He was a big, burly, strong-featured man, just the type of heavy-limbed German who might be expected to bear a murderous malice against any who did him injury.
"I feel more than ever convinced that Hartmann is at the bottom of the curious affair," Ray declared, as we walked together across Westminster Bridge and I crossed with him to the St. Stephen"s Club, at the corner of the Embankment. "As far as I can discover, the man was always in possession of ample funds. Yet to his landlady he was careful never to reveal that he had money. There was, no doubt, some hidden reason for this, as well as for the letter he wrote to the woman after his departure."
"The mystery surrounding the affair grows more fascinating as we proceed," I declared.
"And if the deduction I have made this morning proves to be the correct one, Jack, the mystery will still increase. There"s some very crooked business in progress, depend upon it."
That afternoon I had to make an application in the Chancery Court, therefore it was not until after dinner that I again sat in one of the green velvet chairs in his art-green sitting-room.
Contrary to his usual habit, he had not dressed, but still wore the brown tweed suit which he had had on in the morning.
"You"ve brought what I asked you over the "phone?" he inquired, as soon as I entered.
"Yes," I replied, opening the well-worn leather brief bag which I carried, and displaying a dark lantern, a coil of strong silk rope, and a small but serviceable jemmy. All that burglarious outfit belonged to my friend.
"Right," he exclaimed, stroking his smooth-shaven chin. "Have a pipe.
We"ll leave here about ten. We are going to spend the night in Pont Street." And he pointed to a silver flask and a paper of sandwiches upon the sideboard. "Vera has seen the landlady in Stockwell, but can make nothing of her. She"s as deaf as a post. She returned home to Portsmouth to-night."
We smoked together until ten, he consuming cigarette after cigarette in that quick, nervous manner which showed the volcano of excitement raging within him.
"I can"t think why the mention of Weldon and Corby should have so excited our friend this morning. To me it seemed as though he retained rather bitter memories of the place."
"And there was a woman in the case, without a doubt."
"I think, Jack, I shall go down there and have a look round as soon as I have a chance. From the ordnance map this place seems quite a small one.
The station is at Corby, while Little Weldon and Great Weldon are about a mile distant."
"There"s just a chance, of course, that you might pick up something there," I remarked.
"And yet what I surmise leads me in entirely an opposite direction.
There are no defences or secrets in Northamptonshire, remember."
Once more he took from his writing-table the piece of paper whereon was a copy of the strange array of figures found in the railway carriage at Waterloo. But at last he shook his head and laid it aside with a sigh.
The mystery remained as complete as ever.
"There"s a good deal that"s suspicious about Hartmann. I suppose that"s why we are going to Pont Street?" I remarked.
"Yes. As I"ve explained, he"s believed to be a money-lender with an office in Cork Street, and is registered as such, in order that no one should be surprised at the constant callers at his house. He receives visits from all sorts and conditions of men--and women, but observation which I have placed upon the house has convinced me that the majority of these people are German agents of whom he is the guiding spirit and paymaster, and among whom he is all-powerful. Payment is made through him for all confidential services rendered to the Fatherland."
"And the police do not suspect it?"
"My dear fellow, have not the police received orders from our Government to close their eyes to the doings of these gentry? England is the paradise of the spy, and will remain so until we can bring pressure to bear to compel the introduction of fresh legislation against them."
Soon after half-past ten a taxi-cab deposited us in Sloane Street, and together we turned into Pont Street, walking leisurely past a medium-sized red-fronted house approached by a flight of steps leading to a deep portico. There was a light in the first-floor window of what was evidently the drawing-room but the rest of the house of the arch-spy of Germany was in darkness.
As we pa.s.sed the house, my friend examined its highly respectable exterior. Then we pa.s.sed on to the end of the thoroughfare, in order to attract no attention. A constable pa.s.sed us, and in order to avoid being noticed we walked together for some distance. Presently, however, Ray turned back, and gaining the house adjoining Hartmann"s, ran swiftly up the steps into the shadow of the portico, I following at his heels.
In a few seconds he had opened the door with a latch-key he carried in his hand, and next moment we were within the wide, echoing hall, for the house was empty, and to let.
"I called upon the agent, and had a look over this place a few days ago," he explained. "On that occasion, I had the key in my hand for a moment, and obtained an impression of it," and switching on his electric torch he showed the square hall with the flight of stairs ascending from it.
Gaining the big drawing-room, Ray crossed to the long French window on the left and gazed cautiously out upon the street below.
