"When I questioned Buddhist women of this amazing homage to Cedric, they gave me a full explanation. My son was sacred, they said. Buddha had withdrawn his favour from his people because of the evil they had done in suspecting the father and of the innocent life-Ferralt"s-which had been sacrificed, and they had been commanded of the priests to do homage to the child and thereby appease the offended G.o.d, who, doubtless, had himself spirited away the holy tooth, and would not restore it until full recompense was made to the sacred son of the sacred dead.
"When it became known that I had decided to return to England with my boy, native princes offered me fabulous sums to remain, and when they found that I could not be tempted to stay, the populace turned out in every town and village through which we pa.s.sed on our way to the ship, and bowing mult.i.tudes followed us to the very last. Nor did it cease with that, for in all the years that have followed, even here in London, the homage and worship have continued. My son can go nowhere but that he is followed by Cingalese; can see no man or woman of the race, but he or she prostrates herself before him and murmurs, "Holy, most holy!" And daily, almost hourly, rich gifts are showered upon him from unknown hands, and he is watched over and guarded constantly. I tell you all this, Mr. Cleek, that you may the better understand how appalling is the horror which now a.s.sails us, how frightful is the knowledge that someone now seeks his life, and is using every means to take it."
"In other words, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom, as her ladyship, overcome with emotion, broke down suddenly, "there appears to be a sudden and inexplicable change of front on the part of these fanatics, and they now seem as anxious to bring evil to his little lordship as they formerly were to protect and cherish him. At any rate, someone of their order has, upon three separate occasions within the last month, endeavoured to kidnap him, and, in one instance, even attempted to murder him."
"Is that a fact?" queried Cleek sharply, glancing over at Miss Lorne.
"You are certain it is not a fancy, but an absolute fact?"
"Yes; oh, yes!" she made answer, agitatedly. "Twice when I have gone into the Park with him, attempts have been made to separate us, to get him away from me; and once they did get him away-so swiftly, so adroitly, that he had vanished before I could turn round. But, although a bag had been thrown over his head to stifle his cries, he managed to make a very little one. I plunged screaming into the undergrowth from which that cry had come, and was just in time to save him. He was lying on the ground all bundled up in a bag, and his a.s.sailant, who must have heard me coming, had gone as if by magic. His little lordship, however, was able to tell me that the man was a Cingalese, and that he had "tried to cut him with a knife.""
"Cut him with a knife?" repeated Cleek in a reflective tone, and blew out a long, low whistle.
"Oh! but that is not the worst, Mr. Cleek," went on Ailsa. "Three days ago a woman-a very beautiful and distinguished-looking woman-called to see Lady Chepstow regarding the reference of a former servant, one Jane Catherboys, who used to be her ladyship"s maid. After the caller left, a box of sugared violets was found lying temptingly open on a table in the main hall. Little Cedric is pa.s.sionately fond of sugared violets, and, had he happened to pa.s.s that way before the box was discovered, he surely would have yielded to the temptation and eaten some. In removing the box the parlour-maid accidentally upset it, and before she could gather all the violets up her ladyship"s little Pomeranian dog snapped up one and ate it. It was dead in six minutes" time! The sweets were simply loaded with prussic acid. When we came to inquire into the matter in the hope of tracing the mysterious caller, we found that Jane Catherboys was no longer in need of a position; that she had been married for eight months; that she knew nothing whatever of the woman, and had sent no one to inquire into her references."
"All of which shows, my dear Cleek," put in Narkom significantly, "that, whatever hand is directing these attempts, it belongs to one who knows more than a mere outsider possibly could: in short, to one who is aware of his little lordship"s excessive fondness for sugared violets, and is aware that Lady Chepstow once did have a maid named Jane Catherboys."
"If," said Cleek, "you mean to suggest by that that this points suspiciously in Captain Hawksley"s direction, Mr. Narkom, permit me to say that it does not necessarily follow. The clever people of the under-world do nothing by halves nor without careful inquiry beforehand; that is what makes the difference between the common pickpocket and the brilliant swindler." He turned to Ailsa. "Is that all, Miss Lorne, or am I right in supposing that there is even worse to come?"
