The Mouthpiece E-Book

Edgar Wallace

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The novel of Edgar Wallace’s famous play told by Robert Curtis in story form with all the dramatic excitement and suspense. In the shady setting of a solicitor’s office on the East End waterfront a plan is evolved – all quite legal to get hold of a large American legacy bequeathed to an English girl. Murder is planned and tried: kidnapping, incarceration in a London barge, a dash for freedom, the intervention of the river police and knock-out drops all play their part in the unfolding of the tale which keeps its suspense to the last in as swift-moving a sequence of events as ever Edgar Wallace at his best devised. It is a case where the Yard was best not to call them in – for reasons best known to the characters in the story as the reader will find for himself.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAPTER I

THERE might have been occasions when the offices of Stuckey & Stuckey, solicitors, received the ministrations of a charwoman; but if so, no living soul could testify to this of his own knowledge. There had been suspicions from time to time: as, for example, when Mr. Joseph Bells, the managing clerk, had arrived one morning in an unusually observant mood and had noticed that the square foot of his desk which he somehow managed to keep clear of documents was of a slightly different shade of dinginess from what he knew to be its normal colour. There was, too, ground for suspicion that the window behind Mr. Bells’ office chair was letting in more light than usual; but this implied such an unthinkable supposition that he at once concluded the spring sunshine was a little stronger that morning and proceeded to draw the blind farther down. Mr. Bells was not a lover of strong light; it made his small, almost colourless eyes blink under the powerful lenses of his steel-rimmed spectacles; there may also have been a subconscious realization that the activities of the firm of lawyers which was housed in these dingy two rooms on the first floor of the building known as 274a, River Street, Rotherhithe, were of the kind upon which it was not desirable that the full glare of daylight should be thrown.

Probably Mr. Bells had never entertained such a speculation. His mentality was of the type, happily so common, that accepts things as they are, with the tacit assumption that what has been for years must of necessity be proper and legitimate and above reproach.

The tall, thin, gloomy-looking clerk sat in his office chair one bright morning in early spring and almost fumed as he glanced at his watch, which indicated that the only other employee of the firm, the lady stenographer, was already twenty minutes late.

Presently he heard footsteps, and a girl slouched rather than walked through the office door, hung her coat and hat negligently on a dusty peg, strolled to a chair in front of a typewriter, stretched herself and yawned as one who has had insufficient sleep, and flopped into the seat with a gesture of infinite weariness. Taking from her large and ornate handbag her powder-puff and mirror, she commenced languidly to atone for any cleansing deficiencies of her toilet with a liberal coating of the face-powder which, to her, was modern chemistry’s greatest gift to women.

Presently:

“Miss Harringay!” called Mr. Bells.

She did not reply, being absorbed just then in retouching with her lipstick the still discernible outline of a rather wobbly Cupid’s bow drawn with considerable pains the previous evening.

“Miss Harringay!” he said again, a little more loudly this time and with a peremptory note.

With a shrug she swung slowly round to face the managing clerk.

“Oh, good morning, Mr. Bells,” she said.

“Are you aware, Miss Harringay, that this office opens at nine o’clock and it’s now twenty-three minutes past?”

She stifled another yawn.

“I’m terribly sorry,” she drawled. “You see, I went out last night with such a nice boy, Mr. Bells, and we–er–well, we were rather late getting home. You know what it is, don’t you?” She smiled with a lot of teeth into the elderly clerk’s face.

“I’m glad to say I don’t,” said the man shortly. “When I was your age I spent my leisure hours in trying to improve my mind.”

She tittered.

“Such a waste of time!”

He frowned.

“I beg your pardon, Miss Harringay?”

She waved a hand round the office.

“Well, look what it’s brought you to!”

He turned away with a grunt. He was never at his best in verbal encounters with Elsie Harringay; it was not until ten minutes after a minor discomfiture such as this that the right, crushing rejoinder occurred to him, and then it was too late to be effective.

The girl pulled the cover from her typewriter. As she did so the telephone bell rang, and she rose with a sigh and crossed to the wall where the instrument was fixed.

“Hullo!... Yes, this is Stuckey & Stuckey. What name, please?... Well, I can’t tell you unless you give me your name... Haven’t you got a name? Well, what’s your number?”

Bell, hearing the telephone, rose.

