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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10443-0.txt b/10443-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..832e3af --- /dev/null +++ b/10443-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8930 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10443 *** + +THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION + +BY J.S. FLETCHER + +1922 + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + II THE DEAD MAN + + III THE SHOE BUCKLE + + IV MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + V THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + VI THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + VII THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + VIII THE JEWEL BOX + + IX THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + X THE SECOND MURDER + + XI THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + XII THE THIRD MURDER + + XIII AMBLER APPLEYARD + + XIV FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + XV THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + XVI MR. GERALD RAYNER + + XVII THE PHOTOGRAPH + + XVIII DEFINITE SUSPICION + + XIX THE LATE CALL + + XX NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + XXI THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + XXII THICK FOG + + XXIII THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + XXIV CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + XXV THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + XXVI PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + XXVII THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + +XXVIII THE FIRST PURSUIT + + XXIX THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + XXX THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + XXXI THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + XXXII THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + +XXXIII THE SMART MISS SLADE + + XXXIV MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + XXXV THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + +About eleven o'clock on the night of Monday, May 12, 1914, Marshall +Allerdyke, a bachelor of forty, a man of great mental and physical +activity, well known in Bradford as a highly successful manufacturer of +dress goods, alighted at the Central Station in that city from an +express which had just arrived from Manchester, where he had spent the +day on business. He had scarcely set foot on the platform when he was +confronted by his chauffeur, a young man in a neat dark-green livery, +who took his master's travelling rug in one hand, while with the other +he held out an envelope. + +"The housekeeper said I was to give you that as soon as you got in, sir," +he announced. "There's a telegram in it that came at four o'clock this +afternoon--she couldn't send it on, because she didn't know exactly where +it would find you in Manchester." + +Allerdyke took the envelope, tore it open, drew out the telegram, +and stepped beneath the nearest lamp. He muttered the wording of +the message-- + +"_On board SS. Perisco_ + +"63 _miles N.N.E. Spurn Point_, 2.15 _p.m., May_ 12_th_. + +"Expect to reach Hull this evening, and shall stop Station Hotel there +for night on way to London. Will you come on at once and meet me? Want to +see you on most important business-- + +"JAMES." + +Allerdyke re-read this message, quietly and methodically folded it up, +slipped it into his pocket, and with a swift glance at the station clock +turned to his chauffeur. + +"Gaffney," he said, "how long would it take us to run across to Hull?" + +The chauffeur showed no surprise at this question; he had served +Allerdyke for three years, and was well accustomed to his ways. + +"Hull?" he replied. "Let's see, sir--that 'ud be by way of Leeds, Selby, +and Howden. About sixty miles in a straight line, but there's a good bit +of in-and-out work after you get past Selby, sir. I should say about +four hours." + +"Plenty of petrol in the car?" asked Allerdyke, turning down the +platform. "There is? What time did you have your supper?" + +"Ten o'clock, sir," answered Gaffney, with promptitude. + +"Bring the car round to the hotel door in the station yard," commanded +Allerdyke. "You'll find a couple of Thermos flasks in the locker--bring +them into the hotel lounge bar." + +The chauffeur went off down the platform. Allerdyke turned up the covered +way to the Great Northern Hotel. When the chauffeur joined him there a +few minutes later he was giving orders for a supply of freshly-cut beef +sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs; the Thermos flasks he handed over to be +filled with hot coffee. + +"Better get something to eat now, Gaffney," he said. "Get some +sandwiches, or some bread and cheese, or something--it's a longish spin." + +He himself, waiting while the chauffeur ate and drank, and the provisions +were made ready, took a whisky and soda to a chair by the fire, and once +more pulled out and read the telegram. And as he read he wondered why +his cousin, its sender, wished so particularly to see him at once. James +Allerdyke, a man somewhat younger than himself, like himself a bachelor +of ample means and of a similar temperament, had of late years concerned +himself greatly with various business speculations in Northern Europe, +and especially in Russia. He had just been over to St. Petersburg in +order to look after certain of his affairs in and near that city, and he +was returning home by way of Stockholm and Christiania, in each of which +towns he had other ventures to inspect. But Marshall Allerdyke was quite +sure that his cousin did not wish to see him about any of these +matters--anything connected with them would have kept until they met in +the ordinary way, which would have happened within a day or two. No, if +James had taken the trouble to send him a message by wireless from the +North Sea, it meant that James was really anxious to see him at the first +available moment, and would already have landed in Hull, expecting to +find him there. However, with a good car, smooth roads, and a fine, +moonlit night-- + +It was not yet twelve o'clock when Allerdyke wrapped himself up in a +corner of his luxurious Rolls-Royce, saw that the box of eatables and the +two Thermos flasks were safe in the locker, and told Gaffney to go ahead. +He himself had the faculty of going to sleep whenever he pleased, and he +went to sleep now. He was asleep as Gaffney went through Leeds and its +suburbs; he slept all along the country roads which led to Selby and +thence to Howden. But in the silent streets of Howden he woke with a +start, to find that Gaffney had pulled up in answer to a question flung +to him by the driver of another car, which had come alongside their own +from the opposite direction. That car had also been pulled up; within it +Allerdyke saw a woman, closely wrapped in furs. + +"What is it, Gaffney?" he asked, letting down his own window and +leaning out. + +"Wants to know which is the best way to get across the Ouse, sir," +answered Gaffney. "I tell him there's two ferries close by--one at Booh, +the other at Langrick--but there'll be nobody to work them at this hour. +Where do you want to get to?" he went on, turning to the driver of the +other car. + +"Want to strike the Great Northern main line somewhere," answered the +driver. "This lady wants to catch a Scotch express. I thought of +Doncaster, but--" + +The window of the other car was let down, and its occupant looked out. +The light of the full moon shone full on her, and Allerdyke lifted his +cap to a pretty, alert-looking young woman of apparently twenty-five, who +politely returned his salutation. + +"Can I give you any advice?" asked Allerdyke. "I understand you want--" + +"An express train to Scotland--Edinburgh," replied the lady. "I made out, +on arrival at Hull, that if I motored across country I would get a train +at some station on the Great Northern line--a morning express. Doncaster, +Selby, York--which is nearest from wherever we are!" + +"This is Howden," said Allerdyke, looking up at the great tower of the +old church. "And your best plan is to follow this road to Selby, and then +to York. All the London expresses stop there, but they don't all stop at +Selby or at Doncaster. And there's no road bridge over the Ouse nearer +than Selby in any case." + +"Many thanks," responded the lady. "Then," she went on, looking at her +driver, "you will go on to York--that is--how far?" she added, favouring +Allerdyke with a gracious smile. "Very far?" + +"Less than an hour's run," answered Gaffney for his master. "And a +good road." + +The lady bowed; Allerdyke once more raised his cap; the two cars parted +company. And Allerdyke stopped Gaffney as he was driving off again, and +produced the provisions. + +"Half-past two," he remarked, pulling out his watch. "You've come along +in good style, Gaffney. We'll have something to eat and drink. Queer +thing, eh, for anybody to motor across from Hull to catch a Great +Northern express on the main line!" + +"Mayn't be any trains out of Hull during the night, sir," answered +Gaffney, taking a handful of sandwiches. "They'll get one at York, +anyway. Want to reach Hull at any particular time, sir?" + +"No," answered Allerdyke. "Go along as you've come. You'll have a bit of +uphill work over the edge of the Wolds, now. When we strike Hull, go to +the Station Hotel." + +He went to sleep again as soon as they moved out of Howden, and he only +awoke when the car stopped at the hotel door in Hull. A night-porter, +hearing the buzz of the engine, came out. + +"Put the car in the garage, Gaffney, and then get yourself a bed and lie +as long as you like," said Allerdyke. "I'll let you know when I want +you." He turned to the night-porter. "You've a Mr. James Allerdyke +stopping here I think?" he went on. "He'd come in last night from the +Christiania steamer." + +The night-porter led the way into the hotel, and towards the office. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke?" he asked of the new arrival. "The gentleman +left a card for you; I was asked to give it to you as soon as you came." + +Allerdyke took the visiting-card which the man produced from a letter +rack, and read the lines hastily scribbled on the back-- + +If you land here during the night, come straight up to my room--263--and +rouse me out. Want to see you at once.--J.A. + +Allerdyke slipped the card into his pocket and turned to the +night-porter. + +"My cousin wants me to go up to his room at once," he said. "Just show me +the way. Do you happen to know what time he got in last night?" he +continued, as they went upstairs. "Was it late?" + +"Passengers from the _Perisco_, sir?" answered the night-porter. +"There were several of 'em came in last night--she got into the river +about eight-thirty. It 'ud be a bit after nine o'clock when your +friend came in." + +Allerdyke's mind went back to the meeting at Howden. + +"Did you have a lady set off from here in the middle of the night?" he +asked, out of sheer curiosity. "A lady in a motor-car?" + +"Oh! that lady," exclaimed the night-porter, with a grim laugh. "Ah! +nice lot of bother she gave me, too. She was one of those _Perisco_ +passengers--she got in here with the rest, and booked a room, and went +to it all right, and then at half-past twelve down she came and said she +wanted to get on, and as there weren't no trains she'd have a motor-car +and drive to catch an express at Selby, or Doncaster, or somewhere. +Nice job I had to get her a car at that time o' night!--and me +single-handed--there wasn't a soul in the office then. Meet her +anywhere, sir?" + +"Met her on the road," replied Allerdyke laconically. "Was she a +foreigner, do you know?" + +"I shouldn't wonder if she was something of that sort," answered the +night-porter. "Sort that would have her own way at all events. Here's the +room, sir." + +He paused before the door of a room which stood halfway down a long +corridor in the centre of the hotel, and on its panels he knocked gently. + +"Every room's filled on this floor, sir," he remarked. "I hope your +friend's a light sleeper, for there's some of 'em'll have words to say if +they're roused at four o'clock in the morning." + +"He's a very light sleeper as a rule," replied Allerdyke. He stood +listening for the sound of some movement in the room: "Knock again," he +said, when a minute had passed without response on the part of the +occupant. "Make it a bit louder." + +The night-porter, with evident unwillingness, repeated his summons, this +time loud enough to wake any ordinary sound sleeper. But no sound came +from within the room, and after a third and much louder thumping at the +door, Allerdyke grew impatient and suspicious. + +"This is queer!" he growled. "My cousin's one of the lightest sleepers I +ever knew. If he's in there, there's something wrong. Look here! you'll +have to open that door. Haven't you got a key?" + +"Key'll be inside, sir," replied the night-porter. "But there's a +master-key to all these doors in the office. Shall I fetch it, then?" + +"Do!" said Allerdyke, curtly. He began to walk up and down the corridor +when the man had hurried away, wondering what this soundness of sleep +in his cousin meant. James Allerdyke was not a man who took either drink +or drugs, and Marshall's experience of him was that the least sound +awoke him. + +"Queer!" he repeated as he marched up and down. "Perhaps he's not--" + +The quiet opening of a door close by made him lift his eyes from the +carpet. In the dim light he saw a man looking out upon him--a man of an +unusually thick crop of hair and with a huge beard. He stared at +Allerdyke half angrily, half sulkily; then he closed his door as quietly +as he had opened it. And Allerdyke, turning back to his cousin's room, +mechanically laid his hand on the knob and screwed it round. + +The door was open. + +Allerdyke drew a sharp breath as he crossed the threshold. He had stayed +in that hotel often, and he knew where the switch of the electric light +should be. He lifted a hand, found the switch, and turned the light on. +And as it flooded the room, he pulled himself up to a tense rigidity. +There, sitting fully dressed in an easy chair, against which his head was +thrown back, was his cousin--unmistakably dead. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE DEAD MAN + + +For a full minute Marshall Allerdyke stood fixed--staring at the set +features before him. Then, with a quick catching of his breath, he made +one step to his cousin's side and laid his hand on the unyielding +shoulder. The affectionate, familiar terms in which they had always +addressed each other sprang involuntarily to his lips. + +"Why, James, my lad!" he exclaimed. "James, lad! James!" + +Even as he spoke, he knew that James would never hear word or sound again +in this world. It needed no more than one glance at the rigid features, +one touch of the already fixed and statue-like body, to know that James +Allerdyke was not only dead, but had been dead some time. And, with a +shuddering sigh, Marshall Allerdyke drew himself up and looked round at +his surroundings. + +Nothing could have been more peaceful than that quiet hotel bedroom; +nothing more orderly than its arrangements. Allerdyke had always known +his cousin for a man of unusually tidy and methodical habits; the +evidence of that orderliness was there, where he had pitched his camp for +presumably a single night. His toilet articles were spread out on the +dressing-table; his pyjamas were laid across his pillow; his open +suit-case lay on a stand at the foot of the bed; by the bedside lay his +slippers. An overcoat hung from one peg of the door; a dressing-gown +from another; on a chair in a corner lay, neatly folded, a couple of +travelling rugs. All these little details Allerdyke's sharp eyes took in +at a glance; he turned from them to the things nearer the dead man. + +James Allerdyke sat in a big easy chair, placed at the side of a round +table set towards a corner of the room. He was fully dressed in a grey +tweed suit, but he had taken off one boot--the left--and it lay at his +feet on the hearthrug. He himself was thrown back against the high-padded +hood of the chair; there was a little frown on his set features, a tiny +puckering of the brows above his closed eyes. His hands were lying at his +sides, unclasped, the fingers slightly stretched, the thumbs slightly +turned inward; everything looked as if, in the very act of taking off his +boots, some sudden spasm of pain had seized him, and he had sat up, +leaned back, and died, as swiftly as the seizure had come. There was a +slight blueness under the lower rims of the eyes, a corresponding tint on +the clean-shaven upper lip, but neither that nor the pallor which had +long since settled on the rigid features had given anything of +ghastliness to the face. The dead man lay back in his chair in such an +easy posture that but for his utter quietness, his intense immobility, he +might have well been taken for one who was hard and fast asleep. + +The sound of the night-porter's returning footsteps sent Allerdyke out +into the corridor. Unconsciously he shook his head and raised a hand--as +if to warn the man against noise. + +"Sh!" he said, still acting and speaking mechanically. "Here's--I knew +something was wrong. The fact is, my cousin's dead!" + +In his surprise the night-porter dropped the key which he had been to +fetch. When he straightened himself from picking it up, his ruddy face +had paled. + +"Dead!" he exclaimed in a whisper. "Him! Why, he looked the picture of +health last night. I noticed that of him, anyway!" + +"He's dead now," said Allerdyke. "He's lying there dead. Come in!" + +The door along the corridor from which the man of the shock head and +great beard had looked out, opened again, and the big head was protruded. +Its owner, seeing the two standing there, came out. + +"Anything wrong?" he asked, advancing towards them in his pyjamas. "If +there's any illness, I'm a medical man. Can I be of use?" + +Allerdyke turned sharply, looking the stranger well over. He was not +sure whether the man was an Englishman or a foreigner; he fancied that +he detected a slightly foreign accent. The tone was well-meaning, and +even kindly. + +"I'm obliged to you," replied Allerdyke, in his characteristically +blunt fashion. "I'm afraid nobody can be of use. The truth is, I came +to join my cousin here, and I find him dead. Seems to me he's been +dead some time. As you're a doctor, you can tell, of course. Perhaps +you'll come in?" + +He led the way back into the bedroom, the other two following closely +behind him. At sight of the dead man the bearded stranger uttered a sharp +exclamation. + +"Ah!" he said. "Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"You knew him, then?" demanded Marshall. "You've met him?" + +The other, who had stooped over the body, bestowing a light touch on +face and hand, looked up and nodded. + +"I came over with him from Christiania," he answered. "I met him +there--at a hotel. I had several conversations with him. In fact, I +warned him." + +"Warned him? Of what!" asked Allerdyke. + +"Over-exertion," replied the doctor quietly. "I saw symptoms of +heart-strain. That was why I talked with him. I gathered from what he +told me that he was a man who lived a very strenuous life, and I warned +him against doing too much. He was not fitted for it." + +"Good Lord!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with obvious impatience. "Why, I always +considered him as one of the fittest men I ever knew!" + +"Perhaps you did," said the doctor. "Laymen, sir, do not see what a +trained eye sees. The proof in his case is--there!" + +He pointed to the dead man, at whom the night-porter was staring with +astonished eyes. + +Allerdyke stared, too, or seemed to stare. In reality, he was gazing into +space, wondering about what had just been said. + +"Then you think he died a natural death?" he asked, suddenly turning on +his companion. "You don't think there's--anything wrong?" + +The doctor shook his head calmly. + +"I think he died of precisely what I should have expected him to die of," +he answered. "Heart failure. It came upon him quite suddenly. You see, he +was in the act of taking off his boots. He is a little fleshy--stout. The +exertion of bending over and down--that was too much. He felt a sharp +spasm--he sat back--he died, there and then." + +"There and then!" repeated Allerdyke mechanically. "Well--what's to be +done!" he went on. "What is done in these cases--I suppose you know?" + +"There will have to be an inquest later on," answered the doctor. "I can +give evidence for you, if you like--I am staying in Hull for a few +days--for I can certainly testify to what I had observed. But that comes +later--at present you had better acquaint the manager of the hotel, and I +should suggest sending for a local medical man--there are some eminent +men of my profession in this town. And--the body should be laid out. I'll +go and dress, and then do what I can for you." + +"Much obliged," responded Allerdyke. "Very kind of you. What name, sir?" + +"My name is Lydenberg," replied the stranger. "I will give you my card +presently. I have the honour of addressing--?" + +Allerdyke pulled out his own card-case. + +"My name's Marshall Allerdyke," he answered. "I'm his cousin," he went +on, with another glance at the still figure. "And, my conscience, I never +thought to find him like this! I never heard of any weakness on his +part--I always thought him a particularly strong man." + +"You will send for another medical man?" asked Dr. Lydenberg. "It will be +more satisfactory to you." + +"Yes, I'll see to that," replied Allerdyke. He turned to look at the +night-porter, who was still hanging about as if fascinated. "Look here!" +he said. "We don't want any fuss. Just rouse the manager quietly, and +ask him to come here. And find that chauffeur of mine, and tell him I +want him. Now, then, what about a doctor? Do you know a real, +first-class one?" + +"There's several within ten minutes, sir," answered the night-porter. +"There's Dr. Orwin, in Coltman Street--he's generally fetched here. I +can get a man to go for him at once." + +"Do!" commanded Allerdyke. "But send me my driver first--I want him. Tell +him what's happened." + +He waited, standing and staring at his dead cousin until Gaffney came +hurrying along the corridor. Allerdyke beckoned him into the room and +closed the door. + +"Gaffney," he said. "You see how things are? Mr. James is dead--I found +him sitting there, dead. He's been dead some time--hours. There's a +doctor, a foreigner, I think, across the passage there, who says it's +been heart failure. I've sent for another doctor. Now in the meantime, I +want to see what my cousin's got on him, and I want you to help me. We'll +take everything off him in the way of valuables, papers, and so on, and +put 'em in that small hand-bag of his." + +Master and man went methodically to work; and an observer of an unduly +sentimental shade of mind might have said that there was something almost +callous about their measured, business-like proceedings. But Marshall +Allerdyke was a man of eminently thorough and practical habits, and he +was doing what he did with an idea and a purpose. His cousin might have +died from sudden heart failure; again, he might not, there might have +been foul play; there might have been one of many reasons for his +unexpected death--anyway, in Allerdyke's opinion it was necessary for him +to know exactly what James was carrying about his person when death took +place. There was a small hand-bag on the dressing-table; Allerdyke opened +it and took out all its contents. They were few--a muffler, a +travelling-cap, a book or two, some foreign newspapers, a Russian +word-book, a flask, the various odds and ends, small unimportant things +which a voyager by sea and land picks up. Allerdyke took all these out, +and laying them aside on the table, directed Gaffney to take everything +from the dead man's pockets. And Gaffney, solemn of face and tight of +lip, set to his task in silence. + +There was comparatively little to bring to light. A watch and chain--the +small pocket articles which every man carries--keys, a monocle eyeglass, +a purse full of gold, loose silver, a note-case containing a considerable +sum in bank-notes, some English, some foreign, letters and papers, a +pocket diary--these were all. Allerdyke took each as Gaffney produced +them, and placed each in the bag with no more than a mere glance. + +"Everything there is, sir," whispered the chauffeur at last. "I've been +through every pocket." + +Allerdyke found the key of the bag, locked it, and set it aside on the +mantelpiece. Then he went over to the suit-case lying on the bench at the +foot of the bed, closed and locked it, and dropped the bunch of keys in +his pocket. And just then Dr. Lydenberg came back, dressed, and on his +heels came the manager of the hotel, startled and anxious, and with him +an elderly professional-looking man whom he introduced as Dr. Orwin. + +When James Allerdyke's dead body had been lifted on to the bed, and the +two medical men had begun a whispered conversation beside it, Allerdyke +drew the hotel manager aside to a corner of the room. + +"Did you see anything of my cousin when he arrived last night?" he asked. + +"Not when he arrived--no," replied the manager. "But later--yes. I had +some slight conversation with him after he had taken supper. It was +nothing much--he merely wished to know if there was always a night-porter +on duty. He said he expected a friend, who might turn up at any hour of +the night, and he wanted to leave a card for him. That would be you, I +suppose, sir?" + +"Just so," replied Allerdyke. "Now, how did he seem at that time? And +what time was that?" + +"Ten o'clock," said the manager. "Seem? Well, sir, he seemed to be in the +very best of health and spirits! I was astonished to hear that he was +dead. I never saw a man look more like living. He was--" + +The elderly doctor came away from the bed approaching Allerdyke. + +"After hearing what Dr. Lydenberg tells me, and examining the body--a +mere perfunctory examination as yet, you know--I have little doubt that +this gentleman died of what is commonly called heart failure," he said. +"There will have to be an inquest, of course, and it may be advisable to +make a post-mortem examination. You are a relative?" + +"Cousin," replied Allerdyke. He hesitated a moment, and then spoke +bluntly. "You don't think it's been a case of poisoning, do you?" he said. + +Dr. Orwin pursed his lips and regarded his questioner narrowly. + +"Self-administered, do you mean?" he asked. + +"Administered any way," answered Allerdyke. "Self or otherwise." He +squared his shoulders and spoke determinedly. "I don't understand about +this heart-failure notion," he went on. "I never heard him complain of +his heart. He was a strong, active man--hearty and full of go. I want to +know--everything." + +"There should certainly be an autopsy," murmured Dr. Orwin. He turned and +looked at his temporary colleague, who nodded as if in assent. Then he +turned back to Allerdyke. "If you'll leave us for a while, we will just +make a further examination--then we'll speak to you later." + +Allerdyke signified his assent with a curt nod of the head. Accompanied +by the manager and Gaffney he left the room, and with him he carried the +small hand-bag in which he had placed the dead man's personal effects. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SHOE BUCKLE + + +Once outside the death-chamber, Allerdyke asked the manager to give him a +bedroom with a sitting-room attached to it, and to put Gaffney in another +room close by--he should be obliged, he said, to stay at the hotel until +the inquest was over and arrangements had been made for his cousin's +funeral. The manager at once took him to a suite of three rooms at the +end of the corridor which they were then in. Allerdyke took it at once, +sent Gaffney down to bring up certain things from the car, and detained +the manager for a moment's conversation. + +"I suppose you'd a fair lot of people come in last night from that +Christiania boat?" he asked. + +"Some fifteen or twenty," answered the manager. + +"Did you happen to see my cousin in conversation with any of them?" +inquired Allerdyke. + +The manager shrugged his shoulders. He was not definitely sure about +that; he had a notion that he had seen Mr. James Allerdyke talking with +some of the _Perisco_ passengers, but the notion was vague. + +"You know how it is," he went on. "People come in--they stand about +talking in the hall--groups, you know--they go from one to another. I +think I saw him talking to that doctor who's in there now with Dr. +Orwin--the man with the big beard--and to a lady who came at the same +time. There were several ladies in the party--the passengers were all +about in the hall, and in the coffee-room, and so on. There are a lot of +other people in the house, too, of course." + +"It's this way," said Allerdyke. "I'm not at all satisfied about what +these doctors say, so far. They may be right, of course--probably are. +Still I want to know all I can, and, naturally, I'd like to know who the +people were that my cousin was last in company with. You never know what +may have happened--there's often something that doesn't show at first." + +"There was--nothing missing in his room, I hope?" asked the manager with +professional anxiety. + +"Nothing that I know of," answered Allerdyke. "My man and I have searched +him, and taken possession of everything--all that he had on him is in +that bag, and I'm going to examine it now. No--I don't think anything had +been taken from him, judging by what I've seen." + +"You wouldn't like me to send for the police?" suggested the manager. + +"Not at present," replied Allerdyke. "Not, at any rate, until these +doctors say something more definite--they'll know more presently, +no doubt. Of course, you've a list of all the people who came in +last night?" + +"They would all register," answered the manager. "But then, you +know, sir, many of them will be going this morning--most of them are +only breaking their journey. You can look over the register whenever +you like." + +"Later on," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime, I'll examine these things. +Send me up some coffee as soon as your people are stirring." + +He unlocked the hand-bag when the manager had left him. It seemed to his +practical and methodical mind that his first duty was to make himself +thoroughly acquainted with the various personal effects which he and +Gaffney had found on the dead man. Of the valuables he took little +notice; it was very evident, in his opinion, that if James Allerdyke's +death had been brought about by some sort of foul play--a suspicion which +had instantly crossed his mind as soon as he discovered that his cousin +was dead--the object of his destroyer had not been robbery. James had +always been accustomed to carrying a considerable sum of money on him; +Gaffney's search had brought a considerable sum to light. James also wore +a very valuable watch and chain and two fine diamond rings; there they +all were. Not robbery--no; at least, not robbery of the ordinary sort. +But--had there been robbery of another, a bigger, a subtle, and +deep-designed sort? James was a man of many affairs and schemes--he might +have had valuable securities, papers relating to designs, papers +containing secrets of great moment; he was interested, for example, in +several patents--he might have had documents pertinent to some affair of +such importance that ill-disposed folk, eager to seize them, might have +murdered him in order to gain possession of them. There were many +possibilities, and there was always--to Allerdyke's mind--the +improbability that James had died through sudden illness. + +Now that Marshall Allerdyke's mind was clearing, getting free of the +first effects of the sudden shock of finding his cousin dead, doubt and +uneasiness as to the whole episode were rising strongly within him. He +and James had been brought up together; they had never been apart from +each other for more than a few months at a time during thirty-five years, +and he flattered himself that he knew James as well as any man of James's +acquaintance. He could not remember that his cousin had ever made any +complaint of illness or indisposition; he had certainly never had any +serious sickness in his life. As to heart trouble, Allerdyke knew that a +few years previous to his death, James had taken out a life-policy with a +first-rate office, and had been passed as a first-class life: he +remembered, as he sat there thinking over these things, the +self-satisfied grin with which James had come and told him that the +examining doctor had declared him to be as sound as a bell. It was true, +of course, that disease might have set in after that--still, it was only +six weeks since he had seen James and James was then looking in a fit, +healthy, hearty state. He had gone off on one of his Russian journeys as +full of life and spirits as a man could be--and had not the hotel +manager just said that he seemed full of health, full of go, at ten +o'clock last night? And yet, within a couple of hours or so--according to +what the medical men thought from their hurried examination--this active +vigorous man was dead--swiftly and mysteriously dead. + +Allerdyke felt--felt intensely--that there was something deeply strange +in all this, and yet it was beyond him, with his limited knowledge, to +account for James's sudden death, except on the hypothesis suggested by +the two doctors. All sorts of vague, half-formed thoughts were in his +mind. Was there any person who desired James's death? Had any one tracked +him to this place--got rid of him by some subtle means? Had-- + +"Pshaw!" he muttered, suddenly interrupting his train of thought, and +recognizing how shapeless and futile it all was. "It just comes to +this--I'm asking myself if the poor lad was murdered! And what have I to +go on? Naught--naught at all!" + +Nevertheless, there were papers before him which had been taken from +James's pocket; there was the little journal or diary which he always +carried, and in which, to Allerdyke's knowledge, he always jotted down +a brief note of each day's proceedings wherever he went. He could +examine these, at any rate--they might cast some light on his cousin's +recent doings. + +He began with the diary, turning over its pages until he came to the date +on which James had left Bradford for St. Petersburg. That was on March +30th. He had travelled to the Russian capital overland--by way of Berlin +and Vilna, at each of which places he had evidently broken his journey. +From St. Petersburg he had gone on to Moscow, where he had spent the +better part of a week. All his movements were clearly set out in the +brief pencilled entries in the journal. From Moscow he had returned to +St. Petersburg; there he had stayed a fortnight; thence he had journeyed +to Revel, from Revel he had crossed the Baltic to Stockholm; from +Stockholm he had gone across country to Christiania. And from Christiania +he had sailed for Hull to meet his death in that adjacent room where the +doctors were now busied with his body. + +Marshall Allerdyke, though he had no actual monetary connection with +them, had always possessed a fairly accurate knowledge of his cousin's +business affairs--James was the sort of man who talked freely to his +intimates about his doings. Therefore Allerdyke was able to make out from +the journal what James had done during his stay at St. Petersburg, in +Moscow, in Revel, and in Stockholm, in all of which places he had irons +of one sort or another in the fire. He recognized the names of various +firms upon which James had called--these names were as familiar to him as +those of the big manufacturing concerns in his own town. James had been +to see this man, this man had been to see James. He had dined with such +an one; such an one had dined with him. Ordinarily innocent entries, all +these; there was no subtle significance to be attached to any of them: +they were just the sort of entries which the busy commercial man, engaged +in operations of some magnitude, would make for his own convenience. + +There was, in short, nothing in that tiny book--a mere, +waistcoat-pocket sort of affair--which Allerdyke was at a loss to +understand, or which excited any wonder or speculation in him: with one +exception. That exception was in three entries: brief, bald, mere +lines, all made during James's second stay--the fortnight period--in +St. Petersburg. They were:-- + +April 18: Met Princess. + +April 20: Lunched with Princess. + +April 23: Princess dined with me. + +These entries puzzled Allerdyke. His cousin had been going over to Russia +at least twice a year for three years, but he had never heard him mention +that he had formed the acquaintance of any person of princely rank. Who +was this Princess with whom James had evidently become on such friendly +terms that they had lunched and dined together? James had twice written +to him during his absence--he had both letters in his pocket then, and +one of them was dated from St. Petersburg on April 24th, but there was no +mention of any Princess in either. Seeking for an explanation, he came to +the conclusion that James, who had a slight weakness for the society of +ladies connected with the stage, had made the acquaintance of some +actress or other, ballet-dancer, singer, artiste, and had given her the +nickname of Princess. + +That was all there was to be got from the diary. It amounted to +nothing. There were, however, the loose papers. He began to examine +these methodically. They were few in number--James was the sort of man +who never keeps anything which can be destroyed: Allerdyke knew from +experience that he had a horror of accumulating what he called rubbish. +These papers, fastened together with a band of india-rubber, were all +business documents, with one exception--a letter from Allerdyke himself +addressed to Stockholm, to wait James's arrival. There were some +specifications relating to building property; there was a schedule of +the timber then standing in a certain pine forest in Sweden in which +James had a valuable share; there was a balance-sheet of a Moscow +trading concern in which he had invested money; there were odds and ends +of a similar nature--all financial. From these papers Allerdyke could +only select one which he did not understand, which conveyed no meaning +to him. This was a telegram, dispatched from London on April 21st, at +eleven o'clock in the morning. He spread it out on the table and slowly +read it:-- + +"To _James Allerdyke_, _Hotel Grand Monarch_, _St. Petersburg_. + +"Your wire received. If Princess will confide goods to your care to +personally bring over here have no doubt matter can be speedily and +satisfactorily arranged. Have important client now in town until middle +May who seems to be best man to approach and is likely to be a generous +buyer. + +"FRANKLIN FULLAWAY, Waldorf Hotel, London." + +Here was another surprise: Allerdyke had never in his life heard James +mention the name--Franklin Fullaway. Yet here Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +whoever he might be, was wiring to James as only a business acquaintance +of some standing would wire. And here again was the mention of a +Princess--presumably, nay, evidently, the Princess to whom reference was +made in the diary. And there was mention, too, of goods--probably +valuable goods--to be confided to James's care for conveyance to +England, to London, for sale to some prospective purchaser. If James had +brought them, where were they? So far as Allerdyke had ascertained, +James had no luggage beyond his big suitcase and the handbag which now +stood on the table before his own eyes--he was a man for travelling +light, James, and never encumbered himself with more than indispensable +necessities. Where, then-- + +A tap at the door of the sitting-room prefaced the entry of the two +medical men. + +"We heard from the manager that you were in this room, Mr. Allerdyke," +said Dr. Orwin. "Well, we made a further examination of your relative, +and we still incline to the opinion expressed already. Now, if you +approve it, I will arrange at once for communicating with the Coroner, +removing the body, and having an autopsy performed. As Dr. Lydenberg has +business in the town which will keep him here a few days, he will join +me, and it will be more satisfactory to you, no doubt, if another doctor +is called--I should advise the professional police surgeon. If you will +leave it to me--" + +"I'll leave everything of that sort to you, doctor," said Allerdyke. "I'm +much obliged to both of you, gentlemen. You understand what I'm anxious +about?--I want to be certain--certain, mind you!--of the cause of my +cousin's death. Now you speak of removing him? Then I'll just go and take +a look at him before that's done." + +He presently locked up his rooms, leaving the hand-bag there, also +locked, and went alone to the room in which James lay dead. Most folks +who knew Marshall Allerdyke considered him a hard, unsentimental man, +but there were tears in his eyes as he stooped over his cousin's body and +laid his hand on the cold forehead. Once more he broke into familiar, +muttered speech. + +"If there's been aught wrong, lad," he said. "Aught foul or underhand, +I'll right thee!--by God, I will!" + +Then he stooped lower and kissed the dead man's cheek, and pressed the +still hands. It was with an effort that he turned away and regained his +self-command--and it was in that moment that his eyes, slightly blurred +as they were, caught sight of an object which lay half-concealed by a +corner of the hearth-rug--a glittering, shining object, which threw back +the gleam of the still burning electric light. He strode across the room +and picked it up--the gold buckle of a woman's shoe, studded with real, +if tiny, diamonds. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + +Allerdyke carried his find away to his own room and carefully examined +it. The buckle was of real gold; the stones set in it were real diamonds, +small though they were. He deduced two ideas from these facts--one, that +the owner was a woman who loved pretty and expensive things; the other, +that she must have a certain natural carelessness about her not to have +noticed that the buckle was loose on her shoe. But as he put the buckle +safely away in his own travelling bag, he began to speculate on matters +of deeper import--how did it come to be lying there in James Allerdyke's +room? How long had it been lying there? Had its owner been into that +room recently? Had she, in fact, been in the room since James Allerdyke +took possession of it on his arrival at the hotel? + +He realized the possibility of various answers to these questions. The +buckle might have been dropped by a former occupant of the room. But was +that likely? Would an object sparkling with diamonds have escaped the +eyes of even a careless chambermaid? Would it have escaped the keener +eyes of James Allerdyke? Anyhow, that question could easily be settled by +finding out how long that particular room had been unoccupied before +James was put into it. A much more important question was--had the owner +of the buckle been in the room between nine o'clock of the previous +evening and five o'clock that morning? Out of that, again, rose certain +supplementary questions: What had she been doing there? And most +important of all--who was she? That might possibly be solved by an +inspection of the hotel register, and after he had drunk the coffee which +was presently brought up to him, Allerdyke went down to the office to set +about that necessary, yet problematic, task. + +As he reached the big hall on the ground floor of the hotel, the manager +came across to him, displaying a telegram. + +"For your cousin, sir," he announced, handing it over to Allerdyke. +"Just come in." + +Allerdyke slowly opened the envelope, and as he unfolded the message, +caught the name Franklin Fullaway at its foot-- + +"Let me know what time you arrive King's Cross to-day and I will meet +you, highly important we should both see my prospective client at once." + +This message bore the same address which Allerdyke had found in the +telegram discovered in James's pocket-book--Waldorf Hotel--and he +determined to wire Mr. Franklin Fullaway immediately. He sat down at a +writing-table in the hall and drew a sheaf of telegraph forms towards +him. But it was not easy to compose the message which he wished to send. +He knew nothing of the man to whom he must address it, nothing of his +business relations with James; he had no clear notion of what the present +particular transaction was, nor how it might be connected with what had +just happened. After considerable thought he wrote out a telegram of some +length, and carried it himself to the telegraph office in the station +outside:-- + +"To _Franklin Fullaway, Waldorf Hotel, London_. + +"Your wire to James Allerdyke opened by undersigned, his cousin. James +Allerdyke died suddenly here during night. Circumstances somewhat +mysterious. Investigation proceeding. Have found on body your telegram to +him of April 21. Glad if you can explain business referred to therein, or +give any other information about his recent doings abroad. + +"From MARSHALL ALLERDYKE, Station Hotel, Hull." + +It was by that time eight o'clock, and the railway station and the hotel +had started into the business of another day. There were signs that +people who had stayed in the hotel over-night were about to take their +departure by early trains, and Allerdyke hastened back to the office to +look over the register--he was anxious to know who and what the folk were +who had been near and about his cousin in his last hours. But a mere +glance at the big pages showed him the uselessness of his task. There +were some seventy or eighty entries, made during the previous twenty-four +hours; it was impossible to go into the circumstances of each. He turned +with a look of despair to the manager at his elbow. + +"Nothing much to be made out of that!" he muttered. "Still--which are the +people who came off the _Perisco_ last night?" + +The manager summoned a clerk; the clerk indicated a sequence of entries, +amongst which Allerdyke at once noticed the name of Dr. Lydenberg. The +rest were, of course, unfamiliar to him. + +"There was a lady here last night, who, according to your night-porter, +changed her mind about staying, and set off in a motor-car about +midnight," observed Allerdyke. "Which is she, now, in this lot?" + +The clerk instantly pointed to an entry, made in a big, dashing, +artistic-looking handwriting. + +"That," he answered. "Miss Celia Lennard--Number 265." + +Two numbers away from James Allerdyke's room--Number 263! The inquirer +pricked his ears. + +"It was she who went off in the middle of the night," continued the +clerk. "She pestered me with a lot of questions as to how she could get +North--to Edinburgh. That would be about eleven o'clock. I told her she +couldn't get a train until morning. I saw her going upstairs just before +I went off duty--soon after eleven. It seems, according to the +night-porter--" + +"I know--he told me," said Allerdyke, interrupting him. "He got her a +car, she wanted to be driven to some station on the Great Northern main +line--I met her on the road at two-thirty. I suppose the driver of that +car can be found?--he'll have returned by this, I should think." + +"Oh, you can find him all right," answered the clerk. "The car was got +from a garage close by." + +Allerdyke jotted down the name of the garage in his pocket-book, and +proceeded to make further inquiries about his cousin's movements on the +previous night. He interviewed various hotel servants--waiters, +chambermaids, porters, all could tell him something, and the sum total of +what they could tell amounted, for all practical purposes, to next to +nothing. James Allerdyke had come to the hotel just as several other +people had come. He had been served with a light supper in the +coffee-room; he had been seen chatting with one or two people in the +lounge and in the smoking-room; a chambermaid had seen him in his own +room--according to all these people there was nothing in his appearance +or his behaviour that was out of the common, and all agreed that he +looked very well. + +The manager, who accompanied Allerdyke in his round of these inquiries, +glanced at him with a puzzled expression when they came to an end. + +"Of course, sir, if you would like the police to be summoned," he +suggested for the second time. "Perhaps--" + +"No--not yet!" answered Allerdyke. "I daresay they'll have to be called +in; indeed, I suppose it's absolutely necessary, because of the inquest, +but I'll wait until I hear what these doctors have to say, and, besides +that, I want to get some news from London. It's a queer business +altogether, and if there has been any foul play, why"--he paused and +looked round at the people who were passing in and out of the hall, in a +corner of which he and the manager were standing--"we can't hold up all +these folk and ask 'em if they know anything, you know," he added, with a +grim smile. + +"That's the devil of it! If there has, as I say, been aught +wrong--murder, to put it plainly--why, the criminal or criminals may +already be off or going off now, amongst these people, and I can't +stop them. In a few hours they may be where nobody can find +them--don't you see?" + +The manager did see, and shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of +helplessness. Again he could only suggest expert help from the +police--but this time he added to his suggestion the remark that he +understood there was nothing for the police to take hold of--no clue, no +signs of foul play. + +"Not yet," agreed Allerdyke. "But--there may be. Well, I'm afraid that +register is no good. It's meaningless. A list of names conveys +nothing--except for future reference. For the present we must wait. +But--in any way you can--keep your eyes open. There's one thing you can +do--there was a lady in here last night who took Room 265 and left it at +midnight to go away in a motor-car which your night-porter got for her. I +particularly want to see the chambermaid who attended that lady. Let me +see her privately--I've a question to ask her." + +"She shall be sent up to your sitting-room as soon as I've found her," +responded the manager. "This is the servants' breakfast-hour, but--" + +"Send her up there after nine o'clock," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime +I've another inquiry to make elsewhere." + +He found Gaffney and sent him round to the garage from which Miss Celia +Lennard had obtained her midnight car, with instructions to find the +chauffeur who had driven her, and to get from him what information he +could as to her movements subsequent to the rencontre at Howden. + +"Don't excite his suspicions," said Allerdyke, "but pump him for any news +he can give you. I want to know what became of her." + +Gaffney speedily returned, fully informed of Miss Lennard's movements up +to a certain point. The chauffeur had just got back, and was about to +seek the bed from which he had been pulled at one o'clock in the morning. +He had taken the lady to York--only to find that there was no train +thence to Edinburgh until after nine o'clock. So she had turned into the +Station Hotel at York, to wait, and there he had left her. + +There was little of importance in this, but it seemed to indicate that +Miss Lennard was certainly about to travel North, and that her hurried +departure from the hotel was due to a genuine desire to reach her +ultimate destination as speedily as possible. While Allerdyke was +wondering if it would be worth while to follow her up, merely because she +had been a fellow-passenger with his cousin, the manager came to him with +another telegram. + +"That lady we were talking about," he said, laying the telegram before +Allerdyke, "has just sent me this. I thought you'd like to see it as you +were asking about her." + +Allerdyke saw that the message was addressed to the manager, and had been +dispatched from York railway station three-quarters of a hour previously. + +"Please ask chambermaid to search for diamond shoe-buckle which I believe +I lost in your hotel last night. If found send by registered post to Miss +Lennard, 503_a_, Bedford Court Mansions, London." + +Allerdyke memorized that address while he secretly wondered whether he +should or should not tell the manager that the missing property was in +his possession. Finally he determined to keep silence for the moment, and +he handed back the message with an assumption of indifference. + +"I should think a thing of that sort will soon be found," he observed. +"Look here--never mind about sending that chambermaid to me just now; +I'll see her later. I'm going to breakfast." + +He wondered as he sat in the coffee-room, eating and drinking, if any of +the folk about him knew anything about the dead man whose body had been +quietly taken away by the doctors while the hotel routine went on in its +usual fashion. It seemed odd, strange, almost weird, to think that any +one of these people, eating fish or chops, chatting, reading their +propped-up newspapers, might be in possession of some knowledge which he +would give a good deal to appropriate. + +Of one fact, however, he was certain--that diamond buckle belonged to +Miss Celia Lennard, and she lived at an address in London which he had by +that time written down in his pocket-book. And now arose the big (and, in +view of what had happened, the most important and serious) question--how +had Miss Celia Lennard's diamond buckle come to be in Room Number 263? +That question had got to be answered, and he foresaw that he and Miss +Lennard must very quickly meet again. + +But there were many matters to be dealt with first, and they began to +arise and to demand attention at once. Before he had finished breakfast +came a wire from Mr. Franklin Fullaway, answering his own:-- + +"Deeply grieved and astonished by your news. Am coming down at once, and +shall arrive Hull two o'clock. In meantime keep strict guard on your +cousin's effects, especially on any sealed package. Most important this +should be done." + +This message only added to the mass of mystery which had been thickening +ever since the early hours of the morning. Strict guard on James's +effects--any sealed package--what did that mean? But a very little +reflection made Allerdyke come to the conclusion that all these vague +references and hints bore relation to the possible transaction mentioned +in the various telegrams already exchanged between James Allerdyke and +Franklin Fullaway, and that James had on him or in his possession when he +left Russia something which was certainly not discovered when Gaffney +searched the dead man. + +There was nothing to do but to wait: to wait for two things--the result +of the medical investigation, and the arrival of Mr. Franklin Fullaway. +The second came first. At ten minutes past two a bustling, +quick-mannered American strode into Marshall Allerdyke's private +sitting-room, and at the instant that the door was closed behind him +asked a question which seemed to burst from every fibre of his being-- + +"My dear sir! Are they safe?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + +Allerdyke, like all true Yorkshiremen, had been born into the world with +a double portion of caution and a triple one of reserve, and instead of +answering the question he took a leisurely look at the questioner. He saw +before him a tall, good-looking, irreproachably attired man of from +thirty to thirty-five years of age, whose dark eyes were ablaze with +excitement, whose equally dark, carefully trimmed moustache did not +conceal the agitation of the lips beneath. Mr. Franklin Fullaway, in +spite of his broad shoulders and excellent muscular development, was +evidently a highly strung, nervous, sensitive gentleman; nothing could be +plainer than that he had travelled from town in a state of great mental +activity which was just arriving at boiling-point. Everything about his +movements and gestures denoted it--the way in which he removed his hat, +laid aside his stick and gloves, ran his fingers through his dark, curly +hair, and--more than anything--looked at Marshall Allerdyke. But +Allerdyke had a habit of becoming cool and quiet when other men grew +excited and emotional, and he glanced at his visitor with seeming +indifference. + +"Mr. Fullaway, I suppose?" he said, phlegmatically. "Aye, to be sure! Sit +you down, Mr. Fullaway. Will you take anything?--it's a longish ride from +London, and I daresay you'd do with a drink, what?" + +"Nothing, nothing, thank you, Mr. Allerdyke," answered Fullaway, +obviously surprised by the other's coolness. "I had lunch on the train." + +"Very convenient, that," observed Allerdyke. "I can remember when there +wasn't a chance of it. Aye--and what might this be that you're asking +about, now, Mr. Fullaway? What do you refer to?" + +Fullaway, after a moment's surprised look at the Yorkshireman's stolid +face, elevated his well-marked eyebrows and shook his head. Then he edged +his chair nearer to the table at which Allerdyke sat. + +"You don't know, then, that your cousin had valuables on him?" he asked +in an altered tone. + +"I know exactly what my cousin had on him, and what was in his +baggage, when I found him dead in his room," replied Allerdyke drily. +"And what that was--was just what I should have expected to find. +But--nothing more." + +Fullaway almost leapt in his chair. + +"Nothing more!" he exclaimed. "Nothing more than you would have expected +to find! Nothing?" + +Allerdyke bent across the table, giving his visitor a keen look. + +"What would you have expected to find if you'd found him as I found him?" +he asked. "Come--what, now?" + +He was watching the American narrowly, and he saw that Fullaway's +excitement was passing off, was being changed into an attentive +eagerness. He himself thrust his hand into his breast pocket and drew out +the papers which had been accumulating there since his arrival and +discovery. + +"We'd best be plain, Mr. Fullaway," he said. "I don't know you, but I +gather that you knew James, and that you'd done business together." + +"I knew Mr. James Allerdyke very well, and I've done business with him +for the last two years," replied Fullaway. + +"Just so," assented Allerdyke. "And your business--" + +"That of a general agent--an intermediary, if you like," answered +Fullaway. "I arrange private sales a good deal between European sellers +and American buyers--pictures, curiosities, jewels, antiques, and so on. +I'm pretty well known, Mr. Allerdyke, on both sides the Atlantic." + +"Quite so," said Allerdyke. "I'm not in that line, however, and I don't +know you. But I'll tell you all I do know and you'll tell me all you +know. When I searched my cousin for papers, I found this wire from +you--sent to James at St. Petersburg. Now then, what does it refer to? +Those valuables you hinted at just now?" + +"Exactly!" answered Fullaway. "Nothing less!" + +"What valuables are they?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Jewels! Worth a quarter of a million," replied Fullaway. + +"What? Dollars?" + +Fullaway laughed derisively. + +"Dollars! No, pounds! Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, my dear +sir!" he answered. + +"You think he had them on him?" + +"I'm sure he had them on him!" asserted Fullaway. He, in his turn, began +to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was in +Christiania the other day. He was bringing them over here--to me." + +"On whose behalf?" asked Allerdyke. + +"On behalf of a Russian lady, a Princess, who wished to find a purchaser +for them," replied the American promptly. + +"In that case--to come to the point," said Allerdyke, "if my cousin +James had that property on him when he landed here last night and it +wasn't--as it certainly wasn't--on him when I found him this +morning---he's been robbed?" + +"Robbed--and murdered that he might be robbed!" answered Fullaway. + +The two men looked steadily at each other for a while. Then Allerdyke +laid his papers on the table between them. + +"You'd better tell me all you know about it," he said quietly. "Let's +hear it all--then we shall be getting towards knowing what to do." + +"Willingly!" exclaimed the American. He produced and spread out a couple +of cablegrams on which he laid a hand while he talked. "As I have already +said, I have had several deals in business with Mr. James Allerdyke. I +last saw him towards the end of March, in town, and he then mentioned to +me that he was just about setting out for Russia. On April 20th I +received this cable from him--sent, you see, from St. Petersburg. Allow +me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to +find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter +of million pounds. Wants money to clear off mortgages on her son's +estate, and set him going again. Do you know of any one likely to buy in +one lot? Can arrange to bring over myself for buyers' inspection if +chance of immediate good sale. James Allerdyke.' Now, as soon as I +received that from your cousin I immediately thought of a possible and +very likely purchaser--Mr. Delkin, a Chicago man, whose only daughter is +just about to marry an English nobleman. I knew that Mr. Delkin had a +mind to give his daughter a really fine collection of jewels, and I went +at once to him regarding the matter. In consequence of my interview with +Mr. Delkin, I cabled to James Allerdyke on April 21st, saying--" + +"This is it, no doubt," said Allerdyke, producing the message of the date +mentioned. + +"That is it," assented Fullaway, glancing across the table. "Very well, +you see what I said. He replied to that at once--here is his reply. It +is, you see, very brief. It merely says, 'All right--shall wire details +later--keep possible buyer on.' I heard no more until last Thursday, +May 8th, when I received this cablegram, sent, you see, from +Christiania. In it he says: 'Expect reach Hull Monday night next. Shall +come London next day. Arrange meeting with your man. Have got all +goods.' Now those last four words, Mr. Allerdyke, if they mean anything +at all, mean that your cousin was bringing these valuable jewels with +him; had them on him when he cabled from Christiania. And if you did +not find them when you searched him--where are they? Two hundred and +fifty thousand pounds' worth!" + +Allerdyke took the three cablegrams from his visitor and carefully read +them through, comparing them with the dates already known to him, and +with Fullaway's messages in reply. Eventually he put all the papers +together, arranging them in sequence. He laid them on the table between +Fullaway and himself, and for a moment or two sat reflectively drumming +the tips of his fingers on them. + +"Who is this Princess Nastirsevitch?" he asked suddenly looking up. +"Royalty, eh?" + +"No," answered Fullaway, with a smile. "I don't know much about these +European titles and dignities, but I don't think the title of Prince +means in Russia what it does in England. A Prince there, I think, is some +sort of nobleman, like your dukes and earls, and so on, here. But, +anyway, the Princess Nastirsevitch isn't a Russian at all, except by +marriage--she's a countryman of my own. I guess you've heard of her--she +was Helen Hamilton, the famous dancer." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Not my line at all," he said. "It was a bit in James's, though. Dancer, +eh? And married a Prince?" + +"Twenty-five years ago," replied Fullaway. "Ancient history, that. But I +know a good deal about her. She made a big fortune with her dancing, and +she invested largely in pearls and diamonds--I know that. I also happen +to know that she'd one son by her marriage, of whom she's passionately +fond. And I read this thing in this way: I guess the old Prince's estates +(he's dead, a year or two ago) were heavily mortgaged, and she hit on the +notion of clearing all off by selling her jewels, so that her son might +start clear--no encumbrances on the property, you know." + +Allerdyke pursed his lips and rubbed his chin. + +"What I don't understand is that she confided a quarter of a million's +worth of goods of that sort to a man whom she couldn't know so very +well," he observed. "I never heard James speak of her." + +"That may be." replied Fullaway. "But he may have known her very well for +all that. However, there are the facts. And," he added, with emphasis, +"there, Mr. Allerdyke, are those four words, sent from Christiania, 'Have +got all goods!' Now, we can be reasonably sure of what he meant. He'd +got the Princess's jewels. Very well! Where are they?" + +Allerdyke got to his feet, and, thrusting his hands in his pockets, +began to stride about the room. All this was not merely puzzling, but, +in a way which he could not understand, distasteful to him. Somehow--he +did not know why, nor at that moment try to think why--he resented the +fact that any one knew more about his dead cousin than he did. And he +began to wonder as he strode about the room how much this Mr. Franklin +Fullaway knew. + +"Did my cousin James ever mention this Princess to you?" he suddenly +asked, stopping in his walk to and fro. "I mean--before he went over to +Russia this last time?" + +"He just mentioned that he knew her--mentioned it in casual +conversation," answered Fullaway. "She and I being fellow Americans, the +subject interested me, of course. But--he only said that he had met her +in Russia." + +"Aye, well," said Allerdyke musingly, "it's true he did go across to +Russia a good deal, and no doubt he knew folk there that he never told me +about." + +"Well," he went on, throwing himself into his chair again, "what's +to be done? Do you honestly think that he had those things on him when he +came here last night? You do? Very well, then, he's been murdered by some +devil or devils who's got 'em! But how? And who are they--or who's +he--or--good Lord! it might be who's she?" + +"Poisoned," said Fullaway. "That's my answer to your question of--how? As +to your other question--is there no clue to anything? you forget--I don't +know any details. I only know that he was found dead. Under what +circumstances?" + +Allerdyke pulled his chair nearer to his visitor. + +"I'd forgotten," he said. "I'll tell you the lot. See if you can make +aught out of it--they always say you Yankees have sharp brains. Try to +see a bit of daylight! So far it licks me." + +He gave the American a brief yet full account of all that had happened +since his receipt of James Allerdyke's wireless message. And Fullaway +listened in silence, taking everything in, making no interruption, and at +the end he spoke quietly and with decision. + +"We must find that woman--Miss Celia Lennard--and at once," he said. +"That's absolutely necessary." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "But look here--I've been thinking that +over. Is it very likely that a woman who'd stolen two hundred and fifty +thousand pounds' worth of stuff from an hotel would wire back to its +manager, giving her address, for the sake of a shoe-buckle, even one set +with diamonds?" + +"I'm not--for the moment--supposing that she is the thief," answered +Fullaway. "Why I want--and must--find her at once is to ask her a +simple question. What was she doing in James Allerdyke's room? +For--I've an idea." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"This," replied Fullaway. "They were fellow-passengers on the _Perisco_. +Your cousin--as I daresay you know--was the sort of man who readily +makes friends, especially with women. My idea is that if this Miss +Lennard went into his room last night it was to be shown the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels. Your cousin was just the sort of man who knew how +a woman would appreciate an exhibition of such things. And--" + +At that moment a waiter tapped at the sitting-room door and announced +Dr. Orwin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + +Marshall Allerdyke's sharp eyes were quick to see that his new visitor +had something of importance to communicate and wished to give his news in +private. Dr. Orwin glanced inquiringly at the American as he took the +seat which Allerdyke drew forward, and the cock of his eyes indicated a +strong desire to know who the stranger was. + +"Friend of my late cousin," said Allerdyke brusquely. "Mr. Franklin +Fullaway, of London--just as anxious as I am to hear what you have to +tell us, doctor. You've come to tell something, of course?" + +The doctor inclined his head towards Fullaway, and added a grave bow in +answer to Allerdyke's question. + +"The autopsy has been made," he replied. "By Dr. Lydenberg, Dr. Quillet, +who is one of the police-surgeons here, and myself. We made a very +careful and particular examination." + +"And--the result?" asked Allerdyke eagerly. "Is it what you anticipated +from your first glance at him--here?" + +The doctor's face became a shade graver; his voice assumed an +oracular tone. + +"My two colleagues," he said, "agreed that your cousin's death resulted +from heart failure which arose from what we may call ordinary causes. +There is no need for me to go into details--it is quite sufficient to say +that they are abundantly justified in coming to the conclusion at which +they have arrived: it is quite certain that your cousin's heart had +recently become seriously affected. But as regards myself"--here he +paused, and looking narrowly from one to the other of his two hearers, he +sank his voice to a lower, more confidential tone--"as regards myself, I +am not quite so certain as Dr. Lydenberg and Dr. Quillet appear to be. +The fact of the case is, I think it very possible that Mr. James +Allerdyke was--poisoned." + +Neither of the two who listened so intently made any reply to this +significant announcement. Instead they kept their eyes intently fixed on +the doctor's grave face; then they slowly turned from him to each other, +exchanging glances. And after a pause the doctor went on, speaking in +measured and solemn accents. + +"There is no need, either, at present--only at present--that I should +tell you why I think that," he continued. "I may be wrong--my two +colleagues are inclined to think I am wrong. But they quite agree with me +that it will be proper to preserve certain organs--you understand?--for +further examination by, say, the Home Office analyst, who is always, of +course, a famous pathological expert. That will be done--in fact, we have +already sealed up what we wish to be further examined. But"--he paused +again, shaking his head more solemnly than ever--"the truth is, +gentlemen," he went on at last, "I am doubtful if even that analysis and +examination will reveal anything. If my suspicions are correct--and +perhaps I ought to call them mere notions, theories, ideas, rather than +suspicions--but, at any rate, if there is anything in the vague thoughts +which I have, no trace of any poison will be found--and yet your cousin +may have been poisoned, all the same." + +"Secretly!" exclaimed Fullaway. + +Dr. Orwin gave the American a sharp glance which indicated that he +realized Fullaway's understanding of what he had just said. + +"Precisely," he answered. "There are poisons--known to experts--which +will destroy life almost to a given minute, and of which the most skilful +pathologist and expert will not be able to find a single trace. Now, +please, understand my position--I say, it is quite possible, quite +likely, quite in accordance with what I have seen, that this unfortunate +gentleman died of heart failure brought about by even such an ordinary +exertion as his stooping forward to untie his shoe-lace, but--I also +think it likely that his death resulted from poison, subtly and cunningly +administered, probably not very long before his death took place. And if +I only knew--" + +He paused at that, and looked searchingly and meaningly at Marshall +Allerdyke before he continued. And Allerdyke looked back with the same +intentness and nodded. + +"Yes--yes!" he said. "If you only knew--? Say it, doctor!" + +"If I only knew if there was any reason why any person wished to take +this man's life," responded Dr. Orwin, slowly and deliberately. "If I +knew that somebody wanted to get him out of the way, for instance--" + +Allerdyke jumped to his feet and tapped Fullaway on the shoulder. + +"Come in here a minute," he said, motioning towards the door of his +bedroom. "Excuse us, doctor--I want to have a word with this gentleman. +Look here," he continued, when he had led the American into the bedroom +and had closed the door. "You hear what he says? Shall we tell him? Or +shall we keep it all dark for a while? Which--what?" + +"Tell him under promise of secrecy," replied Fullaway after a moment's +consideration. "Medical men are all right--yes, tell him. He may suggest +something. And I'm inclined to think his theory is correct, eh?" + +"Correct!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with a grim laugh. "You bet it's correct! +Come on, then--we'll tell him all. Now, doctor," he went on, leading the +way back into the sitting-room, "we're going to give you our confidence. +You'll treat it as a strict confidence, a secret between us, for the +present. The truth is that when my cousin came to this hotel last night +he was in possession--that is, we have the very strongest grounds for +believing him to have been in possession--of certain extremely valuable +property---jewels worth a large amount--which he was carrying, +safeguarding, from a lady in Russia to this gentleman in London. When I +searched his body and luggage, these valuables were missing. Mr. Fullaway +and myself haven't the least doubt that he was robbed. So your +theory--eh?" + +Dr. Orwin had listened to this with deep attention, and he now put two +quick questions. + +"The value of these things was great?" + +"Relatively, very great," answered Allerdyke. + +"Enough to engage, the attention of a clever gang of thieves?" + +"Quite!" + +"Then," said the doctor, "I am quite of opinion that my ideas are +correct. These, people probably tracked your cousin to this place, +contrived to administer a subtle and deadly poison to him last night, and +entered his room after the time at which they knew it would take effect. +Have you any clue--even a slight one?" + +"Only this," answered Allerdyke, and proceeded to narrate the story of +the shoe-buckle, adding Fullaway's theory to it. "That's not much, eh?" + +"You must find that woman and produce her at the inquest," said the +doctor. "I take it that Mr. Fullaway's idea is a correct one. Your cousin +probably did invite Miss Lennard into his room to show her these +jewels--that, of course, would prove that he had them in his possession +at some certain hour last night. Now, about that inquest. It is fixed for +ten o'clock to-morrow morning. Let me advise you as to your own course of +procedure, having an eye on what you have told me. Your object should be +to make the proceedings to-morrow merely formal, so that the Coroner can +issue his order for interment, and then adjourn for further evidence. It +will be sufficient if you give evidence identifying the body, if evidence +is given of the autopsy, and an adjournment asked for until a further +examination of the reserved organs and viscera can be made. For the +present, I should keep back the matter of the supposed robbery until you +can find this Miss Lennard. At the adjourned inquest--say in a week or +ten days hence--everything pertinent can be brought out. But you will +need legal help--I am rather trespassing on legal preserves in telling +you so much." + +"Deeply obliged to you, doctor--and you can add to our obigations by +giving us the name of a good man to go to," said Allerdyke. "We'll see +him at once and fix things up for to-morrow morning." + +Dr. Orwin wrote down the name and address of a well-known solicitor, and +presently went away. When he had gone, Allerdyke turned to Fullaway. + +"Now, then," he said, "you and I'll do one or two things. We'll call +on this lawyer. Then we'll cable to the Princess. But how shall we get +her address!" + +"There's sure to be a Russian Consul in the town," suggested Fullaway. + +"Good idea! And I'm going to telephone to this Miss Lennard's address +in London," continued Allerdyke. "She evidently set off from here to +Edinburgh; but, anyway, the address she gave in that wire to the +manager is a London one, and I'm going to try it. Now let's get out and +be at work." + +The ensuing conversation between these two and a deeply interested and +much-impressed solicitor resulted in the dispatch of a lengthy cablegram +to St. Petersburg, a conversation over the telephone with the housekeeper +of Miss Celia Lennard's London flat, and the interviewing of the captain +and stewards of the steamship on which James Allerdyke had crossed from +Christiania. The net result of this varied inquiry was small, and +produced little that could throw additional light on the matter in +question. The _Perisco_ officials had not seen anything suspicious in the +conduct or personality of any of their passengers. They had observed +James Allerdyke in casual conversation with some of them--they had seen +him talking to Miss Lennard, to Dr. Lydenberg, to others, ladies and +gentlemen who subsequently put up at the Station Hotel for the night. +Nothing that they could tell suggested anything out of the common. Miss +Lennard's housekeeper gave no other information than that her mistress +was at present in Edinburgh, and was expected to remain there for at +least a week. And towards night came a message from the Princess +Nastirsevitch confirming Fullaway's conviction that James Allerdyke was +in possession of her jewels and announcing that she was leaving for +England at once, and should travel straight, via Berlin and Calais, to +meet Mr. Franklin Fullaway at his hotel in London. + +The solicitor agreed with Dr. Orwin's suggestions as to the course to be +followed with regard to the inquest; it would be wise, he said, to keep +matters quiet for at any rate a few days, until they were in a position +to bring forward more facts. Consequently, the few people who were +present at the Coroner's court next morning gained no idea of the real +importance of the inquiry which was then opened. Even the solitary +reporter who took a perfunctory note of the proceedings for his newspaper +gathered no more from what he heard than that a gentleman had died +suddenly at the Station Hotel, that it had been necessary to hold an +inquest, that there was some little doubt as to the precise cause of his +death, and that the inquest was accordingly adjourned until the medical +men could tell something of a more definite nature. Nothing sensational +crept out into the town; no bold-lettered headlines ornamented the +afternoon editions. An hour before noon Marshall Allerdyke entrusted his +cousin's body to the care of certain kinsfolk who had come over from +Bradford to take charge of it; by noon he and Fullaway were slipping out +of Hull on their way to Edinburgh--to search for a witness, who, if and +when they found her, might be able to tell them--what? + +"Seems something like a wild-goose chase," said Allerdyke as the train +steamed on across country towards York and the North. "How do we know +where to find this woman in Edinburgh? Her housekeeper didn't know what +hotel she was at--I suppose we'll have to try every one in the place till +we come across her!" + +"Edinburgh is not a very big town," remarked Fullaway. "I reckon to run +her down--if she's still there--within a couple of hours. It's our first +duty, anyway. If she--as I guess she did--saw those jewels, then we know +that James Allerdyke had them on him when he reached Hull, dead sure." + +"And supposing she can tell that?" said Allerdyke. "What then? How does +that help? The devils who got 'em have already had thirty-six hours' +start of us!" + +The American produced a bulky cigar-case, found a green cigar, and +lighted it with a deliberation which was in marked contrast to his usual +nervous movements. + +"Seems to me," he said presently, "seems very much to me that this has +been a great thing! I figure it out like this--somehow, somebody has got +to know of what the Princess and your cousin were up to--that he was +going to carry those valuable jewels with him to England. He must have +been tracked all the way, unless--does any unless strike you, now?" + +"Not at the moment," replied Allerdyke. "So unless what?" + +"Unless the thieves--and murderers--were waiting there in Hull for his +arrival," said Fullaway quietly. "That's possible!" + +"Strikes me a good many possibilities are knocking around," remarked +Allerdyke, with more than his usual dryness. "As for me, I'll want to +know a lot about these valuables and their consignment before I make up +my mind in any way. I tell you frankly. I'm not running after them--I'm +wanting to find the folk who killed my cousin, and I only hope this young +woman'll be able to give me a hand. And the sooner we get to the bottle +of hay and begin prospecting for the needle the better!" + +But the search for Miss Celia Lennard to which Allerdyke alluded so +gloomily was not destined to be either difficult or lengthy. As he and +his companion walked along one of the platforms in the Waverley Station +in Edinburgh that evening, on their way to a cab, Allerdyke suddenly +uttered a sharp exclamation and seized the American by the elbow, +twisting him round in front of a big poster which displayed the portrait +of a very beautiful woman. + +"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "There she is! See? That's the woman. Man +alive, we've hit it at once! Look!" + +Fullaway turned and stared, not so much at the portrait as at the big +lettering above and beneath it: + + ZÉLIE DE LONGARDE, + THE WORLD-FAMED SOPRANO. + RECENTLY RETURNED FROM MOSCOW + AND ST. PETERSBURG. + Only Visit to Edinburgh this Year. + TO-NIGHT AT 8. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + +Fullaway slowly read this announcement aloud. When he had made an end of +it he laughed. + +"So your mysterious lady of the midnight motor, your Miss Celia Lennard +of the Hull hotel, is the great and only Zélie de Longarde, eh?" he said. +"Well, I guess that makes matters a lot easier and clearer. But you're +sure it isn't a case of striking resemblance?" + +"I only saw that woman for a minute or two, by moonlight, when she stuck +her face out of her car to ask the way," replied Allerdyke, "but I'll +lay all I'm worth to a penny-piece that the woman I then saw is the +woman whose picture we're staring at. Great Scott! So she's a famous +singer, is she? You know of her, of course? That sort of thing's not in +my line--never was--I don't go to a concert or a musical party once in +five years." + +"Oh, she's great--sure!" responded Fullaway. "Beautiful voice--divine! +And, as I say, things are going to be easy. I've met this lady more than +once, though I didn't know that she'd any other name than that, which is +presumably her professional one, and I've also had one or two business +deals with her. So all we've got to do is to find out which hotel she's +stopping at in this city, and then we'll go round there, and I'll send in +my card. But I say--do you see, this affair's to-night, this very +evening, and at eight o'clock, and it's past seven now. She'll be +arraying herself for the platform. We'd better wait until--" + +Allerdyke's practical mind asserted itself. He twisted the American +round in another direction, and called to a porter who had picked up +their bags. + +"All that's easy," he said. "We'll stick these things in the left-luggage +spot, dine here in the station, and go straight to the concert. There, +perhaps, during an interval, we might get in a word with this lady who +sports two names. Come on, now." + +He hurried his companion from the cloak-room to the dining-room, gave a +quick order on his own behalf to the waiter, left Fullaway to give his +own, and began to eat and drink with the vigour of a man who means to +waste no time. + +"There's one thing jolly certain, my lad!" he said presently, leaning +confidentially across the table after he had munched in silence for a +while. "This Miss Lennard, or Mamselle, or Signora de Longarde, or +whatever her real label is, hasn't got those jewels--confound 'em! Folks +who steal things like that don't behave as she's doing." + +"I never thought she had stolen the jewels," answered Fullaway. "What I +want to know is--has she seen them, and when, and where, and under what +circumstances? You've got her shoe-buckle all safe?" + +"Waistcoat-pocket just now," replied Allerdyke laconically. + +"That'll be an extra passport," observed Fullaway. "Not that it's needed, +because, as I said, I've done business for her. Oddly enough, that was in +the jewel line--I negotiated the sale of Pinkie Pell's famous pearl +necklace with Mademoiselle de Longarde. You've heard of that, of course?" + +"Never a whisper!" answered Allerdyke. "Not in my line, those affairs. +Who was Pinkie Pell, anyhow!" + +"Pinkie Pell was a well-known music-hall artiste, my dear sir, once a +great favourite, who came down in the world, and had to sell her +valuables," replied the American. "To the last she stuck to a pearl +necklace, which was said to have been given to her by the Duke of +Bendlecombe--Pinkie, they said, attached a sentimental value to it. +However, it had to be sold, and I sold it for Pinkie to the lady we're +going to see to-night. Seven thousand five hundred--it's well worth ten. +Mademoiselle will be wearing it, no doubt--she generally does, anyway--so +you'll see it." + +"Not unless we get a front pew," said Allerdyke. "Hurry up, and let's be +off! Our best plan," he went on as they made for a cab, "will be to get +as near the platform as possible, so that I can make certain sure this is +the woman I saw at Howden yesterday morning--when I positively identify +her, I'll leave it to you to work the interview with her, either at this +concert place or at her hotel afterwards. If it can be done at once, all +the more to my taste--I want to be knowing things." + +"Oh, we're going well ahead!" said Fullaway. "I'll work it all right. I +noticed on that poster that this affair is being run by the +Concert-Director Ernest Weiss. I know Weiss--he'll get us an interview +with the great lady after she's appeared the first time." + +"It's a fortunate thing for me to have a man who seems to know +everybody," remarked Allerdyke. "I suppose it's living in London gives +you so much acquaintance?" + +"It's my business to know a lot of people," answered Fullaway. "The more +the better--for my purposes. I'll tell you how I came to know your cousin +later that's rather interesting. Well, here's the place, and it's five +to eight now. We've struck it very well, and the only trouble'll be about +getting good seats, especially as we're in morning dress." + +Allerdyke smiled at that--in his opinion, money would carry a man +anywhere, and there was always plenty of that useful commodity in his +pockets. He insisted on buying the seats himself, and after some +parleying and explaining at the box-office, he and his companion were +duly escorted to seats immediately in front of a flower-decked platform, +where they were set down amidst a highly select company of correctly +attired folk, who glanced a little questioningly at their tweed suits, +both conspicuous amidst silks, satins, broadcloths, and glazed linen. +Allerdyke laughed as he thrust a program into Fullaway's hand. + +"I worked that all right," he whispered. "Told the chap in that receipt +of custom that you were a foreigner of great distinction travelling +incognito in Scotland, and I your travelling companion, and that our +luggage hadn't arrived from Aberdeen, so we couldn't dress, but we must +hear this singing lady at all cost and in any case. Then I slapped down +the brass and got the tickets--naught like brass in ready form, my lad! +Now, then, when does the desired party appear?" + +Fullaway unfolded his program and glanced over the items. The +Concert-Direction of Ernest Weiss was famous for the fare which it put +before its patrons, and here was certainly enough variety of talent to +please the most critical--a famous tenor, a popular violinist, a +contralto much in favour for her singing of tender and sentimental songs, +a notable performer on the violincello, a local vocalist whose speciality +was the singing of ancient Scottish melodies, and--item of vast interest +to a certain section of the audience--a youthful prodigy who was fondly +believed to have it in her power to become a female Paderewski. These +performers were duly announced on the program in terms of varying +importance; outstanding from all of them, of course, was the great star +of the evening, the one and only Zélie de Longarde, acknowledged Queen of +Song in Milan and Moscow, Paris and London, New York and Melbourne. + +"Comes on fifth, I see," observed Allerdyke, glancing over his +program unconcernedly. "Well, I suppose we've got to stick out the +other four. I'm not great on music, Fullaway--don't know one tune +from another. However, I reckon I can stand a bit of noise until my +lady shows herself." + +He listened with good-natured interest, which was not far removed from +indifference, to the contralto, the 'cellist, the violinist, only waking +up to something like enthusiasm when the infant prodigy, a quaint, +painfully shy little creature, who bobbed a side curtsey at the audience, +and looked much too small to tackle the grand piano, appeared and +proceeded to execute wonderful things with her small fingers. + +"That's a bit of all right!" murmured Allerdyke, when the child had +finished her first contribution. "That's a clever little party! But she's +too big in the eye, and too small in the bone--wants plenty of new milk, +and new-laid eggs, and fresh air, and not so much piano-thumping, does +that. Clever--clever--but unnatural, Fullaway!--they mustn't let her do +too much at that. Well, now I suppose we shall see the shoe-buckle lady." + +The packed audience evidently supposed the same thing. Over it--the +infant prodigy having received her meed of applause and bobbed herself +awkwardly out of sight--had come that atmosphere of expectancy which +invariably heralds the appearance of the great figure on any similar +occasion. It needed no special intuition on Allerdyke's part to know that +all these people were itching to show their fondness for Zélie de +Longarde by clapping their hands, waving their program, and otherwise +manifesting their delight at once more seeing a prime favourite. All eyes +were fixed on the wing of the platform, all hands were ready to give +welcome. But a minute passed--two minutes--three minutes--and Zélie de +Longarde did not appear. Another minute--and then, endeavouring to smile +bravely and reassuringly, and not succeeding particularly well in the +attempt, a tall, elaborately attired, carefully polished-up man, +unmistakably German, blonde, heavy, suave, suddenly walked on to the +platform and did obeisance to the audience. + +"Weiss!" whispered Fullaway. "Something's wrong! Look at his face--he's +in big trouble." + +The concert-director straightened himself from that semi-military bow, +and looked at the faces in front of him with a mute appeal. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I have to entreat the high favour of +your kind indulgence. Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet arrived from +her hotel. I hope--I think--she is now on her way. In the meantime I +propose, with your gracious consent, to continue, our program with the +next item, at the conclusion of which, I hope, Mademoiselle will appear." + +The audience was sympathetic--the audience was ready to be placated. It +gave cordial hearing and warm favour to the singer of Scottish +melodies--it even played into Mr. Concert-Director Weiss's hands by +according the local singer an encore. But when he had finally retired +there was another wait, a longer one which lengthened unduly, a note of +impatience sounded from the gallery; it was taken up elsewhere. And +suddenly Weiss came again upon the platform--this time with no +affectation of suave entreaty. He was plainly much upset; his elegant +waistcoat seemed to have assumed careworn creases, his mop of blonde hair +was palpably rumpled as if he had been endeavouring to tear some of its +wavy locks out by force. And when he spoke his fat voice shook with a +mixture of chagrin and anger. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I crave ten thousand--a +million--pardons for this so-unheard-of state of affairs! The--the truth +is, Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet here. What is more--I have to +tell you the truth--Mademoiselle refuses to come--refuses to fulfil her +honourable engagement. We are--have been for some time--on the telephone +with her. Mademoiselle is at her hotel. She declares she has been +robbed--her jewels have all been stolen from their case in her +apartments. She is--how shall I say?--turning the hotel upside down! She +refuses to budge one inch until her jewels are restored to her. How +then?--I cannot restore her jewels. I say to her--my colleagues say to +her--it is not your jewels we desire--it is your so beautiful, so +incomparable voice. She reply--I cannot tell you what she reply! In +effect--no jewels, no song! Ladies and gentlemen, once more!--your most +kind, most considerate indulgence! I go there just now--I fly; swift, to +the hotel, to entreat Mademoiselle on my knees to return with me! In the +meantime--" + +As Weiss retired from the platform, and the longhaired 'cellist came upon +it, Fullaway sprang up, dragging Allerdyke after him. He led the way to +a sidedoor, whispered something to an attendant, and was quickly ushered +through another door to an ante-room behind the wings, where Weiss, livid +with anger, was struggling into an opera-cloak. The concert-director +gasped as he caught sight of the American. + +"Ah, my dear Mr. Fullaway!" he exclaimed. "You here! You have heard?--you +have been in front. You hear, then--she will not come to sing because her +jewels are missing, eh? She--" + +"What hotel is Mademoiselle de Longarde stopping at, Weiss?" asked +Fullaway quietly. + +"The North British and Caledonian--I go there just now!" answered Weiss. +"I am ruined if she will not appear--ruined, disgraced! Jewels! Ah--!" + +"Come on--we're going with you," said Fullaway. "Quick now!" + +Allerdyke got some vivid impressions during the next few minutes, +impressions various, startling. They began with a swift whirl through the +lighted streets of the smoky old city, of a dash upstairs at a big hotel; +they ended with a picture of a beautiful, highly enraged woman, who was +freely speaking her mind to a dismayed hotel manager and a couple of men +who were obviously members of the detective force. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWEL BOX + + +Mademoiselle Zélie de Longarde, utterly careless of the fact that her +toilette was but half complete, that she wore no gown, and that the +kimono which she had hastily assumed on discovering her loss had slipped +away from her graceful figure to fall in folds about her feet, +interrupted the torrent of her eloquence to stare at the three men whom a +startled waiter ushered into her sitting-room. Her first glance fell on +the concert-director, and she shook her fist at him. + +"Go away, Weiss!" she commanded, accompanying the vigorous action of her +hand with an equally emphatic stamp of a shapely foot. "Go away at +once--go and play on the French horn; go and do anything you like to +satisfy your audience! Not one note do I sing until somebody finds me my +jewels! Edinburgh's stole them, and Edinburgh'll have to give them back. +It's no use your waiting here--I won't budge an inch. I--" + +She paused abruptly, suddenly catching sight of Fullaway, who at once +moved towards her with a confidential and reassuring smile. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "What brings you here? And who's that with +you--surely the gentleman of whom I asked my way in some wild place the +other night! What--" + +"Mademoiselle," said Fullaway, with a deep bow, "let me suggest to you +that the finest thing in this mundane state of ours is--reason. +Suppose, now, that you complete your toilet, tell us what it is you +have lost; leave us--your devoted servants--to begin the task of +finding it, and while we are so engaged, hasten with Mr. Weiss to the +hall to fulfil your engagement? A packed audience awaits +you--palpitating with sympathy and--" + +"And curiosity," interjected the aggrieved prima donna, as she threw a +hasty glance at her deshabille and snatched up the kimono. "Pretty talk, +Fullaway--very, and all intended to benefit Weiss there. Lost, +indeed!--I've lost all my jewels, and up to now nobody"--here she flashed +a wrathful glance at the hotel manager and the two detectives--"nobody +has made a single suggestion about finding them!" + +Fullaway exchanged looks with the other men. Once more he assumed the +office of spokesman. + +"Perhaps you have not told them precisely what it is they're to find," he +suggested. "What is it now, Mademoiselle? The Pinkie Pell necklace for +instance!" + +The prima donna, who was already retreating through the door of the +bedroom on whose threshold she had been standing, flashed a scornful look +at her questioner over the point of her white shoulder. + +"Pinkie Pell necklace!" she exclaimed. "Everything's gone! The whole lot! +Look at that--not so much as a ring left in it!" + +She pointed a slender, quivering finger to a box which stood, lid thrown +open, on a table in the sitting-room, by which the detectives were +standing, open-mouthed, and obviously puzzled. Allerdyke, following the +pointing finger, noted that the box was a very ordinary-looking +affair--a tiny square chest of polished wood, fitted with a brass swing +handle. It might have held a small type-writing machine; it might have +been a medicine chest; it certainly did not look the sort of thing in +which one would carry priceless jewels. But Mademoiselle de Longarde was +speaking again. + +"That's what I always carried my jewels in--in their cases," she said. +"And they were all in there when I left Christiania a few days ago, and +that box has never been out of my sight--so to speak--since. And when I +opened it here to-night, wanting the things, it was as empty as it is +now. And if I behave handsomely, and go with Weiss there, to fulfil this +engagement, it'll only be on condition that you stop here, Fullaway, and +do your level best to get me my jewels back. I've done all I can--I've +told the manager there, and I've told those two policemen, and not a man +of them seems able to suggest anything! Perhaps you can." + +With that she disappeared and slammed the door of the bedroom, and the +six men, left in a bunch, looked at each other. Then one of the +detectives spoke, shaking his head and smiling grimly. + +"It's all very well to say we suggest nothing," he said. "We want some +facts to go on first. Up to now, all the lady's done is to storm at us +and at everybody--she seems to think all Edinburgh's in a conspiracy to +rob her! We don't know any circumstances yet, except that she says she's +been robbed. Perhaps--" + +"Wait a bit," interrupted Fullaway. "Let us get her off to her +engagement. Then we can talk. I suppose," he continued, turning to the +manager, "she first announced her loss to you?" + +"She announced her loss to the whole world, in a way of speaking," +answered the manager, with a dry laugh. + +"She screamed it out over the main staircase into the hall! Everybody in +the place knows it by this time--she took good care they should. I don't +know how she can have been robbed--so far as I can learn she's scarcely +been out of these rooms since she came into them yesterday afternoon. The +grand piano had been put in for her before she arrived, and she's spent +all her time singing and playing--I don't believe she's ever left the +hotel. And as I pointed out to her when she fetched me up, she found this +box locked when she went to it--why didn't the thieves carry it bodily +away? Why--" + +"Just so--just so!" broke in Fullaway. "I quite appreciate your points. +But there is more in this than meets the first glance. Let us get +Mademoiselle off to her engagement, I say--that's the first thing. Then +we can do business. Weiss," he continued, drawing the concert-director +aside, "you must arrange to let her appear as soon as possible after you +get back to the hall, and to put forward her appearance in the second +half of your program, so that she can return here as soon as +possible--she'll only be in irrepressible fidgets until she knows what's +been done. And--you know what she is!--you ought to be very thankful that +she's allowed herself to be persuaded to go with you. Mademoiselle," he +went on, as the prima donna, fully attired, but innocent of jewelled +ornament, swept into the room, "you are doing the right thing--bravely! +Go, sing--sing your best, your divinest--let your admiring audience +recognize that you have a soul above even serious misfortune. Meanwhile, +allow me to order your supper to be served in this room, for eleven +o'clock, and permit me and my friend, Mr. Allerdyke, to invite ourselves +to share it with you. Then--we will give you some news that will +interest and astonish you." + +"That only makes me all the more frantic to get back," exclaimed the +prima donna. "Come along, now, Weiss--you've got a car outside, I +suppose? Hurry, then, and let me get it over." + +When the vastly relieved concert-director had led his bundle of silks and +laces safely out, Fullaway laughed and turned to the other men. + +"Now, gentlemen," he said, "perhaps we can have a little quiet talk about +this affair." He flung himself into a seat and nodded at the +hotel-manager. "Just tell us exactly what's happened since Mademoiselle +arrived here," he said. "Let's get an accurate notion of all her doings. +She came--when?" + +"She got here about the beginning of yesterday afternoon," answered the +manager, who did not appear to be too well pleased about this disturbance +of his usual proceedings. "She has always had this suite of rooms +whenever she has sung in Edinburgh before, and it was understood that +whenever she wrote or wired for them we were to arrange for a grand +piano, properly tuned to concert-pitch, to be put in for her. She wrote +for the suite over a fortnight ago from Russia, and, of course, we had +everything in readiness for her. She turned up, as I say, yesterday, +alone--she explained something about her maid having been obliged to +leave her on arrival in England, and since she came she's had the +services of one of our smartest chambermaids, whom she herself picked out +after carefully inspecting a whole dozen of them. That chambermaid can +tell you that Mademoiselle's scarcely left her rooms since then, and it's +an absolute mystery to me that any person could get in here, open this +box, and abstract its contents. As I say--if anybody wanted to steal her +jewels, why didn't he pick up this box and carry it bodily off instead of +hanging about to pick the lock? I don't believe--" + +"Ah, quite so!" interrupted Fullaway. "I quite agree with you. Now, at +what time did Mademoiselle announce the loss of her jewels?" + +"Oh, about--say, an hour ago. This chambermaid--she's there in +the bedroom now--was helping her to dress for the concert. +She--Mademoiselle--went to this box to get out what ornaments she wanted. +According to the girl, she let out an awful scream, and, just as she was, +rushed to the head of the main stairs--these rooms, as you see, are on +our first floor--and began to shout for me, for anybody, for everybody. +The hall below was just then full of people--coming in and out of the +dining-room and so on. She set the whole place going with the noise she +made," added the manager, visibly annoyed. "It would have been far better +if she'd shown some reserve--" + +"Reserve is certainly an admirable quality," commented Fullaway, "but +it is foreign to young ladies of Mademoiselle's temperament. +Well--and then?" + +"Oh, then, of course, I came up to her suite. She showed me this box. It +had stood, she declared, on a table by her bedside, close to her pillows, +from the moment she entered her rooms yesterday. She swore that it ought +to have been full of her jewels--in cases. When she had opened it--just +before this--it was empty. Of course, she demanded the instant presence +of the police. Also, she insisted that I should at once, that minute, +lock every door in the hotel, and arrest every person in it until their +effects and themselves could be rigorously searched and examined. +Ridiculous!" + +"As you doubtless said," remarked Fullaway. + +"No--I said nothing. Instead I telephoned for police assistance. These +two officers came. And," concluded the manager, with a sympathetic glance +at the detectives, "since they came Mademoiselle has done nothing but +insist on arresting every soul within these walls--she seems to think +there's a universal conspiracy against her." + +"Exactly," said Fullaway. "It is precisely what she would think--under +the circumstances. Now let us see this chambermaid." + +The manager opened the door of the bedroom, and called in a pretty, +somewhat shy, Scotch damsel, who betrayed a becoming confusion at the +sight of so many strangers. But she gave a plain and straightforward +account of her relations with Mademoiselle since the arrival of +yesterday. She had been in almost constant attendance on Mademoiselle +ever since her election to the post of temporary maid--had never left her +save at meal-times. The little chest had stood at Mademoiselle's bed-head +always--she had never seen it moved, or opened. There was a door leading +into the bedroom from the corridor. Mademoiselle had never left the suite +of rooms since her arrival. She had talked that morning of going for a +drive, but rain had begun to fall, and she had stayed in. Mademoiselle +had seemed utterly horrified when she discovered her loss. For a moment +she had sunk on her bed as if she were going to faint; then she had +rushed out into the corridor, just as she was, screaming for the manager +and the police. + +When the pretty chambermaid had retired, Fullaway took up the box from +which the missing property was believed to have been abstracted. He +examined it with seeming indifference, yet he announced its particulars +and specifications with business-like accuracy. + +"Well--this chest, cabinet, or box," he observed carelessly. "Let us look +at it. Here, gentlemen, we have a piece of well-made work. It is--yes, +eighteen inches square all ways. It is made of--yes, rosewood. Its +corners, you see, are clamped with brass. It has a swing handle, fitted +into this brass plate which is sunk into the lid. It has also three brass +letters sunk into that lid--Z. D. L. Its lock does not appear to be of +anything but an ordinary nature. Taking it altogether, I don't think this +is the sort of thing in which you would believe a lady was carrying +several thousand pounds' worth of pearls and diamonds. Eh?" + +One of the detectives stirred uneasily--he did not quite understand the +American's light and easy manner, and he seemed to suspect him of +persiflage. + +"We ought to be furnished with a list of the missing articles," he said. +"That's the first thing." + +"By no means," replied Fullaway. "That, my dear sir, is neither the +first, nor the second, nor the third thing. There is much to do before we +get to that stage. At present, you, gentlemen, cannot do anything. +To-morrow morning, perhaps, when I have consulted with Mademoiselle de +Longarde, I may call you in again--or call upon you. In the meantime, +there's no need to detain you. Now," he continued, turning to the +manager, when the detectives, somewhat puzzled and bewildered, had left +the room, "will you see that your nicest supper is served--for three--in +this room at eleven o'clock, against Mademoiselle's return? Send up your +best champagne. And do not allow yourself to dwell on Mademoiselle's +agitation on discovering her loss. That agitation was natural. If it is +any consolation to you, I will give you a conclusion which may be +satisfactory to your peace of mind as manager. What is it? Merely +this--that though Mademoiselle de Longarde has undoubtedly lost her +jewels, they were certainly not stolen from her in this hotel!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + +When the manager, much appeased and relieved in mind, had gone, Fullaway +tapped at the door of the bedroom, summoned the pretty chambermaid, and +handed her the rosewood box. + +"Put this back exactly where Mademoiselle has kept it since she came +here," he commanded. "Now you yourself--you're going to stay in the rooms +until she comes back from the concert? That's right--if she returns +before my friend and I come up again, tell her that we shall present +ourselves at five minutes to eleven. Come downstairs, Allerdyke," he +proceeded, leading the way from the room. "We must book rooms for the +night here, so we'll send to the station for our things and make our +arrangements, after which we'll smoke a cigar and talk--I am beginning to +see chinks of daylight." + +He led Allerdyke down to the office, completed the necessary +arrangements, and went on to the smoking-room, in a quiet corner of which +he pulled out his cigar-case. + +"Well?" he said. "What do you think now?" + +"I think you're a smart chap," answered Allerdyke bluntly. "You did all +that very well. I said naught, but I kept an eye and an ear open. +You'll do." + +"Very complimentary!--but I wasn't asking you what you thought about me," +said Fullaway, with a laugh. "I'm asking you what you think of the +situation, as illuminated by this last episode?" + +"Well, I'm still reflecting on what you said to that manager +chap," answered Allerdyke. "You really think this young woman has +lost her jewels?" + +"Oh, no doubt, no doubt at all," replied Fullaway. "Mademoiselle is +impetuous, impulsive, demonstrative, much given to insisting on her own +way, but she's absolutely honest and truthful, and I've no doubt +whatever--none!--that she's been robbed. But--not here. She never brought +those jewels here. They were not in that box when she came here. +Mademoiselle, my dear sir, was relieved of those jewels either on the +steamer, as she crossed from, Christiania to Hull, or during the few +hours she spent at the Hull hotel. The whole thing--the robbery from your +cousin, the robbery from Mademoiselle de Longarde--is all the work of a +particularly clever and brilliant gang of international thieves; and, by +the holy smoke, sir, we've got our hands full! For there isn't a clue to +the identity of the operators, so far, unless the lady with whom we are +going to sup can help us to one." + +Allerdyke ruminated over this for a moment or two. Then, after lighting +the cigar which Fullaway had offered him, he shook his head--in grim +affirmation. + +"I shouldn't wonder," he said. "Certainly, it seems a big thing. You're +figuring on its having been a carefully concocted scheme? No mere chance +affair, eh?" + +"This sort of thing's never done by chance," responded the American. +"This is the work of very clever and accomplished thieves who somehow +became aware of two facts. One, that your cousin was bringing with him to +England the jewels of the Princess Nastirsevitch. The other, that +Mademoiselle Zélie de Longarde carried her pearls and diamonds in an +innocent-looking rosewood box. My dear sir! you observed that I examined +that box with seeming carelessness--in reality, I was looking at it with +the eye of a trained observer. I am one of those people who, from having +knocked about the world a lot, engaging in a multifarious variety of +occupations, have picked up a queer scrap-heap of knowledge, and I will +lay you any odds you like that I am absolutely correct in affirming that +the box which I just now handed to Maggie, the chambermaid, was newly +made by a Russian cabinet-maker within the last four weeks!" + +"For a purpose?" suggested Allerdyke. + +"Just so--for a purpose," assented Fullaway. "That purpose being, of +course, its substitution for the real original article. You did not +handle the box which is now upstairs--it is carefully weighted, though it +is empty. I believe--nay, I am sure, it contains a sheet of lead under +its delicate lining of satin. That, of course, was to deceive +Mademoiselle. You heard her say that the jewels were in her box at +Christiania, and that she never opened the box until this evening here in +Edinburgh? Very good--between here and Christiania somebody substituted +the imitation box for the real one. Ah!--in all these great criminal +operations there is nothing like sticking to the old, well-worn, +tried-and-proved tricks of the trade!--they are like well-oiled, +well-practised machinery. And now we come back to the real, great, +anxious question--Who did it? And there, Allerdyke, we are at +present--only at present, mind!--up against a very big, blank wall." + +"On the other side of which, my lad, lies the secret of the murder of my +cousin," said Allerdyke grimly. "Mind you that! That's what I'm after, +Fullaway. Damn all these jewels and things, in comparison with +that!--it's that I'm after, I tell you again, and a thousand times again. +And I'm considering if I'm doing any good hanging round here after this +singing woman when the probable sphere of action lies yonder away at +Hull, eh?" + +"The proper--not probable--sphere of action, my dear sir, is the +supper-table to which we're presently going," answered Fullaway, with +supreme assurance. "What the singing woman, as you call her, can tell us +will most likely make all the difference in the world to our +investigations. Remember the shoe-buckle! Have it ready to exhibit when I +lead up to it. Then--we shall see." + +The prima donna, back for her engagement at eleven o'clock, came in +flushed and smiling--the extraordinary warmth and fervour of her +reception by the audience which she had at first been so inclined to +treat with scant courtesy had restored her to good humour, and when she +had eaten a few mouthfuls of delicate food and drunk her first glass of +champagne she began to laugh almost light-heartedly. + +"Well, I suppose you've been doing your best, Fullaway," she said, with +easy familiarity. "I declare you turned up at the very moment, for that +fat Weiss would have been no good. But I'm still wondering how you came +to be here, and what this gentleman--Mr. Allerdyke, is it?--is doing here +with you. Allerdyke, now--well, that's the same name as that of a man I +came across from Christiania with, and left at Hull." + +Fullaway kicked Allerdyke under the table. + +"You haven't heard of that Mr. Allerdyke since you left him at Hull, +then?" he asked, gazing intently at their hostess. + +"Heard? How should I hear?" asked the prima donna. "He was just a +travelling acquaintance. All the same, I had certainly fixed up to see +him in London on a business matter." + +"You don't read the newspapers, then?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Not unless there's something about myself in them," she answered, with +an arch smile at Allerdyke. + +"If you'd read this morning's papers, you'd have seen that the Mr. +Allerdyke with whom you travelled--this gentleman's cousin, by the +by--was found dead in his room at the hotel in Hull not so long after you +quitted it," said Fullaway coolly. "In fact, he must have been dead when +you passed his door on your way out." + +The prima donna was genuinely shocked. She set down the glass which she +was just lifting to her lips; her large, handsome eyes dilated, her lips +quivered a little. She turned a look of sympathy on Allerdyke, who, at +that moment, realized that she was a very beautiful woman. + +"You don't say so!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm really grieved to hear +that--I am! Dead?--and when I left! Why, I was in his room that very +night we reached Hull, having a talk on the business matter I mentioned +just now--he was well enough and lively enough then, I'll swear. +Dead!--why, what did he die of?" + +The two men looked at each other. There was a brief pause; then +Allerdyke slowly produced a small packet, wrapped in tissue-paper, from +his waistcoat pocket. He laid it on the table at his side and looked at +his hostess. + +"I knew you had been in my cousin's room," he said. "You left or dropped +your shoe-buckle there. I found it when I searched his room. Then the +hotel manager showed me your wire. Here's the buckle." + +He was watching her narrowly as he spoke, and his glance deepened in +intensity as he handed over the little packet and watched her unwrap the +paper. But there was not a sign of anything but a little surprised +satisfaction in the prima donna's face as she recognized her lost +property, and her eyes were ingenuous enough as she turned them on him. + +"Why, of course, that's mine!" she exclaimed. "I'm ever so much obliged +to you, Mr. Allerdyke. Yes, I wired to the hotel, in my proper name, you +know--Zélie de Longarde is only my professional name. I didn't want to +lose that buckle--it was part of a birthday present from my mother. But +you don't mean to say that you travelled all the way to Edinburgh to hand +me that! Surely not?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. He wanted to take a direct share in the talking, +and went resolutely ahead now that the chance had come. "No--not at all. +I knew you'd come to Edinburgh--found it out from that chauffeur who was +driving you when you and I met at Howden the night before last, and so I +came on to find you. I want to ask you some questions about my cousin, +and maybe to get you to come and give evidence at the inquest on him." + +"Inquest!" she exclaimed. "I know what that means, of course. Why--you +don't say there's been anything wrong?" + +"I believe my cousin was murdered that night," answered Allerdyke. "So, +too, does Fullaway there. And you were probably the last person who ever +spoke to him alive. Now, you see, I'm a plain, blunt-spoken sort of +chap--I ask people straight questions. What did you go into his room to +talk to him about?" + +"Business!" she replied, with a directness which impressed both men. +"Mere business. He and I had several conversations on board the +_Perisco_--I made out he was a clever business man. I want to invest some +money--he advised me to put it into a development company in Norway, +which is doing big things in fir and pine. I went into his room to look +at some plans and papers--he gave me some prospectuses which are in that +bag there just now---I was reading them over again only this evening. +That's all. I wasn't there many minutes--and, as I told you, he was very +well, very brisk and lively then." + +"Did he show you any valuables that he had with him--jewels?" asked +Allerdyke brusquely. + +"Jewels! Valuables!" she answered. "No--certainly not." + +"Nor when you were on the steamer?" + +"No--nor at any time," she said. "Jewels?--why--what makes you ask such a +question?" + +"Because my cousin had in his possession a consignment of such things, of +great value, and we believe that he was murdered for them--that's why," +replied Allerdyke. "He had them when he left Christiania--he had them +when he entered the Hull hotel--" + +Fullaway, who had been listening intently, leant forward with a shake +of his head. + +"Stop at that, Allerdyke," he said. "We don't know, now, that he did have +them when he entered the hotel at Hull! He mayn't have had. Miss +Lennard--we'll drop the professional name and turn to the real one," he +said, with a bow to the prima donna--"Miss Lennard here thinks she had +her jewels in her little box when she entered the Hull hotel, and also +when she came to this hotel, here in Edinburgh, but--" + +"Do you mean to say that I hadn't?" she exclaimed. "Do you mean--" + +"I mean," replied Fullaway, "that, knowing what I now know, I believe +that both you and the dead man, James Allerdyke, were robbed on the +_Perisco_. And I want to ask you a question at once. Where is your maid!" + +Celia Lennard dropped her knife and fork and sat back, suddenly +turning pale. + +"My maid!" she said faintly. "Good heavens! you don't think--oh, you +aren't suggesting that she's the thief? Because--oh, this is dreadful! +You see--I never thought of it before--when she and I arrived at Hull +that night she was met by a man who described himself as her brother. He +was in a great state of agitation--he said he'd rushed up to Hull to meet +her, to beg her to go straight with him to their mother, who was dying in +London. Of course, I let her go at once--they drove straight from the +riverside at Hull to the station to catch the train. What else could I +do? I never suspected anything. Oh!" + +Fullaway leaned across the table and filled his hostess's glass. + +"Now," he said, motioning her to drink, "you know your maid's name and +address, don't you? Let me have them at once, and within a couple of +hours we'll know if the story about the dying mother was true." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SECOND MURDER + + +It had been very evident to Allerdyke that ever since Fullaway had +mentioned the matter of the missing maid, Celia Lennard had become a +victim to doubt, suspicion, and uncertainty. Her colour came and went; +her eyes began to show signs of tears; her voice shook. And now, at the +American's direct question, she wrung her hands with an almost +despairing gesture. + +"But I can't!" she exclaimed. "I don't know her address--how should I? +It's somewhere in London--Bloomsbury, I think--but even then I don't know +if that's where her mother lives, to whom she said she was going. I did +know her address--I mean I remembered it for a while, at the time I +engaged her--a year ago, but I've forgotten it. Oh! do you really think +she's robbed me, or helped to rob me?" + +"Never mind opinions," answered Fullaway curtly. "They're no good. Is +this the maid you brought with you once or twice when you called at my +office some time ago, over the Pinkie Pell deal?" + +"Yes--yes, the same!" she answered. + +"A Frenchwoman?" said Fullaway. + +"Yes--Lisette. Of course she went with me to your office--that was eight +or nine months ago, and I've had her a year. And I had excellent +testimonials with her, too. Oh, I can't think that--" + +"Can't you make an effort to remember her address?" urged Fullaway. +"What can we do until we know that?" + +Celia drew her fine eyebrows together in a palpable effort to think. + +"I've got it somewhere," she said at last. "I must have it +somewhere--most likely in an address-book at my flat--I should be sure to +put it down at the time." + +"Who is there at your flat?" asked Fullaway. + +"My housekeeper and a maid," answered Celia. "They're always there, +whether I'm at home or not. But they couldn't get at what you want--all +my papers and things are locked up--and in a hopeless state of +confusion, too." + +Fullaway pushed aside his plate. + +"Then there's only one thing to be done," he said, with an accent of +finality. "We must go up to town at once." + +Allerdyke, still quietly eating his supper, looked up. + +"That's just what I was going to suggest," he said. "There's no good to +be done hanging about here. Let's get on to the scene of operations. If +Miss Lennard's maid has stolen her jewels, she's probably had some hand +in the theft from my cousin. We must find her. Now, then, let me come in. +I'll look up the train, settle up with these hotel folk, and we'll be +off. You give your attention to your packing, Miss Lennard, and leave the +rest to me--you won't mind travelling the night?" + +Celia shook her head. + +"I don't mind travelling all night for half a dozen nights if I can track +my lost property," she said lugubriously. "You're dead sure it's no use +stopping here?--that the robbery didn't take place here?" + +"Sure!" answered Fullaway. "We must get off. That French damsel's got to +be found--somehow." + +The supper-party came to an end--the prima donna and her temporary maid +began to bustle with garments and trunks, the two men attended to all +other necessary matters, and at two o'clock in the morning the three sped +out of Edinburgh for the South, each secretly wondering what was going to +come of their journey. Allerdyke, preparing to go to sleep in the +compartment which he and Fullaway occupied by themselves, dropped one +grim remark to his companion as he settled himself. + +"Seems like a wild-goose chase this, my lad, but it's one we've got to go +through with! What'll the next stage be?" + +The next stage was an arrival in London in the middle of a lovely May +morning, a swift drive to Celia Lennard's flat in Bedford Court Mansions, +the hurried rummaging of its owner amongst an extraordinary mass of +papers, books, and documents, and the ultimate discovery of the French +maid's address. Celia held it up with a sigh of vast relief, which +changed into a groan of despairing doubt. + +"There it is!" she exclaimed. "Lisette Beaurepaire, 911 Bernard Street, +Bloomsbury--I knew it was Bloomsbury. That's where she lived when I +engaged her, anyhow--but then her sick mother mayn't live there! The man +who met her at Hull, who said he was her brother, didn't say where the +mother lived, except that it was in London." + +"We must go to Bernard Street, anyway, at once," said Fullaway. "We may +get some information there." + +But such information as they got on the door-step of 911 Bernard Street +was scanty and useless. The house was a typical Bloomsbury lodging-place, +let off in floors and rooms. Its proprietor, summoned from a +neighbouring house, recollected, with considerable difficulty and after +consultation of a penny pocket-book, that he had certainly let a +top-floor room to a young Frenchwoman about a year ago, but he had never +caught her name properly, and simply had her noted down as Mamselle. She +had paid her rent regularly, and had remained in the house five +weeks--that was all he knew about her. Had he ever seen her since? Not +that he knew of--in fact, he shouldn't know her if he saw her--they were +all pretty much alike, these young Frenchwomen. Did he know where she +came from to his house--where she went from his house? Not he! he knew no +more than what he had just told. + +"What now?" asked Allerdyke as the three searchers paced dejectedly up +the street. "This is doing no good--it's worse than the Hull affair. +However, there's one thing suggests itself to me. Didn't you say," he +went on, turning to Celia, "that you had some very good testimonials with +this young woman? If so, and you've still got them, we might trace her in +that way." + +"I had some, and I may have them still, but you saw just now what an +awful mess all my letters and papers are in," replied Celia, almost +tearfully. "I always do get things like that into hopeless confusion--I +never know what to destroy and what to keep, and they accumulate so. It +would take hours upon hours to look for those letters, and in the +meantime--" + +"In the meantime," remarked Fullaway as he signalled to a taxi-cab, +"there's only one thing to be done. We must go to the police. Get in, +both of you, and let's make haste to New Scotland Yard." + +Once more Allerdyke received an impression of the American's usefulness +and practical acquaintance with things. Fullaway seemed to know exactly +what to do, whom to approach, how to go about the business in hand; +within a few minutes all three were closeted with a high official of the +Criminal Investigation Department, a man who might have been a barrister, +a medical specialist, or a scientist of distinction, and who maintained +an unmoved countenance and a perfect silence while Fullaway unfolded the +story. He and Allerdyke had held a brief consultation as they drove from +Bloomsbury to Whitehall, and they had decided that as things had now +reached a critical stage it would be best to tell the authorities +everything. Therefore the American narrated the entire sequence of events +as they related not only to Mademoiselle de Longarde's loss but to the +death of James Allerdyke and the disappearance of the Nastirsevitch +valuables. And the official heard, and made mental notes, soaking +everything into some proper cell of his brain, and he said nothing until +Fullaway had come to an end, and at that end he turned to Celia Lennard. + +"You can, of course, describe your maid?" he asked. + +"Certainly!" answered Celia. "To every detail." + +"Do so, if you please," continued the official, producing a pile of +papers from a drawer and turning them over until he came to one which he +drew from the rest. + +"A Frenchwoman," said Celia. "Aged, I should say, about twenty-six. Tall. +Slender--but not thin. Of a very good figure. Black hair--a quantity of +it. Black eyes--very penetrating. Fresh colour. Not exactly pretty, but +attractive--in the real Parisian way--she is a Parisian. Dressed--when +she left me at Hull--in a black tailor-made coat and skirt, and carrying +a travelling coat of black, lined with fur--one I gave her in Russia." + +"Her luggage?" asked the official. + +"She had a suit-case: a medium-sized one." + +"Large enough, I presume, to conceal the jewel-box your friend has told +me about just now?" + +"Oh, yes--certainly!" + +The official put his papers back in the drawer and turned to his visitors +with a business-like look which finally settled itself on Celia's face. + +"You must be prepared to hear some serious news," he said. "I mean about +this woman. I have no doubt from what you have just told me that I know +where she is." + +"Where?" demanded Celia excitedly. "You know? Where, then?" + +"Lying in the mortuary at Paddington," answered the official quietly. + +In spite of Celia's strong nerves she half rose in her seat--only to drop +back with a sharp exclamation. + +"Dead! Probably murdered. And I should say," continued the official, +with a glance at the two men, "murdered in the same way as the gentleman +you have told me of was murdered at Hull--by some subtle, strange, and +secret poison." + +No one spoke for a minute or two. When the silence was broken it was by +Allerdyke. + +"I should like to know about this," he said in a hard, keen voice. "I'm +getting about sick of delay in this affair of my cousin's, and if this +murder of the young woman is all of a piece with his, why, then, the +sooner we all get to work the better. I'm not going to spare time, +labour, nor expense in running that lot down, d'you understand? Money's +naught to me--I'm willing--" + +"We are already at work, Mr. Allerdyke," said the official, interrupting +him quietly. "We've been at work in the affair of the young woman for +twenty-four hours, and although you didn't know of it, we've heard of the +affair of your cousin at Hull, and the two cases are so similar that when +you came in I was wondering if there was any connection between them. +Now, as regards the young woman. You may or may not be aware that in +Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, a street of houses which runs alongside +the departure platform of the Great Western Railway, there are a number +of small private hotels, which are largely used by railway passengers. To +one of these hotels, about nine o'clock on the evening of May 13th (just +about twenty-four hours after you, Miss Lennard, landed at Hull), there +came a man and a woman, who represented themselves as brother and sister, +and took two rooms for the night. The woman answers the description of +your maid--as to the man, I will give you a description of him later. +These two, who had for luggage such a medium-sized suit-case as that Miss +Lennard has spoken of, partook of some supper and retired. There was +nothing noticeable about them--they seemed to be quiet, respectable +people--foreigners who spoke English very well. Nothing was heard of them +until next morning at eight o'clock, when the man rang his bell and asked +for tea to be brought up for both. This was done--he took it in at his +door, and was seen to hand a cup in at his sister's door, close by. An +hour later he came downstairs and gave instructions that his sister was +not to be disturbed--she was tired and wanted to rest, he said, and she +would ring when she wanted attendance. He then booked the two rooms again +for the succeeding night, and, going into the coffee-room, ate a very +good breakfast, taking his time over it. That done, he lounged about a +little, smoking, and eventually crossed the road towards the +station--since when he has not been seen. The day passed on--the woman +neither rang her bell nor came down. When evening arrived, as the man had +not returned, and no response could be got to repeated knocks at the +door, the landlady opened it with a master-key, and entered the room. She +found the woman dead--and according to the medical evidence she had been +dead since ten or eleven o'clock in the morning. Then, of course, the +police were called in. There was nothing in the room or in the suit-case +to establish or suggest identity. The body was removed, and an autopsy +has been held. And the conclusion of the medical men is that this woman +has been secretly and subtly poisoned." + +Here the official paused, rang a bell, and remained silent until a +quiet-looking, middle-aged man who might have been a highly respectable +butler entered the room: then he turned again to his visitors. + +"I want you, Miss Lennard, to accompany this man--one of my officers--to +the mortuary, to see if you can identify the body I have told you of. +Perhaps you gentlemen will accompany Miss Lennard? Then," he continued, +rising, "if you will all return here, we will go into this matter +further, and see if we can throw more light on it." + +Allerdyke's next impressions were of a swift drive across London to a +quiet retreat in Paddington, where, in a red-brick building set amidst +trees, official-faced men conducted him and his two companions into a +sort of annex, one side of which was covered with sheet glass. On the +other side of that glass he became aware of a still figure, shrouded and +arranged in formal lines, of a white face, set amidst dark hair ... then +as in a dream he heard Celia Lennard's frightened whisper-- + +"That's she--that's Lisette! Oh, for God's sake, take me out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + +The three searchers into what was rapidly becoming a most complicated +mystery drove back to New Scotland Yard in a silence which lasted until +they were set down at the door of the department whereat they had +interviewed the high official. Celia Lennard was thoroughly upset; the +sight of the dead woman had disturbed her even more than she let her +companions see; she remained dumb and rigid, staring straight before her +as if she still gazed on the white face set in its frame of dark hair. +Allerdyke, too, stared at the crowds in the streets as if they were +abstract visions--his keen brain felt dazed and mystified by this +accumulation of strange events. And Fullaway, active and mercurial though +he was, made no attempt at conversation--he sat with knitted forehead, +trying to think, to account, to surmise, only conscious that he was up +against a bigger mystery than life had ever shown him up to then. + +The detective who had accompanied them to the mortuary conducted the +three straight back to his chief's office--the chief, noticing the effect +of the visit on Celia, hastened to give her a chair at the side of his +desk, and looked at her with a lessening of his official manner. He +signed to the other two to sit down, and motioned the detective to +remain. Then he turned to Celia. + +"You recognized the woman?" he said softly. "Just so. I thought you +would, and I was sorry to ask you to perform such an unpleasant task but +it was absolutely necessary. Now," he continued, taking up his bundle of +papers again, "I want you to describe the man who met you and your maid +on your arrival at Hull the other night. Of course you saw him?" + +"Certainly I saw him," replied Celia. "And I should know him again +anywhere--the scoundrel!" + +The high official smiled and glanced at Fullaway. + +"You are thinking, Miss Lennard, that the man you then saw is the man who +accompanied your maid to the hotel in which she was found dead," he said. +"Well, that may be so--but it mayn't. That is why I want you to give us +an accurate description of the man you saw. You described the maid very +well indeed. Now describe the man." + +"I can do that quite well," said Celia, with assurance. "And I can tell +you the circumstances. The steamer--the _Perisco_--got into the river at +Hull about a quarter to nine and anchored off the Victoria Pier. We +understood that she couldn't get into dock just then because of the tide, +and that we must go on shore by tender. A tender came off--some of the +people on board it came on our deck. There was a good deal of bustle. I +went down to my cabin to see after something or other. Lisette came to me +there, evidently much agitated, saying that her brother had come off on +the tender to fetch her at once to their mother who was ill in +London--dying. She begged to be allowed to go with him. Of course I said +she might. She immediately picked up her suit-case and travelling coat +out of our pile of luggage, and I went up with her on deck. She and the +man--her brother, as I understood--got into a small boat which was +alongside and went straight off to the pier: the tender was not leaving +for shore for some time. And--that was the last I saw of her. It was all +done in a minute or two." + +"Now--the man," suggested the chief softly. + +"A young man--about Lisette's age, I should say--twenty-seven to thirty +anyway. Tallish. Dark hair, moustache, eyes, and complexion. +Good-looking--in a foreign way. I had no doubt he was her brother--he +looked French, though he spoke English quite well and without accent. +Very respectably dressed in dark clothes and overcoat. He would have +passed for a well-to-do clerk--that type. I spoke to him--a few words. He +spoke well--had very polite, almost polished manners. Of course he was +hurried--wanting to get Lisette away--he said they could just catch the +last train to London." + +The chief shook his head. + +"Not the man who accompanied her to the Paddington Hotel," he said. +"Listen--this is the description of that man, as given to the police by +the landlady and her servants: 'Age, presumably between forty and +forty-five years, medium height. Brown hair. Clean-shaven. Dressed in +grey tweed suit, over which he wore a fawn-coloured overcoat. Deerstalker +hat--light brown. Brown brogue shoes.' That, you see," continued the +chief, "describes a quite different person. You do not recognize the +description as that of any man you have ever seen in company with your +late maid, Miss Lennard?" + +"I never saw my maid in any man's company," replied Celia. "Since I first +engaged her we have not been much in London. I was in New York and +Chicago for a time last year; then in Paris; then in Milan and Turin; +lately in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When we were at home, here in +London, she certainly had time of her own--her evenings out, you +know--but of course I don't know with whom she spent them. No--I don't +know any man answering that description." + +The chief folded up his papers and restored them to his desk. + +"Now that you are here," he said, "you may as well give me a few +particulars about your doings on the _Perisco_, especially as they relate +to Mr. James Allerdyke. When and where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"On the steamer--a few hours after we left Christiania," replied Celia. + +"Just as fellow-passengers, I suppose?" + +"Quite so--just that. We sat next to each other at meals." + +"Do you know where his cabin was on the steamer?" + +"Yes, exactly opposite my own. He and I, I believe, were the only +passengers who had cabins all to ourselves." + +"Did he ever mention to you these valuables which Mr. Fullaway tells us +he was carrying to England!" + +"No--never at any time." + +"Did you see him leave the _Perisco_ for the shore?" + +"Why, yes, certainly! As a matter of fact, he and I came ashore at Hull +together, ahead of any other passengers. After Lisette had left the +steamer with her brother, I happened to come across Mr. James Allerdyke. +I told him what had just occurred, and asked him if he would help me +about my things, as my maid had gone. He immediately suggested that we +shouldn't wait for the tender, but should get a boat of our own--there +were several lying around. He said he was in a great hurry to get ashore, +because he'd a friend awaiting him at the Station Hotel. So he got a +boat, and his things and mine were put into it, and we left the steamer, +and were rowed to the landing-stage, just opposite." + +"And you, of course, carried your jewel-case--or what you believed to be +your jewel-case--the duplicate chest which you subsequently carried to +Edinburgh?" + +"Yes, of course--I had it in my hand when Lisette left, and, I never left +hold of it until I got into the hotel." + +"Do you remember if Mr. James Allerdyke carried anything in his hand?" + +"Yes, he carried a hand-bag. He had that bag in his hand when I met him +on deck; he kept it on his knee in the boat, and in the cab in which we +drove to the hotel from the landing-stage; I saw him carrying it upstairs +after we got to the hotel. What is more, I saw him bring it into the +coffee-room later on, and place it on the table at which he had some +supper. I saw it again in his room when I went in there to look at the +plans of the Norwegian estate which he had told me about. He didn't take +those plans out of that hand-bag; he took them out of a side flap-pocket +in a suit-case." + +"Did you have supper with him that night?" + +"No--I was sitting at another table, talking to a lady who had been with +us on the _Perisco_. A lot of _Perisco_ passengers--twenty, at least--had +come to the hotel by that time." + +"Did any of them join Mr. James Allerdyke--at his table, I mean?" + +"I don't remember--no, I think not. He sat at a table, one end of which +adjoined the wall--he put the hand-bag at that end. I remember wondering +why he carried his bag about with him. But then I, of course, was +carrying what I believed to be my jewel-case." + +"Did you see him talking to any of your fellow-passengers that night?" + +"Oh, yes--to two or three of them--in the hall of the hotel. I didn't +know who they were, particularly--except the doctor with the big beard. I +saw him talking to Mr. Allerdyke at the door of the smoking-room." + +"Had you taken any special notice of your fellow passengers on board the +_Perisco_?" + +"No--not at all. They were just the usual sort of passengers--I wasn't +interested in them. Of course, I talked to some of them, in the ordinary +way, as one does talk on board ship. But I don't remember anything +particular about them, nor any of their names, even if I ever knew their +names. Of course I remember Mr. James Allerdyke's name, because of the +business talk." + +The chief, who had been making shorthand notes of this conversation, +paused for a moment, evidently considering matters, and then turned to +Celia with a smile. + +"Why did you leave the hotel at Hull so suddenly?" he asked. "I daresay +you had good reasons, but I should just like to know what they were, if +you don't mind." + +"I'd no reason at all," replied Celia, with almost blunt directness. "At +least, if I had, they were only a woman's reasons. I was a bit upset at +being left alone. I didn't like the hotel. I knew I shouldn't sleep. It +was a most beautiful moonlight night, and I suddenly thought I'd like to +go motoring. I knew enough of the geography of those parts to know if I +motored across country I should strike the Great Northern main line +somewhere and catch a train to Edinburgh in the early morning. So--I just +cleared out." + +"Ah--you see you had quite a number of reasons!" said the chief, +smiling again. "Very well. Now then, before you go, Miss Lennard, I +want you to do just one thing more which may be useful to us in our +work." He turned to the detective. "Get those things," he said quietly. +"Bring the lot in here." + +Celia made a little sound of distaste as the detective presently returned +to the room carrying in one hand a brown leather suit-case, and in the +other a cardboard dress-box, to which was strapped a travelling-coat, +lined with fur. Her face, which had regained its colour, paled again. + +"Lisette's things!" she muttered. "Oh--I don't--don't like to see them! +What is it you want?" + +"We want you to identify them--and, if you will, to look them over," +replied the chief. "The cardboard box contains everything she was wearing +when she went to the hotel in Eastbourne Terrace; the suit-case and coat +are what she took in with her. Spread the things out on that side table," +he continued, turning to the detective. + +"Let Miss Lennard look them over." + +Celia performed the task required of her with dislike--it seemed +somehow as if she were inspecting the dead woman afresh. She hurried +over the task. + +"All these things are hers, of course," she said. "That's the suit-case +she had with her when she left me at Hull, and that's the coat I gave +her--and the other things are hers, too. Oh--I don't like looking at +them. Can't we go, please?" + +"One moment," said the chief. "I wanted to tell you that amongst all +these things there is nothing that establishes the woman's identity--I +mean in the way of papers or anything of that sort. There were no letters +in this case--not a scrap of paper. There is money in that purse--two or +three pounds in gold, some silver. There is her watch--a good gold +watch--and there are two or three rings she was wearing. Now we have only +made a superficial examination of all these personal belongings--can you, +as her mistress, suggest if she was likely to hide anything in her +clothing, and if so, in what article? You might save us some trouble, +Miss Lennard." + +Allerdyke, who was more interested in Celia than in what was going on, +saw a sudden gleam come into her eyes--her feminine spirit of curiosity +was aroused. She hesitated, turned back to the side-table, paused +before the various articles laid out there, took up and fingered two or +three, and suddenly wheeled round on the men, exhibiting a quilted +handkerchief case. + +"There's something been sewn into the padding of this!" she said. "I can +feel it. Can any one lend me pocket-scissors or a penknife?" + +The men gathered round as Celia's deft fingers ripped open the satin +covering: a moment later she drew out a wad of folded paper and handed it +to the chief. Fullaway and Allerdyke craned their necks over his +shoulders as he unwrapped and spread the bits of paper out before them. +And it was Fullaway who broke the silence with a sharp exclamation. + +"Bank-notes!" he said. "Russian bank-notes! And new ones!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE THIRD MURDER + + +Fullaway's exclamation was followed by a murmur of astonishment from +Celia, and by a low growl which meant many things from Allerdyke. The +chief turned the banknotes over silently, moved to his desk, and picked +up a reference book. + +"I'm not very familiar with Russian money--paper or otherwise," he +remarked. "How much does this represent in ours, now?" + +"I can tell you that," said Fullaway, taking the wad of notes and rapidly +counting them. "Five hundred pounds English," he announced. "And you see +that all the notes are new--don't forget to note that." + +"Yes?--what do you argue from it?" asked the chief, with obvious +interest. "It proves--what?" + +"That these notes were given to this woman in Russia, recently--most +likely in St. Petersburg," replied the American. "And, in my opinion, +their presence--their discovery--proves more. It suggests at any rate +that this woman, the dead maid, was a tool in the conspiracy to rob Miss +Lennard and Mr. James Allerdyke, that this money is her reward, or part +of it, and that the whole scheme was hatched and engineered in Russia." + +"Good!" muttered Allerdyke. "Now we're getting to business." + +"We shall have to get some evidence from Russia," observed the chief +meditatively. "That's very evident. If the thing began there, or was put +into active shape there--" + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch is on her way now," said Fullaway. He pulled +out his pocket-book, and began searching amongst its papers. "Here you +are," he continued producing a cablegram. "That's from the Princess--you +see she says she's leaving for London at once, via Berlin and Calais, and +will call upon me at my hotel as soon as she arrives. Now, that was sent +off two days ago--she'd leave St. Petersburg that night. It's seventy-two +hours' journey--three days. She'll be in London tomorrow evening." + +The chief sat down at his desk and picked up a pen. + +"Give me your addresses please, all of you," he said. "Then I can +communicate with you at any moment. Miss Lennard, you mentioned Bedford +Court Mansions. What number? Right.--yours, Mr. Fullaway, is the Waldorf +Hotel--permanently there? Very good. You, Mr. Allerdyke, live in +Bradford? It will be advisable, if you really want to clear up the +mystery of your cousin's death, to remain in town for a few days, at any +rate--now that we've got all this in hand, you'd better be close to the +centre of things. Can you give me an address here?" + +"I've a London office," answered Allerdyke. "I can always be heard of +there when I'm in town. Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Gresham +Street--ask for Mr. Marshall Allerdyke. But as I'll have to put up here, +I'll go to the Waldorf, with Mr. Fullaway, so if you want me you'll find +me there. And look here," he went on, as the chief noted these +particulars, "I want to know, to have some idea, you know, of what's +going to be done. I tell you, I'll spare no time, labour, or expense in +getting at the bottom of this! If it's a question of money, say the +word, and--" + +"All right, Mr. Allerdyke, leave it to us--for the present," said the +chief, with an understanding smile. "I know what you mean. We're only +beginning. This affair is doubtless a big thing, as Mr. Fullaway has +suggested, and it will need some clever work. Now, at present, this +case--the joint case of the Hull affair and the Eastbourne Terrace +affair, for they're without doubt both parts of one serious whole--is in +the hands of two of my best men. This is one of them: Detective-Sergeant +Blindway. If and when Blindway wants any of you, he'll come to you. Miss +Lennard, you'll be wanted at the inquest on your late maid--the Coroner's +officer will let you know when. You two gentlemen will doubtless go with +Miss Lennard. You'll all three certainly be wanted at that adjourned +inquest at Hull. Now, that's all--except that when you, Miss Lennard, +return home, you must at once begin searching for the references you had +with your maid--let me have them as soon as they're found--and that you, +Mr. Fullaway, must bring the Princess Nastirsevitch here as soon as you +can after her arrival." + +Outside New Scotland Yard Celia Lennard relieved her feelings with a +fervent exclamation. + +"I wish I'd never spent a penny on pearls or diamonds in my life!" she +said vehemently. "Insane folly! What good have they done? Leading to all +this bother, and to murder. What fools women are! All that money thrown +away!--for of course I shall never see a sign of them again!" + +"That's a rather hopeless way of looking at it," observed Fullaway. +"You've got the cleverest police in Europe on the search for them; also +you've got our friend Allerdyke and myself on the run, and we're +neither of us exactly brainless. So hasten home in this taxi-cab, get +some lunch, have an hour's nap, and then begin putting your papers +straight and looking for those references. Search well!--you don't know +what depends on it." + +He and Allerdyke strolled up Whitehall when Celia had gone--in silence at +first, both wrapped in meditation. + +"There's only one thing one can say with any certainty about this affair, +Allerdyke," remarked the American at last, "and that is precisely what +the man we've been talking to said--it's a big do. The folk at the back +of it are smart and clever and daring. We'll need all our wits. Well, +come along to the Waldorf and let's lunch--then we'll talk some more. +There's little to be done till the Princess turns up tomorrow." + +"There's one thing I want to do at once," said Allerdyke. "If I'm going +to stop in town I must wire to my housekeeper to send me clothes and +linen, and to the manager at my mill. Then I'm with you--and I wish to +Heaven we'd something to do! What I can't stand is this forced inaction, +this hanging about, waiting, wondering, speculating--and doing naught!" + +"We may be in action before you know it's at hand," said Fullaway. "In +these cases you never know what a minute may bring forth. All we can do +is to be ready." + +He led the way to the nearest telegraph office and waited while Allerdyke +sent off his messages. The performance of even this small task seemed to +restore the Yorkshireman's spirits--he came away smiling. + +"I've told my housekeeper to pack a couple of trunks with what I want, +and to send my chauffeur, Gaffney, up with them, by the next express," he +said. "I feel better after doing that. He's a smart chap, Gaffney--the +sort that might be useful at a pinch. If any one wanted anything +ferreted out, now!--he's the sense of an Airedale terrier, that chap!" + +"High praise," laughed Fullaway. "And original too. Well, let's fix up +and get some food, and then we'll go into my private rooms and have a +talk over the situation." + +Mr. Franklin Fullaway, following a certain modern fashion, introduced +into life by twentieth-century company promoters and magnates of the high +finance, had established his business quarters at his hotel. It was a +wise and pleasant thing to do, he explained to Allerdyke; you had the +advantage of living over the shop, as it were; of being able to go out of +your private sitting-room into your business office; you had the bright +and pleasant surroundings; you had, moreover, all the various rooms and +saloons of a first-rate hotel wherein to entertain your clients if need +be. Certainly you had to pay for these advantages and luxuries, but no +more than you would have to lay out in the rents, rates, and taxes of +palatial offices in a first-class business quarter. + +"And my line of business demands luxurious fittings," remarked the +American, as he installed Allerdyke in a sybaritic armchair and handed +him a box of big cigars of a famous brand. "You're not the first +millionaire that's come to anchor in that chair, you know!" + +"If they're millionaires in penny-pieces, maybe not," answered Allerdyke. +He lighted a cigar and glanced appraisingly at his surroundings--at the +thick velvet pile of the carpets, the fine furniture, the bookcases +filled with beautiful bindings, the choice bits of statuary, the two or +three unmistakably good pictures. "Doing good business, I reckon?" he +said, with true Yorkshire curiosity. "What's it run to, now?" + +Fullaway showed his fine white teeth in a genial laugh. + +"Oh, I've turned over two and three millions in a year in this little +den!" he answered cheerily. "Varies, you know, according to what people +have got to sell, and what good buyers there are knocking around." + +"You keep a bit of sealing wax, of course?" suggested Allerdyke. "Take +care that some of the brass sticks when you handle it, no doubt?" + +"Commission and percentage, of course," responded Fullaway. + +"Ah, well, you've an advantage over chaps like me," said Allerdyke. "Now, +you shall take my case. We've made a pile of money in our firm, +grandfather, father, and myself; but, Lord, man, you wouldn't believe +what our expenses have been! Building mills, fitting machinery--and then, +wages! Why, I pay wages to six hundred workpeople every Friday afternoon! +Our wages bill runs to well over fourteen hundred pound a week. You've +naught of that sort, of course--no great staff to keep up?" + +"No," answered Fullaway. He nodded his head towards the door of a room +through which they had just passed on their way into the agent's private +apartments. "All the staff I have is the young lady you just saw--Mrs. +Marlow. Invaluable!" + +"Married woman?" inquired Allerdyke laconically. + +"Young widow," answered Fullaway just as tersely. "Excellent business +woman--been with me ever since I came here--three years. Speaks and +writes several languages--well educated, good knowledge of my particular +line of business. American--I knew her people very well. Of course, I +don't require much assistance--merely clerical help, but it's got to be +of a highly intelligent and specialized sort." + +"Leave your business in her hands if need be, I reckon?" suggested +Allerdyke, with a sidelong nod at the closed door. + +"In ordinary matters, yes--comfortably," answered Fullaway. "She's a bit +a specialist in two things that I'm mainly concerned in--pictures and +diamonds. She can tell a genuine Old Master at a glance, and she knows a +lot about diamonds--her father was in that trade at one time, out in +South Africa." + +"Clever woman to have," observed Allerdyke; "knows all your business, +of course?" + +"All the surface business," said Fullaway, "naturally! Anything but a +confidential secretary would be useless to me, you know." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "Told her about this affair yet?" + +"I've had no chance so far," replied Fullaway. "I shall take her advice +about it--she's a cute woman." + +"Smart-looking, sure enough," said Allerdyke. He let his mind dwell for a +moment on the picture which Mrs. Marlow had made as Fullaway led him +through the office--a very well-gowned, pretty, alert, piquant little +woman, still on the sunny side of thirty, who had given him a sharp +glance out of unusually wide-awake eyes. "Aye, women are clever nowadays, +no doubt--they'd show their grandmothers how to suck eggs in a good many +new fashions. Well, now," he went on, stretching his long legs over +Fullaway's beautiful Persian rug, "what do you make of this affair, +Fullaway, in its present situation? There's no doubt that everything's +considerably altered by what we've heard of this morning. Do you really +think that this French maid affair is all of a piece, as one may term it, +with the affair of my cousin James?" + +"Yes--without doubt," replied Fullaway. "I believe the two affairs all +spring from the same plot. That plot, in my opinion, has originated from +a clever gang who, somehow or other, got to know that Mr. James Allerdyke +was bringing over the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels, and who also +turned their eyes on Zélie de Longarde's valuables. The French maid, +Lisette, was probably nothing but a tool, a cat's paw, and she, having +done her work, has been cleverly removed so that she could never split. +Further--" + +A quiet knock at the door just then prefaced the entrance of Mrs. Marlow, +who gave her employer an inquiring glance. + +"Mr. Blindway to see you," she announced. "Shall I show him in?" + +"At once!" replied Fullaway. He leapt from his chair, and going to the +door called to the detective to enter. "News?" he asked excitedly, when +Mrs. Marlow had retired, closing the door again. "What is it--important?" + +The detective, who looked very solemn, drew a letter-case from his +pocket, and slowly produced a telegram. + +"Important enough," he answered. "This case is assuming a very +strange complexion, gentlemen. This arrived from Hull half an hour +ago, and the chief thought I'd better bring it on to you at once. You +see what it is--" + +He held the telegram out to both men, and they read it together, Fullaway +muttering the words as he read-- + +From _Chief Constable, Hull, to Superintendent C.I.D., New +Scotland Yard_. + +Dr. Lydenberg, concerned in Allerdyke case, was shot dead in High Street +here this morning by unseen person, who is up to now unarrested and to +whose identity we have no clue. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AMBLER APPLEYARD + + +Fullaway laid the telegram down on his table and looked from it to the +detective. + +"Shot dead--High Street--this morning?" he said wonderingly. "Why!--that +means, of course, in broad daylight--in a busy street, I suppose? And +yet--no clue. How could a man be shot dead under such circumstances +without the murderer being seen and followed?" + +"You don't know Hull very well," remarked Allerdyke, who had been pulling +his moustache and frowning over the telegram, "else you'd know how that +could be done easy enough in High Street. High Street," he went on, +turning to the detective, "is the oldest street in the town. It's the old +merchant street. Half of it--lower end--is more or less in ruins. There +are old houses there which aren't tenanted. Back of these houses are +courts and alleys and queer entries, leading on one side to the river, +and on the other to side streets. A man could be lured into one of those +places and put out of the way easily and quietly enough. Or he could be +shot by anybody lurking in one of those houses, and the murderer could be +got away unobserved with the greatest ease. That's probably what's +happened--I know that street as well as I know my own house--I'm not +surprised by that! What I'm surprised about is to hear that Lydenberg has +been shot at all. And the question is--is his murder of a piece with all +the rest of this damnable mystery, or is it clean apart from it? +Understand, Fullaway?" + +"I'm thinking," answered the American. "It takes a lot of thinking, too." + +"You see," continued Allerdyke, turning to Blindway again, "we're all +in a hole--in a regular fog. We know naught! literally naught. This +Lydenberg was a foreigner--Swede, Norwegian, Dane, or something. We +know nothing of him, except that he said he'd come to Hull on business. +He may have been shot for all sorts of reasons--private, political. We +don't know. But--mark me!--if his murder's connected with the others, +if it's all of a piece with my cousin's murder, and that French girl's, +why then--" + +He paused, shaking his head emphatically, and the other two, impressed by +his earnestness, waited until he spoke again. + +"Then," he continued at last, after a space of silence, during which he +seemed to be reflecting with added strenuousness--"then, by Heaven! we're +up against something that's going to take it out of us before we get at +the truth. That's a dead certainty. If this is all conspiracy, it's a big +'un--a colossal thing! What say, Fullaway?" + +"I should say you're right," replied Fullaway. "I've been trying to +figure things up while you talked, though I gave you both ears. It looks +as if this Lydenberg had been shot in order to keep his tongue quiet +forever. Maybe he knew something, and was likely to split. What are your +people going to do about this?" he asked turning to the detective. "I +suppose you'll go down to Hull at once?" + +"I shan't," answered Blindway. "I've enough to do here. One of our men +has already gone--he's on his way. We shall have to wait for news. I'm +inclined to agree with Mr. Allerdyke--it's a big thing, a very big thing. +If Mr. Allerdyke's cousin was really murdered, and if the Frenchwoman's +death arose out of that, and now Lydenberg's, there's a clever +combination at work. And--where's the least clue to it?" + +Allerdyke helped himself to a fresh cigar out of a box which lay on +Fullaway's table, lighted it, and smoked in silence for a minute or two. +The other men, feeling instinctively that he was thinking, waited. + +"Look you here!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Clue? Yes, that's what we want. +Where's that clue likely to be found? Why, in this, and this only--who +knew, person or persons, that my cousin was bringing those jewels from +the Princess Nastirsevitch to this country? Get to know that, and it +narrows the field, d'ye see?" + +"There's the question of Miss Lennard's jewels, too," remarked Fullaway. + +"That may be--perhaps was--a side-issue," said Allerdyke. "It may have +come into the big scheme as an after-thought. But, anyway, that's what +we want--a first clue. And I don't see how that's to be got at until +this Princess arrives here. You see, she may have talked, she may have +let it out in confidence--to somebody who abused her confidence. What is +certain is that somebody must have got to know of this proposed deal +between the Princess and your man, Fullaway, and have laid plans +accordingly to rob the Princess's messenger--my cousin James. D'ye see, +the deal was known of at two ends--to you here, to this Princess, +through James, over there, in Russia. Now, then, where did the secret +get out? Did it get out there, or here?" + +"Not here, of course!" answered Fullaway, with emphasis. "That's dead +sure. Over there, of a certainty. The robbery was engineered from there." + +"Then, in that case, there's naught to do but wait the arrival of the +Princess," said Allerdyke. "And you say she'll be here to-morrow night. +In the meantime no doubt you police gentlemen'll get more news about this +last affair at Hull, and perhaps Miss Lennard'll find those references +about the Frenchwoman, and maybe we shall mop things up bit by bit--for +mopped up they'll have to be, or my name isn't what it is! Fullaway," he +went on, rising from his chair, "I'll have to leave you--yon man o' +mine'll be arriving from Yorkshire with my things before long, and I must +go down to the hotel office and make arrangements about him. See you +later--at dinner to-night, here, eh?" + +He lounged away through the outer office, giving the smart lady secretary +a keen glance as he passed her and getting an equally scrutinizing, if +swift, look in return. + +"Clever!" mused Allerdyke as he closed the door behind him. "Deuced +clever, that young woman. Um--well, it's a pretty coil, to be sure!" + +He went down to the office, made full and precise arrangements about +Gaffney, who was to be given a room close to his own, left some +instructions as to what was to be done with him on arrival, and then, +hands in pockets, strolled out into Aldwych and walked towards the +Strand, his eyes bent on the ground as if he strove to find in those hard +pavements some solution of all these difficulties. And suddenly he lifted +his head and muttered a few emphatic words half aloud, regardless of +whoever might overhear them. + +"I wish to Heaven I'd a right good, hard-headed Yorkshireman to talk +to!" he said. "A chap with some gumption about him! These Cockneys and +Americans are all very well in their way, but--" + +Then he pulled himself up sharply. An idea, a name, had flashed into his +mental field of vision as if sent in answer to his prayer. And still +regardless of bystanders he slapped his thigh delightedly. + +"Ambler Appleyard!" he exclaimed. "The very man! Here, you!" + +The last two words were addressed to a taxi-cab driver whose car stood at +the head of the line by the Gaiety Theatre. Allerdyke crossed from the +pavement and jumped in. + +"Run down to this end of Gresham Street," he said. "Go quick as you can." + +He wondered as he sped along the crowded London streets why he had not +thought of Ambler Appleyard before. Ambler Appleyard was the manager of +his own London warehouse, a smart, clever, pushing young Bradford man +who had been in charge of the London business of Allerdyke and +Partners, Limited, for the last three years. He had come to London with +his brains already sharpened--three years of business life in the +Metropolis had made them all the sharper. Allerdyke rubbed his hands +with satisfaction. Exchange of confidence with a fellow-Yorkshireman +was the very thing he wanted. + +He got out of his cab at the Aldersgate end of Gresham Street, and walked +quickly along until he came to a highly polished brass plate on which his +own name was deeply engraven. Running up a few steps into a warehouse +stored with neat packages of dress goods, he encountered a couple of +warehousemen engaged in sorting and classifying a consignment of fabrics +just arrived from Bradford. Allerdyke, whose visits to his London +warehouse were fairly frequent, and usually without notice, nodded +affably to both and walked across the floor to an inner office. He opened +the door without ceremony, closed it carefully behind him, and stepping +forward to the occupant of the room, who sat busily writing at a desk, +with his back to the entrant, and continued to write without moving or +looking round, gave him a resounding smack on the shoulder. + +"The very man I want, Ambler, my lad!" he said. "Sit up!" + +Ambler Appleyard raised his head, slowly twisted in his revolving chair, +and looked quietly at his employer. And Allerdyke, dropping into an +easy-chair by the fireplace, over which hung a fine steel engraving of +himself, flanked by photographs of the Bradford mills and the Bradford +warehouse, looked at his London manager, secretly admiring the shrewdness +and self-possession evidenced in the young man's face. Appleyard was +certainly no beauty; his outstanding features were sandy-coloured hair, +freckled cheeks, a snub nose, and a decidedly wide mouth; moreover, his +ears, unusually large, stood out from the sides of his head in very +prominent fashion, and gave a beholder the impression that they were +perpetually stretched to attention. But he was the owner of a well-shaped +forehead, a pair of steady and honest blue eyes, and a firmly cut square +chin, and his entire atmosphere conveyed the idea of capacity, resource, +and energy. It pleased Allerdyke, too, to see that the young man was +attentive to his own personal appearance--his well-cut garments bore the +undoubted stamp of the Savile Row tailor; the silk hat which covered his +crop of sandy hair was the latest thing in Sackville Street headgear; +from top to toe he was the smart man-about-town. And that was the sort +of man Marshall Allerdyke liked to have about him, and to see as heads of +his departments--not fops, nor dandies, but men who knew the commercial +value of good appearance and smart finish. + +"I didn't know you were in town, Mr. Allerdyke," said the London manager +quietly. "Still, one never knows where you are these days." + +"I've scarcely known that myself, my lad, these last seventy-two hours," +replied Allerdyke. "You mightn't think it, but at this time yesterday I +was going full tilt up to Edinburgh. I want to tell you about that, +Ambler--I want some advice. But business first--aught new?" + +"I've brought that South American contract off," replied Appleyard. +"Fixed it this morning." + +"Good!" said Allerdyke. "What's it run to, like?" + +"Seventy-five thousand," answered Appleyard. "Nice bit of profit on that, +Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Good--good!" repeated Allerdyke. "Aught else?" + +"Naught--at present. Naught out of the usual, anyway," said the manager. + +He took off his hat, laid aside the papers he had been busy with on +Allerdyke's entrance, and twisted his chair round to the hearth. "This +advice, then?" he asked quietly. "I'm free now." + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke. He sat reflecting for a moment, and then turned to +his manager with a sudden question. + +"Have you heard all this about my cousin James?" he asked with sharp +directness. + +Appleyard lifted a couple of newspapers from his desk. + +"No more than what's in these," he answered. "One tells of his sudden +death at Hull; the other begins to hint that there was something queer +about it." + +"Queer!