to tier to the very +roof. + +For, of a sudden, that blaze of caps and jackets, that huddle of horses +red and horses grey, horses black and horses roan, piebald, white--every +colour that a horse may be--had come at last to Tattenham Corner and +burst into the full view of everybody. Yet, as they came, a black mare, +hugging the railed enclosure on the inner side of the sweep, arrowed +forward with a sudden spurt, came like a rocket to the fore, and all the +earth and all the sky seemed to ring with the cry: "Wilding! Wilding! +Black Riot leads! Black Riot leads!" + +She did--and kept it to the end! + +In half a minute her number was up, yelling thousands were tumbling out +upon the field to cheer her, to cheer her rider, to cheer her proud +owner when he came out to lead her to the paddock and the weighing room, +and to feel in that moment the proudest and the happiest man in England; +and of those, not the least excited and delighted was Cleek. + +Carried away by enthusiasm, he had risen again in his seat and, with his +hat held aloft upon a walking stick, was waving and stamping and +shouting enthusiastically: "Black Riot wins! Black Riot! Black Riot! +Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +And so he was still shouting when he felt a hand touch him, and looking +round saw Mr. Narkom. + +"Ripping, wasn't it, old chap?" said the superintendent. "No wonder you +are excited, considering what interest you have. Been looking for you, +my dear fellow. Knew of course, from your telling me, that you would be +here to-day, but shouldn't have been able to identify you but for the +presence of young Dollops here. I say: you're not going to stop now that +the great race is over, are you? The rest won't amount to anything." + +"No, I shall not stop," said Cleek. "Why? Do you want me?" + +"Yes. Lennard's outside with the limousine. Hop into it, will you, and +meet me at the Fiddle and Horseshoe, between Shepherd's Bush and Acton? +It's only half-past three and the limousine can cover the distance in +less than no time. Can't go with you. Got to round up my men here, +first. Join you shortly, however. McTavish has a sixty-horse-power +Mercedes, and he'll rush me over almost on your heels. Let Dollops go +home by train, and you meet me as I've asked, will you?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. + +And so the joyous holiday came to an unexpected end. + +Parting from Dollops, and leaving the boy to journey on to Clarges +Street alone, he fared forth to find Lennard and the red limousine, and +was whirled away in record time to the inn of the Fiddle and Horseshoe. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It had but just gone five when Narkom walked into the little bar parlour +and found him standing there, looking out on the quaint, old-fashioned +bowling green that lay all steeped in sunshine and zoned with the froth +of pear and apple blossoms thick piled above the time-stained bricks of +an enclosing wall. + +"What a model of punctuality you are, old chap," the superintendent +said, nodding approvingly. "Wait a moment while I go and order tea, and +then we will get down to business in real earnest. Shan't be long." + +"Pray, don't hurry yourself on my account, Mr. Narkom," returned Cleek, +"coming down to earth" out of a mental airship. "I could do with another +hour of that"--nodding toward the view--"and still wonder where the time +had gone. These quaint old inns, which the march of what we are pleased +to call 'Progress' is steadily crowding off the face of the land, are +always deeply interesting to me; I love them. What a day! What a +picture! What a sky! As blue as what Dollops calls the 'Merry Geranium +Sea.' I'd give a Jew's eye for a handful of those apple blossoms--they +are divine!" + +Narkom hastened from the room without replying. The strain of poetry +underlying the character of this strange, inscrutable man, his amazing +love of Nature, his moments of almost womanish weakness and sentiment, +astonished and mystified him. It was as if a hawk had acquired the +utterly useless trick of fluting like a nightingale, and being himself +wholly without imagination, he could not comprehend it in the smallest +degree. + +When he returned a few minutes later, however, the idealist seemed to +have simmered down into the materialist, the extraordinary to have +become merged in the ordinary, for he found his famous ally no longer +studying the beauties of Nature, but giving his whole attention to the +sordid commonplaces of man, for he was standing before a glaringly +printed bill one of many that were tacked upon the walls, which set +forth in amazing pictures and double-leaded type the wonders that were +to be seen daily and nightly at Olympia, where, for a month past, "Van +Zant's Royal Belgian Circus and World-famed Menagerie" had been holding +forth to "Crowded and delighted audiences." Much was made of two "star +turns" upon this lurid bill: "Mademoiselle Marie de Zanoni, the +beautiful and peerless bare-back equestrienne, the most daring lady +rider in the universe," for the one; and for the other, "Chevalier +Adrian di Roma, king of the animal world, with his great aggregation of +savage and ferocious wild beasts, including the famous man-eating +African lion, Nero, the largest and most ferocious animal of its species +in captivity." And under this latter announcement there was a picture of +a young and handsome man, literally smothered with medals, lying at full +length, with his arms crossed and his head in the wide-open jaws of a +snarling, wild-eyed lion. + +"My dear chap, you really do make me believe that there actually is such +a thing as instinct," said Narkom, as he came in. "Fancy your selecting +that particular bill out of all the others in the room! What an abnormal +individual you are!" + +"Why? Has it anything to do with the case you have in hand?" + +"Anything to do with it? My dear fellow, it _is_ 'the case.' I can't +imagine what drew your attention to it." + +"Can't you?" said Cleek, with a half-smile. Then he stretched forth his +hand and touched the word "Nero" with the tip of his forefinger. "That +did. Things awaken a man's memory occasionally, Mr. Narkom, and--Tell +me, isn't that the beast there was such a stir about in the newspapers a +fortnight or so ago--the lion that crushed the head of a man in full +view of the audience?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom, with a slight shudder. "Awful thing, wasn't it? +Gave me the creeps to read about it. The chap who was killed, poor +beggar, was a mere boy, not twenty, son of the Chevalier di Roma +himself. There was a great stir about it. Talk of the authorities +forbidding the performance, and all that sort of thing. They never did, +however, for on investigation--Ah, the tea at last, thank fortune. Come, +sit down, my dear fellow, and we'll talk whilst we refresh ourselves. +Landlady, see that we are not disturbed, will you, and that nobody is +admitted but the parties I mentioned?" + +"Clients?" queried Cleek, as the door closed and they were alone +together. + +"Yes. One, Mlle. Zelie, the 'chevalier's' only daughter, a slack-wire +artist; the other, Signor Scarmelli, a trapeze performer, who is the +lady's fiancé." + +"Ah, then our friend the chevalier is not so young as the picture on the +bill would have us believe he is." + +"No, he is not. As a matter of fact, he is considerably past forty, and +is--or, rather, was, up to six months ago, a widower with three +children, two sons and a daughter." + +"I suppose," said Cleek, helping himself to a buttered scone, "I am to +infer from what you say that at the period you mentioned, six months +ago, the intrepid gentleman showed his courage yet more forcibly by +taking a second wife? Young or old?" + +"Young," said Narkom in reply. "Very young, not yet four-and-twenty, in +fact, and very, very beautiful. That is she who is 'featured' on the +bill as the star of the equestrian part of the programme: 'Mlle. Marie +de Zanoni.' So far as I have been able to gather, the affair was a love +match. The lady, it appears, had no end of suitors, both in and out of +the profession; it has even been hinted that she could, had she been so +minded, have married an impressionable young Austrian nobleman of +independent means who was madly in love with her; but she appears to +have considered it preferable to become 'an old man's darling,' so to +speak, and to have selected the middle-aged chevalier rather than +someone whose age is nearer her own." + +"Nothing new in that, Mr. Narkom. Young women before Mlle. Marie de +Zanoni's day have been known to love elderly men sincerely: young Mrs. +Bawdrey, in the case of 'The Nine-fingered Skeleton,' is an example of +that. Still, such marriages are not common, I admit, so when they occur +one naturally looks to see if there may not be 'other considerations' at +the bottom of the attachment. Is the chevalier well-to-do? Has he +expectations of any kind?" + +"To the contrary; he has nothing but the salary he earns--which is by no +means so large as the public imagines; and as he comes of a long line of +circus performers, all of whom died early and poor, 'expectations,' as +you put it, do not enter into the affair at all. Apparently the lady did +marry him for love of him, as she professes and as he imagines; +although, if what I hear is true, it would appear that she has lately +outgrown that love; in short, that a Romeo more suitable to her age has +recently joined the show in the person of a rider called Signor Antonio +Martinelli; that he has fallen desperately in love with her, and that--" + +He bit off his words short and rose to his feet. The door had opened +suddenly to admit a young man and a young woman, who entered in a state +of nervous excitement. "Ah, my dear Mr. Scarmelli, you and Miss Zelie +are most welcome," continued the superintendent. "My friend and I were +this moment talking about you." + +Cleek glanced across the room, and, as was customary with him, made up +his mind instantly. The girl, despite her association with the arena, +was a modest, unaffected little thing of about eighteen; the man was a +straight-looking, clear-eyed, boyish-faced young fellow of about +eight-and-twenty; well, but by no means flashily, dressed, and carrying +himself with the air of one who respects himself and demands the respect +of others. He was evidently an Englishman, despite his Italian _nom de +théâtre_, and Cleek decided out of hand that he liked him. + +"We can shelve 'George Headland' in this instance, Mr. Narkom," he said, +as the superintendent led forward the pair for the purpose of +introducing them, and suffered himself to be presented in the name of +Cleek. + +The effect of this was electrical; would, in fact, had he been a vain +man, have been sufficient to gratify him to the fullest, for the girl, +with a little "Oh!" of amazement, drew back and stood looking at him +with a sort of awe that rounded her eyes and parted her lips, while the +man leaned heavily upon the back of a convenient chair and looked and +acted as one utterly overcome. + +"Cleek!" he repeated, after a moment's despairful silence. "You, sir, +are that great man? This is a misfortune, indeed." + +"A misfortune, my friend? Why a 'misfortune,' pray? Do you think the +riddle you have brought is beyond my powers?" + +"Oh, no; not that--never that!" he made reply. "If there is any one man +in the world who could get at the bottom of it, could solve the mystery +of the lion's change, the lion's smile, you are that man, sir, you. That +is the misfortune: that you could do it, and yet--I cannot expect it, +cannot avail myself of this great opportunity. Look! I am doing it all +on my own initiative, sir--all for the sake of Zelie and that dear, +lovable old chap, her father. I have saved fifty-eight pounds, Mr. +Cleek. I had hoped that that might tempt a clever detective to take up +the case; but what is such a sum to such a man as you?" + +"If that is all that stands in the way, don't let it worry you, my good +fellow," said Cleek, with a smile. "Put your fifty-eight pounds in your +pocket against your wedding-day, and--good luck to you. I'll take the +case for nothing. Now then, what is it? What the dickens did you mean +just now when you spoke about 'the lion's change' and 'the lion's +smile'? What lion--Nero? Here, sit down and tell me all about it." + +"There is little enough to tell, Heaven knows," said young Scarmelli, +with a sigh, accepting the invitation after he had gratefully wrung +Cleek's hand, and his fiancée, with a burst of happy tears, had caught +it up as it slipped from his and had covered it with thankful kisses. +"That, Mr. Cleek, is where the greatest difficulty lies--there is so +little to explain that has any bearing upon the matter at all. It is +only that the lion--Nero, that is, the chevalier's special pride and +special pet--seems to have undergone some great and inexplicable change, +as though he is at times under some evil spell, which lasts but a moment +and yet makes that moment a tragical one. It began, no one knows why nor +how, two weeks ago, when, without hint or warning, he killed the person +he loved best in all the world--the chevalier's eldest son. Doubtless +you have heard of that?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. "But what you are now telling me sheds a new light +upon the matter. Am I to understand, then, that all that talk, on the +bills and in the newspapers, about the lion being a savage and a +dangerous one is not true, and that he really is attached to his owner, +and his owner's family?" + +"That is the truth," replied Scarmelli; "Nero is, in fact, the gentlest, +most docile, most intelligent beast of his kind living. In short, sir, +there's not a 'bite' in him; and, added to that, he is over thirty years +old. Zelie--Miss di Roma--will tell you that he was born in captivity; +that from his earliest moment he has been the pet of her family; that he +was, so to speak, raised with her and her brothers; that, as children, +they often slept with him; that he will follow those he loves like any +dog, fight for them, protect them, let them tweak his ears and pull his +tail without showing the slightest resentment, even though they may +actually hurt him. Indeed, he is so general a favourite, Mr. Cleek, that +there isn't an attendant connected with the show who would not, and, +indeed, has not at some time, put his head in the beast's mouth, just as +the chevalier does in public, certain that no harm could possibly come +of the act. + +"You may judge, then, sir, what a shock, what a horrible surprise it was +when the tragedy of two weeks ago occurred. Often, to add zest to the +performance, the chevalier varies it by allowing his children to put +their heads into Nero's mouth instead of doing so himself, merely making +a fake of it that he has the lion under such control that he will +respect any command given by him. That is what happened on that night. +Young Henri was chosen to put his head into Nero's mouth, and did so +without fear or hesitation. He took the beast's jaws and pulled them +apart, and laid his head within them, as he had done a hundred times +before; but of a sudden an appalling, an uncanny, thing happened. It was +as though some supernatural power laid hold of the beast and made a +thing of horror of what a moment before had been a noble-looking animal; +for suddenly a strange hissing noise issued from its jaws, its lips +curled upward until it smiled--smiled, Mr. Cleek!--oh, the ghastliest, +most awful, most blood-curdling smile imaginable--and then, with a sort +of mingled snarl and bark, it clamped its jaws together and crushed the +boy's head as though it were an egg-shell!" + +He put up his hands and covered his eyes as if to shut out some +appalling vision, and for a moment or two nothing was heard but the low +sobbing of the victim's sister. + +"As suddenly as that change had come over the beast, Mr. Cleek," +Scarmelli went on presently, "just so suddenly it passed, and it was the +docile, affectionate animal it had been for years. It seemed to +understand that some harm had befallen its favourite--for Henri was its +favourite--and, curling itself up beside his body, it licked his hands +and moaned disconsolately in a manner almost human. That's all there is +to tell, sir, save that at times the horrid change, the appalling smile, +repeat themselves when either the chevalier or his son bend to put a +head within its jaws, and but for their watchfulness and quickness the +tragedy of that other awful night would surely be repeated. Sir, it is +not natural; I know now, as surely as if the lion itself had spoken, +that someone is at the bottom of this ghastly thing, that some human +agency is at work, some unknown enemy of the chevalier's is doing +something, God alone knows what or why, to bring about his death as his +son's was brought about." + +And here, for the first time, the chevalier's daughter spoke. + +"Ah, tell him all, Jim, tell him all," she said, in her pretty broken +English. "Monsieur, may the good God in heaven forgive me, if I wrong +her; but--but--Ah, Monsieur Cleek, sometimes I feel that she, my +stepmother, and that man, that 'rider' who knows not how to ride as the +artist should--monsieur, I cannot help it, but I feel that they are at +the bottom of it." + +"Yes, but why?" queried Cleek. "I have heard of your father's second +marriage, mademoiselle, and of this Signor Antonio Martinelli, to whom +you allude. Mr. Narkom has told me. But why should you connect these two +persons with this inexplicable thing? Does your father do so, too?" + +"Oh, no! Oh, no!" she answered excitedly. "He does not even know that we +suspect, Jim and I. He loves her, monsieur. It would kill him to doubt +her." + +"Then why should you?" + +"Because I cannot help it, monsieur. God knows, I would if I could, for +I care for her dearly--I am grateful to her for making my father happy. +My brothers, too, cared for her. We believed she loved him; we believed +it was because of that she married him. And yet--and yet--Ah, monsieur, +how can I fail to feel as I do when this change in the lion came with +that man's coming? And she--ah, monsieur, she is always with him. Why +does she curry favour of him and his rich friend?" + +"He has a rich friend, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. The company was in difficulties; Monsieur van Zant, the +proprietor, could not make it pay, and it was upon the point of +disbanding. But, suddenly, this indifferent performer, this rider who +is, after all, but a poor amateur and not fit to appear with a company +of trained artists, suddenly this Signor Martinelli comes to Monsieur +van Zant to say that, if he will engage him, he has a rich friend--one +Señor Sperati, a Brazilian coffee planter--who will 'back' the show with +his money and buy a partnership in it. Of course, M. van Zant accepted; +and since then this Señor Sperati has travelled everywhere with us, has +had the entrée like one of us, and his friend, the bad rider, has fairly +bewitched my stepmother, for she is ever with him, ever with them both, +and--and--Ah, mon Dieu! the lion smiles, and my people die! Why does it +'smile' for no others? Why is it only they--my father, my brother--they +alone?" + +"Is that a fact?" said Cleek, turning to young Scarmelli. "You say that +all connected with the circus have so little fear of the beast that even +attendants sometimes do this foolhardy trick. Does the lion never +'smile' for any of those?" + +"Never, Mr. Cleek--never under any circumstances. Nor does it always +smile for the chevalier and his son. That is the mystery of it. One +never knows when it is going to happen--one never knows why it does +happen. But if you could see that uncanny smile--" + +"I should like to," interposed Cleek. "That is, if it might happen +without any tragical result. Hum-m-m! Nobody but the chevalier and the +chevalier's son! And when does it happen in their case--during the +course of the show, or when there is nobody about but those connected +with it?" + +"Oh, always during the course of the entertainment, sir. Indeed, it has +never happened at any other time--never at all." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Then it is only when they are dressed and made up +for the performance, eh? Hum-m-m! I see." Then he relapsed into silence +for a moment, and sat tracing circles on the floor with the toe of his +boot. But, of a sudden: "You came here directly after the matinee, I +suppose?" he queried, glancing up at young Scarmelli. + +"Yes; in fact, before it was wholly over." + +"I see. Then it is just possible that all the performers have not yet +got into their civilian clothes. Couldn't manage to take me round behind +the scenes, so to speak, if Mr. Narkom will lend us his motor to hurry +us there? Could, eh? That's good. I think I'd like to have a look at +that lion and, if you don't mind, an introduction to the parties +concerned. No! don't fear; we won't startle anybody by revealing my +identity or the cause of the visit. Let us say that I'm a vet, to whom +you have appealed for an opinion, regarding Nero's queer conduct. All +ready, Mr. Narkom? Thanks--then let's be off." + +Two minutes later the red limousine was at the door, and, stepping into +it with his two companions, he was whizzed away to Olympia and the first +step towards the solution of the riddle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +As it is the custom of those connected with the world of the circus to +eat, sleep, have their whole being, as it were, within the environment +of the show, to the total exclusion of hotels, boarding-houses, or +outside lodgings of any sort, he found on his arrival at his destination +the entire company assembled in what was known as the "living-tent," +chatting, laughing, reading, playing games, and killing time generally +whilst waiting for the call to the "dining-tent," and this gave him an +opportunity to meet all the persons connected with the "case," from the +"chevalier" himself to the Brazilian coffee planter who was "backing" +the show. + +He found this latter individual a somewhat sullen and taciturn man of +middle age, who had more the appearance of an Austrian than a Brazilian, +and with a swinging gait and an uprightness of bearing which were not to +be misunderstood. + +"Humph! Known military training," was Cleek's mental comment as soon as +he saw the man walk. "Got it in Germany, too; I know that peculiar +'swing.' What's his little game, I wonder? And what's a Brazilian doing +in the army of the Kaiser? And, having been in it, what's he doing +dropping into this line--backing a circus, and travelling with it like a +Bohemian?" + +But although these thoughts interested him, he did not put them into +words nor take anybody into his confidence regarding them. + +As for the other members of the company, he found "the indifferent +rider," known as Signor Antonio Martinelli, an undoubted Irishman of +about thirty years of age, extremely handsome, but with a certain +"shiftiness" of the eye which was far from inspiring confidence, and +with a trick of the tongue which suggested that his baptismal +certificate probably bore the name of Anthony Martin. He found, too, +that all he had heard regarding the youth and beauty of the chevalier's +second wife was quite correct, and although she devoted herself a great +deal to the Brazilian coffee planter and the Irish-Italian "Martinelli," +she had a way of looking over at her middle-aged spouse, without his +knowledge, that left no doubt in Cleek's mind regarding the real state +of her feelings towards the man. And last, but not least by any means, +he found the chevalier himself a frank, open-minded, open-hearted, +lovable man who ought not, in the natural order of things, to have an +enemy in the world. Despite his high-falutin' _nom de théâtre_, he was +Belgian--a big, soft-hearted, easy-going, unsuspicious fellow, who +worshipped his wife, adored his children, and loved every creature of +the animal world. + +How well that love was returned, Cleek saw when he went with him to that +part of the building where his animals were kept, and watched them +"nose" his hand or lick his cheek whenever the opportunity offered. But +Nero, the lion, was perhaps the greatest surprise of all, for so tame, +so docile, so little feared was the animal, that its cage-door was open, +and they found one of the attendants squatting cross-legged inside and +playing with it as though it were a kitten. + +"There he is, doctor," said the chevalier, waving his hand towards the +beast. "Ah, I will not believe that it was anything but an accident, +sir. He loved my boy. He would hurt no one that is kind to him. Fetch +him out, Tom, and let the doctor see him at close quarters." + +Despite all these assurances of the animal's docility, Cleek could not +but remember what the creature had done, and, in consequence, did not +feel quite at ease when it came lumbering out of the cage with the +attendant and ranged up alongside of him, rubbing its huge head against +the chevalier's arm after the manner of an affectionate cat. + +"Don't be frightened, sir," said Tom, noticing this. "Nothing more'n a +big dog, sir. Had the care of him for eight years, I have--haven't I, +chevalier?--and never a growl or scratch out of him. No 'smile' for your +old Tom, is there, Nero, boy, eh? No fear! Ain't a thing as anybody does +with him, sir, that I wouldn't do off-hand and feel quite safe." + +"Even to putting your head in his mouth?" queried Cleek. + +"Lord yes!" returned the man, with a laugh. "That's nothing. Done it +many a day. Look here!" With that he pulled the massive jaws apart, and, +bending down, laid his head within them. The lion stood perfectly +passive, and did not offer to close his mouth until it was again empty. +It was then that Cleek remembered and glanced round at young Scarmelli. + +"He never 'smiles' for any but the chevalier and his son, I believe you +said," he remarked. "I wonder if the chevalier himself would be as safe +if he were to make a feint of doing that?" For the chevalier, like most +of the other performers, had not changed his dress after the matinee, +since the evening performance was soon to begin; and if, as Cleek had an +idea, that the matter of costume and make-up had anything to do with the +mystery of the thing, here, surely, was a chance to learn. + +"Make a feint of it? Certainly I will, doctor," the chevalier replied. +"But why a feint? Why not the actual thing?" + +"No, please--at least, not until I have seen how the beast is likely to +take it. Just put your head down close to his muzzle, chevalier. Go +slow, please, and keep your head at a safe distance." + +The chevalier obeyed. Bringing his head down until it was on a level +with the animal's own, he opened the ponderous jaws. The beast was as +passive as before; and, finding no trace of the coming of the mysterious +and dreaded "smile," he laid his face between the double row of gleaming +teeth, held it there a moment, and then withdrew it uninjured. Cleek +took his chin between his thumb and forefinger and pinched it hard. What +he had just witnessed would seem to refute the idea of either costume or +make-up having any bearing upon the case. + +"Did you do that to-day at the matinee performance, chevalier?" he +hazarded, after a moment's thoughtfulness. + +"Oh, yes," he replied. "It was not my plan to do so, however. I alter my +performance constantly to give variety. To-day I had arranged for my +little son to do the trick; but somehow--Ah! I am a foolish man, +monsieur; I have odd fancies, odd whims, sometimes odd fears, +since--since that awful night. Something came over me at the last +moment, just as my boy came into the cage to perform the trick I changed +my mind. I would not let him do it. I thrust him aside and did the trick +myself." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Will the boy do it to-night, then, chevalier?" + +"Perhaps," he made reply. "He is still dressed for it. Look, here he +comes now, monsieur, and my wife, and some of our good friends with him. +Ah, they are so interested, they are anxious to hear what report you +make upon Nero's condition." + +Cleek glanced round. Several members of the company were advancing +towards them from the "living-tent." In the lead was the boy, a little +fellow of about twelve years of age, fancifully dressed in tights and +tunic. By his side was his stepmother, looking pale and anxious. But +although both Signor Martinelli and the Brazilian coffee planter came to +the edge of the tent and looked out, it was observable that they +immediately withdrew, and allowed the rest of the party to proceed +without them. + +"Dearest, I have just heard from Tom that you and the doctor are +experimenting with Nero," said the chevalier's wife, as she came up with +the others and joined him. "Oh, do be careful, do! Much as I like the +animal, doctor, I shall never feel safe until my husband parts with it +or gives up that ghastly 'trick.'" + +"My dearest, my dearest, how absurdly you talk!" interrupted her +husband. "You know well that without that my act would be commonplace, +that no manager would want either it or me. And how, pray, should we +live if that were to happen?" + +"There would always be my salary; we could make that do." + +"As if I would consent to live upon your earnings and add nothing +myself! No, no! I shall never do that--never. It is not as though that +foolish dream of long ago had come true, and I might hope one day to +retire. I am of the circus, and of it I shall always remain." + +"I wish you might not; I wish the dream might come true, even yet," she +made reply. "Why shouldn't it? Wilder ones have come true for other +people; why should they not for you?" + +Before her husband could make any response to this, the whole trend of +the conversation was altered by the boy. + +"Father," he said, "am I to do the trick to-night? Señor Sperati says it +is silly of me to sit about all dressed and ready if I am to do nothing, +like a little super, instead of a performer and an artist." + +"Oh, but that is not kind of the señor to say that," his father replied, +soothing his ruffled feelings. "You are an artist, of course; never +super--no, never. But if you shall do the trick or not, I cannot say. It +will depend, as it did at the matinee. If I feel it is right, you shall +do it; but if I feel it is wrong, then it must be no. You see, doctor," +catching Cleek's eye, "what a little enthusiast he is, and with how +little fear." + +"Yes, I do see, chevalier; but I wonder if he would be willing to humour +me in something? As he is not afraid, I've an odd fancy to see how he'd +go about the thing. Would you mind letting him make the feint you +yourself made a few minutes ago? Only, I must insist that in this +instance it be nothing more than a feint, chevalier. Don't let him go +too near at the time of doing it. Don't let him open the lion's jaws +with his own hands. You do that. Do you mind?" + +"Of a certainty not, monsieur. Gustave, show the good doctor how you go +about it when papa lets you do the trick. But you are not really to do +it just yet, only to bend the head near to Nero's mouth. Now then, come, +see." + +As he spoke he divided the lion's jaws and signalled the child to bend. +He obeyed. Very slowly the little head drooped nearer to the gaping, +full-fanged mouth, very slowly and very carefully, for Cleek's hand was +on the boy's shoulder, Cleek's eyes were on the lion's face. The huge +brute was as meek and as undisturbed as before, and there was actual +kindness in its fixed eyes. But of a sudden, when the child's head was +on a level with those gaping jaws, the lips curled backward in a ghastly +parody of a smile, a weird, uncanny sound whizzed through the bared +teeth, the passive body bulked as with a shock, and Cleek had just time +to snatch the boy back when the great jaws struck together with a snap +that would have splintered a skull of iron had they closed upon it. + +The hideous and mysterious "smile" had come again, and, brief though it +was, its passing found the boy's sister lying on the ground in a dead +faint, the boy's stepmother cowering back, with covered eyes and shrill, +affrighted screams, and the boy's father leaning, shaken and white, +against the empty case and nursing a bleeding hand. + +In an instant the whole place was in an uproar. "It smiled again! It +smiled again!" ran in broken gasps from lip to lip; but through it all +Cleek stood there, clutching the frightened child close to him, but not +saying one word, not making one sound. Across the dark arena came a rush +of running footsteps, and presently Señor Sperati came panting up, +breathless and pale with excitement. + +"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he cried. "Is it the lion again? Is +the boy killed? Speak up!" + +"No," said Cleek very quietly, "nor will he be. The father will do the +trick to-night, not the son. We've had a fright and a lesson, that's +all." And, putting the sobbing child from him, he caught young +Scarmelli's arm and hurried him away. "Take me somewhere that we can +talk in safety," he said. "We are on the threshold of the end, +Scarmelli, and I want your help." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, have you any idea--any clue?" + +"Yes, more than a clue. I know how, but I have not yet discovered why. +Now, if you know, tell me what did the chevalier mean, what did his wife +mean, when they spoke of a dream that might have come true, but didn't? +Do you know? Have you any idea? Or, if you have not, do you think your +fiancée has?" + +"Why, yes," he made reply. "Zelie has told me about it often. It is of a +fortune that was promised and never materialized. Oh, such a long time +ago, when he was quite a young man, the chevalier saved the life of a +very great man, a Prussian nobleman of great wealth. He was profuse in +his thanks and his promises, that nobleman; swore that he would make him +independent for life, and all that sort of thing." + +"And didn't?" + +"No, he didn't. After a dozen letters promising the chevalier things +that almost turned his head, the man dropped him entirely. In the midst +of his dreams of wealth a letter came from the old skinflint's steward +enclosing him the sum of six hundred marks, and telling him that as his +master had come to the conclusion that wealth would be more of a curse +than a blessing to a man of his class and station, he had thought better +of his rash promise. He begged to tender the enclosed as a proper and +sufficient reward for the service rendered, and 'should not trouble the +young man any further.' Of course, the chevalier didn't reply. Who +would, after having been promised wealth, education, everything one had +confessed that one most desired? Being young, high-spirited, and +bitterly, bitterly disappointed, the chevalier bundled the six hundred +marks back without a single word, and that was the last he ever heard of +the Baron von Steinheid from that day to this." + +"The Baron von Steinheid?" repeated Cleek, pulling himself up as though +he had trodden upon something. "Do you mean to say that the man whose +life he saved--Scarmelli--tell me something: Does it happen by any +chance that the 'Chevalier di Roma's' real name is Peter Janssen +Pullaine?" + +"Yes," said Scarmelli, in reply. "That is his name. Why?" + +"Nothing, but that it solves the riddle, and--the lion has smiled for +the last time! No, don't ask me any questions; there isn't time to +explain. Get me as quickly as you can to the place where we left Mr. +Narkom's motor. Will this way lead me out? Thanks! Get back to the +others, and look for me again in two hours' time; and--Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"One last word--don't let that boy get out of your sight for one +instant, and don't, no matter at what cost, let the chevalier do his +turn to-night before I get back. Good-bye for a time. I'm off." + +Then he moved like a fleetly-passing shadow round the angle of the +building, and two minutes later he was with Narkom in the red limousine. + +"To the German embassy as fast as we can fly," he said as he scrambled +in. "I've something to tell you about that lion's smile, Mr. Narkom, and +I'll tell it while we're on the wing." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +It was nine o'clock and after. The great show at Olympia was at its +height; the packed house was roaring with delight over the daring +equestrianship of "Mlle. Marie de Zanoni," and the sound of the cheers +rolled in to the huge dressing-tent, where the artists awaited their +several turns, and the chevalier, in spangled trunks and tights, all +ready for his call, sat hugging his child and shivering like a man with +the ague. + +"Come, come, buck up, man, and don't funk it like this," said Señor +Sperati, who had graciously consented to assist him with his dressing +because of the injury to his hand. "The idea of you losing your nerve, +you of all men, and because of a little affair like that. You know very +well that Nero is as safe as a kitten to-night, that he never has two +smiling turns in the same week, much less the same day. Your act's the +next on the programme. Buck up and go at it like a man." + +"I can't, señor, I can't!" almost wailed the chevalier. "My nerve is +gone. Never, if I live to be a thousand, shall I forget that awful +moment, that appalling 'smile.' I tell you, there is wizardry in the +thing; the beast is bewitched. My work in the arena is done--done for +ever, señor. I shall never have courage to look into the beast's jaws +again." + +"Rot! You're not going to ruin the show, are you, and after all the +money I've put into it? If you have no care for yourself, it's your duty +to think about me. You can at least try. I tell you you must try! Here, +take a sip of brandy, and see if that won't put a bit of courage into +you. Hello!" as a burst of applause and the thud of a horse's hoofs down +the passage to the stables came rolling in, "there's your wife's turn +over at last; and there--listen! the ringmaster is announcing yours. Get +up, man; get up and go out." + +"I can't, señor--I can't! I can't!" + +"But I tell you you must." + +And just here an interruption came. + +"Bad advice, my dear captain," said a voice--Cleek's voice--from the +other end of the tent; and with a twist and a snarl the "señor" screwed +round on his heel in time to see that other intruders were putting in an +appearance as well as this unwelcome one. + +"Who the deuce asked you for your opinion?" rapped out the "señor" +savagely. "And what are you doing in here, anyhow? If we want the +service of a vet., we're quite capable of getting one for ourselves +without having him shove his presence upon us unasked." + +"You are quite capable of doing a great many things, my dear captain, +even making lions smile!" said Cleek serenely. "It would appear that the +gallant Captain von Gossler, nephew, and, in the absence of one who has +a better claim, heir to the late Baron von Steinheid--That's it, nab the +beggar. Played, sir, played! Hustle him out and into the cab, with his +precious confederate, the Irish-Italian 'signor,' and make a clean sweep +of the pair of them. You'll find it a neck-stretching game, captain, I'm +afraid, when the jury comes to hear of that poor boy's death and your +beastly part in it." + +By this time the tent was in an uproar, for the chevalier's wife had +come hurrying in, the chevalier's daughter was on the verge of +hysterics, and the chevalier's prospective son-in-law was alternately +hugging the great beast-tamer and then shaking his hand and generally +deporting himself like a respectable young man who had suddenly gone +daft. + +"Governor!" he cried, half laughing, half sobbing. "Bully old governor. +It's over--it's over. Never any more danger, never any more hard times, +never any more lion's smiles." + +"No, never," said Cleek. "Come here, Madame Pullaine, and hear the good +news with the rest. You married for love, and you've proved a brick. The +dream's come true, and the life of ease and of luxury is yours at last, +Mr. Pullaine." + +"But, sir, I--I do not understand," stammered the chevalier. "What has +happened? Why have you arrested the Señor Sperati? What has he done? I +cannot comprehend." + +"Can't you? Well, it so happens, chevalier, that the Baron von Steinheid +died something like two months ago, leaving the sum of sixty thousand +pounds sterling to one Peter Janssen Pullaine and the heirs of his body, +and that a certain Captain von Gossler, son of the baron's only sister, +meant to make sure that there was no Peter Janssen Pullaine and no heirs +of his body to inherit one farthing of it." + +"Sir! Dear God, can this be true?" + +"Perfectly true, chevalier. The late baron's solicitors have been +advertising for some time for news regarding the whereabouts of Peter +Janssen Pullaine, and if you had not so successfully hidden your real +name under that of your professional one, no doubt some of your +colleagues would have put you in the way of finding it out long ago. The +baron did not go back on his word and did not act ungratefully. His +will, dated twenty-nine years ago, was never altered in a single +particular. I rather suspect that that letter and that gift of money +which came to you in the name of his steward, and was supposed to close +the affair entirely, was the work of his nephew, the gentleman whose +exit has just been made. A crafty individual that, chevalier, and he +laid his plans cleverly and well. Who would be likely to connect him +with the death of a beast-tamer in a circus, who had perished in what +would appear an accident of his calling? Ah, yes, the lion's smile was a +clever idea--he was a sharp rascal to think of it." + +"Sir! You--you do not mean to tell me that he caused that? He never went +near the beast--never--even once." + +"Not necessary, chevalier. He kept near you and your children; that was +all that he needed to do to carry out his plan. The lion was as much his +victim as anybody else--you or your children. What it did it could not +help doing. The very simplicity of the plan was its passport to success. +All that was required was the unsuspected sifting of snuff on the hair +of the person whose head was to be put in the beast's mouth. The lion's +smile was not, properly speaking, a smile at all, chevalier; it was the +torture which came of snuff getting into its nostrils, and when the +beast made that uncanny noise and snapped its jaws together, it was +simply the outcome of a sneeze. The thing would be farcical if it were +not that tragedy hangs on the thread of it, and that a life, a useful +human life, was destroyed by means of it. Yes, it was clever, it was +diabolically clever; but you know what Bobby Burns says about the best +laid schemes of mice and men. There's always a Power--higher up--that +works the ruin of them." + +With that he walked by, and, going to young Scarmelli, put out his hand. + +"You're a good chap and you've got a good girl, so I expect you will be +happy," he said; and then lowered his voice so that the rest might not +reach the chevalier's ears. "You were wrong to suspect the little +stepmother," he added. "She's true blue, Scarmelli. She was only playing +up to those fellows because she was afraid the 'señor' would drop out +and close the show if she didn't, and that she and her husband and the +children would be thrown out of work. She loves her husband--that's +certain--and she's a good little woman; and, Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek?" + +"There's nothing better than a good woman on this earth, my lad. Always +remember that. I think you, too, have found one. I hope you have. I hope +you'll be happy. What's that? Owe me? Not a rap, my boy. Or, if you feel +that you must give me something, give me your prayers for equal luck, +and--send me a slice of the wedding cake. Good-night!" + +And twisted round on his heel and walked out; making his way out to the +streets and facing the journey to Clarges Street afoot. For to be +absolutely without envy of any sort is not given to anything born of +woman; and the sight of this man's happiness, the knowledge of this +man's reward, brought upon him a bitter recollection of how far he still +was from his own. + +Would he ever get that reward? he wondered. Would he ever be nearer to +it than he was to-night? It hurt--yes, it hurt horribly, sometimes, this +stone-cold silence, this walking always in shadowed paths without a ray +of light, without the certainty of arriving _anywhere_, though he plod +onward for a lifetime--and the old feeling of savage resentment, the old +sense of self-pity--the surest thing on God's earth to blaze a trail for +the oncoming of the worst that is in a man--bit at the soul of him and +touched him on the raw again. + +He knew what that boded; and he also knew the antidote. + +"Dollops, they broke into our holiday--they did us out of a part of it, +didn't they, old chap?" he said, when he reached home at last and found +the boy anxiously awaiting him. "Well, we'll have a day for every hour +they deprived us of, a whole day, bonny boy. Pack up again and we'll be +off to the land as God made it, and where God's things still live; and +we'll have a fortnight of it--a whole blessed fortnight, my boy, with +the river and the fields and the flowers and the dreams that hide in +trees." + +Dollops made no reply. He simply bolted for the kit-bag and began to +pack at once. And the morrow, when it came, found these two--the servant +who was still a boy, and the master who had discovered the way back to +boyhood's secrets--forging up the shining river and seeking the Land of +Nightingales again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +The spring had blossomed itself out and the summer had bloomed itself +in. The holiday up the river was a thing of the past; the dreams of the +Dreamer had given place to those sterner phases of life which must be +coped with by the Realist; and Cleek was "back in harness" again. + +A half-dozen more or less important cases had occupied his time since +his return; but, although he had carried these to a successful issue and +had again been lauded to the skies by the daily papers, the one word of +praise from the one quarter whence he so earnestly desired to hear was +never forthcoming. + +Of Ailsa Lorne he had heard not a solitary thing, either directly or +indirectly, since that day when he had put her into the taxicab at +Charing Cross Station and saw her safely on her way to Hampstead before +he went his own. + +True, her silence was, as he had agreed, an admission that all was well +with her and that she had secured the position in question; true it was +also that it was not for her to take the initiative and break that +silence; that he fully realised how impossible, for a girl born and bred +as she had been, to voluntarily open up a correspondence with a man who +was as yet little more than a mere acquaintance; but, all the same, he +chafed under that silence and spent many a wakeful hour at night +brooding on it. + +In his heart he knew that if any advance was to be made, that advance +was the man's duty, not the woman's; but the fear that she would think +he was thrusting himself upon her, the dread that even yet the white +soul of her could not but shrink from a closer association with him, +kept him from taking one step towards breaking the silence he deplored. + +The French have a proverb which says: "It is always the unexpected that +happens." And it was the unexpected that happened in this case. + +In the midst of his dejection, in the very depths of returning despair, +there came to him this note from Mr. Narkom: + +"My Dear Cleek, + +"Kindly refrain from going out this evening. I shall call about nine +o'clock, bringing with me Miss Ailsa Lorne, whom you doubtless remember, +and her present patron, Angela, Countess Chepstow, the young widow of +that ripping old warhorse, who, as you may recall, quelled that +dangerous and fanatical rising of the Cingalese at Trincomalee. These +ladies wish to see you with reference to a most extraordinary case, an +inexplicable mystery, which both they and I believe no man but yourself +can satisfactorily probe. + +"Yours in haste, + +"Maverick Narkom." + +So, then, he was to see her again, to touch her hand, hear her voice, +look into the eyes that had lighted him back from the path to +destruction! Cleek's heart began to hammer and his pulses to drum. +Needless to say, he took extraordinary care with his toilet that +evening, with the result that when the ladies arrived there was nothing +even vaguely suggestive of the detective about him. + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do help us--please do," implored Ailsa, after the first +greetings were over. "Lady Chepstow is almost beside herself with dread +and anxiety over the inexplicable thing, and I have persuaded her that +if anybody on earth can solve the mystery of it, avert the new and +appalling danger of it, it is you! Oh, say that you will take the case, +say that you will save little Lord Chepstow and put an end to this +maddening mystery!" + +"Little Lord Chepstow?" repeated Cleek, glancing over at the countess, +who stood, a very Niobe in her grief and despair, holding out two +imploring hands in silent supplication. "That is your ladyship's son, is +it not?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a sort of wail; "my only son--my only child. +All that I have to love--all that I have to live for in this world." + +"And you think the little fellow is in peril?" + +"Yes--in deadly peril." + +"From what source? From whose hand?" + +"I don't know--I don't know!" she answered, distractedly. "Sometimes I +am wild enough to suspect even Captain Hawksley, unjust and unkind as it +seems." + +"Captain Hawksley? Who is he?" + +"My late husband's cousin; heir, after my little son, to the title and +estates. He is very poor, deeply in debt, and the inheritance would put +an end to all his difficulties. But he is fond of my son; they seem +almost to worship each other. I, too, am fond of him. But, for all that, +I have to remember that he and he alone would benefit by Cedric's death, +and--and--wicked as it seems--Oh, Mr. Cleek, help me! Direct me! +Sometimes I doubt him. Sometimes I doubt everybody. Sometimes I think of +those other days, that other mystery, that land which reeks of them; and +then--and then--Oh, that horrible Ceylon! I wish I had never set foot in +it in all my life!" + +Her agitation and distress were so great as to make her utterances only +half coherent; and Ailsa, realising that this sort of thing must only +perplex Cleek, and leave him in the dark regarding the matter upon which +they had come to consult him, gently interposed. + +"Do try to calm yourself and to tell the story as briefly as possible, +dear Lady Chepstow," she advised. Then, taking the initiative, added +quietly, "It begins, Mr. Cleek, at a period when his little lordship, +whose governess I have the honour to be, was but two years old, and at +Trincomalee, where his late father was stationed with his regiment four +years ago. Somebody, for some absurd reason, had set afoot a ridiculous +rumour that the English had received orders from the Throne to stamp out +every religion but their own--in short, if the British were not +exterminated, dreadful desecrations would occur, as they were +determined--" + +"To loot all the temples erected to Buddha, destroy the images, and make +a bonfire of all the sacred relics," finished Cleek himself. "I rarely +forget history, Miss Lorne, especially when it is such recent history as +that memorable Buddhist rising at Trincomalee. It began upon an utterly +unfounded, ridiculous rumour; it terminated, if my memory serves me +correctly, in something akin to the very thing it was supposed to avert. +That is to say, during the outburst of fanaticism, that most sacred of +all relics--the holy tooth of Buddha--disappeared mysteriously from the +temple of Dambool, and in spite of the fact that many lacs of rupees +were offered for its recovery, it has never, I believe, been found, or +even traced, to this day, although a huge fortune awaits the restorer, +and, with it, overpowering honours from the native princes. Those must +have been trying times, Lady Chepstow, for the commandant's wife, the +mother of the commandant's only child?" + +"Horrible! horrible!" she answered, with a shudder, forgetting for an +instant the dangers of the present in the recollection of the tragical +past. "For a period, our lives were not safe; murder hid behind every +bush, skulked in the shadow of every rock and tree, and we knew not at +what minute the little garrison might be rushed under cover of the +darkness and every soul slaughtered before the relief force could come +to our assistance. I died a hundred deaths in a day in my anxiety for +husband and child. And once the very zealousness of our comrades almost +brought about the horror I feared. Oh!"--with a shudder of horrified +recollection and a covering of the eyes, as if to shut out the memory of +it--"Oh! that night--that horrible night! Unknown to any of us, my baby, +rising from the bed where I had left him sleeping, whilst I went outside +to stand by Lord Chepstow, wandered beyond the line of defence, and, +before anybody realised it, was out in the open, alone and unprotected. + +"Ferralt, the cook, saw him first; saw, too, the crouching figure of a +native, armed with a gun, in the shadow of the undergrowth. Without +hesitation the brave fellow rushed out, fell upon the native before he +could dart away, wrenched the gun from him, and brained him with the +butt. A cry of the utmost horror rang out upon the air, and, uttering +it, another native bounded out from a hiding-place close to where the +first had been killed, and flew zigzagging across the open, where Cedric +was. Evidently he had no intention of molesting the little fellow, for +he fled straight on past him, still shrieking after the accident +occurred; but to Ferralt it seemed as if his intention were to murder +the boy, and, clapping the gun to his shoulder, in a panic of +excitement, he fired. If it had been one of the soldiers, +someone--anyone--who understood marksmanship and was not likely to be in +a nervous quake over the circumstances, the thing could not have +happened, although the fugitive was careering along in a direct line +with my precious little one. But, with Ferralt--Oh, Mr. Cleek, can you +imagine my horror when I saw the flash of that shot, heard a shrill cry +of pain, and saw my child drop to the ground?" + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed Cleek, agitated in spite of himself. "Then the +blunderer shot the child instead of the native?" + +"Yes; and was so horrified by the mishap that, without waiting to learn +the result, he rushed blindly to the brink of a deep ravine, and threw +himself headlong to death. But the injury to Cedric was only a trifling +one after all. The bullet seemed merely to have grazed him in passing, +and, beyond a ragged gash in the fleshy part of the thigh, he was not +harmed at all. That I myself dressed and bandaged, and in a couple of +weeks it was quite healed. But it taught me a lesson, that night of +horror, and I never let my baby out of my sight for one instant from +that time until the rising was entirely quelled. + +"As suddenly as it had started, the trouble subsided. Native priests +came under a flag of truce to Lord Chepstow, and confessed their error, +acknowledged that they had never any right to suspect the British of any +design upon their gods, for the loot of the temple had actually taken +place in the midst of the rising, and they knew that it could not have +come from the hands of the soldiers, for they had had them under +surveillance all the time, and not one person of the race had ventured +within a mile of the temple. + +"Yet the tooth of Buddha had been taken, the sacred tooth which is more +holy to Buddhists than the statue of Gautama Buddha itself. Their +remorse was very real, and after that, to the day of his death from +fever, eighteen months afterward, they could never show enough honour to +Lord Chepstow. And even then their favour continued. They transferred to +the little son the homage they had done the father, but in a far, far +greater degree. If he had been a king's son they could have shown him no +greater honour. Native princes showered him with rich gifts; if he +walked out, his path was strewn with flowers by bowing maidens; if he +went into the market-place, the people prostrated themselves before him. + +"When I questioned Buddhist women of this amazing homage to Cedric, they +gave me a full explanation. My son was sacred, they said. Buddha had +withdrawn his favour from his people because of the evil they had done +in suspecting the father and of the innocent life--Ferralt's--which had +been sacrificed, and they had been commanded of the priests to do homage +to the child and thereby appease the offended god, who, doubtless, had +himself spirited away the holy tooth, and would not restore it until +full recompense was made to the sacred son of the sacred dead. + +"When it became known that I had decided to return to England with my +boy, native princes offered me fabulous sums to remain, and when they +found that I could not be tempted to stay, the populace turned out in +every town and village through which we passed on our way to the ship, +and bowing multitudes followed us to the very last. Nor did it cease +with that, for in all the years that have followed, even here in London, +the homage and worship have continued. My son can go nowhere but that he +is followed by Cingalese; can see no man or woman of the race, but he or +she prostrates herself before him and murmurs, 'Holy, most holy!' And +daily, almost hourly, rich gifts are showered upon him from unknown +hands, and he is watched over and guarded constantly. I tell you all +this, Mr. Cleek, that you may the better understand how appalling is the +horror which now assails us, how frightful is the knowledge that someone +now seeks his life, and is using every means to take it." + +"In other words, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom, as her ladyship, +overcome with emotion, broke down suddenly, "there appears to be a +sudden and inexplicable change of front on the part of these fanatics, +and they now seem as anxious to bring evil to his little lordship as +they formerly were to protect and cherish him. At any rate, someone of +their order has, upon three separate occasions within the last month, +endeavoured to kidnap him, and, in one instance, even attempted to +murder him." + +"Is that a fact?" queried Cleek sharply, glancing over at Miss Lorne. +"You are certain it is not a fancy, but an absolute fact?" + +"Yes; oh, yes!" she made answer, agitatedly. "Twice when I have gone +into the Park with him, attempts have been made to separate us, to get +him away from me; and once they did get him away--so swiftly, so +adroitly, that he had vanished before I could turn round. But, although +a bag had been thrown over his head to stifle his cries, he managed to +make a very little one. I plunged screaming into the undergrowth from +which that cry had come, and was just in time to save him. He was lying +on the ground all bundled up in a bag, and his assailant, who must have +heard me coming, had gone as if by magic. His little lordship, however, +was able to tell me that the man was a Cingalese, and that he had 'tried +to cut him with a knife.'" + +"Cut him with a knife?" repeated Cleek in a reflective tone, and blew +out a long, low whistle. + +"Oh! but that is not the worst, Mr. Cleek," went on Ailsa. "Three days +ago a woman--a very beautiful and distinguished-looking woman--called to +see Lady Chepstow regarding the reference of a former servant, one Jane +Catherboys, who used to be her ladyship's maid. After the caller left, a +box of sugared violets was found lying temptingly open on a table in the +main hall. Little Cedric is passionately fond of sugared violets, and, +had he happened to pass that way before the box was discovered, he +surely would have yielded to the temptation and eaten some. In removing +the box the parlour-maid accidentally upset it, and before she could +gather all the violets up her ladyship's little Pomeranian dog snapped +up one and ate it. It was dead in six minutes' time! The sweets were +simply loaded with prussic acid. When we came to inquire into the matter +in the hope of tracing the mysterious caller, we found that Jane +Catherboys was no longer in need of a position; that she had been +married for eight months; that she knew nothing whatever of the woman, +and had sent no one to inquire into her references." + +"All of which shows, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom significantly, "that, +whatever hand is directing these attempts, it belongs to one who knows +more than a mere outsider possibly could: in short, to one who is aware +of his little lordship's excessive fondness for sugared violets, and is +aware that Lady Chepstow once did have a maid named Jane Catherboys." + +"If," said Cleek, "you mean to suggest by that that this points +suspiciously in Captain Hawksley's direction, Mr. Narkom, permit me to +say that it does not necessarily follow. The clever people of the +under-world do nothing by halves nor without careful inquiry beforehand; +that is what makes the difference between the common pickpocket and the +brilliant swindler." He turned to Ailsa. "Is that all, Miss Lorne, or am +I right in supposing that there is even worse to come?" + +"Oh, much worse--much, Mr. Cleek! The knowledge that these would-be +murderers, whoever they are, whatever may be their mysterious motive, +have grown desperate enough to invade the house itself has driven Lady +Chepstow well-nigh frantic. Of course, orders were immediately given to +the servants that no stranger, no matter how well dressed, how well +seeming, nor what the plea, was, from that moment, to be allowed past +the threshold. We felt secure in that, knowing that no servant of the +household would betray his or her trust, and that all would be on the +constant watch for any further attempt. The unknown enemy must have +found out about these precautions, for no stranger came again to the +door. But last night a thing we had never counted upon happened. In the +dead of the night the unknown broke into the house--into the very +nursery itself--and but that Lady Chepstow, impelled she does not know +by what, only that she was nervous and wakeful, and felt the need of +some companionship, rose and carried the sleeping child into her own +bed, he would assuredly have been murdered. The nurse, awakened by a +horrible suffocating sensation, opened her eyes to find a man bending +over her with a chloroform-soaked cloth, which he was about to lay over +her face. She shrieked and fainted, but not before she saw the man +spring to the little bed on the other side of her own, hack furiously at +it with a long, murderous knife, then dart to the window and vanish. In +the darkness he had not, of course, been able to see that that little +bed was empty, for its position kept it in deep shadow, and hearing the +household stir at the sound of the nurse's shriek, he struck out blindly +and flew to save himself from detection. The nurse states that he was +undoubtedly a foreigner--a dark-skinned Asiatic--and her description of +him tallies with that his little lordship gave of the man who attempted +to kill him that day in the Park. There, Mr. Cleek," she concluded, +"that's the whole story. Can't you do something to help us--something to +lift this constant state of dread and to remove this terrible danger +from little Lord Chepstow's life?" + +"I'll try, Miss Lorne; but it is a most extraordinary case. Where is the +boy, now?" + +"At home, closely guarded. We appealed to Mr. Narkom, and he generously +appointed two detective officers to sit with his little lordship and +keep constant watch over him whilst we are away." + +"And in the meantime," added Mr. Narkom, "I've issued orders for a +general rounding-up of all the Cingalese who can be traced or are known +to be in town. Petrie and Hammond have that part of the job in hand, and +if they hit upon any Asiatic who answers to the description of this +murderous rascal--" + +"I don't believe they will," interposed Cleek; "or, if they do, I don't +for a moment believe he will turn out to be the guilty party. In other +words, I have an idea that the fellow will prove to be a European." + +"But, my dear fellow, both his little lordship and the nurse saw the +man, and, as you have heard, they both agree that he was dark-skinned +and quite Oriental in appearance." + +"One of the easiest possible disguises, Mr. Narkom. A wig, a stick of +grease-paint, a threepenny twist of crepe hair, and there you are! No, I +do not believe that the man is a Cingalese at all; and, far from his +having any connection with what you were pleased to term just now a +change of front on the part of the Buddhists who have so long held the +little chap as something sacred, I don't believe that they know anything +about him. I base that upon the fact that the child is still treated +with homage whenever he goes out, according to what Miss Lorne says, and +that, with the single exception of that one woman who tried to poison +him, nobody but just one man--this particular one man--has ever made any +attempt to harm the boy. Fanatics, like those Cingalese, cleave to an +idea to the end, Mr. Narkom; they don't cast it aside and go off at +another tangent. You have heard what Lady Chepstow says the native women +told her; the boy was sacred; their priests had commanded them to +appease Buddha by doing homage to him until the tooth was found, and the +tooth has not been found up to the present day! That means that nothing +on earth could change their attitude toward him, that not one of the +Buddhist sect would harm a solitary hair of his head for a king's +ransom; so you may eliminate the Cingalese from the case entirely so far +as the attempts upon the child's life are concerned. Whoever is making +the attempts is doing so without their knowledge and for a purely +personal reason." + +"Then, in that case, this Captain Hawksley--" + +"I'll have a look at that gentleman before I tumble into bed to-night, +and you shall have my views upon that point to-morrow morning, Mr. +Narkom. Frankly, things point rather suspiciously in the captain's +direction, since he is apparently the only person likely to be benefited +by the boy's death, and if a motive cannot be traced to some other +person--" He stopped abruptly and held up his hand. Outside in the dim +halls of the house a sudden noise had sprung into being, the noise of +someone running upstairs in great haste, and, stepping quickly to the +door, Cleek drew it sharply open. As he did so, Dollops came puffing up +out of the lower gloom, a sheep's trotter in one hand, and a letter in +the other. + +"Law, Gov'nor!" groaned he, from midway on the staircase, "I don't +believe as I'm ever goin' to be let get a square tuck-in this side of +the buryin' ground! Jist finished wot was left of that there steak and +kidney puddin', sir, and started on my seckint trotter, when I sees a +pair o' legs nip parst the area railin's to the front door, and then nip +off again like greased lightnin', and when I ups and does a flyin' leap +up the kitchen stairs, there was this here envellup in the letter-box, +and them there blessed legs nowheres in sight. I say, sir," agitatedly, +"look wot's wrote on the envellup, will yer? And us always keepin' of it +so dark." + +Cleek plucked the letter from his extended hand, glanced at it, and +puckered up his lips; then, with a gesture, he sent Dollops back below +stairs, and, returning to the room, closed the door behind him. + +"The enemy evidently knows all Lady Chepstow's movements, Mr. Narkom," +he said. "I expect she and Miss Lorne have been under surveillance all +day and have been followed here. Look at that!" He flung the letter down +on a table as he spoke, and Narkom, glancing at it, saw printed in rude, +illiterate letters upon the envelope the one word "Cleek." The identity +of "Captain Burbage" was known to someone, and the secret of the house +in Clarges Street was a secret no longer! + +"Purposely disguised, you see. No one, not even a little child, would +make such a botch of copying the alphabet as that," Cleek said, as he +took the letter up and opened it. The sheet it contained was lettered in +the same uncouth manner, and bore these words: + +"Cleek, take a fool's advice and don't accept the Chepstow case. Be +warned. If you interfere, somebody you care about will pay the price. +You'll find it more satisfactory to buy a wedding bouquet than a funeral +wreath!" + +"Oh!" shuddered the two ladies in one breath. "How horrible! How +cowardly!" And then, feeling that her last hope had gone, Lady Chepstow +broke into a fit of violent weeping and laid her head on Ailsa's +shoulder. + +"Oh, my baby! My darling baby boy!" she sobbed. "And now they are +threatening somebody that you, too, love. Of course, Mr. Cleek, I can't +expect you to risk the sacrifice of your own dear ones for the sake of +me and mine, and so--and so--Oh, take me away, Miss Lorne! Let me go +back to my baby and have him while I may." + +"Good-night, Mr. Cleek!" said Ailsa, stretching out a shaking hand to +him. "Thank you so much for--for what you would have done but for this. +And you were our last hope, too!" + +"Why give it up then, Miss Lorne?" he said, holding her hand and looking +into her eyes. "Why not go on letting me be your last hope--your only +hope?" + +"Yes, but they--they spoke of a funeral wreath." + +"And they also spoke of a wedding bouquet! I am going to take the case, +Miss Lorne--take it, and solve it, as I'm a living man. Thank you!" as +her brimming eyes uplifted in deep thankfulness and her shaking hand +returned the pressure of his. "Now, just give me five minutes' time in +the next room--it's my laboratory, Lady Chepstow--and I'll tell you +whether I shall begin with Captain Hawksley or eliminate him from the +case entirely. You might go in ahead, Mr. Narkom, and get the acid bath +and the powder ready for me. We'll see what the finger-prints of our +gentle correspondent have to tell, and, if they are not in the records +of Scotland Yard or down in my own private little book, we'll get a +sample of Captain Hawksley's in the morning." + +Then, excusing himself to the ladies, he passed into the inner room in +company with Narkom, and carried the letter with him. When he returned +it was still in his hand, but there were greyish smudges all over it. + +"There's not a finger-print in the lot that is worth anything as a means +of identification, Miss Lorne," he said. "But you and Lady Chepstow may +accept my assurance that Captain Hawksley is not the man. The writer of +this letter belongs to the criminal classes; he is on his guard against +the danger of finger-prints, and he wore rubber gloves when he penned +this message. When I find him, rest assured I shall find a man who has +had dealings with the police before and whose finger-prints are on their +records. I don't know what his game is nor what he's after yet, but I +will inside of a week. I've an idea; but it's so wild a thing I'm almost +afraid to trust myself to believe it possible until I stumble over +something that points the same way. Now, go home with Lady Chepstow, and +begin the work of helping me." + +"Helping you? Oh, Mr. Cleek, can we? Is there anything we can do to +help?" + +"Yes. When you leave the house, act as though you are in the utmost +state of dejection--and keep that up indefinitely. Make it appear, for I +am certain you will be followed and spied upon, as if I had declined the +case. But don't have any fear about the boy. The two constables will +sleep in the room with him to-night and every night until the thing is +cleared up and the danger past. To-morrow about dusk, however, you, +personally, take him for a walk near the Park, and if, among the other +Cingalese you may meet, you should see one dressed as an Englishman, and +wearing a scarlet flower in his buttonhole, take no notice of how often +you see him nor of what he may do." + +"It will be you, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. Now go, please; and don't forget to act as if you and her ladyship +were utterly broken-hearted. Also"--his voice dropped lower, his hand +met her hand, and in the darkness of the hall a little silver-plated +revolver was slipped into her palm--"also, take this. Keep it always +with you, never be without it night or day, and if any living creature +offers you violence, shoot him down as you would a mad dog. Good-night, +and--remember!" + +And long after she and Lady Chepstow had gone down and passed out into +the night he stood there, looking the situation straight in the face and +thinking his own troubled thoughts. + +"A wedding bouquet! A threat against her, and the mention of a wedding +bouquet!" he said, as he went back into the room and sat down to figure +the puzzle out. "Only one creature in the world knows of my feelings in +that direction, and only one creature in the world would be capable of +that threat--Margot! But what interest could she or any of her tribe +have in the death of Lady Chepstow's little son? Her game is always +money. If she were after a ransom she would try to abduct the child, not +to kill him, and if"--A sudden thought came and wrenched away his voice. +He sat a moment twisting his fingers one through the other and frowning +at the floor; then, of a sudden, he gave a cry and jumped to his feet. +"Five lacs of rupees--a fortune! By George, I've got it!" he fairly +shouted. "The wild guess was a correct one, I'll stake my life. Let's +put it to the test." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The summer twilight was deepening into the summer dusk when Ailsa, +acting upon Cleek's advice, set forth with his little lordship the +following evening, and turned her steps in the direction of the Park; +but although, on her way there, she observed more than once that a +swarthy-skinned man in European dress who wore a scarlet flower in his +coat, and was so perfect a type of the Asiatic that he would have passed +muster for one even among a gathering of Cingalese, kept appearing and +disappearing at irregular intervals, it spoke well for the powers of +imitation and self-effacement possessed by Dollops, that she never once +thought of associating that young man with the dawdling messenger boy +who strolled leisurely along with a package under his arm and patronised +every bun-shop, winkle-stall, and pork-pie purveyor on the line of +march. + +For upward of an hour this sort of thing went on without any +interruption or any solitary thing out of the ordinary, Ailsa strolling +along leisurely, with the boy's hands in hers and his innocent prattle +running on ceaselessly; then, of a sudden, whilst they were moving along +close to the Park railings and in the shadow of the overhanging trees, +the figure of an undersized man in semi-European costume, but wearing on +his head the twisted turban of a Cingalese, issued from one of the +gates, and well-nigh collided with them. + +He drew back, murmuring an apology in pidgin-English, then, seeing the +child, he salaamed profoundly and murmured in a voice of deep reverence, +"Holy, most holy!" and prostrated himself, with his forehead touching +the ground, until Ailsa and the child had passed on. But barely had they +taken five steps before Cleek appeared upon the scene, and did exactly +the same thing as the Cingalese. + +"All right. You may go home now. I've got my man," he whispered, as +Ailsa and the boy passed by. "Look for me at Chepstow House some time +to-night." Then rose, as she walked on, and went after the man who first +had prostrated himself before the child. + +He had risen and gone on his way, but not before witnessing Cleek's +obeisance, and flashing upon him a sharp, searching look. Cleek +quickened his steps and shortened the distance between them. Now or +never was the time to put to the test that wild thought which last night +had hammered on his brain, for it was certain that this man was in very +truth a Cingalese, and, as such, must know! He stretched forth his hand +and touched the man, who drew back sharply, half indignantly, but +changed his attitude entirely when Cleek, who knew Hindustani more than +well, spoke to him in the native tongue. + +"Unto thee, oh, brother!" Cleek said. "Thou, too, art of us, for thou, +too, dost acknowledge the sacred shrine. These eyes have beheld thee." + +All his hopes rested on the slim pillar of that one word, "shrine," and +his heart almost ceased to beat as he watched to see how it was +received. It broke, however, into a very tumult of disturbance in the +next instant, for the man positively beamed as he gave reply. + +"Sacred be the shrine!" he answered in Hindustani. "Clearly thou art of +us--not of those others." + +"Others? What others? I am but newly come to this country." + +"Walk with me, then, to my abode, sup with me, eat of my salt, and I +will tell thee then, oh, brother. But I forget: thou hast no knowledge +of me. Listen, then. I am Arjeeb Noosrut, father of the High Priest +Seydama, and it is among the people of my house that the gun is yet +preserved. Nor has the blood of Seydama been ever washed from the wood +of it. Come." + +All in a moment a light seemed to break over Cleek's brain. The missing +link had been supplied--the one thing that could make possible the wild +thought which had come to him last night had been given into his hands, +and here at last was the key to the amazing mystery! He turned without a +word and went with Arjeeb Noosrut. + +"What an ass!" he said to himself in the soundless words of thought +"What an ass never to have suspected it when it is all so clear!" + +Meantime Ailsa and the boy, dismissed from any further need of service, +walked on through the deepening dusk and turned their faces homeward. +But they had not gone twenty yards from the spot where Cleek had seen +them last when his little lordship set up a joyful cry and pointed +excitedly to a claret-coloured limousine which at that moment swung in +from the middle of the roadway and slowed down as it neared the kerb. + +"Oh, look, Miss Lorne; here's mummie's motor car; and I do believe +that's Bimbi peeping out of it!" exclaimed the child--"Bimbi" being his +pet name for Captain Hawksley--then broke, in wild excitement, from +Ailsa's detaining hand and fled to a tall, military-looking man with a +fair beard and moustache who had just that moment alighted from the +vehicle. "It is Bimbi--it is!--it is!" he shouted as he ran. "Oh, Bimbi, +I _am_ glad!" + +"Ceddie, dear, you mustn't be so boisterous!" chided Ailsa, coming up +with him at the kerb. "How fond he is of you to be sure, Captain +Hawksley. You've come for us, I suppose? Ceddie recognised the car at +once." + +"Yes; jump in," he answered. "Lady Chepstow sent me after you. She's +nervous, poor soul, every moment the boy's away from her. Jump in, old +chap!"--catching up his little lordship and swinging him inside. "Better +take the back seat, Miss Lorne; it's more comfortable. Quite settled, +both of you? That's good. All right, chauffeur--Home!" + +Then he jumped in after them, closed the door, dropped into a seat, and +the motor, making a wide curve out into the road, pelted away into the +fast-gathering darkness. + +"Bimbi says maybe he's going to be my daddy one day--didn't you, Bimbi?" +said his little lordship, climbing up on to "Bimbi's" knee and snuggling +close to him. + +"I say, you know, you mustn't tell secrets, old chap!" was the laughing +response. "Miss Lorne will hand you over to Nursie with orders to put +you to bed if you do, _I_ know--won't you, Miss Lorne?" + +"He ought to be in bed, anyhow," responded Ailsa gaily; and then, this +giving the conversation a merry turn, they talked and laughed and kept +up such a chatter that three-quarters of an hour went like magic and +nobody seemed aware of it. But suddenly Ailsa thought, and then put her +thoughts into words. + +"What a long time we are in getting home," she said, and bent forward so +that the light from the window might fall upon the dial of her wrist +watch, then gave a little startled cry and half rose from her seat. For +the darkness was now tempered by moonlight, and she could see that they +were no longer in the populous districts of the town, but were speeding +along past woodlands and open fields in the very depths of the country. +"Good gracious! Johnston must have lost his senses!" she exclaimed +agitatedly. "Look where we are, Captain Hawksley!--out in the country +with only a farmhouse or two in sight. Johnston! Johnston!" She bent +forward and rapped wildly on the glass panel. "Johnston, stop!--turn +round!--are you out of your head? Captain Hawksley, stop him--stop him +for pity's sake!" + +"Sit down, Miss Lorne." He made reply in a low, level voice, a voice in +which there was something that made her pluck the child to her and hold +him right to her breast. "You are not going home to-night. You are going +for a ride with me; and if--Oh, that's your little game, is it?" +lurching forward as she made a frantic clutch at the handle of the door. +"Sit down, do you hear me?--or it will be worse for you! There!"--the +cold bore of a revolver barrel touched her temple and wrung a quaking +gasp of terror from her--"Do you feel that? Now you sit down and be +quiet! If you make a single move, utter a single cry, I'll blow your +brains out before you've half finished it. Look here, do you know who +you're dealing with now? See!" + +His hand reached up and twitched away the fair beard and moustache; he +bent forward so that the moonlight through the glass could fall on his +face. It had changed as his voice had now changed, and she saw that she +was looking at the man who in those other days of stress and trial had +posed as "Gaston Merode," brother to the fictitious "Countess de la +Tour." + +"You!" she said in a bleak voice of desolation and fright. "Dear heaven, +that horrible Margot's confederate, the King of the Apaches!" + +"Yes!" he rapped out. "You and that fellow Cleek came between us in one +promising game, but I'm hanged if you shall do it in this one! I want +this boy, and--I've got him. Now, you call off Cleek and tell him to +drop this case--to make no effort to follow us or to come between us and +the kid--or I'll slit your throat after I've done with his little +lordship here. Lanisterre!"--to the chauffeur--"Lanisterre, do you +hear?" + +"_Oui, monsieur_." + +"Give her her head--full speed--and get to the mill as fast as you can. +Margot will be with us in another two hours' time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Through the ever-deepening dusk Cleek and Arjeeb Noosrut moved onward +together; and onward behind them moved, too, the same dilatory messenger +boy who had loitered about in the neighbourhood of the park, squandering +his halfpence now as then, leaving a small trail of winkle shells and +trotter bones to mark the record of his passage, and never seeming to +lose one iota of his appetite, eat as much and as often as he would. + +The walk led down into the depths of Soho, that refuge of the foreign +element in London; but long before they halted at the narrow doorway of +a narrow house in a narrow side street--a street that seemed to have +gone to sleep in an atmosphere of gloom and smells--Cleek had adroitly +"pumped" Arjeeb Noosrut dry, and the riddle of the sacred son was a +riddle to him no longer. He was now only anxious to part from the man +and return with the news to Lady Chepstow, and was casting round in his +mind for some excuse to avoid going indoors with him and wasting +precious time in breaking bread and eating salt, when there lurched out +of an adjoining doorway an ungainly figure in turban and sandals and the +full flower of that grotesque regalia which passes muster at cheap +theatres and masquerade balls for the costume of a Cingalese. The fellow +had bent forward out of the deeper darkness of the house-passage into +the murk and gloom of the ill-lit street, and was straining his eyes as +if in search for someone long expected. + +"Dog of an infidel!" exclaimed Arjeeb Noosrut, speaking in Hindustani, +and spitting on the pavement as he caught sight of the man. "See, +well-beloved, he is of those 'others' of which I spoke when I first met +thee. There are many of them, but true believers none. They dwell in a +room huddled up as unclean things in the house there; they drink and +make merry far into the night, and a woman veiled and in European garb +comes to them and drinks with them sometimes--and sometimes a man of her +kind with her; and they speak a tongue that is not the tongue of our +people; yet have I seen them go forth into the city and do homage as we +to the sacred son." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and, twitching round, stared at the dim +figure leaning forward in the dim light. + +"By George!" he said to himself; "if I know anything, I ought to know +the slouch and the low-sunk head of the Apache! And the woman +comes!--And a man comes!--And there are five lacs of rupees! I wonder! I +wonder! But no--she wouldn't come here, to a place like this, if she had +ventured back into England and had called some of the band over to help. +She'd go to the old spot--to the old haunt where she and I used to lie +low and laugh whilst the police were hunting for me. She'd go there, I'm +sure, to the old Burnt Acre Mill, where, if you were 'stalked,' you +could open the sluice gates and let the Thames and the mill stream rush +in and meet, and make a hell of whirling waters that would drown a fish. +She would go there if it were she. And yet--it is an Apache: I swear it +is an Apache!" + +He turned and looked back at Arjeeb Noosrut, then raised his hand and +brushed it down the back of his head, which was always the sign "Wait!" +to Dollops--and then spoke as calmly as he could. + +"Brother, I will go in and break bread and eat salt with thee," he said. +"But I may do no more, for to-night I am in haste." + +"Come then," the man answered; and taking him by the hand, led him in +and up to a room at the back of the second storey, where, hot as the +night was, the windows were closed and a woman squatted before a lighted +brasier, was dripping the contents of an oil cruse over the roasting +carcass of a young kid. + +"It is to shut out the sounds of the vile infidel orgies from the house +adjoining," explained Arjeeb Noosrut, as Cleek walked to the tightly +closed window and leant his forehead against it. "Yet, if the heat +oppresses thee--" + +"It does," interposed Cleek, and leant far out into the darkness as +though sucking in the air when the sash was raised and the thing which +had been only a dim babel of wordless sounds a moment before, became now +the riotous laughter and the ribald comments of men upon the verses of a +comic song which one of their number was joyously singing. + +"French!" said Cleek under his breath, as he caught the notes of the +singer and the words of his audience--"French--I knew it!" + +Then he drew in his head, and having broken of the bread and eaten of +the salt which, at a word from Arjeeb Noosrut, the woman brought on a +wicker tray and laid before them, he moved hastily to the door. + +"Brother and son of the faithful, peace be with thee--I must go," he +said. "But I come again; and it is written that thou shalt be honoured +above all men when I return to thee, and that the true believers--the +true sons of Holy Buddha--shall have cause to set thy name at the head +of the records of those who are most blest of him!" + +Then he salaamed and passed out; and, closing the door behind him, ran +like a hare down the narrow stairs. At the door Dollops rose up like the +imp in a pantomime and jumped toward him. + +"Law, Gov'nor, I'm nigh starved a-waitin' for yer!" he said in a +whisper. "Wot's the lay now? A double-quick change? I've got the stuff +here, look!"--holding up the package he was carrying--"or a chance for +me to do some fly catchin' with me bloomin' tickle tootsies?" + +The man in the Cingalese costume had vanished from the doorway of the +adjoining house, and, catching the boy by the arm, Cleek hurried him to +it and drew him into the dark passage. + +"I'm going to the back; I'm going to climb up to the windows of the +second storey and see who's there and what's going on," he whispered. +"Lie low and watch. I think it's Margot's gang." + +"Oh, colour me blue! Them beauties? And in London? I'd give a tanner for +a strong cup o' tea!" + +"Sh-h-h! Be quiet--speak low. Don't be seen, but keep a close watch; and +if anybody comes downstairs--" + +"He's mine!" interjected Dollops, stripping up his sleeves. "Glue to the +eyebrows and warranted to stick! Nip away, Gov'nor, and leave it to the +tickle tootsies and me!" Then, as Cleek moved swiftly and silently down +the passage and slipped out into a sort of yard at the back of the +house, he pulled out his roll of brown paper squares and his tube of +adhesive, and crawling upstairs on his hands and knees, began operations +at the top step. But he had barely got the first "plaster" fairly made +and ready to apply when there came a rush of footsteps behind him and he +was obliged to duck down and flatten himself against the floor of the +landing to escape being run down by a man who dashed in through the +lower floor, flew at top speed up the stairs, and, with a sort of +blended cheer and yell, whirled open a door on the landing above and +vanished. In a twinkling other cheers rang out, there was the sound of +hastily moving feet and the uproar of general excitement. + +"Oh, well, if you won't stop to be waited on, gents, help yourselves!" +said Dollops with a chuckle. Then he began backing hastily down the +stairs, squirting the contents of the tube all over the steps, and +concluded the operation by scattering all the loose sheets of paper on +the floor at the foot of them before slipping out into the street and +composedly waiting. + +Meantime Cleek, sneaking out through the rear door, found himself in a +small, brick-paved yard hemmed in by a high wall thickly fringed on the +top with a hedge of broken bottles. At one time in its history the house +had been occupied by a catgut maker, and the rickety shed in which he +had carried on his calling still clung, sagging and broken-roofed, to +the building itself, its rotten slates all but vanished, and its +interior piled high with mildewed bedding, mouldy old carpet, broken +furniture, and refuse of every sort. + +A foot or two above the roof-level of this glowed--two luminous +rectangles in the blackness of darkness--the windows of the back room on +the second storey; and out of these came floating still the song, the +laughter, and the jabbered French he had heard in the house next door. +It did not take him long to make up his mind. Gripping the swaying +supports of the sagging shed, he went up it with the agility of a +monkey, crawled to the nearer of the two windows, and, cautiously +raising himself, peeped in. What he saw made him suck in his breath +sharply and sent his heart hammering hard and fast. + +A dozen men were in the room--men whose faces, despite an inartistic +attempt to appear Oriental, he recognized at a glance and knew better +than he knew his own. About them lay discarded portions of Cingalese +attire, thrown off because of the heat, and waiting to be resumed at any +moment. The air was thick with tobacco smoke and rank with spirituous +odours. Sprawled figures were everywhere, and on a sort of couch against +the opposite wall, a cigarette between her fingers, a glass of absinthe +at her elbow, her laughter and badinage ringing out as loudly as any, +lay the lissom figure of Margot! + +But even as Cleek looked in upon it the picture changed. Swift, sharp, +and sudden came the rattle of flying feet on the outer stairs. Margot +flung aside her cigarette and jumped up, the song and the laughter came +to an abrupt end, the door flew open, and with a shout and a cheer a man +bounced into the room. + +"Serpice! Ah, _le bon Dieu!_ it is Serpice at last!" cried out Margot in +joyous excitement, as she and the others crowded round him. "Soul of a +sluggard, don't waste time in laughing and capering like this! Speak up, +speak up, you hear? Are we to fly at once to the mill and join him? Has +he succeeded? Is it done?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" shouted back Serpice, throwing up his cap and capering. +"It is done! It is done! Under the very nose of the cracksman, too! +Merode's got them--got them both! The little lordship and the +Mademoiselle Lorne, too! They took the bait like gudgeons; they stepped +into the automobile without a fear, and--whizz! it was off to the mill +like that! La, la, la! We win, we win, we win!" + +The shock of the thing was too much for Cleek. Carried out of himself by +the knowledge that the woman he loved was now in peril of her life, +discretion forsook him, blind rage mastered him, and he did one of the +few foolish things of his life. + +"You lie, you brute--you lie!" he shouted, jumping up into full view. +"God help the man who lays a hand on her! Let him keep his life from me +if he can!" + +"The cracksman!" yelled out Serpice. "The cracksman! The cracksman!" +echoed Margot and the rest. Then a pistol barked and spat, the light was +swept out, a bullet sang past Cleek's ear, and he realised how foolish +he had been. For part of the crowd came surging to the window, part went +in one blind rush for the door to head him off and hem him in, and, +through the din and hubbub rang viciously the voice of Margot shrilling +out: "Kill him! Kill him!" as though nothing but the sight of his blood +would glut the malice of her. + +It was neck or nothing now, and the race was to the swift. He dropped +through a gap in the ragged roof--sheer down, like a shot--into the +rubble and refuse below; he lurched through the shed to the door, and +through that to the black passage leading to the street--the clatter on +the higher staircase giving warning of the crowd coming after him--and +flew like a hare hard pressed toward the outer door, and then--just +then, when every little moment counted--there was a scrambling sound, a +chorus of oaths, a slipping, a sliding, a bang on one step and a bump on +another; and, as he darted by, and sprang out into the street, the hall +was filled with a writhing, scuffling, swearing mass of glue-covered men +struggling in a whirling waste of loose brown paper. + +"This way! come quickly, for your life!" he shouted to Dollops, as he +came plunging out into the street. "They've got them--got his little +lordship! Got Miss Lorne--in spite of me. Come on! come on! come +on!"--and flew like an arrow from crossing to crossing and street to +street with Dollops, like a shadow, at his heels. + +A sudden swerve to the right brought them into a lighted and populous +thoroughfare. Italian restaurants, German delicatessen shops, eating +places of a dozen other nationalities lined the pavements on both sides +of the street, and, in front of these a high-power motor stood, +protected by the watchful eye of an accommodating policeman while the +chauffeur sampled Chianti in a wine-shop close by. With a rush and a +leap Cleek was upon it, and with another rush and a leap the constable +was upon him, only to be greeted with the swift flicking open of a coat +and the gleam of a badge that every man in the force knew. + +"Cleek?" + +"Yes! In the name of The Yard; in the name of the king! get out of the +way! In with you, Dollops! We'll get the brutes yet!" + +Then he bent over, threw in the clutch, and discarding all speed laws, +sent the car humming and tearing away. + +"Hold tight!" he said, through his teeth. "Whatever comes, we've got to +get to Burnt Acre Mill inside of an hour. If you know any prayers, +Dollops, say them." + +"The Lord fetch us home in time for supper!" gulped the boy obediently. +"S'help me, Gov'nor, the wind's goin' through my teeth like I was a +mouth organ--and I'm hollow enough for a flute!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +It is strange how, in moments of stress and trial, even in times of +tragedy, the most commonplace thoughts will intrude themselves and the +mind separate itself from the immediate events. As Merode put the cold +muzzle of the revolver to Ailsa's temple and she ought, one would have +supposed, to have been deaf and blind to all things but the horror of +her position, one of these strange mental lapses occurred, and her mind, +travelling back over the years of her early schooldays, dwelt on a +punishment task set her by her preceptress--the task of copying three +hundred times the phrase "Discretion is the better part of valour." + +As the recollection of that time rose before her mental vision, the +value of the phrase itself forced its worth upon her and, huddling back +in the corner of the limousine, she clutched the frightened child to her +and gave implicit obedience to Merode's command to make no effort to +attract attention either by word or deed. And he, fancying that he had +thoroughly cowed her, withdrew the touch of the weapon from her temple, +but held it ready for possible use in the grip of his thin, strong hand. + +For a time the limousine kept straight on in its headlong course, then, +of a sudden, it swerved to the left, the gleam of a river--all silver +with moonlight--struck up through a line of trees on one side of the +car, the blank unbroken dreariness of a stretch of waste land spread out +upon the other; and presently, by the slowing down of the motor, Ailsa +guessed that they were nearing their destination. They reached it a few +moments later, and a peep from the window, as the vehicle stopped, +showed her the outlines of a ruined watermill--ghostly, crumbling, +owl-haunted--looming black against the silver sky. + +A crumbled wheel hung, rotten and moss-grown, over a dry water-course, +where straggling willows stretched out from the bank and trailed their +long, feathery ends a yard or so above the level of the weeds and +grasses that carpeted the sandy bed of it, and along its edge--once +built as a protection for the heedless or unwary, but now a ruin and a +wreck--a moss-grown wall with a narrow, gateless archway made an +irregular shadow on the moon-drenched earth. She saw that archway and +that dry water-course, and a new, strong hope arose within her. +Discretion had played its part; now it was time for Valour to take the +stage. + +"Come, get out--this is the end," said Merode, as he unlatched the door +of the limousine and alighted. "You may yell here until your throat +splits, for all the good it will do you. Lanisterre, show us a light; +the path to the door is uncertain, and the floor of the mill is unsafe. +This way, if you please, Miss Lorne. Let me have the boy--I'll look +after him!" + +"No, no!--not yet! Please, not yet!" said Ailsa, with a little catch in +her voice as she plucked his little lordship to her and smothered his +frightened cries against her breast. "Let me have him whilst I may--let +me hold him to--the last, Monsieur Merode. His mother trusts me. She +will want to know that I--I stood by him until I could stand no longer. +Please!--we are so helpless--I am so fond of him, and--he is such a very +little boy. Listen! You want me to write to Mr. Cleek; you want me to +ask something of him. I won't do it for myself--no, not if you kill me +for refusing. I'll never do it for myself; but--but I will do it if you +won't separate us until he has had time to say his prayers." + +"Oh, all right, then," he agreed. "If it's any consolation doing a +fool's trick like that, why--do it! Now come along, and let's get inside +the mill without any more nonsense. Lanisterre, bring that lantern here +so that mademoiselle can see the path to the door. This way, if you +please, Miss Lorne." + +"Thank you," she said as she alighted and moved slowly in the direction +of the door, soothing the child as they crept along almost within touch +of the crumbling wall. "Ceddie, darling, don't cry. You are a brave +little hero, I know, and heroes are never afraid to die." From the tail +of her eye she watched Merode. He seemed to realise from these words to +the child that she was reconciled to the inevitable, and with an air of +satisfaction he put the pistol back into his pocket and walked beside +her. She kept straight on with her soothing words; and, in the +half-shadow, neither Merode nor Lanisterre could see that one hand was +lost in the folds of her skirt. + +"Ceddie, darling, let Miss Lorne be able to tell mummie that her little +man was a hero; that he died, as heroes always die, without a fear or a +weakening to the very last. I'll stand by you, precious; I'll hold your +hand; and, when the time comes--" + +It came then! The gateless archway was reached at last; and the thing +she had been planning all along now became possible. With one sudden +push she sent the boy reeling down the incline into the dry +water-course, flashed round sharply, and before Merode really knew how +the thing happened, she was standing with her back to the arch and a +revolver in her levelled hand. + +"Throw up your arms--throw them up at once, or, as God hears me, I'll +shoot!" she cried. "Run, Ceddie--run, baby! He shan't follow you--I'll +kill him if he tries!" + +"You idiot!" began Merode, and made a lurch toward her. But the pistol +barked, and something white-hot zigzagged along his arm and bit like a +flame into his shoulder. + +"Up with your hands--up with them!" she said in a voice that shook with +excitement as he howled out and made a reeling backward step. "Next time +it will be the head I aim at, not the arm!" Then, lifting up her voice +in one loud shriek that made the echoes bound, she called with all her +strength; "Help, somebody--for God's sake help! Scream, Ceddie--scream! +Help! Help!" + +And lo! as she called, as if a miracle had been wrought, out of the +darkness an answering voice called back to her, and the wild, swift +notes of a motor horn bleated along the lonely road. + +"I'm coming--I--Cleek!" that voice rang out. "Hold your own--hold it to +the last, Miss Lorne, and God help the man who lays a finger on you!" + +"Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, oh, thank God!" she flung back with all the +rapture a human voice could contain. "Come on, come on! I've got +him--got that man Merode, and the boy is safe, the boy is safe! Come on! +come on! come on!" + +"We're a-comin', miss, you gamble on that--and the lightnin's a fool to +us!" shouted Dollops in reply. "Let her have it, Gov'nor! Bust the +bloomin' tank. Give her her head; give her her feet; give her her +blessed merry-thought if she wants it! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +And then, just then, when she most needed her strength and her courage, +Ailsa's evaporated. The reaction came and with the despairing cries of +Merode and Lanisterre ringing in her ears, she sank back, weak, white, +almost fainting--and, leaning against the side of the archway, began to +laugh and to sob hysterically. Merode seized that one moment and sprang +to the breach. + +Realising that the game was all but up, that there was nothing for him +now but to save his own skin if he could, he called out to Lanisterre to +follow him, then plunged into the mill, swung over the lever which +controlled the sluice gates, and, darting out by the back way, fled +across the waste. + +But behind him he left a scene of indescribable horror, and the shrill +screaming of a little child told him when that horror began. For as the +sluice gates opened a sullen roar sounded; on one side the diverted +millstream, and on the other the river, rose as two solid walls of +water, rushed forward and--met; and in the twinkling of an eye the old +water-course was one wild, leaping, roaring, gyrating whirlpool of +up-flung froth and twisting waves that bore in their eddying clutch the +battling figure of a drowning child. + +Even before he came in sight of it the roaring waters and the fearful +splash of their impact told Cleek what had been done. He could hear +Ailsa's screams; he could hear the boy's feeble cries, and a moment +later, when the whizzing motor panted up through the moonlight and sped +by the broken wall, there was Ailsa, fairly palsied with fright, +clinging weakly to the crumbling arch and uttering little sobbing, +wordless, incoherent moans of fright as she stared down into the hell of +waters; and below, in the foam, a little yellow head was spinning round +and round and round, in dizzying circles of torn and leaping waves. + +"Heavens, Gov'nor!" began Dollops in a voice of appalling despair; but +before he could get beyond that, Cleek's coat was off, Cleek's body had +described a sort of semi-circle, and--the child was no longer alone in +the whirlpool! + +Battling, struggling, fairly leaping, as a fish leaps in a torrent, one +moment half out of the water, the next wholly submerged, Cleek struck +from eddy to eddy, from circle to circle; until that little yellow head +was within reach, then put forth his hand and gripped it, pulled it to +him, and in another moment he was whirling round and round the +whirlpool's course with the child clutched to him and his wet, white +face gleaming wax-like over the angle of his shoulder. + +They had not made the half of the first circle thus before Dollops had +leaped to the bending willows, had scrambled up the rough trunk of the +nearest of them, and, pushing his weight out upon a strong and supple +bough, bent it downward until the half of its strongest withes were deep +in the whirling waters. + +"Grab 'em, Gov'nor--grab 'em when you come by!" he sang out over the +roar of the waters. "They'll hold you, sir--hold a dozen like you; and +if--Well played! Got 'em the first grab! Hang on! Get a tight grip! Now +then, sir, hand over hand till you're at the bank! Good biz! Good biz! +Blest if you won't be goin' in for the circus trade next! Steady does +it, sir--steady, steady! Goal, by Jupiter! Now then, hand me up the +nipper--I should say the young gent--and in two minutes' time--Right! +Got him! 'Ere you are, Miss Lorne--lay hold of his little lordship, will +you? I've got me blessed hands full a keepin' to me perch whilst the +guv'nor's a-wobbling of the branch like this. Good biz! Now then, sir, +another 'arf a yard. That's the call! Hands on this bough and foot on +the bank there. One, two, three--knew you'd do it! Safe as houses, Gawd +bless yer bully heart!" + +And then as Cleek, wet, white, panting, dragged himself out of the +clutch of the whirlpool and lay breathing heavily on the ground: + +"By gums, Gov'nor," Dollops added as he looked down on the whirling +waters, "what an egg-beater it would make, wouldn't it, sir? Ain't got +such a thing as a biscuit about yer, have you? Me spine's a rasping +holes in me necktie, and I'm so flat you could slip me into a pillar box +and they'd take me home for a penny stamp." + +But Cleek made no reply. Wet and spent after his fierce struggle with +the whirling fury he had just escaped, he lay looking up into Ailsa's +eyes as she came to him with the sobbing child close pressed to her +bosom and all heaven in her beaming face. + +"It is not the 'funeral wreath' after all, you see, Miss Lorne," he +said. "It came near to being it; but--it is not, it is not. I wonder, +oh, I wonder!" + +Then he laughed the foolish, vacuous laugh of a man whose thoughts are +too happy for the banality of words. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +It was midnight and after. In the close-curtained library of Chepstow +House, Cleek, with his little lordship sleeping in his arms, sat in +solemn conclave with Lady Chepstow, Captain Hawksley, and Maverick +Narkom; and while they talked, Ailsa, like a restless spirit, wandered +to and fro, now lifting the curtains to peep out into the darkness, now +listening as if her whole life's hope lay in the coming of some expected +sound. And in her veins there burned a fever of suspense. + +"So you failed to get the rascals, did you, Mr. Narkom?" Cleek was +saying. "I feared as much; but I couldn't get word to you sooner. We +injured the machine in that mad race to the mill, and of course we had +to come at a snail's pace afterwards. I'm sorry we didn't get +Margot--sorrier still that that hound Merode got away. They are bound to +make more trouble before the race is run. Not for her ladyship, however, +and not for this dear little chap. Their troubles are at an end, and the +sacred son will be a sacred son no longer." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do tell me what you mean," implored Lady Chepstow. "Do +tell me how--" + +"Doctor Fordyce, at last!" struck in Ailsa excitedly, as the door-bell +and knocker clashed and the butler's swift footsteps went along the +hall. "Now we shall know, Mr. Cleek--oh, now we shall know for certain!" + +"And so shall all the world," he replied as the door opened and the +doctor was ushered into the room. "I don't think you were ever so +welcome anywhere or at any time before, doctor," he added with a smile. +"Come and look at this little chap. Bonny little specimen of a +Britisher, isn't he?" + +"Yes; but my dear sir, I--I was under the impression that I was called +to a scene of excitement; and you seem as peaceful as Eden here. The +constable who came for me said it was something to do with Scotland +Yard." + +"So it is, doctor. I had Mr. Narkom send for you to perform a very +trifling but most important operation upon his little lordship here." + +"Upon Cedric!" exclaimed Lady Chepstow, rising in a panic of alarm. "An +operation to be performed upon my baby boy? Oh, Mr. Cleek, in the name +of Heaven--" + +"No, your ladyship, in the name of Buddha. Don't be alarmed. It is only +to be a trifling cut--a mere re-opening of that little wound in the +thigh which you dressed and healed so successfully at Trincomalee. You +made a mistake, all of you, that night when the boy was shot. The native +poor Ferralt saw skulking along with the gun was not a mere tribesman +and had not the very faintest thought of discharging that weapon at your +little son, or, indeed, at anybody else in the world. He was the High +Priest Seydama, guardian of the Holy Tooth--the one living being who +dared by right to touch it or to lay hands upon the shrine that +contained it. Fearful, when the false rumour of that intended loot was +circulated, that infidel eyes should look upon it, infidel hands profane +the sacred relic, he determined to remove it from Dambool to the +rock-hewn temple of Galwihara and to enshrine it there. For the purpose +of giving no clue to his movements, he chose to abandon his priestly +vestments, to disguise himself as a common tribesman, and, the better to +defeat the designs of any who might penetrate that disguise and +endeavour to take the sacred relic from him and hold it for ransom, he +hid the Holy Tooth in the barrel of a gun. That gun was in his hands, +your ladyship, when Ferralt rushed out and brained him." + +"In his hands? Oh, Mr. Cleek, then--then--" Her voice all but failed her +as a sudden realization came. "That relic, that fetish! If it was in +that gun at that time, then it is now--" + +"Embedded in the fleshy part of the boy's thigh," said Cleek, finishing +the sentence for her. "Inclosed, doubtless, in a sac or cyst which +Mother Nature has wrapped round it, the tooth is there--in your little +son's body; and for five whole years he has been the living shrine that +held it!" + +It was quite true--as events rapidly and completely proved. + +Ten minutes later, the trifling operation was concluded; the boy lay +whimpering in his mother's arms and the long-lost relic was on the +surgeon's palm. + +"Take it, Captain Hawksley," said Cleek, lifting it between his thumb +and forefinger and carrying it to him. "There is a man in Soho--one +Arjeeb Noosrut--who will know it when he sees it; and there is a vast +reward. Five lacs of rupees will pay off no end of debts, my friend; and +a man with that balance at his banker's can't be thought a mere +fortune-hunter when he asks for the hand of the woman he loves." + +The Captain didn't ask for _his_, however--he simply jumped up and +grabbed it. + +"By George, you're a brick!" he said, with something uneven in his +voice--something that was like laughter and tears all jumbled up +together; then he glanced over at Lady Chepstow, and flushed, and +floundered, and stammered confusedly, but went on shaking Cleek's hand +all the time. "It's ripping of you--it's bully, dear chap, but--I say, +you know, it isn't fair. It's jolly uneven. _You_ found out. You ought +at least to have a share in the reward." + +"Not I," said Cleek, with an airy laugh. "Like the fellow who was born +with a third leg, 'I have no use for it,' Captain. But if you really +want to give any part of it away, bank a thousand to the credit of my +boy Dollops to be turned over to him when he's twenty-one. And you might +make Mr. Narkom, and, if she will accept the post, Miss Lorne, his +trustees." + +Miss Lorne faced round and looked at him; and even from that distance he +could see that her mouth was moving tremulously and there was something +shining in the corner of her eye. + +"I accept that position with pleasure, Mr. Cleek," she said. "It is the +act of a man and--a gentleman. Thank you! Thank you." And came down the +long length of the room with her hand outstretched to take his. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +He took it with that grave courtesy, that gentle dignity of bearing +which at times distinguished his deportment and was, indeed, as puzzling +to her as it was to Mr. Maverick Narkom. It came but rarely, that +peculiar air, but it was very noticeable when it did come, although the +man himself seemed totally oblivious of it. Miss Lorne noticed it now, +just as she had noticed it that day in the train when she had said +banteringly: "I am not used to Court manners. Where, if you please, did +you acquire yours?" + +"I can't say how deeply indebted I feel--you must imagine that, Miss +Lorne," he said, bending over the hand that lay in his, with an air that +made Lady Chepstow lift her eyebrows and look at him narrowly. "It is +one of the kindest things you could do for the boy and--for me. I thank +you very, very much indeed. My thanks are due to you, too, Captain; for +I feel that you will gladly do the favour I have asked." + +"Do it? Yes, like a shot, old chap. What a ripping fellow you are!" + +"I'm a tired one at all events," replied Cleek. "So, if you--and the +ladies"--bowing to them--"will kindly excuse me, I'll be off home for a +needed rest. Lady Chepstow, my very best respects. I feel sure that his +little lordship will be quite all right in a day or two, although I +shall, of course, be glad to learn how he progresses. May I? Perhaps +Miss Lorne might be persuaded to send me a word or two through--Mr. +Narkom." + +Lady Chepstow was still looking at him as she had been from the moment +he had taken Ailsa's hand. Now she put out her own to him. + +"Why wait for written reports, Mr. Cleek? Why not call in person and +see?" she asked. "It will be more satisfactory than writing; and you +will be welcome always." + +"I thank your ladyship," he said gravely--though all the soul of him +rioted and laughed and longed to shout out for sheer joy. "It is a +privilege I shall be happy to enjoy." + +But afterward, when he came to take his leave, a dearer one was granted +him; for Ailsa herself accompanied him to the door. + +"I couldn't let the butler show you out, Mr. Cleek," she said, as they +stood together in the wide entrance hall. "I couldn't let you go until I +had said something that is on my mind--something that has been pricking +my conscience all evening. I want to tell you that from this night on I +am going to forget those other nights: that one in the mist at +Hampstead, that other on the stairway at Wyvern House--forget them +utterly and entirely, Mr. Cleek. Whatever you may have been _once_, I +know that now you are indeed a man!" + +Then gave him her hand again, smiled at him, and sent him home feeling +that he was as near to the threshold of heaven as any mortal thing may +hope to be. + +Followed a time of such happiness as only they may know who having lived +in darkness first know that there is such a thing as Light; followed +days and weeks that went like magic things, blest to the uttermost +before they go. For now he was a welcome visitor at the house that +sheltered her; now the armour of reserve had dropped from her, and they +were finding out between them that they had many tastes in common. + +It was in August when the first interruption to this happy state of +affairs occurred and they came to know that separation was to be endured +again. Lady Chepstow, planning already for a wedding that was to take +place in the early winter, decided to spend the last few months of her +widowhood at her country house in Devonshire, and retired to it taking +her servants, her little son, and her son's governess with her. + +For a day or two, Cleek "mooned" about--restless, lonely despite +Dollops's presence, finding no savour in anything; and it came as a +positive relief when a call from The Yard sent him to a modest little +house in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common. The "call" in question +took the shape of a letter from Mr. Narkom. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran, "a most amazing case--probably _the_ most +amazing you have yet tackled--has just cropped up. The client is one +Captain Morrison, a retired Army officer living solely on his half pay. +His daughter is involved in the astonishing affair. Indeed, it is at her +earnest appeal that the matter has been brought to my notice. As the +Captain is in too weak a state of health to journey any distance, I am +going to ask you to meet me at No. 17, Sunnington Crescent, +Wandsworth--a house kept by one Mrs. Culpin, widow of one of my Yard +men, at three o'clock this afternoon. Knowing your reluctance to have +your identity disclosed, I have taken the liberty of giving you the name +you adopted in the Bawdrey affair, to wit: 'George Headland.' I have +also taken the same precaution with regard to the Morrisons, leaving you +to disclose your identity or not, as you see fit." + +Glad enough for anything to distract his thoughts from the brooding +state of melancholy into which they had sunk, Cleek looked up a +time-table, caught the 2:47 train from Victoria Station; and Narkom, +walking into Mrs. Culpin's modest little drawing-room at two minutes +past three, found him standing in the window and looking thoughtfully +out at the groups of children romping on the near-by common. + +"Well, here I am at last, you see, my dear fellow," he said, as he +crossed the room and shook hands with him. "Ripping day, isn't it? What +are you doing? Admiring the view or taking stock of Mrs. Culpin's +roses?" + +"Neither. I was speculating in futures," replied Cleek, glancing back at +the sunlit common, and then glancing away again with a faintly audible +sigh. "How happy, how care-free they are, those merry little beggars, +Mr. Narkom. What you said in your letter set my thoughts harking +backward, and ... I was wondering what things the coming years might +hold for them and for their parents. At one time, you know, Philip +Bawdrey was as innocent and guileless as any of those little shavers; +and yet, in after years he proved a monster of iniquity, a beast of +ingratitude, and--Oh, well, let it pass. He paid, as thankless children +always do pay under God's good rule. I wonder what his thoughts were +when his last hour came." + +"It did come, then?" + +"Yes. Got playing some of his games with those short-tempered chaps out +in Buenos Ayres and got knifed a fortnight after his arrival. I had a +letter from Mrs. Bawdrey yesterday. His father never knew of--well, the +other thing; and never will now, thank God. The longer I live, Mr. +Narkom, the surer I become that straight living always pays; and that +the chap who turns into the other lane gets what he deserves before the +game is played out." + +"Ten years of Scotland Yard have enabled me to endorse that statement +emphatically," replied Narkom. "'The riddle of the ninth finger' was no +different in that respect from nine hundred other riddles that have come +my way since I took office. Now sit down, old chap, and let us take up +the present case. But I say, Cleek; speaking of rewards reminds me of +what I wrote you. There's very little chance of one in this affair. All +the parties connected with it are in very moderate circumstances. The +sculptor fellow, Van Nant, who figures in it, was quite well-to-do at +one time, I believe, but he ran through the greater part of his money, +and a dishonest solicitor did him out of the rest. Miss Morrison herself +never did have any, and, as I have told you, the Captain hasn't anything +in the world but his pension; and it takes every shilling of that to +keep them. In the circumstances, I'd have made it a simple 'Yard' +affair, chargeable to the Government, and put one of the regular staff +upon it. But--well, it's such an astounding, such an unheard-of-thing, I +knew you'd fairly revel in it. And besides, after all the rewards you +have won you must be quite a well-to-do man by this time, and able to +indulge in a little philanthropy." + +Cleek smiled. + +"I will indulge in it, of course," he said, "but not for that reason, +Mr. Narkom. I wonder how much it will surprise you to learn that, at the +present moment, I have just one hundred pounds in all the world?" + +"My dear fellow!" Narkom exclaimed, with a sort of gasp, staring at him +in round-eyed amazement. "You fairly take away my breath. Why, you must +have received a fortune since you took up these special cases. Fifty or +sixty thousand pounds at the smallest calculation." + +"More! To be precise, I have received exactly seventy-two thousand +pounds, Mr. Narkom. But, as I tell you, I have to-day but one hundred +pounds of that sum left. Lost in speculation? Oh, dear no! I've not +invested one farthing in any scheme, company, or purchase since the +night you gave me my chance and helped me to live an honest life." + +"Then in the name of Heaven, Cleek, what has become of the money?" + +"It has gone in the cause of my redemption, Mr. Narkom," he answered in +a hushed voice. "My good friend--for you really _have_ been a good +friend to me, the best I ever had in all the world--my good friend, let +us for only just this one minute speak of the times that lie behind. You +know what redeemed me--a woman's eyes, a woman's rose-white soul! I +said, did I not, that I wanted to win her, wanted to be worthy of her, +wanted to climb up and stand with her in the light? You remember that, +do you not, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes, I remember. But, my dear fellow, why speak of your 'vanishing +cracksman' days when you have so utterly put them behind you, and since +lived a life beyond reproach? Whatever you did in those times you have +amply atoned for. And what can that have to do with your impoverished +state?" + +"It has everything to do with it. I said I would be worthy of that one +dear woman, and--I can never be, Mr. Narkom, until I have made +restitution; until I can offer her a clean hand as well as a clean life. +I can't restore the actual things that the 'vanishing cracksman' stole; +for they are gone beyond recall, but--I can, at least, restore the value +of them, and--that I have been secretly doing for a long time." + +"Man alive! God bless my soul! Cleek, my dear fellow, do you mean to +tell me that all the rewards, all the money you have earned--" + +"Has gone to the people from whom I stole things in the wretched old +days that lie behind me," he finished very gently. "It goes back, in +secret gifts, as fast as it is earned, Mr. Narkom. Don't you see the +answers, the acknowledgments, in the 'Personal' columns of the papers +now and again? Wheresoever I robbed in those old days, I am repaying in +these. When the score is wiped off, when the last robbery is paid for, +my hand will be clean, and--I can offer it; never before." + +"Cleek! My dear fellow! What a man! What a _man_! Oh, more than ever am +I certain _now_ that old Sir Horace Wyvern was right that night when he +said that you were a gentleman. Tell me--I'll respect it--tell me, for +God's sake, man, who are you? _What_ are you, dear friend?" + +"Cleek," he made reply. "Just Cleek! The rest is my secret and--God's! +We've never spoken of the past since _that_ night, Mr. Narkom, and, with +your kind permission, we never will speak of it again. I'm Cleek, the +detective--at your service once more. Now, then, let's have the new +strange case on which you called me here. What's it all about?" + +"Necromancy--wizardry--fairy-lore--all the stuff and nonsense that goes +to the making of 'The Arabian Nights'!" said Narkom, waxing excited as +his thoughts were thus shoved back to the amazing affair he had in hand. +"All your 'Red Crawls' and your 'Sacred Sons' and your 'Nine-fingered +Skeletons' are fools to it for wonder and mystery. Talk about +witchcraft! Talk about wizards and giants and enchanters and the things +that witches did in the days of Macbeth! God bless my soul, they're +nothing to it. Those were the days of magic, anyhow, so you can take it +or leave it, as you like; but this--look here, Cleek, you've heard of a +good many queer things and run foul of a good many mysteries, I'll +admit, but did you ever--in this twentieth century, when witchcraft and +black magic are supposed to be as dead as Queen Anne--did you ever, my +dear fellow, hear of such a marvel as a man putting on a blue leather +belt that was said to have the power of rendering the wearer invisible +and then forthwith melting into thin air and floating off like a cloud +of pipe smoke?" + +"Gammon!" + +"Gammon nothing! Facts!" + +"Facts? You're off your head, man. The thing couldn't possibly happen. +Somebody's having you!" + +"Well, somebody had _him_, at all events. Young Carboys, I mean--the +chap that's engaged, or, rather was engaged, to Captain Morrison's +daughter; and the poor girl's half out of her mind over it. He put the +belt on in the presence of her and her father--in their own house, mind +you--walked into a bedroom, and vanished like smoke. Doors locked, +windows closed, room empty, belt on the floor, and man gone. Not a trace +of him from that moment to this; and yesterday was to have been his +wedding-day. There's a 'mystery,' if you like. What do you make of +that?" + +Cleek looked at him for an instant. Then: + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, for the moment I thought you were fooling," he said +in a tone of deep interest. "But I see now that you are quite in +earnest, although the thing sounds so preposterous, a child might be +expected to scoff at it. A man to get a magic belt, to put it on, and +then to melt away? Why, the 'Seven-league Boots' couldn't be a greater +tax on one's credulity. Sit down and tell me all about it." + +"The dickens of it is there doesn't seem to be much to tell," said +Narkom, accepting the invitation. "Young Carboys, who appears to have +been a decent sort of chap, had neither money, position, nor enemies, so +that's an end to any idea of somebody having a reason for wishing to get +rid of him; and, as he was devotedly attached to Miss Morrison, and was +counting the very hours to the time of their wedding, and, in addition, +had no debts, no entanglements of any sort, and no possible reason for +wishing to disappear, there isn't the slightest ground for suspecting +that he did so voluntarily." + +"Suppose you tell me the story from the beginning, and leave me to draw +my own conclusions regarding that," said Cleek. "Who and what was the +man? Was he living in the same house with his fiancée, then? You say the +disappearance occurred there, at night, and that he went into a bedroom. +Was the place his home, as well as Captain Morrison's, then?" + +"On the contrary. His home was a matter of three or four miles distant. +He was merely stopping at the Morrison's on that particular night; I'll +tell you presently why and how he came to do that. For the present, +let's take things in their proper order. Once upon a time this George +Carboys occupied a fair position in the world, and his parents--long +since dead--were well to do. The son, being an only child, was well +looked after--sent to Eton and then to Brasenose, and all that sort of +thing--and the future looked very bright for him. Before he was +twenty-one, however, his father lost everything through unlucky +speculations, and that forced the son to make his own living. At the +'Varsity he had fallen in with a rich young Belgian--fellow named +Maurice Van Nant--who had a taste for sculpture and the fine arts +generally, and they had become the warmest and closest of friends." + +"Maurice Van Nant? That's the sculptor fellow you said in the beginning +had gone through his money, isn't it?" + +"Yes. Well, when young Carboys was thrown on the world, so to speak, +this Van Nant came to the rescue, made a place for him as private +secretary and companion, and for three or four years they knocked round +the world together, going to Egypt, Persia, India, _et cetera_, as Van +Nant was mad on the subject of Oriental art, and wished to study it at +the fountain-head. In the meantime both Carboys' parents went over to +the silent majority, and left him without a relative in the world, +barring Captain Morrison, who is an uncle about seven times removed and +would, of course, naturally be heir-at-law to anything he left if he had +anything to leave, poor beggar, which he hadn't. But that's getting +ahead of the story. + +"Well, at the end of four years or so Van Nant came to the bottom of his +purse--hadn't a stiver left; and from dabbling in art for pleasure, had +to come down to it as a means of earning a livelihood. And he and +Carboys returned to England, and, for purposes of economy, pooled their +interests, took a small box of a house over Putney way, set up a regular +'bachelor establishment,' and started in the business of bread-winning +together. Carboys succeeded in getting a clerk's position in town; Van +Nant set about modelling clay figures and painting mediocre pictures, +and selling both whenever he could find purchasers. + +"Naturally, these were slow in coming, few and far between; but with +Carboys' steady two pounds a week coming in, they managed to scrape +along and to keep themselves going. They were very happy, too, despite +the fact that Carboys had got himself engaged to Miss Morrison, and was +hoarding every penny he could possibly save in order to get enough to +marry on; and this did not tend to make Van Nant overjoyed, as such a +marriage would, of course, mean the end of their long association and +the giving up of their bachelor quarters." + +"To say nothing of leaving Van Nant to rub along as best he could +without any assistance from Carboys," commented Cleek. "I think I can +guess a portion of what resulted, Mr. Narkom. Van Nant did not, of +course, in these circumstances have any tender regard for Miss +Morrison." + +"No, he did not. In point of fact, he disliked her very much indeed, and +viewed the approaching wedding with extreme disfavour." + +"And yet you say that nobody had an interest in doing Carboys some sort +of mischief in order to prevent that wedding from being consummated, Mr. +Narkom," said Cleek with a shrug of the shoulders. "Certainly, Van Nant +would have been glad to see a spoke put in that particular wheel; though +I freely confess I do not see what good could come of preventing it by +doing away with Carboys, as he would then be in as bad a position as if +the marriage had been allowed to proceed as planned. Either way he loses +Carboys' companionship and assistance; and his one wish would be to +preserve both. Well, go on. What next? I'm anxious to hear about the +belt. Where and how does that come in?" + +"Well, it appears that Miss Morrison got hold of a humorous book called +'The Brass Bottle,' a fantastic, farcical thing, about a genie who had +been sealed up in a bottle for a thousand years getting out and causing +the poor devil of a hero no end of worry by heaping riches and honours +upon him in the most embarrassing manner. It happened that on the night +Miss Morrison got this book, and read it aloud for the amusement of her +father and lover, Carboys had persuaded Van Nant to spend the evening +with them. Apparently he enjoyed himself, too, for he laughed as +boisterously as any of them over the farcical tale, and would not go +home until he had heard the end of it. When it was finished Miss +Morrison tells me, Carboys, after laughing fit to split his sides over +the predicament of the hero of the book, cried out: 'By George! I wish +some old genie would take it into his head to hunt me up, and try the +same sort of a dodge with me. He wouldn't find this chicken shying his +gold and his gems back at his head, I can tell you. I'd accept all the +Arab slaves and all the palaces he wanted to thrust on me; and then I'd +make 'em all over to you, Mary dear, so you'd never have to do another +day's worrying or pinching in all your life. But never you nor anybody +else depend upon an Arab's gratitude or an Arab's generosity. He'll +promise you the moon, and then wriggle out of giving you so much as a +star--just as Abdul ben Meerza did with me.' And upon Miss Morrison +asking what he meant by that, he replied, laughingly: 'Ask Van, he knew +the old codger better than I--knew his whole blessed family, blow +him!--and was able to talk to the old skinflint in his own outlandish +tongue.' + +"Upon Miss Morrison's acting on this suggestion, Van Nant told of an +adventure Carboys had had in Persia some years previously. It appears +that he saved the life of a miserly old Arab called Abdul ben Meerza at +the risk of his own; that the old man was profuse in his expressions of +gratitude, and, on their parting, had said: 'By the Prophet, thou shalt +yet find the tree of this day's planting bear rich fruit for thee and +thy feet walk upon golden stones.' But, in spite of this promise, he had +walked away, and Carboys had never heard another word from nor of him +from that hour until three nights ago." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "And he did hear of +him, then?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom. "Quite unexpectedly, and while he was preparing +to spend a dull evening at home with Van Nant--for the night was, as you +must recollect, my dear fellow, a horribly wet and stormy one--a message +came to him from Miss Morrison asking him to come over to Wandsworth +without delay, as a most amazing thing had happened. A box marked 'From +Abdul ben Meerza' had been delivered there, of all astonishing places. +The message concluded by saying that as it was such a horrible night, +the Captain, her father, would not hear of his returning, so begged him +to bring his effects, and come prepared to remain until morning. + +"He went, of course, carrying with him a small bag containing his +pyjamas, his shaving tackle, and such few accessories as would be +necessary, since, if he stopped, he must start from there to business in +the morning; and on his arrival was handed a small leather case +addressed as he had been told. Imagining all sorts of wonders, from +jewels of fabulous value to documents entitling him to endless wealth, +he unfastened the case, and found within it a broad belt of blue +enamelled leather secured with a circular brass clasp, on which was +rudely scratched in English the words, 'The wizards of the East grew +rich by being unseen. Whoso clasps this belt about his waist may become +invisible for the wishing. So does ben Meerza remember.' + +"Of course, Carboys treated it as the veriest rubbish--who wouldn't? +Indeed, suspected Van Nant of having played a joke upon him, and +laughingly threw it aside; and, finding that he had taken an +uncomfortable journey for nothing, got some good out of it by spending a +pleasant evening with the Captain and his daughter. A room had been made +ready for him--in fact, although he did not know it, Miss Morrison had +given him hers, and had herself gone to a less attractive one--and in +due time he prepared to turn in for the night. As they parted Miss +Morrison, in a bantering spirit, picked up the belt and handed it to +him, remarking that he had better keep it, as, after marriage, he might +some time be glad to creep into the house unseen; and, in the same +bantering spirit, he had replied that he had better begin learning how +the thing worked in case of necessity, and taking the belt, clasped it +round his waist, said good-night, and stepped into the room prepared for +him. Miss Morrison and her father heard him close the door and pull down +the blind, and--that was the last that was seen or heard of him. + +"In the morning the bed was found undisturbed, his locked bag on a +chair, and in the middle of the floor the blue leather belt; but of the +man himself there was not one trace to be found. There, that's the +story, Cleek. Now what do you make of it?" + +"I shall be able to tell you better after I have seen the parties +concerned," said Cleek, after a moment's pause. "You have brought your +motor, of course? Let us step into it, then, and whizz round to Captain +Morrison's house. What's that? Oh, undoubtedly a case of foul play, Mr. +Narkom. But as to the motive and the matter of who is guilty, it is +impossible to decide until I have looked further into the evidence. Do +me a favour, will you? After you have left me at the Captain's house, +'phone up The Yard, and let me have the secret cable code with the East; +also, if you can, the name of the chief of the Persian police." + +"My dear chap, you can't really place any credence in that absurd +assertion regarding the blue belt? You can't possibly think that Abdul +ben Meerza really sent the thing?" + +"No, I can't," said Cleek in reply. "Because, to the best of my belief, +it is impossible for a dead man to send anything; and, if my memory +doesn't betray me, I fancy I read in the newspaper accounts of that big +Tajik rising at Khotour a couple of months ago, that the leader, one +Abdul ben Meerza, a rich but exceedingly miserly merchant of the +province of Elburz, was, by the Shah's command, bastinadoed within an +inch of his life, and then publicly beheaded." + +"By Jove! I believe you are right, my dear fellow," asserted Narkom. "I +thought the name had a familiar sound--as if I had, somewhere, heard it +before. I suppose there is no likelihood, by any chance, that the old +skinflint could have lived up to his promise and left poor Carboys +something, after all, Cleek? Because, you know, if he did--" + +"Captain Morrison would, as heir-at-law, inherit it," supplemented +Cleek, dryly. "Get out the motor, Mr. Narkom, and let's spin round and +see him. I fancy I should like a few minutes' conversation with the +Captain. And--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes." + +"We'll stick to the name 'George Headland,' if you please. When you are +out for birds it doesn't do to frighten them off beforehand." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +It did not take more than five minutes to cover the distance between +Sunnington Crescent and the modest little house where Captain Morrison +and his daughter lived; so in a very brief time Cleek had the +satisfaction of interviewing both. + +Narkom's assertion, that Miss Morrison was "half out of her mind over +the distressing affair" had prepared him to encounter a weeping, +red-eyed, heart-broken creature of the most excitable type. He found +instead a pale, serious-faced, undemonstrative girl of somewhat +uncertain age--sweet of voice, soft of step, quiet of demeanour--who was +either one of those persons who repress all external evidence of +internal fires, and bear their crosses in silence, or was as +cold-blooded as a fish and as heartless as a statue. He found the father +the exact antithesis of the daughter, a nervous, fretful, irritable +individual (gout had him by the heels at the time), who was as full of +"yaps" and snarls as any Irish terrier, and as peevish and fussy as a +fault-finding old woman. Added to this, he had a way of glancing all +round the room, and avoiding the eye of the person to whom he was +talking. And if Cleek had been like the generality of people, and hadn't +known that some of the best and "straightest" men in the world have been +afflicted in this manner, and some of the worst and "crookedest" could +look you straight in the eyes without turning a hair, he might have +taken this for a bad sign. Then, too, he seemed to have a great many +more wrappings and swaddlings about his gouty foot than appeared to be +necessary--unless it was done to make his helpless state very apparent, +and to carry out his assertion that he hadn't been able to walk a foot +unassisted for the past week, and could not, therefore, be in any way +connected with young Carboys' mysterious vanishment. Still, even that +had its contra aspect. He might be one of those individuals who make a +mountain out of a molehill of pain, and insist upon a dozen poultices +where one would do. + +But Cleek could not forget that, as Narkom had said, there was not the +shadow of doubt that in the event of Carboys having died possessed of +means, the Captain would be the heir-at-law by virtue of his kinship; +and it is a great deal more satisfactory to be rich oneself than to be +dependent upon the generosity of a rich son-in-law. So, after adroitly +exercising the "pump" upon other matters: + +"I suppose, Miss Morrison," said Cleek in a casual off-hand sort of way, +"you don't happen to know if Mr. Carboys ever made a will, do you? I am +aware, from what Mr. Narkom has told me of his circumstances, that he +really possessed nothing that would call for the execution of such a +document; but young men have odd fancies sometimes--particularly when +they become engaged--so it is just possible that he might have done such +a thing; that there was a ring or something of that sort he wanted to +make sure of your getting should anything happen to him. Of course, it +is an absurd suggestion, but--" + +"It is not so absurd as you think, Mr. Headland," she interrupted. "As +it happens, Mr. Carboys did make a will. But that was a very long time +ago--in fact, before he knew me, so my name did not figure in it at all. +He once told me of the circumstances connected with it. It was executed +when he was about three-and-twenty. It appears that there were some +personal trinkets, relics of his more prosperous days: a set of jewelled +waistcoat buttons, a scarf-pin, a few choice books and things like that, +which he desired Mr. Van Nant to have in the event of his death (they +were then going to the Orient, and times there were troublous); so he +drew up a will, leaving everything that he might die possessed of to Mr. +Van Nant, and left the paper with the latter's solicitor when they bade +good-bye to England. So far as I know, that will still exists, Mr. +Headland; so"--here the faintest suggestion of a quiver got into her +voice--"if anything of a tragical nature had happened to him, and--and +the trinkets hadn't disappeared with him, Mr. Van Nant could claim them +all, and I should have not even one poor little token to cherish in +memory of him. And I am sure--I am very sure--that if he had known--if +he had thought--" + +"Mary, for goodness' sake, don't begin to snivel!" chimed in her father +querulously. "It gets on my nerves. And you know very well how I am +suffering! Of course, it was most inconsiderate of Carboys not to +destroy that will as soon as you and he were engaged; but he knew that +marriage invalidates any will a man may have made previously, and--well, +you can't suppose that he ever expected things to turn out as they have +done. Besides, Van Nant would have seen that you got something to +treasure as a remembrance. He's a very decent chap, is Van Nant, Mr. +Headland, although my daughter has never appeared to think so. But +there's no arguing with a woman any way." + +Cleek glanced at Narkom. It was a significant glance, and said as +plainly as so many words: "What do you think of it? You said there was +no motive, and, provided Carboys fell heir to something of which we know +nothing as yet, here are _two_! If that will was destroyed, one man +would, as heir-at-law, inherit; ditto the other man if it was not +destroyed and not invalidated by marriage. And here's the 'one' man +singing the praises of the 'other' one!" + +"Collusion?" queried Narkom's answering look. "Perhaps," said Cleek's in +response, "one of these two men has made away with him. The question is, +which? and, also, why? when? where?" Then he turned to the Captain's +daughter, and asked quietly: "Would you mind letting me see the room +from which the young man disappeared? I confess I haven't the ghost of +an idea regarding the case, Captain; but if you don't mind letting your +daughter show me the room--" + +"Mind? Good Lord, no!" responded the Captain. "All I want to know is, +what became of the poor boy, and if there's any likelihood of his ever +coming back alive. I'd go up with you myself, only you see how helpless +I am. Mary, take Mr. Headland to the room. And please don't stop any +longer than is necessary. I'm suffering agonies and not fit to be left +alone." + +Miss Morrison promised to return as expeditiously as possible, and then +forthwith led the way to the room in question. + +"This is it, Mr. Headland," she said as she opened the door and ushered +Cleek in. "Everything is just exactly as it was when George left it. I +couldn't bring myself to touch a thing until after a detective had seen +it. Father said it was silly and sentimental of me to go on sleeping in +a little box of a hall bedroom when I could be so much more comfortable +if I returned to my own. But--I couldn't! I felt that I might possibly +be unconsciously destroying something in the shape of a clue if I moved +a solitary object, and so--Look! there is the drawn blind just as he +left it; there his portmanteau on that chair by the bedside, and +there--" Her voice sank to a sort of awed whisper, her shaking finger +extended in the direction of a blue semi-circle in the middle of the +floor. "There is the belt! He had it round his waist when he crossed +this threshold that night. It was lying there just as you see it when +the servant brought up his tea and his shaving-water the next morning, +and found the room empty and the bed undisturbed." + +Cleek walked forward and picked up the belt. + +"Humph! Unfastened!" he said as he took it up; and Miss Morrison, +closing the door, went below and left them. "Our wonderful wizard does +not seem to have mastered the simple matter of making a man vanish out +of the thing without first unfastening the buckle, it appears. I should +have thought he could have managed that, shouldn't you, Mr. Narkom, if +he could have managed the business of making him melt into thin air? +Hur-r-r!" reflectively, as he turned the belt over and examined it. "Not +seen much use, apparently; the leather's quite new, and the inside quite +unsoiled. British manufactured brass, too, in the buckle. Shouldn't have +expected that in a Persian-made article. Inscription scratched on with +the point of a knife, or some other implement not employed in metal +engraving. May I trouble you for a pin? Thank you. Hum-m-m! Thought so. +Some dirty, clayey stuff rubbed in to make the letters appear old and of +long standing. Look here, Mr. Narkom: metal quite bright underneath when +you pick the stuff out. Inscription very recently added; leather, +American tanned; brass, Birmingham; stitching, by the Blake shoe and +harness machine; wizard--probably born in Tottenham Court Road, and his +knowledge of Persia confined to Persian powder in four-penny tins." + +He laid the belt aside, and walked slowly round the room, inspecting its +contents before turning his attention to the portmanteau. + +"Evidently the vanishing qualities of the belt did not assert themselves +very rapidly, Mr. Narkom," he said, "for Mr. Carboys not only prepared +to go to bed, but had time to get himself ready to hurry off to business +in the morning with as little delay as possible. Look here; here are his +pyjamas on the top of this chest of drawers, neatly folded, just as he +lifted them out of his portmanteau; and as a razor has been wiped on +this towel (see this slim line of dust-like particles of hair), he +shaved before going to bed in order to save himself the trouble of doing +so in the morning. But as there is no shaving-mug visible, and he +couldn't get hot water at that hour of the night, we shall probably +discover a spirit-lamp and its equipment when we look into the +portmanteau. Now, as he had time to put these shaving articles away +after using, and as no man shaves with his collar and necktie on, if we +do not find those, too, in the portmanteau, we may conclude that he put +them on again; and, as he wouldn't put them on again if he were going to +bed, the inference is obvious--something caused him to dress and prepare +to leave the house voluntarily. That 'something' must have manifested +itself very abruptly, and demanded great haste--either that, or he +expected to return; for you will observe that, although he replaced his +shaving tackle in the portmanteau, he did not put his sleeping-suit back +with it. While I am poking about, do me the favour of looking in the +bag, Mr. Narkom; and tell me if you find the collar and necktie there." + +"Not a trace of them," announced the superintendent a moment or two +later. "Here are the shaving-mug, the brush, and the spirit-lamp, +however, just as you suggested; and--Hallo! what have you stumbled upon +now?" For Cleek, who had been "poking about," as he termed it, had +suddenly stooped, picked up something, and was regarding it fixedly as +it lay in the palm of his hand. + +"A somewhat remarkable thing to discover in a lady's bed-chamber, Mr. +Narkom, unless--Just step downstairs, and ask Miss Morrison to come up +again for a moment, will you?" And then held out his hand so that Narkom +could see, in passing, that a hempseed, two grains of barley, and an oat +lay upon his palm. "Miss Morrison," he inquired as Mary returned in +company with the superintendent, "Miss Morrison, do you keep pigeons?" + +She gave a little cry, and clasped her hands together, as if reproaching +herself for some heartless act. + +"Oh!" she said, moving hastily forward toward the window. "Poor dears! +How good of you to remind me. To think that I should forget to feed them +for three whole days. They may be dead by now. But at such a time I +could think of nothing but this hideous mystery. My pigeons--my poor, +pretty pigeons!" + +"Oh, then you do keep them?" + +"Yes; oh, yes. In a wire-enclosed cote attached to the house just +outside this window. Homing pigeons, Mr. Headland. George bought them +for me. We had an even half dozen each. We used to send messages to each +other that way. He would bring his over to me, and take mine away with +him at night when he went home, so we could correspond at any moment +without waiting for the post. That's how I sent him the message about +the arrival of the belt. Oh, do unlock the window, and let me see if the +pretty dears are still alive." + +"It doesn't need to be unlocked, Miss Morrison," he replied, as he +pulled up the blind. "See, it can be opened easily--the catch is not +secured." + +"Not secured? Why, how strange. I myself fastened it after I despatched +the bird with the message about the belt. And nobody came into the room +after that until George did so that night. Oh, do look and see if the +pretty creatures are dead. They generally coo so persistently; and now I +don't hear a sound from them." + +Cleek threw up the sash and looked out. A huge wistaria with tendrils as +thick as a man's wrist covered the side of the house, and made a +veritable ladder down to the little garden; and, firmly secured to this, +on a level with the window-sill and within easy reach therefrom, was the +dovecote in question. He put in his hand, and slowly drew out four +stiff, cold, feathered little bodies, and laid them on the +dressing-table before her; then, while she was grieving over them, he +groped round in all corners of the cote and drew forth still another. + +"Five?" she exclaimed in surprise. "Five? Oh, but there should be only +four, Mr. Headland. It is true that George brought over all six the day +before; but I 'flew' one to him in the early morning, and I 'flew' a +second at night, with the message about the belt; so there should be but +four." + +"Oh, well, possibly one was 'flown' by him to you, and it 'homed' +without your knowledge." + +"Yes, but it couldn't get inside the wired enclosure unassisted, Mr. +Headland. See! that spring-door has to be opened when it is returned to +the cote after it has carried its message home. You see, I trained them, +by feeding them in here, to come into this room when they were flown +back to me. They always flew directly in if the window was opened, or +gave warning of their presence by fluttering about and beating against +the panes if the sash was closed. And for a fifth pigeon to be inside +the enclosure--I can't understand the thing at all. Oh, Mr. Headland, do +you think it is anything in the nature of a clue?" + +"It may be," he replied evasively. "Clues are funny things, Miss +Morrison; you never know when you may pick one up, nor how. I shouldn't +say anything to anybody about this fifth pigeon if I were you. Let that +be our secret for awhile; and if your father wants to know why I sent +for you to come up here again--why, just say I have discovered that your +pigeons are dead for want of food." And for a moment or two, after she +had closed the door and gone below again, he stood looking at Mr. Narkom +and slowly rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. Then, +of a sudden: + +"I think, Mr. Narkom, we can fairly decide, on the evidence of that +fifth pigeon, that George Carboys left this room voluntarily," returned +Cleek; "that the bird brought him a message of such importance it was +necessary to leave this house at once, and that, not wishing to leave it +unlocked while he was absent, and not--because of the Captain's +inability to get back upstairs afterward--having anybody to whom he +could appeal to get up and lock it after him, he chose to get out of +this window, and to go down by means of that wistaria. I think, too, we +may decide that, as he left no note to explain his absence, he expected +to return before morning, and that, as he never did return, he has met +with foul play. Of course, it is no use looking for footprints in the +garden in support of this hypothesis, for the storm that night was a +very severe one and quite sufficient to blot out all trace of them; +but--Look here, Mr. Narkom, put two and two together. If a message was +sent him by a carrier pigeon, where must that pigeon have come from, +since it was one of Miss Morrison's?" + +"Why, from Van Nant's place, of course. It couldn't possibly come from +any other place." + +"Exactly. And as Van Nant and Carboys lived together--kept Bachelor +Hall--and there was never anybody but their two selves in the house at +any time, why, nobody but Van Nant himself could have despatched the +bird. Look at that fragment of burnt paper lying in the basin of that +candlestick on the washstand. If that isn't all that's left of the paper +that was tied under the pigeon's wing, and if Carboys didn't use it for +the purpose of lighting the spirit-lamp by which he heated his +shaving-water, depend upon it that, in his haste and excitement, he +tucked it into his pocket, and if ever we find his body we shall find +that paper on it." + +"His body? My dear Cleek, you don't believe that the man has been +murdered?" + +"I don't know--yet. I shall, however, if this Van Nant puts anything in +the way of my searching that house thoroughly or makes any pretence to +follow me whilst I am doing so. I want to meet this Maurice Van Nant +just as soon as I can, Mr. Narkom, just as soon as I can." + +And it was barely two minutes after he had expressed this wish that Miss +Morrison reappeared upon the scene, accompanied by a pale, nervous, +bovine-eyed man of about thirty-five years of age, and said in a tone of +agitation: "Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Headland, but this is Mr. +Maurice Van Nant. He is most anxious to meet you, and father would have +me bring him up at once." + +Narkom screwed round on his heel, looked at the Belgian, and lost faith +in Miss Morrison's powers of discrimination instantly. On the +dressing-table stood Carboys' picture--heavy-jowled, sleepy-eyed, +dull-looking--and on the threshold stood a man with the kindest eyes, +the sweetest smile, and the handsomest and most sympathetic countenance +he had seen in many a day. If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if +the face is the index of the character, then here was a man weak as +water, as easily led as any lamb, and as guileless. + +"You are just the man I want to see, Mr. Van Nant," said Cleek, after +the first formalities were over, and assuming, as he always did at such +times, the heavy, befogged expression of incompetence. "I confess this +bewildering affair altogether perplexes me; but you, I understand, were +Mr. Carboys' close friend and associate, and as I can find nothing in +the nature of a clue here, I should like, with your permission, to look +over his home quarters and see if I can find anything there." + +If he had looked for any sign of reluctance or of embarrassment upon Van +Nant's part when such a request should be made, he was wholly +disappointed, for the man, almost on the point of tears, seized his +hand, pressed it warmly, and said in a voice of eager entreaty: "Oh, do, +Mr. Headland, do. Search anywhere, do anything that will serve to find +my friend and to clear up this dreadful affair. I can't sleep for +thinking of it; I can't get a moment's peace night or day. You didn't +know him or you would understand how I am tortured--how I miss him. The +best friend, the dearest and the lightest-hearted fellow that ever +lived. If I had anything left in this world, I'd give it all--all, Mr. +Headland, to clear up the mystery of this thing and to get him back. One +man could do that, I believe, could and would if I had the money to +offer him." + +"Indeed? And who may he be, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"The great, the amazing, the undeceivable man, Cleek. He'd get at the +truth of it. Nothing could baffle and bewilder him. But--oh, well, it's +the old, old tale of the power of money. He wouldn't take the case--a +high-and-mighty 'top-notcher' like that--unless the reward was a +tempting one, I'm sure." + +"No, I'm afraid he wouldn't," agreed Cleek, with the utmost composure. +"So you must leave him out of your calculations altogether, Mr. Van +Nant. And now, if you don't mind accompanying us and showing the +chauffeur the way, perhaps Mr. Narkom will take us over to your house in +his motor." + +"Mind? No, certainly I don't mind. Anything in the world to get at a +clue to this thing, Mr. Headland, anything. Do let us go at once." + +Cleek led the way from the room. Halfway down the stairs, however, he +excused himself on the plea of having forgotten his magnifying glass, +and ran back to get it. Two minutes later he rejoined them in the little +drawing-room, where the growling Captain was still demanding the whole +time and attention of his daughter, and, the motor being ready, the +three men walked out, got into it, and were whisked away to the house +which once had been the home of the vanished George Carboys. + +It proved to be a small, isolated brick house in very bad condition, +standing in an out-of-the-way road somewhere between Putney and +Wimbledon. It stood somewhat back from the road, in the midst of a +little patch of ground abounding in privet and laurel bushes, and it was +evident that its cheapness had been its chief attraction to the two men +who had rented it, although, on entering, it was found to possess at the +back a sort of extension, with top and side lights, which must have +appealed to Van Nant's need of something in the nature of a studio. At +all events, he had converted it into a very respectable apology for one; +and Cleek was not a little surprised by what it contained. + +Rich stuffs, bits of tapestry, Persian draperies, Arabian +prayer-mats--relics of his other and better days and of his Oriental +wanderings--hung on the walls and ornamented the floor; his rejected +pictures and his unsold statues, many of them life-sized and all of +clay, coated with a lustreless paint to make them look like marble, were +disposed about the place with an eye to artistic effect, and near to an +angle, where stood (on a pedestal, half concealed, half revealed by +artistically arranged draperies) the life-size figure of a Roman +senator, in toga and sandals, there was the one untidy spot, the one +utterly inartistic thing the room contained. + +It was the crude, half-finished shape of a recumbent female figure, of +large proportions and abominable modelling, stretched out at full length +upon a long, low, trestle-supported "sculptor's staging," on which also +lay Van Nant's modelling tools and his clay-stained working blouse. +Cleek looked at the huge unnatural thing--out of drawing, anatomically +wrong in many particulars--and felt like quoting Angelo's famous remark +anent his master Lorenzo's faun: "What a pity to have spoilt so much +expensive material," and Van Nant, observing, waved his hand toward it. + +"A slumbering nymph," he explained. "Only the head and shoulders +finished as yet, you see. I began it the day before, yesterday, but my +hand seems somehow to have lost its cunning. Here are the keys of all +the rooms, Mr. Headland. Carboys' was the one directly at the head of +the stairs, in the front. Won't you and Mr. Narkom go up and search +without me? I couldn't bear to look into the place and see the things +that belonged to him and he not there. It would cut me to the heart if I +did. Or, maybe, you would sooner go alone, and leave Mr. Narkom to +search round this room. We used to make a general sitting-room of it at +nights when we were alone together, and some clue may have been +dropped." + +"A good suggestion, Mr. Narkom," commented Cleek, as he took the keys. +"Look round and see what you can find whilst I poke about upstairs." +Then he walked out of the studio and searching every nook and corner, +whilst Van Nant, for the want of something to occupy his mind and his +hands, worked on the nymph, and could hear him moving about overhead in +quest of possible clues. + +For perhaps twenty minutes Cleek was away; then he came down and walked +into the room looking the very picture of hopeless bewilderment. + +"Mr. Narkom," he said, "this case stumps me. I believe there's magic in +it, if you ask me; and as the only way to find magic is with magic, I am +going to consult a clairvoyante, and if one of those parties can't give +me a clue, I don't believe the mystery will ever be solved. I know of a +ripping one, but she is over in Ireland, and as it's a dickens of a way +to go, I shan't be able to get back before the day after to-morrow at +the earliest. But--look here, sir, I'll tell you what! This is Tuesday +evening, isn't it? Now if you and Mr. Van Nant will be at Captain +Morrison's house on Thursday evening at seven o'clock, and will wait +there until I come, I'll tell you what that clairvoyante says, and +whether there's any chance of this thing being solved or not. Is that +agreeable, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"Quite, Mr. Headland. I'll be there promptly." + +"And stop until you hear from me?" + +"And stop until I hear from you--yes." + +"Right you are, sir. Now then, Mr. Narkom, if you'll let the chauffeur +whisk me over to the station, I'll get back to London and on to the +earliest possible train for Holyhead so as to be on hand for the first +Irish packet to-morrow. And while you're looking for your hat, sir--good +evening, Mr. Van Nant--I'll step outside and tell Lennard to start up." + +With that, he passed out of the studio, walked down the hall, and went +out of the house. And half a minute later, when the superintendent +joined him, he found him sitting in the limousine and staring at his +toes. + +"My dear Cleek, did you find anything?" he queried, as he took a seat +beside him, and the motor swung out into the road and whizzed away. "Of +course, I know you've no more idea of going to Ireland than you have of +taking a pot-shot at the moon: but there's something on your mind. I +know the signs, Cleek. What is it?" + +The response to this was rather startling. + +"Mr. Narkom," said Cleek, answering one question with another, "what's +the best thing to make powdered bismuth stick--lard, cold cream, or +cocoa butter?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +If punctuality is a virtue, then Mr. Maurice Van Nant deserved to go on +record as one of the most virtuous men in existence. For the little +Dutch clock in Captain Morrison's drawing-room had barely begun to +strike seven on the following Thursday evening when he put in an +appearance there, and found the Captain and his daughter anxiously +awaiting him. But, as virtue is, on most excellent authority, its own +reward, he had to be satisfied with the possession of it, since neither +Narkom nor Cleek was there to meet him. + +But the reason for this defection was made manifest when Miss Morrison +placed before him a telegram which had arrived some ten minutes earlier +and read as follows: "Unavoidably delayed. Be with you at nine-thirty. +Ask Mr. Van Nant to wait. Great and welcome piece of news for +him.--NARKOM." + +Van Nant smiled. + +"Great and welcome news," he repeated. "Then Mr. Headland must have +found something in the nature of a clue in Ireland, captain, though what +he could find there I can't imagine. Frankly, I thought him a stupid +sort of fellow, but if he has managed to find a clue to poor George's +whereabouts over in Ireland, he must be sharper than I believed. Well, +we shall know about that at half-past nine, when Mr. Narkom comes. I +hope nothing will happen to make him disappoint us again." + +Nothing did. Promptly at the hour appointed, the red limousine whizzed +up to the door, and Mr. Narkom made his appearance. But, contrary to the +expectations of the three occupants of the little drawing-room, he was +quite alone. + +"So sorry I couldn't come earlier," he said, as he came in, looking and +acting like the bearer of great good news; "but you will appreciate the +delay when I tell you what caused it. What's that, Mr. Van Nant? +Headland? No, he's not with me. As a matter of fact, I've dispensed with +his services in this particular case. Fancy, Miss Morrison, the muff +came back from Ireland this evening, said the clairvoyante he consulted +went into a trance, and told him that the key to the mystery could only +be discovered in Germany, and he wanted me to sanction his going over +there on no better evidence than that. Of course, I wouldn't; so I took +him off the case forthwith, and set out to get another and a better man +to handle it. That's what delayed me. And now, Mr. Van Nant"--fairly +beaming, and rubbing his palms together delightedly--"here's where the +great and welcome news I spoke of comes in. I remembered what you said +the other day--I remembered how your heart is wrapped up in the solving +of this great puzzle--what you said about it being a question of money +alone; and so, what do you think I did? I went to that great man, Cleek. +I laid the matter before him, told him there was no reward, that it was +just a matter of sheer humanity--the consciousness of doing his duty and +helping another fellow in distress--and, throw up your hat and cheer, my +dear fellow, for you've got your heart's desire: Cleek's consented to +take the case!" + +A little flurry of excitement greeted this announcement. Miss Morrison +grabbed his hand and burst into tears of gratitude; the Captain, +forgetting in his delight the state of his injured foot, rose from his +chair, only to remember suddenly and sit down again, his half-uttered +cheer dying on his lips; and Van Nant, as if overcome by this unexpected +boon, this granting of a wish he had never dared to hope would be +fulfilled, could only clap both hands over his face and sob +hysterically. + +"Cleek!" he said, in a voice that shook with nervous catches and the +emotion of a soul deeply stirred, "Cleek to take the case? The great, +the amazing, the undeceivable Cleek! Oh, Mr. Narkom, can this be true?" + +"As true as that you are standing here this minute, my dear sir. Not so +much of a money grabber as that muff Headland wanted you to believe, is +he--eh? Waived every hope of a reward, and took the case on the spot. +He'll get at the root of it--Lord, yes! Lay you a sovereign to a +sixpence, Mr. Van Nant, he gets to the bottom of it and finds out what +became of George Carboys in forty-eight hours after he begins on the +case." + +"And when will he begin, Mr. Narkom? To-morrow? The next day? Or not +this week at all? When, sir--when?" + +"When? Why, bless your heart, man, he's begun already--or, at least, +will do so in another hour and a half. He's promised to meet us at your +house at eleven o'clock to-night. Chose that place because he lives at +Putney, and it's nearer. Eleven was the hour he set, though, of course, +he may arrive sooner; there's no counting on an erratic fellow like that +chap. So we'll make it eleven, and possess our souls in patience until +it's time to start." + +"But, my dear Mr. Narkom, wouldn't it be better, or, at least, more +hospitable if I went over to meet him, in case he does come earlier? +There's no one in the house, remember, and it's locked up." + +"Lord bless you, that won't bother him! Never travels without his tools, +you know--skeleton keys, and all that--and he'll be in the house before +you can wink an eye. Still, of course, if you'd rather be there to admit +him in the regulation way--" + +"It would at least be more courteous, Mr. Narkom," Miss Morrison +interposed. "So great a man doing so great a favour--Oh, yes, I really +think that Mr. Van Nant should." + +"Oh, well, let him then, by all means," said Narkom. "Go, if you choose, +Mr. Van Nant. I'd let you have my motor, only I must get over to the +station and 'phone up headquarters on another affair in five minutes." + +"It doesn't matter, thank you all the same. I can get a taxi at the top +of the road," said Van Nant; and then, making his excuses to Miss +Morrison and her father, he took up his hat and left the house. As a +matter of fact, it was only courtesy that made him say that about the +taxi, for there is rarely one to be found waiting about in the +neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common after half-past nine o'clock at +night, and nobody could have been more surprised than he when he +actually did come across one, loitering about aimlessly and quite empty, +before he had gone two dozen yards. + +He engaged it on the spot, jumped into it, gave the chauffeur his +directions, and a minute later was whizzing away to the isolated house. +It was eight minutes past ten when he reached it, standing as black and +lightless as when he left it four hours ago, and, after paying off the +chauffeur and dismissing the vehicle, he fumbled nervously for his +latchkey, found it, unlocked the door, and went hurriedly in. + +"Have you come yet, Mr. Cleek?" he called out, as he shut the door and +stood in the pitch-black hall. "Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, are you here? It +is I--Maurice Van Nant. Mr. Narkom has sent me on ahead." + +Not a sound answered him, not even an echo. He sucked in his breath with +a sort of wheezing sound, then groped round the hall table till he found +his bedroom candle, and, striking a match, lit it. The staircase leading +to the upper floors gaped at him out of the partial gloom, and he fairly +sprang at it--indeed, was halfway up it when some other idea possessed +him, brought him to a sudden standstill, and, facing round abruptly, he +went back to the lower hall again, glimmering along it like a shadow, +with the inadequate light held above him, and moving fleetly to the +studio in the rear. + +The door stood partly open, just as he had left it. He pushed it inward +and stepped over the threshold. + +"Mr. Cleek!" he called again. "Mr. Cleek! Are you here?" + +And again the silence alone answered him. The studio was as he had seen +it last, save for those fantastic shadows which the candle's wavering +flame wreathed in the dim corners and along the pictured walls. There, +on its half-draped pedestal, the Roman senator stood--dead white against +the purple background--and there, close to the foot of it, the great +bulk of the disproportionate nymph still sprawled, finished and +whitewashed now, and looking even more of a monstrosity than ever in +that waving light. + +He gave one deep gulping sigh of relief, flashed across the room on +tiptoe, and went down on his knees beside the monstrous thing, moving +the candle this way and that along the length of it, as if searching for +something, and laughing in little jerky gasps of relief when he found +nothing that was not as it had been--as it should be--as he wanted it to +be. And then, as he rose and patted the clay, and laughed aloud as he +realised how hard it had set, then, at that instant, a white shape +lurched forward and swooped downward, carrying him down with it. The +candle slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor, a pair of +steel handcuffs clicked as they closed round his wrists, a voice above +him said sharply: "You wanted Cleek I believe? Well, Cleek's got you, +you sneaking murderer. Gentlemen, come in! Allow me to turn over to you +the murderer of George Carboys! You'll find the body inside that +slumbering nymph!" + +And the last thing that Mr. Maurice Van Nant saw, as he shrieked and +fainted, the last thing he realised, was that lights were flashing up +and men tumbling in through the opening windows; that the Roman +senator's pedestal was empty, and the figure which once had stood upon +it was bending over him--alive! + +And just at that moment the red limousine flashed up out of the +darkness, the outer door whirled open and Narkom came pelting up. + +"He took the bait, then, Cleek?" he cried, as he saw the manacled figure +on the floor, with the "Roman senator" bending over and the policemen +crowding in about it. "I guessed it when I saw the lights flash up. I've +been on his heels ever since he snapped at that conveniently placed taxi +after he left Miss Morrison and her father." + +"You haven't brought them with you, I hope, Mr. Narkom? I wouldn't have +that poor girl face the ordeal of what's to be revealed here to-night +for worlds." + +"No, I've not. I made a pretext of having to 'phone through to +headquarters, and slipped out a moment after him. But, I say, my dear +chap"--as Cleek's hands made a rapid search of the pockets of the +unconscious man, and finally brought to light a folded paper--"what's +that thing? What are you doing?" + +"Compounding a felony in the interest of humanity," he made reply as he +put the end of the paper into the flame of the candle and held it there +until it was consumed. "We all do foolish things sometimes when we are +young, Mr. Narkom, and--well, George Carboys was no exception when he +wrote the little thing I have just burned. Let us forget all about +it--Captain Morrison is heir-at-law, and that poor girl will benefit." + +"There was an estate, then?" + +"Yes. My cable yesterday to the head of the Persian police set all doubt +upon that point at rest. Abdul ben Meerza, parting with nothing while he +lived, after the manner of misers in general, left a will bequeathing +something like £12,000 to George Carboys, and his executor communicated +that fact to the supposed friend of both parties--Mr. Maurice Van Nant; +and exactly ten days ago, so his former solicitor informed me, Mr. +Maurice Van Nant visited him unexpectedly, and withdrew from his keeping +a sealed packet which had been in the firm's custody for eight years. If +you want to know why he withdrew it--Dollops!" + +"Right you are, Gov'nor." + +"Give me the sledge-hammer. Thanks! Now, Mr. Narkom, look!" And, +swinging the hammer, he struck at the nymph with a force that shattered +the monstrous thing to atoms; and Narkom, coming forward to look when +Cleek bent over the ruin he had wrought, saw in the midst of the dust +and rubbish the body of a dead man, fully clothed, and with the gap of a +bullet-hole in the left temple. + +Again Cleek's hands began a rapid search, and again, as before, they +brought to light a paper, a little crumpled ball of paper that had been +thrust into the right-hand pocket of the dead man's waistcoat, as though +jammed there under the stress of strong excitement and the pressure of +great haste. He smoothed it out and read it carefully, then passed it +over to Mr. Narkom. + +"There!" he said, "that's how he lured him over to his death. That's the +message the pigeon brought. Would any man have failed to fly to face the +author of a foul lie like that?" + +"Beloved Mary," the message ran, "come to me again to-night. How sweet +of you to think of such a thing as the belt to get him over and to make +him stop until morning! Steal out after he goes to bed, darling. I'll +leave the studio window unlocked, as usual. With a thousand kisses. + +"Your own devoted, + +"MAURICE." + +"The dog!" said Narkom fiercely. "And against a pure creature like Mary +Morrison! Here, Smathers, Petrie, Hammond, take him away. Hanging's too +good for a beastly cur like that!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know that the body was inside the statue?" said Cleek, +answering Narkom's query, as they drove back in the red limousine toward +London and Clarges Street. "Well, as a matter of fact, I never did know +for certain until he began to examine the thing to-night. From the first +I felt sure he was at the bottom of the affair, that he had lured +Carboys back to the house, and murdered him; but it puzzled me to think +what could possibly have been done with the body. I felt pretty certain, +however, when I saw that monstrous statue." + +"Yes, but why?" + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, you ought not to ask that question. Did it not +strike you as odd that a man who was torn with grief over the +disappearance of a loved friend should think of modelling any sort of a +statue on that very first day, much less such an inartistic one as that? +Consider: the man has never been a first-class sculptor, it is true, but +he knew the rudiments of his art, he had turned out some fairly +presentable work; and that nymph was as abominably conceived and as +abominably executed as if it had been the work of a raw beginner. Then +there was another suspicious circumstance. Modelling clay is not exactly +as cheap as dirt, Mr. Narkom. Why, then, should this man, who was +confessedly as poor as the proverbial church mouse, plunge into the wild +extravagance of buying half a ton of it--and at such a time? Those are +the things that brought the suspicion into my mind; the certainty, +however, had to be brought about beyond dispute before I could act. + +"I knew that George Carboys had returned to that studio by the dry marks +of muddy footprints, that were nothing like the shape of Van Nant's, +which I found on the boards of the verandah and on the carpet under one +of the windows; I knew, too, that it was Van Nant who had sent that +pigeon. You remember when I excused myself and went back on the pretext +of having forgotten my magnifying glass the other day? I did so for the +purpose of looking at that fifth pigeon. I had observed something on its +breast feathers which I thought, at first glance, was dry mud, as though +it had fallen or brushed against something muddy in its flight. As we +descended the stairs I observed that there was a similar mark on Van +Nant's sleeve. I brushed against him and scraped off a fleck with my +finger-nails. It was the dust of dried modelling clay. That on the +pigeon's breast proved to be the same substance. I knew then that the +hands of the person who liberated that pigeon were the hands of someone +who was engaged in modelling something or handling the clay of the +modeller, and--the inference was clear. + +"As for the rest; when Van Nant entered that studio to-night, frightened +half out of his wits at the knowledge that he would have to deal with +the one detective he feared, I knew that if he approached that statue +and made any attempts to examine it I should have my man, and that the +hiding-place of his victim's body would be proved beyond question. When +he did go to it, and did examine it--Clarges Street at last, thank +fortune; for I am tired and sleepy. Stop here, Lennard; I'm getting out. +Come along, Dollops. Good-night, Mr. Narkom! 'And so, to bed,' as good +old Pepys says." + +And passed on, up the street, with his hand on the boy's shoulder and +the stillness and the darkness enfolding them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +For the next five or six weeks life ran on merrily enough for Cleek; so +merrily, in fact, that Dollops came to be quite accustomed to hear him +whistling about the house and to see him go up the stairs two steps at a +time whenever he had occasion to mount them for any purpose whatsoever. + +It would not have needed any abnormally acute mind, any process of +subtle reasoning, to get at the secret of all this exuberance, this +perennial flow of high spirits; indeed, one had only to watch the letter +box at Number 204, Clarges Street, to get at the bottom of it instantly; +for twice a week the postman dropped into it a letter addressed in an +undoubtedly feminine "hand" to Captain Horatio Burbage, and invariably +postmarked "Lynhaven, Devon." + +Dollops had made that discovery long ago and had put his conclusions +regarding it into the mournfully-uttered sentence: "A skirt's got him!" +But, after one violent pang of fierce and rending jealousy, was grateful +to that "skirt" for bringing happiness to the man he loved above all +other things upon earth and whose welfare was the dearest of his heart's +desires. Indeed, he grew, in time, to watch as eagerly for the coming of +those letters as did his master himself; and he could have shouted with +delight whenever he heard the postman's knock, and saw one of the +regulation blue-grey envelopes drop through the slit into the wire cage +on the door. + +Cleek, too, was delighted when he saw them. It was nothing to him that +the notes they contained were of the briefest--mere records of the state +of the weather, the progress of his little lordship, the fact that Lady +Chepstow wished to be remembered and that the writer was well "and hoped +he, too, was." They were written by _her_--that was enough. He gave so +much that very little sufficed him in return; and the knowledge that he +had been in her mind for the five or ten minutes which it had taken to +write the few lines she sent him, made him exceedingly happy. + +But she was not his only correspondent in these days--not even his most +frequent one. For a warm, strong friendship--first sown in those +ante-Derby days--had sprung up between Sir Henry Wilding and himself and +had deepened steadily into a warm feeling of comradeship and mutual +esteem. Frequent letters passed between them; and the bond of fellowship +had become so strong a thing that Sir Henry never came to town without +their meeting and dining together. + +"Gad! you know, I can't bring myself to think of you as a +police-officer, old chap!" was the way Sir Henry put it on the day when +he first invited him to lunch with him at his club. "I'd about as soon +think of sitting down with one of my grooms as breaking bread with one +of that lot; and I shall never get it out of my head that you're a +gentleman going in for this sort of thing as a hobby--never b'Gad! if I +live to be a hundred." + +"I hope you will come nearer to doing that than you have to guessing the +truth about me," replied Cleek, with a smile. "Take my word for it, +won't you?--this thing is my profession. I don't do it as a mere hobby: +I live by it--I have no other means of living _but_ by it. I am--what I +am, and nothing more." + +"Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper +and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a +turnip--at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old +chap. I know a man of birth when I meet him. Tell me who you are, +Cleek--I'll respect it." + +"I don't doubt that--the addition is superfluous." + +"Then who are you? What are you, Cleek? Eh?" + +"What you have called me--'Cleek.' Cleek the detective, Cleek of the +Forty Faces, if you prefer it; but just 'Cleek' and nothing more. Don't +get to building romances about me merely because I have the _instincts_ +of a gentleman, Sir Henry. Just simply remember that Nature _does_ make +mistakes sometimes; that she has been known to put a horse's head on a +sheep's shoulders and to make a navvy's son look more royal than a +prince. I am Cleek, the detective--simply Cleek. Let it go at that." + +And as there was no alternative, Sir Henry did. + +It made no difference in their friendship, however. Police officer or +not, he liked and he respected the man, and made no visit to town +without meeting and entertaining him. + +So matters stood between them when on a certain Thursday in mid +September he came up unexpectedly from Wilding Hall and 'phoned through +to Clarges Street, asking Cleek to dine with him that night at the Club +of the Two Services. + +Cleek accepted the invitation gladly and was not a little surprised on +arriving to find that, in this instance, dinner was to be served in a +little private room and that a third party was also to partake of it. + +"Dear chap, pardon me for taking you unawares," said Sir Henry, as Cleek +entered the private room and found himself in the presence of a +decidedly military-looking man long past middle life, "but the fact is +that immediately after I had telephoned you, I encountered a friend and +a--er--peculiar circumstance arose which impelled me to secure a private +room and to--er--throw myself upon your good graces as it were. Let me +have the pleasure, dear chap, of introducing you to my friend, Major +Burnham-Seaforth. Major, you are at last in the presence of the +gentleman of whom I spoke--Mr. Cleek." + +"Mr. Cleek, I am delighted," said the Major, offering his hand. "I have +heard your praises sung so continuously the past two hours that I feel +as if I already knew you." + +"Ah, you mustn't mind all that Sir Henry says," replied Cleek, as he +shook hands with him. "He makes mountains out of millstones, and would +panegyrize the most commonplace of men if he happened to take a fancy to +him. You mustn't believe all that Sir Henry says and thinks, Major." + +"I shall be happy, Mr. Cleek, if I can really hope to believe the half +of it," replied the Major, enigmatically--and was prevented from saying +more by the arrival of the waiter and the serving of dinner. + +It was not until the meal was over and coffee and cigars had been served +and the too attentive waiter had taken his departure that Cleek +understood that remark or realised what it portended. But even then, it +was not the Major who explained. + +"My dear Cleek," said Sir Henry, lowering his voice and leaning over the +table, "I hope you will not think I have taken a mean advantage of you, +but I have brought the Major here to-night for a purpose. He has, in +fact, come to consult you professionally; and upon my recommendation. Do +you object to that, or may I go on?" + +"Go on by all means," replied Cleek. "I fancy you know very well that +there is nothing you might ask of me that I would not at least attempt +to do, dear chap." + +"Thanks very much. Well then, the Major has come, my dear Cleek, to ask +you to help in unravelling a puzzle of singular and mystifying interest. +Now you may or may not have heard of a Music Hall artiste--a sort of +conjurer and impersonator combined--called Zyco the Magician, who was +once very popular and was assisted in his illusions by a veiled but +reputedly beautiful Turkish lady who was billed on the programmes and +posters as 'Zuilika, the Caliph's Daughter.'" + +"I remember the pair very well indeed," said Cleek. "They toured the +Music Halls for years, and I saw their performance frequently. They were +among the first, I believe, to produce that afterwards universal +illusion known as 'The Vanishing Lady.' As I have not heard anything of +them nor seen their names billed for a couple of years past, I fancy +they have either retired from the profession or gone to some other part +of the world. The man was not only a very clever magician, but a master +of mimicry. I always believed, however, that in spite of his name he was +of English birth. The woman's face I never saw, of course, as she was +always veiled to the eyes after the manner of Turkish ladies. But +although a good many persons suspected that her birthplace was no nearer +Bagdad than Peckham, I somehow felt that she was, after all, a genuine, +native-born Turk." + +"You are quite right in both suspicions, Mr. Cleek," put in the Major +agitatedly. "The man _was_ an Englishman; the lady _is_ a Turk." + +"May I ask, Major, why you speak of the lady in the present tense and of +the man in the past? Is he dead?" + +"I hope so," responded the Major fervently. "God knows I do, Mr. Cleek. +My every hope in life depends upon that." + +"May I ask why?" + +"I am desirous of marrying his widow!" + +"My dear Major, you cannot possibly be serious! A woman of that class?" + +"Pardon me, sir, but you have, for all your cleverness, fallen a victim +to the prevailing error. The lady is in every way my social equal--in +her own country my superior. She _is_ a caliph's daughter. The title +which the playgoing public imagined was of the usual bombastic, +just-on-the-programme sort, is hers by right. Her late father, Caliph Al +Hamid Sulaiman, was one of the richest and most powerful Mohammedans in +existence. He died five months ago, leaving an immense fortune to be +conveyed to England to his exiled but forgiven child." + +"Ah, I see. Then, naturally, of course--" + +"The suggestion is unworthy of you, Sir Henry, and anything but +complimentary to me. The inheritance of this money has had nothing +whatever to do with my feelings for the lady. That began two years ago, +when, by accident, I was permitted to look upon her face for the first, +last, and only time. I should still wish to marry her if she were an +absolute pauper. I know what you are saying to yourself, sir: 'There is +no fool like an old fool.' Well, perhaps there isn't. But--" he turned +to Cleek--"I may as well begin at the beginning and confess that even if +I did not desire to marry the lady I should still have a deep interest +in her husband's death, Mr. Cleek. He is--or was, if dead--the only son +of my cousin, the Earl of Wynraven, who is now over ninety years of age. +I am in the direct line, and if this Lord Norman Ulchester, whom you and +the public know only as 'Zyco the Magician,' were in his grave there +would only be that one feeble old man between me and the title." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, in reply; then, seating himself at the table, +he arranged the shade of the lamp so that the light fell full upon the +Major's face while leaving his own in the shadow. "Then your interest in +the affair, Major, may be said to be a double one." + +"More, sir--a triple one. I have a rival in the shape of my own son. He, +too, wishes to marry Zuilika--is madly enamoured of her, in fact; so +wildly that I have always hesitated to confess my own desires to him for +fear of the consequences. He is almost a madman in his outbursts of +temper; and where Zuilika is concerned--Perhaps you will understand, Mr. +Cleek, when I tell you that once when he thought her husband had +ill-used her, he came within an ace of killing the man. There was bad +blood between them always--even as boys--and, as men, it was bitterer +than ever because of _her_." + +"Suppose you begin at the beginning and tell me the whole story, Major," +suggested Cleek, studying the man's face narrowly. "How did the Earl of +Wynraven's son come to meet this singularly fascinating lady, and +where?" + +"In Turkey--or Arabia--I forget which. He was doing his theatrical +nonsense in the East with some barn-storming show or other, having been +obliged to get out of England to escape arrest for some shady +transaction a year before. He was always a bad egg--always a disgrace to +his name and connections. That's why his father turned him off and never +would have any more to do with him. As a boy he was rather clever at +conjuring tricks and impersonations of all sorts--he could mimic +anything or anybody he ever saw, from the German Emperor down to a +Gaiety chorus girl, and do it to absolute perfection. When his father +kicked him out he turned these natural gifts to account, and, having +fallen in with some professional dancing-woman, joined her for a time +and went on the stage with her. + +"It was after he had parted from this dancer and was knocking about +London and leading a disgraceful life generally that he did the thing +which caused him to hurry off to the East and throw in his lot with the +travelling company I have alluded to. He was always a handsome fellow +and had a way with him that was wonderfully taking with women, so I +suppose that that accounts as much as anything for Zuilika's infatuation +and her doing the mad thing she did. I don't know when nor where nor how +they first met; but the foolish girl simply went off her head over him, +and he appears to have been as completely infatuated with her. Of +course, in that land, the idea of a woman of her sect, of her standing, +having anything to do with a Frank was looked upon as something +appalling, something akin to sacrilege; and when they found that her +father had got wind of it and that the fellow's life would not be safe +if he remained within reach another day, they flew to the coast +together, shipped for England, and were married immediately after their +arrival." + +"A highly satisfactory termination for the lady," commented Cleek. "One +could hardly have expected that from a man so hopelessly unprincipled as +you represent him to have always been. But there's a bit of good in even +the devil, we are told." + +"Oh, be sure that he didn't marry her from any principle of honour, my +dear sir," replied the Major. "If it were merely a question of that, +he'd have cut loose from her as soon as the vessel touched port. +Consideration of self ruled him in that as in all other things. He knew +that the girl's father fairly idolised her; knew that, in time, his +wrath would give way to his love, and, sooner or later, the old man--who +had been mad at the idea of any marriage--would be moved to settle a +large sum upon her so that she might never be in want. But let me get on +with my story. Having nothing when he returned to England, and being +obliged to cover up his identity by assuming another name, Ulchester, +after vainly appealing to his father for help on the plea that he was +now honourably married and settled down, turned again to the stage, and, +repugnant though such a thing was to the delicately-nurtured woman he +had married, compelled Zuilika to become his assistant and to go on the +boards with him. That is how the afterwards well-known music-hall 'team' +of 'Zyco and the Caliph's Daughter' came into existence. + +"The novelty of their 'turn' caught on like wild fire, and they were a +success from the first, not a little of that success being due to the +mystery surrounding the identity and appearance of Zuilika; for, true to +the traditions of her native land, she never appeared, either in public +or in private, without being closely veiled. Only her 'lord' was ever +permitted to look upon her uncovered face; all that the world at large +might ever hope to behold of it was the low, broad forehead and the two +brilliant eyes that appeared above the close-drawn line of her yashmak. +Of course she shrank from the life into which she was forced; but it had +its reward, for it kept her in close contact with her husband, whom she +almost worshipped. So, for a time, she was proportionately happy; +although, as the years passed by and her father showed no inclination to +bestow the coveted 'rich allowance' upon his daughter, Ulchester's +ardour began to cool. He no longer treated her with the same +affectionate deference; he neglected her, in fact, and, in the end, even +began to ill-use her. + +"About two years ago, matters assumed a worse aspect. He again met Anita +Rosario, the Spanish dancer, under whose guidance he had first turned to +the halls for a livelihood, and once more took up with her. He seemed to +have lost all thought or care for the feelings of his wife, for, after +torturing her with jealousy over his attentions to the dancer, he took a +house adjoining my own--on the borders of the most unfrequented part of +the common at Wimbledon--established himself and Zuilika there, and +brought the woman Anita home to live with them. From that period matters +went from bad to worse. Evidently having tired of the stage, both +Ulchester and Anita abandoned it, and turned the house into a sort of +club where gambling was carried on to a disgraceful extent. +Broken-hearted over the treatment she was receiving, Zuilika appealed to +me and to my son to help her in her distress--to devise some plan to +break the spell of Ulchester's madness and to get that woman out of the +house. It was then that I first beheld her face. In her excitement she +managed, somehow, to snap or loosen the fastening which held her +yashmak, and it fell--fell, and let my son realise, as I realised, how +wondrously beautiful it is possible for the human face to be!" + +"Steady, Major, steady! I can quite understand your feelings--can +realise better than most men!" said Cleek with a sort of sigh. "You +looked into heaven, and--well, what then? Let's have the rest of the +story." + +"I think my son must have put it into her head to give Ulchester a taste +of his own medicine--to attempt to excite his jealousy by pretending to +find interests elsewhere. At any rate, she began to show him a great +deal of attention--or, at least, so he says, although I never saw it. +All I know is that she--she--well, sir, she deliberately led _me_ on +until I was half insane over her, and--that's all!" + +"What do you mean by 'that's all'? The matter couldn't possibly have +ended there, or else why this appeal to me?" + +"It ended for me, so far as her affectionate treatment of me was +concerned; for in the midst of it the unexpected happened. Her father +died, forgiving her, as Ulchester had hoped, but doing more than his +wildest dreams could have given him cause to imagine possible. In a +word, sir, the caliph not only bestowed his entire earthly possessions +upon her, but had them conveyed to England by trusted allies and placed +in her hands. There were coffers of gold pieces, jewels of fabulous +value--sufficient, when converted into English money, as they were +within the week, and deposited to her credit in the Bank of England, to +make her the sole possessor of nearly three million pounds." + +"Phew!" whistled Cleek. "When these Orientals do it they certainly do it +properly. That's what you might call 'giving with both hands,' Major, +eh?" + +"The gift did not end with that, sir," the Major replied with a gesture +of repulsion. "There was a gruesome, ghastly, appalling addition in the +shape of two mummy cases--one empty, the other filled. A parchment +accompanying these stated that the caliph could not sleep elsewhere but +in the land of his fathers, nor sleep _there_ until his beloved child +rested beside him. They had been parted in life, but they should not be +parted in death. An Egyptian had, therefore, been summoned to his +bedside, had been given orders to embalm him after death, to send the +mummy to Zuilika, and with it a case in which, when her own death should +occur, _her_ body should be deposited; and followers of the prophet had +taken oath to see that both were carried to their native land and +entombed side by side. Until death came to relieve her of this ghastly +duty, Zuilika was charged to be the guardian of the mummy and daily to +make the orisons of the faithful before it, keeping it always with its +face towards the East." + +"By George! it sounds like a page from the 'Arabian Nights,'" exclaimed +Cleek. "Well, what next? Did Ulchester take kindly to this housing of +the mummy of his father-in-law and the eventual coffin of his wife? Or +was he willing to stand for anything so long as he got possession of the +huge fortune the old man left?" + +"He never did get it, Mr. Cleek--he never touched so much as one +farthing of it. Zuilika took nobody into her confidence until everything +had been converted into English gold and deposited in the bank to her +credit. Then she went straight to him and to Anita, showed them proof of +the deposit, reviled them for their treatment of her, and swore that not +one farthing's benefit should accrue to Ulchester until Anita was turned +out of the house in the presence of their guests and the husband took +oath on his knees to join the wife in those daily prayers before the +caliph's mummy. Furthermore, Ulchester was to embrace the faith of the +Mohammedans that he might return with her at once to the land and the +gods she had offended by marriage with a Frankish infidel." + +"Which, of course, he declined to do?" + +"Yes. He declined utterly. But it was a case of the crushed worm, with +Zuilika. Now was _her_ turn; and she would not abate one jot or tittle. +There was a stormy scene, of course. It ended by Ulchester and the woman +Anita leaving the house together. From that hour Zuilika never again +heard his living voice, never again saw his living face! He seems to +have gone wild with wrath over what he had lost and to have plunged +headlong into the maddest sort of dissipation. It is known--positively +known, and can be sworn to by reputable witnesses--that for the next +three days he did not draw one sober breath. On the fourth, a note from +him--a note which he was _seen_ to write in a public house--was carried +to Zuilika. In that note he cursed her with every conceivable term; told +her that when she got it he would be at the bottom of the river, driven +there by her conduct, and that if it was possible for the dead to come +back and haunt people he'd do it. Two hours after he wrote that note he +was seen getting out of the train at Tilbury and going towards the +docks; but from that moment to this every trace of him is lost." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. "And you want to find out if he +really carried out that threat and did put an end to himself, I suppose? +That's why you have come to me, eh? Frankly, I don't believe that he +did, Major. That sort of a man never commits suicide upon so slim a +pretext as that. If he commits it at all, it's because he is at the end +of his tether--and our friend 'Zyco' seems to have been a long way from +the end of his. How does the lady take it? Seriously?" + +"Oh, very, sir, very. Of course, to a woman of her temperament and with +her Oriental ideas regarding the supernatural, _et cetera_, that threat +to haunt her was the worst he could have done to her. At first she was +absolutely beside herself with grief and horror; swore that she had +killed him by her cruelty; that there was nothing left her but to die, +and all that sort of thing; and for three days she was little better +than a mad woman. At the end of that time, after the fashion of her +people, she retired to her own room, covered herself with sackcloth and +ashes, and remained hidden from all eyes for the space of a fortnight, +weeping and wailing constantly and touching nothing but bread and +water." + +"Poor wretch! She suffers like that, then, over a rascally fellow not +worth a single tear. It's marvellous, Major, what women do see in men +that they can go on loving them. Has she come out of her retirement +yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. She came out of it five days ago, to all appearances a +thoroughly heart-broken woman. Of course as she was all alone in the +world, my son and I considered it our duty, during the time of her +wildness and despair, to see that a thoroughly respectable female was +called in to take charge of the house and to show respect for the +proprieties, and for us to take up our abode there in order to prevent +her from doing herself an injury. We are still domiciled there, but it +will surprise you to learn that a most undesirable person is there also. +In short, sir, that the woman Anita Rosario, the cause of all the +trouble, is again an inmate of the house; and what is more remarkable +still, this time by Zuilika's own request." + +"What's that? My dear Major, you amaze me! What can possibly have caused +the good lady to do a thing like that?" + +"She hopes, she says, to appease the dead and to avert the threatened +'haunting.' At all events, she sent for Anita some days ago. Indeed, I +believe it is her intention to take the Spaniard with her when she +returns to the East." + +"She intends doing that, then? She is so satisfied of her husband's +death that she deems no further question necessary. Intends to take no +further step toward proving it?" + +"It has been proved to her satisfaction. His body was recovered the day +before yesterday." + +"Oho! then he is dead, eh? Why didn't you say so in the beginning? When +did you learn of it?" + +"This very evening. That is what brings me here. I learned from Zuilika +that a body answering the description of his had been fished from the +water at Tilbury and carried to the mortuary. It was horribly +disfigured--by contact with the piers and passing vessels--but she and +Anita--and--and my son--" + +"Your son, Major? Your son?" + +"Yes!" replied the Major in a sort of half-whisper. "They--they took him +with them when they went, unknown to me. He has become rather friendly +with the Spanish woman of late. All three saw the body; all three +identified it as being Ulchester's beyond a doubt." + +"And you? Surely when you see it you will be able to satisfy any +misgivings you may have?" + +"I shall never see it, Mr. Cleek. It was claimed when identified and +buried within twelve hours," said the Major, glancing up sharply as +Cleek, receiving this piece of information, blew out a soft, low +whistle. "I was not told anything about it until this evening, and what +I have done--in coming to you, I mean--I have done with nobody's +knowledge. I--I am so horribly in the dark--I have such fearful thoughts +and--and I want to be sure. I must be sure or I shall go out of my mind. +That's the 'case,' Mr. Cleek--tell me what you think of it." + +"I can do that in a very few words, Major," he replied. "It is either a +gigantic swindle or it is a clear case of murder. If a swindle, then +Ulchester himself is at the bottom of it and it will end in murder just +the same. Frankly, the swindle theory strikes me as being the more +probable; in other words, that the whole thing is a put-up game between +Ulchester and the woman Anita; that they played upon Zuilika's fear of +the supernatural for a purpose; that a body was procured and sunk in +that particular spot for the furtherance of that purpose; and if the +widow attempts to put into execution this plan--no doubt instilled into +her mind by Anita--of returning with her wealth to her native land, she +will simply be led into some safe place and then effectually put out of +the way for ever. That is what I think of the case if it is to be +regarded in the light of a swindle; but if Ulchester is really dead, +murder, not suicide, is at the back of his taking off, and--Oh, well, we +won't say anything more about it just yet awhile. I shall want to look +over the ground before I jump to any conclusions. You are still stopping +in the house, you and your son, I think you remarked? If you could +contrive to put up an old army friend's son there for a night, Major, +give me the address. I'll drop in on you to-morrow and have a little +look round." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +When, next morning, Major Burnham-Seaforth announced the dilemma in +which, through his own house being temporarily closed, he found himself +owing to the proposed visit of Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn, son of an +old army friend, Zuilika was the first to suggest the very thing he was +fishing for. + +"Ah, let him come here, dear friend," she said in that sad, sweetly +modulated voice which so often wrung this susceptible old heart. "There +is plenty of room!--plenty, alas now--and any friend of yours can only +be a friend of mine. He will not annoy. Let him come here." + +"Yes, let him," supplemented young Burnham-Seaforth, speaking with his +eyes on Señorita Rosario, who seemed nervous and ill-pleased by the news +of the expected arrival. "He won't have to be entertained by us if he +only comes to see the pater; and we can easily crowd him aside if he +tries to thrust himself upon us--a fellow with a name like 'Rupert St. +Aubyn' is bound to be a silly ass." And when, in the late afternoon, +"Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn," in the person of Cleek, arrived with his +snubnosed manservant, a kit-bag, several rugs and a bundle of golf +sticks, young Burnham-Seaforth saw no reason to alter that assertion. +For, a "silly ass"--albeit an unusually handsome one with his fair, +curling hair and his big blonde moustache--he certainly was; a lisping +"ha-ha-ing" "don't-cher-knowing" silly ass, whom the presence of ladies +seemed to cover with confusion and drive into a very panic of shy +embarrassment. + +"_Dios!_ but he is handsome, this big, fair lieutenant!" whispered the +Spaniard to young Burnham-Seaforth. "A great, handsome fool--all beauty +and no brains, like a doll of wax!" Then she bent over and murmured +smilingly to Zuilika: "I shall make a bigger nincompoop of this big, +fair sap-head than Heaven already has done before he leaves here, just +for the sake of seeing him stammer and blush!" + +Only the sad expression of Zuilika's eyes told that she so much as +heard, as she rose to greet the visitor. Garbed from head to foot in the +deep violet-coloured stuff which is the mourning of Turkish women, her +little pointed slippers showing beneath the hem of her frock, and only +her dark, mournful eyes visible between the top of the shrouding yashmak +and the edge of her sequined snood, she made a pathetic picture as she +stood there waiting to greet the unknown visitor. + +"Sir, you are welcome--you are most welcome," she said in a voice whose +modulations were not lost upon Cleek's ears as he put forth his hand and +received the tips of her little, henna-stained fingers upon his palm. +"Peace be with you, who are of his people--he that I loved and mourn!" +Then, as if overcome with grief at the recollection of her widowhood, +she plucked away her hand, covered her eyes, and moved staggeringly out +of the room. And Cleek saw no more of her that day; but he knew when she +performed her orisons before the mummy case--as she did each morning and +evening--by the strong, pungent odour of incense drifting through the +house and filling it with a sickly scent. + +Her absence seemed to make but little impression upon him, however; for, +following up a well-defined plan of action, he devoted himself wholly to +the Spanish woman, and both amazed her and gratified her vanity by +allowing her to learn that a man may be the silliest ass imaginable and +yet quite understand how to flirt and to make love to a woman. And so it +fell out that instead of "Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn" being elbowed out +by young Burnham-Seaforth, it was "Lieutenant St. Aubyn" who elbowed +_him_ out; and without being in the least aware of it, the flattered +Anita, like an adroitly hooked trout, was being "played" in and out and +round about the eddies and the deeps until the angler had her quite +ready for the final dip of the net at the landing point. + +All this was to accomplish exactly what it _did_ accomplish, namely, the +ill temper, the wrath, the angry resentment of young Burnham-Seaforth. +And when the evening had passed and bedtime arrived, Cleek took his +candle and retired in the direction of the rooms set apart for him, with +the certainty of knowing that he had done that which would this very +night prove beyond all question the guilt or innocence of one person at +least who was enmeshed in this mysterious tangle. He was not surprised, +therefore, at what followed his next step. + +Reaching the upper landing he blew out the light of his candle, slammed +the door to his own room, noisily turned the key, and shot the bolt of +another, then tiptoed his way back to the staircase and looked down the +well-hole into the lower hall. + +Zuilika had retired to her room, the Major had retired to his, and now +Anita was taking up her candle to retire to hers. She had barely touched +it, however, when there came a sound of swift footsteps and young +Burnham-Seaforth lurched out of the drawing-room door and joined her. He +was in a state of great excitement and was breathing hard. + +"Anita--Miss Rosario!" he began, plucking her by the sleeve and +uplifting a pale, boyish face--he was not yet twenty-two--to hers with a +look of abject misery. "I want to speak to you--I simply must speak to +you. I've been waiting for the chance, and now that it's come--Look +here! You're not going back on me, are you?" + +"Going back on you?" repeated Anita, showing her pretty white teeth in +an amused smile. "What shall you mean by that 'going back on you'--eh? +You are a stupid little donkey, to be sure. But then I do not care to +get on the back of one--so why?" + +"Oh, you know very well what I mean," he rapped out angrily. "It is not +fair the way you have been treating me ever since that yellow-headed +bounder came. I've had a night of misery--Zuilika never showing herself; +you doing nothing, absolutely nothing, although you promised--you _know_ +you did!--and I heard you, I absolutely heard you persuade that St. +Aubyn fool to stop at least another night." + +"Yes, of course you did. But what of it? He is good company--he talks +well, he sings well, he is very handsome and--well, what difference can +it make to you? You are not interested in _me, amigo_?" + +"No, no; of course I'm not. You are nothing to me at all--you--Oh, I beg +your pardon; I didn't quite mean that. I--I mean you are nothing to me +in that way. But you--you're not keeping to your word. You promised, you +know, that you'd use your influence with Zuilika; that you'd get her to +be more kind to me--to see me alone and--and all that sort of thing. And +you've not made a single attempt--not one. You've just sat round and +flirted with that tow-headed brute and done nothing at all to help me +on; and--and it's jolly unkind of you, that's what!" + +Cleek heard Anita's soft rippling laughter; but he waited to hear no +more. Moving swiftly away from the well-hole of the staircase he passed +on tiptoe down the hall to the Major's rooms, and, opening the door, +went in. The old soldier was standing, with arms folded, at the window +looking silently out into the darkness of the night. He turned at the +sound of the door's opening and moved toward Cleek with a white, +agonised face and a pair of shaking, outstretched hands. + +"Well?" he said with a sort of gasp. + +"My dear Major," said Cleek quietly. "The wisest of men are sometimes +mistaken--that is my excuse for my own short-sightedness. I said in the +beginning that his was either a case of swindling or a case of murder, +did I not? Well, I now amend my verdict. It is a case of swindling _and_ +murder; and your son has had nothing to do with either!" + +"Oh, thank God! thank God!" the old man said; then sat down suddenly and +dropped his face between his hands and was still for a long time. When +he looked up again his eyes were red, but his lips were smiling. + +"If you only knew what a relief it is," he said. "If you only knew how +much I have suffered, Mr. Cleek. His friendship with that Spanish woman; +his going with her to identify the body--even assisting in its hurried +burial! These things all seemed so frightfully black--so utterly without +any explanation other than personal guilt." + +"Yet they are all easily explained, Major. His friendship for the +Spanish woman is merely due to a promise to intercede for him with +Zuilika. She is his one aim and object, poor little donkey! As for his +identification of the body--well, if the widow herself could find points +of undisputed resemblance, why not he? A nervous, excitable, impetuous +boy like that--and anxious, too, that the lady of his heart should be +freed from the one thing, the one man, whose existence made her +everlastingly unattainable--why, in the hands of a clever woman like +Anita Rosario such a chap could be made to identify anything and to +believe it as religiously as he believes. Now, go to bed and rest easy, +Major. I'm going to call up Dollops and do a little night prowling. If +it turns out as I hope, this little riddle will be solved to-morrow." + +"But how, Mr. Cleek? It seems to me that it is as dark as ever. You put +my poor old head in a whirl. You say there is swindling; you hint one +moment that the body was not that of Ulchester, and in the next that +murder has been done. Do, pray, tell me what it all means--what you make +of this amazing case." + +"I'll do that to-morrow, Major; not to-night. The answer to the +riddle--the answer that's in my mind, I mean--is at once so simple and +yet so appallingly awful that I'll hazard no guess until I'm sure. Look +here"--he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gold piece--"do +you know what that is, Major?" + +"It looks like a spade guinea, Mr. Cleek." + +"Right; it is a spade guinea--a pocket piece I've carried for years. +You've heard, no doubt, of vital things turning upon the tossing of a +coin. Well, if you see me toss this coin to-morrow, something of that +sort will occur. It will be tossed up in the midst of a riddle, Major; +when it comes down it will be a riddle no longer." + +Then he opened the door, closed it after him, and, before the Major +could utter a word, was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +The promise was so vague, so mystifying, indeed, so seemingly absurd, +that the Major did not allow himself to dwell upon it. As a matter of +fact, it passed completely out of his mind; nor did it again find +lodgment there until it was forced back upon his memory in a most +unusual manner. + +Whatsoever had been the result of what Cleek had called his "night +prowling," he took nobody into his confidence when he and the Major and +the Major's son and Señorita Rosario met at breakfast the next day +(Zuilika, true to her training and the traditions of her people, never +broke morning bread save in the seclusion of her own bed-chamber, and +then on her knees with her face towards the east) nor did he allude to +it at any period throughout the day. + +He seemed, indeed, purposely, to avoid the Major, and to devote himself +to the Spanish woman with an ardour that was positively heartless, +considering that as they two sang and flirted and played several sets of +singles on the tennis court, Zuilika, like a spirit of misery, kept +walking, walking, walking through the halls and the rooms of the house, +her woeful eyes fixed on the carpet, her henna-stained fingers +constantly locking and unlocking, and moans of desolation coming now and +again from behind her yashmak as her swaying body moved restlessly to +and fro. For to-day was memorable. Five weeks ago this coming nightfall +Ulchester had flung himself out of this house in a fury of wrath, and +this time of bitter regret and ceaseless mourning had begun. + +"She will go out of her mind, poor creature, if something cannot be done +to keep her from dwelling on her misery like this," commented the +housekeeper, coming upon that restless figure pacing the darkened hall, +moaning, moaning--seeing nothing, hearing nothing, doing nothing but +walk and sorrow, sorrow and walk, hour in and hour out. "It's enough to +tear a body's heart to hear her, poor dear. And that good-for-nothing +Spanish piece racing and shrieking round the tennis court like a she +tom-cat, the heartless hussy. Her and that simpering silly that's +trotting round after her had ought to be put in a bag and shaken up, +that they ought. It's downright scandalous to be carrying on like that +at such a time." + +And so both the Major and his son thought too, and tried their best to +solace the lonely mourner and to persuade her to sit down and rest. + +"Zuilika, you will wear yourself out, child, if you go on walking like +this," said the Major solicitously. "Do rest and be at peace for a +little time at least." + +"I can never have peace in this land--I can never forget the day!" she +answered drearily. "Oh, my beloved! Oh, my lord, it was I who sent thee +to it--it was I, it was I! Give me my own country--give me the gods of +my people; here there is only memory and pain, and no rest, no rest +ever!" + +She could not be persuaded to sit down and rest until Anita herself took +the matter into her own hands and insisted that she should. That was at +tea-time. Anita, showing some little trace of feeling now that Cleek had +gone to wash his hands and was no longer there to occupy her thoughts, +placed a deep, soft chair near the window, and would not yield until the +violet-clad figure of the mourner sank down into the depths of it and +leaned back with its shrouded face drooping in silent melancholy. + +And it was while she was so sitting that Cleek came into the room and +did a most unusual, a most ungentlemanly thing, in the eyes of the Major +and his son. + +Without hesitating, he walked to within a yard or two of where she was +sitting, and then, in the silliest of silly tones, blurted out suddenly: +"I say, don't you know, I've had a jolly rum experience. You know that +blessed room at the angle just opposite the library--the one with the +locked door?" + +The drooping, violet figure straightened abruptly, and the Major felt +for the moment as if he could have kicked Cleek with pleasure. Of course +they knew the room. It was there that the two mummy cases were kept, +sacred from the profaning presence of any but this stricken woman. No +wonder that she bent forward, full of eagerness, full of the dreadful +fear that Frankish feet had crossed the threshold, Frankish eyes looked +within the sacred shrine. + +"Well, don't you know," went on Cleek, without taking the slightest +notice of anything, "just as I was going past that door I picked up a +most remarkable thing. Wonder if it's yours, madam?" glancing at +Zuilika. "Just have a look at it, will you? Here, catch!" And not until +he saw a piece of gold spin through the air and fall into Zuilika's lap +did the Major remember that promise of last night. + +"Oh, come, I say, St. Aubyn, that's rather thick!" sang out young +Burnham-Seaforth indignantly, as Zuilika caught the coin in her lap. +"Blest if I know what you call manners, but to throw things at a lady is +a new way of passing them in this part of the world, I can assure you." + +"Awfully sorry, old chap, no offence, I assure you," said Cleek, more +asinine than ever, as Zuilika, having picked up the piece and looked at +it, disclaimed all knowledge of it, and laid it on the edge of the table +without any further interest in it or him. "Just to show, you know, that +I--er--couldn't have meant anything disrespectful, why--er--you all +know, don't you know, how jolly much I respect Señorita Rosario, by +Jove! and so--Here, señorita, you catch, too, and see if the blessed +thing's yours." And, picking up the coin, tossed it into her lap just as +he had done with Zuilika. + +She, too, caught it and examined it, and laughingly shook her head. + +"No--not mine!" she said. "I have not seen him before. To the finder +shall be the keep. Come, sit here. Will you have the tea?" + +"Yes, thanks," said Cleek; then dropped down on the sofa beside her, and +took tea as serenely as though there were no such things in the world as +murder and swindling and puzzling police-riddles to solve. + +And the Major, staring at him, was as amazed as ever. He had said, last +night, that when the coin fell the answer would be given--and yet it had +fallen, and nothing had happened, and he was laughing and flirting with +Señorita Rosario as composedly and as persistently as ever. More than +that; after he had finished his second cup of tea, and immediately +following the sound of someone just beyond the verandah rail whistling +the lively, lilting measures of "There's a Girl Wanted There"--the +"silly ass" seemed to become a thousand times sillier than ever; for he +forthwith set down his cup, and, turning to Anita, said with an inane +sort of giggle, "I say, you know, here's a lark. Let's have a game of +'Slap Hand,' you and I--what? Know it, don't you? You try to slap my +hands, and I try to slap yours, and whichever succeeds in doing it first +gets a prize. Awful fun, don't you know. Come on--start her up." + +And, Anita agreeing, they fell forthwith to slapping away at the backs +of each other's hands with great gusto, until, all of a sudden, the +whistler outside gave one loud, shrill note, and--there was a great and +mighty change. + +Those who were watching saw Anita's two hands suddenly caught, heard a +sharp, metallic "click," and saw them as suddenly dropped again to the +accompaniment of a shrill little scream from her ashen lips, and the +next moment Cleek had risen and jumped away from her side--clear across +to where Zuilika was; and those who were watching saw Anita jump up with +a pair of steel handcuffs on her wrists, just as Dollops vaulted up over +the verandah rail and appeared at one window, whilst Petrie appeared at +another, Hammond poked his body through a third, and the opening door +gave entrance to Superintendent Narkom. + +"The police!" shrilled out Anita in a panic of fright. "_Madre de Dios_, +the police!" + +The Major and his son were on their feet like a shot; Zuilika, with a +faint, startled cry, bounded bolt upright, like an imp shot through a +trap-door; but before the little henna-stained hands could do more than +simply move, Cleek's arms went round her from behind, tight and fast as +a steel clamp, there was another metallic "click," another shrill cry, +and another pair of wrists were in gyves. + +"Come in, Mr. Narkom; come in, constables," said Cleek, with the utmost +composure. "Here are your promised prisoners--nicely trussed, you see, +so that they can't get at the little popguns they carry--and a worse +pair of rogues never went into the hands of Jack Ketch!" + +"And Jack Ketch will get them, Cleek, if I know anything about it. Your +hazard was right. I've examined the caliph's mummy-case; the mummy +itself has been removed--destroyed--done away with utterly--and the poor +creature's body is there!" + +And here the poor, dumfounded, utterly bewildered Major found voice to +speak at last. + +"Mummy-case! Body! Dear God in heaven, Mr. Cleek, what are you hinting +at?" he gasped. "You--you don't mean that she--that Zuilika--killed +him?" + +"No, Major, I don't," he made reply. "I simply mean that he killed her! +The body in the mummy-case is the body of Zuilika, the caliph's +daughter! This is the creature you have been wasting your pity on--see!" + +With that he laid an intense grip on the concealing yashmak, tore it +away, and so revealed the close-shaven, ghastly-hued countenance of the +cornered criminal. + +"My God!--Ulchester--Ulchester himself!" said the Major in a voice of +fright and surprise. + +"Yes, Ulchester himself, Major. In a few more days he'd have withdrawn +the money, and got out of the country, body and all, if he hadn't been +nabbed, the rascal. There'd have been no tracing the crime then; and he +and the Señorita here would have been in clover for the rest of their +natural lives. But there's always that bright little bit of Bobby Burns +to be reckoned with. You know: 'The best laid schemes of mice and men,' +_et cetera_--that bit. But the Yard's got them, and--they'll never leave +the country now. Take them, Mr. Narkom, they're yours!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I guess it?" said Cleek, replying to the Major's query, as they +sat late that night discussing the affair. "Well, I think the first +faint inkling of it came when I arrived here yesterday, and smelt the +overpowering odour of the incenses. There was so much of it, and it was +used so frequently--twice a day--that it seemed to suggest an attempt to +hide other odours of a less pleasant kind. When I left you last night, +Dollops and I went down to the mummy-chamber, and a skeleton key soon +let us in. The unpleasant odour was rather pronounced in there. But even +that didn't give me the cue, until I happened to find in the fireplace a +considerable heap of fine ashes, and in the midst of them small lumps of +gummy substance, which I knew to result from the burning of myrrh. I +suspected from that and from the nature of the ashes that a mummy had +been burnt, and as there was only one mummy in the affair, the inference +was obvious. I laid hands on the two cases and tilted them. One was +quite empty. The weight of the other told me that it contained something +a little heavier than any mummy ought to be. I came to the conclusion +that there was a body in it, injected full of arsenic, no doubt, to +prevent as much as possible the processes of decay, the odour of which +the incense was concealing. I didn't attempt to open the thing; I left +that until the arrival of the men from The Yard, for whom I sent Dollops +this afternoon. I had a vague notion that it would not turn out to be +Ulchester's, and I had also a distinct recollection of what you said +about his being able to mimic a Gaiety chorus-girl and all that sort of +thing, and the more I thought over it, the more I realized what an +excellent thing to cover a bearded face a yashmak is. Still, it was all +hazard. I wasn't sure--indeed, I never was sure--until tea-time, when I +caught this supposed 'Zuilika' sitting at last, and gave the spade +guinea its chance to decide it." + +"But, Mr. Cleek, how could it have decided it? That's the thing which +amazes me most of all. How could the tossing of that coin have decided +the sex of the wearer of those garments?" + +"My dear Major, it is an infallible test. Did you ever notice that if +you throw anything for a man to catch in his lap, he pulls his knees +together to _make_ a lap in order to catch it; whereas a woman--used to +wearing skirts and, thereby, having a lap already prepared--immediately +broadens that lap by the exactly opposite movement, knowing that +whatever is thrown has no chance of slipping through and falling to the +floor. When I tossed the coin to Ulchester, he instinctively jerked his +knees together. That settled it, of course. And now, if you won't mind +my saying it, I'm a bit sleepy and it is about time I took myself off to +home and bed." + +"But not at this late hour, surely? You will never catch a train." + +"I shan't need one, Major. They are holding a horse and trap ready for +me at the stables of the 'Coach and Horses.' Mr. Narkom promised to look +out for that, and--I beg pardon? No, I can't stop over night. Thank you +for the invitation, but Dollops would raise half London if I didn't turn +up after promising to do so." + +"I should have thought you might have simplified matters and obviated +that by keeping the boy when you had him here," said the Major. "We +could easily have found a place to put him up for the night." + +"Thanks very much, but I wouldn't interrupt the course of his studies +for the world," replied Cleek. "I've found an old chap--an +ex-schoolmaster, down on his luck and glad for the chance to turn an +honest penny--who takes him on every night from eight to ten; and the +young monkey is so eager and is absorbing knowledge at such a rate that +he positively amazes me. But now, really, it must be good-night. The boy +will be waiting and I must hear his lessons before I go to bed." + +"Not surely when you are so tired as you say?" + +"Never too tired for that, Major. It makes me sleep better and sounder +to know that the lad's getting on and that I've cheated the Devil in +just one more instance. Good-night and good luck to you. It's a bully +old world after all, isn't it, Major?" Then laughed and shook hands with +him and fared forth into the starlight, whistling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Who feeds on Hope alone makes but a sorry banquet; and for the next few +weeks Hope was all--or nearly all--that came Cleek's way. + +For some unexplained reason, Miss Lorne's letters--never very frequent, +and always very brief--had, of late been gradually growing briefer: as +if written in haste and from a mere sense of duty and at odd moments +snatched from the call of more absorbing things; and, finally, there +came a dropping off altogether and a week that brought no message from +her at all. + +The old restlessness, the almost outlived sense of personal injury and +rebellion against circumstances, took hold of Cleek again when that time +came; and the soul of him drank deep of the waters of bitterness. + +So, then, it was all to be in vain, was it, this long struggle with the +Devil of Circumstances, this long striving for a Goal? And after all, +"Thou shalt not enter" was to be written over the gateway of his +ambition? He had been lifted only to be dropped again, redeemed only to +let him see how vain it was for the leopard, even though he achieved the +impossible and changed his spots, to be other than a leopard always; how +impossible it was for a man to override the decrees of Nature or evade +the edicts of Providence? That was what it meant, eh? + +To a nature such as his, Life was always a picture drawn out of +perspective. There was never any Middle Distance; never any proper +gradation. It was always either the Highest Heights or the Lowest +Depths; the glare of fierce light or the black of deepest darkness. He +could not plod; he must either fly or fall; either loll at the Gates of +Paradise or groan in the depths of Hell. And the failure of Ailsa +Lorne's letters sent him to the darkest and most hopeless corner of it. + +Not that he blamed her--wholly; but that he blamed that Fate which had +so persistently dogged him from childhood on. For now that the letters +had ceased altogether, he recalled things which otherwise would have +been forgotten; and, his sense of proportion being distorted, made +mountains out of sand dunes. + +In one of those letters, he recollected, she had spoken of meeting +unexpectedly an old friend whom she had not seen since the days of his +boyhood; in another, she had casually remarked, "I met Captain Morford +again to-day and we spent a very pleasant half hour together," and in a +third had written, "The Captain promised to call and take tea to-day but +didn't. I rather fancy he divines the fact that Lady Chepstow does not +care for him. Indeed, she dislikes him immensely. Why, I wonder? +Personally, I think him exceedingly pleasant, and there are things in +his character for which I have the deepest respect and admiration." + +And out of these trifling circumstances--lo! the darkest corner that +darkest Hell contained. + +So that was how it was to end, was it? That was the card which Fate had +all along kept up her sleeve while she stood off laughing at his +endeavours, his hopes, his struggles against the inevitable? In the end, +another man was to appear, another man was to win her, and the dream was +to turn out nothing more than a dream after all. + +Once again the voices of the Wild called out to the Caged Wolf; once +again, the old things beckoned and the new things lost their savour and +the Devil said, as before, "What is the use? What _is_ the use?" and the +Savage cried out to be stripped and flung back into the wilderness as +God made him, and called and called and called for an end to the things +that stank in his nostrils and for the fierce companionship of his kind. +And but that Time had staled these things a little and blunted the keen +edge of them so that they could not endure for long, and there was +Dollops and the lessons and Dollops' future to recollect, the Wolf and +the Savage and the Devil might not have hungered in vain. + +Followed a period of intense depression when all things seemed to lose +their savour and when Narkom, amazed, said to himself that the man had +come to the end of his usefulness and had lost every attribute of the +successful criminologist. For the next three cases he brought him Cleek +botched in a manner that would have disgraced the merest tyro. Two, he +failed utterly to solve, although the solutions were eventually worked +out by the ordinary forces of the Yard; and in the third he let his man +get away under his very nose and convey Government secrets to a foreign +Power. It was but natural that these three dismal failures should find +their way to the newspapers and that, in the hysterical condition of +modern journalism, they should be flung out to the world at large with +all the ostentation of leaded type and panicky scare heads, and that +learned editors should discourse knowingly of "the limitations of +mentality" and "the well-authenticated cases of the sudden warping of +abnormal intelligences resulting in the startling termination of amazing +careers," or snivel dismally over "the complete collapse of that +imaginative power which, hitherto, had been this detective's greatest +asset, and which now, on the principle that however deep a well may be +if a force-pump be put into it it must some time suck gravel, seemed to +have come to its end." + +These things, when Cleek heard of them, affected him not at all. He +seemed not to care whether his career was ended or not, whether the +world praised or censured. Neither his pride nor his vanity was stirred +even to the very smallest degree. + +But Narkom, loyal still, took these gloomy prophecies and editorial +vapourings much to heart and strove valiantly to confound the man's +detractors and to put the spur to the man himself. He would not believe +that the end had come, that his mental powers had run suddenly against a +dead wall beyond which there was no possibility of proceeding. Something +was weighing upon his mind and damping his spirits that was all; and it +must be the business of those who were his friends to take steps to +discover what that something was and, if possible, to eliminate it. He +therefore sought out Dollops and held secret conclave with him; and +Dollops dolefully epitomized the difficulty thus: "A skirt--that's +what's at the bottom of it, sir. No letter at all these ten days past. +She's chucked him, I'm afraid." And with this brief preface told all +that he was able to tell; which, after all, was not much. + +He could only explain about the letter that used to come off and on in +the other days and which brought such a flow of high spirits to the man +for whom it was intended; he could only say that it was addressed in a +woman's hand and bore always the one postmark; and when Narkom heard +what that postmark was and recollected where Lady Chepstow's country +seat lay, and who was with her, he puckered up his lips as if he were +about to whistle and made two slim arches with his uplifted eyebrows. + +"Sir, if only you could sneak off and run down there without his knowing +of it--it wouldn't do to write a letter, Mr. Narkom: he'd be on to that +before you could turn round, sir," the boy ventured hopefully; "but if +only you could run down there and give her a tip what she's a doing of +and what she's a chuckin' away, what a Man she's a throwin' down, maybe, +sir, maybe--" + +"Yes, 'maybe,'" agreed the superintendent, after a moment's reflection. +"At any rate it's worth a trial." And went, forthwith. + +Not that it was a prudent thing to do; not that it is wise for any man +at any time to interfere, even with the best intentions, with the course +of another man's love affairs; and, finally, not that it was at all +necessary or had any influence whatsoever upon the events which +succeeded the step. Indeed, he might have spared himself the trouble, +for he had barely covered a fifth of the distance when the country post +was delivered in London, and Cleek, rocketing up in one sweep from the +Pit to the Gateway, stood laughing huskily with a letter from Ailsa in +his hand. + +He ripped off the envelope and read it greedily. + +"Dear Friend," she wrote, "I cannot imagine what you must think of my +silence; but whatsoever you do think cannot be half so terrible as the +actual cause of it. I have been in close touch with misery and death, +with things so appalling that heart and mind have had room to hold +nothing else. Indeed, I am still so horribly nervous and upset that I +scarcely know how to think coherently much less write. I can only +remember that you once said that if ever I needed your help I was to +ask; and oh, Mr. Cleek, I need it very very much indeed now. Not for +myself--let me find time to add that--but for a dear, dear friend--the +friend I have so often written about: Captain Morford--who is involved +in an affair of the most distressing and mysterious character and whose +only hope lies, I feel, in you. Will you come to the rescue, for my +sake? That is what I am asking. Let me say, however, that there is no +possibility of a reward, for the captain is in no position to offer one; +but I seem to feel that that will not weigh with you. Neither can I ask +you to call at the house, for, as I have already told you, Lady Chepstow +does not care for the Captain and under those circumstances it would be +embarrassing to ask him there to meet you. So then, if no other case +intervenes, and you really _can_ grant me this great favour, will you be +in the neighbourhood of the lich-gate of Lyntonhurst Old Church at nine +o'clock in the morning of Thursday, you will win the everlasting +gratitude of, Your sincere friend--AILSA LORNE." + +Would he be there? He laughed aloud as he put the question to himself. A +Bradshaw was on his table. He caught it up, found that there was a train +that could be caught in thirty-five minutes' time, and clapped on his +hat and--caught it. + +That night he slept at the inn of the Three Desires--which, as you may +possibly know, lies but a gunshot beyond the boundary wall of the glebe +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--slept with an alarm clock at his head and +every servant at the inn from the boots to the barmaid tipped a shilling +to see that he did not oversleep himself. + +He was up before any of them, however--up and out into the pearl-dusk of +the morning before ever the alarm-clock shrilled its first note, or the +sun's sheen slid lower than the spurs of the weather-cock on the spire +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--and twice he had walked past the big gates +and looked up the still avenue to the windows of the huge house whose +roof covered her before Lyntonhurst Old Church spoke up through the +dawn-hush and told the parish it was half-past four o'clock. + +By five, he had found a pool cupped in the beech woods with mallows and +marsh marigolds and a screen of green things all round it and a tent of +blue sky over the sun-touched tree tops; and had stripped and splashed +into it and set all the birds to flight with the harsher song of human +things; by seven he was back at the Three Desires; by eight he had +shaved and changed and breakfasted and was out again in the fields and +the leafy lanes, and by nine he was at the lich-gate of the church. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +She was there already; sitting far back at the end of one of the narrow +wooden side benches with the shadow of the gate's moss-grown roof and of +the big cypress above it partly screening her, her shrinking position +evincing a desire to escape general observation as clearly as her pale +face and nervously drumming hand betrayed a state of extreme agitation. + +She rose as Cleek lifted the latch and came in, and advanced to meet him +with both hands outstretched in greeting and a rich colour staining all +her face. + +"I knew that you would come--I was as certain of it as I am now this +minute," she said with a little embarrassed laugh, then dropped her eyes +and said no more, for he had taken those two hands in his and was +holding them tightly and looking at her with an expression that was half +a reproach and half a caress. + +"I am glad you did not doubt," he said, with an odd, wistful little +smile. "It is good to know one's friends have faith in one, Miss Lorne. +I had almost come to believe that you had forgotten me." + +"Because I did not write? Oh, but I could not--indeed I could not. I +have been spending days and nights in a house of mourning--Lady Chepstow +gave me leave of absence; and my heart was so full I did not write even +to her. I have been trying to soothe and to comfort a distracted girl, a +half-crazed old man, a bereft and horribly smitten family. I have been +doing all in my power to put hope and courage into the heart of a +despairing and most unhappy lover." + +"Meaning Captain Morford?" + +"Yes. He has been almost beside himself. And since this last blow +fell.... Oh, I had been so sure that it would not, that between us all +we would manage to avert it; yet in spite of everything it did fall--it +did!--and if I live to be a hundred I shall never forget it." + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. You are shaking like a leaf. Try to tell me +plainly what it is that has happened; what the danger is that threatens +this--er--Captain Morford." + +"Oh, nothing threatens _him_, personally," she replied. "He says he +could stand it better if it were only that; and I believe him--I truly +do. The thing that nearly drives him out of his mind is the thought that +one day she--the girl he loves--the girl he is to marry--the girl for +whose dear sake he stands ready to give up so much--the thought that one +day _her_ turn will come, that one day she, too, will be stricken down +as mother and brothers have been is almost driving him frantic." + +"Mother and brothers?--_brothers_?" Cleek looked up sharply, and there +was a curious break in his voice, a yet more curious brightening of his +eyes. "Miss Lorne, am I to understand that this Captain Morford is +engaged to a girl who has _brothers_?" + +"Yes. That is--no. She has 'brothers' no longer. There is only one left +living now, Mr. Cleek, only one. Ah, think of it! of that whole family +of six persons, but three are left: Miriam, Flora, and Ronald." + +"Miriam, Flora, and ... Miss Lorne, will you tell me please the name of +the lady to whom Captain Morford is engaged?" + +"Why Miriam Comstock, of course--did I forget to mention it?" + +"I think so," said Cleek; and shook out a little jerky laugh, and stood +looking at her foolishly; not quite knowing what to do with his feet and +hands. But suddenly--"Oh come, let's have the case--let's have it at +once," he broke out impetuously. "Tell me what it is, what I'm to do for +this Captain Morford, and I'll do it if mortal man can." + +"And no mortal man can if you cannot--I've faith enough in you for +that," she began, then stopped short and sucked in her breath, and crept +back to the extreme end of the lich-gate and stood shaking and very +pale. Someone had come suddenly round the angle of the church and was +moving up the road that ran past the gate. + +"Please--no--let me get away as quickly as possible," she said in a +swift whisper as Cleek, startled by the change in her, made an eager +step forward. "It is known that I have been with them--the +Comstocks--and it is all so mysterious and awful.... Oh, who can tell +whose hand it may be? who may be spying? or what? It is best that I +should give no hint that assistance has been asked for; best that nobody +should see me talking with _you_--Mr. Narkom says that it is." + +"Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes. He was in the neighbourhood accidentally. He called last night. I +told him and he was glad that I had sent for you. He is over there, on +the other side of the churchyard. Oh, please will you go to him? Captain +Morford is within easy call and has agreed to come when he is wanted. Do +go, do go quickly, Mr. Cleek. There's someone coming up the road and I +am horribly frightened." + +"But why? It is merely a farm labourer," said Cleek, glancing through +the open side of the lich-gate and down the road. "You can see that for +yourself." + +"Yes, but--who knows? who can tell? There is no clue to the actual +person and he is so cunning, so crafty--Oh, please, will you go? +Afterward, if you like, we can meet here again. To-day I am too +frightened to stay." + +He saw that she was in a state of extreme nervous terror; that it would +be cruel to subject her to any further suffering, and without one more +word, walked past her into the Churchyard and made his way over the +green ridge that rose immediately behind the building and down the slope +beyond until he came to the extreme other side. And there in the shade +of a thickly grown spinney, he found Mr. Marverick Narkom sitting with +his back against a beech-tree smoking a nerve-soothing cigar and +expectantly awaiting him. + +"My dear fellow, I never was so glad," he said, tossing away his smoke +and jumping up as Cleek appeared. "Happy coincidence my motoring down +here--eh, what? Wife in these parts visiting. Rum, my turning up just +after Miss Lorne had written you and at a time when we both are needed, +wasn't it?" + +"Very," said Cleek, pulling out a cigarette and stretching himself full +length upon the ground. "Would as soon have expected to run foul of a +specimen of the Great Auk endeavouring to rear a family in the +neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square. Well, what's it now, Mr. Narkom?--I'm +told you know the details. A match please, if you have one. Thanks very +much. Now then let's have the facts. What sort of a case is it?" + +"The knottiest in all my experience, the strangest that even you have +ever handled," replied the Superintendent, impressively. "It's a +murder--three murders, in fact, with a possible fourth and a fifth in +the near future if the diabolical rascal who is at the bottom of it +isn't pulled up sharp and his amazing _modus operandi_ discovered. + +"The case will interest you, my dear chap; it is so startlingly original +in its methods of procedure, so complex, so weird, and so appallingly +mysterious. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, an individual so +supernaturally cunning that he not only kills without a trace, but kills +in the presence of watchers--kills whilst the victim is in the very arms +of those watchers! And yet escapes, unseen, unknown, without a clue to +tell when, where, or how he entered the room or left it; when, where, or +how he struck the blow, or why; yet did strike it, despite the sleepless +vigil of a man who not only sat up all night with the victim, but held +him in his arms to be sure that nobody could get at him; nobody so much +as approach him without his guardian's knowledge!" + +Cleek twitched round sharply and sat up, leaning upon his elbow and +looking at Narkom as though he doubted his sanity. + +"Let me have that again!" he said in sharp, crisp tones. "A man killed +whilst another man held him--held him in his arms--and watched over him, +and yet the other man saw nothing of the murderer? Is that what you +said?" + +"That's it, precisely. Only I must tell you that, in the instance when +the victim was held in the arms of the person watching him, it was not a +man that was killed, but a boy. There had been a man killed, however, +four weeks previously in the same house, in the same mysterious manner, +and by the same unknown agency. A month earlier a woman, too, had been +done to death there in the same way. The man was the brother of that +boy, and the woman was the mother of both." + +Cleek moved so quickly that he might fairly have been said to flash from +a sitting to a standing position, and then began to feel round in his +pockets for his cigarette case with a nervous sort of haste, which +Narkom knew and understood. + +"Ah," he said, in a tone of satisfaction, "I thought the case would +interest you. You've been down in the dumps lately and needed something +to buck you up a bit. I told Captain Morford that this would be sure to +do it. Heard of him, haven't you? Extremely nice chap. Home on leave +from Bombay. Only recently got his captaincy. Grandson and heir to that +fine old snob, Sir Gilbert Morford, who's known everywhere as 'The +Titled Teapot.' You know, 'Morford & Morford's Unrivalled Tea.' Knighted +for something or other--the Lord knows what or why--and puts on more +side over his tin-plate title than Royalty itself. The Captain is a +decent sort, however. He'll give you the full particulars of this +astounding case. Wait a bit. I'll call him"--pausing a moment to put the +first two fingers of each hand into his mouth and blow out a shrill, +ear-splitting whistle. "That'll fetch him! He'll be here before you can +say Jack Robinson!" + +He wasn't, of course; but you couldn't have said it half a hundred times +before he was; or, at least, before Cleek, startled by a rustling of the +boughs, glanced round and saw a tall, fairish young man who had no more +the appearance of a soldier than a currant has of a gooseberry. He +looked more like a bank clerk than anything else that Cleek could think +of at the minute, and a none too prepossessing bank clerk at that, for +Nature had not been any too lavish of her gifts as regards personal +attractiveness, seeming to prefer to make up for her miserliness in the +bestowal of good looks by an absolute prodigality in the gifts of +ears--ears as big as an oyster-shell and so prominent that they seemed +even larger than they were, and that is saying a great deal. + +Still, unprepossessing as the man was, there was a certain charm of +manner about him and a certain attractiveness in his voice Cleek +discovered when he was introduced to him and found himself being "sized +up," so to speak, by a pair of keen grey eyes. + +"Now let us have the details of the case, if you please, Captain," said +Cleek, coming to the point of the interview with as little beating about +the bush as possible. "Mr. Narkom has given me a vague idea of the +nature of it, but I want something more than that, of course. I am told +that three persons in one family have been done to death in a most +mysterious manner, and without any clue to the assassin or his motive; +indeed that the hand which strikes strikes even in the presence of +others, yet remains unknown and invisible. Frankly, I never heard of but +one instance which at all resembles this or--No, Mr. Narkom, it is +nothing that ever came your way, no affair that has happened since you +and I first met, sir. It was a long time ago--eight or ten years, to be +exact--and a good many miles from England. The cases were somewhat +similar, judging from the scanty outline you have given me, and--What's +that? No, the criminal was never apprehended. He got away, and his +methods were never generally known. Even if they had been, they were not +those which any desperado might have emulated, any tyro practised. They +required a certain knowledge of anatomy, chemical action--even surgery. +I don't believe that ten people in the world knew about the thing at +that time. I stumbled upon what I believed was the solution of the +mystery whilst I was taking a course of chemistry for--well, for the +purpose of demonstrating the possibility of manufacturing precious +stones of a size and weight to make them a profitable--er--speculation. +The science in medicine was not so advanced in those days as it is now, +and when I ventured to suggest to certain doctors what I believed to +have been the cause of the mysterious deaths and the _modus operandi_ of +the murderer, I simply got laughed at for my pains. I felt pretty +certain of my facts, however, and pretty certain of the man who was +guilty. Pardon? No, not alive now; that fellow had his brains blown out +in a bar-room brawl before I left New Zealand." + +"New Zealand?" struck in Captain Morford agitatedly. "I say, that's a +rum go, isn't it, Mr. Narkom. New Zealand is where the Comstocks come +from--or, rather, the father and mother did." + +"By Jove! Cleek, that looks suspicious, old chap," chimed in Narkom. +"Don't think, do you, that there can possibly be any connection between +the two cases? In other words, that that fellow you suspected in New +Zealand didn't really die after all?" + +"Shortly, the chemist? Not a doubt about his death, Mr. Narkom. I was in +the bar-room when he was killed. Three bullets went through his head, +and he was as dead as Napoleon Bonaparte by the time he struck the +floor. The methods may be the same, but not the man--there is not the +ghost of possibility of there being any connection between the two. But +let us give the Captain a chance to explain the case. When, where, and +how did these mysterious murders begin, Captain, if you please?" + +"At Lilac Lodge, over Windsor way," replied the Captain, trying to +answer all three questions at once. "They started about a week after the +Comstocks went to live there. And the thing was so appalling, the place +seemed so certainly under a curse, that although he had paid a good +round sum for it, and had spent a pot of money having the house +decorated and the garden laid out just as Miriam and her mother fancied +it--Miriam is Miss Comstock, my fiancée, Mr. Cleek--nothing would induce +Mr. Harmstead to stop in it another hour after the second murder +occurred." + +"Mr. Harmstead! Who is Mr. Harmstead, Captain?" + +"The late Mrs. Comstock's bachelor uncle--a very rich old chap, who was +once a sheep-farmer in New Zealand, and afterwards in Australia. Mrs. +Comstock hadn't seen him since she was a very little girl until he came +to England some few months ago to settle down and to take care of her +children and her." + +"How did it happen that she hadn't seen him in all that time? I take it +there must have been some good reason, Captain?" + +"Yes, rather. You see it was like this: The Harmsteads--Mrs. Comstock +was a Harmstead by birth, and Uncle Phil was her father's only +brother--the Harmsteads had never been well to-do as a family: indeed +none of them but dear old Uncle Phil ever had a hundred pounds they +could call their own, so when Miss Harmstead's father died, which was +about eight months after his brother left New Zealand and went to +Australia, she married a young joiner and cabinet-maker, George +Comstock, to whom she had long been engaged, and a few weeks later, +fancying there would be a better chance for advancement in his trade in +England than out there, Mr. Comstock sold out what few belongings he had +in the world and brought his wife over here." + +"Oh, I see. Then of course she had no opportunity of seeing her uncle +until he came here?" + +"No, not a ghost of one. She corresponded with him for a time, +however--wrote him after the first child was born--and christened +'Philip' in honour of him. In those days it used to take six months to +get a letter to Australia, and another six to get word back, so the baby +was more than a year old when Uncle Phil wrote that if he didn't marry +in the meantime and have a son of his own--which was very unlikely--he +would make young Phil his heir and come out after him, too, one of these +fine days." + +"One moment. Was the person you allude to as 'Young Phil' one of the +sons that was murdered?" + +"Yes. He was the first victim, poor, chap!" + +"Oh, I see!" said Cleek. "I see! So there is money in the background, +eh? Well go on. What next? Hear any more from Uncle Phil after that?" + +"Oh, yes--for a long time. Miriam and Flora were born, and word of their +arrival in the world was sent out to him before the final letter for +years and years reached them. In that letter he wrote that he was doing +better and better every year, and getting so rich that he didn't have +time to do anything but just stop where he was and 'gather in the +shekels.' There'd be enough for all when he did come, however, and he +was altering his will so that in case anything should happen to young +Phil--'which God forbid,' he wrote--the girls would come next, and so on +to all the heirs of his niece. After that letter years went by, and +never another one. They, thinking that he had married after all--for in +his last letter he had spoken of a young widow who had lately been +engaged to fill the post of housekeeper at his ranch--gave up all hope +when after three times writing no reply came, and finally desisted +entirely. He says, however, that it was just the other way about. That +he did write--wrote six or seven times--but could get no reply; and as +he afterwards found the housekeeper in question a designing and +deceitful person, and shipped her off about her business, he makes no +doubt that she received and destroyed Mrs. Comstock's letter to him and +burnt his to her, hoping, no doubt, to inveigle him into marrying her." + +"Quite likely, if she were a designing woman," commented Cleek. "But go +on, please. What next?" + +"Oh, years of hardship, during which Mr. Comstock died and his widow had +to earn their own living unaided. Young Phil got a post as bookkeeper, +Flora taught music and painting, Mrs. Comstock did needlework, and +Miriam became a governess in the family of a distant connection of my +grandfather, Sir Gilbert Morford. That's where and how I met her, Mr. +Cleek, and--Well, that's another story!" his cheeks reddening and a +flash of fire coming into his eyes. "My grandfather says he will 'chuck +me out neck and crop' if I marry her; but it does not matter--I will!" + +"Yes, you will--if the cut of that chin stands for anything," commented +Cleek. "Well, to get on: the Comstocks were down in the deeps, and no +hope of hearing any more from Australia and Uncle Phil, eh? What next?" + +"Why, all of a sudden he dropped in on them, bless his bully old +heart!--and then good-bye to hard times and any more struggling for +them. He'd been in England searching for them for seven months before he +found them; but when he did find them there was a time! Inside of ten +hours, the whole world was changed for them. Made the boys and the girls +give up their positions and come home to live with him and their mother, +poured money out by the handful, bought Lilac Lodge and fitted it up +like a little palace, dressed his niece and her daughters like queens, +and settled down with them to what seemed about to be a life of glorious +and luxurious ease, and in the midst of all this peace and plenty, +brightness and hope, the first blow fell. Mrs. Comstock, going to bed at +night in perfect health, was found in the morning stone-dead! Of course, +as no doctor could give a death certificate when none had been in +attendance upon her, the Law stepped in, the coroner held an inquest, an +autopsy was decided upon, and the result of it was a deeper and more +amazing mystery than ever. She had died--but from what? Every organ was +found to be in a thoroughly healthy condition. The heart was sound, the +lungs betrayed no sign of an anesthetic, the blood and kidneys not the +faintest trace of poison--everything about her was perfectly normal. She +had not died through drugs, she had not died through strangulation, +suffocation, electrical shock, or failure of the heart. She had not been +stabbed, she had not been shot, she had not succumbed to any mortal +disease--yet there she was, stone-dead, slain by something which no one +could trace and for which Science could find no name." + +Narkom opened his lips to speak, but Cleek signalled him to silence, and +stood studying the Captain from under down-drawn brows, looking and +listening and thoughtfully rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down +his chin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +"Of course the family was horribly shocked and upset by this sudden and +mysterious interruption to the dream of peace," went on the Captain; +"but nothing was left but to accept the verdict of 'Death from unknown +causes,' and to believe it the will of God. The body was buried a few +days later, and, comforting each other as best they could, the sorrowing +uncle and heart-broken nieces and nephews settled down to living their +lives without the one who had been the sunshine of the home, and whose +loss seemed the greatest blow that could have been dealt them. A month +passed and they were just beginning to forget details of the tragedy +when a second and equally mysterious and horrifying one occurred, and +the eldest son of the dead woman--Philip--was stricken down precisely as +his mother had been, and, as his horrified brother, sisters, and uncle +now recalled, like her, on the tenth day of the month!" + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, reflectively. "Rather significant, that. It was, +I assume, that circumstance which first suggested the idea of something +more than mere chance being at the back of these sudden and mysterious +deaths?" + +"That and one other circumstance. The condition of the bedclothing, Mr. +Cleek, showed that in Philip's case there had been something in the +nature of a struggle before he had succumbed to the Power which had +assailed him. In other words, he had not been, as doubtless the poor +mother had, so infinitely inferior in point of strength to the murderer +as to be absolutely powerless in the wretch's grip from the very first +instant of the attack. He had fought for his life, poor fellow, but it +must have been a brief fight and death itself almost instantaneous; for +although the bedclothing was tangled round his feet in a manner which +could only have occurred in a struggle, he did not live long enough to +get off the bed itself or slide so much as one foot to the floor. He +died as his mother had died, and the verdict of the doctors and of the +coroner's jury was the same: 'Death from unknown causes'!" + +"Hm-m-m!" said Cleek again. "And were all the symptoms--or, rather, the +absence of symptoms--the same?" + +"Precisely. All the organs were discovered to be in a normal condition, +the blood was untainted by any suggestion of either mineral or animal +poison, the heart was sound, the lungs healthy--there was neither an +internal disturbance nor an external wound, unless one could call a +'wound' a slight, a very slight, swelling upon the left side of the +neck; a small thing, not so big as a sixpence." + +"And appearing very much like the inflammation resulting from the bite +of a gnat or a spider, Captain?" + +"Exactly like it, Mr. Cleek. In fact, the doctors fancied at first that +it was the result of his having been bitten by some poisonous insect, +and were for accounting for his death that way. But, of course, the +entire absence of poison in the blood soon put an end to that idea, so +it was certain that whatever he died from, it was not from a bite or a +sting of any sort." + +"Clever chaps, those doctors," commented Cleek with a curious one-sided +smile. "However, they were quite correct in that, I imagine, poison, +either animal, vegetable, or mineral, was not the means of destruction. +Still, I should have thought that at this second post-mortem the +likeness of the son's case to that of the mother's would have impelled +them to extra vigilance, and resulted in a much more careful searching, +and minute examination of the viscera. If my theory is correct, I do not +suppose they would have found anything in the contents of the thorax or +the abdomen, but it is just possible that analysis of the matter removed +from the cranial cavity might have revealed a small blood-clot in the +brain." + +The Captain twitched up his eyebrows and stared at him in open-mouthed +amazement. + +"Of all the--By Jove! you know, this beats me! To think of your guessing +that!" he said. "As a matter of fact, that's precisely what they did do, +Mr. Cleek. But as they couldn't arrive at any conclusion nor trace a +probable cause of its origin they were more in the dark than ever. +Selwin, the local practitioner, was for putting it down as a case of +apoplexy on the strength of that small blood-clot, but as there was an +entire absence of every other symptom of apoplectic conditions the other +doctors scouted the suggestion as preposterous--pointed out the +generally healthy state of the brain and of the heart, lungs, arterial +walls, _et cetera_, as utterly refuting such a theory--and in the end +the verdict on the son was the verdict given on the mother: 'Death from +unknown causes'; and he was buried as she had been buried, with the +secret of the murder undiscovered." + +"And then what, Captain?" + +"What I have already told you, Mr. Cleek. Nothing under God's heaven +would or could persuade Mr. Harmstead to let his nieces and their two +surviving brothers remain another hour in that house of disaster. He +removed them from it instantly--fled the very neighbourhood, hired a +house down here--at Dalehampton; a dozen miles or so on the other side +of the Tor, yonder--and carried them there to live. The family now +consisted of Miriam and Flora, the two girls, Paul, a boy of +thirteen--old Mr. Harmstead's special pride and pet--and Ronald, a +little chap of eleven. In this new home they hoped and prayed to be free +from the horrible visitant who had made the memory of the old one a +nightmare to them, but--they couldn't forget, Mr. Cleek, what the Tenth +of each month had taken from them, and grew sick with dread at the +steady approach of the Tenth of this one." + +"And as this is the Twelfth," said Cleek, "the day before yesterday +_was_ the Tenth. Did anything happen?" + +"Yes," replied the Captain, his voice dropping until it was little more +than a whisper. "I tried to cheer them; Miss Lorne tried to cheer them. +We sat with them, tried to make them think that our presence there would +act as a shield and a guard--and tried to think so ourselves. But old +Mr. Harmstead took even stronger measures. 'Nothing shall touch +Paul--nothing that lives and breathes,' he said, desperately. 'I'll take +him into my room; I'll sit up with him in my arms all night!'" + +"And did so?" + +"Yes. At twelve o'clock, Miss Lorne, Miss Comstock, and I went in to say +good-night to him. He was sitting in a deep chair with the boy fast +asleep in his arms--sitting and looking all about him with the dumb +agony of a trapped mouse. I'll never forget how he clutched the boy to +him nor the cry he gave when the door opened to admit us, the sob of +relief when he saw it was only us. His cry and his movement awoke the +boy, but he dropped off to sleep again before I left, and was breathing +healthily and peacefully. The last look I had at the picture as I went +out, Mr. Cleek, the dear old chap was holding his pet in his arms and +smiling down into his boyish face. So he was still sitting, Miss +Comstock tells me, when she came down this morning. 'Look,' he said to +her, 'I watched him--I held him--the tenth day is past and the death +didn't get him, my bonnie!' Then called her to his side and shook the +little fellow to awaken him. It was then only that he discovered the +truth. The boy was stone-dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +"There, Mr. Cleek," resumed the Captain, after he could master his +emotion. "That is the case--that is the riddle I am praying to Heaven +that you may be able to solve. What the mysterious power is, when, +where, or how it got into the room and got at the boy, God alone knows. +Mr. Harmstead will swear that he never let the little fellow out of his +arms for one solitary instant between the time of our leaving him just +after midnight, and Miss Comstock's coming in in the morning. He admits, +however, that twice during that period he fell asleep, but it was only +for a few minutes each time; and long years of being constantly alert +for possible marauders--out there in the wilds of Australia--have tended +to make his sleep so light that anything heavier than a cat's footfall +wakes him on the instant. Yet last night something--man or spirit--came +and went, and he neither heard nor saw either sound or shape from +midnight until morning. One thing I must tell you, however, which may +throw some light upon the movements of the appalling thing. Whereas Mr. +Harmstead not only closed, but locked, both of the two windows in the +room, and pinned the thick plushette curtains of them together--as Miss +Comstock and I saw them pinned when we left the room last night--when +those curtains came to be drawn this morning one of the windows was +found to be partly open, and there was a smear of something that looked +like grease across the sill and the stone coping beyond." + +"Of course, of course!" commented Cleek enigmatically. "Provided my +theory is correct, I should have expected that. A thing that comes and +goes through windows must, at some period, leave some mark of its +passage. Of course that particular window opened upon a balcony or +something of that sort, didn't it?" + +"No, it is a perfectly unbroken descent from the window sill to the +ground. But there's a big tree close by, and the branches of that brush +the pane of glass." + +"Ah! I see! I see! All the soap dishes in the house left filled last +night and found filled this morning, captain?" + +"Good heavens! I don't know. What on earth can soap dishes have to do +with it, man?" + +"Possibly nothing, probably a great deal--particularly if there's found +to be a cake of soap in each. But that we can discover later. Now one +word more. Was that same minute swelling--the mark like a gnat's +bite--on the neck of the boy's body, too? And had it been on that of the +mother's as well?" + +"I can't answer either question, Mr. Cleek. I don't remember to have +heard about it being remarked in the case of Mrs. Comstock's death; and +the murder of little Paul was such a horrible thing and so upset +everybody that none of us thought to look." + +"An error of judgment that; however, it is one easily rectified, since +the body is not yet interred," said Cleek. "Ever read Harvey's +'Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Sanguinis,' Captain?--the volume in which +William Harvey first gave to the world at large his discovery regarding +the circulation of the blood." + +"Good heavens, no! What would I be doing reading matters of that kind? +I'm not a medico, Mr. Cleek--I'm a soldier." + +"I know. But, still--well, I thought it just possible that you might +have read the work, or, at least, heard something regarding the contents +of the volume. Men who have a hobby are rather given to riding it and +boring other people with discussions and dissertations upon it; and I +seem to think that I have heard it said that Sir Gilbert Morford's +greatest desire in the time of his youth was to become a medical man. In +fact, that he put in two or three years as a student at St. +Bartholomew's, and would have qualified, but that the sudden death of +his father compelled him to abandon the hope and to assume the +responsibilities of the head of the house of Morford & Morford, tea +importers, of Mincing Lane." + +"Yes; that's quite correct. He bitterly resented the compulsion--the +'pitchforking of a man out of a profession into the abomination of +trade,' as he always expresses it--but of course, he was obliged to +yield, and the 'dream of his life' dropped off into nothing but a dream. +But the old love and the old recollection still linger, and, although he +no longer personally follows either trade or profession, he keeps up his +laboratory work, subscribes to every medical journal in Christendom, and +if you want to tickle his vanity or to get on the right side of him all +you have to do is to address him as 'doctor.' With all due respect to +him, he's a bit of a prig, Mr. Cleek, and hates people of no +position--'people of the lower order,' as he always terms them--as the +gentleman down under is said to hate holy water." + +"So that he, naturally, would move heaven and earth to prevent his +grandson and heir from marrying a young woman of that class? I see!" +supplemented Cleek. "The dear gentleman would like the name of Morford +to go down to posterity linked to duchesses or earls' daughters, and +surrounded by a blaze of glory. Ah, it's a queer world, Captain. There +is no bitterer hater of the 'common herd' than the snob who has climbed +up from it! The snob and the sneak are closely allied, Captain, and men +of that stamp have been known to do some pretty ugly things to uphold +their pinchbeck dignity, and to keep the tinsel of the present over the +cheap gingerbread of the past." + +"Good God, man! You don't surely mean to suggest--" + +"Gently, gently, Captain. Your indignation does you credit; but it is +never well to have a shot at a rabbit before he's fairly out of the +hole, and you are sure that it isn't the ferret you sent in after him. +Anything in the way of a conveyance handy, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes--the limousine. I came down in it yesterday. It's over at the Rose +and Crown." + +"Good! Then perhaps Captain Morford will meet us there in a half hour's +time. Meanwhile, I've got a few things to throw into my kit-bag, and as +that's over at the Three Desires, perhaps you won't mind coming along +and giving me a hand. Then we'll run over to that house at Dalehampton +and have a look at the body of that poor little shaver as expeditiously +as possible. Will you come?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Narkom; and having given a few necessary +directions to the Captain walked on and followed Cleek. He knew very +well the suggestion that he should do so was merely an excuse to have a +few words with him in private--for no man would be likely to need +another man's assistance in simply putting a few things into a bag--and +he was rather puzzled to account for Cleek's desire to say anything to +him which the Captain was not to hear. However, he kept his curiosity in +check and his tongue behind his teeth until they were on the other side +of the lich-gate and in the road leading to the Three Desires. + +"There's something you want to say to me, isn't there?" he inquired. +"Something you want attended to on the quiet?" + +"Yes," admitted Cleek, tersely. "There's a public telephone station a +mile or two on the other side of this place--I saw it this morning when +I was out tramping. Slip off down there, ring up the head of the +Dalehampton Constabulary, and tell him to have a man at the house ready +to pop up when wanted. I'll be long enough over my supposed 'packing' to +cover the time of your going and returning without the Captain's +knowledge." + +"Without--Good Heaven! My dear Cleek, you were serious, then? You meant +it? You--you really believe that suspicion points to Sir Gilbert +Morford?" + +"Not any more than it points to Sir Gilbert Morford's grandson, Mr. +Narkom." + +"Good Lord! To him? To that boy? Why, man alive, what possible motive +could he have for bringing grief and anguish to Miss Comstock when he's +willing to give up a fortune to marry her?" + +"Ah, but don't forget that another fortune descends to all the heirs, +male and female alike, of the late Mrs. Comstock, Mr. Narkom, and that +if the Captain's fiancée becomes, in course of time, the only surviving +child of that unfortunate lady, the Captain's sacrifice will not be such +an overpowering hardship for him, after all." + +"Great Scott! I never thought of that before, Cleek--never." + +"Didn't you? Well, don't think too much of it now that you have. For +circumstantial evidence is tricky and treacherous, and he mayn't be the +man, after all!" + +"Mayn't be? What a beggar you are for damping a man's ardour after +you've fanned it up to the blazing point. Any light in the darkness, old +chap? Any idea of what--and how?" + +"Yes," said Cleek, quietly. "If there's a mark on that poor little +shaver's neck, Mr. Narkom, I shall know the means. And if there's soap +on the window sill I shall know the man!" And then, having reached the +doorway of the inn, he dived into it and went up the staircase two steps +at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The little house of Dalehampton was something more than a mere house of +grief, they found, when the long drive came to an end and Cleek and his +two companions entered it, for the very spirit of desolation and despair +seemed to have taken up its abode there; and, like an Incarnate Woe, +Miss Comstock paced through the hush and darkness, hour in and hour out, +as she had been doing since daybreak. + +"My darling, you mustn't--you really mustn't, dear. You'll lose your +mind if you brood over the thing like this," said the Captain, flying to +her the very instant they arrived; and, disregarding the presence of his +two companions, caught her in his arms and kissed her. "Miriam, dearest, +don't! It breaks my heart. I know it's awful; but do try to have +strength and hope. I am sure we shall get at the bottom of the thing +now--sure that there will be no more--that this is truly the end. These +gentlemen are from Scotland Yard, dearest, and they say it surely will +be." + +"Heaven knows I hope so," replied Miss Comstock, acknowledging the +introduction to Cleek and Narkom by a gentle inclination of the head. +"But indeed, I can't hope, Jim--indeed, I cannot, gentlemen. The tenth +of next month will take its toll as the tenth of this one has done. I +feel persuaded that it will. For who can fight a thing unseen and +unknown?" + +Her grief was so great, her despair so hopeless, that Cleek forbore +attempting to assuage either by any words of sympathy or promise. He +seemed to feel that hers was an anguish upon which even the kindliest +words must fall only as an intrusion, and the heart of the man--that +curiously created heart, which at times could be savage even to the +point of brutality, and again tender and sympathetic as any +woman's--went out to her in one great surge of human feeling. And two +minutes later--when all the Law's grim business of inquiry and inquest +had been carried out by Narkom, and she, in obedience to his expressed +desire, led them to the room where the dead boy lay--that wave of +sympathetic feeling broke over his soul again. For the gentle opening of +the door had shown him a small, dimly lit room, a kneeling figure, bent +of back and bowed of head, that leant over a little white bed in a very +agony of tearless woe. + +"He can hardly tear himself away for an instant--he loved him so!" she +said in a quavering whisper to Cleek. "Must we disturb him? It seems +almost cruel." + +"I know it," he whispered back; "but the place must be searched in quest +of possible clues, Miss Comstock. The--the little boy, too, must be +examined, and it would be crueller still if he were to stay and see +things like that. Lead him out if you can. It will be for a few minutes +only. Tell him so--tell him he can come back then." And turned his face +away from that woeful picture as she went over and spoke to the +sorrowing old man. + +"Uncle!" she said softly. "Uncle Phil! You must come away for a little +time, dear. It is necessary." + +"Oh, I can't, Mirry--I can't, lovie, dear!" he answered without lifting +his head or loosening his folded hands. "My bonnie, my bonnie, that I +loved so well! Ah, let me have him while I may, Mirry--they'll take him +from me soon enough--soon enough, my bonnie boy!" + +"But, dearest, you must. The--the Law has stepped in. Gentlemen from +Scotland Yard are here. Jim has brought them. They must have the room +for a little time. There--there's the window to be examined, you know; +and if they can find out anything--" + +"I'll give them the half of all I have in the world!" broke in the old +man with a little burst of tears. "Tell them that. The half of +everything--everything--if they can get at the creature. If they can +find out. But"--collapsing suddenly, with his elbows on his knees and +his face between his hands--"they can't, they can't; nobody can! It +kills and kills and kills; and God help us! we all shall go the same +way! It will be my turn, too, some time soon. I wish it were mine now. I +wish it had been mine long ago--before I lost my bonnie own!" + +"Takes it hard, poor old chap, doesn't he?" whispered Narkom, glancing +round and getting something of a shock when he saw that Cleek, who a +moment before had appeared to be almost on the verge of tears, was now +fumbling in his coat pockets, and, with indrawn lips and knotted brows, +was scowling--absolutely scowling--in the direction where Captain +Morford stood, biting his lips and drumming with his finger nails upon +the edge of the washstand. But Cleek made no reply. Instead, he walked +quickly across to the Captain's side, stretched forth his hand, took up +a tablet of soap, turned it over, laid it down again, stepped to the +window, stepped back, and laid a firm hand on the young man's shoulder. + +"Captain," he said suddenly, in sharp, crisp tones, that sounded +painfully harsh after the old man's broken cries, "Captain, there's a +little game of cards called 'Bluff,' and it's an excellent amusement if +you don't get caught at it. We shan't have to go any further with the +search for clues in this case; but I think I shall have to ask you, my +friend, a few little questions in private, and in the interests of a +gentleman called Jack Ketch!" + +This unexpected outburst produced something like a panic. Miss Comstock, +hearing the words, cried out, put both hands to her temples, as though +her head were reeling; old Mr. Harmstead straightened suddenly and flung +a look of blank amazement across the room; and the Captain, twitching +away from the man who gripped him, went first deathly white and then red +as any beet. + +"Good God!" he gulped. "You--I--Look here, I say now, what does this +mean? What the dickens are you talking about?" + +"Bluff, Captain! Simply 'bluff'!" responded Cleek serenely. "And as I +said before, it's a clever little game. Stand where you are--keep an eye +on him, Mr. Narkom. What I've got to say to you, my friend, we'll talk +about in private, and after I have assisted Miss Comstock to lead her +uncle out of the room." + +With that he swung away from the Captain's side and went over to that of +the old man. + +"Come, Mr. Harmstead, let me help you to rise," he began; then stopped +as the old man put up a knotted and twisted hand in supplication and +protested agitatedly: "But--but, sir, I do not want to go. Good Heaven! +What can you be hinting against that poor, dear boy? Surely you do not +mean--you cannot mean--" + +"That the little game of 'Bluff' has worked, Dr. Finch, and you'll never +draw a revolver on me," rapped in Cleek, giving him a backward push that +carried him to the floor, and in the twinkling of an eye he had pounced +upon him like a cat and was saying, as he snapped the handcuffs upon his +wrists: "Got you, you brute-beast; got you tight and fast! Do you +remember Hamilton, the medical student, in New Zealand, eight years ago? +Do you? Well, that's the man you're dealing with now!" + +The man, struggling and kicking, biting and clawing like any other +cornered wild cat, flung out a cry of utter despair at this, and +collapsed suddenly; and in the winking of an eye Cleek's hands had +flashed into the two pockets of the dressing-gown the fellow was +wearing, and flashed out again with a revolver in one and a shining +nickel thing in the other. + +"Got your 'bark,' doctor, and got your 'bite' as well!" he said, as he +rose to his feet. "You'd have put a bullet through me at the first word, +wouldn't you, but for that little 'bluff' of suspecting and arresting +another man? Captain, look to Miss Comstock--I think she has fainted. +You wanted the murderer of Mrs. Comstock and her children, didn't you? +Well, here he is, the rascal!" + +"Good God! Then it--it's not a mistake? You mean it--mean it? And Uncle +Phil! You accuse Uncle Phil?" + +"Uncle Nothing!" flung back Cleek with a sort of laugh--and, hazarding a +guess which afterwards was proved to be the truth--"I'll lay my life, +Captain, that when you apply to the Australian authorities you will find +that old Mr. Philip Harmstead is in his grave; that he was attended in +his last illness by one Dr. Frederick Finch, to whom his fortune would +revert in the event of Mrs. Comstock and her children dying. Finch is +the fellow's name--isn't it, doctor, eh?" + +"Finch?" repeated the Captain. "Good Heaven! Why that was the name of +the woman who was old Mr. Harmstead's housekeeper--you know, the widow I +told you about to-night." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "That's possibly where the threads join and this +little game begins. Or perhaps it may really be said to begin again +where Shorty, the chemist, died, and the celebrated Spofford mystery +ended--eh, doctor? Look here, Captain, look here, Mr. Narkom, you +remember what I told you this morning about that case in New Zealand +which so strongly resembled this one? That was the Spofford mystery. Do +you remember what I said about hitting upon a theory and offering it to +the medical fraternity, only to get laughed at for my pains? Well, it +was to this man, Dr. Frederick Finch, I advanced that theory, and it was +Dr. Frederick Finch who jeered at it, but has now made deadly use of it, +the hound. Do you want to know how he killed his victims, and what he +used? Look at this thing that you saw me take from the pocket of his +dressing-gown. It is a hypodermic syringe, but there is nothing in +it--there never has been anything in it. Air was his poison--air his +shaft of death; and he killed by injecting it into the veins of his +victims. The result of air coming into contact with the circulating +blood of a human being is the formation of a blood-clot, and death is +instantaneous the instant the clot reaches either the brain or the +heart! That was his method. But thank God it's done with for ever now, +and the next tenth day of the month will pass over this stricken family +and leave it unscathed!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know the man?" said Cleek, answering Narkom's query, as they +came down the Tor-side afoot and forged on in the direction of +Lyntonhurst Old Church--whither Captain Morford and the limousine had +long ago preceded them--with the low-dropped sun behind them and +lengthening shadows streaming on before. "Well, as a matter of fact, I +never did know him until I actually touched him. I was certain of the +method, of course; but the man--no. I got my first suspicion of 'Uncle +Phil' when I heard him speak. I knew I had heard that voice somewhere, +and I realised that it was much too young a voice for a man who +appeared--and must be, if he were the real 'Uncle Phil'--extremely old; +but it was only when I saw his hand, and the peculiar knotted and +twisted little finger that I really knew who he was. What's that? The +soap? Well, of course I knew that if, as I suspected, someone in the +house was the real culprit, an attempt would be made to make it look as +though the criminal entered from without, so naturally the window would +be opened, and something of some sort would be smeared on the +sill--something that wouldn't blow away and wouldn't wash off in the +event of a sudden rainstorm coming up. Soap would do--and soap is always +handy in a bedroom. I knew whose hand had made the smear as soon as I +looked at the cake of soap in 'Uncle Phil's' room--it was badly rubbed +on one side where it had been scraped over the stone coping and along +the outer edge of the sill where--Pardon me: this is the turning--I +leave you here. Pick me up at the inn of the Three Desires in an hour's +time, please, and we'll motor back to town together. So long!" + +And swung round into the branching lane and down the green slope, and +round under the shadow of Lyntonhurst Old Church to the quiet country +road and the lich-gate where Ailsa Lorne was waiting. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +She was sitting in the very same place she had occupied when first he +saw her this morning, with the cypress tree and the roof making shadows +above and about her; and now, as then, she rose when she heard the latch +click and came toward him with hands outstretched and eyes aglow and +little gusts of colour sweeping in rose waves over throat and cheeks. + +"Oh, to think that you have solved it! To think that it is the end! And +to think that it was he--that dear, kind 'uncle' of whom they all were +so fond!" she said. "I could scarcely believe it when Captain Morford +brought the news. It made me quite faint for the moment--it was so +unexpected, so horrible!" + +"And after all, there was nothing to fear from that farm labourer who +frightened you so this morning, you see," he smiled, holding her two +hands in his and looking down at her from his greater height. "Yet I +find your crouching back in the shadow as if you were still frightened +to be seen. Are you?" + +"A little," she admitted. "You see, the road is a public one. People are +always passing, and--How good it was of you to come all this long +distance out of your way. Indeed, I am very, very grateful, Mr. Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said gravely. "But you need not be. Indeed, the +gratitude should be all on my side. I said I would come if ever you +wanted me, and you gave me an opportunity to keep my word. As for it +being out of my way to come here, it is but a little distance to the +Three Desires and a long one to Lady Chepstow's place, so it is you, not +I, that have 'gone out of the way!' It was good of you to give me this +grace--I should have been sorry to go back to town without saying +good-bye." + +"But need you go so soon?" she asked. "Lady Chepstow will feel slighted, +I know, if she hears that you have been in the neighbourhood and have +not called. She is a friend, you know, a warm, true friend--always +grateful for what you did, always glad to see you. Why not stop on a day +or two and call and see her?" + +A robin flicked down out of the cypress tree and perched on the gate +top, looked up at Cleek with bright, sharp eyes, flung out a wee little +trill, and was off again. + +"I'm afraid it is out of the question--I'm afraid I'm not so deeply +interested in Lady Chepstow as, perhaps, I ought to be," said Cleek, +noticing in a dim subconscious way that the robin had flown on to the +church door and perched there, and was in full song now. "Besides, she +does not know of me what you do. Perhaps, if she did.... Oh, well, it +doesn't matter. Thank you for coming to say good-bye, Miss Lorne. It was +kind of you. Now I must emulate Poor Jo, and 'move on' again." + +"And without any reward!" said Ailsa with a smile and a sigh. "Without +expecting any; without asking any; without wanting any!" + +He stood a moment, twisting his heel round and round in the gravel of +the pathway, and breathing hard, his eyes on the ground, and his lips +indrawn. Then, of a sudden--"Perhaps I did want one. Perhaps I've always +wanted one. And hoped to get it some day perhaps from--you!" he said. +And looked up at her as a man looks but once at one woman ever. + +She had come a step nearer; she was standing there with the shadows +behind her and the light on her face, warm colour in her cheeks, and a +smile on her lips and in her eyes. She spoke no word, made no sound; +merely stood there and smiled and, somehow, he seemed to know what the +smile of her meant and what the bird's note said. + +"Miss Lorne--Ailsa," he said, very, very gently, "if some day ... when +all the wrongs I did in those other days are righted, and all that a man +can do on this earth to atone for such a past as mine has been done ... +if then, in that time, I come to you and ask for that reward, do you +think, oh, do you think that you can find it in your heart to give it?" + +"When that day dawns, come and see," she said, "if you wish to wait so +long!" + + + + +EPILOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO HAD BEEN CALLED HAMILTON CLEEK + + +"Note for you, sir--messenger just fetched it. Addressed to 'Captain +Burbage,' so it'll be from The Yard," said Dollops, coming into the room +with a doughnut in one hand and a square envelope in the other. + +Cleek, who had been sitting at his writing-table, with a litter of +folded documents, bits of antique jewellery, and what looked like odds +and ends of faded ribbon lying before him, swept the whole collection +into the table drawer as Dollops spoke and stretched forth his hand for +the letter. + +It was one of Narkom's characteristic communications, albeit somewhat +shorter than those communications usually were--a fact which told Cleek +at once that the matter was one of immense importance. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran. "For the love of goodness don't let anything +tempt you into going out to-night. I shall call about ten. Foreign +government affair--reward simply enormous. Look out for me. Yours, in +hot haste--MAVERICK NARKOM." + +"Be on the lookout for the red limousine," said Cleek, glancing over at +Dollops, who stood waiting for orders. "It will be along about ten. +That's all. You may go." + +"Right you are, Gov'nor. I'll keep my eyes peeled, sir. Lor'! I do hope +it's summink to do with a restaurant or a cookshop this time. I could do +with a job of that sort--my word, yes! I'm fair famishin'. And, beggin' +pardon, but you don't look none too healthy yourself this evening, +Gov'nor. Ain't et summink wot's disagreed with you, have you, sir?" + +"I? What nonsense! I'm as fit as a fiddle. What could make you think +otherwise?" + +"Oh, I dunno, sir--only--Well, if you don't mind my sayin' of it, sir, +whenever you gets to unlocking of that draw and lookin' at them things +you keep in there--wotever they is--you always gets a sort of +solemncholy look in the eyes; and you gets white about the gills, and +your lips has a pucker to 'em that I don't like to see." + +"Tommy rot! Imagination's a splendid thing for a detective to possess, +Dollops, but don't let yours run away with you in this fashion, my lad, +or you'll never rise above what you are. Toddle along now, and look out +for Mr. Narkom's arrival. It's after nine already, so he'll soon be +here." + +"Anybody a-comin' with him, sir?" + +"I don't know--he didn't say. Cut along, now; I'm busy!" said Cleek. +Nevertheless, when Dollops had gone and the door was shut and he had the +room to himself again, and, if he really did have any business on hand, +there was no reason in the world why he should not have set about it, he +remained sitting at the table and idly drumming upon it with his finger +tips, a deep ridge between his brows and a far-away expression in his +fixed, unwinking eyes. And so he was still sitting when, something like +twenty minutes later, the sharp "Toot-toot!" of a motor horn sounded. + +Narkom's note lay on the table close to his elbow. He took it up, +crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into his waste basket. "A foreign +government affair," he said with a curious one-sided smile. "A strange +coincidence, to be sure!" Then, as if obeying an impulse, he opened the +drawer, looked at the litter of things he had swept into it, shut it up +again and locked it securely, putting the key into his pocket and rising +to his feet. Two minutes later, when Narkom pushed open the door and +entered the room, he found Cleek leaning against the edge of the +mantelpiece and smoking a cigarette with the air of one whose feet trod +always upon rose petals, and who hadn't a thought beyond the affairs of +the moment, nor a care for anything but the flavour of Egyptian tobacco. + +"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't think what a relief it was to catch you. +I had but a moment in which to dash off the note, and I was on thorns +with fear that it would miss you; that on a glorious night like this +you'd be off for a pull up the river or something of that sort," said +the superintendent, as he bustled in and shook hands with him. "You are +such a beggar for getting off by yourself and mooning." + +"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Narkom, I came within an ace of doing +the very thing you speak of," replied Cleek. "It's full moon, for one +thing, and it's primrose time for another. Happily for your desire to +catch me, however, I--er--got interested in the evening paper, and that +delayed me." + +"Very glad, dear chap; very glad, indeed," began Narkom. Then, as his +eye fell upon the particular evening paper in question lying on the +writing-table, a little crumpled from use, but with a certain +"displayed-headed" article of three columns length in full view, he +turned round and stared at Cleek with an air of awe and mystification. +"My dear fellow, you must be under the guardianship of some uncanny +familiar. You surely must, Cleek!" he went on. "Do you mean to tell me +that is what kept you at home? That you have been reading about the +preparations for the forthcoming coronation of King Ulric of +Mauravania?" + +"Yes; why not? I am sure it makes interesting reading, Mr. Narkom. The +kingdom of Mauravania has had sufficient ups and downs to inspire a +novelist, so its records should certainly interest a mere reader. To be +frank, I found the account of the amazing preparations for the +coronation of his new Majesty distinctly entertaining. They are an +excitable and spectacular people, those Mauravanians, and this time they +seem bent upon outdoing themselves." + +"But, my dear Cleek, that you should have chosen to stop at home and +read about that particular affair! Bless my soul man, it's--it's +amazing, abnormal, uncanny! Positively uncanny, Cleek!" + +"My dear Narkom, I don't see where the uncanny element comes in, I must +confess," replied Cleek with an indulgent smile. "Surely an Englishman +must always feel a certain amount of interest in Mauravian affairs. Have +the goodness to remember that there should be an Englishman upon that +particular throne. Aye, and there would be, too, but for one of those +moments of weak-backed policy, of a desire upon the part of the +'old-woman' element which sometimes prevails in English politics to keep +friendly relations with other powers at any cost. Brush up your history, +Mr. Narkom, and give your memory a fillip. Eight-and-thirty years ago +Queen Karma of Mauravania had an English consort and bore him two +daughters, and one son. You will perhaps recall the mad rebellion, the +idiotic rising which disgraced that reign. That was the time for England +to have spoken. But the peace party had it by the throat; they, with +their mawkish cry for peace--peace at any price!--drowned the voices of +men and heroes, and the end was what it was! Queen Karma was +deposed--she and her children fled, God knows how, God knows where--fled +and left a dead husband and father, slain like a hero and an Englishman, +fighting for his own, and with his face to the foe. Avenge his death? +Nonsense, declared the old women. He had no right to defy the will of +Heaven, no right to stir up strife with a friendly people and expect his +countrymen to embroil themselves because of his lust for power. It would +be a lasting disgrace to the nation if England allowed a lot of howling, +bloodthirsty meddlers to persuade it to interfere. + +"The old women had their way. Queen Karma and her children vanished; her +uncle Duke Sforza came to the throne as Alburtus III., and eight months +ago his son, the present King Ulric, succeeded him. The father had been +a bad king, the son a bad crown-prince. Mauravania has paid the price. +Let her put up with it! I don't think in the light of these things, Mr. +Narkom, there is any wonder that an Englishman finds interest in reading +of the affairs of a country over which an Englishman's son might, and +ought to, have ruled. As for me, I have no sympathy, my friend, with +Mauravania or her justly punished people." + +"Still, my dear fellow, that should not count when the reward for taking +up this case is so enormous--and I dare say it will not." + +"Reward? Case?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by that?" + +"That I am here to enlist your services in the cause of King Ulric of +Mauravania," replied Narkom, impressively. "Something has happened, +Cleek, which, if not cleared up before the coronation day--now only one +month hence, as you must have read--will certainly result in his +Majesty's public disgrace, and may result in his overthrow and death! +His friend and chief adviser, Count Irma, has come all the way from +Mauravania, and is at this moment downstairs in this house, to put the +case in your hands and to implore you to help and to save his royal +master!" + +"His royal master? The son of the man who drove an Englishman's wife and +an Englishman's children into exile--poverty--misery--despair?" said +Cleek, pulling himself up. "I won't take it, Mr. Narkom! If he offers me +millions, I'll lift no hand to help or to save Mauravania's king!" + +The response to this came from an unexpected quarter. + +"But to save Mauravania's queen, monsieur? Will you do nothing for her?" +said an excited and imploring voice. And as Cleek, startled by the +interruption, switched round and glanced in the direction of the sound, +the half-dosed door swung inward and a figure, muffled to the very eyes, +moved over the threshold into the room. "Have pardon, monsieur--I could +not but overhear," went on the newcomer, turning to Narkom. "I should +scarcely be worthy of his Majesty's confidence and favour had I remained +inactive. I simply had to come up unbidden. _Had_ to, monsieur"--turning +to Cleek--"and so--" His words dropped off suddenly. A puzzled look +first expanded and then contracted his eyes, and his lips tightened +curiously under the screen of his white, military moustache. "Monsieur," +he said, presently putting into words the sense of baffling familiarity +which perplexed him. "Monsieur, you then are the great, the astonishing +Cleek? You, monsieur? Pardon, but surely I have had the pleasure of +meeting monsieur before? No, not here, for I have never been in England +until to-day; but in my own country--in Mauravania. Surely, monsieur, I +have seen you there?" + +"On the contrary," said Cleek, speaking the simple truth. "I have never +set foot in Mauravania in all my life, sir. And as you have overheard my +words you may see that I do not intend to even now. The difficulties of +Mauravania's king do not in the least appeal to me." + +"Ah, but Mauravania's queen, monsieur--Mauravania's queen." + +"The lady interests me no more than does her royal spouse." + +"But, monsieur, she must--she really must--if you are honest in what you +say, and your sympathies are all with the deposed and exiled ones--the +ex-queen Karma and her children. Surely, monsieur, you who seem to know +so well the history of that sad time cannot be ignorant of what has +happened since to her ex-Majesty and her children?" + +"I know only that Queen Karma died in France, in extreme poverty, +befriended to the last by people of the very humblest birth and of not +too much respectability. What became of her son I do not know; but her +daughters, the two princesses, mere infants at the time, were sent, one +to England, where she subsequently died, and the other to Persia, where, +I believe, she remained up to her ninth year, and then went no one seems +to know where." + +"Then, monsieur, let me tell you what became of her. The late King +Alburtus discovered her whereabouts, and, to prevent any possible +trouble in the future, imprisoned her in the Fort of Sulberga up to the +year before his death. Eleven months ago she became the Crown Prince +Ulric's wife. She is now his consort. And by saving her, monsieur, you +who feel so warmly upon the subject of the rights of her family's +succession, will be saving her, helping Mauravania's queen, and +defeating those who are her enemies." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and regarded the man silently, steadily, for +a long time. Then: + +"Is that true, Count?" he asked. "On your word of honour as a soldier +and a gentleman, is that true?" + +"As true as Holy Writ, monsieur. On my word of honour. On my hopes of +heaven!" + +"Very well, then," said Cleek quietly. "Tell me the case, Count. I'll +take it." + +"Monsieur, my eternal gratitude. Also the reward is--" + +"We will talk about that afterward. Sit down, please, and tell me what +you want me to do." + +"Oh, monsieur, almost the impossible," said the Count despairfully. "The +outwitting of a woman who must in very truth be the devil's own +daughter, so subtle, so appalling are the craft and cunning of her. +That, for one thing. For another, the finding of a paper, which, if +published--as the woman swears it shall be if her terms are not acceded +to--will be the signal for his Majesty's overthrow. And, for the +third"--emotion mastered him; his voice choked up and failed; he +deported himself for a moment like one afraid to let even his own ears +hear the thing spoken of aloud, then governed his cowardice and went +on--"For the third thing, monsieur," he said, lowering his tone until it +was almost a whisper, "the recovery--the restoration to its place of +honour before the coronation day arrives--of that fateful gem, +Mauravania's pride and glory--'the Rainbow Pearl!'" + +Cleek clamped his jaws together like a bloodhound snapping and over his +hardening face there came a slow-creeping, unnatural pallor. + +"Has that been lost?" he said in a low, bleak voice. "Has he, this +precious royal master of yours, this usurper--has he parted with that +thing--the wondrous Rainbow Pearl?" + +"Monsieur knows of the gem, then?" + +"Know of it? Who does not? Its fame is world-wide. Wars have been fought +for it, lives sacrificed for it. It is more valuable than England's +Koh-i-noor, and more important to the country and the crown that possess +it. The legend runs, does it not, that Mauravania falls when the Rainbow +Pearl passes into alien hands. An absurd belief, to be sure, but who can +argue with a superstitious people or hammer wisdom into the minds of +babies? And _that_ has been lost--that gem so dear to Mauravania's +people, so important to Mauravania's crown?" + +"Yes, monsieur--ah, the good God help my country!--yes!" said the Count +brokenly. "It has passed from his Majesty's hands; it is no longer among +the crown jewels of Mauravania--a Russian has it." + +"A Russian?" Cleek's cry was like to nothing so much as the snarl of a +wild animal. "A Russian to hold it--a Russian?--the sworn enemy of +Mauravania--the race most hated of her people! God help your wretched +king, Count Irma, if this were known to his subjects." + +"Ah, monsieur, it is that we dread--it is that against which we +struggle," replied the Count. "If that jewel were missing on the +coronation day, if it were known that a Russian holds it--Dear God! the +populace would rise--rise, monsieur, and tear his Majesty to pieces." + +"He deserves no better!" said Cleek, through his close-shut teeth. "To a +Russian--a Russian! As heaven hears me, but for his queen--Well, let it +pass. Tell me, how did this Russian get the jewel, and when?" + +"Oh, long ago, monsieur--long ago; many months before King Alburtus +died." + +"Was it his hand that gave it up?" + +"No, monsieur. He died without knowing of its loss, without suspecting +that the stone in the royal parure is but a sham and an imitation," +replied the count. "It all came of the youth, the recklessness, the +folly of the crown prince. Monsieur may have heard of his--his many wild +escapades--his thoughtless acts, his--his--" + +"Call them dissipations, Count, and give them their real name. His acts +as crown prince were a scandal and a disgrace. To whom did he part with +this gem--a woman?" + +"Monsieur, yes! It was during the time he was stopping in +Paris--incognito to all but a trusted few. He--he met the woman there, +became fascinated with her--bound to her--an abject slave to her." + +"A slave to a Russian? Mauravania's heir and--a Russian?" + +"Monsieur, he did not know that until afterward. In a mad freak--there +was to be a masked ball--he yielded to the lady's persuasions to let her +wear the famous Rainbow Pearl for that one night. He journeyed back to +Mauravania and abstracted it from among the royal jewels--putting a mere +imitation in its place so that it should not be missed until he could +return the original. Monsieur, he was never able to return it at any +time, for, once she had got it, the Russian made away with it in some +secret manner and refused to give it up. Her price for returning it was +his royal father's consent to ennoble her, to receive her at the +Mauravanian Court, and so to alter the constitution that it would be +possible for her to become the crown prince's wife." + +"The proposition of an idiot. The thing could not possibly be done." + +"No, monsieur, it could not. So the crown prince broke from her and bent +all his energies upon the recovery of the pearl and the keeping of its +loss a secret from the king and his people. Bravos, footpads, +burglars--all manner of men--were employed before he left Paris. The +woman's house was broken into, the woman herself waylaid and searched, +but nothing came of it--no clue to the lost jewel could be found." + +"Why then did he not appeal to the police?" + +"Monsieur, he--he dared not. In one of his moments of madness +he--she--that is--Oh, monsieur, remember his youth! It appears that the +woman had got him to put into writing something which, if made public, +would cause the people of Mauravania to rise as one man and to do with +him as wolves do with things that are thrown to them in their fury." + +"The dog! Some treaty with a Russian, of course!" said Cleek +indignantly. "Oh, fickle Mauravania, how well you are punished for your +treasonable choice! Well, go on, Count. What next?" + +"Of a sudden, monsieur, the woman disappeared. Nothing was heard of her, +no clue to her whereabouts discovered for two whole years. She was as +one dead and gone until last week." + +"Oho! She returned, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. Without hint or warning she turned up in Mauravania, +accompanied by a disreputable one-eyed man who has the manner and +appearance of one bred in the gutters of Paris, albeit he is well +clothed, well-looked after, and she treats him and his wretched +collection of parakeets with the utmost consideration." + +"Parakeets?" put in Narkom excitedly. "My dear Cleek, couldn't a +parakeet be made to swallow a pearl?" + +"Perhaps; but not this one, Mr. Narkom," he made reply. "It is quite the +size of a pigeon's egg, I believe; is it not, Count?" + +"Yes, monsieur, quite. To see it is to remember it always. It has the +changing lights of the rainbow, and--" + +"Never mind that; go on with the story, please. This woman and this +one-eyed man appeared last week in Mauravania, you say?" + +"Yes, monsieur; and with them a bodyguard of at least ten servants. Her +demand now is that his Majesty make her his morganatic wife; that he +establish her at the palace under the same roof with his queen; and that +she be allowed to ride with them in the state carriage on the coronation +day. Failing that, she swears that she will not only publish the +contents of that dreadful letter, but send the original to the chief of +the Mauravanian police and appear in public with the Rainbow Pearl upon +her person." + +"The Jezebel! What steps have you taken, Count, to prevent this?" + +"All that I can imagine, monsieur. To prevent her from getting into +close touch with the public, I have thrown open my own house to her, and +received her and her retinue under my own roof rather than allow them to +be quartered at an hotel. Also, this has given me the opportunity to +have her effects and those of her followers secretly searched; but no +clue to the letter, no clue to the pearl has anywhere been discovered." + +"Still she must have both with her, otherwise she could not carry out +her threat. No doubt she suspects what motive you had in taking her into +your own house, Count--a woman like that is no fool. But tell me, does +she show no anxiety, no fear of a search?" + +"None, monsieur. She knows that my people search her effects; indeed, +she has told me so. But it alarms her not a whit. As she told me two +days ago, I shall find nothing; but if I did it would be useless, for, +on the moment anything of hers was touched, her servants would see that +the finder never carried it from the house." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "A little searching +party of her own, eh? The lady is clever, at all events. The moment +either pearl or letter should be removed from its hiding-place her +servants would allow nobody to leave the house without being searched to +the very skin?" + +"Yes, monsieur. So if by any chance you were to discover either--" + +"My friend, set your mind at rest," interposed Cleek. "If I find either, +or both, they will leave the house with me, I promise you. Mr. Narkom--" +he turned to the superintendent--"keep an eye on Dollops for me, will +you? There are reasons why I can't take him--can't take anybody--with me +in the working out of this case. I may be a couple of days or I may be a +week--I can't say as yet; but I start with Count Irma for Mauravania in +the morning. And, Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Do me a favour, please. Be at Charing Cross station when the first +boat-train leaves to-morrow morning, will you, and bring me a small pot +of extract of beef--a very small pot, the smallest they make--not bigger +than a shilling nor thicker than one if they make them that size. What's +that? Hide the pearl in it? What nonsense! I don't want one half big +enough for that. Besides, they'd be sure to find it when they searched +me if I tried any such fool's trick as that. Dollops isn't the only +creature in the world that gets hungry, my friend, and beef extract is +very sustaining, very, I assure you, sir." + + + + +II + + +"A beautiful city, Count--an exceedingly beautiful city," said Cleek, as +the carriage which had been sent to meet them at the station rolled into +the broad Avenue des Arcs, which is at once the widest and most ornate +thoroughfare the capital city of Mauravania boasts. "Ah, what a +heritage! No wonder King Ulric is so anxious to retain his sovereignty; +no wonder this--er--Madame Tcharnovetski, I think you said the name +is--" + +"Yes, monsieur. It is oddly spelled, but it is pronounced a little +broader than you give it--quite as though it were written +Shar-no-vet-skee, in fact, with the accent on the third syllable." + +"Ah, yes. Thanks very much. No wonder she is anxious to become a power +here. Mauravania is a fairyland in very truth; and this beautiful avenue +with its arches, its splendid trees, its sculpture, its--Ah! _cocher_, +pull up at once. Stop, if you please, stop!" + +"Oui, monsieur," replied the driver, reining in his horses and glancing +round. "_Dix mille pardons, M'sieur_, there is something amiss?" + +"Yes; very much amiss--from the dog's point of view," replied Cleek, +indicating by a wave of the hand a mongrel puppy which crouched, forlorn +and hungry, in the shadow of an imposing building. "He should be a +Socialist among dogs, that little fellow, Count. The mere accident of +birth has made him what he is, and that poodled monstrosity the lady +yonder is leading the pet and pride of a thoughtless mistress. I want +that little canine outcast, Count, and with your permission I will +appropriate him, and give him his first carriage ride." With that, he +stepped down from the vehicle, whistled the cur to him, and taking it up +in his arms, returned with it to his seat. + +"Monsieur, you are to me the most astonishing of men," said the Count, +noticing how he patted the puppy and settled it in his lap as the +carriage resumed its even rolling down the broad, beautiful avenue. "One +moment upholding the rights of birth, the next rebelling against the +injustice of it. Are your sympathies with the unfortunate so keen, +monsieur, that even this stray cur may claim them?" + +"Perhaps," replied Cleek enigmatically. "You must wait and see, Count. +Just now I pity him for his forlornity; to-morrow--next day--a week +hence--I may hold it a better course to put an end to his hopeless lot +by chloroforming him into a painless and peaceful death." + +"Monsieur, I cannot follow you--you speak in riddles." + +"I deal in riddles, Count; you must wait for the solution of them, I'm +afraid." + +"I wish I could grasp the solution of one which puzzles me a great deal, +monsieur. What is it that has happened to your countenance? You have +done nothing to put on a disguise; yet, since we left the train and +entered the landau, some subtle change has occurred. What is it? How has +it come about? The night before last, when I saw you for the first time, +your face was one that impressed me with a sense of familiarity--now, +monsieur, you are like a different man." + +"I am a different man, Count. Like puppy, here, I am a waif and a stray; +yet, at the same time, I have my purpose and am part of a carefully-laid +scheme." + +The Count made no reply. He could not comprehend the man at all, and at +times--but for the world-wide reputation of him--he would have believed +him insane. Not a question as to the great and important case he was on, +but merely incomprehensible remarks, trifling fancies, apparently +aimless whims! Two nights ago a pot of beef extract; to-day a mongrel +puppy; and all the time the hopes of a kingdom, the future of a monarch +resting in his hands! + +For twenty minutes longer the landau rolled on; then it came to a halt +under the broad _porte cochère_ of the Villa Irma, and two minutes after +that Cleek and the Count stood in the presence of Madame Tcharnovetski, +her purblind associate, and her retinue of servant-guards. + +A handsome woman, this madame, a woman of about two-and-thirty, with the +tar-black eyes and the twilight coloured tresses of Northern Russia; +bold as brass, flippant as a French cocotte, steel-nerved and +calm-blooded as a professional gambler. It had been her whim that all +the women of the Count's family should be banished from the house during +her stay; that the great salon of the villa--a wondrous apartment, hung +in blue and silver, and lit by a huge crystal chandelier--should be put +at her disposal night and day; that the electric lights should be +replaced with dozens of wax candles (after the manner of the ballrooms +of her native Russia), and that her one-eyed companion, with his wicker +cage of screeching parakeets, should come and go when and where and how +he listed, and that an electric alarm bell be connected with her +sleeping apartment and his. + +"Your hirelings will tamper with his birds and his effects in the +night--I know that, Monsieur le Comte," she had said when she demanded +this. "He is a nervous fellow, this poor Clopin; I wish him to be able +to ring for help if you and your men go too far." + +Clopin was sitting by the window chattering to his birds when Cleek +entered, and a glance at him was sufficient to decide two points: first, +he was not disguised, nor was his partial blindness in any way a sham, +for an idiot could have seen that the droop of the left eyelid over the +staring, palpably artificial eye which glazed over the empty socket +beneath was due to perfectly natural causes; and, second, that the man +was indeed what the Count had said he resembled, namely, a gutter-bred +outcast. + +"French!" was Cleek's silent comment upon him. "One of those charlatans +who infest the streets of Paris with their so-called 'fortune-telling +birds,' who, for ten centimes, pick out an envelope with their beaks as +a means of telling you what the future is supposed to hold. What has +made a woman like this pick up a fellow of his stamp? Hum-m-m! Puppy, I +think you are a good move," stroking the ears of the mongrel dog; "a +very much better move than a cage of useless parakeets that are meant to +throw suspicion in the wrong direction and have a seed-cup so large and +so obviously overfilled that it is safe to say there is nothing hidden +in it and never has been! And madame has a fancy for waxlights," his +gaze travelling upward to the glittering chandelier. "Hum-m-m! How well +they know, these women whose beauty is going off, that waxlights show +less of Time's ravages than gas or electricity. Candles in the +chandelier; candles in the sconces, candles on the mantelpieces. This +room should be very charming when it is lighted at night." + +It was--as he learned later. Just now things not quite so charming +filled the bill, for madame was jeering at him in a manner not to be +understood. + +"A police spy--that is what you are, monsieur!" she said, coming up to +him and impudently snapping her fingers under his nose. "Such a fool, +this white-headed old dotard of a Count, to think that he can take me in +with a silly yarn about going to visit a nephew and bringing him back +here to stay. Monsieur, you are a police spy. Well, good luck to you. +Get what the Mauravanian king wants, if--you--can!" + +"Madame," replied Cleek, with a deeply deferential bow and with an +accent that seemed born of Paris, "madame, that is what I mean to do, I +assure you." + +"Ah, do you?" she answered, with a scream of laughter. "You hear that, +Clopin? You hear that, my good servitors? This silly French noodle is +going to get the things in spite of us. Oho, but you have a fine opinion +of yourself, monsieur. You need work fast, too, pretty boaster, I can +tell you. For the royal jewellers will require the Rainbow Pearl very +soon to fix it in its place in the crown for the coronation ceremony, +and if that thing his Majesty holds is offered to them, how long, think +you, will it be before all Mauravania knows that it is an imitation? +Look you," waxing suddenly vicious, "I'll make it shorter still, the +time you have to strive. Monsieur le Comte, take this message to his +Majesty from me: If in three days he does not promise to accede to my +demands and give me a public proof of it over his royal seal, I leave +Mauravania--the pearl and letter leave with me, and they shall not come +back until I return with them for the coronation." + +"For the love of God, madame," said the Count, "don't make it harder +still. Oh, wait, wait, I beseech you!" + +"Not an hour longer than I have now said!" she flung back at him. "I +have waited until I am tired of it, and my patience is worn out. Three +days, Count; three days, monsieur with the puppy dog; three days, and +not an instant longer, do you hear?" + +"Quite enough, madame," replied Cleek, with a courtly bow, "I promise to +have them in two!" + +She threw back her head and fairly shook with laughter. + +"Of a truth, monsieur, you are a candid boaster!" she cried. "Look you, +my good fellows, and you too, my poor dumb Clopin, pretty monsieur here +will have the letter and the pearl in two days' time. Look to it that he +never leaves this house at any minute from this time forth that you do +not search him from top to toe. If he resists--ah, well, a pistol may go +off accidentally, and things that Mauravania's king would give his life +to keep hidden will come to light if any charge of murder is preferred. +Monsieur the police spy, I wish you joy of your task." + +"Madame, I shall take joy in it," Cleek replied. "But why should we talk +of unpleasant things when the future looks so bright? Come, may we not +give ourselves a pleasant evening? Look, there is a piano, and--Count, +hold my puppy for me, and please see that no one feeds him at any time. +I am starving him so that he may devour some of Clopin's parakeets, +because I hate the sight of the little beasts. Thank you. Madame, do you +like music? Listen, then: I'll sing you Mauravania's national anthem: +'God guard the throne; God shield the right!'" and, dropping down upon +the seat before the open instrument, he did so. + + * * * * * + +That night was ever memorable at the Villa Irma, for the detective +seemed somehow to have given place to the courtier, and so merry was his +mood, so infectious his good nature, that even madame came under the +spell of it. She sang with him, she even danced a Russian polka with +him; she sat with him at dinner, and flirted with him in the salon +afterward; and when the time came for her to retire, it was he who took +her bedroom candle from the shelf and put it into her hand. + +"Of a truth, you are a charming fellow, monsieur," she said, when he +bent and kissed her hand. "What a pity you should be a police spy and +upon so hopeless a case." + +"Hopeless cases are my delight, madame. Believe me, I shall not fail." + +"Only three days, remember, _cher ami_--only three days!" + +"Madame is too kind. I have said it: two will do. On the morning of the +third madame's passport will be ready and the Rainbow Pearl be in the +royal jeweller's hands. A thousand pleasant dreams--_bon soir_!" And +bowed her out and kissed his hand to her as she went up the stairs to +bed. + + + + +III + + +Thrice during the next twenty-four hours Cleek, who seemed to have +become so attached to the mongrel dog that he kept it under his arm +continually, had reason to leave the house, and thrice was he seized by +madame's henchmen, bundled unceremoniously into a convenient room, and +searched to the very skin before he was suffered to pass beyond the +threshold. And if so much as a pin had been hidden upon his person, it +must have been discovered. + +"You see, monsieur, how hopeless it is!" said the Count despairfully. +"One dare not rebel: one dare not lift a finger, or the woman speaks and +his Majesty's ruin falls. Oh, the madness of that boast of yours! Only +another twenty-four hours--only another day--and then God help his +Majesty!" + +"God has helped him a great deal better than he deserves, Count," +replied Cleek. "By to-morrow night at ten o'clock be in the square of +the Aquisola, please. Bring with you the passports of madame and her +companions, also a detachment of the Royal Guard, and his Majesty's +cheque for the reward I am to receive." + +"Monsieur! You really hope to get the things? You really do?" + +"Oh, I do more than 'hope,' Count--I have succeeded. I knew last night +where both pearl and letter were. To-morrow night--ah, well, let +to-morrow tell its own tale. Only be in the square at the hour I +mention, and when I lift a lighted candle and pass it across the salon +window, send the guard here with the passports. Let them remain +outside--within sight, but not within range of hearing what is said and +done. You are alone to enter--remember that." + +"To receive the jewel and the letter?" eagerly. "Or, at least, to have +you point out the hiding-place of them?" + +"No; we should be shot down like dogs if I undertook a mad thing like +that." + +"Then, monsieur, how are we to seize them? How get them into our +possession, his Majesty and I?" + +"From my hand, Count; this hand which held them both before I went to +bed last night." + +"Monsieur!" The Count fell back from him as if from some supernatural +presence. "You found them? You held them? You took possession of them +last night? How did you get them out of the house?" + +"I have not done so yet." + +"But can you? Oh, monsieur, wizard though you are, can you get them past +her guards? Can you, monsieur--can you?" + +"Watch for the light at the window, Count. It will not be waved unless +it is safe for you to come and the pearl is already out of the house." + +"And the letter, monsieur--the damning letter?" + +Cleek smiled one of his strange, inscrutable smiles. + +"Ask me that to-morrow, Count," he said. "You shall hear something, you +and madame, that will surprise you both," then twisted round on his heel +and walked hurriedly away. + +And all that day and all that night he danced attendance upon madame, +and sang to her, and handed her bedroom candle to her as he had done the +night before, and gave back jest for jest and returned her merry +badinage in kind. + +Nor did he change in that when the fateful to-morrow came. From morning +to night he was at her side, at her beck and call, doing nothing that +was different from the doings of yesterday, save that at evening he +locked the mongrel dog up in his room instead of carrying him about. And +the dog, feeling its loneliness, or, possibly, famishing--for he had +given it not a morsel of food since he found it--howled and howled until +the din became unbearable. + +"Monsieur, I wish you would silence that beast or else feed it," said +madame pettishly. "The howling of the wretched thing gets on my nerves. +Give it some food for pity's sake." + +"Not I," said Cleek. "Do you remember what I said, madame? I am getting +it hungry enough to eat one--or perhaps all--of Clopin's wretched little +parakeets." + +"You think they have to do with the hiding of the paper or the pearl, +cher ami? Eh?" + +"I am sure of it. He would not carry the beastly little things about for +nothing." + +"Ah, you are clever--you are very, very clever, monsieur," she made +answer, with a laugh. "But he must begin his bird-eating quickly, that +nuisance-dog, or it will be too late. See, it is already half-past nine; +I retire to my bed in another hour and a half, as always, and then your +last hope he is gone--z-zic! like that; for it will be the end of the +second day, monsieur, and your promise not yet kept. Pestilence, +monsieur," with a little outburst of temper, "do stop the little beast +his howl. It is unbearable! I would you to sing to me like last night, +but the noise of the dog is maddening." + +"Oh, if it annoys you like that, madame," said Cleek, "I'll take him +round to the stable and tie him up there, so we may have the song +undisturbed. Your men will not want to search me of course, when I am +merely popping out and popping in again like that, I am sure?" + +Nevertheless they did, for although they had heard and did not stir when +he left the room and ran up for the dog, when he came down with it under +his arm and made to leave the house, he was pounced upon, dragged into +an adjoining apartment by half a dozen burly fellows, stripped to the +buff, and searched, as the workers in a diamond mine are searched, +before they suffered him to leave the house. There was neither a sign of +a pearl nor a scrap of a letter to be found upon him--they made sure of +that before they let him go. + +"An enterprising lot, those lackeys of yours, madame," he said, when he +returned from tying the dog up in the stable and rejoined her in the +salon. "It will be an added pleasure to get the better of them, I can +assure you." + +"Oui! if you can!" she answered, with a mocking laugh. "Clopin, cher +ami, your poor little parakeets are safe for the night--unless monsieur +grows desperate and eats them for himself." + +"Even that, if it were necessary to get the pearl, madame," said Cleek, +with the utmost sang-froid. "Faugh!" looking at his watch, "a good +twenty minutes wasted by the zealousness of those idiotic searchers of +yours. Ten minutes to ten! Just time for one brief song. Let us make hay +while the sun lasts, madame, for it goes down suddenly in Mauravania; +and for some of us--it never comes up again!" Then, throwing himself +upon the piano-seat, he ran his fingers across the keys and broke into +the stately measures of the national anthem. And, of a sudden, while the +song was yet in progress, the clock in the corridor jingled its musical +chimes and struck the first note of the hour. + +He jumped to his feet and lifted both hands above his head. + +"Mauravania!" he cried. "Oh, Mauravania! For you! For you!" Then jumped +to the mantelpiece, and catching up a lighted candle, flashed it twice +across the window's width, and broke again into the national hymn. + +"Monsieur," cried out madame, "monsieur, what is the meaning of that? +Have you lost your wits? You give a signal! For what? To whom?" + +"To the guards of Mauravania's king, madame, in honour of his safe +escape from you!" he made reply; then twitched back the window curtains +until the whole expanse of glass was bared. "Look! do you see them--do +you, madame? His Majesty of Mauravania sends Madame Tcharnovetski a +command to leave his kingdom, since he no longer has cause to fear a +wasp whose sting has been plucked out." + +Her swift glance flashed to the fireplace, then to the corner where +Clopin still sat with his jabbering parakeets, then flashed back to +Cleek, and--she laughed in his face. + +"I think not, monsieur," she said, with a swaggering air. "Truly, I +think not, my excellent friend." + +"What a pity you only think so, madame! As for me--Ah, welcome, Count, +welcome a thousand times. The paper, my friend; you have brought it? +Good! Give it to me. Madame, your passport--yours and your associates'. +You leave Mauravania by the midnight train, and you have but little time +to pack your effects. Your passport, madame, and--your bedroom candle. +Oh, yes, the paper is still round it--see!" slipping off a sheet of note +paper that was wrapped round the full length of the candle from top to +bottom, "but if you will examine it, madame, you will find it is blank. +I burned the real letter the night before last when I put this in its +place." + +"You what?" she snapped; then caught the tube-shaped covering he had +stripped from the candle, uncurled it, and--screamed. + +"Blank, madame, quite blank, you see," said Cleek serenely. "For one so +clever in other things, you should have been more careful. A little +pinch of powder in the punch at dinner-time--just that--and on the first +night, too! It was so easy afterward to get into your room, remove the +real paper, and wrap the candle in a blank piece while you slept." + +"You--you dog!" she snapped out viciously. "You drugged me?" + +"Yes, madame; you and the one-eyed man as well! Oh, don't excite +yourself--don't pull at the poor wretch like that. The glass eye will +come out quite easily, but--I assure you there is only a small lump of +beeswax in the socket now. I removed the Rainbow Pearl from poor +Monsieur Clopin's blind eye ten minutes after I burnt the letter, +madame, and--it passed out of this house to-night! A clever idea to pick +up a one-eyed pauper, madame, and hide the pearl in the empty socket of +the lost eye, but--it was too bad, you had to supply a glass eye to keep +it in, after the lid and the socket had withered and shrunk from so many +years of emptiness. It worried the poor man, madame; he was always +feeling it, always afraid that the lump behind would force it out; and, +what is an added misfortune for your plans, the glass shell did not +allow you to see the change when the pearl vanished and the bit of +beeswax took its place. Madame Tcharnovetski, your passport. I know +enough of the King of Mauravania to be sure that your life will not be +safe if you are not past the frontier before daybreak!" + + * * * * * + +"Monsieur le comte--no! I thank you, but I cannot wait to be presented +to his Majesty, for I, too, leave Mauravania to-night, and, like Madame +yonder, return to other and more promising fields," said Cleek, an hour +later, as he stood on the terrace of the Villa Irma and watched the slow +progress down the moonlit avenue of the carriage which was bearing +Madame Tcharnovetski and her effects to the railway station. "Give me +the cheque, please; I have earned that, and--there is good use for it. I +thank you, Count. Now do an act of charity, my friend: give the little +dog in the stable a good meal, and then have a surgeon chloroform him +into a peaceful and merciful death. They will find the Rainbow Pearl in +his intestines when they come to dissect the body. I starved him, +Count--starved him purposely, poor little wretch, so that he could be +hungry enough to snap at anything in the way of food and bolt it +instantly. To-night, when I went up to take him out to the stable, a +thick smearing of beef extract over the surface of the pearl was +sufficient; he swallowed it in a gulp! For a double reason, Count, there +should be a cur quartered on the royal arms of this country after +to-night." + +His voice dropped off into silence. The carriage containing madame had +swung out through the gateway, and its shadow no longer blotted the +broad, unbroken space of moonlit avenue. He turned and looked far out, +over the square of the Aquisola, along the light-lined esplanade, to the +palace gates and the fluttering flag that streamed against the sky above +and beyond them. + +"Oh, Mauravania!" he said. "An Englishman's heritage! Dear country, how +beautiful! My love to your Queen--my prayers for you." + +"Monsieur!" exclaimed the Count, "monsieur, what juggle is this? Your +face is again the face of that other night--the face that stirs memory +yet does not rivet it. Monsieur, speak, I beg of you. What are you? Who +are you?" + +"Cleek," he made answer. "Just Cleek! It will do. Oh, Mauravania, dear +land of desolated hopes, dear grave of murdered joys!" + +"Monsieur!" + +"Hush! Let me alone. There are things too sacred; and this--" His hands +reached outward as if in benediction; his face, upturned, was as a face +transfigured, and something that shone as silver gleamed in the corner +of his eye. "Mauravania!" he said. "Oh, Mauravania! My country--my +people--good-bye!" + +"Monsieur! Dear Heaven--_Majesty!_" + +Then came a rustling sound, and when Cleek had mastered himself and +looked down, a figure with head uncovered knelt on one knee at his feet. + +"Get up, Count," he said, with a little shaky laugh. "I appreciate the +honour, but--your fancy is playing you a trick. I tell you I never set +foot in Mauravania before, my friend." + +"I know--I know. How should you. Majesty, when it was as a child at +Queen Karma's breast Mauravania last saw--Don't leave like this! +Majesty! Majesty! 'God guard the right'--the pearl and the kingdom are +here." + +"Wrong, my good friend. The kingdom is there--where you found me--in +England; and so, too, is the pearl. For there is no kingdom like the +kingdom of love, no pearl like a good woman. Good night, Count, and many +thanks for your hospitality. You are a little upset to-night, but no +doubt you will be all right again in the morning. I will walk to the +station and--alone, if it is all the same to you." + +"Majesty!" + +"Dreams, Count, dreams. The riddle is solved, my friend. Good luck to +your country and--good-bye!" + +And, setting his back to the palace and the lights and the fluttering +flag, and his face to the land that held her, turned and went his +way--to the West--to England--and to those things which are higher than +crowns and better than sceptres and more precious than thrones and +ermine. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces +by Thomas W. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces + +Author: Thomas W. Hanshew + +Release Date: December 12, 2004 [EBook #14332] +[Last updated: November 17, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEEK: THE MAN OF THE FORTY FACES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + CLEEK: The Man of the Forty Faces + + By THOMAS W. HANSHEW + +AUTHOR OF "Cleek of Scotland Yard," "The Riddle of the Night," Etc. + + 1912 + + + +CLEEK: THE MAN OF THE FORTY FACES + + + + +PROLOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF HAMILTON CLEEK + + +The thing wouldn't have happened if any other constable than Collins had +been put on point duty at Blackfriars Bridge that morning. For Collins +was young, good-looking, and--knew it. Nature had gifted him with a +susceptible heart and a fond eye for the beauties of femininity. So when +he looked round and saw the woman threading her way through the maze of +vehicles at "Dead Man's Corner," with her skirt held up just enough to +show two twinkling little feet in French shoes, and over them a +graceful, willowy figure, and over that an enchanting, if rather too +highly tinted face, with almond eyes and a fluff of shining hair under +the screen of a big Parisian hat--that did for him on the spot. + +He saw at a glance that she was French--exceedingly French--and he +preferred English beauty, as a rule. But, French or English, beauty is +beauty, and here undeniably was a perfect type, so he unhesitatingly +sprang to her assistance and piloted her safely to the kerb, revelling +in her voluble thanks, and tingling as she clung timidly but rather +firmly to him. + +"Sair, I have to give you much gratitude," she said in a pretty, wistful +sort of way, as they stepped on to the pavement. Then she dropped her +hand from his sleeve, looked up at him, and shyly drooped her head, as +if overcome with confusion and surprise at the youth and good looks of +him. "Ah, it is nowhere in the world but Londres one finds these +delicate attentions, these splendid sergeants de ville," she added, with +a sort of sigh. "You are wonnerful--you are mos' wonnerful, you Anglais +poliss. Sair, I am a stranger; I know not ze ways of this city of +amazement, and if monsieur would so kindly direct me where to find the +Abbey of the Ves'minster--" + +Before P.C. Collins could tell her that if that were her destination, +she was a good deal out of her latitude; indeed, even before she +concluded what she was saying, over the rumble of the traffic there rose +a thin, shrill piping sound, which to ears trained to the call of it +possessed a startling significance. + +It was the shrilling of a police whistle, far off down the Embankment. + +"Hullo! That's a call to the man on point!" exclaimed Collins, all alert +at once. "Excuse me, mum. See you presently. Something's up. One of my +mates is a-signalling me." + +"Mates, monsieur? Mates? Signalling? I shall not understand the vords. +But yes, vat shall that mean--eh?" + +"Good Lord, don't bother me now! I--I mean, wait a bit. That's the call +to 'head off' someone, and--By George! There he is now, coming head on, +the hound, and running like the wind!" + +For of a sudden, through a break in the traffic, a scudding figure had +sprung into sight--the figure of a man in a grey frock-coat and a +shining "topper," a well-groomed, well-set-up man, with a small, +turned-up moustache and hair of that peculiar purplish-red one sees only +on the shell of a roasted chestnut. As he swung into sight, the distant +whistle shrilled again; far off in the distance voices sent up cries of +"Head him off!" "Stop that man!" _et cetera_; then those on the pavement +near to the fugitive took up the cry, joined in pursuit, and in a +twinkling, what with cabmen, tram-men, draymen, and pedestrians +shouting, there was hubbub enough for Hades. + +"A swell pickpocket, I'll lay my life," commented Collins, as he squared +himself for an encounter and made ready to leap on the man when he came +within gripping distance. "Here! get out of the way, madmazelly. +Business before pleasure. And, besides, you're like to get bowled over +in the rush. Here, chauffeur!"--this to the driver of a big, black +motor-car which swept round the angle of the bridge at that moment, and +made as though to scud down the Embankment into the thick of the +chase--"pull that thing up sharp! Stop where you are! Dead still. At +once, at once, do you hear? We don't want you getting in the way. Now, +then"--nodding his head in the direction of the running man--"come on +you bounder; I'm ready for you!" + +And, as if he really heard that invitation, and really was eager to +accept it, the red-headed man did "come on" with a vengeance. And all +the time, "madmazelly," unheeding Collins's advice, stood calmly and +silently waiting. + +Onward came the runner, with the whole roaring pack in his wake, dodging +in and out among the vehicles, "flooring" people who got in his way, +scudding, dodging, leaping, like a fox hard pressed by the +hounds--until, all of a moment he spied a break in the traffic, leapt +through it, and--then there was mischief. For Collins sprang at him like +a cat, gripped two big, strong-as-iron hands on his shoulders, and had +him tight and fast. + +"Got you, you ass!" snapped he, with a short, crisp, self-satisfied +laugh. "None of your blessed squirming now. Keep still. You'll get out +of your coffin, you bounder, as soon as out of my grip. Got you--got +you! Do you understand?" + +The response to this fairly took the wind out of him. + +"Of course I do," said the captive, gaily; "it's part of the programme +that you should get me. Only, for Heaven's sake, don't spoil the film by +remaining inactive, you goat! Struggle with me--handle me roughly--throw +me about. Make it look real; make it look as though I actually did get +away from you, not as though you let me. You chaps behind there, don't +get in the way of the camera--it's in one of those cabs. Now, then, +Bobby, don't be wooden! Struggle--struggle, you goat, and save the +film!" + +"Save the what?" gasped Collins. "Here! Good Lord! Do you mean to +say--?" + +"Struggle--struggle--struggle!" cut in the man impatiently. "Can't you +grasp the situation? It's a put-up thing: the taking of a kinematograph +film--a living picture--for the Alhambra to-night! Heavens above, +Marguerite, didn't you tell him?" + +"Non, non! There was not ze time. You come so quick, I could not. And +he--ah, le bon Dieu!--he gif me no chance. Officair, I beg, I entreat of +you, make it real! Struggle, fight, keep on ze constant move. +Zere!"--something tinkled on the pavement with the unmistakable sound of +gold--"zere, monsieur, zere is the half-sovereign to pay you for ze +trouble, only, for ze lof of goodness, do not pick it up while the +instrument--ze camera--he is going. It is ze kinematograph, and you +would spoil everything!" + +The chop-fallen cry that Collins gave was lost in a roar of laughter +from the pursuing crowd. + +"Struggle--struggle! Don't you hear, you idiot?" broke in the red-headed +man irritably. "You are being devilishly well paid for it, so for +goodness' sake make it look real. That's it! Bully boy! Now, once more +to the right, then loosen your grip so that I can push you away and make +a feint of punching you off. All ready there, Marguerite? Keep a clear +space about her, gentlemen. Ready with the motor, chauffeur? All right. +Now, then, Bobby, fall back, and mind your eye when I hit out, old chap. +One, two, three--here goes!" + +With that he pushed the chop-fallen Collins from him, made a feint of +punching his head as he reeled back, then sprang toward the spot where +the Frenchwoman stood, and gave a finish to the adventure that was +highly dramatic and decidedly theatrical. For "mademoiselle," seeing him +approach her, struck a pose, threw out her arms, gathered him into +them--to the exceeding enjoyment of the laughing throng--then both +looked back and behaved as people do on the stage when "pursued," +gesticulated extravagantly, and, rushing to the waiting motor, jumped +into it. + +"Many thanks, Bobby; many thanks, everybody!" sang out the red-headed +man. "Let her go, chauffeur. The camera men will pick us up again at +Whitehall, in a few minutes' time." + +"Right you are, sir," responded the chauffeur gaily. Then "toot-toot" +went the motor-horn as the gentleman in grey closed the door upon +himself and his companion, and the vehicle, darting forward, sped down +the Embankment in the exact direction whence the man himself had +originally come, and, passing directly through that belated portion of +the hurrying crowd to whom the end of the adventure was not yet known, +flew on and--vanished. + +And Collins, stooping to pick up the half-sovereign that had been thrown +him, felt that after all it was a poor price to receive for all the +jeers and gibes of the assembled onlookers. + +"Smart capture, Bobby, wasn't it?" sang out a deriding voice that set +the crowd jeering anew. "You'll git promoted, you will! See it in all +the evenin' papers--oh, yus! ''Orrible hand-to-hand struggle with a +desperado. Brave constable has 'arf a quid's worth out of an infuriated +ruffin!' My hat! won't your missis be proud when you take her to see +that bloomin' film?" + +"Move on, now, move on!" said Collins, recovering his dignity, and +asserting it with a vim. "Look here, cabby, I don't take it kind of you +to laugh like that; they had you just as bad as they had me. Blow that +Frenchy! She might have tipped me off before I made such an ass of +myself. I don't say that I'd have done it so natural if I had known, +but--Hullo! What's that? Blowed if it ain't that blessed whistle again, +and another crowd a-pelting this way; and--no!--yes, by Jupiter!--a +couple of Scotland Yard chaps with 'em. My hat! what do you suppose that +means?" + +He knew in the next moment. Panting and puffing, a crowd at their heels, +and people from all sides stringing out from the pavement and trooping +after them, the two "plain-clothes" men came racing through the grinning +gathering and bore down on P.C. Collins. + +"Hullo, Smathers, you in this, too?" began he, his feelings softened by +the knowledge that other arms of the law would figure on that film with +him at the Alhambra to-night. "Now, what are you after, you goat? That +French lady, or the red-headed party in the grey suit?" + +"Yes, yes, of course I am. You heard me signal you to head him off, +didn't you?" replied Smathers, looking round and growing suddenly +excited when he realized that Collins was empty-handed, and that the +red-headed man was not there. "Heavens! you never let him get away, did +you? You grabbed him, didn't you--eh?" + +"Of course I grabbed him. Come out of it. What are you giving me, you +josser?" said Collins with a wink and a grin. "Ain't you found out even +yet, you silly? Why, it was only a faked-up thing--the taking of a +kinematograph picture for the Alhambra. You and Petrie ought to have +been here sooner and got your wages, you goats. I got half a quid for my +share when I let him go." + +Smathers and Petrie lifted up their voices in one despairing howl. + +"When you what?" fairly yelled Smathers. "You fool! You don't mean to +tell me that you let them take you in like that--those two? You don't +mean to tell me that you had him--had him in your hands--and then let +him go? You did? Oh! you seventy-seven kinds of a double-barrelled ass! +Had him--think of it!