I must confess that the discovery I had made behind St. Martin's church,
and which I described at the end of the previous chapter, had proved too
much for me. What possible reason could Mr. Bayley have for wanting to
rid himself of me? Only the morning before he had been anxious to secure
my services in the interests of his Company, and now here he was hiring
a couple of ruffians to prevent me from doing my work, if not to take my
life. When I reached my hotel again, and went to bed, I lay awake half
the night endeavouring to arrive at an understanding of it; but, try how
I would, I could not hit upon a satisfactory solution. Upon one thing,
however, I had quite made up my mind. As soon as the City offices were
open, I would call at that of the Santa Cruz Mining Company, and put a
few questions to Mr. Bayley which I fancied that individual would find
difficult and rather unpleasant to answer. This plan I carried out, and
at ten o'clock I stood in the handsome outer office of the Company.
"I should be glad to see the managing director, if he could spare me a
few moments," I said to the youth who waited upon me in answer to his
question.
"He's engaged, sir, at present," the lad replied. "If you will take a
seat, however, I don't fancy he will be very long."
I did as he directed, and in the interval amused myself by studying a
large map of the Argentine Republic, which hung upon the wall. I had
practically exhausted its capabilities when the door opened, and a tall,
military-looking man emerged and passed out into the street.
"What name shall I say, sir?" inquired the clerk, as he descended from
his high stool and approached me.
"Fairfax," I replied, giving him my card. "I think the manager will know
my name."
The clerk disappeared to return a few moments later with the request
that I would follow him. Preparing myself for what I fully expected
would be a scene, I entered the director's sanctum. It was a handsome
room, and was evidently used as a Boardroom as well as an office, for
there was a long table in the middle, surrounded by at least a dozen
chairs. At the furthest end a gentleman of venerable appearance was
seated. He rose as I entered, and bowed to me.
"In what way can I be of service to you, Mr. Fairfax?" he inquired,
after I had seated myself.
"I am afraid there has been a mistake," I answered, looking about me for
Mr. Bayley. "I told the clerk that I desired to see the managing
director."
"You _are_ seeing him," he returned with a smile, "for I am he."
"In that case I must have misunderstood the gentleman who called upon me
two days ago," I replied, with some surprise.
"Do I understand you to say that a gentleman from this office called
upon you?"
"Yes, a Mr. Bayley, a tall, good-looking man, of between thirty-eight
and forty years of age."
The old gentleman stared, as well he might.
"But there is no Mr. Bayley here," he said. "We have no one of that name
in our employ. I fear the man, whoever he was, must have been playing a
trick upon you. I sincerely trust he has done no damage. Might I ask
what he called upon you about?"
"He called on me on behalf of your Company," I answered. "He informed me
that for some time past you have ascertained the gravest suspicions
concerning the manager of your mines in the Argentine. He said that
information had reached your ears to the effect that the man in question
was in league with a notorious swindler in New York, and, though you
could not bring any proved charge against him, you were equally certain
that he was robbing you in order to fill his own pockets. He appeared to
be most anxious to persuade me to go to the Republic at once in order
that I might inquire into matters and report to you. I was to be away
three months, and was to be paid five thousand pounds and my expenses
for my trouble."
"My good sir, this is really preposterous," the old gentleman returned.
"I can positively assure you that there is not a word of truth in his
assertion. Our manager in the Argentine is an old and valued friend, and
I would stake my life on his fidelity. Nothing would induce us to think
even of sending a detective out to spy upon him."
"I am beginning to believe that I should like to meet Mr. Bayley again,"
I remarked. "He has a fine imagination, and, from what you tell me, it
seems that I should have looked a fool had I gone out to South America
on such an errand."
"It would have been exceedingly inconvenient not only for you, but also
for us," said the manager. "I shall report this matter at the Board
meeting to-day. We must endeavour to discover who this man is, and also
his reasons for acting as he has done. Should we hear anything further
upon the subject, we will at once communicate with you."
"I should be glad if you will do so," I replied. "I should like to get
this matter cleared up as soon as possible. There may be something
behind it that we do not understand."
