diff options
Diffstat (limited to '32198-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 32198-8.txt | 12564 |
1 files changed, 12564 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/32198-8.txt b/32198-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4619303 --- /dev/null +++ b/32198-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12564 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cleek of Scotland Yard, by Thomas W. Hanshew + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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 of Scotland Yard + Detective Stories + + +Author: Thomas W. Hanshew + + + +Release Date: May 1, 2010 [eBook #32198] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEEK OF SCOTLAND YARD*** + + +E-text prepared by Darleen Dove, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page +images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32198-h.htm or 32198-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32198/32198-h/32198-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32198/32198-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/cleekofscotlandy00hansrich + + + + + +CLEEK OF SCOTLAND YARD + + +[Illustration: "My only kingdom is here ... in this dear woman's +arms. Walk with me, Ailsa ... as my queen _and_ my wife."] + + +The International Adventure Library + +Three Owls Edition + +CLEEK OF SCOTLAND YARD + +Detective Stories + +by + +T. P. Hanshew + +Author of "Cleek the Master Detective", +"Cleek's Government Cases" etc. + + + + + + + +W. R. Caldwell & Co. +New York + +Copyright, 1912, 1913, 1914, by +Doubleday, Page & Company + +All rights reserved, including that of +translation into foreign languages, +including the Scandinavian. + + + + +Cleek of Scotland Yard + + + + +_PROLOGUE_ + +The Affair of the Man Who Vanished + + +Mr. Maverick Narkom, Superintendent at Scotland Yard, flung aside +the paper he was reading and wheeled round in his revolving +desk-chair, all alert on the instant, like a terrier that scents a +rat. + +He knew well what the coming of the footsteps toward his private +office portended; his messenger was returning at last. + +Good! Now he would get at the facts of the matter, and be relieved +from the sneers of carping critics and the pin pricks of overzealous +reporters, who seemed to think that the Yard was to blame, and all +the forces connected with it to be screamed at as incompetents if +every evildoer in London was not instantly brought to book and his +craftiest secrets promptly revealed. + +Gad! Let them take on his job, then, if they thought the thing so +easy! Let them have a go at this business of stopping at one's post +until two o'clock in the morning trying to patch up the jumbled +fragments of a puzzle of this sort, if they regarded it as such +child's play--finding an assassin whom nobody had seen and who struck +with a method which neither medical science nor legal acumen could +trace or name. _Then_, by James.... + +The door opened and closed, and Detective Sergeant Petrie stepped +into the room, removing his hat and standing at attention. + +"Well?" rapped out the superintendent, in the sharp staccato of +nervous impatience. "Speak up! It was a false alarm, was it not?" + +"No, sir. It's even worse than reported. Quicker and sharper than +any of the others. He's gone, sir." + +"Gone? Good God! you don't mean _dead_?" + +"Yes, sir. Dead as Julius Cæsar. Total collapse about twenty minutes +after my arrival and went off like that"--snapping his fingers and +giving his hand an outward fling. "Same way as the others, only, +as I say, quicker, sir; and with no more trace of what caused it +than the doctors were able to discover in the beginning. That makes +five in the same mysterious way, Superintendent, and not a ghost +of a clue yet. The papers will be ringing with it to-morrow." + +"Ringing with it? Can they 'ring' any more than they are doing +already?" Narkom threw up both arms and laughed the thin, mirthless +laughter of utter despair. "Can they say anything worse than they +have said? Blame any more unreasonably than they have blamed? It +is small solace for the overburdened taxpayer to reflect that he +may be done to death at any hour of the night, and that the heads +of the institution he has so long and so consistently supported +are capable of giving his stricken family nothing more in return +than the "Dear me! dear me!" of utter bewilderment; and to prove +anew that the efficiency of our boasted police-detective system +may be classed under the head of "Brilliant Fiction." That sort +of thing, day after day--as if I had done nothing but pile up +failures of this kind since I came into office. No heed of the +past six years' brilliant success. No thought for the manner in which +the police departments of other countries were made to sit up and +to marvel at our methods. Two months' failure and _that_ doesn't +count! By the Lord Harry! I'd give my head to make those newspaper +fellows eat their words--gad, yes!" + +"Why don't you, then, sir?" Petrie dropped his voice a tone or +two and looked round over the angle of his shoulder as he spoke; +then, recollecting the time and the improbability of anybody being +within earshot, took heart of grace and spoke up bolder. "There's +no use blinking the fact, Mr. Narkom; it was none of us--none of +the regular force, I mean--that made the record of those years what +it was. That chap Cleek was the man that did it, sir. You know +that as well as I. I don't know whether you've fallen out with +him or not; or if he's off on some secret mission that keeps him +from handling Yard matters these days. But if he isn't, take my +advice, sir, and put him on this case at once." + +"Don't talk such rot!" flung out Narkom, impatiently. "Do you think +I'd have waited until now to do it if it could be done? Put him on +the case, indeed! How the devil am I to do it when I don't know +where on earth to find him? He cleared out directly after that +Panther's Paw case six months ago. Gave up his lodgings, sacked +his housekeeper, laid off his assistant, Dollops, and went the +Lord knows where and why." + +"My hat! Then that's the reason we never hear any more of him in Yard +matters, is it? I wondered! Disappeared, eh? Well, well! You don't +think he can have gone back to his old lay--back to the wrong 'uns +and his old 'Vanishing Cracksman's' tricks, do you, sir?" + +"No, I don't. No backslider about that chap, by James! He's not built +that way. Last time I saw him he was out shopping with Miss Ailsa +Lorne--the girl who redeemed him--and judging from their manner +toward each other, I rather fancied--well, never mind! That's got +nothing to do with you. Besides, I feel sure that if they had, Mrs. +Narkom and I would have been invited. All he said was that he was +going to take a holiday. He didn't say why, and he didn't say where. +I wish to heaven I'd asked him. I could have kicked myself for not +having done so when that she-devil of a Frenchwoman managed to slip +the leash and get off scot free." + +"Mean that party we nabbed in the house at Roehampton along with +the Mauravanian baron who got up that Silver Snare fake, don't you, +sir? Margot, the Queen of the Apaches. Or, at least, that's who you +declared she was, I recollect." + +"And that's who I still declare she was!" rapped in Narkom, testily, +"and what I'll continue to say while there's a breath left in me. +I never actually saw the woman until that night, it is true, but +Cleek told me she was Margot; and who should know better than +he, when he was once her pal and partner? But it's one of the +infernal drawbacks of British justice that a crook's word's as good +as an officer's if it's not refuted by actual proof. The woman +brought a dozen witnesses to prove that she was a respectable +Austrian lady on a visit to her son in England; that the motor in +which she was riding broke down before that Roehampton house about +an hour before our descent upon it, and that she had merely been +invited to step in and wait while the repairs were being attended +to by her chauffeur. Of course such a chauffeur was forthcoming +when she was brought up before the magistrate; and a garage-keeper +was produced to back up his statement; so that when the Mauravanian +prisoner 'confessed' from the dock that what the lady said was +true, that settled it. _I_ couldn't swear to her identity, and +Cleek, who could, was gone--the Lord knows where; upon which the +magistrate admitted the woman to bail and delivered her over to the +custody of her solicitors pending my efforts to get somebody +over from Paris to identify her. And no sooner is the vixen set at +large than--presto!--away she goes, bag and baggage, out of the +country, and not a man in England has seen hide nor hair of her +since. Gad! if I could but have got word to Cleek at that time--just +to put him on his guard against her. But I couldn't. I've no more +idea than a child where the man went--not one." + +"It's pretty safe odds to lay one's head against a brass farthing as +to where the woman went, though, I reckon," said Petrie, stroking +his chin. "Bunked it back to Paris, I expect, sir, and made for her +hole like any other fox. I hear them French 'tecs are as keen to get +hold of her as we were, but she slips 'em like an eel. Can't lay +hands on her, and couldn't swear to her identity if they did. Not one +in a hundred of 'em's ever seen her to be sure of her, I'm told." + +"No, not one. Even Cleek himself knows nothing of who and what she +really is. He confessed that to me. Their knowledge of each other +began when they threw in their lot together for the first time, and +ceased when they parted. Yes, I suppose she did go back to Paris, +Petrie--it would be her safest place; and there'd be rich pickings +there for her and her crew just now. The city is _en fête_, you know." + +"Yes, sir. King Ulric of Mauravania is there as the guest of the +Republic. Funny time for a king to go visiting another nation, sir, +isn't it, when there's a revolution threatening in his own? Dunno +much about the ways of kings, Superintendent, but if there was a +row coming up in _my_ house, you can bet all you're worth I'd be +mighty sure to stop at home." + +"Diplomacy, Petrie, diplomacy! he may be safer where he is. Rumours +are afloat that Prince What's-his-name, son and heir of the late +Queen Karma, is not only still living, but has, during the present +year, secretly visited Mauravania in person. I see by the papers +that that ripping old royalist, Count Irma, is implicated in the +revolutionary movement and that, by the king's orders, he has been +arrested and imprisoned in the Fort of Sulberga on a charge of +sedition. Grand old johnny, that--I hope no harm comes to him. He +was in England not so long ago. Came to consult Cleek about some +business regarding a lost pearl, and I took no end of a fancy to +him. Hope he pulls out all right; but if he doesn't--oh, well, we +can't bother over other people's troubles--we've got enough of +our own just now with these mysterious murders going on, and the +newspapers hammering the Yard day in and day out. Gad! how I wish +I knew how to get hold of Cleek--how I wish I did!" + +"Can't you find somebody to put you on the lay, sir? some friend of +his--somebody that's seen him, or maybe heard from him since you +have?" + +"Oh, don't talk rubbish!" snapped Narkom, with a short, derisive +laugh. "Friends, indeed! What friends has he outside of myself? Who +knows him any better than I know him--and what do I know of him, at +that? Nothing--not where he comes from; not what his real name may +be; not a living thing but that he chooses to call himself Hamilton +Cleek and to fight in the interest of the law as strenuously as he +once fought against it. And where will I find a man who has 'seen' +him, as you suggest--or would know if he had seen him--when he has +that amazing birth gift to fall back upon? _You_ never saw his +real face--never in all your life. _I_ never saw it but twice, and +even I--why, he might pass me in the street a dozen times a day and +I'd never know him if I looked straight into his eyes. He'd come +like a shot if he knew I wanted him--gad, yes! But he doesn't; and +there you are." + +Imagination was never one of Petrie's strong points. His mind moved +always along well-prepared grooves to time-honoured ends. It found +one of those grooves and moved along it now. + +"Why don't you advertise for him, then?" he suggested. "Put a +Personal in the morning papers, sir. Chap like that's sure to read +the news every day; and it's bound to come to his notice sooner +or later. Or if it doesn't, why, people will get to knowing that the +Yard's lost him and get to talking about it and maybe he'll learn +of it that way." + +Narkom looked at him. The suggestion was so bald, so painfully +ordinary and commonplace, that, heretofore, it had never occurred to +him. To associate Cleek's name with the banalities of the everyday +Agony Column; to connect _him_ with the appeals of the scullery +and the methods of the raw amateur! The very outrageousness of the +thing was its best passport to success. + +"By James, I believe there's something in that!" he said, abruptly. +"If you get people to talking.... Well, it doesn't matter, so that +he _hears_--so that he finds out I want him. You ring up the _Daily +Mail_ while I'm scratching off an ad. Tell 'em it's simply got to +go in the morning's issue. I'll give it to them over the line myself +in a minute." + +He lurched over to his desk, drove a pen into the ink pot, and made +such good haste in marshalling his straggling thoughts that he had +the thing finished before Petrie had got farther than "Yes; Scotland +Yard. Hold the line, please; Superintendent Narkom wants to speak to +you." + +The Yard's requests are at all times treated with respect and +courtesy by the controlling forces of the daily press, so it fell +out that, late as the hour was, "space" was accorded, and, in the +morning, half a dozen papers bore this notice prominently displayed: + + "CLEEK--Where are you? Urgently needed. Communicate at + once.--_Maverick Narkom._" + +The expected came to pass; and the unexpected followed close upon +its heels. The daily press, publishing the full account of the +latest addition to the already long list of mysterious murders which, +for a fortnight past, had been adding nervous terrors to the public +mind, screamed afresh--as Narkom knew that it would--and went +into paroxysms of the Reporters' Disease until the very paper was +yellow with the froth of it. The afternoon editions were still +worse--for, between breakfast and lunch time, yet another man had +fallen victim to the mysterious assassin--and sheets pink and +sheets green, sheets gray and sheets yellow were scattering panic +from one end of London to the other. The police-detective system +of the country was rotten! The Government should interfere--must +interfere! It was a national disgrace that the foremost city of the +civilized world should be terrorized in this appalling fashion and +the author of the outrages remain undetected! Could anything be +more appalling? + +It could, and--it was! When night came and the evening papers +were supplanting the afternoon ones, that something "more +appalling"--known hours before to the Yard itself--was glaring out on +every bulletin and every front page in words like these: + + LONDON'S REIGN OF TERROR + APPALLING ATROCITY IN + CLARGES STREET + SHOCKING DYNAMITE + OUTRAGE + +Clarges Street! The old "magic" street of those "magic" old times of +Cleek, and the Red Limousine, and the Riddles that were unriddled for +the asking! Narkom grabbed the report the instant he heard that name +and began to read it breathlessly. + +It was the usual station advice ticked through to headquarters and +deciphered by the operator there, and it ran tersely, thus: + + "4:28 P. M. Attempt made by unknown parties to blow up house in + Clarges Street, Piccadilly. Partially successful. Three persons + injured and two killed. No clue to motive. Occupants, family + from Essex. Only moved in two days ago. House been vacant for + months previously. Formerly occupied by retired seafaring man + named Capt. Horatio Burbage, who----" + +Narkom read no farther. He flung the paper aside with a sort of +mingled laugh and blub and collapsed into his chair with his eyes +hidden in the crook of an upthrown arm, and the muscles of his mouth +twitching. + +"Now I know why he cleared out! Good old Cleek! Bully old Cleek!" +he said to himself; and stopped suddenly, as though something had got +into his throat and half choked him. But after a moment or two he +jumped to his feet and began walking up and down the room, his face +fairly glowing; and if he had put his thoughts into words they would +have run like this: + +"Margot's crew, of course. And he must have guessed that something of +the sort would happen _some_ time if he stopped there after that +Silver Snare business at Roehampton--either from her lot or from the +followers of that Mauravanian johnnie who was at the back of it. +They were after him even in that little game, those two. I wonder +why? What the dickens, when one comes to think of it, could have made +the Prime Minister of Mauravania interest himself in an Apache trick +to 'do in' an ex-cracksman? Gad! she flies high, sometimes, that +Margot! Prime Minister of Mauravania! And the fool faced fifteen +years hard to do the thing and let her get off scot free! Faced it +and--took it; and is taking it still, for the sake of helping her +to wipe off an old score against a reformed criminal. Wonder if +Cleek ever crossed _him_ in something? Wonder if he, too, was on the +'crooked side' once, and wanted to make sure of its never being +shown up? Oh, well, he got his medicine. And so, too, will this +unknown murderer who's doing the secret killing in London, now that +this Clarges Street affair is over. Bully old Cleek! Slipped 'em +again! Had their second shot and missed you! Now you'll come out +of hiding, old chap, and we shall have the good old times once more." + +His eye fell upon the ever-ready telephone. He stopped short in his +purposeless walking and nodded and smiled to it. + +"We'll have you singing your old tune before long, my friend," he +said, optimistically. "I know my man--gad, yes! He'll let no grass +grow under _his_ feet now that this thing's over. I shall hear +soon--yes, by James! I shall." + +His optimism was splendidly rewarded. Not, however, from the quarter +nor in the manner he expected. It had but just gone half-past seven +when a tap sounded, the door of his office swung inward, and the +porter stepped into the room. + +"Person wanting to speak with you, sir, in private," he announced. +"Says it's about some Personal in the morning paper." + +"Send him in--send him in at once!" rapped out Narkom excitedly. +"Move sharp; and don't let anybody else in until I give the word." + +Then, as soon as the porter had disappeared, he crossed the room, +twitched the thick curtains over the window, switched on the electric +light, wheeled another big chair up beside his desk and, with face +aglow, jerked open a drawer and got out a cigarette box which had +not seen the light for weeks. + +Quick as he was, the door opened and shut again before the lid of +the box could be thrown back, and into the room stepped Cleek's +henchman--Dollops. + +"Hullo! You, is it, you blessed young monkey?" said Narkom gayly, +as he looked up and saw the boy. "Knew I'd hear to-day--knew it, by +James! Sent you for me, has he, eh? Is he coming himself or does he +want me to go to him? Speak up, and--Good Lord! what's the matter +with you? What's up? Anything wrong?" + +Dollops had turned the colour of an under-baked biscuit and was +looking at him with eyes of absolute despair. + +"Sir," he said, moving quickly forward and speaking in the breathless +manner of a spent runner--"Sir, I was a-hopin' it was a fake, and +to hear you speak like that--Gawd's truth, guv'ner, you don't mean +as it's real, sir, do you? That _you_ don't know either?" + +"Know? Know what?" + +"Where he is--wot's become of him? Mr. Cleek, the guv'ner, sir. +I made sure that you'd know if anybody would. That's wot made me +come, sir. I'd 'a' gone off me bloomin' dot if I hadn't--after you +a-puttin' in that Personal and him never a-turnin' up like he'd +ort. Sir, do you mean to say as you don't know _where_ he is, and +haven't seen him even yet?" + +"No, I've not. Good Lord! haven't you?" + +"No, sir. I aren't clapped eyes on him since he sent me off to the +bloomin' seaside six months ago. All he told me when we come to part +was that Miss Lorne was goin' out to India on a short visit to Cap'n +and Mrs. 'Awksley--Lady Chepstow as was, sir--and that directly +she was gone he'd be knockin' about for a time on his own, and I +wasn't to worry over him. I haven't seen hide nor hair of him, sir, +since that hour." + +"Nor heard from him?" Narkom's voice was thick and the hand he laid +on the chair-back hard shut. + +"Oh, yes, sir, I've heard--I'd have gone off my bloomin' dot if I +hadn't done _that_. Heard from him twice. Once when he wrote and +gimme my orders about the new place he's took up the river--four +weeks ago. The second time, last Friday, sir, when he wrote me the +thing that's fetched me here--that's been tearin' the heart out of me +ever since I heard at Charing Cross about wot's happened at Clarges +Street, sir." + +"And what was that?" + +"Why, sir, he wrote that he'd jist remembered about some papers as +he'd left behind the wainscot in his old den, and that he'd get the +key and drop in at the old Clarges Street house on the way 'ome. +Said he'd arrive in England either yesterday afternoon or this one, +sir; but whichever it was, he'd wire me from Dover before he took +the train. And he never done it, sir--my Gawd! he never done it in +this world!" + +"Good God!" Narkom flung out the words in a sort of panic, his lips +twitching, his whole body shaking, his face like the face of a dead +man. + +"He never done it, I tell you!" pursued Dollops in an absolute +tremble of fright. "I haven't never had a blessed line; and now +this here awful thing has happened. And if he done what he said +he was a-goin' to do--if he come to town and went to that house----" + +If he said more, the clanging of a bell drowned it completely. Narkom +had turned to his desk and was hammering furiously upon the call +gong. A scurry of flying feet came up the outer passage, the door +opened in a flash, and the porter was there. And behind him Lennard, +the chauffeur, who guessed from that excited summons that there +would be a call for _him_. + +"The limousine--as quick as you can get her round!" said Narkom in +the sharp staccato of excitement. "To the scene of the explosion in +Clarges Street first, and if the bodies of the victims have been +removed, then to the mortuary without an instant's delay." + +He dashed into the inner room, grabbed his hat and coat down from the +hook where they were hanging, and dashed back again like a man in +a panic. + +"Come on!" he said, beckoning to Dollops as he flung open the door +and ran out into the passage. "If they've 'done him in'--_him!_--if +they've 'got him' after all----Come on! come on!" + +Dollops "came on" with a rush; and two minutes later the red +limousine swung out into the roadway and took the distance between +Scotland Yard and Clarges Street at a mile-a-minute clip. + + * * * * * + +Arrival at the scene of the disaster elicited the fact that the +remains--literally "remains," since they had been well-nigh blown +to fragments--had, indeed, been removed to the mortuary; so thither +Narkom and Dollops followed them, their fears being in no wise +lightened by learning that the bodies were undeniably those of men. +As the features of both victims were beyond any possibility of +recognition, identification could, of course, be arrived at only +through bodily marks; and Dollops's close association with Cleek +rendered him particularly capable of speaking with authority +regarding those of his master. It was, therefore, a source of +unspeakable delight to both Narkom and himself, when, after close and +minute examination of the remains, he was able to say, positively, +"Sir, whatever's become of him, praise God, neither of these here two +dead men is him, bless his heart!" + +"So they didn't get him after all!" supplemented Narkom, laughing +for the first time in hours. "Still, it cannot be doubted that +whoever committed this outrage was after him, since the people +who have suffered are complete strangers to the locality and had +only just moved into the house. No doubt the person or persons who +threw the bomb knew of Cleek's having at one time lived there as +'Captain Burbage'--Margot did, for one--and finding the house still +occupied, and not knowing of his removal--why, there you are." + +"Margot!" The name brought back all Dollops' banished fears. He +switched round on the superintendent and laid a nervous clutch on +his sleeve. "And Margot's 'lay' is Paris. Sir, I didn't tell you, +did I, that it was from there the guv'ner wrote those two letters +to me?" + +"Cinnamon! From Paris?" + +"Yes, sir. He didn't say from wot part of the city nor wot he was +a-doin' there, anyways, but--my hat! listen here, sir. _They're_ +there--them Mauravanian johnnies--and the Apaches and Margot there, +too, and you know how both lots has their knife into him. I dunno +wot the Mauravanians is got against him, sir (he never tells +nothin' to nobody, he don't), but most like it's summink he done +to some of 'em that time he went out there about the lost pearl; but +_they're_ after him, and the Apaches is after him, and between the +two!... Guv'ner!"--his voice rose thin and shrill--"guv'ner, if one +lot don't get him, the other may; and--sir--there's Apaches in +London this very night. I know! I've seen 'em." + +"Seen them? When? Where?" + +"At Charing Cross station, sir, jist before I went to the Yard +to see you. As I hadn't had no telegram from the guv'ner, like I +was promised, I went there on the off chance, hopin' to meet him when +the boat train come in. And there I see 'em, sir, a-loungin' round +the platform where the Dover train goes out at nine to catch the +night boat back to Calais, sir. I spotted 'em on the instant--from +their walk, their way of carryin' of theirselves, their manner of +wearin' of their bloomin' hair. Laughin' among themselves they was +and lookin' round at the entrance every now and then like as they +was expectin' some one to come and join 'em; and I see, too, as +they was a-goin' back to where they come from, 'cause they'd the +return halves of their tickets in their hatbands. One of 'em, he +buys a paper at the bookstall and sees summink in it as tickled +him wonderful, for I see him go up to the others and point it out +to 'em, and then the whole lot begins to larf like blessed hyenas. I +spotted wot the paper was and the place on the page the blighter +was a-pointin' at, so I went and bought one myself to see wot it +was. Sir, it was that there Personal of yours. The minnit I read +that, I makes a dash for a taxi, to go to you at once, sir, and +jist as I does so, a newsboy runs by me with a bill on his chest +tellin' about the explosion; and then, sir, I fair went off me dot." + +They were back on the pavement, within sight of the limousine, +when the boy said this. Narkom brought the car to his side with +one excited word, and fairly wrenched open the door. + +"To Charing Cross station--as fast as you can streak it!" he said, +excitedly. "The last train for the night boat leaves at nine sharp. +Catch it, if you rack the motor to pieces." + +"Crumbs! A minute and a half!" commented Lennard, as he consulted +the clock dial beside him; then, just waiting for Narkom and Dollops +to jump into the vehicle, he brought her head round with a swing, +threw back the clutch, and let her go full tilt. + +But even the best of motors cannot accomplish the impossible. The +gates were closed, the signal down, the last train already outside +the station when they reached it, and not even the mandate of the +law might hope to stay it or to call it back. + +"Plenty of petrol?" Narkom faced round as he spoke and looked at +Lennard. + +"Plenty, sir." + +"All right--_beat it!_ The boat sails from Dover at eleven. I've got +to catch it. Understand?" + +"Yes, sir. But you could wire down and have her held over till we get +there, Superintendent." + +"Not for the world! She must sail on time; I must get aboard without +being noticed--without some persons I'm following having the least +cause for suspicion. Beat that train--do you hear me?--_beat_ it! I +want to get there and get aboard that boat before the others arrive. +Do you want any further incentive than that? If so, here it is for +you: Mr. Cleek's in Paris! Mr. Cleek's in danger!" + +"Mr. Cleek? God's truth! Hop in sir, hop in! I'll have you there +ahead of that train if I dash down the Admiralty Pier in flames from +front to rear. Just let me get to the open road, sir, and I'll show +you something to make you sit up." + +He did. Once out of the track of all traffic, and with the lights +of the city well at his back, he strapped his goggles tight, jerked +his cap down to his eyebrows, and leaned over the wheel. + +"For Mr. Cleek--do you hear?" he said, addressing the car as if it +were a human being. "Now, then, show what you're made of! There! Take +your head! Now _go_, you vixen! GO!" + +There was a sudden roar, a sudden leap; then the car shot forward as +though all the gales of all the universe were sweeping it on, and +the wild race to the coast began. + +Narkom jerked down the blinds, turned on the light, and flung open +the locker, as they pounded on. + +"Dip in. Get something that can be made to fit you," he said to +Dollops. "We can't risk any of those fellows identifying you as +the chap who was hanging round the station to-night. Toss me over +that wig--the gray one--in the far corner there. God knows what +we're on the track of, but if it leads to Cleek I'll follow it to +the end of time!" Then, lifting his voice until it sounded above +the motor's roar, "Faster, Lennard, faster!" he called. "Give it +to her! give it to her! We've got to beat that train if it kills us!" + +They did beat it. The engine's light was not even in sight when the +bright glare of the moon on the Channel's waters flashed up out of +the darkness before them; nor was the sound of the train's coming +even faintly audible as yet, when, a few minutes later, the limousine +swung down the incline and came to a standstill within a stone's +throw of the entrance to the pier, at whose extreme end the packet +lay, with gangways down and fires up and her huge bulk rising and +falling with the movements of the waves. + +"Beat her, you see, sir," said Lennard, chuckling as he got down and +opened the door for the superintendent to alight. "Better not go +any nearer, sir, with the car. There's a chap down there standing +by the gangplank and he seems interested in us from the way he's +watching. Jumped up like a shot and came down the gangplank the +instant he heard us coming. Better do the rest of the journey afoot, +sir, and make a pretence of paying me--as if I was a public taxi. +What'll I do? Stop here until morning?" + +"Yes. Put up at a garage; and if I don't return by the first boat, +get back to town. Meantime, cut off somewhere and ring up the Yard. +Tell 'em where I've gone. Now then, Dollops, come on!" + +A moment later the limousine had swung off into the darkness and +disappeared, and what might properly have been taken for a couple +of English curates on their way to a Continental holiday moved +down the long pier between the glimmering and inadequate lamps +to the waiting boat. But long before they reached it the figure +at the gangplank--the tall, erect figure of a man whom the most +casual observer must have recognized as one who had known military +training--had changed its alert attitude and was sauntering up +and down as if, when they came nearer and the light allowed him +to see what they were, he had lost all interest in them and their +doings. Narkom gave the man a glance from the tail of his eye as +they went up the gangplank and boarded the boat, and brief as that +glance was, it was sufficient to assure him of two things: First, +that the man was not only strikingly handsome but bore himself with +an air which spoke of culture, birth, position; second, that he +was a foreigner, with the fair hair and the slightly hooked nose +which was so characteristic of the Mauravanians. + +With Dollops at his side, Narkom slunk aft, where the lights were +less brilliant and the stern of the boat hung over the dark, still +waters, and pausing there, turned and looked back at the waiting man. + +A French sailor was moving past in the darkness. He stopped the man +and spoke to him. + +"Tell me," he said, slipping a shilling into the fellow's hand, "do +you happen to know who that gentleman is, standing on the pier there?" + +"Yes, m'sieur. He is equerry to his Majesty King Ulric of Mauravania. +He has crossed with us frequently during his Majesty's sojourn in +Paris." + +"Gawd's truth, sir," whispered Dollops, plucking nervously at the +superintendent's sleeve as the sailor, after touching his cap with +his forefinger, passed on. "Apaches at one end and them Mauravanian +johnnies at the other! I tell you they're a-workin' hand in hand for +some reason--workin' against _him_!" + +Narkom lifted a silencing hand and turned to move away where there +would be less likelihood of anything they might say being overheard; +for at that moment a voice had sounded and from a most unusual +quarter. Unnoticed until now, a fisher's boat, which for some time +had been nearing the shore, swept under the packet's stern and +grazed along the stone front of the pier. + +"Voila, m'sieur," said, in French, the man who sailed it. "Have I +not kept my word and brought your excellency across in safety and +with speed?" + +"Yes," replied the passenger whom the fisher addressed. He spoke in +perfect French, and with the smoothness of a man of the better class. +"You have done well indeed. Also it was better than waiting about at +Calais for the morning boat. I can now catch the very first train +to London. Fast is she? There is your money. Adieu!" + +Then came the sound of some one leaving the boat and scrambling +up the water stairs, and hard on the heels of it the first whistle of +the coming train. Narkom, glancing round, saw a slouching, ill-clad +fellow whose appearance was in distinct contrast with his voice and +manner of speaking, come into view upon the summit of the pier. +His complexion was sallow, his matted hair seemed to have gone for +years uncombed; a Turkish fez, dirty and discoloured, was on his +head, and over his arm hung several bits of tapestry and shining +stuff which betokened his calling as that of a seller of Oriental +draperies. + +This much Narkom saw and would have gone on his way, giving the +fellow no second thought, but that a curious thing happened. Moving +away toward the footpath which led from the pier to the town, the +pedler caught sight suddenly of the man standing at the gangplank; +he halted abruptly, looked round to make sure that no one was +watching, then, without more ado, turned round suddenly on his +heel, walked straightway to the gangplank and boarded the boat. +The Mauravanian took not the slightest heed of him, nor he of the +Mauravanian. Afterward, when the train had arrived, Narkom thought +he knew why. For the present he was merely puzzled to understand why +this dirty, greasy Oriental pedler who had been at the pains to +cross the Channel in a fisher's boat should do so for the apparent +purpose of merely going back on the packet to Calais. + +By this time the train had arrived, the pier was alive with people, +porters were running back and forth with luggage, and there was +bustle and confusion everywhere. Narkom looked along the length of +the vessel to the teeming gangway. The Mauravanian was still there, +alert as before, his fixed eyes keenly watching. + +A crowd came stringing along, bags and bundles done up in gaudy +handkerchiefs in their hands, laughing, jostling, jabbering together +in low-class French. + +"Here they are, guv'ner--the Apaches!" said Dollops in a whisper. +"That's the lot, sir. Keep your eye on them as they come aboard, +and if they are with him--Crumbs! Not a sign; not a blessed one!" +For the Apaches, stringing up the gangplank by twos and threes and +coming within brushing distance of the waiting man, passed on as the +Oriental pedler had passed on, taking no notice of him, nor he of +them, nor yet of how, as they advanced, the pedler slouched forward +and slipped into the thick of them. + +"By James! one of them--that's what the fellow is!" said Narkom, as +he observed this. "If during the voyage the Mauravanian speaks to +one man of the lot----" + +He stopped and sucked in his breath and let the rest of the sentence +go by default. For of a sudden there had come into sight upon the +pier a dapper little French dandy, fuzzy of moustache, mincing of +gait, with a flower in his buttonhole and a shining "topper" on his +beautifully pomaded head; and it came upon Narkom with a shock of +remembrance that he had seen this selfsame living fashion plate +pass by Scotland Yard twice that very day! + +Onward he came, this pretty monsieur, with his jaunty air and his +lovely "wine-glass waist," onward, and up the gangway and aboard the +packet; and there the Mauravanian still stood, looking out over the +crowd and taking no more heed of him than he had taken of anybody +else. But with the vanishing of this exquisite, to whom he had +paid no heed, his alertness and his interest seemed somehow to +evaporate; for he turned now and again to watch the sailors and the +longshoremen at their several duties, and strolled leisurely aboard +and stood lounging against the rail of the lower deck when the call +of "All ashore that's going!" rang through the vessel's length, +and was still lounging there when the packet cast off her mooring, +and swinging her bows round in the direction of France, creamed +her way out into the Channel and headed for Calais. + +A wind, unnoticed in the safe shelter of the harbour, played +boisterously across the chopping waves as the vessel forged outward, +sending clouds of spray sweeping over the bows and along the decks, +and such passengers as refrained from seeking the shelter of the +saloon and smoke-room sought refuge by crowding aft. + +"Come!" whispered Narkom, tapping Dollops' arm. "We can neither +talk nor watch here with safety in this crowd. Let us go 'forrard.' +Better a drenching in loneliness than shelter with a crowd like this. +Come along!" + +The boy obeyed without a murmur, following the larger and heavier +built "curate" along the wet decks to the deserted bows, and +finding safe retreat with him there in the dark shadow cast by a +tarpaulin-covered lifeboat. From this safe shelter they could, +by craning their necks, get a half view of the interior of the +smoke-room through its hooked-back door; and their first glance in +that direction pinned their interest, for the pretty "Monsieur" +was there, smoking a cigarette and sipping now and again at a glass +of absinthe which stood on a little round table at his elbow. +But of the Mauravanian or the Apaches or of the Oriental pedler, +there was neither sight nor sound, nor had there been since the +vessel started. + +"What do you make of it?" queried Narkom, when at the end of an hour +the dim outlines of the French coast blurred the clear silver of the +moonlit sky. "Have we come on a wild goose chase, do you think? What +do you suppose has become of the Apaches and of the pedler chap?" + +"Travellin' second class," said Dollops, after stealing out and +making a round of the vessel and creeping back into the shadow of +the lifeboat unseen. "Pallin' with 'em, he is, sir. Makin' a play of +sellin' 'em things for their donahs--for the sake of appearances. +One of 'em, he is; and if either that Frenchy or that Mauravanian +johnny is mixed up with them--lay low! Smeller to the ground, sir, +and eyes and ears wide open! We'll know wot's wot now!" + +For of a sudden the Mauravanian had come into view far down the wet +and glistening promenade deck and was whistling a curious, lilting +air as he strolled along past the open door of the smoke-room. + +Just the mere twitch of "Monsieur's" head told when he heard that +tune. He finished his absinthe, flung aside his cigarette, and +strolled leisurely out upon the deck. The Mauravanian was at the +after end of the promenade--a glance told him that. He set his face +resolutely in the direction of the bows and sauntered leisurely +along. He moved on quietly, until he came to the very end of the +covered promenade where the curving front of the deckhouse looked +out upon the spray-washed forward deck, then stopped and planted his +back against it and stood silently waiting, not ten feet distant +from where Narkom and Dollops crouched. + +A minute later the Mauravanian, continuing what was to all +appearances a lonely and aimless promenade round the vessel, +came abreast of that spot and of him. + +And then, the deluge! + +"Monsieur" spoke out--guardedly, but in a clear, crisp tone that left +no room for doubt upon _one_ point, at least. + +"Mon ami, it is done--it is accomplished," that crisp voice said. +"You shall report that to his Majesty's ministers. Voila, it is done!" + +"It is not done!" replied the Mauravanian, in a swift, biting, +emphatic whisper. "You jump to conclusions too quickly. Here! take +this. It is an evening paper. The thing was useless--he was not +there!" + +"Not there! Grande Dieu!" + +"Sh-h! Take it--read it. I will see you when we land. Not here--it +is too dangerous. Au revoir!" + +Then he passed on and round the curve of the deckhouse to the +promenade on the other side; and "Monsieur," with the paper hard +shut in the grip of a tense hand, moved fleetly back toward the +smoke-room. + +But not unknown any longer. + +"Gawd's truth--a woman!" gulped Dollops in a shaking voice. + +"No, not a woman--a devil!" said Narkom through his teeth. "Margot, +by James! Margot, herself! And what is he--what is Cleek?--that a +king should enter into compact with a woman to kill him? Margot, dash +her! Well, I'll have you now, my lady--yes, by James, I will!" + +"Guv'ner! Gawd's truth, sir, where are you going?" + +"To the operator in charge of the wireless--to send a message to the +chief of the Calais police to meet me on arrival!" said Narkom in +reply. "Stop where you are. Lay low! Wait for me. We'll land in a +dozen minutes' time. I'll have that Jezebel and her confederates and +I'll rout out Cleek and get him beyond the clutches of them if I tear +up all France to do it." + +"Gawd bless you, sir, Gawd bless you and forgive me!" said Dollops +with a lump in his throat and a mist in his eyes. "I said often you +was a sosidge and a muff, sir, but you aren't--you're a man!" + +Narkom did not hear. He was gone already--down the deck to the cabin +of the wireless operator. In another moment he had passed in, shut +the door behind him, and the Law at sea was talking to the Law ashore +through the blue ether and across the moonlit waves. + + * * * * * + +It was ten minutes later. The message had gone its way and Narkom was +back in the lifeboat's shadow again, and close on the bows the +lamps of Calais pier shone yellow in the blue-and-silver darkness. +On the deck below people were bustling about and making for the +place where the gangplank was to be thrust out presently, and link +boat and shore together. On the quay, customs officials were making +ready for the coming inspection, porters were scuttling about in +their blue smocks and peaked caps, and, back of all, the outlines +of Calais Town loomed, shadowy and grim through the crowding gloom. + +The loneliness of the upper deck offered its attractions to the +Mauravanian and to Margot, and in the emptiness of it they met +again--within earshot of the lifeboat where Narkom and the boy lay +hidden--for one brief word before they went ashore. + +"So, you have read: you understand how useless it was?" the +Mauravanian said, joining her again at the deckhouse, where she +stood with the crumpled newspaper in her hand. "His Majesty's purse +cannot be lightened of all that promised sum for any such bungle as +this. Speak quickly; where may we go to talk in safety? I cannot +risk it here--I will not risk it in the train. Must we wait until +we reach Paris, mademoiselle? Or have you a lair of your own here?" + +"I have 'lairs,' as you term them, in half the cities of France, +Monsieur le Comte," she answered with a vicious little note of +resentment in her voice. "And I do not work for nothing--no, not I! I +paid for my adherence to his Majesty's Prime Minister and I intend +to be paid for my services to his Majesty's self, even though I have +this once failed. It must be settled, that question, at once and +for all--now--to-night." + +"I guessed it would be like that," he answered, with a jerk of his +shoulders. "Where shall it be, then? Speak quickly. They are making +the landing and I must not be seen talking with you after we go +ashore. Where, then?" + +"At the Inn of the Seven Sinners--on the Quai d'Lorme--a gunshot +distant. Any cocher will take you there." + +"Is it safe?" + +"All my 'lairs' are safe, monsieur. It overhangs the water. And if +strangers come, there is a trap with a bolt on the under side. One +way: to the town and the sewers and forty other inns. The other: +to a motor boat, always in readiness for instant use. You could +choose for yourself should occasion come. You will not find the +place shut--my 'lairs' never are. A password? No, there is none--for +any but the Brotherhood. Nor will you need one. You remember old +Marise of the 'Twisted Arm' in Paris? Well, she serves at the Seven +Sinners now. I have promoted Madame Serpice to the 'Twisted Arm'. +She will know you, will Marise. Say to her I am coming shortly. She +and her mates will raise the roof with joy, and--la! la! The gangway +is out. They are calling all ashore. Look for me and my lads close +on your heels when you arrive. Au revoir." + +"Au revoir," he repeated, and slipping by went below and made his +way ashore. + +She waited that he might get well on his way--that none might by any +possibility associate them--then turning, went down after him and +out to the pier, where her crew were already forgathering; and when +or how she passed the word to them that it was not Paris to-night +but the Inn of the Seven Sinners, neither Narkom nor Dollops could +decide, close as they came on after her, for she seemed to speak to +no one. + +"No Inn of the Seven Sinners for you to-night, my lady, if my friend +M. Ducroix has attended to that wireless message properly," muttered +Narkom as he followed her. "Look sharp, Dollops, and if you see +a Sergeant de Ville let me know. They've no luggage, that lot, +and, besides, they are natives, so they will pass the customs in a +jiffy. Hullo! there goes that pedler chap--and without his fez or +his draperies, b'gad! Through the customs like a flash, the bounder! +And there go the others, too. And she after them--she, by James! God! +Where are Ducroix and his men? Why aren't they here?"--looking +vainly about for some sign of the Chief of Police. "I can't do +anything without _him_--here, on foreign soil. Why in heaven's name +doesn't the man come?" + +"Maybe he hasn't had time, guv'ner--maybe he wasn't on hand when the +message arrived," hazarded Dollops. "It's not fifteen minutes all +told since it was dispatched. So if----" + +"There she goes! there she goes! Passed, and through the customs in a +wink, the Jezebel!" interposed Narkom, in a fever of excitement, as +he saw Margot go by the inspector at the door and walk out into the +streets of the city. "Lord! if she slips me now----" + +"She shan't!" cut in Dollops, jerking down his hat brim and turning +up his collar. "Wait here till the cops come. I'll nip out after her +and see where she goes. Like as not the cops'll know the place when +you mention it; but if they don't--watch out for me; I'll come back +and lead 'em." + +Then he moved hurriedly forward, passed the inspector, and was gone +in a twinkling. + +For ten wretched minutes after he, too, had passed the customs and +was at liberty to leave, Narkom paced up and down and fretted and +fumed before a sound of clanking sabres caught his ear and, looking +round, he saw M. Ducroix enter the place at the head of a detachment +of police. He hurried to him and in a word made himself known. + +"Ten million pardons, m'sieur; but I was absent when the message he +shall be deliver," exclaimed Ducroix in broken English. "I shall come +and shall bring my men as soon as he shall be receive. M'sieur, who +shall it be this great criminal you demand of me to arrest? Is he +here?" + +"No, no. A moment, Ducroix. Do you know a place called the Inn of +the Seven Sinners?" + +"Perfectly. It is but a stone's throw distant--on the Quai d'Lorme." + +"Come with me to it, then. I'll make you the most envied man in +France, Ducroix: I'll deliver into your hands that witch of the +underworld, Margot, the Queen of the Apaches!" + +Ducroix's face lit up like a face transfigured. + +"M'sieur!" he cried. "That woman? You can give me that woman? You +know her? You can recognize her? But, yes, I remember! You shall have +her in your hands once in your own country, but she shall slip you, +as she shall slip everybody!" + +"She won't slip _you_, then, I promise you that!" said Narkom. +"Reward and glory, both shall be yours. I have followed her across +the channel, Ducroix. I know where she is to be found for a +certainty. She is at the Inn of the Seven Sinners. Just take me +there and I'll turn the Jezebel over to you." + +Ducroix needed no urging. The prospect of such a capture made +him fairly beside himself with delight. In twenty swift words he +translated this glorious news to his men--setting them as wild with +excitement as he was himself--then with a sharp, "Come, m'sieur!" he +turned on his heel and led the breathless race for the goal. + +Halfway down the narrow, ink-black street that led to the inn they +encountered Dollops pelting back at full speed. + +"Come on, guv'ner, come on, all of you!" he broke out as he came +abreast of them. "She's there--they're all there--kickin' up Meg's +diversions, sir, and singin' and dancin' like mad. And, sir, he's +there, too--the pedler chap! I see him come up and sneak in with the +rest. Come on! This way, all of you." + +If they had merely run before, they all but flew now; for this +second assurance that Margot, the great and long-sought-for Margot, +was actually within their reach served to spur every man to +outdo himself; so that it was but a minute or two later when +they came in sight of the inn and bore down upon it in a solid +phalanx. And then--just then--when another minute would have +settled everything--the demon of mischance chose to play them a +scurvy trick. + +All they knew of it was that an Apache coming out of the building for +some purpose of his own looked up and saw them, then faced round +and bent back in the doorway; that of a sudden a very tornado of +music and laughter and singing and dancing rolled out into the +night, and that when they came pounding up to the doorway, the fellow +was lounging there serenely smoking; and, inside, his colleagues +were holding a revel wild enough to wake the dead. + +In the winking of an eye he was carried off his feet and swept on by +this sudden inrush of the law; the door clashed open, the little +slatted barrier beyond was knocked aside, and the police were pouring +into the room and running headlong into a spinning mass of wild +dancers. + +The band ceased suddenly as they appeared, the dancers cried out as +if in a panic of alarm, and at Ducroix's commanding "Surrender in the +name of the Law!" a fat woman behind the bar flung up her arms and +voiced a despairing shriek. + +"Soul of misfortune! for what, m'sieur--for what?" she cried. "It +is no sin to laugh and dance. We break no law, my customers and I. +What is it you want that you come in upon us like this?" + +Ah, what indeed? Not anything that could be seen. A glance round the +room showed nothing and no one but these suddenly disturbed dancers, +and of Margot and the Mauravanian never a sign. + +"M'sieur!" began Ducroix, turning to Narkom, whose despair was only +too evident, and who, in company with Dollops, was rushing about the +place pushing people here and there, looking behind them, looking +in all the corners, and generally deporting themselves after the +manner of a couple of hounds endeavouring to pick up a lost scent. +"M'sieur, shall it be an error, then?" + +Narkom did not answer. Of a sudden, however, he remembered what had +been said of the trap and, pushing aside a group of girls standing +over it, found it in the middle of the floor. + +"Here it is--this is the way she got out!" he shouted. "Bolted, by +James! bolted on the under side! Up with it, up with it--the Jezebel +got out this way." But though Ducroix and Dollops aided him, and +they pulled and tugged and tugged and pulled, they could not budge +it one inch. + +"M'sieur, no--what madness! He is not a trap--? no, he is not a trap +at all!" protested old Marise. "It is but a square where the floor +broke and was mended! Mother of misfortune, it is nothing but that." + +What response Narkom might have made was checked by a sudden +discovery. Huddling in a corner, feigning a drunken sleep, he +saw a man lying with his face hidden in his folded arms. It was +the pedler. He pounced on the man and jerked up his head before +the fellow could prevent it or could dream of what was about to +happen. + +"Here's one of them at least!" he cried, and fell to shaking him with +all his force. "Here's one of Margot's pals, Ducroix. You shan't go +empty-handed after all." + +A cry of consternation fluttered through the gathering as he brought +the man's face into view. Evidently they were past masters of the +art of acting, these Apaches, for one might have sworn that every +man and every woman of them was taken aback by the fellow's presence. + +"Mother of Miracles! who shall the man be?" exclaimed Marise. +"Messieurs, I know him not. I have not seen him in all my life +before. Cochon, speak up! Who are you, that you come in like this and +get a respectable widow in trouble, dog? Eh?" + +The man made a motion first to his ears, then to his mouth, then fell +to making movements in the sign language, but spoke never a word. + +"La, la! he is a deaf mute, m'sieur," said Ducroix. "He hears not +and speaks not, poor unfortunate." + +"Oh, doesn't he?" said Narkom with an ugly laugh. "He spoke well +enough a couple of hours back, I promise you. My young friend here +and I heard him when he paid off the fisherman who had carried him +over to Dover just before he sneaked aboard the packet to come back +with Margot and the Mauravanian." + +The eyes of the Apaches flew to the man's face with a sudden keen +interest which only they might understand; but he still stood, +wagging his great head either drunkenly or idiotically, and pointing +to ears and mouth. + +"Lay hold of him--run him in!" said Narkom, whirling him across into +the arms of a couple of stalwart Sergeants de Ville. "I'll go before +the magistrate and lay a charge against him in the morning that will +open your eyes when you hear it. One of a bloodthirsty, dynamiting +crew, the dog! Lay fast hold of him! don't let him get away on your +lives! God! to have lost that woman! to have lost her after all!" + +It was a sore blow, certainly, but there was nothing to do but to +grin and bear it; for to seek Margot at any of the inns which might +communicate with the sewer trap, or to hunt for her and a motor boat +on the dark water's surface, was in very truth like looking for a +needle in a haystack, and quite as hopeless. He therefore, decided +to go, for the rest of the night, to the nearest hotel; and waiting +only to see the pedler carried away in safe custody, and promising to +be on hand when he was brought up before the local magistrate in the +morning, took Dollops by the arm and dejectedly went his way. + + * * * * * + +The morning saw him living up to his promise; and long before the +arrival of the magistrate or, indeed, before the night's harvest +of prisoners was brought over from the lockup and thrust into +the three little "detention rooms" below the court, he was there +with Dollops and Ducroix, observing with wonder that groups of +evil-looking fellows of the Apache breed were hanging round the +building as he approached, and that later on others of the same +kidney slipped in and took seats in the little courtroom and kept +constantly whispering one to the other while they waited for the +morning session to begin. + +"Gawd's truth, guv'ner, look at 'em--the 'ole blessed place is alive +with the bounders," whispered Dollops. "Wot do you think they are +up to, sir? Makin' a rush and settin' the pedler free when he comes +up before the Beak? There's twenty of 'em waitin' round the door if +there's one." + +Narkom made no reply. The arrival of the magistrate focussed all eyes +on the bench and riveted his attention with the rest. + +The proceedings opened with all the trivial cases first--the +night's sweep of the dragnet: drunks and disorderlies, vagrants +and pariahs. One by one these were brought in and paid their fines +and went their way, unheeded; for this part of the morning's +proceedings interested nobody, not even the Apaches. The list was +dragged through monotonously; the last blear-eyed sot--a hideous, +cadaverous, monkey-faced wretch whose brutal countenance sickened +Narkom when he shambled up in his filthy rags--had paid his fine, and +gone his way, and there remained now but a case of attempted +suicide to be disposed of before the serious cases began. This latter +occupied the magistrate's time and attention for perhaps twenty +minutes or so, then that, too, was disposed of; and then a voice +was heard calling out for the unknown man arrested last night at the +Inn of the Seven Sinners to be brought forward. + +In an instant a ripple of excitement ran through the little court. +The Apache fraternity sat up within and passed the word to the Apache +fraternity without, and these stood at attention--close-lipped, +dark-browed, eager, like human tigers waiting for the word to +spring. Every eye was fixed on the door through which that pretended +mute should be led in; but although others had come at the first +call, he came not even at the second, and the magistrate had just +issued an impatient command for the case to be called yet a third +time, when there was a clatter of hasty footsteps and the keeper of +the detention rooms burst into the court pale as a dead man and +shaking in every nerve. + +"M'sieur le Juge!" he cried out, extending his two arms. "Soul of +Misfortunes, how shall I tell? He is not there--he is gone--he is +escape, that unknown one. When I shall unlock the room and call +for Jean Lamareau, the drunkard, at the case before the last, +there shall come out of the dimness to me what I shall think is he +and I shall bring him here and he shall be fine and dismissed. But, +m'sieur, he shall not be Jean Lamareau after all! I shall go now and +call for the unknown and I shall get no answer; I shall go in and +make of the place light, and there he shall be, that real Jean +Lamareau--stripped of his clothes, choked to unconsciousness, alone +on the floor, and the other shall have paid his fine and gone!" + +A great cry went up, a wild confusion filled the court. The Apaches +within rose and ran with the news to the Apaches without; and +these, joining forces, scattered and ran through the streets in the +direction the escaped prisoner had been seen to take. + +But through it all Narkom sat there squeezing his hands together +and laughing in little shaking gusts that had a heart throb wavering +through them; for to him this could mean but one thing. + +"Cleek!" he said, leaning down and shrilling a joyous whisper into +Dollops' ear. "But one man in all the world could have done that +thing--but one man in all the world would have dared. It was he--it +was Cleek! God bless his bully soul!" + +"Amen, sir," said Dollops, swallowing something; then he rose at +Narkom's bidding and followed him outside. + +A minute later a gamin brushing against them put out a grimy hand +and said whiningly: + +"Boulogne, messieurs. Quai des Anges. Third house back from the +waterside; in time for the noon boat across to Folkestone. Give +me two francs, please. The monsieur said you would if I said that to +you when you came out." + +The two francs were in his hand almost as he ceased speaking, and in +less than a minute later a fiacre was whirling Narkom and Dollops off +to the railway station and the next outgoing train to Boulogne. It +was still short of midday when they arrived at the Quai des Anges +and made their way to the third house back from the waterside--a +little tavern with a toy garden in front and a sort of bowered +arcade behind--and there under an almond tree, with a cigarette +between his fingers and a bunch of flowers in his buttonhole, they +came upon _him_ at last. + +"Guv'ner! Oh, Gawd bless you, guv'ner, is it really you again?" said +Dollops, rushing up to him like a girl to a lover. + +"Yes, it is really I," he answered with one of his easy laughs. Then +he rose and held out his hand as Narkom advanced; and for a moment +or two they stood there palm in palm, saying not one word, making +not one sound. + +"Nearly did for me, my overzealous friend," said Cleek, after a +time. "I could have kicked you when you turned up with that lot at +the Seven Sinners. Another ten minutes and I'd have had that in my +hands which would have compelled his Majesty of Mauravania to give +Irma his liberty and to abdicate in his consort's favour. But you +came, you dear old blunderer; and when I looked up and recognized +you--well, let it pass! I was on my way back to London when I chanced +to see Count Waldemar on watch beside the gangway of the Calais +packet--he had slipped me, the hound, slipped me in Paris--and I saw +my chance to run him down. Gad! it was a close squeak that, when +you let those Apaches know that I had just crossed over from this +side and had gone aboard the packet because I saw Waldemar. They +guessed then. I couldn't speak there, and I dared not speak in the +court. They were there, on every hand--inside the building and +out--waiting to knife me the instant they were sure. I had to get +out--I had to get past them, and--voila." + +He turned and laid an affectionate hand on Dollops' shoulder and +laughed softly and pleasantly. + +"New place all right, old chap? Garden doing well, and all my traps +in shipshape order, eh?" + +"Yes, sir, Gawd bless you, sir. Everything, sir, everything." + +"Good lad! Then we'll be off to them. My holiday is over, Mr. Narkom, +and I'm going back into harness again. You want me, I see, and I +said I'd come if you did. Give me a few days' rest in old England, +dear friend, and then--out with your riddles and I'm your man again." + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"This will be it, I think, sir," said Lennard, bringing the limousine +to a halt at the head of a branching lane, thick set with lime and +chestnut trees between whose double wall of green one could catch a +distant glimpse of the river, shining golden in the five o'clock +light. + +"Look! see! There's the sign post--'To the Sleeping Mermaid'--over +to the left there." + +"Anything pinned to it or hanging on it?" Mr. Narkom spoke from the +interior of the vehicle without making even the slightest movement +toward alighting, merely glancing at a few memoranda scribbled on +the back of a card whose reverse bore the words "Taverne Maladosie +Quai des Anges, Boulogne," printed upon it in rather ornate script. + +"A bit of rag, a scrap of newspaper, a fowl's feather--anything? Look +sharp!" + +"No, sir, not a thing of any sort that I can see from here. Shall +I nip over and make sure?" + +"Yes. Only don't give away the fact that you are examining it in case +there should be anybody on the lookout. If you find the smallest +thing--even a carpet tack--attached to the post, get back into your +seat at once and cut off townward as fast as you can make the car +travel." + +"Right you are, sir," said Lennard, and forthwith did as he had been +bidden. In less than ninety seconds, however, he was back with word +that the post's surface was as smooth as your hand and not a thing +of any sort attached to it from top to bottom. + +Narkom fetched a deep breath of relief at this news, tucked the card +into his pocket, and got out immediately. + +"Hang round the neighbourhood somewhere and keep your ears open in +case I should have to give the signal sooner than I anticipate," he +said; then twisted round on his heel, turned into the tree-bordered +lane, and bore down in the direction of the river. + +When still short, by thirty yards or so, of its flowered and +willow-fringed brim, he came upon a quaint little diamond-paned, +red-roofed, low-eaved house set far back from the shore, with a +garden full of violets and primroses and flaunting crocuses in +front of it, and a tangle of blossoming things crowding what once +had been a bower-bordered bowling green in the rear. + +"Queen Anne, for a ducat!" he commented as he looked at the place +and took in every detail from the magpie in the old pointed-topped +wicker cage hanging from a nail beside the doorway to the rudely +carved figure of a mermaid over the jutting, flower-filled +diamond-paned window of the bar parlour with its swinging sashes and +its oak-beam sill, shoulder high from the green, sweet-smelling earth. + +"How the dickens does he ferret out these places, I wonder? And +what fool has put his money into a show like this in these days of +advancement and enterprise? Buried away from the line of traffic +ashore and shut in by trees from the river. Gad! they can't do a +pound's worth of business in a month at an out-of-the-way roost +like this!" + +Certainly, they were not doing much of it that day; for, as he +passed through the taproom, he caught a glimpse of the landlady +dozing in a deep chair by the window, and of the back of a +by-no-means-smartly-dressed barmaid--who might have been stone deaf +for all notice she took of his entrance--standing on a stool +behind the bar dusting and polishing the woodwork of the shelves. The +door of the bar parlour was open, and through it Narkom caught a +glimpse of a bent-kneed, stoop-shouldered, doddering old man +shuffling about, filling match-boxes, wiping ash trays, and carefully +refolding the rumpled newspapers that lay on the centre table. +That he was not the proprietor, merely a waiter, the towel over his +arm, the shabby old dress coat, the baggy-kneed trousers would +have been evidence enough without that added by the humble tasks +he was performing. + +"Poor devil! And at his age!" said Narkom to himself, as he noted the +pale, hopeless-looking, time-worn face and the shuffling, time-bent +body; then, moved by a sense of keen pity, he walked into the room +and spoke gently to him. + +"Tea for two, uncle--at a quarter-past five to the tick if you can +manage it," he said, tossing the old man a shilling. "And say to the +landlady that I'd like to have exclusive use of this room for an hour +or two, so she can charge the loss to my account if she has to turn +any other customers away." + +"Thanky, sir. I'll attend to it at once, sir," replied the old +fellow, pocketing the coin, and moving briskly away to give the +order. In another minute he was back again, laying the cloth and +setting out the dishes, while Narkom improved the time of waiting by +straying round the room and looking at the old prints and cases of +stuffed fishes that hung on the oak-panelled walls. + +It still wanted a minute or so of being a quarter-past five when +the old man bore in the tea tray itself and set it upon the waiting +table; and, little custom though the place enjoyed, Narkom could +not but compliment it upon its promptness and the inviting quality +of the viands served. + +"You may go," he said to the waiter, when the man at length bowed low +and announced that all was ready; then, after a moment, turning +round and finding him still shuffling about, "I say you may go!" +he reiterated, a trifle sharply. "No, don't take the cosy off the +teapot--leave it as it is. The gentleman I am expecting has not +arrived yet, and--look here! will you have the goodness to let +that cosy alone and to clear out when I tell you? By James! if you +don't----Hullo! What the dickens was that?" + +"That" was undoubtedly the tingle of a handful of gravel against the +panes of the window. + +"A sign that the coast is quite clear and that you have not been +followed, dear friend," said a voice--Cleek's voice--in reply. +"Shall we not sit down? I'm famishing." And as Narkom turned round +on his heel--with the certainty that no one had entered the room +since the door was closed and he himself before it--the tea cosy +was whipped off by a hand that no longer shook, the waiter's bent +figure straightened, his pale, drawn features writhed, blent, settled +into placid calmness and--the thing was done! + +"By all that's wonderful--Cleek!" blurted out Narkom, delightedly, +and lurched toward him. + +"Sh-h-h! Gently, gently, my friend," he interposed, putting up a +warning hand. "It is true Dollops has signalled that there is no +one in the vicinity likely to hear, but although the maid is both +deaf and dumb, recollect that Mrs. Condiment is neither; and I have +no more wish for her to discover my real calling than I ever had." + +"Mrs. Condiment?" repeated Narkom, sinking his voice, and speaking in +a tone of agitation and amazement. "You don't mean to tell me that +the old woman you employed as housekeeper when you lived in Clarges +Street is here?" + +"Certainly; she is the landlady. Her assistant is that same deaf and +dumb maid-of-all-work who worked with her at the old house, and is +sharing with her a sort of 'retirement' here. 'Captain Burbage' set +the pair of them up in business here two days after his departure +from Clarges Street and pays them a monthly wage sufficient to make +up for any lack of 'custom.' All that they are bound to do is to +allow a pensioner of the captain's--a poor old half-witted ex-waiter +called Joseph--to come and go as he will and to gratify a whim for +waiting upon people if he chooses to do so. What's that? No, the +'captain' does not live here. He and his henchman, Dollops, are +supposed to be out of the country. Mrs. Condiment does not know +_where_ he lives--nor will she ever be permitted to do so. You may, +some day, perhaps----that is for the future to decide; but not at +present, my dear friend; it is too risky." + +"Why risky, old chap? Surely I can come and go in disguise as I did +in the old days, Cleek? We managed secret visits all right then, +remember." + +"Yes--I know. But things have changed, Mr. Narkom. You may disguise +yourself as cleverly as you please, but you can't disguise the red +limousine. It is known and it will be followed; so, until you can get +another of a totally different colour and appearance I'll ring you up +each morning at the Yard and we can make our appointments over your +private wire. For the present we must take no great risks. In the +days that lie behind, dear friend, I had no 'tracker' to guard +against but Margot, no enemies but her paltry crew to reckon with +and to outwit. In these, I have many. They have brains, these new +foes; they are rich, they are desperate, they are powerful; and +behind them is the implacable hate and the malignant hand of----No +matter! You wouldn't understand." + +"I can make a devilish good guess, then," rapped in Narkom, a trifle +testily, his vanity a little hurt by that final suggestion, and +his mind harking back to the brief enlightening conversation between +Margot and Count Waldemar that night on the spray-swept deck of +the Channel packet. "Behind them is 'the implacable hate and the +malignant hand' of the King of Mauravania!" + +"What utter rubbish!" Cleek's jeering laughter fairly stung, it was +so full of pitying derision. "My friend, have you taken to reading +penny novelettes of late? A thief-taker and a monarch! An ex-criminal +and a king! I should have given you credit for more common sense." + +"It was the King of Mauravania's equerry who directed that attempt to +kill you by blowing up the house in Clarges Street." + +"Very possibly. But that does not incriminate his royal master. +Count Waldemar is not only equerry to King Ulric of Mauravania, +but is also nephew to its ex-Prime Minister--the gentleman who is +doing fifteen years' energetic labour for the British Government +as a result of that attempt to trap me with his witless 'Silver +Snare.'" + +"Oh!" said Narkom, considerably crestfallen; then grasped at yet +another straw with sudden, breathless eagerness. "But even then the +head of the Mauravanian Government must have had some reason for +wishing to 'wipe you out,'" he added, earnestly. "There could be no +question of avenging an uncle's overthrow at that time. Cleek!"--his +voice running thin and eager, his hand shutting suddenly upon his +famous ally's arm--"Cleek, trust me! Won't you? Can't you? As God +hears me, old chap, I'll respect it. Who are you? What are you, man?" + +"Cleek," he made answer, calmly drawing out a chair and taking his +seat at the table. "Cleek of Scotland Yard; Cleek of the Forty +Faces--which you will. Who should know that better than you whose +helping hand has made me what I am?" + +"Yes, but before, Cleek? What were you, who were you, in the days +before?" + +"The Vanishing Cracksman--a dog who would have gone on, no doubt, +to a dog's end but for your kind hand and the dear eyes of Ailsa +Lorne. Now give me my tea--I'm famishing--and after that we'll talk +of this new riddle that needs unriddling for the honour of the Yard. +Yes, thanks, two lumps, and just a mere dash of milk. Gad! It's good +to be back in England, dear friend; it's good, it's good!