In Paris, Rome, Madrid, or Brussels, he was well known as an idler who stayed at the best hotels and patronized the most expensive restaurants, while his villa on the Riviera he had purchased from a Roumanian prince who had ruined himself by gambling. His gloved hand--gloved because of a natural deformity--was the hand which controlled most of the greater robberies, for his war upon society was constantly far-reaching.
"Is Franklyn coming straight back?" asked Howell.
"That is the plan. He should leave Vienna to-morrow night," said The Sparrow, again consulting the papers. "And he comes home with all speed.
But first he travels to Brussels, and afterwards to The Hague, where he will hand over Anna Torna"s jewels to old Van Ort, and they"ll be cut out of all recognition by the following day. Franklyn will then cross from the Hook to Harwich. He will wire me his departure from Vienna.
He"s bought a car for the job, and will have to abandon it somewhere outside of Vienna, for, as in most of our games, time is the essence of the contract," and the old fellow laughed oddly.
"I thought Franklyn worked with Molly," said Mr. Howell.
"So he does. I want him back, for I"ve a delicate mission for him,"
replied the sphinx-like man known as The Sparrow.
Mr. Howell, at the invitation of the arch-criminal, helped himself to a drink. Then The Sparrow said:
"You are due to leave London the day after to-morrow on that little business in Madrid. You must remain in town. I may want you."
"Very well. But Tresham is already there. I had a letter from him from the Palace Hotel yesterday."
"I will recall him by wire to-morrow. Our plans are complete. The Marquis"s picture will still hang in his house until we are ready for it. It is the best specimen of Antonio del Rincon, and will fetch a big price in New York--when we have time to go and get it," he laughed.
"Is Franklyn to help the Maxwell woman again?" asked Mr. Howell, who was known as an expert valuer of antiques and articles of worth, and who had an office in St. James"s. He only dealt in collectors" pieces, and in the trade bore an unblemished reputation, on account of his expert knowledge and his sound financial condition. He bought old masters and pieces of antique silver now and then, but none suspected that the genuine purchases at big prices were only made in order to blind his friends as to the actual nature of his business.
Indeed, to his office came many an art gem stolen from its owner on the Continent and smuggled over by devious ways known only to The Sparrow and his a.s.sociates. And just as ingeniously the stolen property was sent across to America, so well camouflaged that the United States Customs officers were deceived. With pictures it was their usual method to coat the genuine picture with a certain varnish, over which one of the organization, an old artist living in Chelsea, would paint a modern and quite pa.s.sable picture and add a new canvas back.
Then, on its arrival in America, the new picture was easily cleaned off, the back removed, and lo! it was an old master once more ready for purchase at a high price by American collectors.
Truly, the gloved hand of The Sparrow was a master hand. He had brought well-financed and well-organized theft to a fine art. His "indicators,"
both male and female, were everywhere, and cosmopolitan as he was himself, and a wealthy man, he was able to direct--and finance--all sorts of coups, from a barefaced jewel theft to the forgery of American banknotes.
And yet, so strange and mysterious a personality was he that not twenty persons in the whole criminal world had ever met him in the flesh. The tall, good-looking man whom Dorise knew as the White Cavalier was one of four other men who posed in his stead when occasion arose.
Scotland Yard, the Surete in Paris, the Pubblica Sicurezza in Rome, and the Detective Department of the New York police knew, quite naturally, of the existence of the elusive Sparrow, but none of them had been able to trace him.
Why? Because he was only the brains of the great, widespread criminal organization. He remained in smug respectability, while others beneath his hand carried out his orders--they were the servants, well-paid too, and he was the master.
No more widespread nor more wonderful criminal combine had ever been organized than that headed by The Sparrow, the little old man whom Londoners believed to be c.o.c.kney, yet Italians believed to be pure-bred Tuscan, while in Paris he was a true Parisian who could speak the argot of the Montmartre without a trace of English accent.