I thanked him for the interview, and then took my departure, more
puzzled by it than I had been by anything for a long time. When I
reached my office I took the card from a drawer, which Mr. Edward
Bayley had sent to me, and despatched it by special messenger to the
office of the famous mining company. That afternoon another surprise was
in store for me. Shortly after lunch, and when I was in the middle of a
letter to Kitwater, a message was received through the telephone to the
effect that the managing director of the Santa Cruz Mining Company, whom
I had seen that morning, was on his way to call upon me.
"Something has evidently come to light," I reflected. "Perhaps the
mystery surrounding Mr. Edward Bayley is about to be cleared up, for I
must confess I do not like the look of it."
A quarter of an hour later the manager was ushered into my presence.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fairfax," he said. "I have come to ask you, if you
will permit me, a few questions, and also to tell you that I think we
have discovered who it is that is masquerading as the occupant of my
position. You gave me this morning a rough description of the individual
who called upon you, can you recall anything particular about his
appearance. Any strange mark, for instance. Anything by which we should
be able to swear to his identity?"
"I would swear to his identity anywhere, without a mark" I replied. "But
since you _do_ mention it, I remember that he had a small triangular
scar upon his left cheek."
"Then it is the same man after all," said the manager. "That is
certainly extraordinary. When our secretary spoke to me about him after
you had left I had my doubts; now, however, they are quite removed. Why
he should have called upon you in such a guise is a question I cannot
for the life of me answer with any sort of satisfaction."
"Perhaps you will be a little more explicit," I said. "You have not told
me yet how it is that you have been able to locate the gentleman in
question. This morning you must remember you had no sort of
remembrance of him."
"In that case you must forgive me," he replied. "As a matter of fact I
was so much carried away by my excitement that I could think of nothing
else. However, I have promised you the story, and you shall have it.
Some years ago, eight or ten perhaps, we had a young man working for us
in the Argentine as an overseer. He was in many respects a brilliant
young fellow, and would doubtless have done well for himself in time,
had he been able to go straight. Unfortunately, however, he did not do
so. He went from bad to worse. At last he was caught in a flagrant piece
of dishonesty, and was immediately discharged. When I tell you that that
young man had a mark such as you described upon his cheek, you may be
able to derive some idea of what follows."
"Might it not be a pure coincidence?" I replied.
"Not in this case, I fancy," he answered. "What makes me the more
inclined to believe that it is the same individual, is the fact that our
secretary met him in Leadenhall Street only a few days ago. He looked
older, but had evidently prospered in the world. As a matter of fact,
Warner described him as being irreproachably dressed, and turned out. I
trust his good fortune was honestly come by; but I must own, from what I
know of him, that I have my doubts."
"But what possible reason could this individual have for calling upon
me, and why should he have made me such an offer as I have described
to you?"
The director shook his head. The question was evidently beyond him.
"I can assign no sort of reason for it," he said, "unless he has some
hope of being able to get you out of England for a time."
"I don't see how that could benefit him," I replied. "I am connected
with no case in which he has any sort of interest."
"You never can tell," the old gentleman replied. "From what I know of
him, Gideon Hayle was always----"
"Gideon what?" I cried, springing to my feet. "Did I understand you to
say Gideon Hayle?"
"That's the name of the young man of whom I have been speaking to you,"
he replied. "But what makes you so excited."
"Because I can understand everything now." I declared. "Good heavens!
what an idiot I have been not to have seen the connection before! Now I
know why Gideon Hayle tried to lure me out of England with his
magnificent offer. Now I see why he set these roughs upon me. It's all
as plain as daylight!"
"I am afraid I do not quite understand," said my companion in his turn.
"But it is quite evident to me that you know more of Hayle's past life
than I do!"
"I should think I did," I replied. "By Jove, what a blackguard the man
must be! He robbed his two partners of enormous wealth in China, left
them in the hands of the Chinese to be tortured and maimed for life, and
now that he knows that I am acting for them in order to recover their
treasure, he endeavours to put me out of the way. But you've not done it
yet, Mr. Hayle," I continued, bringing my fist down with a bang upon the
table, "and what's more, clever as you may be, you are not likely to
accomplish such an end. You'll discover that I can take very good care
of myself, but before very long you'll find that _you_ are being taken
care of by somebody else."