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"Five men, eh?" said Cleek, glancing up at Mr. Narkom, who for two +or three minutes past had been giving him a sketchy outline of the +case in hand. "A goodish many that. And all inside of the past six +weeks, you say? No wonder the papers have been hammering the Yard, +if, as you suggest, they were not accidental deaths. Sure they are +not?" + +"As sure as I am that I'm speaking to you at this minute. I had +my doubts in the beginning--there seemed so little to connect the +separate tragedies--but when case after case followed with exactly, +or nearly exactly, the same details in every instance, one simply +_had_ to suspect foul play." + +"Naturally. Even a donkey must know that there's food about if he +smells thistles. Begin at the beginning, please. How did the affair +start? When and where?" + +"In the neighbourhood of Hampstead Heath at two o'clock in the +morning. The constable on duty in the district came upon a man clad +only in pajamas lying face downward under the wall surrounding a +corner house--still warm but as dead as Queen Anne." + +"In his pajamas, eh?" said Cleek, reaching for a fresh slice of +toast. "Pretty clear evidence that that poor beggar's trouble, +whatever it was, must have overtaken him in bed and that that bed was +either in the vicinity of the spot where he was found, or else the +man had been carried in a closed vehicle to the place where the +constable discovered him. A chap can't walk far in that kind of a +get-up without attracting attention. And the body was warm, you +say, when found. Hum-m! Any vehicle seen or heard in the vicinity of +the spot just previously?" + +"Not the ghost of one. The night was very still, and the constable +must have heard if either cab, auto, carriage, or dray had passed in +any direction whatsoever. He is positive that none did. Naturally, +he thought, as you suggested just now, that the man must have come +from some house in the neighbourhood. Investigation, however, +proved that he did not--in short, that nobody could be found who +had ever seen him before. Indeed, it is hardly likely that he +could have been sleeping in any of the surrounding houses, for +the neighbourhood is a very good one, and the man had the appearance +of being a person of the labouring class." + +"Any marks on the clothing or body?" + +"Not one--beyond a tattooed heart on the left forearm, which caused +the coroner to come to the conclusion later that the man had at some +time been either a soldier or a sailor." + +"Why?" + +"The tattooing was evidently of foreign origin, he said, from +the skilful manner in which it had been performed and the brilliant +colour of the pigments used. Beyond that, the body bore no +blemish. The man had not been stabbed, he had not been shot, and a +post-mortem examination of the viscera proved conclusively that he +had not been poisoned. Neither had he been strangled, etherized, +drowned, or bludgeoned, for the brain was in no way injured and the +lungs were in a healthy condition. It was noticed, however, that the +passages of the throat and nose were unduly red, and that there was a +slightly distended condition of the bowels. This latter, however, +was set down by the physicians as the natural condition following +enteric, from which it was positive that the man had recently +suffered. They attributed the slightly inflamed condition of the +nasal passage and throat to his having either swallowed or snuffed +up something--camphor or something of that sort--to allay the +progress of the enteric, although even by analysis they were unable +to discover a trace of camphor or indeed of any foreign substance +whatsoever. The body was held in the public mortuary for several +days awaiting identification, but nobody came forward to claim it; so +it was eventually buried in the usual way and a verdict of 'Found +Dead' entered in the archives against the number given to it. The +matter had excited but little comment on the part of the public or +the newspapers, and would never have been recalled but for the +astonishing fact that just two nights after the burial a second man +was found under precisely similar circumstances--only that this +second man was clad in boots, undervest, and trousers. He was +found in a sort of gulley (down which, from the marks on the +side, he had evidently fallen), behind some furze bushes at a far +and little frequented part of the heath. An autopsy established +the fact that this man had died in a precisely similar manner to the +first, but, what was more startling, that he had evidently +pre-deceased that first victim by several days; for, when found, +decomposition had already set in." + +"Hum-m-m! I see!" said Cleek, arching his brows and stirring his tea +rather slowly. "A clear case of what Paddy would term 'the second +fellow being the first one.' Go on, please. What next?" + +"Oh, a perfect fever of excitement, of course; for it now became +evident that a crime had been committed in both instances; and +the Press made a great to-do over it. Within the course of the +next fortnight it was positively frothing, throwing panic into the +public mind by the wholesale, and whipping up people's fears like a +madman stirring a salad; for, by that time a third body had been +found--under some furze bushes, upward of half a mile distant from +where the second had been discovered. Like the first body, this +one was wearing night clothes; but it was in an even more advanced +state of decomposition than the second, showing that the man must +have died long before either of them!" + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "What a +blundering idiot! Our assassin is evidently a raw hand at the +game, Mr. Narkom, and not, as I had begun to fancy, either a +professional or the appointed agent of some secret society following +a process of extermination against certain marked men. Neither +the secret agent nor the professional bandit would be guilty of +the extreme folly of operating several times in the same locality, +be assured; and here is this muddling amateur letting himself be +lulled into a feeling of security by the failure of anybody to +discover the bodies of the first victims, and then going at it +again in the same place and the same way. For it is fair to assume, +I daresay, that the fourth man was discovered under precisely +similar circumstances to the first." + +"Not exactly--very like them, but not exactly like them, Cleek. As a +matter of fact, he was alive when found. I didn't credit the report +when I first heard it (a newspaper man brought it to me), and sent +Petrie to investigate the truth of it." + +"Why didn't you believe the report?" + +"Because it seemed so wildly improbable. And, besides, they had +hatched up so many yarns, those newspaper reporters, since the +affair began. According to this fellow, a tramp, crossing the heath +in quest of a place to sleep, had been frightened half out of his +wits by hearing a voice which _he_ described as being like the voice +of some one strangling, calling out in the darkness, 'Sapphires! +Sapphires!' and a few moments later, when, as the reporter said, the +tramp told him, he was scuttling away in a panic, he came suddenly +upon the figure of a man who was dancing round and round like a +whirling dervish, with his mouth wide open, his tongue hanging +out, and the forefinger of each hand stuck in his nostril as if----" + +"What's that? What's that?" Cleek's voice flicked in like the crack +of a whip. "Good God! Dancing round in circles? His mouth open? His +tongue hanging out? His fingers thrust into his nostrils? Was that +what you said?" + +"Yes. Why? Do you see anything promising in that fact, Cleek? It +seems to excite you." + +"Never mind about that. Stick to the subject. Was that report found +to be correct, then?" + +"In a measure, yes. Only, of course, one had to take the tramp's +assertion that the man had been calling out 'Sapphires' upon +faith, for when discovered and conveyed to the hospital, he was in a +comatose condition and beyond making any sound at all. He died, +without recovering consciousness, about twenty minutes after +Petrie's arrival; and, although the doctors performed a post-mortem +immediately after the breath had left his body, there was not a +trace of anything to be found that differed in the slightest from +the other cases. Heart, brain, liver, lungs--all were in a healthy +condition, and beyond the reddened throat and the signs of recent +enteric there was nothing abnormal." + +"But his lips--his lips, Mr. Narkom? Was there a smear of earth upon +them? Was he lying on his face when found? Were his fingers clenched +in the grass? Did it look as if he had been biting the soil?" + +"Yes," replied Narkom. "As a matter of fact there was both earth and +grass in the mouth. The doctors removed it carefully, examined it +under the microscope, even subjected it to chemical test in the hope +of discovering some foreign substance mixed with the mass, but failed +utterly to discover a single trace." + +"Of course, of course! It would be gone like a breath, gone like a +passing cloud if it were that." + +"If it were what? Cleek, my dear fellow! Good Lord! you don't mean +to tell me you've got a clue?" + +"Perhaps--perhaps--don't worry me!" he made answer testily; then rose +and walked over to the window and stood there alone, pinching his +chin between his thumb and forefinger and staring fixedly at things +beyond. After a time, however: + +"Yes, it could be that--assuredly it could be that," he said in a +low-sunk voice, as if answering a query. "But in England--in this +far land. In Malay, yes; in Ceylon, certainly. And sapphires, +too--sapphires! Hum-m-m! They mine them there. One man had travelled +in foreign parts and been tattooed by natives. So that the selfsame +country----Just so! Of course! Of course! But who? But how? And in +England?" + +His voice dropped off. He stood for a minute or so in absolute +silence, drumming noiselessly with his finger tips upon the +window-sill, then turned abruptly and spoke to Mr. Narkom. + +"Go on with the story, please," he said. "There was a fifth man, I +believe. When and how did his end come?" + +"Like the others, for the most part, but with one startling +difference: instead of being undressed, nothing had been removed but +his collar and boots. He was killed on the night I started with +Dollops for the Continent in quest of you; and his was the second +body that was not actually found _on_ the heath. Like the first man, +he was found under the wall which surrounds Lemmingham House." + +"Lemmingham House? What's that--a hotel or a private residence?" + +"A private residence, owned and occupied by Mr. James +Barrington-Edwards." + +"Any relation to that Captain Barrington-Edwards who was cashiered +from the army some twenty years ago for 'conduct unbecoming an +officer and a gentleman'?" + +"The same man!" + +"Oho! the same man, eh?" Cleek's tone was full of sudden interest. +"Stop a bit! Let me put my thinking box into operation. Captain +Barrington-Edwards--hum-m-m! That little military unpleasantness +happened out in Ceylon, did it not? The gentleman had a fancy for +conjuring tricks, I believe; even went so far as to study them +firsthand under the tutelage of native fakirs, and was subsequently +caught cheating at cards. That's the man, isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Narkom, "that's the man. I'll have something startling +to tell you in connection with him presently, but not in connection +with that card-cheating scandal. He always swore that he was innocent +of that. In fact, that it was a put-up job by one of the other +officers for the sake of ruining him." + +"Yes, I know--they all say that. It's the only thing they can say." + +"Still, I always believed him, Cleek. He's been a pretty +straightforward man in all my dealings with him, and I've had +several. Besides which, he is highly respected these days. Then, +too, there's the fact that the fellow he said put up the job against +him for the sake of blackening him in the eyes of his sweetheart, +eventually married the girl, so it does look rather fishy. +However, although it ruined Barrington-Edwards for the time being, +and embittered him so that he never married, he certainly had +the satisfaction of knowing that the fellow who had caused this +trouble turned out an absolute rotter, spent all his wife's money and +brought her down to absolute beggary, whereas, if she'd stuck to +Barrington-Edwards she'd have been a wealthy woman indeed, +to-day. He's worth half a million at the least calculation." + +"How's that? Somebody die and leave him a fortune?" + +"No. He had a little of his own. Speculated, while he was in the +East, in precious stones and land which he had reason to believe +likely to produce them; succeeded beyond his wildest hopes, and is +to-day head of the firm of Barrington-Edwards, Morpeth & Firmin, +the biggest dealers in precious stones that Hatton Garden can boast +of." + +"Oho!" said Cleek. "I see! I see!" and screwed round on his heel +and looked out of the window again. Then, after a moment: "And Mr. +Barrington-Edwards lives in the neighbourhood of Hampstead Heath, +does he?" he asked quite calmly. "Alone?" + +"No. With his nephew and heir, young Mr. Archer Blaine, a dead +sister's only child. As a matter of fact, it was Mr. Archer Blaine +himself who discovered the body of the fifth victim. Coming home at +a quarter to one from a visit to an old college friend, he found +the man lying stone dead in the shadow of the wall surrounding +Lemmingham House, and, of course, lost no time in dashing indoors +for a police whistle and summoning the constable on point duty in +the district. The body was at once given in charge of a hastily +summoned detachment from the Yard and conveyed to the Hampstead +mortuary, where it still lies awaiting identification." + +"Been photographed?" + +"Not as yet. Of course it will be--as were the other four--prior to +the time of burial should nobody turn up to claim it. But in this +instance we have great hopes that identification _will_ take place on +the strength of a marked peculiarity. The man is web-footed and----" + +"The man is _what_?" rapped in Cleek excitedly. + +"Web-footed," repeated Narkom. "The several toes are attached one to +the other by a thin membrane, after the manner of a duck's feet; and +on the left foot there is a peculiar horny protuberance like----" + +"Like a rudimentary sixth toe!" interrupted Cleek, fairly flinging +the eager query at him. "It is, eh? Well, by the Eternal! I once +knew a fellow--years ago, in the Far East--whose feet were malformed +like that; and if by any possibility----Stop a bit! A word more. +Is that man a big fellow--broad shouldered, muscular, and about forty +or forty-five years of age?" + +"You've described him to a T, dear chap. There is, however, a certain +other peculiarity which you have not mentioned, though that, of +course, maybe a recent acquirement. The palm of the right hand----" + +"Wait a bit! Wait a bit!" interposed Cleek, a trifle irritably. He +had swung away from the window and was now walking up and down the +room with short nervous steps, his chin pinched up between his thumb +and forefinger, his brows knotted, and his eyes fixed upon the floor. + +"Saffragam--Jaffna--Trincomalee! In all three of them--in all three!" +he said, putting his running thoughts into muttered words. "And +now a dead man sticks his fingers in his nostrils and talks of +sapphires. Sapphires, eh? And the Saffragam district stuck thick +with them as spangles on a Nautch girl's veil. The Bareva for a +ducat! The Bareva Reef or I'm a Dutchman! And Barrington-Edwards +was in that with the rest. So was Peabody; so was Miles; and so, +too, were Lieutenant Edgburn and the Spaniard, Juan Alvarez. Eight of +them, b'gad--eight! And I was ass enough to forget, idiot enough +not to catch the connection until I heard again of Jim Peabody's +web foot! But wait! Stop--there should be another marked foot if +this is indeed a clue to the riddle, and so----" + +He stopped short in his restless pacing and faced round on Mr. Narkom. + +"Tell me something," he said in a sharp staccato. "The four other +dead men--did any among them have an injured foot--the left or the +right, I forget which--from which all toes but the big one had been +torn off by a crocodile's bite, so that in life the fellow must +have limped a little when he walked? Did any of the dead men bear a +mark like that?" + +"No," said Narkom. "The feet of all the others were normal in every +particular." + +"Hum-m-m! That's a bit of a setback. And I am either on the wrong +track or Alvarez is still alive. What's that? Oh, it doesn't matter; +a mere fancy of mine, that's all. Now let us get back to our mutton, +please. You were going to tell me something about the right hand +of the man with the web foot. What was it?" + +"The palm bore certain curious hieroglyphics traced upon it in bright +purple." + +"Hieroglyphics, eh? That doesn't look quite so promising," said Cleek +in a disappointed tone. "It is quite possible that there may be more +than one web-footed man in the world, so of course----Hum-m-m! What +were these hieroglyphics, Mr. Narkom? Can you describe them?" + +"I can do better, my dear chap," replied the superintendent, dipping +into an inner pocket and bringing forth a brown leather case. "I +took an accurate tracing of them from the dead hand this morning, +and--there you are. That's what's on his palm, Cleek, close to the +base of the forefinger running diagonally across it." + +Cleek took the slip of tracing paper and carried it to the window, +for the twilight was deepening and the room was filling with shadows. +In the middle of the thin, transparent sheet was traced this: + +[Illustration of a handwritten message] + +He turned it up and down, he held it to the light and studied it +for a moment or two in perplexed silence, then of a sudden he faced +round, and Narkom could see that his eyes were shining and that the +curious one-sided smile, peculiar unto him, was looping up his cheek. + +"My friend," he said, answering the eager query in the +superintendent's look, "this is yet another vindication of Poe's +theory that things least hidden are best hidden, and that the most +complex mysteries are those which are based on the simplest +principles. With your permission, I'll keep this"--tucking the +tracing into his pocket--"and afterward I will go to the mortuary +and inspect the original. Meantime, I will go so far as to tell +you that I know the motive for these murders, I know the means, and +if you will give me forty-eight hours to solve the riddle, at the +end of that time I'll know the man. I will even go farther and +tell you the names of the victims; and all on the evidence of your +neat little tracing. The web-footed man was one, James Peabody, a +farrier, at one time attached to the Blue Cavalry at Trincomalee, +Ceylon. Another was Joseph Miles, an Irishman, bitten early with +the 'wanderlust' which takes men everywhere, and in making rolling +stones of them, suffers them to gather no moss. Still another--and +probably, from the tattoo mark on his arm, the first victim +found--was Thomas Hart, ablebodied seaman, formerly in service +on the P & O line; the remaining two were Alexander McCurdy, a +Scotchman, and T. Jenkins Quegg, a Yankee. The latter, however, +was a naturalized Englishman, and both were privates in her late +Majesty's army and honourably discharged." + +"Cleek, my dear fellow, are you a magician?" said Narkom, sinking +into a chair, overcome. + +"Oh, no, my friend, merely a man with a memory, that's all; and I +happen to remember a curious little 'pool' that was made up of eight +men. Five of them are dead. The other three are Juan Alvarez, a +Spaniard, that Lieutenant Edgburn who married and beggared the girl +Captain Barrington-Edwards lost when he was disgraced, and last +of all the ex-Captain Barrington-Edwards himself. Gently, gently, my +friend. Don't excite yourself. All these murders have been committed +with a definite purpose in view, with a devil's instrument, and +for the devil's own stake--riches. Those riches, Mr. Narkom, were +to come in the shape of precious stones, the glorious sapphires of +Ceylon. And five of the eight men who were to reap the harvest of +them died mysteriously in the vicinity of Lemmingham House." + +"Cleek! My hat!" Narkom sprang up as he spoke, and then sat down +again in a sort of panic. "And he--Barrington-Edwards, the man that +lives there--_deals_ in precious stones. Then that man----" + +"Gently, my friend, gently--don't bang away at the first rabbit that +bolts out of the hole--it may be a wee one and you'll lose the buck +that follows. _Two_ men live in that house, remember; Mr. Archer +Blaine is Mr. Barrington-Edwards' heir as well as his nephew and--who +knows?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +"Cinnamon! what a corroboration--what a horrible corroboration! +Cleek, you knock the last prop from under me; you make certain a +thing that I thought was only a woman's wild imaginings," said +Narkom, getting up suddenly, all a-tremble with excitement. "Good +heavens! to have Miss Valmond's story corroborated in this dreadful +way." + +"Miss Valmond? Who's she? Any relation to that Miss Rose Valmond +whose name one sees in the papers so frequently in connection with +gifts to Catholic Orphanages and Foundling Homes?" + +"The same lady," replied Narkom. "Her charities are numberless, +her life a psalm. I think she has done more good in her simple, +undemonstrative way than half the guilds and missions in London. +She has an independent fortune, and lives, in company with an +invalid and almost imbecile mother, and a brother who is, I am told, +studying for the priesthood, in a beautiful home surrounded by +splendid grounds, the walls of which separate her garden from that +of Lemmingham House." + +"Ah, I see. Then she is a neighbour of Barrington-Edwards?" + +"Yes. From the back windows of her residence one can look into +the grounds of his. That is how--Cleek!" Mr. Narkom's voice shook +with agitation--"You will remember I said, a little time back, that +I would have something startling to tell you in connection with +Barrington-Edwards--something that was not connected with that old +army scandal? If it had not been for the high character of my +informant; if it had been any other woman in all England I should +have thought she was suffering from nerves--fancying things as the +result of an overwrought mind sent into a state of hysteria through +all those abominable crimes in the neighbourhood; but when it was +she, when it was Miss Valmond----" + +"Oho!" said Cleek, screwing round suddenly. "Then Miss Valmond told +you something with regard to Barrington-Edwards?" + +"Yes--a horrible something. She came to me this morning looking +as I hope I shall never see a good woman look again--as if she had +been tortured to the last limit of human endurance. She had been +fighting a silent battle for weeks and weeks she said, but her +conscience would not let her keep the appalling secret any longer, +neither would her duty to Heaven. Wakened in the dead of night by +a sense of oppression, she had gone to her window to open it for +air, and, looking down by chance into the garden of Lemmingham +House, she had seen a man come rushing out of the rear door of +Barrington-Edwards' place in his pajamas, closely followed by +another, whom she believed to be Barrington-Edwards himself, and +she had seen that man unlock the door in the side wall and push the +poor wretch out into the road where he was afterward found by +the constable." + +"By Jupiter!" + +"Ah, you may be moved when you connect that circumstance with what +you have yourself unearthed. But there is worse to come. Unable +to overcome a frightful fascination which drew her night after +night to that window, she saw that same thing happen again to the +fourth, and finally, the fifth man--the web-footed one--and that +last time she saw the face of the pursuer quite plainly. It _was_ +Barrington-Edwards!" + +"Sure of that, was she?" + +"Absolutely. It was the positive certainty it was he that drove her +at last to speak!" + +Cleek made no reply, no comment; merely screwed round on his heel and +took to pacing the floor again. After a minute however: + +"Mr. Narkom," he said halting abruptly. "I suppose all my old duds +are still in the locker of the limousine, aren't they? Good! I +thought so. Give Lennard the signal, will you? I must risk the old +car in an emergency like this. Take me first to the cable office, +please; then to the mortuary, and afterward to Miss Valmond's home. +I hate to torture her further, poor girl, but I must get all the +facts of this, first hand." + +He did. The limousine was summoned at once, and inside of an hour it +set him down (looking the very picture of a solicitor's clerk) at +the cable office, then picked up and set him down at the Hampstead +mortuary, this time, making so good a counterpart of Petrie that +even Hammond, who was on guard beside the dead man, said "Hullo, +Pete, that you? Thought you was off duty to-day," as he came in with +the superintendent. + +"Jim Peabody fast enough, Mr. Narkom," commented Cleek, when they +were left together beside the dead man. "Changed, of course, in +all the years, but still poor old Jim. Good-hearted, honest, but +illiterate. Could barely more than write his name, and even that +without a capital, poor chap. Let me look at the hand. A violet +smudge on the top of the thumb as well as those marks on the palm, I +see. Hum-m-m! Any letters or writing of any sort in the pockets +when found? None, eh? That old bone-handled pocket knife there +his? Yes, I'd like to look at it. Open it, please. Thanks. I thought +so, I thought so. Those the socks he had on? Poor wretch! Down to +that at last, eh?--down to that! Let me have one of them for a +day or so, will you? and--yes--the photographs of the other four, +please. Thanks very much. No, that's all. Now then, to call on +Miss Valmond, if you don't mind. Right you are. Let her go, Lennard. +Down with the blinds and open with the locker again, Mr. Narkom, +and we'll 'dig' Mr. George Headland out of his two-months' old +grave." And at exactly ten minutes after eight o'clock, Mr. George +Headland _was_ 'dug up' and was standing with Mr. Narkom in Rose +Valmond's house listening to Rose Valmond's story from her own lips, +and saying to himself, the while, that here surely was that often +talked-of, seldom-seen creature, a woman with an angel's face. + +How it distressed her, to tell again this story which might take away +a human life, was manifest from the trembling of her sweet voice, the +painful twitching of her tender mouth, and the tears that rose so +readily to her soft eyes. + +"Oh, Mr. Headland, I can hardly reconcile myself to having done +it even yet," she said pathetically. "I do not know this Mr. +Barrington-Edwards but by sight, and it seems such a horrible +thing to rise up against a stranger like that. But I couldn't keep it +any longer; I felt that to do so would be equivalent to sharing his +guilt, and the thought that if I kept silent I might possibly be +paving the way to the sacrifice of other innocent lives almost drove +me out of my mind." + +"I can quite understand your feelings, Miss Valmond," said Cleek, +touched to the very heart by the deep distress of her. "But may I say +I think you have done right? I never yet knew Heaven to be anything +but tender to those who do their duty, and you certainly have done +yours--to yourself, to your fellow creatures, and to God!" + +Before she could make any response to this, footsteps sounded from +the outer passage, and a deep, rich, masculine voice said, "Rose, +Rose dear, I am ready now," and almost in the same moment a tall, +well-set-up man in priestly clothing crossed the threshold and +entered the room. He stopped short as he saw the others and made a +hasty apology. + +"Oh, pardon me," he said. "I did not know that you had visitors, +dear, otherwise----Eh, what? Mr. Narkom, is it not?" + +"Yes, Mr. Valmond," replied the superintendent, holding out a +welcoming hand. "It is I, and this is my friend and assistant, Mr. +George Headland. We have just been talking with your sister over +her trying experience." + +"Terrible--terrible is the proper word, Mr. Narkom. Like you, I +never heard of it until to-day. It shocked me to the very soul, +you may believe. Delighted to meet you, Mr. Headland. A new disciple, +eh, Mr. Narkom? Another follower in the footsteps of the great +Cleek? By the way, I see you have lost touch with that amazing man. I +saw your advertisement in the paper the other day. Any clue to his +whereabouts as yet?" + +"Not the slightest!" + +"Ah, that's too bad. From what I have heard of him he would have +made short work of this present case had he been available. But +pray pardon me if I rush off, my time is very limited. Rose, dear, I +am going to visit Father Burns this evening and shall stop at the +orphanage on the way, so if you have the customary parcel for the +children----" + +"It is upstairs, in my oratory, dear," she interposed. "Come with +me--if the gentlemen will excuse us for a moment--and I will get it +for you." + +"May we not all go up, Miss Valmond?" interposed Cleek. "I should +like, if you do not mind, to get a view of the garden of Lemmingham +House from the window where you were standing that night, and to +have you explain the positions of the two men if you will." + +"Yes, certainly--come, by all means," she replied, and led the way +forthwith. They had scarcely gone halfway down the passage to the +staircase, however, when they came abreast of the open doorway of +a room, dimly lit by a shaded lamp, wherein an elderly woman sat +huddled up in a deep chair, with her shaking head bowed over hands +that moved restlessly and aimlessly--after the uneasy manner of +an idiot's--and the shape of whose face could be but faintly seen +through the veil of white hair that fell loosely over it. + +Cleek had barely time to recall Narkom's statement regarding the +semi-imbecile mother, when Miss Valmond gave a little cry of wonder +and ran into the room. + +"Why, mother!" she said in her gentle way, "whatever are you doing +down here, dearest? I thought you were still asleep in the oratory. +When did you come down?" + +The imbecile merely mumbled and muttered, and shook her nodding head, +neither answering nor taking any notice whatsoever. + +"It is one of her bad nights," explained Miss Valmond, as she came +out and rejoined them. "We can do nothing with her when she is +like this. Horace, you will have to come home earlier than usual +to-night and help me to get her to bed." Then she went on, leading +the way upstairs, until they came at length to a sort of sanctuary +where Madonna faces looked down from sombre niches, and wax lights +burnt with a scented flame on a draped and cushioned prie dieu. +Here Miss Valmond, who was in the lead, went in, and, taking a +paper-wrapped parcel from beside the little altar, came back and put +it in her brother's hand and sent him on his way. + +"Was it from there you saw the occurrence, Miss Valmond?" asked +Cleek, looking past her into "the dim religious light" of the +sanctuary. + +"Oh, no," she made reply. "From the window of my bedroom, just on +the other side of the wall. In here, look, see!" And she opened a +door to the right and led them in, touching a key that flashed an +electric lamp into radiance and illuminated the entire room. + +It was a large room furnished in dull oak and dark green after the +stately, sombre style of a Gothic chapel, and at one end there +was a curtained recess leading to a large bow window. At the other +there was a sort of altar banked high with white flowers, and at +the side there was a huge canopied bed over the head of which hung +an immense crucifix fastened to the wall that backed upon the +oratory. It was a majestic thing, that crucifix, richly carved +and exquisitely designed. Cleek went nearer and looked at it, his +artistic eye captured by the beauty of it; and Miss Valmond, noting +his interest, smiled. + +"My brother brought me that from Rome," she said. "Is it not divine, +Mr. Headland?" + +"Yes," he said. "But you must be more careful of it, I fear, Miss +Valmond. Is it not chipping? Look! Isn't this a piece of it?" He +bent and picked a tiny curled sliver of wood from the narrow space +between the two down-filled pillows of the bed, holding it out to +her upon his palm. But, of a sudden, he smiled, lifted the sliver +to his nose, smelt it, and cast it away. "The laugh is on me, I +fear--it's only a cedar paring from a lead pencil. And now, please, +I'd like to investigate the window." + +She led him to it at once, explaining where she stood on the eventful +night; where she had seen the two figures pass, and where was the +wall door through which the dying man had been thrust. + +"I wish I might see that door clearer," said Cleek; for night had +fallen and the moon was not yet up. "Don't happen to have such a +thing as a telescope or an opera glass, do you, Miss Valmond?" + +"My brother has a pair of field glasses downstairs in his room. Shall +I run and fetch them for you?" + +"I'd be very grateful if you would," said Cleek; and a moment after +she had gone. "Run down and get my sketching materials out of the +locker, will you, Mr. Narkom?" he added. "I want to make a diagram +of that house and garden." Then he sat down on the window-seat and +for five whole minutes was alone. + +The field glasses and the sketching materials were brought, the +garden door examined and the diagram made, Miss Valmond and Narkom +standing by and watching eagerly the whole proceeding. + +"That's all!" said Cleek, after a time, brushing the charcoal dust +from his fingers, and snapping the elastic band over the sketch +book. "I know my man at last, Mr. Narkom. Give me until ten o'clock +to-morrow night, and then, if Miss Valmond will let us in here again, +I'll capture Barrington-Edwards red-handed." + +"You are sure of him, then?" + +"As sure as I am that I'm alive. I'll lay a trap that will catch him. +I promise you that. So if Miss Valmond will let us in here again----" + +"Yes, Mr. Headland, I will." + +"Good! Then let us say at ten o'clock to-morrow night--here in +this room; you, I, your brother, Mr. Narkom--all concerned!" said +Cleek. "At ten to the tick, remember. Now come along, Mr. Narkom, +and let me be about weaving the snare that shall pull this Mr. +Barrington-Edwards to the scaffold." Speaking, he bowed to Miss +Valmond, and taking Mr. Narkom's arm, passed out and went down the +stairs to prepare for the last great act of tragedy. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +At ten to the tick on the following night, he had said, and at ten +to the tick he was there--the old red limousine whirling him up to +the door in company with Mr. Narkom, there to be admitted by Miss +Valmond's brother. + +"My dear Mr. Headland, I have been on thorns ever since I heard," +said he. "I hope and pray it is right, this assistance we are giving. +But tell me, please--have you succeeded in your plans? Are you sure +they will not fail?" + +"To both questions, yes, Mr. Valmond. We'll have our man to-night. +Now, if you please, where is your sister?" + +"Upstairs--in her own room--with my mother. We tried to get the mater +to bed, but she is very fractious to-night and will not let Rose +out of her sight for a single instant. But she will not hamper your +plans, I'm sure. Come quickly, please--this way." Here he led them +on and up until they stood in Miss Valmond's bedroom and in Miss +Valmond's presence again. She was there by the window, her imbecile +mother sitting at her feet with her face in her daughter's lap, that +daughter's solicitous hand gently stroking her tumbled hair, and +no light but that of the moon through the broad window illuminating +the hushed and stately room. + +"I keep my word, you see, Miss Valmond," said Cleek, as he entered. +"And in five minutes' time if you watch from that window you all +shall see a thing that will amaze you." + +"You have run the wretched man down, then, Mr. Headland?" + +"Yes--to the last ditch, to the wall itself," he answered, making +room for her brother to get by him and make a place for himself at +the window. "Oh, it's a pretty little game he's been playing, that +gentleman, and it dates back twenty years ago when he was kicked out +of his regiment in Ceylon." + +"In Ceylon! I--er--God bless my soul, was he ever in Ceylon, Mr. +Headland?" + +"Yes, Mr. Valmond, he was. It was at a time when there was what +you might call a sapphire fever raging there, and precious stones +were being unearthed in every unheard-of quarter. He got the fever +with the rest, but he hadn't much money, so when he fell in with +a lot of fellows who had heard of a Cingalese, one Bareva Singh, +who had a reef to sell in the Saffragam district, they made a pool +between them and bought the blessed thing, calling it after the man +they had purchased it from, the Bareva Reef, setting out like a +party of donkeys to mine it for themselves, and expecting to pull +out sapphires by the bucketful." + +"Dear me, dear me, how very extraordinary! Of course they didn't? +Or--did they?" + +"No, they didn't. A month's work convinced them that the ground +was as empty of treasure as an eggshell, so they abandoned it, +separated, and went their several ways. A few months ago, however, +it was discovered that if they had had the implements to mine +deeper, their dream would have been realized, for the reef was a +perfect bed of sapphires--and eight men held an equal share in it. +The scheme, then, was to get rid of these men, secretly, one by one; +for one--perhaps two men--to get the deeds held by the others; to +pretend that they had been purchased from the original owners, +and to prevent by murder those original owners from----" + +[Illustration: "Got you, Miss Rosie Edgburn! Got you, Señor Juan +Alvarez," rapped Cleek.... "Stop him, nab him, Mr. Narkom!"] + +He stopped suddenly and switched round. Miss Valmond had risen and +so had her mother. He was on the pair of them like a leaping cat; +there was a sharp click-click, a snarl, and a scream, and one end of +a handcuff was on the wrist of each. + +"Got you, Miss Rosie Edgburn! Got you, Señor Juan Alvarez!" he rapped +out sharply; then in a louder tone, as the Reverend Horace made a +bolt for the door: "Stop him, nab him, Mr. Narkom! Quick! Played sir, +played. Come in, Petrie; come in, Hammond. Gentlemen, here they are, +all three of them: Lieutenant Eric Edgburn, his daughter Rose, +and Señor Juan Alvarez, the three brute beasts who sent five men +to their death for the sake of a lode of sapphires and the devil's +lust for gain!" + +"It's a lie!" flung out the girl who had been known as Rose Valmond. + +"Oh, no, it's not, you vixen! You loathsome creature that prostituted +holy things and made a shield of religion to carry on a vampire's +deeds. Look here, you beast of blasphemy: I know the secret of this," +he said, and walked over and laid his hand on the crucifix at +the head of the bed. "Petrie! round into the oratory with you. +There's a nob at the side of the prayer desk--press it when I shout. +Oh, no, Miss Edgburn; no, I shan't dance circles nor put my fingers +into my nose, nor bite the dust and die. Look how I dare it all. Now +Petrie, _now_!" + +And lo! as he spoke, out of the nostrils of the figure on the cross +there rushed downward two streams of white vapour which beat upon +the pillows and upon him, smothering both in white dust. + +"Face powder, Miss Edgburn, only face powder from your own little +case over there," he said. "I removed the devil's dust last night +when I was in this room alone." + +She made him no reply--only, like a cornered wretch, screamed out +and fainted. + +"Mr. Narkom, you have seen the method of administering the thing +which caused the death of those five men; it is now only fair that +you should know what that thing was," he said, turning to the +superintendent. "It is known by two names--Devil's Dust and Dust of +Death, and both suit it well. It is the fine, feathery powder +that grows on the young shoots of the bamboo tree--a favourite +method of secret killing with the natives of the Malay Peninsula +and those of Madagascar, the Philippines and Ceylon. When blown +into the nostrils of a living creature it produces first an awful +agony of suffocation, a feeling as though the brain is coming down +and exuding from the nostrils, then delirium, during which the +victim invariably falls on his face and bites the earth; then comes +death. Death without a trace, my friend, for the hellish dust all +but evaporates, and the slight sediment that remains is carried out +of the system by the spasm of enteric it produces. That is the +riddle's solution. As for the rest, those men were lured here by +letters--from Alvarez--telling them of the reef's great fortune, of +the necessity for coming at once and bringing their deeds with +them, and impressing upon them the possibility of being defrauded +if they breathed one word to a mortal soul about their leaving or +why. They came, they were invited to spend the night and to sleep +upon that accursed bed, and--the devil's dust did the rest. I traced +that out through poor Jim Peabody's sock. It was one of the blue +yarn kind that are given to the inmates of workhouses. I traced him +through that; and the others through the photographs. Each had been +known to have received a letter from London, and each had in turn +vanished without a word. Poor chaps! Poor unhappy chaps! Let us +hope, dear friend, that they have found 'the Place of Sapphires' +after all." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"How did I come to suspect the girl?" said Cleek, answering +Narkom's query, as they swung off through the darkness in the red +limousine, leaving Edgburn and his confederates in the hands of +the police. "Well, as a matter of fact, I did not suspect her at +all, in the beginning--her saintly reputation saved her from any +such thing as that. It was only when her father came in that I +knew. And later, I knew even better--when I saw that pretended +imbecile sitting there in that room; for the blundering fool had been +ass enough to kick off his slippers and sit there in his stocking +feet, and I spotted the Alvarez foot on the instant. Still, I +didn't know but what the girl herself might be an innocent victim--a +sort of dove in a vulture's nest--and it was not until I found that +scrap of wood from a sharpened lead pencil that I began to doubt +her. It was only when I promised that Barrington-Edwards should be +trapped, that I actually knew. The light that flamed in her eyes in +spite of her at that would have made an idiot understand. What's +that? What should I suspect from the finding of that scrap of +pencil? My dear Mr. Narkom, carry your mind back to that moment +when I found the stain on poor Jim Peabody's thumb, and then examined +the blade of his pocket knife. The marks on the latter showed +clearly that the man had sharpened a pencil with it--and, of +course, with the point of that pencil against the top of his +thumb. By the peculiar bronze-like shine of the streaks, and the +small particles of dust adhering to the knife blade, I felt persuaded +that the pencil was an indelible one--in short, one of those +which write a faint, blackish-lilac hue which, on the application +of moisture, turns to a vivid and indelible purple. The moisture +induced by the act of thrusting his forefingers up his nostrils to +allay the horrible sensation of the brain descending, which that +hellish powder produces, together with the perspiration which comes +with intense agony, had made such a change in the smears his thumb +and forefinger bore, and left no room for doubt that at the time he +was smitten he had either just begun or just concluded writing +something with an indelible pencil which he had but recently +sharpened. Poor wretch! he of all the lot had some one belonging +to him that was still living--his poor old mother. It is very fair to +suppose that, finding the Alvarez place so lavishly furnished, and +having hopes that great riches were yet to be his, he sat down on +that bed and began to write a few lines in his illiterate way to +that mother before wholly undressing and getting between the +sheets. The mark on his palm is a clear proof that when the +powder suddenly descended upon him he involuntarily closed his hand +on that letter and the perspiration transferred to his flesh the +shape of the scrawl upon which it rested. Pardon? How did I know +through that scrawl that I was really on the track, and that it +was the Bareva Reef that was at the bottom of the whole game? My +dear Mr. Narkom, I won't insult your intelligence by explaining +that. All you have to do is to turn that tracing upside down and +look _through_ it--or at it in a mirror--and you'll have the answer +for yourself. What's that? The parcel the girl gave Edgburn to +carry out on the pretext of taking it to an orphanage? Oh, that +was how they were slowly getting rid of the victims' clothes. +Cutting them up into little pieces and throwing them into the +river, I suppose, or if not----" + +He stopped suddenly, his ear caught by a warning sound; then turned +in his seat and glanced through the little window at the back of the +limousine. + +"I thought as much," he said, half aloud; then leaned forward, +caught up the pipe of the speaking tube, and signalled Lennard. "Look +sharp--taxi following us!" he said. "Put on a sudden spurt--that chap +will increase speed to keep pace with us--then pull up sharp and +let the other fellow's impetus carry him by before he can help +himself. Out with the light, Mr. Narkom--out with it quick!" + +Both Lennard and his master followed instructions. Of a sudden the +lights flicked out, the car leapt forward with a bound, then pulled +up with a jerk that shook it from end to end. In that moment the +taxi in the rear whizzed by them, and Narkom, leaning forward to +look as it flashed past, saw seated within it the figure of Count +Waldemar of Mauravania. + +"By James! Did you see that, Cleek?" he cried, and switched round +and made a grab for Cleek's arm. + +But Cleek was not there. His seat was empty, and the door beside it +was swinging ajar. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed the superintendent, fairly +carried out of himself--for, even in his old Vanishing Cracksman's +days, when he had slipped the leash and eluded the police so often, +the man had not made a more adroit, more silent, more successful +getaway than this. "Of all the astonishing----! Gad, an eel's a +fool to him for slipping out of tight places. When did he go, I +wonder, and where?" + +Never very strong on matters of detail, here curiosity tricked him +into absolute indiscretion. Sliding along the seat to the swinging +door he thrust it open and leaned out into the darkness, for a +purpose so evident that he who ran might read. That one who ran +_did_, he had good reason to understand in the next instant, for, +of a sudden, the taxi in advance checked its wild flight, swung +round with a noisy scroo-op, and pelted back until the two vehicles +stood cheek by jowl, so to speak, and the glare of its headlights +was pouring full force upon Mr. Narkom and into the interior of +the red limousine. + +"Here! Dash your infernal impudence," began he, blinking up at +the driver through a glare which prevented him seeing that the +taxicab's leather blinds had been discreetly pulled down, and its +interior rendered quite invisible; but before he could add so much +as another word to his protest the chauffeur's voice broke in with +a blandness and an accent which told its own story. + +"Dix mille pardons, m'sieur," it commenced, then pulled itself +up as if the owner of it had suddenly recollected himself--and +added abruptly in a farcical attempt to imitate the jargon of the +fast-disappearing London cabby. "Keep of the 'air on, ole coq! +Only wantin' to arsk of the question civile. Lost my bloomin' way. +Put a cove on to the short cut to the 'Igh Street will yer, like a +blessed Christian? I dunno where I are." + +Mr. Narkom was not suffered to make reply. Before he had more +than grasped the fact that the speaker was undeniably a Frenchman, +Lennard--out of the range of that dazzling light--had made the +discovery that he was yet more undeniably a Frenchman of that class +from which the Apaches are recruited, and stepped into the breach +with astonishing adroitness. + +"Oh, that's the trouble, is it?" he interposed. "My hat! Why, of +course we'll put you on the way. Wot's more, we'll take you along +and show you--won't we, guv'ner, eh?--so as you won't go astray till +you gets there. 'Eads in and door shut, Superintendent," bringing +the limousine around until it pointed in the same direction as the +taxicab. "Now then, straight ahead, and foller yer nose, Jules; +we'll be rubbin' shoulders with you the whole blessed way. And +as the Dook of Wellington said to Napoleon Bonaparte, 'None of +your larks, you blighter--you're a-comin' along with me!'" + +That he was, was a condition of affairs so inevitable that the +chauffeur made no attempt to evade it; merely put on speed and +headed straight for the distant High Street for the purpose of +getting rid of his escort as soon as possible; and Lennard, putting +on speed, likewise, and keeping pace with him, ran him neck and neck, +until the heath was left far and away behind, the darkness gave +place to a glitter of street lamps, the lonely roads to populous +thoroughfares, and the way was left clear for Cleek to get off +unfollowed and unmolested. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Screened by that darkness, and close sheltered by the matted gorse +which fringed and dotted the expanse of the nearby heath, he had been +an interested witness to the entire proceeding. + +"Played, my lad, played!" he commented, putting his thoughts into +mumbled words of laughing approval, as Lennard, taking the taxicab +under guard, escorted it and its occupants out of the immediate +neighbourhood; then, excessive caution prompting him to quell even +this little ebullition, he shut up like an oyster and neither +spoke, nor moved, nor made any sound until the two vehicles were +represented by nothing but a purring noise dwindling away into +the distance. + +When that time came, however, he rose, and facing the heath, forged +out across its mist-wrapped breadth with that long, swinging, +soldierly stride peculiar unto him, his forehead puckered with +troubled thought, his jaw clamped, and his lips compressed until +his mouth seemed nothing more than a bleak slit gashed in a gray, +unpleasant-looking mask. + +But after a while the night and the time and the place worked their +own spell, and the troubled look dropped away; the dull eyes lighted, +the grim features softened, and the curious crooked smile that was +Nature's birth-gift to him broke down the rigid lines of the "bleak +slit" and looped up one corner of his mouth. + +It was magic ground, this heath--a place thick set as the Caves of +Manheur with the Sapphires of Memory--and to a nature such as his +these things could not but appeal. + +Here Dollops had come into his life--a starveling, an outcast; +derelict even in the very morning time of youth--a bit of human +wreckage that another ten minutes would have seen stranded forever +upon the reefs of crime. + +Here, too--on that selfsame night, when the devil had been cheated, +and the boy had gone, and they two stood alone together in the mist +and darkness--he had first laid aside the mask of respectability and +told Ailsa Lorne the truth about himself! Of his Apache times--of +his Vanishing Cracksman's days--and, in the telling, had watched +the light die out of her dear eyes and dread of him darken them, +when she knew. + +But not for always, thank God! For, in later days--when Time had +lessened the shock, when she came to know him better, when the +threads of their two lives had become more closely woven, and the +hope had grown to be something more than a mere possibility.... + +He laughed aloud, remembering, and with a sudden rush of animal +spirits twitched off his hat, flung it up and caught it as it fell, +after the manner of a happy boy. + +God, what a world--what a glorious, glorious world! All things were +possible in it if a man but walked straight and knew how to wait. + +Well, please God, a part, at least, of _his_ long waiting would be +over in another month. _She_ would be back in England then--her +long visit to the Hawksleys ended and nothing before her now but +the pleasant excitement of trousseau days. For the coming autumn +would see the final act of restitution made, the last Vanishing +Cracksman debt paid, to the uttermost farthing; and when that time +came.... He flung up his hat again and shouted from sheer excess of +joy, and forged on through the mist and darkness whistling. + +His way lay across the great common to the Vale of Health district, +and thence down a slanting road and a sloping street to the +Hampstead Heath Station of the Tube Railway, and he covered the +distance to such good effect that half-past eleven found him +"down under," swaying to the rhythmic movement of an electric +train and arrowing through the earth at a lively clip. + +Ten minutes later he changed over to yet another underground system, +swung on for half an hour or so through gloom and bad air and the +musty smell of a damp tunnel before the drop of the land and the +rise of the roadbed carried the train out into the open and the air +came fresh and sweet and pure, as God made it, over field and flood +and dewy garden spaces; and away to the west a prickle of lights +on a quiet river told where the stars mirrored themselves in the +glass of Father Thames. + +At a toy station in the hush and loneliness of the pleasant country +ways his long ride came to an end at last, and he swung off into +the balm and fragrance of the night to face a two-mile walk along +quiet, shadow-filled lanes and over wet wastes of young bracken to +a wee little house in the heart of a green wilderness, with a +high-walled, old-world garden surrounding it, and, in the far +background, a gloom of woodland smeared in darker purple against the +purple darkness of the sky. + +No light shone out from the house to greet him--no light could +come from behind that screening wall, unless it were one set in an +upper window--yet he was certain the place was not deserted; for, +as he came up out of the darkness, catlike of tread and catlike +of ear, he was willing to swear that he could catch the sound of +some one moving about restlessly in the shadow of that high, brick +wall--and the experiences of the night made him cautious of things +that moved in darkness. + +He stopped short, and remained absolutely still for half a minute, +then, stooping, swished his hand through the bracken in excellent +imitation of a small animal running, and shrilled out a note that +was uncannily like the death squeal of a stoat-caught rabbit. + +"Gawd's truth, guv'ner, is it you at last, sir? And me never seein' +nor hearin' a blessed thing!" spoke a voice in answer, from the +wall's foot; then a latch clicked and, as Cleek rose to his feet, a +garden door swung inward, a rectangle of light shone in the darkness, +and silhouetted against it stood Dollops. + +"What are you doing out here at this time of night, you young monkey? +Don't you know it's almost one o'clock?" said Cleek, as he went +forward and joined the boy. + +"Don't I know it, says you? Don't I _just_!" he gave back. "There +aren't a minute since the night come on that I haven't counted, +sir--not a bloomin' one; and if you hadn't turned up just as you +did----Well, let that pass, as the Suffragette said when she heaved +'arf a brick through the shop window. Gawd's truth, guv'ner, do +you realise that you've been gone since yesterday afternoon and +I haven't heard a word from you in all that time?" + +"Well, what of that? It's not the first time by dozens that I've +done the same thing. Why should it worry you at this late day? Look +here, my young man, you're not developing 'nerves' are you? Because, +if you are----Turn round and let's have a look at you! Why, you +are as pale as a ghost, you young beggar, and shaking like a leaf. +Anything wrong with you, old chap?" + +"Not as I knows of," returned Dollops, making a brave attempt to +smile and be his old happy-go-lucky, whimsical self, albeit he wasn't +carrying it off quite successfully, for there was a droop to his +smile and a sort of whimper underlying his voice, and Cleek's keen +eyes saw that his hand groped about blindly in its effort to find +the fastenings of the garden door. + +"Leastwise, nothing as matters now that you are here, sir. And I _am_ +glad yer back, guv'ner--Lawd, yuss! 'Nothin' like company to buck +you up,' as the bull said when he tossed the tinker; so of course----" + +"Here! You let those fastenings alone. I'll attend to them!" rapped +in Cleek's voice with a curious note of alarm in it, as he moved +briskly forward and barred and locked the wall door. "If I didn't +know that eating, not drinking, was your particular failing----" + +Here he stopped, his half-uttered comment cut into by a bleating +cry, and he screwed round to face a startling situation. For there +was Dollops, leaning heavily against a flowering almond tree, his +face like a dead face for colour, and his fingers clawing frantically +at the lower part of his waistcoat, doubling and twisting in the +throes of an internal convulsion. + +The gravelled pathway gave forth two sharp scrunches, and Cleek was +just in time to catch him as he lurched forward and sprawled heavily +against him. The man's arms closed instinctively about the twisting, +sweat-drenched, helpless shape, and with great haste and infinite +tenderness gathered it up and carried it into the house; but he +had scarcely more than laid the boy upon a sofa and lit the lamp +of the small apartment which served them as a general living-room, +when all the agony of uncertainty which beset his mind regarding +the genesis of this terrifying attack vanished in a sudden rush of +enlightenment. + +All that was left of a bounteous and strikingly diversified afternoon +tea still littered the small round dining table, and there, on one +plate, lay the shells of two crabs, on another, the remains of a +large rhubarb tart, on a third, the skins of five bananas leaning +coquettishly up against the lid of an open pickle jar, and hard by +there was a pint tumbler with the white blur of milk dimming it. + +"Good Lord! The young anaconda!" blurted out Cleek, as he stood +and stared at this appalling array. "No wonder, no wonder!" Then he +turned round on his heel, looked at the writhing and moaning boy, +and in a sudden fever of doing, peeled off his coat, rolled up his +sleeves, and made a bolt for the kitchen stove, the hot-water kettle, +and the medicine chest. + +The result of Master Dollops' little gastronomic experiment scarcely +needs to be recorded. It is sufficient to say that he had the time +of his life that night; that he kept Cleek busy every minute for +the next twenty-four hours wringing out flannels in hot water and +dosing him with homely remedies, and that when he finally came +through the siege was as limp as a wet newspaper and as feeble as a +good many dry ones. + +"What you need to pull yourself together is a change, you reckless +young ostrich--a week's roughing it in the open country by field and +stream, and as many miles as possible from so much as the odour of +a pastry cook's shop," said Cleek, patting him gently upon the +shoulder. "A nice sort of assistant you are--keeping a man out +of his bed for twenty-four hours, with his heart in his mouth and +his hair on end, you young beggar. Now, now, now! None of your +blubbing! Sit tight while I run down and make some gruel for you. +After that I'll nip out and 'phone through to the Yard and tell +Mr. Narkom to have somebody look up a caravan that can be hired, and +we'll be off for a week's 'gypsying' in Yorkshire, old chap." + +He did--coming back later with a piece of surprising news. For +it just so happened that the idea of a week's holiday-making, a +week's rambling about the green lanes, the broad moors, and through +the wild gorges of the West Riding, and living the simple life +in a caravan, appealed to Mr. Maverick Narkom as being the most +desirable thing in the world at that moment, and he made haste to +ask Cleek's permission to share the holiday with him. As nothing +could have been more to his great ally's liking, the matter was +settled forthwith. A caravan was hired by telegram to Sheffield, and +at ten the next morning the little party turned its back upon +London and fared forth to the pleasant country lands, the charm of +laughing waters, and the magic that hides in trees. + +For five days they led an absolutely idyllic life; loafing in green +wildernesses and sleeping in the shadow of whispering woods; and +this getting back to nature proved as much of a tonic to the two men +as to the boy himself--refreshing both mind and body, putting red +blood into their veins, and breathing the breath of God into their +nostrils. + +Having amply provisioned the caravan before starting, they went no +nearer to any human habitation than they were obliged to do in +passing from one district to another; and one day was so exact a +pattern of the next that its history might have stood for them all: +up with the dawn and the birds and into woodland pool or tree-shaded +river; then gathering fuel and making a fire and cooking breakfast; +then washing the utensils, harnessing the horses, and moving on +again--sometimes Cleek driving, sometimes Narkom, sometimes the +boy--stopping when they were hungry to prepare lunch just as they +had prepared breakfast, then forging on again until they found +some tree-hedged dell or bosky wood where they might spend the +night, crooned to sleep by the wind in the leaves, and watched +over by the sentinel stars. + +So they had spent the major part of the week, and so they might +have spent it all, but that chance chose to thrust them suddenly +out of idleness into activity, and to bring them--here, in this +Arcadia--face to face again with the evils of mankind and the harsh +duty of the law. + +It had gone nine o'clock on that fifth night when a curious thing +happened: they had halted for the night by the banks of a shallow, +chattering stream which flowed through a wayside spinney, beyond +whose clustering treetops they had seen, before the light failed, +the castellated top of a distant tower and, farther afield, the +weathercock on an uplifting church spire; they had supped and +were enjoying their ease--the two men sprawling at full length on +the ground enjoying a comfortable smoke, while Dollops, with a +mouth harmonica, was doing "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road," his +back against a tree, his eyes upturned in ecstasy, his long legs +stretched out upon the turf, and his feet crossed one over the +other--and all about them was peace; all the sordid, money-grubbing, +crime-stained world seemed millions of miles away, when, of a +sudden, there came a swift rush of bodies--trampling on dead +leaves and brushing against live ones--then a voice cried out +commandingly, "Surrender yourselves in the name of the king!" and +scrambling to a sitting position, they looked up to find themselves +confronted by a constable, a gamekeeper, and two farm labourers--the +one with drawn truncheon and the other three with cocked guns. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Hullo, I say!" began Mr. Narkom, in amazement. "Why, what the +dickens----" But he was suffered to get no farther. + +"You mind your P's and Q's! I warn you that anything you say will be +used against you!" interjected sharply and authoritatively the +voice of the constable. "Hawkins, you and Marlow keep close guard +over these chaps while me and Mr. Simpkins looks round for the +animal. I said it would be the work of gypsies, didn't I now, Mr. +Simpkins?" addressing the gamekeeper. "Come on and let's have a +look for the beast. Keep eyes peeled and gun at full cock, Mr. +Simpkins, and give un both barrels if un makes to spring at us. +This be a sharp capture, Mr. Simpkins--what?" + +"Aye, but un seems to take it uncommon cool, Mr. Nippers--one of +'em's larfiin' fit to bust hisself!" replied the gamekeeper as +Cleek slapped both thighs, and throwing back his head, voiced an +appreciative guffaw. "Un doan't look much loike gypsies either +from t' little as Ah can see of 'em in this tomfool loight. Wait +a bit till Ah scoop up an armful o' leaves and throw 'em on the +embers o' fire yon." + +He did so forthwith; and the moment the dry leaves fell on the +remnants of the fire which the caravanners had used to cook their +evening meal there was a gush of aromatic smoke, a sudden puff, and +then a broad ribbon of light rushed upward and dispelled every trace +of darkness. And by the aid of that ribbon of light Mr. Nippers +saw something which made him almost collapse with astonishment +and chagrin. + +The great of the world may, and often do, forget their meetings +with the small fry, but the small fry never cease to remember their +meetings with the great, or to treasure a vivid remembrance of that +immortal day when they were privileged to rub elbows with the elect. + +Five years had passed since Mrs. Maverick Narkom, seeking a place +wherein to spend the summer holidays with the little Narkoms and +their nurses, had let her choice fall upon Winton-Old-Bridges +and had dwelt there for two whole months. Three times during her +sojourn her liege lord had come down for a week-end with his wife +and children, and during one of these brief visits, meeting Mr. +Ephraim Nippers, the village constable in the public highway, he +had deigned to stop and speak to the man and to present him with a +sixpenny cigar. + +Times had changed since then; Mr. Nippers was now head constable +for the district, but he still kept that cigar under a glass +shade on the drawing-room whatnot, and he still treasured a vivid +recollection of the great man who had given it to him and whom he +now saw sitting on the ground with his coat off and his waistcoat +unbuttoned, his moustache uncurled, wisps of dried grass clinging +to his tousled hair, and all the dignity of office conspicuous by its +absence. + +"Oh, lummy!" said Mr. Nippers with a gulp. "Put down the hammers of +them guns, you two--put 'em down quick! It's Mr. Narkom--Mr. Maverick +Narkom, superintendent at Scotland Yard!" + +"Hullo!" exclaimed Mr. Narkom, shading his eyes from the firelight +and leaning forward to get a clearer view of the speaker. "How the +dickens do you know that, my man? And who the dickens are you, +anyway? Can't say that I remember ever seeing your face before." + +Mr. Nippers hastened to explain that little experience of five years +ago; but the circumstance which had impressed itself so deeply upon +his memory had passed entirely out of the superintendent's. + +"Oh, that's it, is it?" said he. "Can't say that I recall the +occasion; but Mrs. Narkom certainly did stop at Winton-Old-Bridges +some four or five summers ago, so of course it's possible. By the +way, my man, what caused you to make this sudden descent upon us? And +what are these chaps who are with you bearing arms for? Anything up?" + +"Oh, lummy, sir, yes! A murder's just been committed--leastwise it's +only just been discovered; but it can't have been long since it _was_ +committed, Mr. Narkom, for Miss Renfrew, who found him, sir, and +give the alarm, she says as the poor dear gentleman was alive at a +quarter to eight, 'cause she looked into the room at that time to +ask him if there was anything he wanted, and he spoke up and told +her no, and went on with his figgerin' just the same as usual." + +"As usual?" said Cleek. "Why do you say 'as usual,' my friend? Was +the man an accountant of some sort?" + +"Lummy! no, sir. A great inventor is what he is--or was, poor +gentleman. Reckon you must 'a' heard of un some time or another--most +everybody has. Nosworth is the name, sir--Mr. Septimus Nosworth of +the Round House. You could see the tower of it over yon if you +was to step out into the road and get clear of these trees." + +Cleek was on his feet like a flash. + +"Not the great Septimus Nosworth?" he questioned eagerly. "Not +the man who invented Lithamite?--the greatest authority on high +explosives in England? Not that Septimus Nosworth, surely?" + +"Aye--him's the one, poor gentleman. I thought it like as the name +would be familiar, sir. A goodish few have heard of un, one way and +another." + +"Yes," acquiesced Cleek. "Lithamite carried his name from one end +of the globe to the other; and his family affairs came into unusual +prominence in consequence. Widower, wasn't he?--hard as nails and +bitter as gall. Had an only son, hadn't he?--a wild young blade who +went the pace: took up with chorus girls, music hall ladies, and +persons of that stripe, and got kicked out from under the parental +roof in consequence." + +"Lummy, now! think of you a-knowin' about all that!" said Mr. +Nippers, in amazement. "But then, your bein' with Mr. Narkom and +him bein' what he is--why, of course! Scotland Yard it do know +everything, I'm told, sir." + +"Yes--it reads the papers occasionally, Mr. Nippers," said Cleek. "I +may take it from your reply, may I not, that I am correct regarding +Mr. Septimus Nosworth's son?" + +"Indeed, yes, sir--right as rain. Leastwise, from what I've heard. I +never see the young gentleman, myself. Them things you mention +happened before Mr. Nosworth come to live in these parts--a matter +of some four years or more ago. Alwuss had his laboratory here, +sir--built it on the land he leased from Sir Ralph Droger's father +in the early sixties--and used to come over frequent and shut +hisself in the Round House for days on end; but never come here to +live until after that flare-up with Master Harry. Come then and +built livin' quarters beside the Round House and, after a piece, +fetched Miss Renfrew and old Patty Dax over to live with un." + +"Miss Renfrew and old Patty Dax? Who are they?" + +"Miss Renfrew is his niece, sir--darter of a dead sister. Old Patty +Dax, she war the cook. I dunno what her be now, though--her died +six months ago and un hired Mistress Armroyd in her place. French +piece, her am, though bein' widder of a Lancashire man, and though I +doan't much fancy foreigners nor their ways, this I will say: her +keeps the house like a pin and her cookin's amazin' tasty--indeed, +yes." + +"You are an occasional caller in the servants' hall, I see, Mr. +Nippers," said Cleek, serenely, as he took up his coat and shook +it, preparatory to putting it on. "I think, Mr. Narkom, that in +the interests of the public at large it will be well for some one +a little more efficient than the local constabulary to look into +this case, so, if you don't mind making yourself a trifle more +presentable, it will be as well for us to get Mr. Nippers to show +us the way to the scene of the tragedy. While you are doing it I +will put a few 'Headland' questions to our friend here if you don't +mind assuring him that I am competent to advise." + +"Right you are, old chap," said Narkom, taking his cue. "Nippers, +this is Mr. George Headland, one of the best of my Yard detectives. +He'll very likely give you a tip or two in the matter of detecting +crimes, if you pay attention to what he says." + +Nippers "paid attention" forthwith. The idea of being in consultation +with any one connected with Scotland Yard tickled his very soul; +and, in fancy, he already saw his name getting into the newspapers +of London, and his fame spreading far beyond his native weald. + +"I won't trouble you for the full details of the murder, Mr. +Nippers," said Cleek. "Those, I fancy, this Miss Renfrew will be +able to supply when I see her. For the present, tell me: how many +other occupants does the house hold beyond these two of whom you +have spoken--Miss Renfrew and the cook, Mrs. Armroyd?" + +"None, sir, but the scullery maid, Emily, and the parlour maid, +Clark. But both of them is out to-night, sir--havin' went to a +concert over at Beattie Corners. A friend of Mistress Armroyd's sent +her two tickets, and her not bein' able to go herself, her thought +it a pity for 'em to be wasted, so her give 'em to the maids." + +"I see, no male servants at all, then?" + +"No, sir; not one. There's Jones--the handy man--as comes in mornin's +to do the rough work and the haulin' and carryin' and things +like that; and there's the gardener and Mr. Kemper--him as is Mr. +Nosworth's assistant in the laboratory, sir--but none of 'em is +ever in the house after five o'clock. Set against havin' men sleep +in the house was Mr. Nosworth--swore as never another should after +him and Master Harry had their fallin' out. Why, sir, he was +that bitter he'd never even allow Mr. Charles to set foot in the +place, just because him and Master Harry used to be friends--which +makes it precious hard on Miss Renfrew, I can tell you." + +"As how? Is this 'Mr. Charles' connected with Miss Renfrew in any +way?" + +"Lummy! yes, sir--he's her young man. Been sweet on each other +ever since they was in pinafores; but never had no chance to marry +because Mr. Charles--Mr. Charles Drummond is his full name, sir--he +hasn't one shillin' to rub against another, and Miss Renfrew she's a +little worse off than him. Never gets nothin', I'm told, for keepin' +house for her uncle--just her food and lodgin' and clothes--and +her slavin' like a nigger for him the whole blessed time. Keeps +his books and superintends the runnin' of the house, she do, but +never gets a brass farthin' for it, poor girl. I don't like to +speak ill of the dead, Mr. Headland, sir, but this I must say: A rare +old skinflint was Mr. Septimus Nosworth--wouldn't part with a +groat unless un was forced to. But praise be, her'll get her dues +now; fegs, yes! unless old skinflint went and changed his will +without her knowin'." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection. "His will was +made in Miss Renfrew's favour, was it?" + +"Aye. That's why her come and put up with un and all his +hardheartedness--denyin' her the pleasure o' ever seein' her young +man just because him and Master Harry had been friends and +playmates when t' pair of un was just boys in knickers and broad +collars. There be a stone heart for you." + +"Rather. Now one more question: I think you said it was Miss Renfrew +who gave the alarm when the murder was discovered, Mr. Nippers. How +did she give it and to whom?" + +"Eh, now! to me and Mistress Armroyd, of course. Me and her war +sittin' in the kitchen havin' a bite o' supper at the time. Gorham, +he war there, too, in the beginnin'; but un didn't stop, of +course--'twouldn't 'a' done for the pair of us to be off duty +together." + +"Oh! is Gorham a constable, then?" + +"Aye--under constable: second to me. Got un appointed six months +ago. Him had just gone a bit of a time when Miss Renfrew come +rushin' in and shrieked out about the murder; but he heard the +rumpus and came poundin' back, of course. I dunno what I'd 'a' done +if un hadn't, for Miss Renfrew her went from one faintin' fit to +another--'twas just orful. Gorham helped Ah to carry her up to +the sittin'-room, wheer Mistress Armroyd burnt feathers under her +nose, and when we'd got her round a bit we all three went outside +and round to the laboratory. That's when we first see the prints of +the animal's feet. Mistress Armroyd spied 'em first--all over the +flower bed just under the laboratory window." + +"Oho! then that is what you meant when you alluded to an 'animal' +when you pounced down upon us, was it? I see. One word more: what +kind of an animal was it? Or couldn't you tell from the marks?" + +"No, sir, I couldn't--nobody could unless it might be Sir Ralph +Droger. He'll be like to, if anybody. Keeps all sorts of animals and +birds and things in great cages in Droger Park, does Sir Ralph. One +thing I can swear to, though, sir: they warn't like the footprints +of any animal as I ever see. Theer be a picture o' St. Jarge and the +Dragon on the walls o' Town Hall at Birchampton, Mr. Headland, sir, +and them footprints is more like the paws of that dragon than +anything else I can call to mind. Scaly and clawed they is--like +the thing as made 'em was part bird and part beast--and they're a +good twelve inches long, every one of 'em." + +"Hum-m-m! That's extraordinary. Deeply imprinted, are they?" + +"Lummy! yes, sir. The animal as made 'em must have weighed ten or +twelve stone at least. Soon as I see them, sir, I knowed I had my +work cut out, so I left Gorham in charge of the house, rattled up +these two men and Mr. Simpkins, here--which all three is employed +at Droger Park, sir--and set out hot foot to look for gypsies." + +"Why?" + +"'Cause Mistress Armroyd she says as she see a gypsy lurkin' round +the place just before dark, sir; and he had a queer thing like a +bear's muzzle in his hand." + +"Ah, I see!" said Cleek; and gave one of his odd smiles as he +turned round and looked at the superintendent. "All ready, Mr. +Narkom? Good! Let us go over to the Round House and investigate +this interesting case. Dollops, stop where you are and look after +the caravan. If we are away more than a couple of hours, tumble +into bed and go to sleep. We may be a short time or we may be a +long one. In affairs like this one never knows." + + * * * * * + +"Any ideas, old chap?" queried Narkom in a whisper as they forged +along together in the wake of Nippers and his three companions. + +"Yes--a great many," answered Cleek. "I am particularly anxious, Mr. +Narkom, to have a look at those footprints and an interview with Miss +Renfrew. I want to meet that young lady very much indeed." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Twenty minutes later his desires in that respect were granted; and, +having been introduced by Mr. Nippers to the little gathering in +the sitting-room of the house of disaster as "a friend of mine from +Scotland Yard, miss," he found himself in the presence of one of +those meek-faced, dove-eyed, "mousy" little bodies who seem born to +be "patient Griseldas"; and in looking at her he was minded of the +description of "Lady Jane" in the poem: + + "Her pulse was slow, milk white her skin-- + She had not blood enough to sin." + +Years of repression had told upon her, and she looked older than she +really was--so old and so dragged out, in fact, that Mrs. Armroyd, +the cook, appeared youthful and attractive in contrast. Indeed, +it was no wonder that Mr. Ephraim Nippers had been attracted by +that good soul; for, although her hair was streaked with gray, and +her figure was of the "sack of flour" order, and her eyes were +assisted in their offices by a pair of steel-bowed spectacles, her +face was still youthful in contour, and Mr. Narkom, looking at +her, concluded that at twenty-four or twenty-five she must have +been a remarkably pretty and remarkably fascinating woman. What +Cleek's thoughts were upon that subject it is impossible to record; +for he merely gave her one look on coming into the room, and then +took no further notice of her whatsoever. + +"Indeed, Mr. Headland, I am glad--I am very, very glad--that fortune +has sent you into this neighbourhood at this terrible time," said +Miss Renfrew when Cleek was introduced. "I do not wish to say +anything disparaging of Mr. Nippers, but you can see for yourself +how unfitted such men as he and his assistant are to handle an +affair of this importance. Indeed, I cannot rid my mind of the +thought that if more competent police were on duty here the murder +would not have happened. In short, that the assassin, whoever he +maybe, counted upon the blundering methods of these men as his +passport to safety." + +"My own thought precisely," said Cleek. "Mr. Nippers has given me +a brief outline of the affair--would you mind giving me the full +details, Miss Renfrew? At what hour did Mr. Nosworth go into his +laboratory? Or don't you know, exactly?" + +"Yes, I know to the fraction of a moment, Mr. Headland. I was looking +at my watch at the time. It was exactly eight minutes past seven. We +had been going over the monthly accounts together, when he suddenly +got up, and without a word walked through that door over there. It +leads to a covered passage connecting the house proper with the +laboratory. That, as you may have heard, is a circular building with +a castellated top. It was built wholly and solely for the carrying on +of his experiments. There is but one floor and one window--a very +small one about six feet from the ground, and on the side of the +Round House which looks away from this building. Nothing but the door +to that is on this side, light being supplied to the interior by a +roof made entirely of heavy corrugated glass." + +"I see. Then the place is like a huge tube." + +"Exactly--and lined entirely with chilled steel. Such few wooden +appliances as are necessary for the equipment of the place are +thickly coated with asbestos. I made no comment when my uncle rose +and walked in there without a word. I never did. For the past six +or seven months he had been absorbed in working out the details of a +new invention; and I had become used to his jumping up like that and +leaving me. We never have supper in this house--my uncle always +called it a useless extravagance. Instead, we defer tea until six +o'clock and make that the final meal of the day. It was exactly +five minutes to seven when I finished my accounts, and as I had had +a hard day of it, I decided to go to bed early, after having first +taken a walk as far as the old bridge where I hoped that somebody +would be waiting for me." + +"I know," said Cleek, gently. "I have heard the story. It would be +Mr. Charles Drummond, would it not?" + +"Yes. He was not there, however. Something must have prevented his +coming." + +"Hum-m-m! Go on, please." + +"Before leaving the house, it occurred to me that I ought to look +into the laboratory and see if there was anything my uncle would +be likely to need for the night, as I intended to go straightway to +bed on my return. I did so. He was sitting at his desk, immediately +under the one window of which I have spoken, and with his back +to me, when I looked in. He answered my inquiry with a curt +'No--nothing. Get out and don't worry me!' I immediately shut the +door and left him, returning here by way of the covered passage and +going upstairs to make some necessary changes in my dress for the +walk to the old bridge. When I came down, ready for my journey, I +looked at the clock on the mantel over there. It was exactly +seventeen minutes to eight o'clock. I had been a little longer in +dressing than I had anticipated being; so, in order to save time +in getting to the trysting place, I concluded to make a short cut +by going out of the rear door and crossing diagonally through our +grounds instead of going by the public highway as usual. I had +scarcely more than crossed the threshold when I ran plump into +Constable Gorham. As he is rather a favourite with good Mrs. +Armroyd here, I fancied that he had been paying her a visit, and +was just coming away from the kitchen. Instead, he rather startled me +by stating that he had seen something which he thought best to come +round and investigate. In short, that, as he was patrolling the +highway, he had seen a man vault over the wall of our grounds +and, bending down, dart out of sight like a hare. He was almost +positive that that man was Sir Ralph Droger. Of course that +frightened me almost out of my wits." + +"Why?" + +"There was bad blood between my uncle and Sir Ralph Droger--bitter, +bad blood. As you perhaps know, my uncle held this ground on a life +lease from the Droger estate. That is to say, so long as he lived +or refused to vacate that lease, no Droger could oust him nor yet +lift one spadeful of earth from the property." + +"Does Sir Ralph desire to do either?" + +"He desires to do both. Borings secretly made have manifested the +fact that both Barnsley thick-coal and iron ore underlie the place. +Sir Ralph wishes to tear down the Round House and this building and +to begin mining operations. My uncle, who has been offered the full +value of every stick and stone, has always obstinately refused to +budge one inch or to lessen the lease by one half hour. 