Scarcely thirty yards along the Strand he met Plummer.
"I"m going to make some much closer inquiries all down the line as far as Dover," Plummer said. "They wire from Calais that they have no clue as yet, and I mean to make quite sure, if I can, that Laker hasn"t quietly slipped off the line somewhere between here and Dover. There"s one very peculiar thing," Plummer added confidentially. "Did you see the two women who were waiting to see a member of the firm at Liddle, Neal & Liddle"s?"
"Yes. Laker"s mother and his _fiancee_, I was told."
"That"s right. Well, do you know that girl--Shaw her name is--has been shadowing me ever since I left the Bank. Of course I spotted it from the beginning--these amateurs don"t know how to follow anybody--and, as a matter of fact, she"s just inside that jeweller"s shop door behind me now, pretending to look at the things in the window. But it"s odd, isn"t it?"
"Well," Hewitt replied, "of course it"s not a thing to be neglected. If you"ll look very carefully at the corner of Villiers Street, without appearing to stare, I think you will possibly observe some signs of Laker"s mother. She"s shadowing _me_."
Plummer looked casually in the direction indicated, and then immediately turned his eyes in another direction.
"I see her," he said; "she"s just taking a look round the corner. That"s a thing not to be ignored. Of course, the Lakers" house is being watched--we set a man on it at once, yesterday. But I"ll put some one on now to watch Miss Shaw"s place, too. I"ll telephone through to Liddle"s--probably they"ll be able to say where it is. And the women themselves must be watched, too. As a matter of fact, I had a notion that Laker wasn"t alone in it. And it"s just possible, you know, that he has sent an accomplice off with his tourist ticket to lead us a dance while he looks after himself in another direction. Have you done anything?"
"Well," Hewitt replied, with a faint reproduction of the secretive smile with which Plummer had met an inquiry of his earlier in the morning, "I"ve been to the station here, and I"ve found Laker"s umbrella in the lost property office."
"Oh! Then probably he _has_ gone. I"ll bear that in mind, and perhaps have a word with the lost property man."
Plummer made for the station and Hewitt for his office. He mounted the stairs and reached his door just as I myself, who had been disappointed in not finding him in, was leaving. I had called with the idea of taking Hewitt to lunch with me at my club, but he declined lunch. "I have an important case in hand," he said. "Look here, Brett. See this sc.r.a.p of paper. You know the types of the different newspapers--which is this?"
He handed me a small piece of paper. It was part of a cutting containing an advertis.e.m.e.nt, which had been torn in half.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"I _think_," I said, "this is from the _Daily Chronicle_, judging by the paper. It is plainly from the "agony column," but all the papers use pretty much the same type for these advertis.e.m.e.nts, except the _Times_.
If it were not torn I could tell you at once, because the _Chronicle_ columns are rather narrow."
"Never mind--I"ll send for them all." He rang, and sent Kerrett for a copy of each morning paper of the previous day. Then he took from a large wardrobe cupboard a decent but well-worn and rather roughened tall hat. Also a coat a little worn and shiny on the collar. He exchanged these for his own hat and coat, and then subst.i.tuted an old necktie for his own clean white one, and encased his legs in mud-spotted leggings.
This done, he produced a very large and thick pocket-book, fastened by a broad elastic band, and said, "Well, what do you think of this? Will it do for Queen"s taxes, or sanitary inspection, or the gas, or the water-supply?"
"Very well indeed, I should say," I replied. "What"s the case?"
"Oh, I"ll tell you all about that when it"s over--no time now. Oh, here you are, Kerrett. By the bye, Kerrett, I"m going out presently by the back way. Wait for about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour after I am gone, and then just go across the road and speak to that lady in black, with the veil, who is waiting in that little foot-pa.s.sage opposite. Say Mr. Martin Hewitt sends his compliments, and he advises her not to wait, as he has already left his office by another door, and has been gone some little time. That"s all; it would be a pity to keep the poor woman waiting all day for nothing. Now the papers. _Daily News, Standard, Telegraph, Chronicle_--yes, here it is, in the Chronicle."
The whole advertis.e.m.e.nt read thus:--
YOB.--H.R. Shop roast. You 1st. Then to-night. 02. 2nd top 3rd L. No. 197 red bl. straight mon. One at a time.
"What"s this," I asked, "a cryptogram?"
"I"ll see," Hewitt answered. "But I won"t tell you anything about it till afterwards, so you get your lunch. Kerrett, bring the directory."
This was all I actually saw of this case myself, and I have written the rest in its proper order from Hewitt"s information, as I have written some other cases entirely.
To resume at the point where, for the time I lost sight of the matter.
Hewitt left by the back way and stopped an empty cab as it pa.s.sed.
"Abney Park Cemetery" was his direction to the driver. In little more than twenty minutes the cab was branching off down the Ess.e.x Road on its way to Stoke Newington, and in twenty minutes more Hewitt stopped it in Church Street, Stoke Newington. He walked through a street or two, and then down another, the houses of which he scanned carefully as he pa.s.sed. Opposite one which stood by itself he stopped, and, making a pretence of consulting and arranging his large pocket-book, he took a good look at the house. It was rather larger, neater, and more pretentious than the others in the street, and it had a natty little coach-house just visible up the side entrance. There were red blinds hung with heavy lace in the front windows, and behind one of these blinds Hewitt was able to catch the glint of a heavy gas chandelier.