“Who’s that?”

“One of the anonymous ones–a man.”

“What did he say?”

“I’d hate to repeat it!”

The managing clerk grunted, then took the receiver and spoke into it.

“Hullo!... Who is that?... Yes, old boy, Bells speaking. The governor’s not here yet... Yes, old boy. There’s a warrant out for you. You’d better get out of the country, old boy... Yes, old boy. Good-bye, old boy.” He replaced he receiver with precision and turned to go.

“Who’s the old boy, Mr. Bells?” asked Elsie.

He turned a stern eye on the typist.

“The rule of this office, Miss Harringay, is–no names. You’ve been here two years, and you’re about as intelligent now as when you came... By the way,” he went on, “who was it came here after I went last evening?”

“The rule of this office,” mimicked Elsie, “is–no names.”

Bells frowned.

“Impertinence will get you nowhere, my girl,” he began.

At that moment the telephone bell rang again, and he crossed to the instrument.

“Hullo! Yes?... Oh, yes, this is Mr. Stuckey’s office. Bells speaking. ... Oh, yes, old boy... Well, if I were you, old boy, I’d get out of the country... Yes, old boy... Good-bye, old boy?”

As he replaced the receiver:

“Another gentleman of England–we do find ‘em!” commented Elsie Harringay. “What tie does the old boy wear, Mr. Bells?”

“Will you please speak a little more respectfully of our clients. Miss Harringay?”

“Call me Elsie,” she begged, “or ‘old girl’. It sounds more homely.”

She rose from her chair and strolled into the inner office, glancing casually at the big, flat-topped desk in the centre of the room. On the blotting-pad lay a small pile of letters placed there by the managing clerk for the attention of Mr. Charles Stuckey, the head of the firm. On the top of these was a cablegram, sent economically from America at night letter rate. As the girl caught sight of this, she opened her eyes wide in astonishment.

“Things are looking up, Mr. Bells, aren’t they?” she called through the open doorway. “Who’s the cable from? It can’t be one of our old boys–they’ve never got any money.”

Bells looked at her disapprovingly from over the top of his steel-rimmed spectacles.

“A little less levity would be more in keeping with your position,” he said sternly. “As a matter of fact, that is a communication from an eminent firm of New York solicitors with reference to one of our oldest and most valued clients–”

The girl put her hand to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully.

“Now I wonder,” she pondered aloud: “would that be Slick Samuels, the bag-snatcher, or Young Larry–no, it couldn’t be him, he’s down for seven for robbery with violence–”

Mr. Bells interrupted.

“When you have been here a little longer you will perhaps become aware that Mr. Stuckey’s clientele embraces all sorts and conditions of–er–”

“Crooks,” she replied, and returned to her desk as her employer walked into the office.

In some unexplained way, lawyers, and particularly solicitors, usually carry in their faces the unmistakable stamp of their profession. You can recognize them a mile off. Whether it is that they are originally endowed with the legal type of mind which is thus reflected in their features, or that, commencing on fair terms with their fellow men, the study of law so moulds their mental processes as to create gradually this distinctive appearance, is a speculation which has never been fully resolved.

Charles Oliver Stuckey, however, was a pronounced exception to this rule. He bore none of the generic markings of the legal profession. Of medium height, with a sturdily-built frame, faintly suggestive of approaching corpulence, his hair was fair, curly and abundant, and, so far from there being anything hawk-like in his appearance, his nose was short, fleshy, and with a distinctly unlegal tilt. The strength of the broad, capacious forehead was largely offset by the smallness of his rounded, indeterminate chin. For worldly success, a physiognomist would have said, it would have gone better with him had his forehead been moulded along less generous lines, and his jaw made more prognathous.

As he hung his hat and coat on a peg behind the door of his office and sank into the dingy leather chair in front of his desk, he gazed around him with an air of obvious distaste. Outside, the spring sunshine was brilliant and rejuvenating; such diluted rays as managed to creep through the murky window behind him served only to accentuate the dismal atmosphere of his official quarters.

With a shrug, he turned his attention to the small pile of letters in front of him. As he read the cablegram his eyes widened, and a look almost of benevolence came into his face.