'It is for +the term of my life,' he has always said, 'and for the term of my +life I'll hold it!'" + +"Oho!" said Cleek; and then puckered up his lips as if about to +whistle. + +"Under such circumstances," went on Miss Renfrew, "it was only +natural that I should be horribly frightened, and only too willing +to act upon the constable's suggestion that we at once look into +the Round House and see if everything was right with my uncle." + +"Why should the constable suggest that?" + +"Everybody in the neighbourhood knows of the bitter ill feeling +existing between the two men; so, of course, it was only natural." + +"Hum-m-m! Yes! Just so. Did you act on Constable Gorham's suggestion, +then?" + +"Yes. I led the way in here and then up the covered passage to the +laboratory and opened the door. My uncle was sitting exactly as he +had been when I looked in before--his back to me and his face to +the window--but although he did not turn, it was evident that he +was annoyed by my disturbing him, for he growled angrily, 'What the +devil are you coming in here and disturbing me like this for, Jane? +Get out and leave me alone.'" + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, drawing down his brows and pinching his chin. +"Any mirrors in the Round House?" + +"Mirrors? No, certainly not, Mr. Headland. Why?" + +"Nothing--only that I was wondering, if as you say, he never turned +and you never spoke, how in the world he knew that it really _was_ +you, that's all." + +"Oh, I see what you mean," said Miss Renfrew, knotting up her brows. +"It does seem a little peculiar when one looks at it in that way. I +never thought of it before. Neither can I explain it, Mr. Headland, +any more than to say that I suppose he took it for granted. And, +as it happened, he was right. Besides, as you will remember, I +had intruded upon him only a short time before." + +"Quite so," said Cleek. "That's what makes it appear stranger than +ever. Under the circumstances one might have expected him to say +_not_ 'What are you coming in here for,' but, 'What are you coming +in for _again_.' Still, of course, there's no accounting for little +lapses like that. Go on, please--what next?" + +"Why, of course I immediately explained what Constable Gorham had +said, and why I had looked in. To which he replied, 'The man's an +ass. Get out!' Upon which I closed the door, and the constable and I +went away at once." + +"Constable there with you during it all, then?" + +"Yes, certainly--in the covered passage, just behind me. He saw and +heard everything; though, of course, neither of us actually entered +the laboratory itself. There was really no necessity when we knew +that my uncle was safe and sound, you see." + +"Quite so," agreed Cleek. "So you shut the door and went away--and +then what?" + +"Constable Gorham went back to his beat, and I flew as fast as I +could to meet Mr. Drummond. It is only a short way to the old bridge +at best, and by taking that short cut through the grounds, I was +there in less than ten minutes. And by half-past eight I was back +here in a greater state of terror than before." + +"And why? Were you so much alarmed that Mr. Drummond did not keep +the appointment?" + +"No. That did not worry me at all. He is often unable to keep his +appointments with me. He is filling the post of private secretary +to a large company promoter, and his time is not his own. What +terrified me was that, after waiting a few minutes for him, I +heard somebody running along the road, and a few moments later +Sir Ralph Droger flew by me as if he were being pursued. Under +ordinary circumstances I should have thought that he was getting +into training for the autumn sports (he is, you may know, very keen +on athletics, and holds the County Club's cup for running and +jumping), but when I remembered what Constable Gorham had said, and +saw that Sir Ralph was coming from the direction of this house, all +my wits flew; I got into a sort of panic and almost collapsed with +fright." + +"And all because the man was coming from the direction of this house?" + +"Not that alone," she answered with a shudder. "I have said that +I should under ordinary circumstances have thought he was merely +training for the autumn sports--for, you see, he was in a running +costume of white cotton stuff and his legs were bare from the knee +down--but as he shot past me in the moonlight I caught sight of +something like a huge splash of blood on his clothes, and coupling +that with the rest I nearly went out of my senses. It wasn't +until long afterward I recollected that the badge of the County +Club is the winged foot of Mercury wrought in brilliant scarlet +embroidery. To me, just then, that thing of red was blood--my +uncle's blood--and I ran and ran and ran until I got back here to +the house and flew up the covered passage and burst into the Round +House. He was sitting there still--just as he had been sitting +before. But he didn't call out to me this time; he didn't reprove me +for disturbing him; didn't make one single movement, utter one single +sound. And when I went to him I knew why. He was dead--stone dead! +The face and throat of him were torn and rent as if some furious +animal had mauled him, and there were curious yellow stains upon his +clothes. That's all, Mr. Headland. I don't know what I did nor +where I went from the moment I rushed shrieking from that room +until I came to my senses and found myself in this one with dear, +kind Mrs. Armroyd here bending over me and doing all in her power +to soothe and to comfort me." + +"There, there, cherie, you shall not more distress yourself. It is +of a hardness too great for the poor mind to bear," put in Mrs. +Armroyd herself at this, bending over the sofa as she spoke and +softly smoothing the girl's hair. "It is better she should be at +peace for a little, is it not, monsieur?" + +"Very much better, madame," replied Cleek, noting how softly her hand +fell, and how gracefully it moved over the soft hair and across the +white forehead. "No doubt the major part of what still remains to be +told, you in the goodness of your heart, will supply----" + +"Of a certainty, monsieur, of a certainty." + +"--But for the present," continued Cleek, finishing the interrupted +sentence, "there still remains a question or two which must be +asked, and which only Miss Renfrew herself can answer. As those are +of a private and purely personal nature, madame, would it be asking +too much----" He gave his shoulders an eloquent Frenchified shrug, +looked up at her after the manner of her own countrymen, and let +the rest of the sentence go by default. + +"Madame" looked at him and gave her little hands an airy and a +graceful flirt. + +"Of a certainty, monsieur," she said, with charming grace. "_Cela +m'est egal_," and walked away with a step remarkably light and +remarkably graceful for one of such weight and generous dimensions. + +"Miss Renfrew," said Cleek, sinking his voice and looking her +straight in the eyes, as soon as Mrs. Armroyd had left them, "Miss +Renfrew, tell me something please: Have you any suspicion regarding +the identity or the purpose of the person who murdered your uncle?" + +"Not in the slightest, Mr. Headland. Of course, in the beginning, my +thoughts flew at once to Sir Ralph Droger, but I now see how absurd +it is to think that such as he----" + +"I am not even hinting at Sir Ralph Droger," interposed Cleek. "Two +other people in the world have a 'motive' quite as strong as any +that might be assigned to him. You, of course, feel every confidence +in the honour and integrity of Mr. Charles Drummond?" + +"Mr. Headland!" + +"Gently, gently, please! I merely wished to know if in your heart you +had any secret doubt; and your flaring up like that has answered me. +You see, one has to remember that the late Mr. Nosworth is said to +have made a will in your favour. The statement is correct, is it not?" + +"To the best of my belief--yes." + +"Filed it with his solicitors, did he?" + +"That I can't say. I think not, however. He was always sufficient +unto himself, and had a rooted objection to trusting anything of +value to the care of any man living. Even his most important +documents--plans and formulas of his various inventions, even +the very lease of this property--have always been kept in the +desk in the laboratory." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, and pinched his chin hard. Then, after a +moment. "One last question," he went on suddenly. "What do you know, +Miss Renfrew, of the recent movements of Mr. Harry Nosworth--the +son who was kicked out?" + +"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" she answered, with a look of something +akin to horror. "I know what you are thinking of, but although he +is as bad as man can be, it is abominable to suppose that he would +lift his hand against his own father." + +"Hum-m-m! Yes, of course! But still, it has been known to happen; +and, as you say, he was a bad lot. I ran foul of the young gentleman +once when----No matter; it doesn't signify. So you don't know +anything about him, eh?" + +"Nothing, thank God. The last I did hear, he had gone on the stage +and taken up with some horrible creature, and the pair of them were +subsequently sent to prison for enticing people to dreadful places +and then drugging and robbing them. But even that I heard from an +outside source; for my uncle never so much as mentioned him. No, I +know nothing of him--nothing at all. In fact, I've never seen him +since he was a boy. He never lived here, you know; and until I came +here, I knew next to nothing of my uncle himself. We were poor and +lived in a quite different town, my mother and I. Uncle Septimus +never came to see us while my mother lived. He came for the first +time when she was dead and his son had gone away: and I was so poor +and so friendless I was glad to accept the home he offered. No, +Mr. Headland, I know nothing of Harry Nosworth. I hope, for his +own sake, he is dead." + +Cleek made no reply. He sat for a minute pinching his chin and +staring at the carpet, then he got up suddenly and faced round in +the direction of the little group at the far end of the room. + +"That's all for the present," he said. "Mr. Narkom, Mr. Nippers--get +a light of some sort, please, and let's go out and have a look at +those footprints." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The suggestion was acted upon immediately--even Mrs. Armroyd joining +in the descent upon the portable lamps and filing out with the rest +into the gloom and loneliness of the grounds; and Miss Renfrew, +finding that she was likely to be left alone in this house of +horrors, rose quickly and hurried out with them. + +One step beyond the threshold brought them within sight of the +famous Round House. Bulked against the pale silver of the moonlit +sky, there it stood--a grim, unlovely thing of stone and steel +with a trampled flower bed encircling the base of it, and a man on +guard--Constable Gorham. + +"Lummy! I'd clean forgot _him_!" exclaimed Mr. Nippers as he caught +sight of him. "And theer un be keepin' guard, like I told un, out +here in the grounds whiles weem ben talkin' comfortable inside. 'E +do be a chap for doin' as heem tole, that Gorham--indeed, yes!" + +Nobody replied to him. All were busily engaged in following the lead +of Scotland Yard, as represented by Cleek and Superintendent Narkom, +and bearing down on that huge stone tube within whose circular walls +a dead man sat alone. + +"Dreary post this, Constable," said Cleek, coming abreast of the +silent guard. + +"Yes, sir, very. But dooty's dooty--and there you be!" replied +Gorham, touching his helmet with his finger; then, as the light +from the lamps fell full upon Cleek's face and let him see that it +was no face he had ever seen in this district before, his eyes +widened with a puzzled stare which never quite left them even when +the entire group had passed on and turned the curve of the Round +House wall. + +And beyond that curve Cleek came to a sudden halt. Here, a +curtainless window cut a square of light in the wall's dark face +and struck a glare on the trunk and the boughs of a lime tree +directly opposite, and under that window a trampled flower bed lay, +with curious marks deep sunk in the soft, moist surface of it. + +Cleek took the lamp from Mrs. Armroyd's hand, and, bending, looked +at them closely. Mr. Nippers had not exaggerated when he said +that they were all of twelve inches in length. Nor was he far +out when he declared that they looked like the footprints of some +creature that was part animal and part bird; for there they were, +with three huge clawlike projections in front and a solitary one +behind, and so like to the mark which a gigantic bird could have +made that one might have said such a creature _had_ made them, only +that it was impossible for anything to fly that was possessed of +weight sufficient to drive those huge footprints so deeply into the +earth as they had been driven, by the mere walking of the Thing. +Claws and the marks of scales, Mr. Nippers had asserted; and claws +and the marks of scales the prints in the soft earth showed. + +"La! la! the horror of them," exclaimed Mrs. Armroyd, putting up her +little hands and averting her face. "It could kill and kill and +kill--horses, oxen, anything--an abominable creature like that! +What do you figure it to have been, monsieur?--souls of the saints, +_what_?" + +"Blest if I know," said Cleek. "Only, of course, it couldn't possibly +be anything human; so we may put the idea of the old chap having +been killed by anything of his kind out of our minds altogether. It +is perfectly clear that the creature, whatever it might be, got +in through the window there (you see it is open) and killed him +before he could call out for help or strike a blow in his own +defence." + +"Eh, but window's six foot up, Mr. Headland, sir," put in Nippers +excitedly; "and howm a thing the weight o' that goin' to fly in?" + +"Didn't fly in, my friend," replied Cleek with an air of lofty +superiority. "Use your wits, man. It _jumped_ in--from the tree +there. Look here--see!" going to it and tapping certain abrasions +upon the trunk. "Here's where it peeled off the bark in climbing +up. Lord, man! why, it's plain as the nose on your face. Ten to +one we shall find the same sort of footprints when we go into the +laboratory--damp ones, you know, from the moisture of the earth; and +to make sure, in case we do find 'em let's take the length of the +things and see. Got a tape measure with you? No? Oh, well, lend +me your handcuffs, if you've got a pair with you, and we can manage +a measurement with those. Thanks very much. Now, then, let's see. +One, two, three, by Jupiter--three fingers longer than these things, +chain and all. That'll do. Now, then, let's go in and see about the +others. Lead the way, Miss Renfrew, if you will." + +She would, and did. Leading the way back to the covered passage, +she opened a door in the side of it--a door designed to let the +inventor out into the grounds without going through the house, if he +so desired--and conducted them to the laboratory, leaving Constable +Gorham to continue his dreary sentry duty outside. + +At any time the interior of that huge, stone-walled, steel-lined +tube must have been unlovely and depressing to all but the man who +laboured in it. But to-night, with that man sitting dead in it, +with his face to the open window, a lamp beside him, and stiff hands +resting on the pages of a book that lay open on the desk's flat top, +it was doubly so; for, added to its other unpleasant qualities, +there was now a disagreeable odour and a curious, eye-smarting, +throat-roughening heaviness in the atmosphere which was like to +nothing so much as the fumes thrown off by burnt chemicals. + +Cleek gave one or two sniffs at the air as he entered, glanced at Mr. +Narkom, then walked straightway to the desk and looked into the dead +man's face. Under the marks of the scratches and cuts upon it--marks +which would seem to carry out the idea of an animal's attack--the +features were distorted and discoloured, and the hair of beard and +moustache was curiously crinkled and discoloured. + +Cleek stopped dead short as he saw that face, and his swaggering, +flippant, cocksure air of a minute before dropped from him like a +discarded mantle. + +"Hullo! this doesn't look quite so promising for the animal theory +as it did!" he flung out sharply. "This man has been shot--shot +with a shell filled with his own soundless and annihilating devil's +invention, lithamite--and bomb throwing is _not_ a trick of beasts of +a lower order than the animal tribe! Look here, Mr. Narkom--see! The +lock of the desk has been broken. Shut the door there, Nippers. +Let nobody leave the room. There has been murder and robbery here; +and the thing that climbed that tree was not an animal nor yet a +bird. It was a cut-throat and a thief!" + +Naturally enough, this statement produced something in the nature +of a panic; Miss Renfrew, indeed, appearing to be on the verge of +fainting, and it is not at all unlikely that she would have slipped +to the floor but for the close proximity of Mrs. Armroyd. + +"That's right, madame. Get a chair; put her into it. She will need +all her strength presently, I promise you. Wait a bit! Better have a +doctor, I fancy, and an inquiry into the whereabouts of Mr. Charles +Drummond. Mr. Narkom, cut out, will you, and wire this message to +that young man's employer." + +Pens and papers were on the dead man's desk. Cleek bent over, +scratched off some hurried lines, and passed them to the +superintendent. + +"Sharp's the word, please; we've got ugly business on hand and we +must know about that Drummond chap without delay. Miss Renfrew has +not been telling the truth to-night! Look at this man. _Rigor mortis_ +pronounced. Feel him--muscles like iron, flesh like ice! _She_ says +that he spoke to her at a quarter to eight o'clock. _I_ tell you +that at a quarter to eight this man had been dead upward of an hour!" + +"Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Narkom; but his cry was cut into by a +wilder one from Miss Renfrew. + +"Oh, no! Oh, no!" she protested, starting up from her seat, only to +drop back into it, strengthless, shaking, ghastly pale. "It could not +be--it could not. I have told the truth--nothing but the truth. He +did speak to me at a quarter to eight--he did, he did! Constable +Gorham was there--he heard him; he will tell you the same." + +"Yes, yes, I know you said so, but--will he? He looks a sturdy, +straightgoing, honest sort of chap who couldn't be coaxed or bribed +into backing up a lie; so send him in as you go out, Mr. Narkom; +we'll see what he has to say." + +What he had to say when he came in a few moments later was what +Miss Renfrew had declared--an exact corroboration of her statement. +He _had_ seen a man whom he fancied was Sir Ralph Droger run out +of the grounds, and he had suggested to Miss Renfrew that they had +better look into the Round House and see if all was right with +Mr. Nosworth. They had looked in as she had said; and Mr. Nosworth +had called out and asked her what the devil she was coming in and +disturbing him for, and it was a quarter to eight o'clock exactly. + +"Sure about that, are you?" questioned Cleek. + +"Yes, sir, sure as that I'm telling you so this minute." + +"How do you fix the exact time?" + +"As we came out of the covered passage Miss Renfrew looked at her +wrist-watch and says, impatient like, 'There, I've lost another two +minutes and am that much later for nothing. See! It's a quarter to +eight. Good night.' Then she cut off over the grounds and leaves me." + +"La! la!" exclaimed Mrs. Armroyd approvingly. "There's the brave +heart, to come to mademoiselle's rescue so gallantly. But, yes, I +make you the cake of plums for that, _mon cher_. Monsieur of the +yard of Scotland, he can no more torture the poor stricken child +after that--not he." + +But Cleek appeared to be less easy to convince than she had hoped, +for he pursued the subject still; questioning Gorham to needless +length it seemed; trying his best to trip him up, to shake his +statement, but always failing; and, indeed, going over the same +ground to such length that one might have thought he was endeavouring +to gain time. If he was, he certainly succeeded; for it was quite +fifteen minutes later when Mr. Narkom returned to the Round House, +and he was at it still. Indeed, he did not conclude to give it up +as a bad job until the superintendent came. + +"Get it off all right, did you, Mr. Narkom?" he asked, glancing round +as he heard him enter. + +"Quite all right, old chap. Right as rain--in every particular." + +"Thanks very much. I'm having rather a difficult task of it, for our +friend the constable here corroborates Miss Renfrew's statement to +the hair; and yet I am absolutely positive that there is a mistake." + +"There is no mistake--no, not one! The wicked one to say it still!" + +"Oh, that's all very well, madame, but I know what I know; and when +you tell me that a dead man can ask questions--Pah! The fact of the +matter is the constable merely fancies he heard Mr. Nosworth speak. +That's where the mistake comes in. Now, look here! I once knew of +an exactly similar case and I'll tell you just how it happened. Let +us suppose"--strolling leisurely forward--"let us suppose that +this space here is the covered passage, and you, madame--step here +a moment, please. Thanks very much--and you are Miss Renfrew, and +Gorham here is himself, and standing beside her as he did then." + +"Wasn't beside her, sir--at least not just exactly. A bit behind +her--like this." + +"Oh, very well, then, that will do. Now, then. Here's the passage and +here are you, and I'll just show you how a mistake could occur, and +how it did occur, under precisely similar circumstances. Once upon +a time when I was in Paris----" + +"In Paris, monsieur?" + +"Yes, madame--this little thing I'm going to tell you about happened +there. You may or may not have heard that a certain Frenchy +dramatist wrote a play called _Chanticler_--or maybe you never heard +of it? Didn't, eh? Well, it's a play where all the characters are +barnyard creatures--dogs, poultry, birds and the like--and the odd +fancy of men and women dressing up like fowls took such a hold on +the public that before long there were Chanticler dances and +Chanticler parties in all the houses, and Chanticler 'turns' on +at all the music halls, until wherever one went for an evening's +amusement one was pretty sure to see somebody or another dressed +up like a cock or a hen, and running the thing to death. But +that's another story, and we'll pass over it. Now, it just so +happened that one night--when the craze for the thing was dying out +and barnyard dresses could be bought for a song--I strolled into +a little fourth-rate café at Montmarte and there saw the only +Chanticler dancer that I ever thought was worth a sou. She was a +pretty, dainty little thing--light as a feather and graceful as a +fairy. Alone, I think she might have made her mark; but she was +one of what in music-halldom they call 'a team.' Her partner was a +man--bad dancer, an indifferent singer, but a really passable +ventriloquist." + +"A ventriloquist, monsieur--er--er!" + +"Cleek, madame--name's Cleek, if you don't mind." + +"Cleek! Oh, Lummy!" blurted out Mr. Nippers. But neither "madame" +nor Constable Gorham said anything. They merely swung round and made +a sudden bolt; and Cleek, making a bolt, too, pounced down on them +like a leaping cat, and the sharp click-click of the handcuffs he +had borrowed from Mr. Nippers told just when he linked their two +wrists together. + +"Game's up, Madame Fifine, otherwise Madame Nosworth, the worthless +wife of a worthless husband!" he rapped out sharply. "Game's up, Mr. +Henry Nosworth, bandit, pickpocket, and murderer! There's a hot +corner in hell waiting for the brute-beast that could kill his own +father, and would, for the simple sake of money. Get at him, quick, +Mr. Narkom. He's got one free hand! Nip the paper out of his pocket +before the brute destroys it! Played, sir, played! Buck up, Miss +Renfrew, buck up, little girl--you'll get your 'Boy' and you'll get +Mr. Septimus Nosworth's promised fortune after all! 'God's in his +heaven, and all's right with the world.'" + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"Yes, a very, very clever scheme indeed, Miss Renfrew," agreed +Cleek. "Laid with great cunning and carried out with extreme +carefulness--as witness the man's coming here and getting appointed +constable and biding his time, and the woman serving as cook for six +months to get the entrée to the house and to be ready to assist when +the time of action came round. I don't think I had the least inkling +of the truth until I entered this house and saw that woman. She had +done her best to pad herself to an unwieldy size and to blanch +portions of her hair, but she couldn't quite make her face appear +old without betraying the fact that it was painted--and hers is one +of those peculiarly pretty faces that one never forgets when one +has ever seen it. I knew her the instant I entered the house; +and, remembering the Chanticler dress with its fowl's-foot boots, I +guessed at once what those marks would prove to be when I came to +investigate them. She must have stamped on the ground with all +her might, to sink the marks in so deeply--but she meant to make +sure of the claws and the exaggerated scales on the toes leaving +their imprint. I was certain we should find that dress and those +boots among her effects; and--Mr. Narkom did. What I wrote on that +pretended telegram was for him to slip away into the house proper +and search every trunk and cupboard for them. Pardon? No, I don't +think they really had any idea of incriminating Sir Ralph Droger. +That thought came into the fellow's mind when you stepped out and +caught him stealing away after the murder had been committed. No +doubt he, like you, had seen Sir Ralph practising for the sports, +and he simply made capital of it. The main idea was to kill his +father and to destroy the will; and of course, when it became +apparent that the old gentleman had died intestate, even a discarded +son must inherit. Where he made his blunder, however, was in his +haste to practise his ventriloquial accomplishment to prevent your +going into the Round House and discovering that his father was +already dead. He ought to have waited until you had spoken, so +that it would appear natural for the old man to know, without +turning, who it was that had opened the door. That is what put me +on the track of him. Until that moment I hadn't the slightest +suspicion where he was nor under what guise he was hiding. Of +course I had a vague suspicion, even before I came and saw her, that +'the cook' was in it. Her readiness in inventing a fictitious +gypsy with a bear's muzzle, coupled with what Nippers had told me of +the animal marks she had pointed out, looked a bit fishy; but +until I actually met her nothing really tangible began to take +shape in my thoughts. That's all, I think. And now, good-night +and good luck to you, Miss Renfrew. The riddle is solved; and Mr. +Narkom and I must be getting back to the wilderness and to our +ground-floor beds in the hotel of the beautiful stars!" + +Here, as if some spirit of nervous unrest had suddenly beset him, +he turned round on his heel, motioned the superintendent to follow, +and brushing by the awed and staring Mr. Ephraim Nippers, whisked +open the door and passed briskly out into the hush and darkness of +the night. + +The footpath which led through the grounds to the gate and thence +to the long lonely way back to Dollops and the caravan lay before +him. He swung into it with a curious sort of energy and forged away +from the house at such speed that Narkom's short, fat legs were hard +put to it to catch up with him before he came to the path's end. + +"My dear chap, are you going into training for a match with that Sir +Ralph What's-his-name of whom Miss Renfrew spoke?" he wheezed when +he finally overtook him. "You long, lean beggars are the very old +boy for covering the ground. But wait until you get to be _my_ age, +by James!" + +"Perhaps I shan't. Perhaps they won't let me!" threw back Cleek, +in a voice curiously blurred, as if he spoke with his teeth hard +shut. "Donkeys do die, you know--that little bit of tommyrot about +the absence of their dead bodies to the contrary." + +"Meaning what, old chap?" + +"That I've been as big an ass as any of the thistle-eating kind that +ever walked. Gad! such an indiscretion! Such an example of pure +brainlessness! And the worst of it is that it's all due to my own +wretched vanity--my own miserable weakness for the theatrical and the +spectacular! It came to me suddenly--while I was standing there +explaining things to Miss Renfrew--and I could have kicked myself for +my folly." + +"Folly? What folly?" + +"'What folly?' What? Good heavens, man, use your wits! Isn't it +enough for me to be a blockhead without you entering the lists +along with me?" said Cleek, irritably. "Or, no! Forgive that, dear +friend. My nerves were speaking, not my heart. But in moments like +this--when we had built a safe bridge, and my own stupidity has +hacked it down--Faugh! I tell you I could kick myself. Didn't you +hear? Didn't you see?" + +"I saw that for some special reason you were suddenly obsessed with +a desire to get out of the house in the midst of your talking with +Miss Renfrew, if that's what you refer to--is it?" + +"Not altogether. It's part of it, however. But not the worst part, +unfortunately. It was at that moment then the recollection of my +indiscretion came to me and I realized what a dolt I had been--how +completely I had destroyed our splendid security, wrecked what +little still remains of this glorious holiday--when I couldn't let +'George Headland' have the centre of the stage, but needs must come +in like the hero of a melodrama and announce myself as Cleek. To +Nosworth and his wife! To Nippers! To all that gaping crowd! You +remember that incident, surely?" + +"Yes. Of course I do. But what of it?" + +"What of it? Man alive, with a chap like that Nippers, how long do +you suppose it will remain a secret that Cleek is in Yorkshire? +In the West Riding of it? In this particular locality? Travelling +about with Mr. Maverick Narkom in a caravan--a _caravan_ that can't +cover five miles of country in the time a train or a motor car is +able to get over fifty!" + +"Good lud! I never thought of that. But wait a bit. There's a way to +overcome that difficulty, of course. Stop here a minute or two and +I'll run back and pledge that Nippers fool to keep his mouth shut +about it. He'll give me his promise, _I_ know." + +"To be sure he will. But how long do you suppose he will keep it? +How long do you suppose that an empty-headed, gabbling old fool +like that fellow will refrain from increasing his own importance +in the neighbourhood by swaggering about and boasting of his +intimacy with the powers at Scotland Yard and--the rest of it? And +even if he shouldn't, what about the others? The gathering of +rustics that heard what he heard? The gamekeepers from the Droger +estate? The Nosworths, as well as they? Can their mouths, too, be +shut? They will not love me for this night's business, be sure. +Then, too, they have lived in Paris. The woman is French by birth. +Of Montmartre--of the Apache class, the Apache kind--and she +will know of the 'Cracksman,' be assured. So will her husband. +And they won't take their medicine lying down, believe me. An +accused man has the right to communicate with counsel, remember; +and a wire up to London will cost less than a shilling. So, as +between Margot's crew and our friend Count Waldemar--_la, la!_ +There you are." + +Mr. Narkom screwed up his face and said something under his breath. +He could not but follow this line of reasoning when the thing was +put before him so plainly. + +"And we had been so free from all worry over the beggars up to this!" +he said, savagely. "But to get a hint--to pick up the scent--out +here--in a wild bit of country like this! Cinnamon, it makes me +sweat! What do you propose to do?" + +"The only thing that's left us to do," gave back Cleek. "Get out of +it as quickly as possible and draw a red herring over the scent. In +other words, put back to Dollops, abandon the caravan, make our way +to some place where it is possible to telephone for the chap we hired +it from to send out and get it; then, to make tracks for home." + +"Yes, but why bother about telephoning, old chap? Why can't we drop +in ourselves and tell the man when we get back to Sheffield on our +way to London?" + +"Because we are not going back to Sheffield, my friend--not going +in for anything so silly as twice travelling over the same ground, +if it's all the same to you," replied Cleek, as he swung off from the +highway on to the dark, still moor and struck out for the place +where they had left Dollops and the caravan. "At best, we can't +be more than thirty miles from the boundary line of Cumberland. A +night's walking will cover that. There we can rest a while--at some +little out-of-the-way hostelry--then take a train over the Scottish +border and make for Dumfries. From that point on, the game is easy. +There are six trains a day leaving for St. Pancras and eight for +Euston. We can choose which we like, and a seven hours' ride will +land us in London without having once 'doubled on our tracks' or +crossed the route by which we came out of it." + +"By James! what a ripping idea," said Mr. Narkom approvingly. "Come +along then, old chap--let's get back to the boy and be about it as +soon as possible." Then he threw open his coat and waistcoat to get +the full benefit of the air before facing the ordeal, and, falling +into step with Cleek, struck out over the moor at so brisk a dog +trot that his short, fat legs seemed fairly to twinkle. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +By the side of the little chattering stream that flowed through +the bit of woodland where Mr. Nippers and his associates had come +upon them, they found Dollops, with his legs drawn up, his arms +folded across his knees and his forehead resting upon them, sleeping +serenely over the embers of a burnt-out fire. He was still "making +music," but of a kind which needed no assistance from a mouth +harmonica to produce it. + +They awoke him and told him of the sudden change in the programme +and of the need for haste in carrying it out. + +"Oh, so help me! Them Apaches, eh? And that foreign josser, Count +What's-his-name, too?" said he, rubbing his eyes and blinking +sleepily. "Right you are, guv'ner! Gimme two seconds to get the +cobwebs out of my thinking-box and I'm ready to face marching orders +as soon as you like. My hat! though, but this is a startler. I +can understand wot them Apache johnnies has got against you, sir, +of course; but wot that Mauravanian biscuit is getting after you +for beats me. Wot did you ever do to the blighter, guv'ner? Trip +him up in some little bit of crooked business, sir, and 'did him +down,' as the 'Mericans say?" + +"Something like that," returned Cleek. "Don't waste time in talking. +Simply get together such things as we shall need and let us be off +about our business as soon as possible." + +Dollops obeyed instructions upon both points--obeyed them, indeed, +with such alacrity that he shut up like an oyster forthwith, dived +into the caravan and bounced out again, and within five minutes +of the time he had been told of the necessity for starting, had +started, and was forging away with the others over the dark, still +moor and facing cheerily the prospect of a thirty-mile walk to +Cumberlandshire. + +All through the night they pressed onward thus--the two men walking +shoulder to shoulder and the boy at their heels--over vast stretches +of moorland where bracken and grass hung heavy and glittering +under their weight of dew; down the craggy sides of steep gullies +where the spring freshets had quickened mere trickles into noisy +water-splashes that spewed over the rocks, to fall into chuckling, +froth-filled pools below; along twisting paths; through the dark, +still woodland stretches, and thence out upon the wild, wet moor +again, with the wind in their faces and the sky all a-prickle +with steadily dimming stars. And by and by the mist-wrapped moon +dropped down out of sight, the worn-out night dwindled and died, +and steadily brightening Glory went blushing up the east to flower +the pathway for the footfalls of the Morning. + +But as yet the farthermost outposts of Cumberland were miles beyond +the range of vision, so that the long tramp was by no means ended, +and, feeling the necessity for covering as much ground as possible +while the world at large was still in what Dollops was wont to +allude to as "the arms of Murphy's house," the little party continued +to press onward persistently. + +By four o'clock they were again off the moors and in the depths of +craggy gorges; by five they were on the borders of a deep, still +tarn, and had called a halt to light a fire and get things out of +the bag which Dollops carried--things to eat and to drink and to +wear--and were enjoying a plunge in the ice-cold water the while +the coffee was boiling; and by six--gorged with food and soothed by +tobacco--they were lying sprawled out on the fragrant earth and +blinking drowsily while their boots were drying before the fire. And +after that there was a long hiatus until Cleek's voice rapped out +saying sharply, "Well, I'll be dashed! Rouse up there, you lazy +beggars. Do you know that it's half-past twelve and we've been +sleeping for hours?" + +They knew it then, be assured, and were up and on their way again +with as little delay as possible. Rested and refreshed, they made +such good time that two o'clock found them in the Morcam Abbey +district, just over the borders of Cumberland, and, with appetites +sharpened for luncheon, bearing down on a quaint little hostlery +whose signboard announced it as the Rose and Thistle. + +"Well, there's hospitality if you like," said Cleek, as, at their +approach, a cheery-faced landlady bobbed up at an open window and, +seeing them, bobbed away again and ran round to welcome them with +smiles and curtseys delivered from the arch of a vine-bowered door. + +"Welcome, gentlemen, welcome," beamed she as they came up and joined +her. "But however in the world did you manage to get over here +so soon?--the train not being due at Shepperton Old Cross until +five-and-twenty past one, and that a good mile and a quarter away as +the crow flies. However, better too early than too late--Major +Norcross and Lady Mary being already here and most anxious to meet +you." + +As it happened that neither Cleek nor Mr. Narkom had any personal +acquaintance with the lady and gentleman mentioned, it was so +clearly a case of mistaken identity that the superintendent had +it on the tip of his tongue to announce the fact, when there +clashed out the sound of a door opening and shutting rapidly, a +clatter of hasty footsteps along the passage, and presently there +came into view the figure of a bluff, hearty, florid-faced man of +about five-and-forty, who thrust the landlady aside and threw a +metaphorical bombshell by exclaiming excitedly: + +"My dear sir, I never was so delighted. Talk about English slowness. +Why, this is prompt enough to satisfy a Yankee. I never dispatched +my letter to you until late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Narkom, +and--by the way, which _is_ Mr. Narkom, and which that amazing Mr. +Cleek? Or, never mind--perhaps that clever johnnie will be coming +later; you can tell me all about that afterward. For the present, +come along. Let's not keep Lady Mary waiting--she's anxious. This +way, please." + +Here--as Mr. Narkom had lost no time in acknowledging his identity, +it being clear that no mistake had been made after all--here he +caught the superintendent by the arm, whisked him down the passage, +and throwing open the door at the end of it, announced excitedly, +"All right, Mary. The Yard's answered--the big reward's caught 'em, +as I knew it would--and here's Narkom. That chap Cleek will come +by a later train, no doubt." + +The response to this came from an unexpected quarter. Of a sudden +the man he had left standing at the outer door, under the impression +that he was in no way connected with the superintendent, but merely +a gentleman who had reached the inn at the same time, came down +the passage to the open door, brushed past him into the room, +and announced gravely, "Permit me to correct an error, please, +Major. The 'man Cleek' is not coming later--he is here, and very +much at your and Lady Mary Norcross' service, believe me. I have +long known the name of Major Seton Norcross as one which stands high +in the racing world--as that, indeed, of the gentleman who owns the +finest stud in the kingdom and whose filly, Highland Lassie, is +first favourite for the forthcoming Derby--and I now have the honour +of meeting the gentleman himself, it seems." + +The effect of this was somewhat disconcerting. For, as he concluded +it, he put out his hand and rested it upon Mr. Narkom's shoulder, +whereat Lady Mary half rose from her seat, only to sit down again +suddenly and look round at her liege lord with uplifted eyebrows +and lips slightly parted. Afterward she declared of the two men +standing side by side in that familiar manner: "One reminded me +of an actor trying to play the part of a person of distinction, and +the other of a person of distinction trying to play the part of an +ordinary actor and not quite able to keep what he really was from +showing through the veneer of what he was trying to be." + +The major, however, was too blunt to bottle up his sentiments at any +time, and being completely bowled over in the present instance put +them into bluff, outspoken, characteristic words. + +"Oh, gum games!" he blurted out. "If you really are Cleek----" + +"I really am. Mr. Narkom will stand sponsor for that." + +"But, good lud, man! Oh, look here, you know, this is all tommyrot! +What under God's heaven has brought a chap like you down to this sort +of thing?" + +"Opinions differ upon that score, Major," said Cleek quietly. "So far +from being 'brought down,' it is my good friend, Mr. Narkom here, +who has brought me _up_ to it--and made me his debtor for life." + +"Debtor nothing! Don't talk rubbish. As if it were possible for a +gentleman not to recognize a gentleman!" + +"It would not be so easy, I fear, if he were a good actor--and you +have just done me the compliment of indirectly telling me that I +must be one. It is very nice of you but--may we not let it go at +that? I fancy from what I hear that I, too, shall soon be in the +position to pay compliments, Major. I hear on every side that +Highland Lassie is sure to carry off the Derby--in fact that, +unless a miracle occurs, there'll be no horse 'in it' but her." + +Here both the major and his wife grew visibly excited. + +"Gad, sir!" exclaimed he, in a voice of deep despair. "I'm afraid +you will have to amend that statement so that it may read, 'unless +a miracle occurs there will be _every_ horse in it but her'--every +blessed one from Dawson-Blake's Tarantula, the second favourite, down +to the last 'also ran' of the lot." + +"Good heavens! The filly hasn't 'gone wrong' suddenly, has she?" + +"She's done more than 'gone wrong'--she's _gone altogether_! Some +beastly, low-lived cur of a horse thief broke into the stables the +night before last and stole her--stole her, sir, body and bones--and +there's not so much as a hoofprint to tell what became of her." + +"Well, I'm blest!" + +"Are you? B'gad, then, you're about the only one who knows about it +that is! For as if that wasn't bad enough, I've not only lost the +best filly in England but the best trainer as well: and the brute +that carried off the one got at the other at the same time, dash him!" + +"What do you mean by 'got at' the trainer, Major? Did the man take +a bribe and 'sell' you that way?" + +"What, Tom Farrow? Never in God's world! Not that kind of a chap, by +George! The man that offered Tom Farrow a bribe would spend the rest +of the week in bed--gad, yes! A more faithful chap never drew the +breath of life. God only knows when or how the thing happened, but +Farrow was found on the moor yesterday morning--quite unconscious +and at death's door. He had been bludgeoned in the most brutal +manner imaginable. Not only was his right arm broken, but his skull +was all but crushed in. There was concussion of the brain, of course. +Poor fellow, he can't speak a word, and the chances are that he +never will be able to do so again." + +"Bad business, that," declared Cleek, looking grave. "Any idea of +who may possibly have been the assailant? Local police picked up +anything in the nature of a clue?" + +"The local police know nothing whatsoever about it. I have not +reported the case to them." + +"Not reported----H'm! rather unusual course, that, to pursue, isn't +it? When a man has his place broken into, a valuable horse stolen, +and his trainer all but murdered, one would naturally suppose that +his first act would be to set the machinery of the law in motion +without an instant's delay. That is, unless----H'm! Yes! Just so." + +"What is 'just so'?" inquired the major eagerly. "You seem to have +hit upon some sort of an idea right at the start. Mind telling me +what it is?" + +"Certainly not. I could imagine that when a man keeps silent about +such a thing at such a time there is a possibility that he has a +faint idea of who the criminal may be and that he has excellent +reasons for not wishing the world at large to share that idea. In +other words, that he would sooner lose the value of the animal +fifty times over than have the crime brought home to the person +he suspects." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Lady Mary made a faint moaning sound. The major's face was a study. + +"I don't know whether you are a wizard or not, Mr. Cleek," he said, +after a moment; "but you have certainly hit upon the facts of the +matter. It is for that very reason that I have refrained from making +the affair public. It is bad enough that Lady Mary and I should have +our suspicions regarding the identity of the--er--person implicated +without letting others share them. There's Dawson-Blake for one. If +he knew, he'd move heaven and earth to ruin him." + +"Dawson-Blake?" repeated Cleek. "Pardon, but will that be the +particular Sir Gregory Dawson-Blake the millionaire brewer who +achieved a knighthood in the last 'Honours List' and whose horse, +Tarantula, is second favourite for the coming Derby?" + +"Yes, the very man. He is almost what you might call a neighbour +of ours, Mr. Cleek. His place, Castle Claverdale, is just over the +border line of Northumberland and about five miles distant from +Morcan Abbey. His stables are, if anything, superior to my own; and +we both use the intervening moorland as a training ground. Also, it +was Dawson-Blake's daughter that Lieutenant Chadwick played fast and +loose with. Jilted her, you know--threw her over at the eleventh +hour and married a chorus girl who had nothing to bless herself with +but a pretty face and a long line of lodging-house ancestry. Not +that Miss Dawson-Blake lost anything by getting rid of such a man +before she committed the folly of tying herself to him for life, +but her father never forgave Lieutenant Chadwick and would spend +a million for the satisfaction of putting him behind bars." + +"I see. And this Lieutenant Chadwick is--whom may I ask?" + +"The only son of my elder and only sister, Mr. Cleek," supplied Lady +Mary with a faint blush. "She committed the folly of marrying +her music master when I was but a little girl, and my father died +without ever looking at her again. Subsequently, her husband deserted +her and went--she never learnt where, to the day of her death. +While she lived, however, both my brother, Lord Chevelmere, and +I saw that she never wanted for anything. We also supplied the +means to put her son through Sandhurst after we had put him +through college, and hoped that he would repay us by achieving +honour and distinction. It was a vain hope. He achieved nothing but +disgrace. Shortly after his deplorable marriage with the theatrical +person for whom he threw over Miss Dawson-Blake--and who in turn +threw him over when she discovered what a useless encumbrance he +was--he was cashiered from the army, and has ever since been a +hanger-on at race meetings--the consort of touts, billiard markers, +card sharpers, and people of that sort. I had not seen him for six +years, when he turned up suddenly in this neighbourhood three days +ago and endeavoured to scrape acquaintance with one of the Abbey +grooms." + +"And under an assumed name, Mr. Cleek," supplemented the major +somewhat excitedly. "He was calling himself John Clark and was +trying to wheedle information regarding Highland Lassie out of my +stable-boys. Fortunately, Lady Mary caught sight of him without +being seen, and at once gave orders that he was to be turned off +the premises, and never allowed to come near them again. He was +known, however, to be in this neighbourhood up to dusk on the +following evening, but he has never been seen since Highland +Lassie disappeared. You know now, perhaps, why I have elected to +conduct everything connected with this affair with the utmost +secrecy. Little as we desire to be in any way associated with +such a man, we cannot but remember that he is connected with us +by ties of blood, and unless Farrow dies of his injuries--which God +forbid! we will hush the thing up, cost what it may. All that I +want is to get the animal back--not to punish the man: if, indeed, +he be the guilty party; for there is really no actual proof of that. +But if Dawson-Blake knew, it would be different. He would move +heaven and earth to get the convict's 'broad arrow' on him and to +bring disgrace upon everybody connected with the man." + +"H'm, I see!" said Cleek, puckering up his brows and thoughtfully +stroking his chin. "So that, naturally, there is--with this added to +the rivalry of the two horses--no very good blood existing between +Sir Gregory Dawson-Blake and yourself?" + +"No, there is not. If, apart from these things, Mr. Cleek, you want +my private opinion of the man, it can be summed up in the word +'Bounder.' There is not one instinct of the gentleman about him. +He is simply a vulgar, money-gilded, low-minded cad, and I wouldn't +put it beyond him to be mixed up in this disappearance of the filly +himself but that I know Chadwick was about the place; and for there +to be anything between Chadwick and him is as impossible as it is for +the two poles to come together, or for oil to assimilate with water. +That is the one thing in this world that Dawson-Blake would not +do under any circumstances whatsoever. Beyond that, I put nothing +beneath the man--nothing too despicable for him to attempt in the +effort to gain his own end and aim. He races not for the sport of +the thing, but for the publicity, the glory of getting talked +about, and of making the vulgar stare. He wants the blue ribbon of +the turf for the simple fame of the thing; and he'd _buy_ it if +buying it were possible, and either bribes or trickery could carry +off the race." + +"H'm! That's a sweeping assertion, Major." + +"But made upon a basis of absolute fact, Mr. Cleek. He has twice +endeavoured to buy Farrow to desert me by an offer of double wages +and a pension; and, failing that, only last week he offered my +jockey £10,000 cash on the nail to slip off over to France on the +night before Derby Day, and promised him a further five thousand +if Tarantula carried off the race." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, in two different tones; and with a look of +supremest contempt. "So our Tinplate Knight is that sort of a +sportsman, is he, the cad? And having failed to get hold of the +_rider_----H'm! Yes. It is possible--perhaps. Chadwick's turning up +at such a time might be a mere coincidence--a mere tout's trick to +get inside information beforehand, or----Well, you never can tell. +Suppose, Major, you give me the facts from the beginning. When +was the animal's loss discovered--and how? Let me have the full +particulars, please." + +The major sighed and dropped heavily into a chair. + +"For an affair of such far-reaching consequences, Mr. Cleek," he said +gloomily, "it is singularly bald of what might be called details, I +am afraid; and beyond what I have already told you there is really +very little more to tell. When or how the deed was committed, it +is impossible to decide beyond the indefinite statement that it +happened the night before last, at some time after half-past nine +in the evening, when the stable-boy, Dewlish, before going home, +carried a pail of water at Farrow's request into the building where +Highland Lassie's stall is located, and five o'clock the next +morning when Captain MacTavish strolled into the stables and found +the mare missing." + +"A moment, please. Who is Captain MacTavish? And why should the +gentleman be strolling about the Abbey stable-yard at five o'clock in +the morning?" + +"Both questions can be answered in a few words. Captain MacTavish +is a friend who is stopping with us. He is a somewhat famous +naturalist. Writes articles and stories on bird and animal life +for the magazines. It is his habit to be up and out hunting for +'specimens' and things of that sort every morning just about dawn. +At five he always crosses the stable yard on his way to the dairy +where he goes for a glass of fresh milk before breakfast." + +"I see. Captain a young man or an old one?" + +"Oh, young, of course. About two or three and thirty, I should say. +Brother of a deceased army pal of mine. Been stopping with us for +the past two months. Very brilliant and very handsome chap--universal +favourite wherever he goes." + +"Thanks. Now just one more question before you proceed, please: +About the trainer Farrow getting the stable-boy to carry in that +pail of water. Would not that be a trifle unusual at such a time +of the night?" + +"I don't know. Yes--perhaps it would. I never looked at it in that +light before." + +"Very likely not. Stables would be closed and all the grooms, et +cetera, off duty for the night at that hour, would they not?" + +"Yes. That is, unless Farrow had reason for asking one of them to +help him with something. That's what he did, by the way, with the +boy, Dewlish." + +"Just so. Any idea what he wanted with that pail of water at that +hour of the night? He couldn't be going to 'water' one of the horses, +of course, and it is hardly likely that he intended to take on a +stableman's duties and wash up the place." + +"Oh, gravy--no! He's a trainer, not a slosh-bucket. I pay him +eighteen hundred a year and give him a cottage besides." + +"Married man or a single one?" + +"Single. A widower. About forty. Lost his wife two years ago. Rather +thought he was going to take another one shortly, from the way things +looked. But of late he and Maggie McFarland don't seem, for some +reason or another, to be hitting it off together so well as they did." + +"Who's Maggie McFarland, please?" + +"One of the dairymaids. A little Scotch girl from Nairn who came into +service at the Abbey about a twelvemonth ago." + +"H'm! I see. Then the filly isn't the only 'Highland Lassie' in the +case, it would seem. Pardon? Oh, nothing. Merely a weak attempt to +say something smart, that's all. Don't suppose that Maggie McFarland +could by any possibility throw light upon the subject of that pail +of water, do you, Major?" + +"Good lud, no! Of course she couldn't. What utter rot. But see +here--come to think of it now, perhaps _I_ can. It's as like as +not that he wanted it to wash himself with before he went over to +the shoer's at Shepperton Old Cross with Chocolate Maid. I forgot +to tell you, Mr. Cleek, that ever since Dawson-Blake made that +attempt to buy him off, Farrow became convinced that it wouldn't +be safe to leave Highland Lassie unguarded night or day for fear +of that cad's hirelings getting at her in some way or another, so he +closed up his cottage and came to live in the rooms over the filly's +stable, so as to be on the spot for whatever might or might not +happen at any hour. He also bought a yapping little Scotch terrier +that would bark if a match fell, and kept it chained up in the place +with him. When the discovery of the filly's disappearance was made +that dog was found still attached to its chain, but as dead as +Maria Martin. It had been poisoned. There was a bit of meat lying +beside the body and it was literally smothered in strychnine." + +"Quite so. Keep strychnine about the place for killing rats, I +suppose?" + +"Yes, of course. They are a perfect pest about the granary and the +fodder bins. But of course it wouldn't be lying round loose--a +deadly thing like that. Besides, there never was any kept in that +particular section of the stables, so the dog couldn't have got +hold of it by accident. Then there's another thing I ought to tell +you, Mr. Cleek: Highland Lassie never was stabled with the rest of +the stud. We have always kept her in one especial stable. There +are just two whacking big box stalls in the place. She occupies +one and Chocolate Maid the other. Chocolate Maid is Lady Mary's +personal property--a fine, blooded filly that will make a name +for herself one of these days, I fancy. Dark-coated and smooth as a +piece of sealskin, the beauty. To-day she is the only animal in +that unlucky place. Yes, come to think of it, Mr. Cleek," he added +with a sort of sigh, "that is probably what the poor fellow wanted +the pail of water for: to wash up and ride her over to the forge +at Shepperton Old Cross." + +"Singular time to choose for such a proceeding, wasn't it, Major? +After half-past nine o'clock at night." + +"It would be if it were any other man and under any other +circumstances. But remember! It is but three weeks to Derby Day and +every hour of daylight is worth so much gold to us. Farrow knew +that he could not spare a moment of it for any purpose; and he is +most particular over the shoeing. Will see it done himself and +direct the operation personally. Sort of mania with him. Wouldn't +let the best man that ever lived take one of the horses over for +him. Go himself, no matter what inconvenience it put him to. Farrier +at Shepperton Old Cross knows his little 'fads and fancies' and +humours them at all times. Would open the forge and fire up for him +if it were two o'clock in the morning." + +"I see. And did he take Chocolate Maid over there on that night, +after all?" + +"Yes. Lady Mary and I attended a whist drive at Farmingdale Priory +that evening; but her ladyship was taken with a violent headache +and we had to excuse ourselves and leave early. It would be about +a quarter to eleven o'clock when we returned to the Abbey and met +Farrow riding out through the gates on Chocolate Maid. We stopped and +spoke to him. He was then going over to the shoer's with the mare." + +"How long would it take him to make the journey?" + +"Oh, about five-and-twenty minutes--maybe half an hour: certainly +not more." + +"So then it would be about quarter-past eleven when he arrived at +the farrier's? I see. Any idea at what time he got back?" + +"Not the ghost of one. In fact, we should never have known that he +ever did get back--for nobody heard a sound of his return the whole +night long--were it not that when Captain MacTavish crossed the +stable-yard at five o'clock in the morning and, seeing the door ajar, +looked in, he found Chocolate Maid standing in her stall, the dog +dead, and Highland Lassie gone. Of course, Chocolate Maid being +there after we had passed Farrow on the road with her was proof +that he did return at some hour of the night, you know: though when +it was, or why he should have gone out again, heaven alone knows. +Personally, you know, I am of the opinion that Highland Lassie +was stolen while he was absent; that, on returning he discovered the +robbery and, following the trail, went out after the robbers, and, +coming up with them, got his terrible injuries that way." + +"H'm! Yes! I don't think! What 'trail' was he to find, please, when +you just now told me that there wasn't so much as a hoofprint to +tell the tale? Or was that an error?" + +"No, it wasn't. The entire stable-yard is paved with red tiles, and +we've had such an uncommon spell of dry weather lately that the +earth of the surrounding country is baked as hard as a brickbat. +An elephant couldn't make a footmark upon it, much less a horse. +But, gravy, man! instead of making the thing clearer, I'm blest if +you're not adding gloom to darkness, and rendering it more mysterious +than ever. What under the four corners of heaven could Farrow have +followed, then, if the 'trail' is to be eliminated entirely?" + +"Maybe his own inclination, Major--maybe nothing at all," said Cleek, +enigmatically. "If your little theory of his returning and finding +Highland Lassie stolen were a thing that would hold water I am +inclined to think that Mr. Tom Farrow would have raised an alarm +that you could hear for half a mile, and that if he had started out +after the robbers he would have done so with a goodly force of +followers at his heels and with all the lanterns and torches that +could be raked and scraped together." + +"Good lud, yes! of course he would. I never thought of that. Did +you, Mary? His whole heart and soul were bound up in the animal. If +he had thought that anything had happened to her, if he had known +that she was gone, a pitful of raging devils would have been spirits +of meekness beside him. Man alive, you make my head whiz. For him +to go off over the moor without word or cry at such a time----I say, +Mr. Cleek! For God's sake, what do you make of such a thing as that +at such a time, eh?" + +"Well, Major," replied Cleek, "I hate to destroy any man's illusions +and to besmirch any man's reputation, but--_que voulez vous_? If Mr. +Tom Farrow went out upon that moor after the mare was stolen, and +went without giving an alarm or saying a word to anybody, then in my +private opinion your precious trainer is nothing in the world but a +precious double-faced, double-dealing, dishonourable blackguard, who +treacherously sold you to the enemy and got just what he deserved +by way of payment." + +Major Norcross made no reply. He simply screwed up his lips until +they were a mere pucker of little creases, and looked round at his +wife with something of the pain and hopeless bewilderment of an +unjustly scolded child. + +"You know, Seton, it was what Captain MacTavish suggested," ventured +she, gently and regretfully. "And when two men of intellect----" Then +she sighed and let the rest go by default. + +"Demmit, Mary, you don't mean to suggest that I haven't any, do you?" + +"No, dear; but----" + +"Buts be blowed! Don't you think I know a man when I run foul of +him? And if ever there was a square-dealing, honest chap on this +earth----Look here, Mr. Cleek. Gad! you may be a bright chap and all +that, but you'll have to give me something a blessed sight stronger +than mere suspicion before you can make me believe a thing like that +about Tom Farrow." + +"I am not endeavouring to make you believe it, Major. I am merely +showing you what would certainly be the absolute truth of the matter +_if_ Tom Farrow had done what you suggested, and gone out on that +moor alone and without a word or a cry when he discovered that +the animal was stolen. But, my dear sir, I incline to the belief that +he never did go out there after any person or any living thing +whatsoever." + +"Then, dash it, sir, how in thunder are you going to explain his +being there at all?" + +"By the simple process, Major, of suggesting that he was on his way +back to the Abbey at the time he encountered his unknown assailant. +In other words, that he had not only never returned to the place +after you and her ladyship saw him leaving it at a quarter to eleven, +but was never permitted to do so." + +"Oh, come, I say! That's laying it on too thick. How the dickens can +you be sure of such a thing as that?" + +"I'm not. I am merely laying before you the only two things possible +to explain his presence there. One or the other of them is the plain +and absolute truth. If the man went out there _after_ the filly was +stolen he is a scoundrel and a liar. If he is innocent, he met with +his injuries on the way back to his quarters above Highland Lassie's +stall." + +"But the other animal? But Chocolate Maid? How could she have got +back to the stable, then? She couldn't have found her way back alone +after Farrow was assaulted--at least, she could, of course, but +not in the condition she was in when found next morning. She had no +harness of any sort upon her. Her saddle was on its peg. She was in +her box--tied up, b'gad! and the door of the box was closed and +bolted; so that if by any chance----Hullo! I say! What on earth are +you smiling in that queer way for? Hang it, man! do you believe +that I don't know what I'm talking about?" + +"Oh, yes, Major. It isn't that kind of a smile. I have just +discovered that four and four make eight when you add them up +properly; and the smile is one of consequent satisfaction. A last +question, please. At what time in the morning was Farrow found +lying unconscious upon the moor?" + +"Somewhere between six and seven o'clock. Why?"---- + +"Oh, nothing in particular. Who found him? Captain MacTavish?" + +"No. Maggie McFarland. She was just coming back from milking +when----Hang it, man! I wish you wouldn't smile all up one side of +your face in that confounded manner. It makes me think that you +must have something up your sleeve." + +"Well, if I have, Major, suppose you drive me over to the stables +and give me a chance to take it out?" suggested Cleek, serenely. "A +little 'poking about' sometimes does wonders, and a half hour in +Highland Lassie's quarters may pick the puzzle to pieces a great deal +sooner than you'd believe. Or, stop! Perhaps, on second thought, it +will be better for you and her ladyship to go on ahead, as I shall +want to have a look at Tom Farrow's injuries as well, so it will be +best to have everything prepared in advance, in order to save time. +No doubt Mr. Narkom and I can get a conveyance of some sort here. +At any rate--h'm! it is now a quarter to three, I see--at any +rate, you may certainly expect us at quarter-past five. You and +her ladyship may go back quite openly, Major. There will be no +need to attempt to throw dust in Sir Gregory Dawson-Blake's eyes +any longer by keeping the disappearance of the animal a secret. +If he's had a hand in her spiriting away, he knows, of course, that +she's gone; but if he hasn't--oh, well, I fancy I know who did, and +that she will be in the running on Derby Day after all. A few +minutes in Highland Lassie's stable will settle that, I feel sure. +Your ladyship, my compliments. Major, good afternoon. I hope if +night overtakes us before we get at the bottom of the thing you can +manage to put us up at the Abbey until to-morrow that we may be +on the spot to the last?" + +"With pleasure, Mr. Cleek," said Lady Mary; and bowed him out of the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +It was precisely ten minutes past five o'clock and the long-lingering +May twilight was but just beginning to gather when the spring cart +of the Rose and Thistle arrived at the Abbey stables, and Cleek +and Mr. Narkom descending therefrom found themselves the centre +of an interested group composed of the major and Lady Mary, the +countryside doctor, and Captain MacTavish. + +The captain, who had nothing Scottish about him but his name, was a +smiling, debonnaire gentleman with flaxen hair and a curling, fair +moustache; and Cleek, catching sight of him as he stood leaning, +in a carefully studied pose, against the stable door-post with one +foot crossed over the other, one hand in his trousers pocket and +the other swinging a hunting crop whose crook was a greyhound's +head wrought in solid silver, concluded that here was, perhaps, +the handsomest man of his day, and that, in certain sections of +society, he might be guaranteed to break hearts by the hundred. It +must be said of him, however, that he carried his manifold charms of +person with smooth serenity and perfect poise; that, if he realized +his own beauty, he gave no outward evidences of it. He was calm, +serene, well-bred, and had nothing of the "Doll" or the "Johnny" +element in either his bearing or his deportment. He was at once +splendidly composed and almost insolently bland. + +"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cleek. Read a great deal about you one +way and another," he said, when the major made the introduction--a +performance which the captain evidently considered superfluous as +between an army officer and a police detective. "Sorry I shan't be +able to remain and study your interesting methods, however. Should +have been rather pleased to do so, otherwise." + +"And I for my part should have been pleased to have you do so, +Captain, I assure you," replied Cleek, the first intonation of +his voice causing the captain to twitch up his head and stare at +him as if he were a monstrosity. "Shall you be leaving us, then, +before the investigation is concluded?" + +"Well, I'm blest! Why, how in the world--oh--er--yes. Obliged to +go. Wire from London this afternoon. Regiment sails for India in +two days. Beastly nuisance. Shall miss the Derby and all that. By +the way, Norcross, if this chap succeeds in finding the filly in +time for the race, that little bet of ours stands, of course?" + +"Of course," agreed the major. "Ready are you, Mr. Cleek? Right you +are--come along." And he forthwith led the way into the stable +where Chocolate Maid, like a perfect horse in French bronze, stood +munching hay in her box as contentedly as if there were no such +things in the world as touts and swindlers and horse thieves, and +her companion of two days ago still shared the quarters with her. + +"Gad! but she's a beauty and no mistake, Major," said Cleek as he +went over and, leaning across the low barrier of the enclosure, +patted the mare's shoulder and smoothed her glossy neck. "I don't +wonder that you and her ladyship have such high hopes for her future. +The creature seems well nigh perfect." + +"Yes, she is a pretty good bit of horseflesh," replied he, "but not +to be compared with Highland Lassie in speed, wind, or anything. +There _she_ is, Mr. Cleek; and it's as natural as life, the beauty!" + +Speaking, he waved his hand toward a framed picture of the missing +animal--a coloured gift plate which had been given away with the +Easter number of _The Horseman_, and which Farrow had had glazed +and hung just over her box. Cleek, following the direction of the +indicating hand, looked up and saw the counterfeit presentment of a +splendidly proportioned sorrel with a splash of white on the flank +and a white "stocking" on the left forefoot. + +"A beauty, as you say, Major," agreed he, "but do you know that I, +for my part, prefer the charms of Chocolate Maid? May be bad judgment +upon my part but--there you are. What a coat! What a colour! What +splendid legs, the beauty! Mind if I step in for a moment and have +a look at her?" + +The major did not, so he went in forthwith and proceeded to look +over the animal's points--feeling her legs, stroking her flanks, +examining her hoofs. And it was then and then only that the major +remembered about the visit to the farrier's over at Shepperton Old +Cross and began to understand that it was not all simple admiration +of the animal, this close examination of her. + +"Oh, by Jove! I say!" he blurted out as he made--with Cleek--a sudden +discovery; his face going first red and then very pale under the +emotions thus engendered. "She _hasn't_ any new shoes on, has she? So +she can't have been taken to the farrier's after all." + +"No," said Cleek, "she can't. I half suspected that she hadn't, +so--well, let it go. Let's have a look round Highland Lassie's box, +please. H'm! Yes! Very nice; very splendid--everything of the best +and all in apple pie order. By the way, Major, you surely don't allow +harness to be washed and oiled in here?" + +"Certainly not! What in the world could have put such an idea into +your head?" + +"Merely that bit of rag and that dirty sponge tucked in the corner +over there and half covered by the bedding." + +The major went over and touched the things with the toe of his boot. + +"It's one of those imps of stable-boys, the young vandals!" he +declared, as he kicked the rag and the sponge out of the box and +across the stable floor. "It's well for them that Farrow isn't about +or there would be some cuffed ears for that sort of presumption, +the young beggars! Hullo! Found something else?" + +"No," said Cleek. "That is, nothing of any importance. Merely a bit +torn from an old handbill--see? It probably got mixed up with the +bedding. It's of no account, anyhow." Here he gave his hand a flirt +as if flinging the bit of paper over the low barrier of the box, +instead of which he cleverly "palmed" it and afterward conveyed it +unsuspected to his pocket. "You were right in what you declared +this afternoon, Major; for a case of such far-reaching effects it +is singularly bald in the matter of detail. At all events there's no +more to be discovered here. By the way, Doctor, am I privileged to +go up and see the patient? I should like to do so if I may." + +"By all means, sir, by all means," replied the doctor. "I am happy +to inform you that his condition has considerably improved since +my visit at noon, Mr. Cleek, and I have now every hope that he may +pull through all right." + +"Excellent!" said Cleek. "But I think I shouldn't let that good news +go abroad just yet a while, Doctor. If you haven't taken anybody +into your confidence regarding it as yet, don't do so. You haven't, +have you?" + +"No. That is, nobody but those who are now present. I told the +major and her ladyship on their return this afternoon, of course. +And--naturally--Captain MacTavish. He was with me at the time I made +the examination, which led me to arrive at the conclusion that the +man would survive." + +"Ah!" said Cleek--and the curious, one-sided smile went slowly up his +cheek. "Oh, well, everything is all right among friends, of course, +but I shouldn't let it go any farther. And now, if you please, let us +go up to Farrow's room." + +They went up forthwith--Lady Mary alone refraining from joining the +group--and a moment or two later Cleek found himself standing beside +the bed of the unconscious trainer. + +He was a strong, sturdily built man, this Tom Farrow, upon whose +integrity the major banked so heavily in his warm, trustful, +outspoken way; and if the face is any index to the mind--which, in +nine cases out of ten, it isn't!