PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS
We often read of a novelist “taking the reader into his confidence,”
but at this point of my narrative I should like to reverse the process,
and ask my readers to take me into theirs. Were I telling my story by
word of mouth instead of by pen, I should lay a respectful hand, my
dear madam, upon your arm, or hook a detaining forefinger, my dear
sir, into your button-hole, and, leading you aside for a few minutes,
should put the matter to you somewhat in this way: “From the fact of
your following my record thus far, you are presumably interested in
detective stories, and have no doubt read many narratives of the sort.
You know the detectives who have been drawn--or rather created--by
Edgar Allan Poe, and in more recent times by Dr. Conan Doyle and Mr.
Arthur Morrison--detectives who unravel for us, link by link, in the
most astounding and convincing manner, and by some original method of
reasoning, an otherwise inexplicable mystery or crime.
“And you know too the familiar bungler who is always boasting about
his astuteness, unless, as occasionally happens (but only in the pages
of a detective novel, for in real life our friends are more ready
to record our failures than our successes), he has some applauding
Boswell--a human note of exclamation--who passes his life in ecstasies
of admiring wonder at his friend’s marvellous penetration. And as it
is not unlikely that you have your own opinion as to what a detective
should or should not do under certain circumstances, I ask you at this
point of my narrative to take me into your confidence and let me put to
you the following question. Suppose it had been you, and not I, who, in
the hope of getting sight of James Mullen--as we will for convenience’
sake call the person passing as Mrs. Hughes--had kept a watch upon the
‘Cuban Queen,’ as described in Chapter IX. And suppose it had been
you and not I who had been in the company of Muir and Quickly that
evening, and had seen Mullen come from the hulk in a boat, under cover
of twilight, and proceed in the direction of Benfleet, whence he could
take train either to London or to Southend. Would you in that case
have acted as I did, and instructed Quickly to shadow him, so that
you might get an opportunity of paying a surprise visit to the ‘Cuban
Queen’ in Mullen’s absence? or would you have abandoned your proposed
visit to the hulk and decided to follow him yourself?”
Let me sum up briefly the arguments for and against either course as
they presented themselves to me when I had so hastily to make choice.
In the first place, I had to recognise that in intrusting the task to
Quickly I had one or two very ugly possibilities to face. Though a
sensible fellow enough for ordinary purposes, he was hardly the sort
of man one would select for so delicate a piece of work as that of
shadowing a suspect. He might prove himself sufficiently clever to
carry it through successfully, but it was much more likely that he
would fail, and it was even conceivable that he might so bungle it
as to attract the attention of Mullen, and thus to frighten away the
very bird for whom I was spreading a net. But what weighed with me
even more than this was that in deputing Quickly to follow Mullen I
was losing sight--at all events for a time--of the central figure of
my investigations, as they then stood--of the person whom, rightly or
wrongly, I suspected to be the object of my search--and this was a
course which no one placed as I was could adopt without the gravest
misgiving.
On the other hand, the reasons which most influenced me in deciding to
intrust the task of shadower to Quickly were equally weighty. If the
person who was secreted on the “Cuban Queen” were James Mullen, he was
not likely, in view of the hue and cry that had been raised, and of the
vigorous search which was being made, to venture far from so secure a
hiding-place, and the probability was that he had gone to some station
up or down the line--probably to Southend--to post some package in
order that it might not bear the Canvey postmark.
Another reason was that I could not ask for an arrest merely upon
suspicion, and it was quite possible that to obtain the necessary
evidence I might have to keep an eye upon Mullen for some time to come.
By shadowing him upon the present occasion, I ran the risk of being
seen and recognised, which would not so much matter in the case of
Quickly. Then, again, it was highly desirable I should pay my surprise
visit to the “Cuban Queen” in the absence of the suspected party, and
if I neglected to do so on the present occasion I might not get another
opportunity.
If I could satisfy myself by a visit to the hulk that the person who
had been concealed there was really a woman, I need trouble myself no
further about the vessel and its occupants. But if, on the other hand,
I found evidence which went to prove that the supposed Mrs. Hughes was
of the male sex, I should have good cause to believe that I had indeed
discovered the hiding-place of the redoubtable James Mullen.
My last reason was that at the moment when I was called upon to make my
decision, I was wearing a Norfolk shooting jacket and knickerbockers.
This costume, especially in the streets of London, would render me
conspicuous, and in fact would be the worst possible attire for so
ticklish a job as that of shadowing a suspect, whereas Quickly’s dress
would attract no attention either in town or country.
I have asked my readers to take me into their confidence and to face
with me the dilemma in which I was placed, because I am in hopes that
most of them will admit that under the circumstances, and especially
in view of the conspicuous dress I happened to be wearing, I acted
rightly. Those who so decide will not be too hard upon me when I
confess that, in allowing myself to lose sight of the person who had
been in hiding on the hulk, I made, as events proved, a fatal and,
but for other circumstances, an irretrievable mistake. That I am but
a bungler at the best is, I fear, already only too evident, though
I make bold to say that it is not often that I bungle so badly as I
did on this occasion. The results of that bungle--results big with
consequences to others and to myself--were twofold. The first was that
Quickly never returned from the quest upon which I had despatched him,
nor from that day to this has any word of him been received. He simply
disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed
him. The second was that he was companioned in his disappearance by
the person whom I had instructed him to follow. James Mullen, if James
Mullen it were, did not come back to the hulk, and I had after a time
to admit to myself that, so far as Canvey Island and the “Cuban Queen”
were concerned, “the game was up.”