He stepped briskly up the front steps and knocked sharply at the door.
"Mr. Merston?" he asked, pocket-book in hand, when a neat parlour-maid opened the door.
"Yes."
"Ah!" Hewitt stepped into the hall and pulled off his hat; "it"s only the meter. There"s been a deal of gas running away somewhere here, and I"m just looking to see if the meters are right. Where is it?"
The girl hesitated. "I"ll--I"ll ask master," she said.
"Very well. I don"t want to take it away, you know--only to give it a tap or two, and so on."
The girl retired to the back of the hall, and without taking her eyes off Martin Hewitt, gave his message to some invisible person in a back room, whence came a growling reply of "All right."
Hewitt followed the girl to the bas.e.m.e.nt, apparently looking straight before him, but in reality taking in every detail of the place. The gas meter was in a very large lumber cupboard under the kitchen stairs. The girl opened the door and lit a candle. The meter stood on the floor, which was littered with hampers and boxes and odd sheets of brown paper.
But a thing that at once arrested Hewitt"s attention was a garment of some sort of bright blue cloth, with large bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, which was lying in a tumbled heap in a corner, and appeared to be the only thing in the place that was not covered with dust. Nevertheless, Hewitt took no apparent notice of it, but stooped down and solemnly tapped the meter three times with his pencil, and listened with great gravity, placing his ear to the top. Then he shook his head and tapped again. At length he said:--
"It"s a bit doubtful. I"ll just get you to light the gas in the kitchen a moment. Keep your hand to the burner, and when I call out shut it off _at once_; see?"
The girl turned and entered the kitchen, and Hewitt immediately seized the blue coat--for a coat it was. It had a dull red piping in the seams, and was of the swallow-tail pattern--a livery coat, in fact. He held it for a moment before him, examining its pattern and colour, and then rolled it up and flung it again into the corner.
"Right!" he called to the servant. "Shut off!"
The girl emerged from the kitchen as he left the cupboard.
"Well," she asked, "are you satisfied now?"
"Quite satisfied, thank you," Hewitt replied.
"Is it all right?" she continued, jerking her hand toward the cupboard.
"Well, no, it isn"t; there"s something wrong there, and I"m glad I came.
You can tell Mr. Merston, if you like, that I expect his gas bill will be a good deal less next quarter." And there was a suspicion of a chuckle in Hewitt"s voice as he crossed the hall to leave. For a gas inspector is pleased when he finds at length what he has been searching for.
Things had fallen out better than Hewitt had dared to expect. He saw the key of the whole mystery in that blue coat; for it was the uniform coat of the hall porters at one of the banks that he had visited in the morning, though which one he could not for the moment remember. He entered the nearest post-office and despatched a telegram to Plummer, giving certain directions and asking the inspector to meet him; then he hailed the first available cab and hurried toward the City.
At Lombard Street he alighted, and looked in at the door of each bank till he came to Buller, Clayton, Ladds & Co."s. This was the bank he wanted. In the other banks the hall porters wore mulberry coats, brick-dust coats, brown coats, and what not, but here, behind the ladders and scaffold poles which obscured the entrance, he could see a man in a blue coat, with dull red piping and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons. He sprang up the steps, pushed open the inner swing door, and finally satisfied himself by a closer view of the coat, to the wearer"s astonishment. Then he regained the pavement and walked the whole length of the bank premises in front, afterwards turning up the paved pa.s.sage at the side, deep in thought. The bank had no windows or doors on the side next the court, and the two adjoining houses were old and supported in places by wooden sh.o.r.es. Both were empty, and a great board announced that tenders would be received in a month"s time for the purchase of the old materials of which they were constructed; also that some part of the site would be let on a long building lease.
Hewitt looked up at the grimy fronts of the old buildings. The windows were crusted thick with dirt--all except the bottom window of the house nearer the bank, which was fairly clean, and seemed to have been quite lately washed. The door, too, of this house was cleaner than that of the other, though the paint was worn. Hewitt reached and fingered a hook driven into the left-hand doorpost about six feet from the ground. It was new, and not at all rusted; also a tiny splinter had been displaced when the hook was driven in, and clean wood showed at the spot.
Having observed these things, Hewitt stepped back and read at the bottom of the big board the name, "Winsor & Weekes, Surveyors and Auctioneers, Abchurch Lane." Then he stepped into Lombard Street.
Two hansoms pulled up near the post-office, and out of the first stepped Inspector Plummer and another man. This man and the two who alighted from the second hansom were unmistakably plain-clothes constables--their air, gait, and boots proclaimed it.
"What"s all this?" demanded Plummer, as Hewitt approached.
"You"ll soon see, I think. But, first, have you put the watch on No.
197, Hackworth Road?"
"Yes; n.o.body will get away from there alone."
"Very good. I am going into Abchurch Lane for a few minutes. Leave your men out here, but just go round into the court by Buller, Clayton & Ladds"s, and keep your eye on the first door on the left. I think we"ll find something soon. Did you get rid of Miss Shaw?"