"Oh, much worse-much, Mr. Cleek! The knowledge that these would-be murderers, whoever they are, whatever may be their mysterious motive, have grown desperate enough to invade the house itself has driven Lady Chepstow well-nigh frantic. Of course, orders were immediately given to the servants that no stranger, no matter how well dressed, how well seeming, nor what the plea, was, from that moment, to be allowed past the threshold. We felt secure in that, knowing that no servant of the household would betray his or her trust, and that all would be on the constant watch for any further attempt. The unknown enemy must have found out about these precautions, for no stranger came again to the door. But last night a thing we had never counted upon happened. In the dead of the night the unknown broke into the house-into the very nursery itself-and but that Lady Chepstow, impelled she does not know by what, only that she was nervous and wakeful, and felt the need of some companionship, rose and carried the sleeping child into her own bed, he would a.s.suredly have been murdered. The nurse, awakened by a horrible suffocating sensation, opened her eyes to find a man bending over her with a chloroform-soaked cloth, which he was about to lay over her face. She shrieked and fainted, but not before she saw the man spring to the little bed on the other side of her own, hack furiously at it with a long, murderous knife, then dart to the window and vanish. In the darkness he had not, of course, been able to see that that little bed was empty, for its position kept it in deep shadow, and hearing the household stir at the sound of the nurse"s shriek, he struck out blindly and flew to save himself from detection. The nurse states that he was undoubtedly a foreigner-a dark-skinned Asiatic-and her description of him tallies with that his little lordship gave of the man who attempted to kill him that day in the Park. There, Mr. Cleek," she concluded, "that"s the whole story. Can"t you do something to help us-something to lift this constant state of dread and to remove this terrible danger from little Lord Chepstow"s life?"
"I"ll try, Miss Lorne; but it is a most extraordinary case. Where is the boy, now?"
"At home, closely guarded. We appealed to Mr. Narkom, and he generously appointed two detective officers to sit with his little lordship and keep constant watch over him whilst we are away."
"And in the meantime," added Mr. Narkom, "I"ve issued orders for a general rounding-up of all the Cingalese who can be traced or are known to be in town. Petrie and Hammond have that part of the job in hand, and if they hit upon any Asiatic who answers to the description of this murderous rascal-"
"I don"t believe they will," interposed Cleek; "or, if they do, I don"t for a moment believe he will turn out to be the guilty party. In other words, I have an idea that the fellow will prove to be a European."
"But, my dear fellow, both his little lordship and the nurse saw the man, and, as you have heard, they both agree that he was dark-skinned and quite Oriental in appearance."
"One of the easiest possible disguises, Mr. Narkom. A wig, a stick of grease-paint, a threepenny twist of crepe hair, and there you are! No, I do not believe that the man is a Cingalese at all; and, far from his having any connection with what you were pleased to term just now a change of front on the part of the Buddhists who have so long held the little chap as something sacred, I don"t believe that they know anything about him. I base that upon the fact that the child is still treated with homage whenever he goes out, according to what Miss Lorne says, and that, with the single exception of that one woman who tried to poison him, n.o.body but just one man-this particular one man-has ever made any attempt to harm the boy. Fanatics, like those Cingalese, cleave to an idea to the end, Mr. Narkom; they don"t cast it aside and go off at another tangent. You have heard what Lady Chepstow says the native women told her; the boy was sacred; their priests had commanded them to appease Buddha by doing homage to him until the tooth was found, and the tooth has not been found up to the present day! That means that nothing on earth could change their att.i.tude toward him, that not one of the Buddhist sect would harm a solitary hair of his head for a king"s ransom; so you may eliminate the Cingalese from the case entirely so far as the attempts upon the child"s life are concerned. Whoever is making the attempts is doing so without their knowledge and for a purely personal reason."
"Then, in that case, this Captain Hawksley-"
"I"ll have a look at that gentleman before I tumble into bed to-night, and you shall have my views upon that point to-morrow morning, Mr. Narkom. Frankly, things point rather suspiciously in the captain"s direction, since he is apparently the only person likely to be benefited by the boy"s death, and if a motive cannot be traced to some other person-" He stopped abruptly and held up his hand. Outside in the dim halls of the house a sudden noise had sprung into being, the noise of someone running upstairs in great haste, and, stepping quickly to the door, Cleek drew it sharply open. As he did so, Dollops came puffing up out of the lower gloom, a sheep"s trotter in one hand, and a letter in the other.
"Law, Gov"nor!" groaned he, from midway on the staircase, "I don"t believe as I"m ever goin" to be let get a square tuck-in this side of the buryin" ground! Jist finished wot was left of that there steak and kidney puddin", sir, and started on my seckint trotter, when I sees a pair o" legs nip parst the area railin"s to the front door, and then nip off again like greased lightnin", and when I ups and does a flyin" leap up the kitchen stairs, there was this here envellup in the letter-box, and them there blessed legs nowheres in sight. I say, sir," agitatedly, "look wot"s wrote on the envellup, will yer? And us always keepin" of it so dark."