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Aye, and more than queer, my lad. Our +James was murdered! Now, then, Ambler, I've come here to tell you all the +story--you must listen to every detail. I know your brains--keep 'em +fixed on what I'm going to tell; hear it all; weigh it up, and then tell +me what you make of it; for I'm damned if I can make either head or tail, +back, side, or front of the whole thing--so far. Happen you can see a bit +of light. Listen, now." + +Allerdyke, from long training in business habits, was a good teller of a +plain and straightforward tale: Appleyard, for the same reason, was a +good listener. So one man talked, in low, earnest tones, checking off +his points as he made them, taking care that he emphasized the principal +items of his news and dwelt lightly on the connecting links, and the +other listened in silence, keeping a concentrated attention and storing +away the facts in his memory as they were duly marshalled before him. +For a good hour one brain gave out, and the other took in, and without +waste of words. + +It came to an end at last, and master looked at man. + +"Well?" said Allerdyke, after a silence that was full of meaning--"well?" + +"Take some thinking about," answered Appleyard tersely. "It's a big +thing--a devilish clever thing, too. There's one fact strikes me at once, +though. The news about the Nastirsevitch jewels leaked out somewhere, Mr. +Allerdyke. That's certain. Either here in London, or over there in +Russia, it leaked out. Now until this Princess comes you've no means of +knowing if the leakage was over yonder. But there's one thing you do +know now--at this very minute. There were three people here in England +who knew that the jewels were on the way from Russia, in Mr. James +Allerdyke's charge. Those three were this man Fullaway, his lady +secretary, and Delkin, the Chicago millionaire! Now, then, Mr. +Allerdyke--how much, or what, do you know about any one of 'em?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + +Allerdyke encountered this direct question with a long, fixed stare of +growing comprehension; his silence showed that he was gradually taking in +its significance. + +"Aye, just so!" he said at last. "Just so! How much do I know of any of +'em? Well, of Fullaway no more than I've seen. Of his secretary no more +than what I've seen and heard. Of Delkin no more than that such a man +exists. Sum total--what!" + +"Next to naught," said Appleyard. "In a case like this you ought to know +more. Fullaway may be all right. Fullaway may be all wrong. His lady +secretary may be as right as he is, or as wrong as he is. As to +Delkin--he might be a creature of Fullaway's imagination. Put it all to +yourself now, Mr. Allerdyke--on the face of what you've told me, these +three people--two of 'em, at any rate, for a certainty--knew about these +valuables coming over in Mr. James's charge. So far as you know, your +cousin had 'em when he left Christiania and reached Hull. There they +disappear. So far as you're aware, nobody but these people knew of their +coming--no other people in England knew, at any rate, so far, I repeat, +as your knowledge goes. I should want to know something about these +three, if I were in your place, Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Aye--aye!" replied Allerdyke. "I see your point. Well, I've been in +Fullaway's company now for two days--there's no denying he's a smart +chap, a clever chap, and he seems to be doing good business. Moreover, +Ambler, my lad, James knew him and James wasn't the sort to take up with +wrong 'uns. As to the secretary, I can't say. Besides, Fullaway said this +afternoon that he hadn't told her all about it yet." + +"All about the Hull affair and the Lennard affair, I took that to mean +from your account," remarked Appleyard. "If she's his confidential +secretary, with access to his papers and business, she'd know all about +the Princess transaction. Now, of course, an inquiry or two of the usual +sort would satisfy you about Fullaway--I mean as a business man. An +inquiry or two would tell you all about Delkin. But you can't get to know +all about Mrs. Marlow from any inquiry. And you can't find out all about +Fullaway from any inquiry. He may be the straightest business man in all +London--and yet have a finger in this pie, and his secretary with him. +Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth of jewels, Mr. Allerdyke, +is--a temptation! And--these folks knew the jewels were on the way. +What's more, they'd time to intercept their bearer--Mr. James." + +Allerdyke rubbed his chin and knitted his brows in obvious bewilderment. +"There must ha' been more than them in at it," he said musingly. "A +regular gang of 'em, judging by results." + +"Every gang has its ganger," replied Appleyard, with a knowing smile. +"There's no doubt this is a big thing--but there must be a central point, +a head, a controlling authority in it. We come back, you see, after all, +to where we started--these people were the only people in England who +knew about these jewels, so far as we know." + +"Aye, but only so far as we know," said Allerdyke. "There may have been +others. There may have been folks who got to know about them over there +in Russia and who communicated their knowledge to some folks here. And +there's always this to be borne in mind--the affair, the plot, may have +been originated there, and worked from there. Remember that!" + +"Quite so--and you can't decide on anything relating to that until this +Princess comes," agreed Appleyard. "It'll have to rest till you've heard +all she has to say, and then you'll know where you are. But in the +meantime you can find out a bit about Fullaway and this millionaire +man--I can find out for you, if you like, in a few hours." + +"Do, my lad!" said Allerdyke. "It's always well to know who you're +dealing with. Aye--make an inquiry or two." + +"But remember that all I can inquire about will be in the ordinary +business way," continued Appleyard. "I can ascertain if there is a Delkin +in town, who's a Chicago millionaire, and if Fullaway's a reputable +business man--but that'll be all. As to the secretary, I can't do +anything." + +"I'll keep an eye on her myself," said Allerdyke. "Well, do this, then, +and let me know the results. I've put up at the Waldorf, and there I +shall stop while all this is being investigated here in London, but I +shall pop in and out here, of course. And now I'll go back there and find +out if there's any fresh news from the police or from Hull. I reckon +there'll be some fine reading in the newspapers in a day or two, +Ambler--it'll all have to come out now." + +In this supposition Allerdyke was right. The police authorities, finding +that the affair had assumed dimensions of an astonishing magnitude, +decided to seek the aid of the Press, and to publish the entire story in +the fullest possible fashion. And Allerdyke and all London woke next +morning to find the newspapers alive with a new sensation, and every +other man asking his neighbour what it all meant. Three mysterious +murders--two big thefts--together--the newspaper world had known nothing +like it for years, and the only regrets in Fleet Street were those of the +men who would have sacrificed their very noses to have got the story +exclusively to themselves. But the police authorities had exercised a +wise generosity, and no one newspaper knew more than another at that +stage--they all, as Fullaway said to Allerdyke at breakfast, got a fair +start, and from that one could run their own race. + +"We shall be to these Pressmen as a pot of honey to flies," he observed. +"Take my advice, Allerdyke--see none of them, and if you should--as you +will--get buttonholed and held up, refuse to say a word." + +"You can leave that to me," answered Allerdyke, with a twitch of his +determined jaw. "It 'ud be a clever newspaper chap that would get aught +out of me. I've other fish to fry than to talk to these gentry. And what +good will all this newspaper stuff do?" + +"Lots!" replied Fullaway. "It will draw attention. There'll already be a +few thousand amateur detectives looking out for the man who left the +French maid dead in Eastbourne Terrace, and a few hundred amateur +criminologists racking their brains for a plausible theory of the whole +thing. Oh, yes, it's a good thing to arouse public interest, Allerdyke. +All that's wanted now is a rousing reward. Have you thought of that?" + +"Didn't I mention it to the man at Scotland Yard yesterday?" said +Allerdyke. "I'm game to find aught reasonable in the way of brass. But," +he added, with a touch of true Yorkshire caution, "I've been thinking +that over during the night, and it seems to me that there are two other +parties who ought to come in at it, with me, of course. Miss Lennard and +the Princess, d'ye see? If they're willing, I am." + +"You mean a joint reward for the detection of the murderer and the +recovery of the jewels?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Well, you can be pretty certain, by now, that the murders and the thefts +are all the work of one gang," replied Allerdyke. "So it's long as it's +short. These two women want their pearls and their diamonds back--I want +to know who killed my cousin James. We're all three in the same boat, +really; so if we make up a good, substantial purse between us--what?" + +"Good!" agreed Fullaway. "We'll hear what the Princess says when she +arrives to-night. I guess we shall all know better where we exactly are +when we've heard what she has to say." + +"If she's like most women that's lost aught in the way of finery," +remarked Allerdyke drily, "she'll have plenty to say." + +That night he had abundant opportunity of hearing the Princess +Nastirsevitch's views on the situation, freely expressed. He himself +fetched Celia Lennard to the conference at New Scotland Yard; they found +Fullaway and the Princess already there, in full blast of debate. +Allerdyke inspected the new arrival with keen interest and found her a +well-preserved, handsome woman of middle-age, sharp, smart, and American +to the finger-tips. The official whom they had met before was already +questioning her, and for Allerdyke's benefit he repeated what had +already transpired. + +"The Princess affirms, Mr. Allerdyke, that not a soul but herself and +your cousin, Mr. James Allerdyke, knew of this affair," he said. "I am +right, am I not, madame," he went on, turning to the Princess, "in saying +that not one word of this transaction, or proposed transaction, was ever +mentioned by you to any person but Mr. James Allerdyke?" + +"To no other person than Mr. James Allerdyke," assented the Princess +firmly. "It would have been strange conduct on my part, I think, if I had +told anybody else anything about it!--my object, of course, being +secrecy. From the moment I first mentioned it to Mr. James Allerdyke +until I arrived here just now and met Mr. Fullaway there, I never spoke +of the matter to any one!" + +The official looked at Allerdyke as if inviting him to ask any question +that occurred to him, and Allerdyke immediately brought up that which had +been in his mind ever since his discovery of James Allerdyke's +pocket-diary. + +"How came you to repose such confidence in my cousin, ma'am?" he asked +brusquely. "I always thought I was pretty deep in his counsels, but I +never heard him mention your name. Did he know you well?" + +"I had known Mr. James Allerdyke for a little over a year," replied the +Princess. "I met him first in Paris--then on the Riviera--then in +Russia. The fact is, he did some business for me. I had every confidence +in him--the fullest confidence. I knew he was a thoroughly straight man. +And just as I had decided to sell these jewels'--all my own property, +mind--in order to clear off the whole lot of the mortgages on my son's +estate, so's he could come into them quite unencumbered, I happened to +meet Mr. James Allerdyke in St. Petersburg--that's of course, a few weeks +ago--and I immediately took him into my confidence and asked his help. +With the result," added the Princess, "that he cabled to Mr. Fullaway +there and that all this has come about! I tell you in the most emphatic +manner at my command," she went on, turning to the official, and tapping +the edge of his desk as if to accentuate her words, "it's impossible that +anybody over there in Russia could have known of my arrangements with Mr. +James Allerdyke--utterly impossible. For I never spoke of them to any one +there, and I'm sure he would not!" + +"Impossible is a big word, Princess," said the official. "There may have +been ways of leakage. Did you exchange any correspondence on the matter?" + +"Not a line!" replied the Princess. "There was no need. We met three +times and arranged everything. The only correspondence there was--if you +could call it correspondence--was the exchange of cablegrams between Mr. +James Allerdyke and Mr. Fullaway. I saw those cablegrams--of course the +jewels were mentioned. But I don't believe Mr. James Allerdyke was the +sort of man to leave his cablegrams lying around for somebody else to +see. I know he had them in his pocket-book. No!" she went on, with added +emphasis and conviction. "The thing did not start over there, I'm sure. +It's been put up here, in London." + +"Well," observed the official, after a pause, "there's only one thing +more I want to ask you just now, Princess. You gave these immensely +valuable jewels to Mr. James Allerdyke? Did he hand you any receipt +for them?" + +"A receipt which I've got here," answered the Princess, tapping her +hand-bag. "And it's all in his handwriting, and made out in the form of +an inventory--all that was at his suggestion." + +"And how," asked the official, "were the jewels packed when given to +him?" + +"Very simply," said the Princess. "That was his suggestion, too. They +were wrapped up in soft paper and chamois leather, and put into an old +cigar-box which he placed in his small travelling-bag. That bag, he said, +would never go out of his sight until he reached London, where, when he'd +exhibited the jewels to Mr. Fullaway's client, he was to lodge them in a +bank. It seemed to him that the cigar-box was a good notion--the jewels +themselves didn't take up so much room as you might think, and he laid +some very ordinary things over the top of the package--a cake or two of +soap, a sponge, and things like that--so that, supposing the cigar-box +had been opened, its contents would have seemed very ordinary, you +understand?" + +"And yet," said the official softly, "the thieves evidently went +straight for that cigar-box when the critical moment came. Well," he +continued, looking round at his visitors, "I don't know that we can do +more to-night. Is there anything any of you ladies or gentlemen wish +to suggest?" + +"Yes!" said Allerdyke. "In my opinion a most important thing. It's my +decided conviction that in this case we've got to offer a reward--no mere +trifling sum, but one that'll set a few fingers tingling. And it's my +concern, and the Princess's, and Miss Lennard's. And if you'll permit us +three to have a quiet talk in yon corner of your room, I'll tell you its +result when we've finished." + +The result of that quiet talk--chiefly conducted by Allerdyke with +masculine force and vigour--was that by noon of next day the exterior of +every London police-station attracted vast attention by reason of a +freshly-posted bill. It was a long bill, and it set out the surface +particulars of three murders, and of two robberies in connection +therewith. The particulars made interesting reading enough--but the real +fascination of the bill was in its big, staring headline-- + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + +Some time previous to these remarkable events, Marshall Allerdyke, +being constantly in London, and having to spend much time on business +in the Mansion House region, had sought and obtained membership of the +City Carlton Club, in St. Swithin's Lane, and at noon of the day +following the arrival of the Princess Nastirsevitch, he stood in a +window of the smoking-room, looking out for Appleyard, whom he had +asked to lunch. In one hand he carried a folded copy of the reward +bill, which Blindway had left at the Waldorf Hotel for him, and while +he waited--the room being empty just then save for an old gentleman who +read _The Times_ in a far corner--he unfolded and took a surreptitious +glance at it, chuckling to himself at the thought of the cupidity which +its contents and promises would arouse in the breasts of the many +thousands of folk who would read it. + +"Fifty thousand pounds!" he thought, with high amusement. "Egad, some of +'em 'ud feel like Rothschild himself if they could shove that bit in +their pockets--they'd take on all the airs of a Croesus!" + +The thought of the Rothschild wealth made him lift his eyes and glance +through the window at the gate of the quiet, ultra-respectable +establishment across the way. Allerdyke, like all men of considerable +means, had a mighty respect for wealth in its colossal forms, and he +never visited the City Carlton, nor looked out of its smoking-room +windows, without glancing with interest and admiration at the famous +Rothschild offices, immediately opposite. It amused him to speculate and +theorize about the vast amounts of money which must needs be turned over +in theory and practice within those soberly quiet walls, to indulge in +fancies about the secrets, financial and political, which must be +discussed and locked up in human breasts there--to him the magic address, +New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, was as full of potential mystery as the +Sphinx is to an imaginative traveller. He glanced at its gates and at its +sign now with an almost youthful awe and reverence--the reverence of the +man of considerable wealth for the men of enormous wealth--and while his +eyes were thus busy a taxi-cab came along the Lane, stopped by the +entrance to New Court, and set down Mrs. Marlow. + +Allerdyke instinctively shrank back within the curtains of the +smoking-room window. There was no reason why he should have done so. He +had no objection to Franklin Fullaway's secretary seeing him standing in +a window of the City Carlton Club; he knew no reason why Mrs. Marlow +should object to be seen getting out of a cab in St. Swithin's Lane. Yet, +he drew back, and, from his concealed position, watched. Not that there +was anything out of the ordinary to watch. Mrs. Marlow, who looked +daintier, prettier, more charming than ever, paid her driver, gave him a +smiling nod, and tripped into New Court, a bundle of papers in her +well-gloved hand. + +"Business with Rothschild's, eh?" mused Allerdyke. + +"Well, I daresay there's a vast lot of folk in this city who do business +across there. Um!--smart little woman that, and no doubt as clever as +she's smart. I'd like to know--" + +Just then the ancient hall-porter of the club (who surely missed his +vocation in life, and should have been a bishop, or at least a dean) +ushered in Appleyard, whom Allerdyke immediately beckoned to join him +amongst the window-curtains. + +"I say!" he whispered, with a side glance at _The Times_-reading old +gentleman, "you remember me telling you yesterday about the +lady-secretary of Fullaway's--Mrs. Marlow?--what a smart bit she looked +to be. Eh?" + +"Well?" replied Appleyard. "Of course, what about her?" + +"She's just gone into Rothschild's across there," answered Allerdyke. +"Come here, this corner; she'll be coming out before long, no doubt, and +then you'll see her. As I told you about her, I want you to take a look +at her--she's worth seeing for more reasons than one." + +Appleyard allowed himself to be drawn into the embrasure. He waited +patiently and in silence--presently Allerdyke dug a finger into his ribs. + +"She's coming!" he whispered. "Now!" + +Appleyard looked half-carelessly across the street--the next instant he +was devoutly thanking his stars that since boyhood he had sedulously +trained himself to control his countenance. He made no sign, gave no +indication of previous acquaintance, as he watched Mrs. Marlow's svelt +figure trip out of New Court and away up St. Swithin's Lane; his face +was as calm and unemotional, his eyes as steady as ever when he turned +to his employer. + +"Pretty woman," he said. "Looks a sharp 'un, too, Mr. Allerdyke. Well," +he went on, turning away into the room as if Mrs. Marlow no longer +interested him. "I got those two reports for you--shall I tell you about +them now?" + +"Aye, for sure," replied Allerdyke. "Come into this corner--we'll have a +glass of sherry--it's early for lunch yet. Those reports, eh? About +Fullaway and Delkin, you mean?" + +"Just so," said Appleyard, settling himself in the corner of a lounge and +lighting the cigarette which Allerdyke offered him. "They're ordinary +business reports, you know, got through the usual channels. Fullaway's +all right, so far as the various commercial agencies know--nothing ever +been heard against him, anyhow. The account of himself and his business +which he gave to you is quite correct. To sum up--he's a sound man--quite +straight--on the business surface, which is, of course, all we can get +at. As for Delkin, that's a straight story, too--anyway, there's a +Chicago millionaire of that name been in town some weeks--he's stopping +at the Hotel Cecil--has a palatial suite there--and his daughter's about +to marry Lord Hexwater. All correct there, Mr. Allerdyke, too--I mean as +regards all that Fullaway told you." + +"Well, there's something in knowing all that, Ambler, my lad," +answered Allerdyke. "You can't get to know too much about the folks +you're dealing with, you know. Very good--we'll leave that now. What +d'ye think o' this?" + +He unfolded and held up the reward bill, first looking as fondly at it as +a youthful author looks at his first printed performance, and then +glancing at his manager to see what effect it had upon him. And he saw +Ambler Appleyard's sandy eyebrows go up in a definite arch. + +"Fifty thousand!" muttered Appleyard. "Whew! It's a stiff figure, Mr. +Allerdyke. You've put a thick finger in that pie, I'm thinking!" + +"One half from the Princess; twenty thousand from me; five thousand from +the singing lady," whispered Allerdyke. "That's how it's made up, my lad. +And naught'll please me better than to see it paid out--that's a fact!" + +"You'll have some triers," said Appleyard, with an emphatic wag of the +head. "Make no mistake about that! Fifty thousand! Gosh!--why, anybody +that's got the least clue, the slightest idea--and there must be +somebody--'ll have a go in for all he or she's worth!" + +"Let 'em try!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "The welcome man's the chap that +enables us to recover and convict. Here, shove that bill in your pocket, +and read it at your leisure--there's something to think about in what it +says, I promise you." + +Appleyard went away from the club an hour and a half later, thinking hard +enough. But he was not thinking about the reward bill. What he was +thinking about, had been thinking about from the moment in which +Allerdyke had drawn him into the smoking-room window and pointed her out +to him, was--Mrs. Marlow. For Appleyard knew Mrs. Marlow well enough, but +(always those buts in life, he reflected with a cynical laugh as he +threaded his way back to Gresham Street) he knew her by another +name--Miss Slade. And now he was wondering why Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow +had two names, and why she appeared to be one person as he knew her in +private life, and another as he had seen her that very morning. + +On Appleyard's first coming to town in the capacity of sole manager of +the London warehouse of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, he had set +himself up in two rooms in a Bloomsbury lodging-house. He knew little of +London life at that time, or he would have known that he was thus +condemning himself to a drab and dreary existence. As it was, he quickly +learnt by experience, and within six months, having picked up a +comfortable knowledge of things, he transferred himself to one of those +well-equipped boarding establishments in the best part of Bayswater, +wherein bachelors, old maids, young women, widowers, and married couples +without encumbrance, can live together in as much or as little friendship +and intercourse as pleases their individual tastes. Ambler Appleyard took +his time and selected the likeliest place he could find after much +inspection of many similar places. His salary of a thousand a year (to +which was to be added a handsome, if varying commission) enabled him to +pick and choose; the house which he did choose, in the immediate +neighbourhood of Lancaster Gate, was of the luxurious order; its private +rooms were models of the last thing in comfort, its public rooms were +equal to those of the best modern hotels. If you wanted male society, you +could find it in the smoking-room and the billiard-room; if you desired +feminine influences there was a pleasing variety in the drawing-room and +the lounges. You could be just as much alone, and just as much in company +as you pleased--anyway, the place suited Ambler Appleyard, and there he +had lived for two and a half years. And during a good two of them, the +young lady whom he knew as Miss Slade had lived there too. + +With Miss Slade, Appleyard, as fellow-resident in the same house, was on +quite friendly terms. He sometimes talked to her in one of the +drawing-rooms. He knew her for a clever, rather brilliant young woman, +with ideas, and the power to express them. It was evident to him that she +had travelled and had seen a good deal of the world and its men and +women; she could talk politics with far more knowledge and insight than +most women; she knew more than a little of economic matters, and was +inclined, like Appleyard himself, to utilitarianism in all things +affecting government and society. But of herself she never spoke +directly; all Appleyard knew of her concerns was that she was engaged in +business of some nature, and went to it every morning as regularly and +punctually as he went to his. He judged that whatever her business was +she must be well paid for it, or must possess means of her own; nobody, +man or woman, could possibly live at that boarding-house, or private +hotel, as its proprietors preferred to call it, for anything less than +four guineas a week. Well--here was the explanation of Miss Slade's +business; she was evidently private secretary to Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +and competent to do business at a place like Rothschild's. And why +not?--yet ... why did she call herself Miss Slade at the boarding-house +and Mrs. Marlow in her business capacity? + +"And yet why shouldn't she?" asked Appleyard of himself. "A woman's a +right to do what she likes in that way, and she isn't necessarily +deceitful because she passes as a single woman in one place and a widow +in another. I daresay she could give a very good reason for all this--but +who's got any right to ask her for one? Not me, certainly!" + +He had no intention of asking Miss Slade anything when he left the City +for Bayswater that evening, but chance threw him into her immediate +company in one of the lounges, where, after dinner, they met at a table +on which the evening newspapers were laid out. As Miss Slade picked up +one, Appleyard picked up another--certain big, strong letters on the +front sheets of both gave him an opening. + +"Have you read anything about this affair?" he asked, with apparent +carelessness, pointing to a row of capitals. "This extraordinary +murder-robbery business which is becoming the talk of the town? Murders +of three people--theft of nearly three hundred thousand pounds' worth of +jewels--and fifty thousand pounds reward! It's colossal!" + +Miss Slade, without showing the slightest shade of interest, shook her +head. + +"I don't read murders," she answered. "Fifty thousand pounds reward! +That's an awful lot, isn't it?" + +"Worth trying for, anyway!" replied Appleyard. He gave her a sly look, +and smiled grimly. "I think I'll try for it," he said. "Fifty thousand!" + +"How could any one try unless he or she's some clue?" she asked. "If you +don't know anything about it, or any of the persons concerned, where +would you begin?" + +"There are plenty of persons named in these accounts about whom one could +find something out, at any rate," replied Appleyard, tapping the +newspaper with his finger. "There's a Russian Princess with a sneezy sort +of name; a Yorkshire manufacturer named Allerdyke; an American man called +Franklin Fullaway--all seem to be well-known people in town. You ever +hear of any of them?" + +Miss Slade turned a face of absolute indifference on him and the paper to +which he was pointing. + +"Never," she answered calmly. "But I daresay I shall hear of them +now--for nine days." + +Then she went off, with her own newspaper, and Appleyard carried his to a +corner and sat down. + +"That's a lie!" he said to himself. "And a woman who will tell a lie as +calmly and quietly as that will tell a thousand with equal assurance and +cleverness. She--" + +There he stopped. In the doorway Miss Slade had also stopped--stopped to +speak to another resident, a man, about whom Ambler Appleyard had often +wondered as keenly as he was now wondering about Miss Slade herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MR. GERALD RAYNER + + +There were various reasons why Ambler Appleyard's wonder had often been +aroused by the man to whom Miss Slade had stopped to speak. He wondered +about him, first of all, because of his personal appearance. That was +striking enough to excite wonder in anybody, for he was one of those +remarkable men who possess great beauty of countenance allied to +unfortunate deformity of body. The face was that of a poet and a +dreamer, the body that of a hunchback and a cripple. Painter or +sculptor alike would have rejoiced to depict the face on canvas or +carve it in marble--its perfect shape, fine tinting, the lines of the +features, the beauty of the eyes, the wealth of the dark, clustering +hair, were all as near artistic perfection as could be. But all else +spoke of deformity--the badly bent back, the twisted body, the short +leg, the misshapen foot. It was as if Nature had endeavoured in some +wickedly mischievous freak to show how beauty and ugliness can be +combined in one creature. + +That was one reason for wonder in Appleyard's mind--he had never come +across quite this type before, though he knew that hunchbacks and +cripples are often gifted with unusual strength, and more than usual good +looks, as if in ironic compensation for their other disadvantages. But +there were others. Mr. Gerald Rayner--everybody knew everybody else's +name in that private hotel, for they were all more or less permanent +residents--was something of a mystery man. In spite of his deformity, he +was the best-dressed man in the house--they were all smart men there, but +none of them came up to him in the way of clothes, linen, and personal +adornment, always in the best and most cultured taste. Also it was easy +to gather that he was a young man of large means. Although he made full +use of the public rooms, and was always in and about them of an evening, +from dinner-time to a late hour, he tenanted a private suite of +apartments in the hotel--those residents, few in number, who had been +privileged to obtain entrance to them spoke with almost awed admiration +of their occupant's books, pictures, and objects of art. Mr. Gerald +Rayner, it was evident, was a man of culture--that, indeed, was shown by +his conversation. And at first Appleyard had set him down as a poet, or +an artist, or a writing man of some sort--a dilettante who possessed +private means. Then, being a sharp observer of all that went on around +his own centre, he began to perceive that he must be mistaken in +that--Rayner was obviously a business man, like himself. For every +morning, at precisely half-past nine, a smart motor-brougham arrived at +the door of the private hotel and carried Rayner off Citywards; every +afternoon at exactly half-past five the same conveyance brought him back. +Only business men, said Appleyard, are so regular, so punctual; therefore +Rayner must be a business man. + +But nobody in that hotel knew anything whatever of Rayner, beyond what +they saw of him within its walls. Nobody knew whither the motor-brougham +carried him, what he did when he reached his destination, nobody knew +what or who he was. Appleyard, who was always knocking about the heart of +the City, who was for ever in its business streets, who knew all the City +clubs, all the best City restaurants, and was familiar with all sorts +and shades of life in the City, never saw Rayner in any of his own +purlieus. Accordingly, he came to the conclusion that Rayner's business, +whatever it was, did not take him to the City. Nevertheless, it was +certain, in Appleyard's opinion, that he was in business, and paid +scrupulous attention to his daily duties. + +Over the edge of his newspaper he watched Rayner and Miss Slade meet, +exchange a word or two, and retire to a corner of an inner lounge in +which they often sat talking together. He had often seen them talking +together, and it had struck him that they seemed to talk with more than +ordinary confidence. The hunchback was on terms of easy familiarity with +everybody in the house, and he had a remarkable range of topics. He could +talk sport, books, finance, politics, art, science, history, +theology--the variety of his conversation was astonishing. But Appleyard +had begun to notice that he rarely talked to any single person with the +exception of Miss Slade--he would join a group in smoking-room or +drawing-room and enter gaily into whatever was being discussed, but he +seemed to have no desire to hold a _tête-a-tête_ talk with any one except +this young woman, who was now as much an object of mystery and +speculation to Appleyard as he himself was. They were often seen talking +together in quiet corners--and some of the old maids and eligible widows +were already saying that Miss Slade was setting her cap at Mr. Rayner's +evident deep purse. + +Ambler Appleyard went to bed that night wondering greatly about two +matters--first, why Miss Slade was Miss Slade in Bayswater and Mrs. +Marlow at Fullaway's office; second, if Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow, +whichever she really was, had any secrets with the mysterious Mr. +Rayner. From that he got to wondering who Rayner really was, and what +his business was. And this process of speculation began again next +morning, and continued all the way to the Gresham Street warehouse, +and by the time he had arrived there he had half-determined to find +out more about Miss Slade than was known to him up to then--and also, +since he appeared to be such great friends with Miss Slade, about Mr. +Gerald Rayner. + +"But how?" he mused as he ran up the steps to the warehouse. "I'm not a +private detective, and I don't propose to employ one. If I knew some +sharp fellow--" + +Just then he caught sight of Gaffney, who sat on a bale of goods within +the warehouse door, holding a note in his hand. He stood up with a grin +of friendly recognition when he saw Appleyard. + +"Morning, sir," he said. "Letter from Mr. Allerdyke for you. No answer, +but I was to wait till you'd read it." + +Appleyard opened the note there and then. It was a mere hurried scrawl, +saying that Allerdyke was just setting off for Hull, in obedience to a +call from the police; as Gaffney had nothing to do, would Appleyard make +use of him during Allerdyke's absence? + +Appleyard bade Gaffney wait a while, went into his office, ran through +his correspondence, gave the morning's orders out to the warehouseman, +and called the chauffeur inside. + +"Gaffney," he said as he carefully closed the door on them, "you're a +Londoner, aren't you?" + +Gaffney smiled widely. + +"Ought to be, Mr. Appleyard," he answered. "I was born within sound of +Bow Bells, anyhow. Off Aldersgate Street, sir. Yes, I'm a Cockney, +right enough." + +"Then you know London well, of course," suggested Appleyard. + +"Never went out of it much, sir, till I went down to Bradford to this +present job," replied Gaffney. "I shouldn't have left it if Mr. Allerdyke +hadn't given me extra good wages and a real good place." + +Appleyard tossed Allerdyke's note across his desk. + +"You see what Mr. Allerdyke says," he remarked. "Wants me to find you +something to do while he's off. How long is he likely to be off?" + +"He said he might be back to-morrow night, sir," answered Gaffney, +glancing at the note. "But possibly not till the day after to-morrow." + +"Well, I don't know that there's anything you can do here," said +Appleyard. "We're not particularly busy, and we've a full staff. But," he +continued, with a sharp glance at the chauffeur, "there's something you +can do for me, privately, to-morrow morning--a quite private matter--a +matter entirely between ourselves. I'll account to Mr. Allerdyke for your +time, but I don't want even him to know about this job that you can do +for me--I'll pay you for doing it out of my own pocket." + +"Just as you think right, sir," answered Gaffney. "So long as you make it +right with the guv'nor, I'm willing." + +"Very well," said Appleyard. He paused a moment, and then lowered his +voice. "You've seen about this tremendous reward that's being offered in +Mr. James Allerdyke's case?" he asked, with another sharp look. "You know +what I mean?" + +Gaffney's shrewd face grew shrewder, and he nodded knowingly. + +"I know!" he said. "Fifty thousand! A fortune, sir!" + +"What I want you to do," continued Appleyard, "may lead to something +relating to that, and it mayn't. Anyway, I'll make you all right. Now, +listen carefully. Do you think you could get hold of a private motor +to-morrow morning? A smart, private cab in which you could put a friend +of yours--well dressed--would be the thing. Early." + +"Easy as winking, sir," answered Gaffney. "Know the cab, and know a +friend o'mine who'd sit in it--as long as you like." + +"Very good," said Appleyard. "Now, then, do you know Lancaster Gate?" + +"Do I know St. Paul's?" exclaimed Gaffney, half-derisively. "Used to +drive for an old gent who lived in Porchester Terrace." + +"Oh!" replied Appleyard. "Then I daresay you know the Pompadour +Private Hotel?" + +"As well as I know my own fingers," responded Gaffney. "Driven to and +from it many a hundred times." + +"Just the man I want, then," continued Appleyard. "Now, to-morrow +morning, get your cab early--put your friend in it--dressed up, of +course--and at half-past nine to the very minute drive slowly past the +front door of the Pompadour. You'll see a private motor-brougham +there--dark green--you'll also see a hunchbacked gentleman enter it--you +can't mistake him. Follow him! Never mind where he goes, or how long it +takes to get there--or how few minutes it takes to get there, for that +matter!--follow him and find out where that private cab puts him down. +Then--come and report to me. Is that all clear?" + +"Clear as noonday, sir," answered Gaffney. "I understand--I've been at +that sort of game more than once." + +"All right," said Appleyard. "I leave it to you. Take every care--I +don't want this man to get the least suspicion that he's followed. +And--" He hesitated, considering his plans over again. "Yes," he went +on, "there's just another detail that I may mention--it'll save time. +This hunchback gentleman's name is Rayner--Mr. Gerald Rayner. Can you +remember it?" + +"As well as my own," answered Gaffney. "Mr. Gerald Rayner. I've got it." + +"Very good. Now, then, can you trust this friend of yours?" asked +Appleyard. "Is he a chap of common sense?" + +"It's my own brother," replied Gaffney. "Some people say I'm the sharper +of the two, some say he is. There's a pair of us, anyhow." + +"That'll do," said Appleyard. "Now, wherever you see this Mr. Rayner set +down, let your brother get out of your cab and take particular notice if +he goes into any shop, office, flats, buildings, anything of that sort +which bears his name--Rayner. D'you see? I want to know what his business +is. And now that you know what I want, you and your brother put your +heads together and try to find it out, and come to me when you've done, +and I'll make it worth your while. You'd better go now and make your +arrangements." + +Gaffney went away, evidently delighted with his commission, and Appleyard +turned to his business of the day, wondering if he was not going to waste +the chauffer's time and his own money. Next morning he purposely hung +about the Pompadour until the time for Rayner's departure arrived; from +one of the front windows he saw the hunchback enter his brougham and +drive away; at the same moment he saw a neat private cab, driven by +Gaffney, and occupied by a smart-looking young gentleman in a silk hat, +come along and follow in quite an ordinary and usual manner. And on that +he himself went to Gresham Street and waited. + +Gaffney and his brother turned in during the morning, both evidently +primed with news. Appleyard shut himself into his office with them. + +"Well?" he asked. + +"Easy job, Mr. Appleyard," replied Gaffney. "Drove straight through the +Park, Constitution Hill, the Mall, Strand, to top of Arundel Street. +There he got out; brougham went off--back--he walked down street. So my +brother here he got out too, and strolled down street after him. He'll +tell you the rest, sir." + +"Just as plain as what he's told," said the other Gaffney. "I followed +him down the street; he walked one side, I t'other side. He went into +Clytemnestra House--one of those big houses of business flats and +offices--almost at the bottom. I waited some time to see if he was +settled like, or if it was only a call he was making. Then I went into +the hall of Clytemnestra House, as if I was looking for somebody. There +are two boards in that hall with the names of tenants painted on 'em. But +there's not that name--Gerald Rayner. Still, I'll tell you what there is, +sir--there's a name that begins with the same initials--G.R." + +"What name?" asked Appleyard. + +"The name," replied the second Gaffney, "is Gavin Ramsay--Agent." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PHOTOGRAPH + + +Allerdyke went off to Hull, post-haste, because of a telephone call which +roused him out of bed an hour before his usual time. It came from +Chettle, the New Scotland Yard man who had been sent down to Hull as soon +as the news of Lydenberg's murder arrived. Chettle asked Allerdyke to +join him by the very next express, and to come alone; he asked him, +moreover, not to tell Mr. Franklin Fullaway whither he was bound. And +Allerdyke, having taken a quick glance at a time-table, summoned Gaffney, +told him of his journey, bade him keep his tongue quiet at the Waldorf, +wrote his hasty note to Appleyard, dressed, and hurried away to King's +Cross. He breakfasted on the train, and was in Hull by one o'clock, and +Chettle hailed him as he set foot on the platform, and immediately led +him off to a cab which awaited them outside the station. + +"Much obliged to you for coming so promptly, Mr. Allerdyke," said the +detective. "And for coming by yourself--that was just what I wanted." + +"Aye, and why?" asked Allerdyke. "Why by myself? I've been wondering +about that all the way down." + +Chettle, a sleek, comfortable-looking man, with a quiet manner and a sly +glance, laughed knowingly, twiddling his fat thumbs as he leaned back in +the cab. "Oh, well, it doesn't do--in my opinion--to spread information +amongst too many people, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "That's my notion of +things, anyway. I just wanted to go into a few matters with you, alone, +d'ye see? I didn't want that American gentleman along with you. Eh?" + +"Now, why?" asked Allerdyke. "Out with it!" + +"Well, you see, Mr. Allerdyke," answered the detective, "we know you. +You're a man of substance, you've got a big stake in the country--you're +Allerdyke, of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Bradford and London. But +we don't know Fullaway. He may be all right, but you could only call him +a bird of passage, like. He can close down his business and be away out +of England to-morrow, and, personally, I don't believe in letting him +into every secret about all this affair until we know more about him. You +see, Mr. Allerdyke, there's one thing very certain--so far as we've +ascertained at present, nobody but Fullaway, and possibly whoever's in +his employ, was acquainted with the fact that your cousin was carrying +those jewels from Russia to England. Nobody in this country, at any rate. +And--it's a thing of serious importance, sir." + +Just what Appleyard had said!--what, indeed, no one of discernment could +help saying, thought Allerdyke. The sole knowledge, of course, was with +Fullaway and his lady clerk--so far as was known. Therefore-- + +"Just so," he said aloud. "I see your point--of course, I've already seen +it. Well, what are we going to do--now? You've brought me down here for +something special, no doubt." + +"Quite so, sir," answered Chettle composedly. "I want to draw your +attention to some very special features and to ask you certain questions +arising out of 'em. We'll take things in order, Mr. Allerdyke. We're +driving now to the High Street--I want to show you the exact spot where +Lydenberg was shot dead. After that we'll go to the police-station and +I'll show you two or three little matters, and we'll have a talk about +them. And now, before we get to the High Street, I may as well tell you +that on examining Lydenberg's body very little was found in the way of +papers--scarcely anything, and nothing connecting him with your cousin's +affair--in fact, the police here say they never saw a foreign gentleman +with less on him in that way. But in the inside pocket of his overcoat +there was a postcard, which had been posted here in Hull. Here it +is--and you'll see that it was the cause of taking him to the spot where +he was shot." + +Chettle took from an old letter-case an innocent-looking postcard, on one +corner of which was a stain. + +"His blood," he remarked laconically. "He was shot clean through the +heart. Well, you see, it's a mere line." + +Allerdyke took the card and looked at it with a mingled feeling of +repulsion and fascination. The writing on it was thin, angular, upright, +and it suggested foreign origin. And the communication was brief--and +unsigned-- + +"High Street morning eleven sharp left-hand side old houses." + +"You don't recognize that handwriting, of course, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked +Chettle. "Never seen it before, I suppose?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. "Never. But I should say it's a foreigner's." + +"Very likely," assented Chettle. "Aye, well, sir, it lured the man to his +death. And now I'll show you where he died, and how easy it was for the +murderer to kill him and get away unobserved." + +He pulled the cab up at the corner of the High Street, and turned +southward towards the river, looking round at his companion with one of +his sly smiles. + +"I daresay that you, being a Yorkshireman, Mr. Allerdyke, know all about +this old street," he remarked as they walked forward. "I never saw it, +never heard of it, until the other day, when I was sent down on this +Lydenberg business, but it struck me at once. I should think it's one of +the oldest streets left in England." + +"It is," answered Allerdyke. "I know it well enough, and I've seen it +changed. It used to be the street of the old Hull merchants--they had +their houses and warehouses all combined, with gardens at the back +running down to the river Hull. Queer old places there used to be in this +street, I can tell you when I was a lad!--of late years they've pulled a +lot of property down that had got what you might call thoroughly +worm-eaten--oh, yes, the place isn't half as ancient or picturesque as it +was even twenty years ago!" + +"There's plenty of the ancient about it still, for all that," observed +Chettle, with a dry laugh. "There was more than enough of it for +Lydenberg the other day, at any rate. Now, then, you remember what it +said on the postcard--he was to walk down the High Street, on the +left-hand side, at eleven o'clock? Very well--down the High Street he +walks, on this side which we are now--he strolls along, by these old +houses, looking about him, of course, for the person he was to meet. The +few people who were about down here that morning, and who saw him, said +that he was looking about from side to side. And all of a sudden a shot +rang out, and Lydenberg fell--just here--right on this very pavement." + +He pulled Allerdyke up in a narrow part of the old street, jointed to +the flags, and then to the house behind them--an ancient, ramshackle +place, the doors and windows of which were boarded up, the entire fabric +of which showed unmistakable readiness for the pick and shovel of the +house-breaker. And he laid a hand on one of the shattered windows, close +by a big hole in the decaying wood. + +"There's no doubt the murderer was hidden behind this shutter, and that +he fired at Lydenberg from it, through this hole," he said. "So, you see, +he'd only be a few feet from his man. He was evidently a good shot, and a +fellow of resolute nerve, for he made no mistake. He only fired once, but +he shot Lydenberg clean through the heart, dead!" + +"Anybody see it happen?" asked Allerdyke, staring about him at the scene +of the tragedy, and thinking how very ordinary and commonplace everything +looked. "I suppose there'd be people about, though the street, at this +end, anyway, isn't as busy as it once was?" + +"Several people saw him fall," answered Chettle. + +"They say he jumped, spun round, and fell across the pavement. And they +all thought it was a case of suicide. That, of course, gave the murderer +a bigger and better chance of making off. You see, as these people saw no +assailant, it never struck 'em that the shot had been fired from behind +this window. When they collected their thoughts, found it wasn't suicide, +and realized that it was murder, the murderer was--Lord knows where! From +behind these old houses, Mr. Allerdyke, there's a perfect rabbit-warren +of alleys, courts, slums, twists, and turns! The man could slip out at +the back, go left or right, mix himself up with the crowd on the quays +and wharves, walk into the streets, go anywhere--all in a minute or two." + +"Clever--very clever! You've no clue?" asked Allerdyke. + +"None; not a scrap!" replied the detective. "Bless you, there's score of +foreigners knocking about Hull. Scores! Hundreds! We've done all we can, +the local police and myself--we've no clue whatever. But, of course, it +was done by one of the gang." + +"By one of the gang!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Ah you've got a theory of +your own, then?" + +Chettle laughed quietly as they turned and retraced their steps up +the street. + +"It 'ud be queer if I hadn't, by this time," he answered. "Oh yes, I've +thought things out pretty well, and I should say our people at the Yard +have come to the same conclusion that I have--I'm not conceited enough, +Mr. Allerdyke, to fancy that I'm the only person who's arrived at a +reasonable theory, not I?" + +"Well--what is your theory?" asked Allerdyke. + +"This," replied the detective. "The whole thing, the theft of the +Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels from your cousin, of Miss de Longarde's +or Lennard's jewels, was the work of a peculiarly clever gang--though it +may be of an individual--who made use of both Lydenberg and the French +maid as instruments, and subsequently murdered those two in order to +silence them forever. I say it may be the work of an individual--it's +quite possible that the man who killed the Frenchwoman is also the man +who shot Lydenberg--but it may be the work of one, two, or three separate +persons, acting in collusion. I believe that Lydenberg was the actual +thief of the Princess's jewels from your cousin; that the Frenchwoman +actually stole her mistress's jewels. But as to how it was worked--as to +who invented and carried out the whole thing--ah!" + +"And to that--to the real secret of the whole matter--we haven't the +ghost of a clue!" muttered Allerdyke. "That's about it, eh?" + +Chettle laughed--a sly, suggestive laugh. He gave his companion one of +his half-apologetic looks. + +"I'm not so sure, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "We may have--and that's why I +wanted to see you by yourself. Come round to the police-station." + +In a quiet room in the usual drab and dismal atmosphere which Allerdyke +was beginning to associate with police affairs, Chettle produced the +personal property of the dead man, all removed, he said, from the Station +Hotel, for safe keeping. + +"There's little to go on, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, pointing to one +article after another. "You'll remember that the man represented himself +as being a Norwegian doctor, who had come to Hull on private business. He +may have been that--we're making inquiries about him in Christiania, +where he hailed from. According to those who're in a position to speak, +his clothing, linen, boots, and so on are all of the sort you'd get in +that country. But he'd no papers on him to show his business, no private +letters, no documents connecting him with Hull in any way: he hadn't even +a visiting-card. He'd a return ticket--from Hull to Christiania--and he'd +plenty of money, English and foreign. When I got down here, I helped the +local police to go through everything--we even searched the linings of +his clothing and ripped his one handbag to pieces. But we've found no +more than I've said. However--I've found something. Nobody knows that +I've found it. I haven't told the people here--I haven't even reported +it to headquarters in London. I wanted you to see it before I spoke of it +to a soul. Look here!" + +Chettle opened a square cardboard box in which certain personal effects +belonging to Lydenberg had been placed--one or two rings, a pocket-knife, +his purse and its contents, a cigar-case, his watch and chain. He took up +the watch, detached it from the chain, and held it towards Allerdyke, who +was regarding these proceedings with intense curiosity. + +"You see this watch, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "It's a watch of foreign +make--Swiss--and it's an old one, a good many years old, I should say. +Consequently, it's a bit what we might call massive. Now, I was looking +at it yesterday--late last night, in fact--and an idea suddenly struck +me. In consequence of that idea, I opened the back of the watch, and +discovered--that!" + +He snapped open the case of the watch as he spoke and showed Allerdyke, +neatly cut out to a circle, neatly fitted into the case, a +photograph--the photograph of James Allerdyke! And Allerdyke started as +if he had been shot, and let out a sharp exclamation. + +"My God!" he cried. "James! James, by all that's holy--and in there!" + +"You recognize it, of course?" said Chettle, with a grim smile. "No doubt +of it, eh?" + +"Doubt! Recognize!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Lord, man--why, I took it +myself, not two months ago!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DEFINITE SUSPICION + + +Chettle laughed--a low, suggestive, satisfied chuckle. He laid the watch, +its case still open, on the table at which they were standing, and tapped +the photograph with the point of his finger. + +"That may be the first step to the scaffold--for somebody," he said, with +a meaning glance. "Ah--it's extraordinary what little, innocent-looking +things help to put a bit of rope round a man's neck! So you took this, +Mr. Allerdyke?--took it yourself, you say?" + +"Took it myself, some eight or nine weeks ago," answered Allerdyke. "I +took it in my garden one Sunday afternoon when my cousin James happened +to be there. I do a bit in that way--amusement, you know. I just chanced +to have a camera in my hand, and I saw James in a very favourable light +and position, and I snapped him. And it was such a good 'un when +developed that I printed off a few copies." + +The detective's face became anxious. + +"How many, now?" he asked. "How many, Mr. Allerdyke? I hope you can +remember?--it's a point of the utmost seriousness." + +"Naught easier," answered Allerdyke readily. "I've a good memory for +little things as well as big 'uns. I printed off four copies. One of 'em +I pasted into an album in which I keep particularly good photographs of +my own taking; the other three I gave to him--he put 'em in his +pocket-book." + +"All unmounted--like this?" asked Chettle. + +"All unmounted--like that," affirmed Allerdyke. "And now, then, since it +seems to be a matter of importance, I can tell you what James did with at +any rate two of 'em. He gave one to our cousin Grace--Mrs. Henry +Mallins--a Bradford lady. He gave another to a friend of my own, another +amateur photographer, Wilson Firth--gave him it in my presence at the +Midland Hotel one day, when we were all three having a cigar together in +the smoking-room there. Wilson Firth's a bit of a rival of mine in the +amateur photographic line--we each try to beat the other, you understand. +Now, then, James pulled one of these snapshots out and handed it over to +Wilson with a laugh. 'There,' he says, 'that's our Marshall's latest +performance--you'll have a job to do aught better than that, Wilson, my +lad,' he says. So that accounts for two. And--this is the third!" + +"And the question, Mr. Allerdyke, the big question--a most important +question!--is, how did it come into this man Lydenberg's possession?" +said the detective anxiously. "If we can find that out--" + +"I've been thinking," interrupted Allerdyke. "There's this about it, you +know: James and this Lydenberg came over together from Christiania to +Hull in the _Perisco_. They talked to one another--that's certain. James +may have given it to Lydenberg. But the thing is--is that likely?" + +"No!" replied Chettle, with emphatic assurance. "No, sir! And I'll tell +you why. If your cousin had given this photo to Lydenberg, as he might, +of course, have given it to a mere passing acquaintance, because that +acquaintance took a fancy to it, or something of that sort, Lydenberg +would in all reasonable probability have just slipped in into his +pocket-book, or put it loose amongst his letters and papers. But, as we +see, however Lydenberg became possessed of this photo, he took unusual +pains and precautions about it. You see, he cut it down, most carefully +and neatly, to fit into the cover of his watch--he took the trouble to +carry it where no one else would see it, but where he could see it +himself at a second's notice--he'd nothing to do but to snap open that +cover. No, sir, your cousin didn't give that photo to Lydenberg. That +photo was sent to Lydenberg, Mr. Allerdyke--sent! And it was sent for one +purpose only. What? That he should be able to identify Mr. James +Allerdyke as soon as he set eyes on him!" + +Allerdyke nodded his head--in complete understanding and affirmation. He +was thinking the same thing--thinking, too, that here was at least a +clue, a real tangible clue. + +"Aye!" he said. "I agree with you. Then, of course, the one and only +thing to do is--" + +"To find out who the person was that your cousin gave this particular +print to!" said Chettle eagerly. "Of course, it's a big field. So far as +I understand things, he'd been knocking round a good bit between the time +of your taking this photo and his death. He'd been in London, hadn't he? +And in Russia--in two or three places. How can we find out when and how +he parted with this? For give it to somebody he did, and that somebody +was a person who knew of the jewel transaction, and employed Lydenberg in +it, and sent the photo to Lydenberg so that he should know your cousin by +sight--at once. Mr. Allerdyke, the secret of these murders and thefts +is--there!" + +Chettle replaced the watch in the cardboard box from which he had taken +it, produced a bit of sealing-wax from his pocket, sealed up the box, and +put it and the other things belonging to Lydenberg back in the small +trunk from which he had withdrawn them to show his companion. And +Allerdyke watched him in silence, wondering and speculating about this +new development. + +"What do you want me to do?" he asked suddenly. "You've got some scheme, +of course, or you wouldn't have got me down here alone." + +"Just so," agreed Chettle. "I have a scheme--and that's why I did get you +down here alone. Mr. Allerdyke, you're a sharp, shrewd man--all you +Yorkshiremen are!--at least, all that I've ever come across. You're good +hands at ferreting things out. Now, Mr. Allerdyke, let's be +plain--there's no two ways about it, no doubt whatever of it, the only +people in England that we're aware of who knew about this Nastirsevitch +jewel transaction are--Fullaway and whoever he has in his employ! We +know of nobody else--unless, indeed, it's the Chicago millionaire, +Delkin, and he's not very likely to have wanted to go in for a job of +this sort. No, sir--Fullaway is the suspected person, in my +opinion!--though I'm going to take precious good care to keep that +opinion to myself yet awhile, I can tell you. Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke, +Fullaway!" + +"Well?" demanded Allerdyke. "And so--" + +"And so I want you to use your utmost ingenuity to find out if your +cousin James gave that photo to Fullaway," continued Chettle. "We know +very well that he was in touch with Fullaway before he went off to +Russia--I have it in my notes that when Fullaway came to see you here in +Hull, at the Station Hotel, the day of your cousin's death, he told you +that he and Mr. James Allerdyke had been doing business for a couple of +years, and that they'd last met in London about the end of March, just +before your cousin set off on his journey to Russia. Is that correct?" + +"Quite correct--to the letter," answered Allerdyke. + +"Very well," said Chettle. "Now, according to you, that 'ud be not so +very long after you took that snapshot of your cousin? So, he'd probably +have the third print of it--the one we've just been looking at--on him +when he was in London at that time?" + +"Very likely," assented Allerdyke. + +"Then," said Chettle with great eagerness, "try, Mr. Allerdyke, try your +best and cleverest to find out if he gave it to Fullaway. You can +think--you with a sharp brain!--of some cunning fashion of finding that +out. What?" + +"I don't know," replied Allerdyke, slowly and doubtfully. He possessed +quite as much ingenuity as Chettle credited him with, but his own +resourcefulness in that direction only inclined him to credit other men +with the possession of just the same faculty. "I don't know about that. +If James did give that print to Fullaway, and if Fullaway made use of it +as you think, Fullaway'll be far too cute ever to let on that it was +given to him. See!" + +"I see that--been seeing it all through," answered Chettle. "All the +same, there's ways and means. Think of something--you know Fullaway a bit +by this time. Try it!" + +"Oh, I'll try it, you bet!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "I'll try it for all +it's worth, and as cleverly as I can. In fact, I've already thought of a +plan, and if you don't want me any more just now, I'll go to the +post-office and send off a telegram that's something to do with it." + +"Nothing more now, sir," answered Chettle. "But look here--you're not +going back to town to-night?" + +"Why, that's just what I meant to do," replied Allerdyke. "There's naught +to stop here for, is there?" + +"I'm expecting a message from the Christiania police some time this +afternoon or evening," said Chettle. "I cabled to them yesterday making +full inquiries about Lydenberg--he represented himself here, to Dr. Orwin +and the police-surgeons especially, as being a medical man in practice in +Christiania, who had come across to Hull on some entirely private family +business. Now, we've made the most exhaustive inquiries here in +Hull--there isn't a soul in the town knows anything whatever of +Lydenberg! I'm as certain as I am that I see you that he'd no business +here at all--except to kill and rob your cousin. And so, of course, we +want to know if he really was what he said he was, over there. I pressed +upon the Christiania police to let me know all they could within +thirty-six hours. So if you'll stop the night here, I'll likely be able +to show you their reply to me." + +"Right!" answered Allerdyke. "I'll put up at the Station Hotel. You come +and have your dinner with me there at seven o'clock." + +"Much obliged, Mr. Allerdyke," replied Chettle. "I'll come." + +Then Allerdyke went off to the General Post Office and sent a telegram to +his housekeeper in Bradford-- + +"Send off at once by registered parcel post to me at Waldorf Hotel, +London, the morocco-bound photograph album lying on right-hand corner of +my writing-desk in the library.--MARSHALL ALLERDYKE." + +He went out of the post-office laughing cynically. Bit by bit things +were coming out, he said to himself as he strolled away towards the +hotel; link after link the chain was being forged. But around whom, in +the end, was it going to be fastened? It was the first time in his life +that he had ever been brought face to face with crime, and the seeking +out of the criminal was beginning to fascinate him. + +"Egad, it's a queer business!" he muttered. "A thread here, a thread +there!--Heaven knows what it'll all come to. But this Chettle's a good +'un--he's like to do things." + +Chettle joined him in the smoking-room of the hotel at a quarter to +seven, and immediately produced a telegram. + +"Came half an hour ago," he said as they sat down in a corner. "Nobody +but myself seen it up to now. And--it's just what I expected. Read it." + +Allerdyke slowly read the message through, pondering over it-- + +"We have made fullest inquiries concerning Lydenberg. He was certainly +not in practice here either under that or any other name. Nothing is +known of him as a resident in this city. We have definitely ascertained +that he came to Christiania from Copenhagen, by land, via Lund and +Copenhagen, arriving Christiania May 7th, and that he left here by +steamship _Perisco_ for Hull, May 10th." + +"You notice the dates?" observed Chettle. "May 7th and 10th. Now, it was +on May 8th that your cousin wired to Fullaway from Christiania, Mr. +Allerdyke--there's no doubt about it! This man, Lydenberg, whoever he is +or was, was sent to waylay your cousin at Christiania--sent from London. +I've worked it out--he went overland--Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, +Sweden, Norway. Sounds a lot--but it's a quick journey. Sir--he was sent! +And the sooner we find out about that photograph the better." + +"I'm at work," answered Allerdyke. "Leave it to me." + +He found his morocco-bound photograph album awaiting him when he arrived +at the Waldorf Hotel next day, and during the afternoon he took it in his +hand and strolled quietly and casually into Franklin Fullaway's rooms. +Everything there looked as he had always seen it--Mrs. Marlow, charming +as ever, was tapping steadily at her typewriter: Fullaway, himself a +large cigar in his mouth, was reading the American newspapers, just +arrived, in his own sanctum. He greeted Allerdyke with enthusiasm. + +"Been away since yesterday, eh?" he said, after warm greetings. "Home?" + +"Aye, I've been down to Yorkshire," responded Allerdyke offhandedly. "One +or two things I wanted to see to, and some things I wanted to get. This +is one of 'em." + +"Family Bible?" inquired Fullaway, eyeing the solemnly bound album. + +"No. Photos," answered Allerdyke. He was going to test things at once, +and he opened the book at the fateful page. "I'm a bit of an amateur +photographer," he went on, with a laugh. "Here's what's probably the last +photo ever taken of James. What d'ye think of it?" + +Fullaway glanced at the photograph, all unconscious that his caller was +watching him as he had never been watched in his life. He waved his cigar +at the open page. + +"Oh!" he said airily. "A remarkably good likeness--wonderful! I said so +when I saw it before--excellent likeness, Allerdyke, excellent! Couldn't +be beaten by a professional. Excellent!" + +Marshall Allerdyke felt his heart beating like a sledgehammer as he put +his next question, and for the life of him he could not tell how he +managed to keep his voice under control. + +"Ah!" he said. "You've seen it before, then? James show it to you?" + +Fullaway nodded towards the door of the outer room, from which came the +faint click of the secretary's machine. + +"He gave one to Mrs. Marlow the very last time he was here." he answered. +"They were talking about amateur photography, and he pulled a print of +that out of his pocket and made her a present of it; said it couldn't be +beaten. You're a clever hand, Allerdyke--most lifelike portrait I ever +saw. Well--any news?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LATE CALL + + +It was with a mighty effort of will that Allerdyke controlled himself +sufficiently to be able to answer Fullaway's question with calmness. This +was for him a critical moment. He knew now to whom James Allerdyke had +given the photograph which Chettle had found concealed in Lydenberg's +watch; knew that the recipient was sitting close by him, separated only +from him by a wall and a door; knew that between her and Lydenberg, or +those who had been in touch with Lydenberg, there must be some strange, +secret, and sinister connection. From Mrs. Marlow to Lydenberg that +photograph had somehow passed, and, as Chettle had well said, the entire +problem of the murders and thefts was mixed up in its transference. All +that was certain--what seemed certain, too, was that Fullaway knew +nothing of these things, and was as innocent as he himself. And for the +fraction of a second he was half-minded to tell all he knew to Fullaway +there and then--and it was only by a still stronger effort of will that +he restrained his tongue, determined to keep a stricter silence than +ever, and replied to the American in an offhand, casual tone. + +"News?" he said, with a half-laugh. "Nay, not that I know of. They take +their time, those detective chaps. You heard aught?" + +"Nothing particular," answered Fullaway. "Except that the Princess was in +here this morning, and that Miss Lennard came at the same time. But +neither of them had anything of importance to tell. The Princess has been +ransacking her memory all about her affairs with your cousin; she's more +certain than ever now that nobody in Russia but he and she knew anything +about the jewel deal. They were always in strict privacy when they +discussed the matter; no one was present when she gave him the jewels; +she never mentioned the affair to a soul, and she's confident from what +she knew of him, that he wouldn't. So she's more convinced than ever that +the news got out from this side." + +"And Miss Lennard--what did she want?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Oh! she's found the various references--two or three of 'em--that she +had with the French maid," replied Fullaway. "I looked at them--there's +nothing in them but what you'd expect to find. Two of the writers are +well-known society women, the third was a French marquise. I don't think +anything's to be got out of them, but, anyway, I sent her off to Scotland +Yard with them--it's their work that. Fine photos there, Allerdyke," he +continued, turning over the leaves of the album. "Some of your places in +Bradford, eh." + +Allerdyke, who was particularly anxious that he should not seem to have +had an ulterior object in bringing the album up to Fullaway's office +hailed this question with relief. He began to point out and explain the +various pictures--photographs of his mills, warehouses, town office, his +own private house, grounds, surroundings, chatting unconcernedly about +each. And while the two men were thus engaged in came Mrs. Marlow, +bringing letters which needed Fullaway's signature. + +"Mrs. Marlow knows more about amateur photography than I do," remarked +Fullaway, with a glance at his secretary. "Here, Mrs. Marlow, these are +same of Mr. Allerdyke's productions--you remember that his cousin, Mr. +James Allerdyke, gave you a photo which this Mr. Allerdyke had taken?" + +Allerdyke, keenly watching the secretary's pretty face as she laid her +papers on Fullaway's desk, saw no sign of embarrassment or confusion; +Fullaway might have made the most innocent and ordinary remark in the +world, and yet, according to Allerdyke's theory and positive knowledge, +it must be fraught with serious meaning to this woman. + +"Oh yes!" she flashed, without as much as the flicker of an eyelash. "I +remember--a particularly good photo. So like him!" + +Allerdyke's ingenuity immediately invented a remark; he was at that stage +when, he wanted to know as much as possible. + +"I wonder which print it was that he gave you?" he said. "One of them--I +only did a few--had a spot in it that'll spread. If that's the one +you've got, I'll give you another in its place, Mrs. Marlow. Have you +got it here?" + +But Mrs. Marlow shook her head and presented the same unabashed front. + +"No," she answered readily enough. "I took it home, Mr. Allerdyke. But +there's no spot on my print--I should have noticed it at once. May I look +at your album when Mr. Fullaway's finished with it?" + +Allerdyke left the album with them and went away. He was utterly +astonished by Mrs. Marlow's coolness. If, as he already believed, she was +mixed up in the murders and robberies, she must know that the photograph +which James Allerdyke had given her was a most important factor, and yet +she spoke of it as calmly and unconcernedly as if it had been a mere +scrap of paper! Of course she hadn't got it at the office--nor at her +home either--it was there at Hull, fitted into the cover of Lydenberg's +old watch. + +"A cool hand!" soliloquized Allerdyke as he went downstairs. "Cool, +clever, calm, never off her guard. A damned dangerous woman!--that's the +long and short of it. And--what next?" + +Experience and observation of life had taught Marshall Allerdyke that +good counsel is one of life's most valuable assets. He could think for +himself and decide for himself at any moment, but he knew the worth and +value of putting two heads together, especially at a juncture like this. +And so, the afternoon being still young, he went off to his warehouse in +Gresham Street, closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard, and having +pledged him to secrecy, told him all that had happened since the +previous morning. + +Ambler Appleyard listened in silence. It was only two or three hours +since he had listened to another story--the report of the two Gaffneys, +and Allerdyke, all unaware of that business, had come upon him while +he was still thinking it over. And while Appleyard gave full attention +to all that his employer said, he was also thinking of what he himself +could tell. By the time that Allerdyke had finished he, too, had +decided to speak. + +"So there it is, my lad!" exclaimed Allerdyke, throwing out his hands +with an eloquent gesture as he made an end of his story. "I hope I've put +it clearly to you. It's just as that Chap Chettle said--the whole secret +is in that photograph! And isn't it plain?--that photograph must have +been transferred somehow by this Mrs. Marlow to this Lydenberg. How? Why? +When we can answer those questions--" + +He paused at that, and, looking fixedly at his manager, shook his head +half-threateningly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ambler," he went on, after a moment's silence. +"I've got a good, strong mind to go straight to the police authorities, +tell 'em what I know, insist on 'em fetching Chettle up from Hull at +once, and having that woman arrested. Why not?" + +"No!" said Appleyard firmly. "Not yet. Too soon, Mr. Allerdyke--wait a +bit. And now listen to me--I've something to tell you. I've been busy +while you've been away--in this affair. Bit of detective work. I'll tell +you all about it--all! You remember that day I went to lunch with you at +the City Carlton, and you pointed out this Mrs. Marlow to me, going into +Rothschild's? Yes, well--I recognized her." + +"You did!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Nay!" + +"I recognized her," repeated Appleyard. "I said naught to you at the +time, but I knew her well enough. As a matter of fact, I've known her for +two years. She lives at the same boarding-house, the Pompadour Private +Hotel, in Bayswater, that I live in. I see her--have been seeing her for +two years--every day, morning and night. But I know her as Miss Slade." + +"Miss?" ejaculated Allerdyke. + +"Miss--Miss Slade," answered Appleyard. He drew his chair nearer to +Allerdyke's, and went on in a lower voice. "Now, then, pay attention, and +I'll tell you all about it, and what I've done since I got your note +yesterday morning." + +He told Allerdyke the whole story of his endeavour to find out something +about Rayner merely because Rayner seemed to be in Miss Slade's +confidence, and because Miss Slade was certainly a woman of mystery. And +Allerdyke listened as quietly and attentively as Appleyard had listened +to him, nodding his head at all the important points, and in the end he +slapped his manager's shoulder with an approving hand. + +"Good--good!" he said. "Good, Ambler! That was a bit of right work, and +hang me if I don't believe we shall find something out. But what's to +be done? You know, if these two are in at it, they may slip. That 'ud +never do!" + +"I don't think there's any fear of that--yet," answered Appleyard. "The +probability is that neither has any suspicion of being watched--the whole +thing's so clever that they probably believe themselves safe. Of course, +mind you, this man Rayner may be as innocent as you or I. But against +her, on the facts of that photograph affair, there's a _primâ facie_ +case. Only--don't let's spoil things by undue haste or rashness. I've +thought things out a good deal, and we can do a lot, you and me, before +going to the police, though I don't think it 'ud do any harm to tell this +man Chettle, supposing he were here--because his discovery of that photo +is the real thing." + +"What can we do, then?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Make use of the two Gaffneys," answered Appleyard without hesitation. +"They're smart chaps---real keen 'uns. We want to find out who Rayner is; +what his connection, if any, with Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, is; who +she is, and why she goes under two names. That's all what you might call +initial proceedings. What I propose is this--when you go back to your +hotel, get Gaffney into your private sitting-room. You, of course, know +him much better than I do, but from what bit I've seen of him I'm sure +he's the sort of man one can trust. Tell him to get hold of that brother +of his and bring him here at any hour you like to-morrow, and +then--well, we can have a conference, and decide on some means of finding +out more about Rayner and keeping an eye on him. For that sort of work I +should say that other Gaffney's remarkably well cut out--he's a typical, +sharp, knowing Cockney, with all his wits about him, and plenty of +assurance." + +"It's detective work, you know, Ambler," said Allerdyke. "It needs a bit +of more than ordinary cuteness." + +"From my observation, I should say both those chaps are just cut for it," +answered Appleyard, with a laugh. "What's more, they enjoy it. And when +men enjoy what they're doing--" + +"Why, they do it well," agreed Allerdyke, finishing the sentence. "Aye, +that's true enough. All right--I'll speak to Gaffney, when I go back. And +look here--as you're so well known to this woman, Miss Slade or Mrs. +Marlow, whichever her name is, you'd better not show up at the Waldorf at +any time in my company, eh?" + +"Of course," said Appleyard. "You trust me for that! What we've got to do +must be done as secretly as possible." + +Allerdyke rose to go, but turned before he reached the door. + +"There's one thing I'm uneasy about," he said. "If--I say if, of +course--if these folks--I mean the lot that's behind this woman, for I +can't believe that she's worked it all herself--have got those jewels, +won't they want to clear out with them? Isn't delay dangerous?" + +"Not such delay as I'm thinking of," answered Appleyard firmly. "She's +cute enough, this lady, and if she made herself scarce just now, she'd +know very well that it would excite suspicion. Don't let's spoil things +by being too previous. We've got a pretty good watch on her, you know. I +should know very quickly if she cleared out of the Pompadour; you'd know +if she didn't turn up at Fullaway's. Wait a bit, Mr. Allerdyke; it's the +best policy. You'll come here to-morrow?" + +"Eleven o'clock in the morning," replied Allerdyke. "I'll fix it with +Gaffney to-night." + +He went back to the Waldorf, summoned Gaffney to his private room, and +sent him to arrange matters with his brother. Gaffney accepted the +commission with alacrity; his brother, he said, was just then out of a +job, having lost a clerkship through the sudden bankruptcy of his +employers; such a bit of business as that which Mr. Appleyard had +entrusted to him was so much meat and drink to one of his tastes--in more +ways than one. + +"It's the sort of thing he likes, sir," remarked Gaffney, confidentially. +"He's always been a great hand at reading these detective tales, and to +set him to watch anybody is like offering chickens to a nigger--he fair +revels in it!" + +"Well, there's plenty for him to revel in," observed Allerdyke grimly. + +Plenty! he said to himself with a cynical laugh when Gaffney had left +him--aye, plenty, and to spare. He spent the whole of that evening alone, +turning every detail over in his own mind; he was still thinking, and +speculating, and putting two and two together when he went to bed at +eleven o'clock. And just as he was about to switch off his light a waiter +knocked on his door. + +"Gentleman downstairs, sir, very anxious to see you at once," he said, +when Allerdyke opened it. "His card, sir." + +Allerdyke gave one glance at the card--a plain bit of pasteboard on which +one word had been hastily pencilled-- + +CHETTLE. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + +Chettle!--whom he had left only that morning in Hull, two hundred miles +away, both of them agreed that the next step was still unseen, and that +immediate action was yet problematical. Something had surely happened to +bring Chettle up to town and to him. + +"Show Mr. Chettle up here at once," he said to the waiter. "And +here--bring a small decanter of whisky and a syphon of soda-water and +glasses. Be sharp with 'em." + +He pulled on a dressing-gown when the man had gone, and, tying its cord +about his waist, went a step or two into the corridor to look out for his +visitor. A few minutes elapsed; then the lift came up, and the waiter, +killing two birds with one stone, appeared again, escorting the detective +and carrying a tray. And Allerdyke, with a sly wink at Chettle, greeted +him unconcernedly, ushered him into his room and chatted about nothing +until the waiter had gone away. Then he turned on him eagerly. + +"What is it?" he demanded. "Something, of course! Aught new?" + +For answer Chettle thrust his hand inside his overcoat and brought out a +small package, wrapped in cartridge paper, and sealed. + +He began to break the seals and unwrap the covering. + +"Well, it brought me up here--straight," he said. "I think I shall have +to let our people at the yard know everything, Mr. Allerdyke. But I came +to you first---I only got to King's Cross half an hour ago, and I drove +on to you at once. Well see what you think before I decide on anything." + +"What is it!" repeated Allerdyke, gazing with interest at the package. +"You've found something of fresh importance, eh!" + +Chettle took the lid off a small box and produced Lydenberg's watch and +postcard on which the appointment in the High Street had been made. He +sat down at the table, laying his hand on the watch. + +"After you left me this morning," he said, "I started puzzling and +puzzling over what had been discovered, what had been done, whether there +was more that I could do. I kept thinking things over all the morning, +and half the afternoon. Then it suddenly struck me--there was one +thing--that I'd never done and that ought to have been done--I don't know +why I'd never thought of it till then--but I'd never had this photograph +out of the watch. And so I went back to the police-station and got the +watch and opened it, and--look there, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +He had snapped open the case of the watch as he talked, and he now +detached the photograph and turning it over, laid the reverse side down +on the table by the postcard. + +"Look at it!" he went on. "Do you see?--there's writing on it! You see +what it says? 'This is J.A. Burn this when made use of.' You see? +And--it's the same handwriting as that on this card, making the +appointment! Here, look at both for yourself--hold 'em closer to the +light. Mr. Allerdyke--that was all written by the same hand, or +I'm--no good!" + +Allerdyke went close to the electric globe above his dressing-table, the +photograph in one hand, the postcard in the other. He looked searchingly +at both, brought them back, and laid them down again. + +"No doubt of it, Chettle," he said. "No doubt of it! It doesn't need any +expert to be certain sure of that. The same, identical fist, without a +shadow of doubt. Well--what d'ye make of it? Here--have a drink." + +He mixed a couple of drinks, pushed one glass to the detective, and took +the other himself. + +"Egad!" he muttered, after drinking. "Things are getting--hottish, +anyway. As I say, what do you make of this? Of course, you've come to +some conclusion?" + +"Yes," answered Chettle, taking up his glass and silently bowing his +acknowledgments. "I have! The only one I could come to. The man who sent +this photograph to Lydenberg, to help him to identify your cousin at +sight, is the man who afterwards lured Lydenberg into that part of Hull +High Street, and shot him dead. In plain words, the master shot his +man--when he'd done with him. Just as he poisoned the Frenchwoman--when +he'd done with her. Mr. Allerdyke, I'm more than ever convinced that +these two murders--Lydenberg's and the French maid's--were the work of +one hand." + +"Likely!" assented Allerdyke. "It's getting to look like it. But--whose? +That's the problem, Chettle. Well, I've done a bit since I got back this +afternoon. You've had something to tell me--now I've something to tell +you. I've found out who it was that James gave the photograph to!" + +Chettle showed his gratification by a start of pleased surprise. + +"You have--already!" he exclaimed. + +"Already!" replied Allerdyke. "Found it out within an hour of getting +back in here. He gave it"--here, though the door was closed and +bolted, and there was no fear of eavesdroppers, he sank his voice to a +whisper--"he gave it to Fullaway's secretary, the woman we discussed, +Mrs. Marlow. That's a fact. He gave it to her just before he set off +for Russia." + +Chettle screwed his lips up to whistle--instead of whistling he suddenly +relaxed them to a comprehending smile. + +"Aye, just so!" he said. "I was sure it lay somewhere--here. Fullaway +himself, now--does he know?" + +"James gave it to her in Fullaway's presence," replied Allerdyke. "She's +a bit of a photographer, I understand--they were talking about +photography, I gathered, one day when James was in Fullaway's office, and +James pulled that out and gave it to her as a specimen of my work." + +"All that came out in talk this afternoon?" asked Chettle. + +"Just so. Ordinary, casual talk," assented Allerdyke. + +"No suspicion roused?" suggested Chettle. + +"I don't think so. Of course, you never can tell. I should say," +continued Allerdyke, "that she's as deep and clever as ever they make +'em! But it was all so casual, and so natural, that I don't think she'd +the slightest idea that I was trying to get at anything. However, I found +this much out--she couldn't produce the photograph. Said she'd taken it +home. Well--there we are! That's part one of my bit of news, Chettle. Now +for part two. This woman's leading a double life. She's Mrs. Marlow as +Fullaway's secretary and here at his rooms and on his business; where she +lives she's Miss Slade. Eh?" + +Chettle pricked his ears. + +"When did you find that out?" he asked. "Since you left me this +morning?" + +"Found it out this afternoon," replied Allerdyke, with something of +triumph. He had been strolling about the bedroom up to that moment, but +now he drew a chair to the table at which Chettle sat and dropped into it +close beside his visitor. + +"I'll tell you all about it," he went on. "You said at Hull yesterday +that you'd always found Yorkshiremen sharp and shrewd--well, this is a +bit more Yorkshire work--work of my manager here in town--Mr. +Appleyard. Listen!" + +He gave the detective a clear and succinct account of all that Appleyard +and his satellites had done, and Chettle listened with deep attention, +nodding his head at the various points. + +"Yes," he said, when Allerdyke had made an end, "yes, that's all right, +so far. Good, useful work. The thing is--can you fully trust these two +young men--your chauffeur and his brother?" + +"I could and would trust my chauffeur with my last shilling," answered +Allerdyke. "And as for his brother, I'll take my man's word for him. +Besides, they both know--or Mr. Gaffney knows--that I'm a pretty generous +paymaster. If a man does aught for me, and does it well, he profits to a +nice penny!" + +"A good argument," agreed Chettle. "I don't know that you could beat it, +Mr. Allerdyke. Well, well--we're getting to something and to somewhere! +Now, as you've told me all this, I'll just keep things quiet until I've +met you and your manager to-morrow, with these two Gaffneys--we'll have a +conference. I won't go near the Yard until after that. Eleven o'clock +to-morrow, then, at your warehouse in Gresham Street." + +He presently replaced the watch and the postcard in an inner pocket, and +took his leave, and Allerdyke, letting him out, walked along the corridor +with him as far as the lift. And as Allerdyke turned back to his own +room, the third event of that day happened, and seemed to him to be the +most surprising and important one of all. + +What made Allerdyke pause as he retraced his steps along the corridor, +pause to look over the balustrade to the floor immediately below his own, +he never knew nor could explain. But, just as he was about to re-enter +his room, he did so pause, leaning over the railings and looking down for +a moment. In that moment he saw Mrs. Marlow. + +A considerable portion of the floor immediately beneath him was fully +exposed to the view of any one leaning over the balustrade as Allerdyke +did. This was a quiet part of the hotel, a sort of wing cut away from +the main building; the floor at which he was looking was given up to +private suites of rooms, one of them, a larger one than the others, +being Fullaway's, which filled one side of the corridor; the others +were suites of two, in some cases of three rooms. As he looked over and +down, Allerdyke suddenly saw a door open in one of these smaller +suites--open silently and stealthily. Then he saw Mrs. Marlow look out, +and she glanced right and left about her. The next instant, she emerged +from the room with the same stealthiness, closed and locked the door +with a key which she immediately pocketed, slipped along the corridor, +and disappeared into Franklin Fullaway's suite. It was all over in less +than a minute, and Allerdyke turned into his own door, smiling +cynically to himself. + +"She looked right and left, but she forgot to look up!" he muttered. +"Ah! those small details. And what does that mean? Anyway, I know which +door she came out of!" + +He glanced at his watch--precisely half-past eleven. He made a note of +the time in his pocket-book and went to bed. And next morning, rising +early, as was his custom, he descended to the ground floor by means of +the stairs instead of the lift, and as he passed the door from which he +had seen Mrs. Marlow emerge he mentally registered the number. +Fifty-three. Number fifty-three. + +Allerdyke, who could not exist without fresh air and exercise, went for a +stroll before breakfast when he was in London--he usually chose the +Embankment, as being the nearest convenient open space, and thither he +now repaired, thinking things over. There were many new features of this +affair to think about, but the one of the previous night now occupied his +thoughts to the exclusion of the others. What was this woman doing, +coming--with evident secrecy--out of one set of rooms, and entering +another at that late hour? He wanted to know--he must find out--and he +would find out with ease,--and indirectly, from Fullaway. + +Fullaway always took his breakfast at a certain table in a certain corner +of the coffee-room at the hotel; there Allerdyke had sometimes joined +him. He found the American there, steadily eating, when he returned from +his walk, and he dropped into a chair at his side with a casual remark +about the fine morning. + +"Didn't set eyes on you last night at all," he went on, as he picked up +his napkin. "Off somewhere, eh?" + +"Spent the evening out," answered Fullaway. "Not often I do, but I +did--for once in a way. Van Koon and I (you don't know Van Koon, do +you?--he's a fellow countryman of mine, stopping here for the summer, +and a very clever man) we dined at the Carlton, and then went to the +Haymarket Theatre. I was going to ask you to join us, Allerdyke, but you +were out and hadn't come in by the time we had to go." + +"Thank you--no, I didn't get in until seven o'clock or so," answered +Allerdyke. "So I'd a quiet evening." + +"No news, I suppose?" asked Fullaway, going vigorously forward with his +breakfast. "Heard nothing from the police authorities?" + +"Nothing," replied Allerdyke. "I suppose they're doing things in their +own way, as usual." + +"Just so," assented Fullaway. "Well, it's an odd thing to me that nobody +comes forward to make some sort of a shot at that reward! Most +extraordinary that the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair should have +been able to get clean away without anybody in London having seen him--or +at any rate that the people who must have seen him are unable to connect +him with the murder of that woman. Extraordinary!" + +"It's all extraordinary," said Allerdyke. He took up a newspaper which +Fullaway had thrown down and began to talk of some subject that caught +his eye, until Fullaway rose, pleaded business, and went off to his rooms +upstairs. When he had gone Allerdyke reconsidered matters. So Fullaway +had been out the night before, had he--dining out, and at a theatre? +Then, of course, it would be quite midnight before he got in. Therefore, +presumably, he did not know that his secretary was about his rooms--and +entering and leaving another suite close by. No--Fullaway knew +nothing--that seemed certain. + +The remembrance of what he had seen sent Allerdyke, as soon as he had +breakfasted, to the hall of the hotel, and to the register of guests. +There was no one at the register at that moment, and he turned the pages +at his leisure until he came to what he wanted. And there it was--in +plain black and white-- + +NUMBER 53. MR. JOHN VAN KOON. NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + +Allerdyke, with a gesture peculiar to him, thrust his hands in the +pockets of his trousers, strolled away from the desk on which the +register lay open, and going over to the hall door stood there a while, +staring out on the tide of life that rolled by, and listening to the +subdued rattle of the traffic in its ceaseless traverse of the Strand. +And as he stood in this apparently idle and purposeless lounging +attitude, he thought--thought of a certain birthday of his, a good thirty +years before, whereon a kind, elderly aunt had made him a present of a +box of puzzles. There were all sorts of puzzles in that box--things that +you had to put together, things that had to be arranged, things that had +to be adjusted. But there was one in particular which had taken his +youthful fancy, and had at the same time tried his youthful temper--a +shallow tray wherein were a vast quantity of all sorts and sizes of bits +of wood, gaily coloured. There were quite a hundred of those bits, and +you had to fit them one into the other. When, after much trying of +temper, much exercise of patience, you had accomplished the task, there +was a beautiful bit of mosaic work, a picture, a harmonious whole, lovely +to look upon, something worthy of the admiring approbation of uncles and +aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers. But--the doing of it! + +"Naught, however, to this confounded thing!" mused Allerdyke, gazing at +and not seeing the folk on the broad sidewalk. "When all the bits of +this puzzle have been fitted into place I daresay one'll be able to look +down on it as a whole and say it looks simple enough when finished, but, +egad, they're of so many sorts and shapes and queer angles that they're +more than a bit difficult to fit at present. Now who the deuce is this +Van Koon, and what was that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss Slade, doing in his +rooms last night when he was out?" + +He was exercising his brains over a possible solution of this problem +when Fullaway suddenly appeared in the hall behind him, accompanied by a +man whom Allerdyke at once took to be the very individual about whom he +was speculating. He was a man of apparently forty years of age, of +average height and build, of a full countenance, sallow in complexion, +clean-shaven, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles over a pair of sapphire blue +eyes--a shrewd, able-looking man, clad in the loose fitting, square-cut +garments just then affected by his fellow-countrymen, and having a +low-crowned, soft straw hat pulled down over his forehead. His hands were +thrust into the pockets of his jacket; a long, thin, black cigar stuck +out of a corner of his humorous-looking lips; he cocked an intelligent +eye at Allerdyke as he and Fullaway advanced to the door. + +"Hullo, Allerdyke!" said Fullaway in his usual vivacious fashion. +"Viewing the prospect o'er, eh? Allow me to introduce Mr. Van Koon, whom +I don't think you've met, though he's under the same roof. Van Koon, this +is the Mr. Allerdyke I've mentioned to you." + +The two men shook hands and stared at each other. Whoever and whatever +this man may be, thought Allerdyke, he gives you a straight look and a +good grip--two characteristics which in his opinion went far to establish +any unknown individual's honesty. + +"No," remarked Van Koon. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. +Allerdyke before. But I'm out a great deal--I don't spend much time +indoors this fine weather. You gentlemen know your London well--I don't, +and I'm putting in all the time I can to cultivate her acquaintance." + +"Been in town long?" asked Allerdyke, wanting to say something and +impelled to this apparently trite question by the New Yorker's own +observations. + +"Since the first week in April," answered Van Koon, "And as this is my +first visit to England, I'm endeavouring to do everything well. Fullaway +tells me, Mr. Allerdyke, that you come from Bradford, the big +manufacturing city up north. Well, now, Bradford is one of the places on +my list--hullo!" he exclaimed, breaking off short. "I guess here's a man +who's wanting you, Fullaway, in a considerable bit of a hurry." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke looked out on to the pavement and saw Blindway, +who had just jumped out of a taxi-cab, and was advancing upon them. He +came up and addressed them jointly--would they go back with him at once +to New Scotland Yard?--the chief wanted to see them for a few minutes. + +"Come on, Allerdyke," said Fullaway. "We'd better go at once. Van Koon," +he continued, turning to his compatriot, "do me a favour--just look in at +my rooms upstairs, and tell Mrs. Marlow, if she's come--she hadn't +arrived when I was up there ten minutes ago--that I'm called out for an +hour or so--ask her to attend to anything that turns up until I come +back--shan't be long." + +Van Koon nodded and walked back into the hotel, while Allerdyke and +Fullaway joined the detective in the cab and set out westward. + +"What is it?" asked Fullaway. "Something new?" + +"Can't say, exactly," replied Blindway. "The chief's got some woman there +who thinks she can tell something about the French maid, so he sent me +for you, and he's sent another man for Miss Lennard. It may be something +good; it mayn't. Otherwise," he concluded with a shake of the head that +was almost dismal, "otherwise, I don't know of anything new. Never knew +of a case in my life, gentlemen, in which less turned up than's turning +up in this affair! And fifty thousand pounds going a-begging!" + +"I suppose this woman's after it," remarked Fullaway. "You didn't hear of +anything she had to tell?" + +"Nothing," answered Blindway. "You'll hear it in a minute or two." + +He took them straight up into the same room, and the same official whom +they had previously seen, and who now sat at his desk with Celia Lennard +on one side of him, and a middle-aged woman, evidently of the poorer +classes, on the other. Allerdyke and Fullaway, after a brief interchange +of salutations with the official and the prima donna, looked at the +stranger--a quiet, respectably-dressed woman who united a natural shyness +with an evident determination to go through with the business that had +brought her there. She was just the sort of woman who can be seen by the +hundred--laundress, seamstress, charwoman, caretaker, got up in her +Sunday best. Odd, indeed, it would be, thought Allerdyke, if this quiet, +humble-looking creature should give information which would place fifty +thousand pounds at her command! + +"This is Mrs. Perrigo," said the chief pleasantly, as he motioned the two +men to chairs near Celia's and beckoned Blindway to his side. "Mrs. +Perrigo, of--where is it, ma'am?" + +"I live in Alpha Place, off Park Street, sir," announced Mrs. Perrigo, +in a small, quiet voice. "Number 14, sir. I'm a clear-starcher by +trade, sir." + +"Put that down, Blindway," said the chief, "and take a note of what Mrs. +Perrigo tells us. Now, Mrs. Perrigo, you think you've seen the dead +woman, Lisette Beaurepaire, at some time or another, in company with a +young man? Where and when was this?" + +"Well, three times, sir. Three times that I'm certain of--there was +another time that I wasn't certain about; at least, that I'm not certain +about now. If I could just tell you about it in my way, sir--" + +"Certainly--certainly, Mrs. Perrigo! Exactly what I wish. Tell us all +about it in your own way. Take your own time." + +"Well, sir, it 'ud be, as near as I can fix it, about the middle of +March--two months ago, sir," began Mrs. Perrigo. "You see, I had the +misfortune to burn my right hand very badly, sir, and having to put my +work aside, and it being nice weather, and warm for the time of year, I +used to go and sit in Kensington Gardens a good deal, which, of course, +was when I see this young lady whose picture's been in the paper of +late, and--" + +"A moment, Mrs. Perrigo," interrupted the official. "Miss Lennard, it +will simplify matters considerably if I ask you a question. Were you and +your late maid in town about the time Mrs. Perrigo speaks of--the middle +of March?" + +"Yes," replied Celia promptly. "We were here from March 3rd, when we came +back from the Continent, to March 29th, when we left for Russia." + +"Continue, Mrs. Perrigo, if you please," said the official. "Take your +time--tell things your own way." + +"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Perrigo dutifully. "If you please, sir. Well, +when I see those pictures in the papers--several papers, sir--of the +young lady with the foreign name I says to myself, and to my neighbour, +Mrs. Watson, which is all I ever talk much to, 'That,' I says, 'is the +young woman I see in Kensington Gardens a time or two and remarks of for +her elegant figure and smart air in general--I could have picked her out +from a thousand,' I says. Which there was, and is a particular spot, +sir, in Kensington Gardens where I used to sit, and you pays a penny for +a chair, which I did, and there's other chairs about, near a fallen +tree, which is still there, for I went to make sure last night, and +there, on three afternoons while I was there, this young lady came at +about, say, four o'clock each time, and was met by this here young man +what I don't remember as clear as I remember her, me not taking so much +notice of him. And--" + +"Another moment, Mrs. Perrigo." The chief turned again to Celia. "Did +your maid ever go out in the afternoons about that time?" he asked. + +"Probably every afternoon," replied Celia. "I myself was away from London +from the 11th to the 18th of March, staying with friends in the country. +I didn't take her with me--so, of course, she'd nothing to do but follow +her own inclinations." + +The chief turned to Mrs. Perrigo again. + +"Yes?" he said. "You saw the young woman whose photograph you have seen +in the papers meet a young man in Kensington Gardens on three separate +occasions. Yes?" + +"Three separate occasions, close by--on penny chairs, sir, where they sat +and talked foreign, which I didn't understand--and on another occasion, +when I see 'em walking by the Round Pond, me being at some distance, but +recognizing her by her elegant figure. I took particular notice of the +young woman's face, sir, me being a noticing person, and I'll take my +dying oath, if need be, that this here picture is hers!" + +Mrs. Perrigo here produced a much worn and crumpled illustrated newspaper +and laid her hand solemnly upon it. That done, she shook her head. + +"But I ain't so certain about the young man as met her," she said +sorrowfully. "Him I did not notice with such attention, being, as I say, +more attracted to her. All the same, he was a young man--and spoke the +same foreign language as what she did. Of them facts, sure I am, sir." + +"They sat near you, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"As near, sir, as I am now to that lady. And paid their pennies for their +chairs in my presence; leastways, the young man paid. Always the same +place it was, and always the same time--three days all within a week, and +then the day when I see 'em walking at a distance." + +"Can't you remember anything about the young man, Mrs. Perrigo?" asked +the chief. "Come!--try to think. That is the really important thing. +You must have some recollection of him, you know, some idea of what he +was like." + +Mrs. Perrigo took a corner of her shawl between her fingers and proceeded +to fold and pleat it while she thoughtfully fixed her eyes on Blindway's +unmoved countenance, as if to find inspiration there. And after a time +she nodded her head as though memory had stirred within her. + +"Which every time I see him," she said, with an evident quickening of +interest, "he had two of them dogs with him what has turned-up noses and +twisted tails." + +"Pugs?" suggested the chief. + +"No doubt that is their name, sir, but unbeknown to me as I never kept +such an animal," answered Mrs. Perrigo. "My meaning being clear, no +doubt, and there being no mistaking of 'em--their tails and noses being +of that order. And had 'em always on a chain--gentlemen's dogs you could +see they was, and carefully looked after with blue bows at the back of +their necks, same as if they was Christians. And him, I should say, +speaking from memory, a dark young man--such is my recollection." + +"It comes to this," remarked the chief, looking at the three listeners +with a smile. "Mrs. Perrigo says that she is certain that upon three +occasions about the middle of March last she witnessed meetings at a +particular spot in Kensington Gardens between a young woman answering the +description and photographs of Lisette Beaurepaire and a young man of +whom she cannot definitely remember anything except that she thinks he +was dark, spoke a foreign language, and was in charge of two pug dogs +which wore blue ribbons. That's it, isn't it, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"And willing to take my solemn oath of the same whenever convenient, +sir," replied Mrs. Perrigo. "And if so be as what I've told you should +lead to anything, gentlemen--and lady--I can assure you that me being a +poor widow, and--" + +Five minutes later, Mrs. Perrigo, with some present reward in her pocket, +was walking quietly up Whitehall with a composed countenance, while +Allerdyke, already late for his Gresham Street appointment, sped towards +the City as fast as a hastily chartered taxi-cab could carry him. And +all the way thither, being alone, he repeated certain words over and +over again. + +"A dark young man who led two pugs--a dark young man who led two pugs! +With blue ribbons on their necks--with blue ribbons on their necks, same +as Christians!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THICK FOG + + +It was half-past eleven when Allerdyke reached Gresham Street: by +half-past one, so curiously and rapidly did events crowd upon each other, +he was in a state of complete mental confusion. He sat down to lunch that +day feeling as a man feels who has lost his way in an unknown country in +the midst of a blinding mist; as a weaver might feel who is at work on an +intricate pattern and suddenly finds all his threads inextricably mixed +up and tangled. Instead of things getting better and clearer, that +morning's work made them more hopelessly muddled. + +Chettle was hanging about the door of the warehouse when Allerdyke drove +up. His usually sly look was accentuated that morning, and as soon as +Allerdyke stepped from his cab he drew him aside with a meaning gesture. + +"A word or two before we go in, Mr. Allerdyke," he said as they walked a +few steps along the street. "Look here, sir," he went on in a whisper. +"I've been reflecting on things since I saw you last night. Of course, +I'm supposed to be in Hull, you know. But I shall have to report myself +at the Yard this morning--can't avoid that. And I shall have to tell +them why I came up. Now, it's here, Mr. Allerdyke--how much or how +little shall I tell 'em? What I mean sir, is this--do you want to keep +any of this recently acquired knowledge to yourself? Of course, if you +do--well, I needn't tell any more there--at headquarters--than you wish +me to tell. I can easy make excuse for coming up. And, of course, in +that case--" + +"Well!" demanded Allerdyke impatiently. "What then?" + +Chettle gave him another look of suggestive meaning, and taking off his +square felt hat, wiped his forehead with a big coloured handkerchief. + +"Well, of course, Mr. Allerdyke," he said insinuatingly. "Of course, sir, +I'm a poor man, and I've a rising family that I want to do my best for. I +could do with a substantial amount of that reward, you know, Mr. +Allerdyke. We've all a right to do the best we can for ourselves, sir. +And if you're wanting to, follow this affair out on your own, sir, +independent of the police--eh?" + +Allerdyke's sense of duty arose in strong protest against this very +palpable suggestion. He shook his head. + +"No--no!" he said. "That won't do, Chettle. You must do your duty to your +superiors. You'll find that you'll be all right. If the police solve this +affair, that reward'll go to the police, and you'll get your proper +share. No--no underhand work. You make your report in your ordinary way. +No more of that!" + +"Aye, but do you understand, Mr. Allerdyke?" said the detective +anxiously. "Do you comprehend what it'll mean. You know very well that +there's a lot of red tape in our work--they go a great deal by rule and +precedent, as you might say. Now, if I go to the Yard--as I shall have +to, as soon as you've done with me--and tell the chief that I've found +this photo of your cousin in Lydenberg's watch, and that you're certain +that your cousin gave that particular photo to Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, do you know what'll happen?" + +"What?" asked Allerdyke. + +"They'll arrest her within half an hour," answered Chettle. +"Dead certain!" + +"Well?" said Allerdyke. "And--what then!" + +"Why, it'll probably upset the whole bag of tricks!" exclaimed Chettle. +"The thing'll be spoiled before we've properly worked it out. See?" + +Allerdyke did see. He had sufficient knowledge of police matters to know +that Chettle was right, and that a too hasty step would probably ruin +everything. He turned towards the warehouse. + +"Just so," he said. "I take your meaning. Now then, come in, and we'll +put it before my manager, Mr. Appleyard. I've great faith in his +judgment--let's see what he's got to say." + +The two Gaffneys were waiting just within the packingroom of the +warehouse. Allerdyke bade them wait a little longer, and took the +detective straight into Appleyard's office. There, behind the closed +door, he told Appleyard of everything that had happened since their last +meeting, and of what Chettle had just said. The problem was, in view of +all that, of the mysterious proceedings of Mrs. Marlow the night before, +and of what Allerdyke had just heard at New Scotland Yard--what was best +to be done, severally and collectively, by all of them? + +Ambler Appleyard grasped the situation at once and solved the problem in +a few direct words. There was no need whatever, he said, for Chettle to +do more than his plain duty, no need for him to exceed it. He was bound, +being what he was, to make his report about his discovery of the +photograph and the writing on it. That he must do. But he was not bound +to tell anything that Allerdyke had told him: he was not bound to give +information which Allerdyke had collected. Let Chettle go and tell the +plain facts about his own knowledge of the photo and leave Allerdyke, +for the moment, clean out of the question. Allerdyke himself could go +with his news in due course. And, wound up Appleyard, who had a keen +knowledge of human nature and saw deep into Chettle's mind, Mr. Allerdyke +would doubtless see that Chettle lost nothing by holding his tongue about +anything that wasn't exactly ripe for discussion. At present, he +repeated, let Chettle do his duty--not exceed it. + +"That's it," agreed Allerdyke. "You've hit it, Ambler. You go and tell +what you know of your own knowledge," he went on, turning to Chettle. +"Leave me clean out for the time being. I'll come in at the right moment. +Say naught about me or of what I've told you. And if you're sent back to +Hull, just contrive to see me before you go. And, as Mr. Appleyard says, +I'll see you're all right, anyhow." + +When Chettle had gone, Allerdyke closed the door on him and turned to his +manager with a knowing look. + +"That chap's right, you know, Ambler," he said. "A false move, a too +hasty step'll ruin everything. If that woman's startled--if she gets a +suspicion--egad, it's all mixed up about as badly as can be! Now, about +these Gaffneys?" + +"Wait a while," said Appleyard. "I don't know that we want their services +just yet. I've found out a thing or two that may be useful. About this +man Rayner now, who's in evident close touch with Miss Slade (by the by, +you saw her at the Waldorf at half-past eleven last night, and I saw her +come into the Pompadour at half-past twelve, with Rayner), and about whom +we accordingly want to know something--I've found out, through ordinary +business channels, that he does carry on a business at Clytemnestra +House, in Arundel Street, under the name of Gavin Ramsay. And--if we want +to know more of him--I've an idea. You go and see him, Mr. Allerdyke--on +business." + +"I? Business?" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What sort of business?" + +"He's an inventor's agent," replied Appleyard. "It's a profession I never +heard of before, but he seems to act as a go-between. Folks that have got +an invention go to him--he helps 'em about it--helps 'em to perfect it, +patent it, get it on the market. You've a good excuse--there's that +patent railway chair of your man Gankrodgers, been lying there in that +corner for the past year, and you promised Gankrodgers you'd help him +about it. Put it in a cab and go to this Rayner, or Ramsay--there's your +excuse, and you can say you heard of him in the City, from +Wilmingtons--it was they who told me what he was. It's a good notion, Mr. +Allerdyke." + +"What object?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Simply to get a look at him," replied Appleyard. "Look here--you know +very well that there's a strong suspicion against Miss Slade. Miss Slade, +to my knowledge, is in close touch, with Rayner. Therefore, let's know +what we can about Rayner. You're the man to go and see him at his own +place. Do it--and we'll consider the question of having him watched by +the two Gaffneys when you've seen and talked to him." + +Allerdyke considered this somewhat strange proposal in silence for a +while. At last he rose with a look of decision. + +"Well, I've certainly a good excuse," he said. "Here, have that thing +packed up and put in a cab--I'll go." + +Half an hour later he found himself shown into a smartly furnished office +where Mr. Gavin Ramsay sat at a handsome desk surrounded by shelves and +cabinets whereon and wherein were set out the products of the brains of +many inventors--models of machines, mechanical toys, labour-saving +notions, things plainly useful, things obviously extravagant. The +occupant of this museum glanced at Allerdyke and the box which he carried +with an amused smile, and Allerdyke said to himself that Appleyard was +right in his description--if the man was crippled and deformed he +certainly possessed a beautiful face. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke," said the hope of inventors, glancing at the +card which his visitor had sent in. + +"The same, sir," replied Allerdyke, setting down his box. "Mr. Ramsay, I +presume? I heard of you, Mr. Ramsay, through Wilmingtons, in the City; +heard you can be of great use to inventors. I have here," he continued, +opening the box, "a railway chair, invented by one of my workmen, a +clever fellow. You see, it 'ud do away with the present system of putting +wooden blocks in the chairs now used--this would fasten the sleepers and +rails together automatically. It is patented--provisionally protected, +anyhow--but my man's never got a railway company to try it, so far. Think +you can do anything, Mr. Ramsay?" + +The hunchback got up from his desk, took the invention out of its box, +and carefully inspected it, asking Allerdyke a few shrewd questions about +the thing's possibilities which showed the caller that he knew what he +was talking about. Then he sat down again and went into business details +in a way which impressed Allerdyke--clearly this man, whoever he was, and +whatever mystery might attach to him, was a smart individual. Also he had +a frank, direct way of talking which gave his visitor a very good first +opinion of him. + +"Very well, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, in conclusion. "Leave the thing +with me, and I will see what I can do. As I say, the proper course will +be to get it tried on one of the smaller railway lines--if it answers +there, we can, perhaps, induce one of the bigger companies to take it up. +I'll do my best." + +Allerdyke thanked him and rose. He had certainly done something for his +man Gankrodgers, and he had seen Ramsay, or Rayner, at close quarters, +but--Ramsay was speaking again. He had picked up Allerdyke's card, and +glanced from it to its presenter, half shyly. + +"You're the cousin of the Mr. Allerdyke whose name's been in the papers +so much in connection with this murder and robbery affair, I suppose?" he +said. "I've seen your own name, of course, in the various accounts." + +"I am," replied Allerdyke. He had moved towards the door, but he turned +and looked at his questioner. "You followed it, then?" he asked. + +"Yes," assented Ramsay. "Closely. A curiously intricate case." + +"Any solution of it present itself to your mind?" asked Allerdyke in his +brusque, downright fashion. "Got any theory?" + +Ramsay smiled and shook his finely shaped head. He, too, rose, walking +towards the door. + +"It's a little early for that, isn't it?" he said. "I've studied these +affairs--criminology, you know--for many years. In my opinion, it's a +mistake to be too hasty in trying to arrive at solutions. But," he added, +with a shrug of his misshapen shoulders, "it's always the way of the +police, and of most folk who try to get at the truth. Things that are +deep down need some deep digging for!" + +"There's the question of the present whereabouts of nearly three +hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels," remarked Allerdyke grimly. +"Remember that!" + +"Quite so," agreed Ramsay. "But--your own particular and personal desire, +as I gather from the newspapers, is to find the murderer of your cousin?" + +"Ah!" said Allerdyke. "And it is! Got any ideas on that point?" + +Ramsay smiled as he opened the door. + +"I think," he said, with a quiet significance. "I think that you'll be +having all this mystery explained and cleared up all of a sudden, Mr. +Allerdyke, in a way that'll surprise you. These things are like +warfare--there's a sudden turn of events, a sudden big event just when +you're not expecting it. Well, good-bye--thank you for giving me a chance +with your man's invention." + +Allerdyke found himself walking up Arundel Street before he had quite +realized that this curious interview was over. At the top he paused, +staring vacantly at the folk who passed and repassed along the Strand. + +"I'd lay a pound to a penny that chap's all right," he muttered to +himself. "He's not a wrong 'un--unless he's damned deceitful! All the +same, he knows something! What? My conscience!--was there ever such a +confounded muddle in this world as this is!" + +But the muddle was a deeper one within the next few minutes. He crossed +over to his hotel, and as he was entering he met Mrs. Marlow coming out, +fresh, dainty, charming, as usual. She stopped at sight of him and held +up the little hand-bag which hung from her wrist. + +"Oh, Mr. Allerdyke!" she said, opening the bag and taking an envelope +from it. "I've something for you. See--here's the photograph your cousin +gave me. You were wrong, you see--there's no spot in it--it's a +particularly clear print. Look!" + +In Allerdyke's big palm she laid the very photograph which, according to +all his reckoning, was that which Chettle had found within the cover of +Lydenberg's watch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + +"Quite a clear print, you see," repeated Mrs. Marlow brightly. "No spot +there. You must have been thinking of another." + +"Aye, just so," replied Allerdyke absentmindedly. "Another, yes, of +course. Aye, to be sure--you're right. No spot on that, certainly." + +He was talking aimlessly, confusedly, as he turned the print over in his +hand, examining it back and front. And having no excuse for keeping it, +he handed it back with a keen look at its owner. What the devil, he asked +himself, was this mysterious woman playing at? + +"I'm going to have this mounted and framed," said Mrs. Marlow, as she put +the photograph back in her bag and turned to go. "I misplaced it some +time ago and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it by accident +this morning, so now I'll take care of it." + +She nodded, smiled, and went off into the sunlight outside, and +Allerdyke, more puzzled than ever, walked forward into the hotel and +towards the restaurant. At its door he met Fullaway, coming out, and in +his usual hurry. + +Fullaway started at sight of Allerdyke, button-holed him, and led him +into a corner. + +"Oh, I say, Allerdyke!" he said, in his bustling fashion. "Look here, a +word with you. You've no objection, have you?" he went on in subdued +tones, "if Van Koon and I have a try for that reward? It doesn't matter +to you, or to the Princess, or to Miss Lennard, who gets the reward so +long as the criminals are brought to justice and the goods found--eh? And +you know fifty thousand is--what it is." + +"You've got an idea?" asked Allerdyke, regarding his questioner steadily. + +"Frankly, yes--an idea--a notion," answered Fullaway. "Van Koon and I +have been discussing the whole affair--just now. He's a smart man, and +has had experience in these things on the other side. But, of course, we +don't want to give our idea away. We want to work in entire independence +of the police, for instance. What we're thinking of requires patience and +deep investigation. So we want to work on our own methods. See?" + +"It doesn't matter to me who gets the reward--as you say," said Allerdyke +slowly. "I want justice. I'm not so much concerned about the jewels as +about who killed my cousin. I believe that man Lydenberg did the actual +killing--but who was at Lydenberg's back? Find that out, and--" + +"Exactly--exactly!" broke in Fullaway. "The very thing! Well--you +understand, Allerdyke. Van Koon and I will want to keep our operations to +ourselves. We don't want police interference. So, if any of these +Scotland Yard chaps come to you here for talk or information, don't bring +me into it. And don't expect me to tell what we're doing until we've +carried out our investigations. No interim reports, you know, Allerdyke. +Personally, I believe we're on the track." + +"Do just what you please," replied Allerdyke. "You're not the only two +who are after that reward. Go ahead--your own way." + +He turned into the restaurant and ordered his lunch, and while it was +being brought sat drumming his fingers on the table, staring vacantly at +the people about him and wondering over the events of the morning. +Rayner's, or Ramsay's, vague hint that something might suddenly clear +everything up; Fullaway's announcement that he and Van Koon had put their +heads together; Mrs. Perrigo's story of the French maid and the young man +who led blue-ribboned pug-dogs--but all these were as nothing compared to +the fact that Mrs. Marlow had actually shown him the photograph which he +had until then firmly believed to lie hidden in the case of Lydenberg's +watch. That beat him. + +"Is my blessed memory going wrong?" he said to himself. "Did I actually +print more than four copies of that thing! No--no!--I'm shot if I did. +My memory never fails. I did not print off more than four. James had +three; I had one. Mine's in my album upstairs. I know what James did +with his. Cousin Grace has one; Wilson Firth has another; he gave the +third to this Mrs. Marlow--and she's got it! Then--how the devil did +that photograph, which looks to be of my taking, which I'd swear is of +my taking, come to be in Lydenberg's watch? Gad--it's enough to make a +man's brain turn to pap!" + +He was moodily finishing his lunch when Chettle came in to find him. +Allerdyke, who was in a quiet corner, beckoned the detective to a seat, +and offered him a drink. + +"Well?" he asked. "What's been done?" + +"It's all right," answered Chettle. "I've told no more than was +necessary--just what we agreed upon. To tell you the truth, our folks +don't attach such tremendous importance to it--they will, of course, when +you tell them your story about the photo. Just at present they merely see +the obvious fact--that Lydenberg was furnished with the photo as a means +of ready identification of your brother. No--at this moment they're full +of the Perrigo woman's story--they think that's a sure clue--a good +beginning. Somebody, they say, must own, or have owned, those pugs! +Therefore they're going strong on that. Meanwhile, I'm going back to Hull +for at any rate a few days." + +"You've still got that watch on you?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Certainly," answered Chettle, clapping his hand to his breast-pocket. +"Technically speaking, it's in charge of the Hull police--it'll have to +be produced there. Did you want to see it again, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Finish your drink and come up to my sitting-room," said Allerdyke. "I'll +give you a cigar up there. Yes," he added, as they left the restaurant +and went upstairs. "I do want to see it again--or, rather, the +photograph. You're in no hurry?" + +"A good hour to spare yet," replied Chettle. + +Allerdyke locked the door of the sitting-room when they were once inside +it, and that done he placed a decanter, a syphon, and a glass on his +table, and flanked them with a box of cigars. He waved a hospitable hand +towards these comforts. + +"Sit down and help yourself, Chettle," he said. "A drop of my whisky'll +do you no harm--that's some I got down from home, and you'll not find its +like everywhere. Light a cigar--and put a couple in your pocket to smoke +in the train. Now then, let's see that photograph once more." + +Chettle handed over the watch, and Allerdyke, opening the case, +delicately removed the print. He sat down at the table with his back to +the light, and carefully examined the thing back and front, while the +detective, glass in hand, cigar in lips, and thumb in the armhole of his +waistcoat, watched him appreciatively and inquisitively. + +"Make aught new out of it, sir?" he asked after a while. + +Instead of answering, Allerdyke laid the photograph down, went across to +another table, and took from it his album. He turned its leaves over +until he came to a few loose prints. He picked them up one after another +and examined them. And suddenly he knew the secret. There was no longer +any problem, any difficulty about that photograph. He knew--now! And with +a sharp exclamation, he flung the album back to the side-table, and +turned to the detective. + +"Chettle!" he said. "You know me well enough to know that I can make it +well worth any man's while to keep a secret until I tell him he can speak +about it! What!" + +"I should think so, Mr. Allerdyke," responded Chettle, readily enough. +"And if you want me to keep a secret--" + +"I do--for the time being," answered Allerdyke. He sat down again and +picked up the photograph which had exercised his thoughts so intensely. +"I've found out the truth concerning this," he said, tapping it with his +finger. "Yes, I've hit it! Listen, now--I told you I'd only made four +prints of this photo, and that I knew exactly where they all were--one in +my own album there, two given by James to friends in Bradford, one--as we +more recently found out--given by James to Mrs. Marlow. That one--the +Mrs. Marlow one--we believed to be--this--this!" + +"And isn't it, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked Chettle wonderingly. + +Allerdyke laughed--a laugh of relief and satisfaction. + +"Less than an hour ago," he replied, "in fact, just before you came in, +Mrs. Marlow showed me the photo which James gave her--showed it to me, +out below there in the hall. No mistaking it! And so--when you came, I +was racking my brains to rags trying to settle what this +photo--this!--was. And now I know what it is--and damn me if I know +whether the discovery makes things plainer or more mixed up! But--I know +what this is, anyway." + +"And--what is it, sir?" asked Chettle eagerly, eyeing the photo as if it +were some fearful living curiosity. "What, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Why, it's a photograph of my photograph!" almost shouted Allerdyke, with +a thump of his big hand on the table. "That's the truth. This has been +reproduced from mine, d'ye see? Look here--happen you don't know much +about photography, but you'll follow me--I always use a certain sort of +printing-out paper; I've stuck to one particular sort for years--all the +photos in that album are done on that particular sort. The four prints I +made of James's last photo were done on that paper. Now then--this photo, +this print that you found in Lydenberg's watch, is not done on that +paper--it's a totally different paper. Therefore--this is a reproduction! +It is not my original print at all--it's been copied from it. See?" + +Chettle, who had followed all this with concentrated attention, nodded +his head several times. + +"Clever--clever--clever!" he said with undisguised admiration. "Clever, +indeed! That's a smart bit of work, sir. I see--I understand! Bless my +soul! And what do you gather from that, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"This!" answered Allerdyke. "Just now, Mrs. Marlow said to me, speaking +of her photo--the fourth print, you know--'I misplaced it some time +ago,' she said, 'and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it +accidentally this morning.' Now then, Chettle, here's the thing--somebody +took that fourth print from Mrs. Marlow, reproduced it--and that--that +print which you found in Lydenberg's watch is the reproduction!" + +"So that," began Chettle suggestively, "so that--" + +"So that the thing now is to find who it is that made the reproduction," +said Allerdyke. "When we've found him--or her--I reckon we shall have +found the man who's at the heart of all this. Leave that to me! Keep this +a dead secret until I tell you to speak--we shall have to tell all this, +and a bonny sight more, to your bosses at headquarters--off you go to +Hull, and do what you have to do, and I'll get on with my work here. I +said I didn't know whether this discovery makes things thicker or +clearer, but, by George, it's a step forward anyway!" + +Chettle put the reproduction back into the case of the watch and bestowed +it safely in his pocket. + +"One step forward's a good deal in a case like this, Mr. Allerdyke," he +said. "What are you going to do about the next step, now?" + +"Try to find out who made that reproduction," replied Allerdyke bluntly. +"No easy job, either! The ground's continually shifting and changing +under one's very feet. But I don't mind telling you my present +theory--somebody's got information of that jewel deal from Fullaway's +office, somebody who had access to his papers, somebody who managed to +steal that photo of mine from Mrs. Marlow for a few days or until they +could reproduce it. What I want to find now is--an idea of that somebody. +And--I'll get it!--I'll move heaven and earth to get it! But--other +matters. You say your folks at the Yard are going to follow up that +Perrigo woman's clue? They think it important, then?" + +"In the case of the Frenchwoman, yes," answered Chettle. He thrust his +hand into a side-pocket and brought out a crumpled paper. "Here's a proof +of the bill they're getting out," he said. "They set to work on that as +soon as they'd got the information. That'll be up outside every +police-station in a few hours, and it's gone out to the Press, too." + +Allerdyke took the proof, still damp from the machine, and looked it +over. It asked, in the usual formal language, for any information about a +young man, dark, presumably a foreigner, who, about the middle of March, +was in the habit of taking two pug dogs, generally bedecked with blue +ribbons, into Kensington Gardens. + +"There ought to be some response to that, you know, Mr. Allerdyke," +remarked Chettle. "Somebody must remember and know something about that +young fellow. But, upon my soul, as I said to Blindway just now, I don't +know whether that bill's a mere advertisement or a--death warrant!" + +"Death warrant!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What d'you mean?" + +Chettle chuckled knowingly. + +"Mean," he said. "Why, this--if that young fellow who led pugs about, and +talked to Mamselle Lisette in Kensington Gardens, is another of the cat's +paws that this gang evidently made use of, I should say that when the +gang sees he's being searched for, they'll out him, just as they outed +her and Lydenberg. That's what I mean, Mr. Allerdyke--they'll do him in +themselves before anybody else can get at him! See?" + +Allerdyke saw. And when the detective had gone, he threw himself into a +chair, lighted one of his strongest cigars, drew pen, ink, and paper to +him, and began to work at his problem with a grim determination to evolve +at any rate a clear theory of its possible solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + +Next morning, as Allerdyke was leaving the hotel with the intention of +going down to Gresham Street, one of the hall-porters ran after and +hailed him. + +"You're wanted at the telephone, sir," he said. "Call for you just +come through." + +Allerdyke went back, to find himself hailed by Blindway. Would he drive +on to the Yard at once and bring Mr. Fullaway with him?--both were +wanted, particularly in connection with the Perrigo information. + +Allerdyke promised for himself, and went upstairs to find Fullaway. He +met him coming down, and gave him the message. Fullaway looked undecided. + +"You know what I told you yesterday, Allerdyke," he said. "I didn't want +to be bothered further with these police chaps. Van Koon and I are on a +line of our own, and--" + +"As you like," interrupted Allerdyke, "but all the same, if I were in +your place I shouldn't refuse a chance of acquiring information. Even if +you don't want to tell the police anything, that's no reason why you +shouldn't learn something from them." + +"There's that in it, certainly," assented Fullaway. "All right. You get a +taxi and I'll join you in a minute or two." + +As they got out of one cab at the police headquarters Celia Lennard +appeared in another. She made a little grimace as the two men +greeted her. + +"Again!" she exclaimed, "What are we going to be treated to now? More old +women with vague stories, I suppose. What good is it at all? And when am +I going to hear something about my jewels?" + +"You never know what you're going to hear when you visit these palatial +halls," answered Fullaway. "You may be going to have the biggest surprise +of your life, you know. They sent for you?" + +"Rang me up in the middle of my breakfast," answered Celia. "Well--let's +find out what new sensation this is. Some extraordinary creature on view +again, of course." + +The creature on view proved to be a little fat man, obviously French or +Swiss, who sat, his rotund figure tightly enveloped in a frock-coat, the +lapel of which was decorated with a bit of ribbon, on the edge of a chair +facing the chief's desk. He was a nervous, alert little man; his +carefully trimmed moustache and pointed beard quivered with excitement; +his dark eyes blazed. And at sight of the elegantly attired lady he +bounced out of his chair, swept his silk hat to the ground, and executed +a deep bow of the most extreme politeness. + +"This," observed the chief, with a smile at his visitors, "is Monsieur +Aristide Bonnechose. M. Bonnechose believes that he can tell us +something. It is a supplement to what Mrs. Perrigo told us yesterday. It +relates, of course to the young man whom Mrs. Perrigo told us of--the +young man who led pugs in Kensington Gardens." + +"The pogs of Madame, my spouse," said M. Bonnechose, with a bow and a +solemn expression. "Two pogs--Fifi and Chou-Chou." + +"M. Bonnechose," continued the chief, regarding his company with yet +another smile, "is the proprietor of a--what is your establishment, +monsieur?" + +"Cáfe-restaurant, monsieur," replied M. Bonnechose, promptly and +politely. "Small, but elegant. Of my name, monsieur--the Cafe Bonnechose, +Oxford Street. Established nine years--I succeeded to a former +proprietor, Monsieur Jules, on his lamented decease." + +"I think M. Bonnechose had better tell us his history in his own +fashion," remarked the chief, looking around. "You are aware, Mr. +Allerdyke, and you, too, Mr. Fullaway, and so I suppose are you Miss +Lennard, that after hearing what Mrs. Perrigo had to tell us I put out a +bill asking for information about the young man Mrs. Perrigo described, +and the matter was also mentioned in last night's and this morning's +papers. M. Bonnechose read about it in his newspaper, and so he came here +at once. He tells me that he knew a young man who was good enough during +the early spring, to occasionally take out Madame Bonnechose's prize dogs +for an airing. That seems to have been the same man referred to by Mrs. +Perrigo. Now, M. Bonnechose, give us the details." + +M. Bonnechose set down his tall, very Parisian hat on the edge of +the chief's desk, and proceeded to use his hands in conjunction with +his tongue. + +"With pleasure, monsieur," he responded. "It is this way, then. You will +comprehend that Madame, my spouse, and myself are of the busiest. We do +not keep a great staff; accordingly we have much to do ourselves. +Consequently we have not much time to go out, to take the air. Madame, my +spouse, she has a love for the dogs--she keeps two, Fifi and +Chou-Chou--pogs. What they call pedigree dogs--valuable. Beautiful +animals--but needing exercise. It is a trouble to Madame that they cannot +disport themselves more frequently. Now, about the beginning of this +spring, a young man--compatriot of my own--a Swiss from the Vaud +canton--he begins coming to my cafe. Sometimes he comes for his +lunch--sometimes he drops in, as they say, for a cup of coffee. We find +out, he and I, that we come from the same district. In the event, we +become friendly." + +"This young man's name, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"What we knew him by--Federman," replied M. Bonnechose. "Carl Federman. +He told me he was looking out for a job as valet to a rich man. He had +been a waiter--somewhere in London--some hotel, I think--I did not pay +much attention. Anyway, while he was looking for his job he certainly had +plenty of money--plenty! He do himself very well with his +lunches--sometimes he come and have his dinner at night. We are not +expensive, you understand--nice lunch for two shillings, nice dinner for +three--nothing to him, that--he always carry plenty of money in his +pockets. Well, then, of course, having nothing to do, often he talks to +me and Madame. One day we talk of the pogs, then walking about the +establishment. He remarks that they are too fat. Madame sighs and says +the poor darlings do not get sufficient exercise. He is good-natured, +this Federman--he say at once 'I will exercise them--I, myself,' So he +come next day, like a good friend, Madame puts blue ribbons on the pogs, +and bids them behave nicely--away they go with Federman for the +excursion. Many days he thus takes them--to Hyde Park, to Kensington +Gardens--out of the neighbourliness, you understand. Madame is much +obliged to him--she regards him as a kind young man--eh? And then, all of +a sudden, we do not see Federman any more--no. Nor hear of him until +monsieur asks for news of him in the papers. I see that news last +night--Madame sees it! We start--we look at each other--we regard +ourselves with comprehension. We both make the same exclamation--'It is +Federman! He is wanted! He has done something!' Then Madame says, +'Aristide, in the morning, you will go to the police commissary,' I say +'It shall be done--we will have no mystery around the Cafe Bonnechose.' +Monsieur, I am here--and I have spoken!" + +"And that is all you know, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"All, monsieur, absolutely all!" + +"About when was it that this young man first came to your cafe, then?" + +"About the beginning of March, or end of February, monsieur--it was the +beginning of the good weather, you understand." + +"And he left off coming--when?" + +"Beginning of April, monsieur--after that we never see him again. Often +we say to ourselves, 'Where is Federman?' The pogs, they look at the seat +which he was accustomed to take, as much as to ask the same question. +But," concluded M. Bonnechose, with a dismal shake of his close-cropped +head, and a spreading forth of his hands, "he never visit us no +more--no!" + +"Now, listen, M. Bonnechose," said the chief; "did this man ever give you +any particulars about himself?" + +"None but what I have told you, monsieur--and which I do not now +remember." + +"Ever tell you where he lived in London---at the time he was +visiting you?" + +"No, monsieur--never." + +"Did he ever come to your place accompanied by anybody? Bring any +friends there?" + +M. Bonnechose put himself into an attitude of deep thought. He remained +in it for a moment or two; then he exchanged it for one of joyful +recollection. + +"On one occasion, a lady!" he exclaimed. "A Frenchwoman. Tall--that is, +taller than is usual amongst Frenchwomen--slender--elegant. Dark--dark, +black eyes--not beautiful, you understand, but--engaging." + +"Lisette!" muttered Celia. + +"On only one occasion, you say, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. +"When was it?" + +"About the time I speak of, monsieur. They came in one night--rather +late. They had a light supper--nothing much." + +"He did not tell you who she was?" + +"Not a word, monsieur! He was, as a rule, very secretive, this Federman, +saying little about his own affairs." + +"You don't remember that he ever brought any one else there! No men, for +instance?" + +M. Bonnechose shook his head. Then, once again, his face brightened. + +"No!" he said. "But once--just once--I saw Federman talking to a man in +the street--Shaftesbury Avenue. A clean-shaven man, well built, brown +hair--a Frenchman, I think. But, of course, a stranger to me." + +The chief exchanged a glance with Allerdyke and Fullaway--both knew what +that glance meant. M. Bonnechose's description tallied remarkably with +that of the man who had gone to Eastbourne Terrace Hotel with Lisette +Beaurepaire. + +"A clean-shaven man, with brown hair, and well built, eh?" said the +chief. "And when--" + +Just then an interruption came in the person of a man who entered the +room and gave evident signs of a desire to tell something to his +superior. The chief left his chair, went across to the door, and received +a communication which was evidently of considerable moment. He turned and +beckoned Blindway; the three went out of the room. Several minutes +passed; then the chief came back alone, and looked at his visitors with a +glance of significance. + +"We have just got news of something that relates, I think, to the +very subject we were discussing," he said. "A young man has been found +dead in bed at a City hotel this morning under very suspicious +circumstances--circumstances very similar to those of the Eastbourne +Terrace affair. And," he went on, glancing at a scrap of paper which he +held in his hand, "the description of him very closely resembles that of +this man Federman. Of course, it's not an uncommon type, but--" + +"Another of 'em!" exclaimed Allerdyke. He had suddenly remembered what +Chettle had said about the new bill being a possible death-warrant, and +the words started irrepressibly to his lips. "Good Lord!" + +The chief gave him a quick glance; it seemed as if he instinctively +divined what was passing in Allerdyke's mind. + +"I'm sorry to trouble you," he said, without referring to Allerdyke's +interruption, "but I'm afraid I must ask you--all of you--to run down to +this City hotel with me. We mustn't leave a stone unturned, and if any of +you can identify this man--" + +"Oh, you don't want me, surely!" cried Celia. "Please let me off--I do so +hate that sort of thing!" + +"Naturally," remarked the chief. "But I'm afraid I want you more than +any one, Miss Lennard--you and M. Bonnechose. Come--we'll go at +once--Blindway has gone down to get two cabs for us." + +Blindway, M. Bonnechose, and Fullaway rode to the City in one cab; Celia, +Allerdyke, and the chief in another. Their journey came to an end in a +quiet old street near the Docks, and at the door of an old-fashioned +looking hotel. There was a much-worried landlord, and a detective or two, +and sundry police to meet them, and inquisitive eyes looked out of doors +and round corners as they went upstairs to a door which was guarded by +two constables. The chief turned to Celia with a word of encouragement. + +"One look will answer the purpose," he said quietly. "But--look closely!" + +The next moment all six were standing round a narrow bed on which was +laid out the dead body of a young man. The face, calm, composed, looked +more like that of a man who lay quietly and peacefully asleep than one +who had died under suspicious circumstances. + +"Well?" asked the chief presently. "What do you say, Miss Lennard?" + +Celia caught her breath. + +"This--this is the man who came to Hull," she whispered. "The man, you +know, who called himself Lisette's brother. I knew him instantly." + +"And you, M. Bonnechose?" said the chief. "Do you recognize him?" + +The cafe-keeper, who had been making inarticulate murmurs of surprise and +grief, nodded. + +"Federman!" he said. "Oh, yes, monsieur--Federman, without doubt. +Poor fellow!" + +The chief turned to leave the room, saying quietly that that was all he +wished. But Fullaway, who had been staring moodily at the dead man, +suddenly stopped him. "Look here!" he said. "I know this man, too--but +not as Federman. I'm not mistaken about him, and I don't think Miss +Lennard or M. Bonnechose are, either. But I knew him as Fritz Ebers. He +acted as my valet at the Waldorf from the beginning of April to about the +end of the first week in May last. And--since we now know what we +do--it's my opinion that there--there in that dead man--is the last of +the puppets! The Frenchwoman--Lydenberg--now this fellow--all three got +rid of! Now, then--where's the man who pulled the strings! Where's the +arch-murderer!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + +The chief made no immediate reply to Fullaway's somewhat excited +outburst; he led his little party from the room, and in the corridor +turned to Celia and the café keeper. + +"That's all, Miss Lennard, thank you," he said. "Sorry to have to ask you +to take part in these painful affairs, but it can't be helped. M. +Bonnechose, I'm obliged to you--you'll hear from me again very soon. In +the meantime, keep counsel--don't talk to anybody except Madame--no +gossiping with customers, you know. Mr. Allerdyke, will you see Miss +Lennard downstairs and into a cab, and then join Mr. Fullaway and me +again?--we must have a talk with the police and the hotel people." + +When Allerdyke went back into the hotel he found Blindway waiting for him +at the door of a ground-floor room in which the chief, Fullaway, a City +police-inspector and a detective were already closeted with the landlord +and landlady. The landlord, a somewhat sullen individual, who appeared to +be greatly vexed and disconcerted by these events, was already being +questioned by the chief as to what he knew of the young man whose body +they had just seen, and he was replying somewhat testily. + +"I know no more about him than I know of any chance customer," he was +saying when Allerdyke was ushered in by Blindway, who immediately closed +the door on this informal conclave. "You see what this house is?--a +second-class house for gentlemen having business in this part, round +about the Docks. We get a lot of commercial gentlemen, sea-faring men, +such-like. Lots of our customers are people who are going to foreign +places--Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and so on--they put up here just for +the night, before sailing. I took this young man for one of that sort--in +fact, I think he made some inquiry about one of the boats." + +"He did," affirmed the landlady. "He asked William, the head-waiter, what +time the Rotterdam steamer sailed this morning." + +"And that's about all we know," continued the landlord. "I never took any +particular notice of him, and--" + +"Just answer a few questions," said the chief, interrupting him quietly. +"We shall get at what we want to know more easily that way. What time did +this young man come to the hotel yesterday?" + +The landlord turned to his wife with an expressive gesture. + +"Ask her," he answered. "She looks after all that--I'm not so much in +the office." + +"He came at seven o'clock last night," said the landlady. "I was in the +office, and I booked him and gave him his room--27." + +"Was he alone?" + +"Quite alone. He'd the suit-case that's upstairs in the room now, and an +overcoat and an umbrella." + +"Of course," said the chief, "he gave you some name--some address?" + +"He gave the name and address of Frank Herman, Walthamstow," replied the +landlady, opening a ledger which she had brought into the room. "There +you are--that's his writing." + +The chief drew the book to him, glanced at the entry, and closed the book +again, keeping a finger in it. + +"Well, what was seen of him during the evening!" he asked. + +"Nothing much," replied the landlady. "He had his supper in the +coffee-room--a couple of chops and coffee. He was reading the papers in +the smoking-room until about half-past ten; I saw him myself going +upstairs between that and eleven. As I didn't see him about next morning +and as his breakfast wasn't booked, I asked where he was, and the +chambermaid said there was a card on his door saying that he wasn't to be +called till eleven." + +"Where is that card?" asked the chief. + +"It's here in this envelope," answered the landlady, who seemed to be +much more alert and much sharper of intellect than her husband. "I took +care of it when we found out what had happened. I suppose you'll take +charge of it?" + +"If you please," answered the chief. He took the envelope, looked +inside it to make sure that the card was there, and turned to the +landlady again. + +"Yes?" he said. "When you found out what had happened. Now, who did find +out what had happened?" + +"Well," answered the landlady, "the chambermaid came down soon after +eleven, and said she couldn't get 27 to answer her knock. Of course, I +understood that he wanted to catch the Rotterdam boat which sailed about +noon, so I sent my husband up. And as he couldn't get any answer--" + +"I went in with the chambermaid's key," broke in the landlord, "and there +he was--just as you've seen him--dead. And if you ask me, he was cold, +too--been dead some time, in my opinion." + +"The surgeon said several hours--six or seven," remarked the inspector in +an aside to the chief. "Thought he'd been dead since four o'clock." + +"No signs of anything in the room, I suppose?" asked the chief. "Nothing +disturbed, eh?" + +"Nothing!" replied the landlord stolidly. "The room was as you'd expect +to find it; tidy enough. And nothing touched--as the police that were +called in at first can testify. They can swear as his money was all right +and his watch and chain all right--there'd been no robbery. And," he +added with resentful emphasis, "I don't care what you nor nobody +says!--'tain't no case of murder, this! It's suicide, that's what it is. +I don't want my house to get the name and character of a murder place! I +can't help it if a quiet-looking, apparently respectable young fellow +comes and suicides himself in my house--there's nobody can avoid that, as +I know of, but when it comes to murder--" + +"No one has said anything about murder so far," interrupted the chief +quietly. "But since you suggest it, perhaps we'd better ask who you'd got +in the house last night." He opened the register at the page in which he +had kept his finger, and looked at the last entries. "I see that +three--no, four--people came in after this young man who called himself +Frank Herman. You booked them, I suppose?" he went on, turning to the +landlady. "Were they known to you?" + +"Only one--that one, Mr. Peter Donaldson, Dundee," answered the +landlady. "He's the representative of a jute firm--he often comes here. +He's in the house now, or he was, an hour ago--he'll be here for two or +three days. Those two, Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen--they appeared to be +foreigners. They were here for the night, had breakfast early, and went +away by some boat--our porter carried their things to it. Quiet, elderly +folks, they were." + +"And the fourth--John Barcombe, Manchester--you didn't know him?" asked +the chief, pointing to the last entry. "I see you gave him Number 29--two +doors from Herman." + +"Yes," said the landlady. "No--I didn't know him. He came in about nine +o'clock and had some supper before he went up. He'd his breakfast at +eight o'clock this morning, and went away at once. Lots of our +customers do that--they're just in for bed and breakfast, and we +scarcely notice them." + +"Did you notice this man--Barcombe?" asked the chief. + +"Well, not particularly. But I've a fair recollection of him. A rather +pale, stiffish-built man, lightish brown hair and moustache, dressed in a +dark suit. He'd no luggage, and he paid me for supper, bed, and breakfast +when he booked his room," replied the landlady. "Quite a quiet, +respectable man--he said something about being unexpectedly obliged to +stop for the night, but I didn't pay any great attention." + +The chief looked attentively at the open page of the register. Then he +drew the attention of those around him to the signature of John Barcombe. +It was a big, sprawling signature, all the letters sloping downward from +left to right, and being of an unusual size for a man. + +"That looks to me like a feigned handwriting," he said. "However, note +this. You see that entry of Frank Herman? Observe his handwriting. Now +compare it with the writing on the card which was fixed on the door of +27--Herman's room. Look!" + +He drew the card out of its envelope as he spoke and laid it beside the +entry in the register. And Marshall Allerdyke, bending over his shoulder +to look, almost cried out with astonishment, for the writing on the card +was certainly the same as that which Chettle had shown him on the +post-card found on Lydenberg, and on the back of the photograph of James +Allerdyke discovered in Lydenberg's watch. It was only by a big effort +that he checked the exclamation which was springing to his lips, and +stopped himself from snatching up the card from the table. + +"You observe," said the chief quietly, "you can't fail to observe that +the writing in the register, is not the writing of the card pinned on the +door of Number 27. They are quite different. The writing of Frank Herman +in the register is in thick, stunted strokes; the writing on the card is +in thin, angular, what are commonly called crabbed strokes. Yet it is +supposed that Herman put that card outside his bedroom door. How is it, +then, that Herman's handwriting was thick and stunted when he registered +at seven o'clock and slender and a bit shaky when he wrote this card at, +say, half-past ten or eleven? Of course, Herman, or whatever his real +name is, never wrote the line on that card, and never pinned that card on +his door!" + +The landlord opened his heavy lips and gasped: the landlady sighed with a +gradually awakening interest. Amidst a dead silence the chief went on +with his critical inspection of the handwriting. + +"But now look at the signature of the man who called himself John +Barcombe, of Manchester. You will observe that he signed that name in a +great, sprawling hand across the page, and that the letters slope from +left to right, downward, instead of in the usually accepted fashion of +left to right, upward. Now at first sight there is no great similarity +in the writing of that entry in the register and that on the card--one is +rounded and sprawling, and the other is thin and precise. But there is +one remarkable and striking similarity. In the entry in the register +there are two a's--the a in Barcombe, the a in Manchester. On the one +line on the card found pinned to the door there are also two a's--the a +in please; the a in call. Now observe--whether the writing is big, +sprawling, thin, precise; feigned, obviously, in one case, natural, I +think, in the other, all those four a's are the same! This man has grown +so accustomed to making his a's after the Greek fashion--a--done in one +turn of the pen--that he has made them even in his feigned handwriting! +There's not a doubt, to my mind, that the card found on Herman's door was +written, and put on that door, by the man who registered as John +Barcombe. And," he added in an undertone to Allerdyke, "I've no doubt, +either, that he's the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair." + +The landlord had risen to his feet, and was scowling gloomily at +everybody. + +"Then you are making it out to be murder?" he exclaimed sulkily. "Just +what I expected! Never had police called in yet without 'em making +mountains out of molehills! Murder, indeed!--nothing but a case of +suicide, that's what I say. And as this is a temperance hotel, and not a +licensed house, I'll be obliged to you if you'll have that body taken +away to the mortuary--I shall be having the character of my place taken +away next, and then where shall I be I should like to know!" + +He swung indignantly out of the room, and his wife, murmuring that it was +certainly very hard on innocent people that these things went on, +followed him. The police, giving no heed to these protests, proceeded to +examine the articles taken from the dead man's clothing. Whatever had +been the object of the murderer, it was certainly not robbery. There was +a purse and a pocket-book, containing a considerable amount of money in +gold and notes; a good watch and chain, and a ring or two of some value. + +"Just the same circumstances as in the Eastbourne Terrace affair," said +the chief as he rose. "Well--the thing is to find that man. You've no +doubt whatever, Mr. Fullaway, that this dead man upstairs is the man you +knew as Ebers, a valet at your hotel?" + +"None!" answered Fullaway emphatically. "None whatever. Lots of people +will be able to identify him." + +"That's good, at any rate," remarked the chief. "It's a long step +towards--something. Well, I must go." + +Allerdyke was in more than half a mind to draw the chief aside and tell +him about Chettle's discoveries as regards the handwriting, but while he +hesitated Fullaway tugged earnestly at his sleeve. + +"Come away!" whispered Fullaway. "Come! We're going to cut in at this +ourselves!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + +Allerdyke was scarcely prepared for the feverish energy with which +Fullaway dragged him out of the hotel, forced him into the first taxi-cab +they met, and bade the driver make haste to the Waldorf. He knew by that +time that the American was a nervous, excitable individual who now and +then took on tremendous fits of work in which he hustled and bustled +everybody around him, but he had never seen him quite so excited and +eager as now. The discovery at that shabby hotel which they had just +quitted seemed to have acted on him like the smell of powder on an old +war-horse; he appeared to be positively panting for action. + +"Allerdyke!" he almost shouted as the cab moved away, and he himself +smote one clenched fist upon the other. "Allerdyke--this thing has got to +go through! I resign all claim to that reward. Allerdyke!--this affair is +too serious for any hole-and-corner work. I shall tell Van Koon that what +we know, or fancy, must be thrown into the common stock of knowledge! The +thing is to get at the people who've been behind this poor chap Ebers, or +Federman, or Herman, or whatever his name is. Allerdyke!--we must go +right into things." + +Allerdyke laughed sardonically. When Fullaway developed excitement, he +developed coolness, and his voice became as dry and hard as the other's +was fervid and eloquent. + +"Aye!" he said in his most phlegmatic tones. "Aye, just so! And where +d'ye intend to cut in, now, like? Is it a sort of Gordian knot affair +that you're thinking of? Going to solve this difficulty at one blow?" + +"Don't be sarcastic," retorted Fullaway. "I'm going to take things clean +up from this Federman or Ebers affair. I'm going deep--deep! You'll see +in a few minutes." + +"Willing to see--and to hear--aught," remarked Allerdyke laconically. +"I've been doing naught else since I got that wireless telegram." + +Then they relapsed into silence until the Waldorf was reached. +There Fullaway raced his companion upstairs to his rooms and burst +in upon Mrs. Marlow like a whirlwind. The pretty secretary, busied +with her typewriter, looked up, glanced at both men, and calmly +resumed her labours. + +"Mrs. Marlow!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Just step to Mr. Van Koon's rooms +and beg him to come back here to my sitting-room with you--important +business, Mrs. Marlow--I want you, too." + +Allerdyke, closely watching the woman around whom so much mystery +centred, saw that she did not move so much as an eyelash. She laid her +work aside, left the room, and within a minute returned with Van Koon, +who gazed at Fullaway with an air of half-amused inquiry. + +"Something happened?" he asked, nodding to Allerdyke. "Town on fire?" + +"Van Koon, sit down," commanded Fullaway, pushing his compatriot into the +inner room. "Mrs. Marlow, fasten that outer door and come in here. We're +going to have a stiff conference. Sit down, please, all of you. Now," he +went on, when the other three had ranged themselves about the centre +table, "There is news, Van Koon. Allerdyke and I have just come away from +an hotel in the Docks where we've seen the dead body of a young man who's +been found dead there under precisely similar circumstances to those +which attended the death of the French maid in Eastbourne Terrace. We've +also heard a description of a man who was at this hotel in the Docks last +night--it corresponds to that of the fellow who accompanied Lisette +Beaurepaire. I, personally, have no doubt that this man, whoever he is, +is the murderer of Lisette and of this youngster whose body we've just +seen. Mrs. Marlow, this dead young fellow, from whose death-chamber we've +just come, is that valet I used to have here--Ebers. You remember him?" + +"Sure!" answered Mrs. Marlow, quite calmly and unconcernedly. "Very +well indeed." + +"This Ebers," continued Fullaway, turning to Van Koon, "was a young +fellow, Swiss, German, something of that sort, who acted as valet to me +and to some other men here in this hotel for a time. I needn't go into +too many details now, but there's no doubt that he knew, and was in touch +with, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Miss Lennard positively identifies him as +the man who met her and Lisette at Hull, and represented himself as +Lisette's brother. Now then, Ebers--we'll stick to that name for the sake +of clearness--was in and out of my rooms a good deal, of course. And +what I want to know now, Mrs. Marlow, is--do you think he got access to +our letters, papers, books? Could he find out, for instance, that I was +engaged in this deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin, +and that Miss Lennard had bought the Pinkie Pell pearls? Think!" + +Mrs. Marlow had evidently done her thinking; she replied without +hesitation. + +"If he did, or could, it would be through your own carelessness, +Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You know that I am ridiculously careful +about that sort of thing! From the time I come here in the +morning--ten-o'clock--until I leave at five, no one has any chance of +seeing our papers, or our letter book, or our telegram-copies book. They +are always on my desk while I am in the office, and when I go downstairs +to lunch I lock them up in the safe. But--you're not careful! How many +times have I come in the morning, and found that you've taken these +things out of the safe over-night and left them lying about for anybody +to see? Dozens of times!" + +"I know--I know!" admitted Fullaway with a groan. "I'm frightfully +careless--always was. I quite admit it, Mrs. Marlow, quite!" + +"Of course," continued Mrs. Marlow, in precise, even tones, "of course if +you left the letter-book lying round, and the book in which the +duplicates of all our telegrams and cablegrams are kept, too--why, this +Ebers man could easily read what he liked for himself when he was in here +of a morning before you got up. He was in and out a great deal, that's +certain. And as regards those two affairs, the documents we have about +them are pretty plain, Mr. Fullaway. Anybody of average intelligence +could find out in ten minutes from our letter-book and telegram-book that +we negotiated the sale of the Pinkie Pell pearls to Miss Lennard, and +that Mr. James Allerdyke was bringing here a valuable parcel of jewels +from Russia. And," concluded Mrs. Marlow quietly, "from what I saw of +him, Ebers was a smart man." + +Van Koon, who had been listening attentively to all this, turned a +half-whimsical, half-reproving glance on Fullaway, who sat in a contrite +attitude, drumming his fingers on the polished table. + +"I guess you're a very careless individual, my friend," he said, shaking +his head. "If you will leave your important papers lying about, as this +lady says you're in the habit of doing, what do you expect? Now, you've +been wondering who got wind of this jewel deal, and here's the very proof +that you gave every chance to this Ebers to acquaint himself with it! And +what I'd like to know now, Fullaway, is this--what use do you suppose +this young fellow made of the information he acquired? That seems to me +to be the point." + +"Yes!" exclaimed Allerdyke suddenly. "That is the point!" + +Fullaway smote the table. + +"The thing's obvious!" he cried. "He sold his information to a gang. +There must have been--I mean must be--a gang. It's utterly impossible +that all this could have been worked by one man. The man we've heard of +in connection with the deaths of Lisette Beaurepaire and of Ebers himself +is only one of the combination. I'm as sure of that as I am that I see +you. But--who are they?" + +Nobody answered this question. Allerdyke plunged his hands in his pockets +and stared at Fullaway; Mrs. Marlow began to trace imaginary patterns on +the surface of the table; Van Koon produced a penknife and began to +scrape the edges of his filbert nails with a preoccupied air. + +"There's the thing I've insisted on all along, Fullaway, you know," he +said at last, finding that no one seemed inclined to speak. "I've +insisted on it, but you've always put it off. I don't care what you +say--it'll have to come to it. Let me suggest it, now, to our friends +here--they're both cute enough, I reckon!" + +"Oh, as you please, as you please!" replied Fullaway, with a wave of his +hands. "Say anything you like, Van Koon--it seems as if too much couldn't +be said at this juncture." + +"All right," answered Van Koon. He turned to Allerdyke and Mrs. Marlow. +"Ever since this affair was brought under my notice," he said, "I've +pointed out to Fullaway certain features in connection with it. +First--there's no evidence whatever that this plot originated in or was +worked from Russia. Second--there is evidence that it began here in +London and was carried out from London. And following on that second +proposition comes another. Fullaway knew that these jewels were +coming--" + +He paused and gave the secretary a keen look. And Allerdyke, watching her +just as keenly, saw her face and eyes as calm and inscrutable as ever; it +was absolutely evident that nothing could move this woman, no chance word +or allusion take her unawares. Van Koon smiled, and leaned nearer. + +"But," he said, tapping the table in emphasis of his words, "there was +somebody else who knew of this deal, somebody whose name Fullaway there +steadfastly refuses to bring in. Delkin!" + +Fullaway suddenly laughed, throwing up his arms. + +"Delkin!" he exclaimed satirically. "A millionaire several times over! +The thing's ridiculous, Van Koon! Delkin would kick me out if I went and +asked him--" + +"Delkin will have to be asked," interrupted Van Koon. "You will not face +the facts, Fullaway. Millionaire, multimillionaire, Delkin was the third +person (I'm leaving this valet, Ebers, clean out, though I've not the +slightest doubt he was one of the pieces of the machine) who knew that +James Allerdyke was bringing two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth +of jewels for his, Delkin's approval! That's a fact, Fullaway, which +cannot be got over." + +"Psha!