Mr. Lawrence"s voice ceased. The rejoinder came from a voice which struck Mr. Paxton as being a very curious one indeed. The speaker spoke not only with a strong nasal tw.a.n.g, but also, occasionally, with an odd idiom. The unseen listener told himself that the speaker was probably the newest thing in races--"a German-American."
"With the a.s.sistance of a friend--eh?"
Mr. Lawrence"s voice again; in it more than a suggestion of scorn.
"The a.s.sistance of a friend! When it comes to the scratch, it is on himself that a man must rely. What a friend princ.i.p.ally does is to take the lion"s share of the spoil."
"Well--why not? A man will not be able to be much of a friend to another, if, first of all, he is not a friend to himself--eh?"
Mr. Lawrence appeared to make no answer--possibly he did not relish the other"s reasoning. Presently the same voice came again, as if the speaker intended to be apologetic--
"Understand me, my good friend, I do not say that what you did was not clever. No, it was d.a.m.n clever!--that I do say. And I always have said that there was no one in the profession who can come near you. In your line of business, or out of it, how many are there who can touch for a quarter of a million, I want to know? Now, tell me, how did you do it--is it a secret, eh?"
If Mr. Lawrence had been piqued, the other"s words seemed to have appeased him.
"Not from you--the thing was as plain as walking! The bigger the thing you have to do the more simply you do it the better it will be done."
"It does not seem as though it were simple when you read it in the papers--eh? What do you think?"
"The papers be d.a.m.ned! Directly you gave me the office that she was going to take them with her to Windsor, I saw how I was going to get them, and who I was going to get them from."
"Who--eh?"
"Eversleigh. Stow it--the train is stopping!"
The train was stopping. It had reached a station. The voices ceased.
Mr. Paxton withdrew from his listening place with his brain in a greater whirl than ever. What had the two men been talking about? What did they mean by touching for a quarter of a million, and the reference to Windsor? The name which Mr. Lawrence had just mentioned, Eversleigh--where, quite recently, had he made its acquaintance? Mr.
Paxton"s glance fell on the evening paper which he had thrown on the seat. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it up. Something like a key to the riddle came to him in a flash!
He opened the paper with feverish hands, turning to the account of the robbery of the d.u.c.h.ess of Datchet"s diamonds. It was as he thought; his memory had not played him false--the person who had been in charge of the gems had been a man named Stephen Eversleigh.
Mr. Paxton"s hands fell nervelessly on to his knees. He stared into vacancy. What did it mean?
The train was off again. Having heard so much, Mr. Paxton felt that he must hear more. He returned to the place of listening. For some moments, while the train was drawing clear of the station, the voices continued silent--probably before exchanging further confidences they were desirous of being certain that their privacy would remain uninterrupted. When they were heard again it seemed that the conversation was being carried on exactly at the point at which Mr.
Paxton had heard it cease.
The German-American was speaking.
"Eversleigh?--that is His Grace"s confidential servant--eh?"
"That"s the man. I studied Mr. Eversleigh by proxy, and I found out just two things about him."
"And they were--what were they?"
"One was that he was short-sighted, and the other was that he had a pair of spectacles which the duke had given him for a birthday present, and which he thought no end of."
"That wasn"t much to find out--eh?"
"You think so? Then that"s where you"re wrong. It"s perhaps just as well for you that you don"t have to play first lead."
"The treasury is more in my line--eh? However, what was the use which you made of that little find of yours?"
"If it hadn"t been for that little find of mine, the possibility is that the sparklers wouldn"t be where they are just now. A friend of mine had a detective camera. Those spectacles were kept in something very gorgeous in cases. My friend snapped that spectacle case with his camera. I had an almost exact duplicate made of the case from the print he got--purposely not quite exact, you know, but devilish near.
"I found myself at Windsor Station just as Her Grace was about to start for town. There were a good many people in the booking-office through which you have to pa.s.s to reach the platform. As I expected, the d.u.c.h.ess came in front, with the maid, old Eversleigh bringing up the rear. Just as Eversleigh came into the booking-office some one touched him on the shoulder, and held out that duplicate spectacle case, saying, "I beg your pardon, sir! Have you lost your gla.s.ses?" Of old Eversleigh"s fidelity I say nothing. I don"t call mere straightness anything;--but he certainly wasn"t up to the kind of job he had in hand--not when he was properly handled. He has been heard to say that he would sooner lose an arm than those precious spectacles--because the duke gave them to him, you know. Perhaps he would; anyhow, he lost something worth a trifle more than his arm.
