Ten minutes later he rose, unlocked the door and went out into the hall. He took his hat from the stand and brushed it carefully.
Picking up his gloves and umbrella, he gave a final look round, then composing his features for the outside world, he opened the door and pa.s.sed out into Apthorpe Road.
For such of his neighbours as he encountered he had a cheery word, a lifting of his hat, or a wave of the hand. Housewives would sigh enviously as they saw Mr. Naylor pa.s.s genially on his way. He was always the same, they told themselves, remembering with a little pang the vagaries of their own husbands.
Before his return to "The Cedars" for lunch, Mr. Naylor with unaccustomed emphasis foretold the doom of the Government unless it immediately rushed a measure through Parliament for the internment of all aliens. He was nothing if not thorough.
CHAPTER VII
MR. NAYLOR RECEIVES A VISITOR
I
"Height five feet six and a half inches."
"Five feet eight, sir."
"Chest thirty-eight."
"Thirty-eight and a half, sir."
"Weight eleven stone nine."
"Twelve stone, sir."
"Near enough."
"Yes, sir," replied Thompson.
"You"ve got everything?"
"Down to his under-wear, sir," was the response.
"The ring?"
"Yes, sir."
Malcolm Sage looked up from the buff-coloured paper before him, then picking up a photograph from the table, proceeded to study it with great intentness.
"Yes," he said, "Finlay can do it."
At that moment Colonel Walton strode into the room, smoking the inevitable cigar. Thompson straightened himself to attention, Malcolm Sage nodded, then once more became absorbed in the photograph.
"I hear Finlay"s here," said Colonel Walton.
Sage looked up and nodded. "We"ve just been checking his measurements," he said.
"With that Bergen fellow"s?"
Sage nodded.
"It"s a considerable risk," said Colonel Walton.
"Finlay likes "em," retorted Sage without looking up. "I"d give a good deal to solve that little mystery."
The mystery to which Malcolm Sage referred was the arrest of a man on a Bergen-Hull boat some ten days previously. Although his pa.s.sport and papers were in order, his story when he had been interrogated was not altogether satisfactory. It had been decided to deport him; but Malcolm Sage, who had subjected him to a lengthy cross-examination, had decided that it would be better to detain him for the time being, and the suspect was consequently lodged in the Tower. Both Malcolm Sage and Colonel Walton were convinced that he had been sent over on a special mission.
"Where"s Finlay?" asked Colonel Walton.
"He"s painting the lily," said Sage with a glint in his eye.
"In other words?" enquired Colonel Walton.
"Seeing how near he can get to this Bergen fellow. I took him down to the Tower to see the men together."
Colonel Walton nodded.
Malcolm Sage regarded disguise as exclusively the a.s.set of the detective of fiction. A disguise, he maintained, could always be identified, although not necessarily penetrated. Few men could disguise their walk or bearing, no matter how clever they might be with the aid of false beards and wigs.
"You remember the lost code-book?" Sage queried.
"I do," said Colonel Walton.
"A remarkable piece of work of Finlay"s," continued Sage. "It wasn"t a disguise, it was an alteration; trim of moustache, cut and colour of hair, darkened skin and such trifles."
"And the black eye, sir," interpolated Thompson.
"That was certainly a happy stroke," cried Colonel Walton.
"It takes a good deal of moral courage to black your own eye," said Sage quietly. "I tried it once myself."
"How do you plan to proceed?" It was Colonel Walton who spoke.
"If Naylor is really the man we"re after and this Bergen fellow is on a secret mission, then it"s pretty sure they were intended to get into touch." Sage paused for a moment, then added: "Anyhow, it"s worth trying. It"s a risk, of course. Naylor may have met him before."
"The risk will be mainly Finlay"s," said Colonel Walton drily, as he smoked meditatively.
"It would be yours or mine, chief, only nature cast us in a different mould."
For some moments Colonel Walton did not reply.
"I don"t like sending a man on a----" He paused.
"There"s no question of sending Finlay; it"s more a matter of holding him back. By the way," he continued casually, "Thompson burgled John Dene"s place last night, got a set of plans, the chit signed by Sir Lyster and the Skipper, and one or two other papers that should be useful."