HIDE AND SEEK
Hugh slipped the penciled translation in his pocket, swiftly
rewrapped the Black Letter original and stowed it in the ebony chest,
and refastened the iron box, which he returned to its former place on
the mailed breast of his dead ancestor.
"That's Watkins," he said. "Something has happened up above. Come
on, you chaps."
In the doorway he paused by the body of Toutou's gangster.
"What about this?" he demanded. "I won't have him left in
there--with those."
He gestured toward the silent forms that filled the sepulcher.
"No need to," returned Nikka curtly, emptying the lime-sack as he
spoke. "Leave him here."
We trotted on, and when we passed the first turn in the passage, just
beyond the wreck of the ancient door, we saw a light that bobbed up
and down in the near distance.
"Your ludship!" wailed Watkins's voice through the booming echoes.
"Steady on, Watty," Hugh called back. "I'm here."
"Thank God! Oh, your ludship, I'm that--"
Watkins panted up to us quite out of breath. He carried a dwindling
candle in one hand, and his usually tidy garments were coated with
dust.
"Must--apologize--ludship--appearance--fell--stairs," he began.
"Easy, easy," said Hugh comfortingly, and fell to brushing him off.
"If it's bad news, why, it's bad news, Watty. If it's good news, it
can wait."
"It was a lady, your ludship!"
We all laughed.
"A lady!" repeated Hugh. "Bless my soul, Watty, are you gettin'
dissolute in your old age?"
"She 'ad nothing to do with me, your ludship," remonstrated the valet
indignantly. "Leastwise, I should say, she 'ad no more to do with me
than make a mock of me and the pistol you gave me."
"How's that?"
"Took it away from me, she did, your ludship." Watkins's voice
quivered with wrath. "And tripped me on me back. Yes, and laughed
at me!"
"A lady, you said?" demanded Hugh incredulously.
Watkins nodded his head.
"And hextremely pretty, too, if I may say so, your ludship."
Hugh looked helplessly at Nikka and me.
"I say, this is a yarn!" he exclaimed. "Watty, for God's sake, get a
grip on yourself. Begin at the beginning, and tell everything."
He grinned.
"Conceal nothin', you old reprobate, especially, if there were any
amorous episodes with this lady."
"Your ludship! Mister Hugh, sir!" Watkins's expression was a study
in injured innocence. "You will 'ave your bit of fun, I suppose. As
for me, sir, if I was for making love to some female I'd take one
that was not so free with her strength."
"Are you sure it was a woman?" interrupted Nikka.
"Judge for yourself, sir, Mister Nikka. After you gentlemen left me,
I tidied up the room, and quite a time had passed, I should judge,
when I heard a click, and one of the windows opened in the south
oriel."
"That's the one Toutou and his man escaped through," I broke in.
"They probably fixed the lock."
"Very likely, sir. I turned when I 'eard the click, and the lady
stuck 'er leg over the sill."
"Stuck her--" Hugh gasped.
"Quite so, your ludship. She 'ad on riding-breeches. A very pretty
lady she was, your ludship," added Watkins contemplatively.
"So you've said before," commented Hugh. "And what next?"
"I said: 'Who are you, ma'am?' And she laughed, and said: 'Oh, it's
only me, Watkins.' And I said: 'Well, ma'am, I'm sure I don't know
'ow you come to 'ave my name, but I really can't permit you to come
in 'ere. Please get down, and go around to the front door.'
"With that she 'opped over the window-sill, and stood there, looking
about 'er. 'Come on, now, if you please, ma'am,' I said again. And
I'm sure, your ludship, I was considerate of 'er all the way through."
"I'll bet a pony you were," said Hugh sympathetically.
"Yes, sir. Thank you, your ludship. She looked around, as I said,
and she walked over to the fireplace as cool as a cucumber. 'I see
they did find it, after all,' she says, and she stooped and peeked in
at the 'ole where the stone 'ad dropped. At that I knew she could be
no friend, so I poked the pistol at 'er, and said: 'I don't want to
'arm you, ma'am, but you'll 'ave to come outside with me.'
