Part 25 (1/2)

”Wherefore,” observed Triffitt sardonically, ”you want to make a bit.”

”Ain't no harm in a man doing his best for his-elf, guv'nor, I hope,”

said the would-be informant. ”If I don't look after myself, who's a-going to look after me--I asks you that, now?”

”And I ask you--how much?” said Triffitt. ”Out with it!”

The taxi-cab driver considered, eyeing his prospective customer furtively.

”The other gent told you what it is I can tell, guv'nor?” he said at last. ”It's information of what you might call partik'lar importance, is that.”

”I know--you can tell the name of the man whom you drove that morning from the corner of Orchard Street to Kensington High Street,” replied Triffitt. ”It may be important--it mayn't. You see, the police haven't been in any hurry to approach you, have they? Come now, give it a name?”

The informant summoned up his resolution.

”Cash down--on the spot, guv'nor?” he asked.

”Spot cash,” replied Triffitt. ”On this table!”

”Well--how would a couple o' fivers be, now?” asked the anxious one.

”It's good stuff, guv'nor.”

”A couple of fivers will do,” answered Triffitt. ”And here they are.” He took two brand-new, crackling five-pound notes from his pocket, folded them up, laid them on the table, and set a gla.s.s on them. ”Now, then!”

he said. ”Tell your tale--there's your money when it's told.”

The taxi-cab driver eyed the notes, edged his chair further into the half-lighted corner in which Triffitt and Carver sat, and dropped his voice to a whisper.

”All right, guv'nor,” he said. ”Thanking you. Then it's this here--the man what I drove that morning was the nephew!”

”You mean Mr. Barthorpe Herapath?” said Triffitt, also in a whisper.

”That's him--that's the identical, sir! Of course,” continued the informant, ”I didn't know nothing of that when I told the old gent in Portman Square what I did tell him. Now, you see, I wasn't called at that inquest down there at Kensington--after what I'd told the old gent, I expected to be, but I wasn't. All the same, there's been a deal of talk around about the corner of Orchard Street, and, of course, there is them in that quarter as knows all the parties concerned, and this man Barthorpe, as you call him, was pointed out to me as the nephew--nephew to him as was murdered that night. And then, of course, I knew it was him as I took up at two o'clock that morning.”

”How did you know?” asked Triffitt.

The taxi-cab driver held up a hand and tapped a bra.s.s ring on its third finger.

”Where I wears that ring, gentlemen,” he said triumphantly, ”he wears a fine diamond--a reg'lar swell 'un. That morning, when he got into my cab, he rested his hand a minute on the door, and the light from one o'

the lamps across the street shone full on the stone. Now, then, when this here Barthorpe was pointed out to me in Orchard Street, a few days ago, as the nephew of Jacob Herapath, he was talking to another gentleman, and as they stood there he lighted a cigar, and when he put his hand up, I see that ring again--no mistaking it, guv'nor! He was the man. And, from what I've read, it seems to me it was him as put on his uncle's coat and hat after the old chap was settled, and----”

”If I were you, I'd keep those theories to myself--yet awhile, at any rate,” said Triffitt. ”In fact--I want you to. Here!” he went on, removing the gla.s.s and pus.h.i.+ng the folded banknotes towards the taxi-cab driver, ”put those in your pocket. And keep your mouth shut about having seen and told me. I shan't make any use--public use, anyway--of what you've said, just yet. If the old gentleman, Tertius, comes to you, or the police come along with or without him, you can tell 'em anything you like--everything you've told me if you please--it doesn't matter, now.

But you're on no account to tell them that I've seen you and that you've spilt to me--do you understand?”

The informant understood readily enough, and promised with equal readiness, even going so far as to say that that would suit him down to the ground.

”All right,” said Triffitt, ”keep a still tongue as regards me, and there'll be another fiver for you. Now, Carver, we'll get.”

Outside Triffitt gave his companion's arm a confidential squeeze.