He touched a bellpush on his desk and a moment later the door opened, and Mr. Bells came in fussily, in his hand a sheaf of documents, behind his ear a pencil, and on his face a look of absorption. Had one remarked to Joseph Bells during office hours that outside the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all Nature was shouting a joyous welcome to the nascent beauty of spring, it is certain that he would have taken his pencil from behind his ear, scratched the top of his head, adjusted his spectacles to gaze at one in disapproval of the irrelevance, and replied: “Er–yes. Now, with regard to this little trouble of ‘Cosh’ Baker...”

The lawyer looked up as he entered.

“‘Morning, Bells.”

“Good morning, sir. You saw the cablegram I put on your desk?”

“Yes. I say, what a bit of luck for Miss Smith!”

Bells inclined his head.

“Where are they now?” asked Stuckey.

“Miss Smith and her mother are at present staying in Vienna–the Hôtel des Étrangers,” the clerk said.

Stuckey smiled.

“You mean, I suppose, that they were there when last we heard from them?”

“Quite, sir. It is, of course, possible that by now Mrs. Smith has found it advisable to–er–”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake talk English!” snapped Stuckey irritably. “What you mean is that by now the woman has exhausted her credit in Vienna, issued a few dud cheques, and passed on to Budapest or somewhere.”

“Exactly, sir.”

“What a life!” the solicitor murmured. “Lord knows how the girl stands it!” Aloud, he said: “Well, they won’t have to scrounge their way through Europe any more. Miss Jacqueline is worth half a million dollars now”–he fingered the cablegram–“and they can come back to England and settle down respectably and five in comfort.”

“In some nice cathedral city, I would suggest, sir,” put in Bells.

“I know you would: it’s what I should have expected from you. But from what I have heard of Miss Jacqueline Smith, I scarcely think that nice cathedral cities are her proper setting.”

“You have never met her, I believe, sir?” the clerk queried.

“No. Mrs. Smith was an old friend of my mother’s, and when I started to practise on my own she put her affairs into my hands.” He laughed mirthlessly. “If she knew the type of business we specialize in... She’s about the only respectable client I’ve got, and that’s merely by comparison!... Yes?” he turned his head inquiringly as, following a tap, the door opened and the pert features of Elsie Harringay appeared.

“Will you see Captain Allwright, sir?” the girl asked.

With a frown of recollection, Stuckey nodded.

“Yes, show him in.”

The stout, red-faced man, dressed in seafaring clothes, who entered, beaming benevolence and breathing beer, strode up to the desk, and, seizing the lawyer’s hand, wrung it heartily.

“I came to thank you for what you did for me yesterday,” he began.

“Oh, that’s all right.”

“All right?” echoed the caller. “I should say it was all right. Why, man, you’re a marvel!” He swung round to Bells. “What a masterpiece, your guv’nor, eh? You ought to have heard him talking to the old bubble and squeak. Did he talk to him? I’ll say he did!”

Stuckey smiled faintly.

“Well, that’s over now,” he said. “I hope you’ll have a pleasant voyage, Captain.”

The seaman, however, was not to be side-tracked.

“They’d have given me a month, they would,” he went on. “And, mind you, I was as sober as a new-born child!”

“You were a bit noisy, Captain.”

“Well, so’s a new-born child. I said to the copper quite civilly: ‘You go away and boil your face.’–”

The lawyer nodded.

“Yes, that was a bit unfortunate.”

“And he says: ‘You’re drunk.’ Drunk–-and, mind you, I hadn’t had more than eight whiskies–well, I mean to say...!”

“Anyhow, you got off.”

“Yes–and who got me off?” beamed Captain Allwright. “Now. Mr. Stuckey, what do I owe you? The last time I gave you–”

“Oh, see my clerk, he’ll fix it.”

“Right. Now, if there’s anything I can do for you, Mr. Stuckey, you just say the word. You’ve been a good pal of mine. You don’t mind me saying that? My name’s John Blunt.”

Stuckey smiled faintly.

“Thanks, Captain,” he replied, “but I’m afraid there isn’t anything you could do for me.”

“Come over to Antwerp for a trip,” persisted Allwright. “There’s the old tub,” jerking a thumb in the direction of the river, visible through the office windows. “Why, you could step on the after-deck from your window.”

The solicitor shook his head.

“Thanks, but I’m not going abroad,” he said.

