Part 18 (1/2)

”I shall ascend the steps, knock, and ask for Danilovitch,” the great detective said. ”The probability is that the door will be unceremoniously slammed in my face. But you will be behind me. I shall place my foot in the door to prevent premature closing, and at first sign of resistance you, being behind me, will help me to force the door, and so enter. At word from me don't hesitate--use all your might. I intend to give whoever lives there a sudden and sharp surprise.”

”But if they are refugees, they are desperate. What then?”

”I expect they are,” he laughed. ”This is no doubt the hornets' nest.

Therefore it behoves us to be wary, and have our wits well about us.

You're not afraid, Mr Trewinnard?”

”Not at all,” I said. ”Where you dare go, there I will follow.”

”Good. Let's make the attempt then,” he said, and together we strolled leisurely back until we came to the flight of unclean front steps, whereupon both of us turned and, ascending, Hartwig gave a sharp postman's knock at the door.

An old, grey-whiskered, ill-dressed man, palpably a Polish Jew, opened the door, whereupon Hartwig asked in Russian:

”Is our leader Danilo Danilovitch here?”

The man looked from him to me inquiringly.

”Tell him that Ivan Arapoff, from Petersburg, wishes to speak with him.”

”I do not know, Gospodin, whether he is at home,” replied the man with politeness. ”But I will see, if you will wait,” and he attempted to close the door in our faces.

Hartwig, however, was prepared for such manoeuvre, for he had placed his foot in the door, so that it could not be closed. The Polish Jew was instantly on the alert and shouted some sharp word of warning, evidently a preconcerted signal, to those within, whereat Hartwig and myself made a sudden combined effort and next second were standing within the narrow evil-smelling little hall.

I saw the dark figures of several men and women against the stairs, and heard whispered words of alarm in Russian. But Hartwig lost no time, for he shouted boldly:

”I wish to see Danilo Danilovitch. Let him come forward. If he does not do so, then it is at his own peril.”

”If you are police officers you cannot touch us here in England!”

shouted a young woman with dark, tousled hair, a revolutionist of the female-student type.

”We are here from Petersburg as friends, but you apparently treat us as enemies,” said Hartwig.

”If you are traitors you will, neither of you, leave this house alive,”

cried a thick-set man, advancing towards me threateningly. ”So you shall see Danilovitch--and he shall decide.”

I heard somebody bolting the front door heavily to prevent our escape, while a voice from somewhere above, in the gloom of the stairs, shouted:

”Comrades, they are police-spies!”

A young, black-haired Jewess of a type seen everywhere in Poland, thin-featured and handsome, with a grey shawl over her shoulders, emerged from a door and peered into my face. There seemed fully fifteen persons in that dingy house, all instantly alarmed at our arrival. Here was, no doubt, the London centre of revolutionary activity directed against the Russian Imperial family and Danilo Danilovitch was in hiding there. It was fortunate, indeed, that the ever-vigilant Tack had succeeded in running him to earth.

I had told Hartwig of the allegation which Tack had made against Danilovitch, that, though in the service of the Secret Police, he had arranged certain attempts against members of the Imperial family, and how he had deliberately killed his sweetheart, Marie Garine. But Hartwig, being chief of the Surete, had no connection with the political department, and was, therefore, unaware of any agent of Secret Police known as Danilovitch.

”I remember quite well the case of Marie Garine,” he added. ”I thoroughly investigated it and found that she had, no doubt, been killed by her lover. But I put it down to jealousy, and as the culprit had left Russia I closed the inquiry.”

”Then you could arrest him, even now,” I said.

”Not without considerable delay. Besides, in Petersburg they are against applying for extradition in England. The newspapers always hint at the horrors of Siberia in store for the person arrested. And,” he added, ”I agree that it is quite useless to unnecessarily wound the susceptibilities of my own countrymen, the English.” It was those words he had spoken as we had come along Blurton Road.