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I suppose you think Delkin, who could buy up +the best jeweller's shop in London or Paris and throw its contents to the +street children to play with--" + +"What is it that's in your mind, Mr. Van Koon?" asked Allerdyke, +interrupting Fullaway's eloquence. "You've some theory?" + +"Well, I don't know about theory," answered Van Koon, "but I guess I've +got some natural common sense. If Fullaway there thinks I'm suggesting +that Delkin organized a grand conspiracy to rob James Allerdyke, +Fullaway's wrong--I'm not. What I am suggesting, and have been suggesting +this last three days, is that Delkin should be asked a plain and simple +question, which is this--did he ever tell anybody of this proposed deal? +If so--whom did he tell? And if that isn't business," concluded Van Koon, +"then I don't know business when I see it!" + +"What's your objection?" asked Allerdyke, looking across at Fullaway. +"What objection can you have?" + +Fullaway shook his head. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he said. "Except that it seems immaterial, and that I +don't want to bother Delkin. I'm hoping that these jewels will be found, +and that I'll be able to complete the transaction, and--besides, I don't +believe for one instant that Delkin would tell anybody. I only had two +interviews with Delkin--one at his hotel, one here. He understood the +affair was an entirely private and secret transaction." + +Mrs. Marlow suddenly raised her head, and spoke quickly. + +"You're forgetting something, Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You had a letter +from Mr. Delkin confirming the provisional agreement, which was that he +should have the first option of buying the Princess Nastirsevitch's +jewels, then being brought by Mr. James Allerdyke from Russia." + +"True--true!" exclaimed Fullaway, clapping a hand to his forehead. "So I +had! I'd forgotten that. But, after all, it was purely a private letter +from Delkin, and--" + +"No," interrupted Mrs. Marlow. "It was written and signed by Mr. Delkin's +secretary. So that the secretary knew of the transaction." + +Van Koon shook his head and glanced at Allerdyke. + +"There you are!" he said. "The secretary knew--Delkin's secretary! How do +we know that Delkin's secretary--?" + +"Oh, that's all rot, Van Koon!" exclaimed Fullaway testily. +"Delkin's secretary, Merrifield, has been with him for years to my +knowledge, and--" + +But Allerdyke had suddenly risen and was picking up his hat from a side +table. He turned to Fullaway as he put it on. + +"I quite agree with Mr. Van Koon," he said, "and as I'm James +Allerdyke's cousin and his executor, I'm going to step round and see +this Mr. Delkin at his hotel--the Cecil, you said. It's no use trifling, +Fullaway--Delkin knew, and Mrs. Marlow now tells us his secretary knew. +All right!--my job is to see, in person, anybody who knew. Then, maybe, +I myself shall get to know." + +Van Koon, too, rose. + +"I know Delkin, slightly," he said. "I'll go with you." + +At that, Fullaway jumped up, evidently annoyed and unwilling, but +prepared to act against his own wishes. + +"Oh, all right, all right!" he exclaimed. "In that case we'll all go. +Come on--it's only across the Strand. Back after lunch, Mrs. Marlow, if +anybody wants me." + +The three men marched out, and left the pretty secretary standing by the +table from which they had all risen. She stood there for a few minutes in +deep thought--stood until a single stroke from the clock on the +mantelpiece roused her. At that she walked into the outer office, put on +her coat and hat, and, leaving the hotel, went sharply off in the +direction of Arundel Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + + +As the three men threaded their way through the crowded Strand and +approached the Hotel Cecil, Fullaway suddenly drew their attention to a +private automobile which was turning in at the entrance to the courtyard. + +"There's Delkin, in his car," he exclaimed, "and, great Scott, there's +our Princess with him--Nastirsevitch! But who's the other man? Looks like +a compatriot of ours, Van Koon, eh?" + +Van Koon, who had been staring about him as they crossed over from the +corner of Wellington Street, turned and glanced at the occupants of the +car. Allerdyke was looking there, too. He had never seen Delkin as yet, +and he was curious to set eyes on a man who had made several millions out +of canning meat. He had no very clear conception of American +millionaires, and he scarcely knew what he expected to see. But there +were two men in the car with the Princess Nastirsevitch, and they were +both middle-aged. One man was a tall, handsome, military-looking fellow, +dressed in grey tweeds and wearing a Homburg hat of light grey with a +darker band; his upturned, grizzled moustache gave him a smart, rather +aggressive appearance; the monocle in his eye added to his general +impressiveness. The other man was not particularly impressive--a medium +sized, rather plump little man, with a bland, smiling countenance and +mild eyes beaming through gold-rimmed spectacles; he sat with his back to +the driver, and was just then leaning forward to tell something to the +Princess and the man in the Homburg hat who were bending towards him and, +smiling at what he said. + +"Which of 'em is Delkin, then?" asked Allerdyke as the automobile swept +into the courtyard. "Big or little?" + +"The little fellow with the spectacles," replied Fullaway. "Quiet, +unobtrusive man, Delkin--but cute as they're made. Know the other man, +Van Koon?" + +Van Koon had twisted round and was staring back in the direction from +which they had come, he shook his head, a little absent-mindedly. + +"Not from Adam," he answered, "but there's a man--Bostonian--just gone +along there that I do know and want to see badly. Wait a bit for me in +the courtyard there, Fullaway--shan't be long." + +He turned as he spoke, and darted off through the crowd, unusually dense +at that moment because of the luncheon hour. Fullaway, making no comment, +walked forward into the courtyard and looked about him. Suddenly he +nodded his head towards a far corner. + +"There's Delkin and the Princess, and the man who was with them, sitting +at a table over there," he said. "I didn't know that Delkin and the +Princess were acquainted. But then, of course, they're both staying in +this hotel, and they're both American. Well, shall we go to them now, +Allerdyke, or shall we sit down here and wait a bit for Van Koon?" + +"We'll wait," replied Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair and drew out his +cigarette-case. "Have a drink while we're waiting?" he suggested, +beckoning a waiter who was passing. "What's it to be?" + +"Oh--something small, then," said Fullaway. "Dry sherry. Better bring +three--Van Koon won't be long." + +But the minutes passed and Van Koon was still absent. Ten minutes more +went, and still he did not come. And Fullaway pulled out his watch with +an air of annoyance. + +"Too bad of Van Koon," he said. "Time's going, and I know Delkin lunches +at two o'clock. Come on, Allerdyke," he continued, rising, "we'll go over +to Delkin. If Van Koon comes, he'll find us. He's probably gone off with +that other man, though--he's an absent-minded chap in some things, and +too much given to the affair of the moment. Come on--I'll introduce you." + +The Chicago millionaire, once put in possession of Allerdyke's name, +looked at him with manifest curiosity, and motioned him and Fullaway to +take seats with himself and his two companions. + +"We were just talking of your case, Mr. Allerdyke," he said quietly. "The +Princess, of course, has told me about you. Fullaway, I don't know if you +know this gentleman--his name's well enough known, anyway. This gentleman +is Mr. Chilverton, the famous New York detective. Chilverton--Mr. +Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke both looked at the man in the Homburg hat with +great interest as they shook hands with him. Fullaway at any rate knew of +his world-wide reputation; Allerdyke faintly remembered that he had heard +of him in connection with some great criminal affair. + +"Been telling Mr. Chilverton about our business, Mr. Delkin?" asked +Fullaway pleasantly. "Asking his expert advice?" + +"I've told him no more than what he could read for himself in the +newspapers," answered Delkin. "He's got stuff of his own to attend to, +here in London. About our affair now, as you call it, Fullaway. It's not +my affair, or I guess I'd have been more into it by this time. The +Princess here thinks things are going real slow, and so do I. What do you +think, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"It's a case in which things go slow of sheer necessity," replied +Allerdyke. "It's a case of widespread ramifications--to use a long word. +But--we keep having developments, Mr. Delkin. There's been one this +morning. We came to see you about it--and perhaps you'll let Fullaway +tell!--he'll put things into fewer words than I should." + +"Sure!" answered the millionaire. "Go ahead, Fullaway--we're all +interested." + +Fullaway briefly told the story of the discovery at the hotel in the +Docks that morning, and explained the deductions which had been made from +it. He detailed the connection of Ebers, alias Federman or Herman, with +himself, and reported the conversation which had just taken place at his +own rooms. And then he turned to Allerdyke, with an expressive gesture. + +"I'll let Allerdyke say why we came here," he said. "It was his idea and +Van Koon's--not mine. Your turn, Allerdyke." + +"I shan't be slow to take it," responded Allerdyke, stirring himself. +"I'm one business man--Mr. Delkin's another. I only want to ask you, +Mr. Delkin, if you ever talked of this jewel transaction to anybody +beyond your own secretary? It's a plain question, and you'll understand +why I ask it." + +"Of course," replied Delkin genially. "Quite right to ask. I can answer +it in one word. No! As to telling my secretary, Merrifield, who's been +with me twelve years, and is a thoroughly trustworthy man, I merely told +him sufficient for him to write and send that formal letter--he knew, and +knows (at least, not from me) no details. No, sir!--never a word from me +got about--not even to my own daughter. Of course, the Princess here and +myself have discussed matters--since she came. And now that you're here, +Fullaway, I'll tell you what I think--straight out. I think this affair +has all been planned from your own office!" + +Fullaway flushed and sat up in an attitude of sudden indignation. + +"Oh, come, Mr. Delkin!" he exclaimed. "I--" + +"Go softly, young man." said Delkin. "I mean no harm to you, and no +reflections on you. But you know, I've been in your office a few times, +and I have eyes in my head. What do you know about that fascinating young +woman you have there? I'm a pretty good judge of human nature and +character, and I should say that young lady is as clever and deep as they +make 'em. Who is she? There's one thing sure from what you've just told +us, Fullaway--you let her know all your business secrets." + +Fullaway made no attempt to conceal his chagrin and vexation. + +"I've had Mrs. Marlow in my employ for three years," he answered. "She +came to me with excellent testimonials and references. I've just as +much reason to trust her as you have to trust Merrifield. If she'd +been untrustworthy, she could have robbed or defrauded me many a time +over; she--" + +"Did she ever have the chance of getting hold of a quarter of a million's +worth of jewels before?" asked Delkin with a shrewd glance at Allerdyke. +"Come, now! Even the most trusted people fall before a very big +temptation. All business folk know that. What's Mr. Allerdyke think?" + +Allerdyke was not going to say what he thought. He was wondering if +Fullaway knew what he knew--that Mrs. Marlow was also Miss Slade, that +she had some relations with a man who also bore two different names, that +her actions were somewhat suspicious. But that was not the time to say +all this--he said something non-committal instead. + +"There seems to be no doubt that the knowledge that my cousin was +carrying the jewels leaked out here--and from Fullaway's office," +he answered. + +"Through this fellow Ebers!" broke in Fullaway excitedly. "It's all rot +to think that Mrs. Marlow had anything to do with it! Great Scott!--do +any of you mean to suggest that she engineered several murders, and--" + +Delkin laughed--a soft, cynical laugh. + +"You're lumping a lot of big stuff altogether, Fullaway," he remarked +drily. "Do you know what I think of all this business? I think that +everybody's jumping at conclusions. There are lots of questions, +problems, difficulties that want solving and answering before I come to +any conclusion. I'll tell you what they are," he went on bending forward +in his lounge chair and looking from one to the other of the faces around +him and beginning to tick off his points on the tips of his fingers. +"Listen! One--Was James Allerdyke really murdered, or did he die a +natural death? Two--Had James Allerdyke those jewels in his possession +when he entered that S---- Hotel at Hull! Three--Has the robbery, or +disappearance, of the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels anything whatever +to do with the theft of Mademoiselle de Longarde's property? Four--Was +that man Lydenberg shot in Hull as a result of some connection with +either, or both, of these affairs, or was he murdered for private or +political reasons? Let me get a clear understanding of everything that's +behind all these problems," he concluded, with a knowing smile, "and I'll +tell you something!" + +"You think it possible that the Nastirsevitch affair is the work of one +lot, and the Lennard affair the work of another?" asked Allerdyke, +thoughtfully. "In that case, I'll ask you a question, Mr. Delkin. How do +you account for the fact that my cousin James, the Frenchwoman, Lisette +Beaurepaire, and his valet, Ebers, or Federman, or Herman, were all found +dead under similar circumstances? Come, now!" + +"Aye, but were they?" demanded Delkin, clapping his hands together with a +smile of triumphantly suggestive doubt. "Were they? You don't know--and +the expert analysts don't know yet, and perhaps never will. I'll grant +you that there's a strong probability that Ebers and the French maid were +victims of the same murderer; but that doesn't prove that your cousin +was. No, sir!--my impression is that everybody is taking too much for +granted. And whether it offends you or not, Fullaway--and my intention's +good--you ought to make drastic researches into your office +procedure--you know what I mean. The leakage of the secret, sir, came +from--there!" + +Fullaway rose. + +"Well, I shan't do any good by sitting here," he said, a little huffily. +"If I'm going to begin those drastic researches I'd better begin. Coming, +Allerdyke?" + +The two men walked away together after taking leave of the millionaire +and the Princess. But before they were clear of the courtyard, +Chilverton caught them and tapped Fullaway on the elbow. + +"Say!" he said confidentially. "You won't mind my asking you--who's this +Van Koon that you mentioned?" + +"Man from our side who's been here in London all this spring," answered +Fullaway promptly. "He was coming with Allerdyke and me just now, but he +turned back--just when you and Delkin drove in here." + +Chilverton gave Fullaway a quick look. + +"Did he see me?" he asked. + +"Sure!" replied Fullaway. "Asked who you were--or I did." + +"You did," remarked Allerdyke. "Then he went off." + +"Describe him," said Chilverton. He listened attentively while Fullaway +gave him a sketch of Van Koon's appearance. "Um!" he continued. "Do you +mind my walking to your hotel with you? I believe I know that man, and +I'd like to see him." + +A hall-porter was standing at the door of the Waldorf who had been +there when the three men went out together at one o'clock. Fullaway +beckoned him. + +"Seen anything of Mr. Van Koon?" he asked. + +"Mr. Van Koon?--yes, sir. He came back a few minutes after you and Mr. +Allerdyke and he had gone out, got a suit-case from upstairs, left word +that he'd be away for the night, and went off in a taxi, sir," answered +the man. "Seemed to be in a great hurry, sir!" + +Before Fullaway could speak, Chilverton seized the hall-porter's arm. +"Did you hear him give the cab-driver any direction?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the man promptly. "St. Pancras Station, sir." + +Without a word, Chilverton turned, hurried out to the pavement, and +leapt into a taxi-cab that was standing there unengaged. In another +instant the taxi-cab was off, and Allerdyke and Fullaway turned to each +other. Then Allerdyke laughed. + +"That's why Van Koon turned back, Fullaway," he said in a low voice. "He +recognized Chilverton. Now, then--why did that recognition make him run? +And--who is he?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FIRST PURSUIT + + +For a moment Fullaway stood in the doorway of the hotel, staring towards +the mouth of Kingsway, around the corner of which Chilverton's cab had +already disappeared. Then he turned, gave Allerdyke a look of absolute +non-comprehension, and with a sudden gesture, as of surrender to +circumstances, walked into the hotel and made for the stairs. + +"That licks everything!" he muttered, as he and Allerdyke went up to the +first floor. "Tell you what it is, Allerdyke--my poor brain is getting +into a whirl! We've had quite enough excitement this morning in all +conscience, and now this comes on top of it. Now, how in creation do you +explain this last occurrence?" + +Allerdyke laughed cynically. + +"I don't know so much of the world as you do, Fullaway," he said, "but I +don't think this needs much explanation. When a man makes himself +suddenly scarce at sight of a well-known detective, I should say that man +knows the detective wants him--badly! My impression is that at this +moment your friend Van Koon is running away from Chilverton, and +Chilverton's going hot-foot after him. And--" + +They were at that moment passing the room which Van Koon had occupied, +and Allerdyke suddenly remembered the occasion on which he had seen Mrs. +Marlow steal out of it, suspiciously and furtively, and when its proper +tenant was away. He had carefully abstained from telling Fullaway about +that little incident, preferring to wait until events had further +developed. Should he tell him now--now that there seemed to be evidence +that Van Koon himself was a doubtful character? He hesitated--and while +he hesitated Fullaway strode on, flung open his office door, turned to +the letter-box at the back, and took out some letters and a telegram. He +tore the telegram open, and the next instant flung it on the table with a +fierce exclamation. + +"Damn it all, Allerdyke!" he said, waving an indignant hand at the bit of +pink paper. "What in the name of all that's wicked is the meaning of +that? Read it--read!" + +Allerdyke picked the telegram up and read it aloud. + +"Regret shall be unable to return to office for day or two; called away +on extremely urgent private business.--MARLOW." + +He laughed again as he put the telegram back and turned to Fullaway, who, +hands plunged deep in pockets and black of countenance, was stamping up +and down the room. + +"Um!" said Allerdyke. "Um! Now, in my humble opinion, Fullaway, that's a +good deal queerer than the Van Koon incident. For look you here--your +secretary was talking to us in your room there at less than five minutes +to one, and we left her here when we went out on the stroke of one. And +yet--look at the wire!--she handed that in at the East Strand post office +within ten minutes after we'd left her! What do you make of that?" + +"Damnation!" exclaimed Fullaway. "How the blazes do I know what to make +of it! I seem to be surrounded with--God knows what hellish mysteries! +Allerdyke, is there a regular devil's conspiracy, or--what is there?" + +Allerdyke made a show of looking at the telegram again. In reality, he +was considering matters. Should he tell Fullaway what he knew? He was +more than a little tempted to do so. But his natural sense of caution and +reserve stopped the words before they reached his tongue, and he took +another tack. + +"You said just now, in talking to Delkin, that you'd the greatest +confidence in this Mrs. Marlow, and had the best references with her, +Fullaway," he remarked. "What references?" + +"Good business references!" answered Fullaway excitedly. "The best! Firms +of high standing in the City. Couldn't have had better. Go and ask any of +them about her--I'll lay my last dollar they will say the same. Capital +secretary--clever woman--thoroughly trustworthy!" + +"What do you know about her private life?" asked Allerdyke. + +"What the deuce has the woman's private life to do with me?" snapped +Fullaway. "I know nothing. So long as she comes here at ten, stops till +five, and does her duty--hang her private life!" + +"Do you know where she lives?" asked Allerdyke imperturbably. "But of +course you do." + +"Then I don't!" retorted Fullaway. "Somewhere up town, I believe--West +End somewhere. I don't know. I've nothing to do with her private +affairs. I never have had anything to do with the private affairs of any +employee of mine." + +"She makes her private affairs have something to do with you though," +said Allerdyke, tapping the telegram significantly. "But, in my opinion, +that wire's nothing but an excuse. What're you going to do?" + +"Oh, I don't know!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I'm about sick of the +whole thing." + +Allerdyke pulled out his watch. + +"I must go," he said. "I've a business appointment. I'll see you later." + +Fullaway made no reply, and Allerdyke left him, went downstairs and +sought Gaffney, whom, having found, he led outside to the street. + +"How soon can you lay hands on that brother of yours?" he asked. + +"Twenty minutes--in a cab, sir," replied Gaffney. + +"Get a cab, then, find him, and drive, both of you, to the warehouse," +commanded Allerdyke. "You'll find me there." + +He himself got a cab, too, and went off to Gresham Street, more puzzled +and doubtful than ever. He closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard and +told him all the details of the eventful morning, and the manager +listened in silence, taking everything in and making his own mental +notes. And with his usual acuteness of perception he quickly separated +the important from the momentarily unimportant. + +"You don't want to bother your head about what Mr. Delkin says just now, +Mr. Allerdyke," he said, when Allerdyke had brought this story to an end. +"Never mind his theories--there may be a lot in 'em, and there mayn't be +any more than his personal opinion in 'em. Never mind, too, what +Chilverton wants with Van Koon. Nor if there's any connection between Van +Koon and Miss Slade, or Mrs. Marlow. The thing to do is to find--her!" + +"You think she's hooked it?" said Allerdyke. + +"I should say that something said by some of you at that talk this +morning in Fullaway's room has startled her into action," answered +Appleyard. "Now let's get at facts. You say she sent that wire from the +East Strand post Office within ten minutes of your leaving her? Very +well--I should say she was on her way to Arundel Street to see Rayner, +alias Ramsay. I wish we'd had a constant watch kept on him. But we'll +soon repair that if you've sent for young Gaffney." + +The two Gaffneys arrived at that moment and Appleyard, after some further +talk, assigned them their duties. Gaffney, the chauffeur, was to go at +once and get himself a room at an inn in close proximity to the Pompadour +Hotel, so that he would be at Appleyard's disposal at any hour of the +coming evening and night. Albert Gaffney, the clerk, was to devote +himself to watching Rayner. He was to follow Rayner wherever Rayner went +from the time of his leaving Clytemnestra House that afternoon--even if +Rayner should leave town by motor or by train he was to follow. For, as +Appleyard sagely observed, it was not likely that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, would return to the Pompadour Hotel that night if her fears had +been aroused by what had taken place that morning, and it was a +reasonable presumption that if she and Rayner were in league she would +have communicated with him on leaving Fullaway's office, and that they +would meet again somewhere before the day was over. + +"The only thing now," said Appleyard, when the two Gaffneys had been +presented with funds sufficient to carry each through all possible +immediate emergencies, "is to arrange for a meeting to-night. There are +two matters we want to be certain about. First, if Albert Gaffney +witnesses any meeting between Rayner and Miss Slade, and, in that case, +if he can tell us where they go and what they do. Second, if they both +return, or either of them returns to the Pompadour to-night. So it had +better be near the Pompadour--somewhere in that district, anyhow. Can you +suggest any place?" he continued, turning to the chauffeur. "You know +that district well, don't you?" + +"Tell you the very spot, sir," answered Gaffney promptly. "Lancaster Gate +itself, sir. Close by there, convenient pub, sir--stands back a bit from +the road. Bar-parlour, sir--quiet corners. What time, sir?" + +Appleyard fixed half-past eleven. By that time, he said, he should know +if Mr. Rayner and Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour; by that time, +too, Albert Gaffney would be in a position to report his own doings and +progress. And so the two Gaffneys went off on their respective missions, +and Allerdyke looked at his manager and made a grimace. + +"It's like a lot of blind men seeking for something they couldn't see if +it was shoved under their very noses, Ambler!" he said cynically. "Is it +any good?" + +"Maybe," replied Appleyard. "That Albert Gaffney's a smart chap--he'll +not lose sight of Rayner once he begins to track him. And I'm certain as +certain can be that if Miss Slade's in a hole it's Rayner she'll turn to. +Well--we can only wait now. What're you going to do, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Let's have a bit of a relief," answered, Allerdyke suddenly. "Let's dine +together somewhere and go to a theatre or something until it's time to +keep this appointment. And not a word more of the whole thing till then!" + +"You forget that I've got to look in at the Pompadour last thing to see +if those two are there as usual," remarked Appleyard. "But that'll only +take a few minutes--I can call there on our way to the rendezvous. All +right--no more of it until half-past eleven, then." + +Albert Gaffney was already in a quiet corner of the bar-parlour of the +appointed meeting-place when the other three arrived there. Appleyard had +already ascertained that neither Rayner nor Miss Slade had returned to +the Pompadour; Gaffney, the chauffeur, who had been keeping an eye on the +exterior of that establishment, had nothing to tell. And Albert's face +was somewhat dismal, and his eye inclined to something like an aggrieved +surliness, as he joined the new-comers and answered their first question. + +"It's not my fault, gentlemen," he whispered, bending towards the others +over the little table at which they were all seated. "But the truth +is--I've been baulked! At the last moment as you may term it. Just when +things were getting really interesting!" + +"Have you seen--anything?" asked Appleyard. + +"I'll give you it in proper order, sir," replied Albert Gaffney. "I've +seen both of 'em--followed 'em, until this confounded accident happened. +This is the story of it. I kept watch there, outside C. House--you know +where I mean--till near on to six o'clock. Then he came out. But he +didn't get into his motor, though it was waiting for him. He sent it +away. Then he walked to the Temple Station, and I heard him book for +Cannon Street. So did I, and followed him. He got out at Cannon Street +and went up into the main line station and to the bookstall. There he met +her--she was waiting. They talked a bit, walking about; then they went +into the hotel. I had an idea that perhaps they were going to dine there, +so as I was togged up for any eventualities, I followed 'em in. They did +dine there--so did I, keeping an eye on 'em. They sat some time over and +after their dinner, as if they were waiting for something or somebody. At +last a man--better-class commercial traveller-looking sort of man--came +in and went up to them. He sat down and had a glass of wine, and they all +three talked--very confidential talk, you could see. At last they all +left and went down to the yard outside the station and got into a +taxi-cab--all three. I got another, gave the driver a quiet hint as to +what I was after, and told him to keep the other cab in view. So he +did--for a time. They went first to a little restaurant near Liverpool +Street Station--she and the commercial-looking chap got out and went in; +R. stopped in the cab. The other two came back after a bit with another +man--similar sort--and all three joined R. Then they went off towards +Aldgate way--and we were keeping nicely behind 'em when all of a sudden a +blooming 'bus came to grief right between us and them, and blocked the +traffic! And though I nearly broke my neck in trying to get through and +spot them, it was no use. They'd clean disappeared. But!--I've got the +number of the cab they took from Cannon Street." + +Appleyard nodded approval. + +"Good!" he said. "That's something, Gaffney--a good deal. We can work on +from that." + +"Well?" he continued, turning to Allerdyke. "I think there's nothing else +we can do to-night? We'd better meet, all of us, at Gresham Street, at, +say, ten to-morrow morning; then I shall be able to say if they return to +the Pompadour to-night. It's my impression they won't--but we shall see." + +Allerdyke presently drove him to his hotel, wondering all the way what +these last doings might really mean. They were surprising enough, but +there was another surprise awaiting him. As he walked into the Waldorf +the hall-porter stopped him. + +"There's a gentleman for you, sir, in the waiting-room," he said. "Been +waiting a good hour. Name of Chettle." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + +Chettle sat alone in the waiting-room, a monument of patient resignation +to his fate. His hands were bunched on the head of his walking-stick, his +chin propped on his hands; his eyes were bent on a certain spot on the +carpet with a fixed stare. And when Allerdyke entered he sprang up as if +roused from a fitful slumber. + +"I should ha' been asleep in another minute, Mr. Allerdyke," he said +apologetically. "Been waiting over an hour, sir--and I'm dog-tired. I've +been at it, hard at it! every minute since I left you. And--I had to +come. I've news." + +"Come up," said Allerdyke. "I've news, too--it's been naught else but +news all day. You haven't seen Fullaway while you've been waiting?" + +"Seen nobody but the hotel folks," answered the detective. He followed +Allerdyke up to his private sitting-room and sighed wearily as he dropped +into a chair. "I'm dog-tired," he repeated. "Fair weary!" + +"Have a drink," said Allerdyke, setting out his decanter and a syphon. +"Take a stiff 'un--I'll have one myself. I'm tired, too. I wouldn't like +this game to be on long, Chettle--it's too exhausting. But, by the Lord +Harry!--I believe it's coming to an end at last!" + +The detective, who had gladly helped himself to Allerdyke's whisky, took +a long pull at his glass and sighed with relief. + +"I believe so myself, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "I do, indeed!--things are +clearing, sir, though Heaven knows they're thick enough still. You say +you've fresh news!" + +Allerdyke lighted a cigar and pushed the box to his guest. + +"Your news first," he said. "I daresay it's a bit out of the complete +web--let's see if we can fit it in." + +"It's this," answered Chettle, pulling his chair nearer to the table at +which he and his host sat. "When I got back to Hull they told me at the +police headquarters that a young man had been in two or three times, +while I was away, asking if he could see the London detective who was +down about the Station Hotel affair. They told him I'd gone up to town +again, and tried to find out what he wanted, but he wouldn't tell them +anything--said he'd either see me or go up to London himself. So then +they let him know I was coming back, and told him he'd probably find me +there at noon to-day. And at noon to-day he turns up at the +police-station--a young fellow about twenty-five or so, who looked like +what he was, a clerk. A very cute, sharp chap he was, the sort that's +naturally keen about his own interests--name of Martindale--and before +he'd say a word he wanted to see my credentials, and made me swear to +treat what he said as private, and then he pulled out a copy of that +reward bill of yours, and wanted to know a rare lot about that, all of +which amounted to wanting to find out what chance he had of getting hold +of some of the fifty thousand, if not all. And," continued Chettle with a +laugh, "I'd a lot of talking and explaining and wheedling to do before +he'd tell anything." + +"Had he aught to tell?" asked Allerdyke. "So many of 'em think they have, +and then they haven't." + +"Oh, he'd something to tell!" replied Chettle. "Right enough, he'd a good +deal to tell. This--he told me at last, as if every word he let out was +worth a ransom, that he was a parcels office clerk in the North Eastern +Railway Station at Hull, and that since the 13th of May until the day +before yesterday he'd been away in the North of Scotland on his +holidays--been home to his people, in fact--he is a Scotsman, which, of +course, accounts for his keenness about the money. Now, then--on the +night of May 12th--the night, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, of your +cousin's supposed murder, but anyway, of his arrival at Hull--this young +man Martindale was on duty in the parcels office till a very late hour. +About ten to a quarter past ten, as near as he could recollect, a +gentleman came into the parcels office, carrying a small, square parcel, +done up in brown paper and sealed in several places with black wax. He +wanted to know when the next express would be leaving for London, and if +he could send the parcel by it. Martindale told him there would be an +express leaving for Selby very shortly, and there would be a connection +there for a Great Northern express to King's Cross. The gentleman then +wanted to know what time his parcel would be likely to be delivered in +London if he sent it by that train. Martindale told him that as near as +he could say it would be delivered by noon on the next morning, and added +that he could, by paying an extra fee, have it specially registered and +delivered. The gentleman at once acceded to this, handed the parcel +over, paid for it, and left. And in a few minutes after that, Martindale +himself gave the parcel to the guard of the outgoing train." + +Chettle paused for a moment, and took a reflective pull at his glass. + +"Now, then," he went on, after an evident recollecting of his facts, +"Martindale, of course, never saw the gentleman again, and dismissed such +a very ordinary matter from his mind. Early next morning he went off on +his holiday--where he went, right away up in Sutherland, papers were few +and far between. He only heard mere bits of news about all this affair. +But when he got back he turned up the Hull newspapers, and became +convinced that the man who sent that parcel was--your cousin!" + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke, nodding his head. "Aye! I expected that." + +"He was sure it was your cousin," continued Chettle, "from the +description of him in the papers, and from one or two photos of him that +had appeared, though, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, those were poor things. +But to make sure, I showed him the photo which is inside Lydenberg's +watch-case. 'That's the man!' he said at once. 'I should have known him +again anywhere--I'd a particularly good look at him.' Very well--that +established who the sender of the parcel was. Now then, the next thing +was--to whom was it sent. Well, this Martindale had copied down the name +and address from the station books, and he handed me the slip of paper. +Can you make any guess at it, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Damn guess-work!" replied Allerdyke. "Speak out!" + +Chettle leaned nearer, with an instinctive glance at the door. He +lowered his voice to a whisper. + +"That parcel was addressed to Franklin Fullaway, Esq., The Waldorf Hotel, +Aldwych, London," he said. "There!" + +Allerdyke slowly rose from his seat, stared at his visitor, half-moved +across the floor, as if he had some instinctive notion of going +somewhere--and then suddenly sat down again. + +"Aye!" he said. "Aye!--but was it ever delivered?" + +"I'm coming to that," replied Chettle. "That, of course, is the big +thing--the prime consideration. I heard all this young fellow Martindale +had to tell--nothing much more than that, except small details as to what +would be the likely progress of the parcel, and then I gave him strict +instructions to keep his own counsel until I saw him again--after which I +caught the afternoon train to town. Martindale had told me where the +parcel would be delivered from, so as soon as I arrived at King's Cross I +went to the proper place. I had to tell 'em, of course, who I was, and +what I was after, and to produce my credentials before they turned up +their books and papers to trace the delivery of the parcel. That, of +course, wasn't a long or difficult matter, as I had the exact date--May +13th. They soon put the delivery sheet of that particular morning before +me. And there it all was--" + +"And--it was delivered to and received by--who?" broke in Allerdyke +eagerly. "Who, man?" + +"Signed for by Mary Marlow for Franklin Fullaway," answered Chettle in +the same low tones. "Delivered--here--about half-past twelve. So--there +you are! That is--if you know where we are!" + +Allerdyke, whose cigar had gone out, relighted it with a trembling hand. + +"My God!" he said in a fierce, concentrated voice as he flung the match +away. "This is getting--you're sure there was no mistaking the +signature?" he went on, interrupting himself. "No mistake about it?" + +"It was a woman's writing, and an educated woman's writing, anyway," said +Chettle. "And plain enough. But there was one thing that rather struck me +and that they couldn't explain, though they said I could have it +explained by inquiry of the clerk who had the books in charge on May 13th +and the boy who actually delivered the parcel--neither of 'em was about +this evening." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"Why, this," answered Chettle. "The parcel had evidently been signed for +twice. The line on which the signatures were placed had two initials in +pencil on it--scribbled hurriedly. The initials were 'F.F.' Over that was +the other in ink--what I tell you: Mary Marlow for Frank Fullaway." + +Allerdyke let his mind go back to the events of May 13th. + +"You say the parcel was delivered here at twelve-thirty noon on May +13th?" he said presently. "Of course, Fullaway wasn't here then. He'd set +off to me at Hull two or three hours before that. He joined me at Hull +soon after two that day. And what I'm wondering is--does he know of that +parcel's arrival here in his absence. Did he ever get it? If he did, why +has he never mentioned it to me? Coming, as it did, from--James!" + +"There's a much more important question than that, Mr. Allerdyke," said +Chettle. "This--what was in that parcel?" + +Allerdyke started. So far he had been concentrating on the facts given +him by the detective--further he had not yet gone. + +"Why!" he asked, a sudden suspicion beginning to dawn on him. "Good +God!--you don't suggest--" + +"My belief, Mr. Allerdyke," said Chettle, quietly and emphatically, "is +that the parcel contained the Russian lady's jewels! I do believe it--and +I'll lay anything I'm right, too." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Nay, nay!" he said incredulously. "I can't think that James would send a +quarter of a million pounds' worth of jewels in a brown paper parcel by +train! Come, now!" + +Chettle shook his head, too--but in contradiction, "I've known of much +stranger things than that, Mr. Allerdyke," he said confidently. "Very +much stranger things. Your cousin, according to your account of him, was +an uncommonly sharp man. He was quick at sizing up things and people. He +was the sort--as you've represented him to me--that was what's termed +fertile in resource. Now, I've been theorizing a bit as I came up in the +train; one's got to in my line, you know. Supposing your cousin got an +idea that thieves were on his track?--supposing he himself fancied that +there was danger in that hotel at Hull? What would occur to him but to +get rid of his valuable consignment, as we'll call it? And what +particular danger was there in sending a very ordinary-looking parcel as +he did? The thing's done every day--by train or post every day valuable +parcels of diamonds, for instance, are sent between London and Paris. The +chances of that parcel being lost between Hull and this hotel +were--infinitesimal! I honestly believe, sir, that those jewels were in +that parcel--sent to be safe." + +"In that case you'd have thought he'd have wired Fullaway of their +dispatch," said Allerdyke. + +"How do we know that he didn't intend to, first thing in the morning?" +asked Chettle. "He probably did intend to--but he wasn't there to do it +in the morning, poor gentleman! No--and now the thing is, Mr. +Allerdyke--prompt action! What do you think, sir?" + +"You mean--go and tell everything to your people at headquarters?" asked +Allerdyke. + +"I shall have to," answered Chettle. "There's no option for me--now. What +I meant was--are you prepared to tell them all you know?" + +"Yes!" replied Allerdyke. "At least, I will be in the morning--first +thing. I'll just tell you how things have gone to-day. Now," he +continued, when he had given Chettle a full account of the recent +happenings, "you stay here to-night--you can have my chauffeur's room, +next to mine--and in the morning I'll telephone to Appleyard to meet us +outside of New Scotland Yard, and after a word or two with him, we'll see +your chief, and then--" + +Chettle shook his head. + +"If that woman got a night's start, Mr. Allerdyke--" he began. + +"Can't help it now," said Allerdyke decisively. "Besides, you don't know +what Appleyard mayn't have learned during the night." + +But when Appleyard met them in Whitehall next morning, in response to +Allerdyke's telephone summons, his only news was that neither Rayner nor +Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour, and without another word +Allerdyke motioned Chettle to lead the way to the man in authority. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + +It was to a hastily called together gathering of high police officials +that the three visitors told all they knew. One after another they +related their various stories--Chettle of his doings and discoveries at +Hull, Allerdyke of what had gone on at the hotel, Appleyard of the +mysterious double identity of the woman who was Miss Slade in one place +and Mrs. Marlow in another. The officials listened quietly and +absorbedly, rarely interrupting the narrators except to ask a searching +question. And in the end they talked together apart, after which all went +away except the man who had kept his hands on the reins from the +beginning. He turned to his visitors with an air of decision. + +"Well, of course, there's but one thing to be done, now," he said. "We +must get a warrant for this woman's arrest at once. We must also get a +search warrant and examine her belongings at that private hotel you've +told us of, Mr. Appleyard. All that shall be done immediately. But first +I want you to tell me one or two things. What are those two men you spoke +of doing--the Gaffneys?" + +"One of them, the chauffeur, is hanging about the Pompadour," replied +Appleyard. "The other--Albert--has gone down to Cannon Street to see if +he can trace the driver of the taxi-cab in which Rayner and Miss Slade +drove away from there last night." + +"He'll do no harm in trying to find that out," observed the chief. "But +I should like to see him--I want to ask some questions about the man who +joined those two after dinner at Cannon Street last night, and the other +man whom he saw them take up near Liverpool Street Station. Will he keep +himself in touch with your warehouse in Gresham Street?" + +"Sure to," answered Appleyard. + +"Then just telephone to your people there, and tell them to tell him, if +he comes in asking for you, to come along and seek you here," said the +chief. "I'm afraid I can't spare either you or Mr. Allerdyke, for your +joint information'll be wanted presently for these warrants, and when +we've got them I want you to go with me--both of you--to the Pompadour." + +"You're going to search?" asked Allerdyke when Appleyard had gone to the +telephone. "You think you may find something--there?" + +"There's enough evidence to justify a search," answered the chief. +"Naturally we want to know all we can. But I should say that if she's +mixed up with a gang, and if they've got those jewels through her--as +seems uncommonly likely--she'll have been ready for a start at any +minute, and the probability is we'll find nothing to help us. The great +thing, of course, will be to get hold of the woman herself. It's a most +unfortunate thing that Albert Gaffney was stopped from following that +cab, last night--I've no opinion, Mr. Allerdyke, of your amateur +detective as a rule, but from Mr. Appleyard's account of him, this one +seems to have done very well. If we only knew where those two went--" + +Appleyard presently came back from the telephone with a face alive with +fresh news. + +"Albert Gaffney's at the warehouse now," he announced. "I've just had a +word with him. He found the taxi-cab driver an hour ago, and he got the +information he wanted. And I'm afraid it's--nothing!" + +"What is it, anyhow?" asked the chief, with a smile. "Perhaps Albert +Gaffney doesn't know its value." + +"The man drove them, all four, to the corner of Whitechapel Church," said +Appleyard. "There he set them down, and there he left them. That's all." + +"Well, that's something, anyway," remarked the chief. "It carries the +thing on another stage. Now we'll leave that and attend to our own +business." + +The Pompadour Private Hotel, like most establishments of its class in +Bayswater, was a place of peace and of comparative solitude during the +greater part of the day. It was busy enough up to ten o'clock in the +morning, and it began to be busy enough again by six o'clock in the +evening, but from ten to six more than two-thirds of its denizens were +not to be found within its walls. The business man had gone to the City; +the professional women had departed to their offices; nothing of humanity +but a few elderly widows and spinsters, and an old gentleman or two were +left in the various rooms. Everything, therefore, was quiet enough when +the chief, accompanied by Chettle, drove up, entered the hall, and asked +to see the manager and manageress. As for Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +naturally felt considerable dislike to appearing on this particular scene +of operations, they were a few hundred yards away, walking about just +within the confines of Kensington Gardens, and waiting with more or less +patience until the police officials came to them with news of the result +of the search. + +The manageress of the hotel, a smart lady who wore dignified black gowns +all day long--stuff in the morning, and silk at night as if she were a +barrister, gradually advancing in grandeur--gazed at the two callers with +some suspicion as she ushered them into a private room at the back of her +office. The chief, an irreproachably attired man, might have been an army +gentleman, she thought; an instinctive wonder rose in her mind as to +whether he was not some elderly man of standing who, accompanied by his +valet, desired to arrange about a suite of rooms. But his first words +gave her an unpleasant shock--she felt for all the world as if somebody +had suddenly turned a shower of ice-cold water on her. + +"Now, ma'am," said the chief, "your husband the manager is out, and you +are in sole and responsible charge, I understand? Pray don't be +alarmed--this is nothing that concerns you or your affairs, personally, +and we will endeavor to arrange everything so that you have no annoyance. +The fact of the case is, we are police officers from the Criminal +Investigation Department at New Scotland Yard, and I hold two warrants, +just granted by a justice of peace, which are in relation to an inmate of +your hotel." + +The manageress dropped into a chair and stared at her visitors. +Police officers? Warrants? Justices? It was the first time in her highly +respectable Bayswater existence that she had ever been brought into +contact with these dreadful things. And--an inmate of her establishment! + +"Oh, you must be mistaken!" she exclaimed in horror-stricken accents. "A +warrant?--that means you want to arrest somebody. An inmate--surely none +of my servants--" + +"Nothing to do with servants," interrupted the chief. "I said an inmate. +Pray don't be alarmed. We want a young lady who is known to you as Miss +Mary Slade." + +The manageress got up as quickly as she had sat down. For one moment she +gazed at her visitor as if he had demanded her very life--the next her +lip curled in scorn. + +"Miss Slade!" she exclaimed. "Impossible, sir! Miss Slade is a young lady +of the very highest respectability--she has resided in this hotel for +three years!" + +"I am quite prepared to believe that a residence of three months under +your roof is enough to confer an irreproachable character on any one, +ma'am," replied the chief with a polite smile. "But the fact remains, I +have here a warrant for Miss Slade's arrest--never mind on what +charge--and here another empowering me to search her room or rooms, her +trunk, any property she has in this house. And as time presses I must ask +you to give us every facility in the performance of our unpleasant duty. +But first a question or two. Miss Slade is not at home?" + +"She is not!" replied the manageress emphatically. + +"And I think she did not return home last night?" suggested the chief. + +"No--she didn't," assented the much perplexed woman. "That's quite true." + +"Was that unusual?" asked the chief. + +The manageress bit her lip. She did not want to talk, but she had a vague +idea that the law compelled speech. + +"Well, I don't know what it's all about," she said, "and I don't want to +say anything that would bring trouble to Miss Slade, but--it was unusual. +For two reasons. I've never known Miss Slade to be away from here for a +night except when she went for her usual month's holiday, and I'm +surprised that she should stop away without giving me word or sending a +telephone message." + +"Then her absence was unusual," said the chief smiling. "Now, was there +anything else that was unusual, last night--in connection with it?" + +The manageress started and looked at her visitor as if she half suspected +him of possessing the power of seeing through brick walls. + +"Well," she said, a little reluctantly, "there was certainly another of +our guests away last night, too--one who scarcely ever is away, and +certainly never without letting us know that he's going away. And it's +quite true he's a very great friend of Miss Slade's--somebody did say, +jokingly, this morning, that perhaps they'd run away and got married." + +"Ah!" said the chief, with another smile. "I scarcely think Miss Slade +would contract such an important engagement at this moment, she has +evidently much else to think about. But now let us see Miss Slade's +apartment, if you please, and I shall be obliged to you, ma'am, if you +will accompany us." + +Not only did the manageress accompany them, but the manager also, who +just then arrived and was filled with proper horror to hear that such +things were happening. But, being a man, he knew that it is every +citizen's duty to assist the police, and he accepted his fate cheerfully, +and bade his wife give the gentlemen every help that lay in her power. +After which both conducted the two visitors to Miss Slade's room, and +became fascinated in acting as spectators. + +Miss Slade's apartment was precisely that of any other young lady of +refined taste. It was a good-sized, roomy apartment, half bedroom, half +sitting-room, and it was bright and gay with books and pictures, and +evidences of literary and artistic fancies and leanings. And Chettle, +taking a first comprehensive look round, went straight to the mantelpiece +and pointed out a certain neatly framed photograph to his superior. + +"That's it, sir," he said in a low voice. "That's what the other was +taken from. You know, sir--Mr. James A. Mr. Marshall A. said she said she +was going to have it framed. Odd, ain't it, sir?--if she really is +implicated." + +The chief agreed with his man. It was certainly a very odd thing that +Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, if she really had any concern with the +murder of James Allerdyke, should put his photograph in a fairly +expensive silver frame, and hang it where she could look at it every +day. But, as Chettle sagely remarked, you never can tell, and you never +can account, and you never know, and meanwhile there was the urgent +business on hand. + +The business on hand came to nothing. Manager and manageress watched with +interested amazement while the two searchers went through everything in +that room with a thoroughness and rapidity produced by long practice. +They were astounded at the deftness with which the heavy-looking Mr. +Chettle explored drawers and trunks, and the military-looking chief +peered into wardrobes and cupboards and examined desks and tables. But +they were not so much astonished as the two detectives themselves were. +For in all that room--always excepting the photograph of James +Allerdyke--there was not a single object, a scrap of paper, anything +whatever, which connected the Miss Slade of the Pompadour with the Mrs. +Marlow of Fullaway's or bore reference to the matter in hand. The +searchers finally retired utterly baffled. + +"Drawn blank," murmured the chief good-humouredly. He turned to the +lookers-on. "I suppose you have nothing of Miss Slade's?" he said. +"Nothing confined to your care, eh?" + +The manageress glanced at her husband, with whom she had kept up a +whispered conversation. The manager nodded. + +"Better tell them," he said. "No good keeping anything back." + +"Ah!" said the chief. "You have something?" + +"A small parcel," admitted the manageress, "which she gave me a few days +ago to lock up in our safe. She said it contained something valuable, and +she hadn't anything to lock it up in. It's in the safe now." + +"I'm afraid we must see it," said the chief. + +At the foot of the stairs the hall-porter accosted the party and looked +at the chief narrowly. + +"Name of Chettle, sir?" he asked. "You're wanted at our +telephone--urgent." + +The chief motioned to Chettle, who went off with the hall-porter; he +himself followed the manageress into her office. She unlocked a safe, +rummaged amongst its contents, and handed him a small square parcel, done +up in brown paper and sealed with black wax. Before he could open it, +Chettle returned, serious and puzzled, and whispered to him. Then, with +the shortest of leave-takings, the two officers hurried away from the +Pompadour, the chief carrying the little parcel tightly grasped in his +right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + +Once outside the Pompadour Hotel the chief and his subordinate hurried at +a great pace towards the Lancaster Gate entrance to Kensington Gardens. +And when they had crossed Bayswater Road the superior pulled himself up, +took a breath, and looked around him. + +"No sign of them yet, Chettle," he observed. "Did he say at once?" + +"Said they'd be on their way in two minutes, sir," answered Chettle. "And +it wouldn't take them many minutes to run up here." + +"I wonder what it's all about?" mused the chief. "Some new development +since we left the Yard, of course. Well--I think we may probably find +something in this parcel, Chettle, that will surprise us as much as any +new development can possibly do. It strikes me--" + +"Here they are, sir!" interrupted Chettle. He had lingered on the +kerb, looking towards the rise of the road going towards the Marble +Arch, and his quick eyes had spotted a closed taxi-cab which came out +of the Marlborough Gate at full speed and turned down in their +direction. "Blindway and two others," he announced. "Seems to be in +force, sir, anyhow!" + +The taxi-cab pulled up at the little gate leading into Kensington Gardens +by the pumping-station, and Blindway, followed by two other men, +hurriedly descended and joined his superior. + +"Well, what is it?" demanded the chief. "Something new? And about +this affair?" + +Blindway made a gesture suggesting that they should enter the Gardens; +once within he drew the chief aside, leaving his companions with Chettle. + +"About half an hour ago," he said, "a telephone message came on from the +City police. They said they'd received some queerish information about +this affair, but only particularly about the death of that man down at +the hotel in the Docks. Their information ran to this--that the actual +murderer has an appointment with some of his associates this afternoon at +that tea-house in Hyde Park, and that if the City police would send some +plain-clothes men up there he'll be pointed out. So the City lot want us +to join them, and I was sent along to meet you here, sir--I've brought +those two men and of course there's Chettle. We're all to go along to +this tea-house, not in a body, naturally, but to sort of drop in, and to +wait events. Of course, sir, that last murder occurred in the City, and +so the City police want to come in at it, and--" + +"No further details?" asked the chief, obviously puzzled. "Nothing as to +who's going to point out the murderer, and so on?" + +"Nothing!" replied Blindway. "At least, nothing reported to us. All we've +got to do is to be there, on the spot, and to keep our eyes open for the +critical moment." + +"And what time is the critical moment to be?" asked the chief, a little +superciliously. "It all seems remarkably vague, Blindway--why couldn't +they give us more news?" + +"Don't know, sir--they seemed purposely vague," replied the detective. +"However, the time fixed is two o'clock. To be there about two--that was +the request--at least four of us." + +The chief turned and summoned the other three men. + +"You'd better break up," he said. "Two of you approach the place from one +way--two from another. It's now a quarter-past one--you've plenty of +time. Stroll across the park to this spot--I'll join you by two o'clock. +I believe you can get light refreshments at this tea-house; get +yourselves something, so as to look like mere loungers--but keep your +eyes open." + +"Do you want me, sir?" asked Chettle, eyeing the parcel with evident +desire to know what mystery it concealed. + +"No--you go with Blindway," answered the chief. "He'll tell you what's +happened. I must join Mr. Allerdyke and Mr. Appleyard--then we'll come +over to you. Don't take any notice of us." + +The four detectives went off into Hyde Park, and there separated in +couples; the chief turned and went along the straight path which runs +parallel with Bayswater Road just within the shrubberies of Kensington +Gardens. Presently he caught sight of Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +occupied two chairs under a shady hawthorn tree, and he laid hold of +another, dragged it to them, and sat down. Each looked a silent inquiry, +and the chief, with a smile, held up the parcel. + +"Chettle and I," he said, "have, in the presence of the manager and +manageress of the Pompadour, made a thorough examination of the room and +the belongings of the young lady who resides there under the name of Miss +Slade. There is not a jot or tittle of anything there to show that she is +also Mrs. Marlow--except one thing. That, Mr. Allerdyke, is the +all-important photograph of your cousin James, which is hanging, in a +neat silver frame, over her mantelpiece. What do you think of that, +gentlemen?" + +"Odd!" said Appleyard, after a moment's reflective silence. + +"Very queer!" said Allerdyke frowning. "Very queer, indeed--considering." + +"Queer and odd!" assented the chief. "As to considering--well, I don't +quite know what it is that we are considering. If Miss Slade, alias Mrs. +Marlow, is a member of the gang--if there is one--which killed and robbed +James Allerdyke, it's a decidedly odd and queer thing that she should +frame the victim's portrait and hang it where she'll see it last thing at +night and first thing in the morning. Most extraordinary! And it's made +me think a good deal. I believe you once said, Mr. Allerdyke, that your +cousin was a bit of a ladies' man?" + +"Bit that way inclined, was James," replied Allerdyke laconically. +"Yes--he fancied the ladies a bit, no doubt. In quite a proper way, you +know--liked their society, and so on." + +"Just so!" assented the chief. "Well, I wonder if he and Miss Slade, +alias Mrs. Marlow, knew each other at all--outside business? But it's not +much use to speculate on that just now--we've more urgent matters to +attend to. And first--this!" + +He had put a copy of a morning newspaper round the small brown paper +parcel, and now took it off and showed the parcel itself to the two +wondering men. One of them at any rate uttered a sharp exclamation. + +"Brown paper, sealed with black wax!" said Allerdyke, remembering what +Chettle had told him. "Good Lord--what--" + +"I don't suppose this is the original brown paper, nor these the +original dabs of black wax," remarked the chief as he produced a pocket +pen-knife. "But this parcel, gentlemen, was recently confided by Miss +Slade to the care of the manageress of the Pompadour, to be put in the +hotel safe--from which it was produced to me twenty minutes ago. And--I +am now going to see what it contains." + +The others sat in absorbed silence while the chief delicately removed the +wrappings of the mysterious parcel. A sheet of brown paper, a sheet of +cartridge paper beneath it--and within these very ordinary envelopings an +old cigar-box, loosely tied about with a bit of knotted string. + +"Now for it!" said the chief. "The box contains--" + +He raised the lid as the other two leaned nearer. A stray ray of +sunlight, filtering through the swaying boughs of the hawthorn, shot down +on the box as the chief lifted a wad of soft paper and revealed a +glittering mass of pearls and diamonds. + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels!" said the chief softly. "That's +just what I expected ever since the manageress gave me this parcel. This, +of course, is the parcel which your cousin sent that night from Hull, Mr. +Allerdyke. It fell into Mrs. Marlow's hands--alias Miss Slade--and here +it is! That's all right." + +The other two men stared at the contents of the cigar-box, then at the +chief, then at each other. A deep silence had fallen--it was some minutes +before Allerdyke broke it. + +"All wrong, I should say!" he muttered. "However, if those are the +things--I only say if, mind--I suppose we're a step nearer to something +else. But--what?" + +The chief, who appeared to both of them to be strangely phlegmatic about +the whole affair, proceeded to close the box, re-invest it in its +wrappings, and tie it about with the original string. + +"We are certainly a step nearer to a good deal," he said, making a neat +job of his parcel and patting it affectionately as if he had been a +milliner's apprentice doing up a choice confection. "And the next thing +we do is to take a walk together into Hyde Park. On the way I will tell +you why we are going there--that is, I will tell you what I know of the +reason for such an expedition. It isn't much--but it has certain +possibilities." + +The two North-countrymen listened with great curiosity as they marched +across the grass towards the tea-house. Each possessed the North-country +love of the mysterious and the bizarre--this last development tickled +their fancy and stirred their imagination. + +"What on earth d'ye make out of it all?" asked Allerdyke. "Gad!--it's +more like a children's game of hide-and-seek in an old house of nooks and +corners than what I should have imagined police proceedings would be. +What say you, Ambler?" + +"I don't know how much romance and adventure there usually are in police +proceedings," replied Appleyard cautiously. + +"A good answer, Mr. Appleyard," said the chief laughing. "Ah, there's a +lot more of both than civilians would think, in addition to all the +sordid and dismal details. What do I make out of it, Mr. Appleyard? +Why--I think somebody has all this time been making a special +investigation of this mystery for himself, and that at last he's going to +wind it up with a sensational revelation to--us! Don't you be surprised +if you've an application for that fifty thousand pound reward before +to-night!" + +"You really think that?" exclaimed Allerdyke incredulously. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," answered the chief, "Something considerable +is certainly at hand. Now let us settle our plan of campaign. This +tea-garden, I remember, is a biggish place. We will sit down at one of +the tables--we will appear to be three quiet gentlemen disposed to take a +cup of coffee with our cigars or cigarettes--we will be absorbed in our +own conversation and company, but at the same time we will look about us. +Therefore, use your eyes, gentlemen, as much as you like--but don't +appear to take any particular interest in anything you see, and don't +openly recognize any person you set eyes on." + +It was a very warm and summer-like day, and the lawns around the +tea-house were filled with people, young and old. Some were drinking tea, +some coffee; some were indulging in iced drinks. Nursemaids and children +were much in evidence under the surrounding trees; waitresses were +flitting about hither and thither: there was nothing to suggest that this +eminently London park scene was likely to prove the setting of the last +act of a drama. + +"You're much more likely to see and to recognize than we are," remarked +Allerdyke, as the three gathered round a table on the edge of the crowd. +"For my part I see nothing but men, women, and children--except that I +also see Chettle, sitting across yonder with another man who's no doubt +one of your lot." + +"Just so," assented the chief. He gave an order for coffee to a passing +waitress, lighted a cigar which Allerdyke offered him, and glanced round +as if he were looking at nothing in particular. "Just so. Well, I see my +own four men--I also see at least six detectives who belong to the City +police, and there may be more. But I know those six personally. They are +spread about, all over the place, and I daresay that every man is very +much on the stretch, innocent enough as he looks." + +"Six!" exclaimed Appleyard. "And four of yours! That looks as if they +expected to have to tackle a small army!" + +"You never know what you may have to tackle in affairs like this," +replied the chief. "Nothing like having reserves in hand, you know. Now +let me give you a tip. It is almost exactly two o'clock. Never mind the +people who are already here, gentlemen. Keep your eyes open on any +new-comers. Look out--quietly--for folk who seem to drop in as casually +as we do. Look, for example, at those two well-dressed men who are coming +across the sward there, swinging their sticks. They--" + +Allerdyke suddenly bent his head towards the table. + +"Careful!" he said. "Gad!--I know one of 'em, anyhow. Van Koon, as I +live!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + + +The chief allowed himself to take a quick searching glance at the two men +he had indicated. He had already heard of Van Koon and of his sudden +disappearance from the hotel after the chance encounter with Chilverton, +and he now regarded him with professional interest. + +"The tall man, you mean?" he asked. + +"Just so," answered Allerdyke. "The other man I don't know. But that's +Van Koon. What's he here for, now? Is he in this, after all?" + +The chief made no reply. He was furtively watching the two men, who had +dropped into chairs at a vacant table beneath the shade of the trees and +were talking to a waitress. Having taken a good look at Van Koon, he +turned his attention to Van Koon's companion, a little, dapper man, +smartly dressed in bright blue serge, and finished off with great care in +all his appointments. He seemed to be approaching middle age; there were +faint traces of grey in his pointed beard and upward-twisted moustaches; +he carried his years, however, in very jaunty fashion, and his white +Homburg hat, ornamented with a blue ribbon, was set at a rakish angle on +the side of his close-cropped head. In his right eye he wore a +gold-rimmed monocle; just then he was bringing it to bear on the waitress +who stood between himself and his companion. + +"You don't know the other man, either of you?" asked the chief suddenly. + +Allerdyke shook his head, but Appleyard nodded. + +"I know that chap by sight," he said. "I've seen him in the City--about +Threadneedle Street--two or three times of late. He's always very smartly +dressed--I took him for a foreigner of some sort." + +The chief turned to his coffee. + +"Well--never mind him," he said. "Pay no attention--so long as that man +is Van Koon, I'll watch him quietly. But you may be sure he has come here +on the same business that has brought us here. I--" + +Allerdyke, whose sharp eyes were perpetually moving round the crowded +enclosure and the little groups which mingled outside it, suddenly nudged +the chief's elbow. + +"Miss Slade!" he whispered. "And--Rayner!" + +Appleyard had caught sight of his two fellow inmates of the Pompadour at +the very moment in which Allerdyke espied them. He slightly turned away +and bent his head; Allerdyke followed his example. + +"You can't mistake them," he said to the chief. "I've described the man +to you--a hunchback. They're crossing through the crowd towards the +tea-house door." + +"And they've gone in there," replied the chief in another minute. +"Um!--this is getting more mysterious than ever. I wish I could get a +word with some of our men who really know something! It seems to me--" + +But at that moment Blindway came strolling along, his nose in the air, +his eyes fixed on the roofs of the houses outside the park, and he +quietly dropped a twisted scrap of paper at his superior's feet as he +passed. The chief picked it up, spread it out on the marble-topped table, +and read its message aloud to his companions. + +"City men say the informant is here and will indicate the men to be +arrested in a few minutes." + +The chief tore the scrap of paper into minute shreds and dropped them on +the grass. + +"Things are almost at the crisis," he murmured with a smile. "It seems +that we, gentlemen, are to play the part of spectators. The next thing to +turn up--" + +"Is Fullaway!" suddenly exclaimed Allerdyke, thrown off his guard and +speaking aloud. "And, by Gad!--he's got that man Chilverton with him. +This--by the Lord Harry, he's caught sight of us, too!" + +Fullaway was coming quickly up the lawn from the direction of the +Serpentine; he looked unusually alert, vigorous, and bustling; by his +side, hurrying to keep pace with him, was the New York detective. And +Fullaway's keen eyes, roving about, fell on Allerdyke and the chief +and he made through the crowd in their direction, beckoning Chilverton +to follow. + +"Hullo--hullo!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Allerdyke's shoulder, +nodding to the chief, and staring inquisitively at Appleyard. "So you're +here, too, eh, Allerdyke? It wasn't you who sent me that mysterious +message, was it?" + +"What message?" growled Allerdyke. "Be careful! Don't attract +attention--there are things going on here, I promise you! Drop into +that chair, man--tell Chilverton to sit down. What message are you +talking about?" + +Fullaway, quick to grasp the situation, sat down in a chair which +Appleyard pulled forward and motioned his companion to follow his +example. + +"I got a queer message--typewritten--on a sheet of notepaper which bore +no address, about an hour ago," he said. "It told me that if I came here, +to this Hyde Park tea-house, at two o'clock, I'd have this confounded +mystery explained. No signature--nothing to show who or where it came +from. So I set out. And just as I was stepping into a taxi to come on +here, I met Chilverton, so he came along with me. What brings you, then? +Similar message, eh? And what--" + +"Hush!" whispered Appleyard. "Miss Slade's coming out of the tea-house! +And who's the man that's with her?" + +All five men glanced covertly over their shoulders at the open door of +the tea-house, some twenty to thirty yards away. Down its steps came Miss +Slade, accompanied by a man whom none of them had ever seen before--a +well-built, light-complexioned, fair-haired man, certainly not an +Englishman, but very evidently of Teutonic extraction, who was talking +volubly to his companion and making free use of his hands to point or +illustrate his conversation. And when he saw this man, the chief turned +quickly to Allerdyke and intercepted a look which Allerdyke was about to +give him--the same thought occurred to both. Here was the man described +by the hotel-keeper of Eastbourne Terrace and the shabby establishment +away in the Docks! + +"Miss Slade!" exclaimed Fullaway. "What on earth are you talking about? +That's my secretary, Mrs. Mar--" + +"Sh!" interrupted the chief. "That's one of your surprises, Mr. Fullaway! +Quiet, now, quiet. Our job is to watch. Something'll happen in a minute." + +Miss Slade and her talkative companion edged their way through the crowd +and passed out to an open patch of grass whereon a few children were +playing. And as they went, two or three men also separated themselves +from the idlers around the tables and strolled quietly and casually in +the same direction. Also, Van Koon and the man with him left their table, +and, as if they had no object in life but mere aimless chatter and +saunter, wandered away towards the couple who had first emerged from the +enclosure. And thereupon, Fullaway, not to be repressed, burst out with +another exclamation. + +"My God, Chilverton!" he cried. "There is Van Koon! And, by all that's +wonderful, Merrifield with him. Now what--" + +The New York detective, who was under no orders, and knew no reason why +he should restrain himself, wasted no time in words. Like a flash, he had +leapt from his chair, threaded his way through the surrounding people, +and was after his quarry. And with a muttered exclamation of anger, the +chief rose and followed--and it seemed to Allerdyke that almost at the +same instant a score of men, up to that moment innocently idling and +lounging, rose in company. + +"Damn it!" he growled, as he and Appleyard got up. "That chap's going to +spoil everything. What is he after? Confound you, Fullaway!--why couldn't +you keep quiet for a minute? Look there!" + +Van Koon had turned and seen Chilverton. So, too, had Van Koon's +companion. So, also, had Miss Slade and the man she was walking with. +That man, too, saw the apparent idlers closing in upon him. For a second +he, and Van Koon, and the other man stared at each other across the +grass; then, as with a common instinct, each turned to flee--and at that +instant Miss Slade, with a truly feminine cry, threw herself upon her +companion and got an undeniably firm grip on his struggling arms. + +"This is the Eastbourne Terrace man!" she panted as Allerdyke and +half-a-dozen detectives relieved her. "Get the other two--Van Koon and +Merrifield. Quick!" + +But Van Koon was already in the secure grip of Chilverton, and the person +in the light blue suit was being safely rounded up by a posse of +grim-faced men. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE SMART MISS SLADE + + +In no city of the world is a crowd so quickly collected as in London; in +none is one so easily satisfied and dispersed. Within five minutes the +detectives had hurried their three captives away towards the nearest +cab-rank, and the people who had left their tea and their cakes to gather +round, to stare, and to listen had gone back to their tables to discuss +this latest excitement. But the chief and Allerdyke, Fullaway and +Appleyard, Miss Slade and Rayner stood in a little group on the grass and +looked at each other. Eventually, all looks except Rayner's centred on +Miss Slade, who, somewhat out of breath from her tussle, was settling her +hat and otherwise composing herself. And it was Miss Slade who spoke +first when the party, as a party, found itself capable of speech. + +"I don't know who it was," observed Miss Slade, rather more than a little +acidly, "who came interfering in my business, but whoever he was he +nearly spoilt it." + +She darted a much-displeased look at the chief, who hastened to +exculpate himself. + +"Not I!" he said with a smile. "So don't blame me, Miss Slade. I was +merely a looker-on, a passive spectator--until the right moment +arrived. Do I gather that the right moment had not actually +arrived--for your purpose?" + +"You do," answered Miss Slade. "It hadn't. If you had all waited a few +moments you would have had all three men in conference round one of those +tables, and they could have been taken with far less fuss and bother--and +far less danger to me. It's the greatest wonder in the world that I'm not +lying dead on that grass!" + +"We are devoutly thankful that you are not," said the chief fervently. +"But--you're not! And the main thing is that the three men are in +custody, and as for interference--" + +"It was Chilverton," interrupted Fullaway, who had been staring at his +mysterious secretary as if she were some rare object which he had never +seen before. "Chilverton!--all Chilverton's fault. As soon as he set eyes +on Van Koon nothing would hold him. And what I want to know--" + +"We all want to know a good deal," remarked the chief, glancing +invitingly at Miss Slade. "Miss Slade has no doubt a good deal to tell. I +suggest that we walk across to those very convenient chairs which I see +over there by the shrubbery--then perhaps--" + +"I want to know a good deal, too," said Miss Slade. + +"I don't know who you are, to start with, and I don't know why Mr. +Appleyard happens to be here, to end with." + +Appleyard answered these two questions readily. + +"I'm here because I happen to be Mr. Allerdyke's London representative," +he said. "This gentleman is a very highly placed official of the Criminal +Investigation Department." + +Miss Slade, having composed herself, favoured the chief with a deliberate +inspection. + +"Oh! in that case," she remarked, "in that case, I suppose I had better +satisfy your curiosity. That is," she continued, turning to Rayner, "if +Mr. Rayner thinks I may?" + +"I was going to suggest it," answered Rayner. "Let's sit down and tell +them all about it." + +The party of six went across to the quiet spot which the chief had +indicated, and Fullaway and Appleyard obligingly arranged the chairs in +a group. Seated in the midst and quite conscious that she was the +centre of attraction in several ways, Miss Slade began her explanation +of the events and mysteries which had culminated in the recent +sensational event. + +"I daresay," she said, looking round her, "that some of you know a great +deal more about this affair than I do. What I do know, however, is +this--the three men who have just been removed are without doubt the +arch-spirits of the combination which robbed Miss Lennard, attempted to +rob Mr. James Allerdyke, possibly murdered Mr. James Allerdyke, and +certainly murdered Lydenberg, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Ebers. Van Koon is +an American crook, whose real name is Vankin; Merrifield, as you know, is +Mr. Delkin's secretary; the other man is one Otto Schmall, a German +chemist, and a most remarkably clever person, who has a shop and a +chemical manufactory in Whitechapel. He's an expert in poison--and I +think you will have some interesting matters to deal with when you come +to tackle his share. Well, that's plain fact; and now you want to know +how I--and Mr. Rayner--found all this out." + +"Chiefly you," murmured Rayner, "chiefly you!" + +"You had better let your minds go back to the morning of the 13th May +last," continued Miss Slade, paying no apparent heed to this +interruption. "On that morning I arrived at Mr. Fullaway's office at my +usual time, ten o'clock, to find that Mr. Fullaway had departed +suddenly, earlier in the morning, for Hull. I at once guessed why he had +gone--I knew that Mr. James Allerdyke, in charge of the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels, was to have landed at Hull the night before, and +I concluded that Mr. Fullaway had set off to meet him. But Mr. Fullaway +has a bad habit of leaving letters and telegrams lying about, for any one +to see, and within a few minutes I found on his desk a telegram from Mr. +Marshall Allerdyke, dispatched early that morning from Hull, saying that +his cousin had died suddenly during the night. That, of course, +definitely explained Mr. Fullaway's departure, and it also made me +wonder, knowing all I did know, if the jewels were safe. + +"This, I repeat, was about ten to half-past ten o'clock. About twelve +o'clock of that morning, the 13th, Mr. Van Koon, whom I knew as a +resident in the hotel, and a frequent caller on Mr. Fullaway, came in. He +wanted Mr. Fullaway to cash a cheque for him. I told him that I could do +that, and I took his cheque, wrote out one of my own and went up town to +Parr's Bank, at the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, to get the cash for him. +Mr. Van Koon stayed in the office, reading a bundle of American +newspapers which had just been delivered. I was away from the office +perhaps forty minutes or so; when I returned he was still there. I gave +him the money; he thanked me, and went away. + +"Towards the end of that afternoon, just before I was leaving the office, +I got a wire from Mr. Fullaway, from Hull. It was quite short--it merely +informed me that Mr. James Allerdyke was dead, under mysterious +circumstances, and that the Nastirsevitch property was missing. Of +course, I knew what that meant, and I drew my own conclusions. + +"Now I come to the 14th--a critical day, so far as I am concerned. +During the morning a parcels-van boy came into the office. He said that +on the previous day, about half-past twelve o'clock, he had brought a +small parcel there, addressed to Mr. Fullaway, and had handed it to a +gentleman who was reading newspapers, and who had answered 'Yes' when +inquired of as Mr. Fullaway. This gentleman--who, of course, was Van +Koon--had signed for the parcel by scribbling two initials 'F. F.' in the +proper space. The boy, who said he was new to his job, told me that the +clerk at the parcels office objected to this as not being a proper +signature, and had told him to call next time he was passing and get the +thing put right. He accordingly handed me the sheet, and I, believing +that this was some small parcel which Van Koon had taken in, signed for, +and placed somewhere in the office or in Mr. Fullaway's private room, +signed my own name, for Franklin Fullaway, over the penciled initials. +And as I did so I noticed that the parcel had been sent from Hull. + +"When the boy had gone I looked for that parcel. I could not find it +anywhere. It was certainly not in the office, nor in any of the rooms of +Mr. Fullaway's suite. I was half minded to go to Mr. Van Koon and ask +about it, but I decided that I wouldn't; I thought I would wait until Mr. +Fullaway returned. But all the time I was wondering what parcel it could +be that was sent from Hull, and certainly dispatched from there on the +very evening before Mr. Fullaway's hurried journey. + +"Nothing happened until Mr. Fullaway came back. Then a lot of things +happened all at once. There was the news he brought about the Hull +affair. Then there was the affair of the French maid. A great deal got +into the newspapers. Mr. Rayner and I, who live at the same +boarding-house, began to discuss matters. I heard, through Mr. Fullaway, +that there was likelihood of a big reward, and I determined to have a try +for it--in conjunction with Mr. Rayner. And so I kept my own counsel--I +said nothing about the affair of the parcel." + +Fullaway, who had been manifesting signs of impatience and irritation +during the last few minutes, here snapped out a question. + +"Why didn't you tell me at once about the parcel?" he demanded. "It was +your duty!" + +Miss Slade gave her employer a cool glance. + +"Possibly!" she retorted. "But you are much too careless to be entrusted +with secrets, Mr. Fullaway. I knew that if I told you about that parcel +you'd spoil everything at once. I wanted to do things my own way. I took +my own way--and it's come out all right, for everybody. Now, don't you or +anybody interrupt again--I'm telling it all in order." + +Fullaway made an inarticulate growling protest, but Miss Slade took no +notice and continued in even, dispassionate tones, as if she had been +explained a mathematical problem. + +"The affair prospered. The Princess came. The reward of fifty thousand +pounds was offered. Then Mr. Rayner and I put our heads together more +seriously. Much, of course, depended upon me, as I was on the spot. I +wanted a chance to get into Van Koon's rooms, some time when he was out. +Fortunately the chance came. One afternoon, when Van Koon was in our +office, he and Mr. Fullaway settled to dine out together and go to the +theatre afterwards. That gave me my opportunity. I made an excuse about +staying late at Mr. Fullaway's office and when both men were clear away I +let myself into Van Koon's room--I'd already made preparations for +that--and proceeded to search. I found the parcel. It was a small, square +parcel, done up in brown paper and sealed with black wax; it had been +opened, the original wrapper put on again, and the seals resealed. I took +it into Mr. Fullaway's rooms and opened it, carefully. Inside I found a +small cigar-box, and in it the Princess's jewels. I took them out. Then I +put certain articles of corresponding weight into the box, did it up +again precisely as I had found it, smeared over the seals with more black +wax, went back to Van Koon's room with it, and placed it again where I +had found it--in a small suit-case. + +"I now knew, of course, that Mr. James Allerdyke had sent those jewels +direct to Mr. Fullaway, immediately on his arrival in Hull, and that they +had fallen by sheer accident into Van Koon's hands. But I wanted to know +more. I wanted to know if Van Koon had any connection with this affair, +and if, when he saw that the parcel was from Hull, he had immediately +jumped to the conclusion that it might be from James Allerdyke, and might +contain the actual valuables. Fortunately, Mr. Rayner had already made +arrangements with a noted private inquiry agent to have Van Koon most +carefully and closely watched. And the very day after I found and took +possession of the jewels we received a report from this agent that Van +Koon was in the habit of visiting the shop and manufactory of a German +chemist named Schmall, in Whitechapel. Further, he had twice come away +from it, after lengthy visits, in company with a man whom the agent's +employees had tracked to the Hotel Cecil, and whom I knew, from their +description, to be Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Delkin's private secretary. + +"Naturally, having discovered this, we gave instructions for a keener +watch than ever to be kept on both these men. But the name of the German +chemist gave me personally a new and most important clue. There had been +employed at the Waldorf Hotel, for some weeks up to the end of the first +week in May, a German-Swiss young man, who then called himself Ebers. He +acted as valet to several residents; amongst others, Mr. Fullaway. He was +often in and out of Mr. Fullaway's rooms. Once, Mr. Fullaway being out, +and I having nothing to do, I was cleaning up some photographic apparatus +which I had there. This man Ebers came in with some clothes of Mr. +Fullaway's. Seeing what I was doing, he got talking to me about +photography, saying that he himself was an amateur. He recommended to me +certain materials and things of that sort which he said he could get from +a friend of his, a chemist, who was an enthusiastic photographer and +manufactured chemicals and things used in photography. I gave him some +money to get me a supply of things, and he brought various packets and +parcels to me two or three days later. Each packet bore the name of Otto +Schmall, and an address in a street which runs off Mile End Road. + +"Now, when the private inquiry agent made his reports to Mr. Rayner and +myself about Van Koon, and told us where he had been tracked to more than +once, I, of course, remembered the name of Schmall, and Mr. Rayner and I +began to put certain facts together. They were these: + +"_First._--Ebers had easy access to Mr. Fullaway's room at all hours, and +was often in them when both Mr. Fullaway and I were out. Mr. Fullaway is +notoriously careless in leaving papers and documents, letters and +telegrams lying around. Ebers had abundant opportunities of reading lots +of documents relating to (1) the Pinkie Pell pearls, and (2) the +proposed Nastirsevitch deal. + +"_Second._--Ebers was a friend of Schmall. Schmall was evidently a man of +great cleverness in chemistry. + +"_Third._--All the circumstances of Mr. James Allerdyke's death, and of +Lisette Beaurepaire's death, pointed to unusually skillful poisoning. Who +was better able to engineer that than a clever chemist? + +"_Fourth._--The jewels belonging to the Princess Nastirsevitch had +undoubtedly fallen into Van Koon's hands. Van Koon was a friend of +Schmall. So also, evidently, was Merrifield. Now, Merrifield, as Delkin's +secretary, knew of the proposed deal. + +"Obviously, then, Schmall, Van Koon, and Merrifield were in +league--whether Ebers was also in league, or was a catspaw, we did not +trouble to decide. But there was another fact which seemed to have some +bearing, though it is one which I have never yet worked out--perhaps some +of you know something of it. It was this: Just before he went to Russia, +Mr. James Allerdyke, being in town, gave me a photograph of himself which +Mr. Marshall Allerdyke had recently taken. I kept that photo lying on my +desk at Mr. Fullaway's for some time. One day I missed it. It is such an +unusual thing for me to misplace anything that I turned over every paper +on my desk in searching for it. It was not to be found. Four days later I +found it, exactly where it ought to have been. Now, you can draw your own +conclusions from that--mine are that Ebers stole it, so that he could +reproduce it in order to give his reproduction to some person who wanted +to identify James Allerdyke at sight. + +"However, to go forward to the discovery which we made about Schmall, +Van Koon, and Merrifield. As soon as we made that discovery, Mr. Rayner +was for going to the police at once, but I thought not--there was still +certain evidence which I wanted, so that the case could be presented +without a flaw. However, all of a sudden I saw that we should have to +act. Ebers was found dead in a small hotel near the Docks, and at a +conference in which Mr. Fullaway insisted I should join, in his rooms, +and at which Van Koon, who had been playing a bluff game, was present, +there was enough said to convince me that Van Koon and his associates +would take alarm and be off with what they believed themselves to +possess--the jewels in that parcel. So then Mr. Rayner and I determined +on big measures. And they were risky ones--for me. + +"I had already been down, more than once, into Whitechapel, and had +bought things at Schmall's shop, and I was convinced that he was the man +who accompanied Lisette Beaurepaire to that little hotel in Eastbourne +Terrace. Now that the critical moment came, after the Ebers-Federman +affair, I went there again. I got Schmall outside his premises. I took a +bold step. I told him that I was a woman detective, who, for purposes of +my own, had been working this case, and that I was in full possession of +the facts. If I had not taken the precaution to tell him this in the +thick of a crowded street, he would have killed me on the spot! Then I +went on to tell him more. I said that his accomplice had led him to +believe that he had the Nastirsevitch jewels in a parcel in his +possession. I said that Van Koon was wrong--I had them myself--I told him +how I got them. He nearly collapsed at that--I restored him by saying +that the real object of my visit to him was to do a deal with him. I said +that it did not matter two pins to me what he and his accomplices had +done--what I was out for was money, nothing but money. How much would he +and the others put up for the jewels and my silence? I reminded him of +the fifty thousand pound reward. He glared at me like the devil he is, +and said that he'd a mind to kill me there and then, whatever happened. +Whereupon I told him that I had a revolver in my jacket pocket, that it +was trained on him, and that if he moved, my finger would move just as +quick, and I invited him to be sensible. It was nothing but a question of +money, I said---how much would they give? Finally, we settled it at sixty +thousand pounds. He was to meet me here--to-day at two--the other two +were to be about--the money was to be paid to me on production of the +jewels, for which purpose one of them was to go with me to my +boarding-house. And--you know the rest." + +Miss Slade came to a sudden stop. She glanced at Rayner, who had been +watching the effect of her story on the other men. + +"At least," she added suddenly, "you know all that's really important. +As Ebers' affair was in the City, we warned the City police and left +things with them. I think that's all. Except, of course, Mr. Marshall +Allerdyke, that we formally claim the reward for which you're +responsible. And--equally of course--that Mr. Rayner and I will hand +over her jewels in the course of this afternoon to the Princess. Miss +Lennard's property, I should say, you'll find hidden away on Schmall's +premises. Yes--that's all." + +"Except this," said the chief quietly. He unwrapped the newspaper in +which he had carried his small parcel and revealed its contents to Miss +Slade. "The jewels, you see, Miss Slade, are here. It has been my painful +duty to visit your hotel, and to possess myself of them. Sorry but--" + +Miss Slade gave one glance of astonishment at the chief and his exhibit; +then she laughed in his face. + +"Don't apologize, and don't trouble yourself!" she said suavely. "But +you're a bit off it, all the same. Those are some paste things which Mr. +Rayner got together for me in case it came to being obliged to exhibit +some to the crooks. You don't think, really, that I was going to run any +risks with the genuine articles? Sakes--they're all right! They're +deposited, snug and safe, at my bankers, and if you'll get a cab, we'll +drive there and get them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + +Late that afternoon Marshall Allerdyke and Fullaway, responding to an +urgent telephone call, went to New Scotland Yard, and were presently +ushered into the presence of the great man who had been so much in +evidence that day. The great man was as self-possessed, as suave, and +as calmly cheerful as ever. And on the desk in front of him he had two +small and neatly made up parcels, tied and sealed in obviously +official fashion. + +"So we seem to have come to the end of this affair, gentlemen," he +observed as he waved his visitors to chairs on either side of him. +"Except, of course, for the unpleasant consequences which must +necessarily result to the men we caught to-day. However, there will be no +consequences--of that sort--for one of them. Schmall has--escaped us!" + +"Got away!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Great Scott you don't mean that!" + +"Schmall committed suicide this afternoon," replied the chief calmly. +"Clever man--in his own line, which was a very bad line. He was searched +most narrowly and carefully, so I've come to the conclusion that he +carried some of his subtle poison in his mouth--the hollow tooth dodge, +no doubt. Anyway, he's dead--they found him dead in his cell. It's a +pity--for he richly deserved hanging. At least, according to Merrifield." + +"Ah!" said Fullaway, with a start. "According to Merrifield, eh? Now +what may that mean? To find Merrifield in this at all was, of course, a +regular shock to me!" + +"Merrifield--just the type of man who would!--has made a clean breast of +the whole thing," answered the chief. "He made it to me--an hour ago. He +thought it best. He wants--naturally enough--to save his neck." + +"Will he?" growled Allerdyke. "A lot of necks ought to crack, after +all this!" + +"Can't say--we mustn't prejudge the case," said the chief. "But that's +his desire of course. He would tell me everything--at once. I had it all +taken down. But I remember every scrap of it. You want to hear? Well +there's a good deal of it, but I can epitomize it. You'll find that you +were much to blame, Mr. Fullaway--just as that smart young woman, your +secretary, was candid enough to tell you." + +"Oh, I know--I know!" asserted Fullaway. "But--this confession?" + +"Very well," responded the chief. "Here it is, then but you must bear in +mind that Merrifield could only tell what he knew--there'll probably be +details to come out later. Anyway, Merrifield--whose chief object is, I +must also remind you, the clearing of himself from any charge of +murder--he doesn't mind the other charge, but he does object to the +graver one!--says that though he's been playing it straight for some +time, ever since he went into Delkin's service, in fact--he'd had +negotiations of a questionable sort with both Schmall and Van Koon +before years ago, in this city and in New York. He renewed his +acquaintance with Schmall when he came over this time with Delkin--met +him accidentally, and got going it with him again--and they both +resumed dealings with Van Koon--who, I may say, was wanted by Chilverton +on a quite different charge. Schmall had set up a business here in the +East End as a small manufacturing chemist--he'd evidently a perfect and +a diabolical genius for chemistry, especially in secret poisons--and +down there Merrifield and Van Koon used to go. Also, there used to go +there the young man Ebers, or Federman--we'll stick to Ebers--who, from +Merrifield's account, seems to have been a tool of Schmall's. Ebers, a +fellow of evident acute perception, used to tell Schmall of things which +his calling as valet at various hotels gave him knowledge--it strikes me +that from what we now know we shall be able to trace to Schmall and +Ebers several robberies at hotels which have puzzled us a good deal. And +there is no doubt that it was Ebers who told Schmall of the two matters +of which he obtained knowledge when he used to frequent your rooms. Mr. +Fullaway--the pearls belonging to Miss Lennard, and the proposed jewel +deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin. But in that last +Merrifield came in. He too, knew of it, and he told Schmall and Van +Koon, but Ebers supplied the detailed information of what you were +doing, through access, as Miss Slade said, to your papers--which you +left lying about, you know." + +"I know--I know!" groaned Fullaway. "Careless--careless!" + +"Very!" said the chief, with a smile at Allerdyke "Teach you a lesson, +perhaps. However, there this knowledge was. Now, Schmall, according to +Merrifield, was the leading spirit. He had the man Lydenberg in his +employ. He sent him off to Christiania to waylay James Allerdyke: he +supplied him with a photograph of James Allerdyke, which Ebers procured." + +"I know that!" muttered Allerdyke. "Clever, too!" + +"Exactly," agreed the chief. "Now at the same time Schmall learned of +Miss Lennard's return. He sent Ebers, who already knew and had been +cultivating the French maid, down to Hull to meet her and bring her away +with Miss Lennard's jewel-box. That was done easily. The Lydenberg +affair, however, did not come off--through Lydenberg. Because, as we now +know, James Allerdyke sent the Nastirsevitch jewels off to you, Mr. +Fullaway. But there, fortune favoured these fellows Van Koon, for +purposes of theirs, had taken up his quarters close by you--in your +absence the box came into his hands. And--we know how the ingenious Miss +Slade despoiled him of it!" + +The chief paused for a moment, and mechanically shifted the two parcels +which stood before him. He seemed to be reflecting, and when he spoke +again he prefaced his words with a shake of the head. + +"Now here, from this point," he continued, "I don't know if Mr. +Merrifield is telling the truth. Probably he isn't. But I confess that, +at present, I don't see how we're going to prove that he isn't. He +strenuously declares that neither he nor Van Koon had anything whatever +to do with the murder of Lisette Beaurepaire, Lydenberg, or Ebers. He +further says that he does not know if Lydenberg poisoned James Allerdyke. +He declares that he does not know if it was ever intended to poison James +Allerdyke, though he confesses that it was intended to rob him at Hull. +Schmall, he says, was the active partner in all this--he took all that +into his own hands. According to Merrifield, he does not know, nor Van +Koon either, if it was Schmall who went down to Hull and shot Lydenberg, +or if Lydenberg was murdered by some person who had a commission for his +destruction from some secret society--Lydenberg, he believed, was mixed +up with that sort of thing." + +"I know that, I think!" exclaimed Allerdyke. + +"I daresay we all three know what we think," observed the chief. "Schmall +seems to have had a genius for putting his tools out of the way when he +had done with them. It was undoubtedly Schmall who took Lisette +Beaurepaire to that hotel in Paddington and poisoned her; it was just as +undoubtedly Schmall who took Ebers to the hotel in London Docks and got +rid of him. But, I tell you, Merrifield swears that neither he nor Van +Koon knew of these things, and did not connive at them." + +"Did they know of them--afterwards?" asked Fullaway. + +"Ah!" replied the chief. "That's what they'll have to satisfy a judge and +jury about! I think they'll find it difficult. But--that's about all. +Except this--that they were all three about to clear out when the +enterprising Miss Slade turned up and told Schmall she'd got the +Nastirsevitch jewels. That was a stiff proposition for them. But they +were equal to it. For you see Miss Slade let him know that she was open +to do a deal--for sixty thousand pounds! How were they to get sixty +thousand pounds? Ah!--now came a confession from Merrifield which has +already--for I've told him of it--made Mr. Delkin stare. Delkin, it +appears, keeps a very big banking account here in London--so big, that +his bankers think nothing of his drawing what we should call enormous +cash cheques. Now Merrifield--you see what a clean breast he's +made--admitted to me that he was an expert forger--so he calmly forged a +cheque of Delkin's, drew sixty thousand in notes--and they had them on +them--at least Merrifield had--when we took all three a few hours ago. +Nice people, eh!" + +There was a silence of much significance for a few minutes; then +Allerdyke got up from his chair with a growl. + +"I'd have given a good deal if that fellow Schmall had saved his neck for +the gallows!" he muttered. "He's cheated me!" + +"It's my impression," said the chief, "that if Miss Slade hadn't been so +smart, Schmall would have cheated his two accomplices. He had what he +believed to be the parcel containing the Nastirsevitch jewels in his +possession, and he also had Miss Lennard's pearls locked up in his safe. +We got those this afternoon, on searching his premises; Miss Slade gave +us the real Nastirsevitch jewels from her bank. Here they are--both lots, +in these parcels. And if you two gentlemen will go through the formality +of signing receipts for them, you, Mr. Fullaway, can take her parcel to +the Princess, and you, Mr. Allerdyke, can carry hers to Miss Lennard. +And, er--" he added, with a quiet smile, as he rose and produced some +papers--"you won't mind, either of you, I'm sure, if a couple of my men +accompany you--just to see that you accomplish your respective missions +in safety?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + +With the recovered pearls in his hand, and Chettle as guardian and +companion at his side, Allerdyke chartered a taxi-cab and demanded to be +driven to Bedford Court Mansions. And as they glided away up Whitehall he +turned to the detective with a grin that had a sardonic complexion to it. + +"Well--except for the law business--I reckon this is about over, +Chettle," he said. "You've had plenty to do, anyway--not much kicking +your heels in idleness anywhere, while this has been going on!" + +Chettle pulled a long face and sighed. + +"Unfortunate for me, all the same, Mr. Allerdyke," he answered. "I'd +meant to have a big cut in at that reward, sir. Now I suppose that young +woman'll get it." + +"Miss Slade'll doubtless get most of it," replied Allerdyke. "But I think +there'll have to be a bit of a dividing-up, like. You fellows are +certainly entitled to some of it--especially you--and two or three of +those folks who gave some information ought to have a look in. But, of +course, Miss Slade will feel herself entitled to the big lump--and she'll +take care to get it, don't make any mistake!" + +"She's a deal too clever, that young lady," observed Chettle. "I like 'em +clever, but not quite as clever as all that. In my opinion, she's +mistaken her calling, has that young woman. She ought to have been one +of us--they're uncommonly bent that way, some of these modern +misses--they can see right through a thing, sometimes, where we men can't +see an inch above our noses." + +"Intuition," said Allerdyke, with a laugh. "Aye, well perhaps Miss +Slade'll have got so infected with enthusiasm for your business that +She'll go in for it regularly. This reward'll do for capital, you +know, Chettle." + +"Ah!" responded Chettle feelingly. "Wish it was coming to me! I +wouldn't put no capital into that business--not me, sir! I'd have a +nice little farm in the country, and I'd grow roses, and breed sheep +and pigs, and--" + +"And lose all your brass in a couple of years!" laughed Allerdyke. "Stick +to your own game, my lad, and when you want to grow roses, do it in your +own back yard for pleasure. And here we are--and you'd best wait, +Chettle, until Miss Lennard herself gives a receipt for this stuff, and +then you can take it back to Scotland Yard and frame it." + +He left Chettle in an anti-room of Miss Lennard's flat while he himself +was shown into the prima donna's presence. She was alone, and evidently +unoccupied, and her eyes suddenly sparkled when Allerdyke came in as if +she was glad of a visitor. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "Really!" + +"It's me," said Allerdyke laconically. "Nobody else," He looked round to +make sure that the door was safely closed; then he advanced to the little +table at which Miss Lennard was sitting and laid down his parcel. + +"Something for you," he said abruptly. "Open it." + +"What is it?" she asked, glancing shyly at him. "Not chocolates--surely!" + +"Never bought aught of that sort in my life," replied Allerdyke. "More +respect for people's teeth. Here--I'll open it," he went on, producing a +penknife and cutting the string. "I've signed one receipt for this stuff +already--you'll have to sign another. There's a detective in your parlour +waiting for it, just now." + +"A detective!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you don't mean to say that box +has my pearls in it? Oh! you don't!" + +"See if they're all right," commanded Allerdyke "Gad!--they've been +through some queer hands since you lost 'em. I don't know how you feel +about it, but hang me if I shouldn't feel strange wearing 'em again! I +should feel--but I daresay you don't!" + +"No, I don't!" she said as she drew the jewels out of their wrappings and +hurriedly examined them. "Of course I don't; all I feel is that I'm +delighted beyond measure to get them back. You don't understand." + +"No, I don't," agreed Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair close by, and +quietly regarded the owner of the fateful valuables. "I'm only a man, you +see. But--I should know better how to take care of things like these than +you did. Come, now!" + +"I shall take better care of them--in future," said Miss Lennard. + +Allerdyke shook his head, + +"Not you!" he retorted. "At least--not unless you've somebody to take +care of you. Eh?" + +Miss Lennard, who was still examining her recovered property, set it +hastily down and stared at her visitor. Her colour heightened, and her +eyes became inquisitive. + +"Take care of--me!" she exclaimed. "Of--whatever are you talking about, +Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"It's like this," replied Allerdyke, involuntarily squaring himself in +his chair. "You see me?--I'm as healthy a man as ever lived!--forty, but +no more than five-and-twenty in health and spirits. I've plenty of brains +and a rare good temper. I'm owner of one of the best businesses in +Yorkshire--I'm worth a good ten thousand a year. I've one of the best +houses in our parts--I'm going to take another, a country house, if +you're minded. I'll guarantee to make the best husband--" + +Miss Lennard dropped back on her sofa and screamed. + +"Good heavens, man?" she exclaimed. "Are you--are you really asking me +to--to marry you?" + +"That's it," replied Allerdyke, nodding. "You've hit it. Queer way, +maybe--but it's my way. See?" + +"I never heard of--of such a way in all my life!" said the lady. +"You're--extraordinary!" + +"I am," said Allerdyke. "Yes--we are out of the ordinary in our part of +the world--we know it. Well," he went on after a moment's silence, during +which they looked at each other, "you've heard what I have to say. How is +it to be?" + +The prima donna continued to gaze intently on this strange wooer for a +full minute. Then she suddenly stretched out her hand. + +"I'll marry you!" she said quietly. + +Allerdyke gave the hand a firm pressure, and stood up, unconsciously +pulling himself to his full height. + +"Thank you," he said. "You shan't regret it. And now, then--a pen, if you +please. Sign that." + +He handed his betrothed a paper, watched her sign it, and then, picking +up the pen as she laid it down, took a cheque-book from his pocket and +quickly wrote a cheque. This he placed in an envelope taken from the +writing-table. Envelope and receipt in hand, he turned to the door. + +"Business first," he said, smiling over his shoulder. "I'll send Chettle +off--then we'll talk about ourselves." + +He went away to Chettle and put the paper and the envelope in his hand. + +"That's the receipt," he said. "T'other's a bit of a present for +you--naught to do with the reward--a trifle from me. Ah!--you might like +to know that I've just got engaged to be married!" + +Chettle glanced round and inclined his head towards the room from which +Allerdyke had just emerged. + +"What!--to the lady!" he exclaimed. "Deary me. Well," he went on, +grasping the successful suitor's hand, and giving it a warm and +sympathetic squeeze, "there's one thing I can say, Mr. Allerdyke--you'll +make an uncommon good-looking pair!" + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10443 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a71002 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10443 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10443) diff --git a/old/10443-8.txt b/old/10443-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c80ea4a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10443-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9360 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation , by J. S. +Fletcher + + +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: The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: December 12, 2003 [eBook #10443] +[Date last updated: May 1, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION *** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION + +BY J.S. FLETCHER + +1922 + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + II THE DEAD MAN + + III THE SHOE BUCKLE + + IV MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + V THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + VI THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + VII THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + VIII THE JEWEL BOX + + IX THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + X THE SECOND MURDER + + XI THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + XII THE THIRD MURDER + + XIII AMBLER APPLEYARD + + XIV FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + XV THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + XVI MR. GERALD RAYNER + + XVII THE PHOTOGRAPH + + XVIII DEFINITE SUSPICION + + XIX THE LATE CALL + + XX NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + XXI THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + XXII THICK FOG + + XXIII THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + XXIV CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + XXV THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + XXVI PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + XXVII THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + +XXVIII THE FIRST PURSUIT + + XXIX THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + XXX THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + XXXI THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + XXXII THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + +XXXIII THE SMART MISS SLADE + + XXXIV MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + XXXV THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + +About eleven o'clock on the night of Monday, May 12, 1914, Marshall +Allerdyke, a bachelor of forty, a man of great mental and physical +activity, well known in Bradford as a highly successful manufacturer of +dress goods, alighted at the Central Station in that city from an +express which had just arrived from Manchester, where he had spent the +day on business. He had scarcely set foot on the platform when he was +confronted by his chauffeur, a young man in a neat dark-green livery, +who took his master's travelling rug in one hand, while with the other +he held out an envelope. + +"The housekeeper said I was to give you that as soon as you got in, sir," +he announced. "There's a telegram in it that came at four o'clock this +afternoon--she couldn't send it on, because she didn't know exactly where +it would find you in Manchester." + +Allerdyke took the envelope, tore it open, drew out the telegram, +and stepped beneath the nearest lamp. He muttered the wording of +the message-- + +"_On board SS. Perisco_ + +"63 _miles N.N.E. Spurn Point_, 2.15 _p.m., May_ 12_th_. + +"Expect to reach Hull this evening, and shall stop Station Hotel there +for night on way to London. Will you come on at once and meet me? Want to +see you on most important business-- + +"JAMES." + +Allerdyke re-read this message, quietly and methodically folded it up, +slipped it into his pocket, and with a swift glance at the station clock +turned to his chauffeur. + +"Gaffney," he said, "how long would it take us to run across to Hull?" + +The chauffeur showed no surprise at this question; he had served +Allerdyke for three years, and was well accustomed to his ways. + +"Hull?" he replied. "Let's see, sir--that 'ud be by way of Leeds, Selby, +and Howden. About sixty miles in a straight line, but there's a good bit +of in-and-out work after you get past Selby, sir. I should say about +four hours." + +"Plenty of petrol in the car?" asked Allerdyke, turning down the +platform. "There is? What time did you have your supper?" + +"Ten o'clock, sir," answered Gaffney, with promptitude. + +"Bring the car round to the hotel door in the station yard," commanded +Allerdyke. "You'll find a couple of Thermos flasks in the locker--bring +them into the hotel lounge bar." + +The chauffeur went off down the platform. Allerdyke turned up the covered +way to the Great Northern Hotel. When the chauffeur joined him there a +few minutes later he was giving orders for a supply of freshly-cut beef +sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs; the Thermos flasks he handed over to be +filled with hot coffee. + +"Better get something to eat now, Gaffney," he said. "Get some +sandwiches, or some bread and cheese, or something--it's a longish spin." + +He himself, waiting while the chauffeur ate and drank, and the provisions +were made ready, took a whisky and soda to a chair by the fire, and once +more pulled out and read the telegram. And as he read he wondered why +his cousin, its sender, wished so particularly to see him at once. James +Allerdyke, a man somewhat younger than himself, like himself a bachelor +of ample means and of a similar temperament, had of late years concerned +himself greatly with various business speculations in Northern Europe, +and especially in Russia. He had just been over to St. Petersburg in +order to look after certain of his affairs in and near that city, and he +was returning home by way of Stockholm and Christiania, in each of which +towns he had other ventures to inspect. But Marshall Allerdyke was quite +sure that his cousin did not wish to see him about any of these +matters--anything connected with them would have kept until they met in +the ordinary way, which would have happened within a day or two. No, if +James had taken the trouble to send him a message by wireless from the +North Sea, it meant that James was really anxious to see him at the first +available moment, and would already have landed in Hull, expecting to +find him there. However, with a good car, smooth roads, and a fine, +moonlit night-- + +It was not yet twelve o'clock when Allerdyke wrapped himself up in a +corner of his luxurious Rolls-Royce, saw that the box of eatables and the +two Thermos flasks were safe in the locker, and told Gaffney to go ahead. +He himself had the faculty of going to sleep whenever he pleased, and he +went to sleep now. He was asleep as Gaffney went through Leeds and its +suburbs; he slept all along the country roads which led to Selby and +thence to Howden. But in the silent streets of Howden he woke with a +start, to find that Gaffney had pulled up in answer to a question flung +to him by the driver of another car, which had come alongside their own +from the opposite direction. That car had also been pulled up; within it +Allerdyke saw a woman, closely wrapped in furs. + +"What is it, Gaffney?" he asked, letting down his own window and +leaning out. + +"Wants to know which is the best way to get across the Ouse, sir," +answered Gaffney. "I tell him there's two ferries close by--one at Booh, +the other at Langrick--but there'll be nobody to work them at this hour. +Where do you want to get to?" he went on, turning to the driver of the +other car. + +"Want to strike the Great Northern main line somewhere," answered the +driver. "This lady wants to catch a Scotch express. I thought of +Doncaster, but--" + +The window of the other car was let down, and its occupant looked out. +The light of the full moon shone full on her, and Allerdyke lifted his +cap to a pretty, alert-looking young woman of apparently twenty-five, who +politely returned his salutation. + +"Can I give you any advice?" asked Allerdyke. "I understand you want--" + +"An express train to Scotland--Edinburgh," replied the lady. "I made out, +on arrival at Hull, that if I motored across country I would get a train +at some station on the Great Northern line--a morning express. Doncaster, +Selby, York--which is nearest from wherever we are!" + +"This is Howden," said Allerdyke, looking up at the great tower of the +old church. "And your best plan is to follow this road to Selby, and then +to York. All the London expresses stop there, but they don't all stop at +Selby or at Doncaster. And there's no road bridge over the Ouse nearer +than Selby in any case." + +"Many thanks," responded the lady. "Then," she went on, looking at her +driver, "you will go on to York--that is--how far?" she added, favouring +Allerdyke with a gracious smile. "Very far?" + +"Less than an hour's run," answered Gaffney for his master. "And a +good road." + +The lady bowed; Allerdyke once more raised his cap; the two cars parted +company. And Allerdyke stopped Gaffney as he was driving off again, and +produced the provisions. + +"Half-past two," he remarked, pulling out his watch. "You've come along +in good style, Gaffney. We'll have something to eat and drink. Queer +thing, eh, for anybody to motor across from Hull to catch a Great +Northern express on the main line!" + +"Mayn't be any trains out of Hull during the night, sir," answered +Gaffney, taking a handful of sandwiches. "They'll get one at York, +anyway. Want to reach Hull at any particular time, sir?" + +"No," answered Allerdyke. "Go along as you've come. You'll have a bit of +uphill work over the edge of the Wolds, now. When we strike Hull, go to +the Station Hotel." + +He went to sleep again as soon as they moved out of Howden, and he only +awoke when the car stopped at the hotel door in Hull. A night-porter, +hearing the buzz of the engine, came out. + +"Put the car in the garage, Gaffney, and then get yourself a bed and lie +as long as you like," said Allerdyke. "I'll let you know when I want +you." He turned to the night-porter. "You've a Mr. James Allerdyke +stopping here I think?" he went on. "He'd come in last night from the +Christiania steamer." + +The night-porter led the way into the hotel, and towards the office. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke?" he asked of the new arrival. "The gentleman +left a card for you; I was asked to give it to you as soon as you came." + +Allerdyke took the visiting-card which the man produced from a letter +rack, and read the lines hastily scribbled on the back-- + +If you land here during the night, come straight up to my room--263--and +rouse me out. Want to see you at once.--J.A. + +Allerdyke slipped the card into his pocket and turned to the +night-porter. + +"My cousin wants me to go up to his room at once," he said. "Just show me +the way. Do you happen to know what time he got in last night?" he +continued, as they went upstairs. "Was it late?" + +"Passengers from the _Perisco_, sir?" answered the night-porter. +"There were several of 'em came in last night--she got into the river +about eight-thirty. It 'ud be a bit after nine o'clock when your +friend came in." + +Allerdyke's mind went back to the meeting at Howden. + +"Did you have a lady set off from here in the middle of the night?" he +asked, out of sheer curiosity. "A lady in a motor-car?" + +"Oh! that lady," exclaimed the night-porter, with a grim laugh. "Ah! +nice lot of bother she gave me, too. She was one of those _Perisco_ +passengers--she got in here with the rest, and booked a room, and went +to it all right, and then at half-past twelve down she came and said she +wanted to get on, and as there weren't no trains she'd have a motor-car +and drive to catch an express at Selby, or Doncaster, or somewhere. +Nice job I had to get her a car at that time o' night!--and me +single-handed--there wasn't a soul in the office then. Meet her +anywhere, sir?" + +"Met her on the road," replied Allerdyke laconically. "Was she a +foreigner, do you know?" + +"I shouldn't wonder if she was something of that sort," answered the +night-porter. "Sort that would have her own way at all events. Here's the +room, sir." + +He paused before the door of a room which stood halfway down a long +corridor in the centre of the hotel, and on its panels he knocked gently. + +"Every room's filled on this floor, sir," he remarked. "I hope your +friend's a light sleeper, for there's some of 'em'll have words to say if +they're roused at four o'clock in the morning." + +"He's a very light sleeper as a rule," replied Allerdyke. He stood +listening for the sound of some movement in the room: "Knock again," he +said, when a minute had passed without response on the part of the +occupant. "Make it a bit louder." + +The night-porter, with evident unwillingness, repeated his summons, this +time loud enough to wake any ordinary sound sleeper. But no sound came +from within the room, and after a third and much louder thumping at the +door, Allerdyke grew impatient and suspicious. + +"This is queer!" he growled. "My cousin's one of the lightest sleepers I +ever knew. If he's in there, there's something wrong. Look here! you'll +have to open that door. Haven't you got a key?" + +"Key'll be inside, sir," replied the night-porter. "But there's a +master-key to all these doors in the office. Shall I fetch it, then?" + +"Do!" said Allerdyke, curtly. He began to walk up and down the corridor +when the man had hurried away, wondering what this soundness of sleep +in his cousin meant. James Allerdyke was not a man who took either drink +or drugs, and Marshall's experience of him was that the least sound +awoke him. + +"Queer!" he repeated as he marched up and down. "Perhaps he's not--" + +The quiet opening of a door close by made him lift his eyes from the +carpet. In the dim light he saw a man looking out upon him--a man of an +unusually thick crop of hair and with a huge beard. He stared at +Allerdyke half angrily, half sulkily; then he closed his door as quietly +as he had opened it. And Allerdyke, turning back to his cousin's room, +mechanically laid his hand on the knob and screwed it round. + +The door was open. + +Allerdyke drew a sharp breath as he crossed the threshold. He had stayed +in that hotel often, and he knew where the switch of the electric light +should be. He lifted a hand, found the switch, and turned the light on. +And as it flooded the room, he pulled himself up to a tense rigidity. +There, sitting fully dressed in an easy chair, against which his head was +thrown back, was his cousin--unmistakably dead. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE DEAD MAN + + +For a full minute Marshall Allerdyke stood fixed--staring at the set +features before him. Then, with a quick catching of his breath, he made +one step to his cousin's side and laid his hand on the unyielding +shoulder. The affectionate, familiar terms in which they had always +addressed each other sprang involuntarily to his lips. + +"Why, James, my lad!" he exclaimed. "James, lad! James!" + +Even as he spoke, he knew that James would never hear word or sound again +in this world. It needed no more than one glance at the rigid features, +one touch of the already fixed and statue-like body, to know that James +Allerdyke was not only dead, but had been dead some time. And, with a +shuddering sigh, Marshall Allerdyke drew himself up and looked round at +his surroundings. + +Nothing could have been more peaceful than that quiet hotel bedroom; +nothing more orderly than its arrangements. Allerdyke had always known +his cousin for a man of unusually tidy and methodical habits; the +evidence of that orderliness was there, where he had pitched his camp for +presumably a single night. His toilet articles were spread out on the +dressing-table; his pyjamas were laid across his pillow; his open +suit-case lay on a stand at the foot of the bed; by the bedside lay his +slippers. An overcoat hung from one peg of the door; a dressing-gown +from another; on a chair in a corner lay, neatly folded, a couple of +travelling rugs. All these little details Allerdyke's sharp eyes took in +at a glance; he turned from them to the things nearer the dead man. + +James Allerdyke sat in a big easy chair, placed at the side of a round +table set towards a corner of the room. He was fully dressed in a grey +tweed suit, but he had taken off one boot--the left--and it lay at his +feet on the hearthrug. He himself was thrown back against the high-padded +hood of the chair; there was a little frown on his set features, a tiny +puckering of the brows above his closed eyes. His hands were lying at his +sides, unclasped, the fingers slightly stretched, the thumbs slightly +turned inward; everything looked as if, in the very act of taking off his +boots, some sudden spasm of pain had seized him, and he had sat up, +leaned back, and died, as swiftly as the seizure had come. There was a +slight blueness under the lower rims of the eyes, a corresponding tint on +the clean-shaven upper lip, but neither that nor the pallor which had +long since settled on the rigid features had given anything of +ghastliness to the face. The dead man lay back in his chair in such an +easy posture that but for his utter quietness, his intense immobility, he +might have well been taken for one who was hard and fast asleep. + +The sound of the night-porter's returning footsteps sent Allerdyke out +into the corridor. Unconsciously he shook his head and raised a hand--as +if to warn the man against noise. + +"Sh!" he said, still acting and speaking mechanically. "Here's--I knew +something was wrong. The fact is, my cousin's dead!" + +In his surprise the night-porter dropped the key which he had been to +fetch. When he straightened himself from picking it up, his ruddy face +had paled. + +"Dead!" he exclaimed in a whisper. "Him! Why, he looked the picture of +health last night. I noticed that of him, anyway!" + +"He's dead now," said Allerdyke. "He's lying there dead. Come in!" + +The door along the corridor from which the man of the shock head and +great beard had looked out, opened again, and the big head was protruded. +Its owner, seeing the two standing there, came out. + +"Anything wrong?" he asked, advancing towards them in his pyjamas. "If +there's any illness, I'm a medical man. Can I be of use?" + +Allerdyke turned sharply, looking the stranger well over. He was not +sure whether the man was an Englishman or a foreigner; he fancied that +he detected a slightly foreign accent. The tone was well-meaning, and +even kindly. + +"I'm obliged to you," replied Allerdyke, in his characteristically +blunt fashion. "I'm afraid nobody can be of use. The truth is, I came +to join my cousin here, and I find him dead. Seems to me he's been +dead some time. As you're a doctor, you can tell, of course. Perhaps +you'll come in?" + +He led the way back into the bedroom, the other two following closely +behind him. At sight of the dead man the bearded stranger uttered a sharp +exclamation. + +"Ah!" he said. "Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"You knew him, then?" demanded Marshall. "You've met him?" + +The other, who had stooped over the body, bestowing a light touch on +face and hand, looked up and nodded. + +"I came over with him from Christiania," he answered. "I met him +there--at a hotel. I had several conversations with him. In fact, I +warned him." + +"Warned him? Of what!" asked Allerdyke. + +"Over-exertion," replied the doctor quietly. "I saw symptoms of +heart-strain. That was why I talked with him. I gathered from what he +told me that he was a man who lived a very strenuous life, and I warned +him against doing too much. He was not fitted for it." + +"Good Lord!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with obvious impatience. "Why, I always +considered him as one of the fittest men I ever knew!" + +"Perhaps you did," said the doctor. "Laymen, sir, do not see what a +trained eye sees. The proof in his case is--there!" + +He pointed to the dead man, at whom the night-porter was staring with +astonished eyes. + +Allerdyke stared, too, or seemed to stare. In reality, he was gazing into +space, wondering about what had just been said. + +"Then you think he died a natural death?" he asked, suddenly turning on +his companion. "You don't think there's--anything wrong?" + +The doctor shook his head calmly. + +"I think he died of precisely what I should have expected him to die of," +he answered. "Heart failure. It came upon him quite suddenly. You see, he +was in the act of taking off his boots. He is a little fleshy--stout. The +exertion of bending over and down--that was too much. He felt a sharp +spasm--he sat back--he died, there and then." + +"There and then!" repeated Allerdyke mechanically. "Well--what's to be +done!" he went on. "What is done in these cases--I suppose you know?" + +"There will have to be an inquest later on," answered the doctor. "I can +give evidence for you, if you like--I am staying in Hull for a few +days--for I can certainly testify to what I had observed. But that comes +later--at present you had better acquaint the manager of the hotel, and I +should suggest sending for a local medical man--there are some eminent +men of my profession in this town. And--the body should be laid out. I'll +go and dress, and then do what I can for you." + +"Much obliged," responded Allerdyke. "Very kind of you. What name, sir?" + +"My name is Lydenberg," replied the stranger. "I will give you my card +presently. I have the honour of addressing--?" + +Allerdyke pulled out his own card-case. + +"My name's Marshall Allerdyke," he answered. "I'm his cousin," he went +on, with another glance at the still figure. "And, my conscience, I never +thought to find him like this! I never heard of any weakness on his +part--I always thought him a particularly strong man." + +"You will send for another medical man?" asked Dr. Lydenberg. "It will be +more satisfactory to you." + +"Yes, I'll see to that," replied Allerdyke. He turned to look at the +night-porter, who was still hanging about as if fascinated. "Look here!" +he said. "We don't want any fuss. Just rouse the manager quietly, and +ask him to come here. And find that chauffeur of mine, and tell him I +want him. Now, then, what about a doctor? Do you know a real, +first-class one?" + +"There's several within ten minutes, sir," answered the night-porter. +"There's Dr. Orwin, in Coltman Street--he's generally fetched here. I +can get a man to go for him at once." + +"Do!" commanded Allerdyke. "But send me my driver first--I want him. Tell +him what's happened." + +He waited, standing and staring at his dead cousin until Gaffney came +hurrying along the corridor. Allerdyke beckoned him into the room and +closed the door. + +"Gaffney," he said. "You see how things are? Mr. James is dead--I found +him sitting there, dead. He's been dead some time--hours. There's a +doctor, a foreigner, I think, across the passage there, who says it's +been heart failure. I've sent for another doctor. Now in the meantime, I +want to see what my cousin's got on him, and I want you to help me. We'll +take everything off him in the way of valuables, papers, and so on, and +put 'em in that small hand-bag of his." + +Master and man went methodically to work; and an observer of an unduly +sentimental shade of mind might have said that there was something almost +callous about their measured, business-like proceedings. But Marshall +Allerdyke was a man of eminently thorough and practical habits, and he +was doing what he did with an idea and a purpose. His cousin might have +died from sudden heart failure; again, he might not, there might have +been foul play; there might have been one of many reasons for his +unexpected death--anyway, in Allerdyke's opinion it was necessary for him +to know exactly what James was carrying about his person when death took +place. There was a small hand-bag on the dressing-table; Allerdyke opened +it and took out all its contents. They were few--a muffler, a +travelling-cap, a book or two, some foreign newspapers, a Russian +word-book, a flask, the various odds and ends, small unimportant things +which a voyager by sea and land picks up. Allerdyke took all these out, +and laying them aside on the table, directed Gaffney to take everything +from the dead man's pockets. And Gaffney, solemn of face and tight of +lip, set to his task in silence. + +There was comparatively little to bring to light. A watch and chain--the +small pocket articles which every man carries--keys, a monocle eyeglass, +a purse full of gold, loose silver, a note-case containing a considerable +sum in bank-notes, some English, some foreign, letters and papers, a +pocket diary--these were all. Allerdyke took each as Gaffney produced +them, and placed each in the bag with no more than a mere glance. + +"Everything there is, sir," whispered the chauffeur at last. "I've been +through every pocket." + +Allerdyke found the key of the bag, locked it, and set it aside on the +mantelpiece. Then he went over to the suit-case lying on the bench at the +foot of the bed, closed and locked it, and dropped the bunch of keys in +his pocket. And just then Dr. Lydenberg came back, dressed, and on his +heels came the manager of the hotel, startled and anxious, and with him +an elderly professional-looking man whom he introduced as Dr. Orwin. + +When James Allerdyke's dead body had been lifted on to the bed, and the +two medical men had begun a whispered conversation beside it, Allerdyke +drew the hotel manager aside to a corner of the room. + +"Did you see anything of my cousin when he arrived last night?" he asked. + +"Not when he arrived--no," replied the manager. "But later--yes. I had +some slight conversation with him after he had taken supper. It was +nothing much--he merely wished to know if there was always a night-porter +on duty. He said he expected a friend, who might turn up at any hour of +the night, and he wanted to leave a card for him. That would be you, I +suppose, sir?" + +"Just so," replied Allerdyke. "Now, how did he seem at that time? And +what time was that?" + +"Ten o'clock," said the manager. "Seem? Well, sir, he seemed to be in the +very best of health and spirits! I was astonished to hear that he was +dead. I never saw a man look more like living. He was--" + +The elderly doctor came away from the bed approaching Allerdyke. + +"After hearing what Dr. Lydenberg tells me, and examining the body--a +mere perfunctory examination as yet, you know--I have little doubt that +this gentleman died of what is commonly called heart failure," he said. +"There will have to be an inquest, of course, and it may be advisable to +make a post-mortem examination. You are a relative?" + +"Cousin," replied Allerdyke. He hesitated a moment, and then spoke +bluntly. "You don't think it's been a case of poisoning, do you?" he said. + +Dr. Orwin pursed his lips and regarded his questioner narrowly. + +"Self-administered, do you mean?" he asked. + +"Administered any way," answered Allerdyke. "Self or otherwise." He +squared his shoulders and spoke determinedly. "I don't understand about +this heart-failure notion," he went on. "I never heard him complain of +his heart. He was a strong, active man--hearty and full of go. I want to +know--everything." + +"There should certainly be an autopsy," murmured Dr. Orwin. He turned and +looked at his temporary colleague, who nodded as if in assent. Then he +turned back to Allerdyke. "If you'll leave us for a while, we will just +make a further examination--then we'll speak to you later." + +Allerdyke signified his assent with a curt nod of the head. Accompanied +by the manager and Gaffney he left the room, and with him he carried the +small hand-bag in which he had placed the dead man's personal effects. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SHOE BUCKLE + + +Once outside the death-chamber, Allerdyke asked the manager to give him a +bedroom with a sitting-room attached to it, and to put Gaffney in another +room close by--he should be obliged, he said, to stay at the hotel until +the inquest was over and arrangements had been made for his cousin's +funeral. The manager at once took him to a suite of three rooms at the +end of the corridor which they were then in. Allerdyke took it at once, +sent Gaffney down to bring up certain things from the car, and detained +the manager for a moment's conversation. + +"I suppose you'd a fair lot of people come in last night from that +Christiania boat?" he asked. + +"Some fifteen or twenty," answered the manager. + +"Did you happen to see my cousin in conversation with any of them?" +inquired Allerdyke. + +The manager shrugged his shoulders. He was not definitely sure about +that; he had a notion that he had seen Mr. James Allerdyke talking with +some of the _Perisco_ passengers, but the notion was vague. + +"You know how it is," he went on. "People come in--they stand about +talking in the hall--groups, you know--they go from one to another. I +think I saw him talking to that doctor who's in there now with Dr. +Orwin--the man with the big beard--and to a lady who came at the same +time. There were several ladies in the party--the passengers were all +about in the hall, and in the coffee-room, and so on. There are a lot of +other people in the house, too, of course." + +"It's this way," said Allerdyke. "I'm not at all satisfied about what +these doctors say, so far. They may be right, of course--probably are. +Still I want to know all I can, and, naturally, I'd like to know who the +people were that my cousin was last in company with. You never know what +may have happened--there's often something that doesn't show at first." + +"There was--nothing missing in his room, I hope?" asked the manager with +professional anxiety. + +"Nothing that I know of," answered Allerdyke. "My man and I have searched +him, and taken possession of everything--all that he had on him is in +that bag, and I'm going to examine it now. No--I don't think anything had +been taken from him, judging by what I've seen." + +"You wouldn't like me to send for the police?" suggested the manager. + +"Not at present," replied Allerdyke. "Not, at any rate, until these +doctors say something more definite--they'll know more presently, +no doubt. Of course, you've a list of all the people who came in +last night?" + +"They would all register," answered the manager. "But then, you +know, sir, many of them will be going this morning--most of them are +only breaking their journey. You can look over the register whenever +you like." + +"Later on," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime, I'll examine these things. +Send me up some coffee as soon as your people are stirring." + +He unlocked the hand-bag when the manager had left him. It seemed to his +practical and methodical mind that his first duty was to make himself +thoroughly acquainted with the various personal effects which he and +Gaffney had found on the dead man. Of the valuables he took little +notice; it was very evident, in his opinion, that if James Allerdyke's +death had been brought about by some sort of foul play--a suspicion which +had instantly crossed his mind as soon as he discovered that his cousin +was dead--the object of his destroyer had not been robbery. James had +always been accustomed to carrying a considerable sum of money on him; +Gaffney's search had brought a considerable sum to light. James also wore +a very valuable watch and chain and two fine diamond rings; there they +all were. Not robbery--no; at least, not robbery of the ordinary sort. +But--had there been robbery of another, a bigger, a subtle, and +deep-designed sort? James was a man of many affairs and schemes--he might +have had valuable securities, papers relating to designs, papers +containing secrets of great moment; he was interested, for example, in +several patents--he might have had documents pertinent to some affair of +such importance that ill-disposed folk, eager to seize them, might have +murdered him in order to gain possession of them. There were many +possibilities, and there was always--to Allerdyke's mind--the +improbability that James had died through sudden illness. + +Now that Marshall Allerdyke's mind was clearing, getting free of the +first effects of the sudden shock of finding his cousin dead, doubt and +uneasiness as to the whole episode were rising strongly within him. He +and James had been brought up together; they had never been apart from +each other for more than a few months at a time during thirty-five years, +and he flattered himself that he knew James as well as any man of James's +acquaintance. He could not remember that his cousin had ever made any +complaint of illness or indisposition; he had certainly never had any +serious sickness in his life. As to heart trouble, Allerdyke knew that a +few years previous to his death, James had taken out a life-policy with a +first-rate office, and had been passed as a first-class life: he +remembered, as he sat there thinking over these things, the +self-satisfied grin with which James had come and told him that the +examining doctor had declared him to be as sound as a bell. It was true, +of course, that disease might have set in after that--still, it was only +six weeks since he had seen James and James was then looking in a fit, +healthy, hearty state. He had gone off on one of his Russian journeys as +full of life and spirits as a man could be--and had not the hotel +manager just said that he seemed full of health, full of go, at ten +o'clock last night? And yet, within a couple of hours or so--according to +what the medical men thought from their hurried examination--this active +vigorous man was dead--swiftly and mysteriously dead. + +Allerdyke felt--felt intensely--that there was something deeply strange +in all this, and yet it was beyond him, with his limited knowledge, to +account for James's sudden death, except on the hypothesis suggested by +the two doctors. All sorts of vague, half-formed thoughts were in his +mind. Was there any person who desired James's death? Had any one tracked +him to this place--got rid of him by some subtle means? Had-- + +"Pshaw!" he muttered, suddenly interrupting his train of thought, and +recognizing how shapeless and futile it all was. "It just comes to +this--I'm asking myself if the poor lad was murdered! And what have I to +go on? Naught--naught at all!" + +Nevertheless, there were papers before him which had been taken from +James's pocket; there was the little journal or diary which he always +carried, and in which, to Allerdyke's knowledge, he always jotted down +a brief note of each day's proceedings wherever he went. He could +examine these, at any rate--they might cast some light on his cousin's +recent doings. + +He began with the diary, turning over its pages until he came to the date +on which James had left Bradford for St. Petersburg. That was on March +30th. He had travelled to the Russian capital overland--by way of Berlin +and Vilna, at each of which places he had evidently broken his journey. +From St. Petersburg he had gone on to Moscow, where he had spent the +better part of a week. All his movements were clearly set out in the +brief pencilled entries in the journal. From Moscow he had returned to +St. Petersburg; there he had stayed a fortnight; thence he had journeyed +to Revel, from Revel he had crossed the Baltic to Stockholm; from +Stockholm he had gone across country to Christiania. And from Christiania +he had sailed for Hull to meet his death in that adjacent room where the +doctors were now busied with his body. + +Marshall Allerdyke, though he had no actual monetary connection with +them, had always possessed a fairly accurate knowledge of his cousin's +business affairs--James was the sort of man who talked freely to his +intimates about his doings. Therefore Allerdyke was able to make out from +the journal what James had done during his stay at St. Petersburg, in +Moscow, in Revel, and in Stockholm, in all of which places he had irons +of one sort or another in the fire. He recognized the names of various +firms upon which James had called--these names were as familiar to him as +those of the big manufacturing concerns in his own town. James had been +to see this man, this man had been to see James. He had dined with such +an one; such an one had dined with him. Ordinarily innocent entries, all +these; there was no subtle significance to be attached to any of them: +they were just the sort of entries which the busy commercial man, engaged +in operations of some magnitude, would make for his own convenience. + +There was, in short, nothing in that tiny book--a mere, +waistcoat-pocket sort of affair--which Allerdyke was at a loss to +understand, or which excited any wonder or speculation in him: with one +exception. That exception was in three entries: brief, bald, mere +lines, all made during James's second stay--the fortnight period--in +St. Petersburg. They were:-- + +April 18: Met Princess. + +April 20: Lunched with Princess. + +April 23: Princess dined with me. + +These entries puzzled Allerdyke. His cousin had been going over to Russia +at least twice a year for three years, but he had never heard him mention +that he had formed the acquaintance of any person of princely rank. Who +was this Princess with whom James had evidently become on such friendly +terms that they had lunched and dined together? James had twice written +to him during his absence--he had both letters in his pocket then, and +one of them was dated from St. Petersburg on April 24th, but there was no +mention of any Princess in either. Seeking for an explanation, he came to +the conclusion that James, who had a slight weakness for the society of +ladies connected with the stage, had made the acquaintance of some +actress or other, ballet-dancer, singer, artiste, and had given her the +nickname of Princess. + +That was all there was to be got from the diary. It amounted to +nothing. There were, however, the loose papers. He began to examine +these methodically. They were few in number--James was the sort of man +who never keeps anything which can be destroyed: Allerdyke knew from +experience that he had a horror of accumulating what he called rubbish. +These papers, fastened together with a band of india-rubber, were all +business documents, with one exception--a letter from Allerdyke himself +addressed to Stockholm, to wait James's arrival. There were some +specifications relating to building property; there was a schedule of +the timber then standing in a certain pine forest in Sweden in which +James had a valuable share; there was a balance-sheet of a Moscow +trading concern in which he had invested money; there were odds and ends +of a similar nature--all financial. From these papers Allerdyke could +only select one which he did not understand, which conveyed no meaning +to him. This was a telegram, dispatched from London on April 21st, at +eleven o'clock in the morning. He spread it out on the table and slowly +read it:-- + +"To _James Allerdyke_, _Hotel Grand Monarch_, _St. Petersburg_. + +"Your wire received. If Princess will confide goods to your care to +personally bring over here have no doubt matter can be speedily and +satisfactorily arranged. Have important client now in town until middle +May who seems to be best man to approach and is likely to be a generous +buyer. + +"FRANKLIN FULLAWAY, Waldorf Hotel, London." + +Here was another surprise: Allerdyke had never in his life heard James +mention the name--Franklin Fullaway. Yet here Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +whoever he might be, was wiring to James as only a business acquaintance +of some standing would wire. And here again was the mention of a +Princess--presumably, nay, evidently, the Princess to whom reference was +made in the diary. And there was mention, too, of goods--probably +valuable goods--to be confided to James's care for conveyance to +England, to London, for sale to some prospective purchaser. If James had +brought them, where were they? So far as Allerdyke had ascertained, +James had no luggage beyond his big suitcase and the handbag which now +stood on the table before his own eyes--he was a man for travelling +light, James, and never encumbered himself with more than indispensable +necessities. Where, then-- + +A tap at the door of the sitting-room prefaced the entry of the two +medical men. + +"We heard from the manager that you were in this room, Mr. Allerdyke," +said Dr. Orwin. "Well, we made a further examination of your relative, +and we still incline to the opinion expressed already. Now, if you +approve it, I will arrange at once for communicating with the Coroner, +removing the body, and having an autopsy performed. As Dr. Lydenberg has +business in the town which will keep him here a few days, he will join +me, and it will be more satisfactory to you, no doubt, if another doctor +is called--I should advise the professional police surgeon. If you will +leave it to me--" + +"I'll leave everything of that sort to you, doctor," said Allerdyke. "I'm +much obliged to both of you, gentlemen. You understand what I'm anxious +about?--I want to be certain--certain, mind you!--of the cause of my +cousin's death. Now you speak of removing him? Then I'll just go and take +a look at him before that's done." + +He presently locked up his rooms, leaving the hand-bag there, also +locked, and went alone to the room in which James lay dead. Most folks +who knew Marshall Allerdyke considered him a hard, unsentimental man, +but there were tears in his eyes as he stooped over his cousin's body and +laid his hand on the cold forehead. Once more he broke into familiar, +muttered speech. + +"If there's been aught wrong, lad," he said. "Aught foul or underhand, +I'll right thee!--by God, I will!" + +Then he stooped lower and kissed the dead man's cheek, and pressed the +still hands. It was with an effort that he turned away and regained his +self-command--and it was in that moment that his eyes, slightly blurred +as they were, caught sight of an object which lay half-concealed by a +corner of the hearth-rug--a glittering, shining object, which threw back +the gleam of the still burning electric light. He strode across the room +and picked it up--the gold buckle of a woman's shoe, studded with real, +if tiny, diamonds. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + +Allerdyke carried his find away to his own room and carefully examined +it. The buckle was of real gold; the stones set in it were real diamonds, +small though they were. He deduced two ideas from these facts--one, that +the owner was a woman who loved pretty and expensive things; the other, +that she must have a certain natural carelessness about her not to have +noticed that the buckle was loose on her shoe. But as he put the buckle +safely away in his own travelling bag, he began to speculate on matters +of deeper import--how did it come to be lying there in James Allerdyke's +room? How long had it been lying there? Had its owner been into that +room recently? Had she, in fact, been in the room since James Allerdyke +took possession of it on his arrival at the hotel? + +He realized the possibility of various answers to these questions. The +buckle might have been dropped by a former occupant of the room. But was +that likely? Would an object sparkling with diamonds have escaped the +eyes of even a careless chambermaid? Would it have escaped the keener +eyes of James Allerdyke? Anyhow, that question could easily be settled by +finding out how long that particular room had been unoccupied before +James was put into it. A much more important question was--had the owner +of the buckle been in the room between nine o'clock of the previous +evening and five o'clock that morning? Out of that, again, rose certain +supplementary questions: What had she been doing there? And most +important of all--who was she? That might possibly be solved by an +inspection of the hotel register, and after he had drunk the coffee which +was presently brought up to him, Allerdyke went down to the office to set +about that necessary, yet problematic, task. + +As he reached the big hall on the ground floor of the hotel, the manager +came across to him, displaying a telegram. + +"For your cousin, sir," he announced, handing it over to Allerdyke. +"Just come in." + +Allerdyke slowly opened the envelope, and as he unfolded the message, +caught the name Franklin Fullaway at its foot-- + +"Let me know what time you arrive King's Cross to-day and I will meet +you, highly important we should both see my prospective client at once." + +This message bore the same address which Allerdyke had found in the +telegram discovered in James's pocket-book--Waldorf Hotel--and he +determined to wire Mr. Franklin Fullaway immediately. He sat down at a +writing-table in the hall and drew a sheaf of telegraph forms towards +him. But it was not easy to compose the message which he wished to send. +He knew nothing of the man to whom he must address it, nothing of his +business relations with James; he had no clear notion of what the present +particular transaction was, nor how it might be connected with what had +just happened. After considerable thought he wrote out a telegram of some +length, and carried it himself to the telegraph office in the station +outside:-- + +"To _Franklin Fullaway, Waldorf Hotel, London_. + +"Your wire to James Allerdyke opened by undersigned, his cousin. James +Allerdyke died suddenly here during night. Circumstances somewhat +mysterious. Investigation proceeding. Have found on body your telegram to +him of April 21. Glad if you can explain business referred to therein, or +give any other information about his recent doings abroad. + +"From MARSHALL ALLERDYKE, Station Hotel, Hull." + +It was by that time eight o'clock, and the railway station and the hotel +had started into the business of another day. There were signs that +people who had stayed in the hotel over-night were about to take their +departure by early trains, and Allerdyke hastened back to the office to +look over the register--he was anxious to know who and what the folk were +who had been near and about his cousin in his last hours. But a mere +glance at the big pages showed him the uselessness of his task. There +were some seventy or eighty entries, made during the previous twenty-four +hours; it was impossible to go into the circumstances of each. He turned +with a look of despair to the manager at his elbow. + +"Nothing much to be made out of that!" he muttered. "Still--which are the +people who came off the _Perisco_ last night?" + +The manager summoned a clerk; the clerk indicated a sequence of entries, +amongst which Allerdyke at once noticed the name of Dr. Lydenberg. The +rest were, of course, unfamiliar to him. + +"There was a lady here last night, who, according to your night-porter, +changed her mind about staying, and set off in a motor-car about +midnight," observed Allerdyke. "Which is she, now, in this lot?" + +The clerk instantly pointed to an entry, made in a big, dashing, +artistic-looking handwriting. + +"That," he answered. "Miss Celia Lennard--Number 265." + +Two numbers away from James Allerdyke's room--Number 263! The inquirer +pricked his ears. + +"It was she who went off in the middle of the night," continued the +clerk. "She pestered me with a lot of questions as to how she could get +North--to Edinburgh. That would be about eleven o'clock. I told her she +couldn't get a train until morning. I saw her going upstairs just before +I went off duty--soon after eleven. It seems, according to the +night-porter--" + +"I know--he told me," said Allerdyke, interrupting him. "He got her a +car, she wanted to be driven to some station on the Great Northern main +line--I met her on the road at two-thirty. I suppose the driver of that +car can be found?--he'll have returned by this, I should think." + +"Oh, you can find him all right," answered the clerk. "The car was got +from a garage close by." + +Allerdyke jotted down the name of the garage in his pocket-book, and +proceeded to make further inquiries about his cousin's movements on the +previous night. He interviewed various hotel servants--waiters, +chambermaids, porters, all could tell him something, and the sum total of +what they could tell amounted, for all practical purposes, to next to +nothing. James Allerdyke had come to the hotel just as several other +people had come. He had been served with a light supper in the +coffee-room; he had been seen chatting with one or two people in the +lounge and in the smoking-room; a chambermaid had seen him in his own +room--according to all these people there was nothing in his appearance +or his behaviour that was out of the common, and all agreed that he +looked very well. + +The manager, who accompanied Allerdyke in his round of these inquiries, +glanced at him with a puzzled expression when they came to an end. + +"Of course, sir, if you would like the police to be summoned," he +suggested for the second time. "Perhaps--" + +"No--not yet!" answered Allerdyke. "I daresay they'll have to be called +in; indeed, I suppose it's absolutely necessary, because of the inquest, +but I'll wait until I hear what these doctors have to say, and, besides +that, I want to get some news from London. It's a queer business +altogether, and if there has been any foul play, why"--he paused and +looked round at the people who were passing in and out of the hall, in a +corner of which he and the manager were standing--"we can't hold up all +these folk and ask 'em if they know anything, you know," he added, with a +grim smile. + +"That's the devil of it! If there has, as I say, been aught +wrong--murder, to put it plainly--why, the criminal or criminals may +already be off or going off now, amongst these people, and I can't +stop them. In a few hours they may be where nobody can find +them--don't you see?" + +The manager did see, and shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of +helplessness. Again he could only suggest expert help from the +police--but this time he added to his suggestion the remark that he +understood there was nothing for the police to take hold of--no clue, no +signs of foul play. + +"Not yet," agreed Allerdyke. "But--there may be. Well, I'm afraid that +register is no good. It's meaningless. A list of names conveys +nothing--except for future reference. For the present we must wait. +But--in any way you can--keep your eyes open. There's one thing you can +do--there was a lady in here last night who took Room 265 and left it at +midnight to go away in a motor-car which your night-porter got for her. I +particularly want to see the chambermaid who attended that lady. Let me +see her privately--I've a question to ask her." + +"She shall be sent up to your sitting-room as soon as I've found her," +responded the manager. "This is the servants' breakfast-hour, but--" + +"Send her up there after nine o'clock," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime +I've another inquiry to make elsewhere." + +He found Gaffney and sent him round to the garage from which Miss Celia +Lennard had obtained her midnight car, with instructions to find the +chauffeur who had driven her, and to get from him what information he +could as to her movements subsequent to the rencontre at Howden. + +"Don't excite his suspicions," said Allerdyke, "but pump him for any news +he can give you. I want to know what became of her." + +Gaffney speedily returned, fully informed of Miss Lennard's movements up +to a certain point. The chauffeur had just got back, and was about to +seek the bed from which he had been pulled at one o'clock in the morning. +He had taken the lady to York--only to find that there was no train +thence to Edinburgh until after nine o'clock. So she had turned into the +Station Hotel at York, to wait, and there he had left her. + +There was little of importance in this, but it seemed to indicate that +Miss Lennard was certainly about to travel North, and that her hurried +departure from the hotel was due to a genuine desire to reach her +ultimate destination as speedily as possible. While Allerdyke was +wondering if it would be worth while to follow her up, merely because she +had been a fellow-passenger with his cousin, the manager came to him with +another telegram. + +"That lady we were talking about," he said, laying the telegram before +Allerdyke, "has just sent me this. I thought you'd like to see it as you +were asking about her." + +Allerdyke saw that the message was addressed to the manager, and had been +dispatched from York railway station three-quarters of a hour previously. + +"Please ask chambermaid to search for diamond shoe-buckle which I believe +I lost in your hotel last night. If found send by registered post to Miss +Lennard, 503_a_, Bedford Court Mansions, London." + +Allerdyke memorized that address while he secretly wondered whether he +should or should not tell the manager that the missing property was in +his possession. Finally he determined to keep silence for the moment, and +he handed back the message with an assumption of indifference. + +"I should think a thing of that sort will soon be found," he observed. +"Look here--never mind about sending that chambermaid to me just now; +I'll see her later. I'm going to breakfast." + +He wondered as he sat in the coffee-room, eating and drinking, if any of +the folk about him knew anything about the dead man whose body had been +quietly taken away by the doctors while the hotel routine went on in its +usual fashion. It seemed odd, strange, almost weird, to think that any +one of these people, eating fish or chops, chatting, reading their +propped-up newspapers, might be in possession of some knowledge which he +would give a good deal to appropriate. + +Of one fact, however, he was certain--that diamond buckle belonged to +Miss Celia Lennard, and she lived at an address in London which he had by +that time written down in his pocket-book. And now arose the big (and, in +view of what had happened, the most important and serious) question--how +had Miss Celia Lennard's diamond buckle come to be in Room Number 263? +That question had got to be answered, and he foresaw that he and Miss +Lennard must very quickly meet again. + +But there were many matters to be dealt with first, and they began to +arise and to demand attention at once. Before he had finished breakfast +came a wire from Mr. Franklin Fullaway, answering his own:-- + +"Deeply grieved and astonished by your news. Am coming down at once, and +shall arrive Hull two o'clock. In meantime keep strict guard on your +cousin's effects, especially on any sealed package. Most important this +should be done." + +This message only added to the mass of mystery which had been thickening +ever since the early hours of the morning. Strict guard on James's +effects--any sealed package--what did that mean? But a very little +reflection made Allerdyke come to the conclusion that all these vague +references and hints bore relation to the possible transaction mentioned +in the various telegrams already exchanged between James Allerdyke and +Franklin Fullaway, and that James had on him or in his possession when he +left Russia something which was certainly not discovered when Gaffney +searched the dead man. + +There was nothing to do but to wait: to wait for two things--the result +of the medical investigation, and the arrival of Mr. Franklin Fullaway. +The second came first. At ten minutes past two a bustling, +quick-mannered American strode into Marshall Allerdyke's private +sitting-room, and at the instant that the door was closed behind him +asked a question which seemed to burst from every fibre of his being-- + +"My dear sir! Are they safe?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + +Allerdyke, like all true Yorkshiremen, had been born into the world with +a double portion of caution and a triple one of reserve, and instead of +answering the question he took a leisurely look at the questioner. He saw +before him a tall, good-looking, irreproachably attired man of from +thirty to thirty-five years of age, whose dark eyes were ablaze with +excitement, whose equally dark, carefully trimmed moustache did not +conceal the agitation of the lips beneath. Mr. Franklin Fullaway, in +spite of his broad shoulders and excellent muscular development, was +evidently a highly strung, nervous, sensitive gentleman; nothing could be +plainer than that he had travelled from town in a state of great mental +activity which was just arriving at boiling-point. Everything about his +movements and gestures denoted it--the way in which he removed his hat, +laid aside his stick and gloves, ran his fingers through his dark, curly +hair, and--more than anything--looked at Marshall Allerdyke. But +Allerdyke had a habit of becoming cool and quiet when other men grew +excited and emotional, and he glanced at his visitor with seeming +indifference. + +"Mr. Fullaway, I suppose?" he said, phlegmatically. "Aye, to be sure! Sit +you down, Mr. Fullaway. Will you take anything?