Gratitude was dominating Captain Allwright’s emotional system just then, however, and had to find expression. He leaned towards Stuckey and spoke in a confidential tone.

“Well, if any of your clients ever want to go abroad–you know what I mean?–in a hurry–never mind about passports, eh? Just stand on me.”

“Thanks again, but I leave my clients to bolt in their own way.” The captain winked prodigiously, and nodded his head several tunes.

“I understand,” he said. “Well, no offence, I hope? I wouldn’t hurt your feelings for the world.” Then, as a thought struck him: “Say, why not come yourself? I can always drop you off at Gravesend if you don’t like the trip.”

“No, thanks.” Stuckey’s tone was brusque. “And now, Captain. I’m very busy.”

“That’s all right, old man,” said the seaman. “What about a quick one?”

“No, thank you.”

Disappointed, the man turned to Bells.

“What about you?” he invited.

Bells shuddered.

“I have never drunk intoxicants in my life,” he affirmed.

A spasm of astonishment flashed across Allwright’s face. “Good God!” he breathed. “Well, don’t die without knowing what it feels like. Good morning, Mr. Stuckey.”

“Good morning,” said the lawyer, and the next moment the captain had passed jauntily on his way.

“Open that window wide, Bells,” said Stuckey. “Would you like a trip to Antwerp?”

“No, sir–not with that captain.”

“He’s a good seaman–when he’s sober... What appointments have I this morning?”

“Only one, sir–Colonel Lutman. He is calling here at ten-fifteen. In fact”–Bells consulted his watch–“he is due now.”

“H’m!” said Stuckey, with a frown of distaste.

At that moment a heavy footstep was heard in the outer office. “That sounds like him. All right, show him in.”

CHAPTER II

THE man who entered flung his hat unceremoniously on Stuckey’s desk and sank heavily, without invitation, into the only chair which offered any degree of comfort. He glanced around at Bells, and jerked his head faintly but authoritatively in the direction of the door. The clerk turned on his heel and vanished into the outer office.

Charles Stuckey looked supremely uncomfortable, as he always did in the presence of this paunchy, over-fed man with the florid countenance and the faintly mocking expression in the dark brown eyes, which were a thought too small and set a shade too closely together.

For some moments no word was spoken: the two men sat regarding each other. A man in the early fifties, Colonel Alec Lutman had once been a handsome and imposing figure. Those who knew him best and disliked him most said that Lutman’s name could not be found in the Army List, and that the prefix ‘Colonel’ had, indeed, no more justification, when applied to Lutman, than the fact that women succumb more readily to a title, particularly a military one.

At last the solicitor, with an obvious effort as of a man shaking himself free from some dominating influence, broke the silence.

“What have you come for, Lutman?”

The smile on the other’s face widened.

“My dear Charles!” he protested. “Scarcely the way to greet an old–er– friend! I do hope you don’t employ the same effusive manner towards all your– er–clients.”

The solicitor scowled.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but I’m in no mood this morning for badinage. Did you want to see me about anything in particular? Because if not, I have several appointments...”

Colonel Lutman regarded him with an air of appreciative benevolence.

“The one thing I admire most about you, Charles, is your stern sense of duty. It is that which makes rising young lawyers–er–rise,” he finished, rather lamely.

Stuckey made an impatient gesture, and looked at his wrist-watch.

“I hope,” went on his visitor, “that you have not, under pressure of your professional duties, overlooked one very important appointment this morning.”

Charles frowned.

“You mean?”

“I see you have. Even promising young solicitors–”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Lutman, come to the point.”

The Colonel sighed and dropped his bantering tone.

“All right, I will,” he said. “Jim Asson comes out of Dartmoor this morning, and is by now”–he glanced up at the clock on the dusty mantelpiece– “well on his way to London and to this office.” Stuckey gave a violent start.

“Jim? Out! But I thought...”

“Quite. You thought he wasn’t due for another six months. But Jim has been a very blue-eyed boy and has earned a special remission for something or other. He should be here in about an hour.” The solicitor’s features registered his distaste.

“But what’s he coming here for? I don’t want to see him.”

“Perhaps not.” The Colonel’s manner reverted to the grandiose. “But I deemed it advisable that the–er–reunion should take place here under the aegis, as it were, of our legal representative. You see,” he went on to explain, “when I heard from Jimmy the glad tidings of his early release, I gathered from his tone that he was feeling somewhat–er–sore with me concerning his incarceration.”