--had him, and let him go! Did yourself out of a +share in a reward of two hundred quid when you'd only to shut your hands +and hold on to it!" + +"Two hundred quid? Two hun--W-what are you talking about? Wasn't it +true? Wasn't it a kinematograph picture, after all?" + +"No, you fool, no!" howled Smathers, fairly dancing with despair. "Oh, +you blithering idiot! You ninety-seven varieties of a fool! Do you know +who you had in your hands? Do you know who you let go? It was that devil +'Forty Faces'--'The Vanishing Cracksman'--the man who calls himself +'Hamilton Cleek'; and the woman was his pal, his confederate, his +blessed stool-pigeon--'Margot, the Queen of the Apache'; and she came +over from Paris to help him in that clean scoop of Lady Dresmer's jewels +last week!" + +"Heavens!" gulped Collins, too far gone to say anything else, too deeply +dejected to think of anything but that he had had the man for whom +Scotland Yard had been groping for a year--the man over whom all +England, all France, all Germany wondered--close shut in the grip of his +hands and then had let him go. The biggest and boldest criminal the +police had ever had to cope with, the almost supernatural genius of +crime, who defied all systems, laughed at all laws, mocked at all the +Vidocqs, and Dupins, and Sherlock Holmeses, whether amateur or +professional, French or English, German or American, that ever had been +or ever could be pitted against him, and who, for sheer devilry, for +diabolical ingenuity and for colossal impudence, as well as for a +nature-bestowed power that was simply amazing, had not his match in all +the universe. + +Who or what he really was, whence he came, whether he was English, +Irish, French, German, Yankee, Canadian, Italian or Dutchman, no man +knew and no man might ever hope to know unless he himself chose to +reveal it. In his many encounters with the police he had assumed the +speech, the characteristics, and, indeed, the facial attributes of each +in turn, and assumed them with an ease and a perfection that were simply +marvellous, and had gained for him the sobriquet of "Forty Faces" among +the police, and of "The Vanishing Cracksman" among the scribes and +reporters of newspaperdom. That he came, in time, to possess another +name than these was due to his own whim and caprice, his own bald, +unblushing impudence; for, of a sudden, whilst London was in a fever of +excitement and all the newspapers up in arms over one of the most daring +and successful coups, he chose to write boldly to both editors and +police complaining that the title given him by each was both vulgar and +cheap. + +"You would not think of calling Paganini a 'fiddler,'" he wrote; "why, +then, should you degrade me with the coarse term of 'cracksman'? I claim +to be as much an artist in my profession as Paganini was in his, and I +claim also a like courtesy from you. So, then, if in the future it +becomes necessary to allude to me--and I fear it often will--I shall be +obliged if you do so as 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.' In +return for that courtesy, gentlemen, I promise to alter my mode of +procedure, to turn over a new leaf, as it were, to give you at all times +hereafter distinct information, in advance, of such places as I elect +for the field of my operations, and of the time when I shall pay my +respects to them, and, on the morning after each such visit, to bestow +some small portion of the loot upon Scotland Yard as a souvenir of the +event." + +And to that remarkable programme he rigidly adhered from that time +forth--always giving the police twelve hours' notice, always evading +their traps and snares, always carrying out his plans in spite of them, +and always, on the morning after, sending some trinket or trifle to +Superintendent Narkom at Scotland Yard, in a little pink cardboard box, +tied up with rose-coloured ribbon, and marked "With the compliments of +The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek." + +The detectives of the United Kingdom, the detectives of the Continent, +the detectives of America--each and all had measured swords with him, +tried wits with him, spread snares and laid traps for him, and each and +all had retired from the field vanquished. + +And this was the man that he--Police Constable Samuel James Collins--had +actually had in his hands; nay, in his very arms, and then had given up +for half a sovereign and let go! + +"Oh, so help me! You make my head swim, Smathers, that you do!" he +managed to say at last. "I had him--I had the Vanishing Cracksman--in my +blessed paws--and then went and let that French hussy--But look here; I +say, now, how do you know it was him? Nobody can go by his looks; so how +do you know?" + +"Know, you footler!" growled Smathers, disgustedly. "Why shouldn't I +know when I've been after him ever since he left Scotland Yard half an +hour ago?" + +"Left what? My hat! You ain't a-going to tell me that he's been there? +When? Why? What for?" + +"To leave one of his blessed notices, the dare-devil. What a detective +he'd a made, wouldn't he, if he'd only a-turned his attention that way, +and been on the side of the law instead of against it? He walked in bold +as brass, sat down, and talked with the superintendent over some +cock-and-bull yarn about a 'Black Hand' letter that he said had been +sent to him, and asked if he couldn't have police protection whilst he +was in town. It wasn't until after he'd left that the super he sees a +note on the chair where the blighter had been sitting, and when he +opened it, there it was in black and white, something like this: + +"'The list of presents that have been sent for the wedding to-morrow of +Sir Horace Wyvern's eldest daughter make interesting reading, +particularly that part which describes the jewels sent--no doubt as a +tribute to her father's position as the greatest brain specialist in the +world--from the Austrian Court and the Continental principalities. The +care of such gems is too great a responsibility for the bride. I +propose, therefore, to relieve her of it to-night, and to send you the +customary souvenir of the event to-morrow morning. Yours faithfully, + +"'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek. + +"That's how I know, dash you! Superintendent sent me out after him, hot +foot; and after a bit I picked him up in the Strand, toddling along with +that French hussy as cool as you please. But, blow him! he must have +eyes all round his head, for he saw me just as soon as I saw him, and he +and Frenchy separated like a shot. She hopped into a taxi and flew off +in one direction; he dived into a crowd and bolted in another, and +before you could say Jack Robinson he was doubling and twisting, jumping +into cabs and jumping out again--all to gain time, of course, for the +woman to do what he'd put her up to doing--and leading me the devil's +own chase through the devil's own tangle till he was ready to bunk for +the Embankment. And you let him go, you blooming footler! Had him and +let him go, and chucked away a third of £200 for the price of half a +quid!" + +And long after Smathers and Petrie had left him, and the wondering crowd +had dispersed, and point duty at "Dead Man's Corner" was just point duty +again and nothing more, P.C. Collins stood there, chewing the cud of +bitter reflection over those words, and trying to reckon up just how +many pounds and how much glory had been lost to him. + + + + +II + + +"But, damme, sir, the thing's an outrage! I don't mince my words, Mr. +Narkom--I say plump and plain the thing's an outrage, a disgrace to the +police, an indignity upon the community at large; and for Scotland Yard +to permit itself to be defied, bamboozled, mocked at in this appalling +fashion by a paltry burglar--" + +"Uncle, dear, pray don't excite yourself in this manner. I am quite sure +that if Mr. Narkom could prevent the things--" + +"Hold your tongue, Ailsa--I will not be interfered with! It's time that +somebody spoke out plainly and let this establishment know what the +public has a right to expect of it. What do I pay my rates and taxes +for--and devilish high ones they are, too, b'gad--if it's not to +maintain law and order and the proper protection of property? And to +have the whole blessed country terrorised, the police defied, and +people's houses invaded with impunity by a gutter-bred brute of a +cracksman is nothing short of a scandal and a shame! Call this sort of +tomfoolery being protected by the police? God bless my soul! one might +as well be in charge of a parcel of doddering old women and be done with +it!" + +It was an hour and a half after that exciting affair at "Dead Man's +Corner." The scene was Superintendent Narkom's private room at +headquarters, the dramatis personae, Mr. Maverick Narkom himself, Sir +Horace Wyvern, and Miss Ailsa Lorne, his niece, a slight, fair-haired, +extremely attractive girl of twenty, the only and orphaned daughter of a +much-loved sister, who, up till a year ago, had known nothing more +exciting in the way of "life" than that which is to be found in a small +village in Suffolk, and falls to the lot of an underpaid vicar's only +child. A railway accident had suddenly deprived her of both parents, +throwing her wholly upon her own resources, without a penny in the +world. Sir Horace had gracefully come to the rescue and given her a home +and a refuge, being doubly repaid for it by the affection and care she +gave him and the manner in which she assumed control of a household +which hitherto had been left wholly to the attention of servants, Lady +Wyvern having long been dead, and her two daughters of that type which +devotes itself entirely to the pleasures of society and the demands of +the world. A regular pepper-box of a man--testy, short-tempered, +exacting--Sir Horace had flown headlong to Superintendent Narkom's +office as soon as that gentleman's note, telling him of the Vanishing +Cracksman's latest threat, had been delivered, and, on Miss Lorne's +advice, had withheld all news of it from the members of his household +and brought her with him. + +"I tell you that Scotland Yard must do something--must! must! must!" +stormed he as Narkom, resenting that stigma upon the institution, +puckered up his lips and looked savage. "That fellow has always kept his +word--always, in spite of your precious band of muffs--and if you let +him keep it this time, when there's upwards of £40,000 worth of jewels +in the house, it will be nothing less than a national disgrace, and you +and your wretched collection of bunglers will be covered with deserved +ridicule." + +Narkom swung round, smarting under these continued taunts, these +"flings" at the efficiency of his prided department, his nostrils +dilated, his temper strained to the breaking-point. + +"Well, he won't keep it this time--I promise you that!" he rapped out +sharply. "Sooner or later every criminal, no matter how clever, meets +his Waterloo--and this shall be his! I'll take this affair in hand +myself, Sir Horace. I'll not only send the pick of my men to guard the +jewels, but I'll go with them; and if that fellow crosses the threshold +of Wyvern House to-night, by the Lord, I'll have him. He will have to be +the devil himself to get away from me! Miss Lorne"--recollecting himself +and bowing apologetically--"I ask your pardon for this strong +language--my temper got the better of my manners." + +"It does not matter, Mr. Narkom, so that you preserve my cousin's +wedding-gifts from that appalling man," she answered with a gentle +inclination of the head and with a smile that made the superintendent +think she must certainly be the most beautiful creature in all the +world, it so irradiated her face and added to the magic of her glorious +eyes. "It does not matter what you say, what you do, so long as you +accomplish that." + +"And I will accomplish it--as I'm a living man, I will! You may go home +feeling assured of that. Look for my men some time before dusk, Sir +Horace--I will arrive later. They will come in one at a time. See that +they are admitted by the area door, and that, once in, not one of them +leaves the house again before I put in an appearance. I'll look them +over when I arrive to be sure that there's no wolf in sheep's clothing +amongst them. With a fellow like that--a diabolical rascal with a +diabolical gift for impersonation--one can't be too careful. Meantime, +it is just as well not to have confided this news to your daughters, +who, naturally, would be nervous and upset; but I assume that you have +taken some one of the servants into your confidence in order that nobody +may pass them and enter the house under any pretext whatsoever?" + +"No, I have not. Miss Lorne advised against it, and, as I am always +guided by her, I said nothing of the matter to anybody." + +"Was that wrong, do you think, Mr. Narkom?" queried Ailsa anxiously. "I +feared that if they knew they might lose their heads, and that my +cousins, who are intensely nervous and highly emotional, might hear of +it, and add to our difficulties by becoming hysterical and demanding our +attention at a time when we ought to be giving every moment to watching +for the possible arrival of that man. And as he has always lived up to +the strict letter of his dreadful promises heretofore, I knew that he +was not to be expected before nightfall. Besides, the jewels are locked +up in the safe in Sir Horace's consulting-room, and his assistant, Mr. +Merfroy, has promised not to leave it for one instant before we return." + +"Oh, well, that's all right, then. I dare say there is very little +likelihood of our man getting in whilst you and Sir Horace are here, and +taking such a risk as stopping in the house until nightfall to begin his +operations. Still, it was hardly wise, and I should advise hurrying back +as fast as possible and taking at least one servant--the one you feel +least likely to lose his head--into your confidence, Sir Horace, and +putting him on the watch for my men. Otherwise, keep the matter as quiet +as you have done, and look for me about nine o'clock. And rely upon this +as a certainty: the Vanishing Cracksman will never get away with even +one of those jewels if he enters that house to-night, and never get out +of it unshackled!" + +With that, he suavely bowed his visitors out and rang up the pick of his +men without an instant's delay. + +Promptly at nine o'clock he arrived, as he had promised, at Wyvern +House, and was shown into Sir Horace's consulting-room, where Sir Horace +himself and Miss Lorne were awaiting him, and keeping close watch before +the locked door of a communicating apartment in which sat the six men +who had preceded him. He went in and put them all and severally through +a rigid examination--pulling their hair and beards, rubbing their faces +with a clean handkerchief in quest of any trace of "make-up" or disguise +of any sort, examining their badges and the marks on the handcuffs they +carried with them to make sure that they bore the sign which he himself +had scratched upon them in the privacy of his own room a couple of hours +ago. + +"No mistake about this lot," he announced, with a smile. "Has anybody +else entered or attempted to enter the house?" + +"Not a soul," replied Miss Lorne. "I didn't trust anybody to do the +watching, Mr. Narkom--I watched myself." + +"Good. Where are the jewels? In that safe?" + +"No," replied Sir Horace. "They are to be exhibited in the +picture-gallery for the benefit of the guests at the wedding breakfast +to-morrow, and as Miss Wyvern wished to superintend the arrangement of +them herself, and there would be no time for that in the morning, she +and her sister are in there laying them out at this moment. As I could +not prevent that without telling them what we have to dread, I did not +protest against it; but if you think it will be safer to return them to +the safe after my daughters have gone to bed, Mr. Narkom--" + +"Not at all necessary. If our man gets in, their lying there in full +view like that will prove a tempting bait, and--well, he'll find there's +a hook behind it. I shall be there waiting for him. Now go and join the +ladies, you and Miss Lorne, and act as though nothing out of the common +was in the wind. My men and I will stop here, and you had better put out +the light and lock us in, so that there may be no danger of anybody +finding out that we are here. No doubt Miss Wyvern and her sister will +go to bed earlier than usual on this particular occasion. Let them do +so. Send the servants to bed, too. You and Miss Lorne go to your beds at +the same time as the others--or, at least, let them think that you have +done so; then come down and let us out." + +To this Sir Horace assented, and, taking Miss Lorne with him, went at +once to the picture-gallery and joined his daughters, with whom they +remained until eleven o'clock. Promptly at that hour, however, the house +was locked up, the bride-elect and her sister went to bed--the servants +having already gone to theirs--and stillness settled down over the +darkened house. At the end of a dozen minutes, however, it was faintly +disturbed by the sound of slippered feet coming along the passage +outside the consulting-room, then a key slipped into the lock, the door +was opened, the light switched on, and Sir Horace and Miss Lorne +appeared before the eager watchers. + +"Now, then, lively, my men--look sharp!" whispered Narkom. "A man to +each window and each staircase, so that nobody may go up or down or in +or out without dropping into the arms of one of you. Confine your +attention to this particular floor, and if you hear anybody coming, lay +low until he's within reach, and you can drop on him before he bolts. Is +this the door of the picture-gallery, Sir Horace?" + +"Yes," answered Sir Horace, as he fitted a key to the lock. "But surely +you will need more men than you have brought, Mr. Narkom, if it is your +intention to guard every window individually, for there are four to this +room--see!" + +With that he swung open the door, switched on the electric light, and +Narkom fairly blinked at the dazzling sight that confronted him. Three +long tables, laden with crystal and silver, cut glass and jewels, and +running the full length of the room, flashed and scintillated under the +glare of the electric bulbs which encircled the cornice of the gallery, +and clustered in luminous splendour in the crystal and frosted silver of +a huge central chandelier, and spread out on the middle one of these--a +dazzle of splintered rainbows, a very plain of living light--lay caskets +and cases, boxes and trays, containing those royal gifts of which the +newspapers had made so much and the Vanishing Cracksman had sworn to +make so few. + +Mr. Narkom went over and stood beside the glittering mass, resting his +hand against the table and feasting his eyes upon all that opulent +splendour. + +"God bless my soul! it's superb, it's amazing," he commented. "No wonder +the fellow is willing to take risks for a prize like this. You are a +splendid temptation; a gorgeous bait, you beauties; but the fish that +snaps at you will find that there's a nasty hook underneath in the shape +of Maverick Narkom. Never mind the many windows, Sir Horace. Let him +come in by them, if that's his plan. I'll never leave these things for +one instant between now and the morning. Good night, Miss Lorne. Go to +bed and to sleep--you do the same, Sir Horace. My lay is here!" + +With that he stooped and, lifting the long drapery which covered the +table and swept down in heavy folds to the floor, crept out of sight +under it, and let it drop back into place again. + +"Switch off the light and go," he called to them in a low-sunk voice. +"Don't worry yourselves, either of you. Go to bed, and to sleep if you +can." + +"As if we could," answered Miss Lorne agitatedly. "I shan't be able to +close an eyelid. I'll try, of course, but I know I shall not succeed. +Come, uncle, come! Oh, do be careful, Mr. Narkom; and if that horrible +man does come--" + +"I'll have him, so help me God!" he vowed. "Switch off the light, and +shut the door as you go out. This is 'Forty Faces'' Waterloo at last." + +And in another moment the light snicked out, the door closed, and he was +alone in the silent room. + +For ten or a dozen minutes not even the bare suggestion of a noise +disturbed the absolute stillness; then of a sudden, his trained ear +caught a faint sound that made him suck in his breath and rise on his +elbow, the better to listen--a sound which came, not without the house, +but from within, from the dark hall where he had stationed his men, to +be exact. As he listened he was conscious that some living creature had +approached the door, touched the handle, and by the swift, low rustle +and the sound of hard breathing, that it had been pounced upon and +seized. He scrambled out from beneath the table, snicked on the light, +whirled open the door, and was in time to hear the irritable voice of +Sir Horace say, testily: "Don't make an ass of yourself by your +over-zealousness. I've only come down to have a word with Mr. Narkom," +and to see him standing on the threshold, grotesque in a baggy suit of +striped pyjamas, with one wrist enclosed as in a steel band by the +gripped fingers of Petrie. + +"Why didn't you say it was you, sir?" exclaimed that crestfallen +individual, as the flashing light made manifest his mistake. "When I +heard you first, and see you come up out of that back passage, I made +sure it was him; and if you'd a struggled, I'd have bashed your head as +sure as eggs." + +"Thank you for nothing," he responded testily. "You might have +remembered, however, that the man's first got to get into the place +before he can come downstairs. Mr. Narkom," turning to the +superintendent, "I was just getting into bed when I thought of something +I'd neglected to tell you; and as my niece is sitting in her room with +the door open, and I wasn't anxious to parade myself before her in my +night clothes, I came down by the back staircase. I don't know how in +the world I came to overlook it, but I think you ought to know that +there's a way of getting into the picture gallery without using either +the windows or the stairs, and that way ought to be both searched and +guarded." + +"Where is it? What is it? Why in the world didn't you tell me in the +first place?" exclaimed Narkom irritably, as he glanced round the place +searchingly. "Is it a panel? a secret door? or what? This is an old +house, and old houses are sometimes a very nest of such things." + +"Happily, this one isn't. It's a modern innovation, not an ancient +relic, that offers the means of entrance in this case. A Yankee occupied +this house before I bought it from him--one of those blessed shivery +individuals his country breeds, who can't stand a breath of cold air +indoors after the passing of the autumn. The wretched man put one of +those wretched American inflictions, a hot-air furnace, in the cellar, +with huge pipes running to every room in the house--great tin +monstrosities bigger round than a man's body, ending in openings in the +wall, with what they call 'registers,' to let the heat in, or shut it +out as they please. I didn't have the wretched contrivance removed or +those blessed 'registers' plastered up. I simply had them papered over +when the rooms were done up (there's one over there near that settee), +and if a man got into this house, he could get into that furnace thing +and hide in one of those flues until he got ready to crawl up it as +easily as not. It struck me that perhaps it would be as well for you to +examine that furnace and those flues before matters go any further." + +"Of course it would. Great Scott! Sir Horace, why didn't you think to +tell me of this thing before?" said Narkom, excitedly. "The fellow may +be in it at this minute. Come, show me the wretched thing." + +"It's below--in the cellar. We shall have to go down the kitchen stairs, +and I haven't a light." + +"Here's one," said Petrie, unhitching a bull's-eye from his belt and +putting it into Narkom's hand. "Better go with Sir Horace at once, sir. +Leave the door of the gallery open and the light on. Fish and me will +stand guard over the stuff till you come back, so in case the man is in +one of them flues and tries to bolt out at this end, we can nab him +before he can get to the windows." + +"A good idea," commented Narkom. "Come on, Sir Horace. Is this the way?" + +"Yes, but you'll have to tread carefully, and mind you don't fall over +anything. A good deal of my paraphernalia--bottles, retorts and the +like--is stored in the little recess at the foot of the staircase, and +my assistant is careless and leaves things lying about." + +Evidently the caution was necessary, for a minute or so after they had +passed on and disappeared behind the door leading to the kitchen +stairway, Petrie and his colleagues heard a sound as of something being +overturned and smashed, and laughed softly to themselves. Evidently, +too, the danger of the furnace had been grossly exaggerated by Sir +Horace, for when, a few minutes later, the door opened and closed, and +Narkom's men, glancing toward it, saw the figure of their chief +reappear, it was plain that he was in no good temper, since his features +were knotted up into a scowl, and he swore audibly as he snapped the +shutter over the bull's-eye and handed it back to Petrie. + +"Nothing worth looking into, superintendent?" + +"No--not a thing!" he replied. "The silly old josser! pulling me down +there amongst the coals and rubbish for an insane idea like that! Why, +the flues wouldn't admit the passage of a child; and even then, there's +a bend--an abrupt 'elbow'--that nothing but a cat could crawl up. And +that's a man who's an authority on the human brain! I sent the old silly +back to bed by the way he came, and if--" + +There he stopped, stopped short, and sucked in his breath with a sharp, +wheezing sound. For, of a sudden, a swift pattering footfall and a +glimmer of moving light had sprung into being and drawn his eyes upward; +and there, overhead, was Miss Lorne coming down the stairs from the +upper floor in a state of nervous excitement, and with a bedroom candle +in her shaking hand, a loose gown flung on over her nightdress, and her +hair streaming over her shoulders in glorious disarray. + +He stood and looked at her, with ever-quickening breath, with +ever-widening eyes, as though the beauty of her had wakened some dormant +sense whose existence he had never suspected; as though, until now, he +had never known how fair it was possible for a woman to be, how fair, +how lovable, how much to be desired; and whilst he was so looking she +reached the foot of the staircase and came pantingly toward him. + +"Oh, Mr. Narkom, what was it--that noise I heard?" she said in a tone of +deepest agitation. "It sounded like a struggle--like the noise of +something breaking--and I dressed as hastily as I could and came down. +Did he come? Has he been here? Have you caught him? Oh! why don't you +answer me, instead of staring at me like this? Can't you see how +nervous, how frightened, I am? Dear Heaven! will no one tell me what has +happened?" + +"Nothing has happened, miss," answered Petrie, catching her eye as she +flashed round on him. "You'd better go back to bed. Nobody's been here +but Sir Horace. The noise you heard was me a-grabbing of him, and he and +Mr. Narkom a-tumbling over something as they went down to look at the +furnace." + +"Furnace? What furnace? What are you talking about?" she cried +agitatedly. "What do you mean by saying that Sir Horace came down?" + +"Only what the superintendent himself will tell you, miss, if you ask +him. Sir Horace came downstairs in his pyjamas a few minutes ago to say +as he'd recollected about the flues of the furnace in the cellar being +big enough to hold a man, and then him and Mr. Narkom went below to have +a look at it." + +She gave a sharp and sudden cry, and her face went as pale as a dead +face. + +"Sir Horace came down?" she repeated, moving back a step and leaning +heavily against the bannister. "Sir Horace came down to look at the +furnace? We have no furnace!" + +"What!" + +"We have no furnace, I tell you, and Sir Horace did not come down. He is +up there still. I know--I know, I tell you--because I feared for his +safety, and when he went to his room I locked him in!" + +"Superintendent!" The word was voiced by every man present, and six +pairs of eyes turned toward Narkom with a look of despairing +comprehension. + +"Get to the cellar. Head the man off! It's he--the Cracksman!" he +shouted out. "Find him! Get him! Nab him, if you have to turn the house +upside down!" + +They needed no second bidding, for each man grasped the situation +instantly, and in a twinkling there was a veritable pandemonium. +Shouting and scrambling like a band of madmen, they lurched to the door, +whirled it open, and went flying down the staircase to the kitchen and +so to a discovery which none might have foreseen. For, almost as they +entered they saw lying on the floor a suit of striped pyjamas, and close +to it, gagged, bound, helpless, trussed up like a goose that was ready +for the oven, gyves on his wrists, gyves on his ankles, their chief, +their superintendent, Mr. Maverick Narkom, in a state of collapse, and +with all his outer clothing gone! + +"After him! After that devil, and a thousand pounds to the man that gets +him!" he managed to gasp as they rushed to him and ripped loose the gag. +"He was here when we came! He has been in the house for hours. Get him! +get him! get him!" + +They surged from the room and up the stairs like a pack of stampeded +animals; they raced through the hall and bore down on the +picture-gallery in a body, and, whirling open the now closed door, went +tumbling headlong in. + +The light was still burning. At the far end of the room a window was +wide open, and the curtains of it fluttered in the wind. A collection of +empty cases and caskets lay on the middle table, but man and jewels were +alike gone! Once again the Vanishing Cracksman had lived up to his +promise, up to his reputation, up to the very letter of his name, and +for all Mr. Maverick Narkom's care and shrewdness, "Forty Faces" had +"turned the trick" and Scotland Yard was "done!" + + + + +III + + +Through all the night its best men sought him, its dragnets fished for +him, its tentacles groped into every hole and corner of London in quest +of him, but sought and fished and groped in vain. They might as well +have hoped to find last summer's partridges or last winter's snow as any +trace of him. He had vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared, and no +royal jewels graced the display of Miss Wyvern's wedding gifts on the +morrow. + +But it was fruitful of other "gifts," fruitful of an even greater +surprise, that "morrow." For the first time since the day he had given +his promise, no "souvenir" from "The Man Who Called Himself Hamilton +Cleek," no part of last night's loot came to Scotland Yard; and it was +while the evening papers were making screaming "copy" and glaring +headlines out of this that the surprise in question came to pass. + +Miss Wyvern's wedding was over, the day and the bride had gone, and it +was half-past ten at night, when Sir Horace, answering a hurry call from +headquarters, drove post haste to Superintendent Narkom's private room, +and passing in under a red and green lamp which burned over the doorway, +entered and met that "surprise." + +Maverick Narkom was there alone, standing beside his desk, with the +curtains of his window drawn and pinned together, and at his elbow an +unlighted lamp of violet-coloured glass, standing and looking +thoughtfully down at something which lay before him. He turned as his +visitor entered and made an open-handed gesture toward it. + +"Look here," he said laconically, "what do you think of this?" + +Sir Horace moved forward and looked; then stopped and gave a sort of +wondering cry. The electric bulbs overhead struck a glare of light down +on the surface of the desk, and there, spread out on the shining oak, +lay a part of the royal jewels that had been stolen from Wyvern House +last night. + +"Narkom! You got him, then--got him after all?" + +"No, I did not get him. I doubt if any man could, if he chose not to be +found," said Narkom bitterly. "I did not recover these jewels by any act +of my own. He sent them to me; gave them up voluntarily." + +"Gave them up? After he had risked so much to get them? God bless my +soul, what a man! Why, there must be quite half here of what he took." + +"There is half--an even half. He sent them to-night, and with them this +letter. Look at it, and you will understand why I sent for you and asked +you to come alone." + +"There's some good in even the devil, I suppose, if one but knows how to +reach it and stir it up," Sir Horace read. "I have lived a life of crime +from my very boyhood because I couldn't help it, because it appealed to +me, because I glory in risks and revel in dangers. I never knew where it +would lead me--I never thought, never cared--but I looked into the +gateway of heaven last night, and I can't go down the path to hell any +longer. Here is an even half of Miss Wyvern's jewels. If you and her +father would have me hand over the other half to you, and would have +'The Vanishing Cracksman' disappear forever, and a useless life +converted into a useful one, you have only to say so to make it an +accomplished thing. All I ask in return is your word of honour (to be +given to me by signal) that you will send for Sir Horace Wyvern to be at +your office at eleven o'clock to-night, and that you and he will grant +me a private interview unknown to any other living being. A red and +green lantern hung over the doorway leading to your office will be the +signal that you agree, and a violet light in your window will be the +pledge of Sir Horace Wyvern. When these two signals, these two pledges, +are given, I shall come in and hand over the remainder of the jewels, +and you will have looked for the first time in your life upon the real +face of 'The Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek.'" + +"God bless my soul! What an amazing creature--what an astounding +request!" exclaimed Sir Horace, as he laid the letter down. "Willing to +give up £20,000 worth of jewels for the mere sake of a private +interview! What on earth can be his object? And why should he include +me?" + +"I don't know," said Narkom in reply. "It's worth something, at all +events, to be rid of 'The Vanishing Cracksman' for good and all; and he +says that it rests with us to do that. It's close to eleven now. Shall +we give him the pledge he asks, Sir Horace? My signal is already hung +out; shall we agree to the conditions and give him yours?" + +"Yes, yes, by all means," Sir Horace made answer. And lighting the +violet lamp, Narkom flicked open the pinned curtains and set it in the +window. + +For ten minutes nothing came of it, and the two men, talking in whispers +while they waited, began to grow nervous. Then somewhere in the distance +a clock started striking eleven, and without so much as a warning sound, +the door flashed open, flashed shut again, a voice that was undeniably +the voice of breeding and refinement said quietly: "Gentlemen, my +compliments. Here are the diamonds and here am I!" and the figure of a +man, faultlessly dressed, faultlessly mannered, with the slim-loined +form, the slim-walled nose, and the clear-cut features of the born +aristocrat, stood in the room. + +His age might lie anywhere between twenty-five and thirty-five, his eyes +were straight-looking and clear, his fresh, clean-shaven face was +undeniably handsome, and, whatever his origin, whatever his history, +there was something about him, in look, in speech, in bearing, that +mutely stood sponsor for the thing called "birth." + +"God bless my soul!" exclaimed Sir Horace, amazed and appalled to find +the reality so widely different from the image he had drawn. "What +monstrous juggle is this? Why, man alive, you're a gentleman! Who are +you? What's driven you to a dog's life like this?" + +"A natural bent, perhaps; a supernatural gift, certainly, Sir Horace," +he made reply. "Look here! Could any man resist the temptation to use it +when he was endowed by Nature with the power to do this?" His features +seemed to writhe and knot and assume in as many moments a dozen +different aspects. "I've had the knack of doing that since the hour I +could breathe. Could any man 'go straight' with a fateful gift like that +if the laws of Nature said that he should not?" + +"And do they say that?" + +"That's what I want you to tell me--that's why I have requested this +interview. I want you to examine me, Sir Horace, to put me through those +tests you use to determine the state of mind of the mentally fit and +mentally unfit; I want to know if it is my fault that I am what I am, +and if it is myself I have to fight in future, or the devil that lives +within me. I'm tired of wallowing in the mire. A woman's eyes have lit +the way to heaven for me. I want to climb up to her, to win her, to be +worthy of her, and to stand beside her in the light." + +"Her? What 'her'?" + +"That's my business, Mr. Narkom, and I'll take no man into my confidence +regarding that." + +"Yes, my friend, but 'Margot'--how about her?" + +"I'm done with her! We broke last night, when I returned and she +learned--never mind what she learned! I'm done with her--done with the +lot of them. My life is changed forever." + +"In the name of Heaven, man, who and what are you?" + +"Cleek--just Cleek; let it go at that," he made reply. "Whether it's my +name or not is no man's business; who I am, what I am, whence I came, is +no man's business either. Cleek will do--Cleek of the Forty Faces. Never +mind the past; my fight is with the future, and so--examine me, Sir +Horace, and let me know if I or Fate's to blame for what I am." + +Sir Horace did. + +"Absolutely Fate," he said, when, after a long examination, the man put +the question to him again. "It is the criminal brain fully developed, +horribly pronounced. God help you, my poor fellow; but a man simply +could not be other than a thief and a criminal with an organ like that. +There's no hope for you to escape your natural bent except by death. You +can't be honest. You can't rise--you never will rise; it's useless to +fight against it!" + +"I will fight against it! I will rise! I will! I will! I will!" he cried +out vehemently. "There is a way to put such craft and cunning to +account; a way to fight the devil with his own weapons and crush him +under the weight of his own gifts, and that way I'll take!" + +"Mr. Narkom"--he whirled and walked toward the superintendent, his hand +outstretched, his eager face aglow--"Mr. Narkom, help me! Take me under +your wing. Give me a start--give me a chance--give me a lift on the way +up!" + +"Good heaven, man, you--you don't mean--?" + +"I do--I do! So help me heaven, I do. All my life I've fought against +the law--now let me switch over and fight with it. I'm tired of being +Cleek, the thief; Cleek, the burglar. Make me Cleek, the detective, and +let us work together, hand in hand, for a common cause and for the +public good. Will you, Mr. Narkom? Will you?" + +"Will I? Won't I!" said Narkom, springing forward and gripping his hand. +"Jove! what a detective you will make. Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +"It's a compact, then?" + +"It's a compact--Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said in a choked voice. "You've given me my chance; now +watch me live up to it. The Vanishing Cracksman has vanished forever, +Mr. Narkom, and it's Cleek, the detective--Cleek of the Forty Faces from +this time on. Now, give me your riddles--I'll solve them one by one." + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The sound came again--so unmistakably, this time, the sound of a +footstep in the soft, squashy ooze on the Heath, there could be no +question regarding the nature of it. Miss Lorne came to an instant +standstill and clutched her belongings closer to her with a shake and a +quiver; and a swift prickle of goose-flesh ran round her shoulders and +up and down the backs of her hands. There was good, brave blood in her, +it is true; but good, brave blood isn't much to fall back upon if you +happen to be a girl without escort, carrying a hand-bag containing +twenty-odd pounds in money, several bits of valuable jewellery--your +whole earthly possessions, in fact--and have lost your way on Hampstead +Heath at half-past eight o'clock at night, with a spring fog shutting +you in like a wall and shutting out everything else but a "mackerel" +collection of clouds that looked like grey smudges on the greasy-silver +of a twilit sky. + +She looked round, but she could see nothing and nobody. The Heath was a +white waste that might have been part of the scenery in Lapland for all +there was to tell that it lay within reach of the heart and pulse of the +sluggish leviathan London. Over it the vapours of night crowded, an +almost palpable wall of thick, wet mist, stirred now and again by some +atmospheric movement which could scarcely be called a wind, although, at +times, it drew long, lacey filaments above the level of the denser mass +of fog and melted away with them into the calm, still upper air. + +Miss Lorne hesitated between two very natural impulses--to gather up her +skirts and run, or to stand her ground and demand an explanation from +the person who was undoubtedly following her. She chose the latter. + +"Who is there? Why are you following me? What do you want?" she flung +out, keeping her voice as steady as the hard, sharp hammering of her +heart would permit. + +The question was answered at once--rather startlingly, since the +footsteps which caused her alarm, had all the while proceeded from +behind, and slightly to the left of her. Now there came a hurried rush +and scramble on the right; there was the sound of a match being +scratched, a blob of light in the grey of the mist, and she saw standing +in front of her, a ragged, weedy, red-headed youth, with the blazing +match in his scooped hands. + +He was thin to the point of ghastliness. Hunger was in his pinched face, +his high cheekbones, his gouged jaws; staring like a starved wolf, +through the unnatural brightness of his pale eyes, from every gaunt +feature of him. + +"'Ullo!" he said with a strong Cockney accent, as he came up out of the +fog, and the flare of the match gave him a full view of her, standing +there with her lips shut hard, and, the hand-bag clutched up close to +her with both hands. "You wot called, was it? Wot price me for +arnswerin' of you, eh?" + +"Yes, it was I that called," she replied, making a brave front of it. +"But I do not think it was you that I called to. Keep away, please. +Don't come any nearer. What do you want?" "Well, I'll take that blessed +'and-bag to go on with; and if there aren't no money in it--tumble it +out--let's see--lively now! I'll feed for the rest of this week--Gawd, +yuss!" + +She made no reply, no attempt to obey him, no movement of any sort. Fear +had absolutely stricken every atom of strength from her. She could do +nothing but look at him with big, frightened eyes, and shake. + +"Look 'ere, aren't you a-goin' to do it quiet, or are you a-goin' to +mike me tike the blessed thing from you?" he asked. + +"I'll do it if you put me to it--my hat! yuss! It aren't my gime--I'm +wot you might call a hammer-chewer at it, but when there's summink +inside you, wot tears and tears and tears, any gime's worth tryin' that +pulls out the claws of it." + +She did not move even yet. He flung the spent match from him, and made a +sharp step toward her, and he had just reached out his hand to lay hold +of her, when another hand--strong, sinewy, hard-shutting as an iron +clamp--reached out from the mist, and laid hold of him; plucking him by +the neckband and intruding a bunch of knuckles and shut fingers between +that and his up-slanted chin. + +"Now, then, drop that little game at once, you young monkey!" struck in +the sharp staccato of a semi-excited voice. "Interfering with young +ladies, eh? Let's have a look at you. Don't be afraid, Miss +Lorne--nobody's going to hurt you." + +Then a pocket torch spat out a sudden ray of light; and by it both the +half-throttled boy and the wholly frightened girl could see the man who +had thus intruded himself upon their notice. + +"Oh, it is you--it is you again, Mr. Cleek?" said Ailsa with something +between a laugh and a sigh of relief as she recognized him. + +"Yes, it is I. I have been behind you ever since you left the house in +Bardon Road. It was rash of you to cross the heath at this time and in +this weather. I rather fancied that something of this kind would be +likely to happen, and so took the liberty of following you." + +"Then it was you I heard behind me?" + +"It was I--yes. I shouldn't have intruded myself upon your notice if you +hadn't called out. A moment, please. Let's have a look at this young +highwayman, who so freely advertises himself as an amateur." + +The light spat full into the gaunt, starved face of the young man and +made it stare forth doubly ghastly. He had made no effort to get away +from the very first. Perhaps he understood the uselessness of it, with +that strong hand gripped on his ragged neckband. Perhaps he was, in his +way, something of a fatalist--London breeds so many among such as he: +starved things that find every boat chained, every effort thrust back +upon them unrewarded. At any rate, from the moment he had heard the girl +give to this man a name which every soul in England had heard at one +time or another during the past two years, he had gone into a sort of +mild collapse, as though realising the utter uselessness of battling +against fate, and had given himself up to what was to be. + +"Hello," said Cleek, as he looked the youth over. "Yours is a face I +don't remember running foul of before, my young beauty. Where did you +come from?" + +"Where I seem like to be goin' now you've got your currant-pickers on +me--Hell," answered the boy, with something like a sigh of despair. +"Leastways, I been in Hell ever since I can remember anyfink, so I +reckon I must have come from there." + +"What's your name?" + +"Dollops. S'pose I must a had another sometime, but I never heard of it. +Wot's that? Yuss--most nineteen. _Wot?_ Oh, go throw summink at +yourself! I aren't too young to be 'ungry, am I? And where's a cove +goin' to _find_ this 'ere 'honest work' you're a-talkin' of? I'm fair +sick of the gime of lookin' for it. Besides, you don't see parties as +goes in for the other thing walkin' round with ribs on 'em like +bed-slats, and not even the price of a cup of corfy in their pockets, do +you? No fear! I wouldn't've 'urt the young lydie; but I tell you strite, +I'd a took every blessed farthin' she 'ad on her if you 'adn't've +dropped on me like this." + +"Got down to the last ditch--down to the point of desperation, eh?" + +"Yuss. So would you if you 'ad a fing inside you tearin' and tearin' +like I 'ave. Aren't et a bloomin' crumb since the day before yusterday +at four in the mawnin' when a gent in an 'ansom--drunk as a lord, he +was--treated me and a parcel of others to a bun and a cup of corfy at a +corfy stall over 'Ighgate way. Stood out agin bein' a crook as long as +ever I could--as long as ever I'm goin' to, I reckon, now _you've_ got +your maulers on me. I'll be on the list after this. The cops 'ull know +me; and when you've got the nime--well, wot's the odds? You might as +well 'ave the gime as well, and git over goin' empty. All right, run me +in, sir. Any'ow, I'll 'ave a bit to eat and a bed to sleep in to-night, +and that's one comfort--" + +Cleek had been watching the boy closely, narrowly, with an +ever-deepening interest; now he loosened the grip of his fingers and let +his hand drop to his side. + +"Suppose I don't 'run you in,' as you put it? Suppose I take a chance +and lend you five shillings, will you do some work and pay it back to me +in time?" he asked. + +The boy looked up at him and laughed in his face. + +"Look 'ere, Gov'nor, it's playin' it low down to lark wiv a chap jist +before you're goin' to 'ang 'im," he said. "You come off your blessed +perch." + +"Right," said Cleek. "And now you get up on yours and let us see what +you're made of." Then he put his hand into his trousers pocket; there +was a chink of coins and two half-crowns lay on his outstretched palm. +"There you are--off with you now, and if you are any good, turn up some +time to-night at No. 204, Clarges Street, and ask for Captain Horatio +Burbage. He'll see that there's work for you. Toddle along now and get a +meal and a bed. And mind you keep a close mouth about this." + +The boy neither moved nor spoke nor made any sound. For a moment or two +he stood looking from the man to the coins and from the coins back to +the man; then, gradually, the truth of the thing seemed to trickle into +his mind and, as a hungry fox might pounce upon a stray fowl, he grabbed +the money and--bolted. + +"Remember the name and remember the street," Cleek called after him. + +"You take your bloomin' oath I will!" came back through the enfolding +mist; "Gawd, yuss!"--Just that; and the youth was gone. + +"I wonder what you will think of me, Miss Lorne," said Cleek, turning to +her; "taking a chance like this; and, above all, with a fellow who would +have stripped you of every jewel and every penny you have with you if +things hadn't happened as they have?" + +"And I can very ill afford to lose anything _now_--as I suppose you +know, Mr. Cleek. Things have changed sadly for me since that day Mr. +Narkom introduced us at Ascot," she said, with just a shadow of +seriousness in her eyes. "But as to what I think regarding your action +toward that dreadful boy.... Oh, of course, if there is a chance of +saving him from a career of crime, I think one owes him that as a duty. +In the circumstances, the temptation was very great. It must be a +horrible thing to be so hungry that one is driven to robbery to satisfy +the longing for food." + +"Yes, very horrible--very, very indeed. I once knew a boy who stood as +that boy stands--at the parting of the ways; when the good that was in +him fought the last great fight with the Devil of Circumstances. If a +hand had been stretched forth to help that boy at that time ... Ah, +well! it wasn't. The Devil took the reins and the game went _his_ way. +If five shillings will put the reins into that boy's hands to-night and +steer him back to the right path, so much the better for him and--for +me. I'll know if he's worth the chance I took to-morrow. Now let us talk +about something else. Will you allow me to escort you across the heath +and see you safely on your way home? Or would you prefer that I should +remain in the background as before?" + +"How ungrateful you must think me, to suggest such a thing as that," she +said with a reproachful smile. "Walk with me if you will be so kind. I +hope you know that this is the third time you have rendered me a service +since I had the pleasure of meeting you. It is very nice of you; and I +am extremely grateful. I wonder you find the time or--well, take the +trouble," rather archly; "a great man like you." + +"Shall I take off my hat and say 'thank you, ma'am'; or just the +hackneyed 'Praise from Sir Hubert is praise indeed'?" he said with a +laugh as he fell into step with her and they faced the mist and the +distance together. "I suppose you are alluding to my success in the +famous Stanhope Case--the newspapers made a great fuss over that, Mr. +Narkom tells me. But--please. One big success doesn't make a 'great man' +any more than one rosebush makes a garden." + +"Are you fishing for a compliment? Or is that really natural modesty? I +had heard of your exploits and seen your name in the papers, oh, dozens +of times before I first had the pleasure of meeting you; and since then +... No, I shan't flatter you by saying how many successes I have seen +recorded to your credit in the past two years. Do you know that I have a +natural predilection for such things? It may be morbid of me--is +it?--but I have the strongest kind of a leaning toward the tales of +Gaboriau; and I have always wanted to know a really great +detective--like Lecocq, or Dupin. And that day at Ascot when Mr. Narkom +told me that he would introduce me to the famous 'Man of the Forty +Faces' ... Mr. Cleek, why do they call you 'the Man of the Forty Faces'? +You always look the same to me." + +"Perhaps I shan't, when we come to the end of the heath and get into the +public street, where there are lights and people," he said. "That I +always look the same in your eyes, Miss Lorne, is because I have but one +face for you, and that is my real one. Not many people see it, even +among the men of The Yard whom I occasionally work with. You do, +however; so does Mr. Narkom, occasionally. So did that boy, +unfortunately. I had to show it when I came to your assistance, if only +to assure you that you were in friendly hands and to prevent you taking +fright and running off into the mist in a panic and losing yourself +where even I might not be able to find you. That is why I told the boy +to apply for work to 'Captain Burbage of Clarges Street.' _I_ am Captain +Burbage, Miss Lorne. Nobody knows that but my good friend Mr. Narkom +and, now, you." + +"I shall respect it, of course," she said. "I hope I need not assure you +of that, Mr. Cleek." + +"You need assure me of nothing, Miss Lorne," he made reply. "I owe so +much more to you than you are aware, that--Oh, well, it doesn't matter. +You asked me a question a moment ago. If you want the answer to it--look +here." + +He stopped short as he spoke; the pocket-torch clicked faintly and from +the shelter of a curved hand, the glow of it struck upward to his face. +It was not the same face for ten seconds at a time. What Sir Horace +Wyvern had seen in Mr. Narkom's private office at Scotland Yard on that +night of nights more than two years ago, Sir Horace Wyvern's niece saw +now. + +"Oh!" she said, with a sharp intaking of the breath as she saw the +writhing features knot and twist and blend. "Oh, don't! It is uncanny! +It is amazing. It is awful!" And, after a moment, when the light had +been shut off and the man beside her was only a shape in the mist: "I +hope I may never see you do it again," she merely more than whispered. +"It is the most appalling thing. I can't think how you do it--how you +came by the power to do such a thing." + +"Perhaps by inheritance," said Cleek, as they walked on again. "Once +upon a time, Miss Lorne, there was a--er--lady of extremely high +position who, at a time when she should have been giving her thoughts +to--well, more serious things, used to play with one of those curious +little rubber faces which you can pinch up into all sorts of distorted +countenances--you have seen the things, no doubt. She would sit for +hours screaming with laughter over the droll shapes into which she +squeezed the thing. Afterward, when her little son was born, he +inherited the trick of that rubber face as a birthright. It may have +been the same case with me. Let us say it was, and drop the subject, +since you have not found the sight a pleasing one. Now tell me +something, please, that I want to know about you." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"About me, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. You spoke about there being a change in your circumstances--spoke +as though you thought I knew. I do not; but I should like to if I may. +It will perhaps explain why you are out alone and in this neighbourhood +at this time of night." + +"It will," she said, with just a shadow of deeper colour coming into her +cheeks. "The house you saw me coming out of is the residence of a friend +and former schoolmate. I went there to inquire if she could help me in +any way to secure a position; and stopped later than I realised." + +"Procure you a position, Miss Lorne? A position as what?" + +"Companion, amanuensis, governess--anything that," with a laugh and a +blush, "'respectable young females' may do to earn a living when they +come down in the world. You may possibly have heard that my uncle, Sir +Horace, has married again. I think you must have done so, for the papers +were full of it at the time. But I forget"--quizzically--"you don't read +newspapers, do you, even when they contain accounts of your own +greatness." + +"I wonder if I deserve that? At any rate, I got it," said Cleek with a +laugh. "Yes, I heard all about Sir Horace's wedding. Some four or five +months ago, wasn't it?" + +"No, three--three, last Thursday, the fourteenth. A woman doesn't forget +the date of her enforced abdication. The new Lady Wyvern soon let me +know that I was a superfluous person in the household. To-day, I came to +the conclusion to leave it; and have taken the first actual step toward +doing so. A lucky step, too, I fancy; or, at least, it promises to be." + +"As how?" + +"My friend knows of two people who would be likely to need me: one, a +titled lady here in England, who might be 'very glad to have me'--I am +quoting that, please--as governess to her little boy. The other, a young +French girl who is returning shortly to Paris, who also might be 'glad +to have me' as companion. Of course, I would sooner remain in England, +but--well, it is nicer to be a companion than a governess; and the young +lady is very nearly my own age. Indeed, we were actually at the same +school together when we were very little girls." + +"I see," said Cleek, a trifle gloomily. "So then it is possible that it +will, eventually, be the young French lady and--Paris, in future. When, +do you fancy? Soon?" + +"Oh, I don't know about that. I haven't quite made up my mind as yet +which of the two it will be. And then there's the application to be sent +afterwards." + +"Still, it will be one of the two certainly?" + +"Oh, yes. I shall have to earn my living in future, you know; so, +naturally, of course--" She gave her shoulder an eloquent upward +movement, and let the rest go by default. + +Cleek did not speak for a moment: merely walked on beside her--a ridge +between his eyebrows and his lower lip sucked in; as if he were mentally +debating upon something and was afraid he might speak incautiously. But +of a sudden: + +"Miss Lorne," he said, in a curiously tense voice, "may I ask you +something? Let us say that you had set your heart upon obtaining one or +the other of these two positions--set it so entirely that life wouldn't +be worth a straw to you if you didn't get it. Let us say, too, that +there was something you had done, something in your past which, if +known, might utterly preclude the possibility of your obtaining what you +wanted--it is an absurd hypothesis, of course: but let us use it for the +sake of argument. We will say you had done your best to live down that +offensive 'something' done, and were still doing all that lay in your +power to atone for it; that nobody but one person shared the knowledge +of that 'something' with you, and upon his silence you could rely. Now +tell me: would you feel justified in accepting the position upon which +you had set your heart _without_ confessing the thing; or would you feel +in duty bound to speak, well knowing that it would in all human +probability be the end of all your hopes? I should like to have your +opinion upon that point, please." + +"I can't see that I or anybody else could have other than the one," she +replied. "It is an age-old maxim, is it not, Mr. Cleek, that two wrongs +cannot by any possibility constitute a right? I should feel in duty +bound, in honour bound, to speak, of course. To do the other would be to +obtain the position by fraud--to steal it, as a thief steals things that +_he_ wants. No sort of atonement is possible, is even worth the name, if +it is backed up by deceit, Mr. Cleek." + +"Even though that deceit is the only thing that could give you your +heart's desire? The only thing that could open the Gates of Heaven for +you?" + +"The 'Gates of Heaven,' as you put it, can never be opened with a lie, +Mr. Cleek. They might be opened by the very thing of which you +speak--confession. I think I should take my chances upon that. At any +rate, if I failed, I should at least have preserved my self-respect and +done more to merit what I wanted than if I had secured it by treachery. +Think of the boy you helped a little while ago. How much respect will +you have for him if he never lives up to his promise; never goes to +Clarges Street at all? Yet if he does live up to it, will he not be +doubly worth the saving? But please!" with a sudden change from +seriousness to gaiety, "if I am to be led into sermonizing, might I not +know what it is all about? I shall be right, shall I not, in supposing +that all this is merely the preface to something else?" + +"Either the Preface or--the Finis," said Cleek, with a deeply drawn +breath. "Still, as you say, no atonement is worth calling an atonement +if it is based upon fraud; and so--Miss Lorne, I am going to ask you to +indulge in yet another little flight of fancy. Carry your mind back, +will you, to the night when your cousin--to the night two years ago when +Sir Horace Wyvern's daughter had her wedding presents stolen and you, I +believe, had rather a trying moment with that fellow who was known as +'The Vanishing Cracksman.' You can remember it, can you not?" + +"Remember it? I shall never forget it. I thought, when the police ran +down stairs and left me with him, that I was talking to Mr. Narkom. I +think I nearly went daft with terror when I found out that it was he." + +"And you found it out only through his telling you, did you not? +Afterward, I am told, the police found you lying fainting at the foot of +the stairs. The man had touched you, spoken to you, even caught up your +hand and put it to his lips? Can you remember what he said when he did +that? Can you?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a little shudder of recollection. "For weeks +afterward I used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking of it +and going cold all over. He said, 'You have come down into Hell and +lifted me out. Under God, you shall lift me into Heaven as well!'" + +"And perhaps you shall," said Cleek, stopping short and uncovering his +head. "At any rate, I'll not attempt to win it by fraud. Miss Lorne, I +am that man. I am the 'Vanishing Cracksman' of those other days. I've +walked the 'straight path' since the moment I kissed your hand." + +She said nothing, made no faintest sound. She couldn't--all the +strength, all the power to do anything but simply stand and look at him +had gone out of her. But even so, she was conscious--dimly but yet +conscious--of a feeling of relief that they had come at last close to +the end of the heath, that there was the faint glow of lights dimly +observable through the enfolding mist, and that there was the rumble of +wheels, the pulse of life, the law-guarded paths of the city's streets +beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She could not herself have been more conscious of that feeling of relief +than he was of its coming. It spoke to him in the swift glance she gave +toward those distant, fog-blurred lights, in the white, drained face of +her, in the shrinking backward movement of her body when he spoke again; +and something within him voiced "the exceeding bitter cry." + +"I am not sure that I even hoped you would take the revelation in any +other way than this," he said. "A hawk--even a tamed one--must be a +thing of terror in the eyes of a dove. Still, I am not sorry that I have +made the confession, Miss Lorne. When the worst has been told, a burden +rolls away." + +"Yes," she acquiesced faintly, finding her voice; but finding it only to +lose it again. "But that you--that _you_...." And was faint and very +still again. + +"Shall we go on? It isn't more than fifty paces to the road; and you may +rely upon finding a taxicab there. Would you like me to show you the +way?" + +"Yes, please. I--oh, don't think me unsympathetic, unkind, severe. It is +such a shock; it is all so horrible--I mean--that is.... Let me get used +to it. I shall never tell, of course--no, never! Now, please, may we not +walk faster? I am very, very late as it is; and they will be worrying at +home." + +They did walk faster, and in a minute more were at the common's end. +Cleek stopped and again lifted his hat. + +"We will part here, Miss Lorne," he said. "I won't force my company on +you any further. From here, you are quite beyond all danger, and I am +sure you would rather I left you to find a taxi for yourself. Good +night." He did not even offer to put out his hand. "May I say again, +that I am not sorry I told you? Nor did I ever expect you would, take it +other than like this. It is only natural. Try to forgive me; or, at the +least, believe that I have not tried to keep your friendship by a lie, +or to atone in seeming only. Good night." + +He gave her no chance to reply, no time to say one single word. Deep +wounds require time in which to heal. He knew that he had wounded the +white soul of her so that it was sick with uncertainty, faint with +dread; and, putting on his hat, stepped sharply back and let the mist +take him and hide him from her sight. + +But, though she did not see, he was near her even then. + +He knew when she walked out into the light-filled street; he knew when +she found a taxicab; and he did not make an effort to go his way until +he was sure that she was safely started upon hers. Then he screwed round +on his heel and went back into the mist and loneliness of the heath, and +walked, and walked, and walked. Afterward--long afterward: when the +night was getting old and the town was going to sleep, he, too, fared +forth in quest of a taxi, and finding one went _his_ way as she had gone +hers. + +In the neighbourhood of Bond Street--now a place of darkness and +slow-tramping policemen--he dismissed the taxi and continued the journey +along Piccadilly afoot. It was close to one o'clock when he came at +length to Clarges Street and swung into it from the Piccadilly end, and +moved on in the direction of the house which sheltered him and his +secrets together. But, though he walked with apparent indifference, his +eye was ever on the lookout for some chance watcher in the windows of +the other houses; for "Captain Horatio Burbage" was supposed, in the +neighbourhood, to be a superannuated seaman who maintained a bachelor +establishment with the aid of an elderly housekeeper and a deaf-and-dumb +maid of all work. + +But no one was on the watch to-night; and it was only when he came at +last to the pillared portico of his own residence that he found any sign +of life from one end of the street to the other. He did find it then, +however; for the boy, Dollops, was sitting huddled up on the top step +with the thick shadow of the portico making a safe screen for him. + +He had made good use of the two half-crowns, for he had not only +feasted--and was feasting still: on a bag of winkles and a saveloy--but +was washed and brushed and had gone to the length of a shoe-shine and a +collar. + +"Been waitin' since eleven o'clock, sir," he said, getting up and +pulling his forelock as Cleek appeared. "Didn't knock and arsk for no +one, though--not me. Twigged as it would be you, sir, on account of your +sayin' to-night. I've read summink of the ways of 'tecs. Wot ho!" + +"You seem a sharp little customer, at all events," said Cleek with a +curious one-sided smile--a smile that was peculiar to him. "I somehow +fancy that I've made a good investment, Dollops. Filled up, eh?" + +"No, sir--never filled. Born 'ungry, I reckon. But filled as much as you +could fill me, bless your 'eart. I aren't never goin' to forget that, +Gov'nor--no fear. An eater and a scrapper I am, sir; and I'll scrap for +_you_, sir, while there's a bloomin' breff left in my blessed body! +Gimme the tip wot kind of work I _can_ do for you, Gov'nor, will you? I +want to get them two 'arf-crowns off my conscience as quick as I can." + +Cleek looked at him and smiled again. + +"Yes, I'm _sure_ I made a good bargain, Dollops," he said. "Come in." +And in this way the attachment which existed between them ever afterward +had its beginning. + +He took the boy in and up to the little room on the second floor which +he called his den; and, turning on the light, motioned him to a chair, +laid aside his hat and gloves, and was just about to pull up a chair for +himself when he caught sight of an unstamped letter lying upon his +writing-table. + +"Sit down there and wait a moment until I read this, my lad," he said; +and forthwith tore the letter open. + +It was from Superintendent Narkom. He had known that from the first, +however. No one but Narkom ever wrote him letters. This one was +exceedingly brief. It simply contained these two lines: + +"My dear Cleek. The Three Jolly Fishermen, Richmond, at tea-time +to-morrow. An astonishing affair. Yours, M. N." + +"Dollops, my lad, I think I'm going to make a man of you," he said as he +tore the letter into a dozen pieces and tossed the fragments into a +waste-basket. "At any rate, I'm going to have a try. Know anything about +Richmond?" + +"Yuss, sir." + +"Good. Well, we'll have a half-hour's talk and then I'll find a +temporary bed for you for the night, and to-morrow we'll take a pull on +the river at Richmond and see what we shall see." + +The half-hour, however, developed into a full one; for it was after two +o'clock when the talk was finished and a bed improvised for the boy; but +Cleek, saying good night to him at last and going to his own bedroom, +felt that it was a long, long way from being time wasted. + +What Dollops thought is, perhaps, best told by the fact that he burst +out crying when Cleek came in in the morning to ask how he had slept. + +"Slept, Gov'nor!" he said. "Why, bless your 'eart, sir, I couldn't a +slept better on a bed of roses, nor 'ad 'arf such comfort. Feel like I +needed someone to lend me a biff on the coco, sir, to make sure as I +aren't a dreamin'--it's so wot a cove fancies 'Eaven to be like, sir." + +And afterward, when the day was older, and they had gone to Richmond, +and Cleek--in his boating flannels--was pulling him up the shining river +and talking to him again as he had talked last night, he felt that it +was even more like Heaven than ever. + +It was after four--long after--when they finally separated and Cleek, +leaving the boy in charge of the boat, stepped ashore in the +neighbourhood of the inn of the Three Jolly Fishermen and went to keep +his appointment with Narkom. + +He found him enjoying tea at a little round table in the niche of a big +bay window in the small private parlour which lay immediately behind the +bar-room. + +"My dear chap, do forgive me for not waiting," said the superintendent +contritely, as Cleek came in, looking like a college-bred athlete in his +boating-flannels and his brim-tilted panama. "But the fact is you are a +little later than I anticipated; and I was simply famishing." + +"Share the blame of my lateness with me, Mr. Narkom," said Cleek as he +tossed aside his hat and threw the fag-end of his cigarette through the +open window. "You merely said 'tea-time,' not any particular hour; and I +improved the opportunity to take another spin up the river and to talk +like a Dutch uncle to a certain young man whom I shall introduce to your +notice in due time. It isn't often that duty calls me to a little Eden +like this. The air is like balm to-day; and the river--oh, the river is +a sheer delight." + +Narkom rang for a fresh pot of tea and a further supply of buttered +toast, and, when these were served, Cleek sat down and joined him. + +"I dare say," said the superintendent, opening fire at once, "that you +wonder what in the world induced me to bring you out here to meet me, my +dear fellow, instead of following the usual course and calling at +Clarges Street? Well, the fact is, Cleek, that the gentleman with whom I +am now about to put you in touch lives in this vicinity, and is so +placed that he cannot get away without running the risk of having the +step he is taking discovered." + +"Humph! He is closely spied upon, then?" commented Cleek. "The trouble +arises from someone or something in his own household?" + +"No--in his father's. The 'trouble,' so far as I can gather, seems to +emanate from his stepmother, a young and very beautiful woman, who was +born on the island of Java, where the father of our client met and +married her some two years ago, whither he had gone to probe into the +truth of the amazing statement that a runic stone had been unearthed in +that part of the globe." + +"Ah, then you need not tell me the gentleman's name, Mr. Narkom," +interposed Cleek. "I remember perfectly well the stir which that +ridiculous and unfounded statement created at the time. Despite the fact +that scholars of all nations scoffed at the thing, and pointed out that +the very term 'rune' is of Teutonic origin, one enthusiastic old +gentleman--Mr. Michael Bawdrey, a retired brewer, thirsting for +something more enduring than malt to carry his name down the +ages--became fired with enthusiasm upon the subject, and set forth for +Java 'hot foot,' as one might say. I remember that the papers made great +game of him; but I heard, I fancy, that, in spite of all, he was a dear, +lovable old chap, and not at all like the creature the cartoonists +portrayed him." + +"What a memory you have, my dear Cleek. Yes, that is the party; and he +_is_ a dear, lovable old chap at bottom. Collects old china, old +weapons, old armour, curiosities of all sorts--lots of 'em bogus, no +doubt; catch the charlatans among the dealers letting a chance like that +slip them--and is never so happy as when showing his 'collection' to his +friends and being mistaken by the ignorant for a man of deep learning." + +"A very human trait, Mr. Narkom. We all are anxious that the world +should set the highest possible valuation upon us. It is only when we +are underrated that we object. So this dear, deluded old gentleman, +having failed to secure a 'rune' in Java, brought back something equally +cryptic--a woman? Was the lady of his choice a native or merely an +inhabitant of the island?" + +"Merely an inhabitant, my dear fellow. As a matter of fact, she is +English. Her father, a doctor, long since deceased, took her out there +in her childhood. She was none too well off, I believe; but that did not +prevent her having many suitors, among whom was Mr. Bawdrey's own son, +the gentleman who is anxious to have you take up this case." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "So the lady was of +the careful and calculating kind? She didn't care for youth and all the +rest of it when she could have papa and the money-chest without waiting. +A common enough occurrence. Still, this does not make up an 'affair,' +and especially an 'affair' which requires the assistance of a detective, +and you spoke of 'a case.' What is the case, Mr. Narkom?" + +"I will leave Mr. Philip Bawdrey himself to tell you that," said Narkom, +as the door opened to admit a young man of about eight-and-twenty, +clothed in tennis flannels, and looking very much perturbed, a handsome, +fair-haired, fair-moustached young fellow, with frank, boyish eyes and +that unmistakable something which stamps the products of the 'Varsities. +"Come in, Mr. Bawdrey. You said we were not to wait tea, and you see +that we haven't. Let me have the pleasure of introducing Mr.--" + +"Headland," put in Cleek adroitly, and with a look at Narkom as much as +to say, "Don't give me away. I may not care to take the case when I hear +it, so what's the use of letting everybody know who I am?" Then he +switched round in his chair, rose, and held out his hand. "Mr. George +Headland, of the Yard, Mr. Bawdrey. I don't trust Mr. Narkom's +proverbially tricky memory for names. He introduced me as Jones once, +and I lost the opportunity of handling the case because the party in +question couldn't believe that anybody named Jones would be likely to +ferret it out." + +"Funny idea, that!" commented young Bawdrey, smiling, and accepting the +proffered hand. "Rum lot of people you must run across in your line, Mr. +Headland. Shouldn't take you for a detective myself, shouldn't even in a +room full of them. College man, aren't you? Thought so. Oxon or Cantab?" + +"Cantab--Emmanuel." + +"Oh, Lord! Never thought I'd ever live to appeal to an Emmanuel man to +do anything brilliant. I'm an Oxon chap; Brasenose is my alma mater. I +say, Mr. Narkom, do give me a cup of tea, will you? I had to slip off +while the others were at theirs, and I've run all the way. Thanks very +much. Don't mind if I sit in that corner and draw the curtain a little, +do you?" his frank, boyish face suddenly clouding. "I don't want to be +seen by anybody passing. It's a horrible thing to feel that you are +being spied upon, at every turn, Mr. Headland, and that want of caution +may mean the death of the person you love best in all the world." + +"Oh, it's that kind of case, is it?" queried Cleek, making room for him +to pass round the table and sit in the corner, with his back to the +window and the loosened folds of the chintz curtain keeping him in the +shadow. + +"Yes," answered young Bawdrey, with a half-repressed shudder and a +deeper clouding of his rather pale face. "Sometimes I try to make myself +believe that it isn't, that it's all fancy, that she never could be so +inhuman, and yet how else is it to be explained? You can't go behind the +evidence; you can't make things different simply by saying that you will +not believe." He stirred his tea nervously, gulped down a couple of +mouthfuls of it, and then set the cup aside. "I can't enjoy anything; it +takes the savour out of everything when I think of it," he added, with a +note of pathos in his voice. "My dad, my dear, bully old dad, the best +and dearest old boy in all the world! I suppose, Mr. Headland, that Mr. +Narkom has told you something about the case?" + +"A little--a very little indeed. I know that your father went to Java, +and married a second wife there; and I know, too, that you yourself were +rather taken with the lady at one time, and that she threw you over as +soon as Mr. Bawdrey senior became a possibility." + +"That's a mistake," he replied. "She never threw me over, Mr. Headland; +she never had the chance. I found her out long before my father became +anything like what you might call a rival, found her out as a mercenary, +designing woman, and broke from her voluntarily. I only wish that I had +known that he had one serious thought regarding her. I could have warned +him; I could have spoken then. But I never did find out until it was too +late. Trust her for that. She waited until I had gone up-country to look +after some fine old porcelains and enamels that the governor had heard +about; then she hurried him off and tricked him into a hasty marriage. +Of course, after that I couldn't speak--I wouldn't speak. She was my +father's wife, and he was so proud of her, so happy, dear old boy, that +I'd have been little better than a brute to say anything against her." + +"What could you have said if you had spoken?" + +"Oh, lots of things--the things that made me break away from her in the +beginning. She'd had more love affairs than one; her late father's +masquerading as a doctor for another. They had only used that as a +cloak. They had run a gambling-house on the sly--he as the card-sharper, +she as the decoy. They had drained one poor fellow dry, and she had +thrown him over after leading him on to think that she cared for him and +was going to marry him. He blew out his brains in front of her, poor +wretch. They say she never turned a hair. You wouldn't believe it +possible, if you saw her; she is so sweet and caressing, and so young +and beautiful, you'd almost believe her an angel. But there's Travers in +the background--always Travers." + +"Travers! Who is he?" + +"Oh, one of her old flames, the only one she ever really cared for, they +say. She was supposed to have broken with him out there in Java, because +they were too poor to marry; and now he's come over to England, and he's +there, in the house with the dear old dad and me, and they are as thick +as thieves together. I've caught them whispering and prowling about +together, in the grounds and along the lanes, after she has said 'Good +night,' and gone to her room and is supposed to be in bed. There's a +houseful of her old friends three parts of the time. They come and they +go, but Travers never goes. I know why"--waxing suddenly excited, +suddenly vehement--"yes! I know why. He's in the game with her!" + +"Game! What game, Mr. Bawdrey? What is it that she is doing?" + +"She's killing my old dad!" he answered, with a sort of sob in his +excited voice. "She's murdering him by inches, that's what she's doing, +and I want you to help me bring it home to her. God knows what it is +she's using or how she uses it; but you know what demons they are for +secret poisons, those Javanese, what means they have of killing people +without a trace. And she was out there for years and years. So, too, was +Travers, the brute! They know all the secrets of those beastly +barbarians, and between them they're doing something to my old dad." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I don't know it--that's the worst of it. But I couldn't be surer of it +if they took me into their secrets. But there's the evidence of his +condition; there's the fact that it didn't begin until after Travers +came. Look here, Mr. Headland, you don't know my dad. He's got the +queerest notions sometimes. One of his fads is that it's unlucky to make +a will. Well, if he dies without one, who will inherit his money, as I +am an only child?" + +"Undoubtedly you and his widow." + +"Exactly. And if I die at pretty nearly the same time--and they'll see +to that, never fear; it will be my turn the moment they are sure of +him--she will inherit everything. Now, let me tell you what's happening. +From being a strong, healthy man, my father has, since Travers's +arrival, begun to be attacked by a mysterious malady. He has periodical +fainting-fits, sometimes convulsions. He'll be feeling better for a day +or so; then, without a word of warning, whilst you're talking to him, +he'll drop like a shot bird and go into the most horrible convulsions. +The doctors can't stop it; they don't even know what it is. They only +know that he's fading away--turning from a strong, virile old man into a +thin, nervous, shivering wreck. But I know! I know! They're dosing him +somehow with some diabolical Javanese thing, those two. And +yesterday--God help me!--yesterday, I, too, dropped like a shot bird; I, +too, had the convulsions and the weakness and the fainting-fit. My time +has begun also!" + +"Bless my soul! what a diabolical thing!" put in Narkom agitatedly. "No +wonder you appealed to me!" + +"No wonder!" Bawdrey replied. "I felt that it had gone as far as I dared +to let it; that it was time to call in the police and to have help +before it was too late. That's the case, Mr. Headland. I want you to +find some way of getting at the truth, of looking into Travers's +luggage, into my stepmother's effects, and unearthing the horrible stuff +with which they are doing this thing; and perhaps, when that is known, +some antidote may be found to save the dear old dad and restore him to +what he was. Can't you do this? For God's sake, say that you can." + +"At all events, I can try, Mr. Bawdrey," responded Cleek. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Bawdrey gratefully. "I don't care a +hang what it costs, what your fees are, Mr. Headland. So long as you run +those two to earth, and get hold of the horrible stuff, whatever it is, +that they are using, I'll pay any price in the world, and count it cheap +as compared with the life of my dear old dad. When can you take hold of +the case? Now?" + +"I'm afraid not. Mysterious things like this require a little thinking +over. Suppose we say to-morrow noon? Will that do?" + +"I suppose it must, although I should have liked to take you back with +me. Every moment's precious at a time like this. But if it must be +delayed until to-morrow--well, it must, I suppose. But I'll take jolly +good care that nobody gets a chance to come within touching distance of +the pater--bless him!--until you do come, if I have to sit on the mat +before his door until morning. Here's the address on this card, Mr. +Headland. When and how shall I expect to see you again? You'll use an +alias, of course?" + +"Oh, certainly! Had you any old friend in your college days whom your +father only knew by name and who is now too far off for the imposture to +be discovered?" + +"Yes. Jim Rickaby. We were as inseparable as the Siamese twins in our +undergrad days. He's in Borneo now. Haven't heard from him in a dog's +age." + +"Couldn't be better," said Cleek. "Then 'Jim Rickaby' let it be. You'll +get a letter from him first thing in the morning saying that he's back +in England, and about to run down and spend the week-end with you. At +noon he will arrive, accompanied by his Borneo servant, +named--er--Dollops. You can put the 'blackie' up in some quarter of the +house where he can move about at will without disturbing any of your own +servants, and can get in and out at all hours; he will be useful, you +know, in prowling about the grounds at night and ascertaining if the +lady really does go to bed when she retires to her room. As for 'Jim +Rickaby' himself--well, you can pave the way for his operations by +informing your father, when you get the letter, that he has gone daft on +the subject of old china and curios and things of that sort, don't you +know." + +"What a ripping idea!" commented young Bawdrey. "I twig. He'll get +chummy with you, of course, and you can lead him on and adroitly 'pump' +him regarding her, and where she keeps her keys and things like that. +That's the idea, isn't it?" + +"Something of that sort. I'll find out all about her, never fear," said +Cleek in reply. Then they shook hands and parted, and it was not until +after young Bawdry had gone that either he or Narkom recollected that +Cleek had overlooked telling the young man that Headland was not his +name. + +"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Time enough to tell him that when it comes +to making out the cheque," said Cleek, as the superintendent remarked +upon the circumstance. Then he pushed back his chair and walked over to +the window, and stood looking silently out upon the flowing river. +Narkom did not disturb his reflections. He knew from past experience, as +well as from the manner in which he took his lower lip between his teeth +and drummed with his finger-tips upon the window-ledge, that some idea +relative to the working out of the case had taken shape within his mind, +and so, with the utmost discretion, went on with his tea and refrained +from speaking. Suddenly Cleek turned. "Mr. Narkom, do me a favour, will +you? Look me up a copy of Holman's 'Diseases of the Kidneys' when you go +back to town. I'll send Dollops round to the Yard to-night to get it." + +"Right you are," said Narkom, taking out his pocket-book and making a +note of it. "But, I say, look here, my dear fellow, you can't possibly +believe that it's anything of that sort--anything natural, I mean--in +the face of what we've heard?" + +"No, I don't. I think it's something confoundedly unnatural, and that +that poor old chap is being secretly and barbarously murdered. I think +that--and--I think, too--" His voice trailed off. He stood silent and +preoccupied for a moment, and then, putting his thoughts into words, +without addressing them to anybody: "Ayupee!" he said reflectively; +"Pohon-Upas, Antjar, Galanga root, Ginger and Black Pepper--that's the +Javanese method of procedure, I believe. Ayupee!--yes, assuredly, +Ayupee!" + +"What the dickens are you talking about, Cleek? And what does all that +gibberish and that word 'Ayupee' mean?" + +"Nothing--nothing. At least, just yet. I say, put on your hat, and let's +go for a pull on the river, Mr. Narkom. I've had enough of mysteries for +to-day and am spoiling for another hour in a boat." + +Then he screwed round on his heel and walked out into the brilliant +summer sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Promptly, at the hour appointed, "Mr. Jim Rickaby" and his black servant +arrived at Laburnam Villa; and certainly the former had no cause to +complain of the welcome he received at the hands of his beautiful young +hostess. + +He found her not only an extremely lovely woman to the eye, but one +whose gentle, caressing ways, whose soft voice and simple girlish charm +were altogether fascinating, and, judging from outward appearances, from +the tender solicitude for her elderly husband's comfort and well-being, +from the look in her eyes when she spoke to him, the gentleness of her +hand when she touched him, one would have said that she really and truly +loved him, and that it needed no lure of gold to draw this particular +May to the arms of this one December. + +He found Captain Travers a laughing, rollicking, fun-loving type of +man--at least, to all outward appearances--who seemed to delight in +sports and games and to have an almost childish love of card tricks and +that species of entertainment which is known as parlour magic. He found +the three other members of the little house-party--to wit: Mrs. +Somerby-Miles, Lieutenant Forshay, and Mr. Robert Murdock--respectively, +a silly, flirtatious, little gadfly of a widow; a callow, love-struck, +lap-dog, young army officer, with a budding moustache and a full-blown +idea of his own importance; and a dour Scotchman of middle age, with a +passion for chess, a glowering scorn of frivolities, and a deep and +abiding conviction that Scotland was the only country in the world for a +self-respecting human being to dwell in, and that everything outside of +the Established Church was foredoomed to flames and sulphur and the +perpetual prodding of red-hot pitchforks. And last, but not least by any +means, he found Mr. Michael Bawdrey just what he had been told he would +find him, namely, a dear, lovable, sunny-tempered old man, who fairly +idolised his young wife and absolutely adored his frank-faced, +affectionate, big boy of a son, and who ought not, in the common course +of things, to have an enemy or an evil wisher in all the world. + +The news, which, of course, had preceded Cleek's arrival, that this +whilom college chum of his son's was as great an enthusiast as he +himself on the subject of old china, old porcelain, bric-a-brac and +curios of every sort, filled him with the utmost delight, and he could +scarcely refrain from rushing him off at once to view his famous +collection. + +"Michael, dear, you mustn't overdo yourself just because you happen to +have been a little stronger these past two days," said his wife, laying +a gentle hand upon his arm. "Besides, we must give Mr. Rickaby time to +breathe. He has had a long journey, and I am sure he will want to rest. +You can take him in to see that wonderful collection after dinner, +dear." + +"Humph! Full of fakes, as I supposed--and she knows it," was Cleek's +mental comment upon this. And he was not surprised when, finding herself +alone with him a few minutes later, she said, in her pretty, pleading +way: + +"Mr. Rickaby, if you are an expert, don't undeceive him. I could not let +you go to see the collection without first telling you. It is full of +bogus things, full of frauds and shams that unscrupulous dealers have +palmed off on him. But don't let him know. He takes such pride in them, +and--and he's breaking down--God pity me, his health is breaking down +every day, Mr. Rickaby, and I want to spare him every pang, if I can, +even so little a pang as the discovery that the things he prizes are not +real." + +"Set your mind at rest, Mrs. Bawdrey," promised Cleek. "He will not find +it out from me. He will not find anything out from me. He is just the +kind of man to break his heart, to crumple up like a burnt glove, and +come to the end of all things, even life, if he were to discover that +any of his treasures, anything that he loved and trusted in, is a sham +and a fraud." + +His eyes looked straight into hers as he spoke, his hand rested lightly +on her sleeve. She sucked in her breath suddenly, a brief pallor chased +the roses from her cheeks, a brief confusion sat momentarily upon her. +She appeared to hesitate, then looked away and laughed uneasily. + +"I don't think I quite grasp what you mean, Mr. Rickaby," she said. + +"Don't you?" he made answer. "Then I will tell you--some +time--to-morrow, perhaps. But if I were you, Mrs. Bawdrey--well, no +matter. This I promise you: that dear old man shall have no ideal +shattered by me." + +And, living up to that promise, he enthused over everything the old man +had in his collection when, after dinner that night, they went, in +company with Philip, to view it. But bogus things were on every hand. +Spurious porcelains, fraudulent armour, faked china were everywhere. The +loaded cabinets and the glazed cases were one long procession of faked +Dresden and bogus faience, of Egyptian enamels that had been +manufactured in Birmingham, and of sixth-century "treasures" whose +makers were still plying their trade and battening upon the ignorance of +such collectors as he. + +"Now, here's a thing I am particularly proud of," said the gulled old +man, reaching into one of the cases and holding out for Cleek's +admiration an irregular disc of dull, hammered gold that had an +iridescent beetle embedded in the flat face of it. "This scarab, Mr. +Rickaby, has helped to make history, as one might say. It was once the +property of Cleopatra. I was obliged to make two trips to Egypt before I +could persuade the owner to part with it. I am always conscious of a +certain sense of awe, Mr. Rickaby, when I touch this wonderful thing. To +think, sir, to think! that this bauble once rested on the bosom of that +marvellous woman; that Mark Antony must have seen it, may have touched +it; that Ptolemy Auletes knew all about it, and that it is older, sir, +than the Christian religion itself!" + +He held it out upon the flat of his palm, the better for Cleek to see +and to admire it, and signed to his son to hand the visitor a magnifying +glass. + +"Wonderful, most wonderful!" observed Cleek, bending over the spurious +gem and focussing the glass upon it; not, however, for the purpose of +studying the fraud, but to examine something just noticed--something +round and red and angry-looking which marked the palm itself, at the +base of the middle finger. + +"No wonder you are proud of such a prize. I think I should go off my +head with rapture if I owned an antique like that. But, pardon me, have +you met with an accident, Mr. Bawdrey? That's an ugly place you have on +your palm." + +"That? Oh, that's nothing," he answered, gaily. "It itches a great deal +at times, but otherwise it isn't troublesome. I can't think how in the +world I got it, to tell the truth. It came out as a sort of red blister +in the beginning, and since it broke it has been spreading a great deal. +But, really, it doesn't amount to anything at all." + +"Oh, that's just like you, dad," put in Philip, "always making light of +the wretched thing. I notice one thing, however, Rickaby, it seems to +grow worse instead of better. And dad knows as well as I do when it +began. It came out suddenly about a fortnight ago, after he had been +holding some green worsted for my stepmother to wind into balls. Just +look at it, will you, old chap?" + +"Nonsense, nonsense!" chimed in the old man, laughingly. "Don't mind the +silly boy, Mr. Rickaby. He will have it that that green worsted is to +blame, just because he happened to spy the thing the morning after." + +"Let's have a look at it," said Cleek, moving nearer the light. Then, +after a close examination, "I don't think it amounts to anything, after +all," he added, as he laid aside the glass. "I shouldn't worry myself +about it if I were you, Phil. It's just an ordinary blister, nothing +more. Let's go on with the collection, Mr. Bawdrey; I'm deeply +interested in it, I assure you. Never saw such a marvellous lot. Got any +more amazing things--gems, I mean--like that wonderful scarab? I +say!"--halting suddenly before a long, narrow case, with a glass front, +which stood on end in a far corner, and, being lined with black velvet, +brought into ghastly prominence the suspended shape of a human skeleton +contained within--"I say! What the dickens is this? Looks like a +doctor's specimen, b'gad. You haven't let anybody--I mean, you haven't +been buying any prehistoric bones, have you, Mr. Bawdrey?" + +"Oh, that?" laughed the old man, turning round and seeing to what he was +alluding. "Oh, that's a curiosity of quite a different sort, Mr. +Rickaby. You are right in saying it looks like a doctor's specimen. It +is--or, rather, it was. Mrs. Bawdrey's father was a doctor, and it once +belonged to him. Properly, it ought to have no place in a collection of +this sort, but--well, it's such an amazing thing I couldn't quite refuse +it a place, sir. It's a freak of nature. The skeleton of a nine-fingered +man." + +"Of a what?" + +"A nine-fingered man." + +"Well, I can't say that I see anything remarkable in that. I've got nine +fingers myself, nine and one over, when it comes to that." + +"No, you haven't, you duffer!" put in young Bawdrey, with a laugh. +"You've got eight fingers--eight fingers and two thumbs. This bony +johnny has nine fingers and two thumbs. That's what makes him a freak. I +say, dad, open the beggar's box, and let Rickaby see." + +His father obeyed the request. Lifting the tiny brass latch which alone +secured it, he swung open the glazed door of the case, and, reaching in, +drew forward the flexible left arm of the skeleton. + +"There you are," he said, supporting the bony hand upon his palm, so +that all its fingers were spread out and Cleek might get a clear view of +the monstrosity. "What a trial he must have been to the glove trade, +mustn't he?" laughing gaily. "Fancy the confusion and dismay, Mr. +Rickaby, if a fellow like this walked into a Bond Street shop in a hurry +and asked for a pair of gloves." + +Cleek bent over and examined the thing with interest. At first glance, +the hand was no different from any other skeleton hand one might see any +day in any place where they sold anatomical specimens for the use of +members of the medical profession; but as Mr. Bawdrey, holding it on the +palm of his right hand, flattened it out with the fingers of his left, +the abnormality at once became apparent. Springing from the base of the +fourth finger, a perfectly developed fifth appeared, curling inward +toward what had once been the palm of the hand, as though, in life, it +had been the owner's habit of screening it from observation by holding +it in that position. It was, however, perfectly flexible, and Mr. +Bawdrey had no difficulty in making it lie out flat after the manner of +its mates. + +The sight was not inspiring--the freaks of mother Nature rarely are. No +one but a doctor would have cared to accept the thing as a gift, and no +one but a man as mad on the subject of curiosities and with as little +sense of discrimination as Mr. Bawdrey would have dreamt for a moment of +adding it to a collection. + +"It's rather uncanny," said Cleek, who had no palate for the abnormal in +Nature. "For myself, I may frankly admit that I don't like things of +that sort about me." + +"You are very much like my wife in that," responded the old man. "She +was of the opinion that the skeleton ought to have been destroyed or +else handed over to some anatomical museum. But--well, it is a +curiosity, you know, Mr. Rickaby. Besides, as I have said, it was once +the property of her late father, a most learned man, sir, most learned, +and as it was of sufficient interest for him to retain it--oh, well, we +collectors are faddists, you know, so I easily persuaded Mrs. Bawdrey to +allow me to bring it over to England with me when we took our leave of +Java. And now that you have seen it, suppose we have a look at more +artistic things. I have some very fine specimens of neolithic implements +and weapons which I am most anxious to show you. Just step this way, +please." + +He let the skeleton's hand slip from his own, swing back into the case, +and forthwith closed the glass door upon it; then, leading the way to +the cabinet containing the specimens referred to, he unlocked it, and +invited Cleek's opinion of the flint arrow-heads, stone hatchets, and +granite utensils within. + +For a minute they lingered thus, the old man talking, laughing, exulting +in his possessions, the detective examining and pretending to be deeply +impressed. Then, of a sudden, without hint or warning to lessen the +shock of it, the uplifted lid of the cabinet fell with a crash from the +hand that upheld it, shivering the glass into fifty pieces, and Cleek, +screwing round on his heel with a "jump" of all his nerves, was in time +to see the figure of his host crumple up, collapse, drop like a thing +shot dead, and lie foaming and writhing on the polished floor. + +"Dad! Oh, heavens! Dad!" The cry was young Bawdrey's. He seemed fairly +to throw himself across the intervening space and to reach his father in +the instant he fell. "Now you know! Now you know!" he went on wildly, as +Cleek dropped down beside him and began to loosen the old man's collar. +"It's like this always; not a hint, not a sign, but just this utter +collapse. My God, what are they doing it with? How are they managing it, +those two? They're coming, Headland. Listen! Don't you hear them?" + +The crash of the broken glass and the jar of the old man's fall had +swept through all the house, and a moment later, headed by Mrs. Bawdrey +herself, all the members of the little house-party came piling excitedly +into the room. + +The fright and suffering of the young wife seemed very real as she threw +herself down beside her husband and caught him to her with a little +shuddering cry. Then her voice, uplifting in a panic, shrilled out a +wild appeal for doctor, servants--help of any kind. And, almost as she +spoke, Travers was beside her, Travers and Forshay and Robert +Murdock--yes, and silly little Mrs. Somerby-Miles, too, forgetting in +the face of such a time as this to be anything but helpful and +womanly--and all of these gave such assistance as was in their power. + +"Help me get him up to his own room, somebody, and send a servant +post-haste for the doctor," said Captain Travers, taking the lead after +the fashion of a man who is used to command. "Calm yourself as much as +possible, Mrs. Bawdrey. Here, Murdock, lend a hand and help him." + +"Eh, mon, there is nae help but Heaven's in sic a case as this," +dolefully responded Murdock, as he came forward and solemnly stooped to +obey. "The puir auld laddie! The Laird giveth and the Laird taketh awa', +and the weel o' mon is as naething." + +"Oh, stow your croaking, you blundering old fool!" snapped Travers, as +Mrs. Bawdrey gave a heart-wrung cry and hid her face in her hands. "You +and your eternal doldrums! Here, Bawdrey, lend a hand, old chap. We can +get him upstairs without the assistance of this human trombone, I know." + +But "this human trombone" was not minded that they should; and so it +fell out that, when Lieutenant Forshay led Mrs. Somerby-Miles from the +room, and young Bawdrey and Captain Travers carried the stricken man up +the stairs to his own bed-chamber, his wife flying in advance to see +that everything was prepared for him, Cleek, standing all alone beside +the shattered cabinet, could hear Mr. Robert Murdock's dismal croakings +rumbling steadily out as he mounted the staircase with the others. + +For a moment after the closing door of a room overhead had shut them +from his ears, he stood there, with puckered brows and pursed-up lips, +drumming with his finger-tips a faint tattoo upon the framework of the +shattered lid; then he walked over to the skeleton case, and silently +regarded the gruesome thing within. + +"Nine fingers," he muttered sententiously, "and the ninth curves inward +to the palm!" He stepped round and viewed the case from all points--both +sides, the front, and even the narrow space made at the back by the +angle of the corner where it stood. And after this he walked to the +other end of the room, took the key from the lock, slipped it in his +pocket, and went out, closing the door behind him, that none might +remember it had not been locked when the master of the place was carried +above. + +It was, perhaps, twenty minutes later that young Bawdrey came down and +found him all alone in the smoking-room, bending over the table whereon +the butler had set the salver containing the whiskey decanter, the soda +siphon, and the glasses that were always laid out there, that the +gentlemen might help themselves to the regulation "night-cap" before +going to bed. + +"I've slipped away to have a word in private with you, Headland," he +said, in an agitated voice, as he came in. "Oh, what consummate actors +they are, those two. You'd think her heart was breaking, wouldn't you? +You'd think--Hullo! I say! What on earth are you doing?" For, as he came +nearer, he could see that Cleek had removed the glass stopper of the +decanter, and was tapping with his finger-tips a little funnel of white +paper, the narrow end of which he had thrust into the neck of the +bottle. + +"Just adding a harmless little sleeping-draught to the nightly +beverage," said Cleek, in reply, as he screwed up the paper funnel and +put it in his pocket. "A good sound sleep is an excellent thing, my dear +fellow, and I mean to make sure that the gentlemen of this house-party +have it--one gentleman in particular: Captain Travers." + +"Yes; but--I say! What about me, old chap? I don't want to be drugged, +and you know I have to show them the courtesy of taking a 'night-cap' +with them." + +"Precisely. That's where you can help me out. If any of them remark +anything about the whiskey having a peculiar taste, you must stoutly +assert that you don't notice; and, as they've seen you drinking from the +same decanter--why, there you are. Don't worry over it. It's a very, +very harmless draught; you won't even have a headache from it. Listen +here, Bawdrey. Somebody is poisoning your father." + +"I know it. I told you so from the beginning, Headland," he answered, +with a sort of wail. "But what's that got to do with drugging the +whiskey?" + +"Everything. I'm going to find out to-night whether Captain Travers is +that somebody or not. Sh-h-h! Don't get excited. Yes, that's my game. I +want to get into his rooms whilst he is sleeping, and be free to search +his effects. I want to get into every man's room here, and wherever I +find poison--well, you understand?" + +"Yes," he replied, brightening as he grasped the import of the matter. +"What a ripping idea! And so simple." + +"I think so. Once let me find the poison, and I'll know my man. Now one +other thing: the housekeeper must have a master-key that opens all the +bedrooms in the place. Get it for me. It will be easier and swifter than +picking the locks." + +"Right you are, old chap. I'll slip up to Mrs. Jarret's room and fetch +it to you at once." + +"No; tuck it under the mat just outside my door. As it won't do for me +to be drugged as well as the rest of you. I shan't put in an appearance +when the rest come down. Say I've got a headache, and have gone to bed. +As for my own 'night-cap'--well, I can send Dollops down to get the +butler to pour me one out of another decanter, so that will be all +right. Now, toddle off and get the key, there's a good chap. And, I say, +Bawdrey, as I shan't see you again until morning--good-night." + +"Good-night, old chap!" he answered in his impulsive, boyish way. "You +are a friend, Headland. And--you'll save my dad, God bless you! A true, +true friend--that's what you are. Thank God I ran across you." + +Cleek smiled and nodded to him as he passed out and hurried away; then, +hearing the other gentlemen coming down the stairs, he, too, made haste +to get out of the room and to creep up to his own after they had +assembled, and the cigar cabinet and the whiskey were being passed +round, and the doctor was busy above with the man who was somebody's +victim. + + * * * * * + +The big old grandfather clock at the top of the stairs pointed ten +minutes past two, and the house was hushed of every sound save that +which is the evidence of deep sleep, when the door of Cleek's room swung +quietly open, and Cleek himself, in dressing-gown and wadded bedroom +slippers, stepped out into the dark hall, and, leaving Dollops on guard, +passed like a shadow over the thick, unsounding carpet. + +The rooms of all the male occupants of the house, including that of +Philip Bawdrey himself, opened upon this. He went to each in turn, +unlocked it, stepped in, closed it after him, and lit the bedroom +candle. + +The sleeping-draught had accomplished all that was required of it; and +in each and every room he entered--Captain Travers's, Lieutenant +Forshay's, Mr. Robert Murdock's--there lay the occupant thereof +stretched out at full length in the grip of that deep and heavy sleep +which comes of drugs. + +Cleek made the round of the rooms as quietly as any shadow, even +stopping as he passed young Bawdrey's on his way back to his own to peep +in there. Yes; he, too, had got his share of the effective draught, for +there he lay snarled up in the bed-clothes, with his arms over his head +and his knees drawn up until they were on a level with his waist, and +his handsome, boyish face a little paler than usual. + +Cleek didn't go into the room, simply looked at him from the threshold, +then shut the door, and went back to Dollops. + +"All serene, Gov'nor?" questioned that young man, in an eager whisper. + +"Yes, quite," his master replied, as he turned to a writing-table +whereon there lay a sealed note, and, pulling out the chair, sat down +before it and took up a pen. "Wait a bit, and then you can go to bed. +I'll give you still another note to deliver. While I'm writing it you +may lay out my clothes." + +"Slipping off, sir?" + +"Yes. You will stop here, however. Now, then, hold your tongue; I'm +busy." + +Then he pulled a sheet of paper to him and wrote rapidly: + +"DEAR MR. BAWDREY: + +"I've got my man, and am off to consult with Mr. Narkom and to have what +I've found analysed. I don't know when I shall be back--probably not +until the day after to-morrow. You are right. It is murder, and Java is +at the bottom of it. Dollops will hand you this. Say nothing--just wait +till I get back." + +This he slipped, unsigned in his haste, into an envelope, handed it to +Dollops, and then fairly jumped into his clothes. Ten minutes later, he +was out of the house, and--the end of the riddle was in sight. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +On the morrow, Mrs. Bawdrey made known the rather surprising piece of +news that Mr. Rickaby had written her a note to say that he had received +a communication of such vital importance that he had been obliged to +leave the house that morning before anybody was up, and might not be +able to return to it for several days. + +"No very great hardship in that, my dear," commented Mrs. Somerby-Miles, +"for a more stupid and uninteresting person I never encountered. Fancy! +he never even offered to assist the gentlemen to get poor Mr. Bawdrey +upstairs last night. How is the poor old dear this morning, darling? +Better?" + +"Yes--much," said Mrs. Bawdrey, in reply. "Doctor Phillipson came to the +house before four o'clock, and brought some wonderful new medicine that +has simply worked wonders. Of course, he will have to stop in bed and be +perfectly quiet for three or four days; but, although the attack was by +far the worst he has ever had, the doctor feels quite confident that he +will pull him safely through." + +Now although, in the light of her apparent affection for her aged +husband, she ought, one would have thought, to be exceedingly happy over +this, it was distinctly noticeable that she was nervous and ill at ease, +that there was a hunted look in her eyes, and that, as the day wore on, +these things seemed to be accentuated. More than that, there seemed +added proof of the truth of young Bawdrey's assertion that she and +Captain Travers were in league with each other, for that day they were +constantly together, constantly getting off into out-of-the-way places, +and constantly talking in an undertone of something that seemed to worry +them. + +Even when dinner was over, and the whole party adjourned to the +drawing-room for coffee, and the lady ought, in all conscience, to have +given herself wholly up to the entertainment of her guests it was +observable that she devoted most of her time to whispered confidences +with Captain Travers, that they kept going to the window and looking up +at the sky, as if worried and annoyed that the twilight should be so +long in fading and the night in coming on. But worse than this, at ten +o'clock Captain Travers made an excuse of having letters to write, and +left the room, and it was scarcely six minutes later that she followed +suit. + +But the Captain had not gone to write letters, as it had happened. +Instead, he had gone straight to the morning-room, an apartment +immediately behind that in which the elder Mr. Bawdrey's collection was +housed, and from which a broad French window opened out upon the +grounds, and it might have caused a scandal had it been known that Mrs. +Bawdrey joined him there one minute after leaving the drawing-room. + +"It is the time, Walter, it is the time!" she said, in a breathless sort +of way, as she closed the door and moved across the room to where he +stood, a dimly seen figure in the dim light. "God help and pity me! but +I am so nervous, I hardly know how to contain myself. The note said at +ten to-night in the morning-room, and it is ten now. The hour is here, +Walter, the hour is here!" + +"So is the man, Mrs. Bawdrey," answered a low voice from the outer +darkness; then a figure lifted itself above the screening shrubs just +beyond the ledge of the open window, and Cleek stepped into the room. + +She gave a little hysterical cry and reached out her hands to him. + +"Oh, I am so glad to see you, even though you hint at such awful things, +I am so glad, so glad!" she said. "I almost died when I read your note. +To think that it is murder--murder! And but for you he might be dead +even now. You will like to know that the doctor brought the stuff you +sent by him--brought it at once--and my darling is better--better." + +Before Cleek could venture any reply to this, Captain Travers stalked +across the room and gripped his hand. + +"And so you are that great man Cleek, are you?" he said. "Bully boy! +Bully boy! And to think that all the time it wasn't some mysterious +natural affliction; to think that it was crime--murder--poison. What +poison, man, what poison--what?" + +"Ayupee, or, as it is variously called in the several islands of the +Eastern Archipelago, Pohon-Upas, Antjar, and Ipo," said Cleek, in reply. +"The deadly venom which the Malays use in poisoning the heads of their +arrows." + +"What! that awful stuff!" said Mrs. Bawdrey, with a little shuddering +cry. "And someone in this house--" Her voice broke. She plucked at +Cleek's sleeve and looked up at him in an agony of entreaty. "Who?" she +implored. "Who in this house could? You said you would tell +to-night--you said you would. Oh, who could have the heart? Ah! Who? It +is true, if you have not heard it, that once upon a time there was bad +blood between Mr. Murdock and him--that Mr. Murdock is a family +connection; but even he, oh, even he--Tell me--tell me, Mr. Cleek!" + +"Mrs. Bawdrey, I can't just yet," he made reply. "In my heart I am as +certain of it as though the criminal had confessed; but I am waiting for +a sign, and, until that comes, absolute proof is not possible. That it +will come, and may, indeed, come at any moment now that it is quite +dark, I am very certain. When it does--" + +He stopped and threw up a warning hand. As he spoke a queer thudding +sound struck one dull note through the stillness of the house. He stood, +bent forward, listening, absolutely breathless; then, on the other side +of the wall, there rippled and rolled a something that was like the +sound of a struggle between two voiceless animals, and--the sign that he +awaited had come! + +"Follow me--quickly, as noiselessly as you can. Let no one hear, let no +one see!" he said in a breath of excitement. Then he sprang cat-like to +the door, whirled it open, scudded round the angle of the passage to the +entrance of the room where the fraudulent collection was kept, and went +in with the silent fleetness of a panther. And a moment later, when +Captain Travers and Mrs. Bawdrey swung in through the door and joined +him, they came upon a horrifying sight. + +For there, leaning against the open door of the case where the skeleton +of the nine-fingered man hung, was Dollops, bleeding and faint, and with +a score of tooth-marks on his neck and throat, and on the floor at his +feet Cleek was kneeling on the writhing figure of a man, who bit and +tore and snarled like a cornered wolf and fought with teeth and feet and +hands alike in the wild effort to get free from the grip of destiny. A +locked handcuff clamped one wrist, and from it swung, at the end of the +connecting chain, its unlocked mate; the marks of Dollops' fists were on +his lips and cheeks, and at the foot of the case, where the hanging +skeleton doddered and shook to the vibration of the floor, lay a +shattered phial of deep-blue glass. + +"Got you, you hound!" said Cleek, through his teeth as he wrenched the +man's two wrists together and snapped the other handcuff into place. +"You beast of ingratitude--you Judas! Kissing and betraying like any +other Iscariot! And a dear old man like that! Look here, Mrs. Bawdrey; +look here Captain Travers; what do you think of a little rat like this?" + +They came forward at his word, and, looking down, saw that the figure he +was bending over was the figure of Philip Bawdrey. + +"Oh!" gulped Mrs. Bawdrey, and then shut her two hands over her eyes and +fell away weak and shivering. "Oh, Mr. Cleek, it can't be--it can't! To +do a thing like that?" + +"Oh, he'd have done worse, the little reptile, if he hadn't been pulled +up short," said Cleek in reply. "He'd have hanged you for it, if it had +gone the way he planned. You look in your boxes; you, too, Captain +Travers. I'll wager each of you finds a phial of Ayupee hidden among +them somewhere. Came in to put more of the cursed stuff on the ninth +finger of the skeleton, so that it would be ready for the next time, +didn't he, Dollops?" + +"Yes, Gov'nor. I waited for him behind the case just as you told me to, +sir, and when he ups and slips the finger of the skilligan into the neck +of the bottle, I nips out and whacks the bracelet on him. But he was too +quick for me, sir, so I only got one on; and then, the hound, he turns +on me like a blessed hyena, sir, and begins a-chawin' of me windpipe. I +say, Gov'nor, take off his silver wristlets, will you, sir, and lemme +have jist ten minutes with him on my own? Five for me, sir, and five for +his poor old dad!" + +"Not I," said Cleek. "I wouldn't let you soil those honest hands of +yours on his vile little body, Dollops. Thought you had a noodle to deal +with, didn't you, Mr. Philip Bawdrey? Thought you could lead me by the +nose, and push me into finding those phials just where you wanted them +found, didn't you? Well, you've got a few more thoughts coming. Look +here, Captain Travers: what do you think of this fellow's little game? +Tried to take me in about you and Mrs. Bawdrey being lovers, and trying +to do away with him and his father to get the old man's money." + +"Why, the contemptible little hound! Bless my soul, man, I'm engaged to +Mrs. Bawdrey's cousin. And as for his stepmother--why, she threw the +little worm over as soon as he began making love to her, and tried to +make her take up with him by telling her how much he'd be worth when his +father died." + +"I guessed as much. I didn't fancy him from the first moment; and he was +so blessed eager to have me begin by suspecting you two, that I smelt a +rat at once. Oh, but he's been crafty enough in other things. Putting +that devilish stuff on the ninth finger of the skeleton, and never +losing an opportunity to get his poor old father to handle it and show +it to people. It's a strong, irritant poison--sap of the upas-tree is +the base of it--producing first an irritation of the skin, then a +blister, and, when that broke, communicating the poison directly to the +blood every time the skeleton hand touched it. A weak solution at first, +so that the decline would be natural, the growth of the malady gradual. +But if I'd found that phial in your room last night, as he hoped and +believed I had done--well, look for yourself. The finger of the skeleton +is thick with the beastly, gummy stuff to-night. Double strength, of +course. The next time his father touched it he'd have died before +morning. And the old chap fairly worshipping him. I suspected him, and +suspected what the stuff that was being used really was from the +beginning. Last night I drugged him, and then--I knew." + +"Knew, Mr. Cleek? Why, how could you?" + +"The most virulent poisons have their remedial uses, Captain," he made +reply. "You can kill a man with strychnine; you can put him in his grave +with arsenic; you can also use both these powerful agents to cure and to +save, in their proper proportions and in the proper way. The same rule +applies to Ayupee. Properly diluted and properly used, it is one of the +most powerful agents for the relief, and, in some cases, the cure, of +Bright's disease of the kidneys. But the Government guards this unholy +drug most carefully. You can't get a drop of it in Java for love or +money, unless on the order of a recognized physician; and you can't +bring it into the ports of England unless backed by that physician's +sworn statement and the official stamp of the Javanese authorities. A +man undeniably afflicted with Bright's disease could get these +things--no other could. Well, I wanted to know who had succeeded in +getting Ayupee into this country and into this house. Last night I +drugged every man in it, and--I found out." + +"But how?" + +"By finding the one who could not sleep stretched out at full length. +One of the strongest symptoms of Bright's disease is a tendency to draw +the knees up close to the body in sleep, Captain, and to twist the arms +above the head. Of all the men under this roof, this man here was the +only one who slept like that last night!" He paused and looked down at +the scowling, sullen creature on the floor. "You wretched little cur!" +he said, with a gesture of unspeakable contempt. "And all for the sake +of an old man's money! If I did my duty, I'd gaol you. But if I did, it +would be punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. It would +kill that dear old man to learn this; and so he's not going to learn it, +and the law's not going to get its own." He twitched out his hand, and +something tinkled on the floor. "Get up!" he said sharply. "There's the +key of the handcuffs; take it and set yourself free. Do you know what's +going to happen to you? To-morrow morning Dr. Phillipson is going to +examine you, and to report that you'll be a dead man in a year's time if +you stop another week in this country. You are going out of it, and you +are going to stop out of it. Do you understand? _Stop_ out of it to the +end of your days. For if ever you put foot in it again I'll handle you +as a terrier handles a rat! Dollops!" + +"Yes, Gov'nor?" + +"My things packed and ready?" + +"Yes, sir. And all waitin' in the arbour, sir, as you told me to have +'em." + +"Good lad! Get them, and we'll catch the first train back. Mrs. Bawdrey, +my best respects. Captain, all good luck to you," said Cleek--and swung +out into the darkness and the moist, warm fragrance of the night; his +mental poise a bit unsteady, his nerves raw. It was not in him to have +stopped longer, to have remained under the same roof with a monster like +young Bawdrey and keep his temper in check. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The stillness, the balm, the soothing influences of the night worked +their own spell; and, after a time, rubbed out the mental wrinkles and +brought a sense of restfulness and peace. It could not well do otherwise +with such a nature as his. The night was all a-musk with mignonette and +roses, the sky all a-glitter with stars. A gunshot distant the river +ran--a silver thing ribboning along between the dark of bending trees; +somewhere in the darkness a nightingale shook out the scale of Nature's +Anthem to the listening Night, and, farther afield, others took up the +chorus of it and sang and sang with the sheer joy of living. + +What a world--God, what a world for parricides to exist in, and for the +sons of men to forget the Fifth Commandment! + +He walked on faster, and made his way to the arbour where Dollops +waited. The boy rose to meet him. + +"Everythink all ready, sir--see!" he said, holding up a kit bag. "Wot's +it now, Gov'nor?