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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
+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: Jack O' Judgment
+
+Author: Edgar Wallace
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24767]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK O' JUDGMENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+
+BY
+
+EDGAR WALLACE
+
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
+
+LONDON AND MELBOURNE
+
+
+_Made and Printed in Great Britain by_
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED, LONDON.
+
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+
+
+POPULAR NOVELS
+
+BY
+
+EDGAR WALLACE
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED.
+
+_In Various Editions_
+
+SANDERS OF THE RIVER
+BONES
+BOSAMBO OF THE RIVER
+BONES IN LONDON
+THE KEEPERS OF THE KING'S PEACE
+THE COUNCIL OF JUSTICE
+THE DUKE IN THE SUBURBS
+THE PEOPLE OF THE RIVER
+DOWN UNDER DONOVAN
+PRIVATE SELBY
+THE ADMIRABLE CARFEW
+THE MAN WHO BOUGHT LONDON
+THE JUST MEN OF CORDOVA
+THE SECRET HOUSE
+KATE, PLUS TEN
+LIEUTENANT BONES
+THE ADVENTURES OF HEINE
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+THE DAFFODIL MYSTERY
+THE NINE BEARS
+THE BOOK OF ALL POWER
+MR. JUSTICE MAXELL
+THE BOOKS OF BART
+THE DARK EYES OF LONDON
+CHICK
+SANDI, THE KING-MAKER
+THE THREE OAK MYSTERY
+THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG
+BLUE HAND
+GREY TIMOTHY
+A DEBT DISCHARGED
+THOSE FOLK OF BULBORO'
+THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY
+THE GREEN RUST
+THE FOURTH PLAGUE
+THE RIVER OF STARS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+      I.--THE KNAVE OF CLUBS                         7
+     II.--JACK O' JUDGMENT--HIS CARD                14
+    III.--THE DECOY                                 24
+     IV.--THE MISSING HANSON                        28
+      V.--IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT                 35
+     VI.--STAFFORD KING RESIGNS                     42
+    VII.--THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS         48
+   VIII.--THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR                  54
+     IX.--THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE           61
+      X.--THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS                     67
+     XI.--THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD              71
+    XII.--BUYING A NURSING HOME                     80
+   XIII.--THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING                 84
+    XIV.--THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE                88
+     XV.--THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY             92
+    XVI.--IN THE TURKISH BATHS                      96
+   XVII.--SOLOMON COMES BACK                       100
+  XVIII.--THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH                    106
+    XIX.--THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED                   111
+     XX.--"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT                  119
+    XXI.--THE BRIDE OF DEATH                       123
+   XXII.--MAISIE TELLS HER STORY                   126
+  XXIII.--THE GANG FUND                            134
+   XXIV.--PINTO GOES NORTH                         141
+    XXV.--A PATRON OF CHARITY                      150
+   XXVI.--THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED                 157
+  XXVII.--THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"                    162
+ XXVIII.--THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS               169
+   XXIX.--THE VOICE IN THE ROOM                    178
+    XXX.--DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK                    186
+   XXXI.--THE VOICE AGAIN                          194
+  XXXII.--LOLLIE GOES AWAY                         201
+ XXXIII.--WHERE THE VOICE LIVED                    205
+  XXXIV.--CONSCIENCE MONEY                         210
+   XXXV.--IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM                  217
+  XXXVI.--LOLLIE PROPOSES                          224
+ XXXVII.--THE FALL OF PINTO                        229
+XXXVIII.--A USE FOR OLD FILMS                      234
+  XXXIX.--JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED                244
+
+
+
+
+JACK O' ... JUDGMENT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE KNAVE OF CLUBS
+
+
+They picked up the young man called "Snow" Gregory from a Lambeth
+gutter, and he was dead before the policeman on point duty in Waterloo
+Road, who had heard the shots, came upon the scene.
+
+He had been shot in his tracks on a night of snow and storm and none saw
+the murder.
+
+When they got him to the mortuary and searched his clothes they found
+nothing except a little tin box of white powder which proved to be
+cocaine, and a playing card--the Jack of Clubs!
+
+His associates had called him "Snow" Gregory because he was a doper, and
+cocaine is invariably referred to as "snow" by all its votaries. He was
+a gambler too, and he had been associated with Colonel Dan Boundary in
+certain of his business enterprises. That was all. The colonel knew
+nothing of the young man's antecedents except that he had been an Oxford
+man who had come down in the world. The colonel added a few particulars
+designed, as it might seem to the impartial observer, to prove that he,
+the colonel, had ever been an uplifting quantity. (This colonelcy was an
+honorary title which he held by custom rather than by law.)
+
+There were people who said that "Snow" Gregory, in his more exalted
+moments, talked too much for the colonel's comfort, but people were very
+ready to talk unkindly of the colonel, whose wealth was an offence and a
+shame.
+
+So they buried "Snow" Gregory, the unknown, and a jury of his
+fellow-countrymen returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some
+person or persons unknown."
+
+And that was the end of a sordid tragedy, it seemed, until three months
+later there dawned upon Colonel Boundary's busy life a brand new and
+alarming factor.
+
+One morning there arrived at his palatial flat in Albemarle Place a
+letter. This he opened because it was marked "Private and Personal." It
+was not a letter at all--as it proved--but a soiled and stained playing
+card, the Knave of Clubs.
+
+He looked at the thing in perplexity, for the fate of his erstwhile
+assistant had long since passed from his mind. Then he saw writing on
+the margin of the card, and twisting it sideways read:
+
+                       "JACK O' JUDGMENT."
+
+Nothing more!
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+The colonel screwed up his tired eyes as if to shut out a vision.
+
+"Faugh!" he said in disgust and dropped the pasteboard into his
+waste-paper basket.
+
+For he had seen a vision--a white face, unshaven and haggard, its lips
+parted in a little grin, the smile of "Snow" Gregory on the last time
+they had met.
+
+Later came other cards and unpleasant, not to say disconcerting
+happenings, and the colonel, taking counsel with himself, determined to
+kill two birds with one stone.
+
+It was a daring and audacious thing to have done, and none but Colonel
+Dan Boundary would have taken the risk. He knew better than anybody else
+that Stafford King had devoted the whole of his time for the past three
+years to smashing the Boundary Gang. He knew that this grave young man
+with the steady, grey eyes, who sat on the other side of the big Louis
+XV table in the ornate private office of the Spillsbury Syndicate, had
+won his way to the chief position in the Criminal Intelligence
+Department by sheer genius, and that he was, of all men, the most to be
+feared.
+
+No greater contrast could be imagined than that which was presented
+between the two protagonists--the refined, almost æsthetic chief of
+police on the one hand, the big commanding figure of the redoubtable
+colonel on the other.
+
+Boundary with his black hair parted in the centre of his sleek head, his
+big weary eyes, his long, yellow walrus moustache, his double chin, his
+breadth and girth, his enormous hairy hands, now laid upon the table,
+might stand for force, brutal, remorseless, untiring. He stood for
+cunning too--the cunning of the stalking tiger.
+
+Stafford was watching him with dispassionate interest. He may have been
+secretly amused at the man's sheer daring, but if he was, his
+inscrutable face displayed no such emotion.
+
+"I dare say, Mr. King," said the colonel, in his slow, heavy way, "you
+think it is rather remarkable in all the circumstances that I should ask
+for you? I dare say," he went on, "my business associates will think the
+same, considering all the unpleasantness we have had."
+
+Stafford King made no reply. He sat erect, alert and watchful.
+
+"Give a dog a bad name and hang him," said the colonel sententiously.
+"For twenty years I've had to fight the unjust suspicions of my enemies.
+I've been libelled," he shook his head sorrowfully. "I don't suppose
+there's anybody been libelled more than me--and my business associates.
+I've had the police nosing--I mean investigating--into my affairs, and
+I'll be straight with you, Mr. Stafford King, and tell you that when it
+came to my ears and the ears of my business associates, that you had
+been put on the job of watching poor old Dan Boundary, I was glad."
+
+"Is that intended as a compliment?" asked Stafford, with the faintest
+suspicion of a smile.
+
+"Every way," said the colonel emphatically. "In the first place, Mr.
+King, I know that you are the straightest and most honest police
+official in England, and possibly in the world. All I want is justice.
+My life is an open book, which courts the fullest investigation."
+
+He spread out his huge hands as though inviting an even closer
+inspection than had been afforded him hitherto.
+
+Mr. Stafford King made no reply. He knew, very well he knew, the stories
+which had been told about the Boundary Gang. He knew a little and
+guessed a lot about its extraordinary ramifications. He was well aware,
+at any rate, that it was rich, and that this slow-speaking man could
+command millions. But he was far from desiring to endorse the colonel's
+inferred claim as to the purity of his business methods.
+
+He leant a little forward.
+
+"I am sure you didn't send for me to tell me all about your hard lot,
+colonel," he said, a little ironically.
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I wanted to get to know you," he said with fine frankness. "I've heard
+a lot about you, Mr. King. I am told you do nothing but specialise on
+the Boundary enterprises, and I tell you, sir, that you can't know too
+much about me, nor can I know too much about you."
+
+He paused.
+
+"But you're quite right when you say that I didn't ask you to come
+here--and a great honour it is for a big police chief to spare time to
+see me--to discuss the past. It is the present I want to talk to you
+about."
+
+Stafford King nodded.
+
+"I'm a law-abiding citizen," said the colonel unctuously, "and anything
+I can do to assist the law, why, I'm going to do it. I wrote you on this
+matter about a fortnight ago."
+
+He opened a drawer and took out a large envelope embossed with a
+monogram of the Spillsbury Syndicate. This he opened and extracted a
+plain playing-card. It was a white-backed card of superfine texture,
+gilt-edged, and bore a familiar figure.
+
+"The Knave of Clubs," said Stafford King lifting his eyes.
+
+"The Jack of Clubs," said the colonel gravely; "that is its name I
+understand, for I am not a gambling man."
+
+He did not bat a lid nor did Stafford King smile.
+
+"I remember," said the detective chief, "you received one before. You
+wrote to my department about it."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"Read what's written underneath."
+
+King lifted the card nearer to his eyes. The writing was almost
+microscopic and read:
+
+"Save crime, save worry, save all unpleasantness. Give back the property
+you stole from Spillsbury."
+
+It was signed "Jack o' Judgment."
+
+King put the card down and looked across at the colonel.
+
+"What happened after the last card came?" he asked, "there was a
+burglary or something, wasn't there?"
+
+"The last card," said the colonel, clearing his throat, "contained a
+diabolical and unfounded charge that I and my business associates had
+robbed Mr. George Fetter, the Manchester merchant, of £60,000 by means
+of card tricks--a low practice of which I would not be guilty nor would
+any of my business associates. My friends and myself knowing nothing of
+any card game, we of course refused to pay Mr. Fetter, and I am sure Mr.
+Fetter would be the last person who would ask us to do so. As a matter
+of fact, he did give us bills for £60,000, but that was in relation to a
+sale of property. I cannot imagine that Mr. Fetter would ever take money
+from us or that he knew of this business--I hope not, because he seems a
+very respectable--gentleman."
+
+The detective looked at the card again.
+
+"What is this story of the Spillsbury deal?" he asked.
+
+"What is that story of the Spillsbury deal?" said the colonel.
+
+He had a trick of repeating questions--it was a trick which frequently
+gave him a very necessary breathing space.
+
+"Why, there's nothing to it. I bought the motor works in Coventry. I
+admit it was a good bargain. There's no law against making a profit. You
+know what business is."
+
+The detective knew what business was. But Spillsbury was young and wild,
+and his wildness assumed an unpleasant character. It was the kind of
+wildness which people do not talk about--at least, not nice people. He
+had inherited a considerable fortune, and the control of four factories,
+the best of which was the one under discussion.
+
+"I know Spillsbury," said the detective, "and I happen to know
+Spillsbury's works. I also know that he sold you a property worth
+£300,000 in the open market for a sum which was grossly
+inadequate--£30,000, was it not?"
+
+"£35,000," corrected the colonel. "There's no law against making a
+bargain," he repeated.
+
+"You've been very fortunate with your bargains."
+
+Stafford King rose and picked up his hat.
+
+"You bought Transome's Hotel from young Mrs. Rachemeyer for a sum which
+was less than a twentieth of its worth. You bought Lord Bethon's slate
+quarries for £12,000--their value in the open market was at least
+£100,000. For the past fifteen years you have been acquiring property at
+an amazing rate--and at an amazing price."
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"You're paying me a great compliment, Mr. Stafford King," he said with a
+touch of sarcasm, "and I will never forget it. But don't let us get away
+from the object of your coming. I am reporting to you, as a police
+officer, that I have been threatened by a blackguard, a thief, and very
+likely a murderer. I will not be responsible for any action I may
+take--Jack o' Judgment indeed!" he growled.
+
+"Have you ever seen him?" asked Stafford.
+
+The colonel frowned.
+
+"He's alive, ain't he?" he growled. "If I'd seen him, do you think he'd
+be writing me letters? It is your job to pinch him. If you people down
+at Scotland Yard spent less time poking into the affairs of honest
+business men----"
+
+Stafford King was smiling now, frankly and undisguisedly. His grey eyes
+were creased with silent laughter.
+
+"Colonel, you have _some_ nerve!" he said admiringly, and with no other
+word he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT--HIS CARD
+
+
+The wrong side of a stage door was the outside on a night such as this
+was. The rain was bucketing down and a chill north-wester howled up the
+narrow passage leading from the main street to the tiny entry.
+
+But the outside, and the darkest corner of the _cul-de-sac_ whence the
+stage door of the Orpheum Music Hall was reached, satisfied Stafford
+King. He drew further into the shadow at sight of the figure which
+picked a finicking way along the passage and paused only at the open
+doorway to furl his umbrella.
+
+Pinto Silva, immaculately attired with a white rose in the button-hole
+of his faultless dress-jacket, had no doubt in his mind as to which was
+the most desirable side of the stage door. He passed in, nodding
+carelessly to the doorkeeper.
+
+"A rotten night, Joe," he said. "Miss White hasn't gone yet, has she?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man obsequiously, "she's only just left the stage a
+few minutes. Shall I tell her you're here, sir?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+He was a good-looking man of thirty-five. There were some who would go
+further and describe him as handsome, though his peculiar style of good
+looks might not be to everybody's taste. The olive complexion, the black
+eyes, the well-curled moustache and the effeminate chin had their
+attractions, and Pinto Silva admitted modestly in his reminiscent
+moments that there were women who had raved about him.
+
+"Miss White is in No. 6," said the doorkeeper. "Shall I send somebody
+along to tell her you're here?"
+
+"You needn't trouble," said the other, "she won't be long now."
+
+The girl, hurrying along the corridor, fastening her coat as she came,
+stopped dead at the sight of him and a look of annoyance came to her
+face. She was tall for a girl, perfectly proportioned and something more
+than pretty.
+
+Pinto lifted his hat with a smile.
+
+"I've just been in front, Miss White. An excellent performance!"
+
+"Thank you," she said simply. "I did not see you."
+
+He nodded.
+
+There was a complacency in his nod which irritated her. It almost seemed
+to infer that she was not speaking the truth and that he was humouring
+her in her deception.
+
+"You're quite comfortable?" he asked.
+
+"Quite," she replied politely.
+
+She was obviously anxious to end the interview, and at a loss as to how
+she could.
+
+"Dressing room comfortable, everybody respectful and all that sort of
+thing?" he asked. "Just say the word, if they give you trouble or cheek,
+and I'll have them kicked out whoever they are, from the manager
+downwards."
+
+"Oh, thank you," she said hurriedly, "everybody is most polite and
+nice." She held out her hand. "I am afraid I must go now. A--a friend is
+waiting for me."
+
+"One minute, Miss White." He licked his lips, and there was an
+unaccustomed embarrassment in his manner. "Maybe you'll come along one
+night after the show and have a little supper. You know I'm very keen on
+you and all that sort of thing."
+
+"I know you're very keen on me and all that sort of thing," said Maisie
+White, a note of irony in her voice, "but unfortunately I'm not very
+keen on supper and all that sort of thing."
+
+She smiled and again held out her hand.
+
+"I'll say good night now."
+
+"Do you know, Maisie----" he began.
+
+"Good night," she said and brushed past him.
+
+He looked after her as she disappeared into the darkness, a little frown
+gathering on his forehead, then with a shrug of his shoulders he walked
+slowly back to the doorkeeper's office.
+
+"Send somebody to get my car," he snapped.
+
+He waited impatiently, chewing his cigar, till the dripping figure of
+the doorkeeper reappeared with the information that the car was at the
+end of the passage. He put up his umbrella and walked through the
+pelting rain to where his limousine stood.
+
+Pinto Silva was angry, and his anger was of the hateful, smouldering
+type which grew in strength from moment to moment and from hour to hour.
+How dare she treat him like this? She, who owed her engagement to his
+influence, and whose fortune and future were in his hands. He would
+speak to the colonel and the colonel could speak to her father. He had
+had enough of this.
+
+He recognised with a start that he was afraid of the girl. It was
+incredible, but it was true. He had never felt that way to a woman
+before, but there was something in her eyes, a cold disdain which cowed
+even as it maddened him.
+
+The car drew up before a block of buildings in a deserted West End
+thoroughfare. He flashed on the electric light and saw that the hour was
+a little after eleven. The last thing in the world he wanted was to take
+part in a conference that night. But if he wanted anything less, it was
+to cross the colonel at this moment of crisis.
+
+He walked through the dark vestibule and entered an automatic lift,
+which carried him to the third floor. Here, the landing and the corridor
+were illuminated by one small electric lamp sufficient to light him to
+the heavy walnut doors which led to the office of the Spillsbury
+Syndicate. He opened the door with a latchkey and found himself in a big
+lobby, carpeted and furnished in good style.
+
+A man was sitting before a radiator, a paper pad upon his knees, and he
+was making notes with a pencil. He looked up startled as the other
+entered and nodded. It was Olaf Hanson, the colonel's clerk--and Olaf,
+with his flat expressionless face, and his stiff upstanding hair, always
+reminded Pinto of a Struwwelpeter which had been cropped.
+
+"Hullo, Hanson, is the colonel inside?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"They're waiting for you," he said.
+
+His voice was hard and unsympathetic, and his thin lips snapped out
+every syllable.
+
+"Aren't you coming in?" asked Pinto in surprise, his hand upon the door.
+
+The man called Hanson shook his head.
+
+"I've got to go to the colonel's flat," he said, "to get some papers.
+Besides, they don't want me."
+
+He smiled quickly and wanly. It was a grimace rather than an expression
+of amusement and Pinto eyed him narrowly. He had, however, the good
+sense to ask no further questions. Turning the handle of the door, he
+walked into the large, ornate apartment.
+
+In the centre of the room was a big table and the chairs at its sides
+were, for the most part, filled.
+
+He dropped into a seat on the colonel's right and nodded to the others
+at the table. Most of the principals were there--"Swell" Crewe, Jackson,
+Cresswell, and at the farther end of the table, Lollie Marsh with her
+baby face and her permanent expression of open-mouthed wonder.
+
+"Where's White?" he asked.
+
+The colonel was reading a letter and did not immediately reply.
+Presently he took off his pince-nez and put them into his pocket.
+
+"Where's White?" he repeated. "White isn't here. No, White isn't here,"
+he repeated significantly.
+
+"What's wrong?" asked Pinto quickly.
+
+The colonel scratched his chin and looked up to the ceiling.
+
+"I'm settling up this Spillsbury business," he said. "White isn't in
+it."
+
+"Why not?" asked Pinto.
+
+"He never was in it," said the colonel evasively. "It was not the kind
+of business that White would like to be in. I guess he's getting
+religious or something, or maybe it's that daughter of his."
+
+The eyelids of Pinto Silva narrowed at the reference to Maisie White and
+he was on the point of remarking that he had just left her, but changed
+his mind.
+
+"Does she know anything about--about her father?" he asked.
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"Why, no--unless you've told her."
+
+"I'm not on those terms," said Pinto savagely. "I'm getting tired of
+that girl's airs and graces, colonel, after what we've done for her!"
+
+"You'll get tireder, Pinto," said a voice from the end of the table and
+he turned round to meet the laughing eyes of Lollie Marsh.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"I've been out taking a look at her to-day," she said, and the colonel
+scowled at her.
+
+"You were out taking a look at something else if I remember rightly," he
+said quietly. "I told you to get after Stafford King."
+
+"And I got after him," she said, "and after the girl too."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That's a bit of news for you, isn't it?" She was delighted to drop the
+bombshell: "you can't shadow Stafford King without crossing the tracks
+of Maisie White."
+
+The colonel uttered an exclamation.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked again.
+
+"Didn't you know they were acquainted? Didn't you know that Stafford
+King goes down to Horsham to see her, and takes her to dinner twice a
+week?"
+
+They looked at one another in consternation. Maisie White was the
+daughter of a man who, next to the colonel, had been the most daring
+member of the gang, who had organised more coups than any other man,
+save its leader. The news that the daughter of Solomon White was meeting
+the Chief of the Criminal Intelligence Department, was incredible and
+stunning.
+
+"So that's it, is it?" said the colonel, licking his dry lips. "That's
+why Solomon White's fed up with the life and wants to break away."
+
+He turned to Pinto Silva, whose face was set and hard.
+
+"I thought you were keen on that girl, Pinto," he said coarsely. "We
+left the way open to you. What do you know about it?"
+
+"Nothing," said the man shortly. "I don't believe it."
+
+"Don't believe it," broke in the girl. "Listen! There was a matinée at
+the Orpheum to-day and King went there. I followed him in and got a seat
+next to him and tried to get friendly. But he had only eyes for the girl
+on the stage, and I might as well have been the paper on the wall for
+all the notice he took of me. After her turn, he went out and waited for
+her at the stage door. They went to Roymoyers for tea. I went back to
+the theatre and saw her dresser. She is the woman I recommended when
+Pinto put her on the stage."
+
+"What sort of work is Maisie doing?" asked the saturnine Crewe.
+
+"Male impersonations," said the girl. "Say! she looks dandy in a man's
+kit! She's the best male impersonator I've ever seen. Why, when she
+talks----"
+
+"Never mind about that," interrupted the colonel, "what did you
+discover?"
+
+"I discovered that Stafford King comes regularly to the theatre, that he
+takes her to dinner and that he visits the house at Horsham."
+
+"Solly never told me that--the swine!" rapped the colonel, "he's going
+to double-cross us, that fellow."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+It was Crewe that spoke. "Swell" Crewe, whose boast it was that he had
+a suit for every day in the year.
+
+"I know Solomon and I've known him for years," he said. "I know him as
+well as you, colonel. As far as we are concerned, Solly is straight. I'm
+not denying the possibility that he wants to break away, but that's only
+natural. He's a man with a daughter, and he's made his pile, but I'll
+stake my life that he'll never double-cross us."
+
+"Double-cross us?" the colonel had recovered his wonted equanimity.
+"What has he to 'double-cross'?" he demanded almost jovially. "We have a
+straightforward business! I am not aware that any of us are guilty of
+dishonest actions. Double-cross! Bah!"
+
+He brought his big hand down with a thump on the table, and they knew
+from experience that this was the gavel of the chairman that ended all
+discussions.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," said the colonel, "let us get to business. Ask Hanson
+to come in--he's got the figures. It is the last lot of figures of ours
+that he'll ever handle," he added.
+
+Somebody went to the door of the ante-room and called the secretary, but
+there was no reply.
+
+"He's gone out."
+
+"Gone out?" said the colonel and bent his brows. "Who told him to go
+out? Never mind, he'll be back in a minute. Shut the door."
+
+He lifted a deed-box from the floor at his feet, placed it on the table,
+opened it with a key attached to his watch-chain and removed a bundle of
+documents.
+
+"We're going to settle the Spillsbury business to-night," he said.
+"Spillsbury looks like squealing."
+
+"Where is he?" asked Pinto.
+
+"In an inebriates' home," said the colonel grimly; "it seems there are
+some trustees to his father's estate who are likely to question the
+legality of the transfers. But I've had the best legal opinion in London
+and there is no doubt that our position is safe. The only thing we've
+got to do to-night is to make absolutely sure that all those fool
+letters he wrote to Lollie have been destroyed."
+
+"You've got them?" said the girl quickly.
+
+"I had them?" said the colonel, "and I burnt them all except one when
+the transfer was completed. And the question is, gentlemen," he said,
+"shall we burn the last?"
+
+He took from the bundle before him an envelope and held it up.
+
+"I kept this in case there was anything coming, but if he's in a booze
+home, why, he's not going to be influenced by the threat of publishing a
+slushy letter to a girl. I guess his trustees are not going to be very
+much influenced either. On the other hand, if this letter were found
+among business documents, it would look pretty bad for us."
+
+"Found by whom?" asked Pinto.
+
+"By the police," said the colonel calmly.
+
+"Police?"
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"They're getting after us, but you needn't be alarmed," he said. "King
+is working to get a case, and he is not above applying for a search
+warrant. But I'm not scared of the police so much." His voice slowed and
+he spoke with greater emphasis. "I guess there are enough court cards in
+the Boundary pack to beat that combination. It's the Jack----"
+
+"_The Jack--ha! ha! ha!_"
+
+It was a shrill bubble of laughter which cut into his speech and the
+colonel leapt to his feet, his hand dropping to his hip-pocket. The door
+had opened and closed so silently that none had heard it, and a figure
+stood confronting them.
+
+It was clad from head to foot in a long coat of black silk, which
+shimmered in the half-light of the electrolier. The hands were gloved,
+the head covered with a soft slouch hat and the face hidden behind a
+white silk handkerchief.
+
+The colonel's hand was in his hip-pocket when he thought better and
+raised both hands in the air. There was something peculiarly
+businesslike in the long-barrelled revolver which the intruder held, in
+spite of the silver-plating and the gold inlay along the chased barrel.
+
+"Everybody's hands in the air," said the Jack shrilly, "right up to the
+beautiful sky! Yours too, Lollie. Stand away from the table, everybody,
+and back to the wall. For the Jack o' Judgment is amongst you and life
+is full of amazing possibilities!"
+
+They backed from the table, peering helplessly at the two unwinking eyes
+which showed through the holes in the handkerchief.
+
+"Back to the wall, my pretties," chuckled the Thing. "I'm going to make
+you laugh and you'll want some support. I'm going to make you rock with
+joy and merriment!"
+
+The figure had moved to the table, and all the time it spoke its nimble
+fingers were turning over the piles of documents which the colonel had
+disgorged from the dispatch box.
+
+"I'm going to tell you a comical tale about a gang of blackmailers."
+
+"You're a liar," said the colonel hoarsely.
+
+"About a gang of blackmailers," said the Jack with shrill laughter,
+"fellows who didn't work like common blackmailers, nor demand money. Oh,
+no! not naughty blackmailers! They got the fools and the vicious in
+their power and made them sell things for hundreds of pounds that were
+worth thousands. And they were such a wonderful crowd! They were such
+wonderfully amusing fellows. There was Dan Boundary who started life by
+robbing his dead mother, there was 'Swell' Crewe, who was once a
+gentleman and is now a thief!"
+
+"Damn you!" said Crewe, lurching forward, but the gun swung round on him
+and he stopped.
+
+"There was Lollie who would sell her own child----"
+
+"I have no child," half-screamed the girl.
+
+"Think again, Lollie darling--dear little soul!"
+
+He stopped. The envelope that his fingers had been seeking was found.
+He slipped it beneath the black silk cloak and in two bounds was at the
+door.
+
+"Send for the police," he mocked. "Send for the police, Dan! Get
+Stafford King, the eminent chief. Tell him I called! My card!"
+
+With a dexterous flip of his fingers he sent a little pasteboard planing
+across the room. In an instant the door opened and closed upon the
+intruder and he was gone.
+
+For a second there was silence, and then, with a little sob, Lollie
+Marsh collapsed in a heap on the floor. Colonel Dan Boundary looked from
+one white face to the other.
+
+"There's a hundred thousand pounds for any one of you who gets that
+fellow," he said, breathing hard, "whether it is man or woman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE DECOY
+
+
+Colonel Boundary, sitting at his desk the morning after, pushed a bell.
+It was answered by the thick-set Olaf. He was dressed, as usual, in
+black from head to foot and the colonel eyed him thoughtfully.
+
+"Hanson," he said, "has Miss Marsh come?"
+
+"Yes, she has come," said the other resentfully.
+
+"Tell her I want her," said the colonel and then as the man was leaving
+the room: "Where did you get to last night when I wanted you?"
+
+"I was out," said the man shortly. "I get some time for myself, I
+suppose?"
+
+The colonel nodded slowly.
+
+"Sure you do, Hanson."
+
+His tone was mild, and that spelt danger to Hanson, had he known it.
+This was the third sign of rebellion which the man had shown in the past
+week.
+
+"What's happened to your temper this morning, Hanson?" he asked.
+
+"Everything," exploded the man and in his agitation his foreign origin
+was betrayed by his accent. "You tell me I shall haf plenty money,
+thousands of pounds! You say I go to my brother in America. Where is dot
+money? I go in March, I go in May, I go in July, still I am here!"
+
+"My good friend," said the colonel, "you're too impatient. This is not a
+moment I can allow you to go away. You're getting nervous, that's what's
+the matter with you. Perhaps I'll let you have a holiday next week."
+
+"Nervous!" roared the man. "Yes, I am. All the time I feel eyes on me!
+When I walk in the street, every man I meet is a policeman. When I go to
+bed, I hear nothing but footsteps creeping in the passage outside my
+room."
+
+"Old Jack, eh?" said the colonel, eyeing him narrowly.
+
+Hanson shivered.
+
+He had seen the Jack o' Judgment once. A figure in gossamer silk who had
+stood beside the bed in which the Scandinavian lay and had talked wisdom
+whilst Olaf quaked in a muck sweat of fear.
+
+The colonel did not know this. He was under the impression that the
+appearance of the previous night had constituted the first of this
+mysterious menace.
+
+So he nodded again.
+
+"Send Miss Marsh to me," he said.
+
+Hanson would have got on his nerves if he had nerves. The man, at any
+rate, was becoming an intolerable nuisance. The colonel marked him down
+as one of the problems calling for early solution.
+
+The secretary had not been gone more than a few seconds before the door
+opened again and the girl came in. She was tall, pretty in a doll-like
+way, with an aura of golden hair about her small head. She might have
+been more than pretty but for her eyes, which were too light a shade of
+blue to be beautiful. She was expensively gowned and walked with the
+easy swing of one whose position was assured.
+
+"Good morning, Lollie," said the colonel. "Did you see him again?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I got a pretty good view of him," she said.
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I don't think so," she said; "besides, what does it matter if he did?"
+
+"Was the girl with him?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Well?" asked the colonel after a pause. "Can you do anything with him?"
+
+She pursed her lips.
+
+If she had expected the colonel to refer to their terrifying experience
+of the night before, she was to be disappointed. The hard eyes of the
+man compelled her to keep to the matter under discussion.
+
+"He looks pretty hard," said the girl. "He is not the man to fall for
+that heart-to-heart stuff."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Just that," said the girl with a shrug. "I can't imagine his picking me
+up and taking me to dinner and pouring out the secrets of his young
+heart at the second bottle."
+
+"Neither can I," said the colonel thoughtfully. "You're a pretty clever
+girl, Lollie, and I'm going to make it worth your while to get close to
+that fellow. He's the one man in Scotland Yard that we want to put out
+of business. Not that we've anything to be afraid of," he added vaguely,
+"but he's just interfering with----"
+
+He paused for a word.
+
+"With business," said the girl. "Oh, come off it, colonel! Just tell me
+how far you want me to go."
+
+"You've got to go to the limit," said the other decidedly. "You've got
+to put him as wrong as you can. He must be compromised up to his neck."
+
+"What about my young reputation?" asked the girl with a grimace.
+
+"If you lose it, we'll buy you another," said the colonel drily, "and I
+reckon it's about time you had another one, Lollie."
+
+The girl fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+
+"It is not going to be easy," she said again. "It isn't going to be like
+young Spillsbury--Pinto Silva could have done that job without help--or
+Solomon White even."
+
+"You can shut up about Spillsbury," growled the colonel. "I've told you
+to forget everything that has ever happened in our business! And I've
+told you a hundred times not to mention Pinto or any of the other men in
+this business! You can do as you're told! And take that look off your
+face!"
+
+He rose with extraordinary agility and leant over, glowering at the
+girl.
+
+"You've been getting a bit too fresh lately, Lollie, and giving yourself
+airs! You don't try any of that grand lady stuff with me, d'ye hear?"
+
+There was nothing suave in the colonel's manner, nothing slow or
+ponderous or courtly. He spoke rapidly and harshly and revealed the
+brute that many suspected but few knew.
+
+"I've no more respect for women than I have for men, understand! If you
+ever get gay with me, I'll take your neck in my hand like that," he
+clenched his two fists together with a horribly suggestive motion and
+the frightened girl watched him, fascinated. "I'll break you as if you
+were a bit of china! I'll tear you as if you were a rag! You needn't
+think you'll ever get away from me--I'll follow you to the ends of the
+earth. You're paid like a queen and treated like a queen and you play
+straight--there was a man called 'Snow' Gregory once----"
+
+The trembling girl was on her feet now, her face ashen white.
+
+"I'm sorry, colonel," she faltered. "I didn't intend giving you offence.
+I--I----"
+
+She was on the verge of tears when the colonel, with a quick gesture,
+motioned her back to the chair. His rage subsided as suddenly as it had
+risen.
+
+"Now do as you're told, Lollie," he said calmly. "Get after that young
+fellow and don't come back to me until you've got him."
+
+She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and almost tiptoed from his
+dread presence.
+
+At the door he stopped her.
+
+"As to Maisie," he said, "why, you can leave Maisie to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MISSING HANSON
+
+
+Colonel Dan Boundary descended slowly from the Ford taxi-cab which had
+brought him up from Horsham station and surveyed without emotion the
+domicile of his partner. It was Colonel Boundary's boast that he was in
+the act of lathering his face on the tenth floor of a Californian hotel
+when the earthquake began, and that he finished his shaving operations,
+took his bath and dressed himself before the earth had ceased to
+tremble.
+
+"I shall want you again, so you had better wait," he said to the driver
+and passed through the wooden gates toward Rose Lodge.
+
+He stopped half-way up the path, having now a better view of the house.
+It was a red brick villa, the home of a well-to-do man. The trim lawn
+with its border of rose trees, the little fountain playing over the
+rockery, the quality of the garden furniture within view and the general
+air of comfort which pervaded the place, suggested the home of a
+prosperous City man, one of those happy creatures who have never
+troubled to get themselves in line for millions, but have lived happily
+between the four and five figure mark.
+
+Colonel Boundary grunted and continued his walk. A trim maid opened the
+door to him and by her blank look it was evident that he was not a
+frequent visitor.
+
+"Boundary--just say Boundary," said the colonel in a deep voice which
+carried to the remotest part of the house.
+
+He was shown to the drawing-room and again found much that interested
+him. He felt no twinge of pity at the thought that Solomon White would
+very soon exchange this almost luxury for the bleak discomfort of a
+prison cell, and not even the sight of the girl who came through the
+door to greet him brought him a qualm.
+
+"You want to see my father, colonel?" she asked.
+
+Her tone was cold but polite. The colonel had never been a great
+favourite of Maisie White's, and now it required a considerable effort
+on her part to hide her deep aversion.
+
+"Do I want to see your father?" said Colonel Boundary. "Why, yes, I
+think I do and I want to see you too, and I'd just as soon see you
+first, before I speak to Solly."
+
+She sat down, a model of patient politeness, her hands folded on her
+lap. In the light of day she was pretty, straight of back, graceful as
+to figure and the clear grey eyes which met his faded blue, were very
+understanding.
+
+"Miss White," he said, "we have been very good to you."
+
+"We?" repeated the girl.
+
+"We," nodded the colonel. "I speak for myself and my business
+associates. If Solomon had ever told you the truth you would know that
+you owe all your education, your beautiful home," he waved his hand, "to
+myself and my business associates." His tongue rolled round the last two
+words. They were favourites of his.
+
+She nodded her head slightly.
+
+"I was under the impression that I owed it to my father," she said, with
+a hint of irony in her voice, "for I suppose that he earned all he has."
+
+"You suppose that he earned all that he has?" repeated the colonel.
+"Well, very likely you are right. He has earned more than he has got but
+pay-day is near at hand."
+
+There was no mistaking the menace in his tone, but the girl made no
+comment. She knew that there had been trouble. She knew that her father
+had for days been locked in his study and had scarcely spoken a word to
+anybody.
+
+"I saw you the other night," said the colonel, changing the direction
+of his attack. "I saw you at the Orpheum. Pinto Silva came with me. We
+were in the stage box."
+
+"I saw you," said the girl quietly.
+
+"A very good performance, considering you're a kid," said Boundary; "in
+fact, Pinto says you're the best mimic he has ever seen on the
+stage----" He paused--"Pinto got you your contracts."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am very grateful to Mr. Silva," she said.
+
+"You have all the world before you, my girl," said Boundary in his slow,
+ponderous way, "a beautiful and bright future, plenty of money, pearls,
+diamonds," he waved his hand with a vague gesture, "and Pinto, who is
+the most valuable of my business associates, is very fond of you."
+
+The girl sighed helplessly.
+
+"I thought that matter had been finished and done with, colonel," she
+said. "I don't know how people in your world would regard such an offer,
+but in my world they would look upon it as an insult."
+
+"And what the devil is your world?" asked the colonel, without any sign
+of irritation.
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"The clean, decent world," she said calmly, "the law-abiding world. The
+world that regards such arrangements as you suggest as infamous. It is
+not only the fact that Mr. Silva is already married----"
+
+The colonel raised his hand.
+
+"Pinto talks very seriously of getting a divorce," he said solemnly,
+"and when a gentleman like Pinto Silva gives his word, that ought to be
+sufficient for any girl. And now you have come to mention law-abiding
+worlds," he went on slowly, "I would like to speak of one of the
+law-abiders."
+
+She knew what was coming and was silent.
+
+"There's a young gentleman named Stafford King hanging round you." He
+saw her face flush but went on, "Mr. Stafford King is a policeman."
+
+"He is an official of the Criminal Intelligence Department," said the
+girl, "but I don't think you would call him a policeman, would you,
+colonel?"
+
+"All policemen are policemen to me," said Boundary, "and Mr. Stafford
+King is one of the worst of the policemen from my point of view, because
+he's trying to trump up a cock-and-bull story about me and get me into
+very serious trouble."
+
+"I know Mr. King is connected with a great number of unpleasant cases,"
+said the girl coolly. "It would be a coincidence if he was in a case
+which interested you."
+
+"It would be a coincidence, would it?" said the colonel, nodding his
+huge head. "Perhaps it is a coincidence that my clerk, Hanson, has
+disappeared and has been seen in the company of your friend, eh? It is a
+coincidence that King is working on the Spillsbury case--the one case
+that Solly knows nothing about--eh?"
+
+She faced him, puzzled and apprehensive.
+
+"Where does all this lead?" she asked.
+
+"It leads to trouble for Solly, that's all," said the colonel. "He's
+trying to put me away and put his business associates away, and he has
+got to go through the mill unless----"
+
+"Unless what?" she asked.
+
+"Pinto's a merciful man, I'm a merciful man. We don't want to make
+trouble with former business associates, but trouble there is going to
+be, believe me."
+
+"What kind of trouble?" asked the girl. "If you mean that your so-called
+business association with my father will cease, I shall be happier. My
+father can earn his living and I have my stage work."
+
+"You have your stage work," the colonel did not smile but his tone
+betrayed his amusement, "and your father can earn his living, eh? He can
+earn his living in Portland Gaol," he said, raising his voice.
+
+"For the matter of that, so can you, colonel."
+
+The colonel turned his head slowly and surveyed the spare figure in the
+doorway.
+
+"Oh, you heard me, did you, Solly," he said not unpleasantly.
+
+"I heard you," said Solomon White, his lean face a shade whiter than the
+girl had ever seen it and his breathing was a little laboured.
+
+"If you are thinking of gaoling me," said White, "why, I think we shall
+make up a pretty jolly party."
+
+"Meaning me?" said the colonel, raising his eyebrows.
+
+"You amongst others. Pinto Silva, 'Swell' Crewe and Selby, to name a
+few."
+
+Colonel Boundary permitted himself to chuckle.
+
+"On what charge?" he asked, "tell me that, Solly? The cleverest men in
+Scotland Yard have been laying for me for years and they haven't got
+away with it. Maybe they have your assistance and that dog Hanson----"
+
+"That's a lie," interrupted White, "so far as I am concerned--I know
+nothing about Hanson."
+
+"Hanson," said the colonel slowly, "is a thief. He bolted with £300 of
+mine, as I've reported to the police."
+
+"I see," said White with a little smile of contempt, "got your charge in
+first, eh, colonel--discredit the witness. And what have you framed for
+me?"
+
+"Nothing," said the colonel, "except this. I've just had from the bank a
+cheque for £4,000 drawn in your favour on our joint account and
+purporting to be signed by Silva and myself."
+
+"As it happens," said White, "it was signed by you fellows in my
+presence."
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"Obdurate to the last, brazening it out to the end--why not make a frank
+confession to an old business associate, Solly? I came here to see you
+about that cheque."
+
+"That's the game, is it?" said White. "You are going to charge me with
+forgery, and suppose I spill it?"
+
+"Spill what?" asked the colonel innocently. "If by 'spill' you mean make
+a statement to the police derogatory to myself and my business
+associates, what can you tell? I can bring a dozen witnesses to prove
+that both Pinto and I were in Brighton the morning that cheque was
+signed."
+
+"You came up by car at night," said White harshly. "We arranged to meet
+outside Guildford to split the loot."
+
+"Loot?" said Colonel Boundary, puzzled. "I don't understand you."
+
+"I'll put it plainer," said White, his eyes like smouldering fire: "a
+year ago you got young Balston the shipowner to put fifty thousand
+pounds into a fake company."
+
+He heard Maisie gasp, but went on.
+
+"How you did it I'm not going to tell before the girl, but it was
+blackmail which you and Pinto engineered. He paid his last
+instalment--the four thousand pounds was my share."
+
+Colonel Boundary rose and looked at his watch.
+
+"I have a taxi-cab waiting, and with a taxi-cab time is money. If you
+are going to bring in the name of an innocent young man, who will
+certainly deny that he had any connection with myself and my business
+associates, that is a matter for your own conscience. I tell you I know
+nothing about this cheque. I have made your daughter an offer."
+
+"I can guess what it is," interrupted White, "and I can tell you this,
+Boundary, that if you are going to sell me, I'll be even with you, if I
+wait twenty years! If you imagine I am going to let my daughter into
+that filthy gang----" His voice broke, and it was some time before he
+could recover himself. "Do your worst. But I'll have you, Boundary! I
+don't doubt that you'll get a conviction, and you know the things that I
+can't talk about, and I'll have to take my medicine, but you are not
+going to escape."
+
+"Wait, colonel." It was the girl who spoke in so low a voice that he
+would not have heard her, but that he was expecting her to speak. "Do
+you mean that you will--prosecute my father?"
+
+"With law-abiding people," said the colonel profoundly, "the demands of
+justice come first. I must do my duty to the state, but if you should
+change your mind----"
+
+"She won't change her mind," roared White.
+
+With one stride he had passed between the colonel and the door. Only for
+a second he stood, and then he fell back.
+
+"Do your worst," he said huskily, and Colonel Boundary passed out,
+pocketing the revolver which had come from nowhere into his hand, and
+presently they heard the purr of the departing motor.
+
+He came to Horsham station in a thoughtful frame of mind. He was still
+thinking profoundly when he reached Victoria.
+
+Then, as he stepped on the platform, a hand was laid on his arm, and he
+turned to meet the smiling face of Stafford King.
+
+"Hullo," said the colonel, and something within him went cold.
+
+"Sorry to break in on your reverie, colonel," said Stafford King, "but
+I've a warrant for your arrest."
+
+"What is the charge?" asked the colonel, his face grey.
+
+"Blackmail and conspiracy," said King, and saw with amazement the look
+of relief in the other's eyes.
+
+Then:
+
+"Boundary," he said between his teeth, "you thought I wanted you for
+'Snow' Gregory!"
+
+The colonel said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT
+
+
+Never before in history had the dingy little street, in which North
+Lambeth Police Court stands, witnessed such scenes as were presented on
+that memorable 4th of December, when counsel for the Crown opened the
+case against Colonel Dan Boundary.
+
+Long before the building was open the precincts of the court were
+besieged by people anxious to secure one of the very few seats which
+were available for the public. By nine o'clock it became necessary to
+summon a special force of police to clear a way for the numerous
+motor-cars which came bowling from every point of the compass and which
+were afterwards parked in the narrow side streets, to the intense
+amazement and interest of the curious denizens of the unsavoury
+neighbourhood in which the court is located.
+
+Admission was by ticket. Even the reporters, those favoured servants of
+democracy, had need to produce a printed pass before the scrutinising
+policeman at the door allowed them to enter. Every available seat had
+been allotted. Even the magistrate's sacristy had been invaded, and
+chairs stood three-deep to left and right of him.
+
+There were some who came out of sheer morbid curiosity, in order that
+they might boast that they were present when this remarkable case was
+heard. There were others who came, inwardly quaking at the revelations
+which were promised or hinted at in the daily Press, for the influence
+which the Boundary gang exercised was wide and far-reaching.
+
+A young man stood upon the congested pavement, watching with evident
+impatience the arrival of belated cars. The magistrate had already come
+and had disappeared behind the slate-coloured gates which led to the
+courtyard. Stafford saw fashionably-dressed women and (with a smile)
+worried-looking men who were figures in the political and social world,
+and presently he involuntarily stepped forward into the roadway as
+though to meet the electric limousine which came noiselessly to the main
+entrance.
+
+The solitary occupant of the car was a man of sixty--a grey-haired
+gentleman of medium height, dressed with scrupulous care, and wearing on
+his clean-shaven face a perpetual smile, as though life were an
+amusement which never palled.
+
+Stafford King took the extended hand with a little twinkle in his eye.
+
+"I was afraid we shouldn't be able to keep your place for you, Sir
+Stanley," he said.
+
+Sir Stanley Belcom, First Commissioner of Criminal Intelligence,
+accentuated his smile.
+
+"Well, Stafford," he drawled, "I've come to see the culminating triumph
+of your official career."
+
+Stafford King made a little grimace.
+
+"I hope so," he said dryly.
+
+"I hope so, too," said the baronet, "yet--I'll tell you frankly,
+Stafford, I have a feeling that the ordinary processes of the law are
+inadequate to trap this organisation. The law has too wide a mesh to
+deal with the terror which this man exercises. Such men are the only
+justification of lynch law, the quick, sharp justice which is
+administered without subtlety and without quibble."
+
+Stafford looked at the other and made no attempt to hide his
+astonishment.
+
+"You believe in--the Jack o' Judgment?" he asked.
+
+Sir Stanley shot a swift glance at him.
+
+"That is the bugbear of the gang, isn't it?"
+
+"So Hanson says," replied the other. "I verily believe that Hanson is
+more afraid of that mysterious person than he is of Boundary himself."
+
+The Attorney-General had begun his opening speech when the two men made
+their way into the crowded court and found their seats at the end of
+the solicitors table.
+
+In the dock sat Colonel Boundary, the least concerned of all that
+assembly. The colonel was leaning forward, his arms resting on the
+rails, his chin on the back of his hairy hand, his eyes glued upon the
+grey-haired lawyer who was dispassionately opening the case.
+
+"The contention of the Crown," the Attorney-General was saying, "is that
+Colonel Boundary is at the head of a huge blackmailing organisation, and
+that in the course of the past twenty years, by such means as I shall
+suggest and as the principal witness for the Crown will tell you, he has
+built up his criminal practice until he now controls the most complex
+and the most iniquitous organisation that has been known in the long and
+sordid history of crime.
+
+"Your Worship will doubtless hear," he went on, "of a bizarre and
+fantastic figure which flits through the pages of this story, a
+mysterious somebody who is called the 'Jack.' But I shall ask your
+Worship, as I shall ask the jury, when this case reaches, as it must
+reach ultimately, the Central Criminal Court, to disregard this
+apparition, which displayed no part in bringing Boundary to justice.
+
+"The contention of the Crown is, as I say, that Boundary, by means of
+terrorisation and blackmail, through the medium and assistance of his
+creatures, has from time to time secured a hold over rich and foolish
+men and women, and from these has acquired the enormous wealth which is
+now his and his associates'. As to these latter, their prosecution
+depends very largely upon the fate of Boundary. There are, I believe,
+some of them in court at this moment, and though they are not arrested,
+it will be no news to them to learn that they are under police
+observation."
+
+"Swell" Crewe, sitting at the back of the court, shifted uneasily and,
+turning his head, he met the careless gaze of the tall, military-looking
+man who had "detective" written all over him.
+
+There had been a pause in the Attorney-General's speech whilst he
+examined, short-sightedly, the notes before him.
+
+"In the presentation of this case, your Worship," he went on, "the Crown
+is in somewhat of a dilemma. We have secured one important and, I think,
+convincing witness--a man who has been closely associated with the
+prisoner, a Scandinavian named Hanson, who, considering himself badly
+treated by this gang, has been for a long time secretly getting together
+evidence of an incriminating character. As to his object we need not
+inquire. There is a possibility suggested by my learned friend, the
+counsel for the defence, that Hanson intended blackmailing the
+blackmailers, and presenting such a weight of evidence against Boundary
+that he could do no less than pay handsomely for his confederate's
+silence. That is as may be. The main fact is that Hanson has accumulated
+this documentary evidence, and that that documentary evidence is in
+existence in certain secret hiding-places in this country, which will be
+revealed in the course of his examination.
+
+"We are at this disadvantage, that Hanson has not yet made anything but
+the most scanty of statements. Fearing for his life, since this gang
+will stick at nothing, he has been closely guarded by the police from
+the moment he made his preliminary statement. Every effort which has
+been made to induce him to commit his revelations to writing has been in
+vain, and we are compelled to take what is practically his affidavit in
+open court."
+
+"Do I understand," interrupted the magistrate, in that weary tone which
+is the prerogative of magistrates, "that you are not as yet in
+possession of the evidence on which I am to be asked to commit the
+prisoner to the Old Bailey?"
+
+"That is so, your Worship," said the counsel. "All we could procure from
+Hanson was the bald affidavit which was necessary to secure the man's
+arrest."
+
+"So that if anything happened to your witness, there would be no case
+for the Crown?"
+
+The Attorney-General nodded.
+
+"Those are exactly the circumstances, your Worship," he said, "and that
+is why we have been careful to keep our witness in security. The man is
+in a highly nervous condition, and we have been obliged to humour him.
+But I do not think your Worship need have any apprehension as to the
+evidence which will be produced to-day, or that there will not be
+sufficient to justify a committal."
+
+"I see," said the magistrate.
+
+Sir Stanley turned to Stafford and whispered:
+
+"Rather a queer proceeding."
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"It is the only thing we could do," he said. "Hanson refused to speak
+until he was in court--until, as he said, he saw Boundary under arrest."
+
+"Does Boundary know this?"
+
+"I suppose so," replied Stafford with a little smile, "he knows
+everything. He has a whole army of spies. Sir Stanley, you don't know
+how big this organisation is. He has roped in everybody. He has Members
+of Parliament, he has the best lawyers in London, and two of the big
+detective agencies are engaged exclusively on his work."
+
+Sir Stanley pursed his lips thoughtfully and turned his attention to the
+prosecuting counsel. The address was not a long one, and presently the
+Attorney-General sat down, to be followed by a leading member of the
+Bar, retained for the defence. Presently he too had finished, and again
+the Attorney-General rose.
+
+"Call Olaf Hanson," he said, and there was a stir of excitement.
+
+The door leading to the cells opened, and two tall detectives came
+through, and two others followed. In the midst of the four walked the
+short, grey-faced man, in whose hands was the fate, and indeed the life,
+of Colonel Dan Boundary.
+
+He did not as much as glance at the dock, but hurried across the floor
+of the court and was ushered to the witness stand, his four guardians
+disposing themselves behind and before him. The man seemed on the point
+of crumbling. His fear-full eyes ranged the court, always avoiding the
+gross figure in the railed dock. The lips of the witness were white and
+trembling. The hands which clutched the front of the box for support
+twitched spasmodically.
+
+"Your name is Olaf Hanson?" asked the Attorney-General soothingly.
+
+The witness tried to speak but his lips emitted no sound. He nodded.
+
+"You are a native of Christiania?"
+
+Again Hanson nodded.
+
+"You must speak out," said Counsel kindly, "and you need have no fear.
+How long have you known Colonel Boundary?"
+
+This time Hanson found his voice.
+
+"For ten years," he said huskily.
+
+An usher came forward from the press at the back of the court with a
+glass of water and handed it to the witness, who drank eagerly. Counsel
+waited until he had drained the glass before he spoke again.
+
+"You have in your possession certain documentary evidence convicting
+Colonel Boundary of certain malpractices?"
+
+"Yes," said the witness.
+
+"You have promised the police that you will reveal in court where those
+documents have been stored?"
+
+"Yes," said Hanson again.
+
+"Will you tell the court now, in order that the police may lose as
+little time as possible, where you have hidden that evidence?"
+
+Colonel Boundary was showing the first signs of interest he had evinced
+in the proceedings. He leaned forward, his head craned round as though
+endeavouring to catch the eye of the witness.
+
+Hanson was speaking, and speaking with difficulty.
+
+"I haf--put those papers,"--he stopped and swayed--"I haf put those
+papers----" he began again, and then, without a second's warning, he
+fell limply forward.
+
+"I am afraid he has fainted," said the magistrate.
+
+Detectives were crowding round the witness, and had lifted him from the
+witness stand. One said something hurriedly, and Stafford King left his
+seat. He was bending over the prostrate figure, tearing open the collar
+from his throat, and presently was joined by the police surgeon, who was
+in court. There was a little whispered consultation, and then Stafford
+King straightened himself up and his face was pale and hard.
+
+"I regret to inform your Worship," he said, "that the witness is dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+STAFFORD KING RESIGNS
+
+
+A week later, Stafford King came into the office of the First
+Commissioner of the Criminal Intelligence Department, and Sir Stanley
+looked up with a kindly but pitying look in his eye.
+
+"Well, Stafford," he said gently, "sit down, won't you. What has
+happened?"
+
+Stafford King shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Boundary is discharged," he said shortly.
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"It was inevitable," he said, "I suppose there's no hope of connecting
+him and his gang with the death of Hanson?"
+
+"Not a ghost of a hope, I am afraid," said Stafford, shaking his head.
+"Hanson was undoubtedly murdered, and the poison which killed him was in
+the glass of water which the usher brought. I've been examining the
+usher again to-day, and all he can remember is that he saw somebody
+pushing through the crowd at the back of the court, who handed the glass
+over the heads of the people. Nobody seems to have seen the man who
+passed it. That was the method by which the gang got rid of their
+traitor."
+
+"Clever," said Sir Stanley, putting his finger-tips together. "They knew
+just the condition of mind in which Hanson would be when he came into
+court. They had the dope ready, and they knew that the detectives would
+allow the usher to bring the man water, when they would not allow
+anybody else to approach him. This is a pretty bad business, Stafford."
+
+"I realise that," said the young chief. "Of course, I shall resign.
+There's nothing else to do. I thought we had him this time, especially
+with the evidence we had in relation to the Spillsbury case."
+
+"You mean the letter which Spillsbury wrote to the woman Marsh? How did
+that come, by the way?"
+
+"It reached Scotland Yard by post."
+
+"Do you know who sent it?"
+
+"There was no covering note at all," replied Stafford. "It was in a
+plain envelope with a typewritten address and was sent to me personally.
+The letter, of course, was valueless by itself."
+
+"Have you made any search to discover the documents which Hanson spoke
+about?"
+
+"We have searched everywhere," said the other a little wearily, "but it
+is a pretty hopeless business looking through London for a handful of
+documents. Anyway, friend Boundary is free."
+
+The other was watching him closely.
+
+"It is a bitter disappointment to you, my young friend," he said;
+"you've been working on the case for years. I fear you'll never have
+another such chance of putting Boundary in the dock. He's got a lot of
+public sympathy, too. Your thorough-paced rascal who escapes from the
+hands of the police has always a large following amongst the public, and
+I doubt whether the Home Secretary will sanction any further
+proceedings, unless we have most convincing proof. What's this?"
+
+Stafford had laid a letter on the table.
+
+"My resignation," said that young man grimly.
+
+The First Commissioner took up the envelope and tore it in four pieces.
+
+"It is not accepted," he said cheerfully; "you did your best, and you're
+no more responsible than I am. If you resign, I ought to resign, and so
+ought every officer who has been on this game. A few years ago I took
+exactly the same step--offered my resignation over a purely private and
+personal matter, and it was not accepted. I have been glad since, and so
+will you be. Go on with your work and give Boundary a rest for awhile."
+
+Stafford was looking down at him abstractedly.
+
+"Do you think we shall ever catch the fellow, sir?"
+
+Sir Stanley smiled.
+
+"Frankly, I don't," he admitted. "As I said before, the only danger I
+see to Boundary is this mysterious individual who apparently crops up
+now and again in his daily life, and who, I suspect, was the person who
+sent you the Spillsbury letter--the Jack o' Judgment, doesn't he call
+himself? Do you know what I think?" he asked quietly. "I think that if
+you found the 'Jack,' if you ran him to earth, stripped him of his
+mystic guise, you would discover somebody who has a greater grudge
+against Boundary than the police."
+
+Stafford smiled.
+
+"We can't run about after phantoms, sir," he said, with a touch of
+asperity in his voice.
+
+The chief looked at him curiously.
+
+"I hear you do quite a lot of running about," he said carelessly, as he
+began to arrange the papers on his table. "By the way, how is Miss
+White?"
+
+Stafford flushed.
+
+"She was very well when I saw her last night," he said stiffly; "she is
+leaving the stage."
+
+"And her father?"
+
+Stafford was silent for a second.
+
+"He left his home a week before the case came into court and has not
+been seen since," he said.
+
+The chief nodded.
+
+"Whilst White is away and until he turns up I should keep a watchful eye
+on his daughter," he said.
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" asked Stafford.
+
+"I'm just making a suggestion," said the other. "Think it over."
+
+Stafford thought it over on his way to meet the girl, who was waiting
+for him on a sunny seat in Temple Gardens, for the day was fine and even
+warm, and, two hours before luncheon, the place was comparatively empty
+of people.
+
+She saw the trouble in his face and rose to meet him, and for a moment
+forgot her own distress of mind, her doubts and fears. Evidently she
+knew the reason for his attendance at Scotland Yard, and something of
+the interview which he had had.
+
+"I offered my resignation," he replied, in answer to her unspoken
+question, "and Sir Stanley refused it."
+
+"I think he was just," she said. "Why, it would be simply monstrous if
+your career were spoilt through no fault of your own."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Don't let us talk about me," he said. "What have you done?"
+
+"I've cancelled all my contracts; I have other work to do."
+
+"How are----" He hesitated, but she knew just what he meant, and patted
+his arm gratefully.
+
+"Thank you, I have all the money I want," she said. "Father left me
+quite a respectable balance. I am closing the house at Horsham and
+storing the furniture, and shall keep just sufficient to fill a little
+flat I have taken in Bloomsbury."
+
+"But what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Oh, there are lots of things that a girl can do," she said vaguely,
+"besides going on the stage."
+
+"But isn't it a sacrifice? Didn't you love your work?"
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"I thought I did at first," she said. "You see, I was always a very good
+mimic. When I was quite a little girl I could imitate the colonel.
+Listen!"
+
+Suddenly to his amazement he heard the drawling growl of Dan Boundary.
+She laughed with glee at his amazement, but the smile vanished and she
+sighed.
+
+"I want you to tell me one thing, Mr. King----"
+
+"Stafford--you promised me," he began.
+
+She reddened.
+
+"I hardly like calling you by your christian name but it sounds so like
+a surname that perhaps it won't be so bad."
+
+"What do you want to ask?" he demanded.
+
+She was silent for a moment, then she said:
+
+"How far was my father implicated in this terrible business?"
+
+"In the gang?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+He was in a dilemma. Solomon White was implicated as deeply as any save
+the colonel. In his younger days he had been the genius who was
+responsible for the organisation and had been for years the colonel's
+right-hand man until the more subtle villainy of Pinto Silva, that
+Portuguese adventurer, had ousted him, and, if the truth be told, until
+the sight of his girl growing to womanhood had brought qualms to the
+heart of this man, who, whatever his faults, loved the girl dearly.
+
+"You don't answer me," she said, "but I think I am answered by your
+silence. Was my father--a bad man?"
+
+"I would not judge your father," he said. "I can tell you this, that for
+the past few years he has played a very small part in the affairs of the
+gang. But what are you going to do?"
+
+"How persistent you are!" she laughed. "Why, there are so many things I
+am going to do that I haven't time to tell you. For one thing, I am
+going to work to undo some of the mischief which the gang have wrought.
+I am going to make such reparation as I can," she said, her lips
+trembling, "for the evil deeds my father has committed."
+
+"You have a mission, eh?" he said with a little smile.
+
+"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded. "I feel it here." She put her hand on
+her heart. "There's something which tells me that, even if my father
+built up this gang, as you told me once he did--ah! you had forgotten
+that."
+
+Stafford King had indeed forgotten the statement.
+
+"Yes?" he said. "You intend to pull it down?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I feel, too, that I am at bay. I am the daughter of Solomon White, and
+Solomon White is regarded by the colonel as a traitor. Do you think they
+will leave me alone? Don't you think they are going to watch me day and
+night and get me in their power just as soon as they can? Think of the
+lever that would be, the lever to force my father back to them!"
+
+"Oh, you'll be watched all right," he said easily, and remembered the
+commissioner's warning. "In fact, you're being watched now. Do you
+mind?"
+
+"Now?" she asked in surprise.
+
+He nodded towards a lady who sat a dozen yards away and whose face was
+carefully shaded by a parasol.
+
+"Who is she?" asked the girl curiously.
+
+"A young person called Lollie Marsh," laughed Stafford. "At present she
+has a mission too, which is to entangle me into a compromising
+position."
+
+The girl looked towards the spy with a new interest and a new
+resentment.
+
+"She has been trailing me for weeks," he went on, "and it would be
+embarrassing to tell you the number of times we have been literally
+thrown into one another's arms. Poor girl!" he said, with mock concern,
+"she must be bored with sitting there so long. Let us take a stroll."
+
+If he expected Lollie to follow, he was to be disappointed She stayed on
+watching the disappearing figures, without attempting to rise, and
+waiting until they were out of sight, she walked out on to the
+Embankment and hailed a passing taxi. She seemed quite satisfied in her
+mind that the plan she had evolved for the trapping of Stafford King
+could not fail to succeed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS
+
+
+A merry little dinner party was assembled that night in a luxurious flat
+in Albemarle House. It was a bachelor party, and consisted of three--the
+colonel, resplendent in evening dress, "Swell" Crewe and a middle-aged
+man whose antique dress coat and none too spotless linen certainly did
+not advertise their owner's prosperity. Yet this man with the stubbly
+moustache and the bald head could write his cheque for seven figures,
+being Mr. Thomas Crotin, of the firm of Crotin and Principle, whose
+swollen mills occupy a respectable acreage in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
+
+"You're Colonel Boundary, are you?" he said admiringly, and for about
+the seventh time since the meal started.
+
+The colonel nodded with a good-humoured twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Well, fancy that!" said Mr. Crotin. "I'll have something to talk about
+when I go back to Yorkshire. It is lucky I met your friend, Captain
+Crewe, at our club in Huddersfield."
+
+There was something more than luck in that meeting, as the colonel well
+knew.
+
+"I read about the trial and all," said the Yorkshireman; "I must say it
+looked very black against you, colonel."
+
+The colonel smiled again and lifted a bottle towards the other.
+
+"Nay, nay!" said the spinner. "I'll have nowt more. I've got as much as
+I can carry, and I know when I've had enough."
+
+The colonel replaced the bottle by his side.
+
+"So you read of the trial, did you?"
+
+"I did and all," said the other, "and I said to my missus: 'Yon's a
+clever fellow, I'd like to meet him.'"
+
+"You have an admiration for the criminal classes, eh?" said the colonel
+good-humouredly.
+
+"Well, I'm not saying you're a criminal," said the other, taking his
+host literally, "but being a J.P. and on the bench of magistrates, I
+naturally take an interest in these cases. You never know what you can
+learn."
+
+"And what did your lady wife say?" asked Boundary.
+
+The Yorkshireman smiled broadly.
+
+"Well, she doesn't take any interest in these things. She's a proper
+London lady, my wife. She was in a high position when I married."
+
+"Five years ago," said Boundary, "you married the daughter of Lord
+Westsevern. It cost you a hundred thousand pounds to pay the old man's
+debts."
+
+The Yorkshireman stared at him.
+
+"How did you know that?" he asked.
+
+"You're nominated for Parliament, too, aren't you. And you're to be
+Mayor of Little Thornhill?"
+
+Mr. Crotin laughed uproariously.
+
+"Well, you've got me properly taped," he said admiringly, and the
+colonel agreed with a gesture.
+
+"So you're interested in the criminal classes?"
+
+Mr. Crotin waved a protesting hand.
+
+"I'm not saying you're a member of the criminal classes, colonel," he
+said. "My friend Crewe here wouldn't think I would be so rude. Of
+course, I know the charge was all wrong."
+
+"That's where you're mistaken," interrupted the colonel calmly; "it was
+all right."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+The man stared.
+
+"The charge was perfectly sound," said the colonel, playing with his
+fruit knife; "for twenty years I have been making money by buying
+businesses at about a twentieth of their value and selling them again."
+
+"But how----" began the other.
+
+"Wait, I'll tell you. I've got men working for me all over the country,
+agents and sub-agents, who are constantly on the look-out for scandal.
+Housekeepers, servants, valets--you know the sort of people who get hold
+of information."
+
+Mr. Crotin was speechless.
+
+"Sooner or later I find a very incriminating fact which concerns a
+gentleman of property. I prefer those scandals which verge on the
+criminal," the colonel went on.
+
+The outraged Mr. Crotin was rolling his serviette.
+
+"Where are you going? What are you going to do? The night's young," said
+the colonel innocently.
+
+"I'm going," said Mr. Crotin, very red of face. "A joke's a joke, and
+when friend Crewe introduced me to you, I hadn't any idea that you were
+that kind of man. You don't suppose that I'm going to sit here in your
+society--me with my high connections--after what you've said?"
+
+"Why not?" asked the colonel; "after all, business is business, and as
+I'm making an offer to you for the Riverborne Mill----"
+
+"The Riverborne Mill?" roared the spinner. "Ah! that's a joke of yours!
+You'll buy no Riverborne Mill of me, sitha!"
+
+"On the contrary, I shall buy the Riverborne Mill from you. In fact, I
+have all the papers and transfers ready for you to sign."
+
+"Oh, you have, have you?" said the man grimly. "And what might you be
+offering me for the Riverborne?"
+
+"I'm offering you thirty thousand pounds cash," said the colonel, and
+his bearer was stricken speechless.
+
+"Thirty thousand pounds cash!" he said after awhile. "Why, man, that
+property is worth two hundred thousand pounds."
+
+"I thought it was worth a little more," said the colonel carelessly.
+
+"You're a fool or a madman," said the angry Yorkshireman. "It isn't my
+mill, it is a limited company."
+
+"But you hold the majority of the shares--ninety-five per cent., I
+think," said the colonel. "Those are the shares which you will transfer
+to me at the price I suggest."
+
+"I'll see you damned first," roared Crotin, bringing his hand down smash
+on the table.
+
+"Sit down again for one moment." The colonel's voice was gentle but
+insistent. "Do you know Maggie Delman?"
+
+Suddenly Crotin's face went white.
+
+"She was one of your father's mill-girls when you were little more than
+a boy," the colonel proceeded, "and you were rather in love with her,
+and one Easter you went away together to Blackpool. Do you remember?"
+
+Still Crotin did not speak.
+
+"You married the young lady and the marriage was kept secret because you
+were afraid of your father, and as the years went on and the girl was
+content with the little home you had made for her and the allowance you
+gave her, there seemed to be no need to admit your marriage, especially
+as there were no children. Then you began to take part in local politics
+and to accumulate ambitions. You dared not divorce your wife and you
+thought there was no necessity for it. You had a chance of improving
+yourself socially by marrying the daughter of an English lord, and you
+jumped at it."
+
+"You've got to prove that," he said huskily.
+
+The man found his voice.
+
+"I can prove it all right. Oh, no, your wife hasn't betrayed you--your
+real wife, I mean. You've betrayed yourself by insisting on paying her
+by telegraphic money orders. We heard of these mysterious payments but
+suspected nothing beyond a vulgar love affair. Then one night, whilst
+your placid and complacent wife was in a cinema, one of my people
+searched her box and came upon the certificate of marriage. Would you
+like to see it?"
+
+"I've nothing to say," said Crotin thickly. "You've got me, mister. So
+that is how you do it!"
+
+"That is how I do it," said the colonel. "I believe in being frank with
+people like you. Here are the transfers. You see the place for your
+signature marked with a pencil."
+
+Suddenly Crotin leaped at him in a blind fury, but the colonel gripped
+him by the throat with a hand like a steel vice, and shook him as a dog
+would shake a rat. And the gentle tone in his voice changed as quickly.
+
+"Sit down and sign!" snarled Boundary. "If you play that game, I'll
+break your damned neck! Come any of those tricks with me and I'll smash
+you. Give him the pen, Crewe."
+
+"I'll see you in gaol for this," said the white-faced man shakily.
+
+"That's about the place you will see me, if you don't sign, and it is
+the inside of that gaol you'll be to see me."
+
+The man rose up unsteadily, flinging down the pen as he did so.
+
+"You'll suffer for this," he said between his teeth.
+
+"Not unduly," said the colonel.
+
+There was a tap at the door and the colonel swung round.
+
+"Who's that?" he asked.
+
+"Can I come in?" said a voice.
+
+Crewe was frowning.
+
+"Who is it?" asked the colonel.
+
+The door opened slowly. A gloved hand, and then a white, hooded face,
+slipped through the narrow entry.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment come to make a call,"
+chuckled the hateful voice. "Down, dog; down!" He flourished the
+long-barrelled revolver theatrically, then turned with a chuckle of
+laughter to the gaping Mr. Crotin.
+
+"Poor Jacob!" he crooned, "he has sold his birthright for a mess of
+pottage! Don't touch that paper, Crewe, or you die the death!"
+
+His hand leapt out and snatched the transfer, which he thrust into the
+hand of the wool-spinner.
+
+"Get out and go home, my poor sheep," he said, "back to the blankets! Do
+you think they'd be satisfied with one mill? They'd come for a mill
+every year and they'd never leave you till you were dead or broke. Go to
+the police, my poor lamb, and tell them your sad story. Go to the
+admirable Mr. Stafford King--he'll fall on your neck. You won't, I see
+you won't!"
+
+The laughter rose again, and then swiftly with one arm he swung back the
+merchant and stood in silence till the door of the flat slammed.
+
+The colonel found his voice.
+
+"I don't know who you are," he said, breathing heavily, "but I'll make a
+bargain with you. I've offered a hundred thousand pounds to anybody who
+gets you. I'll offer you the same amount to leave me alone."
+
+"Make it a hundred thousand millions!" said Jack o' Judgment in his
+curious, squeaky voice, "give me the moon and an apple, and I'm yours!"
+
+He was gone before they could realise he had passed through the door,
+and he had left the flat before either moved.
+
+"Quick! The window!" said the colonel.
+
+The window commanded a view of the front entrance of Albemarle House,
+and the entry was well lighted. They reached the window in time to see
+the Yorkshireman emerge with unsteady steps and stride into the night.
+They waited for their visitor to follow. A minute, two minutes passed,
+and then somebody walked down the steps to the light. It was a woman,
+and as she turned her face the colonel gasped.
+
+"Maisie White!" he said in a wondering voice. "What the devil is she
+doing here?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR
+
+
+Maisie White had taken up her abode in a modest flat in Doughty Street,
+Bloomsbury. The building had been originally intended for a dwelling
+house, but its enterprising owner had fitted a kitchenette and a
+bathroom to every floor and had made each suite self-contained.
+
+She found the one bedroom and a sitting-room quite sufficient for her
+needs. Since the day of her father's departure she had not heard from
+him, and she had resolutely refused to worry. What was Solomon White's
+association with the Boundary gang, she could only guess. She knew it
+had been an important one, but her fears on his behalf had less to do
+with the action the police might take against him than with Boundary's
+sinister threat.
+
+She had other reasons for leaving the stage than she had told Stafford
+King. On the stage she was a marked woman and her movements could be
+followed for at least three hours in the day, and she was anxious for
+more anonymity. She was conscious of two facts as she opened the outer
+door that night to let herself into the hallway, and hurried up to her
+apartments. The first was that she had been followed home, and that
+impression was the more important of the two. She did not switch on the
+light when she entered her room, but bolting the door behind her, she
+moved swiftly to the window and raised it noiselessly. Looking out, she
+saw two men on the opposite side of the street, standing together in
+consultation. It was too dark to recognise them, but she thought that
+one figure was Pinto Silva.
+
+She was not frightened, but nevertheless she looked thoughtfully at the
+telephone, and her hand was on the receiver before she changed her mind.
+After all, they would know where she lived and an inquiry at her agents
+or even at the theatre would tell them to where her letters had been
+readdressed. She hesitated a moment, then pulled down the blinds and
+switched on the light.
+
+Outside the two men saw the light flash up and watched her shadow cross
+the blind.
+
+"It is Maisie all right," said Pinto. "Now tell me what happened."
+
+In a few words Crewe described the scene which he had witnessed in the
+Albemarle flat.
+
+"Impossible!" said Pinto; "are you suggesting that Maisie is Jack o'
+Judgment?"
+
+Crewe shrugged.
+
+"I know nothing about it," he said; "there are the facts."
+
+Pinto looked up at the light again.
+
+"I'm going across to see her," he said, and Crewe made a grimace.
+
+"Is that wise?" he asked; "she doesn't know we have followed her home.
+Won't she be suspicious?"
+
+Pinto shrugged.
+
+"She's a pretty clever girl that," he said, "and if she doesn't know
+we're outside, there's nothing of Solomon White in her composition."
+
+He crossed the road and struck a match to discover which was her bell.
+He guessed right the first time. Maisie heard the tinkle and knew what
+it portended. She had not started to disrobe, and after a few moments'
+hesitation she went down the stairs and opened the door.
+
+"It is rather a late hour to call on you," said Pinto pleasantly, "but
+we saw you going away from Albemarle Place, and could not overtake you."
+
+There was a question in his voice, though he did not give it actual
+words.
+
+"It is rather late for small talk," she said coolly. "Is there any
+reason for your call?"
+
+"Well, Miss White, there were several things I wanted to talk to you
+about," said Pinto, taken aback by her calm. "Have you heard from your
+father?"
+
+"Don't you think," she said, "it would be better if you came at a more
+conventional hour? I don't feel inclined to gossip on the doorstep and
+I'm afraid I can't ask you in."
+
+"The colonel is worrying," Pinto hastened to explain. "You see, Solly's
+one of his best friends."
+
+The girl laughed softly.
+
+"I know," she said. "I heard the colonel talking to my father at
+Horsham," she added meaningly.
+
+"You've got to make allowances for the colonel," urged Pinto; "he lost
+his temper, but he's feeling all right now. Couldn't you persuade your
+father to communicate with us--with him?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am not in a position to communicate with my father," she replied
+quietly. "I am just as ignorant of his whereabouts as you are. If
+anybody is anxious it is surely myself, Mr. Silva."
+
+"And another point," Silva went on, so that there should be no gap in
+the conversation, "why did you give up your theatrical engagements,
+Maisie? I took a lot of trouble to get them for you, and it is stupid to
+jeopardise your career. I have plenty of influence, but managers will
+not stand that kind of treatment, and when you go back----"
+
+"I am not going back," she said. "Really, Mr. Silva, you must excuse me
+to-night. I am very tired after a hard day's work----" she checked
+herself.
+
+"What are you doing now, Maisie?" asked Silva curiously.
+
+"I have no wish to prolong this conversation," said the girl, "but there
+is one thing I should like to say, and that is that I would prefer you
+to call me Miss White."
+
+"All right, all right," said Silva genially, "and what were you doing at
+the flat to-night, Mai--Miss White?"
+
+"Good night," said the girl and closed the door in his face.
+
+He cursed angrily in the dark and raised his hand to rap on the panel of
+the door, but thought better of it and, turning, walked back to the
+interested Crewe, who stood in the shadow of a lamp-post watching the
+scene.
+
+"Well?" asked Crewe.
+
+"Confound the girl, she won't talk," grumbled Silva. "I'd give something
+to break that pride of hers, Crewe. By jove, I'll do it one of these
+days," he added between his teeth.
+
+Crewe laughed.
+
+"There's no sense in going off the deep end because a girl turns you
+down," he said. "What did she say about the flat? And what did she say
+about her visit to Albemarle Place?"
+
+"She said nothing," said the other shortly. "Come along, let's go back
+to the colonel."
+
+On the return journey he declined to be drawn into any kind of
+conversation, and Crewe, after one or two attempts to procure
+enlightenment as to the result of the interview, relapsed into silence.
+
+They found the colonel waiting for them, and to all appearances the
+colonel was undisturbed by the happenings of the evening.
+
+"Well?" he asked.
+
+"She admits she was here," said Pinto.
+
+"What was she doing?"
+
+"You'd better ask her yourself," said the other with some asperity. "I
+tell you, colonel, I can't handle that woman."
+
+"Nobody ever thought you could," said the colonel. "Did she give you any
+idea as to what her business was?"
+
+Pinto shook his head and the colonel paced the big room thoughtfully,
+his big hands in his pockets.
+
+"Here's a situation," he said. "There's some outsider who's following
+every movement we make, who knew that boob from Huddersfield was coming,
+and who knew what our business was. That somebody was this infernal Jack
+o' Judgment, but who is Jack o' Judgment, hey?"
+
+He looked round fiercely.
+
+"I'll tell you who he is," he went on, speaking slowly "He's somebody
+who knows our gang as well as we know it ourselves, somebody who has
+been on the inside, somebody who has access, or who has had access, to
+our working methods. In fact," he said using his pet phrase, "a business
+associate."
+
+"Rubbish!" said Pinto.
+
+This polished man of Portugal, who had come into the gang very late in
+the day, was one of the few people who were privileged to offer blunt
+opposition to the leader of the Boundary Gang.
+
+"You might as well say it is I, or that it is Crewe, or Dempsey, or
+Selby----"
+
+"Or White," said the colonel slowly; "don't forget White."
+
+They stared at him.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Crewe with a frown.
+
+White had been a favourite of his.
+
+"How could it be White?"
+
+"Why shouldn't it be White?" said the colonel. "When did Jack o'
+Judgment make his first appearance? I'll tell you. About the time we
+started getting busy framing up something against White. Did we ever see
+him when White was with us--no! Isn't it obviously somebody who has been
+a business associate and knows our little ways? Why, of course it is.
+Tell me somebody else?
+
+"You don't suggest it is 'Snow' Gregory, anyway?" he added
+sarcastically.
+
+Crewe shivered and half-closed his eyes.
+
+"For heaven's sake don't mention 'Snow' Gregory," he said irritably.
+
+"Why shouldn't I?" snarled the colonel. "He's worth money and life and
+liberty to us, Crewe. He's an awful example that keeps some of our
+business associates on the straight path. Not," he added with elaborate
+care, "not that we were in any way responsible for his untimely end. But
+he died--providentially. A doper's bad enough, but a doper who talks and
+boasts and tells me, as he told me in this very room, just where he'd
+put me, is a mighty dangerous man, Crewe."
+
+"Did he do that?" asked Crewe with interest.
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"In this very room where you're standing," he said impressively, "at the
+end of that table he stood, all lit up with 'coco' and he told me things
+about our organisation that I thought nobody knew but myself. That's the
+worst of drugs," he said, shaking his head reprovingly; "you never know
+how clever they'll make a man, and they made 'Snow' a bit too clever.
+I'm not saying that I regretted his death--far from it. I don't know how
+he got mixed up in the affair----"
+
+"Oh, shut up!" growled Pinto; "why go on acting before us? We were all
+in it."
+
+"Hush!" said the colonel with a glance at the door.
+
+There was a silence. All eyes were fixed on the door.
+
+"Did you hear anything?" asked the colonel under his breath.
+
+His face was a shade paler than they had ever remembered seeing it.
+
+"It is nothing," said Pinto; "that fellow's got on your nerves."
+
+The colonel walked to the sideboard and poured out a generous portion of
+whisky and drank it at a gulp.
+
+"Lots of things are getting on my nerves," he said, "but nothing gets on
+my nerves so much as losing money. Crewe, we've got to go after that
+Yorkshireman again--at least somebody has got to go after him."
+
+"And that somebody is not going to be me," said Crewe quietly. "I did my
+part of the business. Let Pinto have a cut."
+
+Pinto Silva shook his head.
+
+"We'll drop him," he said decisively, and for the first time Crewe
+realised how dominating a factor Pinto had become in the government of
+the band.
+
+"We'll drop him----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped and craned his head round.
+
+It was he who had heard something near the door, and now with noiseless
+steps he tiptoed across the room to the door, and gripping the handle,
+opened it suddenly. A gun had appeared in his hand, but he did not use
+it. Instead, he darted through the open doorway and they heard the sound
+of a struggle. Presently he came back, dragging by the collar a man.
+
+"Got him!" he said triumphantly, and hurled his captive into the nearest
+chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE
+
+
+Their prisoner was a stranger. He was a lean, furtive-looking man of
+thirty-five, below middle height, respectably dressed, and at first
+glance, the colonel, whose hobby was distinguishing at a look the social
+standing of humanity, was unable to place him.
+
+Crewe locked the door.
+
+"Now then," said the colonel, "what the devil were you doing listening
+at my door? Was that his game, Mr. Silva?"
+
+"That was his game," said the other, brushing his hands.
+
+"What have you got to say before I send for the police?" asked the
+colonel virtuously. "What have you got to say for yourself? Sneaking
+about a gentleman's flat, listening at keyholes!"
+
+The man, who had been roughly handled, had risen and was putting his
+collar straight. If he had been taken aback by the sudden onslaught, he
+was completely self-possessed now.
+
+"If you want to send for the police, you'd better start right away," he
+said; "you've got a telephone, haven't you? Perhaps I'll have a job for
+the policeman, too. You've no right to assault me, my friend," he said,
+addressing Pinto resentfully.
+
+"What were you doing?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Find out," said the man sharply.
+
+The colonel stroked his long moustache, and his manner underwent a
+change.
+
+"Now look here, old man," he said almost jovially; "we're all friends
+here, and we don't want any trouble. I daresay you've made a mistake,
+and my friend has made a mistake. Have a whisky and soda?"
+
+The man grinned crooked.
+
+"Not me, thank you," he said emphatically; "if I remember rightly, there
+was a young gentleman who took a glass of water in North Lambeth Police
+Court the other day, and----"
+
+The colonel's eyes narrowed.
+
+"Well, sit down and be sociable. If you're suggesting that I'm going to
+poison you, you're also suggesting that you know something which I don't
+want you to tell. Or that you have discovered one of those terrible
+secrets that the newspapers are all writing about. Now be a sensible
+man; have a drink."
+
+The man hesitated.
+
+"You have a drink of whisky out of the same bottle, and I'll join you."
+
+"Help yourself," said the colonel good-naturedly. "Give me any glass you
+like."
+
+The man went to the sideboard, poured out two pegs and sent the
+soda-water sizzling into the long glasses.
+
+"Here's yours and here's mine," he said; "good luck!"
+
+He drank the whisky off, after he had seen the colonel drink his, and
+wiped his mouth with a gaudy handkerchief.
+
+"I'm taking it for granted," said the colonel, "that we've made no
+mistake and that you were listening at our door. Now we want no
+unpleasantness, and we'll talk about this matter as sensible human
+beings and man to man."
+
+"That's the way to talk," said the other, smacking his lips.
+
+"You've been sent here to watch me."
+
+"I may have and I may not have," said the other.
+
+Pinto shifted impatiently, but the colonel stopped him with a look.
+
+"Now let me see what you are," mused the colonel, still wearing that
+benevolent smile of his. "You're not an ordinary tradesman. You've got a
+look of the book canvasser about you. I have it--you're a private
+detective!"
+
+The man smirked.
+
+"Perhaps I am," said he, "and," he added, "perhaps I'm not."
+
+The colonel slapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"Of course you are," he said confidently; "we don't see shrewd-looking
+fellows like you every day. You're a split!"
+
+"Not official," said the man quickly.
+
+He had all the English private detective's fear of posing as the genuine
+article.
+
+"Now look here," said the colonel, "I'm going to be perfectly straight
+with you, and you've got to be straight with me. That's fair, isn't it?"
+
+"Quite fair," said the man; "if I've been misconducting myself in any
+manner----"
+
+"Don't mention it," said the colonel politely, "my friend here will
+apologise for handling you roughly, I'm sure; won't you, Mr. Silva?"
+
+"Sure!" said the other, without any great heartiness.
+
+He was tired of this conversation and was anxious to know where it was
+leading.
+
+"You're not in the private detective business for your health," said the
+colonel, and the man shook his head.
+
+"I bet you're working for a firm that's paying you about three pounds a
+week and your miserable expenses--a perfect dog's life."
+
+"You're quite right there," said the man, and he spoke with the
+earnestness of the ill-used wage-earner, "it is a dog's life; out in all
+kinds of weather, all hours of the day and night, and never so much as
+'thank you' for any work you do. Why, we get no credit at all, sir. If
+we go into the witness-box, the lawyers treat us like dirt."
+
+"I absolutely agree with you," said the colonel, shaking his head. "I
+think the private detective business in this country isn't appreciated
+as it ought to be. And it is very curious we should have met you," he
+went on; "only this evening I was saying to my friends here, that we
+ought to get a good man to look after our interests. You've heard about
+me, I'm sure, Mr.----"
+
+"Snakit," said the other; "here's my card."
+
+He produced a card from his waistcoat pocket, and the colonel read it.
+
+"Mr. Horace Snakit," he said, "of Dooby and Somes. Now what do you say
+to coming into our service?"
+
+The man blinked.
+
+"I've got a good job----" he began inconsistently.
+
+"I'll give you a better--six pounds a week, regular expenses and an
+allowance for dressing."
+
+"It's a bet!" said Mr. Snakit promptly.
+
+"Well, you can consider yourself engaged right away. Now, Mr. Snakit, as
+frankness is the basis of our intercourse, you will tell me straight
+away whether you were engaged in watching me?"
+
+"I'll admit that, sir," said the man readily. "I had a job to watch you
+and to discover if you knew the whereabouts of a certain person."
+
+"Who engaged you?"
+
+"Well----" the man hesitated. "I don't know whether it isn't betraying
+the confidence of a client," he waited for some encouragement to pursue
+the path of rectitude and honour, but received none. "Well, I'll tell
+you candidly, our firm has been engaged by a young lady. She brought me
+here to-night----"
+
+"Miss White, eh?" said the colonel quickly.
+
+"Miss White it was, sir," said Snakit.
+
+"So that was why she was here? She wanted to show you----"
+
+"Just where your rooms were, sir," said the man. "She also wanted to
+show me the back stairs by which I could get out of the building if I
+wanted to."
+
+"What were your general instructions?"
+
+"Just to watch you, sir, and if I had an opportunity when you were out,
+of sneaking in and nosing round."
+
+"I see," said the colonel. "Crewe, just take Mr. Snakit downstairs and
+tell him where to report. Fix up his pay--you know," he gave a
+significant sideways jerk of his head, and Crewe escorted the gratified
+little detective from the apartment.
+
+When the door had closed, the colonel turned on Silva.
+
+"Pinto," he said and there was a rumble in his voice which betrayed his
+anger, "that girl is dangerous. She may or may not know where her father
+is--this detective business may be a blind. Probably Snakit was sent
+here knowing that he would be captured and spill the beans."
+
+"That struck me, too," said Pinto.
+
+"She's dangerous," repeated the colonel.
+
+He resumed his promenade up and down the room.
+
+"She's an active worker and she's working against us. Now, I'm going to
+settle with Miss White," he said gratingly. "I'm going to settle with
+her for good and all. I don't care what she knows, but she probably
+knows too much. She's hand in glove with the police and maybe she's
+working with her father. You'll get Phillopolis here to-morrow
+morning----"
+
+The other's eyes opened.
+
+"Phillopolis?" he almost gasped. "Good heavens! You're not going to----"
+
+The colonel faced him squarely.
+
+"You've had your chance with the girl and you've missed it," he said.
+"You've tried your fancy method of courting and you've fallen down."
+
+"But I'm not going to stand for Phillopolis," said the other, with tense
+face. "I tell you I like the girl. There's going to be none of that----"
+
+"Oh, there isn't, isn't there?" said the colonel in his silkiest tone.
+
+Then suddenly he leaned forward across the table and his face was the
+face of a devil.
+
+"There's only one Boundary Gang, Pinto, and this is it," he said between
+his clenched white teeth, "and there's only one Dan Boundary and that's
+me. Do you get me, Pinto? You can go a long way with me if I happen to
+be going that way. But you stand in the road and you're going to get
+what's coming. I've been good to you, Pinto. I've stood your
+interference because it amused me. But you come up against me, really up
+against me, and by the Lord Harry! you'll know it. Did you get that?"
+
+"I've got it" said Pinto sullenly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS
+
+
+The upbuilding of the Boundary gang had neither been an accident, nor
+was it exactly designed on the lines which it ultimately followed.
+
+The main structure was Boundary himself, with his extraordinary
+financial genius, his plausibility, his lightning exploitation of every
+advantage which offered. Outwardly he was the head of three trading
+corporations which complied with the laws, paid small but respectable
+dividends and cloaked other operations which never appeared in the
+official records of the companies.
+
+The sidelines of the gang came through force of circumstances.
+Men--good, bad and indifferent--were drawn into the orbit of its
+activities, as extraordinary circumstances arose or dire necessities
+dictated. Throughout the length and breadth of Britain, through France,
+Italy, and in the days before the war, and even during the war, in
+Germany, in Russia and in the United States, were men who, if they could
+not be described as agents, were at least ready tools.
+
+He had a finger in every unsavoury pie. The bank robber discharged from
+gaol did not ask Colonel Boundary to finance him in the purchase of a
+new kit of tools--an up-to date burglar's kit costs something over two
+hundred pounds--but there were people who would lend the money, which
+eventually came out of the colonel's pocket. Some of the businesses he
+financed were on the border line of respectability. Some into which his
+money was sunk were frankly infamous. But it was a popular fiction that
+he knew nothing of these. Or, if he did know, that he was financing or
+at the back of a scoundrel, it was insisted that that scoundrel was
+engaged in (so far as the colonel knew) legitimate enterprise.
+
+Paul Phillopolis was a small Greek merchant, who had an office in
+Mincing Court--a tiny room at the top of four flights of stairs. On the
+glass panel of its door was the announcement: "General Exporter."
+
+Mr. Phillopolis spent three or four hours at his office daily and for
+the rest of the time, particularly towards the evening, was to be found
+in a _brasserie_ in Soho. He was a dark little man, with fierce
+moustachios and a set of perfect white teeth which he displayed readily,
+for he was easily amused. His most intimate acquaintances knew him to be
+an exporter of Greek produce to South America, and he was, in the large
+sense of the word, eminently respectable.
+
+Occasionally he would be seen away from his customary haunt, discussing
+with a compatriot some very urgent business, which few knew about. For
+there were ships which cleared from the Greek ports, carrying cargoes to
+the order of Mr. Phillopolis, which did not appear in any bill of
+lading. Dazed-looking Armenian girls, girls from South Russia, from
+Greece, from Smyrna, en route to a promised land, looked forward to the
+realisation of those wonderful visions which the Greek agent had so
+carefully sketched.
+
+In half a dozen South American towns the proprietors of as many dance
+halls would look over the new importations approvingly and remit their
+bank drafts to the merchant of Mincing Court. It was a profitable
+business, particularly in pre-war days.
+
+The colonel departed from his usual practice and met the Greek himself,
+the place of meeting being a small hotel in Aldgate. Whatever other
+pretences the colonel made, he did not attempt to continue the fiction
+that he was ignorant of the Greek's trade.
+
+"Paul," he said after the first greetings were over, "I've been a good
+friend to you."
+
+"You have indeed, colonel," said the man gratefully.
+
+He spoke English with a very slight accent, for he had been born and
+educated in London.
+
+"If ever I can render you a service----"
+
+"You can," said the colonel, "but it is not going to be easy."
+
+The Greek eyed him curiously.
+
+"Easy or hard," he said, "I'll go through with it."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"How is the business in South America?" he asked suddenly.
+
+The Greek spread out his hands in deprecation.
+
+"The war!" he said tragically, "you can imagine what it has been like.
+All those girls waiting for music-hall engagements and impossible to
+ship them owing to the fleets. I must have lost thousands of pounds."
+
+"The demand hasn't slackened off, eh?" asked the colonel, and the Greek
+smiled.
+
+"South America is full of money. They have millions--billions. Almost
+every other man is a millionaire. The music-halls have patrons but no
+talent."
+
+The colonel smiled grimly.
+
+"There's a girl in London of exceptional ability," he said. "She has
+appeared in a music-hall here, and she's as beautiful as a dream."
+
+"English?" asked the Greek eagerly.
+
+"Irish, which is better," said the other; "as pretty as a picture, I
+tell you. The men will rave about her."
+
+The Greek looked puzzled.
+
+"Does she want to go?" he asked.
+
+The colonel snarled round at him:
+
+"Do you think I should come and ask you to book her passage if she
+wanted to go?" he demanded. "Of course she doesn't want to go, and she
+doesn't know she's going. But I want her out of the way, you
+understand?"
+
+Mr. Phillopolis pulled a long face.
+
+"To take her from England?"
+
+"From London," said the colonel.
+
+The Greek shook his head.
+
+"It is impossible," he said; "passports are required and unless she was
+willing to go it would be impossible to take her. You can't kidnap a
+girl and rush her out of the country except in storybooks, colonel."
+
+Boundary interrupted him impatiently.
+
+"Don't you think I know that?" he asked; "your job is, when she's in a
+fit state of mind, to take her across and put her somewhere where she's
+not coming back for a long time. Do you understand?"
+
+"I understand that part of it very well," said the Greek.
+
+"I'm not to be mixed up in it," said Boundary. "The only thing I can
+promise you is that she'll go quietly. I'll have her passports fixed.
+She'll be travelling for her health--you understand? When you get to
+South America I want you to take her into the interior of the country.
+You're not to leave her in the music-halls in one of the coast towns
+where English and American tourists are likely to see her."
+
+"But how are you going to----"
+
+"That's my business," said the colonel. "You understand what you have to
+do. I'll send you the date you leave and I'll pay her passage and yours.
+For any out-of-pocket expenses you can send the bill to me, you
+understand?"
+
+Obviously it was not a job to the liking of Phillopolis, but he had good
+reason to fear the colonel and acquiesced with a nod. Boundary went back
+to where he had left Pinto and found the Portuguese biting his
+finger-nails--a favourite spare-time occupation of his.
+
+"Did you fix it?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+"Of course, I fixed it," said the colonel sharply.
+
+"I'm not going to have anything to do with it," said the other, and the
+colonel smiled.
+
+"Maybe you'll change your mind," he said significantly.
+
+There was a knock at the door and the colonel himself answered it. He
+took the card from the servant's hand and read:
+
+                         "Mr. STAFFORD KING,
+                  "Criminal Intelligence Department."
+
+He looked from the card to Pinto, then:
+
+"Show him in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD
+
+
+The two men had not met since they had parted at the door of the North
+Lambeth Police Court, and there was in Colonel Boundary's smile
+something of forgiveness and gentle reproach.
+
+"Well, Mr. King," he said, "come in, come in, won't you?"
+
+He offered his hand to the other, but Stafford apparently did not see
+it.
+
+"No malice, I trust, Mr. King?" said the colonel genially. "You know my
+friend Mr. Silva? A business associate of mine, a director of several of
+my companies."
+
+"I know him all right," said Stafford and added, "I hope to know him
+better."
+
+Pinto recognised the underlying sense of the words, but not a muscle of
+his face moved. For Stafford King the hatred with which he regarded the
+law lost its personal character. This man was something more than a
+thief-taker and a tracker of criminals. Pinto chose to regard him as the
+close friend of Maisie White, and as such, his rival.
+
+"And to what are we indebted for this visit?" asked the bland colonel.
+
+"The chief wants to see you."
+
+"The chief?"
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom. Being the chief of our department I should have
+thought you had heard of him."
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom," repeated the other; "why, of course, I know Sir
+Stanley by repute. May I ask what he wants to see me about? And how is
+my young friend--er--Miss White?" asked the colonel.
+
+"When I saw her last," replied Stafford steadily, "she was looking
+pretty well, so far as I could tell."
+
+"Indeed!" said the colonel politely. "I have a considerable interest in
+the welfare of Miss White. May I ask when you saw her?
+
+"Last night," replied Stafford. "She was standing at the door of her
+apartments in Doughty Street, having a little talk with your friend," he
+nodded to Pinto, and Pinto started; "also," said the cheerful Stafford,
+"another mutual friend of ours, Mr. Crewe, was within hailing distance,
+unless I am greatly mistaken."
+
+"So you were watching, eh?" burst out Pinto "I thought after the lesson
+you had a couple of weeks ago, you'd have----"
+
+"Let me carry on this conversation, if you don't mind," said the
+colonel, and the fury in his eyes silenced the Portuguese.
+
+"We have agreed to let bygones be bygones, Mr. King, and I am sure it is
+only his excessive zeal on my behalf that induced our friend to be so
+indiscreet as to refer to the unpleasant happenings--which we will allow
+to pass from our memories."
+
+So the girl was being watched. That made things rather more difficult
+than he had imagined. Nevertheless, he anticipated no supreme obstacle
+to the actual abduction. His plans had been made that morning, when he
+saw in the columns of the daily newspaper a four-line advertisement
+which, to a large extent, had cleared away the greatest of his
+difficulties.
+
+"And if Mr. King is looking after our young friend, Maisie White, the
+daughter of one of our dearest business associates--why, I'm glad," he
+went on heartily. "London, Mr. King, is a place full of danger for young
+girls, particularly those who are deprived of the loving care of a
+parent, and one of the chief attractions, if I may be allowed to say so,
+which the police have for me, is the knowledge that they are the
+protectors of the unprotected, the guardians of the unguarded."
+
+He made a little bow, and for all his amusement Stafford gravely
+acknowledged the handsome compliment which the most notorious scoundrel
+in London had paid the Metropolitan Police Force.
+
+"When am I to see your chief?"
+
+"You can come along with me now, if you like, or you can go to-morrow
+morning at ten o'clock," said Stafford.
+
+The colonel scratched his chin.
+
+"Of course, I understand that this summons is in the nature of a
+friendly----" he stopped questioningly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Stafford, his eyes twinkling, "it isn't the
+customary 'come-along-o'-me' demand. I think the chief wants to meet
+you, to discover just the kind of person you are. You will like him, I
+think, colonel. He is the sort of man who takes a tremendous interest
+in--er----"
+
+"In crime?" said the colonel gently.
+
+"I was trying to think of a nice word to put in its place," admitted
+Stafford; "at any rate, he is interested in you."
+
+"There is no time like the present," said the colonel. "Pinto, will you
+find my hat?"
+
+On the way to Scotland Yard they chatted on general subjects till
+Stafford asked:
+
+"Have you had another visitation from your friend?"
+
+"The Jack o' Judgment?" asked the colonel. "Yes, we met him the other
+night. He's rather amusing. By the way, have you had complaints from
+anywhere else?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"No, he seems to have specialised on you, colonel. You have certainly
+the monopoly of his attentions."
+
+"What is going to happen supposing he makes an appearance when I happen
+to have a lethal weapon ready?" asked the colonel. "I have never killed
+a person in my life, and I hope the sad experience will not be mine. But
+from the police point of view, how do I stand suppose--there is an
+accident?"
+
+Stafford shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"That is his look out," he said. "If you are threatened, I dare say a
+jury of your fellow countrymen will decide that you acted in
+self-defence."
+
+"He came the other night," the colonel said reminiscently, "when we
+were fixing up a particularly difficult--er--business negotiation."
+
+"Bad luck!" said Stafford. "I suppose the mug was scared?"
+
+"The what?" asked the puzzled colonel.
+
+"The mug," said Stafford. "You may not have heard the expression. It
+means 'can'--'fool'--'dupe.'"
+
+The colonel drew a long breath.
+
+"You still bear malice, I see, Mr. King," he said sadly.
+
+He entered the portals of Scotland Yard without so much as a tremor,
+passed up the broad stairs and along the unlovely corridors, till he
+came to the double doors which marked the First Commissioner's private
+office. Stafford disappeared for a moment and presently returned with
+the news that the First Commissioner would not be able to see his
+visitor for half an hour. Stafford apologised but the colonel was
+affability itself and kept up a running conversation until a beckoning
+secretary notified them that the great man was disengaged.
+
+It was King who ushered the colonel into his presence. Sir Stanley was
+writing at a big desk and looked up as the colonel entered.
+
+"Sit down, colonel," he said, nodding his head to a chair on the
+opposite side of the desk. "You needn't wait, King. There are one or two
+things I want to speak to the colonel about."
+
+When the door had closed behind the detective, Sir Stanley leaned back
+in his chair. Their eyes met, the grey and the faded blue, and for the
+space of a few seconds they stared. Sir Stanley Belcom was the first to
+drop his eyes.
+
+"I've sent for you, colonel," he said, "because I think you might give
+me a great deal of information, if you're willing."
+
+"Command me," said the colonel grandly.
+
+"It is on the matter of a murder which was committed in London a few
+months ago," said the commissioner quietly and for a moment Colonel
+Boundary did not speak.
+
+"I presume you are referring to the 'Snow' Gregory murder?" he said at
+last.
+
+"Exactly," nodded the commissioner. "We have had an inquiry from America
+as to the identity of this young man. Now, you knew him better than
+anybody else in London, colonel. Can you tell me, was he an American?"
+
+"Emphatically not," said the colonel with a little sigh, as though he
+were relieved at the turn the conversation was taking. "I came to know
+him through--er--circumstances, and exactly what they were I cannot for
+the moment remember. I had a lot to do with him. He did odd jobs for
+me."
+
+"Was he well educated?" asked the commissioner.
+
+"Yes, I should say he was," said the colonel slowly. "There was a story
+that he had been to Oxford, and that's very likely true. He spoke like a
+college man."
+
+"Do you know if he had any relations in England?"
+
+The commissioner eyed the other straightly and the colonel hesitated.
+How much does this man know? he wondered, and decided that he could do
+no harm if he told all the truth.
+
+"He had no relations in England," he said, "but he had a father who was
+abroad."
+
+"Ah, now we're getting at some facts," said the commissioner and drew a
+slip of paper towards him. "What was the father's name?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"That I can't tell you, sir," he said. "I should like to oblige you but
+I have no more idea of what his name was than the man in the moon. I
+believe he was in India, because letters from India used to come to
+Gregory."
+
+"Was Gregory his name?"
+
+"His Christian name, I think," said the colonel after a moment's
+thought. "He went wrong at college and was sent down. Then he went to
+Paris and started to study art, and he got in trouble there, too. That's
+as much as he ever told me."
+
+"He had no brothers?" asked the commissioner.
+
+"None," said the colonel emphatically. "I am certain of that, because he
+once thanked God that he was the only child."
+
+"I see," the commissioner nodded; "you have formed no theory as to why
+he met his death or how?"
+
+"No theory at all," said the colonel, but corrected himself. "Of course,
+I've had ideas and opinions, but none of them has ever worked out. So
+far as I know, he had no enemies, although he was a quick-tempered chap,
+especially when he was recovering from a dose of 'coco,' and would
+quarrel with his own grandmother."
+
+"You've no idea why he was in London? Apparently he did not live here."
+
+The colonel shrugged his massive shoulders.
+
+"No, I couldn't tell you anything about that, sir," he said.
+
+"He was not an American?" asked the commissioner again.
+
+"I could swear to that," answered the colonel.
+
+There was a pause and he waited.
+
+"There's another matter." The commissioner spoke slowly. "I understand
+that you are being bothered by a mysterious individual who calls himself
+the Knave of Judgment."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," corrected the colonel with a contemptuous smile.
+"Those sort of monkey tricks don't bother me, I can assure you."
+
+"I have my theories about the Jack o' Judgment," said the commissioner.
+"I have been looking up the circumstances of the murder, and I seem to
+remember that on the body was found a playing card."
+
+"That's right," said the colonel, who had remembered the fact himself
+many times, "the Jack of Clubs."
+
+"Do you know what that Jack of Clubs signified?" asked the commissioner,
+but the colonel could honestly say that he did not. Its presence on the
+body had frequently puzzled him and he had never found a solution.
+
+"There is a certain type of ruffian to be found, particularly in Paris,
+who affects this sort of theatrical trade-mark--did you know that?"
+asked the commissioner.
+
+The colonel was suddenly stricken to silence. He did not know this fact,
+in spite of his extraordinary knowledge of the criminal world.
+
+"These men have their totems and their sign manuals," said the
+commissioner. "For example, the apache Flequier, who was executed at
+Nantes the other day, invariably left a domino--the double-six--near his
+victim."
+
+This was news to the colonel too.
+
+"I've been giving a great deal of thought and time to this case," said
+the commissioner, "and I was hoping that perhaps you could help me. The
+most workable theory that I can suggest is that this unfortunate man was
+destroyed by a French criminal of the class which I have indicated, the
+bullying apache type, which is so common in France. Why the murder was
+committed," the commissioner fingered his paper-knife carelessly, "what
+led to it and who committed it, and more especially who instigated the
+crime, are matters which seem to me to defy detection. Do you agree?"
+
+"I quite agree," said the colonel, licking his dry lips.
+
+"Now I suggest to you," said the commissioner, "that your Jack o'
+Judgment, whoever he is, is some relation to the dead man."
+
+He spoke slowly and emphatically and the colonel did not raise his eyes
+from the desk.
+
+"It is not my business to make life any easier for you," the
+commissioner was saying, "or to assist you in any way. But as the Jack
+o' Judgment seems to me to be engaged in a wholly illegal practice, and
+as I, in my capacity, must suppress illegal practices, I make you a
+present of this suggestion."
+
+"That the Jack o' Judgment is related to 'Snow' Gregory?" asked the
+colonel huskily.
+
+"That is my suggestion," said the commissioner.
+
+"And you think----"
+
+The commissioner raised his shoulders.
+
+"I think he is your greatest danger, colonel," he said, "far greater
+than the police, far greater than the clever minds which are planning to
+bring you to the dock and possibly," he added, "to the gallows."
+
+Ordinarily the colonel would have protested at the suggestion in the
+speech, protested laughingly or with dignity, but now he was stricken
+dumb, both by the seriousness of the commissioner's voice and by the
+consciousness of a new and a more terrible danger than any that had
+confronted him. He rose, realising that the interview was ended.
+
+"I am greatly obliged to you, Sir Stanley," he said clearing his throat.
+"It is good of you to warn me, but I'd not like you to think that I am
+engaged in any dishonest----"
+
+"We'll let that matter stand over for discussion until another time,"
+said the commissioner dryly, as Stafford King came into the room. "You
+might show the colonel the way to the street. Otherwise he will be
+getting himself entangled in some of our detention rooms. Good morning,
+Colonel Boundary. Don't forget."
+
+"I'm not likely to," said the colonel.
+
+He recovered his poise quickly enough and by the time he was in the
+street he was back in his old mood. But he had had a shock. That sunny
+afternoon was filled with shadows. The booming bells of Big Ben tolled
+"Jack o' Judgment," the very wheels of the taxi droned the words. And
+Colonel Boundary came back to Albemarle Place for the first time in his
+life with his confidence in Colonel Boundary shaken.
+
+There was nobody in save the one manservant he kept by the day, and he
+passed into the dining-room overlooking the street. He had work to do
+and it had to be done quickly. In one of the walls was set a stout safe,
+and this he opened, taking from it a steel box which he carried to the
+table. There was a fire laid on the hearth and to this he put a match
+though the day was warm enough. Then he proceeded to unlock the box.
+Apparently it was empty, but, taking out his scarf-pin, he inserted the
+point in a tiny hole, which would have escaped casual observation, and
+pressed.
+
+Half the steel bottom of the box leapt up, disclosing a shallow cavity
+beneath. The colonel stared. There had been two letters put in there,
+letters which he had put away against the moment when it might be
+necessary to bring a recalcitrant agent to heel. They had gone. He slid
+his fingers beneath the half of the bottom which had not opened and felt
+a card. He drew this out and looked at it, licking his lips the while.
+
+For the space of a minute he stared and stared at the Knave of Clubs he
+held in his hand. A Knave of Clubs signed with a flourish across its
+face: "Jack o' Judgment." Then he flung the card into the fire and,
+walking to the sideboard, splashed whisky into a tumbler with a hand
+that shook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BUYING A NURSING HOME
+
+
+The building in which Colonel Boundary had his beautiful home was of a
+type not uncommonly met with in the West End of London. The street floor
+was taken up entirely with shops, the first floor with offices and the
+remainder of the building was practically given over to the colonel. One
+by one he had ousted every tenant from the building, and practically the
+whole of the fourteen sets of apartments which constituted the
+residential portion of the building was held by him in one name or
+another. Some he had obtained by the payment of heavy premiums, some he
+had secured when the lease of the former tenant had lapsed, some he had
+gathered in by sub-hiring. He had tried to buy the building, since it
+served his purpose well, but came against a deed of trust and the Court
+of Chancery, and had wisely refrained from going any further into a
+matter which must bring him vis-à-vis with a Master in Chancery, with
+all the publicity which such a transaction entailed.
+
+Nor had he been successful in acquiring any of the premises on the first
+floor. They were held by three very old established businesses--an
+estate agent, a firm of land surveyors and the offices of a valuer. He
+missed his opportunity, at any rate, of securing the business of Lee and
+Hol, the surveyors, and did not know it was in the market until after it
+had been transferred to a new owner. But they were quiet, sober tenants,
+who closed their offices between five and six every night and did not
+open them until between nine or ten on the following morning, and their
+very respectability gave him a certain privacy.
+
+The new proprietor of Lee and Hol was a short-sighted, elderly man of no
+great conversational power, and apparently of no fixed purpose in life
+except to say "no" to the very handsome offers which the colonel's
+agents made when they discovered there was a chance of re-purchasing the
+business. Boundary had personally inspected all the offices. He had
+found an excuse to visit them several times, duly noted the arrangement
+of the furniture, the sizes of the staffs and the general character of
+the business which was being carried on. This was a necessary precaution
+because these offices were immediately under his own flat. But just now
+they had a special value, because it was a practice during the daytime
+for the three firms to employ a commissionaire, who occupied a little
+glass-partitioned office on the landing and attended impartially to the
+needs of all three tenants to the best of his ability.
+
+Boundary descended the stairs and found the elderly man in his office,
+leisurely and laboriously affixing stamps to a pile of letters. He
+called him from his task.
+
+"Judson," he said, "have you seen anybody go up to my rooms this
+afternoon?"
+
+The man thought.
+
+"No, sir, I haven't," he replied.
+
+"Have you been here all the time?"
+
+"Yes, since one o'clock I have been in my office," said the
+commissionaire. "None of our young gentlemen wanted anything."
+
+"You didn't go out to go to the post?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man. "I've not stirred from this office except for
+one minute when I went into Mr. Lee's office to get these letters."
+
+"And you've seen nobody go upstairs?"
+
+"Not since Mr. Silva came down, sir. He came down after you, if you
+remember."
+
+"Nobody's been up?" insisted the other.
+
+"Not a soul. Your servant came down before you, sir."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel remembering that he had sent the man on
+a special journey to Huddersfield with a letter to the bigamous Mr.
+Crotin. "You haven't seen a lady go up at all?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"Nobody has gone up them stairs," said the commissionaire emphatically.
+"I hope you haven't lost anything, sir?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"No, I haven't lost anything. Rather, I've found something," he said
+grimly.
+
+He slipped half-a crown into the man's hand.
+
+"You needn't mention the fact that I've been making inquiries," he said
+and went slowly up the stairs again.
+
+The card had been put there that day. He would swear it. The ink on the
+card had not had time to darken and when he made a further search of his
+room, this view was confirmed by the appearance of his blotting-pad. The
+card had been dried there, and the pen, which had been left on the
+table, was still damp.
+
+The colonel passed into his bedroom and took off his coat and vest. He
+searched his drawer and found what looked to be like a pair of braces
+made of light fabric. These he slipped over his shoulder, adjusting them
+so that beneath his left arm hung a canvas holster. From another drawer
+he took an automatic pistol, pulled the magazine from the butt and
+examined it before he returned it, and forced a cartridge into the
+breach by drawing back the cover. This he carefully oiled, and then,
+pressing up the safety catch, he slipped the pistol into the holster and
+resumed his coat and vest.
+
+It was a long time since the colonel had carried a gun under his arm,
+but his old efficiency was unimpaired. He practised before a mirror and
+was satisfied with his celerity. He loaded a spare magazine, and dropped
+it into the capacious pocket of his waistcoat. Then, putting the
+remainder of the cartridges away tidily, he closed the box, shut the
+drawer and went back to his room. If all the commissioner had hinted
+were true, if this mysterious visitor was laying for him because of the
+'Snow' Gregory affair, he should have what was coming to him.
+
+The colonel was no coward and if this eerie experience had got a little
+on his nerves, it was not to be wondered at. He drew up a chair to the
+table, sitting in such a position that he could see the door, took a
+pencil and a sheet of paper and began to write rapidly.
+
+The man's knowledge was encyclopædic. Not once did he pause or refer to
+a catalogue, and he was still writing when Crewe came in. The colonel
+looked up.
+
+"You're the man I want," he said.
+
+He handed the other three sheets of paper, closely covered with writing.
+
+"What's this?" asked Crewe and read:
+
+"Twenty-three iron bedsteads, twenty-three mattresses, twenty-three----"
+
+"Why, what's all this, colonel?"
+
+"You can go down to Tottenham Court Road and you can order all that
+furniture to be taken into No. 3, Washburn Avenue."
+
+"Are you furnishing a children's orphanage or something?" asked the
+other in surprise.
+
+"I am furnishing a nursing home, to be exact," said the colonel slowly.
+"I bought it this morning, and I'm going to furnish it to-morrow. Send
+Lollie Marsh to me. Tell her I want her to get three women of the right
+sort to take charge of a mental case which is coming to my nursing home.
+By the way, you had better telegraph to old Boyton, or better still, go
+in a cab and get him. He'll probably be drunk but he's still on the
+medical register and he's the man I want. Take him straight away to
+Washburn Avenue, and don't forget that it's his nursing home and not
+mine. My name doesn't occur in this matter and you'd better get a dummy
+to do the buying for you from the furniture people."
+
+"Who is the mental case?" asked the other.
+
+"Maisie White," snapped the colonel, and Crewe stared.
+
+"Mad?" he said incredulously. "Is Maisie mad?"
+
+"She may not be at present," said Boundary, "but----"
+
+He did not finish his sentence, and Crewe, who was once a gentleman and
+was now a thief, swallowed something--but he had swallowed too much to
+choke at the threat to a girl in whom he had not the slightest interest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING
+
+
+Maisie White had no illusions. When the report came to her that the
+detective she had employed had passed his services over to the man he
+was engaged to watch, she knew that the full force of the Boundary Gang
+would be employed to her extinction. Strangely enough, she did not
+appear to be disturbed, as she confessed to Stafford King. They were
+lunching together at the Hotel Palatine and the detective was unusually
+thoughtful.
+
+"Why don't you go out of London?" he asked.
+
+"I must go on with my work," she said.
+
+"What is your work?" he asked.
+
+"I have told you once," she replied. "I am trying to disentangle my
+father from disgrace. I am working to put him apart when the day of
+reckoning comes."
+
+"You've not heard from him?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears.
+
+"He has been a good father to me," she said, "the kindest and best of
+daddies. It is dreadful to think----" her lips quivered and she could go
+no further.
+
+Nor could Stafford King make matters any easier for her. He knew better
+than she the depth of Solomon White's commitments. If the gang ever
+smashed, and if by good fortune the law ever took its course, there was
+no hope for Solomon White's escape from his share of the responsibility.
+
+"Why do you think your father went away?" he asked, to turn the subject
+to a new aspect.
+
+She did not reply instantly.
+
+"I think he was scared," she said after a while. "I was shocked when I
+discovered how much in awe of the colonel he stood. He was just
+terrified at the threat, and yet I know he would have given his life to
+protect me from harm. I think it was just I that spurred him on to make
+the plans he did."
+
+Stafford King agreed with a gesture.
+
+"Now what are we going to do about you?" he asked, half-humorously,
+half-seriously. "I cannot let you go wandering loose about London--I'm
+scared to death as it is."
+
+She smiled at him.
+
+"You had better lock me up," she said flippantly and he nodded in the
+same spirit.
+
+"I know a little house in St. John's Wood that would serve us
+beautifully as a prison," he said. "It has ten rooms and two admirable
+bathrooms. There is central heating and a large shady garden, and if you
+will only let me take you before a Justice of the Peace, or even a
+commonplace clergyman----"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That isn't prison," she said quietly and put her hand over the table.
+
+He caught it in his and held it tight.
+
+"Maisie," he said, "you know I love you. I love you more dearly than
+anything in the world."
+
+She did not speak.
+
+"As my wife," he went on, "you would be safe and I should be happy. I
+just want you all the time."
+
+Gently she disengaged her hand, shaking her head with a little smile.
+
+"What would that mean, Stafford?" she said. "You know you are deceiving
+me when you agree that my father----" again her voice shook--"no, no,"
+she said, "it would ruin your career to have the daughter of a convict
+for your wife. I realise very well what it will mean, for I know--I
+know--I know!"
+
+"What do you know?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+"I know that all my work will be in vain. But I must go on with it. I
+must, or I shall go mad. I know nothing on earth can clear my father,
+but I'm not going to tell you that again. I just want to think there is
+a possibility that some miracle will happen, that all the evidence
+which even I have against him will be explained away."
+
+He took her unresisting hand in his, and under the cover of the
+tablecloth held it tight.
+
+"That is why I wanted to leave the service," he said, and she looked at
+him quickly.
+
+"Because you thought that it would mean ruin?"
+
+He smiled.
+
+"No, not that. It would hurt you, that is all. Of course, if such a
+thing happened I would be obliged to resign."
+
+"And you'd never forgive yourself."
+
+"I wanted to anticipate such a happening, and, darling, you've got to
+face the future without any other illusions."
+
+She winced at the word "other" but he went on, unnoticing:
+
+"Boundary is a tiger. If he thinks there is reason to fear you, he will
+never let up on you till he has you in his grip. I tell you this," he
+said earnestly, "that for all the power of the police, for all their
+organisation and the backing which the law gives them, they may be
+helpless against this man if he has marked you down for punishment."
+
+"I'm not afraid," she said quietly.
+
+"But I am," said he. "I'm so afraid, that I'm sick with apprehension
+sometimes."
+
+"Poor Stafford!" she said softly, and there was a look in her eyes which
+compensated him for much. "But you mustn't worry, dear. Truly, truly,
+you mustn't worry. I'm quite capable of looking after myself."
+
+"And that's the greatest of all your illusions," he said,
+half-laughingly and half-irritably. "You're just the meekest little
+mouse that ever came under the paw of a cat."
+
+She shook her head smilingly.
+
+"But I tell you I'm speaking seriously," he went on. "I'll do my best to
+look after you. I'll have a man watching you day and night."
+
+"But you mustn't," she protested. "There's no immediate cause for
+worry."
+
+He saw her to the door of the restaurant and showed her into the
+taxi-cab which came at his whistle, and she leant out of the window and
+waved her hand in farewell as she drove off.
+
+Two men stood on the opposite side of the road and watched her depart.
+
+"That's the girl," said Crewe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE
+
+
+A week passed without anything exceptional happening, and Maisie White
+had ceased even to harbour doubts as to her own safety--doubts which had
+been present, in spite of the courageous showing she had made before
+Stafford King. Undeterred by her previous experience, she had made
+arrangements with another and a more responsible detective agency and
+had chosen a new watcher, though she had small hopes of obtaining
+results. She knew his task was one of almost insuperable difficulty, and
+she was frank in exposing to him what those difficulties were. Still,
+there was a faint chance that he might discover something, and moreover
+she had another purpose to serve.
+
+She had seen Pinto Silva once. He had called, and she had noticed with
+surprise that the debonair, self-confident man she had known, whose air
+of conscious superiority had been so annoying to her, had undergone a
+considerable change. He was ill-at-ease, almost incoherent at moments,
+and it was a long time before she could discover his business.
+
+This time she received him in her tiny sitting-room, for Pinto was
+somehow less alarming to her than he had been. Perhaps she was conscious
+that at the corner of the street stood a quietly dressed man doing
+nothing particular, who was relieved at the eighth hour by an even less
+obtrusive-looking gentleman from Scotland Yard.
+
+She waited for Pinto to disclose his business, and the Portuguese was
+apparently in no hurry to do so. Presently he blurted it out.
+
+"Look here, Maisie," he said, "you've got things all wrong. Things are
+going to be very rotten for you unless--unless----" he floundered.
+
+"Unless what?" she asked.
+
+"Unless you make up with me," he said in a low voice. "I'm not so bad,
+Maisie, and I'll treat you fair. I've always been in love with you----"
+
+"Stop," she said quietly. "I dare say it is a great honour for a girl
+that any man should be in love with her, but it takes away a little of
+the compliment when the man is already married."
+
+"That's nothing," he said eagerly. "I can divorce her by the laws of my
+country. Maisie, she hates me and I hate her."
+
+"In those circumstances," she smiled, "I wonder you wait until you fall
+in love again before you get divorced. No, Mr. Silva, that story doesn't
+convince me. If you were single or divorced, or if you were ever so
+eligible, I would not marry you."
+
+"Why not?" he demanded truculently. "I've got money."
+
+"So have I," she said, "of a sort."
+
+"My money's as clean as yours, if it is Solomon White's money."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I'm well aware of that, too," she said. "It is Gang money, isn't
+it--loot money. I don't see what good I shall get out of exchanging mine
+for yours, anyway. It is just as dirty. The money doesn't come into it
+at all, Mr. Silva, it is just liking people well enough--for marriage.
+And I don't like you that way."
+
+"You don't like me at all," he growled.
+
+"You're very nearly right," she smiled.
+
+"You're a fool, you're a fool!" he stormed, "you don't know what's
+coming to you. You don't know."
+
+"Perhaps I do," she said. "Perhaps I can guess. But whatever is coming
+to me, as you put it, I prefer that to marrying you."
+
+He started back as though she had struck him across the face, and he
+turned livid.
+
+"You won't say that when----"
+
+He checked himself and without another word left the room, and she
+heard his heavy feet blundering down the stairs.
+
+And then she met him again. It was two nights after. She met him in a
+horrible dream. She dreamt he was flying after her, that they were both
+birds, she a pigeon and he a hawk; and as she made her last desperate
+struggle to escape, she heard his hateful voice in her ear:
+
+"Maisie, Maisie, it is your last chance, your last chance!"
+
+She had gone to bed at ten o'clock that night, and it seemed that she
+had hardly fallen asleep before the vision came. She struggled to sit up
+in bed, she tried to speak, but a big hand was over her mouth.
+
+Then it was true, it was no dream. He was in the room, his hand upon her
+mouth, his voice in her ear. The room was in darkness. There was no
+sound save the sound of his heavy breathing and his voice.
+
+"They'll be up here in five minutes," he whispered. "I can save you from
+hell! I can save you, Maisie! Will you have me?"
+
+She summoned all the strength at her command to shake her head.
+
+"Then keep quiet!"
+
+There was a note of savagery in his voice which made her turn sick.
+
+For a second she filled her lungs to scream, but at that instant a mass
+of cotton-wool was thrust over her face, and she began to breathe in a
+sickly sweet vapour. Somebody else was in the room now. They were
+holding her feet. The voice in her ear said:
+
+"Breathe. Take a deep breath!"
+
+She sobbed and writhed in an agony of mind, but all the time she was
+breathing, she was drawing into her lungs the chloroform with which the
+wool was saturated.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning a uniformed constable, patrolling his
+beat, saw an ambulance drawn up outside a house in Doughty Street. He
+crossed the road to make inquiries.
+
+"A case of scarlet fever," said the driver.
+
+"You don't say," said the sympathetic constable.
+
+The door opened and two men walked out, carrying a figure in a blanket.
+The policeman stood by and saw the "patient" laid upon a stretcher and
+the back of the ambulance closed. Then he continued his walk to the
+corner of the street, where he found, huddled up in a doorway, the
+unconscious figure of a Scotland Yard detective, whose observation had
+been interrupted by a well-directed blow from a life preserver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY
+
+
+"To all stations. Stop Ambulance Motor No. LKO 9943. Arrest and detain
+driver and any person found therein. Warn all garages and
+report.--COMMISSIONER."
+
+This order flashed from station to station throughout the night, and
+before the dawn, nine thousand policemen were on the look-out for the
+motor ambulance.
+
+"There's a chance, of course," said Stafford, "but it is a poor chance."
+
+He was looking white and heavy-eyed.
+
+"I don't know, sir," said Southwick, his subordinate. "There's always a
+chance that a crook will do the obviously wrong thing. I suppose you've
+no theory as to where they have gone?"
+
+"Not out of town--of that I'm certain," said King, "that is why the
+quest is so hopeless. Why, they'll have got to their destination hours
+before the message went out!"
+
+They were standing in the girl's bedroom, which still reeked with
+chloroform, and all the clues were piled together on the table. There
+were not many. There was a pad of cotton-wool, a half-empty bottle of
+chloroform, bearing the label of a well-known wholesaler, and one of a
+pair of old wash-leather gloves, which had evidently been worn by
+somebody in his desire to avoid leaving finger-prints.
+
+"We've not much to go on there," said Stafford disconsolately; "the
+chloroform may have been sold years ago. Any chemist would have supplied
+the cotton-wool, and as for the glove"--he picked it up and looked at it
+carefully, then he carried it to the light.
+
+Old as it was, it was of good shape and quality, and when new had
+probably been supplied to order by a first-class glove-maker.
+
+"There's nothing here," said Stafford again, and threw the glove back on
+the table.
+
+A policeman came into the room and saluted.
+
+"I've cycled over from the Yard, sir. We have had a message asking you
+to go at once to Sir Stanley Belcom's private house."
+
+"How did Sir Stanley know about this affair?" asked Stafford listlessly.
+
+"He telephoned through, sir, about five o'clock this morning. He often
+makes an early inquiry."
+
+Stafford looked round. There was nothing more that he could do. He
+passed down the stairs into the street and jumped on to the motor-cycle
+which had brought him to the scene.
+
+Sir Stanley Belcom lived in Cavendish Place, and Stafford had been a
+frequent visitor to the house. Sir Stanley was a childless widower, who
+was wont to complain that he kept up his huge establishment in order to
+justify the employment of his huge staff of servants. Stafford suspected
+him of being something of a sybarite. His dinners were famous, his
+cellar was one of the best in London and because of his acquaintances
+and friendships in the artistic sets, he was something of a dabbler in
+the arts he patronised.
+
+The door was opened and an uncomfortable-looking butler was waiting on
+the step to receive Stafford.
+
+"You'll find Sir Stanley in the library, sir," he said.
+
+Despite his sorrow, Stafford could not help smiling at this attempt on
+the part of an English servant to offer the conventional greeting in
+spite of the hour.
+
+"I'm afraid we've got you up early, Perkins," he said.
+
+"Not at all, sir."
+
+The man's stout face creased in a smile.
+
+"Sir Stanley's a rare gentleman for getting up in the middle of the
+night and ordering a meal."
+
+Stafford found his grey-haired chief, arrayed in a flowered silk
+dressing-gown, balancing bread on an electric toaster.
+
+"Bad news, eh, Stafford?" he said. "Sit down and have some coffee. The
+girl is gone?"
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"And our unfortunate detective-constable, who was sent to watch, is
+half-way to the mortuary, I presume?"
+
+"Not so bad as that, sir," said Stafford, "but he's got a pretty bad
+crack. He's recovered consciousness but remembers nothing that
+happened."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"Very scientifically done," he said admiringly. "This, of course, is the
+work of the Boundary Gang."
+
+"I wish----" began Stafford between his teeth.
+
+"Save your breath, my friend," smiled Sir Stanley; "wishing will do
+nothing. You could arrest every known member of the gang, and they'd
+have twenty alibis ready, and jolly good alibis too. It is years since
+the colonel staged an outrage of this kind and his right hand has not
+lost its cunning. Look at the organisation of it! The men get into the
+house without attracting the attention of your watcher. Then, at the
+exact second that the ambulance is due, along comes their 'cosher,'
+knocks down the policeman on duty. I don't suppose the thing took more
+than ten minutes. Everything was timed. They must have known the hour
+the policeman on the beat passed along the street."
+
+Sir Stanley poured out the coffee with his own hands, and relapsed back
+into his armchair.
+
+"Why do you think they did it?"
+
+"They were afraid of her, sir," said Stafford.
+
+Sir Stanley laughed softly.
+
+"I can't imagine Boundary being afraid of a girl."
+
+"She was Solly White's daughter," said Stafford.
+
+"Even then I can't understand it," replied the chief, "unless--by jove!
+Of course."
+
+He hit his knee a smack and Stafford waited.
+
+"Probably they've got some other game on, but I'll tell you one of the
+ideas of taking that girl--it is to bring back Solomon White. He
+disappeared, didn't he?"
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"That's the game--to bring back Solomon White. And whatever the danger
+to himself, he'll be in London to-morrow as soon as this news is known."
+
+Sir Stanley sat thinking, with his chin in his hand, his forehead
+wrinkled.
+
+"There's some other reason, too. Now, what is it?"
+
+Stafford guessed, but did not say.
+
+"That girl will take some recovering before harm comes to her," said Sir
+Stanley softly, "your only hope is that friend Jack comes to your
+rescue."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Sir Stanley nodded and the other smiled sadly.
+
+"That's unlikely," he said; "indeed, it is impossible. I think I might
+as well tell you my own theory as to why she was taken and why Boundary
+took so much trouble to capture her."
+
+"What is your theory?" asked Sir Stanley curiously.
+
+"My theory, sir, is that she is Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford King.
+
+"She--Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Sir Stanley was on his feet staring at him.
+
+"Impossible! It is a man----"
+
+"You seem to forget, sir," said Stafford, "that Miss White is a
+wonderful mimic."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"She wants to clear her father. She told me that only a week ago. And
+then I've been making inquiries on my own. I found that she was seen
+coming out of the Albemarle mansion, the night that Jack made his last
+visit to Boundary's flat."
+
+Sir Stanley rose.
+
+"Wait," he said and left the room.
+
+Presently he came back with something in his hand.
+
+"If Miss White is Jack o' Judgment, and if she were captured to-night,
+how do you account for this? it was under my pillow when I woke up."
+
+He laid on the table the familiar Jack of Clubs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE TURKISH BATHS
+
+
+Colonel Boundary had a breakfast party of three. Though he had been up
+the whole of the night, he showed no signs of weariness. Not so Pinto or
+Crewe, who looked fagged out and all the more tired because they were
+both conspicuously unshaven.
+
+"Half the game's won," said the colonel. "We'll get rid of this girl and
+Solly White by the same stroke. I'm afraid of Solly, he knows too much.
+By the way, Raoul is coming over."
+
+"Raoul!" said Crewe, sitting up suddenly, "why, colonel, you're mad!
+Didn't the Scotland Yard man tell you----"
+
+"That he suspected a French hand in the case of 'Snow' Gregory? All the
+more reason why Raoul should come," said the colonel calmly; "he ought
+to report this morning."
+
+"You're taking a risk," growled Pinto.
+
+"Nothing unusual," replied the colonel, shelling a plover's egg. "It is
+the last thing in the world they would suspect at Scotland Yard after
+their warning, that I should bring Raoul over again. Besides, they don't
+know him anyway. He's just a harmless young French cabinet-maker. He
+doesn't talk and I will get him out of the silly habit of leaving his
+visiting-card."
+
+There was a silence, which Crewe broke.
+
+"You want him for----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence.
+
+"For work," replied the colonel. "It is a thousand pities, but it would
+be a thousand times more so if you and I were jugged, and waiting in the
+condemned cell for the arrival of Mr. Ellis, the eminent hangman.
+Raoul's a workman. We can trust him. He doesn't try any funny business.
+He lives out of this country and I can cover his tracks. Besides," the
+colonel went on, "I shall give him enough to live in comfort for the
+next two years. Raoul is a grateful little beast, and thank God! he can
+neither read nor write."
+
+"I don't like it," said Crewe. "I hate that kind of thing. Why not give
+Solly a chance? Why not get up a fight--a duel, anything but
+cold-blooded murder?"