--it's a longish ride from +London, and I daresay you'd do with a drink, what?" + +"Nothing, nothing, thank you, Mr. Allerdyke," answered Fullaway, +obviously surprised by the other's coolness. "I had lunch on the train." + +"Very convenient, that," observed Allerdyke. "I can remember when there +wasn't a chance of it. Aye--and what might this be that you're asking +about, now, Mr. Fullaway? What do you refer to?" + +Fullaway, after a moment's surprised look at the Yorkshireman's stolid +face, elevated his well-marked eyebrows and shook his head. Then he edged +his chair nearer to the table at which Allerdyke sat. + +"You don't know, then, that your cousin had valuables on him?" he asked +in an altered tone. + +"I know exactly what my cousin had on him, and what was in his +baggage, when I found him dead in his room," replied Allerdyke drily. +"And what that was--was just what I should have expected to find. +But--nothing more." + +Fullaway almost leapt in his chair. + +"Nothing more!" he exclaimed. "Nothing more than you would have expected +to find! Nothing?" + +Allerdyke bent across the table, giving his visitor a keen look. + +"What would you have expected to find if you'd found him as I found him?" +he asked. "Come--what, now?" + +He was watching the American narrowly, and he saw that Fullaway's +excitement was passing off, was being changed into an attentive +eagerness. He himself thrust his hand into his breast pocket and drew out +the papers which had been accumulating there since his arrival and +discovery. + +"We'd best be plain, Mr. Fullaway," he said. "I don't know you, but I +gather that you knew James, and that you'd done business together." + +"I knew Mr. James Allerdyke very well, and I've done business with him +for the last two years," replied Fullaway. + +"Just so," assented Allerdyke. "And your business--" + +"That of a general agent--an intermediary, if you like," answered +Fullaway. "I arrange private sales a good deal between European sellers +and American buyers--pictures, curiosities, jewels, antiques, and so on. +I'm pretty well known, Mr. Allerdyke, on both sides the Atlantic." + +"Quite so," said Allerdyke. "I'm not in that line, however, and I don't +know you. But I'll tell you all I do know and you'll tell me all you +know. When I searched my cousin for papers, I found this wire from +you--sent to James at St. Petersburg. Now then, what does it refer to? +Those valuables you hinted at just now?" + +"Exactly!" answered Fullaway. "Nothing less!" + +"What valuables are they?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Jewels! Worth a quarter of a million," replied Fullaway. + +"What? Dollars?" + +Fullaway laughed derisively. + +"Dollars! No, pounds! Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, my dear +sir!" he answered. + +"You think he had them on him?" + +"I'm sure he had them on him!" asserted Fullaway. He, in his turn, began +to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was in +Christiania the other day. He was bringing them over here--to me." + +"On whose behalf?" asked Allerdyke. + +"On behalf of a Russian lady, a Princess, who wished to find a purchaser +for them," replied the American promptly. + +"In that case--to come to the point," said Allerdyke, "if my cousin +James had that property on him when he landed here last night and it +wasn't--as it certainly wasn't--on him when I found him this +morning---he's been robbed?" + +"Robbed--and murdered that he might be robbed!" answered Fullaway. + +The two men looked steadily at each other for a while. Then Allerdyke +laid his papers on the table between them. + +"You'd better tell me all you know about it," he said quietly. "Let's +hear it all--then we shall be getting towards knowing what to do." + +"Willingly!" exclaimed the American. He produced and spread out a couple +of cablegrams on which he laid a hand while he talked. "As I have already +said, I have had several deals in business with Mr. James Allerdyke. I +last saw him towards the end of March, in town, and he then mentioned to +me that he was just about setting out for Russia. On April 20th I +received this cable from him--sent, you see, from St. Petersburg. Allow +me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to +find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter +of million pounds. Wants money to clear off mortgages on her son's +estate, and set him going again. Do you know of any one likely to buy in +one lot? Can arrange to bring over myself for buyers' inspection if +chance of immediate good sale. James Allerdyke.' Now, as soon as I +received that from your cousin I immediately thought of a possible and +very likely purchaser--Mr. Delkin, a Chicago man, whose only daughter is +just about to marry an English nobleman. I knew that Mr. Delkin had a +mind to give his daughter a really fine collection of jewels, and I went +at once to him regarding the matter. In consequence of my interview with +Mr. Delkin, I cabled to James Allerdyke on April 21st, saying--" + +"This is it, no doubt," said Allerdyke, producing the message of the date +mentioned. + +"That is it," assented Fullaway, glancing across the table. "Very well, +you see what I said. He replied to that at once--here is his reply. It +is, you see, very brief. It merely says, 'All right--shall wire details +later--keep possible buyer on.' I heard no more until last Thursday, +May 8th, when I received this cablegram, sent, you see, from +Christiania. In it he says: 'Expect reach Hull Monday night next. Shall +come London next day. Arrange meeting with your man. Have got all +goods.' Now those last four words, Mr. Allerdyke, if they mean anything +at all, mean that your cousin was bringing these valuable jewels with +him; had them on him when he cabled from Christiania. And if you did +not find them when you searched him--where are they? Two hundred and +fifty thousand pounds' worth!" + +Allerdyke took the three cablegrams from his visitor and carefully read +them through, comparing them with the dates already known to him, and +with Fullaway's messages in reply. Eventually he put all the papers +together, arranging them in sequence. He laid them on the table between +Fullaway and himself, and for a moment or two sat reflectively drumming +the tips of his fingers on them. + +"Who is this Princess Nastirsevitch?" he asked suddenly looking up. +"Royalty, eh?" + +"No," answered Fullaway, with a smile. "I don't know much about these +European titles and dignities, but I don't think the title of Prince +means in Russia what it does in England. A Prince there, I think, is some +sort of nobleman, like your dukes and earls, and so on, here. But, +anyway, the Princess Nastirsevitch isn't a Russian at all, except by +marriage--she's a countryman of my own. I guess you've heard of her--she +was Helen Hamilton, the famous dancer." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Not my line at all," he said. "It was a bit in James's, though. Dancer, +eh? And married a Prince?" + +"Twenty-five years ago," replied Fullaway. "Ancient history, that. But I +know a good deal about her. She made a big fortune with her dancing, and +she invested largely in pearls and diamonds--I know that. I also happen +to know that she'd one son by her marriage, of whom she's passionately +fond. And I read this thing in this way: I guess the old Prince's estates +(he's dead, a year or two ago) were heavily mortgaged, and she hit on the +notion of clearing all off by selling her jewels, so that her son might +start clear--no encumbrances on the property, you know." + +Allerdyke pursed his lips and rubbed his chin. + +"What I don't understand is that she confided a quarter of a million's +worth of goods of that sort to a man whom she couldn't know so very +well," he observed. "I never heard James speak of her." + +"That may be." replied Fullaway. "But he may have known her very well for +all that. However, there are the facts. And," he added, with emphasis, +"there, Mr. Allerdyke, are those four words, sent from Christiania, 'Have +got all goods!' Now, we can be reasonably sure of what he meant. He'd +got the Princess's jewels. Very well! Where are they?" + +Allerdyke got to his feet, and, thrusting his hands in his pockets, +began to stride about the room. All this was not merely puzzling, but, +in a way which he could not understand, distasteful to him. Somehow--he +did not know why, nor at that moment try to think why--he resented the +fact that any one knew more about his dead cousin than he did. And he +began to wonder as he strode about the room how much this Mr. Franklin +Fullaway knew. + +"Did my cousin James ever mention this Princess to you?" he suddenly +asked, stopping in his walk to and fro. "I mean--before he went over to +Russia this last time?" + +"He just mentioned that he knew her--mentioned it in casual +conversation," answered Fullaway. "She and I being fellow Americans, the +subject interested me, of course. But--he only said that he had met her +in Russia." + +"Aye, well," said Allerdyke musingly, "it's true he did go across to +Russia a good deal, and no doubt he knew folk there that he never told me +about." + +"Well," he went on, throwing himself into his chair again, "what's +to be done? Do you honestly think that he had those things on him when he +came here last night? You do? Very well, then, he's been murdered by some +devil or devils who's got 'em! But how? And who are they--or who's +he--or--good Lord! it might be who's she?" + +"Poisoned," said Fullaway. "That's my answer to your question of--how? As +to your other question--is there no clue to anything? you forget--I don't +know any details. I only know that he was found dead. Under what +circumstances?" + +Allerdyke pulled his chair nearer to his visitor. + +"I'd forgotten," he said. "I'll tell you the lot. See if you can make +aught out of it--they always say you Yankees have sharp brains. Try to +see a bit of daylight! So far it licks me." + +He gave the American a brief yet full account of all that had happened +since his receipt of James Allerdyke's wireless message. And Fullaway +listened in silence, taking everything in, making no interruption, and at +the end he spoke quietly and with decision. + +"We must find that woman--Miss Celia Lennard--and at once," he said. +"That's absolutely necessary." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "But look here--I've been thinking that +over. Is it very likely that a woman who'd stolen two hundred and fifty +thousand pounds' worth of stuff from an hotel would wire back to its +manager, giving her address, for the sake of a shoe-buckle, even one set +with diamonds?" + +"I'm not--for the moment--supposing that she is the thief," answered +Fullaway. "Why I want--and must--find her at once is to ask her a +simple question. What was she doing in James Allerdyke's room? +For--I've an idea." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"This," replied Fullaway. "They were fellow-passengers on the _Perisco_. +Your cousin--as I daresay you know--was the sort of man who readily +makes friends, especially with women. My idea is that if this Miss +Lennard went into his room last night it was to be shown the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels. Your cousin was just the sort of man who knew how +a woman would appreciate an exhibition of such things. And--" + +At that moment a waiter tapped at the sitting-room door and announced +Dr. Orwin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + +Marshall Allerdyke's sharp eyes were quick to see that his new visitor +had something of importance to communicate and wished to give his news in +private. Dr. Orwin glanced inquiringly at the American as he took the +seat which Allerdyke drew forward, and the cock of his eyes indicated a +strong desire to know who the stranger was. + +"Friend of my late cousin," said Allerdyke brusquely. "Mr. Franklin +Fullaway, of London--just as anxious as I am to hear what you have to +tell us, doctor. You've come to tell something, of course?" + +The doctor inclined his head towards Fullaway, and added a grave bow in +answer to Allerdyke's question. + +"The autopsy has been made," he replied. "By Dr. Lydenberg, Dr. Quillet, +who is one of the police-surgeons here, and myself. We made a very +careful and particular examination." + +"And--the result?" asked Allerdyke eagerly. "Is it what you anticipated +from your first glance at him--here?" + +The doctor's face became a shade graver; his voice assumed an +oracular tone. + +"My two colleagues," he said, "agreed that your cousin's death resulted +from heart failure which arose from what we may call ordinary causes. +There is no need for me to go into details--it is quite sufficient to say +that they are abundantly justified in coming to the conclusion at which +they have arrived: it is quite certain that your cousin's heart had +recently become seriously affected. But as regards myself"--here he +paused, and looking narrowly from one to the other of his two hearers, he +sank his voice to a lower, more confidential tone--"as regards myself, I +am not quite so certain as Dr. Lydenberg and Dr. Quillet appear to be. +The fact of the case is, I think it very possible that Mr. James +Allerdyke was--poisoned." + +Neither of the two who listened so intently made any reply to this +significant announcement. Instead they kept their eyes intently fixed on +the doctor's grave face; then they slowly turned from him to each other, +exchanging glances. And after a pause the doctor went on, speaking in +measured and solemn accents. + +"There is no need, either, at present--only at present--that I should +tell you why I think that," he continued. "I may be wrong--my two +colleagues are inclined to think I am wrong. But they quite agree with me +that it will be proper to preserve certain organs--you understand?--for +further examination by, say, the Home Office analyst, who is always, of +course, a famous pathological expert. That will be done--in fact, we have +already sealed up what we wish to be further examined. But"--he paused +again, shaking his head more solemnly than ever--"the truth is, +gentlemen," he went on at last, "I am doubtful if even that analysis and +examination will reveal anything. If my suspicions are correct--and +perhaps I ought to call them mere notions, theories, ideas, rather than +suspicions--but, at any rate, if there is anything in the vague thoughts +which I have, no trace of any poison will be found--and yet your cousin +may have been poisoned, all the same." + +"Secretly!" exclaimed Fullaway. + +Dr. Orwin gave the American a sharp glance which indicated that he +realized Fullaway's understanding of what he had just said. + +"Precisely," he answered. "There are poisons--known to experts--which +will destroy life almost to a given minute, and of which the most skilful +pathologist and expert will not be able to find a single trace. Now, +please, understand my position--I say, it is quite possible, quite +likely, quite in accordance with what I have seen, that this unfortunate +gentleman died of heart failure brought about by even such an ordinary +exertion as his stooping forward to untie his shoe-lace, but--I also +think it likely that his death resulted from poison, subtly and cunningly +administered, probably not very long before his death took place. And if +I only knew--" + +He paused at that, and looked searchingly and meaningly at Marshall +Allerdyke before he continued. And Allerdyke looked back with the same +intentness and nodded. + +"Yes--yes!" he said. "If you only knew--? Say it, doctor!" + +"If I only knew if there was any reason why any person wished to take +this man's life," responded Dr. Orwin, slowly and deliberately. "If I +knew that somebody wanted to get him out of the way, for instance--" + +Allerdyke jumped to his feet and tapped Fullaway on the shoulder. + +"Come in here a minute," he said, motioning towards the door of his +bedroom. "Excuse us, doctor--I want to have a word with this gentleman. +Look here," he continued, when he had led the American into the bedroom +and had closed the door. "You hear what he says? Shall we tell him? Or +shall we keep it all dark for a while? Which--what?" + +"Tell him under promise of secrecy," replied Fullaway after a moment's +consideration. "Medical men are all right--yes, tell him. He may suggest +something. And I'm inclined to think his theory is correct, eh?" + +"Correct!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with a grim laugh. "You bet it's correct! +Come on, then--we'll tell him all. Now, doctor," he went on, leading the +way back into the sitting-room, "we're going to give you our confidence. +You'll treat it as a strict confidence, a secret between us, for the +present. The truth is that when my cousin came to this hotel last night +he was in possession--that is, we have the very strongest grounds for +believing him to have been in possession--of certain extremely valuable +property---jewels worth a large amount--which he was carrying, +safeguarding, from a lady in Russia to this gentleman in London. When I +searched his body and luggage, these valuables were missing. Mr. Fullaway +and myself haven't the least doubt that he was robbed. So your +theory--eh?" + +Dr. Orwin had listened to this with deep attention, and he now put two +quick questions. + +"The value of these things was great?" + +"Relatively, very great," answered Allerdyke. + +"Enough to engage, the attention of a clever gang of thieves?" + +"Quite!" + +"Then," said the doctor, "I am quite of opinion that my ideas are +correct. These, people probably tracked your cousin to this place, +contrived to administer a subtle and deadly poison to him last night, and +entered his room after the time at which they knew it would take effect. +Have you any clue--even a slight one?" + +"Only this," answered Allerdyke, and proceeded to narrate the story of +the shoe-buckle, adding Fullaway's theory to it. "That's not much, eh?" + +"You must find that woman and produce her at the inquest," said the +doctor. "I take it that Mr. Fullaway's idea is a correct one. Your cousin +probably did invite Miss Lennard into his room to show her these +jewels--that, of course, would prove that he had them in his possession +at some certain hour last night. Now, about that inquest. It is fixed for +ten o'clock to-morrow morning. Let me advise you as to your own course of +procedure, having an eye on what you have told me. Your object should be +to make the proceedings to-morrow merely formal, so that the Coroner can +issue his order for interment, and then adjourn for further evidence. It +will be sufficient if you give evidence identifying the body, if evidence +is given of the autopsy, and an adjournment asked for until a further +examination of the reserved organs and viscera can be made. For the +present, I should keep back the matter of the supposed robbery until you +can find this Miss Lennard. At the adjourned inquest--say in a week or +ten days hence--everything pertinent can be brought out. But you will +need legal help--I am rather trespassing on legal preserves in telling +you so much." + +"Deeply obliged to you, doctor--and you can add to our obigations by +giving us the name of a good man to go to," said Allerdyke. "We'll see +him at once and fix things up for to-morrow morning." + +Dr. Orwin wrote down the name and address of a well-known solicitor, and +presently went away. When he had gone, Allerdyke turned to Fullaway. + +"Now, then," he said, "you and I'll do one or two things. We'll call +on this lawyer. Then we'll cable to the Princess. But how shall we get +her address!" + +"There's sure to be a Russian Consul in the town," suggested Fullaway. + +"Good idea! And I'm going to telephone to this Miss Lennard's address +in London," continued Allerdyke. "She evidently set off from here to +Edinburgh; but, anyway, the address she gave in that wire to the +manager is a London one, and I'm going to try it. Now let's get out and +be at work." + +The ensuing conversation between these two and a deeply interested and +much-impressed solicitor resulted in the dispatch of a lengthy cablegram +to St. Petersburg, a conversation over the telephone with the housekeeper +of Miss Celia Lennard's London flat, and the interviewing of the captain +and stewards of the steamship on which James Allerdyke had crossed from +Christiania. The net result of this varied inquiry was small, and +produced little that could throw additional light on the matter in +question. The _Perisco_ officials had not seen anything suspicious in the +conduct or personality of any of their passengers. They had observed +James Allerdyke in casual conversation with some of them--they had seen +him talking to Miss Lennard, to Dr. Lydenberg, to others, ladies and +gentlemen who subsequently put up at the Station Hotel for the night. +Nothing that they could tell suggested anything out of the common. Miss +Lennard's housekeeper gave no other information than that her mistress +was at present in Edinburgh, and was expected to remain there for at +least a week. And towards night came a message from the Princess +Nastirsevitch confirming Fullaway's conviction that James Allerdyke was +in possession of her jewels and announcing that she was leaving for +England at once, and should travel straight, via Berlin and Calais, to +meet Mr. Franklin Fullaway at his hotel in London. + +The solicitor agreed with Dr. Orwin's suggestions as to the course to be +followed with regard to the inquest; it would be wise, he said, to keep +matters quiet for at any rate a few days, until they were in a position +to bring forward more facts. Consequently, the few people who were +present at the Coroner's court next morning gained no idea of the real +importance of the inquiry which was then opened. Even the solitary +reporter who took a perfunctory note of the proceedings for his newspaper +gathered no more from what he heard than that a gentleman had died +suddenly at the Station Hotel, that it had been necessary to hold an +inquest, that there was some little doubt as to the precise cause of his +death, and that the inquest was accordingly adjourned until the medical +men could tell something of a more definite nature. Nothing sensational +crept out into the town; no bold-lettered headlines ornamented the +afternoon editions. An hour before noon Marshall Allerdyke entrusted his +cousin's body to the care of certain kinsfolk who had come over from +Bradford to take charge of it; by noon he and Fullaway were slipping out +of Hull on their way to Edinburgh--to search for a witness, who, if and +when they found her, might be able to tell them--what? + +"Seems something like a wild-goose chase," said Allerdyke as the train +steamed on across country towards York and the North. "How do we know +where to find this woman in Edinburgh? Her housekeeper didn't know what +hotel she was at--I suppose we'll have to try every one in the place till +we come across her!" + +"Edinburgh is not a very big town," remarked Fullaway. "I reckon to run +her down--if she's still there--within a couple of hours. It's our first +duty, anyway. If she--as I guess she did--saw those jewels, then we know +that James Allerdyke had them on him when he reached Hull, dead sure." + +"And supposing she can tell that?" said Allerdyke. "What then? How does +that help? The devils who got 'em have already had thirty-six hours' +start of us!" + +The American produced a bulky cigar-case, found a green cigar, and +lighted it with a deliberation which was in marked contrast to his usual +nervous movements. + +"Seems to me," he said presently, "seems very much to me that this has +been a great thing! I figure it out like this--somehow, somebody has got +to know of what the Princess and your cousin were up to--that he was +going to carry those valuable jewels with him to England. He must have +been tracked all the way, unless--does any unless strike you, now?" + +"Not at the moment," replied Allerdyke. "So unless what?" + +"Unless the thieves--and murderers--were waiting there in Hull for his +arrival," said Fullaway quietly. "That's possible!" + +"Strikes me a good many possibilities are knocking around," remarked +Allerdyke, with more than his usual dryness. "As for me, I'll want to +know a lot about these valuables and their consignment before I make up +my mind in any way. I tell you frankly. I'm not running after them--I'm +wanting to find the folk who killed my cousin, and I only hope this young +woman'll be able to give me a hand. And the sooner we get to the bottle +of hay and begin prospecting for the needle the better!" + +But the search for Miss Celia Lennard to which Allerdyke alluded so +gloomily was not destined to be either difficult or lengthy. As he and +his companion walked along one of the platforms in the Waverley Station +in Edinburgh that evening, on their way to a cab, Allerdyke suddenly +uttered a sharp exclamation and seized the American by the elbow, +twisting him round in front of a big poster which displayed the portrait +of a very beautiful woman. + +"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "There she is! See? That's the woman. Man +alive, we've hit it at once! Look!" + +Fullaway turned and stared, not so much at the portrait as at the big +lettering above and beneath it: + + ZÉLIE DE LONGARDE, + THE WORLD-FAMED SOPRANO. + RECENTLY RETURNED FROM MOSCOW + AND ST. PETERSBURG. + Only Visit to Edinburgh this Year. + TO-NIGHT AT 8. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + +Fullaway slowly read this announcement aloud. When he had made an end of +it he laughed. + +"So your mysterious lady of the midnight motor, your Miss Celia Lennard +of the Hull hotel, is the great and only Zélie de Longarde, eh?" he said. +"Well, I guess that makes matters a lot easier and clearer. But you're +sure it isn't a case of striking resemblance?" + +"I only saw that woman for a minute or two, by moonlight, when she stuck +her face out of her car to ask the way," replied Allerdyke, "but I'll +lay all I'm worth to a penny-piece that the woman I then saw is the +woman whose picture we're staring at. Great Scott! So she's a famous +singer, is she? You know of her, of course? That sort of thing's not in +my line--never was--I don't go to a concert or a musical party once in +five years." + +"Oh, she's great--sure!" responded Fullaway. "Beautiful voice--divine! +And, as I say, things are going to be easy. I've met this lady more than +once, though I didn't know that she'd any other name than that, which is +presumably her professional one, and I've also had one or two business +deals with her. So all we've got to do is to find out which hotel she's +stopping at in this city, and then we'll go round there, and I'll send in +my card. But I say--do you see, this affair's to-night, this very +evening, and at eight o'clock, and it's past seven now. She'll be +arraying herself for the platform. We'd better wait until--" + +Allerdyke's practical mind asserted itself. He twisted the American +round in another direction, and called to a porter who had picked up +their bags. + +"All that's easy," he said. "We'll stick these things in the left-luggage +spot, dine here in the station, and go straight to the concert. There, +perhaps, during an interval, we might get in a word with this lady who +sports two names. Come on, now." + +He hurried his companion from the cloak-room to the dining-room, gave a +quick order on his own behalf to the waiter, left Fullaway to give his +own, and began to eat and drink with the vigour of a man who means to +waste no time. + +"There's one thing jolly certain, my lad!" he said presently, leaning +confidentially across the table after he had munched in silence for a +while. "This Miss Lennard, or Mamselle, or Signora de Longarde, or +whatever her real label is, hasn't got those jewels--confound 'em! Folks +who steal things like that don't behave as she's doing." + +"I never thought she had stolen the jewels," answered Fullaway. "What I +want to know is--has she seen them, and when, and where, and under what +circumstances? You've got her shoe-buckle all safe?" + +"Waistcoat-pocket just now," replied Allerdyke laconically. + +"That'll be an extra passport," observed Fullaway. "Not that it's needed, +because, as I said, I've done business for her. Oddly enough, that was in +the jewel line--I negotiated the sale of Pinkie Pell's famous pearl +necklace with Mademoiselle de Longarde. You've heard of that, of course?" + +"Never a whisper!" answered Allerdyke. "Not in my line, those affairs. +Who was Pinkie Pell, anyhow!" + +"Pinkie Pell was a well-known music-hall artiste, my dear sir, once a +great favourite, who came down in the world, and had to sell her +valuables," replied the American. "To the last she stuck to a pearl +necklace, which was said to have been given to her by the Duke of +Bendlecombe--Pinkie, they said, attached a sentimental value to it. +However, it had to be sold, and I sold it for Pinkie to the lady we're +going to see to-night. Seven thousand five hundred--it's well worth ten. +Mademoiselle will be wearing it, no doubt--she generally does, anyway--so +you'll see it." + +"Not unless we get a front pew," said Allerdyke. "Hurry up, and let's be +off! Our best plan," he went on as they made for a cab, "will be to get +as near the platform as possible, so that I can make certain sure this is +the woman I saw at Howden yesterday morning--when I positively identify +her, I'll leave it to you to work the interview with her, either at this +concert place or at her hotel afterwards. If it can be done at once, all +the more to my taste--I want to be knowing things." + +"Oh, we're going well ahead!" said Fullaway. "I'll work it all right. I +noticed on that poster that this affair is being run by the +Concert-Director Ernest Weiss. I know Weiss--he'll get us an interview +with the great lady after she's appeared the first time." + +"It's a fortunate thing for me to have a man who seems to know +everybody," remarked Allerdyke. "I suppose it's living in London gives +you so much acquaintance?" + +"It's my business to know a lot of people," answered Fullaway. "The more +the better--for my purposes. I'll tell you how I came to know your cousin +later that's rather interesting. Well, here's the place, and it's five +to eight now. We've struck it very well, and the only trouble'll be about +getting good seats, especially as we're in morning dress." + +Allerdyke smiled at that--in his opinion, money would carry a man +anywhere, and there was always plenty of that useful commodity in his +pockets. He insisted on buying the seats himself, and after some +parleying and explaining at the box-office, he and his companion were +duly escorted to seats immediately in front of a flower-decked platform, +where they were set down amidst a highly select company of correctly +attired folk, who glanced a little questioningly at their tweed suits, +both conspicuous amidst silks, satins, broadcloths, and glazed linen. +Allerdyke laughed as he thrust a program into Fullaway's hand. + +"I worked that all right," he whispered. "Told the chap in that receipt +of custom that you were a foreigner of great distinction travelling +incognito in Scotland, and I your travelling companion, and that our +luggage hadn't arrived from Aberdeen, so we couldn't dress, but we must +hear this singing lady at all cost and in any case. Then I slapped down +the brass and got the tickets--naught like brass in ready form, my lad! +Now, then, when does the desired party appear?" + +Fullaway unfolded his program and glanced over the items. The +Concert-Direction of Ernest Weiss was famous for the fare which it put +before its patrons, and here was certainly enough variety of talent to +please the most critical--a famous tenor, a popular violinist, a +contralto much in favour for her singing of tender and sentimental songs, +a notable performer on the violincello, a local vocalist whose speciality +was the singing of ancient Scottish melodies, and--item of vast interest +to a certain section of the audience--a youthful prodigy who was fondly +believed to have it in her power to become a female Paderewski. These +performers were duly announced on the program in terms of varying +importance; outstanding from all of them, of course, was the great star +of the evening, the one and only Zélie de Longarde, acknowledged Queen of +Song in Milan and Moscow, Paris and London, New York and Melbourne. + +"Comes on fifth, I see," observed Allerdyke, glancing over his +program unconcernedly. "Well, I suppose we've got to stick out the +other four. I'm not great on music, Fullaway--don't know one tune +from another. However, I reckon I can stand a bit of noise until my +lady shows herself." + +He listened with good-natured interest, which was not far removed from +indifference, to the contralto, the 'cellist, the violinist, only waking +up to something like enthusiasm when the infant prodigy, a quaint, +painfully shy little creature, who bobbed a side curtsey at the audience, +and looked much too small to tackle the grand piano, appeared and +proceeded to execute wonderful things with her small fingers. + +"That's a bit of all right!" murmured Allerdyke, when the child had +finished her first contribution. "That's a clever little party! But she's +too big in the eye, and too small in the bone--wants plenty of new milk, +and new-laid eggs, and fresh air, and not so much piano-thumping, does +that. Clever--clever--but unnatural, Fullaway!--they mustn't let her do +too much at that. Well, now I suppose we shall see the shoe-buckle lady." + +The packed audience evidently supposed the same thing. Over it--the +infant prodigy having received her meed of applause and bobbed herself +awkwardly out of sight--had come that atmosphere of expectancy which +invariably heralds the appearance of the great figure on any similar +occasion. It needed no special intuition on Allerdyke's part to know that +all these people were itching to show their fondness for Zélie de +Longarde by clapping their hands, waving their program, and otherwise +manifesting their delight at once more seeing a prime favourite. All eyes +were fixed on the wing of the platform, all hands were ready to give +welcome. But a minute passed--two minutes--three minutes--and Zélie de +Longarde did not appear. Another minute--and then, endeavouring to smile +bravely and reassuringly, and not succeeding particularly well in the +attempt, a tall, elaborately attired, carefully polished-up man, +unmistakably German, blonde, heavy, suave, suddenly walked on to the +platform and did obeisance to the audience. + +"Weiss!" whispered Fullaway. "Something's wrong! Look at his face--he's +in big trouble." + +The concert-director straightened himself from that semi-military bow, +and looked at the faces in front of him with a mute appeal. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I have to entreat the high favour of +your kind indulgence. Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet arrived from +her hotel. I hope--I think--she is now on her way. In the meantime I +propose, with your gracious consent, to continue, our program with the +next item, at the conclusion of which, I hope, Mademoiselle will appear." + +The audience was sympathetic--the audience was ready to be placated. It +gave cordial hearing and warm favour to the singer of Scottish +melodies--it even played into Mr. Concert-Director Weiss's hands by +according the local singer an encore. But when he had finally retired +there was another wait, a longer one which lengthened unduly, a note of +impatience sounded from the gallery; it was taken up elsewhere. And +suddenly Weiss came again upon the platform--this time with no +affectation of suave entreaty. He was plainly much upset; his elegant +waistcoat seemed to have assumed careworn creases, his mop of blonde hair +was palpably rumpled as if he had been endeavouring to tear some of its +wavy locks out by force. And when he spoke his fat voice shook with a +mixture of chagrin and anger. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I crave ten thousand--a +million--pardons for this so-unheard-of state of affairs! The--the truth +is, Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet here. What is more--I have to +tell you the truth--Mademoiselle refuses to come--refuses to fulfil her +honourable engagement. We are--have been for some time--on the telephone +with her. Mademoiselle is at her hotel. She declares she has been +robbed--her jewels have all been stolen from their case in her +apartments. She is--how shall I say?--turning the hotel upside down! She +refuses to budge one inch until her jewels are restored to her. How +then?--I cannot restore her jewels. I say to her--my colleagues say to +her--it is not your jewels we desire--it is your so beautiful, so +incomparable voice. She reply--I cannot tell you what she reply! In +effect--no jewels, no song! Ladies and gentlemen, once more!--your most +kind, most considerate indulgence! I go there just now--I fly; swift, to +the hotel, to entreat Mademoiselle on my knees to return with me! In the +meantime--" + +As Weiss retired from the platform, and the longhaired 'cellist came upon +it, Fullaway sprang up, dragging Allerdyke after him. He led the way to +a sidedoor, whispered something to an attendant, and was quickly ushered +through another door to an ante-room behind the wings, where Weiss, livid +with anger, was struggling into an opera-cloak. The concert-director +gasped as he caught sight of the American. + +"Ah, my dear Mr. Fullaway!" he exclaimed. "You here! You have heard?--you +have been in front. You hear, then--she will not come to sing because her +jewels are missing, eh? She--" + +"What hotel is Mademoiselle de Longarde stopping at, Weiss?" asked +Fullaway quietly. + +"The North British and Caledonian--I go there just now!" answered Weiss. +"I am ruined if she will not appear--ruined, disgraced! Jewels! Ah--!" + +"Come on--we're going with you," said Fullaway. "Quick now!" + +Allerdyke got some vivid impressions during the next few minutes, +impressions various, startling. They began with a swift whirl through the +lighted streets of the smoky old city, of a dash upstairs at a big hotel; +they ended with a picture of a beautiful, highly enraged woman, who was +freely speaking her mind to a dismayed hotel manager and a couple of men +who were obviously members of the detective force. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWEL BOX + + +Mademoiselle Zélie de Longarde, utterly careless of the fact that her +toilette was but half complete, that she wore no gown, and that the +kimono which she had hastily assumed on discovering her loss had slipped +away from her graceful figure to fall in folds about her feet, +interrupted the torrent of her eloquence to stare at the three men whom a +startled waiter ushered into her sitting-room. Her first glance fell on +the concert-director, and she shook her fist at him. + +"Go away, Weiss!" she commanded, accompanying the vigorous action of her +hand with an equally emphatic stamp of a shapely foot. "Go away at +once--go and play on the French horn; go and do anything you like to +satisfy your audience! Not one note do I sing until somebody finds me my +jewels! Edinburgh's stole them, and Edinburgh'll have to give them back. +It's no use your waiting here--I won't budge an inch. I--" + +She paused abruptly, suddenly catching sight of Fullaway, who at once +moved towards her with a confidential and reassuring smile. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "What brings you here? And who's that with +you--surely the gentleman of whom I asked my way in some wild place the +other night! What--" + +"Mademoiselle," said Fullaway, with a deep bow, "let me suggest to you +that the finest thing in this mundane state of ours is--reason. +Suppose, now, that you complete your toilet, tell us what it is you +have lost; leave us--your devoted servants--to begin the task of +finding it, and while we are so engaged, hasten with Mr. Weiss to the +hall to fulfil your engagement? A packed audience awaits +you--palpitating with sympathy and--" + +"And curiosity," interjected the aggrieved prima donna, as she threw a +hasty glance at her deshabille and snatched up the kimono. "Pretty talk, +Fullaway--very, and all intended to benefit Weiss there. Lost, +indeed!--I've lost all my jewels, and up to now nobody"--here she flashed +a wrathful glance at the hotel manager and the two detectives--"nobody +has made a single suggestion about finding them!" + +Fullaway exchanged looks with the other men. Once more he assumed the +office of spokesman. + +"Perhaps you have not told them precisely what it is they're to find," he +suggested. "What is it now, Mademoiselle? The Pinkie Pell necklace for +instance!" + +The prima donna, who was already retreating through the door of the +bedroom on whose threshold she had been standing, flashed a scornful look +at her questioner over the point of her white shoulder. + +"Pinkie Pell necklace!" she exclaimed. "Everything's gone! The whole lot! +Look at that--not so much as a ring left in it!" + +She pointed a slender, quivering finger to a box which stood, lid thrown +open, on a table in the sitting-room, by which the detectives were +standing, open-mouthed, and obviously puzzled. Allerdyke, following the +pointing finger, noted that the box was a very ordinary-looking +affair--a tiny square chest of polished wood, fitted with a brass swing +handle. It might have held a small type-writing machine; it might have +been a medicine chest; it certainly did not look the sort of thing in +which one would carry priceless jewels. But Mademoiselle de Longarde was +speaking again. + +"That's what I always carried my jewels in--in their cases," she said. +"And they were all in there when I left Christiania a few days ago, and +that box has never been out of my sight--so to speak--since. And when I +opened it here to-night, wanting the things, it was as empty as it is +now. And if I behave handsomely, and go with Weiss there, to fulfil this +engagement, it'll only be on condition that you stop here, Fullaway, and +do your level best to get me my jewels back. I've done all I can--I've +told the manager there, and I've told those two policemen, and not a man +of them seems able to suggest anything! Perhaps you can." + +With that she disappeared and slammed the door of the bedroom, and the +six men, left in a bunch, looked at each other. Then one of the +detectives spoke, shaking his head and smiling grimly. + +"It's all very well to say we suggest nothing," he said. "We want some +facts to go on first. Up to now, all the lady's done is to storm at us +and at everybody--she seems to think all Edinburgh's in a conspiracy to +rob her! We don't know any circumstances yet, except that she says she's +been robbed. Perhaps--" + +"Wait a bit," interrupted Fullaway. "Let us get her off to her +engagement. Then we can talk. I suppose," he continued, turning to the +manager, "she first announced her loss to you?" + +"She announced her loss to the whole world, in a way of speaking," +answered the manager, with a dry laugh. + +"She screamed it out over the main staircase into the hall! Everybody in +the place knows it by this time--she took good care they should. I don't +know how she can have been robbed--so far as I can learn she's scarcely +been out of these rooms since she came into them yesterday afternoon. The +grand piano had been put in for her before she arrived, and she's spent +all her time singing and playing--I don't believe she's ever left the +hotel. And as I pointed out to her when she fetched me up, she found this +box locked when she went to it--why didn't the thieves carry it bodily +away? Why--" + +"Just so--just so!" broke in Fullaway. "I quite appreciate your points. +But there is more in this than meets the first glance. Let us get +Mademoiselle off to her engagement, I say--that's the first thing. Then +we can do business. Weiss," he continued, drawing the concert-director +aside, "you must arrange to let her appear as soon as possible after you +get back to the hall, and to put forward her appearance in the second +half of your program, so that she can return here as soon as +possible--she'll only be in irrepressible fidgets until she knows what's +been done. And--you know what she is!--you ought to be very thankful that +she's allowed herself to be persuaded to go with you. Mademoiselle," he +went on, as the prima donna, fully attired, but innocent of jewelled +ornament, swept into the room, "you are doing the right thing--bravely! +Go, sing--sing your best, your divinest--let your admiring audience +recognize that you have a soul above even serious misfortune. Meanwhile, +allow me to order your supper to be served in this room, for eleven +o'clock, and permit me and my friend, Mr. Allerdyke, to invite ourselves +to share it with you. Then--we will give you some news that will +interest and astonish you." + +"That only makes me all the more frantic to get back," exclaimed the +prima donna. "Come along, now, Weiss--you've got a car outside, I +suppose? Hurry, then, and let me get it over." + +When the vastly relieved concert-director had led his bundle of silks and +laces safely out, Fullaway laughed and turned to the other men. + +"Now, gentlemen," he said, "perhaps we can have a little quiet talk about +this affair." He flung himself into a seat and nodded at the +hotel-manager. "Just tell us exactly what's happened since Mademoiselle +arrived here," he said. "Let's get an accurate notion of all her doings. +She came--when?" + +"She got here about the beginning of yesterday afternoon," answered the +manager, who did not appear to be too well pleased about this disturbance +of his usual proceedings. "She has always had this suite of rooms +whenever she has sung in Edinburgh before, and it was understood that +whenever she wrote or wired for them we were to arrange for a grand +piano, properly tuned to concert-pitch, to be put in for her. She wrote +for the suite over a fortnight ago from Russia, and, of course, we had +everything in readiness for her. She turned up, as I say, yesterday, +alone--she explained something about her maid having been obliged to +leave her on arrival in England, and since she came she's had the +services of one of our smartest chambermaids, whom she herself picked out +after carefully inspecting a whole dozen of them. That chambermaid can +tell you that Mademoiselle's scarcely left her rooms since then, and it's +an absolute mystery to me that any person could get in here, open this +box, and abstract its contents. As I say--if anybody wanted to steal her +jewels, why didn't he pick up this box and carry it bodily off instead of +hanging about to pick the lock? I don't believe--" + +"Ah, quite so!" interrupted Fullaway. "I quite agree with you. Now, at +what time did Mademoiselle announce the loss of her jewels?" + +"Oh, about--say, an hour ago. This chambermaid--she's there in +the bedroom now--was helping her to dress for the concert. +She--Mademoiselle--went to this box to get out what ornaments she wanted. +According to the girl, she let out an awful scream, and, just as she was, +rushed to the head of the main stairs--these rooms, as you see, are on +our first floor--and began to shout for me, for anybody, for everybody. +The hall below was just then full of people--coming in and out of the +dining-room and so on. She set the whole place going with the noise she +made," added the manager, visibly annoyed. "It would have been far better +if she'd shown some reserve--" + +"Reserve is certainly an admirable quality," commented Fullaway, "but +it is foreign to young ladies of Mademoiselle's temperament. +Well--and then?" + +"Oh, then, of course, I came up to her suite. She showed me this box. It +had stood, she declared, on a table by her bedside, close to her pillows, +from the moment she entered her rooms yesterday. She swore that it ought +to have been full of her jewels--in cases. When she had opened it--just +before this--it was empty. Of course, she demanded the instant presence +of the police. Also, she insisted that I should at once, that minute, +lock every door in the hotel, and arrest every person in it until their +effects and themselves could be rigorously searched and examined. +Ridiculous!" + +"As you doubtless said," remarked Fullaway. + +"No--I said nothing. Instead I telephoned for police assistance. These +two officers came. And," concluded the manager, with a sympathetic glance +at the detectives, "since they came Mademoiselle has done nothing but +insist on arresting every soul within these walls--she seems to think +there's a universal conspiracy against her." + +"Exactly," said Fullaway. "It is precisely what she would think--under +the circumstances. Now let us see this chambermaid." + +The manager opened the door of the bedroom, and called in a pretty, +somewhat shy, Scotch damsel, who betrayed a becoming confusion at the +sight of so many strangers. But she gave a plain and straightforward +account of her relations with Mademoiselle since the arrival of +yesterday. She had been in almost constant attendance on Mademoiselle +ever since her election to the post of temporary maid--had never left her +save at meal-times. The little chest had stood at Mademoiselle's bed-head +always--she had never seen it moved, or opened. There was a door leading +into the bedroom from the corridor. Mademoiselle had never left the suite +of rooms since her arrival. She had talked that morning of going for a +drive, but rain had begun to fall, and she had stayed in. Mademoiselle +had seemed utterly horrified when she discovered her loss. For a moment +she had sunk on her bed as if she were going to faint; then she had +rushed out into the corridor, just as she was, screaming for the manager +and the police. + +When the pretty chambermaid had retired, Fullaway took up the box from +which the missing property was believed to have been abstracted. He +examined it with seeming indifference, yet he announced its particulars +and specifications with business-like accuracy. + +"Well--this chest, cabinet, or box," he observed carelessly. "Let us look +at it. Here, gentlemen, we have a piece of well-made work. It is--yes, +eighteen inches square all ways. It is made of--yes, rosewood. Its +corners, you see, are clamped with brass. It has a swing handle, fitted +into this brass plate which is sunk into the lid. It has also three brass +letters sunk into that lid--Z. D. L. Its lock does not appear to be of +anything but an ordinary nature. Taking it altogether, I don't think this +is the sort of thing in which you would believe a lady was carrying +several thousand pounds' worth of pearls and diamonds. Eh?" + +One of the detectives stirred uneasily--he did not quite understand the +American's light and easy manner, and he seemed to suspect him of +persiflage. + +"We ought to be furnished with a list of the missing articles," he said. +"That's the first thing." + +"By no means," replied Fullaway. "That, my dear sir, is neither the +first, nor the second, nor the third thing. There is much to do before we +get to that stage. At present, you, gentlemen, cannot do anything. +To-morrow morning, perhaps, when I have consulted with Mademoiselle de +Longarde, I may call you in again--or call upon you. In the meantime, +there's no need to detain you. Now," he continued, turning to the +manager, when the detectives, somewhat puzzled and bewildered, had left +the room, "will you see that your nicest supper is served--for three--in +this room at eleven o'clock, against Mademoiselle's return? Send up your +best champagne. And do not allow yourself to dwell on Mademoiselle's +agitation on discovering her loss. That agitation was natural. If it is +any consolation to you, I will give you a conclusion which may be +satisfactory to your peace of mind as manager. What is it? Merely +this--that though Mademoiselle de Longarde has undoubtedly lost her +jewels, they were certainly not stolen from her in this hotel!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + +When the manager, much appeased and relieved in mind, had gone, Fullaway +tapped at the door of the bedroom, summoned the pretty chambermaid, and +handed her the rosewood box. + +"Put this back exactly where Mademoiselle has kept it since she came +here," he commanded. "Now you yourself--you're going to stay in the rooms +until she comes back from the concert? That's right--if she returns +before my friend and I come up again, tell her that we shall present +ourselves at five minutes to eleven. Come downstairs, Allerdyke," he +proceeded, leading the way from the room. "We must book rooms for the +night here, so we'll send to the station for our things and make our +arrangements, after which we'll smoke a cigar and talk--I am beginning to +see chinks of daylight." + +He led Allerdyke down to the office, completed the necessary +arrangements, and went on to the smoking-room, in a quiet corner of which +he pulled out his cigar-case. + +"Well?" he said. "What do you think now?" + +"I think you're a smart chap," answered Allerdyke bluntly. "You did all +that very well. I said naught, but I kept an eye and an ear open. +You'll do." + +"Very complimentary!--but I wasn't asking you what you thought about me," +said Fullaway, with a laugh. "I'm asking you what you think of the +situation, as illuminated by this last episode?" + +"Well, I'm still reflecting on what you said to that manager +chap," answered Allerdyke. "You really think this young woman has +lost her jewels?" + +"Oh, no doubt, no doubt at all," replied Fullaway. "Mademoiselle is +impetuous, impulsive, demonstrative, much given to insisting on her own +way, but she's absolutely honest and truthful, and I've no doubt +whatever--none!--that she's been robbed. But--not here. She never brought +those jewels here. They were not in that box when she came here. +Mademoiselle, my dear sir, was relieved of those jewels either on the +steamer, as she crossed from, Christiania to Hull, or during the few +hours she spent at the Hull hotel. The whole thing--the robbery from your +cousin, the robbery from Mademoiselle de Longarde--is all the work of a +particularly clever and brilliant gang of international thieves; and, by +the holy smoke, sir, we've got our hands full! For there isn't a clue to +the identity of the operators, so far, unless the lady with whom we are +going to sup can help us to one." + +Allerdyke ruminated over this for a moment or two. Then, after lighting +the cigar which Fullaway had offered him, he shook his head--in grim +affirmation. + +"I shouldn't wonder," he said. "Certainly, it seems a big thing. You're +figuring on its having been a carefully concocted scheme? No mere chance +affair, eh?" + +"This sort of thing's never done by chance," responded the American. +"This is the work of very clever and accomplished thieves who somehow +became aware of two facts. One, that your cousin was bringing with him to +England the jewels of the Princess Nastirsevitch. The other, that +Mademoiselle Zélie de Longarde carried her pearls and diamonds in an +innocent-looking rosewood box. My dear sir! you observed that I examined +that box with seeming carelessness--in reality, I was looking at it with +the eye of a trained observer. I am one of those people who, from having +knocked about the world a lot, engaging in a multifarious variety of +occupations, have picked up a queer scrap-heap of knowledge, and I will +lay you any odds you like that I am absolutely correct in affirming that +the box which I just now handed to Maggie, the chambermaid, was newly +made by a Russian cabinet-maker within the last four weeks!" + +"For a purpose?" suggested Allerdyke. + +"Just so--for a purpose," assented Fullaway. "That purpose being, of +course, its substitution for the real original article. You did not +handle the box which is now upstairs--it is carefully weighted, though it +is empty. I believe--nay, I am sure, it contains a sheet of lead under +its delicate lining of satin. That, of course, was to deceive +Mademoiselle. You heard her say that the jewels were in her box at +Christiania, and that she never opened the box until this evening here in +Edinburgh? Very good--between here and Christiania somebody substituted +the imitation box for the real one. Ah!--in all these great criminal +operations there is nothing like sticking to the old, well-worn, +tried-and-proved tricks of the trade!--they are like well-oiled, +well-practised machinery. And now we come back to the real, great, +anxious question--Who did it? And there, Allerdyke, we are at +present--only at present, mind!--up against a very big, blank wall." + +"On the other side of which, my lad, lies the secret of the murder of my +cousin," said Allerdyke grimly. "Mind you that! That's what I'm after, +Fullaway. Damn all these jewels and things, in comparison with +that!--it's that I'm after, I tell you again, and a thousand times again. +And I'm considering if I'm doing any good hanging round here after this +singing woman when the probable sphere of action lies yonder away at +Hull, eh?" + +"The proper--not probable--sphere of action, my dear sir, is the +supper-table to which we're presently going," answered Fullaway, with +supreme assurance. "What the singing woman, as you call her, can tell us +will most likely make all the difference in the world to our +investigations. Remember the shoe-buckle! Have it ready to exhibit when I +lead up to it. Then--we shall see." + +The prima donna, back for her engagement at eleven o'clock, came in +flushed and smiling--the extraordinary warmth and fervour of her +reception by the audience which she had at first been so inclined to +treat with scant courtesy had restored her to good humour, and when she +had eaten a few mouthfuls of delicate food and drunk her first glass of +champagne she began to laugh almost light-heartedly. + +"Well, I suppose you've been doing your best, Fullaway," she said, with +easy familiarity. "I declare you turned up at the very moment, for that +fat Weiss would have been no good. But I'm still wondering how you came +to be here, and what this gentleman--Mr. Allerdyke, is it?--is doing here +with you. Allerdyke, now--well, that's the same name as that of a man I +came across from Christiania with, and left at Hull." + +Fullaway kicked Allerdyke under the table. + +"You haven't heard of that Mr. Allerdyke since you left him at Hull, +then?" he asked, gazing intently at their hostess. + +"Heard? How should I hear?" asked the prima donna. "He was just a +travelling acquaintance. All the same, I had certainly fixed up to see +him in London on a business matter." + +"You don't read the newspapers, then?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Not unless there's something about myself in them," she answered, with +an arch smile at Allerdyke. + +"If you'd read this morning's papers, you'd have seen that the Mr. +Allerdyke with whom you travelled--this gentleman's cousin, by the +by--was found dead in his room at the hotel in Hull not so long after you +quitted it," said Fullaway coolly. "In fact, he must have been dead when +you passed his door on your way out." + +The prima donna was genuinely shocked. She set down the glass which she +was just lifting to her lips; her large, handsome eyes dilated, her lips +quivered a little. She turned a look of sympathy on Allerdyke, who, at +that moment, realized that she was a very beautiful woman. + +"You don't say so!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm really grieved to hear +that--I am! Dead?--and when I left! Why, I was in his room that very +night we reached Hull, having a talk on the business matter I mentioned +just now--he was well enough and lively enough then, I'll swear. +Dead!--why, what did he die of?" + +The two men looked at each other. There was a brief pause; then +Allerdyke slowly produced a small packet, wrapped in tissue-paper, from +his waistcoat pocket. He laid it on the table at his side and looked at +his hostess. + +"I knew you had been in my cousin's room," he said. "You left or dropped +your shoe-buckle there. I found it when I searched his room. Then the +hotel manager showed me your wire. Here's the buckle." + +He was watching her narrowly as he spoke, and his glance deepened in +intensity as he handed over the little packet and watched her unwrap the +paper. But there was not a sign of anything but a little surprised +satisfaction in the prima donna's face as she recognized her lost +property, and her eyes were ingenuous enough as she turned them on him. + +"Why, of course, that's mine!" she exclaimed. "I'm ever so much obliged +to you, Mr. Allerdyke. Yes, I wired to the hotel, in my proper name, you +know--Zélie de Longarde is only my professional name. I didn't want to +lose that buckle--it was part of a birthday present from my mother. But +you don't mean to say that you travelled all the way to Edinburgh to hand +me that! Surely not?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. He wanted to take a direct share in the talking, +and went resolutely ahead now that the chance had come. "No--not at all. +I knew you'd come to Edinburgh--found it out from that chauffeur who was +driving you when you and I met at Howden the night before last, and so I +came on to find you. I want to ask you some questions about my cousin, +and maybe to get you to come and give evidence at the inquest on him." + +"Inquest!" she exclaimed. "I know what that means, of course. Why--you +don't say there's been anything wrong?" + +"I believe my cousin was murdered that night," answered Allerdyke. "So, +too, does Fullaway there. And you were probably the last person who ever +spoke to him alive. Now, you see, I'm a plain, blunt-spoken sort of +chap--I ask people straight questions. What did you go into his room to +talk to him about?" + +"Business!" she replied, with a directness which impressed both men. +"Mere business. He and I had several conversations on board the +_Perisco_--I made out he was a clever business man. I want to invest some +money--he advised me to put it into a development company in Norway, +which is doing big things in fir and pine. I went into his room to look +at some plans and papers--he gave me some prospectuses which are in that +bag there just now---I was reading them over again only this evening. +That's all. I wasn't there many minutes--and, as I told you, he was very +well, very brisk and lively then." + +"Did he show you any valuables that he had with him--jewels?" asked +Allerdyke brusquely. + +"Jewels! Valuables!" she answered. "No--certainly not." + +"Nor when you were on the steamer?" + +"No--nor at any time," she said. "Jewels?--why--what makes you ask such a +question?" + +"Because my cousin had in his possession a consignment of such things, of +great value, and we believe that he was murdered for them--that's why," +replied Allerdyke. "He had them when he left Christiania--he had them +when he entered the Hull hotel--" + +Fullaway, who had been listening intently, leant forward with a shake +of his head. + +"Stop at that, Allerdyke," he said. "We don't know, now, that he did have +them when he entered the hotel at Hull! He mayn't have had. Miss +Lennard--we'll drop the professional name and turn to the real one," he +said, with a bow to the prima donna--"Miss Lennard here thinks she had +her jewels in her little box when she entered the Hull hotel, and also +when she came to this hotel, here in Edinburgh, but--" + +"Do you mean to say that I hadn't?" she exclaimed. "Do you mean--" + +"I mean," replied Fullaway, "that, knowing what I now know, I believe +that both you and the dead man, James Allerdyke, were robbed on the +_Perisco_. And I want to ask you a question at once. Where is your maid!" + +Celia Lennard dropped her knife and fork and sat back, suddenly +turning pale. + +"My maid!" she said faintly. "Good heavens! you don't think--oh, you +aren't suggesting that she's the thief? Because--oh, this is dreadful! +You see--I never thought of it before--when she and I arrived at Hull +that night she was met by a man who described himself as her brother. He +was in a great state of agitation--he said he'd rushed up to Hull to meet +her, to beg her to go straight with him to their mother, who was dying in +London. Of course, I let her go at once--they drove straight from the +riverside at Hull to the station to catch the train. What else could I +do? I never suspected anything. Oh!" + +Fullaway leaned across the table and filled his hostess's glass. + +"Now," he said, motioning her to drink, "you know your maid's name and +address, don't you? Let me have them at once, and within a couple of +hours we'll know if the story about the dying mother was true." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SECOND MURDER + + +It had been very evident to Allerdyke that ever since Fullaway had +mentioned the matter of the missing maid, Celia Lennard had become a +victim to doubt, suspicion, and uncertainty. Her colour came and went; +her eyes began to show signs of tears; her voice shook. And now, at the +American's direct question, she wrung her hands with an almost +despairing gesture. + +"But I can't!" she exclaimed. "I don't know her address--how should I? +It's somewhere in London--Bloomsbury, I think--but even then I don't know +if that's where her mother lives, to whom she said she was going. I did +know her address--I mean I remembered it for a while, at the time I +engaged her--a year ago, but I've forgotten it. Oh! do you really think +she's robbed me, or helped to rob me?" + +"Never mind opinions," answered Fullaway curtly. "They're no good. Is +this the maid you brought with you once or twice when you called at my +office some time ago, over the Pinkie Pell deal?" + +"Yes--yes, the same!" she answered. + +"A Frenchwoman?" said Fullaway. + +"Yes--Lisette. Of course she went with me to your office--that was eight +or nine months ago, and I've had her a year. And I had excellent +testimonials with her, too. Oh, I can't think that--" + +"Can't you make an effort to remember her address?" urged Fullaway. +"What can we do until we know that?" + +Celia drew her fine eyebrows together in a palpable effort to think. + +"I've got it somewhere," she said at last. "I must have it +somewhere--most likely in an address-book at my flat--I should be sure to +put it down at the time." + +"Who is there at your flat?" asked Fullaway. + +"My housekeeper and a maid," answered Celia. "They're always there, +whether I'm at home or not. But they couldn't get at what you want--all +my papers and things are locked up--and in a hopeless state of +confusion, too." + +Fullaway pushed aside his plate. + +"Then there's only one thing to be done," he said, with an accent of +finality. "We must go up to town at once." + +Allerdyke, still quietly eating his supper, looked up. + +"That's just what I was going to suggest," he said. "There's no good to +be done hanging about here. Let's get on to the scene of operations. If +Miss Lennard's maid has stolen her jewels, she's probably had some hand +in the theft from my cousin. We must find her. Now, then, let me come in. +I'll look up the train, settle up with these hotel folk, and we'll be +off. You give your attention to your packing, Miss Lennard, and leave the +rest to me--you won't mind travelling the night?" + +Celia shook her head. + +"I don't mind travelling all night for half a dozen nights if I can track +my lost property," she said lugubriously. "You're dead sure it's no use +stopping here?--that the robbery didn't take place here?" + +"Sure!" answered Fullaway. "We must get off. That French damsel's got to +be found--somehow." + +The supper-party came to an end--the prima donna and her temporary maid +began to bustle with garments and trunks, the two men attended to all +other necessary matters, and at two o'clock in the morning the three sped +out of Edinburgh for the South, each secretly wondering what was going to +come of their journey. Allerdyke, preparing to go to sleep in the +compartment which he and Fullaway occupied by themselves, dropped one +grim remark to his companion as he settled himself. + +"Seems like a wild-goose chase this, my lad, but it's one we've got to go +through with! What'll the next stage be?" + +The next stage was an arrival in London in the middle of a lovely May +morning, a swift drive to Celia Lennard's flat in Bedford Court Mansions, +the hurried rummaging of its owner amongst an extraordinary mass of +papers, books, and documents, and the ultimate discovery of the French +maid's address. Celia held it up with a sigh of vast relief, which +changed into a groan of despairing doubt. + +"There it is!" she exclaimed. "Lisette Beaurepaire, 911 Bernard Street, +Bloomsbury--I knew it was Bloomsbury. That's where she lived when I +engaged her, anyhow--but then her sick mother mayn't live there! The man +who met her at Hull, who said he was her brother, didn't say where the +mother lived, except that it was in London." + +"We must go to Bernard Street, anyway, at once," said Fullaway. "We may +get some information there." + +But such information as they got on the door-step of 911 Bernard Street +was scanty and useless. The house was a typical Bloomsbury lodging-place, +let off in floors and rooms. Its proprietor, summoned from a +neighbouring house, recollected, with considerable difficulty and after +consultation of a penny pocket-book, that he had certainly let a +top-floor room to a young Frenchwoman about a year ago, but he had never +caught her name properly, and simply had her noted down as Mamselle. She +had paid her rent regularly, and had remained in the house five +weeks--that was all he knew about her. Had he ever seen her since? Not +that he knew of--in fact, he shouldn't know her if he saw her--they were +all pretty much alike, these young Frenchwomen. Did he know where she +came from to his house--where she went from his house? Not he! he knew no +more than what he had just told. + +"What now?" asked Allerdyke as the three searchers paced dejectedly up +the street. "This is doing no good--it's worse than the Hull affair. +However, there's one thing suggests itself to me. Didn't you say," he +went on, turning to Celia, "that you had some very good testimonials with +this young woman? If so, and you've still got them, we might trace her in +that way." + +"I had some, and I may have them still, but you saw just now what an +awful mess all my letters and papers are in," replied Celia, almost +tearfully. "I always do get things like that into hopeless confusion--I +never know what to destroy and what to keep, and they accumulate so. It +would take hours upon hours to look for those letters, and in the +meantime--" + +"In the meantime," remarked Fullaway as he signalled to a taxi-cab, +"there's only one thing to be done. We must go to the police. Get in, +both of you, and let's make haste to New Scotland Yard." + +Once more Allerdyke received an impression of the American's usefulness +and practical acquaintance with things. Fullaway seemed to know exactly +what to do, whom to approach, how to go about the business in hand; +within a few minutes all three were closeted with a high official of the +Criminal Investigation Department, a man who might have been a barrister, +a medical specialist, or a scientist of distinction, and who maintained +an unmoved countenance and a perfect silence while Fullaway unfolded the +story. He and Allerdyke had held a brief consultation as they drove from +Bloomsbury to Whitehall, and they had decided that as things had now +reached a critical stage it would be best to tell the authorities +everything. Therefore the American narrated the entire sequence of events +as they related not only to Mademoiselle de Longarde's loss but to the +death of James Allerdyke and the disappearance of the Nastirsevitch +valuables. And the official heard, and made mental notes, soaking +everything into some proper cell of his brain, and he said nothing until +Fullaway had come to an end, and at that end he turned to Celia Lennard. + +"You can, of course, describe your maid?" he asked. + +"Certainly!" answered Celia. "To every detail." + +"Do so, if you please," continued the official, producing a pile of +papers from a drawer and turning them over until he came to one which he +drew from the rest. + +"A Frenchwoman," said Celia. "Aged, I should say, about twenty-six. Tall. +Slender--but not thin. Of a very good figure. Black hair--a quantity of +it. Black eyes--very penetrating. Fresh colour. Not exactly pretty, but +attractive--in the real Parisian way--she is a Parisian. Dressed--when +she left me at Hull--in a black tailor-made coat and skirt, and carrying +a travelling coat of black, lined with fur--one I gave her in Russia." + +"Her luggage?" asked the official. + +"She had a suit-case: a medium-sized one." + +"Large enough, I presume, to conceal the jewel-box your friend has told +me about just now?" + +"Oh, yes--certainly!" + +The official put his papers back in the drawer and turned to his visitors +with a business-like look which finally settled itself on Celia's face. + +"You must be prepared to hear some serious news," he said. "I mean about +this woman. I have no doubt from what you have just told me that I know +where she is." + +"Where?" demanded Celia excitedly. "You know? Where, then?" + +"Lying in the mortuary at Paddington," answered the official quietly. + +In spite of Celia's strong nerves she half rose in her seat--only to drop +back with a sharp exclamation. + +"Dead! Probably murdered. And I should say," continued the official, +with a glance at the two men, "murdered in the same way as the gentleman +you have told me of was murdered at Hull--by some subtle, strange, and +secret poison." + +No one spoke for a minute or two. When the silence was broken it was by +Allerdyke. + +"I should like to know about this," he said in a hard, keen voice. "I'm +getting about sick of delay in this affair of my cousin's, and if this +murder of the young woman is all of a piece with his, why, then, the +sooner we all get to work the better. I'm not going to spare time, +labour, nor expense in running that lot down, d'you understand? Money's +naught to me--I'm willing--" + +"We are already at work, Mr. Allerdyke," said the official, interrupting +him quietly. "We've been at work in the affair of the young woman for +twenty-four hours, and although you didn't know of it, we've heard of the +affair of your cousin at Hull, and the two cases are so similar that when +you came in I was wondering if there was any connection between them. +Now, as regards the young woman. You may or may not be aware that in +Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, a street of houses which runs alongside +the departure platform of the Great Western Railway, there are a number +of small private hotels, which are largely used by railway passengers. To +one of these hotels, about nine o'clock on the evening of May 13th (just +about twenty-four hours after you, Miss Lennard, landed at Hull), there +came a man and a woman, who represented themselves as brother and sister, +and took two rooms for the night. The woman answers the description of +your maid--as to the man, I will give you a description of him later. +These two, who had for luggage such a medium-sized suit-case as that Miss +Lennard has spoken of, partook of some supper and retired. There was +nothing noticeable about them--they seemed to be quiet, respectable +people--foreigners who spoke English very well. Nothing was heard of them +until next morning at eight o'clock, when the man rang his bell and asked +for tea to be brought up for both. This was done--he took it in at his +door, and was seen to hand a cup in at his sister's door, close by. An +hour later he came downstairs and gave instructions that his sister was +not to be disturbed--she was tired and wanted to rest, he said, and she +would ring when she wanted attendance. He then booked the two rooms again +for the succeeding night, and, going into the coffee-room, ate a very +good breakfast, taking his time over it. That done, he lounged about a +little, smoking, and eventually crossed the road towards the +station--since when he has not been seen. The day passed on--the woman +neither rang her bell nor came down. When evening arrived, as the man had +not returned, and no response could be got to repeated knocks at the +door, the landlady opened it with a master-key, and entered the room. She +found the woman dead--and according to the medical evidence she had been +dead since ten or eleven o'clock in the morning. Then, of course, the +police were called in. There was nothing in the room or in the suit-case +to establish or suggest identity. The body was removed, and an autopsy +has been held. And the conclusion of the medical men is that this woman +has been secretly and subtly poisoned." + +Here the official paused, rang a bell, and remained silent until a +quiet-looking, middle-aged man who might have been a highly respectable +butler entered the room: then he turned again to his visitors. + +"I want you, Miss Lennard, to accompany this man--one of my officers--to +the mortuary, to see if you can identify the body I have told you of. +Perhaps you gentlemen will accompany Miss Lennard? Then," he continued, +rising, "if you will all return here, we will go into this matter +further, and see if we can throw more light on it." + +Allerdyke's next impressions were of a swift drive across London to a +quiet retreat in Paddington, where, in a red-brick building set amidst +trees, official-faced men conducted him and his two companions into a +sort of annex, one side of which was covered with sheet glass. On the +other side of that glass he became aware of a still figure, shrouded and +arranged in formal lines, of a white face, set amidst dark hair ... then +as in a dream he heard Celia Lennard's frightened whisper-- + +"That's she--that's Lisette! Oh, for God's sake, take me out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + +The three searchers into what was rapidly becoming a most complicated +mystery drove back to New Scotland Yard in a silence which lasted until +they were set down at the door of the department whereat they had +interviewed the high official. Celia Lennard was thoroughly upset; the +sight of the dead woman had disturbed her even more than she let her +companions see; she remained dumb and rigid, staring straight before her +as if she still gazed on the white face set in its frame of dark hair. +Allerdyke, too, stared at the crowds in the streets as if they were +abstract visions--his keen brain felt dazed and mystified by this +accumulation of strange events. And Fullaway, active and mercurial though +he was, made no attempt at conversation--he sat with knitted forehead, +trying to think, to account, to surmise, only conscious that he was up +against a bigger mystery than life had ever shown him up to then. + +The detective who had accompanied them to the mortuary conducted the +three straight back to his chief's office--the chief, noticing the effect +of the visit on Celia, hastened to give her a chair at the side of his +desk, and looked at her with a lessening of his official manner. He +signed to the other two to sit down, and motioned the detective to +remain. Then he turned to Celia. + +"You recognized the woman?" he said softly. "Just so. I thought you +would, and I was sorry to ask you to perform such an unpleasant task but +it was absolutely necessary. Now," he continued, taking up his bundle of +papers again, "I want you to describe the man who met you and your maid +on your arrival at Hull the other night. Of course you saw him?" + +"Certainly I saw him," replied Celia. "And I should know him again +anywhere--the scoundrel!" + +The high official smiled and glanced at Fullaway. + +"You are thinking, Miss Lennard, that the man you then saw is the man who +accompanied your maid to the hotel in which she was found dead," he said. +"Well, that may be so--but it mayn't. That is why I want you to give us +an accurate description of the man you saw. You described the maid very +well indeed. Now describe the man." + +"I can do that quite well," said Celia, with assurance. "And I can tell +you the circumstances. The steamer--the _Perisco_--got into the river at +Hull about a quarter to nine and anchored off the Victoria Pier. We +understood that she couldn't get into dock just then because of the tide, +and that we must go on shore by tender. A tender came off--some of the +people on board it came on our deck. There was a good deal of bustle. I +went down to my cabin to see after something or other. Lisette came to me +there, evidently much agitated, saying that her brother had come off on +the tender to fetch her at once to their mother who was ill in +London--dying. She begged to be allowed to go with him. Of course I said +she might. She immediately picked up her suit-case and travelling coat +out of our pile of luggage, and I went up with her on deck. She and the +man--her brother, as I understood--got into a small boat which was +alongside and went straight off to the pier: the tender was not leaving +for shore for some time. And--that was the last I saw of her. It was all +done in a minute or two." + +"Now--the man," suggested the chief softly. + +"A young man--about Lisette's age, I should say--twenty-seven to thirty +anyway. Tallish. Dark hair, moustache, eyes, and complexion. +Good-looking--in a foreign way. I had no doubt he was her brother--he +looked French, though he spoke English quite well and without accent. +Very respectably dressed in dark clothes and overcoat. He would have +passed for a well-to-do clerk--that type. I spoke to him--a few words. He +spoke well--had very polite, almost polished manners. Of course he was +hurried--wanting to get Lisette away--he said they could just catch the +last train to London." + +The chief shook his head. + +"Not the man who accompanied her to the Paddington Hotel," he said. +"Listen--this is the description of that man, as given to the police by +the landlady and her servants: 'Age, presumably between forty and +forty-five years, medium height. Brown hair. Clean-shaven. Dressed in +grey tweed suit, over which he wore a fawn-coloured overcoat. Deerstalker +hat--light brown. Brown brogue shoes.' That, you see," continued the +chief, "describes a quite different person. You do not recognize the +description as that of any man you have ever seen in company with your +late maid, Miss Lennard?" + +"I never saw my maid in any man's company," replied Celia. "Since I first +engaged her we have not been much in London. I was in New York and +Chicago for a time last year; then in Paris; then in Milan and Turin; +lately in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When we were at home, here in +London, she certainly had time of her own--her evenings out, you +know--but of course I don't know with whom she spent them. No--I don't +know any man answering that description." + +The chief folded up his papers and restored them to his desk. + +"Now that you are here," he said, "you may as well give me a few +particulars about your doings on the _Perisco_, especially as they relate +to Mr. James Allerdyke. When and where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"On the steamer--a few hours after we left Christiania," replied Celia. + +"Just as fellow-passengers, I suppose?" + +"Quite so--just that. We sat next to each other at meals." + +"Do you know where his cabin was on the steamer?" + +"Yes, exactly opposite my own. He and I, I believe, were the only +passengers who had cabins all to ourselves." + +"Did he ever mention to you these valuables which Mr. Fullaway tells us +he was carrying to England!" + +"No--never at any time." + +"Did you see him leave the _Perisco_ for the shore?" + +"Why, yes, certainly! As a matter of fact, he and I came ashore at Hull +together, ahead of any other passengers. After Lisette had left the +steamer with her brother, I happened to come across Mr. James Allerdyke. +I told him what had just occurred, and asked him if he would help me +about my things, as my maid had gone. He immediately suggested that we +shouldn't wait for the tender, but should get a boat of our own--there +were several lying around. He said he was in a great hurry to get ashore, +because he'd a friend awaiting him at the Station Hotel. So he got a +boat, and his things and mine were put into it, and we left the steamer, +and were rowed to the landing-stage, just opposite." + +"And you, of course, carried your jewel-case--or what you believed to be +your jewel-case--the duplicate chest which you subsequently carried to +Edinburgh?" + +"Yes, of course--I had it in my hand when Lisette left, and, I never left +hold of it until I got into the hotel." + +"Do you remember if Mr. James Allerdyke carried anything in his hand?" + +"Yes, he carried a hand-bag. He had that bag in his hand when I met him +on deck; he kept it on his knee in the boat, and in the cab in which we +drove to the hotel from the landing-stage; I saw him carrying it upstairs +after we got to the hotel. What is more, I saw him bring it into the +coffee-room later on, and place it on the table at which he had some +supper. I saw it again in his room when I went in there to look at the +plans of the Norwegian estate which he had told me about. He didn't take +those plans out of that hand-bag; he took them out of a side flap-pocket +in a suit-case." + +"Did you have supper with him that night?" + +"No--I was sitting at another table, talking to a lady who had been with +us on the _Perisco_. A lot of _Perisco_ passengers--twenty, at least--had +come to the hotel by that time." + +"Did any of them join Mr. James Allerdyke--at his table, I mean?" + +"I don't remember--no, I think not. He sat at a table, one end of which +adjoined the wall--he put the hand-bag at that end. I remember wondering +why he carried his bag about with him. But then I, of course, was +carrying what I believed to be my jewel-case." + +"Did you see him talking to any of your fellow-passengers that night?" + +"Oh, yes--to two or three of them--in the hall of the hotel. I didn't +know who they were, particularly--except the doctor with the big beard. I +saw him talking to Mr. Allerdyke at the door of the smoking-room." + +"Had you taken any special notice of your fellow passengers on board the +_Perisco_?" + +"No--not at all. They were just the usual sort of passengers--I wasn't +interested in them. Of course, I talked to some of them, in the ordinary +way, as one does talk on board ship. But I don't remember anything +particular about them, nor any of their names, even if I ever knew their +names. Of course I remember Mr. James Allerdyke's name, because of the +business talk." + +The chief, who had been making shorthand notes of this conversation, +paused for a moment, evidently considering matters, and then turned to +Celia with a smile. + +"Why did you leave the hotel at Hull so suddenly?" he asked. "I daresay +you had good reasons, but I should just like to know what they were, if +you don't mind." + +"I'd no reason at all," replied Celia, with almost blunt directness. "At +least, if I had, they were only a woman's reasons. I was a bit upset at +being left alone. I didn't like the hotel. I knew I shouldn't sleep. It +was a most beautiful moonlight night, and I suddenly thought I'd like to +go motoring. I knew enough of the geography of those parts to know if I +motored across country I should strike the Great Northern main line +somewhere and catch a train to Edinburgh in the early morning. So--I just +cleared out." + +"Ah--you see you had quite a number of reasons!" said the chief, +smiling again. "Very well. Now then, before you go, Miss Lennard, I +want you to do just one thing more which may be useful to us in our +work." He turned to the detective. "Get those things," he said quietly. +"Bring the lot in here." + +Celia made a little sound of distaste as the detective presently returned +to the room carrying in one hand a brown leather suit-case, and in the +other a cardboard dress-box, to which was strapped a travelling-coat, +lined with fur. Her face, which had regained its colour, paled again. + +"Lisette's things!" she muttered. "Oh--I don't--don't like to see them! +What is it you want?" + +"We want you to identify them--and, if you will, to look them over," +replied the chief. "The cardboard box contains everything she was wearing +when she went to the hotel in Eastbourne Terrace; the suit-case and coat +are what she took in with her. Spread the things out on that side table," +he continued, turning to the detective. + +"Let Miss Lennard look them over." + +Celia performed the task required of her with dislike--it seemed +somehow as if she were inspecting the dead woman afresh. She hurried +over the task. + +"All these things are hers, of course," she said. "That's the suit-case +she had with her when she left me at Hull, and that's the coat I gave +her--and the other things are hers, too. Oh--I don't like looking at +them. Can't we go, please?" + +"One moment," said the chief. "I wanted to tell you that amongst all +these things there is nothing that establishes the woman's identity--I +mean in the way of papers or anything of that sort. There were no letters +in this case--not a scrap of paper. There is money in that purse--two or +three pounds in gold, some silver. There is her watch--a good gold +watch--and there are two or three rings she was wearing. Now we have only +made a superficial examination of all these personal belongings--can you, +as her mistress, suggest if she was likely to hide anything in her +clothing, and if so, in what article? You might save us some trouble, +Miss Lennard." + +Allerdyke, who was more interested in Celia than in what was going on, +saw a sudden gleam come into her eyes--her feminine spirit of curiosity +was aroused. She hesitated, turned back to the side-table, paused +before the various articles laid out there, took up and fingered two or +three, and suddenly wheeled round on the men, exhibiting a quilted +handkerchief case. + +"There's something been sewn into the padding of this!" she said. "I can +feel it. Can any one lend me pocket-scissors or a penknife?" + +The men gathered round as Celia's deft fingers ripped open the satin +covering: a moment later she drew out a wad of folded paper and handed it +to the chief. Fullaway and Allerdyke craned their necks over his +shoulders as he unwrapped and spread the bits of paper out before them. +And it was Fullaway who broke the silence with a sharp exclamation. + +"Bank-notes!" he said. "Russian bank-notes! And new ones!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE THIRD MURDER + + +Fullaway's exclamation was followed by a murmur of astonishment from +Celia, and by a low growl which meant many things from Allerdyke. The +chief turned the banknotes over silently, moved to his desk, and picked +up a reference book. + +"I'm not very familiar with Russian money--paper or otherwise," he +remarked. "How much does this represent in ours, now?" + +"I can tell you that," said Fullaway, taking the wad of notes and rapidly +counting them. "Five hundred pounds English," he announced. "And you see +that all the notes are new--don't forget to note that." + +"Yes?--what do you argue from it?" asked the chief, with obvious +interest. "It proves--what?" + +"That these notes were given to this woman in Russia, recently--most +likely in St. Petersburg," replied the American. "And, in my opinion, +their presence--their discovery--proves more. It suggests at any rate +that this woman, the dead maid, was a tool in the conspiracy to rob Miss +Lennard and Mr. James Allerdyke, that this money is her reward, or part +of it, and that the whole scheme was hatched and engineered in Russia." + +"Good!" muttered Allerdyke. "Now we're getting to business." + +"We shall have to get some evidence from Russia," observed the chief +meditatively. "That's very evident. If the thing began there, or was put +into active shape there--" + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch is on her way now," said Fullaway. He pulled +out his pocket-book, and began searching amongst its papers. "Here you +are," he continued producing a cablegram. "That's from the Princess--you +see she says she's leaving for London at once, via Berlin and Calais, and +will call upon me at my hotel as soon as she arrives. Now, that was sent +off two days ago--she'd leave St. Petersburg that night. It's seventy-two +hours' journey--three days. She'll be in London tomorrow evening." + +The chief sat down at his desk and picked up a pen. + +"Give me your addresses please, all of you," he said. "Then I can +communicate with you at any moment. Miss Lennard, you mentioned Bedford +Court Mansions. What number? Right.--yours, Mr. Fullaway, is the Waldorf +Hotel--permanently there? Very good. You, Mr. Allerdyke, live in +Bradford? It will be advisable, if you really want to clear up the +mystery of your cousin's death, to remain in town for a few days, at any +rate--now that we've got all this in hand, you'd better be close to the +centre of things. Can you give me an address here?" + +"I've a London office," answered Allerdyke. "I can always be heard of +there when I'm in town. Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Gresham +Street--ask for Mr. Marshall Allerdyke. But as I'll have to put up here, +I'll go to the Waldorf, with Mr. Fullaway, so if you want me you'll find +me there. And look here," he went on, as the chief noted these +particulars, "I want to know, to have some idea, you know, of what's +going to be done. I tell you, I'll spare no time, labour, or expense in +getting at the bottom of this! If it's a question of money, say the +word, and--" + +"All right, Mr. Allerdyke, leave it to us--for the present," said the +chief, with an understanding smile. "I know what you mean. We're only +beginning. This affair is doubtless a big thing, as Mr. Fullaway has +suggested, and it will need some clever work. Now, at present, this +case--the joint case of the Hull affair and the Eastbourne Terrace +affair, for they're without doubt both parts of one serious whole--is in +the hands of two of my best men. This is one of them: Detective-Sergeant +Blindway. If and when Blindway wants any of you, he'll come to you. Miss +Lennard, you'll be wanted at the inquest on your late maid--the Coroner's +officer will let you know when. You two gentlemen will doubtless go with +Miss Lennard. You'll all three certainly be wanted at that adjourned +inquest at Hull. Now, that's all--except that when you, Miss Lennard, +return home, you must at once begin searching for the references you had +with your maid--let me have them as soon as they're found--and that you, +Mr. Fullaway, must bring the Princess Nastirsevitch here as soon as you +can after her arrival." + +Outside New Scotland Yard Celia Lennard relieved her feelings with a +fervent exclamation. + +"I wish I'd never spent a penny on pearls or diamonds in my life!" she +said vehemently. "Insane folly! What good have they done? Leading to all +this bother, and to murder. What fools women are! All that money thrown +away!--for of course I shall never see a sign of them again!" + +"That's a rather hopeless way of looking at it," observed Fullaway. +"You've got the cleverest police in Europe on the search for them; also +you've got our friend Allerdyke and myself on the run, and we're +neither of us exactly brainless. So hasten home in this taxi-cab, get +some lunch, have an hour's nap, and then begin putting your papers +straight and looking for those references. Search well!--you don't know +what depends on it." + +He and Allerdyke strolled up Whitehall when Celia had gone--in silence at +first, both wrapped in meditation. + +"There's only one thing one can say with any certainty about this affair, +Allerdyke," remarked the American at last, "and that is precisely what +the man we've been talking to said--it's a big do. The folk at the back +of it are smart and clever and daring. We'll need all our wits. Well, +come along to the Waldorf and let's lunch--then we'll talk some more. +There's little to be done till the Princess turns up tomorrow." + +"There's one thing I want to do at once," said Allerdyke. "If I'm going +to stop in town I must wire to my housekeeper to send me clothes and +linen, and to the manager at my mill. Then I'm with you--and I wish to +Heaven we'd something to do! What I can't stand is this forced inaction, +this hanging about, waiting, wondering, speculating--and doing naught!" + +"We may be in action before you know it's at hand," said Fullaway. "In +these cases you never know what a minute may bring forth. All we can do +is to be ready." + +He led the way to the nearest telegraph office and waited while Allerdyke +sent off his messages. The performance of even this small task seemed to +restore the Yorkshireman's spirits--he came away smiling. + +"I've told my housekeeper to pack a couple of trunks with what I want, +and to send my chauffeur, Gaffney, up with them, by the next express," he +said. "I feel better after doing that. He's a smart chap, Gaffney--the +sort that might be useful at a pinch. If any one wanted anything +ferreted out, now!--he's the sense of an Airedale terrier, that chap!" + +"High praise," laughed Fullaway. "And original too. Well, let's fix up +and get some food, and then we'll go into my private rooms and have a +talk over the situation." + +Mr. Franklin Fullaway, following a certain modern fashion, introduced +into life by twentieth-century company promoters and magnates of the high +finance, had established his business quarters at his hotel. It was a +wise and pleasant thing to do, he explained to Allerdyke; you had the +advantage of living over the shop, as it were; of being able to go out of +your private sitting-room into your business office; you had the bright +and pleasant surroundings; you had, moreover, all the various rooms and +saloons of a first-rate hotel wherein to entertain your clients if need +be. Certainly you had to pay for these advantages and luxuries, but no +more than you would have to lay out in the rents, rates, and taxes of +palatial offices in a first-class business quarter. + +"And my line of business demands luxurious fittings," remarked the +American, as he installed Allerdyke in a sybaritic armchair and handed +him a box of big cigars of a famous brand. "You're not the first +millionaire that's come to anchor in that chair, you know!" + +"If they're millionaires in penny-pieces, maybe not," answered Allerdyke. +He lighted a cigar and glanced appraisingly at his surroundings--at the +thick velvet pile of the carpets, the fine furniture, the bookcases +filled with beautiful bindings, the choice bits of statuary, the two or +three unmistakably good pictures. "Doing good business, I reckon?" he +said, with true Yorkshire curiosity. "What's it run to, now?" + +Fullaway showed his fine white teeth in a genial laugh. + +"Oh, I've turned over two and three millions in a year in this little +den!" he answered cheerily. "Varies, you know, according to what people +have got to sell, and what good buyers there are knocking around." + +"You keep a bit of sealing wax, of course?" suggested Allerdyke. "Take +care that some of the brass sticks when you handle it, no doubt?" + +"Commission and percentage, of course," responded Fullaway. + +"Ah, well, you've an advantage over chaps like me," said Allerdyke. "Now, +you shall take my case. We've made a pile of money in our firm, +grandfather, father, and myself; but, Lord, man, you wouldn't believe +what our expenses have been! Building mills, fitting machinery--and then, +wages! Why, I pay wages to six hundred workpeople every Friday afternoon! +Our wages bill runs to well over fourteen hundred pound a week. You've +naught of that sort, of course--no great staff to keep up?" + +"No," answered Fullaway. He nodded his head towards the door of a room +through which they had just passed on their way into the agent's private +apartments. "All the staff I have is the young lady you just saw--Mrs. +Marlow. Invaluable!" + +"Married woman?" inquired Allerdyke laconically. + +"Young widow," answered Fullaway just as tersely. "Excellent business +woman--been with me ever since I came here--three years. Speaks and +writes several languages--well educated, good knowledge of my particular +line of business. American--I knew her people very well. Of course, I +don't require much assistance--merely clerical help, but it's got to be +of a highly intelligent and specialized sort." + +"Leave your business in her hands if need be, I reckon?" suggested +Allerdyke, with a sidelong nod at the closed door. + +"In ordinary matters, yes--comfortably," answered Fullaway. "She's a bit +a specialist in two things that I'm mainly concerned in--pictures and +diamonds. She can tell a genuine Old Master at a glance, and she knows a +lot about diamonds--her father was in that trade at one time, out in +South Africa." + +"Clever woman to have," observed Allerdyke; "knows all your business, +of course?" + +"All the surface business," said Fullaway, "naturally! Anything but a +confidential secretary would be useless to me, you know." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "Told her about this affair yet?" + +"I've had no chance so far," replied Fullaway. "I shall take her advice +about it--she's a cute woman." + +"Smart-looking, sure enough," said Allerdyke. He let his mind dwell for a +moment on the picture which Mrs. Marlow had made as Fullaway led him +through the office--a very well-gowned, pretty, alert, piquant little +woman, still on the sunny side of thirty, who had given him a sharp +glance out of unusually wide-awake eyes. "Aye, women are clever nowadays, +no doubt--they'd show their grandmothers how to suck eggs in a good many +new fashions. Well, now," he went on, stretching his long legs over +Fullaway's beautiful Persian rug, "what do you make of this affair, +Fullaway, in its present situation? There's no doubt that everything's +considerably altered by what we've heard of this morning. Do you really +think that this French maid affair is all of a piece, as one may term it, +with the affair of my cousin James?" + +"Yes--without doubt," replied Fullaway. "I believe the two affairs all +spring from the same plot. That plot, in my opinion, has originated from +a clever gang who, somehow or other, got to know that Mr. James Allerdyke +was bringing over the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels, and who also +turned their eyes on Zélie de Longarde's valuables. The French maid, +Lisette, was probably nothing but a tool, a cat's paw, and she, having +done her work, has been cleverly removed so that she could never split. +Further--" + +A quiet knock at the door just then prefaced the entrance of Mrs. Marlow, +who gave her employer an inquiring glance. + +"Mr. Blindway to see you," she announced. "Shall I show him in?" + +"At once!" replied Fullaway. He leapt from his chair, and going to the +door called to the detective to enter. "News?" he asked excitedly, when +Mrs. Marlow had retired, closing the door again. "What is it--important?" + +The detective, who looked very solemn, drew a letter-case from his +pocket, and slowly produced a telegram. + +"Important enough," he answered. "This case is assuming a very +strange complexion, gentlemen. This arrived from Hull half an hour +ago, and the chief thought I'd better bring it on to you at once. You +see what it is--" + +He held the telegram out to both men, and they read it together, Fullaway +muttering the words as he read-- + +From _Chief Constable, Hull, to Superintendent C.I.D., New +Scotland Yard_. + +Dr. Lydenberg, concerned in Allerdyke case, was shot dead in High Street +here this morning by unseen person, who is up to now unarrested and to +whose identity we have no clue. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AMBLER APPLEYARD + + +Fullaway laid the telegram down on his table and looked from it to the +detective. + +"Shot dead--High Street--this morning?" he said wonderingly. "Why!--that +means, of course, in broad daylight--in a busy street, I suppose? And +yet--no clue. How could a man be shot dead under such circumstances +without the murderer being seen and followed?" + +"You don't know Hull very well," remarked Allerdyke, who had been pulling +his moustache and frowning over the telegram, "else you'd know how that +could be done easy enough in High Street. High Street," he went on, +turning to the detective, "is the oldest street in the town. It's the old +merchant street. Half of it--lower end--is more or less in ruins. There +are old houses there which aren't tenanted. Back of these houses are +courts and alleys and queer entries, leading on one side to the river, +and on the other to side streets. A man could be lured into one of those +places and put out of the way easily and quietly enough. Or he could be +shot by anybody lurking in one of those houses, and the murderer could be +got away unobserved with the greatest ease. That's probably what's +happened--I know that street as well as I know my own house--I'm not +surprised by that! What I'm surprised about is to hear that Lydenberg has +been shot at all. And the question is--is his murder of a piece with all +the rest of this damnable mystery, or is it clean apart from it? +Understand, Fullaway?" + +"I'm thinking," answered the American. "It takes a lot of thinking, too." + +"You see," continued Allerdyke, turning to Blindway again, "we're all +in a hole--in a regular fog. We know naught! literally naught. This +Lydenberg was a foreigner--Swede, Norwegian, Dane, or something. We +know nothing of him, except that he said he'd come to Hull on business. +He may have been shot for all sorts of reasons--private, political. We +don't know. But--mark me!--if his murder's connected with the others, +if it's all of a piece with my cousin's murder, and that French girl's, +why then--" + +He paused, shaking his head emphatically, and the other two, impressed by +his earnestness, waited until he spoke again. + +"Then," he continued at last, after a space of silence, during which he +seemed to be reflecting with added strenuousness--"then, by Heaven! we're +up against something that's going to take it out of us before we get at +the truth. That's a dead certainty. If this is all conspiracy, it's a big +'un--a colossal thing! What say, Fullaway?" + +"I should say you're right," replied Fullaway. "I've been trying to +figure things up while you talked, though I gave you both ears. It looks +as if this Lydenberg had been shot in order to keep his tongue quiet +forever. Maybe he knew something, and was likely to split. What are your +people going to do about this?" he asked turning to the detective. "I +suppose you'll go down to Hull at once?" + +"I shan't," answered Blindway. "I've enough to do here. One of our men +has already gone--he's on his way. We shall have to wait for news. I'm +inclined to agree with Mr. Allerdyke--it's a big thing, a very big thing. +If Mr. Allerdyke's cousin was really murdered, and if the Frenchwoman's +death arose out of that, and now Lydenberg's, there's a clever +combination at work. And--where's the least clue to it?" + +Allerdyke helped himself to a fresh cigar out of a box which lay on +Fullaway's table, lighted it, and smoked in silence for a minute or two. +The other men, feeling instinctively that he was thinking, waited. + +"Look you here!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Clue? Yes, that's what we want. +Where's that clue likely to be found? Why, in this, and this only--who +knew, person or persons, that my cousin was bringing those jewels from +the Princess Nastirsevitch to this country? Get to know that, and it +narrows the field, d'ye see?" + +"There's the question of Miss Lennard's jewels, too," remarked Fullaway. + +"That may be--perhaps was--a side-issue," said Allerdyke. "It may have +come into the big scheme as an after-thought. But, anyway, that's what +we want--a first clue. And I don't see how that's to be got at until +this Princess arrives here. You see, she may have talked, she may have +let it out in confidence--to somebody who abused her confidence. What is +certain is that somebody must have got to know of this proposed deal +between the Princess and your man, Fullaway, and have laid plans +accordingly to rob the Princess's messenger--my cousin James. D'ye see, +the deal was known of at two ends--to you here, to this Princess, +through James, over there, in Russia. Now, then, where did the secret +get out? Did it get out there, or here?" + +"Not here, of course!" answered Fullaway, with emphasis. "That's dead +sure. Over there, of a certainty. The robbery was engineered from there." + +"Then, in that case, there's naught to do but wait the arrival of the +Princess," said Allerdyke. "And you say she'll be here to-morrow night. +In the meantime no doubt you police gentlemen'll get more news about this +last affair at Hull, and perhaps Miss Lennard'll find those references +about the Frenchwoman, and maybe we shall mop things up bit by bit--for +mopped up they'll have to be, or my name isn't what it is! Fullaway," he +went on, rising from his chair, "I'll have to leave you--yon man o' +mine'll be arriving from Yorkshire with my things before long, and I must +go down to the hotel office and make arrangements about him. See you +later--at dinner to-night, here, eh?" + +He lounged away through the outer office, giving the smart lady secretary +a keen glance as he passed her and getting an equally scrutinizing, if +swift, look in return. + +"Clever!" mused Allerdyke as he closed the door behind him. "Deuced +clever, that young woman. Um--well, it's a pretty coil, to be sure!" + +He went down to the office, made full and precise arrangements about +Gaffney, who was to be given a room close to his own, left some +instructions as to what was to be done with him on arrival, and then, +hands in pockets, strolled out into Aldwych and walked towards the +Strand, his eyes bent on the ground as if he strove to find in those hard +pavements some solution of all these difficulties. And suddenly he lifted +his head and muttered a few emphatic words half aloud, regardless of +whoever might overhear them. + +"I wish to Heaven I'd a right good, hard-headed Yorkshireman to talk +to!" he said. "A chap with some gumption about him! These Cockneys and +Americans are all very well in their way, but--" + +Then he pulled himself up sharply. An idea, a name, had flashed into his +mental field of vision as if sent in answer to his prayer. And still +regardless of bystanders he slapped his thigh delightedly. + +"Ambler Appleyard!" he exclaimed. "The very man! Here, you!" + +The last two words were addressed to a taxi-cab driver whose car stood at +the head of the line by the Gaiety Theatre. Allerdyke crossed from the +pavement and jumped in. + +"Run down to this end of Gresham Street," he said. "Go quick as you can." + +He wondered as he sped along the crowded London streets why he had not +thought of Ambler Appleyard before. Ambler Appleyard was the manager of +his own London warehouse, a smart, clever, pushing young Bradford man +who had been in charge of the London business of Allerdyke and +Partners, Limited, for the last three years. He had come to London with +his brains already sharpened--three years of business life in the +Metropolis had made them all the sharper. Allerdyke rubbed his hands +with satisfaction. Exchange of confidence with a fellow-Yorkshireman +was the very thing he wanted. + +He got out of his cab at the Aldersgate end of Gresham Street, and walked +quickly along until he came to a highly polished brass plate on which his +own name was deeply engraven. Running up a few steps into a warehouse +stored with neat packages of dress goods, he encountered a couple of +warehousemen engaged in sorting and classifying a consignment of fabrics +just arrived from Bradford. Allerdyke, whose visits to his London +warehouse were fairly frequent, and usually without notice, nodded +affably to both and walked across the floor to an inner office. He opened +the door without ceremony, closed it carefully behind him, and stepping +forward to the occupant of the room, who sat busily writing at a desk, +with his back to the entrant, and continued to write without moving or +looking round, gave him a resounding smack on the shoulder. + +"The very man I want, Ambler, my lad!" he said. "Sit up!" + +Ambler Appleyard raised his head, slowly twisted in his revolving chair, +and looked quietly at his employer. And Allerdyke, dropping into an +easy-chair by the fireplace, over which hung a fine steel engraving of +himself, flanked by photographs of the Bradford mills and the Bradford +warehouse, looked at his London manager, secretly admiring the shrewdness +and self-possession evidenced in the young man's face. Appleyard was +certainly no beauty; his outstanding features were sandy-coloured hair, +freckled cheeks, a snub nose, and a decidedly wide mouth; moreover, his +ears, unusually large, stood out from the sides of his head in very +prominent fashion, and gave a beholder the impression that they were +perpetually stretched to attention. But he was the owner of a well-shaped +forehead, a pair of steady and honest blue eyes, and a firmly cut square +chin, and his entire atmosphere conveyed the idea of capacity, resource, +and energy. It pleased Allerdyke, too, to see that the young man was +attentive to his own personal appearance--his well-cut garments bore the +undoubted stamp of the Savile Row tailor; the silk hat which covered his +crop of sandy hair was the latest thing in Sackville Street headgear; +from top to toe he was the smart man-about-town. And that was the sort +of man Marshall Allerdyke liked to have about him, and to see as heads of +his departments--not fops, nor dandies, but men who knew the commercial +value of good appearance and smart finish. + +"I didn't know you were in town, Mr. Allerdyke," said the London manager +quietly. "Still, one never knows where you are these days." + +"I've scarcely known that myself, my lad, these last seventy-two hours," +replied Allerdyke. "You mightn't think it, but at this time yesterday I +was going full tilt up to Edinburgh. I want to tell you about that, +Ambler--I want some advice. But business first--aught new?" + +"I've brought that South American contract off," replied Appleyard. +"Fixed it this morning." + +"Good!" said Allerdyke. "What's it run to, like?" + +"Seventy-five thousand," answered Appleyard. "Nice bit of profit on that, +Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Good--good!" repeated Allerdyke. "Aught else?" + +"Naught--at present. Naught out of the usual, anyway," said the manager. + +He took off his hat, laid aside the papers he had been busy with on +Allerdyke's entrance, and twisted his chair round to the hearth. "This +advice, then?" he asked quietly. "I'm free now." + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke. He sat reflecting for a moment, and then turned to +his manager with a sudden question. + +"Have you heard all this about my cousin James?" he asked with sharp +directness. + +Appleyard lifted a couple of newspapers from his desk. + +"No more than what's in these," he answered. "One tells of his sudden +death at Hull; the other begins to hint that there was something queer +about it." + +"Queer!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Aye, and more than queer, my lad. Our +James was murdered! Now, then, Ambler, I've come here to tell you all the +story--you must listen to every detail. I know your brains--keep 'em +fixed on what I'm going to tell; hear it all; weigh it up, and then tell +me what you make of it; for I'm damned if I can make either head or tail, +back, side, or front of the whole thing--so far. Happen you can see a bit +of light. Listen, now." + +Allerdyke, from long training in business habits, was a good teller of a +plain and straightforward tale: Appleyard, for the same reason, was a +good listener. So one man talked, in low, earnest tones, checking off +his points as he made them, taking care that he emphasized the principal +items of his news and dwelt lightly on the connecting links, and the +other listened in silence, keeping a concentrated attention and storing +away the facts in his memory as they were duly marshalled before him. +For a good hour one brain gave out, and the other took in, and without +waste of words. + +It came to an end at last, and master looked at man. + +"Well?" said Allerdyke, after a silence that was full of meaning--"well?" + +"Take some thinking about," answered Appleyard tersely. "It's a big +thing--a devilish clever thing, too. There's one fact strikes me at once, +though. The news about the Nastirsevitch jewels leaked out somewhere, Mr. +Allerdyke. That's certain. Either here in London, or over there in +Russia, it leaked out. Now until this Princess comes you've no means of +knowing if the leakage was over yonder. But there's one thing you do +know now--at this very minute. There were three people here in England +who knew that the jewels were on the way from Russia, in Mr. James +Allerdyke's charge. Those three were this man Fullaway, his lady +secretary, and Delkin, the Chicago millionaire! Now, then, Mr. +Allerdyke--how much, or what, do you know about any one of 'em?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + +Allerdyke encountered this direct question with a long, fixed stare of +growing comprehension; his silence showed that he was gradually taking in +its significance. + +"Aye, just so!" he said at last. "Just so! How much do I know of any of +'em? Well, of Fullaway no more than I've seen. Of his secretary no more +than what I've seen and heard. Of Delkin no more than that such a man +exists. Sum total--what!" + +"Next to naught," said Appleyard. "In a case like this you ought to know +more. Fullaway may be all right. Fullaway may be all wrong. His lady +secretary may be as right as he is, or as wrong as he is. As to +Delkin--he might be a creature of Fullaway's imagination. Put it all to +yourself now, Mr. Allerdyke--on the face of what you've told me, these +three people--two of 'em, at any rate, for a certainty--knew about these +valuables coming over in Mr. James's charge. So far as you know, your +cousin had 'em when he left Christiania and reached Hull. There they +disappear. So far as you're aware, nobody but these people knew of their +coming--no other people in England knew, at any rate, so far, I repeat, +as your knowledge goes. I should want to know something about these +three, if I were in your place, Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Aye--aye!" replied Allerdyke. "I see your point. Well, I've been in +Fullaway's company now for two days--there's no denying he's a smart +chap, a clever chap, and he seems to be doing good business. Moreover, +Ambler, my lad, James knew him and James wasn't the sort to take up with +wrong 'uns. As to the secretary, I can't say. Besides, Fullaway said this +afternoon that he hadn't told her all about it yet." + +"All about the Hull affair and the Lennard affair, I took that to mean +from your account," remarked Appleyard. "If she's his confidential +secretary, with access to his papers and business, she'd know all about +the Princess transaction. Now, of course, an inquiry or two of the usual +sort would satisfy you about Fullaway--I mean as a business man. An +inquiry or two would tell you all about Delkin. But you can't get to know +all about Mrs. Marlow from any inquiry. And you can't find out all about +Fullaway from any inquiry. He may be the straightest business man in all +London--and yet have a finger in this pie, and his secretary with him. +Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth of jewels, Mr. Allerdyke, +is--a temptation! And--these folks knew the jewels were on the way. +What's more, they'd time to intercept their bearer--Mr. James." + +Allerdyke rubbed his chin and knitted his brows in obvious bewilderment. +"There must ha' been more than them in at it," he said musingly. "A +regular gang of 'em, judging by results." + +"Every gang has its ganger," replied Appleyard, with a knowing smile. +"There's no doubt this is a big thing--but there must be a central point, +a head, a controlling authority in it. We come back, you see, after all, +to where we started--these people were the only people in England who +knew about these jewels, so far as we know." + +"Aye, but only so far as we know," said Allerdyke. "There may have been +others. There may have been folks who got to know about them over there +in Russia and who communicated their knowledge to some folks here. And +there's always this to be borne in mind--the affair, the plot, may have +been originated there, and worked from there. Remember that!" + +"Quite so--and you can't decide on anything relating to that until this +Princess comes," agreed Appleyard. "It'll have to rest till you've heard +all she has to say, and then you'll know where you are. But in the +meantime you can find out a bit about Fullaway and this millionaire +man--I can find out for you, if you like, in a few hours." + +"Do, my lad!" said Allerdyke. "It's always well to know who you're +dealing with. Aye--make an inquiry or two." + +"But remember that all I can inquire about will be in the ordinary +business way," continued Appleyard. "I can ascertain if there is a Delkin +in town, who's a Chicago millionaire, and if Fullaway's a reputable +business man--but that'll be all. As to the secretary, I can't do +anything." + +"I'll keep an eye on her myself," said Allerdyke. "Well, do this, then, +and let me know the results. I've put up at the Waldorf, and there I +shall stop while all this is being investigated here in London, but I +shall pop in and out here, of course. And now I'll go back there and find +out if there's any fresh news from the police or from Hull. I reckon +there'll be some fine reading in the newspapers in a day or two, +Ambler--it'll all have to come out now." + +In this supposition Allerdyke was right. The police authorities, finding +that the affair had assumed dimensions of an astonishing magnitude, +decided to seek the aid of the Press, and to publish the entire story in +the fullest possible fashion. And Allerdyke and all London woke next +morning to find the newspapers alive with a new sensation, and every +other man asking his neighbour what it all meant. Three mysterious +murders--two big thefts--together--the newspaper world had known nothing +like it for years, and the only regrets in Fleet Street were those of the +men who would have sacrificed their very noses to have got the story +exclusively to themselves. But the police authorities had exercised a +wise generosity, and no one newspaper knew more than another at that +stage--they all, as Fullaway said to Allerdyke at breakfast, got a fair +start, and from that one could run their own race. + +"We shall be to these Pressmen as a pot of honey to flies," he observed. +"Take my advice, Allerdyke--see none of them, and if you should--as you +will--get buttonholed and held up, refuse to say a word." + +"You can leave that to me," answered Allerdyke, with a twitch of his +determined jaw. "It 'ud be a clever newspaper chap that would get aught +out of me. I've other fish to fry than to talk to these gentry. And what +good will all this newspaper stuff do?" + +"Lots!" replied Fullaway. "It will draw attention. There'll already be a +few thousand amateur detectives looking out for the man who left the +French maid dead in Eastbourne Terrace, and a few hundred amateur +criminologists racking their brains for a plausible theory of the whole +thing. Oh, yes, it's a good thing to arouse public interest, Allerdyke. +All that's wanted now is a rousing reward. Have you thought of that?" + +"Didn't I mention it to the man at Scotland Yard yesterday?" said +Allerdyke. "I'm game to find aught reasonable in the way of brass. But," +he added, with a touch of true Yorkshire caution, "I've been thinking +that over during the night, and it seems to me that there are two other +parties who ought to come in at it, with me, of course. Miss Lennard and +the Princess, d'ye see? If they're willing, I am." + +"You mean a joint reward for the detection of the murderer and the +recovery of the jewels?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Well, you can be pretty certain, by now, that the murders and the thefts +are all the work of one gang," replied Allerdyke. "So it's long as it's +short. These two women want their pearls and their diamonds back--I want +to know who killed my cousin James. We're all three in the same boat, +really; so if we make up a good, substantial purse between us--what?" + +"Good!" agreed Fullaway. "We'll hear what the Princess says when she +arrives to-night. I guess we shall all know better where we exactly are +when we've heard what she has to say." + +"If she's like most women that's lost aught in the way of finery," +remarked Allerdyke drily, "she'll have plenty to say." + +That night he had abundant opportunity of hearing the Princess +Nastirsevitch's views on the situation, freely expressed. He himself +fetched Celia Lennard to the conference at New Scotland Yard; they found +Fullaway and the Princess already there, in full blast of debate. +Allerdyke inspected the new arrival with keen interest and found her a +well-preserved, handsome woman of middle-age, sharp, smart, and American +to the finger-tips. The official whom they had met before was already +questioning her, and for Allerdyke's benefit he repeated what had +already transpired. + +"The Princess affirms, Mr. Allerdyke, that not a soul but herself and +your cousin, Mr. James Allerdyke, knew of this affair," he said. "I am +right, am I not, madame," he went on, turning to the Princess, "in saying +that not one word of this transaction, or proposed transaction, was ever +mentioned by you to any person but Mr. James Allerdyke?" + +"To no other person than Mr. James Allerdyke," assented the Princess +firmly. "It would have been strange conduct on my part, I think, if I had +told anybody else anything about it!--my object, of course, being +secrecy. From the moment I first mentioned it to Mr. James Allerdyke +until I arrived here just now and met Mr. Fullaway there, I never spoke +of the matter to any one!" + +The official looked at Allerdyke as if inviting him to ask any question +that occurred to him, and Allerdyke immediately brought up that which had +been in his mind ever since his discovery of James Allerdyke's +pocket-diary. + +"How came you to repose such confidence in my cousin, ma'am?" he asked +brusquely. "I always thought I was pretty deep in his counsels, but I +never heard him mention your name. Did he know you well?" + +"I had known Mr. James Allerdyke for a little over a year," replied the +Princess. "I met him first in Paris--then on the Riviera--then in +Russia. The fact is, he did some business for me. I had every confidence +in him--the fullest confidence. I knew he was a thoroughly straight man. +And just as I had decided to sell these jewels'--all my own property, +mind--in order to clear off the whole lot of the mortgages on my son's +estate, so's he could come into them quite unencumbered, I happened to +meet Mr. James Allerdyke in St. Petersburg--that's of course, a few weeks +ago--and I immediately took him into my confidence and asked his help. +With the result," added the Princess, "that he cabled to Mr. Fullaway +there and that all this has come about! I tell you in the most emphatic +manner at my command," she went on, turning to the official, and tapping +the edge of his desk as if to accentuate her words, "it's impossible that +anybody over there in Russia could have known of my arrangements with Mr. +James Allerdyke--utterly impossible. For I never spoke of them to any one +there, and I'm sure he would not!" + +"Impossible is a big word, Princess," said the official. "There may have +been ways of leakage. Did you exchange any correspondence on the matter?" + +"Not a line!" replied the Princess. "There was no need. We met three +times and arranged everything. The only correspondence there was--if you +could call it correspondence--was the exchange of cablegrams between Mr. +James Allerdyke and Mr. Fullaway. I saw those cablegrams--of course the +jewels were mentioned. But I don't believe Mr. James Allerdyke was the +sort of man to leave his cablegrams lying around for somebody else to +see. I know he had them in his pocket-book. No!" she went on, with added +emphasis and conviction. "The thing did not start over there, I'm sure. +It's been put up here, in London." + +"Well," observed the official, after a pause, "there's only one thing +more I want to ask you just now, Princess. You gave these immensely +valuable jewels to Mr. James Allerdyke? Did he hand you any receipt +for them?" + +"A receipt which I've got here," answered the Princess, tapping her +hand-bag. "And it's all in his handwriting, and made out in the form of +an inventory--all that was at his suggestion." + +"And how," asked the official, "were the jewels packed when given to +him?" + +"Very simply," said the Princess. "That was his suggestion, too. They +were wrapped up in soft paper and chamois leather, and put into an old +cigar-box which he placed in his small travelling-bag. That bag, he said, +would never go out of his sight until he reached London, where, when he'd +exhibited the jewels to Mr. Fullaway's client, he was to lodge them in a +bank. It seemed to him that the cigar-box was a good notion--the jewels +themselves didn't take up so much room as you might think, and he laid +some very ordinary things over the top of the package--a cake or two of +soap, a sponge, and things like that--so that, supposing the cigar-box +had been opened, its contents would have seemed very ordinary, you +understand?" + +"And yet," said the official softly, "the thieves evidently went +straight for that cigar-box when the critical moment came. Well," he +continued, looking round at his visitors, "I don't know that we can do +more to-night. Is there anything any of you ladies or gentlemen wish +to suggest?" + +"Yes!" said Allerdyke. "In my opinion a most important thing. It's my +decided conviction that in this case we've got to offer a reward--no mere +trifling sum, but one that'll set a few fingers tingling. And it's my +concern, and the Princess's, and Miss Lennard's. And if you'll permit us +three to have a quiet talk in yon corner of your room, I'll tell you its +result when we've finished." + +The result of that quiet talk--chiefly conducted by Allerdyke with +masculine force and vigour--was that by noon of next day the exterior of +every London police-station attracted vast attention by reason of a +freshly-posted bill. It was a long bill, and it set out the surface +particulars of three murders, and of two robberies in connection +therewith. The particulars made interesting reading enough--but the real +fascination of the bill was in its big, staring headline-- + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + +Some time previous to these remarkable events, Marshall Allerdyke, +being constantly in London, and having to spend much time on business +in the Mansion House region, had sought and obtained membership of the +City Carlton Club, in St. Swithin's Lane, and at noon of the day +following the arrival of the Princess Nastirsevitch, he stood in a +window of the smoking-room, looking out for Appleyard, whom he had +asked to lunch. In one hand he carried a folded copy of the reward +bill, which Blindway had left at the Waldorf Hotel for him, and while +he waited--the room being empty just then save for an old gentleman who +read _The Times_ in a far corner--he unfolded and took a surreptitious +glance at it, chuckling to himself at the thought of the cupidity which +its contents and promises would arouse in the breasts of the many +thousands of folk who would read it. + +"Fifty thousand pounds!" he thought, with high amusement. "Egad, some of +'em 'ud feel like Rothschild himself if they could shove that bit in +their pockets--they'd take on all the airs of a Croesus!" + +The thought of the Rothschild wealth made him lift his eyes and glance +through the window at the gate of the quiet, ultra-respectable +establishment across the way. Allerdyke, like all men of considerable +means, had a mighty respect for wealth in its colossal forms, and he +never visited the City Carlton, nor looked out of its smoking-room +windows, without glancing with interest and admiration at the famous +Rothschild offices, immediately opposite. It amused him to speculate and +theorize about the vast amounts of money which must needs be turned over +in theory and practice within those soberly quiet walls, to indulge in +fancies about the secrets, financial and political, which must be +discussed and locked up in human breasts there--to him the magic address, +New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, was as full of potential mystery as the +Sphinx is to an imaginative traveller. He glanced at its gates and at its +sign now with an almost youthful awe and reverence--the reverence of the +man of considerable wealth for the men of enormous wealth--and while his +eyes were thus busy a taxi-cab came along the Lane, stopped by the +entrance to New Court, and set down Mrs. Marlow. + +Allerdyke instinctively shrank back within the curtains of the +smoking-room window. There was no reason why he should have done so. He +had no objection to Franklin Fullaway's secretary seeing him standing in +a window of the City Carlton Club; he knew no reason why Mrs. Marlow +should object to be seen getting out of a cab in St. Swithin's Lane. Yet, +he drew back, and, from his concealed position, watched. Not that there +was anything out of the ordinary to watch. Mrs. Marlow, who looked +daintier, prettier, more charming than ever, paid her driver, gave him a +smiling nod, and tripped into New Court, a bundle of papers in her +well-gloved hand. + +"Business with Rothschild's, eh?" mused Allerdyke. + +"Well, I daresay there's a vast lot of folk in this city who do business +across there. Um!--smart little woman that, and no doubt as clever as +she's smart. I'd like to know--" + +Just then the ancient hall-porter of the club (who surely missed his +vocation in life, and should have been a bishop, or at least a dean) +ushered in Appleyard, whom Allerdyke immediately beckoned to join him +amongst the window-curtains. + +"I say!" he whispered, with a side glance at _The Times_-reading old +gentleman, "you remember me telling you yesterday about the +lady-secretary of Fullaway's--Mrs. Marlow?--what a smart bit she looked +to be. Eh?" + +"Well?" replied Appleyard. "Of course, what about her?" + +"She's just gone into Rothschild's across there," answered Allerdyke. +"Come here, this corner; she'll be coming out before long, no doubt, and +then you'll see her. As I told you about her, I want you to take a look +at her--she's worth seeing for more reasons than one." + +Appleyard allowed himself to be drawn into the embrasure. He waited +patiently and in silence--presently Allerdyke dug a finger into his ribs. + +"She's coming!" he whispered. "Now!" + +Appleyard looked half-carelessly across the street--the next instant he +was devoutly thanking his stars that since boyhood he had sedulously +trained himself to control his countenance. He made no sign, gave no +indication of previous acquaintance, as he watched Mrs. Marlow's svelt +figure trip out of New Court and away up St. Swithin's Lane; his face +was as calm and unemotional, his eyes as steady as ever when he turned +to his employer. + +"Pretty woman," he said. "Looks a sharp 'un, too, Mr. Allerdyke. Well," +he went on, turning away into the room as if Mrs. Marlow no longer +interested him. "I got those two reports for you--shall I tell you about +them now?" + +"Aye, for sure," replied Allerdyke. "Come into this corner--we'll have a +glass of sherry--it's early for lunch yet. Those reports, eh? About +Fullaway and Delkin, you mean?" + +"Just so," said Appleyard, settling himself in the corner of a lounge and +lighting the cigarette which Allerdyke offered him. "They're ordinary +business reports, you know, got through the usual channels. Fullaway's +all right, so far as the various commercial agencies know--nothing ever +been heard against him, anyhow. The account of himself and his business +which he gave to you is quite correct. To sum up--he's a sound man--quite +straight--on the business surface, which is, of course, all we can get +at. As for Delkin, that's a straight story, too--anyway, there's a +Chicago millionaire of that name been in town some weeks--he's stopping +at the Hotel Cecil--has a palatial suite there--and his daughter's about +to marry Lord Hexwater. All correct there, Mr. Allerdyke, too--I mean as +regards all that Fullaway told you." + +"Well, there's something in knowing all that, Ambler, my lad," +answered Allerdyke. "You can't get to know too much about the folks +you're dealing with, you know. Very good--we'll leave that now. What +d'ye think o' this?" + +He unfolded and held up the reward bill, first looking as fondly at it as +a youthful author looks at his first printed performance, and then +glancing at his manager to see what effect it had upon him. And he saw +Ambler Appleyard's sandy eyebrows go up in a definite arch. + +"Fifty thousand!" muttered Appleyard. "Whew! It's a stiff figure, Mr. +Allerdyke. You've put a thick finger in that pie, I'm thinking!" + +"One half from the Princess; twenty thousand from me; five thousand from +the singing lady," whispered Allerdyke. "That's how it's made up, my lad. +And naught'll please me better than to see it paid out--that's a fact!" + +"You'll have some triers," said Appleyard, with an emphatic wag of the +head. "Make no mistake about that! Fifty thousand! Gosh!--why, anybody +that's got the least clue, the slightest idea--and there must be +somebody--'ll have a go in for all he or she's worth!" + +"Let 'em try!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "The welcome man's the chap that +enables us to recover and convict. Here, shove that bill in your pocket, +and read it at your leisure--there's something to think about in what it +says, I promise you." + +Appleyard went away from the club an hour and a half later, thinking hard +enough. But he was not thinking about the reward bill. What he was +thinking about, had been thinking about from the moment in which +Allerdyke had drawn him into the smoking-room window and pointed her out +to him, was--Mrs. Marlow. For Appleyard knew Mrs. Marlow well enough, but +(always those buts in life, he reflected with a cynical laugh as he +threaded his way back to Gresham Street) he knew her by another +name--Miss Slade. And now he was wondering why Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow +had two names, and why she appeared to be one person as he knew her in +private life, and another as he had seen her that very morning. + +On Appleyard's first coming to town in the capacity of sole manager of +the London warehouse of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, he had set +himself up in two rooms in a Bloomsbury lodging-house. He knew little of +London life at that time, or he would have known that he was thus +condemning himself to a drab and dreary existence. As it was, he quickly +learnt by experience, and within six months, having picked up a +comfortable knowledge of things, he transferred himself to one of those +well-equipped boarding establishments in the best part of Bayswater, +wherein bachelors, old maids, young women, widowers, and married couples +without encumbrance, can live together in as much or as little friendship +and intercourse as pleases their individual tastes. Ambler Appleyard took +his time and selected the likeliest place he could find after much +inspection of many similar places. His salary of a thousand a year (to +which was to be added a handsome, if varying commission) enabled him to +pick and choose; the house which he did choose, in the immediate +neighbourhood of Lancaster Gate, was of the luxurious order; its private +rooms were models of the last thing in comfort, its public rooms were +equal to those of the best modern hotels. If you wanted male society, you +could find it in the smoking-room and the billiard-room; if you desired +feminine influences there was a pleasing variety in the drawing-room and +the lounges. You could be just as much alone, and just as much in company +as you pleased--anyway, the place suited Ambler Appleyard, and there he +had lived for two and a half years. And during a good two of them, the +young lady whom he knew as Miss Slade had lived there too. + +With Miss Slade, Appleyard, as fellow-resident in the same house, was on +quite friendly terms. He sometimes talked to her in one of the +drawing-rooms. He knew her for a clever, rather brilliant young woman, +with ideas, and the power to express them. It was evident to him that she +had travelled and had seen a good deal of the world and its men and +women; she could talk politics with far more knowledge and insight than +most women; she knew more than a little of economic matters, and was +inclined, like Appleyard himself, to utilitarianism in all things +affecting government and society. But of herself she never spoke +directly; all Appleyard knew of her concerns was that she was engaged in +business of some nature, and went to it every morning as regularly and +punctually as he went to his. He judged that whatever her business was +she must be well paid for it, or must possess means of her own; nobody, +man or woman, could possibly live at that boarding-house, or private +hotel, as its proprietors preferred to call it, for anything less than +four guineas a week. Well--here was the explanation of Miss Slade's +business; she was evidently private secretary to Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +and competent to do business at a place like Rothschild's. And why +not?--yet ... why did she call herself Miss Slade at the boarding-house +and Mrs. Marlow in her business capacity? + +"And yet why shouldn't she?" asked Appleyard of himself. "A woman's a +right to do what she likes in that way, and she isn't necessarily +deceitful because she passes as a single woman in one place and a widow +in another. I daresay she could give a very good reason for all this--but +who's got any right to ask her for one? Not me, certainly!" + +He had no intention of asking Miss Slade anything when he left the City +for Bayswater that evening, but chance threw him into her immediate +company in one of the lounges, where, after dinner, they met at a table +on which the evening newspapers were laid out. As Miss Slade picked up +one, Appleyard picked up another--certain big, strong letters on the +front sheets of both gave him an opening. + +"Have you read anything about this affair?" he asked, with apparent +carelessness, pointing to a row of capitals. "This extraordinary +murder-robbery business which is becoming the talk of the town? Murders +of three people--theft of nearly three hundred thousand pounds' worth of +jewels--and fifty thousand pounds reward! It's colossal!" + +Miss Slade, without showing the slightest shade of interest, shook her +head. + +"I don't read murders," she answered. "Fifty thousand pounds reward! +That's an awful lot, isn't it?" + +"Worth trying for, anyway!" replied Appleyard. He gave her a sly look, +and smiled grimly. "I think I'll try for it," he said. "Fifty thousand!" + +"How could any one try unless he or she's some clue?" she asked. "If you +don't know anything about it, or any of the persons concerned, where +would you begin?" + +"There are plenty of persons named in these accounts about whom one could +find something out, at any rate," replied Appleyard, tapping the +newspaper with his finger. "There's a Russian Princess with a sneezy sort +of name; a Yorkshire manufacturer named Allerdyke; an American man called +Franklin Fullaway--all seem to be well-known people in town. You ever +hear of any of them?" + +Miss Slade turned a face of absolute indifference on him and the paper to +which he was pointing. + +"Never," she answered calmly. "But I daresay I shall hear of them +now--for nine days." + +Then she went off, with her own newspaper, and Appleyard carried his to a +corner and sat down. + +"That's a lie!" he said to himself. "And a woman who will tell a lie as +calmly and quietly as that will tell a thousand with equal assurance and +cleverness. She--" + +There he stopped. In the doorway Miss Slade had also stopped--stopped to +speak to another resident, a man, about whom Ambler Appleyard had often +wondered as keenly as he was now wondering about Miss Slade herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MR. GERALD RAYNER + + +There were various reasons why Ambler Appleyard's wonder had often been +aroused by the man to whom Miss Slade had stopped to speak. He wondered +about him, first of all, because of his personal appearance. That was +striking enough to excite wonder in anybody, for he was one of those +remarkable men who possess great beauty of countenance allied to +unfortunate deformity of body. The face was that of a poet and a +dreamer, the body that of a hunchback and a cripple. Painter or +sculptor alike would have rejoiced to depict the face on canvas or +carve it in marble--its perfect shape, fine tinting, the lines of the +features, the beauty of the eyes, the wealth of the dark, clustering +hair, were all as near artistic perfection as could be. But all else +spoke of deformity--the badly bent back, the twisted body, the short +leg, the misshapen foot. It was as if Nature had endeavoured in some +wickedly mischievous freak to show how beauty and ugliness can be +combined in one creature. + +That was one reason for wonder in Appleyard's mind--he had never come +across quite this type before, though he knew that hunchbacks and +cripples are often gifted with unusual strength, and more than usual good +looks, as if in ironic compensation for their other disadvantages. But +there were others. Mr. Gerald Rayner--everybody knew everybody else's +name in that private hotel, for they were all more or less permanent +residents--was something of a mystery man. In spite of his deformity, he +was the best-dressed man in the house--they were all smart men there, but +none of them came up to him in the way of clothes, linen, and personal +adornment, always in the best and most cultured taste. Also it was easy +to gather that he was a young man of large means. Although he made full +use of the public rooms, and was always in and about them of an evening, +from dinner-time to a late hour, he tenanted a private suite of +apartments in the hotel--those residents, few in number, who had been +privileged to obtain entrance to them spoke with almost awed admiration +of their occupant's books, pictures, and objects of art. Mr. Gerald +Rayner, it was evident, was a man of culture--that, indeed, was shown by +his conversation. And at first Appleyard had set him down as a poet, or +an artist, or a writing man of some sort--a dilettante who possessed +private means. Then, being a sharp observer of all that went on around +his own centre, he began to perceive that he must be mistaken in +that--Rayner was obviously a business man, like himself. For every +morning, at precisely half-past nine, a smart motor-brougham arrived at +the door of the private hotel and carried Rayner off Citywards; every +afternoon at exactly half-past five the same conveyance brought him back. +Only business men, said Appleyard, are so regular, so punctual; therefore +Rayner must be a business man. + +But nobody in that hotel knew anything whatever of Rayner, beyond what +they saw of him within its walls. Nobody knew whither the motor-brougham +carried him, what he did when he reached his destination, nobody knew +what or who he was. Appleyard, who was always knocking about the heart of +the City, who was for ever in its business streets, who knew all the City +clubs, all the best City restaurants, and was familiar with all sorts +and shades of life in the City, never saw Rayner in any of his own +purlieus. Accordingly, he came to the conclusion that Rayner's business, +whatever it was, did not take him to the City. Nevertheless, it was +certain, in Appleyard's opinion, that he was in business, and paid +scrupulous attention to his daily duties. + +Over the edge of his newspaper he watched Rayner and Miss Slade meet, +exchange a word or two, and retire to a corner of an inner lounge in +which they often sat talking together. He had often seen them talking +together, and it had struck him that they seemed to talk with more than +ordinary confidence. The hunchback was on terms of easy familiarity with +everybody in the house, and he had a remarkable range of topics. He could +talk sport, books, finance, politics, art, science, history, +theology--the variety of his conversation was astonishing. But Appleyard +had begun to notice that he rarely talked to any single person with the +exception of Miss Slade--he would join a group in smoking-room or +drawing-room and enter gaily into whatever was being discussed, but he +seemed to have no desire to hold a _tête-a-tête_ talk with any one except +this young woman, who was now as much an object of mystery and +speculation to Appleyard as he himself was. They were often seen talking +together in quiet corners--and some of the old maids and eligible widows +were already saying that Miss Slade was setting her cap at Mr. Rayner's +evident deep purse. + +Ambler Appleyard went to bed that night wondering greatly about two +matters--first, why Miss Slade was Miss Slade in Bayswater and Mrs. +Marlow at Fullaway's office; second, if Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow, +whichever she really was, had any secrets with the mysterious Mr. +Rayner. From that he got to wondering who Rayner really was, and what +his business was. And this process of speculation began again next +morning, and continued all the way to the Gresham Street warehouse, +and by the time he had arrived there he had half-determined to find +out more about Miss Slade than was known to him up to then--and also, +since he appeared to be such great friends with Miss Slade, about Mr. +Gerald Rayner. + +"But how?" he mused as he ran up the steps to the warehouse. "I'm not a +private detective, and I don't propose to employ one. If I knew some +sharp fellow--" + +Just then he caught sight of Gaffney, who sat on a bale of goods within +the warehouse door, holding a note in his hand. He stood up with a grin +of friendly recognition when he saw Appleyard. + +"Morning, sir," he said. "Letter from Mr. Allerdyke for you. No answer, +but I was to wait till you'd read it." + +Appleyard opened the note there and then. It was a mere hurried scrawl, +saying that Allerdyke was just setting off for Hull, in obedience to a +call from the police; as Gaffney had nothing to do, would Appleyard make +use of him during Allerdyke's absence? + +Appleyard bade Gaffney wait a while, went into his office, ran through +his correspondence, gave the morning's orders out to the warehouseman, +and called the chauffeur inside. + +"Gaffney," he said as he carefully closed the door on them, "you're a +Londoner, aren't you?" + +Gaffney smiled widely. + +"Ought to be, Mr. Appleyard," he answered. "I was born within sound of +Bow Bells, anyhow. Off Aldersgate Street, sir. Yes, I'm a Cockney, +right enough." + +"Then you know London well, of course," suggested Appleyard. + +"Never went out of it much, sir, till I went down to Bradford to this +present job," replied Gaffney. "I shouldn't have left it if Mr. Allerdyke +hadn't given me extra good wages and a real good place." + +Appleyard tossed Allerdyke's note across his desk. + +"You see what Mr. Allerdyke says," he remarked. "Wants me to find you +something to do while he's off. How long is he likely to be off?" + +"He said he might be back to-morrow night, sir," answered Gaffney, +glancing at the note. "But possibly not till the day after to-morrow." + +"Well, I don't know that there's anything you can do here," said +Appleyard. "We're not particularly busy, and we've a full staff. But," he +continued, with a sharp glance at the chauffeur, "there's something you +can do for me, privately, to-morrow morning--a quite private matter--a +matter entirely between ourselves. I'll account to Mr. Allerdyke for your +time, but I don't want even him to know about this job that you can do +for me--I'll pay you for doing it out of my own pocket." + +"Just as you think right, sir," answered Gaffney. "So long as you make it +right with the guv'nor, I'm willing." + +"Very well," said Appleyard. He paused a moment, and then lowered his +voice. "You've seen about this tremendous reward that's being offered in +Mr. James Allerdyke's case?" he asked, with another sharp look. "You know +what I mean?" + +Gaffney's shrewd face grew shrewder, and he nodded knowingly. + +"I know!" he said. "Fifty thousand! A fortune, sir!" + +"What I want you to do," continued Appleyard, "may lead to something +relating to that, and it mayn't. Anyway, I'll make you all right. Now, +listen carefully. Do you think you could get hold of a private motor +to-morrow morning? A smart, private cab in which you could put a friend +of yours--well dressed--would be the thing. Early." + +"Easy as winking, sir," answered Gaffney. "Know the cab, and know a +friend o'mine who'd sit in it--as long as you like." + +"Very good," said Appleyard. "Now, then, do you know Lancaster Gate?" + +"Do I know St. Paul's?" exclaimed Gaffney, half-derisively. "Used to +drive for an old gent who lived in Porchester Terrace." + +"Oh!" replied Appleyard. "Then I daresay you know the Pompadour +Private Hotel?" + +"As well as I know my own fingers," responded Gaffney. "Driven to and +from it many a hundred times." + +"Just the man I want, then," continued Appleyard. "Now, to-morrow +morning, get your cab early--put your friend in it--dressed up, of +course--and at half-past nine to the very minute drive slowly past the +front door of the Pompadour. You'll see a private motor-brougham +there--dark green--you'll also see a hunchbacked gentleman enter it--you +can't mistake him. Follow him! Never mind where he goes, or how long it +takes to get there--or how few minutes it takes to get there, for that +matter!--follow him and find out where that private cab puts him down. +Then--come and report to me. Is that all clear?" + +"Clear as noonday, sir," answered Gaffney. "I understand--I've been at +that sort of game more than once." + +"All right," said Appleyard. "I leave it to you. Take every care--I +don't want this man to get the least suspicion that he's followed. +And--" He hesitated, considering his plans over again. "Yes," he went +on, "there's just another detail that I may mention--it'll save time. +This hunchback gentleman's name is Rayner--Mr. Gerald Rayner. Can you +remember it?" + +"As well as my own," answered Gaffney. "Mr. Gerald Rayner. I've got it." + +"Very good. Now, then, can you trust this friend of yours?" asked +Appleyard. "Is he a chap of common sense?" + +"It's my own brother," replied Gaffney. "Some people say I'm the sharper +of the two, some say he is. There's a pair of us, anyhow." + +"That'll do," said Appleyard. "Now, wherever you see this Mr. Rayner set +down, let your brother get out of your cab and take particular notice if +he goes into any shop, office, flats, buildings, anything of that sort +which bears his name--Rayner. D'you see? I want to know what his business +is. And now that you know what I want, you and your brother put your +heads together and try to find it out, and come to me when you've done, +and I'll make it worth your while. You'd better go now and make your +arrangements." + +Gaffney went away, evidently delighted with his commission, and Appleyard +turned to his business of the day, wondering if he was not going to waste +the chauffer's time and his own money. Next morning he purposely hung +about the Pompadour until the time for Rayner's departure arrived; from +one of the front windows he saw the hunchback enter his brougham and +drive away; at the same moment he saw a neat private cab, driven by +Gaffney, and occupied by a smart-looking young gentleman in a silk hat, +come along and follow in quite an ordinary and usual manner. And on that +he himself went to Gresham Street and waited. + +Gaffney and his brother turned in during the morning, both evidently +primed with news. Appleyard shut himself into his office with them. + +"Well?" he asked. + +"Easy job, Mr. Appleyard," replied Gaffney. "Drove straight through the +Park, Constitution Hill, the Mall, Strand, to top of Arundel Street. +There he got out; brougham went off--back--he walked down street. So my +brother here he got out too, and strolled down street after him. He'll +tell you the rest, sir." + +"Just as plain as what he's told," said the other Gaffney. "I followed +him down the street; he walked one side, I t'other side. He went into +Clytemnestra House--one of those big houses of business flats and +offices--almost at the bottom. I waited some time to see if he was +settled like, or if it was only a call he was making. Then I went into +the hall of Clytemnestra House, as if I was looking for somebody. There +are two boards in that hall with the names of tenants painted on 'em. But +there's not that name--Gerald Rayner. Still, I'll tell you what there is, +sir--there's a name that begins with the same initials--G.R." + +"What name?" asked Appleyard. + +"The name," replied the second Gaffney, "is Gavin Ramsay--Agent." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PHOTOGRAPH + + +Allerdyke went off to Hull, post-haste, because of a telephone call which +roused him out of bed an hour before his usual time. It came from +Chettle, the New Scotland Yard man who had been sent down to Hull as soon +as the news of Lydenberg's murder arrived. Chettle asked Allerdyke to +join him by the very next express, and to come alone; he asked him, +moreover, not to tell Mr. Franklin Fullaway whither he was bound. And +Allerdyke, having taken a quick glance at a time-table, summoned Gaffney, +told him of his journey, bade him keep his tongue quiet at the Waldorf, +wrote his hasty note to Appleyard, dressed, and hurried away to King's +Cross. He breakfasted on the train, and was in Hull by one o'clock, and +Chettle hailed him as he set foot on the platform, and immediately led +him off to a cab which awaited them outside the station. + +"Much obliged to you for coming so promptly, Mr. Allerdyke," said the +detective. "And for coming by yourself--that was just what I wanted." + +"Aye, and why?" asked Allerdyke. "Why by myself? I've been wondering +about that all the way down." + +Chettle, a sleek, comfortable-looking man, with a quiet manner and a sly +glance, laughed knowingly, twiddling his fat thumbs as he leaned back in +the cab. "Oh, well, it doesn't do--in my opinion--to spread information +amongst too many people, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "That's my notion of +things, anyway. I just wanted to go into a few matters with you, alone, +d'ye see? I didn't want that American gentleman along with you. Eh?" + +"Now, why?" asked Allerdyke. "Out with it!" + +"Well, you see, Mr. Allerdyke," answered the detective, "we know you. +You're a man of substance, you've got a big stake in the country--you're +Allerdyke, of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Bradford and London. But +we don't know Fullaway. He may be all right, but you could only call him +a bird of passage, like. He can close down his business and be away out +of England to-morrow, and, personally, I don't believe in letting him +into every secret about all this affair until we know more about him. You +see, Mr. Allerdyke, there's one thing very certain--so far as we've +ascertained at present, nobody but Fullaway, and possibly whoever's in +his employ, was acquainted with the fact that your cousin was carrying +those jewels from Russia to England. Nobody in this country, at any rate. +And--it's a thing of serious importance, sir." + +Just what Appleyard had said!--what, indeed, no one of discernment could +help saying, thought Allerdyke. The sole knowledge, of course, was with +Fullaway and his lady clerk--so far as was known. Therefore-- + +"Just so," he said aloud. "I see your point--of course, I've already seen +it. Well, what are we going to do--now? You've brought me down here for +something special, no doubt." + +"Quite so, sir," answered Chettle composedly. "I want to draw your +attention to some very special features and to ask you certain questions +arising out of 'em. We'll take things in order, Mr. Allerdyke. We're +driving now to the High Street--I want to show you the exact spot where +Lydenberg was shot dead. After that we'll go to the police-station and +I'll show you two or three little matters, and we'll have a talk about +them. And now, before we get to the High Street, I may as well tell you +that on examining Lydenberg's body very little was found in the way of +papers--scarcely anything, and nothing connecting him with your cousin's +affair--in fact, the police here say they never saw a foreign gentleman +with less on him in that way. But in the inside pocket of his overcoat +there was a postcard, which had been posted here in Hull. Here it +is--and you'll see that it was the cause of taking him to the spot where +he was shot." + +Chettle took from an old letter-case an innocent-looking postcard, on one +corner of which was a stain. + +"His blood," he remarked laconically. "He was shot clean through the +heart. Well, you see, it's a mere line." + +Allerdyke took the card and looked at it with a mingled feeling of +repulsion and fascination. The writing on it was thin, angular, upright, +and it suggested foreign origin. And the communication was brief--and +unsigned-- + +"High Street morning eleven sharp left-hand side old houses." + +"You don't recognize that handwriting, of course, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked +Chettle. "Never seen it before, I suppose?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. "Never. But I should say it's a foreigner's." + +"Very likely," assented Chettle. "Aye, well, sir, it lured the man to his +death. And now I'll show you where he died, and how easy it was for the +murderer to kill him and get away unobserved." + +He pulled the cab up at the corner of the High Street, and turned +southward towards the river, looking round at his companion with one of +his sly smiles. + +"I daresay that you, being a Yorkshireman, Mr. Allerdyke, know all about +this old street," he remarked as they walked forward. "I never saw it, +never heard of it, until the other day, when I was sent down on this +Lydenberg business, but it struck me at once. I should think it's one of +the oldest streets left in England." + +"It is," answered Allerdyke. "I know it well enough, and I've seen it +changed. It used to be the street of the old Hull merchants--they had +their houses and warehouses all combined, with gardens at the back +running down to the river Hull. Queer old places there used to be in this +street, I can tell you when I was a lad!--of late years they've pulled a +lot of property down that had got what you might call thoroughly +worm-eaten--oh, yes, the place isn't half as ancient or picturesque as it +was even twenty years ago!" + +"There's plenty of the ancient about it still, for all that," observed +Chettle, with a dry laugh. "There was more than enough of it for +Lydenberg the other day, at any rate. Now, then, you remember what it +said on the postcard--he was to walk down the High Street, on the +left-hand side, at eleven o'clock? Very well--down the High Street he +walks, on this side which we are now--he strolls along, by these old +houses, looking about him, of course, for the person he was to meet. The +few people who were about down here that morning, and who saw him, said +that he was looking about from side to side. And all of a sudden a shot +rang out, and Lydenberg fell--just here--right on this very pavement." + +He pulled Allerdyke up in a narrow part of the old street, jointed to +the flags, and then to the house behind them--an ancient, ramshackle +place, the doors and windows of which were boarded up, the entire fabric +of which showed unmistakable readiness for the pick and shovel of the +house-breaker. And he laid a hand on one of the shattered windows, close +by a big hole in the decaying wood. + +"There's no doubt the murderer was hidden behind this shutter, and that +he fired at Lydenberg from it, through this hole," he said. "So, you see, +he'd only be a few feet from his man. He was evidently a good shot, and a +fellow of resolute nerve, for he made no mistake. He only fired once, but +he shot Lydenberg clean through the heart, dead!" + +"Anybody see it happen?" asked Allerdyke, staring about him at the scene +of the tragedy, and thinking how very ordinary and commonplace everything +looked. "I suppose there'd be people about, though the street, at this +end, anyway, isn't as busy as it once was?" + +"Several people saw him fall," answered Chettle. + +"They say he jumped, spun round, and fell across the pavement. And they +all thought it was a case of suicide. That, of course, gave the murderer +a bigger and better chance of making off. You see, as these people saw no +assailant, it never struck 'em that the shot had been fired from behind +this window. When they collected their thoughts, found it wasn't suicide, +and realized that it was murder, the murderer was--Lord knows where! From +behind these old houses, Mr. Allerdyke, there's a perfect rabbit-warren +of alleys, courts, slums, twists, and turns! The man could slip out at +the back, go left or right, mix himself up with the crowd on the quays +and wharves, walk into the streets, go anywhere--all in a minute or two." + +"Clever--very clever! You've no clue?" asked Allerdyke. + +"None; not a scrap!" replied the detective. "Bless you, there's score of +foreigners knocking about Hull. Scores! Hundreds! We've done all we can, +the local police and myself--we've no clue whatever. But, of course, it +was done by one of the gang." + +"By one of the gang!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Ah you've got a theory of +your own, then?" + +Chettle laughed quietly as they turned and retraced their steps up +the street. + +"It 'ud be queer if I hadn't, by this time," he answered. "Oh yes, I've +thought things out pretty well, and I should say our people at the Yard +have come to the same conclusion that I have--I'm not conceited enough, +Mr. Allerdyke, to fancy that I'm the only person who's arrived at a +reasonable theory, not I?" + +"Well--what is your theory?" asked Allerdyke. + +"This," replied the detective. "The whole thing, the theft of the +Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels from your cousin, of Miss de Longarde's +or Lennard's jewels, was the work of a peculiarly clever gang--though it +may be of an individual--who made use of both Lydenberg and the French +maid as instruments, and subsequently murdered those two in order to +silence them forever. I say it may be the work of an individual--it's +quite possible that the man who killed the Frenchwoman is also the man +who shot Lydenberg--but it may be the work of one, two, or three separate +persons, acting in collusion. I believe that Lydenberg was the actual +thief of the Princess's jewels from your cousin; that the Frenchwoman +actually stole her mistress's jewels. But as to how it was worked--as to +who invented and carried out the whole thing--ah!" + +"And to that--to the real secret of the whole matter--we haven't the +ghost of a clue!" muttered Allerdyke. "That's about it, eh?" + +Chettle laughed--a sly, suggestive laugh. He gave his companion one of +his half-apologetic looks. + +"I'm not so sure, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "We may have--and that's why I +wanted to see you by yourself. Come round to the police-station." + +In a quiet room in the usual drab and dismal atmosphere which Allerdyke +was beginning to associate with police affairs, Chettle produced the +personal property of the dead man, all removed, he said, from the Station +Hotel, for safe keeping. + +"There's little to go on, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, pointing to one +article after another. "You'll remember that the man represented himself +as being a Norwegian doctor, who had come to Hull on private business. He +may have been that--we're making inquiries about him in Christiania, +where he hailed from. According to those who're in a position to speak, +his clothing, linen, boots, and so on are all of the sort you'd get in +that country. But he'd no papers on him to show his business, no private +letters, no documents connecting him with Hull in any way: he hadn't even +a visiting-card. He'd a return ticket--from Hull to Christiania--and he'd +plenty of money, English and foreign. When I got down here, I helped the +local police to go through everything--we even searched the linings of +his clothing and ripped his one handbag to pieces. But we've found no +more than I've said. However--I've found something. Nobody knows that +I've found it. I haven't told the people here--I haven't even reported +it to headquarters in London. I wanted you to see it before I spoke of it +to a soul. Look here!" + +Chettle opened a square cardboard box in which certain personal effects +belonging to Lydenberg had been placed--one or two rings, a pocket-knife, +his purse and its contents, a cigar-case, his watch and chain. He took up +the watch, detached it from the chain, and held it towards Allerdyke, who +was regarding these proceedings with intense curiosity. + +"You see this watch, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "It's a watch of foreign +make--Swiss--and it's an old one, a good many years old, I should say. +Consequently, it's a bit what we might call massive. Now, I was looking +at it yesterday--late last night, in fact--and an idea suddenly struck +me. In consequence of that idea, I opened the back of the watch, and +discovered--that!" + +He snapped open the case of the watch as he spoke and showed Allerdyke, +neatly cut out to a circle, neatly fitted into the case, a +photograph--the photograph of James Allerdyke! And Allerdyke started as +if he had been shot, and let out a sharp exclamation. + +"My God!" he cried. "James! James, by all that's holy--and in there!" + +"You recognize it, of course?" said Chettle, with a grim smile. "No doubt +of it, eh?" + +"Doubt! Recognize!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Lord, man--why, I took it +myself, not two months ago!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DEFINITE SUSPICION + + +Chettle laughed--a low, suggestive, satisfied chuckle. He laid the watch, +its case still open, on the table at which they were standing, and tapped +the photograph with the point of his finger. + +"That may be the first step to the scaffold--for somebody," he said, with +a meaning glance. "Ah--it's extraordinary what little, innocent-looking +things help to put a bit of rope round a man's neck! So you took this, +Mr. Allerdyke?--took it yourself, you say?" + +"Took it myself, some eight or nine weeks ago," answered Allerdyke. "I +took it in my garden one Sunday afternoon when my cousin James happened +to be there. I do a bit in that way--amusement, you know. I just chanced +to have a camera in my hand, and I saw James in a very favourable light +and position, and I snapped him. And it was such a good 'un when +developed that I printed off a few copies." + +The detective's face became anxious. + +"How many, now?" he asked. "How many, Mr. Allerdyke? I hope you can +remember?