When he felt himself touched on the shoulder, and saw what looked like that almighty goggle-box in the stranger"s hand, he got all of a flurry, jabbed his fist into the inside pocket of his coat, and to enable him to do so popped the despatch-box down on the seat beside him--as I expected that he would do. I happened to be sitting on that seat with a rug, very nicely screened too by old Eversleigh himself, and by the stranger with the goggle-box. I nipped my rug over his box, leaving another one--own brother to the d.u.c.h.ess"s--exposed. Old Eversleigh found that the stranger"s goggle-box was not his--that his own was safe in his pocket!--picked up my despatch-box, and marched off with it, while I travelled with his by the South-Western line to town; and I can only hope that he was as pleased with the exchange as I was."
The German-American"s voice was heard.
"As you say, in the simplicity of your method, my good friend, was its beauty. And indeed, after all, simplicity is the very essence, the very soul, of all true art--eh?"
CHAPTER III
THE DIAMONDS
Mr. Paxton heard no more--he made no serious attempt to hear. As the German-American ceased to speak the train slowed into Preston Park. At the station Mr. Paxton saw that some one else got into the next compartment, forming a third, with its previous occupants, the rest of the way to Brighton.
Mr. Paxton had heard enough. The whirlwind in his brain, instead of becoming less, had grown more. His mental confusion had become worse confounded. He seemed unable to collect his ideas. He had attained to nothing like an adequate grasp of the situation by the time the train had arrived at its journey"s end. He alighted, his Gladstone in his hand, feeling in a sort of intellectual fog. He saw Mr. Lawrence--also carrying a Gladstone--get out of the next compartment. A tall, thin man, with high cheekbones, a heavy moustache, and a p.r.o.nounced stoop, got out after him--evidently the German-American. Mr. Paxton allowed the pair to walk down the platform in front, keeping himself a respectful distance in the rear. They turned into the refreshment-room. He went in after them, taking up his position close beside them, with, however, no sort of definite intention in his head.
Mr. Lawrence recognised him at once, showing that he also had a memory for faces. He nodded.
"Mr. Paxton, I believe."
Mr. Paxton admitted that that was his name, conscious, on a sudden, of a wild impulse to knock the fellow down for daring to accost him.
"What is your drink, Mr. Paxton?"
That was too much; Mr. Paxton was certainly not going to drink with the man. He responded curtly--
"I have ordered."
"That doesn"t matter, does it? Drink up, and have another with me."
The fellow was actually pressing him to accept of his pestilent charity--that was how Mr. Paxton put it to himself. He said nothing--not because he had nothing to say, but because never before in his life had he felt so stupid, with so little control over either his senses or his tongue. He shook his head, walked out of the refreshment-room, got into a cab, and drove off to Makell"s hotel.
Directly the cab had started and was out of the station yard he told himself that he had been a fool--doubly, trebly, a fool--a fool all round, from every possible point of view. He ought never to have let the scoundrels out of his sight; he ought to have spoken to the police; he ought to have done something; under the circ.u.mstances no one but an idiot would have done absolutely nothing at all. Never mind--for the moment it was too late. He would do something to repair his error later. He would tell Miss Strong the tale; she would rejoice to find a friend of her own figuring as the hero of such a narrative; it would be a warning to her against the making of chance acquaintance! He would ask her advice; it was a case in which two heads might be better than one.
Reaching the hotel, he went straight to his bedroom, still in a sort of mental haze. He had a wash--without, however, managing to wash much of the haze out of his head. He turned to unlock his Gladstone, intending to take out of it his brush and comb. There was something the matter with the key, or else with the lock--it would not open. It was a brand-new Gladstone, bought with a particular intent; Mr. Paxton was very far from being desirous that his proposed voyage to foreign parts should prematurely be generally known. Plainly, the lock was not in the best of order. Half abstractedly he fumbled with it for some seconds, before it could be induced to open, then it was opened rather by an exertion of force, than in response to the action of the key.
Having opened it, Mr. Paxton found himself a little puzzled by the arrangement of its contents. He could not at first remember just where he had put his brush and comb. He felt on the one side, where he had a sort of dim idea that it ought to be, and then on the other. He failed to light on it on either side. He paused for a moment to consider.
Then, by degrees, distinctly remembered having placed it in a particular corner. He felt for it. It was not there. He wondered where it had contrived to conceal itself. He was certain that he had placed it in the bag. It must be in it now. He began to empty the bag of all its contents.
The first thing he took out was a shirt. He threw it from him on to the bed. As it pa.s.sed through the air something fell from it on to the floor--something which came rolling against his foot. He picked it up.
It was a ring.