+
+The colonel turned his cold eyes upon the other, and his lips parted in
+a mirthless smile.
+
+"You're speaking up to your character now, aren't you, Crewe?" he said
+unpleasantly. "You're 'Gentleman Crewe' once again, eh? Want to do
+everything in the public school fashion? Well, you can cut out all that
+stuff and feed it to the pigs. I'm Dan Boundary, looking forward to a
+pleasant old age. There's nothing of the Knights of the Round Table
+about me."
+
+Crewe flushed.
+
+"All right," he said, "have it your own way."
+
+"You bet your life I'm going to have it my own way," said the colonel.
+"Have you seen the girl this morning, Pinto?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+"You'll keep away from there for a couple of days. I've got Boyton on
+the spot and he'll be feeding her with bromide till she won't care
+whether she's in hell or Wigan. Besides, we'll all be shadowed for the
+next day or two, make no mistake about that. Stafford King won't let the
+grass grow under his feet. And now, you chaps, go home and try to look
+as though you've had a night's rest."
+
+After their departure the colonel made his own preparations. There were
+Turkish baths in Westminster and it was to the Turkish baths he went.
+Clad in a towel, he passed from hot room to hot room, and finally came
+to the big, vaulted saloon, tiled from floor to roof, where in
+canvas-backed chairs the bathers doze and read. The colonel lay back in
+his chair, his eyes closed, apparently oblivious to his surroundings.
+Nor was it to be observed that he saw the thin little man who came and
+sat beside him. The new-comer was sallow-skinned and lantern-jawed, and
+his long arms were tattooed from shoulder to wrist.
+
+"Here!" said a soft voice in French.
+
+The colonel did not open his eyes. He merely dropped the palm fan which
+he was idly waving to and fro so that it hid his mouth.
+
+"Do you remember a Monsieur White?" he said in the same tone.
+
+"Perfectly," replied the other. "He was the man who would not have your
+little 'coco' friend--disposed of."
+
+"That is the man," said the other. "You have a good memory, Raoul."
+
+"Monsieur, my memory is wonderful, but alas! one cannot live on memory,"
+he added sententiously.
+
+"Then remember this: there is a place near London called Putney Heath."
+
+"Putney Heath," repeated the other.
+
+"There is a house called Bishopsholme."
+
+"Bishopsholme," repeated the other.
+
+"It is empty--to let, _à louer_, you understand. It is in a sad state of
+desolation. The garden, the house--you know the kind of place?"
+
+"Perfectly, monsieur."
+
+"At nine o'clock to-night and at nine o'clock to-morrow night you will
+be near the door. There is a large clump of bushes, behind which you
+will stand. You will stay there until ten. Between those hours M. White
+will approach and go into the house. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, monsieur," said the voice again.
+
+"You will shoot him so that he dies immediately."
+
+"He is a dead man," said the other.
+
+There was a long pause.
+
+"I will pay you sixty thousand francs, and I will have a motor-car to
+take you direct to Dover. You will catch the night boat for Ostend. Your
+passport will be in order, and you can make your way to Paris at your
+leisure. The payment you will receive in Paris. Is that satisfactory?"
+
+"Eminently so, monsieur," said the other. "I need a little for expenses
+for the moment. Also I wish information as to where the motor-car will
+meet me."
+
+"It will be waiting for you at the corner of the first road past the
+house, on the way from London. You will not speak to the chauffeur and
+he will not speak to you. In the car you will find sufficient money for
+your immediate needs. Is there any necessity to explain further?"
+
+"None whatever, monsieur," said the soft voice, and Raoul dropped his
+head on one side as though he were sleeping.
+
+As for the colonel, he did not simulate slumber, but passed into
+dreamland, sleeping quietly and calmly, with a look of benevolence upon
+his big face.
+
+The only other occupant of the cooling room, a big-framed man who was
+reading a newspaper, closed his eyes too--but he did not sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOLOMON COMES BACK
+
+
+At nine o'clock that night the colonel, in immaculate evening-dress, sat
+playing double-dummy bridge with his two companions. In the light of the
+big shaded lamp overhead there was something particularly peaceful and
+innocent in their occupation. No word was spoken save of the game.
+
+It was a quarter to nine, noted the colonel, looking at the little
+French clock on the mantelpiece. He rose, walked to the window and
+looked out. It was a stormy night and the wind was howling down the
+street, sending the rain in noisy splashes against the window panes. He
+grumbled his satisfaction and returned to the table.
+
+"Did you see the paper?" asked Pinto presently.
+
+"I saw the paper," said the colonel, not looking up from his hand. "I
+make a point of reading the newspapers."
+
+"You see they've made a feature of----"
+
+"Mention no names," said the colonel. "I know they've made a feature
+about it. So much the better. Everything depends----"
+
+It was as he spoke that Solomon White came into the room. Boundary knew
+it was he before the door handle turned, before the hum of voices in the
+hall outside had ceased, but it was with a great pretence of surprise
+that he looked up.
+
+"Why, if it isn't Solomon White!" he said.
+
+The man was haggard and sick-looking. He had evidently dressed in a
+hurry, for his cravat was ill-tied and the collar gaped. He strode
+slowly up to the table and Boundary's manservant, with a little grin,
+closed the door.
+
+"Where have you been all this time, Solomon?" asked Boundary genially.
+"Sit you down and play a hand."
+
+"You know why I've come," breathed Solomon White.
+
+"Surely I know why you've come. You've come to explain where you've
+been, old boy. Sit down," said Boundary.
+
+"Where is my daughter?" asked White.
+
+"Where is your daughter?" repeated the colonel. "Well, that's a queer
+question to ask us. _We've_ been saying where is Solomon White all this
+time."
+
+"I've been to Brighton," said the man, "but that's nothing to do with
+it."
+
+"Been at Brighton? A very pleasant place, too," said Boundary. "And what
+were you doing at Brighton?"
+
+"Keeping out of your way, damn you!" said White fiercely. "Trying to
+cure the fear of you which has made a rank coward of me. If you wanted
+to find a method for curing me, colonel, you've found it. I've come back
+for my daughter--where is she?"
+
+The colonel pushed his chair back from the table and looked up with a
+quizzical smile.
+
+"Now you're not going to take it hard, Solomon," he said. "We had to
+have you back and that was the only scheme we could think of. You see,
+there are lots of little bits of business that have to be cleared up,
+bits of business in which you had a hand the same as my other business
+associates."
+
+"Where is the girl?" asked the man steadily.
+
+"Well, I'm going to admit to you," said the colonel, with a fine show of
+frankness, "that I've put her away--no harm has come to her, you
+understand. She's at a little place at Putney Heath, a house I took
+specially for her, surrounded by loving guardians----"
+
+"Like Pinto?" asked the man, looking down at the silent Silva.
+
+"Like Lollie. Now you can't deny that Lollie's a very nice girl," said
+the colonel. "Sit down, Solomon, and talk things over."
+
+"When I've got my girl I'll talk things over with you. Where is this
+place?"
+
+"It is on Putney Heath," said the colonel. "Now aren't I being
+straightforward with you? If I had any bad designs against the girl,
+should I tell you where she is? If you go there, Solomon, take some of
+your copper friends."
+
+"I have no copper friends," said the man angrily. "You know that well
+enough. What am I that I should go to the police? Can I go to them with
+clean hands?"
+
+"Well, that's a question I've often asked myself," said the colonel.
+"I've often said----"
+
+"What is the name of the house?" interrupted White. "I want to see
+whether you're playing square with me, Boundary, and if you're not,
+by----"
+
+"Don't threaten me, don't threaten me, Solomon," said the colonel with a
+good-humoured gesture. "I'm a nervous man and I suffer from heart
+disease. You ought to know better than that. Bishopsholme is the place.
+It is the fourth big house after passing Tredennis Road--a fine villa
+standing in its own grounds. It looks a bit deserted because it was
+empty until a few days ago, when I put a scrap or two of furniture into
+it. Why not wait----"
+
+"First I'll find out whether you're speaking the truth, and if you're
+not----"
+
+"Gently, gently," growled Crewe. "What's the good of kicking up a row,
+White? The colonel's dealing straighter with you than you're dealing
+with us."
+
+He was not in the colonel's secrets, and he himself was deceived,
+thinking that the girl had been removed to the house which he now heard
+about for the first time, and that the sole object of the abduction was
+to bring White back.
+
+"Stay a while," said Boundary. "It is only just nine----"
+
+But White was gone.
+
+He pushed past the servant, one of the readiest and most dangerous of
+the colonel's instruments, and into the half-dark corridor. There was a
+light on the landing below, and as he ran down the stairs he thought he
+saw somebody standing there. It looked like a woman till the figure
+turned, and then Solomon White stood stock still. It was the first time
+he had seen Jack o' Judgment. The shimmer of the black silk coat, the
+curious suggestion of pallor which the white mask conveyed, the slouch
+hat, throwing a black bar of shadow diagonally across the face, lent the
+figure a peculiarly sinister aspect.
+
+"Stand!"
+
+The voice was commanding, the glittering revolver in the figure's hand
+more so.
+
+"Who are you?" gasped Solomon White.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment! Have you ever heard of little Jack?" chuckled the
+figure. "Oh, here's a new one--Solomon White, too, and never heard of
+Jack o' Judgment! Didn't you see me when they took me out of 'Snow'
+Gregory's pocket? Little Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+Solomon White stepped back, his face twitching.
+
+"I had nothing to do with that," he said hoarsely, "nothing to do with
+that, do you hear?"
+
+"Where are you going? Won't you tell Jack something, give him a bit of
+news? Poor old Jack hears nothing these days," sighed the figure,
+laughter bubbling between the words.
+
+"I'm going on private business. Get out of my way," said the other,
+remembering the urgency of his mission.
+
+"But you'll tell Jack o' Judgment?" wheedled the figure, "you'll tell
+poor old Jack where you are going to find your beautiful daughter?"
+
+"You know!" said the man.
+
+He took a step forward, but the revolver waved him back.
+
+"You'll speak, or you don't pass," said Jack o' Judgment. "You don't
+pass until you speak; do you hear, Solomon White?"
+
+The man thought.
+
+"It is a place called Bishopsholme," he said gruffly, "on Putney Heath.
+Now let me pass."
+
+"Wait, wait!" said the figure eagerly, "wait for me--only five minutes!
+I won't keep you! But don't go, there's death there, Solomon White! It
+is waiting for you--don't you feel it in your bones?"
+
+The voice sank to a whisper, and in spite of himself, a cold shiver
+passed down White's spine. He half-turned to go back.
+
+"Wait!" said the figure again eagerly, fiercely. "I shall not keep you a
+minute--a second!"
+
+Solomon White stood irresolutely, and the mask seemed to melt into the
+darkness. White strained his ears to catch the soft patter of its shoes
+as it mounted the stairs, but no sound came. Then with a start he seemed
+to awake as if from a bad dream, and without another word strode down
+the remaining stairs into the night.
+
+On the landing above, the strange being who called himself "Jack o'
+Judgment" stood outside the door of Boundary's flat. He had taken a key
+from his pocket and had it poised, when he heard the clatter of the
+other's feet. He stood undecidedly, but only for a second, then the key
+slipped into the lock and the door opened. The butler from his little
+pantry saw the figure and slammed his own door, bolting it with
+trembling fingers.
+
+In a second Jack o' Judgment was in the room facing the paralysed trio.
+
+He spoke no word, but suddenly his right arm was raised, some shining
+object flew from his hand, and there was a crash of glass and instantly
+a vile odour. On the opposite wall where the bottle had broken appeared
+a dark and irregular stain.
+
+Then, without so much as a laugh, he stepped back through the door and
+raced down the stairs in pursuit of White. It was too late; the man had
+disappeared. Jack o' Judgment stood for a moment listening, then he
+slipped off the black coat and ripped off the mask. The coat was of the
+finest silk, for he rolled it into the space of a pocket-handkerchief
+and slipped it in his pocket. The handkerchief went the same way. If
+there had been observers, they would have caught a glimpse of a man in
+evening dress as he went swiftly down the half-lighted stairway.
+
+He turned and walked in the shadow of the building and passed down a
+side street, where a big limousine was awaiting him. He gave a murmured
+direction to the driver, and the car sped on its way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH
+
+
+Solomon White had a taxi waiting, and gave his directions. He was
+sufficiently loyal to the band to avoid calling especial attention to
+the house where the girl was imprisoned, and he told his cab to wait at
+the end of Putney Heath. The night was wild and boisterous and very
+dark, but he carried an electric torch, and presently he came to
+weather-stained gates bearing in letters which had half-faded the name
+he sought. He pushed open the gate with some trouble. There was a
+curving carriage-drive which led to the front door, which stood at the
+head of a flight of steps under a square and ugly portico.
+
+He looked up at the building, but it was in darkness. Apparently it was
+empty, but he knew enough of the colonel's methods to know that Boundary
+would not advertise the presence of the girl to the outside world.
+
+He stood hesitating, wondering. The whole thing might be a trap, but
+Solomon White was not easily scared. He took a revolver from his pocket,
+drew back the hammer and walked forward cautiously. There was no sign of
+life. The rustling of shrubs and trees was the only mournful sound which
+varied the roar of the storm.
+
+He was opposite the door, and one foot was raised to surmount the first
+step, when there came a sound like the sharp tap of a drum.
+
+"Rap-rap!"
+
+Solomon White stood for fully a second before he crumbled and fell, and
+he was dead before he reached the ground.
+
+Still there was no sign or sound of life. A church clock boomed out the
+quarter to ten. A motor-car went past, and then the laurel bushes by the
+side of the steps moved, and a man in a black mackintosh stepped out. He
+bent over the dead man, picked up the fallen torch and flashed the light
+on the dead man's face, then, with a grunt of satisfaction, Raoul
+Pontarlier unscrewed his Soubet silencer and slipped his automatic into
+the wet pocket of his mackintosh.
+
+Feeling in an inside pocket for a cigarette, he found one and lit it
+from the smouldering end of a tinder-lighter. Then, carefully concealing
+the lighted cigarette in the palm of his hand, he walked softly and
+noiselessly down the drive, keeping to the shadow of the bushes and
+watching to left and right for signs of approaching pedestrians. At two
+points he could see the heath road, and nobody was in sight. There was
+plenty of time, and men had been ruined by haste. He reached the gate
+and carefully looked over. The road was deserted. His hand was on the
+gate, when something cold and hard was pushed against his ear and he
+turned round.
+
+"Put up your hands!" said a mocking voice. "Put them up!"
+
+The Frenchman's hands rose slowly.
+
+"Now turn round and face the house. Quick!" said the voice. "_Marchez!_
+Halt!"
+
+Raoul stopped. If he could only get his hands down and duck, one
+lightning dive....
+
+His captor evidently read his thoughts, for he felt a hand slip into his
+mackintosh pocket, and he was relieved of the weight of his automatic.
+
+"Go forward, up the steps. Stop!"
+
+The stranger had seen the huddled figure of White, and stooped over him.
+He made no comment. He knew the man was dead before his hands had
+touched him.
+
+"Mount the steps, _canaille!_" said the voice, and Raoul walked slowly
+up the steps of the house and halted with his face against the door.
+
+A hand came up under his uplifted arm and sought the keyhole. A few
+minutes' fumbling until the prongs of the skeleton key had found its
+corresponding wards, and then the door swung open, emitting a scent of
+mustiness and decay.
+
+"_Marchez!_" said the stranger, and Raoul walked forward and heard the
+door slam behind him.
+
+The house was not empty, in the sense that it was unfurnished. The
+unknown was using an electric torch of extraordinary brilliancy, and
+revealed a dilapidated hall-stand and a musty chair. He took a brief
+survey and then:
+
+"Down those stairs!" he said, and the murderer obeyed.
+
+They were in the kitchen now, and again the bright light gleamed about.
+The windows were heavily shuttered, the grate was rusty, and a few odd
+pieces of china on the sideboard were dirty. There was a gas bracket in
+the centre over a large deal table, and this the stranger turned on. He
+heard the hiss of escaping gas, struck a match and lit it, and then for
+the first time Raoul gazed in fear and astonishment upon the man who
+held him.
+
+"Monsieur," he stammered, "who are you?"
+
+The masked figure slipped his hand into his pocket and flicked a card
+upon the table, and Raoul, looking down, saw the Jack of Clubs, and knew
+that his end was near.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three hours the Frenchman had lain on the floor, tied hand and foot,
+a gag in his mouth, and the clocks were striking two when Jack o'
+Judgment came back. This time he wore neither mask nor coat but over his
+arm he carried a coil of fine rope. Raoul watched him, fascinated, as he
+walked about the kitchen, whistling softly to himself, and now and again
+breaking into scraps of song.
+
+"Monsieur, monsieur," blubbered the terrified man, "I would make a
+confession. I will make a statement before the judge----"
+
+Jack o' Judgment smiled.
+
+"You shall make a statement before your judge, for I am he," he said,
+"and I think this is the place."
+
+He glanced up at the high roof of the kitchen, for there was a stout
+hook, where in old times heavy sides of bacon hung. He drew the table
+under the place and put a chair on top. Then he mounted, and with a
+skillful cast of his rope caught the hook and drew the rope slowly
+through. He did not move the table or take any notice of the man on the
+floor, but stood as a workman might stand who was calculating distances,
+and all the time he whistled softly.
+
+"Monsieur, monsieur, for God's sake spare me! I will make reparation!"
+
+"You speak truly," said the other without taking his eyes from the rope,
+"for it is reparation you make this night for two dead men, and God
+knows how many besides."
+
+"Two?"
+
+The murderer twisted his head.
+
+"For a man called Gregory particularly," said Jack o' Judgment, "shot
+down like a mad dog."
+
+"I was paid to do it. I knew nothing against him, I had no malice in my
+heart," said the man eagerly.
+
+"Nor have I," said Jack o' Judgment, "for behold! I shall kill you
+without passion, as a warning to all villains of all nationalities."
+
+"This is against the law," whined the man, beads of sweat standing on
+his forehead. "Give me a knife and let me fight you. You coward!"
+
+"Give Solomon White a pistol, and let him fight you," said the other.
+"It is against the law--well, I know it. But it is much more speedy than
+the law, my little cabbage!"
+
+He was busy making a slip-knot at one end of the rope, and presently he
+had finished it to his satisfaction.
+
+"Raoul Pontarlier," he said, "this is a moment for which I have waited."
+
+The man screamed and twisted his head, but the noose was about his neck
+and tightening. Then with a wrench Jack o' Judgment jerked him to his
+feet.
+
+"On to the table," he said sternly. "Mount! It is quicker so!"
+
+"I will not, I will not!" yelled the Frenchman. His voice rose to a
+shrill scream. "I--help!... help!..."
+
+Half an hour later Jack o' Judgment came down the dark path, stopping
+only for a second to look upon the figure of Solomon White.
+
+"God have mercy on you all!" he said soberly, and passed into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED
+
+
+"The Putney mystery," said the _Daily Megaphone_, "surpasses any of
+recent years in its sensational character. There is a touch of the
+bizarre in this grim spectacle of the dead man at the door of the empty
+house, and the swaying figure of his murderer hanging in the kitchen,
+with no other mark of identification than a playing card pinned to his
+breast.
+
+"The tragedy can be reconstructed up to a point. Mr. White was evidently
+killed in the garden by the Frenchman who was found hanging. The
+automatic pistol in his pocket, which had recently been discharged,
+might support this theory even if the police had not found tracks of his
+feet in the laurels. But who hanged the man Raoul with a hangman's rope?
+That is the supreme mystery of all. The Putney police can offer no
+information on the subject, and Scotland Yard is as reticent. The
+circumstances of the discovery are as follows. At three o'clock on the
+morning of the 4th, Police-Constable Robinson, who was patrolling his
+beat, entered the garden, as is customary when houses are empty, to see
+if any doors had been forced. There had been an epidemic of burglaries
+in the region of Putney Heath during the past two or three months, and
+the police are exercising unusual vigilance in relation to these houses.
+The constable might not have made his inspection that night but for the
+fact that the garden gate had been left wide open...."
+
+Here followed an account of how the body was found and how further
+investigation led the constable to the kitchen to make his second
+gruesome discovery.
+
+Colonel Boundary folded up the paper slowly and put it down. He had
+bought a copy of an early edition of the evening newspaper as he was
+stepping into his car, and now he was driving slowly through the park.
+He lit a cigar and gazed stolidly from the window. But his face showed
+no sign of mental perturbation.
+
+The car had made the circuit of the Park twice when, turning again by
+Marble Arch, he saw Crewe standing on the sidewalk. A word to his
+chauffeur, and the machine drew up.
+
+"Come in," he said curtly, and the other obeyed.
+
+The hand that he lifted to take his cigarette from his lips trembled,
+and the colonel eyed him with quiet amusement.
+
+"They've got you rattled too, have they?" he said.
+
+"My God! It's awful!" said Crewe. "Awful!"
+
+"What's awful about it?" asked the colonel. "White's dead, ain't he? And
+Raoul's dead, ain't he? Two men who might talk and give a lot of
+trouble."
+
+"What did he say before he died? That's what I've been thinking. What
+did he say?"
+
+"Who? Raoul?" demanded the colonel. He had asked himself the same
+question before. "What could he say? Anyway, if he had a statement to
+make, and his statement was worth taking, why, he'd be alive to-day!
+Raoul was the one witness that they wanted, if they only knew it.
+They've bungled pretty badly, whoever they are."
+
+"This Jack o' Judgment," quavered Crewe, his mouth working. "Who is he?
+What is he?"
+
+"How do I know?" snarled the colonel. "You ask me these fool
+questions--do you expect a reply? They're dead, and that's done with.
+I'd sooner he killed Raoul than made a mess of my room, anyway!"
+
+"Why did he do it?" asked Crewe.
+
+The colonel growled something about fools and their questions, but
+offered no explanation.
+
+"It may have been a monkey trick to make us change our quarters--the
+stuff was sulphuretted hydrogen and asafoetida. It may have been just
+bravado, but if he thinks he can scare me----"
+
+He sucked viciously at his cigar end.
+
+"I've got workmen in to strip the walls and re-paper the bit that's
+soiled," he said. "I'll be back there to-night."
+
+The colonel threw the end of his cigar from the window and relapsed into
+moody reverie. When he spoke it was in a more cheerful tone.
+
+"Crewe," he said, "that guy at Scotland Yard has given me an idea."
+
+"Which guy?" asked Crewe, steadying his voice.
+
+"The First Commissioner," said the colonel, lighting another cigar. "He
+particularly wanted to know if 'Snow' had any relations. Curse 'Snow'!"
+he said between his teeth, and dropping his mask of urbanity. "I wish
+he'd--well, it doesn't matter; he's dead, anyway--he's dead."
+
+"Relations?" said Crewe. "Did you tell him anything?"
+
+"I told him all I knew, and that was very little," said the colonel,
+"but it struck me that Sir Stanley knows much more about this fellow
+'Snow' than we do. At any rate, somebody's been making inquiries, and I
+guess that somebody is the fellow who settled Raoul."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," repeated the colonel grimly. "You showed 'Snow'
+Gregory into the gang--what do you know about him?"
+
+Crewe shook his head.
+
+"Very little," he said. "I met him in Monte Carlo. He was down and out.
+He seemed a likely fellow--educated, a gentleman and all that sort of
+thing--and when I found that he'd hit the dope, I thought he'd be the
+kind of man you might want."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"He never talked about his relations. The only thing I know was that he
+had a father or an uncle, who was in India, and I gathered that he had
+forged his name to a bill. When I arrived in Monte Carlo he was
+spending the money as fast as he could. I guess that was why he called
+himself Gregory, for I'm sure it wasn't his name."
+
+"You're sure he never spoke of a brother?"
+
+"Never," said Crewe; "he never talked about himself at all. He was
+generally under the influence of dope or was recovering from it."
+
+The colonel pushed back his hat and rubbed his forehead.
+
+"There must be some way of identifying him," he said. "He came from
+Oxford, you say?"
+
+"Yes, I know that," said Crewe; "he spoke of it once."
+
+"What house in Oxford? There are several colleges, aren't there?"
+
+"From Balliol," said Crewe. "I distinctly remember him talking about
+Balliol."
+
+"What year would that be?"
+
+Crewe reflected.
+
+"He left college two years before I met him at Monte Carlo," he said;
+"that would be----" He gave the year.
+
+"Well, it is pretty simple," said the colonel. "Send a man to Oxford and
+get the names of all the men that left Balliol in that year. Find out
+how many you can trace, and I dare say that will narrow the search down
+to two or three men. Now get after this at once, Crewe. Spare no
+expense. If it costs half a million I'm going to discover who Mr. Jack
+o' Judgment is when he's at home."
+
+He dismissed Crewe and gave fresh instructions to his driver, and ten
+minutes later he was stepping out of his limousine at the entrance to
+Scotland Yard.
+
+Stafford King was not in, or at any rate was not available. Greatly
+daring, the colonel sent his card to the First Commissioner. Sir Stanley
+Belcom read the name and raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Show him in," he said, and for the second time the colonel was ushered
+into the presence of the chief.
+
+"Well, colonel," said Sir Stanley, "this is rather a dreadful
+business."
+
+"Terrible, terrible!" said the colonel, shaking his head. "Solomon White
+was one of my best friends. I've been searching for him for weeks."
+
+"So I've heard," said Sir Stanley dryly. "Have you any theory?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"What about this man called Raoul? Is he unknown to you?" asked Sir
+Stanley.
+
+"That's what I've come to see you about, sir," said the colonel in a
+confidential tone. "You remember the last time I was here, you suggested
+that possibly the murderer of poor Gregory might be a Frenchman. _You_
+remember how you told me that these French assassins have a trick of
+leaving some fantastic card or sign of their handiwork?"
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"Well, here you have the same thing repeated," said the colonel
+triumphantly, "and the identical card. Do you think, sir, that the
+murderer of my poor friend Gregory and my poor friend White was the same
+man?"
+
+"In fact, Raoul?" asked Sir Stanley.
+
+The colonel nodded, and for a few moments Sir Stanley communed with his
+well-kept finger-nails.
+
+"I don't think it will do any harm if I tell you that that is my theory
+also, Colonel Boundary," he said, "and, giving confidence for
+confidence, would you have any objection to telling me whether Raoul is
+one of your--er--business associates?"
+
+There was just the slightest shade of irony in the last two words, but
+the colonel preferred to ignore it.
+
+"I'm very glad you asked me that question, sir," he said with a sigh, so
+palpably a sigh of relief that the recording angel might be excused if
+he were deceived. "I have never seen Raoul before. In fact, my knowledge
+of Frenchmen is a very small one. I do very little business in France,
+and I certainly do no business at all with men of that class."
+
+"What class?" asked the other quickly.
+
+The colonel shrugged his big shoulders.
+
+"I am only going on what the newspapers say," he said. "They suggest
+that this man is an apache."
+
+"You do not know him?" asked Sir Stanley after a pause.
+
+"I have never seen him in my life," said the colonel.
+
+Again Sir Stanley examined his finger-nails as though searching for some
+flaw.
+
+"Then you will be surprised to learn," he drawled at last, "that you sat
+next to him in the cooling-room of the Yildiz Turkish Baths."
+
+The colonel's heart missed a beat, but he did not flinch.
+
+"You surprise me," he said. "I have only been to the Turkish baths once
+during the past three months, and that was yesterday."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"According to my information, which was supplied to me by my very able
+assistant, Mr. Stafford King, that was also the morning when Raoul was
+seen to enter that building."
+
+"And he sat next to me?" said the colonel incredulously.
+
+"He sat next to you," said Sir Stanley, with evidence of enjoyment.
+
+"Well, that is the most amazing coincidence," exclaimed the colonel, "I
+have ever met with in my life! To imagine that that scoundrel sat
+shoulder to shoulder with me--good heavens! It makes me hot to think
+about it."
+
+"I was afraid it would," said the First Commissioner.
+
+He pressed the bell and his secretary came in.
+
+"See if Mr. Stafford King is in the building, and tell him to come to
+me, please," he said. "You see, colonel, we were hoping you would supply
+us with a great deal of very useful information. We naturally thought it
+was something more than a coincidence that this man and you should
+foregather at a Turkish bath--a most admirable rendezvous, by the way."
+
+"You may accept my word of honour," said Colonel Boundary impressively,
+"that I had no more idea of that man's presence, or of his identity, or
+of his very existence, than you had."
+
+Stafford King came in at that moment, and the colonel, noting the
+haggard face and the look of care in the dark-lined eyes, felt a certain
+amount of satisfaction.
+
+"I've just been telling the colonel about his meeting in the Turkish
+baths," said Sir Stanley. "I suppose there is no doubt at all as to that
+happening?"
+
+"None whatever, sir," said Stafford shortly. "Both the colonel and this
+man were seen by Sergeant Livingstone."
+
+"The colonel suggests that it was a coincidence, and that he has never
+spoken to the man," said Sir Stanley. "What do you say to that, King?"
+
+Stafford King's lips curled.
+
+"If the colonel says so, of course, it must be true."
+
+"Sarcasm never worries me," said the colonel. "I'm always getting into
+trouble, and I'm always getting out again. Give a dog a bad name
+and----"
+
+He stopped. There arose in his mind a mental picture of a man swinging
+in an underground kitchen, and in spite of his self-control he
+shuddered.
+
+"And hang him, eh?" said Sir Stanley. "Now, I'm going to put matters to
+you very plainly, colonel. There have been three or four very unpleasant
+happenings. There has been the death of the chief witness for the Crown
+against you; there has been the death of this unhappy man White, who was
+closely associated with you in your business deals, and who had recently
+broken away from you, unless our information is inaccurate; there is the
+death of Raoul, who was seen seated next to you and apparently carrying
+on a conversation behind a fan."
+
+"He never spoke a word to me," protested the colonel.
+
+"And we have the disappearance of Miss White, which is one of the most
+important of the happenings, because we have reason to believe that Miss
+White, at any rate, is still alive," said Sir Stanley, taking no notice
+of the interruption. "Now, colonel, you may or may not have the key to
+all these mysteries. You may or may not know who your mysterious friend,
+the Jack o' Judgment----"
+
+"He's no friend of mine, by heaven!" said the colonel, and neither man
+doubted that he spoke the truth.
+
+"As I say, you may know all these things. But principally at this moment
+we are anxious to secure authentic news concerning Miss White. Both I
+and Mr. Stafford King have particular reasons for desiring information
+on that subject. Can you help us?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"If by spending a hundred thousand pounds I could help you, I would do
+it," he said fervently, "but as to Miss White and where she is, I am as
+much at sea as you. Do you believe that, sir?"
+
+"No," said Sir Stanley truthfully; "I don't."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT
+
+
+The colonel left Scotland Yard with a sense that he had spent the
+morning not unprofitably. It was his way to beard the lion in his den,
+and after all, the police department was no more formidable than any
+other public department. He spent the morning quietly in Pinto's flat,
+making certain preparations. The workmen were making a thorough job of
+his damaged wall, as he found when he looked in, and the horrible odour
+had almost disappeared. It was to be a much longer job than he thought.
+It had been necessary to cut away and replace the plaster under the
+paper for the infernal mixture had soaked deep. Still the colonel had
+plenty to occupy his mind. What he called his legitimate business had
+been sadly neglected of late. Reports had come in from all sorts of
+agencies, reports which might by careful study be turned to the greatest
+advantage. There was the affair of Lady Glenmerrin. He had been months
+accumulating evidence of that lady's marital delinquencies, and now the
+iron was ready to strike--and he simply had no interest in a deal which
+might very easily transfer the famous Glenmerrin Farms to his charge at
+a nominal figure.
+
+And there were other prospects as alluring. But for the moment the
+colonel was mainly interested in the stock value of Colonel Dan Boundary
+and the possibility of violent fluctuations. He was losing grip. The
+story of Jack o' Judgment had circulated with amazing rapidity, by all
+manner of underground channels, to people vitally concerned. Crewe, who
+had been a stand-by in almost every big coup he had pulled off, was as
+stable as pulp. White his right-hand man, was dead. Pinto--well, Pinto
+would go his own way just when it suited him. He had no doubt whatever
+as to Pinto's loyalty. Silva had big estates in Portugal, to which he
+would retire just when things were getting warm and interesting.
+Moreover, the British Government could not extradite Pinto from his
+native land.
+
+The colonel found himself regretting that he had missed the opportunity
+of taking up American citizenship during the seven years he had spent in
+San Francisco. And what of Crewe? Crewe was to reveal himself most
+unmistakably. He came in in the late afternoon and found the colonel
+working through the litter on his desk.
+
+"Have you started your search at Oxford?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I've sent two men down there--the best men in London," replied Crewe.
+
+He drew up a chair to the desk and flung his hat on a near-by couch.
+
+"I want to have a little talk with you, colonel."
+
+Boundary looked up sharply.
+
+"That sounds bad," he said. "What do you want to talk about? The
+weather?"
+
+"Hardly," said Crewe. A little pause, and then: "Colonel, I'm going to
+quit."
+
+The colonel made no reply. He went on writing his letter, and not until
+he reached the end of the page and carefully blotted the epistle did he
+meet Crewe's eyes.
+
+"So you're going to quit, are you?" said Boundary. "Cold feet?"
+
+"Something like that," said Crewe. "Of course, I'm not going to leave
+you in the lurch."
+
+"Oh, no," said the colonel with elaborate politeness, "nobody's going to
+leave me in the lurch. You're just going to quit, that's all, and I've
+got to face the music."
+
+"Why don't you quit too, colonel?"
+
+"Quit what?" asked Boundary. "And how? You might as well ask a tree to
+quit the earth, to uproot itself and go on living. What happens when I
+walk out of this office and take a first-class state-room to New York?
+You think the Boundary Gang collapses, fades away, just dies off, eh?
+The moment I leave there's a squeal, and that squeal will be loud enough
+to reach me in whatever part of the world I may be. There are a dozen
+handy little combinations which will think that I am double-crossing
+them, and they'll be falling over one another to get in with the first
+tale."
+
+Crewe licked his dry lips.
+
+"Well that certainly may be in your case, colonel, but it doesn't happen
+to be in mine. I've covered all my tracks so that there's no evidence
+against me."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel. "You've just managed to keep out of
+taking an important part. I congratulate you."
+
+"There's no sense in getting riled about it," said Crewe; "it has just
+been my luck, that's all. Well, I want to take advantage of this luck."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"I'm out of any bad trouble. The police, if they search for a million
+years, couldn't get a scrap of evidence to convict me," he said, "even
+if they'd had you when Hanson betrayed you, they couldn't have convicted
+me."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel again. He shook his head impatiently.
+"Well, what does all this lead to, Crewe? Do you want to be
+demobilised?" he asked humorously.
+
+"That's about the size of it," said Crewe. "I don't want to be in
+anything fresh, and I certainly don't want to be in this----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"In this Maisie White business," said Crewe doggedly. "Let Pinto do his
+own dirty work."
+
+"My dirty work too," said the colonel. "But I reckon you've overlooked
+one important fact."
+
+"What's that?" demanded Crewe suspiciously.
+
+"You've overlooked a young gentleman called Jack o' Judgment," said the
+colonel, and enjoyed the look of consternation which came to the other's
+face. "There's a fellow that doesn't want any evidence. He hanged Raoul
+all right."
+
+"Do you think he did it?" said Crewe in a hushed voice.
+
+"Do I think he did it?" The colonel smiled. "Why, who else? And when he
+comes to judge you, I guess he's not going to worry very much about
+affidavits and sworn statements, and he's not going to take you before a
+magistrate before he hands you over to the coroner."
+
+Crewe jumped to his feet.
+
+"What have I done?" he asked harshly.
+
+"What have you done? Well, you know that best," said the colonel with a
+wave of his hand. "You say the police haven't got you and haven't a case
+against you. Maybe you're right. That Greek was saying the same sort of
+thing to me. He was here this afternoon squealing about taking the girl
+to the Argentine, and wanted us to send the doctor, and he'll be waiting
+to meet us when we land. There's no evidence against him either. Maybe
+there's more evidence than you imagine. I wouldn't bank too much upon
+the police passing you by, if I were you, Crewe. There's something about
+Mr. Stafford King that I don't like. He's got more brains in his little
+finger than that dude commissioner has in the whole of his body. He
+doesn't say much, but I guess he thinks a lot, and I'd give something to
+know what he's thinking about me just now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BRIDE OF DEATH
+
+
+Time had long ceased to have any significance for Maisie White. There
+was daylight and nightlight. She seemed to remember that she had made a
+great fight on the day she arrived at this strange house when the
+hard-faced nurses had strapped her to the bed, and an old man, with
+trembling fingers, had pushed a needle into her arm. She remembered it
+hurt, and then she remembered very little else. She viewed life with a
+dull apathy and without much understanding. She ceased to resent the
+presence of the women who came and went, and even the uncleanly old
+doctor no longer filled her with a sense of revulsion. She just wanted
+to be left alone to sleep, to dream the strangest dreams that any girl
+had ever had. She did not know that this was the action of bromide of
+potassium, consistently administered in every drink she took, in every
+morsel of food she ate. Bromide in bread, in coffee, in mashed potatoes,
+in rice, in all the vehicles by which the drug could be administered.
+
+Sometimes by reason of her sheer vitality she flung off the effects of
+the dope, and was keenly conscious of her surroundings. There was one
+girl who came and went, a pretty girl with fluffy golden hair, who
+looked at her dispassionately and made no reply to the questions with
+which Maisie plied her. And once she had seen Pinto and would have
+screamed, but they stopped her in time. One night the old doctor had
+come into the room very drunk. He was crying and moaning in a maudlin
+fashion about some mysterious position which he had lost, and he had sat
+on the bed and, cursed his passion for strong drink with such vehemence
+that she, in her half-dazed state of mind, had found herself interested
+against her will.
+
+In one of her lucid intervals she had realised a vital fact, that she
+was under the influence of a drug, and instinctively knew that she was
+becoming more and more immune to its action. She formed a vague plan,
+which she had almost forgotten the next morning. She must always be
+sleepy, almost dazed; she must never show signs of returning
+consciousness. She had been a week in the "nursing home" before she made
+this plan. She could lie now with her eyes shut, picking up the threads.
+She heard somebody talk of a ship and of a passport, and learned that
+she was to be removed in another week. She could not find where, but it
+was somewhere on a ship. She tried once, when the nurses were out of the
+room, to get out of bed and walk to the window. Her legs gave way
+beneath her, and it was with the greatest difficulty that she managed to
+crawl back to bed.
+
+There was no escape that way. There was no help either from the nurses
+who were not nurses at all, nor from the maudlin little doctor, nor from
+the pretty girl who came sometimes and looked down on her with
+undisguised contempt--or was it pity? Then one night she woke in a
+fright. Two people were talking. She half turned her head and saw that
+Pinto was in the room, and his face was a flaming fury. She had seen
+that look before, but now his rage was directed at somebody else, and
+with a start she recognised the pretty girl that the nurses called
+Lollie.
+
+"You're not in this, Lollie," said the man, and she laughed.
+
+"That's just where you're wrong, Silva," she replied. "I'm very much in
+it. What happens to this girl when she leaves here heaven only knows--I
+guess it's up to the colonel. But while she's here I'm looking after
+her."
+
+"You are, are you?" he said between his teeth. "Well, now you can go and
+take a walk."
+
+"I can also take a seat too," she said.
+
+He walked over to her and glowered down at the girl, and she puffed a
+cloud of cigarette smoke in his face.
+
+"I'm a crook because it pays me to be a crook," said the girl calmly.
+"If it's jollying along one of the colonel's blue-eyed innocents, or
+keeping a watchful eye upon Mr. King, or acting trustful maiden to some
+poor fool from the country--why, I'm ready and willing, because that's
+my job. But this is a different matter altogether. If the colonel says
+she's got to go abroad, why, I suppose she's got to go. But she's not
+going to be on my conscience, that's all," said Lollie.
+
+They passed through the door into a smaller room where the night
+watchers sat. She made as though to sit at the table when he gripped her
+arm and swung her round. She put up her hands to defend herself, but was
+thrown against the wall, and his grip was on her throat.
+
+"Do you know what I'll do for you?" he hissed.
+
+"I don't care what you do," she said. She was on the verge of tears.
+"You're not going into that room--you're _not_ going!"
+
+She sprang at him, but with a snarl like a wild beast, he turned and
+struck her, and she fell against the wall.
+
+"Now get out"--he pointed to the door--"get out and don't show your face
+here again. And if you've got any information, you can report it to the
+colonel and see what he's got to say to you!"
+
+She slunk from the room. Pinto went back to the room where the girl lay.
+
+"Cover your head with a blanket, my pretty?" he said. "Pinto must not
+see that pretty face, eh?"
+
+He laid hold of the blanket's edge and pulled it gently down. But the
+blanket would not come away. It was being clutched tightly. With a jerk
+he wrenched it down, then stumbled backwards to the floor, a grotesque
+and ludicrous figure, for the white silk mask of Jack o' Judgment
+confronted him and the hateful voice of his enemy shrilled:
+
+"I'm Death! Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack! Jack, the hangman! You'll
+meet him one day, Pinto--meet him now!"
+
+Pinto collapsed--he had fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+MAISIE TELLS HER STORY
+
+
+"There is one fact which I would impress upon you," said Sir Stanley
+Belcom, addressing the heads of his departments at the early morning
+conference at Scotland Yard, "and it is this, that the criminal has nine
+chances against the one which the law possesses. He has the initiative
+in the first place, and if he fails to evade detection, the law gives
+him certain opportunities of defence and imposes certain restrictions
+which prevent one taking a line which would bring the truth of his
+assertions or denials to light. It protects him; it will not admit
+evidence against him; it will not allow the jury to be influenced by the
+record of his previous crimes until they have delivered their verdict
+upon the one on which he stands charged; in fact, gentlemen, the
+criminal, if he were intelligent, would score all the time."
+
+"That's true enough, sir," said Cole, of the Record Office. "I've never
+yet met a criminal who wasn't a fool."
+
+"And you never will till you meet Colonel Boundary," said Sir Stanley
+with a good-natured smile, "and the reason you do not meet him is
+because he is not a fool. But, gentlemen, every criminal has one weak
+spot, and sooner or later he exposes the chink in his armour to the
+sword of justice--if you do not mind so theatrical an illustration.
+Here, again, I do not think that Boundary will make any such exposure.
+One of you gentlemen has again brought up the question as to the
+prosecution of the Boundary Gang, and particularly the colonel himself.
+Well, I am all in favour of it, though I doubt whether the Home
+Secretary or the Public Prosecutor would agree with my point of view. We
+have a great deal of evidence, but not sufficient evidence to convict.
+We know this man is a blackmailer and that he engages in terrorising his
+unfortunate victims, but the mere fact that we know is not sufficient.
+We need the evidence, and that evidence we have not got. And that is
+where our mysterious Jack o' Judgment is going to score. He knows, and
+it is sufficient for him that he _does_ know. He calls for no
+corroborative evidence, but convicts and executes his judgment without
+recourse to the law books. I do not think that the official police will
+ever capture Boundary, and if it is left to them, he will die sanctified
+by old age and ten years of comfortable repentance. He will probably end
+his life in a cathedral town, and may indeed become a member of the town
+council--hullo, King, what is the matter?"
+
+Stafford King had rushed in. He was dusty and hot of face, and there was
+a light of excitement in his eyes.
+
+"She's found, sir, she's found!"
+
+"She's found?" Sir Stanley frowned. "To whom are you referring? Miss
+White?"
+
+Stafford could only nod.
+
+With a gesture the commissioner dismissed the conference. Then:
+
+"Where was she found?" he asked.
+
+"In her own flat, sir. That is the amazing thing about it."
+
+"What! Did she come back herself?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"It is an astonishing story, sir. She was, of course, detained and held
+prisoner somewhere, and last night--she will not give me any
+details--she was carried from the house where she had been kept
+prisoner. She had an awful experience, at which she only hints, poor
+girl! Apparently she fainted, and when she came to she was in a
+motor-car being carried along rapidly. And that is about all she'll tell
+me."
+
+"But who brought her away?" asked the commissioner.
+
+Again Stafford shook his head.
+
+"For some reason or other she is reticent and will give no information
+at all. It is evident she has been drugged, for she looks wretchedly
+ill--of course, I haven't pressed her for particulars."
+
+"It is a strange story," said the commissioner.
+
+"I have a feeling," Stafford went on, "that she has given a promise to
+her unknown rescuer that she will not tell more than is necessary."
+
+"But it is necessary to tell the police," said the commissioner, "and
+even more important for the young lady to tell her--fiancé, I hope,
+King?"
+
+The young man reddened and smiled.
+
+"I agree with you that this is not the moment when you can cross-examine
+the girl, but I want you to see her as soon as you possibly can and try
+to induce her to tell you all she knows."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maisie White lay on the sofa in her own room. She was still weak, but
+oh! the relief of being back again and of ending that terrible nightmare
+which had oppressed her for--how long? Even the depressing effect of the
+drug could not quench the exaltation of finding herself free. She went
+over the details of the night one by one. She must do it, she thought.
+She must never lose grip of what happened or forget her promise.
+
+First she recalled seeing the weird figure of Jack o' Judgment. He had
+lifted her from the bed and had laid her on the floor. She remembered
+seeing him slip beneath the blankets, and then Pinto had come. She
+recalled the cracked voice of her rescuer, his fantastic language.
+
+She had awakened to consciousness to find herself in a big car which was
+passing quickly through the dark and deserted streets. She had no
+recollection of being carried from the room or of being handed to the
+thick-set man who stood on a ladder outside the open window. All she
+recalled was her waking to consciousness and seeing in the half-light
+the gleam of a white silk handkerchief.
+
+She was too dazed to be terrified, and the soft voice which spoke into
+her ear quelled any inclinations she might have had to struggle. For
+the man was holding her in his arms as tenderly as a brother might hold
+a sister, or a father a child.
+
+"You're safe, Miss White," said the voice. "Do you understand? Are you
+awake?"
+
+"Yes," she whispered.
+
+"You know what I have saved you from?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I want you to do something for me now. Will you?" She nodded again.
+"Are you sure you understand?" said the voice anxiously.
+
+"I quite understand," she replied.
+
+She could have almost smiled at his consideration.
+
+"I am taking you to your home, and to-morrow your friends will know that
+you have returned. But you're not to tell them about the house where
+they have kept you. You must not tell them about Silva or anybody that
+was in that house. Do you understand?"
+
+"But why?" she began, and he laughed softly.
+
+"I am not trying to shield them," he said, answering her unspoken
+thought, "but if you give information you can only tell a little, and
+the police can only discover a little, and the men can only be punished
+a little. And there's so much that they deserve, so many lives they have
+ruined, so much sorrow they have caused, that it would be a hideous
+injustice if they were only punished--a little. Will you leave them to
+me?"
+
+She struggled to an erect position and stared at him.
+
+"I know you," she whispered fearlessly; "you are Jack o' Judgment."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he laughed a little bitterly. "Yes, I am Jack o'
+Judgment."
+
+"Who are you?" she asked.
+
+"A living lie," he replied bitterly, "a masquerader, a mummer, a
+nobody."
+
+She did not know what impelled her to do the thing, but she put out her
+hand and laid it on his. She felt the silky smoothness of the glove and
+then his other hand covered hers.
+
+"Thank you," he said simply. "Do you think you can walk? We are just
+turning into Doughty Street. We've passed the policeman on his beat; he
+is going the other way. Can you walk upstairs by yourself?"
+
+"I--I'll try," she said, but when he assisted her from the car she
+nearly fell, and he half carried, half supported her into her room.
+
+He stood hesitating near the door.
+
+"I shall be all right," she smiled. "How quickly you understand my
+thoughts!"
+
+"Wouldn't it be well if I sent somebody to you--a nurse? Have you the
+key I gave you?"
+
+"How did you get it?" she asked suddenly, and he laughed again.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," he mocked, "wise old Jack o' Judgment! He has
+everything and nothing! Suppose I send a nurse to you, a nice nurse. I
+could send the key to her by messenger. Would you like that?"
+
+She looked doubtful.
+
+"I think I would," she said with a weak smile. "I am not quite sure of
+myself."
+
+He did not take off the soft felt hat which was drawn tightly over his
+ears, nor did he remove his mask or cloak. She was making up her mind to
+take a closer stock of him, when unexpectedly he backed towards the
+door, and with a little nod was gone. He had left her on the couch, and
+there she was, half dozing and half drugged when the matronly nurse from
+St. George's Institute arrived half an hour later.
+
+Stafford called in the afternoon and was surprised and delighted to
+learn that he could speak to the girl. He found her looking better and
+more cheerful. He bent over and kissed her cheek, and her hand sought
+his.
+
+"Now, I'm going to be awfully official," he laughed, "I want you to tell
+me all sorts of things. The chief is very anxious that we should lose no
+time in getting your story."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"There's no story to tell, Stafford," she said.
+
+"No story to tell?" he said incredulously. "But weren't you abducted?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"There's that much you know," she said; "I was abducted and taken away.
+I have been detained and I think drugged."
+
+"No harm has come to you?" he asked anxiously.
+
+Again she shook her head.
+
+"But where did they take you? Who was it? Who were the people?"
+
+"I can't tell you," she said.
+
+"You don't know?"
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"Yes, I think I know, but I can't tell you."
+
+"But why?" he asked in astonishment.
+
+"Because the man who rescued me begged me not to tell, and, Stafford,
+you don't know what he saved me from."
+
+"He--he--who was it?" asked Stafford.
+
+"The man called Jack o' Judgment," said the girl slowly, and Stafford
+jumped up with a cry.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he said. "I ought to have guessed! Did you see his
+face?" he demanded eagerly.
+
+She shook her head again.
+
+"Did he give you any clue as to his identity?"
+
+"None whatever," she replied with a little gleam of amusement in her
+eyes. "What a detective you are, Stafford! And I thought you were coming
+down here to tell me"--the colour went to her cheeks--"well, to tell me
+the news," she added hastily. "Is there any news?"
+
+"None, except----"
+
+Then he remembered that she knew nothing whatever of her father's death
+and its tragic sequel, and this was not the moment to tell her. Later,
+when she was stronger, perhaps.
+
+She was watching him with trouble in her eyes. She had noted how quickly
+he had stopped and guessed that there was something to be told which he
+was withholding for fear of hurting her. Her father was uppermost in
+her mind and it was natural that she should think of him.
+
+"Is there any news of my father?" she asked quietly.
+
+"None," he lied.
+
+"You're not speaking the truth, Stafford." She put her hand on his arm.
+"Stafford, is there any news of my father?"
+
+He looked at her, and she saw the pain in his face.
+
+"Why don't you wait a little while, and I'll tell you all the news," he
+said with an assumption of gaiety. "There have been several fashionable
+weddings----"
+
+"Please tell me," she said, "Stafford. I've been for weeks under the
+influence of a drug, and somehow it has numbed pain, even mental pain,
+and perhaps you will never find me in a better condition to hear--the
+worst."
+
+"The worst has happened, Maisie," he said gently.
+
+"He has been arrested?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, dear, worse than that."
+
+"Not--not suicide?" she said between her set teeth.
+
+Again he shook his head. "He is dead," he said softly.
+
+"Dead!"
+
+There was a long silence which he did not break.
+
+"Dead!" she said again. "How?"
+
+"He was shot by--we think it was by a member of the Boundary Gang, a man
+named Raoul."
+
+She looked up at him.
+
+"I have never heard my father speak of him."
+
+"He was a man imported from France, according to our theory."
+
+"And was he captured?"
+
+"He was killed too," said Stafford; "he was caught in the act and
+instantly executed."
+
+"By whom?" she asked.
+
+"By Jack o' Judgment," replied Stafford.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" She breathed the words. "And I--I never thanked him!
+I never knew!"
+
+He told her the story step by step of the discovery which the police had
+made and the theories they had formed.
+
+"He was lured there," said the girl.
+
+She did not cry. She seemed incapable of tears.
+
+"He was lured there and murdered, and Jack o' Judgment slew his
+murderer? Poor father! Poor, dear daddy!"
+
+And then the tears came.
+
+Half an hour later he left her in charge of the nurse and went back to
+Scotland Yard to report.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE GANG FUND
+
+
+The news of the girl's escape had been received in another quarter.
+Colonel Boundary had sat in his favourite chair and listened without
+comment to Pinto's halting explanation.
+
+"Oh, they went out of the window and down a ladder, did they?" said the
+colonel sarcastically when the Portuguese had finished, "and you had a
+fit on the mat, I suppose? Well, that's a hell of a fine story! And what
+did you do? You who were plastered all over with guns? Couldn't you
+shoot?"
+
+"Did you shoot when you saw Jack o' Judgment?" said the other sullenly.
+"It is no good your telling me what I ought to do."
+
+"Maybe it isn't," said the colonel. "Well, there's nothing to do now,
+anyway. The girl's gone, and all your fine plans have come unstuck."
+
+"They weren't my plans," said Pinto indignantly, "it was your scheme
+throughout."
+
+The colonel bit off the end of his cigar and contemplated the ceiling
+reflectively.
+
+"We can only wait and see what will happen," he said. "The odds are all
+in favour of our being raided."
+
+Pinto went pale.
+
+"Yes," said the colonel, talking to himself, "I guess this is our last
+day of freedom. Well, Pinto, I hope you can pick oakum."
+
+"Oh, shut up about oakum," growled the other; "it isn't a joke."
+
+"It is not a joke," said the colonel, "and if it is, it is one of those
+jokes that make people laugh the most. And do you know the kind of joke
+that makes people laugh the most, Pinto? It is when somebody gets hurt;
+and we are the people who are going to get hurt."
+
+"Do you think she'll tell the police?"
+
+"It is extremely likely," said the colonel; "in fact, it is extremely
+unlikely that she won't tell the police. I am rather glad I'm out of
+it."
+
+Pinto leaped up.
+
+"You're out of it!" he shouted. "You're in it up to the neck!"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I'm absolutely out of it, Pinto," he said, flicking the ash of his
+cigar into the fireplace. "I cannot be identified with this unhappy
+affair by so much as a finger-print."
+
+The Portuguese scowled down at him.
+
+"So that's the game, is it? You're going to double-cross us? You're
+going to be out of it and we're going to be in it."
+
+"Sit down, you fool. Double-cross you! You are easily scared at a little
+leg-pulling. I'm merely pointing out that it is not a matter in which I
+am greatly interested. It is a good thing for you I'm not. Who are the
+police after? You and Crewe and the rest of the gang? Not on your life!
+They're after me. They get the trunk and all the branches come down with
+it. Do you see? There's no sense in lopping off a few branches even of
+deadwood. It won't be good enough if they connect you with the case,
+unless they connect me too. They're after the big horns, they're not
+shooting the little bucks. If she tells the police, they're going to
+nose around for two or three days, seeing how far they can connect me
+with it. And if there's any connection--the slightest, Pinto--why,
+they'll pinch you without a doubt, but they'll pinch me too."
+
+The colonel blew a blue ring of smoke into the air and watched it float
+to the ceiling.
+
+"The advantage of having a business associate like me is that I'm a sort
+of insurance to you little crooks. I am the big fish they're trying to
+hook, and their bait isn't the kind of bait that you'd swallow."
+
+"I've burnt all the papers I had," explained Pinto, "and covered my
+trail."
+
+"When you burnt your boats and came in with me," said the colonel, "you
+burnt everything that was worth burning. I tell you it isn't you they're
+trailing. It is me or nothing. Maybe they'll scare you," he said
+reflectively, "hoping you'll turn King's evidence. I've got a feeling
+that you won't--if I had a feeling the other way about, Pinto, you
+wouldn't see the curtain rise at the Orpheum to-night. And now," said
+the colonel, "we'll go out."
+
+He rose abruptly, walked into his bedroom, and came out wearing his
+broad felt hat. He found Pinto biting his finger-nails nervously and
+looking out of the window.
+
+"I don't want to go out," said Pinto.
+
+"Come out," said the colonel. "What's the good of staying here, anyway?
+Besides, if they are going to pinch you, I don't want them to pinch you
+in my rooms. It would look bad."
+
+They walked downstairs into the street, and a few minutes later were
+strolling across the Green Park, the colonel a picture of a contented
+bourgeoisie with his half-smoked cigar, and his hands clasped together
+under the tails of his alpaca coat.
+
+"I don't see how you can say they've no evidence against you. Suppose
+Crotin squeals?"
+
+"He ain't stopped squealing yet," said the colonel philosophically, "but
+I don't see what difference it makes. Pinto, you haven't got the hang of
+my methods, and I doubt if you ever will. You're a clever, useful
+fellow, but if you were allowed to run the gang, you'd have it in gaol
+in a month. Take Crotin," he said. "I dare say he's feeling sore, and
+maybe this damned Jack o' Judgment person is standing behind him telling
+him----" He stopped. "No, he wouldn't either," he said after a moment's
+thought, "Jack o' Judgment knows as much about it as I do."
+
+"What are you talking about?" asked the other impatiently.
+
+"Crotin," said the colonel; "he hasn't any evidence against me. You
+see, I do not do any business by letters. You fellows have often wanted
+me to write to this person and that, but writing is evidence. Do you get
+me? And what evidence has Crotin? Absolutely none. I have never written
+a line to him in my life. Crewe brought him down to the flat. We gave
+him a dinner and put the proposal to him in plain language. There's
+nothing he could take before a judge and jury--absolutely nothing."
+
+He took the cigar from his mouth and blew a cloud of smoke.
+
+"That's the way I've built the business up--no letters, no documents,
+nothing that a lawyer can make head or tail of."
+
+"What about the documents that Hanson talked about?"
+
+The colonel frowned and then laughed.
+
+"They're nothing but records of our transactions, and they're not
+evidence. Why, even the police have given up the search for them. By the
+way, I haven't done with Crotin," he said after a while.
+
+"He's done with you, I should think," said Pinto grimly.
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"I guess so, but he hasn't done with the gang. You can take him on
+next."
+
+"I?" said Pinto in affright. "Now look here, colonel, don't you think
+it's time we laid low----"
+
+"Laid low!" said the colonel scornfully. "We're either going to get into
+trouble or we're not. If we're not going to get into trouble, we might
+as well go on. Besides, we want the money. The business has slackened
+off, and we haven't had a deal since the Spillsbury affair, and that
+won't last very long. We've got to split our loot six ways, Pinto, and
+that leaves very little for anybody."
+
+"Where are you going now?" asked the other, as the colonel changed his
+direction.
+
+"It just struck me that we might as well go over to the bank and see
+how our balance stands. Also, with the exchange going against us, I want
+to tell Ferguson to buy dollars."
+
+The handsome premises of the Victoria and City Bank in Victoria Street
+were only a stone's throw from the park; and, whatever might be the
+views of Ferguson, the manager, as to the colonel's moral character, he
+had a considerable respect for him as a financier, and Dan Boundary was
+shown immediately into the manager's office.
+
+He was gone some time, whilst Pinto waited impatiently outside. The
+colonel never invited other members, even of the inmost council, to
+share his knowledge of finances. They all knew roughly the condition of
+the exchequer, but really the balance at the Victoria and City was the
+colonel's own. It was the practice of the Boundary Gang (as was
+subsequently revealed) to share, after each coup, every man taking that
+to which he was entitled. The money was split between five, the sixth
+share going to what was known as the Gang Account, a common fund upon
+which all could draw in moments of necessity.
+
+The Gang Fund was not so described in the books of the bank. It was
+known as "Account B." The expenses of operations were usually paid out
+of the colonel's private account, and credited to him when the share-out
+came. He was absolute master of his own balance, but it required three
+signatures to extract a cheque from Account B. One of the objects of the
+colonel's visit was to reduce this number to two, the death of Solomon
+White having removed one of the signatories.
+
+He returned to Pinto, apparently not too well satisfied.
+
+"There's quite a lot of money in the Gang Account," he said. "I've
+struck off Solly's name, and your signature and mine, or mine and
+Crewe's, is sufficient now."
+
+"Or mine and Crewe's, I suppose?" suggested Pinto, and the colonel
+smiled.
+
+"Oh, no," said he. "I'm not a great believer in the indispensability of
+any man, but I'm making the signature of Dan Boundary indispensable
+before that account is touched."
+
+They walked back through the park, and the colonel expounded his
+philosophy of wrong living.
+
+"The man who runs an honest business and mixes it with a little crooked
+work is bound to be caught," he said, "because his mind is concentrated
+on the unpaying side of the game. You've got to run a crook business in
+an honest way if you want to escape the law and pay big dividends. They
+call our system blackmail, but it ain't. A blackmailer asks for
+something for nothing, and he's bound to get caught sooner or later. We
+offer spot cash for all the things we steal, and that baffles the law.
+And we're not the only people in London, or in England, or in the world,
+who are pulling bargains by scaring the fellow we buy from. It is done
+every day in the City of London; it is done every day by the trusts that
+control the little shops in the suburbs; it is done even by the big
+proprietary companies that tell a miserable little tradesman that, if he
+doesn't stop selling one article, they won't supply him with theirs.
+Living, Pinto, is preying. The only mistake a crook ever makes is when
+he goes outside of his legitimate business and lets some other
+consideration than the piling up of money influence him."
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Pinto wearily. He hated the colonel when he was
+in this communicative mood of his.
+
+"Well," said the colonel slowly, "I shouldn't have been so keen to go
+after Maisie White if it hadn't been that you were fond of her and
+wanted her. That's what I call letting love interfere with business."
+
+"But you said you were afraid of her blabbing. You don't put it on to
+me," said the indignant Pinto.
+
+"I was and I wasn't," said the colonel. "I think I almost persuaded
+myself that the girl was a danger. Of course, she isn't. Even Solomon
+White wasn't a danger."
+
+He stopped dead, and, speaking slowly and pointing his words with a
+huge forefinger on the other's chest, he said:
+
+"Bear this fact in mind, Pinto, that I have no malice against Miss
+White, and I don't think that she can harm me. As far as I'm concerned,
+I will never hurt a hair of her head or do her the slightest harm. I
+believe that she has nothing against me, and I give orders to anybody
+who's connected with me--in fact, to all of my business associates--that
+that girl is not to be interfered with."
+
+Slowly, emphatically, every word emphasised, the colonel spoke, but
+Pinto did not smile. He had seen the colonel in this gentle mood before,
+and he knew that Maisie White was doomed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+PINTO GOES NORTH
+
+
+Had Pinto been a psychologist, which he was not, he might have been
+struck by the unusual reference on the part of the colonel to the funds
+of the gang. It was a subject to which the colonel very seldom referred,
+and it was certainly one which he did not emphasise. The truth was that
+the colonel's investigations into his own private affairs had not been
+as satisfactory as he had hoped would be the case.
+
+He was in the habit of advancing money, and the gang owed him a
+considerable sum, money which had been advanced for the pursuit of
+various enterprises. To draw that money would leave the Gang Fund sadly
+depleted, and he could not afford to draw upon it at a moment when they
+were all on edge. Not only were the two principal subordinates in the
+condition of mind which led them to jump at every knock and start at
+every shadow, but he had been receiving urgent messages from all parts
+of the country from the other men, and he had determined upon a step
+which he had not taken for three years--a meeting of the full "Board" of
+his lawless organisation.
+
+That night summonses went forth calling his "business associates" to an
+Extraordinary General Meeting of the North European Smelter Syndicate.
+This was one of the companies which he operated, and the existence of
+which was justified by a small smelting works in the North of England,
+and owed its international character to the fact that it had branch
+works in Sweden. Its turnover was small, its list of stockholders was
+select. A summons to a General Meeting of the North European Smelter
+Company meant that the affairs of the gang were critical, and in this
+spirit the call was obeyed.
+
+The meeting was held in the banquet hall of a West End restaurant, and
+the twenty men who assembled differed very little in appearance from
+twenty other provincial business men who might have been gathered to
+discuss the affairs of any company.
+
+Their coming excited no comment, and apparently did not even arouse the
+attention of vigilant Scotland Yard. Nor, had the colonel's speech been
+taken down by a shorthand writer and submitted to the police, could any
+suggestion be found of the significance of the meeting. He spoke of the
+difficulties of trading, of the "competition" with which the company was
+faced, and called upon all the shareholders to assist loyally the
+executive in a very critical and trying time. But those who listened
+knew very well that the "competition" was the competition of the police,
+and they had their own ideas as to what constituted the trying time to
+which the colonel made reference.
+
+It was a very commonplace, ordinary company meeting, which ended in a
+conventional way by a vote of confidence in the directors. It was when
+that had been passed, and the meeting had been broken up, and members
+and officials were talking together, that the real business started.
+
+Then it was that Selby, the stout little man whose special job was to
+act as intermediary between the company and its more criminal
+enterprises, received his instructions to speed up. Selby was the
+receiver of letters. A burglar or a pickpocket who acquired in the
+course of his activities documents and letters which had hitherto been
+worthless found a ready market through Selby. Eighty letters out of
+every hundred were absolutely valueless, but occasionally they would
+find a rich gem, a love letter discreetly cherished, on which a new
+"operation" would be based. Then would begin the torturing of a human
+soul, the opening of new vistas of despair, the stage be cleared for a
+new tragedy.
+
+The colonel was to find that the chief anxiety of his "shareholders" was
+not as to the future of the company or as to the success of its
+trading. Again and again he was asked a question couched in identical
+words, and again and again he replied with a shrug of his big shoulders:
+
+"What's the good of worrying about a thing like that? Jack o' Judgment
+is a crook! That's all he is, boys, a crook. He's not the sort of man
+who'll go to the police and give us away; he wouldn't dare put his nose
+inside a police station. You leave him to us, we'll fix him sooner or
+later."
+
+"But," somebody asked uneasily, "what about Raoul, that fellow who was
+killed at Putney?"
+
+The colonel lifted his eyebrows.
+
+"Raoul," he said; "he was nothing to do with us. I never heard the
+fellow's name until I read it in the paper. As to White"--he shrugged
+his shoulders again--"we can't prevent people having private quarrels,
+and may be this Frenchman and White had one. My theory is," he said,
+elaborating an idea which had only at that moment occurred to him, "that
+Raoul, White and this Jack o' Judgment were working together. Maybe it
+isn't a bad thing that White was killed under the circumstances."
+
+He dropped his hand on the other man's shoulder and oozed geniality.
+
+"Now, back you go, my lads, and don't worry. Leave it to old Dan to fix
+Jack o' Judgment, or Bill o' Judgment, or Tom o' Judgment, whoever he
+may be, and that we'll fix him you can be certain."
+
+Coming away from the meeting, he expressed himself as being perfectly
+satisfied with its results. He brought Pinto and Crewe back with him in
+his car, and dropped the latter at Piccadilly Circus. Pinto would have
+been glad to have joined the "Swell," but the colonel detained him.
+
+"I want to talk to you, Pinto," he said.
+
+"I've had enough business for to-day," said the Portuguese.
+
+"So have I," said the colonel, "but that doesn't prevent my attending to
+pressing affairs. I was talking to you to-day--or was it
+yesterday?--about Crotin."
+
+"The Yorkshire woollen merchant?" said Pinto.
+
+"That's the fellow," replied the colonel. "I suggested you should go and
+see him."
+
+"And I suggested that I shouldn't," said Pinto; "let him rest. You'll
+never get another chance like you had before."
+
+"Rest nothing," said the colonel testily, "you're scared because you
+imagine Crotin is warned? What do you think?"
+
+Pinto was silent.
+
+"I suppose you think that, because Jack o' Judgment intervened at the
+right moment, he went back to Yorkshire feeling full of himself? Well,
+you're wrong. You don't understand one side of the psychology of this
+business. That little fellow is quaking in his shoes and wondering what
+his grand wife would say if the fact that he was a bigamist was
+revealed. And there's more reason for his fear to-day than ever there
+was. Look here!"
+
+He took a newspaper out of his pocket and Pinto remembered that, even
+during the meeting, the colonel had twice made reference to its columns
+and had wondered why. He had suspected that there had been some
+reference to the Boundary Gang, but this was not the case. The paragraph
+which the colonel pointed out with his thick forefinger was this:
+
+
+     "By the death of Sir George Tressillian Morgan an ancient baronetcy
+     has become extinct. His estate, which has been sworn at over a
+     million, passes to his niece, Lady Sybil Crotin, the daughter of
+     Lord Westsevern, Sir George's son and heir having been killed in
+     the war. Lady Sybil is the wife of a well-known Yorkshire
+     mill-owner."
+
+
+"I didn't know that," said Pinto, interested in spite of himself.
+
+"Nor did I till to-day," said the colonel. "The fact is, this damned
+Jack o' Judgment has put everything else out of our minds. And you can
+see for yourself, Pinto, that this business is important."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"We are not only after the mill, but here's a chance of making a real
+big coup. Now I can't send anybody else to Yorkshire--Crewe is
+impossible. Crotin knows him, and the moment he puts in an appearance,
+as likely as not Crotin would lose his head and give the whole show
+away. It is you or nobody."
+
+He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
+
+"You know, there are times when I'm sorry about Solomon White," he said,
+"he was the boy for this kind of business--that is to say in the old
+days--he got a bit above himself towards the end."
+
+Pinto was to find that the colonel had made all arrangements, and that
+for the previous two days he had been planning a predatory raid on the
+Yorkshireman.
+
+There was to be a bazaar in Huddersfield on behalf of a local hospital,
+in which Lady Sybil Crotin took a great interest. She was organising the
+fête and had invited subscriptions.
+
+"They're not coming in very fast, according to their local paper," said
+the colonel, "and that has given me an idea. You're a presentable sort
+of fellow, Pinto, and it is likely you'll be all the more successful
+because you're a foreigner. You'll go up to Yorkshire and you'll take a
+thousand pounds, and if necessary you'll subscribe pretty liberally to
+the fund, but it must be done through Lady Sybil. You can make yourself
+known to her and invite yourself to the house, where you can meet Crotin
+himself."
+
+He made other suggestions, for he had worked out the whole scheme in
+detail for the other to carry into effect. Pinto's objections slowly
+dissipated. He was a vain man and had all the vices of his vanity. A
+desire to be thought well of, to be regarded as a rich man when he was
+in fact on the verge of ruin, had brought him into crooked practices and
+eventually into the circle of the colonel's acquaintances.
+
+To appear amongst the fair as a giver of largesse on a magnificent scale
+suited him down to the ground. It was a part for which he was eminently
+fitted, as the colonel, a shrewd judge of humanity, knew quite well.
+
+"I'll take it on," said Pinto, "but do you think he'll squeal?"
+
+Boundary shook his head.
+
+"I never knew a man who was caught on the rebound to squeal," he said.
+"No, no, you needn't worry about that. All you have to do is to use your
+discretion, choose the right moment, preparing him by a few hints for
+what is coming, and you'll find he'll sit down, like the hard-headed
+business man he is, and talk money."
+
+Pinto pulled a little face.
+
+"I know what you're thinking," said the colonel. "You hate the idea of
+the generous donor being unmasked and appearing to anybody as a
+blackmailer. Well, you needn't worry about that. Lady Sybil will not
+know, nor will anybody else that counts. And, believe me, Crotin doesn't
+count. Anyway, you can pretend that you're a perfectly innocent agent in
+the matter, that you know me slightly and that I've dropped hints which
+made you curious and which you are anxious to verify."
+
+Pinto went off to make preparations for the journey. He had one of the
+top flats in the Albemarle building, a suite of rooms which, if they
+were not as expensively furnished as the colonel's, were more artistic.
+He had recently acquired the services of a new "daily valet"--a step he
+could take without fear that his secrets would be betrayed, since he had
+no secrets in his own rooms, kept no documents of any kind, and received
+no visitors.
+
+The man opened the door to his ring.
+
+"No, sir, nobody has been," said the servant in answer to his query, and
+Pinto was relieved.
+
+For the past two days he had been living in a condition bordering on
+panic. It seemed unlikely that the colonel's confidence would be
+justified and that the police would take no action. And yet the
+incredible had happened. There had not been so much as an inquiry; and
+not once, though he had been on his guard, had he detected one shadow
+trailing him. His spirits rose, and he whistled cheerfully as he
+directed the packing of his trunk, for he was travelling North fully
+equipped for any social event which might await him.
+
+"I am going to Yorkshire," he explained. "I'll give you my address
+before I leave, and you can let me know if there are any inquiries and
+who the inquirers were."
+
+"Certainly, sir," said the man respectfully, and Pinto eyed him
+approvingly.
+
+"I think you'll suit me, Cobalt," he said. "My last valet was rather a
+fool and inclined to stick his nose into business which did not concern
+him."
+
+The man smiled.
+
+"I shan't trouble you that way, sir," he said.
+
+"Of course, there's nothing to hide," said Pinto with a shrug, "but you
+know what people are. They think that because you're associated in
+business with Colonel Boundary you're up to all sorts of tricks."
+
+"That's what Mr. Snakit said, sir," remarked the man.
+
+"Snakit?" said the puzzled Pinto. "Who the devil is Snakit?"
+
+Then he remembered the little detective whom Maisie had employed and who
+had been bought over by the colonel.
+
+"Oh, you see him, do you?" he asked carelessly.
+
+"He comes up, sir, now and again. He's the colonel's valet, isn't he,
+sir?"
+
+Pinto grinned.
+
+"Not exactly," he said. "I shouldn't discuss things with Snakit. That
+man is quite reliable and----"
+
+"Anyway, sir, I should not discuss your business," said the valet with
+dignity.
+
+He finished packing and, after assisting his master to dress, was
+dismissed for the night.
+
+"A useful fellow, that," thought Pinto, as the door closed behind the
+man. The "useful fellow" reached the street and, after walking a few
+hundred yards, found a disengaged taxi and gave an address. Maisie White
+was writing when her bell rang. It rang three times--two long and one
+short peals--and she went downstairs to admit her visitor. She did not
+speak until she was back in her room, and then she faced the polite
+little man whom Pinto had called Cobalt.
+
+"Well, Mr. Grey," she said.
+
+"I wish you'd call me Cobalt, miss," said the man with a smile. "I like
+to keep up the name, otherwise I'm inclined to give myself away."
+
+"Have you found out anything?"
+
+"Very little, miss," said the detective. "There's nothing to find in the
+apartment itself."
+
+"You secured the situation as valet?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Thanks to the recommendations you got me, miss, there was no difficulty
+at all. Silva wanted a servant and accepted the testimonials without
+question."
+
+"And you've discovered nothing?" she said in a disappointed tone.
+
+"Not in Mr. Silva's room. The only thing I found out was that he's going
+to Yorkshire to-morrow."
+
+"For long?" she asked.
+
+"For some considerable time," said the detective.
+
+"At least, I guess so, because he has packed half a dozen suits, top
+hats and all sorts of things which I should imagine he wouldn't take
+away unless he intended making a long stay."
+
+"Have you any idea of the place he's going to?"
+
+"I shall discover that to-morrow, miss," said Cobalt. "I thought I'd
+tell you as much as I know."
+
+"And you have not been into the colonel's flat?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"It is guarded inside and out, miss, now. He has not only his butler,
+who is a tough customer, to look after him, but he has Snakit, the man
+you employed, I understand."
+
+"That's the gentleman," said the girl with a little smile. "Very good,
+Cobalt--you'll 'phone me if you make any other discoveries."
+
+She was sitting at her solitary breakfast the next morning when the
+telephone bell rang. It was from a call office, and presently she heard
+Cobalt's voice. "Just a word, miss. He leaves by the ten-twenty-five
+train for Huddersfield," said the voice, "and the person he is going to
+see is Lady Sybil somebody, and there's money in it."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked quickly.
+
+"I heard him speaking to the colonel on the landing and I heard the
+words: 'He'll pay.'"
+
+She thought a moment.
+
+"Ten-twenty-five," she repeated; "thank you very much, Mr. Cobalt."
+
+She hung up the receiver and sat for a moment in thought, then passed
+quickly to her bedroom and began to dress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A PATRON OF CHARITY
+
+
+Lady Sybil Crotin was not a popular woman. She was conscious that she
+had married beneath her--more conscious lately that there had been no
+necessity to make the marriage, and she had grown a little soured. She
+could never mix with the homely wives of local millionaires; she
+professed a horror of the vulgarities with which she was surrounded,
+hated and loathed her lord and master's flamboyant home, which she
+described as something between a feudal castle and a picture-palace; and
+openly despised her husband's friends and their feminine relatives.
+
+She made a point of spending at least six months of the year away from
+Yorkshire, and came back with protest at her lot written visibly upon
+her face.
+
+A thin, angular woman, with pale green eyes and straight, tight lips,
+she had never been beautiful, but five or six years in an uncongenial
+environment had hardened and wasted her. That her husband adored her and
+never spoke of her save in a tone of awe was common property and a
+favourite subject for local humour. That she regarded him with contempt
+and irritation was as well known.
+
+In view of Lady Sybil Crotin's unpopularity, it was perhaps a great
+mistake that she should make herself responsible for the raising of
+funds for the local women's hospital. But she was under the impression
+that there was a magic in her name and station which would overcome what
+she described as shyness, but which was in point of fact the frank
+dislike of her neighbours. A subscription list that she had opened had a
+weak and unpromising appearance. She had with the greatest difficulty
+secured help for the bazaar, and knew, even though it had been opened
+by a duchess, that it was a failure, even from the very first day.
+
+Had she herself made a generous contribution to the bazaar fund, there
+might have been a hope; but she was mean, and the big, bleak hall she
+had chosen as the venue because of its cheapness was unsuitable for the
+entertainment she sponsored.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day, Lady Sybil was pulling on her
+gloves, eyeing her husband with an unfriendly gaze as he sat at lunch.
+
+"It was no more than I expected," she said bitterly. "I was a fool ever
+to start the thing--this is the last time I ever attempt to help local
+charities."
+
+Mr. Crotin rubbed his bald head in perplexity.
+
+"They'll come," he said hopefully, referring to the patrons whose
+absence was the cause of Lady Sybil's annoyance. "They'll come when they
+hear what a fine show it is. And if they don't, Syb, I'll come along and
+spend a couple of hundred pounds myself."
+
+"You'll do no such thing," she snapped; "and please get out of that
+ridiculous habit of reducing my name to one syllable. If the people of
+the town can't help to support their own hospital, then they don't
+deserve to have one, and I'm certainly not going to allow you to waste
+our money on that sort of nonsense."
+
+"Have your own way, love," said Mr. Crotin meekly.
+
+"Besides," she said, "it would be all over the town that it was your
+money which was coming in, and these horrid people would be laughing at
+me."
+
+She finished buttoning her gloves and was looking at him curiously.
+
+"What is the matter with you, John?" she asked suddenly, and he almost
+jumped.
+
+"With me, love?" he said with a brave attempt at a smile. "Why, there's
+nothing the matter with me. What should there be?"
+
+"You've been very strange lately," she said, "ever since you came back
+from London."
+
+"I think I ate something that disagreed with my digestion," he said
+uneasily. "I didn't know that I'd been different."
+
+"Are things well at your--factory?" she asked.
+
+"At mills? Oh, aye, they're all right," he said. "I wish everything was
+as right as them."
+
+"As they," she corrected.
+
+"As they," said the humble Mr. Crotin.
+
+"There's something wrong," she said, and shook her head, and Mr. Crotin
+found himself going white. "I'll have a talk with you when I've got this
+wretched bazaar business out of my head," she added, and with a little
+nod she left him.
+
+He walked to the window of the long dining-hall and watched her car
+disappearing down the drive, and then with a sigh went back to his
+_entremets_.
+
+When Colonel Dan Boundary surmised that this unfortunate victim of his
+blackmail would be worried, he was not far from the mark. Crotin had
+spent many sleepless nights since he came back from London, nights full
+of terror, that left him a wreck to meet the fears of the days which
+followed. He lived all the time in the shadow of vengeful justice and
+exaggerated his danger to an incredible degree; perhaps it was in
+anticipating what his wife would say that he experienced the most
+poignant misery.
+
+He had taken to secret drinking too; little nips at odd intervals, both
+in his room and in his private office. Life had lost its savour, and now
+a new agony was added to the knowledge that his wife had detected the
+change. He went to his office and spent a gloomy afternoon wandering
+about the mills, and came back an hour before his usual time. He had not
+the heart to make a call at the bazaar, and speculated unhappily upon
+the proceeds of the afternoon session.
+
+It was therefore with something like pleasure that he heard his wife on
+the telephone speaking more cheerfully than he had heard her for months.
+
+"Is that you, John?" she was almost civil. "I'm bringing somebody home
+to dinner. Will you tell Phillips?"
+
+"That's right, love," said Mr. Crotin eagerly.
+
+He would be glad to see some new face, and that it was a new face he
+could guess by the interest in Lady Sybil's tone.
+
+"It is a Mr. de Silva. Have you ever met him?"
+
+"No, love, I've not. Is he a foreigner?"
+
+"He's a Portuguese gentleman," said his wife's voice; "and he has been
+most helpful and most generous."
+
+"Bring him along," said Crotin heartily. "I'll be glad to meet him. How
+has the sale been, love?"
+
+"Very good indeed," she replied; "splendid, in fact--thanks to Mr. de
+Silva."
+
+John Crotin was dressing when his wife returned, and it was not until
+half an hour later that he met Pinto Silva for the first time. Pinto was
+a man who dressed well and looked well. John Crotin thought he was the
+most impressive personality he had met, when he stalked into the
+drawing-room and took the proffered hand of the mill-owner.
+
+"This is Mr. de Silva," said his wife, who had been waiting for her
+guest. "As I told you, John, Mr. de Silva has been awfully kind. I don't
+know what you're going to do with all those perfectly useless things
+you've bought," she added to the polished Portuguese, and Pinto
+shrugged.
+
+"Give them away," he said; "there must, for example, be a lot of poor
+women in the country who would be glad of the linen I have bought."
+
+At this point dinner was announced and he took Lady Sybil in. The meal
+was approaching its end when she revived the question of the disposal of
+his purchases.
+
+"Are you greatly interested in charities, Mr. de Silva?"
+
+Pinto inclined his head.
+
+"Both here and in Portugal I take a very deep interest in the welfare of
+the poor," he said solemnly.
+
+"That's fine," said Mr. Crotin, nodding approvingly. "I know what these
+poor people have to suffer. I've been amongst them----"
+
+His wife silenced him with a look.
+
+"It frequently happens that cases are brought to my notice," Pinto went
+on, "and I have one or two cases of women in my mind where these
+purchases of mine would be most welcome. For example," he said, "I heard
+the other day, quite by accident, of a poor woman in Wales whose husband
+deserted her."
+
+Mr. Crotin had his fork half-way to his mouth, but put it down again.
+
+"I don't know much about the case personally," said Pinto carelessly,
+"but the circumstances were brought to my notice by a friend. I think
+these people suffer more than we imagine; and I'll let you into a
+secret, Lady Sybil," he said, speaking impressively. He did not look at
+Crotin, but went on: "A few of my friends are thinking of buying a
+mill."
+
+"A woollen mill?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
+
+"A woollen mill!" he repeated.
+
+"But why?" she asked.
+
+"We wish to make garments and blankets for the benefit of the poor. We
+feel that, if we could run this sort of thing on a co-operative basis,
+we could manufacture the stuff cheaply, always providing, of course,
+that we could purchase a mill at a reasonable figure."
+
+For the first time he looked at Crotin, and the man's face was ghastly
+white.
+
+"What a queer idea!" said Lady Sybil. "A good mill will cost you a lot
+of money."
+
+"We don't think so," said Pinto. "In fact, we expect to purchase a very
+excellent mill at a reasonable sum. That was my object in coming to
+Yorkshire, I may tell you, and it was only by accident that I saw the
+advertisement of your bazaar and called in."
+
+"A fortunate accident for me," said Lady Sybil.
+
+Crotin's eyes were on his plate, and he did not raise them.
+
+"I think it is a great mistake to be too generous with the poor," said
+Lady Sybil, shaking her head. "These women are very seldom grateful."
+
+"I realise that," said Pinto gravely. "But I am not seeking their
+gratitude. We find that many of these women are in terrible
+circumstances owing to no fault of their own. For example, this woman in
+Wales, whose husband is supposed to have deserted her--now, there is a
+bad case."
+
+Lady Sybil was interested.
+
+"We found on investigation," said Pinto, speaking slowly and
+impressively, "that the man who deserted her has since married and
+occupies a very important position in a town in the north of England."
+
+Mr. Crotin dropped his knife with a crash and with a mumbled apology
+picked it up.
+
+"But how terrible!" said Lady Sybil. "What a shocking thing! The man
+should be exposed. He is not fit to associate with human beings. Can't
+you do something to punish him?"
+
+"That could be done," said Silva, "it could be done, but it would bring
+a great deal of unhappiness to his present wife, who is ignorant of her
+husband's treachery."
+
+"Better she should know now than later," said the militant Lady Sybil.
+"I think you do very wrong to keep it from her."
+
+Mr. Crotin rose unsteadily and his wife looked at him with suspicion.
+
+"Aren't you feeling well, John?" she asked with asperity.
+
+It was not the first time she had seen her husband's hand shaking and
+had diagnosed the cause more justly than she was doing at present, for
+John Crotin had scarcely taken a drink that evening.
+
+"I'm going into the library, if you'll excuse me, love," he said.
+"Maybe, Mr.--Mr. de Silva will join me. I'd--I'd like to talk over the
+question of that mill with him."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Then run along now," said Lady Sybil, "and when you've finished
+talking, come back to me, Mr. de Silva. I want to know something about
+your charitable organisations in Portugal."
+
+Pinto followed the other at a distance, saw him enter a big room and
+switch on the lights and followed, closing the door behind him.
+
+Mr. Crotin's library was the most comfortable room in the house. It was
+lighted by French windows which opened on to a small terrace. Long red
+velvet curtains were drawn, and a little fire crackled on the hearth.
+
+When the door closed Crotin turned upon his guest.
+
+"Now, damn you," he said harshly, "what's thy proposition? Make it a
+reasonable sum and I'll pay thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED
+
+
+In the train which had carried Pinto Silva to Huddersfield were one or
+two remarkable passengers, and it was not a coincidence that they did
+not meet. In a third-class carriage at the far end of the train was a
+soldier who carried a kit-bag and who whiled away the journey by reading
+a seemingly endless collection of magazines.
+
+He got out at Huddersfield too, and Pinto might and probably did see him
+as he passed through the barrier. The soldier left his kit-bag at the
+cloak-room and eventually became one of the two dozen people who
+patronised Lady Sybil's bazaar on that afternoon. He passed Pinto twice,
+and once made a small purchase at the same stall where the Portuguese
+was buying lavishly. If Pinto saw him, then he did not remember the
+fact. One soldier looks very much like another, anyway.
+
+Lady Sybil had reason to notice the representative of His Majesty's
+forces, and herself informed him severely that smoking was not allowed,
+and the man had put his cigarette under his heel with an apology and had
+walked out of the building. When Lady Sybil and her guest had entered
+her car and were driven away to Mill Hall, the soldier had been
+loitering near the entrance, and a few minutes later he was following
+the party in a taxi-cab which had been waiting at his order for the past
+two hours.
+
+The taxi did not turn in at the stone-pillared gates of the Hall, but
+continued some distance beyond, when the soldier alighted and, turning
+back, walked boldly through the main entrance and passed up the drive.
+It was dusk by now, and nobody challenged him.
+
+He made a reconnaissance of the house and found the dining-room without
+any difficulty. The blinds were up and the servants were setting the
+table. Then he passed round to the wing of the building and discovered
+the library. He actually went into that room, because it was one of Lady
+Sybil's standing orders that the library should be "aired" and that the
+scent of Mr. Crotin's atrocious tobacco should be cleared.
+
+He sniffed the stale fragrance and was satisfied that this was a room
+which was lived in.
+
+If there was any real, confidential talk between the two men, it would
+be here, he thought, and looked round for a likely place of concealment.
+The room was innocent of cupboards. Only a big settee drawn diagonally
+across a corner of the room promised cover, and that looked too
+dangerous. If anybody sat there and by chance dropped something--a pipe
+or an ash-tray----
+
+He walked back to the terrace to take his bearings in case he had to
+make a rapid exit. He looked round and then dropped suddenly to the
+cover of the balustrade, for he had seen a dark figure moving across the
+lawn, and it was coming straight for the terrace. He slipped back into
+the room and as he did so he heard a step in the passage without. He
+stepped lightly over to the settee and crouched down.
+
+It was evidently a servant, for he heard the French windows closed and
+the clang of the shutters. They were evidently very ordinary
+folding-shutters, fastened with an old-fashioned steel bar--he made a
+mental note of this. Then he heard the swish of the curtain-rings upon
+the brass pole as the curtains were drawn. A dim light was switched on,
+somebody poked the fire, and then the light was put out and the door
+closed softly.
+
+The intruder did some rapid thinking. He crossed to the nearest of the
+windows, noiselessly opened the shutters and pushed them back to the
+position in which they stood when not in use. Then he unlatched the
+window and left it, hoping that it would not blow open and betray him.
+This done, he again pulled the heavy curtains across and returned to
+his place of concealment. That was to be the way out for him if the
+necessity for a rapid retreat should arise.
+
+There was no sound save the ticking of the clock and the noise of
+falling cinders for ten minutes, and then he heard something which
+brought him to the alert, all his senses awakened and concentrated. It
+was the sound of a light and stealthy footstep on the terrace outside.
+He wondered whether it was a servant and whether he would see that one
+of the windows was unshuttered. He had half a mind to investigate, when
+there came another sound--a lumbering foot in the passage. Suddenly the
+door was opened, the lights were flashed on, and the man behind the
+settee hugged the floor and held his breath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"How much do I want?"
+
+Pinto laughed and lit a cigarette.
+
+"My dear Mr. Crotin, I really don't know what you mean."
+
+"Let's have no more foolery," said the Yorkshireman roughly. "I know
+that you've come up from Colonel Boundary and I know what you've come
+for. You want to buy my mill, eh? Well, I'll make it worth your while
+not to buy my mill. You can take the money instead."
+
+"I really am honest when I tell you that I don't understand what you are
+talking about. I have certainly come up to buy a mill--that is true. It
+is also true that I want to buy your mill."
+
+"And what might you be thinking of paying for it?" asked Crotin between
+his teeth.
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds," said Pinto nonchalantly.
+
+"Twenty thousand, eh? It was thirty thousand the last time. You'll want
+me to give it to you soon. Nay, nay, my friend, I'll pay, but not in
+mills."
+
+"Think of the poor," murmured Pinto.
+
+"I'm thinking of them," said the other. "I'm thinking of the poor woman
+in Wales, too, and the poor woman in there." He jerked his head. Then,
+in a calmer tone: "I guessed at dinner where you came from. Colonel
+Boundary sent you."
+
+Pinto shrugged.
+
+"Let us mention no names," he said politely. "And who is Colonel
+Boundary, anyway?"
+
+Crotin was at his desk now. He had taken out his cheque-book and slapped
+it down upon the writing-pad.
+
+"You've got me proper," he said, and his voice quavered. "I'll make an
+offer to you. I'll give you fifty thousand pounds if you write an
+agreement that you will not molest or bother me again."
+
+There was a silence, and the soldier crouched behind the settee,
+listening intently. He heard Pinto laugh softly as one who is greatly
+amused.
+
+"That, my good friend," said Pinto, "would be blackmail. You don't
+imagine that I would be guilty of such an iniquity? I know nothing about
+your past; I merely suggest that you should sell me one of your mills at
+a reasonable price."
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds is reasonable for you, I suppose," said Crotin
+sarcastically.
+
+"It is a lot of money," replied Pinto.
+
+The Yorkshireman pulled open the drawer of his desk and slammed in the
+cheque-book, closing it with a bang.
+
+"Well, I'll give you nothing," he said, "neither mill nor money. You can
+clear out of here."
+
+He crossed the room to the telephone.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Pinto, secretly alarmed.
+
+"I'm going to send for the police," said the other grimly. "I'm going to
+give myself up and I'm going to pinch thee too!"
+
+If Crotin had turned the handle of the old-fashioned telephone, if he
+had continued in his resolution, if he had shown no sign of doubt, a
+different story might have been told. But with his hand raised, he
+hesitated, and Pinto clinched his argument.
+
+"Why have all that trouble?" he said. "Your liberty and reputation are
+much more to you than a mill. You're a rich man. Your wife is wealthy in
+her own right. You have enough to live on for the rest of your life.
+Why make trouble?"
+
+The little man dropped his head with a groan and walked wearily back to
+the desk.
+
+"Suppose I sell this?" he said in a low voice. "How do I know you won't
+come again----"
+
+"When a gentleman gives his word of honour," began Pinto with dignity,
+but was interrupted by a shrill laugh that made his blood run cold.
+
+He swung round with an oath. Framed in an opening of the curtains which
+covered one of the windows was the Figure!
+
+The black silk gown, the white masked face, the soft felt hat pulled
+down over the eyes--his teeth chattered at the sight of it, and he fell
+back against the wall.
+
+"Who wouldn't trust Pinto?" squeaked the voice. "Who wouldn't take
+Pinto's word of honour? Jack o' Judgment wouldn't, poor old Jack o'
+Judgment!"
+
+Jack o' Judgment! The soldier behind the settee heard the words and
+gasped. Without any thought of consequence he raised his head and
+looked. The Jack o' Judgment was standing where he expected him to be.
+He had come through the window which the soldier had left unbarred. This
+time he carried no weapon in his hand, and Pinto was quick to see the
+possibilities. The electric switch was within reach, and his hand shot
+out. There was a click and the room went dark.
+
+But the figure of Jack o' Judgment was silhouetted against the night,
+and Pinto whipped out the long knife which never left him and sent it
+hurtling at his enemy. He saw the figure duck, heard the crash of broken
+glass, and then Jack o' Judgment vanished. In a rage which was three
+parts terror, he sprang through the open French windows on to the
+terrace in time to see a dark figure drop over the balustrade and fly
+across the park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"
+
+
+Pinto leapt the parapet and was following swiftly in its wake. He
+guessed rather than knew that for once Jack o' Judgment had come
+unarmed, and a wild exultation filled him at the thought that it was
+left to him to unveil the mystery which was weighing even upon the iron
+nerve of the colonel.
+
+The figure gained the shrubbery, and the pursuer heard the rustle of
+leaves as it plunged into the depths. In a second he was blundering
+after. He lost sight of his quarry and stopped to listen. There was no
+sound.
+
+"Hiding," grunted Pinto. And then aloud: "Come out of it. I see you and
+I'll shoot you like a dog if you don't come to me!"
+
+There was no reply. He dashed in the direction he thought Jack o'
+Judgment must have taken and again missed. With a curse he turned off in
+another direction and then suddenly glimpsed a shape before him and
+leapt at it. He was flung back with little or no effort, and stood
+bewildered, for the coat his hand had touched was rough and he had felt
+metal buttons.
+
+"A soldier!" he gasped. "Who are you?"
+
+"Steady," said the other; "don't get rattled, Pinto."
+
+"Who are you?" asked Pinto again.
+
+"My name is Stafford King," said the soldier, "and I think I shall want
+you."
+
+Pinto half turned to go, but was gripped.
+
+"You can go back to Huddersfield and pack your boxes," said Stafford
+King. "You won't leave the town except by my permission."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Pinto, breathing heavily.
+
+"I mean," said Stafford King, "that the unfortunate man you tried to
+blackmail must prosecute whatever be the consequence to himself. Now,
+Pinto, you've a grand chance of turning King's evidence."
+
+Pinto made no reply. He was collecting his thoughts. Then, after a
+while, he said:
+
+"I'll talk about that later, King. I'm staying at the Huddersfield Arms.
+I'll meet you there in an hour."
+
+Stafford King did not move until the sound of Pinto's footsteps had died
+away. Then he began a systematic search, for he too was anxious to end
+the mystery of Jack o' Judgment. He had followed Pinto when he dashed
+from the room and had heard the Portuguese calling upon Jack o' Judgment
+to surrender. That mysterious individual, who was obviously lying low,
+could not be very far away.
+
+He was in a shrubbery which proved later to be a clump of rhododendrons,
+in the centre of which was a summer-house. To the heart of this
+shrubbery led three paths, one of which Stafford discovered quite close
+at hand. The sound of gravel under his feet gave him an idea, and he
+began walking backward till he came to the shadow of a tree, and then,
+simulating the sound of retreating footsteps, he waited.
+
+After a while he heard a rustle, but did not move.
+
+Somebody was coming cautiously through the bushes, and that somebody
+appeared as a shadowy, indistinct figure, not twenty yards away. Only
+the keenest eyesight could have detected it, and still Stafford waited.
+Presently he heard the soft crunch of gravel under its feet, and at that
+moment leapt towards it. The figure stood as though paralysed for a
+second, and then, turning quickly, fled back to the heart of the bushes.
+Before it had gone a dozen paces Stafford had reached it, and his arm
+was about its neck.
+
+"My friend," he breathed, "I don't know what I'm to do with you now I've
+got you, but I certainly am going to register your face for future
+reference."
+
+"No, no," said a muffled voice from behind the mask. "No, no, don't; I
+beg of you!"
+
+But the mask was plucked away, and, fumbling in his pocket, Stafford
+produced his electric lamp and flashed it on the face of his prisoner.
+Then, with a cry of amazement, he stepped back--for he had looked upon
+the face of Maisie White!
+
+For a moment there was silence, neither speaking. Then Stafford found
+his voice.
+
+"Maisie!" he said in bewilderment, "Maisie! You--Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"Phew!" whistled Stafford.
+
+Then sitting on a trunk, he laughed.
+
+"It is Maisie, of all people in the world. And I suspected it, too!"
+
+The girl had covered her face with her hands and was crying softly, and
+he moved towards her and put his arm about her shoulder.
+
+"Darling, it is nothing very terrible. Please don't go on like that."
+
+"Oh, you don't understand, you don't understand!" she wailed. "I wanted
+to catch Silva. I guessed that he was coming north on one of his
+blackmailing trips, and I followed him."
+
+"Did you come up by the same train?"
+
+He felt her nod.
+
+"So did I," said Stafford with a little grin.
+
+"I followed him to the bazaar," she said, "and then I watched him from a
+little eating-house on the opposite side of the road. Do you know, I
+wondered whether you were here too, and I looked everywhere for you, but
+apparently there was nobody in sight when Pinto came out with Lady
+Sybil, only a soldier."
+
+"I was that soldier," said Stafford.
+
+"I discovered where Mr. Crotin lived and came up later," she went on.
+"Of course, I had no very clear idea of what I was going to do, and it
+was only by the greatest luck that I found the window of the library
+open. It was the only window that was open," she said with a little
+laugh.
+
+"It wasn't so much your luck as my forethought," smiled Stafford.
+
+"Now I want to tell you about Jack o' Judgment," she began, but he
+stopped her.
+
+"Let that explanation wait," he said; "the point is, that with your
+evidence and mine we have Pinto by the throat--what was that?"
+
+There was the sound of a shot.
+
+"Probably a poacher," said Stafford after a moment. "I can't imagine
+Pinto using a gun. Besides, I don't think he carries one. What did he
+throw at you?"
+
+"A knife," she said, and he felt her shiver; "it just missed me. But
+tell me, how have we got Pinto?"
+
+They had left the shrubbery and were walking towards the house. She
+stopped a little while to take off her long black cloak, and he saw that
+she was wearing a short-skirted dress beneath.
+
+"We must compel Crotin to prosecute," said Stafford. "With our evidence
+nothing can save Pinto, and probably he will drag in the colonel, too.
+Even your evidence isn't necessary," he said after a moment's thought,
+"and if it's possible I will keep you out of it."
+
+A woman's scream interrupted him.
+
+"There's trouble there," he said, and raced for the house. Somebody was
+standing on the terrace as he approached, and hailed him excitedly.
+
+"Is that you, Terence?"
+
+It was a servant's voice.
+
+"No," replied Stafford, "I am a police officer."
+
+"Thank God!" said the man on the terrace. "Will you come up, sir? I
+thought it was the gamekeeper I was speaking to."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Stafford as he vaulted over the parapet.
+
+"Mr. Crotin has shot himself, sir," said the butler in quavering tones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twelve hours later Stafford King reported to his chief, giving the
+details of the overnight tragedy.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Sir Stanley. "I was afraid of it ending that way."
+
+"Did you know he was being blackmailed?" asked Stafford.
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"We had a report, which apparently emanated from Jack o' Judgment, who
+of late has started sending his communications to me direct," said Sir
+Stanley. "You can, of course, do nothing with Pinto. Your evidence isn't
+sufficient. What a pity you hadn't a second witness." He thought for a
+moment. "Even then it wouldn't have been sufficient unless we had Crotin
+to support you."
+
+Stafford cleared his throat.
+
+"I have a second witness, sir," he said.
+
+"The devil you have!" Sir Stanley raised his eyebrows. "Who was your
+second witness?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford, and Sir Stanley jumped to his feet.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment was there," said Stafford, and told the story of the
+remarkable appearance of that mysterious figure.
+
+He told everything, reserving the identification of Jack till the last.
+
+"And then you flashed the lamp on his face," said Sir Stanley. "Well,
+who was it?"
+
+"Maisie White," said Stafford.
+
+"Good Lord!"
+
+Sir Stanley walked to the window and stood looking out, his hands thrust
+into his pockets. Presently he turned.
+
+"There's a bigger mystery here than I suspected," he said. "Have you
+asked Miss White for an explanation?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"I thought it best to report the matter to you, sir, before I asked her
+to----"
+
+"To incriminate herself, eh? Well, perhaps you did wisely, perhaps you
+did not. I should imagine that her explanation is a very simple one."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that unless Jack o' Judgment has the gift
+of appearing in two places at once, she is not Jack."
+
+"But I don't understand, sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that Jack o' Judgment was in the colonel's
+room last night, was in fact sitting by the colonel's bedside when that
+gentleman awoke, and according to the statement which Colonel Boundary
+has made to me about two hours ago in this room, warned him of his
+approaching end."
+
+It was Stafford's turn to be astonished.
+
+"Are you sure, sir?" he asked incredulously.
+
+"Absolutely!" said Sir Stanley. "You don't imagine that the colonel
+would invent that sort of thing. For some reason or other, possibly to
+keep close to the trouble that's coming, the colonel insists upon
+bringing all his little chit-chat to me. He asked for an interview about
+ten o'clock this morning and reported to me that he had had this
+visitation. Moreover, the experience has had the effect of upsetting the
+colonel, and for the first time he seems to be thoroughly rattled. Where
+is Miss White?"
+
+"She's here, sir."
+
+"Here, eh?" said the commissioner. "So much the better. Can you bring
+her in?"
+
+A few minutes later the girl sat facing the First Commissioner.
+
+"Now, Miss White, we're going to ask you for a few facts about your
+masquerade," said Sir Stanley kindly. "I understand that you appeared
+wearing the costume, and giving a fairly good imitation of the voice of
+Jack o' Judgment. Now, I'm telling you before we go any further that I
+do not believe for one moment that you are Jack o' Judgment. Am I
+right?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Perfectly true, Sir Stanley," she said. "I don't know why I did such a
+mad thing, except that I knew Pinto was scared of him. I got the cloak
+from my dress-basket and made the mask myself. You see, I didn't know
+whether I might want it, but I thought that in a tight pinch, if I
+wished to terrify this man, that was the rôle to assume."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"And the voice, of course, was easy."
+
+"But how could you imitate the voice if you have never seen Jack o'
+Judgment?"
+
+"I saw him once." She shivered a little. "You seem to forget, Sir
+Stanley, that he rescued me from that dreadful house."
+
+"Of course," said Sir Stanley, "and you imitated him, did you?" He
+turned to his subordinate. "I'm accepting Miss White's explanation,
+Stafford, and I advise you to do the same. She went up to watch Silva,
+as I understand, and took the costume with her as a sort of protection.
+Well, Miss White, are you satisfied with your detective work?"
+
+She smiled ruefully.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm a failure as a detective," she said.
+
+"I'm afraid you are," laughed Sir Stanley, as he rose and offered his
+hand. "There is only one real detective in the world--and that is Jack
+o' Judgment!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS
+
+
+If Pinto Silva had a hobby, it was the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum had
+been in low water and had come into the market at a moment when
+theatrical managers and proprietors were singularly unenterprising and
+money was short. Pinto had bought the property for a song, and had
+converted his purchase into a moderate success. The theatre served a
+double purpose; it provided Pinto with a hobby, and offered an excuse
+for his wealth. Since it was a one-man show, and he produced no
+balance-sheet, his contemporaries could only make a guess as to the
+amount of money he made. If the truth be told, it was not very large,
+but small as it was, its dividends more or less justified his own
+leisure.
+
+There had been one or two scandals about the Orpheum which had reached
+the public Press--scandals of a not particularly edifying character. But
+Pinto had managed to escape public opprobrium.
+
+The Orpheum, at any rate, helped to baffle the police, who saw Silva
+living at the rate of twenty thousand a year, and were unable to trace
+the source of his income. That he had estates in Portugal was known; but
+they had been acquired, apparently, on the profits of the music-hall. He
+was not a speculator, though he was a shareholder in a number of
+companies which were controlled by the colonel; and he was certainly not
+a gambler, in the generally accepted sense of the term.
+
+Whilst he was suspected of being intimately connected with several shady
+transactions, he could boast truly that there was not a scrap of
+evidence to associate him with any breach of the law. He was less
+inclined to boast that evening, when he turned into the stage-box at the
+Orpheum, and pulling his chair into the shadow of the draperies, sat
+back and considered his position. He had returned from Yorkshire in a
+panic, and had met the fury of the colonel's reproaches. It was the
+worst quarter of an hour that Pinto had ever spent with his superior,
+and the memory made him shiver.
+
+The stage-box at the Orpheum was never sold to any member of the public.
+It was Pinto's private possession, his sitting-room and his office. He
+sat watching with gloomy interest the progress of the little revue which
+was a feature of the Orpheum programme, and his mind was occupied by a
+very pressing problem. He was shaken, too, by the interview he had had
+with the Huddersfield police.
+
+He had had to fake a story to explain why he left the library, and why,
+in his absence, Mr. Crotin had committed suicide. Fortunately, he had
+returned to the house by the front hall and was in the hall inventing a
+story of burglars to the agitated Lady Sybil when they heard the shot
+which ended the wretched life of the bigamist. That had saved him from
+being suspected of actual complicity in the crime. Suppose they had--he
+sweated at the thought.
+
+There was a knock on the door of the box, and an attendant put in his
+head.
+
+"There's a gentleman to see you, sir," he said; "he says he has an
+appointment."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Mr. Cartwright."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Show him in, please," he said, and dismissed all unpleasant thoughts.
+
+The new-comer proved to be a dapper little man, with a weather-beaten
+face. He was in evening dress, and spoke like a gentleman.
+
+"I had your letter, Mr. Silva," he said. "You received my telephone
+message?"
+
+"Yes," said Silva. "I wanted to see you particularly. You understand
+that what I say is wholly confidential."
+
+"That I understand," said the man called Cartwright.
+
+He took Pinto's proferred cigarette and lit it.
+
+"I have been reading about you in the papers," said Pinto. "You're the
+man who did the non-stop flight for the Western Aeroplane Company?"
+
+"That's right," smiled Cartwright. "I have done many long nights. I
+suppose you are referring to my San Sebastian trip?"
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Now I want to ask you a few questions, and if they seem to be prying or
+personal, you must believe that I have no other wish than to secure
+information which is vital to myself. What position do you occupy with
+the Western Company?"
+
+Cartwright shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I am a pilot," he said. "If you mean, am I a director of the firm or am
+I interested in the company financially, I regret that I must answer No.
+I wish I were," he added, "but I am merely an employee."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"That is what I wanted to know," he said. "Now, here is another
+question. What does a first-class aeroplane cost?"
+
+"It depends," said the other. "A long distance machine, such as I have
+been flying, would cost anything up to five thousand pounds."
+
+"Could you buy one? Are they on the market?" asked Pinto quickly.
+
+"I could buy a dozen to-morrow," said the other promptly. "The R.A.F.
+have been selling off their machines, and I know just where I could get
+one of the best in Britain."
+
+Pinto was looking at the stage, biting his lips thoughtfully.
+
+"I'll tell you what I want," he said. "I am not very keenly interested
+in aviation, but it may be necessary that I should return to Portugal in
+a great hurry. It is no news to you that we Portuguese are generally in
+the throes of some revolution or other."
+
+"So I understand," said Cartwright, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"In those circumstances," Pinto went on, "it may be necessary for me to
+leave this country without going through the formality of securing a
+passport. I want a machine which will carry me from London to, say,
+Cintra, without a stop, and I want a pilot who can take me across the
+sea by the direct route."
+
+"Across the Bay of Biscay?" asked the aviator in surprise, and Pinto
+nodded.
+
+"I should not want to touch any other country en route, for reasons
+which, I tell you frankly, are political."
+
+Cartwright thought a moment.
+
+"Yes, I think I can get you the machine, and I'm certain I can find you
+the pilot," he said.
+
+"To put it bluntly," said Pinto, "would you take on an engagement for
+twelve months, secure the machine, house it and have it ready for me? I
+will pay you liberally." He mentioned a sum which satisfied the airman.
+"It must not be known that the machine is mine. You must buy it and keep
+it in your own name."
+
+"There's no difficulty about that," said Cartwright. "Am I to understand
+that I must go ahead with the purchase of the aeroplane?"
+
+"You can start right away," said Pinto. "The sooner you have the machine
+ready for a flight the better. I am here almost every night, and I will
+give orders to the collectors on the barrier that you are to come to me
+just whenever you want. If you will meet me here to-morrow morning, say
+at eleven o'clock, I can give you cash for the purchase of the machine,
+and I shall be happy to pay you half a year's salary in advance."
+
+"It will take some time to clear my old job," said Cartwright
+thoughtfully, "but I think I can do it for you. At any rate, I can get
+time off to buy the machine. You say that you do not want anybody to
+know that it is yours?"
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Well, that's easy," said the other. "I've been thinking about buying a
+machine of my own for some time and have made inquiries in several
+quarters."
+
+He rose to leave and shook hands.
+
+"Remember," said Pinto as a final warning, "not a word about this to any
+human soul."
+
+"You can trust me," said the man.
+
+Pinto watched the rest of the play with a lighter heart. After all,
+there could be nothing very much to fear. What had thrown him off his
+balance for the moment was the presence of Stafford King in Yorkshire,
+and when that detective chief did not make his appearance at the police
+inquiry nor had sought him in his hotel, it looked as though the
+colonel's words were true, and that Scotland Yard were after Boundary
+himself and none other.
+
+He sat the performance through and then went to his club--an institution
+off Pall Mall which had been quite satisfied to accept Pinto to
+membership without making any too close inquiries as to his antecedents.
+
+He spent some time before the tape machine, watching the news tick
+forth, then strolled into the smoking-room and read the evening papers
+for the second time. Only one item of news really interested him--it had
+interested the colonel too. The diamondsmiths' premises in Regent Street
+had been burgled the night before and the contents of the safe cleared.
+The colonel had arrested his flow of vituperation, to speculate as to
+the "artist" who had carried out this neat job.
+
+Pinto read for a little, then threw the paper down. He wondered what
+made him so restive and why he was so anxious to find something to
+occupy his attention, and then he realised with a start that he did not
+want to go back to face Colonel Boundary. It was the first time he had
+ever experienced this sensation, and he did not like it. He had held his
+place in the gang by the assurance, which was also an assumption, that
+he was at least the colonel's equal. This irritated him. He put on his
+overcoat and turned into the street. It was a chilly night and a thin
+drizzle of rain was falling. He pulled up his coat-collar and looked
+about for a taxi-cab. Neither outside the club nor in Pall Mall was one
+visible.
+
+He started to walk home, but still felt that disinclination to face the
+colonel. Then a thought struck him; he would go and see Phillopolis, the
+little Greek.
+
+Phillopolis patronised a night-club in Soho, where he was usually to be
+found between midnight and two in the morning. Having an objective,
+Pinto felt in a happier frame of mine and walked briskly the intervening
+distance. He found his man sitting at a little marble-topped table by
+himself, contemplating a half-bottle of sweet champagne and a
+half-filled glass. He was evidently deep in thought, and started
+violently when Pinto addressed him.
+
+"Sit down," he said with evident relief. "I thought it was----"
+
+"Who did you think it was? You thought it was the police, I suppose?"
+said Pinto with heavy jocularity, and to his amazement he saw the little
+man wince.
+
+"What has happened to Colonel Boundary?" asked the Greek irritably.
+"There used to be a time when anybody he spoke for was safe. I'm getting
+out of this country and I'm getting out quick," he added.
+
+"Why?" asked Pinto, who was vitally interested.
+
+The Greek threw out his hands with a little grimace.
+
+"Nerves," he said. "I haven't got over that affair with the White girl."
+
+"Pooh!" said the other. "If the police were moving in that matter,
+they'd have moved long ago. You are worrying yourself unnecessarily,
+Phillopolis."
+
+Pinto's words slipped glibly from his tongue, but Phillopolis was
+unimpressed.
+
+"I know when I've had enough," he said. "I've got my passport and I'm
+clearing out at the end of this week."
+
+"Does the colonel know this?"
+
+The Greek raised his shoulders indifferently.
+
+"I don't know whether he does or whether he doesn't," he said. "Anyway,
+Boundary and I are only remotely connected in business, and my
+movements are no affair of his."
+
+He looked curiously at the other.
+
+"I wonder that a man like you, who is in the heart of things, stays on
+when the net is drawing round the old man."
+
+"Loyalty is a vice with me," said Pinto virtuously. "Besides, there's no
+reason to bolt--as yet."
+
+"I'm going whilst I'm safe," said Phillopolis, sipping his champagne.
+"At present the police have nothing against me and I'm going to take
+good care they have nothing. That's where I've the advantage of people
+like you."
+
+Pinto smiled.
+
+"They've nothing on me," he said easily. "I have an absolutely clean
+record."
+
+It disturbed him, however, to discover that even so minor a member of
+the gang as Phillopolis was preparing to desert what he evidently
+regarded as a sinking ship. More than this, it confirmed him in the
+wisdom of his own precautions, and he was rather glad that he had taken
+it into his head to visit Phillopolis on that night.
+
+"When do you leave?" he asked.
+
+"The day after to-morrow," said Phillopolis. "I think I'll go down into
+Italy for a year. I've made enough money now to live without worrying
+about work, and I mean to enjoy myself."
+
+Pinto looked at the man with interest. Here, at any rate, was one
+without a conscience. The knowledge that he had accumulated his fortune
+through the miseries of innocent girls shipped to foreign dance halls
+did not weigh greatly upon his mind.
+
+"Lucky you!" said Pinto, as they walked out of the club together. "Where
+do you live, by the way?"
+
+"In Somers Street, Soho. It is just round the corner," said Phillopolis.
+"Will you walk there with me?"
+
+Pinto hesitated.
+
+"Yes, I will," he said.
+
+He wanted to see the sort of establishment which Phillopolis
+maintained. They chatted together till they came to the street, and then
+Phillopolis stopped.
+
+"Do you mind if I go ahead?" he said. "I have a--friend there who might
+be worried by your coming."
+
+Pinto smiled to himself.
+
+"Certainly," he said. "I'll wait on the opposite side of the road until
+you are ready."
+
+The man lived above a big furniture shop, and admission was gained by a
+side door. Pinto watched him pass through the portals and heard the door
+close. He was a long time gone, and evidently his "friend" was
+unprepared to receive visitors at that hour, or else Phillopolis himself
+had some reason for postponing the invitation.
+
+The reason for the delay was explained in a sensational manner. Suddenly
+the door opened and a man came out. He was followed by two others and
+between them was Phillopolis, and the street-lamp shone upon the steel
+handcuffs on his wrists. Pinto drew back into a doorway and watched.
+Phillopolis was talking--it would perhaps be more accurate to say that
+he was raving at the top of his voice, cursing and sobbing in a frenzy.
+
+"You planted them--it is a plant!" he yelled. "You devils!"
+
+"Are you coming quietly?" said a voice. "Or are you going to make
+trouble? Take him, Dempsey!"
+
+Phillopolis seemed to have forgotten Pinto's presence, for he went out
+of the street without once calling upon him to testify to his character
+and innocence. Pinto waited till he was gone, and then strolled across
+the road to the detective who stood before the door lighting his pipe.
+
+"Good evening," he said, "has there been some trouble?"
+
+The officer looked at him suspiciously. But Pinto was in evening dress
+and talked like a gentleman, and the policeman thawed.
+
+"Nothing very serious, sir," he said, "except for the man. He's a
+fence."
+
+"A what?" said Pinto with well-feigned innocence.
+
+"A receiver of stolen property. We found his lodgings full of stuff."
+
+"Good Heavens!" gasped Pinto.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, delighted that he had created a sensation. "I
+never saw so much valuable property in one room in my life. There was a
+big burglary in Regent Street last night. A jeweller's shop was cleared
+out of about twenty thousand pounds' worth of necklaces, and we found
+every bit of it here to-night. We've always suspected this man," he went
+on confidentially. "Nobody knew how he got his living, but from
+information we received to-day we were able to catch him red-handed."
+
+"Thank you," said Pinto faintly, and walked slowly home, for now he no
+longer feared to meet the colonel. He had something to tell him,
+something that would inspire even Boundary with apprehension.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE VOICE IN THE ROOM
+
+
+As Silva anticipated, the colonel was up and waiting for him. He was
+playing Patience on his desk and looked up with a scowl as the
+Portuguese entered.
+
+"So you've been skulking, have you, Pinto?" he began, but the other
+interrupted him.
+
+"You can keep all that talk for another time," he said. "They've taken
+Phillopolis!"
+
+The colonel swept his cards aside with a quick, nervous gesture.
+
+"Taken Phillopolis?" he repeated slowly. "On what charge?"
+
+"For being the receiver of stolen property," said the other. "They found
+the proceeds of the Regent Street burglary in his apartments."
+
+The colonel opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, and there was
+silence for two or three minutes.
+
+"I see. They have planted the stuff on him, have they?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Pinto.
+
+"You don't suppose that Phillopolis is a fence, do you?" said the
+colonel scornfully. "Why, it is a business that a man must spend the
+whole of his life at before he can be successful. No, Phillopolis knows
+no more about that burglary or the jewels than you or I. The stuff has
+been planted in his rooms."
+
+"But the police don't do that sort of thing."
+
+"Who said the police did it?" snarled the colonel. "Of course they
+didn't. They haven't the sense. That's Mr. Jack o' Judgment once more,
+and this time, Pinto, he's real dangerous."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" gasped Pinto. "But would he commit a burglary?"
+
+The colonel laughed scornfully.
+
+"Would he commit murder? Would he hang Raoul? Would he shoot you? Don't
+ask such damn-fool questions, Silva! Of course it was Jack o' Judgment.
+I tell you, the night you were in Yorkshire making a mess of that Crotin
+business, Jack o' Judgment came here, to this very room, and told me
+that he would ruin us one by one, and that he would leave me to the
+last. He mentioned us all--you, Crewe, Selby----"
+
+He stopped suddenly and scratched his chin.
+
+"But not Lollie Marsh," he said. "That's queer, he never mentioned
+Lollie Marsh!"
+
+He was deep in thought for a few moments, then he went on:
+
+"So he's worked off Phillopolis, has he? Well, Phillopolis has got to
+take his medicine. I can do nothing for him."
+
+"But surely he can prove----" began Pinto.
+
+"What can he prove?" asked the other. "Can he prove how he earns his
+money? He's been taken with the goods; he hasn't that chance," he
+snapped his fingers. "I'll make a prophecy," he said: "Phillopolis will
+get five years' penal servitude, and nothing in the world can save him
+from that."
+
+"An innocent man!" said Pinto in amazement. "Impossible!"
+
+"But is he innocent?" asked the colonel sourly. "That's the point you've
+got to keep in your mind. He may be innocent of one kind of crookedness,
+and be so mixed up in another that he cannot prove he is innocent of
+either. That's where they've got this fellow. He dare not appeal to the
+people who know him best, because they'd give him away. He can't tell
+the police who are his agents in Greece or Armenia, or they'll find out
+just the kind of agency he was running."
+
+He squatted back in his chair, pulling at his long moustache.
+
+"Phillopolis, Crewe, Pinto, Selby, and then me," said he, speaking to
+himself, "and he never mentioned Lollie Marsh. And Lollie has been the
+decoy duck that has been in every hunt we've had. This wants looking
+into, Pinto."
+
+As he finished speaking there was a little buzz from the corner of the
+room and Pinto looked up startled. The colonel looked up too and a slow
+smile dawned on his face.
+
+"A visitor," he said softly. "Not our old friend Jack o' Judgment,
+surely!"
+
+"What is it?" asked Pinto.
+
+"A little alarm I've had fixed under one of the treads of the stairs,"
+said the other. "I don't like to be taken unawares."
+
+"Perhaps it is Crewe," suggested the other.
+
+"Crewe's gone home an hour ago," said the colonel. "No, this is a
+genuine visitor."
+
+They waited for some time and then there was a knock at the outer door.
+
+"Open it, Pinto," and as the other did not instantly move, "open it,
+damn you! What are you afraid of?"
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," growled the Portuguese and flung out of
+the room.
+
+Yet he hesitated again before he turned the handle of the outer door. He
+flung it open and stepped back. He would have gone farther, but the wall
+was at his back and he could only stand with open mouth staring at the
+visitor. It was Maisie White.
+
+She returned his gaze steadily.
+
+"I want to see Colonel Boundary," she said.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Pinto huskily.
+
+He shut the door and ushered her into the colonel's presence. Boundary's
+eyes narrowed as he saw the girl. He suspected a trap and looked past
+her as though expecting to see an escort behind her.
+
+"This is an unexpected honour, Miss White," he said suavely, and he
+looked meaningly at the clock on the mantelpiece. "We do not usually
+receive visitors so late, and especially charming lady visitors."
+
+She was carrying a thick package, and this she laid on the table.
+
+"I'm sorry it is so late," she said calmly, "but I have been all the
+evening checking my father's accounts. This is yours."
+
+She handed the package to the colonel.
+
+"That parcel contains banknotes to the value of twenty-seven thousand
+three hundred pounds," said the girl quietly; "it represents what
+remains of the money which my father drew from your gang."
+
+"Tainted money, eh?" said the colonel humorously. "I think you're very
+foolish, Miss White. Your father earned this money by legitimate
+business enterprises."
+
+"I know all about them," she said. "I won't ask you to count the notes,
+because it is only a question of getting the money off my own
+conscience, and the amount really doesn't matter."
+
+"So you came here alone to make this act of reparation?" sneered the
+colonel.
+
+"I came here to make this act of reparation," she replied steadily.
+
+"Not alone, eh? Surrounded entirely by police. Mr. Stafford King in the
+offing, waiting outside in a taxi, or probably waiting on the mat," said
+the colonel in the same tone. "Well, well, you're quite safe with us,
+Miss White."
+
+He took up the package and tore off the wrapping, revealing two wads of
+banknotes, and ran his finger along the edges.
+
+"And how are you going to live?" he asked.
+
+"By working," said the girl; "that's a strange way of earning a living,
+don't you think, colonel?"
+
+"You'll never work harder than I have worked," said Colonel Dan Boundary
+good-humouredly. And, looking down at the money: "So that's Solly
+White's share, is it? And I suppose it doesn't include the house he
+bought, or the car?"
+
+"I've sold everything," said the girl quietly; "every piece of property
+he owned has been realised, and that is the proceeds."
+
+With a little nod she was withdrawing, but Pinto barred her way.
+
+"One moment, Miss White," he said, and there was a dangerous glint in
+his eye, "if you choose to come here alone in the middle of the
+night----"
+
+The colonel stepped between them, and he swept the Portuguese backwards.
+Without a word he opened the door.
+
+"Good night, Miss White," he said. "My kind regards to Mr. Stafford
+King, who I suppose is somewhere on the premises, and to all the bright
+lads of the Criminal Intelligence Department who are at this moment
+watching the house."
+
+She smiled, but did not take his proffered hand.
+
+"Good-bye," she said.
+
+The colonel accompanied her to the outer door and switched on all the
+stair lights, as he could from the master-switch near the entrance to
+his flat, and waited until the echo of her footsteps had passed away
+before he came back to the man.
+
+"You're a clever fellow, you are, Pinto," he said quietly; "you have one
+of the brightest minds in the gang."
+
+"If she comes here alone----" began Pinto.
+
+"Alone!" snarled the colonel. "I hinted a dozen times, if I hinted once,
+that she'd come with a young army of police. The first shout she made
+would have been the signal for your arrest and mine. Haven't you had
+your lesson to-night? How long do you think it would take Stafford King
+to trump up a charge against you and put you where the dogs wouldn't
+bite, eh?"
+
+He walked to the window and watched the girl. There was a taxi-cab
+waiting at the entrance, and as he had suspected, a man was standing by
+the door and followed the girl into the cab before it drove away.
+
+"She timed her visit. I suppose she gave herself five minutes. If she'd
+been here any longer, they would have been up for her, make no mistake
+about that, Pinto."
+
+The colonel drew down the blinds with a crash and began pacing the room.
+He stopped at the farther end and looked at the wall.
+
+"Do you know, I've often wondered why Jack o' Judgment damaged that
+wall?" he said. "He's got me guessing, and I've been guessing ever
+since."
+
+"You thought it was a freak?" said Pinto, glad to keep his master off
+the subject of his Huddersfield blunder.
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I shouldn't think it was that," he said. "It was not like Jack o'
+Judgment to do freakish things. He has an object in everything he does."
+
+"Perhaps it was to get you out of the room for the morning and make a
+search for your papers," suggested Pinto.
+
+Again the colonel shook his head.
+
+"He knows me better than that. He knew very well that I would shift
+every document from the room and that there was nothing for his
+bloodhounds to discover." He thought a moment, pulling at his long,
+yellow moustache. "Maybe," he said to himself, "maybe----"
+
+"Maybe what?" asked Pinto.
+
+"The workmen may have been up to some kind of dodge. They might have
+been policemen for all I know." He shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway,
+that's long ago, and if he'd made a discovery, why, I think we should
+have heard about it. Now, Pinto,"--his tone changed--"I'm not going to
+talk to you about Crotin. You've made a proper mess of it, and I ought
+never to have sent you. We have two matters to settle. Crewe wants to
+get out, and I think you're getting ready to bolt."
+
+"Me?" said Pinto with virtuous indignation. "Do you imagine I should
+leave you, colonel, if you were in for a bad time?"
+
+"Do I imagine it?" The colonel laughed. "Don't be a fool. Sit down. When
+did you see Lollie Marsh last?"
+
+Pinto considered.
+
+"I haven't seen her for weeks."
+
+"Neither have I," said the colonel. "Of course she has an excuse for
+staying away. She never comes unless she's sent for. If we've got a mug
+we want to lead down the easy path, why, there's nobody in London who
+can do it like Lollie. And I understand you had some disagreement with
+the young lady over Maisie White?"
+
+"She interfered----" began Pinto.
+
+"And probably saved your life," remarked the colonel meaningly. "No, you
+have no kick against Lollie for that."
+
+He pulled open the drawer of his desk, took out a card and wrote
+rapidly.
+
+"I'll put Snakit on her trail," he said.
+
+"Snakit!" said the other contemptuously.
+
+"He's all right for this kind of work," said the colonel, alluding to
+the little detective whom he had bought over from Maisie White's
+service. "Snakit can trail her. He does nothing for his keep, and Lollie
+doesn't know him, does she?"
+
+"I don't think so," said Pinto absently. "If you believe that Lollie is
+double-crossing you, why don't you----"
+
+"I'll write to you when I want any suggestions as to how to run my
+business," said the colonel unpleasantly. "Where does Lollie live?"
+
+"Tavistock Avenue," said Pinto. "I wish you'd be a little more decent to
+me, colonel. I'm trying to play the game by you."
+
+"And you'll soon get tired of trying," said the colonel. "Don't worry,
+Pinto. I know just how much I can depend upon you and just what your
+loyalty is worth. You'll sell me at the first opportunity, and you'll be
+dead about the same day. I only hope for your sake that the opportunity
+never arises. That's that," he said, as he finished the card and put it
+on one side. "Now what is the next thing?" He looked up at the ceiling
+for inspiration. "Crewe," he said, "Crewe is getting out of hand too. I
+put him on a job to trace 'Snow' Gregory's past. I haven't seen or heard
+of him for two days, either."
+
+Somebody laughed. It was a queer, little far-away laugh, but Pinto
+recognised it and his hair almost stood on end. He looked across at the
+colonel with ashen face, and then swung round apprehensively toward the
+door.
+
+"Did you hear that?" he whispered.
+
+"I heard it--thank the lord!" said the colonel, and fetched a long sigh.
+
+Pinto gazed at him in amazement.
+
+"Why," he said in a low voice, "that was Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+"I know," said the colonel nodding; "but I still thank the lord!"
+
+He got up slowly and walked round the room, opened the door that led to
+his bedroom, and put on the light. The room was empty, and the only
+cupboard which might have concealed an intruder was wide open. He came
+back, walked into the entrance hall, and opened the door softly. The
+landing was empty too. He returned after fastening the door and slipping
+the bolts--bolts which he had had fixed during the previous week.
+
+"You wonder why I held a thanksgiving service?" said the colonel slowly.
+"Well, I've heard that laugh before, and I thought my brain was
+going--that's all. I'd rather it were Jack o' Judgment in the flesh than
+Jack o' Judgment wandering loose around my hut."
+
+"You heard it before?" said Pinto. "Here?"
+
+"Here in this room," said the colonel. "I thought I was going daft.
+You're the first person who has heard it besides myself." He looked at
+Pinto. "A hell of a prospect, isn't it?" he said gloomily. "Let's talk
+about the weather!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK
+
+
+There was no hope for Phillopolis from the first. The case against him
+was so clear and so damning that the magistrate, before whom the
+preliminary inquiry was heard, had no hesitation in committing him to
+take his trial at the Old Bailey on a charge of receiving, and that at
+the first hearing. Every article which had been stolen from the
+diamondsmiths' company had been recovered in his flat. The police
+experts gave evidence to the effect that he had been a suspected man for
+years, that his method of earning a living had on several occasions been
+the subject of police inquiry. He was known to be, so the evidence ran,
+the associate of criminal characters, and on two occasions his flat had
+been privately raided.
+
+The woman who passed as his wife had nothing good to say of him. It was
+not she who had admitted the police. Indeed, they found her in an upper
+room, locked in. Phillopolis was something of a tyrant, and on the day
+of his arrest he had had a quarrel with the woman, who had threatened to
+expose him to the police for some breach of the law. He had beaten her
+and locked her into an upper bedroom, and this act of tyranny had proved
+his downfall, if it were true, as he swore so vehemently that the
+articles which were found in his room had been planted there.
+
+The colonel was not present, nor were any other members of the gang,
+save little Selby, who had been summoned to the colonel's presence and
+had arrived in the early morning.
+
+"He hasn't a ghost of a chance," reported Selby, who had a lifelong
+acquaintance with criminals of the meaner sort, and had spent no small
+amount of his time in police courts, securing evidence as to the virtue
+of his protégés. "If he doesn't get ten years I'm a Dutchman."
+
+"What does Phillopolis say?"
+
+"He swears that the goods were not in his flat when he went out that
+night," he said, "but if they were planted, the work was done
+thoroughly. The detectives found jewel cases under cushions, hidden in
+cupboards, on the tops of shelves, and one of the best bits of swag--a
+wonderful diamond necklace--was discovered in his boot, at the bottom of
+his trunk."
+
+The conversation took place in the Green Park, which was a favourite
+haunt of the colonel's. He loved to sit on a chair by the side of the
+lake, watching the children sailing their boats and the ducks mothering
+their broods. He was silent. His eyes were bent upon the efforts of a
+small boy to bring a little waterlogged boat to a level keel and
+apparently he had no other interest.
+
+"Have a cigar, Selby," he said at last. "What is the news in your part
+of the world?"
+
+Selby was carefully biting off the end of his gift.
+
+"Nothing much," he said. "We got some letters the other day from Mrs.
+Crombie-Brail. Her son has got into trouble at the Cape. Lew Litchfield
+got them. He was doing a job in Manchester."
+
+Lew Litchfield was a bright young burglar of whom the colonel had heard,
+and he knew the kind of "job" on which Lew was engaged.
+
+"You bought 'em?" he asked.
+
+"I gave a tenner for them," said Selby. "I don't think they're much
+use."
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"That's not the kind of letter that brings in money," he said. "You
+can't bleed a mother because her son got into trouble--at least, not for
+more than a hundred."
+
+"Letters have been scarce lately," said his agent disconsolately; "I
+think people have either given up keeping or writing them."
+
+"Maybe," said the colonel. "Anyway, I didn't bring you down to talk
+about letters. I've work for you."
+
+Selby looked uneasy, and that in itself was a discouraging sign. Usually
+the little crook from the north hailed a job of any kind with
+enthusiasm.
+
+It was an unmistakable proof to the colonel that he was losing grip,
+that the magic of his name and all that it implied in the way of
+protection from punishment, was less than it had been.
+
+"You don't seem very pleased," he said.
+
+Selby forced a smile.
+
+"Well, colonel," he said, "I've a feeling they're after us, and I don't
+want to take any risks."
+
+"You'll take this one," said the colonel. "There's somebody to be put
+away."
+
+The man licked his lips.