Cleek plucked the letter from his extended hand, glanced at it, and puckered up his lips; then, with a gesture, he sent Dollops back below stairs, and, returning to the room, closed the door behind him.
"The enemy evidently knows all Lady Chepstow"s movements, Mr. Narkom," he said. "I expect she and Miss Lorne have been under surveillance all day and have been followed here. Look at that!" He flung the letter down on a table as he spoke, and Narkom, glancing at it, saw printed in rude, illiterate letters upon the envelope the one word "Cleek." The ident.i.ty of "Captain Burbage" was known to someone, and the secret of the house in Clarges Street was a secret no longer!
"Purposely disguised, you see. No one, not even a little child, would make such a botch of copying the alphabet as that," Cleek said, as he took the letter up and opened it. The sheet it contained was lettered in the same uncouth manner, and bore these words:
"Cleek, take a fool"s advice and don"t accept the Chepstow case. Be warned. If you interfere, somebody you care about will pay the price. You"ll find it more satisfactory to buy a wedding bouquet than a funeral wreath!"
"Oh!" shuddered the two ladies in one breath. "How horrible! How cowardly!" And then, feeling that her last hope had gone, Lady Chepstow broke into a fit of violent weeping and laid her head on Ailsa"s shoulder.
"Oh, my baby! My darling baby boy!" she sobbed. "And now they are threatening somebody that you, too, love. Of course, Mr. Cleek, I can"t expect you to risk the sacrifice of your own dear ones for the sake of me and mine, and so-and so-Oh, take me away, Miss Lorne! Let me go back to my baby and have him while I may."
"Good-night, Mr. Cleek!" said Ailsa, stretching out a shaking hand to him. "Thank you so much for-for what you would have done but for this. And you were our last hope, too!"
"Why give it up then, Miss Lorne?" he said, holding her hand and looking into her eyes. "Why not go on letting me be your last hope-your only hope?"
"Yes, but they-they spoke of a funeral wreath."
"And they also spoke of a wedding bouquet! I am going to take the case, Miss Lorne-take it, and solve it, as I"m a living man. Thank you!" as her br.i.m.m.i.n.g eyes uplifted in deep thankfulness and her shaking hand returned the pressure of his. "Now, just give me five minutes" time in the next room-it"s my laboratory, Lady Chepstow-and I"ll tell you whether I shall begin with Captain Hawksley or eliminate him from the case entirely. You might go in ahead, Mr. Narkom, and get the acid bath and the powder ready for me. We"ll see what the finger-prints of our gentle correspondent have to tell, and, if they are not in the records of Scotland Yard or down in my own private little book, we"ll get a sample of Captain Hawksley"s in the morning."
Then, excusing himself to the ladies, he pa.s.sed into the inner room in company with Narkom, and carried the letter with him. When he returned it was still in his hand, but there were greyish smudges all over it.
"There"s not a finger-print in the lot that is worth anything as a means of identification, Miss Lorne," he said. "But you and Lady Chepstow may accept my a.s.surance that Captain Hawksley is not the man. The writer of this letter belongs to the criminal cla.s.ses; he is on his guard against the danger of finger-prints, and he wore rubber gloves when he penned this message. When I find him, rest a.s.sured I shall find a man who has had dealings with the police before and whose finger-prints are on their records. I don"t know what his game is nor what he"s after yet, but I will inside of a week. I"ve an idea; but it"s so wild a thing I"m almost afraid to trust myself to believe it possible until I stumble over something that points the same way. Now, go home with Lady Chepstow, and begin the work of helping me."
"Helping you? Oh, Mr. Cleek, can we? Is there anything we can do to help?"
"Yes. When you leave the house, act as though you are in the utmost state of dejection-and keep that up indefinitely. Make it appear, for I am certain you will be followed and spied upon, as if I had declined the case. But don"t have any fear about the boy. The two constables will sleep in the room with him to-night and every night until the thing is cleared up and the danger past. To-morrow about dusk, however, you, personally, take him for a walk near the Park, and if, among the other Cingalese you may meet, you should see one dressed as an Englishman, and wearing a scarlet flower in his b.u.t.tonhole, take no notice of how often you see him nor of what he may do."
"It will be you, Mr. Cleek?"
"Yes. Now go, please; and don"t forget to act as if you and her ladyship were utterly broken-hearted. Also"-his voice dropped lower, his hand met her hand, and in the darkness of the hall a little silver-plated revolver was slipped into her palm-"also, take this. Keep it always with you, never be without it night or day, and if any living creature offers you violence, shoot him down as you would a mad dog. Good-night, and-remember!"
And long after she and Lady Chepstow had gone down and pa.s.sed out into the night he stood there, looking the situation straight in the face and thinking his own troubled thoughts.
