Part 19 (1/2)

I've often wondered what had become of him.”

”And now you find out that he's up till recently been secretary to Jacob Herapath, M.P., and is just now doing dramatic criticism for the _Magnet_,” observed Carver. ”Well, Triffitt, what do you make of it?”

Triffitt, who had filled and lighted an old briarwood pipe, puffed solemnly and thoughtfully for a while.

”Well,” he said, ”n.o.body can deny that there's a deep mystery about Jacob Herapath's death. And knowing what I do about this Bentham or Burchill, and that he's recently been secretary to Jacob Herapath, I'd just like to know a lot more. And--I mean to!”

”Got any plan of campaign?” asked Carver.

”I have!” affirmed Triffitt with sublime confidence. ”And it's this--I'm going to dog this thing out until I can go to our boss and tell him that I can force the hands of the police! For the police are keeping something dark, my son, and I mean to find out what it is. I got a quencher this morning from our news editor, but it'll be the last. When I go back to the office to write out this stuff, I'm going to have that extremely rare thing with any of our lot--an interview with the old man.”

”Gad!--I thought your old man was unapproachable!” exclaimed Carver.

”To all intents and purposes, he is,” a.s.sented Triffitt. ”But I'll see him--and today. And after that--but you'll see. Now, as to you, old man.

You're coming in with me at this, of course--not on behalf of your paper, but on your own. Work up with me, and if we're successful, I'll promise you a post on the _Argus_ that'll be worth three times what you're getting now. I know what I'm talking about--unapproachable as our guv'nor is, I've sized him up, and if I make good in this affair, he'll do anything I want. Stick to Triffitt, my son, and Triffitt'll see you all serene!”

”Right-oh!” said Carver. ”I'm on. Well, and what am I to do, first?”

”Two things,” responded Triffitt. ”One of 'em's easy, and can be done at once. Get me--diplomatically--this man Burchill's, or Bentham's, present address. You know some _Magnet_ chaps--get it out of them. Tell 'em you want to ask Burchill's advice about some dramatic stuff--say you've written a play and you're so impressed by his criticisms that you'd like to take his counsel.”

”I can do that,” replied Carver. ”As a matter of fact, I've got a real good farce in my desk. And the next?”

”The next is--try to find out if there's any taxi-cab driver around the Portman Square district who took a fare resembling old Herapath from anywhere about there to Kensington on the night of the murder,” said Triffitt. ”There must be some chap who drove that man, and if we've got any brains about us we can find him. If we find him, and can get him to talk--well, we shall know something.”

”It'll mean money,” observed Carver.

”Never mind,” said Triffitt, confident as ever. ”If it comes off all right with our boss, you needn't bother about money, my son! Now let's be going Fleet Street way, and I'll meet you tonight at the usual--say six o'clock.”

Arrived at the _Argus_ office and duly seated at his own particular table, Triffitt, instead of proceeding to write out his report of the funeral ceremony of the late Jacob Herapath, M.P., wrote a note to his proprietor, which note he carefully sealed and marked ”Private.” He carried this off to the great man's confidential secretary, who stared at it and him.

”I suppose this really is of a private nature?” he asked suspiciously.

”You know as well as I do that Mr. Markledew'll make me suffer if it isn't.”

”Soul and honour, it's of the most private!” affirmed Triffitt, laying a hand on his heart. ”And of the highest importance, too, and I'll be eternally grateful if you'll put it before him as soon as you can.”

The confidential secretary took another look at Triffitt, and allowed himself to be reluctantly convinced of his earnestness.

”All right!” he said. ”I'll shove it under his nose when he comes in at four o'clock.”

Triffitt went back to his work, excited, yet elated. It was no easy job to get speech of Markledew. Markledew, as everybody in Fleet Street knew, was a man in ten thousand. He was not only sole proprietor of his paper, but its editor and manager, and he ruled his office and his employees with a rod of iron--chiefly by silence. It was usually said of him that he never spoke to anybody unless he was absolutely obliged to do so--certain it was that all his orders to the various heads were given out pretty much after the fas.h.i.+on of a drill sergeant's commands to a squad of well-trained, five-month recruits, and that monosyllables were much more in his mouth than even brief admonitions and explanations. If anybody ever did manage to approach Markledew, it was always with fear and trembling. A big, heavy, lumbering man, with a face that might have been carved out of granite, eyes that bored through an opposing brain, and a constant expression of absolute, yet watchful immobility, he was a trying person to tackle, and most men, when they did tackle him, felt as if they might be talking to the Sphinx and wondered if the tightly-locked lips were ever going to open. But all men who ever had anything to do with Markledew were well aware that, difficult as he was of access, you had only got to approach him with something good to be rewarded for your pains in full measure.

At ten minutes past four Triffitt, who had just finished his work, lifted his head to see a messenger-boy fling open the door of the reporter's room and cast his eyes round. A s.h.i.+ver shot through Triffitt's spine and went out of his toes with a final sting.

”Mr. Markledew wants Mr. Triffitt!”

Two or three other junior reporters who were scribbling in the room glanced at Triffitt as he leapt to obey the summons. They hastened to make kindly comments on this unheard-of episode in the day's dull routine.

”Pale as a fair young bride!” sighed one. ”Buck up, Triff!--he won't eat you.”

”I hear your knees knocking together, Triff,” said another. ”Brace yourself!”