--the railway station? Good enough. Shall I nip off +ahead or keep with you till we get there?" + +"Suit yourself, my lad." + +"Thanky, sir; then I'll walk at your heels, if you don't mind. I'd like +to walk at your heels all the rest of my blessed life. Did I carry it +off all right, Gov'nor? Did I do it jist as you wanted of it done?" + +"To a T, my lad," said Cleek, smiling and patting him on the shoulder. +"You'll do, Dollops--you'll do finely. I think I did a good job for the +pair of us, my boy, when I gave you those two half-crowns." + +"Advanced, Gov'nor, advanced," corrected Dollops, with a look of sheer +affection. "Let me work 'em off, sir, like you said I might. I don't +want nothin' but wot I earns, Gov'nor; nothin' but wot I've got a right +to have; for when I sees wot wantin' money as don't belong to you leads +to; when I thinks wot that young Bawdrey chap was willin' to do for the +love of havin' it--" + +"Don't!" struck in Cleek, a trifle roughly. "Drop the man's name--I +can't trust myself to think of it. That the one world, the one self-same +world, could hold two such widely dissimilar creations of God as that +monster and ... No matter. Thank God, I've been able to do something +to-night for a good woman--I owe so much to another of her kind. No; +don't speak--just walk quietly and"--jerking his thumb in the direction +of the fluting nightingales--"listen to that. God! the man who could +think evil things when a nightingale sings, isn't fit to stand even in +the Devil's presence." + +Dollops looked at him--half-puzzled, half-awed. He could not understand +the character of the man: there were so many sides to it; and they came +and went so oddly. One minute, a very brute-beast in his ferocity, the +next, a woman in his tenderness and a poet in his thoughts. But if the +boy was puzzled, he was, at least, discreet. He put nothing into words: +merely walked on in silence, and left the man to his thoughts and the +nightingales to their melody. + +And Cleek was unusually thoughtful from that period onward; speaking +hardly a word through all the journey home. For now that the events +which had occupied his mind for the past two or three days were over and +done with, his memory harked back to those things which had to do with +his own affairs, and he caught himself wondering how matters had gone +with Ailsa Lorne; which of the two positions--the English one or the +French--she had finally elected to apply for; and if time had as yet +softened the shock of that disclosure made in the mist and darkness at +Hampstead Heath. + +He had, of course, heard nothing of her since that time; and the days he +had spent at Richmond had utterly precluded the possibility of giving +himself that small pleasure--so often indulged in--of adopting a safe +disguise, prowling about the neighbourhood where she lived until she +should come forth upon one errand or another, and then following her, +unsuspected. + +That she could have taken the knowledge of what he once had been in no +other way than she had done; that to such a woman, such a man must at +the first blush be an object of abhorrence--a thing to be put out of her +life as completely and as expeditiously as possible--he fully realised; +yet, at bottom, he was conscious of a hope that Time--even so little as +had passed--might lend a softening influence that should lead eventually +to Pity, and from that to a day when the word Forgiveness might be +spoken. + +He wanted that forgiveness--the soul of the man needed it, as parched +plants need water. He had not climbed up out of himself without some +struggle, some moments when he wavered between what he had become, and +what Nature had written that he was meant to be; for no Soul is purged +all in a moment, no man may conquer himself with just one solitary +fight. He needed her forgiveness, the thought of her, the hope of her, +to rivet his armour for the long, brave fight. He needed her +Friendship--if he might never have her love he needed _that_. And if she +were to pass like this from his life.... If the Light were to go out ... +and all the long, dark way of the Future still to be faced.... Something +within him seemed to writhe. He took his lower lip between his thumb and +forefinger and squeezed it hard. + +That he had hoped for some token, some word--forwarded through Mr. +Narkom--he did not quite realise until he got back to Clarges Street and +found that there was none. + +Followed a sense of despair, a moment of deep dejection, that passed in +turn and gave place to a feeling of personal injury, of savage +resentment, and of the ferocity which comes when the half-tamed wolf +wakes to the realisation that here is nothing before it evermore, but +the bars of the cage and the goad of the keeper; and that far and away +in the world there are still the free woods, the naked body of Nature, +and the savage company of its kind. + +Under the stress of that gust of passion, he sent Dollops flying from +the room. He wrenched open the drawer of his writing-table, and scooped +up in his hands some trifles of faded ribbon and trinkets of +gold--things that he treasured, none knew why or for what--and holding +them thus, looked down on them and laughed, bitterly and savagely, as +though a devil were within him. + +"Me! She scorns me!" he said, and laughed again, and flung them all back +and shut the drawer upon them. And presently he knew that he held her +all the higher because she did scorn him; because her life was such that +she _could_ scorn him; and the bitterness dropped out of him, his eyes +softened, and though he still laughed, it was for an utterly different +reason, and in a wholly different way. + +Some pots of tulips and mignonette stood on the ledge of his window. He +walked over to see that they were watered before he went to bed. And +between the time when he got down on his knees to fish out his +bath-slippers from beneath the bed-stead and the creak of the springs +when he lay down for the night, he was so long and so still that one +might have believed he was doing something else. + +He slept long, and rose in the morning soothed and subdued in +spirit--better and brighter in every way; for now no affair, for The +Yard hampered his movements and claimed his time. He was free; he was +back in the Town--beautiful because it contained her--and he might hark +back to the old trick of watching and following and being close to her +without her knowledge. + +It was a vain hope that, however. For, although he dressed and went out +and haunted the neighbourhood of Sir Horace Wyvern's house for hours on +end, he saw nothing of her that day. Nor did he see her the next, nor +the next, nor yet the next again. At first, he began to think that she +must come out and return during the times when he was obliged to go off +guard and get his meal--for he could not bring himself to play the part +of the spy or the common policeman, and filch news from the +servants--but when a week had gone by in this manner, he set all +question upon that point at rest by remaining at his post from sunrise +to ten o'clock at night. She did not appear. He wondered what that +meant--whether it indicated that she had already accepted one of the two +positions, or had gone to stop with her friend on the other side of +Hampstead Heath. + +The result of that wondering was that, for the next five days, the +gentleman who was known in Clarges Street as "Captain Horatio Burbage," +became a regular visitor to the neighbourhood of the house in Bardon +Road. The issue was exactly the same. Miss Lorne did not appear. + +He could no longer doubt that she had accepted one or other of the two +positions; but steadfastly refrained from making any personal inquiry. +She would hear of it if anybody called to inquire her whereabouts; and +she would guess who had done it. He would not have her feel that he was +thrusting himself upon her, inquiring about her as one might inquire +about a common servant. If it was her will that he should know, then +that knowledge should come from her, not be picked up as one picks up +clues to missing people of the criminal class. + +So then, it was good-bye to Bardon Road, just as it had been good-bye to +Mayfair. He turned his back upon it in the very moment he came to that +conclusion, and had just set his face in the direction of the heath when +he was brought to a standstill by the sound of someone calling out +sharply: "Burbage--I say, Captain Burbage: stop a moment, please." And, +screwing round instantly, he saw a red limousine pelting toward him, and +an excited chauffeur waving a gloved hand. + +He knew that red limousine, and he knew that chauffeur. Both belonged to +Mr. Maverick Narkom. + +He stood waiting until the motor was abreast of him--had, in fact, come +to a standstill--then spoke in a guarded tone: + +"What is it, Lennard?" he asked. "The Yard?" + +"Yessir. Young Dollops told us where to look for you. Hop in quickly, +sir. Superintendent inside." + +Cleek opened the door of the vehicle at once, stepped in, shut it after +him, and sat down beside Mr. Narkom with the utmost composure. + +"My dear fellow, I _have_ had a chase!" said the superintendent, with a +long deep breath of relief, as the limousine swung out into the roadway, +and pelted off westward at a pace that brushed the very fringes of the +speed limit. "I made certain I should find you at home. Fairly floored +when I discovered that you weren't. If it hadn't been for that boy, +Dollops--bright young button, that Dollops, Cleek; exceedingly bright, +b'gad." + +"Yes," agreed Cleek, quietly. "Bright, faithful, and--inventive." + +"Really? What has the young beggar invented, then?" + +"An original appliance which may possibly be of a good deal of service +one of these days. But, never mind that at present. It is fair to +suppose, from your rushing out here in quest of me, that you've got +something on hand, isn't it?" + +"Yes--rather! An amazing 'something,' old chap. It's a letter. Arrived +at headquarters about an hour and a half ago. Not an affair for The Yard +this time, Cleek, but a thing you must take up on your own, if you take +it up at all; and I tell you frankly, I don't like it." + +"Why?" + +"For one thing, it's from Paris; and--well, you know what dangers Paris +would have for _you_. There's that she-devil you broke with--that woman +Margot. You know what she swore, what she wrote when you sent her that +letter telling her that you were done with her and her lot, and warning +her never to set foot on English soil again? If you were to run foul of +her--if she were ever to get any hint of your real identity--" + +"She can't. She knows no more of my real history than you do; no more +than I actually know of hers. Our knowledge of each other began when we +started to 'pal' together--it ended when we split, eighteen months ago. +But about that letter? What is it? Why do you say that you don't like +it?" + +"Well, to begin with, I'm afraid it is some trap of hers to decoy you +over there--get you into some unknown place--" + +"There are no 'unknown places' in Paris so far as I am concerned. I know +every hole and corner of it, from the sewers on. I know it as well as I +know London, as well as I know Berlin--New +York--Vienna--Edinburgh--Rome. You couldn't lose me or trap me in any +one of them. Is that the letter in your hand? Good--then read it, +please." + +"To the Superintendent of Police, Scotland Yard," read Narkom, obeying +the request. + +"'DISTINGUISHED MONSIEUR: + +"'Of your grace and pity, I implore you to listen to the prayer of an +unhappy man whose honour, whose reason, whose very life are in deadly +peril, not alone of "The Red Crawl," but of things he may not even name, +dare not commit to writing, lest this letter should go astray. It shall +happen, monsieur, that the whole world shall hear with amazement of that +most marvellous "Cleek"--that great reader of riddles and unmasker of +evil-doers who, in the past year, has made the police department of +England the envy of all nations; and it shall happen also that I who +dare not appeal to the police of France appeal to the mercy, the +humanity, of this great man, as it is my only hope. Monsieur, you have +his ear, you have his confidence, you have the means at your command. +Ah! ask him, pray him, implore him for the love of God, and the sake of +a fellow-man, to come alone to the top floor of the house number 7 of +the Rue Toison d'Or, Paris, at nine hours of the night of Friday, the +26th inst., to enter into the darkness and say but the one word "Cleek" +as a signal it is he, and I may come forward and throw myself upon his +mercy. Oh, save me, Monsieur Cleek--save me! save me!' + +"There, that's the lot, and there's no signature," said Narkom, laying +down the letter. "What do you make of it, Cleek?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"A very real, a very moving thing, Mr. Narkom," he replied. "The cry of +a human heart in deep distress; the agonised appeal of a man so wrought +up by the horrors of his position that he forgets to offer a temptation +in the way of reward, and speaks of outlandish things as though they +must be understood of all. As witness his allusion to something which he +calls 'The Red Crawl,' without attempting to explain the meaningless +phrase. Whatever it is, it is so real to him that it seems as if +everybody must understand." + +"You think, then, that the thing is genuine?" + +"So genuine that I shall answer its call, Mr. Narkom, and be alone in +the dark on the top floor of No. 7, Rue Toison d'Or, to-morrow night as +surely as the clock strikes nine." + +And that was how the few persons who happened to be in the quiet upper +reaches of the Rue Bienfaisance at half-past eight o'clock the next +evening came to see a fat, fussing, red-faced Englishman in a grey +frock-coat, white spats, and a shining topper, followed by a liveried +servant with a hat-box in one hand and a portmanteau in the other--so +conspicuous, the pair of them, that they couldn't have any desire to +conceal themselves--cross over the square before the Church of St. +Augustine, fare forth into the darker side passages, and move in the +direction of the street of the Golden Fleece. + +They were, of course, Cleek and the boy Dollops. + +"Lumme, Gov'nor," whispered he, as they turned at last into the utter +darkness and desertion of the narrow Rue Toison d'Or, "if this is wot +yer calls Gay Paree--this precious black slit between two rows of +houses--I'll take a slice of the Old Kent Road with thanks. Not even so +much as a winkle-stall in sight, and me that empty my shirt-bosom's +a-chafing my blessed shoulder-blades!" + +"You'll see plenty of life before the game's over, I warrant you, +Dollops. Now then, my lad, here's a safe spot. Sit down on the hat-box +and wait. That's No. 7, that empty house with the open door, just across +the way. Keep your eye on it. I don't know how long I'll be, but if +anybody comes out before I do, mind you don't let him get away." + +"No fear!" said Dollops sententiously. "I'll be after him as if he was a +ham sandwich, sir. Look out for my patent 'Tickle Tootsies' when you +come out, Gov'nor. I'll sneak over and put 'em round the door as soon as +you've gone in." For Dollops, who was of an inventive turn of mind, had +an especial "man-trap" of his own, which consisted of heavy brown paper, +cut into squares, and thickly smeared over with a viscid varnish-like +substance that would adhere to the feet of anybody incautiously stepping +upon it, and so interfere with flight that it was an absolute necessity +to stop and tear the papers away before running with any sort of ease +and swiftness was possible. This was the "invention" to which Cleek had +alluded. Dollops, who was rather proud of the achievement, carried with +him a full supply of ready-cut papers and a big collapsible tube of the +viscid, ropy, varnish-like glue. + +Meantime, Cleek, having left the boy sitting on the hat-box in the +darkness, crossed the narrow street to the open doorway of No. 7, and, +without hesitation, stepped in. The place was as black as a pocket, and +had that peculiar smell which belongs to houses that have long stood +vacant. The house, nevertheless, was a respectable one, and, like all +the others, fronted on another street--this dark Toison d'Or being +merely a back passage used principally by the tradespeople for the +delivery of supplies. Feeling his way to the first of the three flights +of stairs which led upward into the stillness and gloom above, Cleek +mounted steadily until he found himself at length in a sort of +attic--quite windowless, and lit only by a skylight through which shone +the ineffectual light of the stars. It was the top at last. Bracing his +back against the wall, so that nobody could get behind him, and holding +himself ready for any emergency, he called out in a clear, calm voice: +"Cleek!" + +Almost simultaneously there was a sharp metallic "snick," an electric +bulb hanging from the ceiling flamed out luminously, a cupboard door +flashed open, a voice cried out in joyous, perfect English: "Thank God +for a man!" And, switching round with a cry of amazement, he found +himself looking into the face and eyes of a woman. + +And of all women in the world--Ailsa Lorne! + +He sucked in his breath and his heart began to hammer. + +"Miss Lorne!" he exclaimed, so carried out of himself that he scarcely +knew what he did. "It was the French position that you chose, then? It +is you--_you_--that calls upon me?" + +"No, it is not," she made reply, a rush of colour reddening her cheeks, +a feeling of embarrassment and of a natural restraint making her shake +visibly. "I am merely the envoy of another. I should not know you, +disguised as you are, but for that. Yes, I chose the French position, as +you see, Mr. Cleek. I am now the companion to Mademoiselle Athalie, +daughter of the Baron de Carjorac." + +"Baron de Carjorac? Do you mean the French Minister of the Interior, the +President of the Board of National Defences, Miss Lorne--that +enthusiastic old patriot, that rabid old spitfire, whose one dream is +the wresting back of Alsace-Lorraine, the driving of the hated Germans +into the sea? Do you mean that ripping old firebrand?" + +"Yes. But you'd not call him that if you were to see him now; if you +could see the wreck, the broken and despairing wreck, that six weeks of +the Chateau Larouge, six weeks of that horrible 'Red Crawl' have made of +him." + +"'The Red Crawl'! Good heavens! then that letter, that appeal for +help--" + +"Came from him!" she finished excitedly. "It was he who was to have met +you here to-night, Mr. Cleek. This house is one he owns; he thought he +might with safety risk coming here, but--he can't! he can't! He knows +now that there is danger for him everywhere; that his every step is +tracked; that the snare which is about him has been about him, +unsuspected, for almost a year; that he dare not, absolutely dare not, +appeal to the French police, and that if it were known he had appealed +to you, he would be a dead man inside of twenty-four hours, and not only +dead, but--disgraced. Oh, Mr. Cleek!"--she stretched out two shaking +hands and laid them on his arm, lifted a white, imploring face to +his--"save him! save that dear broken old man! Ah, think! think! They +are our friends, our dear country's friends, these French people. Their +welfare is our welfare, ours is theirs. Oh, help him, save him, Mr. +Cleek--for his own sake--for mine--for France. Save him, and win my +gratitude for ever!" + +"That is a temptation that would carry me to the ends of the earth, Miss +Lorne. Tell me what the work is, and I will carry it through. What is +this incomprehensible thing of which both you and Baron de Carjorac have +spoken--this thing you allude to as 'The Red Crawl'?" + +She gave a little shuddering cry and fell back a step, covering her face +with both hands. + +"Oh!" she said, with a shiver of repulsion. "It is loathly--it is +horrible--it is necromancy--beyond belief! Why, oh, why were we ever +driven to that horrible Chateau Larouge! Why could not fate have spared +the Villa de Carjorac? It could not have happened then!" + +"Villa de Carjorac? That was the name of the baron's residence, I +believe. I remember reading in the newspapers some five or six weeks ago +that it was destroyed by fire, which originated--nobody knew how--in the +apartments of the late baroness in the very dead of the night. I thought +at the time it read suspiciously like the work of an incendiary, +although nobody hinted at such a thing. The Chateau Larouge I also have +a distinct memory of, as an old historic property in the neighbourhood +of St. Cloud. Speaking from past experience, I know that, although it is +in such a state of decay, and supposed to be uninhabitable, it has, in +fact, often been occupied at a period when the police and the public +believed it to be quite empty. Gentlemen of the Apache persuasion have +frequently made it a place of retreat. There is also an underground +passage--executed by those same individuals--which connects with the +Paris sewers. That, too, the police are unaware of. What can the ruined +Chateau Larouge possibly have to do with the affairs of the Baron de +Carjorac, Miss Lorne, that you connect them like this?" + +"They have everything to do with them--everything. The Chateau is no +longer a ruin, however. It was purchased, rebuilt, refitted by the +Comtesse Susanne de la Tour, Mr. Cleek, and she and her brother live +there. So do we--Athalie, Baron de Carjorac, and I. So, also, does the +creature--the thing--the abominable horror known as 'The Red Crawl.'" + +"My dear Miss Lorne, what are you saying?" + +"The truth, nothing but the truth!" she answered hysterically. "Oh, let +me begin at the beginning--you'll never understand unless I do. I'll +tell you in as few words as possible--as quickly as I can. It all began +last winter, when Athalie and her father were at Monte Carlo. There they +met Madame la Comtesse de la Tour and her brother, Monsieur Gaston +Merode. The baron has position but he has not wealth, Mr. Cleek. Athalie +is ambitious. She loves luxury, riches, a life of fashion--all the +things that boundless money can give; and when Monsieur Merode--who is +young, handsome, and said to be fabulously wealthy--showed a distinct +preference for her over all the other marriageable girls he met, she was +flattered out of her silly wits. Before they left Monte Carlo for Paris +everybody could see that he had only to ask her hand, to have it +bestowed upon him. For although the baron never has cared for the man, +Athalie rules him, and her every caprice is humoured. + +"But for all he was so ardent a lover, Monsieur Merode was slow in +coming to the important point. Perhaps his plans were not matured. At +any rate, he did not propose to Athalie at Monte Carlo; and, although he +and his sister returned to Paris at the same time as the baron and his +daughter, he still deferred the proposal." + +"Has he not made it yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. He made it six weeks ago--to be exact, two nights +before the Villa de Carjorac was fired." + +"You think it was fired, then?" + +"I do now, although I had no suspicion of it at the time. Athalie +received her proposal on the Saturday, the baron gave his consent on the +Sunday, and on Monday night the villa was mysteriously burnt, leaving +all three of us without an immediate refuge. In the meantime, Madame la +Comtesse had purchased the ruin of the Chateau Larouge, and during the +period of her brother's deferred proposal was engaged in fitting it up +as an abode for herself and him. On the very day it was finished, +Monsieur Merode asked for Athalie's hand." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "I think I begin to +smell the toasting of the cheese. Of course, when the villa was burnt +out, Madame la Comtesse insisted that, as the _fiancee_ of her brother, +Mlle. de Carjorac must make her home at the Chateau until the necessary +repairs could be completed; and, of course, the baron had to go with +her?" + +"Yes," admitted Ailsa. "The baron accepted--Athalie would not have +allowed him to decline had he wished to--so we all three went there and +have been residing there ever since. On the night after our arrival an +alarming, a horrifying thing occurred. It was while we were at dinner +that the conversation turned upon the supernatural--upon houses and +places that were reputed to be haunted--and then Madame la Comtesse made +a remarkable statement. She laughingly asserted that she had just +learned that, in purchasing the Chateau Larouge, she had also become the +possessor of a sort of family ghost. She said that she had only just +heard--from an outside source--that there was a horrible legend +connected with the place; in short, that for centuries it had been +reputed to be under a sort of spell of evil and to be cursed by a +dreadful visitant known as 'The Red Crawl'--a hideous and loathsome +creature, neither spider nor octopus, but horribly resembling +both--which was supposed to 'appear' at intervals in the middle of the +night, and, like the fabled giants of fairy tales, carry off 'lovely +maidens and devour them.'" + +"Who is responsible for that ridiculous assertion, I wonder? I think I +may say that I know as much about the Chateau Larouge and its history as +anybody, Miss Lorne, but I never heard of this supposed 'legend' before +in all my life." + +"So the baron, too, declared, laughing as derisively as any of us over +the story, although it is well known that he has a natural antipathy to +all crawling things--an abhorrence inherited from his mother--and has +been known to run like a frightened child from the appearance of a mere +garden spider." + +"Oho!" said Cleek again. "I see! I see! The toasted cheese smells +stronger, and there's a distinct suggestion of the Rhine about it this +time. There's something decidedly German about that fabulous 'monster' +and that haunted chateau, Miss Lorne. They are clever and careful +schemers, those German Johnnies. Of course, this amazing 'Red Crawl' was +proved to have an absolute foundation in fact, and equally, of course, +it 'appeared' to the Baron de Carjorac?" + +"Yes--that very night. After we had all gone to bed, the house was +roused by his screams. Everybody rushed to his chamber, only to find him +lying on the floor in a state of collapse. The thing had been in his +room, he said. He had seen it--it had even touched him--a horrible, +hideous red reptile, with squirming tentacles, a huge, glowing body, and +eyes like flame. It had crept upon him out of the darkness--he knew not +from where. It had seized him, resisted all his wild efforts to tear +loose from it, and when he finally sank, overcome and fainting, upon the +floor, his last conscious recollection was of the loathsome thing +settling down upon his breast and running its squirming 'feelers' up and +down his body." + +"Of course! Of course! That was part of the game. It was after +something. Something of the utmost importance to German interests. +That's why the Chateau Larouge was refitted, why the Villa de Carjorac +was burnt down, and why this Monsieur Gaston Merode became engaged to +Mademoiselle Athalie." + +"Oh, how could you know that, Mr. Cleek? Nobody ever suspected. The +baron never confessed to any living soul until he did so to me, +to-day--and then only because he had to tell somebody, in order that the +appointment with you might be kept. How, then, could you guess?" + +"By putting two and two together, Miss Lorne, and discovering that they +do not make five. The inference is very clear: Baron de Carjorac is +President of the Board of National Defences; Germany, in spite of its +public assurances to the contrary, is known by those who are 'on the +inside' to harbour a very determined intention of making a secret +attack, an unwarned invasion, upon England. France is the key to the +situation. If, without the warning that must come through the delay of +picking a quarrel and entering into an open war with the Republic, the +German army can swoop down in the night, cross the frontier, and gain +immediate possession of the ports of France, in five hours' time it can +be across the English Channel, and its hordes pouring down upon a +sleeping people. To carry out this programme, the first step would, of +course, be to secure knowledge of the number, location, manner of the +secret defences of France--the plans of fortification, the maps of the +'danger zone,' the documentary evidence of her strongest and weakest +points--and who so likely to be the guardian of these as the Baron de +Carjorac? That is how I know that 'The Red Crawl' was after something of +vital importance to German interests, Miss Lorne. That he got it, I know +from the fact that the baron, while hinting at disgrace and speaking of +peril to his own life, dared not confide in the French authorities and +ask the assistance of the French police. Moreover, if 'The Red Crawl' +had failed to secure anything, the baron, with his congenital loathing +of all crawling things, would have left the Chateau Larouge +immediately." + +"Oh, to think that you guessed it so easily--and it was all such a +puzzle to me. I could not think, Mr. Cleek, why he did remain--why he +would not be persuaded to go, although every night was adding to the +horror of the thing and it seemed clear to me that he was going mad. Of +course, Madame la Comtesse and her brother tried to reason him out of +what he declared, tried to make him believe that it was all fancy--that +he did not really see the fearful thing; it was equally in vain that I +myself tried to persuade him to leave the place before his reason became +unsettled. Last night"--she paused, shuddered, put both hands over her +face, and drew in a deep breath--"last night, I, too, saw 'The Red +Crawl,' Mr. Cleek--I, too!" + +"You, Miss Lorne?" + +"Yes. I made up my mind that I would--that, if it existed, I would have +absolute proof of it. The countess and her brother had scoffed so +frequently, had promised the baron so often that they would set a +servant on guard in the corridor to watch, and then had said so often to +poor, foolish, easily persuaded Athalie that it was useless doing +anything so silly, as it was absolutely certain that her father only +imagined the thing, that I--I determined to take the step myself, +unknown to any of them. After everybody had gone to bed, I threw on a +loose, dark gown, crept into the corridor, and hid in a niche from which +I could see the door of the baron's room. I waited until after +midnight--long after--and then--and then--" + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. Then the thing appeared, I suppose?" + +"Yes; but not before something equally terrible had happened. I saw the +door of the countess's room open; I saw the countess herself come out, +accompanied by the man who up till then I had believed, like everybody +else, was her brother." + +"And who is not her brother, after all?" + +"No, he is not. Theirs is a closer tie. I saw her kiss him. I saw her go +with him to an angle of the corridor, lift a rug, and raise a trap in +the floor." + +"Hullo! Hullo!" ejaculated Cleek. "Then she, too; knows of the passage +which leads to the sewers. Clearly, then, this Countess de la Tour is +not what she seems, when she knows secrets that are known only to the +followers of--well, never mind. Go on, Miss Lorne, go on. You saw her +lift that trap; and--what then?" + +"Then there came up out of it--oh, the most loathsome-looking creature I +ever saw; a huge, crawling, red shape that was like a blood-red spider, +with the eyes, the hooked beak, and the writhing tentacles of an +octopus. It made no sound, but it seemed to know her, to understand her, +for when she waved her hand toward the open door of her own room it +crawled away and, obeying that gesture, dragged its huge bulk over the +threshold, and passed from sight. Then the man she called her brother +kissed her again, and as he descended into the darkness below the trap I +heard her say quite distinctly: 'Tell Marise that I will come as soon as +I can; but not to delay the revel. If I am compelled to forego it +to-night, there shall be a wilder one to-morrow, when Clodoche +arrives.'" + +"Clodoche! By Jupiter!" Cleek almost jumped as he spoke. "Now I know the +'lay'! No; don't ask me anything yet. Go on with the story, please. What +then, Miss Lorne, what then?" + +"Then the man below said something which I could not hear--something to +which she answered in these words: 'No, no; there is no danger. I will +guard it safely, and it shall go into no hands but Clodoche's. He and +Count von Hetzler will be there about midnight to-morrow to complete the +deal and pay over the money. Clodoche will want the fragment, of course, +to show to the count as a proof that it is the right one, as "an +earnest" of what the remainder is worth. And you must bring me that +"remainder" without fail, Gaston--you hear me?--without fail! I shall be +there, at the rendezvous, awaiting you, and the thing must be in our +hands when von Hetzler comes. The thing must be finished to-morrow +night, even if you and Serpice have to throw all caution to the winds +and throttle the old fool.' Then, as if answering a further question, +she laughingly added: 'Oh, get that fear out of your head. I'm not a +bat, to be caught napping. I'll give it to no one but Clodoche--and not +even to him until he gives the secret sign.' And then, Mr. Cleek, as she +closed the trap I heard the man call back to her 'Good night' and give +her a name I had not heard before. We had always supposed that she had +been christened 'Suzanne,' but as that man left he called her--" + +"I know before you tell me--'Margot'!" interjected Cleek. "I guessed the +identity of this 'Countess de la Tour' from the moment you spoke of +Clodoche and that secret trap. Her knowledge of those two betrayed her +to me. Clodoche is a renegade Alsatian, a spy in the pay of the German +Government, and an old _habitue_ of 'The Inn of the Twisted Arm,' where +the Queen of the Apaches and her pals hold their frequent revels. I can +guess the remainder of your story now. You carried this news to the +Baron de Carjorac, and he, breaking down, confessed to you that he had +lost something." + +"Yes, yes--a dreadful 'something,' Mr. Cleek: the horrible thing that +has been making life an agony to him ever since. On the night when that +abominable 'Red Crawl' first overcame him, there was upon his person a +most important document--a rough draft of the maps of fortification and +the plan of the secret defences of France, the identical document from +which was afterwards transcribed the parchment now deposited in the +secret archives of the Republic. When Baron de Carjorac recovered his +senses after his horrifying experience--" + +"That document was gone?" + +"Part of it, Mr. Cleek--thank God, only a part! If it had been the +parchment itself, no such merciful thing could possibly have happened. +But the paper was old, much folding and handling had worn the creases +through, and when, in his haste, the secret robber grabbed it, whilst +that loathsome creature held the old man down, it parted directly down +the middle, and he got only a vertical section of each of its many +pages." + +"Victoria! 'And the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,'" +quoted Cleek. "So, then, the hirelings of the enemy have only got half +what they are after; and, as no single sentence can be complete upon a +paper torn like that, nothing can be made of it until the other half is +secured, and--our German friends are still 'up a gum-tree.' I know now +why the baron stayed on at the Chateau Larouge, and why 'The Red Crawl' +is preparing to pay him another visit to-night: he hoped, poor chap, to +find a clue to the whereabouts of the fragment he had lost; and that +thing is after the fragment he still retains. Well, it will be a long, +long day before either of those two fragments fall into German hands." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, you think you can get the stolen paper back? You believe +you can outwit those dreadful people and save the Baron de Carjorac's +honour and his life?" + +"Miss Lorne"--he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips--"Miss +Lorne, I thank you for giving me the chance! If you will do what I ask +you, be where I ask you in two hours' time, so surely as we two stand +here this minute, I will put back the German calendar by ten years at +least. They drink 'To the day,' those German Johnnies, but by to-morrow +morning the English hand you are holding will have given them reason to +groan over the night!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It was half-past eleven o'clock. Madame la Comtesse, answering a reputed +call to the bedside of a dying friend, had departed early, and was not +to be expected back, she said, until to-morrow noon. The servants--given +permission by the gentleman known in the house as Monsieur Gaston +Merode, and who had graciously provided a huge char-a-banc for the +purpose--had gone in a body to a fair over in the neighbourhood of +Sevres, and darkness and stillness filled the long, broad corridor of +the Chateau Larouge. Of a sudden, however, a mere thread of sound +wavered through the silence, and from the direction of Miss Lorne's room +a figure in black, with feet muffled in thick, woollen stockings, padded +to an angle of the passage, lifted a trap carefully hidden beneath a +huge tiger-skin rug, and almost immediately Cleek's head rose up out of +the gap. + +"Thank God you managed to do it. I was horribly afraid you would not," +said Ailsa in a palpitating whisper. + +"You need not have been," he answered. "I know a dozen places beside +'The Inn of the Twisted Arm' from which one can get into the sewers. +I've screwed a bolt and socket on the inner side of this trap in case of +an emergency, and I've carried a few things into the passage for +'afterwards.' I suppose that fellow Merode, as he calls himself, is in +his room, waiting?" + +"Yes; and, although he pretends to be alone to-night, he--he has other +men with him, hideous, ruffianly looking creatures, whom I saw him admit +after the servants had gone. The countess has left the house and gone I +don't know where." + +"I do, then. Make certain she's at 'The Twisted Arm,' waiting, first, +for the coming of Clodoche, and, second, for the arrival of this +precious 'Merode' with the remaining half of the document. I've sent +Dollops there to carry out his part of the programme, and when once I +get the password Margot requires before she will hand over the paper, +the game will be in my hands entirely. They are desperate to-night, Miss +Lorne, and will stop at nothing--not even murder. There! the rug's +replaced. Quick! lead me to the baron's room--there's not a minute to +waste." + +She took his hand and led him tiptoe through the darkness, and in +another moment he was in the Baron de Carjorac's presence. + +"Oh, monsieur, God for ever bless you!" exclaimed the broken old man, +throwing himself on his knees before Cleek. + +"Out with the light--out with the light!" exclaimed he, ducking down +suddenly. "Were you mad to keep it burning till I came, with +that"--pointing to a huge bay window opening upon a +balcony--"uncurtained and the grounds, no doubt, alive with spies?" + +Miss Lorne sprang to the table where the baron's reading-lamp stood, +jerked the cord of the extinguisher, and darkness enveloped the room, +darkness tempered only by the faint gleams of the moon streaming over +the balcony, and through the panes of the uncurtained window. + +Cleek, on his knees beside the kneeling baron, whipped a tiny electric +torch from his pocket, and, shielding its flare with his scooped hands, +flashed it upon the old man's face. + +"Simple as rolling off a log--exactly like your pictures," he commented. +"I'll 'do' you as easily as I 'do' Clodoche--and I could 'do' him in the +dark from memory. Quick"--snicking off the light of the electric torch +and rising to his feet--"into your dressing-room, baron. I want that +suit of clothes; I want that ribbon, that cross--and I want them at +once. You're a bit thicker-set than me, but I've got my Clodoche rig on +underneath this, and it will fill out your coat admirably and make us as +like as two peas. Give me five minutes, Miss Lorne, and I promise you a +surprise." + +He flashed out of sight with the baron as he ceased speaking; and Ailsa, +creeping to the window and peering cautiously out, was startled +presently by a voice at her elbow saying, in a tone of extreme +agitation: "Oh, mademoiselle, I fear, even yet I fear, that this Anglais +monsieur attempts too much, and that the papier he is gone for ever." + +"Oh, no, baron, no!" she soothed, as she laid a solicitous hand upon his +arm. "Do believe in him; do have faith in him. Ah, if you only knew--" + +"Thanks. I reckon I shall pass muster!" interposed Cleek's voice; and it +was only then she realised. "You'll find the baron in the other room, +Miss Lorne, looking a little grotesque in that grey suit of mine. In +with you, quickly; go with him through the other door, and get below +before those fellows begin to stir. Get out of the house as quietly and +as expeditiously as you can. With God's help, I'll meet you at the Hotel +du Louvre in the morning, and put the missing fragment in the baron's +hands." + +"And may God give you that help!" she answered fervently as she moved +towards the dressing-room door. "Ah, what a man! what a man!" + +Then, in a twinkling she was gone, and Cleek stood alone in the silent +room. Giving her and the baron time to get clear of the other one, he +went in on tiptoe, locked the door through which they had passed, put +the key in his pocket, and returned. Going to the door which led from +the main room into the corridor, he took the key from the lock of that, +too, replacing it upon the outer side, and leaving the door itself +slightly ajar. + +"Now then for you, Mr. 'The Red Crawl,'" he said, as he walked to the +baron's table, and, sinking down into a deep chair beside it, leaned +back with his eyes closed as if in sleep, and the faint light of the +moon half-revealing his face. "I want that password, and I'll get it, if +I have to choke it out of your devil's throat! And she said that she +would be grateful to me all the rest of her life! Only 'grateful,' I +wonder? Is nothing else possible? What a good, good thing a real woman +is!" + + * * * * * + +How long was it that he had been reclining there waiting before his +strained ears caught the sound of something like the rustling of silk +shivering through the stillness, and he knew that at last it was coming? +It might have been ten minutes, it might have been twenty--he had no +means of determining--when he caught that first movement, and, peering +through the slit of a partly opened eye, saw the appalling thing drag +its huge bulk along the balcony, and, with squirming tentacles writhing, +slide over the low sill of the window, and settle down in a glowing red +heap upon the floor; and--fake though he knew it to be--he could not +repress a swift rush and prickle of "goose-flesh" at sight of it. + +For a few seconds it lay dormant; then one red feeler shot out, then +another, and another, and it began to edge its way across the carpet to +the chair. Cleek lay still and waited, his heavy breathing sounding +regularly, his head thrown back, his limp hands lying loosely, palms +upward, beside him; and nearer and nearer crept the loathsome, red, +glowing thing. + +It crawled to his feet, and still he was quiet; it slid first one +tentacle, and then another, over his knees and up toward his breast, and +still he made no movement; then, as it rose higher--rose until its +hideous beaked countenance was close to his own, his hands flashed +upward and clamped together like a vice--clamped on a palpitating human +throat--and in the twinkling of an eye the tentacles were wrapped about +him, and he and "The Red Crawl" were rolling over and over on the floor +and battling together. + +"Serpice, you low-bred hound, I know you!" he whispered, as they +struggled. "You can't utter a cry--you shan't utter a cry--to bring +help. I'll throttle you, you beastly renegade, that's willing to sell +his own country--throttle you, do you hear?--before you shall bring any +of your mates to the rescue. Oh, you've not got a weak old man to fight +with this time! Do you know me? It's the 'cracksman'--the 'cracksman' +who went over to the police. If you doubt it, now that we're in the +moonlight, look up and see my face. Oho! you recognise me, I see. Well, +you will die looking at me, you dog, if you deny me what I'm after. I'll +loosen my grip enough for you to whisper, and no more. Now what's the +password that Clodoche must give to Margot to-night at 'The Twisted +Arm'? Tell me what it is; if you want your life, tell me what it is." + +"I'll see you dead first!" came in a whisper from beneath the hideous +mask. Then, as Cleek's fingers clamped tight again and the battle began +anew, one long, thin arm shot out from amongst the writhing tentacles, +one clutching hand gripped the leg of the table, and, with a wrench and +a twist, brought it crashing to the ground with a sound that a deaf man +might have heard. + +And in an instant there was pandemonium. + +A door flung open, and clashing heavily against the wall, sent an echo +reeling along the corridor; then came a clatter of rushing feet, a voice +cried out excitedly: "Come on! come on! He's had to kill the old fool to +get it!" and Cleek had just time to tear loose from the shape with which +he was battling, and dodge out of the way when the man Merode lurched +into the room, with half a dozen Apaches tumbling in at his heels. + +"Serpice!" he cried, rushing forward, as he saw the gasping red shape +upon the floor; "Serpice! Mon Dieu! what is it?" + +"The cracksman!" he gulped. "Cleek!--the cracksman who went against us! +Catch him! stop him!" + +"The cracksman!" howled out Merode, twisting round in the darkness and +reaching blindly for the haft of his dirk. "Nom de Dieu! Where?" + +And almost before the last word was uttered a fist like a sledge-hammer +shot out, caught him full in the face, and he went down with a whole +smithy of sparks flashing and hissing before his eyes. + +"There!" answered Cleek, as he bowled him over. "Gentlemen of the +sewers, my compliments. You'll make no short cut to 'The Twisted Arm' +to-night!" + +Then, like something shot from a catapult, he sprang to the door, +whisked through it, banged it behind him, turned the key, and went +racing down the corridor like a hare. + +"It must be sheer luck now!" he panted, as he reached the angle and, +kicking aside the rug, pulled up the trap. "They'll have that door down +in a brace of shakes, and be after me like a pack of ravening wolves. +The race is to the swift this time, gentlemen, and you'll have to take a +long way round if you mean to head me off." + +Then he passed down into the darkness, closed the trap-door after him, +shot into its socket the bolt he had screwed there, flashed up the light +of his electric torch, and, _without_ the password, turned toward the +sewers, and ran, and ran, and ran! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +It lacked but a minute of the stroke of twelve, and the revels at "The +Twisted Arm"--wild at all times, but wilder to-night than ever--were at +their noisiest and most exciting pitch. And why not? It was not often +that Margot could spend a whole night with her rapscallion crew, and she +had been here since early evening--was to remain here until the dawn +broke grey over the house-tops and the murmurs of the workaday world +awoke anew in the streets of the populous city. It was not often that +each man and each abandoned woman present knew to a certainty that he or +she would go home through the mists of the grey morning with a fistful +of gold that had been won without labour or the taking of any personal +risk; and to-night the half of four hundred thousand francs was to be +divided among them. + +No wonder they had made a carnival of it, and tricked themselves out in +gala attire; no wonder they had brought a paste tiara and crowned +Margot--Margot, who was in flaming red to-night, and looked a devil's +daughter indeed, with her fire-like sequins and her red ankles twinkling +as she threw herself into the thick of the dance and kicked, and +whirled, and flung her bare arms about to the lilt of the music and the +fluting of her own happy laughter. + +"Per Bacco! The devil's in her to-night!" grinned old Marise, the +innkeeper, from her place behind the bar, where the lid of the +sewer-trap opened. "She has not been like it since the cracksman broke +with her, Toinette. But that was before your time, _ma fille_. Mother of +the heavens! but there was a man for you! There was a king that was +worthy of such a queen. Name of disaster! that she could not hold him, +that the curse of virtue sapped such a splendid tree, and that she could +take up with another after him!" + +"Why not?" cried Toinette, as she tossed down the last half of her +absinthe and twitched her flower-crowned head. "A kingdom must have a +king, _ma mere_; and Dieu: but he is handsome, this Monsieur Gaston +Merode! And if he carries out his part of the work to-night he will be +worthy of the homage of all." + +"'If' he carries it out--'if'!" exclaimed Marise, with a lurch of the +shoulders and a flirt of her pudgy hand. "Soul of me! that's where the +difference lies. Had it been the cracksman, there would have been no +'if'--it were done as surely as he attempted it. Name of misfortune! I +had gone into a nunnery had I lost such a man. But she--" + +The voice of Margot shrilled out and cut into her words. "Absinthe, +Marise, absinthe for them all--and set the score down to me!" she cried. +"Drink up, my bonny boys; drink up, my loyal maids. Drink--drink till +your skins will hold no more. No one pays to-night but me!" + +They broke into a cheer, and bearing down in a body upon Marise, threw +her into a fever of haste to serve them. + +"To Margot!" they shouted, catching up the glasses and lifting them +high. "_Vive la Reine des Apaches! Vive la compagnie!_ To Margot! To +Margot!" + +She swept them a merry bow, threw them a laughing salute, and drank the +toast with them. + +"Messieurs, my love--mesdames et mademoiselles, my admiration," she +cried, with a ripple of joy-mad laughter. "To the success of the +Apaches, to the glory of four hundred thousand francs, and to the quick +arrival of Serpice and Gaston!" Then, her upward glance catching sight +of the musicians sipping their absinthe in the little gallery above, she +flung her empty glass against the wall behind them, and shook with +laughter as they started in alarm and spilled the green poison when they +dodged aside. "Another dance, you dawdlers!" she cried. "Does Marise pay +you to sit there like mourners? Strike up, you mummies, or you pay +yourselves for what you drink to-night. Soul of desires!"--as the +musicians grabbed up their instruments, and a leaping, lilting, +quick-beating air went rollicking out over the hubbub--"a quadrille, you +angels of inspiration! Partners, gentlemen! Partners, ladies! A +quadrille! A quadrille!" + +They set up a many-throated cheer and flocked out with her upon the +floor; and in one instant feet were flying, skirts were whirling, +laughter and jest mingling with waving arms and kicking toes, and the +whole place was in one mad riot of delirious joy. + +And in the midst of this there rolled up suddenly a voice crying, as +from the bowels of the earth, "Hola! Hola! La la! loi!" the cry of the +Apache to his kind. + +"Mother of delights! It is one of us, and it comes from the sewer +passage--from the sewer!" shrilled out Marise, as the dancers halted and +Margot ran, with fleet steps, towards the bar. "Listen! listen! They +come to you, Margot--Serpice and Gaston. The work is done." + +"And before even Clodoche or von Hetzler have arrived!" she replied +excitedly. "Give them light, give them welcome. Be quick!" + +Marise ducked down, loosened the fastenings of the trap-door, flung it +back, and, leaning over the gap with a light in her hand, called down +into the darkness, "Hola! Hola! La! la! loi! Come on, comrades, come +on!" + +The caller obeyed instantly. A hand reached up and gripped the edge of +the flooring, and out of the darkness into the light emerged the figure +of a man in a leather cap and the blue blouse of a mechanic--a pale, +fox-faced, fox-eyed fellow, with lank, fair hair, a brush of ragged, +yellow beard, and with the look and air of the sneak and spy indelibly +branded upon him. + +It was Cleek. + +"Clodoche!" exclaimed Marise, falling back in surprise. + +"Clodoche!" echoed Margot. "Clodoche--and from the sewers?" + +"Yes--why not?" he answered, his tongue thick-burred with the accent of +Alsace, his shifting eyes flashing toward the huge window behind the +bar, where, in the moonlight, the narrow passage leading down to the +door of "The Twisted Arm" gaped evilly between double rows of scowling, +thief-sheltering houses. "Name of the fiend! Is this the welcome you +give the bringer of fortune, Margot?" + +"But from the sewer?" she repeated. "It is incomprehensible, _cher ami_. +You were to pilot von Hetzler over from the Cafe Dupin to the square +beyond there"--pointing to the window--"to leave him waiting a moment +while you came on to see if it were safe for him to enter; and now you +come from the sewer--from the opposite direction entirely!" + +"Mother of misfortunes! You had done the same yourself--you, Lantier; +you, Clopin; you, Cadarousse; any of you--had you been in my boots," he +made answer. "I stole a leaf from your own book, earlier in the evening. +Garotted a fellow with jewels on him--in the Rue Noir, near the Market +Place--and nearly got into 'the stone bottle' for doing it. He was a +decoy, set there by the police for some of you fellows, and there was a +sergeant de ville after me like a whirlwind. I was not fool enough to +turn the chase in this direction, so I doubled and twisted until it was +safe to dive into the tavern of Fouchard, and lay in hiding there. +Fouchard let his son carry a message to the count for me, and will guide +him to the square. When it grew near the time to come, Fouchard let me +down into the sewer passage from there. Get on with your dance--silence +is always suspicious. An absinthe, Marise! Have Gaston and Serpice +arrived yet with the rest of the document, Margot la reine?" + +"Not yet," she answered. "But one may expect them at any minute." + +"Where is the fragment we already possess?" + +"Here," tapping her bodice and laughing, "tenderly shielded, _mon ami_, +and why not? Who would not mother a thing that is to bring one four +hundred thousand francs?" + +"Let me see it. It must be shown to the count, remember. He will take no +risks, come not one step beyond the square, until he is certain that it +is the paper his Government requires. Let me have it--let me take it to +him--quick!" + +She waved aside airily the hand he stretched toward her, and danced into +the thick of the resumed quadrille. + +"Ah, non! non! non!" she laughed, as he came after her. "The conditions +were of your own making, _cher ami_; we break no rules even among +ourselves." + +"Soul of a fool! But if the count comes to the square--he is due there +now, mignonne--and I am not there to show him the thing--Margot, for the +love of God, let me have the paper!" + +"Let me have the sign, the password!" + +Cleek snapped at a desperate chance because there was nothing else to +do, because he knew that at any moment now the end might come. + +"'When the purse will not open, slit it!'" he hazarded, +desperately--choosing, on the off-chance of its correctness, the +password of the Apache. + +"It is not the right one! It is by no means the right one!" she made +reply, backing away from him suddenly, her absinthe-brightened eyes +deriding him, her absinthe-sharpened laughter mocking him. "Your +thoughts are in the Bois, _cher ami_. What is the password of the +brotherhood to the cause of Germany, stupid? It is not right, non! non! +It is not right!" + +The cause of Germany! At the words the truth rushed like a flash of +inspiration across Cleek's mind. The cause of Germany! What a dolt he +was not to have thought of that before! There was but one phrase ever +used for that among the Kaiser's people, and that phrase-- + +"'To the day!'" he said, with a burst of sudden laughter. "My wits are +in the moon to-night, _la reine_. 'To the day,' of course--'To the +day!'" And even before she replied to him, he knew that he had guessed +aright. + +"Bravo!" she said, with a little hiccough--for the absinthe, of which +she had imbibed so freely to-night, was beginning to take hold of her. +"A pretty conspirator to forget how to open the door he himself locked! +It is well I know thee--it is well it was the word of les Apaches in the +beginning, or I had been suspicious, silly! Wait but a moment!"--putting +her hand to her breast and beginning to unfasten her bodice--"wait but a +moment, Monsieur Twitching-Fingers, and the thing shall be in your +hand." + +The strain, the relief, were all too great for even such nerves as +Cleek's, and if he had not laughed aloud, he knew that he must have +cheered. + +"Oho! you grin because one's fingers blunder with eagerness," hiccoughed +Margot, thinking his laughter was for the trouble she had in getting the +fastenings of her bodice undone. "Peste, monsieur! may not a lady well +be modestly careful, when--Name of the devil! what's that?" + +It was the note of a whistle shrilling down the narrow passage +without--the passage where Dollops, in Apache garb, had been set on +watch; and, hearing it, Cleek clamped his jaws together and breathed +hard. A single whistle--short and sharp, such as this one was--was the +signal agreed upon that the real Clodoche was coming, and that he and +Count von Hetzler had already appeared in the square beyond. + +"Soul of a sloth! Will not that hurry you, _la reine_?" he said +excitedly, in reply to Margot's startled question. "It is the signal +Fouchard's son was to give when he and von Hetzler arrived at the place +where I am to meet them. Give me the paper--quick! quick! Tear the +fastenings, if they will not come undone else. One cannot keep a von +Hetzler waiting like a lackey for a scrap of ribbon and a bit of lace." + +"Pardieu! they have kept better men than he waiting many an hour before +this," she made reply. "But you shall have the thing in a twinkling now. +There! but one more knot, and then it is in your hands." + +And, had the fates not decreed otherwise, so, indeed, it would have +been. But then, just then, when another second would have brought the +paper into view, another moment seen it shut tight in the grip of his +itching fingers, disaster came and blotted out his hopes! + +Without hint or warning, without sign or sound to lessen the shock of +it, the trap-door behind the bar flew up and backward with a crash that +sent Marise and her assistants darting away from it in shrieking alarm; +a babel of excited voices sounded, a scurry of rushing feet scuffled and +flashed along the shaking floor, and Merode and his followers tumbled +helter-skelter into the room. + +Cleek, counting on the bolt which kept them from entering the passage +from the corridor of the Chateau Larouge--forcing them to take a long, +roundabout journey to "The Twisted Arm"--had not counted on their +shortening that journey by entering the passage from Fouchard's tavern, +doing, in fact, the very thing which he had declared to Margot he +himself had done. And lo! here they were, howling and crowding about +him--dirks in their hands and devils in their eyes and hearts--and the +paper not his yet! + +A clamour rose as they poured in; the dancers ceased to dance; the music +ceased to play; and Margot, shutting a tight clutch on the loosened part +of her half-unfastened bodice, swung away from Cleek's side, and flew in +a panic to Merode. + +"Gaston!" she cried, knowing from his wild look and the string of oaths +and curses his followers were blurting out that something had gone +amiss. "Gaston, _mon coeur_! Name of disaster! what is wrong?" + +"Everything is wrong!" he flung back excitedly. "That devil--that +renegade--that fury, Cleek, the cracksman, is here. He came to the +rescue--came out of the very skies--and all but killed Serpice!" + +"Cleek!" Fifty shrill voices joined Margot's in that screaming cry; +fifty more dirks flashed into view. "Cleek in France? Cleek? Where is +he? Which way did he go? Where's the narker--where--where?" + +"Here, if anywhere!" + +"Here?" + +"Yes--unless you've been fooled, and let him get away. He knows about +the paper, and is after it, Margot; and if anyone has come up from the +sewers within the past twenty minutes--" + +They knew--they grasped the situation instantly--and a roar of excited +voices yelled out: "Clodoche! Clodoche! Clodoche!" as, snarling and +howling like a pack of wolves, they bore down with a rush on the +blue-bloused figure that was creeping towards the door. + +But as they sprang it sprang also! It was neck or nothing now. Cleek +realised it, and, throwing himself headlong over the bar, clutched +frantically at the lever which he knew controlled the flow of gas, +jammed it down with all his strength, shut off the light, and, grabbing +up a chair, sent it crashing through the window. + +The crowd surged on towards the wrecked bar with a yell, surged from all +directions, and then abruptly stopped and huddled together in one. For +the sudden flashing down of the darkness within, had made more +prominent, the moon-lighted passage without; and there, scuttling away +in alarm from this sudden uproar, and the outward flying of that hurled +chair, a figure which but a moment before had come skulking to the +window, could now be seen. + +"There he goes--there! there!" shrilled out a chorus of excited voices, +as the yellow-bearded, blue-bloused figure came into view. "After him! +Catch him! Knife him!" + +In an instant they were at the door, tumbling out into the darkness, +pouring up the passage in hot pursuit. And it was at that moment the +balance changed again. Those who were in the front rank of the pursuers +were in time to see a lithe, thin figure--dressed as one of their own +kind--spring up in the path of that other figure, jump on it, grip it, +clap a huge square of sticky brown paper over the howling mouth of it, +and bear it, struggling and kicking, to the ground. + +In another second they, too, were upon it--swarming over it like rats, +and digging and hacking at it with their dirks. And so they were still +hacking at it--although it had long since ceased to move, or to make any +sound--when Merode came up and called them to a halt. + +"Drag it inside; let Margot have a thrust at it--it is her right. Pull +off the dog's disguise, and bring me the plucky one that captured him. +He shall have absinthe enough to swim in, the little king! Off with it +all, Lanchere. First, the plaster--that's right. Now, the wig and beard, +and after that--What's that you say? The beard is real? The hair is +real? They will not come off? Name of the devil! what are you saying?" + +"The truth, _mon roi_, the truth! Mother of disasters! It is not the +cracksman--it is the real Clodoche we have killed!" + +For one moment a sort of panic held them, swayed them, befogged the +brains of them; then, of a sudden, Merode howled out, "Get back! Get +back! The fellow's in there still!" and led a blind race down the +passage to the bar, where they had seen Cleek last. It was still in +darkness; but an eager hand gripping the lever, turned on the gas again, +and matches everywhere were lifted to the jets. + +And when the light flamed out and the room was again ablaze they knew +that they might as well hope to call back yesterday as dream of finding +Cleek again. For there on the floor, her limp hands turned palms upward, +a chloroformed cloth folded over her mouth and nose, lay, in a deep +stupor, the figure of Margot, her bodice torn wide open and the paper +forever gone! + + * * * * * + +It was five minutes later when the Count von Hetzler, crouching back in +the shadow of the square and waiting for the return of Clodoche, heard a +dull, whirring sound that was unmistakably the purr of a motor throb +through the stillness; and, leaning forward, saw an automobile whirl up +out of the darkness, cut across the square, and dash off westward like a +flash. Yet in the brief instant it took to go past the place where he +waited there was time for him to catch the sharp click of a lowered +window, see the clear outlines of a man's face looking out, and to hear +a voice from within the vehicle speak. + +"Herr Count," it said in clear, incisive tones. "A positively infallible +recipe for the invasion of England: Wait until the Channel freezes and +then skate over. Good night!" + +"One for his nob that, Gov'nor--my hat, yuss!" said Dollops, with a +shrill laugh, as he stuck a red head and a face all shiny with cocoa +butter and half-removed grease-paint out of the window, and, despite the +fact that the swift pace of the automobile had already carried it far +past the place where the count had been in hiding, made a fan of his +five fingers and his snub nose. "Oh, Mother 'Ubbard! Did you see him, +sir? Bunked back in his 'ole like somebody had 'give him the hook,' and +cleared the blessed stage before the eggs began to fly. I don't think +them Germans 'ull be sittin' on the steps of St. Paul's this year, +sir--not them!" + +Cleek laughed; and, ordering the boy to shut down the window and get on +with the work of changing his clothes, set about doing the same thing +himself. + +"I suppose you know, you clever little monkey, that I should have been +floating down the Seine with a slit throat and enough lead in me to sink +a barrel by this time, if it hadn't been for you," he said, as he pushed +the outward semblance of Clodoche into the kit-bag, and began to get +into ordinary civilian's dress as expeditiously as possible. "If you had +slipped up--if you had been one-half minute late--or if that fellow had +had a chance to make one cry before you covered his mouth--" + +"Please, sir--_don't_!" interposed Dollops, with a sort of shiver. "If +anythink had've happened to you, Gov'nor ..." Then stopped short and +made a sound as if he were swallowing something, and then grew very, +very still. + +Cleek looked at him out of the corner of his eye--moved in spite of +himself--hesitated a moment and then, obeying an impulse, leaned over +and gently tapped him on the shoulder. + +"Dollops, shake hands," he said. + +"Sir!" + +"Shake hands." + +"Gawd, Gov'nor! You don't never _mean_ that, sir?" + +"Shake hands," said Cleek for the third time. "Do you know, you little +monkey, that you're the only soul in all God's world that could ever +muster up a tear for me? Thank you, my lad--you're a brick!"--then +gripped the grimy hand that was reached out with a sort of awe, wrung it +heartily, patted the astonished boy on the shoulder; and fell to +whistling merrily as he went on with his dressing. + +"Sir, you do lick me, you fair do," said Dollops, laughing unsteadily, +and drawing his sleeve across his eyes. "Arfter wot you've been and went +through, a-sittin' there and whistlin' as merry as can be--like as if +life was all beer and skittles, and you hadn't a care in the world." + +"I haven't--for the minute, my lad," said Cleek with a laugh of utter +happiness. "Beer and skittles? Lord, it's all roses my boy, roses! I've +had the good luck to accomplish a thing that's going to give me--well, +at least one moment in Paradise--and when a man has a prospect like that +in view ..." His voice trailed off; he laughed again; then fell to +whistling once more--noisily, joyously, as if some schoolboy sort of +madness was in his blood to-night--and was still whistling when the +automobile pulled up sharply in front of the Hotel du Louvre. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +By this time he had concluded the alteration in his toilet which was +necessary to assure his entrance into the hotel without occasioning +comment; and as Dollops had followed suit they readily passed muster, +when they alighted, for an ordinary English gentleman accompanied by an +ordinary English manservant. + +"What was the charge at the garage?" inquired Cleek of Dollops just +previously to alighting. + +"I dunno wot it runs to in this 'ere rum lingo of francs and sous, sir," +said Dollops, "but the garage gent he said it would amount to two pounds +ten in English money, so I'll have to leave you to work it out for +yourself. The shuvver, he said sommink about 'poor boars'--which I've +heard is wot you has to give 'em as a tip to themselves, Gov'nor--so I +promised him 'arf a crown to stop at 'tother end of that passage leadin' +up from The Twisted Arm till he was wanted, sir. Made it a good tip +because I wanted him to be there sure--it would have been a case of +'nab' for us if he hadn't. Wasn't too much, was it, sir?" + +"No," said Cleek--and let him see that it wasn't by giving the chauffeur +a pourboire of ten francs and sending him back to the garage with the +impression that he had had dealings with a millionaire. + +Ten minutes later the hotel register bore the record of the arrival of +"Mr. Philip Barch and servant"; and one attendant was engaged in showing +the servant into a neat little bedroom which was to be his resting-place +until morning while another was ushering the master into the suite +engaged by the Baron de Carjorac. + +Three persons were there: the Baron, his daughter, and his daughter's +companion; but Cleek saw but one--and that the only one who made no +movement, uttered no sound, when he came into the room. Curiously pale +and curiously quiet, she stood with one arm resting on the mantelpiece +and the other hanging by her side, looking at him--looking _for_ him, in +fact--but not saying one word, not making one sound. That she left +wholly to the baron and his daughter. + +They, too, maintained, although with an effort, an appearance of +composure so long as the hotel servant was present; but in the moment +the door closed and the man was gone an overpowering excitement seized +and mastered them. + +"Monsieur, for the love of God, don't tell me you have failed," implored +the baron. "I have died a hundred deaths of torture and suspense since +your card was carried up. But if I am to hear bad news ... Oh, my +country!" + +"Don't cross bridges, baron, until you come to them," said Cleek +composedly. "I gave Miss Lorne my promise that I would not leave France +until I had done what she asked me to do; and--I am returning to England +to-morrow by the noon boat. I have had an exciting evening, but it has +had its compensation. Here is something for you. I had a bit of a fight +for it, baron--look out that it doesn't get into the wrong hands again." + +He had taken a small packet of torn papers from his pocket while he was +speaking; now he put it into the baron's hand--not wholly without a +certain sense of gratification, however, in the excitement and delight +which the act called forth; for no man is utterly devoid of personal +vanity, personal pride in his achievements, and this man was no less +human than his kind. + +He let the tumult of excitement and joy wear itself out; he suffered the +baron's embraces--even the two rapturous kisses the man planted upon +first one and then the other of his cheeks--he endured Mlle. Athalie's +exuberant hand-clapping and hand-shaking and the cyclonic and wholly +Gallic manner in which she deported herself when comparison with the +fragments which the baron had still retained proved beyond all question +that these were indeed the missing portions of the all-important +document; and not until these things were over did he so much as look at +Ailsa Lorne again. + +She had taken no part in the general excitement, moved not one foot from +where she had been standing from the first. Even when Athalie danced +over and hugged her and showed the important fragments; even when she +reproved her with a wondering, "Ah, you strange Anglais--you stone-cold +Anglais! Is it possible that you can have blood in your veins and yet +take wondrous things like this so calmly?"--even then, she merely smiled +and remained standing just as she still was; her pallor not one whit +lessened, her reserve but the merest shadow less apparent than it had +been before. + +Cleek chose that moment to walk over to her, to lift his eyes to hers, +and to stand looking at her questioningly. For now that he was close to +her he could see that she was trembling nervously; that her calmness was +merely an outward thing, and that under it nerves writhed and a +frightened heart was beating thick and fast. + +Was even the fancied moment in Paradise to be denied him then? That such +a woman could not, all in a moment--could not by just one act of heroism +on his part--be won over and lured into complete forgetfulness of such a +past as his, he realized to the fullest extent. Always he had been +conscious of that; but even so ... Ah, well, the meanest may hope, the +lowest may at least look up; and even saints and angels were not above +saying, "Well done!" to a soul that had struggled, to a sinner that had +done his best. + +"I managed it, you see, Miss Lorne," he said, in a slightly lowered +voice, while the baron busied himself in looking for his cheque-book and +Athalie bustled about in quest of ink and a pen. "It wasn't an easy +night's work, and I'm a bit fagged out. So, as I leave in the morning, +it will be good-bye as well as good-night." + +She moved for the first time. The hand that lay upon the shelf of the +mantelpiece shook and closed quickly. She lifted up her head and looked +at him. Her eyes were misty and faint clouds of color were coming and +going over her face. + +"What is it?" he asked. "Surely, Miss Lorne, you--are not afraid of me?" + +"No," she said, averting her face again. "Not of you but of myself. That +is--I--" trying to laugh, but making a parody of it--"I was always more +or less of a coward, Mr. Cleek, but ..." She faced round again sharply +and held out her hand to him. "Will you let me thank you? Will you let +me say that I must be merely a little child in intellect since it is +only now that I have begun to understand how natural it is that a pound +of gold should inevitably outweigh an ounce of dirt? And will you please +understand that I am trying to thank you, trying to let you know that I +am very, very sorry if I ever hurt your feelings. I don't think I meant +to. I couldn't see then so clearly as I do now. Please forgive me." + +He took the hand she held out to him; and so had his moment in Paradise +after all. + +"Hurt me as often as you like, if it will always end like this," he said +with a queer little laugh that seemed to come from the very depths of +his chest. "As for that other time ... How could I have expected that +you would take it in any other way, being what you are and I what I had +been? I am glad I told you. You could never have respected me for an +instant if you had found it out in any other way; and I want your +respect: I want it very, very earnestly, Miss Lorne. If you can ever +give it to me I'll do my best to be worthy of it." + +She had withdrawn her hand from his and was drumming with her +finger-tips upon the mantelshelf. A little pucker was between her +eyebrows, she was biting her under lip perplexedly, and appeared to be +hesitating. But of a sudden she twitched round her head sharply and a +sweep of red went up over her face. + +"Shall I show you how much I do respect you, then?" she said. "One may +ask of a friend things one would not dream of asking of a mere +acquaintance, and so--Mr. Cleek, this night of horror has been too much +for me. I know now that I can no longer remain in this position in this +dreadful city. I have already resigned my post, and will return to +England, and--if I am not too late for it--make an effort to secure the +post of governess to Lady Chepstow's little son. I shall start in the +morning. Will you play the part of friend and guide and see me safely +across the Channel?" + +"Do you mean that?" he asked, his face alight, his eyes shining. "You +will let me have the privilege, the honour? What a queen you are! You +give largesse with both hands when a simple coin would have been enough. +Shall I secure your tickets? When will you have your luggage ready? Is +there anything you will need before you leave?" + +She smiled at his enthusiasm, coloured anew, and again held out her +hand. + +"We will talk of all that in the morning," she said. "There will be +plenty of time. Mlle. de Carjorac has promised to look after my effects +and to see that they are shipped on to me in due course. But now it +really must be good-night. I shall see you again at breakfast." + +"At breakfast?" repeated Cleek, with a happy laugh. "I wonder if you +understand that I shall be kicking my heels on my bedside until it is +ready?--that I shan't sleep a wink all night?" + +And as events proved he came respectably close to living up to that +exuberant assertion--merely napping now and again, to wake up suddenly +and "moon" for an hour or so; and, between periodical inspections of his +watch, to wonder if God ever made a night so long and slow-dragging as +this one. + +It had its recompense, however; for all--or nearly all--the next day was +passed in company with _her_; and more than that he would not have asked +of Heaven. Long before she rose he had made all arrangements for the +journey to Calais; and she was not a little gratified--yes, and touched +if the truth must be told--on arriving at the train, to find that he had +made no effort to secure accommodations which would compel her to endure +his companionship alone from the Gare du Nord to the steamer, but had +considerately reserved seats in a compartment containing other +travellers, and had done everything in his power to relieve her of any +possible embarrassment and to insure her all possible comforts. Even +magazines and pictorial papers were not omitted, but were there for her +in plenty lest she might prefer an excuse for not indulging much in +conversation; and there was also a huge bunch of La France roses bought +at the temporary flower market beside the Madeleine at daybreak that +morning. + +"They are beautiful, aren't they?" he said, as he laid them in her lap. +"Will it surprise you to learn that flowers are a passion with me, and +that I am a living refutation of the fallacy that 'there can be nothing +very wrong about a man who can cultivate a garden'?" + +She looked up at him and smiled. + +"I think nothing about you will surprise me--you are so many-sided +and--if you will pardon me saying it--so different from what one +imagines men of--of your calling to be," she said; and laughed a little, +colouring divinely until her face was like the roses themselves. "You +treat me as if I were a queen; and I am not used to Court manners. +Where, if you please, did you acquire yours?" + +"In the vast Kingdom of the World," he made answer, with just a +momentary change of countenance--a mere suspicion of embarrassment: +laughed off before she could be quite sure that it had had any real +existence. "Please remember that to appear to be what one is not, and to +ape manners foreign to one's real self is part of what you have so +nicely, so euphemistically, termed 'my calling.' I am an Actor on the +World's Stage, Miss Lorne; I should be but a very poor one if I could +not accommodate myself to many roles." + +"If you play them all so well as you do that of the _preux chevalier_, +it is no wonder you are a success," she replied gaily, slipping thus +into easy conversation with him. + +And so it fell out that the magazines and the illustrated papers were +not so much of a boon as both had fancied they might be when Cleek +brought them to her; for they had not even been opened when the train +ran up to the quay side at Calais and brought them almost abreast of the +channel steamer. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was not until they were aboard the boat and the shores of France were +slipping off into the distance that Miss Lorne saw anything at all of +Dollops. As he had travelled down from Paris to Calais in a separate +compartment there had been no opportunity to do so. He had, too, held +himself respectfully aloof even after they had boarded the steamer; and, +but that once, when a lurch of the vessel had unexpectedly disturbed +Cleek's equilibrium and knocked his hat off, she might not have seen him +even then. + +But the manner in which he pounced upon that hat, the tender care with +which he brushed it, and the affectionate interest in both voice and +eyes when he handed it back and inquired eagerly, "Didn't hurt yourself, +Gov'nor, did you, sir?" compelled her to take notice of him, and, in +doing so, to understand the position in which they stood to each other. + +"You are travelling with a servant?" she enquired. + +"More than a servant--a devoted henchman, Miss Lorne. They say you can't +purchase fidelity for all the money in the world, but I secured the +finest brand of it in the Universe by the simple outlay of two half +crowns. It is the boy of that night on Hampstead Heath--the boy who +stood at the turning point. The Devil didn't get him, you see. He kept +his promise and has been walking the straight road ever since." + +She turned round and looked at him; realizing more of the man's +character in that moment than a hundred deeds of bravery, a thousand +acts of gentle courtesy, could ever have made her understand. + +"And you took him in?" she said slowly. "You gave him a chance? You +helped him to redeem himself? How good of you." + +"How good _for_ me, you mean," he laughed, "It was 'bread on the waters' +with a vengeance, Miss Lorne. I should have lost my life last night but +for that boy."--And told her briefly and airily how the thing had come +to pass. + +"Don't think it vindictive of me, but I am sorry, I am very, very sorry +you were not able to hand that dreadful woman, Margot, over to the +authorities, Mr. Cleek," she said, with an expression of great +seriousness. "She is not likely to forget or to forgive what you have +done; and some day, perhaps ... Oh, do be on your guard. It was really +foolhardy to have attempted the thing alone. Surely you might have +appealed for assistance to the Paris police and not only have minimised +your personal risk but made sure of the woman's arrest." + +"Not without allowing the authorities to learn exactly what the Baron de +Carjorac was so anxious to keep them _from_ learning, Miss Lorne. They +must have found out what I was after, what really had been lost, if I +had applied to them for assistance. I had either to do the thing alone +or drop the case entirely. And drop it I would not after _you_ had asked +me to accept it, and--Pardon? No, Miss Lorne, I do not know who the +woman Margot really is. Even that name may be fictitious, as was the one +of 'Comtesse de la Tour.' I only know of her that she is one of the +great figures of the Underworld; that money is her game--money alone; +money first, last, and all the time; that her personal history is as +much of a mystery to her closest associates as was--well, no matter; +people of that ilk are not fit subjects to discuss with you. All that I +know of the woman is that she has travelled pretty well over the world; +that some six or eight months ago she was in Ceylon with a--er--a +certain member of her crew, and came within an ace of falling foul of +the law. She had put up a plan to loot the depository of the Pearl +Fisheries Company at a period when there were thousands of pounds worth +of gems awaiting transport. With her usual luck she slipped out of the +net and left the country before she could be arrested. But she will have +found something there that will repay her for the visit in one way or +another. Luck of that kind seems to follow her always." + +And a long time afterward he had reason to remember what he said. For +the present, however, he had banished from his mind all things but the +happiness which was his to-day; and gave himself up to that happiness +with his whole heart. + +Not once did he again intrude anything that had to do with himself, his +exploits, or his future upon Ailsa's attention until all the voyage +across the channel and all the journey from Dover up to London had come +to an end; and even then, eager though he was to know how matters might +shape themselves for _her_ future--he was tactful, considerate, careful +not to force her into any embarrassing position or to claim from her +more than the merest acquaintance might. + +"You are going to your friend at Hampstead, I suppose," he said as he +handed her into a taxicab at Charing Cross. "I shall like to know if you +succeed in getting the position with Lady Chepstow; and if you send no +word to Mr. Narkom, I shall take silence as an assent and know that you +have." + +And afterward, when the days grew in number and late April merged into +early May and no word came, he knew that she had succeeded; and was +comforted, thinking of her safely housed and perhaps in a position more +congenial than the last. At any rate, she was in England, she was again +in the same land with him; and that of itself was comfort. + +But other comforts were not wanting. The full glory of tulip time was +here; The Yard had no immediate occasion for his services, and time was +his to dawdle in the public parks among the children, the birds, and the +flowers. + +"And, lord, how he do love 'em all, bless his heart!" commented Dollops +in confidence to himself as he bustled about, putting the Den in order, +watering the plants and touching lovingly the things that belonged to +the master he adored--his daily task when Cleek was in the Park and had +no need for his services. It was a pleasure to the boy, that service. +His whole heart was in it. He resented anything that interfered with it +even for an instant; and as at this particular time he was in the very +midst of preparing a small surprise against his master's return, he was +by no means pleased when a sharp whirring sound of a telephone bell +shrilled out from the adjoining room and called him from his labour of +love. + +"Oh, blow that thing! A body don't have a minute to call his own since +it's been put in," he blurted out disgustedly, and answered the call. +"'Ullo! Yuss; this is Cap'n Burbage's. Wot? No, he aren't in. Dunno when +he will be. Dunno where he is. But if there's any messidge--I say, who +wants him? Wot? Oh, s'elp me. You, is it, Mr. Narkom? Yuss, it's me, +sir--Dollops. Wot? No, sir. Went out two hours ago. Gone to Kensington +Palace Gardens. Tulips is in full bloom and you couldn't hold him +indoors with a chain at tulip-time, bless his heart. Yuss, sir. Top hat, +white spats--same as the 'Cap'n' always wears, sir." + +Narkom, at the other end of the line, called back: "If I miss him, if he +comes in without seeing me, tell him to wait; I'll be round before +three. Good-bye!" then hung up the receiver and turned to the gentleman +who stood by the window on the other side of the private office, +agitatedly twirling the end of his thick grey-threaded moustache with +one hand, while with the other he drummed a nervous tattoo upon the +broad oaken sill. "Not at home, Sir Henry; but, fortunately, I know +where to find him with but little loss of time," he said, and pressed +twice upon an electric button beside his desk. "My motor will be at the +door in a couple of minutes, and with ordinary luck we ought to be able +to pick him up inside of the next half-hour." + +Sir Henry--Sir Henry Wilding, Bart., to give him his full name and +title--a handsome, well-set-up man of about forty years of age, well +groomed, and with the upright bearing which comes of military training, +twisted round on his heel at this and gave the superintendent an almost +grateful look. + +"I hope so--God knows I hope so, Mr. Narkom," he said agitatedly. "Time +is the one important thing at present. The suspense and uncertainty are +getting on my nerves so horribly that the very minutes seem endless. +Remember, there are only three days before the race, and if those +rascals, whoever they are, get at Black Riot before then, God help +me--that's all! And if this man Cleek can't probe the diabolical +mystery, they _will_ get at her, too, and put Logan where they put +Tolliver, the brutes!" + +"You may trust Cleek to see that they don't, Sir Henry. It is just the +kind of case he will glory in; and if Black Riot is all that you believe +her, you'll carry off the Derby in spite of these enterprising gentry +who--Hallo! here's the motor. Clap on your hat, Sir Henry, and come +along. Mind the step! Kensington Palace Gardens, Lennard--and as fast as +you can streak it." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The chauffeur proved that he could "streak it" as close to the margin of +the speed limit as the law dared wink at, even in the case of the +well-known red limousine, and in a little over ten minutes pulled up +before the park gates. Narkom jumped out, beckoned Sir Henry to follow +him, and together they hurried into the grounds in quest of Cleek. + +Where the famous tulip beds made splotches of brilliant colour against +the clear emerald of the closely clipped grass they came upon him--a +solitary figure in the garb of the elderly seaman, "Captain Burbage, of +Clarges Street"--seated on one of the garden benches, his hands folded +over the knob of his thick walking-stick and his chin resting upon them, +staring fixedly at the gorgeous flowers and apparently deaf and blind to +all else. + +He was not, however; for as the superintendent approached he, without +altering his gaze or his attitude in the slightest particle, said with +the utmost calmness: "Superb, are they not, my friend? What a pity they +should be scentless. It is as though Heaven had created a butterfly and +deprived it of the secret of flight. Walk on, please, without addressing +me. I am quite friendly with that policeman yonder and I do not wish him +to suspect that the elderly gentleman he is so kind to is in any way +connected with The Yard. Examine the tulips. That's right. You came in +your limousine, of course? Where is it?" + +"Just outside the gates, at the end of the path on the right," replied +Narkom, halting with Sir Henry and appearing to be wholly absorbed in +pointing out the different varieties of tulips. + +"Good," replied Cleek, apparently taking not the slightest notice. "I'll +toddle on presently, and when you return from inspecting the flowers you +will find me inside the motor awaiting you." + +"Do, old chap--and please hurry; time is everything in this case. Let me +introduce you to your client. (Keep looking at the flowers, please, Sir +Henry.) I have the honour to make you acquainted with Sir Henry Wilding, +Cleek; he needs you, my dear fellow." + +"Delighted--in both instances. My compliments, Sir Henry. By any chance +that Sir Henry Wilding whose mare, Black Riot, is the favourite for next +Wednesday's Derby?" + +"Yes--that very man, Mr. Cleek; and if--" + +"Don't get excited and don't turn, please; our friend the policeman is +looking this way. What's the case? One of 'nobbling'? Somebody trying to +get at the mare?" + +"Yes. A desperate 'somebody,' who doesn't stop even at murder. A very +devil incarnate who seems to possess the power of invisibility, and who +strikes in the dark. Save me, Mr. Cleek! All I've got in the world is at +stake, and if anything happens to Black Riot, I'm a ruined man." + +"Yar-r-r!" yawned the elderly sea captain, rising and stretching. "I do +believe, constable, I've been asleep. Warm weather, this, for May. A +glorious week for Epsom. Shan't see you to-morrow, I'm afraid. Perhaps +shan't see you until Thursday. Here, take that, my lad, and have +half-a-crown's worth on Black Riot for the Derby; she'll win it, sure." + +"Thanky, sir. Good luck to you, sir." + +"Same to you, my lad. Good day." Then the old gentleman in the top hat +and white spats moved slowly away, passed down the tree-shaded walk, +passed the romping children, passed the Princess Louise's statue of +Queen Victoria, and, after a moment, vanished. Ten minutes later, when +Narkom and Sir Henry returned to the waiting motor, they found him +seated within it awaiting them, as he had promised. Giving Lennard +orders to drive about slowly in the least frequented quarters, while +they talked, the superintendent got in with Sir Henry, and opened fire +on the "case" without further delay. + +"My dear Cleek," he said, "as you appear to know all about Sir Henry and +his famous mare, there's no need to go into that part of the subject, so +I may as well begin by telling you at once that Sir Henry has come up to +town for the express purpose of getting you to go down to his place in +Suffolk to-night in company with him, as his only hope of outwitting a +diabolical agency which has set out to get at the horse and put it out +of commission before Derby Day, and in the most mysterious, the most +inscrutable manner ever heard of, my dear chap. Already one groom who +sat up to watch with her has been killed, another hopelessly paralysed, +and to-night Logan, the mare's trainer, is to sit up with her in the +effort to baulk the almost superhuman rascal who is at the bottom of it +all. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, a power so crafty, so +diabolical, that it gets into a locked and guarded stable, gets in, my +dear Cleek, despite four men constantly pacing back and forth before +each and every window and door that leads into the place and with a +groom on guard inside, and then gets out again in the same mysterious +manner without having been seen or heard by a living soul. In addition +to all the windows being small and covered with a grille of iron, a fact +which would make it impossible for anyone to get in or out once the +doors were closed and guarded, Sir Henry himself will tell you that the +stable has been ransacked from top to bottom, every hole and every +corner probed into, and not a living creature of any sort discovered. +Yet only last night the groom, Tolliver, was set upon inside the place +and killed outright in his efforts to protect the horse; killed, Cleek, +with four men patrolling outside, and willing to swear--each and every +one of them--that nothing and no one, either man, woman, child or beast, +passed them going in or getting out from sunset until dawn." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, sucking in his lower lip. "Mysterious, to say the +least. Was there no struggle? Did the men on guard hear no cry?" + +"In the case of the first groom, Murple, the one that was +paralysed--no," said Sir Henry, as the question was addressed to him. +"But in the case of Tolliver--yes. The men heard him cry out, heard him +call out 'Help!' but by the time they could get the doors open it was +all over. He was lying doubled up before the entrance to Black Riot's +stall, with his face to the floor, as dead as Julius Caesar, poor +fellow, and not a sign of anybody anywhere." + +"And the horse? Did anybody get at that?" + +"No; for the best of reasons. As soon as these attacks began, Mr. Cleek, +I sent up to London. A gang of twenty-four men came down, with steel +plates, steel joists, steel posts, and in seven hours' time Black Riot's +box was converted into a sort of safe, to which I alone hold the key the +instant it is locked up for the night. A steel grille about half a foot +deep, and so tightly meshed that nothing bigger than a mouse could pass +through, runs all round the enclosure close to the top of the walls, and +this supplies ventilation. When the door is closed at night, it +automatically connects itself with an electric gong in my own bedroom, +so that the slightest attempt to open it, or even to touch it, would +hammer out an alarm close to my head." + +"Has it ever done so?" + +"Yes--last night, when Tolliver was killed." + +"How killed, Sir Henry? Stabbed or shot?" + +"Neither. He appeared to have been strangled, poor fellow, and to have +died in most awful agony." + +"Strangled? But, my dear sir, that would hardly have been possible in so +short a time. You say your men heard him call out for help. Granted that +it took them a full minute--and it probably did not take them half +one--to open the doors and come to his assistance, he would not be stone +dead in so short a time; and he was stone dead when they got in, I +believe you said?" + +"Yes. God knows what killed him--the coroner will find that out, no +doubt--but there was no blood shed and no mark upon him that I could +see." + +"Hum-m-m! Was there any mark on the door of the steel stall?" + +"Yes. A long scratch, somewhat semi-circular, and sweeping downwards at +the lower extremity. It began close to the lock and ended about a foot +and a half lower." + +"Undoubtedly, you see, Cleek," put in Narkom, "someone tried to force an +entrance to the steel room and get at the mare, but the prompt arrival +of the men on guard outside the stable prevented his doing so." + +Cleek made no response. Just at that moment the limousine was gliding +past a building whose courtyard was one blaze of parrot tulips, and, his +eye caught by the flaming colours, he was staring at them and +reflectively rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. +After a moment, however: + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," he said abruptly. "Is anybody interested +in your not putting Black Riot into the field on Derby Day? Anybody with +whom you have a personal acquaintance, I mean, for of course I know +there are other owners who would be glad enough to see him scratched. +But is there anybody who would have a particular interest in your +failure?" + +"Yes--one. Major Lambson-Bowles, owner of Minnow. Minnow's second +favourite, as perhaps you know. It would delight Lambson-Bowles to see +me 'go under'; and as I'm so certain of Black Riot that I've mortgaged +every stick and stone I have in the world to back her, I should go under +if anything happened to the mare. That would suit Lambson-Bowles down to +the ground." + +"Bad blood between you, then?" + +"Yes--very. The fellow's a brute, and--I thrashed him once, as he +deserved, the bounder. It may interest you to know that my only sister +was his first wife. He led her a dog's life, poor girl, and death was a +merciful release to her. Twelve months ago he married a rich American +woman--widow of a man who made millions in hides and leather. That's +when Lambson-Bowles took up racing, and how he got the money to keep a +stud. Had the beastly bad taste, too, to come down to Suffolk--within a +gunshot of Wilding Hall--take Elmslie Manor, the biggest and grandest +place in the neighbourhood, and cut a dash under my very nose, as it +were." + +"Oho!" said Cleek; "then the major is a neighbour as well as a rival for +the Derby plate. I see! I see!" + +"No, you don't--altogether," said Sir Henry quickly. "Lambson-Bowles is +a brute and a bounder in many ways, but--well, I don't believe he is +low-down enough to do this sort of thing--and with murder attached to +it, too--although he did try to bribe poor Tolliver to leave me. Offered +my trainer double wages, too, to chuck me and take up his horses." + +"Oh, he did that, did he? Sure of it, Sir Henry?" + +"Absolutely. Saw the letter he wrote to Logan." + +"Hum-m-m! Feel that you can rely on Logan, do you?" + +"To the last gasp. He's as true to me as my own shadow. If you want +proof of it, Mr. Cleek, he's going to sit in the stable and keep guard +himself to-night--in the face of what happened to Murple and Tolliver." + +"Murple is the groom who was paralysed, is he not?" said Cleek, after a +moment. "Singular thing, that. What paralysed him, do you think?" + +"Heaven knows. He might just as well have been killed as poor Tolliver +was, for he'll never be any use again, the doctors say. Some injury to +the spinal column, and with it a curious affection of the throat and +tongue. He can neither swallow nor speak. Nourishment has to be +administered by tube, and the tongue is horribly swollen." + +"I'm of the opinion, Cleek," put in Narkom, "that strangulation is +merely part of the procedure of the rascal who makes these diabolical +nocturnal visits. In other words, that he is armed with some +quick-acting infernal poison, which he forces into the mouths of his +victims. That paralysis of the muscles of the throat is one of the +symptoms of prussic acid poisoning, you must remember." + +"I do remember, Mr. Narkom," replied Cleek enigmatically. "My memory is +much stimulated by these details, I assure you. I gather from them that, +whatever is administered, Murple did not get quite so much of it as +Tolliver, or he, too, would be dead. Sir Henry"--he turned again to the +baronet--"do you trust everybody else connected with your establishment +as much as you trust Logan?" + +"Yes. There's not a servant connected with the hall that hasn't been in +my service for years, and all are loyal to me." + +"May I ask who else is in the house besides the servants?" + +"My wife, Lady Wilding, for one; her cousin, Mr. Sharpless, who is on a +visit to us, for another; and, for a third, my uncle, the Rev. Ambrose +Smeer, the famous revivalist." + +"Mr. Smeer does not approve of the race track, of course?" + +"No, he does not. He is absurdly 'narrow' on some subjects, and 'sport' +of all sorts is one of them. But, beyond that, he is a dear, lovable old +fellow, of whom I am amazingly fond." + +"Hum-m-m! And Lady Wilding and Mr. Sharpless--do they, too, disapprove +of racing?" + +"Quite to the contrary. Both are enthusiastic upon the subject, and both +have the utmost faith in Black Riot's certainty of winning. Lady Wilding +is something more than attached to the mare; and as for Mr. Sharpless, +he is so upset over these rascally attempts that every morning when the +steel room is opened and the animal taken out, although nothing ever +happens in the daylight, he won't let her get out of his sight for a +single instant until she is groomed and locked up for the night. He is +so incensed, so worked up over this diabolical business, that I verily +believe if he caught any stranger coming near the mare he'd shoot him in +his tracks." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek abstractedly, and then sat silent for a long time, +staring at his spats and moving one thumb slowly round the breadth of +the other, his fingers interlaced and his lower lip pushed upwards over +the one above. + +"There, that's the case, Cleek," said Narkom, after a time. "Do you make +anything out of it?" + +"Yes," he replied; "I make a good deal out of it, Mr. Narkom, but, like +the language of the man who stepped on the banana skin, it isn't fit for +publication. One question more, Sir Henry. Heaven forbid it, of course, +but if anything should happen to Logan to-night, whom would you put on +guard over the horse to-morrow?" + +"Do you think I could persuade anybody if a third man perished?" said +the baronet, answering one question with another. "I don't believe +there's a groom in England who'd take the risk for love or money. There +would be nothing for it but to do the watching myself. What's that? Do +it? Certainly, I'd do it! Everybody that knows me knows that." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, and lapsed into silence again. + +"But you'll come, won't you?" exclaimed Sir Henry agitatedly. "It won't +happen if you take up the case; Mr. Narkom tells me he is sure of that. +Come with me, Mr. Cleek. My motor is waiting at the garage. Come back +with me, for God's sake--for humanity's sake--and get to the bottom of +the thing." + +"Yes," said Cleek in reply. "Give Lennard the address of the garage, +please; and--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Pull up at the first grocer's shop you see, will you, and buy me a +couple of pounds of the best white flour that's milled; and if you can't +manage to get me either a sieve or a flour dredger, a tin pepper-pot +will do!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +It was two o'clock when Sir Henry Wilding's motor turned its back upon +the outskirts of London, and it was a quarter past seven when it whirled +up to the stables of Wilding Hall, and the baronet and his grey-headed, +bespectacled and white-spatted companion alighted, having taken five +hours and a quarter to make a journey which the trains which run daily +between Liverpool Street and Darsham make in four. + +As a matter of fact, however, they really had outstripped the train, but +it had been Cleek's pleasure to make two calls on the way, one at +Saxmundham, where the paralysed Murple lay in the infirmary of the local +practitioner, the other at the mortuary where the body of Tolliver was +retained, awaiting the sitting of the coroner. Both the dead and the +still living man Cleek had subjected to a critical personal examination, +but whether either furnished him with any suggested clue he did not say; +indeed, the only remark he made upon the subject was when Sir Henry, on +hearing from Murple's wife that the doctor had said he would probably +not last the week out, had inquired if the woman knew where to "put her +hand on the receipt for the payment of the last premium, so that her +claim could be sent into the life assurance company without delay when +the end came." + +"Tell me something, Sir Henry," said Cleek when he heard that, and +noticed how gratefully the woman looked at the baronet when she replied, +"Yes, Sir Henry, God bless you, sir!" "Tell me, if it is not an +impertinent question, did you take out an insurance policy on Murple's +life and pay the premium on it yourself? I gathered the idea that you +did from the manner in which the woman spoke to you." + +"Yes, I did," replied Sir Henry. "As a matter of fact, I take out a +similar policy--payable to the widow--for every married man I employ in +connection with my racing stud." + +"May I ask why?" + +"Well, for one thing, they usually are too poor and have too many +children to support to be able to take it out for themselves, and +exercising racers has a good many risks. Then, for another thing, I'm a +firm believer in the policy of life assurance. It's just so much money +laid up in safety, and one never knows what may happen." + +"Then it is fair," said Cleek, "to suppose, in that case, that you have +taken out one on your own life?" + +"Yes--rather! And a whacking big one, too." + +"And Lady Wilding is, of course, the beneficiary?" + +"Certainly. There are no children, you know. As a matter of fact, we +have been married only seven months. Before the date of my wedding the +policy was in my uncle Ambrose's--the Rev. Mr. Smeer's--favour." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. Then fell to thinking deeply over +the subject, and was still thinking of it when the motor whizzed into +the stable yard at Wilding Hall and brought him into contact for the +first time with the trainer, Logan. He didn't much fancy Logan at first +blush--and Logan didn't fancy him at all at any time. + +"Hur!" he said disgustedly, in a stage aside to his master, as Cleek +stood on the threshold of the stable, with his head thrown back and his +chin at an angle, sniffing the air somewhat after the manner of a +bird-dog. "Hur! If un's the best Scotland Yard could let out to ye, +sir--a half-baked old softy like that!--the rest of 'em must be a +blessed poor lot, Ah'm thinkin'. What's un doin' now, the +noodle?--snuffin' the air like he did not understand the smell of it! +He'd not be expectin' a stable to be scented with eau de cologne, would +he? What's un name, sir?" + +"Cleek." + +"Hur! Sounds like a golf-stick--an' Ah've no doubt he's got a head like +one: main thick and with a twist in un. I dunna like 'tecs, Sir Henry, +and I dunna like this one especial. Who's to tell as he aren't in with +they devils as is after Black Riot? Naw! I dunna like him at all." + +Meantime, serenely unconscious of the displeasure he had excited in +Logan's breast, Cleek went on sniffing the air and "poking about," as he +phrased it, in all corners of the stable; and when, a moment later, Sir +Henry went in and joined him, he was standing before the door of the +steel room examining the curving scratch of which the baronet had +spoken. + +"What do you make of it, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Not much in the way of a clue, Sir Henry--a clue to any possible +intruder, I mean. If your artistic soul hadn't rebelled against bare +steel--which would, of course, have soon rusted in this +ammonia-impregnated atmosphere--and led you to put a coat of paint over +the metal, there would have been no mark at all, the thing is so slight. +I am of the opinion that Tolliver himself caused it. In short, that it +was made by either a pin or a cuff button in his wristband when he was +attacked and fell. But, enlighten me upon a puzzling point, Sir Henry: +What do you use coriander and oil of sassafras for in a stable?" + +"Coriander? Oil of sassafras? I don't know what the dickens they are. +Have you found such things here?" + +"No; simply smelt them. The combination is not usual--indeed, I know of +but one race in the world who make any use of it, and they merely for a +purpose which, of course, could not possibly exist here, unless--" + +He allowed the rest of the sentence to go by default, and turning, +looked all round the place. For the first time he seemed to notice +something unusual for the equipment of a stable, and regarded it with +silent interest. It was nothing more nor less than a box, covered with +sheets of virgin cork, and standing on the floor just under one of the +windows, where the light and air could get to a weird-looking, +rubbery-leaved, orchid-like plant, covered with ligulated scarlet +blossoms which grew within it. + +"Sir Henry," he said, after a moment, "may I ask how long it is since +you were in South America?" + +"I? Never was there in my life, Mr. Cleek--never." + +"Ah! Then who connected with the hall has been?" + +"Oh, I see what you are driving at," said Sir Henry, following the +direction of his gaze. "That Patagonian plant, eh? That belonged to poor +Tolliver. He had a strange fancy for ferns and rock plants and things of +that description, and as that particular specimen happens to be one that +does better in the atmosphere of a stable than elsewhere, he kept it in +here." + +"Who told him that it does better in the atmosphere of a stable?" + +"Lady Wilding's cousin, Mr. Sharpless. It was he who gave Tolliver the +plant." + +"Oho! Then Mr. Sharpless has been to South America, has he?" + +"Why, yes. As a matter of fact, he comes from there; so also does Lady +Wilding. I should have thought you would have remembered that, Mr. +Cleek, when--But perhaps you have never heard? She--they--that is," +stammering confusedly and colouring to the temples, "up to seven months +ago, Mr. Cleek, Lady Wilding was on the--er--music-hall stage. She and +Mr. Sharpless were known as 'Signor Morando and La Belle Creole'--they +did a living statue turn together. It was highly artistic; people raved; +I--er--fell in love with the lady and--that's all!" + +But it wasn't; for Cleek, reading between the lines, saw that the mad +infatuation which had brought the lady a title and an over-generous +husband had simmered down--as such things always do sooner or later--and +that the marriage was very far from being a happy one. As a matter of +fact, he learned later that the county, to a woman, had refused to +accept Lady Wilding; that her ladyship, chafing under this ostracism, +was for having a number of her old professional friends come down to +visit her and make a time of it, and that, on Sir Henry's objecting, a +violent quarrel had ensued, and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer had come down to +the hall in the effort to make peace. And he learned something else that +night which gave him food for deep reflection: the Rev. Ambrose Smeer, +too, had been to South America, and when he met that gentleman--well, in +spite of the fact that Sir Henry thought so highly of him, and it was +known that his revival meetings had done a world of good, Cleek did not +fancy the Rev. Ambrose Smeer any more than he fancied the trainer, +Logan. + +But to return to the present. By this time the late falling twilight of +May had begun to close in, and presently--as the day was now done and +the night approaching--Logan led in Black Riot from the paddock, +followed by a slim, sallow-featured, small-moustached man, bearing a +shotgun, and dressed in grey tweeds. Sir Henry, who, it was plain to +see, had a liking for the man, introduced this newcomer to Cleek as the +South American, Mr. Andrew Sharpless. + +"That's the English of it, Mr. Cleek," said the latter jovially, but +with an undoubted Spanish twist to the tongue. "I wouldn't have you risk +breaking your jaw with the Brazilian original. Delighted to meet you, +sir. I hope to Heaven you will get at the bottom of this diabolical +thing. What do you think, Henry? Lambson-Bowles's jockey was over in +this neighbourhood this afternoon. Trying to see how Black Riot shapes, +of course, the bounder! Fortunately I saw him skulking along on the +other side of the hedge, and gave him two minutes in which to make +himself scarce. If he hadn't, if he had come a step nearer to the mare, +I'd have shot him down like a dog. That's right, Logan, put her up for +the night, old chap, and I'll get out your bedding." + +"Aye," said Logan, through his clamped teeth, "and God help man or devil +that comes a-nigh her this night--God help him, Lunnon Mister, that's +all Ah say!" Then he passed into the steel room with the mare, attended +her for the night, and coming out a minute or two later, locked her up +and gave Sir Henry the key. + +"Broke her and trained her, Ah did; and willin' to die for her, Ah am, +if Ah can't pull un through no other way," he said, pausing before Cleek +and giving him a black look, "A Derby winner her's cut out for, Lunnon +Mister, and a Derby winner her's goin' to be, in spite of all the +Lambson-Bowleses and the low-down horse-nobblers in Christendom!" Then +he switched round and walked over to Sharpless, who had taken a pillow +and a bundle of blankets from a convenient cupboard, and was making a +bed of them on the floor at the foot of the locked steel door. + +"Thanky, sir, 'bliged to un, sir," said Logan as Sharpless hung up the +shotgun and, with a word to the baronet, excused himself and went in to +dress for dinner. Then he faced round again on Cleek, who was once more +sniffing the air, and pointed to the rude bed: "There's where Ted Logan +sleeps this night--there!" he went on suddenly; "and them as tries to +get at Black Riot comes to grips with me first, me and the shotgun Mr. +Sharpless has left Ah. And if Ah shoot, Lunnon Mister, Ah shoot to +kill!" + +"Do me a favour, Sir Henry," said Cleek. "For reasons of my own, I want +to be in this stable alone for the next ten minutes, and after that let +no one come into it until morning. I won't be accountable for this man's +life if he stops in here to-night, and for his sake, as well as for your +own, I want you to forbid him to do so." + +Logan seemed to go nearly mad with rage at this. + +"Ah won't listen to it! Ah will stop here--Ah will! Ah will!" he cried +out in a passion. "Who comes ull find Ah here waitin' to come to grips +with un. Ah won't stop out--Ah won't! Don't un listen to Lunnon Mister, +Sir Henry--for God's sake, don't!" + +"I am afraid I must in this instance, Logan. You are far too suspicious, +my good fellow. Mr. Cleek doesn't want to 'get at' the mare; he wants to +protect her; to keep anybody else from getting at her, so--join the +guard outside if you are so eager. You must let him have his way." And, +in spite of all Logan's pleading, Cleek did have his way. + +Protesting, swearing, almost weeping, the trainer was turned out and the +doors closed, leaving Cleek alone in the stable; and the last Logan and +Sir Henry saw of him until he came out and rejoined them he was standing +in the middle of the floor, with his hands on both hips, staring fixedly +at the impromptu bed in front of the steel-room door. + +"Put on the guard now and see that nobody goes into the place until +morning, Sir Henry," he said when he came out and rejoined them some +minutes later. "Logan, you silly fellow, you'll do no good fighting +against Fate. Make the best of it and stop where you are." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +That night Cleek met Lady Wilding for the first time. He found her what +he afterwards termed "a splendid animal," beautiful, statuesque, more of +Juno than of Venus, and freely endowed with the languorous temperament +and the splendid earthy loveliness which grows nowhere but under +tropical skies and in the shadow of palm groves and the flame of cactus +flowers. She showed him but scant courtesy, however, for she was but a +poor hostess, and after dinner carried her cousin away to the +billiard-room, and left her husband to entertain the Rev. Ambrose and +the detective as best he could. Cleek needed but little entertaining, +however, for in spite of his serenity he was full of the case on hand, +and kept wandering in and out of the house and upstairs and down until +eleven o'clock came and bed claimed him with the rest. + +His last wakeful recollection was of the clock in the lower corridor +striking the first quarter after eleven; then sleep claimed him, and he +knew no more until all the stillness was suddenly shattered by a +loud-voiced gong hammering out an alarm and the sound of people tumbling +out of bed and scurrying about in a panic of fright. He jumped out of +bed, pulled on his clothing, and rushed out into the hall, only to find +it alive with people, and at their head Sir Henry, with a dressing-gown +thrown on over his pyjamas and a bedroom candle in his shaking hand. + +"The stable!" he cried out excitedly. "Come on, come on, for God's sake! +Someone has touched the door of the steel room; and yet the place was +left empty--empty!" + +But it was no longer empty, as they found out when they reached it, for +the doors had been flung open, the men who had been left on guard +outside the stables were now inside it, the electric lights were in full +blaze, the shotgun still hanging where Sharpless had left it, the +impromptu bed was tumbled and tossed in a man's death agony, and at the +foot of the steel door Logan lay, curled up in a heap and stone dead! + +"He would get in, Sir Henry, he'd have shot one or the other of us if we +hadn't let him," said one of the outer guards as Sir Henry and Cleek +appeared. "He would lie before the door and watch, sir--he simply would; +and God have mercy on him, poor chap; he was faithful to the last!" + +"And the last might not have come for years, the fool, if he had only +obeyed," said Cleek; then lapsed into silence and stood staring at a +dust of white flour on the red-tiled floor and at a thin wavering line +that broke the even surface of it. + +It was perhaps two minutes later when the entire household--mistress, +guests, and servants alike--came trooping across the open space between +the hall and the stables in a state of semi-deshabille, but in that +brief space of time friendly hands had reverently lifted the body of the +dead man from its place before the steel door, and Sir Henry was +nervously fitting the key to the lock in a frantic effort to get in and +see if Black Riot was safe. + +"Dios! what is it? What has happened?" cried Lady Wilding as she came +hurrying in, followed closely by Sharpless and the Rev. Ambrose Smeer. +Then, catching sight of Logan's body, she gave a little scream and +covered her eyes. "The trainer, Andrew, the trainer now!" she went on +half hysterically. "Another death--another! Surely they have got the +wretch at last?" + +"The mare! The mare, Henry! Is she safe?" exclaimed Sharpless excitedly +as he whirled away from his cousin's side and bore down upon the +baronet. "Give me the key--you're too nervous." And, taking it from him, +unlocked the steel room and passed swiftly into it. + +In another instant Black Riot was led out--uninjured, untouched, in the +very pink of condition--and, in spite of the tragedy and the dead man's +presence, one or two of the guards were so carried away that they +essayed a cheer. + +"Stop that! Stop it instantly!" rapped out Sir Henry, facing round upon +them. "What's a horse--even the best--beside the loss of an honest life +like that?" and flung out a shaking hand in the direction of dead Logan. +"It will be the story of last night over again, of course? You heard his +scream, heard his fall, but he was dead when you got to him--dead--and +you found no one here?" + +"Not a soul, Sir Henry. The doors were all locked; no grille is missing +from any window; no one is in the loft; no one in any of the stalls; no +one in any crook or corner of the place." + +"Send for the constable--the justice of the peace--anybody!" chimed in +the Rev. Ambrose Smeer at this. "Henry, will you never be warned, never +take these awful lessons to heart? This sinful practice of racing horses +for money--" + +"Oh, hush, hush! Don't preach me a sermon now, uncle," interposed Sir +Henry. "My heart's torn, my mind crazed by this abominable thing. Poor +old Logan! Poor, faithful old chap! Oh!" He whirled and looked over at +Cleek, who still stood inactive, staring at the flour-dusted floor. "And +they said that no mystery was too great for you to get to the bottom of +it, no riddle too complex for you to find the answer! Can't you do +something? Can't you suggest something? Can't you see any glimmer of +light at all?" + +Cleek looked up, and that curious smile which Narkom knew so well--and +would have known had he been there was the "danger signal"--looped up +one corner of his mouth. + +"I fancy it is _all_ 'light,' Sir Henry," he said. "I may be wrong, but +I fancy it is merely a question of comparative height. Do I puzzle you +by that? Well, let me explain. Lady Wilding there is one height, Mr. +Sharpless is another, and I am a third; and if they two were to place +themselves side by side and, say, about four inches apart, and I were to +stand immediately behind them, the difference would be most apparent. +There you are. Do you grasp it?