THE FOUR FALSE FINGERS
The house outside Maldon proved to be a newly built, detached,
eight-roomed villa in a lonely spot on the high road to Witham. As I
idled about it, I smelt a curious odor of melting rubber. Apparently
the place had been taken furnished, but with what object I could not
guess. Tarrant was a queer, rather insignificant-looking old fellow
with a shock of white hair and a scraggy white beard.
Both he and Rayne were closeted together in the little dining-room for
nearly two hours, while I sat in the adjoining room. I could hear them
conversing in low tones, and the smell of rubber warmed by heat became
more pungent. What game was being carried on? Something very secret
without a doubt. I thought I heard the sound of a third man's voice.
Indeed, there might be a third person present, for I had not been
admitted to the room.
At last, leaving Rayne there, I drove the old man on to Witham, where
I left him at his own request at a point near the wireless telegraph
station, and turning, went back to the thieves' garage and there left
the car.
I did not see Rudolph Rayne again for several days, but according to
instructions I received from Madame Duperre, I went by train up to
Yorkshire and awaited their arrival.
From Duperre, who arrived three days after I had got to Overstow, I
gathered that Rayne had suddenly been called away to the Continent on
one of his swift visits, "on a little matter of business," added
Vincent with a meaning grin.
We were smoking together in the great old library, when I told him of
my narrow escape on Clifton Bridge.
"Yes," he said. "Benton is always trying to get at us. It was sly of
him to impersonate old Morley. I wonder how he got to know that you
were meeting him? Someone must have betrayed Rayne. I have a suspicion
who it may be. If he has, then woe betide him! Rudolph never forgives
an enemy or a blunderer."
I tried to get from Duperre the reason why the hunchback had met Rayne
in such secrecy, but he would divulge nothing.
Next day his wife and Lola returned, and that same evening as I sat
with the latter in the chintz-covered drawing-room--for though I had
been engaged as chauffeur I was now treated as one of the family--I
had a delightful chat with her.
That she was sorely puzzled at her father's rapid journeys to and fro
across Europe without any apparent reason, of the strange assortment
of his friends and the secrecy in which he so often met them, I had
long ago observed.
The truth was that I had fallen deeply in love with the sweet dainty
girl whose father was the most audacious and cunning crook the modern
world had produced. I believed, on account of the small confidence we
had exchanged, that Lola, on her part, did not regard me with actual
disfavor.
"When will your father be back, do you think?" I asked her as she
lounged upon a settee with a big orange silk cushion behind her. She
looked very sweet. She wore a pretty but very simple dance-frock of
flame-colored ninon, in which I had seen her at the Carlton on the
night when I set out to meet the man Tarrant and was so nearly caught.
I had given her a cigarette, and we were smoking together
cosily--Duperre and his wife being somewhere in the great old house. I
think Duperre was, after all, a sportsman, even though he was a
practiced crook, for on that night he and his wife allowed me to be
alone with Lola.
"Do you know a friend of your father, an old man named Tarrant?" I
asked her suddenly.
"Tarrant--Morley Tarrant?" she asked. "Oh! yes. He's such a funny old
fellow. Three years ago he often used to visit us when we lived in
Biarritz, but I haven't seen him since."
"Who is he?"
"He was the manager of the branch of the Credit Foncier. He is
French, though he bears an English name."
"French! But he speaks English!" I remarked.
"Of course. His mother was English. He was once employed by Morgan's
in Paris, I believe, but I haven't seen him lately. Father said one
day at table that the old fellow had overstepped the mark and owing to
some defalcations had gone to prison. I was sorry. What do you know of
him?"
"Nothing," I replied. "I've heard of him."
She looked me very straight in the face from beneath her long dark
lashes.
"Ah! you won't tell me what you know," she said mysteriously.
"Neither will you, Lola!" Then, after a pause, I added: "I want to
know whether he is your father's friend--or his enemy."
"His friend, no doubt."
"Why should your father have as friend a man who robs a bank, eh?" I
asked very earnestly.
"Ah! That I don't know!" replied the girl as she bent towards me
earnestly. "I--I'm always so puzzled. Ever since my dear mother died,
just after I came back from Roedene, I have wondered--and always
wondered. I can discover nothing--absolutely nothing! Father is so
secret, and neither Madame nor he will tell me anything. They only say
that their business is no affair of mine. My father has business, no
doubt, Mr. Hargreave. From his business he derives his income. But I
cannot see why he should so constantly meet men and women in all
sorts of social positions and give them orders, as it were. I am not
blind, neither am I deaf."
"You have listened in secret, eh?" I asked.
"I confess that I have." Then, after a slight pause, she went on: "And
I have overheard some very strange conversations. My father seems to
direct the good fortunes of certain of his friends, while at the same
time he plots against his enemies. But I suppose, after all, it is
business."