"This is a strange affair indeed, Mr. Fairfax," said the manager, "and
it is evident that I have been of some assistance to you. I need not say
that I am very glad, the more so because it is evident that our Company
is not involved in any system of fraud. I will not disguise from you
that I had my fears that it was the beginning of trouble for us all."
"You may disabuse your mind of that once and for all," I answered. "If
there is any trouble brewing it is for our friend, Mr. Hayle. That
gentleman's reckoning is indeed likely to be a heavy one. I would not
stand in his shoes for something."
There was a brief and somewhat uncomfortable pause.
"And now allow me to wish you a very good-afternoon," the old gentleman
observed.
"Good-afternoon," I replied, "and many thanks for the service you have
rendered me. It has helped me more than I can say."
"Pray don't mention it, my dear sir, don't mention it," replied the
kindly old gentleman, as he moved towards the door. "I am very glad to
have been useful to you."
When he had gone I sat down at my desk to think. I had had a good many
surprises in my life, but I don't know that I had ever been more
astonished than I was that afternoon. If only I had been aware of
Hayle's identity when he had called upon me two mornings before, how
simply everything might have been arranged! As a matter of fact I had
been talking with the very man I had been paid to find, and, what was
worse, had even terminated the interview myself. When I realized
everything, I could have kicked myself for my stupidity. Why should I
have suspected him, however? The very boldness of his scheme carried
conviction with it! Certainly, Mr. Gideon Hayle was a foeman worthy of
my steel, and I began to realize that, with such a man to deal with, the
enterprise I had taken in hand was likely to prove a bigger affair than
I had bargained for.
"Having failed in both his attempts to get me out of the way, his next
move will be to leave England with as little delay as possible," I said
to myself. "If only I knew in what part of London he was staying, I'd
ransack it for him, if I had to visit every house in order to do so. As
it is, he has a thousand different ways of escape, and unless luck
favours me, I shall be unable to prevent him from taking his departure."
At that moment there was a tap at the door and my clerk entered the
room.
"Mr. Kitwater and Mr. Codd to see you, sir."
"Show them in," I said, and a moment later the blind man and his
companion were ushered into my presence.
Codd must have divined from the expression upon my face that I was not
pleased to see them.
"You must forgive me for troubling you again so soon," said Kitwater, as
he dropped into the chair I had placed for him, "but you can understand
that we are really anxious about the affair. Your letter tells us that
you discovered that Hayle was in London a short time since, and that he
had realized upon some of the stones. Is it not possible for you to
discover some trace of his whereabouts?"
"I have not been able to do that yet," I answered. "It will be of
interest to you, however, to know that he called upon me here in this
room, and occupied the chair you are now sitting in, three days ago."
Kitwater clutched the arm of the chair in question and his face went as
white as his beard.
"In this room three days ago, and sitting in your presence," he cried.
"Then you know where he is, and can take us to him?"
"I regret that such a thing is out of my power," I answered. "The man
came into and left this room without being hindered by me."
Kitwater sprang to his feet with an oath that struck me as coming rather
oddly from the lips of a missionary.
"I see it all. You are in league with him," he cried, his face suffused
with passion. "You are siding with him against us. By God you are, and
I'll have you punished for it. You hoodwinked us, you sold us. You've
taken our money, and now you've gone over and are acting for the enemy."
I opened the drawer of my table and took out the envelope he had given
me when he had called. For a reason of my own, I had not banked the note
it contained.
"Excuse me, Mr. Kitwater," I said, speaking as calmly as I could, "but
there seems to be a little misunderstanding. I have not sold you, and I
have not gone over to the enemy. There is the money you gave me, and I
will not charge you anything for the little trouble I have been put to.
That should convince you of my integrity. Now perhaps you will leave my
office, and let me wash my hands of the whole affair."
I noticed that little Codd placed his hand upon the other's arm. It
travelled down until their hands met. I saw that the blind man was
making an effort to recover his composure, and I felt sure that he
regretted ever having lost it. A moment later Codd came across the room
to my table, and, taking up a piece of paper, wrote upon it the
following words--
"Kitwater is sorry, I am sure. Try to forgive him. Remember what he has
suffered through Hayle."