--that trustfulness and confidence +were not misplaced. For Farrow's was a frank, open countenance which +suggested a clear conscience and an honest nature, even though it +was now pale and drawn with the lines that come of suffering and +injury. + +At Cleek's request the doctor removed the bandages and allowed him +to inspect the wound at the back of the head. + +"H'm! Made with a heavy implement shaped somewhat after the +fashion of a golf stick and almost as heavy as a sledge hammer," +he commented. "Arm broken, too. Probably that was done first, and +the man struck again after he was on the ground and unable to +defend himself. There are two blows, you see: this one just above the +ear, and that crushing one at the back of the head. That's all I +care to see, Doctor, thank you. You may replace the bandages." + +Nevertheless, although he asserted this, it was noticeable that his +examination of the stricken trainer did not end here; for while the +doctor was busy replacing the bandages he took the opportunity to +lift the man's hands and inspect them closely--parting the fingers +and looking at the thin, loose folds of skin between them. A few +minutes later, the bandages being replaced and the patient turned +over to the nurse in charge, the entire party left the room and filed +down the stairs together. + +"Any ideas, Mr. Cleek?" questioned the major, eagerly. + +"Yes, plenty of them," replied he. "I rather fancy we shall not have +to put you to the trouble of housing us at the Abbey to-night, Major. +The case is a shallower one than I fancied at first. Shouldn't be +surprised if we cleared it all up inside of the next two hours." + +"Well, I'll be--dithered!" exclaimed the major, aghast. "Do you mean +to tell me that you've got at the bottom of the thing? That you've +found something that leads you to suspect where the animal is?" + +"More than suspect, Major. I know where she is. By half-past seven +o'clock to-night--if you want me to make you a promise--I'll put her +bridle into your hands and she will be at the other end of it!" + +"You will?" + +"I certainly will, Major--my word for it." + +"Well, of all the dashed----I'm done! I'm winded! I'm simply +scooped dry! Where on earth did you get your clues, man? You +never did anything but walk about that I could see; and now to +declare----I say, MacTavish, did you hear that? Did you hear what he +has promised--eh?" + +"I heard," responded the captain with a laugh. "But I'll believe when +I see. I say, Mr. Inspector, where did you find the secret? Hidden +between Farrow's fingers or wrapped around Chocolate Maid's legs?" + +"Both," said Cleek serenely. "Tell you something else if you care +to hear it. I know who poisoned the dog the other night. Farrow did +it himself." + +The major's exclamation of indignation was quite lost in the peal of +the captain's laughter. + +"Hawkshaw out-Hawkshawed!" cried he derisively. "Find out that, too, +from Farrow's fingers?" + +"Oh, no--that would be impossible. He washed them before he went +out that night and they've been washed by the nurse several times +since. I found it out from the dog himself--and he's not the only dog +in this little business, believe me--though I'm willing to stake +my reputation and my life upon it that neither one nor the other +of them had any hand in spiriting away the missing horse." + +"Who did, then, Mr. Cleek? who did?" + +"Tom Farrow and Tom Farrow alone, Major," began Cleek--and then +stopped suddenly, interrupted by a painful circumstance. + +By this time they had reached the foot of the stairs and were filing +out into the stable again, and there by the open door Lady Mary +Norcross was standing endeavouring to soothe and to comfort a weeping +girl--Maggie McFarland, the dairymaid from Nairn. + +"Oh, but say he winna dee--say he winna!" she was crying out +distressfully. "If I thoct the sin o' that wad added to the sair +conscience o' me." Then with a sudden intaking of the breath, as if +drowning, and a sudden paleness that made her face seem ivory +white, she cowered away, with hands close shut, and eyes wide with +fright as she looked up and saw the gentlemen descending. + +"It winna matter--it winna matter: I can come again, my leddy!" she +said in a frightened sort of whisper which rose suddenly to a sort +of wailing cry as she faced round and ran like a thing pursued. + +Cleek glanced round quietly and looked at Captain MacTavish. He was +still his old handsome, debonnaire, smiling self; but there was a +look in his eyes which did not make them a very pleasant sight at +present. + +"Upon my word, Seton, I cannot make out what has come over that silly +girl," said Lady Mary as her liege lord appeared. "She came here +begging to be allowed to go up and see Farrow and to be assured that +he would live, and then the moment you all put in an appearance she +simply dashed away, as you saw. I really cannot understand what can +be the matter with her." + +"Don't bother about that just now, Mary; don't bother about anything, +my dear, but what this amazing man has promised," exclaimed the +major excitedly. "Do you know, he has declared that if we give him +until half-past seven to-night----" + +Here Cleek interrupted. + +"Your pardon, Major--I amend that," he said. "I know all about the +horse and it will not now take so long as I thought to know all about +the 'dog' as well. Give me one hour, Major--just one, gentlemen, +all--and I will give you the answer to the riddle--every part of it: +dog's part as well as horse's--here on this spot, so surely as I +am a living man. Major, all I ask of you is one thing. Let me have +a couple of your grooms out there on the moor inside of the next +fifteen minutes, please. May I have them?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Cleek--as many as you want." + +"Two will do, thanks. Two are enough for fair play in any little bout +and--not going to stop and see the finish, Captain? It will all be +over in an hour." + +"Sorry, but I've got my packing to attend to, my man." + +"Ah, to be sure. Oh, well, it doesn't matter. You know the proverb: +'If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, why, Mahomet must go to +the mountain,' of course," said Cleek. "I'll just slip round to the +dairy and have a glass of milk to brace me up for the business and +then--in one hour--in just one by the watch--you shall have the +answer to the riddle--_here_." + +Then, with a bow to Lady Mary, he walked out of the stable and went +round the angle of the building after Maggie McFarland. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +He lived up to the letter of his promise. + +In an hour he had said when he walked out, and it was an hour to the +very tick of the minute when he came back. + +Mr. Narkom knowing him so well, knowing how, in the final moments +of his _coups_, he was apt to become somewhat spectacular and +theatrical, looked for him to return with a flourish of trumpets +and carry all before him with a whirlwind rush; so that it came in +the nature of a great surprise, when with the calmness of a man +coming in to tea he entered the stable with a large stone bottle in +one hand and an hostler's sponge in the other. + +"Well, gentlemen, I am here, you see," he said with extreme calmness. +"And"--indicating the bottle--"have brought something with me to +do honour to the event. No, not to drink--it is hardly that sort +of stuff. It is Spirit of Wine, Major. I found it over in Farrow's +cottage and have brought it with me--as he, poor chap, meant to do +in time himself. There are some wonderful things in Tom Farrow's +cottage, Major; they will pay for looking into, I assure you. +Pardon, Mr. Narkom? A criminal? Oh, no, my friend--a martyr!" + +"A martyr?" + +"Yes, your ladyship; yes, Major--a martyr. A martyr to his love, a +martyr to his fidelity. As square a man and as faithful a trainer +as ever set foot in a stable-yard--that's Tom Farrow. I take off my +hat to him. The world can do with more of his kind." + +"But, my dear sir, you said that it was he that spirited away the +animal; that it was he and he alone who was responsible for her +disappearance." + +"Quite so--and I say it again. Gently, gently, Major--I'll come to +it in a minute. Personally I should like to put it off to the last, +it's such a fine thing for a finish, by Jove! But--well it can't be +done under the circumstances. In other words, there is a part of +this little business this evening which I must ask Lady Mary not to +stop to either hear or see; but as she is naturally interested in +the matter of Highland Lassie's disappearance I will take up that +matter first and ask her to kindly withdraw after the filly has +been restored." + +"Gad! you've found her, then? You've got her?" + +"Yes, Major, I've got her. And as I promised that I would put her +bridle into your hand with the animal herself at the other end of it, +why--here you are!" + +Speaking, he walked across to the box where the brown filly was +tethered, unbolted it, unfastened the animal and led her out. + +"Here you are, Major," he said, as he tendered him the halter. "Take +hold of her, the beauty; and may she carry off the Derby Stakes with +flying colours." + +"But, good lud, man, what on earth are you talking about? This is +Chocolate Maid--this is Lady Mary's horse." + +"Oh, no, Major, oh, no! Chocolate Maid is in the stable at Farrow's +cottage--hidden away and half starved, poor creature, because he +couldn't go back to feed and look after her. This is your bonny +Highland Lassie--dyed to look like the other and to throw possible +horse nobblers and thieves off the scent. If you doubt it, look here." + +He uncorked the bottle, poured some of the Spirit of Wine on the +sponge and rubbed the animal's brown flank. The dark colour came +away, the sorrel hide and the white splotch began to appear, and +before you could say Jack Robinson, the major and Lady Mary had +their arms about the animal's neck and were blubbing like a couple of +children. + +"Oh, my bully girl! Oh, my spiffing girl! Oh, Mary, isn't it +clinking, dear? The Lassie--the Highland Lassie--her own bonny self." + +"Yes, her own bonny self, Major," said Cleek "and you'd never have +had a moment's worry over her if that faithful fellow upstairs had +been suffered to get back here that night and to tell you about it in +the morning. I've had a little talk with--oh, well, somebody who is +in a position to give me information that corroborates my own +little 'shots' at the matter (I'll tell you all about that later +on), and so am able to tell you a thing or two that you ought to +have known before this! I don't know whether Lieutenant Chadwick's +coming here and prying about had any wish to do harm to the horse at +the back of it or not. I only know that Farrow thought it had, +and he played this little trick to block the game and to throw dust +into the eyes of anybody that attempted to get at her. What he did +then was to dye her so that she might be mistaken for Chocolate +Maid, then to take Chocolate Maid over to his own stable and hide +her there until the time came to start for Epsom. That's what he +wanted the pail of water for, Major--to mix the dye and to apply +it. I half suspected it from the beginning, but I became sure of it +when I found that scrap of paper in the bedding of the box. It +was still wet--a bit of the label from the dye-bottle which came off +in the operation. Between the poor chap's fingers I found stains of +the dye still remaining. Spirit of Wine would have removed it, but +washing in water wouldn't. Pardon, your ladyship? When did I begin +to suspect that Farrow was at the bottom of it? Oh, when first I +heard of the poisoned dog. Nobody ever heard it bark when the +poisoner approached the stables. That, of course, meant that the +person who administered the poison must have been some one with whom +it was familiar, and also some one who was already inside the +place, since even the first approaching step of friend or foe would +have called forth one solitary bark at least. Farrow didn't do the +thing by halves, you see. He meant it to look like a genuine case of +horse stealing to outsiders, and killing the dog gave it just that +touch of actuality which carries conviction. As for the rest--the +major must tell you that in private, your ladyship. The rest of this +little matter is for men alone." + +Lady Mary bowed and passed out into the fast coming dusk; and, in +the stable the major, Cleek and Narkom stood together, waiting until +she was well beyond earshot. + +"Now, Major, we will get down to brass tacks, as our American cousins +say," said Cleek, when that time at length came. "You would like to +know, I suppose, how poor Farrow came by his injuries and from whose +hand. Well, you shall. He was coming back from his cottage after +stabling the real Chocolate Maid there when the thing happened; +and he received those injuries for rushing to the defence of the +woman he loved, and attempting to thrash the blackguard who had +taken advantage of her trust and belief in him to spoil her life +forever. The woman was, of course, Maggie McFarland. The man was +your charming guest, Captain MacTavish!" + +"Good God! MacTavish? MacTavish?" + +"Yes, Major--the gallant captain who received such a sudden call to +rejoin his regiment as soon as he knew that Tom Farrow was likely to +recover and to speak. Perhaps you can understand now why Farrow and +the girl no longer seemed to 'hit it off together as formerly.' +The gallant captain had come upon the boards. Dazzled by the beauty +of him, tricked by the glib tongue of him, deluded into the belief +that she had actually 'caught a gentleman' and that he really meant +to make her his wife and take her away to India with him, when he +went, the silly, innocent, confiding little idiot became his victim +and threw over a good man's love for a handful of Dead Sea Fruit." + +"Never for one instant had Tom Farrow an idea of this; but the +night before last as he crossed the moor--he knew! In the darkness +he stumbled upon the truth. He heard her crying out to the fellow +to do her justice, to keep his word and make her the honest wife +he had promised that she should be, and he heard, too, the man's +characteristic reply. You can guess what happened, Major, when +you know Tom Farrow. In ten seconds he was up and at that fellow +like a mad bull. + +"The girl, terrified out of her life, screamed and ran away, seeing +the brave captain laying about him with his heavy, silver-headed +hunting crop as she fled. She never saw the end of the fight--she +never dared; but in the morning when there was no Tom Farrow to be +seen, she went out there on the moor and found him. She would have +spoken then had she dared, poor creature, but the man's threat was +an effective one. If she spoke he would do likewise. If she kept +silent she might go away and her disgrace be safely hidden. Which +she chose, we know." + +"The damned hound!" + +"Oh, no, Major, oh, no--that's too hard on hounds. The only houndlike +thing about that interesting gentleman was that he made an attempt +to 'get to cover' and to run away. I knew that he would--I knew that +that was his little dodge when he made that little excuse about +having to pack up his effects. He saw how the game was running +and he meant to slip the cable and clear out while he had the chance." + +"And you let him do it?--you never spoke a word, but let the +blackguard do it? Gad, sir, I'm ashamed of you!" + +"You needn't be, Major, on that score at least. Please remember that +I asked for a couple of grooms to be stationed on the moor. I gave +them their orders and then went on to Farrow's cottage alone. If they +have followed out those orders we shall soon see." + +Here he stepped to the door of the stable, put his two forefingers +between his lips and whistled shrilly. In half a minute more the two +grooms came into the stable, and between them the gallant captain, +tousled and rather dirty, and with his beautiful hair and moustache +awry. + +"Got him, my lads, I see," said Cleek. + +"Yes, sir. Nabbed him sneakin' out the back way like you thought he +would, sir, and bein' as you said it was the major's orders, we +copped him on the jump and have been holdin' of him for further +orders ever since." + +"Well, you can let him go now," said Cleek, serenely. "And just give +your attention to locking the door and lighting up. Major, Doctor, +Mr. Narkom, pray be seated. The dear captain is going to give you +all a little entertainment and the performance is about to begin. +As good with your fists as you are with a metal-headed hunting crop, +Captain?" + +"None of your dashed business what I'm good at," replied the captain. +"Look here, Norcross----" + +"You cut that at once!" roared the major. "If you open your head to +me, I'll bang it off you, you brute." + +"Well, then you, Mr. Policeman----" + +"Ready for you in a minute, Captain; don't get impatient," said +Cleek, as he laid aside his coat and began to roll up his sleeves. +"Rome wasn't built in a day--though beauty may be wrecked in a +minute. You'll have the time of your life this evening. You are +really too beautiful to live, Captain, and I'm going to come as near +to killing you as I know how without actually completing the job. +You see, that poor little Highland lassie hasn't a father or brother +to do this business for her, so she's kindly consented to my taking +it on in her behalf. I'm afraid I shall break that lovely nose +of yours, my gay gallant--and I don't give a damn if I do! A brute +that spoils a woman's life deserves to go through the world with +a mark to record it, and I'm going to put one on you to the best of +my ability. All seated, gentlemen? Right you are. Now then, Captain, +come on. Come on--you _swine_!" + + * * * * * + +It was twenty minutes later. + +Lady Mary Norcross--deep in the obligatory business of dressing for +dinner--had just taken up a powder puff and was assiduously dabbing +the back of her neck, when the door behind her opened softly and the +voice of her liege lord travelled across the breadth of the room, +saying: + +"Mary! May I come in a minute, dear? I just want to get my cheque +book out of your writing desk--that's all." + +"Yes, certainly. Come in by all means," gave back her ladyship. "I'm +quite alone. Springer has finished with me, and oh! Good heavens! +Seton! My dear, my _dear_!" + +"All right. Don't get frightened. It isn't mine. And it isn't his, +either--much of it. We've been having a little 'set to' at the +stable, and I got it hugging a policeman." + +"Seton!" + +"Yes--I know it's awful, but I simply couldn't help it. Demmit it, +Mary, don't look so shocked--I'd have _kissed_ the beggar as well, +if I thought I could acquire the trick of that heavenly 'jab with the +left' that way. I haven't had such a beautiful time since the day +I was twenty-one, darling; he fights like a blooming _angel_, that +chap." + +"What chap? What on earth are you talking about?" + +"That man Cleek. Weeping Widows! It was the prettiest job you ever +saw. We're sending the beggar over to the hospital--and----Tell you +all about it when I get back. Can't stop just now, dear. Bye, bye!" + +Then the door closed with a smack, and man and cheque book were on +their way downstairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +It is a recognized fact in police circles that crime has a curious +propensity for indulging in periodical outbursts of great energy, +great fecundity, and then lapsing into a more or less sporadic +condition for a time--like a gorged tiger that drowses, and stirs +only to lick its chops after a hideous feast. So that following the +lines of these fixed principles the recent spell of criminal activity +was succeeded by a sort of lull, and the next two weeks were idle +ones for Cleek. + +Idle but idyllic--from his point of view; for he was back in the +little house in the pleasant country lands now, with his walled +garden, his ferns and his flowers, and the full glory of tulip-time +was here. + +And soon another "glory" would be here as well. + +In twelve more days _she_ would be back in England. In twelve more +days he and Dollops would move out, and Ailsa Lorne would move in, +and this little Eden in the green and fragrant meadowlands would have +another tenant from that time forth. + +But hers would not be a lonely tenancy, however; for "Captain +Horatio Burdage" had recently written to Mrs. Condiment that, as the +Sleeping Mermaid seemed likely to prove an unprofitable investment +after all and to bring her little reward for her labours, he purposed +relinquishing it and recalling "Old Joseph" to him; and with that +end in view had already secured for the good lady a position as +companion-housekeeper to one Miss Ailsa Lorne, who, in the early +part of June, would call upon her at her present quarters and +personally conduct her and the deaf-and-dumb maid-of-all-work to +their future ones. + +Here, then, in this bower of bloom, would this dear girl of his +heart await the coming of that glorious day when the last act of +restitution had been made, the last Vanishing Cracksman debt wiped +off the slate, and he could go to her--clean-handed at last--to +ask the fulfilment of her promise. + +Remembering that, it was a sheer delight to be free from all Yard +calls for a time that he might give his whole attention to the work +of getting the place ready for her; and day after day he was busy in +the high-walled old-world garden--digging, planting, pruning--that +when she came it might be brimming over with flowers. + +But although he devoted himself mind and body to this task and +lived each day within the limits of that confining wall, he had +not wholly lost touch with the world at large, for each morning +the telephone--installed against the time of Ailsa's tenancy--put +him into communication with Mr. Narkom at the Yard, and each night +a newspaper carried in to him by Dollops kept him abreast of the +topics of the times. + +It was over that telephone he received the first assurance that his +haste in getting out of Yorkshire had not been an unnecessary +precaution, his suspicions regarding the probable action of the +Nosworths not ill grounded, for Mr. Narkom was able to inform +him that carefully made inquiries had elicited the intelligence +that, within two days after the Round House affair, men who were +undoubtedly foreigners were making diligent inquiries throughout +the West Riding regarding the whereabouts of two men and a boy +who had been travelling about in a two-horsed caravan. + +"That sudden bolt of ours was a jolly good move, old chap," said +the superintendent, when he made this announcement. "It did the +beggars absolutely. Shouldn't be a bit surprised if they'd chucked +the business as a bad job and gone back to the Continent disgusted. +At any rate, none of my plain-clothes men has seen hide nor hair of +one of the lot since, either in town or out. Waldemar, too, seems +to have hooked it and can't be traced; so I reckon we've seen the +last of him." + +But Cleek was not so sure of that. He had his own ideas as to what +this disappearance of the Apaches meant, and did not allow himself +to be lulled into any sense of security by it. There were more ways +than one in which to catch a weasel, he recollected, and determined +not to relax his precautions in the smallest iota when next the +Yard's call for his services should come. + +That it would come soon he felt convinced as the days advanced that +rounded out the end of his second week of freedom from it; and what +form it would take when it did come was a matter upon which he could +almost have staked his life, so sure he felt of it. + +For a time of great national excitement, great national indignation, +had arrived, and the press had made him acquainted with all the +circumstances connected therewith. As why not, when the whole country +was up in arms over it and every newspaper in the land headlined it +in double caps and poured forth the story in full detail? + +It had its genesis in something which had happened at Gosport in the +preceding week, and happened in this startling manner: + +In the waterway between Barrow Island and the extreme end of the +Royal Clarence Victualling Yard there had been found floating the +body of a man of about five-and-thirty years of age, fully and +fashionably clothed and having all those outward signs which betoken +a person of some standing. + +It was evident at once that death must have been the result of +accident, and that the victim had been unable to swim, for the hands +were encased in kid gloves, the coat was tightly buttoned, and a +pair of field-glasses in a leather case still hung from the long +shoulder-strap which supported the weight of them. The victim's +inability to swim was established by the fact that he had made +no effort to rid himself of these hampering conditions, and was +clinging tightly to a foot-long bit of driftwood, which he must +have clutched at as it floated by. + +It was surmised, therefore, that the man must have fallen into the +water in the dark--either from the foreshore or from some vessel +or small boat in which he was journeying at the time--and had been +carried away by the swift current and drowned without being missed, +the condition of the body clearly establishing the fact that it had +been in the water for something more than a fortnight when found. +Later it was identified by one of the deck hands of the pleasure +steamer which cruises round the Isle of Wight daily as being that +of a man he had seen aboard that vessel on one of its night trips to +Alum Bay between two and three weeks previously; and still later it +was discovered that a boatman in that locality had been hired to take +a gentleman from the Needles to a yacht "lying out to sea" that +selfsame night, and that the gentleman in question never turned up. + +What followed gave these two circumstances an appalling significance. +For when the body was carried to the mortuary, and its clothing +searched for possible clues to identification, there was found upon +it a sealed packet addressed simply "A. Steinmüller, Königstrasse +8," and inside that packet there were two unmounted photographs of +the exterior of Blockhouse Fort and the Southsea Fort, a more or less +accurate ground-plan drawing of the interior of the Portsmouth +Dockyard, together with certain secret information relative to +supplies and to the proposed armament of cruisers now undergoing +alteration and reëquipment. + +The wrath and amazement engendered by that discovery, however, were +as nothing compared with the one which so swiftly followed. + +Brought up before the Admiral Superintendent and the Board, John +Beachman, the dock master--who alone knew these things outside of the +Admiralty--was obliged to admit that one person, and one only--his +eldest son--was in a position to obtain admission to the safe in +which he kept his private papers, and that son was engaged to a young +lady whom he had met during a holiday tour on the Continent. + +"English or foreign?" he was asked; to which he replied that she +was English--or, at least, English by birth, although her late +father was a German. He had become naturalized before his death, +and was wholly in sympathy with the country of his adoption. He +did not die in it, however. Circumstances had caused him to visit +the United States, and he had been killed in one of the horrible +railway disasters for which that country was famous. It was because +the daughter was thus left orphaned, and was so soon to become +the wife of their son, that he and Mrs. Beachman had taken her +into their home in advance of the marriage. They did not think +it right that she should be left to live alone and unprotected, +considering what she was so soon to become to them; so they had +taken her into the home, and their son had arranged to sleep at an +hotel in Portsmouth pending the date of the wedding. The lady's +name was Hilmann--Miss Greta Hilmann. She was of extremely good +family, and quite well-to-do in her own right. She had never been +to Germany since the date of the engagement. She had relatives +there, however; one in particular--a Baron von Ziegelmundt and +his son Axel. The son had visited England twice--once many months +back, and the last time some seven or eight weeks ago. They liked +him very much--the bridegroom-elect especially so. They had become +very great friends indeed. No, Axel von Ziegelmundt was no longer in +England. He had left it something like a month ago. He was on a +pleasure trip round the world, he had heard, but had no idea where +he had gone when he left Portsmouth. + +Two hours after this statement was made, if the populace could have +got hold of young Harry Beachman it would have torn him to pieces; +for it was then discovered that the drowned man was no less a person +than this Herr Axel von Ziegelmundt, and that they had not only +spent the greater part of that particular day shut up in the former's +room in the Portsmouth hotel, but had been together up to the very +moment when the excursion steamer had started on its moonlight trip +to Alum Bay and to the bringing about of that providential accident +which had prevented the State affairs of an unsuspecting nation +from being betrayed to a secret foe. + +What followed was, in the face of this, of course, but natural. John +Beachman was suspended immediately, and his son's arrest ordered. +It served no purpose that he denied indignantly the charge of +being a traitor, and swore by every sacred thing that the hours +spent in his room at the hotel were passed in endeavouring to +master the intricacies of the difficult German card game, Skaat, +and that never in all their acquaintance had one word touching +upon the country or the country's affairs passed between Axel von +Ziegelmundt and himself, so help him God! It was in vain, also, that +Greta Hilmann--shouting hysterically her belief in him and begging +wildly that if he must be put into prison she might be taken with him +"and murdered when you murder him if he is to be court-martialled +and shot, you wretched blunderers!"--it was in vain that Greta +Hilmann clung to him and fought with all her woman's strength to +keep the guard from laying hands upon him or to tear her from his +side; the outraged country demanded him, and took him in spite of +all. Nor did it turn the current of sympathy in his direction that, +crazed when they tore him from her, this frantic creature had gone +from swoon to swoon until her senses left her entirely, and the end +was--tragedy. + +The full details were never forthcoming. The bare facts were that +she was carried back to Beachman's house in a state of hysteria +bordering close upon insanity, and that when, under orders from the +Admiralty, that house and all its contents were impounded pending +the fullest inquiry into the dock master's books and accounts, +the Admiral Superintendent and the appointed auditor entered into +possession, her condition was found to be so serious that it was +decided not to insist upon her removal for a day or two at least. +A nurse was procured from the naval hospital and put in charge of +her; but at some period during the fourth night of that nurse's +attendance--and when she, worn out by constant watching, slept in +her chair--the half-delirious patient arose, and, leaving a note +to say that life had lost all its brightness for her, and if they +cared to find her they might look for her in the sea, vanished +entirely. She could scarcely have hit upon a worse thing for the +evil repute of her lover's name or her own. For those who had never +known her personally were quick to assert that this was proof +enough of how the thing had been managed. In short, that she, +too, was a spy, and that she had adopted this subterfuge to get +back to Germany before the scent grew hot and the law could lay a +hand upon her. Those who had known her took a more merciful view so +far as she was concerned, but one which made things look all the +blacker for her lover. What could her desperation and her utter +giving up all hope even before the man was put on trial mean if +it was not that she knew he was guilty, knew he would never get off +with his life, and that her suicide was a tacit admission of this? + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Meanwhile public indignation ran high, the investigation of the dock +master's books, papers, and accounts proceeded _in camera_, and all +England waited breathlessly for the result to be made known. + +Thus matters stood when on Thursday night at half-past seven +o'clock--exactly one week after the discovery of that packet on the +body of the drowned man--an amazing thing happened, a thing which +smacked almost of magic, and put to shame all that had gone before +in the way of mystery, surprise, and terror. + +The wildest storm that had been known on that coast for years had +been raging steadily ever since daybreak and was raging still. A +howling wind, coming straight over the Channel from France, was +piling ink-black seas against an ink-black shore, and all the devils +of the pit seemed to be loose in the noisy darkness. + +In the suspended dock master's house the Admiral Superintendent, +Sir Charles Fordeck, together with his private secretary, Mr. Paul +Grimsdick, and the auditor, Mr. Alexander MacInery, who had been +continuing their investigations since morning, were now coming +within sight of the work's end--the only occupants of a locked and +guarded room, outside of which a sentry was posted, while round +about the house in the stormy outer darkness other guards patrolled +ceaselessly. Over the books Sir Charles and the auditor bent at +one end of the room; at the other Paul Grimsdick tapped on his +typewriter and made transcripts from the shorthand notes beside +him. It was at this instant, just when the clock on the mantel was +beginning to chime the half-hour after seven, that such a crash +of thunder ripped out of the heavens that the very earth seemed to +tremble with the force of it, and the three men fairly jumped in +their seats. + +"Gad! that was a stunner, if you like!" exclaimed Sir Charles with a +laugh. "Something went down that time, or I miss my guess." + +Something had "gone down"--gone down in black and white, too, at +that--and before another half-hour had passed the mystery and the +appalling nature of that something was made known to him and to his +two companions. + +The operator at the central telegraph office, sitting beside a +silent instrument with the key open deciphering a message which +a moment before had come through, jumped as they had jumped when +that crash of thunder sounded; then without hint or warning up +spoke the open instrument, beginning a sentence in the middle and +chopping it off before it was half done. + +"Hullo! that deflected something--crossed communication or I'm a +Dutchman!" he said, and bent over to "take it." In another moment he +got more of a shock than twenty thunderbolts could possibly have +given him. For, translated, that interrupted communication ran thus: + + "... and eight-inch guns. The floating conning tower's lateral + plates of ..." + +And there, as abruptly as it began, the communication left off. + +"Good God! There's another damned German spy at it!" exclaimed +the operator, jumping from his seat and grabbing for his hat. +"Gawdermity, Hawkins, take this instrument and watch for more. +Somebody's telegraphin' naval secrets from the dockyard, and the +storm's 'tapped' a wire somewhere and sent the message to us!" +Then he flung himself out into the storm and darkness and ran and +ran and ran. + +But the mystery of the thing was all the greater when the facts came +to be examined. For those two parts of sentences were found to be +verbatim copies of the shorthand notes which Mr. Paul Grimsdick +had just taken down. These notes had never left the sight of the +three men in the guarded room of that guarded house for so much +as one second since they were made. No one but they had passed +either in or out of that room during the whole seven days of the +inquiry. There was no telegraph instrument in the room--in the +house--or within any possible reach from it. Yet somebody in that +building--somebody who could only know the things by standing in +that room and copying them, for never once had they been spoken of +by word of mouth--some invisible, impalpable, superhuman body was +wiring State secrets from it. How? And to whom? + +Naturally, this state of affairs set the whole country by the ears +and evoked a panicky condition which was not lessened by the Press' +frothing and screaming. + +Thus matters stood on the evening of Wednesday, the twenty-second of +May, and thus they still stood on the morning of the twenty-third, +when the telephone rang and Dollops rushed into Cleek's bedroom +crying excitedly and disjointedly: + +"Mr. Narkom, sir. Ringing up from his own house. Wants you in a +hurry. National case, he says, and not a minute to lose." + +Cleek was out of bed and at the instrument in a winking; but he had +no more than spoken the customary "Hello!" into the receiver, when +the superintendent's voice cut in cyclonically and swept everything +before it in a small tornado of excited words. + +"Call of the Country, dear chap!" he cried. "That infernal dockyard +business at Portsmouth. Sir Charles Fordeck just sent through a call +for you. Rush like hell! Don't stop for anything! Train it over to +Guildford if you have to charter a special. Meet you there--in the +Portsmouth Road--with the limousine--at seven-thirty. We'll show +'em--by God, yes! Good-bye!" + +Then "click!" went the instrument as the communication was cut off, +and away went Cleek, like a gunshot, on a wild rush for his clothes. + +The sun was but just thrusting a crimson arc into view in the +transfigured east when he left the house--on a hard run; for part +at least of the way must be covered afoot, and the journey was +long--but by four o'clock it was almost as bright as midday, and the +possibility of securing a conveyance for the rest of the distance was +considerably increased by that fact; by five, he _had_ secured one, +and by seven he was in the Portsmouth Road at Guildford munching the +sandwiches Dollops had thoughtfully slipped into his pocket and +keeping a sharp lookout for the coming of the red limousine. + +It swung up over the rise of the road and came panting toward him at +a nerve-racking pace while it still lacked ten minutes of being the +appointed half-hour, and so wild was the speed at which Lennard, in +his furious interest, was making it travel that Cleek could think +of nothing to which to liken it but a red streak whizzing across a +background of leaf-green with splatters of mud flying about it and an +owl-eyed demon for pilot. + +It pulled up with a jerk when it came abreast of him, but so +great was Lennard's excitement, so deep seated his patriotic +interest in the business he had in hand, he seemed to begrudge +even the half-minute it took to get his man aboard; and before +you could have turned around twice the car was rocketing on again at +a demon's pace. + +"Gad! but he's full of it, the patriotic beggar!" said Cleek with +a laugh, as he found himself deposited in Narkom's lap instead of +on the seat beside him, so sudden was the car's start the instant +he was inside. "It might give our German friends pause, don't you +think, Mr. Narkom, if they could get an insight into the spirit of +the race as a fighting unit?" + +"It'll give 'em hell if they run up against it--make no blooming +error about that!" rapped out the superintendent too "hot in the +choler" to be choice of words. "It's a nasty little handful to fall +foul of when its temper is up; and this damned spy business, done +behind a mask of friendship in times of peace----Look here, Cleek! +If it comes to the point, just give me a gun with the rest. I'll +show the Government that I can lick something beside insurance stamps +for my country's good--by James, yes!" + +"Just so," said Cleek, with one of his curious, crooked smiles. +He was used to these little patriotic outbursts on the part of Mr. +Narkom whenever the German bogey was dragged out by the Press. "But +let us hope it will not come to that. It would be an embarrassment +of riches so far as our friends the editors are concerned, don't +you think, to have two wars on their hands at the same time? And +I see by papers that the long-threatened Mauravanian revolution +has broken out at last. In short, that our good friend Count Irma +has made his escape from Sulberga, put himself at the head of the +Insurgents, and is organizing a march on the capital----" + +Here he pulled himself up abruptly, as if remembering something, and, +before Mr. Narkom could put in a word, launched into the subject of +the case in hand and set him thinking and talking of other things. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +It had gone nine by all the reliable clocks in town when the wild +race to the coast came to an end, and after darting swallowlike +through the wind-swept streets of Portsmouth, the limousine, mud +splashed and disreputable, rushed up to the guarded entrance of the +suspended dock master's house at Portsea; and precisely one and a +quarter minutes thereafter Cleek stood in the presence of the three +men most deeply concerned in the clearing up of this mystifying +affair. + +He found Sir Charles Fordeck, a dignified and courtly gentleman +of polished manners and measured speech, although now, quite +naturally, labouring under a distress of mind which visibly disturbed +him. He found Mr. Paul Grimsdick, his secretary, a frank-faced, +straight-looking young Englishman of thirty; Mr. Alexander MacInery, +a stolid, unemotional Scotsman of middle age, with a huge knotted +forehead, eyebrows like young moustaches, and a face like a face of +granite; and he found, too, reason to believe that each of these +was, in his separate way, a man to inspire confidence and respect. + +"I can hardly express to you, Mr. Cleek, how glad I am to meet you +and to have you make this quick response to my appeal," said the +Admiral Superintendent, offering him a welcoming hand. "I feel +that if any man is likely to get to the bottom of this mysterious +business you are that man. And that you should get to the bottom +of it--quickly, at whatever cost, by whatever means--is a thing to be +desired not only in the nation's interest, but for the honour of +myself and my two colleagues." + +"I hardly think that your honour will be called into question, Sir +Charles," replied Cleek, liking him the better for the manliness +which prompted him in that hour of doubt and difficulty to lay aside +all questions of position, and by the word "colleague" lift his +secretary to the level of himself, so that they might be judged +upon a common plane as men, and men alone. "It would be a madman +indeed who would hint at anything approaching treason with regard +to Sir Charles Fordeck." + +"No madder than he who would hint it of either of these," said Sir +Charles, laying a hand upon the shoulder of the auditor and the +secretary, and placing himself between them. "I demand to be judged +by the same rule, set upon the same plane with them. We three alone +were in this house when that abominable thing happened; we three +alone had access to the records from which that information was +wired. It never, for so much as the fraction of one second, passed +out of our keeping or our sight; if it was wired at all it must +have been wired from this house, from that room, and in that case, +one or other of us must positively have been the person to do so. +Well, _I_ did not; MacInery did not; Grimsdick did not. And yet, +as you know, the 'wiring' was done--we should never stand a chance of +knowing to whom, nor by whom, but for the accident which deflected +the course of the message." + +"H'm! Yes! I don't think," commented Cleek reflectively. "It won't +wash, that theory; no, decidedly it won't wash. Pardon? Oh, no, +Sir Charles, I am not casting any doubt upon the telegraph operator's +statement of the manner in which he received the message; it is his +judgment that is at fault, not his veracity. Of course, there have +been cases--very rare ones, happily--of one wire automatically +tapping another through, as he suggested, there being a break and an +overlapping of the broken wire on to the sound one; but in the +present instance there isn't a ghost of a chance of such a thing +having happened. In other words, Sir Charles, it is as unsound in +theory as it is false in fact. Mr. Narkom has been telling me on the +way here that the operator accounted for the sudden starting of the +message to the falling of a storm-snapped wire upon an uninjured +one, and for its abrupt cessation to the slipping off of that broken +wire under the influence of the strong gale. Now, as we entered +the town and proceeded through it, I particularly noted the fact +that no broken wires were anywhere visible, nor was there sight or +sign of men being engaged in repairing one." + +"Ah, yes," agreed Sir Charles, a trifle dubiously, "that may be quite +so, Mr. Cleek; but, if you will pardon my suggesting it, is there +not the possibility of a flaw in your reasoning upon that point? +The wire in question may not have been located in that particular +district through which you were travelling." + +"I don't think there is any chance of my having made an error of that +sort, Sir Charles," replied Cleek, smiling. "Had I been likely to +do so, our friend the telegraph operator would have prevented it. He +recognized at once that the communication was coming over the +wire from the dockyard, I am told; and I have observed that every +one of the dockyard wires is intact. I fancy when we come down to +the bottom of it we shall discover that it was not the dockyard +wire which 'tapped' a message from some other, but that the dockyard +wire was being 'tapped' itself, and that the storm, causing a +momentary interruption in the carrying on of that 'tapping' process, +allowed a portion of the message to slip past and continue to the +wire's end--the telegraph office." + +"Good lud! Then in that case----" + +"In that case, Mr. Narkom, there can be no shadow of a doubt that +that message was sent by somebody in this house--and over the +dockyard's own private wire." + +"But how, Mr. Cleek--in the name of all that is wonderful, how?" + +"Ah, that is the point, Sir Charles. I think we need not go into +the matter of who is at the bottom of the whole affair, but confine +ourselves to the business of discovering how the thing was done, +and how much information has already gone out to the enemy. I fancy +we may set our minds at rest upon one point, however, namely, the +identity of the person whose hand supplied the drawing found upon +the body of the drowned man. That hand was a woman's; that woman, I +feel safe in saying, was Sophie Borovonski, professionally known +to the people of the underworld as 'La Tarantula.'" + +"I never heard of her, Mr. Cleek. Who is she?" + +"Probably the most beautiful, unscrupulous, reckless, dare-devil +spy in all Europe, Sir Charles. She is a Russian by birth, but owns +allegiance to no country and to no crown. Together with her depraved +brother Boris, and her equally desperate paramour, Nicolo Ferrand, +she forms one of the trio of paid bravos who for years have been at +the beck and call of any nation despicable enough to employ them; +always ready for any piece of treachery or dirty work, so long as +their price is paid--as cunning as serpents, as slippery as eels, as +clever as the devil himself, and as patient. We shall not go far +astray, gentlemen, if we assert that the lady's latest disguise was +that of Miss Greta Hilmann." + +"Good God! Young Beachman's fiancée?" + +"Exactly, Sir Charles. I should not be able to identify her from a +photograph were one obtainable, which I doubt--she is far too clever +for that sort of thing--but the evidence is conclusive enough to +satisfy me, at least, of the lady's identity." + +"But how--how?" + +"Mr. Narkom will tell you, Sir Charles, that from our time of +starting this morning to our arrival here we made but one stop. That +stop was at the Portsmouth mortuary before we appeared at this +house. I wished to see the body of the man who was drowned. I have no +hesitation, Sir Charles, in declaring that that man's name is +not, and never was, Axel von Ziegelmundt. The body is that of +Nicolo Ferrand, 'La Tarantula's' clever lover. The inference is +obvious. 'Miss Greta Hilmann's' anguish and despair were real +enough, believe me (that is why it deceived everybody so completely). +It is not, however, over the frightful position of young Beachman +that she sorrowed, but over the death of Ferrand. Had he lived, I +believe she has daring enough to have remained here and played her +part to the end, but she either lost her nerve and her mental +balance--which, by the way, is not in the least like her under any +circumstances whatsoever--or some other disaster of which we know +nothing overtook her and interfered with her carrying on the work +in conjunction with her brother." + +"Her brother?" + +"Yes. He would be sure to be about. They all three worked in concert. +Gad! if I'd only been here before the vixen slipped the leash--if I +only had! Let us have the elder Mr. Beachman in, if you please, Sir +Charles; there's a word or so I want to have with him. You've had +him summoned, of course!" + +"Yes, he and the telegraph operator as well; I thought you might +wish to question both," replied he. "Grimsdick, go--or, no! I'll go +myself. Beachman ought to know of this appalling thing; and it is +best that it should be broken by a friend." + +Speaking, he left the room, coming back a few minutes later in +company with the telegraph operator and the now almost hysterical +dock master. He waited not one second for introduction or permission +or anything else, that excited father, but rushed at Cleek and +caught him by the hand. + +"It's my boy and you're clearing him--God bless you!" he exclaimed, +catching Cleek's hand and wringing it with all his strength. "It +isn't in him to sell his country; I'd have killed him with my own +hand years ago, if I thought it was. But it wasn't--it never was! My +boy! my boy! my splendid, loyal boy!" + +"That's right, old chap, have it out. Here on my shoulder, if you +want to, daddy, and don't be ashamed of it!" said Cleek, and reached +round his arm over the man's shoulder and clapped him on the back. +"Let her go, and don't apologize because it's womanish. A man +without a strain of the woman in him somewhere isn't worth the +powder to blow him to perdition. We'll have him cleared, daddy--gad, +yes! And look here! When he is cleared you take him by the ear +and tell him to do his sweethearting in England, the young jackass, +and to let foreign beauties alone; they're not picking up with +young Englishmen of his position for nothing, especially if they +are reputed to have money of their own and to be connected with +titled families. If you can't make him realize that by gentle +means, take him into the garden and bang it into him--hard." + +"Thank you, sir; thank you! I can see it now, Mr. Cleek. Not much +use in shouting 'Rule Britannia' if you're going to ship on a foreign +craft, is there, sir? But anybody would have been taken in with +her--she seemed such a sweet, gentle little thing and had such +winning ways. And when she lost her father, the wife and I simply +couldn't help taking her to our hearts." + +"Quite so. Ever see that 'father,' Mr. Beachman?" + +"Yes, sir, once; the day before he sailed--or was supposed to have +sailed--for the States." + +"Short, thick-set man was he? Carried one shoulder a little lower +than the other, and had lost the top of a finger on the left hand?" + +"Yes, sir; the little finger. That's him to a T." + +"Boris Borovonski!" declared Cleek, glancing over at Sir Charles. +"No going to the States for that gentleman with a 'deal' like this on +hand. He'd be close by and in constant touch with her. Did she have +any friends in the town, Mr. Beachman?" + +"No, not one. She appeared to be of a very retiring disposition, and +made no acquaintances whatsoever. The only outside person I ever +knew her to take any interest in was a crippled girl who lived with +her bedridden mother and took in needlework. Greta heard of the case, +and went to visit them. Afterward she used to carry work to them +frequently, and sometimes fruit and flowers." + +"Ever see that bedridden woman or that cripple girl?" + +"No, sir, never. Harry and I would be busy here most of the days, +so she always went alone." + +"Did she ever ask Mrs. Beachman to accompany her?" + +"Not that I ever heard of, sir. But it would have been to no purpose +if she had. The wife is a very delicate woman; she rarely ever goes +anywhere." + +"Hum-m-m! I see! So, then, you really do not know if there actually +was a woman or a girl at all? Any idea where the persons were +supposed to live?" + +"Yes. They hired a room on the top floor of a house adjoining the +Ocean Billow Hotel, sir. At least, Reggie--that's my youngest son, +Mr. Cleek--saw Greta go in there and look down from one of the top +floor windows one day when he was on his way home from school. He +spoke to her about it at the dinner table that night, and she said +that that was where her 'pensioners lived.'" + +"Pretty good neighbourhood that, by Jove! for people who were +'pensioners' to be living in," commented Cleek. "The Ocean Billow +Hotel is a modern establishment--lifts, electric lights, liveried +attendants, and caters to people of substance and standing." + +"Yes," admitted Beachman. "When I was suspended, sir, during the +examination and this house taken over by Sir Charles, I took Mrs. +Beachman and Reggie there, and we have remained at the place, +nominally under guard, ever since. You see, being convenient and +in a straight line, so to speak, it offered extra advantages in +case of my being summoned here at a moment's notice." + +"H'm! Yes! I see!" said Cleek, stroking his chin. "In a straight +line from here, eh? House next door would, of course, offer the +same advantages; and from a room on the top floor a wire-tapping +device----Yes, just so! I think, Sophie, I think I smell a very +large mouse, my dear, and I shan't be surprised if we've hit upon the +place of reception for your messages the very first shot." + +"Messages, Mr. Cleek? Messages?" interposed Sir Charles. "You surely +do not mean to infer that the woman telegraphed messages from this +house? Do you forget, then, that there is no instrument, no wire, +attached to the place?" + +Cleek puckered up his brows. For the moment he had forgotten that +fact. + +"Still, there are wires passing over it, Sir Charles," he said +presently; "and if a means of communication with those were +established, the 'tapper' at the other end could receive messages +easily. She is a devil of ingenuity is Sophie. I wouldn't put it +beyond her and her confederates to have rigged up a transmitting +instrument of some sort which the woman could carry on her person +and attach to the wire when needed." + +Here Sir Charles threw in something which he felt to be in the nature +of a facer. + +"Quite so," he admitted. "But do not forget, Mr. Cleek, that the +deflected message was sent last night, and that the woman was not +then in this house." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +The queer little one-sided smile cocked up the corner of Cleek's +mouth. "Sure of that, Sir Charles?" he inquired placidly. "Sure that +she was not? I am told, it is true, that she left the note saying +she was going to drown herself, and disappeared four nights ago; I am +also told that since the date of Mr. Beachman's suspension this +place has been under constant guard night and day, but I have _not_ +been told, however, that any of the guards saw her leave the place. +No, no, no! Don't jump to conclusions so readily, gentlemen. She +will be out of it now,--out and never likely to return; the news of +that miscarried message would warn her that something was wrong, +and she would be 'up and out of it' like a darting swallow. The +question is, how and when did she get out? Let's have in the guard +and see." + +The sentries were brought in one after the other and questioned. At +no time since they were first put on guard, they declared--at _no +time_, either by day or by night--had any living creature entered +or left the house up to now, except the Admiral Superintendent, his +secretary, the auditor, and the nurse who had been summoned to look +after the stricken girl. To that they one and all were willing to +take solemn oath. + +There is an old French proverb which says: "He that protests too much +leads to the truth in spite of himself." It was the last man to be +called who did this. + +"No, sir, nobody passed, either in or out, I'll take my dying oath +to that," asserted he, his feelings riled up by the thought that this +constant questioning of his statement was a slur upon his devotion +to his duty. "There aren't nobody going to hint as I'm a slacker as +don't know what he's a-doing of, or a blessed mug that don't obey +orders; no, sir--no fear! Sir Charles's orders was, 'Nobody in or +out' and nobody in or out it was; my hat! yuss! Why, sir"--turning +to the dock master--"you must 'a' known; he must 'a' told you. I +wouldn't allow even young Master Reggie in last night when he came +a-pleading to be let in to get the school books he'd left behind." + +"When he _what_?" almost roared the dock master, fairly jumping. +"Good lord, Marshall, have you gone off your head? Do you mean to +claim that you saw my boy here--last night?" + +"Certainly, sir. Just after that awful clap of thunder it was--say +about eight or ten minutes after; and what with that and the darkness +and the way the wind was howling, I never see nor heard nothing +of him coming till I got to the door, and there he was--in them +light-coloured knickers and the pulled-down wideawake hat I'd seen +him wear dozens of times--with his coat collar turned up and a +drippin' umbrella over his head, making like he was going up the +steps to try and get in. 'Who's there?' as I sings to him, though I +needn't, for the little light was streaking out through the windows +showed me what he was wearing and who it was well enough. 'It's +me--Master Reggie, Marshall,' he says. 'I've come to get my school +books. I left 'em behind in the hurry, and father says he's sure +you'll let me go in and get 'em.' 'Oh, does he?' says I. 'Well, +I'm surprised at him and at you, too, Master Reggie, a-thinking I'd +go against orders. Word is that nobody gets in; and nobody _does_, +even the king hisself, till them orders is changed. So you just come +away from that door, and trot right away back to your pa,' I says to +him, 'and ask him from me what kind of a sentry he thinks Bill +Marshall is.' Which sets him a-snivelling and a-pleading till I +has to take him by the shoulder, and fair drag him away before I +could get him to go as he'd been told." + +"Well done, Sophie!" exclaimed Cleek. "Gad! what a creature of +resource the woman is, and what an actress she would make, the +vixen! No need to ask you if your son really did come over here +last night, Mr. Beachman; your surprise and indignation have answered +for you." + +"I should think it would, by George!" rapped out the dock master. +"What sort of an insane man must you have thought me, Marshall, to +credit such a thing as that? As if I'd have been likely to let a +delicate fifteen-year-old boy go out on an errand of any kind in a +beast of a storm like last night's, much less tell him that he was +to ask a sentry, _in my name_, to disobey his orders. Good God! +gentlemen, it's simply monstrous! Why, look here, Sir Charles; look +here, Mr. Cleek! Even if I'd been guilty of such a thing, and the +boy was willing to go out, he couldn't have done it to save his +life. The poor little chap met with an accident last night and he's +been in bed ever since. He was going down the stairs on his way to +dinner when that terrific clap of thunder came, and the blessed +thing startled him so much that, in the pitch darkness, he missed +his footing, fell clear to the bottom of the staircase, and broke +his collar bone." + +"Poor little lad! Too bad, too bad!" sympathized Sir Charles, +feelingly, and, possibly, would have said more but that Cleek's +voice broke in softly, but with a curiously sharp note underlying +its sleekness. + +"In the pitch darkness, Mr. Beachman?" it inquired. "The pitch +darkness of a public hotel _at dinner time_? Isn't that rather +extraordinary?" + +"It would be, under any other circumstances, sir, but that infernal +clap of thunder interfered in some way with the electric current, +and every blessed light in the hotel went smack out--whisk! like +that!--and left the place as black as a pocket. Everybody thought +for the moment that the wires must have fused, but it turned out +that there was nothing the matter with them--only that the current +had been interrupted for a bit--for the lights winked on again as +suddenly as they had winked out." + +"By Jupiter!" Cleek cracked out the two words like the snapping of a +whip lash, then quickly turned round on his heel and looked straight +and intently at the telegraph operator. + +"Speak up--quick!" he said in the sharp staccato of excitement. "I am +told that when that crash came and the diverted message began there +was a force that almost knocked you off your stool. Is that true?" + +"Yes, sir," the man replied, "perfectly true. It was something +terrific. The Lord only knows what it would have been if I'd been +touching the instrument." + +"You'd have been as dead as Julius Cæsar!" flung back Cleek. "No +wonder she cut away to see what was wrong, the vixen! No wonder the +lights went out! Mr. Narkom, the limousine--quick! Come along, Sir +Charles; come along, Mr. Beachman--come along at once!" + +"Where, Mr. Cleek--where?" + +"To the top floor of the house next door to the Ocean Billow Hotel, +Sir Charles, to see 'Miss Greta Hilmann's' precious pensioners," +he made answer, rather excitedly. "Unless I am wofully mistaken, +gentlemen, one part of this little riddle is already solved, and +the very elements have conspired to protect England to become her +foeman's executioner." + +He was not mistaken--not in any point with regard to that house and +the part it had played in this peculiar case--for, when they visited +it and demanded in the name of the law the right to enter and to +interview "the bedridden woman and the crippled girl who occupied the +top floor," they were met with the announcement that no such persons +dwelt there, nor had ever done so. + +"It is let to an invalid, it is true," the landlady, a motherly, +unsuspecting old soul, told them when they made the demand. "But +it is a gentleman, not a lady. A professional gentleman, I +believe--artist or sculptor, something of that sort--and never until +last night has anybody been with him but his niece, who makes +occasional calls. Last night, however, a nephew came--just for a +moment; indeed, it seemed to me that he had no more than gone +upstairs before he came down again and went out. Pardon? No, +nobody has called to-day, neither has the gentleman left his room. +But he often sleeps until late." + +He was sleeping forever this time. For when they came to mount +the stairs and force open the door of the room, there, under a +half-opened skylight, a dead man lay, one screwed-up, contracted +hand still clutching the end of a flex, which went up and out to the +telegraph wires overhead. On a table beside the body a fused and +utterly demolished telegraph instrument stood; and it was evident +from the scrap of flex still clinging to this that it had once +formed part of that which the dead hand held; that it had snapped +somehow, and that the man was attempting to re-attach it to the +instrument when death overtook him. + +"Gentlemen, the wire tapper--Boris Borovonski!" said Cleek, as he +bent over and looked at him. "Step here, Mr. Beachman, and tell me +if this is not the man who played the part of 'Miss Greta Hilmann's' +interesting papa." + +"Yes, yes!" declared the dock master excitedly, after he, too, had +bent over and looked into the dead face. "It is the very man, sir, +the very one! But who--but why--but how?" He then looked upward in +a puzzled way to where the flex went up and out through the skylight +and, threading through a maze of wires, hooked itself fast to one. + +"Electrocuted," said Cleek, answering that inquiring glance. "A few +thousand volts--a flash of flame through heart and head and limbs, +and then this! See his little game, Mr. Narkom? See it, do you, Sir +Charles? He was taking the message from the tapped wire with that +flex, and the fragment that reached the telegraph office only got +through when the flex snapped. The furious gale did that, no doubt, +whipping it away from its moorings, so to speak, and letting the +message flash on before he could prevent it. + +"Can't you read the rest when you look up and see that other +wire--the thick one with the insulated coating torn and frayed by +contact with the chimney's rough edge? It is not hard to reconstruct +the tragedy when one sees that. When the flex snapped he jumped up +and grabbed it, and was in the very act of again attaching it to the +instrument when he became his own executioner. Look for yourself. +The wild wind must either have blown the flex against the bared wire +of the electric light or the bared wire against the flex--that we +shall never know--and in the winking of an eye he was annihilated. + +"No wonder the lights in the hotel went out, Mr. Beachman. The whole +strength of the current was short-circuited through this man's body, +and it crumpled him up as a glove crumples when it is cast in the +fire. But the dead hand, which had recovered the broken flex, still +held it, you see, and no more of the 'tapped' message went down the +dockyard wire. So long as that message continued, so long as the +instrument which sent it continued to send it, it was 'received' +here--a mere silent, unrecorded, impotent thrill locked up in the +grip of a dead man's hand. + +"And look there--the pile of burnt paper beside the fused instrument +and the cinder of a matchbox against it. The force which obliterated +life in him infused it into the 'dipped' heads of those little wooden +sticks, and flashed them into flame. So long as there was anything +for that flame to feed upon it continued its work, you see, and +Sophie Borovonski found nothing to take away with her, after all. +Gentlemen, the State secrets that were stolen will remain England's +own--the records were burnt, and the dead cannot betray." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +It had gone two o'clock. The morning's work was done, a hasty +luncheon disposed of, and the investigators were back in the +dockmaster's house discussing the curious features of the case again. + +"And now, gentlemen," said Cleek, "to the unsolved part of the +riddle--the mysterious manner in which the messages were sent from +this house. For sent from here they undoubtedly were, and by Sophie +Borovonski; but the question of how still remains to be discovered." + +"I make it that it's the devil's own work, Mr. Cleek," said MacInery, +"and that there must have been some accident connected with it, the +same as with the taking off of the wire-tapping chap." + +"Hardly that, I'm afraid," replied Cleek. "I think it was accident +which put a _stop_ to the proceedings here, not one which created +them. We now know perfectly well that the woman was in this +house--undiscovered and unsuspected for days; and you may safely lay +your life that she wasn't idle, wasn't stopping here for nothing. +The pile of papers burnt shows very clearly that considerable +intelligence had been forwarded to her brother, so it is safe to +infer that she was wiring it to him constantly." + +"But how was it possible for her to obtain that information?" queried +Sir Charles. "I again declare to you most solemnly, Mr. Cleek, +that no one entered or left the room, that no word was spoken that +could be said to have any bearing upon secret matters, so nothing +could possibly be overheard; and how could the woman read documents +which were never out of our sight for a minute? Granted that she had +some means of wiring intelligence to her brother--indeed, we now +know that to have been the case--how under God's heaven did she +obtain that intelligence?" + +"Well, that's a facer, certainly, Sir Charles; but with such a +past-mistress of ingenuity as she--well, you never know. Sure she +couldn't possibly have managed to get into the room and hide herself +somewhere, you think?" + +"I am positive she couldn't. The thing isn't possible. There's no +place where she _could_ have hidden. Come in and see." + +He unlocked the door and, followed by the rest, led the way into the +room where the inquiry into the dockmaster's affairs had been held. A +glance about it was sufficient to corroborate Sir Charles's statement. + +On one side stood a large fireproof safe, closely locked; on the +other were two windows--iron-grilled and with inside shutters of +steel; at one end was a large flat-topped table, at which Sir Charles +and MacInery had conducted their investigation of the books, et +cetera, and at the other a smaller writing-table, upon which stood a +typewriter set on a sound-deadening square of felt, and over which +hung a white-disked electric bulb. There were five chairs, and not +another mortal thing. No cupboard, no wardrobe, no chest--nothing +under heaven in which a creature any bigger than a cat could have +hidden. + +"You see," said Sir Charles, with a wave of the hand, "she couldn't +have hidden in here, neither could she have hidden outside and +overheard, for nothing was said that could have been of any use +to her." + +"Quite confident of that?" + +"Oh, I can answer for that, Mr. Cleek," put in young Grimsdick. "We +were so careful upon that point that Sir Charles never dictated +even the smallest thing that he wanted recorded; merely passed over +the papers and said: 'Copy that where I have marked it'; and to +save my table from being overcrowded, I scratched down the marked +paragraphs in shorthand, and prepared to transcribe them on the +typewriter later. Why, sir, look here; the diabolical part of the +mystery is that those two fragments of sentences flashed out at the +telegraph office at the time of that frightful peal of thunder, +and at that very instant I was in the act of transcribing them on +the typewriter." + +"Hello! Hello!" rapped out Cleek, twitching round sharply. "Sure of +that, are you--absolutely sure?" + +"Beyond all question, Mr. Cleek. Sir Charles will tell you that +the thunder-clap was so violent and so sudden that both he and Mr. +MacInery fairly jumped. As for me, I was so startled that I struck a +wrong letter by mistake and had to rub out a word and type it over +again. Come and see. The paper is still on my table, and I can show +you the erasure and the alteration. Now, nobody could have seen that +paper, at that particular time; not a solitary word had been spoken +with regard to it, and it wasn't more than half a minute before +that Sir Charles himself had taken it out of the safe. Look, sir, +here's the paper and here's the place where I erased the word--see?" + +Cleek walked over to the typewriter and looked at the paper, saw the +erasure, lifted it, looked at other typed sheets lying under it, and +then knotted up his brows. + +"H'm!" he said reflectively, and looked farther. "You've got a +devilish hard touch for a man who does this sort of thing constantly, +and ought therefore to be an adept in the art of typewriting evenly. +And there are other errors and erasures. Look here, my friend, I +don't believe you're used to this machine." + +"No, sir, I'm not. I'm not accustomed to a shift key. My own machine +hasn't one." + +"Your own! By Gad! What are you using this machine for, then, if +you've got one of your own? And why didn't you bring your own when +you came here on important business like this?" + +"I did; but as we found this one already here I started in on it; +and when I found it difficult to work, I went out to get my own, +which I'd left in the outer room, just as I'd taken it from the +carrier who brought it over. But the careless beggar must have +handled it as if it were a trunk, for the spring was broken, the +carriage wouldn't work, and two of the type bars were snapped off." + +"By _Jupiter!_" Cleek's voice struck in so suddenly and with such +vehemence that it was almost a bark, like that of a startled terrier, +and Mr. Narkom, knowing the signs, fairly jumped at him. + +"You've found out something, _I_ know!" he cried. "What is it, old +chap--eh?" + +"Let me alone, let me alone!" flung back Cleek, irritably. "I want +the dockmaster! I want him at once! Where is the man? Oh, there you +are, Mr. Beachman. Speak up--quickly. Was that 'Hilmann' woman ever +allowed to enter this room? Did she ever make use of this typewriter +at any time?" + +"Yes, sir--often," he replied. "She was one of the best and most +careful typists I ever saw. Used to attend to all my correspondence +for me and----Good God, man, what are you doing? Don't you know that +that thing's Government property?" + +For Cleek, not waiting for him to finish what he was saying, had +suddenly laid hands on the machine, found it screwed fast to the +table and, catching up the nearest chair, was now smashing and +banging away at it with all his force. + +"Government destruction, you mean!" he gave back sharply. "Didn't +I tell you she was a very demon of ingenuity, stupid? Didn't I +say----Victory! Now then, look here--all of you! Here's a pretty +little contrivance, if you like." + +He had battered the typewriter from its fastenings and sent it +crashing to the floor, a wreck, not ten seconds before; now, his +hand, which, immediately thereafter, had been moving rapidly over the +surface of the sound-deadening square of felt beneath, whisked +that, too, from the table, and let them all see the discovery he +had made. + +Protruding from the surface of that table and set at regular +intervals there were forty-two needle points of steel--one for each +key of the typewriter--which a moment before had pierced the felt's +surface just sufficient to meet the bottom of the "key" above it, +and to be driven downward when that key was depressed. + +Spectacular as ever in these times, he faced about and gave his hand +an outward fling. + +"Gentlemen, the answer to the riddle," he said. "You have been +supplying her with the needed information yourselves. A ducat to +a door knob, every time a letter was struck on this machine its exact +duplicate was recorded somewhere else. Get a saw, Mr. Beachman, +and let us see to what these steel points lead." + +They led to a most ingenious contrivance, as it turned out. A highly +sensitive spiral spring attached to an "arm" of thin, tough steel +beneath the surface of the table communicated with a rigid wire +running down the wall behind one of that table's back legs and, +passing thence through a small gimlet-hole in the floor, descended +and disappeared. + +Following that wire's course, they, too, descended until, in the +fulness of time, the end was reached in a far corner of the cellar +underneath the building. + +There, behind an upturned empty cask, they came upon yet another +wire, which wound upward, and was found afterward to travel out and +up beside the "leader" until it joined the private wire of the +dockyard just outside the dormer window of what had once been Miss +Greta Hilmann's bedroom. And to these wires--the one descending and +the other ascending from behind that empty cask in the cellar--there +was a singular contrivance attached. To one, a plain, everyday +instrument for dispatching telegrams by the Morse system; to the +other, a curious little keyboard which was an exact counterpart +of the keyboard to the typewriter upstairs; and besides this there +lay some remnants of food from the store cupboard of the house, +and a sheaf of paper leaves covered with typewritten characters. + +"Gentlemen, the absolute end of the riddle at last," said Cleek +as he took up one of those leaves. "Look at them--Government +secrets every one. And I, like an ass, forgot to remember that Nicolo +Ferrand was one of the cleverest mechanicians and one of the +craftiest 'wire workers' that the underworld boasts. Look, Sir +Charles; look, Mr. Narkom. Every touch of a letter on the keyboard +of the typewriter upstairs registered its exact duplicate on this +infernal contrivance down here, and fast as it was recorded, that +vixen wired it on to Boris Borovonski. Can't you understand now +why she left her post and flew to him? The shock which killed him +and travelled with lessened force down the wire to the telegraph +operator was felt here, and the instrument she used was, in all +probability, disabled. She knew then, of course, that something +had happened to her brother, and in a panic flew to find out what. + +"But even the shrewdest slip up sometimes and overlook things. Her +foolish slip lay in this: that she forgot to take with her these +original drafts of the intelligence she had wired to the dead man." + +"Ah, weel," said Mr. Alexander MacInery, who, like a true Scotsman, +never liked to be found at the small end of the horn upon any +occasion, "after all, 'tis no more than I expected. I said it was +accident that was at the bottom of it, and accident it's turned out +to be." + +"No doubt," agreed Cleek, with one of his peculiar smiles. "But, +personally, I always like to think that there's a Power above, and +when men--_and_ nations--have played the game squarely----Shan't we +be going upstairs, Sir Charles? Mr. Narkom and I have a long ride +back to town, and the afternoon is on the decline." + +It was still farther on that road, however, before he was able to +actually tear himself away from the dockyard and be off home; for +there were those little legal necessities which are the penalty +of dealing with Government affairs to be attended to; there was +the boring business of meeting high officials, and listening to +compliments and congratulations, and he was really glad when the +limousine, answering to orders, rolled up, the final good-byes were +said, and he and Mr. Narkom swung off townward together. + +But despite the fact that he had just carried to a successful +conclusion a case which would go far to enhance his reputation and +to hasten the day for which he had so long and so earnestly worked, +Cleek was singularly uncommunicative, markedly abstracted, as they +rode back through the streets of Portsmouth Town on their way to +the highroad; and had the superintendent been more observant and +less wrapped up in the glory that was to be theirs as the result of +the day's adventure, he might have discovered that, while his +ally seemed to be dozing stupidly when he was not leaning back +in a corner and smoking, he was all the time keeping a close watch of +the crowded streets through which they were speeding as if looking +for some one or something he expected to see. Nor did he relax +this peculiar system of vigilance even after the town itself had +dropped away into the far distance, and the car was scudding along +over the broad stretches and the less-frequented thoroughfares of +the open country. + +"I shall not go all the way back with you, if you don't mind, Mr. +Narkom," he said, breaking silence abruptly, as they raced along. +"Just set me down at the place where you picked me up this morning, +please, and I will do the rest of the journey by train." + +"Cinnamon! Why?" + +"Oh, just a mere whim of mine, that's all. No--don't press me for an +explanation, please. 