Business! Little did the girl dream of the real occupation of her
unscrupulous father, or the desperate characters of his friends, both
male and female.
Truly, she was very sweet and charming, and I hated to think that in
her innocence she existed in that fevered world of plotting and
desperate crime.
We walked along the broad terrace in the twilight. Beyond spread the
wide park to a dark belt of trees, Sherman's Copse, it was called, a
delightfully shady place in summer where we had often strolled
together.
As we chatted, I reflected. So old Morley Tarrant was a gaol-bird!
Hence it was but natural that Rudolph Rayne, who preserved such a high
degree of respectability, would hesitate to meet him providing he knew
that the police were watching. He certainly knew that, hence the
secrecy of their appointment.
As we walked Madame suddenly emerged from the French windows of the
drawing-room and joined us.
"I've just had a wire from Rudolph," she said. "He's leaving
Copenhagen to-night and will be back to-morrow night. I'd no idea that
he had been over in Denmark. But there! he is such a bird of passage
that one never knows where he may be to-morrow." And she laughed.
Later we all four sat down to dinner, a decorous meal, well-cooked and
well-served. But the character of the household was shown by the fact
that none of the servants--discreetly chosen, of course, and in
themselves members of the criminal organization--betrayed the least
surprise that I, who acted as chauffeur, should be admitted to that
curious family circle.
Rayne returned next night, tired and travel-worn, and I met him at
Thirsk station.
"We go up to Edinburgh to-morrow. I shall want you to drive me," he
said as he sat at my side in the Rolls. "Lola will go also."
His last words delighted me, and next day at noon we all three set
forth on our journey north. It rained all day and the run was the
reverse of pleasant, nevertheless, we arrived at the Caledonian Hotel
quite safely, and were soon installed in one of the cosy private
suites.
Father and daughter breakfasted in their sitting-room, while I had my
meal alone in the coffee-room.
When later I went up for orders Rayne dismissed me abruptly, saying
that he would not require me till after lunch.
Half an hour afterwards, while idling along Princes Street, I came
across Lola, who was looking in one of the shop windows.
"Father has sent me out as he wants to talk business with Mr. Hugh
Martyn, a rich American we met at the Grand, in Rome, last year.
Father has come up here specially to meet him."
What fresh crooked business could there be in progress? That Rayne had
paid flying visits to Copenhagen and Edinburgh in such a short space
of time was in itself highly suspicious.
After luncheon, on entering Rayne's sitting-room, I found him busily
fashioning from a sheet of thin cardboard a small square box which he
was fitting over a large glass paper-weight, a cube about four inches
square which was wrapped in tissue-paper, the corner of which happened
to be torn and so revealed the glass.
"I'm sending this away as a present," he explained. "I bought it over
in Princes Street this morning." And he continued with his scissors to
make the box to fit it. "I shall not want you any more to-day
Hargreave," he went on. "We'll get back home to-morrow, starting at
ten."
And, as was his habit, he dismissed me abruptly.
Four days later I was summoned to the library, where in breeches and
gaiters he was standing astride upon the hearthrug.
"Look here, Hargreave," he said, "I want you to take the next train up
to London and carry that little leather bag with you," and he
indicated a small bag standing upon the writing-table. "On arrival go
at once down to Maldon and call at half-past nine o'clock to-morrow
night at that house to which you took old Mr. Tarrant. You recollect
it--The Limes, on the Witham road. Morley will be expecting you."
"Very well," I replied. "Is there any message?"
"None. Just deliver it to him. But to nobody else, remember," he
ordered.
So according to his instructions I duly arrived at the remote house at
the hour arranged, and delivered the bag to the old man, who welcomed
me and gave me a whisky-and-soda, which I found very acceptable after
my long tramp from Maldon station. Tarrant was not alone, for I
distinctly heard a man's voice calling him just before he opened the
door to me.
Recollecting that the old fellow had been in gaol, I was full of
curiosity as to what was intended. I certainly never believed it to be
so highly ingenious and dastardly as it eventually proved to be.
About a month passed uneventfully, save that I spent many delightful
hours in Lola's company. Her father had purchased another two-seater
car--a "sports model" Vauxhall--and on several occasions I took him
for runs in it about Yorkshire. Naturally he knew little about cars
himself, but relied upon my knowledge and judgment. In addition to the
Rolls and the Vauxhall I also had an "Indian" motor-cycle for my own
personal use, and found it very useful in going on certain rapid
missions to York and elsewhere. But the abandonment of the
"A.C."--which had, by the way, been regarded as a mystery by the
Press--hurt me considerably.
Duperre had been absent from Overstow ever since the day we had left
for Edinburgh, but as the bright autumn days passed I found myself
more and more in love with the dainty girl whose father was a
master-criminal.
