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diff --git a/24767-8.txt b/24767-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..464caff --- /dev/null +++ b/24767-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10468 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK O' JUDGMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 24767-8.txt or 24767-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/6/24767/ + +Produced by D. 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