As a politician, as a City man, as a professional man, The Sparrow, whose real name was as obscure as his personality, would have made his mark. If a lawyer, he would have secured the honour of a knighthood--or of a baronetcy, and more than probable he would have entered Parliament.
The Sparrow was a philosopher, and a thorough-going Englishman to boot. Though none knew it, he was able by his unique knowledge of the underworld of Europe to give information--as he did anonymously to the War Office--of certain trusted persons who were, at the moment of the outbreak of war, betraying Britain"s secrets.
The Department of Military Operations was, by means of the anonymous information, able to quash a gigantic German plot against us; but they had been unable to discover either the true source of their information or the ident.i.ty of their informant.
"I"d better be off. It"s late!" said Mr. Howell, after they had been in close conversation for nearly half an hour.
"Yes; I suppose you must go," The Sparrow remarked, rising. "I must get Franklyn back. He must get to the bottom of this curious affair. I fell that I am being bamboozled by Benton and Molly Maxwell. The boy is innocent--he is their victim," he added; "but if I can save him, by gad! I will! Yet it will be difficult. There is much trouble ahead, I antic.i.p.ate, and it is up to us, Howell, to combat it!"
"Perhaps Franklyn can a.s.sist us?"
"Perhaps. I shall not, however, know before he gets back here from his adventures in Hungary. But I tell you, Howell, I am greatly concerned about the lad. He has fallen into the hands of a bad crowd--a very bad crowd indeed."
TWENTIETH CHAPTER
THE MAN WHO KNEW
Late on Thursday night Dorise and her mother were driving home from Lady Strathbayne"s, in Grosvenor Square, where they had been dining. It was a bright starlight night, and the myriad lamps of the London traffic flashed past the windows as Dorise sat back in silence.
She was tired. The dinner had been followed by a small dance, and she had greatly enjoyed it. For once, George Sherrard, her mother"s friend, had not accompanied them. As a matter of fact, Lady Strathbayne disliked the man, hence he had not been invited.
Suddenly Lady Rans...o...b..exclaimed:
"I heard about Hugh Henfrey this evening."
"From whom?" asked her daughter, instantly aroused.
"From that man who took me in to dinner. I think his name was Bowden."
"Oh! That stout, red-faced man. I don"t know him."
"Neither do I. He was, however, very pleasant, and seems to have travelled a lot," replied her mother. "He told me that your precious friend, Henfrey, is back, and is staying down in Surrey as guest of some woman named Bond."
Dorise sat staggered. Then her lover"s secret was out! If his whereabouts were known in Society, then the police would quickly get upon his track! She felt she must warn him instantly of his peril.
"How did he know, I wonder?" she asked anxiously.
"Oh! I suppose he"s heard. He seemed to know all about the fellow. It appears that at last he"s become engaged."
"Engaged? Hugh engaged?"
"Yes, to a girl named Louise Lambert. She"s the adopted daughter of a man named Benton, who was, by the way, a great friend of old Mr.
Henfrey."
Hugh engaged to Louise Lambert! Dorise sat bewildered.
"I--I don"t believe it!" she blurted forth at last.
"Ah, my dear. You mean you don"t want to believe it--because you are in love with him!" said her mother as the car rushed homeward. "Now put all this silly girlish nonsense aside. The fellow is under a cloud, and no good. I tell you frankly I will never have him as my son-in-law. How he has escaped the police is a marvel; but if the man Bowden knows where he is, Scotland Yard will, no doubt, soon hear."
The girl remained silent. Could it be possible that, after all, Hugh had asked Louise Lambert to be his wife? She had known of her, and had met her with Hugh, but he had always a.s.sured her that they were merely friends. Yet it appeared that he was now living in concealment under the same roof as she!
Lady Rans...o...b.. clever woman of the world as she was, watched her daughter"s face in the fleeting lights as they sped homeward, and saw what a crushing blow the announcement had dealt her.
"I don"t believe it," the girl cried.
She had received word in secret--presumably from the White Cavalier--to meet Hugh at the Bush Hotel at Farnham on the following afternoon, but this secret news held her in doubt and despair.