THE PASSING OF CLEEK
"Can't think how you manage to remember the faces of so many Apaches,
seeing how many years ago it is since you were one of them," said the
Superintendent, as the limousine bore them back to town.
"It's a trick, and a useful one," was the curt reply of his famous ally.
Somehow, although it was in the sacred cause of law and justice, it
always hurt Cleek when he had to take advantage of his inner knowledge
of the Apache gang.
"Set a thief to catch a thief, I suppose," he added, with a tinge of
bitterness in his tones, and Mr. Narkom looked curiously at him. It was
not like Cleek to regret the successful solving of a difficult riddle,
and still more unlike him to refer to the old dead days forever put
behind him for the sake of one woman's smile.
"My dear chap," he blurted out at last, "you're tired. That's what it
is, tired, and I don't wonder."
Cleek pinched up his chin. "Yes, I am tired," he jerked out, suddenly,
"tired of being hunted." He sat up erect then, his eyes hard and
brilliant.
"It's my turn, I think," he continued. "I want to hunt--myself. From
Margot and her gang there seems to be no escape for Ailsa or myself. I
thought we should have rounded them up to-day. Instead," he added
ruefully, "they nearly got me----"
"The artful devils," muttered Mr. Narkom.
"I have a plan," interrupted Cleek. "Do not send for me for a few days,
no matter what happens. No matter what! Do you understand?"
And, as if carrying out a long-preconceived plan, he slipped from the
moving car and vanished in the crowd.
* * * * *
About a week later, about ten-thirty of a certain morning, the
well-known limousine drew up outside Scotland Yard and a certain great
detective could be seen seated within. Apparently his movements were
already known to his enemies, for hardly had Lennard stopped at the curb
than there whirred along the Embankment another car, its single occupant
a woman with white face and eyes blazing with set purpose. Nearer and
nearer it came till, obviously following a definite scheme, it drew up
parallel with the Yard car wherein was Cleek, waiting apparently to obey
the Yard's summons.
Before the few stray passersby had time to notice the presence of either
car, drivers, or occupants, the woman, no less than Margot herself, drew
her revolver, firing several shots in swift succession at the man in the
limousine. As the form fell forward, riddled with bullets, she gave a
shrill cry of triumph. Those near enough heard her exclaim in shrill,
piercing tones: "Margot got you at last, Cleek the Cracksman, Cleek the
Rat!"
Then as Mr. Narkom and a posse of police, startled by the sound of the
shots, rushed onto the scene, her car made an attempt to escape. But
this was impossible; men and police blocked its way, and in another
second a screaming, fighting, struggling figure was brought into the
building, while Mr. Narkom strove to dislodge the sobbing form of
Dollops from the body of his master. And when the gaping,
horror-stricken crowd saw Mr. Narkom take off his coat and lay it
reverently over the white-faced body, a wave of horror and grief surged
over the little crowd.
Cleek the Detective had been known and loved by the whole force, and the
tragedy was an overwhelming one.
Up to Mr. Narkom's room, the scene of so many triumphs, the little
funeral cortège went, while Mr. Narkom, putting his grief aside,
conveyed by telephone and telegraph to Press and people the news that
Hamilton Cleek, the best detective Europe had ever known, was no more.
Since the news came from Scotland Yard itself, there could be no doubt
of its authenticity, and Press and people did their utmost to show
respect to the man who had "made good," only to lose his life at the
hands of an assassin, and the papers blazed with threats and demands
for Margot's death.
* * * * *
But far away on the rocky coast of Cornwall Mrs. Narkom and a happy--if
remorseful--trio, in Dollops, Ailsa, and Cleek, basked in the sunlight
of a world freed from enemies.
Once more Mr. Narkom had solved the problem "by death alone."
Money, that most powerful lever which moves the world, had produced a
dead body. Skillful hands had made up the face to that of Cleek, and his
proposed movements had been cleverly announced to Margot whose desire
for vengeance had been growing daily stronger.
It was highly improbable that the truth would ever be revealed. Even the
papers had been cleverly deceived, and with Margot secure in captivity,
happiness secure before them in their love, and the love which
surrounded them a living shield in itself, the two lovers prepared to
tread the long road of happiness, undeterred and undismayed.
THE END