Part 35 (2/2)

”You do,” answered Miss Slade. ”It hadn't. If you had all waited a few moments you would have had all three men in conference round one of those tables, and they could have been taken with far less fuss and bother--and far less danger to me. It's the greatest wonder in the world that I'm not lying dead on that gra.s.s!”

”We are devoutly thankful that you are not,” said the chief fervently.

”But--you're not! And the main thing is that the three men are in custody, and as for interference--”

”It was Chilverton,” interrupted Fullaway, who had been staring at his mysterious secretary as if she were some rare object which he had never seen before. ”Chilverton!--all Chilverton's fault. As soon as he set eyes on Van Koon nothing would hold him. And what I want to know--”

”We all want to know a good deal,” remarked the chief, glancing invitingly at Miss Slade. ”Miss Slade has no doubt a good deal to tell. I suggest that we walk across to those very convenient chairs which I see over there by the shrubbery--then perhaps--”

”I want to know a good deal, too,” said Miss Slade.

”I don't know who you are, to start with, and I don't know why Mr.

Appleyard happens to be here, to end with.”

Appleyard answered these two questions readily.

”I'm here because I happen to be Mr. Allerd.y.k.e's London representative,”

he said. ”This gentleman is a very highly placed official of the Criminal Investigation Department.”

Miss Slade, having composed herself, favoured the chief with a deliberate inspection.

”Oh! in that case,” she remarked, ”in that case, I suppose I had better satisfy your curiosity. That is,” she continued, turning to Rayner, ”if Mr. Rayner thinks I may?”

”I was going to suggest it,” answered Rayner. ”Let's sit down and tell them all about it.”

The party of six went across to the quiet spot which the chief had indicated, and Fullaway and Appleyard obligingly arranged the chairs in a group. Seated in the midst and quite conscious that she was the centre of attraction in several ways, Miss Slade began her explanation of the events and mysteries which had culminated in the recent sensational event.

”I daresay,” she said, looking round her, ”that some of you know a great deal more about this affair than I do. What I do know, however, is this--the three men who have just been removed are without doubt the arch-spirits of the combination which robbed Miss Lennard, attempted to rob Mr. James Allerd.y.k.e, possibly murdered Mr. James Allerd.y.k.e, and certainly murdered Lydenberg, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Ebers. Van Koon is an American crook, whose real name is Vankin; Merrifield, as you know, is Mr. Delkin's secretary; the other man is one Otto Schmall, a German chemist, and a most remarkably clever person, who has a shop and a chemical manufactory in Whitechapel. He's an expert in poison--and I think you will have some interesting matters to deal with when you come to tackle his share. Well, that's plain fact; and now you want to know how I--and Mr. Rayner--found all this out.”

”Chiefly you,” murmured Rayner, ”chiefly you!”

”You had better let your minds go back to the morning of the 13th May last,” continued Miss Slade, paying no apparent heed to this interruption. ”On that morning I arrived at Mr. Fullaway's office at my usual time, ten o'clock, to find that Mr. Fullaway had departed suddenly, earlier in the morning, for Hull. I at once guessed why he had gone--I knew that Mr. James Allerd.y.k.e, in charge of the Princess Nastirsevitch's jewels, was to have landed at Hull the night before, and I concluded that Mr. Fullaway had set off to meet him. But Mr. Fullaway has a bad habit of leaving letters and telegrams lying about, for any one to see, and within a few minutes I found on his desk a telegram from Mr.

Marshall Allerd.y.k.e, dispatched early that morning from Hull, saying that his cousin had died suddenly during the night. That, of course, definitely explained Mr. Fullaway's departure, and it also made me wonder, knowing all I did know, if the jewels were safe.

”This, I repeat, was about ten to half-past ten o'clock. About twelve o'clock of that morning, the 13th, Mr. Van Koon, whom I knew as a resident in the hotel, and a frequent caller on Mr. Fullaway, came in. He wanted Mr. Fullaway to cash a cheque for him. I told him that I could do that, and I took his cheque, wrote out one of my own and went up town to Parr's Bank, at the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, to get the cash for him.

Mr. Van Koon stayed in the office, reading a bundle of American newspapers which had just been delivered. I was away from the office perhaps forty minutes or so; when I returned he was still there. I gave him the money; he thanked me, and went away.

”Towards the end of that afternoon, just before I was leaving the office, I got a wire from Mr. Fullaway, from Hull. It was quite short--it merely informed me that Mr. James Allerd.y.k.e was dead, under mysterious circ.u.mstances, and that the Nastirsevitch property was missing. Of course, I knew what that meant, and I drew my own conclusions.

”Now I come to the 14th--a critical day, so far as I am concerned.

During the morning a parcels-van boy came into the office. He said that on the previous day, about half-past twelve o'clock, he had brought a small parcel there, addressed to Mr. Fullaway, and had handed it to a gentleman who was reading newspapers, and who had answered 'Yes' when inquired of as Mr. Fullaway. This gentleman--who, of course, was Van Koon--had signed for the parcel by scribbling two initials 'F. F.' in the proper s.p.a.ce. The boy, who said he was new to his job, told me that the clerk at the parcels office objected to this as not being a proper signature, and had told him to call next time he was pa.s.sing and get the thing put right. He accordingly handed me the sheet, and I, believing that this was some small parcel which Van Koon had taken in, signed for, and placed somewhere in the office or in Mr. Fullaway's private room, signed my own name, for Franklin Fullaway, over the penciled initials.

And as I did so I noticed that the parcel had been sent from Hull.

”When the boy had gone I looked for that parcel. I could not find it anywhere. It was certainly not in the office, nor in any of the rooms of Mr. Fullaway's suite. I was half minded to go to Mr. Van Koon and ask about it, but I decided that I wouldn't; I thought I would wait until Mr.

Fullaway returned. But all the time I was wondering what parcel it could be that was sent from Hull, and certainly dispatched from there on the very evening before Mr. Fullaway's hurried journey.

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