SERGEANT SMITH: HIS OPINIONS AND ADVENTURES
"Sergeant Smith is in charge of the party deputed to watch the
redoubtable Coggins at Pangford. The Sergeant is a North country
man, senior to me in the force, but of more recent promotion, a very
hard-working, conscientious man, but, to tell truth, I felt that
Smith was not quite a match for the wily Coggins. I did not let
Macgregor take the motor into the town, but waited outside the houses
while Macgregor went on foot and brought Sergeant Smith to report and
confer with me.
"Sergeant Smith had a strange tale to relate. It appears to him that
Coggins has his heart in his new business. The Sergeant prudently
keeps out of Coggins' way himself for fear of recognition, but
neither of his men have ever seen him or been seen by him, and they
drop from time to time into the bar parlor of the Balin Arms. From
that 'coign of vantage' they can hear Coggins in the commercial room,
talking loud in broken English, laughing, singing snatches of French
songs, vociferating in his foreign way, joking with his
fellow-travelers, boasting of his commercial successes, and then
again talking over his many customers. For he has introduced some
wonderful 'cheap lines,' as commercial people call them, in silk
ties, smart handkerchiefs, all sold at remarkably low prices. He is
out day after day, and at all times of the day, with the inn dog-cart
and the hostler's boy. He visits all the neighboring village shops,
and talk of him has gone round the country. 'I suppose,' said
Sergeant Smith, 'he will get a dozen calls in a day from the small
shopkeepers in the towns and villages round about to get more of his
cheap stuff.'
"'And no one, I suppose, has any suspicion about him?' I asked.
"'No danger! They just think him a smart business man opening up a
new line, and willing to let his stuff go cheap at first. Naturally,
they want to make hay while the sun shines--and sometimes, Sergeant
Morgan, I ask myself if this Mr. Dubois, as he calls himself--'
Sergeant Smith pondered.
"'You ask yourself,' I suggested, 'if Mr. Dubois is really Gentleman
Coggins after all?'
"'Just so,' said Smith, laughing. 'We are beginning here to ask
ourselves that.'
"'I cannot help you, Sergeant Smith, I've never seen Coggins--but you
have.'
"'That's just it,' said Smith. 'I've taken many a squint at this
fellow Dubois through windows and the like, and for the life of me I
can't spot him. The real Coggins is a sallow, clean-shaven fellow,
just like one of those actor chaps you can see any day by the dozen
in the Strand, and the real Coggins pulls a long face. Now this man
is a rosy-gilled fellow--that's smiling and laughing all the time, no
moustache, but a stiff black beard, shaved a bit on the cheeks, and
going under his chin like a Newcastle ruff--French fashion.'
"'I don't think the office have made any mistake. Stick to him,
Sergeant. It's Coggins, you bet!'
"'I will stick to him, and I have stuck to him, Coggins or not
Coggins,' said Sergeant Smith, 'and I'll give you an example of how
I've done it. Yesterday he ordered the inn dog-cart and drove out.
It was close upon three o'clock in the afternoon. I thought I would
follow him on my bicycle, as I had often done before in the last
three weeks that we have been watching him. I had not noticed that
he had taken his own bicycle with him in the cart, covered with a
rug. He drove to a village beyond Balin, got out and did business at
the general shop. I held back out of sight, and when I came up to
the trap again the hostler's lad was driving alone.'
"'Why,' said I to the boy, 'where's Mr. Dubois?'
"'He had his bicycle with him,' said the lad, 'and he goes to Pincote
village and gets me to leave samples at places on the way back to
Pangford.'
"'Gone to Pincote, is he?'
"'So I pedaled on fast, and presently got him in sight again, and he
led me a pretty chase long past Pincote, up and down very bad roads,
and I thought I'd just go up to him for once, and ask him what the
devil he was up to. Just at this moment Dubois dashed into a narrow
lane and I followed him. I felt I had the speed of him, and was
overhauling him fast, when--whuff!--I ran over something and
punctured my tyre badly, very badly, and presently I had to pull up.
I got down, it was a clean cut, and in another part of the tyre were
two tin tacks stuck fast. Had Coggins, or Dubois, whichever it is,
sprinkled the road with glass and tacks, or was it the work of some
cantankerous fellow who lived near the lane? I saw my man pedaling
steadily ahead, and presently he was out of sight.
"'My bicycle was useless, and I stood over it, thinking what I should
do next. As I stood there cursing my luck I heard a rustic come
singing and whistling down the lane from the direction toward which I
had been traveling.
"'He was a simple-looking young fellow in a tucked-up smock frock and
leather gaiters, with a little battered wide-awake hat on the back of
his head. He carried a bill-hook on his shoulder, and tied to the
bill by a bit of string was a pair of thick, rough hedger's gauntlets.
"'He stopped whistling _The Girl I Left Behind Me_, as he saw
me--stood and stared with his mouth open for a good minute, then
began to grin from ear to ear like an idiot.
"'Practicing to grin through a horse collar, are you, my lad?' I
said. 'Did you never see a punctured tyre before?'
"'Forgie I,' said the fellow, in a strong Somersetshire brogue.
'Forgie I, zur, fer a venturing to laugh, but I niver zee two
punctured uns in Farmer Joyce's lane, a one day afoor!' and he
laughed out loud.
"'What?' I said. 'Is the other fellow caught too?'
"'Ay, zur, at t'other end of the lane, and a swearing so terrible bad
I had to move away from he. Ha! ha! It do tickle I!'
"Then he looked suddenly serious. 'Yer moightend want a bit o'
hedging and ditching done, zur? I foinds my own gloves and my own
bill 'uk.'
"'He leant his bill-hook on the ground and dangled his great leathern
gloves at me.
"'I'm reckoned a foine worker!' he added.
"'Tell me where's the nearest blacksmith's forge,' I said, 'and I'll
give you sixpence.'
"'Will ee now, zur?' he said with a greedy look in his eyes, and he
came near and held his hand out. 'T'other gentleman gave I a
shilling for tellin' he, but I'll take sixpence from you, zur.'
"'I put a shilling into his open hand and he began to direct me.
'You be to go up droo the lane and keep a trending and a turning to
your left and then to your right, and then to your left and then to
your right again, droo the moorland till you come plump on to a horse
pond that's just over against Jem Bevan's forge, only yer can't see
the forge rightly till you'm turned the next carner. Do ee
understand I, zur? and thanking yer for your shilling, I'll be going
on whoam, zur.'
"'The young rustic was whistling again, and presently he broke into
his song again of _The Girl I left Behind Me_. I suppose it was a
sort of rustic chaff on his part.
"'I dragged my bicycle up through the lane and out upon the common,
but I never saw a trace of the man I was after, nor did I find Jem
Bevan's forge.'
"'But I suspect, Sergeant Smith, that you had found Gentleman Coggins
himself.'
"'What, the grinning idiot with the bill-hook! Never! Remember, I
know Coggins by sight. This fellow was just a silly Somersetshire
lad with an accent you could cut with a knife.'
"I said no more, but I had my doubts. 'Tell me one thing, Sergeant
Smith. Is the man Dubois often away in the night-time? Did you miss
him, for instance, on the night of the 23d when the burglary at the
Abbey was done?'
"'No, Sergeant Morgan, we did not.' The detective took out his
note-book, and turning back to the date in question, read out the
following:
"'January 23d.--Dubois, supposed Coggins, went out on bicycle in
early morning and never returned till dark. Saw several visitors
before leaving, said to be from neighboring villages--some of them
took samples away with them. He received these customers mostly in
little private office off his bedroom--my man had looked into this
office in his absence one day, found it spread with samples, mostly
cheap silks and neckties. Same day, brisk business. Inn servants
and people in commercial room complain of Dubois's noisiness. At
9.30 in the evening, a man, said to be from Pincote, came to see him.
Dubois angry, sent him away, reproved him loudly for coming to see
him late and just as he was going to bed.
"'Allowed man to take parcel of samples, but refused to do other
business with him, told him he must come again at nine next morning.
Dubois called out in the hearing of inn servants that he was going to
turn in. Man left muttering. Dubois was heard overhead in his
bedroom for some time. Officer remained on watch all night in
neighborhood of inn. Dubois did not go out. Nothing further
happened.'
"'Thank you, Sergeant Smith. Tell your men to keep their eyes
skinned. They have to deal with a sharp fellow in Coggins--very
clever at disguises. Let them be sure he doesn't go out disguised
and leave one of his fellows to stamp about on the floor overhead,
making them think Coggins himself is at home.'
"Sergeant Smith did not relish my advice.
"'I thank you, Sergeant,' he said stiffly, 'for your counsel, I will
do my duty to the best of my ability.'