+
+"Well, I'm not in it," he said. "I had enough with that Hanson
+business."
+
+"By 'put away' I don't mean murdered or ill-treated in any sense," said
+the colonel, "and besides, it is one of our own people."
+
+But even this assurance did not satisfy the man.
+
+"I don't like it," he said; "they tell me that this Jack o'
+Judgment----"
+
+"Just forget Jack o' Judgment for a minute and think of yourself,"
+snapped the colonel. "You've made your pile, and you find England's
+getting a bit too hot for you, don't you?"
+
+"I do indeed," said the man fervently. "You know, colonel, I was
+thinking that a trip to America wouldn't be a bad idea."
+
+"There are plenty of places to go to without going to America," said the
+colonel. "I tell you that I mean Lollie no harm."
+
+"Lollie?" Selby was surprised, and showed it. "She hasn't----"
+
+"I don't know what she's done yet, but I think it is time she went
+away," said the colonel, "and so far as I can judge, it is time you went
+too, Selby. I don't know whether Lollie is betraying us, and maybe I'm
+doing her an injustice," he went on, "but if I put up to her a
+suggestion that she should leave the country, maybe she'd probably turn
+me down. You know how suspicious these women are. The only idea I can
+think of is to scare her and make her bolt quick and sudden, and I want
+you to provide the means."
+
+Selby was waiting.
+
+"I bought a motor-boat, one of those swift motor-boats that the
+Government used during the war. I have it ready at Twickenham, and you
+can get all your goods on board and go to----"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Anywhere you like," said the colonel, "Holland, Denmark--one place is
+as good as another, and it'll be a good sea-going boat. You see, my idea
+is this. If I think Lollie is negotiating to put us away, I can give her
+a fright which will make her jump at the means of getting out of England
+by the quickest and shortest route. You can go with her and keep her
+under your eye until the trouble blows over."
+
+He saw a look in the man's face and correctly interpreted it.
+
+"I'm not worried about _you_ double-crossing me," he said, "even if you
+are abroad. I've enough evidence against you to bring you back under an
+extradition warrant." He laughed as Selby's face fell. "You see Selby,
+there's nothing in it that you can take exception to. I don't even know
+that Lollie will refuse to go in the ordinary way, but I must make
+preparations."
+
+"It is a reasonable suggestion," said Selby, after considering the
+matter for a few minutes. "I'll do it, colonel."
+
+"You'd better bring a couple of men to London who can handle Lollie if
+she gives any trouble--no, no," said the colonel, raising his hand in
+dignified protest, "there's going to be nothing rough. How can there be?
+You'll be in charge of it all, and it is up to you as to how Lollie is
+treated."
+
+It did not occur to Selby until an hour later to ask the colonel how he
+knew that his hobby was motor-boating, but by that time the colonel had
+gone.
+
+It was true, as Boundary said, that the gang was scared--and badly
+scared. It was equally true that they needed only one jar before it
+became a case of every man for himself. Already even the minor members
+were making their preparations to break away. The red light was burning
+clear before all eyes. But none knew how readily the colonel had
+recognised the signs, and how, in spite of his apparent philosophy and
+his contempt of danger, he, more than any of the others, was preparing
+for the inevitable crash.
+
+Jack o' Judgment, he told himself, was playing his game better than he
+could play it himself. The arrest of Phillopolis had removed one of the
+men who might have been an inconvenient witness against him. White was
+gone, Raoul was gone. He had planned the disappearance of Selby, a most
+dangerous man, and Lollie Marsh, an even more dangerous woman and there
+remained only Pinto and Crewe.
+
+When he had taken leave of his agent, the colonel walked to Westminster
+and boarded a car which carried him along the Embankment to Blackfriars.
+He might have been followed, and probably was, but this possibility did
+not worry him. He walked across Ludgate Circus, up St. Bride Street to
+Hatton Garden, and turned into the office of Myglebergs'. Mr. Mygleberg,
+a very suave and polite gentleman, received him and ushered him into a
+private room. This shrewd Dutchman had no illusions as to the colonel's
+probity, but he had no doubt either that the big man could pay
+handsomely for everything he bought.
+
+"I'm glad you've come, colonel," he said; "I have been expecting you for
+a couple of days. We have just had a wonderful parcel of stones from
+Amsterdam, and I think some of them would suit you."
+
+He disappeared and came back with a tray covered with the most beautiful
+diamonds that had ever left the cutter's hands. The colonel went over
+them slowly, examining them and putting a selected number aside.
+
+"I'll take those," he said, and Mr. Mygleberg laughed.
+
+"They're the best," he chuckled. "Trust you to know a good thing when
+you see it, colonel!"
+
+"What have I to pay for these?"
+
+Mygleberg made a rapid calculation and put the figures before Colonel
+Boundary.
+
+"It is a big price," said the colonel, "but I don't think you have
+overcharged. Besides, I could always sell them again for that much."
+
+Mr. Mygleberg nodded.
+
+"I think you are wise to put your money into stones, colonel," he said;
+"they always go up and never go down in value. You can lose other
+things. They're easy and they're always convertible. I always tell my
+partner that if I ever become a millionaire I shall invest every penny
+in stones."
+
+The colonel paid for the gems from a thick wad of notes he took from his
+hip-pocket. They were, in point of fact, the identical notes which
+Maisie White had handed to him the night previous. He waited whilst the
+jewels were made up into a little oblong package, heavily sealed and
+inscribed with the colonel's name and address, and then, shaking hands
+with Mygleberg and fixing a further appointment, he came out into Hatton
+Garden, whistling a little song and apparently the picture of
+contentment.
+
+He was getting ready for flight too. This, the first of many packages
+which he intended depositing in the private safe of his bank, would go
+with the ever-increasing pile of American gold bonds of high
+denomination which filled that steel repository. For months the colonel
+had been converting his property into paper dollars. They were more
+easily negotiated and less traceable than English banknotes, and they
+were more get-at-able. A big balance in the books of the bank might be
+creditable and, given time, convertible into cash. Then nobody knew but
+himself the amount standing to his credit. He was not at the mercy of
+prying bank clerks or a manager who might be got at by the police. At a
+minute's notice, and without anybody being the wiser, he could demand
+the contents of his safe and walk from the bank premises without a soul
+being aware that he was carrying the bulk of his fortune away.
+
+He took a cab and drove now to the bank premises. Ferguson, the manager,
+received him.
+
+"Good morning, colonel," he said. "I was just writing you a note. You
+know your account is getting very low."
+
+"Is that so?" said the colonel in surprise.
+
+"I thought you wouldn't realise the fact," said Ferguson, "but you've
+been drawing very heavily of late."
+
+"I'll put it right," said the colonel. "It is not overdrawn?" he asked
+jocularly, and Ferguson smiled.
+
+"You've eighty thousand pounds in Account B," he said. "I suppose you
+don't want to touch that?"
+
+Account B was the euphonious name for the fund which was the common
+property of all the leaders of the Boundary Gang.
+
+"Unless you're anxious that I should get penal servitude for
+fraudulently converting the company's funds?" said the colonel in the
+same strain. "No, I'll fix my account some time to-day. In the
+meantime"--he produced a package from his hip-pocket--"I want this to go
+into my safe."
+
+"Certainly," said Ferguson, and struck a bell. A clerk answered the
+call. "Take Colonel Boundary to the vaults. He wants to deposit
+something in his safe," he said, "or would you like me to do it,
+colonel?"
+
+"I'll do it myself," said the colonel.
+
+He followed the clerk down the spiral staircase to the well-lit vault,
+and with the key which the man handed him opened Safe No. 20. It was
+divided into two compartments, that on the left consisting of a deep
+drawer, which he pulled out. It was half filled with American paper
+currency, as he knew--currency neatly parcelled and carefully packed by
+his own hands.
+
+"I often wonder, Colonel Boundary," said the interested clerk, "why you
+don't use the bank safe. When a customer has his own, you know, we are
+not responsible for any of his losses."
+
+"I know that," said the colonel genially. "Still one must take a risk."
+
+He placed the package on the top of the money, pushed back the drawer,
+locked the safe and handed the key to the young man.
+
+"I think the bank takes enough risks without asking them to accept any
+more," he said, "and besides, I like to take a little risk myself
+sometimes."
+
+"So I've heard," said the clerk innocently, and the colonel shot a
+questioning look at the young man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE VOICE AGAIN
+
+
+He left the bank with the sense of having done his duty by himself. He
+had not planned the route by which he was leaving the country, or the
+hour. Much was to happen before he shook the dust of England from his
+feet, and as he had arranged matters he would have plenty of time to
+think things over before he made his departure.
+
+A great deal happened in the next few days to make him believe that the
+necessity for getting away was not very urgent. He met Stafford King in
+the Park one morning, and Stafford had been unusually communicative and
+friendly. Then the whispering voices in the flat had temporarily ceased,
+and Jack o' Judgment had given him no sign of his existence. It was five
+days after he had made his deposit in the bank that the first shock came
+to him. He found Snakit waiting on returning from a matinée, and the
+little detective was so important and mysterious that the colonel knew
+something had been discovered.
+
+"Well," he asked, closing the door, "what have you found?"
+
+"She is in communication with the police," said Snakit, "that's what
+I've found."
+
+"Lollie?"
+
+"Miss Marsh is the lady. In communication with the police," said the
+other impressively.
+
+"Now just tell me what you mean," said the colonel. "Do you mean she's
+on speaking terms with the policeman on point duty at Piccadilly
+Circus?"
+
+"I mean, sir," said Snakit with dignity, "that she's in the habit of
+meeting Mr. Stafford King, who is a well-known man at Scotland Yard----"
+
+"He's well-known here too," interrupted the colonel. "Where does she
+meet him?"
+
+"In all sorts of queer places--that's the suspicious part of it," said
+Snakit, who had joyously entered into the work which had been given to
+him, without realising its unlawful character.
+
+He had accepted without question the colonel's story that he was the
+victim of police persecution, and as this was the first news of any
+importance he had been able to bring to his employer, he was naturally
+inclined to make the most of it.
+
+"He has met her twice at eleven o clock at night, at the bottom of St.
+James's Street, and walked up with her, very deeply engaged in
+conversation," said Snakit, consulting his note-book. "He met her once
+at the foot of the steps leading down from Waterloo Place, and they were
+together for an hour. This morning," he went on, speaking slowly, and
+evidently this was his tit-bit, "this morning Mr. Stafford King went to
+the Cunard office in Cockspur Street and booked cabin seventeen on the
+shelter deck of the _Lapland_ for New York."
+
+"In what name?"
+
+"In the name of Miss Isabel Trenton."
+
+The colonel nodded. It was a name that Lollie had used before, and the
+story rang true.
+
+"When does the _Lapland_ sail?" he asked, and again the detective
+consulted his book.
+
+"Next Saturday," he said, "from Liverpool."
+
+"Very good," said the colonel; "thank you, Snakit, you've done very
+well. See if you can pick them up to-night, or, stay----" He thought a
+moment. "No, don't shadow her to-night. I'll have a talk with her."
+
+The news disturbed him. Lollie was getting ready to bolt--that was
+unimportant. But she was bolting with the assistance of the police, who
+had booked her passage. That meant that they had got as much out of her
+as she had to tell, and were clearing her out of the country before the
+blow fell. That was not only important, but it was grave. Either the
+police were going to strike at once or----
+
+An idea struck him, and he telephoned through to Pinto. Another got him
+into touch with Crewe, and these three were in consultation when Selby
+came that afternoon.
+
+He arrived at an unpropitious moment, for the colonel was in a cold
+fury, and the object of his wrath was Crewe, who sat with folded arms
+and tense face, looking down at the table.
+
+"That gentleman business is played out, Crewe," stormed the colonel,
+"and I'm just about tired of hearing what you won't do and what you will
+do! If Lollie's put us away, she has got to go through it."
+
+"What use will it be, supposing she has?" said the other doggedly. "I
+don't for a moment believe she has done anything of the sort. But
+suppose she has given you away, what are you going to do? Add to the
+indictment? She's sick of the game and wants to get away somewhere where
+she can live a decent life."
+
+"Oh, you've been discussing it with her, have you?" said the colonel
+with dangerous calm. "And maybe you also are sick of the game and want
+to get away and live a decent life? I remember hearing you say something
+of that sort a few weeks ago."
+
+"We're all sick of it," said Crewe. "Look at Pinto. Do you think he's
+keen?"
+
+Pinto started.
+
+"Why do you bring me into it?" he complained. "I'm standing by the
+colonel to the last. And I agree with him that we ought to know what
+Lollie told the police."
+
+"She's told them nothing," said Crewe. "She isn't that kind of girl.
+Besides, what does she know?"
+
+"She knows a lot," said the colonel. "I'll put a supposition to you.
+Suppose she's Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Crewe looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"That's an absurd suggestion," he said. "How could she be?"
+
+"I'll tell you how she could be," said the colonel; "she has never been
+with us when Jack made his appearance--you'll grant that?"
+
+Crewe thought for a moment.
+
+"There you're wrong," he said; "she was with us the night Jack first
+came."
+
+The colonel was taken aback. A theory which he had formed was destroyed
+by that recollection.
+
+"So she was. That's right, she was there! I remember he insulted her.
+But I'm certain she's seen him since; I am certain she's been working
+hand-in-glove with him since. Who was the Jack who went to Yorkshire?"
+
+It was Crewe's turn to be nonplussed.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment must be working with a pal," the colonel went on
+triumphantly, "and I suggest that that pal is Lollie Marsh."
+
+"That's a lie!"
+
+The colonel looked up quickly.
+
+"Who said that?" he demanded harshly.
+
+Crewe shook his head.
+
+"It was not me," he said.
+
+"Was it you, Selby?"
+
+"Me?" said the astonished Selby. "No, I thought it was you who said it.
+It came from your end of the table, colonel."
+
+The colonel got up.
+
+"There's something wrong here," he said.
+
+"I've got it!" It was Pinto who spoke. "Did you notice anything peculiar
+about the voice, colonel?" he asked eagerly. "I did, the first time I
+heard it, and I've been wondering how I'd heard it before, and just now
+it has struck me. It was a gramophone voice!"
+
+"A gramophone voice?"
+
+"It sounded like a voice on a speaking machine."
+
+The colonel nodded slowly.
+
+"Now you come to mention it, I think you're right," he said; "it sounded
+familiar to me. Of course, it was a gramophone voice."
+
+They made a careful search of the apartment, taking down every book
+from the big shelf in one of the alcoves, and turning the leaves to
+discover the hidden machine. With this idea to guide them the search was
+more complete than it had been before. Every drawer in the desk was
+taken out, every scrap of furniture was minutely examined, even the
+massive legs of the colonel's writing table were tapped.
+
+Crewe took no part in the search, but watched it with a slight smile of
+amusement, and the colonel turning, detected this.
+
+"What the devil are you grinning about?" he said. "Why aren't you
+helping, Crewe? You've got an interest in this business."
+
+"Not such an interest that I'm going to fool around looking for a
+gramophone voice that goes off at appropriate intervals," said Crewe.
+"Doesn't it strike you that it would have to be a pretty smart
+gramophone to chip in at the right moment?"
+
+The colonel pondered this a minute and then went back to his place at
+the table, mopping his forehead.
+
+"Pinto's right," he said; "the fellow has smuggled some fool machine
+into the flat, and we shall discover it sooner or later. I don't know
+how he controls it, or who controls it"--he looked suspiciously at
+Crewe--"or who controls it," he repeated.
+
+"You said that before," said Crewe coolly.
+
+The colonel had something on his lips to say, but swallowed it.
+
+"We'll meet here to-night at eleven. I told Lollie to come. Now, Crewe,"
+he said in a more gentle tone, "you're in this up to the neck, and
+you've got to go through with it. After all, your life and liberty are
+at stake as much as ours. If Lollie's played us false, we've got to
+be----"
+
+"Lollie has not played you false, colonel," said Crewe. His face was
+very pale, the colonel noticed. "I like that girl, and----"
+
+"So that's it," said the colonel, "a little love romance introduced into
+our sordid commercial lives! Maybe you know what she's been talking to
+Stafford King about?"
+
+Crewe did not immediately reply.
+
+"Do you?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I know she has been trying to get out of the country, to break with the
+gang, but that she has given you or any of us away is a lie. Lollie's
+had a rotten life, and she's just sick of it, that's all. Do you blame
+her?"
+
+"There's no question of blaming her or praising her," said the colonel
+patiently; "the question is whether we condemn her or whether she still
+has our confidence, and that we shall know to-night. You will be
+present, Crewe."
+
+"I shall be present, you may be sure," said Crewe, and there was a look
+on his face which Pinto, for one, did not like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+LOLLIE GOES AWAY
+
+
+It seemed to "Swell" Crewe that the scene was curiously reminiscent of a
+trial in which he had once participated. The colonel, at the end of the
+long table, sat aloof and apparently noncommittal, a veritable judge and
+a merciless judge at that. Pinto sat at his right, Selby on his left,
+and Crewe himself sat half-way between the girl at the farther end of
+the table and Pinto.
+
+Lollie Marsh had no doubt as to why she had been summoned. Her pretty
+face was drawn, the hands which were clasped on the table before her
+were restless, but what Crewe noticed more particularly was a certain
+untidiness both in her costume and in her usually well-coiffured hair.
+As though wearying of the part she had been playing, she was already
+discarding her makeup.
+
+"I hate to bring you here, Lollie, and ask you these questions," the
+colonel was saying, "but we are all in some danger and we want to know
+just where we stand with you."
+
+She made no reply.
+
+"The charge against you is that you've been in communication with the
+police. Is that true?"
+
+"If you mean that I've been in communication with Mr. Stafford King,
+that's true," she said. "You told me to get into touch with him. Haven't
+I been for weeks----"
+
+"That's a pretty good excuse," interrupted the colonel, "but it won't
+work, Lollie. You don't touch with a man like Stafford King and meet him
+secretly in St. James's Street. And you don't touch by seeing him for
+half an hour at a time, and I haven't heard of you ever getting off
+with a fellow to the extent of his paying for your passage to America."
+
+She started.
+
+"You know the way it is done. You did it before, Lollie," the colonel
+went on. "Now, you've got to be a good girl and tell us how far you've
+gone."
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I'm sick of this life, colonel. I
+want to go straight. I want to get away out of it all and--and--he's
+going to help me."
+
+"A social reformer, eh?" said the colonel. "I didn't know the police
+went in for that sort of stunt. And when did he take this sudden liking
+for you, Lollie?"
+
+"It wasn't a sudden liking at all," she said, "but I think it was
+because--well, because I stopped Pinto in the nursing home--and Miss
+White told him--I think that's all."
+
+The colonel looked down on his pad.
+
+"There's something in that," he said. "It sounds feasible. Didn't he
+question you?" he said, raising his eyes.
+
+"About you?" she said.
+
+"About us," corrected the colonel.
+
+"He asked me nothing about you, nothing about your habits or your
+methods or about any of our funny business. I'll swear it," she said.
+
+"You're not going to believe that, are you, colonel?" demanded Pinto.
+"You can see that she is lying and that she's double-crossing you?"
+
+"She's neither lying nor double-crossing us." It was Crewe who spoke. "I
+don't know what you think about it, colonel, but I am convinced that
+Lollie is speaking the truth."
+
+"You!" Pinto laughed loudly. "I think you're in a state of mind when
+you'd believe anything Lollie said. And anyway you're probably in with
+her."
+
+"You're a liar," said Crewe, so quietly that none suspected the
+surprising thing that would follow, for of a sudden his fist shot out
+and caught Pinto under the jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor.
+
+The colonel was instantly on his feet, his hand outspread.
+
+"That's enough, Crewe," he said harshly. "I'll have none of that!"
+
+Pinto picked himself up, his face livid.
+
+"You'll pay for that," he said breathlessly, but "Swell" Crewe had
+walked to the girl and had laid his hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Lollie," he said, "I'm believing you and I think the colonel is, too.
+If you're going out of the country, why I'll say good luck to you.
+You've made a very wise decision and one which we shall all make--some
+of us perhaps too late."
+
+"Wait a moment," said the colonel. He exchanged a glance with Selby and
+the man slipped quietly from the room. "Before we do any of that
+fare-thee-well stuff, I've got a few words to say to you, Lollie. I'm
+with Crewe. I think it is time you went out of the country, but you're
+going out my way."
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+Her hand clutched "Swell" Crewe's sleeve.
+
+"You're going out my way," said the colonel, "and I swear no harm will
+come to you. You're leaving to-night."
+
+"But how?" she asked, affrighted.
+
+"Selby will tell you. You'll meet him downstairs. Now be a sensible girl
+and do as I tell you. Selby will go with you and see you safe. We made
+all preparations for your departure to-night."
+
+"What's this, colonel?" asked Crewe.
+
+"You're out of it," said the colonel savagely. "I'm running this show
+myself. If you want to join Lollie later, why you can. For the present,
+she's going just where I want her to go and in the way I have planned."
+
+He held out his hand to the girl and she took it.
+
+"Good-bye and good luck, Lollie!" he said.
+
+"But can't I go back to my rooms?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Do as I tell you," he said shortly.
+
+She stood at the door and for a moment her eyes met Crewe's and he moved
+toward her.
+
+"Wait."
+
+The colonel gripped his arm.
+
+"Good-bye, Lollie," and the door shut on the girl.
+
+"Let me go," said Crewe between his teeth. "If she trusts you, I don't.
+This is some trick of that dirty half-breed!"
+
+With a snarl of rage Pinto whipped his ever-ready knife from his hip
+pocket and flung it. It was the colonel who drew Crewe aside, or that
+moment was his last. The knife whizzed past and was buried almost to the
+hilt in the wall. The colonel broke the tense silence which followed.
+
+"Pinto," he said in his silkiest voice, "if you ever want to know what
+it feels like to be a dead man, just repeat that performance, will you?"
+Then his rage burst forth. "By God! I'll shoot either of you if you play
+the fool in front of me again. You dirty little pickpockets that I've
+taken from the gutter! You miserable little sneak-thieves!"
+
+He let loose a flood of abuse that made even Crewe wince.
+
+"Now sit down, both of you," he finished up, out of breath.
+
+He went to the window and looked out. The car which he had hired for the
+occasion was still standing at the door and he distinguished Selby
+talking to the chauffeur.
+
+"Listen you," he said, "and especially you, Crewe. You're too trusting
+with these females. Maybe Lollie's speaking the truth, but it is just as
+likely she's lying. I'm not going to take your corroboration, you know,
+Crewe," he said. "We've got to depend on her word. There's nobody else
+can speak for her, is there?"
+
+Before Crewe could speak the colonel was answered:
+
+"_Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment! He'll speak for Lollie!_"
+
+The colonel looked up with a curse. There was nobody in the room, but
+the voice had been louder than ever he had heard it before. It seemed as
+though it emanated from a disembodied spirit that was floating through
+the air. There was a knock at the outer door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+WHERE THE VOICE LIVED
+
+
+"Open it," said the colonel in a low voice; "open it, Crewe"--he pulled
+open the drawer and took out something--"and if it is Jack o'
+Judgment----"
+
+Crewe opened the door, his heart beating at a furious rate, but it was
+Selby who came into the room and faced the half-levelled gun of the
+colonel.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Boundary quickly. "You fool, I told you not to
+lose sight of her----"
+
+"But when is she coming down?" asked Selby. "I've been waiting there all
+this time and there's a policeman at the corner of the street--I
+wondered whether you had seen him too."
+
+"Not come down?" said the colonel. "She left here five minutes ago!"
+
+"She hasn't come down," he said, "and I've certainly not passed her on
+the stairs. Is there any other way out?"
+
+"No way that she could use," said the colonel shaking his head. "I've
+had new locks put on all the doors." He thought a moment. "If she hasn't
+come down she's gone up."
+
+They went up the stairs together and searched, first Pinto's flat, and
+then the store-rooms and empty apartments on the floor higher up.
+
+"Go down to the door and wait, in case she tries to get out," said the
+colonel.
+
+He returned to the room with the two men and they looked at one another
+in frank astonishment.
+
+"Have you any idea what's happened, Crewe?" asked the colonel
+suspiciously.
+
+"No idea in the world," said Crewe.
+
+"But she went downstairs," said the colonel. "I heard the alarm click."
+
+"The alarm?" questioned Crewe.
+
+"I've got a buzzer under one of the treads of the stairs," said the
+colonel. "It is useful to know when people are coming up."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ten minutes passed and Selby returned to say that the policeman had been
+making inquiries as to whom the car belonged.
+
+"You'd better get it away," said the colonel, "and send away your men."
+
+"They've gone," said the other. "I wasn't taking any risks."
+
+He disappeared to carry out the colonel's instructions, and they heard
+the whine of the moving car.
+
+Boundary unlocked his tantalus and took out a full decanter of whisky.
+Without a word he poured three stiff doses into as many glasses and
+filled them with soda. Each man was thinking, and thinking after his own
+interests.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the colonel at last. "I incline to give this
+business best."
+
+He looked up and saw the dagger which Pinto had thrown. It was still
+embedded in the wall.
+
+"It isn't enough that I should have Jack o' Judgment messing my room
+about," he growled, "but you must do something to the same wall! Pull it
+out and don't let me see it again, Pinto."
+
+The Portuguese smiled sheepishly, walked to the wall and gripped the
+handle. Evidently the point had embedded in a lath, for the knife did
+not move. He pulled again, exerting all his strength and this time
+succeeded in extracting not only the knife but a large portion of the
+plaster and a strip of the wallpaper.
+
+"You fool!" said the colonel angrily, "see what you have done--Jumping
+Moses!"
+
+He walked to the wall and stared, for the dislodgment of plaster and
+paper had revealed three round black discs, set flush with the plaster
+and only separated from the room by the wallpaper, which had been
+stripped.
+
+"Jumping Moses!" said the colonel softly. "Detectaphones!"
+
+He took Pinto's knife from his hand and prised one of the discs loose.
+It was attached to a wire which was embedded in the plaster and this the
+colonel severed with a stroke of the knife.
+
+"This is the business end of a microphone," he said.
+
+"The voice!" gasped Pinto, and the colonel nodded.
+
+"Of course. I was mad not to guess that," he said. "That's how he heard
+and that's how he spoke. Now, we're going to get to the bottom of this."
+
+With a knife he slashed the plaster and exposed three wires that led
+straight downward and apparently through the floor. The colonel rested
+and eyed the debris thoughtfully.
+
+"What is under this flat? Lee's office, isn't it? Of course, Lee's!" he
+said. "I'm the fool!"
+
+He handed the knife back to Pinto, took an electric torch from his
+pocket and led the way from the flat. They passed down the half-darkened
+stairs to the floor beneath, on which was situated the three sets of
+offices. The colonel took a bunch of keys and tried them on the door of
+the surveyor's office. Presently he found one that fitted, and the door
+opened. He fumbled about for the electric switch, found it and flooded
+the room with light. It was a very ordinary clerk's office, with a small
+counter, the flap of which was raised. Inside the flap he saw something
+white on the floor, and, stooping, picked it up. It was a lady's
+handkerchief.
+
+"L," he read. "That sounds like Lollie. Do you know this, Crewe?"
+
+Crewe took the handkerchief and nodded.
+
+"That is Lollie's," he said shortly.
+
+"I thought so. This is where she was when we were looking for her. Here
+with Jack o' Judgment, eh? Let's try the inner office."
+
+The inner office was locked, but he had no difficulty in gaining
+admission. Inside this was a private office which was simply furnished
+and had in one corner what appeared to be a telephone box. He opened the
+glass door and flashed his lamp inside. There was a little desk, a pair
+of receivers fastened to a headpiece, and a small vulcanite transmitter.
+
+"This is where he sat," said the colonel meditatively, pointing to a
+stool, "and this----" he lifted up the earpieces--"is how he heard all
+our very interesting conversations. Go upstairs, Pinto, I want to try
+this transmitter."
+
+He fixed the receiver to his ears and waited, and presently he heard
+distinctly the sound of Pinto closing the door of the room upstairs.
+Then he spoke through the receiver.
+
+"Do you hear me, Pinto?"
+
+"I hear you distinctly," said Pinto's voice.
+
+"Speak a little lower. Carry on a conversation with yourself and let me
+try to hear you."
+
+Pinto obeyed. He recited something from the Orpheum revue, a line or two
+of a song, and the colonel heard distinctly every syllable. He replaced
+the earpieces where he had found them, closed the door of the box and
+that of the outer office, and led the way upstairs. The whisky still
+stood upon the table and he lifted a glass and drained it at a draught.
+
+"If you're a linguist, Crewe, you'll have heard of the phrase: _Sauve
+qui peut_. It means 'Git!' And that's the advice I'm giving and taking.
+To-morrow we'll meet to liquidate the Boundary Gang and split the Gang
+Fund."
+
+He turned his companions out to get what sleep they could. For him there
+was little sleep that night. Before the dawn came, he was at Twickenham,
+examining a big motor-launch that lay in a boat-house. It was the launch
+which should have carried Lollie Marsh and Selby on their river and sea
+journey. It was provisioned and ready for the trip. But first the
+colonel had to take from a locker in the stern of the boat a small black
+box and disconnect the wires from certain terminals before he stopped a
+little clock which ticked noisily. He had tuned his bomb to go off at
+four in the morning, by which time, he calculated, Lollie Marsh and her
+escort would be well out to sea. For the colonel regarded no evidence
+that might be brought against him as unimportant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+CONSCIENCE MONEY
+
+
+The colonel was sleeping peacefully when Pinto rushed into his bedroom
+with the news. He was awake in a second and sat up in bed.
+
+"What!" he said incredulously.
+
+"Selby's pinched," said Pinto, his voice shaking. "My God! It's awful!
+It's dreadful! Colonel, we've got to get away to-day. I tell you they'll
+have us----"
+
+"Just shut up for a minute, will you?" growled the colonel, swinging out
+of bed and searching for his slippers with the detached interest of one
+who was hearing a little gossip from the morning papers. "What is the
+charge against him?"
+
+"Loitering with intention to commit a felony," said Pinto. "They took
+him to the station and searched his bag. He had brought a bag with him
+in preparation for the journey. And what do you think they found?"
+
+"I know what they found," said the colonel; "a complete kit of burglar's
+tools. The fool must have left his bag in the hall and of course Jack o'
+Judgment planted the stuff. It is simple!"
+
+"What can we do?" wailed Pinto. "What can we do?"
+
+"Engage the best lawyer you can. Do it through one of your pals," said
+the colonel. "It will go hard with Selby. He's had a previous
+conviction."
+
+"Do you think he'll split?" asked Pinto.
+
+He looked yellow and haggard and he had much to do to keep his teeth
+from chattering.
+
+"Not for a day or two," said the colonel, "and we shall be away by then.
+Does Crewe know?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+"I haven't any time to run about after that swine," he said impatiently.
+
+"Well, you'd better do a little running now then," said the colonel.
+"We may want his signature for the bank."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to draw what we've got and I advise you to do the same. I
+suppose you haven't made any preparations to get away, have you?"
+
+"No," lied Pinto, remembering with thankfulness that he had received a
+letter that morning from the aviator Cartwright, telling him that the
+machine was in good order and ready to start at any moment. "No, I have
+never thought of getting away, colonel. I've always said I'll stick to
+the colonel----"
+
+"H'm!" said the colonel, and there was no very great faith in Pinto
+revealed in his grunt.
+
+Crewe came along an hour later and seemed the least perturbed of the
+lot.
+
+"Here's the cheque-book," said the colonel, taking it from a drawer.
+"Now the balance we have," he consulted a little waistcoat-pocket
+notebook, "is £81,317. I suggest we draw £80,000, split it three ways
+and part to-night."
+
+"What about your own private account?" asked Pinto.
+
+"That's my business," said the colonel sharply. He filled in the cheque,
+signed his name with a flourish and handed the pen to Crewe.
+
+Crewe put his name beneath, saw that the cheque was made payable to
+bearer, and handed the book to the colonel.
+
+"Here, Pinto." The colonel detached the form and blotted it. "Take a
+taxi-cab, see Ferguson, bring the money straight back here. Or, better
+still, go on to the City to the New York Guaranty and change it into
+American money."
+
+"Do you trust Pinto?" asked Crewe bluntly after the other had gone.
+
+"No," said the colonel, "I don't trust Pinto or you. And if Pinto had
+plenty of time I shouldn't expect to see that money again. But he's got
+to be back here in a couple of hours, and I don't think he can get away
+before. Besides, at the present juncture," he reflected, "he wouldn't
+bolt because he doesn't know how serious the position is."
+
+"Where are you going, colonel?" asked Crewe curiously. "I mean, when you
+get away from here?"
+
+Boundary's broad face creased with smiles.
+
+"What a foolish question to ask," he said. "Timbuctoo, Tangier, America,
+Buenos Ayres, Madrid, China----"
+
+"Which means you're not going to tell, and I don't blame you," said
+Crewe.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the colonel. "If you're a fool you'll tell
+me."
+
+Crewe shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"To gaol, I guess," he said bitterly, and the colonel chuckled.
+
+"Maybe you've answered the question you put to me," he said, "but I'm
+going to make a fight of it. Dan Boundary is too old in the bones and
+hates exercise too much to survive the keen air and the bracing
+employment of Dartmoor--if we ever got there," he said ominously.
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Crewe.
+
+"I mean that, when they've photographed Selby and circulated his
+picture, somebody is certain to recognise him as the man who handed the
+glass of water over the heads of the crowd when Hanson was killed----"
+
+"Was it Selby?" gasped Crewe. "I wasn't in it. I knew nothing about
+it----"
+
+The colonel laughed again.
+
+"Of course you're not in anything," he bantered. "Yes, it was Selby, and
+it is ten chances to one that the usher would recognise him again if he
+saw him. That would mean--well, they don't hang folks at Dartmoor." He
+looked at his watch again. "I expect Pinto will be about an hour and a
+half," he said. "You will excuse me," he added with elaborate politeness
+"I have a lot of work to do."
+
+He cleared the drawers of his writing-table by the simple process of
+pulling them out and emptying their contents upon the top. He went
+through these with remarkable rapidity, throwing the papers one by one
+into the fire, and he was engaged in this occupation when Pinto
+returned.
+
+"Back already?" said the colonel in surprise, and then, after a glance
+at the other's face, he demanded: "What's wrong?"
+
+Pinto was incapable of speech. He just put the cheque down upon the
+table.
+
+"Haven't they cashed it?" asked the colonel with a frown.
+
+"They can't cash it," said Pinto in a hollow voice. "There's no money
+there."
+
+The colonel picked up the cheque.
+
+"So there's no money there to meet it?" he said softly. "And why is
+there no money there to meet it?"
+
+"Because it was drawn out three days ago. I thought----" said Pinto
+incoherently. "I saw Ferguson, and he told me that a cheque for the full
+amount came through from the Bank of England."
+
+"In whose favour was it drawn?"
+
+Pinto cleared his throat.
+
+"In favour of the Chancellor of the Exchequer," he said. "That's why
+Ferguson passed it without question. He said that otherwise he would
+have sent a note to you."
+
+"The Chancellor of the Exchequer!" snarled the colonel. "What does it
+mean?"
+
+"Look here! Ferguson showed it me himself." He took a copy of _The
+Times_ from his pocket and laid it on the table, pointing out the
+paragraph with trembling fingers.
+
+It was in the advertisement column and it was brief:
+
+
+     "The Chancellor of the Exchequer desires to acknowledge the receipt
+     of £81,000 Conscience Money from Colonel D. B."
+
+
+"Conscience money!"
+
+The colonel sat back in his chair and laughed softly. He was genuinely
+amused.
+
+"Of course, we can get this back," he said at last. "We can explain to
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer the trick that has been played upon us,
+but that means delay, and at the moment delay is really dangerous. I
+suppose both you fellows have money of your own? I know Pinto has. How
+do you stand, Crewe?"
+
+"I have a little," said Crewe, "but honestly, I was depending upon my
+share of the Gang Fund."
+
+"What about you, colonel?" asked Pinto meaningly. "If I may suggest it,
+we should pool our money and divide."
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"Don't be silly," he said tersely. "I doubt whether my balance at the
+bank is more than a couple of thousand pounds."
+
+"But what about your private safe?" persisted Pinto. "A-ha! You didn't
+know I knew that, did you? As a matter of fact, Ferguson told me----"
+
+"What the devil does Ferguson mean by discussing my business?" said the
+colonel wrathfully. "What did he tell you?"
+
+"He told me that the package was received and that he had put it with
+the other in your safe."
+
+"Package!" The colonel's voice was quiet, almost inaudible. "The package
+was received! When was the package received?"
+
+"Yesterday," said Pinto. "He said it came along and he put it with the
+other. Now what have you got in----"
+
+But the colonel was walking towards his bedroom with rapid strides.
+Presently he reappeared with his hat and coat on.
+
+"Come with me, Crewe. We'll go down to the bank," he said. "You stay
+here, Pinto, and report anything that happens."
+
+When they were on their way he confided to the other:
+
+"I have a little money put aside," he said, "and I'm willing to finance
+you. You haven't been a bad fellow, Crewe. The only rotten turn you've
+ever done us is introducing that damned fellow, 'Snow' Gregory, and you
+didn't even do that, for I had met him before you brought him from
+Monte--which reminds me. Have you found out anything about him?"
+
+"I have a letter here from Oxford," said Crewe, putting his hand in his
+pocket. "I hadn't opened my letters when Pinto came. You'll find all the
+news there, if there is any news."
+
+He handed the envelope to the other and the colonel transferred it to
+his pocket.
+
+"That'll keep," he said. "What was I talking about? Oh, yes, Gregory.
+The whole of this business has come about through Gregory. Gregory made
+Jack o' Judgment, and Jack o' Judgment has ruined us."
+
+He sprang from the taxi at the door of the bank with an agile step, and
+went straight to the manager's office. Without any preliminary he began:
+
+"What is this package that came for me yesterday, Ferguson?"
+
+The manager looked surprised.
+
+"It was an ordinary package, similar to that which you put in the safe
+the other day. It was sealed and wrapped and had your name on it. I
+rather wondered you hadn't brought it yourself, but it was put into your
+safe in the presence of two clerks."
+
+"I'd like to see it," said the colonel.
+
+Ferguson led the way down the stairs to the vaults and snapped back the
+lock of Safe 20. As he did so Crewe was conscious of a faint, musty
+odour.
+
+"I smell something," said the colonel suspiciously.
+
+He reached his hand into the safe and pulled open the long drawer, and
+as he did so a cloud of sickly-smelling vapour rose from its interior.
+For the first time Crewe heard Boundary groan. He pulled the drawer out
+under the light and looked in. There was nothing but a black mass of
+pulp, out of which glinted and gleamed a dozen pin-points of light.
+
+With a howl of rage the colonel turned the contents upon the stone
+floor of the vault and raked it over with the end of his walking-stick.
+The diamonds were intact, and they at least were something; but the
+greater part of eight hundred thousand dollars was indistinguishable
+from any other kind of paper that had been treated with one of the most
+destructive acids known to chemical science.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM
+
+
+The colonel wiped his burnt and discoloured hands after he had dropped
+the last diamond into a medicine bottle which the bank manager happened
+to have in the room.
+
+"That's something saved from the wreck, at any rate," he said.
+
+He had gone suddenly old, and his mouth trembled, as many a younger
+mouth had trembled in despair that Colonel Boundary might become a rich
+man.
+
+"Something saved from the wreck," he repeated slowly.
+
+The manager's grave eyes were fixed on his.
+
+"I'm not blaming you, Ferguson," said the colonel. "It was a plot to
+ruin me, and it succeeded."
+
+"What do you think happened?" asked the troubled Ferguson.
+
+"The second package was a box filled with a very strong acid," said the
+colonel. "Probably the box was made of soft metal, through which the
+acid would eat in a few hours. It was placed in the safe, and in time
+the corrosive worked through----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and left the room without another word.
+
+"Thirty-five years' work that represents, Crewe," he said as they were
+driving back to the flat; "thirty-five years of risk and thought and
+organisation, and ended in pulp--stinking pulp--that burns your fingers
+when you touch it."
+
+He began to whistle and Crewe noticed with curiosity that he chose the
+"Soldiers' Chorus" from "Faust" for the dirge to his lost fortune.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he said wonderingly. "Jack o' Judgment! Well, he's
+had his judgment all right, and I'm going to have mine. You needn't
+tell Pinto what happened this morning. Leave him guessing. He's got a
+pretty thick bank-roll, and I'll agree to that grand scheme of his for
+sharing out."
+
+The thought seemed to cheer him, and by the time they reached the flat
+he was almost jovial.
+
+"Well, what's the news?" asked Pinto eagerly.
+
+"Fine," said the colonel. "Everything is as it should be."
+
+"Stop rotting," growled the other. "What is the news?"
+
+"The news, my lad," said the colonel, "is that I've decided to agree to
+your unselfish suggestion."
+
+"What's that?" said the unsuspicious Pinto.
+
+"That we should pool and divide."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment's got your money, too!" said Pinto, who cherished no
+illusions about the colonel's generosity.
+
+"How well he knows me!" said Boundary. "Now, come, Pinto, we're all in
+this, sink or swim. I told Crewe going down that I intended dividing;
+didn't I, Crewe?"
+
+"You said something like that," said Crewe cautiously.
+
+"Now we'll pool our money," said the colonel, "and split three ways.
+I'll make a fair proposition. We'll divide it into four and the man who
+puts in the most shall take two shares. Is it a bet?"
+
+"I suppose so," said Pinto reluctantly. "What is the truth about your
+money? Did Jack o' Judgment get it?"
+
+"I hadn't any money," said the colonel blandly. "I've about a thousand
+pounds hidden away in this room; that is all, if Jack hasn't been in."
+
+He unlocked the safe and made an inspection.
+
+"Yes, a little over a thousand, if anything. How much have you, Crewe?"
+
+"Three thousand," said Crewe.
+
+"That makes four thousand. Now what have you got, Pinto?"
+
+"I've about five thousand," said Pinto, trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+The colonel made a little whistling noise through his teeth.
+
+"Bring fifty," he said. "I'm dead serious, Pinto. Bring fifty!"
+
+"But how can I get it?" demanded the other frantically.
+
+"Get it," said the colonel. "It is highly probable that it will be of no
+use to any of us. Let us at least have the illusion of being well off."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In greater leisure than either of her three companions in crime were
+exhibiting, Lollie Marsh was preparing to take her departure to New
+York. She was packing at leisure in her cosy flat on Tavistock Avenue,
+stopping now and again to consider the problem of the superfluous
+article of clothing--a problem which presents itself to all packers.
+
+Between whiles she arrested her labours to think of something else.
+Kneeling down by the side of her trunk, she would give herself up to
+long reveries, which ended in a sigh and the resumption of her packing.
+
+By the commonly accepted standards of civilisation she was a wicked
+woman, but there are degrees of wickedness. She had searched her mind to
+recall all the qualms she had felt in her long association with the
+Boundary Gang, and took an unusual pleasure in her strange recollection.
+She remembered when she had refused to be drawn into the Crotin fraud;
+she recalled her stormy interview with the colonel when she declined to
+take a part in the ruining of young Debenham.
+
+But mostly she was glad that she had never gone any farther to carry out
+the colonel's instructions in regard to Stafford King. Not that she
+would have succeeded, she told herself with a little smile, but she was
+glad she had never seriously tried. Her mind switched to Crewe and
+switched back again. Crewe's was the one face she did not wish to see,
+the one member of the gang that she put aside from the others and
+wilfully veiled. Crewe had always been kind to her, always courteous,
+her champion in all bad times, and yet had never made love to her. She
+wondered what had brought him down to his present level, and why a man
+possessed of education, and who at one time, as she knew, had been an
+officer in a crack regiment, should have fallen so readily under
+Boundary's influence.
+
+She made a little face and went on with her packing. She did not want to
+think about Crewe for obvious reasons. Yet, as he had said---- But he
+hadn't said, she told herself. Very likely he was married, though that
+fact did not greatly trouble the girl. Such men as these have always a
+good as well as a bad past, pleasant as well as bitter memories, and
+possibly he included amongst the former the recollection of a girl whose
+shoelaces Lollie Marsh was not fit to tie.
+
+She took a delight in torturing herself with pictures of her own
+humiliation, though she may have counted it to the good that she was
+capable of feeling humiliated at all. She finished her trunk, squeezed
+in the last article and locked down the lid. She looked at her wrist
+watch--it was half-past nine. Stafford King had not asked to see her,
+and she had the evening free.
+
+She had only spoken the truth when she had told Boundary that the police
+chief had made no inquiries as to the gang. Stafford King knew human
+nature rather well, and he would not make the mistake of questioning
+her. Or perhaps it was because he did not wish to spoil the value of his
+gifts by fixing a price--the price of treachery.
+
+She wondered what the colonel was doing, and Pinto--and Crewe. She
+impatiently stamped her foot. She was indulging in the kind of insanity
+of which hitherto she had shown no symptoms. She looked at her watch
+again and then remembered the Orpheum. It was a favourite house of hers.
+She could always get a free box if there was one vacant, and she had
+spent many of her lonely evenings in that way. She had always declined
+Pinto's offer to share his own, and of late he had got out of the habit
+of inviting her.
+
+She dressed and took a taxi to the Orpheum. The booking office clerk
+knew her, and without asking her desires drew a slip from the ticket
+rack.
+
+"I can give you Box C to-night, Miss Marsh," he said. "That is the one
+above the governor's."
+
+The "governor" was Pinto.
+
+"Have you a good house?"
+
+The youth shook his head.
+
+"We're not having the houses we had when Miss White was here," he said.
+"What's become of her, miss?"
+
+"I don't know," said Lollie shortly.
+
+She had to pass to the back of Pinto's box to reach the little staircase
+which led to the box above. She thought she heard voices, and stopping
+at the door, listened. Perhaps Crewe had come down or the colonel. But
+it was not Crewe's voice she heard. The door was slightly ajar, and the
+man who was talking was evidently on the point of departure, because she
+glimpsed his hand upon the handle and his voice was so distinct that he
+must have been quite near her.
+
+"----three o'clock in the morning. You can't miss the aerodrome. It is a
+mile out of Bromley on the main road and on the right. You will see
+three red lamps burning in a triangle."
+
+The aerodrome! She put her hand to her mouth to suppress an exclamation.
+Pinto was talking, but his voice was a mumble.
+
+"Very good," said the strange voice. "I can carry three or four
+passengers if you like. There's plenty of room--of course, if you're by
+yourself, so much the better. I shall expect you at three o'clock. The
+weather's beautiful."
+
+The door opened and she crouched against the wall so that the opening
+door hid her, and heard Pinto call the man back by name.
+
+"Cartwright!" she repeated. "Cartwright. A mile out of Bromley on the
+main road. Three lamps in a red triangle!"
+
+She was going to slip up the stairs, but the door had closed on
+Cartwright, and making a swift decision she passed the box and came
+again into the vestibule of the theatre. Presently she saw the man
+appear. She guessed it was he by the smile on his face, and when he said
+"Good night" to the attendant at the barrier she recognised his voice.
+She followed him but let him get outside the theatre before she spoke to
+him. Then suddenly she laid her hand on his arm: "Mr. Cartwright!"
+
+He looked round into her smiling face in surprise, taking off his hat.
+
+"That is my name," he said with a smile. "I don't remember----"
+
+"Oh, I'm a friend of Mr. Silva," she said. "I've heard a lot about you."
+
+"Oh, indeed?" said he.
+
+He was a little puzzled because he thought that the projected flight was
+a dead secret; and she guessed his thoughts.
+
+"You won't tell Mr. Silva I told you? He begged me not to repeat it to
+anybody, even to you. But he's leaving to-morrow morning, isn't he?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know an awful lot," she said, and then: "Won't you come and have
+supper with me? I'm starving!"
+
+Cartwright hesitated. He had not expected so charming a diversion, and
+really there was no reason why he should not accept the invitation. He
+was not due at Bromley until early in the morning, and the girl was
+young and pretty and a friend of his employer. It was she who hailed the
+taxi and they drove to a select little restaurant at the back of
+Shaftesbury Avenue.
+
+"You're not seeing Pinto--I mean Mr. Silva--again to-night, are you?"
+she asked.
+
+"No, I'm not seeing him until--well, until I see him," he smiled again.
+
+"Well, I want to tell you something."
+
+He thought she was charmingly embarrassed, and in truth she was, to
+invent the story she had to tell.
+
+"You know why Mr. Silva is leaving England in such a hurry?"
+
+He nodded. She wished she knew too, or had the slightest inkling of the
+yarn which Pinto had spun. And then the man enlightened her.
+
+"Political," he said.
+
+"Exactly; political," she said easily. "But you will realise that it is
+not necessarily he himself who is making this flight."
+
+"I did understand that he was making the flight himself," said the
+aviator in surprise.
+
+"But"--she was desperate now--"has he never told you of the other
+gentleman who was coming, the other political person who really must go
+to Portugal at once?"
+
+"No, he certainly did not," said Cartwright; "he told me distinctly that
+he was going himself."
+
+The girl leaned back in her chair, baffled, but thoughtful.
+
+"Oh, of course, he told you that," she said with a knowing smile. "You
+see, there are some things he is not allowed to tell you. But do not be
+surprised if you have two passengers instead of one."
+
+"I shan't be surprised, I shall be pleased. The machine will carry half
+a dozen," said Cartwright readily, "but I certainly thought----"
+
+"Wait till you see him," said the girl, waving a warning finger with
+mock solemnity.
+
+He found her a cheerful companion through the meal, but there were
+certain intervals of abstraction in her cheerfulness, intervals when she
+was thinking very rapidly and reconstructing the plan which Pinto had
+made. So he was one of the rats who were deserting the sinking ship and
+leaving the Colonel and Crewe to face the music. And Crewe--that was the
+thought uppermost in her mind.
+
+When she parted from the pilot she had only one thought--to warn the
+colonel of Pinto's treachery--and Crewe. And somehow Crewe seemed to
+bulk most importantly at that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+LOLLIE PROPOSES
+
+
+What should she do? It was her sense of loyalty which brought the
+colonel first to her mind. She must warn him. She went into a Tube
+station telephone box and rang through but received no answer. Her quest
+for Crewe had as little result. She drove off to the flat, thinking that
+possibly the telephone might be out of order or that they would have
+returned by the time she reached there, but there was no answer to her
+ring. She went out again into the street in despair and walked slowly
+towards Regent Street. Then she saw two people ahead of her, and
+recognised the swing of the colonel's shoulders. She broke into a run
+and overtook them. The colonel swung round as she uttered his name and
+peered at her.
+
+"Lollie!" he said in surprise, and he looked past her as though seeking
+some police shadow.
+
+"I have something important to tell you," she said. "Let us go up here."
+
+They turned into a deserted side street, and rapidly she told her story.
+
+"So Pinto's getting out, is he?" said the colonel thoughtfully. "Well,
+it is no more than I expected. An aeroplane, too? Well, that's
+enterprising. I thought of something of the sort, but there's nowhere I
+could go, except to America."
+
+He dropped his head on to his chest and was considering something.
+
+"Thank you, Lollie," he said simply. "I'm glad that you didn't go with
+Selby--you would never have got to the Continent alive."
+
+He said this in an ordinary conversational tone, and the girl gasped.
+She did not ask him for an explanation and he offered none. Crewe,
+standing in the background, looked at the man with something like
+bewilderment.
+
+"And now I think you'd better make a real getaway, and not trust to the
+police," said the colonel. "Maybe with the best intentions in the world,
+Stafford King can't save you if I happen to be jugged. And you too,
+Crewe," he turned to the other.
+
+"So Pinto is going, eh?" he bit his nether lip, "and that is why he
+promised to bring the fifty thousand to-morrow morning. Well, somehow I
+don't think Pinto will go," he spoke deliberately. "I don't think Pinto
+will go."
+
+"It is too dangerous for you to stop him----" began Crewe.
+
+"I shall not try to stop him," said the other; "there's somebody besides
+myself on Pinto's track, and that somebody is going to pull him down."
+
+"But why don't you escape, colonel?" she urged. "There is the aeroplane
+waiting at Bromley. We could easily persuade the man that Pinto had sent
+us."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"You take your own advice," he said, "and clear out to-night. Get her
+away, Crewe. Don't worry about the police. You've got twenty-four hours
+in hand. This is Pinto's night," he said between his teeth. "Pinto--the
+dirty hound!"
+
+Slowly they paced the street together in silence. When they came to the
+end the colonel turned.
+
+"I want to shake hands with you, Lollie. I shook hands with you once
+before, intending to send you to a very quick decease. You're carrying
+your money with you, aren't you, Crewe?"
+
+"Yes," said the other.
+
+"Good!" responded the colonel. "Now get away."
+
+He took no other farewell but turned abruptly and left them. Crewe was
+following him, but the girl caught his arm.
+
+"Don't go," she said in a low voice. "Don't you know the colonel
+better?"
+
+"I hate leaving him like this," he said.
+
+"So do I," said the girl quietly. "I've still got some decent feeling
+left. We're all in this together. We're all crooks, as bad as we can
+possibly be, and if he's used us we've been willing tools. What is your
+Christian name?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her in surprise.
+
+"Jack," he said. "What a weird question to ask!"
+
+"Isn't it?" she said with a laugh but a little catch in her throat.
+"Only we're to be comrades and stick to one another, and I hate calling
+you by your surname, so I'm going to call you Jack."
+
+It was his turn to be amused. They walked in the opposite direction to
+that which the colonel had taken.
+
+"You're very quiet," she said after a while.
+
+"Aren't I?" he laughed.
+
+"Have I offended you?" she asked quickly. "Was it wrong to call you
+Jack? Oh, yes, somebody else must have called you Jack."
+
+"No, no, it isn't that," he said, "but I haven't been called by my
+Christian name for years and years," he said wearily, "and somehow it
+seems to span all the bad times and take me back to the--the----"
+
+"The 'Jack' days?" she suggested, and he nodded.
+
+Then after another period of silence.
+
+"This is a queer ending to it all, isn't it?" he said, and her heart
+skipped a beat.
+
+"Ending?" she whispered. "No, no, not ending! It may be the beginning of
+a new life. I haven't got religious," she added quickly, "and I'm not
+getting sentimental. All my past life doesn't come up in front of me as
+it does in the story-books. Only I've just faith that there's something
+better in life than I've ever found."
+
+"I should think there is," said Crewe. "It couldn't be much worse,
+could it?"
+
+"I haven't been bad," she said--"not bad like you probably think I
+have."
+
+"I never thought you were bad," he said. "You were just a victim like
+the rest of them. You were only a kid when you started working for the
+colonel, weren't you?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, there's a chance for you, Lollie. Your passage is booked and all
+that sort of thing--have you sufficient money?"
+
+"I've plenty of money," she said.
+
+"Fine!" He dropped his hand lightly on her shoulder. "There's a big, big
+chance for you, my girl."
+
+"And for you?" she asked.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"There is no chance for me at all," he said simply. "They'll take me and
+they'll take Pinto and last of all they'll take the colonel. It is
+written," he added philosophically. "Why--why, what is the matter?"
+
+She stood stock-still and was holding on to his arm with both hands.
+
+"You mustn't say that, you mustn't say that!" she said brokenly. "It
+isn't finished for you, Jack. There's a chance to get out, and the
+colonel has told you there's a chance. He meant it. He knows much more
+than we do. If you've got murder on your soul, or something worse; if
+you feel that you're altogether so bad that there isn't a chance for
+you, that there's no goodness in your life which can be expanded, why,
+just wait and take what's coming. But for God's sake know your mind, and
+if you feel that in another land, with--with someone who loves you by
+your side----"
+
+Her voice broke.
+
+"Why, Lollie," he said very gently. "You don't mean----?"
+
+"I'm just as shameless as I've ever been" she said, "but I'm not
+proposing to marry you, I'm not asking for anything save your friendship
+and your comradeship. I think people can love one another
+without--marrying and all that sort of thing; but do you--will you----"
+
+"Will I go?" he asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I'll go anywhere with that prospect in sight," and he slipped his arm
+round her shoulders, and, bending, kissed her on the cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+THE FALL OF PINTO
+
+
+Whilst Pinto was putting the finishing touches to his scheme of flight,
+the colonel paced his room, whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus" jerkily. He
+was restless and nervous, and rendered all the more irritable by the
+disappearance of his servant, a minor member of the gang, who had been a
+participant in every act of villainy, and who had been in charge of the
+arrangements for the abduction of Maisie White. Twice in the course of
+the evening he wandered through the hall, opened the outer door, and
+looked out on to the landing.
+
+On the first occasion there was nothing to see, but on the second it was
+only by the narrowest margin of time that he failed to detect a dark
+figure moving noiselessly up the stairs and disappearing on to the
+second landing. The man above heard the door open and close again, and
+stood watching. Then, when no sound reached him, he moved to the door of
+Pinto's flat, opened it, deposited the suit-case which he was carrying
+in the hall, and closed the door softly behind him.
+
+He was within for about a quarter of an hour, then he reappeared, and
+still carrying his suit-case, passed swiftly down the stairs and out
+into the street. The clock struck half-past nine as he disappeared, and
+a quarter of an hour later Stafford King received by special messenger a
+communication which gave him something to think about. He read it
+through twice, then called up the First Commissioner and gave him the
+gist of the communication.
+
+"That's the third time we've had this sort of message," he said.
+
+"The others have proved right," said the Commissioner's voice, "why
+shouldn't this?"
+
+"But it seems incredible," said Stafford in perplexity. "We've been
+watching these people for years and we've never found them with the
+goods."
+
+"I should certainly act on it, King, if I were you," said the
+Commissioner. "Let me know what happens. Of course, you may make a
+mistake, but you must take a chance on that."
+
+Pinto had a lot of business to do at the theatre that night. For a week
+he had not banked the theatre's takings, but had converted them into
+paper money, and now he took from his safe the last penny he could
+carry. It was half-past eleven when he came to his Club, where supper
+had been prepared for him. He paid the bill from notes he had taken from
+the bank that day. Presently the waiter came back.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but the cashier says that this note is a wrong
+'un."
+
+"A wrong 'un?" said Pinto in surprise, and took it in his hand.
+
+There was no doubt whatever that the man was right. It was the most
+obvious forgery he had ever handled.
+
+"Then I've been sold," he smiled; "here's another."
+
+He took the second note and examined it. That also was bad, as he could
+tell at a glance. In the tail pocket of his dress-coat he had the money
+he had taken from the theatre and was able to settle the bill. He was
+worried on the journey back to the flat. He had drawn a hundred pounds
+from the bank that morning in five-pound notes. He remembered putting
+them into his pocket-book and had no occasion to disturb them since. It
+was unlikely that the bank would have given him such obvious forgeries.
+He was stepping from the taxi when the awful truth dawned on him. The
+notes had been planted, the forgeries substituted for the good paper! He
+was putting his hand in his pocket, intending to take out the money and
+push it down the nearest drain, when he was gripped.
+
+"Sorry and all that," said a voice.
+
+He turned round shaking like an aspen.
+
+"Stafford King," he said dully.
+
+"Stafford King it is. I have a warrant for your arrest, Silva, on a
+charge of forging and uttering. Bring him up to his rooms."
+
+The colonel heard the noise on the stairs and came to the door. He
+stood, a silent spectator, watching with unmoved face the procession as
+it passed up to the floor above.
+
+"I want your key," said Stafford, and humbly the Portuguese handed it to
+him.
+
+Stafford opened the door and snapped on the light.
+
+"Bring him in," he said to the detective who held Pinto. "What room is
+this?"
+
+"My dining-room," said Pinto faintly.
+
+Stafford entered the room, turning on the light as he did so.
+
+"Hullo, Pinto," he said.
+
+Pinto could only look.
+
+The table was littered with copper-plates and ink rollers. There was a
+thick pad of counterfeit money on one corner of the table, held down by
+a paper weight; little bottles of acids were scattered about, and near
+the table was a small lever press, so small that a man might carry it in
+a corner of his handbag.
+
+"I think I have got you, Pinto," said Stafford King, and Pinto Silva
+nodded before he fell limply into the arms of his captor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maisie White had gone to bed early and the bell rang three times before
+she awoke. She slipped into a dressing-gown, and, going to the window,
+leaned out. She looked down upon the upturned face of a girl and in
+spite of the distance and the darkness of the night, recognised her. The
+man who stood in the background, however, she could not for the moment
+place. Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to go downstairs.
+
+"Is that Miss White?" asked the girl.
+
+"Yes. It is Lollie Marsh, isn't it? Won't you come in?"
+
+Lollie was hesitant.
+
+"Yes," she said after awhile and they went upstairs together. "I'm very
+sorry I disturbed you, Miss White, but it is a matter which can't very
+well wait. You know that Mr. Stafford King has been kind to me?"
+
+Maisie nodded. She was looking at the girl with interest and was
+surprised to note how pretty she was. She could not forget what Lollie
+Marsh had done for her that dreadful night at the nursing home, and if
+the truth be told, she had inspired the assistance which Stafford had
+been giving the girl.
+
+"Mr. King has booked my passage to America, as you probably know,"
+Lollie went on, "but at the last moment I have been obliged to change my
+plans."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that," said the girl. "I was hoping that you'd get
+away before----"
+
+"I am hoping to get away before," Lollie smiled faintly. "But you see,
+one has to be very quick, because things are moving at such a rapid
+rate. They arrested Pinto to-night--we only just heard of it."
+
+"Arrested Silva?" said the girl in surprise. "That is news to me. What
+is the charge?"
+
+"I didn't quite understand what the charge was. I know he's arrested,"
+said Lollie. "The colonel has advised me to get out as quickly as I can.
+And there's a big chance for me, Miss White. I'm going to be married!"
+
+She blurted the words out, and Maisie stared at her. Somehow she had
+never thought of Lollie Marsh as a person who would get married, and it
+was amazing to see the confusion and shyness in which her confession had
+thrown her.
+
+"I congratulate you with all my heart," said Maisie. "Who is the
+fortunate man?"
+
+"I can't tell you. Yes, I will," said the girl. "I'll trust you. I'm
+marrying Jack Crewe."
+
+"Crewe? I remember. Mr. King spoke about him. But isn't he one of
+the--isn't he a friend of the colonel?"
+
+Lollie nodded.
+
+"Yes, but we're going away to-night. That is why I came to see you."
+
+Maisie White clasped the girl's hands in hers.
+
+"You yourself are facing a great happiness and a beautiful life,"
+pleaded Lollie, her eyes filling with tears. "Can't you feel some
+sympathy with me? For I want love and happiness and security more even
+than you, because you have never known anything of the dreadful
+apprehensions and uncertainties such as I have passed through. And I
+want you to help me in this. I'm not going to ask you to influence Mr.
+King to do anything but his duty. But I want just a chance for Jack."
+
+Maisie shook her head.
+
+"I don't know that I can promise that," she said. "Mr. King has always
+spoken of your friend as one of the least dangerous of the gang. When
+are you leaving?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"To-night? But how?"
+
+"That's a secret."
+
+"But it is a secret I won't reveal," smiled Maisie.
+
+"By aeroplane," said Lollie after a moment's hesitation, and told the
+story of Pinto's preparation.
+
+"You'd better not tell me where you're going," warned Maisie, but she
+didn't stop Lollie in time. "Well, I wish you luck and I'll do my best
+for you." She stopped and kissed the girl.
+
+"There's one warning I want to give you, Miss White," said Lollie as she
+stood in the doorway. "The colonel is a desperate man and I don't think
+somehow that he's coming through this with his life. He's been a good
+friend of mine up to a point and according to his lights, but you've
+been good and Mr. King has been more than good. Beware of the colonel
+now that you have him at bay! That is all!"
+
+Then she was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+A USE FOR OLD FILMS
+
+
+They brought Pinto Silva into the magistrate's court at Bow Street the
+following morning in a condition of collapse. The man was dazed by his
+misfortune, incapable of answering the questions which were put to him,
+or even of instructing the exasperated solicitor who had been with him
+for an hour.
+
+By the solicitor's side was a grey-faced, shrunken man, whose clothes
+did not seem to fit him and who at the end of the proceedings whispered
+something into the lawyer's ear. But the application which was made for
+bail was rejected. The evidence was too damning, and the knowledge that
+the prisoner was not English and that it would be impossible to
+extradite him if he managed to make his escape to certain countries, all
+helped to influence the magistrate in his refusal.
+
+Colonel Boundary did not speak to the man in the dock or as much as look
+at him. He got out of court after the proceedings had terminated, the
+cynosure of every policeman's eye, and drove back to his apartments. He
+had not heard from Crewe or Lollie that morning and he guessed that the
+two had left by aeroplane. So he was alone, he thought, and the very
+knowledge had the effect of stiffening him.
+
+He could go through the remainder of his papers at his leisure, without
+fear of interruption. The lesser members of the gang had been controlled
+by Selby or Crewe, and they would not approach him directly, but he did
+not doubt that there were a score of little men waiting to jump into the
+witness box the moment he was caught, but he had by no means given up
+hope of escaping.
+
+For days he had carried in his pocket the means of disguise, a safety
+razor, scissors and a small bottle of anatto solution to darken his
+face.
+
+Despite his sixty-one years, he was a healthy and virile man, capable of
+undergoing hardships if the necessity arose, but, above all, he had a
+plan and an alternative plan.
+
+He finished the destruction of his correspondence, and then began to
+search his pocket for any stray letters which he might have put away
+absent-mindedly. In making this search he came upon a long, white
+envelope addressed to Crewe, and wondered how it had come into his
+possession. Then he remembered that Crewe had handed him a letter.
+
+He looked at the postmark.
+
+From Oxford.
+
+This was the report of the agents whom Crewe had sent down to discover
+the names of the men who had left Balliol in a certain year. "Snow"
+Gregory, who had been found shot in the streets of London, was a Balliol
+man who had left Oxford in that year. It was certain that it was a
+relative of "Snow" Gregory who was called Jack o' Judgment and who had
+taken upon himself the task of avenging the man's death.
+
+What was "Snow" Gregory's real name? If he could find that, he might
+find Jack o' Judgment.
+
+Slowly, as though with a sense that the great discovery was imminent, he
+tore open the letter and pulled out the three foolscap pages, which,
+with a covering note, constituted the contents. There were two lists of
+names of graduates who had passed out in the year which, if "Snow"
+Gregory spoke the truth in a moment of unusual confidence, was the year
+of his leaving.
+
+The colonel's finger traced the lines one by one and he finished the
+first list without discovering a name which was familiar. He was half
+way through the second list when he stopped and his finger jumped. For
+fully three minutes he sat glaring at the paper open-mouthed. Then:
+
+"Merciful God!" he whispered.
+
+He sat there for the greater part of an hour, his chin on his hand, his
+eyes glued to the name. And all the time his active mind was running
+back through the years, piecing together the evidence which enabled him
+to identify, without any shadow of doubt, Jack o' Judgment.
+
+He rose and went to his bookcase and took down volume after volume. They
+were mostly reference books, and for some time he searched in vain. Then
+he found a Year Book which gave him the data he wanted, and he brought
+it back to the table and scribbled a few notes. These he read through
+and carefully burnt.
+
+He finished his labours with a bright look in his eye and strutted into
+his bedroom ten years younger in appearance than he had been that
+afternoon. He put out all the lights and sat for a little while in the
+shadow of the curtain, watching the street from the open window. At the
+corner of the block a Salvation Army meeting was in progress, and he was
+surprised that he had not noticed the fact, although this practice of
+the Salvationists holding meetings near his flat had before now driven
+him to utter distraction.
+
+Very keenly he scrutinised the street for some sign of a lurking figure,
+and once saw a man walk past under the light of a street lamp and melt
+into the shadow of a doorway on the opposite side of the road. He went
+into his bedroom and brought back a pair of night glasses, and focused
+them upon the figure.
+
+He chuckled and went out of the flat into the street, turning southward.
+
+He did not go far, however, before he stopped and looked back, and his
+patience was rewarded by the sight of a figure crossing the road and
+entering the building he had just left. The colonel gave him time, and
+then retraced his steps. He took off his boots in the vestibule and went
+upstairs quietly. He was half-way up when he heard the soft thud of his
+own door closing, and grinned again. He gave the intruder time to get
+inside before he too inserted his key, and turning it without a sound,
+came into the darkened hall. There was a light in his room, and he heard
+the sound of a drawer being pulled open. Then he gripped the handle,
+and, flinging the door open, stepped in. The man who was looking through
+the desk sprang up in affright.
+
+As Boundary had suspected, it was his former butler, the man who had
+deserted him the day before without a word. He was a big, heavy-jowled
+man of powerful build, and the momentary look of fright melted to a leer
+at the sight of the colonel's face.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Boundary pleasantly, "come back for the pickings?"
+
+"Something like that, guv'nor," said the other. "You don't blame me?"
+
+"I've been pretty good to you, Tom," said the colonel.
+
+"Ugh! I don't know that I've anything to thank you for."
+
+Here was a man who a month before would have cringed at the colonel's
+upraised finger!
+
+"Oh, don't you, Tom?" said Boundary softly. "Come, come, that's not very
+grateful."
+
+"What have I got to be grateful to you for?" demanded the man.
+
+"Grateful that you're alive, Tom," said the colonel, and the servant's
+face went hard.
+
+"None of that, colonel," he snarled; "you can't afford to talk 'fresh'
+with me. I know a great deal more about you than you suppose. You think
+I've got no brains."
+
+"I know you have brains, Tom," said the colonel, "but you can't use
+'em."
+
+"Can't I, eh? I haven't been looking after you for four or five years
+and doing your dirty work, colonel, without picking up a little
+intelligence--and a little information! You'd look comic if they put me
+in the witness box!"
+
+He was gaining courage at the very mildness of the man of whom he once
+stood in terror.
+
+"So you've come for the pickings?" said the colonel, ignoring his
+threat. "Well, help yourself."
+
+He went to the sideboard, poured himself out a little whisky and sat
+down by the window to watch the man search. Tom pulled open another
+drawer and closed it again.
+
+"Now look here, colonel," he said, "I haven't made so much money out of
+this business as you have. Things are pretty bad with me, and I think
+the least you can do is to give me something to remember you by."
+
+The colonel did not answer. Apparently his thoughts were wandering.
+
+"Tom," he said after awhile, "do you remember three months ago I bought
+a lot of old cinema films?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," said the man, surprised at the change of subject.
+"What's that to do with it?"
+
+"There were about ten boxes, weren't there?"
+
+"A dozen, more likely," said the man impatiently. "Now look here,
+colonel----"
+
+"Wait a moment, Tom. I'll discuss your share when you've given me a
+little help. Meeting you here--by the way, I saw you out of the window,
+skulking on the other side of the street--has given me an idea. Where
+did you put those films?"
+
+The man grinned.
+
+"Are you starting a cinema, colonel?"
+
+"Something like that," replied Boundary; "it was the Salvation Army that
+gave me the idea really. Do you hear what an infernal noise that drum
+makes?"
+
+The man made a gesture of impatience.
+
+"What is it you want?" he asked. "If you want the films, I put them in
+my pantry, underneath the silver cupboard. I suppose, now that the
+partnership's broken up, you don't object to me taking the silver? I
+might be starting a little house on my own."
+
+"Certainly, certainly, you can take the silver," said the colonel
+genially. "Bring me the films."
+
+The man was half-way out of the room when he turned round.
+
+"No tricks, mind you," he said, "no doing funny business when my back's
+turned."
+
+"I shall not move from the chair, Tom. You don't seem to trust me."
+
+The ex-valet made two journeys before he deposited a dozen shallow tin
+boxes on the desk.
+
+"There they are," he said, "now tell me what's the game."
+
+"First of all," said the colonel, "were you serious when you suggested
+that you knew something about me that would be worth a lot to the
+police? There goes that drum again, Tom. Do you know what use that drum
+is to me?"
+
+"I don't know," growled the man. "Of course I meant what I said--and
+what's this stuff about the drum?"
+
+"Why, the people in the street can hear nothing when that's going," said
+the colonel softly.
+
+He put his hand in the inside of his coat, as though searching for a
+pocket-book, and so quick was he that the man, leaning over the table,
+did not see the weapon that killed him. Three times the colonel fired
+and the man slid in an inert heap to the ground.
+
+"Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, Tom," said the colonel,
+replacing the weapon; and turning the body over, he took the scarf-pin
+from his own tie and fastened it in that of the dead man. Then he took
+his watch and chain from his pocket and slipped it in the waistcoat of
+the other. He had a signet ring on his little finger and this he
+transferred to the finger of the limp figure.
+
+Then he began opening the boxes of old films and twined their contents
+about the floor, pinning them to the curtains, twining them about the
+legs of the chairs, all the time whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus." He
+found a candle in the butler's pantry and planted it with a steady hand
+in the heap of celluloid coils. This he lighted with great care and went
+out, closing the door softly behind him. Half an hour later, Albemarle
+Place was blocked with fire engines and a dozen hoses were playing in
+vain upon the roaring furnace behind the gutted walls of Colonel Dan
+Boundary's residence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stafford King was an early caller at Doughty Street, and Maisie knew,
+both by the unusual hour of the visit and by the gravity of the visitor,
+that something extraordinary had happened.
+
+"Well, Maisie," he said, "there's the end of the Boundary Gang--the
+colonel is dead."
+
+"Dead?" she said, open-eyed.
+
+"We don't know what happened, but the theory is that he shot himself and
+set light to the house. The body was found in the ruins, and I was able
+to identify some of the jewellery--you remember the police had it when
+he was arrested, and we kept a special note of it for future reference."
+
+She heaved a long sigh.
+
+"That's over, at last; it is the end of a nightmare," she said, "a
+horrible, horrible nightmare. I wonder----"
+
+"What do you wonder?"
+
+"I wonder if this is also the end of Jack o' Judgment?" she asked. "Or
+whether he will continue working to bring to justice those people whom
+the law cannot touch."
+
+"Heaven only knows," said Stafford, "but I'll admit that Jack o'
+Judgment has been a most useful person so far as we are concerned. We
+should never have collected Pinto or Selby, or even the colonel, but for
+Jack. By the way, there is no news of Crewe and the girl."
+
+"I suppose they've reached their destination by now?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, rather," said Stafford; "hours and days ago. Where were they going,
+by the way?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I'm not going to tell you that."
+
+"You needn't," smiled Stafford. "They've gone to Portugal. It was
+Pinto's machine and I don't suppose he had any other idea in the world
+than to get back to his own beloved land. By the way, Pinto looks like
+getting ten years. To satisfy myself in regard to Crewe, I telegraphed
+to an Englishman at Finisterre, who is a good friend of mine and who
+lives in a wild and isolated spot somewhere near the lighthouse, and he
+sent me back a message to the effect that an aeroplane passed over
+Finisterre yesterday afternoon soon after lunch time. That must be
+friend Lollie."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Do you know, I hope they get away. Is that rather dreadful of me?" she
+said.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, I don't think so. I believe the chief shares your hope. He has
+queer views on things, and they irritate me sometimes. For example, he
+doesn't think that the colonel is dead."
+
+"But I thought you had found the body?"
+
+"He gets over that by saying that it isn't the body," said Stafford with
+a little laugh of annoyance. "It rather worries you after you have
+decided that you've rounded up the gang. I still believe that it is the
+colonel."
+
+She thought a moment.
+
+"I am inclined to agree with Sir Stanley," said she. "It isn't the sort
+of thing that the colonel would do. Men like Colonel Boundary are never
+without hope."
+
+Stafford scratched his head.
+
+"Well, if it isn't the colonel, he's gone; and please the pigs, we'll
+never see him again! There is only the question of rounding up the
+little people of the gang, and that won't be much trouble."
+
+She put both her hands on his shoulders and looked at him smilingly.
+
+"You're an optimist, dear," she said.
+
+"Who wouldn't be?" he replied cheerfully. "You said that when the gang
+was wound up we would drop our sad and lonely lives apart and form a
+little gang of our own."
+
+She laughed and kissed him, and he went back to his office to find that
+his chief had already arrived and had asked for him. Sir Stanley was
+reading the morning paper when Stafford came into his room, and his
+first words brought consternation to the younger man.
+
+"Stafford," he said, "this is not the body of the colonel. I've just
+been to see it and I'm certain. Now, you've got to send a call out to
+all stations throughout the country, particularly the south of England,
+to look for a man, possibly clean-shaven, certainly without moustaches,
+who will be disguised as a tramp."
+
+"Why a tramp, sir?" asked Stafford with an heroic attempt to preserve an
+open mind on a subject where he had reached a definite decision.
+
+"Fifteen years ago," replied Sir Stanley, "when the colonel did most of
+his own dirty work, it was his favourite disguise. Search the casual
+wards, the common lodging-houses and the prisons. It is just likely that
+the colonel will commit a small offence, with the object of getting
+himself three months in gaol--there's no hiding-place like gaol, you
+know, Stafford. The real danger is that he may not actually tramp or
+assume the guise of the real low-down loafer. He may have the sense to
+become a poor but honest workman, travelling third-class from town to
+town in search of work. Then he will present the greatest difficulty."
+He saw the look of doubt on the young man's face and laughed.
+
+"You think he's dead, don't you?" he said.
+
+"I'm perfectly sure he is, sir," replied Stafford frankly.
+
+"An optimist to the last," smiled Sir Stanley and dismissed him with a
+nod.
+
+Later he was to come to Stafford's little bureau and tell him things
+which he did not know before. Then for the first time Stafford King
+discovered how closely his lackadaisical chief had followed the
+developments of the past few months. He learnt for the first time of the
+big part which Jack o' Judgment had played in the detection of the gang.
+
+"He had an office under the colonel's flat," said Sir Stanley.
+"Apparently it was bought with no other object than to provide our
+friend with an opportunity of spying on the colonel. He discoloured the
+wall, brought in his own workmen and in the colonel's absence--he was
+driven from the occupation of the room by the smell--he installed
+microphones. With the aid of these he was able to listen to all the
+conversation downstairs and sometimes to chime in. It was Jack o'
+Judgment who--well, perhaps I'd better not tell you that, because
+officially, I am not supposed to know it. At any rate, Stafford," he
+said more seriously, "we have seen the smashing of one of the most
+iniquitous, villainous gangs that ever existed. God knows how many
+broken hearts there are in England to-day, how many poor souls who have
+been brought to a suicide's grave through the machinations of Colonel
+Boundary and his tools. I do not think there has been a more immoral
+force in existence in our time, and I hope we shall never see its like
+again. You sent out the message?" he asked at parting.
+
+"Yes, sir. I warned all stations and all chief constables."
+
+"Good!" said Sir Stanley, and his last words were: "Don't
+forget--Boundary is not dead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED
+
+
+A stoutish, grey-haired man descended from a third-class carriage at
+Chatham Station and inquired of a porter the way to the dockyard. He
+carried a lot of carpenter's tools in a straw bag and smoked a short
+clay pipe. The porter looked at the man with his white, stubby beard
+critically.
+
+"Trying to get a job, mate?" he asked.
+
+"Why, yes," said the man.
+
+"How old might you be?" demanded the porter.
+
+"Sixty-four," said the other, and the porter shook his head.
+
+"You won't get work easy. They're not very keen on us old 'uns," he
+said. "Why don't you try at Markham's, the builders in the High Street?
+They're short of men. I saw a notice outside their yard only this
+morning."
+
+The workman thanked the porter, shouldered his basket and tramped down
+the High Street. He was respectably dressed, and policemen on the
+look-out for suspicious tramps did not give him a second glance. He
+spent the greater part of the day walking from yard to yard, everywhere
+receiving the same answer. Late in the afternoon he had better luck. A
+small firm of ship repairers were in want of a jobbing carpenter and put
+him to work at once.
+
+It was many years since Colonel Boundary had wielded a saw, but he made
+a good showing. After two hours' work, however, his back was aching and
+his hands were sore. He was glad when the yard bell announced the hour
+for knocking off. He had yet to find lodgings, but this did not worry
+him. He was careful to avoid the cheaper kind of lodging-house, and went
+to one which catered for the artisan, where he could get a room of his
+own and a clean bed. He paid a deposit, washed himself and left his
+tools, then went out in search of some refreshment.
+
+At seven o'clock the next morning he was back at the yard. He thought
+several times during the day that he would have to throw the work up.
+His back ached furiously, his arms were like lead. But he persevered,
+and again another day drew to a close. By the third day he had got his
+muscles into play and found the work easy. He was asked by the foreman
+if he would care to go into the country to work at a house that the head
+of the firm was building, but he declined. He wanted to remain in the
+town where there were crowds. At the end of the week came his great
+chance. He had been sent down to the docks to do some repairs on a small
+steamer and had pleased the skipper, who was himself an elderly man, by
+the ability he had shown.
+
+"You're worth twice as much as some of these darned young 'uns,"
+grumbled the old man. "Are you married?"
+
+"No," said the other.
+
+"Got any kids?"
+
+Boundary shook his head.
+
+"Why don't you sign on with me?" asked the skipper. "I want a carpenter
+bad."
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Boundary, breathing more quickly.
+
+"We're going to Valparaiso first, then we're going to work down the
+coast, round the Horn to San Francisco and maybe we'll get a cargo
+across to China."
+
+"I'll think it over," said the colonel.
+
+That night he called on the captain and told him that he had made up his
+mind to go.
+
+"Good!" said the skipper, "but you'll have to sign on to-night. I'm
+leaving to-morrow by the first tide."
+
+The colonel nodded, not daring to speak. Here was luck, the greatest in
+the world. Nobody would suspect a carpenter, taken from a local firm and
+shipped with the captain's goodwill. At seven o'clock the next morning
+he was standing on the deck of the _Arabelle Sands_, watching the low
+coast-line slipping past. The ship was to make one call at Falmouth and
+two days later she reached that port. Boundary went ashore to buy some
+wood and a few tools that he found he needed, and pulled back to the
+ship in the afternoon. In the evening he accompanied the captain ashore.
+
+"We shan't leave till to-morrow at twelve," said the captain. "You might
+as well spend a night on solid earth whilst you can. It will be a long
+time before you smell dirt again."
+
+The captain's idea of a pleasant evening was to sit in the bar-parlour
+of the Sun Inn and drink interminable hot rums. He had fixed up a room
+for himself at the inn and offered Boundary a share, but the colonel
+preferred to sleep alone. He secured lodgings in the town, and making an
+excuse to the captain returned to his room early. He had purchased all
+the newspapers he could find and he wanted to study them quietly. It was
+with unusual relish that he read the account of an inquest on himself.
+There was no breath of suspicion that he was not dead.
+
+"Old Dan Boundary has tricked them all. Clever old Dan Boundary!"
+
+He chuckled at the thought. He had deceived all those clever men at
+Scotland Yard--Sir Stanley Belcom, Stafford King, Jack o' Judgment! Yes,
+he had deceived Jack o' Judgment and that seemed the least believable
+part of the affair. All the rest of the gang were captured or fugitives.
+He wondered whether Lollie Marsh and Crewe had reached Portugal and what
+they were doing there and how long their money would last and how they
+would earn more. He had his own money well secured. He had managed to
+get together quite a respectable sum, for there were other banks than
+the Victoria and City--odd accounts in assumed names which he had drawn
+upon on the very day of his supposed death.
+
+There was a tap at the door.
+
+"Come in," said Boundary, thinking it was the landlady.
+
+He was in the middle of the room as he spoke, and he went back step by
+step as the visitor entered. His tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,
+his eyes were starting out of his head.
+
+"You! You!" he croaked.
+
+"Little Jack o' Judgment," said the mask mockingly. "Poor old Jack! Come
+to take farewell of the colonel before he goes to foreign parts!"
+
+"Stop!" cried Boundary hoarsely. "I know you, damn you! I know you!"
+
+He pulled back the curtains and glared out of the window. There was no
+need to ask any further questions. The house was surrounded. He swung
+round again at his tormentor and faced the white mask in a blind fury of
+rage.
+
+"You're clever, aren't you?" he said. "Cleverer than all the police! But
+you weren't clever enough to save your son from death!"
+
+The masked figure reeled back.
+
+"Ah, that's got you! Little Jack o' Judgment!" mocked the colonel.
+"That's got you where it hurts you most, hasn't it? Your only son, too!
+And he went to the devil all the faster because of me--me--me!" He
+struck his breast with his clenched fist. "You can't bring him back to
+life, can you? That's one I've got against you."
+
+"No," said Jack o' Judgment in a low voice. "I cannot bring him back to
+life, but I can destroy the man who destroyed him, who blighted his
+young life, who taught him vicious practices, who sapped his vitality
+with drugs----"
+
+"That's a lie!" said the colonel. "Crewe picked him up at Monte Carlo,
+when he was on his beam-ends."
+
+"Who sent him to Monte Carlo?" asked the other. "Who was the gambler who
+brought him down, and received the wreck he had made with the pretence
+that he had never met him before? It was you, Boundary?"
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"I was a fool to deny it. I pretended to Crewe that I hadn't met him
+before. Yes, it was I, and I glory in it. You think you're going to
+pinch me, now, and put me where I belong--on the scaffold maybe. But you
+can never wipe that memory out of your mind, that you had a son who died
+in the gutter, that you're a childless old man who has no son to follow
+you!"
+
+"I can't wipe that out!" said Jack o' Judgment. "O, God! I can't wipe
+that out!"
+
+He raised his hand to his masked face as though to hide the picture
+which Boundary conjured up.
+
+"But I can wipe you out," he said fiercely, "and I've given my life, my
+career, my reputation, all that I hold dear to get you! I've smashed
+your schemes, I've ruined you, even if I've ruined myself. They're
+waiting for you downstairs, Boundary. I told them to be here at this
+very minute. Stafford King----"
+
+"You'll never see me taken," said Boundary.
+
+Two shots rang out together, and the colonel sprawled back over the
+bed--dead.
+
+Propped against the wall was Jack o' Judgment, and the hand that gripped
+his breast dripped red. They heard the shots outside and Stafford King
+was the first to enter the room. One glance at the colonel was
+sufficient, and then he turned to the figure who had slipped to the
+floor and was sitting with his back propped against the wall.
+
+"Good God!" said Stafford. "Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+"Poor old Jack!" said the mocking voice.
+
+Stafford's arm was about his shoulder, and he laid the head gently back
+upon his bent knee. He lifted the mask gently and the light of the oil
+lamp which swung from the ceiling fell upon the white face.
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom! Sir Stanley!" he softly whispered.
+
+Sir Stanley turned his head and opened his eyes. The old look of
+good-humour shone.
+
+"Poor old Jack o' Judgment!" he mimicked. "This is going to be a
+first-class scandal, Stafford. For the sake of the service you ought to
+hush it up."
+
+"But nobody need know, sir," said Stafford. "You can explain to the
+Home Secretary----"
+
+Sir Stanley shook his head.
+
+"I'm going to see a greater Home Secretary than ever lived in
+Whitehall," he said slowly. "I'm finished, Stafford. Strip this mummery
+from me, if you can."
+
+With shaking hands Stafford King tore off the black cloak and flung it
+under the bed.
+
+"Now," said Sir Stanley weakly, "you can introduce me to the provincial
+police as the head of our department and you can keep my secret,
+Stafford--if you will."
+
+Stafford laid his hand upon Sir Stanley's.
+
+"I told my solicitor," Sir Stanley spoke with difficulty, "to give you a
+letter in case--in case anything happened. I know I haven't played the
+game by the department. I ought to have resigned years ago when I found
+what had happened to my poor boy. I was Chief of Police in one of the
+provinces of India at the time, but they wouldn't let me go. I came to
+Scotland Yard and was promoted--no, I haven't played the game with the
+department. And yet perhaps I have."
+
+He did not speak for some time.
+
+His breathing was growing fainter and fainter, and when Stafford asked
+him, he said he was in no pain.
+
+"I had to deceive you," he said after awhile. "I had to pretend that
+Jack o' Judgment called on me too. That was to take suspicion from
+your--Miss White," he smiled. "No, I haven't played the game. I stood
+for the law, and yet--I broke that gang, which the law could not touch.
+Yes, I broke them! I broke them!" he whispered. "If Boundary hadn't
+known me I should have been gone before you came and resigned
+to-morrow," he said, "but he must have discovered the boy's name. I
+wonder he hadn't tried before. I smashed them, didn't I, Stafford? It
+cost me thousands. I have committed almost every kind of crime--I
+burgled the diamondsmiths', but you must give me your word you will
+never tell. Phillopolis must suffer. They must all be punished."
+
+Stafford had sent the police from the room, but the police-surgeon
+would not be denied. He had the sense to see that nothing could be done
+for the dying man, however, and that a change of position would probably
+hasten the end. He, too, went and left them alone.
+
+"Stafford, I have quite a lot of money," said the First Commissioner;
+"it is yours. There's a will ... yours...."
+
+Then he ceased to speak and Stafford thought that the end had come but
+did not dare move in case he were mistaken. After five minutes the man
+in his arms stirred slightly and his voice sounded strangely clear and
+strong.
+
+"Gregory, my boy, good old Gregory! Father's here, old man!"
+
+His voice died away to a rumble and then to a murmur.
+
+The tears were running down Stafford's face. He sensed all the tragedy,
+all the loneliness of this man who had offered so cheerful a face to the
+world. Then Sir Stanley struggled to draw himself to his feet, and
+Stafford held him.
+
+"Gently, sir, gently," he said, "you're only hurting yourself."
+
+The dying man laughed. It was a little shrill chuckle of merriment and
+Stafford's blood ran cold.
+
+"Here I am, poor old Jack o' Judgment! Little old Jack o' Judgment! Give
+me the lives you took and the hopes you've blasted. Give them to Jack
+... Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+They were his last words.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A year later First Commissioner Sir Stafford King received a letter from
+South America. It contained nothing but the photograph of a very
+good-looking man, and a singularly pretty woman, who held in her lap a
+very tiny baby.
+
+"Here is the last of the Boundary Gang," said Sir Stafford to Maisie.
+"It is the one happy ending that has emerged from so much misery and
+evil."
+
+"Why, it is Lollie Marsh!"
+
+"Lollie Crewe, I think her name is now," said Stafford. "It was queer
+how Sir Stanley recognised the only human members of the gang."
+
+"Then they got away after all?" said the girl. "I've often wondered what
+happened at that aerodrome."
+
+Stafford laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said drily, "they got away. They left at twenty minutes
+past three, after a long argument with the aviator, a man named
+Cartwright."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"Sir Stanley and I watched them go off," said Stafford.
+
+He looked at the photograph again and shook his head.
+
+"There were times when the Judgment of Jack was very merciful," he said
+soberly.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+Blindfolded
+
+By
+
+Dorothy Rogers
+
+
+This novel has remarkable qualities. Its plot is strong and holds a
+dramatic surprise of tragic intensity. The book tells the story of Anne
+Gerrish, how she is stifled by the humdrum life at Norton with her
+aunts, how she leaves them to wring from life a measure of individual
+freedom and happiness, and how she finds both, only to end once more
+where she began. To use a metaphor from music, her life is a piece
+marked "Da capo." BLINDFOLDED is by far the best novel Miss Rogers has
+yet written, a book full of truth and sincerity.
+
+_Other Stories by this Author:_
+
+
+If To-day be Sweet
+The Standby
+
+
+     "A novel of considerable charm, dramatic interest, and admirable
+     character delineation."
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+X Esquire
+
+By
+
+Leslie Charteris
+
+
+A new form of tobacco had been discovered and was being put on the
+market by a syndicate consisting of rather dubious characters. The
+campaign was to start with a free distribution of millions of packets of
+cigarettes made from the new leaf. But the whole consignment of the
+tobacco was burnt, and one by one the members of the projected syndicate
+were assassinated by a mysterious person who called himself "X Esquire."
+Who was he? And what was his purpose? Mr. Charteris shows himself in
+this story to be one of the real brand of mystery novelists.
+
+
+     The Author can write a rattling good yarn, full of excitement and
+     real mystery. Thoroughly brisk in action, the story is told in a
+     virile and spirited manner.
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+The Tenant of Cromlech Cottage
+
+By
+
+Joseph Hocking
+
+Ghost stories move almost inevitably to one of two dénouements--a
+materialistic explanation or a supernatural. THE TENANT OF CROMLECH
+COTTAGE has a surprise for the reader in that the physical explanation
+of the noises and movements that have disturbed the novelist owner of
+the haunted cottage--that these were occasioned by the nocturnal visits
+of two orphans who believed that a will was hidden there--was followed
+by the appearance of a dead man to tell the novelist where this missing
+will might be found. This dualism is typical of Joseph Hocking's Cornish
+stories where romance and realism make a blend as fascinating as it is
+unique.
+
+
+     There are few better story-tellers than Mr. Joseph Hocking,
+     especially when he is dealing with his beloved Cornwall. His
+     stories are thrillingly interesting, and rivet the attention of the
+     reader from beginning to end.
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+The Knightsbridge Mystery
+
+By
+
+Carlton Dawe
+
+
+The conclusion of this story has a real grip, and the solution of the
+mystery concerning the death of the girl victim of an unknown hand is at
+once original and instinct with a true human pathos. The character of
+the detective who investigates the case is one of the triumphs of the
+book, and he is no stereotyped member of the Criminal Investigation
+Department but a living personality as well as a convincing police
+officer. Mr. Carlton Dawe has written in THE KNIGHTSBRIDGE MYSTERY one
+of his best and most sympathetic stories.
+
+_Other recent successes by this Author:_
+
+
+The Temptation of Selma
+Desperate Love
+A Tangled Marriage
+Euryale in London
+Stranger than Fiction
+The Way of a Maid
+Love the Conqueror
+The Glare
+The Forbidden Shrine
+
+
+     "For a certain crispness of dialogue, and deft arrangement of the
+     events of a good plot, Mr. Carlton Dawe has very few rivals."--_The
+     Yorkshire Post._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
+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: Jack O' Judgment
+
+Author: Edgar Wallace
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24767]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK O' JUDGMENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>JACK O'<br />JUDGMENT</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>EDGAR WALLACE</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>WARD, LOCK &amp; CO., LIMITED</h3>
+
+<p class="center">LONDON AND MELBOURNE</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Made and Printed in Great Britain by</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Ward, Lock &amp; Co., Limited, London.</span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>JACK O' JUDGMENT</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<table summary="list of popular novels by edgar wallace">
+  <tr>
+    <th>POPULAR NOVELS</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>BY</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>EDGAR WALLACE</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="center"><span class="smcap">Published by</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="center"><span class="smcap">Ward, Lock &amp; Co., Limited.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="center"><i>In Various Editions</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="center">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>SANDERS OF THE RIVER</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>BONES</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>BOSAMBO OF THE RIVER</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>BONES IN LONDON</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE KEEPERS OF THE KING'S PEACE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE COUNCIL OF JUSTICE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE DUKE IN THE SUBURBS</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE PEOPLE OF THE RIVER</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>DOWN UNDER DONOVAN</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>PRIVATE SELBY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE ADMIRABLE CARFEW</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE MAN WHO BOUGHT LONDON</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE JUST MEN OF CORDOVA</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE SECRET HOUSE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>KATE, PLUS TEN</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>LIEUTENANT BONES</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE ADVENTURES OF HEINE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>JACK O' JUDGMENT</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE DAFFODIL MYSTERY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE NINE BEARS</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE BOOK OF ALL POWER</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>MR. JUSTICE MAXELL</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE BOOKS OF BART</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE DARK EYES OF LONDON</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>CHICK</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>SANDI, THE KING-MAKER</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE THREE OAK MYSTERY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>BLUE HAND</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>GREY TIMOTHY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>A DEBT DISCHARGED</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THOSE FOLK OF BULBORO'</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE GREEN RUST</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE FOURTH PLAGUE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>THE RIVER OF STARS</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&mdash;THE KNAVE OF CLUBS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&mdash;JACK O' JUDGMENT&mdash;HIS CARD</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&mdash;THE DECOY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&mdash;THE MISSING HANSON</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&mdash;IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&mdash;STAFFORD KING RESIGNS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&mdash;THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></span>&mdash;THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></span>&mdash;THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></span>&mdash;THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></span>&mdash;THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></span>&mdash;BUYING A NURSING HOME</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></span>&mdash;THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></span>&mdash;THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></span>&mdash;THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></span>&mdash;IN THE TURKISH BATHS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></span>&mdash;SOLOMON COMES BACK</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></span>&mdash;THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></span>&mdash;THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></span>&mdash;"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT</li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></span>&mdash;THE BRIDE OF DEATH</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></span>&mdash;MAISIE TELLS HER STORY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></span>&mdash;THE GANG FUND</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></span>&mdash;PINTO GOES NORTH</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></span>&mdash;A PATRON OF CHARITY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI.</a></span>&mdash;THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII.</a></span>&mdash;THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII.</a></span>&mdash;THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX.</a></span>&mdash;THE VOICE IN THE ROOM</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">XXX.</a></span>&mdash;DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">XXXI.</a></span>&mdash;THE VOICE AGAIN</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">XXXII.</a></span>&mdash;LOLLIE GOES AWAY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">XXXIII.</a></span>&mdash;WHERE THE VOICE LIVED</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">XXXIV.</a></span>&mdash;CONSCIENCE MONEY</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">XXXV.</a></span>&mdash;IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">XXXVI.</a></span>&mdash;LOLLIE PROPOSES</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">XXXVII.</a></span>&mdash;THE FALL OF PINTO</li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">XXXVIII.</a></span>&mdash;A USE FOR OLD FILMS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">XXXIX.</a></span>&mdash;JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED</li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#ADVERTISEMENTS">ADVERTISEMENTS.</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>JACK O' ... JUDGMENT</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KNAVE OF CLUBS</h3>
+
+<p>They picked up the young man called "Snow" Gregory from a Lambeth
+gutter, and he was dead before the policeman on point duty in Waterloo
+Road, who had heard the shots, came upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p>He had been shot in his tracks on a night of snow and storm and none saw
+the murder.</p>
+
+<p>When they got him to the mortuary and searched his clothes they found
+nothing except a little tin box of white powder which proved to be
+cocaine, and a playing card&mdash;the Jack of Clubs!</p>
+
+<p>His associates had called him "Snow" Gregory because he was a doper, and
+cocaine is invariably referred to as "snow" by all its votaries. He was
+a gambler too, and he had been associated with Colonel Dan Boundary in
+certain of his business enterprises. That was all. The colonel knew
+nothing of the young man's antecedents except that he had been an Oxford
+man who had come down in the world. The colonel added a few particulars
+designed, as it might seem to the impartial observer, to prove that he,
+the colonel, had ever been an uplifting quantity. (This colonelcy was an
+honorary title which he held by custom rather than by law.)</p>
+
+<p>There were people who said that "Snow" Gregory, in his more exalted
+moments, talked too much for the colonel's comfort, but people were very
+ready to talk unkindly of the colonel, whose wealth was an offence and a
+shame.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>So they buried "Snow" Gregory, the unknown, and a jury of his
+fellow-countrymen returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some
+person or persons unknown."</p>
+
+<p>And that was the end of a sordid tragedy, it seemed, until three months
+later there dawned upon Colonel Boundary's busy life a brand new and
+alarming factor.</p>
+
+<p>One morning there arrived at his palatial flat in Albemarle Place a
+letter. This he opened because it was marked "Private and Personal." It
+was not a letter at all&mdash;as it proved&mdash;but a soiled and stained playing
+card, the Knave of Clubs.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the thing in perplexity, for the fate of his erstwhile
+assistant had long since passed from his mind. Then he saw writing on
+the margin of the card, and twisting it sideways read:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"JACK O' JUDGMENT."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more!</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel screwed up his tired eyes as if to shut out a vision.</p>
+
+<p>"Faugh!" he said in disgust and dropped the pasteboard into his
+waste-paper basket.</p>
+
+<p>For he had seen a vision&mdash;a white face, unshaven and haggard, its lips
+parted in a little grin, the smile of "Snow" Gregory on the last time
+they had met.</p>
+
+<p>Later came other cards and unpleasant, not to say disconcerting
+happenings, and the colonel, taking counsel with himself, determined to
+kill two birds with one stone.</p>
+
+<p>It was a daring and audacious thing to have done, and none but Colonel
+Dan Boundary would have taken the risk. He knew better than anybody else
+that Stafford King had devoted the whole of his time for the past three
+years to smashing the Boundary Gang. He knew that this grave young man
+with the steady, grey eyes, who sat on the other side of the big Louis
+XV table in the ornate private office of the Spillsbury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> Syndicate, had
+won his way to the chief position in the Criminal Intelligence
+Department by sheer genius, and that he was, of all men, the most to be
+feared.</p>
+
+<p>No greater contrast could be imagined than that which was presented
+between the two protagonists&mdash;the refined, almost &aelig;sthetic chief of
+police on the one hand, the big commanding figure of the redoubtable
+colonel on the other.</p>
+
+<p>Boundary with his black hair parted in the centre of his sleek head, his
+big weary eyes, his long, yellow walrus moustache, his double chin, his
+breadth and girth, his enormous hairy hands, now laid upon the table,
+might stand for force, brutal, remorseless, untiring. He stood for
+cunning too&mdash;the cunning of the stalking tiger.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford was watching him with dispassionate interest. He may have been
+secretly amused at the man's sheer daring, but if he was, his
+inscrutable face displayed no such emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say, Mr. King," said the colonel, in his slow, heavy way, "you
+think it is rather remarkable in all the circumstances that I should ask
+for you? I dare say," he went on, "my business associates will think the
+same, considering all the unpleasantness we have had."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King made no reply. He sat erect, alert and watchful.</p>
+
+<p>"Give a dog a bad name and hang him," said the colonel sententiously.
+"For twenty years I've had to fight the unjust suspicions of my enemies.
+I've been libelled," he shook his head sorrowfully. "I don't suppose
+there's anybody been libelled more than me&mdash;and my business associates.
+I've had the police nosing&mdash;I mean investigating&mdash;into my affairs, and
+I'll be straight with you, Mr. Stafford King, and tell you that when it
+came to my ears and the ears of my business associates, that you had
+been put on the job of watching poor old Dan Boundary, I was glad."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that intended as a compliment?" asked Stafford, with the faintest
+suspicion of a smile.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p>"Every way," said the colonel emphatically. "In the first place, Mr.
+King, I know that you are the straightest and most honest police
+official in England, and possibly in the world. All I want is justice.
+My life is an open book, which courts the fullest investigation."</p>
+
+<p>He spread out his huge hands as though inviting an even closer
+inspection than had been afforded him hitherto.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stafford King made no reply. He knew, very well he knew, the stories
+which had been told about the Boundary Gang. He knew a little and
+guessed a lot about its extraordinary ramifications. He was well aware,
+at any rate, that it was rich, and that this slow-speaking man could
+command millions. But he was far from desiring to endorse the colonel's
+inferred claim as to the purity of his business methods.</p>
+
+<p>He leant a little forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you didn't send for me to tell me all about your hard lot,
+colonel," he said, a little ironically.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to get to know you," he said with fine frankness. "I've heard
+a lot about you, Mr. King. I am told you do nothing but specialise on
+the Boundary enterprises, and I tell you, sir, that you can't know too
+much about me, nor can I know too much about you."</p>
+
+<p>He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"But you're quite right when you say that I didn't ask you to come
+here&mdash;and a great honour it is for a big police chief to spare time to
+see me&mdash;to discuss the past. It is the present I want to talk to you
+about."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a law-abiding citizen," said the colonel unctuously, "and anything
+I can do to assist the law, why, I'm going to do it. I wrote you on this
+matter about a fortnight ago."</p>
+
+<p>He opened a drawer and took out a large envelope embossed with a
+monogram of the Spillsbury Syndicate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> This he opened and extracted a
+plain playing-card. It was a white-backed card of superfine texture,
+gilt-edged, and bore a familiar figure.</p>
+
+<p>"The Knave of Clubs," said Stafford King lifting his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The Jack of Clubs," said the colonel gravely; "that is its name I
+understand, for I am not a gambling man."</p>
+
+<p>He did not bat a lid nor did Stafford King smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember," said the detective chief, "you received one before. You
+wrote to my department about it."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Read what's written underneath."</p>
+
+<p>King lifted the card nearer to his eyes. The writing was almost
+microscopic and read:</p>
+
+<p>"Save crime, save worry, save all unpleasantness. Give back the property
+you stole from Spillsbury."</p>
+
+<p>It was signed "Jack o' Judgment."</p>
+
+<p>King put the card down and looked across at the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened after the last card came?" he asked, "there was a
+burglary or something, wasn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"The last card," said the colonel, clearing his throat, "contained a
+diabolical and unfounded charge that I and my business associates had
+robbed Mr. George Fetter, the Manchester merchant, of &pound;60,000 by means
+of card tricks&mdash;a low practice of which I would not be guilty nor would
+any of my business associates. My friends and myself knowing nothing of
+any card game, we of course refused to pay Mr. Fetter, and I am sure Mr.
+Fetter would be the last person who would ask us to do so. As a matter
+of fact, he did give us bills for &pound;60,000, but that was in relation to a
+sale of property. I cannot imagine that Mr. Fetter would ever take money
+from us or that he knew of this business&mdash;I hope not, because he seems a
+very respectable&mdash;gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>The detective looked at the card again.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>"What is this story of the Spillsbury deal?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that story of the Spillsbury deal?" said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>He had a trick of repeating questions&mdash;it was a trick which frequently
+gave him a very necessary breathing space.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there's nothing to it. I bought the motor works in Coventry. I
+admit it was a good bargain. There's no law against making a profit. You
+know what business is."</p>
+
+<p>The detective knew what business was. But Spillsbury was young and wild,
+and his wildness assumed an unpleasant character. It was the kind of
+wildness which people do not talk about&mdash;at least, not nice people. He
+had inherited a considerable fortune, and the control of four factories,
+the best of which was the one under discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"I know Spillsbury," said the detective, "and I happen to know
+Spillsbury's works. I also know that he sold you a property worth
+&pound;300,000 in the open market for a sum which was grossly
+inadequate&mdash;&pound;30,000, was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"&pound;35,000," corrected the colonel. "There's no law against making a
+bargain," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been very fortunate with your bargains."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King rose and picked up his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"You bought Transome's Hotel from young Mrs. Rachemeyer for a sum which
+was less than a twentieth of its worth. You bought Lord Bethon's slate
+quarries for &pound;12,000&mdash;their value in the open market was at least
+&pound;100,000. For the past fifteen years you have been acquiring property at
+an amazing rate&mdash;and at an amazing price."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You're paying me a great compliment, Mr. Stafford King," he said with a
+touch of sarcasm, "and I will never forget it. But don't let us get away
+from the object of your coming. I am reporting to you, as a police
+officer, that I have been threatened by a blackguard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> a thief, and very
+likely a murderer. I will not be responsible for any action I may
+take&mdash;Jack o' Judgment indeed!" he growled.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen him?" asked Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"He's alive, ain't he?" he growled. "If I'd seen him, do you think he'd
+be writing me letters? It is your job to pinch him. If you people down
+at Scotland Yard spent less time poking into the affairs of honest
+business men&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King was smiling now, frankly and undisguisedly. His grey eyes
+were creased with silent laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel, you have <i>some</i> nerve!" he said admiringly, and with no other
+word he left the room.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>JACK O' JUDGMENT&mdash;HIS CARD</h3>
+
+<p>The wrong side of a stage door was the outside on a night such as this
+was. The rain was bucketing down and a chill north-wester howled up the
+narrow passage leading from the main street to the tiny entry.</p>
+
+<p>But the outside, and the darkest corner of the <i>cul-de-sac</i> whence the
+stage door of the Orpheum Music Hall was reached, satisfied Stafford
+King. He drew further into the shadow at sight of the figure which
+picked a finicking way along the passage and paused only at the open
+doorway to furl his umbrella.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto Silva, immaculately attired with a white rose in the button-hole
+of his faultless dress-jacket, had no doubt in his mind as to which was
+the most desirable side of the stage door. He passed in, nodding
+carelessly to the doorkeeper.</p>
+
+<p>"A rotten night, Joe," he said. "Miss White hasn't gone yet, has she?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said the man obsequiously, "she's only just left the stage a
+few minutes. Shall I tell her you're here, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>He was a good-looking man of thirty-five. There were some who would go
+further and describe him as handsome, though his peculiar style of good
+looks might not be to everybody's taste. The olive complexion, the black
+eyes, the well-curled moustache and the effeminate chin had their
+attractions, and Pinto Silva admitted modestly in his reminiscent
+moments that there were women who had raved about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss White is in No. 6," said the doorkeeper. "Shall I send somebody
+along to tell her you're here?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p><p>"You needn't trouble," said the other, "she won't be long now."</p>
+
+<p>The girl, hurrying along the corridor, fastening her coat as she came,
+stopped dead at the sight of him and a look of annoyance came to her
+face. She was tall for a girl, perfectly proportioned and something more
+than pretty.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto lifted his hat with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been in front, Miss White. An excellent performance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said simply. "I did not see you."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>There was a complacency in his nod which irritated her. It almost seemed
+to infer that she was not speaking the truth and that he was humouring
+her in her deception.</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite comfortable?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite," she replied politely.</p>
+
+<p>She was obviously anxious to end the interview, and at a loss as to how
+she could.</p>
+
+<p>"Dressing room comfortable, everybody respectful and all that sort of
+thing?" he asked. "Just say the word, if they give you trouble or cheek,
+and I'll have them kicked out whoever they are, from the manager
+downwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you," she said hurriedly, "everybody is most polite and
+nice." She held out her hand. "I am afraid I must go now. A&mdash;a friend is
+waiting for me."</p>
+
+<p>"One minute, Miss White." He licked his lips, and there was an
+unaccustomed embarrassment in his manner. "Maybe you'll come along one
+night after the show and have a little supper. You know I'm very keen on
+you and all that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're very keen on me and all that sort of thing," said Maisie
+White, a note of irony in her voice, "but unfortunately I'm not very
+keen on supper and all that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled and again held out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say good night now."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>"Do you know, Maisie&mdash;&mdash;" he began.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night," she said and brushed past him.</p>
+
+<p>He looked after her as she disappeared into the darkness, a little frown
+gathering on his forehead, then with a shrug of his shoulders he walked
+slowly back to the doorkeeper's office.</p>
+
+<p>"Send somebody to get my car," he snapped.</p>
+
+<p>He waited impatiently, chewing his cigar, till the dripping figure of
+the doorkeeper reappeared with the information that the car was at the
+end of the passage. He put up his umbrella and walked through the
+pelting rain to where his limousine stood.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto Silva was angry, and his anger was of the hateful, smouldering
+type which grew in strength from moment to moment and from hour to hour.
+How dare she treat him like this? She, who owed her engagement to his
+influence, and whose fortune and future were in his hands. He would
+speak to the colonel and the colonel could speak to her father. He had
+had enough of this.</p>
+
+<p>He recognised with a start that he was afraid of the girl. It was
+incredible, but it was true. He had never felt that way to a woman
+before, but there was something in her eyes, a cold disdain which cowed
+even as it maddened him.</p>
+
+<p>The car drew up before a block of buildings in a deserted West End
+thoroughfare. He flashed on the electric light and saw that the hour was
+a little after eleven. The last thing in the world he wanted was to take
+part in a conference that night. But if he wanted anything less, it was
+to cross the colonel at this moment of crisis.</p>
+
+<p>He walked through the dark vestibule and entered an automatic lift,
+which carried him to the third floor. Here, the landing and the corridor
+were illuminated by one small electric lamp sufficient to light him to
+the heavy walnut doors which led to the office of the Spillsbury
+Syndicate. He opened the door with a latchkey and found himself in a big
+lobby, carpeted and furnished in good style.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>A man was sitting before a radiator, a paper pad upon his knees, and he
+was making notes with a pencil. He looked up startled as the other
+entered and nodded. It was Olaf Hanson, the colonel's clerk&mdash;and Olaf,
+with his flat expressionless face, and his stiff upstanding hair, always
+reminded Pinto of a Struwwelpeter which had been cropped.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, Hanson, is the colonel inside?"</p>
+
+<p>The man nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"They're waiting for you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>His voice was hard and unsympathetic, and his thin lips snapped out
+every syllable.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you coming in?" asked Pinto in surprise, his hand upon the door.</p>
+
+<p>The man called Hanson shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to go to the colonel's flat," he said, "to get some papers.
+Besides, they don't want me."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled quickly and wanly. It was a grimace rather than an expression
+of amusement and Pinto eyed him narrowly. He had, however, the good
+sense to ask no further questions. Turning the handle of the door, he
+walked into the large, ornate apartment.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the room was a big table and the chairs at its sides
+were, for the most part, filled.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into a seat on the colonel's right and nodded to the others
+at the table. Most of the principals were there&mdash;"Swell" Crewe, Jackson,
+Cresswell, and at the farther end of the table, Lollie Marsh with her
+baby face and her permanent expression of open-mouthed wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's White?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was reading a letter and did not immediately reply.
+Presently he took off his pince-nez and put them into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's White?" he repeated. "White isn't here. No, White isn't here,"
+he repeated significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"What's wrong?" asked Pinto quickly.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel scratched his chin and looked up to the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p><p>"I'm settling up this Spillsbury business," he said. "White isn't in
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"He never was in it," said the colonel evasively. "It was not the kind
+of business that White would like to be in. I guess he's getting
+religious or something, or maybe it's that daughter of his."</p>
+
+<p>The eyelids of Pinto Silva narrowed at the reference to Maisie White and
+he was on the point of remarking that he had just left her, but changed
+his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Does she know anything about&mdash;about her father?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no&mdash;unless you've told her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not on those terms," said Pinto savagely. "I'm getting tired of
+that girl's airs and graces, colonel, after what we've done for her!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll get tireder, Pinto," said a voice from the end of the table and
+he turned round to meet the laughing eyes of Lollie Marsh.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been out taking a look at her to-day," she said, and the colonel
+scowled at her.</p>
+
+<p>"You were out taking a look at something else if I remember rightly," he
+said quietly. "I told you to get after Stafford King."</p>
+
+<p>"And I got after him," she said, "and after the girl too."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a bit of news for you, isn't it?" She was delighted to drop the
+bombshell: "you can't shadow Stafford King without crossing the tracks
+of Maisie White."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel uttered an exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" he asked again.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you know they were acquainted? Didn't you know that Stafford
+King goes down to Horsham to see her, and takes her to dinner twice a
+week?"</p>
+
+<p>They looked at one another in consternation. Maisie White was the
+daughter of a man who, next to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> colonel, had been the most daring
+member of the gang, who had organised more coups than any other man,
+save its leader. The news that the daughter of Solomon White was meeting
+the Chief of the Criminal Intelligence Department, was incredible and
+stunning.</p>
+
+<p>"So that's it, is it?" said the colonel, licking his dry lips. "That's
+why Solomon White's fed up with the life and wants to break away."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to Pinto Silva, whose face was set and hard.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were keen on that girl, Pinto," he said coarsely. "We
+left the way open to you. What do you know about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said the man shortly. "I don't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe it," broke in the girl. "Listen! There was a matin&eacute;e at
+the Orpheum to-day and King went there. I followed him in and got a seat
+next to him and tried to get friendly. But he had only eyes for the girl
+on the stage, and I might as well have been the paper on the wall for
+all the notice he took of me. After her turn, he went out and waited for
+her at the stage door. They went to Roymoyers for tea. I went back to
+the theatre and saw her dresser. She is the woman I recommended when
+Pinto put her on the stage."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of work is Maisie doing?" asked the saturnine Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"Male impersonations," said the girl. "Say! she looks dandy in a man's
+kit! She's the best male impersonator I've ever seen. Why, when she
+talks&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that," interrupted the colonel, "what did you
+discover?"</p>
+
+<p>"I discovered that Stafford King comes regularly to the theatre, that he
+takes her to dinner and that he visits the house at Horsham."</p>
+
+<p>"Solly never told me that&mdash;the swine!" rapped the colonel, "he's going
+to double-cross us, that fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>It was Crewe that spoke. "Swell" Crewe, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> boast it was that he had
+a suit for every day in the year.</p>
+
+<p>"I know Solomon and I've known him for years," he said. "I know him as
+well as you, colonel. As far as we are concerned, Solly is straight. I'm
+not denying the possibility that he wants to break away, but that's only
+natural. He's a man with a daughter, and he's made his pile, but I'll
+stake my life that he'll never double-cross us."</p>
+
+<p>"Double-cross us?" the colonel had recovered his wonted equanimity.
+"What has he to 'double-cross'?" he demanded almost jovially. "We have a
+straightforward business! I am not aware that any of us are guilty of
+dishonest actions. Double-cross! Bah!"</p>
+
+<p>He brought his big hand down with a thump on the table, and they knew
+from experience that this was the gavel of the chairman that ended all
+discussions.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen," said the colonel, "let us get to business. Ask Hanson
+to come in&mdash;he's got the figures. It is the last lot of figures of ours
+that he'll ever handle," he added.</p>
+
+<p>Somebody went to the door of the ante-room and called the secretary, but
+there was no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone out."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone out?" said the colonel and bent his brows. "Who told him to go
+out? Never mind, he'll be back in a minute. Shut the door."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted a deed-box from the floor at his feet, placed it on the table,
+opened it with a key attached to his watch-chain and removed a bundle of
+documents.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to settle the Spillsbury business to-night," he said.
+"Spillsbury looks like squealing."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"In an inebriates' home," said the colonel grimly; "it seems there are
+some trustees to his father's estate who are likely to question the
+legality of the transfers. But I've had the best legal opinion in London
+and there is no doubt that our position is safe. The only thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> we've
+got to do to-night is to make absolutely sure that all those fool
+letters he wrote to Lollie have been destroyed."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got them?" said the girl quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I had them?" said the colonel, "and I burnt them all except one when
+the transfer was completed. And the question is, gentlemen," he said,
+"shall we burn the last?"</p>
+
+<p>He took from the bundle before him an envelope and held it up.</p>
+
+<p>"I kept this in case there was anything coming, but if he's in a booze
+home, why, he's not going to be influenced by the threat of publishing a
+slushy letter to a girl. I guess his trustees are not going to be very
+much influenced either. On the other hand, if this letter were found
+among business documents, it would look pretty bad for us."</p>
+
+<p>"Found by whom?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"By the police," said the colonel calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Police?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"They're getting after us, but you needn't be alarmed," he said. "King
+is working to get a case, and he is not above applying for a search
+warrant. But I'm not scared of the police so much." His voice slowed and
+he spoke with greater emphasis. "I guess there are enough court cards in
+the Boundary pack to beat that combination. It's the Jack&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>The Jack&mdash;ha! ha! ha!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>It was a shrill bubble of laughter which cut into his speech and the
+colonel leapt to his feet, his hand dropping to his hip-pocket. The door
+had opened and closed so silently that none had heard it, and a figure
+stood confronting them.</p>
+
+<p>It was clad from head to foot in a long coat of black silk, which
+shimmered in the half-light of the electrolier. The hands were gloved,
+the head covered with a soft slouch hat and the face hidden behind a
+white silk handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel's hand was in his hip-pocket when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> thought better and
+raised both hands in the air. There was something peculiarly
+businesslike in the long-barrelled revolver which the intruder held, in
+spite of the silver-plating and the gold inlay along the chased barrel.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody's hands in the air," said the Jack shrilly, "right up to the
+beautiful sky! Yours too, Lollie. Stand away from the table, everybody,
+and back to the wall. For the Jack o' Judgment is amongst you and life
+is full of amazing possibilities!"</p>
+
+<p>They backed from the table, peering helplessly at the two unwinking eyes
+which showed through the holes in the handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Back to the wall, my pretties," chuckled the Thing. "I'm going to make
+you laugh and you'll want some support. I'm going to make you rock with
+joy and merriment!"</p>
+
+<p>The figure had moved to the table, and all the time it spoke its nimble
+fingers were turning over the piles of documents which the colonel had
+disgorged from the dispatch box.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to tell you a comical tale about a gang of blackmailers."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a liar," said the colonel hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"About a gang of blackmailers," said the Jack with shrill laughter,
+"fellows who didn't work like common blackmailers, nor demand money. Oh,
+no! not naughty blackmailers! They got the fools and the vicious in
+their power and made them sell things for hundreds of pounds that were
+worth thousands. And they were such a wonderful crowd! They were such
+wonderfully amusing fellows. There was Dan Boundary who started life by
+robbing his dead mother, there was 'Swell' Crewe, who was once a
+gentleman and is now a thief!"</p>
+
+<p>"Damn you!" said Crewe, lurching forward, but the gun swung round on him
+and he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"There was Lollie who would sell her own child&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no child," half-screamed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Think again, Lollie darling&mdash;dear little soul!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>He stopped. The envelope that his fingers had been seeking was found.
+He slipped it beneath the black silk cloak and in two bounds was at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Send for the police," he mocked. "Send for the police, Dan! Get
+Stafford King, the eminent chief. Tell him I called! My card!"</p>
+
+<p>With a dexterous flip of his fingers he sent a little pasteboard planing
+across the room. In an instant the door opened and closed upon the
+intruder and he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>For a second there was silence, and then, with a little sob, Lollie
+Marsh collapsed in a heap on the floor. Colonel Dan Boundary looked from
+one white face to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a hundred thousand pounds for any one of you who gets that
+fellow," he said, breathing hard, "whether it is man or woman."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DECOY</h3>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary, sitting at his desk the morning after, pushed a bell.
+It was answered by the thick-set Olaf. He was dressed, as usual, in
+black from head to foot and the colonel eyed him thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Hanson," he said, "has Miss Marsh come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she has come," said the other resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her I want her," said the colonel and then as the man was leaving
+the room: "Where did you get to last night when I wanted you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was out," said the man shortly. "I get some time for myself, I
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure you do, Hanson."</p>
+
+<p>His tone was mild, and that spelt danger to Hanson, had he known it.
+This was the third sign of rebellion which the man had shown in the past
+week.</p>
+
+<p>"What's happened to your temper this morning, Hanson?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything," exploded the man and in his agitation his foreign origin
+was betrayed by his accent. "You tell me I shall haf plenty money,
+thousands of pounds! You say I go to my brother in America. Where is dot
+money? I go in March, I go in May, I go in July, still I am here!"</p>
+
+<p>"My good friend," said the colonel, "you're too impatient. This is not a
+moment I can allow you to go away. You're getting nervous, that's what's
+the matter with you. Perhaps I'll let you have a holiday next week."</p>
+
+<p>"Nervous!" roared the man. "Yes, I am. All the time I feel eyes on me!
+When I walk in the street, every man I meet is a policeman. When I go to
+bed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> I hear nothing but footsteps creeping in the passage outside my
+room."</p>
+
+<p>"Old Jack, eh?" said the colonel, eyeing him narrowly.</p>
+
+<p>Hanson shivered.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen the Jack o' Judgment once. A figure in gossamer silk who had
+stood beside the bed in which the Scandinavian lay and had talked wisdom
+whilst Olaf quaked in a muck sweat of fear.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel did not know this. He was under the impression that the
+appearance of the previous night had constituted the first of this
+mysterious menace.</p>
+
+<p>So he nodded again.</p>
+
+<p>"Send Miss Marsh to me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Hanson would have got on his nerves if he had nerves. The man, at any
+rate, was becoming an intolerable nuisance. The colonel marked him down
+as one of the problems calling for early solution.</p>
+
+<p>The secretary had not been gone more than a few seconds before the door
+opened again and the girl came in. She was tall, pretty in a doll-like
+way, with an aura of golden hair about her small head. She might have
+been more than pretty but for her eyes, which were too light a shade of
+blue to be beautiful. She was expensively gowned and walked with the
+easy swing of one whose position was assured.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Lollie," said the colonel. "Did you see him again?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I got a pretty good view of him," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he see you?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so," she said; "besides, what does it matter if he did?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was the girl with him?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked the colonel after a pause. "Can you do anything with him?"</p>
+
+<p>She pursed her lips.</p>
+
+<p>If she had expected the colonel to refer to their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> terrifying experience
+of the night before, she was to be disappointed. The hard eyes of the
+man compelled her to keep to the matter under discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"He looks pretty hard," said the girl. "He is not the man to fall for
+that heart-to-heart stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Just that," said the girl with a shrug. "I can't imagine his picking me
+up and taking me to dinner and pouring out the secrets of his young
+heart at the second bottle."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither can I," said the colonel thoughtfully. "You're a pretty clever
+girl, Lollie, and I'm going to make it worth your while to get close to
+that fellow. He's the one man in Scotland Yard that we want to put out
+of business. Not that we've anything to be afraid of," he added vaguely,
+"but he's just interfering with&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a word.</p>
+
+<p>"With business," said the girl. "Oh, come off it, colonel! Just tell me
+how far you want me to go."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got to go to the limit," said the other decidedly. "You've got
+to put him as wrong as you can. He must be compromised up to his neck."</p>
+
+<p>"What about my young reputation?" asked the girl with a grimace.</p>
+
+<p>"If you lose it, we'll buy you another," said the colonel drily, "and I
+reckon it's about time you had another one, Lollie."</p>
+
+<p>The girl fingered her chin thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not going to be easy," she said again. "It isn't going to be like
+young Spillsbury&mdash;Pinto Silva could have done that job without help&mdash;or
+Solomon White even."</p>
+
+<p>"You can shut up about Spillsbury," growled the colonel. "I've told you
+to forget everything that has ever happened in our business! And I've
+told you a hundred times not to mention Pinto or any of the other men in
+this business! You can do as you're told! And take that look off your
+face!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>He rose with extraordinary agility and leant over, glowering at the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been getting a bit too fresh lately, Lollie, and giving yourself
+airs! You don't try any of that grand lady stuff with me, d'ye hear?"</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing suave in the colonel's manner, nothing slow or
+ponderous or courtly. He spoke rapidly and harshly and revealed the
+brute that many suspected but few knew.</p>
+
+<p>"I've no more respect for women than I have for men, understand! If you
+ever get gay with me, I'll take your neck in my hand like that," he
+clenched his two fists together with a horribly suggestive motion and
+the frightened girl watched him, fascinated. "I'll break you as if you
+were a bit of china! I'll tear you as if you were a rag! You needn't
+think you'll ever get away from me&mdash;I'll follow you to the ends of the
+earth. You're paid like a queen and treated like a queen and you play
+straight&mdash;there was a man called 'Snow' Gregory once&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The trembling girl was on her feet now, her face ashen white.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, colonel," she faltered. "I didn't intend giving you offence.
+I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was on the verge of tears when the colonel, with a quick gesture,
+motioned her back to the chair. His rage subsided as suddenly as it had
+risen.</p>
+
+<p>"Now do as you're told, Lollie," he said calmly. "Get after that young
+fellow and don't come back to me until you've got him."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and almost tiptoed from his
+dread presence.</p>
+
+<p>At the door he stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"As to Maisie," he said, "why, you can leave Maisie to me."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MISSING HANSON</h3>
+
+<p>Colonel Dan Boundary descended slowly from the Ford taxi-cab which had
+brought him up from Horsham station and surveyed without emotion the
+domicile of his partner. It was Colonel Boundary's boast that he was in
+the act of lathering his face on the tenth floor of a Californian hotel
+when the earthquake began, and that he finished his shaving operations,
+took his bath and dressed himself before the earth had ceased to
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall want you again, so you had better wait," he said to the driver
+and passed through the wooden gates toward Rose Lodge.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped half-way up the path, having now a better view of the house.
+It was a red brick villa, the home of a well-to-do man. The trim lawn
+with its border of rose trees, the little fountain playing over the
+rockery, the quality of the garden furniture within view and the general
+air of comfort which pervaded the place, suggested the home of a
+prosperous City man, one of those happy creatures who have never
+troubled to get themselves in line for millions, but have lived happily
+between the four and five figure mark.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary grunted and continued his walk. A trim maid opened the
+door to him and by her blank look it was evident that he was not a
+frequent visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Boundary&mdash;just say Boundary," said the colonel in a deep voice which
+carried to the remotest part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>He was shown to the drawing-room and again found much that interested
+him. He felt no twinge of pity at the thought that Solomon White would
+very soon exchange this almost luxury for the bleak discomfort of a
+prison cell, and not even the sight of the girl who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> came through the
+door to greet him brought him a qualm.</p>
+
+<p>"You want to see my father, colonel?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Her tone was cold but polite. The colonel had never been a great
+favourite of Maisie White's, and now it required a considerable effort
+on her part to hide her deep aversion.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I want to see your father?" said Colonel Boundary. "Why, yes, I
+think I do and I want to see you too, and I'd just as soon see you
+first, before I speak to Solly."</p>
+
+<p>She sat down, a model of patient politeness, her hands folded on her
+lap. In the light of day she was pretty, straight of back, graceful as
+to figure and the clear grey eyes which met his faded blue, were very
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss White," he said, "we have been very good to you."</p>
+
+<p>"We?" repeated the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"We," nodded the colonel. "I speak for myself and my business
+associates. If Solomon had ever told you the truth you would know that
+you owe all your education, your beautiful home," he waved his hand, "to
+myself and my business associates." His tongue rolled round the last two
+words. They were favourites of his.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded her head slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was under the impression that I owed it to my father," she said, with
+a hint of irony in her voice, "for I suppose that he earned all he has."</p>
+
+<p>"You suppose that he earned all that he has?" repeated the colonel.