--it's a point of the utmost seriousness." + +"Naught easier," answered Allerdyke readily. "I've a good memory for +little things as well as big 'uns. I printed off four copies. One of 'em +I pasted into an album in which I keep particularly good photographs of +my own taking; the other three I gave to him--he put 'em in his +pocket-book." + +"All unmounted--like this?" asked Chettle. + +"All unmounted--like that," affirmed Allerdyke. "And now, then, since it +seems to be a matter of importance, I can tell you what James did with at +any rate two of 'em. He gave one to our cousin Grace--Mrs. Henry +Mallins--a Bradford lady. He gave another to a friend of my own, another +amateur photographer, Wilson Firth--gave him it in my presence at the +Midland Hotel one day, when we were all three having a cigar together in +the smoking-room there. Wilson Firth's a bit of a rival of mine in the +amateur photographic line--we each try to beat the other, you understand. +Now, then, James pulled one of these snapshots out and handed it over to +Wilson with a laugh. 'There,' he says, 'that's our Marshall's latest +performance--you'll have a job to do aught better than that, Wilson, my +lad,' he says. So that accounts for two. And--this is the third!" + +"And the question, Mr. Allerdyke, the big question--a most important +question!--is, how did it come into this man Lydenberg's possession?" +said the detective anxiously. "If we can find that out--" + +"I've been thinking," interrupted Allerdyke. "There's this about it, you +know: James and this Lydenberg came over together from Christiania to +Hull in the _Perisco_. They talked to one another--that's certain. James +may have given it to Lydenberg. But the thing is--is that likely?" + +"No!" replied Chettle, with emphatic assurance. "No, sir! And I'll tell +you why. If your cousin had given this photo to Lydenberg, as he might, +of course, have given it to a mere passing acquaintance, because that +acquaintance took a fancy to it, or something of that sort, Lydenberg +would in all reasonable probability have just slipped in into his +pocket-book, or put it loose amongst his letters and papers. But, as we +see, however Lydenberg became possessed of this photo, he took unusual +pains and precautions about it. You see, he cut it down, most carefully +and neatly, to fit into the cover of his watch--he took the trouble to +carry it where no one else would see it, but where he could see it +himself at a second's notice--he'd nothing to do but to snap open that +cover. No, sir, your cousin didn't give that photo to Lydenberg. That +photo was sent to Lydenberg, Mr. Allerdyke--sent! And it was sent for one +purpose only. What? That he should be able to identify Mr. James +Allerdyke as soon as he set eyes on him!" + +Allerdyke nodded his head--in complete understanding and affirmation. He +was thinking the same thing--thinking, too, that here was at least a +clue, a real tangible clue. + +"Aye!" he said. "I agree with you. Then, of course, the one and only +thing to do is--" + +"To find out who the person was that your cousin gave this particular +print to!" said Chettle eagerly. "Of course, it's a big field. So far as +I understand things, he'd been knocking round a good bit between the time +of your taking this photo and his death. He'd been in London, hadn't he? +And in Russia--in two or three places. How can we find out when and how +he parted with this? For give it to somebody he did, and that somebody +was a person who knew of the jewel transaction, and employed Lydenberg in +it, and sent the photo to Lydenberg so that he should know your cousin by +sight--at once. Mr. Allerdyke, the secret of these murders and thefts +is--there!" + +Chettle replaced the watch in the cardboard box from which he had taken +it, produced a bit of sealing-wax from his pocket, sealed up the box, and +put it and the other things belonging to Lydenberg back in the small +trunk from which he had withdrawn them to show his companion. And +Allerdyke watched him in silence, wondering and speculating about this +new development. + +"What do you want me to do?" he asked suddenly. "You've got some scheme, +of course, or you wouldn't have got me down here alone." + +"Just so," agreed Chettle. "I have a scheme--and that's why I did get you +down here alone. Mr. Allerdyke, you're a sharp, shrewd man--all you +Yorkshiremen are!--at least, all that I've ever come across. You're good +hands at ferreting things out. Now, Mr. Allerdyke, let's be +plain--there's no two ways about it, no doubt whatever of it, the only +people in England that we're aware of who knew about this Nastirsevitch +jewel transaction are--Fullaway and whoever he has in his employ! We +know of nobody else--unless, indeed, it's the Chicago millionaire, +Delkin, and he's not very likely to have wanted to go in for a job of +this sort. No, sir--Fullaway is the suspected person, in my +opinion!--though I'm going to take precious good care to keep that +opinion to myself yet awhile, I can tell you. Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke, +Fullaway!" + +"Well?" demanded Allerdyke. "And so--" + +"And so I want you to use your utmost ingenuity to find out if your +cousin James gave that photo to Fullaway," continued Chettle. "We know +very well that he was in touch with Fullaway before he went off to +Russia--I have it in my notes that when Fullaway came to see you here in +Hull, at the Station Hotel, the day of your cousin's death, he told you +that he and Mr. James Allerdyke had been doing business for a couple of +years, and that they'd last met in London about the end of March, just +before your cousin set off on his journey to Russia. Is that correct?" + +"Quite correct--to the letter," answered Allerdyke. + +"Very well," said Chettle. "Now, according to you, that 'ud be not so +very long after you took that snapshot of your cousin? So, he'd probably +have the third print of it--the one we've just been looking at--on him +when he was in London at that time?" + +"Very likely," assented Allerdyke. + +"Then," said Chettle with great eagerness, "try, Mr. Allerdyke, try your +best and cleverest to find out if he gave it to Fullaway. You can +think--you with a sharp brain!--of some cunning fashion of finding that +out. What?" + +"I don't know," replied Allerdyke, slowly and doubtfully. He possessed +quite as much ingenuity as Chettle credited him with, but his own +resourcefulness in that direction only inclined him to credit other men +with the possession of just the same faculty. "I don't know about that. +If James did give that print to Fullaway, and if Fullaway made use of it +as you think, Fullaway'll be far too cute ever to let on that it was +given to him. See!" + +"I see that--been seeing it all through," answered Chettle. "All the +same, there's ways and means. Think of something--you know Fullaway a bit +by this time. Try it!" + +"Oh, I'll try it, you bet!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "I'll try it for all +it's worth, and as cleverly as I can. In fact, I've already thought of a +plan, and if you don't want me any more just now, I'll go to the +post-office and send off a telegram that's something to do with it." + +"Nothing more now, sir," answered Chettle. "But look here--you're not +going back to town to-night?" + +"Why, that's just what I meant to do," replied Allerdyke. "There's naught +to stop here for, is there?" + +"I'm expecting a message from the Christiania police some time this +afternoon or evening," said Chettle. "I cabled to them yesterday making +full inquiries about Lydenberg--he represented himself here, to Dr. Orwin +and the police-surgeons especially, as being a medical man in practice in +Christiania, who had come across to Hull on some entirely private family +business. Now, we've made the most exhaustive inquiries here in +Hull--there isn't a soul in the town knows anything whatever of +Lydenberg! I'm as certain as I am that I see you that he'd no business +here at all--except to kill and rob your cousin. And so, of course, we +want to know if he really was what he said he was, over there. I pressed +upon the Christiania police to let me know all they could within +thirty-six hours. So if you'll stop the night here, I'll likely be able +to show you their reply to me." + +"Right!" answered Allerdyke. "I'll put up at the Station Hotel. You come +and have your dinner with me there at seven o'clock." + +"Much obliged, Mr. Allerdyke," replied Chettle. "I'll come." + +Then Allerdyke went off to the General Post Office and sent a telegram to +his housekeeper in Bradford-- + +"Send off at once by registered parcel post to me at Waldorf Hotel, +London, the morocco-bound photograph album lying on right-hand corner of +my writing-desk in the library.--MARSHALL ALLERDYKE." + +He went out of the post-office laughing cynically. Bit by bit things +were coming out, he said to himself as he strolled away towards the +hotel; link after link the chain was being forged. But around whom, in +the end, was it going to be fastened? It was the first time in his life +that he had ever been brought face to face with crime, and the seeking +out of the criminal was beginning to fascinate him. + +"Egad, it's a queer business!" he muttered. "A thread here, a thread +there!--Heaven knows what it'll all come to. But this Chettle's a good +'un--he's like to do things." + +Chettle joined him in the smoking-room of the hotel at a quarter to +seven, and immediately produced a telegram. + +"Came half an hour ago," he said as they sat down in a corner. "Nobody +but myself seen it up to now. And--it's just what I expected. Read it." + +Allerdyke slowly read the message through, pondering over it-- + +"We have made fullest inquiries concerning Lydenberg. He was certainly +not in practice here either under that or any other name. Nothing is +known of him as a resident in this city. We have definitely ascertained +that he came to Christiania from Copenhagen, by land, via Lund and +Copenhagen, arriving Christiania May 7th, and that he left here by +steamship _Perisco_ for Hull, May 10th." + +"You notice the dates?" observed Chettle. "May 7th and 10th. Now, it was +on May 8th that your cousin wired to Fullaway from Christiania, Mr. +Allerdyke--there's no doubt about it! This man, Lydenberg, whoever he is +or was, was sent to waylay your cousin at Christiania--sent from London. +I've worked it out--he went overland--Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, +Sweden, Norway. Sounds a lot--but it's a quick journey. Sir--he was sent! +And the sooner we find out about that photograph the better." + +"I'm at work," answered Allerdyke. "Leave it to me." + +He found his morocco-bound photograph album awaiting him when he arrived +at the Waldorf Hotel next day, and during the afternoon he took it in his +hand and strolled quietly and casually into Franklin Fullaway's rooms. +Everything there looked as he had always seen it--Mrs. Marlow, charming +as ever, was tapping steadily at her typewriter: Fullaway, himself a +large cigar in his mouth, was reading the American newspapers, just +arrived, in his own sanctum. He greeted Allerdyke with enthusiasm. + +"Been away since yesterday, eh?" he said, after warm greetings. "Home?" + +"Aye, I've been down to Yorkshire," responded Allerdyke offhandedly. "One +or two things I wanted to see to, and some things I wanted to get. This +is one of 'em." + +"Family Bible?" inquired Fullaway, eyeing the solemnly bound album. + +"No. Photos," answered Allerdyke. He was going to test things at once, +and he opened the book at the fateful page. "I'm a bit of an amateur +photographer," he went on, with a laugh. "Here's what's probably the last +photo ever taken of James. What d'ye think of it?" + +Fullaway glanced at the photograph, all unconscious that his caller was +watching him as he had never been watched in his life. He waved his cigar +at the open page. + +"Oh!" he said airily. "A remarkably good likeness--wonderful! I said so +when I saw it before--excellent likeness, Allerdyke, excellent! Couldn't +be beaten by a professional. Excellent!" + +Marshall Allerdyke felt his heart beating like a sledgehammer as he put +his next question, and for the life of him he could not tell how he +managed to keep his voice under control. + +"Ah!" he said. "You've seen it before, then? James show it to you?" + +Fullaway nodded towards the door of the outer room, from which came the +faint click of the secretary's machine. + +"He gave one to Mrs. Marlow the very last time he was here." he answered. +"They were talking about amateur photography, and he pulled a print of +that out of his pocket and made her a present of it; said it couldn't be +beaten. You're a clever hand, Allerdyke--most lifelike portrait I ever +saw. Well--any news?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LATE CALL + + +It was with a mighty effort of will that Allerdyke controlled himself +sufficiently to be able to answer Fullaway's question with calmness. This +was for him a critical moment. He knew now to whom James Allerdyke had +given the photograph which Chettle had found concealed in Lydenberg's +watch; knew that the recipient was sitting close by him, separated only +from him by a wall and a door; knew that between her and Lydenberg, or +those who had been in touch with Lydenberg, there must be some strange, +secret, and sinister connection. From Mrs. Marlow to Lydenberg that +photograph had somehow passed, and, as Chettle had well said, the entire +problem of the murders and thefts was mixed up in its transference. All +that was certain--what seemed certain, too, was that Fullaway knew +nothing of these things, and was as innocent as he himself. And for the +fraction of a second he was half-minded to tell all he knew to Fullaway +there and then--and it was only by a still stronger effort of will that +he restrained his tongue, determined to keep a stricter silence than +ever, and replied to the American in an offhand, casual tone. + +"News?" he said, with a half-laugh. "Nay, not that I know of. They take +their time, those detective chaps. You heard aught?" + +"Nothing particular," answered Fullaway. "Except that the Princess was in +here this morning, and that Miss Lennard came at the same time. But +neither of them had anything of importance to tell. The Princess has been +ransacking her memory all about her affairs with your cousin; she's more +certain than ever now that nobody in Russia but he and she knew anything +about the jewel deal. They were always in strict privacy when they +discussed the matter; no one was present when she gave him the jewels; +she never mentioned the affair to a soul, and she's confident from what +she knew of him, that he wouldn't. So she's more convinced than ever that +the news got out from this side." + +"And Miss Lennard--what did she want?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Oh! she's found the various references--two or three of 'em--that she +had with the French maid," replied Fullaway. "I looked at them--there's +nothing in them but what you'd expect to find. Two of the writers are +well-known society women, the third was a French marquise. I don't think +anything's to be got out of them, but, anyway, I sent her off to Scotland +Yard with them--it's their work that. Fine photos there, Allerdyke," he +continued, turning over the leaves of the album. "Some of your places in +Bradford, eh." + +Allerdyke, who was particularly anxious that he should not seem to have +had an ulterior object in bringing the album up to Fullaway's office +hailed this question with relief. He began to point out and explain the +various pictures--photographs of his mills, warehouses, town office, his +own private house, grounds, surroundings, chatting unconcernedly about +each. And while the two men were thus engaged in came Mrs. Marlow, +bringing letters which needed Fullaway's signature. + +"Mrs. Marlow knows more about amateur photography than I do," remarked +Fullaway, with a glance at his secretary. "Here, Mrs. Marlow, these are +same of Mr. Allerdyke's productions--you remember that his cousin, Mr. +James Allerdyke, gave you a photo which this Mr. Allerdyke had taken?" + +Allerdyke, keenly watching the secretary's pretty face as she laid her +papers on Fullaway's desk, saw no sign of embarrassment or confusion; +Fullaway might have made the most innocent and ordinary remark in the +world, and yet, according to Allerdyke's theory and positive knowledge, +it must be fraught with serious meaning to this woman. + +"Oh yes!" she flashed, without as much as the flicker of an eyelash. "I +remember--a particularly good photo. So like him!" + +Allerdyke's ingenuity immediately invented a remark; he was at that stage +when, he wanted to know as much as possible. + +"I wonder which print it was that he gave you?" he said. "One of them--I +only did a few--had a spot in it that'll spread. If that's the one +you've got, I'll give you another in its place, Mrs. Marlow. Have you +got it here?" + +But Mrs. Marlow shook her head and presented the same unabashed front. + +"No," she answered readily enough. "I took it home, Mr. Allerdyke. But +there's no spot on my print--I should have noticed it at once. May I look +at your album when Mr. Fullaway's finished with it?" + +Allerdyke left the album with them and went away. He was utterly +astonished by Mrs. Marlow's coolness. If, as he already believed, she was +mixed up in the murders and robberies, she must know that the photograph +which James Allerdyke had given her was a most important factor, and yet +she spoke of it as calmly and unconcernedly as if it had been a mere +scrap of paper! Of course she hadn't got it at the office--nor at her +home either--it was there at Hull, fitted into the cover of Lydenberg's +old watch. + +"A cool hand!" soliloquized Allerdyke as he went downstairs. "Cool, +clever, calm, never off her guard. A damned dangerous woman!--that's the +long and short of it. And--what next?" + +Experience and observation of life had taught Marshall Allerdyke that +good counsel is one of life's most valuable assets. He could think for +himself and decide for himself at any moment, but he knew the worth and +value of putting two heads together, especially at a juncture like this. +And so, the afternoon being still young, he went off to his warehouse in +Gresham Street, closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard, and having +pledged him to secrecy, told him all that had happened since the +previous morning. + +Ambler Appleyard listened in silence. It was only two or three hours +since he had listened to another story--the report of the two Gaffneys, +and Allerdyke, all unaware of that business, had come upon him while +he was still thinking it over. And while Appleyard gave full attention +to all that his employer said, he was also thinking of what he himself +could tell. By the time that Allerdyke had finished he, too, had +decided to speak. + +"So there it is, my lad!" exclaimed Allerdyke, throwing out his hands +with an eloquent gesture as he made an end of his story. "I hope I've put +it clearly to you. It's just as that Chap Chettle said--the whole secret +is in that photograph! And isn't it plain?--that photograph must have +been transferred somehow by this Mrs. Marlow to this Lydenberg. How? Why? +When we can answer those questions--" + +He paused at that, and, looking fixedly at his manager, shook his head +half-threateningly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ambler," he went on, after a moment's silence. +"I've got a good, strong mind to go straight to the police authorities, +tell 'em what I know, insist on 'em fetching Chettle up from Hull at +once, and having that woman arrested. Why not?" + +"No!" said Appleyard firmly. "Not yet. Too soon, Mr. Allerdyke--wait a +bit. And now listen to me--I've something to tell you. I've been busy +while you've been away--in this affair. Bit of detective work. I'll tell +you all about it--all! You remember that day I went to lunch with you at +the City Carlton, and you pointed out this Mrs. Marlow to me, going into +Rothschild's? Yes, well--I recognized her." + +"You did!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Nay!" + +"I recognized her," repeated Appleyard. "I said naught to you at the +time, but I knew her well enough. As a matter of fact, I've known her for +two years. She lives at the same boarding-house, the Pompadour Private +Hotel, in Bayswater, that I live in. I see her--have been seeing her for +two years--every day, morning and night. But I know her as Miss Slade." + +"Miss?" ejaculated Allerdyke. + +"Miss--Miss Slade," answered Appleyard. He drew his chair nearer to +Allerdyke's, and went on in a lower voice. "Now, then, pay attention, and +I'll tell you all about it, and what I've done since I got your note +yesterday morning." + +He told Allerdyke the whole story of his endeavour to find out something +about Rayner merely because Rayner seemed to be in Miss Slade's +confidence, and because Miss Slade was certainly a woman of mystery. And +Allerdyke listened as quietly and attentively as Appleyard had listened +to him, nodding his head at all the important points, and in the end he +slapped his manager's shoulder with an approving hand. + +"Good--good!" he said. "Good, Ambler! That was a bit of right work, and +hang me if I don't believe we shall find something out. But what's to +be done? You know, if these two are in at it, they may slip. That 'ud +never do!" + +"I don't think there's any fear of that--yet," answered Appleyard. "The +probability is that neither has any suspicion of being watched--the whole +thing's so clever that they probably believe themselves safe. Of course, +mind you, this man Rayner may be as innocent as you or I. But against +her, on the facts of that photograph affair, there's a _primâ facie_ +case. Only--don't let's spoil things by undue haste or rashness. I've +thought things out a good deal, and we can do a lot, you and me, before +going to the police, though I don't think it 'ud do any harm to tell this +man Chettle, supposing he were here--because his discovery of that photo +is the real thing." + +"What can we do, then?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Make use of the two Gaffneys," answered Appleyard without hesitation. +"They're smart chaps---real keen 'uns. We want to find out who Rayner is; +what his connection, if any, with Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, is; who +she is, and why she goes under two names. That's all what you might call +initial proceedings. What I propose is this--when you go back to your +hotel, get Gaffney into your private sitting-room. You, of course, know +him much better than I do, but from what bit I've seen of him I'm sure +he's the sort of man one can trust. Tell him to get hold of that brother +of his and bring him here at any hour you like to-morrow, and +then--well, we can have a conference, and decide on some means of finding +out more about Rayner and keeping an eye on him. For that sort of work I +should say that other Gaffney's remarkably well cut out--he's a typical, +sharp, knowing Cockney, with all his wits about him, and plenty of +assurance." + +"It's detective work, you know, Ambler," said Allerdyke. "It needs a bit +of more than ordinary cuteness." + +"From my observation, I should say both those chaps are just cut for it," +answered Appleyard, with a laugh. "What's more, they enjoy it. And when +men enjoy what they're doing--" + +"Why, they do it well," agreed Allerdyke, finishing the sentence. "Aye, +that's true enough. All right--I'll speak to Gaffney, when I go back. And +look here--as you're so well known to this woman, Miss Slade or Mrs. +Marlow, whichever her name is, you'd better not show up at the Waldorf at +any time in my company, eh?" + +"Of course," said Appleyard. "You trust me for that! What we've got to do +must be done as secretly as possible." + +Allerdyke rose to go, but turned before he reached the door. + +"There's one thing I'm uneasy about," he said. "If--I say if, of +course--if these folks--I mean the lot that's behind this woman, for I +can't believe that she's worked it all herself--have got those jewels, +won't they want to clear out with them? Isn't delay dangerous?" + +"Not such delay as I'm thinking of," answered Appleyard firmly. "She's +cute enough, this lady, and if she made herself scarce just now, she'd +know very well that it would excite suspicion. Don't let's spoil things +by being too previous. We've got a pretty good watch on her, you know. I +should know very quickly if she cleared out of the Pompadour; you'd know +if she didn't turn up at Fullaway's. Wait a bit, Mr. Allerdyke; it's the +best policy. You'll come here to-morrow?" + +"Eleven o'clock in the morning," replied Allerdyke. "I'll fix it with +Gaffney to-night." + +He went back to the Waldorf, summoned Gaffney to his private room, and +sent him to arrange matters with his brother. Gaffney accepted the +commission with alacrity; his brother, he said, was just then out of a +job, having lost a clerkship through the sudden bankruptcy of his +employers; such a bit of business as that which Mr. Appleyard had +entrusted to him was so much meat and drink to one of his tastes--in more +ways than one. + +"It's the sort of thing he likes, sir," remarked Gaffney, confidentially. +"He's always been a great hand at reading these detective tales, and to +set him to watch anybody is like offering chickens to a nigger--he fair +revels in it!" + +"Well, there's plenty for him to revel in," observed Allerdyke grimly. + +Plenty! he said to himself with a cynical laugh when Gaffney had left +him--aye, plenty, and to spare. He spent the whole of that evening alone, +turning every detail over in his own mind; he was still thinking, and +speculating, and putting two and two together when he went to bed at +eleven o'clock. And just as he was about to switch off his light a waiter +knocked on his door. + +"Gentleman downstairs, sir, very anxious to see you at once," he said, +when Allerdyke opened it. "His card, sir." + +Allerdyke gave one glance at the card--a plain bit of pasteboard on which +one word had been hastily pencilled-- + +CHETTLE. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + +Chettle!--whom he had left only that morning in Hull, two hundred miles +away, both of them agreed that the next step was still unseen, and that +immediate action was yet problematical. Something had surely happened to +bring Chettle up to town and to him. + +"Show Mr. Chettle up here at once," he said to the waiter. "And +here--bring a small decanter of whisky and a syphon of soda-water and +glasses. Be sharp with 'em." + +He pulled on a dressing-gown when the man had gone, and, tying its cord +about his waist, went a step or two into the corridor to look out for his +visitor. A few minutes elapsed; then the lift came up, and the waiter, +killing two birds with one stone, appeared again, escorting the detective +and carrying a tray. And Allerdyke, with a sly wink at Chettle, greeted +him unconcernedly, ushered him into his room and chatted about nothing +until the waiter had gone away. Then he turned on him eagerly. + +"What is it?" he demanded. "Something, of course! Aught new?" + +For answer Chettle thrust his hand inside his overcoat and brought out a +small package, wrapped in cartridge paper, and sealed. + +He began to break the seals and unwrap the covering. + +"Well, it brought me up here--straight," he said. "I think I shall have +to let our people at the yard know everything, Mr. Allerdyke. But I came +to you first---I only got to King's Cross half an hour ago, and I drove +on to you at once. Well see what you think before I decide on anything." + +"What is it!" repeated Allerdyke, gazing with interest at the package. +"You've found something of fresh importance, eh!" + +Chettle took the lid off a small box and produced Lydenberg's watch and +postcard on which the appointment in the High Street had been made. He +sat down at the table, laying his hand on the watch. + +"After you left me this morning," he said, "I started puzzling and +puzzling over what had been discovered, what had been done, whether there +was more that I could do. I kept thinking things over all the morning, +and half the afternoon. Then it suddenly struck me--there was one +thing--that I'd never done and that ought to have been done--I don't know +why I'd never thought of it till then--but I'd never had this photograph +out of the watch. And so I went back to the police-station and got the +watch and opened it, and--look there, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +He had snapped open the case of the watch as he talked, and he now +detached the photograph and turning it over, laid the reverse side down +on the table by the postcard. + +"Look at it!" he went on. "Do you see?--there's writing on it! You see +what it says? 'This is J.A. Burn this when made use of.' You see? +And--it's the same handwriting as that on this card, making the +appointment! Here, look at both for yourself--hold 'em closer to the +light. Mr. Allerdyke--that was all written by the same hand, or +I'm--no good!" + +Allerdyke went close to the electric globe above his dressing-table, the +photograph in one hand, the postcard in the other. He looked searchingly +at both, brought them back, and laid them down again. + +"No doubt of it, Chettle," he said. "No doubt of it! It doesn't need any +expert to be certain sure of that. The same, identical fist, without a +shadow of doubt. Well--what d'ye make of it? Here--have a drink." + +He mixed a couple of drinks, pushed one glass to the detective, and took +the other himself. + +"Egad!" he muttered, after drinking. "Things are getting--hottish, +anyway. As I say, what do you make of this? Of course, you've come to +some conclusion?" + +"Yes," answered Chettle, taking up his glass and silently bowing his +acknowledgments. "I have! The only one I could come to. The man who sent +this photograph to Lydenberg, to help him to identify your cousin at +sight, is the man who afterwards lured Lydenberg into that part of Hull +High Street, and shot him dead. In plain words, the master shot his +man--when he'd done with him. Just as he poisoned the Frenchwoman--when +he'd done with her. Mr. Allerdyke, I'm more than ever convinced that +these two murders--Lydenberg's and the French maid's--were the work of +one hand." + +"Likely!" assented Allerdyke. "It's getting to look like it. But--whose? +That's the problem, Chettle. Well, I've done a bit since I got back this +afternoon. You've had something to tell me--now I've something to tell +you. I've found out who it was that James gave the photograph to!" + +Chettle showed his gratification by a start of pleased surprise. + +"You have--already!" he exclaimed. + +"Already!" replied Allerdyke. "Found it out within an hour of getting +back in here. He gave it"--here, though the door was closed and +bolted, and there was no fear of eavesdroppers, he sank his voice to a +whisper--"he gave it to Fullaway's secretary, the woman we discussed, +Mrs. Marlow. That's a fact. He gave it to her just before he set off +for Russia." + +Chettle screwed his lips up to whistle--instead of whistling he suddenly +relaxed them to a comprehending smile. + +"Aye, just so!" he said. "I was sure it lay somewhere--here. Fullaway +himself, now--does he know?" + +"James gave it to her in Fullaway's presence," replied Allerdyke. "She's +a bit of a photographer, I understand--they were talking about +photography, I gathered, one day when James was in Fullaway's office, and +James pulled that out and gave it to her as a specimen of my work." + +"All that came out in talk this afternoon?" asked Chettle. + +"Just so. Ordinary, casual talk," assented Allerdyke. + +"No suspicion roused?" suggested Chettle. + +"I don't think so. Of course, you never can tell. I should say," +continued Allerdyke, "that she's as deep and clever as ever they make +'em! But it was all so casual, and so natural, that I don't think she'd +the slightest idea that I was trying to get at anything. However, I found +this much out--she couldn't produce the photograph. Said she'd taken it +home. Well--there we are! That's part one of my bit of news, Chettle. Now +for part two. This woman's leading a double life. She's Mrs. Marlow as +Fullaway's secretary and here at his rooms and on his business; where she +lives she's Miss Slade. Eh?" + +Chettle pricked his ears. + +"When did you find that out?" he asked. "Since you left me this +morning?" + +"Found it out this afternoon," replied Allerdyke, with something of +triumph. He had been strolling about the bedroom up to that moment, but +now he drew a chair to the table at which Chettle sat and dropped into it +close beside his visitor. + +"I'll tell you all about it," he went on. "You said at Hull yesterday +that you'd always found Yorkshiremen sharp and shrewd--well, this is a +bit more Yorkshire work--work of my manager here in town--Mr. +Appleyard. Listen!" + +He gave the detective a clear and succinct account of all that Appleyard +and his satellites had done, and Chettle listened with deep attention, +nodding his head at the various points. + +"Yes," he said, when Allerdyke had made an end, "yes, that's all right, +so far. Good, useful work. The thing is--can you fully trust these two +young men--your chauffeur and his brother?" + +"I could and would trust my chauffeur with my last shilling," answered +Allerdyke. "And as for his brother, I'll take my man's word for him. +Besides, they both know--or Mr. Gaffney knows--that I'm a pretty generous +paymaster. If a man does aught for me, and does it well, he profits to a +nice penny!" + +"A good argument," agreed Chettle. "I don't know that you could beat it, +Mr. Allerdyke. Well, well--we're getting to something and to somewhere! +Now, as you've told me all this, I'll just keep things quiet until I've +met you and your manager to-morrow, with these two Gaffneys--we'll have a +conference. I won't go near the Yard until after that. Eleven o'clock +to-morrow, then, at your warehouse in Gresham Street." + +He presently replaced the watch and the postcard in an inner pocket, and +took his leave, and Allerdyke, letting him out, walked along the corridor +with him as far as the lift. And as Allerdyke turned back to his own +room, the third event of that day happened, and seemed to him to be the +most surprising and important one of all. + +What made Allerdyke pause as he retraced his steps along the corridor, +pause to look over the balustrade to the floor immediately below his own, +he never knew nor could explain. But, just as he was about to re-enter +his room, he did so pause, leaning over the railings and looking down for +a moment. In that moment he saw Mrs. Marlow. + +A considerable portion of the floor immediately beneath him was fully +exposed to the view of any one leaning over the balustrade as Allerdyke +did. This was a quiet part of the hotel, a sort of wing cut away from +the main building; the floor at which he was looking was given up to +private suites of rooms, one of them, a larger one than the others, +being Fullaway's, which filled one side of the corridor; the others +were suites of two, in some cases of three rooms. As he looked over and +down, Allerdyke suddenly saw a door open in one of these smaller +suites--open silently and stealthily. Then he saw Mrs. Marlow look out, +and she glanced right and left about her. The next instant, she emerged +from the room with the same stealthiness, closed and locked the door +with a key which she immediately pocketed, slipped along the corridor, +and disappeared into Franklin Fullaway's suite. It was all over in less +than a minute, and Allerdyke turned into his own door, smiling +cynically to himself. + +"She looked right and left, but she forgot to look up!" he muttered. +"Ah! those small details. And what does that mean? Anyway, I know which +door she came out of!" + +He glanced at his watch--precisely half-past eleven. He made a note of +the time in his pocket-book and went to bed. And next morning, rising +early, as was his custom, he descended to the ground floor by means of +the stairs instead of the lift, and as he passed the door from which he +had seen Mrs. Marlow emerge he mentally registered the number. +Fifty-three. Number fifty-three. + +Allerdyke, who could not exist without fresh air and exercise, went for a +stroll before breakfast when he was in London--he usually chose the +Embankment, as being the nearest convenient open space, and thither he +now repaired, thinking things over. There were many new features of this +affair to think about, but the one of the previous night now occupied his +thoughts to the exclusion of the others. What was this woman doing, +coming--with evident secrecy--out of one set of rooms, and entering +another at that late hour? He wanted to know--he must find out--and he +would find out with ease,--and indirectly, from Fullaway. + +Fullaway always took his breakfast at a certain table in a certain corner +of the coffee-room at the hotel; there Allerdyke had sometimes joined +him. He found the American there, steadily eating, when he returned from +his walk, and he dropped into a chair at his side with a casual remark +about the fine morning. + +"Didn't set eyes on you last night at all," he went on, as he picked up +his napkin. "Off somewhere, eh?" + +"Spent the evening out," answered Fullaway. "Not often I do, but I +did--for once in a way. Van Koon and I (you don't know Van Koon, do +you?--he's a fellow countryman of mine, stopping here for the summer, +and a very clever man) we dined at the Carlton, and then went to the +Haymarket Theatre. I was going to ask you to join us, Allerdyke, but you +were out and hadn't come in by the time we had to go." + +"Thank you--no, I didn't get in until seven o'clock or so," answered +Allerdyke. "So I'd a quiet evening." + +"No news, I suppose?" asked Fullaway, going vigorously forward with his +breakfast. "Heard nothing from the police authorities?" + +"Nothing," replied Allerdyke. "I suppose they're doing things in their +own way, as usual." + +"Just so," assented Fullaway. "Well, it's an odd thing to me that nobody +comes forward to make some sort of a shot at that reward! Most +extraordinary that the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair should have +been able to get clean away without anybody in London having seen him--or +at any rate that the people who must have seen him are unable to connect +him with the murder of that woman. Extraordinary!" + +"It's all extraordinary," said Allerdyke. He took up a newspaper which +Fullaway had thrown down and began to talk of some subject that caught +his eye, until Fullaway rose, pleaded business, and went off to his rooms +upstairs. When he had gone Allerdyke reconsidered matters. So Fullaway +had been out the night before, had he--dining out, and at a theatre? +Then, of course, it would be quite midnight before he got in. Therefore, +presumably, he did not know that his secretary was about his rooms--and +entering and leaving another suite close by. No--Fullaway knew +nothing--that seemed certain. + +The remembrance of what he had seen sent Allerdyke, as soon as he had +breakfasted, to the hall of the hotel, and to the register of guests. +There was no one at the register at that moment, and he turned the pages +at his leisure until he came to what he wanted. And there it was--in +plain black and white-- + +NUMBER 53. MR. JOHN VAN KOON. NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + +Allerdyke, with a gesture peculiar to him, thrust his hands in the +pockets of his trousers, strolled away from the desk on which the +register lay open, and going over to the hall door stood there a while, +staring out on the tide of life that rolled by, and listening to the +subdued rattle of the traffic in its ceaseless traverse of the Strand. +And as he stood in this apparently idle and purposeless lounging +attitude, he thought--thought of a certain birthday of his, a good thirty +years before, whereon a kind, elderly aunt had made him a present of a +box of puzzles. There were all sorts of puzzles in that box--things that +you had to put together, things that had to be arranged, things that had +to be adjusted. But there was one in particular which had taken his +youthful fancy, and had at the same time tried his youthful temper--a +shallow tray wherein were a vast quantity of all sorts and sizes of bits +of wood, gaily coloured. There were quite a hundred of those bits, and +you had to fit them one into the other. When, after much trying of +temper, much exercise of patience, you had accomplished the task, there +was a beautiful bit of mosaic work, a picture, a harmonious whole, lovely +to look upon, something worthy of the admiring approbation of uncles and +aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers. But--the doing of it! + +"Naught, however, to this confounded thing!" mused Allerdyke, gazing at +and not seeing the folk on the broad sidewalk. "When all the bits of +this puzzle have been fitted into place I daresay one'll be able to look +down on it as a whole and say it looks simple enough when finished, but, +egad, they're of so many sorts and shapes and queer angles that they're +more than a bit difficult to fit at present. Now who the deuce is this +Van Koon, and what was that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss Slade, doing in his +rooms last night when he was out?" + +He was exercising his brains over a possible solution of this problem +when Fullaway suddenly appeared in the hall behind him, accompanied by a +man whom Allerdyke at once took to be the very individual about whom he +was speculating. He was a man of apparently forty years of age, of +average height and build, of a full countenance, sallow in complexion, +clean-shaven, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles over a pair of sapphire blue +eyes--a shrewd, able-looking man, clad in the loose fitting, square-cut +garments just then affected by his fellow-countrymen, and having a +low-crowned, soft straw hat pulled down over his forehead. His hands were +thrust into the pockets of his jacket; a long, thin, black cigar stuck +out of a corner of his humorous-looking lips; he cocked an intelligent +eye at Allerdyke as he and Fullaway advanced to the door. + +"Hullo, Allerdyke!" said Fullaway in his usual vivacious fashion. +"Viewing the prospect o'er, eh? Allow me to introduce Mr. Van Koon, whom +I don't think you've met, though he's under the same roof. Van Koon, this +is the Mr. Allerdyke I've mentioned to you." + +The two men shook hands and stared at each other. Whoever and whatever +this man may be, thought Allerdyke, he gives you a straight look and a +good grip--two characteristics which in his opinion went far to establish +any unknown individual's honesty. + +"No," remarked Van Koon. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. +Allerdyke before. But I'm out a great deal--I don't spend much time +indoors this fine weather. You gentlemen know your London well--I don't, +and I'm putting in all the time I can to cultivate her acquaintance." + +"Been in town long?" asked Allerdyke, wanting to say something and +impelled to this apparently trite question by the New Yorker's own +observations. + +"Since the first week in April," answered Van Koon, "And as this is my +first visit to England, I'm endeavouring to do everything well. Fullaway +tells me, Mr. Allerdyke, that you come from Bradford, the big +manufacturing city up north. Well, now, Bradford is one of the places on +my list--hullo!" he exclaimed, breaking off short. "I guess here's a man +who's wanting you, Fullaway, in a considerable bit of a hurry." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke looked out on to the pavement and saw Blindway, +who had just jumped out of a taxi-cab, and was advancing upon them. He +came up and addressed them jointly--would they go back with him at once +to New Scotland Yard?--the chief wanted to see them for a few minutes. + +"Come on, Allerdyke," said Fullaway. "We'd better go at once. Van Koon," +he continued, turning to his compatriot, "do me a favour--just look in at +my rooms upstairs, and tell Mrs. Marlow, if she's come--she hadn't +arrived when I was up there ten minutes ago--that I'm called out for an +hour or so--ask her to attend to anything that turns up until I come +back--shan't be long." + +Van Koon nodded and walked back into the hotel, while Allerdyke and +Fullaway joined the detective in the cab and set out westward. + +"What is it?" asked Fullaway. "Something new?" + +"Can't say, exactly," replied Blindway. "The chief's got some woman there +who thinks she can tell something about the French maid, so he sent me +for you, and he's sent another man for Miss Lennard. It may be something +good; it mayn't. Otherwise," he concluded with a shake of the head that +was almost dismal, "otherwise, I don't know of anything new. Never knew +of a case in my life, gentlemen, in which less turned up than's turning +up in this affair! And fifty thousand pounds going a-begging!" + +"I suppose this woman's after it," remarked Fullaway. "You didn't hear of +anything she had to tell?" + +"Nothing," answered Blindway. "You'll hear it in a minute or two." + +He took them straight up into the same room, and the same official whom +they had previously seen, and who now sat at his desk with Celia Lennard +on one side of him, and a middle-aged woman, evidently of the poorer +classes, on the other. Allerdyke and Fullaway, after a brief interchange +of salutations with the official and the prima donna, looked at the +stranger--a quiet, respectably-dressed woman who united a natural shyness +with an evident determination to go through with the business that had +brought her there. She was just the sort of woman who can be seen by the +hundred--laundress, seamstress, charwoman, caretaker, got up in her +Sunday best. Odd, indeed, it would be, thought Allerdyke, if this quiet, +humble-looking creature should give information which would place fifty +thousand pounds at her command! + +"This is Mrs. Perrigo," said the chief pleasantly, as he motioned the two +men to chairs near Celia's and beckoned Blindway to his side. "Mrs. +Perrigo, of--where is it, ma'am?" + +"I live in Alpha Place, off Park Street, sir," announced Mrs. Perrigo, +in a small, quiet voice. "Number 14, sir. I'm a clear-starcher by +trade, sir." + +"Put that down, Blindway," said the chief, "and take a note of what Mrs. +Perrigo tells us. Now, Mrs. Perrigo, you think you've seen the dead +woman, Lisette Beaurepaire, at some time or another, in company with a +young man? Where and when was this?" + +"Well, three times, sir. Three times that I'm certain of--there was +another time that I wasn't certain about; at least, that I'm not certain +about now. If I could just tell you about it in my way, sir--" + +"Certainly--certainly, Mrs. Perrigo! Exactly what I wish. Tell us all +about it in your own way. Take your own time." + +"Well, sir, it 'ud be, as near as I can fix it, about the middle of +March--two months ago, sir," began Mrs. Perrigo. "You see, I had the +misfortune to burn my right hand very badly, sir, and having to put my +work aside, and it being nice weather, and warm for the time of year, I +used to go and sit in Kensington Gardens a good deal, which, of course, +was when I see this young lady whose picture's been in the paper of +late, and--" + +"A moment, Mrs. Perrigo," interrupted the official. "Miss Lennard, it +will simplify matters considerably if I ask you a question. Were you and +your late maid in town about the time Mrs. Perrigo speaks of--the middle +of March?" + +"Yes," replied Celia promptly. "We were here from March 3rd, when we came +back from the Continent, to March 29th, when we left for Russia." + +"Continue, Mrs. Perrigo, if you please," said the official. "Take your +time--tell things your own way." + +"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Perrigo dutifully. "If you please, sir. Well, +when I see those pictures in the papers--several papers, sir--of the +young lady with the foreign name I says to myself, and to my neighbour, +Mrs. Watson, which is all I ever talk much to, 'That,' I says, 'is the +young woman I see in Kensington Gardens a time or two and remarks of for +her elegant figure and smart air in general--I could have picked her out +from a thousand,' I says. Which there was, and is a particular spot, +sir, in Kensington Gardens where I used to sit, and you pays a penny for +a chair, which I did, and there's other chairs about, near a fallen +tree, which is still there, for I went to make sure last night, and +there, on three afternoons while I was there, this young lady came at +about, say, four o'clock each time, and was met by this here young man +what I don't remember as clear as I remember her, me not taking so much +notice of him. And--" + +"Another moment, Mrs. Perrigo." The chief turned again to Celia. "Did +your maid ever go out in the afternoons about that time?" he asked. + +"Probably every afternoon," replied Celia. "I myself was away from London +from the 11th to the 18th of March, staying with friends in the country. +I didn't take her with me--so, of course, she'd nothing to do but follow +her own inclinations." + +The chief turned to Mrs. Perrigo again. + +"Yes?" he said. "You saw the young woman whose photograph you have seen +in the papers meet a young man in Kensington Gardens on three separate +occasions. Yes?" + +"Three separate occasions, close by--on penny chairs, sir, where they sat +and talked foreign, which I didn't understand--and on another occasion, +when I see 'em walking by the Round Pond, me being at some distance, but +recognizing her by her elegant figure. I took particular notice of the +young woman's face, sir, me being a noticing person, and I'll take my +dying oath, if need be, that this here picture is hers!" + +Mrs. Perrigo here produced a much worn and crumpled illustrated newspaper +and laid her hand solemnly upon it. That done, she shook her head. + +"But I ain't so certain about the young man as met her," she said +sorrowfully. "Him I did not notice with such attention, being, as I say, +more attracted to her. All the same, he was a young man--and spoke the +same foreign language as what she did. Of them facts, sure I am, sir." + +"They sat near you, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"As near, sir, as I am now to that lady. And paid their pennies for their +chairs in my presence; leastways, the young man paid. Always the same +place it was, and always the same time--three days all within a week, and +then the day when I see 'em walking at a distance." + +"Can't you remember anything about the young man, Mrs. Perrigo?" asked +the chief. "Come!--try to think. That is the really important thing. +You must have some recollection of him, you know, some idea of what he +was like." + +Mrs. Perrigo took a corner of her shawl between her fingers and proceeded +to fold and pleat it while she thoughtfully fixed her eyes on Blindway's +unmoved countenance, as if to find inspiration there. And after a time +she nodded her head as though memory had stirred within her. + +"Which every time I see him," she said, with an evident quickening of +interest, "he had two of them dogs with him what has turned-up noses and +twisted tails." + +"Pugs?" suggested the chief. + +"No doubt that is their name, sir, but unbeknown to me as I never kept +such an animal," answered Mrs. Perrigo. "My meaning being clear, no +doubt, and there being no mistaking of 'em--their tails and noses being +of that order. And had 'em always on a chain--gentlemen's dogs you could +see they was, and carefully looked after with blue bows at the back of +their necks, same as if they was Christians. And him, I should say, +speaking from memory, a dark young man--such is my recollection." + +"It comes to this," remarked the chief, looking at the three listeners +with a smile. "Mrs. Perrigo says that she is certain that upon three +occasions about the middle of March last she witnessed meetings at a +particular spot in Kensington Gardens between a young woman answering the +description and photographs of Lisette Beaurepaire and a young man of +whom she cannot definitely remember anything except that she thinks he +was dark, spoke a foreign language, and was in charge of two pug dogs +which wore blue ribbons. That's it, isn't it, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"And willing to take my solemn oath of the same whenever convenient, +sir," replied Mrs. Perrigo. "And if so be as what I've told you should +lead to anything, gentlemen--and lady--I can assure you that me being a +poor widow, and--" + +Five minutes later, Mrs. Perrigo, with some present reward in her pocket, +was walking quietly up Whitehall with a composed countenance, while +Allerdyke, already late for his Gresham Street appointment, sped towards +the City as fast as a hastily chartered taxi-cab could carry him. And +all the way thither, being alone, he repeated certain words over and +over again. + +"A dark young man who led two pugs--a dark young man who led two pugs! +With blue ribbons on their necks--with blue ribbons on their necks, same +as Christians!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THICK FOG + + +It was half-past eleven when Allerdyke reached Gresham Street: by +half-past one, so curiously and rapidly did events crowd upon each other, +he was in a state of complete mental confusion. He sat down to lunch that +day feeling as a man feels who has lost his way in an unknown country in +the midst of a blinding mist; as a weaver might feel who is at work on an +intricate pattern and suddenly finds all his threads inextricably mixed +up and tangled. Instead of things getting better and clearer, that +morning's work made them more hopelessly muddled. + +Chettle was hanging about the door of the warehouse when Allerdyke drove +up. His usually sly look was accentuated that morning, and as soon as +Allerdyke stepped from his cab he drew him aside with a meaning gesture. + +"A word or two before we go in, Mr. Allerdyke," he said as they walked a +few steps along the street. "Look here, sir," he went on in a whisper. +"I've been reflecting on things since I saw you last night. Of course, +I'm supposed to be in Hull, you know. But I shall have to report myself +at the Yard this morning--can't avoid that. And I shall have to tell +them why I came up. Now, it's here, Mr. Allerdyke--how much or how +little shall I tell 'em? What I mean sir, is this--do you want to keep +any of this recently acquired knowledge to yourself? Of course, if you +do--well, I needn't tell any more there--at headquarters--than you wish +me to tell. I can easy make excuse for coming up. And, of course, in +that case--" + +"Well!" demanded Allerdyke impatiently. "What then?" + +Chettle gave him another look of suggestive meaning, and taking off his +square felt hat, wiped his forehead with a big coloured handkerchief. + +"Well, of course, Mr. Allerdyke," he said insinuatingly. "Of course, sir, +I'm a poor man, and I've a rising family that I want to do my best for. I +could do with a substantial amount of that reward, you know, Mr. +Allerdyke. We've all a right to do the best we can for ourselves, sir. +And if you're wanting to, follow this affair out on your own, sir, +independent of the police--eh?" + +Allerdyke's sense of duty arose in strong protest against this very +palpable suggestion. He shook his head. + +"No--no!" he said. "That won't do, Chettle. You must do your duty to your +superiors. You'll find that you'll be all right. If the police solve this +affair, that reward'll go to the police, and you'll get your proper +share. No--no underhand work. You make your report in your ordinary way. +No more of that!" + +"Aye, but do you understand, Mr. Allerdyke?" said the detective +anxiously. "Do you comprehend what it'll mean. You know very well that +there's a lot of red tape in our work--they go a great deal by rule and +precedent, as you might say. Now, if I go to the Yard--as I shall have +to, as soon as you've done with me--and tell the chief that I've found +this photo of your cousin in Lydenberg's watch, and that you're certain +that your cousin gave that particular photo to Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, do you know what'll happen?" + +"What?" asked Allerdyke. + +"They'll arrest her within half an hour," answered Chettle. +"Dead certain!" + +"Well?" said Allerdyke. "And--what then!" + +"Why, it'll probably upset the whole bag of tricks!" exclaimed Chettle. +"The thing'll be spoiled before we've properly worked it out. See?" + +Allerdyke did see. He had sufficient knowledge of police matters to know +that Chettle was right, and that a too hasty step would probably ruin +everything. He turned towards the warehouse. + +"Just so," he said. "I take your meaning. Now then, come in, and we'll +put it before my manager, Mr. Appleyard. I've great faith in his +judgment--let's see what he's got to say." + +The two Gaffneys were waiting just within the packingroom of the +warehouse. Allerdyke bade them wait a little longer, and took the +detective straight into Appleyard's office. There, behind the closed +door, he told Appleyard of everything that had happened since their last +meeting, and of what Chettle had just said. The problem was, in view of +all that, of the mysterious proceedings of Mrs. Marlow the night before, +and of what Allerdyke had just heard at New Scotland Yard--what was best +to be done, severally and collectively, by all of them? + +Ambler Appleyard grasped the situation at once and solved the problem in +a few direct words. There was no need whatever, he said, for Chettle to +do more than his plain duty, no need for him to exceed it. He was bound, +being what he was, to make his report about his discovery of the +photograph and the writing on it. That he must do. But he was not bound +to tell anything that Allerdyke had told him: he was not bound to give +information which Allerdyke had collected. Let Chettle go and tell the +plain facts about his own knowledge of the photo and leave Allerdyke, +for the moment, clean out of the question. Allerdyke himself could go +with his news in due course. And, wound up Appleyard, who had a keen +knowledge of human nature and saw deep into Chettle's mind, Mr. Allerdyke +would doubtless see that Chettle lost nothing by holding his tongue about +anything that wasn't exactly ripe for discussion. At present, he +repeated, let Chettle do his duty--not exceed it. + +"That's it," agreed Allerdyke. "You've hit it, Ambler. You go and tell +what you know of your own knowledge," he went on, turning to Chettle. +"Leave me clean out for the time being. I'll come in at the right moment. +Say naught about me or of what I've told you. And if you're sent back to +Hull, just contrive to see me before you go. And, as Mr. Appleyard says, +I'll see you're all right, anyhow." + +When Chettle had gone, Allerdyke closed the door on him and turned to his +manager with a knowing look. + +"That chap's right, you know, Ambler," he said. "A false move, a too +hasty step'll ruin everything. If that woman's startled--if she gets a +suspicion--egad, it's all mixed up about as badly as can be! Now, about +these Gaffneys?" + +"Wait a while," said Appleyard. "I don't know that we want their services +just yet. I've found out a thing or two that may be useful. About this +man Rayner now, who's in evident close touch with Miss Slade (by the by, +you saw her at the Waldorf at half-past eleven last night, and I saw her +come into the Pompadour at half-past twelve, with Rayner), and about whom +we accordingly want to know something--I've found out, through ordinary +business channels, that he does carry on a business at Clytemnestra +House, in Arundel Street, under the name of Gavin Ramsay. And--if we want +to know more of him--I've an idea. You go and see him, Mr. Allerdyke--on +business." + +"I? Business?" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What sort of business?" + +"He's an inventor's agent," replied Appleyard. "It's a profession I never +heard of before, but he seems to act as a go-between. Folks that have got +an invention go to him--he helps 'em about it--helps 'em to perfect it, +patent it, get it on the market. You've a good excuse--there's that +patent railway chair of your man Gankrodgers, been lying there in that +corner for the past year, and you promised Gankrodgers you'd help him +about it. Put it in a cab and go to this Rayner, or Ramsay--there's your +excuse, and you can say you heard of him in the City, from +Wilmingtons--it was they who told me what he was. It's a good notion, Mr. +Allerdyke." + +"What object?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Simply to get a look at him," replied Appleyard. "Look here--you know +very well that there's a strong suspicion against Miss Slade. Miss Slade, +to my knowledge, is in close touch, with Rayner. Therefore, let's know +what we can about Rayner. You're the man to go and see him at his own +place. Do it--and we'll consider the question of having him watched by +the two Gaffneys when you've seen and talked to him." + +Allerdyke considered this somewhat strange proposal in silence for a +while. At last he rose with a look of decision. + +"Well, I've certainly a good excuse," he said. "Here, have that thing +packed up and put in a cab--I'll go." + +Half an hour later he found himself shown into a smartly furnished office +where Mr. Gavin Ramsay sat at a handsome desk surrounded by shelves and +cabinets whereon and wherein were set out the products of the brains of +many inventors--models of machines, mechanical toys, labour-saving +notions, things plainly useful, things obviously extravagant. The +occupant of this museum glanced at Allerdyke and the box which he carried +with an amused smile, and Allerdyke said to himself that Appleyard was +right in his description--if the man was crippled and deformed he +certainly possessed a beautiful face. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke," said the hope of inventors, glancing at the +card which his visitor had sent in. + +"The same, sir," replied Allerdyke, setting down his box. "Mr. Ramsay, I +presume? I heard of you, Mr. Ramsay, through Wilmingtons, in the City; +heard you can be of great use to inventors. I have here," he continued, +opening the box, "a railway chair, invented by one of my workmen, a +clever fellow. You see, it 'ud do away with the present system of putting +wooden blocks in the chairs now used--this would fasten the sleepers and +rails together automatically. It is patented--provisionally protected, +anyhow--but my man's never got a railway company to try it, so far. Think +you can do anything, Mr. Ramsay?" + +The hunchback got up from his desk, took the invention out of its box, +and carefully inspected it, asking Allerdyke a few shrewd questions about +the thing's possibilities which showed the caller that he knew what he +was talking about. Then he sat down again and went into business details +in a way which impressed Allerdyke--clearly this man, whoever he was, and +whatever mystery might attach to him, was a smart individual. Also he had +a frank, direct way of talking which gave his visitor a very good first +opinion of him. + +"Very well, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, in conclusion. "Leave the thing +with me, and I will see what I can do. As I say, the proper course will +be to get it tried on one of the smaller railway lines--if it answers +there, we can, perhaps, induce one of the bigger companies to take it up. +I'll do my best." + +Allerdyke thanked him and rose. He had certainly done something for his +man Gankrodgers, and he had seen Ramsay, or Rayner, at close quarters, +but--Ramsay was speaking again. He had picked up Allerdyke's card, and +glanced from it to its presenter, half shyly. + +"You're the cousin of the Mr. Allerdyke whose name's been in the papers +so much in connection with this murder and robbery affair, I suppose?" he +said. "I've seen your own name, of course, in the various accounts." + +"I am," replied Allerdyke. He had moved towards the door, but he turned +and looked at his questioner. "You followed it, then?" he asked. + +"Yes," assented Ramsay. "Closely. A curiously intricate case." + +"Any solution of it present itself to your mind?" asked Allerdyke in his +brusque, downright fashion. "Got any theory?" + +Ramsay smiled and shook his finely shaped head. He, too, rose, walking +towards the door. + +"It's a little early for that, isn't it?" he said. "I've studied these +affairs--criminology, you know--for many years. In my opinion, it's a +mistake to be too hasty in trying to arrive at solutions. But," he added, +with a shrug of his misshapen shoulders, "it's always the way of the +police, and of most folk who try to get at the truth. Things that are +deep down need some deep digging for!" + +"There's the question of the present whereabouts of nearly three +hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels," remarked Allerdyke grimly. +"Remember that!" + +"Quite so," agreed Ramsay. "But--your own particular and personal desire, +as I gather from the newspapers, is to find the murderer of your cousin?" + +"Ah!" said Allerdyke. "And it is! Got any ideas on that point?" + +Ramsay smiled as he opened the door. + +"I think," he said, with a quiet significance. "I think that you'll be +having all this mystery explained and cleared up all of a sudden, Mr. +Allerdyke, in a way that'll surprise you. These things are like +warfare--there's a sudden turn of events, a sudden big event just when +you're not expecting it. Well, good-bye--thank you for giving me a chance +with your man's invention." + +Allerdyke found himself walking up Arundel Street before he had quite +realized that this curious interview was over. At the top he paused, +staring vacantly at the folk who passed and repassed along the Strand. + +"I'd lay a pound to a penny that chap's all right," he muttered to +himself. "He's not a wrong 'un--unless he's damned deceitful! All the +same, he knows something! What? My conscience!--was there ever such a +confounded muddle in this world as this is!" + +But the muddle was a deeper one within the next few minutes. He crossed +over to his hotel, and as he was entering he met Mrs. Marlow coming out, +fresh, dainty, charming, as usual. She stopped at sight of him and held +up the little hand-bag which hung from her wrist. + +"Oh, Mr. Allerdyke!" she said, opening the bag and taking an envelope +from it. "I've something for you. See--here's the photograph your cousin +gave me. You were wrong, you see--there's no spot in it--it's a +particularly clear print. Look!" + +In Allerdyke's big palm she laid the very photograph which, according to +all his reckoning, was that which Chettle had found within the cover of +Lydenberg's watch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + +"Quite a clear print, you see," repeated Mrs. Marlow brightly. "No spot +there. You must have been thinking of another." + +"Aye, just so," replied Allerdyke absentmindedly. "Another, yes, of +course. Aye, to be sure--you're right. No spot on that, certainly." + +He was talking aimlessly, confusedly, as he turned the print over in his +hand, examining it back and front. And having no excuse for keeping it, +he handed it back with a keen look at its owner. What the devil, he asked +himself, was this mysterious woman playing at? + +"I'm going to have this mounted and framed," said Mrs. Marlow, as she put +the photograph back in her bag and turned to go. "I misplaced it some +time ago and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it by accident +this morning, so now I'll take care of it." + +She nodded, smiled, and went off into the sunlight outside, and +Allerdyke, more puzzled than ever, walked forward into the hotel and +towards the restaurant. At its door he met Fullaway, coming out, and in +his usual hurry. + +Fullaway started at sight of Allerdyke, button-holed him, and led him +into a corner. + +"Oh, I say, Allerdyke!" he said, in his bustling fashion. "Look here, a +word with you. You've no objection, have you?" he went on in subdued +tones, "if Van Koon and I have a try for that reward? It doesn't matter +to you, or to the Princess, or to Miss Lennard, who gets the reward so +long as the criminals are brought to justice and the goods found--eh? And +you know fifty thousand is--what it is." + +"You've got an idea?" asked Allerdyke, regarding his questioner steadily. + +"Frankly, yes--an idea--a notion," answered Fullaway. "Van Koon and I +have been discussing the whole affair--just now. He's a smart man, and +has had experience in these things on the other side. But, of course, we +don't want to give our idea away. We want to work in entire independence +of the police, for instance. What we're thinking of requires patience and +deep investigation. So we want to work on our own methods. See?" + +"It doesn't matter to me who gets the reward--as you say," said Allerdyke +slowly. "I want justice. I'm not so much concerned about the jewels as +about who killed my cousin. I believe that man Lydenberg did the actual +killing--but who was at Lydenberg's back? Find that out, and--" + +"Exactly--exactly!" broke in Fullaway. "The very thing! Well--you +understand, Allerdyke. Van Koon and I will want to keep our operations to +ourselves. We don't want police interference. So, if any of these +Scotland Yard chaps come to you here for talk or information, don't bring +me into it. And don't expect me to tell what we're doing until we've +carried out our investigations. No interim reports, you know, Allerdyke. +Personally, I believe we're on the track." + +"Do just what you please," replied Allerdyke. "You're not the only two +who are after that reward. Go ahead--your own way." + +He turned into the restaurant and ordered his lunch, and while it was +being brought sat drumming his fingers on the table, staring vacantly at +the people about him and wondering over the events of the morning. +Rayner's, or Ramsay's, vague hint that something might suddenly clear +everything up; Fullaway's announcement that he and Van Koon had put their +heads together; Mrs. Perrigo's story of the French maid and the young man +who led blue-ribboned pug-dogs--but all these were as nothing compared to +the fact that Mrs. Marlow had actually shown him the photograph which he +had until then firmly believed to lie hidden in the case of Lydenberg's +watch. That beat him. + +"Is my blessed memory going wrong?" he said to himself. "Did I actually +print more than four copies of that thing! No--no!--I'm shot if I did. +My memory never fails. I did not print off more than four. James had +three; I had one. Mine's in my album upstairs. I know what James did +with his. Cousin Grace has one; Wilson Firth has another; he gave the +third to this Mrs. Marlow--and she's got it! Then--how the devil did +that photograph, which looks to be of my taking, which I'd swear is of +my taking, come to be in Lydenberg's watch? Gad--it's enough to make a +man's brain turn to pap!" + +He was moodily finishing his lunch when Chettle came in to find him. +Allerdyke, who was in a quiet corner, beckoned the detective to a seat, +and offered him a drink. + +"Well?" he asked. "What's been done?" + +"It's all right," answered Chettle. "I've told no more than was +necessary--just what we agreed upon. To tell you the truth, our folks +don't attach such tremendous importance to it--they will, of course, when +you tell them your story about the photo. Just at present they merely see +the obvious fact--that Lydenberg was furnished with the photo as a means +of ready identification of your brother. No--at this moment they're full +of the Perrigo woman's story--they think that's a sure clue--a good +beginning. Somebody, they say, must own, or have owned, those pugs! +Therefore they're going strong on that. Meanwhile, I'm going back to Hull +for at any rate a few days." + +"You've still got that watch on you?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Certainly," answered Chettle, clapping his hand to his breast-pocket. +"Technically speaking, it's in charge of the Hull police--it'll have to +be produced there. Did you want to see it again, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Finish your drink and come up to my sitting-room," said Allerdyke. "I'll +give you a cigar up there. Yes," he added, as they left the restaurant +and went upstairs. "I do want to see it again--or, rather, the +photograph. You're in no hurry?" + +"A good hour to spare yet," replied Chettle. + +Allerdyke locked the door of the sitting-room when they were once inside +it, and that done he placed a decanter, a syphon, and a glass on his +table, and flanked them with a box of cigars. He waved a hospitable hand +towards these comforts. + +"Sit down and help yourself, Chettle," he said. "A drop of my whisky'll +do you no harm--that's some I got down from home, and you'll not find its +like everywhere. Light a cigar--and put a couple in your pocket to smoke +in the train. Now then, let's see that photograph once more." + +Chettle handed over the watch, and Allerdyke, opening the case, +delicately removed the print. He sat down at the table with his back to +the light, and carefully examined the thing back and front, while the +detective, glass in hand, cigar in lips, and thumb in the armhole of his +waistcoat, watched him appreciatively and inquisitively. + +"Make aught new out of it, sir?" he asked after a while. + +Instead of answering, Allerdyke laid the photograph down, went across to +another table, and took from it his album. He turned its leaves over +until he came to a few loose prints. He picked them up one after another +and examined them. And suddenly he knew the secret. There was no longer +any problem, any difficulty about that photograph. He knew--now! And with +a sharp exclamation, he flung the album back to the side-table, and +turned to the detective. + +"Chettle!" he said. "You know me well enough to know that I can make it +well worth any man's while to keep a secret until I tell him he can speak +about it! What!" + +"I should think so, Mr. Allerdyke," responded Chettle, readily enough. +"And if you want me to keep a secret--" + +"I do--for the time being," answered Allerdyke. He sat down again and +picked up the photograph which had exercised his thoughts so intensely. +"I've found out the truth concerning this," he said, tapping it with his +finger. "Yes, I've hit it! Listen, now--I told you I'd only made four +prints of this photo, and that I knew exactly where they all were--one in +my own album there, two given by James to friends in Bradford, one--as we +more recently found out--given by James to Mrs. Marlow. That one--the +Mrs. Marlow one--we believed to be--this--this!" + +"And isn't it, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked Chettle wonderingly. + +Allerdyke laughed--a laugh of relief and satisfaction. + +"Less than an hour ago," he replied, "in fact, just before you came in, +Mrs. Marlow showed me the photo which James gave her--showed it to me, +out below there in the hall. No mistaking it! And so--when you came, I +was racking my brains to rags trying to settle what this +photo--this!--was. And now I know what it is--and damn me if I know +whether the discovery makes things plainer or more mixed up! But--I know +what this is, anyway." + +"And--what is it, sir?" asked Chettle eagerly, eyeing the photo as if it +were some fearful living curiosity. "What, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Why, it's a photograph of my photograph!" almost shouted Allerdyke, with +a thump of his big hand on the table. "That's the truth. This has been +reproduced from mine, d'ye see? Look here--happen you don't know much +about photography, but you'll follow me--I always use a certain sort of +printing-out paper; I've stuck to one particular sort for years--all the +photos in that album are done on that particular sort. The four prints I +made of James's last photo were done on that paper. Now then--this photo, +this print that you found in Lydenberg's watch, is not done on that +paper--it's a totally different paper. Therefore--this is a reproduction! +It is not my original print at all--it's been copied from it. See?" + +Chettle, who had followed all this with concentrated attention, nodded +his head several times. + +"Clever--clever--clever!" he said with undisguised admiration. "Clever, +indeed! That's a smart bit of work, sir. I see--I understand! Bless my +soul! And what do you gather from that, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"This!" answered Allerdyke. "Just now, Mrs. Marlow said to me, speaking +of her photo--the fourth print, you know--'I misplaced it some time +ago,' she said, 'and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it +accidentally this morning.' Now then, Chettle, here's the thing--somebody +took that fourth print from Mrs. Marlow, reproduced it--and that--that +print which you found in Lydenberg's watch is the reproduction!" + +"So that," began Chettle suggestively, "so that--" + +"So that the thing now is to find who it is that made the reproduction," +said Allerdyke. "When we've found him--or her--I reckon we shall have +found the man who's at the heart of all this. Leave that to me! Keep this +a dead secret until I tell you to speak--we shall have to tell all this, +and a bonny sight more, to your bosses at headquarters--off you go to +Hull, and do what you have to do, and I'll get on with my work here. I +said I didn't know whether this discovery makes things thicker or +clearer, but, by George, it's a step forward anyway!" + +Chettle put the reproduction back into the case of the watch and bestowed +it safely in his pocket. + +"One step forward's a good deal in a case like this, Mr. Allerdyke," he +said. "What are you going to do about the next step, now?" + +"Try to find out who made that reproduction," replied Allerdyke bluntly. +"No easy job, either! The ground's continually shifting and changing +under one's very feet. But I don't mind telling you my present +theory--somebody's got information of that jewel deal from Fullaway's +office, somebody who had access to his papers, somebody who managed to +steal that photo of mine from Mrs. Marlow for a few days or until they +could reproduce it. What I want to find now is--an idea of that somebody. +And--I'll get it!--I'll move heaven and earth to get it! But--other +matters. You say your folks at the Yard are going to follow up that +Perrigo woman's clue? They think it important, then?" + +"In the case of the Frenchwoman, yes," answered Chettle. He thrust his +hand into a side-pocket and brought out a crumpled paper. "Here's a proof +of the bill they're getting out," he said. "They set to work on that as +soon as they'd got the information. That'll be up outside every +police-station in a few hours, and it's gone out to the Press, too." + +Allerdyke took the proof, still damp from the machine, and looked it +over. It asked, in the usual formal language, for any information about a +young man, dark, presumably a foreigner, who, about the middle of March, +was in the habit of taking two pug dogs, generally bedecked with blue +ribbons, into Kensington Gardens. + +"There ought to be some response to that, you know, Mr. Allerdyke," +remarked Chettle. "Somebody must remember and know something about that +young fellow. But, upon my soul, as I said to Blindway just now, I don't +know whether that bill's a mere advertisement or a--death warrant!" + +"Death warrant!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What d'you mean?" + +Chettle chuckled knowingly. + +"Mean," he said. "Why, this--if that young fellow who led pugs about, and +talked to Mamselle Lisette in Kensington Gardens, is another of the cat's +paws that this gang evidently made use of, I should say that when the +gang sees he's being searched for, they'll out him, just as they outed +her and Lydenberg. That's what I mean, Mr. Allerdyke--they'll do him in +themselves before anybody else can get at him! See?" + +Allerdyke saw. And when the detective had gone, he threw himself into a +chair, lighted one of his strongest cigars, drew pen, ink, and paper to +him, and began to work at his problem with a grim determination to evolve +at any rate a clear theory of its possible solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + +Next morning, as Allerdyke was leaving the hotel with the intention of +going down to Gresham Street, one of the hall-porters ran after and +hailed him. + +"You're wanted at the telephone, sir," he said. "Call for you just +come through." + +Allerdyke went back, to find himself hailed by Blindway. Would he drive +on to the Yard at once and bring Mr. Fullaway with him?--both were +wanted, particularly in connection with the Perrigo information. + +Allerdyke promised for himself, and went upstairs to find Fullaway. He +met him coming down, and gave him the message. Fullaway looked undecided. + +"You know what I told you yesterday, Allerdyke," he said. "I didn't want +to be bothered further with these police chaps. Van Koon and I are on a +line of our own, and--" + +"As you like," interrupted Allerdyke, "but all the same, if I were in +your place I shouldn't refuse a chance of acquiring information. Even if +you don't want to tell the police anything, that's no reason why you +shouldn't learn something from them." + +"There's that in it, certainly," assented Fullaway. "All right. You get a +taxi and I'll join you in a minute or two." + +As they got out of one cab at the police headquarters Celia Lennard +appeared in another. She made a little grimace as the two men +greeted her. + +"Again!" she exclaimed, "What are we going to be treated to now? More old +women with vague stories, I suppose. What good is it at all? And when am +I going to hear something about my jewels?" + +"You never know what you're going to hear when you visit these palatial +halls," answered Fullaway. "You may be going to have the biggest surprise +of your life, you know. They sent for you?" + +"Rang me up in the middle of my breakfast," answered Celia. "Well--let's +find out what new sensation this is. Some extraordinary creature on view +again, of course." + +The creature on view proved to be a little fat man, obviously French or +Swiss, who sat, his rotund figure tightly enveloped in a frock-coat, the +lapel of which was decorated with a bit of ribbon, on the edge of a chair +facing the chief's desk. He was a nervous, alert little man; his +carefully trimmed moustache and pointed beard quivered with excitement; +his dark eyes blazed. And at sight of the elegantly attired lady he +bounced out of his chair, swept his silk hat to the ground, and executed +a deep bow of the most extreme politeness. + +"This," observed the chief, with a smile at his visitors, "is Monsieur +Aristide Bonnechose. M. Bonnechose believes that he can tell us +something. It is a supplement to what Mrs. Perrigo told us yesterday. It +relates, of course to the young man whom Mrs. Perrigo told us of--the +young man who led pugs in Kensington Gardens." + +"The pogs of Madame, my spouse," said M. Bonnechose, with a bow and a +solemn expression. "Two pogs--Fifi and Chou-Chou." + +"M. Bonnechose," continued the chief, regarding his company with yet +another smile, "is the proprietor of a--what is your establishment, +monsieur?" + +"Cáfe-restaurant, monsieur," replied M. Bonnechose, promptly and +politely. "Small, but elegant. Of my name, monsieur--the Cafe Bonnechose, +Oxford Street. Established nine years--I succeeded to a former +proprietor, Monsieur Jules, on his lamented decease." + +"I think M. Bonnechose had better tell us his history in his own +fashion," remarked the chief, looking around. "You are aware, Mr. +Allerdyke, and you, too, Mr. Fullaway, and so I suppose are you Miss +Lennard, that after hearing what Mrs. Perrigo had to tell us I put out a +bill asking for information about the young man Mrs. Perrigo described, +and the matter was also mentioned in last night's and this morning's +papers. M. Bonnechose read about it in his newspaper, and so he came here +at once. He tells me that he knew a young man who was good enough during +the early spring, to occasionally take out Madame Bonnechose's prize dogs +for an airing. That seems to have been the same man referred to by Mrs. +Perrigo. Now, M. Bonnechose, give us the details." + +M. Bonnechose set down his tall, very Parisian hat on the edge of +the chief's desk, and proceeded to use his hands in conjunction with +his tongue. + +"With pleasure, monsieur," he responded. "It is this way, then. You will +comprehend that Madame, my spouse, and myself are of the busiest. We do +not keep a great staff; accordingly we have much to do ourselves. +Consequently we have not much time to go out, to take the air. Madame, my +spouse, she has a love for the dogs--she keeps two, Fifi and +Chou-Chou--pogs. What they call pedigree dogs--valuable. Beautiful +animals--but needing exercise. It is a trouble to Madame that they cannot +disport themselves more frequently. Now, about the beginning of this +spring, a young man--compatriot of my own--a Swiss from the Vaud +canton--he begins coming to my cafe. Sometimes he comes for his +lunch--sometimes he drops in, as they say, for a cup of coffee. We find +out, he and I, that we come from the same district. In the event, we +become friendly." + +"This young man's name, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"What we knew him by--Federman," replied M. Bonnechose. "Carl Federman. +He told me he was looking out for a job as valet to a rich man. He had +been a waiter--somewhere in London--some hotel, I think--I did not pay +much attention. Anyway, while he was looking for his job he certainly had +plenty of money--plenty! He do himself very well with his +lunches--sometimes he come and have his dinner at night. We are not +expensive, you understand--nice lunch for two shillings, nice dinner for +three--nothing to him, that--he always carry plenty of money in his +pockets. Well, then, of course, having nothing to do, often he talks to +me and Madame. One day we talk of the pogs, then walking about the +establishment. He remarks that they are too fat. Madame sighs and says +the poor darlings do not get sufficient exercise. He is good-natured, +this Federman--he say at once 'I will exercise them--I, myself,' So he +come next day, like a good friend, Madame puts blue ribbons on the pogs, +and bids them behave nicely--away they go with Federman for the +excursion. Many days he thus takes them--to Hyde Park, to Kensington +Gardens--out of the neighbourliness, you understand. Madame is much +obliged to him--she regards him as a kind young man--eh? And then, all of +a sudden, we do not see Federman any more--no. Nor hear of him until +monsieur asks for news of him in the papers. I see that news last +night--Madame sees it! We start--we look at each other--we regard +ourselves with comprehension. We both make the same exclamation--'It is +Federman! He is wanted! He has done something!' Then Madame says, +'Aristide, in the morning, you will go to the police commissary,' I say +'It shall be done--we will have no mystery around the Cafe Bonnechose.' +Monsieur, I am here--and I have spoken!" + +"And that is all you know, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"All, monsieur, absolutely all!" + +"About when was it that this young man first came to your cafe, then?" + +"About the beginning of March, or end of February, monsieur--it was the +beginning of the good weather, you understand." + +"And he left off coming--when?" + +"Beginning of April, monsieur--after that we never see him again. Often +we say to ourselves, 'Where is Federman?' The pogs, they look at the seat +which he was accustomed to take, as much as to ask the same question. +But," concluded M. Bonnechose, with a dismal shake of his close-cropped +head, and a spreading forth of his hands, "he never visit us no +more--no!" + +"Now, listen, M. Bonnechose," said the chief; "did this man ever give you +any particulars about himself?" + +"None but what I have told you, monsieur--and which I do not now +remember." + +"Ever tell you where he lived in London---at the time he was +visiting you?" + +"No, monsieur--never." + +"Did he ever come to your place accompanied by anybody? Bring any +friends there?" + +M. Bonnechose put himself into an attitude of deep thought. He remained +in it for a moment or two; then he exchanged it for one of joyful +recollection. + +"On one occasion, a lady!" he exclaimed. "A Frenchwoman. Tall--that is, +taller than is usual amongst Frenchwomen--slender--elegant. Dark--dark, +black eyes--not beautiful, you understand, but--engaging." + +"Lisette!" muttered Celia. + +"On only one occasion, you say, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. +"When was it?" + +"About the time I speak of, monsieur. They came in one night--rather +late. They had a light supper--nothing much." + +"He did not tell you who she was?" + +"Not a word, monsieur! He was, as a rule, very secretive, this Federman, +saying little about his own affairs." + +"You don't remember that he ever brought any one else there! No men, for +instance?" + +M. Bonnechose shook his head. Then, once again, his face brightened. + +"No!" he said. "But once--just once--I saw Federman talking to a man in +the street--Shaftesbury Avenue. A clean-shaven man, well built, brown +hair--a Frenchman, I think. But, of course, a stranger to me." + +The chief exchanged a glance with Allerdyke and Fullaway--both knew what +that glance meant. M. Bonnechose's description tallied remarkably with +that of the man who had gone to Eastbourne Terrace Hotel with Lisette +Beaurepaire. + +"A clean-shaven man, with brown hair, and well built, eh?" said the +chief. "And when--" + +Just then an interruption came in the person of a man who entered the +room and gave evident signs of a desire to tell something to his +superior. The chief left his chair, went across to the door, and received +a communication which was evidently of considerable moment. He turned and +beckoned Blindway; the three went out of the room. Several minutes +passed; then the chief came back alone, and looked at his visitors with a +glance of significance. + +"We have just got news of something that relates, I think, to the +very subject we were discussing," he said. "A young man has been found +dead in bed at a City hotel this morning under very suspicious +circumstances--circumstances very similar to those of the Eastbourne +Terrace affair. And," he went on, glancing at a scrap of paper which he +held in his hand, "the description of him very closely resembles that of +this man Federman. Of course, it's not an uncommon type, but--" + +"Another of 'em!" exclaimed Allerdyke. He had suddenly remembered what +Chettle had said about the new bill being a possible death-warrant, and +the words started irrepressibly to his lips. "Good Lord!" + +The chief gave him a quick glance; it seemed as if he instinctively +divined what was passing in Allerdyke's mind. + +"I'm sorry to trouble you," he said, without referring to Allerdyke's +interruption, "but I'm afraid I must ask you--all of you--to run down to +this City hotel with me. We mustn't leave a stone unturned, and if any of +you can identify this man--" + +"Oh, you don't want me, surely!" cried Celia. "Please let me off--I do so +hate that sort of thing!" + +"Naturally," remarked the chief. "But I'm afraid I want you more than +any one, Miss Lennard--you and M. Bonnechose. Come--we'll go at +once--Blindway has gone down to get two cabs for us." + +Blindway, M. Bonnechose, and Fullaway rode to the City in one cab; Celia, +Allerdyke, and the chief in another. Their journey came to an end in a +quiet old street near the Docks, and at the door of an old-fashioned +looking hotel. There was a much-worried landlord, and a detective or two, +and sundry police to meet them, and inquisitive eyes looked out of doors +and round corners as they went upstairs to a door which was guarded by +two constables. The chief turned to Celia with a word of encouragement. + +"One look will answer the purpose," he said quietly. "But--look closely!" + +The next moment all six were standing round a narrow bed on which was +laid out the dead body of a young man. The face, calm, composed, looked +more like that of a man who lay quietly and peacefully asleep than one +who had died under suspicious circumstances. + +"Well?" asked the chief presently. "What do you say, Miss Lennard?" + +Celia caught her breath. + +"This--this is the man who came to Hull," she whispered. "The man, you +know, who called himself Lisette's brother. I knew him instantly." + +"And you, M. Bonnechose?" said the chief. "Do you recognize him?" + +The cafe-keeper, who had been making inarticulate murmurs of surprise and +grief, nodded. + +"Federman!" he said. "Oh, yes, monsieur--Federman, without doubt. +Poor fellow!" + +The chief turned to leave the room, saying quietly that that was all he +wished. But Fullaway, who had been staring moodily at the dead man, +suddenly stopped him. "Look here!" he said. "I know this man, too--but +not as Federman. I'm not mistaken about him, and I don't think Miss +Lennard or M. Bonnechose are, either. But I knew him as Fritz Ebers. He +acted as my valet at the Waldorf from the beginning of April to about the +end of the first week in May last. And--since we now know what we +do--it's my opinion that there--there in that dead man--is the last of +the puppets! The Frenchwoman--Lydenberg--now this fellow--all three got +rid of! Now, then--where's the man who pulled the strings! Where's the +arch-murderer!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + +The chief made no immediate reply to Fullaway's somewhat excited +outburst; he led his little party from the room, and in the corridor +turned to Celia and the café keeper. + +"That's all, Miss Lennard, thank you," he said. "Sorry to have to ask you +to take part in these painful affairs, but it can't be helped. M. +Bonnechose, I'm obliged to you--you'll hear from me again very soon. In +the meantime, keep counsel--don't talk to anybody except Madame--no +gossiping with customers, you know. Mr. Allerdyke, will you see Miss +Lennard downstairs and into a cab, and then join Mr. Fullaway and me +again?--we must have a talk with the police and the hotel people." + +When Allerdyke went back into the hotel he found Blindway waiting for him +at the door of a ground-floor room in which the chief, Fullaway, a City +police-inspector and a detective were already closeted with the landlord +and landlady. The landlord, a somewhat sullen individual, who appeared to +be greatly vexed and disconcerted by these events, was already being +questioned by the chief as to what he knew of the young man whose body +they had just seen, and he was replying somewhat testily. + +"I know no more about him than I know of any chance customer," he was +saying when Allerdyke was ushered in by Blindway, who immediately closed +the door on this informal conclave. "You see what this house is?--a +second-class house for gentlemen having business in this part, round +about the Docks. We get a lot of commercial gentlemen, sea-faring men, +such-like. Lots of our customers are people who are going to foreign +places--Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and so on--they put up here just for +the night, before sailing. I took this young man for one of that sort--in +fact, I think he made some inquiry about one of the boats." + +"He did," affirmed the landlady. "He asked William, the head-waiter, what +time the Rotterdam steamer sailed this morning." + +"And that's about all we know," continued the landlord. "I never took any +particular notice of him, and--" + +"Just answer a few questions," said the chief, interrupting him quietly. +"We shall get at what we want to know more easily that way. What time did +this young man come to the hotel yesterday?" + +The landlord turned to his wife with an expressive gesture. + +"Ask her," he answered. "She looks after all that--I'm not so much in +the office." + +"He came at seven o'clock last night," said the landlady. "I was in the +office, and I booked him and gave him his room--27." + +"Was he alone?" + +"Quite alone. He'd the suit-case that's upstairs in the room now, and an +overcoat and an umbrella." + +"Of course," said the chief, "he gave you some name--some address?" + +"He gave the name and address of Frank Herman, Walthamstow," replied the +landlady, opening a ledger which she had brought into the room. "There +you are--that's his writing." + +The chief drew the book to him, glanced at the entry, and closed the book +again, keeping a finger in it. + +"Well, what was seen of him during the evening!" he asked. + +"Nothing much," replied the landlady. "He had his supper in the +coffee-room--a couple of chops and coffee. He was reading the papers in +the smoking-room until about half-past ten; I saw him myself going +upstairs between that and eleven. As I didn't see him about next morning +and as his breakfast wasn't booked, I asked where he was, and the +chambermaid said there was a card on his door saying that he wasn't to be +called till eleven." + +"Where is that card?" asked the chief. + +"It's here in this envelope," answered the landlady, who seemed to be +much more alert and much sharper of intellect than her husband. "I took +care of it when we found out what had happened. I suppose you'll take +charge of it?" + +"If you please," answered the chief. He took the envelope, looked +inside it to make sure that the card was there, and turned to the +landlady again. + +"Yes?" he said. "When you found out what had happened. Now, who did find +out what had happened?" + +"Well," answered the landlady, "the chambermaid came down soon after +eleven, and said she couldn't get 27 to answer her knock. Of course, I +understood that he wanted to catch the Rotterdam boat which sailed about +noon, so I sent my husband up. And as he couldn't get any answer--" + +"I went in with the chambermaid's key," broke in the landlord, "and there +he was--just as you've seen him--dead. And if you ask me, he was cold, +too--been dead some time, in my opinion." + +"The surgeon said several hours--six or seven," remarked the inspector in +an aside to the chief. "Thought he'd been dead since four o'clock." + +"No signs of anything in the room, I suppose?" asked the chief. "Nothing +disturbed, eh?" + +"Nothing!" replied the landlord stolidly. "The room was as you'd expect +to find it; tidy enough. And nothing touched--as the police that were +called in at first can testify. They can swear as his money was all right +and his watch and chain all right--there'd been no robbery. And," he +added with resentful emphasis, "I don't care what you nor nobody +says!--'tain't no case of murder, this! It's suicide, that's what it is. +I don't want my house to get the name and character of a murder place! I +can't help it if a quiet-looking, apparently respectable young fellow +comes and suicides himself in my house--there's nobody can avoid that, as +I know of, but when it comes to murder--" + +"No one has said anything about murder so far," interrupted the chief +quietly. "But since you suggest it, perhaps we'd better ask who you'd got +in the house last night." He opened the register at the page in which he +had kept his finger, and looked at the last entries. "I see that +three--no, four--people came in after this young man who called himself +Frank Herman. You booked them, I suppose?" he went on, turning to the +landlady. "Were they known to you?" + +"Only one--that one, Mr. Peter Donaldson, Dundee," answered the +landlady. "He's the representative of a jute firm--he often comes here. +He's in the house now, or he was, an hour ago--he'll be here for two or +three days. Those two, Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen--they appeared to be +foreigners. They were here for the night, had breakfast early, and went +away by some boat--our porter carried their things to it. Quiet, elderly +folks, they were." + +"And the fourth--John Barcombe, Manchester--you didn't know him?" asked +the chief, pointing to the last entry. "I see you gave him Number 29--two +doors from Herman." + +"Yes," said the landlady. "No--I didn't know him. He came in about nine +o'clock and had some supper before he went up. He'd his breakfast at +eight o'clock this morning, and went away at once. Lots of our +customers do that--they're just in for bed and breakfast, and we +scarcely notice them." + +"Did you notice this man--Barcombe?" asked the chief. + +"Well, not particularly. But I've a fair recollection of him. A rather +pale, stiffish-built man, lightish brown hair and moustache, dressed in a +dark suit. He'd no luggage, and he paid me for supper, bed, and breakfast +when he booked his room," replied the landlady. "Quite a quiet, +respectable man--he said something about being unexpectedly obliged to +stop for the night, but I didn't pay any great attention." + +The chief looked attentively at the open page of the register. Then he +drew the attention of those around him to the signature of John Barcombe. +It was a big, sprawling signature, all the letters sloping downward from +left to right, and being of an unusual size for a man. + +"That looks to me like a feigned handwriting," he said. "However, note +this. You see that entry of Frank Herman? Observe his handwriting. Now +compare it with the writing on the card which was fixed on the door of +27--Herman's room. Look!" + +He drew the card out of its envelope as he spoke and laid it beside the +entry in the register. And Marshall Allerdyke, bending over his shoulder +to look, almost cried out with astonishment, for the writing on the card +was certainly the same as that which Chettle had shown him on the +post-card found on Lydenberg, and on the back of the photograph of James +Allerdyke discovered in Lydenberg's watch. It was only by a big effort +that he checked the exclamation which was springing to his lips, and +stopped himself from snatching up the card from the table. + +"You observe," said the chief quietly, "you can't fail to observe that +the writing in the register, is not the writing of the card pinned on the +door of Number 27. They are quite different. The writing of Frank Herman +in the register is in thick, stunted strokes; the writing on the card is +in thin, angular, what are commonly called crabbed strokes. Yet it is +supposed that Herman put that card outside his bedroom door. How is it, +then, that Herman's handwriting was thick and stunted when he registered +at seven o'clock and slender and a bit shaky when he wrote this card at, +say, half-past ten or eleven? Of course, Herman, or whatever his real +name is, never wrote the line on that card, and never pinned that card on +his door!" + +The landlord opened his heavy lips and gasped: the landlady sighed with a +gradually awakening interest. Amidst a dead silence the chief went on +with his critical inspection of the handwriting. + +"But now look at the signature of the man who called himself John +Barcombe, of Manchester. You will observe that he signed that name in a +great, sprawling hand across the page, and that the letters slope from +left to right, downward, instead of in the usually accepted fashion of +left to right, upward. Now at first sight there is no great similarity +in the writing of that entry in the register and that on the card--one is +rounded and sprawling, and the other is thin and precise. But there is +one remarkable and striking similarity. In the entry in the register +there are two a's--the a in Barcombe, the a in Manchester. On the one +line on the card found pinned to the door there are also two a's--the a +in please; the a in call. Now observe--whether the writing is big, +sprawling, thin, precise; feigned, obviously, in one case, natural, I +think, in the other, all those four a's are the same! This man has grown +so accustomed to making his a's after the Greek fashion--a--done in one +turn of the pen--that he has made them even in his feigned handwriting! +There's not a doubt, to my mind, that the card found on Herman's door was +written, and put on that door, by the man who registered as John +Barcombe. And," he added in an undertone to Allerdyke, "I've no doubt, +either, that he's the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair." + +The landlord had risen to his feet, and was scowling gloomily at +everybody. + +"Then you are making it out to be murder?" he exclaimed sulkily. "Just +what I expected! Never had police called in yet without 'em making +mountains out of molehills! Murder, indeed!--nothing but a case of +suicide, that's what I say. And as this is a temperance hotel, and not a +licensed house, I'll be obliged to you if you'll have that body taken +away to the mortuary--I shall be having the character of my place taken +away next, and then where shall I be I should like to know!" + +He swung indignantly out of the room, and his wife, murmuring that it was +certainly very hard on innocent people that these things went on, +followed him. The police, giving no heed to these protests, proceeded to +examine the articles taken from the dead man's clothing. Whatever had +been the object of the murderer, it was certainly not robbery. There was +a purse and a pocket-book, containing a considerable amount of money in +gold and notes; a good watch and chain, and a ring or two of some value. + +"Just the same circumstances as in the Eastbourne Terrace affair," said +the chief as he rose. "Well--the thing is to find that man. You've no +doubt whatever, Mr. Fullaway, that this dead man upstairs is the man you +knew as Ebers, a valet at your hotel?" + +"None!" answered Fullaway emphatically. "None whatever. Lots of people +will be able to identify him." + +"That's good, at any rate," remarked the chief. "It's a long step +towards--something. Well, I must go." + +Allerdyke was in more than half a mind to draw the chief aside and tell +him about Chettle's discoveries as regards the handwriting, but while he +hesitated Fullaway tugged earnestly at his sleeve. + +"Come away!" whispered Fullaway. "Come! We're going to cut in at this +ourselves!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + +Allerdyke was scarcely prepared for the feverish energy with which +Fullaway dragged him out of the hotel, forced him into the first taxi-cab +they met, and bade the driver make haste to the Waldorf. He knew by that +time that the American was a nervous, excitable individual who now and +then took on tremendous fits of work in which he hustled and bustled +everybody around him, but he had never seen him quite so excited and +eager as now. The discovery at that shabby hotel which they had just +quitted seemed to have acted on him like the smell of powder on an old +war-horse; he appeared to be positively panting for action. + +"Allerdyke!" he almost shouted as the cab moved away, and he himself +smote one clenched fist upon the other. "Allerdyke--this thing has got to +go through! I resign all claim to that reward. Allerdyke!--this affair is +too serious for any hole-and-corner work. I shall tell Van Koon that what +we know, or fancy, must be thrown into the common stock of knowledge! The +thing is to get at the people who've been behind this poor chap Ebers, or +Federman, or Herman, or whatever his name is. Allerdyke!--we must go +right into things." + +Allerdyke laughed sardonically. When Fullaway developed excitement, he +developed coolness, and his voice became as dry and hard as the other's +was fervid and eloquent. + +"Aye!" he said in his most phlegmatic tones. "Aye, just so! And where +d'ye intend to cut in, now, like? Is it a sort of Gordian knot affair +that you're thinking of? Going to solve this difficulty at one blow?" + +"Don't be sarcastic," retorted Fullaway. "I'm going to take things clean +up from this Federman or Ebers affair. I'm going deep--deep! You'll see +in a few minutes." + +"Willing to see--and to hear--aught," remarked Allerdyke laconically. +"I've been doing naught else since I got that wireless telegram." + +Then they relapsed into silence until the Waldorf was reached. +There Fullaway raced his companion upstairs to his rooms and burst +in upon Mrs. Marlow like a whirlwind. The pretty secretary, busied +with her typewriter, looked up, glanced at both men, and calmly +resumed her labours. + +"Mrs. Marlow!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Just step to Mr. Van Koon's rooms +and beg him to come back here to my sitting-room with you--important +business, Mrs. Marlow--I want you, too." + +Allerdyke, closely watching the woman around whom so much mystery +centred, saw that she did not move so much as an eyelash. She laid her +work aside, left the room, and within a minute returned with Van Koon, +who gazed at Fullaway with an air of half-amused inquiry. + +"Something happened?" he asked, nodding to Allerdyke. "Town on fire?" + +"Van Koon, sit down," commanded Fullaway, pushing his compatriot into the +inner room. "Mrs. Marlow, fasten that outer door and come in here. We're +going to have a stiff conference. Sit down, please, all of you. Now," he +went on, when the other three had ranged themselves about the centre +table, "There is news, Van Koon. Allerdyke and I have just come away from +an hotel in the Docks where we've seen the dead body of a young man who's +been found dead there under precisely similar circumstances to those +which attended the death of the French maid in Eastbourne Terrace. We've +also heard a description of a man who was at this hotel in the Docks last +night--it corresponds to that of the fellow who accompanied Lisette +Beaurepaire. I, personally, have no doubt that this man, whoever he is, +is the murderer of Lisette and of this youngster whose body we've just +seen. Mrs. Marlow, this dead young fellow, from whose death-chamber we've +just come, is that valet I used to have here--Ebers. You remember him?" + +"Sure!" answered Mrs. Marlow, quite calmly and unconcernedly. "Very +well indeed." + +"This Ebers," continued Fullaway, turning to Van Koon, "was a young +fellow, Swiss, German, something of that sort, who acted as valet to me +and to some other men here in this hotel for a time. I needn't go into +too many details now, but there's no doubt that he knew, and was in touch +with, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Miss Lennard positively identifies him as +the man who met her and Lisette at Hull, and represented himself as +Lisette's brother. Now then, Ebers--we'll stick to that name for the sake +of clearness--was in and out of my rooms a good deal, of course. And +what I want to know now, Mrs. Marlow, is--do you think he got access to +our letters, papers, books? Could he find out, for instance, that I was +engaged in this deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin, +and that Miss Lennard had bought the Pinkie Pell pearls? Think!" + +Mrs. Marlow had evidently done her thinking; she replied without +hesitation. + +"If he did, or could, it would be through your own carelessness, +Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You know that I am ridiculously careful +about that sort of thing! From the time I come here in the +morning--ten-o'clock--until I leave at five, no one has any chance of +seeing our papers, or our letter book, or our telegram-copies book. They +are always on my desk while I am in the office, and when I go downstairs +to lunch I lock them up in the safe. But--you're not careful! How many +times have I come in the morning, and found that you've taken these +things out of the safe over-night and left them lying about for anybody +to see? Dozens of times!" + +"I know--I know!" admitted Fullaway with a groan. "I'm frightfully +careless--always was. I quite admit it, Mrs. Marlow, quite!" + +"Of course," continued Mrs. Marlow, in precise, even tones, "of course if +you left the letter-book lying round, and the book in which the +duplicates of all our telegrams and cablegrams are kept, too--why, this +Ebers man could easily read what he liked for himself when he was in here +of a morning before you got up. He was in and out a great deal, that's +certain. And as regards those two affairs, the documents we have about +them are pretty plain, Mr. Fullaway. Anybody of average intelligence +could find out in ten minutes from our letter-book and telegram-book that +we negotiated the sale of the Pinkie Pell pearls to Miss Lennard, and +that Mr. James Allerdyke was bringing here a valuable parcel of jewels +from Russia. And," concluded Mrs. Marlow quietly, "from what I saw of +him, Ebers was a smart man." + +Van Koon, who had been listening attentively to all this, turned a +half-whimsical, half-reproving glance on Fullaway, who sat in a contrite +attitude, drumming his fingers on the polished table. + +"I guess you're a very careless individual, my friend," he said, shaking +his head. "If you will leave your important papers lying about, as this +lady says you're in the habit of doing, what do you expect? Now, you've +been wondering who got wind of this jewel deal, and here's the very proof +that you gave every chance to this Ebers to acquaint himself with it! And +what I'd like to know now, Fullaway, is this--what use do you suppose +this young fellow made of the information he acquired? That seems to me +to be the point." + +"Yes!" exclaimed Allerdyke suddenly. "That is the point!" + +Fullaway smote the table. + +"The thing's obvious!" he cried. "He sold his information to a gang. +There must have been--I mean must be--a gang. It's utterly impossible +that all this could have been worked by one man. The man we've heard of +in connection with the deaths of Lisette Beaurepaire and of Ebers himself +is only one of the combination. I'm as sure of that as I am that I see +you. But--who are they?" + +Nobody answered this question. Allerdyke plunged his hands in his pockets +and stared at Fullaway; Mrs. Marlow began to trace imaginary patterns on +the surface of the table; Van Koon produced a penknife and began to +scrape the edges of his filbert nails with a preoccupied air. + +"There's the thing I've insisted on all along, Fullaway, you know," he +said at last, finding that no one seemed inclined to speak. "I've +insisted on it, but you've always put it off. I don't care what you +say--it'll have to come to it. Let me suggest it, now, to our friends +here--they're both cute enough, I reckon!" + +"Oh, as you please, as you please!" replied Fullaway, with a wave of his +hands. "Say anything you like, Van Koon--it seems as if too much couldn't +be said at this juncture." + +"All right," answered Van Koon. He turned to Allerdyke and Mrs. Marlow. +"Ever since this affair was brought under my notice," he said, "I've +pointed out to Fullaway certain features in connection with it. +First--there's no evidence whatever that this plot originated in or was +worked from Russia. Second--there is evidence that it began here in +London and was carried out from London. And following on that second +proposition comes another. Fullaway knew that these jewels were +coming--" + +He paused and gave the secretary a keen look. And Allerdyke, watching her +just as keenly, saw her face and eyes as calm and inscrutable as ever; it +was absolutely evident that nothing could move this woman, no chance word +or allusion take her unawares. Van Koon smiled, and leaned nearer. + +"But," he said, tapping the table in emphasis of his words, "there was +somebody else who knew of this deal, somebody whose name Fullaway there +steadfastly refuses to bring in. Delkin!" + +Fullaway suddenly laughed, throwing up his arms. + +"Delkin!" he exclaimed satirically. "A millionaire several times over! +The thing's ridiculous, Van Koon! Delkin would kick me out if I went and +asked him--" + +"Delkin will have to be asked," interrupted Van Koon. "You will not face +the facts, Fullaway. Millionaire, multimillionaire, Delkin was the third +person (I'm leaving this valet, Ebers, clean out, though I've not the +slightest doubt he was one of the pieces of the machine) who knew that +James Allerdyke was bringing two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth +of jewels for his, Delkin's approval! That's a fact, Fullaway, which +cannot be got over." + +"Psha!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I suppose you think Delkin, who could buy up +the best jeweller's shop in London or Paris and throw its contents to the +street children to play with--" + +"What is it that's in your mind, Mr. Van Koon?" asked Allerdyke, +interrupting Fullaway's eloquence. "You've some theory?" + +"Well, I don't know about theory," answered Van Koon, "but I guess I've +got some natural common sense. If Fullaway there thinks I'm suggesting +that Delkin organized a grand conspiracy to rob James Allerdyke, +Fullaway's wrong--I'm not. What I am suggesting, and have been suggesting +this last three days, is that Delkin should be asked a plain and simple +question, which is this--did he ever tell anybody of this proposed deal? +If so--whom did he tell? And if that isn't business," concluded Van Koon, +"then I don't know business when I see it!" + +"What's your objection?" asked Allerdyke, looking across at Fullaway. +"What objection can you have?" + +Fullaway shook his head. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he said. "Except that it seems immaterial, and that I +don't want to bother Delkin. I'm hoping that these jewels will be found, +and that I'll be able to complete the transaction, and--besides, I don't +believe for one instant that Delkin would tell anybody. I only had two +interviews with Delkin--one at his hotel, one here. He understood the +affair was an entirely private and secret transaction." + +Mrs. Marlow suddenly raised her head, and spoke quickly. + +"You're forgetting something, Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You had a letter +from Mr. Delkin confirming the provisional agreement, which was that he +should have the first option of buying the Princess Nastirsevitch's +jewels, then being brought by Mr. James Allerdyke from Russia." + +"True--true!" exclaimed Fullaway, clapping a hand to his forehead. "So I +had! I'd forgotten that. But, after all, it was purely a private letter +from Delkin, and--" + +"No," interrupted Mrs. Marlow. "It was written and signed by Mr. Delkin's +secretary. So that the secretary knew of the transaction." + +Van Koon shook his head and glanced at Allerdyke. + +"There you are!" he said. "The secretary knew--Delkin's secretary! How do +we know that Delkin's secretary--?" + +"Oh, that's all rot, Van Koon!" exclaimed Fullaway testily. +"Delkin's secretary, Merrifield, has been with him for years to my +knowledge, and--" + +But Allerdyke had suddenly risen and was picking up his hat from a side +table. He turned to Fullaway as he put it on. + +"I quite agree with Mr. Van Koon," he said, "and as I'm James +Allerdyke's cousin and his executor, I'm going to step round and see +this Mr. Delkin at his hotel--the Cecil, you said. It's no use trifling, +Fullaway--Delkin knew, and Mrs. Marlow now tells us his secretary knew. +All right!--my job is to see, in person, anybody who knew. Then, maybe, +I myself shall get to know." + +Van Koon, too, rose. + +"I know Delkin, slightly," he said. "I'll go with you." + +At that, Fullaway jumped up, evidently annoyed and unwilling, but +prepared to act against his own wishes. + +"Oh, all right, all right!" he exclaimed. "In that case we'll all go. +Come on--it's only across the Strand. Back after lunch, Mrs. Marlow, if +anybody wants me." + +The three men marched out, and left the pretty secretary standing by the +table from which they had all risen. She stood there for a few minutes in +deep thought--stood until a single stroke from the clock on the +mantelpiece roused her. At that she walked into the outer office, put on +her coat and hat, and, leaving the hotel, went sharply off in the +direction of Arundel Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + + +As the three men threaded their way through the crowded Strand and +approached the Hotel Cecil, Fullaway suddenly drew their attention to a +private automobile which was turning in at the entrance to the courtyard. + +"There's Delkin, in his car," he exclaimed, "and, great Scott, there's +our Princess with him--Nastirsevitch! But who's the other man? Looks like +a compatriot of ours, Van Koon, eh?" + +Van Koon, who had been staring about him as they crossed over from the +corner of Wellington Street, turned and glanced at the occupants of the +car. Allerdyke was looking there, too. He had never seen Delkin as yet, +and he was curious to set eyes on a man who had made several millions out +of canning meat. He had no very clear conception of American +millionaires, and he scarcely knew what he expected to see. But there +were two men in the car with the Princess Nastirsevitch, and they were +both middle-aged. One man was a tall, handsome, military-looking fellow, +dressed in grey tweeds and wearing a Homburg hat of light grey with a +darker band; his upturned, grizzled moustache gave him a smart, rather +aggressive appearance; the monocle in his eye added to his general +impressiveness. The other man was not particularly impressive--a medium +sized, rather plump little man, with a bland, smiling countenance and +mild eyes beaming through gold-rimmed spectacles; he sat with his back to +the driver, and was just then leaning forward to tell something to the +Princess and the man in the Homburg hat who were bending towards him and, +smiling at what he said. + +"Which of 'em is Delkin, then?" asked Allerdyke as the automobile swept +into the courtyard. "Big or little?" + +"The little fellow with the spectacles," replied Fullaway. "Quiet, +unobtrusive man, Delkin--but cute as they're made. Know the other man, +Van Koon?" + +Van Koon had twisted round and was staring back in the direction from +which they had come, he shook his head, a little absent-mindedly. + +"Not from Adam," he answered, "but there's a man--Bostonian--just gone +along there that I do know and want to see badly. Wait a bit for me in +the courtyard there, Fullaway--shan't be long." + +He turned as he spoke, and darted off through the crowd, unusually dense +at that moment because of the luncheon hour. Fullaway, making no comment, +walked forward into the courtyard and looked about him. Suddenly he +nodded his head towards a far corner. + +"There's Delkin and the Princess, and the man who was with them, sitting +at a table over there," he said. "I didn't know that Delkin and the +Princess were acquainted. But then, of course, they're both staying in +this hotel, and they're both American. Well, shall we go to them now, +Allerdyke, or shall we sit down here and wait a bit for Van Koon?" + +"We'll wait," replied Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair and drew out his +cigarette-case. "Have a drink while we're waiting?" he suggested, +beckoning a waiter who was passing. "What's it to be?" + +"Oh--something small, then," said Fullaway. "Dry sherry. Better bring +three--Van Koon won't be long." + +But the minutes passed and Van Koon was still absent. Ten minutes more +went, and still he did not come. And Fullaway pulled out his watch with +an air of annoyance. + +"Too bad of Van Koon," he said. "Time's going, and I know Delkin lunches +at two o'clock. Come on, Allerdyke," he continued, rising, "we'll go over +to Delkin. If Van Koon comes, he'll find us. He's probably gone off with +that other man, though--he's an absent-minded chap in some things, and +too much given to the affair of the moment. Come on--I'll introduce you." + +The Chicago millionaire, once put in possession of Allerdyke's name, +looked at him with manifest curiosity, and motioned him and Fullaway to +take seats with himself and his two companions. + +"We were just talking of your case, Mr. Allerdyke," he said quietly. "The +Princess, of course, has told me about you. Fullaway, I don't know if you +know this gentleman--his name's well enough known, anyway. This gentleman +is Mr. Chilverton, the famous New York detective. Chilverton--Mr. +Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke both looked at the man in the Homburg hat with +great interest as they shook hands with him. Fullaway at any rate knew of +his world-wide reputation; Allerdyke faintly remembered that he had heard +of him in connection with some great criminal affair. + +"Been telling Mr. Chilverton about our business, Mr. Delkin?" asked +Fullaway pleasantly. "Asking his expert advice?" + +"I've told him no more than what he could read for himself in the +newspapers," answered Delkin. "He's got stuff of his own to attend to, +here in London. About our affair now, as you call it, Fullaway. It's not +my affair, or I guess I'd have been more into it by this time. The +Princess here thinks things are going real slow, and so do I. What do you +think, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"It's a case in which things go slow of sheer necessity," replied +Allerdyke. "It's a case of widespread ramifications--to use a long word. +But--we keep having developments, Mr. Delkin. There's been one this +morning. We came to see you about it--and perhaps you'll let Fullaway +tell!--he'll put things into fewer words than I should." + +"Sure!" answered the millionaire. "Go ahead, Fullaway--we're all +interested." + +Fullaway briefly told the story of the discovery at the hotel in the +Docks that morning, and explained the deductions which had been made from +it. He detailed the connection of Ebers, alias Federman or Herman, with +himself, and reported the conversation which had just taken place at his +own rooms. And then he turned to Allerdyke, with an expressive gesture. + +"I'll let Allerdyke say why we came here," he said. "It was his idea and +Van Koon's--not mine. Your turn, Allerdyke." + +"I shan't be slow to take it," responded Allerdyke, stirring himself. +"I'm one business man--Mr. Delkin's another. I only want to ask you, +Mr. Delkin, if you ever talked of this jewel transaction to anybody +beyond your own secretary? It's a plain question, and you'll understand +why I ask it." + +"Of course," replied Delkin genially. "Quite right to ask. I can answer +it in one word. No! As to telling my secretary, Merrifield, who's been +with me twelve years, and is a thoroughly trustworthy man, I merely told +him sufficient for him to write and send that formal letter--he knew, and +knows (at least, not from me) no details. No, sir!--never a word from me +got about--not even to my own daughter. Of course, the Princess here and +myself have discussed matters--since she came. And now that you're here, +Fullaway, I'll tell you what I think--straight out. I think this affair +has all been planned from your own office!" + +Fullaway flushed and sat up in an attitude of sudden indignation. + +"Oh, come, Mr. Delkin!" he exclaimed. "I--" + +"Go softly, young man." said Delkin. "I mean no harm to you, and no +reflections on you. But you know, I've been in your office a few times, +and I have eyes in my head. What do you know about that fascinating young +woman you have there? I'm a pretty good judge of human nature and +character, and I should say that young lady is as clever and deep as they +make 'em. Who is she? There's one thing sure from what you've just told +us, Fullaway--you let her know all your business secrets." + +Fullaway made no attempt to conceal his chagrin and vexation. + +"I've had Mrs. Marlow in my employ for three years," he answered. "She +came to me with excellent testimonials and references. I've just as +much reason to trust her as you have to trust Merrifield. If she'd +been untrustworthy, she could have robbed or defrauded me many a time +over; she--" + +"Did she ever have the chance of getting hold of a quarter of a million's +worth of jewels before?" asked Delkin with a shrewd glance at Allerdyke. +"Come, now! Even the most trusted people fall before a very big +temptation. All business folk know that. What's Mr. Allerdyke think?" + +Allerdyke was not going to say what he thought. He was wondering if +Fullaway knew what he knew--that Mrs. Marlow was also Miss Slade, that +she had some relations with a man who also bore two different names, that +her actions were somewhat suspicious. But that was not the time to say +all this--he said something non-committal instead. + +"There seems to be no doubt that the knowledge that my cousin was +carrying the jewels leaked out here--and from Fullaway's office," +he answered. + +"Through this fellow Ebers!" broke in Fullaway excitedly. "It's all rot +to think that Mrs. Marlow had anything to do with it! Great Scott!--do +any of you mean to suggest that she engineered several murders, and--" + +Delkin laughed--a soft, cynical laugh. + +"You're lumping a lot of big stuff altogether, Fullaway," he remarked +drily. "Do you know what I think of all this business? I think that +everybody's jumping at conclusions. There are lots of questions, +problems, difficulties that want solving and answering before I come to +any conclusion. I'll tell you what they are," he went on bending forward +in his lounge chair and looking from one to the other of the faces around +him and beginning to tick off his points on the tips of his fingers. +"Listen! One--Was James Allerdyke really murdered, or did he die a +natural death? Two--Had James Allerdyke those jewels in his possession +when he entered that S---- Hotel at Hull! Three--Has the robbery, or +disappearance, of the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels anything whatever +to do with the theft of Mademoiselle de Longarde's property? Four--Was +that man Lydenberg shot in Hull as a result of some connection with +either, or both, of these affairs, or was he murdered for private or +political reasons? Let me get a clear understanding of everything that's +behind all these problems," he concluded, with a knowing smile, "and I'll +tell you something!" + +"You think it possible that the Nastirsevitch affair is the work of one +lot, and the Lennard affair the work of another?" asked Allerdyke, +thoughtfully. "In that case, I'll ask you a question, Mr. Delkin. How do +you account for the fact that my cousin James, the Frenchwoman, Lisette +Beaurepaire, and his valet, Ebers, or Federman, or Herman, were all found +dead under similar circumstances? Come, now!" + +"Aye, but were they?" demanded Delkin, clapping his hands together with a +smile of triumphantly suggestive doubt. "Were they? You don't know--and +the expert analysts don't know yet, and perhaps never will. I'll grant +you that there's a strong probability that Ebers and the French maid were +victims of the same murderer; but that doesn't prove that your cousin +was. No, sir!--my impression is that everybody is taking too much for +granted. And whether it offends you or not, Fullaway--and my intention's +good--you ought to make drastic researches into your office +procedure--you know what I mean. The leakage of the secret, sir, came +from--there!" + +Fullaway rose. + +"Well, I shan't do any good by sitting here," he said, a little huffily. +"If I'm going to begin those drastic researches I'd better begin. Coming, +Allerdyke?" + +The two men walked away together after taking leave of the millionaire +and the Princess. But before they were clear of the courtyard, +Chilverton caught them and tapped Fullaway on the elbow. + +"Say!" he said confidentially. "You won't mind my asking you--who's this +Van Koon that you mentioned?" + +"Man from our side who's been here in London all this spring," answered +Fullaway promptly. "He was coming with Allerdyke and me just now, but he +turned back--just when you and Delkin drove in here." + +Chilverton gave Fullaway a quick look. + +"Did he see me?" he asked. + +"Sure!" replied Fullaway. "Asked who you were--or I did." + +"You did," remarked Allerdyke. "Then he went off." + +"Describe him," said Chilverton. He listened attentively while Fullaway +gave him a sketch of Van Koon's appearance. "Um!" he continued. "Do you +mind my walking to your hotel with you? I believe I know that man, and +I'd like to see him." + +A hall-porter was standing at the door of the Waldorf who had been +there when the three men went out together at one o'clock. Fullaway +beckoned him. + +"Seen anything of Mr. Van Koon?" he asked. + +"Mr. Van Koon?--yes, sir. He came back a few minutes after you and Mr. +Allerdyke and he had gone out, got a suit-case from upstairs, left word +that he'd be away for the night, and went off in a taxi, sir," answered +the man. "Seemed to be in a great hurry, sir!" + +Before Fullaway could speak, Chilverton seized the hall-porter's arm. +"Did you hear him give the cab-driver any direction?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the man promptly. "St. Pancras Station, sir." + +Without a word, Chilverton turned, hurried out to the pavement, and +leapt into a taxi-cab that was standing there unengaged. In another +instant the taxi-cab was off, and Allerdyke and Fullaway turned to each +other. Then Allerdyke laughed. + +"That's why Van Koon turned back, Fullaway," he said in a low voice. "He +recognized Chilverton. Now, then--why did that recognition make him run? +And--who is he?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FIRST PURSUIT + + +For a moment Fullaway stood in the doorway of the hotel, staring towards +the mouth of Kingsway, around the corner of which Chilverton's cab had +already disappeared. Then he turned, gave Allerdyke a look of absolute +non-comprehension, and with a sudden gesture, as of surrender to +circumstances, walked into the hotel and made for the stairs. + +"That licks everything!" he muttered, as he and Allerdyke went up to the +first floor. "Tell you what it is, Allerdyke--my poor brain is getting +into a whirl! We've had quite enough excitement this morning in all +conscience, and now this comes on top of it. Now, how in creation do you +explain this last occurrence?" + +Allerdyke laughed cynically. + +"I don't know so much of the world as you do, Fullaway," he said, "but I +don't think this needs much explanation. When a man makes himself +suddenly scarce at sight of a well-known detective, I should say that man +knows the detective wants him--badly! My impression is that at this +moment your friend Van Koon is running away from Chilverton, and +Chilverton's going hot-foot after him. And--" + +They were at that moment passing the room which Van Koon had occupied, +and Allerdyke suddenly remembered the occasion on which he had seen Mrs. +Marlow steal out of it, suspiciously and furtively, and when its proper +tenant was away. He had carefully abstained from telling Fullaway about +that little incident, preferring to wait until events had further +developed. Should he tell him now--now that there seemed to be evidence +that Van Koon himself was a doubtful character? He hesitated--and while +he hesitated Fullaway strode on, flung open his office door, turned to +the letter-box at the back, and took out some letters and a telegram. He +tore the telegram open, and the next instant flung it on the table with a +fierce exclamation. + +"Damn it all, Allerdyke!" he said, waving an indignant hand at the bit of +pink paper. "What in the name of all that's wicked is the meaning of +that? Read it--read!" + +Allerdyke picked the telegram up and read it aloud. + +"Regret shall be unable to return to office for day or two; called away +on extremely urgent private business.--MARLOW." + +He laughed again as he put the telegram back and turned to Fullaway, who, +hands plunged deep in pockets and black of countenance, was stamping up +and down the room. + +"Um!" said Allerdyke. "Um! Now, in my humble opinion, Fullaway, that's a +good deal queerer than the Van Koon incident. For look you here--your +secretary was talking to us in your room there at less than five minutes +to one, and we left her here when we went out on the stroke of one. And +yet--look at the wire!--she handed that in at the East Strand post office +within ten minutes after we'd left her! What do you make of that?" + +"Damnation!" exclaimed Fullaway. "How the blazes do I know what to make +of it! I seem to be surrounded with--God knows what hellish mysteries! +Allerdyke, is there a regular devil's conspiracy, or--what is there?" + +Allerdyke made a show of looking at the telegram again. In reality, he +was considering matters. Should he tell Fullaway what he knew? He was +more than a little tempted to do so. But his natural sense of caution and +reserve stopped the words before they reached his tongue, and he took +another tack. + +"You said just now, in talking to Delkin, that you'd the greatest +confidence in this Mrs. Marlow, and had the best references with her, +Fullaway," he remarked. "What references?" + +"Good business references!" answered Fullaway excitedly. "The best! Firms +of high standing in the City. Couldn't have had better. Go and ask any of +them about her--I'll lay my last dollar they will say the same. Capital +secretary--clever woman--thoroughly trustworthy!" + +"What do you know about her private life?" asked Allerdyke. + +"What the deuce has the woman's private life to do with me?" snapped +Fullaway. "I know nothing. So long as she comes here at ten, stops till +five, and does her duty--hang her private life!" + +"Do you know where she lives?" asked Allerdyke imperturbably. "But of +course you do." + +"Then I don't!" retorted Fullaway. "Somewhere up town, I believe--West +End somewhere. I don't know. I've nothing to do with her private +affairs. I never have had anything to do with the private affairs of any +employee of mine." + +"She makes her private affairs have something to do with you though," +said Allerdyke, tapping the telegram significantly. "But, in my opinion, +that wire's nothing but an excuse. What're you going to do?" + +"Oh, I don't know!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I'm about sick of the +whole thing." + +Allerdyke pulled out his watch. + +"I must go," he said. "I've a business appointment. I'll see you later." + +Fullaway made no reply, and Allerdyke left him, went downstairs and +sought Gaffney, whom, having found, he led outside to the street. + +"How soon can you lay hands on that brother of yours?" he asked. + +"Twenty minutes--in a cab, sir," replied Gaffney. + +"Get a cab, then, find him, and drive, both of you, to the warehouse," +commanded Allerdyke. "You'll find me there." + +He himself got a cab, too, and went off to Gresham Street, more puzzled +and doubtful than ever. He closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard and +told him all the details of the eventful morning, and the manager +listened in silence, taking everything in and making his own mental +notes. And with his usual acuteness of perception he quickly separated +the important from the momentarily unimportant. + +"You don't want to bother your head about what Mr. Delkin says just now, +Mr. Allerdyke," he said, when Allerdyke had brought this story to an end. +"Never mind his theories--there may be a lot in 'em, and there mayn't be +any more than his personal opinion in 'em. Never mind, too, what +Chilverton wants with Van Koon. Nor if there's any connection between Van +Koon and Miss Slade, or Mrs. Marlow. The thing to do is to find--her!" + +"You think she's hooked it?" said Allerdyke. + +"I should say that something said by some of you at that talk this +morning in Fullaway's room has startled her into action," answered +Appleyard. "Now let's get at facts. You say she sent that wire from the +East Strand post Office within ten minutes of your leaving her? Very +well--I should say she was on her way to Arundel Street to see Rayner, +alias Ramsay. I wish we'd had a constant watch kept on him. But we'll +soon repair that if you've sent for young Gaffney." + +The two Gaffneys arrived at that moment and Appleyard, after some further +talk, assigned them their duties. Gaffney, the chauffeur, was to go at +once and get himself a room at an inn in close proximity to the Pompadour +Hotel, so that he would be at Appleyard's disposal at any hour of the +coming evening and night. Albert Gaffney, the clerk, was to devote +himself to watching Rayner. He was to follow Rayner wherever Rayner went +from the time of his leaving Clytemnestra House that afternoon--even if +Rayner should leave town by motor or by train he was to follow. For, as +Appleyard sagely observed, it was not likely that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, would return to the Pompadour Hotel that night if her fears had +been aroused by what had taken place that morning, and it was a +reasonable presumption that if she and Rayner were in league she would +have communicated with him on leaving Fullaway's office, and that they +would meet again somewhere before the day was over. + +"The only thing now," said Appleyard, when the two Gaffneys had been +presented with funds sufficient to carry each through all possible +immediate emergencies, "is to arrange for a meeting to-night. There are +two matters we want to be certain about. First, if Albert Gaffney +witnesses any meeting between Rayner and Miss Slade, and, in that case, +if he can tell us where they go and what they do. Second, if they both +return, or either of them returns to the Pompadour to-night. So it had +better be near the Pompadour--somewhere in that district, anyhow. Can you +suggest any place?" he continued, turning to the chauffeur. "You know +that district well, don't you?" + +"Tell you the very spot, sir," answered Gaffney promptly. "Lancaster Gate +itself, sir. Close by there, convenient pub, sir--stands back a bit from +the road. Bar-parlour, sir--quiet corners. What time, sir?" + +Appleyard fixed half-past eleven. By that time, he said, he should know +if Mr. Rayner and Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour; by that time, +too, Albert Gaffney would be in a position to report his own doings and +progress. And so the two Gaffneys went off on their respective missions, +and Allerdyke looked at his manager and made a grimace. + +"It's like a lot of blind men seeking for something they couldn't see if +it was shoved under their very noses, Ambler!" he said cynically. "Is it +any good?" + +"Maybe," replied Appleyard. "That Albert Gaffney's a smart chap--he'll +not lose sight of Rayner once he begins to track him. And I'm certain as +certain can be that if Miss Slade's in a hole it's Rayner she'll turn to. +Well--we can only wait now. What're you going to do, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Let's have a bit of a relief," answered, Allerdyke suddenly. "Let's dine +together somewhere and go to a theatre or something until it's time to +keep this appointment. And not a word more of the whole thing till then!" + +"You forget that I've got to look in at the Pompadour last thing to see +if those two are there as usual," remarked Appleyard. "But that'll only +take a few minutes--I can call there on our way to the rendezvous. All +right--no more of it until half-past eleven, then." + +Albert Gaffney was already in a quiet corner of the bar-parlour of the +appointed meeting-place when the other three arrived there. Appleyard had +already ascertained that neither Rayner nor Miss Slade had returned to +the Pompadour; Gaffney, the chauffeur, who had been keeping an eye on the +exterior of that establishment, had nothing to tell. And Albert's face +was somewhat dismal, and his eye inclined to something like an aggrieved +surliness, as he joined the new-comers and answered their first question. + +"It's not my fault, gentlemen," he whispered, bending towards the others +over the little table at which they were all seated. "But the truth +is--I've been baulked! At the last moment as you may term it. Just when +things were getting really interesting!" + +"Have you seen--anything?" asked Appleyard. + +"I'll give you it in proper order, sir," replied Albert Gaffney. "I've +seen both of 'em--followed 'em, until this confounded accident happened. +This is the story of it. I kept watch there, outside C. House--you know +where I mean--till near on to six o'clock. Then he came out. But he +didn't get into his motor, though it was waiting for him. He sent it +away. Then he walked to the Temple Station, and I heard him book for +Cannon Street. So did I, and followed him. He got out at Cannon Street +and went up into the main line station and to the bookstall. There he met +her--she was waiting. They talked a bit, walking about; then they went +into the hotel. I had an idea that perhaps they were going to dine there, +so as I was togged up for any eventualities, I followed 'em in. They did +dine there--so did I, keeping an eye on 'em. They sat some time over and +after their dinner, as if they were waiting for something or somebody. At +last a man--better-class commercial traveller-looking sort of man--came +in and went up to them. He sat down and had a glass of wine, and they all +three talked--very confidential talk, you could see. At last they all +left and went down to the yard outside the station and got into a +taxi-cab--all three. I got another, gave the driver a quiet hint as to +what I was after, and told him to keep the other cab in view. So he +did--for a time. They went first to a little restaurant near Liverpool +Street Station--she and the commercial-looking chap got out and went in; +R. stopped in the cab. The other two came back after a bit with another +man--similar sort--and all three joined R. Then they went off towards +Aldgate way--and we were keeping nicely behind 'em when all of a sudden a +blooming 'bus came to grief right between us and them, and blocked the +traffic! And though I nearly broke my neck in trying to get through and +spot them, it was no use. They'd clean disappeared. But!--I've got the +number of the cab they took from Cannon Street." + +Appleyard nodded approval. + +"Good!" he said. "That's something, Gaffney--a good deal. We can work on +from that." + +"Well?" he continued, turning to Allerdyke. "I think there's nothing else +we can do to-night? We'd better meet, all of us, at Gresham Street, at, +say, ten to-morrow morning; then I shall be able to say if they return to +the Pompadour to-night. It's my impression they won't--but we shall see." + +Allerdyke presently drove him to his hotel, wondering all the way what +these last doings might really mean. They were surprising enough, but +there was another surprise awaiting him. As he walked into the Waldorf +the hall-porter stopped him. + +"There's a gentleman for you, sir, in the waiting-room," he said. "Been +waiting a good hour. Name of Chettle." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + +Chettle sat alone in the waiting-room, a monument of patient resignation +to his fate. His hands were bunched on the head of his walking-stick, his +chin propped on his hands; his eyes were bent on a certain spot on the +carpet with a fixed stare. And when Allerdyke entered he sprang up as if +roused from a fitful slumber. + +"I should ha' been asleep in another minute, Mr. Allerdyke," he said +apologetically. "Been waiting over an hour, sir--and I'm dog-tired. I've +been at it, hard at it! every minute since I left you. And--I had to +come. I've news." + +"Come up," said Allerdyke. "I've news, too--it's been naught else but +news all day. You haven't seen Fullaway while you've been waiting?" + +"Seen nobody but the hotel folks," answered the detective. He followed +Allerdyke up to his private sitting-room and sighed wearily as he dropped +into a chair. "I'm dog-tired," he repeated. "Fair weary!" + +"Have a drink," said Allerdyke, setting out his decanter and a syphon. +"Take a stiff 'un--I'll have one myself. I'm tired, too. I wouldn't like +this game to be on long, Chettle--it's too exhausting. But, by the Lord +Harry!--I believe it's coming to an end at last!" + +The detective, who had gladly helped himself to Allerdyke's whisky, took +a long pull at his glass and sighed with relief. + +"I believe so myself, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "I do, indeed!--things are +clearing, sir, though Heaven knows they're thick enough still. You say +you've fresh news!" + +Allerdyke lighted a cigar and pushed the box to his guest. + +"Your news first," he said. "I daresay it's a bit out of the complete +web--let's see if we can fit it in." + +"It's this," answered Chettle, pulling his chair nearer to the table at +which he and his host sat. "When I got back to Hull they told me at the +police headquarters that a young man had been in two or three times, +while I was away, asking if he could see the London detective who was +down about the Station Hotel affair. They told him I'd gone up to town +again, and tried to find out what he wanted, but he wouldn't tell them +anything--said he'd either see me or go up to London himself. So then +they let him know I was coming back, and told him he'd probably find me +there at noon to-day. And at noon to-day he turns up at the +police-station--a young fellow about twenty-five or so, who looked like +what he was, a clerk. A very cute, sharp chap he was, the sort that's +naturally keen about his own interests--name of Martindale--and before +he'd say a word he wanted to see my credentials, and made me swear to +treat what he said as private, and then he pulled out a copy of that +reward bill of yours, and wanted to know a rare lot about that, all of +which amounted to wanting to find out what chance he had of getting hold +of some of the fifty thousand, if not all. And," continued Chettle with a +laugh, "I'd a lot of talking and explaining and wheedling to do before +he'd tell anything." + +"Had he aught to tell?" asked Allerdyke. "So many of 'em think they have, +and then they haven't." + +"Oh, he'd something to tell!" replied Chettle. "Right enough, he'd a good +deal to tell. This--he told me at last, as if every word he let out was +worth a ransom, that he was a parcels office clerk in the North Eastern +Railway Station at Hull, and that since the 13th of May until the day +before yesterday he'd been away in the North of Scotland on his +holidays--been home to his people, in fact--he is a Scotsman, which, of +course, accounts for his keenness about the money. Now, then--on the +night of May 12th--the night, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, of your +cousin's supposed murder, but anyway, of his arrival at Hull--this young +man Martindale was on duty in the parcels office till a very late hour. +About ten to a quarter past ten, as near as he could recollect, a +gentleman came into the parcels office, carrying a small, square parcel, +done up in brown paper and sealed in several places with black wax. He +wanted to know when the next express would be leaving for London, and if +he could send the parcel by it. Martindale told him there would be an +express leaving for Selby very shortly, and there would be a connection +there for a Great Northern express to King's Cross. The gentleman then +wanted to know what time his parcel would be likely to be delivered in +London if he sent it by that train. Martindale told him that as near as +he could say it would be delivered by noon on the next morning, and added +that he could, by paying an extra fee, have it specially registered and +delivered. The gentleman at once acceded to this, handed the parcel +over, paid for it, and left. And in a few minutes after that, Martindale +himself gave the parcel to the guard of the outgoing train." + +Chettle paused for a moment, and took a reflective pull at his glass. + +"Now, then," he went on, after an evident recollecting of his facts, +"Martindale, of course, never saw the gentleman again, and dismissed such +a very ordinary matter from his mind. Early next morning he went off on +his holiday--where he went, right away up in Sutherland, papers were few +and far between. He only heard mere bits of news about all this affair. +But when he got back he turned up the Hull newspapers, and became +convinced that the man who sent that parcel was--your cousin!" + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke, nodding his head. "Aye! I expected that." + +"He was sure it was your cousin," continued Chettle, "from the +description of him in the papers, and from one or two photos of him that +had appeared, though, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, those were poor things. +But to make sure, I showed him the photo which is inside Lydenberg's +watch-case. 'That's the man!' he said at once. 'I should have known him +again anywhere--I'd a particularly good look at him.' Very well--that +established who the sender of the parcel was. Now then, the next thing +was--to whom was it sent. Well, this Martindale had copied down the name +and address from the station books, and he handed me the slip of paper. +Can you make any guess at it, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Damn guess-work!" replied Allerdyke. "Speak out!" + +Chettle leaned nearer, with an instinctive glance at the door. He +lowered his voice to a whisper. + +"That parcel was addressed to Franklin Fullaway, Esq., The Waldorf Hotel, +Aldwych, London," he said. "There!" + +Allerdyke slowly rose from his seat, stared at his visitor, half-moved +across the floor, as if he had some instinctive notion of going +somewhere--and then suddenly sat down again. + +"Aye!" he said. "Aye!--but was it ever delivered?" + +"I'm coming to that," replied Chettle. "That, of course, is the big +thing--the prime consideration. I heard all this young fellow Martindale +had to tell--nothing much more than that, except small details as to what +would be the likely progress of the parcel, and then I gave him strict +instructions to keep his own counsel until I saw him again--after which I +caught the afternoon train to town. Martindale had told me where the +parcel would be delivered from, so as soon as I arrived at King's Cross I +went to the proper place. I had to tell 'em, of course, who I was, and +what I was after, and to produce my credentials before they turned up +their books and papers to trace the delivery of the parcel. That, of +course, wasn't a long or difficult matter, as I had the exact date--May +13th. They soon put the delivery sheet of that particular morning before +me. And there it all was--" + +"And--it was delivered to and received by--who?" broke in Allerdyke +eagerly. "Who, man?" + +"Signed for by Mary Marlow for Franklin Fullaway," answered Chettle in +the same low tones. "Delivered--here--about half-past twelve. So--there +you are! That is--if you know where we are!" + +Allerdyke, whose cigar had gone out, relighted it with a trembling hand. + +"My God!" he said in a fierce, concentrated voice as he flung the match +away. "This is getting--you're sure there was no mistaking the +signature?" he went on, interrupting himself. "No mistake about it?" + +"It was a woman's writing, and an educated woman's writing, anyway," said +Chettle. "And plain enough. But there was one thing that rather struck me +and that they couldn't explain, though they said I could have it +explained by inquiry of the clerk who had the books in charge on May 13th +and the boy who actually delivered the parcel--neither of 'em was about +this evening." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"Why, this," answered Chettle. "The parcel had evidently been signed for +twice. The line on which the signatures were placed had two initials in +pencil on it--scribbled hurriedly. The initials were 'F.F.' Over that was +the other in ink--what I tell you: Mary Marlow for Frank Fullaway." + +Allerdyke let his mind go back to the events of May 13th. + +"You say the parcel was delivered here at twelve-thirty noon on May +13th?" he said presently. "Of course, Fullaway wasn't here then. He'd set +off to me at Hull two or three hours before that. He joined me at Hull +soon after two that day. And what I'm wondering is--does he know of that +parcel's arrival here in his absence. Did he ever get it? If he did, why +has he never mentioned it to me? Coming, as it did, from--James!" + +"There's a much more important question than that, Mr. Allerdyke," said +Chettle. "This--what was in that parcel?" + +Allerdyke started. So far he had been concentrating on the facts given +him by the detective--further he had not yet gone. + +"Why!" he asked, a sudden suspicion beginning to dawn on him. "Good +God!--you don't suggest--" + +"My belief, Mr. Allerdyke," said Chettle, quietly and emphatically, "is +that the parcel contained the Russian lady's jewels! I do believe it--and +I'll lay anything I'm right, too." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Nay, nay!" he said incredulously. "I can't think that James would send a +quarter of a million pounds' worth of jewels in a brown paper parcel by +train! Come, now!" + +Chettle shook his head, too--but in contradiction, "I've known of much +stranger things than that, Mr. Allerdyke," he said confidently. "Very +much stranger things. Your cousin, according to your account of him, was +an uncommonly sharp man. He was quick at sizing up things and people. He +was the sort--as you've represented him to me--that was what's termed +fertile in resource. Now, I've been theorizing a bit as I came up in the +train; one's got to in my line, you know. Supposing your cousin got an +idea that thieves were on his track?--supposing he himself fancied that +there was danger in that hotel at Hull? What would occur to him but to +get rid of his valuable consignment, as we'll call it? And what +particular danger was there in sending a very ordinary-looking parcel as +he did? The thing's done every day--by train or post every day valuable +parcels of diamonds, for instance, are sent between London and Paris. The +chances of that parcel being lost between Hull and this hotel +were--infinitesimal! I honestly believe, sir, that those jewels were in +that parcel--sent to be safe." + +"In that case you'd have thought he'd have wired Fullaway of their +dispatch," said Allerdyke. + +"How do we know that he didn't intend to, first thing in the morning?" +asked Chettle. "He probably did intend to--but he wasn't there to do it +in the morning, poor gentleman! No--and now the thing is, Mr. +Allerdyke--prompt action! What do you think, sir?" + +"You mean--go and tell everything to your people at headquarters?" asked +Allerdyke. + +"I shall have to," answered Chettle. "There's no option for me--now. What +I meant was--are you prepared to tell them all you know?" + +"Yes!" replied Allerdyke. "At least, I will be in the morning--first +thing. I'll just tell you how things have gone to-day. Now," he +continued, when he had given Chettle a full account of the recent +happenings, "you stay here to-night--you can have my chauffeur's room, +next to mine--and in the morning I'll telephone to Appleyard to meet us +outside of New Scotland Yard, and after a word or two with him, we'll see +your chief, and then--" + +Chettle shook his head. + +"If that woman got a night's start, Mr. Allerdyke--" he began. + +"Can't help it now," said Allerdyke decisively. "Besides, you don't know +what Appleyard mayn't have learned during the night." + +But when Appleyard met them in Whitehall next morning, in response to +Allerdyke's telephone summons, his only news was that neither Rayner nor +Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour, and without another word +Allerdyke motioned Chettle to lead the way to the man in authority. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + +It was to a hastily called together gathering of high police officials +that the three visitors told all they knew. One after another they +related their various stories--Chettle of his doings and discoveries at +Hull, Allerdyke of what had gone on at the hotel, Appleyard of the +mysterious double identity of the woman who was Miss Slade in one place +and Mrs. Marlow in another. The officials listened quietly and +absorbedly, rarely interrupting the narrators except to ask a searching +question. And in the end they talked together apart, after which all went +away except the man who had kept his hands on the reins from the +beginning. He turned to his visitors with an air of decision. + +"Well, of course, there's but one thing to be done, now," he said. "We +must get a warrant for this woman's arrest at once. We must also get a +search warrant and examine her belongings at that private hotel you've +told us of, Mr. Appleyard. All that shall be done immediately. But first +I want you to tell me one or two things. What are those two men you spoke +of doing--the Gaffneys?" + +"One of them, the chauffeur, is hanging about the Pompadour," replied +Appleyard. "The other--Albert--has gone down to Cannon Street to see if +he can trace the driver of the taxi-cab in which Rayner and Miss Slade +drove away from there last night." + +"He'll do no harm in trying to find that out," observed the chief. "But +I should like to see him--I want to ask some questions about the man who +joined those two after dinner at Cannon Street last night, and the other +man whom he saw them take up near Liverpool Street Station. Will he keep +himself in touch with your warehouse in Gresham Street?" + +"Sure to," answered Appleyard. + +"Then just telephone to your people there, and tell them to tell him, if +he comes in asking for you, to come along and seek you here," said the +chief. "I'm afraid I can't spare either you or Mr. Allerdyke, for your +joint information'll be wanted presently for these warrants, and when +we've got them I want you to go with me--both of you--to the Pompadour." + +"You're going to search?" asked Allerdyke when Appleyard had gone to the +telephone. "You think you may find something--there?" + +"There's enough evidence to justify a search," answered the chief. +"Naturally we want to know all we can. But I should say that if she's +mixed up with a gang, and if they've got those jewels through her--as +seems uncommonly likely--she'll have been ready for a start at any +minute, and the probability is we'll find nothing to help us. The great +thing, of course, will be to get hold of the woman herself. It's a most +unfortunate thing that Albert Gaffney was stopped from following that +cab, last night--I've no opinion, Mr. Allerdyke, of your amateur +detective as a rule, but from Mr. Appleyard's account of him, this one +seems to have done very well. If we only knew where those two went--" + +Appleyard presently came back from the telephone with a face alive with +fresh news. + +"Albert Gaffney's at the warehouse now," he announced. "I've just had a +word with him. He found the taxi-cab driver an hour ago, and he got the +information he wanted. And I'm afraid it's--nothing!" + +"What is it, anyhow?" asked the chief, with a smile. "Perhaps Albert +Gaffney doesn't know its value." + +"The man drove them, all four, to the corner of Whitechapel Church," said +Appleyard. "There he set them down, and there he left them. That's all." + +"Well, that's something, anyway," remarked the chief. "It carries the +thing on another stage. Now we'll leave that and attend to our own +business." + +The Pompadour Private Hotel, like most establishments of its class in +Bayswater, was a place of peace and of comparative solitude during the +greater part of the day. It was busy enough up to ten o'clock in the +morning, and it began to be busy enough again by six o'clock in the +evening, but from ten to six more than two-thirds of its denizens were +not to be found within its walls. The business man had gone to the City; +the professional women had departed to their offices; nothing of humanity +but a few elderly widows and spinsters, and an old gentleman or two were +left in the various rooms. Everything, therefore, was quiet enough when +the chief, accompanied by Chettle, drove up, entered the hall, and asked +to see the manager and manageress. As for Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +naturally felt considerable dislike to appearing on this particular scene +of operations, they were a few hundred yards away, walking about just +within the confines of Kensington Gardens, and waiting with more or less +patience until the police officials came to them with news of the result +of the search. + +The manageress of the hotel, a smart lady who wore dignified black gowns +all day long--stuff in the morning, and silk at night as if she were a +barrister, gradually advancing in grandeur--gazed at the two callers with +some suspicion as she ushered them into a private room at the back of her +office. The chief, an irreproachably attired man, might have been an army +gentleman, she thought; an instinctive wonder rose in her mind as to +whether he was not some elderly man of standing who, accompanied by his +valet, desired to arrange about a suite of rooms. But his first words +gave her an unpleasant shock--she felt for all the world as if somebody +had suddenly turned a shower of ice-cold water on her. + +"Now, ma'am," said the chief, "your husband the manager is out, and you +are in sole and responsible charge, I understand? Pray don't be +alarmed--this is nothing that concerns you or your affairs, personally, +and we will endeavor to arrange everything so that you have no annoyance. +The fact of the case is, we are police officers from the Criminal +Investigation Department at New Scotland Yard, and I hold two warrants, +just granted by a justice of peace, which are in relation to an inmate of +your hotel." + +The manageress dropped into a chair and stared at her visitors. +Police officers? Warrants? Justices? It was the first time in her highly +respectable Bayswater existence that she had ever been brought into +contact with these dreadful things. And--an inmate of her establishment! + +"Oh, you must be mistaken!" she exclaimed in horror-stricken accents. "A +warrant?--that means you want to arrest somebody. An inmate--surely none +of my servants--" + +"Nothing to do with servants," interrupted the chief. "I said an inmate. +Pray don't be alarmed. We want a young lady who is known to you as Miss +Mary Slade." + +The manageress got up as quickly as she had sat down. For one moment she +gazed at her visitor as if he had demanded her very life--the next her +lip curled in scorn. + +"Miss Slade!" she exclaimed. "Impossible, sir! Miss Slade is a young lady +of the very highest respectability--she has resided in this hotel for +three years!" + +"I am quite prepared to believe that a residence of three months under +your roof is enough to confer an irreproachable character on any one, +ma'am," replied the chief with a polite smile. "But the fact remains, I +have here a warrant for Miss Slade's arrest--never mind on what +charge--and here another empowering me to search her room or rooms, her +trunk, any property she has in this house. And as time presses I must ask +you to give us every facility in the performance of our unpleasant duty. +But first a question or two. Miss Slade is not at home?" + +"She is not!" replied the manageress emphatically. + +"And I think she did not return home last night?" suggested the chief. + +"No--she didn't," assented the much perplexed woman. "That's quite true." + +"Was that unusual?" asked the chief. + +The manageress bit her lip. She did not want to talk, but she had a vague +idea that the law compelled speech. + +"Well, I don't know what it's all about," she said, "and I don't want to +say anything that would bring trouble to Miss Slade, but--it was unusual. +For two reasons. I've never known Miss Slade to be away from here for a +night except when she went for her usual month's holiday, and I'm +surprised that she should stop away without giving me word or sending a +telephone message." + +"Then her absence was unusual," said the chief smiling. "Now, was there +anything else that was unusual, last night--in connection with it?" + +The manageress started and looked at her visitor as if she half suspected +him of possessing the power of seeing through brick walls. + +"Well," she said, a little reluctantly, "there was certainly another of +our guests away last night, too--one who scarcely ever is away, and +certainly never without letting us know that he's going away. And it's +quite true he's a very great friend of Miss Slade's--somebody did say, +jokingly, this morning, that perhaps they'd run away and got married." + +"Ah!" said the chief, with another smile. "I scarcely think Miss Slade +would contract such an important engagement at this moment, she has +evidently much else to think about. But now let us see Miss Slade's +apartment, if you please, and I shall be obliged to you, ma'am, if you +will accompany us." + +Not only did the manageress accompany them, but the manager also, who +just then arrived and was filled with proper horror to hear that such +things were happening. But, being a man, he knew that it is every +citizen's duty to assist the police, and he accepted his fate cheerfully, +and bade his wife give the gentlemen every help that lay in her power. +After which both conducted the two visitors to Miss Slade's room, and +became fascinated in acting as spectators. + +Miss Slade's apartment was precisely that of any other young lady of +refined taste. It was a good-sized, roomy apartment, half bedroom, half +sitting-room, and it was bright and gay with books and pictures, and +evidences of literary and artistic fancies and leanings. And Chettle, +taking a first comprehensive look round, went straight to the mantelpiece +and pointed out a certain neatly framed photograph to his superior. + +"That's it, sir," he said in a low voice. "That's what the other was +taken from. You know, sir--Mr. James A. Mr. Marshall A. said she said she +was going to have it framed. Odd, ain't it, sir?