“You mean, he knows you shopped him?”

Lutman raised a hand in a gesture of protest.

“‘Shopped,’ Charles? Really, that is hardly a dignified word–”

“Dignity be damned!” Stuckey interrupted. “I speak the language of my clients. And it’s not so unfamiliar to you, either.” Lutman waved the point aside.

“Anyway,” he continued, “Jimmy, as I say, is feeling a sense of grievance and is breathing vengeance and slaughter against me. I therefore wrote to him and arranged to meet him here. You see, Charles”–again his wordy prose dropped from him, and he spoke simply and earnestly–“something’s got to be done about Jimmy.”

“I’ve often thought that,” grunted the other. “He’s a lousy–”

“Yes, yes, I agree: he’s all that and more. But I mean that we’ve got to find a way of making it up to him. He’s done eighteen months’ imprisonment; the proceeds of the little affair which got him the sentence are practically all gone, and Jimmy will want considerable–er–smoothing down.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“I mean,” said the Colonel, “that we’ve got to find a way of presenting Jimmy with some easy money. I’m nearly broke–“ The ringing of the telephone bell interrupted him. Charles lifted the receiver, listened, grunted a few monosyllables, and then replaced the instrument.

“I’ll have to slip out for a few minutes,” he told Lutman. “Would you rather wait, or–?”

“Oh, I’ll wait here,” was the reply. “Maybe the acute legal atmosphere with which you have permeated your surroundings will induce a bright idea.”

Charles grunted.

“I’ll not be long,” he said, and passed through the outer offices. Left alone, the caller glanced around the dusty office with distaste. It was poorly, if adequately, furnished. A shelf of law books stood affixed by brackets on the opposite wall of the room; a few black-japanned deed boxes, the names on which were quite illegible under the thick coating of dust, occupied the farther corner of the floor to his left. His gaze wandered to the large, littered desk which occupied the centre of the room and by the side of which stood the arm-chair in which he was now sitting. On the blotting-pad was a small pile of letters, opened and unopened. Lutman reached out a hand and drew these casually towards him. It was with him not so much a principle as a habit of mind to keep himself as well informed as possible on all affairs, his own or anybody else’s.

The cablegram arrested his attention, and he read its contents, idly at first, then a second time with quickened interest. The message, which came from a firm of New York lawyers, informed Messrs. Stuckey & Stuckey, as the legal accredited representatives of Mrs. Millicent Smith and her daughter Jacqueline, that the latter had been bequeathed by her deceased uncle, Mr. Alan Redfern, the whole of his residual estate, amounting to some 1,500,000 dollars.

Lutman read and re-read the cablegram. His mind held no idea at the moment in what way the facts disclosed could be of any possible interest to him; but one of his most abiding principles was that money in the possession of other people was always of absorbing interest to a man of his own sybaritic needs. He never heard or read stories of the accession of sudden wealth without his ingeniously fertile brain being set to work overtime on evolving schemes whereby the transference of that wealth to his own banking account could be effected with the minimum of risk to himself. That such schemes rarely attained to fruition was no deterrent to Colonel Lutman; he continued to indulge his habit of evolving them.

He sat for some moments in concentrated thought, the cablegram dangling loosely from his fingers. When Stuckey re-entered his office some ten minutes later, it was to find his visitor sitting bolt upright in his chair, a sparkle in his small, acquisitive eyes, his whole expression that of a man who has solved a difficult problem.

The solicitor glanced at the cablegram in the Colonel’s hand and frowned.

“Look here, Lutman,” he began irritably, “what the devil–”

The other stopped him with a gesture.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed exultantly.

“Well, put it back: it’s not addressed to you. What do you mean–”

“Oh, drop it, Charles,” said the Colonel. “What on earth does it matter if I read your letters? You’ve no secrets from me, remember.”

Stuckey’s face grew sullen. He knew how true were the words, and knew also, to his bitterness, the significance of the caller’s last remark.

“Look here,” continued Lutman, “who are these Smith people?”

“Mrs. Smith,” said Charles, “is one of my oldest and most valued clients.”

Lutman grinned.

“And I suppose Miss Smith is the other?... Well, never mind that now– where do they live? Have they had this news yet?”

“Mind your own damn business,” began Charles, and Lutman grinned again.

“And whose business is this, if it isn’t mine?” he asked calmly. “I gather that word of this windfall has not yet gone to your old and valued clients? Well, it need not.”

The solicitor stared at him.

“What on earth are you getting at, Lutman?”

“Money,” said the other laconically. “The only thing I want to get at. Money for you and Jimmy–and for me, of course.”

“Of course.” Charles smiled sardonically. “But you can’t pinch a legacy!”

An expression of pained fastidiousness crossed the Colonel’s face.

“Really, Charles,” he expostulated, “I think that for the future you would do well to leave personal contact with your–er–clients to the excellent Mr. Bells, and thus preserve, maybe, at least some of the usages of polite language. Now listen”–his tone changed, and he became serious–“I am not proposing that I should–er–pinch the legacy. What sort of a girl is Miss– Jacqueline, was it?”

“Just what do you mean?”

“I mean,” explained the visitor, “has she any attractions–other, of course,” tapping the cablegram, “than the all-important one conferred by this news?”

Charles shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve never seen her–or her mother,” he admitted.

“Where does she live?”

“Ever since I’ve known her she and her daughter have been– er–moving around the Continent. But listen, Lutman, what’s in your mind? I’ll have no funny business–”

“Please, Charles! You jar me. I am proposing nothing that is not strictly honest and–er–straightforward. We’ve got to make some money somehow; moreover, we must placate friend Jimmy–who will be here,” glancing at his watch, “very soon now. My idea, briefly stated, is this: let us marry Jimmy to the, we will hope, attractive Jacqueline.” He leaned back in his chair to watch the effect of his words on the other man.

For some moments Stuckey stared at him in amazement.

“Marry–Jimmy–to Jacqueline!” he repeated.

“Why not? As far as I know, the admirable Jimmy has never married.”

“But how on earth will that help–you?”

“‘Us,’ you mean,” said Lutman. “I should have thought it was quite simple, my dear Charles. The young woman and her mother are at present in ignorance of their good fortune. Let them remain so. Before the marriage takes place–oh, we’ll get them married, all right–have the girl sign a deed of assignment, or whatever you call it, of all her property to her husband–”

Stuckey jumped to his feet.

“I’ll have nothing to do with it!” he stormed. “It’s an outrage! It’s monstrous...”

“Sit down and shut up,” said the Colonel. “Now be sensible, Charles. There’s three hundred thousand pounds here–fallen from heaven, as it were. We cut it five ways, and I take three. That’ll mean sixty thousand each for Jimmy and you–and Jimmy gets the girl thrown in. He may, of course,” he added reflectively, “want more for that, but never mind that now.”

The solicitor’s eyes were fixed on Lutman with a stare of intense but impotent hatred. His fists clenched; his right arm was drawn back as though he would throw himself violently upon the other man. With a tremendous effort of self-restraint, however, he drew himself to his full height, and shook in Lutman’s direction a hand, the fingers of which quivered convulsively.

“I tell you once and for all, Lutman,” he raged, “I’ll have nothing to do with it!–”

“But–-”

“But nothing! Get out!”

The Colonel rose. On his face was still the sardonic smile–it was rarely missing–but now his voice had taken on a different note: a note of authority, of menace...

“Don’t try me too far, Stuckey,” he barked. “There is a limit even to my patience. You’ll do as I tell you!” He extended a finger almost melodramatically, at the other man. “Unless”–he spoke slowly and very deliberately–“you want very bad trouble.”

He took out his pocket-book and extracted from it a folded sheet of paper.

“Do you know this?”

Charles had sunk back into the chair in front of his desk. His weak fury had gone from him, and in its place had appeared a look of dumb resignation.

“It seems familiar,” he muttered.

“It’s an historical document,” the Colonel went on. “A request for a loan of three hundred and fifty pounds by a young solicitor’s clerk who had misapplied the money of one of his employer’s clients and had to put it back in a hurry.”

“What a fool I was, Lutman, ever to come to you–a moneylender–with my secrets!”

“You were rather,” admitted the other.

Charles leaned across his desk, his forearms resting on his blotting-pad, his hands lightly clasped, and looked at the older man.