Nevertheless, I felt that Duperre's wife kept eager watch upon both of
us. Perhaps she feared that I might tell Lola some of my adventures.
As for Rayne, he was often out shooting over neighboring estates, for
he was a good shot and highly popular in the neighborhood, while at
Overstow itself there was some excellent sport to which now and then
he would invite his local friends.
Rayne possessed a marvelous personality. When at home he was the
typical country gentleman, a good judge of a horse and in his "pink" a
straight rider to hounds. None who met him would have ever dreamed
that he was the shrewd, crafty cosmopolitan whose evil machinations
and devilish ingenuity made themselves felt in all the capitals of
Europe, and whose word was law to certain dangerous characters who
would not hesitate to take human life if it were really necessary to
evade arrest.
His outstanding cleverness, however, was that he never revealed his
own identity to those who actually carried out his devilish schemes.
The circle of cosmopolitan malefactors who were his cat's-paws only
knew Monsieur and Madame Duperre--under other names--but of Rudolph
Rayne's very existence they were nearly all ignorant. Money was, I
learnt, freely paid for various "jobs" by agents engaged by the man I
had once known as Captain Deinhard, or else by certain receivers of
stolen goods in London and on the Continent, who were forewarned that
jewels, bonds or stolen bank-notes would reach them in secret, and
that payment must be made and no questions asked.
Late one evening Duperre returned unexpectedly in a hired car from
Thirsk. We had finished dinner, and I chanced to be with Rayne in the
library, yet longing to get to the old-fashioned drawing-room with its
sweet odor of potpourri, where Lola was, I knew, sitting immersed in
the latest novel.
"Hallo, Vincent! Why, I thought you were still in Aix-les-Bains!"
cried Rayne, much surprised, and yet a trifle excited, which was quite
unusual for him.
"There's a nasty little hitch!" replied the other, still in his heavy
traveling coat. Then, turning to me, he said: "Hargreave, old chap,
will you leave for a moment or two? I want to speak to Rudolph."
"Of course," I said. I was by that time used to those confidential
conversations, and I walked along the corridor and joined Lola.
"I'm very troubled, Mr. Hargreave," the girl suddenly exclaimed in a
low, timid voice after we had been chatting a short time. "I overheard
father whispering something to Madame Duperre to-day."
"Whispering something!" I echoed. "What was that?"
"Something about Mr. Martyn, that American gentleman he met in
Edinburgh," she replied. "Father was chuckling to himself, saying that
he had taken good precautions to prevent him proving an alibi. Father
seemed filled with the fiercest anger against him. I'm sure he's an
awfully nice man, though we hardly know him. What can it mean?"
An alibi? I reflected. I replied that it was as mysterious to me as to
her. Like herself I lived in a clouded atmosphere of rapidly changing
circumstances, mysterious plots and unknown evil deeds--truly a world
of fear and bewilderment.
Some days later I had driven up to London in the Rolls with Duperre,
leaving Rayne and Lola at home, Duperre's wife being away somewhere on
a visit. We took up our quarters at Rayne's chambers, and next day
idled about London together. Just before we went out to dinner Martyn
called, and after taking a drink Duperre went out with him, remarking
to me that he would be in soon after eleven. Hence I went to the
theater, and on returning at midnight awaited him.
I sat reading by the fire and dozed till just past two o'clock, when
he returned dressed in unfamiliar clothes: a rough suit of tweeds in
which he presented the appearance of a respectable artisan. His left
hand was bound roughly with a colored handkerchief, and he appeared
very exhausted. Before speaking he poured himself out a liqueur glass
of neat brandy which he swallowed at a single gulp.
"I've had a rather nasty accident, George," he said. "I've cut my hand
pretty badly. Only not a soul must know about it--you understand?"
I nodded, and then at his request I assisted him to wash the wound and
rebandage it.
"What's been the matter?" I asked with curiosity.
"Nothing very much," was his hard reply. "You'll probably know all
about it to-morrow. The papers will be full of it. But mind and keep
your mouth shut very tightly."
And with that he drew from his pockets a pair of thin surgical rubber
gloves, both of which were blood-stained, and hurriedly threw them
into the fire.
On the following evening about six o'clock I was alone in Rayne's
chambers when the evening newspaper was, as usual, pushed through the
letter-box. I rose, and taking it up glanced casually at the front
page, when I was confronted by a startling report.
It appeared that just after midnight on the previous night the
watchman on duty at the Chartered Bank of Liberia, in Lombard Street,
had been murderously attacked by some unknown person who apparently
battered his head with an iron bar, and left him unconscious and so
seriously injured that he was now in Guy's Hospital without hope of
recovery. The bank robbers had apparently used a most up-to-date
oxyacetylene plant for cutting steel, and from the strong-room in the
basement--believed to be impregnable and which could only be opened
by a time-clock, and, moreover, could be flooded at will--they had cut
out the door as butter could be cut with a hot knife. From the safe
they had abstracted negotiable bonds with English, French and Italian
notes to the value of over eighty thousand pounds, with which the
thieves had got clear away.
The bank robbery was the greatest sensation of the moment. The thieves
had cleverly effected an entrance by one of them having secreted
himself in a safe in the bank when it had closed. In the morning at
nine o'clock when the first clerk, a lady accountant, had arrived, she
could get no entrance, so she waited till one of her male colleagues
arrived. Then they called a constable, and after half an hour the
sensational fact of the unconscious watchman and the rifled
strong-room became revealed.
The newspaper report concluded with the following sentences:
"It is evident that one of the thieves cut his hand badly, for we
understand that the detectives of the City police have found
blood-stained finger-prints of four distinct fingers upon the door and
in other parts of the strong-room. These, of course, have already been
photographed, and in due course will be investigated by that
department of Scotland Yard which deals with the finger-prints of
known criminals."
With the knowledge of the injury to Duperre's hand I felt confident
that the great _coup_ was due to him. And I was not mistaken.
The bank thieves had got clear away, it was true, but they had left
those tell-tale finger-prints behind! As everyone knows, the ridges
and whorls upon the hands of no two men are alike, therefore it seemed
clear that Scotland Yard, now aroused, would very quickly--owing to
its marvelous classification of the finger-prints of every criminal
who has passed through the hands of the police during the past quarter
of a century--fix upon the person who had laid his hands upon the
steel safe door.
An hour after I had read the report in the paper, Duperre rang me up.
"I'm going to Overstow by the nine-thirty from King's Cross to-night,"
he said. "If you can join me, do. The air is better in Yorkshire than
in London, don't you think so, old chap?"
"Right-oh!" I replied. "I'll travel up with you."
We met, and early next morning we were back at Overstow. Yet I managed
to suppress any untoward curiosity.
It was only when about a week later I read in the paper of the result
of the discovery of Scotland Yard finger-print department and of a
consequent arrest that I sat aghast.
A notorious jewel-thief named Hersleton, alias Hugh Martyn, an
American, had been arrested at a hotel at Brighton, and had been
charged at Bow Street with the murderous attack upon the night
watchman at the Chartered Bank of Liberia, his finger-prints, taken
some years before, coinciding exactly with those left at the bank. He
had violently protested his innocence, but had been committed for
trial.
At the Old Bailey six weeks later, the night watchman having
fortunately recovered from his injuries, Hugh Martyn was brought
before Mr. Justice Harland, and though very ably defended by his
counsel, he was quite unable to account for his movements on the night
in question.
"I was never there!" the prisoner shrieked across the court to the
judge as I sat in the public gallery watching the scene. "I know
nothing of the affair--nothing whatever. I am innocent."
"It is undeniable that the prisoner's finger-prints were left there,"
remarked the eminent counsel for the Treasury, rising very calmly. "We
have them here before us--enlarged photographs which the jury have
just seen. Gentlemen of the jury, I put it to you that the prisoner is
the man who assisted in this dastardly crime!"
The jury, after a short retirement, found Hugh Martyn guilty, and the
judge, after hearing his previous convictions, sentenced him to
fifteen years' penal servitude.
But Mr. Justice Harland has never known, until perhaps he may read
these lines, that by the ingenious machinations of the super-criminal
Rudolph Rayne, Hugh Martyn, who was one of his associates who had
quarrelled with him over his share of a bank robbery in Madrid, and
had tried to betray me to Benton on Clifton Bridge, had been the
victim of a most dastardly treachery, though he was quite unaware of
it and believed Rayne to be his friend.
Only many months later I learned, by piecing together certain facts,
that old Morley Tarrant was an expert photographer and maker of
printer's "blocks." Slowly it became plain that Rayne, having been
betrayed by the astute American crook, had met him in Edinburgh and
with devilish malice aforethought, had contrived to get him to handle
the glass cube which served as a paper-weight, and which I had quite
innocently conveyed to the old hunchback, who had succeeded in taking
the finger-prints and by photography transferring them upon the
surgical rubber glove, thin as paper--really a false skin--which
Duperre had worn over his hands when he and his associates made an
attack upon the bank.
By that means Martyn's finger-prints were left upon the safe door.
Duperre had previously taken out Martyn, whom one of his friends, a
woman, had drugged, so that he lay in that furnished house near Maldon
for two days unconscious. Hence he was unable to give any accurate
account of his movements on the night in question, or prove an alibi,
and was, in consequence, convicted.
Rayne, the man with the abnormal criminal brain, had, by that
ingenious _coup_, not only contrived to spirit away to the Continent a
sum of eighty thousand pounds in negotiable securities, but had also
sent to a long term of penal servitude the man who had attempted to
betray him.