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Bothered if I do either," supplemented Sharpless. "It all sounds like +tommy rot to me." + +"Does it?" said Cleek. "Then let me explain it by illustration"--and he +walked quietly towards them. "Lady Wilding, will you oblige me by +standing here? Thank you very much. Now, if you please, Mr. Sharpless, +will you stand beside her ladyship while I take up my place here +immediately behind you both? That's it exactly. A little nearer, +please--just a little, so that your left elbow touches her ladyship's +right. Now then"--his two hands moved briskly, there was a click-click, +and after it: "There you are--that explains it, my good Mr. and Mrs. +Filippo Bucarelli; that explains it completely!" + +And as he stepped aside on saying this, those who were watching, those +who heard Lady Wilding's scream and Mr. Sharpless's snarling oath and +saw them vainly try to spring apart and dart away, saw also that a steel +handcuff was on the woman's right wrist, its mate on the man's left one, +and that they were firmly chained together. + +"In the name of Heaven, man," began Sir Henry, appalled by this, and +growing red and white by rapid turns. + +"I fancy that Heaven has very little to do with this precious pair, Sir +Henry," interposed Cleek. "You want the two people who are accountable +for these diabolical crimes, and--there they stand." + +"What! Do you mean to tell me that Sharpless, that my wife--" + +"Don't give the lady a title to which she has not and never had any +legal right, Sir Henry. If it had ever occurred to you to emulate my +example to-night and search the lady's effects, you would have found +that she was christened Enriqua Dolores Torjado, and that she was +married to Senor Filippo Bucarelli here, at Valparaiso, in Chili, three +years ago, and that her marriage to you was merely a clever little +scheme to get hold of a pot of money and share it with her rascally +husband." + +"It's a lie!" snarled out the male prisoner. "It's an infernal +policeman's lie! You never found any such thing!" + +"Pardon me, but I did," replied Cleek serenely. "And what's more, I +found the little phial of coriander and oil of sassafras in your room, +senor, and--I shall finish off the Mynga Worm in another ten minutes!" + +Bucarelli and his wife gave a mingled cry, and, chained together though +they were, made a wild bolt for the door; only, however, to be met on +the threshold by the local constable, to whom Cleek had dispatched a +note some hours previously. + +"Thank you, Mr. Philpotts; you are very prompt," he said. "There are +your prisoners nicely trussed and waiting for you. Take them away--we +are quite done with them here. Sir Henry"--he turned to the baronet--"if +Black Riot is fitted to win the Derby she will win it, and you need have +no more fear for her safety. No one has ever for one moment tried to get +at her. You yourself were the one that precious pair were after, and the +bait was your life assurance. By killing off the watchers over Black +Riot one by one they knew that there would come a time when, being able +to get no one else to take the risk of guarding the horse and sleeping +on that bed before the steel-room door, you would do it yourself; and +when that time came they would have had you." + +"But how? By what means?" + +"By one of the most diabolical imaginable. Among the reptiles of +Patagonia, Sir Henry, there is one--a species of black adder, known in +the country as the Mynga Worm--whose bite is more deadly than that of +the rattler or the copperhead, and as rapid in its action as prussic +acid itself. It has, too, a great velocity of movement and a peculiar +power of springing and hurling itself upon its prey. The Patagonians are +a barbarous people in the main and, like all barbarous people, are +vengeful, cunning, and subtle. A favourite revenge of theirs upon +unsuspecting enemies is to get within touch of them and secretly to +smear a mixture of coriander and oil of sassafras upon some part of +their bodies, and then either to lure or drive them into the forest; for +by a peculiar arrangement of Mother Nature this mixture has a +fascination, a maddening effect upon the Mynga Worm--just as a red rag +has on a bull--and, enraged by the scent, it finds the spot smeared with +it and delivers its deadly bite." + +"Good heaven! How horrible! And you mean to tell me--" + +"That they employed one of these deadly reptiles in this case? Yes, Sir +Henry. I suspected it the very moment I smelt the odour of the coriander +and sassafras; but I suspected that an animal or a reptile of some kind +was at the bottom of the mystery at a prior period. That is why I wanted +the flour. Look! Do you see where I sifted it over this spot near the +Patagonian plant? And do you see those serpentine tracks through the +middle of it? The Mynga Worm is there--in that box, at the roots of that +plant. Now see!" + +He caught up a horse blanket, spread it on the floor, lifted the box and +plant, set them down in the middle of it, and with a quick gathering up +of the ends of the blanket converted it into a bag and tied it round +with a hitching strap. + +"Get spades, forks, anything, and dig a hole outside in the paddock," he +went on. "A deep hole--a yard deep at the least--then get some straw, +some paraffin, turpentine--anything that will burn furiously and +quickly--and we will soon finish the little beast." + +The servants flew to obey, and when the hole was dug he carried the bag +out and lowered it carefully into it, covered it with straw, drenched +this with a gallon or more of lamp oil, and rapidly applied a match to +it and sprang back. + +A moment later those who were watching saw a small black snake make an +ineffectual effort to leap out of the blazing mass, fall back into the +flames and disappear for ever. + +"The method of procedure?" said Cleek, answering the baronet's query as +the latter was pouring out what he called "a nerve settler," prior to +following the Rev. Ambrose's example and going to bed. "Very cunning, +and yet very, very simple, Sir Henry. Bucarelli made a practice, as I +saw this evening, of helping the chosen watcher to make his bed on the +floor in front of the door to the steel room, but during the time he was +removing the blankets from the cupboard his plan was to smear them with +the coriander and sassafras and so arrange the top blanket that when the +watcher lay down the stuff touched his neck or throat and made that the +point of attack for the snake, whose fangs make a small round spot not +bigger than a knitting needle, which is easily passed over by those not +used to looking for such a thing. There was such a spot on Tolliver's +throat; such another at the base of Murple's skull, and there is a third +in poor Logan's left temple. No, thank you--no more to-night, Sir Henry. +Alcohol and I are never more than speaking acquaintances at the best of +times. But if you really wish to do me a kindness--" + +"I don't think there is room to doubt that, Mr. Cleek. If I am certain +of anything in this world I am certain of Black Riot's success on +Wednesday; and that success I feel I shall owe to you. Money can't +offset some debts, you know; and if there is anything in the world I can +do, you have only to let me know." + +"Thank you," said Cleek. "Then invite me to spend to-morrow here, and +give me the freedom of those superb gardens. My senses are drunk already +with the scent of your hyacinths; and if I might have a day among them, +I should be as near happy as makes no difference." + +He had his day--breaking it only to 'phone up to Clarges Street and +quiet any possible fears upon Dollops's part--and if ever man was +satisfied, that man was he. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +It was late on the afternoon of the day following when he turned up at +Clarges Street and threw Dollops into a very transport of delight at the +bare sight of him. + +"Crumbs, Gov'nor, but I am glad to see you, sir!" said the boy, with a +look of positive adoration. "A fish out o' water ain't a patch to wot +I've felt like--Lord, no! Why, sir, it's the first time you've ever been +away from me since you took me on; and the dreams I've had is enough to +drive a body fair dotty. I've seen parties a-stickin' knives in your +back and puttin' poison in your food and doin' the Lord knows wot not to +you, sir; and every blessed nerve in my body has been a doin' of a +constant shake--like a jelly-fish on a cold day." + +Cleek laughed, and catching him by the shoulder whirled him round, +looked at him, and then clapped him on the back. + +"Look here, don't you get to worrying and to developing nerves, young +man," he said, "or I shall have to ship you off somewhere for a long +rest; and I'm just beginning to feel as if I couldn't do without you. +What you want is a change; and what I want is the river, so, if there is +no message from The Yard--" + +"There isn't, sir." + +"Good. Then 'phone through to Mr. Narkom and tell him that you and I are +going for a few days up the river as far as Henley, and that we are +going to break it on Wednesday to go to the Derby." + +"Gov'nor! Gawd's truth, sir, you aren't never a-goin' to give me two +sich treats as that? From now till Thursday with jist you--jist _you_, +sir? I'll go balmy on the crumpet--I'll get to stickin' straws in my +bloomin' 'air!" + +"You 'get to' the telephone and send that message to The Yard, if you +know when you're well off," said Cleek, laughing. "And, after that, out +with the kit bag and in with such things as we shall need; and--Hullo! +what's this thing?" + +"A necktie and a rose bush wot I took the liberty of buyin' for you, +sir, bein' as you give me ten shillin's for myself," said Dollops +sheepishly. "I been a-keepin' of my eye on that rose bush and that +necktie for a week past, sir. I 'ope you'll take 'em, Gov'nor, and not +think me presumin', sir." + +Cleek faced round and looked at him--a long look--without saying +anything, then he screwed round on his heel and walked to the window. + +"It is very nice and very thoughtful of you, Dollops," he said +presently, his voice a little thick, his tones a little uneven. "But +don't be silly and waste your money, my lad. Lay it by. You may need it +one day. Now toddle on and get things ready for our outing." But +afterwards--when the boy had gone and he was alone in the room--he +walked back to the potted rose bush and touched its buds lovingly, and +stood leaning over it and saying nothing for a long time. And though the +necktie that hung on its branches was a harlequin thing of red and green +and violent purple, when he came to dress for that promised outing he +put it on and adjusted it as tenderly, wore it as proudly as ever knight +of old wore the colours of his lady. + +"You look a fair treat in it, sir," said Dollops, delightedly and +admiringly, when he came in later and saw that he had it on. And if +anything had been wanting to make him quite, quite happy, it was wanting +no more. Or, if it had been, the night that came down and found them +housed in a little old-world inn, with a shining river at its door and +the hush and the odorous darkness of the country lanes about it, must of +itself have supplied the omission; for when all the house was still and +all the lights were out, he crept from his bed and curled up like a dog +on the mat before Cleek's door, and would not have changed places with +an emperor. + +They were up and on the river, master and man, almost as soon as the +dawn itself; taking their morning plunge under a sky that was but just +changing the tints of rose to those of saffron before they merged into +the actual light of day; and to the boy the man seemed almost a god in +that dim light, which showed but an ivory shoulder lifting now and again +as he struck outwards and deft his way through a yielding, yellow-grey +waste that leaped in little lilac-hued ripples to his chin, and thence +wavered off behind him in dancing lines of light. And once, when he +heard him lift up his voice and sing as he swam, he felt sure that he +_must_ be a god--that that alone could explain why he had found him so +different from other men, and cared for him as he had never cared for +any human thing before. + +From dawn to dark that day was one of unalloyed delight to him. Never +before had the starved soul of him--fed, all his life, when it was fed +at all, from the drippings of the flesh-pots and the "leavings" of the +City--found any savour in the insipid offerings of the Country; never +before had he known what charms lie on a river's breast, what spells of +magic a blossoming hedge and the white "candles" of a horse-chestnut +tree may weave, and never before had a meadow been anything to him but a +simple grass-grown field. To-day Nature--through this man who was so +essentially bred in the very womb of her--spoke to his understanding and +found her words not lost on air. The dormant things within the boy had +awakened. Life spoke; Hope sang; and between them all the world was +changed. Yesterday, he had looked upon this day of idling in the country +as a pleasant interlude, as a happy prologue to those greater delights +that would come when he at last went to Epsom and really saw the famous +race for the Derby. To-day, he was sorry that anything--even so great a +thing as that--must come to disturb such placid happiness as this. + +And yet, when the wondrous "Wednesday" came and he was actually on his +way to Epsom Downs at last ... Ah, well, Joy is elastic; Youth is a time +of many dreams, and who blames a boy for being delighted that one of +them is coming true at last? + +Cleek did not, at all events. Indeed, Cleek aided and abetted him in all +his boisterous outbursts from first to last; and was quite as excited as +he when the event of the meeting--the great race for the famous Derby +Stakes--was put up at last. Indeed, he was a bit wilder, if anything, +than the boy himself when the flag fell and the whole field swept by in +one thunderous rush, with Minnow in the lead and Black Riot far and away +behind. Nor did his excitement abate when, as the whole cavalcade swung +onwards over the green turf with the yelling thousands waving and +shouting about it, Sir Henry Wilding's mare began to lessen that lead, +and foot by foot to creep up towards the head. + +He shouted then--as wildly as Dollops himself, as wildly as any man +present. He jumped up on his seat and waved his hat; he thumped Dollops +on the back and cried: "She's creeping up! She's creeping up! Stick to +it, old chap, stick to it! Give her her head, you fool! She'll do it--by +God, she'll do it! Hurrah! Hurrah!" And was shouted down, and even +seized and pulled down by others whose view he obstructed, and whose +interest and excitement were as great as his. + +Onwards they flew, horses and riders, the whole pounding, mixing, +ever-changing mass of them; jackets and caps of every hue flashing here +and there--now in a huddled mass, now with this one in the lead, and +again with that: a vast, ever-moving, ever-altering kaleidoscope that +was, presently, hidden entirely from the main mass of the onlookers, by +the surging crowd, the mass of drags and carriages of all sorts in the +huge square of the central enclosure, and most of all by the people who +stood up on seats and wheels and even the tops of the vehicles. Then, +for a little time, the roars came from a distance only--from those in +the enclosure who alone could see--then neared and neared and grew in +volume, as the unseen racers pounded onward and came pelting up the long +stretch toward Tattenham Corner. And by and bye they swung into view +again--still a huddled mass, still so closely packed together that the +positions of the individual horses was a matter of uncertainty--but +always the roaring sound went on and always it came nearer and nearer, +until a thousand voices took it up at the foot of the grand stand, and +other thousands bellowed it up and up from tier to tier to the very +roof. + +For, of a sudden, that blaze of caps and jackets, that huddle of horses +red and horses grey, horses black and horses roan, piebald, white--every +colour that a horse may be--had come at last to Tattenham Corner and +burst into the full view of everybody. Yet, as they came, a black mare, +hugging the railed enclosure on the inner side of the sweep, arrowed +forward with a sudden spurt, came like a rocket to the fore, and all the +earth and all the sky seemed to ring with the cry: "Wilding! Wilding! +Black Riot leads! Black Riot leads!" + +She did--and kept it to the end! + +In half a minute her number was up, yelling thousands were tumbling out +upon the field to cheer her, to cheer her rider, to cheer her proud +owner when he came out to lead her to the paddock and the weighing room, +and to feel in that moment the proudest and the happiest man in England; +and of those, not the least excited and delighted was Cleek. + +Carried away by enthusiasm, he had risen again in his seat and, with his +hat held aloft upon a walking stick, was waving and stamping and +shouting enthusiastically: "Black Riot wins! Black Riot! Black Riot! +Bully boy! Bully boy!" + +And so he was still shouting when he felt a hand touch him, and looking +round saw Mr. Narkom. + +"Ripping, wasn't it, old chap?" said the superintendent. "No wonder you +are excited, considering what interest you have. Been looking for you, +my dear fellow. Knew of course, from your telling me, that you would be +here to-day, but shouldn't have been able to identify you but for the +presence of young Dollops here. I say: you're not going to stop now that +the great race is over, are you? The rest won't amount to anything." + +"No, I shall not stop," said Cleek. "Why? Do you want me?" + +"Yes. Lennard's outside with the limousine. Hop into it, will you, and +meet me at the Fiddle and Horseshoe, between Shepherd's Bush and Acton? +It's only half-past three and the limousine can cover the distance in +less than no time. Can't go with you. Got to round up my men here, +first. Join you shortly, however. McTavish has a sixty-horse-power +Mercedes, and he'll rush me over almost on your heels. Let Dollops go +home by train, and you meet me as I've asked, will you?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. + +And so the joyous holiday came to an unexpected end. + +Parting from Dollops, and leaving the boy to journey on to Clarges +Street alone, he fared forth to find Lennard and the red limousine, and +was whirled away in record time to the inn of the Fiddle and Horseshoe. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It had but just gone five when Narkom walked into the little bar parlour +and found him standing there, looking out on the quaint, old-fashioned +bowling green that lay all steeped in sunshine and zoned with the froth +of pear and apple blossoms thick piled above the time-stained bricks of +an enclosing wall. + +"What a model of punctuality you are, old chap," the superintendent +said, nodding approvingly. "Wait a moment while I go and order tea, and +then we will get down to business in real earnest. Shan't be long." + +"Pray, don't hurry yourself on my account, Mr. Narkom," returned Cleek, +"coming down to earth" out of a mental airship. "I could do with another +hour of that"--nodding toward the view--"and still wonder where the time +had gone. These quaint old inns, which the march of what we are pleased +to call 'Progress' is steadily crowding off the face of the land, are +always deeply interesting to me; I love them. What a day! What a +picture! What a sky! As blue as what Dollops calls the 'Merry Geranium +Sea.' I'd give a Jew's eye for a handful of those apple blossoms--they +are divine!" + +Narkom hastened from the room without replying. The strain of poetry +underlying the character of this strange, inscrutable man, his amazing +love of Nature, his moments of almost womanish weakness and sentiment, +astonished and mystified him. It was as if a hawk had acquired the +utterly useless trick of fluting like a nightingale, and being himself +wholly without imagination, he could not comprehend it in the smallest +degree. + +When he returned a few minutes later, however, the idealist seemed to +have simmered down into the materialist, the extraordinary to have +become merged in the ordinary, for he found his famous ally no longer +studying the beauties of Nature, but giving his whole attention to the +sordid commonplaces of man, for he was standing before a glaringly +printed bill one of many that were tacked upon the walls, which set +forth in amazing pictures and double-leaded type the wonders that were +to be seen daily and nightly at Olympia, where, for a month past, "Van +Zant's Royal Belgian Circus and World-famed Menagerie" had been holding +forth to "Crowded and delighted audiences." Much was made of two "star +turns" upon this lurid bill: "Mademoiselle Marie de Zanoni, the +beautiful and peerless bare-back equestrienne, the most daring lady +rider in the universe," for the one; and for the other, "Chevalier +Adrian di Roma, king of the animal world, with his great aggregation of +savage and ferocious wild beasts, including the famous man-eating +African lion, Nero, the largest and most ferocious animal of its species +in captivity." And under this latter announcement there was a picture of +a young and handsome man, literally smothered with medals, lying at full +length, with his arms crossed and his head in the wide-open jaws of a +snarling, wild-eyed lion. + +"My dear chap, you really do make me believe that there actually is such +a thing as instinct," said Narkom, as he came in. "Fancy your selecting +that particular bill out of all the others in the room! What an abnormal +individual you are!" + +"Why? Has it anything to do with the case you have in hand?" + +"Anything to do with it? My dear fellow, it _is_ 'the case.' I can't +imagine what drew your attention to it." + +"Can't you?" said Cleek, with a half-smile. Then he stretched forth his +hand and touched the word "Nero" with the tip of his forefinger. "That +did. Things awaken a man's memory occasionally, Mr. Narkom, and--Tell +me, isn't that the beast there was such a stir about in the newspapers a +fortnight or so ago--the lion that crushed the head of a man in full +view of the audience?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom, with a slight shudder. "Awful thing, wasn't it? +Gave me the creeps to read about it. The chap who was killed, poor +beggar, was a mere boy, not twenty, son of the Chevalier di Roma +himself. There was a great stir about it. Talk of the authorities +forbidding the performance, and all that sort of thing. They never did, +however, for on investigation--Ah, the tea at last, thank fortune. Come, +sit down, my dear fellow, and we'll talk whilst we refresh ourselves. +Landlady, see that we are not disturbed, will you, and that nobody is +admitted but the parties I mentioned?" + +"Clients?" queried Cleek, as the door closed and they were alone +together. + +"Yes. One, Mlle. Zelie, the 'chevalier's' only daughter, a slack-wire +artist; the other, Signor Scarmelli, a trapeze performer, who is the +lady's fiance." + +"Ah, then our friend the chevalier is not so young as the picture on the +bill would have us believe he is." + +"No, he is not. As a matter of fact, he is considerably past forty, and +is--or, rather, was, up to six months ago, a widower with three +children, two sons and a daughter." + +"I suppose," said Cleek, helping himself to a buttered scone, "I am to +infer from what you say that at the period you mentioned, six months +ago, the intrepid gentleman showed his courage yet more forcibly by +taking a second wife? Young or old?" + +"Young," said Narkom in reply. "Very young, not yet four-and-twenty, in +fact, and very, very beautiful. That is she who is 'featured' on the +bill as the star of the equestrian part of the programme: 'Mlle. Marie +de Zanoni.' So far as I have been able to gather, the affair was a love +match. The lady, it appears, had no end of suitors, both in and out of +the profession; it has even been hinted that she could, had she been so +minded, have married an impressionable young Austrian nobleman of +independent means who was madly in love with her; but she appears to +have considered it preferable to become 'an old man's darling,' so to +speak, and to have selected the middle-aged chevalier rather than +someone whose age is nearer her own." + +"Nothing new in that, Mr. Narkom. Young women before Mlle. Marie de +Zanoni's day have been known to love elderly men sincerely: young Mrs. +Bawdrey, in the case of 'The Nine-fingered Skeleton,' is an example of +that. Still, such marriages are not common, I admit, so when they occur +one naturally looks to see if there may not be 'other considerations' at +the bottom of the attachment. Is the chevalier well-to-do? Has he +expectations of any kind?" + +"To the contrary; he has nothing but the salary he earns--which is by no +means so large as the public imagines; and as he comes of a long line of +circus performers, all of whom died early and poor, 'expectations,' as +you put it, do not enter into the affair at all. Apparently the lady did +marry him for love of him, as she professes and as he imagines; +although, if what I hear is true, it would appear that she has lately +outgrown that love; in short, that a Romeo more suitable to her age has +recently joined the show in the person of a rider called Signor Antonio +Martinelli; that he has fallen desperately in love with her, and that--" + +He bit off his words short and rose to his feet. The door had opened +suddenly to admit a young man and a young woman, who entered in a state +of nervous excitement. "Ah, my dear Mr. Scarmelli, you and Miss Zelie +are most welcome," continued the superintendent. "My friend and I were +this moment talking about you." + +Cleek glanced across the room, and, as was customary with him, made up +his mind instantly. The girl, despite her association with the arena, +was a modest, unaffected little thing of about eighteen; the man was a +straight-looking, clear-eyed, boyish-faced young fellow of about +eight-and-twenty; well, but by no means flashily, dressed, and carrying +himself with the air of one who respects himself and demands the respect +of others. He was evidently an Englishman, despite his Italian _nom de +theatre_, and Cleek decided out of hand that he liked him. + +"We can shelve 'George Headland' in this instance, Mr. Narkom," he said, +as the superintendent led forward the pair for the purpose of +introducing them, and suffered himself to be presented in the name of +Cleek. + +The effect of this was electrical; would, in fact, had he been a vain +man, have been sufficient to gratify him to the fullest, for the girl, +with a little "Oh!" of amazement, drew back and stood looking at him +with a sort of awe that rounded her eyes and parted her lips, while the +man leaned heavily upon the back of a convenient chair and looked and +acted as one utterly overcome. + +"Cleek!" he repeated, after a moment's despairful silence. "You, sir, +are that great man? This is a misfortune, indeed." + +"A misfortune, my friend? Why a 'misfortune,' pray? Do you think the +riddle you have brought is beyond my powers?" + +"Oh, no; not that--never that!" he made reply. "If there is any one man +in the world who could get at the bottom of it, could solve the mystery +of the lion's change, the lion's smile, you are that man, sir, you. That +is the misfortune: that you could do it, and yet--I cannot expect it, +cannot avail myself of this great opportunity. Look! I am doing it all +on my own initiative, sir--all for the sake of Zelie and that dear, +lovable old chap, her father. I have saved fifty-eight pounds, Mr. +Cleek. I had hoped that that might tempt a clever detective to take up +the case; but what is such a sum to such a man as you?" + +"If that is all that stands in the way, don't let it worry you, my good +fellow," said Cleek, with a smile. "Put your fifty-eight pounds in your +pocket against your wedding-day, and--good luck to you. I'll take the +case for nothing. Now then, what is it? What the dickens did you mean +just now when you spoke about 'the lion's change' and 'the lion's +smile'? What lion--Nero? Here, sit down and tell me all about it." + +"There is little enough to tell, Heaven knows," said young Scarmelli, +with a sigh, accepting the invitation after he had gratefully wrung +Cleek's hand, and his fiancee, with a burst of happy tears, had caught +it up as it slipped from his and had covered it with thankful kisses. +"That, Mr. Cleek, is where the greatest difficulty lies--there is so +little to explain that has any bearing upon the matter at all. It is +only that the lion--Nero, that is, the chevalier's special pride and +special pet--seems to have undergone some great and inexplicable change, +as though he is at times under some evil spell, which lasts but a moment +and yet makes that moment a tragical one. It began, no one knows why nor +how, two weeks ago, when, without hint or warning, he killed the person +he loved best in all the world--the chevalier's eldest son. Doubtless +you have heard of that?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. "But what you are now telling me sheds a new light +upon the matter. Am I to understand, then, that all that talk, on the +bills and in the newspapers, about the lion being a savage and a +dangerous one is not true, and that he really is attached to his owner, +and his owner's family?" + +"That is the truth," replied Scarmelli; "Nero is, in fact, the gentlest, +most docile, most intelligent beast of his kind living. In short, sir, +there's not a 'bite' in him; and, added to that, he is over thirty years +old. Zelie--Miss di Roma--will tell you that he was born in captivity; +that from his earliest moment he has been the pet of her family; that he +was, so to speak, raised with her and her brothers; that, as children, +they often slept with him; that he will follow those he loves like any +dog, fight for them, protect them, let them tweak his ears and pull his +tail without showing the slightest resentment, even though they may +actually hurt him. Indeed, he is so general a favourite, Mr. Cleek, that +there isn't an attendant connected with the show who would not, and, +indeed, has not at some time, put his head in the beast's mouth, just as +the chevalier does in public, certain that no harm could possibly come +of the act. + +"You may judge, then, sir, what a shock, what a horrible surprise it was +when the tragedy of two weeks ago occurred. Often, to add zest to the +performance, the chevalier varies it by allowing his children to put +their heads into Nero's mouth instead of doing so himself, merely making +a fake of it that he has the lion under such control that he will +respect any command given by him. That is what happened on that night. +Young Henri was chosen to put his head into Nero's mouth, and did so +without fear or hesitation. He took the beast's jaws and pulled them +apart, and laid his head within them, as he had done a hundred times +before; but of a sudden an appalling, an uncanny, thing happened. It was +as though some supernatural power laid hold of the beast and made a +thing of horror of what a moment before had been a noble-looking animal; +for suddenly a strange hissing noise issued from its jaws, its lips +curled upward until it smiled--smiled, Mr. Cleek!--oh, the ghastliest, +most awful, most blood-curdling smile imaginable--and then, with a sort +of mingled snarl and bark, it clamped its jaws together and crushed the +boy's head as though it were an egg-shell!" + +He put up his hands and covered his eyes as if to shut out some +appalling vision, and for a moment or two nothing was heard but the low +sobbing of the victim's sister. + +"As suddenly as that change had come over the beast, Mr. Cleek," +Scarmelli went on presently, "just so suddenly it passed, and it was the +docile, affectionate animal it had been for years. It seemed to +understand that some harm had befallen its favourite--for Henri was its +favourite--and, curling itself up beside his body, it licked his hands +and moaned disconsolately in a manner almost human. That's all there is +to tell, sir, save that at times the horrid change, the appalling smile, +repeat themselves when either the chevalier or his son bend to put a +head within its jaws, and but for their watchfulness and quickness the +tragedy of that other awful night would surely be repeated. Sir, it is +not natural; I know now, as surely as if the lion itself had spoken, +that someone is at the bottom of this ghastly thing, that some human +agency is at work, some unknown enemy of the chevalier's is doing +something, God alone knows what or why, to bring about his death as his +son's was brought about." + +And here, for the first time, the chevalier's daughter spoke. + +"Ah, tell him all, Jim, tell him all," she said, in her pretty broken +English. "Monsieur, may the good God in heaven forgive me, if I wrong +her; but--but--Ah, Monsieur Cleek, sometimes I feel that she, my +stepmother, and that man, that 'rider' who knows not how to ride as the +artist should--monsieur, I cannot help it, but I feel that they are at +the bottom of it." + +"Yes, but why?" queried Cleek. "I have heard of your father's second +marriage, mademoiselle, and of this Signor Antonio Martinelli, to whom +you allude. Mr. Narkom has told me. But why should you connect these two +persons with this inexplicable thing? Does your father do so, too?" + +"Oh, no! Oh, no!" she answered excitedly. "He does not even know that we +suspect, Jim and I. He loves her, monsieur. It would kill him to doubt +her." + +"Then why should you?" + +"Because I cannot help it, monsieur. God knows, I would if I could, for +I care for her dearly--I am grateful to her for making my father happy. +My brothers, too, cared for her. We believed she loved him; we believed +it was because of that she married him. And yet--and yet--Ah, monsieur, +how can I fail to feel as I do when this change in the lion came with +that man's coming? And she--ah, monsieur, she is always with him. Why +does she curry favour of him and his rich friend?" + +"He has a rich friend, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. The company was in difficulties; Monsieur van Zant, the +proprietor, could not make it pay, and it was upon the point of +disbanding. But, suddenly, this indifferent performer, this rider who +is, after all, but a poor amateur and not fit to appear with a company +of trained artists, suddenly this Signor Martinelli comes to Monsieur +van Zant to say that, if he will engage him, he has a rich friend--one +Senor Sperati, a Brazilian coffee planter--who will 'back' the show with +his money and buy a partnership in it. Of course, M. van Zant accepted; +and since then this Senor Sperati has travelled everywhere with us, has +had the entree like one of us, and his friend, the bad rider, has fairly +bewitched my stepmother, for she is ever with him, ever with them both, +and--and--Ah, mon Dieu! the lion smiles, and my people die! Why does it +'smile' for no others? Why is it only they--my father, my brother--they +alone?" + +"Is that a fact?" said Cleek, turning to young Scarmelli. "You say that +all connected with the circus have so little fear of the beast that even +attendants sometimes do this foolhardy trick. Does the lion never +'smile' for any of those?" + +"Never, Mr. Cleek--never under any circumstances. Nor does it always +smile for the chevalier and his son. That is the mystery of it. One +never knows when it is going to happen--one never knows why it does +happen. But if you could see that uncanny smile--" + +"I should like to," interposed Cleek. "That is, if it might happen +without any tragical result. Hum-m-m! Nobody but the chevalier and the +chevalier's son! And when does it happen in their case--during the +course of the show, or when there is nobody about but those connected +with it?" + +"Oh, always during the course of the entertainment, sir. Indeed, it has +never happened at any other time--never at all." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Then it is only when they are dressed and made up +for the performance, eh? Hum-m-m! I see." Then he relapsed into silence +for a moment, and sat tracing circles on the floor with the toe of his +boot. But, of a sudden: "You came here directly after the matinee, I +suppose?" he queried, glancing up at young Scarmelli. + +"Yes; in fact, before it was wholly over." + +"I see. Then it is just possible that all the performers have not yet +got into their civilian clothes. Couldn't manage to take me round behind +the scenes, so to speak, if Mr. Narkom will lend us his motor to hurry +us there? Could, eh? That's good. I think I'd like to have a look at +that lion and, if you don't mind, an introduction to the parties +concerned. No! don't fear; we won't startle anybody by revealing my +identity or the cause of the visit. Let us say that I'm a vet, to whom +you have appealed for an opinion, regarding Nero's queer conduct. All +ready, Mr. Narkom? Thanks--then let's be off." + +Two minutes later the red limousine was at the door, and, stepping into +it with his two companions, he was whizzed away to Olympia and the first +step towards the solution of the riddle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +As it is the custom of those connected with the world of the circus to +eat, sleep, have their whole being, as it were, within the environment +of the show, to the total exclusion of hotels, boarding-houses, or +outside lodgings of any sort, he found on his arrival at his destination +the entire company assembled in what was known as the "living-tent," +chatting, laughing, reading, playing games, and killing time generally +whilst waiting for the call to the "dining-tent," and this gave him an +opportunity to meet all the persons connected with the "case," from the +"chevalier" himself to the Brazilian coffee planter who was "backing" +the show. + +He found this latter individual a somewhat sullen and taciturn man of +middle age, who had more the appearance of an Austrian than a Brazilian, +and with a swinging gait and an uprightness of bearing which were not to +be misunderstood. + +"Humph! Known military training," was Cleek's mental comment as soon as +he saw the man walk. "Got it in Germany, too; I know that peculiar +'swing.' What's his little game, I wonder? And what's a Brazilian doing +in the army of the Kaiser? And, having been in it, what's he doing +dropping into this line--backing a circus, and travelling with it like a +Bohemian?" + +But although these thoughts interested him, he did not put them into +words nor take anybody into his confidence regarding them. + +As for the other members of the company, he found "the indifferent +rider," known as Signor Antonio Martinelli, an undoubted Irishman of +about thirty years of age, extremely handsome, but with a certain +"shiftiness" of the eye which was far from inspiring confidence, and +with a trick of the tongue which suggested that his baptismal +certificate probably bore the name of Anthony Martin. He found, too, +that all he had heard regarding the youth and beauty of the chevalier's +second wife was quite correct, and although she devoted herself a great +deal to the Brazilian coffee planter and the Irish-Italian "Martinelli," +she had a way of looking over at her middle-aged spouse, without his +knowledge, that left no doubt in Cleek's mind regarding the real state +of her feelings towards the man. And last, but not least by any means, +he found the chevalier himself a frank, open-minded, open-hearted, +lovable man who ought not, in the natural order of things, to have an +enemy in the world. Despite his high-falutin' _nom de theatre_, he was +Belgian--a big, soft-hearted, easy-going, unsuspicious fellow, who +worshipped his wife, adored his children, and loved every creature of +the animal world. + +How well that love was returned, Cleek saw when he went with him to that +part of the building where his animals were kept, and watched them +"nose" his hand or lick his cheek whenever the opportunity offered. But +Nero, the lion, was perhaps the greatest surprise of all, for so tame, +so docile, so little feared was the animal, that its cage-door was open, +and they found one of the attendants squatting cross-legged inside and +playing with it as though it were a kitten. + +"There he is, doctor," said the chevalier, waving his hand towards the +beast. "Ah, I will not believe that it was anything but an accident, +sir. He loved my boy. He would hurt no one that is kind to him. Fetch +him out, Tom, and let the doctor see him at close quarters." + +Despite all these assurances of the animal's docility, Cleek could not +but remember what the creature had done, and, in consequence, did not +feel quite at ease when it came lumbering out of the cage with the +attendant and ranged up alongside of him, rubbing its huge head against +the chevalier's arm after the manner of an affectionate cat. + +"Don't be frightened, sir," said Tom, noticing this. "Nothing more'n a +big dog, sir. Had the care of him for eight years, I have--haven't I, +chevalier?--and never a growl or scratch out of him. No 'smile' for your +old Tom, is there, Nero, boy, eh? No fear! Ain't a thing as anybody does +with him, sir, that I wouldn't do off-hand and feel quite safe." + +"Even to putting your head in his mouth?" queried Cleek. + +"Lord yes!" returned the man, with a laugh. "That's nothing. Done it +many a day. Look here!" With that he pulled the massive jaws apart, and, +bending down, laid his head within them. The lion stood perfectly +passive, and did not offer to close his mouth until it was again empty. +It was then that Cleek remembered and glanced round at young Scarmelli. + +"He never 'smiles' for any but the chevalier and his son, I believe you +said," he remarked. "I wonder if the chevalier himself would be as safe +if he were to make a feint of doing that?" For the chevalier, like most +of the other performers, had not changed his dress after the matinee, +since the evening performance was soon to begin; and if, as Cleek had an +idea, that the matter of costume and make-up had anything to do with the +mystery of the thing, here, surely, was a chance to learn. + +"Make a feint of it? Certainly I will, doctor," the chevalier replied. +"But why a feint? Why not the actual thing?" + +"No, please--at least, not until I have seen how the beast is likely to +take it. Just put your head down close to his muzzle, chevalier. Go +slow, please, and keep your head at a safe distance." + +The chevalier obeyed. Bringing his head down until it was on a level +with the animal's own, he opened the ponderous jaws. The beast was as +passive as before; and, finding no trace of the coming of the mysterious +and dreaded "smile," he laid his face between the double row of gleaming +teeth, held it there a moment, and then withdrew it uninjured. Cleek +took his chin between his thumb and forefinger and pinched it hard. What +he had just witnessed would seem to refute the idea of either costume or +make-up having any bearing upon the case. + +"Did you do that to-day at the matinee performance, chevalier?" he +hazarded, after a moment's thoughtfulness. + +"Oh, yes," he replied. "It was not my plan to do so, however. I alter my +performance constantly to give variety. To-day I had arranged for my +little son to do the trick; but somehow--Ah! I am a foolish man, +monsieur; I have odd fancies, odd whims, sometimes odd fears, +since--since that awful night. Something came over me at the last +moment, just as my boy came into the cage to perform the trick I changed +my mind. I would not let him do it. I thrust him aside and did the trick +myself." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "Will the boy do it to-night, then, chevalier?" + +"Perhaps," he made reply. "He is still dressed for it. Look, here he +comes now, monsieur, and my wife, and some of our good friends with him. +Ah, they are so interested, they are anxious to hear what report you +make upon Nero's condition." + +Cleek glanced round. Several members of the company were advancing +towards them from the "living-tent." In the lead was the boy, a little +fellow of about twelve years of age, fancifully dressed in tights and +tunic. By his side was his stepmother, looking pale and anxious. But +although both Signor Martinelli and the Brazilian coffee planter came to +the edge of the tent and looked out, it was observable that they +immediately withdrew, and allowed the rest of the party to proceed +without them. + +"Dearest, I have just heard from Tom that you and the doctor are +experimenting with Nero," said the chevalier's wife, as she came up with +the others and joined him. "Oh, do be careful, do! Much as I like the +animal, doctor, I shall never feel safe until my husband parts with it +or gives up that ghastly 'trick.'" + +"My dearest, my dearest, how absurdly you talk!" interrupted her +husband. "You know well that without that my act would be commonplace, +that no manager would want either it or me. And how, pray, should we +live if that were to happen?" + +"There would always be my salary; we could make that do." + +"As if I would consent to live upon your earnings and add nothing +myself! No, no! I shall never do that--never. It is not as though that +foolish dream of long ago had come true, and I might hope one day to +retire. I am of the circus, and of it I shall always remain." + +"I wish you might not; I wish the dream might come true, even yet," she +made reply. "Why shouldn't it? Wilder ones have come true for other +people; why should they not for you?" + +Before her husband could make any response to this, the whole trend of +the conversation was altered by the boy. + +"Father," he said, "am I to do the trick to-night? Senor Sperati says it +is silly of me to sit about all dressed and ready if I am to do nothing, +like a little super, instead of a performer and an artist." + +"Oh, but that is not kind of the senor to say that," his father replied, +soothing his ruffled feelings. "You are an artist, of course; never +super--no, never. But if you shall do the trick or not, I cannot say. It +will depend, as it did at the matinee. If I feel it is right, you shall +do it; but if I feel it is wrong, then it must be no. You see, doctor," +catching Cleek's eye, "what a little enthusiast he is, and with how +little fear." + +"Yes, I do see, chevalier; but I wonder if he would be willing to humour +me in something? As he is not afraid, I've an odd fancy to see how he'd +go about the thing. Would you mind letting him make the feint you +yourself made a few minutes ago? Only, I must insist that in this +instance it be nothing more than a feint, chevalier. Don't let him go +too near at the time of doing it. Don't let him open the lion's jaws +with his own hands. You do that. Do you mind?" + +"Of a certainty not, monsieur. Gustave, show the good doctor how you go +about it when papa lets you do the trick. But you are not really to do +it just yet, only to bend the head near to Nero's mouth. Now then, come, +see." + +As he spoke he divided the lion's jaws and signalled the child to bend. +He obeyed. Very slowly the little head drooped nearer to the gaping, +full-fanged mouth, very slowly and very carefully, for Cleek's hand was +on the boy's shoulder, Cleek's eyes were on the lion's face. The huge +brute was as meek and as undisturbed as before, and there was actual +kindness in its fixed eyes. But of a sudden, when the child's head was +on a level with those gaping jaws, the lips curled backward in a ghastly +parody of a smile, a weird, uncanny sound whizzed through the bared +teeth, the passive body bulked as with a shock, and Cleek had just time +to snatch the boy back when the great jaws struck together with a snap +that would have splintered a skull of iron had they closed upon it. + +The hideous and mysterious "smile" had come again, and, brief though it +was, its passing found the boy's sister lying on the ground in a dead +faint, the boy's stepmother cowering back, with covered eyes and shrill, +affrighted screams, and the boy's father leaning, shaken and white, +against the empty case and nursing a bleeding hand. + +In an instant the whole place was in an uproar. "It smiled again! It +smiled again!" ran in broken gasps from lip to lip; but through it all +Cleek stood there, clutching the frightened child close to him, but not +saying one word, not making one sound. Across the dark arena came a rush +of running footsteps, and presently Senor Sperati came panting up, +breathless and pale with excitement. + +"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he cried. "Is it the lion again? Is +the boy killed? Speak up!" + +"No," said Cleek very quietly, "nor will he be. The father will do the +trick to-night, not the son. We've had a fright and a lesson, that's +all." And, putting the sobbing child from him, he caught young +Scarmelli's arm and hurried him away. "Take me somewhere that we can +talk in safety," he said. "We are on the threshold of the end, +Scarmelli, and I want your help." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, have you any idea--any clue?" + +"Yes, more than a clue. I know how, but I have not yet discovered why. +Now, if you know, tell me what did the chevalier mean, what did his wife +mean, when they spoke of a dream that might have come true, but didn't? +Do you know? Have you any idea? Or, if you have not, do you think your +fiancee has?" + +"Why, yes," he made reply. "Zelie has told me about it often. It is of a +fortune that was promised and never materialized. Oh, such a long time +ago, when he was quite a young man, the chevalier saved the life of a +very great man, a Prussian nobleman of great wealth. He was profuse in +his thanks and his promises, that nobleman; swore that he would make him +independent for life, and all that sort of thing." + +"And didn't?" + +"No, he didn't. After a dozen letters promising the chevalier things +that almost turned his head, the man dropped him entirely. In the midst +of his dreams of wealth a letter came from the old skinflint's steward +enclosing him the sum of six hundred marks, and telling him that as his +master had come to the conclusion that wealth would be more of a curse +than a blessing to a man of his class and station, he had thought better +of his rash promise. He begged to tender the enclosed as a proper and +sufficient reward for the service rendered, and 'should not trouble the +young man any further.' Of course, the chevalier didn't reply. Who +would, after having been promised wealth, education, everything one had +confessed that one most desired? Being young, high-spirited, and +bitterly, bitterly disappointed, the chevalier bundled the six hundred +marks back without a single word, and that was the last he ever heard of +the Baron von Steinheid from that day to this." + +"The Baron von Steinheid?" repeated Cleek, pulling himself up as though +he had trodden upon something. "Do you mean to say that the man whose +life he saved--Scarmelli--tell me something: Does it happen by any +chance that the 'Chevalier di Roma's' real name is Peter Janssen +Pullaine?" + +"Yes," said Scarmelli, in reply. "That is his name. Why?" + +"Nothing, but that it solves the riddle, and--the lion has smiled for +the last time! No, don't ask me any questions; there isn't time to +explain. Get me as quickly as you can to the place where we left Mr. +Narkom's motor. Will this way lead me out? Thanks! Get back to the +others, and look for me again in two hours' time; and--Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"One last word--don't let that boy get out of your sight for one +instant, and don't, no matter at what cost, let the chevalier do his +turn to-night before I get back. Good-bye for a time. I'm off." + +Then he moved like a fleetly-passing shadow round the angle of the +building, and two minutes later he was with Narkom in the red limousine. + +"To the German embassy as fast as we can fly," he said as he scrambled +in. "I've something to tell you about that lion's smile, Mr. Narkom, and +I'll tell it while we're on the wing." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +It was nine o'clock and after. The great show at Olympia was at its +height; the packed house was roaring with delight over the daring +equestrianship of "Mlle. Marie de Zanoni," and the sound of the cheers +rolled in to the huge dressing-tent, where the artists awaited their +several turns, and the chevalier, in spangled trunks and tights, all +ready for his call, sat hugging his child and shivering like a man with +the ague. + +"Come, come, buck up, man, and don't funk it like this," said Senor +Sperati, who had graciously consented to assist him with his dressing +because of the injury to his hand. "The idea of you losing your nerve, +you of all men, and because of a little affair like that. You know very +well that Nero is as safe as a kitten to-night, that he never has two +smiling turns in the same week, much less the same day. Your act's the +next on the programme. Buck up and go at it like a man." + +"I can't, senor, I can't!" almost wailed the chevalier. "My nerve is +gone. Never, if I live to be a thousand, shall I forget that awful +moment, that appalling 'smile.' I tell you, there is wizardry in the +thing; the beast is bewitched. My work in the arena is done--done for +ever, senor. I shall never have courage to look into the beast's jaws +again." + +"Rot! You're not going to ruin the show, are you, and after all the +money I've put into it? If you have no care for yourself, it's your duty +to think about me. You can at least try. I tell you you must try! Here, +take a sip of brandy, and see if that won't put a bit of courage into +you. Hello!" as a burst of applause and the thud of a horse's hoofs down +the passage to the stables came rolling in, "there's your wife's turn +over at last; and there--listen! the ringmaster is announcing yours. Get +up, man; get up and go out." + +"I can't, senor--I can't! I can't!" + +"But I tell you you must." + +And just here an interruption came. + +"Bad advice, my dear captain," said a voice--Cleek's voice--from the +other end of the tent; and with a twist and a snarl the "senor" screwed +round on his heel in time to see that other intruders were putting in an +appearance as well as this unwelcome one. + +"Who the deuce asked you for your opinion?" rapped out the "senor" +savagely. "And what are you doing in here, anyhow? If we want the +service of a vet., we're quite capable of getting one for ourselves +without having him shove his presence upon us unasked." + +"You are quite capable of doing a great many things, my dear captain, +even making lions smile!" said Cleek serenely. "It would appear that the +gallant Captain von Gossler, nephew, and, in the absence of one who has +a better claim, heir to the late Baron von Steinheid--That's it, nab the +beggar. Played, sir, played! Hustle him out and into the cab, with his +precious confederate, the Irish-Italian 'signor,' and make a clean sweep +of the pair of them. You'll find it a neck-stretching game, captain, I'm +afraid, when the jury comes to hear of that poor boy's death and your +beastly part in it." + +By this time the tent was in an uproar, for the chevalier's wife had +come hurrying in, the chevalier's daughter was on the verge of +hysterics, and the chevalier's prospective son-in-law was alternately +hugging the great beast-tamer and then shaking his hand and generally +deporting himself like a respectable young man who had suddenly gone +daft. + +"Governor!" he cried, half laughing, half sobbing. "Bully old governor. +It's over--it's over. Never any more danger, never any more hard times, +never any more lion's smiles." + +"No, never," said Cleek. "Come here, Madame Pullaine, and hear the good +news with the rest. You married for love, and you've proved a brick. The +dream's come true, and the life of ease and of luxury is yours at last, +Mr. Pullaine." + +"But, sir, I--I do not understand," stammered the chevalier. "What has +happened? Why have you arrested the Senor Sperati? What has he done? I +cannot comprehend." + +"Can't you? Well, it so happens, chevalier, that the Baron von Steinheid +died something like two months ago, leaving the sum of sixty thousand +pounds sterling to one Peter Janssen Pullaine and the heirs of his body, +and that a certain Captain von Gossler, son of the baron's only sister, +meant to make sure that there was no Peter Janssen Pullaine and no heirs +of his body to inherit one farthing of it." + +"Sir! Dear God, can this be true?" + +"Perfectly true, chevalier. The late baron's solicitors have been +advertising for some time for news regarding the whereabouts of Peter +Janssen Pullaine, and if you had not so successfully hidden your real +name under that of your professional one, no doubt some of your +colleagues would have put you in the way of finding it out long ago. The +baron did not go back on his word and did not act ungratefully. His +will, dated twenty-nine years ago, was never altered in a single +particular. I rather suspect that that letter and that gift of money +which came to you in the name of his steward, and was supposed to close +the affair entirely, was the work of his nephew, the gentleman whose +exit has just been made. A crafty individual that, chevalier, and he +laid his plans cleverly and well. Who would be likely to connect him +with the death of a beast-tamer in a circus, who had perished in what +would appear an accident of his calling? Ah, yes, the lion's smile was a +clever idea--he was a sharp rascal to think of it." + +"Sir! You--you do not mean to tell me that he caused that? He never went +near the beast--never--even once." + +"Not necessary, chevalier. He kept near you and your children; that was +all that he needed to do to carry out his plan. The lion was as much his +victim as anybody else--you or your children. What it did it could not +help doing. The very simplicity of the plan was its passport to success. +All that was required was the unsuspected sifting of snuff on the hair +of the person whose head was to be put in the beast's mouth. The lion's +smile was not, properly speaking, a smile at all, chevalier; it was the +torture which came of snuff getting into its nostrils, and when the +beast made that uncanny noise and snapped its jaws together, it was +simply the outcome of a sneeze. The thing would be farcical if it were +not that tragedy hangs on the thread of it, and that a life, a useful +human life, was destroyed by means of it. Yes, it was clever, it was +diabolically clever; but you know what Bobby Burns says about the best +laid schemes of mice and men. There's always a Power--higher up--that +works the ruin of them." + +With that he walked by, and, going to young Scarmelli, put out his hand. + +"You're a good chap and you've got a good girl, so I expect you will be +happy," he said; and then lowered his voice so that the rest might not +reach the chevalier's ears. "You were wrong to suspect the little +stepmother," he added. "She's true blue, Scarmelli. She was only playing +up to those fellows because she was afraid the 'senor' would drop out +and close the show if she didn't, and that she and her husband and the +children would be thrown out of work. She loves her husband--that's +certain--and she's a good little woman; and, Scarmelli!" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek?" + +"There's nothing better than a good woman on this earth, my lad. Always +remember that. I think you, too, have found one. I hope you have. I hope +you'll be happy. What's that? Owe me? Not a rap, my boy. Or, if you feel +that you must give me something, give me your prayers for equal luck, +and--send me a slice of the wedding cake. Good-night!" + +And twisted round on his heel and walked out; making his way out to the +streets and facing the journey to Clarges Street afoot. For to be +absolutely without envy of any sort is not given to anything born of +woman; and the sight of this man's happiness, the knowledge of this +man's reward, brought upon him a bitter recollection of how far he still +was from his own. + +Would he ever get that reward? he wondered. Would he ever be nearer to +it than he was to-night? It hurt--yes, it hurt horribly, sometimes, this +stone-cold silence, this walking always in shadowed paths without a ray +of light, without the certainty of arriving _anywhere_, though he plod +onward for a lifetime--and the old feeling of savage resentment, the old +sense of self-pity--the surest thing on God's earth to blaze a trail for +the oncoming of the worst that is in a man--bit at the soul of him and +touched him on the raw again. + +He knew what that boded; and he also knew the antidote. + +"Dollops, they broke into our holiday--they did us out of a part of it, +didn't they, old chap?" he said, when he reached home at last and found +the boy anxiously awaiting him. "Well, we'll have a day for every hour +they deprived us of, a whole day, bonny boy. Pack up again and we'll be +off to the land as God made it, and where God's things still live; and +we'll have a fortnight of it--a whole blessed fortnight, my boy, with +the river and the fields and the flowers and the dreams that hide in +trees." + +Dollops made no reply. He simply bolted for the kit-bag and began to +pack at once. And the morrow, when it came, found these two--the servant +who was still a boy, and the master who had discovered the way back to +boyhood's secrets--forging up the shining river and seeking the Land of +Nightingales again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +The spring had blossomed itself out and the summer had bloomed itself +in. The holiday up the river was a thing of the past; the dreams of the +Dreamer had given place to those sterner phases of life which must be +coped with by the Realist; and Cleek was "back in harness" again. + +A half-dozen more or less important cases had occupied his time since +his return; but, although he had carried these to a successful issue and +had again been lauded to the skies by the daily papers, the one word of +praise from the one quarter whence he so earnestly desired to hear was +never forthcoming. + +Of Ailsa Lorne he had heard not a solitary thing, either directly or +indirectly, since that day when he had put her into the taxicab at +Charing Cross Station and saw her safely on her way to Hampstead before +he went his own. + +True, her silence was, as he had agreed, an admission that all was well +with her and that she had secured the position in question; true it was +also that it was not for her to take the initiative and break that +silence; that he fully realised how impossible, for a girl born and bred +as she had been, to voluntarily open up a correspondence with a man who +was as yet little more than a mere acquaintance; but, all the same, he +chafed under that silence and spent many a wakeful hour at night +brooding on it. + +In his heart he knew that if any advance was to be made, that advance +was the man's duty, not the woman's; but the fear that she would think +he was thrusting himself upon her, the dread that even yet the white +soul of her could not but shrink from a closer association with him, +kept him from taking one step towards breaking the silence he deplored. + +The French have a proverb which says: "It is always the unexpected that +happens." And it was the unexpected that happened in this case. + +In the midst of his dejection, in the very depths of returning despair, +there came to him this note from Mr. Narkom: + +"My Dear Cleek, + +"Kindly refrain from going out this evening. I shall call about nine +o'clock, bringing with me Miss Ailsa Lorne, whom you doubtless remember, +and her present patron, Angela, Countess Chepstow, the young widow of +that ripping old warhorse, who, as you may recall, quelled that +dangerous and fanatical rising of the Cingalese at Trincomalee. These +ladies wish to see you with reference to a most extraordinary case, an +inexplicable mystery, which both they and I believe no man but yourself +can satisfactorily probe. + +"Yours in haste, + +"Maverick Narkom." + +So, then, he was to see her again, to touch her hand, hear her voice, +look into the eyes that had lighted him back from the path to +destruction! Cleek's heart began to hammer and his pulses to drum. +Needless to say, he took extraordinary care with his toilet that +evening, with the result that when the ladies arrived there was nothing +even vaguely suggestive of the detective about him. + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do help us--please do," implored Ailsa, after the first +greetings were over. "Lady Chepstow is almost beside herself with dread +and anxiety over the inexplicable thing, and I have persuaded her that +if anybody on earth can solve the mystery of it, avert the new and +appalling danger of it, it is you! Oh, say that you will take the case, +say that you will save little Lord Chepstow and put an end to this +maddening mystery!" + +"Little Lord Chepstow?" repeated Cleek, glancing over at the countess, +who stood, a very Niobe in her grief and despair, holding out two +imploring hands in silent supplication. "That is your ladyship's son, is +it not?" + +"Yes," she answered, with a sort of wail; "my only son--my only child. +All that I have to love--all that I have to live for in this world." + +"And you think the little fellow is in peril?" + +"Yes--in deadly peril." + +"From what source? From whose hand?" + +"I don't know--I don't know!" she answered, distractedly. "Sometimes I +am wild enough to suspect even Captain Hawksley, unjust and unkind as it +seems." + +"Captain Hawksley? Who is he?" + +"My late husband's cousin; heir, after my little son, to the title and +estates. He is very poor, deeply in debt, and the inheritance would put +an end to all his difficulties. But he is fond of my son; they seem +almost to worship each other. I, too, am fond of him. But, for all that, +I have to remember that he and he alone would benefit by Cedric's death, +and--and--wicked as it seems--Oh, Mr. Cleek, help me! Direct me! +Sometimes I doubt him. Sometimes I doubt everybody. Sometimes I think of +those other days, that other mystery, that land which reeks of them; and +then--and then--Oh, that horrible Ceylon! I wish I had never set foot in +it in all my life!" + +Her agitation and distress were so great as to make her utterances only +half coherent; and Ailsa, realising that this sort of thing must only +perplex Cleek, and leave him in the dark regarding the matter upon which +they had come to consult him, gently interposed. + +"Do try to calm yourself and to tell the story as briefly as possible, +dear Lady Chepstow," she advised. Then, taking the initiative, added +quietly, "It begins, Mr. Cleek, at a period when his little lordship, +whose governess I have the honour to be, was but two years old, and at +Trincomalee, where his late father was stationed with his regiment four +years ago. Somebody, for some absurd reason, had set afoot a ridiculous +rumour that the English had received orders from the Throne to stamp out +every religion but their own--in short, if the British were not +exterminated, dreadful desecrations would occur, as they were +determined--" + +"To loot all the temples erected to Buddha, destroy the images, and make +a bonfire of all the sacred relics," finished Cleek himself. "I rarely +forget history, Miss Lorne, especially when it is such recent history as +that memorable Buddhist rising at Trincomalee. It began upon an utterly +unfounded, ridiculous rumour; it terminated, if my memory serves me +correctly, in something akin to the very thing it was supposed to avert. +That is to say, during the outburst of fanaticism, that most sacred of +all relics--the holy tooth of Buddha--disappeared mysteriously from the +temple of Dambool, and in spite of the fact that many lacs of rupees +were offered for its recovery, it has never, I believe, been found, or +even traced, to this day, although a huge fortune awaits the restorer, +and, with it, overpowering honours from the native princes. Those must +have been trying times, Lady Chepstow, for the commandant's wife, the +mother of the commandant's only child?" + +"Horrible! horrible!" she answered, with a shudder, forgetting for an +instant the dangers of the present in the recollection of the tragical +past. "For a period, our lives were not safe; murder hid behind every +bush, skulked in the shadow of every rock and tree, and we knew not at +what minute the little garrison might be rushed under cover of the +darkness and every soul slaughtered before the relief force could come +to our assistance. I died a hundred deaths in a day in my anxiety for +husband and child. And once the very zealousness of our comrades almost +brought about the horror I feared. Oh!"--with a shudder of horrified +recollection and a covering of the eyes, as if to shut out the memory of +it--"Oh! that night--that horrible night! Unknown to any of us, my baby, +rising from the bed where I had left him sleeping, whilst I went outside +to stand by Lord Chepstow, wandered beyond the line of defence, and, +before anybody realised it, was out in the open, alone and unprotected. + +"Ferralt, the cook, saw him first; saw, too, the crouching figure of a +native, armed with a gun, in the shadow of the undergrowth. Without +hesitation the brave fellow rushed out, fell upon the native before he +could dart away, wrenched the gun from him, and brained him with the +butt. A cry of the utmost horror rang out upon the air, and, uttering +it, another native bounded out from a hiding-place close to where the +first had been killed, and flew zigzagging across the open, where Cedric +was. Evidently he had no intention of molesting the little fellow, for +he fled straight on past him, still shrieking after the accident +occurred; but to Ferralt it seemed as if his intention were to murder +the boy, and, clapping the gun to his shoulder, in a panic of +excitement, he fired. If it had been one of the soldiers, +someone--anyone--who understood marksmanship and was not likely to be in +a nervous quake over the circumstances, the thing could not have +happened, although the fugitive was careering along in a direct line +with my precious little one. But, with Ferralt--Oh, Mr. Cleek, can you +imagine my horror when I saw the flash of that shot, heard a shrill cry +of pain, and saw my child drop to the ground?" + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed Cleek, agitated in spite of himself. "Then the +blunderer shot the child instead of the native?" + +"Yes; and was so horrified by the mishap that, without waiting to learn +the result, he rushed blindly to the brink of a deep ravine, and threw +himself headlong to death. But the injury to Cedric was only a trifling +one after all. The bullet seemed merely to have grazed him in passing, +and, beyond a ragged gash in the fleshy part of the thigh, he was not +harmed at all. That I myself dressed and bandaged, and in a couple of +weeks it was quite healed. But it taught me a lesson, that night of +horror, and I never let my baby out of my sight for one instant from +that time until the rising was entirely quelled. + +"As suddenly as it had started, the trouble subsided. Native priests +came under a flag of truce to Lord Chepstow, and confessed their error, +acknowledged that they had never any right to suspect the British of any +design upon their gods, for the loot of the temple had actually taken +place in the midst of the rising, and they knew that it could not have +come from the hands of the soldiers, for they had had them under +surveillance all the time, and not one person of the race had ventured +within a mile of the temple. + +"Yet the tooth of Buddha had been taken, the sacred tooth which is more +holy to Buddhists than the statue of Gautama Buddha itself. Their +remorse was very real, and after that, to the day of his death from +fever, eighteen months afterward, they could never show enough honour to +Lord Chepstow. And even then their favour continued. They transferred to +the little son the homage they had done the father, but in a far, far +greater degree. If he had been a king's son they could have shown him no +greater honour. Native princes showered him with rich gifts; if he +walked out, his path was strewn with flowers by bowing maidens; if he +went into the market-place, the people prostrated themselves before him. + +"When I questioned Buddhist women of this amazing homage to Cedric, they +gave me a full explanation. My son was sacred, they said. Buddha had +withdrawn his favour from his people because of the evil they had done +in suspecting the father and of the innocent life--Ferralt's--which had +been sacrificed, and they had been commanded of the priests to do homage +to the child and thereby appease the offended god, who, doubtless, had +himself spirited away the holy tooth, and would not restore it until +full recompense was made to the sacred son of the sacred dead. + +"When it became known that I had decided to return to England with my +boy, native princes offered me fabulous sums to remain, and when they +found that I could not be tempted to stay, the populace turned out in +every town and village through which we passed on our way to the ship, +and bowing multitudes followed us to the very last. Nor did it cease +with that, for in all the years that have followed, even here in London, +the homage and worship have continued. My son can go nowhere but that he +is followed by Cingalese; can see no man or woman of the race, but he or +she prostrates herself before him and murmurs, 'Holy, most holy!' And +daily, almost hourly, rich gifts are showered upon him from unknown +hands, and he is watched over and guarded constantly. I tell you all +this, Mr. Cleek, that you may the better understand how appalling is the +horror which now assails us, how frightful is the knowledge that someone +now seeks his life, and is using every means to take it." + +"In other words, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom, as her ladyship, +overcome with emotion, broke down suddenly, "there appears to be a +sudden and inexplicable change of front on the part of these fanatics, +and they now seem as anxious to bring evil to his little lordship as +they formerly were to protect and cherish him. At any rate, someone of +their order has, upon three separate occasions within the last month, +endeavoured to kidnap him, and, in one instance, even attempted to +murder him." + +"Is that a fact?" queried Cleek sharply, glancing over at Miss Lorne. +"You are certain it is not a fancy, but an absolute fact?" + +"Yes; oh, yes!" she made answer, agitatedly. "Twice when I have gone +into the Park with him, attempts have been made to separate us, to get +him away from me; and once they did get him away--so swiftly, so +adroitly, that he had vanished before I could turn round. But, although +a bag had been thrown over his head to stifle his cries, he managed to +make a very little one. I plunged screaming into the undergrowth from +which that cry had come, and was just in time to save him. He was lying +on the ground all bundled up in a bag, and his assailant, who must have +heard me coming, had gone as if by magic. His little lordship, however, +was able to tell me that the man was a Cingalese, and that he had 'tried +to cut him with a knife.'" + +"Cut him with a knife?" repeated Cleek in a reflective tone, and blew +out a long, low whistle. + +"Oh! but that is not the worst, Mr. Cleek," went on Ailsa. "Three days +ago a woman--a very beautiful and distinguished-looking woman--called to +see Lady Chepstow regarding the reference of a former servant, one Jane +Catherboys, who used to be her ladyship's maid. After the caller left, a +box of sugared violets was found lying temptingly open on a table in the +main hall. Little Cedric is passionately fond of sugared violets, and, +had he happened to pass that way before the box was discovered, he +surely would have yielded to the temptation and eaten some. In removing +the box the parlour-maid accidentally upset it, and before she could +gather all the violets up her ladyship's little Pomeranian dog snapped +up one and ate it. It was dead in six minutes' time! The sweets were +simply loaded with prussic acid. When we came to inquire into the matter +in the hope of tracing the mysterious caller, we found that Jane +Catherboys was no longer in need of a position; that she had been +married for eight months; that she knew nothing whatever of the woman, +and had sent no one to inquire into her references." + +"All of which shows, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom significantly, "that, +whatever hand is directing these attempts, it belongs to one who knows +more than a mere outsider possibly could: in short, to one who is aware +of his little lordship's excessive fondness for sugared violets, and is +aware that Lady Chepstow once did have a maid named Jane Catherboys." + +"If," said Cleek, "you mean to suggest by that that this points +suspiciously in Captain Hawksley's direction, Mr. Narkom, permit me to +say that it does not necessarily follow. The clever people of the +under-world do nothing by halves nor without careful inquiry beforehand; +that is what makes the difference between the common pickpocket and the +brilliant swindler." He turned to Ailsa. "Is that all, Miss Lorne, or am +I right in supposing that there is even worse to come?" + +"Oh, much worse--much, Mr. Cleek! The knowledge that these would-be +murderers, whoever they are, whatever may be their mysterious motive, +have grown desperate enough to invade the house itself has driven Lady +Chepstow well-nigh frantic. Of course, orders were immediately given to +the servants that no stranger, no matter how well dressed, how well +seeming, nor what the plea, was, from that moment, to be allowed past +the threshold. We felt secure in that, knowing that no servant of the +household would betray his or her trust, and that all would be on the +constant watch for any further attempt. The unknown enemy must have +found out about these precautions, for no stranger came again to the +door. But last night a thing we had never counted upon happened. In the +dead of the night the unknown broke into the house--into the very +nursery itself--and but that Lady Chepstow, impelled she does not know +by what, only that she was nervous and wakeful, and felt the need of +some companionship, rose and carried the sleeping child into her own +bed, he would assuredly have been murdered. The nurse, awakened by a +horrible suffocating sensation, opened her eyes to find a man bending +over her with a chloroform-soaked cloth, which he was about to lay over +her face. She shrieked and fainted, but not before she saw the man +spring to the little bed on the other side of her own, hack furiously at +it with a long, murderous knife, then dart to the window and vanish. In +the darkness he had not, of course, been able to see that that little +bed was empty, for its position kept it in deep shadow, and hearing the +household stir at the sound of the nurse's shriek, he struck out blindly +and flew to save himself from detection. The nurse states that he was +undoubtedly a foreigner--a dark-skinned Asiatic--and her description of +him tallies with that his little lordship gave of the man who attempted +to kill him that day in the Park. There, Mr. Cleek," she concluded, +"that's the whole story. Can't you do something to help us--something to +lift this constant state of dread and to remove this terrible danger +from little Lord Chepstow's life?" + +"I'll try, Miss Lorne; but it is a most extraordinary case. Where is the +boy, now?" + +"At home, closely guarded. We appealed to Mr. Narkom, and he generously +appointed two detective officers to sit with his little lordship and +keep constant watch over him whilst we are away." + +"And in the meantime," added Mr. Narkom, "I've issued orders for a +general rounding-up of all the Cingalese who can be traced or are known +to be in town. Petrie and Hammond have that part of the job in hand, and +if they hit upon any Asiatic who answers to the description of this +murderous rascal--" + +"I don't believe they will," interposed Cleek; "or, if they do, I don't +for a moment believe he will turn out to be the guilty party. In other +words, I have an idea that the fellow will prove to be a European." + +"But, my dear fellow, both his little lordship and the nurse saw the +man, and, as you have heard, they both agree that he was dark-skinned +and quite Oriental in appearance." + +"One of the easiest possible disguises, Mr. Narkom. A wig, a stick of +grease-paint, a threepenny twist of crepe hair, and there you are! No, I +do not believe that the man is a Cingalese at all; and, far from his +having any connection with what you were pleased to term just now a +change of front on the part of the Buddhists who have so long held the +little chap as something sacred, I don't believe that they know anything +about him. I base that upon the fact that the child is still treated +with homage whenever he goes out, according to what Miss Lorne says, and +that, with the single exception of that one woman who tried to poison +him, nobody but just one man--this particular one man--has ever made any +attempt to harm the boy. Fanatics, like those Cingalese, cleave to an +idea to the end, Mr. Narkom; they don't cast it aside and go off at +another tangent. You have heard what Lady Chepstow says the native women +told her; the boy was sacred; their priests had commanded them to +appease Buddha by doing homage to him until the tooth was found, and the +tooth has not been found up to the present day! That means that nothing +on earth could change their attitude toward him, that not one of the +Buddhist sect would harm a solitary hair of his head for a king's +ransom; so you may eliminate the Cingalese from the case entirely so far +as the attempts upon the child's life are concerned. Whoever is making +the attempts is doing so without their knowledge and for a purely +personal reason." + +"Then, in that case, this Captain Hawksley--" + +"I'll have a look at that gentleman before I tumble into bed to-night, +and you shall have my views upon that point to-morrow morning, Mr. +Narkom. Frankly, things point rather suspiciously in the captain's +direction, since he is apparently the only person likely to be benefited +by the boy's death, and if a motive cannot be traced to some other +person--" He stopped abruptly and held up his hand. Outside in the dim +halls of the house a sudden noise had sprung into being, the noise of +someone running upstairs in great haste, and, stepping quickly to the +door, Cleek drew it sharply open. As he did so, Dollops came puffing up +out of the lower gloom, a sheep's trotter in one hand, and a letter in +the other. + +"Law, Gov'nor!" groaned he, from midway on the staircase, "I don't +believe as I'm ever goin' to be let get a square tuck-in this side of +the buryin' ground! Jist finished wot was left of that there steak and +kidney puddin', sir, and started on my seckint trotter, when I sees a +pair o' legs nip parst the area railin's to the front door, and then nip +off again like greased lightnin', and when I ups and does a flyin' leap +up the kitchen stairs, there was this here envellup in the letter-box, +and them there blessed legs nowheres in sight. I say, sir," agitatedly, +"look wot's wrote on the envellup, will yer? And us always keepin' of it +so dark." + +Cleek plucked the letter from his extended hand, glanced at it, and +puckered up his lips; then, with a gesture, he sent Dollops back below +stairs, and, returning to the room, closed the door behind him. + +"The enemy evidently knows all Lady Chepstow's movements, Mr. Narkom," +he said. "I expect she and Miss Lorne have been under surveillance all +day and have been followed here. Look at that!" He flung the letter down +on a table as he spoke, and Narkom, glancing at it, saw printed in rude, +illiterate letters upon the envelope the one word "Cleek." The identity +of "Captain Burbage" was known to someone, and the secret of the house +in Clarges Street was a secret no longer! + +"Purposely disguised, you see. No one, not even a little child, would +make such a botch of copying the alphabet as that," Cleek said, as he +took the letter up and opened it. The sheet it contained was lettered in +the same uncouth manner, and bore these words: + +"Cleek, take a fool's advice and don't accept the Chepstow case. Be +warned. If you interfere, somebody you care about will pay the price. +You'll find it more satisfactory to buy a wedding bouquet than a funeral +wreath!" + +"Oh!" shuddered the two ladies in one breath. "How horrible! How +cowardly!" And then, feeling that her last hope had gone, Lady Chepstow +broke into a fit of violent weeping and laid her head on Ailsa's +shoulder. + +"Oh, my baby! My darling baby boy!" she sobbed. "And now they are +threatening somebody that you, too, love. Of course, Mr. Cleek, I can't +expect you to risk the sacrifice of your own dear ones for the sake of +me and mine, and so--and so--Oh, take me away, Miss Lorne! Let me go +back to my baby and have him while I may." + +"Good-night, Mr. Cleek!" said Ailsa, stretching out a shaking hand to +him. "Thank you so much for--for what you would have done but for this. +And you were our last hope, too!" + +"Why give it up then, Miss Lorne?" he said, holding her hand and looking +into her eyes. "Why not go on letting me be your last hope--your only +hope?" + +"Yes, but they--they spoke of a funeral wreath." + +"And they also spoke of a wedding bouquet! I am going to take the case, +Miss Lorne--take it, and solve it, as I'm a living man. Thank you!" as +her brimming eyes uplifted in deep thankfulness and her shaking hand +returned the pressure of his. "Now, just give me five minutes' time in +the next room--it's my laboratory, Lady Chepstow--and I'll tell you +whether I shall begin with Captain Hawksley or eliminate him from the +case entirely. You might go in ahead, Mr. Narkom, and get the acid bath +and the powder ready for me. We'll see what the finger-prints of our +gentle correspondent have to tell, and, if they are not in the records +of Scotland Yard or down in my own private little book, we'll get a +sample of Captain Hawksley's in the morning." + +Then, excusing himself to the ladies, he passed into the inner room in +company with Narkom, and carried the letter with him. When he returned +it was still in his hand, but there were greyish smudges all over it. + +"There's not a finger-print in the lot that is worth anything as a means +of identification, Miss Lorne," he said. "But you and Lady Chepstow may +accept my assurance that Captain Hawksley is not the man. The writer of +this letter belongs to the criminal classes; he is on his guard against +the danger of finger-prints, and he wore rubber gloves when he penned +this message. When I find him, rest assured I shall find a man who has +had dealings with the police before and whose finger-prints are on their +records. I don't know what his game is nor what he's after yet, but I +will inside of a week. I've an idea; but it's so wild a thing I'm almost +afraid to trust myself to believe it possible until I stumble over +something that points the same way. Now, go home with Lady Chepstow, and +begin the work of helping me." + +"Helping you? Oh, Mr. Cleek, can we? Is there anything we can do to +help?" + +"Yes. When you leave the house, act as though you are in the utmost +state of dejection--and keep that up indefinitely. Make it appear, for I +am certain you will be followed and spied upon, as if I had declined the +case. But don't have any fear about the boy. The two constables will +sleep in the room with him to-night and every night until the thing is +cleared up and the danger past. To-morrow about dusk, however, you, +personally, take him for a walk near the Park, and if, among the other +Cingalese you may meet, you should see one dressed as an Englishman, and +wearing a scarlet flower in his buttonhole, take no notice of how often +you see him nor of what he may do." + +"It will be you, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Yes. Now go, please; and don't forget to act as if you and her ladyship +were utterly broken-hearted. Also"--his voice dropped lower, his hand +met her hand, and in the darkness of the hall a little silver-plated +revolver was slipped into her palm--"also, take this. Keep it always +with you, never be without it night or day, and if any living creature +offers you violence, shoot him down as you would a mad dog. Good-night, +and--remember!" + +And long after she and Lady Chepstow had gone down and passed out into +the night he stood there, looking the situation straight in the face and +thinking his own troubled thoughts. + +"A wedding bouquet! A threat against her, and the mention of a wedding +bouquet!" he said, as he went back into the room and sat down to figure +the puzzle out. "Only one creature in the world knows of my feelings in +that direction, and only one creature in the world would be capable of +that threat--Margot! But what interest could she or any of her tribe +have in the death of Lady Chepstow's little son? Her game is always +money. If she were after a ransom she would try to abduct the child, not +to kill him, and if"--A sudden thought came and wrenched away his voice. +He sat a moment twisting his fingers one through the other and frowning +at the floor; then, of a sudden, he gave a cry and jumped to his feet. +"Five lacs of rupees--a fortune! By George, I've got it!" he fairly +shouted. "The wild guess was a correct one, I'll stake my life. Let's +put it to the test." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The summer twilight was deepening into the summer dusk when Ailsa, +acting upon Cleek's advice, set forth with his little lordship the +following evening, and turned her steps in the direction of the Park; +but although, on her way there, she observed more than once that a +swarthy-skinned man in European dress who wore a scarlet flower in his +coat, and was so perfect a type of the Asiatic that he would have passed +muster for one even among a gathering of Cingalese, kept appearing and +disappearing at irregular intervals, it spoke well for the powers of +imitation and self-effacement possessed by Dollops, that she never once +thought of associating that young man with the dawdling messenger boy +who strolled leisurely along with a package under his arm and patronised +every bun-shop, winkle-stall, and pork-pie purveyor on the line of +march. + +For upward of an hour this sort of thing went on without any +interruption or any solitary thing out of the ordinary, Ailsa strolling +along leisurely, with the boy's hands in hers and his innocent prattle +running on ceaselessly; then, of a sudden, whilst they were moving along +close to the Park railings and in the shadow of the overhanging trees, +the figure of an undersized man in semi-European costume, but wearing on +his head the twisted turban of a Cingalese, issued from one of the +gates, and well-nigh collided with them. + +He drew back, murmuring an apology in pidgin-English, then, seeing the +child, he salaamed profoundly and murmured in a voice of deep reverence, +"Holy, most holy!" and prostrated himself, with his forehead touching +the ground, until Ailsa and the child had passed on. But barely had they +taken five steps before Cleek appeared upon the scene, and did exactly +the same thing as the Cingalese. + +"All right. You may go home now. I've got my man," he whispered, as +Ailsa and the boy passed by. "Look for me at Chepstow House some time +to-night." Then rose, as she walked on, and went after the man who first +had prostrated himself before the child. + +He had risen and gone on his way, but not before witnessing Cleek's +obeisance, and flashing upon him a sharp, searching look. Cleek +quickened his steps and shortened the distance between them. Now or +never was the time to put to the test that wild thought which last night +had hammered on his brain, for it was certain that this man was in very +truth a Cingalese, and, as such, must know! He stretched forth his hand +and touched the man, who drew back sharply, half indignantly, but +changed his attitude entirely when Cleek, who knew Hindustani more than +well, spoke to him in the native tongue. + +"Unto thee, oh, brother!" Cleek said. "Thou, too, art of us, for thou, +too, dost acknowledge the sacred shrine. These eyes have beheld thee." + +All his hopes rested on the slim pillar of that one word, "shrine," and +his heart almost ceased to beat as he watched to see how it was +received. It broke, however, into a very tumult of disturbance in the +next instant, for the man positively beamed as he gave reply. + +"Sacred be the shrine!" he answered in Hindustani. "Clearly thou art of +us--not of those others." + +"Others? What others? I am but newly come to this country." + +"Walk with me, then, to my abode, sup with me, eat of my salt, and I +will tell thee then, oh, brother. But I forget: thou hast no knowledge +of me. Listen, then. I am Arjeeb Noosrut, father of the High Priest +Seydama, and it is among the people of my house that the gun is yet +preserved. Nor has the blood of Seydama been ever washed from the wood +of it. Come." + +All in a moment a light seemed to break over Cleek's brain. The missing +link had been supplied--the one thing that could make possible the wild +thought which had come to him last night had been given into his hands, +and here at last was the key to the amazing mystery! He turned without a +word and went with Arjeeb Noosrut. + +"What an ass!" he said to himself in the soundless words of thought +"What an ass never to have suspected it when it is all so clear!" + +Meantime Ailsa and the boy, dismissed from any further need of service, +walked on through the deepening dusk and turned their faces homeward. +But they had not gone twenty yards from the spot where Cleek had seen +them last when his little lordship set up a joyful cry and pointed +excitedly to a claret-coloured limousine which at that moment swung in +from the middle of the roadway and slowed down as it neared the kerb. + +"Oh, look, Miss Lorne; here's mummie's motor car; and I do believe +that's Bimbi peeping out of it!" exclaimed the child--"Bimbi" being his +pet name for Captain Hawksley--then broke, in wild excitement, from +Ailsa's detaining hand and fled to a tall, military-looking man with a +fair beard and moustache who had just that moment alighted from the +vehicle. "It is Bimbi--it is!--it is!" he shouted as he ran. "Oh, Bimbi, +I _am_ glad!" + +"Ceddie, dear, you mustn't be so boisterous!" chided Ailsa, coming up +with him at the kerb. "How fond he is of you to be sure, Captain +Hawksley. You've come for us, I suppose? Ceddie recognised the car at +once." + +"Yes; jump in," he answered. "Lady Chepstow sent me after you. She's +nervous, poor soul, every moment the boy's away from her. Jump in, old +chap!"--catching up his little lordship and swinging him inside. "Better +take the back seat, Miss Lorne; it's more comfortable. Quite settled, +both of you? That's good. All right, chauffeur--Home!" + +Then he jumped in after them, closed the door, dropped into a seat, and +the motor, making a wide curve out into the road, pelted away into the +fast-gathering darkness. + +"Bimbi says maybe he's going to be my daddy one day--didn't you, Bimbi?" +said his little lordship, climbing up on to "Bimbi's" knee and snuggling +close to him. + +"I say, you know, you mustn't tell secrets, old chap!" was the laughing +response. "Miss Lorne will hand you over to Nursie with orders to put +you to bed if you do, _I_ know--won't you, Miss Lorne?" + +"He ought to be in bed, anyhow," responded Ailsa gaily; and then, this +giving the conversation a merry turn, they talked and laughed and kept +up such a chatter that three-quarters of an hour went like magic and +nobody seemed aware of it. But suddenly Ailsa thought, and then put her +thoughts into words. + +"What a long time we are in getting home," she said, and bent forward so +that the light from the window might fall upon the dial of her wrist +watch, then gave a little startled cry and half rose from her seat. For +the darkness was now tempered by moonlight, and she could see that they +were no longer in the populous districts of the town, but were speeding +along past woodlands and open fields in the very depths of the country. +"Good gracious! Johnston must have lost his senses!" she exclaimed +agitatedly. "Look where we are, Captain Hawksley!--out in the country +with only a farmhouse or two in sight. Johnston! Johnston!" She bent +forward and rapped wildly on the glass panel. "Johnston, stop!--turn +round!--are you out of your head? Captain Hawksley, stop him--stop him +for pity's sake!" + +"Sit down, Miss Lorne." He made reply in a low, level voice, a voice in +which there was something that made her pluck the child to her and hold +him right to her breast. "You are not going home to-night. You are going +for a ride with me; and if--Oh, that's your little game, is it?" +lurching forward as she made a frantic clutch at the handle of the door. +"Sit down, do you hear me?--or it will be worse for you! There!"--the +cold bore of a revolver barrel touched her temple and wrung a quaking +gasp of terror from her--"Do you feel that? Now you sit down and be +quiet! If you make a single move, utter a single cry, I'll blow your +brains out before you've half finished it. Look here, do you know who +you're dealing with now? See!" + +His hand reached up and twitched away the fair beard and moustache; he +bent forward so that the moonlight through the glass could fall on his +face. It had changed as his voice had now changed, and she saw that she +was looking at the man who in those other days of stress and trial had +posed as "Gaston Merode," brother to the fictitious "Countess de la +Tour." + +"You!" she said in a bleak voice of desolation and fright. "Dear heaven, +that horrible Margot's confederate, the King of the Apaches!" + +"Yes!" he rapped out. "You and that fellow Cleek came between us in one +promising game, but I'm hanged if you shall do it in this one! I want +this boy, and--I've got him. Now, you call off Cleek and tell him to +drop this case--to make no effort to follow us or to come between us and +the kid--or I'll slit your throat after I've done with his little +lordship here. Lanisterre!"--to the chauffeur--"Lanisterre, do you +hear?" + +"_Oui, monsieur_." + +"Give her her head--full speed--and get to the mill as fast as you can. +Margot will be with us in another two hours' time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Through the ever-deepening dusk Cleek and Arjeeb Noosrut moved onward +together; and onward behind them moved, too, the same dilatory messenger +boy who had loitered about in the neighbourhood of the park, squandering +his halfpence now as then, leaving a small trail of winkle shells and +trotter bones to mark the record of his passage, and never seeming to +lose one iota of his appetite, eat as much and as often as he would. + +The walk led down into the depths of Soho, that refuge of the foreign +element in London; but long before they halted at the narrow doorway of +a narrow house in a narrow side street--a street that seemed to have +gone to sleep in an atmosphere of gloom and smells--Cleek had adroitly +"pumped" Arjeeb Noosrut dry, and the riddle of the sacred son was a +riddle to him no longer. He was now only anxious to part from the man +and return with the news to Lady Chepstow, and was casting round in his +mind for some excuse to avoid going indoors with him and wasting +precious time in breaking bread and eating salt, when there lurched out +of an adjoining doorway an ungainly figure in turban and sandals and the +full flower of that grotesque regalia which passes muster at cheap +theatres and masquerade balls for the costume of a Cingalese. The fellow +had bent forward out of the deeper darkness of the house-passage into +the murk and gloom of the ill-lit street, and was straining his eyes as +if in search for someone long expected. + +"Dog of an infidel!" exclaimed Arjeeb Noosrut, speaking in Hindustani, +and spitting on the pavement as he caught sight of the man. "See, +well-beloved, he is of those 'others' of which I spoke when I first met +thee. There are many of them, but true believers none. They dwell in a +room huddled up as unclean things in the house there; they drink and +make merry far into the night, and a woman veiled and in European garb +comes to them and drinks with them sometimes--and sometimes a man of her +kind with her; and they speak a tongue that is not the tongue of our +people; yet have I seen them go forth into the city and do homage as we +to the sacred son." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and, twitching round, stared at the dim +figure leaning forward in the dim light. + +"By George!" he said to himself; "if I know anything, I ought to know +the slouch and the low-sunk head of the Apache! And the woman +comes!--And a man comes!--And there are five lacs of rupees! I wonder! I +wonder! But no--she wouldn't come here, to a place like this, if she had +ventured back into England and had called some of the band over to help. +She'd go to the old spot--to the old haunt where she and I used to lie +low and laugh whilst the police were hunting for me. She'd go there, I'm +sure, to the old Burnt Acre Mill, where, if you were 'stalked,' you +could open the sluice gates and let the Thames and the mill stream rush +in and meet, and make a hell of whirling waters that would drown a fish. +She would go there if it were she. And yet--it is an Apache: I swear it +is an Apache!" + +He turned and looked back at Arjeeb Noosrut, then raised his hand and +brushed it down the back of his head, which was always the sign "Wait!" +to Dollops--and then spoke as calmly as he could. + +"Brother, I will go in and break bread and eat salt with thee," he said. +"But I may do no more, for to-night I am in haste." + +"Come then," the man answered; and taking him by the hand, led him in +and up to a room at the back of the second storey, where, hot as the +night was, the windows were closed and a woman squatted before a lighted +brasier, was dripping the contents of an oil cruse over the roasting +carcass of a young kid. + +"It is to shut out the sounds of the vile infidel orgies from the house +adjoining," explained Arjeeb Noosrut, as Cleek walked to the tightly +closed window and leant his forehead against it. "Yet, if the heat +oppresses thee--" + +"It does," interposed Cleek, and leant far out into the darkness as +though sucking in the air when the sash was raised and the thing which +had been only a dim babel of wordless sounds a moment before, became now +the riotous laughter and the ribald comments of men upon the verses of a +comic song which one of their number was joyously singing. + +"French!" said Cleek under his breath, as he caught the notes of the +singer and the words of his audience--"French--I knew it!" + +Then he drew in his head, and having broken of the bread and eaten of +the salt which, at a word from Arjeeb Noosrut, the woman brought on a +wicker tray and laid before them, he moved hastily to the door. + +"Brother and son of the faithful, peace be with thee--I must go," he +said. "But I come again; and it is written that thou shalt be honoured +above all men when I return to thee, and that the true believers--the +true sons of Holy Buddha--shall have cause to set thy name at the head +of the records of those who are most blest of him!" + +Then he salaamed and passed out; and, closing the door behind him, ran +like a hare down the narrow stairs. At the door Dollops rose up like the +imp in a pantomime and jumped toward him. + +"Law, Gov'nor, I'm nigh starved a-waitin' for yer!" he said in a +whisper. "Wot's the lay now? A double-quick change? I've got the stuff +here, look!"--holding up the package he was carrying--"or a chance for +me to do some fly catchin' with me bloomin' tickle tootsies?" + +The man in the Cingalese costume had vanished from the doorway of the +adjoining house, and, catching the boy by the arm, Cleek hurried him to +it and drew him into the dark passage. + +"I'm going to the back; I'm going to climb up to the windows of the +second storey and see who's there and what's going on," he whispered. +"Lie low and watch. I think it's Margot's gang." + +"Oh, colour me blue! Them beauties? And in London? I'd give a tanner for +a strong cup o' tea!" + +"Sh-h-h! Be quiet--speak low. Don't be seen, but keep a close watch; and +if anybody comes downstairs--" + +"He's mine!" interjected Dollops, stripping up his sleeves. "Glue to the +eyebrows and warranted to stick! Nip away, Gov'nor, and leave it to the +tickle tootsies and me!" Then, as Cleek moved swiftly and silently down +the passage and slipped out into a sort of yard at the back of the +house, he pulled out his roll of brown paper squares and his tube of +adhesive, and crawling upstairs on his hands and knees, began operations +at the top step. But he had barely got the first "plaster" fairly made +and ready to apply when there came a rush of footsteps behind him and he +was obliged to duck down and flatten himself against the floor of the +landing to escape being run down by a man who dashed in through the +lower floor, flew at top speed up the stairs, and, with a sort of +blended cheer and yell, whirled open a door on the landing above and +vanished. In a twinkling other cheers rang out, there was the sound of +hastily moving feet and the uproar of general excitement. + +"Oh, well, if you won't stop to be waited on, gents, help yourselves!" +said Dollops with a chuckle. Then he began backing hastily down the +stairs, squirting the contents of the tube all over the steps, and +concluded the operation by scattering all the loose sheets of paper on +the floor at the foot of them before slipping out into the street and +composedly waiting. + +Meantime Cleek, sneaking out through the rear door, found himself in a +small, brick-paved yard hemmed in by a high wall thickly fringed on the +top with a hedge of broken bottles. At one time in its history the house +had been occupied by a catgut maker, and the rickety shed in which he +had carried on his calling still clung, sagging and broken-roofed, to +the building itself, its rotten slates all but vanished, and its +interior piled high with mildewed bedding, mouldy old carpet, broken +furniture, and refuse of every sort. + +A foot or two above the roof-level of this glowed--two luminous +rectangles in the blackness of darkness--the windows of the back room on +the second storey; and out of these came floating still the song, the +laughter, and the jabbered French he had heard in the house next door. +It did not take him long to make up his mind. Gripping the swaying +supports of the sagging shed, he went up it with the agility of a +monkey, crawled to the nearer of the two windows, and, cautiously +raising himself, peeped in. What he saw made him suck in his breath +sharply and sent his heart hammering hard and fast. + +A dozen men were in the room--men whose faces, despite an inartistic +attempt to appear Oriental, he recognized at a glance and knew better +than he knew his own. About them lay discarded portions of Cingalese +attire, thrown off because of the heat, and waiting to be resumed at any +moment. The air was thick with tobacco smoke and rank with spirituous +odours. Sprawled figures were everywhere, and on a sort of couch against +the opposite wall, a cigarette between her fingers, a glass of absinthe +at her elbow, her laughter and badinage ringing out as loudly as any, +lay the lissom figure of Margot! + +But even as Cleek looked in upon it the picture changed. Swift, sharp, +and sudden came the rattle of flying feet on the outer stairs. Margot +flung aside her cigarette and jumped up, the song and the laughter came +to an abrupt end, the door flew open, and with a shout and a cheer a man +bounced into the room. + +"Serpice! Ah, _le bon Dieu!_ it is Serpice at last!" cried out Margot in +joyous excitement, as she and the others crowded round him. "Soul of a +sluggard, don't waste time in laughing and capering like this! Speak up, +speak up, you hear? Are we to fly at once to the mill and join him? Has +he succeeded? Is it done?" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" shouted back Serpice, throwing up his cap and capering. +"It is done! It is done! Under the very nose of the cracksman, too! +Merode's got them--got them both! The little lordship and the +Mademoiselle Lorne, too! They took the bait like gudgeons; they stepped +into the automobile without a fear, and--whizz! it was off to the mill +like that! La, la, la! We win, we win, we win!" + +The shock of the thing was too much for Cleek. Carried out of himself by +the knowledge that the woman he loved was now in peril of her life, +discretion forsook him, blind rage mastered him, and he did one of the +few foolish things of his life. + +"You lie, you brute--you lie!" he shouted, jumping up into full view. +"God help the man who lays a hand on her! Let him keep his life from me +if he can!" + +"The cracksman!" yelled out Serpice. "The cracksman! The cracksman!" +echoed Margot and the rest. Then a pistol barked and spat, the light was +swept out, a bullet sang past Cleek's ear, and he realised how foolish +he had been. For part of the crowd came surging to the window, part went +in one blind rush for the door to head him off and hem him in, and, +through the din and hubbub rang viciously the voice of Margot shrilling +out: "Kill him! Kill him!" as though nothing but the sight of his blood +would glut the malice of her. + +It was neck or nothing now, and the race was to the swift. He dropped +through a gap in the ragged roof--sheer down, like a shot--into the +rubble and refuse below; he lurched through the shed to the door, and +through that to the black passage leading to the street--the clatter on +the higher staircase giving warning of the crowd coming after him--and +flew like a hare hard pressed toward the outer door, and then--just +then, when every little moment counted--there was a scrambling sound, a +chorus of oaths, a slipping, a sliding, a bang on one step and a bump on +another; and, as he darted by, and sprang out into the street, the hall +was filled with a writhing, scuffling, swearing mass of glue-covered men +struggling in a whirling waste of loose brown paper. + +"This way! come quickly, for your life!" he shouted to Dollops, as he +came plunging out into the street. "They've got them--got his little +lordship! Got Miss Lorne--in spite of me. Come on! come on! come +on!"--and flew like an arrow from crossing to crossing and street to +street with Dollops, like a shadow, at his heels. + +A sudden swerve to the right brought them into a lighted and populous +thoroughfare. Italian restaurants, German delicatessen shops, eating +places of a dozen other nationalities lined the pavements on both sides +of the street, and, in front of these a high-power motor stood, +protected by the watchful eye of an accommodating policeman while the +chauffeur sampled Chianti in a wine-shop close by. With a rush and a +leap Cleek was upon it, and with another rush and a leap the constable +was upon him, only to be greeted with the swift flicking open of a coat +and the gleam of a badge that every man in the force knew. + +"Cleek?" + +"Yes! In the name of The Yard; in the name of the king! get out of the +way! In with you, Dollops! We'll get the brutes yet!" + +Then he bent over, threw in the clutch, and discarding all speed laws, +sent the car humming and tearing away. + +"Hold tight!" he said, through his teeth. "Whatever comes, we've got to +get to Burnt Acre Mill inside of an hour. If you know any prayers, +Dollops, say them." + +"The Lord fetch us home in time for supper!" gulped the boy obediently. +"S'help me, Gov'nor, the wind's goin' through my teeth like I was a +mouth organ--and I'm hollow enough for a flute!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +It is strange how, in moments of stress and trial, even in times of +tragedy, the most commonplace thoughts will intrude themselves and the +mind separate itself from the immediate events. As Merode put the cold +muzzle of the revolver to Ailsa's temple and she ought, one would have +supposed, to have been deaf and blind to all things but the horror of +her position, one of these strange mental lapses occurred, and her mind, +travelling back over the years of her early schooldays, dwelt on a +punishment task set her by her preceptress--the task of copying three +hundred times the phrase "Discretion is the better part of valour." + +As the recollection of that time rose before her mental vision, the +value of the phrase itself forced its worth upon her and, huddling back +in the corner of the limousine, she clutched the frightened child to her +and gave implicit obedience to Merode's command to make no effort to +attract attention either by word or deed. And he, fancying that he had +thoroughly cowed her, withdrew the touch of the weapon from her temple, +but held it ready for possible use in the grip of his thin, strong hand. + +For a time the limousine kept straight on in its headlong course, then, +of a sudden, it swerved to the left, the gleam of a river--all silver +with moonlight--struck up through a line of trees on one side of the +car, the blank unbroken dreariness of a stretch of waste land spread out +upon the other; and presently, by the slowing down of the motor, Ailsa +guessed that they were nearing their destination. They reached it a few +moments later, and a peep from the window, as the vehicle stopped, +showed her the outlines of a ruined watermill--ghostly, crumbling, +owl-haunted--looming black against the silver sky. + +A crumbled wheel hung, rotten and moss-grown, over a dry water-course, +where straggling willows stretched out from the bank and trailed their +long, feathery ends a yard or so above the level of the weeds and +grasses that carpeted the sandy bed of it, and along its edge--once +built as a protection for the heedless or unwary, but now a ruin and a +wreck--a moss-grown wall with a narrow, gateless archway made an +irregular shadow on the moon-drenched earth. She saw that archway and +that dry water-course, and a new, strong hope arose within her. +Discretion had played its part; now it was time for Valour to take the +stage. + +"Come, get out--this is the end," said Merode, as he unlatched the door +of the limousine and alighted. "You may yell here until your throat +splits, for all the good it will do you. Lanisterre, show us a light; +the path to the door is uncertain, and the floor of the mill is unsafe. +This way, if you please, Miss Lorne. Let me have the boy--I'll look +after him!" + +"No, no!--not yet! Please, not yet!" said Ailsa, with a little catch in +her voice as she plucked his little lordship to her and smothered his +frightened cries against her breast. "Let me have him whilst I may--let +me hold him to--the last, Monsieur Merode. His mother trusts me. She +will want to know that I--I stood by him until I could stand no longer. +Please!--we are so helpless--I am so fond of him, and--he is such a very +little boy. Listen! You want me to write to Mr. Cleek; you want me to +ask something of him. I won't do it for myself--no, not if you kill me +for refusing. I'll never do it for myself; but--but I will do it if you +won't separate us until he has had time to say his prayers." + +"Oh, all right, then," he agreed. "If it's any consolation doing a +fool's trick like that, why--do it! Now come along, and let's get inside +the mill without any more nonsense. Lanisterre, bring that lantern here +so that mademoiselle can see the path to the door. This way, if you +please, Miss Lorne." + +"Thank you," she said as she alighted and moved slowly in the direction +of the door, soothing the child as they crept along almost within touch +of the crumbling wall. "Ceddie, darling, don't cry. You are a brave +little hero, I know, and heroes are never afraid to die." From the tail +of her eye she watched Merode. He seemed to realise from these words to +the child that she was reconciled to the inevitable, and with an air of +satisfaction he put the pistol back into his pocket and walked beside +her. She kept straight on with her soothing words; and, in the +half-shadow, neither Merode nor Lanisterre could see that one hand was +lost in the folds of her skirt. + +"Ceddie, darling, let Miss Lorne be able to tell mummie that her little +man was a hero; that he died, as heroes always die, without a fear or a +weakening to the very last. I'll stand by you, precious; I'll hold your +hand; and, when the time comes--" + +It came then! The gateless archway was reached at last; and the thing +she had been planning all along now became possible. With one sudden +push she sent the boy reeling down the incline into the dry +water-course, flashed round sharply, and before Merode really knew how +the thing happened, she was standing with her back to the arch and a +revolver in her levelled hand. + +"Throw up your arms--throw them up at once, or, as God hears me, I'll +shoot!" she cried. "Run, Ceddie--run, baby! He shan't follow you--I'll +kill him if he tries!" + +"You idiot!" began Merode, and made a lurch toward her. But the pistol +barked, and something white-hot zigzagged along his arm and bit like a +flame into his shoulder. + +"Up with your hands--up with them!" she said in a voice that shook with +excitement as he howled out and made a reeling backward step. "Next time +it will be the head I aim at, not the arm!" Then, lifting up her voice +in one loud shriek that made the echoes bound, she called with all her +strength; "Help, somebody--for God's sake help! Scream, Ceddie--scream! +Help! Help!" + +And lo! as she called, as if a miracle had been wrought, out of the +darkness an answering voice called back to her, and the wild, swift +notes of a motor horn bleated along the lonely road. + +"I'm coming--I--Cleek!" that voice rang out. "Hold your own--hold it to +the last, Miss Lorne, and God help the man who lays a finger on you!" + +"Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, oh, thank God!" she flung back with all the +rapture a human voice could contain. "Come on, come on! I've got +him--got that man Merode, and the boy is safe, the boy is safe! Come on! +come on! come on!" + +"We're a-comin', miss, you gamble on that--and the lightnin's a fool to +us!" shouted Dollops in reply. "Let her have it, Gov'nor! Bust the +bloomin' tank. Give her her head; give her her feet; give her her +blessed merry-thought if she wants it! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +And then, just then, when she most needed her strength and her courage, +Ailsa's evaporated. The reaction came and with the despairing cries of +Merode and Lanisterre ringing in her ears, she sank back, weak, white, +almost fainting--and, leaning against the side of the archway, began to +laugh and to sob hysterically. Merode seized that one moment and sprang +to the breach. + +Realising that the game was all but up, that there was nothing for him +now but to save his own skin if he could, he called out to Lanisterre to +follow him, then plunged into the mill, swung over the lever which +controlled the sluice gates, and, darting out by the back way, fled +across the waste. + +But behind him he left a scene of indescribable horror, and the shrill +screaming of a little child told him when that horror began. For as the +sluice gates opened a sullen roar sounded; on one side the diverted +millstream, and on the other the river, rose as two solid walls of +water, rushed forward and--met; and in the twinkling of an eye the old +water-course was one wild, leaping, roaring, gyrating whirlpool of +up-flung froth and twisting waves that bore in their eddying clutch the +battling figure of a drowning child. + +Even before he came in sight of it the roaring waters and the fearful +splash of their impact told Cleek what had been done. He could hear +Ailsa's screams; he could hear the boy's feeble cries, and a moment +later, when the whizzing motor panted up through the moonlight and sped +by the broken wall, there was Ailsa, fairly palsied with fright, +clinging weakly to the crumbling arch and uttering little sobbing, +wordless, incoherent moans of fright as she stared down into the hell of +waters; and below, in the foam, a little yellow head was spinning round +and round and round, in dizzying circles of torn and leaping waves. + +"Heavens, Gov'nor!" began Dollops in a voice of appalling despair; but +before he could get beyond that, Cleek's coat was off, Cleek's body had +described a sort of semi-circle, and--the child was no longer alone in +the whirlpool! + +Battling, struggling, fairly leaping, as a fish leaps in a torrent, one +moment half out of the water, the next wholly submerged, Cleek struck +from eddy to eddy, from circle to circle; until that little yellow head +was within reach, then put forth his hand and gripped it, pulled it to +him, and in another moment he was whirling round and round the +whirlpool's course with the child clutched to him and his wet, white +face gleaming wax-like over the angle of his shoulder. + +They had not made the half of the first circle thus before Dollops had +leaped to the bending willows, had scrambled up the rough trunk of the +nearest of them, and, pushing his weight out upon a strong and supple +bough, bent it downward until the half of its strongest withes were deep +in the whirling waters. + +"Grab 'em, Gov'nor--grab 'em when you come by!" he sang out over the +roar of the waters. "They'll hold you, sir--hold a dozen like you; and +if--Well played! Got 'em the first grab! Hang on! Get a tight grip! Now +then, sir, hand over hand till you're at the bank! Good biz! Good biz! +Blest if you won't be goin' in for the circus trade next! Steady does +it, sir--steady, steady! Goal, by Jupiter! Now then, hand me up the +nipper--I should say the young gent--and in two minutes' time--Right! +Got him! 'Ere you are, Miss Lorne--lay hold of his little lordship, will +you? I've got me blessed hands full a keepin' to me perch whilst the +guv'nor's a-wobbling of the branch like this. Good biz! Now then, sir, +another 'arf a yard. That's the call! Hands on this bough and foot on +the bank there. One, two, three--knew you'd do it! Safe as houses, Gawd +bless yer bully heart!" + +And then as Cleek, wet, white, panting, dragged himself out of the +clutch of the whirlpool and lay breathing heavily on the ground: + +"By gums, Gov'nor," Dollops added as he looked down on the whirling +waters, "what an egg-beater it would make, wouldn't it, sir? Ain't got +such a thing as a biscuit about yer, have you? Me spine's a rasping +holes in me necktie, and I'm so flat you could slip me into a pillar box +and they'd take me home for a penny stamp." + +But Cleek made no reply. Wet and spent after his fierce struggle with +the whirling fury he had just escaped, he lay looking up into Ailsa's +eyes as she came to him with the sobbing child close pressed to her +bosom and all heaven in her beaming face. + +"It is not the 'funeral wreath' after all, you see, Miss Lorne," he +said. "It came near to being it; but--it is not, it is not. I wonder, +oh, I wonder!" + +Then he laughed the foolish, vacuous laugh of a man whose thoughts are +too happy for the banality of words. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +It was midnight and after. In the close-curtained library of Chepstow +House, Cleek, with his little lordship sleeping in his arms, sat in +solemn conclave with Lady Chepstow, Captain Hawksley, and Maverick +Narkom; and while they talked, Ailsa, like a restless spirit, wandered +to and fro, now lifting the curtains to peep out into the darkness, now +listening as if her whole life's hope lay in the coming of some expected +sound. And in her veins there burned a fever of suspense. + +"So you failed to get the rascals, did you, Mr. Narkom?" Cleek was +saying. "I feared as much; but I couldn't get word to you sooner. We +injured the machine in that mad race to the mill, and of course we had +to come at a snail's pace afterwards. I'm sorry we didn't get +Margot--sorrier still that that hound Merode got away. They are bound to +make more trouble before the race is run. Not for her ladyship, however, +and not for this dear little chap. Their troubles are at an end, and the +sacred son will be a sacred son no longer." + +"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do tell me what you mean," implored Lady Chepstow. "Do +tell me how--" + +"Doctor Fordyce, at last!" struck in Ailsa excitedly, as the door-bell +and knocker clashed and the butler's swift footsteps went along the +hall. "Now we shall know, Mr. Cleek--oh, now we shall know for certain!" + +"And so shall all the world," he replied as the door opened and the +doctor was ushered into the room. "I don't think you were ever so +welcome anywhere or at any time before, doctor," he added with a smile. +"Come and look at this little chap. Bonny little specimen of a +Britisher, isn't he?" + +"Yes; but my dear sir, I--I was under the impression that I was called +to a scene of excitement; and you seem as peaceful as Eden here. The +constable who came for me said it was something to do with Scotland +Yard." + +"So it is, doctor. I had Mr. Narkom send for you to perform a very +trifling but most important operation upon his little lordship here." + +"Upon Cedric!" exclaimed Lady Chepstow, rising in a panic of alarm. "An +operation to be performed upon my baby boy? Oh, Mr. Cleek, in the name +of Heaven--" + +"No, your ladyship, in the name of Buddha. Don't be alarmed. It is only +to be a trifling cut--a mere re-opening of that little wound in the +thigh which you dressed and healed so successfully at Trincomalee. You +made a mistake, all of you, that night when the boy was shot. The native +poor Ferralt saw skulking along with the gun was not a mere tribesman +and had not the very faintest thought of discharging that weapon at your +little son, or, indeed, at anybody else in the world. He was the High +Priest Seydama, guardian of the Holy Tooth--the one living being who +dared by right to touch it or to lay hands upon the shrine that +contained it. Fearful, when the false rumour of that intended loot was +circulated, that infidel eyes should look upon it, infidel hands profane +the sacred relic, he determined to remove it from Dambool to the +rock-hewn temple of Galwihara and to enshrine it there. For the purpose +of giving no clue to his movements, he chose to abandon his priestly +vestments, to disguise himself as a common tribesman, and, the better to +defeat the designs of any who might penetrate that disguise and +endeavour to take the sacred relic from him and hold it for ransom, he +hid the Holy Tooth in the barrel of a gun. That gun was in his hands, +your ladyship, when Ferralt rushed out and brained him." + +"In his hands? Oh, Mr. Cleek, then--then--" Her voice all but failed her +as a sudden realization came. "That relic, that fetish! If it was in +that gun at that time, then it is now--" + +"Embedded in the fleshy part of the boy's thigh," said Cleek, finishing +the sentence for her. "Inclosed, doubtless, in a sac or cyst which +Mother Nature has wrapped round it, the tooth is there--in your little +son's body; and for five whole years he has been the living shrine that +held it!" + +It was quite true--as events rapidly and completely proved. + +Ten minutes later, the trifling operation was concluded; the boy lay +whimpering in his mother's arms and the long-lost relic was on the +surgeon's palm. + +"Take it, Captain Hawksley," said Cleek, lifting it between his thumb +and forefinger and carrying it to him. "There is a man in Soho--one +Arjeeb Noosrut--who will know it when he sees it; and there is a vast +reward. Five lacs of rupees will pay off no end of debts, my friend; and +a man with that balance at his banker's can't be thought a mere +fortune-hunter when he asks for the hand of the woman he loves." + +The Captain didn't ask for _his_, however--he simply jumped up and +grabbed it. + +"By George, you're a brick!" he said, with something uneven in his +voice--something that was like laughter and tears all jumbled up +together; then he glanced over at Lady Chepstow, and flushed, and +floundered, and stammered confusedly, but went on shaking Cleek's hand +all the time. "It's ripping of you--it's bully, dear chap, but--I say, +you know, it isn't fair. It's jolly uneven. _You_ found out. You ought +at least to have a share in the reward." + +"Not I," said Cleek, with an airy laugh. "Like the fellow who was born +with a third leg, 'I have no use for it,' Captain. But if you really +want to give any part of it away, bank a thousand to the credit of my +boy Dollops to be turned over to him when he's twenty-one. And you might +make Mr. Narkom, and, if she will accept the post, Miss Lorne, his +trustees." + +Miss Lorne faced round and looked at him; and even from that distance he +could see that her mouth was moving tremulously and there was something +shining in the corner of her eye. + +"I accept that position with pleasure, Mr. Cleek," she said. "It is the +act of a man and--a gentleman. Thank you! Thank you." And came down the +long length of the room with her hand outstretched to take his. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +He took it with that grave courtesy, that gentle dignity of bearing +which at times distinguished his deportment and was, indeed, as puzzling +to her as it was to Mr. Maverick Narkom. It came but rarely, that +peculiar air, but it was very noticeable when it did come, although the +man himself seemed totally oblivious of it. Miss Lorne noticed it now, +just as she had noticed it that day in the train when she had said +banteringly: "I am not used to Court manners. Where, if you please, did +you acquire yours?" + +"I can't say how deeply indebted I feel--you must imagine that, Miss +Lorne," he said, bending over the hand that lay in his, with an air that +made Lady Chepstow lift her eyebrows and look at him narrowly. "It is +one of the kindest things you could do for the boy and--for me. I thank +you very, very much indeed. My thanks are due to you, too, Captain; for +I feel that you will gladly do the favour I have asked." + +"Do it? Yes, like a shot, old chap. What a ripping fellow you are!" + +"I'm a tired one at all events," replied Cleek. "So, if you--and the +ladies"--bowing to them--"will kindly excuse me, I'll be off home for a +needed rest. Lady Chepstow, my very best respects. I feel sure that his +little lordship will be quite all right in a day or two, although I +shall, of course, be glad to learn how he progresses. May I? Perhaps +Miss Lorne might be persuaded to send me a word or two through--Mr. +Narkom." + +Lady Chepstow was still looking at him as she had been from the moment +he had taken Ailsa's hand. Now she put out her own to him. + +"Why wait for written reports, Mr. Cleek? Why not call in person and +see?" she asked. "It will be more satisfactory than writing; and you +will be welcome always." + +"I thank your ladyship," he said gravely--though all the soul of him +rioted and laughed and longed to shout out for sheer joy. "It is a +privilege I shall be happy to enjoy." + +But afterward, when he came to take his leave, a dearer one was granted +him; for Ailsa herself accompanied him to the door. + +"I couldn't let the butler show you out, Mr. Cleek," she said, as they +stood together in the wide entrance hall. "I couldn't let you go until I +had said something that is on my mind--something that has been pricking +my conscience all evening. I want to tell you that from this night on I +am going to forget those other nights: that one in the mist at +Hampstead, that other on the stairway at Wyvern House--forget them +utterly and entirely, Mr. Cleek. Whatever you may have been _once_, I +know that now you are indeed a man!" + +Then gave him her hand again, smiled at him, and sent him home feeling +that he was as near to the threshold of heaven as any mortal thing may +hope to be. + +Followed a time of such happiness as only they may know who having lived +in darkness first know that there is such a thing as Light; followed +days and weeks that went like magic things, blest to the uttermost +before they go. For now he was a welcome visitor at the house that +sheltered her; now the armour of reserve had dropped from her, and they +were finding out between them that they had many tastes in common. + +It was in August when the first interruption to this happy state of +affairs occurred and they came to know that separation was to be endured +again. Lady Chepstow, planning already for a wedding that was to take +place in the early winter, decided to spend the last few months of her +widowhood at her country house in Devonshire, and retired to it taking +her servants, her little son, and her son's governess with her. + +For a day or two, Cleek "mooned" about--restless, lonely despite +Dollops's presence, finding no savour in anything; and it came as a +positive relief when a call from The Yard sent him to a modest little +house in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common. The "call" in question +took the shape of a letter from Mr. Narkom. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran, "a most amazing case--probably _the_ most +amazing you have yet tackled--has just cropped up. The client is one +Captain Morrison, a retired Army officer living solely on his half pay. +His daughter is involved in the astonishing affair. Indeed, it is at her +earnest appeal that the matter has been brought to my notice. As the +Captain is in too weak a state of health to journey any distance, I am +going to ask you to meet me at No. 17, Sunnington Crescent, +Wandsworth--a house kept by one Mrs. Culpin, widow of one of my Yard +men, at three o'clock this afternoon. Knowing your reluctance to have +your identity disclosed, I have taken the liberty of giving you the name +you adopted in the Bawdrey affair, to wit: 'George Headland.' I have +also taken the same precaution with regard to the Morrisons, leaving you +to disclose your identity or not, as you see fit." + +Glad enough for anything to distract his thoughts from the brooding +state of melancholy into which they had sunk, Cleek looked up a +time-table, caught the 2:47 train from Victoria Station; and Narkom, +walking into Mrs. Culpin's modest little drawing-room at two minutes +past three, found him standing in the window and looking thoughtfully +out at the groups of children romping on the near-by common. + +"Well, here I am at last, you see, my dear fellow," he said, as he +crossed the room and shook hands with him. "Ripping day, isn't it? What +are you doing? Admiring the view or taking stock of Mrs. Culpin's +roses?" + +"Neither. I was speculating in futures," replied Cleek, glancing back at +the sunlit common, and then glancing away again with a faintly audible +sigh. "How happy, how care-free they are, those merry little beggars, +Mr. Narkom. What you said in your letter set my thoughts harking +backward, and ... I was wondering what things the coming years might +hold for them and for their parents. At one time, you know, Philip +Bawdrey was as innocent and guileless as any of those little shavers; +and yet, in after years he proved a monster of iniquity, a beast of +ingratitude, and--Oh, well, let it pass. He paid, as thankless children +always do pay under God's good rule. I wonder what his thoughts were +when his last hour came." + +"It did come, then?" + +"Yes. Got playing some of his games with those short-tempered chaps out +in Buenos Ayres and got knifed a fortnight after his arrival. I had a +letter from Mrs. Bawdrey yesterday. His father never knew of--well, the +other thing; and never will now, thank God. The longer I live, Mr. +Narkom, the surer I become that straight living always pays; and that +the chap who turns into the other lane gets what he deserves before the +game is played out." + +"Ten years of Scotland Yard have enabled me to endorse that statement +emphatically," replied Narkom. "'The riddle of the ninth finger' was no +different in that respect from nine hundred other riddles that have come +my way since I took office. Now sit down, old chap, and let us take up +the present case. But I say, Cleek; speaking of rewards reminds me of +what I wrote you. There's very little chance of one in this affair. All +the parties connected with it are in very moderate circumstances. The +sculptor fellow, Van Nant, who figures in it, was quite well-to-do at +one time, I believe, but he ran through the greater part of his money, +and a dishonest solicitor did him out of the rest. Miss Morrison herself +never did have any, and, as I have told you, the Captain hasn't anything +in the world but his pension; and it takes every shilling of that to +keep them. In the circumstances, I'd have made it a simple 'Yard' +affair, chargeable to the Government, and put one of the regular staff +upon it. But--well, it's such an astounding, such an unheard-of-thing, I +knew you'd fairly revel in it. And besides, after all the rewards you +have won you must be quite a well-to-do man by this time, and able to +indulge in a little philanthropy." + +Cleek smiled. + +"I will indulge in it, of course," he said, "but not for that reason, +Mr. Narkom. I wonder how much it will surprise you to learn that, at the +present moment, I have just one hundred pounds in all the world?" + +"My dear fellow!" Narkom exclaimed, with a sort of gasp, staring at him +in round-eyed amazement. "You fairly take away my breath. Why, you must +have received a fortune since you took up these special cases. Fifty or +sixty thousand pounds at the smallest calculation." + +"More! To be precise, I have received exactly seventy-two thousand +pounds, Mr. Narkom. But, as I tell you, I have to-day but one hundred +pounds of that sum left. Lost in speculation? Oh, dear no! I've not +invested one farthing in any scheme, company, or purchase since the +night you gave me my chance and helped me to live an honest life." + +"Then in the name of Heaven, Cleek, what has become of the money?" + +"It has gone in the cause of my redemption, Mr. Narkom," he answered in +a hushed voice. "My good friend--for you really _have_ been a good +friend to me, the best I ever had in all the world--my good friend, let +us for only just this one minute speak of the times that lie behind. You +know what redeemed me--a woman's eyes, a woman's rose-white soul! I +said, did I not, that I wanted to win her, wanted to be worthy of her, +wanted to climb up and stand with her in the light? You remember that, +do you not, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes, I remember. But, my dear fellow, why speak of your 'vanishing +cracksman' days when you have so utterly put them behind you, and since +lived a life beyond reproach? Whatever you did in those times you have +amply atoned for. And what can that have to do with your impoverished +state?" + +"It has everything to do with it. I said I would be worthy of that one +dear woman, and--I can never be, Mr. Narkom, until I have made +restitution; until I can offer her a clean hand as well as a clean life. +I can't restore the actual things that the 'vanishing cracksman' stole; +for they are gone beyond recall, but--I can, at least, restore the value +of them, and--that I have been secretly doing for a long time." + +"Man alive! God bless my soul! Cleek, my dear fellow, do you mean to +tell me that all the rewards, all the money you have earned--" + +"Has gone to the people from whom I stole things in the wretched old +days that lie behind me," he finished very gently. "It goes back, in +secret gifts, as fast as it is earned, Mr. Narkom. Don't you see the +answers, the acknowledgments, in the 'Personal' columns of the papers +now and again? Wheresoever I robbed in those old days, I am repaying in +these. When the score is wiped off, when the last robbery is paid for, +my hand will be clean, and--I can offer it; never before." + +"Cleek! My dear fellow! What a man! What a _man_! Oh, more than ever am +I certain _now_ that old Sir Horace Wyvern was right that night when he +said that you were a gentleman. Tell me--I'll respect it--tell me, for +God's sake, man, who are you? _What_ are you, dear friend?" + +"Cleek," he made reply. "Just Cleek! The rest is my secret and--God's! +We've never spoken of the past since _that_ night, Mr. Narkom, and, with +your kind permission, we never will speak of it again. I'm Cleek, the +detective--at your service once more. Now, then, let's have the new +strange case on which you called me here. What's it all about?" + +"Necromancy--wizardry--fairy-lore--all the stuff and nonsense that goes +to the making of 'The Arabian Nights'!" said Narkom, waxing excited as +his thoughts were thus shoved back to the amazing affair he had in hand. +"All your 'Red Crawls' and your 'Sacred Sons' and your 'Nine-fingered +Skeletons' are fools to it for wonder and mystery. Talk about +witchcraft! Talk about wizards and giants and enchanters and the things +that witches did in the days of Macbeth! God bless my soul, they're +nothing to it. Those were the days of magic, anyhow, so you can take it +or leave it, as you like; but this--look here, Cleek, you've heard of a +good many queer things and run foul of a good many mysteries, I'll +admit, but did you ever--in this twentieth century, when witchcraft and +black magic are supposed to be as dead as Queen Anne--did you ever, my +dear fellow, hear of such a marvel as a man putting on a blue leather +belt that was said to have the power of rendering the wearer invisible +and then forthwith melting into thin air and floating off like a cloud +of pipe smoke?" + +"Gammon!" + +"Gammon nothing! Facts!" + +"Facts? You're off your head, man. The thing couldn't possibly happen. +Somebody's having you!" + +"Well, somebody had _him_, at all events. Young Carboys, I mean--the +chap that's engaged, or, rather was engaged, to Captain Morrison's +daughter; and the poor girl's half out of her mind over it. He put the +belt on in the presence of her and her father--in their own house, mind +you--walked into a bedroom, and vanished like smoke. Doors locked, +windows closed, room empty, belt on the floor, and man gone. Not a trace +of him from that moment to this; and yesterday was to have been his +wedding-day. There's a 'mystery,' if you like. What do you make of +that?" + +Cleek looked at him for an instant. Then: + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, for the moment I thought you were fooling," he said +in a tone of deep interest. "But I see now that you are quite in +earnest, although the thing sounds so preposterous, a child might be +expected to scoff at it. A man to get a magic belt, to put it on, and +then to melt away? Why, the 'Seven-league Boots' couldn't be a greater +tax on one's credulity. Sit down and tell me all about it." + +"The dickens of it is there doesn't seem to be much to tell," said +Narkom, accepting the invitation. "Young Carboys, who appears to have +been a decent sort of chap, had neither money, position, nor enemies, so +that's an end to any idea of somebody having a reason for wishing to get +rid of him; and, as he was devotedly attached to Miss Morrison, and was +counting the very hours to the time of their wedding, and, in addition, +had no debts, no entanglements of any sort, and no possible reason for +wishing to disappear, there isn't the slightest ground for suspecting +that he did so voluntarily." + +"Suppose you tell me the story from the beginning, and leave me to draw +my own conclusions regarding that," said Cleek. "Who and what was the +man? Was he living in the same house with his fiancee, then? You say the +disappearance occurred there, at night, and that he went into a bedroom. +Was the place his home, as well as Captain Morrison's, then?" + +"On the contrary. His home was a matter of three or four miles distant. +He was merely stopping at the Morrison's on that particular night; I'll +tell you presently why and how he came to do that. For the present, +let's take things in their proper order. Once upon a time this George +Carboys occupied a fair position in the world, and his parents--long +since dead--were well to do. The son, being an only child, was well +looked after--sent to Eton and then to Brasenose, and all that sort of +thing--and the future looked very bright for him. Before he was +twenty-one, however, his father lost everything through unlucky +speculations, and that forced the son to make his own living. At the +'Varsity he had fallen in with a rich young Belgian--fellow named +Maurice Van Nant--who had a taste for sculpture and the fine arts +generally, and they had become the warmest and closest of friends." + +"Maurice Van Nant? That's the sculptor fellow you said in the beginning +had gone through his money, isn't it?" + +"Yes. Well, when young Carboys was thrown on the world, so to speak, +this Van Nant came to the rescue, made a place for him as private +secretary and companion, and for three or four years they knocked round +the world together, going to Egypt, Persia, India, _et cetera_, as Van +Nant was mad on the subject of Oriental art, and wished to study it at +the fountain-head. In the meantime both Carboys' parents went over to +the silent majority, and left him without a relative in the world, +barring Captain Morrison, who is an uncle about seven times removed and +would, of course, naturally be heir-at-law to anything he left if he had +anything to leave, poor beggar, which he hadn't. But that's getting +ahead of the story. + +"Well, at the end of four years or so Van Nant came to the bottom of his +purse--hadn't a stiver left; and from dabbling in art for pleasure, had +to come down to it as a means of earning a livelihood. And he and +Carboys returned to England, and, for purposes of economy, pooled their +interests, took a small box of a house over Putney way, set up a regular +'bachelor establishment,' and started in the business of bread-winning +together. Carboys succeeded in getting a clerk's position in town; Van +Nant set about modelling clay figures and painting mediocre pictures, +and selling both whenever he could find purchasers. + +"Naturally, these were slow in coming, few and far between; but with +Carboys' steady two pounds a week coming in, they managed to scrape +along and to keep themselves going. They were very happy, too, despite +the fact that Carboys had got himself engaged to Miss Morrison, and was +hoarding every penny he could possibly save in order to get enough to +marry on; and this did not tend to make Van Nant overjoyed, as such a +marriage would, of course, mean the end of their long association and +the giving up of their bachelor quarters." + +"To say nothing of leaving Van Nant to rub along as best he could +without any assistance from Carboys," commented Cleek. "I think I can +guess a portion of what resulted, Mr. Narkom. Van Nant did not, of +course, in these circumstances have any tender regard for Miss +Morrison." + +"No, he did not. In point of fact, he disliked her very much indeed, and +viewed the approaching wedding with extreme disfavour." + +"And yet you say that nobody had an interest in doing Carboys some sort +of mischief in order to prevent that wedding from being consummated, Mr. +Narkom," said Cleek with a shrug of the shoulders. "Certainly, Van Nant +would have been glad to see a spoke put in that particular wheel; though +I freely confess I do not see what good could come of preventing it by +doing away with Carboys, as he would then be in as bad a position as if +the marriage had been allowed to proceed as planned. Either way he loses +Carboys' companionship and assistance; and his one wish would be to +preserve both. Well, go on. What next? I'm anxious to hear about the +belt. Where and how does that come in?" + +"Well, it appears that Miss Morrison got hold of a humorous book called +'The Brass Bottle,' a fantastic, farcical thing, about a genie who had +been sealed up in a bottle for a thousand years getting out and causing +the poor devil of a hero no end of worry by heaping riches and honours +upon him in the most embarrassing manner. It happened that on the night +Miss Morrison got this book, and read it aloud for the amusement of her +father and lover, Carboys had persuaded Van Nant to spend the evening +with them. Apparently he enjoyed himself, too, for he laughed as +boisterously as any of them over the farcical tale, and would not go +home until he had heard the end of it. When it was finished Miss +Morrison tells me, Carboys, after laughing fit to split his sides over +the predicament of the hero of the book, cried out: 'By George! I wish +some old genie would take it into his head to hunt me up, and try the +same sort of a dodge with me. He wouldn't find this chicken shying his +gold and his gems back at his head, I can tell you. I'd accept all the +Arab slaves and all the palaces he wanted to thrust on me; and then I'd +make 'em all over to you, Mary dear, so you'd never have to do another +day's worrying or pinching in all your life. But never you nor anybody +else depend upon an Arab's gratitude or an Arab's generosity. He'll +promise you the moon, and then wriggle out of giving you so much as a +star--just as Abdul ben Meerza did with me.' And upon Miss Morrison +asking what he meant by that, he replied, laughingly: 'Ask Van, he knew +the old codger better than I--knew his whole blessed family, blow +him!--and was able to talk to the old skinflint in his own outlandish +tongue.' + +"Upon Miss Morrison's acting on this suggestion, Van Nant told of an +adventure Carboys had had in Persia some years previously. It appears +that he saved the life of a miserly old Arab called Abdul ben Meerza at +the risk of his own; that the old man was profuse in his expressions of +gratitude, and, on their parting, had said: 'By the Prophet, thou shalt +yet find the tree of this day's planting bear rich fruit for thee and +thy feet walk upon golden stones.' But, in spite of this promise, he had +walked away, and Carboys had never heard another word from nor of him +from that hour until three nights ago." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong, rising inflection. "And he did hear of +him, then?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom. "Quite unexpectedly, and while he was preparing +to spend a dull evening at home with Van Nant--for the night was, as you +must recollect, my dear fellow, a horribly wet and stormy one--a message +came to him from Miss Morrison asking him to come over to Wandsworth +without delay, as a most amazing thing had happened. A box marked 'From +Abdul ben Meerza' had been delivered there, of all astonishing places. +The message concluded by saying that as it was such a horrible night, +the Captain, her father, would not hear of his returning, so begged him +to bring his effects, and come prepared to remain until morning. + +"He went, of course, carrying with him a small bag containing his +pyjamas, his shaving tackle, and such few accessories as would be +necessary, since, if he stopped, he must start from there to business in +the morning; and on his arrival was handed a small leather case +addressed as he had been told. Imagining all sorts of wonders, from +jewels of fabulous value to documents entitling him to endless wealth, +he unfastened the case, and found within it a broad belt of blue +enamelled leather secured with a circular brass clasp, on which was +rudely scratched in English the words, 'The wizards of the East grew +rich by being unseen. Whoso clasps this belt about his waist may become +invisible for the wishing. So does ben Meerza remember.' + +"Of course, Carboys treated it as the veriest rubbish--who wouldn't? +Indeed, suspected Van Nant of having played a joke upon him, and +laughingly threw it aside; and, finding that he had taken an +uncomfortable journey for nothing, got some good out of it by spending a +pleasant evening with the Captain and his daughter. A room had been made +ready for him--in fact, although he did not know it, Miss Morrison had +given him hers, and had herself gone to a less attractive one--and in +due time he prepared to turn in for the night. As they parted Miss +Morrison, in a bantering spirit, picked up the belt and handed it to +him, remarking that he had better keep it, as, after marriage, he might +some time be glad to creep into the house unseen; and, in the same +bantering spirit, he had replied that he had better begin learning how +the thing worked in case of necessity, and taking the belt, clasped it +round his waist, said good-night, and stepped into the room prepared for +him. Miss Morrison and her father heard him close the door and pull down +the blind, and--that was the last that was seen or heard of him. + +"In the morning the bed was found undisturbed, his locked bag on a +chair, and in the middle of the floor the blue leather belt; but of the +man himself there was not one trace to be found. There, that's the +story, Cleek. Now what do you make of it?" + +"I shall be able to tell you better after I have seen the parties +concerned," said Cleek, after a moment's pause. "You have brought your +motor, of course? Let us step into it, then, and whizz round to Captain +Morrison's house. What's that? Oh, undoubtedly a case of foul play, Mr. +Narkom. But as to the motive and the matter of who is guilty, it is +impossible to decide until I have looked further into the evidence. Do +me a favour, will you? After you have left me at the Captain's house, +'phone up The Yard, and let me have the secret cable code with the East; +also, if you can, the name of the chief of the Persian police." + +"My dear chap, you can't really place any credence in that absurd +assertion regarding the blue belt? You can't possibly think that Abdul +ben Meerza really sent the thing?" + +"No, I can't," said Cleek in reply. "Because, to the best of my belief, +it is impossible for a dead man to send anything; and, if my memory +doesn't betray me, I fancy I read in the newspaper accounts of that big +Tajik rising at Khotour a couple of months ago, that the leader, one +Abdul ben Meerza, a rich but exceedingly miserly merchant of the +province of Elburz, was, by the Shah's command, bastinadoed within an +inch of his life, and then publicly beheaded." + +"By Jove! I believe you are right, my dear fellow," asserted Narkom. "I +thought the name had a familiar sound--as if I had, somewhere, heard it +before. I suppose there is no likelihood, by any chance, that the old +skinflint could have lived up to his promise and left poor Carboys +something, after all, Cleek? Because, you know, if he did--" + +"Captain Morrison would, as heir-at-law, inherit it," supplemented +Cleek, dryly. "Get out the motor, Mr. Narkom, and let's spin round and +see him. I fancy I should like a few minutes' conversation with the +Captain. And--Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes." + +"We'll stick to the name 'George Headland,' if you please. When you are +out for birds it doesn't do to frighten them off beforehand." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +It did not take more than five minutes to cover the distance between +Sunnington Crescent and the modest little house where Captain Morrison +and his daughter lived; so in a very brief time Cleek had the +satisfaction of interviewing both. + +Narkom's assertion, that Miss Morrison was "half out of her mind over +the distressing affair" had prepared him to encounter a weeping, +red-eyed, heart-broken creature of the most excitable type. He found +instead a pale, serious-faced, undemonstrative girl of somewhat +uncertain age--sweet of voice, soft of step, quiet of demeanour--who was +either one of those persons who repress all external evidence of +internal fires, and bear their crosses in silence, or was as +cold-blooded as a fish and as heartless as a statue. He found the father +the exact antithesis of the daughter, a nervous, fretful, irritable +individual (gout had him by the heels at the time), who was as full of +"yaps" and snarls as any Irish terrier, and as peevish and fussy as a +fault-finding old woman. Added to this, he had a way of glancing all +round the room, and avoiding the eye of the person to whom he was +talking. And if Cleek had been like the generality of people, and hadn't +known that some of the best and "straightest" men in the world have been +afflicted in this manner, and some of the worst and "crookedest" could +look you straight in the eyes without turning a hair, he might have +taken this for a bad sign. Then, too, he seemed to have a great many +more wrappings and swaddlings about his gouty foot than appeared to be +necessary--unless it was done to make his helpless state very apparent, +and to carry out his assertion that he hadn't been able to walk a foot +unassisted for the past week, and could not, therefore, be in any way +connected with young Carboys' mysterious vanishment. Still, even that +had its contra aspect. He might be one of those individuals who make a +mountain out of a molehill of pain, and insist upon a dozen poultices +where one would do. + +But Cleek could not forget that, as Narkom had said, there was not the +shadow of doubt that in the event of Carboys having died possessed of +means, the Captain would be the heir-at-law by virtue of his kinship; +and it is a great deal more satisfactory to be rich oneself than to be +dependent upon the generosity of a rich son-in-law. So, after adroitly +exercising the "pump" upon other matters: + +"I suppose, Miss Morrison," said Cleek in a casual off-hand sort of way, +"you don't happen to know if Mr. Carboys ever made a will, do you? I am +aware, from what Mr. Narkom has told me of his circumstances, that he +really possessed nothing that would call for the execution of such a +document; but young men have odd fancies sometimes--particularly when +they become engaged--so it is just possible that he might have done such +a thing; that there was a ring or something of that sort he wanted to +make sure of your getting should anything happen to him. Of course, it +is an absurd suggestion, but--" + +"It is not so absurd as you think, Mr. Headland," she interrupted. "As +it happens, Mr. Carboys did make a will. But that was a very long time +ago--in fact, before he knew me, so my name did not figure in it at all. +He once told me of the circumstances connected with it. It was executed +when he was about three-and-twenty. It appears that there were some +personal trinkets, relics of his more prosperous days: a set of jewelled +waistcoat buttons, a scarf-pin, a few choice books and things like that, +which he desired Mr. Van Nant to have in the event of his death (they +were then going to the Orient, and times there were troublous); so he +drew up a will, leaving everything that he might die possessed of to Mr. +Van Nant, and left the paper with the latter's solicitor when they bade +good-bye to England. So far as I know, that will still exists, Mr. +Headland; so"--here the faintest suggestion of a quiver got into her +voice--"if anything of a tragical nature had happened to him, and--and +the trinkets hadn't disappeared with him, Mr. Van Nant could claim them +all, and I should have not even one poor little token to cherish in +memory of him. And I am sure--I am very sure--that if he had known--if +he had thought--" + +"Mary, for goodness' sake, don't begin to snivel!" chimed in her father +querulously. "It gets on my nerves. And you know very well how I am +suffering! Of course, it was most inconsiderate of Carboys not to +destroy that will as soon as you and he were engaged; but he knew that +marriage invalidates any will a man may have made previously, and--well, +you can't suppose that he ever expected things to turn out as they have +done. Besides, Van Nant would have seen that you got something to +treasure as a remembrance. He's a very decent chap, is Van Nant, Mr. +Headland, although my daughter has never appeared to think so. But +there's no arguing with a woman any way." + +Cleek glanced at Narkom. It was a significant glance, and said as +plainly as so many words: "What do you think of it? You said there was +no motive, and, provided Carboys fell heir to something of which we know +nothing as yet, here are _two_! If that will was destroyed, one man +would, as heir-at-law, inherit; ditto the other man if it was not +destroyed and not invalidated by marriage. And here's the 'one' man +singing the praises of the 'other' one!" + +"Collusion?" queried Narkom's answering look. "Perhaps," said Cleek's in +response, "one of these two men has made away with him. The question is, +which? and, also, why? when? where?" Then he turned to the Captain's +daughter, and asked quietly: "Would you mind letting me see the room +from which the young man disappeared? I confess I haven't the ghost of +an idea regarding the case, Captain; but if you don't mind letting your +daughter show me the room--" + +"Mind? Good Lord, no!" responded the Captain. "All I want to know is, +what became of the poor boy, and if there's any likelihood of his ever +coming back alive. I'd go up with you myself, only you see how helpless +I am. Mary, take Mr. Headland to the room. And please don't stop any +longer than is necessary. I'm suffering agonies and not fit to be left +alone." + +Miss Morrison promised to return as expeditiously as possible, and then +forthwith led the way to the room in question. + +"This is it, Mr. Headland," she said as she opened the door and ushered +Cleek in. "Everything is just exactly as it was when George left it. I +couldn't bring myself to touch a thing until after a detective had seen +it. Father said it was silly and sentimental of me to go on sleeping in +a little box of a hall bedroom when I could be so much more comfortable +if I returned to my own. But--I couldn't! I felt that I might possibly +be unconsciously destroying something in the shape of a clue if I moved +a solitary object, and so--Look! there is the drawn blind just as he +left it; there his portmanteau on that chair by the bedside, and +there--" Her voice sank to a sort of awed whisper, her shaking finger +extended in the direction of a blue semi-circle in the middle of the +floor. "There is the belt! He had it round his waist when he crossed +this threshold that night. It was lying there just as you see it when +the servant brought up his tea and his shaving-water the next morning, +and found the room empty and the bed undisturbed." + +Cleek walked forward and picked up the belt. + +"Humph! Unfastened!" he said as he took it up; and Miss Morrison, +closing the door, went below and left them. "Our wonderful wizard does +not seem to have mastered the simple matter of making a man vanish out +of the thing without first unfastening the buckle, it appears. I should +have thought he could have managed that, shouldn't you, Mr. Narkom, if +he could have managed the business of making him melt into thin air? +Hur-r-r!" reflectively, as he turned the belt over and examined it. "Not +seen much use, apparently; the leather's quite new, and the inside quite +unsoiled. British manufactured brass, too, in the buckle. Shouldn't have +expected that in a Persian-made article. Inscription scratched on with +the point of a knife, or some other implement not employed in metal +engraving. May I trouble you for a pin? Thank you. Hum-m-m! Thought so. +Some dirty, clayey stuff rubbed in to make the letters appear old and of +long standing. Look here, Mr. Narkom: metal quite bright underneath when +you pick the stuff out. Inscription very recently added; leather, +American tanned; brass, Birmingham; stitching, by the Blake shoe and +harness machine; wizard--probably born in Tottenham Court Road, and his +knowledge of Persia confined to Persian powder in four-penny tins." + +He laid the belt aside, and walked slowly round the room, inspecting its +contents before turning his attention to the portmanteau. + +"Evidently the vanishing qualities of the belt did not assert themselves +very rapidly, Mr. Narkom," he said, "for Mr. Carboys not only prepared +to go to bed, but had time to get himself ready to hurry off to business +in the morning with as little delay as possible. Look here; here are his +pyjamas on the top of this chest of drawers, neatly folded, just as he +lifted them out of his portmanteau; and as a razor has been wiped on +this towel (see this slim line of dust-like particles of hair), he +shaved before going to bed in order to save himself the trouble of doing +so in the morning. But as there is no shaving-mug visible, and he +couldn't get hot water at that hour of the night, we shall probably +discover a spirit-lamp and its equipment when we look into the +portmanteau. Now, as he had time to put these shaving articles away +after using, and as no man shaves with his collar and necktie on, if we +do not find those, too, in the portmanteau, we may conclude that he put +them on again; and, as he wouldn't put them on again if he were going to +bed, the inference is obvious--something caused him to dress and prepare +to leave the house voluntarily. That 'something' must have manifested +itself very abruptly, and demanded great haste--either that, or he +expected to return; for you will observe that, although he replaced his +shaving tackle in the portmanteau, he did not put his sleeping-suit back +with it. While I am poking about, do me the favour of looking in the +bag, Mr. Narkom; and tell me if you find the collar and necktie there." + +"Not a trace of them," announced the superintendent a moment or two +later. "Here are the shaving-mug, the brush, and the spirit-lamp, +however, just as you suggested; and--Hallo! what have you stumbled upon +now?" For Cleek, who had been "poking about," as he termed it, had +suddenly stooped, picked up something, and was regarding it fixedly as +it lay in the palm of his hand. + +"A somewhat remarkable thing to discover in a lady's bed-chamber, Mr. +Narkom, unless--Just step downstairs, and ask Miss Morrison to come up +again for a moment, will you?" And then held out his hand so that Narkom +could see, in passing, that a hempseed, two grains of barley, and an oat +lay upon his palm. "Miss Morrison," he inquired as Mary returned in +company with the superintendent, "Miss Morrison, do you keep pigeons?" + +She gave a little cry, and clasped her hands together, as if reproaching +herself for some heartless act. + +"Oh!" she said, moving hastily forward toward the window. "Poor dears! +How good of you to remind me. To think that I should forget to feed them +for three whole days. They may be dead by now. But at such a time I +could think of nothing but this hideous mystery. My pigeons--my poor, +pretty pigeons!" + +"Oh, then you do keep them?" + +"Yes; oh, yes. In a wire-enclosed cote attached to the house just +outside this window. Homing pigeons, Mr. Headland. George bought them +for me. We had an even half dozen each. We used to send messages to each +other that way. He would bring his over to me, and take mine away with +him at night when he went home, so we could correspond at any moment +without waiting for the post. That's how I sent him the message about +the arrival of the belt. Oh, do unlock the window, and let me see if the +pretty dears are still alive." + +"It doesn't need to be unlocked, Miss Morrison," he replied, as he +pulled up the blind. "See, it can be opened easily--the catch is not +secured." + +"Not secured? Why, how strange. I myself fastened it after I despatched +the bird with the message about the belt. And nobody came into the room +after that until George did so that night. Oh, do look and see if the +pretty creatures are dead. They generally coo so persistently; and now I +don't hear a sound from them." + +Cleek threw up the sash and looked out. A huge wistaria with tendrils as +thick as a man's wrist covered the side of the house, and made a +veritable ladder down to the little garden; and, firmly secured to this, +on a level with the window-sill and within easy reach therefrom, was the +dovecote in question. He put in his hand, and slowly drew out four +stiff, cold, feathered little bodies, and laid them on the +dressing-table before her; then, while she was grieving over them, he +groped round in all corners of the cote and drew forth still another. + +"Five?" she exclaimed in surprise. "Five? Oh, but there should be only +four, Mr. Headland. It is true that George brought over all six the day +before; but I 'flew' one to him in the early morning, and I 'flew' a +second at night, with the message about the belt; so there should be but +four." + +"Oh, well, possibly one was 'flown' by him to you, and it 'homed' +without your knowledge." + +"Yes, but it couldn't get inside the wired enclosure unassisted, Mr. +Headland. See! that spring-door has to be opened when it is returned to +the cote after it has carried its message home. You see, I trained them, +by feeding them in here, to come into this room when they were flown +back to me. They always flew directly in if the window was opened, or +gave warning of their presence by fluttering about and beating against +the panes if the sash was closed. And for a fifth pigeon to be inside +the enclosure--I can't understand the thing at all. Oh, Mr. Headland, do +you think it is anything in the nature of a clue?" + +"It may be," he replied evasively. "Clues are funny things, Miss +Morrison; you never know when you may pick one up, nor how. I shouldn't +say anything to anybody about this fifth pigeon if I were you. Let that +be our secret for awhile; and if your father wants to know why I sent +for you to come up here again--why, just say I have discovered that your +pigeons are dead for want of food." And for a moment or two, after she +had closed the door and gone below again, he stood looking at Mr. Narkom +and slowly rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down his chin. Then, +of a sudden: + +"I think, Mr. Narkom, we can fairly decide, on the evidence of that +fifth pigeon, that George Carboys left this room voluntarily," returned +Cleek; "that the bird brought him a message of such importance it was +necessary to leave this house at once, and that, not wishing to leave it +unlocked while he was absent, and not--because of the Captain's +inability to get back upstairs afterward--having anybody to whom he +could appeal to get up and lock it after him, he chose to get out of +this window, and to go down by means of that wistaria. I think, too, we +may decide that, as he left no note to explain his absence, he expected +to return before morning, and that, as he never did return, he has met +with foul play. Of course, it is no use looking for footprints in the +garden in support of this hypothesis, for the storm that night was a +very severe one and quite sufficient to blot out all trace of them; +but--Look here, Mr. Narkom, put two and two together. If a message was +sent him by a carrier pigeon, where must that pigeon have come from, +since it was one of Miss Morrison's?" + +"Why, from Van Nant's place, of course. It couldn't possibly come from +any other place." + +"Exactly. And as Van Nant and Carboys lived together--kept Bachelor +Hall--and there was never anybody but their two selves in the house at +any time, why, nobody but Van Nant himself could have despatched the +bird. Look at that fragment of burnt paper lying in the basin of that +candlestick on the washstand. If that isn't all that's left of the paper +that was tied under the pigeon's wing, and if Carboys didn't use it for +the purpose of lighting the spirit-lamp by which he heated his +shaving-water, depend upon it that, in his haste and excitement, he +tucked it into his pocket, and if ever we find his body we shall find +that paper on it." + +"His body? My dear Cleek, you don't believe that the man has been +murdered?" + +"I don't know--yet. I shall, however, if this Van Nant puts anything in +the way of my searching that house thoroughly or makes any pretence to +follow me whilst I am doing so. I want to meet this Maurice Van Nant +just as soon as I can, Mr. Narkom, just as soon as I can." + +And it was barely two minutes after he had expressed this wish that Miss +Morrison reappeared upon the scene, accompanied by a pale, nervous, +bovine-eyed man of about thirty-five years of age, and said in a tone of +agitation: "Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Headland, but this is Mr. +Maurice Van Nant. He is most anxious to meet you, and father would have +me bring him up at once." + +Narkom screwed round on his heel, looked at the Belgian, and lost faith +in Miss Morrison's powers of discrimination instantly. On the +dressing-table stood Carboys' picture--heavy-jowled, sleepy-eyed, +dull-looking--and on the threshold stood a man with the kindest eyes, +the sweetest smile, and the handsomest and most sympathetic countenance +he had seen in many a day. If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if +the face is the index of the character, then here was a man weak as +water, as easily led as any lamb, and as guileless. + +"You are just the man I want to see, Mr. Van Nant," said Cleek, after +the first formalities were over, and assuming, as he always did at such +times, the heavy, befogged expression of incompetence. "I confess this +bewildering affair altogether perplexes me; but you, I understand, were +Mr. Carboys' close friend and associate, and as I can find nothing in +the nature of a clue here, I should like, with your permission, to look +over his home quarters and see if I can find anything there." + +If he had looked for any sign of reluctance or of embarrassment upon Van +Nant's part when such a request should be made, he was wholly +disappointed, for the man, almost on the point of tears, seized his +hand, pressed it warmly, and said in a voice of eager entreaty: "Oh, do, +Mr. Headland, do. Search anywhere, do anything that will serve to find +my friend and to clear up this dreadful affair. I can't sleep for +thinking of it; I can't get a moment's peace night or day. You didn't +know him or you would understand how I am tortured--how I miss him. The +best friend, the dearest and the lightest-hearted fellow that ever +lived. If I had anything left in this world, I'd give it all--all, Mr. +Headland, to clear up the mystery of this thing and to get him back. One +man could do that, I believe, could and would if I had the money to +offer him." + +"Indeed? And who may he be, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"The great, the amazing, the undeceivable man, Cleek. He'd get at the +truth of it. Nothing could baffle and bewilder him. But--oh, well, it's +the old, old tale of the power of money. He wouldn't take the case--a +high-and-mighty 'top-notcher' like that--unless the reward was a +tempting one, I'm sure." + +"No, I'm afraid he wouldn't," agreed Cleek, with the utmost composure. +"So you must leave him out of your calculations altogether, Mr. Van +Nant. And now, if you don't mind accompanying us and showing the +chauffeur the way, perhaps Mr. Narkom will take us over to your house in +his motor." + +"Mind? No, certainly I don't mind. Anything in the world to get at a +clue to this thing, Mr. Headland, anything. Do let us go at once." + +Cleek led the way from the room. Halfway down the stairs, however, he +excused himself on the plea of having forgotten his magnifying glass, +and ran back to get it. Two minutes later he rejoined them in the little +drawing-room, where the growling Captain was still demanding the whole +time and attention of his daughter, and, the motor being ready, the +three men walked out, got into it, and were whisked away to the house +which once had been the home of the vanished George Carboys. + +It proved to be a small, isolated brick house in very bad condition, +standing in an out-of-the-way road somewhere between Putney and +Wimbledon. It stood somewhat back from the road, in the midst of a +little patch of ground abounding in privet and laurel bushes, and it was +evident that its cheapness had been its chief attraction to the two men +who had rented it, although, on entering, it was found to possess at the +back a sort of extension, with top and side lights, which must have +appealed to Van Nant's need of something in the nature of a studio. At +all events, he had converted it into a very respectable apology for one; +and Cleek was not a little surprised by what it contained. + +Rich stuffs, bits of tapestry, Persian draperies, Arabian +prayer-mats--relics of his other and better days and of his Oriental +wanderings--hung on the walls and ornamented the floor; his rejected +pictures and his unsold statues, many of them life-sized and all of +clay, coated with a lustreless paint to make them look like marble, were +disposed about the place with an eye to artistic effect, and near to an +angle, where stood (on a pedestal, half concealed, half revealed by +artistically arranged draperies) the life-size figure of a Roman +senator, in toga and sandals, there was the one untidy spot, the one +utterly inartistic thing the room contained. + +It was the crude, half-finished shape of a recumbent female figure, of +large proportions and abominable modelling, stretched out at full length +upon a long, low, trestle-supported "sculptor's staging," on which also +lay Van Nant's modelling tools and his clay-stained working blouse. +Cleek looked at the huge unnatural thing--out of drawing, anatomically +wrong in many particulars--and felt like quoting Angelo's famous remark +anent his master Lorenzo's faun: "What a pity to have spoilt so much +expensive material," and Van Nant, observing, waved his hand toward it. + +"A slumbering nymph," he explained. "Only the head and shoulders +finished as yet, you see. I began it the day before, yesterday, but my +hand seems somehow to have lost its cunning. Here are the keys of all +the rooms, Mr. Headland. Carboys' was the one directly at the head of +the stairs, in the front. Won't you and Mr. Narkom go up and search +without me? I couldn't bear to look into the place and see the things +that belonged to him and he not there. It would cut me to the heart if I +did. Or, maybe, you would sooner go alone, and leave Mr. Narkom to +search round this room. We used to make a general sitting-room of it at +nights when we were alone together, and some clue may have been +dropped." + +"A good suggestion, Mr. Narkom," commented Cleek, as he took the keys. +"Look round and see what you can find whilst I poke about upstairs." +Then he walked out of the studio and searching every nook and corner, +whilst Van Nant, for the want of something to occupy his mind and his +hands, worked on the nymph, and could hear him moving about overhead in +quest of possible clues. + +For perhaps twenty minutes Cleek was away; then he came down and walked +into the room looking the very picture of hopeless bewilderment. + +"Mr. Narkom," he said, "this case stumps me. I believe there's magic in +it, if you ask me; and as the only way to find magic is with magic, I am +going to consult a clairvoyante, and if one of those parties can't give +me a clue, I don't believe the mystery will ever be solved. I know of a +ripping one, but she is over in Ireland, and as it's a dickens of a way +to go, I shan't be able to get back before the day after to-morrow at +the earliest. But--look here, sir, I'll tell you what! This is Tuesday +evening, isn't it? Now if you and Mr. Van Nant will be at Captain +Morrison's house on Thursday evening at seven o'clock, and will wait +there until I come, I'll tell you what that clairvoyante says, and +whether there's any chance of this thing being solved or not. Is that +agreeable, Mr. Van Nant?" + +"Quite, Mr. Headland. I'll be there promptly." + +"And stop until you hear from me?" + +"And stop until I hear from you--yes." + +"Right you are, sir. Now then, Mr. Narkom, if you'll let the chauffeur +whisk me over to the station, I'll get back to London and on to the +earliest possible train for Holyhead so as to be on hand for the first +Irish packet to-morrow. And while you're looking for your hat, sir--good +evening, Mr. Van Nant--I'll step outside and tell Lennard to start up." + +With that, he passed out of the studio, walked down the hall, and went +out of the house. And half a minute later, when the superintendent +joined him, he found him sitting in the limousine and staring at his +toes. + +"My dear Cleek, did you find anything?" he queried, as he took a seat +beside him, and the motor swung out into the road and whizzed away. "Of +course, I know you've no more idea of going to Ireland than you have of +taking a pot-shot at the moon: but there's something on your mind. I +know the signs, Cleek. What is it?" + +The response to this was rather startling. + +"Mr. Narkom," said Cleek, answering one question with another, "what's +the best thing to make powdered bismuth stick--lard, cold cream, or +cocoa butter?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +If punctuality is a virtue, then Mr. Maurice Van Nant deserved to go on +record as one of the most virtuous men in existence. For the little +Dutch clock in Captain Morrison's drawing-room had barely begun to +strike seven on the following Thursday evening when he put in an +appearance there, and found the Captain and his daughter anxiously +awaiting him. But, as virtue is, on most excellent authority, its own +reward, he had to be satisfied with the possession of it, since neither +Narkom nor Cleek was there to meet him. + +But the reason for this defection was made manifest when Miss Morrison +placed before him a telegram which had arrived some ten minutes earlier +and read as follows: "Unavoidably delayed. Be with you at nine-thirty. +Ask Mr. Van Nant to wait. Great and welcome piece of news for +him.--NARKOM." + +Van Nant smiled. + +"Great and welcome news," he repeated. "Then Mr. Headland must have +found something in the nature of a clue in Ireland, captain, though what +he could find there I can't imagine. Frankly, I thought him a stupid +sort of fellow, but if he has managed to find a clue to poor George's +whereabouts over in Ireland, he must be sharper than I believed. Well, +we shall know about that at half-past nine, when Mr. Narkom comes. I +hope nothing will happen to make him disappoint us again." + +Nothing did. Promptly at the hour appointed, the red limousine whizzed +up to the door, and Mr. Narkom made his appearance. But, contrary to the +expectations of the three occupants of the little drawing-room, he was +quite alone. + +"So sorry I couldn't come earlier," he said, as he came in, looking and +acting like the bearer of great good news; "but you will appreciate the +delay when I tell you what caused it. What's that, Mr. Van Nant? +Headland? No, he's not with me. As a matter of fact, I've dispensed with +his services in this particular case. Fancy, Miss Morrison, the muff +came back from Ireland this evening, said the clairvoyante he consulted +went into a trance, and told him that the key to the mystery could only +be discovered in Germany, and he wanted me to sanction his going over +there on no better evidence than that. Of course, I wouldn't; so I took +him off the case forthwith, and set out to get another and a better man +to handle it. That's what delayed me. And now, Mr. Van Nant"--fairly +beaming, and rubbing his palms together delightedly--"here's where the +great and welcome news I spoke of comes in. I remembered what you said +the other day--I remembered how your heart is wrapped up in the solving +of this great puzzle--what you said about it being a question of money +alone; and so, what do you think I did? I went to that great man, Cleek. +I laid the matter before him, told him there was no reward, that it was +just a matter of sheer humanity--the consciousness of doing his duty and +helping another fellow in distress--and, throw up your hat and cheer, my +dear fellow, for you've got your heart's desire: Cleek's consented to +take the case!" + +A little flurry of excitement greeted this announcement. Miss Morrison +grabbed his hand and burst into tears of gratitude; the Captain, +forgetting in his delight the state of his injured foot, rose from his +chair, only to remember suddenly and sit down again, his half-uttered +cheer dying on his lips; and Van Nant, as if overcome by this unexpected +boon, this granting of a wish he had never dared to hope would be +fulfilled, could only clap both hands over his face and sob +hysterically. + +"Cleek!" he said, in a voice that shook with nervous catches and the +emotion of a soul deeply stirred, "Cleek to take the case? The great, +the amazing, the undeceivable Cleek! Oh, Mr. Narkom, can this be true?" + +"As true as that you are standing here this minute, my dear sir. Not so +much of a money grabber as that muff Headland wanted you to believe, is +he--eh? Waived every hope of a reward, and took the case on the spot. +He'll get at the root of it--Lord, yes! Lay you a sovereign to a +sixpence, Mr. Van Nant, he gets to the bottom of it and finds out what +became of George Carboys in forty-eight hours after he begins on the +case." + +"And when will he begin, Mr. Narkom? To-morrow? The next day? Or not +this week at all? When, sir--when?" + +"When? Why, bless your heart, man, he's begun already--or, at least, +will do so in another hour and a half. He's promised to meet us at your +house at eleven o'clock to-night. Chose that place because he lives at +Putney, and it's nearer. Eleven was the hour he set, though, of course, +he may arrive sooner; there's no counting on an erratic fellow like that +chap. So we'll make it eleven, and possess our souls in patience until +it's time to start." + +"But, my dear Mr. Narkom, wouldn't it be better, or, at least, more +hospitable if I went over to meet him, in case he does come earlier? +There's no one in the house, remember, and it's locked up." + +"Lord bless you, that won't bother him! Never travels without his tools, +you know--skeleton keys, and all that--and he'll be in the house before +you can wink an eye. Still, of course, if you'd rather be there to admit +him in the regulation way--" + +"It would at least be more courteous, Mr. Narkom," Miss Morrison +interposed. "So great a man doing so great a favour--Oh, yes, I really +think that Mr. Van Nant should." + +"Oh, well, let him then, by all means," said Narkom. "Go, if you choose, +Mr. Van Nant. I'd let you have my motor, only I must get over to the +station and 'phone up headquarters on another affair in five minutes." + +"It doesn't matter, thank you all the same. I can get a taxi at the top +of the road," said Van Nant; and then, making his excuses to Miss +Morrison and her father, he took up his hat and left the house. As a +matter of fact, it was only courtesy that made him say that about the +taxi, for there is rarely one to be found waiting about in the +neighbourhood of Wandsworth Common after half-past nine o'clock at +night, and nobody could have been more surprised than he when he +actually did come across one, loitering about aimlessly and quite empty, +before he had gone two dozen yards. + +He engaged it on the spot, jumped into it, gave the chauffeur his +directions, and a minute later was whizzing away to the isolated house. +It was eight minutes past ten when he reached it, standing as black and +lightless as when he left it four hours ago, and, after paying off the +chauffeur and dismissing the vehicle, he fumbled nervously for his +latchkey, found it, unlocked the door, and went hurriedly in. + +"Have you come yet, Mr. Cleek?" he called out, as he shut the door and +stood in the pitch-black hall. "Mr. Cleek! Mr. Cleek, are you here? It +is I--Maurice Van Nant. Mr. Narkom has sent me on ahead." + +Not a sound answered him, not even an echo. He sucked in his breath with +a sort of wheezing sound, then groped round the hall table till he found +his bedroom candle, and, striking a match, lit it. The staircase leading +to the upper floors gaped at him out of the partial gloom, and he fairly +sprang at it--indeed, was halfway up it when some other idea possessed +him, brought him to a sudden standstill, and, facing round abruptly, he +went back to the lower hall again, glimmering along it like a shadow, +with the inadequate light held above him, and moving fleetly to the +studio in the rear. + +The door stood partly open, just as he had left it. He pushed it inward +and stepped over the threshold. + +"Mr. Cleek!" he called again. "Mr. Cleek! Are you here?" + +And again the silence alone answered him. The studio was as he had seen +it last, save for those fantastic shadows which the candle's wavering +flame wreathed in the dim corners and along the pictured walls. There, +on its half-draped pedestal, the Roman senator stood--dead white against +the purple background--and there, close to the foot of it, the great +bulk of the disproportionate nymph still sprawled, finished and +whitewashed now, and looking even more of a monstrosity than ever in +that waving light. + +He gave one deep gulping sigh of relief, flashed across the room on +tiptoe, and went down on his knees beside the monstrous thing, moving +the candle this way and that along the length of it, as if searching for +something, and laughing in little jerky gasps of relief when he found +nothing that was not as it had been--as it should be--as he wanted it to +be. And then, as he rose and patted the clay, and laughed aloud as he +realised how hard it had set, then, at that instant, a white shape +lurched forward and swooped downward, carrying him down with it. The +candle slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor, a pair of +steel handcuffs clicked as they closed round his wrists, a voice above +him said sharply: "You wanted Cleek I believe? Well, Cleek's got you, +you sneaking murderer. Gentlemen, come in! Allow me to turn over to you +the murderer of George Carboys! You'll find the body inside that +slumbering nymph!" + +And the last thing that Mr. Maurice Van Nant saw, as he shrieked and +fainted, the last thing he realised, was that lights were flashing up +and men tumbling in through the opening windows; that the Roman +senator's pedestal was empty, and the figure which once had stood upon +it was bending over him--alive! + +And just at that moment the red limousine flashed up out of the +darkness, the outer door whirled open and Narkom came pelting up. + +"He took the bait, then, Cleek?" he cried, as he saw the manacled figure +on the floor, with the "Roman senator" bending over and the policemen +crowding in about it. "I guessed it when I saw the lights flash up. I've +been on his heels ever since he snapped at that conveniently placed taxi +after he left Miss Morrison and her father." + +"You haven't brought them with you, I hope, Mr. Narkom? I wouldn't have +that poor girl face the ordeal of what's to be revealed here to-night +for worlds." + +"No, I've not. I made a pretext of having to 'phone through to +headquarters, and slipped out a moment after him. But, I say, my dear +chap"--as Cleek's hands made a rapid search of the pockets of the +unconscious man, and finally brought to light a folded paper--"what's +that thing? What are you doing?" + +"Compounding a felony in the interest of humanity," he made reply as he +put the end of the paper into the flame of the candle and held it there +until it was consumed. "We all do foolish things sometimes when we are +young, Mr. Narkom, and--well, George Carboys was no exception when he +wrote the little thing I have just burned. Let us forget all about +it--Captain Morrison is heir-at-law, and that poor girl will benefit." + +"There was an estate, then?" + +"Yes. My cable yesterday to the head of the Persian police set all doubt +upon that point at rest. Abdul ben Meerza, parting with nothing while he +lived, after the manner of misers in general, left a will bequeathing +something like £12,000 to George Carboys, and his executor communicated +that fact to the supposed friend of both parties--Mr. Maurice Van Nant; +and exactly ten days ago, so his former solicitor informed me, Mr. +Maurice Van Nant visited him unexpectedly, and withdrew from his keeping +a sealed packet which had been in the firm's custody for eight years. If +you want to know why he withdrew it--Dollops!" + +"Right you are, Gov'nor." + +"Give me the sledge-hammer. Thanks! Now, Mr. Narkom, look!" And, +swinging the hammer, he struck at the nymph with a force that shattered +the monstrous thing to atoms; and Narkom, coming forward to look when +Cleek bent over the ruin he had wrought, saw in the midst of the dust +and rubbish the body of a dead man, fully clothed, and with the gap of a +bullet-hole in the left temple. + +Again Cleek's hands began a rapid search, and again, as before, they +brought to light a paper, a little crumpled ball of paper that had been +thrust into the right-hand pocket of the dead man's waistcoat, as though +jammed there under the stress of strong excitement and the pressure of +great haste. He smoothed it out and read it carefully, then passed it +over to Mr. Narkom. + +"There!" he said, "that's how he lured him over to his death. That's the +message the pigeon brought. Would any man have failed to fly to face the +author of a foul lie like that?" + +"Beloved Mary," the message ran, "come to me again to-night. How sweet +of you to think of such a thing as the belt to get him over and to make +him stop until morning! Steal out after he goes to bed, darling. I'll +leave the studio window unlocked, as usual. With a thousand kisses. + +"Your own devoted, + +"MAURICE." + +"The dog!" said Narkom fiercely. "And against a pure creature like Mary +Morrison! Here, Smathers, Petrie, Hammond, take him away. Hanging's too +good for a beastly cur like that!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know that the body was inside the statue?" said Cleek, +answering Narkom's query, as they drove back in the red limousine toward +London and Clarges Street. "Well, as a matter of fact, I never did know +for certain until he began to examine the thing to-night. From the first +I felt sure he was at the bottom of the affair, that he had lured +Carboys back to the house, and murdered him; but it puzzled me to think +what could possibly have been done with the body. I felt pretty certain, +however, when I saw that monstrous statue." + +"Yes, but why?" + +"My dear Mr. Narkom, you ought not to ask that question. Did it not +strike you as odd that a man who was torn with grief over the +disappearance of a loved friend should think of modelling any sort of a +statue on that very first day, much less such an inartistic one as that? +Consider: the man has never been a first-class sculptor, it is true, but +he knew the rudiments of his art, he had turned out some fairly +presentable work; and that nymph was as abominably conceived and as +abominably executed as if it had been the work of a raw beginner. Then +there was another suspicious circumstance. Modelling clay is not exactly +as cheap as dirt, Mr. Narkom. Why, then, should this man, who was +confessedly as poor as the proverbial church mouse, plunge into the wild +extravagance of buying half a ton of it--and at such a time? Those are +the things that brought the suspicion into my mind; the certainty, +however, had to be brought about beyond dispute before I could act. + +"I knew that George Carboys had returned to that studio by the dry marks +of muddy footprints, that were nothing like the shape of Van Nant's, +which I found on the boards of the verandah and on the carpet under one +of the windows; I knew, too, that it was Van Nant who had sent that +pigeon. You remember when I excused myself and went back on the pretext +of having forgotten my magnifying glass the other day? I did so for the +purpose of looking at that fifth pigeon. I had observed something on its +breast feathers which I thought, at first glance, was dry mud, as though +it had fallen or brushed against something muddy in its flight. As we +descended the stairs I observed that there was a similar mark on Van +Nant's sleeve. I brushed against him and scraped off a fleck with my +finger-nails. It was the dust of dried modelling clay. That on the +pigeon's breast proved to be the same substance. I knew then that the +hands of the person who liberated that pigeon were the hands of someone +who was engaged in modelling something or handling the clay of the +modeller, and--the inference was clear. + +"As for the rest; when Van Nant entered that studio to-night, frightened +half out of his wits at the knowledge that he would have to deal with +the one detective he feared, I knew that if he approached that statue +and made any attempts to examine it I should have my man, and that the +hiding-place of his victim's body would be proved beyond question. When +he did go to it, and did examine it--Clarges Street at last, thank +fortune; for I am tired and sleepy. Stop here, Lennard; I'm getting out. +Come along, Dollops. Good-night, Mr. Narkom! 'And so, to bed,' as good +old Pepys says." + +And passed on, up the street, with his hand on the boy's shoulder and +the stillness and the darkness enfolding them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +For the next five or six weeks life ran on merrily enough for Cleek; so +merrily, in fact, that Dollops came to be quite accustomed to hear him +whistling about the house and to see him go up the stairs two steps at a +time whenever he had occasion to mount them for any purpose whatsoever. + +It would not have needed any abnormally acute mind, any process of +subtle reasoning, to get at the secret of all this exuberance, this +perennial flow of high spirits; indeed, one had only to watch the letter +box at Number 204, Clarges Street, to get at the bottom of it instantly; +for twice a week the postman dropped into it a letter addressed in an +undoubtedly feminine "hand" to Captain Horatio Burbage, and invariably +postmarked "Lynhaven, Devon." + +Dollops had made that discovery long ago and had put his conclusions +regarding it into the mournfully-uttered sentence: "A skirt's got him!" +But, after one violent pang of fierce and rending jealousy, was grateful +to that "skirt" for bringing happiness to the man he loved above all +other things upon earth and whose welfare was the dearest of his heart's +desires. Indeed, he grew, in time, to watch as eagerly for the coming of +those letters as did his master himself; and he could have shouted with +delight whenever he heard the postman's knock, and saw one of the +regulation blue-grey envelopes drop through the slit into the wire cage +on the door. + +Cleek, too, was delighted when he saw them. It was nothing to him that +the notes they contained were of the briefest--mere records of the state +of the weather, the progress of his little lordship, the fact that Lady +Chepstow wished to be remembered and that the writer was well "and hoped +he, too, was." They were written by _her_--that was enough. He gave so +much that very little sufficed him in return; and the knowledge that he +had been in her mind for the five or ten minutes which it had taken to +write the few lines she sent him, made him exceedingly happy. + +But she was not his only correspondent in these days--not even his most +frequent one. For a warm, strong friendship--first sown in those +ante-Derby days--had sprung up between Sir Henry Wilding and himself and +had deepened steadily into a warm feeling of comradeship and mutual +esteem. Frequent letters passed between them; and the bond of fellowship +had become so strong a thing that Sir Henry never came to town without +their meeting and dining together. + +"Gad! you know, I can't bring myself to think of you as a +police-officer, old chap!" was the way Sir Henry put it on the day when +he first invited him to lunch with him at his club. "I'd about as soon +think of sitting down with one of my grooms as breaking bread with one +of that lot; and I shall never get it out of my head that you're a +gentleman going in for this sort of thing as a hobby--never b'Gad! if I +live to be a hundred." + +"I hope you will come nearer to doing that than you have to guessing the +truth about me," replied Cleek, with a smile. "Take my word for it, +won't you?--this thing is my profession. I don't do it as a mere hobby: +I live by it--I have no other means of living _but_ by it. I am--what I +am, and nothing more." + +"Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper +and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a +turnip--at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old +chap. I know a man of birth when I meet him. Tell me who you are, +Cleek--I'll respect it." + +"I don't doubt that--the addition is superfluous." + +"Then who are you? What are you, Cleek? Eh?" + +"What you have called me--'Cleek.' Cleek the detective, Cleek of the +Forty Faces, if you prefer it; but just 'Cleek' and nothing more. Don't +get to building romances about me merely because I have the _instincts_ +of a gentleman, Sir Henry. Just simply remember that Nature _does_ make +mistakes sometimes; that she has been known to put a horse's head on a +sheep's shoulders and to make a navvy's son look more royal than a +prince. I am Cleek, the detective--simply Cleek. Let it go at that." + +And as there was no alternative, Sir Henry did. + +It made no difference in their friendship, however. Police officer or +not, he liked and he respected the man, and made no visit to town +without meeting and entertaining him. + +So matters stood between them when on a certain Thursday in mid +September he came up unexpectedly from Wilding Hall and 'phoned through +to Clarges Street, asking Cleek to dine with him that night at the Club +of the Two Services. + +Cleek accepted the invitation gladly and was not a little surprised on +arriving to find that, in this instance, dinner was to be served in a +little private room and that a third party was also to partake of it. + +"Dear chap, pardon me for taking you unawares," said Sir Henry, as Cleek +entered the private room and found himself in the presence of a +decidedly military-looking man long past middle life, "but the fact is +that immediately after I had telephoned you, I encountered a friend and +a--er--peculiar circumstance arose which impelled me to secure a private +room and to--er--throw myself upon your good graces as it were. Let me +have the pleasure, dear chap, of introducing you to my friend, Major +Burnham-Seaforth. Major, you are at last in the presence of the +gentleman of whom I spoke--Mr. Cleek." + +"Mr. Cleek, I am delighted," said the Major, offering his hand. "I have +heard your praises sung so continuously the past two hours that I feel +as if I already knew you." + +"Ah, you mustn't mind all that Sir Henry says," replied Cleek, as he +shook hands with him. "He makes mountains out of millstones, and would +panegyrize the most commonplace of men if he happened to take a fancy to +him. You mustn't believe all that Sir Henry says and thinks, Major." + +"I shall be happy, Mr. Cleek, if I can really hope to believe the half +of it," replied the Major, enigmatically--and was prevented from saying +more by the arrival of the waiter and the serving of dinner. + +It was not until the meal was over and coffee and cigars had been served +and the too attentive waiter had taken his departure that Cleek +understood that remark or realised what it portended. But even then, it +was not the Major who explained. + +"My dear Cleek," said Sir Henry, lowering his voice and leaning over the +table, "I hope you will not think I have taken a mean advantage of you, +but I have brought the Major here to-night for a purpose. He has, in +fact, come to consult you professionally; and upon my recommendation. Do +you object to that, or may I go on?" + +"Go on by all means," replied Cleek. "I fancy you know very well that +there is nothing you might ask of me that I would not at least attempt +to do, dear chap." + +"Thanks very much. Well then, the Major has come, my dear Cleek, to ask +you to help in unravelling a puzzle of singular and mystifying interest. +Now you may or may not have heard of a Music Hall artiste--a sort of +conjurer and impersonator combined--called Zyco the Magician, who was +once very popular and was assisted in his illusions by a veiled but +reputedly beautiful Turkish lady who was billed on the programmes and +posters as 'Zuilika, the Caliph's Daughter.'" + +"I remember the pair very well indeed," said Cleek. "They toured the +Music Halls for years, and I saw their performance frequently. They were +among the first, I believe, to produce that afterwards universal +illusion known as 'The Vanishing Lady.' As I have not heard anything of +them nor seen their names billed for a couple of years past, I fancy +they have either retired from the profession or gone to some other part +of the world. The man was not only a very clever magician, but a master +of mimicry. I always believed, however, that in spite of his name he was +of English birth. The woman's face I never saw, of course, as she was +always veiled to the eyes after the manner of Turkish ladies. But +although a good many persons suspected that her birthplace was no nearer +Bagdad than Peckham, I somehow felt that she was, after all, a genuine, +native-born Turk." + +"You are quite right in both suspicions, Mr. Cleek," put in the Major +agitatedly. "The man _was_ an Englishman; the lady _is_ a Turk." + +"May I ask, Major, why you speak of the lady in the present tense and of +the man in the past? Is he dead?" + +"I hope so," responded the Major fervently. "God knows I do, Mr. Cleek. +My every hope in life depends upon that." + +"May I ask why?" + +"I am desirous of marrying his widow!" + +"My dear Major, you cannot possibly be serious! A woman of that class?" + +"Pardon me, sir, but you have, for all your cleverness, fallen a victim +to the prevailing error. The lady is in every way my social equal--in +her own country my superior. She _is_ a caliph's daughter. The title +which the playgoing public imagined was of the usual bombastic, +just-on-the-programme sort, is hers by right. Her late father, Caliph Al +Hamid Sulaiman, was one of the richest and most powerful Mohammedans in +existence. He died five months ago, leaving an immense fortune to be +conveyed to England to his exiled but forgiven child." + +"Ah, I see. Then, naturally, of course--" + +"The suggestion is unworthy of you, Sir Henry, and anything but +complimentary to me. The inheritance of this money has had nothing +whatever to do with my feelings for the lady. That began two years ago, +when, by accident, I was permitted to look upon her face for the first, +last, and only time. I should still wish to marry her if she were an +absolute pauper. I know what you are saying to yourself, sir: 'There is +no fool like an old fool.' Well, perhaps there isn't. But--" he turned +to Cleek--"I may as well begin at the beginning and confess that even if +I did not desire to marry the lady I should still have a deep interest +in her husband's death, Mr. Cleek. He is--or was, if dead--the only son +of my cousin, the Earl of Wynraven, who is now over ninety years of age. +I am in the direct line, and if this Lord Norman Ulchester, whom you and +the public know only as 'Zyco the Magician,' were in his grave there +would only be that one feeble old man between me and the title." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek, in reply; then, seating himself at the table, +he arranged the shade of the lamp so that the light fell full upon the +Major's face while leaving his own in the shadow. "Then your interest in +the affair, Major, may be said to be a double one." + +"More, sir--a triple one. I have a rival in the shape of my own son. He, +too, wishes to marry Zuilika--is madly enamoured of her, in fact; so +wildly that I have always hesitated to confess my own desires to him for +fear of the consequences. He is almost a madman in his outbursts of +temper; and where Zuilika is concerned--Perhaps you will understand, Mr. +Cleek, when I tell you that once when he thought her husband had +ill-used her, he came within an ace of killing the man. There was bad +blood between them always--even as boys--and, as men, it was bitterer +than ever because of _her_." + +"Suppose you begin at the beginning and tell me the whole story, Major," +suggested Cleek, studying the man's face narrowly. "How did the Earl of +Wynraven's son come to meet this singularly fascinating lady, and +where?" + +"In Turkey--or Arabia--I forget which. He was doing his theatrical +nonsense in the East with some barn-storming show or other, having been +obliged to get out of England to escape arrest for some shady +transaction a year before. He was always a bad egg--always a disgrace to +his name and connections. That's why his father turned him off and never +would have any more to do with him. As a boy he was rather clever at +conjuring tricks and impersonations of all sorts--he could mimic +anything or anybody he ever saw, from the German Emperor down to a +Gaiety chorus girl, and do it to absolute perfection. When his father +kicked him out he turned these natural gifts to account, and, having +fallen in with some professional dancing-woman, joined her for a time +and went on the stage with her. + +"It was after he had parted from this dancer and was knocking about +London and leading a disgraceful life generally that he did the thing +which caused him to hurry off to the East and throw in his lot with the +travelling company I have alluded to. He was always a handsome fellow +and had a way with him that was wonderfully taking with women, so I +suppose that that accounts as much as anything for Zuilika's infatuation +and her doing the mad thing she did. I don't know when nor where nor how +they first met; but the foolish girl simply went off her head over him, +and he appears to have been as completely infatuated with her. Of +course, in that land, the idea of a woman of her sect, of her standing, +having anything to do with a Frank was looked upon as something +appalling, something akin to sacrilege; and when they found that her +father had got wind of it and that the fellow's life would not be safe +if he remained within reach another day, they flew to the coast +together, shipped for England, and were married immediately after their +arrival." + +"A highly satisfactory termination for the lady," commented Cleek. "One +could hardly have expected that from a man so hopelessly unprincipled as +you represent him to have always been. But there's a bit of good in even +the devil, we are told." + +"Oh, be sure that he didn't marry her from any principle of honour, my +dear sir," replied the Major. "If it were merely a question of that, +he'd have cut loose from her as soon as the vessel touched port. +Consideration of self ruled him in that as in all other things. He knew +that the girl's father fairly idolised her; knew that, in time, his +wrath would give way to his love, and, sooner or later, the old man--who +had been mad at the idea of any marriage--would be moved to settle a +large sum upon her so that she might never be in want. But let me get on +with my story. Having nothing when he returned to England, and being +obliged to cover up his identity by assuming another name, Ulchester, +after vainly appealing to his father for help on the plea that he was +now honourably married and settled down, turned again to the stage, and, +repugnant though such a thing was to the delicately-nurtured woman he +had married, compelled Zuilika to become his assistant and to go on the +boards with him. That is how the afterwards well-known music-hall 'team' +of 'Zyco and the Caliph's Daughter' came into existence. + +"The novelty of their 'turn' caught on like wild fire, and they were a +success from the first, not a little of that success being due to the +mystery surrounding the identity and appearance of Zuilika; for, true to +the traditions of her native land, she never appeared, either in public +or in private, without being closely veiled. Only her 'lord' was ever +permitted to look upon her uncovered face; all that the world at large +might ever hope to behold of it was the low, broad forehead and the two +brilliant eyes that appeared above the close-drawn line of her yashmak. +Of course she shrank from the life into which she was forced; but it had +its reward, for it kept her in close contact with her husband, whom she +almost worshipped. So, for a time, she was proportionately happy; +although, as the years passed by and her father showed no inclination to +bestow the coveted 'rich allowance' upon his daughter, Ulchester's +ardour began to cool. He no longer treated her with the same +affectionate deference; he neglected her, in fact, and, in the end, even +began to ill-use her. + +"About two years ago, matters assumed a worse aspect. He again met Anita +Rosario, the Spanish dancer, under whose guidance he had first turned to +the halls for a livelihood, and once more took up with her. He seemed to +have lost all thought or care for the feelings of his wife, for, after +torturing her with jealousy over his attentions to the dancer, he took a +house adjoining my own--on the borders of the most unfrequented part of +the common at Wimbledon--established himself and Zuilika there, and +brought the woman Anita home to live with them. From that period matters +went from bad to worse. Evidently having tired of the stage, both +Ulchester and Anita abandoned it, and turned the house into a sort of +club where gambling was carried on to a disgraceful extent. +Broken-hearted over the treatment she was receiving, Zuilika appealed to +me and to my son to help her in her distress--to devise some plan to +break the spell of Ulchester's madness and to get that woman out of the +house. It was then that I first beheld her face. In her excitement she +managed, somehow, to snap or loosen the fastening which held her +yashmak, and it fell--fell, and let my son realise, as I realised, how +wondrously beautiful it is possible for the human face to be!" + +"Steady, Major, steady! I can quite understand your feelings--can +realise better than most men!" said Cleek with a sort of sigh. "You +looked into heaven, and--well, what then? Let's have the rest of the +story." + +"I think my son must have put it into her head to give Ulchester a taste +of his own medicine--to attempt to excite his jealousy by pretending to +find interests elsewhere. At any rate, she began to show him a great +deal of attention--or, at least, so he says, although I never saw it. +All I know is that she--she--well, sir, she deliberately led _me_ on +until I was half insane over her, and--that's all!" + +"What do you mean by 'that's all'? The matter couldn't possibly have +ended there, or else why this appeal to me?" + +"It ended for me, so far as her affectionate treatment of me was +concerned; for in the midst of it the unexpected happened. Her father +died, forgiving her, as Ulchester had hoped, but doing more than his +wildest dreams could have given him cause to imagine possible. In a +word, sir, the caliph not only bestowed his entire earthly possessions +upon her, but had them conveyed to England by trusted allies and placed +in her hands. There were coffers of gold pieces, jewels of fabulous +value--sufficient, when converted into English money, as they were +within the week, and deposited to her credit in the Bank of England, to +make her the sole possessor of nearly three million pounds." + +"Phew!" whistled Cleek. "When these Orientals do it they certainly do it +properly. That's what you might call 'giving with both hands,' Major, +eh?" + +"The gift did not end with that, sir," the Major replied with a gesture +of repulsion. "There was a gruesome, ghastly, appalling addition in the +shape of two mummy cases--one empty, the other filled. A parchment +accompanying these stated that the caliph could not sleep elsewhere but +in the land of his fathers, nor sleep _there_ until his beloved child +rested beside him. They had been parted in life, but they should not be +parted in death. An Egyptian had, therefore, been summoned to his +bedside, had been given orders to embalm him after death, to send the +mummy to Zuilika, and with it a case in which, when her own death should +occur, _her_ body should be deposited; and followers of the prophet had +taken oath to see that both were carried to their native land and +entombed side by side. Until death came to relieve her of this ghastly +duty, Zuilika was charged to be the guardian of the mummy and daily to +make the orisons of the faithful before it, keeping it always with its +face towards the East." + +"By George! it sounds like a page from the 'Arabian Nights,'" exclaimed +Cleek. "Well, what next? Did Ulchester take kindly to this housing of +the mummy of his father-in-law and the eventual coffin of his wife? Or +was he willing to stand for anything so long as he got possession of the +huge fortune the old man left?" + +"He never did get it, Mr. Cleek--he never touched so much as one +farthing of it. Zuilika took nobody into her confidence until everything +had been converted into English gold and deposited in the bank to her +credit. Then she went straight to him and to Anita, showed them proof of +the deposit, reviled them for their treatment of her, and swore that not +one farthing's benefit should accrue to Ulchester until Anita was turned +out of the house in the presence of their guests and the husband took +oath on his knees to join the wife in those daily prayers before the +caliph's mummy. Furthermore, Ulchester was to embrace the faith of the +Mohammedans that he might return with her at once to the land and the +gods she had offended by marriage with a Frankish infidel." + +"Which, of course, he declined to do?" + +"Yes. He declined utterly. But it was a case of the crushed worm, with +Zuilika. Now was _her_ turn; and she would not abate one jot or tittle. +There was a stormy scene, of course. It ended by Ulchester and the woman +Anita leaving the house together. From that hour Zuilika never again +heard his living voice, never again saw his living face! He seems to +have gone wild with wrath over what he had lost and to have plunged +headlong into the maddest sort of dissipation. It is known--positively +known, and can be sworn to by reputable witnesses--that for the next +three days he did not draw one sober breath. On the fourth, a note from +him--a note which he was _seen_ to write in a public house--was carried +to Zuilika. In that note he cursed her with every conceivable term; told +her that when she got it he would be at the bottom of the river, driven +there by her conduct, and that if it was possible for the dead to come +back and haunt people he'd do it. Two hours after he wrote that note he +was seen getting out of the train at Tilbury and going towards the +docks; but from that moment to this every trace of him is lost." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek reflectively. "And you want to find out if he +really carried out that threat and did put an end to himself, I suppose? +That's why you have come to me, eh? Frankly, I don't believe that he +did, Major. That sort of a man never commits suicide upon so slim a +pretext as that. If he commits it at all, it's because he is at the end +of his tether--and our friend 'Zyco' seems to have been a long way from +the end of his. How does the lady take it? Seriously?" + +"Oh, very, sir, very. Of course, to a woman of her temperament and with +her Oriental ideas regarding the supernatural, _et cetera_, that threat +to haunt her was the worst he could have done to her. At first she was +absolutely beside herself with grief and horror; swore that she had +killed him by her cruelty; that there was nothing left her but to die, +and all that sort of thing; and for three days she was little better +than a mad woman. At the end of that time, after the fashion of her +people, she retired to her own room, covered herself with sackcloth and +ashes, and remained hidden from all eyes for the space of a fortnight, +weeping and wailing constantly and touching nothing but bread and +water." + +"Poor wretch! She suffers like that, then, over a rascally fellow not +worth a single tear. It's marvellous, Major, what women do see in men +that they can go on loving them. Has she come out of her retirement +yet?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. She came out of it five days ago, to all appearances a +thoroughly heart-broken woman. Of course as she was all alone in the +world, my son and I considered it our duty, during the time of her +wildness and despair, to see that a thoroughly respectable female was +called in to take charge of the house and to show respect for the +proprieties, and for us to take up our abode there in order to prevent +her from doing herself an injury. We are still domiciled there, but it +will surprise you to learn that a most undesirable person is there also. +In short, sir, that the woman Anita Rosario, the cause of all the +trouble, is again an inmate of the house; and what is more remarkable +still, this time by Zuilika's own request." + +"What's that? My dear Major, you amaze me! What can possibly have caused +the good lady to do a thing like that?" + +"She hopes, she says, to appease the dead and to avert the threatened +'haunting.' At all events, she sent for Anita some days ago. Indeed, I +believe it is her intention to take the Spaniard with her when she +returns to the East." + +"She intends doing that, then? She is so satisfied of her husband's +death that she deems no further question necessary. Intends to take no +further step toward proving it?" + +"It has been proved to her satisfaction. His body was recovered the day +before yesterday." + +"Oho! then he is dead, eh? Why didn't you say so in the beginning? When +did you learn of it?" + +"This very evening. That is what brings me here. I learned from Zuilika +that a body answering the description of his had been fished from the +water at Tilbury and carried to the mortuary. It was horribly +disfigured--by contact with the piers and passing vessels--but she and +Anita--and--and my son--" + +"Your son, Major? Your son?" + +"Yes!" replied the Major in a sort of half-whisper. "They--they took him +with them when they went, unknown to me. He has become rather friendly +with the Spanish woman of late. All three saw the body; all three +identified it as being Ulchester's beyond a doubt." + +"And you? Surely when you see it you will be able to satisfy any +misgivings you may have?" + +"I shall never see it, Mr. Cleek. It was claimed when identified and +buried within twelve hours," said the Major, glancing up sharply as +Cleek, receiving this piece of information, blew out a soft, low +whistle. "I was not told anything about it until this evening, and what +I have done--in coming to you, I mean--I have done with nobody's +knowledge. I--I am so horribly in the dark--I have such fearful thoughts +and--and I want to be sure. I must be sure or I shall go out of my mind. +That's the 'case,' Mr. Cleek--tell me what you think of it." + +"I can do that in a very few words, Major," he replied. "It is either a +gigantic swindle or it is a clear case of murder. If a swindle, then +Ulchester himself is at the bottom of it and it will end in murder just +the same. Frankly, the swindle theory strikes me as being the more +probable; in other words, that the whole thing is a put-up game between +Ulchester and the woman Anita; that they played upon Zuilika's fear of +the supernatural for a purpose; that a body was procured and sunk in +that particular spot for the furtherance of that purpose; and if the +widow attempts to put into execution this plan--no doubt instilled into +her mind by Anita--of returning with her wealth to her native land, she +will simply be led into some safe place and then effectually put out of +the way for ever. That is what I think of the case if it is to be +regarded in the light of a swindle; but if Ulchester is really dead, +murder, not suicide, is at the back of his taking off, and--Oh, well, we +won't say anything more about it just yet awhile. I shall want to look +over the ground before I jump to any conclusions. You are still stopping +in the house, you and your son, I think you remarked? If you could +contrive to put up an old army friend's son there for a night, Major, +give me the address. I'll drop in on you to-morrow and have a little +look round." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +When, next morning, Major Burnham-Seaforth announced the dilemma in +which, through his own house being temporarily closed, he found himself +owing to the proposed visit of Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn, son of an +old army friend, Zuilika was the first to suggest the very thing he was +fishing for. + +"Ah, let him come here, dear friend," she said in that sad, sweetly +modulated voice which so often wrung this susceptible old heart. "There +is plenty of room!--plenty, alas now--and any friend of yours can only +be a friend of mine. He will not annoy. Let him come here." + +"Yes, let him," supplemented young Burnham-Seaforth, speaking with his +eyes on Senorita Rosario, who seemed nervous and ill-pleased by the news +of the expected arrival. "He won't have to be entertained by us if he +only comes to see the pater; and we can easily crowd him aside if he +tries to thrust himself upon us--a fellow with a name like 'Rupert St. +Aubyn' is bound to be a silly ass." And when, in the late afternoon, +"Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn," in the person of Cleek, arrived with his +snubnosed manservant, a kit-bag, several rugs and a bundle of golf +sticks, young Burnham-Seaforth saw no reason to alter that assertion. +For, a "silly ass"--albeit an unusually handsome one with his fair, +curling hair and his big blonde moustache--he certainly was; a lisping +"ha-ha-ing" "don't-cher-knowing" silly ass, whom the presence of ladies +seemed to cover with confusion and drive into a very panic of shy +embarrassment. + +"_Dios!_ but he is handsome, this big, fair lieutenant!" whispered the +Spaniard to young Burnham-Seaforth. "A great, handsome fool--all beauty +and no brains, like a doll of wax!" Then she bent over and murmured +smilingly to Zuilika: "I shall make a bigger nincompoop of this big, +fair sap-head than Heaven already has done before he leaves here, just +for the sake of seeing him stammer and blush!" + +Only the sad expression of Zuilika's eyes told that she so much as +heard, as she rose to greet the visitor. Garbed from head to foot in the +deep violet-coloured stuff which is the mourning of Turkish women, her +little pointed slippers showing beneath the hem of her frock, and only +her dark, mournful eyes visible between the top of the shrouding yashmak +and the edge of her sequined snood, she made a pathetic picture as she +stood there waiting to greet the unknown visitor. + +"Sir, you are welcome--you are most welcome," she said in a voice whose +modulations were not lost upon Cleek's ears as he put forth his hand and +received the tips of her little, henna-stained fingers upon his palm. +"Peace be with you, who are of his people--he that I loved and mourn!" +Then, as if overcome with grief at the recollection of her widowhood, +she plucked away her hand, covered her eyes, and moved staggeringly out +of the room. And Cleek saw no more of her that day; but he knew when she +performed her orisons before the mummy case--as she did each morning and +evening--by the strong, pungent odour of incense drifting through the +house and filling it with a sickly scent. + +Her absence seemed to make but little impression upon him, however; for, +following up a well-defined plan of action, he devoted himself wholly to +the Spanish woman, and both amazed her and gratified her vanity by +allowing her to learn that a man may be the silliest ass imaginable and +yet quite understand how to flirt and to make love to a woman. And so it +fell out that instead of "Lieutenant Rupert St. Aubyn" being elbowed out +by young Burnham-Seaforth, it was "Lieutenant St. Aubyn" who elbowed +_him_ out; and without being in the least aware of it, the flattered +Anita, like an adroitly hooked trout, was being "played" in and out and +round about the eddies and the deeps until the angler had her quite +ready for the final dip of the net at the landing point. + +All this was to accomplish exactly what it _did_ accomplish, namely, the +ill temper, the wrath, the angry resentment of young Burnham-Seaforth. +And when the evening had passed and bedtime arrived, Cleek took his +candle and retired in the direction of the rooms set apart for him, with +the certainty of knowing that he had done that which would this very +night prove beyond all question the guilt or innocence of one person at +least who was enmeshed in this mysterious tangle. He was not surprised, +therefore, at what followed his next step. + +Reaching the upper landing he blew out the light of his candle, slammed +the door to his own room, noisily turned the key, and shot the bolt of +another, then tiptoed his way back to the staircase and looked down the +well-hole into the lower hall. + +Zuilika had retired to her room, the Major had retired to his, and now +Anita was taking up her candle to retire to hers. She had barely touched +it, however, when there came a sound of swift footsteps and young +Burnham-Seaforth lurched out of the drawing-room door and joined her. He +was in a state of great excitement and was breathing hard. + +"Anita--Miss Rosario!" he began, plucking her by the sleeve and +uplifting a pale, boyish face--he was not yet twenty-two--to hers with a +look of abject misery. "I want to speak to you--I simply must speak to +you. I've been waiting for the chance, and now that it's come--Look +here! You're not going back on me, are you?" + +"Going back on you?" repeated Anita, showing her pretty white teeth in +an amused smile. "What shall you mean by that 'going back on you'--eh? +You are a stupid little donkey, to be sure. But then I do not care to +get on the back of one--so why?" + +"Oh, you know very well what I mean," he rapped out angrily. "It is not +fair the way you have been treating me ever since that yellow-headed +bounder came. I've had a night of misery--Zuilika never showing herself; +you doing nothing, absolutely nothing, although you promised--you _know_ +you did!--and I heard you, I absolutely heard you persuade that St. +Aubyn fool to stop at least another night." + +"Yes, of course you did. But what of it? He is good company--he talks +well, he sings well, he is very handsome and--well, what difference can +it make to you? You are not interested in _me, amigo_?" + +"No, no; of course I'm not. You are nothing to me at all--you--Oh, I beg +your pardon; I didn't quite mean that. I--I mean you are nothing to me +in that way. But you--you're not keeping to your word. You promised, you +know, that you'd use your influence with Zuilika; that you'd get her to +be more kind to me--to see me alone and--and all that sort of thing. And +you've not made a single attempt--not one. You've just sat round and +flirted with that tow-headed brute and done nothing at all to help me +on; and--and it's jolly unkind of you, that's what!" + +Cleek heard Anita's soft rippling laughter; but he waited to hear no +more. Moving swiftly away from the well-hole of the staircase he passed +on tiptoe down the hall to the Major's rooms, and, opening the door, +went in. The old soldier was standing, with arms folded, at the window +looking silently out into the darkness of the night. He turned at the +sound of the door's opening and moved toward Cleek with a white, +agonised face and a pair of shaking, outstretched hands. + +"Well?" he said with a sort of gasp. + +"My dear Major," said Cleek quietly. "The wisest of men are sometimes +mistaken--that is my excuse for my own short-sightedness. I said in the +beginning that his was either a case of swindling or a case of murder, +did I not? Well, I now amend my verdict. It is a case of swindling _and_ +murder; and your son has had nothing to do with either!" + +"Oh, thank God! thank God!" the old man said; then sat down suddenly and +dropped his face between his hands and was still for a long time. When +he looked up again his eyes were red, but his lips were smiling. + +"If you only knew what a relief it is," he said. "If you only knew how +much I have suffered, Mr. Cleek. His friendship with that Spanish woman; +his going with her to identify the body--even assisting in its hurried +burial! These things all seemed so frightfully black--so utterly without +any explanation other than personal guilt." + +"Yet they are all easily explained, Major. His friendship for the +Spanish woman is merely due to a promise to intercede for him with +Zuilika. She is his one aim and object, poor little donkey! As for his +identification of the body--well, if the widow herself could find points +of undisputed resemblance, why not he? A nervous, excitable, impetuous +boy like that--and anxious, too, that the lady of his heart should be +freed from the one thing, the one man, whose existence made her +everlastingly unattainable--why, in the hands of a clever woman like +Anita Rosario such a chap could be made to identify anything and to +believe it as religiously as he believes. Now, go to bed and rest easy, +Major. I'm going to call up Dollops and do a little night prowling. If +it turns out as I hope, this little riddle will be solved to-morrow." + +"But how, Mr. Cleek? It seems to me that it is as dark as ever. You put +my poor old head in a whirl. You say there is swindling; you hint one +moment that the body was not that of Ulchester, and in the next that +murder has been done. Do, pray, tell me what it all means--what you make +of this amazing case." + +"I'll do that to-morrow, Major; not to-night. The answer to the +riddle--the answer that's in my mind, I mean--is at once so simple and +yet so appallingly awful that I'll hazard no guess until I'm sure. Look +here"--he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gold piece--"do +you know what that is, Major?" + +"It looks like a spade guinea, Mr. Cleek." + +"Right; it is a spade guinea--a pocket piece I've carried for years. +You've heard, no doubt, of vital things turning upon the tossing of a +coin. Well, if you see me toss this coin to-morrow, something of that +sort will occur. It will be tossed up in the midst of a riddle, Major; +when it comes down it will be a riddle no longer." + +Then he opened the door, closed it after him, and, before the Major +could utter a word, was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +The promise was so vague, so mystifying, indeed, so seemingly absurd, +that the Major did not allow himself to dwell upon it. As a matter of +fact, it passed completely out of his mind; nor did it again find +lodgment there until it was forced back upon his memory in a most +unusual manner. + +Whatsoever had been the result of what Cleek had called his "night +prowling," he took nobody into his confidence when he and the Major and +the Major's son and Senorita Rosario met at breakfast the next day +(Zuilika, true to her training and the traditions of her people, never +broke morning bread save in the seclusion of her own bed-chamber, and +then on her knees with her face towards the east) nor did he allude to +it at any period throughout the day. + +He seemed, indeed, purposely, to avoid the Major, and to devote himself +to the Spanish woman with an ardour that was positively heartless, +considering that as they two sang and flirted and played several sets of +singles on the tennis court, Zuilika, like a spirit of misery, kept +walking, walking, walking through the halls and the rooms of the house, +her woeful eyes fixed on the carpet, her henna-stained fingers +constantly locking and unlocking, and moans of desolation coming now and +again from behind her yashmak as her swaying body moved restlessly to +and fro. For to-day was memorable. Five weeks ago this coming nightfall +Ulchester had flung himself out of this house in a fury of wrath, and +this time of bitter regret and ceaseless mourning had begun. + +"She will go out of her mind, poor creature, if something cannot be done +to keep her from dwelling on her misery like this," commented the +housekeeper, coming upon that restless figure pacing the darkened hall, +moaning, moaning--seeing nothing, hearing nothing, doing nothing but +walk and sorrow, sorrow and walk, hour in and hour out. "It's enough to +tear a body's heart to hear her, poor dear. And that good-for-nothing +Spanish piece racing and shrieking round the tennis court like a she +tom-cat, the heartless hussy. Her and that simpering silly that's +trotting round after her had ought to be put in a bag and shaken up, +that they ought. It's downright scandalous to be carrying on like that +at such a time." + +And so both the Major and his son thought too, and tried their best to +solace the lonely mourner and to persuade her to sit down and rest. + +"Zuilika, you will wear yourself out, child, if you go on walking like +this," said the Major solicitously. "Do rest and be at peace for a +little time at least." + +"I can never have peace in this land--I can never forget the day!" she +answered drearily. "Oh, my beloved! Oh, my lord, it was I who sent thee +to it--it was I, it was I! Give me my own country--give me the gods of +my people; here there is only memory and pain, and no rest, no rest +ever!" + +She could not be persuaded to sit down and rest until Anita herself took +the matter into her own hands and insisted that she should. That was at +tea-time. Anita, showing some little trace of feeling now that Cleek had +gone to wash his hands and was no longer there to occupy her thoughts, +placed a deep, soft chair near the window, and would not yield until the +violet-clad figure of the mourner sank down into the depths of it and +leaned back with its shrouded face drooping in silent melancholy. + +And it was while she was so sitting that Cleek came into the room and +did a most unusual, a most ungentlemanly thing, in the eyes of the Major +and his son. + +Without hesitating, he walked to within a yard or two of where she was +sitting, and then, in the silliest of silly tones, blurted out suddenly: +"I say, don't you know, I've had a jolly rum experience. You know that +blessed room at the angle just opposite the library--the one with the +locked door?" + +The drooping, violet figure straightened abruptly, and the Major felt +for the moment as if he could have kicked Cleek with pleasure. Of course +they knew the room. It was there that the two mummy cases were kept, +sacred from the profaning presence of any but this stricken woman. No +wonder that she bent forward, full of eagerness, full of the dreadful +fear that Frankish feet had crossed the threshold, Frankish eyes looked +within the sacred shrine. + +"Well, don't you know," went on Cleek, without taking the slightest +notice of anything, "just as I was going past that door I picked up a +most remarkable thing. Wonder if it's yours, madam?" glancing at +Zuilika. "Just have a look at it, will you? Here, catch!" And not until +he saw a piece of gold spin through the air and fall into Zuilika's lap +did the Major remember that promise of last night. + +"Oh, come, I say, St. Aubyn, that's rather thick!" sang out young +Burnham-Seaforth indignantly, as Zuilika caught the coin in her lap. +"Blest if I know what you call manners, but to throw things at a lady is +a new way of passing them in this part of the world, I can assure you." + +"Awfully sorry, old chap, no offence, I assure you," said Cleek, more +asinine than ever, as Zuilika, having picked up the piece and looked at +it, disclaimed all knowledge of it, and laid it on the edge of the table +without any further interest in it or him. "Just to show, you know, that +I--er--couldn't have meant anything disrespectful, why--er--you all +know, don't you know, how jolly much I respect Senorita Rosario, by +Jove! and so--Here, senorita, you catch, too, and see if the blessed +thing's yours." And, picking up the coin, tossed it into her lap just as +he had done with Zuilika. + +She, too, caught it and examined it, and laughingly shook her head. + +"No--not mine!" she said. "I have not seen him before. To the finder +shall be the keep. Come, sit here. Will you have the tea?" + +"Yes, thanks," said Cleek; then dropped down on the sofa beside her, and +took tea as serenely as though there were no such things in the world as +murder and swindling and puzzling police-riddles to solve. + +And the Major, staring at him, was as amazed as ever. He had said, last +night, that when the coin fell the answer would be given--and yet it had +fallen, and nothing had happened, and he was laughing and flirting with +Senorita Rosario as composedly and as persistently as ever. More than +that; after he had finished his second cup of tea, and immediately +following the sound of someone just beyond the verandah rail whistling +the lively, lilting measures of "There's a Girl Wanted There"--the +"silly ass" seemed to become a thousand times sillier than ever; for he +forthwith set down his cup, and, turning to Anita, said with an inane +sort of giggle, "I say, you know, here's a lark. Let's have a game of +'Slap Hand,' you and I--what? Know it, don't you? You try to slap my +hands, and I try to slap yours, and whichever succeeds in doing it first +gets a prize. Awful fun, don't you know. Come on--start her up." + +And, Anita agreeing, they fell forthwith to slapping away at the backs +of each other's hands with great gusto, until, all of a sudden, the +whistler outside gave one loud, shrill note, and--there was a great and +mighty change. + +Those who were watching saw Anita's two hands suddenly caught, heard a +sharp, metallic "click," and saw them as suddenly dropped again to the +accompaniment of a shrill little scream from her ashen lips, and the +next moment Cleek had risen and jumped away from her side--clear across +to where Zuilika was; and those who were watching saw Anita jump up with +a pair of steel handcuffs on her wrists, just as Dollops vaulted up over +the verandah rail and appeared at one window, whilst Petrie appeared at +another, Hammond poked his body through a third, and the opening door +gave entrance to Superintendent Narkom. + +"The police!" shrilled out Anita in a panic of fright. "_Madre de Dios_, +the police!" + +The Major and his son were on their feet like a shot; Zuilika, with a +faint, startled cry, bounded bolt upright, like an imp shot through a +trap-door; but before the little henna-stained hands could do more than +simply move, Cleek's arms went round her from behind, tight and fast as +a steel clamp, there was another metallic "click," another shrill cry, +and another pair of wrists were in gyves. + +"Come in, Mr. Narkom; come in, constables," said Cleek, with the utmost +composure. "Here are your promised prisoners--nicely trussed, you see, +so that they can't get at the little popguns they carry--and a worse +pair of rogues never went into the hands of Jack Ketch!" + +"And Jack Ketch will get them, Cleek, if I know anything about it. Your +hazard was right. I've examined the caliph's mummy-case; the mummy +itself has been removed--destroyed--done away with utterly--and the poor +creature's body is there!" + +And here the poor, dumfounded, utterly bewildered Major found voice to +speak at last. + +"Mummy-case! Body! Dear God in heaven, Mr. Cleek, what are you hinting +at?" he gasped. "You--you don't mean that she--that Zuilika--killed +him?" + +"No, Major, I don't," he made reply. "I simply mean that he killed her! +The body in the mummy-case is the body of Zuilika, the caliph's +daughter! This is the creature you have been wasting your pity on--see!" + +With that he laid an intense grip on the concealing yashmak, tore it +away, and so revealed the close-shaven, ghastly-hued countenance of the +cornered criminal. + +"My God!