+"Well, very likely you are right. He has earned more than he has got but
+pay-day is near at hand."</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the menace in his tone, but the girl made no
+comment. She knew that there had been trouble. She knew that her father
+had for days been locked in his study and had scarcely spoken a word to
+anybody.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you the other night," said the colonel, changing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> the direction
+of his attack. "I saw you at the Orpheum. Pinto Silva came with me. We
+were in the stage box."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you," said the girl quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"A very good performance, considering you're a kid," said Boundary; "in
+fact, Pinto says you're the best mimic he has ever seen on the
+stage&mdash;&mdash;" He paused&mdash;"Pinto got you your contracts."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very grateful to Mr. Silva," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You have all the world before you, my girl," said Boundary in his slow,
+ponderous way, "a beautiful and bright future, plenty of money, pearls,
+diamonds," he waved his hand with a vague gesture, "and Pinto, who is
+the most valuable of my business associates, is very fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>The girl sighed helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that matter had been finished and done with, colonel," she
+said. "I don't know how people in your world would regard such an offer,
+but in my world they would look upon it as an insult."</p>
+
+<p>"And what the devil is your world?" asked the colonel, without any sign
+of irritation.</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"The clean, decent world," she said calmly, "the law-abiding world. The
+world that regards such arrangements as you suggest as infamous. It is
+not only the fact that Mr. Silva is already married&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel raised his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Pinto talks very seriously of getting a divorce," he said solemnly,
+"and when a gentleman like Pinto Silva gives his word, that ought to be
+sufficient for any girl. And now you have come to mention law-abiding
+worlds," he went on slowly, "I would like to speak of one of the
+law-abiders."</p>
+
+<p>She knew what was coming and was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a young gentleman named Stafford King hanging round you." He
+saw her face flush but went on, "Mr. Stafford King is a policeman."</p>
+
+<p>"He is an official of the Criminal Intelligence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>Department," said the
+girl, "but I don't think you would call him a policeman, would you,
+colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"All policemen are policemen to me," said Boundary, "and Mr. Stafford
+King is one of the worst of the policemen from my point of view, because
+he's trying to trump up a cock-and-bull story about me and get me into
+very serious trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"I know Mr. King is connected with a great number of unpleasant cases,"
+said the girl coolly. "It would be a coincidence if he was in a case
+which interested you."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a coincidence, would it?" said the colonel, nodding his
+huge head. "Perhaps it is a coincidence that my clerk, Hanson, has
+disappeared and has been seen in the company of your friend, eh? It is a
+coincidence that King is working on the Spillsbury case&mdash;the one case
+that Solly knows nothing about&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>She faced him, puzzled and apprehensive.</p>
+
+<p>"Where does all this lead?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It leads to trouble for Solly, that's all," said the colonel. "He's
+trying to put me away and put his business associates away, and he has
+got to go through the mill unless&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless what?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Pinto's a merciful man, I'm a merciful man. We don't want to make
+trouble with former business associates, but trouble there is going to
+be, believe me."</p>
+
+<p>"What kind of trouble?" asked the girl. "If you mean that your so-called
+business association with my father will cease, I shall be happier. My
+father can earn his living and I have my stage work."</p>
+
+<p>"You have your stage work," the colonel did not smile but his tone
+betrayed his amusement, "and your father can earn his living, eh? He can
+earn his living in Portland Gaol," he said, raising his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"For the matter of that, so can you, colonel."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel turned his head slowly and surveyed the spare figure in the
+doorway.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, you heard me, did you, Solly," he said not unpleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you," said Solomon White, his lean face a shade whiter than the
+girl had ever seen it and his breathing was a little laboured.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are thinking of gaoling me," said White, "why, I think we shall
+make up a pretty jolly party."</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning me?" said the colonel, raising his eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"You amongst others. Pinto Silva, 'Swell' Crewe and Selby, to name a
+few."</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary permitted himself to chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"On what charge?" he asked, "tell me that, Solly? The cleverest men in
+Scotland Yard have been laying for me for years and they haven't got
+away with it. Maybe they have your assistance and that dog Hanson&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a lie," interrupted White, "so far as I am concerned&mdash;I know
+nothing about Hanson."</p>
+
+<p>"Hanson," said the colonel slowly, "is a thief. He bolted with &pound;300 of
+mine, as I've reported to the police."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said White with a little smile of contempt, "got your charge in
+first, eh, colonel&mdash;discredit the witness. And what have you framed for
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said the colonel, "except this. I've just had from the bank a
+cheque for &pound;4,000 drawn in your favour on our joint account and
+purporting to be signed by Silva and myself."</p>
+
+<p>"As it happens," said White, "it was signed by you fellows in my
+presence."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Obdurate to the last, brazening it out to the end&mdash;why not make a frank
+confession to an old business associate, Solly? I came here to see you
+about that cheque."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the game, is it?" said White. "You are going to charge me with
+forgery, and suppose I spill it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Spill what?" asked the colonel innocently. "If by 'spill' you mean make
+a statement to the police<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> derogatory to myself and my business
+associates, what can you tell? I can bring a dozen witnesses to prove
+that both Pinto and I were in Brighton the morning that cheque was
+signed."</p>
+
+<p>"You came up by car at night," said White harshly. "We arranged to meet
+outside Guildford to split the loot."</p>
+
+<p>"Loot?" said Colonel Boundary, puzzled. "I don't understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put it plainer," said White, his eyes like smouldering fire: "a
+year ago you got young Balston the shipowner to put fifty thousand
+pounds into a fake company."</p>
+
+<p>He heard Maisie gasp, but went on.</p>
+
+<p>"How you did it I'm not going to tell before the girl, but it was
+blackmail which you and Pinto engineered. He paid his last
+instalment&mdash;the four thousand pounds was my share."</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary rose and looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a taxi-cab waiting, and with a taxi-cab time is money. If you
+are going to bring in the name of an innocent young man, who will
+certainly deny that he had any connection with myself and my business
+associates, that is a matter for your own conscience. I tell you I know
+nothing about this cheque. I have made your daughter an offer."</p>
+
+<p>"I can guess what it is," interrupted White, "and I can tell you this,
+Boundary, that if you are going to sell me, I'll be even with you, if I
+wait twenty years! If you imagine I am going to let my daughter into
+that filthy gang&mdash;&mdash;" His voice broke, and it was some time before he
+could recover himself. "Do your worst. But I'll have you, Boundary! I
+don't doubt that you'll get a conviction, and you know the things that I
+can't talk about, and I'll have to take my medicine, but you are not
+going to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, colonel." It was the girl who spoke in so low a voice that he
+would not have heard her, but that he was expecting her to speak. "Do
+you mean that you will&mdash;prosecute my father?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><p>"With law-abiding people," said the colonel profoundly, "the demands of
+justice come first. I must do my duty to the state, but if you should
+change your mind&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She won't change her mind," roared White.</p>
+
+<p>With one stride he had passed between the colonel and the door. Only for
+a second he stood, and then he fell back.</p>
+
+<p>"Do your worst," he said huskily, and Colonel Boundary passed out,
+pocketing the revolver which had come from nowhere into his hand, and
+presently they heard the purr of the departing motor.</p>
+
+<p>He came to Horsham station in a thoughtful frame of mind. He was still
+thinking profoundly when he reached Victoria.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as he stepped on the platform, a hand was laid on his arm, and he
+turned to meet the smiling face of Stafford King.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo," said the colonel, and something within him went cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry to break in on your reverie, colonel," said Stafford King, "but
+I've a warrant for your arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the charge?" asked the colonel, his face grey.</p>
+
+<p>"Blackmail and conspiracy," said King, and saw with amazement the look
+of relief in the other's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Boundary," he said between his teeth, "you thought I wanted you for
+'Snow' Gregory!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel said nothing.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT</h3>
+
+<p>Never before in history had the dingy little street, in which North
+Lambeth Police Court stands, witnessed such scenes as were presented on
+that memorable 4th of December, when counsel for the Crown opened the
+case against Colonel Dan Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the building was open the precincts of the court were
+besieged by people anxious to secure one of the very few seats which
+were available for the public. By nine o'clock it became necessary to
+summon a special force of police to clear a way for the numerous
+motor-cars which came bowling from every point of the compass and which
+were afterwards parked in the narrow side streets, to the intense
+amazement and interest of the curious denizens of the unsavoury
+neighbourhood in which the court is located.</p>
+
+<p>Admission was by ticket. Even the reporters, those favoured servants of
+democracy, had need to produce a printed pass before the scrutinising
+policeman at the door allowed them to enter. Every available seat had
+been allotted. Even the magistrate's sacristy had been invaded, and
+chairs stood three-deep to left and right of him.</p>
+
+<p>There were some who came out of sheer morbid curiosity, in order that
+they might boast that they were present when this remarkable case was
+heard. There were others who came, inwardly quaking at the revelations
+which were promised or hinted at in the daily Press, for the influence
+which the Boundary gang exercised was wide and far-reaching.</p>
+
+<p>A young man stood upon the congested pavement, watching with evident
+impatience the arrival of belated cars. The magistrate had already come
+and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> disappeared behind the slate-coloured gates which led to the
+courtyard. Stafford saw fashionably-dressed women and (with a smile)
+worried-looking men who were figures in the political and social world,
+and presently he involuntarily stepped forward into the roadway as
+though to meet the electric limousine which came noiselessly to the main
+entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The solitary occupant of the car was a man of sixty&mdash;a grey-haired
+gentleman of medium height, dressed with scrupulous care, and wearing on
+his clean-shaven face a perpetual smile, as though life were an
+amusement which never palled.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King took the extended hand with a little twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid we shouldn't be able to keep your place for you, Sir
+Stanley," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley Belcom, First Commissioner of Criminal Intelligence,
+accentuated his smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Stafford," he drawled, "I've come to see the culminating triumph
+of your official career."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King made a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," he said dryly.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, too," said the baronet, "yet&mdash;I'll tell you frankly,
+Stafford, I have a feeling that the ordinary processes of the law are
+inadequate to trap this organisation. The law has too wide a mesh to
+deal with the terror which this man exercises. Such men are the only
+justification of lynch law, the quick, sharp justice which is
+administered without subtlety and without quibble."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford looked at the other and made no attempt to hide his
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"You believe in&mdash;the Jack o' Judgment?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley shot a swift glance at him.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the bugbear of the gang, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"So Hanson says," replied the other. "I verily believe that Hanson is
+more afraid of that mysterious person than he is of Boundary himself."</p>
+
+<p>The Attorney-General had begun his opening speech when the two men made
+their way into the crowded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> court and found their seats at the end of
+the solicitors table.</p>
+
+<p>In the dock sat Colonel Boundary, the least concerned of all that
+assembly. The colonel was leaning forward, his arms resting on the
+rails, his chin on the back of his hairy hand, his eyes glued upon the
+grey-haired lawyer who was dispassionately opening the case.</p>
+
+<p>"The contention of the Crown," the Attorney-General was saying, "is that
+Colonel Boundary is at the head of a huge blackmailing organisation, and
+that in the course of the past twenty years, by such means as I shall
+suggest and as the principal witness for the Crown will tell you, he has
+built up his criminal practice until he now controls the most complex
+and the most iniquitous organisation that has been known in the long and
+sordid history of crime.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Worship will doubtless hear," he went on, "of a bizarre and
+fantastic figure which flits through the pages of this story, a
+mysterious somebody who is called the 'Jack.' But I shall ask your
+Worship, as I shall ask the jury, when this case reaches, as it must
+reach ultimately, the Central Criminal Court, to disregard this
+apparition, which displayed no part in bringing Boundary to justice.</p>
+
+<p>"The contention of the Crown is, as I say, that Boundary, by means of
+terrorisation and blackmail, through the medium and assistance of his
+creatures, has from time to time secured a hold over rich and foolish
+men and women, and from these has acquired the enormous wealth which is
+now his and his associates'. As to these latter, their prosecution
+depends very largely upon the fate of Boundary. There are, I believe,
+some of them in court at this moment, and though they are not arrested,
+it will be no news to them to learn that they are under police
+observation."</p>
+
+<p>"Swell" Crewe, sitting at the back of the court, shifted uneasily and,
+turning his head, he met the careless gaze of the tall, military-looking
+man who had "detective" written all over him.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a pause in the Attorney-General's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> speech whilst he
+examined, short-sightedly, the notes before him.</p>
+
+<p>"In the presentation of this case, your Worship," he went on, "the Crown
+is in somewhat of a dilemma. We have secured one important and, I think,
+convincing witness&mdash;a man who has been closely associated with the
+prisoner, a Scandinavian named Hanson, who, considering himself badly
+treated by this gang, has been for a long time secretly getting together
+evidence of an incriminating character. As to his object we need not
+inquire. There is a possibility suggested by my learned friend, the
+counsel for the defence, that Hanson intended blackmailing the
+blackmailers, and presenting such a weight of evidence against Boundary
+that he could do no less than pay handsomely for his confederate's
+silence. That is as may be. The main fact is that Hanson has accumulated
+this documentary evidence, and that that documentary evidence is in
+existence in certain secret hiding-places in this country, which will be
+revealed in the course of his examination.</p>
+
+<p>"We are at this disadvantage, that Hanson has not yet made anything but
+the most scanty of statements. Fearing for his life, since this gang
+will stick at nothing, he has been closely guarded by the police from
+the moment he made his preliminary statement. Every effort which has
+been made to induce him to commit his revelations to writing has been in
+vain, and we are compelled to take what is practically his affidavit in
+open court."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I understand," interrupted the magistrate, in that weary tone which
+is the prerogative of magistrates, "that you are not as yet in
+possession of the evidence on which I am to be asked to commit the
+prisoner to the Old Bailey?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, your Worship," said the counsel. "All we could procure from
+Hanson was the bald affidavit which was necessary to secure the man's
+arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"So that if anything happened to your witness, there would be no case
+for the Crown?"</p>
+
+<p>The Attorney-General nodded.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>"Those are exactly the circumstances, your Worship," he said, "and that
+is why we have been careful to keep our witness in security. The man is
+in a highly nervous condition, and we have been obliged to humour him.
+But I do not think your Worship need have any apprehension as to the
+evidence which will be produced to-day, or that there will not be
+sufficient to justify a committal."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley turned to Stafford and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a queer proceeding."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the only thing we could do," he said. "Hanson refused to speak
+until he was in court&mdash;until, as he said, he saw Boundary under arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"Does Boundary know this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," replied Stafford with a little smile, "he knows
+everything. He has a whole army of spies. Sir Stanley, you don't know
+how big this organisation is. He has roped in everybody. He has Members
+of Parliament, he has the best lawyers in London, and two of the big
+detective agencies are engaged exclusively on his work."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley pursed his lips thoughtfully and turned his attention to the
+prosecuting counsel. The address was not a long one, and presently the
+Attorney-General sat down, to be followed by a leading member of the
+Bar, retained for the defence. Presently he too had finished, and again
+the Attorney-General rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Call Olaf Hanson," he said, and there was a stir of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The door leading to the cells opened, and two tall detectives came
+through, and two others followed. In the midst of the four walked the
+short, grey-faced man, in whose hands was the fate, and indeed the life,
+of Colonel Dan Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>He did not as much as glance at the dock, but hurried across the floor
+of the court and was ushered to the witness stand, his four guardians
+disposing themselves behind and before him. The man seemed on the point<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+of crumbling. His fear-full eyes ranged the court, always avoiding the
+gross figure in the railed dock. The lips of the witness were white and
+trembling. The hands which clutched the front of the box for support
+twitched spasmodically.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name is Olaf Hanson?" asked the Attorney-General soothingly.</p>
+
+<p>The witness tried to speak but his lips emitted no sound. He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a native of Christiania?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Hanson nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You must speak out," said Counsel kindly, "and you need have no fear.
+How long have you known Colonel Boundary?"</p>
+
+<p>This time Hanson found his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"For ten years," he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>An usher came forward from the press at the back of the court with a
+glass of water and handed it to the witness, who drank eagerly. Counsel
+waited until he had drained the glass before he spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"You have in your possession certain documentary evidence convicting
+Colonel Boundary of certain malpractices?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the witness.</p>
+
+<p>"You have promised the police that you will reveal in court where those
+documents have been stored?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Hanson again.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell the court now, in order that the police may lose as
+little time as possible, where you have hidden that evidence?"</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary was showing the first signs of interest he had evinced
+in the proceedings. He leaned forward, his head craned round as though
+endeavouring to catch the eye of the witness.</p>
+
+<p>Hanson was speaking, and speaking with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"I haf&mdash;put those papers,"&mdash;he stopped and swayed&mdash;"I haf put those
+papers&mdash;&mdash;" he began again, and then, without a second's warning, he
+fell limply forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid he has fainted," said the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>Detectives were crowding round the witness, and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> lifted him from the
+witness stand. One said something hurriedly, and Stafford King left his
+seat. He was bending over the prostrate figure, tearing open the collar
+from his throat, and presently was joined by the police surgeon, who was
+in court. There was a little whispered consultation, and then Stafford
+King straightened himself up and his face was pale and hard.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret to inform your Worship," he said, "that the witness is dead."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>STAFFORD KING RESIGNS</h3>
+
+<p>A week later, Stafford King came into the office of the First
+Commissioner of the Criminal Intelligence Department, and Sir Stanley
+looked up with a kindly but pitying look in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Stafford," he said gently, "sit down, won't you. What has
+happened?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Boundary is discharged," he said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It was inevitable," he said, "I suppose there's no hope of connecting
+him and his gang with the death of Hanson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a ghost of a hope, I am afraid," said Stafford, shaking his head.
+"Hanson was undoubtedly murdered, and the poison which killed him was in
+the glass of water which the usher brought. I've been examining the
+usher again to-day, and all he can remember is that he saw somebody
+pushing through the crowd at the back of the court, who handed the glass
+over the heads of the people. Nobody seems to have seen the man who
+passed it. That was the method by which the gang got rid of their
+traitor."</p>
+
+<p>"Clever," said Sir Stanley, putting his finger-tips together. "They knew
+just the condition of mind in which Hanson would be when he came into
+court. They had the dope ready, and they knew that the detectives would
+allow the usher to bring the man water, when they would not allow
+anybody else to approach him. This is a pretty bad business, Stafford."</p>
+
+<p>"I realise that," said the young chief. "Of course, I shall resign.
+There's nothing else to do. I thought we had him this time, especially
+with the evidence we had in relation to the Spillsbury case."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>"You mean the letter which Spillsbury wrote to the woman Marsh? How did
+that come, by the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"It reached Scotland Yard by post."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who sent it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was no covering note at all," replied Stafford. "It was in a
+plain envelope with a typewritten address and was sent to me personally.
+The letter, of course, was valueless by itself."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you made any search to discover the documents which Hanson spoke
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have searched everywhere," said the other a little wearily, "but it
+is a pretty hopeless business looking through London for a handful of
+documents. Anyway, friend Boundary is free."</p>
+
+<p>The other was watching him closely.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a bitter disappointment to you, my young friend," he said;
+"you've been working on the case for years. I fear you'll never have
+another such chance of putting Boundary in the dock. He's got a lot of
+public sympathy, too. Your thorough-paced rascal who escapes from the
+hands of the police has always a large following amongst the public, and
+I doubt whether the Home Secretary will sanction any further
+proceedings, unless we have most convincing proof. What's this?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford had laid a letter on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"My resignation," said that young man grimly.</p>
+
+<p>The First Commissioner took up the envelope and tore it in four pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not accepted," he said cheerfully; "you did your best, and you're
+no more responsible than I am. If you resign, I ought to resign, and so
+ought every officer who has been on this game. A few years ago I took
+exactly the same step&mdash;offered my resignation over a purely private and
+personal matter, and it was not accepted. I have been glad since, and so
+will you be. Go on with your work and give Boundary a rest for awhile."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford was looking down at him abstractedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think we shall ever catch the fellow, sir?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><p>Sir Stanley smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Frankly, I don't," he admitted. "As I said before, the only danger I
+see to Boundary is this mysterious individual who apparently crops up
+now and again in his daily life, and who, I suspect, was the person who
+sent you the Spillsbury letter&mdash;the Jack o' Judgment, doesn't he call
+himself? Do you know what I think?" he asked quietly. "I think that if
+you found the 'Jack,' if you ran him to earth, stripped him of his
+mystic guise, you would discover somebody who has a greater grudge
+against Boundary than the police."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't run about after phantoms, sir," he said, with a touch of
+asperity in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>The chief looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you do quite a lot of running about," he said carelessly, as he
+began to arrange the papers on his table. "By the way, how is Miss
+White?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"She was very well when I saw her last night," he said stiffly; "she is
+leaving the stage."</p>
+
+<p>"And her father?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford was silent for a second.</p>
+
+<p>"He left his home a week before the case came into court and has not
+been seen since," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The chief nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Whilst White is away and until he turns up I should keep a watchful eye
+on his daughter," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir?" asked Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm just making a suggestion," said the other. "Think it over."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford thought it over on his way to meet the girl, who was waiting
+for him on a sunny seat in Temple Gardens, for the day was fine and even
+warm, and, two hours before luncheon, the place was comparatively empty
+of people.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the trouble in his face and rose to meet him, and for a moment
+forgot her own distress of mind, her doubts and fears. Evidently she
+knew the reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> for his attendance at Scotland Yard, and something of
+the interview which he had had.</p>
+
+<p>"I offered my resignation," he replied, in answer to her unspoken
+question, "and Sir Stanley refused it."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he was just," she said. "Why, it would be simply monstrous if
+your career were spoilt through no fault of your own."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let us talk about me," he said. "What have you done?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've cancelled all my contracts; I have other work to do."</p>
+
+<p>"How are&mdash;&mdash;" He hesitated, but she knew just what he meant, and patted
+his arm gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, I have all the money I want," she said. "Father left me
+quite a respectable balance. I am closing the house at Horsham and
+storing the furniture, and shall keep just sufficient to fill a little
+flat I have taken in Bloomsbury."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are lots of things that a girl can do," she said vaguely,
+"besides going on the stage."</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't it a sacrifice? Didn't you love your work?"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I did at first," she said. "You see, I was always a very good
+mimic. When I was quite a little girl I could imitate the colonel.
+Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly to his amazement he heard the drawling growl of Dan Boundary.
+She laughed with glee at his amazement, but the smile vanished and she
+sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to tell me one thing, Mr. King&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stafford&mdash;you promised me," he began.</p>
+
+<p>She reddened.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly like calling you by your christian name but it sounds so like
+a surname that perhaps it won't be so bad."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want to ask?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a moment, then she said:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p><p>"How far was my father implicated in this terrible business?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the gang?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>He was in a dilemma. Solomon White was implicated as deeply as any save
+the colonel. In his younger days he had been the genius who was
+responsible for the organisation and had been for years the colonel's
+right-hand man until the more subtle villainy of Pinto Silva, that
+Portuguese adventurer, had ousted him, and, if the truth be told, until
+the sight of his girl growing to womanhood had brought qualms to the
+heart of this man, who, whatever his faults, loved the girl dearly.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't answer me," she said, "but I think I am answered by your
+silence. Was my father&mdash;a bad man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not judge your father," he said. "I can tell you this, that for
+the past few years he has played a very small part in the affairs of the
+gang. But what are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"How persistent you are!" she laughed. "Why, there are so many things I
+am going to do that I haven't time to tell you. For one thing, I am
+going to work to undo some of the mischief which the gang have wrought.
+I am going to make such reparation as I can," she said, her lips
+trembling, "for the evil deeds my father has committed."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a mission, eh?" he said with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded. "I feel it here." She put her hand on
+her heart. "There's something which tells me that, even if my father
+built up this gang, as you told me once he did&mdash;ah! you had forgotten
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King had indeed forgotten the statement.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" he said. "You intend to pull it down?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel, too, that I am at bay. I am the daughter of Solomon White, and
+Solomon White is regarded by the colonel as a traitor. Do you think they
+will leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> me alone? Don't you think they are going to watch me day and
+night and get me in their power just as soon as they can? Think of the
+lever that would be, the lever to force my father back to them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you'll be watched all right," he said easily, and remembered the
+commissioner's warning. "In fact, you're being watched now. Do you
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now?" she asked in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded towards a lady who sat a dozen yards away and whose face was
+carefully shaded by a parasol.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she?" asked the girl curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"A young person called Lollie Marsh," laughed Stafford. "At present she
+has a mission too, which is to entangle me into a compromising
+position."</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked towards the spy with a new interest and a new
+resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"She has been trailing me for weeks," he went on, "and it would be
+embarrassing to tell you the number of times we have been literally
+thrown into one another's arms. Poor girl!" he said, with mock concern,
+"she must be bored with sitting there so long. Let us take a stroll."</p>
+
+<p>If he expected Lollie to follow, he was to be disappointed She stayed on
+watching the disappearing figures, without attempting to rise, and
+waiting until they were out of sight, she walked out on to the
+Embankment and hailed a passing taxi. She seemed quite satisfied in her
+mind that the plan she had evolved for the trapping of Stafford King
+could not fail to succeed.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS</h3>
+
+<p>A merry little dinner party was assembled that night in a luxurious flat
+in Albemarle House. It was a bachelor party, and consisted of three&mdash;the
+colonel, resplendent in evening dress, "Swell" Crewe and a middle-aged
+man whose antique dress coat and none too spotless linen certainly did
+not advertise their owner's prosperity. Yet this man with the stubbly
+moustache and the bald head could write his cheque for seven figures,
+being Mr. Thomas Crotin, of the firm of Crotin and Principle, whose
+swollen mills occupy a respectable acreage in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.</p>
+
+<p>"You're Colonel Boundary, are you?" he said admiringly, and for about
+the seventh time since the meal started.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded with a good-humoured twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, fancy that!" said Mr. Crotin. "I'll have something to talk about
+when I go back to Yorkshire. It is lucky I met your friend, Captain
+Crewe, at our club in Huddersfield."</p>
+
+<p>There was something more than luck in that meeting, as the colonel well
+knew.</p>
+
+<p>"I read about the trial and all," said the Yorkshireman; "I must say it
+looked very black against you, colonel."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel smiled again and lifted a bottle towards the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay!" said the spinner. "I'll have nowt more. I've got as much as
+I can carry, and I know when I've had enough."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel replaced the bottle by his side.</p>
+
+<p>"So you read of the trial, did you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>"I did and all," said the other, "and I said to my missus: 'Yon's a
+clever fellow, I'd like to meet him.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You have an admiration for the criminal classes, eh?" said the colonel
+good-humouredly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not saying you're a criminal," said the other, taking his
+host literally, "but being a J.P. and on the bench of magistrates, I
+naturally take an interest in these cases. You never know what you can
+learn."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did your lady wife say?" asked Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>The Yorkshireman smiled broadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she doesn't take any interest in these things. She's a proper
+London lady, my wife. She was in a high position when I married."</p>
+
+<p>"Five years ago," said Boundary, "you married the daughter of Lord
+Westsevern. It cost you a hundred thousand pounds to pay the old man's
+debts."</p>
+
+<p>The Yorkshireman stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know that?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You're nominated for Parliament, too, aren't you. And you're to be
+Mayor of Little Thornhill?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin laughed uproariously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've got me properly taped," he said admiringly, and the
+colonel agreed with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"So you're interested in the criminal classes?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin waved a protesting hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not saying you're a member of the criminal classes, colonel," he
+said. "My friend Crewe here wouldn't think I would be so rude. Of
+course, I know the charge was all wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"That's where you're mistaken," interrupted the colonel calmly; "it was
+all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>The man stared.</p>
+
+<p>"The charge was perfectly sound," said the colonel, playing with his
+fruit knife; "for twenty years I have been making money by buying
+businesses at about a twentieth of their value and selling them again."</p>
+
+<p>"But how&mdash;&mdash;" began the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, I'll tell you. I've got men working for me all over the country,
+agents and sub-agents, who are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> constantly on the look-out for scandal.
+Housekeepers, servants, valets&mdash;you know the sort of people who get hold
+of information."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin was speechless.</p>
+
+<p>"Sooner or later I find a very incriminating fact which concerns a
+gentleman of property. I prefer those scandals which verge on the
+criminal," the colonel went on.</p>
+
+<p>The outraged Mr. Crotin was rolling his serviette.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going? What are you going to do? The night's young," said
+the colonel innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going," said Mr. Crotin, very red of face. "A joke's a joke, and
+when friend Crewe introduced me to you, I hadn't any idea that you were
+that kind of man. You don't suppose that I'm going to sit here in your
+society&mdash;me with my high connections&mdash;after what you've said?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked the colonel; "after all, business is business, and as
+I'm making an offer to you for the Riverborne Mill&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The Riverborne Mill?" roared the spinner. "Ah! that's a joke of yours!
+You'll buy no Riverborne Mill of me, sitha!"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, I shall buy the Riverborne Mill from you. In fact, I
+have all the papers and transfers ready for you to sign."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you have, have you?" said the man grimly. "And what might you be
+offering me for the Riverborne?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm offering you thirty thousand pounds cash," said the colonel, and
+his bearer was stricken speechless.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty thousand pounds cash!" he said after awhile. "Why, man, that
+property is worth two hundred thousand pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was worth a little more," said the colonel carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a fool or a madman," said the angry Yorkshireman. "It isn't my
+mill, it is a limited company."</p>
+
+<p>"But you hold the majority of the shares&mdash;ninety-five per cent., I
+think," said the colonel. "Those are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> shares which you will transfer
+to me at the price I suggest."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see you damned first," roared Crotin, bringing his hand down smash
+on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down again for one moment." The colonel's voice was gentle but
+insistent. "Do you know Maggie Delman?"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Crotin's face went white.</p>
+
+<p>"She was one of your father's mill-girls when you were little more than
+a boy," the colonel proceeded, "and you were rather in love with her,
+and one Easter you went away together to Blackpool. Do you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>Still Crotin did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"You married the young lady and the marriage was kept secret because you
+were afraid of your father, and as the years went on and the girl was
+content with the little home you had made for her and the allowance you
+gave her, there seemed to be no need to admit your marriage, especially
+as there were no children. Then you began to take part in local politics
+and to accumulate ambitions. You dared not divorce your wife and you
+thought there was no necessity for it. You had a chance of improving
+yourself socially by marrying the daughter of an English lord, and you
+jumped at it."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got to prove that," he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>The man found his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I can prove it all right. Oh, no, your wife hasn't betrayed you&mdash;your
+real wife, I mean. You've betrayed yourself by insisting on paying her
+by telegraphic money orders. We heard of these mysterious payments but
+suspected nothing beyond a vulgar love affair. Then one night, whilst
+your placid and complacent wife was in a cinema, one of my people
+searched her box and came upon the certificate of marriage. Would you
+like to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've nothing to say," said Crotin thickly. "You've got me, mister. So
+that is how you do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is how I do it," said the colonel. "I believe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> in being frank with
+people like you. Here are the transfers. You see the place for your
+signature marked with a pencil."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Crotin leaped at him in a blind fury, but the colonel gripped
+him by the throat with a hand like a steel vice, and shook him as a dog
+would shake a rat. And the gentle tone in his voice changed as quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and sign!" snarled Boundary. "If you play that game, I'll
+break your damned neck! Come any of those tricks with me and I'll smash
+you. Give him the pen, Crewe."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see you in gaol for this," said the white-faced man shakily.</p>
+
+<p>"That's about the place you will see me, if you don't sign, and it is
+the inside of that gaol you'll be to see me."</p>
+
+<p>The man rose up unsteadily, flinging down the pen as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll suffer for this," he said between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Not unduly," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>There was a tap at the door and the colonel swung round.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's that?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I come in?" said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe was frowning.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened slowly. A gloved hand, and then a white, hooded face,
+slipped through the narrow entry.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment come to make a call,"
+chuckled the hateful voice. "Down, dog; down!" He flourished the
+long-barrelled revolver theatrically, then turned with a chuckle of
+laughter to the gaping Mr. Crotin.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Jacob!" he crooned, "he has sold his birthright for a mess of
+pottage! Don't touch that paper, Crewe, or you die the death!"</p>
+
+<p>His hand leapt out and snatched the transfer, which he thrust into the
+hand of the wool-spinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Get out and go home, my poor sheep," he said, "back to the blankets! Do
+you think they'd be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> satisfied with one mill? They'd come for a mill
+every year and they'd never leave you till you were dead or broke. Go to
+the police, my poor lamb, and tell them your sad story. Go to the
+admirable Mr. Stafford King&mdash;he'll fall on your neck. You won't, I see
+you won't!"</p>
+
+<p>The laughter rose again, and then swiftly with one arm he swung back the
+merchant and stood in silence till the door of the flat slammed.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel found his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know who you are," he said, breathing heavily, "but I'll make a
+bargain with you. I've offered a hundred thousand pounds to anybody who
+gets you. I'll offer you the same amount to leave me alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Make it a hundred thousand millions!" said Jack o' Judgment in his
+curious, squeaky voice, "give me the moon and an apple, and I'm yours!"</p>
+
+<p>He was gone before they could realise he had passed through the door,
+and he had left the flat before either moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick! The window!" said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>The window commanded a view of the front entrance of Albemarle House,
+and the entry was well lighted. They reached the window in time to see
+the Yorkshireman emerge with unsteady steps and stride into the night.
+They waited for their visitor to follow. A minute, two minutes passed,
+and then somebody walked down the steps to the light. It was a woman,
+and as she turned her face the colonel gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie White!" he said in a wondering voice. "What the devil is she
+doing here?"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR</h3>
+
+<p>Maisie White had taken up her abode in a modest flat in Doughty Street,
+Bloomsbury. The building had been originally intended for a dwelling
+house, but its enterprising owner had fitted a kitchenette and a
+bathroom to every floor and had made each suite self-contained.</p>
+
+<p>She found the one bedroom and a sitting-room quite sufficient for her
+needs. Since the day of her father's departure she had not heard from
+him, and she had resolutely refused to worry. What was Solomon White's
+association with the Boundary gang, she could only guess. She knew it
+had been an important one, but her fears on his behalf had less to do
+with the action the police might take against him than with Boundary's
+sinister threat.</p>
+
+<p>She had other reasons for leaving the stage than she had told Stafford
+King. On the stage she was a marked woman and her movements could be
+followed for at least three hours in the day, and she was anxious for
+more anonymity. She was conscious of two facts as she opened the outer
+door that night to let herself into the hallway, and hurried up to her
+apartments. The first was that she had been followed home, and that
+impression was the more important of the two. She did not switch on the
+light when she entered her room, but bolting the door behind her, she
+moved swiftly to the window and raised it noiselessly. Looking out, she
+saw two men on the opposite side of the street, standing together in
+consultation. It was too dark to recognise them, but she thought that
+one figure was Pinto Silva.</p>
+
+<p>She was not frightened, but nevertheless she looked thoughtfully at the
+telephone, and her hand was on the receiver before she changed her mind.
+After all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> they would know where she lived and an inquiry at her agents
+or even at the theatre would tell them to where her letters had been
+readdressed. She hesitated a moment, then pulled down the blinds and
+switched on the light.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the two men saw the light flash up and watched her shadow cross
+the blind.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Maisie all right," said Pinto. "Now tell me what happened."</p>
+
+<p>In a few words Crewe described the scene which he had witnessed in the
+Albemarle flat.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" said Pinto; "are you suggesting that Maisie is Jack o'
+Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about it," he said; "there are the facts."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto looked up at the light again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going across to see her," he said, and Crewe made a grimace.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that wise?" he asked; "she doesn't know we have followed her home.
+Won't she be suspicious?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a pretty clever girl that," he said, "and if she doesn't know
+we're outside, there's nothing of Solomon White in her composition."</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the road and struck a match to discover which was her bell.
+He guessed right the first time. Maisie heard the tinkle and knew what
+it portended. She had not started to disrobe, and after a few moments'
+hesitation she went down the stairs and opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather a late hour to call on you," said Pinto pleasantly, "but
+we saw you going away from Albemarle Place, and could not overtake you."</p>
+
+<p>There was a question in his voice, though he did not give it actual
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather late for small talk," she said coolly. "Is there any
+reason for your call?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss White, there were several things I wanted to talk to you
+about," said Pinto, taken aback by her calm. "Have you heard from your
+father?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>"Don't you think," she said, "it would be better if you came at a more
+conventional hour? I don't feel inclined to gossip on the doorstep and
+I'm afraid I can't ask you in."</p>
+
+<p>"The colonel is worrying," Pinto hastened to explain. "You see, Solly's
+one of his best friends."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she said. "I heard the colonel talking to my father at
+Horsham," she added meaningly.</p>
+
+<p>"You've got to make allowances for the colonel," urged Pinto; "he lost
+his temper, but he's feeling all right now. Couldn't you persuade your
+father to communicate with us&mdash;with him?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in a position to communicate with my father," she replied
+quietly. "I am just as ignorant of his whereabouts as you are. If
+anybody is anxious it is surely myself, Mr. Silva."</p>
+
+<p>"And another point," Silva went on, so that there should be no gap in
+the conversation, "why did you give up your theatrical engagements,
+Maisie? I took a lot of trouble to get them for you, and it is stupid to
+jeopardise your career. I have plenty of influence, but managers will
+not stand that kind of treatment, and when you go back&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going back," she said. "Really, Mr. Silva, you must excuse me
+to-night. I am very tired after a hard day's work&mdash;&mdash;" she checked
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing now, Maisie?" asked Silva curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no wish to prolong this conversation," said the girl, "but there
+is one thing I should like to say, and that is that I would prefer you
+to call me Miss White."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, all right," said Silva genially, "and what were you doing at
+the flat to-night, Mai&mdash;Miss White?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good night," said the girl and closed the door in his face.</p>
+
+<p>He cursed angrily in the dark and raised his hand to rap on the panel of
+the door, but thought better of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and, turning, walked back to the
+interested Crewe, who stood in the shadow of a lamp-post watching the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound the girl, she won't talk," grumbled Silva. "I'd give something
+to break that pride of hers, Crewe. By jove, I'll do it one of these
+days," he added between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no sense in going off the deep end because a girl turns you
+down," he said. "What did she say about the flat? And what did she say
+about her visit to Albemarle Place?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said nothing," said the other shortly. "Come along, let's go back
+to the colonel."</p>
+
+<p>On the return journey he declined to be drawn into any kind of
+conversation, and Crewe, after one or two attempts to procure
+enlightenment as to the result of the interview, relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>They found the colonel waiting for them, and to all appearances the
+colonel was undisturbed by the happenings of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She admits she was here," said Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"What was she doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better ask her yourself," said the other with some asperity. "I
+tell you, colonel, I can't handle that woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody ever thought you could," said the colonel. "Did she give you any
+idea as to what her business was?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shook his head and the colonel paced the big room thoughtfully,
+his big hands in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a situation," he said. "There's some outsider who's following
+every movement we make, who knew that boob from Huddersfield was coming,
+and who knew what our business was. That somebody was this infernal Jack
+o' Judgment, but who is Jack o' Judgment, hey?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked round fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you who he is," he went on, speaking slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> "He's somebody
+who knows our gang as well as we know it ourselves, somebody who has
+been on the inside, somebody who has access, or who has had access, to
+our working methods. In fact," he said using his pet phrase, "a business
+associate."</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish!" said Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>This polished man of Portugal, who had come into the gang very late in
+the day, was one of the few people who were privileged to offer blunt
+opposition to the leader of the Boundary Gang.</p>
+
+<p>"You might as well say it is I, or that it is Crewe, or Dempsey, or
+Selby&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Or White," said the colonel slowly; "don't forget White."</p>
+
+<p>They stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Crewe with a frown.</p>
+
+<p>White had been a favourite of his.</p>
+
+<p>"How could it be White?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't it be White?" said the colonel. "When did Jack o'
+Judgment make his first appearance? I'll tell you. About the time we
+started getting busy framing up something against White. Did we ever see
+him when White was with us&mdash;no! Isn't it obviously somebody who has been
+a business associate and knows our little ways? Why, of course it is.
+Tell me somebody else?</p>
+
+<p>"You don't suggest it is 'Snow' Gregory, anyway?" he added
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe shivered and half-closed his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake don't mention 'Snow' Gregory," he said irritably.</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't I?" snarled the colonel. "He's worth money and life and
+liberty to us, Crewe. He's an awful example that keeps some of our
+business associates on the straight path. Not," he added with elaborate
+care, "not that we were in any way responsible for his untimely end. But
+he died&mdash;providentially. A doper's bad enough, but a doper who talks and
+boasts and tells me, as he told me in this very room, just where he'd
+put me, is a mighty dangerous man, Crewe."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>"Did he do that?" asked Crewe with interest.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"In this very room where you're standing," he said impressively, "at the
+end of that table he stood, all lit up with 'coco' and he told me things
+about our organisation that I thought nobody knew but myself. That's the
+worst of drugs," he said, shaking his head reprovingly; "you never know
+how clever they'll make a man, and they made 'Snow' a bit too clever.
+I'm not saying that I regretted his death&mdash;far from it. I don't know how
+he got mixed up in the affair&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, shut up!" growled Pinto; "why go on acting before us? We were all
+in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said the colonel with a glance at the door.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. All eyes were fixed on the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear anything?" asked the colonel under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>His face was a shade paler than they had ever remembered seeing it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is nothing," said Pinto; "that fellow's got on your nerves."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel walked to the sideboard and poured out a generous portion of
+whisky and drank it at a gulp.</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of things are getting on my nerves," he said, "but nothing gets on
+my nerves so much as losing money. Crewe, we've got to go after that
+Yorkshireman again&mdash;at least somebody has got to go after him."</p>
+
+<p>"And that somebody is not going to be me," said Crewe quietly. "I did my
+part of the business. Let Pinto have a cut."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto Silva shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll drop him," he said decisively, and for the first time Crewe
+realised how dominating a factor Pinto had become in the government of
+the band.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll drop him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he stopped and craned his head round.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>It was he who had heard something near the door, and now with noiseless
+steps he tiptoed across the room to the door, and gripping the handle,
+opened it suddenly. A gun had appeared in his hand, but he did not use
+it. Instead, he darted through the open doorway and they heard the sound
+of a struggle. Presently he came back, dragging by the collar a man.</p>
+
+<p>"Got him!" he said triumphantly, and hurled his captive into the nearest
+chair.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE</h3>
+
+<p>Their prisoner was a stranger. He was a lean, furtive-looking man of
+thirty-five, below middle height, respectably dressed, and at first
+glance, the colonel, whose hobby was distinguishing at a look the social
+standing of humanity, was unable to place him.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe locked the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," said the colonel, "what the devil were you doing listening
+at my door? Was that his game, Mr. Silva?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was his game," said the other, brushing his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you got to say before I send for the police?" asked the
+colonel virtuously. "What have you got to say for yourself? Sneaking
+about a gentleman's flat, listening at keyholes!"</p>
+
+<p>The man, who had been roughly handled, had risen and was putting his
+collar straight. If he had been taken aback by the sudden onslaught, he
+was completely self-possessed now.</p>
+
+<p>"If you want to send for the police, you'd better start right away," he
+said; "you've got a telephone, haven't you? Perhaps I'll have a job for
+the policeman, too. You've no right to assault me, my friend," he said,
+addressing Pinto resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>"What were you doing?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Find out," said the man sharply.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel stroked his long moustache, and his manner underwent a
+change.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, old man," he said almost jovially; "we're all friends
+here, and we don't want any trouble. I daresay you've made a mistake,
+and my friend has made a mistake. Have a whisky and soda?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>The man grinned crooked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not me, thank you," he said emphatically; "if I remember rightly, there
+was a young gentleman who took a glass of water in North Lambeth Police
+Court the other day, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel's eyes narrowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sit down and be sociable. If you're suggesting that I'm going to
+poison you, you're also suggesting that you know something which I don't
+want you to tell. Or that you have discovered one of those terrible
+secrets that the newspapers are all writing about. Now be a sensible
+man; have a drink."</p>
+
+<p>The man hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a drink of whisky out of the same bottle, and I'll join you."</p>
+
+<p>"Help yourself," said the colonel good-naturedly. "Give me any glass you
+like."</p>
+
+<p>The man went to the sideboard, poured out two pegs and sent the
+soda-water sizzling into the long glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's yours and here's mine," he said; "good luck!"</p>
+
+<p>He drank the whisky off, after he had seen the colonel drink his, and
+wiped his mouth with a gaudy handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm taking it for granted," said the colonel, "that we've made no
+mistake and that you were listening at our door. Now we want no
+unpleasantness, and we'll talk about this matter as sensible human
+beings and man to man."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way to talk," said the other, smacking his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been sent here to watch me."</p>
+
+<p>"I may have and I may not have," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shifted impatiently, but the colonel stopped him with a look.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let me see what you are," mused the colonel, still wearing that
+benevolent smile of his. "You're not an ordinary tradesman. You've got a
+look of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the book canvasser about you. I have it&mdash;you're a private
+detective!"</p>
+
+<p>The man smirked.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am," said he, "and," he added, "perhaps I'm not."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel slapped him on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you are," he said confidently; "we don't see shrewd-looking
+fellows like you every day. You're a split!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not official," said the man quickly.</p>
+
+<p>He had all the English private detective's fear of posing as the genuine
+article.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here," said the colonel, "I'm going to be perfectly straight
+with you, and you've got to be straight with me. That's fair, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite fair," said the man; "if I've been misconducting myself in any
+manner&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention it," said the colonel politely, "my friend here will
+apologise for handling you roughly, I'm sure; won't you, Mr. Silva?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" said the other, without any great heartiness.</p>
+
+<p>He was tired of this conversation and was anxious to know where it was
+leading.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not in the private detective business for your health," said the
+colonel, and the man shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I bet you're working for a firm that's paying you about three pounds a
+week and your miserable expenses&mdash;a perfect dog's life."</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite right there," said the man, and he spoke with the
+earnestness of the ill-used wage-earner, "it is a dog's life; out in all
+kinds of weather, all hours of the day and night, and never so much as
+'thank you' for any work you do. Why, we get no credit at all, sir. If
+we go into the witness-box, the lawyers treat us like dirt."</p>
+
+<p>"I absolutely agree with you," said the colonel, shaking his head. "I
+think the private detective business in this country isn't appreciated
+as it ought to be. And it is very curious we should have met you,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> he
+went on; "only this evening I was saying to my friends here, that we
+ought to get a good man to look after our interests. You've heard about
+me, I'm sure, Mr.&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Snakit," said the other; "here's my card."</p>
+
+<p>He produced a card from his waistcoat pocket, and the colonel read it.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Horace Snakit," he said, "of Dooby and Somes. Now what do you say
+to coming into our service?"</p>
+
+<p>The man blinked.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a good job&mdash;&mdash;" he began inconsistently.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you a better&mdash;six pounds a week, regular expenses and an
+allowance for dressing."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bet!" said Mr. Snakit promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can consider yourself engaged right away. Now, Mr. Snakit, as
+frankness is the basis of our intercourse, you will tell me straight
+away whether you were engaged in watching me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll admit that, sir," said the man readily. "I had a job to watch you
+and to discover if you knew the whereabouts of a certain person."</p>
+
+<p>"Who engaged you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;&mdash;" the man hesitated. "I don't know whether it isn't betraying
+the confidence of a client," he waited for some encouragement to pursue
+the path of rectitude and honour, but received none. "Well, I'll tell
+you candidly, our firm has been engaged by a young lady. She brought me
+here to-night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss White, eh?" said the colonel quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss White it was, sir," said Snakit.</p>
+
+<p>"So that was why she was here? She wanted to show you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just where your rooms were, sir," said the man. "She also wanted to
+show me the back stairs by which I could get out of the building if I
+wanted to."</p>
+
+<p>"What were your general instructions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just to watch you, sir, and if I had an opportunity when you were out,
+of sneaking in and nosing round."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>"I see," said the colonel. "Crewe, just take Mr. Snakit downstairs and
+tell him where to report. Fix up his pay&mdash;you know," he gave a
+significant sideways jerk of his head, and Crewe escorted the gratified
+little detective from the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>When the door had closed, the colonel turned on Silva.</p>
+
+<p>"Pinto," he said and there was a rumble in his voice which betrayed his
+anger, "that girl is dangerous. She may or may not know where her father
+is&mdash;this detective business may be a blind. Probably Snakit was sent
+here knowing that he would be captured and spill the beans."</p>
+
+<p>"That struck me, too," said Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"She's dangerous," repeated the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>He resumed his promenade up and down the room.</p>
+
+<p>"She's an active worker and she's working against us. Now, I'm going to
+settle with Miss White," he said gratingly. "I'm going to settle with
+her for good and all. I don't care what she knows, but she probably
+knows too much. She's hand in glove with the police and maybe she's
+working with her father. You'll get Phillopolis here to-morrow
+morning&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The other's eyes opened.</p>
+
+<p>"Phillopolis?" he almost gasped. "Good heavens! You're not going to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel faced him squarely.</p>
+
+<p>"You've had your chance with the girl and you've missed it," he said.
+"You've tried your fancy method of courting and you've fallen down."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm not going to stand for Phillopolis," said the other, with tense
+face. "I tell you I like the girl. There's going to be none of that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there isn't, isn't there?" said the colonel in his silkiest tone.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly he leaned forward across the table and his face was the
+face of a devil.</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one Boundary Gang, Pinto, and this is it," he said between
+his clenched white teeth, "and there's only one Dan Boundary and that's
+me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Do you get me, Pinto? You can go a long way with me if I happen to
+be going that way. But you stand in the road and you're going to get
+what's coming. I've been good to you, Pinto. I've stood your
+interference because it amused me. But you come up against me, really up
+against me, and by the Lord Harry! you'll know it. Did you get that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got it" said Pinto sullenly.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS</h3>
+
+<p>The upbuilding of the Boundary gang had neither been an accident, nor
+was it exactly designed on the lines which it ultimately followed.</p>
+
+<p>The main structure was Boundary himself, with his extraordinary
+financial genius, his plausibility, his lightning exploitation of every
+advantage which offered. Outwardly he was the head of three trading
+corporations which complied with the laws, paid small but respectable
+dividends and cloaked other operations which never appeared in the
+official records of the companies.</p>
+
+<p>The sidelines of the gang came through force of circumstances.
+Men&mdash;good, bad and indifferent&mdash;were drawn into the orbit of its
+activities, as extraordinary circumstances arose or dire necessities
+dictated. Throughout the length and breadth of Britain, through France,
+Italy, and in the days before the war, and even during the war, in
+Germany, in Russia and in the United States, were men who, if they could
+not be described as agents, were at least ready tools.</p>
+
+<p>He had a finger in every unsavoury pie. The bank robber discharged from
+gaol did not ask Colonel Boundary to finance him in the purchase of a
+new kit of tools&mdash;an up-to date burglar's kit costs something over two
+hundred pounds&mdash;but there were people who would lend the money, which
+eventually came out of the colonel's pocket. Some of the businesses he
+financed were on the border line of respectability. Some into which his
+money was sunk were frankly infamous. But it was a popular fiction that
+he knew nothing of these. Or, if he did know, that he was financing or
+at the back of a scoundrel, it was insisted that that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> scoundrel was
+engaged in (so far as the colonel knew) legitimate enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Phillopolis was a small Greek merchant, who had an office in
+Mincing Court&mdash;a tiny room at the top of four flights of stairs. On the
+glass panel of its door was the announcement: "General Exporter."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Phillopolis spent three or four hours at his office daily and for
+the rest of the time, particularly towards the evening, was to be found
+in a <i>brasserie</i> in Soho. He was a dark little man, with fierce
+moustachios and a set of perfect white teeth which he displayed readily,
+for he was easily amused. His most intimate acquaintances knew him to be
+an exporter of Greek produce to South America, and he was, in the large
+sense of the word, eminently respectable.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally he would be seen away from his customary haunt, discussing
+with a compatriot some very urgent business, which few knew about. For
+there were ships which cleared from the Greek ports, carrying cargoes to
+the order of Mr. Phillopolis, which did not appear in any bill of
+lading. Dazed-looking Armenian girls, girls from South Russia, from
+Greece, from Smyrna, en route to a promised land, looked forward to the
+realisation of those wonderful visions which the Greek agent had so
+carefully sketched.</p>
+
+<p>In half a dozen South American towns the proprietors of as many dance
+halls would look over the new importations approvingly and remit their
+bank drafts to the merchant of Mincing Court. It was a profitable
+business, particularly in pre-war days.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel departed from his usual practice and met the Greek himself,
+the place of meeting being a small hotel in Aldgate. Whatever other
+pretences the colonel made, he did not attempt to continue the fiction
+that he was ignorant of the Greek's trade.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," he said after the first greetings were over, "I've been a good
+friend to you."</p>
+
+<p>"You have indeed, colonel," said the man gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke English with a very slight accent, for he had been born and
+educated in London.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>"If ever I can render you a service&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You can," said the colonel, "but it is not going to be easy."</p>
+
+<p>The Greek eyed him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy or hard," he said, "I'll go through with it."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"How is the business in South America?" he asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek spread out his hands in deprecation.</p>
+
+<p>"The war!" he said tragically, "you can imagine what it has been like.
+All those girls waiting for music-hall engagements and impossible to
+ship them owing to the fleets. I must have lost thousands of pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"The demand hasn't slackened off, eh?" asked the colonel, and the Greek
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"South America is full of money. They have millions&mdash;billions. Almost
+every other man is a millionaire. The music-halls have patrons but no
+talent."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a girl in London of exceptional ability," he said. "She has
+appeared in a music-hall here, and she's as beautiful as a dream."</p>
+
+<p>"English?" asked the Greek eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Irish, which is better," said the other; "as pretty as a picture, I
+tell you. The men will rave about her."</p>
+
+<p>The Greek looked puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Does she want to go?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel snarled round at him:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I should come and ask you to book her passage if she
+wanted to go?" he demanded. "Of course she doesn't want to go, and she
+doesn't know she's going. But I want her out of the way, you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Phillopolis pulled a long face.</p>
+
+<p>"To take her from England?"</p>
+
+<p>"From London," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible," he said; "passports are required and unless she was
+willing to go it would be impossible to take her. You can't kidnap a
+girl and rush her out of the country except in storybooks, colonel."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>Boundary interrupted him impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think I know that?" he asked; "your job is, when she's in a
+fit state of mind, to take her across and put her somewhere where she's
+not coming back for a long time. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that part of it very well," said the Greek.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not to be mixed up in it," said Boundary. "The only thing I can
+promise you is that she'll go quietly. I'll have her passports fixed.
+She'll be travelling for her health&mdash;you understand? When you get to
+South America I want you to take her into the interior of the country.
+You're not to leave her in the music-halls in one of the coast towns
+where English and American tourists are likely to see her."</p>
+
+<p>"But how are you going to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's my business," said the colonel. "You understand what you have to
+do. I'll send you the date you leave and I'll pay her passage and yours.
+For any out-of-pocket expenses you can send the bill to me, you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Obviously it was not a job to the liking of Phillopolis, but he had good
+reason to fear the colonel and acquiesced with a nod. Boundary went back
+to where he had left Pinto and found the Portuguese biting his
+finger-nails&mdash;a favourite spare-time occupation of his.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you fix it?" he asked in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I fixed it," said the colonel sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to have anything to do with it," said the other, and the
+colonel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe you'll change your mind," he said significantly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a knock at the door and the colonel himself answered it. He
+took the card from the servant's hand and read:</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Mr. <span class="smcap">Stafford King</span>,<br />"Criminal Intelligence Department."</p>
+
+<p>He looked from the card to Pinto, then:</p>
+
+<p>"Show him in."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD</h3>
+
+<p>The two men had not met since they had parted at the door of the North
+Lambeth Police Court, and there was in Colonel Boundary's smile
+something of forgiveness and gentle reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. King," he said, "come in, come in, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>He offered his hand to the other, but Stafford apparently did not see
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"No malice, I trust, Mr. King?" said the colonel genially. "You know my
+friend Mr. Silva? A business associate of mine, a director of several of
+my companies."</p>
+
+<p>"I know him all right," said Stafford and added, "I hope to know him
+better."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto recognised the underlying sense of the words, but not a muscle of
+his face moved. For Stafford King the hatred with which he regarded the
+law lost its personal character. This man was something more than a
+thief-taker and a tracker of criminals. Pinto chose to regard him as the
+close friend of Maisie White, and as such, his rival.</p>
+
+<p>"And to what are we indebted for this visit?" asked the bland colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"The chief wants to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"The chief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Stanley Belcom. Being the chief of our department I should have
+thought you had heard of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Stanley Belcom," repeated the other; "why, of course, I know Sir
+Stanley by repute. May I ask what he wants to see me about? And how is
+my young friend&mdash;er&mdash;Miss White?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"When I saw her last," replied Stafford steadily, "she was looking
+pretty well, so far as I could tell."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p><p>"Indeed!" said the colonel politely. "I have a considerable interest in
+the welfare of Miss White. May I ask when you saw her?</p>
+
+<p>"Last night," replied Stafford. "She was standing at the door of her
+apartments in Doughty Street, having a little talk with your friend," he
+nodded to Pinto, and Pinto started; "also," said the cheerful Stafford,
+"another mutual friend of ours, Mr. Crewe, was within hailing distance,
+unless I am greatly mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"So you were watching, eh?" burst out Pinto "I thought after the lesson
+you had a couple of weeks ago, you'd have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me carry on this conversation, if you don't mind," said the
+colonel, and the fury in his eyes silenced the Portuguese.</p>
+
+<p>"We have agreed to let bygones be bygones, Mr. King, and I am sure it is
+only his excessive zeal on my behalf that induced our friend to be so
+indiscreet as to refer to the unpleasant happenings&mdash;which we will allow
+to pass from our memories."</p>
+
+<p>So the girl was being watched. That made things rather more difficult
+than he had imagined. Nevertheless, he anticipated no supreme obstacle
+to the actual abduction. His plans had been made that morning, when he
+saw in the columns of the daily newspaper a four-line advertisement
+which, to a large extent, had cleared away the greatest of his
+difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>"And if Mr. King is looking after our young friend, Maisie White, the
+daughter of one of our dearest business associates&mdash;why, I'm glad," he
+went on heartily. "London, Mr. King, is a place full of danger for young
+girls, particularly those who are deprived of the loving care of a
+parent, and one of the chief attractions, if I may be allowed to say so,
+which the police have for me, is the knowledge that they are the
+protectors of the unprotected, the guardians of the unguarded."</p>
+
+<p>He made a little bow, and for all his amusement Stafford gravely
+acknowledged the handsome compliment which the most notorious scoundrel
+in London had paid the Metropolitan Police Force.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>"When am I to see your chief?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can come along with me now, if you like, or you can go to-morrow
+morning at ten o'clock," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel scratched his chin.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I understand that this summons is in the nature of a
+friendly&mdash;&mdash;" he stopped questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly," said Stafford, his eyes twinkling, "it isn't the
+customary 'come-along-o'-me' demand. I think the chief wants to meet
+you, to discover just the kind of person you are. You will like him, I
+think, colonel. He is the sort of man who takes a tremendous interest
+in&mdash;er&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In crime?" said the colonel gently.</p>
+
+<p>"I was trying to think of a nice word to put in its place," admitted
+Stafford; "at any rate, he is interested in you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no time like the present," said the colonel. "Pinto, will you
+find my hat?"</p>
+
+<p>On the way to Scotland Yard they chatted on general subjects till
+Stafford asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you had another visitation from your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Jack o' Judgment?" asked the colonel. "Yes, we met him the other
+night. He's rather amusing. By the way, have you had complaints from
+anywhere else?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he seems to have specialised on you, colonel. You have certainly
+the monopoly of his attentions."</p>
+
+<p>"What is going to happen supposing he makes an appearance when I happen
+to have a lethal weapon ready?" asked the colonel. "I have never killed
+a person in my life, and I hope the sad experience will not be mine. But
+from the police point of view, how do I stand suppose&mdash;there is an
+accident?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"That is his look out," he said. "If you are threatened, I dare say a
+jury of your fellow countrymen will decide that you acted in
+self-defence."</p>
+
+<p>"He came the other night," the colonel said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> reminiscently, "when we
+were fixing up a particularly difficult&mdash;er&mdash;business negotiation."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad luck!" said Stafford. "I suppose the mug was scared?"</p>
+
+<p>"The what?" asked the puzzled colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"The mug," said Stafford. "You may not have heard the expression. It
+means 'can'&mdash;'fool'&mdash;'dupe.'"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel drew a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"You still bear malice, I see, Mr. King," he said sadly.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the portals of Scotland Yard without so much as a tremor,
+passed up the broad stairs and along the unlovely corridors, till he
+came to the double doors which marked the First Commissioner's private
+office. Stafford disappeared for a moment and presently returned with
+the news that the First Commissioner would not be able to see his
+visitor for half an hour. Stafford apologised but the colonel was
+affability itself and kept up a running conversation until a beckoning
+secretary notified them that the great man was disengaged.</p>
+
+<p>It was King who ushered the colonel into his presence. Sir Stanley was
+writing at a big desk and looked up as the colonel entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, colonel," he said, nodding his head to a chair on the
+opposite side of the desk. "You needn't wait, King. There are one or two
+things I want to speak to the colonel about."</p>
+
+<p>When the door had closed behind the detective, Sir Stanley leaned back
+in his chair. Their eyes met, the grey and the faded blue, and for the
+space of a few seconds they stared. Sir Stanley Belcom was the first to
+drop his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've sent for you, colonel," he said, "because I think you might give
+me a great deal of information, if you're willing."</p>
+
+<p>"Command me," said the colonel grandly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is on the matter of a murder which was committed in London a few
+months ago," said the commissioner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> quietly and for a moment Colonel
+Boundary did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I presume you are referring to the 'Snow' Gregory murder?" he said at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," nodded the commissioner. "We have had an inquiry from America
+as to the identity of this young man. Now, you knew him better than
+anybody else in London, colonel. Can you tell me, was he an American?"</p>
+
+<p>"Emphatically not," said the colonel with a little sigh, as though he
+were relieved at the turn the conversation was taking. "I came to know
+him through&mdash;er&mdash;circumstances, and exactly what they were I cannot for
+the moment remember. I had a lot to do with him. He did odd jobs for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he well educated?" asked the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should say he was," said the colonel slowly. "There was a story
+that he had been to Oxford, and that's very likely true. He spoke like a
+college man."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know if he had any relations in England?"</p>
+
+<p>The commissioner eyed the other straightly and the colonel hesitated.
+How much does this man know? he wondered, and decided that he could do
+no harm if he told all the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"He had no relations in England," he said, "but he had a father who was
+abroad."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now we're getting at some facts," said the commissioner and drew a
+slip of paper towards him. "What was the father's name?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That I can't tell you, sir," he said. "I should like to oblige you but
+I have no more idea of what his name was than the man in the moon. I
+believe he was in India, because letters from India used to come to
+Gregory."</p>
+
+<p>"Was Gregory his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"His Christian name, I think," said the colonel after a moment's
+thought. "He went wrong at college and was sent down. Then he went to
+Paris and started to study art, and he got in trouble there, too. That's
+as much as he ever told me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><p>"He had no brothers?" asked the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"None," said the colonel emphatically. "I am certain of that, because he
+once thanked God that he was the only child."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," the commissioner nodded; "you have formed no theory as to why
+he met his death or how?"</p>
+
+<p>"No theory at all," said the colonel, but corrected himself. "Of course,
+I've had ideas and opinions, but none of them has ever worked out. So
+far as I know, he had no enemies, although he was a quick-tempered chap,
+especially when he was recovering from a dose of 'coco,' and would
+quarrel with his own grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>"You've no idea why he was in London? Apparently he did not live here."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shrugged his massive shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I couldn't tell you anything about that, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"He was not an American?" asked the commissioner again.</p>
+
+<p>"I could swear to that," answered the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause and he waited.</p>
+
+<p>"There's another matter." The commissioner spoke slowly. "I understand
+that you are being bothered by a mysterious individual who calls himself
+the Knave of Judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment," corrected the colonel with a contemptuous smile.
+"Those sort of monkey tricks don't bother me, I can assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have my theories about the Jack o' Judgment," said the commissioner.
+"I have been looking up the circumstances of the murder, and I seem to
+remember that on the body was found a playing card."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," said the colonel, who had remembered the fact himself
+many times, "the Jack of Clubs."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what that Jack of Clubs signified?" asked the commissioner,
+but the colonel could honestly say that he did not. Its presence on the
+body had frequently puzzled him and he had never found a solution.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>"There is a certain type of ruffian to be found, particularly in Paris,
+who affects this sort of theatrical trade-mark&mdash;did you know that?"
+asked the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was suddenly stricken to silence. He did not know this fact,
+in spite of his extraordinary knowledge of the criminal world.</p>
+
+<p>"These men have their totems and their sign manuals," said the
+commissioner. "For example, the apache Flequier, who was executed at
+Nantes the other day, invariably left a domino&mdash;the double-six&mdash;near his
+victim."</p>
+
+<p>This was news to the colonel too.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been giving a great deal of thought and time to this case," said
+the commissioner, "and I was hoping that perhaps you could help me. The
+most workable theory that I can suggest is that this unfortunate man was
+destroyed by a French criminal of the class which I have indicated, the
+bullying apache type, which is so common in France. Why the murder was
+committed," the commissioner fingered his paper-knife carelessly, "what
+led to it and who committed it, and more especially who instigated the
+crime, are matters which seem to me to defy detection. Do you agree?"</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree," said the colonel, licking his dry lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I suggest to you," said the commissioner, "that your Jack o'
+Judgment, whoever he is, is some relation to the dead man."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke slowly and emphatically and the colonel did not raise his eyes
+from the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not my business to make life any easier for you," the
+commissioner was saying, "or to assist you in any way. But as the Jack
+o' Judgment seems to me to be engaged in a wholly illegal practice, and
+as I, in my capacity, must suppress illegal practices, I make you a
+present of this suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>"That the Jack o' Judgment is related to 'Snow' Gregory?" asked the
+colonel huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my suggestion," said the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"And you think&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>The commissioner raised his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is your greatest danger, colonel," he said, "far greater
+than the police, far greater than the clever minds which are planning to
+bring you to the dock and possibly," he added, "to the gallows."</p>
+
+<p>Ordinarily the colonel would have protested at the suggestion in the
+speech, protested laughingly or with dignity, but now he was stricken
+dumb, both by the seriousness of the commissioner's voice and by the
+consciousness of a new and a more terrible danger than any that had
+confronted him. He rose, realising that the interview was ended.</p>
+
+<p>"I am greatly obliged to you, Sir Stanley," he said clearing his throat.
+"It is good of you to warn me, but I'd not like you to think that I am
+engaged in any dishonest&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll let that matter stand over for discussion until another time,"
+said the commissioner dryly, as Stafford King came into the room. "You
+might show the colonel the way to the street. Otherwise he will be
+getting himself entangled in some of our detention rooms. Good morning,
+Colonel Boundary. Don't forget."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not likely to," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>He recovered his poise quickly enough and by the time he was in the
+street he was back in his old mood. But he had had a shock. That sunny
+afternoon was filled with shadows. The booming bells of Big Ben tolled
+"Jack o' Judgment," the very wheels of the taxi droned the words. And
+Colonel Boundary came back to Albemarle Place for the first time in his
+life with his confidence in Colonel Boundary shaken.</p>
+
+<p>There was nobody in save the one manservant he kept by the day, and he
+passed into the dining-room overlooking the street. He had work to do
+and it had to be done quickly. In one of the walls was set a stout safe,
+and this he opened, taking from it a steel box which he carried to the
+table. There was a fire laid on the hearth and to this he put a match
+though the day was warm enough. Then he proceeded to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> unlock the box.
+Apparently it was empty, but, taking out his scarf-pin, he inserted the
+point in a tiny hole, which would have escaped casual observation, and
+pressed.</p>
+
+<p>Half the steel bottom of the box leapt up, disclosing a shallow cavity
+beneath. The colonel stared. There had been two letters put in there,
+letters which he had put away against the moment when it might be
+necessary to bring a recalcitrant agent to heel. They had gone. He slid
+his fingers beneath the half of the bottom which had not opened and felt
+a card. He drew this out and looked at it, licking his lips the while.</p>
+
+<p>For the space of a minute he stared and stared at the Knave of Clubs he
+held in his hand. A Knave of Clubs signed with a flourish across its
+face: "Jack o' Judgment." Then he flung the card into the fire and,
+walking to the sideboard, splashed whisky into a tumbler with a hand
+that shook.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>BUYING A NURSING HOME</h3>
+
+<p>The building in which Colonel Boundary had his beautiful home was of a
+type not uncommonly met with in the West End of London. The street floor
+was taken up entirely with shops, the first floor with offices and the
+remainder of the building was practically given over to the colonel. One
+by one he had ousted every tenant from the building, and practically the
+whole of the fourteen sets of apartments which constituted the
+residential portion of the building was held by him in one name or
+another. Some he had obtained by the payment of heavy premiums, some he
+had secured when the lease of the former tenant had lapsed, some he had
+gathered in by sub-hiring. He had tried to buy the building, since it
+served his purpose well, but came against a deed of trust and the Court
+of Chancery, and had wisely refrained from going any further into a
+matter which must bring him vis-&agrave;-vis with a Master in Chancery, with
+all the publicity which such a transaction entailed.</p>
+
+<p>Nor had he been successful in acquiring any of the premises on the first
+floor. They were held by three very old established businesses&mdash;an
+estate agent, a firm of land surveyors and the offices of a valuer. He
+missed his opportunity, at any rate, of securing the business of Lee and
+Hol, the surveyors, and did not know it was in the market until after it
+had been transferred to a new owner. But they were quiet, sober tenants,
+who closed their offices between five and six every night and did not
+open them until between nine or ten on the following morning, and their
+very respectability gave him a certain privacy.</p>
+
+<p>The new proprietor of Lee and Hol was a short-sighted, elderly man of no
+great conversational power,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> and apparently of no fixed purpose in life
+except to say "no" to the very handsome offers which the colonel's
+agents made when they discovered there was a chance of re-purchasing the
+business. Boundary had personally inspected all the offices. He had
+found an excuse to visit them several times, duly noted the arrangement
+of the furniture, the sizes of the staffs and the general character of
+the business which was being carried on. This was a necessary precaution
+because these offices were immediately under his own flat. But just now
+they had a special value, because it was a practice during the daytime
+for the three firms to employ a commissionaire, who occupied a little
+glass-partitioned office on the landing and attended impartially to the
+needs of all three tenants to the best of his ability.</p>
+
+<p>Boundary descended the stairs and found the elderly man in his office,
+leisurely and laboriously affixing stamps to a pile of letters. He
+called him from his task.</p>
+
+<p>"Judson," he said, "have you seen anybody go up to my rooms this
+afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>The man thought.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I haven't," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been here all the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, since one o'clock I have been in my office," said the
+commissionaire. "None of our young gentlemen wanted anything."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't go out to go to the post?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said the man. "I've not stirred from this office except for
+one minute when I went into Mr. Lee's office to get these letters."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've seen nobody go upstairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not since Mr. Silva came down, sir. He came down after you, if you
+remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody's been up?" insisted the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a soul. Your servant came down before you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," said the colonel remembering that he had sent the man on
+a special journey to Huddersfield with a letter to the bigamous Mr.
+Crotin. "You haven't seen a lady go up at all?" he asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody has gone up them stairs," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> commissionaire emphatically.
+"I hope you haven't lost anything, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I haven't lost anything. Rather, I've found something," he said
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>He slipped half-a crown into the man's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't mention the fact that I've been making inquiries," he said
+and went slowly up the stairs again.</p>
+
+<p>The card had been put there that day. He would swear it. The ink on the
+card had not had time to darken and when he made a further search of his
+room, this view was confirmed by the appearance of his blotting-pad. The
+card had been dried there, and the pen, which had been left on the
+table, was still damp.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel passed into his bedroom and took off his coat and vest. He
+searched his drawer and found what looked to be like a pair of braces
+made of light fabric. These he slipped over his shoulder, adjusting them
+so that beneath his left arm hung a canvas holster. From another drawer
+he took an automatic pistol, pulled the magazine from the butt and
+examined it before he returned it, and forced a cartridge into the
+breach by drawing back the cover. This he carefully oiled, and then,
+pressing up the safety catch, he slipped the pistol into the holster and
+resumed his coat and vest.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long time since the colonel had carried a gun under his arm,
+but his old efficiency was unimpaired. He practised before a mirror and
+was satisfied with his celerity. He loaded a spare magazine, and dropped
+it into the capacious pocket of his waistcoat. Then, putting the
+remainder of the cartridges away tidily, he closed the box, shut the
+drawer and went back to his room. If all the commissioner had hinted
+were true, if this mysterious visitor was laying for him because of the
+'Snow' Gregory affair, he should have what was coming to him.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was no coward and if this eerie experience had got a little
+on his nerves, it was not to be wondered at. He drew up a chair to the
+table, sitting in such a position that he could see the door, took a
+pencil and a sheet of paper and began to write rapidly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p><p>The man's knowledge was encyclop&aelig;dic. Not once did he pause or refer to
+a catalogue, and he was still writing when Crewe came in. The colonel
+looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"You're the man I want," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He handed the other three sheets of paper, closely covered with writing.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this?" asked Crewe and read:</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-three iron bedsteads, twenty-three mattresses, twenty-three&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's all this, colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can go down to Tottenham Court Road and you can order all that
+furniture to be taken into No. 3, Washburn Avenue."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you furnishing a children's orphanage or something?" asked the
+other in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I am furnishing a nursing home, to be exact," said the colonel slowly.
+"I bought it this morning, and I'm going to furnish it to-morrow. Send
+Lollie Marsh to me. Tell her I want her to get three women of the right
+sort to take charge of a mental case which is coming to my nursing home.
+By the way, you had better telegraph to old Boyton, or better still, go
+in a cab and get him. He'll probably be drunk but he's still on the
+medical register and he's the man I want. Take him straight away to
+Washburn Avenue, and don't forget that it's his nursing home and not
+mine. My name doesn't occur in this matter and you'd better get a dummy
+to do the buying for you from the furniture people."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the mental case?" asked the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie White," snapped the colonel, and Crewe stared.</p>
+
+<p>"Mad?" he said incredulously. "Is Maisie mad?"</p>
+
+<p>"She may not be at present," said Boundary, "but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not finish his sentence, and Crewe, who was once a gentleman and
+was now a thief, swallowed something&mdash;but he had swallowed too much to
+choke at the threat to a girl in whom he had not the slightest interest.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING</h3>
+
+<p>Maisie White had no illusions. When the report came to her that the
+detective she had employed had passed his services over to the man he
+was engaged to watch, she knew that the full force of the Boundary Gang
+would be employed to her extinction. Strangely enough, she did not
+appear to be disturbed, as she confessed to Stafford King. They were
+lunching together at the Hotel Palatine and the detective was unusually
+thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you go out of London?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go on with my work," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your work?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you once," she replied. "I am trying to disentangle my
+father from disgrace. I am working to put him apart when the day of
+reckoning comes."</p>
+
+<p>"You've not heard from him?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been a good father to me," she said, "the kindest and best of
+daddies. It is dreadful to think&mdash;&mdash;" her lips quivered and she could go
+no further.</p>
+
+<p>Nor could Stafford King make matters any easier for her. He knew better
+than she the depth of Solomon White's commitments. If the gang ever
+smashed, and if by good fortune the law ever took its course, there was
+no hope for Solomon White's escape from his share of the responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you think your father went away?" he asked, to turn the subject
+to a new aspect.</p>
+
+<p>She did not reply instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he was scared," she said after a while. "I was shocked when I
+discovered how much in awe of the colonel he stood. He was just
+terrified at the threat, and yet I know he would have given his life to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+protect me from harm. I think it was just I that spurred him on to make
+the plans he did."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King agreed with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what are we going to do about you?" he asked, half-humorously,
+half-seriously. "I cannot let you go wandering loose about London&mdash;I'm
+scared to death as it is."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better lock me up," she said flippantly and he nodded in the
+same spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"I know a little house in St. John's Wood that would serve us
+beautifully as a prison," he said. "It has ten rooms and two admirable
+bathrooms. There is central heating and a large shady garden, and if you
+will only let me take you before a Justice of the Peace, or even a
+commonplace clergyman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't prison," she said quietly and put her hand over the table.</p>
+
+<p>He caught it in his and held it tight.</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie," he said, "you know I love you. I love you more dearly than
+anything in the world."</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"As my wife," he went on, "you would be safe and I should be happy. I
+just want you all the time."</p>
+
+<p>Gently she disengaged her hand, shaking her head with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"What would that mean, Stafford?" she said. "You know you are deceiving
+me when you agree that my father&mdash;&mdash;" again her voice shook&mdash;"no, no,"
+she said, "it would ruin your career to have the daughter of a convict
+for your wife. I realise very well what it will mean, for I know&mdash;I
+know&mdash;I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know?" he asked in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that all my work will be in vain. But I must go on with it. I
+must, or I shall go mad. I know nothing on earth can clear my father,
+but I'm not going to tell you that again. I just want to think there is
+a possibility that some miracle will happen, that all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> evidence
+which even I have against him will be explained away."</p>
+
+<p>He took her unresisting hand in his, and under the cover of the
+tablecloth held it tight.</p>
+
+<p>"That is why I wanted to leave the service," he said, and she looked at
+him quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you thought that it would mean ruin?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not that. It would hurt you, that is all. Of course, if such a
+thing happened I would be obliged to resign."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'd never forgive yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to anticipate such a happening, and, darling, you've got to
+face the future without any other illusions."</p>
+
+<p>She winced at the word "other" but he went on, unnoticing:</p>
+
+<p>"Boundary is a tiger. If he thinks there is reason to fear you, he will
+never let up on you till he has you in his grip. I tell you this," he
+said earnestly, "that for all the power of the police, for all their
+organisation and the backing which the law gives them, they may be
+helpless against this man if he has marked you down for punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid," she said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am," said he. "I'm so afraid, that I'm sick with apprehension
+sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Stafford!" she said softly, and there was a look in her eyes which
+compensated him for much. "But you mustn't worry, dear. Truly, truly,
+you mustn't worry. I'm quite capable of looking after myself."</p>
+
+<p>"And that's the greatest of all your illusions," he said,
+half-laughingly and half-irritably. "You're just the meekest little
+mouse that ever came under the paw of a cat."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you I'm speaking seriously," he went on. "I'll do my best to
+look after you. I'll have a man watching you day and night."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>"But you mustn't," she protested. "There's no immediate cause for
+worry."</p>
+
+<p>He saw her to the door of the restaurant and showed her into the
+taxi-cab which came at his whistle, and she leant out of the window and
+waved her hand in farewell as she drove off.</p>
+
+<p>Two men stood on the opposite side of the road and watched her depart.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the girl," said Crewe.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE</h3>
+
+<p>A week passed without anything exceptional happening, and Maisie White
+had ceased even to harbour doubts as to her own safety&mdash;doubts which had
+been present, in spite of the courageous showing she had made before
+Stafford King. Undeterred by her previous experience, she had made
+arrangements with another and a more responsible detective agency and
+had chosen a new watcher, though she had small hopes of obtaining
+results. She knew his task was one of almost insuperable difficulty, and
+she was frank in exposing to him what those difficulties were. Still,
+there was a faint chance that he might discover something, and moreover
+she had another purpose to serve.</p>
+
+<p>She had seen Pinto Silva once. He had called, and she had noticed with
+surprise that the debonair, self-confident man she had known, whose air
+of conscious superiority had been so annoying to her, had undergone a
+considerable change. He was ill-at-ease, almost incoherent at moments,
+and it was a long time before she could discover his business.</p>
+
+<p>This time she received him in her tiny sitting-room, for Pinto was
+somehow less alarming to her than he had been. Perhaps she was conscious
+that at the corner of the street stood a quietly dressed man doing
+nothing particular, who was relieved at the eighth hour by an even less
+obtrusive-looking gentleman from Scotland Yard.</p>
+
+<p>She waited for Pinto to disclose his business, and the Portuguese was
+apparently in no hurry to do so. Presently he blurted it out.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Maisie," he said, "you've got things all wrong. Things are
+going to be very rotten for you unless&mdash;unless&mdash;&mdash;" he floundered.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><p>"Unless what?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless you make up with me," he said in a low voice. "I'm not so bad,
+Maisie, and I'll treat you fair. I've always been in love with you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop," she said quietly. "I dare say it is a great honour for a girl
+that any man should be in love with her, but it takes away a little of
+the compliment when the man is already married."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nothing," he said eagerly. "I can divorce her by the laws of my
+country. Maisie, she hates me and I hate her."</p>
+
+<p>"In those circumstances," she smiled, "I wonder you wait until you fall
+in love again before you get divorced. No, Mr. Silva, that story doesn't
+convince me. If you were single or divorced, or if you were ever so
+eligible, I would not marry you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" he demanded truculently. "I've got money."</p>
+
+<p>"So have I," she said, "of a sort."</p>
+
+<p>"My money's as clean as yours, if it is Solomon White's money."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm well aware of that, too," she said. "It is Gang money, isn't
+it&mdash;loot money. I don't see what good I shall get out of exchanging mine
+for yours, anyway. It is just as dirty. The money doesn't come into it
+at all, Mr. Silva, it is just liking people well enough&mdash;for marriage.
+And I don't like you that way."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't like me at all," he growled.</p>
+
+<p>"You're very nearly right," she smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a fool, you're a fool!" he stormed, "you don't know what's
+coming to you. You don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I do," she said. "Perhaps I can guess. But whatever is coming
+to me, as you put it, I prefer that to marrying you."</p>
+
+<p>He started back as though she had struck him across the face, and he
+turned livid.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't say that when&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He checked himself and without another word left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the room, and she
+heard his heavy feet blundering down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>And then she met him again. It was two nights after. She met him in a
+horrible dream. She dreamt he was flying after her, that they were both
+birds, she a pigeon and he a hawk; and as she made her last desperate
+struggle to escape, she heard his hateful voice in her ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie, Maisie, it is your last chance, your last chance!"</p>
+
+<p>She had gone to bed at ten o'clock that night, and it seemed that she
+had hardly fallen asleep before the vision came. She struggled to sit up
+in bed, she tried to speak, but a big hand was over her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was true, it was no dream. He was in the room, his hand upon her
+mouth, his voice in her ear. The room was in darkness. There was no
+sound save the sound of his heavy breathing and his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll be up here in five minutes," he whispered. "I can save you from
+hell! I can save you, Maisie! Will you have me?"</p>
+
+<p>She summoned all the strength at her command to shake her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then keep quiet!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a note of savagery in his voice which made her turn sick.</p>
+
+<p>For a second she filled her lungs to scream, but at that instant a mass
+of cotton-wool was thrust over her face, and she began to breathe in a
+sickly sweet vapour. Somebody else was in the room now. They were
+holding her feet. The voice in her ear said:</p>
+
+<p>"Breathe. Take a deep breath!"</p>
+
+<p>She sobbed and writhed in an agony of mind, but all the time she was
+breathing, she was drawing into her lungs the chloroform with which the
+wool was saturated.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock in the morning a uniformed constable, patrolling his
+beat, saw an ambulance drawn up outside a house in Doughty Street. He
+crossed the road to make inquiries.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><p>"A case of scarlet fever," said the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say," said the sympathetic constable.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened and two men walked out, carrying a figure in a blanket.
+The policeman stood by and saw the "patient" laid upon a stretcher and
+the back of the ambulance closed. Then he continued his walk to the
+corner of the street, where he found, huddled up in a doorway, the
+unconscious figure of a Scotland Yard detective, whose observation had
+been interrupted by a well-directed blow from a life preserver.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY</h3>
+
+<p>"To all stations. Stop Ambulance Motor No. LKO 9943. Arrest and detain
+driver and any person found therein. Warn all garages and
+report.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Commissioner</span>."</p>
+
+<p>This order flashed from station to station throughout the night, and
+before the dawn, nine thousand policemen were on the look-out for the
+motor ambulance.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a chance, of course," said Stafford, "but it is a poor chance."</p>
+
+<p>He was looking white and heavy-eyed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, sir," said Southwick, his subordinate. "There's always a
+chance that a crook will do the obviously wrong thing. I suppose you've
+no theory as to where they have gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not out of town&mdash;of that I'm certain," said King, "that is why the
+quest is so hopeless. Why, they'll have got to their destination hours
+before the message went out!"</p>
+
+<p>They were standing in the girl's bedroom, which still reeked with
+chloroform, and all the clues were piled together on the table. There
+were not many. There was a pad of cotton-wool, a half-empty bottle of
+chloroform, bearing the label of a well-known wholesaler, and one of a
+pair of old wash-leather gloves, which had evidently been worn by
+somebody in his desire to avoid leaving finger-prints.</p>
+
+<p>"We've not much to go on there," said Stafford disconsolately; "the
+chloroform may have been sold years ago. Any chemist would have supplied
+the cotton-wool, and as for the glove"&mdash;he picked it up and looked at it
+carefully, then he carried it to the light.</p>
+
+<p>Old as it was, it was of good shape and quality, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> when new had
+probably been supplied to order by a first-class glove-maker.</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing here," said Stafford again, and threw the glove back on
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>A policeman came into the room and saluted.</p>
+
+<p>"I've cycled over from the Yard, sir. We have had a message asking you
+to go at once to Sir Stanley Belcom's private house."</p>
+
+<p>"How did Sir Stanley know about this affair?" asked Stafford listlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"He telephoned through, sir, about five o'clock this morning. He often
+makes an early inquiry."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford looked round. There was nothing more that he could do. He
+passed down the stairs into the street and jumped on to the motor-cycle
+which had brought him to the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley Belcom lived in Cavendish Place, and Stafford had been a
+frequent visitor to the house. Sir Stanley was a childless widower, who
+was wont to complain that he kept up his huge establishment in order to
+justify the employment of his huge staff of servants. Stafford suspected
+him of being something of a sybarite. His dinners were famous, his
+cellar was one of the best in London and because of his acquaintances
+and friendships in the artistic sets, he was something of a dabbler in
+the arts he patronised.</p>
+
+<p>The door was opened and an uncomfortable-looking butler was waiting on
+the step to receive Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find Sir Stanley in the library, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Despite his sorrow, Stafford could not help smiling at this attempt on
+the part of an English servant to offer the conventional greeting in
+spite of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid we've got you up early, Perkins," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The man's stout face creased in a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Stanley's a rare gentleman for getting up in the middle of the
+night and ordering a meal."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford found his grey-haired chief, arrayed in a flowered silk
+dressing-gown, balancing bread on an electric toaster.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p><p>"Bad news, eh, Stafford?" he said. "Sit down and have some coffee. The
+girl is gone?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And our unfortunate detective-constable, who was sent to watch, is
+half-way to the mortuary, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad as that, sir," said Stafford, "but he's got a pretty bad
+crack. He's recovered consciousness but remembers nothing that
+happened."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Very scientifically done," he said admiringly. "This, of course, is the
+work of the Boundary Gang."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish&mdash;&mdash;" began Stafford between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Save your breath, my friend," smiled Sir Stanley; "wishing will do
+nothing. You could arrest every known member of the gang, and they'd
+have twenty alibis ready, and jolly good alibis too. It is years since
+the colonel staged an outrage of this kind and his right hand has not
+lost its cunning. Look at the organisation of it! The men get into the
+house without attracting the attention of your watcher. Then, at the
+exact second that the ambulance is due, along comes their 'cosher,'
+knocks down the policeman on duty. I don't suppose the thing took more
+than ten minutes. Everything was timed. They must have known the hour
+the policeman on the beat passed along the street."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley poured out the coffee with his own hands, and relapsed back
+into his armchair.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you think they did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were afraid of her, sir," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't imagine Boundary being afraid of a girl."</p>
+
+<p>"She was Solly White's daughter," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"Even then I can't understand it," replied the chief, "unless&mdash;by jove!
+Of course."</p>
+
+<p>He hit his knee a smack and Stafford waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably they've got some other game on, but I'll tell you one of the
+ideas of taking that girl&mdash;it is to bring back Solomon White. He
+disappeared, didn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford nodded.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>"That's the game&mdash;to bring back Solomon White. And whatever the danger
+to himself, he'll be in London to-morrow as soon as this news is known."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley sat thinking, with his chin in his hand, his forehead
+wrinkled.</p>
+
+<p>"There's some other reason, too. Now, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford guessed, but did not say.</p>
+
+<p>"That girl will take some recovering before harm comes to her," said Sir
+Stanley softly, "your only hope is that friend Jack comes to your
+rescue."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded and the other smiled sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's unlikely," he said; "indeed, it is impossible. I think I might
+as well tell you my own theory as to why she was taken and why Boundary
+took so much trouble to capture her."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your theory?" asked Sir Stanley curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"My theory, sir, is that she is Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford King.</p>
+
+<p>"She&mdash;Jack o' Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley was on his feet staring at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! It is a man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to forget, sir," said Stafford, "that Miss White is a
+wonderful mimic."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She wants to clear her father. She told me that only a week ago. And
+then I've been making inquiries on my own. I found that she was seen
+coming out of the Albemarle mansion, the night that Jack made his last
+visit to Boundary's flat."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," he said and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he came back with something in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"If Miss White is Jack o' Judgment, and if she were captured to-night,
+how do you account for this? it was under my pillow when I woke up."</p>
+
+<p>He laid on the table the familiar Jack of Clubs.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE TURKISH BATHS</h3>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary had a breakfast party of three. Though he had been up
+the whole of the night, he showed no signs of weariness. Not so Pinto or
+Crewe, who looked fagged out and all the more tired because they were
+both conspicuously unshaven.</p>
+
+<p>"Half the game's won," said the colonel. "We'll get rid of this girl and
+Solly White by the same stroke. I'm afraid of Solly, he knows too much.
+By the way, Raoul is coming over."</p>
+
+<p>"Raoul!" said Crewe, sitting up suddenly, "why, colonel, you're mad!
+Didn't the Scotland Yard man tell you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That he suspected a French hand in the case of 'Snow' Gregory? All the
+more reason why Raoul should come," said the colonel calmly; "he ought
+to report this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You're taking a risk," growled Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing unusual," replied the colonel, shelling a plover's egg. "It is
+the last thing in the world they would suspect at Scotland Yard after
+their warning, that I should bring Raoul over again. Besides, they don't
+know him anyway. He's just a harmless young French cabinet-maker. He
+doesn't talk and I will get him out of the silly habit of leaving his
+visiting-card."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence, which Crewe broke.</p>
+
+<p>"You want him for&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not finish the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"For work," replied the colonel. "It is a thousand pities, but it would
+be a thousand times more so if you and I were jugged, and waiting in the
+condemned cell for the arrival of Mr. Ellis, the eminent hangman.
+Raoul's a workman. We can trust him. He doesn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> try any funny business.
+He lives out of this country and I can cover his tracks. Besides," the
+colonel went on, "I shall give him enough to live in comfort for the
+next two years. Raoul is a grateful little beast, and thank God! he can
+neither read nor write."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like it," said Crewe. "I hate that kind of thing. Why not give
+Solly a chance? Why not get up a fight&mdash;a duel, anything but
+cold-blooded murder?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel turned his cold eyes upon the other, and his lips parted in
+a mirthless smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You're speaking up to your character now, aren't you, Crewe?" he said
+unpleasantly. "You're 'Gentleman Crewe' once again, eh? Want to do
+everything in the public school fashion? Well, you can cut out all that
+stuff and feed it to the pigs. I'm Dan Boundary, looking forward to a
+pleasant old age. There's nothing of the Knights of the Round Table
+about me."</p>
+
+<p>Crewe flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he said, "have it your own way."</p>
+
+<p>"You bet your life I'm going to have it my own way," said the colonel.
+"Have you seen the girl this morning, Pinto?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll keep away from there for a couple of days. I've got Boyton on
+the spot and he'll be feeding her with bromide till she won't care
+whether she's in hell or Wigan. Besides, we'll all be shadowed for the
+next day or two, make no mistake about that. Stafford King won't let the
+grass grow under his feet. And now, you chaps, go home and try to look
+as though you've had a night's rest."</p>
+
+<p>After their departure the colonel made his own preparations. There were
+Turkish baths in Westminster and it was to the Turkish baths he went.
+Clad in a towel, he passed from hot room to hot room, and finally came
+to the big, vaulted saloon, tiled from floor to roof, where in
+canvas-backed chairs the bathers doze and read. The colonel lay back in
+his chair, his eyes closed, apparently oblivious to his surroundings.
+Nor was it to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> observed that he saw the thin little man who came and
+sat beside him. The new-comer was sallow-skinned and lantern-jawed, and
+his long arms were tattooed from shoulder to wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Here!" said a soft voice in French.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel did not open his eyes. He merely dropped the palm fan which
+he was idly waving to and fro so that it hid his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember a Monsieur White?" he said in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," replied the other. "He was the man who would not have your
+little 'coco' friend&mdash;disposed of."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the man," said the other. "You have a good memory, Raoul."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur, my memory is wonderful, but alas! one cannot live on memory,"
+he added sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Then remember this: there is a place near London called Putney Heath."</p>
+
+<p>"Putney Heath," repeated the other.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a house called Bishopsholme."</p>
+
+<p>"Bishopsholme," repeated the other.</p>
+
+<p>"It is empty&mdash;to let, <i>&agrave; louer</i>, you understand. It is in a sad state of
+desolation. The garden, the house&mdash;you know the kind of place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"At nine o'clock to-night and at nine o'clock to-morrow night you will
+be near the door. There is a large clump of bushes, behind which you
+will stand. You will stay there until ten. Between those hours M. White
+will approach and go into the house. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly, monsieur," said the voice again.</p>
+
+<p>"You will shoot him so that he dies immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a dead man," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause.</p>
+
+<p>"I will pay you sixty thousand francs, and I will have a motor-car to
+take you direct to Dover. You will catch the night boat for Ostend. Your
+passport will be in order, and you can make your way to Paris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> at your
+leisure. The payment you will receive in Paris. Is that satisfactory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eminently so, monsieur," said the other. "I need a little for expenses
+for the moment. Also I wish information as to where the motor-car will
+meet me."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be waiting for you at the corner of the first road past the
+house, on the way from London. You will not speak to the chauffeur and
+he will not speak to you. In the car you will find sufficient money for
+your immediate needs. Is there any necessity to explain further?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever, monsieur," said the soft voice, and Raoul dropped his
+head on one side as though he were sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>As for the colonel, he did not simulate slumber, but passed into
+dreamland, sleeping quietly and calmly, with a look of benevolence upon
+his big face.</p>
+
+<p>The only other occupant of the cooling room, a big-framed man who was
+reading a newspaper, closed his eyes too&mdash;but he did not sleep.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>SOLOMON COMES BACK</h3>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock that night the colonel, in immaculate evening-dress, sat
+playing double-dummy bridge with his two companions. In the light of the
+big shaded lamp overhead there was something particularly peaceful and
+innocent in their occupation. No word was spoken save of the game.</p>
+
+<p>It was a quarter to nine, noted the colonel, looking at the little
+French clock on the mantelpiece. He rose, walked to the window and
+looked out. It was a stormy night and the wind was howling down the
+street, sending the rain in noisy splashes against the window panes. He
+grumbled his satisfaction and returned to the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see the paper?" asked Pinto presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the paper," said the colonel, not looking up from his hand. "I
+make a point of reading the newspapers."</p>
+
+<p>"You see they've made a feature of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mention no names," said the colonel. "I know they've made a feature
+about it. So much the better. Everything depends&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>It was as he spoke that Solomon White came into the room. Boundary knew
+it was he before the door handle turned, before the hum of voices in the
+hall outside had ceased, but it was with a great pretence of surprise
+that he looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if it isn't Solomon White!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The man was haggard and sick-looking. He had evidently dressed in a
+hurry, for his cravat was ill-tied and the collar gaped. He strode
+slowly up to the table and Boundary's manservant, with a little grin,
+closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been all this time, Solomon?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> asked Boundary genially.
+"Sit you down and play a hand."</p>
+
+<p>"You know why I've come," breathed Solomon White.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely I know why you've come. You've come to explain where you've
+been, old boy. Sit down," said Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my daughter?" asked White.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your daughter?" repeated the colonel. "Well, that's a queer
+question to ask us. <i>We've</i> been saying where is Solomon White all this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been to Brighton," said the man, "but that's nothing to do with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Been at Brighton? A very pleasant place, too," said Boundary. "And what
+were you doing at Brighton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Keeping out of your way, damn you!" said White fiercely. "Trying to
+cure the fear of you which has made a rank coward of me. If you wanted
+to find a method for curing me, colonel, you've found it. I've come back
+for my daughter&mdash;where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel pushed his chair back from the table and looked up with a
+quizzical smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you're not going to take it hard, Solomon," he said. "We had to
+have you back and that was the only scheme we could think of. You see,
+there are lots of little bits of business that have to be cleared up,
+bits of business in which you had a hand the same as my other business
+associates."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the girl?" asked the man steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm going to admit to you," said the colonel, with a fine show of
+frankness, "that I've put her away&mdash;no harm has come to her, you
+understand. She's at a little place at Putney Heath, a house I took
+specially for her, surrounded by loving guardians&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like Pinto?" asked the man, looking down at the silent Silva.</p>
+
+<p>"Like Lollie. Now you can't deny that Lollie's a very nice girl," said
+the colonel. "Sit down, Solomon, and talk things over."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>"When I've got my girl I'll talk things over with you. Where is this
+place?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is on Putney Heath," said the colonel. "Now aren't I being
+straightforward with you? If I had any bad designs against the girl,
+should I tell you where she is? If you go there, Solomon, take some of
+your copper friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no copper friends," said the man angrily. "You know that well
+enough. What am I that I should go to the police? Can I go to them with
+clean hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's a question I've often asked myself," said the colonel.
+"I've often said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What is the name of the house?" interrupted White. "I want to see
+whether you're playing square with me, Boundary, and if you're not,
+by&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't threaten me, don't threaten me, Solomon," said the colonel with a
+good-humoured gesture. "I'm a nervous man and I suffer from heart
+disease. You ought to know better than that. Bishopsholme is the place.
+It is the fourth big house after passing Tredennis Road&mdash;a fine villa
+standing in its own grounds. It looks a bit deserted because it was
+empty until a few days ago, when I put a scrap or two of furniture into
+it. Why not wait&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"First I'll find out whether you're speaking the truth, and if you're
+not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Gently, gently," growled Crewe. "What's the good of kicking up a row,
+White? The colonel's dealing straighter with you than you're dealing
+with us."</p>
+
+<p>He was not in the colonel's secrets, and he himself was deceived,
+thinking that the girl had been removed to the house which he now heard
+about for the first time, and that the sole object of the abduction was
+to bring White back.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay a while," said Boundary. "It is only just nine&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But White was gone.</p>
+
+<p>He pushed past the servant, one of the readiest and most dangerous of
+the colonel's instruments, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> into the half-dark corridor. There was a
+light on the landing below, and as he ran down the stairs he thought he
+saw somebody standing there. It looked like a woman till the figure
+turned, and then Solomon White stood stock still. It was the first time
+he had seen Jack o' Judgment. The shimmer of the black silk coat, the
+curious suggestion of pallor which the white mask conveyed, the slouch
+hat, throwing a black bar of shadow diagonally across the face, lent the
+figure a peculiarly sinister aspect.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand!"</p>
+
+<p>The voice was commanding, the glittering revolver in the figure's hand
+more so.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" gasped Solomon White.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment! Have you ever heard of little Jack?" chuckled the
+figure. "Oh, here's a new one&mdash;Solomon White, too, and never heard of
+Jack o' Judgment! Didn't you see me when they took me out of 'Snow'
+Gregory's pocket? Little Jack o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>Solomon White stepped back, his face twitching.</p>
+
+<p>"I had nothing to do with that," he said hoarsely, "nothing to do with
+that, do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going? Won't you tell Jack something, give him a bit of
+news? Poor old Jack hears nothing these days," sighed the figure,
+laughter bubbling between the words.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going on private business. Get out of my way," said the other,
+remembering the urgency of his mission.</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll tell Jack o' Judgment?" wheedled the figure, "you'll tell
+poor old Jack where you are going to find your beautiful daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know!" said the man.</p>
+
+<p>He took a step forward, but the revolver waved him back.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll speak, or you don't pass," said Jack o' Judgment. "You don't
+pass until you speak; do you hear, Solomon White?"</p>
+
+<p>The man thought.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>"It is a place called Bishopsholme," he said gruffly, "on Putney Heath.
+Now let me pass."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait!" said the figure eagerly, "wait for me&mdash;only five minutes!
+I won't keep you! But don't go, there's death there, Solomon White! It
+is waiting for you&mdash;don't you feel it in your bones?"</p>
+
+<p>The voice sank to a whisper, and in spite of himself, a cold shiver
+passed down White's spine. He half-turned to go back.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" said the figure again eagerly, fiercely. "I shall not keep you a
+minute&mdash;a second!"</p>
+
+<p>Solomon White stood irresolutely, and the mask seemed to melt into the
+darkness. White strained his ears to catch the soft patter of its shoes
+as it mounted the stairs, but no sound came. Then with a start he seemed
+to awake as if from a bad dream, and without another word strode down
+the remaining stairs into the night.</p>
+
+<p>On the landing above, the strange being who called himself "Jack o'
+Judgment" stood outside the door of Boundary's flat. He had taken a key
+from his pocket and had it poised, when he heard the clatter of the
+other's feet. He stood undecidedly, but only for a second, then the key
+slipped into the lock and the door opened. The butler from his little
+pantry saw the figure and slammed his own door, bolting it with
+trembling fingers.</p>
+
+<p>In a second Jack o' Judgment was in the room facing the paralysed trio.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke no word, but suddenly his right arm was raised, some shining
+object flew from his hand, and there was a crash of glass and instantly
+a vile odour. On the opposite wall where the bottle had broken appeared
+a dark and irregular stain.</p>
+
+<p>Then, without so much as a laugh, he stepped back through the door and
+raced down the stairs in pursuit of White. It was too late; the man had
+disappeared. Jack o' Judgment stood for a moment listening, then he
+slipped off the black coat and ripped off the mask. The coat was of the
+finest silk, for he rolled it into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> space of a pocket-handkerchief
+and slipped it in his pocket. The handkerchief went the same way. If
+there had been observers, they would have caught a glimpse of a man in
+evening dress as he went swiftly down the half-lighted stairway.</p>
+
+<p>He turned and walked in the shadow of the building and passed down a
+side street, where a big limousine was awaiting him. He gave a murmured
+direction to the driver, and the car sped on its way.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH</h3>
+
+<p>Solomon White had a taxi waiting, and gave his directions. He was
+sufficiently loyal to the band to avoid calling especial attention to
+the house where the girl was imprisoned, and he told his cab to wait at
+the end of Putney Heath. The night was wild and boisterous and very
+dark, but he carried an electric torch, and presently he came to
+weather-stained gates bearing in letters which had half-faded the name
+he sought. He pushed open the gate with some trouble. There was a
+curving carriage-drive which led to the front door, which stood at the
+head of a flight of steps under a square and ugly portico.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up at the building, but it was in darkness. Apparently it was
+empty, but he knew enough of the colonel's methods to know that Boundary
+would not advertise the presence of the girl to the outside world.</p>
+
+<p>He stood hesitating, wondering. The whole thing might be a trap, but
+Solomon White was not easily scared. He took a revolver from his pocket,
+drew back the hammer and walked forward cautiously. There was no sign of
+life. The rustling of shrubs and trees was the only mournful sound which
+varied the roar of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>He was opposite the door, and one foot was raised to surmount the first
+step, when there came a sound like the sharp tap of a drum.</p>
+
+<p>"Rap-rap!"</p>
+
+<p>Solomon White stood for fully a second before he crumbled and fell, and
+he was dead before he reached the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Still there was no sign or sound of life. A church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> clock boomed out the
+quarter to ten. A motor-car went past, and then the laurel bushes by the
+side of the steps moved, and a man in a black mackintosh stepped out. He
+bent over the dead man, picked up the fallen torch and flashed the light
+on the dead man's face, then, with a grunt of satisfaction, Raoul
+Pontarlier unscrewed his Soubet silencer and slipped his automatic into
+the wet pocket of his mackintosh.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling in an inside pocket for a cigarette, he found one and lit it
+from the smouldering end of a tinder-lighter. Then, carefully concealing
+the lighted cigarette in the palm of his hand, he walked softly and
+noiselessly down the drive, keeping to the shadow of the bushes and
+watching to left and right for signs of approaching pedestrians. At two
+points he could see the heath road, and nobody was in sight. There was
+plenty of time, and men had been ruined by haste. He reached the gate
+and carefully looked over. The road was deserted. His hand was on the
+gate, when something cold and hard was pushed against his ear and he
+turned round.</p>
+
+<p>"Put up your hands!" said a mocking voice. "Put them up!"</p>
+
+<p>The Frenchman's hands rose slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now turn round and face the house. Quick!" said the voice. "<i>Marchez!</i>
+Halt!"</p>
+
+<p>Raoul stopped. If he could only get his hands down and duck, one
+lightning dive....</p>
+
+<p>His captor evidently read his thoughts, for he felt a hand slip into his
+mackintosh pocket, and he was relieved of the weight of his automatic.</p>
+
+<p>"Go forward, up the steps. Stop!"</p>
+
+<p>The stranger had seen the huddled figure of White, and stooped over him.
+He made no comment. He knew the man was dead before his hands had
+touched him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mount the steps, <i>canaille!</i>" said the voice, and Raoul walked slowly
+up the steps of the house and halted with his face against the door.</p>
+
+<p>A hand came up under his uplifted arm and sought the keyhole. A few
+minutes' fumbling until the prongs of the skeleton key had found its
+corresponding wards,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> and then the door swung open, emitting a scent of
+mustiness and decay.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Marchez!</i>" said the stranger, and Raoul walked forward and heard the
+door slam behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The house was not empty, in the sense that it was unfurnished. The
+unknown was using an electric torch of extraordinary brilliancy, and
+revealed a dilapidated hall-stand and a musty chair. He took a brief
+survey and then:</p>
+
+<p>"Down those stairs!" he said, and the murderer obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>They were in the kitchen now, and again the bright light gleamed about.
+The windows were heavily shuttered, the grate was rusty, and a few odd
+pieces of china on the sideboard were dirty. There was a gas bracket in
+the centre over a large deal table, and this the stranger turned on. He
+heard the hiss of escaping gas, struck a match and lit it, and then for
+the first time Raoul gazed in fear and astonishment upon the man who
+held him.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," he stammered, "who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>The masked figure slipped his hand into his pocket and flicked a card
+upon the table, and Raoul, looking down, saw the Jack of Clubs, and knew
+that his end was near.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>For three hours the Frenchman had lain on the floor, tied hand and foot,
+a gag in his mouth, and the clocks were striking two when Jack o'
+Judgment came back. This time he wore neither mask nor coat but over his
+arm he carried a coil of fine rope. Raoul watched him, fascinated, as he
+walked about the kitchen, whistling softly to himself, and now and again
+breaking into scraps of song.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur, monsieur," blubbered the terrified man, "I would make a
+confession. I will make a statement before the judge&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jack o' Judgment smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall make a statement before your judge, for I am he," he said,
+"and I think this is the place."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>He glanced up at the high roof of the kitchen, for there was a stout
+hook, where in old times heavy sides of bacon hung. He drew the table
+under the place and put a chair on top. Then he mounted, and with a
+skillful cast of his rope caught the hook and drew the rope slowly
+through. He did not move the table or take any notice of the man on the
+floor, but stood as a workman might stand who was calculating distances,
+and all the time he whistled softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur, monsieur, for God's sake spare me! I will make reparation!"</p>
+
+<p>"You speak truly," said the other without taking his eyes from the rope,
+"for it is reparation you make this night for two dead men, and God
+knows how many besides."</p>
+
+<p>"Two?"</p>
+
+<p>The murderer twisted his head.</p>
+
+<p>"For a man called Gregory particularly," said Jack o' Judgment, "shot
+down like a mad dog."</p>
+
+<p>"I was paid to do it. I knew nothing against him, I had no malice in my
+heart," said the man eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have I," said Jack o' Judgment, "for behold! I shall kill you
+without passion, as a warning to all villains of all nationalities."</p>
+
+<p>"This is against the law," whined the man, beads of sweat standing on
+his forehead. "Give me a knife and let me fight you. You coward!"</p>
+
+<p>"Give Solomon White a pistol, and let him fight you," said the other.
+"It is against the law&mdash;well, I know it. But it is much more speedy than
+the law, my little cabbage!"</p>
+
+<p>He was busy making a slip-knot at one end of the rope, and presently he
+had finished it to his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Raoul Pontarlier," he said, "this is a moment for which I have waited."</p>
+
+<p>The man screamed and twisted his head, but the noose was about his neck
+and tightening. Then with a wrench Jack o' Judgment jerked him to his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"On to the table," he said sternly. "Mount! It is quicker so!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>"I will not, I will not!" yelled the Frenchman. His voice rose to a
+shrill scream. "I&mdash;help!... help!..."</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later Jack o' Judgment came down the dark path, stopping
+only for a second to look upon the figure of Solomon White.</p>
+
+<p>"God have mercy on you all!" he said soberly, and passed into the night.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED</h3>
+
+<p>"The Putney mystery," said the <i>Daily Megaphone</i>, "surpasses any of
+recent years in its sensational character. There is a touch of the
+bizarre in this grim spectacle of the dead man at the door of the empty
+house, and the swaying figure of his murderer hanging in the kitchen,
+with no other mark of identification than a playing card pinned to his
+breast.</p>
+
+<p>"The tragedy can be reconstructed up to a point. Mr. White was evidently
+killed in the garden by the Frenchman who was found hanging. The
+automatic pistol in his pocket, which had recently been discharged,
+might support this theory even if the police had not found tracks of his
+feet in the laurels. But who hanged the man Raoul with a hangman's rope?
+That is the supreme mystery of all. The Putney police can offer no
+information on the subject, and Scotland Yard is as reticent. The
+circumstances of the discovery are as follows. At three o'clock on the
+morning of the 4th, Police-Constable Robinson, who was patrolling his
+beat, entered the garden, as is customary when houses are empty, to see
+if any doors had been forced. There had been an epidemic of burglaries
+in the region of Putney Heath during the past two or three months, and
+the police are exercising unusual vigilance in relation to these houses.
+The constable might not have made his inspection that night but for the
+fact that the garden gate had been left wide open...."</p>
+
+<p>Here followed an account of how the body was found and how further
+investigation led the constable to the kitchen to make his second
+gruesome discovery.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary folded up the paper slowly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> put it down. He had
+bought a copy of an early edition of the evening newspaper as he was
+stepping into his car, and now he was driving slowly through the park.
+He lit a cigar and gazed stolidly from the window. But his face showed
+no sign of mental perturbation.</p>
+
+<p>The car had made the circuit of the Park twice when, turning again by
+Marble Arch, he saw Crewe standing on the sidewalk. A word to his
+chauffeur, and the machine drew up.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," he said curtly, and the other obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>The hand that he lifted to take his cigarette from his lips trembled,
+and the colonel eyed him with quiet amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"They've got you rattled too, have they?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! It's awful!" said Crewe. "Awful!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's awful about it?" asked the colonel. "White's dead, ain't he? And
+Raoul's dead, ain't he? Two men who might talk and give a lot of
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say before he died? That's what I've been thinking. What
+did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Raoul?" demanded the colonel. He had asked himself the same
+question before. "What could he say? Anyway, if he had a statement to
+make, and his statement was worth taking, why, he'd be alive to-day!
+Raoul was the one witness that they wanted, if they only knew it.
+They've bungled pretty badly, whoever they are."</p>
+
+<p>"This Jack o' Judgment," quavered Crewe, his mouth working. "Who is he?
+What is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know?" snarled the colonel. "You ask me these fool
+questions&mdash;do you expect a reply? They're dead, and that's done with.
+I'd sooner he killed Raoul than made a mess of my room, anyway!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he do it?" asked Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel growled something about fools and their questions, but
+offered no explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"It may have been a monkey trick to make us change our quarters&mdash;the
+stuff was sulphuretted hydrogen and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> asaf&oelig;tida. It may have been just
+bravado, but if he thinks he can scare me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He sucked viciously at his cigar end.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got workmen in to strip the walls and re-paper the bit that's
+soiled," he said. "I'll be back there to-night."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel threw the end of his cigar from the window and relapsed into
+moody reverie. When he spoke it was in a more cheerful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Crewe," he said, "that guy at Scotland Yard has given me an idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Which guy?" asked Crewe, steadying his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The First Commissioner," said the colonel, lighting another cigar. "He
+particularly wanted to know if 'Snow' had any relations. Curse 'Snow'!"
+he said between his teeth, and dropping his mask of urbanity. "I wish
+he'd&mdash;well, it doesn't matter; he's dead, anyway&mdash;he's dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Relations?" said Crewe. "Did you tell him anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told him all I knew, and that was very little," said the colonel,
+"but it struck me that Sir Stanley knows much more about this fellow
+'Snow' than we do. At any rate, somebody's been making inquiries, and I
+guess that somebody is the fellow who settled Raoul."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment," repeated the colonel grimly. "You showed 'Snow'
+Gregory into the gang&mdash;what do you know about him?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Very little," he said. "I met him in Monte Carlo. He was down and out.
+He seemed a likely fellow&mdash;educated, a gentleman and all that sort of
+thing&mdash;and when I found that he'd hit the dope, I thought he'd be the
+kind of man you might want."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"He never talked about his relations. The only thing I know was that he
+had a father or an uncle, who was in India, and I gathered that he had
+forged his name to a bill. When I arrived in Monte Carlo he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> was
+spending the money as fast as he could. I guess that was why he called
+himself Gregory, for I'm sure it wasn't his name."</p>
+
+<p>"You're sure he never spoke of a brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," said Crewe; "he never talked about himself at all. He was
+generally under the influence of dope or was recovering from it."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel pushed back his hat and rubbed his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some way of identifying him," he said. "He came from
+Oxford, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know that," said Crewe; "he spoke of it once."</p>
+
+<p>"What house in Oxford? There are several colleges, aren't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Balliol," said Crewe. "I distinctly remember him talking about
+Balliol."</p>
+
+<p>"What year would that be?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe reflected.</p>
+
+<p>"He left college two years before I met him at Monte Carlo," he said;
+"that would be&mdash;&mdash;" He gave the year.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is pretty simple," said the colonel. "Send a man to Oxford and
+get the names of all the men that left Balliol in that year. Find out
+how many you can trace, and I dare say that will narrow the search down
+to two or three men. Now get after this at once, Crewe. Spare no
+expense. If it costs half a million I'm going to discover who Mr. Jack
+o' Judgment is when he's at home."</p>
+
+<p>He dismissed Crewe and gave fresh instructions to his driver, and ten
+minutes later he was stepping out of his limousine at the entrance to
+Scotland Yard.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King was not in, or at any rate was not available. Greatly
+daring, the colonel sent his card to the First Commissioner. Sir Stanley
+Belcom read the name and raised his eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Show him in," he said, and for the second time the colonel was ushered
+into the presence of the chief.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p><p>"Well, colonel," said Sir Stanley, "this is rather a dreadful
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"Terrible, terrible!" said the colonel, shaking his head. "Solomon White
+was one of my best friends. I've been searching for him for weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"So I've heard," said Sir Stanley dryly. "Have you any theory?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever."</p>
+
+<p>"What about this man called Raoul? Is he unknown to you?" asked Sir
+Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I've come to see you about, sir," said the colonel in a
+confidential tone. "You remember the last time I was here, you suggested
+that possibly the murderer of poor Gregory might be a Frenchman. <i>You</i>
+remember how you told me that these French assassins have a trick of
+leaving some fantastic card or sign of their handiwork?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here you have the same thing repeated," said the colonel
+triumphantly, "and the identical card. Do you think, sir, that the
+murderer of my poor friend Gregory and my poor friend White was the same
+man?"</p>
+
+<p>"In fact, Raoul?" asked Sir Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded, and for a few moments Sir Stanley communed with his
+well-kept finger-nails.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it will do any harm if I tell you that that is my theory
+also, Colonel Boundary," he said, "and, giving confidence for
+confidence, would you have any objection to telling me whether Raoul is
+one of your&mdash;er&mdash;business associates?"</p>
+
+<p>There was just the slightest shade of irony in the last two words, but
+the colonel preferred to ignore it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad you asked me that question, sir," he said with a sigh, so
+palpably a sigh of relief that the recording angel might be excused if
+he were deceived. "I have never seen Raoul before. In fact, my knowledge
+of Frenchmen is a very small one. I do very little business in France,
+and I certainly do no business at all with men of that class."</p>
+
+<p>"What class?" asked the other quickly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p><p>The colonel shrugged his big shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I am only going on what the newspapers say," he said. "They suggest
+that this man is an apache."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know him?" asked Sir Stanley after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never seen him in my life," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>Again Sir Stanley examined his finger-nails as though searching for some
+flaw.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will be surprised to learn," he drawled at last, "that you sat
+next to him in the cooling-room of the Yildiz Turkish Baths."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel's heart missed a beat, but he did not flinch.</p>
+
+<p>"You surprise me," he said. "I have only been to the Turkish baths once
+during the past three months, and that was yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"According to my information, which was supplied to me by my very able
+assistant, Mr. Stafford King, that was also the morning when Raoul was
+seen to enter that building."</p>
+
+<p>"And he sat next to me?" said the colonel incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"He sat next to you," said Sir Stanley, with evidence of enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is the most amazing coincidence," exclaimed the colonel, "I
+have ever met with in my life! To imagine that that scoundrel sat
+shoulder to shoulder with me&mdash;good heavens! It makes me hot to think
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid it would," said the First Commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>He pressed the bell and his secretary came in.</p>
+
+<p>"See if Mr. Stafford King is in the building, and tell him to come to
+me, please," he said. "You see, colonel, we were hoping you would supply
+us with a great deal of very useful information. We naturally thought it
+was something more than a coincidence that this man and you should
+foregather at a Turkish bath&mdash;a most admirable rendezvous, by the way."</p>
+
+<p>"You may accept my word of honour," said Colonel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Boundary impressively,
+"that I had no more idea of that man's presence, or of his identity, or
+of his very existence, than you had."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King came in at that moment, and the colonel, noting the
+haggard face and the look of care in the dark-lined eyes, felt a certain
+amount of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been telling the colonel about his meeting in the Turkish
+baths," said Sir Stanley. "I suppose there is no doubt at all as to that
+happening?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever, sir," said Stafford shortly. "Both the colonel and this
+man were seen by Sergeant Livingstone."</p>
+
+<p>"The colonel suggests that it was a coincidence, and that he has never
+spoken to the man," said Sir Stanley. "What do you say to that, King?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King's lips curled.</p>
+
+<p>"If the colonel says so, of course, it must be true."</p>
+
+<p>"Sarcasm never worries me," said the colonel. "I'm always getting into
+trouble, and I'm always getting out again. Give a dog a bad name
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped. There arose in his mind a mental picture of a man swinging
+in an underground kitchen, and in spite of his self-control he
+shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"And hang him, eh?" said Sir Stanley. "Now, I'm going to put matters to
+you very plainly, colonel. There have been three or four very unpleasant
+happenings. There has been the death of the chief witness for the Crown
+against you; there has been the death of this unhappy man White, who was
+closely associated with you in your business deals, and who had recently
+broken away from you, unless our information is inaccurate; there is the
+death of Raoul, who was seen seated next to you and apparently carrying
+on a conversation behind a fan."</p>
+
+<p>"He never spoke a word to me," protested the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"And we have the disappearance of Miss White, which is one of the most
+important of the happenings, because we have reason to believe that Miss
+White, at any rate, is still alive," said Sir Stanley, taking no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> notice
+of the interruption. "Now, colonel, you may or may not have the key to
+all these mysteries. You may or may not know who your mysterious friend,
+the Jack o' Judgment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He's no friend of mine, by heaven!" said the colonel, and neither man
+doubted that he spoke the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"As I say, you may know all these things. But principally at this moment
+we are anxious to secure authentic news concerning Miss White. Both I
+and Mr. Stafford King have particular reasons for desiring information
+on that subject. Can you help us?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"If by spending a hundred thousand pounds I could help you, I would do
+it," he said fervently, "but as to Miss White and where she is, I am as
+much at sea as you. Do you believe that, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Sir Stanley truthfully; "I don't."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT</h3>
+
+<p>The colonel left Scotland Yard with a sense that he had spent the
+morning not unprofitably. It was his way to beard the lion in his den,
+and after all, the police department was no more formidable than any
+other public department. He spent the morning quietly in Pinto's flat,
+making certain preparations. The workmen were making a thorough job of
+his damaged wall, as he found when he looked in, and the horrible odour
+had almost disappeared. It was to be a much longer job than he thought.
+It had been necessary to cut away and replace the plaster under the
+paper for the infernal mixture had soaked deep. Still the colonel had
+plenty to occupy his mind. What he called his legitimate business had
+been sadly neglected of late. Reports had come in from all sorts of
+agencies, reports which might by careful study be turned to the greatest
+advantage. There was the affair of Lady Glenmerrin. He had been months
+accumulating evidence of that lady's marital delinquencies, and now the
+iron was ready to strike&mdash;and he simply had no interest in a deal which
+might very easily transfer the famous Glenmerrin Farms to his charge at
+a nominal figure.</p>
+
+<p>And there were other prospects as alluring. But for the moment the
+colonel was mainly interested in the stock value of Colonel Dan Boundary
+and the possibility of violent fluctuations. He was losing grip. The
+story of Jack o' Judgment had circulated with amazing rapidity, by all
+manner of underground channels, to people vitally concerned. Crewe, who
+had been a stand-by in almost every big coup he had pulled off, was as
+stable as pulp. White his right-hand man, was dead. Pinto&mdash;well, Pinto
+would go his own way just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> when it suited him. He had no doubt whatever
+as to Pinto's loyalty. Silva had big estates in Portugal, to which he
+would retire just when things were getting warm and interesting.
+Moreover, the British Government could not extradite Pinto from his
+native land.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel found himself regretting that he had missed the opportunity
+of taking up American citizenship during the seven years he had spent in
+San Francisco. And what of Crewe? Crewe was to reveal himself most
+unmistakably. He came in in the late afternoon and found the colonel
+working through the litter on his desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you started your search at Oxford?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"I've sent two men down there&mdash;the best men in London," replied Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>He drew up a chair to the desk and flung his hat on a near-by couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to have a little talk with you, colonel."</p>
+
+<p>Boundary looked up sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds bad," he said. "What do you want to talk about? The
+weather?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly," said Crewe. A little pause, and then: "Colonel, I'm going to
+quit."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel made no reply. He went on writing his letter, and not until
+he reached the end of the page and carefully blotted the epistle did he
+meet Crewe's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"So you're going to quit, are you?" said Boundary. "Cold feet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Something like that," said Crewe. "Of course, I'm not going to leave
+you in the lurch."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said the colonel with elaborate politeness, "nobody's going to
+leave me in the lurch. You're just going to quit, that's all, and I've
+got to face the music."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you quit too, colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quit what?" asked Boundary. "And how? You might as well ask a tree to
+quit the earth, to uproot itself and go on living. What happens when I
+walk out of this office and take a first-class state-room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> to New York?
+You think the Boundary Gang collapses, fades away, just dies off, eh?
+The moment I leave there's a squeal, and that squeal will be loud enough
+to reach me in whatever part of the world I may be. There are a dozen
+handy little combinations which will think that I am double-crossing
+them, and they'll be falling over one another to get in with the first
+tale."</p>
+
+<p>Crewe licked his dry lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Well that certainly may be in your case, colonel, but it doesn't happen
+to be in mine. I've covered all my tracks so that there's no evidence
+against me."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," said the colonel. "You've just managed to keep out of
+taking an important part. I congratulate you."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no sense in getting riled about it," said Crewe; "it has just
+been my luck, that's all. Well, I want to take advantage of this luck."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm out of any bad trouble. The police, if they search for a million
+years, couldn't get a scrap of evidence to convict me," he said, "even
+if they'd had you when Hanson betrayed you, they couldn't have convicted
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," said the colonel again. He shook his head impatiently.
+"Well, what does all this lead to, Crewe? Do you want to be
+demobilised?" he asked humorously.</p>
+
+<p>"That's about the size of it," said Crewe. "I don't want to be in
+anything fresh, and I certainly don't want to be in this&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"In this Maisie White business," said Crewe doggedly. "Let Pinto do his
+own dirty work."</p>
+
+<p>"My dirty work too," said the colonel. "But I reckon you've overlooked
+one important fact."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Crewe suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"You've overlooked a young gentleman called Jack o' Judgment," said the
+colonel, and enjoyed the look of consternation which came to the other's
+face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> "There's a fellow that doesn't want any evidence. He hanged Raoul
+all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he did it?" said Crewe in a hushed voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I think he did it?" The colonel smiled. "Why, who else? And when he
+comes to judge you, I guess he's not going to worry very much about
+affidavits and sworn statements, and he's not going to take you before a
+magistrate before he hands you over to the coroner."</p>
+
+<p>Crewe jumped to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"What have I done?" he asked harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done? Well, you know that best," said the colonel with a
+wave of his hand. "You say the police haven't got you and haven't a case
+against you. Maybe you're right. That Greek was saying the same sort of
+thing to me. He was here this afternoon squealing about taking the girl
+to the Argentine, and wanted us to send the doctor, and he'll be waiting
+to meet us when we land. There's no evidence against him either. Maybe
+there's more evidence than you imagine. I wouldn't bank too much upon
+the police passing you by, if I were you, Crewe. There's something about
+Mr. Stafford King that I don't like. He's got more brains in his little
+finger than that dude commissioner has in the whole of his body. He
+doesn't say much, but I guess he thinks a lot, and I'd give something to
+know what he's thinking about me just now."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BRIDE OF DEATH</h3>
+
+<p>Time had long ceased to have any significance for Maisie White. There
+was daylight and nightlight. She seemed to remember that she had made a
+great fight on the day she arrived at this strange house when the
+hard-faced nurses had strapped her to the bed, and an old man, with
+trembling fingers, had pushed a needle into her arm. She remembered it
+hurt, and then she remembered very little else. She viewed life with a
+dull apathy and without much understanding. She ceased to resent the
+presence of the women who came and went, and even the uncleanly old
+doctor no longer filled her with a sense of revulsion. She just wanted
+to be left alone to sleep, to dream the strangest dreams that any girl
+had ever had. She did not know that this was the action of bromide of
+potassium, consistently administered in every drink she took, in every
+morsel of food she ate. Bromide in bread, in coffee, in mashed potatoes,
+in rice, in all the vehicles by which the drug could be administered.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes by reason of her sheer vitality she flung off the effects of
+the dope, and was keenly conscious of her surroundings. There was one
+girl who came and went, a pretty girl with fluffy golden hair, who
+looked at her dispassionately and made no reply to the questions with
+which Maisie plied her. And once she had seen Pinto and would have
+screamed, but they stopped her in time. One night the old doctor had
+come into the room very drunk. He was crying and moaning in a maudlin
+fashion about some mysterious position which he had lost, and he had sat
+on the bed and, cursed his passion for strong drink with such vehemence
+that she, in her half-dazed state of mind, had found herself interested
+against her will.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>In one of her lucid intervals she had realised a vital fact, that she
+was under the influence of a drug, and instinctively knew that she was
+becoming more and more immune to its action. She formed a vague plan,
+which she had almost forgotten the next morning. She must always be
+sleepy, almost dazed; she must never show signs of returning
+consciousness. She had been a week in the "nursing home" before she made
+this plan. She could lie now with her eyes shut, picking up the threads.
+She heard somebody talk of a ship and of a passport, and learned that
+she was to be removed in another week. She could not find where, but it
+was somewhere on a ship. She tried once, when the nurses were out of the
+room, to get out of bed and walk to the window. Her legs gave way
+beneath her, and it was with the greatest difficulty that she managed to
+crawl back to bed.</p>
+
+<p>There was no escape that way. There was no help either from the nurses
+who were not nurses at all, nor from the maudlin little doctor, nor from
+the pretty girl who came sometimes and looked down on her with
+undisguised contempt&mdash;or was it pity? Then one night she woke in a
+fright. Two people were talking. She half turned her head and saw that
+Pinto was in the room, and his face was a flaming fury. She had seen
+that look before, but now his rage was directed at somebody else, and
+with a start she recognised the pretty girl that the nurses called
+Lollie.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not in this, Lollie," said the man, and she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just where you're wrong, Silva," she replied. "I'm very much in
+it. What happens to this girl when she leaves here heaven only knows&mdash;I
+guess it's up to the colonel. But while she's here I'm looking after
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, are you?" he said between his teeth. "Well, now you can go and
+take a walk."</p>
+
+<p>"I can also take a seat too," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He walked over to her and glowered down at the girl, and she puffed a
+cloud of cigarette smoke in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a crook because it pays me to be a crook,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> said the girl calmly.
+"If it's jollying along one of the colonel's blue-eyed innocents, or
+keeping a watchful eye upon Mr. King, or acting trustful maiden to some
+poor fool from the country&mdash;why, I'm ready and willing, because that's
+my job. But this is a different matter altogether. If the colonel says
+she's got to go abroad, why, I suppose she's got to go. But she's not
+going to be on my conscience, that's all," said Lollie.</p>
+
+<p>They passed through the door into a smaller room where the night
+watchers sat. She made as though to sit at the table when he gripped her
+arm and swung her round. She put up her hands to defend herself, but was
+thrown against the wall, and his grip was on her throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I'll do for you?" he hissed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care what you do," she said. She was on the verge of tears.
+"You're not going into that room&mdash;you're <i>not</i> going!"</p>
+
+<p>She sprang at him, but with a snarl like a wild beast, he turned and
+struck her, and she fell against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Now get out"&mdash;he pointed to the door&mdash;"get out and don't show your face
+here again. And if you've got any information, you can report it to the
+colonel and see what he's got to say to you!"</p>
+
+<p>She slunk from the room. Pinto went back to the room where the girl lay.</p>
+
+<p>"Cover your head with a blanket, my pretty?" he said. "Pinto must not
+see that pretty face, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>He laid hold of the blanket's edge and pulled it gently down. But the
+blanket would not come away. It was being clutched tightly. With a jerk
+he wrenched it down, then stumbled backwards to the floor, a grotesque
+and ludicrous figure, for the white silk mask of Jack o' Judgment
+confronted him and the hateful voice of his enemy shrilled:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Death! Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack! Jack, the hangman! You'll
+meet him one day, Pinto&mdash;meet him now!"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto collapsed&mdash;he had fainted.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>MAISIE TELLS HER STORY</h3>
+
+<p>"There is one fact which I would impress upon you," said Sir Stanley
+Belcom, addressing the heads of his departments at the early morning
+conference at Scotland Yard, "and it is this, that the criminal has nine
+chances against the one which the law possesses. He has the initiative
+in the first place, and if he fails to evade detection, the law gives
+him certain opportunities of defence and imposes certain restrictions
+which prevent one taking a line which would bring the truth of his
+assertions or denials to light. It protects him; it will not admit
+evidence against him; it will not allow the jury to be influenced by the
+record of his previous crimes until they have delivered their verdict
+upon the one on which he stands charged; in fact, gentlemen, the
+criminal, if he were intelligent, would score all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true enough, sir," said Cole, of the Record Office. "I've never
+yet met a criminal who wasn't a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"And you never will till you meet Colonel Boundary," said Sir Stanley
+with a good-natured smile, "and the reason you do not meet him is
+because he is not a fool. But, gentlemen, every criminal has one weak
+spot, and sooner or later he exposes the chink in his armour to the
+sword of justice&mdash;if you do not mind so theatrical an illustration.
+Here, again, I do not think that Boundary will make any such exposure.
+One of you gentlemen has again brought up the question as to the
+prosecution of the Boundary Gang, and particularly the colonel himself.
+Well, I am all in favour of it, though I doubt whether the Home
+Secretary or the Public Prosecutor would agree with my point of view. We
+have a great deal of evidence, but not sufficient evidence to convict.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+We know this man is a blackmailer and that he engages in terrorising his
+unfortunate victims, but the mere fact that we know is not sufficient.
+We need the evidence, and that evidence we have not got. And that is
+where our mysterious Jack o' Judgment is going to score. He knows, and
+it is sufficient for him that he <i>does</i> know. He calls for no
+corroborative evidence, but convicts and executes his judgment without
+recourse to the law books. I do not think that the official police will
+ever capture Boundary, and if it is left to them, he will die sanctified
+by old age and ten years of comfortable repentance. He will probably end
+his life in a cathedral town, and may indeed become a member of the town
+council&mdash;hullo, King, what is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King had rushed in. He was dusty and hot of face, and there was
+a light of excitement in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"She's found, sir, she's found!"</p>
+
+<p>"She's found?" Sir Stanley frowned. "To whom are you referring? Miss
+White?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford could only nod.</p>
+
+<p>With a gesture the commissioner dismissed the conference. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Where was she found?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In her own flat, sir. That is the amazing thing about it."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Did she come back herself?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is an astonishing story, sir. She was, of course, detained and held
+prisoner somewhere, and last night&mdash;she will not give me any
+details&mdash;she was carried from the house where she had been kept
+prisoner. She had an awful experience, at which she only hints, poor
+girl! Apparently she fainted, and when she came to she was in a
+motor-car being carried along rapidly. And that is about all she'll tell
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"But who brought her away?" asked the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>Again Stafford shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"For some reason or other she is reticent and will give no information
+at all. It is evident she has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> drugged, for she looks wretchedly
+ill&mdash;of course, I haven't pressed her for particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a strange story," said the commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a feeling," Stafford went on, "that she has given a promise to
+her unknown rescuer that she will not tell more than is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is necessary to tell the police," said the commissioner, "and
+even more important for the young lady to tell her&mdash;fianc&eacute;, I hope,
+King?"</p>
+
+<p>The young man reddened and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you that this is not the moment when you can cross-examine
+the girl, but I want you to see her as soon as you possibly can and try
+to induce her to tell you all she knows."</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>Maisie White lay on the sofa in her own room. She was still weak, but
+oh! the relief of being back again and of ending that terrible nightmare
+which had oppressed her for&mdash;how long? Even the depressing effect of the
+drug could not quench the exaltation of finding herself free. She went
+over the details of the night one by one. She must do it, she thought.
+She must never lose grip of what happened or forget her promise.</p>
+
+<p>First she recalled seeing the weird figure of Jack o' Judgment. He had
+lifted her from the bed and had laid her on the floor. She remembered
+seeing him slip beneath the blankets, and then Pinto had come. She
+recalled the cracked voice of her rescuer, his fantastic language.</p>
+
+<p>She had awakened to consciousness to find herself in a big car which was
+passing quickly through the dark and deserted streets. She had no
+recollection of being carried from the room or of being handed to the
+thick-set man who stood on a ladder outside the open window. All she
+recalled was her waking to consciousness and seeing in the half-light
+the gleam of a white silk handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>She was too dazed to be terrified, and the soft voice which spoke into
+her ear quelled any inclinations she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> might have had to struggle. For
+the man was holding her in his arms as tenderly as a brother might hold
+a sister, or a father a child.</p>
+
+<p>"You're safe, Miss White," said the voice. "Do you understand? Are you
+awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I have saved you from?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to do something for me now. Will you?" She nodded again.
+"Are you sure you understand?" said the voice anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I quite understand," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>She could have almost smiled at his consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"I am taking you to your home, and to-morrow your friends will know that
+you have returned. But you're not to tell them about the house where
+they have kept you. You must not tell them about Silva or anybody that
+was in that house. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" she began, and he laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not trying to shield them," he said, answering her unspoken
+thought, "but if you give information you can only tell a little, and
+the police can only discover a little, and the men can only be punished
+a little. And there's so much that they deserve, so many lives they have
+ruined, so much sorrow they have caused, that it would be a hideous
+injustice if they were only punished&mdash;a little. Will you leave them to
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>She struggled to an erect position and stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you," she whispered fearlessly; "you are Jack o' Judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" he laughed a little bitterly. "Yes, I am Jack o'
+Judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A living lie," he replied bitterly, "a masquerader, a mummer, a
+nobody."</p>
+
+<p>She did not know what impelled her to do the thing, but she put out her
+hand and laid it on his. She felt the silky smoothness of the glove and
+then his other hand covered hers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><p>"Thank you," he said simply. "Do you think you can walk? We are just
+turning into Doughty Street. We've passed the policeman on his beat; he
+is going the other way. Can you walk upstairs by yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I'll try," she said, but when he assisted her from the car she
+nearly fell, and he half carried, half supported her into her room.</p>
+
+<p>He stood hesitating near the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be all right," she smiled. "How quickly you understand my
+thoughts!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be well if I sent somebody to you&mdash;a nurse? Have you the
+key I gave you?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you get it?" she asked suddenly, and he laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment," he mocked, "wise old Jack o' Judgment! He has
+everything and nothing! Suppose I send a nurse to you, a nice nurse. I
+could send the key to her by messenger. Would you like that?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I would," she said with a weak smile. "I am not quite sure of
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>He did not take off the soft felt hat which was drawn tightly over his
+ears, nor did he remove his mask or cloak. She was making up her mind to
+take a closer stock of him, when unexpectedly he backed towards the
+door, and with a little nod was gone. He had left her on the couch, and
+there she was, half dozing and half drugged when the matronly nurse from
+St. George's Institute arrived half an hour later.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford called in the afternoon and was surprised and delighted to
+learn that he could speak to the girl. He found her looking better and
+more cheerful. He bent over and kissed her cheek, and her hand sought
+his.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'm going to be awfully official," he laughed, "I want you to tell
+me all sorts of things. The chief is very anxious that we should lose no
+time in getting your story."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no story to tell, Stafford," she said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>"No story to tell?" he said incredulously. "But weren't you abducted?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"There's that much you know," she said; "I was abducted and taken away.