As he did so I noticed the figure of a man in a dark overcoat and felt hat cross from the opposite pavement and ascend the stairs of the house next door. Ray glanced at his watch, which he could see by the light of the street lamp outside. Noticing the time, he became rea.s.sured.
"You see, Jack, that from here runs a balcony leading to that of Hartmann"s house. We must creep along it and try and get a peep of our friend at home. I"ve watched that drawing-room window for a long time, and I believe that he makes it his business room."
Carefully he unfastened the French window, and bending low so as to escape the observation of any person pa.s.sing by, we both crept along the narrow balcony until, by swinging from one bal.u.s.trade to the other, we found ourselves standing over Hartmann"s portico.
Even from where we stood we could hear voices. Forward we crept again until we were outside the windows of the drawing-room, crouching so that no inquisitive policeman could detect us.
The blind of the window at which I listened did not fit well, therefore, through the small crack, I was enabled to peer within. The room was a large, well-furnished one with a fire burning brightly; near it stood a large roll-top writing-table at which sat a fat, flabby, sardonic-faced man of about fifty-five. He had grey eyes full of craft and cunning, a prominent nose, and a short-cropped grey beard. Ray whispered that it was the great Hartmann.
Near the fire, seated nervously on the extreme edge of a chair, was a respectably dressed man, a German evidently, with his hat in his hand.
The man presented the appearance of a hard-working mechanic, and was obviously ill at ease.
We watched them in conversation, but could not distinguish one single word of what was said. All we could gather was that the fat man was overbearing in his manner, and that the visitor was most humble and subservient against his will.
For a full half-hour we watched, but unable to gather anything further, we were compelled to return to the house next door and regain the street, where for still twenty minutes longer we waited for the visitor"s exit. When at last he came forth we followed him to the corner of Knightsbridge, opposite the Hyde Park Hotel, where he boarded a motor-bus, from which he eventually descended at the corner of Gray"s Inn Road walking thence to a house in Harpur Street, Bloomsbury, where we later on discovered he lodged, under the name of Leon Karff.
The nature of the mission entrusted to this man, if one had actually been entrusted to him, was a mystery, yet it was a curious fact that "Harpur Street" appeared upon that sc.r.a.p of paper which to us was such an enigma.
Next morning at six o"clock, I was already idling, at the corner of Harpur Street and Theobalds Road, but not until three hours later did the foreigner emerge and walk toward Holborn. Thence he took a motor-bus back to Sloane Street, and calling upon Hartmann, spent another half an hour with him.
And afterwards he went straight home. It was then about noon, and having an engagement in Court, I was compelled to relinquish my vigil. But at a little after five Ray entered our chambers, exclaiming:
"As I expected! That man Karff has been to see Steinheim in the hospital. I was there awaiting him, believing that he might visit him.
Apparently the injured man has given him certain instructions."
"About what?"
Ray shrugged his shoulders in blank ignorance. Then he said, "We have advanced one step toward the solution of the problem, my dear Jack. But we have not gone very far."
He took the copy of the cryptogram from my writing-table and again examined it. The figures "6.11" puzzled him. Many times he referred to them.
Four days pa.s.sed, during which we kept strict observation upon Karff and followed him wherever he went. On the fifth day, Ray having spent all the morning watching him, to relieve him I walked along the Theobalds Road a few minutes before one and paused, as usual, before the oil shop at the corner. There was no sign of my friend, and though I waited through the whole of that cold afternoon and evening, continuing my wearisome vigil till midnight, yet he did not come.
Much surprised, I returned to New Stone Buildings, where I found a telegram from Ray, sent from Waterloo Station at three o"clock, telling me that all was right, and urging me to await further information.
This I did. For a whole week I possessed myself in patience, not knowing where Ray was or what had befallen him. That he was on the trail of a solution of the mystery was evident, but he sent me no word of his whereabouts.
It was apparent, however, that he was no longer in London.
Eleven days after his disappearance I one afternoon received another telegram, which had been handed in at Chichester, asking me to go at once to the Queen"s Hotel at Southsea, where he would meet me at ten o"clock that night.
At the hour appointed I awaited him in my bedroom overlooking Southsea Common and the harbour, and at last he joined me. I saw by the serious expression upon his face that something unusual had happened.
"The fellow Karff has realised that I"m following him, Jack. Therefore you must take the matter up. He"s in the service of a greengrocer in Queen Street, close to the Hard. I haven"t yet discovered his game."