--Ulchester--Ulchester himself!" said the Major in a voice of +fright and surprise. + +"Yes, Ulchester himself, Major. In a few more days he'd have withdrawn +the money, and got out of the country, body and all, if he hadn't been +nabbed, the rascal. There'd have been no tracing the crime then; and he +and the Senorita here would have been in clover for the rest of their +natural lives. But there's always that bright little bit of Bobby Burns +to be reckoned with. You know: 'The best laid schemes of mice and men,' +_et cetera_--that bit. But the Yard's got them, and--they'll never leave +the country now. Take them, Mr. Narkom, they're yours!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I guess it?" said Cleek, replying to the Major's query, as they +sat late that night discussing the affair. "Well, I think the first +faint inkling of it came when I arrived here yesterday, and smelt the +overpowering odour of the incenses. There was so much of it, and it was +used so frequently--twice a day--that it seemed to suggest an attempt to +hide other odours of a less pleasant kind. When I left you last night, +Dollops and I went down to the mummy-chamber, and a skeleton key soon +let us in. The unpleasant odour was rather pronounced in there. But even +that didn't give me the cue, until I happened to find in the fireplace a +considerable heap of fine ashes, and in the midst of them small lumps of +gummy substance, which I knew to result from the burning of myrrh. I +suspected from that and from the nature of the ashes that a mummy had +been burnt, and as there was only one mummy in the affair, the inference +was obvious. I laid hands on the two cases and tilted them. One was +quite empty. The weight of the other told me that it contained something +a little heavier than any mummy ought to be. I came to the conclusion +that there was a body in it, injected full of arsenic, no doubt, to +prevent as much as possible the processes of decay, the odour of which +the incense was concealing. I didn't attempt to open the thing; I left +that until the arrival of the men from The Yard, for whom I sent Dollops +this afternoon. I had a vague notion that it would not turn out to be +Ulchester's, and I had also a distinct recollection of what you said +about his being able to mimic a Gaiety chorus-girl and all that sort of +thing, and the more I thought over it, the more I realized what an +excellent thing to cover a bearded face a yashmak is. Still, it was all +hazard. I wasn't sure--indeed, I never was sure--until tea-time, when I +caught this supposed 'Zuilika' sitting at last, and gave the spade +guinea its chance to decide it." + +"But, Mr. Cleek, how could it have decided it? That's the thing which +amazes me most of all. How could the tossing of that coin have decided +the sex of the wearer of those garments?" + +"My dear Major, it is an infallible test. Did you ever notice that if +you throw anything for a man to catch in his lap, he pulls his knees +together to _make_ a lap in order to catch it; whereas a woman--used to +wearing skirts and, thereby, having a lap already prepared--immediately +broadens that lap by the exactly opposite movement, knowing that +whatever is thrown has no chance of slipping through and falling to the +floor. When I tossed the coin to Ulchester, he instinctively jerked his +knees together. That settled it, of course. And now, if you won't mind +my saying it, I'm a bit sleepy and it is about time I took myself off to +home and bed." + +"But not at this late hour, surely? You will never catch a train." + +"I shan't need one, Major. They are holding a horse and trap ready for +me at the stables of the 'Coach and Horses.' Mr. Narkom promised to look +out for that, and--I beg pardon? No, I can't stop over night. Thank you +for the invitation, but Dollops would raise half London if I didn't turn +up after promising to do so." + +"I should have thought you might have simplified matters and obviated +that by keeping the boy when you had him here," said the Major. "We +could easily have found a place to put him up for the night." + +"Thanks very much, but I wouldn't interrupt the course of his studies +for the world," replied Cleek. "I've found an old chap--an +ex-schoolmaster, down on his luck and glad for the chance to turn an +honest penny--who takes him on every night from eight to ten; and the +young monkey is so eager and is absorbing knowledge at such a rate that +he positively amazes me. But now, really, it must be good-night. The boy +will be waiting and I must hear his lessons before I go to bed." + +"Not surely when you are so tired as you say?" + +"Never too tired for that, Major. It makes me sleep better and sounder +to know that the lad's getting on and that I've cheated the Devil in +just one more instance. Good-night and good luck to you. It's a bully +old world after all, isn't it, Major?" Then laughed and shook hands with +him and fared forth into the starlight, whistling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +Who feeds on Hope alone makes but a sorry banquet; and for the next few +weeks Hope was all--or nearly all--that came Cleek's way. + +For some unexplained reason, Miss Lorne's letters--never very frequent, +and always very brief--had, of late been gradually growing briefer: as +if written in haste and from a mere sense of duty and at odd moments +snatched from the call of more absorbing things; and, finally, there +came a dropping off altogether and a week that brought no message from +her at all. + +The old restlessness, the almost outlived sense of personal injury and +rebellion against circumstances, took hold of Cleek again when that time +came; and the soul of him drank deep of the waters of bitterness. + +So, then, it was all to be in vain, was it, this long struggle with the +Devil of Circumstances, this long striving for a Goal? And after all, +"Thou shalt not enter" was to be written over the gateway of his +ambition? He had been lifted only to be dropped again, redeemed only to +let him see how vain it was for the leopard, even though he achieved the +impossible and changed his spots, to be other than a leopard always; how +impossible it was for a man to override the decrees of Nature or evade +the edicts of Providence? That was what it meant, eh? + +To a nature such as his, Life was always a picture drawn out of +perspective. There was never any Middle Distance; never any proper +gradation. It was always either the Highest Heights or the Lowest +Depths; the glare of fierce light or the black of deepest darkness. He +could not plod; he must either fly or fall; either loll at the Gates of +Paradise or groan in the depths of Hell. And the failure of Ailsa +Lorne's letters sent him to the darkest and most hopeless corner of it. + +Not that he blamed her--wholly; but that he blamed that Fate which had +so persistently dogged him from childhood on. For now that the letters +had ceased altogether, he recalled things which otherwise would have +been forgotten; and, his sense of proportion being distorted, made +mountains out of sand dunes. + +In one of those letters, he recollected, she had spoken of meeting +unexpectedly an old friend whom she had not seen since the days of his +boyhood; in another, she had casually remarked, "I met Captain Morford +again to-day and we spent a very pleasant half hour together," and in a +third had written, "The Captain promised to call and take tea to-day but +didn't. I rather fancy he divines the fact that Lady Chepstow does not +care for him. Indeed, she dislikes him immensely. Why, I wonder? +Personally, I think him exceedingly pleasant, and there are things in +his character for which I have the deepest respect and admiration." + +And out of these trifling circumstances--lo! the darkest corner that +darkest Hell contained. + +So that was how it was to end, was it? That was the card which Fate had +all along kept up her sleeve while she stood off laughing at his +endeavours, his hopes, his struggles against the inevitable? In the end, +another man was to appear, another man was to win her, and the dream was +to turn out nothing more than a dream after all. + +Once again the voices of the Wild called out to the Caged Wolf; once +again, the old things beckoned and the new things lost their savour and +the Devil said, as before, "What is the use? What _is_ the use?" and the +Savage cried out to be stripped and flung back into the wilderness as +God made him, and called and called and called for an end to the things +that stank in his nostrils and for the fierce companionship of his kind. +And but that Time had staled these things a little and blunted the keen +edge of them so that they could not endure for long, and there was +Dollops and the lessons and Dollops' future to recollect, the Wolf and +the Savage and the Devil might not have hungered in vain. + +Followed a period of intense depression when all things seemed to lose +their savour and when Narkom, amazed, said to himself that the man had +come to the end of his usefulness and had lost every attribute of the +successful criminologist. For the next three cases he brought him Cleek +botched in a manner that would have disgraced the merest tyro. Two, he +failed utterly to solve, although the solutions were eventually worked +out by the ordinary forces of the Yard; and in the third he let his man +get away under his very nose and convey Government secrets to a foreign +Power. It was but natural that these three dismal failures should find +their way to the newspapers and that, in the hysterical condition of +modern journalism, they should be flung out to the world at large with +all the ostentation of leaded type and panicky scare heads, and that +learned editors should discourse knowingly of "the limitations of +mentality" and "the well-authenticated cases of the sudden warping of +abnormal intelligences resulting in the startling termination of amazing +careers," or snivel dismally over "the complete collapse of that +imaginative power which, hitherto, had been this detective's greatest +asset, and which now, on the principle that however deep a well may be +if a force-pump be put into it it must some time suck gravel, seemed to +have come to its end." + +These things, when Cleek heard of them, affected him not at all. He +seemed not to care whether his career was ended or not, whether the +world praised or censured. Neither his pride nor his vanity was stirred +even to the very smallest degree. + +But Narkom, loyal still, took these gloomy prophecies and editorial +vapourings much to heart and strove valiantly to confound the man's +detractors and to put the spur to the man himself. He would not believe +that the end had come, that his mental powers had run suddenly against a +dead wall beyond which there was no possibility of proceeding. Something +was weighing upon his mind and damping his spirits that was all; and it +must be the business of those who were his friends to take steps to +discover what that something was and, if possible, to eliminate it. He +therefore sought out Dollops and held secret conclave with him; and +Dollops dolefully epitomized the difficulty thus: "A skirt--that's +what's at the bottom of it, sir. No letter at all these ten days past. +She's chucked him, I'm afraid." And with this brief preface told all +that he was able to tell; which, after all, was not much. + +He could only explain about the letter that used to come off and on in +the other days and which brought such a flow of high spirits to the man +for whom it was intended; he could only say that it was addressed in a +woman's hand and bore always the one postmark; and when Narkom heard +what that postmark was and recollected where Lady Chepstow's country +seat lay, and who was with her, he puckered up his lips as if he were +about to whistle and made two slim arches with his uplifted eyebrows. + +"Sir, if only you could sneak off and run down there without his knowing +of it--it wouldn't do to write a letter, Mr. Narkom: he'd be on to that +before you could turn round, sir," the boy ventured hopefully; "but if +only you could run down there and give her a tip what she's a doing of +and what she's a chuckin' away, what a Man she's a throwin' down, maybe, +sir, maybe--" + +"Yes, 'maybe,'" agreed the superintendent, after a moment's reflection. +"At any rate it's worth a trial." And went, forthwith. + +Not that it was a prudent thing to do; not that it is wise for any man +at any time to interfere, even with the best intentions, with the course +of another man's love affairs; and, finally, not that it was at all +necessary or had any influence whatsoever upon the events which +succeeded the step. Indeed, he might have spared himself the trouble, +for he had barely covered a fifth of the distance when the country post +was delivered in London, and Cleek, rocketing up in one sweep from the +Pit to the Gateway, stood laughing huskily with a letter from Ailsa in +his hand. + +He ripped off the envelope and read it greedily. + +"Dear Friend," she wrote, "I cannot imagine what you must think of my +silence; but whatsoever you do think cannot be half so terrible as the +actual cause of it. I have been in close touch with misery and death, +with things so appalling that heart and mind have had room to hold +nothing else. Indeed, I am still so horribly nervous and upset that I +scarcely know how to think coherently much less write. I can only +remember that you once said that if ever I needed your help I was to +ask; and oh, Mr. Cleek, I need it very very much indeed now. Not for +myself--let me find time to add that--but for a dear, dear friend--the +friend I have so often written about: Captain Morford--who is involved +in an affair of the most distressing and mysterious character and whose +only hope lies, I feel, in you. Will you come to the rescue, for my +sake? That is what I am asking. Let me say, however, that there is no +possibility of a reward, for the captain is in no position to offer one; +but I seem to feel that that will not weigh with you. Neither can I ask +you to call at the house, for, as I have already told you, Lady Chepstow +does not care for the Captain and under those circumstances it would be +embarrassing to ask him there to meet you. So then, if no other case +intervenes, and you really _can_ grant me this great favour, will you be +in the neighbourhood of the lich-gate of Lyntonhurst Old Church at nine +o'clock in the morning of Thursday, you will win the everlasting +gratitude of, Your sincere friend--AILSA LORNE." + +Would he be there? He laughed aloud as he put the question to himself. A +Bradshaw was on his table. He caught it up, found that there was a train +that could be caught in thirty-five minutes' time, and clapped on his +hat and--caught it. + +That night he slept at the inn of the Three Desires--which, as you may +possibly know, lies but a gunshot beyond the boundary wall of the glebe +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--slept with an alarm clock at his head and +every servant at the inn from the boots to the barmaid tipped a shilling +to see that he did not oversleep himself. + +He was up before any of them, however--up and out into the pearl-dusk of +the morning before ever the alarm-clock shrilled its first note, or the +sun's sheen slid lower than the spurs of the weather-cock on the spire +of Lyntonhurst Old Church--and twice he had walked past the big gates +and looked up the still avenue to the windows of the huge house whose +roof covered her before Lyntonhurst Old Church spoke up through the +dawn-hush and told the parish it was half-past four o'clock. + +By five, he had found a pool cupped in the beech woods with mallows and +marsh marigolds and a screen of green things all round it and a tent of +blue sky over the sun-touched tree tops; and had stripped and splashed +into it and set all the birds to flight with the harsher song of human +things; by seven he was back at the Three Desires; by eight he had +shaved and changed and breakfasted and was out again in the fields and +the leafy lanes, and by nine he was at the lich-gate of the church. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +She was there already; sitting far back at the end of one of the narrow +wooden side benches with the shadow of the gate's moss-grown roof and of +the big cypress above it partly screening her, her shrinking position +evincing a desire to escape general observation as clearly as her pale +face and nervously drumming hand betrayed a state of extreme agitation. + +She rose as Cleek lifted the latch and came in, and advanced to meet him +with both hands outstretched in greeting and a rich colour staining all +her face. + +"I knew that you would come--I was as certain of it as I am now this +minute," she said with a little embarrassed laugh, then dropped her eyes +and said no more, for he had taken those two hands in his and was +holding them tightly and looking at her with an expression that was half +a reproach and half a caress. + +"I am glad you did not doubt," he said, with an odd, wistful little +smile. "It is good to know one's friends have faith in one, Miss Lorne. +I had almost come to believe that you had forgotten me." + +"Because I did not write? Oh, but I could not--indeed I could not. I +have been spending days and nights in a house of mourning--Lady Chepstow +gave me leave of absence; and my heart was so full I did not write even +to her. I have been trying to soothe and to comfort a distracted girl, a +half-crazed old man, a bereft and horribly smitten family. I have been +doing all in my power to put hope and courage into the heart of a +despairing and most unhappy lover." + +"Meaning Captain Morford?" + +"Yes. He has been almost beside himself. And since this last blow +fell.... Oh, I had been so sure that it would not, that between us all +we would manage to avert it; yet in spite of everything it did fall--it +did!--and if I live to be a hundred I shall never forget it." + +"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. You are shaking like a leaf. Try to tell me +plainly what it is that has happened; what the danger is that threatens +this--er--Captain Morford." + +"Oh, nothing threatens _him_, personally," she replied. "He says he +could stand it better if it were only that; and I believe him--I truly +do. The thing that nearly drives him out of his mind is the thought that +one day she--the girl he loves--the girl he is to marry--the girl for +whose dear sake he stands ready to give up so much--the thought that one +day _her_ turn will come, that one day she, too, will be stricken down +as mother and brothers have been is almost driving him frantic." + +"Mother and brothers?--_brothers_?" Cleek looked up sharply, and there +was a curious break in his voice, a yet more curious brightening of his +eyes. "Miss Lorne, am I to understand that this Captain Morford is +engaged to a girl who has _brothers_?" + +"Yes. That is--no. She has 'brothers' no longer. There is only one left +living now, Mr. Cleek, only one. Ah, think of it! of that whole family +of six persons, but three are left: Miriam, Flora, and Ronald." + +"Miriam, Flora, and ... Miss Lorne, will you tell me please the name of +the lady to whom Captain Morford is engaged?" + +"Why Miriam Comstock, of course--did I forget to mention it?" + +"I think so," said Cleek; and shook out a little jerky laugh, and stood +looking at her foolishly; not quite knowing what to do with his feet and +hands. But suddenly--"Oh come, let's have the case--let's have it at +once," he broke out impetuously. "Tell me what it is, what I'm to do for +this Captain Morford, and I'll do it if mortal man can." + +"And no mortal man can if you cannot--I've faith enough in you for +that," she began, then stopped short and sucked in her breath, and crept +back to the extreme end of the lich-gate and stood shaking and very +pale. Someone had come suddenly round the angle of the church and was +moving up the road that ran past the gate. + +"Please--no--let me get away as quickly as possible," she said in a +swift whisper as Cleek, startled by the change in her, made an eager +step forward. "It is known that I have been with them--the +Comstocks--and it is all so mysterious and awful.... Oh, who can tell +whose hand it may be? who may be spying? or what? It is best that I +should give no hint that assistance has been asked for; best that nobody +should see me talking with _you_--Mr. Narkom says that it is." + +"Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes. He was in the neighbourhood accidentally. He called last night. I +told him and he was glad that I had sent for you. He is over there, on +the other side of the churchyard. Oh, please will you go to him? Captain +Morford is within easy call and has agreed to come when he is wanted. Do +go, do go quickly, Mr. Cleek. There's someone coming up the road and I +am horribly frightened." + +"But why? It is merely a farm labourer," said Cleek, glancing through +the open side of the lich-gate and down the road. "You can see that for +yourself." + +"Yes, but--who knows? who can tell? There is no clue to the actual +person and he is so cunning, so crafty--Oh, please, will you go? +Afterward, if you like, we can meet here again. To-day I am too +frightened to stay." + +He saw that she was in a state of extreme nervous terror; that it would +be cruel to subject her to any further suffering, and without one more +word, walked past her into the Churchyard and made his way over the +green ridge that rose immediately behind the building and down the slope +beyond until he came to the extreme other side. And there in the shade +of a thickly grown spinney, he found Mr. Marverick Narkom sitting with +his back against a beech-tree smoking a nerve-soothing cigar and +expectantly awaiting him. + +"My dear fellow, I never was so glad," he said, tossing away his smoke +and jumping up as Cleek appeared. "Happy coincidence my motoring down +here--eh, what? Wife in these parts visiting. Rum, my turning up just +after Miss Lorne had written you and at a time when we both are needed, +wasn't it?" + +"Very," said Cleek, pulling out a cigarette and stretching himself full +length upon the ground. "Would as soon have expected to run foul of a +specimen of the Great Auk endeavouring to rear a family in the +neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square. Well, what's it now, Mr. Narkom?--I'm +told you know the details. A match please, if you have one. Thanks very +much. Now then let's have the facts. What sort of a case is it?" + +"The knottiest in all my experience, the strangest that even you have +ever handled," replied the Superintendent, impressively. "It's a +murder--three murders, in fact, with a possible fourth and a fifth in +the near future if the diabolical rascal who is at the bottom of it +isn't pulled up sharp and his amazing _modus operandi_ discovered. + +"The case will interest you, my dear chap; it is so startlingly original +in its methods of procedure, so complex, so weird, and so appallingly +mysterious. Conceive if you can, my dear fellow, an individual so +supernaturally cunning that he not only kills without a trace, but kills +in the presence of watchers--kills whilst the victim is in the very arms +of those watchers! And yet escapes, unseen, unknown, without a clue to +tell when, where, or how he entered the room or left it; when, where, or +how he struck the blow, or why; yet did strike it, despite the sleepless +vigil of a man who not only sat up all night with the victim, but held +him in his arms to be sure that nobody could get at him; nobody so much +as approach him without his guardian's knowledge!" + +Cleek twitched round sharply and sat up, leaning upon his elbow and +looking at Narkom as though he doubted his sanity. + +"Let me have that again!" he said in sharp, crisp tones. "A man killed +whilst another man held him--held him in his arms--and watched over him, +and yet the other man saw nothing of the murderer? Is that what you +said?" + +"That's it, precisely. Only I must tell you that, in the instance when +the victim was held in the arms of the person watching him, it was not a +man that was killed, but a boy. There had been a man killed, however, +four weeks previously in the same house, in the same mysterious manner, +and by the same unknown agency. A month earlier a woman, too, had been +done to death there in the same way. The man was the brother of that +boy, and the woman was the mother of both." + +Cleek moved so quickly that he might fairly have been said to flash from +a sitting to a standing position, and then began to feel round in his +pockets for his cigarette case with a nervous sort of haste, which +Narkom knew and understood. + +"Ah," he said, in a tone of satisfaction, "I thought the case would +interest you. You've been down in the dumps lately and needed something +to buck you up a bit. I told Captain Morford that this would be sure to +do it. Heard of him, haven't you? Extremely nice chap. Home on leave +from Bombay. Only recently got his captaincy. Grandson and heir to that +fine old snob, Sir Gilbert Morford, who's known everywhere as 'The +Titled Teapot.' You know, 'Morford & Morford's Unrivalled Tea.' Knighted +for something or other--the Lord knows what or why--and puts on more +side over his tin-plate title than Royalty itself. The Captain is a +decent sort, however. He'll give you the full particulars of this +astounding case. Wait a bit. I'll call him"--pausing a moment to put the +first two fingers of each hand into his mouth and blow out a shrill, +ear-splitting whistle. "That'll fetch him! He'll be here before you can +say Jack Robinson!" + +He wasn't, of course; but you couldn't have said it half a hundred times +before he was; or, at least, before Cleek, startled by a rustling of the +boughs, glanced round and saw a tall, fairish young man who had no more +the appearance of a soldier than a currant has of a gooseberry. He +looked more like a bank clerk than anything else that Cleek could think +of at the minute, and a none too prepossessing bank clerk at that, for +Nature had not been any too lavish of her gifts as regards personal +attractiveness, seeming to prefer to make up for her miserliness in the +bestowal of good looks by an absolute prodigality in the gifts of +ears--ears as big as an oyster-shell and so prominent that they seemed +even larger than they were, and that is saying a great deal. + +Still, unprepossessing as the man was, there was a certain charm of +manner about him and a certain attractiveness in his voice Cleek +discovered when he was introduced to him and found himself being "sized +up," so to speak, by a pair of keen grey eyes. + +"Now let us have the details of the case, if you please, Captain," said +Cleek, coming to the point of the interview with as little beating about +the bush as possible. "Mr. Narkom has given me a vague idea of the +nature of it, but I want something more than that, of course. I am told +that three persons in one family have been done to death in a most +mysterious manner, and without any clue to the assassin or his motive; +indeed that the hand which strikes strikes even in the presence of +others, yet remains unknown and invisible. Frankly, I never heard of but +one instance which at all resembles this or--No, Mr. Narkom, it is +nothing that ever came your way, no affair that has happened since you +and I first met, sir. It was a long time ago--eight or ten years, to be +exact--and a good many miles from England. The cases were somewhat +similar, judging from the scanty outline you have given me, and--What's +that? No, the criminal was never apprehended. He got away, and his +methods were never generally known. Even if they had been, they were not +those which any desperado might have emulated, any tyro practised. They +required a certain knowledge of anatomy, chemical action--even surgery. +I don't believe that ten people in the world knew about the thing at +that time. I stumbled upon what I believed was the solution of the +mystery whilst I was taking a course of chemistry for--well, for the +purpose of demonstrating the possibility of manufacturing precious +stones of a size and weight to make them a profitable--er--speculation. +The science in medicine was not so advanced in those days as it is now, +and when I ventured to suggest to certain doctors what I believed to +have been the cause of the mysterious deaths and the _modus operandi_ of +the murderer, I simply got laughed at for my pains. I felt pretty +certain of my facts, however, and pretty certain of the man who was +guilty. Pardon? No, not alive now; that fellow had his brains blown out +in a bar-room brawl before I left New Zealand." + +"New Zealand?" struck in Captain Morford agitatedly. "I say, that's a +rum go, isn't it, Mr. Narkom. New Zealand is where the Comstocks come +from--or, rather, the father and mother did." + +"By Jove! Cleek, that looks suspicious, old chap," chimed in Narkom. +"Don't think, do you, that there can possibly be any connection between +the two cases? In other words, that that fellow you suspected in New +Zealand didn't really die after all?" + +"Shortly, the chemist? Not a doubt about his death, Mr. Narkom. I was in +the bar-room when he was killed. Three bullets went through his head, +and he was as dead as Napoleon Bonaparte by the time he struck the +floor. The methods may be the same, but not the man--there is not the +ghost of possibility of there being any connection between the two. But +let us give the Captain a chance to explain the case. When, where, and +how did these mysterious murders begin, Captain, if you please?" + +"At Lilac Lodge, over Windsor way," replied the Captain, trying to +answer all three questions at once. "They started about a week after the +Comstocks went to live there. And the thing was so appalling, the place +seemed so certainly under a curse, that although he had paid a good +round sum for it, and had spent a pot of money having the house +decorated and the garden laid out just as Miriam and her mother fancied +it--Miriam is Miss Comstock, my fiancee, Mr. Cleek--nothing would induce +Mr. Harmstead to stop in it another hour after the second murder +occurred." + +"Mr. Harmstead! Who is Mr. Harmstead, Captain?" + +"The late Mrs. Comstock's bachelor uncle--a very rich old chap, who was +once a sheep-farmer in New Zealand, and afterwards in Australia. Mrs. +Comstock hadn't seen him since she was a very little girl until he came +to England some few months ago to settle down and to take care of her +children and her." + +"How did it happen that she hadn't seen him in all that time? I take it +there must have been some good reason, Captain?" + +"Yes, rather. You see it was like this: The Harmsteads--Mrs. Comstock +was a Harmstead by birth, and Uncle Phil was her father's only +brother--the Harmsteads had never been well to-do as a family: indeed +none of them but dear old Uncle Phil ever had a hundred pounds they +could call their own, so when Miss Harmstead's father died, which was +about eight months after his brother left New Zealand and went to +Australia, she married a young joiner and cabinet-maker, George +Comstock, to whom she had long been engaged, and a few weeks later, +fancying there would be a better chance for advancement in his trade in +England than out there, Mr. Comstock sold out what few belongings he had +in the world and brought his wife over here." + +"Oh, I see. Then of course she had no opportunity of seeing her uncle +until he came here?" + +"No, not a ghost of one. She corresponded with him for a time, +however--wrote him after the first child was born--and christened +'Philip' in honour of him. In those days it used to take six months to +get a letter to Australia, and another six to get word back, so the baby +was more than a year old when Uncle Phil wrote that if he didn't marry +in the meantime and have a son of his own--which was very unlikely--he +would make young Phil his heir and come out after him, too, one of these +fine days." + +"One moment. Was the person you allude to as 'Young Phil' one of the +sons that was murdered?" + +"Yes. He was the first victim, poor, chap!" + +"Oh, I see!" said Cleek. "I see! So there is money in the background, +eh? Well go on. What next? Hear any more from Uncle Phil after that?" + +"Oh, yes--for a long time. Miriam and Flora were born, and word of their +arrival in the world was sent out to him before the final letter for +years and years reached them. In that letter he wrote that he was doing +better and better every year, and getting so rich that he didn't have +time to do anything but just stop where he was and 'gather in the +shekels.' There'd be enough for all when he did come, however, and he +was altering his will so that in case anything should happen to young +Phil--'which God forbid,' he wrote--the girls would come next, and so on +to all the heirs of his niece. After that letter years went by, and +never another one. They, thinking that he had married after all--for in +his last letter he had spoken of a young widow who had lately been +engaged to fill the post of housekeeper at his ranch--gave up all hope +when after three times writing no reply came, and finally desisted +entirely. He says, however, that it was just the other way about. That +he did write--wrote six or seven times--but could get no reply; and as +he afterwards found the housekeeper in question a designing and +deceitful person, and shipped her off about her business, he makes no +doubt that she received and destroyed Mrs. Comstock's letter to him and +burnt his to her, hoping, no doubt, to inveigle him into marrying her." + +"Quite likely, if she were a designing woman," commented Cleek. "But go +on, please. What next?" + +"Oh, years of hardship, during which Mr. Comstock died and his widow had +to earn their own living unaided. Young Phil got a post as bookkeeper, +Flora taught music and painting, Mrs. Comstock did needlework, and +Miriam became a governess in the family of a distant connection of my +grandfather, Sir Gilbert Morford. That's where and how I met her, Mr. +Cleek, and--Well, that's another story!" his cheeks reddening and a +flash of fire coming into his eyes. "My grandfather says he will 'chuck +me out neck and crop' if I marry her; but it does not matter--I will!" + +"Yes, you will--if the cut of that chin stands for anything," commented +Cleek. "Well, to get on: the Comstocks were down in the deeps, and no +hope of hearing any more from Australia and Uncle Phil, eh? What next?" + +"Why, all of a sudden he dropped in on them, bless his bully old +heart!--and then good-bye to hard times and any more struggling for +them. He'd been in England searching for them for seven months before he +found them; but when he did find them there was a time! Inside of ten +hours, the whole world was changed for them. Made the boys and the girls +give up their positions and come home to live with him and their mother, +poured money out by the handful, bought Lilac Lodge and fitted it up +like a little palace, dressed his niece and her daughters like queens, +and settled down with them to what seemed about to be a life of glorious +and luxurious ease, and in the midst of all this peace and plenty, +brightness and hope, the first blow fell. Mrs. Comstock, going to bed at +night in perfect health, was found in the morning stone-dead! Of course, +as no doctor could give a death certificate when none had been in +attendance upon her, the Law stepped in, the coroner held an inquest, an +autopsy was decided upon, and the result of it was a deeper and more +amazing mystery than ever. She had died--but from what? Every organ was +found to be in a thoroughly healthy condition. The heart was sound, the +lungs betrayed no sign of an anesthetic, the blood and kidneys not the +faintest trace of poison--everything about her was perfectly normal. She +had not died through drugs, she had not died through strangulation, +suffocation, electrical shock, or failure of the heart. She had not been +stabbed, she had not been shot, she had not succumbed to any mortal +disease--yet there she was, stone-dead, slain by something which no one +could trace and for which Science could find no name." + +Narkom opened his lips to speak, but Cleek signalled him to silence, and +stood studying the Captain from under down-drawn brows, looking and +listening and thoughtfully rubbing his thumb and forefinger up and down +his chin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +"Of course the family was horribly shocked and upset by this sudden and +mysterious interruption to the dream of peace," went on the Captain; +"but nothing was left but to accept the verdict of 'Death from unknown +causes,' and to believe it the will of God. The body was buried a few +days later, and, comforting each other as best they could, the sorrowing +uncle and heart-broken nieces and nephews settled down to living their +lives without the one who had been the sunshine of the home, and whose +loss seemed the greatest blow that could have been dealt them. A month +passed and they were just beginning to forget details of the tragedy +when a second and equally mysterious and horrifying one occurred, and +the eldest son of the dead woman--Philip--was stricken down precisely as +his mother had been, and, as his horrified brother, sisters, and uncle +now recalled, like her, on the tenth day of the month!" + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, reflectively. "Rather significant, that. It was, +I assume, that circumstance which first suggested the idea of something +more than mere chance being at the back of these sudden and mysterious +deaths?" + +"That and one other circumstance. The condition of the bedclothing, Mr. +Cleek, showed that in Philip's case there had been something in the +nature of a struggle before he had succumbed to the Power which had +assailed him. In other words, he had not been, as doubtless the poor +mother had, so infinitely inferior in point of strength to the murderer +as to be absolutely powerless in the wretch's grip from the very first +instant of the attack. He had fought for his life, poor fellow, but it +must have been a brief fight and death itself almost instantaneous; for +although the bedclothing was tangled round his feet in a manner which +could only have occurred in a struggle, he did not live long enough to +get off the bed itself or slide so much as one foot to the floor. He +died as his mother had died, and the verdict of the doctors and of the +coroner's jury was the same: 'Death from unknown causes'!" + +"Hm-m-m!" said Cleek again. "And were all the symptoms--or, rather, the +absence of symptoms--the same?" + +"Precisely. All the organs were discovered to be in a normal condition, +the blood was untainted by any suggestion of either mineral or animal +poison, the heart was sound, the lungs healthy--there was neither an +internal disturbance nor an external wound, unless one could call a +'wound' a slight, a very slight, swelling upon the left side of the +neck; a small thing, not so big as a sixpence." + +"And appearing very much like the inflammation resulting from the bite +of a gnat or a spider, Captain?" + +"Exactly like it, Mr. Cleek. In fact, the doctors fancied at first that +it was the result of his having been bitten by some poisonous insect, +and were for accounting for his death that way. But, of course, the +entire absence of poison in the blood soon put an end to that idea, so +it was certain that whatever he died from, it was not from a bite or a +sting of any sort." + +"Clever chaps, those doctors," commented Cleek with a curious one-sided +smile. "However, they were quite correct in that, I imagine, poison, +either animal, vegetable, or mineral, was not the means of destruction. +Still, I should have thought that at this second post-mortem the +likeness of the son's case to that of the mother's would have impelled +them to extra vigilance, and resulted in a much more careful searching, +and minute examination of the viscera. If my theory is correct, I do not +suppose they would have found anything in the contents of the thorax or +the abdomen, but it is just possible that analysis of the matter removed +from the cranial cavity might have revealed a small blood-clot in the +brain." + +The Captain twitched up his eyebrows and stared at him in open-mouthed +amazement. + +"Of all the--By Jove! you know, this beats me! To think of your guessing +that!" he said. "As a matter of fact, that's precisely what they did do, +Mr. Cleek. But as they couldn't arrive at any conclusion nor trace a +probable cause of its origin they were more in the dark than ever. +Selwin, the local practitioner, was for putting it down as a case of +apoplexy on the strength of that small blood-clot, but as there was an +entire absence of every other symptom of apoplectic conditions the other +doctors scouted the suggestion as preposterous--pointed out the +generally healthy state of the brain and of the heart, lungs, arterial +walls, _et cetera_, as utterly refuting such a theory--and in the end +the verdict on the son was the verdict given on the mother: 'Death from +unknown causes'; and he was buried as she had been buried, with the +secret of the murder undiscovered." + +"And then what, Captain?" + +"What I have already told you, Mr. Cleek. Nothing under God's heaven +would or could persuade Mr. Harmstead to let his nieces and their two +surviving brothers remain another hour in that house of disaster. He +removed them from it instantly--fled the very neighbourhood, hired a +house down here--at Dalehampton; a dozen miles or so on the other side +of the Tor, yonder--and carried them there to live. The family now +consisted of Miriam and Flora, the two girls, Paul, a boy of +thirteen--old Mr. Harmstead's special pride and pet--and Ronald, a +little chap of eleven. In this new home they hoped and prayed to be free +from the horrible visitant who had made the memory of the old one a +nightmare to them, but--they couldn't forget, Mr. Cleek, what the Tenth +of each month had taken from them, and grew sick with dread at the +steady approach of the Tenth of this one." + +"And as this is the Twelfth," said Cleek, "the day before yesterday +_was_ the Tenth. Did anything happen?" + +"Yes," replied the Captain, his voice dropping until it was little more +than a whisper. "I tried to cheer them; Miss Lorne tried to cheer them. +We sat with them, tried to make them think that our presence there would +act as a shield and a guard--and tried to think so ourselves. But old +Mr. Harmstead took even stronger measures. 'Nothing shall touch +Paul--nothing that lives and breathes,' he said, desperately. 'I'll take +him into my room; I'll sit up with him in my arms all night!'" + +"And did so?" + +"Yes. At twelve o'clock, Miss Lorne, Miss Comstock, and I went in to say +good-night to him. He was sitting in a deep chair with the boy fast +asleep in his arms--sitting and looking all about him with the dumb +agony of a trapped mouse. I'll never forget how he clutched the boy to +him nor the cry he gave when the door opened to admit us, the sob of +relief when he saw it was only us. His cry and his movement awoke the +boy, but he dropped off to sleep again before I left, and was breathing +healthily and peacefully. The last look I had at the picture as I went +out, Mr. Cleek, the dear old chap was holding his pet in his arms and +smiling down into his boyish face. So he was still sitting, Miss +Comstock tells me, when she came down this morning. 'Look,' he said to +her, 'I watched him--I held him--the tenth day is past and the death +didn't get him, my bonnie!' Then called her to his side and shook the +little fellow to awaken him. It was then only that he discovered the +truth. The boy was stone-dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +"There, Mr. Cleek," resumed the Captain, after he could master his +emotion. "That is the case--that is the riddle I am praying to Heaven +that you may be able to solve. What the mysterious power is, when, +where, or how it got into the room and got at the boy, God alone knows. +Mr. Harmstead will swear that he never let the little fellow out of his +arms for one solitary instant between the time of our leaving him just +after midnight, and Miss Comstock's coming in in the morning. He admits, +however, that twice during that period he fell asleep, but it was only +for a few minutes each time; and long years of being constantly alert +for possible marauders--out there in the wilds of Australia--have tended +to make his sleep so light that anything heavier than a cat's footfall +wakes him on the instant. Yet last night something--man or spirit--came +and went, and he neither heard nor saw either sound or shape from +midnight until morning. One thing I must tell you, however, which may +throw some light upon the movements of the appalling thing. Whereas Mr. +Harmstead not only closed, but locked, both of the two windows in the +room, and pinned the thick plushette curtains of them together--as Miss +Comstock and I saw them pinned when we left the room last night--when +those curtains came to be drawn this morning one of the windows was +found to be partly open, and there was a smear of something that looked +like grease across the sill and the stone coping beyond." + +"Of course, of course!" commented Cleek enigmatically. "Provided my +theory is correct, I should have expected that. A thing that comes and +goes through windows must, at some period, leave some mark of its +passage. Of course that particular window opened upon a balcony or +something of that sort, didn't it?" + +"No, it is a perfectly unbroken descent from the window sill to the +ground. But there's a big tree close by, and the branches of that brush +the pane of glass." + +"Ah! I see! I see! All the soap dishes in the house left filled last +night and found filled this morning, captain?" + +"Good heavens! I don't know. What on earth can soap dishes have to do +with it, man?" + +"Possibly nothing, probably a great deal--particularly if there's found +to be a cake of soap in each. But that we can discover later. Now one +word more. Was that same minute swelling--the mark like a gnat's +bite--on the neck of the boy's body, too? And had it been on that of the +mother's as well?" + +"I can't answer either question, Mr. Cleek. I don't remember to have +heard about it being remarked in the case of Mrs. Comstock's death; and +the murder of little Paul was such a horrible thing and so upset +everybody that none of us thought to look." + +"An error of judgment that; however, it is one easily rectified, since +the body is not yet interred," said Cleek. "Ever read Harvey's +'Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Sanguinis,' Captain?--the volume in which +William Harvey first gave to the world at large his discovery regarding +the circulation of the blood." + +"Good heavens, no! What would I be doing reading matters of that kind? +I'm not a medico, Mr. Cleek--I'm a soldier." + +"I know. But, still--well, I thought it just possible that you might +have read the work, or, at least, heard something regarding the contents +of the volume. Men who have a hobby are rather given to riding it and +boring other people with discussions and dissertations upon it; and I +seem to think that I have heard it said that Sir Gilbert Morford's +greatest desire in the time of his youth was to become a medical man. In +fact, that he put in two or three years as a student at St. +Bartholomew's, and would have qualified, but that the sudden death of +his father compelled him to abandon the hope and to assume the +responsibilities of the head of the house of Morford & Morford, tea +importers, of Mincing Lane." + +"Yes; that's quite correct. He bitterly resented the compulsion--the +'pitchforking of a man out of a profession into the abomination of +trade,' as he always expresses it--but of course, he was obliged to +yield, and the 'dream of his life' dropped off into nothing but a dream. +But the old love and the old recollection still linger, and, although he +no longer personally follows either trade or profession, he keeps up his +laboratory work, subscribes to every medical journal in Christendom, and +if you want to tickle his vanity or to get on the right side of him all +you have to do is to address him as 'doctor.' With all due respect to +him, he's a bit of a prig, Mr. Cleek, and hates people of no +position--'people of the lower order,' as he always terms them--as the +gentleman down under is said to hate holy water." + +"So that he, naturally, would move heaven and earth to prevent his +grandson and heir from marrying a young woman of that class? I see!" +supplemented Cleek. "The dear gentleman would like the name of Morford +to go down to posterity linked to duchesses or earls' daughters, and +surrounded by a blaze of glory. Ah, it's a queer world, Captain. There +is no bitterer hater of the 'common herd' than the snob who has climbed +up from it! The snob and the sneak are closely allied, Captain, and men +of that stamp have been known to do some pretty ugly things to uphold +their pinchbeck dignity, and to keep the tinsel of the present over the +cheap gingerbread of the past." + +"Good God, man! You don't surely mean to suggest--" + +"Gently, gently, Captain. Your indignation does you credit; but it is +never well to have a shot at a rabbit before he's fairly out of the +hole, and you are sure that it isn't the ferret you sent in after him. +Anything in the way of a conveyance handy, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Yes--the limousine. I came down in it yesterday. It's over at the Rose +and Crown." + +"Good! Then perhaps Captain Morford will meet us there in a half hour's +time. Meanwhile, I've got a few things to throw into my kit-bag, and as +that's over at the Three Desires, perhaps you won't mind coming along +and giving me a hand. Then we'll run over to that house at Dalehampton +and have a look at the body of that poor little shaver as expeditiously +as possible. Will you come?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Narkom; and having given a few necessary +directions to the Captain walked on and followed Cleek. He knew very +well the suggestion that he should do so was merely an excuse to have a +few words with him in private--for no man would be likely to need +another man's assistance in simply putting a few things into a bag--and +he was rather puzzled to account for Cleek's desire to say anything to +him which the Captain was not to hear. However, he kept his curiosity in +check and his tongue behind his teeth until they were on the other side +of the lich-gate and in the road leading to the Three Desires. + +"There's something you want to say to me, isn't there?" he inquired. +"Something you want attended to on the quiet?" + +"Yes," admitted Cleek, tersely. "There's a public telephone station a +mile or two on the other side of this place--I saw it this morning when +I was out tramping. Slip off down there, ring up the head of the +Dalehampton Constabulary, and tell him to have a man at the house ready +to pop up when wanted. I'll be long enough over my supposed 'packing' to +cover the time of your going and returning without the Captain's +knowledge." + +"Without--Good Heaven! My dear Cleek, you were serious, then? You meant +it? You--you really believe that suspicion points to Sir Gilbert +Morford?" + +"Not any more than it points to Sir Gilbert Morford's grandson, Mr. +Narkom." + +"Good Lord! To him? To that boy? Why, man alive, what possible motive +could he have for bringing grief and anguish to Miss Comstock when he's +willing to give up a fortune to marry her?" + +"Ah, but don't forget that another fortune descends to all the heirs, +male and female alike, of the late Mrs. Comstock, Mr. Narkom, and that +if the Captain's fiancee becomes, in course of time, the only surviving +child of that unfortunate lady, the Captain's sacrifice will not be such +an overpowering hardship for him, after all." + +"Great Scott! I never thought of that before, Cleek--never." + +"Didn't you? Well, don't think too much of it now that you have. For +circumstantial evidence is tricky and treacherous, and he mayn't be the +man, after all!" + +"Mayn't be? What a beggar you are for damping a man's ardour after +you've fanned it up to the blazing point. Any light in the darkness, old +chap? Any idea of what--and how?" + +"Yes," said Cleek, quietly. "If there's a mark on that poor little +shaver's neck, Mr. Narkom, I shall know the means. And if there's soap +on the window sill I shall know the man!" And then, having reached the +doorway of the inn, he dived into it and went up the staircase two steps +at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +The little house of Dalehampton was something more than a mere house of +grief, they found, when the long drive came to an end and Cleek and his +two companions entered it, for the very spirit of desolation and despair +seemed to have taken up its abode there; and, like an Incarnate Woe, +Miss Comstock paced through the hush and darkness, hour in and hour out, +as she had been doing since daybreak. + +"My darling, you mustn't--you really mustn't, dear. You'll lose your +mind if you brood over the thing like this," said the Captain, flying to +her the very instant they arrived; and, disregarding the presence of his +two companions, caught her in his arms and kissed her. "Miriam, dearest, +don't! It breaks my heart. I know it's awful; but do try to have +strength and hope. I am sure we shall get at the bottom of the thing +now--sure that there will be no more--that this is truly the end. These +gentlemen are from Scotland Yard, dearest, and they say it surely will +be." + +"Heaven knows I hope so," replied Miss Comstock, acknowledging the +introduction to Cleek and Narkom by a gentle inclination of the head. +"But indeed, I can't hope, Jim--indeed, I cannot, gentlemen. The tenth +of next month will take its toll as the tenth of this one has done. I +feel persuaded that it will. For who can fight a thing unseen and +unknown?" + +Her grief was so great, her despair so hopeless, that Cleek forbore +attempting to assuage either by any words of sympathy or promise. He +seemed to feel that hers was an anguish upon which even the kindliest +words must fall only as an intrusion, and the heart of the man--that +curiously created heart, which at times could be savage even to the +point of brutality, and again tender and sympathetic as any +woman's--went out to her in one great surge of human feeling. And two +minutes later--when all the Law's grim business of inquiry and inquest +had been carried out by Narkom, and she, in obedience to his expressed +desire, led them to the room where the dead boy lay--that wave of +sympathetic feeling broke over his soul again. For the gentle opening of +the door had shown him a small, dimly lit room, a kneeling figure, bent +of back and bowed of head, that leant over a little white bed in a very +agony of tearless woe. + +"He can hardly tear himself away for an instant--he loved him so!" she +said in a quavering whisper to Cleek. "Must we disturb him? It seems +almost cruel." + +"I know it," he whispered back; "but the place must be searched in quest +of possible clues, Miss Comstock. The--the little boy, too, must be +examined, and it would be crueller still if he were to stay and see +things like that. Lead him out if you can. It will be for a few minutes +only. Tell him so--tell him he can come back then." And turned his face +away from that woeful picture as she went over and spoke to the +sorrowing old man. + +"Uncle!" she said softly. "Uncle Phil! You must come away for a little +time, dear. It is necessary." + +"Oh, I can't, Mirry--I can't, lovie, dear!" he answered without lifting +his head or loosening his folded hands. "My bonnie, my bonnie, that I +loved so well! Ah, let me have him while I may, Mirry--they'll take him +from me soon enough--soon enough, my bonnie boy!" + +"But, dearest, you must. The--the Law has stepped in. Gentlemen from +Scotland Yard are here. Jim has brought them. They must have the room +for a little time. There--there's the window to be examined, you know; +and if they can find out anything--" + +"I'll give them the half of all I have in the world!" broke in the old +man with a little burst of tears. "Tell them that. The half of +everything--everything--if they can get at the creature. If they can +find out. But"--collapsing suddenly, with his elbows on his knees and +his face between his hands--"they can't, they can't; nobody can! It +kills and kills and kills; and God help us! we all shall go the same +way! It will be my turn, too, some time soon. I wish it were mine now. I +wish it had been mine long ago--before I lost my bonnie own!" + +"Takes it hard, poor old chap, doesn't he?" whispered Narkom, glancing +round and getting something of a shock when he saw that Cleek, who a +moment before had appeared to be almost on the verge of tears, was now +fumbling in his coat pockets, and, with indrawn lips and knotted brows, +was scowling--absolutely scowling--in the direction where Captain +Morford stood, biting his lips and drumming with his finger nails upon +the edge of the washstand. But Cleek made no reply. Instead, he walked +quickly across to the Captain's side, stretched forth his hand, took up +a tablet of soap, turned it over, laid it down again, stepped to the +window, stepped back, and laid a firm hand on the young man's shoulder. + +"Captain," he said suddenly, in sharp, crisp tones, that sounded +painfully harsh after the old man's broken cries, "Captain, there's a +little game of cards called 'Bluff,' and it's an excellent amusement if +you don't get caught at it. We shan't have to go any further with the +search for clues in this case; but I think I shall have to ask you, my +friend, a few little questions in private, and in the interests of a +gentleman called Jack Ketch!" + +This unexpected outburst produced something like a panic. Miss Comstock, +hearing the words, cried out, put both hands to her temples, as though +her head were reeling; old Mr. Harmstead straightened suddenly and flung +a look of blank amazement across the room; and the Captain, twitching +away from the man who gripped him, went first deathly white and then red +as any beet. + +"Good God!" he gulped. "You--I--Look here, I say now, what does this +mean? What the dickens are you talking about?" + +"Bluff, Captain! Simply 'bluff'!" responded Cleek serenely. "And as I +said before, it's a clever little game. Stand where you are--keep an eye +on him, Mr. Narkom. What I've got to say to you, my friend, we'll talk +about in private, and after I have assisted Miss Comstock to lead her +uncle out of the room." + +With that he swung away from the Captain's side and went over to that of +the old man. + +"Come, Mr. Harmstead, let me help you to rise," he began; then stopped +as the old man put up a knotted and twisted hand in supplication and +protested agitatedly: "But--but, sir, I do not want to go. Good Heaven! +What can you be hinting against that poor, dear boy? Surely you do not +mean--you cannot mean--" + +"That the little game of 'Bluff' has worked, Dr. Finch, and you'll never +draw a revolver on me," rapped in Cleek, giving him a backward push that +carried him to the floor, and in the twinkling of an eye he had pounced +upon him like a cat and was saying, as he snapped the handcuffs upon his +wrists: "Got you, you brute-beast; got you tight and fast! Do you +remember Hamilton, the medical student, in New Zealand, eight years ago? +Do you? Well, that's the man you're dealing with now!" + +The man, struggling and kicking, biting and clawing like any other +cornered wild cat, flung out a cry of utter despair at this, and +collapsed suddenly; and in the winking of an eye Cleek's hands had +flashed into the two pockets of the dressing-gown the fellow was +wearing, and flashed out again with a revolver in one and a shining +nickel thing in the other. + +"Got your 'bark,' doctor, and got your 'bite' as well!" he said, as he +rose to his feet. "You'd have put a bullet through me at the first word, +wouldn't you, but for that little 'bluff' of suspecting and arresting +another man? Captain, look to Miss Comstock--I think she has fainted. +You wanted the murderer of Mrs. Comstock and her children, didn't you? +Well, here he is, the rascal!" + +"Good God! Then it--it's not a mistake? You mean it--mean it? And Uncle +Phil! You accuse Uncle Phil?" + +"Uncle Nothing!" flung back Cleek with a sort of laugh--and, hazarding a +guess which afterwards was proved to be the truth--"I'll lay my life, +Captain, that when you apply to the Australian authorities you will find +that old Mr. Philip Harmstead is in his grave; that he was attended in +his last illness by one Dr. Frederick Finch, to whom his fortune would +revert in the event of Mrs. Comstock and her children dying. Finch is +the fellow's name--isn't it, doctor, eh?" + +"Finch?" repeated the Captain. "Good Heaven! Why that was the name of +the woman who was old Mr. Harmstead's housekeeper--you know, the widow I +told you about to-night." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "That's possibly where the threads join and this +little game begins. Or perhaps it may really be said to begin again +where Shorty, the chemist, died, and the celebrated Spofford mystery +ended--eh, doctor? Look here, Captain, look here, Mr. Narkom, you +remember what I told you this morning about that case in New Zealand +which so strongly resembled this one? That was the Spofford mystery. Do +you remember what I said about hitting upon a theory and offering it to +the medical fraternity, only to get laughed at for my pains? Well, it +was to this man, Dr. Frederick Finch, I advanced that theory, and it was +Dr. Frederick Finch who jeered at it, but has now made deadly use of it, +the hound. Do you want to know how he killed his victims, and what he +used? Look at this thing that you saw me take from the pocket of his +dressing-gown. It is a hypodermic syringe, but there is nothing in +it--there never has been anything in it. Air was his poison--air his +shaft of death; and he killed by injecting it into the veins of his +victims. The result of air coming into contact with the circulating +blood of a human being is the formation of a blood-clot, and death is +instantaneous the instant the clot reaches either the brain or the +heart! That was his method. But thank God it's done with for ever now, +and the next tenth day of the month will pass over this stricken family +and leave it unscathed!" + + * * * * * + +"How did I know the man?" said Cleek, answering Narkom's query, as they +came down the Tor-side afoot and forged on in the direction of +Lyntonhurst Old Church--whither Captain Morford and the limousine had +long ago preceded them--with the low-dropped sun behind them and +lengthening shadows streaming on before. "Well, as a matter of fact, I +never did know him until I actually touched him. I was certain of the +method, of course; but the man--no. I got my first suspicion of 'Uncle +Phil' when I heard him speak. I knew I had heard that voice somewhere, +and I realised that it was much too young a voice for a man who +appeared--and must be, if he were the real 'Uncle Phil'--extremely old; +but it was only when I saw his hand, and the peculiar knotted and +twisted little finger that I really knew who he was. What's that? The +soap? Well, of course I knew that if, as I suspected, someone in the +house was the real culprit, an attempt would be made to make it look as +though the criminal entered from without, so naturally the window would +be opened, and something of some sort would be smeared on the +sill--something that wouldn't blow away and wouldn't wash off in the +event of a sudden rainstorm coming up. Soap would do--and soap is always +handy in a bedroom. I knew whose hand had made the smear as soon as I +looked at the cake of soap in 'Uncle Phil's' room--it was badly rubbed +on one side where it had been scraped over the stone coping and along +the outer edge of the sill where--Pardon me: this is the turning--I +leave you here. Pick me up at the inn of the Three Desires in an hour's +time, please, and we'll motor back to town together. So long!" + +And swung round into the branching lane and down the green slope, and +round under the shadow of Lyntonhurst Old Church to the quiet country +road and the lich-gate where Ailsa Lorne was waiting. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + +She was sitting in the very same place she had occupied when first he +saw her this morning, with the cypress tree and the roof making shadows +above and about her; and now, as then, she rose when she heard the latch +click and came toward him with hands outstretched and eyes aglow and +little gusts of colour sweeping in rose waves over throat and cheeks. + +"Oh, to think that you have solved it! To think that it is the end! And +to think that it was he--that dear, kind 'uncle' of whom they all were +so fond!" she said. "I could scarcely believe it when Captain Morford +brought the news. It made me quite faint for the moment--it was so +unexpected, so horrible!" + +"And after all, there was nothing to fear from that farm labourer who +frightened you so this morning, you see," he smiled, holding her two +hands in his and looking down at her from his greater height. "Yet I +find your crouching back in the shadow as if you were still frightened +to be seen. Are you?" + +"A little," she admitted. "You see, the road is a public one. People are +always passing, and--How good it was of you to come all this long +distance out of your way. Indeed, I am very, very grateful, Mr. Cleek." + +"Thank you," he said gravely. "But you need not be. Indeed, the +gratitude should be all on my side. I said I would come if ever you +wanted me, and you gave me an opportunity to keep my word. As for it +being out of my way to come here, it is but a little distance to the +Three Desires and a long one to Lady Chepstow's place, so it is you, not +I, that have 'gone out of the way!' It was good of you to give me this +grace--I should have been sorry to go back to town without saying +good-bye." + +"But need you go so soon?" she asked. "Lady Chepstow will feel slighted, +I know, if she hears that you have been in the neighbourhood and have +not called. She is a friend, you know, a warm, true friend--always +grateful for what you did, always glad to see you. Why not stop on a day +or two and call and see her?" + +A robin flicked down out of the cypress tree and perched on the gate +top, looked up at Cleek with bright, sharp eyes, flung out a wee little +trill, and was off again. + +"I'm afraid it is out of the question--I'm afraid I'm not so deeply +interested in Lady Chepstow as, perhaps, I ought to be," said Cleek, +noticing in a dim subconscious way that the robin had flown on to the +church door and perched there, and was in full song now. "Besides, she +does not know of me what you do. Perhaps, if she did.... Oh, well, it +doesn't matter. Thank you for coming to say good-bye, Miss Lorne. It was +kind of you. Now I must emulate Poor Jo, and 'move on' again." + +"And without any reward!" said Ailsa with a smile and a sigh. "Without +expecting any; without asking any; without wanting any!" + +He stood a moment, twisting his heel round and round in the gravel of +the pathway, and breathing hard, his eyes on the ground, and his lips +indrawn. Then, of a sudden--"Perhaps I did want one. Perhaps I've always +wanted one. And hoped to get it some day perhaps from--you!" he said. +And looked up at her as a man looks but once at one woman ever. + +She had come a step nearer; she was standing there with the shadows +behind her and the light on her face, warm colour in her cheeks, and a +smile on her lips and in her eyes. She spoke no word, made no sound; +merely stood there and smiled and, somehow, he seemed to know what the +smile of her meant and what the bird's note said. + +"Miss Lorne--Ailsa," he said, very, very gently, "if some day ... when +all the wrongs I did in those other days are righted, and all that a man +can do on this earth to atone for such a past as mine has been done ... +if then, in that time, I come to you and ask for that reward, do you +think, oh, do you think that you can find it in your heart to give it?" + +"When that day dawns, come and see," she said, "if you wish to wait so +long!" + + + + +EPILOGUE + +THE AFFAIR OF THE MAN WHO HAD BEEN CALLED HAMILTON CLEEK + + +"Note for you, sir--messenger just fetched it. Addressed to 'Captain +Burbage,' so it'll be from The Yard," said Dollops, coming into the room +with a doughnut in one hand and a square envelope in the other. + +Cleek, who had been sitting at his writing-table, with a litter of +folded documents, bits of antique jewellery, and what looked like odds +and ends of faded ribbon lying before him, swept the whole collection +into the table drawer as Dollops spoke and stretched forth his hand for +the letter. + +It was one of Narkom's characteristic communications, albeit somewhat +shorter than those communications usually were--a fact which told Cleek +at once that the matter was one of immense importance. + +"My dear Cleek," it ran. "For the love of goodness don't let anything +tempt you into going out to-night. I shall call about ten. Foreign +government affair--reward simply enormous. Look out for me. Yours, in +hot haste--MAVERICK NARKOM." + +"Be on the lookout for the red limousine," said Cleek, glancing over at +Dollops, who stood waiting for orders. "It will be along about ten. +That's all. You may go." + +"Right you are, Gov'nor. I'll keep my eyes peeled, sir. Lor'! I do hope +it's summink to do with a restaurant or a cookshop this time. I could do +with a job of that sort--my word, yes! I'm fair famishin'. And, beggin' +pardon, but you don't look none too healthy yourself this evening, +Gov'nor. Ain't et summink wot's disagreed with you, have you, sir?" + +"I? What nonsense! I'm as fit as a fiddle. What could make you think +otherwise?" + +"Oh, I dunno, sir--only--Well, if you don't mind my sayin' of it, sir, +whenever you gets to unlocking of that draw and lookin' at them things +you keep in there--wotever they is--you always gets a sort of +solemncholy look in the eyes; and you gets white about the gills, and +your lips has a pucker to 'em that I don't like to see." + +"Tommy rot! Imagination's a splendid thing for a detective to possess, +Dollops, but don't let yours run away with you in this fashion, my lad, +or you'll never rise above what you are. Toddle along now, and look out +for Mr. Narkom's arrival. It's after nine already, so he'll soon be +here." + +"Anybody a-comin' with him, sir?" + +"I don't know--he didn't say. Cut along, now; I'm busy!" said Cleek. +Nevertheless, when Dollops had gone and the door was shut and he had the +room to himself again, and, if he really did have any business on hand, +there was no reason in the world why he should not have set about it, he +remained sitting at the table and idly drumming upon it with his finger +tips, a deep ridge between his brows and a far-away expression in his +fixed, unwinking eyes. And so he was still sitting when, something like +twenty minutes later, the sharp "Toot-toot!" of a motor horn sounded. + +Narkom's note lay on the table close to his elbow. He took it up, +crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into his waste basket. "A foreign +government affair," he said with a curious one-sided smile. "A strange +coincidence, to be sure!" Then, as if obeying an impulse, he opened the +drawer, looked at the litter of things he had swept into it, shut it up +again and locked it securely, putting the key into his pocket and rising +to his feet. Two minutes later, when Narkom pushed open the door and +entered the room, he found Cleek leaning against the edge of the +mantelpiece and smoking a cigarette with the air of one whose feet trod +always upon rose petals, and who hadn't a thought beyond the affairs of +the moment, nor a care for anything but the flavour of Egyptian tobacco. + +"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't think what a relief it was to catch you. +I had but a moment in which to dash off the note, and I was on thorns +with fear that it would miss you; that on a glorious night like this +you'd be off for a pull up the river or something of that sort," said +the superintendent, as he bustled in and shook hands with him. "You are +such a beggar for getting off by yourself and mooning." + +"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Narkom, I came within an ace of doing +the very thing you speak of," replied Cleek. "It's full moon, for one +thing, and it's primrose time for another. Happily for your desire to +catch me, however, I--er--got interested in the evening paper, and that +delayed me." + +"Very glad, dear chap; very glad, indeed," began Narkom. Then, as his +eye fell upon the particular evening paper in question lying on the +writing-table, a little crumpled from use, but with a certain +"displayed-headed" article of three columns length in full view, he +turned round and stared at Cleek with an air of awe and mystification. +"My dear fellow, you must be under the guardianship of some uncanny +familiar. You surely must, Cleek!" he went on. "Do you mean to tell me +that is what kept you at home? That you have been reading about the +preparations for the forthcoming coronation of King Ulric of +Mauravania?" + +"Yes; why not? I am sure it makes interesting reading, Mr. Narkom. The +kingdom of Mauravania has had sufficient ups and downs to inspire a +novelist, so its records should certainly interest a mere reader. To be +frank, I found the account of the amazing preparations for the +coronation of his new Majesty distinctly entertaining. They are an +excitable and spectacular people, those Mauravanians, and this time they +seem bent upon outdoing themselves." + +"But, my dear Cleek, that you should have chosen to stop at home and +read about that particular affair! Bless my soul man, it's--it's +amazing, abnormal, uncanny! Positively uncanny, Cleek!" + +"My dear Narkom, I don't see where the uncanny element comes in, I must +confess," replied Cleek with an indulgent smile. "Surely an Englishman +must always feel a certain amount of interest in Mauravian affairs. Have +the goodness to remember that there should be an Englishman upon that +particular throne. Aye, and there would be, too, but for one of those +moments of weak-backed policy, of a desire upon the part of the +'old-woman' element which sometimes prevails in English politics to keep +friendly relations with other powers at any cost. Brush up your history, +Mr. Narkom, and give your memory a fillip. Eight-and-thirty years ago +Queen Karma of Mauravania had an English consort and bore him two +daughters, and one son. You will perhaps recall the mad rebellion, the +idiotic rising which disgraced that reign. That was the time for England +to have spoken. But the peace party had it by the throat; they, with +their mawkish cry for peace--peace at any price!--drowned the voices of +men and heroes, and the end was what it was! Queen Karma was +deposed--she and her children fled, God knows how, God knows where--fled +and left a dead husband and father, slain like a hero and an Englishman, +fighting for his own, and with his face to the foe. Avenge his death? +Nonsense, declared the old women. He had no right to defy the will of +Heaven, no right to stir up strife with a friendly people and expect his +countrymen to embroil themselves because of his lust for power. It would +be a lasting disgrace to the nation if England allowed a lot of howling, +bloodthirsty meddlers to persuade it to interfere. + +"The old women had their way. Queen Karma and her children vanished; her +uncle Duke Sforza came to the throne as Alburtus III., and eight months +ago his son, the present King Ulric, succeeded him. The father had been +a bad king, the son a bad crown-prince. Mauravania has paid the price. +Let her put up with it! I don't think in the light of these things, Mr. +Narkom, there is any wonder that an Englishman finds interest in reading +of the affairs of a country over which an Englishman's son might, and +ought to, have ruled. As for me, I have no sympathy, my friend, with +Mauravania or her justly punished people." + +"Still, my dear fellow, that should not count when the reward for taking +up this case is so enormous--and I dare say it will not." + +"Reward? Case?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by that?" + +"That I am here to enlist your services in the cause of King Ulric of +Mauravania," replied Narkom, impressively. "Something has happened, +Cleek, which, if not cleared up before the coronation day--now only one +month hence, as you must have read--will certainly result in his +Majesty's public disgrace, and may result in his overthrow and death! +His friend and chief adviser, Count Irma, has come all the way from +Mauravania, and is at this moment downstairs in this house, to put the +case in your hands and to implore you to help and to save his royal +master!" + +"His royal master? The son of the man who drove an Englishman's wife and +an Englishman's children into exile--poverty--misery--despair?" said +Cleek, pulling himself up. "I won't take it, Mr. Narkom! If he offers me +millions, I'll lift no hand to help or to save Mauravania's king!" + +The response to this came from an unexpected quarter. + +"But to save Mauravania's queen, monsieur? Will you do nothing for her?" +said an excited and imploring voice. And as Cleek, startled by the +interruption, switched round and glanced in the direction of the sound, +the half-dosed door swung inward and a figure, muffled to the very eyes, +moved over the threshold into the room. "Have pardon, monsieur--I could +not but overhear," went on the newcomer, turning to Narkom. "I should +scarcely be worthy of his Majesty's confidence and favour had I remained +inactive. I simply had to come up unbidden. _Had_ to, monsieur"--turning +to Cleek--"and so--" His words dropped off suddenly. A puzzled look +first expanded and then contracted his eyes, and his lips tightened +curiously under the screen of his white, military moustache. "Monsieur," +he said, presently putting into words the sense of baffling familiarity +which perplexed him. "Monsieur, you then are the great, the astonishing +Cleek? You, monsieur? Pardon, but surely I have had the pleasure of +meeting monsieur before? No, not here, for I have never been in England +until to-day; but in my own country--in Mauravania. Surely, monsieur, I +have seen you there?" + +"On the contrary," said Cleek, speaking the simple truth. "I have never +set foot in Mauravania in all my life, sir. And as you have overheard my +words you may see that I do not intend to even now. The difficulties of +Mauravania's king do not in the least appeal to me." + +"Ah, but Mauravania's queen, monsieur--Mauravania's queen." + +"The lady interests me no more than does her royal spouse." + +"But, monsieur, she must--she really must--if you are honest in what you +say, and your sympathies are all with the deposed and exiled ones--the +ex-queen Karma and her children. Surely, monsieur, you who seem to know +so well the history of that sad time cannot be ignorant of what has +happened since to her ex-Majesty and her children?" + +"I know only that Queen Karma died in France, in extreme poverty, +befriended to the last by people of the very humblest birth and of not +too much respectability. What became of her son I do not know; but her +daughters, the two princesses, mere infants at the time, were sent, one +to England, where she subsequently died, and the other to Persia, where, +I believe, she remained up to her ninth year, and then went no one seems +to know where." + +"Then, monsieur, let me tell you what became of her. The late King +Alburtus discovered her whereabouts, and, to prevent any possible +trouble in the future, imprisoned her in the Fort of Sulberga up to the +year before his death. Eleven months ago she became the Crown Prince +Ulric's wife. She is now his consort. And by saving her, monsieur, you +who feel so warmly upon the subject of the rights of her family's +succession, will be saving her, helping Mauravania's queen, and +defeating those who are her enemies." + +Cleek sucked in his breath and regarded the man silently, steadily, for +a long time. Then: + +"Is that true, Count?" he asked. "On your word of honour as a soldier +and a gentleman, is that true?" + +"As true as Holy Writ, monsieur. On my word of honour. On my hopes of +heaven!" + +"Very well, then," said Cleek quietly. "Tell me the case, Count. I'll +take it." + +"Monsieur, my eternal gratitude. Also the reward is--" + +"We will talk about that afterward. Sit down, please, and tell me what +you want me to do." + +"Oh, monsieur, almost the impossible," said the Count despairfully. "The +outwitting of a woman who must in very truth be the devil's own +daughter, so subtle, so appalling are the craft and cunning of her. +That, for one thing. For another, the finding of a paper, which, if +published--as the woman swears it shall be if her terms are not acceded +to--will be the signal for his Majesty's overthrow. And, for the +third"--emotion mastered him; his voice choked up and failed; he +deported himself for a moment like one afraid to let even his own ears +hear the thing spoken of aloud, then governed his cowardice and went +on--"For the third thing, monsieur," he said, lowering his tone until it +was almost a whisper, "the recovery--the restoration to its place of +honour before the coronation day arrives--of that fateful gem, +Mauravania's pride and glory--'the Rainbow Pearl!'" + +Cleek clamped his jaws together like a bloodhound snapping and over his +hardening face there came a slow-creeping, unnatural pallor. + +"Has that been lost?" he said in a low, bleak voice. "Has he, this +precious royal master of yours, this usurper--has he parted with that +thing--the wondrous Rainbow Pearl?" + +"Monsieur knows of the gem, then?" + +"Know of it? Who does not? Its fame is world-wide. Wars have been fought +for it, lives sacrificed for it. It is more valuable than England's +Koh-i-noor, and more important to the country and the crown that possess +it. The legend runs, does it not, that Mauravania falls when the Rainbow +Pearl passes into alien hands. An absurd belief, to be sure, but who can +argue with a superstitious people or hammer wisdom into the minds of +babies? And _that_ has been lost--that gem so dear to Mauravania's +people, so important to Mauravania's crown?" + +"Yes, monsieur--ah, the good God help my country!--yes!" said the Count +brokenly. "It has passed from his Majesty's hands; it is no longer among +the crown jewels of Mauravania--a Russian has it." + +"A Russian?" Cleek's cry was like to nothing so much as the snarl of a +wild animal. "A Russian to hold it--a Russian?--the sworn enemy of +Mauravania--the race most hated of her people! God help your wretched +king, Count Irma, if this were known to his subjects." + +"Ah, monsieur, it is that we dread--it is that against which we +struggle," replied the Count. "If that jewel were missing on the +coronation day, if it were known that a Russian holds it--Dear God! the +populace would rise--rise, monsieur, and tear his Majesty to pieces." + +"He deserves no better!" said Cleek, through his close-shut teeth. "To a +Russian--a Russian! As heaven hears me, but for his queen--Well, let it +pass. Tell me, how did this Russian get the jewel, and when?" + +"Oh, long ago, monsieur--long ago; many months before King Alburtus +died." + +"Was it his hand that gave it up?" + +"No, monsieur. He died without knowing of its loss, without suspecting +that the stone in the royal parure is but a sham and an imitation," +replied the count. "It all came of the youth, the recklessness, the +folly of the crown prince. Monsieur may have heard of his--his many wild +escapades--his thoughtless acts, his--his--" + +"Call them dissipations, Count, and give them their real name. His acts +as crown prince were a scandal and a disgrace. To whom did he part with +this gem--a woman?" + +"Monsieur, yes! It was during the time he was stopping in +Paris--incognito to all but a trusted few. He--he met the woman there, +became fascinated with her--bound to her--an abject slave to her." + +"A slave to a Russian? Mauravania's heir and--a Russian?" + +"Monsieur, he did not know that until afterward. In a mad freak--there +was to be a masked ball--he yielded to the lady's persuasions to let her +wear the famous Rainbow Pearl for that one night. He journeyed back to +Mauravania and abstracted it from among the royal jewels--putting a mere +imitation in its place so that it should not be missed until he could +return the original. Monsieur, he was never able to return it at any +time, for, once she had got it, the Russian made away with it in some +secret manner and refused to give it up. Her price for returning it was +his royal father's consent to ennoble her, to receive her at the +Mauravanian Court, and so to alter the constitution that it would be +possible for her to become the crown prince's wife." + +"The proposition of an idiot. The thing could not possibly be done." + +"No, monsieur, it could not. So the crown prince broke from her and bent +all his energies upon the recovery of the pearl and the keeping of its +loss a secret from the king and his people. Bravos, footpads, +burglars--all manner of men--were employed before he left Paris. The +woman's house was broken into, the woman herself waylaid and searched, +but nothing came of it--no clue to the lost jewel could be found." + +"Why then did he not appeal to the police?" + +"Monsieur, he--he dared not. In one of his moments of madness +he--she--that is--Oh, monsieur, remember his youth! It appears that the +woman had got him to put into writing something which, if made public, +would cause the people of Mauravania to rise as one man and to do with +him as wolves do with things that are thrown to them in their fury." + +"The dog! Some treaty with a Russian, of course!" said Cleek +indignantly. "Oh, fickle Mauravania, how well you are punished for your +treasonable choice! Well, go on, Count. What next?" + +"Of a sudden, monsieur, the woman disappeared. Nothing was heard of her, +no clue to her whereabouts discovered for two whole years. She was as +one dead and gone until last week." + +"Oho! She returned, then?" + +"Yes, monsieur. Without hint or warning she turned up in Mauravania, +accompanied by a disreputable one-eyed man who has the manner and +appearance of one bred in the gutters of Paris, albeit he is well +clothed, well-looked after, and she treats him and his wretched +collection of parakeets with the utmost consideration." + +"Parakeets?" put in Narkom excitedly. "My dear Cleek, couldn't a +parakeet be made to swallow a pearl?" + +"Perhaps; but not this one, Mr. Narkom," he made reply. "It is quite the +size of a pigeon's egg, I believe; is it not, Count?" + +"Yes, monsieur, quite. To see it is to remember it always. It has the +changing lights of the rainbow, and--" + +"Never mind that; go on with the story, please. This woman and this +one-eyed man appeared last week in Mauravania, you say?" + +"Yes, monsieur; and with them a bodyguard of at least ten servants. Her +demand now is that his Majesty make her his morganatic wife; that he +establish her at the palace under the same roof with his queen; and that +she be allowed to ride with them in the state carriage on the coronation +day. Failing that, she swears that she will not only publish the +contents of that dreadful letter, but send the original to the chief of +the Mauravanian police and appear in public with the Rainbow Pearl upon +her person." + +"The Jezebel! What steps have you taken, Count, to prevent this?" + +"All that I can imagine, monsieur. To prevent her from getting into +close touch with the public, I have thrown open my own house to her, and +received her and her retinue under my own roof rather than allow them to +be quartered at an hotel. Also, this has given me the opportunity to +have her effects and those of her followers secretly searched; but no +clue to the letter, no clue to the pearl has anywhere been discovered." + +"Still she must have both with her, otherwise she could not carry out +her threat. No doubt she suspects what motive you had in taking her into +your own house, Count--a woman like that is no fool. But tell me, does +she show no anxiety, no fear of a search?" + +"None, monsieur. She knows that my people search her effects; indeed, +she has told me so. But it alarms her not a whit. As she told me two +days ago, I shall find nothing; but if I did it would be useless, for, +on the moment anything of hers was touched, her servants would see that +the finder never carried it from the house." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "A little searching +party of her own, eh? The lady is clever, at all events. The moment +either pearl or letter should be removed from its hiding-place her +servants would allow nobody to leave the house without being searched to +the very skin?" + +"Yes, monsieur. So if by any chance you were to discover either--" + +"My friend, set your mind at rest," interposed Cleek. "If I find either, +or both, they will leave the house with me, I promise you. Mr. Narkom--" +he turned to the superintendent--"keep an eye on Dollops for me, will +you? There are reasons why I can't take him--can't take anybody--with me +in the working out of this case. I may be a couple of days or I may be a +week--I can't say as yet; but I start with Count Irma for Mauravania in +the morning. And, Mr. Narkom!" + +"Yes, old chap?" + +"Do me a favour, please. Be at Charing Cross station when the first +boat-train leaves to-morrow morning, will you, and bring me a small pot +of extract of beef--a very small pot, the smallest they make--not bigger +than a shilling nor thicker than one if they make them that size. What's +that? Hide the pearl in it? What nonsense! I don't want one half big +enough for that. Besides, they'd be sure to find it when they searched +me if I tried any such fool's trick as that. Dollops isn't the only +creature in the world that gets hungry, my friend, and beef extract is +very sustaining, very, I assure you, sir." + + + + +II + + +"A beautiful city, Count--an exceedingly beautiful city," said Cleek, as +the carriage which had been sent to meet them at the station rolled into +the broad Avenue des Arcs, which is at once the widest and most ornate +thoroughfare the capital city of Mauravania boasts. "Ah, what a +heritage! No wonder King Ulric is so anxious to retain his sovereignty; +no wonder this--er--Madame Tcharnovetski, I think you said the name +is--" + +"Yes, monsieur. It is oddly spelled, but it is pronounced a little +broader than you give it--quite as though it were written +Shar-no-vet-skee, in fact, with the accent on the third syllable." + +"Ah, yes. Thanks very much. No wonder she is anxious to become a power +here. Mauravania is a fairyland in very truth; and this beautiful avenue +with its arches, its splendid trees, its sculpture, its--Ah! _cocher_, +pull up at once. Stop, if you please, stop!" + +"Oui, monsieur," replied the driver, reining in his horses and glancing +round. "_Dix mille pardons, M'sieur_, there is something amiss?" + +"Yes; very much amiss--from the dog's point of view," replied Cleek, +indicating by a wave of the hand a mongrel puppy which crouched, forlorn +and hungry, in the shadow of an imposing building. "He should be a +Socialist among dogs, that little fellow, Count. The mere accident of +birth has made him what he is, and that poodled monstrosity the lady +yonder is leading the pet and pride of a thoughtless mistress. I want +that little canine outcast, Count, and with your permission I will +appropriate him, and give him his first carriage ride." With that, he +stepped down from the vehicle, whistled the cur to him, and taking it up +in his arms, returned with it to his seat. + +"Monsieur, you are to me the most astonishing of men," said the Count, +noticing how he patted the puppy and settled it in his lap as the +carriage resumed its even rolling down the broad, beautiful avenue. "One +moment upholding the rights of birth, the next rebelling against the +injustice of it. Are your sympathies with the unfortunate so keen, +monsieur, that even this stray cur may claim them?" + +"Perhaps," replied Cleek enigmatically. "You must wait and see, Count. +Just now I pity him for his forlornity; to-morrow--next day--a week +hence--I may hold it a better course to put an end to his hopeless lot +by chloroforming him into a painless and peaceful death." + +"Monsieur, I cannot follow you--you speak in riddles." + +"I deal in riddles, Count; you must wait for the solution of them, I'm +afraid." + +"I wish I could grasp the solution of one which puzzles me a great deal, +monsieur. What is it that has happened to your countenance? You have +done nothing to put on a disguise; yet, since we left the train and +entered the landau, some subtle change has occurred. What is it? How has +it come about? The night before last, when I saw you for the first time, +your face was one that impressed me with a sense of familiarity--now, +monsieur, you are like a different man." + +"I am a different man, Count. Like puppy, here, I am a waif and a stray; +yet, at the same time, I have my purpose and am part of a carefully-laid +scheme." + +The Count made no reply. He could not comprehend the man at all, and at +times--but for the world-wide reputation of him--he would have believed +him insane. Not a question as to the great and important case he was on, +but merely incomprehensible remarks, trifling fancies, apparently +aimless whims! Two nights ago a pot of beef extract; to-day a mongrel +puppy; and all the time the hopes of a kingdom, the future of a monarch +resting in his hands! + +For twenty minutes longer the landau rolled on; then it came to a halt +under the broad _porte cochere_ of the Villa Irma, and two minutes after +that Cleek and the Count stood in the presence of Madame Tcharnovetski, +her purblind associate, and her retinue of servant-guards. + +A handsome woman, this madame, a woman of about two-and-thirty, with the +tar-black eyes and the twilight coloured tresses of Northern Russia; +bold as brass, flippant as a French cocotte, steel-nerved and +calm-blooded as a professional gambler. It had been her whim that all +the women of the Count's family should be banished from the house during +her stay; that the great salon of the villa--a wondrous apartment, hung +in blue and silver, and lit by a huge crystal chandelier--should be put +at her disposal night and day; that the electric lights should be +replaced with dozens of wax candles (after the manner of the ballrooms +of her native Russia), and that her one-eyed companion, with his wicker +cage of screeching parakeets, should come and go when and where and how +he listed, and that an electric alarm bell be connected with her +sleeping apartment and his. + +"Your hirelings will tamper with his birds and his effects in the +night--I know that, Monsieur le Comte," she had said when she demanded +this. "He is a nervous fellow, this poor Clopin; I wish him to be able +to ring for help if you and your men go too far." + +Clopin was sitting by the window chattering to his birds when Cleek +entered, and a glance at him was sufficient to decide two points: first, +he was not disguised, nor was his partial blindness in any way a sham, +for an idiot could have seen that the droop of the left eyelid over the +staring, palpably artificial eye which glazed over the empty socket +beneath was due to perfectly natural causes; and, second, that the man +was indeed what the Count had said he resembled, namely, a gutter-bred +outcast. + +"French!" was Cleek's silent comment upon him. "One of those charlatans +who infest the streets of Paris with their so-called 'fortune-telling +birds,' who, for ten centimes, pick out an envelope with their beaks as +a means of telling you what the future is supposed to hold. What has +made a woman like this pick up a fellow of his stamp? Hum-m-m! Puppy, I +think you are a good move," stroking the ears of the mongrel dog; "a +very much better move than a cage of useless parakeets that are meant to +throw suspicion in the wrong direction and have a seed-cup so large and +so obviously overfilled that it is safe to say there is nothing hidden +in it and never has been! And madame has a fancy for waxlights," his +gaze travelling upward to the glittering chandelier. "Hum-m-m! How well +they know, these women whose beauty is going off, that waxlights show +less of Time's ravages than gas or electricity. Candles in the +chandelier; candles in the sconces, candles on the mantelpieces. This +room should be very charming when it is lighted at night." + +It was--as he learned later. Just now things not quite so charming +filled the bill, for madame was jeering at him in a manner not to be +understood. + +"A police spy--that is what you are, monsieur!" she said, coming up to +him and impudently snapping her fingers under his nose. "Such a fool, +this white-headed old dotard of a Count, to think that he can take me in +with a silly yarn about going to visit a nephew and bringing him back +here to stay. Monsieur, you are a police spy. Well, good luck to you. +Get what the Mauravanian king wants, if--you--can!" + +"Madame," replied Cleek, with a deeply deferential bow and with an +accent that seemed born of Paris, "madame, that is what I mean to do, I +assure you." + +"Ah, do you?" she answered, with a scream of laughter. "You hear that, +Clopin? You hear that, my good servitors? This silly French noodle is +going to get the things in spite of us. Oho, but you have a fine opinion +of yourself, monsieur. You need work fast, too, pretty boaster, I can +tell you. For the royal jewellers will require the Rainbow Pearl very +soon to fix it in its place in the crown for the coronation ceremony, +and if that thing his Majesty holds is offered to them, how long, think +you, will it be before all Mauravania knows that it is an imitation? +Look you," waxing suddenly vicious, "I'll make it shorter still, the +time you have to strive. Monsieur le Comte, take this message to his +Majesty from me: If in three days he does not promise to accede to my +demands and give me a public proof of it over his royal seal, I leave +Mauravania--the pearl and letter leave with me, and they shall not come +back until I return with them for the coronation." + +"For the love of God, madame," said the Count, "don't make it harder +still. Oh, wait, wait, I beseech you!" + +"Not an hour longer than I have now said!" she flung back at him. "I +have waited until I am tired of it, and my patience is worn out. Three +days, Count; three days, monsieur with the puppy dog; three days, and +not an instant longer, do you hear?" + +"Quite enough, madame," replied Cleek, with a courtly bow, "I promise to +have them in two!" + +She threw back her head and fairly shook with laughter. + +"Of a truth, monsieur, you are a candid boaster!" she cried. "Look you, +my good fellows, and you too, my poor dumb Clopin, pretty monsieur here +will have the letter and the pearl in two days' time. Look to it that he +never leaves this house at any minute from this time forth that you do +not search him from top to toe. If he resists--ah, well, a pistol may go +off accidentally, and things that Mauravania's king would give his life +to keep hidden will come to light if any charge of murder is preferred. +Monsieur the police spy, I wish you joy of your task." + +"Madame, I shall take joy in it," Cleek replied. "But why should we talk +of unpleasant things when the future looks so bright? Come, may we not +give ourselves a pleasant evening? Look, there is a piano, and--Count, +hold my puppy for me, and please see that no one feeds him at any time. +I am starving him so that he may devour some of Clopin's parakeets, +because I hate the sight of the little beasts. Thank you. Madame, do you +like music? Listen, then: I'll sing you Mauravania's national anthem: +'God guard the throne; God shield the right!'" and, dropping down upon +the seat before the open instrument, he did so. + + * * * * * + +That night was ever memorable at the Villa Irma, for the detective +seemed somehow to have given place to the courtier, and so merry was his +mood, so infectious his good nature, that even madame came under the +spell of it. She sang with him, she even danced a Russian polka with +him; she sat with him at dinner, and flirted with him in the salon +afterward; and when the time came for her to retire, it was he who took +her bedroom candle from the shelf and put it into her hand. + +"Of a truth, you are a charming fellow, monsieur," she said, when he +bent and kissed her hand. "What a pity you should be a police spy and +upon so hopeless a case." + +"Hopeless cases are my delight, madame. Believe me, I shall not fail." + +"Only three days, remember, _cher ami_--only three days!" + +"Madame is too kind. I have said it: two will do. On the morning of the +third madame's passport will be ready and the Rainbow Pearl be in the +royal jeweller's hands. A thousand pleasant dreams--_bon soir_!" And +bowed her out and kissed his hand to her as she went up the stairs to +bed. + + + + +III + + +Thrice during the next twenty-four hours Cleek, who seemed to have +become so attached to the mongrel dog that he kept it under his arm +continually, had reason to leave the house, and thrice was he seized by +madame's henchmen, bundled unceremoniously into a convenient room, and +searched to the very skin before he was suffered to pass beyond the +threshold. And if so much as a pin had been hidden upon his person, it +must have been discovered. + +"You see, monsieur, how hopeless it is!" said the Count despairfully. +"One dare not rebel: one dare not lift a finger, or the woman speaks and +his Majesty's ruin falls. Oh, the madness of that boast of yours! Only +another twenty-four hours--only another day--and then God help his +Majesty!" + +"God has helped him a great deal better than he deserves, Count," +replied Cleek. "By to-morrow night at ten o'clock be in the square of +the Aquisola, please. Bring with you the passports of madame and her +companions, also a detachment of the Royal Guard, and his Majesty's +cheque for the reward I am to receive." + +"Monsieur! You really hope to get the things? You really do?" + +"Oh, I do more than 'hope,' Count--I have succeeded. I knew last night +where both pearl and letter were. To-morrow night--ah, well, let +to-morrow tell its own tale. Only be in the square at the hour I +mention, and when I lift a lighted candle and pass it across the salon +window, send the guard here with the passports. Let them remain +outside--within sight, but not within range of hearing what is said and +done. You are alone to enter--remember that." + +"To receive the jewel and the letter?" eagerly. "Or, at least, to have +you point out the hiding-place of them?" + +"No; we should be shot down like dogs if I undertook a mad thing like +that." + +"Then, monsieur, how are we to seize them? How get them into our +possession, his Majesty and I?" + +"From my hand, Count; this hand which held them both before I went to +bed last night." + +"Monsieur!" The Count fell back from him as if from some supernatural +presence. "You found them? You held them? You took possession of them +last night? How did you get them out of the house?" + +"I have not done so yet." + +"But can you? Oh, monsieur, wizard though you are, can you get them past +her guards? Can you, monsieur--can you?" + +"Watch for the light at the window, Count. It will not be waved unless +it is safe for you to come and the pearl is already out of the house." + +"And the letter, monsieur--the damning letter?" + +Cleek smiled one of his strange, inscrutable smiles. + +"Ask me that to-morrow, Count," he said. "You shall hear something, you +and madame, that will surprise you both," then twisted round on his heel +and walked hurriedly away. + +And all that day and all that night he danced attendance upon madame, +and sang to her, and handed her bedroom candle to her as he had done the +night before, and gave back jest for jest and returned her merry +badinage in kind. + +Nor did he change in that when the fateful to-morrow came. From morning +to night he was at her side, at her beck and call, doing nothing that +was different from the doings of yesterday, save that at evening he +locked the mongrel dog up in his room instead of carrying him about. And +the dog, feeling its loneliness, or, possibly, famishing--for he had +given it not a morsel of food since he found it--howled and howled until +the din became unbearable. + +"Monsieur, I wish you would silence that beast or else feed it," said +madame pettishly. "The howling of the wretched thing gets on my nerves. +Give it some food for pity's sake." + +"Not I," said Cleek. "Do you remember what I said, madame? I am getting +it hungry enough to eat one--or perhaps all--of Clopin's wretched little +parakeets." + +"You think they have to do with the hiding of the paper or the pearl, +cher ami? Eh?" + +"I am sure of it. He would not carry the beastly little things about for +nothing." + +"Ah, you are clever--you are very, very clever, monsieur," she made +answer, with a laugh. "But he must begin his bird-eating quickly, that +nuisance-dog, or it will be too late. See, it is already half-past nine; +I retire to my bed in another hour and a half, as always, and then your +last hope he is gone--z-zic! like that; for it will be the end of the +second day, monsieur, and your promise not yet kept. Pestilence, +monsieur," with a little outburst of temper, "do stop the little beast +his howl. It is unbearable! I would you to sing to me like last night, +but the noise of the dog is maddening." + +"Oh, if it annoys you like that, madame," said Cleek, "I'll take him +round to the stable and tie him up there, so we may have the song +undisturbed. Your men will not want to search me of course, when I am +merely popping out and popping in again like that, I am sure?" + +Nevertheless they did, for although they had heard and did not stir when +he left the room and ran up for the dog, when he came down with it under +his arm and made to leave the house, he was pounced upon, dragged into +an adjoining apartment by half a dozen burly fellows, stripped to the +buff, and searched, as the workers in a diamond mine are searched, +before they suffered him to leave the house. There was neither a sign of +a pearl nor a scrap of a letter to be found upon him--they made sure of +that before they let him go. + +"An enterprising lot, those lackeys of yours, madame," he said, when he +returned from tying the dog up in the stable and rejoined her in the +salon. "It will be an added pleasure to get the better of them, I can +assure you." + +"Oui! if you can!" she answered, with a mocking laugh. "Clopin, cher +ami, your poor little parakeets are safe for the night--unless monsieur +grows desperate and eats them for himself." + +"Even that, if it were necessary to get the pearl, madame," said Cleek, +with the utmost sang-froid. "Faugh!" looking at his watch, "a good +twenty minutes wasted by the zealousness of those idiotic searchers of +yours. Ten minutes to ten! Just time for one brief song. Let us make hay +while the sun lasts, madame, for it goes down suddenly in Mauravania; +and for some of us--it never comes up again!" Then, throwing himself +upon the piano-seat, he ran his fingers across the keys and broke into +the stately measures of the national anthem. And, of a sudden, while the +song was yet in progress, the clock in the corridor jingled its musical +chimes and struck the first note of the hour. + +He jumped to his feet and lifted both hands above his head. + +"Mauravania!" he cried. "Oh, Mauravania! For you! For you!" Then jumped +to the mantelpiece, and catching up a lighted candle, flashed it twice +across the window's width, and broke again into the national hymn. + +"Monsieur," cried out madame, "monsieur, what is the meaning of that? +Have you lost your wits? You give a signal! For what? To whom?" + +"To the guards of Mauravania's king, madame, in honour of his safe +escape from you!" he made reply; then twitched back the window curtains +until the whole expanse of glass was bared. "Look! do you see them--do +you, madame? His Majesty of Mauravania sends Madame Tcharnovetski a +command to leave his kingdom, since he no longer has cause to fear a +wasp whose sting has been plucked out." + +Her swift glance flashed to the fireplace, then to the corner where +Clopin still sat with his jabbering parakeets, then flashed back to +Cleek, and--she laughed in his face. + +"I think not, monsieur," she said, with a swaggering air. "Truly, I +think not, my excellent friend." + +"What a pity you only think so, madame! As for me--Ah, welcome, Count, +welcome a thousand times. The paper, my friend; you have brought it? +Good! Give it to me. Madame, your passport--yours and your associates'. +You leave Mauravania by the midnight train, and you have but little time +to pack your effects. Your passport, madame, and--your bedroom candle. +Oh, yes, the paper is still round it--see!" slipping off a sheet of note +paper that was wrapped round the full length of the candle from top to +bottom, "but if you will examine it, madame, you will find it is blank. +I burned the real letter the night before last when I put this in its +place." + +"You what?" she snapped; then caught the tube-shaped covering he had +stripped from the candle, uncurled it, and--screamed. + +"Blank, madame, quite blank, you see," said Cleek serenely. "For one so +clever in other things, you should have been more careful. A little +pinch of powder in the punch at dinner-time--just that--and on the first +night, too! It was so easy afterward to get into your room, remove the +real paper, and wrap the candle in a blank piece while you slept." + +"You--you dog!" she snapped out viciously. "You drugged me?" + +"Yes, madame; you and the one-eyed man as well! Oh, don't excite +yourself--don't pull at the poor wretch like that. The glass eye will +come out quite easily, but--I assure you there is only a small lump of +beeswax in the socket now. I removed the Rainbow Pearl from poor +Monsieur Clopin's blind eye ten minutes after I burnt the letter, +madame, and--it passed out of this house to-night! A clever idea to pick +up a one-eyed pauper, madame, and hide the pearl in the empty socket of +the lost eye, but--it was too bad, you had to supply a glass eye to keep +it in, after the lid and the socket had withered and shrunk from so many +years of emptiness. It worried the poor man, madame; he was always +feeling it, always afraid that the lump behind would force it out; and, +what is an added misfortune for your plans, the glass shell did not +allow you to see the change when the pearl vanished and the bit of +beeswax took its place. Madame Tcharnovetski, your passport. I know +enough of the King of Mauravania to be sure that your life will not be +safe if you are not past the frontier before daybreak!" + + * * * * * + +"Monsieur le comte--no! I thank you, but I cannot wait to be presented +to his Majesty, for I, too, leave Mauravania to-night, and, like Madame +yonder, return to other and more promising fields," said Cleek, an hour +later, as he stood on the terrace of the Villa Irma and watched the slow +progress down the moonlit avenue of the carriage which was bearing +Madame Tcharnovetski and her effects to the railway station. "Give me +the cheque, please; I have earned that, and--there is good use for it. I +thank you, Count. Now do an act of charity, my friend: give the little +dog in the stable a good meal, and then have a surgeon chloroform him +into a peaceful and merciful death. They will find the Rainbow Pearl in +his intestines when they come to dissect the body. I starved him, +Count--starved him purposely, poor little wretch, so that he could be +hungry enough to snap at anything in the way of food and bolt it +instantly. To-night, when I went up to take him out to the stable, a +thick smearing of beef extract over the surface of the pearl was +sufficient; he swallowed it in a gulp! For a double reason, Count, there +should be a cur quartered on the royal arms of this country after +to-night." + +His voice dropped off into silence. The carriage containing madame had +swung out through the gateway, and its shadow no longer blotted the +broad, unbroken space of moonlit avenue. He turned and looked far out, +over the square of the Aquisola, along the light-lined esplanade, to the +palace gates and the fluttering flag that streamed against the sky above +and beyond them. + +"Oh, Mauravania!" he said. "An Englishman's heritage! Dear country, how +beautiful! My love to your Queen--my prayers for you." + +"Monsieur!" exclaimed the Count, "monsieur, what juggle is this? Your +face is again the face of that other night--the face that stirs memory +yet does not rivet it. Monsieur, speak, I beg of you. What are you? Who +are you?" + +"Cleek," he made answer. "Just Cleek! It will do. Oh, Mauravania, dear +land of desolated hopes, dear grave of murdered joys!" + +"Monsieur!" + +"Hush! Let me alone. There are things too sacred; and this--" His hands +reached outward as if in benediction; his face, upturned, was as a face +transfigured, and something that shone as silver gleamed in the corner +of his eye. "Mauravania!" he said. "Oh, Mauravania! My country--my +people--good-bye!" + +"Monsieur! Dear Heaven--_Majesty!_" + +Then came a rustling sound, and when Cleek had mastered himself and +looked down, a figure with head uncovered knelt on one knee at his feet. + +"Get up, Count," he said, with a little shaky laugh. "I appreciate the +honour, but--your fancy is playing you a trick. I tell you I never set +foot in Mauravania before, my friend." + +"I know--I know. How should you. Majesty, when it was as a child at +Queen Karma's breast Mauravania last saw--Don't leave like this! +Majesty! Majesty! 'God guard the right'--the pearl and the kingdom are +here." + +"Wrong, my good friend. The kingdom is there--where you found me--in +England; and so, too, is the pearl. For there is no kingdom like the +kingdom of love, no pearl like a good woman. Good night, Count, and many +thanks for your hospitality. You are a little upset to-night, but no +doubt you will be all right again in the morning. I will walk to the +station and--alone, if it is all the same to you." + +"Majesty!" + +"Dreams, Count, dreams. The riddle is solved, my friend. Good luck to +your country and--good-bye!" + +And, setting his back to the palace and the lights and the fluttering +flag, and his face to the land that held her, turned and went his +way--to the West--to England--and to those things which are higher than +crowns and better than sceptres and more precious than thrones and +ermine. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces +by Thomas W. 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