+I have been detained and I think drugged."</p>
+
+<p>"No harm has come to you?" he asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Again she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"But where did they take you? Who was it? Who were the people?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know?"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I know, but I can't tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" he asked in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the man who rescued me begged me not to tell, and, Stafford,
+you don't know what he saved me from."</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;he&mdash;who was it?" asked Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"The man called Jack o' Judgment," said the girl slowly, and Stafford
+jumped up with a cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" he said. "I ought to have guessed! Did you see his
+face?" he demanded eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head again.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he give you any clue as to his identity?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever," she replied with a little gleam of amusement in her
+eyes. "What a detective you are, Stafford! And I thought you were coming
+down here to tell me"&mdash;the colour went to her cheeks&mdash;"well, to tell me
+the news," she added hastily. "Is there any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, except&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then he remembered that she knew nothing whatever of her father's death
+and its tragic sequel, and this was not the moment to tell her. Later,
+when she was stronger, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>She was watching him with trouble in her eyes. She had noted how quickly
+he had stopped and guessed that there was something to be told which he
+was withholding for fear of hurting her. Her father was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> uppermost in
+her mind and it was natural that she should think of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any news of my father?" she asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"None," he lied.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not speaking the truth, Stafford." She put her hand on his arm.
+"Stafford, is there any news of my father?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, and she saw the pain in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you wait a little while, and I'll tell you all the news," he
+said with an assumption of gaiety. "There have been several fashionable
+weddings&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please tell me," she said, "Stafford. I've been for weeks under the
+influence of a drug, and somehow it has numbed pain, even mental pain,
+and perhaps you will never find me in a better condition to hear&mdash;the
+worst."</p>
+
+<p>"The worst has happened, Maisie," he said gently.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been arrested?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Not&mdash;not suicide?" she said between her set teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Again he shook his head. "He is dead," he said softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence which he did not break.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" she said again. "How?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was shot by&mdash;we think it was by a member of the Boundary Gang, a man
+named Raoul."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never heard my father speak of him."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a man imported from France, according to our theory."</p>
+
+<p>"And was he captured?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was killed too," said Stafford; "he was caught in the act and
+instantly executed."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jack o' Judgment," replied Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" She breathed the words. "And I&mdash;I never thanked him!
+I never knew!"</p>
+
+<p>He told her the story step by step of the discovery which the police had
+made and the theories they had formed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>"He was lured there," said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She did not cry. She seemed incapable of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"He was lured there and murdered, and Jack o' Judgment slew his
+murderer? Poor father! Poor, dear daddy!"</p>
+
+<p>And then the tears came.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later he left her in charge of the nurse and went back to
+Scotland Yard to report.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GANG FUND</h3>
+
+<p>The news of the girl's escape had been received in another quarter.
+Colonel Boundary had sat in his favourite chair and listened without
+comment to Pinto's halting explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they went out of the window and down a ladder, did they?" said the
+colonel sarcastically when the Portuguese had finished, "and you had a
+fit on the mat, I suppose? Well, that's a hell of a fine story! And what
+did you do? You who were plastered all over with guns? Couldn't you
+shoot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you shoot when you saw Jack o' Judgment?" said the other sullenly.
+"It is no good your telling me what I ought to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it isn't," said the colonel. "Well, there's nothing to do now,
+anyway. The girl's gone, and all your fine plans have come unstuck."</p>
+
+<p>"They weren't my plans," said Pinto indignantly, "it was your scheme
+throughout."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel bit off the end of his cigar and contemplated the ceiling
+reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"We can only wait and see what will happen," he said. "The odds are all
+in favour of our being raided."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto went pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the colonel, talking to himself, "I guess this is our last
+day of freedom. Well, Pinto, I hope you can pick oakum."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, shut up about oakum," growled the other; "it isn't a joke."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a joke," said the colonel, "and if it is, it is one of those
+jokes that make people laugh the most. And do you know the kind of joke
+that makes people laugh the most, Pinto? It is when somebody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> gets hurt;
+and we are the people who are going to get hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think she'll tell the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is extremely likely," said the colonel; "in fact, it is extremely
+unlikely that she won't tell the police. I am rather glad I'm out of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto leaped up.</p>
+
+<p>"You're out of it!" he shouted. "You're in it up to the neck!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm absolutely out of it, Pinto," he said, flicking the ash of his
+cigar into the fireplace. "I cannot be identified with this unhappy
+affair by so much as a finger-print."</p>
+
+<p>The Portuguese scowled down at him.</p>
+
+<p>"So that's the game, is it? You're going to double-cross us? You're
+going to be out of it and we're going to be in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, you fool. Double-cross you! You are easily scared at a little
+leg-pulling. I'm merely pointing out that it is not a matter in which I
+am greatly interested. It is a good thing for you I'm not. Who are the
+police after? You and Crewe and the rest of the gang? Not on your life!
+They're after me. They get the trunk and all the branches come down with
+it. Do you see? There's no sense in lopping off a few branches even of
+deadwood. It won't be good enough if they connect you with the case,
+unless they connect me too. They're after the big horns, they're not
+shooting the little bucks. If she tells the police, they're going to
+nose around for two or three days, seeing how far they can connect me
+with it. And if there's any connection&mdash;the slightest, Pinto&mdash;why,
+they'll pinch you without a doubt, but they'll pinch me too."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel blew a blue ring of smoke into the air and watched it float
+to the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>"The advantage of having a business associate like me is that I'm a sort
+of insurance to you little crooks. I am the big fish they're trying to
+hook, and their bait isn't the kind of bait that you'd swallow."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>"I've burnt all the papers I had," explained Pinto, "and covered my
+trail."</p>
+
+<p>"When you burnt your boats and came in with me," said the colonel, "you
+burnt everything that was worth burning. I tell you it isn't you they're
+trailing. It is me or nothing. Maybe they'll scare you," he said
+reflectively, "hoping you'll turn King's evidence. I've got a feeling
+that you won't&mdash;if I had a feeling the other way about, Pinto, you
+wouldn't see the curtain rise at the Orpheum to-night. And now," said
+the colonel, "we'll go out."</p>
+
+<p>He rose abruptly, walked into his bedroom, and came out wearing his
+broad felt hat. He found Pinto biting his finger-nails nervously and
+looking out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go out," said Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out," said the colonel. "What's the good of staying here, anyway?
+Besides, if they are going to pinch you, I don't want them to pinch you
+in my rooms. It would look bad."</p>
+
+<p>They walked downstairs into the street, and a few minutes later were
+strolling across the Green Park, the colonel a picture of a contented
+bourgeoisie with his half-smoked cigar, and his hands clasped together
+under the tails of his alpaca coat.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how you can say they've no evidence against you. Suppose
+Crotin squeals?"</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't stopped squealing yet," said the colonel philosophically, "but
+I don't see what difference it makes. Pinto, you haven't got the hang of
+my methods, and I doubt if you ever will. You're a clever, useful
+fellow, but if you were allowed to run the gang, you'd have it in gaol
+in a month. Take Crotin," he said. "I dare say he's feeling sore, and
+maybe this damned Jack o' Judgment person is standing behind him telling
+him&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped. "No, he wouldn't either," he said after a moment's
+thought, "Jack o' Judgment knows as much about it as I do."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about?" asked the other impatiently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>"Crotin," said the colonel; "he hasn't any evidence against me. You
+see, I do not do any business by letters. You fellows have often wanted
+me to write to this person and that, but writing is evidence. Do you get
+me? And what evidence has Crotin? Absolutely none. I have never written
+a line to him in my life. Crewe brought him down to the flat. We gave
+him a dinner and put the proposal to him in plain language. There's
+nothing he could take before a judge and jury&mdash;absolutely nothing."</p>
+
+<p>He took the cigar from his mouth and blew a cloud of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way I've built the business up&mdash;no letters, no documents,
+nothing that a lawyer can make head or tail of."</p>
+
+<p>"What about the documents that Hanson talked about?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel frowned and then laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"They're nothing but records of our transactions, and they're not
+evidence. Why, even the police have given up the search for them. By the
+way, I haven't done with Crotin," he said after a while.</p>
+
+<p>"He's done with you, I should think," said Pinto grimly.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess so, but he hasn't done with the gang. You can take him on
+next."</p>
+
+<p>"I?" said Pinto in affright. "Now look here, colonel, don't you think
+it's time we laid low&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Laid low!" said the colonel scornfully. "We're either going to get into
+trouble or we're not. If we're not going to get into trouble, we might
+as well go on. Besides, we want the money. The business has slackened
+off, and we haven't had a deal since the Spillsbury affair, and that
+won't last very long. We've got to split our loot six ways, Pinto, and
+that leaves very little for anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going now?" asked the other, as the colonel changed his
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>"It just struck me that we might as well go over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> to the bank and see
+how our balance stands. Also, with the exchange going against us, I want
+to tell Ferguson to buy dollars."</p>
+
+<p>The handsome premises of the Victoria and City Bank in Victoria Street
+were only a stone's throw from the park; and, whatever might be the
+views of Ferguson, the manager, as to the colonel's moral character, he
+had a considerable respect for him as a financier, and Dan Boundary was
+shown immediately into the manager's office.</p>
+
+<p>He was gone some time, whilst Pinto waited impatiently outside. The
+colonel never invited other members, even of the inmost council, to
+share his knowledge of finances. They all knew roughly the condition of
+the exchequer, but really the balance at the Victoria and City was the
+colonel's own. It was the practice of the Boundary Gang (as was
+subsequently revealed) to share, after each coup, every man taking that
+to which he was entitled. The money was split between five, the sixth
+share going to what was known as the Gang Account, a common fund upon
+which all could draw in moments of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The Gang Fund was not so described in the books of the bank. It was
+known as "Account B." The expenses of operations were usually paid out
+of the colonel's private account, and credited to him when the share-out
+came. He was absolute master of his own balance, but it required three
+signatures to extract a cheque from Account B. One of the objects of the
+colonel's visit was to reduce this number to two, the death of Solomon
+White having removed one of the signatories.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to Pinto, apparently not too well satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"There's quite a lot of money in the Gang Account," he said. "I've
+struck off Solly's name, and your signature and mine, or mine and
+Crewe's, is sufficient now."</p>
+
+<p>"Or mine and Crewe's, I suppose?" suggested Pinto, and the colonel
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said he. "I'm not a great believer in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> indispensability of
+any man, but I'm making the signature of Dan Boundary indispensable
+before that account is touched."</p>
+
+<p>They walked back through the park, and the colonel expounded his
+philosophy of wrong living.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who runs an honest business and mixes it with a little crooked
+work is bound to be caught," he said, "because his mind is concentrated
+on the unpaying side of the game. You've got to run a crook business in
+an honest way if you want to escape the law and pay big dividends. They
+call our system blackmail, but it ain't. A blackmailer asks for
+something for nothing, and he's bound to get caught sooner or later. We
+offer spot cash for all the things we steal, and that baffles the law.
+And we're not the only people in London, or in England, or in the world,
+who are pulling bargains by scaring the fellow we buy from. It is done
+every day in the City of London; it is done every day by the trusts that
+control the little shops in the suburbs; it is done even by the big
+proprietary companies that tell a miserable little tradesman that, if he
+doesn't stop selling one article, they won't supply him with theirs.
+Living, Pinto, is preying. The only mistake a crook ever makes is when
+he goes outside of his legitimate business and lets some other
+consideration than the piling up of money influence him."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?" asked Pinto wearily. He hated the colonel when he was
+in this communicative mood of his.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the colonel slowly, "I shouldn't have been so keen to go
+after Maisie White if it hadn't been that you were fond of her and
+wanted her. That's what I call letting love interfere with business."</p>
+
+<p>"But you said you were afraid of her blabbing. You don't put it on to
+me," said the indignant Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"I was and I wasn't," said the colonel. "I think I almost persuaded
+myself that the girl was a danger. Of course, she isn't. Even Solomon
+White wasn't a danger."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped dead, and, speaking slowly and pointing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> his words with a
+huge forefinger on the other's chest, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Bear this fact in mind, Pinto, that I have no malice against Miss
+White, and I don't think that she can harm me. As far as I'm concerned,
+I will never hurt a hair of her head or do her the slightest harm. I
+believe that she has nothing against me, and I give orders to anybody
+who's connected with me&mdash;in fact, to all of my business associates&mdash;that
+that girl is not to be interfered with."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, emphatically, every word emphasised, the colonel spoke, but
+Pinto did not smile. He had seen the colonel in this gentle mood before,
+and he knew that Maisie White was doomed.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>PINTO GOES NORTH</h3>
+
+<p>Had Pinto been a psychologist, which he was not, he might have been
+struck by the unusual reference on the part of the colonel to the funds
+of the gang. It was a subject to which the colonel very seldom referred,
+and it was certainly one which he did not emphasise. The truth was that
+the colonel's investigations into his own private affairs had not been
+as satisfactory as he had hoped would be the case.</p>
+
+<p>He was in the habit of advancing money, and the gang owed him a
+considerable sum, money which had been advanced for the pursuit of
+various enterprises. To draw that money would leave the Gang Fund sadly
+depleted, and he could not afford to draw upon it at a moment when they
+were all on edge. Not only were the two principal subordinates in the
+condition of mind which led them to jump at every knock and start at
+every shadow, but he had been receiving urgent messages from all parts
+of the country from the other men, and he had determined upon a step
+which he had not taken for three years&mdash;a meeting of the full "Board" of
+his lawless organisation.</p>
+
+<p>That night summonses went forth calling his "business associates" to an
+Extraordinary General Meeting of the North European Smelter Syndicate.
+This was one of the companies which he operated, and the existence of
+which was justified by a small smelting works in the North of England,
+and owed its international character to the fact that it had branch
+works in Sweden. Its turnover was small, its list of stockholders was
+select. A summons to a General Meeting of the North European Smelter
+Company meant that the affairs of the gang were critical, and in this
+spirit the call was obeyed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p><p>The meeting was held in the banquet hall of a West End restaurant, and
+the twenty men who assembled differed very little in appearance from
+twenty other provincial business men who might have been gathered to
+discuss the affairs of any company.</p>
+
+<p>Their coming excited no comment, and apparently did not even arouse the
+attention of vigilant Scotland Yard. Nor, had the colonel's speech been
+taken down by a shorthand writer and submitted to the police, could any
+suggestion be found of the significance of the meeting. He spoke of the
+difficulties of trading, of the "competition" with which the company was
+faced, and called upon all the shareholders to assist loyally the
+executive in a very critical and trying time. But those who listened
+knew very well that the "competition" was the competition of the police,
+and they had their own ideas as to what constituted the trying time to
+which the colonel made reference.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very commonplace, ordinary company meeting, which ended in a
+conventional way by a vote of confidence in the directors. It was when
+that had been passed, and the meeting had been broken up, and members
+and officials were talking together, that the real business started.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Selby, the stout little man whose special job was to
+act as intermediary between the company and its more criminal
+enterprises, received his instructions to speed up. Selby was the
+receiver of letters. A burglar or a pickpocket who acquired in the
+course of his activities documents and letters which had hitherto been
+worthless found a ready market through Selby. Eighty letters out of
+every hundred were absolutely valueless, but occasionally they would
+find a rich gem, a love letter discreetly cherished, on which a new
+"operation" would be based. Then would begin the torturing of a human
+soul, the opening of new vistas of despair, the stage be cleared for a
+new tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was to find that the chief anxiety of his "shareholders" was
+not as to the future of the company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> or as to the success of its
+trading. Again and again he was asked a question couched in identical
+words, and again and again he replied with a shrug of his big shoulders:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the good of worrying about a thing like that? Jack o' Judgment
+is a crook! That's all he is, boys, a crook. He's not the sort of man
+who'll go to the police and give us away; he wouldn't dare put his nose
+inside a police station. You leave him to us, we'll fix him sooner or
+later."</p>
+
+<p>"But," somebody asked uneasily, "what about Raoul, that fellow who was
+killed at Putney?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel lifted his eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Raoul," he said; "he was nothing to do with us. I never heard the
+fellow's name until I read it in the paper. As to White"&mdash;he shrugged
+his shoulders again&mdash;"we can't prevent people having private quarrels,
+and may be this Frenchman and White had one. My theory is," he said,
+elaborating an idea which had only at that moment occurred to him, "that
+Raoul, White and this Jack o' Judgment were working together. Maybe it
+isn't a bad thing that White was killed under the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his hand on the other man's shoulder and oozed geniality.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, back you go, my lads, and don't worry. Leave it to old Dan to fix
+Jack o' Judgment, or Bill o' Judgment, or Tom o' Judgment, whoever he
+may be, and that we'll fix him you can be certain."</p>
+
+<p>Coming away from the meeting, he expressed himself as being perfectly
+satisfied with its results. He brought Pinto and Crewe back with him in
+his car, and dropped the latter at Piccadilly Circus. Pinto would have
+been glad to have joined the "Swell," but the colonel detained him.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to talk to you, Pinto," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I've had enough business for to-day," said the Portuguese.</p>
+
+<p>"So have I," said the colonel, "but that doesn't prevent my attending to
+pressing affairs. I was talking to you to-day&mdash;or was it
+yesterday?&mdash;about Crotin."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>"The Yorkshire woollen merchant?" said Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the fellow," replied the colonel. "I suggested you should go and
+see him."</p>
+
+<p>"And I suggested that I shouldn't," said Pinto; "let him rest. You'll
+never get another chance like you had before."</p>
+
+<p>"Rest nothing," said the colonel testily, "you're scared because you
+imagine Crotin is warned? What do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you think that, because Jack o' Judgment intervened at the
+right moment, he went back to Yorkshire feeling full of himself? Well,
+you're wrong. You don't understand one side of the psychology of this
+business. That little fellow is quaking in his shoes and wondering what
+his grand wife would say if the fact that he was a bigamist was
+revealed. And there's more reason for his fear to-day than ever there
+was. Look here!"</p>
+
+<p>He took a newspaper out of his pocket and Pinto remembered that, even
+during the meeting, the colonel had twice made reference to its columns
+and had wondered why. He had suspected that there had been some
+reference to the Boundary Gang, but this was not the case. The paragraph
+which the colonel pointed out with his thick forefinger was this:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"By the death of Sir George Tressillian Morgan an ancient baronetcy
+has become extinct. His estate, which has been sworn at over a
+million, passes to his niece, Lady Sybil Crotin, the daughter of
+Lord Westsevern, Sir George's son and heir having been killed in
+the war. Lady Sybil is the wife of a well-known Yorkshire
+mill-owner."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"I didn't know that," said Pinto, interested in spite of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did I till to-day," said the colonel. "The fact is, this damned
+Jack o' Judgment has put everything else out of our minds. And you can
+see for yourself, Pinto, that this business is important."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p><p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"We are not only after the mill, but here's a chance of making a real
+big coup. Now I can't send anybody else to Yorkshire&mdash;Crewe is
+impossible. Crotin knows him, and the moment he puts in an appearance,
+as likely as not Crotin would lose his head and give the whole show
+away. It is you or nobody."</p>
+
+<p>He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, there are times when I'm sorry about Solomon White," he said,
+"he was the boy for this kind of business&mdash;that is to say in the old
+days&mdash;he got a bit above himself towards the end."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto was to find that the colonel had made all arrangements, and that
+for the previous two days he had been planning a predatory raid on the
+Yorkshireman.</p>
+
+<p>There was to be a bazaar in Huddersfield on behalf of a local hospital,
+in which Lady Sybil Crotin took a great interest. She was organising the
+f&ecirc;te and had invited subscriptions.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not coming in very fast, according to their local paper," said
+the colonel, "and that has given me an idea. You're a presentable sort
+of fellow, Pinto, and it is likely you'll be all the more successful
+because you're a foreigner. You'll go up to Yorkshire and you'll take a
+thousand pounds, and if necessary you'll subscribe pretty liberally to
+the fund, but it must be done through Lady Sybil. You can make yourself
+known to her and invite yourself to the house, where you can meet Crotin
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>He made other suggestions, for he had worked out the whole scheme in
+detail for the other to carry into effect. Pinto's objections slowly
+dissipated. He was a vain man and had all the vices of his vanity. A
+desire to be thought well of, to be regarded as a rich man when he was
+in fact on the verge of ruin, had brought him into crooked practices and
+eventually into the circle of the colonel's acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>To appear amongst the fair as a giver of largesse on a magnificent scale
+suited him down to the ground. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> was a part for which he was eminently
+fitted, as the colonel, a shrewd judge of humanity, knew quite well.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it on," said Pinto, "but do you think he'll squeal?"</p>
+
+<p>Boundary shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew a man who was caught on the rebound to squeal," he said.
+"No, no, you needn't worry about that. All you have to do is to use your
+discretion, choose the right moment, preparing him by a few hints for
+what is coming, and you'll find he'll sit down, like the hard-headed
+business man he is, and talk money."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto pulled a little face.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you're thinking," said the colonel. "You hate the idea of
+the generous donor being unmasked and appearing to anybody as a
+blackmailer. Well, you needn't worry about that. Lady Sybil will not
+know, nor will anybody else that counts. And, believe me, Crotin doesn't
+count. Anyway, you can pretend that you're a perfectly innocent agent in
+the matter, that you know me slightly and that I've dropped hints which
+made you curious and which you are anxious to verify."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto went off to make preparations for the journey. He had one of the
+top flats in the Albemarle building, a suite of rooms which, if they
+were not as expensively furnished as the colonel's, were more artistic.
+He had recently acquired the services of a new "daily valet"&mdash;a step he
+could take without fear that his secrets would be betrayed, since he had
+no secrets in his own rooms, kept no documents of any kind, and received
+no visitors.</p>
+
+<p>The man opened the door to his ring.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, nobody has been," said the servant in answer to his query, and
+Pinto was relieved.</p>
+
+<p>For the past two days he had been living in a condition bordering on
+panic. It seemed unlikely that the colonel's confidence would be
+justified and that the police would take no action. And yet the
+incredible had happened. There had not been so much as an inquiry; and
+not once, though he had been on his guard, had he detected one shadow
+trailing him. His spirits rose, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> whistled cheerfully as he
+directed the packing of his trunk, for he was travelling North fully
+equipped for any social event which might await him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Yorkshire," he explained. "I'll give you my address
+before I leave, and you can let me know if there are any inquiries and
+who the inquirers were."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, sir," said the man respectfully, and Pinto eyed him
+approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you'll suit me, Cobalt," he said. "My last valet was rather a
+fool and inclined to stick his nose into business which did not concern
+him."</p>
+
+<p>The man smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't trouble you that way, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, there's nothing to hide," said Pinto with a shrug, "but you
+know what people are. They think that because you're associated in
+business with Colonel Boundary you're up to all sorts of tricks."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what Mr. Snakit said, sir," remarked the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Snakit?" said the puzzled Pinto. "Who the devil is Snakit?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he remembered the little detective whom Maisie had employed and who
+had been bought over by the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you see him, do you?" he asked carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"He comes up, sir, now and again. He's the colonel's valet, isn't he,
+sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly," he said. "I shouldn't discuss things with Snakit. That
+man is quite reliable and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, sir, I should not discuss your business," said the valet with
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p>He finished packing and, after assisting his master to dress, was
+dismissed for the night.</p>
+
+<p>"A useful fellow, that," thought Pinto, as the door closed behind the
+man. The "useful fellow" reached the street and, after walking a few
+hundred yards, found a disengaged taxi and gave an address. Maisie White
+was writing when her bell rang. It rang three times&mdash;two long and one
+short peals&mdash;and she went downstairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> to admit her visitor. She did not
+speak until she was back in her room, and then she faced the polite
+little man whom Pinto had called Cobalt.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Grey," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd call me Cobalt, miss," said the man with a smile. "I like
+to keep up the name, otherwise I'm inclined to give myself away."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you found out anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little, miss," said the detective. "There's nothing to find in the
+apartment itself."</p>
+
+<p>"You secured the situation as valet?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks to the recommendations you got me, miss, there was no difficulty
+at all. Silva wanted a servant and accepted the testimonials without
+question."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've discovered nothing?" she said in a disappointed tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in Mr. Silva's room. The only thing I found out was that he's going
+to Yorkshire to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"For long?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"For some considerable time," said the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"At least, I guess so, because he has packed half a dozen suits, top
+hats and all sorts of things which I should imagine he wouldn't take
+away unless he intended making a long stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea of the place he's going to?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall discover that to-morrow, miss," said Cobalt. "I thought I'd
+tell you as much as I know."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have not been into the colonel's flat?"</p>
+
+<p>The man shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is guarded inside and out, miss, now. He has not only his butler,
+who is a tough customer, to look after him, but he has Snakit, the man
+you employed, I understand."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the gentleman," said the girl with a little smile. "Very good,
+Cobalt&mdash;you'll 'phone me if you make any other discoveries."</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting at her solitary breakfast the next morning when the
+telephone bell rang. It was from a call office, and presently she heard
+Cobalt's voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> "Just a word, miss. He leaves by the ten-twenty-five
+train for Huddersfield," said the voice, "and the person he is going to
+see is Lady Sybil somebody, and there's money in it."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?" she asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard him speaking to the colonel on the landing and I heard the
+words: 'He'll pay.'"</p>
+
+<p>She thought a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten-twenty-five," she repeated; "thank you very much, Mr. Cobalt."</p>
+
+<p>She hung up the receiver and sat for a moment in thought, then passed
+quickly to her bedroom and began to dress.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>A PATRON OF CHARITY</h3>
+
+<p>Lady Sybil Crotin was not a popular woman. She was conscious that she
+had married beneath her&mdash;more conscious lately that there had been no
+necessity to make the marriage, and she had grown a little soured. She
+could never mix with the homely wives of local millionaires; she
+professed a horror of the vulgarities with which she was surrounded,
+hated and loathed her lord and master's flamboyant home, which she
+described as something between a feudal castle and a picture-palace; and
+openly despised her husband's friends and their feminine relatives.</p>
+
+<p>She made a point of spending at least six months of the year away from
+Yorkshire, and came back with protest at her lot written visibly upon
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>A thin, angular woman, with pale green eyes and straight, tight lips,
+she had never been beautiful, but five or six years in an uncongenial
+environment had hardened and wasted her. That her husband adored her and
+never spoke of her save in a tone of awe was common property and a
+favourite subject for local humour. That she regarded him with contempt
+and irritation was as well known.</p>
+
+<p>In view of Lady Sybil Crotin's unpopularity, it was perhaps a great
+mistake that she should make herself responsible for the raising of
+funds for the local women's hospital. But she was under the impression
+that there was a magic in her name and station which would overcome what
+she described as shyness, but which was in point of fact the frank
+dislike of her neighbours. A subscription list that she had opened had a
+weak and unpromising appearance. She had with the greatest difficulty
+secured help for the bazaar, and knew, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> though it had been opened
+by a duchess, that it was a failure, even from the very first day.</p>
+
+<p>Had she herself made a generous contribution to the bazaar fund, there
+might have been a hope; but she was mean, and the big, bleak hall she
+had chosen as the venue because of its cheapness was unsuitable for the
+entertainment she sponsored.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of the second day, Lady Sybil was pulling on her
+gloves, eyeing her husband with an unfriendly gaze as he sat at lunch.</p>
+
+<p>"It was no more than I expected," she said bitterly. "I was a fool ever
+to start the thing&mdash;this is the last time I ever attempt to help local
+charities."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin rubbed his bald head in perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll come," he said hopefully, referring to the patrons whose
+absence was the cause of Lady Sybil's annoyance. "They'll come when they
+hear what a fine show it is. And if they don't, Syb, I'll come along and
+spend a couple of hundred pounds myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do no such thing," she snapped; "and please get out of that
+ridiculous habit of reducing my name to one syllable. If the people of
+the town can't help to support their own hospital, then they don't
+deserve to have one, and I'm certainly not going to allow you to waste
+our money on that sort of nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"Have your own way, love," said Mr. Crotin meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," she said, "it would be all over the town that it was your
+money which was coming in, and these horrid people would be laughing at
+me."</p>
+
+<p>She finished buttoning her gloves and was looking at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with you, John?" she asked suddenly, and he almost
+jumped.</p>
+
+<p>"With me, love?" he said with a brave attempt at a smile. "Why, there's
+nothing the matter with me. What should there be?"</p>
+
+<p>"You've been very strange lately," she said, "ever since you came back
+from London."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I ate something that disagreed with my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> digestion," he said
+uneasily. "I didn't know that I'd been different."</p>
+
+<p>"Are things well at your&mdash;factory?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"At mills? Oh, aye, they're all right," he said. "I wish everything was
+as right as them."</p>
+
+<p>"As they," she corrected.</p>
+
+<p>"As they," said the humble Mr. Crotin.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something wrong," she said, and shook her head, and Mr. Crotin
+found himself going white. "I'll have a talk with you when I've got this
+wretched bazaar business out of my head," she added, and with a little
+nod she left him.</p>
+
+<p>He walked to the window of the long dining-hall and watched her car
+disappearing down the drive, and then with a sigh went back to his
+<i>entremets</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When Colonel Dan Boundary surmised that this unfortunate victim of his
+blackmail would be worried, he was not far from the mark. Crotin had
+spent many sleepless nights since he came back from London, nights full
+of terror, that left him a wreck to meet the fears of the days which
+followed. He lived all the time in the shadow of vengeful justice and
+exaggerated his danger to an incredible degree; perhaps it was in
+anticipating what his wife would say that he experienced the most
+poignant misery.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken to secret drinking too; little nips at odd intervals, both
+in his room and in his private office. Life had lost its savour, and now
+a new agony was added to the knowledge that his wife had detected the
+change. He went to his office and spent a gloomy afternoon wandering
+about the mills, and came back an hour before his usual time. He had not
+the heart to make a call at the bazaar, and speculated unhappily upon
+the proceeds of the afternoon session.</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore with something like pleasure that he heard his wife on
+the telephone speaking more cheerfully than he had heard her for months.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, John?" she was almost civil. "I'm bringing somebody home
+to dinner. Will you tell Phillips?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>"That's right, love," said Mr. Crotin eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>He would be glad to see some new face, and that it was a new face he
+could guess by the interest in Lady Sybil's tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a Mr. de Silva. Have you ever met him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, love, I've not. Is he a foreigner?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's a Portuguese gentleman," said his wife's voice; "and he has been
+most helpful and most generous."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring him along," said Crotin heartily. "I'll be glad to meet him. How
+has the sale been, love?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very good indeed," she replied; "splendid, in fact&mdash;thanks to Mr. de
+Silva."</p>
+
+<p>John Crotin was dressing when his wife returned, and it was not until
+half an hour later that he met Pinto Silva for the first time. Pinto was
+a man who dressed well and looked well. John Crotin thought he was the
+most impressive personality he had met, when he stalked into the
+drawing-room and took the proffered hand of the mill-owner.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mr. de Silva," said his wife, who had been waiting for her
+guest. "As I told you, John, Mr. de Silva has been awfully kind. I don't
+know what you're going to do with all those perfectly useless things
+you've bought," she added to the polished Portuguese, and Pinto
+shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"Give them away," he said; "there must, for example, be a lot of poor
+women in the country who would be glad of the linen I have bought."</p>
+
+<p>At this point dinner was announced and he took Lady Sybil in. The meal
+was approaching its end when she revived the question of the disposal of
+his purchases.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you greatly interested in charities, Mr. de Silva?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto inclined his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Both here and in Portugal I take a very deep interest in the welfare of
+the poor," he said solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's fine," said Mr. Crotin, nodding approvingly. "I know what these
+poor people have to suffer. I've been amongst them&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>His wife silenced him with a look.</p>
+
+<p>"It frequently happens that cases are brought to my notice," Pinto went
+on, "and I have one or two cases of women in my mind where these
+purchases of mine would be most welcome. For example," he said, "I heard
+the other day, quite by accident, of a poor woman in Wales whose husband
+deserted her."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin had his fork half-way to his mouth, but put it down again.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know much about the case personally," said Pinto carelessly,
+"but the circumstances were brought to my notice by a friend. I think
+these people suffer more than we imagine; and I'll let you into a
+secret, Lady Sybil," he said, speaking impressively. He did not look at
+Crotin, but went on: "A few of my friends are thinking of buying a
+mill."</p>
+
+<p>"A woollen mill?" she said, raising her eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"A woollen mill!" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"We wish to make garments and blankets for the benefit of the poor. We
+feel that, if we could run this sort of thing on a co-operative basis,
+we could manufacture the stuff cheaply, always providing, of course,
+that we could purchase a mill at a reasonable figure."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time he looked at Crotin, and the man's face was ghastly
+white.</p>
+
+<p>"What a queer idea!" said Lady Sybil. "A good mill will cost you a lot
+of money."</p>
+
+<p>"We don't think so," said Pinto. "In fact, we expect to purchase a very
+excellent mill at a reasonable sum. That was my object in coming to
+Yorkshire, I may tell you, and it was only by accident that I saw the
+advertisement of your bazaar and called in."</p>
+
+<p>"A fortunate accident for me," said Lady Sybil.</p>
+
+<p>Crotin's eyes were on his plate, and he did not raise them.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is a great mistake to be too generous with the poor," said
+Lady Sybil, shaking her head. "These women are very seldom grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"I realise that," said Pinto gravely. "But I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> not seeking their
+gratitude. We find that many of these women are in terrible
+circumstances owing to no fault of their own. For example, this woman in
+Wales, whose husband is supposed to have deserted her&mdash;now, there is a
+bad case."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Sybil was interested.</p>
+
+<p>"We found on investigation," said Pinto, speaking slowly and
+impressively, "that the man who deserted her has since married and
+occupies a very important position in a town in the north of England."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin dropped his knife with a crash and with a mumbled apology
+picked it up.</p>
+
+<p>"But how terrible!" said Lady Sybil. "What a shocking thing! The man
+should be exposed. He is not fit to associate with human beings. Can't
+you do something to punish him?"</p>
+
+<p>"That could be done," said Silva, "it could be done, but it would bring
+a great deal of unhappiness to his present wife, who is ignorant of her
+husband's treachery."</p>
+
+<p>"Better she should know now than later," said the militant Lady Sybil.
+"I think you do very wrong to keep it from her."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin rose unsteadily and his wife looked at him with suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you feeling well, John?" she asked with asperity.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first time she had seen her husband's hand shaking and
+had diagnosed the cause more justly than she was doing at present, for
+John Crotin had scarcely taken a drink that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going into the library, if you'll excuse me, love," he said.
+"Maybe, Mr.&mdash;Mr. de Silva will join me. I'd&mdash;I'd like to talk over the
+question of that mill with him."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Then run along now," said Lady Sybil, "and when you've finished
+talking, come back to me, Mr. de Silva. I want to know something about
+your charitable organisations in Portugal."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto followed the other at a distance, saw him enter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> a big room and
+switch on the lights and followed, closing the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crotin's library was the most comfortable room in the house. It was
+lighted by French windows which opened on to a small terrace. Long red
+velvet curtains were drawn, and a little fire crackled on the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>When the door closed Crotin turned upon his guest.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, damn you," he said harshly, "what's thy proposition? Make it a
+reasonable sum and I'll pay thee."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED</h3>
+
+<p>In the train which had carried Pinto Silva to Huddersfield were one or
+two remarkable passengers, and it was not a coincidence that they did
+not meet. In a third-class carriage at the far end of the train was a
+soldier who carried a kit-bag and who whiled away the journey by reading
+a seemingly endless collection of magazines.</p>
+
+<p>He got out at Huddersfield too, and Pinto might and probably did see him
+as he passed through the barrier. The soldier left his kit-bag at the
+cloak-room and eventually became one of the two dozen people who
+patronised Lady Sybil's bazaar on that afternoon. He passed Pinto twice,
+and once made a small purchase at the same stall where the Portuguese
+was buying lavishly. If Pinto saw him, then he did not remember the
+fact. One soldier looks very much like another, anyway.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Sybil had reason to notice the representative of His Majesty's
+forces, and herself informed him severely that smoking was not allowed,
+and the man had put his cigarette under his heel with an apology and had
+walked out of the building. When Lady Sybil and her guest had entered
+her car and were driven away to Mill Hall, the soldier had been
+loitering near the entrance, and a few minutes later he was following
+the party in a taxi-cab which had been waiting at his order for the past
+two hours.</p>
+
+<p>The taxi did not turn in at the stone-pillared gates of the Hall, but
+continued some distance beyond, when the soldier alighted and, turning
+back, walked boldly through the main entrance and passed up the drive.
+It was dusk by now, and nobody challenged him.</p>
+
+<p>He made a reconnaissance of the house and found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the dining-room without
+any difficulty. The blinds were up and the servants were setting the
+table. Then he passed round to the wing of the building and discovered
+the library. He actually went into that room, because it was one of Lady
+Sybil's standing orders that the library should be "aired" and that the
+scent of Mr. Crotin's atrocious tobacco should be cleared.</p>
+
+<p>He sniffed the stale fragrance and was satisfied that this was a room
+which was lived in.</p>
+
+<p>If there was any real, confidential talk between the two men, it would
+be here, he thought, and looked round for a likely place of concealment.
+The room was innocent of cupboards. Only a big settee drawn diagonally
+across a corner of the room promised cover, and that looked too
+dangerous. If anybody sat there and by chance dropped something&mdash;a pipe
+or an ash-tray&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He walked back to the terrace to take his bearings in case he had to
+make a rapid exit. He looked round and then dropped suddenly to the
+cover of the balustrade, for he had seen a dark figure moving across the
+lawn, and it was coming straight for the terrace. He slipped back into
+the room and as he did so he heard a step in the passage without. He
+stepped lightly over to the settee and crouched down.</p>
+
+<p>It was evidently a servant, for he heard the French windows closed and
+the clang of the shutters. They were evidently very ordinary
+folding-shutters, fastened with an old-fashioned steel bar&mdash;he made a
+mental note of this. Then he heard the swish of the curtain-rings upon
+the brass pole as the curtains were drawn. A dim light was switched on,
+somebody poked the fire, and then the light was put out and the door
+closed softly.</p>
+
+<p>The intruder did some rapid thinking. He crossed to the nearest of the
+windows, noiselessly opened the shutters and pushed them back to the
+position in which they stood when not in use. Then he unlatched the
+window and left it, hoping that it would not blow open and betray him.
+This done, he again pulled the heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> curtains across and returned to
+his place of concealment. That was to be the way out for him if the
+necessity for a rapid retreat should arise.</p>
+
+<p>There was no sound save the ticking of the clock and the noise of
+falling cinders for ten minutes, and then he heard something which
+brought him to the alert, all his senses awakened and concentrated. It
+was the sound of a light and stealthy footstep on the terrace outside.
+He wondered whether it was a servant and whether he would see that one
+of the windows was unshuttered. He had half a mind to investigate, when
+there came another sound&mdash;a lumbering foot in the passage. Suddenly the
+door was opened, the lights were flashed on, and the man behind the
+settee hugged the floor and held his breath.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>"How much do I want?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto laughed and lit a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mr. Crotin, I really don't know what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's have no more foolery," said the Yorkshireman roughly. "I know
+that you've come up from Colonel Boundary and I know what you've come
+for. You want to buy my mill, eh? Well, I'll make it worth your while
+not to buy my mill. You can take the money instead."</p>
+
+<p>"I really am honest when I tell you that I don't understand what you are
+talking about. I have certainly come up to buy a mill&mdash;that is true. It
+is also true that I want to buy your mill."</p>
+
+<p>"And what might you be thinking of paying for it?" asked Crotin between
+his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty thousand pounds," said Pinto nonchalantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty thousand, eh? It was thirty thousand the last time. You'll want
+me to give it to you soon. Nay, nay, my friend, I'll pay, but not in
+mills."</p>
+
+<p>"Think of the poor," murmured Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm thinking of them," said the other. "I'm thinking of the poor woman
+in Wales, too, and the poor woman in there." He jerked his head. Then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+in a calmer tone: "I guessed at dinner where you came from. Colonel
+Boundary sent you."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us mention no names," he said politely. "And who is Colonel
+Boundary, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>Crotin was at his desk now. He had taken out his cheque-book and slapped
+it down upon the writing-pad.</p>
+
+<p>"You've got me proper," he said, and his voice quavered. "I'll make an
+offer to you. I'll give you fifty thousand pounds if you write an
+agreement that you will not molest or bother me again."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence, and the soldier crouched behind the settee,
+listening intently. He heard Pinto laugh softly as one who is greatly
+amused.</p>
+
+<p>"That, my good friend," said Pinto, "would be blackmail. You don't
+imagine that I would be guilty of such an iniquity? I know nothing about
+your past; I merely suggest that you should sell me one of your mills at
+a reasonable price."</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty thousand pounds is reasonable for you, I suppose," said Crotin
+sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a lot of money," replied Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>The Yorkshireman pulled open the drawer of his desk and slammed in the
+cheque-book, closing it with a bang.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll give you nothing," he said, "neither mill nor money. You can
+clear out of here."</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the room to the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Pinto, secretly alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to send for the police," said the other grimly. "I'm going to
+give myself up and I'm going to pinch thee too!"</p>
+
+<p>If Crotin had turned the handle of the old-fashioned telephone, if he
+had continued in his resolution, if he had shown no sign of doubt, a
+different story might have been told. But with his hand raised, he
+hesitated, and Pinto clinched his argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Why have all that trouble?" he said. "Your liberty and reputation are
+much more to you than a mill. You're a rich man. Your wife is wealthy in
+her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> own right. You have enough to live on for the rest of your life.
+Why make trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>The little man dropped his head with a groan and walked wearily back to
+the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I sell this?" he said in a low voice. "How do I know you won't
+come again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"When a gentleman gives his word of honour," began Pinto with dignity,
+but was interrupted by a shrill laugh that made his blood run cold.</p>
+
+<p>He swung round with an oath. Framed in an opening of the curtains which
+covered one of the windows was the Figure!</p>
+
+<p>The black silk gown, the white masked face, the soft felt hat pulled
+down over the eyes&mdash;his teeth chattered at the sight of it, and he fell
+back against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't trust Pinto?" squeaked the voice. "Who wouldn't take
+Pinto's word of honour? Jack o' Judgment wouldn't, poor old Jack o'
+Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>Jack o' Judgment! The soldier behind the settee heard the words and
+gasped. Without any thought of consequence he raised his head and
+looked. The Jack o' Judgment was standing where he expected him to be.
+He had come through the window which the soldier had left unbarred. This
+time he carried no weapon in his hand, and Pinto was quick to see the
+possibilities. The electric switch was within reach, and his hand shot
+out. There was a click and the room went dark.</p>
+
+<p>But the figure of Jack o' Judgment was silhouetted against the night,
+and Pinto whipped out the long knife which never left him and sent it
+hurtling at his enemy. He saw the figure duck, heard the crash of broken
+glass, and then Jack o' Judgment vanished. In a rage which was three
+parts terror, he sprang through the open French windows on to the
+terrace in time to see a dark figure drop over the balustrade and fly
+across the park.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"</h3>
+
+<p>Pinto leapt the parapet and was following swiftly in its wake. He
+guessed rather than knew that for once Jack o' Judgment had come
+unarmed, and a wild exultation filled him at the thought that it was
+left to him to unveil the mystery which was weighing even upon the iron
+nerve of the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>The figure gained the shrubbery, and the pursuer heard the rustle of
+leaves as it plunged into the depths. In a second he was blundering
+after. He lost sight of his quarry and stopped to listen. There was no
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Hiding," grunted Pinto. And then aloud: "Come out of it. I see you and
+I'll shoot you like a dog if you don't come to me!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply. He dashed in the direction he thought Jack o'
+Judgment must have taken and again missed. With a curse he turned off in
+another direction and then suddenly glimpsed a shape before him and
+leapt at it. He was flung back with little or no effort, and stood
+bewildered, for the coat his hand had touched was rough and he had felt
+metal buttons.</p>
+
+<p>"A soldier!" he gasped. "Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Steady," said the other; "don't get rattled, Pinto."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" asked Pinto again.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Stafford King," said the soldier, "and I think I shall want
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto half turned to go, but was gripped.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go back to Huddersfield and pack your boxes," said Stafford
+King. "You won't leave the town except by my permission."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" demanded Pinto, breathing heavily.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p><p>"I mean," said Stafford King, "that the unfortunate man you tried to
+blackmail must prosecute whatever be the consequence to himself. Now,
+Pinto, you've a grand chance of turning King's evidence."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto made no reply. He was collecting his thoughts. Then, after a
+while, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll talk about that later, King. I'm staying at the Huddersfield Arms.
+I'll meet you there in an hour."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King did not move until the sound of Pinto's footsteps had died
+away. Then he began a systematic search, for he too was anxious to end
+the mystery of Jack o' Judgment. He had followed Pinto when he dashed
+from the room and had heard the Portuguese calling upon Jack o' Judgment
+to surrender. That mysterious individual, who was obviously lying low,
+could not be very far away.</p>
+
+<p>He was in a shrubbery which proved later to be a clump of rhododendrons,
+in the centre of which was a summer-house. To the heart of this
+shrubbery led three paths, one of which Stafford discovered quite close
+at hand. The sound of gravel under his feet gave him an idea, and he
+began walking backward till he came to the shadow of a tree, and then,
+simulating the sound of retreating footsteps, he waited.</p>
+
+<p>After a while he heard a rustle, but did not move.</p>
+
+<p>Somebody was coming cautiously through the bushes, and that somebody
+appeared as a shadowy, indistinct figure, not twenty yards away. Only
+the keenest eyesight could have detected it, and still Stafford waited.
+Presently he heard the soft crunch of gravel under its feet, and at that
+moment leapt towards it. The figure stood as though paralysed for a
+second, and then, turning quickly, fled back to the heart of the bushes.
+Before it had gone a dozen paces Stafford had reached it, and his arm
+was about its neck.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend," he breathed, "I don't know what I'm to do with you now I've
+got you, but I certainly am going to register your face for future
+reference."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>"No, no," said a muffled voice from behind the mask. "No, no, don't; I
+beg of you!"</p>
+
+<p>But the mask was plucked away, and, fumbling in his pocket, Stafford
+produced his electric lamp and flashed it on the face of his prisoner.
+Then, with a cry of amazement, he stepped back&mdash;for he had looked upon
+the face of Maisie White!</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was silence, neither speaking. Then Stafford found
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie!" he said in bewilderment, "Maisie! You&mdash;Jack o' Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Phew!" whistled Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>Then sitting on a trunk, he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Maisie, of all people in the world. And I suspected it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl had covered her face with her hands and was crying softly, and
+he moved towards her and put his arm about her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Darling, it is nothing very terrible. Please don't go on like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't understand, you don't understand!" she wailed. "I wanted
+to catch Silva. I guessed that he was coming north on one of his
+blackmailing trips, and I followed him."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you come up by the same train?"</p>
+
+<p>He felt her nod.</p>
+
+<p>"So did I," said Stafford with a little grin.</p>
+
+<p>"I followed him to the bazaar," she said, "and then I watched him from a
+little eating-house on the opposite side of the road. Do you know, I
+wondered whether you were here too, and I looked everywhere for you, but
+apparently there was nobody in sight when Pinto came out with Lady
+Sybil, only a soldier."</p>
+
+<p>"I was that soldier," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"I discovered where Mr. Crotin lived and came up later," she went on.
+"Of course, I had no very clear idea of what I was going to do, and it
+was only by the greatest luck that I found the window of the library<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+open. It was the only window that was open," she said with a little
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't so much your luck as my forethought," smiled Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I want to tell you about Jack o' Judgment," she began, but he
+stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"Let that explanation wait," he said; "the point is, that with your
+evidence and mine we have Pinto by the throat&mdash;what was that?"</p>
+
+<p>There was the sound of a shot.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably a poacher," said Stafford after a moment. "I can't imagine
+Pinto using a gun. Besides, I don't think he carries one. What did he
+throw at you?"</p>
+
+<p>"A knife," she said, and he felt her shiver; "it just missed me. But
+tell me, how have we got Pinto?"</p>
+
+<p>They had left the shrubbery and were walking towards the house. She
+stopped a little while to take off her long black cloak, and he saw that
+she was wearing a short-skirted dress beneath.</p>
+
+<p>"We must compel Crotin to prosecute," said Stafford. "With our evidence
+nothing can save Pinto, and probably he will drag in the colonel, too.
+Even your evidence isn't necessary," he said after a moment's thought,
+"and if it's possible I will keep you out of it."</p>
+
+<p>A woman's scream interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"There's trouble there," he said, and raced for the house. Somebody was
+standing on the terrace as he approached, and hailed him excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Terence?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a servant's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Stafford, "I am a police officer."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" said the man on the terrace. "Will you come up, sir? I
+thought it was the gamekeeper I was speaking to."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" asked Stafford as he vaulted over the parapet.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Crotin has shot himself, sir," said the butler in quavering tones.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p><p>Twelve hours later Stafford King reported to his chief, giving the
+details of the overnight tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" said Sir Stanley. "I was afraid of it ending that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know he was being blackmailed?" asked Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"We had a report, which apparently emanated from Jack o' Judgment, who
+of late has started sending his communications to me direct," said Sir
+Stanley. "You can, of course, do nothing with Pinto. Your evidence isn't
+sufficient. What a pity you hadn't a second witness." He thought for a
+moment. "Even then it wouldn't have been sufficient unless we had Crotin
+to support you."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a second witness, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil you have!" Sir Stanley raised his eyebrows. "Who was your
+second witness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford, and Sir Stanley jumped to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" he repeated. "What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment was there," said Stafford, and told the story of the
+remarkable appearance of that mysterious figure.</p>
+
+<p>He told everything, reserving the identification of Jack till the last.</p>
+
+<p>"And then you flashed the lamp on his face," said Sir Stanley. "Well,
+who was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maisie White," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley walked to the window and stood looking out, his hands thrust
+into his pockets. Presently he turned.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a bigger mystery here than I suspected," he said. "Have you
+asked Miss White for an explanation?"</p>
+
+<p>Stafford shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it best to report the matter to you, sir, before I asked her
+to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>"To incriminate herself, eh? Well, perhaps you did wisely, perhaps you
+did not. I should imagine that her explanation is a very simple one."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that unless Jack o' Judgment has the gift
+of appearing in two places at once, she is not Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't understand, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that Jack o' Judgment was in the colonel's
+room last night, was in fact sitting by the colonel's bedside when that
+gentleman awoke, and according to the statement which Colonel Boundary
+has made to me about two hours ago in this room, warned him of his
+approaching end."</p>
+
+<p>It was Stafford's turn to be astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure, sir?" he asked incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely!" said Sir Stanley. "You don't imagine that the colonel
+would invent that sort of thing. For some reason or other, possibly to
+keep close to the trouble that's coming, the colonel insists upon
+bringing all his little chit-chat to me. He asked for an interview about
+ten o'clock this morning and reported to me that he had had this
+visitation. Moreover, the experience has had the effect of upsetting the
+colonel, and for the first time he seems to be thoroughly rattled. Where
+is Miss White?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's here, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, eh?" said the commissioner. "So much the better. Can you bring
+her in?"</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later the girl sat facing the First Commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Miss White, we're going to ask you for a few facts about your
+masquerade," said Sir Stanley kindly. "I understand that you appeared
+wearing the costume, and giving a fairly good imitation of the voice of
+Jack o' Judgment. Now, I'm telling you before we go any further that I
+do not believe for one moment that you are Jack o' Judgment. Am I
+right?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly true, Sir Stanley," she said. "I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> know why I did such a
+mad thing, except that I knew Pinto was scared of him. I got the cloak
+from my dress-basket and made the mask myself. You see, I didn't know
+whether I might want it, but I thought that in a tight pinch, if I
+wished to terrify this man, that was the r&ocirc;le to assume."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And the voice, of course, was easy."</p>
+
+<p>"But how could you imitate the voice if you have never seen Jack o'
+Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him once." She shivered a little. "You seem to forget, Sir
+Stanley, that he rescued me from that dreadful house."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Sir Stanley, "and you imitated him, did you?" He
+turned to his subordinate. "I'm accepting Miss White's explanation,
+Stafford, and I advise you to do the same. She went up to watch Silva,
+as I understand, and took the costume with her as a sort of protection.
+Well, Miss White, are you satisfied with your detective work?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I'm a failure as a detective," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you are," laughed Sir Stanley, as he rose and offered his
+hand. "There is only one real detective in the world&mdash;and that is Jack
+o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS</h3>
+
+<p>If Pinto Silva had a hobby, it was the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum had
+been in low water and had come into the market at a moment when
+theatrical managers and proprietors were singularly unenterprising and
+money was short. Pinto had bought the property for a song, and had
+converted his purchase into a moderate success. The theatre served a
+double purpose; it provided Pinto with a hobby, and offered an excuse
+for his wealth. Since it was a one-man show, and he produced no
+balance-sheet, his contemporaries could only make a guess as to the
+amount of money he made. If the truth be told, it was not very large,
+but small as it was, its dividends more or less justified his own
+leisure.</p>
+
+<p>There had been one or two scandals about the Orpheum which had reached
+the public Press&mdash;scandals of a not particularly edifying character. But
+Pinto had managed to escape public opprobrium.</p>
+
+<p>The Orpheum, at any rate, helped to baffle the police, who saw Silva
+living at the rate of twenty thousand a year, and were unable to trace
+the source of his income. That he had estates in Portugal was known; but
+they had been acquired, apparently, on the profits of the music-hall. He
+was not a speculator, though he was a shareholder in a number of
+companies which were controlled by the colonel; and he was certainly not
+a gambler, in the generally accepted sense of the term.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst he was suspected of being intimately connected with several shady
+transactions, he could boast truly that there was not a scrap of
+evidence to associate him with any breach of the law. He was less
+inclined to boast that evening, when he turned into the stage-box at the
+Orpheum, and pulling his chair into the shadow of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> the draperies, sat
+back and considered his position. He had returned from Yorkshire in a
+panic, and had met the fury of the colonel's reproaches. It was the
+worst quarter of an hour that Pinto had ever spent with his superior,
+and the memory made him shiver.</p>
+
+<p>The stage-box at the Orpheum was never sold to any member of the public.
+It was Pinto's private possession, his sitting-room and his office. He
+sat watching with gloomy interest the progress of the little revue which
+was a feature of the Orpheum programme, and his mind was occupied by a
+very pressing problem. He was shaken, too, by the interview he had had
+with the Huddersfield police.</p>
+
+<p>He had had to fake a story to explain why he left the library, and why,
+in his absence, Mr. Crotin had committed suicide. Fortunately, he had
+returned to the house by the front hall and was in the hall inventing a
+story of burglars to the agitated Lady Sybil when they heard the shot
+which ended the wretched life of the bigamist. That had saved him from
+being suspected of actual complicity in the crime. Suppose they had&mdash;he
+sweated at the thought.</p>
+
+<p>There was a knock on the door of the box, and an attendant put in his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a gentleman to see you, sir," he said; "he says he has an
+appointment."</p>
+
+<p>"What is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Cartwright."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Show him in, please," he said, and dismissed all unpleasant thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>The new-comer proved to be a dapper little man, with a weather-beaten
+face. He was in evening dress, and spoke like a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"I had your letter, Mr. Silva," he said. "You received my telephone
+message?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Silva. "I wanted to see you particularly. You understand
+that what I say is wholly confidential."</p>
+
+<p>"That I understand," said the man called Cartwright.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>He took Pinto's proferred cigarette and lit it.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been reading about you in the papers," said Pinto. "You're the
+man who did the non-stop flight for the Western Aeroplane Company?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," smiled Cartwright. "I have done many long nights. I
+suppose you are referring to my San Sebastian trip?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I want to ask you a few questions, and if they seem to be prying or
+personal, you must believe that I have no other wish than to secure
+information which is vital to myself. What position do you occupy with
+the Western Company?"</p>
+
+<p>Cartwright shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a pilot," he said. "If you mean, am I a director of the firm or am
+I interested in the company financially, I regret that I must answer No.
+I wish I were," he added, "but I am merely an employee."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I wanted to know," he said. "Now, here is another
+question. What does a first-class aeroplane cost?"</p>
+
+<p>"It depends," said the other. "A long distance machine, such as I have
+been flying, would cost anything up to five thousand pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you buy one? Are they on the market?" asked Pinto quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I could buy a dozen to-morrow," said the other promptly. "The R.A.F.
+have been selling off their machines, and I know just where I could get
+one of the best in Britain."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto was looking at the stage, biting his lips thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what I want," he said. "I am not very keenly interested
+in aviation, but it may be necessary that I should return to Portugal in
+a great hurry. It is no news to you that we Portuguese are generally in
+the throes of some revolution or other."</p>
+
+<p>"So I understand," said Cartwright, with a twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>"In those circumstances," Pinto went on, "it may be necessary for me to
+leave this country without going through the formality of securing a
+passport. I want a machine which will carry me from London to, say,
+Cintra, without a stop, and I want a pilot who can take me across the
+sea by the direct route."</p>
+
+<p>"Across the Bay of Biscay?" asked the aviator in surprise, and Pinto
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not want to touch any other country en route, for reasons
+which, I tell you frankly, are political."</p>
+
+<p>Cartwright thought a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I can get you the machine, and I'm certain I can find you
+the pilot," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"To put it bluntly," said Pinto, "would you take on an engagement for
+twelve months, secure the machine, house it and have it ready for me? I
+will pay you liberally." He mentioned a sum which satisfied the airman.
+"It must not be known that the machine is mine. You must buy it and keep
+it in your own name."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no difficulty about that," said Cartwright. "Am I to understand
+that I must go ahead with the purchase of the aeroplane?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can start right away," said Pinto. "The sooner you have the machine
+ready for a flight the better. I am here almost every night, and I will
+give orders to the collectors on the barrier that you are to come to me
+just whenever you want. If you will meet me here to-morrow morning, say
+at eleven o'clock, I can give you cash for the purchase of the machine,
+and I shall be happy to pay you half a year's salary in advance."</p>
+
+<p>"It will take some time to clear my old job," said Cartwright
+thoughtfully, "but I think I can do it for you. At any rate, I can get
+time off to buy the machine. You say that you do not want anybody to
+know that it is yours?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's easy," said the other. "I've been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> thinking about buying a
+machine of my own for some time and have made inquiries in several
+quarters."</p>
+
+<p>He rose to leave and shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember," said Pinto as a final warning, "not a word about this to any
+human soul."</p>
+
+<p>"You can trust me," said the man.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto watched the rest of the play with a lighter heart. After all,
+there could be nothing very much to fear. What had thrown him off his
+balance for the moment was the presence of Stafford King in Yorkshire,
+and when that detective chief did not make his appearance at the police
+inquiry nor had sought him in his hotel, it looked as though the
+colonel's words were true, and that Scotland Yard were after Boundary
+himself and none other.</p>
+
+<p>He sat the performance through and then went to his club&mdash;an institution
+off Pall Mall which had been quite satisfied to accept Pinto to
+membership without making any too close inquiries as to his antecedents.</p>
+
+<p>He spent some time before the tape machine, watching the news tick
+forth, then strolled into the smoking-room and read the evening papers
+for the second time. Only one item of news really interested him&mdash;it had
+interested the colonel too. The diamondsmiths' premises in Regent Street
+had been burgled the night before and the contents of the safe cleared.
+The colonel had arrested his flow of vituperation, to speculate as to
+the "artist" who had carried out this neat job.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto read for a little, then threw the paper down. He wondered what
+made him so restive and why he was so anxious to find something to
+occupy his attention, and then he realised with a start that he did not
+want to go back to face Colonel Boundary. It was the first time he had
+ever experienced this sensation, and he did not like it. He had held his
+place in the gang by the assurance, which was also an assumption, that
+he was at least the colonel's equal. This irritated him. He put on his
+overcoat and turned into the street. It was a chilly night and a thin
+drizzle of rain was falling. He pulled up his coat-collar and looked
+about for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> taxi-cab. Neither outside the club nor in Pall Mall was one
+visible.</p>
+
+<p>He started to walk home, but still felt that disinclination to face the
+colonel. Then a thought struck him; he would go and see Phillopolis, the
+little Greek.</p>
+
+<p>Phillopolis patronised a night-club in Soho, where he was usually to be
+found between midnight and two in the morning. Having an objective,
+Pinto felt in a happier frame of mine and walked briskly the intervening
+distance. He found his man sitting at a little marble-topped table by
+himself, contemplating a half-bottle of sweet champagne and a
+half-filled glass. He was evidently deep in thought, and started
+violently when Pinto addressed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," he said with evident relief. "I thought it was&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who did you think it was? You thought it was the police, I suppose?"
+said Pinto with heavy jocularity, and to his amazement he saw the little
+man wince.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened to Colonel Boundary?" asked the Greek irritably.
+"There used to be a time when anybody he spoke for was safe. I'm getting
+out of this country and I'm getting out quick," he added.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Pinto, who was vitally interested.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek threw out his hands with a little grimace.</p>
+
+<p>"Nerves," he said. "I haven't got over that affair with the White girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said the other. "If the police were moving in that matter,
+they'd have moved long ago. You are worrying yourself unnecessarily,
+Phillopolis."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto's words slipped glibly from his tongue, but Phillopolis was
+unimpressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I know when I've had enough," he said. "I've got my passport and I'm
+clearing out at the end of this week."</p>
+
+<p>"Does the colonel know this?"</p>
+
+<p>The Greek raised his shoulders indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether he does or whether he doesn't," he said. "Anyway,
+Boundary and I are only remotely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> connected in business, and my
+movements are no affair of his."</p>
+
+<p>He looked curiously at the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder that a man like you, who is in the heart of things, stays on
+when the net is drawing round the old man."</p>
+
+<p>"Loyalty is a vice with me," said Pinto virtuously. "Besides, there's no
+reason to bolt&mdash;as yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going whilst I'm safe," said Phillopolis, sipping his champagne.
+"At present the police have nothing against me and I'm going to take
+good care they have nothing. That's where I've the advantage of people
+like you."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"They've nothing on me," he said easily. "I have an absolutely clean
+record."</p>
+
+<p>It disturbed him, however, to discover that even so minor a member of
+the gang as Phillopolis was preparing to desert what he evidently
+regarded as a sinking ship. More than this, it confirmed him in the
+wisdom of his own precautions, and he was rather glad that he had taken
+it into his head to visit Phillopolis on that night.</p>
+
+<p>"When do you leave?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The day after to-morrow," said Phillopolis. "I think I'll go down into
+Italy for a year. I've made enough money now to live without worrying
+about work, and I mean to enjoy myself."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto looked at the man with interest. Here, at any rate, was one
+without a conscience. The knowledge that he had accumulated his fortune
+through the miseries of innocent girls shipped to foreign dance halls
+did not weigh greatly upon his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucky you!" said Pinto, as they walked out of the club together. "Where
+do you live, by the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Somers Street, Soho. It is just round the corner," said Phillopolis.
+"Will you walk there with me?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will," he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p><p>He wanted to see the sort of establishment which Phillopolis
+maintained. They chatted together till they came to the street, and then
+Phillopolis stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mind if I go ahead?" he said. "I have a&mdash;friend there who might
+be worried by your coming."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto smiled to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," he said. "I'll wait on the opposite side of the road until
+you are ready."</p>
+
+<p>The man lived above a big furniture shop, and admission was gained by a
+side door. Pinto watched him pass through the portals and heard the door
+close. He was a long time gone, and evidently his "friend" was
+unprepared to receive visitors at that hour, or else Phillopolis himself
+had some reason for postponing the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for the delay was explained in a sensational manner. Suddenly
+the door opened and a man came out. He was followed by two others and
+between them was Phillopolis, and the street-lamp shone upon the steel
+handcuffs on his wrists. Pinto drew back into a doorway and watched.
+Phillopolis was talking&mdash;it would perhaps be more accurate to say that
+he was raving at the top of his voice, cursing and sobbing in a frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>"You planted them&mdash;it is a plant!" he yelled. "You devils!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you coming quietly?" said a voice. "Or are you going to make
+trouble? Take him, Dempsey!"</p>
+
+<p>Phillopolis seemed to have forgotten Pinto's presence, for he went out
+of the street without once calling upon him to testify to his character
+and innocence. Pinto waited till he was gone, and then strolled across
+the road to the detective who stood before the door lighting his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening," he said, "has there been some trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>The officer looked at him suspiciously. But Pinto was in evening dress
+and talked like a gentleman, and the policeman thawed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>"Nothing very serious, sir," he said, "except for the man. He's a
+fence."</p>
+
+<p>"A what?" said Pinto with well-feigned innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"A receiver of stolen property. We found his lodgings full of stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!" gasped Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said the man, delighted that he had created a sensation. "I
+never saw so much valuable property in one room in my life. There was a
+big burglary in Regent Street last night. A jeweller's shop was cleared
+out of about twenty thousand pounds' worth of necklaces, and we found
+every bit of it here to-night. We've always suspected this man," he went
+on confidentially. "Nobody knew how he got his living, but from
+information we received to-day we were able to catch him red-handed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Pinto faintly, and walked slowly home, for now he no
+longer feared to meet the colonel. He had something to tell him,
+something that would inspire even Boundary with apprehension.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VOICE IN THE ROOM</h3>
+
+<p>As Silva anticipated, the colonel was up and waiting for him. He was
+playing Patience on his desk and looked up with a scowl as the
+Portuguese entered.</p>
+
+<p>"So you've been skulking, have you, Pinto?" he began, but the other
+interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p>"You can keep all that talk for another time," he said. "They've taken
+Phillopolis!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel swept his cards aside with a quick, nervous gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Taken Phillopolis?" he repeated slowly. "On what charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"For being the receiver of stolen property," said the other. "They found
+the proceeds of the Regent Street burglary in his apartments."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, and there was
+silence for two or three minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"I see. They have planted the stuff on him, have they?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't suppose that Phillopolis is a fence, do you?" said the
+colonel scornfully. "Why, it is a business that a man must spend the
+whole of his life at before he can be successful. No, Phillopolis knows
+no more about that burglary or the jewels than you or I. The stuff has
+been planted in his rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"But the police don't do that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Who said the police did it?" snarled the colonel. "Of course they
+didn't. They haven't the sense. That's Mr. Jack o' Judgment once more,
+and this time, Pinto, he's real dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" gasped Pinto. "But would he commit a burglary?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><p>The colonel laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Would he commit murder? Would he hang Raoul? Would he shoot you? Don't
+ask such damn-fool questions, Silva! Of course it was Jack o' Judgment.
+I tell you, the night you were in Yorkshire making a mess of that Crotin
+business, Jack o' Judgment came here, to this very room, and told me
+that he would ruin us one by one, and that he would leave me to the
+last. He mentioned us all&mdash;you, Crewe, Selby&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped suddenly and scratched his chin.</p>
+
+<p>"But not Lollie Marsh," he said. "That's queer, he never mentioned
+Lollie Marsh!"</p>
+
+<p>He was deep in thought for a few moments, then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"So he's worked off Phillopolis, has he? Well, Phillopolis has got to
+take his medicine. I can do nothing for him."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely he can prove&mdash;&mdash;" began Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"What can he prove?" asked the other. "Can he prove how he earns his
+money? He's been taken with the goods; he hasn't that chance," he
+snapped his fingers. "I'll make a prophecy," he said: "Phillopolis will
+get five years' penal servitude, and nothing in the world can save him
+from that."</p>
+
+<p>"An innocent man!" said Pinto in amazement. "Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"But is he innocent?" asked the colonel sourly. "That's the point you've
+got to keep in your mind. He may be innocent of one kind of crookedness,
+and be so mixed up in another that he cannot prove he is innocent of
+either. That's where they've got this fellow. He dare not appeal to the
+people who know him best, because they'd give him away. He can't tell
+the police who are his agents in Greece or Armenia, or they'll find out
+just the kind of agency he was running."</p>
+
+<p>He squatted back in his chair, pulling at his long moustache.</p>
+
+<p>"Phillopolis, Crewe, Pinto, Selby, and then me," said he, speaking to
+himself, "and he never mentioned Lollie Marsh. And Lollie has been the
+decoy duck<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> that has been in every hunt we've had. This wants looking
+into, Pinto."</p>
+
+<p>As he finished speaking there was a little buzz from the corner of the
+room and Pinto looked up startled. The colonel looked up too and a slow
+smile dawned on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"A visitor," he said softly. "Not our old friend Jack o' Judgment,
+surely!"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"A little alarm I've had fixed under one of the treads of the stairs,"
+said the other. "I don't like to be taken unawares."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is Crewe," suggested the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Crewe's gone home an hour ago," said the colonel. "No, this is a
+genuine visitor."</p>
+
+<p>They waited for some time and then there was a knock at the outer door.</p>
+
+<p>"Open it, Pinto," and as the other did not instantly move, "open it,
+damn you! What are you afraid of?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not afraid of anything," growled the Portuguese and flung out of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he hesitated again before he turned the handle of the outer door. He
+flung it open and stepped back. He would have gone farther, but the wall
+was at his back and he could only stand with open mouth staring at the
+visitor. It was Maisie White.</p>
+
+<p>She returned his gaze steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to see Colonel Boundary," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly," said Pinto huskily.</p>
+
+<p>He shut the door and ushered her into the colonel's presence. Boundary's
+eyes narrowed as he saw the girl. He suspected a trap and looked past
+her as though expecting to see an escort behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an unexpected honour, Miss White," he said suavely, and he
+looked meaningly at the clock on the mantelpiece. "We do not usually
+receive visitors so late, and especially charming lady visitors."</p>
+
+<p>She was carrying a thick package, and this she laid on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry it is so late," she said calmly, "but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> I have been all the
+evening checking my father's accounts. This is yours."</p>
+
+<p>She handed the package to the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"That parcel contains banknotes to the value of twenty-seven thousand
+three hundred pounds," said the girl quietly; "it represents what
+remains of the money which my father drew from your gang."</p>
+
+<p>"Tainted money, eh?" said the colonel humorously. "I think you're very
+foolish, Miss White. Your father earned this money by legitimate
+business enterprises."</p>
+
+<p>"I know all about them," she said. "I won't ask you to count the notes,
+because it is only a question of getting the money off my own
+conscience, and the amount really doesn't matter."</p>
+
+<p>"So you came here alone to make this act of reparation?" sneered the
+colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"I came here to make this act of reparation," she replied steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Not alone, eh? Surrounded entirely by police. Mr. Stafford King in the
+offing, waiting outside in a taxi, or probably waiting on the mat," said
+the colonel in the same tone. "Well, well, you're quite safe with us,
+Miss White."</p>
+
+<p>He took up the package and tore off the wrapping, revealing two wads of
+banknotes, and ran his finger along the edges.</p>
+
+<p>"And how are you going to live?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"By working," said the girl; "that's a strange way of earning a living,
+don't you think, colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll never work harder than I have worked," said Colonel Dan Boundary
+good-humouredly. And, looking down at the money: "So that's Solly
+White's share, is it? And I suppose it doesn't include the house he
+bought, or the car?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've sold everything," said the girl quietly; "every piece of property
+he owned has been realised, and that is the proceeds."</p>
+
+<p>With a little nod she was withdrawing, but Pinto barred her way.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Miss White," he said, and there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> a dangerous glint in
+his eye, "if you choose to come here alone in the middle of the
+night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel stepped between them, and he swept the Portuguese backwards.
+Without a word he opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, Miss White," he said. "My kind regards to Mr. Stafford
+King, who I suppose is somewhere on the premises, and to all the bright
+lads of the Criminal Intelligence Department who are at this moment
+watching the house."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled, but did not take his proffered hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel accompanied her to the outer door and switched on all the
+stair lights, as he could from the master-switch near the entrance to
+his flat, and waited until the echo of her footsteps had passed away
+before he came back to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a clever fellow, you are, Pinto," he said quietly; "you have one
+of the brightest minds in the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"If she comes here alone&mdash;&mdash;" began Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"Alone!" snarled the colonel. "I hinted a dozen times, if I hinted once,
+that she'd come with a young army of police. The first shout she made
+would have been the signal for your arrest and mine. Haven't you had
+your lesson to-night? How long do you think it would take Stafford King
+to trump up a charge against you and put you where the dogs wouldn't
+bite, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>He walked to the window and watched the girl. There was a taxi-cab
+waiting at the entrance, and as he had suspected, a man was standing by
+the door and followed the girl into the cab before it drove away.</p>
+
+<p>"She timed her visit. I suppose she gave herself five minutes. If she'd
+been here any longer, they would have been up for her, make no mistake
+about that, Pinto."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel drew down the blinds with a crash and began pacing the room.
+He stopped at the farther end and looked at the wall.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>"Do you know, I've often wondered why Jack o' Judgment damaged that
+wall?" he said. "He's got me guessing, and I've been guessing ever
+since."</p>
+
+<p>"You thought it was a freak?" said Pinto, glad to keep his master off
+the subject of his Huddersfield blunder.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't think it was that," he said. "It was not like Jack o'
+Judgment to do freakish things. He has an object in everything he does."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it was to get you out of the room for the morning and make a
+search for your papers," suggested Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>Again the colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"He knows me better than that. He knew very well that I would shift
+every document from the room and that there was nothing for his
+bloodhounds to discover." He thought a moment, pulling at his long,
+yellow moustache. "Maybe," he said to himself, "maybe&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe what?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"The workmen may have been up to some kind of dodge. They might have
+been policemen for all I know." He shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway,
+that's long ago, and if he'd made a discovery, why, I think we should
+have heard about it. Now, Pinto,"&mdash;his tone changed&mdash;"I'm not going to
+talk to you about Crotin. You've made a proper mess of it, and I ought
+never to have sent you. We have two matters to settle. Crewe wants to
+get out, and I think you're getting ready to bolt."</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" said Pinto with virtuous indignation. "Do you imagine I should
+leave you, colonel, if you were in for a bad time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I imagine it?" The colonel laughed. "Don't be a fool. Sit down. When
+did you see Lollie Marsh last?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto considered.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen her for weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither have I," said the colonel. "Of course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> she has an excuse for
+staying away. She never comes unless she's sent for. If we've got a mug
+we want to lead down the easy path, why, there's nobody in London who
+can do it like Lollie. And I understand you had some disagreement with
+the young lady over Maisie White?"</p>
+
+<p>"She interfered&mdash;&mdash;" began Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"And probably saved your life," remarked the colonel meaningly. "No, you
+have no kick against Lollie for that."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled open the drawer of his desk, took out a card and wrote
+rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put Snakit on her trail," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Snakit!" said the other contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p>"He's all right for this kind of work," said the colonel, alluding to
+the little detective whom he had bought over from Maisie White's
+service. "Snakit can trail her. He does nothing for his keep, and Lollie
+doesn't know him, does she?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so," said Pinto absently. "If you believe that Lollie is
+double-crossing you, why don't you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll write to you when I want any suggestions as to how to run my
+business," said the colonel unpleasantly. "Where does Lollie live?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tavistock Avenue," said Pinto. "I wish you'd be a little more decent to
+me, colonel. I'm trying to play the game by you."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll soon get tired of trying," said the colonel. "Don't worry,
+Pinto. I know just how much I can depend upon you and just what your
+loyalty is worth. You'll sell me at the first opportunity, and you'll be
+dead about the same day. I only hope for your sake that the opportunity
+never arises. That's that," he said, as he finished the card and put it
+on one side. "Now what is the next thing?" He looked up at the ceiling
+for inspiration. "Crewe," he said, "Crewe is getting out of hand too. I
+put him on a job to trace 'Snow' Gregory's past. I haven't seen or heard
+of him for two days, either."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p><p>Somebody laughed. It was a queer, little far-away laugh, but Pinto
+recognised it and his hair almost stood on end. He looked across at the
+colonel with ashen face, and then swung round apprehensively toward the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear that?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard it&mdash;thank the lord!" said the colonel, and fetched a long sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto gazed at him in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," he said in a low voice, "that was Jack o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said the colonel nodding; "but I still thank the lord!"</p>
+
+<p>He got up slowly and walked round the room, opened the door that led to
+his bedroom, and put on the light. The room was empty, and the only
+cupboard which might have concealed an intruder was wide open. He came
+back, walked into the entrance hall, and opened the door softly. The
+landing was empty too. He returned after fastening the door and slipping
+the bolts&mdash;bolts which he had had fixed during the previous week.</p>
+
+<p>"You wonder why I held a thanksgiving service?" said the colonel slowly.
+"Well, I've heard that laugh before, and I thought my brain was
+going&mdash;that's all. I'd rather it were Jack o' Judgment in the flesh than
+Jack o' Judgment wandering loose around my hut."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard it before?" said Pinto. "Here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here in this room," said the colonel. "I thought I was going daft.
+You're the first person who has heard it besides myself." He looked at
+Pinto. "A hell of a prospect, isn't it?" he said gloomily. "Let's talk
+about the weather!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK</h3>
+
+<p>There was no hope for Phillopolis from the first. The case against him
+was so clear and so damning that the magistrate, before whom the
+preliminary inquiry was heard, had no hesitation in committing him to
+take his trial at the Old Bailey on a charge of receiving, and that at
+the first hearing. Every article which had been stolen from the
+diamondsmiths' company had been recovered in his flat. The police
+experts gave evidence to the effect that he had been a suspected man for
+years, that his method of earning a living had on several occasions been
+the subject of police inquiry. He was known to be, so the evidence ran,
+the associate of criminal characters, and on two occasions his flat had
+been privately raided.</p>
+
+<p>The woman who passed as his wife had nothing good to say of him. It was
+not she who had admitted the police. Indeed, they found her in an upper
+room, locked in. Phillopolis was something of a tyrant, and on the day
+of his arrest he had had a quarrel with the woman, who had threatened to
+expose him to the police for some breach of the law. He had beaten her
+and locked her into an upper bedroom, and this act of tyranny had proved
+his downfall, if it were true, as he swore so vehemently that the
+articles which were found in his room had been planted there.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was not present, nor were any other members of the gang,
+save little Selby, who had been summoned to the colonel's presence and
+had arrived in the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't a ghost of a chance," reported Selby, who had a lifelong
+acquaintance with criminals of the meaner sort, and had spent no small
+amount of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> his time in police courts, securing evidence as to the virtue
+of his prot&eacute;g&eacute;s. "If he doesn't get ten years I'm a Dutchman."</p>
+
+<p>"What does Phillopolis say?"</p>
+
+<p>"He swears that the goods were not in his flat when he went out that
+night," he said, "but if they were planted, the work was done
+thoroughly. The detectives found jewel cases under cushions, hidden in
+cupboards, on the tops of shelves, and one of the best bits of swag&mdash;a
+wonderful diamond necklace&mdash;was discovered in his boot, at the bottom of
+his trunk."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation took place in the Green Park, which was a favourite
+haunt of the colonel's. He loved to sit on a chair by the side of the
+lake, watching the children sailing their boats and the ducks mothering
+their broods. He was silent. His eyes were bent upon the efforts of a
+small boy to bring a little waterlogged boat to a level keel and
+apparently he had no other interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a cigar, Selby," he said at last. "What is the news in your part
+of the world?"</p>
+
+<p>Selby was carefully biting off the end of his gift.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much," he said. "We got some letters the other day from Mrs.
+Crombie-Brail. Her son has got into trouble at the Cape. Lew Litchfield
+got them. He was doing a job in Manchester."</p>
+
+<p>Lew Litchfield was a bright young burglar of whom the colonel had heard,
+and he knew the kind of "job" on which Lew was engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"You bought 'em?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I gave a tenner for them," said Selby. "I don't think they're much
+use."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not the kind of letter that brings in money," he said. "You
+can't bleed a mother because her son got into trouble&mdash;at least, not for
+more than a hundred."</p>
+
+<p>"Letters have been scarce lately," said his agent disconsolately; "I
+think people have either given up keeping or writing them."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe," said the colonel. "Anyway, I didn't bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> you down to talk
+about letters. I've work for you."</p>
+
+<p>Selby looked uneasy, and that in itself was a discouraging sign. Usually
+the little crook from the north hailed a job of any kind with
+enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>It was an unmistakable proof to the colonel that he was losing grip,
+that the magic of his name and all that it implied in the way of
+protection from punishment, was less than it had been.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem very pleased," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Selby forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, colonel," he said, "I've a feeling they're after us, and I don't
+want to take any risks."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll take this one," said the colonel. "There's somebody to be put
+away."</p>
+
+<p>The man licked his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not in it," he said. "I had enough with that Hanson
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"By 'put away' I don't mean murdered or ill-treated in any sense," said
+the colonel, "and besides, it is one of our own people."</p>
+
+<p>But even this assurance did not satisfy the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like it," he said; "they tell me that this Jack o'
+Judgment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just forget Jack o' Judgment for a minute and think of yourself,"
+snapped the colonel. "You've made your pile, and you find England's
+getting a bit too hot for you, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed," said the man fervently. "You know, colonel, I was
+thinking that a trip to America wouldn't be a bad idea."</p>
+
+<p>"There are plenty of places to go to without going to America," said the
+colonel. "I tell you that I mean Lollie no harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Lollie?" Selby was surprised, and showed it. "She hasn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what she's done yet, but I think it is time she went
+away," said the colonel, "and so far as I can judge, it is time you went
+too, Selby. I don't know whether Lollie is betraying us, and maybe I'm
+doing her an injustice," he went on, "but if I put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> up to her a
+suggestion that she should leave the country, maybe she'd probably turn
+me down. You know how suspicious these women are. The only idea I can
+think of is to scare her and make her bolt quick and sudden, and I want
+you to provide the means."</p>
+
+<p>Selby was waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"I bought a motor-boat, one of those swift motor-boats that the
+Government used during the war. I have it ready at Twickenham, and you
+can get all your goods on board and go to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere you like," said the colonel, "Holland, Denmark&mdash;one place is
+as good as another, and it'll be a good sea-going boat. You see, my idea
+is this. If I think Lollie is negotiating to put us away, I can give her
+a fright which will make her jump at the means of getting out of England
+by the quickest and shortest route. You can go with her and keep her
+under your eye until the trouble blows over."</p>
+
+<p>He saw a look in the man's face and correctly interpreted it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not worried about <i>you</i> double-crossing me," he said, "even if you
+are abroad. I've enough evidence against you to bring you back under an
+extradition warrant." He laughed as Selby's face fell. "You see Selby,
+there's nothing in it that you can take exception to. I don't even know
+that Lollie will refuse to go in the ordinary way, but I must make
+preparations."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a reasonable suggestion," said Selby, after considering the
+matter for a few minutes. "I'll do it, colonel."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better bring a couple of men to London who can handle Lollie if
+she gives any trouble&mdash;no, no," said the colonel, raising his hand in
+dignified protest, "there's going to be nothing rough. How can there be?
+You'll be in charge of it all, and it is up to you as to how Lollie is
+treated."</p>
+
+<p>It did not occur to Selby until an hour later to ask the colonel how he
+knew that his hobby was motor-boating, but by that time the colonel had
+gone.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>It was true, as Boundary said, that the gang was scared&mdash;and badly
+scared. It was equally true that they needed only one jar before it
+became a case of every man for himself. Already even the minor members
+were making their preparations to break away. The red light was burning
+clear before all eyes. But none knew how readily the colonel had
+recognised the signs, and how, in spite of his apparent philosophy and
+his contempt of danger, he, more than any of the others, was preparing
+for the inevitable crash.</p>
+
+<p>Jack o' Judgment, he told himself, was playing his game better than he
+could play it himself. The arrest of Phillopolis had removed one of the
+men who might have been an inconvenient witness against him. White was
+gone, Raoul was gone. He had planned the disappearance of Selby, a most
+dangerous man, and Lollie Marsh, an even more dangerous woman and there
+remained only Pinto and Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>When he had taken leave of his agent, the colonel walked to Westminster
+and boarded a car which carried him along the Embankment to Blackfriars.
+He might have been followed, and probably was, but this possibility did
+not worry him. He walked across Ludgate Circus, up St. Bride Street to
+Hatton Garden, and turned into the office of Myglebergs'. Mr. Mygleberg,
+a very suave and polite gentleman, received him and ushered him into a
+private room. This shrewd Dutchman had no illusions as to the colonel's
+probity, but he had no doubt either that the big man could pay
+handsomely for everything he bought.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you've come, colonel," he said; "I have been expecting you for
+a couple of days. We have just had a wonderful parcel of stones from
+Amsterdam, and I think some of them would suit you."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared and came back with a tray covered with the most beautiful
+diamonds that had ever left the cutter's hands. The colonel went over
+them slowly, examining them and putting a selected number aside.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take those," he said, and Mr. Mygleberg laughed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><p>"They're the best," he chuckled. "Trust you to know a good thing when
+you see it, colonel!"</p>
+
+<p>"What have I to pay for these?"</p>
+
+<p>Mygleberg made a rapid calculation and put the figures before Colonel
+Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a big price," said the colonel, "but I don't think you have
+overcharged. Besides, I could always sell them again for that much."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mygleberg nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are wise to put your money into stones, colonel," he said;
+"they always go up and never go down in value. You can lose other
+things. They're easy and they're always convertible. I always tell my
+partner that if I ever become a millionaire I shall invest every penny
+in stones."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel paid for the gems from a thick wad of notes he took from his
+hip-pocket. They were, in point of fact, the identical notes which
+Maisie White had handed to him the night previous. He waited whilst the
+jewels were made up into a little oblong package, heavily sealed and
+inscribed with the colonel's name and address, and then, shaking hands
+with Mygleberg and fixing a further appointment, he came out into Hatton
+Garden, whistling a little song and apparently the picture of
+contentment.</p>
+
+<p>He was getting ready for flight too. This, the first of many packages
+which he intended depositing in the private safe of his bank, would go
+with the ever-increasing pile of American gold bonds of high
+denomination which filled that steel repository. For months the colonel
+had been converting his property into paper dollars. They were more
+easily negotiated and less traceable than English banknotes, and they
+were more get-at-able. A big balance in the books of the bank might be
+creditable and, given time, convertible into cash. Then nobody knew but
+himself the amount standing to his credit. He was not at the mercy of
+prying bank clerks or a manager who might be got at by the police. At a
+minute's notice, and without anybody being the wiser, he could demand
+the contents of his safe and walk from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the bank premises without a soul
+being aware that he was carrying the bulk of his fortune away.</p>
+
+<p>He took a cab and drove now to the bank premises. Ferguson, the manager,
+received him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, colonel," he said. "I was just writing you a note. You
+know your account is getting very low."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?" said the colonel in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you wouldn't realise the fact," said Ferguson, "but you've
+been drawing very heavily of late."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put it right," said the colonel. "It is not overdrawn?" he asked
+jocularly, and Ferguson smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You've eighty thousand pounds in Account B," he said. "I suppose you
+don't want to touch that?"</p>
+
+<p>Account B was the euphonious name for the fund which was the common
+property of all the leaders of the Boundary Gang.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless you're anxious that I should get penal servitude for
+fraudulently converting the company's funds?" said the colonel in the
+same strain. "No, I'll fix my account some time to-day. In the
+meantime"&mdash;he produced a package from his hip-pocket&mdash;"I want this to go
+into my safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Ferguson, and struck a bell. A clerk answered the
+call. "Take Colonel Boundary to the vaults. He wants to deposit
+something in his safe," he said, "or would you like me to do it,
+colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do it myself," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>He followed the clerk down the spiral staircase to the well-lit vault,
+and with the key which the man handed him opened Safe No. 20. It was
+divided into two compartments, that on the left consisting of a deep
+drawer, which he pulled out. It was half filled with American paper
+currency, as he knew&mdash;currency neatly parcelled and carefully packed by
+his own hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I often wonder, Colonel Boundary," said the interested clerk, "why you
+don't use the bank safe. When a customer has his own, you know, we are
+not responsible for any of his losses."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><p>"I know that," said the colonel genially. "Still one must take a risk."</p>
+
+<p>He placed the package on the top of the money, pushed back the drawer,
+locked the safe and handed the key to the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"I think the bank takes enough risks without asking them to accept any
+more," he said, "and besides, I like to take a little risk myself
+sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"So I've heard," said the clerk innocently, and the colonel shot a
+questioning look at the young man.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VOICE AGAIN</h3>
+
+<p>He left the bank with the sense of having done his duty by himself. He
+had not planned the route by which he was leaving the country, or the
+hour. Much was to happen before he shook the dust of England from his
+feet, and as he had arranged matters he would have plenty of time to
+think things over before he made his departure.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal happened in the next few days to make him believe that the
+necessity for getting away was not very urgent. He met Stafford King in
+the Park one morning, and Stafford had been unusually communicative and
+friendly. Then the whispering voices in the flat had temporarily ceased,
+and Jack o' Judgment had given him no sign of his existence. It was five
+days after he had made his deposit in the bank that the first shock came
+to him. He found Snakit waiting on returning from a matin&eacute;e, and the
+little detective was so important and mysterious that the colonel knew
+something had been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he asked, closing the door, "what have you found?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in communication with the police," said Snakit, "that's what
+I've found."</p>
+
+<p>"Lollie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Marsh is the lady. In communication with the police," said the
+other impressively.</p>
+
+<p>"Now just tell me what you mean," said the colonel. "Do you mean she's
+on speaking terms with the policeman on point duty at Piccadilly
+Circus?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, sir," said Snakit with dignity, "that she's in the habit of
+meeting Mr. Stafford King, who is a well-known man at Scotland Yard&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p><p>"He's well-known here too," interrupted the colonel. "Where does she
+meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"In all sorts of queer places&mdash;that's the suspicious part of it," said
+Snakit, who had joyously entered into the work which had been given to
+him, without realising its unlawful character.</p>
+
+<p>He had accepted without question the colonel's story that he was the
+victim of police persecution, and as this was the first news of any
+importance he had been able to bring to his employer, he was naturally
+inclined to make the most of it.</p>
+
+<p>"He has met her twice at eleven o clock at night, at the bottom of St.
+James's Street, and walked up with her, very deeply engaged in
+conversation," said Snakit, consulting his note-book. "He met her once
+at the foot of the steps leading down from Waterloo Place, and they were
+together for an hour. This morning," he went on, speaking slowly, and
+evidently this was his tit-bit, "this morning Mr. Stafford King went to
+the Cunard office in Cockspur Street and booked cabin seventeen on the
+shelter deck of the <i>Lapland</i> for New York."</p>
+
+<p>"In what name?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of Miss Isabel Trenton."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded. It was a name that Lollie had used before, and the
+story rang true.</p>
+
+<p>"When does the <i>Lapland</i> sail?" he asked, and again the detective
+consulted his book.</p>
+
+<p>"Next Saturday," he said, "from Liverpool."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the colonel; "thank you, Snakit, you've done very
+well. See if you can pick them up to-night, or, stay&mdash;&mdash;" He thought a
+moment. "No, don't shadow her to-night. I'll have a talk with her."</p>
+
+<p>The news disturbed him. Lollie was getting ready to bolt&mdash;that was
+unimportant. But she was bolting with the assistance of the police, who
+had booked her passage. That meant that they had got as much out of her
+as she had to tell, and were clearing her out of the country before the
+blow fell. That was not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> important, but it was grave. Either the
+police were going to strike at once or&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>An idea struck him, and he telephoned through to Pinto. Another got him
+into touch with Crewe, and these three were in consultation when Selby
+came that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived at an unpropitious moment, for the colonel was in a cold
+fury, and the object of his wrath was Crewe, who sat with folded arms
+and tense face, looking down at the table.</p>
+
+<p>"That gentleman business is played out, Crewe," stormed the colonel,
+"and I'm just about tired of hearing what you won't do and what you will
+do! If Lollie's put us away, she has got to go through it."</p>
+
+<p>"What use will it be, supposing she has?" said the other doggedly. "I
+don't for a moment believe she has done anything of the sort. But
+suppose she has given you away, what are you going to do? Add to the
+indictment? She's sick of the game and wants to get away somewhere where
+she can live a decent life."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you've been discussing it with her, have you?" said the colonel
+with dangerous calm. "And maybe you also are sick of the game and want
+to get away and live a decent life? I remember hearing you say something
+of that sort a few weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>"We're all sick of it," said Crewe. "Look at Pinto. Do you think he's
+keen?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto started.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you bring me into it?" he complained. "I'm standing by the
+colonel to the last. And I agree with him that we ought to know what
+Lollie told the police."</p>
+
+<p>"She's told them nothing," said Crewe. "She isn't that kind of girl.
+Besides, what does she know?"</p>
+
+<p>"She knows a lot," said the colonel. "I'll put a supposition to you.
+Suppose she's Jack o' Judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe looked at him in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"That's an absurd suggestion," he said. "How could she be?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p><p>"I'll tell you how she could be," said the colonel; "she has never been
+with us when Jack made his appearance&mdash;you'll grant that?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe thought for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"There you're wrong," he said; "she was with us the night Jack first
+came."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was taken aback. A theory which he had formed was destroyed
+by that recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"So she was. That's right, she was there! I remember he insulted her.
+But I'm certain she's seen him since; I am certain she's been working
+hand-in-glove with him since. Who was the Jack who went to Yorkshire?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Crewe's turn to be nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment must be working with a pal," the colonel went on
+triumphantly, "and I suggest that that pal is Lollie Marsh."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a lie!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Who said that?" he demanded harshly.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it you, Selby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" said the astonished Selby. "No, I thought it was you who said it.
+It came from your end of the table, colonel."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel got up.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something wrong here," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got it!" It was Pinto who spoke. "Did you notice anything peculiar
+about the voice, colonel?" he asked eagerly. "I did, the first time I
+heard it, and I've been wondering how I'd heard it before, and just now
+it has struck me. It was a gramophone voice!"</p>
+
+<p>"A gramophone voice?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sounded like a voice on a speaking machine."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you come to mention it, I think you're right," he said; "it sounded
+familiar to me. Of course, it was a gramophone voice."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><p>They made a careful search of the apartment, taking down every book
+from the big shelf in one of the alcoves, and turning the leaves to
+discover the hidden machine. With this idea to guide them the search was
+more complete than it had been before. Every drawer in the desk was
+taken out, every scrap of furniture was minutely examined, even the
+massive legs of the colonel's writing table were tapped.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe took no part in the search, but watched it with a slight smile of
+amusement, and the colonel turning, detected this.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil are you grinning about?" he said. "Why aren't you
+helping, Crewe? You've got an interest in this business."</p>
+
+<p>"Not such an interest that I'm going to fool around looking for a
+gramophone voice that goes off at appropriate intervals," said Crewe.
+"Doesn't it strike you that it would have to be a pretty smart
+gramophone to chip in at the right moment?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel pondered this a minute and then went back to his place at
+the table, mopping his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Pinto's right," he said; "the fellow has smuggled some fool machine
+into the flat, and we shall discover it sooner or later. I don't know
+how he controls it, or who controls it"&mdash;he looked suspiciously at
+Crewe&mdash;"or who controls it," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"You said that before," said Crewe coolly.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel had something on his lips to say, but swallowed it.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll meet here to-night at eleven. I told Lollie to come. Now, Crewe,"
+he said in a more gentle tone, "you're in this up to the neck, and
+you've got to go through with it. After all, your life and liberty are
+at stake as much as ours. If Lollie's played us false, we've got to
+be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Lollie has not played you false, colonel," said Crewe. His face was
+very pale, the colonel noticed. "I like that girl, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So that's it," said the colonel, "a little love romance introduced into
+our sordid commercial lives! Maybe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> you know what she's been talking to
+Stafford King about?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe did not immediately reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" asked the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"I know she has been trying to get out of the country, to break with the
+gang, but that she has given you or any of us away is a lie. Lollie's
+had a rotten life, and she's just sick of it, that's all. Do you blame
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no question of blaming her or praising her," said the colonel
+patiently; "the question is whether we condemn her or whether she still
+has our confidence, and that we shall know to-night. You will be
+present, Crewe."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be present, you may be sure," said Crewe, and there was a look
+on his face which Pinto, for one, did not like.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>LOLLIE GOES AWAY</h3>
+
+<p>It seemed to "Swell" Crewe that the scene was curiously reminiscent of a
+trial in which he had once participated. The colonel, at the end of the
+long table, sat aloof and apparently noncommittal, a veritable judge and
+a merciless judge at that. Pinto sat at his right, Selby on his left,
+and Crewe himself sat half-way between the girl at the farther end of
+the table and Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>Lollie Marsh had no doubt as to why she had been summoned. Her pretty
+face was drawn, the hands which were clasped on the table before her
+were restless, but what Crewe noticed more particularly was a certain
+untidiness both in her costume and in her usually well-coiffured hair.
+As though wearying of the part she had been playing, she was already
+discarding her makeup.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to bring you here, Lollie, and ask you these questions," the
+colonel was saying, "but we are all in some danger and we want to know
+just where we stand with you."</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"The charge against you is that you've been in communication with the
+police. Is that true?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that I've been in communication with Mr. Stafford King,
+that's true," she said. "You told me to get into touch with him. Haven't
+I been for weeks&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a pretty good excuse," interrupted the colonel, "but it won't
+work, Lollie. You don't touch with a man like Stafford King and meet him
+secretly in St. James's Street. And you don't touch by seeing him for
+half an hour at a time, and I haven't heard of you ever getting off
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> a fellow to the extent of his paying for your passage to America."</p>
+
+<p>She started.</p>
+
+<p>"You know the way it is done. You did it before, Lollie," the colonel
+went on. "Now, you've got to be a good girl and tell us how far you've
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I'm sick of this life, colonel. I
+want to go straight. I want to get away out of it all and&mdash;and&mdash;he's
+going to help me."</p>
+
+<p>"A social reformer, eh?" said the colonel. "I didn't know the police
+went in for that sort of stunt. And when did he take this sudden liking
+for you, Lollie?"</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't a sudden liking at all," she said, "but I think it was
+because&mdash;well, because I stopped Pinto in the nursing home&mdash;and Miss
+White told him&mdash;I think that's all."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel looked down on his pad.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something in that," he said. "It sounds feasible. Didn't he
+question you?" he said, raising his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"About you?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"About us," corrected the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me nothing about you, nothing about your habits or your
+methods or about any of our funny business. I'll swear it," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not going to believe that, are you, colonel?" demanded Pinto.
+"You can see that she is lying and that she's double-crossing you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's neither lying nor double-crossing us." It was Crewe who spoke. "I
+don't know what you think about it, colonel, but I am convinced that
+Lollie is speaking the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" Pinto laughed loudly. "I think you're in a state of mind when
+you'd believe anything Lollie said. And anyway you're probably in with
+her."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>"You're a liar," said Crewe, so quietly that none suspected the
+surprising thing that would follow, for of a sudden his fist shot out
+and caught Pinto under the jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel was instantly on his feet, his hand outspread.</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough, Crewe," he said harshly. "I'll have none of that!"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto picked himself up, his face livid.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll pay for that," he said breathlessly, but "Swell" Crewe had
+walked to the girl and had laid his hand on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Lollie," he said, "I'm believing you and I think the colonel is, too.
+If you're going out of the country, why I'll say good luck to you.
+You've made a very wise decision and one which we shall all make&mdash;some
+of us perhaps too late."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," said the colonel. He exchanged a glance with Selby and
+the man slipped quietly from the room. "Before we do any of that
+fare-thee-well stuff, I've got a few words to say to you, Lollie. I'm
+with Crewe. I think it is time you went out of the country, but you're
+going out my way."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Her hand clutched "Swell" Crewe's sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"You're going out my way," said the colonel, "and I swear no harm will
+come to you. You're leaving to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"But how?" she asked, affrighted.</p>
+
+<p>"Selby will tell you. You'll meet him downstairs. Now be a sensible girl
+and do as I tell you. Selby will go with you and see you safe. We made
+all preparations for your departure to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"What's this, colonel?" asked Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"You're out of it," said the colonel savagely. "I'm running this show
+myself. If you want to join Lollie later, why you can. For the present,
+she's going just where I want her to go and in the way I have planned."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand to the girl and she took it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>"Good-bye and good luck, Lollie!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"But can't I go back to my rooms?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Do as I tell you," he said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>She stood at the door and for a moment her eyes met Crewe's and he moved
+toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel gripped his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Lollie," and the door shut on the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go," said Crewe between his teeth. "If she trusts you, I don't.
+This is some trick of that dirty half-breed!"</p>
+
+<p>With a snarl of rage Pinto whipped his ever-ready knife from his hip
+pocket and flung it. It was the colonel who drew Crewe aside, or that
+moment was his last. The knife whizzed past and was buried almost to the
+hilt in the wall. The colonel broke the tense silence which followed.</p>
+
+<p>"Pinto," he said in his silkiest voice, "if you ever want to know what
+it feels like to be a dead man, just repeat that performance, will you?"
+Then his rage burst forth. "By God! I'll shoot either of you if you play
+the fool in front of me again. You dirty little pickpockets that I've
+taken from the gutter! You miserable little sneak-thieves!"</p>
+
+<p>He let loose a flood of abuse that made even Crewe wince.</p>
+
+<p>"Now sit down, both of you," he finished up, out of breath.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the window and looked out. The car which he had hired for the
+occasion was still standing at the door and he distinguished Selby
+talking to the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen you," he said, "and especially you, Crewe. You're too trusting
+with these females. Maybe Lollie's speaking the truth, but it is just as
+likely she's lying. I'm not going to take your corroboration, you know,
+Crewe," he said. "We've got to depend on her word. There's nobody else
+can speak for her, is there?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>Before Crewe could speak the colonel was answered:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment! He'll speak for Lollie!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel looked up with a curse. There was nobody in the room, but
+the voice had been louder than ever he had heard it before. It seemed as
+though it emanated from a disembodied spirit that was floating through
+the air. There was a knock at the outer door.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHERE THE VOICE LIVED</h3>
+
+<p>"Open it," said the colonel in a low voice; "open it, Crewe"&mdash;he pulled
+open the drawer and took out something&mdash;"and if it is Jack o'
+Judgment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe opened the door, his heart beating at a furious rate, but it was
+Selby who came into the room and faced the half-levelled gun of the
+colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" asked Boundary quickly. "You fool, I told you not to
+lose sight of her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But when is she coming down?" asked Selby. "I've been waiting there all
+this time and there's a policeman at the corner of the street&mdash;I
+wondered whether you had seen him too."</p>
+
+<p>"Not come down?" said the colonel. "She left here five minutes ago!"</p>
+
+<p>"She hasn't come down," he said, "and I've certainly not passed her on
+the stairs. Is there any other way out?"</p>
+
+<p>"No way that she could use," said the colonel shaking his head. "I've
+had new locks put on all the doors." He thought a moment. "If she hasn't
+come down she's gone up."</p>
+
+<p>They went up the stairs together and searched, first Pinto's flat, and
+then the store-rooms and empty apartments on the floor higher up.</p>
+
+<p>"Go down to the door and wait, in case she tries to get out," said the
+colonel.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to the room with the two men and they looked at one another
+in frank astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea what's happened, Crewe?" asked the colonel
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"No idea in the world," said Crewe.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>"But she went downstairs," said the colonel. "I heard the alarm click."</p>
+
+<p>"The alarm?" questioned Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a buzzer under one of the treads of the stairs," said the
+colonel. "It is useful to know when people are coming up."</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes passed and Selby returned to say that the policeman had been
+making inquiries as to whom the car belonged.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better get it away," said the colonel, "and send away your men."</p>
+
+<p>"They've gone," said the other. "I wasn't taking any risks."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared to carry out the colonel's instructions, and they heard
+the whine of the moving car.</p>
+
+<p>Boundary unlocked his tantalus and took out a full decanter of whisky.
+Without a word he poured three stiff doses into as many glasses and
+filled them with soda. Each man was thinking, and thinking after his own
+interests.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," said the colonel at last. "I incline to give this
+business best."</p>
+
+<p>He looked up and saw the dagger which Pinto had thrown. It was still
+embedded in the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't enough that I should have Jack o' Judgment messing my room
+about," he growled, "but you must do something to the same wall! Pull it
+out and don't let me see it again, Pinto."</p>
+
+<p>The Portuguese smiled sheepishly, walked to the wall and gripped the
+handle. Evidently the point had embedded in a lath, for the knife did
+not move. He pulled again, exerting all his strength and this time
+succeeded in extracting not only the knife but a large portion of the
+plaster and a strip of the wallpaper.</p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" said the colonel angrily, "see what you have done&mdash;Jumping
+Moses!"</p>
+
+<p>He walked to the wall and stared, for the dislodgment of plaster and
+paper had revealed three round black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> discs, set flush with the plaster
+and only separated from the room by the wallpaper, which had been
+stripped.</p>
+
+<p>"Jumping Moses!" said the colonel softly. "Detectaphones!"</p>
+
+<p>He took Pinto's knife from his hand and prised one of the discs loose.
+It was attached to a wire which was embedded in the plaster and this the
+colonel severed with a stroke of the knife.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the business end of a microphone," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The voice!" gasped Pinto, and the colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. I was mad not to guess that," he said. "That's how he heard
+and that's how he spoke. Now, we're going to get to the bottom of this."</p>
+
+<p>With a knife he slashed the plaster and exposed three wires that led
+straight downward and apparently through the floor. The colonel rested
+and eyed the debris thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"What is under this flat? Lee's office, isn't it? Of course, Lee's!" he
+said. "I'm the fool!"</p>
+
+<p>He handed the knife back to Pinto, took an electric torch from his
+pocket and led the way from the flat. They passed down the half-darkened
+stairs to the floor beneath, on which was situated the three sets of
+offices. The colonel took a bunch of keys and tried them on the door of
+the surveyor's office. Presently he found one that fitted, and the door
+opened. He fumbled about for the electric switch, found it and flooded
+the room with light. It was a very ordinary clerk's office, with a small
+counter, the flap of which was raised. Inside the flap he saw something
+white on the floor, and, stooping, picked it up. It was a lady's
+handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"L," he read. "That sounds like Lollie. Do you know this, Crewe?"</p>
+
+<p>Crewe took the handkerchief and nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Lollie's," he said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so. This is where she was when we were looking for her. Here
+with Jack o' Judgment, eh? Let's try the inner office."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p><p>The inner office was locked, but he had no difficulty in gaining
+admission. Inside this was a private office which was simply furnished
+and had in one corner what appeared to be a telephone box. He opened the
+glass door and flashed his lamp inside. There was a little desk, a pair
+of receivers fastened to a headpiece, and a small vulcanite transmitter.</p>
+
+<p>"This is where he sat," said the colonel meditatively, pointing to a
+stool, "and this&mdash;&mdash;" he lifted up the earpieces&mdash;"is how he heard all
+our very interesting conversations. Go upstairs, Pinto, I want to try
+this transmitter."</p>
+
+<p>He fixed the receiver to his ears and waited, and presently he heard
+distinctly the sound of Pinto closing the door of the room upstairs.
+Then he spoke through the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear me, Pinto?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you distinctly," said Pinto's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak a little lower. Carry on a conversation with yourself and let me
+try to hear you."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto obeyed. He recited something from the Orpheum revue, a line or two
+of a song, and the colonel heard distinctly every syllable. He replaced
+the earpieces where he had found them, closed the door of the box and
+that of the outer office, and led the way upstairs. The whisky still
+stood upon the table and he lifted a glass and drained it at a draught.</p>
+
+<p>"If you're a linguist, Crewe, you'll have heard of the phrase: <i>Sauve
+qui peut</i>. It means 'Git!' And that's the advice I'm giving and taking.
+To-morrow we'll meet to liquidate the Boundary Gang and split the Gang
+Fund."</p>
+
+<p>He turned his companions out to get what sleep they could. For him there
+was little sleep that night. Before the dawn came, he was at Twickenham,
+examining a big motor-launch that lay in a boat-house. It was the launch
+which should have carried Lollie Marsh and Selby on their river and sea
+journey. It was provisioned and ready for the trip. But first the
+colonel had to take from a locker in the stern of the boat a small black
+box<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> and disconnect the wires from certain terminals before he stopped a
+little clock which ticked noisily. He had tuned his bomb to go off at
+four in the morning, by which time, he calculated, Lollie Marsh and her
+escort would be well out to sea. For the colonel regarded no evidence
+that might be brought against him as unimportant.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>CONSCIENCE MONEY</h3>
+
+<p>The colonel was sleeping peacefully when Pinto rushed into his bedroom
+with the news. He was awake in a second and sat up in bed.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" he said incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Selby's pinched," said Pinto, his voice shaking. "My God! It's awful!
+It's dreadful! Colonel, we've got to get away to-day. I tell you they'll
+have us&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just shut up for a minute, will you?" growled the colonel, swinging out
+of bed and searching for his slippers with the detached interest of one
+who was hearing a little gossip from the morning papers. "What is the
+charge against him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Loitering with intention to commit a felony," said Pinto. "They took
+him to the station and searched his bag. He had brought a bag with him
+in preparation for the journey. And what do you think they found?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what they found," said the colonel; "a complete kit of burglar's
+tools. The fool must have left his bag in the hall and of course Jack o'
+Judgment planted the stuff. It is simple!"</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?" wailed Pinto. "What can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Engage the best lawyer you can. Do it through one of your pals," said
+the colonel. "It will go hard with Selby. He's had a previous
+conviction."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he'll split?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>He looked yellow and haggard and he had much to do to keep his teeth
+from chattering.</p>
+
+<p>"Not for a day or two," said the colonel, "and we shall be away by then.
+Does Crewe know?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't any time to run about after that swine," he said impatiently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>"Well, you'd better do a little running now then," said the colonel.
+"We may want his signature for the bank."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to draw what we've got and I advise you to do the same. I
+suppose you haven't made any preparations to get away, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," lied Pinto, remembering with thankfulness that he had received a
+letter that morning from the aviator Cartwright, telling him that the
+machine was in good order and ready to start at any moment. "No, I have
+never thought of getting away, colonel. I've always said I'll stick to
+the colonel&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said the colonel, and there was no very great faith in Pinto
+revealed in his grunt.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe came along an hour later and seemed the least perturbed of the
+lot.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the cheque-book," said the colonel, taking it from a drawer.
+"Now the balance we have," he consulted a little waistcoat-pocket
+notebook, "is &pound;81,317. I suggest we draw &pound;80,000, split it three ways
+and part to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"What about your own private account?" asked Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"That's my business," said the colonel sharply. He filled in the cheque,
+signed his name with a flourish and handed the pen to Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>Crewe put his name beneath, saw that the cheque was made payable to
+bearer, and handed the book to the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Pinto." The colonel detached the form and blotted it. "Take a
+taxi-cab, see Ferguson, bring the money straight back here. Or, better
+still, go on to the City to the New York Guaranty and change it into
+American money."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you trust Pinto?" asked Crewe bluntly after the other had gone.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the colonel, "I don't trust Pinto or you. And if Pinto had
+plenty of time I shouldn't expect to see that money again. But he's got
+to be back here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> in a couple of hours, and I don't think he can get away
+before. Besides, at the present juncture," he reflected, "he wouldn't
+bolt because he doesn't know how serious the position is."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, colonel?" asked Crewe curiously. "I mean, when you
+get away from here?"</p>
+
+<p>Boundary's broad face creased with smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"What a foolish question to ask," he said. "Timbuctoo, Tangier, America,
+Buenos Ayres, Madrid, China&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Which means you're not going to tell, and I don't blame you," said
+Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked the colonel. "If you're a fool you'll tell
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Crewe shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"To gaol, I guess," he said bitterly, and the colonel chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe you've answered the question you put to me," he said, "but I'm
+going to make a fight of it. Dan Boundary is too old in the bones and
+hates exercise too much to survive the keen air and the bracing
+employment of Dartmoor&mdash;if we ever got there," he said ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" demanded Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that, when they've photographed Selby and circulated his
+picture, somebody is certain to recognise him as the man who handed the
+glass of water over the heads of the crowd when Hanson was killed&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Was it Selby?" gasped Crewe. "I wasn't in it. I knew nothing about
+it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you're not in anything," he bantered. "Yes, it was Selby, and
+it is ten chances to one that the usher would recognise him again if he
+saw him. That would mean&mdash;well, they don't hang folks at Dartmoor." He
+looked at his watch again. "I expect Pinto will be about an hour and a
+half," he said. "You will excuse me," he added with elaborate politeness
+"I have a lot of work to do."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>He cleared the drawers of his writing-table by the simple process of
+pulling them out and emptying their contents upon the top. He went
+through these with remarkable rapidity, throwing the papers one by one
+into the fire, and he was engaged in this occupation when Pinto
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Back already?" said the colonel in surprise, and then, after a glance
+at the other's face, he demanded: "What's wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto was incapable of speech. He just put the cheque down upon the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't they cashed it?" asked the colonel with a frown.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't cash it," said Pinto in a hollow voice. "There's no money
+there."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel picked up the cheque.</p>
+
+<p>"So there's no money there to meet it?" he said softly. "And why is
+there no money there to meet it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it was drawn out three days ago. I thought&mdash;&mdash;" said Pinto
+incoherently. "I saw Ferguson, and he told me that a cheque for the full
+amount came through from the Bank of England."</p>
+
+<p>"In whose favour was it drawn?"</p>
+
+<p>Pinto cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>"In favour of the Chancellor of the Exchequer," he said. "That's why
+Ferguson passed it without question. He said that otherwise he would
+have sent a note to you."</p>
+
+<p>"The Chancellor of the Exchequer!" snarled the colonel. "What does it
+mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here! Ferguson showed it me himself." He took a copy of <i>The
+Times</i> from his pocket and laid it on the table, pointing out the
+paragraph with trembling fingers.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the advertisement column and it was brief:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The Chancellor of the Exchequer desires to acknowledge the receipt
+of &pound;81,000 Conscience Money from Colonel D. B."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Conscience money!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>The colonel sat back in his chair and laughed softly. He was genuinely
+amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, we can get this back," he said at last. "We can explain to
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer the trick that has been played upon us,
+but that means delay, and at the moment delay is really dangerous. I
+suppose both you fellows have money of your own? I know Pinto has. How
+do you stand, Crewe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a little," said Crewe, "but honestly, I was depending upon my
+share of the Gang Fund."</p>
+
+<p>"What about you, colonel?" asked Pinto meaningly. "If I may suggest it,
+we should pool our money and divide."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly," he said tersely. "I doubt whether my balance at the
+bank is more than a couple of thousand pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"But what about your private safe?" persisted Pinto. "A-ha! You didn't
+know I knew that, did you? As a matter of fact, Ferguson told me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil does Ferguson mean by discussing my business?" said the
+colonel wrathfully. "What did he tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He told me that the package was received and that he had put it with
+the other in your safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Package!" The colonel's voice was quiet, almost inaudible. "The package
+was received! When was the package received?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday," said Pinto. "He said it came along and he put it with the
+other. Now what have you got in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the colonel was walking towards his bedroom with rapid strides.
+Presently he reappeared with his hat and coat on.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me, Crewe. We'll go down to the bank," he said. "You stay
+here, Pinto, and report anything that happens."</p>
+
+<p>When they were on their way he confided to the other:</p>
+
+<p>"I have a little money put aside," he said, "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> I'm willing to finance
+you. You haven't been a bad fellow, Crewe. The only rotten turn you've
+ever done us is introducing that damned fellow, 'Snow' Gregory, and you
+didn't even do that, for I had met him before you brought him from
+Monte&mdash;which reminds me. Have you found out anything about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a letter here from Oxford," said Crewe, putting his hand in his
+pocket. "I hadn't opened my letters when Pinto came. You'll find all the
+news there, if there is any news."</p>
+
+<p>He handed the envelope to the other and the colonel transferred it to
+his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"That'll keep," he said. "What was I talking about? Oh, yes, Gregory.
+The whole of this business has come about through Gregory. Gregory made
+Jack o' Judgment, and Jack o' Judgment has ruined us."</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from the taxi at the door of the bank with an agile step, and
+went straight to the manager's office. Without any preliminary he began:</p>
+
+<p>"What is this package that came for me yesterday, Ferguson?"</p>
+
+<p>The manager looked surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"It was an ordinary package, similar to that which you put in the safe
+the other day. It was sealed and wrapped and had your name on it. I
+rather wondered you hadn't brought it yourself, but it was put into your
+safe in the presence of two clerks."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to see it," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>Ferguson led the way down the stairs to the vaults and snapped back the
+lock of Safe 20. As he did so Crewe was conscious of a faint, musty
+odour.</p>
+
+<p>"I smell something," said the colonel suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>He reached his hand into the safe and pulled open the long drawer, and
+as he did so a cloud of sickly-smelling vapour rose from its interior.
+For the first time Crewe heard Boundary groan. He pulled the drawer out
+under the light and looked in. There was nothing but a black mass of
+pulp, out of which glinted and gleamed a dozen pin-points of light.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p><p>With a howl of rage the colonel turned the contents upon the stone
+floor of the vault and raked it over with the end of his walking-stick.
+The diamonds were intact, and they at least were something; but the
+greater part of eight hundred thousand dollars was indistinguishable
+from any other kind of paper that had been treated with one of the most
+destructive acids known to chemical science.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3>IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM</h3>
+
+<p>The colonel wiped his burnt and discoloured hands after he had dropped
+the last diamond into a medicine bottle which the bank manager happened
+to have in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"That's something saved from the wreck, at any rate," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone suddenly old, and his mouth trembled, as many a younger
+mouth had trembled in despair that Colonel Boundary might become a rich
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"Something saved from the wreck," he repeated slowly.</p>
+
+<p>The manager's grave eyes were fixed on his.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not blaming you, Ferguson," said the colonel. "It was a plot to
+ruin me, and it succeeded."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think happened?" asked the troubled Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>"The second package was a box filled with a very strong acid," said the
+colonel. "Probably the box was made of soft metal, through which the
+acid would eat in a few hours. It was placed in the safe, and in time
+the corrosive worked through&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders and left the room without another word.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-five years' work that represents, Crewe," he said as they were
+driving back to the flat; "thirty-five years of risk and thought and
+organisation, and ended in pulp&mdash;stinking pulp&mdash;that burns your fingers
+when you touch it."</p>
+
+<p>He began to whistle and Crewe noticed with curiosity that he chose the
+"Soldiers' Chorus" from "Faust" for the dirge to his lost fortune.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment!" he said wonderingly. "Jack o' Judgment! Well, he's
+had his judgment all right,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> and I'm going to have mine. You needn't
+tell Pinto what happened this morning. Leave him guessing. He's got a
+pretty thick bank-roll, and I'll agree to that grand scheme of his for
+sharing out."</p>
+
+<p>The thought seemed to cheer him, and by the time they reached the flat
+he was almost jovial.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what's the news?" asked Pinto eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," said the colonel. "Everything is as it should be."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop rotting," growled the other. "What is the news?"</p>
+
+<p>"The news, my lad," said the colonel, "is that I've decided to agree to
+your unselfish suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" said the unsuspicious Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"That we should pool and divide."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack o' Judgment's got your money, too!" said Pinto, who cherished no
+illusions about the colonel's generosity.</p>
+
+<p>"How well he knows me!" said Boundary. "Now, come, Pinto, we're all in
+this, sink or swim. I told Crewe going down that I intended dividing;
+didn't I, Crewe?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said something like that," said Crewe cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we'll pool our money," said the colonel, "and split three ways.
+I'll make a fair proposition. We'll divide it into four and the man who
+puts in the most shall take two shares. Is it a bet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," said Pinto reluctantly. "What is the truth about your
+money? Did Jack o' Judgment get it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't any money," said the colonel blandly. "I've about a thousand
+pounds hidden away in this room; that is all, if Jack hasn't been in."</p>
+
+<p>He unlocked the safe and made an inspection.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a little over a thousand, if anything. How much have you, Crewe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three thousand," said Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"That makes four thousand. Now what have you got, Pinto?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've about five thousand," said Pinto, trying to appear unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>The colonel made a little whistling noise through his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring fifty," he said. "I'm dead serious, Pinto. Bring fifty!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I get it?" demanded the other frantically.</p>
+
+<p>"Get it," said the colonel. "It is highly probable that it will be of no
+use to any of us. Let us at least have the illusion of being well off."</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>In greater leisure than either of her three companions in crime were
+exhibiting, Lollie Marsh was preparing to take her departure to New
+York. She was packing at leisure in her cosy flat on Tavistock Avenue,
+stopping now and again to consider the problem of the superfluous
+article of clothing&mdash;a problem which presents itself to all packers.</p>
+
+<p>Between whiles she arrested her labours to think of something else.
+Kneeling down by the side of her trunk, she would give herself up to
+long reveries, which ended in a sigh and the resumption of her packing.</p>
+
+<p>By the commonly accepted standards of civilisation she was a wicked
+woman, but there are degrees of wickedness. She had searched her mind to
+recall all the qualms she had felt in her long association with the
+Boundary Gang, and took an unusual pleasure in her strange recollection.
+She remembered when she had refused to be drawn into the Crotin fraud;
+she recalled her stormy interview with the colonel when she declined to
+take a part in the ruining of young Debenham.</p>
+
+<p>But mostly she was glad that she had never gone any farther to carry out
+the colonel's instructions in regard to Stafford King. Not that she
+would have succeeded, she told herself with a little smile, but she was
+glad she had never seriously tried. Her mind switched to Crewe and
+switched back again. Crewe's was the one face she did not wish to see,
+the one member of the gang that she put aside from the others and
+wilfully veiled. Crewe had always been kind to her, always courteous,
+her champion in all bad times, and yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> had never made love to her. She
+wondered what had brought him down to his present level, and why a man
+possessed of education, and who at one time, as she knew, had been an
+officer in a crack regiment, should have fallen so readily under
+Boundary's influence.</p>
+
+<p>She made a little face and went on with her packing. She did not want to
+think about Crewe for obvious reasons. Yet, as he had said&mdash;&mdash; But he
+hadn't said, she told herself. Very likely he was married, though that
+fact did not greatly trouble the girl. Such men as these have always a
+good as well as a bad past, pleasant as well as bitter memories, and
+possibly he included amongst the former the recollection of a girl whose
+shoelaces Lollie Marsh was not fit to tie.</p>
+
+<p>She took a delight in torturing herself with pictures of her own
+humiliation, though she may have counted it to the good that she was
+capable of feeling humiliated at all. She finished her trunk, squeezed
+in the last article and locked down the lid. She looked at her wrist
+watch&mdash;it was half-past nine. Stafford King had not asked to see her,
+and she had the evening free.</p>
+
+<p>She had only spoken the truth when she had told Boundary that the police
+chief had made no inquiries as to the gang. Stafford King knew human
+nature rather well, and he would not make the mistake of questioning
+her. Or perhaps it was because he did not wish to spoil the value of his
+gifts by fixing a price&mdash;the price of treachery.</p>
+
+<p>She wondered what the colonel was doing, and Pinto&mdash;and Crewe. She
+impatiently stamped her foot. She was indulging in the kind of insanity
+of which hitherto she had shown no symptoms. She looked at her watch
+again and then remembered the Orpheum. It was a favourite house of hers.
+She could always get a free box if there was one vacant, and she had
+spent many of her lonely evenings in that way. She had always declined
+Pinto's offer to share his own, and of late he had got out of the habit
+of inviting her.</p>
+
+<p>She dressed and took a taxi to the Orpheum. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> booking office clerk
+knew her, and without asking her desires drew a slip from the ticket
+rack.</p>
+
+<p>"I can give you Box C to-night, Miss Marsh," he said. "That is the one
+above the governor's."</p>
+
+<p>The "governor" was Pinto.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a good house?"</p>
+
+<p>The youth shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"We're not having the houses we had when Miss White was here," he said.
+"What's become of her, miss?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Lollie shortly.</p>
+
+<p>She had to pass to the back of Pinto's box to reach the little staircase
+which led to the box above. She thought she heard voices, and stopping
+at the door, listened. Perhaps Crewe had come down or the colonel. But
+it was not Crewe's voice she heard. The door was slightly ajar, and the
+man who was talking was evidently on the point of departure, because she
+glimpsed his hand upon the handle and his voice was so distinct that he
+must have been quite near her.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;&mdash;three o'clock in the morning. You can't miss the aerodrome. It is a
+mile out of Bromley on the main road and on the right. You will see
+three red lamps burning in a triangle."</p>
+
+<p>The aerodrome! She put her hand to her mouth to suppress an exclamation.
+Pinto was talking, but his voice was a mumble.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the strange voice. "I can carry three or four
+passengers if you like. There's plenty of room&mdash;of course, if you're by
+yourself, so much the better. I shall expect you at three o'clock. The
+weather's beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened and she crouched against the wall so that the opening
+door hid her, and heard Pinto call the man back by name.</p>
+
+<p>"Cartwright!" she repeated. "Cartwright. A mile out of Bromley on the
+main road. Three lamps in a red triangle!"</p>
+
+<p>She was going to slip up the stairs, but the door had closed on
+Cartwright, and making a swift decision she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> passed the box and came
+again into the vestibule of the theatre. Presently she saw the man
+appear. She guessed it was he by the smile on his face, and when he said
+"Good night" to the attendant at the barrier she recognised his voice.
+She followed him but let him get outside the theatre before she spoke to
+him. Then suddenly she laid her hand on his arm: "Mr. Cartwright!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked round into her smiling face in surprise, taking off his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my name," he said with a smile. "I don't remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm a friend of Mr. Silva," she said. "I've heard a lot about you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>He was a little puzzled because he thought that the projected flight was
+a dead secret; and she guessed his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't tell Mr. Silva I told you? He begged me not to repeat it to
+anybody, even to you. But he's leaving to-morrow morning, isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I know an awful lot," she said, and then: "Won't you come and have
+supper with me? I'm starving!"</p>
+
+<p>Cartwright hesitated. He had not expected so charming a diversion, and
+really there was no reason why he should not accept the invitation. He
+was not due at Bromley until early in the morning, and the girl was
+young and pretty and a friend of his employer. It was she who hailed the
+taxi and they drove to a select little restaurant at the back of
+Shaftesbury Avenue.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not seeing Pinto&mdash;I mean Mr. Silva&mdash;again to-night, are you?"
+she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not seeing him until&mdash;well, until I see him," he smiled again.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I want to tell you something."</p>
+
+<p>He thought she was charmingly embarrassed, and in truth she was, to
+invent the story she had to tell.</p>
+
+<p>"You know why Mr. Silva is leaving England in such a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p><p>He nodded. She wished she knew too, or had the slightest inkling of the
+yarn which Pinto had spun. And then the man enlightened her.</p>
+
+<p>"Political," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly; political," she said easily. "But you will realise that it is
+not necessarily he himself who is making this flight."</p>
+
+<p>"I did understand that he was making the flight himself," said the
+aviator in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"But"&mdash;she was desperate now&mdash;"has he never told you of the other
+gentleman who was coming, the other political person who really must go
+to Portugal at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he certainly did not," said Cartwright; "he told me distinctly that
+he was going himself."</p>
+
+<p>The girl leaned back in her chair, baffled, but thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, he told you that," she said with a knowing smile. "You
+see, there are some things he is not allowed to tell you. But do not be
+surprised if you have two passengers instead of one."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't be surprised, I shall be pleased. The machine will carry half
+a dozen," said Cartwright readily, "but I certainly thought&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till you see him," said the girl, waving a warning finger with
+mock solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>He found her a cheerful companion through the meal, but there were
+certain intervals of abstraction in her cheerfulness, intervals when she
+was thinking very rapidly and reconstructing the plan which Pinto had
+made. So he was one of the rats who were deserting the sinking ship and
+leaving the Colonel and Crewe to face the music. And Crewe&mdash;that was the
+thought uppermost in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>When she parted from the pilot she had only one thought&mdash;to warn the
+colonel of Pinto's treachery&mdash;and Crewe. And somehow Crewe seemed to
+bulk most importantly at that moment.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>LOLLIE PROPOSES</h3>
+
+<p>What should she do? It was her sense of loyalty which brought the
+colonel first to her mind. She must warn him. She went into a Tube
+station telephone box and rang through but received no answer. Her quest
+for Crewe had as little result. She drove off to the flat, thinking that
+possibly the telephone might be out of order or that they would have
+returned by the time she reached there, but there was no answer to her
+ring. She went out again into the street in despair and walked slowly
+towards Regent Street. Then she saw two people ahead of her, and
+recognised the swing of the colonel's shoulders. She broke into a run
+and overtook them. The colonel swung round as she uttered his name and
+peered at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Lollie!" he said in surprise, and he looked past her as though seeking
+some police shadow.</p>
+
+<p>"I have something important to tell you," she said. "Let us go up here."</p>
+
+<p>They turned into a deserted side street, and rapidly she told her story.</p>
+
+<p>"So Pinto's getting out, is he?" said the colonel thoughtfully. "Well,
+it is no more than I expected. An aeroplane, too? Well, that's
+enterprising. I thought of something of the sort, but there's nowhere I
+could go, except to America."</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his head on to his chest and was considering something.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Lollie," he said simply. "I'm glad that you didn't go with
+Selby&mdash;you would never have got to the Continent alive."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>He said this in an ordinary conversational tone, and the girl gasped.
+She did not ask him for an explanation and he offered none. Crewe,
+standing in the background, looked at the man with something like
+bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I think you'd better make a real getaway, and not trust to the
+police," said the colonel. "Maybe with the best intentions in the world,
+Stafford King can't save you if I happen to be jugged. And you too,
+Crewe," he turned to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"So Pinto is going, eh?" he bit his nether lip, "and that is why he
+promised to bring the fifty thousand to-morrow morning. Well, somehow I
+don't think Pinto will go," he spoke deliberately. "I don't think Pinto
+will go."</p>
+
+<p>"It is too dangerous for you to stop him&mdash;&mdash;" began Crewe.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not try to stop him," said the other; "there's somebody besides
+myself on Pinto's track, and that somebody is going to pull him down."</p>
+
+<p>"But why don't you escape, colonel?" she urged. "There is the aeroplane
+waiting at Bromley. We could easily persuade the man that Pinto had sent
+us."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You take your own advice," he said, "and clear out to-night. Get her
+away, Crewe. Don't worry about the police. You've got twenty-four hours
+in hand. This is Pinto's night," he said between his teeth. "Pinto&mdash;the
+dirty hound!"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly they paced the street together in silence. When they came to the
+end the colonel turned.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to shake hands with you, Lollie. I shook hands with you once
+before, intending to send you to a very quick decease. You're carrying
+your money with you, aren't you, Crewe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" responded the colonel. "Now get away."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p><p>He took no other farewell but turned abruptly and left them. Crewe was
+following him, but the girl caught his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go," she said in a low voice. "Don't you know the colonel
+better?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hate leaving him like this," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," said the girl quietly. "I've still got some decent feeling
+left. We're all in this together. We're all crooks, as bad as we can
+possibly be, and if he's used us we've been willing tools. What is your
+Christian name?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," he said. "What a weird question to ask!"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" she said with a laugh but a little catch in her throat.