--if she really is +implicated." + +The chief agreed with his man. It was certainly a very odd thing that +Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, if she really had any concern with the +murder of James Allerdyke, should put his photograph in a fairly +expensive silver frame, and hang it where she could look at it every +day. But, as Chettle sagely remarked, you never can tell, and you never +can account, and you never know, and meanwhile there was the urgent +business on hand. + +The business on hand came to nothing. Manager and manageress watched with +interested amazement while the two searchers went through everything in +that room with a thoroughness and rapidity produced by long practice. +They were astounded at the deftness with which the heavy-looking Mr. +Chettle explored drawers and trunks, and the military-looking chief +peered into wardrobes and cupboards and examined desks and tables. But +they were not so much astonished as the two detectives themselves were. +For in all that room--always excepting the photograph of James +Allerdyke--there was not a single object, a scrap of paper, anything +whatever, which connected the Miss Slade of the Pompadour with the Mrs. +Marlow of Fullaway's or bore reference to the matter in hand. The +searchers finally retired utterly baffled. + +"Drawn blank," murmured the chief good-humouredly. He turned to the +lookers-on. "I suppose you have nothing of Miss Slade's?" he said. +"Nothing confined to your care, eh?" + +The manageress glanced at her husband, with whom she had kept up a +whispered conversation. The manager nodded. + +"Better tell them," he said. "No good keeping anything back." + +"Ah!" said the chief. "You have something?" + +"A small parcel," admitted the manageress, "which she gave me a few days +ago to lock up in our safe. She said it contained something valuable, and +she hadn't anything to lock it up in. It's in the safe now." + +"I'm afraid we must see it," said the chief. + +At the foot of the stairs the hall-porter accosted the party and looked +at the chief narrowly. + +"Name of Chettle, sir?" he asked. "You're wanted at our +telephone--urgent." + +The chief motioned to Chettle, who went off with the hall-porter; he +himself followed the manageress into her office. She unlocked a safe, +rummaged amongst its contents, and handed him a small square parcel, done +up in brown paper and sealed with black wax. Before he could open it, +Chettle returned, serious and puzzled, and whispered to him. Then, with +the shortest of leave-takings, the two officers hurried away from the +Pompadour, the chief carrying the little parcel tightly grasped in his +right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + +Once outside the Pompadour Hotel the chief and his subordinate hurried at +a great pace towards the Lancaster Gate entrance to Kensington Gardens. +And when they had crossed Bayswater Road the superior pulled himself up, +took a breath, and looked around him. + +"No sign of them yet, Chettle," he observed. "Did he say at once?" + +"Said they'd be on their way in two minutes, sir," answered Chettle. "And +it wouldn't take them many minutes to run up here." + +"I wonder what it's all about?" mused the chief. "Some new development +since we left the Yard, of course. Well--I think we may probably find +something in this parcel, Chettle, that will surprise us as much as any +new development can possibly do. It strikes me--" + +"Here they are, sir!" interrupted Chettle. He had lingered on the +kerb, looking towards the rise of the road going towards the Marble +Arch, and his quick eyes had spotted a closed taxi-cab which came out +of the Marlborough Gate at full speed and turned down in their +direction. "Blindway and two others," he announced. "Seems to be in +force, sir, anyhow!" + +The taxi-cab pulled up at the little gate leading into Kensington Gardens +by the pumping-station, and Blindway, followed by two other men, +hurriedly descended and joined his superior. + +"Well, what is it?" demanded the chief. "Something new? And about +this affair?" + +Blindway made a gesture suggesting that they should enter the Gardens; +once within he drew the chief aside, leaving his companions with Chettle. + +"About half an hour ago," he said, "a telephone message came on from the +City police. They said they'd received some queerish information about +this affair, but only particularly about the death of that man down at +the hotel in the Docks. Their information ran to this--that the actual +murderer has an appointment with some of his associates this afternoon at +that tea-house in Hyde Park, and that if the City police would send some +plain-clothes men up there he'll be pointed out. So the City lot want us +to join them, and I was sent along to meet you here, sir--I've brought +those two men and of course there's Chettle. We're all to go along to +this tea-house, not in a body, naturally, but to sort of drop in, and to +wait events. Of course, sir, that last murder occurred in the City, and +so the City police want to come in at it, and--" + +"No further details?" asked the chief, obviously puzzled. "Nothing as to +who's going to point out the murderer, and so on?" + +"Nothing!" replied Blindway. "At least, nothing reported to us. All we've +got to do is to be there, on the spot, and to keep our eyes open for the +critical moment." + +"And what time is the critical moment to be?" asked the chief, a little +superciliously. "It all seems remarkably vague, Blindway--why couldn't +they give us more news?" + +"Don't know, sir--they seemed purposely vague," replied the detective. +"However, the time fixed is two o'clock. To be there about two--that was +the request--at least four of us." + +The chief turned and summoned the other three men. + +"You'd better break up," he said. "Two of you approach the place from one +way--two from another. It's now a quarter-past one--you've plenty of +time. Stroll across the park to this spot--I'll join you by two o'clock. +I believe you can get light refreshments at this tea-house; get +yourselves something, so as to look like mere loungers--but keep your +eyes open." + +"Do you want me, sir?" asked Chettle, eyeing the parcel with evident +desire to know what mystery it concealed. + +"No--you go with Blindway," answered the chief. "He'll tell you what's +happened. I must join Mr. Allerdyke and Mr. Appleyard--then we'll come +over to you. Don't take any notice of us." + +The four detectives went off into Hyde Park, and there separated in +couples; the chief turned and went along the straight path which runs +parallel with Bayswater Road just within the shrubberies of Kensington +Gardens. Presently he caught sight of Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +occupied two chairs under a shady hawthorn tree, and he laid hold of +another, dragged it to them, and sat down. Each looked a silent inquiry, +and the chief, with a smile, held up the parcel. + +"Chettle and I," he said, "have, in the presence of the manager and +manageress of the Pompadour, made a thorough examination of the room and +the belongings of the young lady who resides there under the name of Miss +Slade. There is not a jot or tittle of anything there to show that she is +also Mrs. Marlow--except one thing. That, Mr. Allerdyke, is the +all-important photograph of your cousin James, which is hanging, in a +neat silver frame, over her mantelpiece. What do you think of that, +gentlemen?" + +"Odd!" said Appleyard, after a moment's reflective silence. + +"Very queer!" said Allerdyke frowning. "Very queer, indeed--considering." + +"Queer and odd!" assented the chief. "As to considering--well, I don't +quite know what it is that we are considering. If Miss Slade, alias Mrs. +Marlow, is a member of the gang--if there is one--which killed and robbed +James Allerdyke, it's a decidedly odd and queer thing that she should +frame the victim's portrait and hang it where she'll see it last thing at +night and first thing in the morning. Most extraordinary! And it's made +me think a good deal. I believe you once said, Mr. Allerdyke, that your +cousin was a bit of a ladies' man?" + +"Bit that way inclined, was James," replied Allerdyke laconically. +"Yes--he fancied the ladies a bit, no doubt. In quite a proper way, you +know--liked their society, and so on." + +"Just so!" assented the chief. "Well, I wonder if he and Miss Slade, +alias Mrs. Marlow, knew each other at all--outside business? But it's not +much use to speculate on that just now--we've more urgent matters to +attend to. And first--this!" + +He had put a copy of a morning newspaper round the small brown paper +parcel, and now took it off and showed the parcel itself to the two +wondering men. One of them at any rate uttered a sharp exclamation. + +"Brown paper, sealed with black wax!" said Allerdyke, remembering what +Chettle had told him. "Good Lord--what--" + +"I don't suppose this is the original brown paper, nor these the +original dabs of black wax," remarked the chief as he produced a pocket +pen-knife. "But this parcel, gentlemen, was recently confided by Miss +Slade to the care of the manageress of the Pompadour, to be put in the +hotel safe--from which it was produced to me twenty minutes ago. And--I +am now going to see what it contains." + +The others sat in absorbed silence while the chief delicately removed the +wrappings of the mysterious parcel. A sheet of brown paper, a sheet of +cartridge paper beneath it--and within these very ordinary envelopings an +old cigar-box, loosely tied about with a bit of knotted string. + +"Now for it!" said the chief. "The box contains--" + +He raised the lid as the other two leaned nearer. A stray ray of +sunlight, filtering through the swaying boughs of the hawthorn, shot down +on the box as the chief lifted a wad of soft paper and revealed a +glittering mass of pearls and diamonds. + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels!" said the chief softly. "That's +just what I expected ever since the manageress gave me this parcel. This, +of course, is the parcel which your cousin sent that night from Hull, Mr. +Allerdyke. It fell into Mrs. Marlow's hands--alias Miss Slade--and here +it is! That's all right." + +The other two men stared at the contents of the cigar-box, then at the +chief, then at each other. A deep silence had fallen--it was some minutes +before Allerdyke broke it. + +"All wrong, I should say!" he muttered. "However, if those are the +things--I only say if, mind--I suppose we're a step nearer to something +else. But--what?" + +The chief, who appeared to both of them to be strangely phlegmatic about +the whole affair, proceeded to close the box, re-invest it in its +wrappings, and tie it about with the original string. + +"We are certainly a step nearer to a good deal," he said, making a neat +job of his parcel and patting it affectionately as if he had been a +milliner's apprentice doing up a choice confection. "And the next thing +we do is to take a walk together into Hyde Park. On the way I will tell +you why we are going there--that is, I will tell you what I know of the +reason for such an expedition. It isn't much--but it has certain +possibilities." + +The two North-countrymen listened with great curiosity as they marched +across the grass towards the tea-house. Each possessed the North-country +love of the mysterious and the bizarre--this last development tickled +their fancy and stirred their imagination. + +"What on earth d'ye make out of it all?" asked Allerdyke. "Gad!--it's +more like a children's game of hide-and-seek in an old house of nooks and +corners than what I should have imagined police proceedings would be. +What say you, Ambler?" + +"I don't know how much romance and adventure there usually are in police +proceedings," replied Appleyard cautiously. + +"A good answer, Mr. Appleyard," said the chief laughing. "Ah, there's a +lot more of both than civilians would think, in addition to all the +sordid and dismal details. What do I make out of it, Mr. Appleyard? +Why--I think somebody has all this time been making a special +investigation of this mystery for himself, and that at last he's going to +wind it up with a sensational revelation to--us! Don't you be surprised +if you've an application for that fifty thousand pound reward before +to-night!" + +"You really think that?" exclaimed Allerdyke incredulously. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," answered the chief, "Something considerable +is certainly at hand. Now let us settle our plan of campaign. This +tea-garden, I remember, is a biggish place. We will sit down at one of +the tables--we will appear to be three quiet gentlemen disposed to take a +cup of coffee with our cigars or cigarettes--we will be absorbed in our +own conversation and company, but at the same time we will look about us. +Therefore, use your eyes, gentlemen, as much as you like--but don't +appear to take any particular interest in anything you see, and don't +openly recognize any person you set eyes on." + +It was a very warm and summer-like day, and the lawns around the +tea-house were filled with people, young and old. Some were drinking tea, +some coffee; some were indulging in iced drinks. Nursemaids and children +were much in evidence under the surrounding trees; waitresses were +flitting about hither and thither: there was nothing to suggest that this +eminently London park scene was likely to prove the setting of the last +act of a drama. + +"You're much more likely to see and to recognize than we are," remarked +Allerdyke, as the three gathered round a table on the edge of the crowd. +"For my part I see nothing but men, women, and children--except that I +also see Chettle, sitting across yonder with another man who's no doubt +one of your lot." + +"Just so," assented the chief. He gave an order for coffee to a passing +waitress, lighted a cigar which Allerdyke offered him, and glanced round +as if he were looking at nothing in particular. "Just so. Well, I see my +own four men--I also see at least six detectives who belong to the City +police, and there may be more. But I know those six personally. They are +spread about, all over the place, and I daresay that every man is very +much on the stretch, innocent enough as he looks." + +"Six!" exclaimed Appleyard. "And four of yours! That looks as if they +expected to have to tackle a small army!" + +"You never know what you may have to tackle in affairs like this," +replied the chief. "Nothing like having reserves in hand, you know. Now +let me give you a tip. It is almost exactly two o'clock. Never mind the +people who are already here, gentlemen. Keep your eyes open on any +new-comers. Look out--quietly--for folk who seem to drop in as casually +as we do. Look, for example, at those two well-dressed men who are coming +across the sward there, swinging their sticks. They--" + +Allerdyke suddenly bent his head towards the table. + +"Careful!" he said. "Gad!--I know one of 'em, anyhow. Van Koon, as I +live!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + + +The chief allowed himself to take a quick searching glance at the two men +he had indicated. He had already heard of Van Koon and of his sudden +disappearance from the hotel after the chance encounter with Chilverton, +and he now regarded him with professional interest. + +"The tall man, you mean?" he asked. + +"Just so," answered Allerdyke. "The other man I don't know. But that's +Van Koon. What's he here for, now? Is he in this, after all?" + +The chief made no reply. He was furtively watching the two men, who had +dropped into chairs at a vacant table beneath the shade of the trees and +were talking to a waitress. Having taken a good look at Van Koon, he +turned his attention to Van Koon's companion, a little, dapper man, +smartly dressed in bright blue serge, and finished off with great care in +all his appointments. He seemed to be approaching middle age; there were +faint traces of grey in his pointed beard and upward-twisted moustaches; +he carried his years, however, in very jaunty fashion, and his white +Homburg hat, ornamented with a blue ribbon, was set at a rakish angle on +the side of his close-cropped head. In his right eye he wore a +gold-rimmed monocle; just then he was bringing it to bear on the waitress +who stood between himself and his companion. + +"You don't know the other man, either of you?" asked the chief suddenly. + +Allerdyke shook his head, but Appleyard nodded. + +"I know that chap by sight," he said. "I've seen him in the City--about +Threadneedle Street--two or three times of late. He's always very smartly +dressed--I took him for a foreigner of some sort." + +The chief turned to his coffee. + +"Well--never mind him," he said. "Pay no attention--so long as that man +is Van Koon, I'll watch him quietly. But you may be sure he has come here +on the same business that has brought us here. I--" + +Allerdyke, whose sharp eyes were perpetually moving round the crowded +enclosure and the little groups which mingled outside it, suddenly nudged +the chief's elbow. + +"Miss Slade!" he whispered. "And--Rayner!" + +Appleyard had caught sight of his two fellow inmates of the Pompadour at +the very moment in which Allerdyke espied them. He slightly turned away +and bent his head; Allerdyke followed his example. + +"You can't mistake them," he said to the chief. "I've described the man +to you--a hunchback. They're crossing through the crowd towards the +tea-house door." + +"And they've gone in there," replied the chief in another minute. +"Um!--this is getting more mysterious than ever. I wish I could get a +word with some of our men who really know something! It seems to me--" + +But at that moment Blindway came strolling along, his nose in the air, +his eyes fixed on the roofs of the houses outside the park, and he +quietly dropped a twisted scrap of paper at his superior's feet as he +passed. The chief picked it up, spread it out on the marble-topped table, +and read its message aloud to his companions. + +"City men say the informant is here and will indicate the men to be +arrested in a few minutes." + +The chief tore the scrap of paper into minute shreds and dropped them on +the grass. + +"Things are almost at the crisis," he murmured with a smile. "It seems +that we, gentlemen, are to play the part of spectators. The next thing to +turn up--" + +"Is Fullaway!" suddenly exclaimed Allerdyke, thrown off his guard and +speaking aloud. "And, by Gad!--he's got that man Chilverton with him. +This--by the Lord Harry, he's caught sight of us, too!" + +Fullaway was coming quickly up the lawn from the direction of the +Serpentine; he looked unusually alert, vigorous, and bustling; by his +side, hurrying to keep pace with him, was the New York detective. And +Fullaway's keen eyes, roving about, fell on Allerdyke and the chief +and he made through the crowd in their direction, beckoning Chilverton +to follow. + +"Hullo--hullo!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Allerdyke's shoulder, +nodding to the chief, and staring inquisitively at Appleyard. "So you're +here, too, eh, Allerdyke? It wasn't you who sent me that mysterious +message, was it?" + +"What message?" growled Allerdyke. "Be careful! Don't attract +attention--there are things going on here, I promise you! Drop into +that chair, man--tell Chilverton to sit down. What message are you +talking about?" + +Fullaway, quick to grasp the situation, sat down in a chair which +Appleyard pulled forward and motioned his companion to follow his +example. + +"I got a queer message--typewritten--on a sheet of notepaper which bore +no address, about an hour ago," he said. "It told me that if I came here, +to this Hyde Park tea-house, at two o'clock, I'd have this confounded +mystery explained. No signature--nothing to show who or where it came +from. So I set out. And just as I was stepping into a taxi to come on +here, I met Chilverton, so he came along with me. What brings you, then? +Similar message, eh? And what--" + +"Hush!" whispered Appleyard. "Miss Slade's coming out of the tea-house! +And who's the man that's with her?" + +All five men glanced covertly over their shoulders at the open door of +the tea-house, some twenty to thirty yards away. Down its steps came Miss +Slade, accompanied by a man whom none of them had ever seen before--a +well-built, light-complexioned, fair-haired man, certainly not an +Englishman, but very evidently of Teutonic extraction, who was talking +volubly to his companion and making free use of his hands to point or +illustrate his conversation. And when he saw this man, the chief turned +quickly to Allerdyke and intercepted a look which Allerdyke was about to +give him--the same thought occurred to both. Here was the man described +by the hotel-keeper of Eastbourne Terrace and the shabby establishment +away in the Docks! + +"Miss Slade!" exclaimed Fullaway. "What on earth are you talking about? +That's my secretary, Mrs. Mar--" + +"Sh!" interrupted the chief. "That's one of your surprises, Mr. Fullaway! +Quiet, now, quiet. Our job is to watch. Something'll happen in a minute." + +Miss Slade and her talkative companion edged their way through the crowd +and passed out to an open patch of grass whereon a few children were +playing. And as they went, two or three men also separated themselves +from the idlers around the tables and strolled quietly and casually in +the same direction. Also, Van Koon and the man with him left their table, +and, as if they had no object in life but mere aimless chatter and +saunter, wandered away towards the couple who had first emerged from the +enclosure. And thereupon, Fullaway, not to be repressed, burst out with +another exclamation. + +"My God, Chilverton!" he cried. "There is Van Koon! And, by all that's +wonderful, Merrifield with him. Now what--" + +The New York detective, who was under no orders, and knew no reason why +he should restrain himself, wasted no time in words. Like a flash, he had +leapt from his chair, threaded his way through the surrounding people, +and was after his quarry. And with a muttered exclamation of anger, the +chief rose and followed--and it seemed to Allerdyke that almost at the +same instant a score of men, up to that moment innocently idling and +lounging, rose in company. + +"Damn it!" he growled, as he and Appleyard got up. "That chap's going to +spoil everything. What is he after? Confound you, Fullaway!--why couldn't +you keep quiet for a minute? Look there!" + +Van Koon had turned and seen Chilverton. So, too, had Van Koon's +companion. So, also, had Miss Slade and the man she was walking with. +That man, too, saw the apparent idlers closing in upon him. For a second +he, and Van Koon, and the other man stared at each other across the +grass; then, as with a common instinct, each turned to flee--and at that +instant Miss Slade, with a truly feminine cry, threw herself upon her +companion and got an undeniably firm grip on his struggling arms. + +"This is the Eastbourne Terrace man!" she panted as Allerdyke and +half-a-dozen detectives relieved her. "Get the other two--Van Koon and +Merrifield. Quick!" + +But Van Koon was already in the secure grip of Chilverton, and the person +in the light blue suit was being safely rounded up by a posse of +grim-faced men. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE SMART MISS SLADE + + +In no city of the world is a crowd so quickly collected as in London; in +none is one so easily satisfied and dispersed. Within five minutes the +detectives had hurried their three captives away towards the nearest +cab-rank, and the people who had left their tea and their cakes to gather +round, to stare, and to listen had gone back to their tables to discuss +this latest excitement. But the chief and Allerdyke, Fullaway and +Appleyard, Miss Slade and Rayner stood in a little group on the grass and +looked at each other. Eventually, all looks except Rayner's centred on +Miss Slade, who, somewhat out of breath from her tussle, was settling her +hat and otherwise composing herself. And it was Miss Slade who spoke +first when the party, as a party, found itself capable of speech. + +"I don't know who it was," observed Miss Slade, rather more than a little +acidly, "who came interfering in my business, but whoever he was he +nearly spoilt it." + +She darted a much-displeased look at the chief, who hastened to +exculpate himself. + +"Not I!" he said with a smile. "So don't blame me, Miss Slade. I was +merely a looker-on, a passive spectator--until the right moment +arrived. Do I gather that the right moment had not actually +arrived--for your purpose?" + +"You do," answered Miss Slade. "It hadn't. If you had all waited a few +moments you would have had all three men in conference round one of those +tables, and they could have been taken with far less fuss and bother--and +far less danger to me. It's the greatest wonder in the world that I'm not +lying dead on that grass!" + +"We are devoutly thankful that you are not," said the chief fervently. +"But--you're not! And the main thing is that the three men are in +custody, and as for interference--" + +"It was Chilverton," interrupted Fullaway, who had been staring at his +mysterious secretary as if she were some rare object which he had never +seen before. "Chilverton!--all Chilverton's fault. As soon as he set eyes +on Van Koon nothing would hold him. And what I want to know--" + +"We all want to know a good deal," remarked the chief, glancing +invitingly at Miss Slade. "Miss Slade has no doubt a good deal to tell. I +suggest that we walk across to those very convenient chairs which I see +over there by the shrubbery--then perhaps--" + +"I want to know a good deal, too," said Miss Slade. + +"I don't know who you are, to start with, and I don't know why Mr. +Appleyard happens to be here, to end with." + +Appleyard answered these two questions readily. + +"I'm here because I happen to be Mr. Allerdyke's London representative," +he said. "This gentleman is a very highly placed official of the Criminal +Investigation Department." + +Miss Slade, having composed herself, favoured the chief with a deliberate +inspection. + +"Oh! in that case," she remarked, "in that case, I suppose I had better +satisfy your curiosity. That is," she continued, turning to Rayner, "if +Mr. Rayner thinks I may?" + +"I was going to suggest it," answered Rayner. "Let's sit down and tell +them all about it." + +The party of six went across to the quiet spot which the chief had +indicated, and Fullaway and Appleyard obligingly arranged the chairs in +a group. Seated in the midst and quite conscious that she was the +centre of attraction in several ways, Miss Slade began her explanation +of the events and mysteries which had culminated in the recent +sensational event. + +"I daresay," she said, looking round her, "that some of you know a great +deal more about this affair than I do. What I do know, however, is +this--the three men who have just been removed are without doubt the +arch-spirits of the combination which robbed Miss Lennard, attempted to +rob Mr. James Allerdyke, possibly murdered Mr. James Allerdyke, and +certainly murdered Lydenberg, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Ebers. Van Koon is +an American crook, whose real name is Vankin; Merrifield, as you know, is +Mr. Delkin's secretary; the other man is one Otto Schmall, a German +chemist, and a most remarkably clever person, who has a shop and a +chemical manufactory in Whitechapel. He's an expert in poison--and I +think you will have some interesting matters to deal with when you come +to tackle his share. Well, that's plain fact; and now you want to know +how I--and Mr. Rayner--found all this out." + +"Chiefly you," murmured Rayner, "chiefly you!" + +"You had better let your minds go back to the morning of the 13th May +last," continued Miss Slade, paying no apparent heed to this +interruption. "On that morning I arrived at Mr. Fullaway's office at my +usual time, ten o'clock, to find that Mr. Fullaway had departed +suddenly, earlier in the morning, for Hull. I at once guessed why he had +gone--I knew that Mr. James Allerdyke, in charge of the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels, was to have landed at Hull the night before, and +I concluded that Mr. Fullaway had set off to meet him. But Mr. Fullaway +has a bad habit of leaving letters and telegrams lying about, for any one +to see, and within a few minutes I found on his desk a telegram from Mr. +Marshall Allerdyke, dispatched early that morning from Hull, saying that +his cousin had died suddenly during the night. That, of course, +definitely explained Mr. Fullaway's departure, and it also made me +wonder, knowing all I did know, if the jewels were safe. + +"This, I repeat, was about ten to half-past ten o'clock. About twelve +o'clock of that morning, the 13th, Mr. Van Koon, whom I knew as a +resident in the hotel, and a frequent caller on Mr. Fullaway, came in. He +wanted Mr. Fullaway to cash a cheque for him. I told him that I could do +that, and I took his cheque, wrote out one of my own and went up town to +Parr's Bank, at the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, to get the cash for him. +Mr. Van Koon stayed in the office, reading a bundle of American +newspapers which had just been delivered. I was away from the office +perhaps forty minutes or so; when I returned he was still there. I gave +him the money; he thanked me, and went away. + +"Towards the end of that afternoon, just before I was leaving the office, +I got a wire from Mr. Fullaway, from Hull. It was quite short--it merely +informed me that Mr. James Allerdyke was dead, under mysterious +circumstances, and that the Nastirsevitch property was missing. Of +course, I knew what that meant, and I drew my own conclusions. + +"Now I come to the 14th--a critical day, so far as I am concerned. +During the morning a parcels-van boy came into the office. He said that +on the previous day, about half-past twelve o'clock, he had brought a +small parcel there, addressed to Mr. Fullaway, and had handed it to a +gentleman who was reading newspapers, and who had answered 'Yes' when +inquired of as Mr. Fullaway. This gentleman--who, of course, was Van +Koon--had signed for the parcel by scribbling two initials 'F. F.' in the +proper space. The boy, who said he was new to his job, told me that the +clerk at the parcels office objected to this as not being a proper +signature, and had told him to call next time he was passing and get the +thing put right. He accordingly handed me the sheet, and I, believing +that this was some small parcel which Van Koon had taken in, signed for, +and placed somewhere in the office or in Mr. Fullaway's private room, +signed my own name, for Franklin Fullaway, over the penciled initials. +And as I did so I noticed that the parcel had been sent from Hull. + +"When the boy had gone I looked for that parcel. I could not find it +anywhere. It was certainly not in the office, nor in any of the rooms of +Mr. Fullaway's suite. I was half minded to go to Mr. Van Koon and ask +about it, but I decided that I wouldn't; I thought I would wait until Mr. +Fullaway returned. But all the time I was wondering what parcel it could +be that was sent from Hull, and certainly dispatched from there on the +very evening before Mr. Fullaway's hurried journey. + +"Nothing happened until Mr. Fullaway came back. Then a lot of things +happened all at once. There was the news he brought about the Hull +affair. Then there was the affair of the French maid. A great deal got +into the newspapers. Mr. Rayner and I, who live at the same +boarding-house, began to discuss matters. I heard, through Mr. Fullaway, +that there was likelihood of a big reward, and I determined to have a try +for it--in conjunction with Mr. Rayner. And so I kept my own counsel--I +said nothing about the affair of the parcel." + +Fullaway, who had been manifesting signs of impatience and irritation +during the last few minutes, here snapped out a question. + +"Why didn't you tell me at once about the parcel?" he demanded. "It was +your duty!" + +Miss Slade gave her employer a cool glance. + +"Possibly!" she retorted. "But you are much too careless to be entrusted +with secrets, Mr. Fullaway. I knew that if I told you about that parcel +you'd spoil everything at once. I wanted to do things my own way. I took +my own way--and it's come out all right, for everybody. Now, don't you or +anybody interrupt again--I'm telling it all in order." + +Fullaway made an inarticulate growling protest, but Miss Slade took no +notice and continued in even, dispassionate tones, as if she had been +explained a mathematical problem. + +"The affair prospered. The Princess came. The reward of fifty thousand +pounds was offered. Then Mr. Rayner and I put our heads together more +seriously. Much, of course, depended upon me, as I was on the spot. I +wanted a chance to get into Van Koon's rooms, some time when he was out. +Fortunately the chance came. One afternoon, when Van Koon was in our +office, he and Mr. Fullaway settled to dine out together and go to the +theatre afterwards. That gave me my opportunity. I made an excuse about +staying late at Mr. Fullaway's office and when both men were clear away I +let myself into Van Koon's room--I'd already made preparations for +that--and proceeded to search. I found the parcel. It was a small, square +parcel, done up in brown paper and sealed with black wax; it had been +opened, the original wrapper put on again, and the seals resealed. I took +it into Mr. Fullaway's rooms and opened it, carefully. Inside I found a +small cigar-box, and in it the Princess's jewels. I took them out. Then I +put certain articles of corresponding weight into the box, did it up +again precisely as I had found it, smeared over the seals with more black +wax, went back to Van Koon's room with it, and placed it again where I +had found it--in a small suit-case. + +"I now knew, of course, that Mr. James Allerdyke had sent those jewels +direct to Mr. Fullaway, immediately on his arrival in Hull, and that they +had fallen by sheer accident into Van Koon's hands. But I wanted to know +more. I wanted to know if Van Koon had any connection with this affair, +and if, when he saw that the parcel was from Hull, he had immediately +jumped to the conclusion that it might be from James Allerdyke, and might +contain the actual valuables. Fortunately, Mr. Rayner had already made +arrangements with a noted private inquiry agent to have Van Koon most +carefully and closely watched. And the very day after I found and took +possession of the jewels we received a report from this agent that Van +Koon was in the habit of visiting the shop and manufactory of a German +chemist named Schmall, in Whitechapel. Further, he had twice come away +from it, after lengthy visits, in company with a man whom the agent's +employees had tracked to the Hotel Cecil, and whom I knew, from their +description, to be Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Delkin's private secretary. + +"Naturally, having discovered this, we gave instructions for a keener +watch than ever to be kept on both these men. But the name of the German +chemist gave me personally a new and most important clue. There had been +employed at the Waldorf Hotel, for some weeks up to the end of the first +week in May, a German-Swiss young man, who then called himself Ebers. He +acted as valet to several residents; amongst others, Mr. Fullaway. He was +often in and out of Mr. Fullaway's rooms. Once, Mr. Fullaway being out, +and I having nothing to do, I was cleaning up some photographic apparatus +which I had there. This man Ebers came in with some clothes of Mr. +Fullaway's. Seeing what I was doing, he got talking to me about +photography, saying that he himself was an amateur. He recommended to me +certain materials and things of that sort which he said he could get from +a friend of his, a chemist, who was an enthusiastic photographer and +manufactured chemicals and things used in photography. I gave him some +money to get me a supply of things, and he brought various packets and +parcels to me two or three days later. Each packet bore the name of Otto +Schmall, and an address in a street which runs off Mile End Road. + +"Now, when the private inquiry agent made his reports to Mr. Rayner and +myself about Van Koon, and told us where he had been tracked to more than +once, I, of course, remembered the name of Schmall, and Mr. Rayner and I +began to put certain facts together. They were these: + +"_First._--Ebers had easy access to Mr. Fullaway's room at all hours, and +was often in them when both Mr. Fullaway and I were out. Mr. Fullaway is +notoriously careless in leaving papers and documents, letters and +telegrams lying around. Ebers had abundant opportunities of reading lots +of documents relating to (1) the Pinkie Pell pearls, and (2) the +proposed Nastirsevitch deal. + +"_Second._--Ebers was a friend of Schmall. Schmall was evidently a man of +great cleverness in chemistry. + +"_Third._--All the circumstances of Mr. James Allerdyke's death, and of +Lisette Beaurepaire's death, pointed to unusually skillful poisoning. Who +was better able to engineer that than a clever chemist? + +"_Fourth._--The jewels belonging to the Princess Nastirsevitch had +undoubtedly fallen into Van Koon's hands. Van Koon was a friend of +Schmall. So also, evidently, was Merrifield. Now, Merrifield, as Delkin's +secretary, knew of the proposed deal. + +"Obviously, then, Schmall, Van Koon, and Merrifield were in +league--whether Ebers was also in league, or was a catspaw, we did not +trouble to decide. But there was another fact which seemed to have some +bearing, though it is one which I have never yet worked out--perhaps some +of you know something of it. It was this: Just before he went to Russia, +Mr. James Allerdyke, being in town, gave me a photograph of himself which +Mr. Marshall Allerdyke had recently taken. I kept that photo lying on my +desk at Mr. Fullaway's for some time. One day I missed it. It is such an +unusual thing for me to misplace anything that I turned over every paper +on my desk in searching for it. It was not to be found. Four days later I +found it, exactly where it ought to have been. Now, you can draw your own +conclusions from that--mine are that Ebers stole it, so that he could +reproduce it in order to give his reproduction to some person who wanted +to identify James Allerdyke at sight. + +"However, to go forward to the discovery which we made about Schmall, +Van Koon, and Merrifield. As soon as we made that discovery, Mr. Rayner +was for going to the police at once, but I thought not--there was still +certain evidence which I wanted, so that the case could be presented +without a flaw. However, all of a sudden I saw that we should have to +act. Ebers was found dead in a small hotel near the Docks, and at a +conference in which Mr. Fullaway insisted I should join, in his rooms, +and at which Van Koon, who had been playing a bluff game, was present, +there was enough said to convince me that Van Koon and his associates +would take alarm and be off with what they believed themselves to +possess--the jewels in that parcel. So then Mr. Rayner and I determined +on big measures. And they were risky ones--for me. + +"I had already been down, more than once, into Whitechapel, and had +bought things at Schmall's shop, and I was convinced that he was the man +who accompanied Lisette Beaurepaire to that little hotel in Eastbourne +Terrace. Now that the critical moment came, after the Ebers-Federman +affair, I went there again. I got Schmall outside his premises. I took a +bold step. I told him that I was a woman detective, who, for purposes of +my own, had been working this case, and that I was in full possession of +the facts. If I had not taken the precaution to tell him this in the +thick of a crowded street, he would have killed me on the spot! Then I +went on to tell him more. I said that his accomplice had led him to +believe that he had the Nastirsevitch jewels in a parcel in his +possession. I said that Van Koon was wrong--I had them myself--I told him +how I got them. He nearly collapsed at that--I restored him by saying +that the real object of my visit to him was to do a deal with him. I said +that it did not matter two pins to me what he and his accomplices had +done--what I was out for was money, nothing but money. How much would he +and the others put up for the jewels and my silence? I reminded him of +the fifty thousand pound reward. He glared at me like the devil he is, +and said that he'd a mind to kill me there and then, whatever happened. +Whereupon I told him that I had a revolver in my jacket pocket, that it +was trained on him, and that if he moved, my finger would move just as +quick, and I invited him to be sensible. It was nothing but a question of +money, I said---how much would they give? Finally, we settled it at sixty +thousand pounds. He was to meet me here--to-day at two--the other two +were to be about--the money was to be paid to me on production of the +jewels, for which purpose one of them was to go with me to my +boarding-house. And--you know the rest." + +Miss Slade came to a sudden stop. She glanced at Rayner, who had been +watching the effect of her story on the other men. + +"At least," she added suddenly, "you know all that's really important. +As Ebers' affair was in the City, we warned the City police and left +things with them. I think that's all. Except, of course, Mr. Marshall +Allerdyke, that we formally claim the reward for which you're +responsible. And--equally of course--that Mr. Rayner and I will hand +over her jewels in the course of this afternoon to the Princess. Miss +Lennard's property, I should say, you'll find hidden away on Schmall's +premises. Yes--that's all." + +"Except this," said the chief quietly. He unwrapped the newspaper in +which he had carried his small parcel and revealed its contents to Miss +Slade. "The jewels, you see, Miss Slade, are here. It has been my painful +duty to visit your hotel, and to possess myself of them. Sorry but--" + +Miss Slade gave one glance of astonishment at the chief and his exhibit; +then she laughed in his face. + +"Don't apologize, and don't trouble yourself!" she said suavely. "But +you're a bit off it, all the same. Those are some paste things which Mr. +Rayner got together for me in case it came to being obliged to exhibit +some to the crooks. You don't think, really, that I was going to run any +risks with the genuine articles? Sakes--they're all right! They're +deposited, snug and safe, at my bankers, and if you'll get a cab, we'll +drive there and get them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + +Late that afternoon Marshall Allerdyke and Fullaway, responding to an +urgent telephone call, went to New Scotland Yard, and were presently +ushered into the presence of the great man who had been so much in +evidence that day. The great man was as self-possessed, as suave, and +as calmly cheerful as ever. And on the desk in front of him he had two +small and neatly made up parcels, tied and sealed in obviously +official fashion. + +"So we seem to have come to the end of this affair, gentlemen," he +observed as he waved his visitors to chairs on either side of him. +"Except, of course, for the unpleasant consequences which must +necessarily result to the men we caught to-day. However, there will be no +consequences--of that sort--for one of them. Schmall has--escaped us!" + +"Got away!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Great Scott you don't mean that!" + +"Schmall committed suicide this afternoon," replied the chief calmly. +"Clever man--in his own line, which was a very bad line. He was searched +most narrowly and carefully, so I've come to the conclusion that he +carried some of his subtle poison in his mouth--the hollow tooth dodge, +no doubt. Anyway, he's dead--they found him dead in his cell. It's a +pity--for he richly deserved hanging. At least, according to Merrifield." + +"Ah!" said Fullaway, with a start. "According to Merrifield, eh? Now +what may that mean? To find Merrifield in this at all was, of course, a +regular shock to me!" + +"Merrifield--just the type of man who would!--has made a clean breast of +the whole thing," answered the chief. "He made it to me--an hour ago. He +thought it best. He wants--naturally enough--to save his neck." + +"Will he?" growled Allerdyke. "A lot of necks ought to crack, after +all this!" + +"Can't say--we mustn't prejudge the case," said the chief. "But that's +his desire of course. He would tell me everything--at once. I had it all +taken down. But I remember every scrap of it. You want to hear? Well +there's a good deal of it, but I can epitomize it. You'll find that you +were much to blame, Mr. Fullaway--just as that smart young woman, your +secretary, was candid enough to tell you." + +"Oh, I know--I know!" asserted Fullaway. "But--this confession?" + +"Very well," responded the chief. "Here it is, then but you must bear in +mind that Merrifield could only tell what he knew--there'll probably be +details to come out later. Anyway, Merrifield--whose chief object is, I +must also remind you, the clearing of himself from any charge of +murder--he doesn't mind the other charge, but he does object to the +graver one!--says that though he's been playing it straight for some +time, ever since he went into Delkin's service, in fact--he'd had +negotiations of a questionable sort with both Schmall and Van Koon +before years ago, in this city and in New York. He renewed his +acquaintance with Schmall when he came over this time with Delkin--met +him accidentally, and got going it with him again--and they both +resumed dealings with Van Koon--who, I may say, was wanted by Chilverton +on a quite different charge. Schmall had set up a business here in the +East End as a small manufacturing chemist--he'd evidently a perfect and +a diabolical genius for chemistry, especially in secret poisons--and +down there Merrifield and Van Koon used to go. Also, there used to go +there the young man Ebers, or Federman--we'll stick to Ebers--who, from +Merrifield's account, seems to have been a tool of Schmall's. Ebers, a +fellow of evident acute perception, used to tell Schmall of things which +his calling as valet at various hotels gave him knowledge--it strikes me +that from what we now know we shall be able to trace to Schmall and +Ebers several robberies at hotels which have puzzled us a good deal. And +there is no doubt that it was Ebers who told Schmall of the two matters +of which he obtained knowledge when he used to frequent your rooms. Mr. +Fullaway--the pearls belonging to Miss Lennard, and the proposed jewel +deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin. But in that last +Merrifield came in. He too, knew of it, and he told Schmall and Van +Koon, but Ebers supplied the detailed information of what you were +doing, through access, as Miss Slade said, to your papers--which you +left lying about, you know." + +"I know--I know!" groaned Fullaway. "Careless--careless!" + +"Very!" said the chief, with a smile at Allerdyke "Teach you a lesson, +perhaps. However, there this knowledge was. Now, Schmall, according to +Merrifield, was the leading spirit. He had the man Lydenberg in his +employ. He sent him off to Christiania to waylay James Allerdyke: he +supplied him with a photograph of James Allerdyke, which Ebers procured." + +"I know that!" muttered Allerdyke. "Clever, too!" + +"Exactly," agreed the chief. "Now at the same time Schmall learned of +Miss Lennard's return. He sent Ebers, who already knew and had been +cultivating the French maid, down to Hull to meet her and bring her away +with Miss Lennard's jewel-box. That was done easily. The Lydenberg +affair, however, did not come off--through Lydenberg. Because, as we now +know, James Allerdyke sent the Nastirsevitch jewels off to you, Mr. +Fullaway. But there, fortune favoured these fellows Van Koon, for +purposes of theirs, had taken up his quarters close by you--in your +absence the box came into his hands. And--we know how the ingenious Miss +Slade despoiled him of it!" + +The chief paused for a moment, and mechanically shifted the two parcels +which stood before him. He seemed to be reflecting, and when he spoke +again he prefaced his words with a shake of the head. + +"Now here, from this point," he continued, "I don't know if Mr. +Merrifield is telling the truth. Probably he isn't. But I confess that, +at present, I don't see how we're going to prove that he isn't. He +strenuously declares that neither he nor Van Koon had anything whatever +to do with the murder of Lisette Beaurepaire, Lydenberg, or Ebers. He +further says that he does not know if Lydenberg poisoned James Allerdyke. +He declares that he does not know if it was ever intended to poison James +Allerdyke, though he confesses that it was intended to rob him at Hull. +Schmall, he says, was the active partner in all this--he took all that +into his own hands. According to Merrifield, he does not know, nor Van +Koon either, if it was Schmall who went down to Hull and shot Lydenberg, +or if Lydenberg was murdered by some person who had a commission for his +destruction from some secret society--Lydenberg, he believed, was mixed +up with that sort of thing." + +"I know that, I think!" exclaimed Allerdyke. + +"I daresay we all three know what we think," observed the chief. "Schmall +seems to have had a genius for putting his tools out of the way when he +had done with them. It was undoubtedly Schmall who took Lisette +Beaurepaire to that hotel in Paddington and poisoned her; it was just as +undoubtedly Schmall who took Ebers to the hotel in London Docks and got +rid of him. But, I tell you, Merrifield swears that neither he nor Van +Koon knew of these things, and did not connive at them." + +"Did they know of them--afterwards?" asked Fullaway. + +"Ah!" replied the chief. "That's what they'll have to satisfy a judge and +jury about! I think they'll find it difficult. But--that's about all. +Except this--that they were all three about to clear out when the +enterprising Miss Slade turned up and told Schmall she'd got the +Nastirsevitch jewels. That was a stiff proposition for them. But they +were equal to it. For you see Miss Slade let him know that she was open +to do a deal--for sixty thousand pounds! How were they to get sixty +thousand pounds? Ah!--now came a confession from Merrifield which has +already--for I've told him of it--made Mr. Delkin stare. Delkin, it +appears, keeps a very big banking account here in London--so big, that +his bankers think nothing of his drawing what we should call enormous +cash cheques. Now Merrifield--you see what a clean breast he's +made--admitted to me that he was an expert forger--so he calmly forged a +cheque of Delkin's, drew sixty thousand in notes--and they had them on +them--at least Merrifield had--when we took all three a few hours ago. +Nice people, eh!" + +There was a silence of much significance for a few minutes; then +Allerdyke got up from his chair with a growl. + +"I'd have given a good deal if that fellow Schmall had saved his neck for +the gallows!" he muttered. "He's cheated me!" + +"It's my impression," said the chief, "that if Miss Slade hadn't been so +smart, Schmall would have cheated his two accomplices. He had what he +believed to be the parcel containing the Nastirsevitch jewels in his +possession, and he also had Miss Lennard's pearls locked up in his safe. +We got those this afternoon, on searching his premises; Miss Slade gave +us the real Nastirsevitch jewels from her bank. Here they are--both lots, +in these parcels. And if you two gentlemen will go through the formality +of signing receipts for them, you, Mr. Fullaway, can take her parcel to +the Princess, and you, Mr. Allerdyke, can carry hers to Miss Lennard. +And, er--" he added, with a quiet smile, as he rose and produced some +papers--"you won't mind, either of you, I'm sure, if a couple of my men +accompany you--just to see that you accomplish your respective missions +in safety?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + +With the recovered pearls in his hand, and Chettle as guardian and +companion at his side, Allerdyke chartered a taxi-cab and demanded to be +driven to Bedford Court Mansions. And as they glided away up Whitehall he +turned to the detective with a grin that had a sardonic complexion to it. + +"Well--except for the law business--I reckon this is about over, +Chettle," he said. "You've had plenty to do, anyway--not much kicking +your heels in idleness anywhere, while this has been going on!" + +Chettle pulled a long face and sighed. + +"Unfortunate for me, all the same, Mr. Allerdyke," he answered. "I'd +meant to have a big cut in at that reward, sir. Now I suppose that young +woman'll get it." + +"Miss Slade'll doubtless get most of it," replied Allerdyke. "But I think +there'll have to be a bit of a dividing-up, like. You fellows are +certainly entitled to some of it--especially you--and two or three of +those folks who gave some information ought to have a look in. But, of +course, Miss Slade will feel herself entitled to the big lump--and she'll +take care to get it, don't make any mistake!" + +"She's a deal too clever, that young lady," observed Chettle. "I like 'em +clever, but not quite as clever as all that. In my opinion, she's +mistaken her calling, has that young woman. She ought to have been one +of us--they're uncommonly bent that way, some of these modern +misses--they can see right through a thing, sometimes, where we men can't +see an inch above our noses." + +"Intuition," said Allerdyke, with a laugh. "Aye, well perhaps Miss +Slade'll have got so infected with enthusiasm for your business that +She'll go in for it regularly. This reward'll do for capital, you +know, Chettle." + +"Ah!" responded Chettle feelingly. "Wish it was coming to me! I +wouldn't put no capital into that business--not me, sir! I'd have a +nice little farm in the country, and I'd grow roses, and breed sheep +and pigs, and--" + +"And lose all your brass in a couple of years!" laughed Allerdyke. "Stick +to your own game, my lad, and when you want to grow roses, do it in your +own back yard for pleasure. And here we are--and you'd best wait, +Chettle, until Miss Lennard herself gives a receipt for this stuff, and +then you can take it back to Scotland Yard and frame it." + +He left Chettle in an anti-room of Miss Lennard's flat while he himself +was shown into the prima donna's presence. She was alone, and evidently +unoccupied, and her eyes suddenly sparkled when Allerdyke came in as if +she was glad of a visitor. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "Really!" + +"It's me," said Allerdyke laconically. "Nobody else," He looked round to +make sure that the door was safely closed; then he advanced to the little +table at which Miss Lennard was sitting and laid down his parcel. + +"Something for you," he said abruptly. "Open it." + +"What is it?" she asked, glancing shyly at him. "Not chocolates--surely!" + +"Never bought aught of that sort in my life," replied Allerdyke. "More +respect for people's teeth. Here--I'll open it," he went on, producing a +penknife and cutting the string. "I've signed one receipt for this stuff +already--you'll have to sign another. There's a detective in your parlour +waiting for it, just now." + +"A detective!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you don't mean to say that box +has my pearls in it? Oh! you don't!" + +"See if they're all right," commanded Allerdyke "Gad!--they've been +through some queer hands since you lost 'em. I don't know how you feel +about it, but hang me if I shouldn't feel strange wearing 'em again! I +should feel--but I daresay you don't!" + +"No, I don't!" she said as she drew the jewels out of their wrappings and +hurriedly examined them. "Of course I don't; all I feel is that I'm +delighted beyond measure to get them back. You don't understand." + +"No, I don't," agreed Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair close by, and +quietly regarded the owner of the fateful valuables. "I'm only a man, you +see. But--I should know better how to take care of things like these than +you did. Come, now!" + +"I shall take better care of them--in future," said Miss Lennard. + +Allerdyke shook his head, + +"Not you!" he retorted. "At least--not unless you've somebody to take +care of you. Eh?" + +Miss Lennard, who was still examining her recovered property, set it +hastily down and stared at her visitor. Her colour heightened, and her +eyes became inquisitive. + +"Take care of--me!" she exclaimed. "Of--whatever are you talking about, +Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"It's like this," replied Allerdyke, involuntarily squaring himself in +his chair. "You see me?--I'm as healthy a man as ever lived!--forty, but +no more than five-and-twenty in health and spirits. I've plenty of brains +and a rare good temper. I'm owner of one of the best businesses in +Yorkshire--I'm worth a good ten thousand a year. I've one of the best +houses in our parts--I'm going to take another, a country house, if +you're minded. I'll guarantee to make the best husband--" + +Miss Lennard dropped back on her sofa and screamed. + +"Good heavens, man?" she exclaimed. "Are you--are you really asking me +to--to marry you?" + +"That's it," replied Allerdyke, nodding. "You've hit it. Queer way, +maybe--but it's my way. See?" + +"I never heard of--of such a way in all my life!" said the lady. +"You're--extraordinary!" + +"I am," said Allerdyke. "Yes--we are out of the ordinary in our part of +the world--we know it. Well," he went on after a moment's silence, during +which they looked at each other, "you've heard what I have to say. How is +it to be?" + +The prima donna continued to gaze intently on this strange wooer for a +full minute. Then she suddenly stretched out her hand. + +"I'll marry you!" she said quietly. + +Allerdyke gave the hand a firm pressure, and stood up, unconsciously +pulling himself to his full height. + +"Thank you," he said. "You shan't regret it. And now, then--a pen, if you +please. Sign that." + +He handed his betrothed a paper, watched her sign it, and then, picking +up the pen as she laid it down, took a cheque-book from his pocket and +quickly wrote a cheque. This he placed in an envelope taken from the +writing-table. Envelope and receipt in hand, he turned to the door. + +"Business first," he said, smiling over his shoulder. "I'll send Chettle +off--then we'll talk about ourselves." + +He went away to Chettle and put the paper and the envelope in his hand. + +"That's the receipt," he said. "T'other's a bit of a present for +you--naught to do with the reward--a trifle from me. Ah!--you might like +to know that I've just got engaged to be married!" + +Chettle glanced round and inclined his head towards the room from which +Allerdyke had just emerged. + +"What!--to the lady!" he exclaimed. "Deary me. Well," he went on, +grasping the successful suitor's hand, and giving it a warm and +sympathetic squeeze, "there's one thing I can say, Mr. Allerdyke--you'll +make an uncommon good-looking pair!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION *** + + +******* This file should be named 10443-8.txt or 10443-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/4/10443 + + +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. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/10443-8.zip b/old/10443-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..50852ea --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10443-8.zip diff --git a/old/10443.txt b/old/10443.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..804d7ab --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10443.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9360 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation , by J. S. +Fletcher + + +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: The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: December 12, 2003 [eBook #10443] +[Date last updated: May 1, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION *** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION + +BY J.S. FLETCHER + +1922 + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + II THE DEAD MAN + + III THE SHOE BUCKLE + + IV MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + V THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + VI THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + VII THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + VIII THE JEWEL BOX + + IX THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + X THE SECOND MURDER + + XI THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + XII THE THIRD MURDER + + XIII AMBLER APPLEYARD + + XIV FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + XV THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + XVI MR. GERALD RAYNER + + XVII THE PHOTOGRAPH + + XVIII DEFINITE SUSPICION + + XIX THE LATE CALL + + XX NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + XXI THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + XXII THICK FOG + + XXIII THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + XXIV CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + XXV THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + XXVI PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + XXVII THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + +XXVIII THE FIRST PURSUIT + + XXIX THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + XXX THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + XXXI THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + XXXII THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + +XXXIII THE SMART MISS SLADE + + XXXIV MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + XXXV THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MIDNIGHT RIDE + + +About eleven o'clock on the night of Monday, May 12, 1914, Marshall +Allerdyke, a bachelor of forty, a man of great mental and physical +activity, well known in Bradford as a highly successful manufacturer of +dress goods, alighted at the Central Station in that city from an +express which had just arrived from Manchester, where he had spent the +day on business. He had scarcely set foot on the platform when he was +confronted by his chauffeur, a young man in a neat dark-green livery, +who took his master's travelling rug in one hand, while with the other +he held out an envelope. + +"The housekeeper said I was to give you that as soon as you got in, sir," +he announced. "There's a telegram in it that came at four o'clock this +afternoon--she couldn't send it on, because she didn't know exactly where +it would find you in Manchester." + +Allerdyke took the envelope, tore it open, drew out the telegram, +and stepped beneath the nearest lamp. He muttered the wording of +the message-- + +"_On board SS. Perisco_ + +"63 _miles N.N.E. Spurn Point_, 2.15 _p.m., May_ 12_th_. + +"Expect to reach Hull this evening, and shall stop Station Hotel there +for night on way to London. Will you come on at once and meet me? Want to +see you on most important business-- + +"JAMES." + +Allerdyke re-read this message, quietly and methodically folded it up, +slipped it into his pocket, and with a swift glance at the station clock +turned to his chauffeur. + +"Gaffney," he said, "how long would it take us to run across to Hull?" + +The chauffeur showed no surprise at this question; he had served +Allerdyke for three years, and was well accustomed to his ways. + +"Hull?" he replied. "Let's see, sir--that 'ud be by way of Leeds, Selby, +and Howden. About sixty miles in a straight line, but there's a good bit +of in-and-out work after you get past Selby, sir. I should say about +four hours." + +"Plenty of petrol in the car?" asked Allerdyke, turning down the +platform. "There is? What time did you have your supper?" + +"Ten o'clock, sir," answered Gaffney, with promptitude. + +"Bring the car round to the hotel door in the station yard," commanded +Allerdyke. "You'll find a couple of Thermos flasks in the locker--bring +them into the hotel lounge bar." + +The chauffeur went off down the platform. Allerdyke turned up the covered +way to the Great Northern Hotel. When the chauffeur joined him there a +few minutes later he was giving orders for a supply of freshly-cut beef +sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs; the Thermos flasks he handed over to be +filled with hot coffee. + +"Better get something to eat now, Gaffney," he said. "Get some +sandwiches, or some bread and cheese, or something--it's a longish spin." + +He himself, waiting while the chauffeur ate and drank, and the provisions +were made ready, took a whisky and soda to a chair by the fire, and once +more pulled out and read the telegram. And as he read he wondered why +his cousin, its sender, wished so particularly to see him at once. James +Allerdyke, a man somewhat younger than himself, like himself a bachelor +of ample means and of a similar temperament, had of late years concerned +himself greatly with various business speculations in Northern Europe, +and especially in Russia. He had just been over to St. Petersburg in +order to look after certain of his affairs in and near that city, and he +was returning home by way of Stockholm and Christiania, in each of which +towns he had other ventures to inspect. But Marshall Allerdyke was quite +sure that his cousin did not wish to see him about any of these +matters--anything connected with them would have kept until they met in +the ordinary way, which would have happened within a day or two. No, if +James had taken the trouble to send him a message by wireless from the +North Sea, it meant that James was really anxious to see him at the first +available moment, and would already have landed in Hull, expecting to +find him there. However, with a good car, smooth roads, and a fine, +moonlit night-- + +It was not yet twelve o'clock when Allerdyke wrapped himself up in a +corner of his luxurious Rolls-Royce, saw that the box of eatables and the +two Thermos flasks were safe in the locker, and told Gaffney to go ahead. +He himself had the faculty of going to sleep whenever he pleased, and he +went to sleep now. He was asleep as Gaffney went through Leeds and its +suburbs; he slept all along the country roads which led to Selby and +thence to Howden. But in the silent streets of Howden he woke with a +start, to find that Gaffney had pulled up in answer to a question flung +to him by the driver of another car, which had come alongside their own +from the opposite direction. That car had also been pulled up; within it +Allerdyke saw a woman, closely wrapped in furs. + +"What is it, Gaffney?" he asked, letting down his own window and +leaning out. + +"Wants to know which is the best way to get across the Ouse, sir," +answered Gaffney. "I tell him there's two ferries close by--one at Booh, +the other at Langrick--but there'll be nobody to work them at this hour. +Where do you want to get to?" he went on, turning to the driver of the +other car. + +"Want to strike the Great Northern main line somewhere," answered the +driver. "This lady wants to catch a Scotch express. I thought of +Doncaster, but--" + +The window of the other car was let down, and its occupant looked out. +The light of the full moon shone full on her, and Allerdyke lifted his +cap to a pretty, alert-looking young woman of apparently twenty-five, who +politely returned his salutation. + +"Can I give you any advice?" asked Allerdyke. "I understand you want--" + +"An express train to Scotland--Edinburgh," replied the lady. "I made out, +on arrival at Hull, that if I motored across country I would get a train +at some station on the Great Northern line--a morning express. Doncaster, +Selby, York--which is nearest from wherever we are!" + +"This is Howden," said Allerdyke, looking up at the great tower of the +old church. "And your best plan is to follow this road to Selby, and then +to York. All the London expresses stop there, but they don't all stop at +Selby or at Doncaster. And there's no road bridge over the Ouse nearer +than Selby in any case." + +"Many thanks," responded the lady. "Then," she went on, looking at her +driver, "you will go on to York--that is--how far?" she added, favouring +Allerdyke with a gracious smile. "Very far?" + +"Less than an hour's run," answered Gaffney for his master. "And a +good road." + +The lady bowed; Allerdyke once more raised his cap; the two cars parted +company. And Allerdyke stopped Gaffney as he was driving off again, and +produced the provisions. + +"Half-past two," he remarked, pulling out his watch. "You've come along +in good style, Gaffney. We'll have something to eat and drink. Queer +thing, eh, for anybody to motor across from Hull to catch a Great +Northern express on the main line!" + +"Mayn't be any trains out of Hull during the night, sir," answered +Gaffney, taking a handful of sandwiches. "They'll get one at York, +anyway. Want to reach Hull at any particular time, sir?" + +"No," answered Allerdyke. "Go along as you've come. You'll have a bit of +uphill work over the edge of the Wolds, now. When we strike Hull, go to +the Station Hotel." + +He went to sleep again as soon as they moved out of Howden, and he only +awoke when the car stopped at the hotel door in Hull. A night-porter, +hearing the buzz of the engine, came out. + +"Put the car in the garage, Gaffney, and then get yourself a bed and lie +as long as you like," said Allerdyke. "I'll let you know when I want +you." He turned to the night-porter. "You've a Mr. James Allerdyke +stopping here I think?" he went on. "He'd come in last night from the +Christiania steamer." + +The night-porter led the way into the hotel, and towards the office. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke?" he asked of the new arrival. "The gentleman +left a card for you; I was asked to give it to you as soon as you came." + +Allerdyke took the visiting-card which the man produced from a letter +rack, and read the lines hastily scribbled on the back-- + +If you land here during the night, come straight up to my room--263--and +rouse me out. Want to see you at once.--J.A. + +Allerdyke slipped the card into his pocket and turned to the +night-porter. + +"My cousin wants me to go up to his room at once," he said. "Just show me +the way. Do you happen to know what time he got in last night?" he +continued, as they went upstairs. "Was it late?" + +"Passengers from the _Perisco_, sir?" answered the night-porter. +"There were several of 'em came in last night--she got into the river +about eight-thirty. It 'ud be a bit after nine o'clock when your +friend came in." + +Allerdyke's mind went back to the meeting at Howden. + +"Did you have a lady set off from here in the middle of the night?" he +asked, out of sheer curiosity. "A lady in a motor-car?" + +"Oh! that lady," exclaimed the night-porter, with a grim laugh. "Ah! +nice lot of bother she gave me, too. She was one of those _Perisco_ +passengers--she got in here with the rest, and booked a room, and went +to it all right, and then at half-past twelve down she came and said she +wanted to get on, and as there weren't no trains she'd have a motor-car +and drive to catch an express at Selby, or Doncaster, or somewhere. +Nice job I had to get her a car at that time o' night!--and me +single-handed--there wasn't a soul in the office then. Meet her +anywhere, sir?" + +"Met her on the road," replied Allerdyke laconically. "Was she a +foreigner, do you know?" + +"I shouldn't wonder if she was something of that sort," answered the +night-porter. "Sort that would have her own way at all events. Here's the +room, sir." + +He paused before the door of a room which stood halfway down a long +corridor in the centre of the hotel, and on its panels he knocked gently. + +"Every room's filled on this floor, sir," he remarked. "I hope your +friend's a light sleeper, for there's some of 'em'll have words to say if +they're roused at four o'clock in the morning." + +"He's a very light sleeper as a rule," replied Allerdyke. He stood +listening for the sound of some movement in the room: "Knock again," he +said, when a minute had passed without response on the part of the +occupant. "Make it a bit louder." + +The night-porter, with evident unwillingness, repeated his summons, this +time loud enough to wake any ordinary sound sleeper. But no sound came +from within the room, and after a third and much louder thumping at the +door, Allerdyke grew impatient and suspicious. + +"This is queer!" he growled. "My cousin's one of the lightest sleepers I +ever knew. If he's in there, there's something wrong. Look here! you'll +have to open that door. Haven't you got a key?" + +"Key'll be inside, sir," replied the night-porter. "But there's a +master-key to all these doors in the office. Shall I fetch it, then?" + +"Do!" said Allerdyke, curtly. He began to walk up and down the corridor +when the man had hurried away, wondering what this soundness of sleep +in his cousin meant. James Allerdyke was not a man who took either drink +or drugs, and Marshall's experience of him was that the least sound +awoke him. + +"Queer!" he repeated as he marched up and down. "Perhaps he's not--" + +The quiet opening of a door close by made him lift his eyes from the +carpet. In the dim light he saw a man looking out upon him--a man of an +unusually thick crop of hair and with a huge beard. He stared at +Allerdyke half angrily, half sulkily; then he closed his door as quietly +as he had opened it. And Allerdyke, turning back to his cousin's room, +mechanically laid his hand on the knob and screwed it round. + +The door was open. + +Allerdyke drew a sharp breath as he crossed the threshold. He had stayed +in that hotel often, and he knew where the switch of the electric light +should be. He lifted a hand, found the switch, and turned the light on. +And as it flooded the room, he pulled himself up to a tense rigidity. +There, sitting fully dressed in an easy chair, against which his head was +thrown back, was his cousin--unmistakably dead. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE DEAD MAN + + +For a full minute Marshall Allerdyke stood fixed--staring at the set +features before him. Then, with a quick catching of his breath, he made +one step to his cousin's side and laid his hand on the unyielding +shoulder. The affectionate, familiar terms in which they had always +addressed each other sprang involuntarily to his lips. + +"Why, James, my lad!" he exclaimed. "James, lad! James!" + +Even as he spoke, he knew that James would never hear word or sound again +in this world. It needed no more than one glance at the rigid features, +one touch of the already fixed and statue-like body, to know that James +Allerdyke was not only dead, but had been dead some time. And, with a +shuddering sigh, Marshall Allerdyke drew himself up and looked round at +his surroundings. + +Nothing could have been more peaceful than that quiet hotel bedroom; +nothing more orderly than its arrangements. Allerdyke had always known +his cousin for a man of unusually tidy and methodical habits; the +evidence of that orderliness was there, where he had pitched his camp for +presumably a single night. His toilet articles were spread out on the +dressing-table; his pyjamas were laid across his pillow; his open +suit-case lay on a stand at the foot of the bed; by the bedside lay his +slippers. An overcoat hung from one peg of the door; a dressing-gown +from another; on a chair in a corner lay, neatly folded, a couple of +travelling rugs. All these little details Allerdyke's sharp eyes took in +at a glance; he turned from them to the things nearer the dead man. + +James Allerdyke sat in a big easy chair, placed at the side of a round +table set towards a corner of the room. He was fully dressed in a grey +tweed suit, but he had taken off one boot--the left--and it lay at his +feet on the hearthrug. He himself was thrown back against the high-padded +hood of the chair; there was a little frown on his set features, a tiny +puckering of the brows above his closed eyes. His hands were lying at his +sides, unclasped, the fingers slightly stretched, the thumbs slightly +turned inward; everything looked as if, in the very act of taking off his +boots, some sudden spasm of pain had seized him, and he had sat up, +leaned back, and died, as swiftly as the seizure had come. There was a +slight blueness under the lower rims of the eyes, a corresponding tint on +the clean-shaven upper lip, but neither that nor the pallor which had +long since settled on the rigid features had given anything of +ghastliness to the face. The dead man lay back in his chair in such an +easy posture that but for his utter quietness, his intense immobility, he +might have well been taken for one who was hard and fast asleep. + +The sound of the night-porter's returning footsteps sent Allerdyke out +into the corridor. Unconsciously he shook his head and raised a hand--as +if to warn the man against noise. + +"Sh!" he said, still acting and speaking mechanically. "Here's--I knew +something was wrong. The fact is, my cousin's dead!" + +In his surprise the night-porter dropped the key which he had been to +fetch. When he straightened himself from picking it up, his ruddy face +had paled. + +"Dead!" he exclaimed in a whisper. "Him! Why, he looked the picture of +health last night. I noticed that of him, anyway!" + +"He's dead now," said Allerdyke. "He's lying there dead. Come in!" + +The door along the corridor from which the man of the shock head and +great beard had looked out, opened again, and the big head was protruded. +Its owner, seeing the two standing there, came out. + +"Anything wrong?" he asked, advancing towards them in his pyjamas. "If +there's any illness, I'm a medical man. Can I be of use?" + +Allerdyke turned sharply, looking the stranger well over. He was not +sure whether the man was an Englishman or a foreigner; he fancied that +he detected a slightly foreign accent. The tone was well-meaning, and +even kindly. + +"I'm obliged to you," replied Allerdyke, in his characteristically +blunt fashion. "I'm afraid nobody can be of use. The truth is, I came +to join my cousin here, and I find him dead. Seems to me he's been +dead some time. As you're a doctor, you can tell, of course. Perhaps +you'll come in?" + +He led the way back into the bedroom, the other two following closely +behind him. At sight of the dead man the bearded stranger uttered a sharp +exclamation. + +"Ah!" he said. "Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"You knew him, then?" demanded Marshall. "You've met him?" + +The other, who had stooped over the body, bestowing a light touch on +face and hand, looked up and nodded. + +"I came over with him from Christiania," he answered. "I met him +there--at a hotel. I had several conversations with him. In fact, I +warned him." + +"Warned him? Of what!" asked Allerdyke. + +"Over-exertion," replied the doctor quietly. "I saw symptoms of +heart-strain. That was why I talked with him. I gathered from what he +told me that he was a man who lived a very strenuous life, and I warned +him against doing too much. He was not fitted for it." + +"Good Lord!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with obvious impatience. "Why, I always +considered him as one of the fittest men I ever knew!" + +"Perhaps you did," said the doctor. "Laymen, sir, do not see what a +trained eye sees. The proof in his case is--there!" + +He pointed to the dead man, at whom the night-porter was staring with +astonished eyes. + +Allerdyke stared, too, or seemed to stare. In reality, he was gazing into +space, wondering about what had just been said. + +"Then you think he died a natural death?" he asked, suddenly turning on +his companion. "You don't think there's--anything wrong?" + +The doctor shook his head calmly. + +"I think he died of precisely what I should have expected him to die of," +he answered. "Heart failure. It came upon him quite suddenly. You see, he +was in the act of taking off his boots. He is a little fleshy--stout. The +exertion of bending over and down--that was too much. He felt a sharp +spasm--he sat back--he died, there and then." + +"There and then!" repeated Allerdyke mechanically. "Well--what's to be +done!" he went on. "What is done in these cases--I suppose you know?" + +"There will have to be an inquest later on," answered the doctor. "I can +give evidence for you, if you like--I am staying in Hull for a few +days--for I can certainly testify to what I had observed. But that comes +later--at present you had better acquaint the manager of the hotel, and I +should suggest sending for a local medical man--there are some eminent +men of my profession in this town. And--the body should be laid out. I'll +go and dress, and then do what I can for you." + +"Much obliged," responded Allerdyke. "Very kind of you. What name, sir?" + +"My name is Lydenberg," replied the stranger. "I will give you my card +presently. I have the honour of addressing--?" + +Allerdyke pulled out his own card-case. + +"My name's Marshall Allerdyke," he answered. "I'm his cousin," he went +on, with another glance at the still figure. "And, my conscience, I never +thought to find him like this! I never heard of any weakness on his +part--I always thought him a particularly strong man." + +"You will send for another medical man?" asked Dr. Lydenberg. "It will be +more satisfactory to you." + +"Yes, I'll see to that," replied Allerdyke. He turned to look at the +night-porter, who was still hanging about as if fascinated. "Look here!" +he said. "We don't want any fuss. Just rouse the manager quietly, and +ask him to come here. And find that chauffeur of mine, and tell him I +want him. Now, then, what about a doctor? Do you know a real, +first-class one?" + +"There's several within ten minutes, sir," answered the night-porter. +"There's Dr. Orwin, in Coltman Street--he's generally fetched here. I +can get a man to go for him at once." + +"Do!" commanded Allerdyke. "But send me my driver first--I want him. Tell +him what's happened." + +He waited, standing and staring at his dead cousin until Gaffney came +hurrying along the corridor. Allerdyke beckoned him into the room and +closed the door. + +"Gaffney," he said. "You see how things are? Mr. James is dead--I found +him sitting there, dead. He's been dead some time--hours. There's a +doctor, a foreigner, I think, across the passage there, who says it's +been heart failure. I've sent for another doctor. Now in the meantime, I +want to see what my cousin's got on him, and I want you to help me. We'll +take everything off him in the way of valuables, papers, and so on, and +put 'em in that small hand-bag of his." + +Master and man went methodically to work; and an observer of an unduly +sentimental shade of mind might have said that there was something almost +callous about their measured, business-like proceedings. But Marshall +Allerdyke was a man of eminently thorough and practical habits, and he +was doing what he did with an idea and a purpose. His cousin might have +died from sudden heart failure; again, he might not, there might have +been foul play; there might have been one of many reasons for his +unexpected death--anyway, in Allerdyke's opinion it was necessary for him +to know exactly what James was carrying about his person when death took +place. There was a small hand-bag on the dressing-table; Allerdyke opened +it and took out all its contents. They were few--a muffler, a +travelling-cap, a book or two, some foreign newspapers, a Russian +word-book, a flask, the various odds and ends, small unimportant things +which a voyager by sea and land picks up. Allerdyke took all these out, +and laying them aside on the table, directed Gaffney to take everything +from the dead man's pockets. And Gaffney, solemn of face and tight of +lip, set to his task in silence. + +There was comparatively little to bring to light. A watch and chain--the +small pocket articles which every man carries--keys, a monocle eyeglass, +a purse full of gold, loose silver, a note-case containing a considerable +sum in bank-notes, some English, some foreign, letters and papers, a +pocket diary--these were all. Allerdyke took each as Gaffney produced +them, and placed each in the bag with no more than a mere glance. + +"Everything there is, sir," whispered the chauffeur at last. "I've been +through every pocket." + +Allerdyke found the key of the bag, locked it, and set it aside on the +mantelpiece. Then he went over to the suit-case lying on the bench at the +foot of the bed, closed and locked it, and dropped the bunch of keys in +his pocket. And just then Dr. Lydenberg came back, dressed, and on his +heels came the manager of the hotel, startled and anxious, and with him +an elderly professional-looking man whom he introduced as Dr. Orwin. + +When James Allerdyke's dead body had been lifted on to the bed, and the +two medical men had begun a whispered conversation beside it, Allerdyke +drew the hotel manager aside to a corner of the room. + +"Did you see anything of my cousin when he arrived last night?" he asked. + +"Not when he arrived--no," replied the manager. "But later--yes. I had +some slight conversation with him after he had taken supper. It was +nothing much--he merely wished to know if there was always a night-porter +on duty. He said he expected a friend, who might turn up at any hour of +the night, and he wanted to leave a card for him. That would be you, I +suppose, sir?" + +"Just so," replied Allerdyke. "Now, how did he seem at that time? And +what time was that?" + +"Ten o'clock," said the manager. "Seem? Well, sir, he seemed to be in the +very best of health and spirits! I was astonished to hear that he was +dead. I never saw a man look more like living. He was--" + +The elderly doctor came away from the bed approaching Allerdyke. + +"After hearing what Dr. Lydenberg tells me, and examining the body--a +mere perfunctory examination as yet, you know--I have little doubt that +this gentleman died of what is commonly called heart failure," he said. +"There will have to be an inquest, of course, and it may be advisable to +make a post-mortem examination. You are a relative?" + +"Cousin," replied Allerdyke. He hesitated a moment, and then spoke +bluntly. "You don't think it's been a case of poisoning, do you?" he said. + +Dr. Orwin pursed his lips and regarded his questioner narrowly. + +"Self-administered, do you mean?" he asked. + +"Administered any way," answered Allerdyke. "Self or otherwise." He +squared his shoulders and spoke determinedly. "I don't understand about +this heart-failure notion," he went on. "I never heard him complain of +his heart. He was a strong, active man--hearty and full of go. I want to +know--everything." + +"There should certainly be an autopsy," murmured Dr. Orwin. He turned and +looked at his temporary colleague, who nodded as if in assent. Then he +turned back to Allerdyke. "If you'll leave us for a while, we will just +make a further examination--then we'll speak to you later." + +Allerdyke signified his assent with a curt nod of the head. Accompanied +by the manager and Gaffney he left the room, and with him he carried the +small hand-bag in which he had placed the dead man's personal effects. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SHOE BUCKLE + + +Once outside the death-chamber, Allerdyke asked the manager to give him a +bedroom with a sitting-room attached to it, and to put Gaffney in another +room close by--he should be obliged, he said, to stay at the hotel until +the inquest was over and arrangements had been made for his cousin's +funeral. The manager at once took him to a suite of three rooms at the +end of the corridor which they were then in. Allerdyke took it at once, +sent Gaffney down to bring up certain things from the car, and detained +the manager for a moment's conversation. + +"I suppose you'd a fair lot of people come in last night from that +Christiania boat?" he asked. + +"Some fifteen or twenty," answered the manager. + +"Did you happen to see my cousin in conversation with any of them?" +inquired Allerdyke. + +The manager shrugged his shoulders. He was not definitely sure about +that; he had a notion that he had seen Mr. James Allerdyke talking with +some of the _Perisco_ passengers, but the notion was vague. + +"You know how it is," he went on. "People come in--they stand about +talking in the hall--groups, you know--they go from one to another. I +think I saw him talking to that doctor who's in there now with Dr. +Orwin--the man with the big beard--and to a lady who came at the same +time. There were several ladies in the party--the passengers were all +about in the hall, and in the coffee-room, and so on. There are a lot of +other people in the house, too, of course." + +"It's this way," said Allerdyke. "I'm not at all satisfied about what +these doctors say, so far. They may be right, of course--probably are. +Still I want to know all I can, and, naturally, I'd like to know who the +people were that my cousin was last in company with. You never know what +may have happened--there's often something that doesn't show at first." + +"There was--nothing missing in his room, I hope?" asked the manager with +professional anxiety. + +"Nothing that I know of," answered Allerdyke. "My man and I have searched +him, and taken possession of everything--all that he had on him is in +that bag, and I'm going to examine it now. No--I don't think anything had +been taken from him, judging by what I've seen." + +"You wouldn't like me to send for the police?" suggested the manager. + +"Not at present," replied Allerdyke. "Not, at any rate, until these +doctors say something more definite--they'll know more presently, +no doubt. Of course, you've a list of all the people who came in +last night?" + +"They would all register," answered the manager. "But then, you +know, sir, many of them will be going this morning--most of them are +only breaking their journey. You can look over the register whenever +you like." + +"Later on," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime, I'll examine these things. +Send me up some coffee as soon as your people are stirring." + +He unlocked the hand-bag when the manager had left him. It seemed to his +practical and methodical mind that his first duty was to make himself +thoroughly acquainted with the various personal effects which he and +Gaffney had found on the dead man. Of the valuables he took little +notice; it was very evident, in his opinion, that if James Allerdyke's +death had been brought about by some sort of foul play--a suspicion which +had instantly crossed his mind as soon as he discovered that his cousin +was dead--the object of his destroyer had not been robbery. James had +always been accustomed to carrying a considerable sum of money on him; +Gaffney's search had brought a considerable sum to light. James also wore +a very valuable watch and chain and two fine diamond rings; there they +all were. Not robbery--no; at least, not robbery of the ordinary sort. +But--had there been robbery of another, a bigger, a subtle, and +deep-designed sort? James was a man of many affairs and schemes--he might +have had valuable securities, papers relating to designs, papers +containing secrets of great moment; he was interested, for example, in +several patents--he might have had documents pertinent to some affair of +such importance that ill-disposed folk, eager to seize them, might have +murdered him in order to gain possession of them. There were many +possibilities, and there was always--to Allerdyke's mind--the +improbability that James had died through sudden illness. + +Now that Marshall Allerdyke's mind was clearing, getting free of the +first effects of the sudden shock of finding his cousin dead, doubt and +uneasiness as to the whole episode were rising strongly within him. He +and James had been brought up together; they had never been apart from +each other for more than a few months at a time during thirty-five years, +and he flattered himself that he knew James as well as any man of James's +acquaintance. He could not remember that his cousin had ever made any +complaint of illness or indisposition; he had certainly never had any +serious sickness in his life. As to heart trouble, Allerdyke knew that a +few years previous to his death, James had taken out a life-policy with a +first-rate office, and had been passed as a first-class life: he +remembered, as he sat there thinking over these things, the +self-satisfied grin with which James had come and told him that the +examining doctor had declared him to be as sound as a bell. It was true, +of course, that disease might have set in after that--still, it was only +six weeks since he had seen James and James was then looking in a fit, +healthy, hearty state. He had gone off on one of his Russian journeys as +full of life and spirits as a man could be--and had not the hotel +manager just said that he seemed full of health, full of go, at ten +o'clock last night? And yet, within a couple of hours or so--according to +what the medical men thought from their hurried examination--this active +vigorous man was dead--swiftly and mysteriously dead. + +Allerdyke felt--felt intensely--that there was something deeply strange +in all this, and yet it was beyond him, with his limited knowledge, to +account for James's sudden death, except on the hypothesis suggested by +the two doctors. All sorts of vague, half-formed thoughts were in his +mind. Was there any person who desired James's death? Had any one tracked +him to this place--got rid of him by some subtle means? Had-- + +"Pshaw!" he muttered, suddenly interrupting his train of thought, and +recognizing how shapeless and futile it all was. "It just comes to +this--I'm asking myself if the poor lad was murdered! And what have I to +go on? Naught--naught at all!" + +Nevertheless, there were papers before him which had been taken from +James's pocket; there was the little journal or diary which he always +carried, and in which, to Allerdyke's knowledge, he always jotted down +a brief note of each day's proceedings wherever he went. He could +examine these, at any rate--they might cast some light on his cousin's +recent doings. + +He began with the diary, turning over its pages until he came to the date +on which James had left Bradford for St. Petersburg. That was on March +30th. He had travelled to the Russian capital overland--by way of Berlin +and Vilna, at each of which places he had evidently broken his journey. +From St. Petersburg he had gone on to Moscow, where he had spent the +better part of a week. All his movements were clearly set out in the +brief pencilled entries in the journal. From Moscow he had returned to +St. Petersburg; there he had stayed a fortnight; thence he had journeyed +to Revel, from Revel he had crossed the Baltic to Stockholm; from +Stockholm he had gone across country to Christiania. And from Christiania +he had sailed for Hull to meet his death in that adjacent room where the +doctors were now busied with his body. + +Marshall Allerdyke, though he had no actual monetary connection with +them, had always possessed a fairly accurate knowledge of his cousin's +business affairs--James was the sort of man who talked freely to his +intimates about his doings. Therefore Allerdyke was able to make out from +the journal what James had done during his stay at St. Petersburg, in +Moscow, in Revel, and in Stockholm, in all of which places he had irons +of one sort or another in the fire. He recognized the names of various +firms upon which James had called--these names were as familiar to him as +those of the big manufacturing concerns in his own town. James had been +to see this man, this man had been to see James. He had dined with such +an one; such an one had dined with him. Ordinarily innocent entries, all +these; there was no subtle significance to be attached to any of them: +they were just the sort of entries which the busy commercial man, engaged +in operations of some magnitude, would make for his own convenience. + +There was, in short, nothing in that tiny book--a mere, +waistcoat-pocket sort of affair--which Allerdyke was at a loss to +understand, or which excited any wonder or speculation in him: with one +exception. That exception was in three entries: brief, bald, mere +lines, all made during James's second stay--the fortnight period--in +St. Petersburg. They were:-- + +April 18: Met Princess. + +April 20: Lunched with Princess. + +April 23: Princess dined with me. + +These entries puzzled Allerdyke. His cousin had been going over to Russia +at least twice a year for three years, but he had never heard him mention +that he had formed the acquaintance of any person of princely rank. Who +was this Princess with whom James had evidently become on such friendly +terms that they had lunched and dined together? James had twice written +to him during his absence--he had both letters in his pocket then, and +one of them was dated from St. Petersburg on April 24th, but there was no +mention of any Princess in either. Seeking for an explanation, he came to +the conclusion that James, who had a slight weakness for the society of +ladies connected with the stage, had made the acquaintance of some +actress or other, ballet-dancer, singer, artiste, and had given her the +nickname of Princess. + +That was all there was to be got from the diary. It amounted to +nothing. There were, however, the loose papers. He began to examine +these methodically. They were few in number--James was the sort of man +who never keeps anything which can be destroyed: Allerdyke knew from +experience that he had a horror of accumulating what he called rubbish. +These papers, fastened together with a band of india-rubber, were all +business documents, with one exception--a letter from Allerdyke himself +addressed to Stockholm, to wait James's arrival. There were some +specifications relating to building property; there was a schedule of +the timber then standing in a certain pine forest in Sweden in which +James had a valuable share; there was a balance-sheet of a Moscow +trading concern in which he had invested money; there were odds and ends +of a similar nature--all financial. From these papers Allerdyke could +only select one which he did not understand, which conveyed no meaning +to him. This was a telegram, dispatched from London on April 21st, at +eleven o'clock in the morning. He spread it out on the table and slowly +read it:-- + +"To _James Allerdyke_, _Hotel Grand Monarch_, _St. Petersburg_. + +"Your wire received. If Princess will confide goods to your care to +personally bring over here have no doubt matter can be speedily and +satisfactorily arranged. Have important client now in town until middle +May who seems to be best man to approach and is likely to be a generous +buyer. + +"FRANKLIN FULLAWAY, Waldorf Hotel, London." + +Here was another surprise: Allerdyke had never in his life heard James +mention the name--Franklin Fullaway. Yet here Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +whoever he might be, was wiring to James as only a business acquaintance +of some standing would wire. And here again was the mention of a +Princess--presumably, nay, evidently, the Princess to whom reference was +made in the diary. And there was mention, too, of goods--probably +valuable goods--to be confided to James's care for conveyance to +England, to London, for sale to some prospective purchaser. If James had +brought them, where were they? So far as Allerdyke had ascertained, +James had no luggage beyond his big suitcase and the handbag which now +stood on the table before his own eyes--he was a man for travelling +light, James, and never encumbered himself with more than indispensable +necessities. Where, then-- + +A tap at the door of the sitting-room prefaced the entry of the two +medical men. + +"We heard from the manager that you were in this room, Mr. Allerdyke," +said Dr. Orwin. "Well, we made a further examination of your relative, +and we still incline to the opinion expressed already. Now, if you +approve it, I will arrange at once for communicating with the Coroner, +removing the body, and having an autopsy performed. As Dr. Lydenberg has +business in the town which will keep him here a few days, he will join +me, and it will be more satisfactory to you, no doubt, if another doctor +is called--I should advise the professional police surgeon. If you will +leave it to me--" + +"I'll leave everything of that sort to you, doctor," said Allerdyke. "I'm +much obliged to both of you, gentlemen. You understand what I'm anxious +about?--I want to be certain--certain, mind you!--of the cause of my +cousin's death. Now you speak of removing him? Then I'll just go and take +a look at him before that's done." + +He presently locked up his rooms, leaving the hand-bag there, also +locked, and went alone to the room in which James lay dead. Most folks +who knew Marshall Allerdyke considered him a hard, unsentimental man, +but there were tears in his eyes as he stooped over his cousin's body and +laid his hand on the cold forehead. Once more he broke into familiar, +muttered speech. + +"If there's been aught wrong, lad," he said. "Aught foul or underhand, +I'll right thee!--by God, I will!" + +Then he stooped lower and kissed the dead man's cheek, and pressed the +still hands. It was with an effort that he turned away and regained his +self-command--and it was in that moment that his eyes, slightly blurred +as they were, caught sight of an object which lay half-concealed by a +corner of the hearth-rug--a glittering, shining object, which threw back +the gleam of the still burning electric light. He strode across the room +and picked it up--the gold buckle of a woman's shoe, studded with real, +if tiny, diamonds. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. FRANKLIN FULLAWAY + + +Allerdyke carried his find away to his own room and carefully examined +it. The buckle was of real gold; the stones set in it were real diamonds, +small though they were. He deduced two ideas from these facts--one, that +the owner was a woman who loved pretty and expensive things; the other, +that she must have a certain natural carelessness about her not to have +noticed that the buckle was loose on her shoe. But as he put the buckle +safely away in his own travelling bag, he began to speculate on matters +of deeper import--how did it come to be lying there in James Allerdyke's +room? How long had it been lying there? Had its owner been into that +room recently? Had she, in fact, been in the room since James Allerdyke +took possession of it on his arrival at the hotel? + +He realized the possibility of various answers to these questions. The +buckle might have been dropped by a former occupant of the room. But was +that likely? Would an object sparkling with diamonds have escaped the +eyes of even a careless chambermaid? Would it have escaped the keener +eyes of James Allerdyke? Anyhow, that question could easily be settled by +finding out how long that particular room had been unoccupied before +James was put into it. A much more important question was--had the owner +of the buckle been in the room between nine o'clock of the previous +evening and five o'clock that morning? Out of that, again, rose certain +supplementary questions: What had she been doing there? And most +important of all--who was she? That might possibly be solved by an +inspection of the hotel register, and after he had drunk the coffee which +was presently brought up to him, Allerdyke went down to the office to set +about that necessary, yet problematic, task. + +As he reached the big hall on the ground floor of the hotel, the manager +came across to him, displaying a telegram. + +"For your cousin, sir," he announced, handing it over to Allerdyke. +"Just come in." + +Allerdyke slowly opened the envelope, and as he unfolded the message, +caught the name Franklin Fullaway at its foot-- + +"Let me know what time you arrive King's Cross to-day and I will meet +you, highly important we should both see my prospective client at once." + +This message bore the same address which Allerdyke had found in the +telegram discovered in James's pocket-book--Waldorf Hotel--and he +determined to wire Mr. Franklin Fullaway immediately. He sat down at a +writing-table in the hall and drew a sheaf of telegraph forms towards +him. But it was not easy to compose the message which he wished to send. +He knew nothing of the man to whom he must address it, nothing of his +business relations with James; he had no clear notion of what the present +particular transaction was, nor how it might be connected with what had +just happened. After considerable thought he wrote out a telegram of some +length, and carried it himself to the telegraph office in the station +outside:-- + +"To _Franklin Fullaway, Waldorf Hotel, London_. + +"Your wire to James Allerdyke opened by undersigned, his cousin. James +Allerdyke died suddenly here during night. Circumstances somewhat +mysterious. Investigation proceeding. Have found on body your telegram to +him of April 21. Glad if you can explain business referred to therein, or +give any other information about his recent doings abroad. + +"From MARSHALL ALLERDYKE, Station Hotel, Hull." + +It was by that time eight o'clock, and the railway station and the hotel +had started into the business of another day. There were signs that +people who had stayed in the hotel over-night were about to take their +departure by early trains, and Allerdyke hastened back to the office to +look over the register--he was anxious to know who and what the folk were +who had been near and about his cousin in his last hours. But a mere +glance at the big pages showed him the uselessness of his task. There +were some seventy or eighty entries, made during the previous twenty-four +hours; it was impossible to go into the circumstances of each. He turned +with a look of despair to the manager at his elbow. + +"Nothing much to be made out of that!" he muttered. "Still--which are the +people who came off the _Perisco_ last night?" + +The manager summoned a clerk; the clerk indicated a sequence of entries, +amongst which Allerdyke at once noticed the name of Dr. Lydenberg. The +rest were, of course, unfamiliar to him. + +"There was a lady here last night, who, according to your night-porter, +changed her mind about staying, and set off in a motor-car about +midnight," observed Allerdyke. "Which is she, now, in this lot?" + +The clerk instantly pointed to an entry, made in a big, dashing, +artistic-looking handwriting. + +"That," he answered. "Miss Celia Lennard--Number 265." + +Two numbers away from James Allerdyke's room--Number 263! The inquirer +pricked his ears. + +"It was she who went off in the middle of the night," continued the +clerk. "She pestered me with a lot of questions as to how she could get +North--to Edinburgh. That would be about eleven o'clock. I told her she +couldn't get a train until morning. I saw her going upstairs just before +I went off duty--soon after eleven. It seems, according to the +night-porter--" + +"I know--he told me," said Allerdyke, interrupting him. "He got her a +car, she wanted to be driven to some station on the Great Northern main +line--I met her on the road at two-thirty. I suppose the driver of that +car can be found?--he'll have returned by this, I should think." + +"Oh, you can find him all right," answered the clerk. "The car was got +from a garage close by." + +Allerdyke jotted down the name of the garage in his pocket-book, and +proceeded to make further inquiries about his cousin's movements on the +previous night. He interviewed various hotel servants--waiters, +chambermaids, porters, all could tell him something, and the sum total of +what they could tell amounted, for all practical purposes, to next to +nothing. James Allerdyke had come to the hotel just as several other +people had come. He had been served with a light supper in the +coffee-room; he had been seen chatting with one or two people in the +lounge and in the smoking-room; a chambermaid had seen him in his own +room--according to all these people there was nothing in his appearance +or his behaviour that was out of the common, and all agreed that he +looked very well. + +The manager, who accompanied Allerdyke in his round of these inquiries, +glanced at him with a puzzled expression when they came to an end. + +"Of course, sir, if you would like the police to be summoned," he +suggested for the second time. "Perhaps--" + +"No--not yet!" answered Allerdyke. "I daresay they'll have to be called +in; indeed, I suppose it's absolutely necessary, because of the inquest, +but I'll wait until I hear what these doctors have to say, and, besides +that, I want to get some news from London. It's a queer business +altogether, and if there has been any foul play, why"--he paused and +looked round at the people who were passing in and out of the hall, in a +corner of which he and the manager were standing--"we can't hold up all +these folk and ask 'em if they know anything, you know," he added, with a +grim smile. + +"That's the devil of it! If there has, as I say, been aught +wrong--murder, to put it plainly--why, the criminal or criminals may +already be off or going off now, amongst these people, and I can't +stop them. In a few hours they may be where nobody can find +them--don't you see?" + +The manager did see, and shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of +helplessness. Again he could only suggest expert help from the +police--but this time he added to his suggestion the remark that he +understood there was nothing for the police to take hold of--no clue, no +signs of foul play. + +"Not yet," agreed Allerdyke. "But--there may be. Well, I'm afraid that +register is no good. It's meaningless. A list of names conveys +nothing--except for future reference. For the present we must wait. +But--in any way you can--keep your eyes open. There's one thing you can +do--there was a lady in here last night who took Room 265 and left it at +midnight to go away in a motor-car which your night-porter got for her. I +particularly want to see the chambermaid who attended that lady. Let me +see her privately--I've a question to ask her." + +"She shall be sent up to your sitting-room as soon as I've found her," +responded the manager. "This is the servants' breakfast-hour, but--" + +"Send her up there after nine o'clock," said Allerdyke. "In the meantime +I've another inquiry to make elsewhere." + +He found Gaffney and sent him round to the garage from which Miss Celia +Lennard had obtained her midnight car, with instructions to find the +chauffeur who had driven her, and to get from him what information he +could as to her movements subsequent to the rencontre at Howden. + +"Don't excite his suspicions," said Allerdyke, "but pump him for any news +he can give you. I want to know what became of her." + +Gaffney speedily returned, fully informed of Miss Lennard's movements up +to a certain point. The chauffeur had just got back, and was about to +seek the bed from which he had been pulled at one o'clock in the morning. +He had taken the lady to York--only to find that there was no train +thence to Edinburgh until after nine o'clock. So she had turned into the +Station Hotel at York, to wait, and there he had left her. + +There was little of importance in this, but it seemed to indicate that +Miss Lennard was certainly about to travel North, and that her hurried +departure from the hotel was due to a genuine desire to reach her +ultimate destination as speedily as possible. While Allerdyke was +wondering if it would be worth while to follow her up, merely because she +had been a fellow-passenger with his cousin, the manager came to him with +another telegram. + +"That lady we were talking about," he said, laying the telegram before +Allerdyke, "has just sent me this. I thought you'd like to see it as you +were asking about her." + +Allerdyke saw that the message was addressed to the manager, and had been +dispatched from York railway station three-quarters of a hour previously. + +"Please ask chambermaid to search for diamond shoe-buckle which I believe +I lost in your hotel last night. If found send by registered post to Miss +Lennard, 503_a_, Bedford Court Mansions, London." + +Allerdyke memorized that address while he secretly wondered whether he +should or should not tell the manager that the missing property was in +his possession. Finally he determined to keep silence for the moment, and +he handed back the message with an assumption of indifference. + +"I should think a thing of that sort will soon be found," he observed. +"Look here--never mind about sending that chambermaid to me just now; +I'll see her later. I'm going to breakfast." + +He wondered as he sat in the coffee-room, eating and drinking, if any of +the folk about him knew anything about the dead man whose body had been +quietly taken away by the doctors while the hotel routine went on in its +usual fashion. It seemed odd, strange, almost weird, to think that any +one of these people, eating fish or chops, chatting, reading their +propped-up newspapers, might be in possession of some knowledge which he +would give a good deal to appropriate. + +Of one fact, however, he was certain--that diamond buckle belonged to +Miss Celia Lennard, and she lived at an address in London which he had by +that time written down in his pocket-book. And now arose the big (and, in +view of what had happened, the most important and serious) question--how +had Miss Celia Lennard's diamond buckle come to be in Room Number 263? +That question had got to be answered, and he foresaw that he and Miss +Lennard must very quickly meet again. + +But there were many matters to be dealt with first, and they began to +arise and to demand attention at once. Before he had finished breakfast +came a wire from Mr. Franklin Fullaway, answering his own:-- + +"Deeply grieved and astonished by your news. Am coming down at once, and +shall arrive Hull two o'clock. In meantime keep strict guard on your +cousin's effects, especially on any sealed package. Most important this +should be done." + +This message only added to the mass of mystery which had been thickening +ever since the early hours of the morning. Strict guard on James's +effects--any sealed package--what did that mean? But a very little +reflection made Allerdyke come to the conclusion that all these vague +references and hints bore relation to the possible transaction mentioned +in the various telegrams already exchanged between James Allerdyke and +Franklin Fullaway, and that James had on him or in his possession when he +left Russia something which was certainly not discovered when Gaffney +searched the dead man. + +There was nothing to do but to wait: to wait for two things--the result +of the medical investigation, and the arrival of Mr. Franklin Fullaway. +The second came first. At ten minutes past two a bustling, +quick-mannered American strode into Marshall Allerdyke's private +sitting-room, and at the instant that the door was closed behind him +asked a question which seemed to burst from every fibre of his being-- + +"My dear sir! Are they safe?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NASTIRSEVITCH JEWELS + + +Allerdyke, like all true Yorkshiremen, had been born into the world with +a double portion of caution and a triple one of reserve, and instead of +answering the question he took a leisurely look at the questioner. He saw +before him a tall, good-looking, irreproachably attired man of from +thirty to thirty-five years of age, whose dark eyes were ablaze with +excitement, whose equally dark, carefully trimmed moustache did not +conceal the agitation of the lips beneath. Mr. Franklin Fullaway, in +spite of his broad shoulders and excellent muscular development, was +evidently a highly strung, nervous, sensitive gentleman; nothing could be +plainer than that he had travelled from town in a state of great mental +activity which was just arriving at boiling-point. Everything about his +movements and gestures denoted it--the way in which he removed his hat, +laid aside his stick and gloves, ran his fingers through his dark, curly +hair, and--more than anything--looked at Marshall Allerdyke. But +Allerdyke had a habit of becoming cool and quiet when other men grew +excited and emotional, and he glanced at his visitor with seeming +indifference. + +"Mr. Fullaway, I suppose?" he said, phlegmatically. "Aye, to be sure! Sit +you down, Mr. Fullaway. Will you take anything?--it's a longish ride from +London, and I daresay you'd do with a drink, what?" + +"Nothing, nothing, thank you, Mr. Allerdyke," answered Fullaway, +obviously surprised by the other's coolness. "I had lunch on the train." + +"Very convenient, that," observed Allerdyke. "I can remember when there +wasn't a chance of it. Aye--and what might this be that you're asking +about, now, Mr. Fullaway? What do you refer to?" + +Fullaway, after a moment's surprised look at the Yorkshireman's stolid +face, elevated his well-marked eyebrows and shook his head. Then he edged +his chair nearer to the table at which Allerdyke sat. + +"You don't know, then, that your cousin had valuables on him?" he asked +in an altered tone. + +"I know exactly what my cousin had on him, and what was in his +baggage, when I found him dead in his room," replied Allerdyke drily. +"And what that was--was just what I should have expected to find. +But--nothing more." + +Fullaway almost leapt in his chair. + +"Nothing more!" he exclaimed. "Nothing more than you would have expected +to find! Nothing?" + +Allerdyke bent across the table, giving his visitor a keen look. + +"What would you have expected to find if you'd found him as I found him?" +he asked. "Come--what, now?" + +He was watching the American narrowly, and he saw that Fullaway's +excitement was passing off, was being changed into an attentive +eagerness. He himself thrust his hand into his breast pocket and drew out +the papers which had been accumulating there since his arrival and +discovery. + +"We'd best be plain, Mr. Fullaway," he said. "I don't know you, but I +gather that you knew James, and that you'd done business together." + +"I knew Mr. James Allerdyke very well, and I've done business with him +for the last two years," replied Fullaway. + +"Just so," assented Allerdyke. "And your business--" + +"That of a general agent--an intermediary, if you like," answered +Fullaway. "I arrange private sales a good deal between European sellers +and American buyers--pictures, curiosities, jewels, antiques, and so on. +I'm pretty well known, Mr. Allerdyke, on both sides the Atlantic." + +"Quite so," said Allerdyke. "I'm not in that line, however, and I don't +know you. But I'll tell you all I do know and you'll tell me all you +know. When I searched my cousin for papers, I found this wire from +you--sent to James at St. Petersburg. Now then, what does it refer to? +Those valuables you hinted at just now?" + +"Exactly!" answered Fullaway. "Nothing less!" + +"What valuables are they?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Jewels! Worth a quarter of a million," replied Fullaway. + +"What? Dollars?" + +Fullaway laughed derisively. + +"Dollars! No, pounds! Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, my dear +sir!" he answered. + +"You think he had them on him?" + +"I'm sure he had them on him!" asserted Fullaway. He, in his turn, began +to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was in +Christiania the other day. He was bringing them over here--to me." + +"On whose behalf?" asked Allerdyke. + +"On behalf of a Russian lady, a Princess, who wished to find a purchaser +for them," replied the American promptly. + +"In that case--to come to the point," said Allerdyke, "if my cousin +James had that property on him when he landed here last night and it +wasn't--as it certainly wasn't--on him when I found him this +morning---he's been robbed?" + +"Robbed--and murdered that he might be robbed!" answered Fullaway. + +The two men looked steadily at each other for a while. Then Allerdyke +laid his papers on the table between them. + +"You'd better tell me all you know about it," he said quietly. "Let's +hear it all--then we shall be getting towards knowing what to do." + +"Willingly!" exclaimed the American. He produced and spread out a couple +of cablegrams on which he laid a hand while he talked. "As I have already +said, I have had several deals in business with Mr. James Allerdyke. I +last saw him towards the end of March, in town, and he then mentioned to +me that he was just about setting out for Russia. On April 20th I +received this cable from him--sent, you see, from St. Petersburg. Allow +me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to +find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter +of million pounds. Wants money to clear off mortgages on her son's +estate, and set him going again. Do you know of any one likely to buy in +one lot? Can arrange to bring over myself for buyers' inspection if +chance of immediate good sale. James Allerdyke.' Now, as soon as I +received that from your cousin I immediately thought of a possible and +very likely purchaser--Mr. Delkin, a Chicago man, whose only daughter is +just about to marry an English nobleman. I knew that Mr. Delkin had a +mind to give his daughter a really fine collection of jewels, and I went +at once to him regarding the matter. In consequence of my interview with +Mr. Delkin, I cabled to James Allerdyke on April 21st, saying--" + +"This is it, no doubt," said Allerdyke, producing the message of the date +mentioned. + +"That is it," assented Fullaway, glancing across the table. "Very well, +you see what I said. He replied to that at once--here is his reply. It +is, you see, very brief. It merely says, 'All right--shall wire details +later--keep possible buyer on.' I heard no more until last Thursday, +May 8th, when I received this cablegram, sent, you see, from +Christiania. In it he says: 'Expect reach Hull Monday night next. Shall +come London next day. Arrange meeting with your man. Have got all +goods.' Now those last four words, Mr. Allerdyke, if they mean anything +at all, mean that your cousin was bringing these valuable jewels with +him; had them on him when he cabled from Christiania. And if you did +not find them when you searched him--where are they? Two hundred and +fifty thousand pounds' worth!" + +Allerdyke took the three cablegrams from his visitor and carefully read +them through, comparing them with the dates already known to him, and +with Fullaway's messages in reply. Eventually he put all the papers +together, arranging them in sequence. He laid them on the table between +Fullaway and himself, and for a moment or two sat reflectively drumming +the tips of his fingers on them. + +"Who is this Princess Nastirsevitch?" he asked suddenly looking up. +"Royalty, eh?" + +"No," answered Fullaway, with a smile. "I don't know much about these +European titles and dignities, but I don't think the title of Prince +means in Russia what it does in England. A Prince there, I think, is some +sort of nobleman, like your dukes and earls, and so on, here. But, +anyway, the Princess Nastirsevitch isn't a Russian at all, except by +marriage--she's a countryman of my own. I guess you've heard of her--she +was Helen Hamilton, the famous dancer." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Not my line at all," he said. "It was a bit in James's, though. Dancer, +eh? And married a Prince?" + +"Twenty-five years ago," replied Fullaway. "Ancient history, that. But I +know a good deal about her. She made a big fortune with her dancing, and +she invested largely in pearls and diamonds--I know that. I also happen +to know that she'd one son by her marriage, of whom she's passionately +fond. And I read this thing in this way: I guess the old Prince's estates +(he's dead, a year or two ago) were heavily mortgaged, and she hit on the +notion of clearing all off by selling her jewels, so that her son might +start clear--no encumbrances on the property, you know." + +Allerdyke pursed his lips and rubbed his chin. + +"What I don't understand is that she confided a quarter of a million's +worth of goods of that sort to a man whom she couldn't know so very +well," he observed. "I never heard James speak of her." + +"That may be." replied Fullaway. "But he may have known her very well for +all that. However, there are the facts. And," he added, with emphasis, +"there, Mr. Allerdyke, are those four words, sent from Christiania, 'Have +got all goods!' Now, we can be reasonably sure of what he meant. He'd +got the Princess's jewels. Very well! Where are they?" + +Allerdyke got to his feet, and, thrusting his hands in his pockets, +began to stride about the room. All this was not merely puzzling, but, +in a way which he could not understand, distasteful to him. Somehow--he +did not know why, nor at that moment try to think why--he resented the +fact that any one knew more about his dead cousin than he did. And he +began to wonder as he strode about the room how much this Mr. Franklin +Fullaway knew. + +"Did my cousin James ever mention this Princess to you?" he suddenly +asked, stopping in his walk to and fro. "I mean--before he went over to +Russia this last time?" + +"He just mentioned that he knew her--mentioned it in casual +conversation," answered Fullaway. "She and I being fellow Americans, the +subject interested me, of course. But--he only said that he had met her +in Russia." + +"Aye, well," said Allerdyke musingly, "it's true he did go across to +Russia a good deal, and no doubt he knew folk there that he never told me +about." + +"Well," he went on, throwing himself into his chair again, "what's +to be done? Do you honestly think that he had those things on him when he +came here last night? You do? Very well, then, he's been murdered by some +devil or devils who's got 'em! But how? And who are they--or who's +he--or--good Lord! it might be who's she?" + +"Poisoned," said Fullaway. "That's my answer to your question of--how? As +to your other question--is there no clue to anything? you forget--I don't +know any details. I only know that he was found dead. Under what +circumstances?" + +Allerdyke pulled his chair nearer to his visitor. + +"I'd forgotten," he said. "I'll tell you the lot. See if you can make +aught out of it--they always say you Yankees have sharp brains. Try to +see a bit of daylight! So far it licks me." + +He gave the American a brief yet full account of all that had happened +since his receipt of James Allerdyke's wireless message. And Fullaway +listened in silence, taking everything in, making no interruption, and at +the end he spoke quietly and with decision. + +"We must find that woman--Miss Celia Lennard--and at once," he said. +"That's absolutely necessary." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "But look here--I've been thinking that +over. Is it very likely that a woman who'd stolen two hundred and fifty +thousand pounds' worth of stuff from an hotel would wire back to its +manager, giving her address, for the sake of a shoe-buckle, even one set +with diamonds?" + +"I'm not--for the moment--supposing that she is the thief," answered +Fullaway. "Why I want--and must--find her at once is to ask her a +simple question. What was she doing in James Allerdyke's room? +For--I've an idea." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"This," replied Fullaway. "They were fellow-passengers on the _Perisco_. +Your cousin--as I daresay you know--was the sort of man who readily +makes friends, especially with women. My idea is that if this Miss +Lennard went into his room last night it was to be shown the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels. Your cousin was just the sort of man who knew how +a woman would appreciate an exhibition of such things. And--" + +At that moment a waiter tapped at the sitting-room door and announced +Dr. Orwin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PRIMA DONNA'S PORTRAIT + + +Marshall Allerdyke's sharp eyes were quick to see that his new visitor +had something of importance to communicate and wished to give his news in +private. Dr. Orwin glanced inquiringly at the American as he took the +seat which Allerdyke drew forward, and the cock of his eyes indicated a +strong desire to know who the stranger was. + +"Friend of my late cousin," said Allerdyke brusquely. "Mr. Franklin +Fullaway, of London--just as anxious as I am to hear what you have to +tell us, doctor. You've come to tell something, of course?" + +The doctor inclined his head towards Fullaway, and added a grave bow in +answer to Allerdyke's question. + +"The autopsy has been made," he replied. "By Dr. Lydenberg, Dr. Quillet, +who is one of the police-surgeons here, and myself. We made a very +careful and particular examination." + +"And--the result?" asked Allerdyke eagerly. "Is it what you anticipated +from your first glance at him--here?" + +The doctor's face became a shade graver; his voice assumed an +oracular tone. + +"My two colleagues," he said, "agreed that your cousin's death resulted +from heart failure which arose from what we may call ordinary causes. +There is no need for me to go into details--it is quite sufficient to say +that they are abundantly justified in coming to the conclusion at which +they have arrived: it is quite certain that your cousin's heart had +recently become seriously affected. But as regards myself"--here he +paused, and looking narrowly from one to the other of his two hearers, he +sank his voice to a lower, more confidential tone--"as regards myself, I +am not quite so certain as Dr. Lydenberg and Dr. Quillet appear to be. +The fact of the case is, I think it very possible that Mr. James +Allerdyke was--poisoned." + +Neither of the two who listened so intently made any reply to this +significant announcement. Instead they kept their eyes intently fixed on +the doctor's grave face; then they slowly turned from him to each other, +exchanging glances. And after a pause the doctor went on, speaking in +measured and solemn accents. + +"There is no need, either, at present--only at present--that I should +tell you why I think that," he continued. "I may be wrong--my two +colleagues are inclined to think I am wrong. But they quite agree with me +that it will be proper to preserve certain organs--you understand?--for +further examination by, say, the Home Office analyst, who is always, of +course, a famous pathological expert. That will be done--in fact, we have +already sealed up what we wish to be further examined. But"--he paused +again, shaking his head more solemnly than ever--"the truth is, +gentlemen," he went on at last, "I am doubtful if even that analysis and +examination will reveal anything. If my suspicions are correct--and +perhaps I ought to call them mere notions, theories, ideas, rather than +suspicions--but, at any rate, if there is anything in the vague thoughts +which I have, no trace of any poison will be found--and yet your cousin +may have been poisoned, all the same." + +"Secretly!" exclaimed Fullaway. + +Dr. Orwin gave the American a sharp glance which indicated that he +realized Fullaway's understanding of what he had just said. + +"Precisely," he answered. "There are poisons--known to experts--which +will destroy life almost to a given minute, and of which the most skilful +pathologist and expert will not be able to find a single trace. Now, +please, understand my position--I say, it is quite possible, quite +likely, quite in accordance with what I have seen, that this unfortunate +gentleman died of heart failure brought about by even such an ordinary +exertion as his stooping forward to untie his shoe-lace, but--I also +think it likely that his death resulted from poison, subtly and cunningly +administered, probably not very long before his death took place. And if +I only knew--" + +He paused at that, and looked searchingly and meaningly at Marshall +Allerdyke before he continued. And Allerdyke looked back with the same +intentness and nodded. + +"Yes--yes!" he said. "If you only knew--? Say it, doctor!" + +"If I only knew if there was any reason why any person wished to take +this man's life," responded Dr. Orwin, slowly and deliberately. "If I +knew that somebody wanted to get him out of the way, for instance--" + +Allerdyke jumped to his feet and tapped Fullaway on the shoulder. + +"Come in here a minute," he said, motioning towards the door of his +bedroom. "Excuse us, doctor--I want to have a word with this gentleman. +Look here," he continued, when he had led the American into the bedroom +and had closed the door. "You hear what he says? Shall we tell him? Or +shall we keep it all dark for a while? Which--what?" + +"Tell him under promise of secrecy," replied Fullaway after a moment's +consideration. "Medical men are all right--yes, tell him. He may suggest +something. And I'm inclined to think his theory is correct, eh?" + +"Correct!" exclaimed Allerdyke, with a grim laugh. "You bet it's correct! +Come on, then--we'll tell him all. Now, doctor," he went on, leading the +way back into the sitting-room, "we're going to give you our confidence. +You'll treat it as a strict confidence, a secret between us, for the +present. The truth is that when my cousin came to this hotel last night +he was in possession--that is, we have the very strongest grounds for +believing him to have been in possession--of certain extremely valuable +property---jewels worth a large amount--which he was carrying, +safeguarding, from a lady in Russia to this gentleman in London. When I +searched his body and luggage, these valuables were missing. Mr. Fullaway +and myself haven't the least doubt that he was robbed. So your +theory--eh?" + +Dr. Orwin had listened to this with deep attention, and he now put two +quick questions. + +"The value of these things was great?" + +"Relatively, very great," answered Allerdyke. + +"Enough to engage, the attention of a clever gang of thieves?" + +"Quite!" + +"Then," said the doctor, "I am quite of opinion that my ideas are +correct. These, people probably tracked your cousin to this place, +contrived to administer a subtle and deadly poison to him last night, and +entered his room after the time at which they knew it would take effect. +Have you any clue--even a slight one?" + +"Only this," answered Allerdyke, and proceeded to narrate the story of +the shoe-buckle, adding Fullaway's theory to it. "That's not much, eh?" + +"You must find that woman and produce her at the inquest," said the +doctor. "I take it that Mr. Fullaway's idea is a correct one. Your cousin +probably did invite Miss Lennard into his room to show her these +jewels--that, of course, would prove that he had them in his possession +at some certain hour last night. Now, about that inquest. It is fixed for +ten o'clock to-morrow morning. Let me advise you as to your own course of +procedure, having an eye on what you have told me. Your object should be +to make the proceedings to-morrow merely formal, so that the Coroner can +issue his order for interment, and then adjourn for further evidence. It +will be sufficient if you give evidence identifying the body, if evidence +is given of the autopsy, and an adjournment asked for until a further +examination of the reserved organs and viscera can be made. For the +present, I should keep back the matter of the supposed robbery until you +can find this Miss Lennard. At the adjourned inquest--say in a week or +ten days hence--everything pertinent can be brought out. But you will +need legal help--I am rather trespassing on legal preserves in telling +you so much." + +"Deeply obliged to you, doctor--and you can add to our obigations by +giving us the name of a good man to go to," said Allerdyke. "We'll see +him at once and fix things up for to-morrow morning." + +Dr. Orwin wrote down the name and address of a well-known solicitor, and +presently went away. When he had gone, Allerdyke turned to Fullaway. + +"Now, then," he said, "you and I'll do one or two things. We'll call +on this lawyer. Then we'll cable to the Princess. But how shall we get +her address!" + +"There's sure to be a Russian Consul in the town," suggested Fullaway. + +"Good idea! And I'm going to telephone to this Miss Lennard's address +in London," continued Allerdyke. "She evidently set off from here to +Edinburgh; but, anyway, the address she gave in that wire to the +manager is a London one, and I'm going to try it. Now let's get out and +be at work." + +The ensuing conversation between these two and a deeply interested and +much-impressed solicitor resulted in the dispatch of a lengthy cablegram +to St. Petersburg, a conversation over the telephone with the housekeeper +of Miss Celia Lennard's London flat, and the interviewing of the captain +and stewards of the steamship on which James Allerdyke had crossed from +Christiania. The net result of this varied inquiry was small, and +produced little that could throw additional light on the matter in +question. The _Perisco_ officials had not seen anything suspicious in the +conduct or personality of any of their passengers. They had observed +James Allerdyke in casual conversation with some of them--they had seen +him talking to Miss Lennard, to Dr. Lydenberg, to others, ladies and +gentlemen who subsequently put up at the Station Hotel for the night. +Nothing that they could tell suggested anything out of the common. Miss +Lennard's housekeeper gave no other information than that her mistress +was at present in Edinburgh, and was expected to remain there for at +least a week. And towards night came a message from the Princess +Nastirsevitch confirming Fullaway's conviction that James Allerdyke was +in possession of her jewels and announcing that she was leaving for +England at once, and should travel straight, via Berlin and Calais, to +meet Mr. Franklin Fullaway at his hotel in London. + +The solicitor agreed with Dr. Orwin's suggestions as to the course to be +followed with regard to the inquest; it would be wise, he said, to keep +matters quiet for at any rate a few days, until they were in a position +to bring forward more facts. Consequently, the few people who were +present at the Coroner's court next morning gained no idea of the real +importance of the inquiry which was then opened. Even the solitary +reporter who took a perfunctory note of the proceedings for his newspaper +gathered no more from what he heard than that a gentleman had died +suddenly at the Station Hotel, that it had been necessary to hold an +inquest, that there was some little doubt as to the precise cause of his +death, and that the inquest was accordingly adjourned until the medical +men could tell something of a more definite nature. Nothing sensational +crept out into the town; no bold-lettered headlines ornamented the +afternoon editions. An hour before noon Marshall Allerdyke entrusted his +cousin's body to the care of certain kinsfolk who had come over from +Bradford to take charge of it; by noon he and Fullaway were slipping out +of Hull on their way to Edinburgh--to search for a witness, who, if and +when they found her, might be able to tell them--what? + +"Seems something like a wild-goose chase," said Allerdyke as the train +steamed on across country towards York and the North. "How do we know +where to find this woman in Edinburgh? Her housekeeper didn't know what +hotel she was at--I suppose we'll have to try every one in the place till +we come across her!" + +"Edinburgh is not a very big town," remarked Fullaway. "I reckon to run +her down--if she's still there--within a couple of hours. It's our first +duty, anyway. If she--as I guess she did--saw those jewels, then we know +that James Allerdyke had them on him when he reached Hull, dead sure." + +"And supposing she can tell that?" said Allerdyke. "What then? How does +that help? The devils who got 'em have already had thirty-six hours' +start of us!" + +The American produced a bulky cigar-case, found a green cigar, and +lighted it with a deliberation which was in marked contrast to his usual +nervous movements. + +"Seems to me," he said presently, "seems very much to me that this has +been a great thing! I figure it out like this--somehow, somebody has got +to know of what the Princess and your cousin were up to--that he was +going to carry those valuable jewels with him to England. He must have +been tracked all the way, unless--does any unless strike you, now?" + +"Not at the moment," replied Allerdyke. "So unless what?" + +"Unless the thieves--and murderers--were waiting there in Hull for his +arrival," said Fullaway quietly. "That's possible!" + +"Strikes me a good many possibilities are knocking around," remarked +Allerdyke, with more than his usual dryness. "As for me, I'll want to +know a lot about these valuables and their consignment before I make up +my mind in any way. I tell you frankly. I'm not running after them--I'm +wanting to find the folk who killed my cousin, and I only hope this young +woman'll be able to give me a hand. And the sooner we get to the bottle +of hay and begin prospecting for the needle the better!" + +But the search for Miss Celia Lennard to which Allerdyke alluded so +gloomily was not destined to be either difficult or lengthy. As he and +his companion walked along one of the platforms in the Waverley Station +in Edinburgh that evening, on their way to a cab, Allerdyke suddenly +uttered a sharp exclamation and seized the American by the elbow, +twisting him round in front of a big poster which displayed the portrait +of a very beautiful woman. + +"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "There she is! See? That's the woman. Man +alive, we've hit it at once! Look!" + +Fullaway turned and stared, not so much at the portrait as at the big +lettering above and beneath it: + + ZELIE DE LONGARDE, + THE WORLD-FAMED SOPRANO. + RECENTLY RETURNED FROM MOSCOW + AND ST. PETERSBURG. + Only Visit to Edinburgh this Year. + TO-NIGHT AT 8. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FRANTIC IMPRESARIO + + +Fullaway slowly read this announcement aloud. When he had made an end of +it he laughed. + +"So your mysterious lady of the midnight motor, your Miss Celia Lennard +of the Hull hotel, is the great and only Zelie de Longarde, eh?" he said. +"Well, I guess that makes matters a lot easier and clearer. But you're +sure it isn't a case of striking resemblance?" + +"I only saw that woman for a minute or two, by moonlight, when she stuck +her face out of her car to ask the way," replied Allerdyke, "but I'll +lay all I'm worth to a penny-piece that the woman I then saw is the +woman whose picture we're staring at. Great Scott! So she's a famous +singer, is she? You know of her, of course? That sort of thing's not in +my line--never was--I don't go to a concert or a musical party once in +five years." + +"Oh, she's great--sure!" responded Fullaway. "Beautiful voice--divine! +And, as I say, things are going to be easy. I've met this lady more than +once, though I didn't know that she'd any other name than that, which is +presumably her professional one, and I've also had one or two business +deals with her. So all we've got to do is to find out which hotel she's +stopping at in this city, and then we'll go round there, and I'll send in +my card. But I say--do you see, this affair's to-night, this very +evening, and at eight o'clock, and it's past seven now. She'll be +arraying herself for the platform. We'd better wait until--" + +Allerdyke's practical mind asserted itself. He twisted the American +round in another direction, and called to a porter who had picked up +their bags. + +"All that's easy," he said. "We'll stick these things in the left-luggage +spot, dine here in the station, and go straight to the concert. There, +perhaps, during an interval, we might get in a word with this lady who +sports two names. Come on, now." + +He hurried his companion from the cloak-room to the dining-room, gave a +quick order on his own behalf to the waiter, left Fullaway to give his +own, and began to eat and drink with the vigour of a man who means to +waste no time. + +"There's one thing jolly certain, my lad!" he said presently, leaning +confidentially across the table after he had munched in silence for a +while. "This Miss Lennard, or Mamselle, or Signora de Longarde, or +whatever her real label is, hasn't got those jewels--confound 'em! Folks +who steal things like that don't behave as she's doing." + +"I never thought she had stolen the jewels," answered Fullaway. "What I +want to know is--has she seen them, and when, and where, and under what +circumstances? You've got her shoe-buckle all safe?" + +"Waistcoat-pocket just now," replied Allerdyke laconically. + +"That'll be an extra passport," observed Fullaway. "Not that it's needed, +because, as I said, I've done business for her. Oddly enough, that was in +the jewel line--I negotiated the sale of Pinkie Pell's famous pearl +necklace with Mademoiselle de Longarde. You've heard of that, of course?" + +"Never a whisper!" answered Allerdyke. "Not in my line, those affairs. +Who was Pinkie Pell, anyhow!" + +"Pinkie Pell was a well-known music-hall artiste, my dear sir, once a +great favourite, who came down in the world, and had to sell her +valuables," replied the American. "To the last she stuck to a pearl +necklace, which was said to have been given to her by the Duke of +Bendlecombe--Pinkie, they said, attached a sentimental value to it. +However, it had to be sold, and I sold it for Pinkie to the lady we're +going to see to-night. Seven thousand five hundred--it's well worth ten. +Mademoiselle will be wearing it, no doubt--she generally does, anyway--so +you'll see it." + +"Not unless we get a front pew," said Allerdyke. "Hurry up, and let's be +off! Our best plan," he went on as they made for a cab, "will be to get +as near the platform as possible, so that I can make certain sure this is +the woman I saw at Howden yesterday morning--when I positively identify +her, I'll leave it to you to work the interview with her, either at this +concert place or at her hotel afterwards. If it can be done at once, all +the more to my taste--I want to be knowing things." + +"Oh, we're going well ahead!" said Fullaway. "I'll work it all right. I +noticed on that poster that this affair is being run by the +Concert-Director Ernest Weiss. I know Weiss--he'll get us an interview +with the great lady after she's appeared the first time." + +"It's a fortunate thing for me to have a man who seems to know +everybody," remarked Allerdyke. "I suppose it's living in London gives +you so much acquaintance?" + +"It's my business to know a lot of people," answered Fullaway. "The more +the better--for my purposes. I'll tell you how I came to know your cousin +later that's rather interesting. Well, here's the place, and it's five +to eight now. We've struck it very well, and the only trouble'll be about +getting good seats, especially as we're in morning dress." + +Allerdyke smiled at that--in his opinion, money would carry a man +anywhere, and there was always plenty of that useful commodity in his +pockets. He insisted on buying the seats himself, and after some +parleying and explaining at the box-office, he and his companion were +duly escorted to seats immediately in front of a flower-decked platform, +where they were set down amidst a highly select company of correctly +attired folk, who glanced a little questioningly at their tweed suits, +both conspicuous amidst silks, satins, broadcloths, and glazed linen. +Allerdyke laughed as he thrust a program into Fullaway's hand. + +"I worked that all right," he whispered. "Told the chap in that receipt +of custom that you were a foreigner of great distinction travelling +incognito in Scotland, and I your travelling companion, and that our +luggage hadn't arrived from Aberdeen, so we couldn't dress, but we must +hear this singing lady at all cost and in any case. Then I slapped down +the brass and got the tickets--naught like brass in ready form, my lad! +Now, then, when does the desired party appear?" + +Fullaway unfolded his program and glanced over the items. The +Concert-Direction of Ernest Weiss was famous for the fare which it put +before its patrons, and here was certainly enough variety of talent to +please the most critical--a famous tenor, a popular violinist, a +contralto much in favour for her singing of tender and sentimental songs, +a notable performer on the violincello, a local vocalist whose speciality +was the singing of ancient Scottish melodies, and--item of vast interest +to a certain section of the audience--a youthful prodigy who was fondly +believed to have it in her power to become a female Paderewski. These +performers were duly announced on the program in terms of varying +importance; outstanding from all of them, of course, was the great star +of the evening, the one and only Zelie de Longarde, acknowledged Queen of +Song in Milan and Moscow, Paris and London, New York and Melbourne. + +"Comes on fifth, I see," observed Allerdyke, glancing over his +program unconcernedly. "Well, I suppose we've got to stick out the +other four. I'm not great on music, Fullaway--don't know one tune +from another. However, I reckon I can stand a bit of noise until my +lady shows herself." + +He listened with good-natured interest, which was not far removed from +indifference, to the contralto, the 'cellist, the violinist, only waking +up to something like enthusiasm when the infant prodigy, a quaint, +painfully shy little creature, who bobbed a side curtsey at the audience, +and looked much too small to tackle the grand piano, appeared and +proceeded to execute wonderful things with her small fingers. + +"That's a bit of all right!" murmured Allerdyke, when the child had +finished her first contribution. "That's a clever little party! But she's +too big in the eye, and too small in the bone--wants plenty of new milk, +and new-laid eggs, and fresh air, and not so much piano-thumping, does +that. Clever--clever--but unnatural, Fullaway!--they mustn't let her do +too much at that. Well, now I suppose we shall see the shoe-buckle lady." + +The packed audience evidently supposed the same thing. Over it--the +infant prodigy having received her meed of applause and bobbed herself +awkwardly out of sight--had come that atmosphere of expectancy which +invariably heralds the appearance of the great figure on any similar +occasion. It needed no special intuition on Allerdyke's part to know that +all these people were itching to show their fondness for Zelie de +Longarde by clapping their hands, waving their program, and otherwise +manifesting their delight at once more seeing a prime favourite. All eyes +were fixed on the wing of the platform, all hands were ready to give +welcome. But a minute passed--two minutes--three minutes--and Zelie de +Longarde did not appear. Another minute--and then, endeavouring to smile +bravely and reassuringly, and not succeeding particularly well in the +attempt, a tall, elaborately attired, carefully polished-up man, +unmistakably German, blonde, heavy, suave, suddenly walked on to the +platform and did obeisance to the audience. + +"Weiss!" whispered Fullaway. "Something's wrong! Look at his face--he's +in big trouble." + +The concert-director straightened himself from that semi-military bow, +and looked at the faces in front of him with a mute appeal. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I have to entreat the high favour of +your kind indulgence. Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet arrived from +her hotel. I hope--I think--she is now on her way. In the meantime I +propose, with your gracious consent, to continue, our program with the +next item, at the conclusion of which, I hope, Mademoiselle will appear." + +The audience was sympathetic--the audience was ready to be placated. It +gave cordial hearing and warm favour to the singer of Scottish +melodies--it even played into Mr. Concert-Director Weiss's hands by +according the local singer an encore. But when he had finally retired +there was another wait, a longer one which lengthened unduly, a note of +impatience sounded from the gallery; it was taken up elsewhere. And +suddenly Weiss came again upon the platform--this time with no +affectation of suave entreaty. He was plainly much upset; his elegant +waistcoat seemed to have assumed careworn creases, his mop of blonde hair +was palpably rumpled as if he had been endeavouring to tear some of its +wavy locks out by force. And when he spoke his fat voice shook with a +mixture of chagrin and anger. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I crave ten thousand--a +million--pardons for this so-unheard-of state of affairs! The--the truth +is, Mademoiselle de Longarde is not yet here. What is more--I have to +tell you the truth--Mademoiselle refuses to come--refuses to fulfil her +honourable engagement. We are--have been for some time--on the telephone +with her. Mademoiselle is at her hotel. She declares she has been +robbed--her jewels have all been stolen from their case in her +apartments. She is--how shall I say?--turning the hotel upside down! She +refuses to budge one inch until her jewels are restored to her. How +then?--I cannot restore her jewels. I say to her--my colleagues say to +her--it is not your jewels we desire--it is your so beautiful, so +incomparable voice. She reply--I cannot tell you what she reply! In +effect--no jewels, no song! Ladies and gentlemen, once more!--your most +kind, most considerate indulgence! I go there just now--I fly; swift, to +the hotel, to entreat Mademoiselle on my knees to return with me! In the +meantime--" + +As Weiss retired from the platform, and the longhaired 'cellist came upon +it, Fullaway sprang up, dragging Allerdyke after him. He led the way to +a sidedoor, whispered something to an attendant, and was quickly ushered +through another door to an ante-room behind the wings, where Weiss, livid +with anger, was struggling into an opera-cloak. The concert-director +gasped as he caught sight of the American. + +"Ah, my dear Mr. Fullaway!" he exclaimed. "You here! You have heard?--you +have been in front. You hear, then--she will not come to sing because her +jewels are missing, eh? She--" + +"What hotel is Mademoiselle de Longarde stopping at, Weiss?" asked +Fullaway quietly. + +"The North British and Caledonian--I go there just now!" answered Weiss. +"I am ruined if she will not appear--ruined, disgraced! Jewels! Ah--!" + +"Come on--we're going with you," said Fullaway. "Quick now!" + +Allerdyke got some vivid impressions during the next few minutes, +impressions various, startling. They began with a swift whirl through the +lighted streets of the smoky old city, of a dash upstairs at a big hotel; +they ended with a picture of a beautiful, highly enraged woman, who was +freely speaking her mind to a dismayed hotel manager and a couple of men +who were obviously members of the detective force. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWEL BOX + + +Mademoiselle Zelie de Longarde, utterly careless of the fact that her +toilette was but half complete, that she wore no gown, and that the +kimono which she had hastily assumed on discovering her loss had slipped +away from her graceful figure to fall in folds about her feet, +interrupted the torrent of her eloquence to stare at the three men whom a +startled waiter ushered into her sitting-room. Her first glance fell on +the concert-director, and she shook her fist at him. + +"Go away, Weiss!" she commanded, accompanying the vigorous action of her +hand with an equally emphatic stamp of a shapely foot. "Go away at +once--go and play on the French horn; go and do anything you like to +satisfy your audience! Not one note do I sing until somebody finds me my +jewels! Edinburgh's stole them, and Edinburgh'll have to give them back. +It's no use your waiting here--I won't budge an inch. I--" + +She paused abruptly, suddenly catching sight of Fullaway, who at once +moved towards her with a confidential and reassuring smile. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "What brings you here? And who's that with +you--surely the gentleman of whom I asked my way in some wild place the +other night! What--" + +"Mademoiselle," said Fullaway, with a deep bow, "let me suggest to you +that the finest thing in this mundane state of ours is--reason. +Suppose, now, that you complete your toilet, tell us what it is you +have lost; leave us--your devoted servants--to begin the task of +finding it, and while we are so engaged, hasten with Mr. Weiss to the +hall to fulfil your engagement? A packed audience awaits +you--palpitating with sympathy and--" + +"And curiosity," interjected the aggrieved prima donna, as she threw a +hasty glance at her deshabille and snatched up the kimono. "Pretty talk, +Fullaway--very, and all intended to benefit Weiss there. Lost, +indeed!--I've lost all my jewels, and up to now nobody"--here she flashed +a wrathful glance at the hotel manager and the two detectives--"nobody +has made a single suggestion about finding them!" + +Fullaway exchanged looks with the other men. Once more he assumed the +office of spokesman. + +"Perhaps you have not told them precisely what it is they're to find," he +suggested. "What is it now, Mademoiselle? The Pinkie Pell necklace for +instance!" + +The prima donna, who was already retreating through the door of the +bedroom on whose threshold she had been standing, flashed a scornful look +at her questioner over the point of her white shoulder. + +"Pinkie Pell necklace!" she exclaimed. "Everything's gone! The whole lot! +Look at that--not so much as a ring left in it!" + +She pointed a slender, quivering finger to a box which stood, lid thrown +open, on a table in the sitting-room, by which the detectives were +standing, open-mouthed, and obviously puzzled. Allerdyke, following the +pointing finger, noted that the box was a very ordinary-looking +affair--a tiny square chest of polished wood, fitted with a brass swing +handle. It might have held a small type-writing machine; it might have +been a medicine chest; it certainly did not look the sort of thing in +which one would carry priceless jewels. But Mademoiselle de Longarde was +speaking again. + +"That's what I always carried my jewels in--in their cases," she said. +"And they were all in there when I left Christiania a few days ago, and +that box has never been out of my sight--so to speak--since. And when I +opened it here to-night, wanting the things, it was as empty as it is +now. And if I behave handsomely, and go with Weiss there, to fulfil this +engagement, it'll only be on condition that you stop here, Fullaway, and +do your level best to get me my jewels back. I've done all I can--I've +told the manager there, and I've told those two policemen, and not a man +of them seems able to suggest anything! Perhaps you can." + +With that she disappeared and slammed the door of the bedroom, and the +six men, left in a bunch, looked at each other. Then one of the +detectives spoke, shaking his head and smiling grimly. + +"It's all very well to say we suggest nothing," he said. "We want some +facts to go on first. Up to now, all the lady's done is to storm at us +and at everybody--she seems to think all Edinburgh's in a conspiracy to +rob her! We don't know any circumstances yet, except that she says she's +been robbed. Perhaps--" + +"Wait a bit," interrupted Fullaway. "Let us get her off to her +engagement. Then we can talk. I suppose," he continued, turning to the +manager, "she first announced her loss to you?" + +"She announced her loss to the whole world, in a way of speaking," +answered the manager, with a dry laugh. + +"She screamed it out over the main staircase into the hall! Everybody in +the place knows it by this time--she took good care they should. I don't +know how she can have been robbed--so far as I can learn she's scarcely +been out of these rooms since she came into them yesterday afternoon. The +grand piano had been put in for her before she arrived, and she's spent +all her time singing and playing--I don't believe she's ever left the +hotel. And as I pointed out to her when she fetched me up, she found this +box locked when she went to it--why didn't the thieves carry it bodily +away? Why--" + +"Just so--just so!" broke in Fullaway. "I quite appreciate your points. +But there is more in this than meets the first glance. Let us get +Mademoiselle off to her engagement, I say--that's the first thing. Then +we can do business. Weiss," he continued, drawing the concert-director +aside, "you must arrange to let her appear as soon as possible after you +get back to the hall, and to put forward her appearance in the second +half of your program, so that she can return here as soon as +possible--she'll only be in irrepressible fidgets until she knows what's +been done. And--you know what she is!--you ought to be very thankful that +she's allowed herself to be persuaded to go with you. Mademoiselle," he +went on, as the prima donna, fully attired, but innocent of jewelled +ornament, swept into the room, "you are doing the right thing--bravely! +Go, sing--sing your best, your divinest--let your admiring audience +recognize that you have a soul above even serious misfortune. Meanwhile, +allow me to order your supper to be served in this room, for eleven +o'clock, and permit me and my friend, Mr. Allerdyke, to invite ourselves +to share it with you. Then--we will give you some news that will +interest and astonish you." + +"That only makes me all the more frantic to get back," exclaimed the +prima donna. "Come along, now, Weiss--you've got a car outside, I +suppose? Hurry, then, and let me get it over." + +When the vastly relieved concert-director had led his bundle of silks and +laces safely out, Fullaway laughed and turned to the other men. + +"Now, gentlemen," he said, "perhaps we can have a little quiet talk about +this affair." He flung himself into a seat and nodded at the +hotel-manager. "Just tell us exactly what's happened since Mademoiselle +arrived here," he said. "Let's get an accurate notion of all her doings. +She came--when?" + +"She got here about the beginning of yesterday afternoon," answered the +manager, who did not appear to be too well pleased about this disturbance +of his usual proceedings. "She has always had this suite of rooms +whenever she has sung in Edinburgh before, and it was understood that +whenever she wrote or wired for them we were to arrange for a grand +piano, properly tuned to concert-pitch, to be put in for her. She wrote +for the suite over a fortnight ago from Russia, and, of course, we had +everything in readiness for her. She turned up, as I say, yesterday, +alone--she explained something about her maid having been obliged to +leave her on arrival in England, and since she came she's had the +services of one of our smartest chambermaids, whom she herself picked out +after carefully inspecting a whole dozen of them. That chambermaid can +tell you that Mademoiselle's scarcely left her rooms since then, and it's +an absolute mystery to me that any person could get in here, open this +box, and abstract its contents. As I say--if anybody wanted to steal her +jewels, why didn't he pick up this box and carry it bodily off instead of +hanging about to pick the lock? I don't believe--" + +"Ah, quite so!" interrupted Fullaway. "I quite agree with you. Now, at +what time did Mademoiselle announce the loss of her jewels?" + +"Oh, about--say, an hour ago. This chambermaid--she's there in +the bedroom now--was helping her to dress for the concert. +She--Mademoiselle--went to this box to get out what ornaments she wanted. +According to the girl, she let out an awful scream, and, just as she was, +rushed to the head of the main stairs--these rooms, as you see, are on +our first floor--and began to shout for me, for anybody, for everybody. +The hall below was just then full of people--coming in and out of the +dining-room and so on. She set the whole place going with the noise she +made," added the manager, visibly annoyed. "It would have been far better +if she'd shown some reserve--" + +"Reserve is certainly an admirable quality," commented Fullaway, "but +it is foreign to young ladies of Mademoiselle's temperament. +Well--and then?" + +"Oh, then, of course, I came up to her suite. She showed me this box. It +had stood, she declared, on a table by her bedside, close to her pillows, +from the moment she entered her rooms yesterday. She swore that it ought +to have been full of her jewels--in cases. When she had opened it--just +before this--it was empty. Of course, she demanded the instant presence +of the police. Also, she insisted that I should at once, that minute, +lock every door in the hotel, and arrest every person in it until their +effects and themselves could be rigorously searched and examined. +Ridiculous!" + +"As you doubtless said," remarked Fullaway. + +"No--I said nothing. Instead I telephoned for police assistance. These +two officers came. And," concluded the manager, with a sympathetic glance +at the detectives, "since they came Mademoiselle has done nothing but +insist on arresting every soul within these walls--she seems to think +there's a universal conspiracy against her." + +"Exactly," said Fullaway. "It is precisely what she would think--under +the circumstances. Now let us see this chambermaid." + +The manager opened the door of the bedroom, and called in a pretty, +somewhat shy, Scotch damsel, who betrayed a becoming confusion at the +sight of so many strangers. But she gave a plain and straightforward +account of her relations with Mademoiselle since the arrival of +yesterday. She had been in almost constant attendance on Mademoiselle +ever since her election to the post of temporary maid--had never left her +save at meal-times. The little chest had stood at Mademoiselle's bed-head +always--she had never seen it moved, or opened. There was a door leading +into the bedroom from the corridor. Mademoiselle had never left the suite +of rooms since her arrival. She had talked that morning of going for a +drive, but rain had begun to fall, and she had stayed in. Mademoiselle +had seemed utterly horrified when she discovered her loss. For a moment +she had sunk on her bed as if she were going to faint; then she had +rushed out into the corridor, just as she was, screaming for the manager +and the police. + +When the pretty chambermaid had retired, Fullaway took up the box from +which the missing property was believed to have been abstracted. He +examined it with seeming indifference, yet he announced its particulars +and specifications with business-like accuracy. + +"Well--this chest, cabinet, or box," he observed carelessly. "Let us look +at it. Here, gentlemen, we have a piece of well-made work. It is--yes, +eighteen inches square all ways. It is made of--yes, rosewood. Its +corners, you see, are clamped with brass. It has a swing handle, fitted +into this brass plate which is sunk into the lid. It has also three brass +letters sunk into that lid--Z. D. L. Its lock does not appear to be of +anything but an ordinary nature. Taking it altogether, I don't think this +is the sort of thing in which you would believe a lady was carrying +several thousand pounds' worth of pearls and diamonds. Eh?" + +One of the detectives stirred uneasily--he did not quite understand the +American's light and easy manner, and he seemed to suspect him of +persiflage. + +"We ought to be furnished with a list of the missing articles," he said. +"That's the first thing." + +"By no means," replied Fullaway. "That, my dear sir, is neither the +first, nor the second, nor the third thing. There is much to do before we +get to that stage. At present, you, gentlemen, cannot do anything. +To-morrow morning, perhaps, when I have consulted with Mademoiselle de +Longarde, I may call you in again--or call upon you. In the meantime, +there's no need to detain you. Now," he continued, turning to the +manager, when the detectives, somewhat puzzled and bewildered, had left +the room, "will you see that your nicest supper is served--for three--in +this room at eleven o'clock, against Mademoiselle's return? Send up your +best champagne. And do not allow yourself to dwell on Mademoiselle's +agitation on discovering her loss. That agitation was natural. If it is +any consolation to you, I will give you a conclusion which may be +satisfactory to your peace of mind as manager. What is it? Merely +this--that though Mademoiselle de Longarde has undoubtedly lost her +jewels, they were certainly not stolen from her in this hotel!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER + + +When the manager, much appeased and relieved in mind, had gone, Fullaway +tapped at the door of the bedroom, summoned the pretty chambermaid, and +handed her the rosewood box. + +"Put this back exactly where Mademoiselle has kept it since she came +here," he commanded. "Now you yourself--you're going to stay in the rooms +until she comes back from the concert? That's right--if she returns +before my friend and I come up again, tell her that we shall present +ourselves at five minutes to eleven. Come downstairs, Allerdyke," he +proceeded, leading the way from the room. "We must book rooms for the +night here, so we'll send to the station for our things and make our +arrangements, after which we'll smoke a cigar and talk--I am beginning to +see chinks of daylight." + +He led Allerdyke down to the office, completed the necessary +arrangements, and went on to the smoking-room, in a quiet corner of which +he pulled out his cigar-case. + +"Well?" he said. "What do you think now?" + +"I think you're a smart chap," answered Allerdyke bluntly. "You did all +that very well. I said naught, but I kept an eye and an ear open. +You'll do." + +"Very complimentary!--but I wasn't asking you what you thought about me," +said Fullaway, with a laugh. "I'm asking you what you think of the +situation, as illuminated by this last episode?" + +"Well, I'm still reflecting on what you said to that manager +chap," answered Allerdyke. "You really think this young woman has +lost her jewels?" + +"Oh, no doubt, no doubt at all," replied Fullaway. "Mademoiselle is +impetuous, impulsive, demonstrative, much given to insisting on her own +way, but she's absolutely honest and truthful, and I've no doubt +whatever--none!--that she's been robbed. But--not here. She never brought +those jewels here. They were not in that box when she came here. +Mademoiselle, my dear sir, was relieved of those jewels either on the +steamer, as she crossed from, Christiania to Hull, or during the few +hours she spent at the Hull hotel. The whole thing--the robbery from your +cousin, the robbery from Mademoiselle de Longarde--is all the work of a +particularly clever and brilliant gang of international thieves; and, by +the holy smoke, sir, we've got our hands full! For there isn't a clue to +the identity of the operators, so far, unless the lady with whom we are +going to sup can help us to one." + +Allerdyke ruminated over this for a moment or two. Then, after lighting +the cigar which Fullaway had offered him, he shook his head--in grim +affirmation. + +"I shouldn't wonder," he said. "Certainly, it seems a big thing. You're +figuring on its having been a carefully concocted scheme? No mere chance +affair, eh?" + +"This sort of thing's never done by chance," responded the American. +"This is the work of very clever and accomplished thieves who somehow +became aware of two facts. One, that your cousin was bringing with him to +England the jewels of the Princess Nastirsevitch. The other, that +Mademoiselle Zelie de Longarde carried her pearls and diamonds in an +innocent-looking rosewood box. My dear sir! you observed that I examined +that box with seeming carelessness--in reality, I was looking at it with +the eye of a trained observer. I am one of those people who, from having +knocked about the world a lot, engaging in a multifarious variety of +occupations, have picked up a queer scrap-heap of knowledge, and I will +lay you any odds you like that I am absolutely correct in affirming that +the box which I just now handed to Maggie, the chambermaid, was newly +made by a Russian cabinet-maker within the last four weeks!" + +"For a purpose?" suggested Allerdyke. + +"Just so--for a purpose," assented Fullaway. "That purpose being, of +course, its substitution for the real original article. You did not +handle the box which is now upstairs--it is carefully weighted, though it +is empty. I believe--nay, I am sure, it contains a sheet of lead under +its delicate lining of satin. That, of course, was to deceive +Mademoiselle. You heard her say that the jewels were in her box at +Christiania, and that she never opened the box until this evening here in +Edinburgh? Very good--between here and Christiania somebody substituted +the imitation box for the real one. Ah!--in all these great criminal +operations there is nothing like sticking to the old, well-worn, +tried-and-proved tricks of the trade!--they are like well-oiled, +well-practised machinery. And now we come back to the real, great, +anxious question--Who did it? And there, Allerdyke, we are at +present--only at present, mind!--up against a very big, blank wall." + +"On the other side of which, my lad, lies the secret of the murder of my +cousin," said Allerdyke grimly. "Mind you that! That's what I'm after, +Fullaway. Damn all these jewels and things, in comparison with +that!