"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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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 a.s.sociates?"
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 cla.s.s."
"What cla.s.s?" 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 a.s.sistant, 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 ident.i.ty, 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 a.s.sociated 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 princ.i.p.ally 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