+"Only we're to be comrades and stick to one another, and I hate calling
+you by your surname, so I'm going to call you Jack."</p>
+
+<p>It was his turn to be amused. They walked in the opposite direction to
+that which the colonel had taken.</p>
+
+<p>"You're very quiet," she said after a while.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't I?" he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I offended you?" she asked quickly. "Was it wrong to call you
+Jack? Oh, yes, somebody else must have called you Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, it isn't that," he said, "but I haven't been called by my
+Christian name for years and years," he said wearily, "and somehow it
+seems to span all the bad times and take me back to the&mdash;the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The 'Jack' days?" she suggested, and he nodded.</p>
+
+<p>Then after another period of silence.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a queer ending to it all, isn't it?" he said, and her heart
+skipped a beat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ending?" she whispered. "No, no, not ending! It may be the beginning of
+a new life. I haven't got religious," she added quickly, "and I'm not
+getting sentimental. All my past life doesn't come up in front of me as
+it does in the story-books. Only I've just faith that there's something
+better in life than I've ever found."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>"I should think there is," said Crewe. "It couldn't be much worse,
+could it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't been bad," she said&mdash;"not bad like you probably think I
+have."</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought you were bad," he said. "You were just a victim like
+the rest of them. You were only a kid when you started working for the
+colonel, weren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's a chance for you, Lollie. Your passage is booked and all
+that sort of thing&mdash;have you sufficient money?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've plenty of money," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine!" He dropped his hand lightly on her shoulder. "There's a big, big
+chance for you, my girl."</p>
+
+<p>"And for you?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no chance for me at all," he said simply. "They'll take me and
+they'll take Pinto and last of all they'll take the colonel. It is
+written," he added philosophically. "Why&mdash;why, what is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>She stood stock-still and was holding on to his arm with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't say that, you mustn't say that!" she said brokenly. "It
+isn't finished for you, Jack. There's a chance to get out, and the
+colonel has told you there's a chance. He meant it. He knows much more
+than we do. If you've got murder on your soul, or something worse; if
+you feel that you're altogether so bad that there isn't a chance for
+you, that there's no goodness in your life which can be expanded, why,
+just wait and take what's coming. But for God's sake know your mind, and
+if you feel that in another land, with&mdash;with someone who loves you by
+your side&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice broke.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Lollie," he said very gently. "You don't mean&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm just as shameless as I've ever been" she said, "but I'm not
+proposing to marry you, I'm not asking for anything save your friendship
+and your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> comradeship. I think people can love one another
+without&mdash;marrying and all that sort of thing; but do you&mdash;will you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Will I go?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go anywhere with that prospect in sight," and he slipped his arm
+round her shoulders, and, bending, kissed her on the cheek.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FALL OF PINTO</h3>
+
+<p>Whilst Pinto was putting the finishing touches to his scheme of flight,
+the colonel paced his room, whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus" jerkily. He
+was restless and nervous, and rendered all the more irritable by the
+disappearance of his servant, a minor member of the gang, who had been a
+participant in every act of villainy, and who had been in charge of the
+arrangements for the abduction of Maisie White. Twice in the course of
+the evening he wandered through the hall, opened the outer door, and
+looked out on to the landing.</p>
+
+<p>On the first occasion there was nothing to see, but on the second it was
+only by the narrowest margin of time that he failed to detect a dark
+figure moving noiselessly up the stairs and disappearing on to the
+second landing. The man above heard the door open and close again, and
+stood watching. Then, when no sound reached him, he moved to the door of
+Pinto's flat, opened it, deposited the suit-case which he was carrying
+in the hall, and closed the door softly behind him.</p>
+
+<p>He was within for about a quarter of an hour, then he reappeared, and
+still carrying his suit-case, passed swiftly down the stairs and out
+into the street. The clock struck half-past nine as he disappeared, and
+a quarter of an hour later Stafford King received by special messenger a
+communication which gave him something to think about. He read it
+through twice, then called up the First Commissioner and gave him the
+gist of the communication.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the third time we've had this sort of message," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The others have proved right," said the Commissioner's voice, "why
+shouldn't this?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>"But it seems incredible," said Stafford in perplexity. "We've been
+watching these people for years and we've never found them with the
+goods."</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly act on it, King, if I were you," said the
+Commissioner. "Let me know what happens. Of course, you may make a
+mistake, but you must take a chance on that."</p>
+
+<p>Pinto had a lot of business to do at the theatre that night. For a week
+he had not banked the theatre's takings, but had converted them into
+paper money, and now he took from his safe the last penny he could
+carry. It was half-past eleven when he came to his Club, where supper
+had been prepared for him. He paid the bill from notes he had taken from
+the bank that day. Presently the waiter came back.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir, but the cashier says that this note is a wrong
+'un."</p>
+
+<p>"A wrong 'un?" said Pinto in surprise, and took it in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt whatever that the man was right. It was the most
+obvious forgery he had ever handled.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I've been sold," he smiled; "here's another."</p>
+
+<p>He took the second note and examined it. That also was bad, as he could
+tell at a glance. In the tail pocket of his dress-coat he had the money
+he had taken from the theatre and was able to settle the bill. He was
+worried on the journey back to the flat. He had drawn a hundred pounds
+from the bank that morning in five-pound notes. He remembered putting
+them into his pocket-book and had no occasion to disturb them since. It
+was unlikely that the bank would have given him such obvious forgeries.
+He was stepping from the taxi when the awful truth dawned on him. The
+notes had been planted, the forgeries substituted for the good paper! He
+was putting his hand in his pocket, intending to take out the money and
+push it down the nearest drain, when he was gripped.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry and all that," said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>He turned round shaking like an aspen.</p>
+
+<p>"Stafford King," he said dully.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p><p>"Stafford King it is. I have a warrant for your arrest, Silva, on a
+charge of forging and uttering. Bring him up to his rooms."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel heard the noise on the stairs and came to the door. He
+stood, a silent spectator, watching with unmoved face the procession as
+it passed up to the floor above.</p>
+
+<p>"I want your key," said Stafford, and humbly the Portuguese handed it to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford opened the door and snapped on the light.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring him in," he said to the detective who held Pinto. "What room is
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dining-room," said Pinto faintly.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford entered the room, turning on the light as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, Pinto," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Pinto could only look.</p>
+
+<p>The table was littered with copper-plates and ink rollers. There was a
+thick pad of counterfeit money on one corner of the table, held down by
+a paper weight; little bottles of acids were scattered about, and near
+the table was a small lever press, so small that a man might carry it in
+a corner of his handbag.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have got you, Pinto," said Stafford King, and Pinto Silva
+nodded before he fell limply into the arms of his captor.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>Maisie White had gone to bed early and the bell rang three times before
+she awoke. She slipped into a dressing-gown, and, going to the window,
+leaned out. She looked down upon the upturned face of a girl and in
+spite of the distance and the darkness of the night, recognised her. The
+man who stood in the background, however, she could not for the moment
+place. Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to go downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that Miss White?" asked the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It is Lollie Marsh, isn't it? Won't you come in?"</p>
+
+<p>Lollie was hesitant.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said after awhile and they went upstairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> together. "I'm very
+sorry I disturbed you, Miss White, but it is a matter which can't very
+well wait. You know that Mr. Stafford King has been kind to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Maisie nodded. She was looking at the girl with interest and was
+surprised to note how pretty she was. She could not forget what Lollie
+Marsh had done for her that dreadful night at the nursing home, and if
+the truth be told, she had inspired the assistance which Stafford had
+been giving the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. King has booked my passage to America, as you probably know,"
+Lollie went on, "but at the last moment I have been obliged to change my
+plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to hear that," said the girl. "I was hoping that you'd get
+away before&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am hoping to get away before," Lollie smiled faintly. "But you see,
+one has to be very quick, because things are moving at such a rapid
+rate. They arrested Pinto to-night&mdash;we only just heard of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrested Silva?" said the girl in surprise. "That is news to me. What
+is the charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't quite understand what the charge was. I know he's arrested,"
+said Lollie. "The colonel has advised me to get out as quickly as I can.
+And there's a big chance for me, Miss White. I'm going to be married!"</p>
+
+<p>She blurted the words out, and Maisie stared at her. Somehow she had
+never thought of Lollie Marsh as a person who would get married, and it
+was amazing to see the confusion and shyness in which her confession had
+thrown her.</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you with all my heart," said Maisie. "Who is the
+fortunate man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you. Yes, I will," said the girl. "I'll trust you. I'm
+marrying Jack Crewe."</p>
+
+<p>"Crewe? I remember. Mr. King spoke about him. But isn't he one of
+the&mdash;isn't he a friend of the colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>Lollie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but we're going away to-night. That is why I came to see you."</p>
+
+<p>Maisie White clasped the girl's hands in hers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p><p>"You yourself are facing a great happiness and a beautiful life,"
+pleaded Lollie, her eyes filling with tears. "Can't you feel some
+sympathy with me? For I want love and happiness and security more even
+than you, because you have never known anything of the dreadful
+apprehensions and uncertainties such as I have passed through. And I
+want you to help me in this. I'm not going to ask you to influence Mr.
+King to do anything but his duty. But I want just a chance for Jack."</p>
+
+<p>Maisie shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I can promise that," she said. "Mr. King has always
+spoken of your friend as one of the least dangerous of the gang. When
+are you leaving?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-night."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night? But how?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is a secret I won't reveal," smiled Maisie.</p>
+
+<p>"By aeroplane," said Lollie after a moment's hesitation, and told the
+story of Pinto's preparation.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better not tell me where you're going," warned Maisie, but she
+didn't stop Lollie in time. "Well, I wish you luck and I'll do my best
+for you." She stopped and kissed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one warning I want to give you, Miss White," said Lollie as she
+stood in the doorway. "The colonel is a desperate man and I don't think
+somehow that he's coming through this with his life. He's been a good
+friend of mine up to a point and according to his lights, but you've
+been good and Mr. King has been more than good. Beware of the colonel
+now that you have him at bay! That is all!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she was gone.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A USE FOR OLD FILMS</h3>
+
+<p>They brought Pinto Silva into the magistrate's court at Bow Street the
+following morning in a condition of collapse. The man was dazed by his
+misfortune, incapable of answering the questions which were put to him,
+or even of instructing the exasperated solicitor who had been with him
+for an hour.</p>
+
+<p>By the solicitor's side was a grey-faced, shrunken man, whose clothes
+did not seem to fit him and who at the end of the proceedings whispered
+something into the lawyer's ear. But the application which was made for
+bail was rejected. The evidence was too damning, and the knowledge that
+the prisoner was not English and that it would be impossible to
+extradite him if he managed to make his escape to certain countries, all
+helped to influence the magistrate in his refusal.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Boundary did not speak to the man in the dock or as much as look
+at him. He got out of court after the proceedings had terminated, the
+cynosure of every policeman's eye, and drove back to his apartments. He
+had not heard from Crewe or Lollie that morning and he guessed that the
+two had left by aeroplane. So he was alone, he thought, and the very
+knowledge had the effect of stiffening him.</p>
+
+<p>He could go through the remainder of his papers at his leisure, without
+fear of interruption. The lesser members of the gang had been controlled
+by Selby or Crewe, and they would not approach him directly, but he did
+not doubt that there were a score of little men waiting to jump into the
+witness box the moment he was caught, but he had by no means given up
+hope of escaping.</p>
+
+<p>For days he had carried in his pocket the means of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> disguise, a safety
+razor, scissors and a small bottle of anatto solution to darken his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Despite his sixty-one years, he was a healthy and virile man, capable of
+undergoing hardships if the necessity arose, but, above all, he had a
+plan and an alternative plan.</p>
+
+<p>He finished the destruction of his correspondence, and then began to
+search his pocket for any stray letters which he might have put away
+absent-mindedly. In making this search he came upon a long, white
+envelope addressed to Crewe, and wondered how it had come into his
+possession. Then he remembered that Crewe had handed him a letter.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the postmark.</p>
+
+<p>From Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>This was the report of the agents whom Crewe had sent down to discover
+the names of the men who had left Balliol in a certain year. "Snow"
+Gregory, who had been found shot in the streets of London, was a Balliol
+man who had left Oxford in that year. It was certain that it was a
+relative of "Snow" Gregory who was called Jack o' Judgment and who had
+taken upon himself the task of avenging the man's death.</p>
+
+<p>What was "Snow" Gregory's real name? If he could find that, he might
+find Jack o' Judgment.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, as though with a sense that the great discovery was imminent, he
+tore open the letter and pulled out the three foolscap pages, which,
+with a covering note, constituted the contents. There were two lists of
+names of graduates who had passed out in the year which, if "Snow"
+Gregory spoke the truth in a moment of unusual confidence, was the year
+of his leaving.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel's finger traced the lines one by one and he finished the
+first list without discovering a name which was familiar. He was half
+way through the second list when he stopped and his finger jumped. For
+fully three minutes he sat glaring at the paper open-mouthed. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Merciful God!" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>He sat there for the greater part of an hour, his chin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> on his hand, his
+eyes glued to the name. And all the time his active mind was running
+back through the years, piecing together the evidence which enabled him
+to identify, without any shadow of doubt, Jack o' Judgment.</p>
+
+<p>He rose and went to his bookcase and took down volume after volume. They
+were mostly reference books, and for some time he searched in vain. Then
+he found a Year Book which gave him the data he wanted, and he brought
+it back to the table and scribbled a few notes. These he read through
+and carefully burnt.</p>
+
+<p>He finished his labours with a bright look in his eye and strutted into
+his bedroom ten years younger in appearance than he had been that
+afternoon. He put out all the lights and sat for a little while in the
+shadow of the curtain, watching the street from the open window. At the
+corner of the block a Salvation Army meeting was in progress, and he was
+surprised that he had not noticed the fact, although this practice of
+the Salvationists holding meetings near his flat had before now driven
+him to utter distraction.</p>
+
+<p>Very keenly he scrutinised the street for some sign of a lurking figure,
+and once saw a man walk past under the light of a street lamp and melt
+into the shadow of a doorway on the opposite side of the road. He went
+into his bedroom and brought back a pair of night glasses, and focused
+them upon the figure.</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled and went out of the flat into the street, turning southward.</p>
+
+<p>He did not go far, however, before he stopped and looked back, and his
+patience was rewarded by the sight of a figure crossing the road and
+entering the building he had just left. The colonel gave him time, and
+then retraced his steps. He took off his boots in the vestibule and went
+upstairs quietly. He was half-way up when he heard the soft thud of his
+own door closing, and grinned again. He gave the intruder time to get
+inside before he too inserted his key, and turning it without a sound,
+came into the darkened hall. There was a light in his room, and he heard
+the sound of a drawer being pulled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> open. Then he gripped the handle,
+and, flinging the door open, stepped in. The man who was looking through
+the desk sprang up in affright.</p>
+
+<p>As Boundary had suspected, it was his former butler, the man who had
+deserted him the day before without a word. He was a big, heavy-jowled
+man of powerful build, and the momentary look of fright melted to a leer
+at the sight of the colonel's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Boundary pleasantly, "come back for the pickings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Something like that, guv'nor," said the other. "You don't blame me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've been pretty good to you, Tom," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! I don't know that I've anything to thank you for."</p>
+
+<p>Here was a man who a month before would have cringed at the colonel's
+upraised finger!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't you, Tom?" said Boundary softly. "Come, come, that's not very
+grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"What have I got to be grateful to you for?" demanded the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Grateful that you're alive, Tom," said the colonel, and the servant's
+face went hard.</p>
+
+<p>"None of that, colonel," he snarled; "you can't afford to talk 'fresh'
+with me. I know a great deal more about you than you suppose. You think
+I've got no brains."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you have brains, Tom," said the colonel, "but you can't use
+'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I, eh? I haven't been looking after you for four or five years
+and doing your dirty work, colonel, without picking up a little
+intelligence&mdash;and a little information! You'd look comic if they put me
+in the witness box!"</p>
+
+<p>He was gaining courage at the very mildness of the man of whom he once
+stood in terror.</p>
+
+<p>"So you've come for the pickings?" said the colonel, ignoring his
+threat. "Well, help yourself."</p>
+
+<p>He went to the sideboard, poured himself out a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> whisky and sat
+down by the window to watch the man search. Tom pulled open another
+drawer and closed it again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, colonel," he said, "I haven't made so much money out of
+this business as you have. Things are pretty bad with me, and I think
+the least you can do is to give me something to remember you by."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel did not answer. Apparently his thoughts were wandering.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom," he said after awhile, "do you remember three months ago I bought
+a lot of old cinema films?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember," said the man, surprised at the change of subject.
+"What's that to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There were about ten boxes, weren't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"A dozen, more likely," said the man impatiently. "Now look here,
+colonel&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Tom. I'll discuss your share when you've given me a
+little help. Meeting you here&mdash;by the way, I saw you out of the window,
+skulking on the other side of the street&mdash;has given me an idea. Where
+did you put those films?"</p>
+
+<p>The man grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you starting a cinema, colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Something like that," replied Boundary; "it was the Salvation Army that
+gave me the idea really. Do you hear what an infernal noise that drum
+makes?"</p>
+
+<p>The man made a gesture of impatience.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you want?" he asked. "If you want the films, I put them in
+my pantry, underneath the silver cupboard. I suppose, now that the
+partnership's broken up, you don't object to me taking the silver? I
+might be starting a little house on my own."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly, you can take the silver," said the colonel
+genially. "Bring me the films."</p>
+
+<p>The man was half-way out of the room when he turned round.</p>
+
+<p>"No tricks, mind you," he said, "no doing funny business when my back's
+turned."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not move from the chair, Tom. You don't seem to trust me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p><p>The ex-valet made two journeys before he deposited a dozen shallow tin
+boxes on the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"There they are," he said, "now tell me what's the game."</p>
+
+<p>"First of all," said the colonel, "were you serious when you suggested
+that you knew something about me that would be worth a lot to the
+police? There goes that drum again, Tom. Do you know what use that drum
+is to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," growled the man. "Of course I meant what I said&mdash;and
+what's this stuff about the drum?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the people in the street can hear nothing when that's going," said
+the colonel softly.</p>
+
+<p>He put his hand in the inside of his coat, as though searching for a
+pocket-book, and so quick was he that the man, leaning over the table,
+did not see the weapon that killed him. Three times the colonel fired
+and the man slid in an inert heap to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, Tom," said the colonel,
+replacing the weapon; and turning the body over, he took the scarf-pin
+from his own tie and fastened it in that of the dead man. Then he took
+his watch and chain from his pocket and slipped it in the waistcoat of
+the other. He had a signet ring on his little finger and this he
+transferred to the finger of the limp figure.</p>
+
+<p>Then he began opening the boxes of old films and twined their contents
+about the floor, pinning them to the curtains, twining them about the
+legs of the chairs, all the time whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus." He
+found a candle in the butler's pantry and planted it with a steady hand
+in the heap of celluloid coils. This he lighted with great care and went
+out, closing the door softly behind him. Half an hour later, Albemarle
+Place was blocked with fire engines and a dozen hoses were playing in
+vain upon the roaring furnace behind the gutted walls of Colonel Dan
+Boundary's residence.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>Stafford King was an early caller at Doughty Street,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> and Maisie knew,
+both by the unusual hour of the visit and by the gravity of the visitor,
+that something extraordinary had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Maisie," he said, "there's the end of the Boundary Gang&mdash;the
+colonel is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead?" she said, open-eyed.</p>
+
+<p>"We don't know what happened, but the theory is that he shot himself and
+set light to the house. The body was found in the ruins, and I was able
+to identify some of the jewellery&mdash;you remember the police had it when
+he was arrested, and we kept a special note of it for future reference."</p>
+
+<p>She heaved a long sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"That's over, at last; it is the end of a nightmare," she said, "a
+horrible, horrible nightmare. I wonder&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if this is also the end of Jack o' Judgment?" she asked. "Or
+whether he will continue working to bring to justice those people whom
+the law cannot touch."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven only knows," said Stafford, "but I'll admit that Jack o'
+Judgment has been a most useful person so far as we are concerned. We
+should never have collected Pinto or Selby, or even the colonel, but for
+Jack. By the way, there is no news of Crewe and the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose they've reached their destination by now?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, rather," said Stafford; "hours and days ago. Where were they going,
+by the way?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to tell you that."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't," smiled Stafford. "They've gone to Portugal. It was
+Pinto's machine and I don't suppose he had any other idea in the world
+than to get back to his own beloved land. By the way, Pinto looks like
+getting ten years. To satisfy myself in regard to Crewe, I telegraphed
+to an Englishman at Finisterre, who is a good friend of mine and who
+lives in a wild and isolated spot somewhere near the lighthouse, and he
+sent me back a message to the effect that an aeroplane<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> passed over
+Finisterre yesterday afternoon soon after lunch time. That must be
+friend Lollie."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I hope they get away. Is that rather dreadful of me?" she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think so. I believe the chief shares your hope. He has
+queer views on things, and they irritate me sometimes. For example, he
+doesn't think that the colonel is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought you had found the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"He gets over that by saying that it isn't the body," said Stafford with
+a little laugh of annoyance. "It rather worries you after you have
+decided that you've rounded up the gang. I still believe that it is the
+colonel."</p>
+
+<p>She thought a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I am inclined to agree with Sir Stanley," said she. "It isn't the sort
+of thing that the colonel would do. Men like Colonel Boundary are never
+without hope."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford scratched his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if it isn't the colonel, he's gone; and please the pigs, we'll
+never see him again! There is only the question of rounding up the
+little people of the gang, and that won't be much trouble."</p>
+
+<p>She put both her hands on his shoulders and looked at him smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're an optimist, dear," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't be?" he replied cheerfully. "You said that when the gang
+was wound up we would drop our sad and lonely lives apart and form a
+little gang of our own."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and kissed him, and he went back to his office to find that
+his chief had already arrived and had asked for him. Sir Stanley was
+reading the morning paper when Stafford came into his room, and his
+first words brought consternation to the younger man.</p>
+
+<p>"Stafford," he said, "this is not the body of the colonel. I've just
+been to see it and I'm certain. Now,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> you've got to send a call out to
+all stations throughout the country, particularly the south of England,
+to look for a man, possibly clean-shaven, certainly without moustaches,
+who will be disguised as a tramp."</p>
+
+<p>"Why a tramp, sir?" asked Stafford with an heroic attempt to preserve an
+open mind on a subject where he had reached a definite decision.</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen years ago," replied Sir Stanley, "when the colonel did most of
+his own dirty work, it was his favourite disguise. Search the casual
+wards, the common lodging-houses and the prisons. It is just likely that
+the colonel will commit a small offence, with the object of getting
+himself three months in gaol&mdash;there's no hiding-place like gaol, you
+know, Stafford. The real danger is that he may not actually tramp or
+assume the guise of the real low-down loafer. He may have the sense to
+become a poor but honest workman, travelling third-class from town to
+town in search of work. Then he will present the greatest difficulty."
+He saw the look of doubt on the young man's face and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You think he's dead, don't you?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm perfectly sure he is, sir," replied Stafford frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"An optimist to the last," smiled Sir Stanley and dismissed him with a
+nod.</p>
+
+<p>Later he was to come to Stafford's little bureau and tell him things
+which he did not know before. Then for the first time Stafford King
+discovered how closely his lackadaisical chief had followed the
+developments of the past few months. He learnt for the first time of the
+big part which Jack o' Judgment had played in the detection of the gang.</p>
+
+<p>"He had an office under the colonel's flat," said Sir Stanley.
+"Apparently it was bought with no other object than to provide our
+friend with an opportunity of spying on the colonel. He discoloured the
+wall, brought in his own workmen and in the colonel's absence&mdash;he was
+driven from the occupation of the room by the smell&mdash;he installed
+microphones. With the aid of these he was able to listen to all the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>conversation downstairs and sometimes to chime in. It was Jack o'
+Judgment who&mdash;well, perhaps I'd better not tell you that, because
+officially, I am not supposed to know it. At any rate, Stafford," he
+said more seriously, "we have seen the smashing of one of the most
+iniquitous, villainous gangs that ever existed. God knows how many
+broken hearts there are in England to-day, how many poor souls who have
+been brought to a suicide's grave through the machinations of Colonel
+Boundary and his tools. I do not think there has been a more immoral
+force in existence in our time, and I hope we shall never see its like
+again. You sent out the message?" he asked at parting.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I warned all stations and all chief constables."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said Sir Stanley, and his last words were: "Don't
+forget&mdash;Boundary is not dead!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED</h3>
+
+<p>A stoutish, grey-haired man descended from a third-class carriage at
+Chatham Station and inquired of a porter the way to the dockyard. He
+carried a lot of carpenter's tools in a straw bag and smoked a short
+clay pipe. The porter looked at the man with his white, stubby beard
+critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Trying to get a job, mate?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," said the man.</p>
+
+<p>"How old might you be?" demanded the porter.</p>
+
+<p>"Sixty-four," said the other, and the porter shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't get work easy. They're not very keen on us old 'uns," he
+said. "Why don't you try at Markham's, the builders in the High Street?
+They're short of men. I saw a notice outside their yard only this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>The workman thanked the porter, shouldered his basket and tramped down
+the High Street. He was respectably dressed, and policemen on the
+look-out for suspicious tramps did not give him a second glance. He
+spent the greater part of the day walking from yard to yard, everywhere
+receiving the same answer. Late in the afternoon he had better luck. A
+small firm of ship repairers were in want of a jobbing carpenter and put
+him to work at once.</p>
+
+<p>It was many years since Colonel Boundary had wielded a saw, but he made
+a good showing. After two hours' work, however, his back was aching and
+his hands were sore. He was glad when the yard bell announced the hour
+for knocking off. He had yet to find lodgings, but this did not worry
+him. He was careful to avoid the cheaper kind of lodging-house, and went
+to one which catered for the artisan, where he could get a room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> of his
+own and a clean bed. He paid a deposit, washed himself and left his
+tools, then went out in search of some refreshment.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock the next morning he was back at the yard. He thought
+several times during the day that he would have to throw the work up.
+His back ached furiously, his arms were like lead. But he persevered,
+and again another day drew to a close. By the third day he had got his
+muscles into play and found the work easy. He was asked by the foreman
+if he would care to go into the country to work at a house that the head
+of the firm was building, but he declined. He wanted to remain in the
+town where there were crowds. At the end of the week came his great
+chance. He had been sent down to the docks to do some repairs on a small
+steamer and had pleased the skipper, who was himself an elderly man, by
+the ability he had shown.</p>
+
+<p>"You're worth twice as much as some of these darned young 'uns,"
+grumbled the old man. "Are you married?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Got any kids?"</p>
+
+<p>Boundary shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you sign on with me?" asked the skipper. "I want a carpenter
+bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" asked Boundary, breathing more quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to Valparaiso first, then we're going to work down the
+coast, round the Horn to San Francisco and maybe we'll get a cargo
+across to China."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll think it over," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>That night he called on the captain and told him that he had made up his
+mind to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said the skipper, "but you'll have to sign on to-night. I'm
+leaving to-morrow by the first tide."</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded, not daring to speak. Here was luck, the greatest in
+the world. Nobody would suspect a carpenter, taken from a local firm and
+shipped with the captain's goodwill. At seven o'clock the next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> morning
+he was standing on the deck of the <i>Arabelle Sands</i>, watching the low
+coast-line slipping past. The ship was to make one call at Falmouth and
+two days later she reached that port. Boundary went ashore to buy some
+wood and a few tools that he found he needed, and pulled back to the
+ship in the afternoon. In the evening he accompanied the captain ashore.</p>
+
+<p>"We shan't leave till to-morrow at twelve," said the captain. "You might
+as well spend a night on solid earth whilst you can. It will be a long
+time before you smell dirt again."</p>
+
+<p>The captain's idea of a pleasant evening was to sit in the bar-parlour
+of the Sun Inn and drink interminable hot rums. He had fixed up a room
+for himself at the inn and offered Boundary a share, but the colonel
+preferred to sleep alone. He secured lodgings in the town, and making an
+excuse to the captain returned to his room early. He had purchased all
+the newspapers he could find and he wanted to study them quietly. It was
+with unusual relish that he read the account of an inquest on himself.
+There was no breath of suspicion that he was not dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Dan Boundary has tricked them all. Clever old Dan Boundary!"</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled at the thought. He had deceived all those clever men at
+Scotland Yard&mdash;Sir Stanley Belcom, Stafford King, Jack o' Judgment! Yes,
+he had deceived Jack o' Judgment and that seemed the least believable
+part of the affair. All the rest of the gang were captured or fugitives.
+He wondered whether Lollie Marsh and Crewe had reached Portugal and what
+they were doing there and how long their money would last and how they
+would earn more. He had his own money well secured. He had managed to
+get together quite a respectable sum, for there were other banks than
+the Victoria and City&mdash;odd accounts in assumed names which he had drawn
+upon on the very day of his supposed death.</p>
+
+<p>There was a tap at the door.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p><p>"Come in," said Boundary, thinking it was the landlady.</p>
+
+<p>He was in the middle of the room as he spoke, and he went back step by
+step as the visitor entered. His tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,
+his eyes were starting out of his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You! You!" he croaked.</p>
+
+<p>"Little Jack o' Judgment," said the mask mockingly. "Poor old Jack! Come
+to take farewell of the colonel before he goes to foreign parts!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" cried Boundary hoarsely. "I know you, damn you! I know you!"</p>
+
+<p>He pulled back the curtains and glared out of the window. There was no
+need to ask any further questions. The house was surrounded. He swung
+round again at his tormentor and faced the white mask in a blind fury of
+rage.</p>
+
+<p>"You're clever, aren't you?" he said. "Cleverer than all the police! But
+you weren't clever enough to save your son from death!"</p>
+
+<p>The masked figure reeled back.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's got you! Little Jack o' Judgment!" mocked the colonel.
+"That's got you where it hurts you most, hasn't it? Your only son, too!
+And he went to the devil all the faster because of me&mdash;me&mdash;me!" He
+struck his breast with his clenched fist. "You can't bring him back to
+life, can you? That's one I've got against you."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jack o' Judgment in a low voice. "I cannot bring him back to
+life, but I can destroy the man who destroyed him, who blighted his
+young life, who taught him vicious practices, who sapped his vitality
+with drugs&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a lie!" said the colonel. "Crewe picked him up at Monte Carlo,
+when he was on his beam-ends."</p>
+
+<p>"Who sent him to Monte Carlo?" asked the other. "Who was the gambler who
+brought him down, and received the wreck he had made with the pretence
+that he had never met him before? It was you, Boundary?"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel nodded.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p><p>"I was a fool to deny it. I pretended to Crewe that I hadn't met him
+before. Yes, it was I, and I glory in it. You think you're going to
+pinch me, now, and put me where I belong&mdash;on the scaffold maybe. But you
+can never wipe that memory out of your mind, that you had a son who died
+in the gutter, that you're a childless old man who has no son to follow
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't wipe that out!" said Jack o' Judgment. "O, God! I can't wipe
+that out!"</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hand to his masked face as though to hide the picture
+which Boundary conjured up.</p>
+
+<p>"But I can wipe you out," he said fiercely, "and I've given my life, my
+career, my reputation, all that I hold dear to get you! I've smashed
+your schemes, I've ruined you, even if I've ruined myself. They're
+waiting for you downstairs, Boundary. I told them to be here at this
+very minute. Stafford King&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll never see me taken," said Boundary.</p>
+
+<p>Two shots rang out together, and the colonel sprawled back over the
+bed&mdash;dead.</p>
+
+<p>Propped against the wall was Jack o' Judgment, and the hand that gripped
+his breast dripped red. They heard the shots outside and Stafford King
+was the first to enter the room. One glance at the colonel was
+sufficient, and then he turned to the figure who had slipped to the
+floor and was sitting with his back propped against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" said Stafford. "Jack o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old Jack!" said the mocking voice.</p>
+
+<p>Stafford's arm was about his shoulder, and he laid the head gently back
+upon his bent knee. He lifted the mask gently and the light of the oil
+lamp which swung from the ceiling fell upon the white face.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Stanley Belcom! Sir Stanley!" he softly whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley turned his head and opened his eyes. The old look of
+good-humour shone.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old Jack o' Judgment!" he mimicked. "This is going to be a
+first-class scandal, Stafford. For the sake of the service you ought to
+hush it up."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p><p>"But nobody need know, sir," said Stafford. "You can explain to the
+Home Secretary&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Stanley shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to see a greater Home Secretary than ever lived in
+Whitehall," he said slowly. "I'm finished, Stafford. Strip this mummery
+from me, if you can."</p>
+
+<p>With shaking hands Stafford King tore off the black cloak and flung it
+under the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Sir Stanley weakly, "you can introduce me to the provincial
+police as the head of our department and you can keep my secret,
+Stafford&mdash;if you will."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford laid his hand upon Sir Stanley's.</p>
+
+<p>"I told my solicitor," Sir Stanley spoke with difficulty, "to give you a
+letter in case&mdash;in case anything happened. I know I haven't played the
+game by the department. I ought to have resigned years ago when I found
+what had happened to my poor boy. I was Chief of Police in one of the
+provinces of India at the time, but they wouldn't let me go. I came to
+Scotland Yard and was promoted&mdash;no, I haven't played the game with the
+department. And yet perhaps I have."</p>
+
+<p>He did not speak for some time.</p>
+
+<p>His breathing was growing fainter and fainter, and when Stafford asked
+him, he said he was in no pain.</p>
+
+<p>"I had to deceive you," he said after awhile. "I had to pretend that
+Jack o' Judgment called on me too. That was to take suspicion from
+your&mdash;Miss White," he smiled. "No, I haven't played the game. I stood
+for the law, and yet&mdash;I broke that gang, which the law could not touch.
+Yes, I broke them! I broke them!" he whispered. "If Boundary hadn't
+known me I should have been gone before you came and resigned
+to-morrow," he said, "but he must have discovered the boy's name. I
+wonder he hadn't tried before. I smashed them, didn't I, Stafford? It
+cost me thousands. I have committed almost every kind of crime&mdash;I
+burgled the diamondsmiths', but you must give me your word you will
+never tell. Phillopolis must suffer. They must all be punished."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p><p>Stafford had sent the police from the room, but the police-surgeon
+would not be denied. He had the sense to see that nothing could be done
+for the dying man, however, and that a change of position would probably
+hasten the end. He, too, went and left them alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Stafford, I have quite a lot of money," said the First Commissioner;
+"it is yours. There's a will ... yours...."</p>
+
+<p>Then he ceased to speak and Stafford thought that the end had come but
+did not dare move in case he were mistaken. After five minutes the man
+in his arms stirred slightly and his voice sounded strangely clear and
+strong.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregory, my boy, good old Gregory! Father's here, old man!"</p>
+
+<p>His voice died away to a rumble and then to a murmur.</p>
+
+<p>The tears were running down Stafford's face. He sensed all the tragedy,
+all the loneliness of this man who had offered so cheerful a face to the
+world. Then Sir Stanley struggled to draw himself to his feet, and
+Stafford held him.</p>
+
+<p>"Gently, sir, gently," he said, "you're only hurting yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The dying man laughed. It was a little shrill chuckle of merriment and
+Stafford's blood ran cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am, poor old Jack o' Judgment! Little old Jack o' Judgment! Give
+me the lives you took and the hopes you've blasted. Give them to Jack
+... Jack o' Judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>They were his last words.</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>A year later First Commissioner Sir Stafford King received a letter from
+South America. It contained nothing but the photograph of a very
+good-looking man, and a singularly pretty woman, who held in her lap a
+very tiny baby.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the last of the Boundary Gang," said Sir Stafford to Maisie.
+"It is the one happy ending that has emerged from so much misery and
+evil."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is Lollie Marsh!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p><p>"Lollie Crewe, I think her name is now," said Stafford. "It was queer
+how Sir Stanley recognised the only human members of the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"Then they got away after all?" said the girl. "I've often wondered what
+happened at that aerodrome."</p>
+
+<p>Stafford laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he said drily, "they got away. They left at twenty minutes
+past three, after a long argument with the aviator, a man named
+Cartwright."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Stanley and I watched them go off," said Stafford.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the photograph again and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"There were times when the Judgment of Jack was very merciful," he said
+soberly.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="ADVERTISEMENTS" id="ADVERTISEMENTS"></a>ADVERTISEMENTS</h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>WARD, LOCK &amp; CO.'S NEW FICTION</i></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2 class="left">Blindfolded</h2>
+
+<h3 class="left">By<br />Dorothy Rogers</h3>
+
+<p>This novel has remarkable qualities. Its plot is strong and holds a
+dramatic surprise of tragic intensity. The book tells the story of Anne
+Gerrish, how she is stifled by the humdrum life at Norton with her
+aunts, how she leaves them to wring from life a measure of individual
+freedom and happiness, and how she finds both, only to end once more
+where she began. To use a metaphor from music, her life is a piece
+marked "Da capo." BLINDFOLDED is by far the best novel Miss Rogers has
+yet written, a book full of truth and sincerity.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Other Stories by this Author:</i></p>
+
+<table class="none" summary="other stories">
+  <tr>
+    <td>If To-day be Sweet</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Standby</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"A novel of considerable charm, dramatic interest, and admirable
+character delineation."</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>WARD, LOCK &amp; CO.'S NEW FICTION</i></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2 class="left">X Esquire</h2>
+
+<h3 class="left">By<br />Leslie Charteris</h3>
+
+<p>A new form of tobacco had been discovered and was being put on the
+market by a syndicate consisting of rather dubious characters. The
+campaign was to start with a free distribution of millions of packets of
+cigarettes made from the new leaf. But the whole consignment of the
+tobacco was burnt, and one by one the members of the projected syndicate
+were assassinated by a mysterious person who called himself "X Esquire."
+Who was he? And what was his purpose? Mr. Charteris shows himself in
+this story to be one of the real brand of mystery novelists.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">The Author can write a rattling good yarn, full of excitement and
+real mystery. Thoroughly brisk in action, the story is told in a
+virile and spirited manner.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>WARD, LOCK &amp; CO.'S NEW FICTION</i></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2 class="left">The Tenant of Cromlech Cottage</h2>
+
+<h3 class="left">By<br />Joseph Hocking</h3>
+
+<p>Ghost stories move almost inevitably to one of two d&eacute;nouements&mdash;a
+materialistic explanation or a supernatural. THE TENANT OF CROMLECH
+COTTAGE has a surprise for the reader in that the physical explanation
+of the noises and movements that have disturbed the novelist owner of
+the haunted cottage&mdash;that these were occasioned by the nocturnal visits
+of two orphans who believed that a will was hidden there&mdash;was followed
+by the appearance of a dead man to tell the novelist where this missing
+will might be found. This dualism is typical of Joseph Hocking's Cornish
+stories where romance and realism make a blend as fascinating as it is
+unique.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">There are few better story-tellers than Mr. Joseph Hocking,
+especially when he is dealing with his beloved Cornwall. His
+stories are thrillingly interesting, and rivet the attention of the
+reader from beginning to end.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>WARD, LOCK &amp; CO.'S NEW FICTION</i></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2 class="left">The Knightsbridge Mystery</h2>
+
+<h3 class="left">By<br />Carlton Dawe</h3>
+
+<p>The conclusion of this story has a real grip, and the solution of the
+mystery concerning the death of the girl victim of an unknown hand is at
+once original and instinct with a true human pathos. The character of
+the detective who investigates the case is one of the triumphs of the
+book, and he is no stereotyped member of the Criminal Investigation
+Department but a living personality as well as a convincing police
+officer. Mr. Carlton Dawe has written in THE KNIGHTSBRIDGE MYSTERY one
+of his best and most sympathetic stories.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Other recent successes by this Author:</i></p>
+
+<table class="none" summary="other recent successes">
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Temptation of Selma &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td>
+    <td>The Way of a Maid</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Desperate Love</td>
+    <td>Love the Conqueror</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>A Tangled Marriage</td>
+    <td>The Glare</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Euryale in London</td>
+    <td>The Forbidden Shrine</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Stranger than Fiction</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"For a certain crispness of dialogue, and deft arrangement of the
+events of a good plot, Mr. Carlton Dawe has very few rivals."&mdash;<i>The
+Yorkshire Post.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
+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: Jack O' Judgment
+
+Author: Edgar Wallace
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24767]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK O' JUDGMENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+
+BY
+
+EDGAR WALLACE
+
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
+
+LONDON AND MELBOURNE
+
+
+_Made and Printed in Great Britain by_
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED, LONDON.
+
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+
+
+POPULAR NOVELS
+
+BY
+
+EDGAR WALLACE
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED.
+
+_In Various Editions_
+
+SANDERS OF THE RIVER
+BONES
+BOSAMBO OF THE RIVER
+BONES IN LONDON
+THE KEEPERS OF THE KING'S PEACE
+THE COUNCIL OF JUSTICE
+THE DUKE IN THE SUBURBS
+THE PEOPLE OF THE RIVER
+DOWN UNDER DONOVAN
+PRIVATE SELBY
+THE ADMIRABLE CARFEW
+THE MAN WHO BOUGHT LONDON
+THE JUST MEN OF CORDOVA
+THE SECRET HOUSE
+KATE, PLUS TEN
+LIEUTENANT BONES
+THE ADVENTURES OF HEINE
+JACK O' JUDGMENT
+THE DAFFODIL MYSTERY
+THE NINE BEARS
+THE BOOK OF ALL POWER
+MR. JUSTICE MAXELL
+THE BOOKS OF BART
+THE DARK EYES OF LONDON
+CHICK
+SANDI, THE KING-MAKER
+THE THREE OAK MYSTERY
+THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG
+BLUE HAND
+GREY TIMOTHY
+A DEBT DISCHARGED
+THOSE FOLK OF BULBORO'
+THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY
+THE GREEN RUST
+THE FOURTH PLAGUE
+THE RIVER OF STARS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+      I.--THE KNAVE OF CLUBS                         7
+     II.--JACK O' JUDGMENT--HIS CARD                14
+    III.--THE DECOY                                 24
+     IV.--THE MISSING HANSON                        28
+      V.--IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT                 35
+     VI.--STAFFORD KING RESIGNS                     42
+    VII.--THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS         48
+   VIII.--THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR                  54
+     IX.--THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE           61
+      X.--THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS                     67
+     XI.--THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD              71
+    XII.--BUYING A NURSING HOME                     80
+   XIII.--THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING                 84
+    XIV.--THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE                88
+     XV.--THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY             92
+    XVI.--IN THE TURKISH BATHS                      96
+   XVII.--SOLOMON COMES BACK                       100
+  XVIII.--THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH                    106
+    XIX.--THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED                   111
+     XX.--"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT                  119
+    XXI.--THE BRIDE OF DEATH                       123
+   XXII.--MAISIE TELLS HER STORY                   126
+  XXIII.--THE GANG FUND                            134
+   XXIV.--PINTO GOES NORTH                         141
+    XXV.--A PATRON OF CHARITY                      150
+   XXVI.--THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED                 157
+  XXVII.--THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"                    162
+ XXVIII.--THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS               169
+   XXIX.--THE VOICE IN THE ROOM                    178
+    XXX.--DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK                    186
+   XXXI.--THE VOICE AGAIN                          194
+  XXXII.--LOLLIE GOES AWAY                         201
+ XXXIII.--WHERE THE VOICE LIVED                    205
+  XXXIV.--CONSCIENCE MONEY                         210
+   XXXV.--IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM                  217
+  XXXVI.--LOLLIE PROPOSES                          224
+ XXXVII.--THE FALL OF PINTO                        229
+XXXVIII.--A USE FOR OLD FILMS                      234
+  XXXIX.--JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED                244
+
+
+
+
+JACK O' ... JUDGMENT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE KNAVE OF CLUBS
+
+
+They picked up the young man called "Snow" Gregory from a Lambeth
+gutter, and he was dead before the policeman on point duty in Waterloo
+Road, who had heard the shots, came upon the scene.
+
+He had been shot in his tracks on a night of snow and storm and none saw
+the murder.
+
+When they got him to the mortuary and searched his clothes they found
+nothing except a little tin box of white powder which proved to be
+cocaine, and a playing card--the Jack of Clubs!
+
+His associates had called him "Snow" Gregory because he was a doper, and
+cocaine is invariably referred to as "snow" by all its votaries. He was
+a gambler too, and he had been associated with Colonel Dan Boundary in
+certain of his business enterprises. That was all. The colonel knew
+nothing of the young man's antecedents except that he had been an Oxford
+man who had come down in the world. The colonel added a few particulars
+designed, as it might seem to the impartial observer, to prove that he,
+the colonel, had ever been an uplifting quantity. (This colonelcy was an
+honorary title which he held by custom rather than by law.)
+
+There were people who said that "Snow" Gregory, in his more exalted
+moments, talked too much for the colonel's comfort, but people were very
+ready to talk unkindly of the colonel, whose wealth was an offence and a
+shame.
+
+So they buried "Snow" Gregory, the unknown, and a jury of his
+fellow-countrymen returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some
+person or persons unknown."
+
+And that was the end of a sordid tragedy, it seemed, until three months
+later there dawned upon Colonel Boundary's busy life a brand new and
+alarming factor.
+
+One morning there arrived at his palatial flat in Albemarle Place a
+letter. This he opened because it was marked "Private and Personal." It
+was not a letter at all--as it proved--but a soiled and stained playing
+card, the Knave of Clubs.
+
+He looked at the thing in perplexity, for the fate of his erstwhile
+assistant had long since passed from his mind. Then he saw writing on
+the margin of the card, and twisting it sideways read:
+
+                       "JACK O' JUDGMENT."
+
+Nothing more!
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+The colonel screwed up his tired eyes as if to shut out a vision.
+
+"Faugh!" he said in disgust and dropped the pasteboard into his
+waste-paper basket.
+
+For he had seen a vision--a white face, unshaven and haggard, its lips
+parted in a little grin, the smile of "Snow" Gregory on the last time
+they had met.
+
+Later came other cards and unpleasant, not to say disconcerting
+happenings, and the colonel, taking counsel with himself, determined to
+kill two birds with one stone.
+
+It was a daring and audacious thing to have done, and none but Colonel
+Dan Boundary would have taken the risk. He knew better than anybody else
+that Stafford King had devoted the whole of his time for the past three
+years to smashing the Boundary Gang. He knew that this grave young man
+with the steady, grey eyes, who sat on the other side of the big Louis
+XV table in the ornate private office of the Spillsbury Syndicate, had
+won his way to the chief position in the Criminal Intelligence
+Department by sheer genius, and that he was, of all men, the most to be
+feared.
+
+No greater contrast could be imagined than that which was presented
+between the two protagonists--the refined, almost aesthetic chief of
+police on the one hand, the big commanding figure of the redoubtable
+colonel on the other.
+
+Boundary with his black hair parted in the centre of his sleek head, his
+big weary eyes, his long, yellow walrus moustache, his double chin, his
+breadth and girth, his enormous hairy hands, now laid upon the table,
+might stand for force, brutal, remorseless, untiring. He stood for
+cunning too--the cunning of the stalking tiger.
+
+Stafford was watching him with dispassionate interest. He may have been
+secretly amused at the man's sheer daring, but if he was, his
+inscrutable face displayed no such emotion.
+
+"I dare say, Mr. King," said the colonel, in his slow, heavy way, "you
+think it is rather remarkable in all the circumstances that I should ask
+for you? I dare say," he went on, "my business associates will think the
+same, considering all the unpleasantness we have had."
+
+Stafford King made no reply. He sat erect, alert and watchful.
+
+"Give a dog a bad name and hang him," said the colonel sententiously.
+"For twenty years I've had to fight the unjust suspicions of my enemies.
+I've been libelled," he shook his head sorrowfully. "I don't suppose
+there's anybody been libelled more than me--and my business associates.
+I've had the police nosing--I mean investigating--into my affairs, and
+I'll be straight with you, Mr. Stafford King, and tell you that when it
+came to my ears and the ears of my business associates, that you had
+been put on the job of watching poor old Dan Boundary, I was glad."
+
+"Is that intended as a compliment?" asked Stafford, with the faintest
+suspicion of a smile.
+
+"Every way," said the colonel emphatically. "In the first place, Mr.
+King, I know that you are the straightest and most honest police
+official in England, and possibly in the world. All I want is justice.
+My life is an open book, which courts the fullest investigation."
+
+He spread out his huge hands as though inviting an even closer
+inspection than had been afforded him hitherto.
+
+Mr. Stafford King made no reply. He knew, very well he knew, the stories
+which had been told about the Boundary Gang. He knew a little and
+guessed a lot about its extraordinary ramifications. He was well aware,
+at any rate, that it was rich, and that this slow-speaking man could
+command millions. But he was far from desiring to endorse the colonel's
+inferred claim as to the purity of his business methods.
+
+He leant a little forward.
+
+"I am sure you didn't send for me to tell me all about your hard lot,
+colonel," he said, a little ironically.
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I wanted to get to know you," he said with fine frankness. "I've heard
+a lot about you, Mr. King. I am told you do nothing but specialise on
+the Boundary enterprises, and I tell you, sir, that you can't know too
+much about me, nor can I know too much about you."
+
+He paused.
+
+"But you're quite right when you say that I didn't ask you to come
+here--and a great honour it is for a big police chief to spare time to
+see me--to discuss the past. It is the present I want to talk to you
+about."
+
+Stafford King nodded.
+
+"I'm a law-abiding citizen," said the colonel unctuously, "and anything
+I can do to assist the law, why, I'm going to do it. I wrote you on this
+matter about a fortnight ago."
+
+He opened a drawer and took out a large envelope embossed with a
+monogram of the Spillsbury Syndicate. This he opened and extracted a
+plain playing-card. It was a white-backed card of superfine texture,
+gilt-edged, and bore a familiar figure.
+
+"The Knave of Clubs," said Stafford King lifting his eyes.
+
+"The Jack of Clubs," said the colonel gravely; "that is its name I
+understand, for I am not a gambling man."
+
+He did not bat a lid nor did Stafford King smile.
+
+"I remember," said the detective chief, "you received one before. You
+wrote to my department about it."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"Read what's written underneath."
+
+King lifted the card nearer to his eyes. The writing was almost
+microscopic and read:
+
+"Save crime, save worry, save all unpleasantness. Give back the property
+you stole from Spillsbury."
+
+It was signed "Jack o' Judgment."
+
+King put the card down and looked across at the colonel.
+
+"What happened after the last card came?" he asked, "there was a
+burglary or something, wasn't there?"
+
+"The last card," said the colonel, clearing his throat, "contained a
+diabolical and unfounded charge that I and my business associates had
+robbed Mr. George Fetter, the Manchester merchant, of L60,000 by means
+of card tricks--a low practice of which I would not be guilty nor would
+any of my business associates. My friends and myself knowing nothing of
+any card game, we of course refused to pay Mr. Fetter, and I am sure Mr.
+Fetter would be the last person who would ask us to do so. As a matter
+of fact, he did give us bills for L60,000, but that was in relation to a
+sale of property. I cannot imagine that Mr. Fetter would ever take money
+from us or that he knew of this business--I hope not, because he seems a
+very respectable--gentleman."
+
+The detective looked at the card again.
+
+"What is this story of the Spillsbury deal?" he asked.
+
+"What is that story of the Spillsbury deal?" said the colonel.
+
+He had a trick of repeating questions--it was a trick which frequently
+gave him a very necessary breathing space.
+
+"Why, there's nothing to it. I bought the motor works in Coventry. I
+admit it was a good bargain. There's no law against making a profit. You
+know what business is."
+
+The detective knew what business was. But Spillsbury was young and wild,
+and his wildness assumed an unpleasant character. It was the kind of
+wildness which people do not talk about--at least, not nice people. He
+had inherited a considerable fortune, and the control of four factories,
+the best of which was the one under discussion.
+
+"I know Spillsbury," said the detective, "and I happen to know
+Spillsbury's works. I also know that he sold you a property worth
+L300,000 in the open market for a sum which was grossly
+inadequate--L30,000, was it not?"
+
+"L35,000," corrected the colonel. "There's no law against making a
+bargain," he repeated.
+
+"You've been very fortunate with your bargains."
+
+Stafford King rose and picked up his hat.
+
+"You bought Transome's Hotel from young Mrs. Rachemeyer for a sum which
+was less than a twentieth of its worth. You bought Lord Bethon's slate
+quarries for L12,000--their value in the open market was at least
+L100,000. For the past fifteen years you have been acquiring property at
+an amazing rate--and at an amazing price."
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"You're paying me a great compliment, Mr. Stafford King," he said with a
+touch of sarcasm, "and I will never forget it. But don't let us get away
+from the object of your coming. I am reporting to you, as a police
+officer, that I have been threatened by a blackguard, a thief, and very
+likely a murderer. I will not be responsible for any action I may
+take--Jack o' Judgment indeed!" he growled.
+
+"Have you ever seen him?" asked Stafford.
+
+The colonel frowned.
+
+"He's alive, ain't he?" he growled. "If I'd seen him, do you think he'd
+be writing me letters? It is your job to pinch him. If you people down
+at Scotland Yard spent less time poking into the affairs of honest
+business men----"
+
+Stafford King was smiling now, frankly and undisguisedly. His grey eyes
+were creased with silent laughter.
+
+"Colonel, you have _some_ nerve!" he said admiringly, and with no other
+word he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT--HIS CARD
+
+
+The wrong side of a stage door was the outside on a night such as this
+was. The rain was bucketing down and a chill north-wester howled up the
+narrow passage leading from the main street to the tiny entry.
+
+But the outside, and the darkest corner of the _cul-de-sac_ whence the
+stage door of the Orpheum Music Hall was reached, satisfied Stafford
+King. He drew further into the shadow at sight of the figure which
+picked a finicking way along the passage and paused only at the open
+doorway to furl his umbrella.
+
+Pinto Silva, immaculately attired with a white rose in the button-hole
+of his faultless dress-jacket, had no doubt in his mind as to which was
+the most desirable side of the stage door. He passed in, nodding
+carelessly to the doorkeeper.
+
+"A rotten night, Joe," he said. "Miss White hasn't gone yet, has she?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man obsequiously, "she's only just left the stage a
+few minutes. Shall I tell her you're here, sir?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+He was a good-looking man of thirty-five. There were some who would go
+further and describe him as handsome, though his peculiar style of good
+looks might not be to everybody's taste. The olive complexion, the black
+eyes, the well-curled moustache and the effeminate chin had their
+attractions, and Pinto Silva admitted modestly in his reminiscent
+moments that there were women who had raved about him.
+
+"Miss White is in No. 6," said the doorkeeper. "Shall I send somebody
+along to tell her you're here?"
+
+"You needn't trouble," said the other, "she won't be long now."
+
+The girl, hurrying along the corridor, fastening her coat as she came,
+stopped dead at the sight of him and a look of annoyance came to her
+face. She was tall for a girl, perfectly proportioned and something more
+than pretty.
+
+Pinto lifted his hat with a smile.
+
+"I've just been in front, Miss White. An excellent performance!"
+
+"Thank you," she said simply. "I did not see you."
+
+He nodded.
+
+There was a complacency in his nod which irritated her. It almost seemed
+to infer that she was not speaking the truth and that he was humouring
+her in her deception.
+
+"You're quite comfortable?" he asked.
+
+"Quite," she replied politely.
+
+She was obviously anxious to end the interview, and at a loss as to how
+she could.
+
+"Dressing room comfortable, everybody respectful and all that sort of
+thing?" he asked. "Just say the word, if they give you trouble or cheek,
+and I'll have them kicked out whoever they are, from the manager
+downwards."
+
+"Oh, thank you," she said hurriedly, "everybody is most polite and
+nice." She held out her hand. "I am afraid I must go now. A--a friend is
+waiting for me."
+
+"One minute, Miss White." He licked his lips, and there was an
+unaccustomed embarrassment in his manner. "Maybe you'll come along one
+night after the show and have a little supper. You know I'm very keen on
+you and all that sort of thing."
+
+"I know you're very keen on me and all that sort of thing," said Maisie
+White, a note of irony in her voice, "but unfortunately I'm not very
+keen on supper and all that sort of thing."
+
+She smiled and again held out her hand.
+
+"I'll say good night now."
+
+"Do you know, Maisie----" he began.
+
+"Good night," she said and brushed past him.
+
+He looked after her as she disappeared into the darkness, a little frown
+gathering on his forehead, then with a shrug of his shoulders he walked
+slowly back to the doorkeeper's office.
+
+"Send somebody to get my car," he snapped.
+
+He waited impatiently, chewing his cigar, till the dripping figure of
+the doorkeeper reappeared with the information that the car was at the
+end of the passage. He put up his umbrella and walked through the
+pelting rain to where his limousine stood.
+
+Pinto Silva was angry, and his anger was of the hateful, smouldering
+type which grew in strength from moment to moment and from hour to hour.
+How dare she treat him like this? She, who owed her engagement to his
+influence, and whose fortune and future were in his hands. He would
+speak to the colonel and the colonel could speak to her father. He had
+had enough of this.
+
+He recognised with a start that he was afraid of the girl. It was
+incredible, but it was true. He had never felt that way to a woman
+before, but there was something in her eyes, a cold disdain which cowed
+even as it maddened him.
+
+The car drew up before a block of buildings in a deserted West End
+thoroughfare. He flashed on the electric light and saw that the hour was
+a little after eleven. The last thing in the world he wanted was to take
+part in a conference that night. But if he wanted anything less, it was
+to cross the colonel at this moment of crisis.
+
+He walked through the dark vestibule and entered an automatic lift,
+which carried him to the third floor. Here, the landing and the corridor
+were illuminated by one small electric lamp sufficient to light him to
+the heavy walnut doors which led to the office of the Spillsbury
+Syndicate. He opened the door with a latchkey and found himself in a big
+lobby, carpeted and furnished in good style.
+
+A man was sitting before a radiator, a paper pad upon his knees, and he
+was making notes with a pencil. He looked up startled as the other
+entered and nodded. It was Olaf Hanson, the colonel's clerk--and Olaf,
+with his flat expressionless face, and his stiff upstanding hair, always
+reminded Pinto of a Struwwelpeter which had been cropped.
+
+"Hullo, Hanson, is the colonel inside?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"They're waiting for you," he said.
+
+His voice was hard and unsympathetic, and his thin lips snapped out
+every syllable.
+
+"Aren't you coming in?" asked Pinto in surprise, his hand upon the door.
+
+The man called Hanson shook his head.
+
+"I've got to go to the colonel's flat," he said, "to get some papers.
+Besides, they don't want me."
+
+He smiled quickly and wanly. It was a grimace rather than an expression
+of amusement and Pinto eyed him narrowly. He had, however, the good
+sense to ask no further questions. Turning the handle of the door, he
+walked into the large, ornate apartment.
+
+In the centre of the room was a big table and the chairs at its sides
+were, for the most part, filled.
+
+He dropped into a seat on the colonel's right and nodded to the others
+at the table. Most of the principals were there--"Swell" Crewe, Jackson,
+Cresswell, and at the farther end of the table, Lollie Marsh with her
+baby face and her permanent expression of open-mouthed wonder.
+
+"Where's White?" he asked.
+
+The colonel was reading a letter and did not immediately reply.
+Presently he took off his pince-nez and put them into his pocket.
+
+"Where's White?" he repeated. "White isn't here. No, White isn't here,"
+he repeated significantly.
+
+"What's wrong?" asked Pinto quickly.
+
+The colonel scratched his chin and looked up to the ceiling.
+
+"I'm settling up this Spillsbury business," he said. "White isn't in
+it."
+
+"Why not?" asked Pinto.
+
+"He never was in it," said the colonel evasively. "It was not the kind
+of business that White would like to be in. I guess he's getting
+religious or something, or maybe it's that daughter of his."
+
+The eyelids of Pinto Silva narrowed at the reference to Maisie White and
+he was on the point of remarking that he had just left her, but changed
+his mind.
+
+"Does she know anything about--about her father?" he asked.
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"Why, no--unless you've told her."
+
+"I'm not on those terms," said Pinto savagely. "I'm getting tired of
+that girl's airs and graces, colonel, after what we've done for her!"
+
+"You'll get tireder, Pinto," said a voice from the end of the table and
+he turned round to meet the laughing eyes of Lollie Marsh.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"I've been out taking a look at her to-day," she said, and the colonel
+scowled at her.
+
+"You were out taking a look at something else if I remember rightly," he
+said quietly. "I told you to get after Stafford King."
+
+"And I got after him," she said, "and after the girl too."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That's a bit of news for you, isn't it?" She was delighted to drop the
+bombshell: "you can't shadow Stafford King without crossing the tracks
+of Maisie White."
+
+The colonel uttered an exclamation.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked again.
+
+"Didn't you know they were acquainted? Didn't you know that Stafford
+King goes down to Horsham to see her, and takes her to dinner twice a
+week?"
+
+They looked at one another in consternation. Maisie White was the
+daughter of a man who, next to the colonel, had been the most daring
+member of the gang, who had organised more coups than any other man,
+save its leader. The news that the daughter of Solomon White was meeting
+the Chief of the Criminal Intelligence Department, was incredible and
+stunning.
+
+"So that's it, is it?" said the colonel, licking his dry lips. "That's
+why Solomon White's fed up with the life and wants to break away."
+
+He turned to Pinto Silva, whose face was set and hard.
+
+"I thought you were keen on that girl, Pinto," he said coarsely. "We
+left the way open to you. What do you know about it?"
+
+"Nothing," said the man shortly. "I don't believe it."
+
+"Don't believe it," broke in the girl. "Listen! There was a matinee at
+the Orpheum to-day and King went there. I followed him in and got a seat
+next to him and tried to get friendly. But he had only eyes for the girl
+on the stage, and I might as well have been the paper on the wall for
+all the notice he took of me. After her turn, he went out and waited for
+her at the stage door. They went to Roymoyers for tea. I went back to
+the theatre and saw her dresser. She is the woman I recommended when
+Pinto put her on the stage."
+
+"What sort of work is Maisie doing?" asked the saturnine Crewe.
+
+"Male impersonations," said the girl. "Say! she looks dandy in a man's
+kit! She's the best male impersonator I've ever seen. Why, when she
+talks----"
+
+"Never mind about that," interrupted the colonel, "what did you
+discover?"
+
+"I discovered that Stafford King comes regularly to the theatre, that he
+takes her to dinner and that he visits the house at Horsham."
+
+"Solly never told me that--the swine!" rapped the colonel, "he's going
+to double-cross us, that fellow."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+It was Crewe that spoke. "Swell" Crewe, whose boast it was that he had
+a suit for every day in the year.
+
+"I know Solomon and I've known him for years," he said. "I know him as
+well as you, colonel. As far as we are concerned, Solly is straight. I'm
+not denying the possibility that he wants to break away, but that's only
+natural. He's a man with a daughter, and he's made his pile, but I'll
+stake my life that he'll never double-cross us."
+
+"Double-cross us?" the colonel had recovered his wonted equanimity.
+"What has he to 'double-cross'?" he demanded almost jovially. "We have a
+straightforward business! I am not aware that any of us are guilty of
+dishonest actions. Double-cross! Bah!"
+
+He brought his big hand down with a thump on the table, and they knew
+from experience that this was the gavel of the chairman that ended all
+discussions.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," said the colonel, "let us get to business. Ask Hanson
+to come in--he's got the figures. It is the last lot of figures of ours
+that he'll ever handle," he added.
+
+Somebody went to the door of the ante-room and called the secretary, but
+there was no reply.
+
+"He's gone out."
+
+"Gone out?" said the colonel and bent his brows. "Who told him to go
+out? Never mind, he'll be back in a minute. Shut the door."
+
+He lifted a deed-box from the floor at his feet, placed it on the table,
+opened it with a key attached to his watch-chain and removed a bundle of
+documents.
+
+"We're going to settle the Spillsbury business to-night," he said.
+"Spillsbury looks like squealing."
+
+"Where is he?" asked Pinto.
+
+"In an inebriates' home," said the colonel grimly; "it seems there are
+some trustees to his father's estate who are likely to question the
+legality of the transfers. But I've had the best legal opinion in London
+and there is no doubt that our position is safe. The only thing we've
+got to do to-night is to make absolutely sure that all those fool
+letters he wrote to Lollie have been destroyed."
+
+"You've got them?" said the girl quickly.
+
+"I had them?" said the colonel, "and I burnt them all except one when
+the transfer was completed. And the question is, gentlemen," he said,
+"shall we burn the last?"
+
+He took from the bundle before him an envelope and held it up.
+
+"I kept this in case there was anything coming, but if he's in a booze
+home, why, he's not going to be influenced by the threat of publishing a
+slushy letter to a girl. I guess his trustees are not going to be very
+much influenced either. On the other hand, if this letter were found
+among business documents, it would look pretty bad for us."
+
+"Found by whom?" asked Pinto.
+
+"By the police," said the colonel calmly.
+
+"Police?"
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"They're getting after us, but you needn't be alarmed," he said. "King
+is working to get a case, and he is not above applying for a search
+warrant. But I'm not scared of the police so much." His voice slowed and
+he spoke with greater emphasis. "I guess there are enough court cards in
+the Boundary pack to beat that combination. It's the Jack----"
+
+"_The Jack--ha! ha! ha!_"
+
+It was a shrill bubble of laughter which cut into his speech and the
+colonel leapt to his feet, his hand dropping to his hip-pocket. The door
+had opened and closed so silently that none had heard it, and a figure
+stood confronting them.
+
+It was clad from head to foot in a long coat of black silk, which
+shimmered in the half-light of the electrolier. The hands were gloved,
+the head covered with a soft slouch hat and the face hidden behind a
+white silk handkerchief.
+
+The colonel's hand was in his hip-pocket when he thought better and
+raised both hands in the air. There was something peculiarly
+businesslike in the long-barrelled revolver which the intruder held, in
+spite of the silver-plating and the gold inlay along the chased barrel.
+
+"Everybody's hands in the air," said the Jack shrilly, "right up to the
+beautiful sky! Yours too, Lollie. Stand away from the table, everybody,
+and back to the wall. For the Jack o' Judgment is amongst you and life
+is full of amazing possibilities!"
+
+They backed from the table, peering helplessly at the two unwinking eyes
+which showed through the holes in the handkerchief.
+
+"Back to the wall, my pretties," chuckled the Thing. "I'm going to make
+you laugh and you'll want some support. I'm going to make you rock with
+joy and merriment!"
+
+The figure had moved to the table, and all the time it spoke its nimble
+fingers were turning over the piles of documents which the colonel had
+disgorged from the dispatch box.
+
+"I'm going to tell you a comical tale about a gang of blackmailers."
+
+"You're a liar," said the colonel hoarsely.
+
+"About a gang of blackmailers," said the Jack with shrill laughter,
+"fellows who didn't work like common blackmailers, nor demand money. Oh,
+no! not naughty blackmailers! They got the fools and the vicious in
+their power and made them sell things for hundreds of pounds that were
+worth thousands. And they were such a wonderful crowd! They were such
+wonderfully amusing fellows. There was Dan Boundary who started life by
+robbing his dead mother, there was 'Swell' Crewe, who was once a
+gentleman and is now a thief!"
+
+"Damn you!" said Crewe, lurching forward, but the gun swung round on him
+and he stopped.
+
+"There was Lollie who would sell her own child----"
+
+"I have no child," half-screamed the girl.
+
+"Think again, Lollie darling--dear little soul!"
+
+He stopped. The envelope that his fingers had been seeking was found.
+He slipped it beneath the black silk cloak and in two bounds was at the
+door.
+
+"Send for the police," he mocked. "Send for the police, Dan! Get
+Stafford King, the eminent chief. Tell him I called! My card!"
+
+With a dexterous flip of his fingers he sent a little pasteboard planing
+across the room. In an instant the door opened and closed upon the
+intruder and he was gone.
+
+For a second there was silence, and then, with a little sob, Lollie
+Marsh collapsed in a heap on the floor. Colonel Dan Boundary looked from
+one white face to the other.
+
+"There's a hundred thousand pounds for any one of you who gets that
+fellow," he said, breathing hard, "whether it is man or woman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE DECOY
+
+
+Colonel Boundary, sitting at his desk the morning after, pushed a bell.
+It was answered by the thick-set Olaf. He was dressed, as usual, in
+black from head to foot and the colonel eyed him thoughtfully.
+
+"Hanson," he said, "has Miss Marsh come?"
+
+"Yes, she has come," said the other resentfully.
+
+"Tell her I want her," said the colonel and then as the man was leaving
+the room: "Where did you get to last night when I wanted you?"
+
+"I was out," said the man shortly. "I get some time for myself, I
+suppose?"
+
+The colonel nodded slowly.
+
+"Sure you do, Hanson."
+
+His tone was mild, and that spelt danger to Hanson, had he known it.
+This was the third sign of rebellion which the man had shown in the past
+week.
+
+"What's happened to your temper this morning, Hanson?" he asked.
+
+"Everything," exploded the man and in his agitation his foreign origin
+was betrayed by his accent. "You tell me I shall haf plenty money,
+thousands of pounds! You say I go to my brother in America. Where is dot
+money? I go in March, I go in May, I go in July, still I am here!"
+
+"My good friend," said the colonel, "you're too impatient. This is not a
+moment I can allow you to go away. You're getting nervous, that's what's
+the matter with you. Perhaps I'll let you have a holiday next week."
+
+"Nervous!" roared the man. "Yes, I am. All the time I feel eyes on me!
+When I walk in the street, every man I meet is a policeman. When I go to
+bed, I hear nothing but footsteps creeping in the passage outside my
+room."
+
+"Old Jack, eh?" said the colonel, eyeing him narrowly.
+
+Hanson shivered.
+
+He had seen the Jack o' Judgment once. A figure in gossamer silk who had
+stood beside the bed in which the Scandinavian lay and had talked wisdom
+whilst Olaf quaked in a muck sweat of fear.
+
+The colonel did not know this. He was under the impression that the
+appearance of the previous night had constituted the first of this
+mysterious menace.
+
+So he nodded again.
+
+"Send Miss Marsh to me," he said.
+
+Hanson would have got on his nerves if he had nerves. The man, at any
+rate, was becoming an intolerable nuisance. The colonel marked him down
+as one of the problems calling for early solution.
+
+The secretary had not been gone more than a few seconds before the door
+opened again and the girl came in. She was tall, pretty in a doll-like
+way, with an aura of golden hair about her small head. She might have
+been more than pretty but for her eyes, which were too light a shade of
+blue to be beautiful. She was expensively gowned and walked with the
+easy swing of one whose position was assured.
+
+"Good morning, Lollie," said the colonel. "Did you see him again?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I got a pretty good view of him," she said.
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I don't think so," she said; "besides, what does it matter if he did?"
+
+"Was the girl with him?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Well?" asked the colonel after a pause. "Can you do anything with him?"
+
+She pursed her lips.
+
+If she had expected the colonel to refer to their terrifying experience
+of the night before, she was to be disappointed. The hard eyes of the
+man compelled her to keep to the matter under discussion.
+
+"He looks pretty hard," said the girl. "He is not the man to fall for
+that heart-to-heart stuff."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Just that," said the girl with a shrug. "I can't imagine his picking me
+up and taking me to dinner and pouring out the secrets of his young
+heart at the second bottle."
+
+"Neither can I," said the colonel thoughtfully. "You're a pretty clever
+girl, Lollie, and I'm going to make it worth your while to get close to
+that fellow. He's the one man in Scotland Yard that we want to put out
+of business. Not that we've anything to be afraid of," he added vaguely,
+"but he's just interfering with----"
+
+He paused for a word.
+
+"With business," said the girl. "Oh, come off it, colonel! Just tell me
+how far you want me to go."
+
+"You've got to go to the limit," said the other decidedly. "You've got
+to put him as wrong as you can. He must be compromised up to his neck."
+
+"What about my young reputation?" asked the girl with a grimace.
+
+"If you lose it, we'll buy you another," said the colonel drily, "and I
+reckon it's about time you had another one, Lollie."
+
+The girl fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+
+"It is not going to be easy," she said again. "It isn't going to be like
+young Spillsbury--Pinto Silva could have done that job without help--or
+Solomon White even."
+
+"You can shut up about Spillsbury," growled the colonel. "I've told you
+to forget everything that has ever happened in our business! And I've
+told you a hundred times not to mention Pinto or any of the other men in
+this business! You can do as you're told! And take that look off your
+face!"
+
+He rose with extraordinary agility and leant over, glowering at the
+girl.
+
+"You've been getting a bit too fresh lately, Lollie, and giving yourself
+airs! You don't try any of that grand lady stuff with me, d'ye hear?"
+
+There was nothing suave in the colonel's manner, nothing slow or
+ponderous or courtly. He spoke rapidly and harshly and revealed the
+brute that many suspected but few knew.
+
+"I've no more respect for women than I have for men, understand! If you
+ever get gay with me, I'll take your neck in my hand like that," he
+clenched his two fists together with a horribly suggestive motion and
+the frightened girl watched him, fascinated. "I'll break you as if you
+were a bit of china! I'll tear you as if you were a rag! You needn't
+think you'll ever get away from me--I'll follow you to the ends of the
+earth. You're paid like a queen and treated like a queen and you play
+straight--there was a man called 'Snow' Gregory once----"
+
+The trembling girl was on her feet now, her face ashen white.
+
+"I'm sorry, colonel," she faltered. "I didn't intend giving you offence.
+I--I----"
+
+She was on the verge of tears when the colonel, with a quick gesture,
+motioned her back to the chair. His rage subsided as suddenly as it had
+risen.
+
+"Now do as you're told, Lollie," he said calmly. "Get after that young
+fellow and don't come back to me until you've got him."
+
+She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and almost tiptoed from his
+dread presence.
+
+At the door he stopped her.
+
+"As to Maisie," he said, "why, you can leave Maisie to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MISSING HANSON
+
+
+Colonel Dan Boundary descended slowly from the Ford taxi-cab which had
+brought him up from Horsham station and surveyed without emotion the
+domicile of his partner. It was Colonel Boundary's boast that he was in
+the act of lathering his face on the tenth floor of a Californian hotel
+when the earthquake began, and that he finished his shaving operations,
+took his bath and dressed himself before the earth had ceased to
+tremble.
+
+"I shall want you again, so you had better wait," he said to the driver
+and passed through the wooden gates toward Rose Lodge.
+
+He stopped half-way up the path, having now a better view of the house.
+It was a red brick villa, the home of a well-to-do man. The trim lawn
+with its border of rose trees, the little fountain playing over the
+rockery, the quality of the garden furniture within view and the general
+air of comfort which pervaded the place, suggested the home of a
+prosperous City man, one of those happy creatures who have never
+troubled to get themselves in line for millions, but have lived happily
+between the four and five figure mark.
+
+Colonel Boundary grunted and continued his walk. A trim maid opened the
+door to him and by her blank look it was evident that he was not a
+frequent visitor.
+
+"Boundary--just say Boundary," said the colonel in a deep voice which
+carried to the remotest part of the house.
+
+He was shown to the drawing-room and again found much that interested
+him. He felt no twinge of pity at the thought that Solomon White would
+very soon exchange this almost luxury for the bleak discomfort of a
+prison cell, and not even the sight of the girl who came through the
+door to greet him brought him a qualm.
+
+"You want to see my father, colonel?" she asked.
+
+Her tone was cold but polite. The colonel had never been a great
+favourite of Maisie White's, and now it required a considerable effort
+on her part to hide her deep aversion.
+
+"Do I want to see your father?" said Colonel Boundary. "Why, yes, I
+think I do and I want to see you too, and I'd just as soon see you
+first, before I speak to Solly."
+
+She sat down, a model of patient politeness, her hands folded on her
+lap. In the light of day she was pretty, straight of back, graceful as
+to figure and the clear grey eyes which met his faded blue, were very
+understanding.
+
+"Miss White," he said, "we have been very good to you."
+
+"We?" repeated the girl.
+
+"We," nodded the colonel. "I speak for myself and my business
+associates. If Solomon had ever told you the truth you would know that
+you owe all your education, your beautiful home," he waved his hand, "to
+myself and my business associates." His tongue rolled round the last two
+words. They were favourites of his.
+
+She nodded her head slightly.
+
+"I was under the impression that I owed it to my father," she said, with
+a hint of irony in her voice, "for I suppose that he earned all he has."
+
+"You suppose that he earned all that he has?" repeated the colonel.
+"Well, very likely you are right. He has earned more than he has got but
+pay-day is near at hand."
+
+There was no mistaking the menace in his tone, but the girl made no
+comment. She knew that there had been trouble. She knew that her father
+had for days been locked in his study and had scarcely spoken a word to
+anybody.
+
+"I saw you the other night," said the colonel, changing the direction
+of his attack. "I saw you at the Orpheum. Pinto Silva came with me. We
+were in the stage box."
+
+"I saw you," said the girl quietly.
+
+"A very good performance, considering you're a kid," said Boundary; "in
+fact, Pinto says you're the best mimic he has ever seen on the
+stage----" He paused--"Pinto got you your contracts."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am very grateful to Mr. Silva," she said.
+
+"You have all the world before you, my girl," said Boundary in his slow,
+ponderous way, "a beautiful and bright future, plenty of money, pearls,
+diamonds," he waved his hand with a vague gesture, "and Pinto, who is
+the most valuable of my business associates, is very fond of you."
+
+The girl sighed helplessly.
+
+"I thought that matter had been finished and done with, colonel," she
+said. "I don't know how people in your world would regard such an offer,
+but in my world they would look upon it as an insult."
+
+"And what the devil is your world?" asked the colonel, without any sign
+of irritation.
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"The clean, decent world," she said calmly, "the law-abiding world. The
+world that regards such arrangements as you suggest as infamous. It is
+not only the fact that Mr. Silva is already married----"
+
+The colonel raised his hand.
+
+"Pinto talks very seriously of getting a divorce," he said solemnly,
+"and when a gentleman like Pinto Silva gives his word, that ought to be
+sufficient for any girl. And now you have come to mention law-abiding
+worlds," he went on slowly, "I would like to speak of one of the
+law-abiders."
+
+She knew what was coming and was silent.
+
+"There's a young gentleman named Stafford King hanging round you." He
+saw her face flush but went on, "Mr. Stafford King is a policeman."
+
+"He is an official of the Criminal Intelligence Department," said the
+girl, "but I don't think you would call him a policeman, would you,
+colonel?"
+
+"All policemen are policemen to me," said Boundary, "and Mr. Stafford
+King is one of the worst of the policemen from my point of view, because
+he's trying to trump up a cock-and-bull story about me and get me into
+very serious trouble."
+
+"I know Mr. King is connected with a great number of unpleasant cases,"
+said the girl coolly. "It would be a coincidence if he was in a case
+which interested you."
+
+"It would be a coincidence, would it?" said the colonel, nodding his
+huge head. "Perhaps it is a coincidence that my clerk, Hanson, has
+disappeared and has been seen in the company of your friend, eh? It is a
+coincidence that King is working on the Spillsbury case--the one case
+that Solly knows nothing about--eh?"
+
+She faced him, puzzled and apprehensive.
+
+"Where does all this lead?" she asked.
+
+"It leads to trouble for Solly, that's all," said the colonel. "He's
+trying to put me away and put his business associates away, and he has
+got to go through the mill unless----"
+
+"Unless what?" she asked.
+
+"Pinto's a merciful man, I'm a merciful man. We don't want to make
+trouble with former business associates, but trouble there is going to
+be, believe me."
+
+"What kind of trouble?" asked the girl. "If you mean that your so-called
+business association with my father will cease, I shall be happier. My
+father can earn his living and I have my stage work."
+
+"You have your stage work," the colonel did not smile but his tone
+betrayed his amusement, "and your father can earn his living, eh? He can
+earn his living in Portland Gaol," he said, raising his voice.
+
+"For the matter of that, so can you, colonel."
+
+The colonel turned his head slowly and surveyed the spare figure in the
+doorway.
+
+"Oh, you heard me, did you, Solly," he said not unpleasantly.
+
+"I heard you," said Solomon White, his lean face a shade whiter than the
+girl had ever seen it and his breathing was a little laboured.
+
+"If you are thinking of gaoling me," said White, "why, I think we shall
+make up a pretty jolly party."
+
+"Meaning me?" said the colonel, raising his eyebrows.
+
+"You amongst others. Pinto Silva, 'Swell' Crewe and Selby, to name a
+few."
+
+Colonel Boundary permitted himself to chuckle.
+
+"On what charge?" he asked, "tell me that, Solly? The cleverest men in
+Scotland Yard have been laying for me for years and they haven't got
+away with it. Maybe they have your assistance and that dog Hanson----"
+
+"That's a lie," interrupted White, "so far as I am concerned--I know
+nothing about Hanson."
+
+"Hanson," said the colonel slowly, "is a thief. He bolted with L300 of
+mine, as I've reported to the police."
+
+"I see," said White with a little smile of contempt, "got your charge in
+first, eh, colonel--discredit the witness. And what have you framed for
+me?"
+
+"Nothing," said the colonel, "except this. I've just had from the bank a
+cheque for L4,000 drawn in your favour on our joint account and
+purporting to be signed by Silva and myself."
+
+"As it happens," said White, "it was signed by you fellows in my
+presence."
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"Obdurate to the last, brazening it out to the end--why not make a frank
+confession to an old business associate, Solly? I came here to see you
+about that cheque."
+
+"That's the game, is it?" said White. "You are going to charge me with
+forgery, and suppose I spill it?"
+
+"Spill what?" asked the colonel innocently. "If by 'spill' you mean make
+a statement to the police derogatory to myself and my business
+associates, what can you tell? I can bring a dozen witnesses to prove
+that both Pinto and I were in Brighton the morning that cheque was
+signed."
+
+"You came up by car at night," said White harshly. "We arranged to meet
+outside Guildford to split the loot."
+
+"Loot?" said Colonel Boundary, puzzled. "I don't understand you."
+
+"I'll put it plainer," said White, his eyes like smouldering fire: "a
+year ago you got young Balston the shipowner to put fifty thousand
+pounds into a fake company."
+
+He heard Maisie gasp, but went on.
+
+"How you did it I'm not going to tell before the girl, but it was
+blackmail which you and Pinto engineered. He paid his last
+instalment--the four thousand pounds was my share."
+
+Colonel Boundary rose and looked at his watch.
+
+"I have a taxi-cab waiting, and with a taxi-cab time is money. If you
+are going to bring in the name of an innocent young man, who will
+certainly deny that he had any connection with myself and my business
+associates, that is a matter for your own conscience. I tell you I know
+nothing about this cheque. I have made your daughter an offer."
+
+"I can guess what it is," interrupted White, "and I can tell you this,
+Boundary, that if you are going to sell me, I'll be even with you, if I
+wait twenty years! If you imagine I am going to let my daughter into
+that filthy gang----" His voice broke, and it was some time before he
+could recover himself. "Do your worst. But I'll have you, Boundary! I
+don't doubt that you'll get a conviction, and you know the things that I
+can't talk about, and I'll have to take my medicine, but you are not
+going to escape."
+
+"Wait, colonel." It was the girl who spoke in so low a voice that he
+would not have heard her, but that he was expecting her to speak. "Do
+you mean that you will--prosecute my father?"
+
+"With law-abiding people," said the colonel profoundly, "the demands of
+justice come first. I must do my duty to the state, but if you should
+change your mind----"
+
+"She won't change her mind," roared White.
+
+With one stride he had passed between the colonel and the door. Only for
+a second he stood, and then he fell back.
+
+"Do your worst," he said huskily, and Colonel Boundary passed out,
+pocketing the revolver which had come from nowhere into his hand, and
+presently they heard the purr of the departing motor.
+
+He came to Horsham station in a thoughtful frame of mind. He was still
+thinking profoundly when he reached Victoria.
+
+Then, as he stepped on the platform, a hand was laid on his arm, and he
+turned to meet the smiling face of Stafford King.
+
+"Hullo," said the colonel, and something within him went cold.
+
+"Sorry to break in on your reverie, colonel," said Stafford King, "but
+I've a warrant for your arrest."
+
+"What is the charge?" asked the colonel, his face grey.
+
+"Blackmail and conspiracy," said King, and saw with amazement the look
+of relief in the other's eyes.
+
+Then:
+
+"Boundary," he said between his teeth, "you thought I wanted you for
+'Snow' Gregory!"
+
+The colonel said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT
+
+
+Never before in history had the dingy little street, in which North
+Lambeth Police Court stands, witnessed such scenes as were presented on
+that memorable 4th of December, when counsel for the Crown opened the
+case against Colonel Dan Boundary.
+
+Long before the building was open the precincts of the court were
+besieged by people anxious to secure one of the very few seats which
+were available for the public. By nine o'clock it became necessary to
+summon a special force of police to clear a way for the numerous
+motor-cars which came bowling from every point of the compass and which
+were afterwards parked in the narrow side streets, to the intense
+amazement and interest of the curious denizens of the unsavoury
+neighbourhood in which the court is located.
+
+Admission was by ticket. Even the reporters, those favoured servants of
+democracy, had need to produce a printed pass before the scrutinising
+policeman at the door allowed them to enter. Every available seat had
+been allotted. Even the magistrate's sacristy had been invaded, and
+chairs stood three-deep to left and right of him.
+
+There were some who came out of sheer morbid curiosity, in order that
+they might boast that they were present when this remarkable case was
+heard. There were others who came, inwardly quaking at the revelations
+which were promised or hinted at in the daily Press, for the influence
+which the Boundary gang exercised was wide and far-reaching.
+
+A young man stood upon the congested pavement, watching with evident
+impatience the arrival of belated cars. The magistrate had already come
+and had disappeared behind the slate-coloured gates which led to the
+courtyard. Stafford saw fashionably-dressed women and (with a smile)
+worried-looking men who were figures in the political and social world,
+and presently he involuntarily stepped forward into the roadway as
+though to meet the electric limousine which came noiselessly to the main
+entrance.
+
+The solitary occupant of the car was a man of sixty--a grey-haired
+gentleman of medium height, dressed with scrupulous care, and wearing on
+his clean-shaven face a perpetual smile, as though life were an
+amusement which never palled.
+
+Stafford King took the extended hand with a little twinkle in his eye.
+
+"I was afraid we shouldn't be able to keep your place for you, Sir
+Stanley," he said.
+
+Sir Stanley Belcom, First Commissioner of Criminal Intelligence,
+accentuated his smile.
+
+"Well, Stafford," he drawled, "I've come to see the culminating triumph
+of your official career."
+
+Stafford King made a little grimace.
+
+"I hope so," he said dryly.
+
+"I hope so, too," said the baronet, "yet--I'll tell you frankly,
+Stafford, I have a feeling that the ordinary processes of the law are
+inadequate to trap this organisation. The law has too wide a mesh to
+deal with the terror which this man exercises. Such men are the only
+justification of lynch law, the quick, sharp justice which is
+administered without subtlety and without quibble."
+
+Stafford looked at the other and made no attempt to hide his
+astonishment.
+
+"You believe in--the Jack o' Judgment?" he asked.
+
+Sir Stanley shot a swift glance at him.
+
+"That is the bugbear of the gang, isn't it?"
+
+"So Hanson says," replied the other. "I verily believe that Hanson is
+more afraid of that mysterious person than he is of Boundary himself."
+
+The Attorney-General had begun his opening speech when the two men made
+their way into the crowded court and found their seats at the end of
+the solicitors table.
+
+In the dock sat Colonel Boundary, the least concerned of all that
+assembly. The colonel was leaning forward, his arms resting on the
+rails, his chin on the back of his hairy hand, his eyes glued upon the
+grey-haired lawyer who was dispassionately opening the case.
+
+"The contention of the Crown," the Attorney-General was saying, "is that
+Colonel Boundary is at the head of a huge blackmailing organisation, and
+that in the course of the past twenty years, by such means as I shall
+suggest and as the principal witness for the Crown will tell you, he has
+built up his criminal practice until he now controls the most complex
+and the most iniquitous organisation that has been known in the long and
+sordid history of crime.
+
+"Your Worship will doubtless hear," he went on, "of a bizarre and
+fantastic figure which flits through the pages of this story, a
+mysterious somebody who is called the 'Jack.' But I shall ask your
+Worship, as I shall ask the jury, when this case reaches, as it must
+reach ultimately, the Central Criminal Court, to disregard this
+apparition, which displayed no part in bringing Boundary to justice.
+
+"The contention of the Crown is, as I say, that Boundary, by means of
+terrorisation and blackmail, through the medium and assistance of his
+creatures, has from time to time secured a hold over rich and foolish
+men and women, and from these has acquired the enormous wealth which is
+now his and his associates'. As to these latter, their prosecution
+depends very largely upon the fate of Boundary. There are, I believe,
+some of them in court at this moment, and though they are not arrested,
+it will be no news to them to learn that they are under police
+observation."
+
+"Swell" Crewe, sitting at the back of the court, shifted uneasily and,
+turning his head, he met the careless gaze of the tall, military-looking
+man who had "detective" written all over him.
+
+There had been a pause in the Attorney-General's speech whilst he
+examined, short-sightedly, the notes before him.
+
+"In the presentation of this case, your Worship," he went on, "the Crown
+is in somewhat of a dilemma. We have secured one important and, I think,
+convincing witness--a man who has been closely associated with the
+prisoner, a Scandinavian named Hanson, who, considering himself badly
+treated by this gang, has been for a long time secretly getting together
+evidence of an incriminating character. As to his object we need not
+inquire. There is a possibility suggested by my learned friend, the
+counsel for the defence, that Hanson intended blackmailing the
+blackmailers, and presenting such a weight of evidence against Boundary
+that he could do no less than pay handsomely for his confederate's
+silence. That is as may be. The main fact is that Hanson has accumulated
+this documentary evidence, and that that documentary evidence is in
+existence in certain secret hiding-places in this country, which will be
+revealed in the course of his examination.
+
+"We are at this disadvantage, that Hanson has not yet made anything but
+the most scanty of statements. Fearing for his life, since this gang
+will stick at nothing, he has been closely guarded by the police from
+the moment he made his preliminary statement. Every effort which has
+been made to induce him to commit his revelations to writing has been in
+vain, and we are compelled to take what is practically his affidavit in
+open court."
+
+"Do I understand," interrupted the magistrate, in that weary tone which
+is the prerogative of magistrates, "that you are not as yet in
+possession of the evidence on which I am to be asked to commit the
+prisoner to the Old Bailey?"
+
+"That is so, your Worship," said the counsel. "All we could procure from
+Hanson was the bald affidavit which was necessary to secure the man's
+arrest."
+
+"So that if anything happened to your witness, there would be no case
+for the Crown?"
+
+The Attorney-General nodded.
+
+"Those are exactly the circumstances, your Worship," he said, "and that
+is why we have been careful to keep our witness in security. The man is
+in a highly nervous condition, and we have been obliged to humour him.
+But I do not think your Worship need have any apprehension as to the
+evidence which will be produced to-day, or that there will not be
+sufficient to justify a committal."
+
+"I see," said the magistrate.
+
+Sir Stanley turned to Stafford and whispered:
+
+"Rather a queer proceeding."
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"It is the only thing we could do," he said. "Hanson refused to speak
+until he was in court--until, as he said, he saw Boundary under arrest."
+
+"Does Boundary know this?"
+
+"I suppose so," replied Stafford with a little smile, "he knows
+everything. He has a whole army of spies. Sir Stanley, you don't know
+how big this organisation is. He has roped in everybody. He has Members
+of Parliament, he has the best lawyers in London, and two of the big
+detective agencies are engaged exclusively on his work."
+
+Sir Stanley pursed his lips thoughtfully and turned his attention to the
+prosecuting counsel. The address was not a long one, and presently the
+Attorney-General sat down, to be followed by a leading member of the
+Bar, retained for the defence. Presently he too had finished, and again
+the Attorney-General rose.
+
+"Call Olaf Hanson," he said, and there was a stir of excitement.
+
+The door leading to the cells opened, and two tall detectives came
+through, and two others followed. In the midst of the four walked the
+short, grey-faced man, in whose hands was the fate, and indeed the life,
+of Colonel Dan Boundary.
+
+He did not as much as glance at the dock, but hurried across the floor
+of the court and was ushered to the witness stand, his four guardians
+disposing themselves behind and before him. The man seemed on the point
+of crumbling. His fear-full eyes ranged the court, always avoiding the
+gross figure in the railed dock. The lips of the witness were white and
+trembling. The hands which clutched the front of the box for support
+twitched spasmodically.
+
+"Your name is Olaf Hanson?" asked the Attorney-General soothingly.
+
+The witness tried to speak but his lips emitted no sound. He nodded.
+
+"You are a native of Christiania?"
+
+Again Hanson nodded.
+
+"You must speak out," said Counsel kindly, "and you need have no fear.
+How long have you known Colonel Boundary?"
+
+This time Hanson found his voice.
+
+"For ten years," he said huskily.
+
+An usher came forward from the press at the back of the court with a
+glass of water and handed it to the witness, who drank eagerly. Counsel
+waited until he had drained the glass before he spoke again.
+
+"You have in your possession certain documentary evidence convicting
+Colonel Boundary of certain malpractices?"
+
+"Yes," said the witness.
+
+"You have promised the police that you will reveal in court where those
+documents have been stored?"
+
+"Yes," said Hanson again.
+
+"Will you tell the court now, in order that the police may lose as
+little time as possible, where you have hidden that evidence?"
+
+Colonel Boundary was showing the first signs of interest he had evinced
+in the proceedings. He leaned forward, his head craned round as though
+endeavouring to catch the eye of the witness.
+
+Hanson was speaking, and speaking with difficulty.
+
+"I haf--put those papers,"--he stopped and swayed--"I haf put those
+papers----" he began again, and then, without a second's warning, he
+fell limply forward.
+
+"I am afraid he has fainted," said the magistrate.
+
+Detectives were crowding round the witness, and had lifted him from the
+witness stand. One said something hurriedly, and Stafford King left his
+seat. He was bending over the prostrate figure, tearing open the collar
+from his throat, and presently was joined by the police surgeon, who was
+in court. There was a little whispered consultation, and then Stafford
+King straightened himself up and his face was pale and hard.
+
+"I regret to inform your Worship," he said, "that the witness is dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+STAFFORD KING RESIGNS
+
+
+A week later, Stafford King came into the office of the First
+Commissioner of the Criminal Intelligence Department, and Sir Stanley
+looked up with a kindly but pitying look in his eye.
+
+"Well, Stafford," he said gently, "sit down, won't you. What has
+happened?"
+
+Stafford King shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Boundary is discharged," he said shortly.
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"It was inevitable," he said, "I suppose there's no hope of connecting
+him and his gang with the death of Hanson?"
+
+"Not a ghost of a hope, I am afraid," said Stafford, shaking his head.
+"Hanson was undoubtedly murdered, and the poison which killed him was in
+the glass of water which the usher brought. I've been examining the
+usher again to-day, and all he can remember is that he saw somebody
+pushing through the crowd at the back of the court, who handed the glass
+over the heads of the people. Nobody seems to have seen the man who
+passed it. That was the method by which the gang got rid of their
+traitor."
+
+"Clever," said Sir Stanley, putting his finger-tips together. "They knew
+just the condition of mind in which Hanson would be when he came into
+court. They had the dope ready, and they knew that the detectives would
+allow the usher to bring the man water, when they would not allow
+anybody else to approach him. This is a pretty bad business, Stafford."
+
+"I realise that," said the young chief. "Of course, I shall resign.
+There's nothing else to do. I thought we had him this time, especially
+with the evidence we had in relation to the Spillsbury case."
+
+"You mean the letter which Spillsbury wrote to the woman Marsh? How did
+that come, by the way?"
+
+"It reached Scotland Yard by post."
+
+"Do you know who sent it?"
+
+"There was no covering note at all," replied Stafford. "It was in a
+plain envelope with a typewritten address and was sent to me personally.
+The letter, of course, was valueless by itself."
+
+"Have you made any search to discover the documents which Hanson spoke
+about?"
+
+"We have searched everywhere," said the other a little wearily, "but it
+is a pretty hopeless business looking through London for a handful of
+documents. Anyway, friend Boundary is free."
+
+The other was watching him closely.
+
+"It is a bitter disappointment to you, my young friend," he said;
+"you've been working on the case for years. I fear you'll never have
+another such chance of putting Boundary in the dock. He's got a lot of
+public sympathy, too. Your thorough-paced rascal who escapes from the
+hands of the police has always a large following amongst the public, and
+I doubt whether the Home Secretary will sanction any further
+proceedings, unless we have most convincing proof. What's this?"
+
+Stafford had laid a letter on the table.
+
+"My resignation," said that young man grimly.
+
+The First Commissioner took up the envelope and tore it in four pieces.
+
+"It is not accepted," he said cheerfully; "you did your best, and you're
+no more responsible than I am. If you resign, I ought to resign, and so
+ought every officer who has been on this game. A few years ago I took
+exactly the same step--offered my resignation over a purely private and
+personal matter, and it was not accepted. I have been glad since, and so
+will you be. Go on with your work and give Boundary a rest for awhile."
+
+Stafford was looking down at him abstractedly.
+
+"Do you think we shall ever catch the fellow, sir?"
+
+Sir Stanley smiled.
+
+"Frankly, I don't," he admitted. "As I said before, the only danger I
+see to Boundary is this mysterious individual who apparently crops up
+now and again in his daily life, and who, I suspect, was the person who
+sent you the Spillsbury letter--the Jack o' Judgment, doesn't he call
+himself? Do you know what I think?" he asked quietly. "I think that if
+you found the 'Jack,' if you ran him to earth, stripped him of his
+mystic guise, you would discover somebody who has a greater grudge
+against Boundary than the police."
+
+Stafford smiled.
+
+"We can't run about after phantoms, sir," he said, with a touch of
+asperity in his voice.
+
+The chief looked at him curiously.
+
+"I hear you do quite a lot of running about," he said carelessly, as he
+began to arrange the papers on his table. "By the way, how is Miss
+White?"
+
+Stafford flushed.
+
+"She was very well when I saw her last night," he said stiffly; "she is
+leaving the stage."
+
+"And her father?"
+
+Stafford was silent for a second.
+
+"He left his home a week before the case came into court and has not
+been seen since," he said.
+
+The chief nodded.
+
+"Whilst White is away and until he turns up I should keep a watchful eye
+on his daughter," he said.
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" asked Stafford.
+
+"I'm just making a suggestion," said the other. "Think it over."
+
+Stafford thought it over on his way to meet the girl, who was waiting
+for him on a sunny seat in Temple Gardens, for the day was fine and even
+warm, and, two hours before luncheon, the place was comparatively empty
+of people.
+
+She saw the trouble in his face and rose to meet him, and for a moment
+forgot her own distress of mind, her doubts and fears. Evidently she
+knew the reason for his attendance at Scotland Yard, and something of
+the interview which he had had.
+
+"I offered my resignation," he replied, in answer to her unspoken
+question, "and Sir Stanley refused it."
+
+"I think he was just," she said. "Why, it would be simply monstrous if
+your career were spoilt through no fault of your own."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Don't let us talk about me," he said. "What have you done?"
+
+"I've cancelled all my contracts; I have other work to do."
+
+"How are----" He hesitated, but she knew just what he meant, and patted
+his arm gratefully.
+
+"Thank you, I have all the money I want," she said. "Father left me
+quite a respectable balance. I am closing the house at Horsham and
+storing the furniture, and shall keep just sufficient to fill a little
+flat I have taken in Bloomsbury."
+
+"But what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Oh, there are lots of things that a girl can do," she said vaguely,
+"besides going on the stage."
+
+"But isn't it a sacrifice? Didn't you love your work?"
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"I thought I did at first," she said. "You see, I was always a very good
+mimic. When I was quite a little girl I could imitate the colonel.
+Listen!"
+
+Suddenly to his amazement he heard the drawling growl of Dan Boundary.
+She laughed with glee at his amazement, but the smile vanished and she
+sighed.
+
+"I want you to tell me one thing, Mr. King----"
+
+"Stafford--you promised me," he began.
+
+She reddened.
+
+"I hardly like calling you by your christian name but it sounds so like
+a surname that perhaps it won't be so bad."
+
+"What do you want to ask?" he demanded.
+
+She was silent for a moment, then she said:
+
+"How far was my father implicated in this terrible business?"
+
+"In the gang?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+He was in a dilemma. Solomon White was implicated as deeply as any save
+the colonel. In his younger days he had been the genius who was
+responsible for the organisation and had been for years the colonel's
+right-hand man until the more subtle villainy of Pinto Silva, that
+Portuguese adventurer, had ousted him, and, if the truth be told, until
+the sight of his girl growing to womanhood had brought qualms to the
+heart of this man, who, whatever his faults, loved the girl dearly.
+
+"You don't answer me," she said, "but I think I am answered by your
+silence. Was my father--a bad man?"
+
+"I would not judge your father," he said. "I can tell you this, that for
+the past few years he has played a very small part in the affairs of the
+gang. But what are you going to do?"
+
+"How persistent you are!" she laughed. "Why, there are so many things I
+am going to do that I haven't time to tell you. For one thing, I am
+going to work to undo some of the mischief which the gang have wrought.
+I am going to make such reparation as I can," she said, her lips
+trembling, "for the evil deeds my father has committed."
+
+"You have a mission, eh?" he said with a little smile.
+
+"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded. "I feel it here." She put her hand on
+her heart. "There's something which tells me that, even if my father
+built up this gang, as you told me once he did--ah! you had forgotten
+that."
+
+Stafford King had indeed forgotten the statement.
+
+"Yes?" he said. "You intend to pull it down?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I feel, too, that I am at bay. I am the daughter of Solomon White, and
+Solomon White is regarded by the colonel as a traitor. Do you think they
+will leave me alone? Don't you think they are going to watch me day and
+night and get me in their power just as soon as they can? Think of the
+lever that would be, the lever to force my father back to them!"
+
+"Oh, you'll be watched all right," he said easily, and remembered the
+commissioner's warning. "In fact, you're being watched now. Do you
+mind?"
+
+"Now?" she asked in surprise.
+
+He nodded towards a lady who sat a dozen yards away and whose face was
+carefully shaded by a parasol.
+
+"Who is she?" asked the girl curiously.
+
+"A young person called Lollie Marsh," laughed Stafford. "At present she
+has a mission too, which is to entangle me into a compromising
+position."
+
+The girl looked towards the spy with a new interest and a new
+resentment.
+
+"She has been trailing me for weeks," he went on, "and it would be
+embarrassing to tell you the number of times we have been literally
+thrown into one another's arms. Poor girl!" he said, with mock concern,
+"she must be bored with sitting there so long. Let us take a stroll."
+
+If he expected Lollie to follow, he was to be disappointed She stayed on
+watching the disappearing figures, without attempting to rise, and
+waiting until they were out of sight, she walked out on to the
+Embankment and hailed a passing taxi. She seemed quite satisfied in her
+mind that the plan she had evolved for the trapping of Stafford King
+could not fail to succeed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE COLONEL CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS
+
+
+A merry little dinner party was assembled that night in a luxurious flat
+in Albemarle House. It was a bachelor party, and consisted of three--the
+colonel, resplendent in evening dress, "Swell" Crewe and a middle-aged
+man whose antique dress coat and none too spotless linen certainly did
+not advertise their owner's prosperity. Yet this man with the stubbly
+moustache and the bald head could write his cheque for seven figures,
+being Mr. Thomas Crotin, of the firm of Crotin and Principle, whose
+swollen mills occupy a respectable acreage in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
+
+"You're Colonel Boundary, are you?" he said admiringly, and for about
+the seventh time since the meal started.
+
+The colonel nodded with a good-humoured twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Well, fancy that!" said Mr. Crotin. "I'll have something to talk about
+when I go back to Yorkshire. It is lucky I met your friend, Captain
+Crewe, at our club in Huddersfield."
+
+There was something more than luck in that meeting, as the colonel well
+knew.
+
+"I read about the trial and all," said the Yorkshireman; "I must say it
+looked very black against you, colonel."
+
+The colonel smiled again and lifted a bottle towards the other.
+
+"Nay, nay!" said the spinner. "I'll have nowt more. I've got as much as
+I can carry, and I know when I've had enough."
+
+The colonel replaced the bottle by his side.
+
+"So you read of the trial, did you?"
+
+"I did and all," said the other, "and I said to my missus: 'Yon's a
+clever fellow, I'd like to meet him.'"
+
+"You have an admiration for the criminal classes, eh?" said the colonel
+good-humouredly.
+
+"Well, I'm not saying you're a criminal," said the other, taking his
+host literally, "but being a J.P. and on the bench of magistrates, I
+naturally take an interest in these cases. You never know what you can
+learn."
+
+"And what did your lady wife say?" asked Boundary.
+
+The Yorkshireman smiled broadly.
+
+"Well, she doesn't take any interest in these things. She's a proper
+London lady, my wife. She was in a high position when I married."
+
+"Five years ago," said Boundary, "you married the daughter of Lord
+Westsevern. It cost you a hundred thousand pounds to pay the old man's
+debts."
+
+The Yorkshireman stared at him.
+
+"How did you know that?" he asked.
+
+"You're nominated for Parliament, too, aren't you. And you're to be
+Mayor of Little Thornhill?"
+
+Mr. Crotin laughed uproariously.
+
+"Well, you've got me properly taped," he said admiringly, and the
+colonel agreed with a gesture.
+
+"So you're interested in the criminal classes?"
+
+Mr. Crotin waved a protesting hand.
+
+"I'm not saying you're a member of the criminal classes, colonel," he
+said. "My friend Crewe here wouldn't think I would be so rude. Of
+course, I know the charge was all wrong."
+
+"That's where you're mistaken," interrupted the colonel calmly; "it was
+all right."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+The man stared.
+
+"The charge was perfectly sound," said the colonel, playing with his
+fruit knife; "for twenty years I have been making money by buying
+businesses at about a twentieth of their value and selling them again."
+
+"But how----" began the other.
+
+"Wait, I'll tell you. I've got men working for me all over the country,
+agents and sub-agents, who are constantly on the look-out for scandal.
+Housekeepers, servants, valets--you know the sort of people who get hold
+of information."
+
+Mr. Crotin was speechless.
+
+"Sooner or later I find a very incriminating fact which concerns a
+gentleman of property. I prefer those scandals which verge on the
+criminal," the colonel went on.
+
+The outraged Mr. Crotin was rolling his serviette.
+
+"Where are you going? What are you going to do? The night's young," said
+the colonel innocently.
+
+"I'm going," said Mr. Crotin, very red of face. "A joke's a joke, and
+when friend Crewe introduced me to you, I hadn't any idea that you were
+that kind of man. You don't suppose that I'm going to sit here in your
+society--me with my high connections--after what you've said?"
+
+"Why not?" asked the colonel; "after all, business is business, and as
+I'm making an offer to you for the Riverborne Mill----"
+
+"The Riverborne Mill?" roared the spinner. "Ah! that's a joke of yours!
+You'll buy no Riverborne Mill of me, sitha!"
+
+"On the contrary, I shall buy the Riverborne Mill from you. In fact, I
+have all the papers and transfers ready for you to sign."
+
+"Oh, you have, have you?" said the man grimly. "And what might you be
+offering me for the Riverborne?"
+
+"I'm offering you thirty thousand pounds cash," said the colonel, and
+his bearer was stricken speechless.
+
+"Thirty thousand pounds cash!" he said after awhile. "Why, man, that
+property is worth two hundred thousand pounds."
+
+"I thought it was worth a little more," said the colonel carelessly.
+
+"You're a fool or a madman," said the angry Yorkshireman. "It isn't my
+mill, it is a limited company."
+
+"But you hold the majority of the shares--ninety-five per cent., I
+think," said the colonel. "Those are the shares which you will transfer
+to me at the price I suggest."
+
+"I'll see you damned first," roared Crotin, bringing his hand down smash
+on the table.
+
+"Sit down again for one moment." The colonel's voice was gentle but
+insistent. "Do you know Maggie Delman?"
+
+Suddenly Crotin's face went white.
+
+"She was one of your father's mill-girls when you were little more than
+a boy," the colonel proceeded, "and you were rather in love with her,
+and one Easter you went away together to Blackpool. Do you remember?"
+
+Still Crotin did not speak.
+
+"You married the young lady and the marriage was kept secret because you
+were afraid of your father, and as the years went on and the girl was
+content with the little home you had made for her and the allowance you
+gave her, there seemed to be no need to admit your marriage, especially
+as there were no children. Then you began to take part in local politics
+and to accumulate ambitions. You dared not divorce your wife and you
+thought there was no necessity for it. You had a chance of improving
+yourself socially by marrying the daughter of an English lord, and you
+jumped at it."
+
+"You've got to prove that," he said huskily.
+
+The man found his voice.
+
+"I can prove it all right. Oh, no, your wife hasn't betrayed you--your
+real wife, I mean. You've betrayed yourself by insisting on paying her
+by telegraphic money orders. We heard of these mysterious payments but
+suspected nothing beyond a vulgar love affair. Then one night, whilst
+your placid and complacent wife was in a cinema, one of my people
+searched her box and came upon the certificate of marriage. Would you
+like to see it?"
+
+"I've nothing to say," said Crotin thickly. "You've got me, mister. So
+that is how you do it!"
+
+"That is how I do it," said the colonel. "I believe in being frank with
+people like you. Here are the transfers. You see the place for your
+signature marked with a pencil."
+
+Suddenly Crotin leaped at him in a blind fury, but the colonel gripped
+him by the throat with a hand like a steel vice, and shook him as a dog
+would shake a rat. And the gentle tone in his voice changed as quickly.
+
+"Sit down and sign!" snarled Boundary. "If you play that game, I'll
+break your damned neck! Come any of those tricks with me and I'll smash
+you. Give him the pen, Crewe."
+
+"I'll see you in gaol for this," said the white-faced man shakily.
+
+"That's about the place you will see me, if you don't sign, and it is
+the inside of that gaol you'll be to see me."
+
+The man rose up unsteadily, flinging down the pen as he did so.
+
+"You'll suffer for this," he said between his teeth.
+
+"Not unduly," said the colonel.
+
+There was a tap at the door and the colonel swung round.
+
+"Who's that?" he asked.
+
+"Can I come in?" said a voice.
+
+Crewe was frowning.
+
+"Who is it?" asked the colonel.
+
+The door opened slowly. A gloved hand, and then a white, hooded face,
+slipped through the narrow entry.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment come to make a call,"
+chuckled the hateful voice. "Down, dog; down!" He flourished the
+long-barrelled revolver theatrically, then turned with a chuckle of
+laughter to the gaping Mr. Crotin.
+
+"Poor Jacob!" he crooned, "he has sold his birthright for a mess of
+pottage! Don't touch that paper, Crewe, or you die the death!"
+
+His hand leapt out and snatched the transfer, which he thrust into the
+hand of the wool-spinner.
+
+"Get out and go home, my poor sheep," he said, "back to the blankets! Do
+you think they'd be satisfied with one mill? They'd come for a mill
+every year and they'd never leave you till you were dead or broke. Go to
+the police, my poor lamb, and tell them your sad story. Go to the
+admirable Mr. Stafford King--he'll fall on your neck. You won't, I see
+you won't!"
+
+The laughter rose again, and then swiftly with one arm he swung back the
+merchant and stood in silence till the door of the flat slammed.
+
+The colonel found his voice.
+
+"I don't know who you are," he said, breathing heavily, "but I'll make a
+bargain with you. I've offered a hundred thousand pounds to anybody who
+gets you. I'll offer you the same amount to leave me alone."
+
+"Make it a hundred thousand millions!" said Jack o' Judgment in his
+curious, squeaky voice, "give me the moon and an apple, and I'm yours!"
+
+He was gone before they could realise he had passed through the door,
+and he had left the flat before either moved.
+
+"Quick! The window!" said the colonel.
+
+The window commanded a view of the front entrance of Albemarle House,
+and the entry was well lighted. They reached the window in time to see
+the Yorkshireman emerge with unsteady steps and stride into the night.
+They waited for their visitor to follow. A minute, two minutes passed,
+and then somebody walked down the steps to the light. It was a woman,
+and as she turned her face the colonel gasped.
+
+"Maisie White!" he said in a wondering voice. "What the devil is she
+doing here?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LISTENER AT THE DOOR
+
+
+Maisie White had taken up her abode in a modest flat in Doughty Street,
+Bloomsbury. The building had been originally intended for a dwelling
+house, but its enterprising owner had fitted a kitchenette and a
+bathroom to every floor and had made each suite self-contained.
+
+She found the one bedroom and a sitting-room quite sufficient for her
+needs. Since the day of her father's departure she had not heard from
+him, and she had resolutely refused to worry. What was Solomon White's
+association with the Boundary gang, she could only guess. She knew it
+had been an important one, but her fears on his behalf had less to do
+with the action the police might take against him than with Boundary's
+sinister threat.
+
+She had other reasons for leaving the stage than she had told Stafford
+King. On the stage she was a marked woman and her movements could be
+followed for at least three hours in the day, and she was anxious for
+more anonymity. She was conscious of two facts as she opened the outer
+door that night to let herself into the hallway, and hurried up to her
+apartments. The first was that she had been followed home, and that
+impression was the more important of the two. She did not switch on the
+light when she entered her room, but bolting the door behind her, she
+moved swiftly to the window and raised it noiselessly. Looking out, she
+saw two men on the opposite side of the street, standing together in
+consultation. It was too dark to recognise them, but she thought that
+one figure was Pinto Silva.
+
+She was not frightened, but nevertheless she looked thoughtfully at the
+telephone, and her hand was on the receiver before she changed her mind.
+After all, they would know where she lived and an inquiry at her agents
+or even at the theatre would tell them to where her letters had been
+readdressed. She hesitated a moment, then pulled down the blinds and
+switched on the light.
+
+Outside the two men saw the light flash up and watched her shadow cross
+the blind.
+
+"It is Maisie all right," said Pinto. "Now tell me what happened."
+
+In a few words Crewe described the scene which he had witnessed in the
+Albemarle flat.
+
+"Impossible!" said Pinto; "are you suggesting that Maisie is Jack o'
+Judgment?"
+
+Crewe shrugged.
+
+"I know nothing about it," he said; "there are the facts."
+
+Pinto looked up at the light again.
+
+"I'm going across to see her," he said, and Crewe made a grimace.
+
+"Is that wise?" he asked; "she doesn't know we have followed her home.
+Won't she be suspicious?"
+
+Pinto shrugged.
+
+"She's a pretty clever girl that," he said, "and if she doesn't know
+we're outside, there's nothing of Solomon White in her composition."
+
+He crossed the road and struck a match to discover which was her bell.
+He guessed right the first time. Maisie heard the tinkle and knew what
+it portended. She had not started to disrobe, and after a few moments'
+hesitation she went down the stairs and opened the door.
+
+"It is rather a late hour to call on you," said Pinto pleasantly, "but
+we saw you going away from Albemarle Place, and could not overtake you."
+
+There was a question in his voice, though he did not give it actual
+words.
+
+"It is rather late for small talk," she said coolly. "Is there any
+reason for your call?"
+
+"Well, Miss White, there were several things I wanted to talk to you
+about," said Pinto, taken aback by her calm. "Have you heard from your
+father?"
+
+"Don't you think," she said, "it would be better if you came at a more
+conventional hour? I don't feel inclined to gossip on the doorstep and
+I'm afraid I can't ask you in."
+
+"The colonel is worrying," Pinto hastened to explain. "You see, Solly's
+one of his best friends."
+
+The girl laughed softly.
+
+"I know," she said. "I heard the colonel talking to my father at
+Horsham," she added meaningly.
+
+"You've got to make allowances for the colonel," urged Pinto; "he lost
+his temper, but he's feeling all right now. Couldn't you persuade your
+father to communicate with us--with him?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am not in a position to communicate with my father," she replied
+quietly. "I am just as ignorant of his whereabouts as you are. If
+anybody is anxious it is surely myself, Mr. Silva."
+
+"And another point," Silva went on, so that there should be no gap in
+the conversation, "why did you give up your theatrical engagements,
+Maisie? I took a lot of trouble to get them for you, and it is stupid to
+jeopardise your career. I have plenty of influence, but managers will
+not stand that kind of treatment, and when you go back----"
+
+"I am not going back," she said. "Really, Mr. Silva, you must excuse me
+to-night. I am very tired after a hard day's work----" she checked
+herself.
+
+"What are you doing now, Maisie?" asked Silva curiously.
+
+"I have no wish to prolong this conversation," said the girl, "but there
+is one thing I should like to say, and that is that I would prefer you
+to call me Miss White."
+
+"All right, all right," said Silva genially, "and what were you doing at
+the flat to-night, Mai--Miss White?"
+
+"Good night," said the girl and closed the door in his face.
+
+He cursed angrily in the dark and raised his hand to rap on the panel of
+the door, but thought better of it and, turning, walked back to the
+interested Crewe, who stood in the shadow of a lamp-post watching the
+scene.
+
+"Well?" asked Crewe.
+
+"Confound the girl, she won't talk," grumbled Silva. "I'd give something
+to break that pride of hers, Crewe. By jove, I'll do it one of these
+days," he added between his teeth.
+
+Crewe laughed.
+
+"There's no sense in going off the deep end because a girl turns you
+down," he said. "What did she say about the flat? And what did she say
+about her visit to Albemarle Place?"
+
+"She said nothing," said the other shortly. "Come along, let's go back
+to the colonel."
+
+On the return journey he declined to be drawn into any kind of
+conversation, and Crewe, after one or two attempts to procure
+enlightenment as to the result of the interview, relapsed into silence.
+
+They found the colonel waiting for them, and to all appearances the
+colonel was undisturbed by the happenings of the evening.
+
+"Well?" he asked.
+
+"She admits she was here," said Pinto.
+
+"What was she doing?"
+
+"You'd better ask her yourself," said the other with some asperity. "I
+tell you, colonel, I can't handle that woman."
+
+"Nobody ever thought you could," said the colonel. "Did she give you any
+idea as to what her business was?"
+
+Pinto shook his head and the colonel paced the big room thoughtfully,
+his big hands in his pockets.
+
+"Here's a situation," he said. "There's some outsider who's following
+every movement we make, who knew that boob from Huddersfield was coming,
+and who knew what our business was. That somebody was this infernal Jack
+o' Judgment, but who is Jack o' Judgment, hey?"
+
+He looked round fiercely.
+
+"I'll tell you who he is," he went on, speaking slowly "He's somebody
+who knows our gang as well as we know it ourselves, somebody who has
+been on the inside, somebody who has access, or who has had access, to
+our working methods. In fact," he said using his pet phrase, "a business
+associate."
+
+"Rubbish!" said Pinto.
+
+This polished man of Portugal, who had come into the gang very late in
+the day, was one of the few people who were privileged to offer blunt
+opposition to the leader of the Boundary Gang.
+
+"You might as well say it is I, or that it is Crewe, or Dempsey, or
+Selby----"
+
+"Or White," said the colonel slowly; "don't forget White."
+
+They stared at him.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Crewe with a frown.
+
+White had been a favourite of his.
+
+"How could it be White?"
+
+"Why shouldn't it be White?" said the colonel. "When did Jack o'
+Judgment make his first appearance? I'll tell you. About the time we
+started getting busy framing up something against White. Did we ever see
+him when White was with us--no! Isn't it obviously somebody who has been
+a business associate and knows our little ways? Why, of course it is.
+Tell me somebody else?
+
+"You don't suggest it is 'Snow' Gregory, anyway?" he added
+sarcastically.
+
+Crewe shivered and half-closed his eyes.
+
+"For heaven's sake don't mention 'Snow' Gregory," he said irritably.
+
+"Why shouldn't I?" snarled the colonel. "He's worth money and life and
+liberty to us, Crewe. He's an awful example that keeps some of our
+business associates on the straight path. Not," he added with elaborate
+care, "not that we were in any way responsible for his untimely end. But
+he died--providentially. A doper's bad enough, but a doper who talks and
+boasts and tells me, as he told me in this very room, just where he'd
+put me, is a mighty dangerous man, Crewe."
+
+"Did he do that?" asked Crewe with interest.
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"In this very room where you're standing," he said impressively, "at the
+end of that table he stood, all lit up with 'coco' and he told me things
+about our organisation that I thought nobody knew but myself. That's the
+worst of drugs," he said, shaking his head reprovingly; "you never know
+how clever they'll make a man, and they made 'Snow' a bit too clever.
+I'm not saying that I regretted his death--far from it. I don't know how
+he got mixed up in the affair----"
+
+"Oh, shut up!" growled Pinto; "why go on acting before us? We were all
+in it."
+
+"Hush!" said the colonel with a glance at the door.
+
+There was a silence. All eyes were fixed on the door.
+
+"Did you hear anything?" asked the colonel under his breath.
+
+His face was a shade paler than they had ever remembered seeing it.
+
+"It is nothing," said Pinto; "that fellow's got on your nerves."
+
+The colonel walked to the sideboard and poured out a generous portion of
+whisky and drank it at a gulp.
+
+"Lots of things are getting on my nerves," he said, "but nothing gets on
+my nerves so much as losing money. Crewe, we've got to go after that
+Yorkshireman again--at least somebody has got to go after him."
+
+"And that somebody is not going to be me," said Crewe quietly. "I did my
+part of the business. Let Pinto have a cut."
+
+Pinto Silva shook his head.
+
+"We'll drop him," he said decisively, and for the first time Crewe
+realised how dominating a factor Pinto had become in the government of
+the band.
+
+"We'll drop him----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped and craned his head round.
+
+It was he who had heard something near the door, and now with noiseless
+steps he tiptoed across the room to the door, and gripping the handle,
+opened it suddenly. A gun had appeared in his hand, but he did not use
+it. Instead, he darted through the open doorway and they heard the sound
+of a struggle. Presently he came back, dragging by the collar a man.
+
+"Got him!" he said triumphantly, and hurled his captive into the nearest
+chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE COLONEL EMPLOYS A DETECTIVE
+
+
+Their prisoner was a stranger. He was a lean, furtive-looking man of
+thirty-five, below middle height, respectably dressed, and at first
+glance, the colonel, whose hobby was distinguishing at a look the social
+standing of humanity, was unable to place him.
+
+Crewe locked the door.
+
+"Now then," said the colonel, "what the devil were you doing listening
+at my door? Was that his game, Mr. Silva?"
+
+"That was his game," said the other, brushing his hands.
+
+"What have you got to say before I send for the police?" asked the
+colonel virtuously. "What have you got to say for yourself? Sneaking
+about a gentleman's flat, listening at keyholes!"
+
+The man, who had been roughly handled, had risen and was putting his
+collar straight. If he had been taken aback by the sudden onslaught, he
+was completely self-possessed now.
+
+"If you want to send for the police, you'd better start right away," he
+said; "you've got a telephone, haven't you? Perhaps I'll have a job for
+the policeman, too. You've no right to assault me, my friend," he said,
+addressing Pinto resentfully.
+
+"What were you doing?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Find out," said the man sharply.
+
+The colonel stroked his long moustache, and his manner underwent a
+change.
+
+"Now look here, old man," he said almost jovially; "we're all friends
+here, and we don't want any trouble. I daresay you've made a mistake,
+and my friend has made a mistake. Have a whisky and soda?"
+
+The man grinned crooked.
+
+"Not me, thank you," he said emphatically; "if I remember rightly, there
+was a young gentleman who took a glass of water in North Lambeth Police
+Court the other day, and----"
+
+The colonel's eyes narrowed.
+
+"Well, sit down and be sociable. If you're suggesting that I'm going to
+poison you, you're also suggesting that you know something which I don't
+want you to tell. Or that you have discovered one of those terrible
+secrets that the newspapers are all writing about. Now be a sensible
+man; have a drink."
+
+The man hesitated.
+
+"You have a drink of whisky out of the same bottle, and I'll join you."
+
+"Help yourself," said the colonel good-naturedly. "Give me any glass you
+like."
+
+The man went to the sideboard, poured out two pegs and sent the
+soda-water sizzling into the long glasses.
+
+"Here's yours and here's mine," he said; "good luck!"
+
+He drank the whisky off, after he had seen the colonel drink his, and
+wiped his mouth with a gaudy handkerchief.
+
+"I'm taking it for granted," said the colonel, "that we've made no
+mistake and that you were listening at our door. Now we want no
+unpleasantness, and we'll talk about this matter as sensible human
+beings and man to man."
+
+"That's the way to talk," said the other, smacking his lips.
+
+"You've been sent here to watch me."
+
+"I may have and I may not have," said the other.
+
+Pinto shifted impatiently, but the colonel stopped him with a look.
+
+"Now let me see what you are," mused the colonel, still wearing that
+benevolent smile of his. "You're not an ordinary tradesman. You've got a
+look of the book canvasser about you. I have it--you're a private
+detective!"
+
+The man smirked.
+
+"Perhaps I am," said he, "and," he added, "perhaps I'm not."
+
+The colonel slapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"Of course you are," he said confidently; "we don't see shrewd-looking
+fellows like you every day. You're a split!"
+
+"Not official," said the man quickly.
+
+He had all the English private detective's fear of posing as the genuine
+article.
+
+"Now look here," said the colonel, "I'm going to be perfectly straight
+with you, and you've got to be straight with me. That's fair, isn't it?"
+
+"Quite fair," said the man; "if I've been misconducting myself in any
+manner----"
+
+"Don't mention it," said the colonel politely, "my friend here will
+apologise for handling you roughly, I'm sure; won't you, Mr. Silva?"
+
+"Sure!" said the other, without any great heartiness.
+
+He was tired of this conversation and was anxious to know where it was
+leading.
+
+"You're not in the private detective business for your health," said the
+colonel, and the man shook his head.
+
+"I bet you're working for a firm that's paying you about three pounds a
+week and your miserable expenses--a perfect dog's life."
+
+"You're quite right there," said the man, and he spoke with the
+earnestness of the ill-used wage-earner, "it is a dog's life; out in all
+kinds of weather, all hours of the day and night, and never so much as
+'thank you' for any work you do. Why, we get no credit at all, sir. If
+we go into the witness-box, the lawyers treat us like dirt."
+
+"I absolutely agree with you," said the colonel, shaking his head. "I
+think the private detective business in this country isn't appreciated
+as it ought to be. And it is very curious we should have met you," he
+went on; "only this evening I was saying to my friends here, that we
+ought to get a good man to look after our interests. You've heard about
+me, I'm sure, Mr.----"
+
+"Snakit," said the other; "here's my card."
+
+He produced a card from his waistcoat pocket, and the colonel read it.
+
+"Mr. Horace Snakit," he said, "of Dooby and Somes. Now what do you say
+to coming into our service?"
+
+The man blinked.
+
+"I've got a good job----" he began inconsistently.
+
+"I'll give you a better--six pounds a week, regular expenses and an
+allowance for dressing."
+
+"It's a bet!" said Mr. Snakit promptly.
+
+"Well, you can consider yourself engaged right away. Now, Mr. Snakit, as
+frankness is the basis of our intercourse, you will tell me straight
+away whether you were engaged in watching me?"
+
+"I'll admit that, sir," said the man readily. "I had a job to watch you
+and to discover if you knew the whereabouts of a certain person."
+
+"Who engaged you?"
+
+"Well----" the man hesitated. "I don't know whether it isn't betraying
+the confidence of a client," he waited for some encouragement to pursue
+the path of rectitude and honour, but received none. "Well, I'll tell
+you candidly, our firm has been engaged by a young lady. She brought me
+here to-night----"
+
+"Miss White, eh?" said the colonel quickly.
+
+"Miss White it was, sir," said Snakit.
+
+"So that was why she was here? She wanted to show you----"
+
+"Just where your rooms were, sir," said the man. "She also wanted to
+show me the back stairs by which I could get out of the building if I
+wanted to."
+
+"What were your general instructions?"
+
+"Just to watch you, sir, and if I had an opportunity when you were out,
+of sneaking in and nosing round."
+
+"I see," said the colonel. "Crewe, just take Mr. Snakit downstairs and
+tell him where to report. Fix up his pay--you know," he gave a
+significant sideways jerk of his head, and Crewe escorted the gratified
+little detective from the apartment.
+
+When the door had closed, the colonel turned on Silva.
+
+"Pinto," he said and there was a rumble in his voice which betrayed his
+anger, "that girl is dangerous. She may or may not know where her father
+is--this detective business may be a blind. Probably Snakit was sent
+here knowing that he would be captured and spill the beans."
+
+"That struck me, too," said Pinto.
+
+"She's dangerous," repeated the colonel.
+
+He resumed his promenade up and down the room.
+
+"She's an active worker and she's working against us. Now, I'm going to
+settle with Miss White," he said gratingly. "I'm going to settle with
+her for good and all. I don't care what she knows, but she probably
+knows too much. She's hand in glove with the police and maybe she's
+working with her father. You'll get Phillopolis here to-morrow
+morning----"
+
+The other's eyes opened.
+
+"Phillopolis?" he almost gasped. "Good heavens! You're not going to----"
+
+The colonel faced him squarely.
+
+"You've had your chance with the girl and you've missed it," he said.
+"You've tried your fancy method of courting and you've fallen down."
+
+"But I'm not going to stand for Phillopolis," said the other, with tense
+face. "I tell you I like the girl. There's going to be none of that----"
+
+"Oh, there isn't, isn't there?" said the colonel in his silkiest tone.
+
+Then suddenly he leaned forward across the table and his face was the
+face of a devil.
+
+"There's only one Boundary Gang, Pinto, and this is it," he said between
+his clenched white teeth, "and there's only one Dan Boundary and that's
+me. Do you get me, Pinto? You can go a long way with me if I happen to
+be going that way. But you stand in the road and you're going to get
+what's coming. I've been good to you, Pinto. I've stood your
+interference because it amused me. But you come up against me, really up
+against me, and by the Lord Harry! you'll know it. Did you get that?"
+
+"I've got it" said Pinto sullenly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GREEK PHILLOPOLIS
+
+
+The upbuilding of the Boundary gang had neither been an accident, nor
+was it exactly designed on the lines which it ultimately followed.
+
+The main structure was Boundary himself, with his extraordinary
+financial genius, his plausibility, his lightning exploitation of every
+advantage which offered. Outwardly he was the head of three trading
+corporations which complied with the laws, paid small but respectable
+dividends and cloaked other operations which never appeared in the
+official records of the companies.
+
+The sidelines of the gang came through force of circumstances.
+Men--good, bad and indifferent--were drawn into the orbit of its
+activities, as extraordinary circumstances arose or dire necessities
+dictated. Throughout the length and breadth of Britain, through France,
+Italy, and in the days before the war, and even during the war, in
+Germany, in Russia and in the United States, were men who, if they could
+not be described as agents, were at least ready tools.
+
+He had a finger in every unsavoury pie. The bank robber discharged from
+gaol did not ask Colonel Boundary to finance him in the purchase of a
+new kit of tools--an up-to date burglar's kit costs something over two
+hundred pounds--but there were people who would lend the money, which
+eventually came out of the colonel's pocket. Some of the businesses he
+financed were on the border line of respectability. Some into which his
+money was sunk were frankly infamous. But it was a popular fiction that
+he knew nothing of these. Or, if he did know, that he was financing or
+at the back of a scoundrel, it was insisted that that scoundrel was
+engaged in (so far as the colonel knew) legitimate enterprise.
+
+Paul Phillopolis was a small Greek merchant, who had an office in
+Mincing Court--a tiny room at the top of four flights of stairs. On the
+glass panel of its door was the announcement: "General Exporter."
+
+Mr. Phillopolis spent three or four hours at his office daily and for
+the rest of the time, particularly towards the evening, was to be found
+in a _brasserie_ in Soho. He was a dark little man, with fierce
+moustachios and a set of perfect white teeth which he displayed readily,
+for he was easily amused. His most intimate acquaintances knew him to be
+an exporter of Greek produce to South America, and he was, in the large
+sense of the word, eminently respectable.
+
+Occasionally he would be seen away from his customary haunt, discussing
+with a compatriot some very urgent business, which few knew about. For
+there were ships which cleared from the Greek ports, carrying cargoes to
+the order of Mr. Phillopolis, which did not appear in any bill of
+lading. Dazed-looking Armenian girls, girls from South Russia, from
+Greece, from Smyrna, en route to a promised land, looked forward to the
+realisation of those wonderful visions which the Greek agent had so
+carefully sketched.
+
+In half a dozen South American towns the proprietors of as many dance
+halls would look over the new importations approvingly and remit their
+bank drafts to the merchant of Mincing Court. It was a profitable
+business, particularly in pre-war days.
+
+The colonel departed from his usual practice and met the Greek himself,
+the place of meeting being a small hotel in Aldgate. Whatever other
+pretences the colonel made, he did not attempt to continue the fiction
+that he was ignorant of the Greek's trade.
+
+"Paul," he said after the first greetings were over, "I've been a good
+friend to you."
+
+"You have indeed, colonel," said the man gratefully.
+
+He spoke English with a very slight accent, for he had been born and
+educated in London.
+
+"If ever I can render you a service----"
+
+"You can," said the colonel, "but it is not going to be easy."
+
+The Greek eyed him curiously.
+
+"Easy or hard," he said, "I'll go through with it."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"How is the business in South America?" he asked suddenly.
+
+The Greek spread out his hands in deprecation.
+
+"The war!" he said tragically, "you can imagine what it has been like.
+All those girls waiting for music-hall engagements and impossible to
+ship them owing to the fleets. I must have lost thousands of pounds."
+
+"The demand hasn't slackened off, eh?" asked the colonel, and the Greek
+smiled.
+
+"South America is full of money. They have millions--billions. Almost
+every other man is a millionaire. The music-halls have patrons but no
+talent."
+
+The colonel smiled grimly.
+
+"There's a girl in London of exceptional ability," he said. "She has
+appeared in a music-hall here, and she's as beautiful as a dream."
+
+"English?" asked the Greek eagerly.
+
+"Irish, which is better," said the other; "as pretty as a picture, I
+tell you. The men will rave about her."
+
+The Greek looked puzzled.
+
+"Does she want to go?" he asked.
+
+The colonel snarled round at him:
+
+"Do you think I should come and ask you to book her passage if she
+wanted to go?" he demanded. "Of course she doesn't want to go, and she
+doesn't know she's going. But I want her out of the way, you
+understand?"
+
+Mr. Phillopolis pulled a long face.
+
+"To take her from England?"
+
+"From London," said the colonel.
+
+The Greek shook his head.
+
+"It is impossible," he said; "passports are required and unless she was
+willing to go it would be impossible to take her. You can't kidnap a
+girl and rush her out of the country except in storybooks, colonel."
+
+Boundary interrupted him impatiently.
+
+"Don't you think I know that?" he asked; "your job is, when she's in a
+fit state of mind, to take her across and put her somewhere where she's
+not coming back for a long time. Do you understand?"
+
+"I understand that part of it very well," said the Greek.
+
+"I'm not to be mixed up in it," said Boundary. "The only thing I can
+promise you is that she'll go quietly. I'll have her passports fixed.
+She'll be travelling for her health--you understand? When you get to
+South America I want you to take her into the interior of the country.
