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 cla.s.s 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 a.s.sist 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 n.o.body in save the one manservant he kept by the day, and he pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 const.i.tuted the residential portion of the building was held by him in one name or another. Some he had obtained by the payment of heavy premiums, some he had secured when the lease of the former tenant had lapsed, some he had gathered in by sub-hiring. He had tried to buy the building, since it served his purpose well, but came against a deed of trust and the Court of Chancery, and had wisely refrained from going any further into a matter which must bring him vis-a-vis with a Master in Chancery, with all the publicity which such a transaction entailed.
Nor had he been successful in acquiring any of the premises on the first floor. They were held by three very old established businesses--an estate agent, a firm of land surveyors and the offices of a valuer. He missed his opportunity, at any rate, of securing the business of Lee and Hol, the surveyors, and did not know it was in the market until after it had been transferred to a new owner. But they were quiet, sober tenants, who closed their offices between five and six every night and did not open them until between nine or ten on the following morning, and their very respectability gave him a certain privacy.
The new proprietor of Lee and Hol was a short-sighted, elderly man of no great conversational power, and apparently of no fixed purpose in life except to say "no" to the very handsome offers which the colonel"s agents made when they discovered there was a chance of re-purchasing the business. Boundary had personally inspected all the offices. He had found an excuse to visit them several times, duly noted the arrangement of the furniture, the sizes of the staffs and the general character of the business which was being carried on. This was a necessary precaution because these offices were immediately under his own flat. But just now they had a special value, because it was a practice during the daytime for the three firms to employ a commissionaire, who occupied a little gla.s.s-part.i.tioned 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 n.o.body go upstairs?"
"Not since Mr. Silva came down, sir. He came down after you, if you remember."
"n.o.body"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.
"n.o.body 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.