'Where ignorance is bliss,' et cetera. Besides, +I'm a whimsical beggar at best, you know--and who bothers to inquire +why a donkey prefers thistles to hay? So just drop me down when we +reach the outskirts of Guildford, if you will be so kind." + +Mr. Narkom was discreet enough to drop the subject at that and to +make no further allusion to the matter until they came, in the +fulness of time, to the place in question. Here he called Lennard +to a halt, and Cleek alighted--not furtively, nor yet in haste--and, +standing beside the car, reached in and shook hands with him. + +"Until you want me again," he smiled in his easy, offhand way. "And +if that turns out to be a long time off I shan't be sorry. Meanwhile, +if you wish to do me a favour, look about for a limousine of another +make and a quite different colour. I've an odd idea that this one is +fast coming to the end of its career of usefulness. Good-bye. All +right, Lennard--let her go." + +Then the door of the car closed with a smack, and he was off and +away--so openly and at such a leisurely pace that it was clear he +had neither need nor desire to effect a getaway unobserved. + +"Well, I'll be dashed!" was Mr. Narkom's unspoken comment upon the +proceeding--for, under his hat, he had come to the conclusion that +Cleek had, in some way, by some unconfessed means, learned that +Waldemar or the Apache had come back into the game and were again +on his heels, but had said nothing for fear of worrying him. "Walking +off as cool as you please and never the first attempt to come any +of his old Vanishing Cracksman's dodges. Amazing beggar! What's he up +to now, I wonder?" + +It is just possible that could he have followed he would have +wondered still more, for Cleek was bearing straight down upon the +populous portions of the town, and about ten minutes after the two +had parted, struck into the High Street, walked along it for a +short distance, studying the signs over the various buildings until, +sighting one which announced that it was the Guildford Office of the +Royal British Life Assurance Society, he crossed the street, and +with great deliberation passed in under it, and disappeared from +sight. + +It was one of the contradictory points of his singularly +contradictory character, that whereas he had chafed under the delay +in getting away from the Royal dockyard at Portsea because he was +eager to get back to his work in the little old walled garden, and +all his thoughts were with the flowers he was preparing for _her_, +in the end he did not see the place until after the moon was up, +and all hope of gardening for that day had to be abandoned +entirely, yet--he came back to Dollops whistling and as happy as a +sandboy. + +He was up with the first cock crow next morning, and dawn found him +plying fork and rake and trowel among the flowers, and positively +bubbling over with enthusiasm; for the budding roses were just +beginning to show colour and to give promise of full bloom for the +day of days--and more than that he did not ask of heaven. + +Indeed, it was written that he might not, for the balance had again +swung over, the call of Nature again sounded, and the Great Mother, +taking him to her bosom, had again merged the Man in the Idealist +and cradled him into forgetfulness of all spells but hers. So that +all through the day he went in and out among his flowers whistling +and singing and living in a sort of ecstasy that ran on like a +dream without end. + +On the morrow the little garden was all finished and ready, and +nothing now remained but to sit in idleness and wait. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +May had smiled itself out and June had blushed itself in--the most +wondrous June, in Cleek's eyes, the world had ever seen. For the +long waiting was over, the old order of things had changed, the +little house in the meadowlands had its new tenant, and _she_ was +in England again. + +It did not fret him, as it otherwise might have done, that he and +Dollops had been obliged to go back to the old business of lodging +a week here and a week there in the heart of the town, rather than +within reach of the green trees and the fragrant meadows he loved, +for always there was the chance of stealing out to meet her in the +glorious country-lands when the evening came, or of a whole day with +her in the woods and fields when a whole day could be spared; and +to a nature such as his these things were recompense enough. + +Not that many days could be spared at present, for, although nothing +had been seen or heard of Waldemar or the Apaches for weeks on end, +these were strenuous times for Mr. Narkom and the forces of the +Yard, and what with the Coronation of his Majesty close at hand, +and every train discharging hordes of visitors into London day in +and day out, and crooks of every description--homemade as well as +imported--from the swell mobsman down to the common lag making it +the Mecca of an unholy pilgrimage--they had their hands filled to +overflowing, and were worked to their utmost capacity. + +The result, so far as Cleek was concerned, scarcely needs recording. +It was not in him to be guilty of that form of snobbishness which +is known as "standing on his dignity" at such a time--when the +man who had stood his friend was in need of help, indeed, might lose +his official head if he were found wanting in such a crisis--so +that, naturally, he came to Mr. Narkom's assistance and took a hand +in the "sorting out" process in the manner--yes, and at times, in +the uniform, too--of the ordinary constable, and proved of such +invaluable aid in the matter of scenting out undesirables and +identifying professional crooks that things speedily fell into a +more orderly shape, and he had just begun to look forward to a +resumption of those happy days of wandering in the woods with Ailsa +when out of the lull of coming peace there fell an official bombshell. + +It took the form of a cablegram--a belated cipher communication from +the police of America to the police of Great Britain--which on being +decoded, ran thus: + + "Just succeeded in tracing 218. Sailed ten days ago on + _Tunisian_--Allan Line--from Canada, under name of Hammond. + Woman with him. Handsome blonde. Passing as sister. Believed + to be 774." + +Now as this little exchange of courtesies relative to the movements +of the noted figures of the underworld is of almost daily occurrence +between the police systems of the two countries in question, Mr. +Narkom had only to consult his Code Book to get at the gist of the +matter; and when he did get at it, his little fat legs bent under +him like a couple of straws, his round little body collapsed into +the nearest chair, and he came within a hair's breadth of having a +"stroke." + +For the _Tunisian_, as it happened, had docked and discharged +her passengers exactly thirteen hours before, so that it was safe +to declare that the persons to whom those numerals alluded had +unquestionably slipped unchallenged past the guardians of the +port, and were safely housed at this minute within the intricacies +of that vast brick-and-mortar puzzle, London; yet here they were +registered in the Code Book, thus: + + "No. 218--Nicholas Hemmingway, popularly known as 'Diamond + Nick.' American. Expert swindler, confidence man and jewel + thief. Ex-actor and very skilful at impersonation. See Rogues' + Gallery for portrait. + + "No. 774--Ella Plawsen, variously known to members of the + light-fingered fraternity as 'Dutch Ella' and 'Lady Bell.' + German-American. Probably the most adroit female jewel thief in + existence. Highly educated, exceedingly handsome, and amazingly + plausible and quick witted. Usually does the 'society dodge.' + Natural blonde, and about twenty-five years old. No photograph + obtainable." + +Within forty-five minutes after Mr. Narkom had mastered these facts +he had rushed with them to Cleek, and there was a vacancy in the +list of special constables from that time forth. + +"Slipped in, have they?" said Cleek when he heard. "Well, be sure of +one thing, Mr. Narkom: they will not have gone to a hotel--at least +in the beginning--they are far too sharp for that. Neither will +they house themselves in any hole and corner where their sallying +forth in fine feathers to make their little clean-up would occasion +comment and so lead to a clue. Indeed, I shouldn't be surprised if +they were far too shrewd to remain together in any place, but will +elect to operate singly, appear to have no connection whatsoever, +while they are here, and to have a sort of 'happy reunion' elsewhere +after their little job has been pulled off successfully. But in +any case, when we find them--if we ever do--depend upon it they will +be located in some quiet, respectable, secluded district, one of +the suburbs, for instance, and living as circumspectly as the most +prudish of prying neighbours could desire. + +"Let us then go in for a series of 'walking tours' about the +outlying districts, Mr. Narkom, and see if we can't stumble over +something that will be worth while. It is true I've never met +nor even seen Hemmingway, but I fancy I should know if a man +were made up or not for the rôle in which he appears. I did, +however, brush elbows with Dutch Ella once. It was that time I went +over to New York on that affair of the Amsterdam diamonds. _You_ +remember? When I 'split' the reward with the fellow from Mulberry +Street, whose daughter wanted to study music as a profession and he +couldn't afford to let her. I hobnobbed with some acquaintances of +the--er--old days, over there, and went one night to the big French +Ball at the Academy of Music, where, my companion of the night told +me, there would be 'a smashing big clean-up, as half the swell +crooks in town would be there--for business.' + +"They were, I dare say, for he kept pointing out this one and that +to me and saying, 'That's so and so!' as they danced past us. I +shouldn't know any of them again, so far as looks are concerned, +for the annual French Ball in New York is a masked ball, as you +are, perhaps, aware; and I shouldn't know 'Dutch Ella' any better +than the rest, but for one thing--although I danced with her." + +"Danced with her, Cleek? Danced?" + +"Yes. For the purpose of 'getting a line on her shape,' so to speak, +for possible future reference. I couldn't see her face, for she was +masked to the very chin; but there's a curious, tumor-like lump, as +big as a hen's egg, just under her right shoulder-blade, and there's +the scar of an acid burn on the back of her left hand that she'll +carry to her grave. I shall know that scar if ever I see it again. +And if by any chance I should run foul of a woman bearing one like +it, and that woman should prove to have also a lump under the right +shoulder-blade----Come along! Let's get out and see if we can find +one. 'Time flies,' as the anarchist said when he blew up the clock +factory. Let's toddle." + +They "toddled" forthwith, but on a fruitless errand, as it proved. +Nevertheless, they "toddled" again the next day as hopefully as +ever; and the next after that, and the next again, yet at the end of +the fourth they were no nearer any clue to the whereabouts of Dutch +Ella and Diamond Nick than they had been in the beginning. If, as +Cleek sometimes fancied, they had not merely passed through England +on their way to the Continent, but were still here, housed like +hawks in a safe retreat from which they made predatory excursions +under the very noses of the police, there was nothing to signalize +it. No amazing jewel theft, no affair of such importance as one +engineered by them would be sure to be, had as yet been reported to +the Yard; and for all clue there was to their doings or their +whereabouts one might as well have set out to find last summer's +roses or last winter's snow as hope to pick it up by any method as +yet employed. + +Thus matters stood when on the morning of the fifth day Cleek +elected to make Hampstead Heath and its environments the scene of +their operations, and at nine o'clock set forth in company with the +superintendent to put them into force in that particular locality, +with the result that by noontime they found themselves in the +thick of as pretty a riddle as they had fallen foul of in many a day. + +It came about in this way: + +Turning out of St. Uldred's road into a quiet, tree-shaded avenue +running parallel with the historic heath, somewhere in the +neighbourhood of the Vale of Health district, they looked up to +discover that there was but one building in the entire length of the +thoroughfare--a large, imposing residence set back from the road +proper, and encircled by a high stone wall with curiously wrought +iron gates leading into the enclosure--and that before that +building two copper-skinned, turbaned, fantastically clothed Hindus +were doing sentry duty in a manner peculiar unto themselves--the one +standing as motionless as a bronze image before the barred +gateway, and the other pacing up and down before him like a +clockwork toy that had been well wound up. + +"The Punjab for a ducat!" declared Cleek as he caught sight of them. +"And the insignia of the Ranee of Jhang, or I'm a Dutchman. I knew +the old girl was over here for the coronation, to be sure, but I'd +no idea of stumbling over some of her attendants in this quarter, +by Jip! Not putting up out here of late, is she, Mr. Narkom?" + +"No. She's still at Kensington. And what the dickens those johnnies +are keeping guard over that place for beats us. Know it, don't you? +It's the residence of Sir Mawson Leake--Leake & Leake, you know: +Jewellers, Bond Street. Fine old place, isn't it? Inherited it +from his father, as he did the business, and----What's that? No, not +a young man--not a young man by any means. Grown children--two +sons. One by his first wife, and----Hullo! that's a rum trick, by +James! See that, did you, old chap?" + +"See what? The manner in which that clockwork johnnie stopped in his +tracks and eyed us as we passed?" + +"No. The woman. All muffled up to the eyes--and in weather like this. +Just stepped out of the house door, saw those two niggers, and then +bolted back indoors as if the Old Boy was after her." + +"Caught sight of us, very likely. You know what high-class Brahmans +are where Europeans are concerned. It will be the old Ranee herself, +three to one, paying a morning visit to the jeweller in reference +to some of her amazing gems. That would explain the presence of the +sentries. She travels nowhere without a guard." + +"To be sure," admitted the superintendent, and walked on, dropping +the matter from his mind entirely. + +Ten minutes later, however, it was brought back to it in a rather +startling manner; for, upon rounding the end of the thoroughfare +along which they had been walking, and coming abreast of an isolated +building (which was clearly the stable of the house they had +recently passed), they were surprised to hear the sound of a muffled +cry within, to catch a whiff of charcoal smoke as the door was flung +wildly open by the same muffled female Mr. Narkom had observed +previously, and something more than merely startled to have her +rush at them the instant she caught sight of them, crying out +distractedly: + +"I was afraid of it, I knew it! I knew that he would! Oh, help +me, gentlemen--help me for the love of God! I can't lift him. I +can't drag him out--he is too heavy for me! My husband! In there! In +_there_! He'll die if you don't get him out!" + +They understood then, and for the first time, what she was driving +at, and rushed past her into the stable--into what had once been +designed for a coachman's bedroom--to find an apartment literally +reeking with the fumes that poured out from a charcoal furnace on the +floor, and beside that the body of a man--inert, crumpled up, fast +sinking into that hopeless state of unconsciousness which precedes +asphyxiation by charcoal. + +In the winking of an eye Cleek had caught up the deadly little +firebrick furnace and sent it crashing through the plugged-up +window into the grounds behind, letting a current of pure air +rush through the place; then, while Narkom, with one hand over his +mouth and nostrils, and the other swinging a pair of handcuffs by +their chain, was doing a like thing with another window in the front +wall, he gathered up the semi-conscious man, swung him sacklike +over his shoulder, carried him out into the roadway, and propped him +up against the side of the stable, while he chafed his hands and +smacked his cheeks and, between times, fanned him with his hatbrim +and swore at him for a "weak-backed, marrowless thing to call +itself a man, and yet go in for the poltroon's trick of suicide!" + +The woman was still there, squeezing her hands and sobbing +hysterically, but although she had not as yet uncovered her +face, it did not need that to attest the fact that she was no +Hindu, but white like the man she had spoken of as her husband, and +at the very first words she uttered when she saw that he was +beyond danger, both Cleek and Narkom knew them for what they +were--Sir Mawson and Lady Leake. + +"Mawson, how could you!" she said reproachfully, going to him the +very instant he was able to get on his feet, and folding him to her +in an agonized embrace. "I suspected it when you left the house--but, +oh, how could you?" + +"I don't know," he made answer, somewhat shamefacedly yet with a +note of agony in his voice that made one pity him in spite of all. +"But it seemed too horrible a disgrace to be lived through. And now +I shall have to face it! Oh, my God, Ada, it is too much to ask a +man to bear! They are there, on guard, those Hindus, protecting me +and mine until the Ranee's steward comes to receive the Ladder of +Light, as promised, at----" + +"Sh-h!" she struck in warningly, remembering the presence of the +others, and clapping her hand over his mouth to stay any further +admission; for she had heard Cleek repeat after her husband--but with +a soft significant whistle--"The Ladder of Light!" and supplement +that with, "Well, I'm dashed!" and turned round on him instantly +with a forced smile upon her lips but the look of terror still +lingering in her fast-winking eyes. + +"It is rude of me, gentlemen, to forget to thank you for your kind +assistance, and I ask your forgiveness," she said. "I owe you many, +many thanks and I am endeavouring to express them. But as this is +merely a little family affair I am sure you will understand." + +It was a polite dismissal. Narkom pivoted his little fat body on his +heel, and prepared to take it. Cleek didn't. + +"Your pardon, but the Ladder of Light can never be regarded as a +family affair in _any_ English household whatsoever," he said, +blandly. "I can give you its exact history if you wish it. It is +a necklace said to have once been the property of the Queen of +Sheba and worn by her at the court of King Solomon. It is made up +of twelve magnificent steel-white diamonds, cut semi-square, and +each weighing twenty-eight and one half carats. They are joined +together by slender gold links fitting into minute holes pierced +through the edge of each stone. It is valued at one million pounds +sterling and is the property of the Ranee of Jhang, who prizes it +above all other of her marvellous and priceless jewels. She is not a +pleasant old lady to cross, the Ranee. She would be a shrieking +devil if anything were to happen to that necklace, your ladyship." + +She had been slowly shrinking from him as the history of the Ladder +of Light proceeded; now she leaned back against her husband, full +of surprise and despairing terror, and stared and stared in a silence +that was only broken by little fluttering breaths of alarm. + +"It is uncanny!" she managed to say at last. "You know of that? Of +the necklace? You know even me?--us?--and yet I have not uncovered +my face nor given you my name. Are you then gifted with clairvoyance, +Mr.--Mr.----" + +"Cleek," he gave back, making her a polite bow. "Cleek is the name, +Lady Leake. Cleek of Scotland Yard." + +"That man? Dear God! that amazing man?" she cried, her whole face +lighting up, her drooping figure springing erect, revitalized. + +"At your ladyship's service," he replied. "We are out this +morning--Superintendent Narkom and I--in quest of what is probably +the most skilful and audacious pair of jewel thieves in the +world--just the one particular pair in all the universe to whom a +loot so valuable as the Ladder of Light would offer the strongest +kind of an appeal. So, if by any chance, something has occurred +which threatens the safety of that amazing necklace--and you and Sir +Mawson are in a position to know the facts----Come! Take me into +your confidence, and--perhaps! Who knows?" + +Before he had fairly finished speaking, Lady Leake caught up his +hand, and, holding it fast squeezed in both her own, looked up at +him with bright, wet eyes. + +"It must have been heaven itself that sent you to us this morning," +she cried. "If any man in the world _can_ help us, I believe in +my soul that you are the man. Mawson, you hear, dearest? It is Mr. +Cleek. The wonderful Mr. Cleek. Why didn't we think of _him_ before? +Tell him, Mawson--tell him everything, my dear." + +Sir Mawson acted upon the suggestion instantly. + +"Mr. Cleek, I beg, I implore you to come to our assistance!" he +exclaimed in a very transport of excitement. "Lady Leake is right. +If any man _can_, you are he! You ask if anything has happened +with regard to that accursed necklace and if I can give you any +information on the subject? To both questions, yes! It is gone! It +is lost! It is stolen!" + +"What's that? Stolen? The Ladder of Light? Good heavens! When? Where? +How?" + +"Yesterday--from my keeping! From my house! And God have mercy on +me, I have every reason to believe that the thief is my eldest son!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +It was a full minute later and in all that minute's length no one +had spoken, no one had made a single sound. + +The shock, the shame, of such a confession, telling, as it did, why +he had attempted to destroy himself, had crumpled the man up, taken +all the vitality out of him. He faced round and leaned his bent arm +against the wall of the stable, hid his face in the crook of it, and +Cleek, pitying him, let him have that minute all to himself. Then: + +"Come," he said, very gently, going over to him and patting him on +the shoulder. "Buck up! Buck up! There's nothing in all the world +so deceptive as appearances, Sir Mawson; perhaps, when I've heard +the facts----Well, haven't I told you that I am out for a pair of +expert jewel thieves, and that that necklace is just the sort of +thing they'd be likely to make play for? How do you know, then, that +they didn't?" + +"I wish I could believe that, I wish I could even hope it," he gave +back miserably. "But you don't know the facts, Mr. Cleek." + +"To be sure I don't; and they're what I'm after. Let's have them, +please. To begin with, how came the Ladder of Light to be in your +possession at all?" + +"It was brought to me yesterday--for repairing--by the Ranee's own +_major domo_. Not a mere _cice_, Mr. Cleek, but the most trusted of +all her henchmen. Three of the narrow gold links which hold the +stones together had worn thin and needed strengthening. It was four +o'clock in the afternoon when he arrived, and the Ranee, he said, had +selected our house for the work on the recommendation of royalty. +There was several hours' work on the thing--I saw that the instant I +examined it. But I was appalled by the fearful responsibility of +having a jewel of such fabulous value on the premises--with people +constantly coming in and going out--and determined, therefore, to +take it home and do the repairs myself. I informed the Ranee's +_major domo_ of that resolution, and demanded of him a guard of the +Ranee's own attendants to accompany me on the journey and to keep +watch over my house until he should come in person to receive the +necklace to-day. + +"He accorded me this willingly; departed--still retaining +possession of the jewel, for I would not have it left with me at +any cost--returned with the guard an hour later, handed me the case +containing the necklace, and I left for home a few minutes after +five--and the Hindu guard with me. On arriving----" + +"One moment, please," interposed Cleek. "Did you examine the case to +see if the Ladder of Light was still there before you started?" + +"Yes, Mr. Cleek. I have no very great faith in Hindus at any time, so +you may be sure I took that precaution the instant the man placed +the case in my hands. The necklace was there. I even went further. +Before leaving my place of business I submitted the stones to +chemical test to be sure that no substitution had been made. They +were absolutely genuine; so that there can be no shadow of doubt +that it was the Ladder of Light itself I carried home with me. On +arriving at my residence I stationed the two Hindu guards at the +front gate, entered the house, and was upon the point of going +immediately to my study to subject the stones to yet another chemical +test--to make sure that no trickery had been practised upon me by the +Hindus on the journey--when I was unexpectedly pounced upon in the +main hallway by my son, Henry, who was in a greatly excited state +and attempted to renew the subject of our unpleasant interview +of the day before." + +Here Sir Mawson's voice grew curiously thick and unsteady. He paused +a moment as if ashamed to go on, then stiffened himself and continued. + +"Mr. Cleek," he said, agitatedly, "it is necessary that I should tell +you, at this point, something with regard to those who make up the +members of my household." + +"You needn't. I have already heard. Lady Leake is, I believe, your +second wife, and you have two sons." + +"No--three," he corrected. "Henry, my eldest, who is twenty-four and +is the only survivor of the children of my first and most unhappy +marriage; Curzon, who is just entering his twenty-first year, and +Bevis, who has not yet turned seven, and is, of course, still in +the nursery. I may as well admit to you, Mr. Cleek, that my first +marriage was a failure; that it was none of my own choosing, but was +consummated in deference to the will and wishes of my parents. We +were utterly unsuited to each other, my first wife and I, and it is, +no doubt, only natural that the son she left me when death delivered +us both from an irksome bondage should reflect in himself some +of those points of difference which made our union a mistake. + +"Don't misunderstand me, however. He is very dear to me--dear, too, +to his stepmother, who loves him as her own, and the one strong +feature in his character is the love he gives her in return. Then, +too, he is my first born, my heir, and no man fails to love that +first child that ever called him father." + +"No man could fail to love this particular one at all events, Mr. +Cleek," put in her ladyship. "Wild, reckless, extravagant--yes! But +at heart, the dearest boy!" + +"Just so!" interposed Cleek. "But let us get on, please. So this +'dearest boy' had an unpleasant interview with you the day before +yesterday, did he, Sir Mawson? What was it about?" + +"The usual thing--money. He is extravagant to the point of insanity. +I've paid his debts until my patience is quite worn out, hoping +against hope that he will reform. At that interview, however, he +asked for a thing I would _not_ listen to--£200 to settle a +gambling debt at his club: to take up an I. O. U. that would get +him blacklisted as a defaulter if it were not met. 'Then get +blacklisted!' I said to him, 'if there's no other way to cut you off +from the worthless lot you associate yourself with. You'll not +get one farthing from me to settle any such disgraceful thing as a +gambling debt, rest assured of that!' Then I walked out of the +room and left him, and that was the last I saw of him until he +pounced upon me in the hall yesterday when I was going to my +study with the case containing the Ranee's necklace. + +"That was the subject he wanted to renew. He'd been to town, he +said, and had had a talk with the man to whom he had given the +I. O. U., 'and dad, if you'll only do it just this once--just this +one last _once_!' he was saying when I interrupted him. 'I've no +time to listen now, and no inclination. I've important business to +attend to,' I said, then waved him aside and went into the study and +locked the door while I attended to the matter of applying the acid +test to the diamonds for the second time. + +"Meanwhile, he had gone up to Lady Leake's boudoir to implore her to +use her influence with me, and he was still there when, after the +stones had again answered to the acid test, I carried the necklace up +there (to leave it in her charge for the brief time it would take me +to prepare the tools and materials for the work in hand) and told +her all about it. But I didn't know that at the time, Mr. Cleek, for +he was sitting in a deep, cushioned armchair at the far end of the +room, and the tall back of that chair was turned toward me. Indeed, I +hadn't the faintest suspicion that there was anybody but Lady Leake +and myself in the room until he got up suddenly and said, 'Dad, +you aren't too busy to listen now! Won't you let me ask you what I +was going to do downstairs? Won't you, dad? Please!' + +[Illustration: Cleek hears that the fabulous "Ladder of Light" is +back in London again.] + +[Illustration: Young Mawson overhears his parents discussing the +problem of the jewel. "He is extravagant to the point of insanity," +said Sir Mawson.] + +"Of course he had heard what I had said, Mr. Cleek--although I never +gave a thought to that at the time--and as Lady Leake had, womanlike, +taken the gorgeous necklace out of the case, held it up to her neck +and was then viewing herself in her dressing mirror, it followed +that he also saw. But how could I dream of there being anything in +that to regret, and he a son of mine? It was only--afterward--when +it came back to my memory----Good God! it is too horrible to +think of even now, much less to talk about!" + +"Steady, steady, Sir Mawson!" sounded Cleek's soothing voice. "Brakes +on! Sidetrack your emotions if you can and stick to the mainline! +Well, what followed?" + +"I have no very clear recollection, Mr. Cleek, for just then Lady +Leake chose to add her entreaties to his, and to ask me if I would +permit her to draw her next quarter's pin money in advance and +let her take up the I. O. U. for him. But I was so furious at the +thought of his skulking in like a beggar and a cad, and trying to +'bleed' her, that I flew into a violent rage, ordered him out of +the room instantly, and forbade his stepmother to lend or give him +one farthing either then or at any time thereafter. 'There will be +no gambler's I. O. U.'s taken up for you by anybody in this house,' +I flung at him. 'If you are in debt, get out of it in your own way +and as best you can!' + +"I think that even then I was conscious of a sense of gratification +at the way he took that ultimatum, Mr. Cleek, for instead of whining +like a whipped cur, he pulled himself up straight and strong, +clicked his heels together, and said very quietly, 'All right, sir, +I'll take you at your word. Thank you for past favours. Good-bye!' +and then walked out of the room. That was the last I have seen or +heard of him." + +"H'm! Leave the house, did he?" + +"Yes--but not then. That was a few minutes before seven. A servant +saw him on the top landing coming out of his own room with something +wrapped up in a parcel, after that. And another, who was busy +cleaning up in the lower hall, saw him come down and go out at +ten minutes past." + +"And in the meantime, the Ladder of Light had vanished?" + +"Yes. After Henry had left the boudoir I had a few minutes' heated +argument with Lady Leake; then, remembering the work I had in hand, +I left the necklace in her charge and hurried away to rig up a +temporary workshop. It was about twenty minutes past seven when I +finished doing that, and went back to Lady Leake's boudoir to get the +jewel. I found her in a state of the wildest excitement, flying +about the room like an insane woman and searching everywhere. The +necklace was gone! Only for one single minute of time had it been +out of her sight, yet in that minute it had vanished, utterly and +completely, and there was not a trace of it to be found anywhere." + +"H'm! Just so! Case gone, too, Sir Mawson?" + +"No! That was still there, lying on her dressing-table, but it was +empty." + +"I see. So, then, it could not have been that that was wrapped up +in the parcel your son was seen carrying. Anybody in that room after +Sir Mawson left you, your ladyship?" + +"Not a living soul, Mr. Cleek." + +"Could no one have stolen it without your knowledge?" + +"That would be impossible. I locked the door the instant Sir Mawson +left me." + +"Ah, then, of course! Another question, please. Sir Mawson has spoken +of there being 'one single minute' when the necklace was not directly +under your eyes. When was that?" + +"When I left the room, Mr. Cleek." + +"Oho! Then you did leave it, eh?" + +"Yes. It was thoughtless of me, of course; but I only ran down to +the foot of the staircase, when I remembered, and ran back in a +perfect panic. Still I had locked the door in going out even then +and the key was in my hand. It was still locked when I returned, +but in that one single minute the necklace had disappeared. I was +gratifying my woman's vanity by holding it up to my throat and +viewing myself in the glass just an instant before, and I remember +perfectly, laying it down on the velvet lining of its open case at +the time I recollected the matter which caused me to leave the room." + +"May I ask what that matter was?" + +"Yes. A service I had promised to perform for Miss Eastman." + +"Miss Eastman? Who is she?" + +"My son's fiancée. She and her father are visiting us at present. +Curzon met and became engaged to Miss Eastman on the occasion of her +last visit to England, and this time her father is accompanying her." + +"Her last _visit?_ Then the lady and her father are not English?" + +"Oh, dear, no--Americans. They came over less than a week ago. +Pardon? No, I do not at the moment recall the name of the vessel, +Mr. Cleek, but whichever one it was it seems to have been a very +ill-conditioned affair and gave them a very bad crossing, indeed. +That is why I had to render Miss Eastman the service of which I +spoke--the sudden recollection of which caused me to lay down the +necklace and hurry from the room. I had forgotten all about it until +I happened to see the roll of lint on my dressing-table." + +"Lint, Lady Leake? What on earth had lint to do with the matter?" + +"I had bought it for Miss Eastman when I was in town this morning. +She asked me to, as she had used her last clean bandage yesterday. +She had a very bad fall on shipboard, Mr. Cleek, and injured her left +hand severely!" + +Narkom made a curious sort of gulping sound, whipped out his +handkerchief and began to dab his bald spot, and looked round at +Cleek out of the tail of his eye. But Cleek neither moved nor +spoke nor made any sign--merely pushed his lower lip out over his +upper one and stood frowning at the stable door. + +And here--just here--a strange and even startling thing occurred. +With just one hoarse "Toot-toot!" to give warning of its coming, a +public taxi swung round the curve of the road, jerked itself up to +a sudden standstill within a rope's cast of the spot where the four +were standing, and immediately there rang forth a rollicking, happy +youthful voice crying out, as the owner of it stood up and touched an +upright forefinger to his numbered cap, in jolly mimicry of the +Hanson cabman of other days: "Keb, sir? Keb, mum? Keb! Keb!" and +hard on the heels of that flung out a laughing, "Hullo, mater? +Hullo, dad? you dear old Thunder Box! I say! 'How does this sort +of thing get you?' as Katie Eastman says. Buttons all over me, +like a blooming Bobby! What?" + +And it needed no more than that to assure Cleek and Mr. Narkom +that in the bright-eyed, bonny-faced, laughing young fellow who +jumped down from the driver's seat at this, and stood up straight +and strong, and displayed his taxicabman's livery unabashed and +unashamed, they were looking upon Sir Mawson Leake's eldest son +and--heir! + +"Henry!" The voice was Lady Leake's, and there was pain and surprise +and joy and terror all jumbled up in it curiously, as she ran to him. +"Henry! Is it really _you?_" + +"'Sure thing!'--to quote Katie again. Just took a spin over to +show myself off. Plenty of brass trimmings! What? I thought, dad, +you'd like to be sure that I really am done with the clubs at last. +Not because they blacklisted me--for they didn't--but because--oh +well, _you_ know. No taxicabmen need apply--that sort of thing. +I'll be invited to resign from every blessed one of them to-morrow, +and there's not a chap connected with any one of 'em who'd be seen +taking a match from me to light his cigarette with after this. +All the same, though, I go out of them with a clean slate, and +that's all I cared about. I did get that two hundred after all, +pater. Curzon and Katie raised it for me between them--out of their +own private accounts, you know--and as driving a car is the only +thing I really do understand, I'm earning the money to pay them back +this way." + +"That's the stuff, by Jupiter! That's the stuff!" rapped out Cleek, +impulsively. "You ought to have known from the first, Sir Mawson, +that they don't make thieves of this sort of material?" + +"Thieves? What do you mean by thieves? And who the dickens are you, +anyway? I say, dad, who's this johnnie? What's he driving at? What +does he mean by talking about thieves?" + +"The necklace--the Ranee's necklace! The Ladder of Light!" bleated +Sir Mawson feebly. "It is gone! It is lost! It went when _you_ went. +There has been no trace of it since." Then he joined Lady Leake, and +plucked at the boy's sleeve, and between them out came the whole +miserable story. + +"And you think that I stole it? You dare to think that?" flung out +his son, jerking back from him and brushing aside Lady Leake's +solicitous hand. "Very well, then, think what you jolly well please! +I'm done with the lot of you!" + +And after that--the Deluge! Speaking, he turned on his heel and +rushed back to his taxi, wrenched open its door, revealing what +none of them had suspected before, because of the drawn curtains: +that the vehicle was occupied--and sang out in a fine fury, "Pull up +the blinds, Curz. Come out, old chap. Come out, Major! Come out, +Katie--all of you--at once! There isn't going to be any 'jolly lark,' +any 'pleasant surprise,' any 'killing of the fatted calf.' This +isn't a comedy--it's a tragedy! Hop out lively--the lot of you! I'm +done with my father, and I've got to get back to my place in the +ranks as fast as I can fly. I'll pay you back, Katie. I'll pay you +back, Curz, old chap! Yes, by God! I will if I drive this thing night +and day without sleeping!" + +Then came a sudden banging of the taxi's door, a hoot from the +horn as he jumped back to his seat and sounded a warning note, and +in the winking of an eye he was off and away, and there in the +road stood a stout, pleasant-faced old gentleman, a youth with a +budding moustache, and a bright-faced, fairylike little lady of +about eighteen, all three of whom were standing stock still and +staring after the vanishing taxi in the blankest of blank amazement. +Of a sudden, however: + +"My goodness, popper, I guess Curzon and I have sort of muffed it +somehow!" the little lady said, forlornly. + +"I guess you have, honey--I guess you have. Anyhow, something's gone +bust, that's a sure thing! Let's go and ask Sir Mawson what it's all +about." + +"Yes, let us by all means," put in the younger man. "Come on!" + +Mr. Narkom, who heard these things, drew closer to Cleek, looked up +at him anxiously, and contrived to whisper an inquiry which fell only +upon his ally's ears. + +"Found out anything, old chap?" + +"Yes. From their words it is clear that Sir Mawson has taken nobody +in the house--even his son, Curzon--into his confidence regarding the +lost necklace." + +"I don't mean that--I'm alluding to the others. Found out anything +about _them_?" + +"Yes, and a very important thing, too: They are _not_ Diamond +Nick and Dutch Ella. Not in the least like them, neither are they +disguised. Also, Miss Eastman's injury is only a sprained wrist, it +appears. You observe she does not even attempt to cover the back of +her hand. I'm afraid, Mr. Narkom, you've been barking up the wrong +tree." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +By this time the major, his daughter, and young Curzon Leake, full of +deep and earnest solicitude for the long-erring Henry, and fairly +bristling with questions and entreaties, had crossed the intervening +space and were at Sir Mawson's side; but as the details of what +was said and done for the next ten minutes have no bearing upon +the case in hand, they may well be omitted from these records. +Suffice it then, that, on the plea of "having some very important +business with these gentlemen, which will not permit of another +moment's delay," and promising to "discuss the other matter later +on," Sir Mawson managed to get rid of them, with the story of the +lost necklace still unconfessed, and was again free to return to +the subject in hand. + +"Of course, I can understand your reluctance, with those Indian +chaps about, to take anybody into your confidence regarding the loss +of the jewel, Sir Mawson," said Cleek, as soon as the others were +well out of hearing; "but sometimes a policy of silence is wise, and +sometimes it is a mistake. For instance: if any of a man's servants +should know of a circumstance which might have a bearing upon a +robbery they are not likely to mention it if they don't even know +that a robbery has been committed. However, we shall know more about +that after I've been over the ground and poked about a bit. So, if +you and her ladyship will be so kind, I should like to have a look +indoors, particularly in Lady Leake's boudoir, as soon as possible." + +Upon what trivial circumstances do great events sometimes hinge! +Speaking, he turned toward the curve of the road to go back to the +guarded gates of the house which he had so recently passed, when +Lady Leake's hand plucked nervously at his sleeve. + +"Not that way! Not for worlds, with those Hindus on the watch!" she +exclaimed agitatedly. "Heaven knows what they might suspect, what +word they might send to the Ranee's steward, if they saw us returning +to the house without having seen us leave it. Come! there is another +and a safer way. Through the grounds and round to the door of the +music room, at the back of the building. Follow me." + +They followed forthwith, and in another moment were taking that +"other way" with her, pushing through a thick plantation, crossing +a kitchen garden, cutting through an orchard, and walking rapidly +along an arboured path, until they came at last to the final obstacle +of all--a large rock garden--which barred their progress to the +smooth, close-clipped lawn at whose far end the house itself stood. +This rock garden, it was plain from the course she was taking, it +was Lady Leake's intention to skirt, but Cleek, noting that there +was a path running through the middle of it, pointed out that fact. + +"One moment!" he said. "As time is of importance, would not this be +the shorter and the quicker way?" + +"Yes," she gave back, without, however, stopping in her progress +around the tall rocks which formed its boundary. "But if we took +it we should be sure to meet Bevis. That is his especial playground, +you know, and if he were to see his father and me we shouldn't be +able to get rid of him again. No! Don't misunderstand, Mr. Cleek. +I am not one of those mothers who find their children a nuisance +in their nursery stage. Bevis is the dearest little man! But he is +so full of pranks, so full of questions, so full of life and high +spirits--and I couldn't stand that this morning. Besides, he has no +one to play with him to-day. This is Miss Miniver's half holiday. +Pardon? Yes--his nursery governess. She won't be back until three. I +only hope he will stay in the rock garden and amuse himself with his +pirates' cave until then." + +"His----" + +"Pirates' cave. Miss Miniver took him to a moving-picture show one +day. He saw one there and nothing would do him but his father must +let him have one for himself; so the gardeners made one for him in +the rock garden and he amuses himself by going out on what he calls +'treasure raids' and carries his spoils in there." + +"His spoils, eh? H'm! I see! Pardon me, Lady Leake, but do you think +it is possible that this affair we are on may be only a wild goose +chase after all? In other words, that, not knowing the value of the +Ranee's necklace, your little son may have made that a part of his +spoils and carried it off to his pirates' cave?" + +"No, Mr. Cleek, I do not. Such a thing is utterly impossible. For +one thing, the boudoir door was locked, remember; and, for another, +Bevis had been bathed and put to bed before the necklace was lost. He +could not have got up and left his room, as Miss Miniver sat with +him until he fell asleep." + +"H'm!" commented Cleek. "So that's 'barking up the wrong tree' for a +second time. Still, of course, the necklace couldn't have vanished of +its own accord. Hum-m-m! Just so! Another question, your ladyship: +You spoke of running down to the foot of the stairs with the lint +for Miss Eastman and running back in a panic when you remembered the +necklace. How, then, did you get the lint to Miss Eastman, after all?" + +"I sent it to her with apologies for not being able to do the +bandaging for her." + +"Sent it to her, your ladyship? By whom?" + +"Jennifer--one of the servants." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, in two different tones. "So then you _did_ unlock +the door of your boudoir for a second time, and somebody other than +Sir Mawson and your stepson _did_ see the inside of the room, eh?" + +"Your pardon, Mr. Cleek, but you are wrong in both surmises. +Jennifer was the servant who was working in the lower hall at +the time--the one who says he saw Henry leave the house at ten +minutes past seven. The instant I reached the foot of the stairs +and thought of the necklace, I called Jennifer to me, gave him the +lint with orders to take it at once to Miss Eastman's maid with +the message mentioned, and then turned round and ran back to my +boudoir immediately." + +"H'm! I see. I suppose, your ladyship, it isn't possible that this +man Jennifer might, in going to carry that message----But no! I +recollect: the door of your boudoir was locked. So even if he had +managed to outstrip you by going up another staircase----" + +"Oh, I see what you mean!" she declared, as they reached the edge of +the lawn and set out across it. "But, Mr. Cleek, such a thing would +not bear even hinting at, so far as Jennifer is concerned. He is +the soul of honesty, for one thing; and, for another, he couldn't +have outstripped me, as you put it, had I returned at a snail's +pace. He is very old, and near-sighted. There! look! That is he, +over there, sweeping the leaves off the terrace. You can see for +yourself how impossible it would be for him to run upstairs." + +Cleek did see. Looking in the direction indicated, he saw an elderly +man employed as stated, whose back was bowed, and whose limping gait +betokened an injury which had left him hopelessly lame. + +"His leg had to be amputated as the result of being run over by an +omnibus in the streets of London," explained her ladyship, "and, +in consequence, he wears a wooden one. He has been in the employ of +the family for more than forty years. Originally he was a gardener, +and, after his accident, Sir Mawson was for pensioning him off so +that he could end his days in quiet and comfort. But he quite +broke down at the thought of leaving the old place, and as he +wouldn't listen to such a thing as being paid for doing nothing, +we humoured his whim and let him stay on as a sort of handy man. I +am sorry to say that Bevis, little rogue, takes advantage of his +inability to run, and plays no end of pranks upon him. But he +adores the boy, and never complains." + +Cleek, who had been studying the man fixedly with his narrowed +eyes--and remembering what had been said of Diamond Nick's skill at +impersonation, the while they were crossing the lawn--here twitched +his head, as if casting off a thought which annoyed him, and turned a +bland look upon Lady Leake. + +"One last question, your ladyship," he said. "I think you said that +Jennifer was cleaning the hall at the time your stepson left the +house; and, as, presumably, you wouldn't overwork a crippled old chap +like that, how happened it that he was still at his labours at ten +minutes past seven o'clock in the evening? That's rather late to +be cleaning up a hall, isn't it?" + +"Yes, much _too_ late," she acknowledged. "But it couldn't be helped +in the present instance. The gasfitters didn't finish their work +as early as we had hoped, and as he couldn't begin until they _had_ +finished, he was delayed in starting." + +"The gasfitters, eh? Oho! So you had those chaps in the house +yesterday, did you?" + +"Yes. There had been an unpleasant leakage of gas in both the music +room and the main hall, for two or three days, and as the men had to +take down the fixtures to get to the seat of the trouble, Jennifer +improved the opportunity to give the chandelier and the brackets +a thorough cleaning, since he couldn't of course start to clear up +the mess the workmen made until after they had finished and gone. +But--Mr. Cleek! _They_ couldn't have had anything to do with the +affair, for they left the house at least ten minutes before the +Ladder of Light came into it. So, naturally----This is the door +of the music room, gentlemen. Come in, please." + +The invitation was accepted at once, and in another half minute +Cleek and Mr. Narkom found themselves standing in a wonderful +white-and-gold room, under a huge crystal chandelier of silver +and cut glass, and looking out through an arched opening, hung +with sulphur-coloured draperies, into a sort of baronial hall +equipped with armour and tapestries, and broad enough to drive a +coach through without danger to its contents. + +From this hall, as they discovered, when Lady Leake led them without +delay toward the scene of the necklace's mysterious vanishment, a +broad, short flight of richly carpeted stairs led to a square +landing, and thence another and a longer flight, striking off at +right angles, communicated with the passage upon which her ladyship's +boudoir opened. + +"It was here that I stood, Mr. Cleek, when I recollected about the +necklace as I called Jennifer to me," she explained, pausing on +the landing at the foot of this latter flight of stairs just long +enough to let him note, over the broad rail of the banister, that the +great hall was clearly visible below. "He was there, just under +you, drying the globes of the music-room chandelier when I called +to him. Now come this way, please, and you will see how impossible +it is for any one to have entered and left the boudoir during my +brief absence without my seeing or hearing." + +It was; for the door of the boudoir, which was entirely detached +from the rest of the suite occupied by herself and her husband, was +immediately opposite the head of the staircase and clearly visible +from the landing at its foot. + +She unlocked this one solitary door, and let them see that the +only other means of possibly entering the room was by way of a large +overhanging bay window overlooking the grounds. But this was a +good twenty feet above the surface of the earth and there was not a +vine nor a tree within yards and yards of it, and as the space +beneath was so large and clear that no one could have manipulated a +ladder without the certainty of discovery, Cleek saw at a glance +that the window might be dismissed at once as a possible point +of entry. + +Nor did anything else about the room offer a hint more promising. +All that he saw was just what one might have expected to see in such +a place under such circumstances as these. + +On the dressing-table, surrounded by a litter of silver and cut-glass +toilet articles, lay the case which had once contained the famous +necklace, wide open and empty. Over the back of a chair--as if +it had been thrown there under the stress of haste and great +excitement--hung a negligée of flowered white silk trimmed with +cascades of rich lace, and across a sofa at the far end of the +room, a dinner gown of gray satin was carefully spread out, with a +pair of gray silk stockings and gray satin slippers lying beside it. + +"Everything is exactly as it was, Mr. Cleek, at the time the necklace +disappeared," explained her ladyship, noting the manner in which +his glances went flickering about the room, skimming the surface +of all things but settling on none. "Everything, that is, but that +negligée there." + +"Wasn't that in the room, then?" + +"Oh, yes, but it wasn't on the chair; it was on me. I had come +up to dress for dinner a short time before Henry made his +appearance--indeed, I had only just taken off my street costume +and started to dress when he rapped at the door and implored me to +let him come in and speak to me for a minute or two. 'For God's +sake, mater!' was the way he put it, and as haste seemed to be of +vital importance, I slipped on my negligée and let him in as +quickly as I could. Afterward, when Sir Mawson came in with the +wonderful necklace----" + +She stopped abruptly, and her voice seemed to die away in her throat; +and when she spoke again it was in a sort of panic. + +"Mr. Cleek!" she cried, "_Mr. Cleek!_ What is it? What's the matter? +Good heavens, Mawson, has the man gone out of his mind?" + +In the circumstances the question was an excusable one. A moment +before, she had seen Cleek walk in the most casual manner to the +chair where the lace-clouded negligée hung, had seen him pick it up +to look at the chair seat under it, and was collectedly proceeding +with the account of the events of yesterday, when, without hint or +warning, he suddenly yapped out a sound that was curiously like a +dog that had mastered the trick of human laughter, flung the negligée +from him, dropped on his knees, and was now careering round the +room like a terrier endeavouring to pick up a lost scent--pushing +aside tables, throwing over chairs, and yapping, yapping. + +"Cleek, old chap!" It was Narkom that spoke, and the hard, thick +hammering of his heart made his voice shake. "Good lud, man! in the +name of all that's wonderful----" + +"Let me alone!" he bit in, irritably. "Of all the asses! Of all the +blind, mutton-headed idiots!" then laughed that curious, uncanny +laugh again, scrambled to his feet and made a headlong bolt for the +door. "Wait for me--all of you--in the music room," he threw back +from the threshold. "Don't stir from it until I come. I want that +fellow Jennifer! I want him _at once_!" + +And here, turning sharply on his heel with yet another yapping sound, +he bolted across the passage, ran down the staircase like an escaping +thief, and by the time the others could lock up the boudoir and +get down to the music room, there wasn't a trace of him anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +It was a full half hour later, and Sir Mawson and Lady Leake and Mr. +Maverick Narkom were in the throes of the most maddening suspense, +when the door of the music room flashed open and flashed shut again, +and Cleek stood before them once more--quite alone still, but with +that curious crooked smile which to Narkom stood for so much, looping +up the corner of his mouth and mutely foreshadowing the riddle's +spectacular end. + +"Cleek, dear chap!" The superintendent's voice was sharp and thin +with excitement. "You've found out something, then?" + +"I hope, Mr. Narkom, I have found out everything," he replied with +a marked emphasis on the word hope. "But as we are told when in doubt +or in difficulty to 'look above' for a way out, permit me to follow +that advice before proceeding any further with the subject." + +Here he stepped to the centre of the room, twitched back his head, +and, with chin upslanted and eyes directed toward the ceiling, moved +slowly round in a narrow circle for a moment or two. + +But of a sudden he came to a sharp standstill, rapped out a short, +queer little laugh, and, altering these mysterious tactics, looked +down and across the room at Sir Mawson Leake. + +"I think the Ranee did not look to the security of those slim gold +links a day too soon, Sir Mawson," he said. "It is too much to ask +a man to risk his whole fortune on the tenacity of a bit of age-worn +wire as you have done, and if I were in your shoes I'd tell the +old girl's _major domo_ when he comes for the necklace, to get it +repaired somewhere else--and be dashed to him." + +"Good! Wouldn't I, in a twinkling, if I could only lay hands on the +wretched thing again. But I haven't it, as you know." + +"Quite true. But you are going to have it--presently. I know where +it is!" + +"Mr. Cleek!" + +"Gently, gently, my friends. Don't go quite off your heads with +excitement. I repeat, I know where it is. I have found it and----Mr. +Narkom! Look sharp! A chair for Lady Leake--she's tottering. Steady, +steady, your ladyship; it will only complicate matters to lose a +grip on yourself now; and you have kept up so brave a front all +through, it would be a pity to break down at the end." + +"I am not breaking down. I am quite all right. Please go on, Mr. +Cleek--please do. I can stand anything better than this. Are you +sure you have found it? Are you _sure?_" + +"Absolutely. I have had a nice little talk with old Jennifer, and +a very satisfactory visit to Master Bevis Leake's interesting +'pirates' cave' and----Gently, gently, Sir Mawson; gently, all +of you. Don't jump to conclusions too quickly. No, your ladyship, I +did not find the necklace in that cave, and for the simple reason +that it is not and never has been there--in short, neither your son +Bevis nor the servant, Jennifer, has the least idea in the world +_where_ it is. I have, however, and if in return for handing it over +to him, Sir Mawson will give me his promise to take that boy, Henry, +back and give him another chance, he shall have it in his hands ten +seconds afterward." + +"I promise! I promise! I promise!" broke in Sir Mawson, almost +shouting in his excitement. "I give you my word, Mr. Cleek, I give +you my solemn oath." + +"Right you are," said Cleek in reply. Then he twitched forward a +chair, stepped on the seat of it, reached up into the midst of the +chandelier's glittering cut-glass lustres, snapped something out from +their sparkling festoons, and added serenely, "Favour for favour: +there you are, then!" as he dropped the Ladder of Light into Sir +Mawson's hands. + +And all in a moment, what with Lady Leake laughing and crying at one +and the same time, her liege lord acting pretty much as if he had +suddenly gone off his head, and Mr. Maverick Narkom chiming in and +asserting several times over that he'd be jiggered, there was the +dickens and all to pay in the way of excitement. + +"Up in the chandelier!" exclaimed Lady Leake when matters had settled +down a bit. "Up there, where it might have remained unnoticed for +months, so like is it to the strings of lustres. But how? But when? +Oh, Mr. Cleek, who in the world put it there? And why?" + +"Jennifer," he made answer. "No, not for any evil purpose, your +ladyship. He doesn't know even yet that it was there, or that he +ever in all his life held a thing so valuable in his hands. All that +he does know in connection with it is that while he was cleaning +those lustres out there in the hallway yesterday afternoon between +four and five o'clock your son Bevis, out on one of his 'treasure +raids,' paid him a visit, and that long after, when the old fellow +came to replace the lustres on the chandelier, he discovered that +one string was missing. + +"'I knowed the precious little rascal had took it, sir, of course,' +was the way he put it in explaining the matter to me; 'and I felt +sure I'd be certain to find it in his pirates' cave. But Lord bless +you, it turned out as he hadn't took it there at all, as I found +out a goodish bit afterward, when her ladyship comes down to the +landing at the top of the first flight of stairs, calls me up to +give me the lint for Miss Eastman, and then gives a jump and a cry, +like she'd just recollected something, and runs back upstairs as +fast as she could fly. For when I looks down, there was the missing +string of lustres lying on the landing right where her ladyship had +been standing, and where he, little rascal, had went and hid it +from me. So I picks it up and puts it back in its place on the +chandelier just as soon as I'd taken the lint to Miss Eastman like +her ladyship told me.' + +"In that, Lady Leake, lies the whole story of how it came to be +where you saw me find it. Jennifer is still under the impression +that what he picked up on that landing was nothing more than the +string of twelve cut-glass lustres joined together by links of brass +wire which is at this moment hanging among the 'treasures' in your +little son's pirates' cave." + +"On the landing? Lying on the landing, do you say, Mr. Cleek?" +exclaimed her ladyship. "But heavens above, how could the necklace +ever have got there? Nobody could by any possibility have entered the +boudoir after I left it to run down to the landing with the lint. +You saw for yourself how utterly impossible such a thing as that +would be." + +"To be sure," he admitted. "It was the absolute certainty that +nobody in the world could have actually forced the key to the +solution upon me. Since it was possible for only one solitary person +to have entered and left that room since Sir Mawson placed the +necklace in your charge, clearly then that person was the one who +carried it out. Therefore, there was but one conclusion, namely, that +when your ladyship left that room the Ladder of Light left it +with you: on your person, and----Gently, gently, Lady Leake; don't +get excited, I beg. I shall be able in a moment to convince you +that my reasoning upon that point was quite sound, and to back it +up with actual proof. + +"If you will examine the necklace, Sir Mawson, you will see that +it has not come through this adventure uninjured; in short, that +one of the two sections of its clasp is missing, and the link that +once secured that section to the string of diamonds has parted in +the middle. Perhaps a good deal which may have seemed to you sheer +madness up to this point will be clearly explained when I tell you +that when I lifted Lady Leake's negligée from that chair a while +ago I found this thing clinging to the lace of the right sleeve." + +"Good heavens above! Look, Ada, look! The missing section of the +clasp." + +"Exactly," concurred Cleek. "And when you think of where I found it I +fancy it will not be very difficult to reason out how the necklace +came to be where Jennifer picked it up. On your own evidence, +Lady Leake, you hastily laid it down on your dressing-table, when +the sight of the lint bandage recalled to your mind your promise to +Miss Eastman, and from that moment it was never seen again. The +natural inference then is so clear I think there can hardly be a +doubt that when you reached over to pick up that bandage the lace +of your sleeve caught on the clasp, became entangled, and that when +you left the room you carried the Ladder of Light with you. The +great weight of the necklace swinging free as you ran down the +staircase would naturally tell upon that weak link, and no doubt +when you leaned over the banister at the landing to call Jennifer, +that was, so to speak, the last straw. The weak link snapped, the +necklace dropped away, and the thick carpet entirely muffled the +sound of its fall. As for the rest----" + +The loud jangling of the door bell cut in upon his words. He pulled +out his watch and looked at it. + +"That will be the Ranee's _major domo_, I fancy, Sir Mawson," he +observed, "and with your kind permission Mr. Narkom and I will be +going. We have, as I have already told you, a little matter of +importance still to attend to in the interest of the Yard, and +although I haven't the slightest idea we shall be able to carry it +to a satisfactory conclusion for a very long time--if ever--we had +better be about it. Pardon? Reward, your ladyship? Oh, but I've had +that: Sir Mawson has given me his promise to let that bonny boy have +another chance. That was all I asked, remember. There's good stuff +in him, but he stands at the crossroads, and face to face with one +of life's great crises. Now is the time when he needs a friend. +Now is the time for his father to _be_ a father; and opportunity +counts for so much in the devil's gamble for souls. Get to him, +daddy--get to him and stand by him--and you'll have given me the +finest reward in the world." + +And here, making his adieus to Lady Leake, whose wet eyes followed +him with something of reverence in them, and shaking heartily the +hand Sir Mawson held out, he linked arms with Narkom, and together +they passed out, leaving a great peace and a great joy behind them. + +"Gad, what an amazing beggar you are!" declared the superintendent, +breaking silence suddenly as soon as they were at a safe distance +from the house. "You'll end your days in the workhouse, you know, +if you continue this sort of tactics. Fancy chucking up a reward +for the sake of a chap you never saw before, and who treated you +like a mere nobody. Why, man alive, you could have had almost any +reward--a thousand pounds if you'd asked it--for finding a priceless +thing like that." + +"I fancy I've helped to find something that is more priceless still, +my friend, and it's cheap at the price." + +"But a thousand pounds, Cleek! a thousand pounds! God's truth, man, +think what you could do with all that money--think what you could +buy!" + +"To be sure; but think what you _can't_! Not one day of lost +innocence, not one hour of spoilt youth! It isn't because they have a +natural tendency toward evil that _all_ men go wrong. It is not +what they possess but what they lack that's at the bottom of the +downfall of four fifths of them. Given such ingredients as a young +chap suffering under a sense of personal injury, a feeling that +the world's against him, that he has neither a home nor a friend to +stand by him in his hour of need, and the devil will whip up the +mixture and manufacture a criminal in less than no time. It is +easier to save him while he's worth the saving than it is to pull +him up after he has gone down the line, Mr. Narkom, and if by +refusing to accept so many pounds, shillings, and pence, a man can do +the devil out of a favourable opportunity----Oh, well, let it go at +that. Come on, please. We are still as far as ever from the 'game' we +set out to bag, my friend; and as this district seems to be as +unpromising in that respect as all the others--where next?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +"I'm bothered if I know," returned Narkom helplessly. "Gad! I'm +at my wits' end. We seem to be as far as ever from any clue to +that devilish pair and unless you can suggest something----" He +finished the sentence by taking off his hat, and looking up at Cleek +hopefully, and patting his bald spot with a handkerchief which +diffused a more or less agreeable odour of the latest Parisian +perfume. + +"H'm!" said Cleek, reflectively. "We might cross the Heath and have +a look round Gospel Oak, if you like. It's a goodish bit of a walk +and I've no idea that it will result in anything, I frankly admit, +but it is one of the few places we have _not_ tried, so we might +have a go at that if you approve." + +"By James! yes. The very thing. There's always a chance, you know, so +long as it's a district we've never done. Gospel Oak it is, then. +And look here--I'll tell you what. You just stop here a bit and +wait for me, old chap, while I nip back to the house and ask Sir +Mawson's permission to use his telephone--to ring up the Yard as +usual, you know, and tell them in what quarter we're operating, in +case there should be reason to send anybody out to find me in a +hurry. Back with you in no time and then we'll be off to Gospel Oak +like a shot." + +"Right you are. I'll stop here under the trees and indulge in a few +comforting whiffs while you are about it. Get along!" + +Narkom paused a moment to grip his cuff between finger tips and palm, +and run his coat sleeve round the shiny surface of his "topper," +then shook out his handkerchief and returned it to his pocket, +jerked down his waistcoat and gave it one or two sharp flicks with +the backs of his nails, and before a second diffusion of scent had +evaporated, or the whimsical twist it called to Cleek's lips had +entirely vanished, the scene presented nothing more striking than an +ordinary man leaning back against a tree and engaged in scratching +a match on the side of an ordinary wooden matchbox. The Yard's +Gentleman had gone. + +It was full ten minutes later when he lurched into view again, coming +down the garden path at top speed, with one hand on his hat's crown +and the other holding the flapping skirts of his frock coat together, +and Cleek could tell from the expression of his round, pink face +that something of importance had occurred. + +It had--and he blurted it out in an outburst of joyous excitement +the moment they again stood together. The search for Dutch Ella +and Diamond Nick was at an end. The police of Paris had cabled +news of their location and arrest that very morning in the +French capital, and would hold them under lock and key until the +necessary preliminaries were over, relative to their deportation as +undesirables, and their return to Canada. + +"The news arrived less than an hour ago," he finished, "and that +wideawake young beggar, Lennard, thought it was so important that +I ought to know it as soon as possible, so he hopped on to the +limousine and put off as fast as he could streak it. He's up here in +this district now--this minute--hunting for us. Come on! let's go +and find him. By James! it's a ripping end to the business--what?" + +"That depends," replied Cleek without much enthusiasm. "Which +limousine is Lennard using to-day? The new blue one?" + +"Cinnamon, no! That won't be delivered until the day after to-morrow. +So it will be the good old red one, of course. Will it matter?" + +"Come and see!" said Cleek, swinging out of the grounds into the +public highway again, and walking fast. "At all events, an ounce +of certainty is worth a pound of suspicion, and this little _faux +pas_ will decide the question. They are no fools, those Apaches; +and Waldemar knows how to wait patiently for what he wants." + +"Waldemar? The Apaches? Good lud, man, what are you talking about? +You are not worrying over that business again, I hope. Haven't I +told you over and over again that we couldn't find one trace of them +anywhere in London--that they cleared out bag and baggage after that +fruitless trip to Yorkshire? The whole truth of the matter, to my +way of thinking, is that they awoke then to the fact that you had +'dropped' to their being after you, and knowing you weren't to be +caught napping, gave it up as a bad job." + +"Or altered their tactics and set out to follow some one else." + +"Some one else? Good lud, don't talk rubbish. What good would +following some one else do if they were after you?" + +"Come and see," said Cleek again, and would say no more, but +merely walked on faster than ever--up one thoroughfare and down +another--flicking eager glances to right and to left in search of +the red limousine. + +In the thick of the High Street they caught sight of it at last, +tooling about aimlessly, while Lennard kept constant watch on the +crowd of shoppers that moved up and down the pavement. + +"Cut ahead and stop it and we shall see what we _shall_ see, Mr. +Narkom. I'll join you presently," said Cleek, and he stood watching +while the superintendent forged ahead in the direction of the +limousine; and continued watching even after he saw him reach it and +bring it to a halt, and stand at the kerb talking earnestly with +Lennard. + +But of a sudden the old crooked smile looped up the corner of his +mouth; he stood at attention for a moment or two, breathing hard +through his nostrils, and moving not at all until, abruptly starting +into activity, he walked rapidly down the pavement and joined Narkom. + +"Well?" queried the superintendent, looking up at him quizzically. +"Come to any decision, old chap?" + +"Yes--and so will you in a second. Don't turn--don't do anything +hastily. Just look across the street, at the jeweller's window, +opposite, and tell me what you think of it." + +Narkom's swift, sidelong glance travelled over the distance like a +gunshot, arrowed through the small collection of persons gathered +about the shop window inspecting the display of trinkets, and every +nerve in his body jumped. + +"Good God! Waldemar!" he said, under his breath. + +"Exactly. I told you he knew how to wait. Now look farther along the +kerb on this side. The closed carriage waiting there. It was dawdling +along and keeping pace with him when I saw it first. The man on the +box is a fellow named Serpice--an Apache. _Chut!_ Be still, will +you?