+You're not to leave her in the music-halls in one of the coast towns
+where English and American tourists are likely to see her."
+
+"But how are you going to----"
+
+"That's my business," said the colonel. "You understand what you have to
+do. I'll send you the date you leave and I'll pay her passage and yours.
+For any out-of-pocket expenses you can send the bill to me, you
+understand?"
+
+Obviously it was not a job to the liking of Phillopolis, but he had good
+reason to fear the colonel and acquiesced with a nod. Boundary went back
+to where he had left Pinto and found the Portuguese biting his
+finger-nails--a favourite spare-time occupation of his.
+
+"Did you fix it?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+"Of course, I fixed it," said the colonel sharply.
+
+"I'm not going to have anything to do with it," said the other, and the
+colonel smiled.
+
+"Maybe you'll change your mind," he said significantly.
+
+There was a knock at the door and the colonel himself answered it. He
+took the card from the servant's hand and read:
+
+                         "Mr. STAFFORD KING,
+                  "Criminal Intelligence Department."
+
+He looked from the card to Pinto, then:
+
+"Show him in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE COLONEL AT SCOTLAND YARD
+
+
+The two men had not met since they had parted at the door of the North
+Lambeth Police Court, and there was in Colonel Boundary's smile
+something of forgiveness and gentle reproach.
+
+"Well, Mr. King," he said, "come in, come in, won't you?"
+
+He offered his hand to the other, but Stafford apparently did not see
+it.
+
+"No malice, I trust, Mr. King?" said the colonel genially. "You know my
+friend Mr. Silva? A business associate of mine, a director of several of
+my companies."
+
+"I know him all right," said Stafford and added, "I hope to know him
+better."
+
+Pinto recognised the underlying sense of the words, but not a muscle of
+his face moved. For Stafford King the hatred with which he regarded the
+law lost its personal character. This man was something more than a
+thief-taker and a tracker of criminals. Pinto chose to regard him as the
+close friend of Maisie White, and as such, his rival.
+
+"And to what are we indebted for this visit?" asked the bland colonel.
+
+"The chief wants to see you."
+
+"The chief?"
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom. Being the chief of our department I should have
+thought you had heard of him."
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom," repeated the other; "why, of course, I know Sir
+Stanley by repute. May I ask what he wants to see me about? And how is
+my young friend--er--Miss White?" asked the colonel.
+
+"When I saw her last," replied Stafford steadily, "she was looking
+pretty well, so far as I could tell."
+
+"Indeed!" said the colonel politely. "I have a considerable interest in
+the welfare of Miss White. May I ask when you saw her?
+
+"Last night," replied Stafford. "She was standing at the door of her
+apartments in Doughty Street, having a little talk with your friend," he
+nodded to Pinto, and Pinto started; "also," said the cheerful Stafford,
+"another mutual friend of ours, Mr. Crewe, was within hailing distance,
+unless I am greatly mistaken."
+
+"So you were watching, eh?" burst out Pinto "I thought after the lesson
+you had a couple of weeks ago, you'd have----"
+
+"Let me carry on this conversation, if you don't mind," said the
+colonel, and the fury in his eyes silenced the Portuguese.
+
+"We have agreed to let bygones be bygones, Mr. King, and I am sure it is
+only his excessive zeal on my behalf that induced our friend to be so
+indiscreet as to refer to the unpleasant happenings--which we will allow
+to pass from our memories."
+
+So the girl was being watched. That made things rather more difficult
+than he had imagined. Nevertheless, he anticipated no supreme obstacle
+to the actual abduction. His plans had been made that morning, when he
+saw in the columns of the daily newspaper a four-line advertisement
+which, to a large extent, had cleared away the greatest of his
+difficulties.
+
+"And if Mr. King is looking after our young friend, Maisie White, the
+daughter of one of our dearest business associates--why, I'm glad," he
+went on heartily. "London, Mr. King, is a place full of danger for young
+girls, particularly those who are deprived of the loving care of a
+parent, and one of the chief attractions, if I may be allowed to say so,
+which the police have for me, is the knowledge that they are the
+protectors of the unprotected, the guardians of the unguarded."
+
+He made a little bow, and for all his amusement Stafford gravely
+acknowledged the handsome compliment which the most notorious scoundrel
+in London had paid the Metropolitan Police Force.
+
+"When am I to see your chief?"
+
+"You can come along with me now, if you like, or you can go to-morrow
+morning at ten o'clock," said Stafford.
+
+The colonel scratched his chin.
+
+"Of course, I understand that this summons is in the nature of a
+friendly----" he stopped questioningly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Stafford, his eyes twinkling, "it isn't the
+customary 'come-along-o'-me' demand. I think the chief wants to meet
+you, to discover just the kind of person you are. You will like him, I
+think, colonel. He is the sort of man who takes a tremendous interest
+in--er----"
+
+"In crime?" said the colonel gently.
+
+"I was trying to think of a nice word to put in its place," admitted
+Stafford; "at any rate, he is interested in you."
+
+"There is no time like the present," said the colonel. "Pinto, will you
+find my hat?"
+
+On the way to Scotland Yard they chatted on general subjects till
+Stafford asked:
+
+"Have you had another visitation from your friend?"
+
+"The Jack o' Judgment?" asked the colonel. "Yes, we met him the other
+night. He's rather amusing. By the way, have you had complaints from
+anywhere else?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"No, he seems to have specialised on you, colonel. You have certainly
+the monopoly of his attentions."
+
+"What is going to happen supposing he makes an appearance when I happen
+to have a lethal weapon ready?" asked the colonel. "I have never killed
+a person in my life, and I hope the sad experience will not be mine. But
+from the police point of view, how do I stand suppose--there is an
+accident?"
+
+Stafford shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"That is his look out," he said. "If you are threatened, I dare say a
+jury of your fellow countrymen will decide that you acted in
+self-defence."
+
+"He came the other night," the colonel said reminiscently, "when we
+were fixing up a particularly difficult--er--business negotiation."
+
+"Bad luck!" said Stafford. "I suppose the mug was scared?"
+
+"The what?" asked the puzzled colonel.
+
+"The mug," said Stafford. "You may not have heard the expression. It
+means 'can'--'fool'--'dupe.'"
+
+The colonel drew a long breath.
+
+"You still bear malice, I see, Mr. King," he said sadly.
+
+He entered the portals of Scotland Yard without so much as a tremor,
+passed up the broad stairs and along the unlovely corridors, till he
+came to the double doors which marked the First Commissioner's private
+office. Stafford disappeared for a moment and presently returned with
+the news that the First Commissioner would not be able to see his
+visitor for half an hour. Stafford apologised but the colonel was
+affability itself and kept up a running conversation until a beckoning
+secretary notified them that the great man was disengaged.
+
+It was King who ushered the colonel into his presence. Sir Stanley was
+writing at a big desk and looked up as the colonel entered.
+
+"Sit down, colonel," he said, nodding his head to a chair on the
+opposite side of the desk. "You needn't wait, King. There are one or two
+things I want to speak to the colonel about."
+
+When the door had closed behind the detective, Sir Stanley leaned back
+in his chair. Their eyes met, the grey and the faded blue, and for the
+space of a few seconds they stared. Sir Stanley Belcom was the first to
+drop his eyes.
+
+"I've sent for you, colonel," he said, "because I think you might give
+me a great deal of information, if you're willing."
+
+"Command me," said the colonel grandly.
+
+"It is on the matter of a murder which was committed in London a few
+months ago," said the commissioner quietly and for a moment Colonel
+Boundary did not speak.
+
+"I presume you are referring to the 'Snow' Gregory murder?" he said at
+last.
+
+"Exactly," nodded the commissioner. "We have had an inquiry from America
+as to the identity of this young man. Now, you knew him better than
+anybody else in London, colonel. Can you tell me, was he an American?"
+
+"Emphatically not," said the colonel with a little sigh, as though he
+were relieved at the turn the conversation was taking. "I came to know
+him through--er--circumstances, and exactly what they were I cannot for
+the moment remember. I had a lot to do with him. He did odd jobs for
+me."
+
+"Was he well educated?" asked the commissioner.
+
+"Yes, I should say he was," said the colonel slowly. "There was a story
+that he had been to Oxford, and that's very likely true. He spoke like a
+college man."
+
+"Do you know if he had any relations in England?"
+
+The commissioner eyed the other straightly and the colonel hesitated.
+How much does this man know? he wondered, and decided that he could do
+no harm if he told all the truth.
+
+"He had no relations in England," he said, "but he had a father who was
+abroad."
+
+"Ah, now we're getting at some facts," said the commissioner and drew a
+slip of paper towards him. "What was the father's name?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"That I can't tell you, sir," he said. "I should like to oblige you but
+I have no more idea of what his name was than the man in the moon. I
+believe he was in India, because letters from India used to come to
+Gregory."
+
+"Was Gregory his name?"
+
+"His Christian name, I think," said the colonel after a moment's
+thought. "He went wrong at college and was sent down. Then he went to
+Paris and started to study art, and he got in trouble there, too. That's
+as much as he ever told me."
+
+"He had no brothers?" asked the commissioner.
+
+"None," said the colonel emphatically. "I am certain of that, because he
+once thanked God that he was the only child."
+
+"I see," the commissioner nodded; "you have formed no theory as to why
+he met his death or how?"
+
+"No theory at all," said the colonel, but corrected himself. "Of course,
+I've had ideas and opinions, but none of them has ever worked out. So
+far as I know, he had no enemies, although he was a quick-tempered chap,
+especially when he was recovering from a dose of 'coco,' and would
+quarrel with his own grandmother."
+
+"You've no idea why he was in London? Apparently he did not live here."
+
+The colonel shrugged his massive shoulders.
+
+"No, I couldn't tell you anything about that, sir," he said.
+
+"He was not an American?" asked the commissioner again.
+
+"I could swear to that," answered the colonel.
+
+There was a pause and he waited.
+
+"There's another matter." The commissioner spoke slowly. "I understand
+that you are being bothered by a mysterious individual who calls himself
+the Knave of Judgment."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," corrected the colonel with a contemptuous smile.
+"Those sort of monkey tricks don't bother me, I can assure you."
+
+"I have my theories about the Jack o' Judgment," said the commissioner.
+"I have been looking up the circumstances of the murder, and I seem to
+remember that on the body was found a playing card."
+
+"That's right," said the colonel, who had remembered the fact himself
+many times, "the Jack of Clubs."
+
+"Do you know what that Jack of Clubs signified?" asked the commissioner,
+but the colonel could honestly say that he did not. Its presence on the
+body had frequently puzzled him and he had never found a solution.
+
+"There is a certain type of ruffian to be found, particularly in Paris,
+who affects this sort of theatrical trade-mark--did you know that?"
+asked the commissioner.
+
+The colonel was suddenly stricken to silence. He did not know this fact,
+in spite of his extraordinary knowledge of the criminal world.
+
+"These men have their totems and their sign manuals," said the
+commissioner. "For example, the apache Flequier, who was executed at
+Nantes the other day, invariably left a domino--the double-six--near his
+victim."
+
+This was news to the colonel too.
+
+"I've been giving a great deal of thought and time to this case," said
+the commissioner, "and I was hoping that perhaps you could help me. The
+most workable theory that I can suggest is that this unfortunate man was
+destroyed by a French criminal of the class which I have indicated, the
+bullying apache type, which is so common in France. Why the murder was
+committed," the commissioner fingered his paper-knife carelessly, "what
+led to it and who committed it, and more especially who instigated the
+crime, are matters which seem to me to defy detection. Do you agree?"
+
+"I quite agree," said the colonel, licking his dry lips.
+
+"Now I suggest to you," said the commissioner, "that your Jack o'
+Judgment, whoever he is, is some relation to the dead man."
+
+He spoke slowly and emphatically and the colonel did not raise his eyes
+from the desk.
+
+"It is not my business to make life any easier for you," the
+commissioner was saying, "or to assist you in any way. But as the Jack
+o' Judgment seems to me to be engaged in a wholly illegal practice, and
+as I, in my capacity, must suppress illegal practices, I make you a
+present of this suggestion."
+
+"That the Jack o' Judgment is related to 'Snow' Gregory?" asked the
+colonel huskily.
+
+"That is my suggestion," said the commissioner.
+
+"And you think----"
+
+The commissioner raised his shoulders.
+
+"I think he is your greatest danger, colonel," he said, "far greater
+than the police, far greater than the clever minds which are planning to
+bring you to the dock and possibly," he added, "to the gallows."
+
+Ordinarily the colonel would have protested at the suggestion in the
+speech, protested laughingly or with dignity, but now he was stricken
+dumb, both by the seriousness of the commissioner's voice and by the
+consciousness of a new and a more terrible danger than any that had
+confronted him. He rose, realising that the interview was ended.
+
+"I am greatly obliged to you, Sir Stanley," he said clearing his throat.
+"It is good of you to warn me, but I'd not like you to think that I am
+engaged in any dishonest----"
+
+"We'll let that matter stand over for discussion until another time,"
+said the commissioner dryly, as Stafford King came into the room. "You
+might show the colonel the way to the street. Otherwise he will be
+getting himself entangled in some of our detention rooms. Good morning,
+Colonel Boundary. Don't forget."
+
+"I'm not likely to," said the colonel.
+
+He recovered his poise quickly enough and by the time he was in the
+street he was back in his old mood. But he had had a shock. That sunny
+afternoon was filled with shadows. The booming bells of Big Ben tolled
+"Jack o' Judgment," the very wheels of the taxi droned the words. And
+Colonel Boundary came back to Albemarle Place for the first time in his
+life with his confidence in Colonel Boundary shaken.
+
+There was nobody in save the one manservant he kept by the day, and he
+passed into the dining-room overlooking the street. He had work to do
+and it had to be done quickly. In one of the walls was set a stout safe,
+and this he opened, taking from it a steel box which he carried to the
+table. There was a fire laid on the hearth and to this he put a match
+though the day was warm enough. Then he proceeded to unlock the box.
+Apparently it was empty, but, taking out his scarf-pin, he inserted the
+point in a tiny hole, which would have escaped casual observation, and
+pressed.
+
+Half the steel bottom of the box leapt up, disclosing a shallow cavity
+beneath. The colonel stared. There had been two letters put in there,
+letters which he had put away against the moment when it might be
+necessary to bring a recalcitrant agent to heel. They had gone. He slid
+his fingers beneath the half of the bottom which had not opened and felt
+a card. He drew this out and looked at it, licking his lips the while.
+
+For the space of a minute he stared and stared at the Knave of Clubs he
+held in his hand. A Knave of Clubs signed with a flourish across its
+face: "Jack o' Judgment." Then he flung the card into the fire and,
+walking to the sideboard, splashed whisky into a tumbler with a hand
+that shook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BUYING A NURSING HOME
+
+
+The building in which Colonel Boundary had his beautiful home was of a
+type not uncommonly met with in the West End of London. The street floor
+was taken up entirely with shops, the first floor with offices and the
+remainder of the building was practically given over to the colonel. One
+by one he had ousted every tenant from the building, and practically the
+whole of the fourteen sets of apartments which constituted the
+residential portion of the building was held by him in one name or
+another. Some he had obtained by the payment of heavy premiums, some he
+had secured when the lease of the former tenant had lapsed, some he had
+gathered in by sub-hiring. He had tried to buy the building, since it
+served his purpose well, but came against a deed of trust and the Court
+of Chancery, and had wisely refrained from going any further into a
+matter which must bring him vis-a-vis with a Master in Chancery, with
+all the publicity which such a transaction entailed.
+
+Nor had he been successful in acquiring any of the premises on the first
+floor. They were held by three very old established businesses--an
+estate agent, a firm of land surveyors and the offices of a valuer. He
+missed his opportunity, at any rate, of securing the business of Lee and
+Hol, the surveyors, and did not know it was in the market until after it
+had been transferred to a new owner. But they were quiet, sober tenants,
+who closed their offices between five and six every night and did not
+open them until between nine or ten on the following morning, and their
+very respectability gave him a certain privacy.
+
+The new proprietor of Lee and Hol was a short-sighted, elderly man of no
+great conversational power, and apparently of no fixed purpose in life
+except to say "no" to the very handsome offers which the colonel's
+agents made when they discovered there was a chance of re-purchasing the
+business. Boundary had personally inspected all the offices. He had
+found an excuse to visit them several times, duly noted the arrangement
+of the furniture, the sizes of the staffs and the general character of
+the business which was being carried on. This was a necessary precaution
+because these offices were immediately under his own flat. But just now
+they had a special value, because it was a practice during the daytime
+for the three firms to employ a commissionaire, who occupied a little
+glass-partitioned office on the landing and attended impartially to the
+needs of all three tenants to the best of his ability.
+
+Boundary descended the stairs and found the elderly man in his office,
+leisurely and laboriously affixing stamps to a pile of letters. He
+called him from his task.
+
+"Judson," he said, "have you seen anybody go up to my rooms this
+afternoon?"
+
+The man thought.
+
+"No, sir, I haven't," he replied.
+
+"Have you been here all the time?"
+
+"Yes, since one o'clock I have been in my office," said the
+commissionaire. "None of our young gentlemen wanted anything."
+
+"You didn't go out to go to the post?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man. "I've not stirred from this office except for
+one minute when I went into Mr. Lee's office to get these letters."
+
+"And you've seen nobody go upstairs?"
+
+"Not since Mr. Silva came down, sir. He came down after you, if you
+remember."
+
+"Nobody's been up?" insisted the other.
+
+"Not a soul. Your servant came down before you, sir."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel remembering that he had sent the man on
+a special journey to Huddersfield with a letter to the bigamous Mr.
+Crotin. "You haven't seen a lady go up at all?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"Nobody has gone up them stairs," said the commissionaire emphatically.
+"I hope you haven't lost anything, sir?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"No, I haven't lost anything. Rather, I've found something," he said
+grimly.
+
+He slipped half-a crown into the man's hand.
+
+"You needn't mention the fact that I've been making inquiries," he said
+and went slowly up the stairs again.
+
+The card had been put there that day. He would swear it. The ink on the
+card had not had time to darken and when he made a further search of his
+room, this view was confirmed by the appearance of his blotting-pad. The
+card had been dried there, and the pen, which had been left on the
+table, was still damp.
+
+The colonel passed into his bedroom and took off his coat and vest. He
+searched his drawer and found what looked to be like a pair of braces
+made of light fabric. These he slipped over his shoulder, adjusting them
+so that beneath his left arm hung a canvas holster. From another drawer
+he took an automatic pistol, pulled the magazine from the butt and
+examined it before he returned it, and forced a cartridge into the
+breach by drawing back the cover. This he carefully oiled, and then,
+pressing up the safety catch, he slipped the pistol into the holster and
+resumed his coat and vest.
+
+It was a long time since the colonel had carried a gun under his arm,
+but his old efficiency was unimpaired. He practised before a mirror and
+was satisfied with his celerity. He loaded a spare magazine, and dropped
+it into the capacious pocket of his waistcoat. Then, putting the
+remainder of the cartridges away tidily, he closed the box, shut the
+drawer and went back to his room. If all the commissioner had hinted
+were true, if this mysterious visitor was laying for him because of the
+'Snow' Gregory affair, he should have what was coming to him.
+
+The colonel was no coward and if this eerie experience had got a little
+on his nerves, it was not to be wondered at. He drew up a chair to the
+table, sitting in such a position that he could see the door, took a
+pencil and a sheet of paper and began to write rapidly.
+
+The man's knowledge was encyclopaedic. Not once did he pause or refer to
+a catalogue, and he was still writing when Crewe came in. The colonel
+looked up.
+
+"You're the man I want," he said.
+
+He handed the other three sheets of paper, closely covered with writing.
+
+"What's this?" asked Crewe and read:
+
+"Twenty-three iron bedsteads, twenty-three mattresses, twenty-three----"
+
+"Why, what's all this, colonel?"
+
+"You can go down to Tottenham Court Road and you can order all that
+furniture to be taken into No. 3, Washburn Avenue."
+
+"Are you furnishing a children's orphanage or something?" asked the
+other in surprise.
+
+"I am furnishing a nursing home, to be exact," said the colonel slowly.
+"I bought it this morning, and I'm going to furnish it to-morrow. Send
+Lollie Marsh to me. Tell her I want her to get three women of the right
+sort to take charge of a mental case which is coming to my nursing home.
+By the way, you had better telegraph to old Boyton, or better still, go
+in a cab and get him. He'll probably be drunk but he's still on the
+medical register and he's the man I want. Take him straight away to
+Washburn Avenue, and don't forget that it's his nursing home and not
+mine. My name doesn't occur in this matter and you'd better get a dummy
+to do the buying for you from the furniture people."
+
+"Who is the mental case?" asked the other.
+
+"Maisie White," snapped the colonel, and Crewe stared.
+
+"Mad?" he said incredulously. "Is Maisie mad?"
+
+"She may not be at present," said Boundary, "but----"
+
+He did not finish his sentence, and Crewe, who was once a gentleman and
+was now a thief, swallowed something--but he had swallowed too much to
+choke at the threat to a girl in whom he had not the slightest interest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE LOVE OF STAFFORD KING
+
+
+Maisie White had no illusions. When the report came to her that the
+detective she had employed had passed his services over to the man he
+was engaged to watch, she knew that the full force of the Boundary Gang
+would be employed to her extinction. Strangely enough, she did not
+appear to be disturbed, as she confessed to Stafford King. They were
+lunching together at the Hotel Palatine and the detective was unusually
+thoughtful.
+
+"Why don't you go out of London?" he asked.
+
+"I must go on with my work," she said.
+
+"What is your work?" he asked.
+
+"I have told you once," she replied. "I am trying to disentangle my
+father from disgrace. I am working to put him apart when the day of
+reckoning comes."
+
+"You've not heard from him?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears.
+
+"He has been a good father to me," she said, "the kindest and best of
+daddies. It is dreadful to think----" her lips quivered and she could go
+no further.
+
+Nor could Stafford King make matters any easier for her. He knew better
+than she the depth of Solomon White's commitments. If the gang ever
+smashed, and if by good fortune the law ever took its course, there was
+no hope for Solomon White's escape from his share of the responsibility.
+
+"Why do you think your father went away?" he asked, to turn the subject
+to a new aspect.
+
+She did not reply instantly.
+
+"I think he was scared," she said after a while. "I was shocked when I
+discovered how much in awe of the colonel he stood. He was just
+terrified at the threat, and yet I know he would have given his life to
+protect me from harm. I think it was just I that spurred him on to make
+the plans he did."
+
+Stafford King agreed with a gesture.
+
+"Now what are we going to do about you?" he asked, half-humorously,
+half-seriously. "I cannot let you go wandering loose about London--I'm
+scared to death as it is."
+
+She smiled at him.
+
+"You had better lock me up," she said flippantly and he nodded in the
+same spirit.
+
+"I know a little house in St. John's Wood that would serve us
+beautifully as a prison," he said. "It has ten rooms and two admirable
+bathrooms. There is central heating and a large shady garden, and if you
+will only let me take you before a Justice of the Peace, or even a
+commonplace clergyman----"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"That isn't prison," she said quietly and put her hand over the table.
+
+He caught it in his and held it tight.
+
+"Maisie," he said, "you know I love you. I love you more dearly than
+anything in the world."
+
+She did not speak.
+
+"As my wife," he went on, "you would be safe and I should be happy. I
+just want you all the time."
+
+Gently she disengaged her hand, shaking her head with a little smile.
+
+"What would that mean, Stafford?" she said. "You know you are deceiving
+me when you agree that my father----" again her voice shook--"no, no,"
+she said, "it would ruin your career to have the daughter of a convict
+for your wife. I realise very well what it will mean, for I know--I
+know--I know!"
+
+"What do you know?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+"I know that all my work will be in vain. But I must go on with it. I
+must, or I shall go mad. I know nothing on earth can clear my father,
+but I'm not going to tell you that again. I just want to think there is
+a possibility that some miracle will happen, that all the evidence
+which even I have against him will be explained away."
+
+He took her unresisting hand in his, and under the cover of the
+tablecloth held it tight.
+
+"That is why I wanted to leave the service," he said, and she looked at
+him quickly.
+
+"Because you thought that it would mean ruin?"
+
+He smiled.
+
+"No, not that. It would hurt you, that is all. Of course, if such a
+thing happened I would be obliged to resign."
+
+"And you'd never forgive yourself."
+
+"I wanted to anticipate such a happening, and, darling, you've got to
+face the future without any other illusions."
+
+She winced at the word "other" but he went on, unnoticing:
+
+"Boundary is a tiger. If he thinks there is reason to fear you, he will
+never let up on you till he has you in his grip. I tell you this," he
+said earnestly, "that for all the power of the police, for all their
+organisation and the backing which the law gives them, they may be
+helpless against this man if he has marked you down for punishment."
+
+"I'm not afraid," she said quietly.
+
+"But I am," said he. "I'm so afraid, that I'm sick with apprehension
+sometimes."
+
+"Poor Stafford!" she said softly, and there was a look in her eyes which
+compensated him for much. "But you mustn't worry, dear. Truly, truly,
+you mustn't worry. I'm quite capable of looking after myself."
+
+"And that's the greatest of all your illusions," he said,
+half-laughingly and half-irritably. "You're just the meekest little
+mouse that ever came under the paw of a cat."
+
+She shook her head smilingly.
+
+"But I tell you I'm speaking seriously," he went on. "I'll do my best to
+look after you. I'll have a man watching you day and night."
+
+"But you mustn't," she protested. "There's no immediate cause for
+worry."
+
+He saw her to the door of the restaurant and showed her into the
+taxi-cab which came at his whistle, and she leant out of the window and
+waved her hand in farewell as she drove off.
+
+Two men stood on the opposite side of the road and watched her depart.
+
+"That's the girl," said Crewe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TAKING OF MAISIE WHITE
+
+
+A week passed without anything exceptional happening, and Maisie White
+had ceased even to harbour doubts as to her own safety--doubts which had
+been present, in spite of the courageous showing she had made before
+Stafford King. Undeterred by her previous experience, she had made
+arrangements with another and a more responsible detective agency and
+had chosen a new watcher, though she had small hopes of obtaining
+results. She knew his task was one of almost insuperable difficulty, and
+she was frank in exposing to him what those difficulties were. Still,
+there was a faint chance that he might discover something, and moreover
+she had another purpose to serve.
+
+She had seen Pinto Silva once. He had called, and she had noticed with
+surprise that the debonair, self-confident man she had known, whose air
+of conscious superiority had been so annoying to her, had undergone a
+considerable change. He was ill-at-ease, almost incoherent at moments,
+and it was a long time before she could discover his business.
+
+This time she received him in her tiny sitting-room, for Pinto was
+somehow less alarming to her than he had been. Perhaps she was conscious
+that at the corner of the street stood a quietly dressed man doing
+nothing particular, who was relieved at the eighth hour by an even less
+obtrusive-looking gentleman from Scotland Yard.
+
+She waited for Pinto to disclose his business, and the Portuguese was
+apparently in no hurry to do so. Presently he blurted it out.
+
+"Look here, Maisie," he said, "you've got things all wrong. Things are
+going to be very rotten for you unless--unless----" he floundered.
+
+"Unless what?" she asked.
+
+"Unless you make up with me," he said in a low voice. "I'm not so bad,
+Maisie, and I'll treat you fair. I've always been in love with you----"
+
+"Stop," she said quietly. "I dare say it is a great honour for a girl
+that any man should be in love with her, but it takes away a little of
+the compliment when the man is already married."
+
+"That's nothing," he said eagerly. "I can divorce her by the laws of my
+country. Maisie, she hates me and I hate her."
+
+"In those circumstances," she smiled, "I wonder you wait until you fall
+in love again before you get divorced. No, Mr. Silva, that story doesn't
+convince me. If you were single or divorced, or if you were ever so
+eligible, I would not marry you."
+
+"Why not?" he demanded truculently. "I've got money."
+
+"So have I," she said, "of a sort."
+
+"My money's as clean as yours, if it is Solomon White's money."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I'm well aware of that, too," she said. "It is Gang money, isn't
+it--loot money. I don't see what good I shall get out of exchanging mine
+for yours, anyway. It is just as dirty. The money doesn't come into it
+at all, Mr. Silva, it is just liking people well enough--for marriage.
+And I don't like you that way."
+
+"You don't like me at all," he growled.
+
+"You're very nearly right," she smiled.
+
+"You're a fool, you're a fool!" he stormed, "you don't know what's
+coming to you. You don't know."
+
+"Perhaps I do," she said. "Perhaps I can guess. But whatever is coming
+to me, as you put it, I prefer that to marrying you."
+
+He started back as though she had struck him across the face, and he
+turned livid.
+
+"You won't say that when----"
+
+He checked himself and without another word left the room, and she
+heard his heavy feet blundering down the stairs.
+
+And then she met him again. It was two nights after. She met him in a
+horrible dream. She dreamt he was flying after her, that they were both
+birds, she a pigeon and he a hawk; and as she made her last desperate
+struggle to escape, she heard his hateful voice in her ear:
+
+"Maisie, Maisie, it is your last chance, your last chance!"
+
+She had gone to bed at ten o'clock that night, and it seemed that she
+had hardly fallen asleep before the vision came. She struggled to sit up
+in bed, she tried to speak, but a big hand was over her mouth.
+
+Then it was true, it was no dream. He was in the room, his hand upon her
+mouth, his voice in her ear. The room was in darkness. There was no
+sound save the sound of his heavy breathing and his voice.
+
+"They'll be up here in five minutes," he whispered. "I can save you from
+hell! I can save you, Maisie! Will you have me?"
+
+She summoned all the strength at her command to shake her head.
+
+"Then keep quiet!"
+
+There was a note of savagery in his voice which made her turn sick.
+
+For a second she filled her lungs to scream, but at that instant a mass
+of cotton-wool was thrust over her face, and she began to breathe in a
+sickly sweet vapour. Somebody else was in the room now. They were
+holding her feet. The voice in her ear said:
+
+"Breathe. Take a deep breath!"
+
+She sobbed and writhed in an agony of mind, but all the time she was
+breathing, she was drawing into her lungs the chloroform with which the
+wool was saturated.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning a uniformed constable, patrolling his
+beat, saw an ambulance drawn up outside a house in Doughty Street. He
+crossed the road to make inquiries.
+
+"A case of scarlet fever," said the driver.
+
+"You don't say," said the sympathetic constable.
+
+The door opened and two men walked out, carrying a figure in a blanket.
+The policeman stood by and saw the "patient" laid upon a stretcher and
+the back of the ambulance closed. Then he continued his walk to the
+corner of the street, where he found, huddled up in a doorway, the
+unconscious figure of a Scotland Yard detective, whose observation had
+been interrupted by a well-directed blow from a life preserver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE COMMISSIONER HAS A THEORY
+
+
+"To all stations. Stop Ambulance Motor No. LKO 9943. Arrest and detain
+driver and any person found therein. Warn all garages and
+report.--COMMISSIONER."
+
+This order flashed from station to station throughout the night, and
+before the dawn, nine thousand policemen were on the look-out for the
+motor ambulance.
+
+"There's a chance, of course," said Stafford, "but it is a poor chance."
+
+He was looking white and heavy-eyed.
+
+"I don't know, sir," said Southwick, his subordinate. "There's always a
+chance that a crook will do the obviously wrong thing. I suppose you've
+no theory as to where they have gone?"
+
+"Not out of town--of that I'm certain," said King, "that is why the
+quest is so hopeless. Why, they'll have got to their destination hours
+before the message went out!"
+
+They were standing in the girl's bedroom, which still reeked with
+chloroform, and all the clues were piled together on the table. There
+were not many. There was a pad of cotton-wool, a half-empty bottle of
+chloroform, bearing the label of a well-known wholesaler, and one of a
+pair of old wash-leather gloves, which had evidently been worn by
+somebody in his desire to avoid leaving finger-prints.
+
+"We've not much to go on there," said Stafford disconsolately; "the
+chloroform may have been sold years ago. Any chemist would have supplied
+the cotton-wool, and as for the glove"--he picked it up and looked at it
+carefully, then he carried it to the light.
+
+Old as it was, it was of good shape and quality, and when new had
+probably been supplied to order by a first-class glove-maker.
+
+"There's nothing here," said Stafford again, and threw the glove back on
+the table.
+
+A policeman came into the room and saluted.
+
+"I've cycled over from the Yard, sir. We have had a message asking you
+to go at once to Sir Stanley Belcom's private house."
+
+"How did Sir Stanley know about this affair?" asked Stafford listlessly.
+
+"He telephoned through, sir, about five o'clock this morning. He often
+makes an early inquiry."
+
+Stafford looked round. There was nothing more that he could do. He
+passed down the stairs into the street and jumped on to the motor-cycle
+which had brought him to the scene.
+
+Sir Stanley Belcom lived in Cavendish Place, and Stafford had been a
+frequent visitor to the house. Sir Stanley was a childless widower, who
+was wont to complain that he kept up his huge establishment in order to
+justify the employment of his huge staff of servants. Stafford suspected
+him of being something of a sybarite. His dinners were famous, his
+cellar was one of the best in London and because of his acquaintances
+and friendships in the artistic sets, he was something of a dabbler in
+the arts he patronised.
+
+The door was opened and an uncomfortable-looking butler was waiting on
+the step to receive Stafford.
+
+"You'll find Sir Stanley in the library, sir," he said.
+
+Despite his sorrow, Stafford could not help smiling at this attempt on
+the part of an English servant to offer the conventional greeting in
+spite of the hour.
+
+"I'm afraid we've got you up early, Perkins," he said.
+
+"Not at all, sir."
+
+The man's stout face creased in a smile.
+
+"Sir Stanley's a rare gentleman for getting up in the middle of the
+night and ordering a meal."
+
+Stafford found his grey-haired chief, arrayed in a flowered silk
+dressing-gown, balancing bread on an electric toaster.
+
+"Bad news, eh, Stafford?" he said. "Sit down and have some coffee. The
+girl is gone?"
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"And our unfortunate detective-constable, who was sent to watch, is
+half-way to the mortuary, I presume?"
+
+"Not so bad as that, sir," said Stafford, "but he's got a pretty bad
+crack. He's recovered consciousness but remembers nothing that
+happened."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"Very scientifically done," he said admiringly. "This, of course, is the
+work of the Boundary Gang."
+
+"I wish----" began Stafford between his teeth.
+
+"Save your breath, my friend," smiled Sir Stanley; "wishing will do
+nothing. You could arrest every known member of the gang, and they'd
+have twenty alibis ready, and jolly good alibis too. It is years since
+the colonel staged an outrage of this kind and his right hand has not
+lost its cunning. Look at the organisation of it! The men get into the
+house without attracting the attention of your watcher. Then, at the
+exact second that the ambulance is due, along comes their 'cosher,'
+knocks down the policeman on duty. I don't suppose the thing took more
+than ten minutes. Everything was timed. They must have known the hour
+the policeman on the beat passed along the street."
+
+Sir Stanley poured out the coffee with his own hands, and relapsed back
+into his armchair.
+
+"Why do you think they did it?"
+
+"They were afraid of her, sir," said Stafford.
+
+Sir Stanley laughed softly.
+
+"I can't imagine Boundary being afraid of a girl."
+
+"She was Solly White's daughter," said Stafford.
+
+"Even then I can't understand it," replied the chief, "unless--by jove!
+Of course."
+
+He hit his knee a smack and Stafford waited.
+
+"Probably they've got some other game on, but I'll tell you one of the
+ideas of taking that girl--it is to bring back Solomon White. He
+disappeared, didn't he?"
+
+Stafford nodded.
+
+"That's the game--to bring back Solomon White. And whatever the danger
+to himself, he'll be in London to-morrow as soon as this news is known."
+
+Sir Stanley sat thinking, with his chin in his hand, his forehead
+wrinkled.
+
+"There's some other reason, too. Now, what is it?"
+
+Stafford guessed, but did not say.
+
+"That girl will take some recovering before harm comes to her," said Sir
+Stanley softly, "your only hope is that friend Jack comes to your
+rescue."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Sir Stanley nodded and the other smiled sadly.
+
+"That's unlikely," he said; "indeed, it is impossible. I think I might
+as well tell you my own theory as to why she was taken and why Boundary
+took so much trouble to capture her."
+
+"What is your theory?" asked Sir Stanley curiously.
+
+"My theory, sir, is that she is Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford King.
+
+"She--Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Sir Stanley was on his feet staring at him.
+
+"Impossible! It is a man----"
+
+"You seem to forget, sir," said Stafford, "that Miss White is a
+wonderful mimic."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"She wants to clear her father. She told me that only a week ago. And
+then I've been making inquiries on my own. I found that she was seen
+coming out of the Albemarle mansion, the night that Jack made his last
+visit to Boundary's flat."
+
+Sir Stanley rose.
+
+"Wait," he said and left the room.
+
+Presently he came back with something in his hand.
+
+"If Miss White is Jack o' Judgment, and if she were captured to-night,
+how do you account for this? it was under my pillow when I woke up."
+
+He laid on the table the familiar Jack of Clubs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN THE TURKISH BATHS
+
+
+Colonel Boundary had a breakfast party of three. Though he had been up
+the whole of the night, he showed no signs of weariness. Not so Pinto or
+Crewe, who looked fagged out and all the more tired because they were
+both conspicuously unshaven.
+
+"Half the game's won," said the colonel. "We'll get rid of this girl and
+Solly White by the same stroke. I'm afraid of Solly, he knows too much.
+By the way, Raoul is coming over."
+
+"Raoul!" said Crewe, sitting up suddenly, "why, colonel, you're mad!
+Didn't the Scotland Yard man tell you----"
+
+"That he suspected a French hand in the case of 'Snow' Gregory? All the
+more reason why Raoul should come," said the colonel calmly; "he ought
+to report this morning."
+
+"You're taking a risk," growled Pinto.
+
+"Nothing unusual," replied the colonel, shelling a plover's egg. "It is
+the last thing in the world they would suspect at Scotland Yard after
+their warning, that I should bring Raoul over again. Besides, they don't
+know him anyway. He's just a harmless young French cabinet-maker. He
+doesn't talk and I will get him out of the silly habit of leaving his
+visiting-card."
+
+There was a silence, which Crewe broke.
+
+"You want him for----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence.
+
+"For work," replied the colonel. "It is a thousand pities, but it would
+be a thousand times more so if you and I were jugged, and waiting in the
+condemned cell for the arrival of Mr. Ellis, the eminent hangman.
+Raoul's a workman. We can trust him. He doesn't try any funny business.
+He lives out of this country and I can cover his tracks. Besides," the
+colonel went on, "I shall give him enough to live in comfort for the
+next two years. Raoul is a grateful little beast, and thank God! he can
+neither read nor write."
+
+"I don't like it," said Crewe. "I hate that kind of thing. Why not give
+Solly a chance? Why not get up a fight--a duel, anything but
+cold-blooded murder?"
+
+The colonel turned his cold eyes upon the other, and his lips parted in
+a mirthless smile.
+
+"You're speaking up to your character now, aren't you, Crewe?" he said
+unpleasantly. "You're 'Gentleman Crewe' once again, eh? Want to do
+everything in the public school fashion? Well, you can cut out all that
+stuff and feed it to the pigs. I'm Dan Boundary, looking forward to a
+pleasant old age. There's nothing of the Knights of the Round Table
+about me."
+
+Crewe flushed.
+
+"All right," he said, "have it your own way."
+
+"You bet your life I'm going to have it my own way," said the colonel.
+"Have you seen the girl this morning, Pinto?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+"You'll keep away from there for a couple of days. I've got Boyton on
+the spot and he'll be feeding her with bromide till she won't care
+whether she's in hell or Wigan. Besides, we'll all be shadowed for the
+next day or two, make no mistake about that. Stafford King won't let the
+grass grow under his feet. And now, you chaps, go home and try to look
+as though you've had a night's rest."
+
+After their departure the colonel made his own preparations. There were
+Turkish baths in Westminster and it was to the Turkish baths he went.
+Clad in a towel, he passed from hot room to hot room, and finally came
+to the big, vaulted saloon, tiled from floor to roof, where in
+canvas-backed chairs the bathers doze and read. The colonel lay back in
+his chair, his eyes closed, apparently oblivious to his surroundings.
+Nor was it to be observed that he saw the thin little man who came and
+sat beside him. The new-comer was sallow-skinned and lantern-jawed, and
+his long arms were tattooed from shoulder to wrist.
+
+"Here!" said a soft voice in French.
+
+The colonel did not open his eyes. He merely dropped the palm fan which
+he was idly waving to and fro so that it hid his mouth.
+
+"Do you remember a Monsieur White?" he said in the same tone.
+
+"Perfectly," replied the other. "He was the man who would not have your
+little 'coco' friend--disposed of."
+
+"That is the man," said the other. "You have a good memory, Raoul."
+
+"Monsieur, my memory is wonderful, but alas! one cannot live on memory,"
+he added sententiously.
+
+"Then remember this: there is a place near London called Putney Heath."
+
+"Putney Heath," repeated the other.
+
+"There is a house called Bishopsholme."
+
+"Bishopsholme," repeated the other.
+
+"It is empty--to let, _a louer_, you understand. It is in a sad state of
+desolation. The garden, the house--you know the kind of place?"
+
+"Perfectly, monsieur."
+
+"At nine o'clock to-night and at nine o'clock to-morrow night you will
+be near the door. There is a large clump of bushes, behind which you
+will stand. You will stay there until ten. Between those hours M. White
+will approach and go into the house. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, monsieur," said the voice again.
+
+"You will shoot him so that he dies immediately."
+
+"He is a dead man," said the other.
+
+There was a long pause.
+
+"I will pay you sixty thousand francs, and I will have a motor-car to
+take you direct to Dover. You will catch the night boat for Ostend. Your
+passport will be in order, and you can make your way to Paris at your
+leisure. The payment you will receive in Paris. Is that satisfactory?"
+
+"Eminently so, monsieur," said the other. "I need a little for expenses
+for the moment. Also I wish information as to where the motor-car will
+meet me."
+
+"It will be waiting for you at the corner of the first road past the
+house, on the way from London. You will not speak to the chauffeur and
+he will not speak to you. In the car you will find sufficient money for
+your immediate needs. Is there any necessity to explain further?"
+
+"None whatever, monsieur," said the soft voice, and Raoul dropped his
+head on one side as though he were sleeping.
+
+As for the colonel, he did not simulate slumber, but passed into
+dreamland, sleeping quietly and calmly, with a look of benevolence upon
+his big face.
+
+The only other occupant of the cooling room, a big-framed man who was
+reading a newspaper, closed his eyes too--but he did not sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOLOMON COMES BACK
+
+
+At nine o'clock that night the colonel, in immaculate evening-dress, sat
+playing double-dummy bridge with his two companions. In the light of the
+big shaded lamp overhead there was something particularly peaceful and
+innocent in their occupation. No word was spoken save of the game.
+
+It was a quarter to nine, noted the colonel, looking at the little
+French clock on the mantelpiece. He rose, walked to the window and
+looked out. It was a stormy night and the wind was howling down the
+street, sending the rain in noisy splashes against the window panes. He
+grumbled his satisfaction and returned to the table.
+
+"Did you see the paper?" asked Pinto presently.
+
+"I saw the paper," said the colonel, not looking up from his hand. "I
+make a point of reading the newspapers."
+
+"You see they've made a feature of----"
+
+"Mention no names," said the colonel. "I know they've made a feature
+about it. So much the better. Everything depends----"
+
+It was as he spoke that Solomon White came into the room. Boundary knew
+it was he before the door handle turned, before the hum of voices in the
+hall outside had ceased, but it was with a great pretence of surprise
+that he looked up.
+
+"Why, if it isn't Solomon White!" he said.
+
+The man was haggard and sick-looking. He had evidently dressed in a
+hurry, for his cravat was ill-tied and the collar gaped. He strode
+slowly up to the table and Boundary's manservant, with a little grin,
+closed the door.
+
+"Where have you been all this time, Solomon?" asked Boundary genially.
+"Sit you down and play a hand."
+
+"You know why I've come," breathed Solomon White.
+
+"Surely I know why you've come. You've come to explain where you've
+been, old boy. Sit down," said Boundary.
+
+"Where is my daughter?" asked White.
+
+"Where is your daughter?" repeated the colonel. "Well, that's a queer
+question to ask us. _We've_ been saying where is Solomon White all this
+time."
+
+"I've been to Brighton," said the man, "but that's nothing to do with
+it."
+
+"Been at Brighton? A very pleasant place, too," said Boundary. "And what
+were you doing at Brighton?"
+
+"Keeping out of your way, damn you!" said White fiercely. "Trying to
+cure the fear of you which has made a rank coward of me. If you wanted
+to find a method for curing me, colonel, you've found it. I've come back
+for my daughter--where is she?"
+
+The colonel pushed his chair back from the table and looked up with a
+quizzical smile.
+
+"Now you're not going to take it hard, Solomon," he said. "We had to
+have you back and that was the only scheme we could think of. You see,
+there are lots of little bits of business that have to be cleared up,
+bits of business in which you had a hand the same as my other business
+associates."
+
+"Where is the girl?" asked the man steadily.
+
+"Well, I'm going to admit to you," said the colonel, with a fine show of
+frankness, "that I've put her away--no harm has come to her, you
+understand. She's at a little place at Putney Heath, a house I took
+specially for her, surrounded by loving guardians----"
+
+"Like Pinto?" asked the man, looking down at the silent Silva.
+
+"Like Lollie. Now you can't deny that Lollie's a very nice girl," said
+the colonel. "Sit down, Solomon, and talk things over."
+
+"When I've got my girl I'll talk things over with you. Where is this
+place?"
+
+"It is on Putney Heath," said the colonel. "Now aren't I being
+straightforward with you? If I had any bad designs against the girl,
+should I tell you where she is? If you go there, Solomon, take some of
+your copper friends."
+
+"I have no copper friends," said the man angrily. "You know that well
+enough. What am I that I should go to the police? Can I go to them with
+clean hands?"
+
+"Well, that's a question I've often asked myself," said the colonel.
+"I've often said----"
+
+"What is the name of the house?" interrupted White. "I want to see
+whether you're playing square with me, Boundary, and if you're not,
+by----"
+
+"Don't threaten me, don't threaten me, Solomon," said the colonel with a
+good-humoured gesture. "I'm a nervous man and I suffer from heart
+disease. You ought to know better than that. Bishopsholme is the place.
+It is the fourth big house after passing Tredennis Road--a fine villa
+standing in its own grounds. It looks a bit deserted because it was
+empty until a few days ago, when I put a scrap or two of furniture into
+it. Why not wait----"
+
+"First I'll find out whether you're speaking the truth, and if you're
+not----"
+
+"Gently, gently," growled Crewe. "What's the good of kicking up a row,
+White? The colonel's dealing straighter with you than you're dealing
+with us."
+
+He was not in the colonel's secrets, and he himself was deceived,
+thinking that the girl had been removed to the house which he now heard
+about for the first time, and that the sole object of the abduction was
+to bring White back.
+
+"Stay a while," said Boundary. "It is only just nine----"
+
+But White was gone.
+
+He pushed past the servant, one of the readiest and most dangerous of
+the colonel's instruments, and into the half-dark corridor. There was a
+light on the landing below, and as he ran down the stairs he thought he
+saw somebody standing there. It looked like a woman till the figure
+turned, and then Solomon White stood stock still. It was the first time
+he had seen Jack o' Judgment. The shimmer of the black silk coat, the
+curious suggestion of pallor which the white mask conveyed, the slouch
+hat, throwing a black bar of shadow diagonally across the face, lent the
+figure a peculiarly sinister aspect.
+
+"Stand!"
+
+The voice was commanding, the glittering revolver in the figure's hand
+more so.
+
+"Who are you?" gasped Solomon White.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment! Have you ever heard of little Jack?" chuckled the
+figure. "Oh, here's a new one--Solomon White, too, and never heard of
+Jack o' Judgment! Didn't you see me when they took me out of 'Snow'
+Gregory's pocket? Little Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+Solomon White stepped back, his face twitching.
+
+"I had nothing to do with that," he said hoarsely, "nothing to do with
+that, do you hear?"
+
+"Where are you going? Won't you tell Jack something, give him a bit of
+news? Poor old Jack hears nothing these days," sighed the figure,
+laughter bubbling between the words.
+
+"I'm going on private business. Get out of my way," said the other,
+remembering the urgency of his mission.
+
+"But you'll tell Jack o' Judgment?" wheedled the figure, "you'll tell
+poor old Jack where you are going to find your beautiful daughter?"
+
+"You know!" said the man.
+
+He took a step forward, but the revolver waved him back.
+
+"You'll speak, or you don't pass," said Jack o' Judgment. "You don't
+pass until you speak; do you hear, Solomon White?"
+
+The man thought.
+
+"It is a place called Bishopsholme," he said gruffly, "on Putney Heath.
+Now let me pass."
+
+"Wait, wait!" said the figure eagerly, "wait for me--only five minutes!
+I won't keep you! But don't go, there's death there, Solomon White! It
+is waiting for you--don't you feel it in your bones?"
+
+The voice sank to a whisper, and in spite of himself, a cold shiver
+passed down White's spine. He half-turned to go back.
+
+"Wait!" said the figure again eagerly, fiercely. "I shall not keep you a
+minute--a second!"
+
+Solomon White stood irresolutely, and the mask seemed to melt into the
+darkness. White strained his ears to catch the soft patter of its shoes
+as it mounted the stairs, but no sound came. Then with a start he seemed
+to awake as if from a bad dream, and without another word strode down
+the remaining stairs into the night.
+
+On the landing above, the strange being who called himself "Jack o'
+Judgment" stood outside the door of Boundary's flat. He had taken a key
+from his pocket and had it poised, when he heard the clatter of the
+other's feet. He stood undecidedly, but only for a second, then the key
+slipped into the lock and the door opened. The butler from his little
+pantry saw the figure and slammed his own door, bolting it with
+trembling fingers.
+
+In a second Jack o' Judgment was in the room facing the paralysed trio.
+
+He spoke no word, but suddenly his right arm was raised, some shining
+object flew from his hand, and there was a crash of glass and instantly
+a vile odour. On the opposite wall where the bottle had broken appeared
+a dark and irregular stain.
+
+Then, without so much as a laugh, he stepped back through the door and
+raced down the stairs in pursuit of White. It was too late; the man had
+disappeared. Jack o' Judgment stood for a moment listening, then he
+slipped off the black coat and ripped off the mask. The coat was of the
+finest silk, for he rolled it into the space of a pocket-handkerchief
+and slipped it in his pocket. The handkerchief went the same way. If
+there had been observers, they would have caught a glimpse of a man in
+evening dress as he went swiftly down the half-lighted stairway.
+
+He turned and walked in the shadow of the building and passed down a
+side street, where a big limousine was awaiting him. He gave a murmured
+direction to the driver, and the car sped on its way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE JUDGMENT OF DEATH
+
+
+Solomon White had a taxi waiting, and gave his directions. He was
+sufficiently loyal to the band to avoid calling especial attention to
+the house where the girl was imprisoned, and he told his cab to wait at
+the end of Putney Heath. The night was wild and boisterous and very
+dark, but he carried an electric torch, and presently he came to
+weather-stained gates bearing in letters which had half-faded the name
+he sought. He pushed open the gate with some trouble. There was a
+curving carriage-drive which led to the front door, which stood at the
+head of a flight of steps under a square and ugly portico.
+
+He looked up at the building, but it was in darkness. Apparently it was
+empty, but he knew enough of the colonel's methods to know that Boundary
+would not advertise the presence of the girl to the outside world.
+
+He stood hesitating, wondering. The whole thing might be a trap, but
+Solomon White was not easily scared. He took a revolver from his pocket,
+drew back the hammer and walked forward cautiously. There was no sign of
+life. The rustling of shrubs and trees was the only mournful sound which
+varied the roar of the storm.
+
+He was opposite the door, and one foot was raised to surmount the first
+step, when there came a sound like the sharp tap of a drum.
+
+"Rap-rap!"
+
+Solomon White stood for fully a second before he crumbled and fell, and
+he was dead before he reached the ground.
+
+Still there was no sign or sound of life. A church clock boomed out the
+quarter to ten. A motor-car went past, and then the laurel bushes by the
+side of the steps moved, and a man in a black mackintosh stepped out. He
+bent over the dead man, picked up the fallen torch and flashed the light
+on the dead man's face, then, with a grunt of satisfaction, Raoul
+Pontarlier unscrewed his Soubet silencer and slipped his automatic into
+the wet pocket of his mackintosh.
+
+Feeling in an inside pocket for a cigarette, he found one and lit it
+from the smouldering end of a tinder-lighter. Then, carefully concealing
+the lighted cigarette in the palm of his hand, he walked softly and
+noiselessly down the drive, keeping to the shadow of the bushes and
+watching to left and right for signs of approaching pedestrians. At two
+points he could see the heath road, and nobody was in sight. There was
+plenty of time, and men had been ruined by haste. He reached the gate
+and carefully looked over. The road was deserted. His hand was on the
+gate, when something cold and hard was pushed against his ear and he
+turned round.
+
+"Put up your hands!" said a mocking voice. "Put them up!"
+
+The Frenchman's hands rose slowly.
+
+"Now turn round and face the house. Quick!" said the voice. "_Marchez!_
+Halt!"
+
+Raoul stopped. If he could only get his hands down and duck, one
+lightning dive....
+
+His captor evidently read his thoughts, for he felt a hand slip into his
+mackintosh pocket, and he was relieved of the weight of his automatic.
+
+"Go forward, up the steps. Stop!"
+
+The stranger had seen the huddled figure of White, and stooped over him.
+He made no comment. He knew the man was dead before his hands had
+touched him.
+
+"Mount the steps, _canaille!_" said the voice, and Raoul walked slowly
+up the steps of the house and halted with his face against the door.
+
+A hand came up under his uplifted arm and sought the keyhole. A few
+minutes' fumbling until the prongs of the skeleton key had found its
+corresponding wards, and then the door swung open, emitting a scent of
+mustiness and decay.
+
+"_Marchez!_" said the stranger, and Raoul walked forward and heard the
+door slam behind him.
+
+The house was not empty, in the sense that it was unfurnished. The
+unknown was using an electric torch of extraordinary brilliancy, and
+revealed a dilapidated hall-stand and a musty chair. He took a brief
+survey and then:
+
+"Down those stairs!" he said, and the murderer obeyed.
+
+They were in the kitchen now, and again the bright light gleamed about.
+The windows were heavily shuttered, the grate was rusty, and a few odd
+pieces of china on the sideboard were dirty. There was a gas bracket in
+the centre over a large deal table, and this the stranger turned on. He
+heard the hiss of escaping gas, struck a match and lit it, and then for
+the first time Raoul gazed in fear and astonishment upon the man who
+held him.
+
+"Monsieur," he stammered, "who are you?"
+
+The masked figure slipped his hand into his pocket and flicked a card
+upon the table, and Raoul, looking down, saw the Jack of Clubs, and knew
+that his end was near.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three hours the Frenchman had lain on the floor, tied hand and foot,
+a gag in his mouth, and the clocks were striking two when Jack o'
+Judgment came back. This time he wore neither mask nor coat but over his
+arm he carried a coil of fine rope. Raoul watched him, fascinated, as he
+walked about the kitchen, whistling softly to himself, and now and again
+breaking into scraps of song.
+
+"Monsieur, monsieur," blubbered the terrified man, "I would make a
+confession. I will make a statement before the judge----"
+
+Jack o' Judgment smiled.
+
+"You shall make a statement before your judge, for I am he," he said,
+"and I think this is the place."
+
+He glanced up at the high roof of the kitchen, for there was a stout
+hook, where in old times heavy sides of bacon hung. He drew the table
+under the place and put a chair on top. Then he mounted, and with a
+skillful cast of his rope caught the hook and drew the rope slowly
+through. He did not move the table or take any notice of the man on the
+floor, but stood as a workman might stand who was calculating distances,
+and all the time he whistled softly.
+
+"Monsieur, monsieur, for God's sake spare me! I will make reparation!"
+
+"You speak truly," said the other without taking his eyes from the rope,
+"for it is reparation you make this night for two dead men, and God
+knows how many besides."
+
+"Two?"
+
+The murderer twisted his head.
+
+"For a man called Gregory particularly," said Jack o' Judgment, "shot
+down like a mad dog."
+
+"I was paid to do it. I knew nothing against him, I had no malice in my
+heart," said the man eagerly.
+
+"Nor have I," said Jack o' Judgment, "for behold! I shall kill you
+without passion, as a warning to all villains of all nationalities."
+
+"This is against the law," whined the man, beads of sweat standing on
+his forehead. "Give me a knife and let me fight you. You coward!"
+
+"Give Solomon White a pistol, and let him fight you," said the other.
+"It is against the law--well, I know it. But it is much more speedy than
+the law, my little cabbage!"
+
+He was busy making a slip-knot at one end of the rope, and presently he
+had finished it to his satisfaction.
+
+"Raoul Pontarlier," he said, "this is a moment for which I have waited."
+
+The man screamed and twisted his head, but the noose was about his neck
+and tightening. Then with a wrench Jack o' Judgment jerked him to his
+feet.
+
+"On to the table," he said sternly. "Mount! It is quicker so!"
+
+"I will not, I will not!" yelled the Frenchman. His voice rose to a
+shrill scream. "I--help!... help!..."
+
+Half an hour later Jack o' Judgment came down the dark path, stopping
+only for a second to look upon the figure of Solomon White.
+
+"God have mercy on you all!" he said soberly, and passed into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED
+
+
+"The Putney mystery," said the _Daily Megaphone_, "surpasses any of
+recent years in its sensational character. There is a touch of the
+bizarre in this grim spectacle of the dead man at the door of the empty
+house, and the swaying figure of his murderer hanging in the kitchen,
+with no other mark of identification than a playing card pinned to his
+breast.
+
+"The tragedy can be reconstructed up to a point. Mr. White was evidently
+killed in the garden by the Frenchman who was found hanging. The
+automatic pistol in his pocket, which had recently been discharged,
+might support this theory even if the police had not found tracks of his
+feet in the laurels. But who hanged the man Raoul with a hangman's rope?
+That is the supreme mystery of all. The Putney police can offer no
+information on the subject, and Scotland Yard is as reticent. The
+circumstances of the discovery are as follows. At three o'clock on the
+morning of the 4th, Police-Constable Robinson, who was patrolling his
+beat, entered the garden, as is customary when houses are empty, to see
+if any doors had been forced. There had been an epidemic of burglaries
+in the region of Putney Heath during the past two or three months, and
+the police are exercising unusual vigilance in relation to these houses.
+The constable might not have made his inspection that night but for the
+fact that the garden gate had been left wide open...."
+
+Here followed an account of how the body was found and how further
+investigation led the constable to the kitchen to make his second
+gruesome discovery.
+
+Colonel Boundary folded up the paper slowly and put it down. He had
+bought a copy of an early edition of the evening newspaper as he was
+stepping into his car, and now he was driving slowly through the park.
+He lit a cigar and gazed stolidly from the window. But his face showed
+no sign of mental perturbation.
+
+The car had made the circuit of the Park twice when, turning again by
+Marble Arch, he saw Crewe standing on the sidewalk. A word to his
+chauffeur, and the machine drew up.
+
+"Come in," he said curtly, and the other obeyed.
+
+The hand that he lifted to take his cigarette from his lips trembled,
+and the colonel eyed him with quiet amusement.
+
+"They've got you rattled too, have they?" he said.
+
+"My God! It's awful!" said Crewe. "Awful!"
+
+"What's awful about it?" asked the colonel. "White's dead, ain't he? And
+Raoul's dead, ain't he? Two men who might talk and give a lot of
+trouble."
+
+"What did he say before he died? That's what I've been thinking. What
+did he say?"
+
+"Who? Raoul?" demanded the colonel. He had asked himself the same
+question before. "What could he say? Anyway, if he had a statement to
+make, and his statement was worth taking, why, he'd be alive to-day!
+Raoul was the one witness that they wanted, if they only knew it.
+They've bungled pretty badly, whoever they are."
+
+"This Jack o' Judgment," quavered Crewe, his mouth working. "Who is he?
+What is he?"
+
+"How do I know?" snarled the colonel. "You ask me these fool
+questions--do you expect a reply? They're dead, and that's done with.
+I'd sooner he killed Raoul than made a mess of my room, anyway!"
+
+"Why did he do it?" asked Crewe.
+
+The colonel growled something about fools and their questions, but
+offered no explanation.
+
+"It may have been a monkey trick to make us change our quarters--the
+stuff was sulphuretted hydrogen and asafoetida. It may have been just
+bravado, but if he thinks he can scare me----"
+
+He sucked viciously at his cigar end.
+
+"I've got workmen in to strip the walls and re-paper the bit that's
+soiled," he said. "I'll be back there to-night."
+
+The colonel threw the end of his cigar from the window and relapsed into
+moody reverie. When he spoke it was in a more cheerful tone.
+
+"Crewe," he said, "that guy at Scotland Yard has given me an idea."
+
+"Which guy?" asked Crewe, steadying his voice.
+
+"The First Commissioner," said the colonel, lighting another cigar. "He
+particularly wanted to know if 'Snow' had any relations. Curse 'Snow'!"
+he said between his teeth, and dropping his mask of urbanity. "I wish
+he'd--well, it doesn't matter; he's dead, anyway--he's dead."
+
+"Relations?" said Crewe. "Did you tell him anything?"
+
+"I told him all I knew, and that was very little," said the colonel,
+"but it struck me that Sir Stanley knows much more about this fellow
+'Snow' than we do. At any rate, somebody's been making inquiries, and I
+guess that somebody is the fellow who settled Raoul."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," repeated the colonel grimly. "You showed 'Snow'
+Gregory into the gang--what do you know about him?"
+
+Crewe shook his head.
+
+"Very little," he said. "I met him in Monte Carlo. He was down and out.
+He seemed a likely fellow--educated, a gentleman and all that sort of
+thing--and when I found that he'd hit the dope, I thought he'd be the
+kind of man you might want."
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"He never talked about his relations. The only thing I know was that he
+had a father or an uncle, who was in India, and I gathered that he had
+forged his name to a bill. When I arrived in Monte Carlo he was
+spending the money as fast as he could. I guess that was why he called
+himself Gregory, for I'm sure it wasn't his name."
+
+"You're sure he never spoke of a brother?"
+
+"Never," said Crewe; "he never talked about himself at all. He was
+generally under the influence of dope or was recovering from it."
+
+The colonel pushed back his hat and rubbed his forehead.
+
+"There must be some way of identifying him," he said. "He came from
+Oxford, you say?"
+
+"Yes, I know that," said Crewe; "he spoke of it once."
+
+"What house in Oxford? There are several colleges, aren't there?"
+
+"From Balliol," said Crewe. "I distinctly remember him talking about
+Balliol."
+
+"What year would that be?"
+
+Crewe reflected.
+
+"He left college two years before I met him at Monte Carlo," he said;
+"that would be----" He gave the year.
+
+"Well, it is pretty simple," said the colonel. "Send a man to Oxford and
+get the names of all the men that left Balliol in that year. Find out
+how many you can trace, and I dare say that will narrow the search down
+to two or three men. Now get after this at once, Crewe. Spare no
+expense. If it costs half a million I'm going to discover who Mr. Jack
+o' Judgment is when he's at home."
+
+He dismissed Crewe and gave fresh instructions to his driver, and ten
+minutes later he was stepping out of his limousine at the entrance to
+Scotland Yard.
+
+Stafford King was not in, or at any rate was not available. Greatly
+daring, the colonel sent his card to the First Commissioner. Sir Stanley
+Belcom read the name and raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Show him in," he said, and for the second time the colonel was ushered
+into the presence of the chief.
+
+"Well, colonel," said Sir Stanley, "this is rather a dreadful
+business."
+
+"Terrible, terrible!" said the colonel, shaking his head. "Solomon White
+was one of my best friends. I've been searching for him for weeks."
+
+"So I've heard," said Sir Stanley dryly. "Have you any theory?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"What about this man called Raoul? Is he unknown to you?" asked Sir
+Stanley.
+
+"That's what I've come to see you about, sir," said the colonel in a
+confidential tone. "You remember the last time I was here, you suggested
+that possibly the murderer of poor Gregory might be a Frenchman. _You_
+remember how you told me that these French assassins have a trick of
+leaving some fantastic card or sign of their handiwork?"
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"Well, here you have the same thing repeated," said the colonel
+triumphantly, "and the identical card. Do you think, sir, that the
+murderer of my poor friend Gregory and my poor friend White was the same
+man?"
+
+"In fact, Raoul?" asked Sir Stanley.
+
+The colonel nodded, and for a few moments Sir Stanley communed with his
+well-kept finger-nails.
+
+"I don't think it will do any harm if I tell you that that is my theory
+also, Colonel Boundary," he said, "and, giving confidence for
+confidence, would you have any objection to telling me whether Raoul is
+one of your--er--business associates?"
+
+There was just the slightest shade of irony in the last two words, but
+the colonel preferred to ignore it.
+
+"I'm very glad you asked me that question, sir," he said with a sigh, so
+palpably a sigh of relief that the recording angel might be excused if
+he were deceived. "I have never seen Raoul before. In fact, my knowledge
+of Frenchmen is a very small one. I do very little business in France,
+and I certainly do no business at all with men of that class."
+
+"What class?" asked the other quickly.
+
+The colonel shrugged his big shoulders.
+
+"I am only going on what the newspapers say," he said. "They suggest
+that this man is an apache."
+
+"You do not know him?" asked Sir Stanley after a pause.
+
+"I have never seen him in my life," said the colonel.
+
+Again Sir Stanley examined his finger-nails as though searching for some
+flaw.
+
+"Then you will be surprised to learn," he drawled at last, "that you sat
+next to him in the cooling-room of the Yildiz Turkish Baths."
+
+The colonel's heart missed a beat, but he did not flinch.
+
+"You surprise me," he said. "I have only been to the Turkish baths once
+during the past three months, and that was yesterday."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"According to my information, which was supplied to me by my very able
+assistant, Mr. Stafford King, that was also the morning when Raoul was
+seen to enter that building."
+
+"And he sat next to me?" said the colonel incredulously.
+
+"He sat next to you," said Sir Stanley, with evidence of enjoyment.
+
+"Well, that is the most amazing coincidence," exclaimed the colonel, "I
+have ever met with in my life! To imagine that that scoundrel sat
+shoulder to shoulder with me--good heavens! It makes me hot to think
+about it."
+
+"I was afraid it would," said the First Commissioner.
+
+He pressed the bell and his secretary came in.
+
+"See if Mr. Stafford King is in the building, and tell him to come to
+me, please," he said. "You see, colonel, we were hoping you would supply
+us with a great deal of very useful information. We naturally thought it
+was something more than a coincidence that this man and you should
+foregather at a Turkish bath--a most admirable rendezvous, by the way."
+
+"You may accept my word of honour," said Colonel Boundary impressively,
+"that I had no more idea of that man's presence, or of his identity, or
+of his very existence, than you had."
+
+Stafford King came in at that moment, and the colonel, noting the
+haggard face and the look of care in the dark-lined eyes, felt a certain
+amount of satisfaction.
+
+"I've just been telling the colonel about his meeting in the Turkish
+baths," said Sir Stanley. "I suppose there is no doubt at all as to that
+happening?"
+
+"None whatever, sir," said Stafford shortly. "Both the colonel and this
+man were seen by Sergeant Livingstone."
+
+"The colonel suggests that it was a coincidence, and that he has never
+spoken to the man," said Sir Stanley. "What do you say to that, King?"
+
+Stafford King's lips curled.
+
+"If the colonel says so, of course, it must be true."
+
+"Sarcasm never worries me," said the colonel. "I'm always getting into
+trouble, and I'm always getting out again. Give a dog a bad name
+and----"
+
+He stopped. There arose in his mind a mental picture of a man swinging
+in an underground kitchen, and in spite of his self-control he
+shuddered.
+
+"And hang him, eh?" said Sir Stanley. "Now, I'm going to put matters to
+you very plainly, colonel. There have been three or four very unpleasant
+happenings. There has been the death of the chief witness for the Crown
+against you; there has been the death of this unhappy man White, who was
+closely associated with you in your business deals, and who had recently
+broken away from you, unless our information is inaccurate; there is the
+death of Raoul, who was seen seated next to you and apparently carrying
+on a conversation behind a fan."
+
+"He never spoke a word to me," protested the colonel.
+
+"And we have the disappearance of Miss White, which is one of the most
+important of the happenings, because we have reason to believe that Miss
+White, at any rate, is still alive," said Sir Stanley, taking no notice
+of the interruption. "Now, colonel, you may or may not have the key to
+all these mysteries. You may or may not know who your mysterious friend,
+the Jack o' Judgment----"
+
+"He's no friend of mine, by heaven!" said the colonel, and neither man
+doubted that he spoke the truth.
+
+"As I say, you may know all these things. But principally at this moment
+we are anxious to secure authentic news concerning Miss White. Both I
+and Mr. Stafford King have particular reasons for desiring information
+on that subject. Can you help us?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"If by spending a hundred thousand pounds I could help you, I would do
+it," he said fervently, "but as to Miss White and where she is, I am as
+much at sea as you. Do you believe that, sir?"
+
+"No," said Sir Stanley truthfully; "I don't."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"SWELL" CREWE BACKS OUT
+
+
+The colonel left Scotland Yard with a sense that he had spent the
+morning not unprofitably. It was his way to beard the lion in his den,
+and after all, the police department was no more formidable than any
+other public department. He spent the morning quietly in Pinto's flat,
+making certain preparations. The workmen were making a thorough job of
+his damaged wall, as he found when he looked in, and the horrible odour
+had almost disappeared. It was to be a much longer job than he thought.
+It had been necessary to cut away and replace the plaster under the
+paper for the infernal mixture had soaked deep. Still the colonel had
+plenty to occupy his mind. What he called his legitimate business had
+been sadly neglected of late. Reports had come in from all sorts of
+agencies, reports which might by careful study be turned to the greatest
+advantage. There was the affair of Lady Glenmerrin. He had been months
+accumulating evidence of that lady's marital delinquencies, and now the
+iron was ready to strike--and he simply had no interest in a deal which
+might very easily transfer the famous Glenmerrin Farms to his charge at
+a nominal figure.
+
+And there were other prospects as alluring. But for the moment the
+colonel was mainly interested in the stock value of Colonel Dan Boundary
+and the possibility of violent fluctuations. He was losing grip. The
+story of Jack o' Judgment had circulated with amazing rapidity, by all
+manner of underground channels, to people vitally concerned. Crewe, who
+had been a stand-by in almost every big coup he had pulled off, was as
+stable as pulp. White his right-hand man, was dead. Pinto--well, Pinto
+would go his own way just when it suited him. He had no doubt whatever
+as to Pinto's loyalty. Silva had big estates in Portugal, to which he
+would retire just when things were getting warm and interesting.
+Moreover, the British Government could not extradite Pinto from his
+native land.
+
+The colonel found himself regretting that he had missed the opportunity
+of taking up American citizenship during the seven years he had spent in
+San Francisco. And what of Crewe? Crewe was to reveal himself most
+unmistakably. He came in in the late afternoon and found the colonel
+working through the litter on his desk.
+
+"Have you started your search at Oxford?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I've sent two men down there--the best men in London," replied Crewe.
+
+He drew up a chair to the desk and flung his hat on a near-by couch.
+
+"I want to have a little talk with you, colonel."
+
+Boundary looked up sharply.
+
+"That sounds bad," he said. "What do you want to talk about? The
+weather?"
+
+"Hardly," said Crewe. A little pause, and then: "Colonel, I'm going to
+quit."
+
+The colonel made no reply. He went on writing his letter, and not until
+he reached the end of the page and carefully blotted the epistle did he
+meet Crewe's eyes.
+
+"So you're going to quit, are you?" said Boundary. "Cold feet?"
+
+"Something like that," said Crewe. "Of course, I'm not going to leave
+you in the lurch."
+
+"Oh, no," said the colonel with elaborate politeness, "nobody's going to
+leave me in the lurch. You're just going to quit, that's all, and I've
+got to face the music."
+
+"Why don't you quit too, colonel?"
+
+"Quit what?" asked Boundary. "And how? You might as well ask a tree to
+quit the earth, to uproot itself and go on living. What happens when I
+walk out of this office and take a first-class state-room to New York?
+You think the Boundary Gang collapses, fades away, just dies off, eh?
+The moment I leave there's a squeal, and that squeal will be loud enough
+to reach me in whatever part of the world I may be. There are a dozen
+handy little combinations which will think that I am double-crossing
+them, and they'll be falling over one another to get in with the first
+tale."
+
+Crewe licked his dry lips.
+
+"Well that certainly may be in your case, colonel, but it doesn't happen
+to be in mine. I've covered all my tracks so that there's no evidence
+against me."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel. "You've just managed to keep out of
+taking an important part. I congratulate you."
+
+"There's no sense in getting riled about it," said Crewe; "it has just
+been my luck, that's all. Well, I want to take advantage of this luck."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"I'm out of any bad trouble. The police, if they search for a million
+years, couldn't get a scrap of evidence to convict me," he said, "even
+if they'd had you when Hanson betrayed you, they couldn't have convicted
+me."
+
+"That's true," said the colonel again. He shook his head impatiently.
+"Well, what does all this lead to, Crewe? Do you want to be
+demobilised?" he asked humorously.
+
+"That's about the size of it," said Crewe. "I don't want to be in
+anything fresh, and I certainly don't want to be in this----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"In this Maisie White business," said Crewe doggedly. "Let Pinto do his
+own dirty work."
+
+"My dirty work too," said the colonel. "But I reckon you've overlooked
+one important fact."
+
+"What's that?" demanded Crewe suspiciously.
+
+"You've overlooked a young gentleman called Jack o' Judgment," said the
+colonel, and enjoyed the look of consternation which came to the other's
+face. "There's a fellow that doesn't want any evidence. He hanged Raoul
+all right."
+
+"Do you think he did it?" said Crewe in a hushed voice.
+
+"Do I think he did it?" The colonel smiled. "Why, who else? And when he
+comes to judge you, I guess he's not going to worry very much about
+affidavits and sworn statements, and he's not going to take you before a
+magistrate before he hands you over to the coroner."
+
+Crewe jumped to his feet.
+
+"What have I done?" he asked harshly.
+
+"What have you done? Well, you know that best," said the colonel with a
+wave of his hand. "You say the police haven't got you and haven't a case
+against you. Maybe you're right. That Greek was saying the same sort of
+thing to me. He was here this afternoon squealing about taking the girl
+to the Argentine, and wanted us to send the doctor, and he'll be waiting
+to meet us when we land. There's no evidence against him either. Maybe
+there's more evidence than you imagine. I wouldn't bank too much upon
+the police passing you by, if I were you, Crewe. There's something about
+Mr. Stafford King that I don't like. He's got more brains in his little
+finger than that dude commissioner has in the whole of his body. He
+doesn't say much, but I guess he thinks a lot, and I'd give something to
+know what he's thinking about me just now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BRIDE OF DEATH
+
+
+Time had long ceased to have any significance for Maisie White. There
+was daylight and nightlight. She seemed to remember that she had made a
+great fight on the day she arrived at this strange house when the
+hard-faced nurses had strapped her to the bed, and an old man, with
+trembling fingers, had pushed a needle into her arm. She remembered it
+hurt, and then she remembered very little else. She viewed life with a
+dull apathy and without much understanding. She ceased to resent the
+presence of the women who came and went, and even the uncleanly old
+doctor no longer filled her with a sense of revulsion. She just wanted
+to be left alone to sleep, to dream the strangest dreams that any girl
+had ever had. She did not know that this was the action of bromide of
+potassium, consistently administered in every drink she took, in every
+morsel of food she ate. Bromide in bread, in coffee, in mashed potatoes,
+in rice, in all the vehicles by which the drug could be administered.
+
+Sometimes by reason of her sheer vitality she flung off the effects of
+the dope, and was keenly conscious of her surroundings. There was one
+girl who came and went, a pretty girl with fluffy golden hair, who
+looked at her dispassionately and made no reply to the questions with
+which Maisie plied her. And once she had seen Pinto and would have
+screamed, but they stopped her in time. One night the old doctor had
+come into the room very drunk. He was crying and moaning in a maudlin
+fashion about some mysterious position which he had lost, and he had sat
+on the bed and, cursed his passion for strong drink with such vehemence
+that she, in her half-dazed state of mind, had found herself interested
+against her will.
+
+In one of her lucid intervals she had realised a vital fact, that she
+was under the influence of a drug, and instinctively knew that she was
+becoming more and more immune to its action. She formed a vague plan,
+which she had almost forgotten the next morning. She must always be
+sleepy, almost dazed; she must never show signs of returning
+consciousness. She had been a week in the "nursing home" before she made
+this plan. She could lie now with her eyes shut, picking up the threads.
+She heard somebody talk of a ship and of a passport, and learned that
+she was to be removed in another week. She could not find where, but it
+was somewhere on a ship. She tried once, when the nurses were out of the
+room, to get out of bed and walk to the window. Her legs gave way
+beneath her, and it was with the greatest difficulty that she managed to
+crawl back to bed.
+
+There was no escape that way. There was no help either from the nurses
+who were not nurses at all, nor from the maudlin little doctor, nor from
+the pretty girl who came sometimes and looked down on her with
+undisguised contempt--or was it pity? Then one night she woke in a
+fright. Two people were talking. She half turned her head and saw that
+Pinto was in the room, and his face was a flaming fury. She had seen
+that look before, but now his rage was directed at somebody else, and
+with a start she recognised the pretty girl that the nurses called
+Lollie.
+
+"You're not in this, Lollie," said the man, and she laughed.
+
+"That's just where you're wrong, Silva," she replied. "I'm very much in
+it. What happens to this girl when she leaves here heaven only knows--I
+guess it's up to the colonel. But while she's here I'm looking after
+her."
+
+"You are, are you?" he said between his teeth. "Well, now you can go and
+take a walk."
+
+"I can also take a seat too," she said.
+
+He walked over to her and glowered down at the girl, and she puffed a
+cloud of cigarette smoke in his face.
+
+"I'm a crook because it pays me to be a crook," said the girl calmly.
+"If it's jollying along one of the colonel's blue-eyed innocents, or
+keeping a watchful eye upon Mr. King, or acting trustful maiden to some
+poor fool from the country--why, I'm ready and willing, because that's
+my job. But this is a different matter altogether. If the colonel says
+she's got to go abroad, why, I suppose she's got to go. But she's not
+going to be on my conscience, that's all," said Lollie.
+
+They passed through the door into a smaller room where the night
+watchers sat. She made as though to sit at the table when he gripped her
+arm and swung her round. She put up her hands to defend herself, but was
+thrown against the wall, and his grip was on her throat.
+
+"Do you know what I'll do for you?" he hissed.
+
+"I don't care what you do," she said. She was on the verge of tears.
+"You're not going into that room--you're _not_ going!"
+
+She sprang at him, but with a snarl like a wild beast, he turned and
+struck her, and she fell against the wall.
+
+"Now get out"--he pointed to the door--"get out and don't show your face
+here again. And if you've got any information, you can report it to the
+colonel and see what he's got to say to you!"
+
+She slunk from the room. Pinto went back to the room where the girl lay.
+
+"Cover your head with a blanket, my pretty?" he said. "Pinto must not
+see that pretty face, eh?"
+
+He laid hold of the blanket's edge and pulled it gently down. But the
+blanket would not come away. It was being clutched tightly. With a jerk
+he wrenched it down, then stumbled backwards to the floor, a grotesque
+and ludicrous figure, for the white silk mask of Jack o' Judgment
+confronted him and the hateful voice of his enemy shrilled:
+
+"I'm Death! Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack! Jack, the hangman! You'll
+meet him one day, Pinto--meet him now!"
+
+Pinto collapsed--he had fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+MAISIE TELLS HER STORY
+
+
+"There is one fact which I would impress upon you," said Sir Stanley
+Belcom, addressing the heads of his departments at the early morning
+conference at Scotland Yard, "and it is this, that the criminal has nine
+chances against the one which the law possesses. He has the initiative
+in the first place, and if he fails to evade detection, the law gives
+him certain opportunities of defence and imposes certain restrictions
+which prevent one taking a line which would bring the truth of his
+assertions or denials to light. It protects him; it will not admit
+evidence against him; it will not allow the jury to be influenced by the
+record of his previous crimes until they have delivered their verdict
+upon the one on which he stands charged; in fact, gentlemen, the
+criminal, if he were intelligent, would score all the time."
+
+"That's true enough, sir," said Cole, of the Record Office. "I've never
+yet met a criminal who wasn't a fool."
+
+"And you never will till you meet Colonel Boundary," said Sir Stanley
+with a good-natured smile, "and the reason you do not meet him is
+because he is not a fool. But, gentlemen, every criminal has one weak
+spot, and sooner or later he exposes the chink in his armour to the
+sword of justice--if you do not mind so theatrical an illustration.
+Here, again, I do not think that Boundary will make any such exposure.
+One of you gentlemen has again brought up the question as to the
+prosecution of the Boundary Gang, and particularly the colonel himself.
+Well, I am all in favour of it, though I doubt whether the Home
+Secretary or the Public Prosecutor would agree with my point of view. We
+have a great deal of evidence, but not sufficient evidence to convict.
+We know this man is a blackmailer and that he engages in terrorising his
+unfortunate victims, but the mere fact that we know is not sufficient.
+We need the evidence, and that evidence we have not got. And that is
+where our mysterious Jack o' Judgment is going to score. He knows, and
+it is sufficient for him that he _does_ know. He calls for no
+corroborative evidence, but convicts and executes his judgment without
+recourse to the law books. I do not think that the official police will
+ever capture Boundary, and if it is left to them, he will die sanctified
+by old age and ten years of comfortable repentance. He will probably end
+his life in a cathedral town, and may indeed become a member of the town
+council--hullo, King, what is the matter?"
+
+Stafford King had rushed in. He was dusty and hot of face, and there was
+a light of excitement in his eyes.
+
+"She's found, sir, she's found!"
+
+"She's found?" Sir Stanley frowned. "To whom are you referring? Miss
+White?"
+
+Stafford could only nod.
+
+With a gesture the commissioner dismissed the conference. Then:
+
+"Where was she found?" he asked.
+
+"In her own flat, sir. That is the amazing thing about it."
+
+"What! Did she come back herself?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"It is an astonishing story, sir. She was, of course, detained and held
+prisoner somewhere, and last night--she will not give me any
+details--she was carried from the house where she had been kept
+prisoner. She had an awful experience, at which she only hints, poor
+girl! Apparently she fainted, and when she came to she was in a
+motor-car being carried along rapidly. And that is about all she'll tell
+me."
+
+"But who brought her away?" asked the commissioner.
+
+Again Stafford shook his head.
+
+"For some reason or other she is reticent and will give no information
+at all. It is evident she has been drugged, for she looks wretchedly
+ill--of course, I haven't pressed her for particulars."
+
+"It is a strange story," said the commissioner.
+
+"I have a feeling," Stafford went on, "that she has given a promise to
+her unknown rescuer that she will not tell more than is necessary."
+
+"But it is necessary to tell the police," said the commissioner, "and
+even more important for the young lady to tell her--fiance, I hope,
+King?"
+
+The young man reddened and smiled.
+
+"I agree with you that this is not the moment when you can cross-examine
+the girl, but I want you to see her as soon as you possibly can and try
+to induce her to tell you all she knows."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maisie White lay on the sofa in her own room. She was still weak, but
+oh! the relief of being back again and of ending that terrible nightmare
+which had oppressed her for--how long? Even the depressing effect of the
+drug could not quench the exaltation of finding herself free. She went
+over the details of the night one by one. She must do it, she thought.
+She must never lose grip of what happened or forget her promise.
+
+First she recalled seeing the weird figure of Jack o' Judgment. He had
+lifted her from the bed and had laid her on the floor. She remembered
+seeing him slip beneath the blankets, and then Pinto had come. She
+recalled the cracked voice of her rescuer, his fantastic language.
+
+She had awakened to consciousness to find herself in a big car which was
+passing quickly through the dark and deserted streets. She had no
+recollection of being carried from the room or of being handed to the
+thick-set man who stood on a ladder outside the open window. All she
+recalled was her waking to consciousness and seeing in the half-light
+the gleam of a white silk handkerchief.
+
+She was too dazed to be terrified, and the soft voice which spoke into
+her ear quelled any inclinations she might have had to struggle. For
+the man was holding her in his arms as tenderly as a brother might hold
+a sister, or a father a child.
+
+"You're safe, Miss White," said the voice. "Do you understand? Are you
+awake?"
+
+"Yes," she whispered.
+
+"You know what I have saved you from?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I want you to do something for me now. Will you?" She nodded again.
+"Are you sure you understand?" said the voice anxiously.
+
+"I quite understand," she replied.
+
+She could have almost smiled at his consideration.
+
+"I am taking you to your home, and to-morrow your friends will know that
+you have returned. But you're not to tell them about the house where
+they have kept you. You must not tell them about Silva or anybody that
+was in that house. Do you understand?"
+
+"But why?" she began, and he laughed softly.
+
+"I am not trying to shield them," he said, answering her unspoken
+thought, "but if you give information you can only tell a little, and
+the police can only discover a little, and the men can only be punished
+a little. And there's so much that they deserve, so many lives they have
+ruined, so much sorrow they have caused, that it would be a hideous
+injustice if they were only punished--a little. Will you leave them to
+me?"
+
+She struggled to an erect position and stared at him.
+
+"I know you," she whispered fearlessly; "you are Jack o' Judgment."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he laughed a little bitterly. "Yes, I am Jack o'
+Judgment."
+
+"Who are you?" she asked.
+
+"A living lie," he replied bitterly, "a masquerader, a mummer, a
+nobody."
+
+She did not know what impelled her to do the thing, but she put out her
+hand and laid it on his. She felt the silky smoothness of the glove and
+then his other hand covered hers.
+
+"Thank you," he said simply. "Do you think you can walk? We are just
+turning into Doughty Street. We've passed the policeman on his beat; he
+is going the other way. Can you walk upstairs by yourself?"
+
+"I--I'll try," she said, but when he assisted her from the car she
+nearly fell, and he half carried, half supported her into her room.
+
+He stood hesitating near the door.
+
+"I shall be all right," she smiled. "How quickly you understand my
+thoughts!"
+
+"Wouldn't it be well if I sent somebody to you--a nurse? Have you the
+key I gave you?"
+
+"How did you get it?" she asked suddenly, and he laughed again.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," he mocked, "wise old Jack o' Judgment! He has
+everything and nothing! Suppose I send a nurse to you, a nice nurse. I
+could send the key to her by messenger. Would you like that?"
+
+She looked doubtful.
+
+"I think I would," she said with a weak smile. "I am not quite sure of
+myself."
+
+He did not take off the soft felt hat which was drawn tightly over his
+ears, nor did he remove his mask or cloak. She was making up her mind to
+take a closer stock of him, when unexpectedly he backed towards the
+door, and with a little nod was gone. He had left her on the couch, and
+there she was, half dozing and half drugged when the matronly nurse from
+St. George's Institute arrived half an hour later.
+
+Stafford called in the afternoon and was surprised and delighted to
+learn that he could speak to the girl. He found her looking better and
+more cheerful. He bent over and kissed her cheek, and her hand sought
+his.
+
+"Now, I'm going to be awfully official," he laughed, "I want you to tell
+me all sorts of things. The chief is very anxious that we should lose no
+time in getting your story."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"There's no story to tell, Stafford," she said.
+
+"No story to tell?" he said incredulously. "But weren't you abducted?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"There's that much you know," she said; "I was abducted and taken away.
+I have been detained and I think drugged."
+
+"No harm has come to you?" he asked anxiously.
+
+Again she shook her head.
+
+"But where did they take you? Who was it? Who were the people?"
+
+"I can't tell you," she said.
+
+"You don't know?"
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"Yes, I think I know, but I can't tell you."
+
+"But why?" he asked in astonishment.
+
+"Because the man who rescued me begged me not to tell, and, Stafford,
+you don't know what he saved me from."
+
+"He--he--who was it?" asked Stafford.
+
+"The man called Jack o' Judgment," said the girl slowly, and Stafford
+jumped up with a cry.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he said. "I ought to have guessed! Did you see his
+face?" he demanded eagerly.
+
+She shook her head again.
+
+"Did he give you any clue as to his identity?"
+
+"None whatever," she replied with a little gleam of amusement in her
+eyes. "What a detective you are, Stafford! And I thought you were coming
+down here to tell me"--the colour went to her cheeks--"well, to tell me
+the news," she added hastily. "Is there any news?"
+
+"None, except----"
+
+Then he remembered that she knew nothing whatever of her father's death
+and its tragic sequel, and this was not the moment to tell her. Later,
+when she was stronger, perhaps.
+
+She was watching him with trouble in her eyes. She had noted how quickly
+he had stopped and guessed that there was something to be told which he
+was withholding for fear of hurting her. Her father was uppermost in
+her mind and it was natural that she should think of him.
+
+"Is there any news of my father?" she asked quietly.
+
+"None," he lied.
+
+"You're not speaking the truth, Stafford." She put her hand on his arm.
+"Stafford, is there any news of my father?"
+
+He looked at her, and she saw the pain in his face.
+
+"Why don't you wait a little while, and I'll tell you all the news," he
+said with an assumption of gaiety. "There have been several fashionable
+weddings----"
+
+"Please tell me," she said, "Stafford. I've been for weeks under the
+influence of a drug, and somehow it has numbed pain, even mental pain,
+and perhaps you will never find me in a better condition to hear--the
+worst."
+
+"The worst has happened, Maisie," he said gently.
+
+"He has been arrested?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, dear, worse than that."
+
+"Not--not suicide?" she said between her set teeth.
+
+Again he shook his head. "He is dead," he said softly.
+
+"Dead!"
+
+There was a long silence which he did not break.
+
+"Dead!" she said again. "How?"
+
+"He was shot by--we think it was by a member of the Boundary Gang, a man
+named Raoul."
+
+She looked up at him.
+
+"I have never heard my father speak of him."
+
+"He was a man imported from France, according to our theory."
+
+"And was he captured?"
+
+"He was killed too," said Stafford; "he was caught in the act and
+instantly executed."
+
+"By whom?" she asked.
+
+"By Jack o' Judgment," replied Stafford.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" She breathed the words. "And I--I never thanked him!
+I never knew!"
+
+He told her the story step by step of the discovery which the police had
+made and the theories they had formed.
+
+"He was lured there," said the girl.
+
+She did not cry. She seemed incapable of tears.
+
+"He was lured there and murdered, and Jack o' Judgment slew his
+murderer? Poor father! Poor, dear daddy!"
+
+And then the tears came.
+
+Half an hour later he left her in charge of the nurse and went back to
+Scotland Yard to report.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE GANG FUND
+
+
+The news of the girl's escape had been received in another quarter.
+Colonel Boundary had sat in his favourite chair and listened without
+comment to Pinto's halting explanation.
+
+"Oh, they went out of the window and down a ladder, did they?" said the
+colonel sarcastically when the Portuguese had finished, "and you had a
+fit on the mat, I suppose? Well, that's a hell of a fine story! And what
+did you do? You who were plastered all over with guns? Couldn't you
+shoot?"
+
+"Did you shoot when you saw Jack o' Judgment?" said the other sullenly.
+"It is no good your telling me what I ought to do."
+
+"Maybe it isn't," said the colonel. "Well, there's nothing to do now,
+anyway. The girl's gone, and all your fine plans have come unstuck."
+
+"They weren't my plans," said Pinto indignantly, "it was your scheme
+throughout."
+
+The colonel bit off the end of his cigar and contemplated the ceiling
+reflectively.
+
+"We can only wait and see what will happen," he said. "The odds are all
+in favour of our being raided."
+
+Pinto went pale.
+
+"Yes," said the colonel, talking to himself, "I guess this is our last
+day of freedom. Well, Pinto, I hope you can pick oakum."
+
+"Oh, shut up about oakum," growled the other; "it isn't a joke."
+
+"It is not a joke," said the colonel, "and if it is, it is one of those
+jokes that make people laugh the most. And do you know the kind of joke
+that makes people laugh the most, Pinto? It is when somebody gets hurt;
+and we are the people who are going to get hurt."
+
+"Do you think she'll tell the police?"
+
+"It is extremely likely," said the colonel; "in fact, it is extremely
+unlikely that she won't tell the police. I am rather glad I'm out of
+it."
+
+Pinto leaped up.
+
+"You're out of it!" he shouted. "You're in it up to the neck!"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I'm absolutely out of it, Pinto," he said, flicking the ash of his
+cigar into the fireplace. "I cannot be identified with this unhappy
+affair by so much as a finger-print."
+
+The Portuguese scowled down at him.
+
+"So that's the game, is it? You're going to double-cross us? You're
+going to be out of it and we're going to be in it."
+
+"Sit down, you fool. Double-cross you! You are easily scared at a little
+leg-pulling. I'm merely pointing out that it is not a matter in which I
+am greatly interested. It is a good thing for you I'm not. Who are the
+police after? You and Crewe and the rest of the gang? Not on your life!
+They're after me. They get the trunk and all the branches come down with
+it. Do you see? There's no sense in lopping off a few branches even of
+deadwood. It won't be good enough if they connect you with the case,
+unless they connect me too. They're after the big horns, they're not
+shooting the little bucks. If she tells the police, they're going to
+nose around for two or three days, seeing how far they can connect me
+with it. And if there's any connection--the slightest, Pinto--why,
+they'll pinch you without a doubt, but they'll pinch me too."
+
+The colonel blew a blue ring of smoke into the air and watched it float
+to the ceiling.
+
+"The advantage of having a business associate like me is that I'm a sort
+of insurance to you little crooks. I am the big fish they're trying to
+hook, and their bait isn't the kind of bait that you'd swallow."
+
+"I've burnt all the papers I had," explained Pinto, "and covered my
+trail."
+
+"When you burnt your boats and came in with me," said the colonel, "you
+burnt everything that was worth burning. I tell you it isn't you they're
+trailing. It is me or nothing. Maybe they'll scare you," he said
+reflectively, "hoping you'll turn King's evidence. I've got a feeling
+that you won't--if I had a feeling the other way about, Pinto, you
+wouldn't see the curtain rise at the Orpheum to-night. And now," said
+the colonel, "we'll go out."
+
+He rose abruptly, walked into his bedroom, and came out wearing his
+broad felt hat. He found Pinto biting his finger-nails nervously and
+looking out of the window.
+
+"I don't want to go out," said Pinto.
+
+"Come out," said the colonel. "What's the good of staying here, anyway?
+Besides, if they are going to pinch you, I don't want them to pinch you
+in my rooms. It would look bad."
+
+They walked downstairs into the street, and a few minutes later were
+strolling across the Green Park, the colonel a picture of a contented
+bourgeoisie with his half-smoked cigar, and his hands clasped together
+under the tails of his alpaca coat.
+
+"I don't see how you can say they've no evidence against you. Suppose
+Crotin squeals?"
+
+"He ain't stopped squealing yet," said the colonel philosophically, "but
+I don't see what difference it makes. Pinto, you haven't got the hang of
+my methods, and I doubt if you ever will. You're a clever, useful
+fellow, but if you were allowed to run the gang, you'd have it in gaol
+in a month. Take Crotin," he said. "I dare say he's feeling sore, and
+maybe this damned Jack o' Judgment person is standing behind him telling
+him----" He stopped. "No, he wouldn't either," he said after a moment's
+thought, "Jack o' Judgment knows as much about it as I do."
+
+"What are you talking about?" asked the other impatiently.
+
+"Crotin," said the colonel; "he hasn't any evidence against me. You
+see, I do not do any business by letters. You fellows have often wanted
+me to write to this person and that, but writing is evidence. Do you get
+me? And what evidence has Crotin? Absolutely none. I have never written
+a line to him in my life. Crewe brought him down to the flat. We gave
+him a dinner and put the proposal to him in plain language. There's
+nothing he could take before a judge and jury--absolutely nothing."
+
+He took the cigar from his mouth and blew a cloud of smoke.
+
+"That's the way I've built the business up--no letters, no documents,
+nothing that a lawyer can make head or tail of."
+
+"What about the documents that Hanson talked about?"
+
+The colonel frowned and then laughed.
+
+"They're nothing but records of our transactions, and they're not
+evidence. Why, even the police have given up the search for them. By the
+way, I haven't done with Crotin," he said after a while.
+
+"He's done with you, I should think," said Pinto grimly.
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"I guess so, but he hasn't done with the gang. You can take him on
+next."
+
+"I?" said Pinto in affright. "Now look here, colonel, don't you think
+it's time we laid low----"
+
+"Laid low!" said the colonel scornfully. "We're either going to get into
+trouble or we're not. If we're not going to get into trouble, we might
+as well go on. Besides, we want the money. The business has slackened
+off, and we haven't had a deal since the Spillsbury affair, and that
+won't last very long. We've got to split our loot six ways, Pinto, and
+that leaves very little for anybody."
+
+"Where are you going now?" asked the other, as the colonel changed his
+direction.
+
+"It just struck me that we might as well go over to the bank and see
+how our balance stands. Also, with the exchange going against us, I want
+to tell Ferguson to buy dollars."
+
+The handsome premises of the Victoria and City Bank in Victoria Street
+were only a stone's throw from the park; and, whatever might be the
+views of Ferguson, the manager, as to the colonel's moral character, he
+had a considerable respect for him as a financier, and Dan Boundary was
+shown immediately into the manager's office.
+
+He was gone some time, whilst Pinto waited impatiently outside. The
+colonel never invited other members, even of the inmost council, to
+share his knowledge of finances. They all knew roughly the condition of
+the exchequer, but really the balance at the Victoria and City was the
+colonel's own. It was the practice of the Boundary Gang (as was
+subsequently revealed) to share, after each coup, every man taking that
+to which he was entitled. The money was split between five, the sixth
+share going to what was known as the Gang Account, a common fund upon
+which all could draw in moments of necessity.
+
+The Gang Fund was not so described in the books of the bank. It was
+known as "Account B." The expenses of operations were usually paid out
+of the colonel's private account, and credited to him when the share-out
+came. He was absolute master of his own balance, but it required three
+signatures to extract a cheque from Account B. One of the objects of the
+colonel's visit was to reduce this number to two, the death of Solomon
+White having removed one of the signatories.
+
+He returned to Pinto, apparently not too well satisfied.
+
+"There's quite a lot of money in the Gang Account," he said. "I've
+struck off Solly's name, and your signature and mine, or mine and
+Crewe's, is sufficient now."
+
+"Or mine and Crewe's, I suppose?" suggested Pinto, and the colonel
+smiled.
+
+"Oh, no," said he. "I'm not a great believer in the indispensability of
+any man, but I'm making the signature of Dan Boundary indispensable
+before that account is touched."
+
+They walked back through the park, and the colonel expounded his
+philosophy of wrong living.
+
+"The man who runs an honest business and mixes it with a little crooked
+work is bound to be caught," he said, "because his mind is concentrated
+on the unpaying side of the game. You've got to run a crook business in
+an honest way if you want to escape the law and pay big dividends. They
+call our system blackmail, but it ain't. A blackmailer asks for
+something for nothing, and he's bound to get caught sooner or later. We
+offer spot cash for all the things we steal, and that baffles the law.
+And we're not the only people in London, or in England, or in the world,
+who are pulling bargains by scaring the fellow we buy from. It is done
+every day in the City of London; it is done every day by the trusts that
+control the little shops in the suburbs; it is done even by the big
+proprietary companies that tell a miserable little tradesman that, if he
+doesn't stop selling one article, they won't supply him with theirs.
+Living, Pinto, is preying. The only mistake a crook ever makes is when
+he goes outside of his legitimate business and lets some other
+consideration than the piling up of money influence him."
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Pinto wearily. He hated the colonel when he was
+in this communicative mood of his.
+
+"Well," said the colonel slowly, "I shouldn't have been so keen to go
+after Maisie White if it hadn't been that you were fond of her and
+wanted her. That's what I call letting love interfere with business."
+
+"But you said you were afraid of her blabbing. You don't put it on to
+me," said the indignant Pinto.
+
+"I was and I wasn't," said the colonel. "I think I almost persuaded
+myself that the girl was a danger. Of course, she isn't. Even Solomon
+White wasn't a danger."
+
+He stopped dead, and, speaking slowly and pointing his words with a
+huge forefinger on the other's chest, he said:
+
+"Bear this fact in mind, Pinto, that I have no malice against Miss
+White, and I don't think that she can harm me. As far as I'm concerned,
+I will never hurt a hair of her head or do her the slightest harm. I
+believe that she has nothing against me, and I give orders to anybody
+who's connected with me--in fact, to all of my business associates--that
+that girl is not to be interfered with."
+
+Slowly, emphatically, every word emphasised, the colonel spoke, but
+Pinto did not smile. He had seen the colonel in this gentle mood before,
+and he knew that Maisie White was doomed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+PINTO GOES NORTH
+
+
+Had Pinto been a psychologist, which he was not, he might have been
+struck by the unusual reference on the part of the colonel to the funds
+of the gang. It was a subject to which the colonel very seldom referred,
+and it was certainly one which he did not emphasise. The truth was that
+the colonel's investigations into his own private affairs had not been
+as satisfactory as he had hoped would be the case.
+
+He was in the habit of advancing money, and the gang owed him a
+considerable sum, money which had been advanced for the pursuit of
+various enterprises. To draw that money would leave the Gang Fund sadly
+depleted, and he could not afford to draw upon it at a moment when they
+were all on edge. Not only were the two principal subordinates in the
+condition of mind which led them to jump at every knock and start at
+every shadow, but he had been receiving urgent messages from all parts
+of the country from the other men, and he had determined upon a step
+which he had not taken for three years--a meeting of the full "Board" of
+his lawless organisation.
+
+That night summonses went forth calling his "business associates" to an
+Extraordinary General Meeting of the North European Smelter Syndicate.
+This was one of the companies which he operated, and the existence of
+which was justified by a small smelting works in the North of England,
+and owed its international character to the fact that it had branch
+works in Sweden. Its turnover was small, its list of stockholders was
+select. A summons to a General Meeting of the North European Smelter
+Company meant that the affairs of the gang were critical, and in this
+spirit the call was obeyed.
+
+The meeting was held in the banquet hall of a West End restaurant, and
+the twenty men who assembled differed very little in appearance from
+twenty other provincial business men who might have been gathered to
+discuss the affairs of any company.
+
+Their coming excited no comment, and apparently did not even arouse the
+attention of vigilant Scotland Yard. Nor, had the colonel's speech been
+taken down by a shorthand writer and submitted to the police, could any
+suggestion be found of the significance of the meeting. He spoke of the
+difficulties of trading, of the "competition" with which the company was
+faced, and called upon all the shareholders to assist loyally the
+executive in a very critical and trying time. But those who listened
+knew very well that the "competition" was the competition of the police,
+and they had their own ideas as to what constituted the trying time to
+which the colonel made reference.
+
+It was a very commonplace, ordinary company meeting, which ended in a
+conventional way by a vote of confidence in the directors. It was when
+that had been passed, and the meeting had been broken up, and members
+and officials were talking together, that the real business started.
+
+Then it was that Selby, the stout little man whose special job was to
+act as intermediary between the company and its more criminal
+enterprises, received his instructions to speed up. Selby was the
+receiver of letters. A burglar or a pickpocket who acquired in the
+course of his activities documents and letters which had hitherto been
+worthless found a ready market through Selby. Eighty letters out of
+every hundred were absolutely valueless, but occasionally they would
+find a rich gem, a love letter discreetly cherished, on which a new
+"operation" would be based. Then would begin the torturing of a human
+soul, the opening of new vistas of despair, the stage be cleared for a
+new tragedy.
+
+The colonel was to find that the chief anxiety of his "shareholders" was
+not as to the future of the company or as to the success of its
+trading. Again and again he was asked a question couched in identical
+words, and again and again he replied with a shrug of his big shoulders:
+
+"What's the good of worrying about a thing like that? Jack o' Judgment
+is a crook! That's all he is, boys, a crook. He's not the sort of man
+who'll go to the police and give us away; he wouldn't dare put his nose
+inside a police station. You leave him to us, we'll fix him sooner or
+later."
+
+"But," somebody asked uneasily, "what about Raoul, that fellow who was
+killed at Putney?"
+
+The colonel lifted his eyebrows.
+
+"Raoul," he said; "he was nothing to do with us. I never heard the
+fellow's name until I read it in the paper. As to White"--he shrugged
+his shoulders again--"we can't prevent people having private quarrels,
+and may be this Frenchman and White had one. My theory is," he said,
+elaborating an idea which had only at that moment occurred to him, "that
+Raoul, White and this Jack o' Judgment were working together. Maybe it
+isn't a bad thing that White was killed under the circumstances."
+
+He dropped his hand on the other man's shoulder and oozed geniality.
+
+"Now, back you go, my lads, and don't worry. Leave it to old Dan to fix
+Jack o' Judgment, or Bill o' Judgment, or Tom o' Judgment, whoever he
+may be, and that we'll fix him you can be certain."
+
+Coming away from the meeting, he expressed himself as being perfectly
+satisfied with its results. He brought Pinto and Crewe back with him in
+his car, and dropped the latter at Piccadilly Circus. Pinto would have
+been glad to have joined the "Swell," but the colonel detained him.
+
+"I want to talk to you, Pinto," he said.
+
+"I've had enough business for to-day," said the Portuguese.
+
+"So have I," said the colonel, "but that doesn't prevent my attending to
+pressing affairs. I was talking to you to-day--or was it
+yesterday?--about Crotin."
+
+"The Yorkshire woollen merchant?" said Pinto.
+
+"That's the fellow," replied the colonel. "I suggested you should go and
+see him."
+
+"And I suggested that I shouldn't," said Pinto; "let him rest. You'll
+never get another chance like you had before."
+
+"Rest nothing," said the colonel testily, "you're scared because you
+imagine Crotin is warned? What do you think?"
+
+Pinto was silent.
+
+"I suppose you think that, because Jack o' Judgment intervened at the
+right moment, he went back to Yorkshire feeling full of himself? Well,
+you're wrong. You don't understand one side of the psychology of this
+business. That little fellow is quaking in his shoes and wondering what
+his grand wife would say if the fact that he was a bigamist was
+revealed. And there's more reason for his fear to-day than ever there
+was. Look here!"
+
+He took a newspaper out of his pocket and Pinto remembered that, even
+during the meeting, the colonel had twice made reference to its columns
+and had wondered why. He had suspected that there had been some
+reference to the Boundary Gang, but this was not the case. The paragraph
+which the colonel pointed out with his thick forefinger was this:
+
+
+     "By the death of Sir George Tressillian Morgan an ancient baronetcy
+     has become extinct. His estate, which has been sworn at over a
+     million, passes to his niece, Lady Sybil Crotin, the daughter of
+     Lord Westsevern, Sir George's son and heir having been killed in
+     the war. Lady Sybil is the wife of a well-known Yorkshire
+     mill-owner."
+
+
+"I didn't know that," said Pinto, interested in spite of himself.
+
+"Nor did I till to-day," said the colonel. "The fact is, this damned
+Jack o' Judgment has put everything else out of our minds. And you can
+see for yourself, Pinto, that this business is important."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"We are not only after the mill, but here's a chance of making a real
+big coup. Now I can't send anybody else to Yorkshire--Crewe is
+impossible. Crotin knows him, and the moment he puts in an appearance,
+as likely as not Crotin would lose his head and give the whole show
+away. It is you or nobody."
+
+He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
+
+"You know, there are times when I'm sorry about Solomon White," he said,
+"he was the boy for this kind of business--that is to say in the old
+days--he got a bit above himself towards the end."
+
+Pinto was to find that the colonel had made all arrangements, and that
+for the previous two days he had been planning a predatory raid on the
+Yorkshireman.
+
+There was to be a bazaar in Huddersfield on behalf of a local hospital,
+in which Lady Sybil Crotin took a great interest. She was organising the
+fete and had invited subscriptions.
+
+"They're not coming in very fast, according to their local paper," said
+the colonel, "and that has given me an idea. You're a presentable sort
+of fellow, Pinto, and it is likely you'll be all the more successful
+because you're a foreigner. You'll go up to Yorkshire and you'll take a
+thousand pounds, and if necessary you'll subscribe pretty liberally to
+the fund, but it must be done through Lady Sybil. You can make yourself
+known to her and invite yourself to the house, where you can meet Crotin
+himself."
+
+He made other suggestions, for he had worked out the whole scheme in
+detail for the other to carry into effect. Pinto's objections slowly
+dissipated. He was a vain man and had all the vices of his vanity. A
+desire to be thought well of, to be regarded as a rich man when he was
+in fact on the verge of ruin, had brought him into crooked practices and
+eventually into the circle of the colonel's acquaintances.
+
+To appear amongst the fair as a giver of largesse on a magnificent scale
+suited him down to the ground. It was a part for which he was eminently
+fitted, as the colonel, a shrewd judge of humanity, knew quite well.
+
+"I'll take it on," said Pinto, "but do you think he'll squeal?"
+
+Boundary shook his head.
+
+"I never knew a man who was caught on the rebound to squeal," he said.
+"No, no, you needn't worry about that. All you have to do is to use your
+discretion, choose the right moment, preparing him by a few hints for
+what is coming, and you'll find he'll sit down, like the hard-headed
+business man he is, and talk money."
+
+Pinto pulled a little face.
+
+"I know what you're thinking," said the colonel. "You hate the idea of
+the generous donor being unmasked and appearing to anybody as a
+blackmailer. Well, you needn't worry about that. Lady Sybil will not
+know, nor will anybody else that counts. And, believe me, Crotin doesn't
+count. Anyway, you can pretend that you're a perfectly innocent agent in
+the matter, that you know me slightly and that I've dropped hints which
+made you curious and which you are anxious to verify."
+
+Pinto went off to make preparations for the journey. He had one of the
+top flats in the Albemarle building, a suite of rooms which, if they
+were not as expensively furnished as the colonel's, were more artistic.
+He had recently acquired the services of a new "daily valet"--a step he
+could take without fear that his secrets would be betrayed, since he had
+no secrets in his own rooms, kept no documents of any kind, and received
+no visitors.
+
+The man opened the door to his ring.
+
+"No, sir, nobody has been," said the servant in answer to his query, and
+Pinto was relieved.
+
+For the past two days he had been living in a condition bordering on
+panic. It seemed unlikely that the colonel's confidence would be
+justified and that the police would take no action. And yet the
+incredible had happened. There had not been so much as an inquiry; and
+not once, though he had been on his guard, had he detected one shadow
+trailing him. His spirits rose, and he whistled cheerfully as he
+directed the packing of his trunk, for he was travelling North fully
+equipped for any social event which might await him.
+
+"I am going to Yorkshire," he explained. "I'll give you my address
+before I leave, and you can let me know if there are any inquiries and
+who the inquirers were."
+
+"Certainly, sir," said the man respectfully, and Pinto eyed him
+approvingly.
+
+"I think you'll suit me, Cobalt," he said. "My last valet was rather a
+fool and inclined to stick his nose into business which did not concern
+him."
+
+The man smiled.
+
+"I shan't trouble you that way, sir," he said.
+
+"Of course, there's nothing to hide," said Pinto with a shrug, "but you
+know what people are. They think that because you're associated in
+business with Colonel Boundary you're up to all sorts of tricks."
+
+"That's what Mr. Snakit said, sir," remarked the man.
+
+"Snakit?" said the puzzled Pinto. "Who the devil is Snakit?"
+
+Then he remembered the little detective whom Maisie had employed and who
+had been bought over by the colonel.
+
+"Oh, you see him, do you?" he asked carelessly.
+
+"He comes up, sir, now and again. He's the colonel's valet, isn't he,
+sir?"
+
+Pinto grinned.
+
+"Not exactly," he said. "I shouldn't discuss things with Snakit. That
+man is quite reliable and----"
+
+"Anyway, sir, I should not discuss your business," said the valet with
+dignity.
+
+He finished packing and, after assisting his master to dress, was
+dismissed for the night.
+
+"A useful fellow, that," thought Pinto, as the door closed behind the
+man. The "useful fellow" reached the street and, after walking a few
+hundred yards, found a disengaged taxi and gave an address. Maisie White
+was writing when her bell rang. It rang three times--two long and one
+short peals--and she went downstairs to admit her visitor. She did not
+speak until she was back in her room, and then she faced the polite
+little man whom Pinto had called Cobalt.
+
+"Well, Mr. Grey," she said.
+
+"I wish you'd call me Cobalt, miss," said the man with a smile. "I like
+to keep up the name, otherwise I'm inclined to give myself away."
+
+"Have you found out anything?"
+
+"Very little, miss," said the detective. "There's nothing to find in the
+apartment itself."
+
+"You secured the situation as valet?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Thanks to the recommendations you got me, miss, there was no difficulty
+at all. Silva wanted a servant and accepted the testimonials without
+question."
+
+"And you've discovered nothing?" she said in a disappointed tone.
+
+"Not in Mr. Silva's room. The only thing I found out was that he's going
+to Yorkshire to-morrow."
+
+"For long?" she asked.
+
+"For some considerable time," said the detective.
+
+"At least, I guess so, because he has packed half a dozen suits, top
+hats and all sorts of things which I should imagine he wouldn't take
+away unless he intended making a long stay."
+
+"Have you any idea of the place he's going to?"
+
+"I shall discover that to-morrow, miss," said Cobalt. "I thought I'd
+tell you as much as I know."
+
+"And you have not been into the colonel's flat?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"It is guarded inside and out, miss, now. He has not only his butler,
+who is a tough customer, to look after him, but he has Snakit, the man
+you employed, I understand."
+
+"That's the gentleman," said the girl with a little smile. "Very good,
+Cobalt--you'll 'phone me if you make any other discoveries."
+
+She was sitting at her solitary breakfast the next morning when the
+telephone bell rang. It was from a call office, and presently she heard
+Cobalt's voice. "Just a word, miss. He leaves by the ten-twenty-five
+train for Huddersfield," said the voice, "and the person he is going to
+see is Lady Sybil somebody, and there's money in it."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked quickly.
+
+"I heard him speaking to the colonel on the landing and I heard the
+words: 'He'll pay.'"
+
+She thought a moment.
+
+"Ten-twenty-five," she repeated; "thank you very much, Mr. Cobalt."
+
+She hung up the receiver and sat for a moment in thought, then passed
+quickly to her bedroom and began to dress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A PATRON OF CHARITY
+
+
+Lady Sybil Crotin was not a popular woman. She was conscious that she
+had married beneath her--more conscious lately that there had been no
+necessity to make the marriage, and she had grown a little soured. She
+could never mix with the homely wives of local millionaires; she
+professed a horror of the vulgarities with which she was surrounded,
+hated and loathed her lord and master's flamboyant home, which she
+described as something between a feudal castle and a picture-palace; and
+openly despised her husband's friends and their feminine relatives.
+
+She made a point of spending at least six months of the year away from
+Yorkshire, and came back with protest at her lot written visibly upon
+her face.
+
+A thin, angular woman, with pale green eyes and straight, tight lips,
+she had never been beautiful, but five or six years in an uncongenial
+environment had hardened and wasted her. That her husband adored her and
+never spoke of her save in a tone of awe was common property and a
+favourite subject for local humour. That she regarded him with contempt
+and irritation was as well known.
+
+In view of Lady Sybil Crotin's unpopularity, it was perhaps a great
+mistake that she should make herself responsible for the raising of
+funds for the local women's hospital. But she was under the impression
+that there was a magic in her name and station which would overcome what
+she described as shyness, but which was in point of fact the frank
+dislike of her neighbours. A subscription list that she had opened had a
+weak and unpromising appearance. She had with the greatest difficulty
+secured help for the bazaar, and knew, even though it had been opened
+by a duchess, that it was a failure, even from the very first day.
+
+Had she herself made a generous contribution to the bazaar fund, there
+might have been a hope; but she was mean, and the big, bleak hall she
+had chosen as the venue because of its cheapness was unsuitable for the
+entertainment she sponsored.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day, Lady Sybil was pulling on her
+gloves, eyeing her husband with an unfriendly gaze as he sat at lunch.
+
+"It was no more than I expected," she said bitterly. "I was a fool ever
+to start the thing--this is the last time I ever attempt to help local
+charities."
+
+Mr. Crotin rubbed his bald head in perplexity.
+
+"They'll come," he said hopefully, referring to the patrons whose
+absence was the cause of Lady Sybil's annoyance. "They'll come when they
+hear what a fine show it is. And if they don't, Syb, I'll come along and
+spend a couple of hundred pounds myself."
+
+"You'll do no such thing," she snapped; "and please get out of that
+ridiculous habit of reducing my name to one syllable. If the people of
+the town can't help to support their own hospital, then they don't
+deserve to have one, and I'm certainly not going to allow you to waste
+our money on that sort of nonsense."
+
+"Have your own way, love," said Mr. Crotin meekly.
+
+"Besides," she said, "it would be all over the town that it was your
+money which was coming in, and these horrid people would be laughing at
+me."
+
+She finished buttoning her gloves and was looking at him curiously.
+
+"What is the matter with you, John?" she asked suddenly, and he almost
+jumped.
+
+"With me, love?" he said with a brave attempt at a smile. "Why, there's
+nothing the matter with me. What should there be?"
+
+"You've been very strange lately," she said, "ever since you came back
+from London."
+
+"I think I ate something that disagreed with my digestion," he said
+uneasily. "I didn't know that I'd been different."
+
+"Are things well at your--factory?" she asked.
+
+"At mills? Oh, aye, they're all right," he said. "I wish everything was
+as right as them."
+
+"As they," she corrected.
+
+"As they," said the humble Mr. Crotin.
+
+"There's something wrong," she said, and shook her head, and Mr. Crotin
+found himself going white. "I'll have a talk with you when I've got this
+wretched bazaar business out of my head," she added, and with a little
+nod she left him.
+
+He walked to the window of the long dining-hall and watched her car
+disappearing down the drive, and then with a sigh went back to his
+_entremets_.
+
+When Colonel Dan Boundary surmised that this unfortunate victim of his
+blackmail would be worried, he was not far from the mark. Crotin had
+spent many sleepless nights since he came back from London, nights full
+of terror, that left him a wreck to meet the fears of the days which
+followed. He lived all the time in the shadow of vengeful justice and
+exaggerated his danger to an incredible degree; perhaps it was in
+anticipating what his wife would say that he experienced the most
+poignant misery.
+
+He had taken to secret drinking too; little nips at odd intervals, both
+in his room and in his private office. Life had lost its savour, and now
+a new agony was added to the knowledge that his wife had detected the
+change. He went to his office and spent a gloomy afternoon wandering
+about the mills, and came back an hour before his usual time. He had not
+the heart to make a call at the bazaar, and speculated unhappily upon
+the proceeds of the afternoon session.
+
+It was therefore with something like pleasure that he heard his wife on
+the telephone speaking more cheerfully than he had heard her for months.
+
+"Is that you, John?" she was almost civil. "I'm bringing somebody home
+to dinner. Will you tell Phillips?"
+
+"That's right, love," said Mr. Crotin eagerly.
+
+He would be glad to see some new face, and that it was a new face he
+could guess by the interest in Lady Sybil's tone.
+
+"It is a Mr. de Silva. Have you ever met him?"
+
+"No, love, I've not. Is he a foreigner?"
+
+"He's a Portuguese gentleman," said his wife's voice; "and he has been
+most helpful and most generous."
+
+"Bring him along," said Crotin heartily. "I'll be glad to meet him. How
+has the sale been, love?"
+
+"Very good indeed," she replied; "splendid, in fact--thanks to Mr. de
+Silva."
+
+John Crotin was dressing when his wife returned, and it was not until
+half an hour later that he met Pinto Silva for the first time. Pinto was
+a man who dressed well and looked well. John Crotin thought he was the
+most impressive personality he had met, when he stalked into the
+drawing-room and took the proffered hand of the mill-owner.
+
+"This is Mr. de Silva," said his wife, who had been waiting for her
+guest. "As I told you, John, Mr. de Silva has been awfully kind. I don't
+know what you're going to do with all those perfectly useless things
+you've bought," she added to the polished Portuguese, and Pinto
+shrugged.
+
+"Give them away," he said; "there must, for example, be a lot of poor
+women in the country who would be glad of the linen I have bought."
+
+At this point dinner was announced and he took Lady Sybil in. The meal
+was approaching its end when she revived the question of the disposal of
+his purchases.
+
+"Are you greatly interested in charities, Mr. de Silva?"
+
+Pinto inclined his head.
+
+"Both here and in Portugal I take a very deep interest in the welfare of
+the poor," he said solemnly.
+
+"That's fine," said Mr. Crotin, nodding approvingly. "I know what these
+poor people have to suffer. I've been amongst them----"
+
+His wife silenced him with a look.
+
+"It frequently happens that cases are brought to my notice," Pinto went
+on, "and I have one or two cases of women in my mind where these
+purchases of mine would be most welcome. For example," he said, "I heard
+the other day, quite by accident, of a poor woman in Wales whose husband
+deserted her."
+
+Mr. Crotin had his fork half-way to his mouth, but put it down again.
+
+"I don't know much about the case personally," said Pinto carelessly,
+"but the circumstances were brought to my notice by a friend. I think
+these people suffer more than we imagine; and I'll let you into a
+secret, Lady Sybil," he said, speaking impressively. He did not look at
+Crotin, but went on: "A few of my friends are thinking of buying a
+mill."
+
+"A woollen mill?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
+
+"A woollen mill!" he repeated.
+
+"But why?" she asked.
+
+"We wish to make garments and blankets for the benefit of the poor. We
+feel that, if we could run this sort of thing on a co-operative basis,
+we could manufacture the stuff cheaply, always providing, of course,
+that we could purchase a mill at a reasonable figure."
+
+For the first time he looked at Crotin, and the man's face was ghastly
+white.
+
+"What a queer idea!" said Lady Sybil. "A good mill will cost you a lot
+of money."
+
+"We don't think so," said Pinto. "In fact, we expect to purchase a very
+excellent mill at a reasonable sum. That was my object in coming to
+Yorkshire, I may tell you, and it was only by accident that I saw the
+advertisement of your bazaar and called in."
+
+"A fortunate accident for me," said Lady Sybil.
+
+Crotin's eyes were on his plate, and he did not raise them.
+
+"I think it is a great mistake to be too generous with the poor," said
+Lady Sybil, shaking her head. "These women are very seldom grateful."
+
+"I realise that," said Pinto gravely. "But I am not seeking their
+gratitude. We find that many of these women are in terrible
+circumstances owing to no fault of their own. For example, this woman in
+Wales, whose husband is supposed to have deserted her--now, there is a
+bad case."
+
+Lady Sybil was interested.
+
+"We found on investigation," said Pinto, speaking slowly and
+impressively, "that the man who deserted her has since married and
+occupies a very important position in a town in the north of England."
+
+Mr. Crotin dropped his knife with a crash and with a mumbled apology
+picked it up.
+
+"But how terrible!" said Lady Sybil. "What a shocking thing! The man
+should be exposed. He is not fit to associate with human beings. Can't
+you do something to punish him?"
+
+"That could be done," said Silva, "it could be done, but it would bring
+a great deal of unhappiness to his present wife, who is ignorant of her
+husband's treachery."
+
+"Better she should know now than later," said the militant Lady Sybil.
+"I think you do very wrong to keep it from her."
+
+Mr. Crotin rose unsteadily and his wife looked at him with suspicion.
+
+"Aren't you feeling well, John?" she asked with asperity.
+
+It was not the first time she had seen her husband's hand shaking and
+had diagnosed the cause more justly than she was doing at present, for
+John Crotin had scarcely taken a drink that evening.
+
+"I'm going into the library, if you'll excuse me, love," he said.
+"Maybe, Mr.--Mr. de Silva will join me. I'd--I'd like to talk over the
+question of that mill with him."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Then run along now," said Lady Sybil, "and when you've finished
+talking, come back to me, Mr. de Silva. I want to know something about
+your charitable organisations in Portugal."
+
+Pinto followed the other at a distance, saw him enter a big room and
+switch on the lights and followed, closing the door behind him.
+
+Mr. Crotin's library was the most comfortable room in the house. It was
+lighted by French windows which opened on to a small terrace. Long red
+velvet curtains were drawn, and a little fire crackled on the hearth.
+
+When the door closed Crotin turned upon his guest.
+
+"Now, damn you," he said harshly, "what's thy proposition? Make it a
+reasonable sum and I'll pay thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED
+
+
+In the train which had carried Pinto Silva to Huddersfield were one or
+two remarkable passengers, and it was not a coincidence that they did
+not meet. In a third-class carriage at the far end of the train was a
+soldier who carried a kit-bag and who whiled away the journey by reading
+a seemingly endless collection of magazines.
+
+He got out at Huddersfield too, and Pinto might and probably did see him
+as he passed through the barrier. The soldier left his kit-bag at the
+cloak-room and eventually became one of the two dozen people who
+patronised Lady Sybil's bazaar on that afternoon. He passed Pinto twice,
+and once made a small purchase at the same stall where the Portuguese
+was buying lavishly. If Pinto saw him, then he did not remember the
+fact. One soldier looks very much like another, anyway.
+
+Lady Sybil had reason to notice the representative of His Majesty's
+forces, and herself informed him severely that smoking was not allowed,
+and the man had put his cigarette under his heel with an apology and had
+walked out of the building. When Lady Sybil and her guest had entered
+her car and were driven away to Mill Hall, the soldier had been
+loitering near the entrance, and a few minutes later he was following
+the party in a taxi-cab which had been waiting at his order for the past
+two hours.
+
+The taxi did not turn in at the stone-pillared gates of the Hall, but
+continued some distance beyond, when the soldier alighted and, turning
+back, walked boldly through the main entrance and passed up the drive.
+It was dusk by now, and nobody challenged him.
+
+He made a reconnaissance of the house and found the dining-room without
+any difficulty. The blinds were up and the servants were setting the
+table. Then he passed round to the wing of the building and discovered
+the library. He actually went into that room, because it was one of Lady
+Sybil's standing orders that the library should be "aired" and that the
+scent of Mr. Crotin's atrocious tobacco should be cleared.
+
+He sniffed the stale fragrance and was satisfied that this was a room
+which was lived in.
+
+If there was any real, confidential talk between the two men, it would
+be here, he thought, and looked round for a likely place of concealment.
+The room was innocent of cupboards. Only a big settee drawn diagonally
+across a corner of the room promised cover, and that looked too
+dangerous. If anybody sat there and by chance dropped something--a pipe
+or an ash-tray----
+
+He walked back to the terrace to take his bearings in case he had to
+make a rapid exit. He looked round and then dropped suddenly to the
+cover of the balustrade, for he had seen a dark figure moving across the
+lawn, and it was coming straight for the terrace. He slipped back into
+the room and as he did so he heard a step in the passage without. He
+stepped lightly over to the settee and crouched down.
+
+It was evidently a servant, for he heard the French windows closed and
+the clang of the shutters. They were evidently very ordinary
+folding-shutters, fastened with an old-fashioned steel bar--he made a
+mental note of this. Then he heard the swish of the curtain-rings upon
+the brass pole as the curtains were drawn. A dim light was switched on,
+somebody poked the fire, and then the light was put out and the door
+closed softly.
+
+The intruder did some rapid thinking. He crossed to the nearest of the
+windows, noiselessly opened the shutters and pushed them back to the
+position in which they stood when not in use. Then he unlatched the
+window and left it, hoping that it would not blow open and betray him.
+This done, he again pulled the heavy curtains across and returned to
+his place of concealment. That was to be the way out for him if the
+necessity for a rapid retreat should arise.
+
+There was no sound save the ticking of the clock and the noise of
+falling cinders for ten minutes, and then he heard something which
+brought him to the alert, all his senses awakened and concentrated. It
+was the sound of a light and stealthy footstep on the terrace outside.
+He wondered whether it was a servant and whether he would see that one
+of the windows was unshuttered. He had half a mind to investigate, when
+there came another sound--a lumbering foot in the passage. Suddenly the
+door was opened, the lights were flashed on, and the man behind the
+settee hugged the floor and held his breath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"How much do I want?"
+
+Pinto laughed and lit a cigarette.
+
+"My dear Mr. Crotin, I really don't know what you mean."
+
+"Let's have no more foolery," said the Yorkshireman roughly. "I know
+that you've come up from Colonel Boundary and I know what you've come
+for. You want to buy my mill, eh? Well, I'll make it worth your while
+not to buy my mill. You can take the money instead."
+
+"I really am honest when I tell you that I don't understand what you are
+talking about. I have certainly come up to buy a mill--that is true. It
+is also true that I want to buy your mill."
+
+"And what might you be thinking of paying for it?" asked Crotin between
+his teeth.
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds," said Pinto nonchalantly.
+
+"Twenty thousand, eh? It was thirty thousand the last time. You'll want
+me to give it to you soon. Nay, nay, my friend, I'll pay, but not in
+mills."
+
+"Think of the poor," murmured Pinto.
+
+"I'm thinking of them," said the other. "I'm thinking of the poor woman
+in Wales, too, and the poor woman in there." He jerked his head. Then,
+in a calmer tone: "I guessed at dinner where you came from. Colonel
+Boundary sent you."
+
+Pinto shrugged.
+
+"Let us mention no names," he said politely. "And who is Colonel
+Boundary, anyway?"
+
+Crotin was at his desk now. He had taken out his cheque-book and slapped
+it down upon the writing-pad.
+
+"You've got me proper," he said, and his voice quavered. "I'll make an
+offer to you. I'll give you fifty thousand pounds if you write an
+agreement that you will not molest or bother me again."
+
+There was a silence, and the soldier crouched behind the settee,
+listening intently. He heard Pinto laugh softly as one who is greatly
+amused.
+
+"That, my good friend," said Pinto, "would be blackmail. You don't
+imagine that I would be guilty of such an iniquity? I know nothing about
+your past; I merely suggest that you should sell me one of your mills at
+a reasonable price."
+
+"Twenty thousand pounds is reasonable for you, I suppose," said Crotin
+sarcastically.
+
+"It is a lot of money," replied Pinto.
+
+The Yorkshireman pulled open the drawer of his desk and slammed in the
+cheque-book, closing it with a bang.
+
+"Well, I'll give you nothing," he said, "neither mill nor money. You can
+clear out of here."
+
+He crossed the room to the telephone.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Pinto, secretly alarmed.
+
+"I'm going to send for the police," said the other grimly. "I'm going to
+give myself up and I'm going to pinch thee too!"
+
+If Crotin had turned the handle of the old-fashioned telephone, if he
+had continued in his resolution, if he had shown no sign of doubt, a
+different story might have been told. But with his hand raised, he
+hesitated, and Pinto clinched his argument.
+
+"Why have all that trouble?" he said. "Your liberty and reputation are
+much more to you than a mill. You're a rich man. Your wife is wealthy in
+her own right. You have enough to live on for the rest of your life.
+Why make trouble?"
+
+The little man dropped his head with a groan and walked wearily back to
+the desk.
+
+"Suppose I sell this?" he said in a low voice. "How do I know you won't
+come again----"
+
+"When a gentleman gives his word of honour," began Pinto with dignity,
+but was interrupted by a shrill laugh that made his blood run cold.
+
+He swung round with an oath. Framed in an opening of the curtains which
+covered one of the windows was the Figure!
+
+The black silk gown, the white masked face, the soft felt hat pulled
+down over the eyes--his teeth chattered at the sight of it, and he fell
+back against the wall.
+
+"Who wouldn't trust Pinto?" squeaked the voice. "Who wouldn't take
+Pinto's word of honour? Jack o' Judgment wouldn't, poor old Jack o'
+Judgment!"
+
+Jack o' Judgment! The soldier behind the settee heard the words and
+gasped. Without any thought of consequence he raised his head and
+looked. The Jack o' Judgment was standing where he expected him to be.
+He had come through the window which the soldier had left unbarred. This
+time he carried no weapon in his hand, and Pinto was quick to see the
+possibilities. The electric switch was within reach, and his hand shot
+out. There was a click and the room went dark.
+
+But the figure of Jack o' Judgment was silhouetted against the night,
+and Pinto whipped out the long knife which never left him and sent it
+hurtling at his enemy. He saw the figure duck, heard the crash of broken
+glass, and then Jack o' Judgment vanished. In a rage which was three
+parts terror, he sprang through the open French windows on to the
+terrace in time to see a dark figure drop over the balustrade and fly
+across the park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE CAPTURE OF "JACK"
+
+
+Pinto leapt the parapet and was following swiftly in its wake. He
+guessed rather than knew that for once Jack o' Judgment had come
+unarmed, and a wild exultation filled him at the thought that it was
+left to him to unveil the mystery which was weighing even upon the iron
+nerve of the colonel.
+
+The figure gained the shrubbery, and the pursuer heard the rustle of
+leaves as it plunged into the depths. In a second he was blundering
+after. He lost sight of his quarry and stopped to listen. There was no
+sound.
+
+"Hiding," grunted Pinto. And then aloud: "Come out of it. I see you and
+I'll shoot you like a dog if you don't come to me!"