"A wedding bouquet! A threat against her, and the mention of a wedding bouquet!" he said, as he went back into the room and sat down to figure the puzzle out. "Only one creature in the world knows of my feelings in that direction, and only one creature in the world would be capable of that threat-Margot! But what interest could she or any of her tribe have in the death of Lady Chepstow"s little son? Her game is always money. If she were after a ransom she would try to abduct the child, not to kill him, and if"-A sudden thought came and wrenched away his voice. He sat a moment twisting his fingers one through the other and frowning at the floor; then, of a sudden, he gave a cry and jumped to his feet. "Five lacs of rupees-a fortune! By George, I"ve got it!" he fairly shouted. "The wild guess was a correct one, I"ll stake my life. Let"s put it to the test."
CHAPTER XX
The summer twilight was deepening into the summer dusk when Ailsa, acting upon Cleek"s advice, set forth with his little lordship the following evening, and turned her steps in the direction of the Park; but although, on her way there, she observed more than once that a swarthy-skinned man in European dress who wore a scarlet flower in his coat, and was so perfect a type of the Asiatic that he would have pa.s.sed muster for one even among a gathering of Cingalese, kept appearing and disappearing at irregular intervals, it spoke well for the powers of imitation and self-effacement possessed by Dollops, that she never once thought of a.s.sociating that young man with the dawdling messenger boy who strolled leisurely along with a package under his arm and patronised every bun-shop, winkle-stall, and pork-pie purveyor on the line of march.
For upward of an hour this sort of thing went on without any interruption or any solitary thing out of the ordinary, Ailsa strolling along leisurely, with the boy"s hands in hers and his innocent prattle running on ceaselessly; then, of a sudden, whilst they were moving along close to the Park railings and in the shadow of the overhanging trees, the figure of an undersized man in semi-European costume, but wearing on his head the twisted turban of a Cingalese, issued from one of the gates, and well-nigh collided with them.
He drew back, murmuring an apology in pidgin-English, then, seeing the child, he salaamed profoundly and murmured in a voice of deep reverence, "Holy, most holy!" and prostrated himself, with his forehead touching the ground, until Ailsa and the child had pa.s.sed on. But barely had they taken five steps before Cleek appeared upon the scene, and did exactly the same thing as the Cingalese.
"All right. You may go home now. I"ve got my man," he whispered, as Ailsa and the boy pa.s.sed by. "Look for me at Chepstow House some time to-night." Then rose, as she walked on, and went after the man who first had prostrated himself before the child.
He had risen and gone on his way, but not before witnessing Cleek"s obeisance, and flashing upon him a sharp, searching look. Cleek quickened his steps and shortened the distance between them. Now or never was the time to put to the test that wild thought which last night had hammered on his brain, for it was certain that this man was in very truth a Cingalese, and, as such, must know! He stretched forth his hand and touched the man, who drew back sharply, half indignantly, but changed his att.i.tude entirely when Cleek, who knew Hindustani more than well, spoke to him in the native tongue.
"Unto thee, oh, brother!" Cleek said. "Thou, too, art of us, for thou, too, dost acknowledge the sacred shrine. These eyes have beheld thee."
All his hopes rested on the slim pillar of that one word, "shrine," and his heart almost ceased to beat as he watched to see how it was received. It broke, however, into a very tumult of disturbance in the next instant, for the man positively beamed as he gave reply.
"Sacred be the shrine!" he answered in Hindustani. "Clearly thou art of us-not of those others."
"Others? What others? I am but newly come to this country."
"Walk with me, then, to my abode, sup with me, eat of my salt, and I will tell thee then, oh, brother. But I forget: thou hast no knowledge of me. Listen, then. I am Arjeeb Noosrut, father of the High Priest Seydama, and it is among the people of my house that the gun is yet preserved. Nor has the blood of Seydama been ever washed from the wood of it. Come."
All in a moment a light seemed to break over Cleek"s brain. The missing link had been supplied-the one thing that could make possible the wild thought which had come to him last night had been given into his hands, and here at last was the key to the amazing mystery! He turned without a word and went with Arjeeb Noosrut.
"What an a.s.s!" he said to himself in the soundless words of thought "What an a.s.s never to have suspected it when it is all so clear!"
Meantime Ailsa and the boy, dismissed from any further need of service, walked on through the deepening dusk and turned their faces homeward. But they had not gone twenty yards from the spot where Cleek had seen them last when his little lordship set up a joyful cry and pointed excitedly to a claret-coloured limousine which at that moment swung in from the middle of the roadway and slowed down as it neared the kerb.