--and look the other way. They will do me no harm--_here_. It +isn't their game, and, besides, they daren't. It is too public, +too dangerous. It will be done, when it is done, in the dark--when +I'm alone, and none can see. And Waldemar will not be there. He will +direct, but not participate. But it won't be to-day nor yet to-night, +I promise you. I shall slip them this time if never again." + +The superintendent spoke, but the hard hammering of his heart made +his voice scarcely audible. + +"How?" he asked. "How?" + +"Come and see!" said Cleek for yet a third time. Then with an +abruptness and a swiftness that carried everything before it, he +caught Narkom by the arm, swept him across the street, and without +hint or warning tapped Waldemar upon the shoulder. + +"Ah, bon jour, Monsieur le Comte," he said airily, as the Mauravanian +swung round and looked at him, blanching a trifle in spite of +himself. "So you are back in England, it seems? Ah, well, we like +you so much--tell his Majesty when next you report--that this time we +shall try to keep you here." + +Taken thus by assault, the man had no words in which to answer, +but merely wormed his way out of the gathering about him and, panic +stricken, obliterated himself in the crowd of pedestrians teeming +up and down the street. + +"You reckless devil!" wheezed Narkom as he was swept back to the +limousine in the same cyclonic manner he had been swept away from it. +"You might have made the man savage enough to do something to you, +even in spite of the publicity, by such a proceeding as that." + +"That is precisely what I had hoped to do, my friend, but you +perceive he is no fool to be trapped into that. We should have had +some excuse for arresting him if he had done a thing of that sort, +some charge to prefer against him, whereas, as matters stand, +there's not one we can bring forward that holds good in law or +that we could _prove_ if our lives depended upon it. You see now, +I hope, Mr. Narkom, why you have seen nothing of him lately?" + +"No--why?" + +"You have not used the red limousine, and he has been lying low ready +to follow that, just as I suspected he would. If he couldn't trace +where Cleek goes to meet the red limousine, clearly then the plan +to be adopted must be to follow the red limousine and see where it +goes to meet Cleek, and then to follow that much-wanted individual +when he parts from you and makes his way home. That is the thing the +fellow is after. To find out where I live and to 'get' me some +night out there. But, my friend, 'turn about is fair play' the world +over, and having had his inning at hunting me, I'm going in for mine +at hunting him. I'll get him; I'll trap him into something for which +he can be turned over to the law--make no mistake about that." + +"My hat! What do you mean to do?" + +"First and foremost, make my getaway out of the present little +corner," he replied, "and then rely upon your assistance in finding +out where the beggar is located. We're not done with him even for +to-day. He will follow--either he or Serpice: perhaps both--the +instant Lennard starts off with us." + +"You are going back with us in the limousine, then?" + +"Yes--part of the way. Drive on, Lennard, until you can spot a +plain-clothes man, then give him the signal to follow us. At the +first station on the Tube or the Underground, pull up sharp and let +me out. You, Mr. Narkom, alight with me and stand guard at the +station entrance while I go down to the train. If either Waldemar +or an Apache makes an attempt to follow, arrest him on the spot, +on any charge you care to trump up--it doesn't matter so that it +holds him until my train goes--and as soon as it has gone, call up +your plain-clothes man, point out Serpice to him, and tell him to +follow and to stick to the fellow until he meets Waldemar, if it +takes a week to accomplish it, and then to shadow his precious +countship and find out where he lives. Tell him for me that there's a +ten-pound note in it for him the moment he can tell me where Waldemar +is located; and to stick to his man until he runs him down. Now, +then, hop in, Mr. Narkom, and let's be off. The other chap will +follow, be assured. All right, Lennard. Let her go!" + +Lennard 'let her go' forthwith, and a quarter of an hour later saw +the programme carried out in every particular, only that it was not +Waldemar who made an attempt to follow when the limousine halted +at the Tube station and Cleek jumped out and ran in (the count was +far too shrewd for that); it was a rough-looking Frenchman who had +just previously hopped out of a closed carriage driven by a fellow +countryman, only to be nabbed at the station doorway by Narkom, and +turned over to the nearest constable on the charge of pocket picking. + +The charge, however, was so manifestly groundless that half a dozen +persons stepped forward and entered protest; but the superintendent +was so pig-headed that by the time he could be brought to reason, +and the man was again at liberty to take his ticket and go down in +the lift to the train, the platform was empty, the train gone, and +Cleek already on his way. + +A swift, short flight under the earth's surface carried him to +another station in quite another part of London; a swift, short +walk thence landed him at his temporary lodgings in town, and four +o'clock found him exchanging his workaday clothes for the regulation +creased trousers and creaseless coat of masculine calling costume, +and getting ready to spend the rest of the day with _her_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +The sky was all aflame with the glory of one of late June's gorgeous +sunsets when he came up over the long sweep of meadowland and saw +her straying about and gathering wild flowers to fill the vases in +the wee house's wee little drawing-room, and singing to herself the +while in a voice that was like honey--thin but very, very sweet--and +at the sight something seemed to lay hold of his heart and quicken +its beating until it interfered with his breathing, yet brought with +it a curious sense of joy. + +"Good afternoon, Mistress of the Linnets!" he called out to her as +he advanced (for she had neither seen nor heard his coming) with the +big sheaf of roses he had brought held behind him and the bracken +and kingcups smothering him in green and gold up to the very thighs. + +She turned at the sound, her face illumined, her soft eyes very +bright--those wondrous eyes that had lit a man's way back from +perdition and would light it onward and upward to the end--and +greeted him with a smile of happy welcome. + +"Oh, it is you at last," she said, looking at him as a woman looks +at but one man ever. "Is this your idea of 'spending the afternoon' +with one, turning up when tea is over and twilight about to begin? +Do you know, I am a very busy young woman these days"--blushing +rosily--"and might have spent a whole day in town shopping but +that Dollops brought me word that I might look for you? But, of +course----No! I shan't say it. It might make you vain to hear that +you had the power to spoil my day." + +"Not any vainer than you have made me by telling me other things," he +retorted with a laugh. "I am afraid I have spoiled a good many days +for you in my time, Ailsa. But, please God, I shall make up for them +all in the brightness of the ones that are to come. I couldn't help +being late to-day--I'll tell you all about that presently--but may I +offer something in atonement? Please, will you add these to your +bouquet and forgive me?" + +"Roses! Such beauties! How good of you! Just smell! How divine!" + +"Meaning the flowers or their donor?"--quizzically. "Or, no! Don't +elucidate. Leave me in blissful ignorance. You have hurt my vanity +quite enough as it is. I was deeply mortified--cut to the quick, +I may say, if that will express my sense of grovelling shame any +clearer--when I arrived here and saw what you were doing. Please, +mum"--touching his forelock and scraping his foot backward after +the manner of a groom--"did I make such a bad job of my work in +that garden that when you want a bouquet you have to come out here +and gather wild flowers? I put fifty-eight standard roses on that +terrace just under your bedroom window, and surely there must be a +bloom or two that you could gather?" + +"As if I would cut one of them for anything in the world!" she gave +back, indignantly. Then she laughed, and blushed and stepped back +from his impetuous advance. "No--please! You fished for that so +adroitly that you landed it before I thought. Be satisfied. Besides, +Mrs. Condiment is at her window, and I want to preserve as much as +possible of her rapidly depreciating estimate of me. She thinks +me a very frivolous young person, 'to allow that young Mr. Hamilton +to call so frequent, miss, and if you'll allow me to say it, at such +unseemly hours. I don't think as dear Captain Burbage would quite +approve of it if he knew.'" + +"Gad! that's rich. What a mimic you are. It was the dear old girl +to the life. She hasn't an inkling of the truth, then?" + +"Not one. She doesn't quite approve of you, either. 'I likes to see +a gent more circumpec', miss, and a trifle more reserved when he's +gettin' on his thirties. Muckin' about with a garden fork and such +among a trumpery lot of roses, and racin' here, there, and everywhere +over them medders after ferns and things, like a schoolboy on a +holiday, aren't what I calls dignified deportment in full-grown +men, and in my day they didn't use to do it!' Sometimes I am in +mortal terror that she intends to give me notice and to leave me bag +and baggage; for she is always saying that she's 'sure dear Captain +Burbage couldn't have known what he was a-doing of, poor, innocent, +kind-hearted gentleman--and him so _much_ of a gent, too, and so +wonderful quiet and sedate!'" + +"Poor old girl!" said Cleek, laughing. "What a shock to her if she +knew the truth. And what on earth _would_ you do if she were to +chance to get a peep at Dollops? But then, of course, there's no fear +of that--the young beggar's too careful. I told him never to come +near the house when he carries any notes." + +"And he never does. Always leaves them under the stone in the path +through the woods. I go there, of course, twice every day, and I +never know that he has been about until I find one. I am always glad +to get them, but to-day's one made me very, very happy indeed." + +"Because I told you you might expect me?" + +"Yes. But not that alone. I think I cried a little and I _know_ I +went down on my knees--right there--out in those woods, when I read +those splendid words, 'There is but one more debt to be paid. The +"some day" of my hopes is near to me at last.'" + +Her voice died off. He uncovered his head, and a stillness came that +was not broken by any sound or any movement, until he felt her hand +slip into his and remain there. + +"Walk with me!" he said, closing his fingers around hers and holding +them fast. "Walk with me always. My God! I love you so!" + +"Always!" she made answer in her gentle voice; and with her hand +shut tight in his, passed onward with him--over the green meadows +and into the dim, still woods, and out again into the flower-filled +fields beyond, where all the sky was golden after the fierce hues +of the sunset had drained away into the tender gleam of twilight, +and there was not one red ray left to cross the path of him. + +"You have led me this way from the first," he said, breaking silence +suddenly. "Out of the glare of fire, through the dark, into peaceful +light. I had gone down to hell but for you--but that you stooped +and lifted me. God!"--he threw back his head and looked upward, with +his hat in his hand and the light on his face--"God, forget me if +ever I forget that. Amen!" he added, very quietly, very earnestly; +then dropped his chin until it rested on his breast, and was very +still for a long time. + + * * * * * + +"Yes," he said, taking up the thread of conversation where it had +been broken so long a time ago, "there is but one more debt to be +cleared off: the value of the Princess Goroski's tiara. A thousand +pounds will wipe that off--it was not a very expensive one--and I +could have had that sum to-day if I had thought of myself alone. +Mr. Narkom thinks me a fool. I wonder what you will think when you +hear?" And forthwith he told her. + +"If you are again 'fishing'," she replied with a quizzical smile, +"then again you are going to be successful. I think you a hero. Kiss +me, please. I am very, very proud of you. And that was what made you +late in coming, was it?" + +"Not altogether that. I might have been earlier but that we ran +foul of Waldemar and the Apaches again, and I had to lose time in +shaking them off. But I ought not to have told you that. You will +be getting nervous. It was a shock to Mr. Narkom. He was so sure +they had given up the job and returned home." + +"I, too, was sure. I should have thought that the rebellion would +have compelled that, in Count Waldemar's case at least," she +answered, gravely. "And particularly in such a grave crisis as his +country is now called upon to face. Have you seen to-day's papers? +They are full of it. Count Irma and the revolutionists have piled +victory on victory. They are now at the very gates of the capital; +the royal army is disorganized, its forces going over in hordes to +the insurgents; the king is in a very panic and preparing, it is +reported, to fly before the city falls." + +"A judgment, Alburtus, a judgment!" Cleek cried with such vehemence +that it startled her. "Your son drinks of the cup you prepared for +Karma's. The same cup, the same result: dethronement, flight, exile +in the world's wildernesses, and perhaps--death. Well done, Irma! +A judgment on you, Mauravania. You pay! You pay!" + +"How wonderful you are--you seem to know everything!" declared Ailsa. +"But in this at least you appear to be misinformed, dear. I have been +reading the reports faithfully and it seems that death was not +the end of all who shared in Queen Karma's exile and flight. Count +Irma is telling a tale which is calling recruits to the standard +of the revolutionists hourly. The eldest son--the Crown Prince +Maximilian--is still alive. The count swears to that; swears that +he has seen him; that he knows where to find him at any moment. The +special correspondent of the _Times_ writes that everywhere the +demand is for the Restoration, the battle cry of the insurgents +'Maximilian!' and the whole country ringing with it." + +"I can quite believe it," he said, with one of his queer, crooked +smiles. "They are an excitable people, the Mauravanians, but, +unfortunately, a fickle one as well. It is up to-day and down +to-morrow with them. At present the cry is for Maximillian; this time +next month it may be for Irma and a republican form of government, +and--Maximillian may go hang for all they want of him. Still, if +they maintain the present cry--and the House of Alburtus falls--and +the followers of Irma win----But what's the use of bothering about +it? Let us talk of things that have a personal interest for us, +dear. Give me to-morrow, if you can. I shall have a whole day's +freedom for the first time in weeks. The water lilies are in bloom in +the upper reaches of the Thames and my soul is simply crying for the +river's solitudes, the lilies, the silence, and _you_! I want +you--all to myself--up there, among God's things. Give me the day, +if you can." + +She gave him not one but many, as it turned out; for that one day +proved such a magic thing that she was only too willing to repeat it, +and as the Yard had no especial need of him, and the plain-clothes +man who had been set upon Waldemar's track had as yet nothing to +report, it grew to be a regular habit with him to spend the long days +up in the river solitudes with Ailsa, picnicking among the swans, +and to come home to Dollops at night tired, but very happy. + +It went on like this for more than ten days, uninterruptedly; but at +length there came a time when an entry in his notebook warned him +that there was something he could not put off any longer--something +that must certainly be attended to to-morrow, in town, early--and he +went to bed that night with the melancholy feeling that the next day +could only be a half holiday, not a whole one, and that his hours +with her would be few. + +But when that to-morrow came he knew that even these were to be +denied him; for the long-deferred call of the Yard had come, and +Narkom, ringing him up at breakfast time, asked for an immediate +meeting. + +"In town, dear chap, as near to Liverpool Street and as early as you +can possibly make it." + +"Well, I can't make it earlier than half-past ten. I've got a +little private business of my own to attend to, as it happens, Mr. +Narkom," he replied. "I'd put it off if I could, but I can't. +To-day before noon is the last possible hour. But look here! I +can meet you at half-past ten in Bishopsgate Street, between St. +Ethelburga's Church and Bevis Narks, if that will do. Will, eh? +All right. Be on the lookout for me there, then. What? The new +blue limousine, eh? Right you are. I'm your man to the tick of the +half hour. Good-bye!" + +And he was, as it turned out. For the new blue limousine (a +glistening, spic-span sixty-horsepower machine, perfect in every +detail) had no more than come to a standstill at the kerb in the +exact neighbourhood stated at the exact half hour agreed upon, +when open whisked the door, and in jumped Cleek with the swiftness +and agility of a cat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +"Good morning, my friend. I hope I haven't taken you too much by +surprise," he said, as the limousine sprang into activity the +instant he closed the door, and settled himself down beside the +superintendent. + +"Not more than usual, dear chap. But I shall never get quite used to +some of your little tricks. Gad! You're the most abnormally prompt +beggar that ever existed, I do believe. You absolutely break all +records." + +"Well, I certainly came within a hair's breadth of losing my +reputation this morning, then," he answered cheerily, as he fumbled +in his pockets for a match. "It was a hard pull to cover the +distance and get through the business in time, I can tell you, +with the brief margin I had. But fortunately----Here! Take charge +of that, will you? And read it over while I'm getting a light." + +"That" was a long legal-looking envelope which he had whisked out of +his pocket and tossed into Narkom's lap. + +"'Royal British Life Assurance Society,'" repeated he, reading +off the single line printed on the upper left-hand corner of the +envelope. "What the dickens----I say, is it a policy?" + +"Aha!" assented Cleek, with his mouth full of smoke. "The medico who +put me through my paces, some time ago, reported me sound in wind and +limb, and warranted not to bite, shy, or kick over the traces, and I +was duly ordered to turn up at the London office before noon on a +given day to sign up (and pay down) and receive that interesting +document, otherwise my application would be void, et cetera. This, +as it happens, is the 'given day' in question; and as the office +doesn't open for business before ten A. M., and there wasn't the +least likelihood of my being able to get back to it before noon, +when you were calling for me--'there you have the whole thing in a +nutshell,' as the old woman said when she poisoned the filberts." + +Meanwhile, Narkom had opened the envelope and glanced over the +document it contained. He now sat up with a jerk and voiced a cry of +amazement. + +"Good Lord, deliver us!" he exclaimed. "In favour of Dollops!" + +"Yes," said Cleek. "He's a faithful little monkey and--I've nothing +else to leave him. There's always a chance, you know--with Margot's +lot and Waldemar's. I shouldn't like to think of the boy being forced +back into the streets if--anything should happen to me." + +"Well, I'll be----What a man! What a man! Cleek, my dear, dear +friend--my comrade--my pal----" + +"Chuck it! Scotland Yard with the snuffles is enough to make the +gods shriek, you dear old footler! Why, God bless your old soul, +I----Brakes on! Let's talk about the new limousine. She's a beauty, +isn't she? Locker, mirror: just like the old red one, and----Hello! +I say, you are taking me into the country, I perceive; we've left +the town behind us." + +"Yes; we're bound for Darsham." + +"Darsham? That's in Suffolk, isn't it? And about ninety-five miles +from Liverpool Street Station, as the crow flies. So our little +business to-day is to be an out-of-town affair, eh? Well, let's have +it. What's the case? Burglary?" + +"No--murder. Happened last night. Got the news over the telephone +this morning. Nearly bowled me over when I heard it, by James! for I +saw the man alive--in town--only the day before yesterday. It's a +murder of a peculiarly cunning and cleverly contrived character, +Cleek, with no apparent motive, and absolutely no clue as to what +means the assassin used to kill his victim, nor how he managed to get +in and out of the place in which the crime was committed. There +isn't the slightest mark on the body. The man was not shot, not +stabbed, not poisoned, nor did he die from natural causes. There is +no trace of a struggle, yet the victim's face shows that he died in +great agony, and was beyond all question the object of a murderous +attack." + +"Hum-m!" said Cleek, stroking his chin. "Sounds interesting, at all +events. Let's have the facts of the case, please. But first, who was +the victim? Anybody of importance?" + +"Of very great importance--in the financial world," replied Narkom. +"He is--or, rather, was--an American multi-millionaire; inventor, +to speak by the card, of numerous electrical devices which brought +him wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and carried his fame all +over the civilized world. You will, no doubt, have heard of him. His +name is Jefferson P. Drake." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, arching his eyebrows. "That man, eh? Oh, yes, I've +heard of him often enough--very nearly everybody in England has by +this time. Chap who conceived the idea of bettering the conditions +of the poor by erecting art galleries that were to be filled and +supported out of the rates and, more or less modestly, to be known +by the donor's name. That's the man, isn't it?" + +"Yes, that's the man." + +"Just so. Stop a bit! Let's brush up my memory a trifle. Of +English extraction, wasn't he? And, having made his money in his +own native country, came to that of his father to spend it? Had +social aspirations, too, I believe; and, while rather vulgar in +his habits and tastes, was exceedingly warm-hearted--indeed, +actually lovable--and made up for his own lack of education by +spending barrels of money upon that of his son. Came to England +something more than a year ago, if I remember rightly; bought a fine +old place down in Suffolk, and proceeded forthwith to modernize it +after the most approved American ideas--steam heat, electric +lights, a refrigerating plant for the purpose of supplying the ice +and the creams and the frozen sweets so necessary to the American +palate; all that sort of thing, and set out forthwith to establish +himself as a sumptuous entertainer on the very largest possible +scale. That's the 'lay of the land,' isn't it?" + +"Yes, that's it precisely. The estate he purchased was Heatherington +Hall, formerly Lord Fallowfield's place. The entail was broken +ages ago, but no Fallowfield ever attempted to part with the place +until his present lordship's time. And although he has but one +child, a daughter, I don't suppose that he would have been tempted +to do so, either, but that he was badly crippled--almost ruined, +in fact--last year by unlucky speculations in the stock market, with +the result that it was either sell out to Jefferson P. Drake or be +sold out by his creditors. Naturally, he chose the former course. +That it turned out to be a most excellent thing for him you will +understand when I tell you that Drake conceived an almost violent +liking for him and his daughter, Lady Marjorie Wynde, and not only +insisted upon their remaining at Heatherington Hall as his guests +in perpetuity, but designed eventually to bring the property back +into the possession of the original 'line' by a marriage between +Lady Marjorie and his son." + +"Effective if not very original," commented Cleek, with one of his +curious one-sided smiles. "And how did the parties most concerned +view this promising little plan? Were they agreeable to the +arrangement?" + +"Not they. As a matter of fact, both have what you may call a 'heart +interest' elsewhere. Lady Marjorie, who, although she is somewhat +of a 'Yes, papa,' and 'Please, papa,' young lady, and could, no +doubt, be induced to sacrifice herself for the family good, is, it +appears, engaged to a young lieutenant who will one day come in +for money, but hasn't more than enough to pay his mess bills at +present, I believe. As for young Jim Drake--why, matters were even +worse with _him_. It turns out that he'd found the girl _he_ wanted +before he left the States, and it took him just about twenty seconds +to make his father understand that he'd be shot, hanged, drawn, +quartered, or even reduced to mincemeat, before he'd give up that +girl or marry any other, at any time or at any cost, from now to +the Judgment Day." + +"Bravo!" said Cleek, slapping his palms together. "That's the spirit. +That's the boy for my money, Mr. Narkom! Get a good woman and stick +to her, through thick and thin, at all hazards and at any cost. The +jockey who 'swaps horses' in the middle of a race never yet came +first under the wire nor won a thing worth having. Well, what was +the result of this plain speaking on the young man's part? Pleasant +or unpleasant?" + +"Oh, decidedly unpleasant. The father flew into a rage, swore by all +that was holy, and by a great deal that wasn't, that he'd cut him +off 'without one red cent,' whatever that may mean, if he ever +married that particular girl; and as that particular girl--who is +as poor as Job's turkey, by the way--happened by sheer perversity +of fortune to have landed in England that very day, in company +with an eminent literary person whose secretary she had been for +some two or three years past, away marched the son, took out a +special license, and married her on the spot." + +"Well done, independence! I like that boy more than ever, Mr. Narkom. +What followed? Did the father relent, or did he invite the pair of +them to clear out and hoe their own row in future?" + +"He did neither; he simply ignored their existence. Young Drake +brought his wife down to Suffolk and took rooms at a village inn, +and then set out to interview his father. When he arrived at the +Hall he was told by the lodgekeeper that strangers weren't admitted, +and, on his asking to have his name sent in, was informed that +the lodgekeeper had 'never heard of no sich person as Mr. James +Drake--that there wasn't none, and that the master said there never +had been, neither'--and promptly double-locked the gates. What young +James Drake did after that it appears that nobody knows, for nobody +saw him again until this morning; and it was only yesterday, I +must tell you, that he made that unsuccessful attempt to get into the +place to see his father. _He_ says, however, that he spent the time +in going over to Ipswich and back in the hope of seeing a friend +there to whom he might apply for work. He says, too, that when he +got there he found that that friend--an American acquaintance--had +given up his rooms the day before, and rushed off to Italy in +answer to a cable from his sister; or so, at least, the landlady +told him." + +"Which, of course, the landlady can be relied upon to corroborate if +there is any question regarding the matter? Is there?" + +"Well, he seems to think that there may be. He's the client, you +must know. It was he that gave me the details over the telephone, +and asked me to put you on the case. As he says himself, it's +easy enough to prove about his having gone to Ipswich to see his +friend, but it isn't so easy to prove about his coming back in the +manner he did. It seems he was too late for any return train, that he +hadn't money enough left in the world to waste any by taking a +private conveyance, so he walked back; and that, as it's a goodish +stretch of country, and he didn't know the way, and couldn't at +night find anybody to ask, he lost himself more than once, with the +consequence that it was daylight when he got back to the inn, where +his frightened wife sat awaiting him, never having gone to bed nor +closed an eye all night, poor girl, fearing that some accident had +befallen him. But, be that as it may, Cleek, during those hours he +was absent his father was mysteriously murdered in a round box of +a room in which he had locked himself, and to which, owing to +structural arrangements, it would seem impossible for anything to +have entered; and, as young Drake rightly says, the worst of it is +that the murder followed so close upon the heels of his quarrel +and promised disinheritance, that his father had no time to alter +the will which left him sole heir to everything; so that possibly +people will talk." + +"Undoubtedly," agreed Cleek. "And yet you said there was no motive +and absolutely no clue. M' yes! I wonder if I shall like this +independent young gentleman quite so well after I have seen him." + +"Oh, my dear fellow! Good heavens, man, you can't possibly think of +suspecting him. Remember, it is he himself who brings the case--that +the Yard would never have had anything to do with it but for him." + +"Quite so. But the local constabulary would; and the simplest way +to blind a jackass is to throw dust in his eyes. They are natural +born actors, the Americans; they are good schemers and fine planners. +Their native game is 'bluff,' and they are very, very careful in +the matter of detail." + +Then he pinched up his chin and sat silent for a moment, watching +the green fields and the pleasant farmlands as the limousine went +pelting steadily on. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +"Suppose, now, that you have succeeded in putting the cart before +the horse, Mr. Narkom," Cleek said suddenly, "you proceed to give +me, not the ramifications of the case, but the case itself. You +have repeatedly spoken of the murder having taken place in some +place which is difficult of access and under most mystifying +circumstances. Now, if you don't mind, I should like to hear what +those circumstances are." + +"All right, old chap, I'll give you the details as briefly as +possible. In the first place, you must know that Heatherington Hall +is a very ancient place, dating back, indeed, to those pleasant +times when a nobleman's home had to be something of a fortress as +well, if he didn't want to wake up some fine morning and find his +place 'sacked,' his roof burnt over his head, and himself and his +lady either held for ransom or freed from any possibility of having +'headaches' thereafter. Now, a round tower with only one door by +which to enter, and no windows other than narrow slits, through +which the bowmen could discharge their shafts at an attacking party +without exposing themselves to the dangers of a return fire, was the +usual means of defence adopted--you'll see dozens of them in Suffolk, +dear chap, but whether for reasons of economy or merely to carry +out some theory of his own, the first lord of Heatherington Hall +did not stick to the general plan. + +"In brief, instead of building a tall tower rising from the ground +itself, he chose to erect upon the roof of the west wing of the +building a lower but more commodious one than was customary. That +is to say, that while his tower was less than half the height of +any other in the country, its circumference was twice as great, +and, by reason of the double supply of bowman's slits, equally as +effective in withstanding a siege; and, indeed, doubly difficult to +assault, as before an invading force could get to the door of the +place it would have to fight its way up through the main building +to reach the level of it. + +"Now, owing to the peculiarity of its construction--it is not more +than eighteen feet high--the fact that it contained but one circular +room, and all those bowman slits in the walls of it, this unusual +'tower' gained an equally unusual name for itself, and became +known everywhere as the 'Stone Drum of Heatherington,' and is even +mentioned by that name in the _Inquisitio Eliensis_ of the "Domesday +Book," which, as you doubtless know, is the particular volume of +that remarkable work which records the survey, et cetera, of the +counties of Cambridge, Hertford, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and +Huntingdon." + +"I see," said Cleek, with an amused twinkle in his eye. "You are +getting on, Mr. Narkom. We shall have you lecturing on archæology +one of these fine days. But to return to our mutton--or, rather, +our stone drum--was it in that place, then, that the murder was +committed?" + +"Yes. It is one of the few, very few, parts of the building to +which Mr. Jefferson P. Drake did nothing in the way of modernizing, +and added nothing in the way of 'improvements.' That, probably, +was because, as it stood, it offered him a quiet, secluded, and +exclusive retreat for the carrying on of his experiments; for +wealth had brought with it no inclination to retire, and he remained +to the last in the lists of the world's active forces. As a general +thing, he did not do much in the way of burning the midnight oil, +but conducted most of his experiments in the daytime. But last +night was an exception. It may be that the news of his son's +appeal to the lodgekeeper that afternoon had upset him, for he was +restless and preoccupied all the evening, Lord Fallowfield says--or, +at least, so young Drake reports him as having said--and instead of +retiring with the rest of the house party when bedtime came and +his Japanese valet carried up his customary carafe of ice-water----" + +"Oh, he has a Japanese valet, has he? But, of course, in these days +no American gentleman with any pretence to distinction whatsoever +would be without one. Go on, please. His Japanese valet carried up +the ice-water, and--then what?" + +"Then he suddenly announced his intention of going into the Stone +Drum and working for a few hours. Lord Fallowfield, it appears, tried +his best to dissuade him, but to no purpose." + +"Why did he do that? Or don't you know?" + +"Yes. I asked that very question myself. I was told that it was +because his lordship saw very plainly that he was labouring under +strong mental excitement, and he thought that rest would be the +best thing for him in the circumstances. Then, too, his lordship +and he are warmly attached to each other. In fact, the earl was +as fond of him as if he had been a brother. As well he ought to be, +by James! when you recollect that before he got the idea into his +head of marrying his son to Lady Marjorie he added a codicil to his +will bequeathing the place to Lord Fallowfield, together with all +the acres and acres of land he had added to it, and all the art +treasures he had collected, absolutely free from death duties." + +"Oho!" said Cleek, then smiled and pinched his chin and said no more. + +"Well, it appears that when his lordship found that he couldn't +make the stubborn old johnnie change his mind, he accompanied him to +the Stone Drum, together with the valet, to see that everything was +as it should be, and that nothing was wanting that might tend to the +comfort and convenience of a night worker. When there was nothing +more that could be done, the valet was dismissed, his lordship +said good-night to his friend and left him there alone, hearing, as +he passed along the railed walk over the roof of the wing to the +building proper (a matter of some twenty-odd feet) the sound of +the bolt being shot, the bar put on, and the key being turned as +Mr. Drake locked himself in. + +"What happened from that moment, Cleek, nobody knows. At seven +o'clock this morning the valet, going to his master's room with +his shaving-water, found that he had never gone to bed at all, +and, on hastening to the Stone Drum, found that a light was still +burning within and faintly illuminating the bowman's slits; but +although he knocked on the door and called again and again to his +master, he could get no answer. Alarmed, he aroused the entire +household; but despite the fact that a dozen persons endeavoured to +get word from the man within, not so much as a whisper rewarded +them. The bolt was still 'shot,' the bar still on, the key still +turned on the inner side of the door, so they could force no entry +to the place; and it was never until the village blacksmith had +been called in and his sledge had battered down the age-weakened +masonry in which that door was set that any man knew for certain +what that burning light and that unbroken silence portended. When, +however, they finally got into the place there lay the once famous +inventor at full length on the oaken floor close to the barred +door, as dead as George Washington, and with never a sign of what +killed him either on the body or in any part of the place. Yet +the first look at his distorted features was sufficient to prove +that he had died in agony, and the position of the corpse showed +clearly that when the end came he was endeavouring to get to the +door." + +"Heart failure, possibly," said Cleek. + +"Not a hope of it," replied Narkom. "A doctor was sent for +immediately; fortunately one of the most famous surgeons in England +happened to be in the neighbourhood at the time--called down from +town to perform an operation. He is willing, so young Mr. Drake +tells me, to stake his professional reputation that the man's +heart was as sound as a guinea; that he had not imbibed one drop +of anything poisonous; that he had not been asphyxiated, as, of +course, he couldn't have been, for the bowman's slits in the wall +gave free ventilation to the place, if nothing more; that he had +not been shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned, but, nevertheless, he had +died by violence, and that violence was not, and could not be, +attributed to suicide, for there was everything to prove to the +contrary. In short, that whatever had attacked him had done so +unexpectedly and while he was busy at his work-table, for there +was the chair lying on its back before it, just as it had fallen +over when he jumped up from his seat, and there on the 'working plan' +he was drawing up was the pen lying on a blob of India ink, just +as it had dropped from his hand when he was stricken. Some +murderous force had entered that room, and passed out of it +again, leaving the door barred, bolted, and locked upon the +inside. Some weapon had been used, and yet no weapon was there and +no trace upon the body to indicate what its character might be. +Indeed, everything in the room was precisely as it had been when +Lord Fallowfield walked out last night and left him, beyond the +fact of the overturned chair and a little puddle of clear water +lying about a yard or so from the work-table and, owing to the +waxing and polishing, not yet absorbed by the wood of the floor. As +no one could account for the presence of that, and as it was the +only thing there which might offer a possible clue to the mystery, +the doctor took a small sample of that water and analyzed it. It +was simply plain, everyday, common, or garden pure water, and +nothing more, without the slightest trace of any foreign matter or +of any poisonous substance in it whatsoever. There, old chap, +that's the 'case'--that's the little riddle you're asked to come +down and solve. What do you make of it, eh?" + +"Tell you better when I've seen Mr. James Drake and Lord Fallowfield +and--the doctor," said Cleek, and would say no more than that for +the present. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +It was somewhere in the neighbourhood of half-past three when the +opportunity to interview those three persons was finally vouchsafed +him; and it may be recorded at once that the meeting did some +violence to his emotions. In short, he found Mr. James Drake (far +from being the frank-faced, impulsive, lovable young pepper-pot which +his actions and words would seem to stand sponsor for) a rather +retiring young man of the "pale and studious" order, absolutely +lacking in personal magnetism, and about the last person in the world +one would expect to do the "all for love" business of the average +hero in the manner he had done. On the other hand, he found the +Earl of Fallowfield an exceedingly frank, pleasant-mannered, rather +boyish-looking gentleman, whose many attractions rendered it easy +to understand why the late Mr. Jefferson P. Drake had conceived +such a warm affection for him, and was at such pains to have him +ever by his side. It seemed, indeed, difficult to believe that he +could possibly be the father of Lady Marjorie Wynde, for his manner +and appearance were so youthful as to make him appear to be nothing +closer than an elder brother. The doctor--that eminent Harley Street +light, Mr. John Strangeways Hague--he found to be full of Harley +Street manners and Harley Street ideas, eminently polite, eminently +cold, and about as pleased to meet a detective police officer as he +would be to find an organ-grinder sitting on his doorstep. + +"Have you come to any conclusions as to the means of death, Doctor?" +asked Cleek after he had been shown into the Stone Drum, where the +body of the dead man still lay and where the local coroner and +the local J. P. were conducting a sort of preliminary examination +prior to the regulation inquest, which must, of course, follow. "The +general appearance would suggest asphyxia, if asphyxia were possible." + +"Which it is not," volunteered Doctor Hague, with the geniality of +a snowball. "You have probably observed that the many slits in the +wall permit of free ventilation; and asphyxia with free ventilation +is an impossibility." + +"Quite so," agreed Cleek placidly. "But if by any chance those +slits could have been closed from the outside--I observe that at +some period and for some purpose Mr. Drake has made use of a charcoal +furnace"--indicating it by a wave of the hand--"and apparently with +no other vent to carry off the fumes than that supplied by the +slits. Now if they were closed and the charcoal left burning, the +result would be an atmosphere charged with carbon monoxide gas, +and a little more than one per cent. of that in the air of a room +deprived of ventilation would, in a short time, prove fatal to any +person breathing that air." + +The doctor twitched round an inquiring eye, and looked him over from +head to foot. + +"Yes," he said, remembering that, after all, there were Board +Schools, and even the humblest might sometimes learn, parrot-like, +to repeat the "things that are in books." "But we happen to know +that the slits were not closed and that neither carbon oxide nor +carbon monoxide was the cause of death." + +"You have taken samples of the blood, of course, to establish that +fact beyond question, as one could so readily do?" ventured Cleek +suavely. "The test for carbon monoxide is so simple and so very +certain that error is impossible. It combines so tensely, if one +may put it that way, with the blood, that the colouring of the red +corpuscles is utterly overcome and destroyed." + +"My good sir, those are elementary facts of which I do not stand in +need of a reminder." + +"Quite so, quite so. But in my profession, Doctor, one stands in +constant need of 'reminders.' A speck, a spot, a pin-prick--each +and all are significant, and----But is this not a slight abrasion +on the temple here?" bending over and, with his glass, examining a +minute reddish speck upon the dead man's face. "Hum-m-m! I see, I +see! Have you investigated this thing, Doctor? It is interesting." + +"I fail to see the point of interest, then," replied Doctor Hague, +bending over and examining the spot. "The skin is scarcely more than +abraded--evidently by the finger nail scratching off the head of some +infinitesimal pustule." + +"Possibly," agreed Cleek, "but on the other hand, it may be something +of a totally different character--for one thing, the possible point +at which contact was established between the man's blood and +something of a poisonous character. An injection of cyanide of +potassium, for instance, would cause death, and account in a +measure for this suggestion of asphyxia conveyed by the expression of +the features." + +"True, my good sir; but have the goodness to ask yourself who +could get into the place to administer such hypodermic? And, if +self-administered, what can have become of the syringe? If thrown +from one of the bowman's slits, it could only have fallen upon the +roof of the wing, and I assure you that was searched most thoroughly +long before your arrival. I don't think you will go so far as to +suggest that it was shot in, attached to some steel missile capable +of making a wound; for no such missile is, as you see, embedded in +the flesh nor was one lying anywhere about the floor. The cyanide of +potassium theory is ingenious, but I'm afraid it won't hold water." + +"Hold water!" The phrase brought Cleek's thoughts harking back to +what he had been told regarding the little puddle of water lying +on the floor, and of a sudden his eyes narrowed, and the curious +one-sided smile travelled up his cheek. + +"No, I suppose not," he said, replying to the doctor's remark. +"Besides, your test tubes would have settled that when it settled the +carbon monoxide question. Had cyanide been present, the specimens +of blood would have been clotted and blue." + +Of a sudden it seemed to dawn upon the doctor that this didn't smack +quite so much of Board School intelligence as he had fancied, and, +facing round, he looked at Cleek with a new-born interest. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "but I don't think I caught your name, +Mr.--er--er----" + +"Cleek, Doctor; Hamilton Cleek, at your service." + +"Good Lord! That is, I--er--er--my dear sir, my dear Mr. Cleek, if +there is any intelligence I can possibly supply, pray command me." + +"With pleasure, Doctor, and thank you very much indeed for the kind +offer. I have been told that there was a little puddle of water on +the floor at the time the murder was discovered, also that you took a +sample of it for analysis. As I don't see any sign of that puddle +now, would you mind telling me what that analysis established. I +have heard, I may tell you, that you found the water to contain no +poisonous substance; but I should be obliged if you can tell me if +it was water drawn from a well or such as might have been taken +from a river or pond." + +"As a matter of fact, my dear Mr. Cleek, I don't think it came from +any of the three." + +"Hum-m-m! A manufactured mineral water, then?" + +"No, not that, either. If it had been raining and there was any +hole or leak in this roof, I should have said it was rainwater that +had dripped in and formed a little puddle on the floor. If it had +been winter, I should have said it was the result of melted snow. +As a matter of fact, I incline more to the latter theory than to any +other, although it is absurd, of course, to think of snow being +obtainable anywhere in England in the month of July." + +"Quite so, quite so--unless--it doesn't matter. That's all, thank +you, Doctor, and very many thanks." + +"A word, please, Mr. Cleek," interposed the doctor as he turned to +move away and leave him. "I am afraid I was not very communicative +nor very cordial when you asked me if I had any idea of the means +employed to bring about the unfortunate man's death; may I hope +that you will be better mannered than I, Mr. Cleek, if I ask you if +you have? Thanks, very much. Then, have you?" + +"Yes," said Cleek. "And so, too, will you, if you will make a second +blood test, with the specimens you have, at a period of about +forty-eight hours after the time of decease. It will take quite +that before the presence of the thing manifests itself under the +influence of any known process or responds to any known test. And +even then it will only be detected by a faintly alcoholic odour +and excessively bitter taste. The man has been murdered--done to +death by that devil's drug woorali, if I am not mistaken. But who +administered it and _how_ it was administered are things I can't +tell you yet." + +"Woorali! Woorali! That is the basis of the drug curarin, produced +by Roulin and Boussingault in 1828 from a combination of the allied +poisons known to the savages of South America and of the tropics by +the names of corroval and vao, is it not?" + +"Yes. And a fiend's thing it is, too. A mere scratch from anything +steeped in it is enough to kill an ox almost immediately. The +favourite 'native' manner of using the hellish thing is by means of +a thorn and a blowpipe. But no such method has been employed in +this case. No thorn nor, indeed, any other projectile has entered +the flesh, nor is there one lying anywhere about the floor. Be +sure I looked, Doctor, the instant I suspected that woorali had +been used. Pardon me, but that must be all for the present. I +have other fish to fry." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +The "frying" of them took the shape of first going outside and +walking round the Stone Drum, and then of stepping back to the +door and beckoning Narkom and Lord Fallowfield and young James +Drake out to him. + +"Anybody in the habit of sitting out here to read or paint or +anything of that sort?" he asked abruptly. + +"Good gracious, no!" replied Lord Fallowfield. "Whatever makes you +ask such a thing as that, Mr. Cleek?" + +"Nothing, only that I have found four little marks disposed of at +such regular distances that they seem to have been made by the four +legs of a chair resting, with a rather heavy weight upon it, on the +leads of the roof and immediately under one of the bowman's slits +in the Stone Drum. A chair with casters, I should imagine, from the +character of the marks. We are on a level with the sleeping quarters +of the servants in the house proper, I believe, and chairs with +casters are not usual in servants' bedrooms in most houses. Are +they so here?" + +"Certainly not," put in young Drake. "Why, I don't believe there +is a chair with casters on the whole blessed floor. Is there, Lord +Fallowfield? You ought to know." + +"Yes, there is, Jim. There are three in fact; they all are in the old +armoury. Been there a dog's age; and they so matched the old place +your poor father never had them taken out." + +"The 'old armoury'? What's that, your lordship, may I ask?" + +"Oh, a relic of the old feudal times, Mr. Cleek. You see, on account +of the position of the Stone Drum, the weapon room, or arming-room, +had to be up here on a level with the wing roof, instead of below +stairs, as in the case of other 'towers.' That's the place over +there--the window just to the left of the door leading into the +building proper. It is full of the old battle flags, knights' +pennants, shields, cross-bows, and the Lord knows what of those old +days of primitive warfare. We Fallowfields always preserved it, +just as it was in the days of its usefulness, for its historical +interest and its old association with the name. Like to have a +look at it?" + +"Very much indeed," replied Cleek, and two minutes later he was +standing in the place and revelling in its air of antiquity. + +As Lord Fallowfield had declared, the three old chairs which supplied +seating accommodation were equipped with casters, but although +these were the prime reason for Cleek's visit to the place, he +gave them little more than a passing glance, bestowing all his +attention upon the ancient shields and the quaint old cross-bows +with which the walls were heavily hung in tier after tier almost +to the groined ceiling. + +"Primitive times, Mr. Narkom, when men used to go out with these +jimcrack things and bang away at each other with skewers!" he +said, taking one of them down and examining it in a somewhat +casual manner, turning it over, testing its weight, looking at its +catch, and running his fingers up and down the propelling string. +"Fancy a chap with one of these things running up against a modern +battery or sailing out into a storm of shrapnel! Back to your hook, +grandfather"--hanging it up again--"times change and we with time. +By the way, your lordship, I hope you will be better able to give +an account of _your_ whereabouts last night than I hear that Mr. +Drake here is able to do regarding his." + +"I? Good heavens, man, what do you mean?" flung out his lordship, +so taken aback by the abruptness of the remark that the very breath +seemed to be knocked out of him. "Upon my soul, Mr. Cleek----" + +"Gently, gently, your lordship. You must certainly realize that in +the circumstances the same necessity must exist for you to explain +your movements as exists for Mr. Drake. I am told that in the event +of the elder Mr. Drake's death this property was to come to you +wholly unencumbered by any charge or any restrictions whatsoever." + +"Good God! So it was. Upon my soul, I'd forgotten all about that!" +exclaimed his lordship with such an air that he was either speaking +the absolute truth or was a very good actor indeed. + +"Jim! My boy! Oh, good heavens! I never gave the thing a +thought--never one! No, Mr. Cleek, I can give no account of my +movements other than to say that I went to bed directly I left +the Stone Drum. Or--yes. I can prove that much, by George! I can, +indeed. Ojeebi was with me, or, at least, close at my heels at the +time, and he saw me go into my room, and must have heard me lock +the door." + +"Ojeebi? Who is he?" + +"My father's Japanese valet," put in young Drake. "Been with him for +the past five years. If he tells you that he saw Lord Fallowfield +go into his room and lock the door after him, you can rely upon that +as an absolute and irrefutable truth. 'Whitest' little yellow man +that ever walked on two feet; faithful as a dog, and as truthful as +they make 'em." + +"And they don't make 'em any too truthful, as a rule, in his country, +by Jove!" said Cleek. "Still, of course, as he could not possibly +have anything to gain----Call him up, will you, and let us hear what +he has to say with regard to Lord Fallowfield's statement." + +Young Drake rang for a servant, issued the necessary order, and +some five or six minutes later a timid little yellow man with the +kindest face and the most gentle step a man could possess came into +the room, his soft eyes reddened with much weeping, and tear-stains +marking his sallow cheeks. + +"Oh, Mr. Jim! Oh, Mr. Jim! the dear, kind old 'boss'! He gone! he +gone!" he broke out disconsolately as he caught sight of his late +master's son, and made as if to prostrate himself before him. + +"That's all right, Ojeebi--that's all right, old man!" interrupted +young Drake, with a smothered "blub" in his voice and a twitching +movement of his mouth. "Cut it out! I'm not iron. Say, this gentleman +wants to ask you a few questions, Ojeebi; deliver the goods just as +straight as you know how." + +"Me, Mr. Jim? Gentleman want question me?" The small figure turned, +the kindly face lifted, and the sorrowful eyes looked up into Cleek's +unemotional ones. + +"Yes," said he placidly; and forthwith told him what Lord Fallowfield +claimed. + +"That very true," declared Ojeebi. "The lord gentleman he right ahead +of me. I see him go into his room and hear him lock door. That very +true indeed." + +"H'm! Any idea of the time?" + +"Yes--much idea. Two minutes a-past twelve. I see clock as I go past +Lady Marj'ie's room." + +"What were you doing knocking about that part of the house at that +hour of the night? Your room's up here in the servant's quarters, +isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir. But I go take ice-water to the boss's room. Boss never +go to bed nights without ice-water handy, sir. 'Merican boss never +do." + +"Yes! Quite so, quite so! Where did you get the ice from--and how? +Chop it from a big cake?" + +"No, sir. It always froze to fit bottle. I get him from the ice-make +room downstairs." + +"He means the refrigerating room, Mr. Cleek," explained young +Drake. "You know, I take it, what a necessary commodity we Americans +hold ice to be. Indeed, the dear old dad wouldn't think a dinner +was a dinner without ice-water on the table, and ice-cream for +the final course. And as there was no possibility of procuring a +regular and adequate supply in an out-of-the-way spot like this, he +had a complete artificial ice-making plant added to the place, and +overcame the difficulty in that way. That is what Ojeebi means by +the 'ice-make room.' What he means about its being frozen to fit +the bottles is this: The ice which is to be used for drinking +purposes is manufactured in forms or vessels which turn it out in +cubes, so that whenever it is wanted all that a servant has to do +is to go to the plant, and the man in charge supplies him with all +the cubes required." + +"Ah, I see," said Cleek, and stroked his chin. "Well, that's all, I +reckon, for the time being. Ojeebi has certainly backed up your +statement to the fullest, your lordship, so we can dispense with him +entirely. And now, if I have your permission, gentlemen, I should +like to feel myself privileged to go poking about the house and +grounds for the next hour or so in quest of possible clues. At the +end of that time I will rejoin you here, and shall hope to have +something definite to report. So if you don't mind my going----Thanks +very much. Come along, Mr. Narkom. I've a little something for you +to do, and--an hour will do it, or I'm a dogberry." + +With that he took his departure from the armoury and, with the +superintendent following, went down through the house to the grounds +and out into the screen of close crowding, view-defying trees. + +Here he paused a minute to pull out his notebook and scribble +something on a leaf, and then to tear out that leaf and put it +into Mr. Narkom's hand. + +"Rush Lennard off to the post-office with that, will you? and have it +wired up to town as soon as possible," he said. "Prepay the reply, +and get that reply back to me as soon as telegraph and motor can get +it here." + +Then he swung off out of the screen of the trees and round the angle +of the building, and set about hunting for the refrigerating plant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + +It was five and after when the superintendent, pale and shaking +with excitement, came up the long drive from the Hall gates and +found Cleek lounging in the doorway of the house, placidly smoking +a cigarette and twirling a little ball of crumpled newspaper in his +hand. + +"Right was I, Mr. Narkom?" he queried smilingly. + +"Good God, yes! Right as rain, old chap. Been carrying it for upward +of a twelvemonth, and no doubt waiting for an opportunity to strike." + +"Good! And while you have been attending to your little part of the +business I've been looking out for mine, dear friend. Look!" said +Cleek, and opened up the little ball of paper sufficiently to show +what looked like a cut-glass scent bottle belonging to a lady's +dressing-bag close stoppered with a metal plug sealed round with +candle wax. "Woorali, my friend; and enough in it to kill an army. +Come along--we've got to the bottom of the thing, let us go up and +'report.' The gentlemen will be getting anxious." + +They were; for on reaching the armoury they found young Drake and +Lord Fallowfield showing strong traces of the mental strain under +which they were labouring and talking agitatedly with Lady Marjorie +Wynde, who had, in the interim, come up and joined them, and was +herself apparently in need of something to sustain and to strengthen +her; for Ojeebi was standing by with an extended salver, from which +she had just lifted to her lips a glass of port. + +"Good God! I never was so glad to see anybody in my life, gentlemen," +broke out young Drake as they appeared. "It's beyond the hour you +asked for--ages beyond--and my nerves are almost pricking their way +through my skin. Mr. Cleek--Mr. Narkom--speak up, for heaven's +sake. Have you succeeded in finding out anything?" + +"We've done better than that, Mr. Drake," replied Cleek, "for we +have succeeded in finding out everything. Look sharp there, Mr. +Narkom, and shut that door. Lady Marjorie looks as if she were going +to faint, and we don't want a whole houseful of servants piling in +here. That's it. Back against the door, please; her ladyship seems on +the point of crumpling up." + +"No, no, I'm not; indeed, I'm not!" protested Lady Marjorie with +a forced smile and a feeble effort to hold her galloping nerves in +check. "I am excited and very much upset, of course, but I am really +much stronger than you would think. Still, if you would rather I +should leave the room, Mr. Cleek----" + +"Oh, by no means, your ladyship. I know how anxious you are to learn +the result of my investigations. And, by that token, somebody else +is anxious, too--the doctor. Call him in, will you, Mr. Drake? He is +still with the others in the Stone Drum, I assume." + +He was; and he came out of it with them at young Drake's call, and +joined the party in the armoury. + +"Doctor," said Cleek, looking up as he came in, "we've got to the +puzzle's unpicking, and I thought you'd be interested to hear the +result. I was right about the substance employed, for I've found +the stuff and I've nailed the guilty party. It was woorali, and +the reason why there was no trace of a weapon was because the +blessed thing melted. It was an icicle, my friend, an icicle with +its point steeped in woorali, and if you want to know how it did +its work--why, it was shot in there from the cross-bow hanging +on the wall immediately behind me, and the person who shot it in +was so short that a chair was necessary to get up to the bowman's +slit when----No, you don't, my beauty! There's a gentleman with a +noose waiting to pay his respects to all such beasts as you!" + +Speaking, he sprang with a sharp, flashing movement that was like +to nothing so much as the leap of a pouncing cat, and immediately +there was a yap and a screech, a yell and a struggle, a click of +clamping handcuffs, and a scuffle of writhing limbs, and a moment +later they that were watching saw him rise with a laugh, and stand, +with his hands on his hips, looking down at Ojeebi lying crumpled +up in a heap, with gyves on his wrists and panic in his eyes, at +the foot of the guarded door. + +"Well, my pleasant-faced, agreeable little demon, it'll be many a +long day before the spirits of your ancestors welcome you back to +Nippon!" Cleek said as the panic-stricken Jap, realizing what was +before him, began to shriek and shriek until his brain and nerves +sank into a collapse and he fainted where he lay. "I've got you and +I've got the woorali. I went through your trunk and found it--as I +knew I should from the moment I clapped eyes upon you. If the laws +of the country are so lax that they make it possible for you to do +what you have done, they also are stringent enough to make you pay +the price of it with your yellow little neck!" + +"In the name of heaven, Mr. Cleek," spoke up young Drake, breaking +silence suddenly, "what can the boy have done? You speak as if it +were he that murdered my father; but, man, why should he? What had +he to gain? What motive could a harmless little chap like this have +for killing the man he served?" + +"The strongest in the world, my friend--the greed of gain!" said +Cleek. "What he could not do in your father's land it is possible +for him to do in this one, which foolishly allows its subjects to +insure even the life of its ruler without his will, knowledge, or +consent. For nearly a twelvemonth this little brute has been carrying +a heavy insurance upon the life of Jefferson P. Drake; but, thank +God, he'll never live to collect it. What's that, Doctor? How did +I find that out? By the simplest means possible, my dear sir. + +"For a reason which concerns nobody but myself, I dropped in at +the Guildford office of the Royal British Life Assurance Society +in the latter part of last May, and upon that occasion I marked +the singular circumstance that a Japanese was then paying the +premium of an already existing policy. Why I speak of it as a +singular circumstance, and why I let myself be impressed by it, lie +in the fact that, as the Japanese regard their dead ancestors +with absolute veneration and the privilege of being united with +them a boon which makes death glorious, life assurance is not +popular with them, since it seems to be insulting their ancestors +and makes joining them tainted with the odour of baser things. +Consequently, I felt pretty certain that it was some other life +than his own he was there to pay the regularly recurring premium +upon. The chances are, Doctor, that in the ordinary run of things I +should never have thought of that man or that circumstance again. +But it so happens that I have a very good memory for faces and +events, so when I came down here to investigate this case, and in +the late Mr. Drake's valet saw that Japanese man again--voila! I +should have been an idiot not to put two and two together. + +"The remainder, a telegram inquiring if an insurance upon the life +of Jefferson P. Drake, the famous inventor, had been effected by +anybody but the man himself, settled the thing beyond question. As +for the rest, it is easy enough to explain. Your remark that the +little puddle found upon the floor of the Stone Drum appeared to you +to bear a distinct resemblance to the water resulting from melted +snow, added to what I already knew regarding the refrigerating +plant installed here, put me on the track of the ice; and as the +small spot on the temple was of so minute a character, I knew that +the weapon must have been pointed. A pointed weapon of ice leaves but +one conclusion possible, Doctor. I have since learned from the man +in charge of the refrigerating plant that this yellow blob of +iniquity here was much taken by the icicles which the process of +refrigeration caused to accumulate in the place and upon the +machine itself during rotation, and that last night shortly +after twelve o'clock he came down and broke off and carried away +three of them. How I came to know what motive power he employed +to launch the poisoned shaft can be explained in a word. Most of the +weapons--indeed, all but one--hanging on the wall of this armoury +are lightly coated with dust, showing that it must be a week or +more since any housemaid's work was attended to in this particular +quarter. One of them is not dusty. Furthermore, when I took it +down for the purpose of examining it I discovered that, although +smeared with ink or paint to make it look as old as the others, the +bowstring was of fresh catgut, and there was a suspicious dampness +about the 'catch,' which suggested either wet hands or the partial +melting, under the heat of living flesh, of the 'shaft,' which had +been an icicle. That's all, Doctor; that's all, Mr. Drake; that's +quite all, Lord Fallowfield. A good, true-hearted young chap +will get both the girl he wants and the inheritance which should be +his by right; a good, true friend will get back the ancestral home +he lost through misfortune and has regained through chance, and a +patient and faithful lady will, in all probability, get the man +she loves without now having to wait until he comes into a dead +man's shoes. Lady Marjorie, my compliments. Doctor, my best +respects, and gentlemen all--good afternoon." + +And here with that weakness for the theatrical which was his +besetting sin, he bowed to them with his hat laid over his heart, and +walked out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + +"No, Mr. Narkom, no. As an instrument of death the icicle is _not_ +new," said Cleek, answering the superintendent's question as the +limousine swung out through the gates of Heatherington Hall and +faced the long journey back to London. "If you will look up the +records of that energetic female, Catherine de Medici, Queen of +France, you will find that she employed it in that capacity upon +two separate occasions; and coming down to more modern times, you +will also find that in the year 1872 the Russian, Lydia Bolorfska, +used it at Galitch, in the province of Kostroma, to stab her +sleeping husband. But as a projectile, it _is_ new--as a _successful_ +projectile, I mean--for there have been many attempts made, owing +to its propensity to dissolve after use, to discharge it from +firearms, but never in one single instance have those attempts +resulted in success. The explosion has always resulted in shivering +and dispersing it in a shower of splinters as it leaves the muzzle +of the weapon. There can be no doubt, however, that could it be +propelled in a perfectly horizontal position, the power behind +it would, in spite of its brittle nature, drive it through a pine +board an inch thick. But, as I have said, the motive power always +defeats the object by landing it against the target in a mass of +splinters." + +"I see. And the Jap got over that by employing a cross-bow; and that, +of course, did the trick." + +"No. I doubt if he would have been able to put enough power behind +that to drive it into the man's body with deadly effect, if, indeed, +he could make it enter it at all. Where Ojeebi scored over all +others lay in the fact that with his plan there was no necessity +to have the icicle enter the victim's body at all. He required +nothing more than just sufficient power of propulsion to break the +skin and establish contact with the blood, and then that hellish +compound on the point of the projectile could be depended upon to +do the rest. It did, as you know, and then dropped to the floor +and melted away, leaving nothing but a little puddle of water +behind it." + +"But, Cleek, my dear chap, how do you account for the fact that +when the doctor came to analyze that water he found no trace of +the poison in it?" + +"He did, Mr. Narkom, only that he didn't recognize it. Woorali is +extremely volatile, for one thing, and evaporates rapidly. For +another, there was a very small quantity used--a very small quantity +necessary, so malignant it is--and the water furnished by the melting +icicle could dilute that little tremendously. It would not be +able to obliterate all trace of it, however, but the infinitesimal +portion remaining would make spring water give the same answer in +analysis as that given by the water resulting from melted snow. It +was when Doctor Hague mentioned the fact that if it wasn't for the +utter absurdity of looking for such a substance in England in +July, he should have said it _was_ melted snow, that I really got my +first clue. Later, however, when----But come, let's chuck it! I've +had enough of murder and murderers for one day--let's talk of +something else. Our new 'turnout,' here, for instance. You have +'done yourself proud' this time and no mistake--she certainly _is_ +a beauty, Mr. Narkom. By the way, what have you done with the old +red one? Sold it?" + +"Not I, indeed. I know a trick worth two of that. I send it out, +empty, every day, in the hope of having those Apache johnnies follow +it, and have a plain-clothes man trailing along behind in a taxi, +ready to nip in and follow them if they do. But they don't--that is, +they haven't up to the present; but there's always hope, you know." + +"Not in that direction, I'm afraid. Waldemar's a better general than +that, believe me. Knowing that we have discovered his little plan +of following the red limousine just as we discovered his other, of +following me, he will have gone off on another tack, believe me." + +"Scotland! You don't think, do you, that he can possibly have found +out anything about the new one and has set in to follow _this_?" + +"No, I do not. As a matter of fact I fancy he has started to do +what he ought to have done in the beginning--that is, to keep a +close watch on the criminal news in the papers day by day, and +every time a crime of any importance crops up, pay his respects +to the theatre of it and find out who is the detective handling +the case. A ducat to a doughnut he'd have been on our heels down +here to-day if this little business of the Stone Drum had been made +public in time to get into the morning papers. He means to have +me, Mr. Narkom, if having me is possible; and he's down to the +last ditch and getting desperate. Yesterday's cables from Mauravania +are anything but reassuring." + +"I know. They say that unless something happens very shortly to turn +the tide in Ulric's favour and quell the cries for 'Restoration,' the +King's downfall and expulsion are merely a matter of a few days at +most. But what's that got to do with it that you suggest its bearing +upon any need for haste on Waldemar's part?" + +"Only that, with matters in such a state, he cannot long defer his +return to the army of his country and the defence of its king," +replied Cleek, serenely. "And every day he loses in failing to pay +his respects to your humble servant in the manner he desires to do +increases the strain of the situation and keeps him from the service +of his royal master." + +"Well, I wish to God something would happen to blow him and his +royal master and their blooming royal country off the map, dammem!" +blazed out Narkom, too savage to be choice of words. "We've never had +a moment's peace, you and I, since the dashed combination came +into the game. And for what, I should like to know? Not that it's +any use asking _you_. You're so devilish close-mouthed a man might +as well ask questions of a ton of coal for all answer he may hope +to get. I shall always believe, however, that you did something +pretty dashed bad to the King of Mauravania that time you were over +there on that business about the Rainbow Pearl, to make the beggar +turn against you, as I believe he _has_." + +"Then, you will always believe what isn't true," replied Cleek, +lighting a fresh cigarette. "I simply restored the pearl and his +Majesty's letter to the hands of Count Irma, and did not so much +as see the King while I was there. Why should I?--a mere police +detective, who had been hired to do a service and paid for it like +any other hireling. I took my money and I went my way; that's all +there was about it. If it has pleased Count Waldemar to entertain an +ugly feeling of resentment toward me, I can't help that, can I now?" + +"Oh, then, it's really a personal affair between you and him, after +all?" + +"Something like that. He doesn't approve of my--er--knowing things +that I do know; and it would be the end of a very promising future +for him if I told. Here--have a cigarette and smoke yourself into +a better temper. You look savage enough to bite a nail in two." + +"I'd bite it in four if it looked anything like that Waldemar +johnnie, by James!" asserted the superintendent, vigorously. "And if +ever he lays a hand on _you_----Look here, Cleek: I know it sounds +un-English, very Continental, rotten 'soft' from one man to another, +but--dammit, Cleek, I love you! I'd go to hell for you! I'd die +fighting for you! Do you understand?" + +"Perfectly," said Cleek; then he put out his hand and took Mr. +Narkom's in a hard, firm grip, and added, gently: "My friend, my +comrade, my _pal_! Side by side--together--to the end." And the car +ran on for a good half mile before either spoke again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +"Mr. Narkom!" + +It was an hour later, and Cleek's voice broke the silence abruptly. +He had taken out his notebook and had been scribbling in it for some +little time, but now, as he spoke, he tore out the written leaf and +passed it over to the superintendent. + +"Mr. Narkom, I refused, in the beginning, to give you the address +of the little house at which I was located. Here it is. Put it in +your pocketbook against future need, will you?" + +"Yes, certainly. But cinnamon! old chap, what good is it to me now +when you've left the place?" + +"You will understand, perhaps, when I tell you that Miss Lorne is +its present occupant. It was for that I took it in the beginning. +There may come a need to communicate with her; there may come a need +for her to communicate with you. There's always a chance, you know, +that a candle may be put out when the wind blows at it from all +directions; and if anything should happen--I mean if--er--anything +having a bearing upon me personally that you think she _ought_ +to be told should come to pass--well, just go to her at once, +will you?