"Oh, was _that_ it? Gerrard rang me up, and I thought there was something funny going on. Are you from Scotland Yard, sir?"
Winter proffered a card, and the boy"s eyes opened wide.
"Crikey!" he said. "I"ve read about you, sir. Well, I"ve been doing a bit of detective work of my own. At lunch time I strolled past the set of flats where I thought the lady lived, and had the luck to see her getting out of a cab at the door. I followed her upstairs, pretending I had business somewhere, and saw her go into No. Eleven. Her name is Miss Eileen Garth--at least, that"s the name opposite No. Eleven in the list in the hall."
"When you"re a bit older you"ll make a detective," said Winter.
"You"ve learned the first trick of the job, and that is to keep your eyes open. Now, to encourage you, I"ll tell you the second. Keep your mouth shut. If this lady is Miss Garth she is not the person we want, but it would annoy her if she heard the police were inquiring about her; so here is half a crown for your trouble."
"Can I do anything else for you, sir?" came the eager demand.
"Nothing. I"m on the wrong scent, evidently, but you have saved me from wasting time. This Miss Eileen Garth is English, of course?"
"Yes, sir; very good-looking, but rather snappy."
Winter sighed.
"That just shows how easy it is to blunder," he said. "I"m looking for a Polish Jewess, whose chief feature is her nose, and who wears big gold earrings."
"Oh, Miss Garth is quite different," said the disappointed youth.
"She"s tall and slim--a regular dasher, big black hat, swell togs, black and white, and smart boots with white spats. She wore pearls in her ears, too, because I noticed "em."
Winter sighed again.
"Another half day lost," he murmured, and went out.
Knowing well that the boy would note the direction he took, he turned away from the block of flats and made for Soho, where he smoked a thin, raffish Italian cigar with an Anarchist of his acquaintance who kept a restaurant famous for its _risotto_. Then, by other streets, he approached Gloucester Mansions, and soon was pressing the electric bell of No. Eleven.
"Miss Garth in?" he said to an elderly, hatchet-faced woman who opened the door.
"Why do you want Miss Garth?" was the non-committal reply, given in the tone of one who meant the stranger to understand that he was not addressing a servant.
"I shall explain my errand to the lady herself," said Winter civilly.
"Kindly tell her that Superintendent Winter, of the Criminal Investigation Department, Scotland Yard, wishes to see her."
To him it was no new thing that his name and description should bring dismay, even terror, to the cheeks of one to whom he made himself known professionally, but unless he was addressing some desperate criminal, he did not expect to be a.s.saulted. For once, therefore, he was thoroughly surprised when a bony hand shot out and pushed him backward; the door was slammed in his face; the latch clicked, and he was left staring at a small bra.s.s plate bearing the legend: "Ring. Do not knock."
Naturally, this bold maneuver could not have succeeded had he a right of entry. A woman"s physical strength was unequal to the task of disturbing his burly frame, and a foot thrust between door and jamb would have done the rest. As matters stood, however, he was obliged to abandon any present hope of an interview with the mysterious Miss Eileen Garth.
He remained stock still for some seconds, listening to the retreating footsteps of the strong-minded person who had beaten him. It was his habit to visualize for future reference the features and demeanor of people in whom he was interested, and of whom circ.u.mstances permitted only the merest glimpse. This woman"s face had revealed annoyance rather than fear. "Scotland Yard" was not an ogre but a nuisance. She held, or, at any rate, she had exercised, a definite power of rejecting visitors whom she considered undesirable. Therefore, she was a relative, probably Eileen Garth"s mother or aunt.
Eileen Garth was "tall and slim," "good-looking, but rather snappy."
Well, twenty years ago, the description would have applied to the woman he had just seen. Her voice, heard under admittedly adverse conditions, was correct in accent and fairly cultured. Before the world had hardened it its tones might have been soft and dulcet. But above all, there was the presumable discovery that Eileen Garth was as decidedly opposed as Robert Fenley to full and free discussion of that morning"s crime.
