WAITERS.
Dick Bellamy's two letters, the one posted in York, the other in the
country letter-box by the landlord of "The Coach and Horses," had been
read at New Scotland Yard at about eight o'clock in the evening.
The first note had contained merely the information that Alban Melchard
was the man of whom Dick was going in pursuit, and Melchard's address,
found that evening in the letter received by Amaryllis; the second, the
few particulars concerning Melchard which he had gathered from the
landlord.
Superintendent Finucane, of the Criminal Investigation Department, had
immediately put himself in telephonic communication with the chief
constables of Millsborough and the County.
To the Government, this fresh proof of the Opiate Ring's influence and
power, and of its ramification even wider than had hitherto been
ascertained, was matter of the first importance.
Sir Charles Colombe had lost sight of the abducted girl in the theft of
the drug and its formula; while the Secretary of State, Sir Charles's
political chief, had suspicion so strong of liaison between certain
European leaders of Bolshevism and the Opiate Ring, that the Drug, the
Lost Lady, and even the Deleterious Drugs' Control Bill itself, had
become secondary factors in the greatest struggle of the day.
To net a Millsborough gallimaufry of decadents, criminals, and potential
rebels had become in a few hours his absorbing desire. And in this short
time he had almost frayed the smooth edges of the Permanent Under
Secretary's official decorum.
Randal Bellamy, with his affection for the girl, and his absorbing love
of his younger brother, had as much interest in the affair as any other
concerned. But he alone of them all had been really welcome at New
Scotland Yard; for, whatever he may have felt, he had shown there on his
first visit that Saturday--at about three o'clock in the afternoon--a
face as smiling and unwrinkled as his excellent white waistcoat. And
there was a refreshing serenity in the offer that he made to the
commissioner himself, of laying him ten pounds to one on his brother
Richard's success in any _shikar_ that he undertook.
This wager, made in the superintendent's room, had so much pleased that
official, to-day more oppressed by his superiors than by his work, that
he had actually invited Sir Randal to give him a call after dinner. The
others were merely expected.
"After dinner" is an elastic appointment, and Randal stretched it as
late as Caldegard's impatience would endure.
At a quarter past eleven the father could bear suspense no longer, and
forced his friend to go with him to the Castle where, between the
Embankment and Parliament Street, Argus and Briareus dwell together in
awful co-operation.
As they walked down Whitehall, the father remembered that this was a
lover at his side.
"I don't see how you manage to bear it with all that _sang froid_,
Bellamy," he said. "Another day of it'll drive me mad."
"I'm banking on Dick," said Randal.
"He's all you say, no doubt. But if you feel all you've told me for my
girl, it's almost as terrible for you as for me. And your brother can't
do the impossible, tracking without trace. _Vestigia nulla!_" And the
father groaned, looking twenty years older than he had seemed
twenty-four hours ago. "I watch every young woman in the street, half
hoping she'll turn her face and show me Amaryllis. And all the time I
know it's impossible."
Then, again, "God, man!" he broke out, "these things don't happen in
civilised communities. I suffer like the damned, without the
satisfaction of believing in my hell."
A few minutes later, as they turned out of Parliament Street, "You do
take it easy for a lover, Randal," he repeated. "I don't understand
you."
At the moment Randal made no reply, but, as they waited for the lift,
"Perhaps I ought to tell you," he said, "that I'm no longer in the
running. I'm afraid it pained her kind heart, saying no to me."
"When was that?" asked the father, speaking more like his ordinary
self.
"The last time we spoke of it was about an hour before we missed her.
After that I think she went into my study to be alone, and possibly, as
a woman will, shed a few tears over the matter; and then, perhaps, fell
asleep, and was caught unawares--but it's no use guessing."
The lift came down, and the escorting constable sidled up and entered it
after them.
As they left it, the discreet guide keeping well ahead in the gloomy
corridor, Caldegard whispered:
"Then it's even worse for you than I thought, Randal. You're a good man,
and I'm an ill-tempered old one."
"We shall have news, and her, soon--and something else," said Randal.
"What?" asked Caldegard.
"I thought you'd forgotten it! Ambrotox, of course. I'll tell her,
Caldegard. I once heard a man tell his wife, after she'd been chattering
to him for twenty minutes, that he'd forgotten to light his pipe all the
time she'd been talking. She said it was the best compliment she'd ever
had. I shall tell Amaryllis how you forgot Ambrotox."