--there's a dear friend. That's the address (don't lose it) +and full directions how to get there speedily. I am giving it to +you now, as we shall soon be in town again and I shall leave you +directly we arrive there. I'm in haste to get back to Dollops and see +if between us we can't hit upon some plan, he and I, to get at the +whereabouts of Waldemar. That plain-clothes man of yours is like +the butler with the bottle of cider--he 'doesn't seem to get any +forrarder.'" + +"Kibblewhite!" blurted out the superintendent, sitting up sharply. +"Well, of all the born jackasses, of all the mutton-heads in this +world----" + +"Well, he doesn't seem to be very bright, I must say." + +"He? Lud! I wasn't talking about _him_; I was talking about myself. +I had something to tell you to-day, and this blessed business drove +it clean out of my head. Kibblewhite had the dickens and all of a +time trying to get at that chap Serpice, as you may remember?" + +"I do--in a measure. Succeeded in finding out, finally, that the +carriage he drove was one he hired from a liveryman by the month, I +think was the last report you gave me; but couldn't get any further +with the business because Serpice took it into his head not to call +for the carriage again and made off, this Kibblewhite chap didn't +know where, and appears never to have found a means of discovering." + +"No; he didn't. But ten days ago he got word from the liveryman +that Serpice had just turned up and was about to make use of the +carriage again; and off Kibblewhite cut, hotfoot, in the hope of +being able to follow him. No go, however. By the time he arrived +at the stable Serpice had already gone; so there was nothing left +for the poor disappointed chap to do but to go out on the hunt and +see if he couldn't pick him up somewhere in the streets." + +"Which he didn't, of course?" + +"Excuse me--which he _did_. But it was late in the afternoon and +he was coming back to the stable with the carriage empty. Also, it +was in the thick of the traffic at Ludgate Circus, and Kibblewhite +was so afraid the fellow might mix himself up in it and give him +the slip that he took a chance shot to prevent it. Nipping up the +officer on point, he made himself and his business known, and, in +a winking, in nips the constable, hauls Mr. Serpice up sharp, and +arrests him for driving a public vehicle without a license." + +"Well played, Kibblewhite!" approved Cleek. "That, of course, meant +that the fellow would be arrested and have to give his address and +all the rest of it?" + +"So Kibblewhite himself thought; but what does the beggar do but +turn the tables on him in the most unexpected manner by absolutely +refusing to do anything of the kind, and, as he did _not_ have a +license, and would not call anybody to pay his fine, the magistrate +finished the business by committing him to _jail_ for ten days in +default. And here's the thing I was ass enough to forget: His ten +days' imprisonment was up this morning; Kibblewhite, in disguise, +was to be outside the jail to follow him when he was discharged and +see where he went, and he told me to look for him to turn up at the +Yard before six this evening with a full report of the result of +his operations." + +"Bravo!" said Cleek, leaning back in his seat, with a sigh of +satisfaction. "I've changed my mind about leaving you, Mr. Narkom; +we will go on to the Yard together. As, in all probability, after +ten days without being able to communicate with his pals or with +Waldemar, our friend Serpice will be hot to get to them at once +and explain the cause of his long absence, the chances are that +Kibblewhite will have something of importance to report at last." + +He had, as they found out when, in the fulness of time, they arrived +at the Yard and were told that he was waiting for them in the +superintendent's office, and in his excitement he almost threw it +at them, so eager he was to report. + +"I've turned the trick at last, Superintendent," he cried. "The +silly josser played straight into my hands, sir. The minute he was +out of jail he made a beeline for Soho, and me after him, and there +he 'takes to earth' in a rotten little restaurant in the worst part +of the district; and when I nips over and has a look inside, there +he was shakin' hands with a lot of Frenchies of his own kind, and +them all prancin' about and laughin' like they'd gone off their +bloomin' heads. I sees there aren't no back door to the place, and +I knows from that that he'd have to come out the same way as he +went in, so off I nips over to the other side of the street and +lays in wait for him. + +"After about ten minutes or so, out he comes--him and another of +the lot--moppin' of his mouth with his coat-sleeve, and off they +starts in a great hurry, and me after them. They goes first to a +barber shop, where the man I was followin' nips in, has a shave, a +hair-cut and a wash-up, while the chap that was with him toddles off +and fetches him a clean shirt and a suit of black clothes. In +about fifteen minutes out my man comes again, makin' a tolerable +respectable appearance, sir, after his barberin' and in his clean +linen and decent clothes. Him and his mate stands talkin' and +grinnin' for a minute or so, then they shakes hands and separates, +and off my man cuts it, westward. + +"Sir, I sticks to him like a brother. I follers him smack across +to the Strand and along that to the Hotel Cecil, and there the beggar +nips in and goes up the courtyard as bold as you please, sends up +his name to a gent, the gent sends down word for him to be showed +up at once, and in that way I spots my man. For when I goes up to the +clerk and shows my badge and asks who was the party my johnnie +had asked for, he tells me straight and clear: 'Gentleman he's making +a suit of clothes for--Baron Rodolf de Montravenne, an Austrian +nobleman, who has been stopping here for weeks!" + +Cleek twitched round his eye and glanced at Narkom. + +"'Things least hidden are best hidden,'" he quoted, smiling. "The +dear count knows a thing or two, you perceive. You have done very +well indeed, Kibblewhite. Here is your ten-pound note and many thanks +for your services. Good evening." + +Kibblewhite took the money and his departure immediately; but so long +as he remained within hearing distance--so long as the echo of his +departing steps continued to sound--Cleek remained silent, and the +curious crooked smile made a loop in his cheek. But of a sudden: + +"Mr. Narkom," he said, quietly "I shan't be found in any of my usual +haunts for the next few days. If, however, you should urgently need +me, call at the Hotel Cecil and ask for Captain Maltravers--and +call in disguise, please; our friend the count is keen. Remember +the name. Or, better still, write it down." + +"But, good God! Cleek, such a risk as that----" + +"No--please--don't attempt to dissuade me. I want that man, and I'll +get him if getting him be humanly possible. That's all. Thanks very +much. Good-bye." + +Then the door opened and shut, and by the time Mr. Narkom could turn +round from writing down the name he had been given, he was quite +alone in the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + +"Num-bah Nine-ninety-two--Captain Maltravers, please. +Nine-ninety-two. Num-bah Nine-ninety-two!" + +Thrice the voice of the page--moving and droning out his words +in that perfunctory manner peculiar unto the breed of hotel +pages the world over--sounded its dreary monotone through the hum +of conversation in the rather crowded tearoom without producing +the slightest effect; then, of a sudden, the gentleman seated in +the far corner reading the daily paper--a tall, fair-haired, +fair-moustached gentleman with "The Army" written all over him in +capital letters--twitched up his head, listened until the call was +given for the fourth time, and, thereupon, snapped his fingers +sharply, elevated a beckoning digit, and called out crisply: +"Here, my boy--over here--this way!" + +The boy went to him immediately, extended a small, circular metal +salver, and then, lifting the thumb which held in position the +hand-written card thereon, allowed the slip of pasteboard to be +removed. + +"Gentleman, sir--waiting in the office," he volunteered. + +"Captain Maltravers" glanced at the card, frowned, rose with it +still held between his fingers, and within the space of a minute's +time walked into the hotel's public office and the presence of a +short, stout, full-bearded "dumpling" of a man with the florid +complexion and the country-cut clothes of a gentleman farmer, who +half sat and half leaned upon the arm of a leather-covered settle +nervously tapping with the ferule of a thick walking-cane, a boot +whose exceedingly high sole and general construction mutely stood +sponsor for a withered and shortened leg. + +"My dear Yard; I am delighted to see you!" exclaimed the "captain" +as he bore down on the little round man and shook hands with him +heartily. "Grimshaw told me that you would be coming up to London +shortly, but I didn't allow myself to hope that it would be so +soon as this. Gad! it's a dog's age since I've seen you. Come along +up to my own room and let us have a good old-fashioned chat. Key +of Nine-ninety-two, please, clerk. Thanks very much. Come along, +Yard--this way, old chap!" + +With that he linked his arm in his caller's, bore him clumping and +wobbling to the nearby lift, and thence, in due course, to the door +of number Nine-ninety-two and the seclusion which lay behind it. +He was still chattering away gayly as the lift dropped down out of +sight and left them, upon which he shut the door, locked it upon +the inside, and stopping long enough to catch up a towel and hang +it over the keyhole, turned on his heel and groaned. + +"What! am I not to have even a two days' respite, you indefatigable +_machine_?" he said, as he walked across the room and threw himself +into a chair with a sigh of annoyance. "Think! it was only this +morning that I ventured upon the first casual bow of a fellow guest +with the dear 'Baron'; only at luncheon we exchanged the first civil +word. But the ice was broken and I should have had him 'roped in' by +teatime--I am sure of it. And now you come and nip my hopes in the +bud like this. And in a disguise that a fellow as sharp as he would +see through in a wink if he met you." + +"It was the best I could do, Cleek--I'm not a dabster in the art +of making up, as you know." Mr. Narkom's voice was, like his air, +duly apologetic. "Besides, I hung around until I saw him go out +before I ventured in; although I was on thorns the whole blessed +time. I had to see you, old chap--I simply had to--and every minute +was of importance. I shouldn't have ventured to come at all if it +hadn't been imperative." + +"I'm sure of that," said Cleek, recovering his good humour instantly. +"Don't mind my beastly bad temper this afternoon, there's a good +friend. It's a bit of a disappointment, of course, after I'd looked +forward to a clear field just as soon as Waldemar should return, +but----It is you, first and foremost, at all times and under all +circumstances. Other matters count as nothing with me when _you_ +call. Always remember that." + +"I do, old chap. It's because I do that I went to the length of +promising Miss Larue that I'd lay the case before you." + +"Miss Larue? A moment, please. Will the lady to whom you refer be +Miss Margaret Larue, the celebrated actress? The one in question +who treated me so cavalierly last August in that business regarding +the disappearance of that chap James Colliver?" + +"Yes. He was her brother, you recollect, and--don't get hot about +it, Cleek. I know she treated you very badly in that case, and so +does she, but----" + +"She treated me abominably!" interposed Cleek, with some heat. +"First setting me on the business, and then calling me off just +as I had got a grip on the thing and was within measuring distance +of the end. I can't forgive that; and I never could fathom her +reason for it. If it was as you yourself suggested at the time, +because she shrank from the notoriety that was likely to accrue +to her from letting everybody in the world know that 'Jimmy the +Shifter' was her own brother, she ought to have thought of that +in the beginning--when she acknowledged it so openly--instead of +making such an ass of me by her high-handed proceeding of calling +me off the scent at its hottest, as if I were a tame puppy to be +pulled this way and that with a string. I object to being made a +fool of, Mr. Narkom; and there's no denying the fact that Miss +Larue treated me very badly in that James Colliver case--very badly +and very cavalierly indeed." + +Unquestionably Miss Larue had. Even Mr. Narkom had to admit that; +for the facts which lay behind these heated remarks were not such +as are calculated to make any criminal investigator pleased with his +connection therewith. Clearly set forth, those facts were as follows: + +On the nineteenth day of the preceding August, James Colliver had +disappeared, as suddenly and as completely and with as little trace +left behind as does a kinematograph picture when it vanishes from +the screen. + +Now the world at large had never heard of James Colliver until he +did disappear, and it is extremely doubtful if it would have done +so even then but that circumstances connected with his vanishment +brought to light the startling disclosure that the worthless, +dissolute hulk of a man who was known to the habitués of half the +low-class public houses in Hoxton by the pseudonym of "Jimmy the +Shifter" was not only all that time and drink had left of the +once popular melodramatic actor Julian Monteith, but that he was, +in addition thereto, own brother to Miss Margaret Larue, the +distinguished actress who was at that moment electrifying London +by her marvellous performance of the leading rôle in _The Late Mrs. +Cavendish_. + +The reasons which impelled Miss Larue to let the public discover that +her real name was Maggie Colliver, and that "Jimmy the Shifter" +was related to her by such close ties of blood, were these: _The +Late Mrs. Cavendish_ was nearing the close of its long and successful +run at the Royalty, and its successor was already in rehearsal for +early production. That successor was to be a specially rewritten +version of the old-time favourite play _Catharine Howard; or, The +Tomb, the Throne, and the Scaffold_, with Miss Larue, of course, in +the part of the ambitious and ill-fated Catharine. Preparations +were on foot for a production which would be splendidly elaborate +as to scenery and effects, and absolutely accurate as to detail. For +instance, the costume which Henry VIII had worn at the time of +his marriage with Catharine Howard was copied exactly, down to +the minute question of the gaudy stitchery on the backs of the +gloves and the toes of the shoes; and permission had been obtained +to make the mimic betrothal ring which the stage "Henry" was to +press upon the finger of the stage "Catharine" an exact replica +of the real one, as preserved among the nation's historic jewels. +Not to be outdone in this matter of accuracy, Miss Larue naturally +aimed to have the dresses and the trinkets she wore as nearly like +those of the original Catharine as it was possible to obtain. As her +position in the world of art was now so eminent and had brought her +into close touch with the elect, it was not difficult for the lady +to borrow dresses, and even jewels, of the exact period from the +heirlooms treasured by members of the nobility, that these might be +copied in mimic gems for her by the well-known theatrical and show +supply company of Henry Trent & Son, Soho. + +To this firm, which was in full charge of the preparation of dresses, +properties, and accessories for the great production, was also +entrusted the making of a "cast" of Miss Larue's features and the +manufacture therefrom of a wax head with which it was at first +proposed to lend a touch of startling realism to the final scene of +the execution of Catharine on Tower Hill, but which was subsequently +abandoned after the first night as being unnecessarily gruesome +and repulsive. + +It was during the course of the final rehearsals for this astonishing +production, and when the army of supers who had long been drilling +for it at other hours was brought for the first time into contact +with the "principals," that Miss Larue was horrified to discover +among the members of that "army" her dissolute brother, "Jimmy +the Shifter." + +For years--out of sheer sympathy for the wife who clung to him to +the last, and the young son who was growing up to be a fine fellow +despite the evil stock from which he had sprung--Miss Larue had +continuously supplied this worthless brother with money enough to +keep him, with the strict proviso that he was never to come near +any theatre where she might be performing, nor ever at any time to +make known his relationship to her. She now saw in this breaking +of a rule, which heretofore he had inviolably adhered to, clear +evidence that the man had suddenly become a menace, and she was +in great haste to get him out of touch with her colleagues before +anything could be done to disgrace her. + +In so sudden and so pressing an emergency she could think of no +excuse but an errand by which to get him out of the theatre, and +of no errand but one--the stage jewels which Messrs. Trent & Son +were making for her. She therefore sat down quickly at the prompt +table, and, drawing a sheet of paper to her, wrote hurriedly: + + _Messrs. Trent & Son:_ + + GENTLEMEN--Please give the bearer my jewels--or such of them + as are finished, if you have not done with all--that he may + bring them to me immediately, as I have instant need of them. + + Yours faithfully, + + MARGARET LARUE. + +This she passed over to the stage manager, with a request to "Please +read that, Mr. Lampson, and certify over your signature that it is +authentic, and that you vouch for having seen me write it." After +which she got up suddenly, and said as calmly as she could: "Mr. +Super Master, I want to borrow one of your men to go on an important +errand to Trent & Son for me. This one will do," signalling out +her brother. "Spare him, please. This way, my man--come quickly!" + +With that she suddenly caught up the note she had written--and which +the stage manager had, as requested, certified--and, beckoning her +brother to follow, walked hurriedly off the stage to a deserted point +in the wings. + +"Why have you done this dreadful thing?" she demanded in a low, +fierce tone as soon as he came up with her. "Are you a fool as well +as a knave that you come here and risk losing your only support by +a thing like this?" + +"I wanted to see you--I had to see you--and it was the only way," he +gave back in the same guarded tone. "The wife is dead. She died last +night, and I've got to get money somewhere to bury her. I'd no one +to send, since you've taken Ted away and sent him to school, so I had +to come myself." + +The knowledge that it was for no more desperate reason than this +that he had forced himself into her presence came as a great relief +to Miss Larue. She hastened to get rid of him by sending him to +Trent & Son with the note that she had written, and to tell him +to carry the parcel that would be handed to him to the rooms she +was occupying in Portman Square--and which she made up her mind to +vacate the very next day--and there to wait until she came home from +rehearsal. + +He took the note and left the theatre at once, upon which Miss Larue, +considerably relieved, returned to the duties in hand, and promptly +banished all thought of him from her mind. + +It was not until something like two hours afterward that he was +brought back to mind in a somewhat disquieting manner. + +"I say, Miss Larue," said the stage manager as she came off after +thrice rehearsing a particularly trying scene, and, with a weary +sigh, dropped into a vacant chair at his table, "aren't you worried +about that chap you sent with the note to Trent & Son? There's been +time for him to go and return twice over, you know; and I observe +that he's not back yet. Aren't you a bit uneasy?" + +"No. Why should I be?" + +"Well, for one thing, I should say it was an extremely risky business +unless you knew something about the man. Suppose, for instance, he +should make off with the jewels? A pretty pickle you'd be in with +the parties from whom you borrowed them, by Jove!" + +"Good gracious, you don't suppose I sent him for the originals, do +you?" said Miss Larue with a smile. "Trent & Son _would_ think me +a lunatic to do such a thing as that. What I sent him for was, of +course, merely the paste replicas. The originals I shall naturally +go for myself." + +"God bless my soul! The paste replicas, do you say?" blurted in Mr. +Lampson excitedly. "Why, I thought--Trent & Son will be sure to think +so themselves under the circumstances! They can't possibly think +otherwise." + +"'Under the circumstances'? 'Think otherwise'?" repeated Miss Larue, +facing round upon him sharply. "What do you mean by that, Mr. +Lampson? Good heavens! not that they could possibly be mad enough +to give the man the originals?" + +"Yes, certainly! Good Lord! what else can they think--what else +can they give him? They sent the paste duplicates here by their own +messenger this morning! They are in the manager's office--in his +safe--at this very minute; and I was going to bring them round to +you as soon as the rehearsal is over!" + +Consternation followed this announcement, of course. The rehearsal +was called to an abrupt halt. Mr. Lampson and Miss Larue flew +round to the front of the house in a sort of panic, got to the +telephone, and rang up Trent & Son, who confirmed their worst +fears. Yes, the man had arrived with the note from Miss Larue +something over an hour ago, and they had promptly handed him over +the original jewels. Not all of them, of course, but those which +they had finished duplicating and of which they had sent the +replicas to the theatre by their own messenger that morning. Surely +that was what Miss Larue meant by the demand, was it not? No other +explanation seemed possible after they had sent her the copies +and--Good Lord! hadn't heard about it? Meant the imitations? +Heavens above, what an appalling mistake! What was that? The man? +Oh, yes; he took the things after Mr. Trent, senior, had removed +them from the safe and handed them over to him, and he had left +Mr. Trent's office directly he received them. Miss Larue could +ascertain exactly what had been delivered to him by examining the +duplicates their messenger had carried to the theatre. + +Miss Larue did, discovering, to her dismay, that they represented a +curious ruby necklace, of which the original had been lent her by the +Duchess of Oldhampton, a stomacher of sapphires and pearls borrowed +from the Marquise of Chepstow, and a rare Tudor clasp of diamonds +and opals which had been lent to her by the Lady Margery Thraill. + +In a panic she rushed from the theatre, called a taxi, and, hoping +against hope, whirled off to her rooms at Portman Square. No Mr. +James Colliver had been there. Nor did he come there ever. Neither +did he return to the squalid home where his dead wife lay; nor did +any of his cronies nor any of his old haunts see hide or hair of +him from that time. Furthermore, nobody answering to his description +had been seen to board any train, steamship, or sailing-vessel +leaving for foreign parts, nor could there be found any hotel, +lodging-house, furnished or even unfurnished apartment into which +he had entered that day or upon any day thereafter. + +In despair, Miss Larue drove to Scotland Yard and put the matter +into the hands of the police, offering a reward of £1,000 for the +recovery of the jewels; and through the medium of the newspapers +promised Mr. James Colliver that she would not prosecute, but would +pay that £1,000 over to _him_ if he would return the gems, that she +might restore them to their rightful owners. + +Mr. James Colliver neither accepted that offer nor gave any sign that +he was aware of it. It was then that Scotland Yard, in the person +of Cleek, stepped in to conduct the search for both man and jewels; +and within forty-eight hours some amazing circumstances were brought +to light. + +First and foremost, Mr. Henry Trent, who said he had given the gems +over to Colliver, and that the man had immediately left the office, +was unable, through the fact of his son's absence from town, to give +any further proof of that statement than his own bare word; for +there was nobody but himself in the office at the time, whereas the +door porter, who distinctly remembered James Colliver's entrance into +the building, as distinctly remembered that up to the moment when +evening brought "knocking-off time" James Colliver had never, to his +certain knowledge, come out of it! + +The next amazing fact to be unearthed was that one of the office +cleaners had found tucked under the stairs leading up to the top +floor a sponge, which had beyond all possible question been used to +wipe blood from something and had evidently been tucked there in a +great hurry. The third amazing discovery took the astonishing shape +of finding in an East End pawnbroker's shop every one of the missing +articles, and positive proof that the man who had pledged them was +certainly not in the smallest degree like James Colliver, but was +evidently a person of a higher walk in life and more prosperous +in appearance than the missing man had been since the days when he +was a successful actor. + +These circumstances Cleek had just brought to light when Miss Larue, +having found the gems, determined to drop the case, and refused +thereafter so much as to discuss it with any living soul. + +That her reason for taking this unusual step had something behind it +which was of more moment than the mere fact that the jewels had +been recovered and returned to their respective owners there could +hardly be a doubt; for from that time onward her whole nature seemed +to undergo a radical change, and, from being a brilliant, vivacious, +cheery-hearted woman whose spirits were always of the highest and +whose laughter was frequent, she developed suddenly into a silent, +smileless, mournful one, who shrank from all society but that of +her lost brother's orphaned son, and who seemed to be oppressed +by the weight of some unconfessed cross and the shadow of some +secret woe. + +Such were the facts regarding the singular Colliver case at the time +when Cleek laid it down--unprobed, unsolved, as deep a mystery in the +end as it had been in the beginning--and such they still were when, +on this day, at this critical time and after an interval of eleven +months, Mr. Maverick Narkom came to ask him to pick it up again. + +"And with an element of fresh mystery added to complicate it more +than ever, dear chap," he declared, rather excitedly. "For, as +the father vanished eleven months ago, so yesterday the son, +too, disappeared. In the same manner--from the same point--in +the selfsame building and in the same inexplicable and almost +supernatural way! Only that in this instance the mystery is even +more incomprehensible, more like 'magic' than ever. For the boy is +known to have been shown by a porter into a room almost entirely +surrounded by glass--a room whose interior was clearly visible to +two persons who were looking into it at the time--and then and +there to have completely vanished without anybody knowing when, +where, or how." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + +"What's that?" rapped out Cleek, sitting up sharply. His interest +had been trapped, just as Mr. Narkom knew that it would. "Vanished +from a glass-room into which people were looking at the time? And +yet nobody saw the manner of his going, do you say?" + +"That's it precisely. But the most astonishing part of the business +is the fact that, whereas the porter can bring at least three +witnesses to prove that he showed the boy into that glass-room, +and at least one to testify that he heard him speak to the occupant +of it, the two watchers who were looking into the place at the +time are willing to swear on oath that he not only did not enter +the place, but that the room was absolutely vacant at the period, +and remained so for at least an hour afterward. If that isn't a +mystery that will want a bit of doing to solve, dear chap, then you +may call me a Dutchman." + +"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek reflectively. "How, then, am I to regard the +people who give this cross testimony--as lunatics or liars?" + +"Neither, b'gad!" asseverated Narkom, emphatically. "I'll stake my +reputation upon the sanity and the truthfulness of every mother's son +and every father's daughter of the lot of them! The porter who +says he showed the boy into the glass-room I've known since he +was a nipper--his dad was one of my Yard men years ago--and the +two people who were looking into the place at the time, and who +swear that it was absolutely empty and that the lad _never_ came +into it----Look here, old chap, I'll let you into a bit of family +history. One of them is a distant relative of Mrs. Narkom--an +aunt, in fact, who's rather down in the world, and does a bit of +dressmaking for a living. The other is her daughter. They are two +of the straightest-living, most upright, and truly religious women +that ever drew the breath of life, and they wouldn't, either of +'em, tell a lie for all the money in England. There's where the +puzzle of the thing comes in. You simply have _got_ to believe +that that porter showed the boy into that room, for there are +reliable witnesses to prove it, and he has no living reason to lie +about it; and you have _got_ to believe that those two women are +speaking the truth when they say that it was empty at that period +and remained empty for an hour afterward. Also--if you will take on +the case and solve at the same time the mystery attending the +disappearance of both father and son--you will have to find out +where that boy went to, through whose agency he vanished, and for +what cause." + +"A tall order that," said Cleek with one of his curious, one-sided +smiles. "Still, of course, mysteries which are humanly possible of +creation are humanly possible of solution, and--there you are. Who +is the client? Miss Larue? If so, how is one to be sure that she will +not again call a halt, and spoil a good 'case' before it is halfway +to completion?" + +"For the best of reasons," replied Narkom earnestly. "Hers is +not the sole 'say' in the present case. Added to which, she is now +convinced that her suspicions in the former one were not well +grounded. The truth has come out at last, Cleek. She stopped all +further inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of her brother +because she had reason to believe that the elder Mr. Trent had +killed him for the purpose of getting possession of those jewels +to tide over a financial crisis consequent upon the failure of some +heavy speculations upon the stock market. She held her peace and +closed up the case because she loves and is engaged to be married to +his son, and she would have lost everything in the world sooner +than hurt his belief in the honour and integrity of his father." + +"What a ripping girl! Gad, but there _are_ some splendid women in the +world, are there not, Mr. Narkom? What has happened, dear friend, +to change her opinion regarding the elder Mr. Trent's guilt?" + +"The disappearance of the son under similar circumstances to that of +the father, and from the same locality. She knows now that the +elder Mr. Trent can have no part in the matter, since he is at +present in America, the financial crisis has been safely passed, and +the son--who could have no possible reason for injuring the lad, who +is, indeed, remarkably fond of him, and by whose invitation he +visited the building--is solely in charge and as wildly anxious as +man can be to have the abominable thing cleared up without delay. +He now knows why she so abruptly closed up the other case, and he +is determined that nothing under heaven shall interfere with the +prosecution of this one to the very end. It is he who is the client, +and both he and his fiancée will be here presently to lay the full +details before you." + +"Here!" Cleek leaned forward in his chair with a sort of lunge as +he flung out the word, and there was a snap in his voice that fairly +stung. "Good heavens above, man! They mustn't come here. Get word +to them at once and stop them." + +"It wouldn't be any use trying, I'm afraid, old chap; I expect they +are here already. At all events, I told them to watch from the other +side of the way until they saw me enter, and then to come in and go +straightway to the public tearoom and wait until I brought you to +them." + +"Well, of all the insane----Whatever prompted you to do a madman's +trick like that? A public character like Miss Larue, a woman whom +half London knows by sight, who will be the target for every eye in +the tearoom, and the news of whose presence in the hotel will be all +over the place in less than no time! Were you out of your head?" + +"Good lud! Why, I thought I'd be doing the very thing that would +please you, dear chap," bleated the superintendent, despairingly. +"It seemed to me such a natural thing for an actress to take tea +at a hotel--that it would look so innocent and open that nobody would +suspect there was anything behind it. And you always say that things +least hidden are hidden the most of all." + +Cleek struck his tongue against his teeth with a sharp, clicking +sound indicative of mild despair. There were times when Mr. Narkom +seemed utterly hopeless. + +"Well, if it's done, it's done, of course; and there seems only +one way out of it," he said. "Nip down to the tearoom as quickly +as possible, and if they are there bring them up here. It's only +four o'clock and there's a chance that Waldemar may not have returned +to the hotel yet. Heaven knows, I hope not! He'd spot you in a tick, +in a weak disguise like that." + +"Then why don't you go down yourself and fetch them up, old chap? +He'd never spot _you_. Lord! your own mother wouldn't know you from +Adam in this spiffing get-up. And it wouldn't matter a tinker's curse +then if Waldemar was back or not." + +"It would matter a great deal, my friend--don't deceive yourself +upon that point. For one thing, Captain Maltravers is registered at +the office as having just arrived from India after a ten years' +absence, and ten years ago Miss Margaret Larue was not only unknown +to fame, but must have been still in pinafores, so how was he to +have made her acquaintance? Then, too, she doesn't expect to see +me without you, so I should have to introduce myself and stop to +explain matters--yes, and even risk her companion getting excited and +saying something indiscreet, and those are rather dangerous affairs +in a public tearoom, with everybody's eyes no doubt fixed upon the +lady. No, you must attend to the matter yourself, my friend; so nip +off and be about it. If the lady and her companion are there, +just whisper them to say nothing, but follow you immediately. If they +are not there, slip out and warn them not to come. Look sharp--the +situation is ticklish!" + +And just how ticklish Mr. Narkom realized when he descended and +made his way to the public tearoom. For the usual four o'clock +gathering of shoppers and sightseers was there in full force, +the well-filled room was like a hive full of buzzing bees who +were engaged in imparting confidences to one another, the name of +"Margaret Larue" was being whispered here, there and everywhere, and +all eyes were directed toward a far corner where at a little round +table Margaret Larue herself sat in company with Mr. Harrison +Trent engaged in making a feeble pretence of enjoying a tea which +neither of them wanted and upon which neither was bestowing a +single thought. + +Narkom spotted them at once, made his way across the crowded room, +said something to them in a swift, low whisper, and immediately +became at once the most envied and most unpopular person in the +whole assembly; for Miss Larue and her companion arose instantly +and, leaving some pieces of silver on the table, walked out with him +and robbed the room of its chief attraction. + +All present had been deeply interested in the entire proceeding, but +none more so than the tall, distinguished looking foreign gentleman +seated all alone at the exactly opposite end of the room from the +table where Miss Larue and her companion had been located; for his +had been the tensest kind of interest from the very instant Mr. +Narkom had made his appearance, and remained so to the last. + +[Illustration: "Count Irma has told," said Narkom. "It's all out at +last and ... I know now. I'm to lose you."] + +Even after the three persons had vanished from the room, he continued +to stare at the doorway through which they had passed, and the +rather elaborate tea he had ordered remained wholly untouched. A soft +step sounded near him and a soft voice broke in upon his unspoken +thoughts. + +"Is not the tea to Monsieur's liking?" it inquired with all the +deference of the Continental waiter. And that awoke him from his +abstraction. + +"Yes--quite, thank you. By the way, that was Miss Larue who just left +the room, was it not, Philippe?" + +"Yes, Monsieur--the great Miss Larue: the most famous of all English +actresses." + +"So I understand. And the lame man who came in and spoke to her--who +is he? Not a guest of the hotel, I am sure, since I have never seen +him here before." + +"I do not know, Monsieur, who the gentleman is. It shall be the +first I shall see of him ever. It may be, however, that he is a +new arrival. They would know at the office, if Monsieur le Baron +desires me to inquire." + +"Yes--do. I fancy I have seen him before. Find out for me who he is." + +Philippe disappeared like a fleet shadow. After an absence of about +two minutes, he came back with the desired intelligence. + +"No, Monsieur le Baron, the gentleman is not a guest," he announced. +"But he is visiting a guest. The name is Yard. He arrived about a +quarter of an hour ago and sent his card in to Captain Maltravers, +who at once took him up to his room." + +"Captain Maltravers? So! That will be the military officer from +India, will it not?" + +"Yes, Monsieur; the one with the fair hair and moustache who lunched +to-day at the table adjoining Monsieur le Baron's own." + +"Ah, to be sure. And 'passed the time of day' with me, as they say +in this peculiar language. I remember the gentleman perfectly. Thank +you very much. There's something to pay you for your trouble." + +"Monsieur le Baron is too generous! Is there any other service----" + +"No, no--nothing, thank you. I have all that I require," interposed +the "Baron" with a gesture of dismissal. + +And evidently he had; for five minutes later he walked into the +office of the hotel, and said to the clerk, "Make out my bill, +please--I shall be leaving England at once," and immediately +thereafter walked into a telephone booth, consulted his notebook, and +rang up 253480 Soho, and, on getting it, began to talk rapidly and +softly to some one who understood French. + +Meantime Mr. Narkom, unaware of the little powder train he had +unconsciously lighted, had gone on up the stairs with his two +companions--purposely avoiding the lift that he might explain +matters as they went--piloted them safely to the suite occupied by +"Captain Maltravers," and at the precise moment when "Baron Rodolf +de Montravanne" walked into the telephone booth, Cleek was meeting +Miss Larue for the first time since those distressing days of +eleven months ago, and meeting Mr. Harrison Trent for the first +time ever. + + + + +Chapter XXXV + + +Cleek found young Trent an extremely handsome man of about +three-and-thirty; of a highly strung, nervous temperament, and +with an irritating habit of running his fingers through his hair +when excited. Also, it seemed impossible for him to sit still for +half a minute at a stretch; he must be constantly hopping up +only to sit down again, and moving restlessly about as if he were +doing his best to retain his composure and found it difficult +with Cleek's calm eyes fixed constantly upon him. + +"I want to tell you something about that bloodstained sponge +business, Mr. Cleek," he said in his abrupt, jerky, uneasy manner. +"I never heard a word about it until last night, when Miss Larue +confessed her former suspicions of my dear old dad, and gave me all +the details of the matter. That sponge had nothing to do with the +affair at all. It was I that tucked it under the staircase where +it was found, and I did so on the day before James Colliver's +disappearance. The blood that had been on it was mine, not his." + +"I see," said Cleek, serenely. "The explanation, of course, is the +good, old tried-and-true refuge of the story-writers--namely, a case +of nose-bleeding, is it not?" + +"Yes," admitted Trent. "But with this difference: mine wasn't an +accidental affair at all--it was the result of getting a jolly good +hiding; and I made an excuse to get away and hop out of town, so that +the dad wouldn't know about it nor see how I'd been battered. The +fact is, I met one of our carmen in the upper hall. He was as drunk +as a lord, and when I took him to task about it and threatened him +with discharge, he said something to me that I thought needed a +jolly sight more than words by way of chastisement, so I nipped off +my coat and sailed into him. It turned out that he was the better +man, and gave me all that I'd asked for in less than a minute's +time; so I shook hands with him, told him to bundle off home and +sleep himself sober, and that if he wouldn't say anything about +the matter I wouldn't either, and he could turn up for work in the +morning as usual. Then I washed up, shoved the sponge under the +staircase, and nipped off out of town; because, you know, it would +make a deuced bad impression if any of the other workmen should find +out that a member of the firm had been thrashed by one of the +employees--and Draycott had done me up so beautifully that I was a +sight for the gods." + +The thing had been so frankly confessed that, in spite of the fact +of having in the beginning been rather repelled by him, Cleek could +not but experience a feeling of liking for the man. "So that's +how it happened, is it?" he said, with a laugh. "It is a brave +man, Mr. Trent, that will resist the opportunity to make himself a +hero in the presence of the lady he loves; and I hope I may be +permitted to congratulate Miss Larue on the wisdom of her choice. But +now, if you please, let us get down at once to the details of the +melancholy business we have in hand. Mr. Narkom has been telling me +the amazing story of the boy's visit to the building and of his +strange disappearance therein, but I should like to have a few +further facts, if you will be so kind. What took the boy to the +building, in the first place? I am told he went there upon your +invitation, but I confess that that seems rather odd to me. Why +should a man of business want a boy to visit him during business +hours?" + +"Good Lord, man! I couldn't have let him see what he wanted to +see if he didn't come during business hours, could I? But that's +rather ambiguous, so I'll make haste to put it plainer. Young +Stan--his Christian name is Stanley, as I suppose you know--young +Stan is mad to learn the business of theatrical property making, +and particularly that of the manufacture of those wax effigies, et +cetera, which we supply for the use of drapers in their show windows; +and as he is now sixteen and of an age to begin thinking of _some_ +trade or profession for the future, I thought it would save Miss +Larue putting up a jolly big premium to have him taught outside if we +took him into our business free, so I invited him to come and look +round and see if he thought he'd like it when he came to look into +the messy details. + +"Well, he came rather late yesterday afternoon, and I'd taken him +round for just about ten or a dozen minutes when word was suddenly +brought to me that the representative of one of the biggest managers +in the country had just called with reference to an important order, +so, of course, I put back to the office as quickly as I could foot +it, young Stan quite naturally following me, as he didn't know his +way about the place alone, and, being a modest, retiring sort of boy, +didn't like facing the possibility of blundering into what might +prove to be private quarters, and things of that sort. He said as +much to me at the time. + +"Well, when I got back to the office, I soon found that the business +with my visitor was a matter that would take some time to settle--you +can't give a man an estimate all on a jump, and without doing a +bit of figuring, you know--so I told young Stan that he might cut +off and go over the place on his own, if he liked, as it had been +arranged that, when knocking-off time came, I was to go back with +him to Miss Larue's flat, where we all were to have supper together. +When I told him that, he asked eagerly if he might go up to the +wax-figure department, as he was particularly anxious to see Loti +at work, and so----" + +"Loti!" Cleek flung in the word so sharply that Trent gave a nervous +start. "Just a moment, please, before you go any further, Mr. Trent. +Sorry to interrupt, but, tell me, please: is the man who models +your show-window effigies named Loti, then? Is, eh? Hum-m! Any +connection by chance with that once famous Italian worker in wax, +Giuseppe Loti--chap that used to make those splendid wax tableaux +for the Eden Musée in Paris some eighteen or twenty years ago?" + +"Same chap. Went all to pieces all of a sudden--clear off his head +for a time, I've heard--in the very height of his career, because +his wife left him. Handsome French woman--years younger than he--ran +off with another chap and took every blessed thing of value she +could lay her hands upon when--but maybe you've heard the story?" + +"I have," said Cleek. "It is one that is all too common on the +Continent. Also, it happened that I was in Paris at the time of the +occurrence. And so you have that great Giuseppe Loti at the head of +your waxwork department, eh? What a come-down in the world for +him! Poor devil! I thought he was dead ages ago. He dropped out +suddenly and disappeared from France entirely after that affair with +his unfaithful wife. The rumour was that he had committed suicide; +although that seemed as improbable as it now turns out to be, in +the face of the fact that on the night after his wife left him he +turned up at the Café Royal and publicly----No matter! Go on with +the case, please. What about the boy?" + +"Let's see, now, where was I?" said Trent, knotting up his brow. +"Oh, ah! I recollect--just where he asked me if he could go up and +see Loti at work. Of course, I said that he could; there wasn't any +reason why I shouldn't, as the place is open to inspection always, +so I opened the door and showed him the way to the staircase leading +up to the glass-room, and then went to the speaking-tube and called +up to Loti to expect him, and to treat him nicely, as he was the +nephew of the great Miss Larue and would, in time, be mine also." + +"Was there any necessity for taking that precaution, Mr. Trent?" + +"Yes. Loti has developed a dashed bad temper since last autumn and is +very eccentric, very irritable--not a bit like the solemn, sedate old +johnnie he used to be. Even his work has deteriorated, I think, but +one daren't criticise it or he flies into a temper and threatens to +leave." + +"And you don't wish him to, of course--his name must stand for +something." + +"It stands for a great deal. It's one of our biggest cards. We can +command twice as much for a Loti figure as for one made by any other +waxworker. So we humour him in his little eccentricities and defer +to him a great deal. Also, as he prefers to live on the premises, +he saves us money in other ways. Serves for a watchman as well, you +understand." + +"Oh, he lives on the premises, does he? Where? In the glass-room?" + +"Oh, no; that would not be possible. The character as well as the +position of that renders it impossible as a place of habitation. He +uses it after hours as a sort of sitting-room, to be sure, and has +partly fitted it up as one, but he sleeps, eats, and dresses in a +room on the floor below." + +"Not an adjoining one?" + +"Oh, no; an adjoining room would be an impossibility. Our building +is an end one, standing on the corner of a short passage which +leads to nothing but a narrow alley running along parallel with +the back of our premises, and the glass-room covers nearly the entire +roof of it. As a matter of fact, Mr. Cleek, although we call it +that at the works, the term Glass Room is a misnomer. In reality, +it's nothing more nor less than a good sized 'lean-to' greenhouse +that the dad bought and had taken up there in sections, and its +rear elevation rests against the side wall of a still higher +building than ours, next door--the premises of Storminger the +carriage builder, to be exact. But look here: perhaps I can make +the situation clearer by a rough sketch. Got a lead pencil and a bit +of paper, anybody? Oh, thanks very much, dear. One can always rely +upon _you_. Now, look here, Mr. Cleek--this is the way of it. You +mustn't mind if it's a crude thing, because, you know, I'm a rotten +bad draughtsman and can't draw for nuts. But all the same, this will +do at a pinch." + +Here he leaned over the table in the centre of the room and, taking +the pencil and the blank back of the letter which Miss Larue had +supplied, made a crude outline sketch thus: + +[Illustration of a group of houses] + +"There you are," he said suddenly, laying the crude drawing on +the table before Cleek, and with him bending over it. "You are +supposed to be looking at the houses from the main thoroughfare, +don't you know, and, therefore, at the front of them. This tall +building on the left marked 1 is Storminger's; the low one, number +2, adjoining, is ours; and that cagelike-looking thing, 3, on +the top of it, is the glass-room. Now, along the front of it here, +where I have put the long line with an X on the end, there runs a +wooden partition with a door leading into the room itself, so that +it's impossible for anybody on the opposite side of the main +thoroughfare to see into the place at all. But that is not the +case with regard to people living on the opposite side of the short +passage (this is here, that I've marked 4), because there's nothing +to obstruct the view but some rubbishy old lace curtains which Loti, +in his endeavour to make the place what he calls homelike, would +insist upon hanging, and _they_ are so blessed thin that anybody can +look right through them and see all over the place. Of course, +though, there are blinds, which he can pull down on the inside if +the sun gets too strong; and when they are down, nobody can see into +the glass-room at all. Pardon? Oh, we had it constructed of glass, +Mr. Narkom, because of the necessity for having all the light +obtainable in doing the minute work on some of the fine tableaux +we produce for execution purposes. We are doing one now--The Relief +of Lucknow--for the big exhibition that's to be given next month +at Olympia and----The place marked 6 at the back of our building? +Oh, that's the narrow alley of which I spoke. We've a back door +opening into it, but it's practically useless, because the alley +is so narrow one can't drive a vehicle through it. It's simply a +right of way that can't legally be closed and runs from Croom +Street on the right just along as far as Sturgiss Lane on the +left. Not fifty people pass through it in a day's time. + +"But to come back to the short passage, Mr. Cleek. Observe, there +are no windows at all on the side of our building, here: Number +2. There were, once upon a time, but we had them bricked up, as +we use that side for a 'paint frame' with a movable bridge so +that it can be used for the purpose of painting scenery and +drop-curtains. But there _are_ windows in the side of the house +marked 5; and directly opposite the point where I've put the arrow +there is one which belongs to a room occupied by a Mrs. Sherman and +her daughter--people who do 'bushel work' for wholesale costume +houses. Now, it happens that at the exact time when the porter +says he showed young Stan into the glass-room those two women were +sitting at work by that window, and, the blinds not being drawn, +could see smack into the place, and are willing to take their oath +that there was no living soul in it." + +"How do they fix it as being, as you say,'the exact time,' Mr. Trent? + If they couldn't see the porter come up to the glass-room with the +boy, how can they be sure of that?" + +"Oh, that's easily explained: There's a church not a great way +distant. It has a clock in the steeple which strikes the hours, +halves, and quarters. Mrs. Sherman says that when it chimed half-past +four she was not only looking into the glass-room, but was calling +her daughter's attention to the fact that, whereas some few minutes +previously she had seen Loti go out of the place, leaving a great +pile of reference plates and scraps of material all over the +floor, and he had never, to her positive knowledge, come back into +it, there was the room looking as tidy as possible, and, in the +middle of it, a table with a vase of pink roses upon it, which +she certainly had not seen there when he left." + +"Hallo! Hallo!" interjected Cleek rather sharply. "Let's have that +again, please!" and he sat listening intently while Trent repeated +the statement; then, of a sudden, he gave his head an upward twitch, +slapped his thigh, and, leaning back in his seat, added with a brief +little laugh, "Well, of all the blithering idiots! And a simple +little thing like that!" + +"Like what, Mr. Cleek?" queried Trent, in amazement. "You don't +surely mean to say that you can make anything important out of a +table and a vase of flowers? Because, I may tell you that Loti is mad +on flowers, and always has a vase of them in the room somewhere." + +"Does he, indeed? Natural inclination of the artistic temperament, I +dare say. But never mind, get on with the story. Mrs. Sherman fixes +the hour when she noticed this as half-past four, you say? How, then, +does the porter who showed the boy into the glass-room fix it, may +I ask?" + +"By the same means precisely--the striking of the church clock. He +remembers hearing it just as he reached the partition door, and +was, indeed, at particular pains to take out his watch to see if it +tallied with it. Also, three of our scene painters were passing +along the hall at the foot of the short flight of steps leading up to +the glass-room at the time. They were going out to tea; and one of +them sang out to him laughingly, 'Hallo, Ginger, how does that +two-shilling turnip of yours make it? Time for tea at Buckingham +Palace?' for he had won the watch at a singing contest only the +night before, and his mates had been chaffing him about it all +day. In that manner the exact time of his going to the door with +the boy is fixed, and with three persons to corroborate it. A second +later the porter saw the boy push open the swing-door and walk into +the place, and as he turned and went back downstairs he distinctly +heard him say, 'Good afternoon, sir. Mr. Trent said I might come +up and watch, if you don't mind.'" + +"Did he hear anybody reply?" + +"No, he did not. He heard no one speak but the boy." + +"I see. So, then, there is no actual proof that Loti _was_ in there +at the time, which, of course, makes the testimony of Mrs. Sherman +and her daughter appear reliable when they say that the room was +empty." + +"Still the boy was there if Loti wasn't, Mr. Cleek. There's proof +enough that he did go into the place even though those two women +declare that the room was empty." + +"Quite so, quite so. And when two and two don't make four, 'there's +something rotten in the state of Denmark.' What does Loti himself say +with regard to the circumstance? Or hasn't he been spoken to about +it?" + +"My hat, yes! I went to him about it the very first thing. He says +the boy never put in an appearance, to _his_ knowledge; that he +never saw him. In fact, that just before half-past four he was +taken with a violent attack of sick headache, the result of the +fumes rising from the wax he was melting to model figures for the +tableau, together with the smell of the chemicals used in preparing +the background, and that he went down to his room to lie down for a +time and dropped off to sleep. As a matter of fact, he was there +in his room sleeping when, at half-past six, I went for the boy, +and, finding the glass-room vacated, naturally set out to hunt up +Loti and question him about the matter." + +"When you called up to the glass-room through the speaking-tube, to +say that the boy was about to go up, who answered you--Loti?" + +"Yes." + +"At what time was that? Or can't you say positively?" + +"Not to the fraction of a moment. But I should say that it was +about four or five minutes before the boy got there--say about +five-and-twenty minutes past four. It wouldn't take him longer to +get up to the top of the house, I fancy, and he certainly did not +stop at any of the other departments on the way." + +"Queer, isn't it, that the man should not have stopped to so much as +welcome the boy after you had been at such pains to tell him to be +nice to him? Does he offer any explanation on that score?" + +"Yes. He says that, as his head was so bad, he knew that he would +probably be cross and crotchety; so as I had asked him to be kind, +he thought the best thing he could do was to leave a note on the +table for the boy, telling him to make himself at home and to examine +anything he pleased, but to be sure not to touch the cauldron in +which the wax was simmering, as it tilted readily and he might get +scalded. He was sorry to have to go, but his head ached so badly that +he really had to lie down for a while. + +"That note, I may tell you, was lying on the table when I went up to +the glass-room and failed to find the boy. It was that which told +me where to go in order to find Loti and question him. I'll do him +the credit of stating that when he heard of the boy's mysterious +disappearance he flung his headache and his creature comforts to +the winds and joined in the eager hunt for him as excitedly and as +strenuously as anybody. He went through the building from top to +bottom; he lifted every trapdoor, crept into every nook and corner +and hole and box into which it might be possible for the poor little +chap to have fallen. But it was all useless, Mr. Cleek--every +bit of it! The boy had vanished, utterly and completely; from the +minute the porter saw him pass the swing-door and go into the +glass-room we never discovered even the slightest trace of him, nor +have we been able to do so since. He has gone, he has vanished, as +completely as if he had melted into thin air, and if there is any +ghost of a clue to his whereabouts existing----" + +"Let us go and see if we can unearth it," interrupted Cleek, rising. +"Mr. Narkom, is the limousine within easy reach?" + +"Yes, waiting in Tavistock Street, dear chap. I told Lennard to be +on the lookout for us." + +"Good! Then if Miss Larue will allow Mr. Trent to escort her as +far as the pavement, and he will then go on alone to his place of +business and await us there, you and I will leave the hotel by +the back way and join him as soon as possible. Leave by the front +entrance if you be so kind; and--pardon, one last word, Mr. Trent, +before you go. At the time when this boy's father vanished in much +the same way, eleven months ago, you had, I believe, a door porter +at your establishment name Felix Murchison. Is that man still in +your employ?" + +"No, Mr. Cleek. He left about a week or so after James Colliver's +disappearance." + +"Know where he is?" + +"Not the slightest idea. As a matter of fact, he suddenly inherited +some money, and said he was going to emigrate to America. But I don't +know if he did or not. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing in particular--only that I shouldn't be surprised if +the person who supplied that money was the pawnbroker who received in +pledge the jewels which your father handed over to James Colliver, +and that the sum which Felix Murchison 'inherited' so suddenly was +the £150 advanced upon those gems." + +"How utterly absurd! My dear Mr. Cleek, you must surely remember +that the pawnbroker said the chap who pawned the jewels was a +gentlemanly appearing person, of good manners and speech, and +Murchison is the last man in the world to answer to that description. +A great hulking, bull-necked, illiterate _animal_ of that sort, +without an H in his vocabulary and with no more manners than a pig!" + +"Precisely why I feel so certain _now_ that the pawnbroker's +'advance' was paid over to _him_," said Cleek, with a twitch of the +shoulder. "Live and learn, my friend, live and learn. Eleven +months ago I couldn't for the life of me understand why those +jewels had been pawned at all; to-day I realize that it was the only +possible course. Miss Larue, my compliments. Au revoir." And he +bowed her out of the room with the grace of a courtier, standing +well out of sight from the hallway until the door had closed +behind her and her companion and he was again alone with the +superintendent. + +"Now for it! as they used to say in the old melodramas," he +laughed, stepping sharply to a wardrobe and producing, first, a +broad-brimmed cavalry hat, which he immediately put on, and then a +pair of bright steel handcuffs. "We may have use for this very +effective type of wristlets, Mr. Narkom; so it's well to go +prepared for emergencies. Now then, off with you while I lock the +door. That's the way to the staircase. Nip down it to the American +bar. There's a passage from that leading out to the Embankment +Gardens. A taxi from there will whisk us along Savoy Street, +across the Strand and up Wellington Street to Tavistock in less +than no time; so we may look to be with Lennard inside of another +ten minutes." + +"Righto!" gave back the superintendent. "And I can get rid of this +dashed rig as soon as we're in the limousine. But, I say; any ideas, +old chap--eh?" + +"Yes, two or three. One of them is that this is going to be one +of the simplest cases I ever tackled. Lay you a sovereign to a +sixpence, Mr. Narkom, that I solve the riddle of that glass-room +before they ring up the curtain of any theatre in London to-night. +What's that? Lying? No, certainly not. There's been no lying in the +matter at all; it isn't a case of that sort. The pawnbroker did +not lie; the porter who says he showed the boy into the room did +not lie; and the two women who looked into it and saw nothing but +an empty room did not lie either. The only thing that _did_ lie was a +vase of pink roses--a bunch of natural Ananiases that tried to +make people believe that they had been blooming and keeping fresh +ever since last August!" + +"Good Lord! you don't surely think that that Loti chap----" + +"Gently, gently, my friend; don't let yourself get excited. Besides, +I _may_ be all at sea, for all my cocksureness. I don't think I am, +but--one never knows. I'll tell you one thing, however: The man +with whom Madame Loti eloped had, for the purpose of carrying on the +intrigue, enlisted as a student under her husband, and gulled the +poor fool by pretending that he wished to learn waxwork making, when +his one desire was to make love to the man's worthless wife. When +they eloped, and Loti knew for the first time what a dupe he had +been, he publicly swore, in the open room of the Café Royal, that he +would never rest until he had run that man down and had exterminated +him and every living creature in whose veins his blood flowed. The +man was an English actor, Mr. Narkom. He posed under the _nom de +théâtre_ of Jason Monteith--his real name was James Colliver! Step +livelier, please--we're dawdling!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + + +They that climb the highest have the farthest to fall. + +It was after five o'clock when the limousine arrived at the premises +of Trent & Son, and Cleek, guided by the junior member of the firm +and accompanied by Superintendent Narkom, climbed the steep stairs to +the housetop and was shown into the glass-room. + +His first impression, as the door swung inward, was of a scent +of flowers so heavy as to be oppressive; his second, of entering +into a light so brilliant that it seemed a very glare of gold, +for the low-dropped sun, which yellowed all the sky, flooded the +place with a radiance which made him blink, and it was some little +time before his eyes could accustom themselves to it sufficient +to let him discover that the old Italian waxworker was there, busy +on his latest tableau. + +Cleek blinked and looked at the old man, serenely at first, then +blinked and looked again, conscious of an overwhelming sense of +amazement and defeat for just one fraction of a minute, and that +some of his cocksure theories regarding the case had suddenly been +knocked into a cocked hat. + +No wonder Mr. Harrison Trent had spoken of deterioration in the art +of this once celebrated modeller. No wonder! + +The man was not Giuseppe Loti at all!--not that world-famed worker +in wax who had sworn in those bitter other days to have the life of +the vanished James Colliver. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + + +Cleek's equanimity did not desert him, however. It was one of his +strong points that he always kept his mental balance even when +his most promising theories were deracinated. He therefore showed not +the slightest trace of the disappointment with which this utterly +unexpected discovery had filled him, but, with the most placid +exterior imaginable, suffered himself to be introduced to the old +waxworker, who was at the time working assiduously upon the huge +tableau-piece designed for the forthcoming Indian Exhibition, a +well-executed assembly of figures which occupied a considerable +portion of the rear end of the glass-room, and represented that +moment when the relief force burst through the stockade at Lucknow +and came to the rescue of the beleaguered garrison. + +"A couple of gentlemen from Scotland Yard, Loti, who have come to +look into the matter of young Colliver's disappearance," was the way +in which Trent made that introduction. "You can go on with your work; +they won't interfere with you." + +"Welcome, gentlemen--most welcome," said Loti, with that courtesy +which Continental people never quite forget; then nodded, and went +on with his work as he had been told, adding, with a mournful shake +of the head: "Ah! a strange business that, signori; an exceedingly +strange business." + +"Very," agreed Cleek off-handedly and from the other end of the room. +"Rippin' quarters, these, signor; and now that I've seen 'em I don't +mind confessing that my pet theory has gone all to smash and I'm up +a gum-tree, so to speak. I'd an idea, you know, that there might +be a sliding-panel or a trapdoor which you chaps here might have +overlooked, and down which the boy might have dropped, or maybe gone +on a little explorin' expedition of his own, don't you know, and +hadn't been able to get back." + +"Well, of all the idiotic ideas--," began Trent, but was suffered to +get no further. + +"Yes, isn't it?" agreed Cleek, with his best blithering-idiot air. +"I realize that, now that I see your floor's of concrete. Necessary, +I suppose, on account of the chemicals and the inflammable nature of +the wax? You could have a rippin' old flare-up here if that stuff +was to catch fire from a dropped match or anything of that sort--eh, +what? Blest if I can see"--turning slowly on his heel and looking all +round the room--"a ghost of a place where the young nipper could have +got. It's a facer for me. But, I say"--as if suddenly struck with an +idea--"you don't think that he nipped something valuable and cut +off with it, do you? Didn't miss any money or anything of that sort +which you'd left lying about, did you, Mr.--er--Lotus, eh?" + +"Loti, if you please, signor. I had indeed hoped that my name was +well known enough to--_Pouffe!_ No, I miss nothing--I miss not so +much as a pin. I am told he shall not have been that kind of a boy." +And then, with a shake of the head and a pitying glance toward +the author of these two asinine theories regarding the strange +disappearance, returned to his work of putting the finishing touches +to a recumbent figure representing a dead soldier lying in the +foreground of the tableau. + +"Oh, well, you never can tell what boys will do; and it's an old +saying that 'a good booty makes many a thief,'" replied Cleek airily. +"Reckon I'll have to hunt up something a bit more promising, then. +Don't mind my poking about a bit, do you?" + +"Not in the slightest, signor," replied the Italian, and glanced +sympathizingly up at Trent and gave his shoulders a significant +shrug, as if to say: "Is this the best that Scotland Yard can turn +out?" when Cleek began turning over costume plates and looking under +books and scraps of material which lay scattered about the floor, +and even took to examining the jugs and vases and tumblers in which +the signor's bunches of cut flowers were placed. There were many of +them--on tables and chairs and shelves, and even on the platform of +the tableau itself--so many, in fact, that he was minded, by their +profusion, of what Trent had said regarding the old waxworker's +great love of flowers. + +He looked round the room, in an apparently perfunctory manner, but +in reality with a photographic eye for its every detail, finding that +it agreed in every particular with the description which Trent had +given him. + +There were the cheap lace curtains all along the glazed side which +overlooked the short passage leading down to the narrow alley, but +they were of so thin a quality, and so scantily patterned, that the +mesh did not obstruct the view in any manner, merely rendering it a +trifle hazy; for he could himself see from where he stood the window +in the side of the house opposite, and, seated at that window, Mrs. +Sherman and her daughter, busy at their endless sewing. + +And there, too, were the blinds--strong blue linen ones running +on rings and cords--with which, as he had been told, it was +possible to arrange the light as occasion required. They were +fashioned somewhat after the manner of those seen in the studios of +photographers--several sectional ones overhead and one long one for +that side of the room which overlooked the short passage; and, +as showing how minute was Cleek's inspection for all its seeming +indifference, it may be remarked that he observed a peculiarity +regarding that long blind which not one person in a hundred would +have noticed. That is to say, that, whereas, when one looks at a +window from the interior of a room, one invariably finds that the +blinds are against the glass, and that the curtains are so hung +as to be behind them when viewed from the street, here was a case +of the exactly opposite arrangement being put into force; to +wit: It was the lace curtains which hung against the window panes and +the big blind which was next the room, so that, if pulled down, a +person standing within would see no lace curtains at all, while at +the same time they would remain distinctly visible to anybody +standing without. + +If this small discrepancy called for any comment, Cleek made none +audibly; merely glanced at the blind and glanced away again, and went +on examining the books and the vases of flowers, and continued his +apparently aimless wandering about the room. + +Of a sudden, however, he did a singular thing, one which was fraught +with much significance to Mr. Narkom, who knew the "signs" so well. +His wandering had brought him within touching distance of the busy +waxworker, who, just at that moment, half turned and stretched forth +his hand to pick up a tool which had fallen to the floor, the act of +recovering which sent his wrist protruding a bit beyond the cuff of +his working-blouse. What Narkom saw was the quick twitch of Cleek's +eye in the direction of that hand, then its swift travelling to +the man's face and travelling off again to other things; and he knew +what was coming when his great ally began to pat his pockets and +rummage about his person as if endeavouring to find something. + +"My luck!" said Cleek, with an impatient jerk of the head. "Not +a blessed cigarette with me, Mr. Narkom; and you know what a duffer +I am if I can't smoke when I'm trying to think. I say--nip out, +will you, and get me a packet? There!"--scribbling something on a +leaf from his notebook and pushing it into the superintendent's +hand--"that's the brand I like. It's no use bringing me any other. +Look 'em up for me, will you? There's a good friend." + +Narkom made no reply, but merely left the room with the paper +crumpled in his shut hand and went downstairs as fast as he could +travel. What he did in the interval is a matter for further +consideration. At present it need only be said that had any one +looked across the short passage some eight or ten minutes after his +departure Narkom might have been seen standing in the background +of the room at whose window Mrs. Sherman and her daughter still +sat sewing. + +Meanwhile Cleek appeared to have forgotten all about the matter which +was the prime reason for his presence in the place and to have become +absorbingly interested in the business of tableau making, for he +plied the old Italian with endless questions relative to the one +he was engaged in constructing. + +"Jip! You don't mean to tell me that you make the whole blessed +thing yourself, do you--model the figures, group 'em, paint the +blessed background, and all?" said he, with yokel-like amazement. +"You _do_? My hat! but you're a wonder! That background's one of +the best I've ever clapped eyes on. And the figures! I could swear +that that fellow bursting in with a sword in his hand was alive +if I didn't know better; and as for this dead johnnie here in the +foreground that you're working on, he's a marvel. What do you stuff +the blessed things with? Or don't you stuff 'em at all?" + +"Oh, yes, signor, they are stuffed, all of them. There is a wicker +framework covered with canvas; and inside cotton waste, old paper, +straw." + +"You don't mean it! Well, I'm blest! Nothing but waste stuff and +straw? Why, that fellow over there--the Sepoy chap with the gun in +his hands----Oh, good Lord! just my blessed luck! I hope to heaven +I haven't spoilt anything!" For, in leaning over to indicate the +figure alluded to, he had blundered against the edge of the low +platform, lost his balance, and sprawled over so awkwardly and +abruptly that, but for the fact that the figure of the dead soldier +was there for his hand to fall upon in time to check it, he must +have pitched headlong into the very heart of the tableau, and done no +end of damage. Fortunately, however, not a figure had been thrown +down, and even the "dead soldier" had stood the shock uncommonly +well, not even a dent showing, though Cleek had come down rather +heavily and his palm had struck smack on the figure's chest. + +"Tut! tut! tut! tut!" exclaimed the Italian with angry impatience. +"Oh, do have a little care, signor! The bull in a china-shop is alone +like this." And he turned his back upon this stupid blunderer, even +though Cleek was profuse in his apologies, and looked as sorry as he +declared. After a time, however, he went off on another tack, for +his quick-travelling glance had shown him Mr. Narkom in the house +across the passage, and he turned on his heel and walked away rapidly. + +"Tell you what it is: it's this blessed glare of light that's +accountable," he said. "A body's likely to stumble over anything with +the light streaming into the place in this fashion. What you want +in here is a bit of shade--like this." + +Here he crossed the room hastily and, reaching up, pulled down the +long window blind with a sudden jerk. But before either Trent or the +Italian could offer any objection to this interference with the +conditions under which the waxworker chose to conduct his labours, +he seemed, himself, to realize that the proceeding did not mend +matters, and, releasing his hold upon the blind, let the spring of +the roller carry it up again to its original position. As he did +this he said with a peculiarly asinine air: + +"That's a bit worse than the other, by Jip! Makes the blessed place +too dashed dark altogether; so it's not the light that's to blame +after all." + +"I should have thought even a fool might have known that!" gave +back the waxworker, almost savagely. "The light is poor enough as +it is. Look for yourself. It is only the afterglow--and even that +is already declining. _Pouffe!_" And here, as if in disgust too +great for words, he blew the breath from his lips with a sharp, +short gust, and facing about again went back to his work on the +tableau. + +Cleek made no response; nor yet did Trent. By this time even he had +begun to think that accident more than brains must have been at the +bottom of the man's many successes; that he was, in reality, nothing +more than a blundering muddler; and, after another ten minutes of +putting up with his crazy methods, had just made up his mind to +appeal to Narkom for the aid of another detective, when the end +which was all along being prepared came with such a rush that it +fairly made his head swim. + +All that he was ever able clearly to recall of it was that there +came a sudden sound of clattering footsteps rushing pell-mell up +the staircase; that the partition door was flung open abruptly to +admit Mr. Maverick Narkom, with three or four of the firm's employees +pressing close upon his heels; that the superintendent had but just +cried out excitedly, "Yes, man, _yes!_" when there arose a wild +clatter of falling figures, a snarl, a scuffle, a cry, and that, +when he faced round in the direction of it, there was the Lucknow +tableau piled up in a heap of fallen scenery and smashed waxworks, +and in the middle of the ruin there was the "signor" lying on his +back with a band of steel upon each wrist, and over him Cleek, with a +knee on the man's chest and the look of a fury in his eyes, crying +aloud: "Come out of it! Come out of it, you brute-beast! Your little +dodge has failed!" + +And hard on the heels of that shock Mr. Trent received another. For +of a sudden he saw Cleek pluck a wig from the man's head and leave +a white line showing above the place where the joining paste once had +met the grease paint with which the fellow's face was coloured, and +heard him say as he tossed that wig toward him and rose, "Out of your +own stage properties, Mr. Trent--borrowed to be returned like this." + +"Heaven above, man," said Trent in utter bewilderment, "what's the +meaning of it all? Who is that man, then, since it's clear he's not +Loti?" + +"A very excellent actor in his day, Mr. Trent; his name is James +Colliver," replied Cleek. "I came to this place fully convinced that +Loti had murdered him; I now know that he murdered Loti, and that +to that crime he has added a yet more abominable one by killing his +own son!" + +"It's a lie! It's a lie! I didn't! I didn't! I never saw the boy!" +screeched out Colliver in a very panic of terror. "I've never killed +any one. Loti sold out to me! Loti went back to France. I pawned the +jewels to get the money to pay him to go." + +"Oh, no, you didn't, my friend," said Cleek. "You performed that +operation to shut Felix Murchison's mouth--the one man who could +swear, and did swear, that James Colliver never left this building on +the day of his disappearance, and who probably would have said +more if you hadn't made it worth his while to shut his mouth and to +disappear. You and I know, my friend, that Loti was the last man +on this earth with whom you could come to terms upon anything. He +had publicly declared that he would have your life, and he'd have +kept his word if you hadn't turned the tables and killed him. You +stole his wife, and you were never even man enough to marry her even +though she had borne you a son and clung to you to the end, poor +wretch! You killed Loti, and you killed your own son. No doubt he is +better off, poor little chap, to be dead and gone rather than to live +with the shadow of illegitimacy upon him; and no doubt, either, +that when he came up here yesterday to meet Giuseppe Loti, he saw +what I saw to-day, and knew you as I knew you then--the scar on +the wrist, which was one of the marks of identification given me at +the time I was sent to hunt you up! And you killed him to shut his +mouth." + +"I didn't! I didn't!" he protested wildly. "I never saw him. He +wasn't here. The women in the house across the way will swear that +they saw the empty room." + +"Not now!" declared Cleek, with emphasis. "I've convinced them to +the contrary. Mr. Trent, let a couple of your men come over here +and take charge of this fellow, please, and I will convince you as +well. That's right, my lads. Lay hold of the beggar and don't let him +get a chance to make a dash for the stairs. Got him fast, have you? +Good! Now then, Mr. James Colliver, _this_ is what those deluded +women saw--this little dodge, which is going to help Jack Ketch to +come into his own." + +Speaking, he walked rapidly across to the long blind, pulled it down +to its full length, then with a wrench tore it wholly from the roller +and whirled it over, so that they who were within could now see +the outer side. + +It bore, painted upon it, a perfect representation of the interior +of the glass-room, even to the little spindle-legged table with a +vase of pink roses upon it which _now_ stood at that room's far end. + +"A clever idea, Colliver, and a good piece of painting," he said. +"It took me in once--last August--just as it took in Mrs. Sherman +and her daughter yesterday. The mistiness of the lace curtains +falling over it lent just the effect of 'distance' that was required +to perfect the illusion and to prevent anybody from detecting the +paint. As for the boy----Gently, lads, gently! Don't let the beggar +in his struggles make you step on that 'dead soldier.' Under the +thick coating of wax a human body lies--the boy's! Hullo! Gone +off his balance, eh, at the knowledge that the game is entirely up?" +This as Colliver, with a terrible cry, collapsed suddenly and fell +to the floor shrieking and grovelling. "They are a cowardly lot +these brute-beast men when it comes to the wall and the final +corner. Mr. Trent, break this to Miss Larue as gently as you can. +She has suffered a great deal, poor girl, and it is bound to be a +shock. She doesn't know that the woman he called his wife never +really was his wife; she doesn't know about Loti or his threat. +If she had she'd have told me, and I might have got on the trail in +the first case instead of waiting to pick it up like this." + +He paused and held up his hand. Through all this Colliver had not +once ceased grovelling and screaming; but it was not his cries that +had drawn that gesture from Cleek. It was the sound of some one +racing at top speed up the outer stairs, and with it the jar of +many excited voices mingled in a babble of utter confusion. + +The door of the glass-room swung inward abruptly, and the head +bookkeeper looked in, with a crowd of clerks behind him. + +"Mr. Trent, sir, whatever is the matter? Is anybody hurt? I never +heard such screams. The whole place is ringing with them and there's +a crowd gathering about the door." + +Cleek left the junior partner to explain the situation, stepped to +the side of the glass-room, looked down, saw that the statement was +quite true, and--stepped sharply back again. + +"We shall have to defer removing our prisoner until it gets dark, +I fancy, Mr. Narkom," he said, serenely. "And with Mr. Trent's +permission we will make use of the door leading into the alley at +the back when that time comes. Bookkeeper!