"Furneaux will jeer at me when he hears of this little episode,"
thought Winter, smiling as he turned to descend the stairs. Furneaux did jeer, but it was at his colleague"s phenomenal luck.
The door of No. Twelve, the only other flat on the same landing, opened, and a man appeared. Recognition was prompt on Winter"s side.
"h.e.l.lo, Drake!" he said genially. "Are _you_ Signor Maselli? Well met, anyhow! Can you give me a friendly word?"
The occupant of flat No. Twelve, an undersized, slightly built man of middle age, seemed to have received the shock of his life. His sallow-complexioned face a.s.sumed a greenish-yellow tint, and his deep-set eyes glistened like those of a hunted animal.
"Friendly?" he contrived to gasp, giving a ghastly look over his shoulder to ascertain whether any one in the interior of the flat had heard that name "Drake."
"Yes. I mean it. Strictly on the q. t.," said Winter, sinking his voice to a confidential pitch. Signor Giovanni Maselli, since that was the name modestly displayed on No. Twelve"s card in the hall beneath, closed the door carefully. He appeared to trust Winter, up to a point, but evidently found it hard to regain self-control.
"Not here!" he whispered. "In five minutes--at the Regency Cafe, Piccadilly. Let me go alone."
Winter nodded, and the other darted downstairs. The detective followed slowly. Crossing the street at an angle, he looked up at the smoke-stained elevation of Gloucester Mansions.
"A well-filled nest," he communed, "and a nice lot of prize birds in it, upon my word!"
The last time he had set eyes on a certain notably expert forger and counterfeiter a judge was pa.s.sing sentence of five years" penal servitude and three years" police supervision on a felon; and the judge had not addressed the prisoner as Giovanni Maselli, but as John Christopher Drake!
CHAPTER VIII
COINCIDENCES
Winter was blessed with an unfailing memory for dates and faces.
Before he had emerged from the main exit of Gloucester Mansions he had fixed Drake as committed from the Old Bailey during the Summer a.s.sizes four years earlier, released from Portland on ticket of leave at the beginning of the current year, and marked in the "failure to report"
list.
"Poor devil!" he said to himself. "The very man for my purpose!"
Therefore, seeing his way clearly, his glance was not so encouraging nor his voice so pleasant when he found the ex-convict awaiting him in the Regency Cafe. Nevertheless, obeying the curious code which links the police and noted criminals in a sort of _camaraderie_, he asked the man what he would drink, and ordered cigarettes as well.
"Now, Maselli," he said, when they were seated at a marble-topped table in a corner of a well-filled room, "since we know each other so well we can converse plainly, eh?"
"Yes, sir, but I"m done for now. I"ve been trying to earn an honest living, and have succeeded, but now----"
The man spoke brokenly. His spirit was crushed. He saw in his mind"s eye the frowning portals of a convict settlement, and heard the boom of a giant knocker reverberating through gaunt aisles of despair.
"If you reflect that I am calling you Maselli, you"ll drink that whisky and soda, and listen to what I have to say," broke in Winter severely.
The other looked up at him, and a gleam of hope illumined the pallid cheeks. He drank eagerly, and lighted a cigarette with trembling fingers.
"If only I am given a chance----" he began, but the detective interfered again.
"If only you would shut up!" he said emphatically. "I want your help, and I"m not in the habit of rewarding my a.s.sistants by sending them back to prison."
Maselli (as he may remain in this record) was so excited that he literally could not obey.
"I"ve cut completely adrift from the old crowd, sir," he pleaded wistfully. "I"m an engraver now, and in good work. Heaven help me, I"m married, too. She doesn"t know. She thinks I was stranded in America, and that I changed my name because Italians are thought more of than Englishmen in my line."
"Giovanni Maselli, may I ask what you are talking about?" said Winter, stiffening visibly.