"'Oh,' she says, 'you wouldn't 'urt me, Watkins. You're a nice,
kind, old valet, aren't you?'"
Watkins's voice throbbed with renewed indignation, and we all three,
the gravity of the situation forgotten, collapsed on the dusty floor.
"Go on, go on," gasped Hugh.
"'Ow can I, your ludship, if you're laughing all the time?" protested
Watkins. "Oh, well, you will 'ave your fun!"
"So did she," I chuckled.
"She did, sir," agreed Watkins with feeling. "She came right up
against the pistol, and put out 'er 'and and patted my cheek like,
and the first thing I knew, gentlemen, she 'ad tripped me and grabbed
the pistol from my 'and, and there was I, lying on the floor, and she
with 'er legs straddled over me, pointing the pistol at me, and
laughing like sin.
"'Get up,' she says. And she went and sat sidewise on the table,
with the pistol resting on 'er knee.'
"What was she like, Watty?"
"She 'ad black hair, sir, and was dark in the face. She wasn't big,
but she was--well, shapely, you might say. And she 'ad a way of
laughing with 'er eyes. She asked me where you were, and what you
had found, and I stood in front of her, and just kept my mouth shut.
'I might shoot you if you won't talk,' she says. 'And if you do,
there'll be those that will hear it, and you'll be seen before you
get away,' I told 'er. 'True,' says she, 'and I couldn't bring
myself to do it, anyway. You're too sweet. You can tell your
master, though, that we're not sorry he's found what he was looking
for. If we couldn't find it, the next best thing was for him to find
it. Whatever he does, he will play into our hands.'
"Then she walked over to the window, and dropped the pistol on a
chair. "'Ere,' she says. 'You might 'ave me taken up for breaking
and entering if I went off with this.' And she 'opped over the sill
on to the lawn. When I got there she was in 'er saddle and riding
away. I tried to telephone to the Lodge to 'ave 'er stopped, but the
wires were cut. They must 'ave done it in the night, your ludship.
'Awkins was unable to get through to any of the village tradespeople
this morning.'
"Was that all?" asked Hugh.
"Yes, your ludship. I called 'Awkins, and told 'im to stand in the
front door, and send away anybody who came. Then I climbed down into
the 'ole, thinking you would wish to know what 'ad 'appened
immediately, your ludship."
"You did quite right, Watty. I don't blame you for what happened.
The lady must have been a Tartar."
Hugh turned to us.
"It seems to me the lesson for us in this last experience is that we
have got to move rapidly if we are going to shake off Teuton's gang,"
he said. "They are fully as formidable as Nikka warned us they would
be. We ought to start for Constantinople this afternoon."
"There's no question of that," assented Nikka. "But what are you
going to do with the key to the treasure? You have it in your pocket
now, but it is a long journey to Constantinople. Suppose they steal
it en route? They may have plenty of opportunities, you know.
Personally, I am not sanguine of shaking them off. Then, too, you
must remember that Constantinople is the human sink of Europe, Asia
and Africa, more so to-day even than before the War. It swarms with
adventurers and dangerous characters. The refuse of half-a-dozen
disbanded armies make their headquarters there. It will be a simple
matter for a gang like Toutou's to waylay you or search your baggage."
Hugh flushed.
"I had thought of that," he said. "Er--the fact is--Jack has a
cousin--a girl we both know--"
"You mean you do," I interrupted sarcastically. "I'm only her
cousin. Have you heard from Betty?"
"Yes, damn you! She and her father are at the Pera Palace--he's an
archæologist-bibliophile Johnny, Nikka, and an awfully good sort."
"And the girl?" inquired Nikka, with his quiet grin.