+
+There was no reply. He dashed in the direction he thought Jack o'
+Judgment must have taken and again missed. With a curse he turned off in
+another direction and then suddenly glimpsed a shape before him and
+leapt at it. He was flung back with little or no effort, and stood
+bewildered, for the coat his hand had touched was rough and he had felt
+metal buttons.
+
+"A soldier!" he gasped. "Who are you?"
+
+"Steady," said the other; "don't get rattled, Pinto."
+
+"Who are you?" asked Pinto again.
+
+"My name is Stafford King," said the soldier, "and I think I shall want
+you."
+
+Pinto half turned to go, but was gripped.
+
+"You can go back to Huddersfield and pack your boxes," said Stafford
+King. "You won't leave the town except by my permission."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Pinto, breathing heavily.
+
+"I mean," said Stafford King, "that the unfortunate man you tried to
+blackmail must prosecute whatever be the consequence to himself. Now,
+Pinto, you've a grand chance of turning King's evidence."
+
+Pinto made no reply. He was collecting his thoughts. Then, after a
+while, he said:
+
+"I'll talk about that later, King. I'm staying at the Huddersfield Arms.
+I'll meet you there in an hour."
+
+Stafford King did not move until the sound of Pinto's footsteps had died
+away. Then he began a systematic search, for he too was anxious to end
+the mystery of Jack o' Judgment. He had followed Pinto when he dashed
+from the room and had heard the Portuguese calling upon Jack o' Judgment
+to surrender. That mysterious individual, who was obviously lying low,
+could not be very far away.
+
+He was in a shrubbery which proved later to be a clump of rhododendrons,
+in the centre of which was a summer-house. To the heart of this
+shrubbery led three paths, one of which Stafford discovered quite close
+at hand. The sound of gravel under his feet gave him an idea, and he
+began walking backward till he came to the shadow of a tree, and then,
+simulating the sound of retreating footsteps, he waited.
+
+After a while he heard a rustle, but did not move.
+
+Somebody was coming cautiously through the bushes, and that somebody
+appeared as a shadowy, indistinct figure, not twenty yards away. Only
+the keenest eyesight could have detected it, and still Stafford waited.
+Presently he heard the soft crunch of gravel under its feet, and at that
+moment leapt towards it. The figure stood as though paralysed for a
+second, and then, turning quickly, fled back to the heart of the bushes.
+Before it had gone a dozen paces Stafford had reached it, and his arm
+was about its neck.
+
+"My friend," he breathed, "I don't know what I'm to do with you now I've
+got you, but I certainly am going to register your face for future
+reference."
+
+"No, no," said a muffled voice from behind the mask. "No, no, don't; I
+beg of you!"
+
+But the mask was plucked away, and, fumbling in his pocket, Stafford
+produced his electric lamp and flashed it on the face of his prisoner.
+Then, with a cry of amazement, he stepped back--for he had looked upon
+the face of Maisie White!
+
+For a moment there was silence, neither speaking. Then Stafford found
+his voice.
+
+"Maisie!" he said in bewilderment, "Maisie! You--Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"Phew!" whistled Stafford.
+
+Then sitting on a trunk, he laughed.
+
+"It is Maisie, of all people in the world. And I suspected it, too!"
+
+The girl had covered her face with her hands and was crying softly, and
+he moved towards her and put his arm about her shoulder.
+
+"Darling, it is nothing very terrible. Please don't go on like that."
+
+"Oh, you don't understand, you don't understand!" she wailed. "I wanted
+to catch Silva. I guessed that he was coming north on one of his
+blackmailing trips, and I followed him."
+
+"Did you come up by the same train?"
+
+He felt her nod.
+
+"So did I," said Stafford with a little grin.
+
+"I followed him to the bazaar," she said, "and then I watched him from a
+little eating-house on the opposite side of the road. Do you know, I
+wondered whether you were here too, and I looked everywhere for you, but
+apparently there was nobody in sight when Pinto came out with Lady
+Sybil, only a soldier."
+
+"I was that soldier," said Stafford.
+
+"I discovered where Mr. Crotin lived and came up later," she went on.
+"Of course, I had no very clear idea of what I was going to do, and it
+was only by the greatest luck that I found the window of the library
+open. It was the only window that was open," she said with a little
+laugh.
+
+"It wasn't so much your luck as my forethought," smiled Stafford.
+
+"Now I want to tell you about Jack o' Judgment," she began, but he
+stopped her.
+
+"Let that explanation wait," he said; "the point is, that with your
+evidence and mine we have Pinto by the throat--what was that?"
+
+There was the sound of a shot.
+
+"Probably a poacher," said Stafford after a moment. "I can't imagine
+Pinto using a gun. Besides, I don't think he carries one. What did he
+throw at you?"
+
+"A knife," she said, and he felt her shiver; "it just missed me. But
+tell me, how have we got Pinto?"
+
+They had left the shrubbery and were walking towards the house. She
+stopped a little while to take off her long black cloak, and he saw that
+she was wearing a short-skirted dress beneath.
+
+"We must compel Crotin to prosecute," said Stafford. "With our evidence
+nothing can save Pinto, and probably he will drag in the colonel, too.
+Even your evidence isn't necessary," he said after a moment's thought,
+"and if it's possible I will keep you out of it."
+
+A woman's scream interrupted him.
+
+"There's trouble there," he said, and raced for the house. Somebody was
+standing on the terrace as he approached, and hailed him excitedly.
+
+"Is that you, Terence?"
+
+It was a servant's voice.
+
+"No," replied Stafford, "I am a police officer."
+
+"Thank God!" said the man on the terrace. "Will you come up, sir? I
+thought it was the gamekeeper I was speaking to."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Stafford as he vaulted over the parapet.
+
+"Mr. Crotin has shot himself, sir," said the butler in quavering tones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twelve hours later Stafford King reported to his chief, giving the
+details of the overnight tragedy.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Sir Stanley. "I was afraid of it ending that way."
+
+"Did you know he was being blackmailed?" asked Stafford.
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"We had a report, which apparently emanated from Jack o' Judgment, who
+of late has started sending his communications to me direct," said Sir
+Stanley. "You can, of course, do nothing with Pinto. Your evidence isn't
+sufficient. What a pity you hadn't a second witness." He thought for a
+moment. "Even then it wouldn't have been sufficient unless we had Crotin
+to support you."
+
+Stafford cleared his throat.
+
+"I have a second witness, sir," he said.
+
+"The devil you have!" Sir Stanley raised his eyebrows. "Who was your
+second witness?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment," said Stafford, and Sir Stanley jumped to his feet.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Jack o' Judgment was there," said Stafford, and told the story of the
+remarkable appearance of that mysterious figure.
+
+He told everything, reserving the identification of Jack till the last.
+
+"And then you flashed the lamp on his face," said Sir Stanley. "Well,
+who was it?"
+
+"Maisie White," said Stafford.
+
+"Good Lord!"
+
+Sir Stanley walked to the window and stood looking out, his hands thrust
+into his pockets. Presently he turned.
+
+"There's a bigger mystery here than I suspected," he said. "Have you
+asked Miss White for an explanation?"
+
+Stafford shook his head.
+
+"I thought it best to report the matter to you, sir, before I asked her
+to----"
+
+"To incriminate herself, eh? Well, perhaps you did wisely, perhaps you
+did not. I should imagine that her explanation is a very simple one."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that unless Jack o' Judgment has the gift
+of appearing in two places at once, she is not Jack."
+
+"But I don't understand, sir?"
+
+"I mean," said Sir Stanley, "that Jack o' Judgment was in the colonel's
+room last night, was in fact sitting by the colonel's bedside when that
+gentleman awoke, and according to the statement which Colonel Boundary
+has made to me about two hours ago in this room, warned him of his
+approaching end."
+
+It was Stafford's turn to be astonished.
+
+"Are you sure, sir?" he asked incredulously.
+
+"Absolutely!" said Sir Stanley. "You don't imagine that the colonel
+would invent that sort of thing. For some reason or other, possibly to
+keep close to the trouble that's coming, the colonel insists upon
+bringing all his little chit-chat to me. He asked for an interview about
+ten o'clock this morning and reported to me that he had had this
+visitation. Moreover, the experience has had the effect of upsetting the
+colonel, and for the first time he seems to be thoroughly rattled. Where
+is Miss White?"
+
+"She's here, sir."
+
+"Here, eh?" said the commissioner. "So much the better. Can you bring
+her in?"
+
+A few minutes later the girl sat facing the First Commissioner.
+
+"Now, Miss White, we're going to ask you for a few facts about your
+masquerade," said Sir Stanley kindly. "I understand that you appeared
+wearing the costume, and giving a fairly good imitation of the voice of
+Jack o' Judgment. Now, I'm telling you before we go any further that I
+do not believe for one moment that you are Jack o' Judgment. Am I
+right?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Perfectly true, Sir Stanley," she said. "I don't know why I did such a
+mad thing, except that I knew Pinto was scared of him. I got the cloak
+from my dress-basket and made the mask myself. You see, I didn't know
+whether I might want it, but I thought that in a tight pinch, if I
+wished to terrify this man, that was the role to assume."
+
+Sir Stanley nodded.
+
+"And the voice, of course, was easy."
+
+"But how could you imitate the voice if you have never seen Jack o'
+Judgment?"
+
+"I saw him once." She shivered a little. "You seem to forget, Sir
+Stanley, that he rescued me from that dreadful house."
+
+"Of course," said Sir Stanley, "and you imitated him, did you?" He
+turned to his subordinate. "I'm accepting Miss White's explanation,
+Stafford, and I advise you to do the same. She went up to watch Silva,
+as I understand, and took the costume with her as a sort of protection.
+Well, Miss White, are you satisfied with your detective work?"
+
+She smiled ruefully.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm a failure as a detective," she said.
+
+"I'm afraid you are," laughed Sir Stanley, as he rose and offered his
+hand. "There is only one real detective in the world--and that is Jack
+o' Judgment!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE PASSING OF PHILLOPOLIS
+
+
+If Pinto Silva had a hobby, it was the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum had
+been in low water and had come into the market at a moment when
+theatrical managers and proprietors were singularly unenterprising and
+money was short. Pinto had bought the property for a song, and had
+converted his purchase into a moderate success. The theatre served a
+double purpose; it provided Pinto with a hobby, and offered an excuse
+for his wealth. Since it was a one-man show, and he produced no
+balance-sheet, his contemporaries could only make a guess as to the
+amount of money he made. If the truth be told, it was not very large,
+but small as it was, its dividends more or less justified his own
+leisure.
+
+There had been one or two scandals about the Orpheum which had reached
+the public Press--scandals of a not particularly edifying character. But
+Pinto had managed to escape public opprobrium.
+
+The Orpheum, at any rate, helped to baffle the police, who saw Silva
+living at the rate of twenty thousand a year, and were unable to trace
+the source of his income. That he had estates in Portugal was known; but
+they had been acquired, apparently, on the profits of the music-hall. He
+was not a speculator, though he was a shareholder in a number of
+companies which were controlled by the colonel; and he was certainly not
+a gambler, in the generally accepted sense of the term.
+
+Whilst he was suspected of being intimately connected with several shady
+transactions, he could boast truly that there was not a scrap of
+evidence to associate him with any breach of the law. He was less
+inclined to boast that evening, when he turned into the stage-box at the
+Orpheum, and pulling his chair into the shadow of the draperies, sat
+back and considered his position. He had returned from Yorkshire in a
+panic, and had met the fury of the colonel's reproaches. It was the
+worst quarter of an hour that Pinto had ever spent with his superior,
+and the memory made him shiver.
+
+The stage-box at the Orpheum was never sold to any member of the public.
+It was Pinto's private possession, his sitting-room and his office. He
+sat watching with gloomy interest the progress of the little revue which
+was a feature of the Orpheum programme, and his mind was occupied by a
+very pressing problem. He was shaken, too, by the interview he had had
+with the Huddersfield police.
+
+He had had to fake a story to explain why he left the library, and why,
+in his absence, Mr. Crotin had committed suicide. Fortunately, he had
+returned to the house by the front hall and was in the hall inventing a
+story of burglars to the agitated Lady Sybil when they heard the shot
+which ended the wretched life of the bigamist. That had saved him from
+being suspected of actual complicity in the crime. Suppose they had--he
+sweated at the thought.
+
+There was a knock on the door of the box, and an attendant put in his
+head.
+
+"There's a gentleman to see you, sir," he said; "he says he has an
+appointment."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Mr. Cartwright."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Show him in, please," he said, and dismissed all unpleasant thoughts.
+
+The new-comer proved to be a dapper little man, with a weather-beaten
+face. He was in evening dress, and spoke like a gentleman.
+
+"I had your letter, Mr. Silva," he said. "You received my telephone
+message?"
+
+"Yes," said Silva. "I wanted to see you particularly. You understand
+that what I say is wholly confidential."
+
+"That I understand," said the man called Cartwright.
+
+He took Pinto's proferred cigarette and lit it.
+
+"I have been reading about you in the papers," said Pinto. "You're the
+man who did the non-stop flight for the Western Aeroplane Company?"
+
+"That's right," smiled Cartwright. "I have done many long nights. I
+suppose you are referring to my San Sebastian trip?"
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Now I want to ask you a few questions, and if they seem to be prying or
+personal, you must believe that I have no other wish than to secure
+information which is vital to myself. What position do you occupy with
+the Western Company?"
+
+Cartwright shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I am a pilot," he said. "If you mean, am I a director of the firm or am
+I interested in the company financially, I regret that I must answer No.
+I wish I were," he added, "but I am merely an employee."
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"That is what I wanted to know," he said. "Now, here is another
+question. What does a first-class aeroplane cost?"
+
+"It depends," said the other. "A long distance machine, such as I have
+been flying, would cost anything up to five thousand pounds."
+
+"Could you buy one? Are they on the market?" asked Pinto quickly.
+
+"I could buy a dozen to-morrow," said the other promptly. "The R.A.F.
+have been selling off their machines, and I know just where I could get
+one of the best in Britain."
+
+Pinto was looking at the stage, biting his lips thoughtfully.
+
+"I'll tell you what I want," he said. "I am not very keenly interested
+in aviation, but it may be necessary that I should return to Portugal in
+a great hurry. It is no news to you that we Portuguese are generally in
+the throes of some revolution or other."
+
+"So I understand," said Cartwright, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"In those circumstances," Pinto went on, "it may be necessary for me to
+leave this country without going through the formality of securing a
+passport. I want a machine which will carry me from London to, say,
+Cintra, without a stop, and I want a pilot who can take me across the
+sea by the direct route."
+
+"Across the Bay of Biscay?" asked the aviator in surprise, and Pinto
+nodded.
+
+"I should not want to touch any other country en route, for reasons
+which, I tell you frankly, are political."
+
+Cartwright thought a moment.
+
+"Yes, I think I can get you the machine, and I'm certain I can find you
+the pilot," he said.
+
+"To put it bluntly," said Pinto, "would you take on an engagement for
+twelve months, secure the machine, house it and have it ready for me? I
+will pay you liberally." He mentioned a sum which satisfied the airman.
+"It must not be known that the machine is mine. You must buy it and keep
+it in your own name."
+
+"There's no difficulty about that," said Cartwright. "Am I to understand
+that I must go ahead with the purchase of the aeroplane?"
+
+"You can start right away," said Pinto. "The sooner you have the machine
+ready for a flight the better. I am here almost every night, and I will
+give orders to the collectors on the barrier that you are to come to me
+just whenever you want. If you will meet me here to-morrow morning, say
+at eleven o'clock, I can give you cash for the purchase of the machine,
+and I shall be happy to pay you half a year's salary in advance."
+
+"It will take some time to clear my old job," said Cartwright
+thoughtfully, "but I think I can do it for you. At any rate, I can get
+time off to buy the machine. You say that you do not want anybody to
+know that it is yours?"
+
+Pinto nodded.
+
+"Well, that's easy," said the other. "I've been thinking about buying a
+machine of my own for some time and have made inquiries in several
+quarters."
+
+He rose to leave and shook hands.
+
+"Remember," said Pinto as a final warning, "not a word about this to any
+human soul."
+
+"You can trust me," said the man.
+
+Pinto watched the rest of the play with a lighter heart. After all,
+there could be nothing very much to fear. What had thrown him off his
+balance for the moment was the presence of Stafford King in Yorkshire,
+and when that detective chief did not make his appearance at the police
+inquiry nor had sought him in his hotel, it looked as though the
+colonel's words were true, and that Scotland Yard were after Boundary
+himself and none other.
+
+He sat the performance through and then went to his club--an institution
+off Pall Mall which had been quite satisfied to accept Pinto to
+membership without making any too close inquiries as to his antecedents.
+
+He spent some time before the tape machine, watching the news tick
+forth, then strolled into the smoking-room and read the evening papers
+for the second time. Only one item of news really interested him--it had
+interested the colonel too. The diamondsmiths' premises in Regent Street
+had been burgled the night before and the contents of the safe cleared.
+The colonel had arrested his flow of vituperation, to speculate as to
+the "artist" who had carried out this neat job.
+
+Pinto read for a little, then threw the paper down. He wondered what
+made him so restive and why he was so anxious to find something to
+occupy his attention, and then he realised with a start that he did not
+want to go back to face Colonel Boundary. It was the first time he had
+ever experienced this sensation, and he did not like it. He had held his
+place in the gang by the assurance, which was also an assumption, that
+he was at least the colonel's equal. This irritated him. He put on his
+overcoat and turned into the street. It was a chilly night and a thin
+drizzle of rain was falling. He pulled up his coat-collar and looked
+about for a taxi-cab. Neither outside the club nor in Pall Mall was one
+visible.
+
+He started to walk home, but still felt that disinclination to face the
+colonel. Then a thought struck him; he would go and see Phillopolis, the
+little Greek.
+
+Phillopolis patronised a night-club in Soho, where he was usually to be
+found between midnight and two in the morning. Having an objective,
+Pinto felt in a happier frame of mine and walked briskly the intervening
+distance. He found his man sitting at a little marble-topped table by
+himself, contemplating a half-bottle of sweet champagne and a
+half-filled glass. He was evidently deep in thought, and started
+violently when Pinto addressed him.
+
+"Sit down," he said with evident relief. "I thought it was----"
+
+"Who did you think it was? You thought it was the police, I suppose?"
+said Pinto with heavy jocularity, and to his amazement he saw the little
+man wince.
+
+"What has happened to Colonel Boundary?" asked the Greek irritably.
+"There used to be a time when anybody he spoke for was safe. I'm getting
+out of this country and I'm getting out quick," he added.
+
+"Why?" asked Pinto, who was vitally interested.
+
+The Greek threw out his hands with a little grimace.
+
+"Nerves," he said. "I haven't got over that affair with the White girl."
+
+"Pooh!" said the other. "If the police were moving in that matter,
+they'd have moved long ago. You are worrying yourself unnecessarily,
+Phillopolis."
+
+Pinto's words slipped glibly from his tongue, but Phillopolis was
+unimpressed.
+
+"I know when I've had enough," he said. "I've got my passport and I'm
+clearing out at the end of this week."
+
+"Does the colonel know this?"
+
+The Greek raised his shoulders indifferently.
+
+"I don't know whether he does or whether he doesn't," he said. "Anyway,
+Boundary and I are only remotely connected in business, and my
+movements are no affair of his."
+
+He looked curiously at the other.
+
+"I wonder that a man like you, who is in the heart of things, stays on
+when the net is drawing round the old man."
+
+"Loyalty is a vice with me," said Pinto virtuously. "Besides, there's no
+reason to bolt--as yet."
+
+"I'm going whilst I'm safe," said Phillopolis, sipping his champagne.
+"At present the police have nothing against me and I'm going to take
+good care they have nothing. That's where I've the advantage of people
+like you."
+
+Pinto smiled.
+
+"They've nothing on me," he said easily. "I have an absolutely clean
+record."
+
+It disturbed him, however, to discover that even so minor a member of
+the gang as Phillopolis was preparing to desert what he evidently
+regarded as a sinking ship. More than this, it confirmed him in the
+wisdom of his own precautions, and he was rather glad that he had taken
+it into his head to visit Phillopolis on that night.
+
+"When do you leave?" he asked.
+
+"The day after to-morrow," said Phillopolis. "I think I'll go down into
+Italy for a year. I've made enough money now to live without worrying
+about work, and I mean to enjoy myself."
+
+Pinto looked at the man with interest. Here, at any rate, was one
+without a conscience. The knowledge that he had accumulated his fortune
+through the miseries of innocent girls shipped to foreign dance halls
+did not weigh greatly upon his mind.
+
+"Lucky you!" said Pinto, as they walked out of the club together. "Where
+do you live, by the way?"
+
+"In Somers Street, Soho. It is just round the corner," said Phillopolis.
+"Will you walk there with me?"
+
+Pinto hesitated.
+
+"Yes, I will," he said.
+
+He wanted to see the sort of establishment which Phillopolis
+maintained. They chatted together till they came to the street, and then
+Phillopolis stopped.
+
+"Do you mind if I go ahead?" he said. "I have a--friend there who might
+be worried by your coming."
+
+Pinto smiled to himself.
+
+"Certainly," he said. "I'll wait on the opposite side of the road until
+you are ready."
+
+The man lived above a big furniture shop, and admission was gained by a
+side door. Pinto watched him pass through the portals and heard the door
+close. He was a long time gone, and evidently his "friend" was
+unprepared to receive visitors at that hour, or else Phillopolis himself
+had some reason for postponing the invitation.
+
+The reason for the delay was explained in a sensational manner. Suddenly
+the door opened and a man came out. He was followed by two others and
+between them was Phillopolis, and the street-lamp shone upon the steel
+handcuffs on his wrists. Pinto drew back into a doorway and watched.
+Phillopolis was talking--it would perhaps be more accurate to say that
+he was raving at the top of his voice, cursing and sobbing in a frenzy.
+
+"You planted them--it is a plant!" he yelled. "You devils!"
+
+"Are you coming quietly?" said a voice. "Or are you going to make
+trouble? Take him, Dempsey!"
+
+Phillopolis seemed to have forgotten Pinto's presence, for he went out
+of the street without once calling upon him to testify to his character
+and innocence. Pinto waited till he was gone, and then strolled across
+the road to the detective who stood before the door lighting his pipe.
+
+"Good evening," he said, "has there been some trouble?"
+
+The officer looked at him suspiciously. But Pinto was in evening dress
+and talked like a gentleman, and the policeman thawed.
+
+"Nothing very serious, sir," he said, "except for the man. He's a
+fence."
+
+"A what?" said Pinto with well-feigned innocence.
+
+"A receiver of stolen property. We found his lodgings full of stuff."
+
+"Good Heavens!" gasped Pinto.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, delighted that he had created a sensation. "I
+never saw so much valuable property in one room in my life. There was a
+big burglary in Regent Street last night. A jeweller's shop was cleared
+out of about twenty thousand pounds' worth of necklaces, and we found
+every bit of it here to-night. We've always suspected this man," he went
+on confidentially. "Nobody knew how he got his living, but from
+information we received to-day we were able to catch him red-handed."
+
+"Thank you," said Pinto faintly, and walked slowly home, for now he no
+longer feared to meet the colonel. He had something to tell him,
+something that would inspire even Boundary with apprehension.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE VOICE IN THE ROOM
+
+
+As Silva anticipated, the colonel was up and waiting for him. He was
+playing Patience on his desk and looked up with a scowl as the
+Portuguese entered.
+
+"So you've been skulking, have you, Pinto?" he began, but the other
+interrupted him.
+
+"You can keep all that talk for another time," he said. "They've taken
+Phillopolis!"
+
+The colonel swept his cards aside with a quick, nervous gesture.
+
+"Taken Phillopolis?" he repeated slowly. "On what charge?"
+
+"For being the receiver of stolen property," said the other. "They found
+the proceeds of the Regent Street burglary in his apartments."
+
+The colonel opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, and there was
+silence for two or three minutes.
+
+"I see. They have planted the stuff on him, have they?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Pinto.
+
+"You don't suppose that Phillopolis is a fence, do you?" said the
+colonel scornfully. "Why, it is a business that a man must spend the
+whole of his life at before he can be successful. No, Phillopolis knows
+no more about that burglary or the jewels than you or I. The stuff has
+been planted in his rooms."
+
+"But the police don't do that sort of thing."
+
+"Who said the police did it?" snarled the colonel. "Of course they
+didn't. They haven't the sense. That's Mr. Jack o' Judgment once more,
+and this time, Pinto, he's real dangerous."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" gasped Pinto. "But would he commit a burglary?"
+
+The colonel laughed scornfully.
+
+"Would he commit murder? Would he hang Raoul? Would he shoot you? Don't
+ask such damn-fool questions, Silva! Of course it was Jack o' Judgment.
+I tell you, the night you were in Yorkshire making a mess of that Crotin
+business, Jack o' Judgment came here, to this very room, and told me
+that he would ruin us one by one, and that he would leave me to the
+last. He mentioned us all--you, Crewe, Selby----"
+
+He stopped suddenly and scratched his chin.
+
+"But not Lollie Marsh," he said. "That's queer, he never mentioned
+Lollie Marsh!"
+
+He was deep in thought for a few moments, then he went on:
+
+"So he's worked off Phillopolis, has he? Well, Phillopolis has got to
+take his medicine. I can do nothing for him."
+
+"But surely he can prove----" began Pinto.
+
+"What can he prove?" asked the other. "Can he prove how he earns his
+money? He's been taken with the goods; he hasn't that chance," he
+snapped his fingers. "I'll make a prophecy," he said: "Phillopolis will
+get five years' penal servitude, and nothing in the world can save him
+from that."
+
+"An innocent man!" said Pinto in amazement. "Impossible!"
+
+"But is he innocent?" asked the colonel sourly. "That's the point you've
+got to keep in your mind. He may be innocent of one kind of crookedness,
+and be so mixed up in another that he cannot prove he is innocent of
+either. That's where they've got this fellow. He dare not appeal to the
+people who know him best, because they'd give him away. He can't tell
+the police who are his agents in Greece or Armenia, or they'll find out
+just the kind of agency he was running."
+
+He squatted back in his chair, pulling at his long moustache.
+
+"Phillopolis, Crewe, Pinto, Selby, and then me," said he, speaking to
+himself, "and he never mentioned Lollie Marsh. And Lollie has been the
+decoy duck that has been in every hunt we've had. This wants looking
+into, Pinto."
+
+As he finished speaking there was a little buzz from the corner of the
+room and Pinto looked up startled. The colonel looked up too and a slow
+smile dawned on his face.
+
+"A visitor," he said softly. "Not our old friend Jack o' Judgment,
+surely!"
+
+"What is it?" asked Pinto.
+
+"A little alarm I've had fixed under one of the treads of the stairs,"
+said the other. "I don't like to be taken unawares."
+
+"Perhaps it is Crewe," suggested the other.
+
+"Crewe's gone home an hour ago," said the colonel. "No, this is a
+genuine visitor."
+
+They waited for some time and then there was a knock at the outer door.
+
+"Open it, Pinto," and as the other did not instantly move, "open it,
+damn you! What are you afraid of?"
+
+"I'm not afraid of anything," growled the Portuguese and flung out of
+the room.
+
+Yet he hesitated again before he turned the handle of the outer door. He
+flung it open and stepped back. He would have gone farther, but the wall
+was at his back and he could only stand with open mouth staring at the
+visitor. It was Maisie White.
+
+She returned his gaze steadily.
+
+"I want to see Colonel Boundary," she said.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Pinto huskily.
+
+He shut the door and ushered her into the colonel's presence. Boundary's
+eyes narrowed as he saw the girl. He suspected a trap and looked past
+her as though expecting to see an escort behind her.
+
+"This is an unexpected honour, Miss White," he said suavely, and he
+looked meaningly at the clock on the mantelpiece. "We do not usually
+receive visitors so late, and especially charming lady visitors."
+
+She was carrying a thick package, and this she laid on the table.
+
+"I'm sorry it is so late," she said calmly, "but I have been all the
+evening checking my father's accounts. This is yours."
+
+She handed the package to the colonel.
+
+"That parcel contains banknotes to the value of twenty-seven thousand
+three hundred pounds," said the girl quietly; "it represents what
+remains of the money which my father drew from your gang."
+
+"Tainted money, eh?" said the colonel humorously. "I think you're very
+foolish, Miss White. Your father earned this money by legitimate
+business enterprises."
+
+"I know all about them," she said. "I won't ask you to count the notes,
+because it is only a question of getting the money off my own
+conscience, and the amount really doesn't matter."
+
+"So you came here alone to make this act of reparation?" sneered the
+colonel.
+
+"I came here to make this act of reparation," she replied steadily.
+
+"Not alone, eh? Surrounded entirely by police. Mr. Stafford King in the
+offing, waiting outside in a taxi, or probably waiting on the mat," said
+the colonel in the same tone. "Well, well, you're quite safe with us,
+Miss White."
+
+He took up the package and tore off the wrapping, revealing two wads of
+banknotes, and ran his finger along the edges.
+
+"And how are you going to live?" he asked.
+
+"By working," said the girl; "that's a strange way of earning a living,
+don't you think, colonel?"
+
+"You'll never work harder than I have worked," said Colonel Dan Boundary
+good-humouredly. And, looking down at the money: "So that's Solly
+White's share, is it? And I suppose it doesn't include the house he
+bought, or the car?"
+
+"I've sold everything," said the girl quietly; "every piece of property
+he owned has been realised, and that is the proceeds."
+
+With a little nod she was withdrawing, but Pinto barred her way.
+
+"One moment, Miss White," he said, and there was a dangerous glint in
+his eye, "if you choose to come here alone in the middle of the
+night----"
+
+The colonel stepped between them, and he swept the Portuguese backwards.
+Without a word he opened the door.
+
+"Good night, Miss White," he said. "My kind regards to Mr. Stafford
+King, who I suppose is somewhere on the premises, and to all the bright
+lads of the Criminal Intelligence Department who are at this moment
+watching the house."
+
+She smiled, but did not take his proffered hand.
+
+"Good-bye," she said.
+
+The colonel accompanied her to the outer door and switched on all the
+stair lights, as he could from the master-switch near the entrance to
+his flat, and waited until the echo of her footsteps had passed away
+before he came back to the man.
+
+"You're a clever fellow, you are, Pinto," he said quietly; "you have one
+of the brightest minds in the gang."
+
+"If she comes here alone----" began Pinto.
+
+"Alone!" snarled the colonel. "I hinted a dozen times, if I hinted once,
+that she'd come with a young army of police. The first shout she made
+would have been the signal for your arrest and mine. Haven't you had
+your lesson to-night? How long do you think it would take Stafford King
+to trump up a charge against you and put you where the dogs wouldn't
+bite, eh?"
+
+He walked to the window and watched the girl. There was a taxi-cab
+waiting at the entrance, and as he had suspected, a man was standing by
+the door and followed the girl into the cab before it drove away.
+
+"She timed her visit. I suppose she gave herself five minutes. If she'd
+been here any longer, they would have been up for her, make no mistake
+about that, Pinto."
+
+The colonel drew down the blinds with a crash and began pacing the room.
+He stopped at the farther end and looked at the wall.
+
+"Do you know, I've often wondered why Jack o' Judgment damaged that
+wall?" he said. "He's got me guessing, and I've been guessing ever
+since."
+
+"You thought it was a freak?" said Pinto, glad to keep his master off
+the subject of his Huddersfield blunder.
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"I shouldn't think it was that," he said. "It was not like Jack o'
+Judgment to do freakish things. He has an object in everything he does."
+
+"Perhaps it was to get you out of the room for the morning and make a
+search for your papers," suggested Pinto.
+
+Again the colonel shook his head.
+
+"He knows me better than that. He knew very well that I would shift
+every document from the room and that there was nothing for his
+bloodhounds to discover." He thought a moment, pulling at his long,
+yellow moustache. "Maybe," he said to himself, "maybe----"
+
+"Maybe what?" asked Pinto.
+
+"The workmen may have been up to some kind of dodge. They might have
+been policemen for all I know." He shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway,
+that's long ago, and if he'd made a discovery, why, I think we should
+have heard about it. Now, Pinto,"--his tone changed--"I'm not going to
+talk to you about Crotin. You've made a proper mess of it, and I ought
+never to have sent you. We have two matters to settle. Crewe wants to
+get out, and I think you're getting ready to bolt."
+
+"Me?" said Pinto with virtuous indignation. "Do you imagine I should
+leave you, colonel, if you were in for a bad time?"
+
+"Do I imagine it?" The colonel laughed. "Don't be a fool. Sit down. When
+did you see Lollie Marsh last?"
+
+Pinto considered.
+
+"I haven't seen her for weeks."
+
+"Neither have I," said the colonel. "Of course she has an excuse for
+staying away. She never comes unless she's sent for. If we've got a mug
+we want to lead down the easy path, why, there's nobody in London who
+can do it like Lollie. And I understand you had some disagreement with
+the young lady over Maisie White?"
+
+"She interfered----" began Pinto.
+
+"And probably saved your life," remarked the colonel meaningly. "No, you
+have no kick against Lollie for that."
+
+He pulled open the drawer of his desk, took out a card and wrote
+rapidly.
+
+"I'll put Snakit on her trail," he said.
+
+"Snakit!" said the other contemptuously.
+
+"He's all right for this kind of work," said the colonel, alluding to
+the little detective whom he had bought over from Maisie White's
+service. "Snakit can trail her. He does nothing for his keep, and Lollie
+doesn't know him, does she?"
+
+"I don't think so," said Pinto absently. "If you believe that Lollie is
+double-crossing you, why don't you----"
+
+"I'll write to you when I want any suggestions as to how to run my
+business," said the colonel unpleasantly. "Where does Lollie live?"
+
+"Tavistock Avenue," said Pinto. "I wish you'd be a little more decent to
+me, colonel. I'm trying to play the game by you."
+
+"And you'll soon get tired of trying," said the colonel. "Don't worry,
+Pinto. I know just how much I can depend upon you and just what your
+loyalty is worth. You'll sell me at the first opportunity, and you'll be
+dead about the same day. I only hope for your sake that the opportunity
+never arises. That's that," he said, as he finished the card and put it
+on one side. "Now what is the next thing?" He looked up at the ceiling
+for inspiration. "Crewe," he said, "Crewe is getting out of hand too. I
+put him on a job to trace 'Snow' Gregory's past. I haven't seen or heard
+of him for two days, either."
+
+Somebody laughed. It was a queer, little far-away laugh, but Pinto
+recognised it and his hair almost stood on end. He looked across at the
+colonel with ashen face, and then swung round apprehensively toward the
+door.
+
+"Did you hear that?" he whispered.
+
+"I heard it--thank the lord!" said the colonel, and fetched a long sigh.
+
+Pinto gazed at him in amazement.
+
+"Why," he said in a low voice, "that was Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+"I know," said the colonel nodding; "but I still thank the lord!"
+
+He got up slowly and walked round the room, opened the door that led to
+his bedroom, and put on the light. The room was empty, and the only
+cupboard which might have concealed an intruder was wide open. He came
+back, walked into the entrance hall, and opened the door softly. The
+landing was empty too. He returned after fastening the door and slipping
+the bolts--bolts which he had had fixed during the previous week.
+
+"You wonder why I held a thanksgiving service?" said the colonel slowly.
+"Well, I've heard that laugh before, and I thought my brain was
+going--that's all. I'd rather it were Jack o' Judgment in the flesh than
+Jack o' Judgment wandering loose around my hut."
+
+"You heard it before?" said Pinto. "Here?"
+
+"Here in this room," said the colonel. "I thought I was going daft.
+You're the first person who has heard it besides myself." He looked at
+Pinto. "A hell of a prospect, isn't it?" he said gloomily. "Let's talk
+about the weather!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+DIAMONDS FOR THE BANK
+
+
+There was no hope for Phillopolis from the first. The case against him
+was so clear and so damning that the magistrate, before whom the
+preliminary inquiry was heard, had no hesitation in committing him to
+take his trial at the Old Bailey on a charge of receiving, and that at
+the first hearing. Every article which had been stolen from the
+diamondsmiths' company had been recovered in his flat. The police
+experts gave evidence to the effect that he had been a suspected man for
+years, that his method of earning a living had on several occasions been
+the subject of police inquiry. He was known to be, so the evidence ran,
+the associate of criminal characters, and on two occasions his flat had
+been privately raided.
+
+The woman who passed as his wife had nothing good to say of him. It was
+not she who had admitted the police. Indeed, they found her in an upper
+room, locked in. Phillopolis was something of a tyrant, and on the day
+of his arrest he had had a quarrel with the woman, who had threatened to
+expose him to the police for some breach of the law. He had beaten her
+and locked her into an upper bedroom, and this act of tyranny had proved
+his downfall, if it were true, as he swore so vehemently that the
+articles which were found in his room had been planted there.
+
+The colonel was not present, nor were any other members of the gang,
+save little Selby, who had been summoned to the colonel's presence and
+had arrived in the early morning.
+
+"He hasn't a ghost of a chance," reported Selby, who had a lifelong
+acquaintance with criminals of the meaner sort, and had spent no small
+amount of his time in police courts, securing evidence as to the virtue
+of his proteges. "If he doesn't get ten years I'm a Dutchman."
+
+"What does Phillopolis say?"
+
+"He swears that the goods were not in his flat when he went out that
+night," he said, "but if they were planted, the work was done
+thoroughly. The detectives found jewel cases under cushions, hidden in
+cupboards, on the tops of shelves, and one of the best bits of swag--a
+wonderful diamond necklace--was discovered in his boot, at the bottom of
+his trunk."
+
+The conversation took place in the Green Park, which was a favourite
+haunt of the colonel's. He loved to sit on a chair by the side of the
+lake, watching the children sailing their boats and the ducks mothering
+their broods. He was silent. His eyes were bent upon the efforts of a
+small boy to bring a little waterlogged boat to a level keel and
+apparently he had no other interest.
+
+"Have a cigar, Selby," he said at last. "What is the news in your part
+of the world?"
+
+Selby was carefully biting off the end of his gift.
+
+"Nothing much," he said. "We got some letters the other day from Mrs.
+Crombie-Brail. Her son has got into trouble at the Cape. Lew Litchfield
+got them. He was doing a job in Manchester."
+
+Lew Litchfield was a bright young burglar of whom the colonel had heard,
+and he knew the kind of "job" on which Lew was engaged.
+
+"You bought 'em?" he asked.
+
+"I gave a tenner for them," said Selby. "I don't think they're much
+use."
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"That's not the kind of letter that brings in money," he said. "You
+can't bleed a mother because her son got into trouble--at least, not for
+more than a hundred."
+
+"Letters have been scarce lately," said his agent disconsolately; "I
+think people have either given up keeping or writing them."
+
+"Maybe," said the colonel. "Anyway, I didn't bring you down to talk
+about letters. I've work for you."
+
+Selby looked uneasy, and that in itself was a discouraging sign. Usually
+the little crook from the north hailed a job of any kind with
+enthusiasm.
+
+It was an unmistakable proof to the colonel that he was losing grip,
+that the magic of his name and all that it implied in the way of
+protection from punishment, was less than it had been.
+
+"You don't seem very pleased," he said.
+
+Selby forced a smile.
+
+"Well, colonel," he said, "I've a feeling they're after us, and I don't
+want to take any risks."
+
+"You'll take this one," said the colonel. "There's somebody to be put
+away."
+
+The man licked his lips.
+
+"Well, I'm not in it," he said. "I had enough with that Hanson
+business."
+
+"By 'put away' I don't mean murdered or ill-treated in any sense," said
+the colonel, "and besides, it is one of our own people."
+
+But even this assurance did not satisfy the man.
+
+"I don't like it," he said; "they tell me that this Jack o'
+Judgment----"
+
+"Just forget Jack o' Judgment for a minute and think of yourself,"
+snapped the colonel. "You've made your pile, and you find England's
+getting a bit too hot for you, don't you?"
+
+"I do indeed," said the man fervently. "You know, colonel, I was
+thinking that a trip to America wouldn't be a bad idea."
+
+"There are plenty of places to go to without going to America," said the
+colonel. "I tell you that I mean Lollie no harm."
+
+"Lollie?" Selby was surprised, and showed it. "She hasn't----"
+
+"I don't know what she's done yet, but I think it is time she went
+away," said the colonel, "and so far as I can judge, it is time you went
+too, Selby. I don't know whether Lollie is betraying us, and maybe I'm
+doing her an injustice," he went on, "but if I put up to her a
+suggestion that she should leave the country, maybe she'd probably turn
+me down. You know how suspicious these women are. The only idea I can
+think of is to scare her and make her bolt quick and sudden, and I want
+you to provide the means."
+
+Selby was waiting.
+
+"I bought a motor-boat, one of those swift motor-boats that the
+Government used during the war. I have it ready at Twickenham, and you
+can get all your goods on board and go to----"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Anywhere you like," said the colonel, "Holland, Denmark--one place is
+as good as another, and it'll be a good sea-going boat. You see, my idea
+is this. If I think Lollie is negotiating to put us away, I can give her
+a fright which will make her jump at the means of getting out of England
+by the quickest and shortest route. You can go with her and keep her
+under your eye until the trouble blows over."
+
+He saw a look in the man's face and correctly interpreted it.
+
+"I'm not worried about _you_ double-crossing me," he said, "even if you
+are abroad. I've enough evidence against you to bring you back under an
+extradition warrant." He laughed as Selby's face fell. "You see Selby,
+there's nothing in it that you can take exception to. I don't even know
+that Lollie will refuse to go in the ordinary way, but I must make
+preparations."
+
+"It is a reasonable suggestion," said Selby, after considering the
+matter for a few minutes. "I'll do it, colonel."
+
+"You'd better bring a couple of men to London who can handle Lollie if
+she gives any trouble--no, no," said the colonel, raising his hand in
+dignified protest, "there's going to be nothing rough. How can there be?
+You'll be in charge of it all, and it is up to you as to how Lollie is
+treated."
+
+It did not occur to Selby until an hour later to ask the colonel how he
+knew that his hobby was motor-boating, but by that time the colonel had
+gone.
+
+It was true, as Boundary said, that the gang was scared--and badly
+scared. It was equally true that they needed only one jar before it
+became a case of every man for himself. Already even the minor members
+were making their preparations to break away. The red light was burning
+clear before all eyes. But none knew how readily the colonel had
+recognised the signs, and how, in spite of his apparent philosophy and
+his contempt of danger, he, more than any of the others, was preparing
+for the inevitable crash.
+
+Jack o' Judgment, he told himself, was playing his game better than he
+could play it himself. The arrest of Phillopolis had removed one of the
+men who might have been an inconvenient witness against him. White was
+gone, Raoul was gone. He had planned the disappearance of Selby, a most
+dangerous man, and Lollie Marsh, an even more dangerous woman and there
+remained only Pinto and Crewe.
+
+When he had taken leave of his agent, the colonel walked to Westminster
+and boarded a car which carried him along the Embankment to Blackfriars.
+He might have been followed, and probably was, but this possibility did
+not worry him. He walked across Ludgate Circus, up St. Bride Street to
+Hatton Garden, and turned into the office of Myglebergs'. Mr. Mygleberg,
+a very suave and polite gentleman, received him and ushered him into a
+private room. This shrewd Dutchman had no illusions as to the colonel's
+probity, but he had no doubt either that the big man could pay
+handsomely for everything he bought.
+
+"I'm glad you've come, colonel," he said; "I have been expecting you for
+a couple of days. We have just had a wonderful parcel of stones from
+Amsterdam, and I think some of them would suit you."
+
+He disappeared and came back with a tray covered with the most beautiful
+diamonds that had ever left the cutter's hands. The colonel went over
+them slowly, examining them and putting a selected number aside.
+
+"I'll take those," he said, and Mr. Mygleberg laughed.
+
+"They're the best," he chuckled. "Trust you to know a good thing when
+you see it, colonel!"
+
+"What have I to pay for these?"
+
+Mygleberg made a rapid calculation and put the figures before Colonel
+Boundary.
+
+"It is a big price," said the colonel, "but I don't think you have
+overcharged. Besides, I could always sell them again for that much."
+
+Mr. Mygleberg nodded.
+
+"I think you are wise to put your money into stones, colonel," he said;
+"they always go up and never go down in value. You can lose other
+things. They're easy and they're always convertible. I always tell my
+partner that if I ever become a millionaire I shall invest every penny
+in stones."
+
+The colonel paid for the gems from a thick wad of notes he took from his
+hip-pocket. They were, in point of fact, the identical notes which
+Maisie White had handed to him the night previous. He waited whilst the
+jewels were made up into a little oblong package, heavily sealed and
+inscribed with the colonel's name and address, and then, shaking hands
+with Mygleberg and fixing a further appointment, he came out into Hatton
+Garden, whistling a little song and apparently the picture of
+contentment.
+
+He was getting ready for flight too. This, the first of many packages
+which he intended depositing in the private safe of his bank, would go
+with the ever-increasing pile of American gold bonds of high
+denomination which filled that steel repository. For months the colonel
+had been converting his property into paper dollars. They were more
+easily negotiated and less traceable than English banknotes, and they
+were more get-at-able. A big balance in the books of the bank might be
+creditable and, given time, convertible into cash. Then nobody knew but
+himself the amount standing to his credit. He was not at the mercy of
+prying bank clerks or a manager who might be got at by the police. At a
+minute's notice, and without anybody being the wiser, he could demand
+the contents of his safe and walk from the bank premises without a soul
+being aware that he was carrying the bulk of his fortune away.
+
+He took a cab and drove now to the bank premises. Ferguson, the manager,
+received him.
+
+"Good morning, colonel," he said. "I was just writing you a note. You
+know your account is getting very low."
+
+"Is that so?" said the colonel in surprise.
+
+"I thought you wouldn't realise the fact," said Ferguson, "but you've
+been drawing very heavily of late."
+
+"I'll put it right," said the colonel. "It is not overdrawn?" he asked
+jocularly, and Ferguson smiled.
+
+"You've eighty thousand pounds in Account B," he said. "I suppose you
+don't want to touch that?"
+
+Account B was the euphonious name for the fund which was the common
+property of all the leaders of the Boundary Gang.
+
+"Unless you're anxious that I should get penal servitude for
+fraudulently converting the company's funds?" said the colonel in the
+same strain. "No, I'll fix my account some time to-day. In the
+meantime"--he produced a package from his hip-pocket--"I want this to go
+into my safe."
+
+"Certainly," said Ferguson, and struck a bell. A clerk answered the
+call. "Take Colonel Boundary to the vaults. He wants to deposit
+something in his safe," he said, "or would you like me to do it,
+colonel?"
+
+"I'll do it myself," said the colonel.
+
+He followed the clerk down the spiral staircase to the well-lit vault,
+and with the key which the man handed him opened Safe No. 20. It was
+divided into two compartments, that on the left consisting of a deep
+drawer, which he pulled out. It was half filled with American paper
+currency, as he knew--currency neatly parcelled and carefully packed by
+his own hands.
+
+"I often wonder, Colonel Boundary," said the interested clerk, "why you
+don't use the bank safe. When a customer has his own, you know, we are
+not responsible for any of his losses."
+
+"I know that," said the colonel genially. "Still one must take a risk."
+
+He placed the package on the top of the money, pushed back the drawer,
+locked the safe and handed the key to the young man.
+
+"I think the bank takes enough risks without asking them to accept any
+more," he said, "and besides, I like to take a little risk myself
+sometimes."
+
+"So I've heard," said the clerk innocently, and the colonel shot a
+questioning look at the young man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE VOICE AGAIN
+
+
+He left the bank with the sense of having done his duty by himself. He
+had not planned the route by which he was leaving the country, or the
+hour. Much was to happen before he shook the dust of England from his
+feet, and as he had arranged matters he would have plenty of time to
+think things over before he made his departure.
+
+A great deal happened in the next few days to make him believe that the
+necessity for getting away was not very urgent. He met Stafford King in
+the Park one morning, and Stafford had been unusually communicative and
+friendly. Then the whispering voices in the flat had temporarily ceased,
+and Jack o' Judgment had given him no sign of his existence. It was five
+days after he had made his deposit in the bank that the first shock came
+to him. He found Snakit waiting on returning from a matinee, and the
+little detective was so important and mysterious that the colonel knew
+something had been discovered.
+
+"Well," he asked, closing the door, "what have you found?"
+
+"She is in communication with the police," said Snakit, "that's what
+I've found."
+
+"Lollie?"
+
+"Miss Marsh is the lady. In communication with the police," said the
+other impressively.
+
+"Now just tell me what you mean," said the colonel. "Do you mean she's
+on speaking terms with the policeman on point duty at Piccadilly
+Circus?"
+
+"I mean, sir," said Snakit with dignity, "that she's in the habit of
+meeting Mr. Stafford King, who is a well-known man at Scotland Yard----"
+
+"He's well-known here too," interrupted the colonel. "Where does she
+meet him?"
+
+"In all sorts of queer places--that's the suspicious part of it," said
+Snakit, who had joyously entered into the work which had been given to
+him, without realising its unlawful character.
+
+He had accepted without question the colonel's story that he was the
+victim of police persecution, and as this was the first news of any
+importance he had been able to bring to his employer, he was naturally
+inclined to make the most of it.
+
+"He has met her twice at eleven o clock at night, at the bottom of St.
+James's Street, and walked up with her, very deeply engaged in
+conversation," said Snakit, consulting his note-book. "He met her once
+at the foot of the steps leading down from Waterloo Place, and they were
+together for an hour. This morning," he went on, speaking slowly, and
+evidently this was his tit-bit, "this morning Mr. Stafford King went to
+the Cunard office in Cockspur Street and booked cabin seventeen on the
+shelter deck of the _Lapland_ for New York."
+
+"In what name?"
+
+"In the name of Miss Isabel Trenton."
+
+The colonel nodded. It was a name that Lollie had used before, and the
+story rang true.
+
+"When does the _Lapland_ sail?" he asked, and again the detective
+consulted his book.
+
+"Next Saturday," he said, "from Liverpool."
+
+"Very good," said the colonel; "thank you, Snakit, you've done very
+well. See if you can pick them up to-night, or, stay----" He thought a
+moment. "No, don't shadow her to-night. I'll have a talk with her."
+
+The news disturbed him. Lollie was getting ready to bolt--that was
+unimportant. But she was bolting with the assistance of the police, who
+had booked her passage. That meant that they had got as much out of her
+as she had to tell, and were clearing her out of the country before the
+blow fell. That was not only important, but it was grave. Either the
+police were going to strike at once or----
+
+An idea struck him, and he telephoned through to Pinto. Another got him
+into touch with Crewe, and these three were in consultation when Selby
+came that afternoon.
+
+He arrived at an unpropitious moment, for the colonel was in a cold
+fury, and the object of his wrath was Crewe, who sat with folded arms
+and tense face, looking down at the table.
+
+"That gentleman business is played out, Crewe," stormed the colonel,
+"and I'm just about tired of hearing what you won't do and what you will
+do! If Lollie's put us away, she has got to go through it."
+
+"What use will it be, supposing she has?" said the other doggedly. "I
+don't for a moment believe she has done anything of the sort. But
+suppose she has given you away, what are you going to do? Add to the
+indictment? She's sick of the game and wants to get away somewhere where
+she can live a decent life."
+
+"Oh, you've been discussing it with her, have you?" said the colonel
+with dangerous calm. "And maybe you also are sick of the game and want
+to get away and live a decent life? I remember hearing you say something
+of that sort a few weeks ago."
+
+"We're all sick of it," said Crewe. "Look at Pinto. Do you think he's
+keen?"
+
+Pinto started.
+
+"Why do you bring me into it?" he complained. "I'm standing by the
+colonel to the last. And I agree with him that we ought to know what
+Lollie told the police."
+
+"She's told them nothing," said Crewe. "She isn't that kind of girl.
+Besides, what does she know?"
+
+"She knows a lot," said the colonel. "I'll put a supposition to you.
+Suppose she's Jack o' Judgment?"
+
+Crewe looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"That's an absurd suggestion," he said. "How could she be?"
+
+"I'll tell you how she could be," said the colonel; "she has never been
+with us when Jack made his appearance--you'll grant that?"
+
+Crewe thought for a moment.
+
+"There you're wrong," he said; "she was with us the night Jack first
+came."
+
+The colonel was taken aback. A theory which he had formed was destroyed
+by that recollection.
+
+"So she was. That's right, she was there! I remember he insulted her.
+But I'm certain she's seen him since; I am certain she's been working
+hand-in-glove with him since. Who was the Jack who went to Yorkshire?"
+
+It was Crewe's turn to be nonplussed.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment must be working with a pal," the colonel went on
+triumphantly, "and I suggest that that pal is Lollie Marsh."
+
+"That's a lie!"
+
+The colonel looked up quickly.
+
+"Who said that?" he demanded harshly.
+
+Crewe shook his head.
+
+"It was not me," he said.
+
+"Was it you, Selby?"
+
+"Me?" said the astonished Selby. "No, I thought it was you who said it.
+It came from your end of the table, colonel."
+
+The colonel got up.
+
+"There's something wrong here," he said.
+
+"I've got it!" It was Pinto who spoke. "Did you notice anything peculiar
+about the voice, colonel?" he asked eagerly. "I did, the first time I
+heard it, and I've been wondering how I'd heard it before, and just now
+it has struck me. It was a gramophone voice!"
+
+"A gramophone voice?"
+
+"It sounded like a voice on a speaking machine."
+
+The colonel nodded slowly.
+
+"Now you come to mention it, I think you're right," he said; "it sounded
+familiar to me. Of course, it was a gramophone voice."
+
+They made a careful search of the apartment, taking down every book
+from the big shelf in one of the alcoves, and turning the leaves to
+discover the hidden machine. With this idea to guide them the search was
+more complete than it had been before. Every drawer in the desk was
+taken out, every scrap of furniture was minutely examined, even the
+massive legs of the colonel's writing table were tapped.
+
+Crewe took no part in the search, but watched it with a slight smile of
+amusement, and the colonel turning, detected this.
+
+"What the devil are you grinning about?" he said. "Why aren't you
+helping, Crewe? You've got an interest in this business."
+
+"Not such an interest that I'm going to fool around looking for a
+gramophone voice that goes off at appropriate intervals," said Crewe.
+"Doesn't it strike you that it would have to be a pretty smart
+gramophone to chip in at the right moment?"
+
+The colonel pondered this a minute and then went back to his place at
+the table, mopping his forehead.
+
+"Pinto's right," he said; "the fellow has smuggled some fool machine
+into the flat, and we shall discover it sooner or later. I don't know
+how he controls it, or who controls it"--he looked suspiciously at
+Crewe--"or who controls it," he repeated.
+
+"You said that before," said Crewe coolly.
+
+The colonel had something on his lips to say, but swallowed it.
+
+"We'll meet here to-night at eleven. I told Lollie to come. Now, Crewe,"
+he said in a more gentle tone, "you're in this up to the neck, and
+you've got to go through with it. After all, your life and liberty are
+at stake as much as ours. If Lollie's played us false, we've got to
+be----"
+
+"Lollie has not played you false, colonel," said Crewe. His face was
+very pale, the colonel noticed. "I like that girl, and----"
+
+"So that's it," said the colonel, "a little love romance introduced into
+our sordid commercial lives! Maybe you know what she's been talking to
+Stafford King about?"
+
+Crewe did not immediately reply.
+
+"Do you?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I know she has been trying to get out of the country, to break with the
+gang, but that she has given you or any of us away is a lie. Lollie's
+had a rotten life, and she's just sick of it, that's all. Do you blame
+her?"
+
+"There's no question of blaming her or praising her," said the colonel
+patiently; "the question is whether we condemn her or whether she still
+has our confidence, and that we shall know to-night. You will be
+present, Crewe."
+
+"I shall be present, you may be sure," said Crewe, and there was a look
+on his face which Pinto, for one, did not like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+LOLLIE GOES AWAY
+
+
+It seemed to "Swell" Crewe that the scene was curiously reminiscent of a
+trial in which he had once participated. The colonel, at the end of the
+long table, sat aloof and apparently noncommittal, a veritable judge and
+a merciless judge at that. Pinto sat at his right, Selby on his left,
+and Crewe himself sat half-way between the girl at the farther end of
+the table and Pinto.
+
+Lollie Marsh had no doubt as to why she had been summoned. Her pretty
+face was drawn, the hands which were clasped on the table before her
+were restless, but what Crewe noticed more particularly was a certain
+untidiness both in her costume and in her usually well-coiffured hair.
+As though wearying of the part she had been playing, she was already
+discarding her makeup.
+
+"I hate to bring you here, Lollie, and ask you these questions," the
+colonel was saying, "but we are all in some danger and we want to know
+just where we stand with you."
+
+She made no reply.
+
+"The charge against you is that you've been in communication with the
+police. Is that true?"
+
+"If you mean that I've been in communication with Mr. Stafford King,
+that's true," she said. "You told me to get into touch with him. Haven't
+I been for weeks----"
+
+"That's a pretty good excuse," interrupted the colonel, "but it won't
+work, Lollie. You don't touch with a man like Stafford King and meet him
+secretly in St. James's Street. And you don't touch by seeing him for
+half an hour at a time, and I haven't heard of you ever getting off
+with a fellow to the extent of his paying for your passage to America."
+
+She started.
+
+"You know the way it is done. You did it before, Lollie," the colonel
+went on. "Now, you've got to be a good girl and tell us how far you've
+gone."
+
+She hesitated.
+
+"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I'm sick of this life, colonel. I
+want to go straight. I want to get away out of it all and--and--he's
+going to help me."
+
+"A social reformer, eh?" said the colonel. "I didn't know the police
+went in for that sort of stunt. And when did he take this sudden liking
+for you, Lollie?"
+
+"It wasn't a sudden liking at all," she said, "but I think it was
+because--well, because I stopped Pinto in the nursing home--and Miss
+White told him--I think that's all."
+
+The colonel looked down on his pad.
+
+"There's something in that," he said. "It sounds feasible. Didn't he
+question you?" he said, raising his eyes.
+
+"About you?" she said.
+
+"About us," corrected the colonel.
+
+"He asked me nothing about you, nothing about your habits or your
+methods or about any of our funny business. I'll swear it," she said.
+
+"You're not going to believe that, are you, colonel?" demanded Pinto.
+"You can see that she is lying and that she's double-crossing you?"
+
+"She's neither lying nor double-crossing us." It was Crewe who spoke. "I
+don't know what you think about it, colonel, but I am convinced that
+Lollie is speaking the truth."
+
+"You!" Pinto laughed loudly. "I think you're in a state of mind when
+you'd believe anything Lollie said. And anyway you're probably in with
+her."
+
+"You're a liar," said Crewe, so quietly that none suspected the
+surprising thing that would follow, for of a sudden his fist shot out
+and caught Pinto under the jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor.
+
+The colonel was instantly on his feet, his hand outspread.
+
+"That's enough, Crewe," he said harshly. "I'll have none of that!"
+
+Pinto picked himself up, his face livid.
+
+"You'll pay for that," he said breathlessly, but "Swell" Crewe had
+walked to the girl and had laid his hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Lollie," he said, "I'm believing you and I think the colonel is, too.
+If you're going out of the country, why I'll say good luck to you.
+You've made a very wise decision and one which we shall all make--some
+of us perhaps too late."
+
+"Wait a moment," said the colonel. He exchanged a glance with Selby and
+the man slipped quietly from the room. "Before we do any of that
+fare-thee-well stuff, I've got a few words to say to you, Lollie. I'm
+with Crewe. I think it is time you went out of the country, but you're
+going out my way."
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+Her hand clutched "Swell" Crewe's sleeve.
+
+"You're going out my way," said the colonel, "and I swear no harm will
+come to you. You're leaving to-night."
+
+"But how?" she asked, affrighted.
+
+"Selby will tell you. You'll meet him downstairs. Now be a sensible girl
+and do as I tell you. Selby will go with you and see you safe. We made
+all preparations for your departure to-night."
+
+"What's this, colonel?" asked Crewe.
+
+"You're out of it," said the colonel savagely. "I'm running this show
+myself. If you want to join Lollie later, why you can. For the present,
+she's going just where I want her to go and in the way I have planned."
+
+He held out his hand to the girl and she took it.
+
+"Good-bye and good luck, Lollie!" he said.
+
+"But can't I go back to my rooms?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Do as I tell you," he said shortly.
+
+She stood at the door and for a moment her eyes met Crewe's and he moved
+toward her.
+
+"Wait."
+
+The colonel gripped his arm.
+
+"Good-bye, Lollie," and the door shut on the girl.
+
+"Let me go," said Crewe between his teeth. "If she trusts you, I don't.
+This is some trick of that dirty half-breed!"
+
+With a snarl of rage Pinto whipped his ever-ready knife from his hip
+pocket and flung it. It was the colonel who drew Crewe aside, or that
+moment was his last. The knife whizzed past and was buried almost to the
+hilt in the wall. The colonel broke the tense silence which followed.
+
+"Pinto," he said in his silkiest voice, "if you ever want to know what
+it feels like to be a dead man, just repeat that performance, will you?"
+Then his rage burst forth. "By God! I'll shoot either of you if you play
+the fool in front of me again. You dirty little pickpockets that I've
+taken from the gutter! You miserable little sneak-thieves!"
+
+He let loose a flood of abuse that made even Crewe wince.
+
+"Now sit down, both of you," he finished up, out of breath.
+
+He went to the window and looked out. The car which he had hired for the
+occasion was still standing at the door and he distinguished Selby
+talking to the chauffeur.
+
+"Listen you," he said, "and especially you, Crewe. You're too trusting
+with these females. Maybe Lollie's speaking the truth, but it is just as
+likely she's lying. I'm not going to take your corroboration, you know,
+Crewe," he said. "We've got to depend on her word. There's nobody else
+can speak for her, is there?"
+
+Before Crewe could speak the colonel was answered:
+
+"_Jack o' Judgment! Poor old Jack o' Judgment! He'll speak for Lollie!_"
+
+The colonel looked up with a curse. There was nobody in the room, but
+the voice had been louder than ever he had heard it before. It seemed as
+though it emanated from a disembodied spirit that was floating through
+the air. There was a knock at the outer door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+WHERE THE VOICE LIVED
+
+
+"Open it," said the colonel in a low voice; "open it, Crewe"--he pulled
+open the drawer and took out something--"and if it is Jack o'
+Judgment----"
+
+Crewe opened the door, his heart beating at a furious rate, but it was
+Selby who came into the room and faced the half-levelled gun of the
+colonel.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Boundary quickly. "You fool, I told you not to
+lose sight of her----"
+
+"But when is she coming down?" asked Selby. "I've been waiting there all
+this time and there's a policeman at the corner of the street--I
+wondered whether you had seen him too."
+
+"Not come down?" said the colonel. "She left here five minutes ago!"
+
+"She hasn't come down," he said, "and I've certainly not passed her on
+the stairs. Is there any other way out?"
+
+"No way that she could use," said the colonel shaking his head. "I've
+had new locks put on all the doors." He thought a moment. "If she hasn't
+come down she's gone up."
+
+They went up the stairs together and searched, first Pinto's flat, and
+then the store-rooms and empty apartments on the floor higher up.
+
+"Go down to the door and wait, in case she tries to get out," said the
+colonel.
+
+He returned to the room with the two men and they looked at one another
+in frank astonishment.
+
+"Have you any idea what's happened, Crewe?" asked the colonel
+suspiciously.
+
+"No idea in the world," said Crewe.
+
+"But she went downstairs," said the colonel. "I heard the alarm click."
+
+"The alarm?" questioned Crewe.
+
+"I've got a buzzer under one of the treads of the stairs," said the
+colonel. "It is useful to know when people are coming up."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ten minutes passed and Selby returned to say that the policeman had been
+making inquiries as to whom the car belonged.
+
+"You'd better get it away," said the colonel, "and send away your men."
+
+"They've gone," said the other. "I wasn't taking any risks."
+
+He disappeared to carry out the colonel's instructions, and they heard
+the whine of the moving car.
+
+Boundary unlocked his tantalus and took out a full decanter of whisky.
+Without a word he poured three stiff doses into as many glasses and
+filled them with soda. Each man was thinking, and thinking after his own
+interests.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the colonel at last. "I incline to give this
+business best."
+
+He looked up and saw the dagger which Pinto had thrown. It was still
+embedded in the wall.
+
+"It isn't enough that I should have Jack o' Judgment messing my room
+about," he growled, "but you must do something to the same wall! Pull it
+out and don't let me see it again, Pinto."
+
+The Portuguese smiled sheepishly, walked to the wall and gripped the
+handle. Evidently the point had embedded in a lath, for the knife did
+not move. He pulled again, exerting all his strength and this time
+succeeded in extracting not only the knife but a large portion of the
+plaster and a strip of the wallpaper.
+
+"You fool!" said the colonel angrily, "see what you have done--Jumping
+Moses!"
+
+He walked to the wall and stared, for the dislodgment of plaster and
+paper had revealed three round black discs, set flush with the plaster
+and only separated from the room by the wallpaper, which had been
+stripped.
+
+"Jumping Moses!" said the colonel softly. "Detectaphones!"
+
+He took Pinto's knife from his hand and prised one of the discs loose.
+It was attached to a wire which was embedded in the plaster and this the
+colonel severed with a stroke of the knife.
+
+"This is the business end of a microphone," he said.
+
+"The voice!" gasped Pinto, and the colonel nodded.
+
+"Of course. I was mad not to guess that," he said. "That's how he heard
+and that's how he spoke. Now, we're going to get to the bottom of this."
+
+With a knife he slashed the plaster and exposed three wires that led
+straight downward and apparently through the floor. The colonel rested
+and eyed the debris thoughtfully.
+
+"What is under this flat? Lee's office, isn't it? Of course, Lee's!" he
+said. "I'm the fool!"
+
+He handed the knife back to Pinto, took an electric torch from his
+pocket and led the way from the flat. They passed down the half-darkened
+stairs to the floor beneath, on which was situated the three sets of
+offices. The colonel took a bunch of keys and tried them on the door of
+the surveyor's office. Presently he found one that fitted, and the door
+opened. He fumbled about for the electric switch, found it and flooded
+the room with light. It was a very ordinary clerk's office, with a small
+counter, the flap of which was raised. Inside the flap he saw something
+white on the floor, and, stooping, picked it up. It was a lady's
+handkerchief.
+
+"L," he read. "That sounds like Lollie. Do you know this, Crewe?"
+
+Crewe took the handkerchief and nodded.
+
+"That is Lollie's," he said shortly.
+
+"I thought so. This is where she was when we were looking for her. Here
+with Jack o' Judgment, eh? Let's try the inner office."
+
+The inner office was locked, but he had no difficulty in gaining
+admission. Inside this was a private office which was simply furnished
+and had in one corner what appeared to be a telephone box. He opened the
+glass door and flashed his lamp inside. There was a little desk, a pair
+of receivers fastened to a headpiece, and a small vulcanite transmitter.
+
+"This is where he sat," said the colonel meditatively, pointing to a
+stool, "and this----" he lifted up the earpieces--"is how he heard all
+our very interesting conversations. Go upstairs, Pinto, I want to try
+this transmitter."
+
+He fixed the receiver to his ears and waited, and presently he heard
+distinctly the sound of Pinto closing the door of the room upstairs.
+Then he spoke through the receiver.
+
+"Do you hear me, Pinto?"
+
+"I hear you distinctly," said Pinto's voice.
+
+"Speak a little lower. Carry on a conversation with yourself and let me
+try to hear you."
+
+Pinto obeyed. He recited something from the Orpheum revue, a line or two
+of a song, and the colonel heard distinctly every syllable. He replaced
+the earpieces where he had found them, closed the door of the box and
+that of the outer office, and led the way upstairs. The whisky still
+stood upon the table and he lifted a glass and drained it at a draught.
+
+"If you're a linguist, Crewe, you'll have heard of the phrase: _Sauve
+qui peut_. It means 'Git!' And that's the advice I'm giving and taking.
+To-morrow we'll meet to liquidate the Boundary Gang and split the Gang
+Fund."
+
+He turned his companions out to get what sleep they could. For him there
+was little sleep that night. Before the dawn came, he was at Twickenham,
+examining a big motor-launch that lay in a boat-house. It was the launch
+which should have carried Lollie Marsh and Selby on their river and sea
+journey. It was provisioned and ready for the trip. But first the
+colonel had to take from a locker in the stern of the boat a small black
+box and disconnect the wires from certain terminals before he stopped a
+little clock which ticked noisily. He had tuned his bomb to go off at
+four in the morning, by which time, he calculated, Lollie Marsh and her
+escort would be well out to sea. For the colonel regarded no evidence
+that might be brought against him as unimportant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+CONSCIENCE MONEY
+
+
+The colonel was sleeping peacefully when Pinto rushed into his bedroom
+with the news. He was awake in a second and sat up in bed.
+
+"What!" he said incredulously.
+
+"Selby's pinched," said Pinto, his voice shaking. "My God! It's awful!
+It's dreadful! Colonel, we've got to get away to-day. I tell you they'll
+have us----"
+
+"Just shut up for a minute, will you?" growled the colonel, swinging out
+of bed and searching for his slippers with the detached interest of one
+who was hearing a little gossip from the morning papers. "What is the
+charge against him?"
+
+"Loitering with intention to commit a felony," said Pinto. "They took
+him to the station and searched his bag. He had brought a bag with him
+in preparation for the journey. And what do you think they found?"
+
+"I know what they found," said the colonel; "a complete kit of burglar's
+tools. The fool must have left his bag in the hall and of course Jack o'
+Judgment planted the stuff. It is simple!"
+
+"What can we do?" wailed Pinto. "What can we do?"
+
+"Engage the best lawyer you can. Do it through one of your pals," said
+the colonel. "It will go hard with Selby. He's had a previous
+conviction."
+
+"Do you think he'll split?" asked Pinto.
+
+He looked yellow and haggard and he had much to do to keep his teeth
+from chattering.
+
+"Not for a day or two," said the colonel, "and we shall be away by then.
+Does Crewe know?"
+
+Pinto shook his head.
+
+"I haven't any time to run about after that swine," he said impatiently.
+
+"Well, you'd better do a little running now then," said the colonel.
+"We may want his signature for the bank."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to draw what we've got and I advise you to do the same. I
+suppose you haven't made any preparations to get away, have you?"
+
+"No," lied Pinto, remembering with thankfulness that he had received a
+letter that morning from the aviator Cartwright, telling him that the
+machine was in good order and ready to start at any moment. "No, I have
+never thought of getting away, colonel. I've always said I'll stick to
+the colonel----"
+
+"H'm!" said the colonel, and there was no very great faith in Pinto
+revealed in his grunt.
+
+Crewe came along an hour later and seemed the least perturbed of the
+lot.
+
+"Here's the cheque-book," said the colonel, taking it from a drawer.
+"Now the balance we have," he consulted a little waistcoat-pocket
+notebook, "is L81,317. I suggest we draw L80,000, split it three ways
+and part to-night."
+
+"What about your own private account?" asked Pinto.
+
+"That's my business," said the colonel sharply. He filled in the cheque,
+signed his name with a flourish and handed the pen to Crewe.
+
+Crewe put his name beneath, saw that the cheque was made payable to
+bearer, and handed the book to the colonel.
+
+"Here, Pinto." The colonel detached the form and blotted it. "Take a
+taxi-cab, see Ferguson, bring the money straight back here. Or, better
+still, go on to the City to the New York Guaranty and change it into
+American money."
+
+"Do you trust Pinto?" asked Crewe bluntly after the other had gone.
+
+"No," said the colonel, "I don't trust Pinto or you. And if Pinto had
+plenty of time I shouldn't expect to see that money again. But he's got
+to be back here in a couple of hours, and I don't think he can get away
+before. Besides, at the present juncture," he reflected, "he wouldn't
+bolt because he doesn't know how serious the position is."
+
+"Where are you going, colonel?" asked Crewe curiously. "I mean, when you
+get away from here?"
+
+Boundary's broad face creased with smiles.
+
+"What a foolish question to ask," he said. "Timbuctoo, Tangier, America,
+Buenos Ayres, Madrid, China----"
+
+"Which means you're not going to tell, and I don't blame you," said
+Crewe.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the colonel. "If you're a fool you'll tell
+me."
+
+Crewe shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"To gaol, I guess," he said bitterly, and the colonel chuckled.
+
+"Maybe you've answered the question you put to me," he said, "but I'm
+going to make a fight of it. Dan Boundary is too old in the bones and
+hates exercise too much to survive the keen air and the bracing
+employment of Dartmoor--if we ever got there," he said ominously.
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Crewe.
+
+"I mean that, when they've photographed Selby and circulated his
+picture, somebody is certain to recognise him as the man who handed the
+glass of water over the heads of the crowd when Hanson was killed----"
+
+"Was it Selby?" gasped Crewe. "I wasn't in it. I knew nothing about
+it----"
+
+The colonel laughed again.
+
+"Of course you're not in anything," he bantered. "Yes, it was Selby, and
+it is ten chances to one that the usher would recognise him again if he
+saw him. That would mean--well, they don't hang folks at Dartmoor." He
+looked at his watch again. "I expect Pinto will be about an hour and a
+half," he said. "You will excuse me," he added with elaborate politeness
+"I have a lot of work to do."
+
+He cleared the drawers of his writing-table by the simple process of
+pulling them out and emptying their contents upon the top. He went
+through these with remarkable rapidity, throwing the papers one by one
+into the fire, and he was engaged in this occupation when Pinto
+returned.
+
+"Back already?" said the colonel in surprise, and then, after a glance
+at the other's face, he demanded: "What's wrong?"
+
+Pinto was incapable of speech. He just put the cheque down upon the
+table.
+
+"Haven't they cashed it?" asked the colonel with a frown.
+
+"They can't cash it," said Pinto in a hollow voice. "There's no money
+there."
+
+The colonel picked up the cheque.
+
+"So there's no money there to meet it?" he said softly. "And why is
+there no money there to meet it?"
+
+"Because it was drawn out three days ago. I thought----" said Pinto
+incoherently. "I saw Ferguson, and he told me that a cheque for the full
+amount came through from the Bank of England."
+
+"In whose favour was it drawn?"
+
+Pinto cleared his throat.
+
+"In favour of the Chancellor of the Exchequer," he said. "That's why
+Ferguson passed it without question. He said that otherwise he would
+have sent a note to you."
+
+"The Chancellor of the Exchequer!" snarled the colonel. "What does it
+mean?"
+
+"Look here! Ferguson showed it me himself." He took a copy of _The
+Times_ from his pocket and laid it on the table, pointing out the
+paragraph with trembling fingers.
+
+It was in the advertisement column and it was brief:
+
+
+     "The Chancellor of the Exchequer desires to acknowledge the receipt
+     of L81,000 Conscience Money from Colonel D. B."
+
+
+"Conscience money!"
+
+The colonel sat back in his chair and laughed softly. He was genuinely
+amused.
+
+"Of course, we can get this back," he said at last. "We can explain to
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer the trick that has been played upon us,
+but that means delay, and at the moment delay is really dangerous. I
+suppose both you fellows have money of your own? I know Pinto has. How
+do you stand, Crewe?"
+
+"I have a little," said Crewe, "but honestly, I was depending upon my
+share of the Gang Fund."
+
+"What about you, colonel?" asked Pinto meaningly. "If I may suggest it,
+we should pool our money and divide."
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"Don't be silly," he said tersely. "I doubt whether my balance at the
+bank is more than a couple of thousand pounds."
+
+"But what about your private safe?" persisted Pinto. "A-ha! You didn't
+know I knew that, did you? As a matter of fact, Ferguson told me----"
+
+"What the devil does Ferguson mean by discussing my business?" said the
+colonel wrathfully. "What did he tell you?"
+
+"He told me that the package was received and that he had put it with
+the other in your safe."
+
+"Package!" The colonel's voice was quiet, almost inaudible. "The package
+was received! When was the package received?"
+
+"Yesterday," said Pinto. "He said it came along and he put it with the
+other. Now what have you got in----"
+
+But the colonel was walking towards his bedroom with rapid strides.
+Presently he reappeared with his hat and coat on.
+
+"Come with me, Crewe. We'll go down to the bank," he said. "You stay
+here, Pinto, and report anything that happens."
+
+When they were on their way he confided to the other:
+
+"I have a little money put aside," he said, "and I'm willing to finance
+you. You haven't been a bad fellow, Crewe. The only rotten turn you've
+ever done us is introducing that damned fellow, 'Snow' Gregory, and you
+didn't even do that, for I had met him before you brought him from
+Monte--which reminds me. Have you found out anything about him?"
+
+"I have a letter here from Oxford," said Crewe, putting his hand in his
+pocket. "I hadn't opened my letters when Pinto came. You'll find all the
+news there, if there is any news."
+
+He handed the envelope to the other and the colonel transferred it to
+his pocket.
+
+"That'll keep," he said. "What was I talking about? Oh, yes, Gregory.
+The whole of this business has come about through Gregory. Gregory made
+Jack o' Judgment, and Jack o' Judgment has ruined us."
+
+He sprang from the taxi at the door of the bank with an agile step, and
+went straight to the manager's office. Without any preliminary he began:
+
+"What is this package that came for me yesterday, Ferguson?"
+
+The manager looked surprised.
+
+"It was an ordinary package, similar to that which you put in the safe
+the other day. It was sealed and wrapped and had your name on it. I
+rather wondered you hadn't brought it yourself, but it was put into your
+safe in the presence of two clerks."
+
+"I'd like to see it," said the colonel.
+
+Ferguson led the way down the stairs to the vaults and snapped back the
+lock of Safe 20. As he did so Crewe was conscious of a faint, musty
+odour.
+
+"I smell something," said the colonel suspiciously.
+
+He reached his hand into the safe and pulled open the long drawer, and
+as he did so a cloud of sickly-smelling vapour rose from its interior.
+For the first time Crewe heard Boundary groan. He pulled the drawer out
+under the light and looked in. There was nothing but a black mass of
+pulp, out of which glinted and gleamed a dozen pin-points of light.
+
+With a howl of rage the colonel turned the contents upon the stone
+floor of the vault and raked it over with the end of his walking-stick.
+The diamonds were intact, and they at least were something; but the
+greater part of eight hundred thousand dollars was indistinguishable
+from any other kind of paper that had been treated with one of the most
+destructive acids known to chemical science.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM
+
+
+The colonel wiped his burnt and discoloured hands after he had dropped
+the last diamond into a medicine bottle which the bank manager happened
+to have in the room.
+
+"That's something saved from the wreck, at any rate," he said.
+
+He had gone suddenly old, and his mouth trembled, as many a younger
+mouth had trembled in despair that Colonel Boundary might become a rich
+man.
+
+"Something saved from the wreck," he repeated slowly.
+
+The manager's grave eyes were fixed on his.
+
+"I'm not blaming you, Ferguson," said the colonel. "It was a plot to
+ruin me, and it succeeded."
+
+"What do you think happened?" asked the troubled Ferguson.
+
+"The second package was a box filled with a very strong acid," said the
+colonel. "Probably the box was made of soft metal, through which the
+acid would eat in a few hours. It was placed in the safe, and in time
+the corrosive worked through----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and left the room without another word.
+
+"Thirty-five years' work that represents, Crewe," he said as they were
+driving back to the flat; "thirty-five years of risk and thought and
+organisation, and ended in pulp--stinking pulp--that burns your fingers
+when you touch it."
+
+He began to whistle and Crewe noticed with curiosity that he chose the
+"Soldiers' Chorus" from "Faust" for the dirge to his lost fortune.
+
+"Jack o' Judgment!" he said wonderingly. "Jack o' Judgment! Well, he's
+had his judgment all right, and I'm going to have mine. You needn't
+tell Pinto what happened this morning. Leave him guessing. He's got a
+pretty thick bank-roll, and I'll agree to that grand scheme of his for
+sharing out."
+
+The thought seemed to cheer him, and by the time they reached the flat
+he was almost jovial.
+
+"Well, what's the news?" asked Pinto eagerly.
+
+"Fine," said the colonel. "Everything is as it should be."
+
+"Stop rotting," growled the other. "What is the news?"
+
+"The news, my lad," said the colonel, "is that I've decided to agree to
+your unselfish suggestion."
+
+"What's that?" said the unsuspicious Pinto.
+
+"That we should pool and divide."
+
+"Jack o' Judgment's got your money, too!" said Pinto, who cherished no
+illusions about the colonel's generosity.
+
+"How well he knows me!" said Boundary. "Now, come, Pinto, we're all in
+this, sink or swim. I told Crewe going down that I intended dividing;
+didn't I, Crewe?"
+
+"You said something like that," said Crewe cautiously.
+
+"Now we'll pool our money," said the colonel, "and split three ways.
+I'll make a fair proposition. We'll divide it into four and the man who
+puts in the most shall take two shares. Is it a bet?"
+
+"I suppose so," said Pinto reluctantly. "What is the truth about your
+money? Did Jack o' Judgment get it?"
+
+"I hadn't any money," said the colonel blandly. "I've about a thousand
+pounds hidden away in this room; that is all, if Jack hasn't been in."
+
+He unlocked the safe and made an inspection.
+
+"Yes, a little over a thousand, if anything. How much have you, Crewe?"
+
+"Three thousand," said Crewe.
+
+"That makes four thousand. Now what have you got, Pinto?"
+
+"I've about five thousand," said Pinto, trying to appear unconcerned.
+
+The colonel made a little whistling noise through his teeth.
+
+"Bring fifty," he said. "I'm dead serious, Pinto. Bring fifty!"
+
+"But how can I get it?" demanded the other frantically.
+
+"Get it," said the colonel. "It is highly probable that it will be of no
+use to any of us. Let us at least have the illusion of being well off."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In greater leisure than either of her three companions in crime were
+exhibiting, Lollie Marsh was preparing to take her departure to New
+York. She was packing at leisure in her cosy flat on Tavistock Avenue,
+stopping now and again to consider the problem of the superfluous
+article of clothing--a problem which presents itself to all packers.
+
+Between whiles she arrested her labours to think of something else.
+Kneeling down by the side of her trunk, she would give herself up to
+long reveries, which ended in a sigh and the resumption of her packing.
+
+By the commonly accepted standards of civilisation she was a wicked
+woman, but there are degrees of wickedness. She had searched her mind to
+recall all the qualms she had felt in her long association with the
+Boundary Gang, and took an unusual pleasure in her strange recollection.
+She remembered when she had refused to be drawn into the Crotin fraud;
+she recalled her stormy interview with the colonel when she declined to
+take a part in the ruining of young Debenham.
+
+But mostly she was glad that she had never gone any farther to carry out
+the colonel's instructions in regard to Stafford King. Not that she
+would have succeeded, she told herself with a little smile, but she was
+glad she had never seriously tried. Her mind switched to Crewe and
+switched back again. Crewe's was the one face she did not wish to see,
+the one member of the gang that she put aside from the others and
+wilfully veiled. Crewe had always been kind to her, always courteous,
+her champion in all bad times, and yet had never made love to her. She
+wondered what had brought him down to his present level, and why a man
+possessed of education, and who at one time, as she knew, had been an
+officer in a crack regiment, should have fallen so readily under
+Boundary's influence.
+
+She made a little face and went on with her packing. She did not want to
+think about Crewe for obvious reasons. Yet, as he had said---- But he
+hadn't said, she told herself. Very likely he was married, though that
+fact did not greatly trouble the girl. Such men as these have always a
+good as well as a bad past, pleasant as well as bitter memories, and
+possibly he included amongst the former the recollection of a girl whose
+shoelaces Lollie Marsh was not fit to tie.
+
+She took a delight in torturing herself with pictures of her own
+humiliation, though she may have counted it to the good that she was
+capable of feeling humiliated at all. She finished her trunk, squeezed
+in the last article and locked down the lid. She looked at her wrist
+watch--it was half-past nine. Stafford King had not asked to see her,
+and she had the evening free.
+
+She had only spoken the truth when she had told Boundary that the police
+chief had made no inquiries as to the gang. Stafford King knew human
+nature rather well, and he would not make the mistake of questioning
+her. Or perhaps it was because he did not wish to spoil the value of his
+gifts by fixing a price--the price of treachery.
+
+She wondered what the colonel was doing, and Pinto--and Crewe. She
+impatiently stamped her foot. She was indulging in the kind of insanity
+of which hitherto she had shown no symptoms. She looked at her watch
+again and then remembered the Orpheum. It was a favourite house of hers.
+She could always get a free box if there was one vacant, and she had
+spent many of her lonely evenings in that way. She had always declined
+Pinto's offer to share his own, and of late he had got out of the habit
+of inviting her.
+
+She dressed and took a taxi to the Orpheum. The booking office clerk
+knew her, and without asking her desires drew a slip from the ticket
+rack.
+
+"I can give you Box C to-night, Miss Marsh," he said. "That is the one
+above the governor's."
+
+The "governor" was Pinto.
+
+"Have you a good house?"
+
+The youth shook his head.
+
+"We're not having the houses we had when Miss White was here," he said.
+"What's become of her, miss?"
+
+"I don't know," said Lollie shortly.
+
+She had to pass to the back of Pinto's box to reach the little staircase
+which led to the box above. She thought she heard voices, and stopping
+at the door, listened. Perhaps Crewe had come down or the colonel. But
+it was not Crewe's voice she heard. The door was slightly ajar, and the
+man who was talking was evidently on the point of departure, because she
+glimpsed his hand upon the handle and his voice was so distinct that he
+must have been quite near her.
+
+"----three o'clock in the morning. You can't miss the aerodrome. It is a
+mile out of Bromley on the main road and on the right. You will see
+three red lamps burning in a triangle."
+
+The aerodrome! She put her hand to her mouth to suppress an exclamation.
+Pinto was talking, but his voice was a mumble.
+
+"Very good," said the strange voice. "I can carry three or four
+passengers if you like. There's plenty of room--of course, if you're by
+yourself, so much the better. I shall expect you at three o'clock. The
+weather's beautiful."
+
+The door opened and she crouched against the wall so that the opening
+door hid her, and heard Pinto call the man back by name.
+
+"Cartwright!" she repeated. "Cartwright. A mile out of Bromley on the
+main road. Three lamps in a red triangle!"
+
+She was going to slip up the stairs, but the door had closed on
+Cartwright, and making a swift decision she passed the box and came
+again into the vestibule of the theatre. Presently she saw the man
+appear. She guessed it was he by the smile on his face, and when he said
+"Good night" to the attendant at the barrier she recognised his voice.
+She followed him but let him get outside the theatre before she spoke to
+him. Then suddenly she laid her hand on his arm: "Mr. Cartwright!"
+
+He looked round into her smiling face in surprise, taking off his hat.
+
+"That is my name," he said with a smile. "I don't remember----"
+
+"Oh, I'm a friend of Mr. Silva," she said. "I've heard a lot about you."
+
+"Oh, indeed?" said he.
+
+He was a little puzzled because he thought that the projected flight was
+a dead secret; and she guessed his thoughts.
+
+"You won't tell Mr. Silva I told you? He begged me not to repeat it to
+anybody, even to you. But he's leaving to-morrow morning, isn't he?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I know an awful lot," she said, and then: "Won't you come and have
+supper with me? I'm starving!"
+
+Cartwright hesitated. He had not expected so charming a diversion, and
+really there was no reason why he should not accept the invitation. He
+was not due at Bromley until early in the morning, and the girl was
+young and pretty and a friend of his employer. It was she who hailed the
+taxi and they drove to a select little restaurant at the back of
+Shaftesbury Avenue.
+
+"You're not seeing Pinto--I mean Mr. Silva--again to-night, are you?"
+she asked.
+
+"No, I'm not seeing him until--well, until I see him," he smiled again.
+
+"Well, I want to tell you something."
+
+He thought she was charmingly embarrassed, and in truth she was, to
+invent the story she had to tell.
+
+"You know why Mr. Silva is leaving England in such a hurry?"
+
+He nodded. She wished she knew too, or had the slightest inkling of the
+yarn which Pinto had spun. And then the man enlightened her.
+
+"Political," he said.
+
+"Exactly; political," she said easily. "But you will realise that it is
+not necessarily he himself who is making this flight."
+
+"I did understand that he was making the flight himself," said the
+aviator in surprise.
+
+"But"--she was desperate now--"has he never told you of the other
+gentleman who was coming, the other political person who really must go
+to Portugal at once?"
+
+"No, he certainly did not," said Cartwright; "he told me distinctly that
+he was going himself."
+
+The girl leaned back in her chair, baffled, but thoughtful.
+
+"Oh, of course, he told you that," she said with a knowing smile. "You
+see, there are some things he is not allowed to tell you. But do not be
+surprised if you have two passengers instead of one."
+
+"I shan't be surprised, I shall be pleased. The machine will carry half
+a dozen," said Cartwright readily, "but I certainly thought----"
+
+"Wait till you see him," said the girl, waving a warning finger with
+mock solemnity.
+
+He found her a cheerful companion through the meal, but there were
+certain intervals of abstraction in her cheerfulness, intervals when she
+was thinking very rapidly and reconstructing the plan which Pinto had
+made. So he was one of the rats who were deserting the sinking ship and
+leaving the Colonel and Crewe to face the music. And Crewe--that was the
+thought uppermost in her mind.
+
+When she parted from the pilot she had only one thought--to warn the
+colonel of Pinto's treachery--and Crewe. And somehow Crewe seemed to
+bulk most importantly at that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+LOLLIE PROPOSES
+
+
+What should she do? It was her sense of loyalty which brought the
+colonel first to her mind. She must warn him. She went into a Tube
+station telephone box and rang through but received no answer. Her quest
+for Crewe had as little result. She drove off to the flat, thinking that
+possibly the telephone might be out of order or that they would have
+returned by the time she reached there, but there was no answer to her
+ring. She went out again into the street in despair and walked slowly
+towards Regent Street. Then she saw two people ahead of her, and
+recognised the swing of the colonel's shoulders. She broke into a run
+and overtook them. The colonel swung round as she uttered his name and
+peered at her.
+
+"Lollie!" he said in surprise, and he looked past her as though seeking
+some police shadow.
+
+"I have something important to tell you," she said. "Let us go up here."
+
+They turned into a deserted side street, and rapidly she told her story.
+
+"So Pinto's getting out, is he?" said the colonel thoughtfully. "Well,
+it is no more than I expected. An aeroplane, too? Well, that's
+enterprising. I thought of something of the sort, but there's nowhere I
+could go, except to America."
+
+He dropped his head on to his chest and was considering something.
+
+"Thank you, Lollie," he said simply. "I'm glad that you didn't go with
+Selby--you would never have got to the Continent alive."
+
+He said this in an ordinary conversational tone, and the girl gasped.
+She did not ask him for an explanation and he offered none. Crewe,
+standing in the background, looked at the man with something like
+bewilderment.
+
+"And now I think you'd better make a real getaway, and not trust to the
+police," said the colonel. "Maybe with the best intentions in the world,
+Stafford King can't save you if I happen to be jugged. And you too,
+Crewe," he turned to the other.
+
+"So Pinto is going, eh?" he bit his nether lip, "and that is why he
+promised to bring the fifty thousand to-morrow morning. Well, somehow I
+don't think Pinto will go," he spoke deliberately. "I don't think Pinto
+will go."
+
+"It is too dangerous for you to stop him----" began Crewe.
+
+"I shall not try to stop him," said the other; "there's somebody besides
+myself on Pinto's track, and that somebody is going to pull him down."
+
+"But why don't you escape, colonel?" she urged. "There is the aeroplane
+waiting at Bromley. We could easily persuade the man that Pinto had sent
+us."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"You take your own advice," he said, "and clear out to-night. Get her
+away, Crewe. Don't worry about the police. You've got twenty-four hours
+in hand. This is Pinto's night," he said between his teeth. "Pinto--the
+dirty hound!"
+
+Slowly they paced the street together in silence. When they came to the
+end the colonel turned.
+
+"I want to shake hands with you, Lollie. I shook hands with you once
+before, intending to send you to a very quick decease. You're carrying
+your money with you, aren't you, Crewe?"
+
+"Yes," said the other.
+
+"Good!" responded the colonel. "Now get away."
+
+He took no other farewell but turned abruptly and left them. Crewe was
+following him, but the girl caught his arm.
+
+"Don't go," she said in a low voice. "Don't you know the colonel
+better?"
+
+"I hate leaving him like this," he said.
+
+"So do I," said the girl quietly. "I've still got some decent feeling
+left. We're all in this together. We're all crooks, as bad as we can
+possibly be, and if he's used us we've been willing tools. What is your
+Christian name?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her in surprise.
+
+"Jack," he said. "What a weird question to ask!"
+
+"Isn't it?" she said with a laugh but a little catch in her throat.
+"Only we're to be comrades and stick to one another, and I hate calling
+you by your surname, so I'm going to call you Jack."
+
+It was his turn to be amused. They walked in the opposite direction to
+that which the colonel had taken.
+
+"You're very quiet," she said after a while.
+
+"Aren't I?" he laughed.
+
+"Have I offended you?" she asked quickly. "Was it wrong to call you
+Jack? Oh, yes, somebody else must have called you Jack."
+
+"No, no, it isn't that," he said, "but I haven't been called by my
+Christian name for years and years," he said wearily, "and somehow it
+seems to span all the bad times and take me back to the--the----"
+
+"The 'Jack' days?" she suggested, and he nodded.
+
+Then after another period of silence.
+
+"This is a queer ending to it all, isn't it?" he said, and her heart
+skipped a beat.
+
+"Ending?" she whispered. "No, no, not ending! It may be the beginning of
+a new life. I haven't got religious," she added quickly, "and I'm not
+getting sentimental. All my past life doesn't come up in front of me as
+it does in the story-books. Only I've just faith that there's something
+better in life than I've ever found."
+
+"I should think there is," said Crewe. "It couldn't be much worse,
+could it?"
+
+"I haven't been bad," she said--"not bad like you probably think I
+have."
+
+"I never thought you were bad," he said. "You were just a victim like
+the rest of them. You were only a kid when you started working for the
+colonel, weren't you?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, there's a chance for you, Lollie. Your passage is booked and all
+that sort of thing--have you sufficient money?"
+
+"I've plenty of money," she said.
+
+"Fine!" He dropped his hand lightly on her shoulder. "There's a big, big
+chance for you, my girl."
+
+"And for you?" she asked.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"There is no chance for me at all," he said simply. "They'll take me and
+they'll take Pinto and last of all they'll take the colonel. It is
+written," he added philosophically. "Why--why, what is the matter?"
+
+She stood stock-still and was holding on to his arm with both hands.
+
+"You mustn't say that, you mustn't say that!" she said brokenly. "It
+isn't finished for you, Jack. There's a chance to get out, and the
+colonel has told you there's a chance. He meant it. He knows much more
+than we do. If you've got murder on your soul, or something worse; if
+you feel that you're altogether so bad that there isn't a chance for
+you, that there's no goodness in your life which can be expanded, why,
+just wait and take what's coming. But for God's sake know your mind, and
+if you feel that in another land, with--with someone who loves you by
+your side----"
+
+Her voice broke.
+
+"Why, Lollie," he said very gently. "You don't mean----?"
+
+"I'm just as shameless as I've ever been" she said, "but I'm not
+proposing to marry you, I'm not asking for anything save your friendship
+and your comradeship. I think people can love one another
+without--marrying and all that sort of thing; but do you--will you----"
+
+"Will I go?" he asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I'll go anywhere with that prospect in sight," and he slipped his arm
+round her shoulders, and, bending, kissed her on the cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+THE FALL OF PINTO
+
+
+Whilst Pinto was putting the finishing touches to his scheme of flight,
+the colonel paced his room, whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus" jerkily. He
+was restless and nervous, and rendered all the more irritable by the
+disappearance of his servant, a minor member of the gang, who had been a
+participant in every act of villainy, and who had been in charge of the
+arrangements for the abduction of Maisie White. Twice in the course of
+the evening he wandered through the hall, opened the outer door, and
+looked out on to the landing.
+
+On the first occasion there was nothing to see, but on the second it was
+only by the narrowest margin of time that he failed to detect a dark
+figure moving noiselessly up the stairs and disappearing on to the
+second landing. The man above heard the door open and close again, and
+stood watching. Then, when no sound reached him, he moved to the door of
+Pinto's flat, opened it, deposited the suit-case which he was carrying
+in the hall, and closed the door softly behind him.
+
+He was within for about a quarter of an hour, then he reappeared, and
+still carrying his suit-case, passed swiftly down the stairs and out
+into the street. The clock struck half-past nine as he disappeared, and
+a quarter of an hour later Stafford King received by special messenger a
+communication which gave him something to think about. He read it
+through twice, then called up the First Commissioner and gave him the
+gist of the communication.
+
+"That's the third time we've had this sort of message," he said.
+
+"The others have proved right," said the Commissioner's voice, "why
+shouldn't this?"
+
+"But it seems incredible," said Stafford in perplexity. "We've been
+watching these people for years and we've never found them with the
+goods."
+
+"I should certainly act on it, King, if I were you," said the
+Commissioner. "Let me know what happens. Of course, you may make a
+mistake, but you must take a chance on that."
+
+Pinto had a lot of business to do at the theatre that night. For a week
+he had not banked the theatre's takings, but had converted them into
+paper money, and now he took from his safe the last penny he could
+carry. It was half-past eleven when he came to his Club, where supper
+had been prepared for him. He paid the bill from notes he had taken from
+the bank that day. Presently the waiter came back.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but the cashier says that this note is a wrong
+'un."
+
+"A wrong 'un?" said Pinto in surprise, and took it in his hand.
+
+There was no doubt whatever that the man was right. It was the most
+obvious forgery he had ever handled.
+
+"Then I've been sold," he smiled; "here's another."
+
+He took the second note and examined it. That also was bad, as he could
+tell at a glance. In the tail pocket of his dress-coat he had the money
+he had taken from the theatre and was able to settle the bill. He was
+worried on the journey back to the flat. He had drawn a hundred pounds
+from the bank that morning in five-pound notes. He remembered putting
+them into his pocket-book and had no occasion to disturb them since. It
+was unlikely that the bank would have given him such obvious forgeries.
+He was stepping from the taxi when the awful truth dawned on him. The
+notes had been planted, the forgeries substituted for the good paper! He
+was putting his hand in his pocket, intending to take out the money and
+push it down the nearest drain, when he was gripped.
+
+"Sorry and all that," said a voice.
+
+He turned round shaking like an aspen.
+
+"Stafford King," he said dully.
+
+"Stafford King it is. I have a warrant for your arrest, Silva, on a
+charge of forging and uttering. Bring him up to his rooms."
+
+The colonel heard the noise on the stairs and came to the door. He
+stood, a silent spectator, watching with unmoved face the procession as
+it passed up to the floor above.
+
+"I want your key," said Stafford, and humbly the Portuguese handed it to
+him.
+
+Stafford opened the door and snapped on the light.
+
+"Bring him in," he said to the detective who held Pinto. "What room is
+this?"
+
+"My dining-room," said Pinto faintly.
+
+Stafford entered the room, turning on the light as he did so.
+
+"Hullo, Pinto," he said.
+
+Pinto could only look.
+
+The table was littered with copper-plates and ink rollers. There was a
+thick pad of counterfeit money on one corner of the table, held down by
+a paper weight; little bottles of acids were scattered about, and near
+the table was a small lever press, so small that a man might carry it in
+a corner of his handbag.
+
+"I think I have got you, Pinto," said Stafford King, and Pinto Silva
+nodded before he fell limply into the arms of his captor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maisie White had gone to bed early and the bell rang three times before
+she awoke. She slipped into a dressing-gown, and, going to the window,
+leaned out. She looked down upon the upturned face of a girl and in
+spite of the distance and the darkness of the night, recognised her. The
+man who stood in the background, however, she could not for the moment
+place. Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to go downstairs.
+
+"Is that Miss White?" asked the girl.
+
+"Yes. It is Lollie Marsh, isn't it? Won't you come in?"
+
+Lollie was hesitant.
+
+"Yes," she said after awhile and they went upstairs together. "I'm very
+sorry I disturbed you, Miss White, but it is a matter which can't very
+well wait. You know that Mr. Stafford King has been kind to me?"
+
+Maisie nodded. She was looking at the girl with interest and was
+surprised to note how pretty she was. She could not forget what Lollie
+Marsh had done for her that dreadful night at the nursing home, and if
+the truth be told, she had inspired the assistance which Stafford had
+been giving the girl.
+
+"Mr. King has booked my passage to America, as you probably know,"
+Lollie went on, "but at the last moment I have been obliged to change my
+plans."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that," said the girl. "I was hoping that you'd get
+away before----"
+
+"I am hoping to get away before," Lollie smiled faintly. "But you see,
+one has to be very quick, because things are moving at such a rapid
+rate. They arrested Pinto to-night--we only just heard of it."
+
+"Arrested Silva?" said the girl in surprise. "That is news to me. What
+is the charge?"
+
+"I didn't quite understand what the charge was. I know he's arrested,"
+said Lollie. "The colonel has advised me to get out as quickly as I can.
+And there's a big chance for me, Miss White. I'm going to be married!"
+
+She blurted the words out, and Maisie stared at her. Somehow she had
+never thought of Lollie Marsh as a person who would get married, and it
+was amazing to see the confusion and shyness in which her confession had
+thrown her.
+
+"I congratulate you with all my heart," said Maisie. "Who is the
+fortunate man?"
+
+"I can't tell you. Yes, I will," said the girl. "I'll trust you. I'm
+marrying Jack Crewe."
+
+"Crewe? I remember. Mr. King spoke about him. But isn't he one of
+the--isn't he a friend of the colonel?"
+
+Lollie nodded.
+
+"Yes, but we're going away to-night. That is why I came to see you."
+
+Maisie White clasped the girl's hands in hers.
+
+"You yourself are facing a great happiness and a beautiful life,"
+pleaded Lollie, her eyes filling with tears. "Can't you feel some
+sympathy with me? For I want love and happiness and security more even
+than you, because you have never known anything of the dreadful
+apprehensions and uncertainties such as I have passed through. And I
+want you to help me in this. I'm not going to ask you to influence Mr.
+King to do anything but his duty. But I want just a chance for Jack."
+
+Maisie shook her head.
+
+"I don't know that I can promise that," she said. "Mr. King has always
+spoken of your friend as one of the least dangerous of the gang. When
+are you leaving?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"To-night? But how?"
+
+"That's a secret."
+
+"But it is a secret I won't reveal," smiled Maisie.
+
+"By aeroplane," said Lollie after a moment's hesitation, and told the
+story of Pinto's preparation.
+
+"You'd better not tell me where you're going," warned Maisie, but she
+didn't stop Lollie in time. "Well, I wish you luck and I'll do my best
+for you." She stopped and kissed the girl.
+
+"There's one warning I want to give you, Miss White," said Lollie as she
+stood in the doorway. "The colonel is a desperate man and I don't think
+somehow that he's coming through this with his life. He's been a good
+friend of mine up to a point and according to his lights, but you've
+been good and Mr. King has been more than good. Beware of the colonel
+now that you have him at bay! That is all!"
+
+Then she was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+A USE FOR OLD FILMS
+
+
+They brought Pinto Silva into the magistrate's court at Bow Street the
+following morning in a condition of collapse. The man was dazed by his
+misfortune, incapable of answering the questions which were put to him,
+or even of instructing the exasperated solicitor who had been with him
+for an hour.
+
+By the solicitor's side was a grey-faced, shrunken man, whose clothes
+did not seem to fit him and who at the end of the proceedings whispered
+something into the lawyer's ear. But the application which was made for
+bail was rejected. The evidence was too damning, and the knowledge that
+the prisoner was not English and that it would be impossible to
+extradite him if he managed to make his escape to certain countries, all
+helped to influence the magistrate in his refusal.
+
+Colonel Boundary did not speak to the man in the dock or as much as look
+at him. He got out of court after the proceedings had terminated, the
+cynosure of every policeman's eye, and drove back to his apartments. He
+had not heard from Crewe or Lollie that morning and he guessed that the
+two had left by aeroplane. So he was alone, he thought, and the very
+knowledge had the effect of stiffening him.
+
+He could go through the remainder of his papers at his leisure, without
+fear of interruption. The lesser members of the gang had been controlled
+by Selby or Crewe, and they would not approach him directly, but he did
+not doubt that there were a score of little men waiting to jump into the
+witness box the moment he was caught, but he had by no means given up
+hope of escaping.
+
+For days he had carried in his pocket the means of disguise, a safety
+razor, scissors and a small bottle of anatto solution to darken his
+face.
+
+Despite his sixty-one years, he was a healthy and virile man, capable of
+undergoing hardships if the necessity arose, but, above all, he had a
+plan and an alternative plan.
+
+He finished the destruction of his correspondence, and then began to
+search his pocket for any stray letters which he might have put away
+absent-mindedly. In making this search he came upon a long, white
+envelope addressed to Crewe, and wondered how it had come into his
+possession. Then he remembered that Crewe had handed him a letter.
+
+He looked at the postmark.
+
+From Oxford.
+
+This was the report of the agents whom Crewe had sent down to discover
+the names of the men who had left Balliol in a certain year. "Snow"
+Gregory, who had been found shot in the streets of London, was a Balliol
+man who had left Oxford in that year. It was certain that it was a
+relative of "Snow" Gregory who was called Jack o' Judgment and who had
+taken upon himself the task of avenging the man's death.
+
+What was "Snow" Gregory's real name? If he could find that, he might
+find Jack o' Judgment.
+
+Slowly, as though with a sense that the great discovery was imminent, he
+tore open the letter and pulled out the three foolscap pages, which,
+with a covering note, constituted the contents. There were two lists of
+names of graduates who had passed out in the year which, if "Snow"
+Gregory spoke the truth in a moment of unusual confidence, was the year
+of his leaving.
+
+The colonel's finger traced the lines one by one and he finished the
+first list without discovering a name which was familiar. He was half
+way through the second list when he stopped and his finger jumped. For
+fully three minutes he sat glaring at the paper open-mouthed. Then:
+
+"Merciful God!" he whispered.
+
+He sat there for the greater part of an hour, his chin on his hand, his
+eyes glued to the name. And all the time his active mind was running
+back through the years, piecing together the evidence which enabled him
+to identify, without any shadow of doubt, Jack o' Judgment.
+
+He rose and went to his bookcase and took down volume after volume. They
+were mostly reference books, and for some time he searched in vain. Then
+he found a Year Book which gave him the data he wanted, and he brought
+it back to the table and scribbled a few notes. These he read through
+and carefully burnt.
+
+He finished his labours with a bright look in his eye and strutted into
+his bedroom ten years younger in appearance than he had been that
+afternoon. He put out all the lights and sat for a little while in the
+shadow of the curtain, watching the street from the open window. At the
+corner of the block a Salvation Army meeting was in progress, and he was
+surprised that he had not noticed the fact, although this practice of
+the Salvationists holding meetings near his flat had before now driven
+him to utter distraction.
+
+Very keenly he scrutinised the street for some sign of a lurking figure,
+and once saw a man walk past under the light of a street lamp and melt
+into the shadow of a doorway on the opposite side of the road. He went
+into his bedroom and brought back a pair of night glasses, and focused
+them upon the figure.
+
+He chuckled and went out of the flat into the street, turning southward.
+
+He did not go far, however, before he stopped and looked back, and his
+patience was rewarded by the sight of a figure crossing the road and
+entering the building he had just left. The colonel gave him time, and
+then retraced his steps. He took off his boots in the vestibule and went
+upstairs quietly. He was half-way up when he heard the soft thud of his
+own door closing, and grinned again. He gave the intruder time to get
+inside before he too inserted his key, and turning it without a sound,
+came into the darkened hall. There was a light in his room, and he heard
+the sound of a drawer being pulled open. Then he gripped the handle,
+and, flinging the door open, stepped in. The man who was looking through
+the desk sprang up in affright.
+
+As Boundary had suspected, it was his former butler, the man who had
+deserted him the day before without a word. He was a big, heavy-jowled
+man of powerful build, and the momentary look of fright melted to a leer
+at the sight of the colonel's face.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Boundary pleasantly, "come back for the pickings?"
+
+"Something like that, guv'nor," said the other. "You don't blame me?"
+
+"I've been pretty good to you, Tom," said the colonel.
+
+"Ugh! I don't know that I've anything to thank you for."
+
+Here was a man who a month before would have cringed at the colonel's
+upraised finger!
+
+"Oh, don't you, Tom?" said Boundary softly. "Come, come, that's not very
+grateful."
+
+"What have I got to be grateful to you for?" demanded the man.
+
+"Grateful that you're alive, Tom," said the colonel, and the servant's
+face went hard.
+
+"None of that, colonel," he snarled; "you can't afford to talk 'fresh'
+with me. I know a great deal more about you than you suppose. You think
+I've got no brains."
+
+"I know you have brains, Tom," said the colonel, "but you can't use
+'em."
+
+"Can't I, eh? I haven't been looking after you for four or five years
+and doing your dirty work, colonel, without picking up a little
+intelligence--and a little information! You'd look comic if they put me
+in the witness box!"
+
+He was gaining courage at the very mildness of the man of whom he once
+stood in terror.
+
+"So you've come for the pickings?" said the colonel, ignoring his
+threat. "Well, help yourself."
+
+He went to the sideboard, poured himself out a little whisky and sat
+down by the window to watch the man search. Tom pulled open another
+drawer and closed it again.
+
+"Now look here, colonel," he said, "I haven't made so much money out of
+this business as you have. Things are pretty bad with me, and I think
+the least you can do is to give me something to remember you by."
+
+The colonel did not answer. Apparently his thoughts were wandering.
+
+"Tom," he said after awhile, "do you remember three months ago I bought
+a lot of old cinema films?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," said the man, surprised at the change of subject.
+"What's that to do with it?"
+
+"There were about ten boxes, weren't there?"
+
+"A dozen, more likely," said the man impatiently. "Now look here,
+colonel----"
+
+"Wait a moment, Tom. I'll discuss your share when you've given me a
+little help. Meeting you here--by the way, I saw you out of the window,
+skulking on the other side of the street--has given me an idea. Where
+did you put those films?"
+
+The man grinned.
+
+"Are you starting a cinema, colonel?"
+
+"Something like that," replied Boundary; "it was the Salvation Army that
+gave me the idea really. Do you hear what an infernal noise that drum
+makes?"
+
+The man made a gesture of impatience.
+
+"What is it you want?" he asked. "If you want the films, I put them in
+my pantry, underneath the silver cupboard. I suppose, now that the
+partnership's broken up, you don't object to me taking the silver? I
+might be starting a little house on my own."
+
+"Certainly, certainly, you can take the silver," said the colonel
+genially. "Bring me the films."
+
+The man was half-way out of the room when he turned round.
+
+"No tricks, mind you," he said, "no doing funny business when my back's
+turned."
+
+"I shall not move from the chair, Tom. You don't seem to trust me."
+
+The ex-valet made two journeys before he deposited a dozen shallow tin
+boxes on the desk.
+
+"There they are," he said, "now tell me what's the game."
+
+"First of all," said the colonel, "were you serious when you suggested
+that you knew something about me that would be worth a lot to the
+police? There goes that drum again, Tom. Do you know what use that drum
+is to me?"
+
+"I don't know," growled the man. "Of course I meant what I said--and
+what's this stuff about the drum?"
+
+"Why, the people in the street can hear nothing when that's going," said
+the colonel softly.
+
+He put his hand in the inside of his coat, as though searching for a
+pocket-book, and so quick was he that the man, leaning over the table,
+did not see the weapon that killed him. Three times the colonel fired
+and the man slid in an inert heap to the ground.
+
+"Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, Tom," said the colonel,
+replacing the weapon; and turning the body over, he took the scarf-pin
+from his own tie and fastened it in that of the dead man. Then he took
+his watch and chain from his pocket and slipped it in the waistcoat of
+the other. He had a signet ring on his little finger and this he
+transferred to the finger of the limp figure.
+
+Then he began opening the boxes of old films and twined their contents
+about the floor, pinning them to the curtains, twining them about the
+legs of the chairs, all the time whistling the "Soldiers' Chorus." He
+found a candle in the butler's pantry and planted it with a steady hand
+in the heap of celluloid coils. This he lighted with great care and went
+out, closing the door softly behind him. Half an hour later, Albemarle
+Place was blocked with fire engines and a dozen hoses were playing in
+vain upon the roaring furnace behind the gutted walls of Colonel Dan
+Boundary's residence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stafford King was an early caller at Doughty Street, and Maisie knew,
+both by the unusual hour of the visit and by the gravity of the visitor,
+that something extraordinary had happened.
+
+"Well, Maisie," he said, "there's the end of the Boundary Gang--the
+colonel is dead."
+
+"Dead?" she said, open-eyed.
+
+"We don't know what happened, but the theory is that he shot himself and
+set light to the house. The body was found in the ruins, and I was able
+to identify some of the jewellery--you remember the police had it when
+he was arrested, and we kept a special note of it for future reference."
+
+She heaved a long sigh.
+
+"That's over, at last; it is the end of a nightmare," she said, "a
+horrible, horrible nightmare. I wonder----"
+
+"What do you wonder?"
+
+"I wonder if this is also the end of Jack o' Judgment?" she asked. "Or
+whether he will continue working to bring to justice those people whom
+the law cannot touch."
+
+"Heaven only knows," said Stafford, "but I'll admit that Jack o'
+Judgment has been a most useful person so far as we are concerned. We
+should never have collected Pinto or Selby, or even the colonel, but for
+Jack. By the way, there is no news of Crewe and the girl."
+
+"I suppose they've reached their destination by now?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, rather," said Stafford; "hours and days ago. Where were they going,
+by the way?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I'm not going to tell you that."
+
+"You needn't," smiled Stafford. "They've gone to Portugal. It was
+Pinto's machine and I don't suppose he had any other idea in the world
+than to get back to his own beloved land. By the way, Pinto looks like
+getting ten years. To satisfy myself in regard to Crewe, I telegraphed
+to an Englishman at Finisterre, who is a good friend of mine and who
+lives in a wild and isolated spot somewhere near the lighthouse, and he
+sent me back a message to the effect that an aeroplane passed over
+Finisterre yesterday afternoon soon after lunch time. That must be
+friend Lollie."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Do you know, I hope they get away. Is that rather dreadful of me?" she
+said.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, I don't think so. I believe the chief shares your hope. He has
+queer views on things, and they irritate me sometimes. For example, he
+doesn't think that the colonel is dead."
+
+"But I thought you had found the body?"
+
+"He gets over that by saying that it isn't the body," said Stafford with
+a little laugh of annoyance. "It rather worries you after you have
+decided that you've rounded up the gang. I still believe that it is the
+colonel."
+
+She thought a moment.
+
+"I am inclined to agree with Sir Stanley," said she. "It isn't the sort
+of thing that the colonel would do. Men like Colonel Boundary are never
+without hope."
+
+Stafford scratched his head.
+
+"Well, if it isn't the colonel, he's gone; and please the pigs, we'll
+never see him again! There is only the question of rounding up the
+little people of the gang, and that won't be much trouble."
+
+She put both her hands on his shoulders and looked at him smilingly.
+
+"You're an optimist, dear," she said.
+
+"Who wouldn't be?" he replied cheerfully. "You said that when the gang
+was wound up we would drop our sad and lonely lives apart and form a
+little gang of our own."
+
+She laughed and kissed him, and he went back to his office to find that
+his chief had already arrived and had asked for him. Sir Stanley was
+reading the morning paper when Stafford came into his room, and his
+first words brought consternation to the younger man.
+
+"Stafford," he said, "this is not the body of the colonel. I've just
+been to see it and I'm certain. Now, you've got to send a call out to
+all stations throughout the country, particularly the south of England,
+to look for a man, possibly clean-shaven, certainly without moustaches,
+who will be disguised as a tramp."
+
+"Why a tramp, sir?" asked Stafford with an heroic attempt to preserve an
+open mind on a subject where he had reached a definite decision.
+
+"Fifteen years ago," replied Sir Stanley, "when the colonel did most of
+his own dirty work, it was his favourite disguise. Search the casual
+wards, the common lodging-houses and the prisons. It is just likely that
+the colonel will commit a small offence, with the object of getting
+himself three months in gaol--there's no hiding-place like gaol, you
+know, Stafford. The real danger is that he may not actually tramp or
+assume the guise of the real low-down loafer. He may have the sense to
+become a poor but honest workman, travelling third-class from town to
+town in search of work. Then he will present the greatest difficulty."
+He saw the look of doubt on the young man's face and laughed.
+
+"You think he's dead, don't you?" he said.
+
+"I'm perfectly sure he is, sir," replied Stafford frankly.
+
+"An optimist to the last," smiled Sir Stanley and dismissed him with a
+nod.
+
+Later he was to come to Stafford's little bureau and tell him things
+which he did not know before. Then for the first time Stafford King
+discovered how closely his lackadaisical chief had followed the
+developments of the past few months. He learnt for the first time of the
+big part which Jack o' Judgment had played in the detection of the gang.
+
+"He had an office under the colonel's flat," said Sir Stanley.
+"Apparently it was bought with no other object than to provide our
+friend with an opportunity of spying on the colonel. He discoloured the
+wall, brought in his own workmen and in the colonel's absence--he was
+driven from the occupation of the room by the smell--he installed
+microphones. With the aid of these he was able to listen to all the
+conversation downstairs and sometimes to chime in. It was Jack o'
+Judgment who--well, perhaps I'd better not tell you that, because
+officially, I am not supposed to know it. At any rate, Stafford," he
+said more seriously, "we have seen the smashing of one of the most
+iniquitous, villainous gangs that ever existed. God knows how many
+broken hearts there are in England to-day, how many poor souls who have
+been brought to a suicide's grave through the machinations of Colonel
+Boundary and his tools. I do not think there has been a more immoral
+force in existence in our time, and I hope we shall never see its like
+again. You sent out the message?" he asked at parting.
+
+"Yes, sir. I warned all stations and all chief constables."
+
+"Good!" said Sir Stanley, and his last words were: "Don't
+forget--Boundary is not dead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+JACK O' JUDGMENT REVEALED
+
+
+A stoutish, grey-haired man descended from a third-class carriage at
+Chatham Station and inquired of a porter the way to the dockyard. He
+carried a lot of carpenter's tools in a straw bag and smoked a short
+clay pipe. The porter looked at the man with his white, stubby beard
+critically.
+
+"Trying to get a job, mate?" he asked.
+
+"Why, yes," said the man.
+
+"How old might you be?" demanded the porter.
+
+"Sixty-four," said the other, and the porter shook his head.
+
+"You won't get work easy. They're not very keen on us old 'uns," he
+said. "Why don't you try at Markham's, the builders in the High Street?
+They're short of men. I saw a notice outside their yard only this
+morning."
+
+The workman thanked the porter, shouldered his basket and tramped down
+the High Street. He was respectably dressed, and policemen on the
+look-out for suspicious tramps did not give him a second glance. He
+spent the greater part of the day walking from yard to yard, everywhere
+receiving the same answer. Late in the afternoon he had better luck. A
+small firm of ship repairers were in want of a jobbing carpenter and put
+him to work at once.
+
+It was many years since Colonel Boundary had wielded a saw, but he made
+a good showing. After two hours' work, however, his back was aching and
+his hands were sore. He was glad when the yard bell announced the hour
+for knocking off. He had yet to find lodgings, but this did not worry
+him. He was careful to avoid the cheaper kind of lodging-house, and went
+to one which catered for the artisan, where he could get a room of his
+own and a clean bed. He paid a deposit, washed himself and left his
+tools, then went out in search of some refreshment.
+
+At seven o'clock the next morning he was back at the yard. He thought
+several times during the day that he would have to throw the work up.
+His back ached furiously, his arms were like lead. But he persevered,
+and again another day drew to a close. By the third day he had got his
+muscles into play and found the work easy. He was asked by the foreman
+if he would care to go into the country to work at a house that the head
+of the firm was building, but he declined. He wanted to remain in the
+town where there were crowds. At the end of the week came his great
+chance. He had been sent down to the docks to do some repairs on a small
+steamer and had pleased the skipper, who was himself an elderly man, by
+the ability he had shown.
+
+"You're worth twice as much as some of these darned young 'uns,"
+grumbled the old man. "Are you married?"
+
+"No," said the other.
+
+"Got any kids?"
+
+Boundary shook his head.
+
+"Why don't you sign on with me?" asked the skipper. "I want a carpenter
+bad."
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Boundary, breathing more quickly.
+
+"We're going to Valparaiso first, then we're going to work down the
+coast, round the Horn to San Francisco and maybe we'll get a cargo
+across to China."
+
+"I'll think it over," said the colonel.
+
+That night he called on the captain and told him that he had made up his
+mind to go.
+
+"Good!" said the skipper, "but you'll have to sign on to-night. I'm
+leaving to-morrow by the first tide."
+
+The colonel nodded, not daring to speak. Here was luck, the greatest in
+the world. Nobody would suspect a carpenter, taken from a local firm and
+shipped with the captain's goodwill. At seven o'clock the next morning
+he was standing on the deck of the _Arabelle Sands_, watching the low
+coast-line slipping past. The ship was to make one call at Falmouth and
+two days later she reached that port. Boundary went ashore to buy some
+wood and a few tools that he found he needed, and pulled back to the
+ship in the afternoon. In the evening he accompanied the captain ashore.
+
+"We shan't leave till to-morrow at twelve," said the captain. "You might
+as well spend a night on solid earth whilst you can. It will be a long
+time before you smell dirt again."
+
+The captain's idea of a pleasant evening was to sit in the bar-parlour
+of the Sun Inn and drink interminable hot rums. He had fixed up a room
+for himself at the inn and offered Boundary a share, but the colonel
+preferred to sleep alone. He secured lodgings in the town, and making an
+excuse to the captain returned to his room early. He had purchased all
+the newspapers he could find and he wanted to study them quietly. It was
+with unusual relish that he read the account of an inquest on himself.
+There was no breath of suspicion that he was not dead.
+
+"Old Dan Boundary has tricked them all. Clever old Dan Boundary!"
+
+He chuckled at the thought. He had deceived all those clever men at
+Scotland Yard--Sir Stanley Belcom, Stafford King, Jack o' Judgment! Yes,
+he had deceived Jack o' Judgment and that seemed the least believable
+part of the affair. All the rest of the gang were captured or fugitives.
+He wondered whether Lollie Marsh and Crewe had reached Portugal and what
+they were doing there and how long their money would last and how they
+would earn more. He had his own money well secured. He had managed to
+get together quite a respectable sum, for there were other banks than
+the Victoria and City--odd accounts in assumed names which he had drawn
+upon on the very day of his supposed death.
+
+There was a tap at the door.
+
+"Come in," said Boundary, thinking it was the landlady.
+
+He was in the middle of the room as he spoke, and he went back step by
+step as the visitor entered. His tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,
+his eyes were starting out of his head.
+
+"You! You!" he croaked.
+
+"Little Jack o' Judgment," said the mask mockingly. "Poor old Jack! Come
+to take farewell of the colonel before he goes to foreign parts!"
+
+"Stop!" cried Boundary hoarsely. "I know you, damn you! I know you!"
+
+He pulled back the curtains and glared out of the window. There was no
+need to ask any further questions. The house was surrounded. He swung
+round again at his tormentor and faced the white mask in a blind fury of
+rage.
+
+"You're clever, aren't you?" he said. "Cleverer than all the police! But
+you weren't clever enough to save your son from death!"
+
+The masked figure reeled back.
+
+"Ah, that's got you! Little Jack o' Judgment!" mocked the colonel.
+"That's got you where it hurts you most, hasn't it? Your only son, too!
+And he went to the devil all the faster because of me--me--me!" He
+struck his breast with his clenched fist. "You can't bring him back to
+life, can you? That's one I've got against you."
+
+"No," said Jack o' Judgment in a low voice. "I cannot bring him back to
+life, but I can destroy the man who destroyed him, who blighted his
+young life, who taught him vicious practices, who sapped his vitality
+with drugs----"
+
+"That's a lie!" said the colonel. "Crewe picked him up at Monte Carlo,
+when he was on his beam-ends."
+
+"Who sent him to Monte Carlo?" asked the other. "Who was the gambler who
+brought him down, and received the wreck he had made with the pretence
+that he had never met him before? It was you, Boundary?"
+
+The colonel nodded.
+
+"I was a fool to deny it. I pretended to Crewe that I hadn't met him
+before. Yes, it was I, and I glory in it. You think you're going to
+pinch me, now, and put me where I belong--on the scaffold maybe. But you
+can never wipe that memory out of your mind, that you had a son who died
+in the gutter, that you're a childless old man who has no son to follow
+you!"
+
+"I can't wipe that out!" said Jack o' Judgment. "O, God! I can't wipe
+that out!"
+
+He raised his hand to his masked face as though to hide the picture
+which Boundary conjured up.
+
+"But I can wipe you out," he said fiercely, "and I've given my life, my
+career, my reputation, all that I hold dear to get you! I've smashed
+your schemes, I've ruined you, even if I've ruined myself. They're
+waiting for you downstairs, Boundary. I told them to be here at this
+very minute. Stafford King----"
+
+"You'll never see me taken," said Boundary.
+
+Two shots rang out together, and the colonel sprawled back over the
+bed--dead.
+
+Propped against the wall was Jack o' Judgment, and the hand that gripped
+his breast dripped red. They heard the shots outside and Stafford King
+was the first to enter the room. One glance at the colonel was
+sufficient, and then he turned to the figure who had slipped to the
+floor and was sitting with his back propped against the wall.
+
+"Good God!" said Stafford. "Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+"Poor old Jack!" said the mocking voice.
+
+Stafford's arm was about his shoulder, and he laid the head gently back
+upon his bent knee. He lifted the mask gently and the light of the oil
+lamp which swung from the ceiling fell upon the white face.
+
+"Sir Stanley Belcom! Sir Stanley!" he softly whispered.
+
+Sir Stanley turned his head and opened his eyes. The old look of
+good-humour shone.
+
+"Poor old Jack o' Judgment!" he mimicked. "This is going to be a
+first-class scandal, Stafford. For the sake of the service you ought to
+hush it up."
+
+"But nobody need know, sir," said Stafford. "You can explain to the
+Home Secretary----"
+
+Sir Stanley shook his head.
+
+"I'm going to see a greater Home Secretary than ever lived in
+Whitehall," he said slowly. "I'm finished, Stafford. Strip this mummery
+from me, if you can."
+
+With shaking hands Stafford King tore off the black cloak and flung it
+under the bed.
+
+"Now," said Sir Stanley weakly, "you can introduce me to the provincial
+police as the head of our department and you can keep my secret,
+Stafford--if you will."
+
+Stafford laid his hand upon Sir Stanley's.
+
+"I told my solicitor," Sir Stanley spoke with difficulty, "to give you a
+letter in case--in case anything happened. I know I haven't played the
+game by the department. I ought to have resigned years ago when I found
+what had happened to my poor boy. I was Chief of Police in one of the
+provinces of India at the time, but they wouldn't let me go. I came to
+Scotland Yard and was promoted--no, I haven't played the game with the
+department. And yet perhaps I have."
+
+He did not speak for some time.
+
+His breathing was growing fainter and fainter, and when Stafford asked
+him, he said he was in no pain.
+
+"I had to deceive you," he said after awhile. "I had to pretend that
+Jack o' Judgment called on me too. That was to take suspicion from
+your--Miss White," he smiled. "No, I haven't played the game. I stood
+for the law, and yet--I broke that gang, which the law could not touch.
+Yes, I broke them! I broke them!" he whispered. "If Boundary hadn't
+known me I should have been gone before you came and resigned
+to-morrow," he said, "but he must have discovered the boy's name. I
+wonder he hadn't tried before. I smashed them, didn't I, Stafford? It
+cost me thousands. I have committed almost every kind of crime--I
+burgled the diamondsmiths', but you must give me your word you will
+never tell. Phillopolis must suffer. They must all be punished."
+
+Stafford had sent the police from the room, but the police-surgeon
+would not be denied. He had the sense to see that nothing could be done
+for the dying man, however, and that a change of position would probably
+hasten the end. He, too, went and left them alone.
+
+"Stafford, I have quite a lot of money," said the First Commissioner;
+"it is yours. There's a will ... yours...."
+
+Then he ceased to speak and Stafford thought that the end had come but
+did not dare move in case he were mistaken. After five minutes the man
+in his arms stirred slightly and his voice sounded strangely clear and
+strong.
+
+"Gregory, my boy, good old Gregory! Father's here, old man!"
+
+His voice died away to a rumble and then to a murmur.
+
+The tears were running down Stafford's face. He sensed all the tragedy,
+all the loneliness of this man who had offered so cheerful a face to the
+world. Then Sir Stanley struggled to draw himself to his feet, and
+Stafford held him.
+
+"Gently, sir, gently," he said, "you're only hurting yourself."
+
+The dying man laughed. It was a little shrill chuckle of merriment and
+Stafford's blood ran cold.
+
+"Here I am, poor old Jack o' Judgment! Little old Jack o' Judgment! Give
+me the lives you took and the hopes you've blasted. Give them to Jack
+... Jack o' Judgment!"
+
+They were his last words.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A year later First Commissioner Sir Stafford King received a letter from
+South America. It contained nothing but the photograph of a very
+good-looking man, and a singularly pretty woman, who held in her lap a
+very tiny baby.
+
+"Here is the last of the Boundary Gang," said Sir Stafford to Maisie.
+"It is the one happy ending that has emerged from so much misery and
+evil."
+
+"Why, it is Lollie Marsh!"
+
+"Lollie Crewe, I think her name is now," said Stafford. "It was queer
+how Sir Stanley recognised the only human members of the gang."
+
+"Then they got away after all?" said the girl. "I've often wondered what
+happened at that aerodrome."
+
+Stafford laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said drily, "they got away. They left at twenty minutes
+past three, after a long argument with the aviator, a man named
+Cartwright."
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"Sir Stanley and I watched them go off," said Stafford.
+
+He looked at the photograph again and shook his head.
+
+"There were times when the Judgment of Jack was very merciful," he said
+soberly.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+Blindfolded
+
+By
+
+Dorothy Rogers
+
+
+This novel has remarkable qualities. Its plot is strong and holds a
+dramatic surprise of tragic intensity. The book tells the story of Anne
+Gerrish, how she is stifled by the humdrum life at Norton with her
+aunts, how she leaves them to wring from life a measure of individual
+freedom and happiness, and how she finds both, only to end once more
+where she began. To use a metaphor from music, her life is a piece
+marked "Da capo." BLINDFOLDED is by far the best novel Miss Rogers has
+yet written, a book full of truth and sincerity.
+
+_Other Stories by this Author:_
+
+
+If To-day be Sweet
+The Standby
+
+
+     "A novel of considerable charm, dramatic interest, and admirable
+     character delineation."
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+X Esquire
+
+By
+
+Leslie Charteris
+
+
+A new form of tobacco had been discovered and was being put on the
+market by a syndicate consisting of rather dubious characters. The
+campaign was to start with a free distribution of millions of packets of
+cigarettes made from the new leaf. But the whole consignment of the
+tobacco was burnt, and one by one the members of the projected syndicate
+were assassinated by a mysterious person who called himself "X Esquire."
+Who was he? And what was his purpose? Mr. Charteris shows himself in
+this story to be one of the real brand of mystery novelists.
+
+
+     The Author can write a rattling good yarn, full of excitement and
+     real mystery. Thoroughly brisk in action, the story is told in a
+     virile and spirited manner.
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+The Tenant of Cromlech Cottage
+
+By
+
+Joseph Hocking
+
+Ghost stories move almost inevitably to one of two denouements--a
+materialistic explanation or a supernatural. THE TENANT OF CROMLECH
+COTTAGE has a surprise for the reader in that the physical explanation
+of the noises and movements that have disturbed the novelist owner of
+the haunted cottage--that these were occasioned by the nocturnal visits
+of two orphans who believed that a will was hidden there--was followed
+by the appearance of a dead man to tell the novelist where this missing
+will might be found. This dualism is typical of Joseph Hocking's Cornish
+stories where romance and realism make a blend as fascinating as it is
+unique.
+
+
+     There are few better story-tellers than Mr. Joseph Hocking,
+     especially when he is dealing with his beloved Cornwall. His
+     stories are thrillingly interesting, and rivet the attention of the
+     reader from beginning to end.
+
+
+_WARD, LOCK & CO.'S NEW FICTION_
+
+The Knightsbridge Mystery
+
+By
+
+Carlton Dawe
+
+
+The conclusion of this story has a real grip, and the solution of the
+mystery concerning the death of the girl victim of an unknown hand is at
+once original and instinct with a true human pathos. The character of
+the detective who investigates the case is one of the triumphs of the
+book, and he is no stereotyped member of the Criminal Investigation
+Department but a living personality as well as a convincing police
+officer. Mr. Carlton Dawe has written in THE KNIGHTSBRIDGE MYSTERY one
+of his best and most sympathetic stories.
+
+_Other recent successes by this Author:_
+
+
+The Temptation of Selma
+Desperate Love
+A Tangled Marriage
+Euryale in London
+Stranger than Fiction
+The Way of a Maid
+Love the Conqueror
+The Glare
+The Forbidden Shrine
+
+
+     "For a certain crispness of dialogue, and deft arrangement of the
+     events of a good plot, Mr. Carlton Dawe has very few rivals."--_The
+     Yorkshire Post._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack O' Judgment, by Edgar Wallace
+
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