Superintendent Finucane felt his spirits rise at the sight of the urbane
barrister, and received even the dishevelled person of the lost lady's
father with a measure of cordiality. He showed his visitors Dick's two
scrawled messages, and explained how he had acted upon their
information.
Caldegard complained: Dick should have telegraphed, should have gone
himself to the police in the neighbourhood.
"From what I have heard of him, Mr. Richard Bellamy is the kind that
seizes on a big chance, and doesn't lose it by running after smaller
ones," said Finucane. "If he has played against time and wins, they call
him a genius."
"_Will_ he succeed?" asked Caldegard.
"I am inclined to think he will bring your daughter back," replied
Finucane. "But I don't advise you to be too hopeful about the drug."
"Oh, damn the drug!" interjected Caldegard.
"He has appreciated his job," explained the superintendent. "He's not
after side issues. He isn't even out to catch a man who's committed a
crime--only to prevent a crime being committed."
"Has he prevented it--tell me that?" cried Caldegard.
And, as if in answer, the bell of Finucane's telephone jarred the nerves
of all three men.
While he listened to the one-sided interview between the superintendent
and the instrument on his table, Caldegard's control was in danger of
breaking down altogether.
"Hold the line," said Finucane at last. "Dr. Caldegard, can you describe
the dress Miss Caldegard was wearing when she disappeared?"
"I dined in town," began the father, his face like white paper.
"My brother and I," said Randal, "dined with Miss Caldegard. She wore a
dinner-gown--silk--darkish green, which showed, when she moved, the
crimson threads it was interwoven with."
"And her shoes?" asked Finucane.
Bellamy shook his head; it was Caldegard, now steady as a rock, who
answered:
"With that frock, my daughter always wore green-bronze shoes and green
stockings."
Finucane turned again to the telephone. After saying that Miss Caldegard
had worn green silk shot with red, and green evening slippers, he
listened for a time which kept his guests in torture of suspense. Then,
"I'm here all night. But scrape the county with a tooth-comb," he said,
and hung up the receiver. Swinging his chair round, he faced the two
men, and spoke with gravity.
"Millsborough got my information about eight-thirty p.m. By nine every
available man was out on the hunt, to round up all Melchard's places,
and to go through all the riverside dens and harbour slums. The county
police, horse and foot, under the chief constable, were all over the
place. Martingale--that's the man I've just been talking to--rushed a
strong party of the Millsborough force out to 'The Myrtles' in cars.
House deserted, except a fellow lying in bed, groaning. In the back
kitchen a woman's frock had been burned. Unconsumed fragments were
found--green silk shot with red. Upstairs, in a bedroom, pair of lady's
shoes--shiny green leather."
Caldegard rose from his seat, opened his mouth to speak, and sat down
again.
In relation to merely normal death the abandoned garment carries an
intimate cruelty which will unexpectedly break down control proof
against direct attack.
But to hear, in these surroundings, of his daughter's little green
shoes, and to remember how, the first time she had worn them, she had
flourished at him from her low chair that pretty foot and reckless green
stocking, and to catch himself now foolishly wondering where the green
stockings themselves would be found, brought poor Caldegard to an
embittered weakness which he fought only in vague desire neither to
break into cursing nor decline upon weak tears.
The great man of science had not attracted the superintendent of the
Criminal Investigation Department; but the father grunting savagely:
"Oh, damn the drug!" was another man. And Finucane, by no means himself
convinced that the worst must be argued from these fragments of
evidence, yet found himself at a loss for encouraging words. Pity,
however, forced him to the effort, and he would have spoken, had not
Randal Bellamy touched him on the arm.
"Not now," he said. "You can't wash that picture from his mind. There'll
be more news coming."
With a tap on the door, it came.
To the superintendent's consent there entered a police sergeant.
"There's a gentleman wishes to see you, sir. Says he can't keep awake
another ten minutes. Has important evidence, and a person he wishes to
introduce to you. Name o' Bellamy."
"Oh, hell!" said Randal, in a voice like his brother's, "fetch him up."
The sergeant took no notice, but kept his gaze on the superintendent.
Finucane's eyes twinkled. "Fetch him up," he said.
"To save time, sir, he's standing outside."
"Fetch him in," said Finucane.
The sergeant moved himself three inches.
"Superintendent Finucane will see you, sir," he said; and made room for
the entrance of Dick Bellamy, holding by the arm, and both supporting
and guiding the wavering steps of Alban Melchard.