"Oh, you'll meet her, too. She's very different from what you'd
expect in a cousin of Jack. Anyhow, she knows about this treasure
business, and she read of Uncle James's murder, and she's most
fearfully keen to be in the game with us. My suggestion is that I
mail Uncle James's translation of the key to her in Constantinople.
Nobody knows that she knows me or has any connection with any of us.
She left New York before Uncle James arrived. So it would be
perfectly safe in her hands."
"And in the meantime, we'd better commit it to memory," I said.
The others agreed to this, and we read over the brief transcript of
the missing half of the Instructions until we had the salient
directions fixed in our minds. Then we retraced our steps through
the passage, climbed out of the Prior's Vent and sealed it again; and
while Hugh and Nikka motored down to the village post office with the
letter for Betty, Watkins and I saw to the necessary packing in
preparation for the journey.
We had bags ready for all four of us by lunchtime, and arranged with
Hawkins to send trunks after us to the Pera Palace in bond. When
Hugh and Nikka returned from the village, all that was necessary was
to eat the meal, issue final directions to the servants for the
repairing of the panel of the over-mantle--the removal of which we
represented to have been the work of the burglars--and fill up the
tank of the car.
With an eye to a possible emergency, we had arranged in advance for a
considerable supply of gold and negotiable travelers' notes, and our
passports, thanks to Hugh's influence, had been viséd for all
countries in southern and eastern Europe.
"There's only one thing we lack," remarked Hugh, as we drove out
through the park gates. "I want an electric torch for each of us.
The one we captured came in very handy this morning."
So we stopped at the shop of the local electrician in the village,
and Hugh went in to make the purchase. He was just resuming his seat
in the car when another machine drew up alongside, and Montey Hilyer
waved a greeting.
"Thought you were going to stay in the County a while, Hugh," he
hailed.
Hugh stared at him with the concentrated iciness which the English of
his class attain to perfection.
"Are you touring?" continued Hilyer. "Or going abroad? Seems to me
I heard something this morning about your taking a trip to
Constantinople. A favorite hang-out of your uncle's, I believe.
Well, if you're following the Dover road, you mustn't mind if I trail
you. I have no objection to a knight errant's dust."
Without a word, Hugh slipped in his gears and zoomed off on first,
scattering dogs and pedestrians right and left.
"Damn the scoundrel!" he ripped between clinched teeth. "How I wish
I could show him up! Who was with him?"
Nikka and I both shook our heads.
"There were three people in the tonneau," answered Nikka, "but the
cover was up, and they were buried in wraps. Did you notice your
pretty lady, Watty?"
"No, sir. I couldn't say."
All the way to Dover Hilyer's green car tracked our wheel marks two
or three hundred yards behind. Once, near Godmersham, Hugh speeded
in an endeavor to shake him off. But Hilyer stuck to us without
difficulty, and ran up close enough to show his derisive grin at the
end of the spurt.
On the channel boat again we had the sensation of being watched,
although we could not have pointed to any persons and accused them of
spying; and certainly none of the members of the Hilyer house party
was in evidence. Hilyer, himself, called good-by to us from the dock.
"Have a good time," he shouted genially. "If you get to
Constantinople, you may see me later."
At Calais we passed the Customs and passport officials expeditiously
because both Hugh and Nikka were personages--a doubtful asset, as we
were soon to learn. And on the Paris train we actually thought that
we had eluded surveillance--until we rolled into the Gare du Nord and
started to disembark. It was Nikka who discovered the little red
chalk mark on the door of our compartment, and Watkins who spotted a
furtive individual who slunk down the corridor as we stepped into it,
a rat-faced fellow of the Apache type that had disappeared during the
War and somehow floated back with other scum to the surface of
peacetime life.
We were all of us familiar with Paris, Nikka and I perhaps more so
than Hugh. And we drove to a small hotel near the Louvre which is
noted for its table, its seclusion and its steady patronage. Aside
from the fact that it is a little difficult to get a bath there, it
is the best hotel I know of in the French capital. The proprietor
welcomed us as old friends, and we were provided with the choicest
fare and the most comfortable rooms he had to offer.
The four of us were dog-tired--remember, we had been steadily "on the
prod," as Hugh said, since we wakened in the early morning hours to
repel Toutou's invasion, and the nervous strain had been wearing.
But before we turned in, after M. Palombiere's magnificent dinner,
Nikka telephoned a private number at the Prefecture of Police.
The result of his call was demonstrated when we went down to
breakfast the next morning. A jaunty little man in a top-hat and
frock-coat, with spats and a gold-headed cane, flew up to Nikka and
embraced him in the center of the lobby. And Nikka introduced him to
us as M. Doumergue, Commissaire of the Police de Suretie, or Secret
Police.
Would he do us the honor of taking breakfast with us? Mais,
certainement! It was a pleasure of the greatest to have the company
of M. Zaranko and his cher colleagues. His regrets were unspeakable
that he might not have an extended opportunity to make our
acquaintance, as he understood from M. Zaranko that we must depart
that same day. He had taken the necessary steps already to dispense
with the usual formalities for arriving and departing travelers, and
he had also examined the dossiers of the individuals M. Zaranko had
named.
This last was what especially interested us; and we listened closely
to the facts he recited from a notebook.
"Of Toutou LaFitte, Messieurs, but little can be said. If you have
seen him, then you have seen one whom no police official can claim
knowingly to have laid eyes on. But we feel him, Messieurs. We hear
of him. We sense his manifold activities. If the stories which
others, like yourselves, tell us are true, he is a genius, a monster.
He rules the criminal world. He has the brain of a statesman, the
instincts of an animal.
"Hilmi Bey we know well. During the war he found it convenient to
dwell in Switzerland. He has been mixed up in various shady coups,
both in Egypt and in Turkey. He has sources of income we have never
been able to discover. Prior to this nobody has associated him with
Toutou.
"And this Russian pair! Vassilievich and Vassilievna! They are
notorious as international spies. Before the war they worked in the
German interest. During the War, who can say? Had we caught them
they would have been shot out of hand. But the War is over, I regret
to say, Messieurs. They hold their titles of right, and undoubtedly
come of an honorable family or families. For as to their being
brother and sister--tien! Why worry about the unessential?
"The Hilyers have been watched since before the War on suspicion of
being implicated in dishonorable gambling transactions. But in
France, Messieurs, a wide latitude is allowed in these matters, and
so far, we have not been able to catch them--how is it the excellent
Americans say? Ah, yes, wiz zee goods.
"Is this of assistance? I regret deeply I cannot add more. But if I
can aid you in any way, if you are annoyed in Paris or subjected to
observation, pray call upon me."
He bowed himself out.
"That's all very well," remarked Hugh, as we wandered over to the
newsstand in the lobby, "and his information is valuable, Nikka, but
we can't call on him officially! If we complain of being shadowed at
the Prefecture of Police, they will ask us the object of it; and if
we tell them the truth, you can be sure the secret will leak out.
Why, the policeman who didn't use such information would be a fool!
No, lads, the only thing for us to do is to dodge our trailers."
I shook the Paris edition of the _Daily Mail_ in front of him.
"How the devil can we dodge trailers?" I demanded. "I just picked up
this paper, and look at what I see on the front page."
There under a two-line head was the following announcement:
"Lieut. Col. Lord Chesby, D.S.O., accompanied by Mr. Nikka Zaranko,
the famous violinist, and Mr. John Nash, an American friend, crossed
on the Calais boat yesterday and arrived in Paris last night. Lord
Chesby recently succeeded to the title under circumstances of very
tragic interest."
"There's only one thing to do," said Hugh. "Where's Watkins? We'll
collect him, and book for the first train to Marseilles. They'll
expect us to go direct by the Orient Express."