--it's that I'm after, I tell you again, and a thousand times again. +And I'm considering if I'm doing any good hanging round here after this +singing woman when the probable sphere of action lies yonder away at +Hull, eh?" + +"The proper--not probable--sphere of action, my dear sir, is the +supper-table to which we're presently going," answered Fullaway, with +supreme assurance. "What the singing woman, as you call her, can tell us +will most likely make all the difference in the world to our +investigations. Remember the shoe-buckle! Have it ready to exhibit when I +lead up to it. Then--we shall see." + +The prima donna, back for her engagement at eleven o'clock, came in +flushed and smiling--the extraordinary warmth and fervour of her +reception by the audience which she had at first been so inclined to +treat with scant courtesy had restored her to good humour, and when she +had eaten a few mouthfuls of delicate food and drunk her first glass of +champagne she began to laugh almost light-heartedly. + +"Well, I suppose you've been doing your best, Fullaway," she said, with +easy familiarity. "I declare you turned up at the very moment, for that +fat Weiss would have been no good. But I'm still wondering how you came +to be here, and what this gentleman--Mr. Allerdyke, is it?--is doing here +with you. Allerdyke, now--well, that's the same name as that of a man I +came across from Christiania with, and left at Hull." + +Fullaway kicked Allerdyke under the table. + +"You haven't heard of that Mr. Allerdyke since you left him at Hull, +then?" he asked, gazing intently at their hostess. + +"Heard? How should I hear?" asked the prima donna. "He was just a +travelling acquaintance. All the same, I had certainly fixed up to see +him in London on a business matter." + +"You don't read the newspapers, then?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Not unless there's something about myself in them," she answered, with +an arch smile at Allerdyke. + +"If you'd read this morning's papers, you'd have seen that the Mr. +Allerdyke with whom you travelled--this gentleman's cousin, by the +by--was found dead in his room at the hotel in Hull not so long after you +quitted it," said Fullaway coolly. "In fact, he must have been dead when +you passed his door on your way out." + +The prima donna was genuinely shocked. She set down the glass which she +was just lifting to her lips; her large, handsome eyes dilated, her lips +quivered a little. She turned a look of sympathy on Allerdyke, who, at +that moment, realized that she was a very beautiful woman. + +"You don't say so!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm really grieved to hear +that--I am! Dead?--and when I left! Why, I was in his room that very +night we reached Hull, having a talk on the business matter I mentioned +just now--he was well enough and lively enough then, I'll swear. +Dead!--why, what did he die of?" + +The two men looked at each other. There was a brief pause; then +Allerdyke slowly produced a small packet, wrapped in tissue-paper, from +his waistcoat pocket. He laid it on the table at his side and looked at +his hostess. + +"I knew you had been in my cousin's room," he said. "You left or dropped +your shoe-buckle there. I found it when I searched his room. Then the +hotel manager showed me your wire. Here's the buckle." + +He was watching her narrowly as he spoke, and his glance deepened in +intensity as he handed over the little packet and watched her unwrap the +paper. But there was not a sign of anything but a little surprised +satisfaction in the prima donna's face as she recognized her lost +property, and her eyes were ingenuous enough as she turned them on him. + +"Why, of course, that's mine!" she exclaimed. "I'm ever so much obliged +to you, Mr. Allerdyke. Yes, I wired to the hotel, in my proper name, you +know--Zelie de Longarde is only my professional name. I didn't want to +lose that buckle--it was part of a birthday present from my mother. But +you don't mean to say that you travelled all the way to Edinburgh to hand +me that! Surely not?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. He wanted to take a direct share in the talking, +and went resolutely ahead now that the chance had come. "No--not at all. +I knew you'd come to Edinburgh--found it out from that chauffeur who was +driving you when you and I met at Howden the night before last, and so I +came on to find you. I want to ask you some questions about my cousin, +and maybe to get you to come and give evidence at the inquest on him." + +"Inquest!" she exclaimed. "I know what that means, of course. Why--you +don't say there's been anything wrong?" + +"I believe my cousin was murdered that night," answered Allerdyke. "So, +too, does Fullaway there. And you were probably the last person who ever +spoke to him alive. Now, you see, I'm a plain, blunt-spoken sort of +chap--I ask people straight questions. What did you go into his room to +talk to him about?" + +"Business!" she replied, with a directness which impressed both men. +"Mere business. He and I had several conversations on board the +_Perisco_--I made out he was a clever business man. I want to invest some +money--he advised me to put it into a development company in Norway, +which is doing big things in fir and pine. I went into his room to look +at some plans and papers--he gave me some prospectuses which are in that +bag there just now---I was reading them over again only this evening. +That's all. I wasn't there many minutes--and, as I told you, he was very +well, very brisk and lively then." + +"Did he show you any valuables that he had with him--jewels?" asked +Allerdyke brusquely. + +"Jewels! Valuables!" she answered. "No--certainly not." + +"Nor when you were on the steamer?" + +"No--nor at any time," she said. "Jewels?--why--what makes you ask such a +question?" + +"Because my cousin had in his possession a consignment of such things, of +great value, and we believe that he was murdered for them--that's why," +replied Allerdyke. "He had them when he left Christiania--he had them +when he entered the Hull hotel--" + +Fullaway, who had been listening intently, leant forward with a shake +of his head. + +"Stop at that, Allerdyke," he said. "We don't know, now, that he did have +them when he entered the hotel at Hull! He mayn't have had. Miss +Lennard--we'll drop the professional name and turn to the real one," he +said, with a bow to the prima donna--"Miss Lennard here thinks she had +her jewels in her little box when she entered the Hull hotel, and also +when she came to this hotel, here in Edinburgh, but--" + +"Do you mean to say that I hadn't?" she exclaimed. "Do you mean--" + +"I mean," replied Fullaway, "that, knowing what I now know, I believe +that both you and the dead man, James Allerdyke, were robbed on the +_Perisco_. And I want to ask you a question at once. Where is your maid!" + +Celia Lennard dropped her knife and fork and sat back, suddenly +turning pale. + +"My maid!" she said faintly. "Good heavens! you don't think--oh, you +aren't suggesting that she's the thief? Because--oh, this is dreadful! +You see--I never thought of it before--when she and I arrived at Hull +that night she was met by a man who described himself as her brother. He +was in a great state of agitation--he said he'd rushed up to Hull to meet +her, to beg her to go straight with him to their mother, who was dying in +London. Of course, I let her go at once--they drove straight from the +riverside at Hull to the station to catch the train. What else could I +do? I never suspected anything. Oh!" + +Fullaway leaned across the table and filled his hostess's glass. + +"Now," he said, motioning her to drink, "you know your maid's name and +address, don't you? Let me have them at once, and within a couple of +hours we'll know if the story about the dying mother was true." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SECOND MURDER + + +It had been very evident to Allerdyke that ever since Fullaway had +mentioned the matter of the missing maid, Celia Lennard had become a +victim to doubt, suspicion, and uncertainty. Her colour came and went; +her eyes began to show signs of tears; her voice shook. And now, at the +American's direct question, she wrung her hands with an almost +despairing gesture. + +"But I can't!" she exclaimed. "I don't know her address--how should I? +It's somewhere in London--Bloomsbury, I think--but even then I don't know +if that's where her mother lives, to whom she said she was going. I did +know her address--I mean I remembered it for a while, at the time I +engaged her--a year ago, but I've forgotten it. Oh! do you really think +she's robbed me, or helped to rob me?" + +"Never mind opinions," answered Fullaway curtly. "They're no good. Is +this the maid you brought with you once or twice when you called at my +office some time ago, over the Pinkie Pell deal?" + +"Yes--yes, the same!" she answered. + +"A Frenchwoman?" said Fullaway. + +"Yes--Lisette. Of course she went with me to your office--that was eight +or nine months ago, and I've had her a year. And I had excellent +testimonials with her, too. Oh, I can't think that--" + +"Can't you make an effort to remember her address?" urged Fullaway. +"What can we do until we know that?" + +Celia drew her fine eyebrows together in a palpable effort to think. + +"I've got it somewhere," she said at last. "I must have it +somewhere--most likely in an address-book at my flat--I should be sure to +put it down at the time." + +"Who is there at your flat?" asked Fullaway. + +"My housekeeper and a maid," answered Celia. "They're always there, +whether I'm at home or not. But they couldn't get at what you want--all +my papers and things are locked up--and in a hopeless state of +confusion, too." + +Fullaway pushed aside his plate. + +"Then there's only one thing to be done," he said, with an accent of +finality. "We must go up to town at once." + +Allerdyke, still quietly eating his supper, looked up. + +"That's just what I was going to suggest," he said. "There's no good to +be done hanging about here. Let's get on to the scene of operations. If +Miss Lennard's maid has stolen her jewels, she's probably had some hand +in the theft from my cousin. We must find her. Now, then, let me come in. +I'll look up the train, settle up with these hotel folk, and we'll be +off. You give your attention to your packing, Miss Lennard, and leave the +rest to me--you won't mind travelling the night?" + +Celia shook her head. + +"I don't mind travelling all night for half a dozen nights if I can track +my lost property," she said lugubriously. "You're dead sure it's no use +stopping here?--that the robbery didn't take place here?" + +"Sure!" answered Fullaway. "We must get off. That French damsel's got to +be found--somehow." + +The supper-party came to an end--the prima donna and her temporary maid +began to bustle with garments and trunks, the two men attended to all +other necessary matters, and at two o'clock in the morning the three sped +out of Edinburgh for the South, each secretly wondering what was going to +come of their journey. Allerdyke, preparing to go to sleep in the +compartment which he and Fullaway occupied by themselves, dropped one +grim remark to his companion as he settled himself. + +"Seems like a wild-goose chase this, my lad, but it's one we've got to go +through with! What'll the next stage be?" + +The next stage was an arrival in London in the middle of a lovely May +morning, a swift drive to Celia Lennard's flat in Bedford Court Mansions, +the hurried rummaging of its owner amongst an extraordinary mass of +papers, books, and documents, and the ultimate discovery of the French +maid's address. Celia held it up with a sigh of vast relief, which +changed into a groan of despairing doubt. + +"There it is!" she exclaimed. "Lisette Beaurepaire, 911 Bernard Street, +Bloomsbury--I knew it was Bloomsbury. That's where she lived when I +engaged her, anyhow--but then her sick mother mayn't live there! The man +who met her at Hull, who said he was her brother, didn't say where the +mother lived, except that it was in London." + +"We must go to Bernard Street, anyway, at once," said Fullaway. "We may +get some information there." + +But such information as they got on the door-step of 911 Bernard Street +was scanty and useless. The house was a typical Bloomsbury lodging-place, +let off in floors and rooms. Its proprietor, summoned from a +neighbouring house, recollected, with considerable difficulty and after +consultation of a penny pocket-book, that he had certainly let a +top-floor room to a young Frenchwoman about a year ago, but he had never +caught her name properly, and simply had her noted down as Mamselle. She +had paid her rent regularly, and had remained in the house five +weeks--that was all he knew about her. Had he ever seen her since? Not +that he knew of--in fact, he shouldn't know her if he saw her--they were +all pretty much alike, these young Frenchwomen. Did he know where she +came from to his house--where she went from his house? Not he! he knew no +more than what he had just told. + +"What now?" asked Allerdyke as the three searchers paced dejectedly up +the street. "This is doing no good--it's worse than the Hull affair. +However, there's one thing suggests itself to me. Didn't you say," he +went on, turning to Celia, "that you had some very good testimonials with +this young woman? If so, and you've still got them, we might trace her in +that way." + +"I had some, and I may have them still, but you saw just now what an +awful mess all my letters and papers are in," replied Celia, almost +tearfully. "I always do get things like that into hopeless confusion--I +never know what to destroy and what to keep, and they accumulate so. It +would take hours upon hours to look for those letters, and in the +meantime--" + +"In the meantime," remarked Fullaway as he signalled to a taxi-cab, +"there's only one thing to be done. We must go to the police. Get in, +both of you, and let's make haste to New Scotland Yard." + +Once more Allerdyke received an impression of the American's usefulness +and practical acquaintance with things. Fullaway seemed to know exactly +what to do, whom to approach, how to go about the business in hand; +within a few minutes all three were closeted with a high official of the +Criminal Investigation Department, a man who might have been a barrister, +a medical specialist, or a scientist of distinction, and who maintained +an unmoved countenance and a perfect silence while Fullaway unfolded the +story. He and Allerdyke had held a brief consultation as they drove from +Bloomsbury to Whitehall, and they had decided that as things had now +reached a critical stage it would be best to tell the authorities +everything. Therefore the American narrated the entire sequence of events +as they related not only to Mademoiselle de Longarde's loss but to the +death of James Allerdyke and the disappearance of the Nastirsevitch +valuables. And the official heard, and made mental notes, soaking +everything into some proper cell of his brain, and he said nothing until +Fullaway had come to an end, and at that end he turned to Celia Lennard. + +"You can, of course, describe your maid?" he asked. + +"Certainly!" answered Celia. "To every detail." + +"Do so, if you please," continued the official, producing a pile of +papers from a drawer and turning them over until he came to one which he +drew from the rest. + +"A Frenchwoman," said Celia. "Aged, I should say, about twenty-six. Tall. +Slender--but not thin. Of a very good figure. Black hair--a quantity of +it. Black eyes--very penetrating. Fresh colour. Not exactly pretty, but +attractive--in the real Parisian way--she is a Parisian. Dressed--when +she left me at Hull--in a black tailor-made coat and skirt, and carrying +a travelling coat of black, lined with fur--one I gave her in Russia." + +"Her luggage?" asked the official. + +"She had a suit-case: a medium-sized one." + +"Large enough, I presume, to conceal the jewel-box your friend has told +me about just now?" + +"Oh, yes--certainly!" + +The official put his papers back in the drawer and turned to his visitors +with a business-like look which finally settled itself on Celia's face. + +"You must be prepared to hear some serious news," he said. "I mean about +this woman. I have no doubt from what you have just told me that I know +where she is." + +"Where?" demanded Celia excitedly. "You know? Where, then?" + +"Lying in the mortuary at Paddington," answered the official quietly. + +In spite of Celia's strong nerves she half rose in her seat--only to drop +back with a sharp exclamation. + +"Dead! Probably murdered. And I should say," continued the official, +with a glance at the two men, "murdered in the same way as the gentleman +you have told me of was murdered at Hull--by some subtle, strange, and +secret poison." + +No one spoke for a minute or two. When the silence was broken it was by +Allerdyke. + +"I should like to know about this," he said in a hard, keen voice. "I'm +getting about sick of delay in this affair of my cousin's, and if this +murder of the young woman is all of a piece with his, why, then, the +sooner we all get to work the better. I'm not going to spare time, +labour, nor expense in running that lot down, d'you understand? Money's +naught to me--I'm willing--" + +"We are already at work, Mr. Allerdyke," said the official, interrupting +him quietly. "We've been at work in the affair of the young woman for +twenty-four hours, and although you didn't know of it, we've heard of the +affair of your cousin at Hull, and the two cases are so similar that when +you came in I was wondering if there was any connection between them. +Now, as regards the young woman. You may or may not be aware that in +Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, a street of houses which runs alongside +the departure platform of the Great Western Railway, there are a number +of small private hotels, which are largely used by railway passengers. To +one of these hotels, about nine o'clock on the evening of May 13th (just +about twenty-four hours after you, Miss Lennard, landed at Hull), there +came a man and a woman, who represented themselves as brother and sister, +and took two rooms for the night. The woman answers the description of +your maid--as to the man, I will give you a description of him later. +These two, who had for luggage such a medium-sized suit-case as that Miss +Lennard has spoken of, partook of some supper and retired. There was +nothing noticeable about them--they seemed to be quiet, respectable +people--foreigners who spoke English very well. Nothing was heard of them +until next morning at eight o'clock, when the man rang his bell and asked +for tea to be brought up for both. This was done--he took it in at his +door, and was seen to hand a cup in at his sister's door, close by. An +hour later he came downstairs and gave instructions that his sister was +not to be disturbed--she was tired and wanted to rest, he said, and she +would ring when she wanted attendance. He then booked the two rooms again +for the succeeding night, and, going into the coffee-room, ate a very +good breakfast, taking his time over it. That done, he lounged about a +little, smoking, and eventually crossed the road towards the +station--since when he has not been seen. The day passed on--the woman +neither rang her bell nor came down. When evening arrived, as the man had +not returned, and no response could be got to repeated knocks at the +door, the landlady opened it with a master-key, and entered the room. She +found the woman dead--and according to the medical evidence she had been +dead since ten or eleven o'clock in the morning. Then, of course, the +police were called in. There was nothing in the room or in the suit-case +to establish or suggest identity. The body was removed, and an autopsy +has been held. And the conclusion of the medical men is that this woman +has been secretly and subtly poisoned." + +Here the official paused, rang a bell, and remained silent until a +quiet-looking, middle-aged man who might have been a highly respectable +butler entered the room: then he turned again to his visitors. + +"I want you, Miss Lennard, to accompany this man--one of my officers--to +the mortuary, to see if you can identify the body I have told you of. +Perhaps you gentlemen will accompany Miss Lennard? Then," he continued, +rising, "if you will all return here, we will go into this matter +further, and see if we can throw more light on it." + +Allerdyke's next impressions were of a swift drive across London to a +quiet retreat in Paddington, where, in a red-brick building set amidst +trees, official-faced men conducted him and his two companions into a +sort of annex, one side of which was covered with sheet glass. On the +other side of that glass he became aware of a still figure, shrouded and +arranged in formal lines, of a white face, set amidst dark hair ... then +as in a dream he heard Celia Lennard's frightened whisper-- + +"That's she--that's Lisette! Oh, for God's sake, take me out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES + + +The three searchers into what was rapidly becoming a most complicated +mystery drove back to New Scotland Yard in a silence which lasted until +they were set down at the door of the department whereat they had +interviewed the high official. Celia Lennard was thoroughly upset; the +sight of the dead woman had disturbed her even more than she let her +companions see; she remained dumb and rigid, staring straight before her +as if she still gazed on the white face set in its frame of dark hair. +Allerdyke, too, stared at the crowds in the streets as if they were +abstract visions--his keen brain felt dazed and mystified by this +accumulation of strange events. And Fullaway, active and mercurial though +he was, made no attempt at conversation--he sat with knitted forehead, +trying to think, to account, to surmise, only conscious that he was up +against a bigger mystery than life had ever shown him up to then. + +The detective who had accompanied them to the mortuary conducted the +three straight back to his chief's office--the chief, noticing the effect +of the visit on Celia, hastened to give her a chair at the side of his +desk, and looked at her with a lessening of his official manner. He +signed to the other two to sit down, and motioned the detective to +remain. Then he turned to Celia. + +"You recognized the woman?" he said softly. "Just so. I thought you +would, and I was sorry to ask you to perform such an unpleasant task but +it was absolutely necessary. Now," he continued, taking up his bundle of +papers again, "I want you to describe the man who met you and your maid +on your arrival at Hull the other night. Of course you saw him?" + +"Certainly I saw him," replied Celia. "And I should know him again +anywhere--the scoundrel!" + +The high official smiled and glanced at Fullaway. + +"You are thinking, Miss Lennard, that the man you then saw is the man who +accompanied your maid to the hotel in which she was found dead," he said. +"Well, that may be so--but it mayn't. That is why I want you to give us +an accurate description of the man you saw. You described the maid very +well indeed. Now describe the man." + +"I can do that quite well," said Celia, with assurance. "And I can tell +you the circumstances. The steamer--the _Perisco_--got into the river at +Hull about a quarter to nine and anchored off the Victoria Pier. We +understood that she couldn't get into dock just then because of the tide, +and that we must go on shore by tender. A tender came off--some of the +people on board it came on our deck. There was a good deal of bustle. I +went down to my cabin to see after something or other. Lisette came to me +there, evidently much agitated, saying that her brother had come off on +the tender to fetch her at once to their mother who was ill in +London--dying. She begged to be allowed to go with him. Of course I said +she might. She immediately picked up her suit-case and travelling coat +out of our pile of luggage, and I went up with her on deck. She and the +man--her brother, as I understood--got into a small boat which was +alongside and went straight off to the pier: the tender was not leaving +for shore for some time. And--that was the last I saw of her. It was all +done in a minute or two." + +"Now--the man," suggested the chief softly. + +"A young man--about Lisette's age, I should say--twenty-seven to thirty +anyway. Tallish. Dark hair, moustache, eyes, and complexion. +Good-looking--in a foreign way. I had no doubt he was her brother--he +looked French, though he spoke English quite well and without accent. +Very respectably dressed in dark clothes and overcoat. He would have +passed for a well-to-do clerk--that type. I spoke to him--a few words. He +spoke well--had very polite, almost polished manners. Of course he was +hurried--wanting to get Lisette away--he said they could just catch the +last train to London." + +The chief shook his head. + +"Not the man who accompanied her to the Paddington Hotel," he said. +"Listen--this is the description of that man, as given to the police by +the landlady and her servants: 'Age, presumably between forty and +forty-five years, medium height. Brown hair. Clean-shaven. Dressed in +grey tweed suit, over which he wore a fawn-coloured overcoat. Deerstalker +hat--light brown. Brown brogue shoes.' That, you see," continued the +chief, "describes a quite different person. You do not recognize the +description as that of any man you have ever seen in company with your +late maid, Miss Lennard?" + +"I never saw my maid in any man's company," replied Celia. "Since I first +engaged her we have not been much in London. I was in New York and +Chicago for a time last year; then in Paris; then in Milan and Turin; +lately in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When we were at home, here in +London, she certainly had time of her own--her evenings out, you +know--but of course I don't know with whom she spent them. No--I don't +know any man answering that description." + +The chief folded up his papers and restored them to his desk. + +"Now that you are here," he said, "you may as well give me a few +particulars about your doings on the _Perisco_, especially as they relate +to Mr. James Allerdyke. When and where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"On the steamer--a few hours after we left Christiania," replied Celia. + +"Just as fellow-passengers, I suppose?" + +"Quite so--just that. We sat next to each other at meals." + +"Do you know where his cabin was on the steamer?" + +"Yes, exactly opposite my own. He and I, I believe, were the only +passengers who had cabins all to ourselves." + +"Did he ever mention to you these valuables which Mr. Fullaway tells us +he was carrying to England!" + +"No--never at any time." + +"Did you see him leave the _Perisco_ for the shore?" + +"Why, yes, certainly! As a matter of fact, he and I came ashore at Hull +together, ahead of any other passengers. After Lisette had left the +steamer with her brother, I happened to come across Mr. James Allerdyke. +I told him what had just occurred, and asked him if he would help me +about my things, as my maid had gone. He immediately suggested that we +shouldn't wait for the tender, but should get a boat of our own--there +were several lying around. He said he was in a great hurry to get ashore, +because he'd a friend awaiting him at the Station Hotel. So he got a +boat, and his things and mine were put into it, and we left the steamer, +and were rowed to the landing-stage, just opposite." + +"And you, of course, carried your jewel-case--or what you believed to be +your jewel-case--the duplicate chest which you subsequently carried to +Edinburgh?" + +"Yes, of course--I had it in my hand when Lisette left, and, I never left +hold of it until I got into the hotel." + +"Do you remember if Mr. James Allerdyke carried anything in his hand?" + +"Yes, he carried a hand-bag. He had that bag in his hand when I met him +on deck; he kept it on his knee in the boat, and in the cab in which we +drove to the hotel from the landing-stage; I saw him carrying it upstairs +after we got to the hotel. What is more, I saw him bring it into the +coffee-room later on, and place it on the table at which he had some +supper. I saw it again in his room when I went in there to look at the +plans of the Norwegian estate which he had told me about. He didn't take +those plans out of that hand-bag; he took them out of a side flap-pocket +in a suit-case." + +"Did you have supper with him that night?" + +"No--I was sitting at another table, talking to a lady who had been with +us on the _Perisco_. A lot of _Perisco_ passengers--twenty, at least--had +come to the hotel by that time." + +"Did any of them join Mr. James Allerdyke--at his table, I mean?" + +"I don't remember--no, I think not. He sat at a table, one end of which +adjoined the wall--he put the hand-bag at that end. I remember wondering +why he carried his bag about with him. But then I, of course, was +carrying what I believed to be my jewel-case." + +"Did you see him talking to any of your fellow-passengers that night?" + +"Oh, yes--to two or three of them--in the hall of the hotel. I didn't +know who they were, particularly--except the doctor with the big beard. I +saw him talking to Mr. Allerdyke at the door of the smoking-room." + +"Had you taken any special notice of your fellow passengers on board the +_Perisco_?" + +"No--not at all. They were just the usual sort of passengers--I wasn't +interested in them. Of course, I talked to some of them, in the ordinary +way, as one does talk on board ship. But I don't remember anything +particular about them, nor any of their names, even if I ever knew their +names. Of course I remember Mr. James Allerdyke's name, because of the +business talk." + +The chief, who had been making shorthand notes of this conversation, +paused for a moment, evidently considering matters, and then turned to +Celia with a smile. + +"Why did you leave the hotel at Hull so suddenly?" he asked. "I daresay +you had good reasons, but I should just like to know what they were, if +you don't mind." + +"I'd no reason at all," replied Celia, with almost blunt directness. "At +least, if I had, they were only a woman's reasons. I was a bit upset at +being left alone. I didn't like the hotel. I knew I shouldn't sleep. It +was a most beautiful moonlight night, and I suddenly thought I'd like to +go motoring. I knew enough of the geography of those parts to know if I +motored across country I should strike the Great Northern main line +somewhere and catch a train to Edinburgh in the early morning. So--I just +cleared out." + +"Ah--you see you had quite a number of reasons!" said the chief, +smiling again. "Very well. Now then, before you go, Miss Lennard, I +want you to do just one thing more which may be useful to us in our +work." He turned to the detective. "Get those things," he said quietly. +"Bring the lot in here." + +Celia made a little sound of distaste as the detective presently returned +to the room carrying in one hand a brown leather suit-case, and in the +other a cardboard dress-box, to which was strapped a travelling-coat, +lined with fur. Her face, which had regained its colour, paled again. + +"Lisette's things!" she muttered. "Oh--I don't--don't like to see them! +What is it you want?" + +"We want you to identify them--and, if you will, to look them over," +replied the chief. "The cardboard box contains everything she was wearing +when she went to the hotel in Eastbourne Terrace; the suit-case and coat +are what she took in with her. Spread the things out on that side table," +he continued, turning to the detective. + +"Let Miss Lennard look them over." + +Celia performed the task required of her with dislike--it seemed +somehow as if she were inspecting the dead woman afresh. She hurried +over the task. + +"All these things are hers, of course," she said. "That's the suit-case +she had with her when she left me at Hull, and that's the coat I gave +her--and the other things are hers, too. Oh--I don't like looking at +them. Can't we go, please?" + +"One moment," said the chief. "I wanted to tell you that amongst all +these things there is nothing that establishes the woman's identity--I +mean in the way of papers or anything of that sort. There were no letters +in this case--not a scrap of paper. There is money in that purse--two or +three pounds in gold, some silver. There is her watch--a good gold +watch--and there are two or three rings she was wearing. Now we have only +made a superficial examination of all these personal belongings--can you, +as her mistress, suggest if she was likely to hide anything in her +clothing, and if so, in what article? You might save us some trouble, +Miss Lennard." + +Allerdyke, who was more interested in Celia than in what was going on, +saw a sudden gleam come into her eyes--her feminine spirit of curiosity +was aroused. She hesitated, turned back to the side-table, paused +before the various articles laid out there, took up and fingered two or +three, and suddenly wheeled round on the men, exhibiting a quilted +handkerchief case. + +"There's something been sewn into the padding of this!" she said. "I can +feel it. Can any one lend me pocket-scissors or a penknife?" + +The men gathered round as Celia's deft fingers ripped open the satin +covering: a moment later she drew out a wad of folded paper and handed it +to the chief. Fullaway and Allerdyke craned their necks over his +shoulders as he unwrapped and spread the bits of paper out before them. +And it was Fullaway who broke the silence with a sharp exclamation. + +"Bank-notes!" he said. "Russian bank-notes! And new ones!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE THIRD MURDER + + +Fullaway's exclamation was followed by a murmur of astonishment from +Celia, and by a low growl which meant many things from Allerdyke. The +chief turned the banknotes over silently, moved to his desk, and picked +up a reference book. + +"I'm not very familiar with Russian money--paper or otherwise," he +remarked. "How much does this represent in ours, now?" + +"I can tell you that," said Fullaway, taking the wad of notes and rapidly +counting them. "Five hundred pounds English," he announced. "And you see +that all the notes are new--don't forget to note that." + +"Yes?--what do you argue from it?" asked the chief, with obvious +interest. "It proves--what?" + +"That these notes were given to this woman in Russia, recently--most +likely in St. Petersburg," replied the American. "And, in my opinion, +their presence--their discovery--proves more. It suggests at any rate +that this woman, the dead maid, was a tool in the conspiracy to rob Miss +Lennard and Mr. James Allerdyke, that this money is her reward, or part +of it, and that the whole scheme was hatched and engineered in Russia." + +"Good!" muttered Allerdyke. "Now we're getting to business." + +"We shall have to get some evidence from Russia," observed the chief +meditatively. "That's very evident. If the thing began there, or was put +into active shape there--" + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch is on her way now," said Fullaway. He pulled +out his pocket-book, and began searching amongst its papers. "Here you +are," he continued producing a cablegram. "That's from the Princess--you +see she says she's leaving for London at once, via Berlin and Calais, and +will call upon me at my hotel as soon as she arrives. Now, that was sent +off two days ago--she'd leave St. Petersburg that night. It's seventy-two +hours' journey--three days. She'll be in London tomorrow evening." + +The chief sat down at his desk and picked up a pen. + +"Give me your addresses please, all of you," he said. "Then I can +communicate with you at any moment. Miss Lennard, you mentioned Bedford +Court Mansions. What number? Right.--yours, Mr. Fullaway, is the Waldorf +Hotel--permanently there? Very good. You, Mr. Allerdyke, live in +Bradford? It will be advisable, if you really want to clear up the +mystery of your cousin's death, to remain in town for a few days, at any +rate--now that we've got all this in hand, you'd better be close to the +centre of things. Can you give me an address here?" + +"I've a London office," answered Allerdyke. "I can always be heard of +there when I'm in town. Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Gresham +Street--ask for Mr. Marshall Allerdyke. But as I'll have to put up here, +I'll go to the Waldorf, with Mr. Fullaway, so if you want me you'll find +me there. And look here," he went on, as the chief noted these +particulars, "I want to know, to have some idea, you know, of what's +going to be done. I tell you, I'll spare no time, labour, or expense in +getting at the bottom of this! If it's a question of money, say the +word, and--" + +"All right, Mr. Allerdyke, leave it to us--for the present," said the +chief, with an understanding smile. "I know what you mean. We're only +beginning. This affair is doubtless a big thing, as Mr. Fullaway has +suggested, and it will need some clever work. Now, at present, this +case--the joint case of the Hull affair and the Eastbourne Terrace +affair, for they're without doubt both parts of one serious whole--is in +the hands of two of my best men. This is one of them: Detective-Sergeant +Blindway. If and when Blindway wants any of you, he'll come to you. Miss +Lennard, you'll be wanted at the inquest on your late maid--the Coroner's +officer will let you know when. You two gentlemen will doubtless go with +Miss Lennard. You'll all three certainly be wanted at that adjourned +inquest at Hull. Now, that's all--except that when you, Miss Lennard, +return home, you must at once begin searching for the references you had +with your maid--let me have them as soon as they're found--and that you, +Mr. Fullaway, must bring the Princess Nastirsevitch here as soon as you +can after her arrival." + +Outside New Scotland Yard Celia Lennard relieved her feelings with a +fervent exclamation. + +"I wish I'd never spent a penny on pearls or diamonds in my life!" she +said vehemently. "Insane folly! What good have they done? Leading to all +this bother, and to murder. What fools women are! All that money thrown +away!--for of course I shall never see a sign of them again!" + +"That's a rather hopeless way of looking at it," observed Fullaway. +"You've got the cleverest police in Europe on the search for them; also +you've got our friend Allerdyke and myself on the run, and we're +neither of us exactly brainless. So hasten home in this taxi-cab, get +some lunch, have an hour's nap, and then begin putting your papers +straight and looking for those references. Search well!--you don't know +what depends on it." + +He and Allerdyke strolled up Whitehall when Celia had gone--in silence at +first, both wrapped in meditation. + +"There's only one thing one can say with any certainty about this affair, +Allerdyke," remarked the American at last, "and that is precisely what +the man we've been talking to said--it's a big do. The folk at the back +of it are smart and clever and daring. We'll need all our wits. Well, +come along to the Waldorf and let's lunch--then we'll talk some more. +There's little to be done till the Princess turns up tomorrow." + +"There's one thing I want to do at once," said Allerdyke. "If I'm going +to stop in town I must wire to my housekeeper to send me clothes and +linen, and to the manager at my mill. Then I'm with you--and I wish to +Heaven we'd something to do! What I can't stand is this forced inaction, +this hanging about, waiting, wondering, speculating--and doing naught!" + +"We may be in action before you know it's at hand," said Fullaway. "In +these cases you never know what a minute may bring forth. All we can do +is to be ready." + +He led the way to the nearest telegraph office and waited while Allerdyke +sent off his messages. The performance of even this small task seemed to +restore the Yorkshireman's spirits--he came away smiling. + +"I've told my housekeeper to pack a couple of trunks with what I want, +and to send my chauffeur, Gaffney, up with them, by the next express," he +said. "I feel better after doing that. He's a smart chap, Gaffney--the +sort that might be useful at a pinch. If any one wanted anything +ferreted out, now!--he's the sense of an Airedale terrier, that chap!" + +"High praise," laughed Fullaway. "And original too. Well, let's fix up +and get some food, and then we'll go into my private rooms and have a +talk over the situation." + +Mr. Franklin Fullaway, following a certain modern fashion, introduced +into life by twentieth-century company promoters and magnates of the high +finance, had established his business quarters at his hotel. It was a +wise and pleasant thing to do, he explained to Allerdyke; you had the +advantage of living over the shop, as it were; of being able to go out of +your private sitting-room into your business office; you had the bright +and pleasant surroundings; you had, moreover, all the various rooms and +saloons of a first-rate hotel wherein to entertain your clients if need +be. Certainly you had to pay for these advantages and luxuries, but no +more than you would have to lay out in the rents, rates, and taxes of +palatial offices in a first-class business quarter. + +"And my line of business demands luxurious fittings," remarked the +American, as he installed Allerdyke in a sybaritic armchair and handed +him a box of big cigars of a famous brand. "You're not the first +millionaire that's come to anchor in that chair, you know!" + +"If they're millionaires in penny-pieces, maybe not," answered Allerdyke. +He lighted a cigar and glanced appraisingly at his surroundings--at the +thick velvet pile of the carpets, the fine furniture, the bookcases +filled with beautiful bindings, the choice bits of statuary, the two or +three unmistakably good pictures. "Doing good business, I reckon?" he +said, with true Yorkshire curiosity. "What's it run to, now?" + +Fullaway showed his fine white teeth in a genial laugh. + +"Oh, I've turned over two and three millions in a year in this little +den!" he answered cheerily. "Varies, you know, according to what people +have got to sell, and what good buyers there are knocking around." + +"You keep a bit of sealing wax, of course?" suggested Allerdyke. "Take +care that some of the brass sticks when you handle it, no doubt?" + +"Commission and percentage, of course," responded Fullaway. + +"Ah, well, you've an advantage over chaps like me," said Allerdyke. "Now, +you shall take my case. We've made a pile of money in our firm, +grandfather, father, and myself; but, Lord, man, you wouldn't believe +what our expenses have been! Building mills, fitting machinery--and then, +wages! Why, I pay wages to six hundred workpeople every Friday afternoon! +Our wages bill runs to well over fourteen hundred pound a week. You've +naught of that sort, of course--no great staff to keep up?" + +"No," answered Fullaway. He nodded his head towards the door of a room +through which they had just passed on their way into the agent's private +apartments. "All the staff I have is the young lady you just saw--Mrs. +Marlow. Invaluable!" + +"Married woman?" inquired Allerdyke laconically. + +"Young widow," answered Fullaway just as tersely. "Excellent business +woman--been with me ever since I came here--three years. Speaks and +writes several languages--well educated, good knowledge of my particular +line of business. American--I knew her people very well. Of course, I +don't require much assistance--merely clerical help, but it's got to be +of a highly intelligent and specialized sort." + +"Leave your business in her hands if need be, I reckon?" suggested +Allerdyke, with a sidelong nod at the closed door. + +"In ordinary matters, yes--comfortably," answered Fullaway. "She's a bit +a specialist in two things that I'm mainly concerned in--pictures and +diamonds. She can tell a genuine Old Master at a glance, and she knows a +lot about diamonds--her father was in that trade at one time, out in +South Africa." + +"Clever woman to have," observed Allerdyke; "knows all your business, +of course?" + +"All the surface business," said Fullaway, "naturally! Anything but a +confidential secretary would be useless to me, you know." + +"Just so," agreed Allerdyke. "Told her about this affair yet?" + +"I've had no chance so far," replied Fullaway. "I shall take her advice +about it--she's a cute woman." + +"Smart-looking, sure enough," said Allerdyke. He let his mind dwell for a +moment on the picture which Mrs. Marlow had made as Fullaway led him +through the office--a very well-gowned, pretty, alert, piquant little +woman, still on the sunny side of thirty, who had given him a sharp +glance out of unusually wide-awake eyes. "Aye, women are clever nowadays, +no doubt--they'd show their grandmothers how to suck eggs in a good many +new fashions. Well, now," he went on, stretching his long legs over +Fullaway's beautiful Persian rug, "what do you make of this affair, +Fullaway, in its present situation? There's no doubt that everything's +considerably altered by what we've heard of this morning. Do you really +think that this French maid affair is all of a piece, as one may term it, +with the affair of my cousin James?" + +"Yes--without doubt," replied Fullaway. "I believe the two affairs all +spring from the same plot. That plot, in my opinion, has originated from +a clever gang who, somehow or other, got to know that Mr. James Allerdyke +was bringing over the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels, and who also +turned their eyes on Zelie de Longarde's valuables. The French maid, +Lisette, was probably nothing but a tool, a cat's paw, and she, having +done her work, has been cleverly removed so that she could never split. +Further--" + +A quiet knock at the door just then prefaced the entrance of Mrs. Marlow, +who gave her employer an inquiring glance. + +"Mr. Blindway to see you," she announced. "Shall I show him in?" + +"At once!" replied Fullaway. He leapt from his chair, and going to the +door called to the detective to enter. "News?" he asked excitedly, when +Mrs. Marlow had retired, closing the door again. "What is it--important?" + +The detective, who looked very solemn, drew a letter-case from his +pocket, and slowly produced a telegram. + +"Important enough," he answered. "This case is assuming a very +strange complexion, gentlemen. This arrived from Hull half an hour +ago, and the chief thought I'd better bring it on to you at once. You +see what it is--" + +He held the telegram out to both men, and they read it together, Fullaway +muttering the words as he read-- + +From _Chief Constable, Hull, to Superintendent C.I.D., New +Scotland Yard_. + +Dr. Lydenberg, concerned in Allerdyke case, was shot dead in High Street +here this morning by unseen person, who is up to now unarrested and to +whose identity we have no clue. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AMBLER APPLEYARD + + +Fullaway laid the telegram down on his table and looked from it to the +detective. + +"Shot dead--High Street--this morning?" he said wonderingly. "Why!--that +means, of course, in broad daylight--in a busy street, I suppose? And +yet--no clue. How could a man be shot dead under such circumstances +without the murderer being seen and followed?" + +"You don't know Hull very well," remarked Allerdyke, who had been pulling +his moustache and frowning over the telegram, "else you'd know how that +could be done easy enough in High Street. High Street," he went on, +turning to the detective, "is the oldest street in the town. It's the old +merchant street. Half of it--lower end--is more or less in ruins. There +are old houses there which aren't tenanted. Back of these houses are +courts and alleys and queer entries, leading on one side to the river, +and on the other to side streets. A man could be lured into one of those +places and put out of the way easily and quietly enough. Or he could be +shot by anybody lurking in one of those houses, and the murderer could be +got away unobserved with the greatest ease. That's probably what's +happened--I know that street as well as I know my own house--I'm not +surprised by that! What I'm surprised about is to hear that Lydenberg has +been shot at all. And the question is--is his murder of a piece with all +the rest of this damnable mystery, or is it clean apart from it? +Understand, Fullaway?" + +"I'm thinking," answered the American. "It takes a lot of thinking, too." + +"You see," continued Allerdyke, turning to Blindway again, "we're all +in a hole--in a regular fog. We know naught! literally naught. This +Lydenberg was a foreigner--Swede, Norwegian, Dane, or something. We +know nothing of him, except that he said he'd come to Hull on business. +He may have been shot for all sorts of reasons--private, political. We +don't know. But--mark me!--if his murder's connected with the others, +if it's all of a piece with my cousin's murder, and that French girl's, +why then--" + +He paused, shaking his head emphatically, and the other two, impressed by +his earnestness, waited until he spoke again. + +"Then," he continued at last, after a space of silence, during which he +seemed to be reflecting with added strenuousness--"then, by Heaven! we're +up against something that's going to take it out of us before we get at +the truth. That's a dead certainty. If this is all conspiracy, it's a big +'un--a colossal thing! What say, Fullaway?" + +"I should say you're right," replied Fullaway. "I've been trying to +figure things up while you talked, though I gave you both ears. It looks +as if this Lydenberg had been shot in order to keep his tongue quiet +forever. Maybe he knew something, and was likely to split. What are your +people going to do about this?" he asked turning to the detective. "I +suppose you'll go down to Hull at once?" + +"I shan't," answered Blindway. "I've enough to do here. One of our men +has already gone--he's on his way. We shall have to wait for news. I'm +inclined to agree with Mr. Allerdyke--it's a big thing, a very big thing. +If Mr. Allerdyke's cousin was really murdered, and if the Frenchwoman's +death arose out of that, and now Lydenberg's, there's a clever +combination at work. And--where's the least clue to it?" + +Allerdyke helped himself to a fresh cigar out of a box which lay on +Fullaway's table, lighted it, and smoked in silence for a minute or two. +The other men, feeling instinctively that he was thinking, waited. + +"Look you here!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Clue? Yes, that's what we want. +Where's that clue likely to be found? Why, in this, and this only--who +knew, person or persons, that my cousin was bringing those jewels from +the Princess Nastirsevitch to this country? Get to know that, and it +narrows the field, d'ye see?" + +"There's the question of Miss Lennard's jewels, too," remarked Fullaway. + +"That may be--perhaps was--a side-issue," said Allerdyke. "It may have +come into the big scheme as an after-thought. But, anyway, that's what +we want--a first clue. And I don't see how that's to be got at until +this Princess arrives here. You see, she may have talked, she may have +let it out in confidence--to somebody who abused her confidence. What is +certain is that somebody must have got to know of this proposed deal +between the Princess and your man, Fullaway, and have laid plans +accordingly to rob the Princess's messenger--my cousin James. D'ye see, +the deal was known of at two ends--to you here, to this Princess, +through James, over there, in Russia. Now, then, where did the secret +get out? Did it get out there, or here?" + +"Not here, of course!" answered Fullaway, with emphasis. "That's dead +sure. Over there, of a certainty. The robbery was engineered from there." + +"Then, in that case, there's naught to do but wait the arrival of the +Princess," said Allerdyke. "And you say she'll be here to-morrow night. +In the meantime no doubt you police gentlemen'll get more news about this +last affair at Hull, and perhaps Miss Lennard'll find those references +about the Frenchwoman, and maybe we shall mop things up bit by bit--for +mopped up they'll have to be, or my name isn't what it is! Fullaway," he +went on, rising from his chair, "I'll have to leave you--yon man o' +mine'll be arriving from Yorkshire with my things before long, and I must +go down to the hotel office and make arrangements about him. See you +later--at dinner to-night, here, eh?" + +He lounged away through the outer office, giving the smart lady secretary +a keen glance as he passed her and getting an equally scrutinizing, if +swift, look in return. + +"Clever!" mused Allerdyke as he closed the door behind him. "Deuced +clever, that young woman. Um--well, it's a pretty coil, to be sure!" + +He went down to the office, made full and precise arrangements about +Gaffney, who was to be given a room close to his own, left some +instructions as to what was to be done with him on arrival, and then, +hands in pockets, strolled out into Aldwych and walked towards the +Strand, his eyes bent on the ground as if he strove to find in those hard +pavements some solution of all these difficulties. And suddenly he lifted +his head and muttered a few emphatic words half aloud, regardless of +whoever might overhear them. + +"I wish to Heaven I'd a right good, hard-headed Yorkshireman to talk +to!" he said. "A chap with some gumption about him! These Cockneys and +Americans are all very well in their way, but--" + +Then he pulled himself up sharply. An idea, a name, had flashed into his +mental field of vision as if sent in answer to his prayer. And still +regardless of bystanders he slapped his thigh delightedly. + +"Ambler Appleyard!" he exclaimed. "The very man! Here, you!" + +The last two words were addressed to a taxi-cab driver whose car stood at +the head of the line by the Gaiety Theatre. Allerdyke crossed from the +pavement and jumped in. + +"Run down to this end of Gresham Street," he said. "Go quick as you can." + +He wondered as he sped along the crowded London streets why he had not +thought of Ambler Appleyard before. Ambler Appleyard was the manager of +his own London warehouse, a smart, clever, pushing young Bradford man +who had been in charge of the London business of Allerdyke and +Partners, Limited, for the last three years. He had come to London with +his brains already sharpened--three years of business life in the +Metropolis had made them all the sharper. Allerdyke rubbed his hands +with satisfaction. Exchange of confidence with a fellow-Yorkshireman +was the very thing he wanted. + +He got out of his cab at the Aldersgate end of Gresham Street, and walked +quickly along until he came to a highly polished brass plate on which his +own name was deeply engraven. Running up a few steps into a warehouse +stored with neat packages of dress goods, he encountered a couple of +warehousemen engaged in sorting and classifying a consignment of fabrics +just arrived from Bradford. Allerdyke, whose visits to his London +warehouse were fairly frequent, and usually without notice, nodded +affably to both and walked across the floor to an inner office. He opened +the door without ceremony, closed it carefully behind him, and stepping +forward to the occupant of the room, who sat busily writing at a desk, +with his back to the entrant, and continued to write without moving or +looking round, gave him a resounding smack on the shoulder. + +"The very man I want, Ambler, my lad!" he said. "Sit up!" + +Ambler Appleyard raised his head, slowly twisted in his revolving chair, +and looked quietly at his employer. And Allerdyke, dropping into an +easy-chair by the fireplace, over which hung a fine steel engraving of +himself, flanked by photographs of the Bradford mills and the Bradford +warehouse, looked at his London manager, secretly admiring the shrewdness +and self-possession evidenced in the young man's face. Appleyard was +certainly no beauty; his outstanding features were sandy-coloured hair, +freckled cheeks, a snub nose, and a decidedly wide mouth; moreover, his +ears, unusually large, stood out from the sides of his head in very +prominent fashion, and gave a beholder the impression that they were +perpetually stretched to attention. But he was the owner of a well-shaped +forehead, a pair of steady and honest blue eyes, and a firmly cut square +chin, and his entire atmosphere conveyed the idea of capacity, resource, +and energy. It pleased Allerdyke, too, to see that the young man was +attentive to his own personal appearance--his well-cut garments bore the +undoubted stamp of the Savile Row tailor; the silk hat which covered his +crop of sandy hair was the latest thing in Sackville Street headgear; +from top to toe he was the smart man-about-town. And that was the sort +of man Marshall Allerdyke liked to have about him, and to see as heads of +his departments--not fops, nor dandies, but men who knew the commercial +value of good appearance and smart finish. + +"I didn't know you were in town, Mr. Allerdyke," said the London manager +quietly. "Still, one never knows where you are these days." + +"I've scarcely known that myself, my lad, these last seventy-two hours," +replied Allerdyke. "You mightn't think it, but at this time yesterday I +was going full tilt up to Edinburgh. I want to tell you about that, +Ambler--I want some advice. But business first--aught new?" + +"I've brought that South American contract off," replied Appleyard. +"Fixed it this morning." + +"Good!" said Allerdyke. "What's it run to, like?" + +"Seventy-five thousand," answered Appleyard. "Nice bit of profit on that, +Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Good--good!" repeated Allerdyke. "Aught else?" + +"Naught--at present. Naught out of the usual, anyway," said the manager. + +He took off his hat, laid aside the papers he had been busy with on +Allerdyke's entrance, and twisted his chair round to the hearth. "This +advice, then?" he asked quietly. "I'm free now." + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke. He sat reflecting for a moment, and then turned to +his manager with a sudden question. + +"Have you heard all this about my cousin James?" he asked with sharp +directness. + +Appleyard lifted a couple of newspapers from his desk. + +"No more than what's in these," he answered. "One tells of his sudden +death at Hull; the other begins to hint that there was something queer +about it." + +"Queer!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Aye, and more than queer, my lad. Our +James was murdered! Now, then, Ambler, I've come here to tell you all the +story--you must listen to every detail. I know your brains--keep 'em +fixed on what I'm going to tell; hear it all; weigh it up, and then tell +me what you make of it; for I'm damned if I can make either head or tail, +back, side, or front of the whole thing--so far. Happen you can see a bit +of light. Listen, now." + +Allerdyke, from long training in business habits, was a good teller of a +plain and straightforward tale: Appleyard, for the same reason, was a +good listener. So one man talked, in low, earnest tones, checking off +his points as he made them, taking care that he emphasized the principal +items of his news and dwelt lightly on the connecting links, and the +other listened in silence, keeping a concentrated attention and storing +away the facts in his memory as they were duly marshalled before him. +For a good hour one brain gave out, and the other took in, and without +waste of words. + +It came to an end at last, and master looked at man. + +"Well?" said Allerdyke, after a silence that was full of meaning--"well?" + +"Take some thinking about," answered Appleyard tersely. "It's a big +thing--a devilish clever thing, too. There's one fact strikes me at once, +though. The news about the Nastirsevitch jewels leaked out somewhere, Mr. +Allerdyke. That's certain. Either here in London, or over there in +Russia, it leaked out. Now until this Princess comes you've no means of +knowing if the leakage was over yonder. But there's one thing you do +know now--at this very minute. There were three people here in England +who knew that the jewels were on the way from Russia, in Mr. James +Allerdyke's charge. Those three were this man Fullaway, his lady +secretary, and Delkin, the Chicago millionaire! Now, then, Mr. +Allerdyke--how much, or what, do you know about any one of 'em?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD + + +Allerdyke encountered this direct question with a long, fixed stare of +growing comprehension; his silence showed that he was gradually taking in +its significance. + +"Aye, just so!" he said at last. "Just so! How much do I know of any of +'em? Well, of Fullaway no more than I've seen. Of his secretary no more +than what I've seen and heard. Of Delkin no more than that such a man +exists. Sum total--what!" + +"Next to naught," said Appleyard. "In a case like this you ought to know +more. Fullaway may be all right. Fullaway may be all wrong. His lady +secretary may be as right as he is, or as wrong as he is. As to +Delkin--he might be a creature of Fullaway's imagination. Put it all to +yourself now, Mr. Allerdyke--on the face of what you've told me, these +three people--two of 'em, at any rate, for a certainty--knew about these +valuables coming over in Mr. James's charge. So far as you know, your +cousin had 'em when he left Christiania and reached Hull. There they +disappear. So far as you're aware, nobody but these people knew of their +coming--no other people in England knew, at any rate, so far, I repeat, +as your knowledge goes. I should want to know something about these +three, if I were in your place, Mr. Allerdyke." + +"Aye--aye!" replied Allerdyke. "I see your point. Well, I've been in +Fullaway's company now for two days--there's no denying he's a smart +chap, a clever chap, and he seems to be doing good business. Moreover, +Ambler, my lad, James knew him and James wasn't the sort to take up with +wrong 'uns. As to the secretary, I can't say. Besides, Fullaway said this +afternoon that he hadn't told her all about it yet." + +"All about the Hull affair and the Lennard affair, I took that to mean +from your account," remarked Appleyard. "If she's his confidential +secretary, with access to his papers and business, she'd know all about +the Princess transaction. Now, of course, an inquiry or two of the usual +sort would satisfy you about Fullaway--I mean as a business man. An +inquiry or two would tell you all about Delkin. But you can't get to know +all about Mrs. Marlow from any inquiry. And you can't find out all about +Fullaway from any inquiry. He may be the straightest business man in all +London--and yet have a finger in this pie, and his secretary with him. +Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth of jewels, Mr. Allerdyke, +is--a temptation! And--these folks knew the jewels were on the way. +What's more, they'd time to intercept their bearer--Mr. James." + +Allerdyke rubbed his chin and knitted his brows in obvious bewilderment. +"There must ha' been more than them in at it," he said musingly. "A +regular gang of 'em, judging by results." + +"Every gang has its ganger," replied Appleyard, with a knowing smile. +"There's no doubt this is a big thing--but there must be a central point, +a head, a controlling authority in it. We come back, you see, after all, +to where we started--these people were the only people in England who +knew about these jewels, so far as we know." + +"Aye, but only so far as we know," said Allerdyke. "There may have been +others. There may have been folks who got to know about them over there +in Russia and who communicated their knowledge to some folks here. And +there's always this to be borne in mind--the affair, the plot, may have +been originated there, and worked from there. Remember that!" + +"Quite so--and you can't decide on anything relating to that until this +Princess comes," agreed Appleyard. "It'll have to rest till you've heard +all she has to say, and then you'll know where you are. But in the +meantime you can find out a bit about Fullaway and this millionaire +man--I can find out for you, if you like, in a few hours." + +"Do, my lad!" said Allerdyke. "It's always well to know who you're +dealing with. Aye--make an inquiry or two." + +"But remember that all I can inquire about will be in the ordinary +business way," continued Appleyard. "I can ascertain if there is a Delkin +in town, who's a Chicago millionaire, and if Fullaway's a reputable +business man--but that'll be all. As to the secretary, I can't do +anything." + +"I'll keep an eye on her myself," said Allerdyke. "Well, do this, then, +and let me know the results. I've put up at the Waldorf, and there I +shall stop while all this is being investigated here in London, but I +shall pop in and out here, of course. And now I'll go back there and find +out if there's any fresh news from the police or from Hull. I reckon +there'll be some fine reading in the newspapers in a day or two, +Ambler--it'll all have to come out now." + +In this supposition Allerdyke was right. The police authorities, finding +that the affair had assumed dimensions of an astonishing magnitude, +decided to seek the aid of the Press, and to publish the entire story in +the fullest possible fashion. And Allerdyke and all London woke next +morning to find the newspapers alive with a new sensation, and every +other man asking his neighbour what it all meant. Three mysterious +murders--two big thefts--together--the newspaper world had known nothing +like it for years, and the only regrets in Fleet Street were those of the +men who would have sacrificed their very noses to have got the story +exclusively to themselves. But the police authorities had exercised a +wise generosity, and no one newspaper knew more than another at that +stage--they all, as Fullaway said to Allerdyke at breakfast, got a fair +start, and from that one could run their own race. + +"We shall be to these Pressmen as a pot of honey to flies," he observed. +"Take my advice, Allerdyke--see none of them, and if you should--as you +will--get buttonholed and held up, refuse to say a word." + +"You can leave that to me," answered Allerdyke, with a twitch of his +determined jaw. "It 'ud be a clever newspaper chap that would get aught +out of me. I've other fish to fry than to talk to these gentry. And what +good will all this newspaper stuff do?" + +"Lots!" replied Fullaway. "It will draw attention. There'll already be a +few thousand amateur detectives looking out for the man who left the +French maid dead in Eastbourne Terrace, and a few hundred amateur +criminologists racking their brains for a plausible theory of the whole +thing. Oh, yes, it's a good thing to arouse public interest, Allerdyke. +All that's wanted now is a rousing reward. Have you thought of that?" + +"Didn't I mention it to the man at Scotland Yard yesterday?" said +Allerdyke. "I'm game to find aught reasonable in the way of brass. But," +he added, with a touch of true Yorkshire caution, "I've been thinking +that over during the night, and it seems to me that there are two other +parties who ought to come in at it, with me, of course. Miss Lennard and +the Princess, d'ye see? If they're willing, I am." + +"You mean a joint reward for the detection of the murderer and the +recovery of the jewels?" suggested Fullaway. + +"Well, you can be pretty certain, by now, that the murders and the thefts +are all the work of one gang," replied Allerdyke. "So it's long as it's +short. These two women want their pearls and their diamonds back--I want +to know who killed my cousin James. We're all three in the same boat, +really; so if we make up a good, substantial purse between us--what?" + +"Good!" agreed Fullaway. "We'll hear what the Princess says when she +arrives to-night. I guess we shall all know better where we exactly are +when we've heard what she has to say." + +"If she's like most women that's lost aught in the way of finery," +remarked Allerdyke drily, "she'll have plenty to say." + +That night he had abundant opportunity of hearing the Princess +Nastirsevitch's views on the situation, freely expressed. He himself +fetched Celia Lennard to the conference at New Scotland Yard; they found +Fullaway and the Princess already there, in full blast of debate. +Allerdyke inspected the new arrival with keen interest and found her a +well-preserved, handsome woman of middle-age, sharp, smart, and American +to the finger-tips. The official whom they had met before was already +questioning her, and for Allerdyke's benefit he repeated what had +already transpired. + +"The Princess affirms, Mr. Allerdyke, that not a soul but herself and +your cousin, Mr. James Allerdyke, knew of this affair," he said. "I am +right, am I not, madame," he went on, turning to the Princess, "in saying +that not one word of this transaction, or proposed transaction, was ever +mentioned by you to any person but Mr. James Allerdyke?" + +"To no other person than Mr. James Allerdyke," assented the Princess +firmly. "It would have been strange conduct on my part, I think, if I had +told anybody else anything about it!--my object, of course, being +secrecy. From the moment I first mentioned it to Mr. James Allerdyke +until I arrived here just now and met Mr. Fullaway there, I never spoke +of the matter to any one!" + +The official looked at Allerdyke as if inviting him to ask any question +that occurred to him, and Allerdyke immediately brought up that which had +been in his mind ever since his discovery of James Allerdyke's +pocket-diary. + +"How came you to repose such confidence in my cousin, ma'am?" he asked +brusquely. "I always thought I was pretty deep in his counsels, but I +never heard him mention your name. Did he know you well?" + +"I had known Mr. James Allerdyke for a little over a year," replied the +Princess. "I met him first in Paris--then on the Riviera--then in +Russia. The fact is, he did some business for me. I had every confidence +in him--the fullest confidence. I knew he was a thoroughly straight man. +And just as I had decided to sell these jewels'--all my own property, +mind--in order to clear off the whole lot of the mortgages on my son's +estate, so's he could come into them quite unencumbered, I happened to +meet Mr. James Allerdyke in St. Petersburg--that's of course, a few weeks +ago--and I immediately took him into my confidence and asked his help. +With the result," added the Princess, "that he cabled to Mr. Fullaway +there and that all this has come about! I tell you in the most emphatic +manner at my command," she went on, turning to the official, and tapping +the edge of his desk as if to accentuate her words, "it's impossible that +anybody over there in Russia could have known of my arrangements with Mr. +James Allerdyke--utterly impossible. For I never spoke of them to any one +there, and I'm sure he would not!" + +"Impossible is a big word, Princess," said the official. "There may have +been ways of leakage. Did you exchange any correspondence on the matter?" + +"Not a line!" replied the Princess. "There was no need. We met three +times and arranged everything. The only correspondence there was--if you +could call it correspondence--was the exchange of cablegrams between Mr. +James Allerdyke and Mr. Fullaway. I saw those cablegrams--of course the +jewels were mentioned. But I don't believe Mr. James Allerdyke was the +sort of man to leave his cablegrams lying around for somebody else to +see. I know he had them in his pocket-book. No!" she went on, with added +emphasis and conviction. "The thing did not start over there, I'm sure. +It's been put up here, in London." + +"Well," observed the official, after a pause, "there's only one thing +more I want to ask you just now, Princess. You gave these immensely +valuable jewels to Mr. James Allerdyke? Did he hand you any receipt +for them?" + +"A receipt which I've got here," answered the Princess, tapping her +hand-bag. "And it's all in his handwriting, and made out in the form of +an inventory--all that was at his suggestion." + +"And how," asked the official, "were the jewels packed when given to +him?" + +"Very simply," said the Princess. "That was his suggestion, too. They +were wrapped up in soft paper and chamois leather, and put into an old +cigar-box which he placed in his small travelling-bag. That bag, he said, +would never go out of his sight until he reached London, where, when he'd +exhibited the jewels to Mr. Fullaway's client, he was to lodge them in a +bank. It seemed to him that the cigar-box was a good notion--the jewels +themselves didn't take up so much room as you might think, and he laid +some very ordinary things over the top of the package--a cake or two of +soap, a sponge, and things like that--so that, supposing the cigar-box +had been opened, its contents would have seemed very ordinary, you +understand?" + +"And yet," said the official softly, "the thieves evidently went +straight for that cigar-box when the critical moment came. Well," he +continued, looking round at his visitors, "I don't know that we can do +more to-night. Is there anything any of you ladies or gentlemen wish +to suggest?" + +"Yes!" said Allerdyke. "In my opinion a most important thing. It's my +decided conviction that in this case we've got to offer a reward--no mere +trifling sum, but one that'll set a few fingers tingling. And it's my +concern, and the Princess's, and Miss Lennard's. And if you'll permit us +three to have a quiet talk in yon corner of your room, I'll tell you its +result when we've finished." + +The result of that quiet talk--chiefly conducted by Allerdyke with +masculine force and vigour--was that by noon of next day the exterior of +every London police-station attracted vast attention by reason of a +freshly-posted bill. It was a long bill, and it set out the surface +particulars of three murders, and of two robberies in connection +therewith. The particulars made interesting reading enough--but the real +fascination of the bill was in its big, staring headline-- + +FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BAYSWATER BOARDING-HOUSE + + +Some time previous to these remarkable events, Marshall Allerdyke, +being constantly in London, and having to spend much time on business +in the Mansion House region, had sought and obtained membership of the +City Carlton Club, in St. Swithin's Lane, and at noon of the day +following the arrival of the Princess Nastirsevitch, he stood in a +window of the smoking-room, looking out for Appleyard, whom he had +asked to lunch. In one hand he carried a folded copy of the reward +bill, which Blindway had left at the Waldorf Hotel for him, and while +he waited--the room being empty just then save for an old gentleman who +read _The Times_ in a far corner--he unfolded and took a surreptitious +glance at it, chuckling to himself at the thought of the cupidity which +its contents and promises would arouse in the breasts of the many +thousands of folk who would read it. + +"Fifty thousand pounds!" he thought, with high amusement. "Egad, some of +'em 'ud feel like Rothschild himself if they could shove that bit in +their pockets--they'd take on all the airs of a Croesus!" + +The thought of the Rothschild wealth made him lift his eyes and glance +through the window at the gate of the quiet, ultra-respectable +establishment across the way. Allerdyke, like all men of considerable +means, had a mighty respect for wealth in its colossal forms, and he +never visited the City Carlton, nor looked out of its smoking-room +windows, without glancing with interest and admiration at the famous +Rothschild offices, immediately opposite. It amused him to speculate and +theorize about the vast amounts of money which must needs be turned over +in theory and practice within those soberly quiet walls, to indulge in +fancies about the secrets, financial and political, which must be +discussed and locked up in human breasts there--to him the magic address, +New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, was as full of potential mystery as the +Sphinx is to an imaginative traveller. He glanced at its gates and at its +sign now with an almost youthful awe and reverence--the reverence of the +man of considerable wealth for the men of enormous wealth--and while his +eyes were thus busy a taxi-cab came along the Lane, stopped by the +entrance to New Court, and set down Mrs. Marlow. + +Allerdyke instinctively shrank back within the curtains of the +smoking-room window. There was no reason why he should have done so. He +had no objection to Franklin Fullaway's secretary seeing him standing in +a window of the City Carlton Club; he knew no reason why Mrs. Marlow +should object to be seen getting out of a cab in St. Swithin's Lane. Yet, +he drew back, and, from his concealed position, watched. Not that there +was anything out of the ordinary to watch. Mrs. Marlow, who looked +daintier, prettier, more charming than ever, paid her driver, gave him a +smiling nod, and tripped into New Court, a bundle of papers in her +well-gloved hand. + +"Business with Rothschild's, eh?" mused Allerdyke. + +"Well, I daresay there's a vast lot of folk in this city who do business +across there. Um!--smart little woman that, and no doubt as clever as +she's smart. I'd like to know--" + +Just then the ancient hall-porter of the club (who surely missed his +vocation in life, and should have been a bishop, or at least a dean) +ushered in Appleyard, whom Allerdyke immediately beckoned to join him +amongst the window-curtains. + +"I say!" he whispered, with a side glance at _The Times_-reading old +gentleman, "you remember me telling you yesterday about the +lady-secretary of Fullaway's--Mrs. Marlow?--what a smart bit she looked +to be. Eh?" + +"Well?" replied Appleyard. "Of course, what about her?" + +"She's just gone into Rothschild's across there," answered Allerdyke. +"Come here, this corner; she'll be coming out before long, no doubt, and +then you'll see her. As I told you about her, I want you to take a look +at her--she's worth seeing for more reasons than one." + +Appleyard allowed himself to be drawn into the embrasure. He waited +patiently and in silence--presently Allerdyke dug a finger into his ribs. + +"She's coming!" he whispered. "Now!" + +Appleyard looked half-carelessly across the street--the next instant he +was devoutly thanking his stars that since boyhood he had sedulously +trained himself to control his countenance. He made no sign, gave no +indication of previous acquaintance, as he watched Mrs. Marlow's svelt +figure trip out of New Court and away up St. Swithin's Lane; his face +was as calm and unemotional, his eyes as steady as ever when he turned +to his employer. + +"Pretty woman," he said. "Looks a sharp 'un, too, Mr. Allerdyke. Well," +he went on, turning away into the room as if Mrs. Marlow no longer +interested him. "I got those two reports for you--shall I tell you about +them now?" + +"Aye, for sure," replied Allerdyke. "Come into this corner--we'll have a +glass of sherry--it's early for lunch yet. Those reports, eh? About +Fullaway and Delkin, you mean?" + +"Just so," said Appleyard, settling himself in the corner of a lounge and +lighting the cigarette which Allerdyke offered him. "They're ordinary +business reports, you know, got through the usual channels. Fullaway's +all right, so far as the various commercial agencies know--nothing ever +been heard against him, anyhow. The account of himself and his business +which he gave to you is quite correct. To sum up--he's a sound man--quite +straight--on the business surface, which is, of course, all we can get +at. As for Delkin, that's a straight story, too--anyway, there's a +Chicago millionaire of that name been in town some weeks--he's stopping +at the Hotel Cecil--has a palatial suite there--and his daughter's about +to marry Lord Hexwater. All correct there, Mr. Allerdyke, too--I mean as +regards all that Fullaway told you." + +"Well, there's something in knowing all that, Ambler, my lad," +answered Allerdyke. "You can't get to know too much about the folks +you're dealing with, you know. Very good--we'll leave that now. What +d'ye think o' this?" + +He unfolded and held up the reward bill, first looking as fondly at it as +a youthful author looks at his first printed performance, and then +glancing at his manager to see what effect it had upon him. And he saw +Ambler Appleyard's sandy eyebrows go up in a definite arch. + +"Fifty thousand!" muttered Appleyard. "Whew! It's a stiff figure, Mr. +Allerdyke. You've put a thick finger in that pie, I'm thinking!" + +"One half from the Princess; twenty thousand from me; five thousand from +the singing lady," whispered Allerdyke. "That's how it's made up, my lad. +And naught'll please me better than to see it paid out--that's a fact!" + +"You'll have some triers," said Appleyard, with an emphatic wag of the +head. "Make no mistake about that! Fifty thousand! Gosh!--why, anybody +that's got the least clue, the slightest idea--and there must be +somebody--'ll have a go in for all he or she's worth!" + +"Let 'em try!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "The welcome man's the chap that +enables us to recover and convict. Here, shove that bill in your pocket, +and read it at your leisure--there's something to think about in what it +says, I promise you." + +Appleyard went away from the club an hour and a half later, thinking hard +enough. But he was not thinking about the reward bill. What he was +thinking about, had been thinking about from the moment in which +Allerdyke had drawn him into the smoking-room window and pointed her out +to him, was--Mrs. Marlow. For Appleyard knew Mrs. Marlow well enough, but +(always those buts in life, he reflected with a cynical laugh as he +threaded his way back to Gresham Street) he knew her by another +name--Miss Slade. And now he was wondering why Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow +had two names, and why she appeared to be one person as he knew her in +private life, and another as he had seen her that very morning. + +On Appleyard's first coming to town in the capacity of sole manager of +the London warehouse of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, he had set +himself up in two rooms in a Bloomsbury lodging-house. He knew little of +London life at that time, or he would have known that he was thus +condemning himself to a drab and dreary existence. As it was, he quickly +learnt by experience, and within six months, having picked up a +comfortable knowledge of things, he transferred himself to one of those +well-equipped boarding establishments in the best part of Bayswater, +wherein bachelors, old maids, young women, widowers, and married couples +without encumbrance, can live together in as much or as little friendship +and intercourse as pleases their individual tastes. Ambler Appleyard took +his time and selected the likeliest place he could find after much +inspection of many similar places. His salary of a thousand a year (to +which was to be added a handsome, if varying commission) enabled him to +pick and choose; the house which he did choose, in the immediate +neighbourhood of Lancaster Gate, was of the luxurious order; its private +rooms were models of the last thing in comfort, its public rooms were +equal to those of the best modern hotels. If you wanted male society, you +could find it in the smoking-room and the billiard-room; if you desired +feminine influences there was a pleasing variety in the drawing-room and +the lounges. You could be just as much alone, and just as much in company +as you pleased--anyway, the place suited Ambler Appleyard, and there he +had lived for two and a half years. And during a good two of them, the +young lady whom he knew as Miss Slade had lived there too. + +With Miss Slade, Appleyard, as fellow-resident in the same house, was on +quite friendly terms. He sometimes talked to her in one of the +drawing-rooms. He knew her for a clever, rather brilliant young woman, +with ideas, and the power to express them. It was evident to him that she +had travelled and had seen a good deal of the world and its men and +women; she could talk politics with far more knowledge and insight than +most women; she knew more than a little of economic matters, and was +inclined, like Appleyard himself, to utilitarianism in all things +affecting government and society. But of herself she never spoke +directly; all Appleyard knew of her concerns was that she was engaged in +business of some nature, and went to it every morning as regularly and +punctually as he went to his. He judged that whatever her business was +she must be well paid for it, or must possess means of her own; nobody, +man or woman, could possibly live at that boarding-house, or private +hotel, as its proprietors preferred to call it, for anything less than +four guineas a week. Well--here was the explanation of Miss Slade's +business; she was evidently private secretary to Mr. Franklin Fullaway, +and competent to do business at a place like Rothschild's. And why +not?--yet ... why did she call herself Miss Slade at the boarding-house +and Mrs. Marlow in her business capacity? + +"And yet why shouldn't she?" asked Appleyard of himself. "A woman's a +right to do what she likes in that way, and she isn't necessarily +deceitful because she passes as a single woman in one place and a widow +in another. I daresay she could give a very good reason for all this--but +who's got any right to ask her for one? Not me, certainly!" + +He had no intention of asking Miss Slade anything when he left the City +for Bayswater that evening, but chance threw him into her immediate +company in one of the lounges, where, after dinner, they met at a table +on which the evening newspapers were laid out. As Miss Slade picked up +one, Appleyard picked up another--certain big, strong letters on the +front sheets of both gave him an opening. + +"Have you read anything about this affair?" he asked, with apparent +carelessness, pointing to a row of capitals. "This extraordinary +murder-robbery business which is becoming the talk of the town? Murders +of three people--theft of nearly three hundred thousand pounds' worth of +jewels--and fifty thousand pounds reward! It's colossal!" + +Miss Slade, without showing the slightest shade of interest, shook her +head. + +"I don't read murders," she answered. "Fifty thousand pounds reward! +That's an awful lot, isn't it?" + +"Worth trying for, anyway!" replied Appleyard. He gave her a sly look, +and smiled grimly. "I think I'll try for it," he said. "Fifty thousand!" + +"How could any one try unless he or she's some clue?" she asked. "If you +don't know anything about it, or any of the persons concerned, where +would you begin?" + +"There are plenty of persons named in these accounts about whom one could +find something out, at any rate," replied Appleyard, tapping the +newspaper with his finger. "There's a Russian Princess with a sneezy sort +of name; a Yorkshire manufacturer named Allerdyke; an American man called +Franklin Fullaway--all seem to be well-known people in town. You ever +hear of any of them?" + +Miss Slade turned a face of absolute indifference on him and the paper to +which he was pointing. + +"Never," she answered calmly. "But I daresay I shall hear of them +now--for nine days." + +Then she went off, with her own newspaper, and Appleyard carried his to a +corner and sat down. + +"That's a lie!" he said to himself. "And a woman who will tell a lie as +calmly and quietly as that will tell a thousand with equal assurance and +cleverness. She--" + +There he stopped. In the doorway Miss Slade had also stopped--stopped to +speak to another resident, a man, about whom Ambler Appleyard had often +wondered as keenly as he was now wondering about Miss Slade herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MR. GERALD RAYNER + + +There were various reasons why Ambler Appleyard's wonder had often been +aroused by the man to whom Miss Slade had stopped to speak. He wondered +about him, first of all, because of his personal appearance. That was +striking enough to excite wonder in anybody, for he was one of those +remarkable men who possess great beauty of countenance allied to +unfortunate deformity of body. The face was that of a poet and a +dreamer, the body that of a hunchback and a cripple. Painter or +sculptor alike would have rejoiced to depict the face on canvas or +carve it in marble--its perfect shape, fine tinting, the lines of the +features, the beauty of the eyes, the wealth of the dark, clustering +hair, were all as near artistic perfection as could be. But all else +spoke of deformity--the badly bent back, the twisted body, the short +leg, the misshapen foot. It was as if Nature had endeavoured in some +wickedly mischievous freak to show how beauty and ugliness can be +combined in one creature. + +That was one reason for wonder in Appleyard's mind--he had never come +across quite this type before, though he knew that hunchbacks and +cripples are often gifted with unusual strength, and more than usual good +looks, as if in ironic compensation for their other disadvantages. But +there were others. Mr. Gerald Rayner--everybody knew everybody else's +name in that private hotel, for they were all more or less permanent +residents--was something of a mystery man. In spite of his deformity, he +was the best-dressed man in the house--they were all smart men there, but +none of them came up to him in the way of clothes, linen, and personal +adornment, always in the best and most cultured taste. Also it was easy +to gather that he was a young man of large means. Although he made full +use of the public rooms, and was always in and about them of an evening, +from dinner-time to a late hour, he tenanted a private suite of +apartments in the hotel--those residents, few in number, who had been +privileged to obtain entrance to them spoke with almost awed admiration +of their occupant's books, pictures, and objects of art. Mr. Gerald +Rayner, it was evident, was a man of culture--that, indeed, was shown by +his conversation. And at first Appleyard had set him down as a poet, or +an artist, or a writing man of some sort--a dilettante who possessed +private means. Then, being a sharp observer of all that went on around +his own centre, he began to perceive that he must be mistaken in +that--Rayner was obviously a business man, like himself. For every +morning, at precisely half-past nine, a smart motor-brougham arrived at +the door of the private hotel and carried Rayner off Citywards; every +afternoon at exactly half-past five the same conveyance brought him back. +Only business men, said Appleyard, are so regular, so punctual; therefore +Rayner must be a business man. + +But nobody in that hotel knew anything whatever of Rayner, beyond what +they saw of him within its walls. Nobody knew whither the motor-brougham +carried him, what he did when he reached his destination, nobody knew +what or who he was. Appleyard, who was always knocking about the heart of +the City, who was for ever in its business streets, who knew all the City +clubs, all the best City restaurants, and was familiar with all sorts +and shades of life in the City, never saw Rayner in any of his own +purlieus. Accordingly, he came to the conclusion that Rayner's business, +whatever it was, did not take him to the City. Nevertheless, it was +certain, in Appleyard's opinion, that he was in business, and paid +scrupulous attention to his daily duties. + +Over the edge of his newspaper he watched Rayner and Miss Slade meet, +exchange a word or two, and retire to a corner of an inner lounge in +which they often sat talking together. He had often seen them talking +together, and it had struck him that they seemed to talk with more than +ordinary confidence. The hunchback was on terms of easy familiarity with +everybody in the house, and he had a remarkable range of topics. He could +talk sport, books, finance, politics, art, science, history, +theology--the variety of his conversation was astonishing. But Appleyard +had begun to notice that he rarely talked to any single person with the +exception of Miss Slade--he would join a group in smoking-room or +drawing-room and enter gaily into whatever was being discussed, but he +seemed to have no desire to hold a _tete-a-tete_ talk with any one except +this young woman, who was now as much an object of mystery and +speculation to Appleyard as he himself was. They were often seen talking +together in quiet corners--and some of the old maids and eligible widows +were already saying that Miss Slade was setting her cap at Mr. Rayner's +evident deep purse. + +Ambler Appleyard went to bed that night wondering greatly about two +matters--first, why Miss Slade was Miss Slade in Bayswater and Mrs. +Marlow at Fullaway's office; second, if Miss Slade or Mrs. Marlow, +whichever she really was, had any secrets with the mysterious Mr. +Rayner. From that he got to wondering who Rayner really was, and what +his business was. And this process of speculation began again next +morning, and continued all the way to the Gresham Street warehouse, +and by the time he had arrived there he had half-determined to find +out more about Miss Slade than was known to him up to then--and also, +since he appeared to be such great friends with Miss Slade, about Mr. +Gerald Rayner. + +"But how?" he mused as he ran up the steps to the warehouse. "I'm not a +private detective, and I don't propose to employ one. If I knew some +sharp fellow--" + +Just then he caught sight of Gaffney, who sat on a bale of goods within +the warehouse door, holding a note in his hand. He stood up with a grin +of friendly recognition when he saw Appleyard. + +"Morning, sir," he said. "Letter from Mr. Allerdyke for you. No answer, +but I was to wait till you'd read it." + +Appleyard opened the note there and then. It was a mere hurried scrawl, +saying that Allerdyke was just setting off for Hull, in obedience to a +call from the police; as Gaffney had nothing to do, would Appleyard make +use of him during Allerdyke's absence? + +Appleyard bade Gaffney wait a while, went into his office, ran through +his correspondence, gave the morning's orders out to the warehouseman, +and called the chauffeur inside. + +"Gaffney," he said as he carefully closed the door on them, "you're a +Londoner, aren't you?" + +Gaffney smiled widely. + +"Ought to be, Mr. Appleyard," he answered. "I was born within sound of +Bow Bells, anyhow. Off Aldersgate Street, sir. Yes, I'm a Cockney, +right enough." + +"Then you know London well, of course," suggested Appleyard. + +"Never went out of it much, sir, till I went down to Bradford to this +present job," replied Gaffney. "I shouldn't have left it if Mr. Allerdyke +hadn't given me extra good wages and a real good place." + +Appleyard tossed Allerdyke's note across his desk. + +"You see what Mr. Allerdyke says," he remarked. "Wants me to find you +something to do while he's off. How long is he likely to be off?" + +"He said he might be back to-morrow night, sir," answered Gaffney, +glancing at the note. "But possibly not till the day after to-morrow." + +"Well, I don't know that there's anything you can do here," said +Appleyard. "We're not particularly busy, and we've a full staff. But," he +continued, with a sharp glance at the chauffeur, "there's something you +can do for me, privately, to-morrow morning--a quite private matter--a +matter entirely between ourselves. I'll account to Mr. Allerdyke for your +time, but I don't want even him to know about this job that you can do +for me--I'll pay you for doing it out of my own pocket." + +"Just as you think right, sir," answered Gaffney. "So long as you make it +right with the guv'nor, I'm willing." + +"Very well," said Appleyard. He paused a moment, and then lowered his +voice. "You've seen about this tremendous reward that's being offered in +Mr. James Allerdyke's case?" he asked, with another sharp look. "You know +what I mean?" + +Gaffney's shrewd face grew shrewder, and he nodded knowingly. + +"I know!" he said. "Fifty thousand! A fortune, sir!" + +"What I want you to do," continued Appleyard, "may lead to something +relating to that, and it mayn't. Anyway, I'll make you all right. Now, +listen carefully. Do you think you could get hold of a private motor +to-morrow morning? A smart, private cab in which you could put a friend +of yours--well dressed--would be the thing. Early." + +"Easy as winking, sir," answered Gaffney. "Know the cab, and know a +friend o'mine who'd sit in it--as long as you like." + +"Very good," said Appleyard. "Now, then, do you know Lancaster Gate?" + +"Do I know St. Paul's?" exclaimed Gaffney, half-derisively. "Used to +drive for an old gent who lived in Porchester Terrace." + +"Oh!" replied Appleyard. "Then I daresay you know the Pompadour +Private Hotel?" + +"As well as I know my own fingers," responded Gaffney. "Driven to and +from it many a hundred times." + +"Just the man I want, then," continued Appleyard. "Now, to-morrow +morning, get your cab early--put your friend in it--dressed up, of +course--and at half-past nine to the very minute drive slowly past the +front door of the Pompadour. You'll see a private motor-brougham +there--dark green--you'll also see a hunchbacked gentleman enter it--you +can't mistake him. Follow him! Never mind where he goes, or how long it +takes to get there--or how few minutes it takes to get there, for that +matter!--follow him and find out where that private cab puts him down. +Then--come and report to me. Is that all clear?" + +"Clear as noonday, sir," answered Gaffney. "I understand--I've been at +that sort of game more than once." + +"All right," said Appleyard. "I leave it to you. Take every care--I +don't want this man to get the least suspicion that he's followed. +And--" He hesitated, considering his plans over again. "Yes," he went +on, "there's just another detail that I may mention--it'll save time. +This hunchback gentleman's name is Rayner--Mr. Gerald Rayner. Can you +remember it?" + +"As well as my own," answered Gaffney. "Mr. Gerald Rayner. I've got it." + +"Very good. Now, then, can you trust this friend of yours?" asked +Appleyard. "Is he a chap of common sense?" + +"It's my own brother," replied Gaffney. "Some people say I'm the sharper +of the two, some say he is. There's a pair of us, anyhow." + +"That'll do," said Appleyard. "Now, wherever you see this Mr. Rayner set +down, let your brother get out of your cab and take particular notice if +he goes into any shop, office, flats, buildings, anything of that sort +which bears his name--Rayner. D'you see? I want to know what his business +is. And now that you know what I want, you and your brother put your +heads together and try to find it out, and come to me when you've done, +and I'll make it worth your while. You'd better go now and make your +arrangements." + +Gaffney went away, evidently delighted with his commission, and Appleyard +turned to his business of the day, wondering if he was not going to waste +the chauffer's time and his own money. Next morning he purposely hung +about the Pompadour until the time for Rayner's departure arrived; from +one of the front windows he saw the hunchback enter his brougham and +drive away; at the same moment he saw a neat private cab, driven by +Gaffney, and occupied by a smart-looking young gentleman in a silk hat, +come along and follow in quite an ordinary and usual manner. And on that +he himself went to Gresham Street and waited. + +Gaffney and his brother turned in during the morning, both evidently +primed with news. Appleyard shut himself into his office with them. + +"Well?" he asked. + +"Easy job, Mr. Appleyard," replied Gaffney. "Drove straight through the +Park, Constitution Hill, the Mall, Strand, to top of Arundel Street. +There he got out; brougham went off--back--he walked down street. So my +brother here he got out too, and strolled down street after him. He'll +tell you the rest, sir." + +"Just as plain as what he's told," said the other Gaffney. "I followed +him down the street; he walked one side, I t'other side. He went into +Clytemnestra House--one of those big houses of business flats and +offices--almost at the bottom. I waited some time to see if he was +settled like, or if it was only a call he was making. Then I went into +the hall of Clytemnestra House, as if I was looking for somebody. There +are two boards in that hall with the names of tenants painted on 'em. But +there's not that name--Gerald Rayner. Still, I'll tell you what there is, +sir--there's a name that begins with the same initials--G.R." + +"What name?" asked Appleyard. + +"The name," replied the second Gaffney, "is Gavin Ramsay--Agent." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PHOTOGRAPH + + +Allerdyke went off to Hull, post-haste, because of a telephone call which +roused him out of bed an hour before his usual time. It came from +Chettle, the New Scotland Yard man who had been sent down to Hull as soon +as the news of Lydenberg's murder arrived. Chettle asked Allerdyke to +join him by the very next express, and to come alone; he asked him, +moreover, not to tell Mr. Franklin Fullaway whither he was bound. And +Allerdyke, having taken a quick glance at a time-table, summoned Gaffney, +told him of his journey, bade him keep his tongue quiet at the Waldorf, +wrote his hasty note to Appleyard, dressed, and hurried away to King's +Cross. He breakfasted on the train, and was in Hull by one o'clock, and +Chettle hailed him as he set foot on the platform, and immediately led +him off to a cab which awaited them outside the station. + +"Much obliged to you for coming so promptly, Mr. Allerdyke," said the +detective. "And for coming by yourself--that was just what I wanted." + +"Aye, and why?" asked Allerdyke. "Why by myself? I've been wondering +about that all the way down." + +Chettle, a sleek, comfortable-looking man, with a quiet manner and a sly +glance, laughed knowingly, twiddling his fat thumbs as he leaned back in +the cab. "Oh, well, it doesn't do--in my opinion--to spread information +amongst too many people, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "That's my notion of +things, anyway. I just wanted to go into a few matters with you, alone, +d'ye see? I didn't want that American gentleman along with you. Eh?" + +"Now, why?" asked Allerdyke. "Out with it!" + +"Well, you see, Mr. Allerdyke," answered the detective, "we know you. +You're a man of substance, you've got a big stake in the country--you're +Allerdyke, of Allerdyke and Partners, Limited, Bradford and London. But +we don't know Fullaway. He may be all right, but you could only call him +a bird of passage, like. He can close down his business and be away out +of England to-morrow, and, personally, I don't believe in letting him +into every secret about all this affair until we know more about him. You +see, Mr. Allerdyke, there's one thing very certain--so far as we've +ascertained at present, nobody but Fullaway, and possibly whoever's in +his employ, was acquainted with the fact that your cousin was carrying +those jewels from Russia to England. Nobody in this country, at any rate. +And--it's a thing of serious importance, sir." + +Just what Appleyard had said!--what, indeed, no one of discernment could +help saying, thought Allerdyke. The sole knowledge, of course, was with +Fullaway and his lady clerk--so far as was known. Therefore-- + +"Just so," he said aloud. "I see your point--of course, I've already seen +it. Well, what are we going to do--now? You've brought me down here for +something special, no doubt." + +"Quite so, sir," answered Chettle composedly. "I want to draw your +attention to some very special features and to ask you certain questions +arising out of 'em. We'll take things in order, Mr. Allerdyke. We're +driving now to the High Street--I want to show you the exact spot where +Lydenberg was shot dead. After that we'll go to the police-station and +I'll show you two or three little matters, and we'll have a talk about +them. And now, before we get to the High Street, I may as well tell you +that on examining Lydenberg's body very little was found in the way of +papers--scarcely anything, and nothing connecting him with your cousin's +affair--in fact, the police here say they never saw a foreign gentleman +with less on him in that way. But in the inside pocket of his overcoat +there was a postcard, which had been posted here in Hull. Here it +is--and you'll see that it was the cause of taking him to the spot where +he was shot." + +Chettle took from an old letter-case an innocent-looking postcard, on one +corner of which was a stain. + +"His blood," he remarked laconically. "He was shot clean through the +heart. Well, you see, it's a mere line." + +Allerdyke took the card and looked at it with a mingled feeling of +repulsion and fascination. The writing on it was thin, angular, upright, +and it suggested foreign origin. And the communication was brief--and +unsigned-- + +"High Street morning eleven sharp left-hand side old houses." + +"You don't recognize that handwriting, of course, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked +Chettle. "Never seen it before, I suppose?" + +"No!" replied Allerdyke. "Never. But I should say it's a foreigner's." + +"Very likely," assented Chettle. "Aye, well, sir, it lured the man to his +death. And now I'll show you where he died, and how easy it was for the +murderer to kill him and get away unobserved." + +He pulled the cab up at the corner of the High Street, and turned +southward towards the river, looking round at his companion with one of +his sly smiles. + +"I daresay that you, being a Yorkshireman, Mr. Allerdyke, know all about +this old street," he remarked as they walked forward. "I never saw it, +never heard of it, until the other day, when I was sent down on this +Lydenberg business, but it struck me at once. I should think it's one of +the oldest streets left in England." + +"It is," answered Allerdyke. "I know it well enough, and I've seen it +changed. It used to be the street of the old Hull merchants--they had +their houses and warehouses all combined, with gardens at the back +running down to the river Hull. Queer old places there used to be in this +street, I can tell you when I was a lad!--of late years they've pulled a +lot of property down that had got what you might call thoroughly +worm-eaten--oh, yes, the place isn't half as ancient or picturesque as it +was even twenty years ago!" + +"There's plenty of the ancient about it still, for all that," observed +Chettle, with a dry laugh. "There was more than enough of it for +Lydenberg the other day, at any rate. Now, then, you remember what it +said on the postcard--he was to walk down the High Street, on the +left-hand side, at eleven o'clock? Very well--down the High Street he +walks, on this side which we are now--he strolls along, by these old +houses, looking about him, of course, for the person he was to meet. The +few people who were about down here that morning, and who saw him, said +that he was looking about from side to side. And all of a sudden a shot +rang out, and Lydenberg fell--just here--right on this very pavement." + +He pulled Allerdyke up in a narrow part of the old street, jointed to +the flags, and then to the house behind them--an ancient, ramshackle +place, the doors and windows of which were boarded up, the entire fabric +of which showed unmistakable readiness for the pick and shovel of the +house-breaker. And he laid a hand on one of the shattered windows, close +by a big hole in the decaying wood. + +"There's no doubt the murderer was hidden behind this shutter, and that +he fired at Lydenberg from it, through this hole," he said. "So, you see, +he'd only be a few feet from his man. He was evidently a good shot, and a +fellow of resolute nerve, for he made no mistake. He only fired once, but +he shot Lydenberg clean through the heart, dead!" + +"Anybody see it happen?" asked Allerdyke, staring about him at the scene +of the tragedy, and thinking how very ordinary and commonplace everything +looked. "I suppose there'd be people about, though the street, at this +end, anyway, isn't as busy as it once was?" + +"Several people saw him fall," answered Chettle. + +"They say he jumped, spun round, and fell across the pavement. And they +all thought it was a case of suicide. That, of course, gave the murderer +a bigger and better chance of making off. You see, as these people saw no +assailant, it never struck 'em that the shot had been fired from behind +this window. When they collected their thoughts, found it wasn't suicide, +and realized that it was murder, the murderer was--Lord knows where! From +behind these old houses, Mr. Allerdyke, there's a perfect rabbit-warren +of alleys, courts, slums, twists, and turns! The man could slip out at +the back, go left or right, mix himself up with the crowd on the quays +and wharves, walk into the streets, go anywhere--all in a minute or two." + +"Clever--very clever! You've no clue?" asked Allerdyke. + +"None; not a scrap!" replied the detective. "Bless you, there's score of +foreigners knocking about Hull. Scores! Hundreds! We've done all we can, +the local police and myself--we've no clue whatever. But, of course, it +was done by one of the gang." + +"By one of the gang!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Ah you've got a theory of +your own, then?" + +Chettle laughed quietly as they turned and retraced their steps up +the street. + +"It 'ud be queer if I hadn't, by this time," he answered. "Oh yes, I've +thought things out pretty well, and I should say our people at the Yard +have come to the same conclusion that I have--I'm not conceited enough, +Mr. Allerdyke, to fancy that I'm the only person who's arrived at a +reasonable theory, not I?" + +"Well--what is your theory?" asked Allerdyke. + +"This," replied the detective. "The whole thing, the theft of the +Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels from your cousin, of Miss de Longarde's +or Lennard's jewels, was the work of a peculiarly clever gang--though it +may be of an individual--who made use of both Lydenberg and the French +maid as instruments, and subsequently murdered those two in order to +silence them forever. I say it may be the work of an individual--it's +quite possible that the man who killed the Frenchwoman is also the man +who shot Lydenberg--but it may be the work of one, two, or three separate +persons, acting in collusion. I believe that Lydenberg was the actual +thief of the Princess's jewels from your cousin; that the Frenchwoman +actually stole her mistress's jewels. But as to how it was worked--as to +who invented and carried out the whole thing--ah!" + +"And to that--to the real secret of the whole matter--we haven't the +ghost of a clue!" muttered Allerdyke. "That's about it, eh?" + +Chettle laughed--a sly, suggestive laugh. He gave his companion one of +his half-apologetic looks. + +"I'm not so sure, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "We may have--and that's why I +wanted to see you by yourself. Come round to the police-station." + +In a quiet room in the usual drab and dismal atmosphere which Allerdyke +was beginning to associate with police affairs, Chettle produced the +personal property of the dead man, all removed, he said, from the Station +Hotel, for safe keeping. + +"There's little to go on, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, pointing to one +article after another. "You'll remember that the man represented himself +as being a Norwegian doctor, who had come to Hull on private business. He +may have been that--we're making inquiries about him in Christiania, +where he hailed from. According to those who're in a position to speak, +his clothing, linen, boots, and so on are all of the sort you'd get in +that country. But he'd no papers on him to show his business, no private +letters, no documents connecting him with Hull in any way: he hadn't even +a visiting-card. He'd a return ticket--from Hull to Christiania--and he'd +plenty of money, English and foreign. When I got down here, I helped the +local police to go through everything--we even searched the linings of +his clothing and ripped his one handbag to pieces. But we've found no +more than I've said. However--I've found something. Nobody knows that +I've found it. I haven't told the people here--I haven't even reported +it to headquarters in London. I wanted you to see it before I spoke of it +to a soul. Look here!" + +Chettle opened a square cardboard box in which certain personal effects +belonging to Lydenberg had been placed--one or two rings, a pocket-knife, +his purse and its contents, a cigar-case, his watch and chain. He took up +the watch, detached it from the chain, and held it towards Allerdyke, who +was regarding these proceedings with intense curiosity. + +"You see this watch, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "It's a watch of foreign +make--Swiss--and it's an old one, a good many years old, I should say. +Consequently, it's a bit what we might call massive. Now, I was looking +at it yesterday--late last night, in fact--and an idea suddenly struck +me. In consequence of that idea, I opened the back of the watch, and +discovered--that!" + +He snapped open the case of the watch as he spoke and showed Allerdyke, +neatly cut out to a circle, neatly fitted into the case, a +photograph--the photograph of James Allerdyke! And Allerdyke started as +if he had been shot, and let out a sharp exclamation. + +"My God!" he cried. "James! James, by all that's holy--and in there!" + +"You recognize it, of course?" said Chettle, with a grim smile. "No doubt +of it, eh?" + +"Doubt! Recognize!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Lord, man--why, I took it +myself, not two months ago!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DEFINITE SUSPICION + + +Chettle laughed--a low, suggestive, satisfied chuckle. He laid the watch, +its case still open, on the table at which they were standing, and tapped +the photograph with the point of his finger. + +"That may be the first step to the scaffold--for somebody," he said, with +a meaning glance. "Ah--it's extraordinary what little, innocent-looking +things help to put a bit of rope round a man's neck! So you took this, +Mr. Allerdyke?--took it yourself, you say?" + +"Took it myself, some eight or nine weeks ago," answered Allerdyke. "I +took it in my garden one Sunday afternoon when my cousin James happened +to be there. I do a bit in that way--amusement, you know. I just chanced +to have a camera in my hand, and I saw James in a very favourable light +and position, and I snapped him. And it was such a good 'un when +developed that I printed off a few copies." + +The detective's face became anxious. + +"How many, now?" he asked. "How many, Mr. Allerdyke? I hope you can +remember?--it's a point of the utmost seriousness." + +"Naught easier," answered Allerdyke readily. "I've a good memory for +little things as well as big 'uns. I printed off four copies. One of 'em +I pasted into an album in which I keep particularly good photographs of +my own taking; the other three I gave to him--he put 'em in his +pocket-book." + +"All unmounted--like this?" asked Chettle. + +"All unmounted--like that," affirmed Allerdyke. "And now, then, since it +seems to be a matter of importance, I can tell you what James did with at +any rate two of 'em. He gave one to our cousin Grace--Mrs. Henry +Mallins--a Bradford lady. He gave another to a friend of my own, another +amateur photographer, Wilson Firth--gave him it in my presence at the +Midland Hotel one day, when we were all three having a cigar together in +the smoking-room there. Wilson Firth's a bit of a rival of mine in the +amateur photographic line--we each try to beat the other, you understand. +Now, then, James pulled one of these snapshots out and handed it over to +Wilson with a laugh. 'There,' he says, 'that's our Marshall's latest +performance--you'll have a job to do aught better than that, Wilson, my +lad,' he says. So that accounts for two. And--this is the third!" + +"And the question, Mr. Allerdyke, the big question--a most important +question!--is, how did it come into this man Lydenberg's possession?" +said the detective anxiously. "If we can find that out--" + +"I've been thinking," interrupted Allerdyke. "There's this about it, you +know: James and this Lydenberg came over together from Christiania to +Hull in the _Perisco_. They talked to one another--that's certain. James +may have given it to Lydenberg. But the thing is--is that likely?" + +"No!" replied Chettle, with emphatic assurance. "No, sir! And I'll tell +you why. If your cousin had given this photo to Lydenberg, as he might, +of course, have given it to a mere passing acquaintance, because that +acquaintance took a fancy to it, or something of that sort, Lydenberg +would in all reasonable probability have just slipped in into his +pocket-book, or put it loose amongst his letters and papers. But, as we +see, however Lydenberg became possessed of this photo, he took unusual +pains and precautions about it. You see, he cut it down, most carefully +and neatly, to fit into the cover of his watch--he took the trouble to +carry it where no one else would see it, but where he could see it +himself at a second's notice--he'd nothing to do but to snap open that +cover. No, sir, your cousin didn't give that photo to Lydenberg. That +photo was sent to Lydenberg, Mr. Allerdyke--sent! And it was sent for one +purpose only. What? That he should be able to identify Mr. James +Allerdyke as soon as he set eyes on him!" + +Allerdyke nodded his head--in complete understanding and affirmation. He +was thinking the same thing--thinking, too, that here was at least a +clue, a real tangible clue. + +"Aye!" he said. "I agree with you. Then, of course, the one and only +thing to do is--" + +"To find out who the person was that your cousin gave this particular +print to!" said Chettle eagerly. "Of course, it's a big field. So far as +I understand things, he'd been knocking round a good bit between the time +of your taking this photo and his death. He'd been in London, hadn't he? +And in Russia--in two or three places. How can we find out when and how +he parted with this? For give it to somebody he did, and that somebody +was a person who knew of the jewel transaction, and employed Lydenberg in +it, and sent the photo to Lydenberg so that he should know your cousin by +sight--at once. Mr. Allerdyke, the secret of these murders and thefts +is--there!" + +Chettle replaced the watch in the cardboard box from which he had taken +it, produced a bit of sealing-wax from his pocket, sealed up the box, and +put it and the other things belonging to Lydenberg back in the small +trunk from which he had withdrawn them to show his companion. And +Allerdyke watched him in silence, wondering and speculating about this +new development. + +"What do you want me to do?" he asked suddenly. "You've got some scheme, +of course, or you wouldn't have got me down here alone." + +"Just so," agreed Chettle. "I have a scheme--and that's why I did get you +down here alone. Mr. Allerdyke, you're a sharp, shrewd man--all you +Yorkshiremen are!--at least, all that I've ever come across. You're good +hands at ferreting things out. Now, Mr. Allerdyke, let's be +plain--there's no two ways about it, no doubt whatever of it, the only +people in England that we're aware of who knew about this Nastirsevitch +jewel transaction are--Fullaway and whoever he has in his employ! We +know of nobody else--unless, indeed, it's the Chicago millionaire, +Delkin, and he's not very likely to have wanted to go in for a job of +this sort. No, sir--Fullaway is the suspected person, in my +opinion!--though I'm going to take precious good care to keep that +opinion to myself yet awhile, I can tell you. Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke, +Fullaway!" + +"Well?" demanded Allerdyke. "And so--" + +"And so I want you to use your utmost ingenuity to find out if your +cousin James gave that photo to Fullaway," continued Chettle. "We know +very well that he was in touch with Fullaway before he went off to +Russia--I have it in my notes that when Fullaway came to see you here in +Hull, at the Station Hotel, the day of your cousin's death, he told you +that he and Mr. James Allerdyke had been doing business for a couple of +years, and that they'd last met in London about the end of March, just +before your cousin set off on his journey to Russia. Is that correct?" + +"Quite correct--to the letter," answered Allerdyke. + +"Very well," said Chettle. "Now, according to you, that 'ud be not so +very long after you took that snapshot of your cousin? So, he'd probably +have the third print of it--the one we've just been looking at--on him +when he was in London at that time?" + +"Very likely," assented Allerdyke. + +"Then," said Chettle with great eagerness, "try, Mr. Allerdyke, try your +best and cleverest to find out if he gave it to Fullaway. You can +think--you with a sharp brain!--of some cunning fashion of finding that +out. What?" + +"I don't know," replied Allerdyke, slowly and doubtfully. He possessed +quite as much ingenuity as Chettle credited him with, but his own +resourcefulness in that direction only inclined him to credit other men +with the possession of just the same faculty. "I don't know about that. +If James did give that print to Fullaway, and if Fullaway made use of it +as you think, Fullaway'll be far too cute ever to let on that it was +given to him. See!" + +"I see that--been seeing it all through," answered Chettle. "All the +same, there's ways and means. Think of something--you know Fullaway a bit +by this time. Try it!" + +"Oh, I'll try it, you bet!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "I'll try it for all +it's worth, and as cleverly as I can. In fact, I've already thought of a +plan, and if you don't want me any more just now, I'll go to the +post-office and send off a telegram that's something to do with it." + +"Nothing more now, sir," answered Chettle. "But look here--you're not +going back to town to-night?" + +"Why, that's just what I meant to do," replied Allerdyke. "There's naught +to stop here for, is there?" + +"I'm expecting a message from the Christiania police some time this +afternoon or evening," said Chettle. "I cabled to them yesterday making +full inquiries about Lydenberg--he represented himself here, to Dr. Orwin +and the police-surgeons especially, as being a medical man in practice in +Christiania, who had come across to Hull on some entirely private family +business. Now, we've made the most exhaustive inquiries here in +Hull--there isn't a soul in the town knows anything whatever of +Lydenberg! I'm as certain as I am that I see you that he'd no business +here at all--except to kill and rob your cousin. And so, of course, we +want to know if he really was what he said he was, over there. I pressed +upon the Christiania police to let me know all they could within +thirty-six hours. So if you'll stop the night here, I'll likely be able +to show you their reply to me." + +"Right!" answered Allerdyke. "I'll put up at the Station Hotel. You come +and have your dinner with me there at seven o'clock." + +"Much obliged, Mr. Allerdyke," replied Chettle. "I'll come." + +Then Allerdyke went off to the General Post Office and sent a telegram to +his housekeeper in Bradford-- + +"Send off at once by registered parcel post to me at Waldorf Hotel, +London, the morocco-bound photograph album lying on right-hand corner of +my writing-desk in the library.--MARSHALL ALLERDYKE." + +He went out of the post-office laughing cynically. Bit by bit things +were coming out, he said to himself as he strolled away towards the +hotel; link after link the chain was being forged. But around whom, in +the end, was it going to be fastened? It was the first time in his life +that he had ever been brought face to face with crime, and the seeking +out of the criminal was beginning to fascinate him. + +"Egad, it's a queer business!" he muttered. "A thread here, a thread +there!--Heaven knows what it'll all come to. But this Chettle's a good +'un--he's like to do things." + +Chettle joined him in the smoking-room of the hotel at a quarter to +seven, and immediately produced a telegram. + +"Came half an hour ago," he said as they sat down in a corner. "Nobody +but myself seen it up to now. And--it's just what I expected. Read it." + +Allerdyke slowly read the message through, pondering over it-- + +"We have made fullest inquiries concerning Lydenberg. He was certainly +not in practice here either under that or any other name. Nothing is +known of him as a resident in this city. We have definitely ascertained +that he came to Christiania from Copenhagen, by land, via Lund and +Copenhagen, arriving Christiania May 7th, and that he left here by +steamship _Perisco_ for Hull, May 10th." + +"You notice the dates?" observed Chettle. "May 7th and 10th. Now, it was +on May 8th that your cousin wired to Fullaway from Christiania, Mr. +Allerdyke--there's no doubt about it! This man, Lydenberg, whoever he is +or was, was sent to waylay your cousin at Christiania--sent from London. +I've worked it out--he went overland--Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, +Sweden, Norway. Sounds a lot--but it's a quick journey. Sir--he was sent! +And the sooner we find out about that photograph the better." + +"I'm at work," answered Allerdyke. "Leave it to me." + +He found his morocco-bound photograph album awaiting him when he arrived +at the Waldorf Hotel next day, and during the afternoon he took it in his +hand and strolled quietly and casually into Franklin Fullaway's rooms. +Everything there looked as he had always seen it--Mrs. Marlow, charming +as ever, was tapping steadily at her typewriter: Fullaway, himself a +large cigar in his mouth, was reading the American newspapers, just +arrived, in his own sanctum. He greeted Allerdyke with enthusiasm. + +"Been away since yesterday, eh?" he said, after warm greetings. "Home?" + +"Aye, I've been down to Yorkshire," responded Allerdyke offhandedly. "One +or two things I wanted to see to, and some things I wanted to get. This +is one of 'em." + +"Family Bible?" inquired Fullaway, eyeing the solemnly bound album. + +"No. Photos," answered Allerdyke. He was going to test things at once, +and he opened the book at the fateful page. "I'm a bit of an amateur +photographer," he went on, with a laugh. "Here's what's probably the last +photo ever taken of James. What d'ye think of it?" + +Fullaway glanced at the photograph, all unconscious that his caller was +watching him as he had never been watched in his life. He waved his cigar +at the open page. + +"Oh!" he said airily. "A remarkably good likeness--wonderful! I said so +when I saw it before--excellent likeness, Allerdyke, excellent! Couldn't +be beaten by a professional. Excellent!" + +Marshall Allerdyke felt his heart beating like a sledgehammer as he put +his next question, and for the life of him he could not tell how he +managed to keep his voice under control. + +"Ah!" he said. "You've seen it before, then? James show it to you?" + +Fullaway nodded towards the door of the outer room, from which came the +faint click of the secretary's machine. + +"He gave one to Mrs. Marlow the very last time he was here." he answered. +"They were talking about amateur photography, and he pulled a print of +that out of his pocket and made her a present of it; said it couldn't be +beaten. You're a clever hand, Allerdyke--most lifelike portrait I ever +saw. Well--any news?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LATE CALL + + +It was with a mighty effort of will that Allerdyke controlled himself +sufficiently to be able to answer Fullaway's question with calmness. This +was for him a critical moment. He knew now to whom James Allerdyke had +given the photograph which Chettle had found concealed in Lydenberg's +watch; knew that the recipient was sitting close by him, separated only +from him by a wall and a door; knew that between her and Lydenberg, or +those who had been in touch with Lydenberg, there must be some strange, +secret, and sinister connection. From Mrs. Marlow to Lydenberg that +photograph had somehow passed, and, as Chettle had well said, the entire +problem of the murders and thefts was mixed up in its transference. All +that was certain--what seemed certain, too, was that Fullaway knew +nothing of these things, and was as innocent as he himself. And for the +fraction of a second he was half-minded to tell all he knew to Fullaway +there and then--and it was only by a still stronger effort of will that +he restrained his tongue, determined to keep a stricter silence than +ever, and replied to the American in an offhand, casual tone. + +"News?" he said, with a half-laugh. "Nay, not that I know of. They take +their time, those detective chaps. You heard aught?" + +"Nothing particular," answered Fullaway. "Except that the Princess was in +here this morning, and that Miss Lennard came at the same time. But +neither of them had anything of importance to tell. The Princess has been +ransacking her memory all about her affairs with your cousin; she's more +certain than ever now that nobody in Russia but he and she knew anything +about the jewel deal. They were always in strict privacy when they +discussed the matter; no one was present when she gave him the jewels; +she never mentioned the affair to a soul, and she's confident from what +she knew of him, that he wouldn't. So she's more convinced than ever that +the news got out from this side." + +"And Miss Lennard--what did she want?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Oh! she's found the various references--two or three of 'em--that she +had with the French maid," replied Fullaway. "I looked at them--there's +nothing in them but what you'd expect to find. Two of the writers are +well-known society women, the third was a French marquise. I don't think +anything's to be got out of them, but, anyway, I sent her off to Scotland +Yard with them--it's their work that. Fine photos there, Allerdyke," he +continued, turning over the leaves of the album. "Some of your places in +Bradford, eh." + +Allerdyke, who was particularly anxious that he should not seem to have +had an ulterior object in bringing the album up to Fullaway's office +hailed this question with relief. He began to point out and explain the +various pictures--photographs of his mills, warehouses, town office, his +own private house, grounds, surroundings, chatting unconcernedly about +each. And while the two men were thus engaged in came Mrs. Marlow, +bringing letters which needed Fullaway's signature. + +"Mrs. Marlow knows more about amateur photography than I do," remarked +Fullaway, with a glance at his secretary. "Here, Mrs. Marlow, these are +same of Mr. Allerdyke's productions--you remember that his cousin, Mr. +James Allerdyke, gave you a photo which this Mr. Allerdyke had taken?" + +Allerdyke, keenly watching the secretary's pretty face as she laid her +papers on Fullaway's desk, saw no sign of embarrassment or confusion; +Fullaway might have made the most innocent and ordinary remark in the +world, and yet, according to Allerdyke's theory and positive knowledge, +it must be fraught with serious meaning to this woman. + +"Oh yes!" she flashed, without as much as the flicker of an eyelash. "I +remember--a particularly good photo. So like him!" + +Allerdyke's ingenuity immediately invented a remark; he was at that stage +when, he wanted to know as much as possible. + +"I wonder which print it was that he gave you?" he said. "One of them--I +only did a few--had a spot in it that'll spread. If that's the one +you've got, I'll give you another in its place, Mrs. Marlow. Have you +got it here?" + +But Mrs. Marlow shook her head and presented the same unabashed front. + +"No," she answered readily enough. "I took it home, Mr. Allerdyke. But +there's no spot on my print--I should have noticed it at once. May I look +at your album when Mr. Fullaway's finished with it?" + +Allerdyke left the album with them and went away. He was utterly +astonished by Mrs. Marlow's coolness. If, as he already believed, she was +mixed up in the murders and robberies, she must know that the photograph +which James Allerdyke had given her was a most important factor, and yet +she spoke of it as calmly and unconcernedly as if it had been a mere +scrap of paper! Of course she hadn't got it at the office--nor at her +home either--it was there at Hull, fitted into the cover of Lydenberg's +old watch. + +"A cool hand!" soliloquized Allerdyke as he went downstairs. "Cool, +clever, calm, never off her guard. A damned dangerous woman!--that's the +long and short of it. And--what next?" + +Experience and observation of life had taught Marshall Allerdyke that +good counsel is one of life's most valuable assets. He could think for +himself and decide for himself at any moment, but he knew the worth and +value of putting two heads together, especially at a juncture like this. +And so, the afternoon being still young, he went off to his warehouse in +Gresham Street, closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard, and having +pledged him to secrecy, told him all that had happened since the +previous morning. + +Ambler Appleyard listened in silence. It was only two or three hours +since he had listened to another story--the report of the two Gaffneys, +and Allerdyke, all unaware of that business, had come upon him while +he was still thinking it over. And while Appleyard gave full attention +to all that his employer said, he was also thinking of what he himself +could tell. By the time that Allerdyke had finished he, too, had +decided to speak. + +"So there it is, my lad!" exclaimed Allerdyke, throwing out his hands +with an eloquent gesture as he made an end of his story. "I hope I've put +it clearly to you. It's just as that Chap Chettle said--the whole secret +is in that photograph! And isn't it plain?--that photograph must have +been transferred somehow by this Mrs. Marlow to this Lydenberg. How? Why? +When we can answer those questions--" + +He paused at that, and, looking fixedly at his manager, shook his head +half-threateningly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ambler," he went on, after a moment's silence. +"I've got a good, strong mind to go straight to the police authorities, +tell 'em what I know, insist on 'em fetching Chettle up from Hull at +once, and having that woman arrested. Why not?" + +"No!" said Appleyard firmly. "Not yet. Too soon, Mr. Allerdyke--wait a +bit. And now listen to me--I've something to tell you. I've been busy +while you've been away--in this affair. Bit of detective work. I'll tell +you all about it--all! You remember that day I went to lunch with you at +the City Carlton, and you pointed out this Mrs. Marlow to me, going into +Rothschild's? Yes, well--I recognized her." + +"You did!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Nay!" + +"I recognized her," repeated Appleyard. "I said naught to you at the +time, but I knew her well enough. As a matter of fact, I've known her for +two years. She lives at the same boarding-house, the Pompadour Private +Hotel, in Bayswater, that I live in. I see her--have been seeing her for +two years--every day, morning and night. But I know her as Miss Slade." + +"Miss?" ejaculated Allerdyke. + +"Miss--Miss Slade," answered Appleyard. He drew his chair nearer to +Allerdyke's, and went on in a lower voice. "Now, then, pay attention, and +I'll tell you all about it, and what I've done since I got your note +yesterday morning." + +He told Allerdyke the whole story of his endeavour to find out something +about Rayner merely because Rayner seemed to be in Miss Slade's +confidence, and because Miss Slade was certainly a woman of mystery. And +Allerdyke listened as quietly and attentively as Appleyard had listened +to him, nodding his head at all the important points, and in the end he +slapped his manager's shoulder with an approving hand. + +"Good--good!" he said. "Good, Ambler! That was a bit of right work, and +hang me if I don't believe we shall find something out. But what's to +be done? You know, if these two are in at it, they may slip. That 'ud +never do!" + +"I don't think there's any fear of that--yet," answered Appleyard. "The +probability is that neither has any suspicion of being watched--the whole +thing's so clever that they probably believe themselves safe. Of course, +mind you, this man Rayner may be as innocent as you or I. But against +her, on the facts of that photograph affair, there's a _prima facie_ +case. Only--don't let's spoil things by undue haste or rashness. I've +thought things out a good deal, and we can do a lot, you and me, before +going to the police, though I don't think it 'ud do any harm to tell this +man Chettle, supposing he were here--because his discovery of that photo +is the real thing." + +"What can we do, then?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Make use of the two Gaffneys," answered Appleyard without hesitation. +"They're smart chaps---real keen 'uns. We want to find out who Rayner is; +what his connection, if any, with Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, is; who +she is, and why she goes under two names. That's all what you might call +initial proceedings. What I propose is this--when you go back to your +hotel, get Gaffney into your private sitting-room. You, of course, know +him much better than I do, but from what bit I've seen of him I'm sure +he's the sort of man one can trust. Tell him to get hold of that brother +of his and bring him here at any hour you like to-morrow, and +then--well, we can have a conference, and decide on some means of finding +out more about Rayner and keeping an eye on him. For that sort of work I +should say that other Gaffney's remarkably well cut out--he's a typical, +sharp, knowing Cockney, with all his wits about him, and plenty of +assurance." + +"It's detective work, you know, Ambler," said Allerdyke. "It needs a bit +of more than ordinary cuteness." + +"From my observation, I should say both those chaps are just cut for it," +answered Appleyard, with a laugh. "What's more, they enjoy it. And when +men enjoy what they're doing--" + +"Why, they do it well," agreed Allerdyke, finishing the sentence. "Aye, +that's true enough. All right--I'll speak to Gaffney, when I go back. And +look here--as you're so well known to this woman, Miss Slade or Mrs. +Marlow, whichever her name is, you'd better not show up at the Waldorf at +any time in my company, eh?" + +"Of course," said Appleyard. "You trust me for that! What we've got to do +must be done as secretly as possible." + +Allerdyke rose to go, but turned before he reached the door. + +"There's one thing I'm uneasy about," he said. "If--I say if, of +course--if these folks--I mean the lot that's behind this woman, for I +can't believe that she's worked it all herself--have got those jewels, +won't they want to clear out with them? Isn't delay dangerous?" + +"Not such delay as I'm thinking of," answered Appleyard firmly. "She's +cute enough, this lady, and if she made herself scarce just now, she'd +know very well that it would excite suspicion. Don't let's spoil things +by being too previous. We've got a pretty good watch on her, you know. I +should know very quickly if she cleared out of the Pompadour; you'd know +if she didn't turn up at Fullaway's. Wait a bit, Mr. Allerdyke; it's the +best policy. You'll come here to-morrow?" + +"Eleven o'clock in the morning," replied Allerdyke. "I'll fix it with +Gaffney to-night." + +He went back to the Waldorf, summoned Gaffney to his private room, and +sent him to arrange matters with his brother. Gaffney accepted the +commission with alacrity; his brother, he said, was just then out of a +job, having lost a clerkship through the sudden bankruptcy of his +employers; such a bit of business as that which Mr. Appleyard had +entrusted to him was so much meat and drink to one of his tastes--in more +ways than one. + +"It's the sort of thing he likes, sir," remarked Gaffney, confidentially. +"He's always been a great hand at reading these detective tales, and to +set him to watch anybody is like offering chickens to a nigger--he fair +revels in it!" + +"Well, there's plenty for him to revel in," observed Allerdyke grimly. + +Plenty! he said to himself with a cynical laugh when Gaffney had left +him--aye, plenty, and to spare. He spent the whole of that evening alone, +turning every detail over in his own mind; he was still thinking, and +speculating, and putting two and two together when he went to bed at +eleven o'clock. And just as he was about to switch off his light a waiter +knocked on his door. + +"Gentleman downstairs, sir, very anxious to see you at once," he said, +when Allerdyke opened it. "His card, sir." + +Allerdyke gave one glance at the card--a plain bit of pasteboard on which +one word had been hastily pencilled-- + +CHETTLE. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +NUMBER FIFTY-THREE + + +Chettle!--whom he had left only that morning in Hull, two hundred miles +away, both of them agreed that the next step was still unseen, and that +immediate action was yet problematical. Something had surely happened to +bring Chettle up to town and to him. + +"Show Mr. Chettle up here at once," he said to the waiter. "And +here--bring a small decanter of whisky and a syphon of soda-water and +glasses. Be sharp with 'em." + +He pulled on a dressing-gown when the man had gone, and, tying its cord +about his waist, went a step or two into the corridor to look out for his +visitor. A few minutes elapsed; then the lift came up, and the waiter, +killing two birds with one stone, appeared again, escorting the detective +and carrying a tray. And Allerdyke, with a sly wink at Chettle, greeted +him unconcernedly, ushered him into his room and chatted about nothing +until the waiter had gone away. Then he turned on him eagerly. + +"What is it?" he demanded. "Something, of course! Aught new?" + +For answer Chettle thrust his hand inside his overcoat and brought out a +small package, wrapped in cartridge paper, and sealed. + +He began to break the seals and unwrap the covering. + +"Well, it brought me up here--straight," he said. "I think I shall have +to let our people at the yard know everything, Mr. Allerdyke. But I came +to you first---I only got to King's Cross half an hour ago, and I drove +on to you at once. Well see what you think before I decide on anything." + +"What is it!" repeated Allerdyke, gazing with interest at the package. +"You've found something of fresh importance, eh!" + +Chettle took the lid off a small box and produced Lydenberg's watch and +postcard on which the appointment in the High Street had been made. He +sat down at the table, laying his hand on the watch. + +"After you left me this morning," he said, "I started puzzling and +puzzling over what had been discovered, what had been done, whether there +was more that I could do. I kept thinking things over all the morning, +and half the afternoon. Then it suddenly struck me--there was one +thing--that I'd never done and that ought to have been done--I don't know +why I'd never thought of it till then--but I'd never had this photograph +out of the watch. And so I went back to the police-station and got the +watch and opened it, and--look there, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +He had snapped open the case of the watch as he talked, and he now +detached the photograph and turning it over, laid the reverse side down +on the table by the postcard. + +"Look at it!" he went on. "Do you see?--there's writing on it! You see +what it says? 'This is J.A. Burn this when made use of.' You see? +And--it's the same handwriting as that on this card, making the +appointment! Here, look at both for yourself--hold 'em closer to the +light. Mr. Allerdyke--that was all written by the same hand, or +I'm--no good!" + +Allerdyke went close to the electric globe above his dressing-table, the +photograph in one hand, the postcard in the other. He looked searchingly +at both, brought them back, and laid them down again. + +"No doubt of it, Chettle," he said. "No doubt of it! It doesn't need any +expert to be certain sure of that. The same, identical fist, without a +shadow of doubt. Well--what d'ye make of it? Here--have a drink." + +He mixed a couple of drinks, pushed one glass to the detective, and took +the other himself. + +"Egad!" he muttered, after drinking. "Things are getting--hottish, +anyway. As I say, what do you make of this? Of course, you've come to +some conclusion?" + +"Yes," answered Chettle, taking up his glass and silently bowing his +acknowledgments. "I have! The only one I could come to. The man who sent +this photograph to Lydenberg, to help him to identify your cousin at +sight, is the man who afterwards lured Lydenberg into that part of Hull +High Street, and shot him dead. In plain words, the master shot his +man--when he'd done with him. Just as he poisoned the Frenchwoman--when +he'd done with her. Mr. Allerdyke, I'm more than ever convinced that +these two murders--Lydenberg's and the French maid's--were the work of +one hand." + +"Likely!" assented Allerdyke. "It's getting to look like it. But--whose? +That's the problem, Chettle. Well, I've done a bit since I got back this +afternoon. You've had something to tell me--now I've something to tell +you. I've found out who it was that James gave the photograph to!" + +Chettle showed his gratification by a start of pleased surprise. + +"You have--already!" he exclaimed. + +"Already!" replied Allerdyke. "Found it out within an hour of getting +back in here. He gave it"--here, though the door was closed and +bolted, and there was no fear of eavesdroppers, he sank his voice to a +whisper--"he gave it to Fullaway's secretary, the woman we discussed, +Mrs. Marlow. That's a fact. He gave it to her just before he set off +for Russia." + +Chettle screwed his lips up to whistle--instead of whistling he suddenly +relaxed them to a comprehending smile. + +"Aye, just so!" he said. "I was sure it lay somewhere--here. Fullaway +himself, now--does he know?" + +"James gave it to her in Fullaway's presence," replied Allerdyke. "She's +a bit of a photographer, I understand--they were talking about +photography, I gathered, one day when James was in Fullaway's office, and +James pulled that out and gave it to her as a specimen of my work." + +"All that came out in talk this afternoon?" asked Chettle. + +"Just so. Ordinary, casual talk," assented Allerdyke. + +"No suspicion roused?" suggested Chettle. + +"I don't think so. Of course, you never can tell. I should say," +continued Allerdyke, "that she's as deep and clever as ever they make +'em! But it was all so casual, and so natural, that I don't think she'd +the slightest idea that I was trying to get at anything. However, I found +this much out--she couldn't produce the photograph. Said she'd taken it +home. Well--there we are! That's part one of my bit of news, Chettle. Now +for part two. This woman's leading a double life. She's Mrs. Marlow as +Fullaway's secretary and here at his rooms and on his business; where she +lives she's Miss Slade. Eh?" + +Chettle pricked his ears. + +"When did you find that out?" he asked. "Since you left me this +morning?" + +"Found it out this afternoon," replied Allerdyke, with something of +triumph. He had been strolling about the bedroom up to that moment, but +now he drew a chair to the table at which Chettle sat and dropped into it +close beside his visitor. + +"I'll tell you all about it," he went on. "You said at Hull yesterday +that you'd always found Yorkshiremen sharp and shrewd--well, this is a +bit more Yorkshire work--work of my manager here in town--Mr. +Appleyard. Listen!" + +He gave the detective a clear and succinct account of all that Appleyard +and his satellites had done, and Chettle listened with deep attention, +nodding his head at the various points. + +"Yes," he said, when Allerdyke had made an end, "yes, that's all right, +so far. Good, useful work. The thing is--can you fully trust these two +young men--your chauffeur and his brother?" + +"I could and would trust my chauffeur with my last shilling," answered +Allerdyke. "And as for his brother, I'll take my man's word for him. +Besides, they both know--or Mr. Gaffney knows--that I'm a pretty generous +paymaster. If a man does aught for me, and does it well, he profits to a +nice penny!" + +"A good argument," agreed Chettle. "I don't know that you could beat it, +Mr. Allerdyke. Well, well--we're getting to something and to somewhere! +Now, as you've told me all this, I'll just keep things quiet until I've +met you and your manager to-morrow, with these two Gaffneys--we'll have a +conference. I won't go near the Yard until after that. Eleven o'clock +to-morrow, then, at your warehouse in Gresham Street." + +He presently replaced the watch and the postcard in an inner pocket, and +took his leave, and Allerdyke, letting him out, walked along the corridor +with him as far as the lift. And as Allerdyke turned back to his own +room, the third event of that day happened, and seemed to him to be the +most surprising and important one of all. + +What made Allerdyke pause as he retraced his steps along the corridor, +pause to look over the balustrade to the floor immediately below his own, +he never knew nor could explain. But, just as he was about to re-enter +his room, he did so pause, leaning over the railings and looking down for +a moment. In that moment he saw Mrs. Marlow. + +A considerable portion of the floor immediately beneath him was fully +exposed to the view of any one leaning over the balustrade as Allerdyke +did. This was a quiet part of the hotel, a sort of wing cut away from +the main building; the floor at which he was looking was given up to +private suites of rooms, one of them, a larger one than the others, +being Fullaway's, which filled one side of the corridor; the others +were suites of two, in some cases of three rooms. As he looked over and +down, Allerdyke suddenly saw a door open in one of these smaller +suites--open silently and stealthily. Then he saw Mrs. Marlow look out, +and she glanced right and left about her. The next instant, she emerged +from the room with the same stealthiness, closed and locked the door +with a key which she immediately pocketed, slipped along the corridor, +and disappeared into Franklin Fullaway's suite. It was all over in less +than a minute, and Allerdyke turned into his own door, smiling +cynically to himself. + +"She looked right and left, but she forgot to look up!" he muttered. +"Ah! those small details. And what does that mean? Anyway, I know which +door she came out of!" + +He glanced at his watch--precisely half-past eleven. He made a note of +the time in his pocket-book and went to bed. And next morning, rising +early, as was his custom, he descended to the ground floor by means of +the stairs instead of the lift, and as he passed the door from which he +had seen Mrs. Marlow emerge he mentally registered the number. +Fifty-three. Number fifty-three. + +Allerdyke, who could not exist without fresh air and exercise, went for a +stroll before breakfast when he was in London--he usually chose the +Embankment, as being the nearest convenient open space, and thither he +now repaired, thinking things over. There were many new features of this +affair to think about, but the one of the previous night now occupied his +thoughts to the exclusion of the others. What was this woman doing, +coming--with evident secrecy--out of one set of rooms, and entering +another at that late hour? He wanted to know--he must find out--and he +would find out with ease,--and indirectly, from Fullaway. + +Fullaway always took his breakfast at a certain table in a certain corner +of the coffee-room at the hotel; there Allerdyke had sometimes joined +him. He found the American there, steadily eating, when he returned from +his walk, and he dropped into a chair at his side with a casual remark +about the fine morning. + +"Didn't set eyes on you last night at all," he went on, as he picked up +his napkin. "Off somewhere, eh?" + +"Spent the evening out," answered Fullaway. "Not often I do, but I +did--for once in a way. Van Koon and I (you don't know Van Koon, do +you?--he's a fellow countryman of mine, stopping here for the summer, +and a very clever man) we dined at the Carlton, and then went to the +Haymarket Theatre. I was going to ask you to join us, Allerdyke, but you +were out and hadn't come in by the time we had to go." + +"Thank you--no, I didn't get in until seven o'clock or so," answered +Allerdyke. "So I'd a quiet evening." + +"No news, I suppose?" asked Fullaway, going vigorously forward with his +breakfast. "Heard nothing from the police authorities?" + +"Nothing," replied Allerdyke. "I suppose they're doing things in their +own way, as usual." + +"Just so," assented Fullaway. "Well, it's an odd thing to me that nobody +comes forward to make some sort of a shot at that reward! Most +extraordinary that the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair should have +been able to get clean away without anybody in London having seen him--or +at any rate that the people who must have seen him are unable to connect +him with the murder of that woman. Extraordinary!" + +"It's all extraordinary," said Allerdyke. He took up a newspaper which +Fullaway had thrown down and began to talk of some subject that caught +his eye, until Fullaway rose, pleaded business, and went off to his rooms +upstairs. When he had gone Allerdyke reconsidered matters. So Fullaway +had been out the night before, had he--dining out, and at a theatre? +Then, of course, it would be quite midnight before he got in. Therefore, +presumably, he did not know that his secretary was about his rooms--and +entering and leaving another suite close by. No--Fullaway knew +nothing--that seemed certain. + +The remembrance of what he had seen sent Allerdyke, as soon as he had +breakfasted, to the hall of the hotel, and to the register of guests. +There was no one at the register at that moment, and he turned the pages +at his leisure until he came to what he wanted. And there it was--in +plain black and white-- + +NUMBER 53. MR. JOHN VAN KOON. NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE YOUNG MAN WHO LED PUGS + + +Allerdyke, with a gesture peculiar to him, thrust his hands in the +pockets of his trousers, strolled away from the desk on which the +register lay open, and going over to the hall door stood there a while, +staring out on the tide of life that rolled by, and listening to the +subdued rattle of the traffic in its ceaseless traverse of the Strand. +And as he stood in this apparently idle and purposeless lounging +attitude, he thought--thought of a certain birthday of his, a good thirty +years before, whereon a kind, elderly aunt had made him a present of a +box of puzzles. There were all sorts of puzzles in that box--things that +you had to put together, things that had to be arranged, things that had +to be adjusted. But there was one in particular which had taken his +youthful fancy, and had at the same time tried his youthful temper--a +shallow tray wherein were a vast quantity of all sorts and sizes of bits +of wood, gaily coloured. There were quite a hundred of those bits, and +you had to fit them one into the other. When, after much trying of +temper, much exercise of patience, you had accomplished the task, there +was a beautiful bit of mosaic work, a picture, a harmonious whole, lovely +to look upon, something worthy of the admiring approbation of uncles and +aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers. But--the doing of it! + +"Naught, however, to this confounded thing!" mused Allerdyke, gazing at +and not seeing the folk on the broad sidewalk. "When all the bits of +this puzzle have been fitted into place I daresay one'll be able to look +down on it as a whole and say it looks simple enough when finished, but, +egad, they're of so many sorts and shapes and queer angles that they're +more than a bit difficult to fit at present. Now who the deuce is this +Van Koon, and what was that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss Slade, doing in his +rooms last night when he was out?" + +He was exercising his brains over a possible solution of this problem +when Fullaway suddenly appeared in the hall behind him, accompanied by a +man whom Allerdyke at once took to be the very individual about whom he +was speculating. He was a man of apparently forty years of age, of +average height and build, of a full countenance, sallow in complexion, +clean-shaven, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles over a pair of sapphire blue +eyes--a shrewd, able-looking man, clad in the loose fitting, square-cut +garments just then affected by his fellow-countrymen, and having a +low-crowned, soft straw hat pulled down over his forehead. His hands were +thrust into the pockets of his jacket; a long, thin, black cigar stuck +out of a corner of his humorous-looking lips; he cocked an intelligent +eye at Allerdyke as he and Fullaway advanced to the door. + +"Hullo, Allerdyke!" said Fullaway in his usual vivacious fashion. +"Viewing the prospect o'er, eh? Allow me to introduce Mr. Van Koon, whom +I don't think you've met, though he's under the same roof. Van Koon, this +is the Mr. Allerdyke I've mentioned to you." + +The two men shook hands and stared at each other. Whoever and whatever +this man may be, thought Allerdyke, he gives you a straight look and a +good grip--two characteristics which in his opinion went far to establish +any unknown individual's honesty. + +"No," remarked Van Koon. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. +Allerdyke before. But I'm out a great deal--I don't spend much time +indoors this fine weather. You gentlemen know your London well--I don't, +and I'm putting in all the time I can to cultivate her acquaintance." + +"Been in town long?" asked Allerdyke, wanting to say something and +impelled to this apparently trite question by the New Yorker's own +observations. + +"Since the first week in April," answered Van Koon, "And as this is my +first visit to England, I'm endeavouring to do everything well. Fullaway +tells me, Mr. Allerdyke, that you come from Bradford, the big +manufacturing city up north. Well, now, Bradford is one of the places on +my list--hullo!" he exclaimed, breaking off short. "I guess here's a man +who's wanting you, Fullaway, in a considerable bit of a hurry." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke looked out on to the pavement and saw Blindway, +who had just jumped out of a taxi-cab, and was advancing upon them. He +came up and addressed them jointly--would they go back with him at once +to New Scotland Yard?--the chief wanted to see them for a few minutes. + +"Come on, Allerdyke," said Fullaway. "We'd better go at once. Van Koon," +he continued, turning to his compatriot, "do me a favour--just look in at +my rooms upstairs, and tell Mrs. Marlow, if she's come--she hadn't +arrived when I was up there ten minutes ago--that I'm called out for an +hour or so--ask her to attend to anything that turns up until I come +back--shan't be long." + +Van Koon nodded and walked back into the hotel, while Allerdyke and +Fullaway joined the detective in the cab and set out westward. + +"What is it?" asked Fullaway. "Something new?" + +"Can't say, exactly," replied Blindway. "The chief's got some woman there +who thinks she can tell something about the French maid, so he sent me +for you, and he's sent another man for Miss Lennard. It may be something +good; it mayn't. Otherwise," he concluded with a shake of the head that +was almost dismal, "otherwise, I don't know of anything new. Never knew +of a case in my life, gentlemen, in which less turned up than's turning +up in this affair! And fifty thousand pounds going a-begging!" + +"I suppose this woman's after it," remarked Fullaway. "You didn't hear of +anything she had to tell?" + +"Nothing," answered Blindway. "You'll hear it in a minute or two." + +He took them straight up into the same room, and the same official whom +they had previously seen, and who now sat at his desk with Celia Lennard +on one side of him, and a middle-aged woman, evidently of the poorer +classes, on the other. Allerdyke and Fullaway, after a brief interchange +of salutations with the official and the prima donna, looked at the +stranger--a quiet, respectably-dressed woman who united a natural shyness +with an evident determination to go through with the business that had +brought her there. She was just the sort of woman who can be seen by the +hundred--laundress, seamstress, charwoman, caretaker, got up in her +Sunday best. Odd, indeed, it would be, thought Allerdyke, if this quiet, +humble-looking creature should give information which would place fifty +thousand pounds at her command! + +"This is Mrs. Perrigo," said the chief pleasantly, as he motioned the two +men to chairs near Celia's and beckoned Blindway to his side. "Mrs. +Perrigo, of--where is it, ma'am?" + +"I live in Alpha Place, off Park Street, sir," announced Mrs. Perrigo, +in a small, quiet voice. "Number 14, sir. I'm a clear-starcher by +trade, sir." + +"Put that down, Blindway," said the chief, "and take a note of what Mrs. +Perrigo tells us. Now, Mrs. Perrigo, you think you've seen the dead +woman, Lisette Beaurepaire, at some time or another, in company with a +young man? Where and when was this?" + +"Well, three times, sir. Three times that I'm certain of--there was +another time that I wasn't certain about; at least, that I'm not certain +about now. If I could just tell you about it in my way, sir--" + +"Certainly--certainly, Mrs. Perrigo! Exactly what I wish. Tell us all +about it in your own way. Take your own time." + +"Well, sir, it 'ud be, as near as I can fix it, about the middle of +March--two months ago, sir," began Mrs. Perrigo. "You see, I had the +misfortune to burn my right hand very badly, sir, and having to put my +work aside, and it being nice weather, and warm for the time of year, I +used to go and sit in Kensington Gardens a good deal, which, of course, +was when I see this young lady whose picture's been in the paper of +late, and--" + +"A moment, Mrs. Perrigo," interrupted the official. "Miss Lennard, it +will simplify matters considerably if I ask you a question. Were you and +your late maid in town about the time Mrs. Perrigo speaks of--the middle +of March?" + +"Yes," replied Celia promptly. "We were here from March 3rd, when we came +back from the Continent, to March 29th, when we left for Russia." + +"Continue, Mrs. Perrigo, if you please," said the official. "Take your +time--tell things your own way." + +"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Perrigo dutifully. "If you please, sir. Well, +when I see those pictures in the papers--several papers, sir--of the +young lady with the foreign name I says to myself, and to my neighbour, +Mrs. Watson, which is all I ever talk much to, 'That,' I says, 'is the +young woman I see in Kensington Gardens a time or two and remarks of for +her elegant figure and smart air in general--I could have picked her out +from a thousand,' I says. Which there was, and is a particular spot, +sir, in Kensington Gardens where I used to sit, and you pays a penny for +a chair, which I did, and there's other chairs about, near a fallen +tree, which is still there, for I went to make sure last night, and +there, on three afternoons while I was there, this young lady came at +about, say, four o'clock each time, and was met by this here young man +what I don't remember as clear as I remember her, me not taking so much +notice of him. And--" + +"Another moment, Mrs. Perrigo." The chief turned again to Celia. "Did +your maid ever go out in the afternoons about that time?" he asked. + +"Probably every afternoon," replied Celia. "I myself was away from London +from the 11th to the 18th of March, staying with friends in the country. +I didn't take her with me--so, of course, she'd nothing to do but follow +her own inclinations." + +The chief turned to Mrs. Perrigo again. + +"Yes?" he said. "You saw the young woman whose photograph you have seen +in the papers meet a young man in Kensington Gardens on three separate +occasions. Yes?" + +"Three separate occasions, close by--on penny chairs, sir, where they sat +and talked foreign, which I didn't understand--and on another occasion, +when I see 'em walking by the Round Pond, me being at some distance, but +recognizing her by her elegant figure. I took particular notice of the +young woman's face, sir, me being a noticing person, and I'll take my +dying oath, if need be, that this here picture is hers!" + +Mrs. Perrigo here produced a much worn and crumpled illustrated newspaper +and laid her hand solemnly upon it. That done, she shook her head. + +"But I ain't so certain about the young man as met her," she said +sorrowfully. "Him I did not notice with such attention, being, as I say, +more attracted to her. All the same, he was a young man--and spoke the +same foreign language as what she did. Of them facts, sure I am, sir." + +"They sat near you, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"As near, sir, as I am now to that lady. And paid their pennies for their +chairs in my presence; leastways, the young man paid. Always the same +place it was, and always the same time--three days all within a week, and +then the day when I see 'em walking at a distance." + +"Can't you remember anything about the young man, Mrs. Perrigo?" asked +the chief. "Come!--try to think. That is the really important thing. +You must have some recollection of him, you know, some idea of what he +was like." + +Mrs. Perrigo took a corner of her shawl between her fingers and proceeded +to fold and pleat it while she thoughtfully fixed her eyes on Blindway's +unmoved countenance, as if to find inspiration there. And after a time +she nodded her head as though memory had stirred within her. + +"Which every time I see him," she said, with an evident quickening of +interest, "he had two of them dogs with him what has turned-up noses and +twisted tails." + +"Pugs?" suggested the chief. + +"No doubt that is their name, sir, but unbeknown to me as I never kept +such an animal," answered Mrs. Perrigo. "My meaning being clear, no +doubt, and there being no mistaking of 'em--their tails and noses being +of that order. And had 'em always on a chain--gentlemen's dogs you could +see they was, and carefully looked after with blue bows at the back of +their necks, same as if they was Christians. And him, I should say, +speaking from memory, a dark young man--such is my recollection." + +"It comes to this," remarked the chief, looking at the three listeners +with a smile. "Mrs. Perrigo says that she is certain that upon three +occasions about the middle of March last she witnessed meetings at a +particular spot in Kensington Gardens between a young woman answering the +description and photographs of Lisette Beaurepaire and a young man of +whom she cannot definitely remember anything except that she thinks he +was dark, spoke a foreign language, and was in charge of two pug dogs +which wore blue ribbons. That's it, isn't it, Mrs. Perrigo?" + +"And willing to take my solemn oath of the same whenever convenient, +sir," replied Mrs. Perrigo. "And if so be as what I've told you should +lead to anything, gentlemen--and lady--I can assure you that me being a +poor widow, and--" + +Five minutes later, Mrs. Perrigo, with some present reward in her pocket, +was walking quietly up Whitehall with a composed countenance, while +Allerdyke, already late for his Gresham Street appointment, sped towards +the City as fast as a hastily chartered taxi-cab could carry him. And +all the way thither, being alone, he repeated certain words over and +over again. + +"A dark young man who led two pugs--a dark young man who led two pugs! +With blue ribbons on their necks--with blue ribbons on their necks, same +as Christians!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THICK FOG + + +It was half-past eleven when Allerdyke reached Gresham Street: by +half-past one, so curiously and rapidly did events crowd upon each other, +he was in a state of complete mental confusion. He sat down to lunch that +day feeling as a man feels who has lost his way in an unknown country in +the midst of a blinding mist; as a weaver might feel who is at work on an +intricate pattern and suddenly finds all his threads inextricably mixed +up and tangled. Instead of things getting better and clearer, that +morning's work made them more hopelessly muddled. + +Chettle was hanging about the door of the warehouse when Allerdyke drove +up. His usually sly look was accentuated that morning, and as soon as +Allerdyke stepped from his cab he drew him aside with a meaning gesture. + +"A word or two before we go in, Mr. Allerdyke," he said as they walked a +few steps along the street. "Look here, sir," he went on in a whisper. +"I've been reflecting on things since I saw you last night. Of course, +I'm supposed to be in Hull, you know. But I shall have to report myself +at the Yard this morning--can't avoid that. And I shall have to tell +them why I came up. Now, it's here, Mr. Allerdyke--how much or how +little shall I tell 'em? What I mean sir, is this--do you want to keep +any of this recently acquired knowledge to yourself? Of course, if you +do--well, I needn't tell any more there--at headquarters--than you wish +me to tell. I can easy make excuse for coming up. And, of course, in +that case--" + +"Well!" demanded Allerdyke impatiently. "What then?" + +Chettle gave him another look of suggestive meaning, and taking off his +square felt hat, wiped his forehead with a big coloured handkerchief. + +"Well, of course, Mr. Allerdyke," he said insinuatingly. "Of course, sir, +I'm a poor man, and I've a rising family that I want to do my best for. I +could do with a substantial amount of that reward, you know, Mr. +Allerdyke. We've all a right to do the best we can for ourselves, sir. +And if you're wanting to, follow this affair out on your own, sir, +independent of the police--eh?" + +Allerdyke's sense of duty arose in strong protest against this very +palpable suggestion. He shook his head. + +"No--no!" he said. "That won't do, Chettle. You must do your duty to your +superiors. You'll find that you'll be all right. If the police solve this +affair, that reward'll go to the police, and you'll get your proper +share. No--no underhand work. You make your report in your ordinary way. +No more of that!" + +"Aye, but do you understand, Mr. Allerdyke?" said the detective +anxiously. "Do you comprehend what it'll mean. You know very well that +there's a lot of red tape in our work--they go a great deal by rule and +precedent, as you might say. Now, if I go to the Yard--as I shall have +to, as soon as you've done with me--and tell the chief that I've found +this photo of your cousin in Lydenberg's watch, and that you're certain +that your cousin gave that particular photo to Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, do you know what'll happen?" + +"What?" asked Allerdyke. + +"They'll arrest her within half an hour," answered Chettle. +"Dead certain!" + +"Well?" said Allerdyke. "And--what then!" + +"Why, it'll probably upset the whole bag of tricks!" exclaimed Chettle. +"The thing'll be spoiled before we've properly worked it out. See?" + +Allerdyke did see. He had sufficient knowledge of police matters to know +that Chettle was right, and that a too hasty step would probably ruin +everything. He turned towards the warehouse. + +"Just so," he said. "I take your meaning. Now then, come in, and we'll +put it before my manager, Mr. Appleyard. I've great faith in his +judgment--let's see what he's got to say." + +The two Gaffneys were waiting just within the packingroom of the +warehouse. Allerdyke bade them wait a little longer, and took the +detective straight into Appleyard's office. There, behind the closed +door, he told Appleyard of everything that had happened since their last +meeting, and of what Chettle had just said. The problem was, in view of +all that, of the mysterious proceedings of Mrs. Marlow the night before, +and of what Allerdyke had just heard at New Scotland Yard--what was best +to be done, severally and collectively, by all of them? + +Ambler Appleyard grasped the situation at once and solved the problem in +a few direct words. There was no need whatever, he said, for Chettle to +do more than his plain duty, no need for him to exceed it. He was bound, +being what he was, to make his report about his discovery of the +photograph and the writing on it. That he must do. But he was not bound +to tell anything that Allerdyke had told him: he was not bound to give +information which Allerdyke had collected. Let Chettle go and tell the +plain facts about his own knowledge of the photo and leave Allerdyke, +for the moment, clean out of the question. Allerdyke himself could go +with his news in due course. And, wound up Appleyard, who had a keen +knowledge of human nature and saw deep into Chettle's mind, Mr. Allerdyke +would doubtless see that Chettle lost nothing by holding his tongue about +anything that wasn't exactly ripe for discussion. At present, he +repeated, let Chettle do his duty--not exceed it. + +"That's it," agreed Allerdyke. "You've hit it, Ambler. You go and tell +what you know of your own knowledge," he went on, turning to Chettle. +"Leave me clean out for the time being. I'll come in at the right moment. +Say naught about me or of what I've told you. And if you're sent back to +Hull, just contrive to see me before you go. And, as Mr. Appleyard says, +I'll see you're all right, anyhow." + +When Chettle had gone, Allerdyke closed the door on him and turned to his +manager with a knowing look. + +"That chap's right, you know, Ambler," he said. "A false move, a too +hasty step'll ruin everything. If that woman's startled--if she gets a +suspicion--egad, it's all mixed up about as badly as can be! Now, about +these Gaffneys?" + +"Wait a while," said Appleyard. "I don't know that we want their services +just yet. I've found out a thing or two that may be useful. About this +man Rayner now, who's in evident close touch with Miss Slade (by the by, +you saw her at the Waldorf at half-past eleven last night, and I saw her +come into the Pompadour at half-past twelve, with Rayner), and about whom +we accordingly want to know something--I've found out, through ordinary +business channels, that he does carry on a business at Clytemnestra +House, in Arundel Street, under the name of Gavin Ramsay. And--if we want +to know more of him--I've an idea. You go and see him, Mr. Allerdyke--on +business." + +"I? Business?" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What sort of business?" + +"He's an inventor's agent," replied Appleyard. "It's a profession I never +heard of before, but he seems to act as a go-between. Folks that have got +an invention go to him--he helps 'em about it--helps 'em to perfect it, +patent it, get it on the market. You've a good excuse--there's that +patent railway chair of your man Gankrodgers, been lying there in that +corner for the past year, and you promised Gankrodgers you'd help him +about it. Put it in a cab and go to this Rayner, or Ramsay--there's your +excuse, and you can say you heard of him in the City, from +Wilmingtons--it was they who told me what he was. It's a good notion, Mr. +Allerdyke." + +"What object?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Simply to get a look at him," replied Appleyard. "Look here--you know +very well that there's a strong suspicion against Miss Slade. Miss Slade, +to my knowledge, is in close touch, with Rayner. Therefore, let's know +what we can about Rayner. You're the man to go and see him at his own +place. Do it--and we'll consider the question of having him watched by +the two Gaffneys when you've seen and talked to him." + +Allerdyke considered this somewhat strange proposal in silence for a +while. At last he rose with a look of decision. + +"Well, I've certainly a good excuse," he said. "Here, have that thing +packed up and put in a cab--I'll go." + +Half an hour later he found himself shown into a smartly furnished office +where Mr. Gavin Ramsay sat at a handsome desk surrounded by shelves and +cabinets whereon and wherein were set out the products of the brains of +many inventors--models of machines, mechanical toys, labour-saving +notions, things plainly useful, things obviously extravagant. The +occupant of this museum glanced at Allerdyke and the box which he carried +with an amused smile, and Allerdyke said to himself that Appleyard was +right in his description--if the man was crippled and deformed he +certainly possessed a beautiful face. + +"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke," said the hope of inventors, glancing at the +card which his visitor had sent in. + +"The same, sir," replied Allerdyke, setting down his box. "Mr. Ramsay, I +presume? I heard of you, Mr. Ramsay, through Wilmingtons, in the City; +heard you can be of great use to inventors. I have here," he continued, +opening the box, "a railway chair, invented by one of my workmen, a +clever fellow. You see, it 'ud do away with the present system of putting +wooden blocks in the chairs now used--this would fasten the sleepers and +rails together automatically. It is patented--provisionally protected, +anyhow--but my man's never got a railway company to try it, so far. Think +you can do anything, Mr. Ramsay?" + +The hunchback got up from his desk, took the invention out of its box, +and carefully inspected it, asking Allerdyke a few shrewd questions about +the thing's possibilities which showed the caller that he knew what he +was talking about. Then he sat down again and went into business details +in a way which impressed Allerdyke--clearly this man, whoever he was, and +whatever mystery might attach to him, was a smart individual. Also he had +a frank, direct way of talking which gave his visitor a very good first +opinion of him. + +"Very well, Mr. Allerdyke," he said, in conclusion. "Leave the thing +with me, and I will see what I can do. As I say, the proper course will +be to get it tried on one of the smaller railway lines--if it answers +there, we can, perhaps, induce one of the bigger companies to take it up. +I'll do my best." + +Allerdyke thanked him and rose. He had certainly done something for his +man Gankrodgers, and he had seen Ramsay, or Rayner, at close quarters, +but--Ramsay was speaking again. He had picked up Allerdyke's card, and +glanced from it to its presenter, half shyly. + +"You're the cousin of the Mr. Allerdyke whose name's been in the papers +so much in connection with this murder and robbery affair, I suppose?" he +said. "I've seen your own name, of course, in the various accounts." + +"I am," replied Allerdyke. He had moved towards the door, but he turned +and looked at his questioner. "You followed it, then?" he asked. + +"Yes," assented Ramsay. "Closely. A curiously intricate case." + +"Any solution of it present itself to your mind?" asked Allerdyke in his +brusque, downright fashion. "Got any theory?" + +Ramsay smiled and shook his finely shaped head. He, too, rose, walking +towards the door. + +"It's a little early for that, isn't it?" he said. "I've studied these +affairs--criminology, you know--for many years. In my opinion, it's a +mistake to be too hasty in trying to arrive at solutions. But," he added, +with a shrug of his misshapen shoulders, "it's always the way of the +police, and of most folk who try to get at the truth. Things that are +deep down need some deep digging for!" + +"There's the question of the present whereabouts of nearly three +hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels," remarked Allerdyke grimly. +"Remember that!" + +"Quite so," agreed Ramsay. "But--your own particular and personal desire, +as I gather from the newspapers, is to find the murderer of your cousin?" + +"Ah!" said Allerdyke. "And it is! Got any ideas on that point?" + +Ramsay smiled as he opened the door. + +"I think," he said, with a quiet significance. "I think that you'll be +having all this mystery explained and cleared up all of a sudden, Mr. +Allerdyke, in a way that'll surprise you. These things are like +warfare--there's a sudden turn of events, a sudden big event just when +you're not expecting it. Well, good-bye--thank you for giving me a chance +with your man's invention." + +Allerdyke found himself walking up Arundel Street before he had quite +realized that this curious interview was over. At the top he paused, +staring vacantly at the folk who passed and repassed along the Strand. + +"I'd lay a pound to a penny that chap's all right," he muttered to +himself. "He's not a wrong 'un--unless he's damned deceitful! All the +same, he knows something! What? My conscience!--was there ever such a +confounded muddle in this world as this is!" + +But the muddle was a deeper one within the next few minutes. He crossed +over to his hotel, and as he was entering he met Mrs. Marlow coming out, +fresh, dainty, charming, as usual. She stopped at sight of him and held +up the little hand-bag which hung from her wrist. + +"Oh, Mr. Allerdyke!" she said, opening the bag and taking an envelope +from it. "I've something for you. See--here's the photograph your cousin +gave me. You were wrong, you see--there's no spot in it--it's a +particularly clear print. Look!" + +In Allerdyke's big palm she laid the very photograph which, according to +all his reckoning, was that which Chettle had found within the cover of +Lydenberg's watch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE POSSIBLE DEATH WARRANT + + +"Quite a clear print, you see," repeated Mrs. Marlow brightly. "No spot +there. You must have been thinking of another." + +"Aye, just so," replied Allerdyke absentmindedly. "Another, yes, of +course. Aye, to be sure--you're right. No spot on that, certainly." + +He was talking aimlessly, confusedly, as he turned the print over in his +hand, examining it back and front. And having no excuse for keeping it, +he handed it back with a keen look at its owner. What the devil, he asked +himself, was this mysterious woman playing at? + +"I'm going to have this mounted and framed," said Mrs. Marlow, as she put +the photograph back in her bag and turned to go. "I misplaced it some +time ago and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it by accident +this morning, so now I'll take care of it." + +She nodded, smiled, and went off into the sunlight outside, and +Allerdyke, more puzzled than ever, walked forward into the hotel and +towards the restaurant. At its door he met Fullaway, coming out, and in +his usual hurry. + +Fullaway started at sight of Allerdyke, button-holed him, and led him +into a corner. + +"Oh, I say, Allerdyke!" he said, in his bustling fashion. "Look here, a +word with you. You've no objection, have you?" he went on in subdued +tones, "if Van Koon and I have a try for that reward? It doesn't matter +to you, or to the Princess, or to Miss Lennard, who gets the reward so +long as the criminals are brought to justice and the goods found--eh? And +you know fifty thousand is--what it is." + +"You've got an idea?" asked Allerdyke, regarding his questioner steadily. + +"Frankly, yes--an idea--a notion," answered Fullaway. "Van Koon and I +have been discussing the whole affair--just now. He's a smart man, and +has had experience in these things on the other side. But, of course, we +don't want to give our idea away. We want to work in entire independence +of the police, for instance. What we're thinking of requires patience and +deep investigation. So we want to work on our own methods. See?" + +"It doesn't matter to me who gets the reward--as you say," said Allerdyke +slowly. "I want justice. I'm not so much concerned about the jewels as +about who killed my cousin. I believe that man Lydenberg did the actual +killing--but who was at Lydenberg's back? Find that out, and--" + +"Exactly--exactly!" broke in Fullaway. "The very thing! Well--you +understand, Allerdyke. Van Koon and I will want to keep our operations to +ourselves. We don't want police interference. So, if any of these +Scotland Yard chaps come to you here for talk or information, don't bring +me into it. And don't expect me to tell what we're doing until we've +carried out our investigations. No interim reports, you know, Allerdyke. +Personally, I believe we're on the track." + +"Do just what you please," replied Allerdyke. "You're not the only two +who are after that reward. Go ahead--your own way." + +He turned into the restaurant and ordered his lunch, and while it was +being brought sat drumming his fingers on the table, staring vacantly at +the people about him and wondering over the events of the morning. +Rayner's, or Ramsay's, vague hint that something might suddenly clear +everything up; Fullaway's announcement that he and Van Koon had put their +heads together; Mrs. Perrigo's story of the French maid and the young man +who led blue-ribboned pug-dogs--but all these were as nothing compared to +the fact that Mrs. Marlow had actually shown him the photograph which he +had until then firmly believed to lie hidden in the case of Lydenberg's +watch. That beat him. + +"Is my blessed memory going wrong?" he said to himself. "Did I actually +print more than four copies of that thing! No--no!--I'm shot if I did. +My memory never fails. I did not print off more than four. James had +three; I had one. Mine's in my album upstairs. I know what James did +with his. Cousin Grace has one; Wilson Firth has another; he gave the +third to this Mrs. Marlow--and she's got it! Then--how the devil did +that photograph, which looks to be of my taking, which I'd swear is of +my taking, come to be in Lydenberg's watch? Gad--it's enough to make a +man's brain turn to pap!" + +He was moodily finishing his lunch when Chettle came in to find him. +Allerdyke, who was in a quiet corner, beckoned the detective to a seat, +and offered him a drink. + +"Well?" he asked. "What's been done?" + +"It's all right," answered Chettle. "I've told no more than was +necessary--just what we agreed upon. To tell you the truth, our folks +don't attach such tremendous importance to it--they will, of course, when +you tell them your story about the photo. Just at present they merely see +the obvious fact--that Lydenberg was furnished with the photo as a means +of ready identification of your brother. No--at this moment they're full +of the Perrigo woman's story--they think that's a sure clue--a good +beginning. Somebody, they say, must own, or have owned, those pugs! +Therefore they're going strong on that. Meanwhile, I'm going back to Hull +for at any rate a few days." + +"You've still got that watch on you?" asked Allerdyke. + +"Certainly," answered Chettle, clapping his hand to his breast-pocket. +"Technically speaking, it's in charge of the Hull police--it'll have to +be produced there. Did you want to see it again, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Finish your drink and come up to my sitting-room," said Allerdyke. "I'll +give you a cigar up there. Yes," he added, as they left the restaurant +and went upstairs. "I do want to see it again--or, rather, the +photograph. You're in no hurry?" + +"A good hour to spare yet," replied Chettle. + +Allerdyke locked the door of the sitting-room when they were once inside +it, and that done he placed a decanter, a syphon, and a glass on his +table, and flanked them with a box of cigars. He waved a hospitable hand +towards these comforts. + +"Sit down and help yourself, Chettle," he said. "A drop of my whisky'll +do you no harm--that's some I got down from home, and you'll not find its +like everywhere. Light a cigar--and put a couple in your pocket to smoke +in the train. Now then, let's see that photograph once more." + +Chettle handed over the watch, and Allerdyke, opening the case, +delicately removed the print. He sat down at the table with his back to +the light, and carefully examined the thing back and front, while the +detective, glass in hand, cigar in lips, and thumb in the armhole of his +waistcoat, watched him appreciatively and inquisitively. + +"Make aught new out of it, sir?" he asked after a while. + +Instead of answering, Allerdyke laid the photograph down, went across to +another table, and took from it his album. He turned its leaves over +until he came to a few loose prints. He picked them up one after another +and examined them. And suddenly he knew the secret. There was no longer +any problem, any difficulty about that photograph. He knew--now! And with +a sharp exclamation, he flung the album back to the side-table, and +turned to the detective. + +"Chettle!" he said. "You know me well enough to know that I can make it +well worth any man's while to keep a secret until I tell him he can speak +about it! What!" + +"I should think so, Mr. Allerdyke," responded Chettle, readily enough. +"And if you want me to keep a secret--" + +"I do--for the time being," answered Allerdyke. He sat down again and +picked up the photograph which had exercised his thoughts so intensely. +"I've found out the truth concerning this," he said, tapping it with his +finger. "Yes, I've hit it! Listen, now--I told you I'd only made four +prints of this photo, and that I knew exactly where they all were--one in +my own album there, two given by James to friends in Bradford, one--as we +more recently found out--given by James to Mrs. Marlow. That one--the +Mrs. Marlow one--we believed to be--this--this!" + +"And isn't it, Mr. Allerdyke?" asked Chettle wonderingly. + +Allerdyke laughed--a laugh of relief and satisfaction. + +"Less than an hour ago," he replied, "in fact, just before you came in, +Mrs. Marlow showed me the photo which James gave her--showed it to me, +out below there in the hall. No mistaking it! And so--when you came, I +was racking my brains to rags trying to settle what this +photo--this!--was. And now I know what it is--and damn me if I know +whether the discovery makes things plainer or more mixed up! But--I know +what this is, anyway." + +"And--what is it, sir?" asked Chettle eagerly, eyeing the photo as if it +were some fearful living curiosity. "What, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Why, it's a photograph of my photograph!" almost shouted Allerdyke, with +a thump of his big hand on the table. "That's the truth. This has been +reproduced from mine, d'ye see? Look here--happen you don't know much +about photography, but you'll follow me--I always use a certain sort of +printing-out paper; I've stuck to one particular sort for years--all the +photos in that album are done on that particular sort. The four prints I +made of James's last photo were done on that paper. Now then--this photo, +this print that you found in Lydenberg's watch, is not done on that +paper--it's a totally different paper. Therefore--this is a reproduction! +It is not my original print at all--it's been copied from it. See?" + +Chettle, who had followed all this with concentrated attention, nodded +his head several times. + +"Clever--clever--clever!" he said with undisguised admiration. "Clever, +indeed! That's a smart bit of work, sir. I see--I understand! Bless my +soul! And what do you gather from that, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"This!" answered Allerdyke. "Just now, Mrs. Marlow said to me, speaking +of her photo--the fourth print, you know--'I misplaced it some time +ago,' she said, 'and couldn't lay hands on it, but I came across it +accidentally this morning.' Now then, Chettle, here's the thing--somebody +took that fourth print from Mrs. Marlow, reproduced it--and that--that +print which you found in Lydenberg's watch is the reproduction!" + +"So that," began Chettle suggestively, "so that--" + +"So that the thing now is to find who it is that made the reproduction," +said Allerdyke. "When we've found him--or her--I reckon we shall have +found the man who's at the heart of all this. Leave that to me! Keep this +a dead secret until I tell you to speak--we shall have to tell all this, +and a bonny sight more, to your bosses at headquarters--off you go to +Hull, and do what you have to do, and I'll get on with my work here. I +said I didn't know whether this discovery makes things thicker or +clearer, but, by George, it's a step forward anyway!" + +Chettle put the reproduction back into the case of the watch and bestowed +it safely in his pocket. + +"One step forward's a good deal in a case like this, Mr. Allerdyke," he +said. "What are you going to do about the next step, now?" + +"Try to find out who made that reproduction," replied Allerdyke bluntly. +"No easy job, either! The ground's continually shifting and changing +under one's very feet. But I don't mind telling you my present +theory--somebody's got information of that jewel deal from Fullaway's +office, somebody who had access to his papers, somebody who managed to +steal that photo of mine from Mrs. Marlow for a few days or until they +could reproduce it. What I want to find now is--an idea of that somebody. +And--I'll get it!--I'll move heaven and earth to get it! But--other +matters. You say your folks at the Yard are going to follow up that +Perrigo woman's clue? They think it important, then?" + +"In the case of the Frenchwoman, yes," answered Chettle. He thrust his +hand into a side-pocket and brought out a crumpled paper. "Here's a proof +of the bill they're getting out," he said. "They set to work on that as +soon as they'd got the information. That'll be up outside every +police-station in a few hours, and it's gone out to the Press, too." + +Allerdyke took the proof, still damp from the machine, and looked it +over. It asked, in the usual formal language, for any information about a +young man, dark, presumably a foreigner, who, about the middle of March, +was in the habit of taking two pug dogs, generally bedecked with blue +ribbons, into Kensington Gardens. + +"There ought to be some response to that, you know, Mr. Allerdyke," +remarked Chettle. "Somebody must remember and know something about that +young fellow. But, upon my soul, as I said to Blindway just now, I don't +know whether that bill's a mere advertisement or a--death warrant!" + +"Death warrant!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "What d'you mean?" + +Chettle chuckled knowingly. + +"Mean," he said. "Why, this--if that young fellow who led pugs about, and +talked to Mamselle Lisette in Kensington Gardens, is another of the cat's +paws that this gang evidently made use of, I should say that when the +gang sees he's being searched for, they'll out him, just as they outed +her and Lydenberg. That's what I mean, Mr. Allerdyke--they'll do him in +themselves before anybody else can get at him! See?" + +Allerdyke saw. And when the detective had gone, he threw himself into a +chair, lighted one of his strongest cigars, drew pen, ink, and paper to +him, and began to work at his problem with a grim determination to evolve +at any rate a clear theory of its possible solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCERNING CARL FEDERMAN + + +Next morning, as Allerdyke was leaving the hotel with the intention of +going down to Gresham Street, one of the hall-porters ran after and +hailed him. + +"You're wanted at the telephone, sir," he said. "Call for you just +come through." + +Allerdyke went back, to find himself hailed by Blindway. Would he drive +on to the Yard at once and bring Mr. Fullaway with him?--both were +wanted, particularly in connection with the Perrigo information. + +Allerdyke promised for himself, and went upstairs to find Fullaway. He +met him coming down, and gave him the message. Fullaway looked undecided. + +"You know what I told you yesterday, Allerdyke," he said. "I didn't want +to be bothered further with these police chaps. Van Koon and I are on a +line of our own, and--" + +"As you like," interrupted Allerdyke, "but all the same, if I were in +your place I shouldn't refuse a chance of acquiring information. Even if +you don't want to tell the police anything, that's no reason why you +shouldn't learn something from them." + +"There's that in it, certainly," assented Fullaway. "All right. You get a +taxi and I'll join you in a minute or two." + +As they got out of one cab at the police headquarters Celia Lennard +appeared in another. She made a little grimace as the two men +greeted her. + +"Again!" she exclaimed, "What are we going to be treated to now? More old +women with vague stories, I suppose. What good is it at all? And when am +I going to hear something about my jewels?" + +"You never know what you're going to hear when you visit these palatial +halls," answered Fullaway. "You may be going to have the biggest surprise +of your life, you know. They sent for you?" + +"Rang me up in the middle of my breakfast," answered Celia. "Well--let's +find out what new sensation this is. Some extraordinary creature on view +again, of course." + +The creature on view proved to be a little fat man, obviously French or +Swiss, who sat, his rotund figure tightly enveloped in a frock-coat, the +lapel of which was decorated with a bit of ribbon, on the edge of a chair +facing the chief's desk. He was a nervous, alert little man; his +carefully trimmed moustache and pointed beard quivered with excitement; +his dark eyes blazed. And at sight of the elegantly attired lady he +bounced out of his chair, swept his silk hat to the ground, and executed +a deep bow of the most extreme politeness. + +"This," observed the chief, with a smile at his visitors, "is Monsieur +Aristide Bonnechose. M. Bonnechose believes that he can tell us +something. It is a supplement to what Mrs. Perrigo told us yesterday. It +relates, of course to the young man whom Mrs. Perrigo told us of--the +young man who led pugs in Kensington Gardens." + +"The pogs of Madame, my spouse," said M. Bonnechose, with a bow and a +solemn expression. "Two pogs--Fifi and Chou-Chou." + +"M. Bonnechose," continued the chief, regarding his company with yet +another smile, "is the proprietor of a--what is your establishment, +monsieur?" + +"Cafe-restaurant, monsieur," replied M. Bonnechose, promptly and +politely. "Small, but elegant. Of my name, monsieur--the Cafe Bonnechose, +Oxford Street. Established nine years--I succeeded to a former +proprietor, Monsieur Jules, on his lamented decease." + +"I think M. Bonnechose had better tell us his history in his own +fashion," remarked the chief, looking around. "You are aware, Mr. +Allerdyke, and you, too, Mr. Fullaway, and so I suppose are you Miss +Lennard, that after hearing what Mrs. Perrigo had to tell us I put out a +bill asking for information about the young man Mrs. Perrigo described, +and the matter was also mentioned in last night's and this morning's +papers. M. Bonnechose read about it in his newspaper, and so he came here +at once. He tells me that he knew a young man who was good enough during +the early spring, to occasionally take out Madame Bonnechose's prize dogs +for an airing. That seems to have been the same man referred to by Mrs. +Perrigo. Now, M. Bonnechose, give us the details." + +M. Bonnechose set down his tall, very Parisian hat on the edge of +the chief's desk, and proceeded to use his hands in conjunction with +his tongue. + +"With pleasure, monsieur," he responded. "It is this way, then. You will +comprehend that Madame, my spouse, and myself are of the busiest. We do +not keep a great staff; accordingly we have much to do ourselves. +Consequently we have not much time to go out, to take the air. Madame, my +spouse, she has a love for the dogs--she keeps two, Fifi and +Chou-Chou--pogs. What they call pedigree dogs--valuable. Beautiful +animals--but needing exercise. It is a trouble to Madame that they cannot +disport themselves more frequently. Now, about the beginning of this +spring, a young man--compatriot of my own--a Swiss from the Vaud +canton--he begins coming to my cafe. Sometimes he comes for his +lunch--sometimes he drops in, as they say, for a cup of coffee. We find +out, he and I, that we come from the same district. In the event, we +become friendly." + +"This young man's name, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"What we knew him by--Federman," replied M. Bonnechose. "Carl Federman. +He told me he was looking out for a job as valet to a rich man. He had +been a waiter--somewhere in London--some hotel, I think--I did not pay +much attention. Anyway, while he was looking for his job he certainly had +plenty of money--plenty! He do himself very well with his +lunches--sometimes he come and have his dinner at night. We are not +expensive, you understand--nice lunch for two shillings, nice dinner for +three--nothing to him, that--he always carry plenty of money in his +pockets. Well, then, of course, having nothing to do, often he talks to +me and Madame. One day we talk of the pogs, then walking about the +establishment. He remarks that they are too fat. Madame sighs and says +the poor darlings do not get sufficient exercise. He is good-natured, +this Federman--he say at once 'I will exercise them--I, myself,' So he +come next day, like a good friend, Madame puts blue ribbons on the pogs, +and bids them behave nicely--away they go with Federman for the +excursion. Many days he thus takes them--to Hyde Park, to Kensington +Gardens--out of the neighbourliness, you understand. Madame is much +obliged to him--she regards him as a kind young man--eh? And then, all of +a sudden, we do not see Federman any more--no. Nor hear of him until +monsieur asks for news of him in the papers. I see that news last +night--Madame sees it! We start--we look at each other--we regard +ourselves with comprehension. We both make the same exclamation--'It is +Federman! He is wanted! He has done something!' Then Madame says, +'Aristide, in the morning, you will go to the police commissary,' I say +'It shall be done--we will have no mystery around the Cafe Bonnechose.' +Monsieur, I am here--and I have spoken!" + +"And that is all you know, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. + +"All, monsieur, absolutely all!" + +"About when was it that this young man first came to your cafe, then?" + +"About the beginning of March, or end of February, monsieur--it was the +beginning of the good weather, you understand." + +"And he left off coming--when?" + +"Beginning of April, monsieur--after that we never see him again. Often +we say to ourselves, 'Where is Federman?' The pogs, they look at the seat +which he was accustomed to take, as much as to ask the same question. +But," concluded M. Bonnechose, with a dismal shake of his close-cropped +head, and a spreading forth of his hands, "he never visit us no +more--no!" + +"Now, listen, M. Bonnechose," said the chief; "did this man ever give you +any particulars about himself?" + +"None but what I have told you, monsieur--and which I do not now +remember." + +"Ever tell you where he lived in London---at the time he was +visiting you?" + +"No, monsieur--never." + +"Did he ever come to your place accompanied by anybody? Bring any +friends there?" + +M. Bonnechose put himself into an attitude of deep thought. He remained +in it for a moment or two; then he exchanged it for one of joyful +recollection. + +"On one occasion, a lady!" he exclaimed. "A Frenchwoman. Tall--that is, +taller than is usual amongst Frenchwomen--slender--elegant. Dark--dark, +black eyes--not beautiful, you understand, but--engaging." + +"Lisette!" muttered Celia. + +"On only one occasion, you say, M. Bonnechose?" asked the chief. +"When was it?" + +"About the time I speak of, monsieur. They came in one night--rather +late. They had a light supper--nothing much." + +"He did not tell you who she was?" + +"Not a word, monsieur! He was, as a rule, very secretive, this Federman, +saying little about his own affairs." + +"You don't remember that he ever brought any one else there! No men, for +instance?" + +M. Bonnechose shook his head. Then, once again, his face brightened. + +"No!" he said. "But once--just once--I saw Federman talking to a man in +the street--Shaftesbury Avenue. A clean-shaven man, well built, brown +hair--a Frenchman, I think. But, of course, a stranger to me." + +The chief exchanged a glance with Allerdyke and Fullaway--both knew what +that glance meant. M. Bonnechose's description tallied remarkably with +that of the man who had gone to Eastbourne Terrace Hotel with Lisette +Beaurepaire. + +"A clean-shaven man, with brown hair, and well built, eh?" said the +chief. "And when--" + +Just then an interruption came in the person of a man who entered the +room and gave evident signs of a desire to tell something to his +superior. The chief left his chair, went across to the door, and received +a communication which was evidently of considerable moment. He turned and +beckoned Blindway; the three went out of the room. Several minutes +passed; then the chief came back alone, and looked at his visitors with a +glance of significance. + +"We have just got news of something that relates, I think, to the +very subject we were discussing," he said. "A young man has been found +dead in bed at a City hotel this morning under very suspicious +circumstances--circumstances very similar to those of the Eastbourne +Terrace affair. And," he went on, glancing at a scrap of paper which he +held in his hand, "the description of him very closely resembles that of +this man Federman. Of course, it's not an uncommon type, but--" + +"Another of 'em!" exclaimed Allerdyke. He had suddenly remembered what +Chettle had said about the new bill being a possible death-warrant, and +the words started irrepressibly to his lips. "Good Lord!" + +The chief gave him a quick glance; it seemed as if he instinctively +divined what was passing in Allerdyke's mind. + +"I'm sorry to trouble you," he said, without referring to Allerdyke's +interruption, "but I'm afraid I must ask you--all of you--to run down to +this City hotel with me. We mustn't leave a stone unturned, and if any of +you can identify this man--" + +"Oh, you don't want me, surely!" cried Celia. "Please let me off--I do so +hate that sort of thing!" + +"Naturally," remarked the chief. "But I'm afraid I want you more than +any one, Miss Lennard--you and M. Bonnechose. Come--we'll go at +once--Blindway has gone down to get two cabs for us." + +Blindway, M. Bonnechose, and Fullaway rode to the City in one cab; Celia, +Allerdyke, and the chief in another. Their journey came to an end in a +quiet old street near the Docks, and at the door of an old-fashioned +looking hotel. There was a much-worried landlord, and a detective or two, +and sundry police to meet them, and inquisitive eyes looked out of doors +and round corners as they went upstairs to a door which was guarded by +two constables. The chief turned to Celia with a word of encouragement. + +"One look will answer the purpose," he said quietly. "But--look closely!" + +The next moment all six were standing round a narrow bed on which was +laid out the dead body of a young man. The face, calm, composed, looked +more like that of a man who lay quietly and peacefully asleep than one +who had died under suspicious circumstances. + +"Well?" asked the chief presently. "What do you say, Miss Lennard?" + +Celia caught her breath. + +"This--this is the man who came to Hull," she whispered. "The man, you +know, who called himself Lisette's brother. I knew him instantly." + +"And you, M. Bonnechose?" said the chief. "Do you recognize him?" + +The cafe-keeper, who had been making inarticulate murmurs of surprise and +grief, nodded. + +"Federman!" he said. "Oh, yes, monsieur--Federman, without doubt. +Poor fellow!" + +The chief turned to leave the room, saying quietly that that was all he +wished. But Fullaway, who had been staring moodily at the dead man, +suddenly stopped him. "Look here!" he said. "I know this man, too--but +not as Federman. I'm not mistaken about him, and I don't think Miss +Lennard or M. Bonnechose are, either. But I knew him as Fritz Ebers. He +acted as my valet at the Waldorf from the beginning of April to about the +end of the first week in May last. And--since we now know what we +do--it's my opinion that there--there in that dead man--is the last of +the puppets! The Frenchwoman--Lydenberg--now this fellow--all three got +rid of! Now, then--where's the man who pulled the strings! Where's the +arch-murderer!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE CARD ON THE DOOR + + +The chief made no immediate reply to Fullaway's somewhat excited +outburst; he led his little party from the room, and in the corridor +turned to Celia and the cafe keeper. + +"That's all, Miss Lennard, thank you," he said. "Sorry to have to ask you +to take part in these painful affairs, but it can't be helped. M. +Bonnechose, I'm obliged to you--you'll hear from me again very soon. In +the meantime, keep counsel--don't talk to anybody except Madame--no +gossiping with customers, you know. Mr. Allerdyke, will you see Miss +Lennard downstairs and into a cab, and then join Mr. Fullaway and me +again?--we must have a talk with the police and the hotel people." + +When Allerdyke went back into the hotel he found Blindway waiting for him +at the door of a ground-floor room in which the chief, Fullaway, a City +police-inspector and a detective were already closeted with the landlord +and landlady. The landlord, a somewhat sullen individual, who appeared to +be greatly vexed and disconcerted by these events, was already being +questioned by the chief as to what he knew of the young man whose body +they had just seen, and he was replying somewhat testily. + +"I know no more about him than I know of any chance customer," he was +saying when Allerdyke was ushered in by Blindway, who immediately closed +the door on this informal conclave. "You see what this house is?--a +second-class house for gentlemen having business in this part, round +about the Docks. We get a lot of commercial gentlemen, sea-faring men, +such-like. Lots of our customers are people who are going to foreign +places--Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and so on--they put up here just for +the night, before sailing. I took this young man for one of that sort--in +fact, I think he made some inquiry about one of the boats." + +"He did," affirmed the landlady. "He asked William, the head-waiter, what +time the Rotterdam steamer sailed this morning." + +"And that's about all we know," continued the landlord. "I never took any +particular notice of him, and--" + +"Just answer a few questions," said the chief, interrupting him quietly. +"We shall get at what we want to know more easily that way. What time did +this young man come to the hotel yesterday?" + +The landlord turned to his wife with an expressive gesture. + +"Ask her," he answered. "She looks after all that--I'm not so much in +the office." + +"He came at seven o'clock last night," said the landlady. "I was in the +office, and I booked him and gave him his room--27." + +"Was he alone?" + +"Quite alone. He'd the suit-case that's upstairs in the room now, and an +overcoat and an umbrella." + +"Of course," said the chief, "he gave you some name--some address?" + +"He gave the name and address of Frank Herman, Walthamstow," replied the +landlady, opening a ledger which she had brought into the room. "There +you are--that's his writing." + +The chief drew the book to him, glanced at the entry, and closed the book +again, keeping a finger in it. + +"Well, what was seen of him during the evening!" he asked. + +"Nothing much," replied the landlady. "He had his supper in the +coffee-room--a couple of chops and coffee. He was reading the papers in +the smoking-room until about half-past ten; I saw him myself going +upstairs between that and eleven. As I didn't see him about next morning +and as his breakfast wasn't booked, I asked where he was, and the +chambermaid said there was a card on his door saying that he wasn't to be +called till eleven." + +"Where is that card?" asked the chief. + +"It's here in this envelope," answered the landlady, who seemed to be +much more alert and much sharper of intellect than her husband. "I took +care of it when we found out what had happened. I suppose you'll take +charge of it?" + +"If you please," answered the chief. He took the envelope, looked +inside it to make sure that the card was there, and turned to the +landlady again. + +"Yes?" he said. "When you found out what had happened. Now, who did find +out what had happened?" + +"Well," answered the landlady, "the chambermaid came down soon after +eleven, and said she couldn't get 27 to answer her knock. Of course, I +understood that he wanted to catch the Rotterdam boat which sailed about +noon, so I sent my husband up. And as he couldn't get any answer--" + +"I went in with the chambermaid's key," broke in the landlord, "and there +he was--just as you've seen him--dead. And if you ask me, he was cold, +too--been dead some time, in my opinion." + +"The surgeon said several hours--six or seven," remarked the inspector in +an aside to the chief. "Thought he'd been dead since four o'clock." + +"No signs of anything in the room, I suppose?" asked the chief. "Nothing +disturbed, eh?" + +"Nothing!" replied the landlord stolidly. "The room was as you'd expect +to find it; tidy enough. And nothing touched--as the police that were +called in at first can testify. They can swear as his money was all right +and his watch and chain all right--there'd been no robbery. And," he +added with resentful emphasis, "I don't care what you nor nobody +says!--'tain't no case of murder, this! It's suicide, that's what it is. +I don't want my house to get the name and character of a murder place! I +can't help it if a quiet-looking, apparently respectable young fellow +comes and suicides himself in my house--there's nobody can avoid that, as +I know of, but when it comes to murder--" + +"No one has said anything about murder so far," interrupted the chief +quietly. "But since you suggest it, perhaps we'd better ask who you'd got +in the house last night." He opened the register at the page in which he +had kept his finger, and looked at the last entries. "I see that +three--no, four--people came in after this young man who called himself +Frank Herman. You booked them, I suppose?" he went on, turning to the +landlady. "Were they known to you?" + +"Only one--that one, Mr. Peter Donaldson, Dundee," answered the +landlady. "He's the representative of a jute firm--he often comes here. +He's in the house now, or he was, an hour ago--he'll be here for two or +three days. Those two, Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen--they appeared to be +foreigners. They were here for the night, had breakfast early, and went +away by some boat--our porter carried their things to it. Quiet, elderly +folks, they were." + +"And the fourth--John Barcombe, Manchester--you didn't know him?" asked +the chief, pointing to the last entry. "I see you gave him Number 29--two +doors from Herman." + +"Yes," said the landlady. "No--I didn't know him. He came in about nine +o'clock and had some supper before he went up. He'd his breakfast at +eight o'clock this morning, and went away at once. Lots of our +customers do that--they're just in for bed and breakfast, and we +scarcely notice them." + +"Did you notice this man--Barcombe?" asked the chief. + +"Well, not particularly. But I've a fair recollection of him. A rather +pale, stiffish-built man, lightish brown hair and moustache, dressed in a +dark suit. He'd no luggage, and he paid me for supper, bed, and breakfast +when he booked his room," replied the landlady. "Quite a quiet, +respectable man--he said something about being unexpectedly obliged to +stop for the night, but I didn't pay any great attention." + +The chief looked attentively at the open page of the register. Then he +drew the attention of those around him to the signature of John Barcombe. +It was a big, sprawling signature, all the letters sloping downward from +left to right, and being of an unusual size for a man. + +"That looks to me like a feigned handwriting," he said. "However, note +this. You see that entry of Frank Herman? Observe his handwriting. Now +compare it with the writing on the card which was fixed on the door of +27--Herman's room. Look!" + +He drew the card out of its envelope as he spoke and laid it beside the +entry in the register. And Marshall Allerdyke, bending over his shoulder +to look, almost cried out with astonishment, for the writing on the card +was certainly the same as that which Chettle had shown him on the +post-card found on Lydenberg, and on the back of the photograph of James +Allerdyke discovered in Lydenberg's watch. It was only by a big effort +that he checked the exclamation which was springing to his lips, and +stopped himself from snatching up the card from the table. + +"You observe," said the chief quietly, "you can't fail to observe that +the writing in the register, is not the writing of the card pinned on the +door of Number 27. They are quite different. The writing of Frank Herman +in the register is in thick, stunted strokes; the writing on the card is +in thin, angular, what are commonly called crabbed strokes. Yet it is +supposed that Herman put that card outside his bedroom door. How is it, +then, that Herman's handwriting was thick and stunted when he registered +at seven o'clock and slender and a bit shaky when he wrote this card at, +say, half-past ten or eleven? Of course, Herman, or whatever his real +name is, never wrote the line on that card, and never pinned that card on +his door!" + +The landlord opened his heavy lips and gasped: the landlady sighed with a +gradually awakening interest. Amidst a dead silence the chief went on +with his critical inspection of the handwriting. + +"But now look at the signature of the man who called himself John +Barcombe, of Manchester. You will observe that he signed that name in a +great, sprawling hand across the page, and that the letters slope from +left to right, downward, instead of in the usually accepted fashion of +left to right, upward. Now at first sight there is no great similarity +in the writing of that entry in the register and that on the card--one is +rounded and sprawling, and the other is thin and precise. But there is +one remarkable and striking similarity. In the entry in the register +there are two a's--the a in Barcombe, the a in Manchester. On the one +line on the card found pinned to the door there are also two a's--the a +in please; the a in call. Now observe--whether the writing is big, +sprawling, thin, precise; feigned, obviously, in one case, natural, I +think, in the other, all those four a's are the same! This man has grown +so accustomed to making his a's after the Greek fashion--a--done in one +turn of the pen--that he has made them even in his feigned handwriting! +There's not a doubt, to my mind, that the card found on Herman's door was +written, and put on that door, by the man who registered as John +Barcombe. And," he added in an undertone to Allerdyke, "I've no doubt, +either, that he's the man of the Eastbourne Terrace affair." + +The landlord had risen to his feet, and was scowling gloomily at +everybody. + +"Then you are making it out to be murder?" he exclaimed sulkily. "Just +what I expected! Never had police called in yet without 'em making +mountains out of molehills! Murder, indeed!--nothing but a case of +suicide, that's what I say. And as this is a temperance hotel, and not a +licensed house, I'll be obliged to you if you'll have that body taken +away to the mortuary--I shall be having the character of my place taken +away next, and then where shall I be I should like to know!" + +He swung indignantly out of the room, and his wife, murmuring that it was +certainly very hard on innocent people that these things went on, +followed him. The police, giving no heed to these protests, proceeded to +examine the articles taken from the dead man's clothing. Whatever had +been the object of the murderer, it was certainly not robbery. There was +a purse and a pocket-book, containing a considerable amount of money in +gold and notes; a good watch and chain, and a ring or two of some value. + +"Just the same circumstances as in the Eastbourne Terrace affair," said +the chief as he rose. "Well--the thing is to find that man. You've no +doubt whatever, Mr. Fullaway, that this dead man upstairs is the man you +knew as Ebers, a valet at your hotel?" + +"None!" answered Fullaway emphatically. "None whatever. Lots of people +will be able to identify him." + +"That's good, at any rate," remarked the chief. "It's a long step +towards--something. Well, I must go." + +Allerdyke was in more than half a mind to draw the chief aside and tell +him about Chettle's discoveries as regards the handwriting, but while he +hesitated Fullaway tugged earnestly at his sleeve. + +"Come away!" whispered Fullaway. "Come! We're going to cut in at this +ourselves!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECRET + + +Allerdyke was scarcely prepared for the feverish energy with which +Fullaway dragged him out of the hotel, forced him into the first taxi-cab +they met, and bade the driver make haste to the Waldorf. He knew by that +time that the American was a nervous, excitable individual who now and +then took on tremendous fits of work in which he hustled and bustled +everybody around him, but he had never seen him quite so excited and +eager as now. The discovery at that shabby hotel which they had just +quitted seemed to have acted on him like the smell of powder on an old +war-horse; he appeared to be positively panting for action. + +"Allerdyke!" he almost shouted as the cab moved away, and he himself +smote one clenched fist upon the other. "Allerdyke--this thing has got to +go through! I resign all claim to that reward. Allerdyke!--this affair is +too serious for any hole-and-corner work. I shall tell Van Koon that what +we know, or fancy, must be thrown into the common stock of knowledge! The +thing is to get at the people who've been behind this poor chap Ebers, or +Federman, or Herman, or whatever his name is. Allerdyke!--we must go +right into things." + +Allerdyke laughed sardonically. When Fullaway developed excitement, he +developed coolness, and his voice became as dry and hard as the other's +was fervid and eloquent. + +"Aye!" he said in his most phlegmatic tones. "Aye, just so! And where +d'ye intend to cut in, now, like? Is it a sort of Gordian knot affair +that you're thinking of? Going to solve this difficulty at one blow?" + +"Don't be sarcastic," retorted Fullaway. "I'm going to take things clean +up from this Federman or Ebers affair. I'm going deep--deep! You'll see +in a few minutes." + +"Willing to see--and to hear--aught," remarked Allerdyke laconically. +"I've been doing naught else since I got that wireless telegram." + +Then they relapsed into silence until the Waldorf was reached. +There Fullaway raced his companion upstairs to his rooms and burst +in upon Mrs. Marlow like a whirlwind. The pretty secretary, busied +with her typewriter, looked up, glanced at both men, and calmly +resumed her labours. + +"Mrs. Marlow!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Just step to Mr. Van Koon's rooms +and beg him to come back here to my sitting-room with you--important +business, Mrs. Marlow--I want you, too." + +Allerdyke, closely watching the woman around whom so much mystery +centred, saw that she did not move so much as an eyelash. She laid her +work aside, left the room, and within a minute returned with Van Koon, +who gazed at Fullaway with an air of half-amused inquiry. + +"Something happened?" he asked, nodding to Allerdyke. "Town on fire?" + +"Van Koon, sit down," commanded Fullaway, pushing his compatriot into the +inner room. "Mrs. Marlow, fasten that outer door and come in here. We're +going to have a stiff conference. Sit down, please, all of you. Now," he +went on, when the other three had ranged themselves about the centre +table, "There is news, Van Koon. Allerdyke and I have just come away from +an hotel in the Docks where we've seen the dead body of a young man who's +been found dead there under precisely similar circumstances to those +which attended the death of the French maid in Eastbourne Terrace. We've +also heard a description of a man who was at this hotel in the Docks last +night--it corresponds to that of the fellow who accompanied Lisette +Beaurepaire. I, personally, have no doubt that this man, whoever he is, +is the murderer of Lisette and of this youngster whose body we've just +seen. Mrs. Marlow, this dead young fellow, from whose death-chamber we've +just come, is that valet I used to have here--Ebers. You remember him?" + +"Sure!" answered Mrs. Marlow, quite calmly and unconcernedly. "Very +well indeed." + +"This Ebers," continued Fullaway, turning to Van Koon, "was a young +fellow, Swiss, German, something of that sort, who acted as valet to me +and to some other men here in this hotel for a time. I needn't go into +too many details now, but there's no doubt that he knew, and was in touch +with, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Miss Lennard positively identifies him as +the man who met her and Lisette at Hull, and represented himself as +Lisette's brother. Now then, Ebers--we'll stick to that name for the sake +of clearness--was in and out of my rooms a good deal, of course. And +what I want to know now, Mrs. Marlow, is--do you think he got access to +our letters, papers, books? Could he find out, for instance, that I was +engaged in this deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin, +and that Miss Lennard had bought the Pinkie Pell pearls? Think!" + +Mrs. Marlow had evidently done her thinking; she replied without +hesitation. + +"If he did, or could, it would be through your own carelessness, +Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You know that I am ridiculously careful +about that sort of thing! From the time I come here in the +morning--ten-o'clock--until I leave at five, no one has any chance of +seeing our papers, or our letter book, or our telegram-copies book. They +are always on my desk while I am in the office, and when I go downstairs +to lunch I lock them up in the safe. But--you're not careful! How many +times have I come in the morning, and found that you've taken these +things out of the safe over-night and left them lying about for anybody +to see? Dozens of times!" + +"I know--I know!" admitted Fullaway with a groan. "I'm frightfully +careless--always was. I quite admit it, Mrs. Marlow, quite!" + +"Of course," continued Mrs. Marlow, in precise, even tones, "of course if +you left the letter-book lying round, and the book in which the +duplicates of all our telegrams and cablegrams are kept, too--why, this +Ebers man could easily read what he liked for himself when he was in here +of a morning before you got up. He was in and out a great deal, that's +certain. And as regards those two affairs, the documents we have about +them are pretty plain, Mr. Fullaway. Anybody of average intelligence +could find out in ten minutes from our letter-book and telegram-book that +we negotiated the sale of the Pinkie Pell pearls to Miss Lennard, and +that Mr. James Allerdyke was bringing here a valuable parcel of jewels +from Russia. And," concluded Mrs. Marlow quietly, "from what I saw of +him, Ebers was a smart man." + +Van Koon, who had been listening attentively to all this, turned a +half-whimsical, half-reproving glance on Fullaway, who sat in a contrite +attitude, drumming his fingers on the polished table. + +"I guess you're a very careless individual, my friend," he said, shaking +his head. "If you will leave your important papers lying about, as this +lady says you're in the habit of doing, what do you expect? Now, you've +been wondering who got wind of this jewel deal, and here's the very proof +that you gave every chance to this Ebers to acquaint himself with it! And +what I'd like to know now, Fullaway, is this--what use do you suppose +this young fellow made of the information he acquired? That seems to me +to be the point." + +"Yes!" exclaimed Allerdyke suddenly. "That is the point!" + +Fullaway smote the table. + +"The thing's obvious!" he cried. "He sold his information to a gang. +There must have been--I mean must be--a gang. It's utterly impossible +that all this could have been worked by one man. The man we've heard of +in connection with the deaths of Lisette Beaurepaire and of Ebers himself +is only one of the combination. I'm as sure of that as I am that I see +you. But--who are they?" + +Nobody answered this question. Allerdyke plunged his hands in his pockets +and stared at Fullaway; Mrs. Marlow began to trace imaginary patterns on +the surface of the table; Van Koon produced a penknife and began to +scrape the edges of his filbert nails with a preoccupied air. + +"There's the thing I've insisted on all along, Fullaway, you know," he +said at last, finding that no one seemed inclined to speak. "I've +insisted on it, but you've always put it off. I don't care what you +say--it'll have to come to it. Let me suggest it, now, to our friends +here--they're both cute enough, I reckon!" + +"Oh, as you please, as you please!" replied Fullaway, with a wave of his +hands. "Say anything you like, Van Koon--it seems as if too much couldn't +be said at this juncture." + +"All right," answered Van Koon. He turned to Allerdyke and Mrs. Marlow. +"Ever since this affair was brought under my notice," he said, "I've +pointed out to Fullaway certain features in connection with it. +First--there's no evidence whatever that this plot originated in or was +worked from Russia. Second--there is evidence that it began here in +London and was carried out from London. And following on that second +proposition comes another. Fullaway knew that these jewels were +coming--" + +He paused and gave the secretary a keen look. And Allerdyke, watching her +just as keenly, saw her face and eyes as calm and inscrutable as ever; it +was absolutely evident that nothing could move this woman, no chance word +or allusion take her unawares. Van Koon smiled, and leaned nearer. + +"But," he said, tapping the table in emphasis of his words, "there was +somebody else who knew of this deal, somebody whose name Fullaway there +steadfastly refuses to bring in. Delkin!" + +Fullaway suddenly laughed, throwing up his arms. + +"Delkin!" he exclaimed satirically. "A millionaire several times over! +The thing's ridiculous, Van Koon! Delkin would kick me out if I went and +asked him--" + +"Delkin will have to be asked," interrupted Van Koon. "You will not face +the facts, Fullaway. Millionaire, multimillionaire, Delkin was the third +person (I'm leaving this valet, Ebers, clean out, though I've not the +slightest doubt he was one of the pieces of the machine) who knew that +James Allerdyke was bringing two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth +of jewels for his, Delkin's approval! That's a fact, Fullaway, which +cannot be got over." + +"Psha!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I suppose you think Delkin, who could buy up +the best jeweller's shop in London or Paris and throw its contents to the +street children to play with--" + +"What is it that's in your mind, Mr. Van Koon?" asked Allerdyke, +interrupting Fullaway's eloquence. "You've some theory?" + +"Well, I don't know about theory," answered Van Koon, "but I guess I've +got some natural common sense. If Fullaway there thinks I'm suggesting +that Delkin organized a grand conspiracy to rob James Allerdyke, +Fullaway's wrong--I'm not. What I am suggesting, and have been suggesting +this last three days, is that Delkin should be asked a plain and simple +question, which is this--did he ever tell anybody of this proposed deal? +If so--whom did he tell? And if that isn't business," concluded Van Koon, +"then I don't know business when I see it!" + +"What's your objection?" asked Allerdyke, looking across at Fullaway. +"What objection can you have?" + +Fullaway shook his head. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he said. "Except that it seems immaterial, and that I +don't want to bother Delkin. I'm hoping that these jewels will be found, +and that I'll be able to complete the transaction, and--besides, I don't +believe for one instant that Delkin would tell anybody. I only had two +interviews with Delkin--one at his hotel, one here. He understood the +affair was an entirely private and secret transaction." + +Mrs. Marlow suddenly raised her head, and spoke quickly. + +"You're forgetting something, Mr. Fullaway," she said. "You had a letter +from Mr. Delkin confirming the provisional agreement, which was that he +should have the first option of buying the Princess Nastirsevitch's +jewels, then being brought by Mr. James Allerdyke from Russia." + +"True--true!" exclaimed Fullaway, clapping a hand to his forehead. "So I +had! I'd forgotten that. But, after all, it was purely a private letter +from Delkin, and--" + +"No," interrupted Mrs. Marlow. "It was written and signed by Mr. Delkin's +secretary. So that the secretary knew of the transaction." + +Van Koon shook his head and glanced at Allerdyke. + +"There you are!" he said. "The secretary knew--Delkin's secretary! How do +we know that Delkin's secretary--?" + +"Oh, that's all rot, Van Koon!" exclaimed Fullaway testily. +"Delkin's secretary, Merrifield, has been with him for years to my +knowledge, and--" + +But Allerdyke had suddenly risen and was picking up his hat from a side +table. He turned to Fullaway as he put it on. + +"I quite agree with Mr. Van Koon," he said, "and as I'm James +Allerdyke's cousin and his executor, I'm going to step round and see +this Mr. Delkin at his hotel--the Cecil, you said. It's no use trifling, +Fullaway--Delkin knew, and Mrs. Marlow now tells us his secretary knew. +All right!--my job is to see, in person, anybody who knew. Then, maybe, +I myself shall get to know." + +Van Koon, too, rose. + +"I know Delkin, slightly," he said. "I'll go with you." + +At that, Fullaway jumped up, evidently annoyed and unwilling, but +prepared to act against his own wishes. + +"Oh, all right, all right!" he exclaimed. "In that case we'll all go. +Come on--it's only across the Strand. Back after lunch, Mrs. Marlow, if +anybody wants me." + +The three men marched out, and left the pretty secretary standing by the +table from which they had all risen. She stood there for a few minutes in +deep thought--stood until a single stroke from the clock on the +mantelpiece roused her. At that she walked into the outer office, put on +her coat and hat, and, leaving the hotel, went sharply off in the +direction of Arundel Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MILLIONAIRE, THE STRANGER, AND THE PRINCESS + + +As the three men threaded their way through the crowded Strand and +approached the Hotel Cecil, Fullaway suddenly drew their attention to a +private automobile which was turning in at the entrance to the courtyard. + +"There's Delkin, in his car," he exclaimed, "and, great Scott, there's +our Princess with him--Nastirsevitch! But who's the other man? Looks like +a compatriot of ours, Van Koon, eh?" + +Van Koon, who had been staring about him as they crossed over from the +corner of Wellington Street, turned and glanced at the occupants of the +car. Allerdyke was looking there, too. He had never seen Delkin as yet, +and he was curious to set eyes on a man who had made several millions out +of canning meat. He had no very clear conception of American +millionaires, and he scarcely knew what he expected to see. But there +were two men in the car with the Princess Nastirsevitch, and they were +both middle-aged. One man was a tall, handsome, military-looking fellow, +dressed in grey tweeds and wearing a Homburg hat of light grey with a +darker band; his upturned, grizzled moustache gave him a smart, rather +aggressive appearance; the monocle in his eye added to his general +impressiveness. The other man was not particularly impressive--a medium +sized, rather plump little man, with a bland, smiling countenance and +mild eyes beaming through gold-rimmed spectacles; he sat with his back to +the driver, and was just then leaning forward to tell something to the +Princess and the man in the Homburg hat who were bending towards him and, +smiling at what he said. + +"Which of 'em is Delkin, then?" asked Allerdyke as the automobile swept +into the courtyard. "Big or little?" + +"The little fellow with the spectacles," replied Fullaway. "Quiet, +unobtrusive man, Delkin--but cute as they're made. Know the other man, +Van Koon?" + +Van Koon had twisted round and was staring back in the direction from +which they had come, he shook his head, a little absent-mindedly. + +"Not from Adam," he answered, "but there's a man--Bostonian--just gone +along there that I do know and want to see badly. Wait a bit for me in +the courtyard there, Fullaway--shan't be long." + +He turned as he spoke, and darted off through the crowd, unusually dense +at that moment because of the luncheon hour. Fullaway, making no comment, +walked forward into the courtyard and looked about him. Suddenly he +nodded his head towards a far corner. + +"There's Delkin and the Princess, and the man who was with them, sitting +at a table over there," he said. "I didn't know that Delkin and the +Princess were acquainted. But then, of course, they're both staying in +this hotel, and they're both American. Well, shall we go to them now, +Allerdyke, or shall we sit down here and wait a bit for Van Koon?" + +"We'll wait," replied Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair and drew out his +cigarette-case. "Have a drink while we're waiting?" he suggested, +beckoning a waiter who was passing. "What's it to be?" + +"Oh--something small, then," said Fullaway. "Dry sherry. Better bring +three--Van Koon won't be long." + +But the minutes passed and Van Koon was still absent. Ten minutes more +went, and still he did not come. And Fullaway pulled out his watch with +an air of annoyance. + +"Too bad of Van Koon," he said. "Time's going, and I know Delkin lunches +at two o'clock. Come on, Allerdyke," he continued, rising, "we'll go over +to Delkin. If Van Koon comes, he'll find us. He's probably gone off with +that other man, though--he's an absent-minded chap in some things, and +too much given to the affair of the moment. Come on--I'll introduce you." + +The Chicago millionaire, once put in possession of Allerdyke's name, +looked at him with manifest curiosity, and motioned him and Fullaway to +take seats with himself and his two companions. + +"We were just talking of your case, Mr. Allerdyke," he said quietly. "The +Princess, of course, has told me about you. Fullaway, I don't know if you +know this gentleman--his name's well enough known, anyway. This gentleman +is Mr. Chilverton, the famous New York detective. Chilverton--Mr. +Fullaway, Mr. Allerdyke." + +Fullaway and Allerdyke both looked at the man in the Homburg hat with +great interest as they shook hands with him. Fullaway at any rate knew of +his world-wide reputation; Allerdyke faintly remembered that he had heard +of him in connection with some great criminal affair. + +"Been telling Mr. Chilverton about our business, Mr. Delkin?" asked +Fullaway pleasantly. "Asking his expert advice?" + +"I've told him no more than what he could read for himself in the +newspapers," answered Delkin. "He's got stuff of his own to attend to, +here in London. About our affair now, as you call it, Fullaway. It's not +my affair, or I guess I'd have been more into it by this time. The +Princess here thinks things are going real slow, and so do I. What do you +think, Mr. Allerdyke!" + +"It's a case in which things go slow of sheer necessity," replied +Allerdyke. "It's a case of widespread ramifications--to use a long word. +But--we keep having developments, Mr. Delkin. There's been one this +morning. We came to see you about it--and perhaps you'll let Fullaway +tell!--he'll put things into fewer words than I should." + +"Sure!" answered the millionaire. "Go ahead, Fullaway--we're all +interested." + +Fullaway briefly told the story of the discovery at the hotel in the +Docks that morning, and explained the deductions which had been made from +it. He detailed the connection of Ebers, alias Federman or Herman, with +himself, and reported the conversation which had just taken place at his +own rooms. And then he turned to Allerdyke, with an expressive gesture. + +"I'll let Allerdyke say why we came here," he said. "It was his idea and +Van Koon's--not mine. Your turn, Allerdyke." + +"I shan't be slow to take it," responded Allerdyke, stirring himself. +"I'm one business man--Mr. Delkin's another. I only want to ask you, +Mr. Delkin, if you ever talked of this jewel transaction to anybody +beyond your own secretary? It's a plain question, and you'll understand +why I ask it." + +"Of course," replied Delkin genially. "Quite right to ask. I can answer +it in one word. No! As to telling my secretary, Merrifield, who's been +with me twelve years, and is a thoroughly trustworthy man, I merely told +him sufficient for him to write and send that formal letter--he knew, and +knows (at least, not from me) no details. No, sir!--never a word from me +got about--not even to my own daughter. Of course, the Princess here and +myself have discussed matters--since she came. And now that you're here, +Fullaway, I'll tell you what I think--straight out. I think this affair +has all been planned from your own office!" + +Fullaway flushed and sat up in an attitude of sudden indignation. + +"Oh, come, Mr. Delkin!" he exclaimed. "I--" + +"Go softly, young man." said Delkin. "I mean no harm to you, and no +reflections on you. But you know, I've been in your office a few times, +and I have eyes in my head. What do you know about that fascinating young +woman you have there? I'm a pretty good judge of human nature and +character, and I should say that young lady is as clever and deep as they +make 'em. Who is she? There's one thing sure from what you've just told +us, Fullaway--you let her know all your business secrets." + +Fullaway made no attempt to conceal his chagrin and vexation. + +"I've had Mrs. Marlow in my employ for three years," he answered. "She +came to me with excellent testimonials and references. I've just as +much reason to trust her as you have to trust Merrifield. If she'd +been untrustworthy, she could have robbed or defrauded me many a time +over; she--" + +"Did she ever have the chance of getting hold of a quarter of a million's +worth of jewels before?" asked Delkin with a shrewd glance at Allerdyke. +"Come, now! Even the most trusted people fall before a very big +temptation. All business folk know that. What's Mr. Allerdyke think?" + +Allerdyke was not going to say what he thought. He was wondering if +Fullaway knew what he knew--that Mrs. Marlow was also Miss Slade, that +she had some relations with a man who also bore two different names, that +her actions were somewhat suspicious. But that was not the time to say +all this--he said something non-committal instead. + +"There seems to be no doubt that the knowledge that my cousin was +carrying the jewels leaked out here--and from Fullaway's office," +he answered. + +"Through this fellow Ebers!" broke in Fullaway excitedly. "It's all rot +to think that Mrs. Marlow had anything to do with it! Great Scott!--do +any of you mean to suggest that she engineered several murders, and--" + +Delkin laughed--a soft, cynical laugh. + +"You're lumping a lot of big stuff altogether, Fullaway," he remarked +drily. "Do you know what I think of all this business? I think that +everybody's jumping at conclusions. There are lots of questions, +problems, difficulties that want solving and answering before I come to +any conclusion. I'll tell you what they are," he went on bending forward +in his lounge chair and looking from one to the other of the faces around +him and beginning to tick off his points on the tips of his fingers. +"Listen! One--Was James Allerdyke really murdered, or did he die a +natural death? Two--Had James Allerdyke those jewels in his possession +when he entered that S---- Hotel at Hull! Three--Has the robbery, or +disappearance, of the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels anything whatever +to do with the theft of Mademoiselle de Longarde's property? Four--Was +that man Lydenberg shot in Hull as a result of some connection with +either, or both, of these affairs, or was he murdered for private or +political reasons? Let me get a clear understanding of everything that's +behind all these problems," he concluded, with a knowing smile, "and I'll +tell you something!" + +"You think it possible that the Nastirsevitch affair is the work of one +lot, and the Lennard affair the work of another?" asked Allerdyke, +thoughtfully. "In that case, I'll ask you a question, Mr. Delkin. How do +you account for the fact that my cousin James, the Frenchwoman, Lisette +Beaurepaire, and his valet, Ebers, or Federman, or Herman, were all found +dead under similar circumstances? Come, now!" + +"Aye, but were they?" demanded Delkin, clapping his hands together with a +smile of triumphantly suggestive doubt. "Were they? You don't know--and +the expert analysts don't know yet, and perhaps never will. I'll grant +you that there's a strong probability that Ebers and the French maid were +victims of the same murderer; but that doesn't prove that your cousin +was. No, sir!--my impression is that everybody is taking too much for +granted. And whether it offends you or not, Fullaway--and my intention's +good--you ought to make drastic researches into your office +procedure--you know what I mean. The leakage of the secret, sir, came +from--there!" + +Fullaway rose. + +"Well, I shan't do any good by sitting here," he said, a little huffily. +"If I'm going to begin those drastic researches I'd better begin. Coming, +Allerdyke?" + +The two men walked away together after taking leave of the millionaire +and the Princess. But before they were clear of the courtyard, +Chilverton caught them and tapped Fullaway on the elbow. + +"Say!" he said confidentially. "You won't mind my asking you--who's this +Van Koon that you mentioned?" + +"Man from our side who's been here in London all this spring," answered +Fullaway promptly. "He was coming with Allerdyke and me just now, but he +turned back--just when you and Delkin drove in here." + +Chilverton gave Fullaway a quick look. + +"Did he see me?" he asked. + +"Sure!" replied Fullaway. "Asked who you were--or I did." + +"You did," remarked Allerdyke. "Then he went off." + +"Describe him," said Chilverton. He listened attentively while Fullaway +gave him a sketch of Van Koon's appearance. "Um!" he continued. "Do you +mind my walking to your hotel with you? I believe I know that man, and +I'd like to see him." + +A hall-porter was standing at the door of the Waldorf who had been +there when the three men went out together at one o'clock. Fullaway +beckoned him. + +"Seen anything of Mr. Van Koon?" he asked. + +"Mr. Van Koon?--yes, sir. He came back a few minutes after you and Mr. +Allerdyke and he had gone out, got a suit-case from upstairs, left word +that he'd be away for the night, and went off in a taxi, sir," answered +the man. "Seemed to be in a great hurry, sir!" + +Before Fullaway could speak, Chilverton seized the hall-porter's arm. +"Did you hear him give the cab-driver any direction?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the man promptly. "St. Pancras Station, sir." + +Without a word, Chilverton turned, hurried out to the pavement, and +leapt into a taxi-cab that was standing there unengaged. In another +instant the taxi-cab was off, and Allerdyke and Fullaway turned to each +other. Then Allerdyke laughed. + +"That's why Van Koon turned back, Fullaway," he said in a low voice. "He +recognized Chilverton. Now, then--why did that recognition make him run? +And--who is he?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FIRST PURSUIT + + +For a moment Fullaway stood in the doorway of the hotel, staring towards +the mouth of Kingsway, around the corner of which Chilverton's cab had +already disappeared. Then he turned, gave Allerdyke a look of absolute +non-comprehension, and with a sudden gesture, as of surrender to +circumstances, walked into the hotel and made for the stairs. + +"That licks everything!" he muttered, as he and Allerdyke went up to the +first floor. "Tell you what it is, Allerdyke--my poor brain is getting +into a whirl! We've had quite enough excitement this morning in all +conscience, and now this comes on top of it. Now, how in creation do you +explain this last occurrence?" + +Allerdyke laughed cynically. + +"I don't know so much of the world as you do, Fullaway," he said, "but I +don't think this needs much explanation. When a man makes himself +suddenly scarce at sight of a well-known detective, I should say that man +knows the detective wants him--badly! My impression is that at this +moment your friend Van Koon is running away from Chilverton, and +Chilverton's going hot-foot after him. And--" + +They were at that moment passing the room which Van Koon had occupied, +and Allerdyke suddenly remembered the occasion on which he had seen Mrs. +Marlow steal out of it, suspiciously and furtively, and when its proper +tenant was away. He had carefully abstained from telling Fullaway about +that little incident, preferring to wait until events had further +developed. Should he tell him now--now that there seemed to be evidence +that Van Koon himself was a doubtful character? He hesitated--and while +he hesitated Fullaway strode on, flung open his office door, turned to +the letter-box at the back, and took out some letters and a telegram. He +tore the telegram open, and the next instant flung it on the table with a +fierce exclamation. + +"Damn it all, Allerdyke!" he said, waving an indignant hand at the bit of +pink paper. "What in the name of all that's wicked is the meaning of +that? Read it--read!" + +Allerdyke picked the telegram up and read it aloud. + +"Regret shall be unable to return to office for day or two; called away +on extremely urgent private business.--MARLOW." + +He laughed again as he put the telegram back and turned to Fullaway, who, +hands plunged deep in pockets and black of countenance, was stamping up +and down the room. + +"Um!" said Allerdyke. "Um! Now, in my humble opinion, Fullaway, that's a +good deal queerer than the Van Koon incident. For look you here--your +secretary was talking to us in your room there at less than five minutes +to one, and we left her here when we went out on the stroke of one. And +yet--look at the wire!--she handed that in at the East Strand post office +within ten minutes after we'd left her! What do you make of that?" + +"Damnation!" exclaimed Fullaway. "How the blazes do I know what to make +of it! I seem to be surrounded with--God knows what hellish mysteries! +Allerdyke, is there a regular devil's conspiracy, or--what is there?" + +Allerdyke made a show of looking at the telegram again. In reality, he +was considering matters. Should he tell Fullaway what he knew? He was +more than a little tempted to do so. But his natural sense of caution and +reserve stopped the words before they reached his tongue, and he took +another tack. + +"You said just now, in talking to Delkin, that you'd the greatest +confidence in this Mrs. Marlow, and had the best references with her, +Fullaway," he remarked. "What references?" + +"Good business references!" answered Fullaway excitedly. "The best! Firms +of high standing in the City. Couldn't have had better. Go and ask any of +them about her--I'll lay my last dollar they will say the same. Capital +secretary--clever woman--thoroughly trustworthy!" + +"What do you know about her private life?" asked Allerdyke. + +"What the deuce has the woman's private life to do with me?" snapped +Fullaway. "I know nothing. So long as she comes here at ten, stops till +five, and does her duty--hang her private life!" + +"Do you know where she lives?" asked Allerdyke imperturbably. "But of +course you do." + +"Then I don't!" retorted Fullaway. "Somewhere up town, I believe--West +End somewhere. I don't know. I've nothing to do with her private +affairs. I never have had anything to do with the private affairs of any +employee of mine." + +"She makes her private affairs have something to do with you though," +said Allerdyke, tapping the telegram significantly. "But, in my opinion, +that wire's nothing but an excuse. What're you going to do?" + +"Oh, I don't know!" exclaimed Fullaway. "I'm about sick of the +whole thing." + +Allerdyke pulled out his watch. + +"I must go," he said. "I've a business appointment. I'll see you later." + +Fullaway made no reply, and Allerdyke left him, went downstairs and +sought Gaffney, whom, having found, he led outside to the street. + +"How soon can you lay hands on that brother of yours?" he asked. + +"Twenty minutes--in a cab, sir," replied Gaffney. + +"Get a cab, then, find him, and drive, both of you, to the warehouse," +commanded Allerdyke. "You'll find me there." + +He himself got a cab, too, and went off to Gresham Street, more puzzled +and doubtful than ever. He closeted himself with Ambler Appleyard and +told him all the details of the eventful morning, and the manager +listened in silence, taking everything in and making his own mental +notes. And with his usual acuteness of perception he quickly separated +the important from the momentarily unimportant. + +"You don't want to bother your head about what Mr. Delkin says just now, +Mr. Allerdyke," he said, when Allerdyke had brought this story to an end. +"Never mind his theories--there may be a lot in 'em, and there mayn't be +any more than his personal opinion in 'em. Never mind, too, what +Chilverton wants with Van Koon. Nor if there's any connection between Van +Koon and Miss Slade, or Mrs. Marlow. The thing to do is to find--her!" + +"You think she's hooked it?" said Allerdyke. + +"I should say that something said by some of you at that talk this +morning in Fullaway's room has startled her into action," answered +Appleyard. "Now let's get at facts. You say she sent that wire from the +East Strand post Office within ten minutes of your leaving her? Very +well--I should say she was on her way to Arundel Street to see Rayner, +alias Ramsay. I wish we'd had a constant watch kept on him. But we'll +soon repair that if you've sent for young Gaffney." + +The two Gaffneys arrived at that moment and Appleyard, after some further +talk, assigned them their duties. Gaffney, the chauffeur, was to go at +once and get himself a room at an inn in close proximity to the Pompadour +Hotel, so that he would be at Appleyard's disposal at any hour of the +coming evening and night. Albert Gaffney, the clerk, was to devote +himself to watching Rayner. He was to follow Rayner wherever Rayner went +from the time of his leaving Clytemnestra House that afternoon--even if +Rayner should leave town by motor or by train he was to follow. For, as +Appleyard sagely observed, it was not likely that Mrs. Marlow, alias Miss +Slade, would return to the Pompadour Hotel that night if her fears had +been aroused by what had taken place that morning, and it was a +reasonable presumption that if she and Rayner were in league she would +have communicated with him on leaving Fullaway's office, and that they +would meet again somewhere before the day was over. + +"The only thing now," said Appleyard, when the two Gaffneys had been +presented with funds sufficient to carry each through all possible +immediate emergencies, "is to arrange for a meeting to-night. There are +two matters we want to be certain about. First, if Albert Gaffney +witnesses any meeting between Rayner and Miss Slade, and, in that case, +if he can tell us where they go and what they do. Second, if they both +return, or either of them returns to the Pompadour to-night. So it had +better be near the Pompadour--somewhere in that district, anyhow. Can you +suggest any place?" he continued, turning to the chauffeur. "You know +that district well, don't you?" + +"Tell you the very spot, sir," answered Gaffney promptly. "Lancaster Gate +itself, sir. Close by there, convenient pub, sir--stands back a bit from +the road. Bar-parlour, sir--quiet corners. What time, sir?" + +Appleyard fixed half-past eleven. By that time, he said, he should know +if Mr. Rayner and Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour; by that time, +too, Albert Gaffney would be in a position to report his own doings and +progress. And so the two Gaffneys went off on their respective missions, +and Allerdyke looked at his manager and made a grimace. + +"It's like a lot of blind men seeking for something they couldn't see if +it was shoved under their very noses, Ambler!" he said cynically. "Is it +any good?" + +"Maybe," replied Appleyard. "That Albert Gaffney's a smart chap--he'll +not lose sight of Rayner once he begins to track him. And I'm certain as +certain can be that if Miss Slade's in a hole it's Rayner she'll turn to. +Well--we can only wait now. What're you going to do, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Let's have a bit of a relief," answered, Allerdyke suddenly. "Let's dine +together somewhere and go to a theatre or something until it's time to +keep this appointment. And not a word more of the whole thing till then!" + +"You forget that I've got to look in at the Pompadour last thing to see +if those two are there as usual," remarked Appleyard. "But that'll only +take a few minutes--I can call there on our way to the rendezvous. All +right--no more of it until half-past eleven, then." + +Albert Gaffney was already in a quiet corner of the bar-parlour of the +appointed meeting-place when the other three arrived there. Appleyard had +already ascertained that neither Rayner nor Miss Slade had returned to +the Pompadour; Gaffney, the chauffeur, who had been keeping an eye on the +exterior of that establishment, had nothing to tell. And Albert's face +was somewhat dismal, and his eye inclined to something like an aggrieved +surliness, as he joined the new-comers and answered their first question. + +"It's not my fault, gentlemen," he whispered, bending towards the others +over the little table at which they were all seated. "But the truth +is--I've been baulked! At the last moment as you may term it. Just when +things were getting really interesting!" + +"Have you seen--anything?" asked Appleyard. + +"I'll give you it in proper order, sir," replied Albert Gaffney. "I've +seen both of 'em--followed 'em, until this confounded accident happened. +This is the story of it. I kept watch there, outside C. House--you know +where I mean--till near on to six o'clock. Then he came out. But he +didn't get into his motor, though it was waiting for him. He sent it +away. Then he walked to the Temple Station, and I heard him book for +Cannon Street. So did I, and followed him. He got out at Cannon Street +and went up into the main line station and to the bookstall. There he met +her--she was waiting. They talked a bit, walking about; then they went +into the hotel. I had an idea that perhaps they were going to dine there, +so as I was togged up for any eventualities, I followed 'em in. They did +dine there--so did I, keeping an eye on 'em. They sat some time over and +after their dinner, as if they were waiting for something or somebody. At +last a man--better-class commercial traveller-looking sort of man--came +in and went up to them. He sat down and had a glass of wine, and they all +three talked--very confidential talk, you could see. At last they all +left and went down to the yard outside the station and got into a +taxi-cab--all three. I got another, gave the driver a quiet hint as to +what I was after, and told him to keep the other cab in view. So he +did--for a time. They went first to a little restaurant near Liverpool +Street Station--she and the commercial-looking chap got out and went in; +R. stopped in the cab. The other two came back after a bit with another +man--similar sort--and all three joined R. Then they went off towards +Aldgate way--and we were keeping nicely behind 'em when all of a sudden a +blooming 'bus came to grief right between us and them, and blocked the +traffic! And though I nearly broke my neck in trying to get through and +spot them, it was no use. They'd clean disappeared. But!--I've got the +number of the cab they took from Cannon Street." + +Appleyard nodded approval. + +"Good!" he said. "That's something, Gaffney--a good deal. We can work on +from that." + +"Well?" he continued, turning to Allerdyke. "I think there's nothing else +we can do to-night? We'd better meet, all of us, at Gresham Street, at, +say, ten to-morrow morning; then I shall be able to say if they return to +the Pompadour to-night. It's my impression they won't--but we shall see." + +Allerdyke presently drove him to his hotel, wondering all the way what +these last doings might really mean. They were surprising enough, but +there was another surprise awaiting him. As he walked into the Waldorf +the hall-porter stopped him. + +"There's a gentleman for you, sir, in the waiting-room," he said. "Been +waiting a good hour. Name of Chettle." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE PARCEL FROM HULL + + +Chettle sat alone in the waiting-room, a monument of patient resignation +to his fate. His hands were bunched on the head of his walking-stick, his +chin propped on his hands; his eyes were bent on a certain spot on the +carpet with a fixed stare. And when Allerdyke entered he sprang up as if +roused from a fitful slumber. + +"I should ha' been asleep in another minute, Mr. Allerdyke," he said +apologetically. "Been waiting over an hour, sir--and I'm dog-tired. I've +been at it, hard at it! every minute since I left you. And--I had to +come. I've news." + +"Come up," said Allerdyke. "I've news, too--it's been naught else but +news all day. You haven't seen Fullaway while you've been waiting?" + +"Seen nobody but the hotel folks," answered the detective. He followed +Allerdyke up to his private sitting-room and sighed wearily as he dropped +into a chair. "I'm dog-tired," he repeated. "Fair weary!" + +"Have a drink," said Allerdyke, setting out his decanter and a syphon. +"Take a stiff 'un--I'll have one myself. I'm tired, too. I wouldn't like +this game to be on long, Chettle--it's too exhausting. But, by the Lord +Harry!--I believe it's coming to an end at last!" + +The detective, who had gladly helped himself to Allerdyke's whisky, took +a long pull at his glass and sighed with relief. + +"I believe so myself, Mr. Allerdyke," he said. "I do, indeed!--things are +clearing, sir, though Heaven knows they're thick enough still. You say +you've fresh news!" + +Allerdyke lighted a cigar and pushed the box to his guest. + +"Your news first," he said. "I daresay it's a bit out of the complete +web--let's see if we can fit it in." + +"It's this," answered Chettle, pulling his chair nearer to the table at +which he and his host sat. "When I got back to Hull they told me at the +police headquarters that a young man had been in two or three times, +while I was away, asking if he could see the London detective who was +down about the Station Hotel affair. They told him I'd gone up to town +again, and tried to find out what he wanted, but he wouldn't tell them +anything--said he'd either see me or go up to London himself. So then +they let him know I was coming back, and told him he'd probably find me +there at noon to-day. And at noon to-day he turns up at the +police-station--a young fellow about twenty-five or so, who looked like +what he was, a clerk. A very cute, sharp chap he was, the sort that's +naturally keen about his own interests--name of Martindale--and before +he'd say a word he wanted to see my credentials, and made me swear to +treat what he said as private, and then he pulled out a copy of that +reward bill of yours, and wanted to know a rare lot about that, all of +which amounted to wanting to find out what chance he had of getting hold +of some of the fifty thousand, if not all. And," continued Chettle with a +laugh, "I'd a lot of talking and explaining and wheedling to do before +he'd tell anything." + +"Had he aught to tell?" asked Allerdyke. "So many of 'em think they have, +and then they haven't." + +"Oh, he'd something to tell!" replied Chettle. "Right enough, he'd a good +deal to tell. This--he told me at last, as if every word he let out was +worth a ransom, that he was a parcels office clerk in the North Eastern +Railway Station at Hull, and that since the 13th of May until the day +before yesterday he'd been away in the North of Scotland on his +holidays--been home to his people, in fact--he is a Scotsman, which, of +course, accounts for his keenness about the money. Now, then--on the +night of May 12th--the night, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, of your +cousin's supposed murder, but anyway, of his arrival at Hull--this young +man Martindale was on duty in the parcels office till a very late hour. +About ten to a quarter past ten, as near as he could recollect, a +gentleman came into the parcels office, carrying a small, square parcel, +done up in brown paper and sealed in several places with black wax. He +wanted to know when the next express would be leaving for London, and if +he could send the parcel by it. Martindale told him there would be an +express leaving for Selby very shortly, and there would be a connection +there for a Great Northern express to King's Cross. The gentleman then +wanted to know what time his parcel would be likely to be delivered in +London if he sent it by that train. Martindale told him that as near as +he could say it would be delivered by noon on the next morning, and added +that he could, by paying an extra fee, have it specially registered and +delivered. The gentleman at once acceded to this, handed the parcel +over, paid for it, and left. And in a few minutes after that, Martindale +himself gave the parcel to the guard of the outgoing train." + +Chettle paused for a moment, and took a reflective pull at his glass. + +"Now, then," he went on, after an evident recollecting of his facts, +"Martindale, of course, never saw the gentleman again, and dismissed such +a very ordinary matter from his mind. Early next morning he went off on +his holiday--where he went, right away up in Sutherland, papers were few +and far between. He only heard mere bits of news about all this affair. +But when he got back he turned up the Hull newspapers, and became +convinced that the man who sent that parcel was--your cousin!" + +"Aye!" said Allerdyke, nodding his head. "Aye! I expected that." + +"He was sure it was your cousin," continued Chettle, "from the +description of him in the papers, and from one or two photos of him that +had appeared, though, as you know, Mr. Allerdyke, those were poor things. +But to make sure, I showed him the photo which is inside Lydenberg's +watch-case. 'That's the man!' he said at once. 'I should have known him +again anywhere--I'd a particularly good look at him.' Very well--that +established who the sender of the parcel was. Now then, the next thing +was--to whom was it sent. Well, this Martindale had copied down the name +and address from the station books, and he handed me the slip of paper. +Can you make any guess at it, Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"Damn guess-work!" replied Allerdyke. "Speak out!" + +Chettle leaned nearer, with an instinctive glance at the door. He +lowered his voice to a whisper. + +"That parcel was addressed to Franklin Fullaway, Esq., The Waldorf Hotel, +Aldwych, London," he said. "There!" + +Allerdyke slowly rose from his seat, stared at his visitor, half-moved +across the floor, as if he had some instinctive notion of going +somewhere--and then suddenly sat down again. + +"Aye!" he said. "Aye!--but was it ever delivered?" + +"I'm coming to that," replied Chettle. "That, of course, is the big +thing--the prime consideration. I heard all this young fellow Martindale +had to tell--nothing much more than that, except small details as to what +would be the likely progress of the parcel, and then I gave him strict +instructions to keep his own counsel until I saw him again--after which I +caught the afternoon train to town. Martindale had told me where the +parcel would be delivered from, so as soon as I arrived at King's Cross I +went to the proper place. I had to tell 'em, of course, who I was, and +what I was after, and to produce my credentials before they turned up +their books and papers to trace the delivery of the parcel. That, of +course, wasn't a long or difficult matter, as I had the exact date--May +13th. They soon put the delivery sheet of that particular morning before +me. And there it all was--" + +"And--it was delivered to and received by--who?" broke in Allerdyke +eagerly. "Who, man?" + +"Signed for by Mary Marlow for Franklin Fullaway," answered Chettle in +the same low tones. "Delivered--here--about half-past twelve. So--there +you are! That is--if you know where we are!" + +Allerdyke, whose cigar had gone out, relighted it with a trembling hand. + +"My God!" he said in a fierce, concentrated voice as he flung the match +away. "This is getting--you're sure there was no mistaking the +signature?" he went on, interrupting himself. "No mistake about it?" + +"It was a woman's writing, and an educated woman's writing, anyway," said +Chettle. "And plain enough. But there was one thing that rather struck me +and that they couldn't explain, though they said I could have it +explained by inquiry of the clerk who had the books in charge on May 13th +and the boy who actually delivered the parcel--neither of 'em was about +this evening." + +"What?" demanded Allerdyke. + +"Why, this," answered Chettle. "The parcel had evidently been signed for +twice. The line on which the signatures were placed had two initials in +pencil on it--scribbled hurriedly. The initials were 'F.F.' Over that was +the other in ink--what I tell you: Mary Marlow for Frank Fullaway." + +Allerdyke let his mind go back to the events of May 13th. + +"You say the parcel was delivered here at twelve-thirty noon on May +13th?" he said presently. "Of course, Fullaway wasn't here then. He'd set +off to me at Hull two or three hours before that. He joined me at Hull +soon after two that day. And what I'm wondering is--does he know of that +parcel's arrival here in his absence. Did he ever get it? If he did, why +has he never mentioned it to me? Coming, as it did, from--James!" + +"There's a much more important question than that, Mr. Allerdyke," said +Chettle. "This--what was in that parcel?" + +Allerdyke started. So far he had been concentrating on the facts given +him by the detective--further he had not yet gone. + +"Why!" he asked, a sudden suspicion beginning to dawn on him. "Good +God!--you don't suggest--" + +"My belief, Mr. Allerdyke," said Chettle, quietly and emphatically, "is +that the parcel contained the Russian lady's jewels! I do believe it--and +I'll lay anything I'm right, too." + +Allerdyke shook his head. + +"Nay, nay!" he said incredulously. "I can't think that James would send a +quarter of a million pounds' worth of jewels in a brown paper parcel by +train! Come, now!" + +Chettle shook his head, too--but in contradiction, "I've known of much +stranger things than that, Mr. Allerdyke," he said confidently. "Very +much stranger things. Your cousin, according to your account of him, was +an uncommonly sharp man. He was quick at sizing up things and people. He +was the sort--as you've represented him to me--that was what's termed +fertile in resource. Now, I've been theorizing a bit as I came up in the +train; one's got to in my line, you know. Supposing your cousin got an +idea that thieves were on his track?--supposing he himself fancied that +there was danger in that hotel at Hull? What would occur to him but to +get rid of his valuable consignment, as we'll call it? And what +particular danger was there in sending a very ordinary-looking parcel as +he did? The thing's done every day--by train or post every day valuable +parcels of diamonds, for instance, are sent between London and Paris. The +chances of that parcel being lost between Hull and this hotel +were--infinitesimal! I honestly believe, sir, that those jewels were in +that parcel--sent to be safe." + +"In that case you'd have thought he'd have wired Fullaway of their +dispatch," said Allerdyke. + +"How do we know that he didn't intend to, first thing in the morning?" +asked Chettle. "He probably did intend to--but he wasn't there to do it +in the morning, poor gentleman! No--and now the thing is, Mr. +Allerdyke--prompt action! What do you think, sir?" + +"You mean--go and tell everything to your people at headquarters?" asked +Allerdyke. + +"I shall have to," answered Chettle. "There's no option for me--now. What +I meant was--are you prepared to tell them all you know?" + +"Yes!" replied Allerdyke. "At least, I will be in the morning--first +thing. I'll just tell you how things have gone to-day. Now," he +continued, when he had given Chettle a full account of the recent +happenings, "you stay here to-night--you can have my chauffeur's room, +next to mine--and in the morning I'll telephone to Appleyard to meet us +outside of New Scotland Yard, and after a word or two with him, we'll see +your chief, and then--" + +Chettle shook his head. + +"If that woman got a night's start, Mr. Allerdyke--" he began. + +"Can't help it now," said Allerdyke decisively. "Besides, you don't know +what Appleyard mayn't have learned during the night." + +But when Appleyard met them in Whitehall next morning, in response to +Allerdyke's telephone summons, his only news was that neither Rayner nor +Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour, and without another word +Allerdyke motioned Chettle to lead the way to the man in authority. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE PACKET IN THE SAFE + + +It was to a hastily called together gathering of high police officials +that the three visitors told all they knew. One after another they +related their various stories--Chettle of his doings and discoveries at +Hull, Allerdyke of what had gone on at the hotel, Appleyard of the +mysterious double identity of the woman who was Miss Slade in one place +and Mrs. Marlow in another. The officials listened quietly and +absorbedly, rarely interrupting the narrators except to ask a searching +question. And in the end they talked together apart, after which all went +away except the man who had kept his hands on the reins from the +beginning. He turned to his visitors with an air of decision. + +"Well, of course, there's but one thing to be done, now," he said. "We +must get a warrant for this woman's arrest at once. We must also get a +search warrant and examine her belongings at that private hotel you've +told us of, Mr. Appleyard. All that shall be done immediately. But first +I want you to tell me one or two things. What are those two men you spoke +of doing--the Gaffneys?" + +"One of them, the chauffeur, is hanging about the Pompadour," replied +Appleyard. "The other--Albert--has gone down to Cannon Street to see if +he can trace the driver of the taxi-cab in which Rayner and Miss Slade +drove away from there last night." + +"He'll do no harm in trying to find that out," observed the chief. "But +I should like to see him--I want to ask some questions about the man who +joined those two after dinner at Cannon Street last night, and the other +man whom he saw them take up near Liverpool Street Station. Will he keep +himself in touch with your warehouse in Gresham Street?" + +"Sure to," answered Appleyard. + +"Then just telephone to your people there, and tell them to tell him, if +he comes in asking for you, to come along and seek you here," said the +chief. "I'm afraid I can't spare either you or Mr. Allerdyke, for your +joint information'll be wanted presently for these warrants, and when +we've got them I want you to go with me--both of you--to the Pompadour." + +"You're going to search?" asked Allerdyke when Appleyard had gone to the +telephone. "You think you may find something--there?" + +"There's enough evidence to justify a search," answered the chief. +"Naturally we want to know all we can. But I should say that if she's +mixed up with a gang, and if they've got those jewels through her--as +seems uncommonly likely--she'll have been ready for a start at any +minute, and the probability is we'll find nothing to help us. The great +thing, of course, will be to get hold of the woman herself. It's a most +unfortunate thing that Albert Gaffney was stopped from following that +cab, last night--I've no opinion, Mr. Allerdyke, of your amateur +detective as a rule, but from Mr. Appleyard's account of him, this one +seems to have done very well. If we only knew where those two went--" + +Appleyard presently came back from the telephone with a face alive with +fresh news. + +"Albert Gaffney's at the warehouse now," he announced. "I've just had a +word with him. He found the taxi-cab driver an hour ago, and he got the +information he wanted. And I'm afraid it's--nothing!" + +"What is it, anyhow?" asked the chief, with a smile. "Perhaps Albert +Gaffney doesn't know its value." + +"The man drove them, all four, to the corner of Whitechapel Church," said +Appleyard. "There he set them down, and there he left them. That's all." + +"Well, that's something, anyway," remarked the chief. "It carries the +thing on another stage. Now we'll leave that and attend to our own +business." + +The Pompadour Private Hotel, like most establishments of its class in +Bayswater, was a place of peace and of comparative solitude during the +greater part of the day. It was busy enough up to ten o'clock in the +morning, and it began to be busy enough again by six o'clock in the +evening, but from ten to six more than two-thirds of its denizens were +not to be found within its walls. The business man had gone to the City; +the professional women had departed to their offices; nothing of humanity +but a few elderly widows and spinsters, and an old gentleman or two were +left in the various rooms. Everything, therefore, was quiet enough when +the chief, accompanied by Chettle, drove up, entered the hall, and asked +to see the manager and manageress. As for Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +naturally felt considerable dislike to appearing on this particular scene +of operations, they were a few hundred yards away, walking about just +within the confines of Kensington Gardens, and waiting with more or less +patience until the police officials came to them with news of the result +of the search. + +The manageress of the hotel, a smart lady who wore dignified black gowns +all day long--stuff in the morning, and silk at night as if she were a +barrister, gradually advancing in grandeur--gazed at the two callers with +some suspicion as she ushered them into a private room at the back of her +office. The chief, an irreproachably attired man, might have been an army +gentleman, she thought; an instinctive wonder rose in her mind as to +whether he was not some elderly man of standing who, accompanied by his +valet, desired to arrange about a suite of rooms. But his first words +gave her an unpleasant shock--she felt for all the world as if somebody +had suddenly turned a shower of ice-cold water on her. + +"Now, ma'am," said the chief, "your husband the manager is out, and you +are in sole and responsible charge, I understand? Pray don't be +alarmed--this is nothing that concerns you or your affairs, personally, +and we will endeavor to arrange everything so that you have no annoyance. +The fact of the case is, we are police officers from the Criminal +Investigation Department at New Scotland Yard, and I hold two warrants, +just granted by a justice of peace, which are in relation to an inmate of +your hotel." + +The manageress dropped into a chair and stared at her visitors. +Police officers? Warrants? Justices? It was the first time in her highly +respectable Bayswater existence that she had ever been brought into +contact with these dreadful things. And--an inmate of her establishment! + +"Oh, you must be mistaken!" she exclaimed in horror-stricken accents. "A +warrant?--that means you want to arrest somebody. An inmate--surely none +of my servants--" + +"Nothing to do with servants," interrupted the chief. "I said an inmate. +Pray don't be alarmed. We want a young lady who is known to you as Miss +Mary Slade." + +The manageress got up as quickly as she had sat down. For one moment she +gazed at her visitor as if he had demanded her very life--the next her +lip curled in scorn. + +"Miss Slade!" she exclaimed. "Impossible, sir! Miss Slade is a young lady +of the very highest respectability--she has resided in this hotel for +three years!" + +"I am quite prepared to believe that a residence of three months under +your roof is enough to confer an irreproachable character on any one, +ma'am," replied the chief with a polite smile. "But the fact remains, I +have here a warrant for Miss Slade's arrest--never mind on what +charge--and here another empowering me to search her room or rooms, her +trunk, any property she has in this house. And as time presses I must ask +you to give us every facility in the performance of our unpleasant duty. +But first a question or two. Miss Slade is not at home?" + +"She is not!" replied the manageress emphatically. + +"And I think she did not return home last night?" suggested the chief. + +"No--she didn't," assented the much perplexed woman. "That's quite true." + +"Was that unusual?" asked the chief. + +The manageress bit her lip. She did not want to talk, but she had a vague +idea that the law compelled speech. + +"Well, I don't know what it's all about," she said, "and I don't want to +say anything that would bring trouble to Miss Slade, but--it was unusual. +For two reasons. I've never known Miss Slade to be away from here for a +night except when she went for her usual month's holiday, and I'm +surprised that she should stop away without giving me word or sending a +telephone message." + +"Then her absence was unusual," said the chief smiling. "Now, was there +anything else that was unusual, last night--in connection with it?" + +The manageress started and looked at her visitor as if she half suspected +him of possessing the power of seeing through brick walls. + +"Well," she said, a little reluctantly, "there was certainly another of +our guests away last night, too--one who scarcely ever is away, and +certainly never without letting us know that he's going away. And it's +quite true he's a very great friend of Miss Slade's--somebody did say, +jokingly, this morning, that perhaps they'd run away and got married." + +"Ah!" said the chief, with another smile. "I scarcely think Miss Slade +would contract such an important engagement at this moment, she has +evidently much else to think about. But now let us see Miss Slade's +apartment, if you please, and I shall be obliged to you, ma'am, if you +will accompany us." + +Not only did the manageress accompany them, but the manager also, who +just then arrived and was filled with proper horror to hear that such +things were happening. But, being a man, he knew that it is every +citizen's duty to assist the police, and he accepted his fate cheerfully, +and bade his wife give the gentlemen every help that lay in her power. +After which both conducted the two visitors to Miss Slade's room, and +became fascinated in acting as spectators. + +Miss Slade's apartment was precisely that of any other young lady of +refined taste. It was a good-sized, roomy apartment, half bedroom, half +sitting-room, and it was bright and gay with books and pictures, and +evidences of literary and artistic fancies and leanings. And Chettle, +taking a first comprehensive look round, went straight to the mantelpiece +and pointed out a certain neatly framed photograph to his superior. + +"That's it, sir," he said in a low voice. "That's what the other was +taken from. You know, sir--Mr. James A. Mr. Marshall A. said she said she +was going to have it framed. Odd, ain't it, sir?--if she really is +implicated." + +The chief agreed with his man. It was certainly a very odd thing that +Miss Slade, alias Mrs. Marlow, if she really had any concern with the +murder of James Allerdyke, should put his photograph in a fairly +expensive silver frame, and hang it where she could look at it every +day. But, as Chettle sagely remarked, you never can tell, and you never +can account, and you never know, and meanwhile there was the urgent +business on hand. + +The business on hand came to nothing. Manager and manageress watched with +interested amazement while the two searchers went through everything in +that room with a thoroughness and rapidity produced by long practice. +They were astounded at the deftness with which the heavy-looking Mr. +Chettle explored drawers and trunks, and the military-looking chief +peered into wardrobes and cupboards and examined desks and tables. But +they were not so much astonished as the two detectives themselves were. +For in all that room--always excepting the photograph of James +Allerdyke--there was not a single object, a scrap of paper, anything +whatever, which connected the Miss Slade of the Pompadour with the Mrs. +Marlow of Fullaway's or bore reference to the matter in hand. The +searchers finally retired utterly baffled. + +"Drawn blank," murmured the chief good-humouredly. He turned to the +lookers-on. "I suppose you have nothing of Miss Slade's?" he said. +"Nothing confined to your care, eh?" + +The manageress glanced at her husband, with whom she had kept up a +whispered conversation. The manager nodded. + +"Better tell them," he said. "No good keeping anything back." + +"Ah!" said the chief. "You have something?" + +"A small parcel," admitted the manageress, "which she gave me a few days +ago to lock up in our safe. She said it contained something valuable, and +she hadn't anything to lock it up in. It's in the safe now." + +"I'm afraid we must see it," said the chief. + +At the foot of the stairs the hall-porter accosted the party and looked +at the chief narrowly. + +"Name of Chettle, sir?" he asked. "You're wanted at our +telephone--urgent." + +The chief motioned to Chettle, who went off with the hall-porter; he +himself followed the manageress into her office. She unlocked a safe, +rummaged amongst its contents, and handed him a small square parcel, done +up in brown paper and sealed with black wax. Before he could open it, +Chettle returned, serious and puzzled, and whispered to him. Then, with +the shortest of leave-takings, the two officers hurried away from the +Pompadour, the chief carrying the little parcel tightly grasped in his +right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE HYDE PARK TEA-HOUSE + + +Once outside the Pompadour Hotel the chief and his subordinate hurried at +a great pace towards the Lancaster Gate entrance to Kensington Gardens. +And when they had crossed Bayswater Road the superior pulled himself up, +took a breath, and looked around him. + +"No sign of them yet, Chettle," he observed. "Did he say at once?" + +"Said they'd be on their way in two minutes, sir," answered Chettle. "And +it wouldn't take them many minutes to run up here." + +"I wonder what it's all about?" mused the chief. "Some new development +since we left the Yard, of course. Well--I think we may probably find +something in this parcel, Chettle, that will surprise us as much as any +new development can possibly do. It strikes me--" + +"Here they are, sir!" interrupted Chettle. He had lingered on the +kerb, looking towards the rise of the road going towards the Marble +Arch, and his quick eyes had spotted a closed taxi-cab which came out +of the Marlborough Gate at full speed and turned down in their +direction. "Blindway and two others," he announced. "Seems to be in +force, sir, anyhow!" + +The taxi-cab pulled up at the little gate leading into Kensington Gardens +by the pumping-station, and Blindway, followed by two other men, +hurriedly descended and joined his superior. + +"Well, what is it?" demanded the chief. "Something new? And about +this affair?" + +Blindway made a gesture suggesting that they should enter the Gardens; +once within he drew the chief aside, leaving his companions with Chettle. + +"About half an hour ago," he said, "a telephone message came on from the +City police. They said they'd received some queerish information about +this affair, but only particularly about the death of that man down at +the hotel in the Docks. Their information ran to this--that the actual +murderer has an appointment with some of his associates this afternoon at +that tea-house in Hyde Park, and that if the City police would send some +plain-clothes men up there he'll be pointed out. So the City lot want us +to join them, and I was sent along to meet you here, sir--I've brought +those two men and of course there's Chettle. We're all to go along to +this tea-house, not in a body, naturally, but to sort of drop in, and to +wait events. Of course, sir, that last murder occurred in the City, and +so the City police want to come in at it, and--" + +"No further details?" asked the chief, obviously puzzled. "Nothing as to +who's going to point out the murderer, and so on?" + +"Nothing!" replied Blindway. "At least, nothing reported to us. All we've +got to do is to be there, on the spot, and to keep our eyes open for the +critical moment." + +"And what time is the critical moment to be?" asked the chief, a little +superciliously. "It all seems remarkably vague, Blindway--why couldn't +they give us more news?" + +"Don't know, sir--they seemed purposely vague," replied the detective. +"However, the time fixed is two o'clock. To be there about two--that was +the request--at least four of us." + +The chief turned and summoned the other three men. + +"You'd better break up," he said. "Two of you approach the place from one +way--two from another. It's now a quarter-past one--you've plenty of +time. Stroll across the park to this spot--I'll join you by two o'clock. +I believe you can get light refreshments at this tea-house; get +yourselves something, so as to look like mere loungers--but keep your +eyes open." + +"Do you want me, sir?" asked Chettle, eyeing the parcel with evident +desire to know what mystery it concealed. + +"No--you go with Blindway," answered the chief. "He'll tell you what's +happened. I must join Mr. Allerdyke and Mr. Appleyard--then we'll come +over to you. Don't take any notice of us." + +The four detectives went off into Hyde Park, and there separated in +couples; the chief turned and went along the straight path which runs +parallel with Bayswater Road just within the shrubberies of Kensington +Gardens. Presently he caught sight of Allerdyke and Appleyard, who +occupied two chairs under a shady hawthorn tree, and he laid hold of +another, dragged it to them, and sat down. Each looked a silent inquiry, +and the chief, with a smile, held up the parcel. + +"Chettle and I," he said, "have, in the presence of the manager and +manageress of the Pompadour, made a thorough examination of the room and +the belongings of the young lady who resides there under the name of Miss +Slade. There is not a jot or tittle of anything there to show that she is +also Mrs. Marlow--except one thing. That, Mr. Allerdyke, is the +all-important photograph of your cousin James, which is hanging, in a +neat silver frame, over her mantelpiece. What do you think of that, +gentlemen?" + +"Odd!" said Appleyard, after a moment's reflective silence. + +"Very queer!" said Allerdyke frowning. "Very queer, indeed--considering." + +"Queer and odd!" assented the chief. "As to considering--well, I don't +quite know what it is that we are considering. If Miss Slade, alias Mrs. +Marlow, is a member of the gang--if there is one--which killed and robbed +James Allerdyke, it's a decidedly odd and queer thing that she should +frame the victim's portrait and hang it where she'll see it last thing at +night and first thing in the morning. Most extraordinary! And it's made +me think a good deal. I believe you once said, Mr. Allerdyke, that your +cousin was a bit of a ladies' man?" + +"Bit that way inclined, was James," replied Allerdyke laconically. +"Yes--he fancied the ladies a bit, no doubt. In quite a proper way, you +know--liked their society, and so on." + +"Just so!" assented the chief. "Well, I wonder if he and Miss Slade, +alias Mrs. Marlow, knew each other at all--outside business? But it's not +much use to speculate on that just now--we've more urgent matters to +attend to. And first--this!" + +He had put a copy of a morning newspaper round the small brown paper +parcel, and now took it off and showed the parcel itself to the two +wondering men. One of them at any rate uttered a sharp exclamation. + +"Brown paper, sealed with black wax!" said Allerdyke, remembering what +Chettle had told him. "Good Lord--what--" + +"I don't suppose this is the original brown paper, nor these the +original dabs of black wax," remarked the chief as he produced a pocket +pen-knife. "But this parcel, gentlemen, was recently confided by Miss +Slade to the care of the manageress of the Pompadour, to be put in the +hotel safe--from which it was produced to me twenty minutes ago. And--I +am now going to see what it contains." + +The others sat in absorbed silence while the chief delicately removed the +wrappings of the mysterious parcel. A sheet of brown paper, a sheet of +cartridge paper beneath it--and within these very ordinary envelopings an +old cigar-box, loosely tied about with a bit of knotted string. + +"Now for it!" said the chief. "The box contains--" + +He raised the lid as the other two leaned nearer. A stray ray of +sunlight, filtering through the swaying boughs of the hawthorn, shot down +on the box as the chief lifted a wad of soft paper and revealed a +glittering mass of pearls and diamonds. + +"The Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels!" said the chief softly. "That's +just what I expected ever since the manageress gave me this parcel. This, +of course, is the parcel which your cousin sent that night from Hull, Mr. +Allerdyke. It fell into Mrs. Marlow's hands--alias Miss Slade--and here +it is! That's all right." + +The other two men stared at the contents of the cigar-box, then at the +chief, then at each other. A deep silence had fallen--it was some minutes +before Allerdyke broke it. + +"All wrong, I should say!" he muttered. "However, if those are the +things--I only say if, mind--I suppose we're a step nearer to something +else. But--what?" + +The chief, who appeared to both of them to be strangely phlegmatic about +the whole affair, proceeded to close the box, re-invest it in its +wrappings, and tie it about with the original string. + +"We are certainly a step nearer to a good deal," he said, making a neat +job of his parcel and patting it affectionately as if he had been a +milliner's apprentice doing up a choice confection. "And the next thing +we do is to take a walk together into Hyde Park. On the way I will tell +you why we are going there--that is, I will tell you what I know of the +reason for such an expedition. It isn't much--but it has certain +possibilities." + +The two North-countrymen listened with great curiosity as they marched +across the grass towards the tea-house. Each possessed the North-country +love of the mysterious and the bizarre--this last development tickled +their fancy and stirred their imagination. + +"What on earth d'ye make out of it all?" asked Allerdyke. "Gad!--it's +more like a children's game of hide-and-seek in an old house of nooks and +corners than what I should have imagined police proceedings would be. +What say you, Ambler?" + +"I don't know how much romance and adventure there usually are in police +proceedings," replied Appleyard cautiously. + +"A good answer, Mr. Appleyard," said the chief laughing. "Ah, there's a +lot more of both than civilians would think, in addition to all the +sordid and dismal details. What do I make out of it, Mr. Appleyard? +Why--I think somebody has all this time been making a special +investigation of this mystery for himself, and that at last he's going to +wind it up with a sensational revelation to--us! Don't you be surprised +if you've an application for that fifty thousand pound reward before +to-night!" + +"You really think that?" exclaimed Allerdyke incredulously. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," answered the chief, "Something considerable +is certainly at hand. Now let us settle our plan of campaign. This +tea-garden, I remember, is a biggish place. We will sit down at one of +the tables--we will appear to be three quiet gentlemen disposed to take a +cup of coffee with our cigars or cigarettes--we will be absorbed in our +own conversation and company, but at the same time we will look about us. +Therefore, use your eyes, gentlemen, as much as you like--but don't +appear to take any particular interest in anything you see, and don't +openly recognize any person you set eyes on." + +It was a very warm and summer-like day, and the lawns around the +tea-house were filled with people, young and old. Some were drinking tea, +some coffee; some were indulging in iced drinks. Nursemaids and children +were much in evidence under the surrounding trees; waitresses were +flitting about hither and thither: there was nothing to suggest that this +eminently London park scene was likely to prove the setting of the last +act of a drama. + +"You're much more likely to see and to recognize than we are," remarked +Allerdyke, as the three gathered round a table on the edge of the crowd. +"For my part I see nothing but men, women, and children--except that I +also see Chettle, sitting across yonder with another man who's no doubt +one of your lot." + +"Just so," assented the chief. He gave an order for coffee to a passing +waitress, lighted a cigar which Allerdyke offered him, and glanced round +as if he were looking at nothing in particular. "Just so. Well, I see my +own four men--I also see at least six detectives who belong to the City +police, and there may be more. But I know those six personally. They are +spread about, all over the place, and I daresay that every man is very +much on the stretch, innocent enough as he looks." + +"Six!" exclaimed Appleyard. "And four of yours! That looks as if they +expected to have to tackle a small army!" + +"You never know what you may have to tackle in affairs like this," +replied the chief. "Nothing like having reserves in hand, you know. Now +let me give you a tip. It is almost exactly two o'clock. Never mind the +people who are already here, gentlemen. Keep your eyes open on any +new-comers. Look out--quietly--for folk who seem to drop in as casually +as we do. Look, for example, at those two well-dressed men who are coming +across the sward there, swinging their sticks. They--" + +Allerdyke suddenly bent his head towards the table. + +"Careful!" he said. "Gad!--I know one of 'em, anyhow. Van Koon, as I +live!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE CHILVERTON ANTI-CLIMAX + + +The chief allowed himself to take a quick searching glance at the two men +he had indicated. He had already heard of Van Koon and of his sudden +disappearance from the hotel after the chance encounter with Chilverton, +and he now regarded him with professional interest. + +"The tall man, you mean?" he asked. + +"Just so," answered Allerdyke. "The other man I don't know. But that's +Van Koon. What's he here for, now? Is he in this, after all?" + +The chief made no reply. He was furtively watching the two men, who had +dropped into chairs at a vacant table beneath the shade of the trees and +were talking to a waitress. Having taken a good look at Van Koon, he +turned his attention to Van Koon's companion, a little, dapper man, +smartly dressed in bright blue serge, and finished off with great care in +all his appointments. He seemed to be approaching middle age; there were +faint traces of grey in his pointed beard and upward-twisted moustaches; +he carried his years, however, in very jaunty fashion, and his white +Homburg hat, ornamented with a blue ribbon, was set at a rakish angle on +the side of his close-cropped head. In his right eye he wore a +gold-rimmed monocle; just then he was bringing it to bear on the waitress +who stood between himself and his companion. + +"You don't know the other man, either of you?" asked the chief suddenly. + +Allerdyke shook his head, but Appleyard nodded. + +"I know that chap by sight," he said. "I've seen him in the City--about +Threadneedle Street--two or three times of late. He's always very smartly +dressed--I took him for a foreigner of some sort." + +The chief turned to his coffee. + +"Well--never mind him," he said. "Pay no attention--so long as that man +is Van Koon, I'll watch him quietly. But you may be sure he has come here +on the same business that has brought us here. I--" + +Allerdyke, whose sharp eyes were perpetually moving round the crowded +enclosure and the little groups which mingled outside it, suddenly nudged +the chief's elbow. + +"Miss Slade!" he whispered. "And--Rayner!" + +Appleyard had caught sight of his two fellow inmates of the Pompadour at +the very moment in which Allerdyke espied them. He slightly turned away +and bent his head; Allerdyke followed his example. + +"You can't mistake them," he said to the chief. "I've described the man +to you--a hunchback. They're crossing through the crowd towards the +tea-house door." + +"And they've gone in there," replied the chief in another minute. +"Um!--this is getting more mysterious than ever. I wish I could get a +word with some of our men who really know something! It seems to me--" + +But at that moment Blindway came strolling along, his nose in the air, +his eyes fixed on the roofs of the houses outside the park, and he +quietly dropped a twisted scrap of paper at his superior's feet as he +passed. The chief picked it up, spread it out on the marble-topped table, +and read its message aloud to his companions. + +"City men say the informant is here and will indicate the men to be +arrested in a few minutes." + +The chief tore the scrap of paper into minute shreds and dropped them on +the grass. + +"Things are almost at the crisis," he murmured with a smile. "It seems +that we, gentlemen, are to play the part of spectators. The next thing to +turn up--" + +"Is Fullaway!" suddenly exclaimed Allerdyke, thrown off his guard and +speaking aloud. "And, by Gad!--he's got that man Chilverton with him. +This--by the Lord Harry, he's caught sight of us, too!" + +Fullaway was coming quickly up the lawn from the direction of the +Serpentine; he looked unusually alert, vigorous, and bustling; by his +side, hurrying to keep pace with him, was the New York detective. And +Fullaway's keen eyes, roving about, fell on Allerdyke and the chief +and he made through the crowd in their direction, beckoning Chilverton +to follow. + +"Hullo--hullo!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Allerdyke's shoulder, +nodding to the chief, and staring inquisitively at Appleyard. "So you're +here, too, eh, Allerdyke? It wasn't you who sent me that mysterious +message, was it?" + +"What message?" growled Allerdyke. "Be careful! Don't attract +attention--there are things going on here, I promise you! Drop into +that chair, man--tell Chilverton to sit down. What message are you +talking about?" + +Fullaway, quick to grasp the situation, sat down in a chair which +Appleyard pulled forward and motioned his companion to follow his +example. + +"I got a queer message--typewritten--on a sheet of notepaper which bore +no address, about an hour ago," he said. "It told me that if I came here, +to this Hyde Park tea-house, at two o'clock, I'd have this confounded +mystery explained. No signature--nothing to show who or where it came +from. So I set out. And just as I was stepping into a taxi to come on +here, I met Chilverton, so he came along with me. What brings you, then? +Similar message, eh? And what--" + +"Hush!" whispered Appleyard. "Miss Slade's coming out of the tea-house! +And who's the man that's with her?" + +All five men glanced covertly over their shoulders at the open door of +the tea-house, some twenty to thirty yards away. Down its steps came Miss +Slade, accompanied by a man whom none of them had ever seen before--a +well-built, light-complexioned, fair-haired man, certainly not an +Englishman, but very evidently of Teutonic extraction, who was talking +volubly to his companion and making free use of his hands to point or +illustrate his conversation. And when he saw this man, the chief turned +quickly to Allerdyke and intercepted a look which Allerdyke was about to +give him--the same thought occurred to both. Here was the man described +by the hotel-keeper of Eastbourne Terrace and the shabby establishment +away in the Docks! + +"Miss Slade!" exclaimed Fullaway. "What on earth are you talking about? +That's my secretary, Mrs. Mar--" + +"Sh!" interrupted the chief. "That's one of your surprises, Mr. Fullaway! +Quiet, now, quiet. Our job is to watch. Something'll happen in a minute." + +Miss Slade and her talkative companion edged their way through the crowd +and passed out to an open patch of grass whereon a few children were +playing. And as they went, two or three men also separated themselves +from the idlers around the tables and strolled quietly and casually in +the same direction. Also, Van Koon and the man with him left their table, +and, as if they had no object in life but mere aimless chatter and +saunter, wandered away towards the couple who had first emerged from the +enclosure. And thereupon, Fullaway, not to be repressed, burst out with +another exclamation. + +"My God, Chilverton!" he cried. "There is Van Koon! And, by all that's +wonderful, Merrifield with him. Now what--" + +The New York detective, who was under no orders, and knew no reason why +he should restrain himself, wasted no time in words. Like a flash, he had +leapt from his chair, threaded his way through the surrounding people, +and was after his quarry. And with a muttered exclamation of anger, the +chief rose and followed--and it seemed to Allerdyke that almost at the +same instant a score of men, up to that moment innocently idling and +lounging, rose in company. + +"Damn it!" he growled, as he and Appleyard got up. "That chap's going to +spoil everything. What is he after? Confound you, Fullaway!--why couldn't +you keep quiet for a minute? Look there!" + +Van Koon had turned and seen Chilverton. So, too, had Van Koon's +companion. So, also, had Miss Slade and the man she was walking with. +That man, too, saw the apparent idlers closing in upon him. For a second +he, and Van Koon, and the other man stared at each other across the +grass; then, as with a common instinct, each turned to flee--and at that +instant Miss Slade, with a truly feminine cry, threw herself upon her +companion and got an undeniably firm grip on his struggling arms. + +"This is the Eastbourne Terrace man!" she panted as Allerdyke and +half-a-dozen detectives relieved her. "Get the other two--Van Koon and +Merrifield. Quick!" + +But Van Koon was already in the secure grip of Chilverton, and the person +in the light blue suit was being safely rounded up by a posse of +grim-faced men. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE SMART MISS SLADE + + +In no city of the world is a crowd so quickly collected as in London; in +none is one so easily satisfied and dispersed. Within five minutes the +detectives had hurried their three captives away towards the nearest +cab-rank, and the people who had left their tea and their cakes to gather +round, to stare, and to listen had gone back to their tables to discuss +this latest excitement. But the chief and Allerdyke, Fullaway and +Appleyard, Miss Slade and Rayner stood in a little group on the grass and +looked at each other. Eventually, all looks except Rayner's centred on +Miss Slade, who, somewhat out of breath from her tussle, was settling her +hat and otherwise composing herself. And it was Miss Slade who spoke +first when the party, as a party, found itself capable of speech. + +"I don't know who it was," observed Miss Slade, rather more than a little +acidly, "who came interfering in my business, but whoever he was he +nearly spoilt it." + +She darted a much-displeased look at the chief, who hastened to +exculpate himself. + +"Not I!" he said with a smile. "So don't blame me, Miss Slade. I was +merely a looker-on, a passive spectator--until the right moment +arrived. Do I gather that the right moment had not actually +arrived--for your purpose?" + +"You do," answered Miss Slade. "It hadn't. If you had all waited a few +moments you would have had all three men in conference round one of those +tables, and they could have been taken with far less fuss and bother--and +far less danger to me. It's the greatest wonder in the world that I'm not +lying dead on that grass!" + +"We are devoutly thankful that you are not," said the chief fervently. +"But--you're not! And the main thing is that the three men are in +custody, and as for interference--" + +"It was Chilverton," interrupted Fullaway, who had been staring at his +mysterious secretary as if she were some rare object which he had never +seen before. "Chilverton!--all Chilverton's fault. As soon as he set eyes +on Van Koon nothing would hold him. And what I want to know--" + +"We all want to know a good deal," remarked the chief, glancing +invitingly at Miss Slade. "Miss Slade has no doubt a good deal to tell. I +suggest that we walk across to those very convenient chairs which I see +over there by the shrubbery--then perhaps--" + +"I want to know a good deal, too," said Miss Slade. + +"I don't know who you are, to start with, and I don't know why Mr. +Appleyard happens to be here, to end with." + +Appleyard answered these two questions readily. + +"I'm here because I happen to be Mr. Allerdyke's London representative," +he said. "This gentleman is a very highly placed official of the Criminal +Investigation Department." + +Miss Slade, having composed herself, favoured the chief with a deliberate +inspection. + +"Oh! in that case," she remarked, "in that case, I suppose I had better +satisfy your curiosity. That is," she continued, turning to Rayner, "if +Mr. Rayner thinks I may?" + +"I was going to suggest it," answered Rayner. "Let's sit down and tell +them all about it." + +The party of six went across to the quiet spot which the chief had +indicated, and Fullaway and Appleyard obligingly arranged the chairs in +a group. Seated in the midst and quite conscious that she was the +centre of attraction in several ways, Miss Slade began her explanation +of the events and mysteries which had culminated in the recent +sensational event. + +"I daresay," she said, looking round her, "that some of you know a great +deal more about this affair than I do. What I do know, however, is +this--the three men who have just been removed are without doubt the +arch-spirits of the combination which robbed Miss Lennard, attempted to +rob Mr. James Allerdyke, possibly murdered Mr. James Allerdyke, and +certainly murdered Lydenberg, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Ebers. Van Koon is +an American crook, whose real name is Vankin; Merrifield, as you know, is +Mr. Delkin's secretary; the other man is one Otto Schmall, a German +chemist, and a most remarkably clever person, who has a shop and a +chemical manufactory in Whitechapel. He's an expert in poison--and I +think you will have some interesting matters to deal with when you come +to tackle his share. Well, that's plain fact; and now you want to know +how I--and Mr. Rayner--found all this out." + +"Chiefly you," murmured Rayner, "chiefly you!" + +"You had better let your minds go back to the morning of the 13th May +last," continued Miss Slade, paying no apparent heed to this +interruption. "On that morning I arrived at Mr. Fullaway's office at my +usual time, ten o'clock, to find that Mr. Fullaway had departed +suddenly, earlier in the morning, for Hull. I at once guessed why he had +gone--I knew that Mr. James Allerdyke, in charge of the Princess +Nastirsevitch's jewels, was to have landed at Hull the night before, and +I concluded that Mr. Fullaway had set off to meet him. But Mr. Fullaway +has a bad habit of leaving letters and telegrams lying about, for any one +to see, and within a few minutes I found on his desk a telegram from Mr. +Marshall Allerdyke, dispatched early that morning from Hull, saying that +his cousin had died suddenly during the night. That, of course, +definitely explained Mr. Fullaway's departure, and it also made me +wonder, knowing all I did know, if the jewels were safe. + +"This, I repeat, was about ten to half-past ten o'clock. About twelve +o'clock of that morning, the 13th, Mr. Van Koon, whom I knew as a +resident in the hotel, and a frequent caller on Mr. Fullaway, came in. He +wanted Mr. Fullaway to cash a cheque for him. I told him that I could do +that, and I took his cheque, wrote out one of my own and went up town to +Parr's Bank, at the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, to get the cash for him. +Mr. Van Koon stayed in the office, reading a bundle of American +newspapers which had just been delivered. I was away from the office +perhaps forty minutes or so; when I returned he was still there. I gave +him the money; he thanked me, and went away. + +"Towards the end of that afternoon, just before I was leaving the office, +I got a wire from Mr. Fullaway, from Hull. It was quite short--it merely +informed me that Mr. James Allerdyke was dead, under mysterious +circumstances, and that the Nastirsevitch property was missing. Of +course, I knew what that meant, and I drew my own conclusions. + +"Now I come to the 14th--a critical day, so far as I am concerned. +During the morning a parcels-van boy came into the office. He said that +on the previous day, about half-past twelve o'clock, he had brought a +small parcel there, addressed to Mr. Fullaway, and had handed it to a +gentleman who was reading newspapers, and who had answered 'Yes' when +inquired of as Mr. Fullaway. This gentleman--who, of course, was Van +Koon--had signed for the parcel by scribbling two initials 'F. F.' in the +proper space. The boy, who said he was new to his job, told me that the +clerk at the parcels office objected to this as not being a proper +signature, and had told him to call next time he was passing and get the +thing put right. He accordingly handed me the sheet, and I, believing +that this was some small parcel which Van Koon had taken in, signed for, +and placed somewhere in the office or in Mr. Fullaway's private room, +signed my own name, for Franklin Fullaway, over the penciled initials. +And as I did so I noticed that the parcel had been sent from Hull. + +"When the boy had gone I looked for that parcel. I could not find it +anywhere. It was certainly not in the office, nor in any of the rooms of +Mr. Fullaway's suite. I was half minded to go to Mr. Van Koon and ask +about it, but I decided that I wouldn't; I thought I would wait until Mr. +Fullaway returned. But all the time I was wondering what parcel it could +be that was sent from Hull, and certainly dispatched from there on the +very evening before Mr. Fullaway's hurried journey. + +"Nothing happened until Mr. Fullaway came back. Then a lot of things +happened all at once. There was the news he brought about the Hull +affair. Then there was the affair of the French maid. A great deal got +into the newspapers. Mr. Rayner and I, who live at the same +boarding-house, began to discuss matters. I heard, through Mr. Fullaway, +that there was likelihood of a big reward, and I determined to have a try +for it--in conjunction with Mr. Rayner. And so I kept my own counsel--I +said nothing about the affair of the parcel." + +Fullaway, who had been manifesting signs of impatience and irritation +during the last few minutes, here snapped out a question. + +"Why didn't you tell me at once about the parcel?" he demanded. "It was +your duty!" + +Miss Slade gave her employer a cool glance. + +"Possibly!" she retorted. "But you are much too careless to be entrusted +with secrets, Mr. Fullaway. I knew that if I told you about that parcel +you'd spoil everything at once. I wanted to do things my own way. I took +my own way--and it's come out all right, for everybody. Now, don't you or +anybody interrupt again--I'm telling it all in order." + +Fullaway made an inarticulate growling protest, but Miss Slade took no +notice and continued in even, dispassionate tones, as if she had been +explained a mathematical problem. + +"The affair prospered. The Princess came. The reward of fifty thousand +pounds was offered. Then Mr. Rayner and I put our heads together more +seriously. Much, of course, depended upon me, as I was on the spot. I +wanted a chance to get into Van Koon's rooms, some time when he was out. +Fortunately the chance came. One afternoon, when Van Koon was in our +office, he and Mr. Fullaway settled to dine out together and go to the +theatre afterwards. That gave me my opportunity. I made an excuse about +staying late at Mr. Fullaway's office and when both men were clear away I +let myself into Van Koon's room--I'd already made preparations for +that--and proceeded to search. I found the parcel. It was a small, square +parcel, done up in brown paper and sealed with black wax; it had been +opened, the original wrapper put on again, and the seals resealed. I took +it into Mr. Fullaway's rooms and opened it, carefully. Inside I found a +small cigar-box, and in it the Princess's jewels. I took them out. Then I +put certain articles of corresponding weight into the box, did it up +again precisely as I had found it, smeared over the seals with more black +wax, went back to Van Koon's room with it, and placed it again where I +had found it--in a small suit-case. + +"I now knew, of course, that Mr. James Allerdyke had sent those jewels +direct to Mr. Fullaway, immediately on his arrival in Hull, and that they +had fallen by sheer accident into Van Koon's hands. But I wanted to know +more. I wanted to know if Van Koon had any connection with this affair, +and if, when he saw that the parcel was from Hull, he had immediately +jumped to the conclusion that it might be from James Allerdyke, and might +contain the actual valuables. Fortunately, Mr. Rayner had already made +arrangements with a noted private inquiry agent to have Van Koon most +carefully and closely watched. And the very day after I found and took +possession of the jewels we received a report from this agent that Van +Koon was in the habit of visiting the shop and manufactory of a German +chemist named Schmall, in Whitechapel. Further, he had twice come away +from it, after lengthy visits, in company with a man whom the agent's +employees had tracked to the Hotel Cecil, and whom I knew, from their +description, to be Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Delkin's private secretary. + +"Naturally, having discovered this, we gave instructions for a keener +watch than ever to be kept on both these men. But the name of the German +chemist gave me personally a new and most important clue. There had been +employed at the Waldorf Hotel, for some weeks up to the end of the first +week in May, a German-Swiss young man, who then called himself Ebers. He +acted as valet to several residents; amongst others, Mr. Fullaway. He was +often in and out of Mr. Fullaway's rooms. Once, Mr. Fullaway being out, +and I having nothing to do, I was cleaning up some photographic apparatus +which I had there. This man Ebers came in with some clothes of Mr. +Fullaway's. Seeing what I was doing, he got talking to me about +photography, saying that he himself was an amateur. He recommended to me +certain materials and things of that sort which he said he could get from +a friend of his, a chemist, who was an enthusiastic photographer and +manufactured chemicals and things used in photography. I gave him some +money to get me a supply of things, and he brought various packets and +parcels to me two or three days later. Each packet bore the name of Otto +Schmall, and an address in a street which runs off Mile End Road. + +"Now, when the private inquiry agent made his reports to Mr. Rayner and +myself about Van Koon, and told us where he had been tracked to more than +once, I, of course, remembered the name of Schmall, and Mr. Rayner and I +began to put certain facts together. They were these: + +"_First._--Ebers had easy access to Mr. Fullaway's room at all hours, and +was often in them when both Mr. Fullaway and I were out. Mr. Fullaway is +notoriously careless in leaving papers and documents, letters and +telegrams lying around. Ebers had abundant opportunities of reading lots +of documents relating to (1) the Pinkie Pell pearls, and (2) the +proposed Nastirsevitch deal. + +"_Second._--Ebers was a friend of Schmall. Schmall was evidently a man of +great cleverness in chemistry. + +"_Third._--All the circumstances of Mr. James Allerdyke's death, and of +Lisette Beaurepaire's death, pointed to unusually skillful poisoning. Who +was better able to engineer that than a clever chemist? + +"_Fourth._--The jewels belonging to the Princess Nastirsevitch had +undoubtedly fallen into Van Koon's hands. Van Koon was a friend of +Schmall. So also, evidently, was Merrifield. Now, Merrifield, as Delkin's +secretary, knew of the proposed deal. + +"Obviously, then, Schmall, Van Koon, and Merrifield were in +league--whether Ebers was also in league, or was a catspaw, we did not +trouble to decide. But there was another fact which seemed to have some +bearing, though it is one which I have never yet worked out--perhaps some +of you know something of it. It was this: Just before he went to Russia, +Mr. James Allerdyke, being in town, gave me a photograph of himself which +Mr. Marshall Allerdyke had recently taken. I kept that photo lying on my +desk at Mr. Fullaway's for some time. One day I missed it. It is such an +unusual thing for me to misplace anything that I turned over every paper +on my desk in searching for it. It was not to be found. Four days later I +found it, exactly where it ought to have been. Now, you can draw your own +conclusions from that--mine are that Ebers stole it, so that he could +reproduce it in order to give his reproduction to some person who wanted +to identify James Allerdyke at sight. + +"However, to go forward to the discovery which we made about Schmall, +Van Koon, and Merrifield. As soon as we made that discovery, Mr. Rayner +was for going to the police at once, but I thought not--there was still +certain evidence which I wanted, so that the case could be presented +without a flaw. However, all of a sudden I saw that we should have to +act. Ebers was found dead in a small hotel near the Docks, and at a +conference in which Mr. Fullaway insisted I should join, in his rooms, +and at which Van Koon, who had been playing a bluff game, was present, +there was enough said to convince me that Van Koon and his associates +would take alarm and be off with what they believed themselves to +possess--the jewels in that parcel. So then Mr. Rayner and I determined +on big measures. And they were risky ones--for me. + +"I had already been down, more than once, into Whitechapel, and had +bought things at Schmall's shop, and I was convinced that he was the man +who accompanied Lisette Beaurepaire to that little hotel in Eastbourne +Terrace. Now that the critical moment came, after the Ebers-Federman +affair, I went there again. I got Schmall outside his premises. I took a +bold step. I told him that I was a woman detective, who, for purposes of +my own, had been working this case, and that I was in full possession of +the facts. If I had not taken the precaution to tell him this in the +thick of a crowded street, he would have killed me on the spot! Then I +went on to tell him more. I said that his accomplice had led him to +believe that he had the Nastirsevitch jewels in a parcel in his +possession. I said that Van Koon was wrong--I had them myself--I told him +how I got them. He nearly collapsed at that--I restored him by saying +that the real object of my visit to him was to do a deal with him. I said +that it did not matter two pins to me what he and his accomplices had +done--what I was out for was money, nothing but money. How much would he +and the others put up for the jewels and my silence? I reminded him of +the fifty thousand pound reward. He glared at me like the devil he is, +and said that he'd a mind to kill me there and then, whatever happened. +Whereupon I told him that I had a revolver in my jacket pocket, that it +was trained on him, and that if he moved, my finger would move just as +quick, and I invited him to be sensible. It was nothing but a question of +money, I said---how much would they give? Finally, we settled it at sixty +thousand pounds. He was to meet me here--to-day at two--the other two +were to be about--the money was to be paid to me on production of the +jewels, for which purpose one of them was to go with me to my +boarding-house. And--you know the rest." + +Miss Slade came to a sudden stop. She glanced at Rayner, who had been +watching the effect of her story on the other men. + +"At least," she added suddenly, "you know all that's really important. +As Ebers' affair was in the City, we warned the City police and left +things with them. I think that's all. Except, of course, Mr. Marshall +Allerdyke, that we formally claim the reward for which you're +responsible. And--equally of course--that Mr. Rayner and I will hand +over her jewels in the course of this afternoon to the Princess. Miss +Lennard's property, I should say, you'll find hidden away on Schmall's +premises. Yes--that's all." + +"Except this," said the chief quietly. He unwrapped the newspaper in +which he had carried his small parcel and revealed its contents to Miss +Slade. "The jewels, you see, Miss Slade, are here. It has been my painful +duty to visit your hotel, and to possess myself of them. Sorry but--" + +Miss Slade gave one glance of astonishment at the chief and his exhibit; +then she laughed in his face. + +"Don't apologize, and don't trouble yourself!" she said suavely. "But +you're a bit off it, all the same. Those are some paste things which Mr. +Rayner got together for me in case it came to being obliged to exhibit +some to the crooks. You don't think, really, that I was going to run any +risks with the genuine articles? Sakes--they're all right! They're +deposited, snug and safe, at my bankers, and if you'll get a cab, we'll +drive there and get them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +MERRIFIELD EXPLAINS + + +Late that afternoon Marshall Allerdyke and Fullaway, responding to an +urgent telephone call, went to New Scotland Yard, and were presently +ushered into the presence of the great man who had been so much in +evidence that day. The great man was as self-possessed, as suave, and +as calmly cheerful as ever. And on the desk in front of him he had two +small and neatly made up parcels, tied and sealed in obviously +official fashion. + +"So we seem to have come to the end of this affair, gentlemen," he +observed as he waved his visitors to chairs on either side of him. +"Except, of course, for the unpleasant consequences which must +necessarily result to the men we caught to-day. However, there will be no +consequences--of that sort--for one of them. Schmall has--escaped us!" + +"Got away!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Great Scott you don't mean that!" + +"Schmall committed suicide this afternoon," replied the chief calmly. +"Clever man--in his own line, which was a very bad line. He was searched +most narrowly and carefully, so I've come to the conclusion that he +carried some of his subtle poison in his mouth--the hollow tooth dodge, +no doubt. Anyway, he's dead--they found him dead in his cell. It's a +pity--for he richly deserved hanging. At least, according to Merrifield." + +"Ah!" said Fullaway, with a start. "According to Merrifield, eh? Now +what may that mean? To find Merrifield in this at all was, of course, a +regular shock to me!" + +"Merrifield--just the type of man who would!--has made a clean breast of +the whole thing," answered the chief. "He made it to me--an hour ago. He +thought it best. He wants--naturally enough--to save his neck." + +"Will he?" growled Allerdyke. "A lot of necks ought to crack, after +all this!" + +"Can't say--we mustn't prejudge the case," said the chief. "But that's +his desire of course. He would tell me everything--at once. I had it all +taken down. But I remember every scrap of it. You want to hear? Well +there's a good deal of it, but I can epitomize it. You'll find that you +were much to blame, Mr. Fullaway--just as that smart young woman, your +secretary, was candid enough to tell you." + +"Oh, I know--I know!" asserted Fullaway. "But--this confession?" + +"Very well," responded the chief. "Here it is, then but you must bear in +mind that Merrifield could only tell what he knew--there'll probably be +details to come out later. Anyway, Merrifield--whose chief object is, I +must also remind you, the clearing of himself from any charge of +murder--he doesn't mind the other charge, but he does object to the +graver one!--says that though he's been playing it straight for some +time, ever since he went into Delkin's service, in fact--he'd had +negotiations of a questionable sort with both Schmall and Van Koon +before years ago, in this city and in New York. He renewed his +acquaintance with Schmall when he came over this time with Delkin--met +him accidentally, and got going it with him again--and they both +resumed dealings with Van Koon--who, I may say, was wanted by Chilverton +on a quite different charge. Schmall had set up a business here in the +East End as a small manufacturing chemist--he'd evidently a perfect and +a diabolical genius for chemistry, especially in secret poisons--and +down there Merrifield and Van Koon used to go. Also, there used to go +there the young man Ebers, or Federman--we'll stick to Ebers--who, from +Merrifield's account, seems to have been a tool of Schmall's. Ebers, a +fellow of evident acute perception, used to tell Schmall of things which +his calling as valet at various hotels gave him knowledge--it strikes me +that from what we now know we shall be able to trace to Schmall and +Ebers several robberies at hotels which have puzzled us a good deal. And +there is no doubt that it was Ebers who told Schmall of the two matters +of which he obtained knowledge when he used to frequent your rooms. Mr. +Fullaway--the pearls belonging to Miss Lennard, and the proposed jewel +deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin. But in that last +Merrifield came in. He too, knew of it, and he told Schmall and Van +Koon, but Ebers supplied the detailed information of what you were +doing, through access, as Miss Slade said, to your papers--which you +left lying about, you know." + +"I know--I know!" groaned Fullaway. "Careless--careless!" + +"Very!" said the chief, with a smile at Allerdyke "Teach you a lesson, +perhaps. However, there this knowledge was. Now, Schmall, according to +Merrifield, was the leading spirit. He had the man Lydenberg in his +employ. He sent him off to Christiania to waylay James Allerdyke: he +supplied him with a photograph of James Allerdyke, which Ebers procured." + +"I know that!" muttered Allerdyke. "Clever, too!" + +"Exactly," agreed the chief. "Now at the same time Schmall learned of +Miss Lennard's return. He sent Ebers, who already knew and had been +cultivating the French maid, down to Hull to meet her and bring her away +with Miss Lennard's jewel-box. That was done easily. The Lydenberg +affair, however, did not come off--through Lydenberg. Because, as we now +know, James Allerdyke sent the Nastirsevitch jewels off to you, Mr. +Fullaway. But there, fortune favoured these fellows Van Koon, for +purposes of theirs, had taken up his quarters close by you--in your +absence the box came into his hands. And--we know how the ingenious Miss +Slade despoiled him of it!" + +The chief paused for a moment, and mechanically shifted the two parcels +which stood before him. He seemed to be reflecting, and when he spoke +again he prefaced his words with a shake of the head. + +"Now here, from this point," he continued, "I don't know if Mr. +Merrifield is telling the truth. Probably he isn't. But I confess that, +at present, I don't see how we're going to prove that he isn't. He +strenuously declares that neither he nor Van Koon had anything whatever +to do with the murder of Lisette Beaurepaire, Lydenberg, or Ebers. He +further says that he does not know if Lydenberg poisoned James Allerdyke. +He declares that he does not know if it was ever intended to poison James +Allerdyke, though he confesses that it was intended to rob him at Hull. +Schmall, he says, was the active partner in all this--he took all that +into his own hands. According to Merrifield, he does not know, nor Van +Koon either, if it was Schmall who went down to Hull and shot Lydenberg, +or if Lydenberg was murdered by some person who had a commission for his +destruction from some secret society--Lydenberg, he believed, was mixed +up with that sort of thing." + +"I know that, I think!" exclaimed Allerdyke. + +"I daresay we all three know what we think," observed the chief. "Schmall +seems to have had a genius for putting his tools out of the way when he +had done with them. It was undoubtedly Schmall who took Lisette +Beaurepaire to that hotel in Paddington and poisoned her; it was just as +undoubtedly Schmall who took Ebers to the hotel in London Docks and got +rid of him. But, I tell you, Merrifield swears that neither he nor Van +Koon knew of these things, and did not connive at them." + +"Did they know of them--afterwards?" asked Fullaway. + +"Ah!" replied the chief. "That's what they'll have to satisfy a judge and +jury about! I think they'll find it difficult. But--that's about all. +Except this--that they were all three about to clear out when the +enterprising Miss Slade turned up and told Schmall she'd got the +Nastirsevitch jewels. That was a stiff proposition for them. But they +were equal to it. For you see Miss Slade let him know that she was open +to do a deal--for sixty thousand pounds! How were they to get sixty +thousand pounds? Ah!--now came a confession from Merrifield which has +already--for I've told him of it--made Mr. Delkin stare. Delkin, it +appears, keeps a very big banking account here in London--so big, that +his bankers think nothing of his drawing what we should call enormous +cash cheques. Now Merrifield--you see what a clean breast he's +made--admitted to me that he was an expert forger--so he calmly forged a +cheque of Delkin's, drew sixty thousand in notes--and they had them on +them--at least Merrifield had--when we took all three a few hours ago. +Nice people, eh!" + +There was a silence of much significance for a few minutes; then +Allerdyke got up from his chair with a growl. + +"I'd have given a good deal if that fellow Schmall had saved his neck for +the gallows!" he muttered. "He's cheated me!" + +"It's my impression," said the chief, "that if Miss Slade hadn't been so +smart, Schmall would have cheated his two accomplices. He had what he +believed to be the parcel containing the Nastirsevitch jewels in his +possession, and he also had Miss Lennard's pearls locked up in his safe. +We got those this afternoon, on searching his premises; Miss Slade gave +us the real Nastirsevitch jewels from her bank. Here they are--both lots, +in these parcels. And if you two gentlemen will go through the formality +of signing receipts for them, you, Mr. Fullaway, can take her parcel to +the Princess, and you, Mr. Allerdyke, can carry hers to Miss Lennard. +And, er--" he added, with a quiet smile, as he rose and produced some +papers--"you won't mind, either of you, I'm sure, if a couple of my men +accompany you--just to see that you accomplish your respective missions +in safety?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE ALLERDYKE WAY + + +With the recovered pearls in his hand, and Chettle as guardian and +companion at his side, Allerdyke chartered a taxi-cab and demanded to be +driven to Bedford Court Mansions. And as they glided away up Whitehall he +turned to the detective with a grin that had a sardonic complexion to it. + +"Well--except for the law business--I reckon this is about over, +Chettle," he said. "You've had plenty to do, anyway--not much kicking +your heels in idleness anywhere, while this has been going on!" + +Chettle pulled a long face and sighed. + +"Unfortunate for me, all the same, Mr. Allerdyke," he answered. "I'd +meant to have a big cut in at that reward, sir. Now I suppose that young +woman'll get it." + +"Miss Slade'll doubtless get most of it," replied Allerdyke. "But I think +there'll have to be a bit of a dividing-up, like. You fellows are +certainly entitled to some of it--especially you--and two or three of +those folks who gave some information ought to have a look in. But, of +course, Miss Slade will feel herself entitled to the big lump--and she'll +take care to get it, don't make any mistake!" + +"She's a deal too clever, that young lady," observed Chettle. "I like 'em +clever, but not quite as clever as all that. In my opinion, she's +mistaken her calling, has that young woman. She ought to have been one +of us--they're uncommonly bent that way, some of these modern +misses--they can see right through a thing, sometimes, where we men can't +see an inch above our noses." + +"Intuition," said Allerdyke, with a laugh. "Aye, well perhaps Miss +Slade'll have got so infected with enthusiasm for your business that +She'll go in for it regularly. This reward'll do for capital, you +know, Chettle." + +"Ah!" responded Chettle feelingly. "Wish it was coming to me! I +wouldn't put no capital into that business--not me, sir! I'd have a +nice little farm in the country, and I'd grow roses, and breed sheep +and pigs, and--" + +"And lose all your brass in a couple of years!" laughed Allerdyke. "Stick +to your own game, my lad, and when you want to grow roses, do it in your +own back yard for pleasure. And here we are--and you'd best wait, +Chettle, until Miss Lennard herself gives a receipt for this stuff, and +then you can take it back to Scotland Yard and frame it." + +He left Chettle in an anti-room of Miss Lennard's flat while he himself +was shown into the prima donna's presence. She was alone, and evidently +unoccupied, and her eyes suddenly sparkled when Allerdyke came in as if +she was glad of a visitor. + +"You!" she exclaimed. "Really!" + +"It's me," said Allerdyke laconically. "Nobody else," He looked round to +make sure that the door was safely closed; then he advanced to the little +table at which Miss Lennard was sitting and laid down his parcel. + +"Something for you," he said abruptly. "Open it." + +"What is it?" she asked, glancing shyly at him. "Not chocolates--surely!" + +"Never bought aught of that sort in my life," replied Allerdyke. "More +respect for people's teeth. Here--I'll open it," he went on, producing a +penknife and cutting the string. "I've signed one receipt for this stuff +already--you'll have to sign another. There's a detective in your parlour +waiting for it, just now." + +"A detective!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you don't mean to say that box +has my pearls in it? Oh! you don't!" + +"See if they're all right," commanded Allerdyke "Gad!--they've been +through some queer hands since you lost 'em. I don't know how you feel +about it, but hang me if I shouldn't feel strange wearing 'em again! I +should feel--but I daresay you don't!" + +"No, I don't!" she said as she drew the jewels out of their wrappings and +hurriedly examined them. "Of course I don't; all I feel is that I'm +delighted beyond measure to get them back. You don't understand." + +"No, I don't," agreed Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair close by, and +quietly regarded the owner of the fateful valuables. "I'm only a man, you +see. But--I should know better how to take care of things like these than +you did. Come, now!" + +"I shall take better care of them--in future," said Miss Lennard. + +Allerdyke shook his head, + +"Not you!" he retorted. "At least--not unless you've somebody to take +care of you. Eh?" + +Miss Lennard, who was still examining her recovered property, set it +hastily down and stared at her visitor. Her colour heightened, and her +eyes became inquisitive. + +"Take care of--me!" she exclaimed. "Of--whatever are you talking about, +Mr. Allerdyke?" + +"It's like this," replied Allerdyke, involuntarily squaring himself in +his chair. "You see me?--I'm as healthy a man as ever lived!--forty, but +no more than five-and-twenty in health and spirits. I've plenty of brains +and a rare good temper. I'm owner of one of the best businesses in +Yorkshire--I'm worth a good ten thousand a year. I've one of the best +houses in our parts--I'm going to take another, a country house, if +you're minded. I'll guarantee to make the best husband--" + +Miss Lennard dropped back on her sofa and screamed. + +"Good heavens, man?" she exclaimed. "Are you--are you really asking me +to--to marry you?" + +"That's it," replied Allerdyke, nodding. "You've hit it. Queer way, +maybe--but it's my way. See?" + +"I never heard of--of such a way in all my life!" said the lady. +"You're--extraordinary!" + +"I am," said Allerdyke. "Yes--we are out of the ordinary in our part of +the world--we know it. Well," he went on after a moment's silence, during +which they looked at each other, "you've heard what I have to say. How is +it to be?" + +The prima donna continued to gaze intently on this strange wooer for a +full minute. Then she suddenly stretched out her hand. + +"I'll marry you!" she said quietly. + +Allerdyke gave the hand a firm pressure, and stood up, unconsciously +pulling himself to his full height. + +"Thank you," he said. "You shan't regret it. And now, then--a pen, if you +please. Sign that." + +He handed his betrothed a paper, watched her sign it, and then, picking +up the pen as she laid it down, took a cheque-book from his pocket and +quickly wrote a cheque. This he placed in an envelope taken from the +writing-table. Envelope and receipt in hand, he turned to the door. + +"Business first," he said, smiling over his shoulder. "I'll send Chettle +off--then we'll talk about ourselves." + +He went away to Chettle and put the paper and the envelope in his hand. + +"That's the receipt," he said. "T'other's a bit of a present for +you--naught to do with the reward--a trifle from me. Ah!--you might like +to know that I've just got engaged to be married!" + +Chettle glanced round and inclined his head towards the room from which +Allerdyke had just emerged. + +"What!--to the lady!" he exclaimed. "Deary me. Well," he went on, +grasping the successful suitor's hand, and giving it a warm and +sympathetic squeeze, "there's one thing I can say, Mr. Allerdyke--you'll +make an uncommon good-looking pair!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAYNER-SLADE AMALGAMATION *** + + +******* This file should be named 10443.txt or 10443.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/4/10443 + + +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. 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