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"You might explain to the constable on duty in the neighbourhood--if +he comes to inquire, that is--the cause of the disturbance, and that +Scotland Yard is in charge and Superintendent Narkom already on +the premises. That's all, thank you. You may close the door and take +your colleagues below. Hullo! our prisoner seems to be subsiding +into something akin to gibbering idiocy, Mr. Trent. Fright has +turned his brain, apparently. Let us make use of the respite from his +shrieks. You will, of course, wish to hear how I got on the track +of the man, and what were the clues which led up to the solving of +the affair. Well, you shall. Sit down, and while we are waiting +for the darkness to come I'll give you the complete explanation." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + + +Colliver, who had now sunk into a state of babbling incoherence, lay +on his face in the wreck of the tableau, rolling his head from side +to side and clasping and unclasping his manacled hands. + +Trent turned his back upon the unpleasant sight and, placing three +chairs at the opposite end of the room, dropped into one and lifted +an eager countenance to Cleek. + +"Tell me first of all," he asked, "how under heaven you came to +suspect how the disappearance of the boy was managed? It seems like +magic, to me. When in the world did you get the first clue to it, +Mr. Cleek?" + +"Never until I heard of those two women looking into this room +and seeing the vase of pink roses standing on a spindle-legged +table in the centre of it," he replied. "You see, even in the old +days when I had the other case in hand and was searching for a +clue to Colliver's disappearance, never had any one mentioned the +name of Loti to me. I knew, of course, that you made wax figures +here, but I never heard until this afternoon that Loti was the +man who was employed to model them. I also knew about the existence +of the glass-room and its position, for I had been at the pains +of inspecting it from the outside. That came about in this way: +Just before Miss Larue closed up the case of James Colliver I had +obtained the first actual clue to his movements after he left Mr. +Trent, senior, and came out of the office. + +"That clue came from the door porter, Felix Murchison. What careful +'pumping' got out of him was that when James Colliver left the +office he had asked him, Murchison, which was the way to the place +where they made the waxworks, as he'd heard that they were making +a head of Miss Larue to be used in the execution scene of Catharine +Howard, and he'd like to have a look at it. Murchison said that +he told him the figures were made in a glass-room on the top of +the house, and directed him how to reach it. He went up the stairs, +and that was the last that was seen of him. + +"Naturally when I heard that I thought I'd like to see the exterior +of the building to ascertain if there was any opening, door or +window, by which he could have left the upper floor without coming +down the main staircase. That led me to beg permission of the +people in the house across the passage there to look from one of +the side windows, and so gave me my first view of the glass-room. +What I saw was exactly what Mrs. Sherman and her daughter saw +yesterday--namely, that spick and span room with the table in the +centre and the vase of pink roses standing on it. + +"Need I go further than to say that when I heard of those women +seeing a room that was badly littered a few minutes before suddenly +become a tidy one with a table and a vase of roses standing in +the middle of it, without anybody having come into the place for +the purpose of making the change, I instantly remembered my own +experience and suspected a painted blind? + +"When I entered this room to-day and saw the peculiar position of +that blind I became almost certain I had hit upon the truth, and +sent Mr. Narkom to the house across the way to test it. That's +why I pulled the blind down. Why I stumbled and nearly fell into +the tableau was because I had a faint suspicion of the horrible truth +when I noticed how abominably thick the neck, hands, and ankles of +that 'dead soldier' were; and I wanted to test the truth or falseness +of the 'straw stuffing' assertion by actual touch, particularly as I +felt sure that the presence of all these strongly scented flowers +was for the purpose of covering less agreeable odours should the +heat of the weather cause decomposition to set in before he could +dispose of the body. I don't think he ever was mad enough to intend +letting the thing remain a part of the tableau. I fancy he would +have found an excuse to get it out somehow and to make away with it +entirely, as, no doubt, he did with the body of Loti. + +"What's that, Mr. Narkom? No, I don't think that Murchison had any +actual hand in the crime or really knew the identity of the man. I +fancy he must have gone up to tell the fictitious Loti that he knew +James Colliver had entered that glass-room and never come out of +it, and Colliver, of course, had to shut his mouth by buying him off +and sending him out of the country. That is why he took yet another +disguise and pawned the jewels. He had to get the money some way. +As for the rest, I imagine that when Colliver went up to the room to +see that wax head, and Loti caught sight of him, the old Italian +jumped on him like a mad tiger; and, seeing that it was Loti's life +or his own, Colliver throttled him. When that was done, the necessity +for disposing of the body arose, and the imposture was the actual +outcome of a desire to save his own neck. That's all, I think, Mr. +Narkom; so you may revise your 'notes' and mark down the Colliver +case as 'solved' at last and the mystery of it cleared up after all." + + * * * * * + +Three hours of patient waiting had passed and gone. The darkness +had fallen, the streets were still, save for the faint hum of life +coming from districts afar, and the time for action had come at last. +Cleek rose and put on his hat. + +"I think we may safely venture to remove our prisoner now, Mr. +Narkom," he said, "and if you will slip out the back way and get +Lennard to bring the limousine around to the head of that narrow +alley----" + +"They're there already, dear chap. I stationed Lennard there when I +went across to look into that business about the painted blind. It +seemed the least conspicuous place for him to wait." + +"Excellent! Then, if you will run on ahead and have the door of it +open for me and everything ready so that we may whisk him in and +be off like a shot, and Mr. Trent will let one of these good chaps +here run down to the man's room and fetch him a hat, I'll attend +to his removal." + +"Here's one here, sir, that'll do at a pinch and save time," +suggested one of the men, picking up a cavalryman's hat from the +wreck of the ruined tableau and dusting it by slapping it against +his thigh. "I don't think he'll resist much, sir; he seems to have +gone clear off his biscuit and not to know enough for that; but if +you'd like me and my mate to lend a hand----" + +"No, thanks; I shall be able to manage him myself, I fancy," said +Cleek, serenely. "Get him on his feet, please. That's the business! +Now then, Mr. Narkom nip off; I'm following." + +Mr. Narkom "nipped off" without an instant's delay, and two minutes +later saw him slipping out through the rear door of the building with +Cleek and the jabbering, unresisting prisoner at the bottom of the +last flight of stairs not twenty yards behind. + +But the passage of the next half minute saw something of more moment +still; for, as Narkom ran on tiptoe up the dim alley to the waiting +limousine standing at its western end, and unlatching the vehicle's +door, swung it open to be ready for Cleek, out of the stillness there +roared suddenly the shrill note of a dog-whistle, and all in a moment +there was--mischief. + +A crowd of quick-moving Apache figures sprang up from sheltering +doors and, scudding past him, headed full tilt down the narrow alley, +calling out as they ran that piercing "La, la, loi!" which is the +war cry of their kind. + +A blind rage--all the more maddening in that it was impotent, since +he had neither weapon to defend nor the power to slay--swept down +upon the superintendent as he realized the import of that mad rush, +and, ducking down his head, he bolted after them, into the thick of +them--punching, banging, slogging, shouting, swearing--an incarnate +Passion, the Epitome of Man's love for Man--a little fat Fury that +was all a whirl of flying fists as it swept onward and that seemed to +go absolutely insane at what he looked up the alley and saw. + +"Get back, Cleek! Get back, for God's sake!" he yelled, in a very +panic of fear and dismay; then cleft his way with beating arms and +kicking feet through the hampering crowd, arrowed out of its midst, +and bore down upon the cavalry-hatted figure that had stepped out +of the dark doorway of Trent & Son's building and was standing +flattened against the rear wall of it. + +He reached out his hand and made a blind clutch at it, and, while he +was yet far out of reaching distance of it, faced round and made +a wild effort to cover it with his short, fat body and his arms +outflung, like a crucifix, and looked at the Apaches and swore +without one thought of being profane. + +"Me, you damned devils! Me, me, not him! Not him, damn you! damn you! +damn you!" he cried, hoarse-throated and--said no more! + +The scuttling crowd came up with him, broke about him, swept past +him. A loud explosion sounded; a flare of light broke full against +the cavalry hat; a stifling odour of picric acid filled the air +and gripped the throat, and with its coming, man and hat slid down +the wall and dropped at its foot a crumpled heap that never in this +world would stand erect again. + +"Killed! Killed!" half-cried, half-groaned the superintendent, +staggering a bit as the crowd flew on up the alley and vanished +around the corner of the street into which it merged. "Oh, my God! +After all my care; after all my love for him! Killed like a dog. Oh, +Cleek! Oh, Cleek! The dearest friend--the finest pal--the greatest +detective genius of the age!" And then, swinging his arm up and +across his eyes and holding it there, made a queer choking sound +behind the sheltering crook of it. + +But of a sudden a voice spoke up from the darkness of the open door +near by and said quietly: + +"That's the finest compliment I ever had paid me in all my life, Mr. +Narkom. Don't worry over me, dear friend; I'm still able to sit up +and take nourishment. The Apaches have saved the public executioner +a morning's work. Colliver has parted with his brains forever; +and may God have mercy on his soul!" + +"Cleek!" Mr. Narkom scarcely knew his own voice, such a screaming +thing it was. "Cleek, dear chap, is it you?" + +"To be sure. Come inside here if you doubt it. Come quickly; there's +a crowd of quite a different sort coming: the report of that bomb +has aroused the neighbourhood; and I have quite enough of crowds for +one evening, thank you." + +Narkom was inside the building before you could have said Jack +Robinson, "pump-handling" Cleek with all his might and generally +deporting himself like a man gone daft. + +"I thought they'd finished you! I thought they'd 'done you in.' It +was the Apache, you know--and that infernal scoundrel Waldemar: he +must have found out somehow," he said excitedly. "But we've got it +on him at last, Cleek: he's come within the law's reach after all." + +"To be sure; but I doubt if the law will be able to find him, Mr. +Narkom. He will have left the country before the trap was actually +sprung, believe me; or failing that, will be well on his way out of +it." + +"But perhaps not absolutely out of it, dear chap. There are the +ports, you know; and so long as he is on English soil----Come and +see! Come and see! We may be able to head him off. Let's get out +by way of the front of the building, Cleek, and if I can once get to +the telegraph and wire to the coast--and he hasn't yet sailed----Come +on! come on! Or no: wait a moment. That's a constable out there, +asking for information. I'll nip out and let him know that the +Yard's on the case and give him a few orders about reporting it. +Wait for me at the front door, old chap. With you in a winking." + +He stepped out into the alley as he spoke and mingled with the +gathering crowd. + +But Cleek did not stir. The alley was no longer dark for, with the +gathering of the crowd, lights had come and he stood for many minutes +staring into it and breathing hard and the colour draining slowly +out of his face until it was like a thing of wax. + +Outside in the narrow alley the gathering of curious ones which +the sound of the explosion and the sight of a running policeman +had drawn to the place was every moment thickening, and with the +latest addition to it there had come hurrying into the narrow space +a morbid-minded newsboy with the customary bulletin sheet pinned over +his chest. + +"The _Evening News_! Six o'clock edition!" that bulletin was headed, +and under that heading there was set forth in big black type: + + END OF THE MAURAVANIAN REVOLUTION + FALL OF THE CAPITAL + FLIGHT OF THE DEPOSED KING + OVERWHELMING SUCCESS OF IRMA'S TROOPS. + +"Mr. Narkom," said Cleek, when at the end of ten minutes the +superintendent came bustling back, hot and eager to begin the +effort to head off Count Waldemar. "Mr. Narkom, dear friend, the +days of trouble and distress are over and the good old times you +have so often sighed for have come back. Look at that newsboy's +bulletin. Waldemar is too late in all things and--we have seen +the last of him forever." + + + + +EPILOGUE + +The Affair of the Man Who Was Found + + +Mr. Maverick Narkom glanced up at the calendar hanging on the office +wall, saw that it recorded the date as August 18th, and then glanced +back to the sheet of memoranda lying on his desk, and forthwith +began to scratch his bald spot perplexedly. + +"I wonder if I dare do it?" he queried of himself in the unspoken +words of thought. "It seems such a pity when the beggar's wedding +day is so blessed near--and a man wants his last week of single +blessedness all to himself, by James--if he can get it! Still, +it's a case after his own heart; the reward's big and would be a +nice little nest egg to begin married life upon. Besides, he's had a +fairly good rest as it is, when I come to think of it. Nothing +much to do since the time when that Mauravanian business came to an +end. I fancy he rather looked to have something come out of that in +the beginning from the frequent inquiries he made regarding what +that johnnie Count Irma and the new Parliament were doing; but +it never did. And now, after all that rest--and this a case of so +much importance----Gad! I believe I'll risk it. He can't do any +more then decline. Yes, by James! I will." + +His indecision once conquered, he took the plunge instantly; caught +up the desk telephone, called for a number, and two minutes later +was talking to Cleek, thus: + +"I say, old chap, don't snap my head off for suggesting such a thing +at such a time, but I've a most extraordinary case on hand and I +hope to heaven that you will help me out with it. What's that? Oh, +come, now, that's ripping of you, old chap, and I'm as pleased as +Punch. What? Oh, get along with you! No more than you'd do for me +under the same circumstances, I'll be sworn. Yes, to-day--as early as +possible. Right you are. Then could you manage to meet me in the +bar parlour of a little inn called the French Horn, out Shere way, in +Surrey, about four o'clock? Could, eh? Good man! Oh, by the way, +come prepared to meet a lady of title, old chap--she's the client. +Thanks very much. Good-bye." + +Then he hung up the receiver, rang for Lennard, and set about +preparing for the journey forthwith. + +And this, if you please, was how it came to pass that when Mr. +Maverick Narkom turned up at the French Horn that afternoon he +found a saddle horse tethered to a post outside, and Cleek, looking +very much like one of the regular habitués of Rotten Row who had +taken it into his mind to canter out into the country for a change, +standing in the bar parlour window and looking out with appreciative +eyes upon the broad stretch of green downs that billowed away to +meet the distant hills. + +"My dear chap, how on earth do you manage it?" said the +superintendent, eying him with open approval, not to say +admiration. "I don't mean the mere putting on the clothes and +_looking_ the part--I've seen dozens in my time who could do that +right enough, but the beggars always 'fell down' when it came to +the acting and the talking, while you--I don't know what the +dickens it is nor how you manage to get it, but there's a certain +something or other in your bearing, your manner, your look, when +you tackle this sort of thing that I always believed a man had +to be born to and couldn't possibly acquire in any other way." + +"There you are wrong, my dear friend. It _is_ possible, as you +see. That is what makes the difference between the mere actor and +the real _artiste_," replied Cleek, with an air of conceited +self-appreciation which was either a clever illusion or an exhibition +of great weakness. "If one man might not do these things better than +another man, we should have no Irvings to illuminate the stage, +and acting would drop at once from its place among the arts to the +undignified level of a tawdry trade. And now, as our American +cousins say, 'Let's come down to brass tacks.' What's the case and +who's the lady?" + +"The widow of the late Sir George Essington, and grandmother of the +young gentleman in whose interest you are to be consulted." + +"Grandmother, eh? Then the lady is no longer young?" + +"Not as years go, although, to look at her, you would hardly suspect +that she is a day over five-and-thirty. The Gentleman with the Hour +Glass has dealt very, very lightly with her. Where he has failed to +be considerate, however, the ladies, who conduct certain 'parlours' +in Bond Street, have come to the rescue in fine style." + +"Oh, she is that kind of woman, is she?" said Cleek with a pitch of +the shoulders. "I have no patience with the breed! As if there was +anything more charming than a dear, wrinkly old grandmother who +bears her years gracefully and fusses over her children's children +like an old hen with a brood of downy chicks. But a grandmother who +goes in for wrinkle eradicators, cream of lilies, skin-tighteners, +milk of roses, and things of that kind--faugh! It has been my +experience, Mr. Narkom, that when a woman has any real cause for +worrying over the condition of her face, she usually has a just one +to be anxious over that of her soul. So this old lady is one of +the 'face painters,' is she?" + +"My dear chap, let me correct an error: a grandmother her ladyship +may be, but she is decidedly not an old one. I believe she was only +a mere girl when she married her late husband. At any rate, she +certainly can't be a day over forty-five at the present moment. +A frivolous and a recklessly extravagant woman she undoubtedly +is--indeed, her extravagances helped as much as anything to bring +her husband into the bankruptcy court before he died--but beyond +that I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with her +'soul.'" + +"Possibly not. There's always an exception to every rule," said +Cleek. "Her ladyship may be the shining exception to this unpleasant +one of the 'face painters.' Let us hope so. English, is she?" + +"Oh, yes--that is, her father was English and she herself was born +in Buckinghamshire. Her mother, however, was an Italian, a lineal +descendant of a once great and powerful Roman family named de +Catanei." + +"Which," supplemented Cleek, with one of his curious one-sided +smiles, "through an ante-papal union between Pope Alexander VI +and the beautiful Giovanna de Catanei--otherwise Vanozza--gave to the +world those two arch-poisoners and devils of iniquity, Cæsar and +Lucretia Borgia. Lady Essington's family tree supplies a mixture +which is certainly unique: a fine, fruity English pie with a rotten +apple in it. Hum-m-m! if her ladyship has inherited any of the +beauty of her famous ancestress--for in 1490, when she flourished, +Giovanna de Catanei was said to be the most beautiful woman in the +world--she should be something good to look upon." + +"She is," replied Narkom. "You'll find her, when she comes, one of +the handsomest and most charming women you ever met." + +"Ah, then she has inherited some of the attractions and +accomplishments of her famous forbears. I wonder if there has +also come down to her, as well, the formula of those remarkable +secret poisons for which Lucretia Borgia and her brother Cæsar +were so widely famed. They were marvellous things, those Borgia +decoctions--marvellous and abominable." + +"Horrible!" agreed Narkom, a curious shadow of unrest coming over +him at this subject rising at this particular time. + +"Modern chemistry has, I believe, been quite unable to duplicate +them. There is, for instance, that appalling thing the aqua tofana, +the very fumes of which caused instant death." + +"Aqua tofana was not a Bornean poison, my friend," said Cleek, with a +smile. "It was discovered more than two hundred years after _their_ +time--in 1668, to be exact--by one Jean Baptiste de Gaudin, Signeur +de St. Croix, the paramour and accomplice of that unnatural French +fiend, Marie Marquise de Brinvilliers. Its discoverer himself died +through dropping the glass mask from his face and inhaling the +fumes while he was preparing the hellish mixture. The secret of its +manufacture did not, however, die with him. Many chemists can, +to-day, reproduce it. Indeed, I, myself, could give you the formula +were it required." + +"_You?_ Gad, man! what don't you know? In heaven's name, Cleek, what +caused you to dip into all these unholy things?" + +"The same impulse which causes a drowning man to grip at a straw, +Mr. Narkom--the desire for self-preservation. Remember what I was in +those other days, and with whom I associated. Believe me, the +statement that there is honour among thieves is a pleasant fiction +and nothing more; for once a man sets out to be a professional +thief, he and honour are no longer on speaking terms. I never could +be wholly sure, with that lot; and my biggest _coups_ were always a +source of danger to me after they had been successfully completed. +It became necessary for me to study _all_ poisons, all secret arts +of destruction, that I might guard against them and might know the +proper antidote. As for the rest--Sh! Mumm's a fine wine. Here comes +the landlady with the tea. We'll drop the 'case' until afterward." + + * * * * * + +"Now tell me," said Cleek, after the landlady had gone and they +were again in sole possession of the room, "what is it this Lady +Essington wants of me? And what sort of a chap is this grandson in +whose interest she is acting? Is he with her in this appeal to the +Yard?" + +"Certainly not, my dear fellow. Why, he's little more than a +baby--not over three at the most. Ever hear anybody speak of the +'Golden Boy,' old chap?" + +"What! The baby Earl of Strathmere? The little chap who inherited a +title and a million through the drowning of his parents in the wreck +of the yacht _Mystery_?" + +"That's the little gentleman: the Right Honourable Cedric Eustace +George Carruthers, twenty-seventh Earl Strathmere, variously known +as the 'Millionaire Baby' and the 'Golden Boy.' His mother was Lady +Essington's only daughter. She was only eighteen when she married +Strathmere: only twenty-two when she and her husband were drowned, a +little over a year ago." + +"Early enough to go out of the world, that--poor girl!" said Cleek, +sympathetically. "And to leave that little shaver all alone--robbed +at one blow of both father and mother. Hard lines, my friend, hard +lines! It is fair to suppose, is it not, that, with the death of his +parents, the care and guidance of his little lordship fell to the +lot of his grandmother, Lady Essington?" + +"No, it did not," replied Narkom. "One might have supposed that it +would, seeing that there was no paternal grandmother, but--well, the +fact of the matter is, Cleek, that the late Lord Strathmere did not +altogether approve of his mother-in-law's method of living (he was +essentially a quiet, home-loving man and had little patience with +frivolity of any sort), and it occasioned no surprise among those +who knew him when it was discovered that he had made a will leaving +everything he possessed to his little son and expressly stipulating +that the care and upbringing of the boy were to be entrusted to +his younger brother, the Honourable Felix Camour Paul Carruthers, who +was to enjoy the revenue from the estate until the child attained +his majority." + +"I see! I see!" said Cleek, appreciatively. "Then that did her +extravagant ladyship out of a pretty large and steady income for a +matter of seventeen or eighteen years. Humm-m! Wise man--always, of +course, provided that he didn't save the boy from the frying-pan only +to drop him into the fire. What kind of a man is this brother--this +Honourable Felix Carruthers--into whose hands he entrusted the +future of his little son? I seem to have a hazy recollection of +hearing that name, somewhere or somehow, in connection with some +other affair. Wise choice, was it, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Couldn't have been better, to my thinking. I know the Honourable +Felix quite well: a steady-going, upright, honourable young fellow +(he isn't over two or three-and-thirty), who, being a second +son, naturally inherited his mother's fortune, and that being +considerable, he really did not need the income from his little +nephew's in the slightest degree. However, he undertook the +charge willingly, for he is much attached to the boy; and he and +his wife--to whom he was but recently married, by the way--entered +into residence at his late brother's splendid property, Boskydell +Priory, just over on the other side of those hills--you can see from +the window, there--where they are at present entertaining a large +house party, among whom are Lady Essington and her son Claude." + +"Oho! Then her ladyship has a son, has she? The daughter who died was +not her only child?" + +"No. The son was born about a year after the daughter. A nice +lad--bright, clever, engaging; fond of all sorts of dumb +animals--birds, monkeys, white mice--all manner of such things--and +as tender-hearted as a girl. Wouldn't hurt a fly. Carruthers is +immensely fond of him and has him at the Priory whenever he can. +That, of course, means having the mother, too, which is a bit of a +trial, in a way, for I don't believe that her ladyship and Mrs. +Carruthers care very much for each other. But that's another story. +Now, then, let's see--where was I? Oh, ah! about the house party at +the Priory and Carruthers' fondness for the boy. You can judge of +my surprise, my dear Cleek, when last night's post brought me a +private letter from Lady Essington asking me to meet her here at +this inn--which, by the way, belongs to the Strathmere estate and +is run by a former servant at the Priory--and stating that she +wished me to bring one of the shrewdest and cleverest of my +detectives, as she was quite convinced there was an underhand scheme +afoot to injure his little lordship--in short, she had every +reason to believe that somebody was secretly attacking the life of +the Golden Boy. She then went on to give me details of a most +extraordinary and bewildering nature." + +"Indeed? What were those details, Mr. Narkom?" + +"Let her tell you for herself--here she is!" replied the +superintendent, as a veiled and cloaked figure moved hurriedly past +the window; and he and Cleek had barely more than pushed back their +chairs and risen when that figure entered the room. + +A sweep of her hand carried back her veil; and Cleek, looking round, +saw what he considered one of the handsomest women he had ever +beheld: a good woman, too, for all her frivolous life and her dark +ancestry, if clear, straight-looking eyes could be taken as a proof, +which he knew that they could _not_; for he had seen men and women +in his day, as crafty as the fox and as dangerous as the serpent, +who could look you straight in the eyes and never flinch; while +others--as true as steel and as clean-lifed as saints--would send +shifting glances flicking all round the room and could no more fix +those glances on the face of the person to whom they were talking +than they could take unto themselves wings and fly. + +But good or ill, whichever the future might prove this lovely lady +to be, one thing about her was certain: she was violently agitated, +and nervousness was making her shake perceptibly and breathe hard, +like a spent runner. + +"It is good of you to come, Mr. Narkom," she said, moving forward +with a grace which no amount of excitement could dispel or +diminish--the innate grace of the woman _born_ to her station and +schooled by Mother Nature's guiding hand. "I had hoped that I might +steal away and come here to meet you unsuspected. But, secretly as I +wrote, carefully as I planned this thing, I have every reason to +believe that my efforts are suspected and that I have, indeed, +been followed. So, then, this interview must be a very hurried one, +and you must not be surprised if it becomes necessary for me to run +off without a moment's notice; for believe me, I am quite, quite +sure that the Honourable Mr. Felix Carruthers is already following +me." + +"The Honourable--my dear Lady Essington, you don't mean to suggest +that he--he of all men----God bless my soul!" + +"Oh, it may well amaze you, Mr. Narkom. It well-nigh stupefied +me when I first began to suspect. Indeed, I can't do any more +than suspect even yet. Perhaps it is he, perhaps that abominable +woman he has married. You must decide that when you have heard. I +perceive"--glancing over at Cleek--"you have been unable to bring +a detective police officer to listen to what I have to say, but +if you and your friend will listen carefully and convey the story to +one in due course----" + +"Pardon, your ladyship, but my companion is a detective officer," +interposed Narkom. "So if you will state the case at once he will +be able to advise." + +"A detective? You?" She flashed round on Cleek and looked at him +in amazement, her lower lip indrawn, a look almost of horror in +her eyes. One may not tell a lion that another lion is a jackass, +though he masquerade in the skin of one. Birth spoke to Birth. She +saw, she knew, she understood. "By what process could such as you--" +she began; then stopped and made a slight inclination of the head. +"Pardon," she continued; "that was rude. Your private affairs are of +course your own, Mr.--er----" + +"Headland, your ladyship," supplied Cleek. "My name is George +Headland!" And Narkom knew from that that for all her grace and +charm he neither liked nor trusted her soft-eyed ladyship. + +"Thank you," said Lady Essington, accepting this self-introduction +with a graceful inclination of the head. "No doubt Mr. Narkom has +given you some idea of my reason for consulting you, Mr. Headland; +but as time is very short let me give you the further details as +briefly as possible. I am convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt +that some one who has an interest in his death is secretly attacking +the life of my little grandson; and I have every reason to believe +that the 'some one' is either the Honourable Felix Carruthers or +his wife." + +"But to what purpose, your ladyship? People do not commit so +desperate an act as murder without some powerful motive, either +of gain or revenge, behind it, and from what I have heard, neither +the uncle nor the aunt can have anything to win by injuring his +little lordship." + +"Can they not?" she answered, with a despairing gesture. "How little +you know! Mrs. Carruthers is an ambitious woman, Mr. Headland, +and, like all women of the class from which she was recruited, she +aspires to a title. She was formerly an actress. The Honourable +Felix married and took her from the theatre. It is abominable that +a person of that type should be foisted upon society and brought +into contact with her betters." + +"Oho! that's where the shoe pinches, is it?" thought Cleek; but aloud +he merely said: "The day has long passed, your ladyship, when the +followers of Thespis have to apologize for their existence. There are +many ladies of the stage in these times whose lives are exemplary and +whose names call forth nothing but respect and admiration; and so +long as this particular lady bore an unblemished reputation----Did +she?" + +"Oh, yes. There was never a word against her in that respect. +Felix would never have married her if there had been. But I believe +in persons of that class remaining in their own circle, and not +intruding themselves into others to which they were not _born_. She +is an ambitious woman, as I have told you. She aspires to a title +as _well_ as to riches, and if little Lord Strathmere should die, +her husband would inherit both. Surely that is 'motive' enough for +a woman of that type. As for her husband----" + +"There, I am afraid, your suspicion confounds itself, your ladyship," +interrupted Cleek. "I am told that the Honourable Mr. Carruthers +is extremely fond of the boy; besides which, being rich in his own +right, he has no reason to covet the riches of his brother's baby +son." + +"Pardon me: '_was_ rich' is the proper expression, not 'is,' Mr. +Headland. The failure, a fortnight or so ago, of the West Coast +Diamond Mining Company, in which the greater part of his fortune +was invested and of which he was the chairman, has sadly crippled his +resources, and he has now nothing but the income from his nephew's +estate to live upon." + +"Hum-m-m! Ah! Just so!" said Cleek, pinching his chin. "Now I +recollect what made the name seem familiar, Mr. Narkom. I remember +reading of the failure, and of the small hope that was held out of +anything being saved from the wreckage. Still, the income from the +Strathmere estate is enormous; and by dint of care, in the seventeen +or eighteen years which must elapse before his little lordship +comes of age----" + +"He will never come of age! He will be killed first--he is being +killed now!" interposed Lady Essington, agitatedly. "Oh, Mr. +Headland, help me! I love the boy--he is my own child's child. I +love him as I never loved anything else in all the world; and if +he were to die----Dear God! what should I do? And he is dying: I +tell you he is. And they won't let me go near him: they won't let +me have him all to myself, these two! If his cries in the night +wring my heart and I run to his nursery, one or the other of them is +always there, and never for one moment will they let me hold him in +my arms nor be with him alone." + +"Hum-m-m! Cries out in the night, does he, your ladyship? What kind +of cries? Those of fright or of pain?" + +"Of pain--of excruciating pain: it would wring the heart of a stone +to hear him, and, though there is never a spot of blood nor a sign of +violence, he declares that some one comes in the night and sticks +something into his neck--something which, in his baby way, he likens +to 'a long, long needle that goes yite froo my neck and sets uvver +needles prickin' and prickin' all down my arm.'" + +"Hello! what's that? Let's have that again, please!" rapped out +Cleek, before he thought; then recollected himself and added +apologetically, "I beg your ladyship's pardon, but I am apt to +get a little excited at times. Something like a needle being run +into his neck, eh? And other needles continuing the sensation down +the arm? Hum-m-m! Had a doctor called in?" + +"No. I wished to, but neither the uncle nor aunt would let me do +so. They say it is nothing--a mere 'growing pain' which he will +overcome in time. But it is not--I _know_ it is not! If it were +natural, why did it never manifest itself before the failure of +that wretched diamond company? Why did it wait to begin until after +the Honourable Felix Carruthers had lost his money? And why is it +going on, night after night, ever since? Why has he begun to fail +in health?--to change from a happy, laughing, healthy child into +a peevish, fretful, constantly complaining one? I tell you they +are killing him, those two; I tell you they are using some secret +diabolical thing which is sapping his very life; and if----" + +She stopped and sucked her breath in with a little gasp of fright, +and, whisking down her veil, turned and made hurriedly for the door. + +"I told you he guessed; I told you I should be followed!" she said +in a shaking voice. "He is coming--that man: along the road there! +look through the window and you will see. Oh, come to my assistance, +Mr. Headland! Find some way to do it, for God's sake! Good-bye!" + +Then the door opened and shut and she was gone, darting out from the +rear of the inn into the shelter of the scattered clumps of furze +bushes and the thick growth of bracken which covered the downs, and +running like a hare pursued. + +"Well, what do you make of it, old chap?" asked Narkom anxiously, +turning to Cleek after ascertaining past all doubt that the +Honourable Felix Carruthers was riding up the road toward the +French Horn. + +"Oh, a crime beyond doubt," he replied. "But whose I am in no +position to determine at present. A hundred things might produce +that stabbing sensation in the neck, from the prick of a pin-point +dipped in curare to a smear of the 'Pope's balm,' that hellish +ointment of the Borgias. Hum-m-m! And so that's the Honourable +Felix Carruthers, is it? Keep back from the window, my friend. +When you are out gunning for birds, it never does to raise an alarm. +And we should be hard put to it to explain our presence here at +this particular time if he were to see you." + +"My dear chap, you don't surely mean that you think _he_ is really +at the bottom of it?" began Narkom, in surprise; but before he could +say a word further, _that_ surprise was completely overwhelmed by +another and a greater one. For the Honourable Felix had reined in +and dismounted at the French Horn's door, and, with a clear-voiced, +"No, don't put him up; I shan't be long, Betty. Just want a word +or two with some friends I'm expecting," walked straightway into +the bar parlour and advanced toward the superintendent with hand +outstretched. + +"Thank God, you got my letter in time, Mr. Narkom," he said, with a +breath of intense relief. "Although I sent it by express messenger, +it was after three o'clock and I was afraid you wouldn't. What a +friend you are to come to my relief like this! I shall owe you a +debt no money can repay. This then is the great and amazing Cleek, +is it? I thank you, Mr. Cleek, I thank you from the bottom of my +heart for accepting the case. Now we _shall_ get to the bottom of +the mystery, I am sure." + +It was upon the tip of Narkom's tongue to inquire what he meant by +all this; but Cleek, rightly suspecting that the letter to which he +alluded had been delivered at the Yard after the superintendent's +departure, jumped into the breach and saved the situation. + +"Very good of you indeed to place such great reliance in me, Mr. +Carruthers," he said. "We had to scramble for it, Mr. Narkom and +I--the letter was so late in arriving--but, thank fortune, we managed +to get here, as you see. And now, please, may I have the details of +the case?" + +He spoke guardedly, lest it should be upon some matter other than +the interest of the "Golden Boy" and to prevent the Honourable +Felix from guessing that he had already been approached upon that +subject by Lady Essington. It was not some other matter, however. +It was again the mystery of the secret attacks upon his little +lordship he was asked to dispel; and the Honourable Felix, plunging +forthwith into the details connected with it, gave him exactly the +same report as Lady Essington had done. + +"Come to the rescue, Mr. Cleek," he finished, rather excitedly. "Both +my wife and I feel that you and you alone are the man to get at the +bottom of this diabolical thing; and the boy is as dear to us as if +he were our own. Help me to get proof--unimpeachable proof--of the +hand which is engineering these diabolical attacks, that we may not +only put an end to them before they go too far, but may avert the +disgrace which publicity must inevitably bring." + +"Publicity, Mr. Carruthers? What publicity are you in dread of, +please?" + +"That which could only bring shame to a dear, lovable young +fellow if any hint of what I believe to be the truth should get +out, Mr. Cleek," he replied. "To you I may confess it: I appeal to +no medical man because I fear, for young Claude's sake, that +investigation may lead to a discovery of the truth; for both my +wife and I feel--indeed, we almost _know_--that it is his own +grandmother, Lady Essington, who is injuring the boy and that it +will not be long before she attempts to direct suspicion against +_us_." + +"Indeed? For what purpose?" + +"To have us removed by the courts as not being fit to have the care +of the child, and to get him transferred to her care, that she may +enjoy the revenue from his estate." + +"Phew!" whistled Cleek softly. "Well done, my lady!" + +"We do our best to keep her from getting at him," went on the +Honourable Felix, "but she succeeds in spite of us. His nursery +was on the same floor as her rooms, but for greater safety I last +night had him carried to my own bedchamber and double-locked all +the windows and doors. I said to myself that nothing could get +to him then; but--it did, just the same! In the middle of the night +he woke up screaming and crying out that some one had come and +stuck a long needle in his neck, and then for the first time--God! +I nearly went off my head when I saw it--for the first time, Mr. +Cleek, there was a mark upon him--three red raw little spots just +over the collarbone on the left side of the neck, as if a bird +had pecked him." + +"Hum-m-m! And all the windows closed, you say?" + +"All but one--the window of my dressing-room--but as that is barred +so that nobody could possibly get in, I thought it did not matter, +and so left it partly open for the sake of air." + +"I see," said Cleek. "I see! Hum-m-m! A fortnight without any outward +sign and then of a sudden three small raw spots! Indented in the +centre are they, and much inflamed about the edges? Thanks! Quite +so, quite so! And the doors locked and all the windows but one +closed and secured on the inside, so that no human body----What's +that? Take the case? Certainly I will, Mr. Carruthers. You are +entertaining a house party at present, I hear. Now if you can make +it convenient to put me up in the Priory for a night or two, and +will inform your guests that an old 'Varsity friend named--er--let's +see! Oh, ah! Deland, that will do as well as any--Lieutenant Arthur +Deland, home on leave from India--if you will inform your guests that +that friend will join the house party to-morrow afternoon, I'll be +with you in time for lunch, and will bring my man servant with me." + +"Thank you! thank you!" said the Honourable Felix, wringing his +hand. "I'll do exactly as you suggest, Mr. Cleek, and rooms shall be +ready for you when you arrive." + +And the matter being thus arranged, the Honourable Felix took his +departure; and Cleek, calling the landlady to furnish him with pen, +ink, and paper, sat down then and there to write a private note to +Lady Essington, telling her to look out for Mr. George Headland to +put in an appearance at the Priory in three days' time. + + * * * * * + +It was exactly half-past one o'clock when Lieutenant Arthur Deland, a +big, handsome, fair-haired, fair-moustached fellow, with the stamp +of the Army all over him, turned up at Boskydell Priory with an +undersized Indian servant and an oversized kit and was presented to +his hostess and to the several members of the house party, by all +of whom he was voted a decided acquisition before he had been an +hour under the Priory's roof. + +It is odd how one's fancies sometimes go. He found the Honourable +Mrs. Carruthers a sweet, gentle, dovelike little woman for whom he +did not care in the least degree, and he found Lady Essington's son +a rollicking, bubbling, overgrown boy of two-and-twenty, whom, in +spite of frivolous upbringing and a rather pronounced brusqueness +toward his mother, he fancied very much indeed. In fact, he "played +right up" to Mr. Claude Essington, as our American cousins say; and +Mr. Claude Essington, fancying him hugely, took him to his heart +forthwith and blurted out his sentiments with almost small-boy +candour. + +"I say, Deland, you're a spiffing sort--I like you!" he said bluntly, +after they'd played one or two sets of tennis with the ladies and +done their "social duties" generally. "If things look up a bit and +I'm able to go back to Oxford for the next term (and the Lord +knows how I shall, if the mater doesn't succeed in 'touching' +Carruthers for some money for we're jolly near broke and up to our +eyes in debt), but if I do go back and you're in England still, +I'll have you up for the May week and give you the time of your +life. Oh, Lord! here's the mater coming now. Let's hook it. Come +round to the stables, will you, and have a look at my collection. +Pippin' lot--they'll interest you." + +They did; for on investigation the "collection" proved to be made +up of pigeons, magpies, parrakeets, white mice, monkeys, and even +a tame squirrel, all of which came forth at their master's call and +swarmed or flocked all over him. + +"Now then, Dolly Varden, you keep your thieving tongs away from +my scarfpin, old lady!" exclaimed this enthusiast to a magpie +which perched upon his shoulder and immediately made a peck at +the small pearl in his necktie. "Awfullest old thief and vagrant +that ever sprouted a feather, this beauty," he explained to Cleek as +he smoothed the magpie's head. "Steal your eye teeth if she could +get at them, and goes off on the loose like a blessed wandering +gypsy. Lost her for three days and nights a couple of weeks ago, +and the Lord knows where the old vagrant put in her time. What's +that? The white stuff on her beak? Blest if I know. Been pecking at +a wall or something, I reckon, and--hullo! There's Carruthers and +his little lordship strolling about hand in hand. Let's go and have +a word with them. Strathmere's amazingly fond of my mice and birds." + +With that he walked away with the mice and the monkeys and the +squirrel clinging to him, and those of the birds that were not +perched upon his shoulders or his hands circling round his head with +a flurry of moving wings. Cleek followed. A word in private with +the Honourable Felix was accountable for his appearance in the +grounds with the boy, and Cleek was anxious to get a good look at +him without exciting any possible suspicion in Lady Essington's mind +regarding the "Lieutenant's" interest in him. + +He was a bonny little chap, this last Earl of Strathmere, with a head +and face that might have done duty for one of Raphael's "Cherubim" +and the big "wonder eyes" that make baby faces so alluring. + +"Strathmere, this is Lieutenant Deland, come all the way from India +to visit us," said the Honourable Felix, as Cleek went down on his +knees and spoke to the boy (examining him carefully the while). +"Won't you tell him you are pleased to see him?" + +"Pleased to see oo," said the boy, then broke into a shout of glee +as he caught sight of young Essington with the animals and birds. +"Pitty birdies! pitty mouses! Give! give!" he exclaimed eagerly, +stretching forth his little hands. + +"Certainly. Which will you have, old chap--magpie, parrakeet, pigeon, +monkey, or mice?" said young Essington, gayly. "Here! take the lot +and be happy!" Then he made as if to bundle them all into the child's +arms, and might have succeeded in doing so, but that Cleek rose up +and came between them and the boy. + +"Do have some sense, Essington!" he rapped out sharply. "Those +things may not bite nor claw you, but one can't be sure when they +are handled by some one else. Besides, the boy is not well and he +ought not to be frightened." + +"Sorry, old chap--always puttin' my foot into it. But Strathmere +likes 'em, don't you, bonny boy? and I didn't think." + +"Take them back to the stables and let's have a go at billiards for +an hour or two before tea," said Cleek, turning as Essington walked +away, and looking after him with narrowed eyes and lips indrawn. When +man and birds were out of sight, however, he made a sharp and sudden +sound, and almost in a twinkling his "Indian servant" slipped into +sight from behind a nearby hedge. + +"Get round there and examine those birds after he's left them," said +Cleek, in a swift whisper. "There's one--a magpie--with something +smeared on its beak. Find out what it is and bring me a sample. Look +sharp!" + +"Right you are, sir," answered in excellent Cockney the undersized +person addressed. "I'll spread one of me famous 'Tickle Tootsies' +and nip in and ketch the bloomin' 'awk as soon as the josser's back +is turned, guv'ner. I'm off, as the squib said to the match when it +started blowin' of him up." Then the face disappeared again, and +the child and the two men were again alone together. + +"Good God, man!" exclaimed the Honourable Felix in a lowered voice of +strong excitement. "You can't possibly believe that he--that dear, +lovable boy----Oh, it is beyond belief!" + +"Nothing is 'beyond belief' in _my_ line, my friend. Recollect that +even Lucifer was an angel _once_. I know the means employed to +bring about this"--touching softly the three red spots on his +little lordship's neck--"but I have yet to decide how the thing +is administered and by whom. Frankly I do not believe it is done +with a bird's beak--though that, too, is possible, wild as it +seems--but by this time to-morrow I promise you the riddle shall be +solved. Sh-h! Don't speak--he's coming back. Take the boy into your +own room to-night, but leave the door unfastened. I'm coming down to +watch by him with you. Let him first be put into the regular nursery, +however, then take him out without the knowledge of any living +soul--of _any_, you hear?--and I will be with you before midnight." + + * * * * * + +That night two curious things happened: The first was that at a +quarter to seven, when Martha, the nursemaid, coming up into the +nursery to put his little lordship to bed, found Lieutenant +Deland--who was supposed to be dressing for dinner at the +time--standing in the middle of the room looking all about the place. + +"Don't be startled, Nurse," he said, as he looked round and saw her. +"Your master has asked me to design a new decoration for this room, +and I'm having a peep about in quest of inspiration. Ah, Strathmere, +'Dustman's time,' I see. Pleasant dreams to you, old chap. See you +in the morning when you're awake." + +"Say good night to the gentleman, your lordship," said the nurse, +laying both hands on his shoulders and leading him forward, whereupon +he began to whine sleepily: "Want Sambo! Want Sambo!" and to rub his +fists into his eyes. + +"Yes, dearie, Nanny'll get Sambo for your lordship after your +lordship has said good night to the gentleman," soothed the nurse; +and held him gently until he had done so. + +"Good night, old chap," said Cleek. "Hello, Nurse, got a sore finger, +have you, eh? How did that happen? It looks painful." + +"It is, sir, though I can't for the life of me think whatever could +have made a thing so bad from just scratching one's finger, unless +it could have happened that there was something poisonous on the +wretched magpie's claws. One never can be sure where those nasty +things go nor what they dip into." + +"The magpie?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by that, Nurse? Have +you had an unpleasant experience with a magpie, then?" + +"Yes, sir, that big one of Mr. Essington's: the nasty creature +that's always flying about. It was a fortnight ago, sir. Mistress' +pet dog had got into the nursery and laid hold of Sambo--which is his +lordship's rag doll, sir, as he never will go to sleep without--tore +it well nigh to pieces did the dog; and knowing how his lordship +would cry and mourn if he saw it like that, I fetched in my +work-basket and started to mend it. I'd just got it pulled into +something like shape and was about to sew it up when I was called +out of the room for a few minutes, and when I came back there was +that wretched Magpie that had been missing for several days right +inside my work-basket trying to steal my reels of cotton, sir. It +had come in through the open window--like it so often does, +nasty thing. I loathe magpies and I believe that that one knows +it. Anyway, when I caught up a towel and began to flick at it to get +it out of the room, it turned on me and scratched or pecked my +finger, and it's been bad ever since. Cook says she thinks I must +have touched it against something poisonous after the skin was +broken. Maybe I did, sir, but I can't think what." + +Cleek made no comment; merely turned on his heel and walked out of +the room. + +The second curious thing occurred between nine o'clock and half-past, +when the gentlemen of the party were lingering at the table over +post-prandial liqueurs and cigars, and the ladies had adjourned to +the drawing-room. A recollection of having carelessly left his +kit-bag unlocked drew Cleek to invent an excuse for leaving the +room for a minute or two and sent him speeding up the stairs. The +gas in the upper halls had been lowered while the members of the +household were below; the passages were dim and shadowy, and the +thick carpet on halls and stairs gave forth never a murmur of sound +from under his feet nor from under the feet of yet another person +who had gone like he, but by a different staircase, to the floors +above. + +It was, therefore, only by the merest chance that he looked down +one of the passages in passing and saw a swift-moving figure--a +woman's--cross it at the lower end and pass hastily into the nursery +of the sleeping boy. And--whether her purpose was a good or an evil +one--it was something of a shock to realize that the woman who was +doing this was the Honourable Mrs. Carruthers. + +He locked the kit-bag, and went back to the dining-room just as the +little gathering was breaking up, and Mr. Claude Essington, who +always fed his magpies and his other pets himself, was bewailing +the fact that he had "forgotten the beauties until this minute" and +was smoothing out an old newspaper in which to wrap the scraps of +cheese and meat he had sent the butler to the kitchen to procure. + +The Honourable Felix looked up at Cleek with a question in his eye. + +"No," he contrived to whisper in reply. "It was not anything +poisonous--merely candle wax. The bird had flown in through the +store-room window, and the housekeeper caught it carrying away +candles one by one." + +The Honourable Felix made no response, nor would it have been heard +had he done so; for just at that moment young Essington, whose eye +had been caught by something in the paper, burst out into a loud +guffaw. + +"I say, this is rich. Listen here, you fellows! Lay you a tenner that +the chap who wrote this was a Paddy Whack, for a finer bull never +escaped from a Tipperary paddock: + + "'Lost: Somewhere between Portsmouth and London or some other + spot on the way, a small black leather bag containing a death + certificate and some other things of no value to anybody but + the owner. Finder will be liberally rewarded if all contents + are returned intact to + + "'D. J. O'M., 425 Savile Row, West.' + +"There's a beautiful example of English as she is advertised for you; +and if--Hullo, Deland, old chap, what's the matter with you?" + +For Cleek had suddenly jumped up and, catching the Honourable Felix +by the shoulder, was hurrying him out of the room. + +"Just thought of something--that's all. Got to make a run; be with +you again before bedtime," he answered evasively. But once on the +other side of the door: "'Write me down an ass,'" he quoted, turning +to his host. "No, don't ask any questions. Lend me your auto and your +chauffeur. Call up both as quickly as possible. Wait up for me and +keep your wife and Lady Essington and her son waiting up, too. I +said to-morrow I would answer the riddle, did I not? Well, then, if +I'm not the blindest bat that ever flew, I'll give you that answer +to-night." + +Then he turned round and raced upstairs for his hat and coat, and ten +minutes later was pelting off London-ward as fast as a £1,000 Panhard +could carry him. + + * * * * * + +It was close to one o'clock when he came back and walked into the +drawing-room of the Priory, accompanied by a sedate and bespectacled +gentleman of undoubted Celtic origin whom he introduced as "Doctor +James O'Malley, ladies and gentlemen, M.D., Dublin." + +Lady Essington and her son acknowledged the introduction by an +inclination of the head, the Honourable Felix and Mrs. Carruthers, +ditto; then her ladyship's son spoke up in his usual blunt, outspoken +way. + +"I say, Deland, what's in the wind?" he asked. "What lark are you up +to now? Felix says you've got a clinking big surprise for us all, +and here we are, dear boy, all primed and ready for it. Let's have +it, there's a good chap." + +"Very well, so you shall," he replied. "But first of all let me +lay aside a useless mask and acknowledge that I am not an Indian army +officer--I am a simple police detective sometimes called George +Headland, your ladyship, and sometimes----" + +"George Headland!" she broke in sharply, getting up and then sitting +down again, pale and shaken. "And you came--you came after all! Oh, +thank you, thank you! I know you would not confess this unless you +have succeeded. Oh, you may know at last--you may know!" she added, +turning upon the Honourable Felix and his wife. "I sent for him--I +brought him here. I want to know and I _will_ know whose hand it is +that is striking at Strathmere's life--my child's child--the dearest +thing to me in all the world. I don't care what I suffer, I don't +care what I lose, I don't care if the courts award him to the veriest +stranger, so that his dear little life is spared and he is put beyond +all danger for good and all." + +Real love shone in her face and eyes as she said this, and it was +the certainty of that which surprised Carruthers and his wife as much +as the words she spoke. + +"Good heavens! is this thing true!" The Honourable Felix turned to +Cleek as he spoke. "Were you in her pay, too? Was she also working +for the salvation of the boy?" + +"Yes," he made answer. "I entered into her service under the name of +George Headland, Mr. Carruthers--the service of a good woman whom I +misjudged far enough to give her a fictitious name. I entered into +yours by one to which I have a better right--Hamilton Cleek!" + +"Cleek!" Both her ladyship and her son were on their feet like a +flash; there was a breath of silence and then: "Well, I'm dashed!" +blurted out young Essington. "Cleek, eh? the great Cleek? Scotland!" +And sat down again, overcome. + +"Yes, Cleek, my friend; Cleek, ladies and gentlemen all. And now +that the mask is off, let me tell you a short little story which--no! +Pardon, Mr. Essington, don't leave the room, please. I wish you, +too, to hear." + +"Wasn't going to leave it--only going to shut the door." + +"Ah, I see. Allow me. It is now, ladies and gentlemen, exactly +fourteen days since our friend Doctor O'Malley here, coming up +from Portsmouth on his motorcycle after attending a patient who that +day had died, was overcome by the extreme heat and the exertion of +trying to fight off a belligerent magpie which flew out of the woods +and persistently attacked him, and, falling to the ground, lost +consciousness. When he regained it, he was in the Charing Cross +Hospital, and all that he knew of his being there was that a +motorist who had picked him and his cycle up on the road had carried +him there and turned him over to the authorities. He himself was +unable, however, to place the exact locality in which he was +travelling at the time of the accident, otherwise we should not have +had that extremely interesting advertisement which Mr. Essington +read out this evening. For the doctor had lost a small black bag +containing something extremely valuable, which he was carrying at +the time and which supplies the solution to this interesting riddle. +How, do you ask? Come with me--all of you--to Mr. Carruthers' +room, where his little lordship is sleeping, and learn that for +yourselves." + +They rose at his word and followed him upstairs; and there, in a +dimly lit room, the sleeping child lay with an old rag doll hugged up +close to him, its painted face resting in the curve of his little +neck. + +"You want to know from where proceed these mysterious attacks--who +and what it is that harms the child?" said Cleek as he went forward +on tiptoe and, gently withdrawing the doll, held it up. "Here it +is, then--this is the culprit: this thing here! You want to know +how? Then by this means--look! See!" He thrust the blade of a pocket +knife into the doll and with one sweep ripped it open, and dipping in +his fingers drew from cotton wool and rags with which the thing +was stuffed a slim, close-stoppered glass vial in which something +that glowed and gave off constant sparks of light shimmered and +burnt with a restless fire. + +"Is this it, Doctor?" he said, holding the thing up. + +"Yes! Oh, my God, yes!" he cried out as he clutched at it. "A wonder +of the heavens, sure, that the child wasn't disfigured for life or +perhaps kilt forever. A half grain of it--a half grain of radium, +ladies and gentlemen--enough to burn a hole through the divvle +himself, if he lay long enough agin it." + +"Radium!" The word was voiced on every side, and the two women and +two men crowded close to look at the thing. "Radium in the doll? +Radium? I say, Deland--I mean to say, Mr. Cleek--in God's name, who +could have put the cursed thing there?" + +"Your magpie, Mr. Essington," replied Cleek, and with that brief +preface told of Martha, the nurse, and of the torn doll and of the +magpie that flew into the room while the girl was away. + +"The wretched thing must have picked it up when the doctor fell +and lost consciousness and the open bag lay unguarded," he said. +"And with its propensity for stealing and hiding things it flew +with it into the nursery and hid it in the torn doll. Martha did +not see it, of course, when she sewed the doll up, but the scratch +she received from the magpie presented a raw surface to the action +of the mineral and its effect was instant and most violent. What's +that? No, Mr. Carruthers--no one is guilty; no one has even tried to +injure his lordship. Chance only is to blame--and Chance cannot be +punished. As for the rest, do me a favour, dear friend, in place +of any other kind of reward. Look to it that this young chap here +gets enough out of the income of the estate to continue his course +at Oxford and--that's all." + +It was not, however; for while he was still speaking a strange and +even startling interruption occurred. + +A liveried servant, pushing the door open gently, stepped into the +room bearing a small silver salver upon which a letter lay. + +"Well, upon my word, Johnston, this is rather an original sort of +performance, isn't it?" exclaimed Carruthers, indignant over the +intrusion. + +"I beg your pardon, sir, but I did knock," he apologized. "I knocked +twice, in fact, but no one seemed to hear; and as I had been told it +was a matter of more than life and death, I presumed. Letter for +Lieutenant Deland, sir. A gentleman of the name of Narkom--in a +motor, sir--at the door--asked me to deliver it at once and under any +and all circumstances." + +Cleek looked at the letter, saw that it was enclosed in a plain +unaddressed envelope, asked to be excused, and stepped out into the +passage with it. + +That Narkom should have come for him like this--should have risked +the upsetting of a case by appearing before he knew if it was settled +or, indeed, likely to be--could mean but one thing: that his errand +was one of overwhelming importance, of more moment than anything else +in the world. + +He tore off the envelope with hands that shook, and spread open the +sheet of paper it contained. + +There was but one single line upon it; but that line, penned in that +hand, would have called him from the world's end. + +"_Come to me at once. Ailsa_," he read--and was on his way downstairs +like a shot. + +In the lower hall the butler stood, holding his hat and coat ready +for him to jump into them at once. + +"My--er--young servant--quick as you can!" said Cleek, grabbing the +hat and hurrying into the coat. + +"Already outside, sir--in the motor with the gentleman," the butler +gave back; then opened the door and stepped aside, holding it +back for him and bowing deferentially; and the light of the hall, +streaking out into the night, showed a flight of shallow steps, +the blue limousine at the foot of them--with Lennard in the driver's +seat and Dollops beside him--and standing on the lowest step of +all Mr. Narkom holding open the car's door and looking curiously +pale and solemn. + +"What is it? Is she hurt? Has anything happened to her?" Cleek +jumbled the three questions into one unbroken breath as he came +running down the steps and caught at the superintendent's arm. +"Speak up! Don't stand looking at me like a dumb thing! Is anything +wrong with Miss Lorne?" + +"Nothing--nothing at all." + +"Thank God! Then why? Why? For what reason has she sent for me? Where +is she? Speak up!" + +"In town. Waiting for you. At the Mauravanian embassy." + +"At the--Good God! How comes she to be _there_?" + +"I took her. You told me if anything happened to you that I +thought she ought to know--Please get in and let us be off, +sir--Sire--whichever it ought to be. I don't know the proper form of +address. I've never had any personal dealings with royalty before." + +The hand that rested on his arm tightened its grip the very instant +that word royalty passed his lips. Now it relaxed suddenly, dropped +away, and he scarcely recognized the voice that spoke next, so unlike +to Cleek's it was, so thick was the tremulous note that pulsated +through it. + +"Royalty?" it repeated. "Speak up, please. What have you found out? +What do you know of me that you make use of that term?" + +"What everybody in the world will know by to-morrow. Count Irma has +told! Count Irma has come, as the special envoy of the people, +for Queen Karma's son! For the King they want! For you!" flung out +Narkom, getting excited as he proceeded. "It's all out at last +and--I know now. Everybody does. I'm to lose you. Mauravania is +to take you from me after all. A palace is to have you--not the +Yard. Get in, please, sir--Sire--your Majesty. Get in. They're +waiting for you at the embassy. Get in and go! Good luck to you! God +bless you! I mean that. It's just about going to break my heart, +Cleek, but I mean it every word! Mind the step, Sire. Make room +for me on the seat there, you two; and then off to the embassy +as fast as you can streak it, Lennard. His Majesty is all ready to +start." + +"Not yet, please," a voice said quietly; then a hand reached out from +the interior of the limousine, dropped upon Mr. Narkom's shoulder +and, tightening there, drew him over the step and into the car. +"Your old seat, my friend. Here beside me. My memory is not a short +one and my affections not fickle. All right _now_, Lennard. Let +her go!" + +Then the door closed with a smack, the limousine came round with a +swing, and, just as in those other days when it was the Law that +called, not the trumpet-peal from a throne, the car went bounding off +at the good old mile-a-minute clip on its fly-away race for London. + + * * * * * + +It ended, that race, in front of the Mauravanian embassy; and Cleek's +love for the spectacular must have come near to being surfeited +that night, for the building was one blaze of light, one glamour +of flags and flowers and festooned bunting; and looking up the +steps, down which a crimson carpet ran across the pavement to the +very kerbstone, he could see a double line of soldiers in the +glittering white-and-silver of the Mauravanian Royal Guard,--plumed +and helmeted--standing with swords at salute waiting to receive +him; and over the arched doorway the royal arms emblazoned, and +above them--picked out in winking gas-jets--a wreath of laurel +surrounding the monogram M. R., which stood for Maximilian Rex, +aflame against a marble background. + +"Here we are at last, sir," said Narkom as the car stopped (he had +learned, by this time, that "Sire" belonged to the stage and the +Middle Ages), and, alighting, held back the door that Cleek might +get out. + +Afterward he declared that that was the proudest moment of his life; +for if it was not the proudest of Cleek's, his looks belied him. For, +as his foot touched the crimson carpet, a band within swung into +the stately measure of the Mauravanian National Anthem, an escort +came down the hall and down the steps and lined up on either side +of him, and if ever man looked proud of his inheritance, that man +was he. + +He went on up the steps and down the long hall with a chorus of +"Vivat Maximilian! Vivat le roi!" following him and the sound of +the National Anthem ringing in his ears; then, all of a moment, the +escort fell back, doors opened, he found himself in a room that +blazed with lights, that echoed with the sound of many vivats, the +stir of many bodies, and looking about saw that he was surrounded +by a kneeling gathering and that one man in particular was at his +feet, sobbing. + +He looked down and saw that that man was Irma, and smiled and put +out his hand. + +The count bent over and touched it with his lips. + +"Majesty, I never forgot! Majesty, I worked for it, fought for it +ever since that night!" he said. "I would have fought for it ever +if it need have been. But it was not. See, it was not. It was God's +will and it was our people's." + +"My people's!" Cleek repeated, his head going back, his eyes lighting +with a pride and a happiness beyond all telling. "Oh, Mauravania! +Dear land. Dear country. Mine again!" + +But hardly had the ecstasy of that thought laid its spell upon him +when there came another not less divine, and his eyes went round the +gathering in quest of one who should be here--at his side--to share +this glorious moment with him. + +She had come for that purpose--Narkom had said so. Where was she, +then? Why did she hold herself in the background at such a time as +this? + +He saw her at that very moment. The gathering had risen and she with +them--holding aloof at the far end of the room. There was a smile +on her lips, but even at that distance he could see that she was +very, very pale and that there was a shadow of pain in her dear eyes. + +"We both have battled for an ideal, Count," he said, with a happy +little laugh. "Here is mine. Here is what I have fought for!" +and crossing the room he went straight to Ailsa, with both hands +outstretched to her and his face fairly beaming. + +But it needed not the little shocked breath he heard upon all sides +to dash that bright look from his face and to bring him to a sudden +halt. For at his coming, Ailsa had dropped the deep curtsey which +is the due of royalty, and was moving away from him backward, which +is royalty's due also. + +"Ailsa!" he said, moving toward her with a sharp and sudden step. +"Ailsa, don't be absurd. It is too silly to think that forms should +stand with you, too. Take my hand--take it!" + +"Your Majesty----" + +"Take it, I tell you!" he repeated almost roughly. "Good God! do you +think that this can make any difference? Take my hand! Do you hear?" + +She obeyed him this time, but as her fingers rested upon his he saw +that they were quite ringless--that the sign of their engagement +had been removed--and caught her to him with a passionate sort of +fierceness that was a reproach in itself. + +"Could you think so meanly of me? Could you?" he cried. "Where is +the ring?" + +"In my pocket. I took it off when--I heard." + +"Put it on again. Or, no! Give it to me and let me do that +myself--here, before them all. Kings must have queens, must they +not? You were always mine: you are always going to be. Even the day +of our wedding is not to be changed." + +"Oh, hush!" she made answer. "One's duty to one's country must always +stand first with--kings." + +"Must it? Kings after all are only men--and a man's first duty is +to the one woman of his heart." + +"Not with kings. There is a different rule, a different law. Oh, let +me go--please! I know, I fully realize, it would be different with +you--if it were possible. But--it is the penalty one must pay for +kingship, dear. Royalty must mate with royalty, not with a woman of +the people. It is the law of all kingdoms, the immutable law." + +It was. He had forgotten that; and it came upon him now with a shock +of bitter recollection. For a moment he stood silent, the colour +draining out of his face, the light fading slowly from his eyes; +then, of a sudden, he looked over the glittering room and across +its breadth at Irma. + +"It would not be possible then?" he asked. + +"Not as a royal consort, sir. The people's choice in that respect +would lie with the hereditary princess of Danubia. I have already +explained that to Mademoiselle. But if it should be your Majesty's +pleasure to take a morganatic wife----" + +"Cut that!" rapped in Cleek's voice like the snap of a whiplash. "So, +then, one is to sell one's honour for a crown; break a woman's life +for a kingdom, and become a royal adulterer for the sake of a throne +and sceptre!" + +"But, Majesty, one's duty to one's country is a sacred thing." + +"Not so sacred as one's redeemer, Count, and, under God, here is +mine!" he threw back, heatedly. "Mauravania forgot once; she will +forget again. She _must_ forget! My lords and gentlemen, I decline +her flattering offer. My only kingdom is here--in this dear woman's +arms. Walk with me, Ailsa--walk with me always. You said you would. +Walk with me, dear, as my queen _and_ my wife." + +And putting his arm about her and holding her close, and setting +his back to the lights and the flags and the glittering Guard, he +passed, with head erect, through the murmuring gathering and went +down and out with her--to the blue limousine--to the Yard's service +again--and to those better things which are the true crown of a man's +life. + +At the foot of the steps Narkom and Dollops caught up with him, and +the boy's eager hand plucked at his sleeve. + +"Guv'ner, Gawd love yer--Gawd love yer, sir; you're a man, you are!" +he said with a sort of sob in his voice. "I'm glad you chucked it. +It was breakin' my heart to think that I'd have to call you 'Sire' +all the rest of my days, sir--like as if you was a bloomin' horse!" + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Spelling and punctuation inaccuracies were silently corrected. + + Archaic and variable spelling is preserved. + + The author's punctuation style is preserved. + + Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEEK OF SCOTLAND YARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 32198-8.txt or 32198-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/1/9/32198 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |