Part 14 (2/2)
”Aye--aye!” replied Allerd.y.k.e. ”I see your point. Well, I've been in Fullaway's company now for two days--there's no denying he's a smart chap, a clever chap, and he seems to be doing good business. Moreover, Ambler, my lad, James knew him and James wasn't the sort to take up with wrong 'uns. As to the secretary, I can't say. Besides, Fullaway said this afternoon that he hadn't told her all about it yet.”
”All about the Hull affair and the Lennard affair, I took that to mean from your account,” remarked Appleyard. ”If she's his confidential secretary, with access to his papers and business, she'd know all about the Princess transaction. Now, of course, an inquiry or two of the usual sort would satisfy you about Fullaway--I mean as a business man. An inquiry or two would tell you all about Delkin. But you can't get to know all about Mrs. Marlow from any inquiry. And you can't find out all about Fullaway from any inquiry. He may be the straightest business man in all London--and yet have a finger in this pie, and his secretary with him.
Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth of jewels, Mr. Allerd.y.k.e, is--a temptation! And--these folks knew the jewels were on the way.
What's more, they'd time to intercept their bearer--Mr. James.”
Allerd.y.k.e rubbed his chin and knitted his brows in obvious bewilderment.
”There must ha' been more than them in at it,” he said musingly. ”A regular gang of 'em, judging by results.”
”Every gang has its ganger,” replied Appleyard, with a knowing smile.
”There's no doubt this is a big thing--but there must be a central point, a head, a controlling authority in it. We come back, you see, after all, to where we started--these people were the only people in England who knew about these jewels, so far as we know.”
”Aye, but only so far as we know,” said Allerd.y.k.e. ”There may have been others. There may have been folks who got to know about them over there in Russia and who communicated their knowledge to some folks here. And there's always this to be borne in mind--the affair, the plot, may have been originated there, and worked from there. Remember that!”
”Quite so--and you can't decide on anything relating to that until this Princess comes,” agreed Appleyard. ”It'll have to rest till you've heard all she has to say, and then you'll know where you are. But in the meantime you can find out a bit about Fullaway and this millionaire man--I can find out for you, if you like, in a few hours.”
”Do, my lad!” said Allerd.y.k.e. ”It's always well to know who you're dealing with. Aye--make an inquiry or two.”
”But remember that all I can inquire about will be in the ordinary business way,” continued Appleyard. ”I can ascertain if there is a Delkin in town, who's a Chicago millionaire, and if Fullaway's a reputable business man--but that'll be all. As to the secretary, I can't do anything.”
”I'll keep an eye on her myself,” said Allerd.y.k.e. ”Well, do this, then, and let me know the results. I've put up at the Waldorf, and there I shall stop while all this is being investigated here in London, but I shall pop in and out here, of course. And now I'll go back there and find out if there's any fresh news from the police or from Hull. I reckon there'll be some fine reading in the newspapers in a day or two, Ambler--it'll all have to come out now.”
In this supposition Allerd.y.k.e was right. The police authorities, finding that the affair had a.s.sumed dimensions of an astonis.h.i.+ng magnitude, decided to seek the aid of the Press, and to publish the entire story in the fullest possible fas.h.i.+on. And Allerd.y.k.e and all London woke next morning to find the newspapers alive with a new sensation, and every other man asking his neighbour what it all meant. Three mysterious murders--two big thefts--together--the newspaper world had known nothing like it for years, and the only regrets in Fleet Street were those of the men who would have sacrificed their very noses to have got the story exclusively to themselves. But the police authorities had exercised a wise generosity, and no one newspaper knew more than another at that stage--they all, as Fullaway said to Allerd.y.k.e at breakfast, got a fair start, and from that one could run their own race.
”We shall be to these Pressmen as a pot of honey to flies,” he observed.
”Take my advice, Allerd.y.k.e--see none of them, and if you should--as you will--get b.u.t.tonholed and held up, refuse to say a word.”
”You can leave that to me,” answered Allerd.y.k.e, with a twitch of his determined jaw. ”It 'ud be a clever newspaper chap that would get aught out of me. I've other fish to fry than to talk to these gentry. And what good will all this newspaper stuff do?”
”Lots!” replied Fullaway. ”It will draw attention. There'll already be a few thousand amateur detectives looking out for the man who left the French maid dead in Eastbourne Terrace, and a few hundred amateur criminologists racking their brains for a plausible theory of the whole thing. Oh, yes, it's a good thing to arouse public interest, Allerd.y.k.e.
All that's wanted now is a rousing reward. Have you thought of that?”
”Didn't I mention it to the man at Scotland Yard yesterday?” said Allerd.y.k.e. ”I'm game to find aught reasonable in the way of bra.s.s. But,”
he added, with a touch of true Yorks.h.i.+re caution, ”I've been thinking that over during the night, and it seems to me that there are two other parties who ought to come in at it, with me, of course. Miss Lennard and the Princess, d'ye see? If they're willing, I am.”
”You mean a joint reward for the detection of the murderer and the recovery of the jewels?” suggested Fullaway.
”Well, you can be pretty certain, by now, that the murders and the thefts are all the work of one gang,” replied Allerd.y.k.e. ”So it's long as it's short. These two women want their pearls and their diamonds back--I want to know who killed my cousin James. We're all three in the same boat, really; so if we make up a good, substantial purse between us--what?”
”Good!” agreed Fullaway. ”We'll hear what the Princess says when she arrives to-night. I guess we shall all know better where we exactly are when we've heard what she has to say.”
”If she's like most women that's lost aught in the way of finery,”
remarked Allerd.y.k.e drily, ”she'll have plenty to say.”
That night he had abundant opportunity of hearing the Princess Nastirsevitch's views on the situation, freely expressed. He himself fetched Celia Lennard to the conference at New Scotland Yard; they found Fullaway and the Princess already there, in full blast of debate.
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