“I was rather an impulsive kind of lad, you know, and I thought you were my friend. I’d done one or two dirty jobs for you–remember? I’m not so sure I didn’t save you once from doing time.” The Colonel smiled.

“Very likely; in fact, I believe you did.”

“Why do you keep that piece of evidence in your pocket?”

“Don’t worry,” said Lutman, “I shan’t lose it. And I also carry a little memorandum book that I wouldn’t let the police see for worlds. I thought the sight of your letter might stimulate you to agree to what I propose.”

“Melodramatic,” said Charles, “but not very effective. There is a Statute of Limitations which applies even to embezzlement.” The older man chuckled.

“The Law Society doesn’t recognize the Statute of Limitations Now come, Charles–you want to go higher in your profession, don’t you?”

“I couldn’t go very much lower, could I?”

“Well, now, listen, and let’s hear no more nonsense. We’ll send Jimmy out to wherever these women are living. He’ll scrape an acquaintance with them, make love to the girl–he’s a suave devil–and try to get things fixed amicably. Before the marriage you’ll draw up a deed of–whatever it is–whereby the girl assigns him all her property.”

“But why should she?” expostulated Charles. “I don’t see–“ Lutman regarded him pityingly.

“And you a rising young lawyer!” he murmured. “Listen, my poor ass: Jimmy is a wealthy young man, desperately in love with the, let us hope, beautiful Miss Smith. His whole idea is to safeguard the interests of her and her mother. The mother’s very important, Charles. You did say they were hard up, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever hear of a woman–a hard-up woman–who wouldn’t fall for any scheme–any honourable scheme, of course–which involved the payment to her of an annuity of, say, a thousand?”

Charles grunted non-committally.

“I see you didn’t. Now, once this document is signed–”

“But suppose the girl doesn’t fall for Jimmy?”

The Colonel smiled complacently.

“I shall be there, keeping an avuncular eye on the romance. Should it be necessary, I have no doubt I can find ways and means of bringing pressure to bear in Jimmy’s favour. As I say, once the deed is signed, the happy pair are married, and the money is ours. The mother is satisfied, you and I and Jimmy are satisfied, and, we will hope, the girl will be satisfied. Until then, of course, they must know nothing.”

Charles was fingering the cablegram.

“But–“ he began.

The older man made an impatient gesture.

“You can acknowledge receipt of this cable and tell the New York lawyers that you are instituting immediate inquiries into the whereabouts of your clients of which you are at the moment ignorant. The rest you may leave to Jimmy and me.”

Charles sat for some moments in gloomy silence. His fingers beat a nervous tattoo on the desk in front of him. If only there were some way out for him! He cursed himself a dozen times a day for the youthful folly which had thrown him, irrevocably, it seemed, into the power of this soulless and unscrupulous rogue, from whose domination he would have given anything in the world to escape. But what could he do?

“Well, Charles, what do you think of my scheme?” Lutman asked.

The solicitor roused himself.

“It’s vile and abominable,” he exclaimed, bitterly.

“But clever, eh, Charles?”

“Oh, yes, it’s clever.”

“Does your acute legal mind perceive any–er–snags?”

“Only that you may not be able to persuade the girl,” said Charles curtly.

The Colonel’s smile positively oozed complacence.

“Don’t worry about that, my boy,” he said. “Love will find a way... That sounds like the return of Jimmy.”

Sounds of commotion in the outer office reached their ears, and the next moment the door connecting the two rooms was thrown violently open and a tall, slim young man burst in, followed by a perturbed Bells, his right hand outstretched as though he sought to restrain such undignified procedure from disturbing the traditional serenity of the profession to which he belonged.

Inside the door, the newcomer turned on the managing clerk.

“All right, Bells,” he said, “you can beat it.”

Bells looked inquiringly at his employer, and, in response to Charles’s gesture, turned on his heel and went back into his own office.

With a nod to the solicitor, the visitor strode towards Lutman, his rage-distorted face working convulsively.

“Now, you double-crossing blackguard–” he began, his arm upraised, as if to strike.

“That’ll do, Jimmy,” the Colonel said, in his silkiest tones. His right hand rose leisurely from his side; it held a businesslike-looking automatic, which he pointed straight at the other man. “Any–er–trouble, and I’ll shoot you as dead as–let me see: as yesterday, shall we say? Self-defence, you know...”

The man he addressed made a tremendous effort to gain self-control. It was evident that he was labouring under the stress of some very powerful emotion; but there is nothing like a pistol a few feet away from one’s ribs to induce self-control in such circumstances. He fell back a pace or two, his hands falling to his sides, impotence and hatred blazing in his eyes.

Colonel Lutman was speaking again.

“Don’t let’s have any bad feeling, Jimmy. I only did what I thought was best for everyone–”

“And I got the raw end of the deal!” complained Asson. Lutman’s voice was soothing.

“Yes, I know,” he said. “But this time, my boy, you’re going to get the business end.”

Jimmy scowled at him questioningly.

“What do you mean–‘this time’?”

The Colonel beamed.

“It’s like this,” he explained. “During your–er–absence, your friends– Charles here, and I–have not been idle...” He proceeded to lay before the younger man the details of the proposed coup. Jimmy listened attentively for ten minutes. Then:

“What’s this girl like?” he asked.

Stuckey was about to answer, but the Colonel stopped him with a gesture.

“Lovely, my boy–lovely. If I were a younger man...”

“I’m not very keen on marriage,” grumbled Jimmy.

“I’ve noticed that,” replied Lutman, with a smile. “Your amorous adventures have never brought you within the scope of that–er–highly speculative investment. And quite rightly,” he hastened to add. “But this need be nothing more than a formality. A brief honeymoon, if you like, with a lovely girl”–his eyes twinkled lecherously–“and certainly no tie more enduring than you care to make it.”

Jimmy Asson sat thoughtfully for some moments. At last: “All right,” he said. “But mind, any funny business and I’ll–” He made a threatening gesture.

“Don’t worry, Jimmy; whatever fun there may be you’re going to get–and a share of the loot,” he added, with a departure from his customary elegance.

Jimmy, his sense of grievance still rankling, but looking more subdued than when he entered, had found time on the way out through the clerks’ office to lean over Elsie Harringay, seated before her typewriter, and exchange a few confidential words with that young lady.

CHAPTER III

THE Hotel Walderstein was not the best hotel in Cobenzil, and for that reason Mrs. Millicent Ferguson Smith had a grudge against it. If it had been the best hotel, Mrs. Smith, of course, would not have been staying there; and although she tolerated its second-class amenities with a show of patient resignation, she could never shake off a secret feeling of resentment against the place for its failure to be the sort of hotel in which a woman of her tastes would choose to reside.

Yet the Walderstein, besides the comparative moderation of its tariff, had much to commend it. It had a pleasant sunny terrace that looked out over the valley of the Danube; it had comfortable chairs on the terrace, and big gaily-coloured sun umbrellas, exactly like those of the more expensive hotels; and, even had its charges been less moderate and its food more elaborate, the view from the terrace could hardly have been more beautiful than it was under present conditions.

At the moment, Mrs. Smith did not seem to be agreeably impressed by the beauty of the view. Seated in a low cane chair beneath one of the sun umbrellas, she was gazing at the river with a look of disapproval more in keeping with the Thames at Wapping than with the sunlit waters of the Danube at Cobenzil.

Seeing Mrs. Smith sitting there, with the smoke of her Egyptian cigarette scenting the air, one might have been excused for wondering why she should be subjecting the Danube to that disapproving frown. True, she was in her forties– a fact which might make any woman frown not only at the Danube but at the entire unjust and ill-conceived scheme of existence; but “the forties” is a wide and vaguely defined realm in which a woman may wander for far more than a decade without adding to her years, and Mrs. Smith certainly did not look her age. She was still pretty; she had still to discover the first silver thread in her dark hair, and her slim figure was still independent of special diet and fatiguing exercises. Her dress, too–cause of so many feminine frowns–was such as any woman might have worn without frowning, even in Cobenzil’s best hotel.

All these blessings, and Mrs. Smith was none the less frowning. But she was not at the moment counting her blessings: she was mentally counting the contents of her purse.

The manager, of course, had behaved very badly–coming out here on the terrace and flourishing the bill at her and gabbling on in his nasty guttural English. After all, it was quite a small amount. Four weeks for herself and Jacqueline at his wretched little hotel was nothing to make such a fuss about, especially as for the first fortnight she had paid her bill regularly each week.