The simplicity of the message touched me.
"Pray sit down a minute, Mr. Kitwater," I said, "and let me put myself
right with you. It is only natural that you should get angry, if you
think I have treated you as you said just now. However, that does not
happen to be the case. I can assure you that had I known who Hayle was,
I should have taken very good care that he did not leave this office
until you had had an interview with him. Unfortunately, however, I was
not aware of his identity. I have encountered some bold criminals in my
time. But I do not know that I have ever had a more daring one than the
man who treated you so badly."
I thereupon proceeded to give him a rough outline of Hayle's interview
with myself, and his subsequent treatment of me. Both men listened with
rapt attention.
"That is Hayle all over," said Kitwater when I had finished. "It is not
his fault that you are not a dead man now. He will evade us if he
possibly can. The story of the roughs you have just told us shows that
he is aware that you are on the trail, and, if I know him at all, he
will try the old dodge, and put running water between you and himself as
soon as possible. As I said to you the other day, he knows the world as
well as you know London, and, in spite of what people say, there are
still plenty of places left in it where he can hide and we shall never
find him. With the money he stole from us he can make himself as
comfortable as he pleases wherever he may happen to be. To sum it all
up, if he gets a week's start of us, we shall never set eyes on
him again."
"If that is so we must endeavour to make sure that he does not get that
start," I replied. "I will have the principal ports watched, and in the
meantime will endeavour to find out where he has stowed himself away in
London. You may rest assured of one thing, gentlemen, I took this matter
up in the first place as an ordinary business speculation. I am now
going on for that reason and another. Mr. Hayle tried a trick on me that
I have never had attempted before, and for the future he is my enemy as
well as yours. I hope I have set myself right with you now. You do not
still believe that I am acting in collusion with him?"
"I do not," Kitwater answered vehemently. "And I most humbly apologize
for having said what I did. It would have served me right if you had
thrown the case up there and then, and I regard it as a proof of your
good feeling towards us that you consent to continue your work upon it.
To-day is Friday, is it not? Then perhaps by Sunday you may have
something more definite to tell us."
"It is just possible, I may," I returned.
"In that case I am instructed by my niece to ask if you will give us the
pleasure of your company at Bishopstowe on that day. After the toils of
London, a day in the country will do you no harm, and needless to say we
shall be most pleased to see you."
I remembered the girl's pretty face and the trim neat figure. I am not a
lady's man, far from it, nevertheless I thought that I should like to
renew my acquaintance with her.
"I shall be very pleased to accept Miss Kitwater's invitation, provided
I have something of importance to communicate," I said. "Should I not be
able to come, you will of course understand that my presence is
required in London or elsewhere. My movements must of necessity be
regulated by those of Mr. Hayle, and while I am attending to him I am
not my own master."
Kitwater asked me one or two more questions about the disposal of the
gems to the merchants in Hatton Garden, groaned as I describe the
enthusiasm of the dealers, swore under his breath when he heard of
Hayle's cunning in refusing to allow either his name or address to be
known, and then rose and bade me good-bye.
During dinner that evening I had plenty to think about. The various
events of the day had been so absorbing, and had followed so thick and
fast upon each other, that I had little time to seriously digest them.
As I ate my meal, and drank my modest pint of claret, I gave them my
fullest consideration. As Kitwater had observed, there was no time to
waste if we desired to lay our hands upon that slippery Mr. Hayle. Given
the full machinery of the law, and its boundless resources to stop him,
it is by no means an easy thing for a criminal to fly the country
unobserved; but with me the case was different. I had only my own and
the exertions of a few and trusted servants to rely upon, and it was
therefore impossible for us to watch all the various backdoors leading
out of England at once. When I had finished my dinner I strolled down
the Strand as far as Charing Cross Station. Turner was to leave for St.
Petersburg that night by the mail-train, and I had some instructions to
give him before his departure. I found him in the act of attending to
the labelling of his luggage, and, when he had seen it safely on the
van, we strolled down the platform together. I warned him of the
delicate nature of the operation he was about to undertake, and bade him
use the greatest possible care that the man he was to watch did not
become aware of his intentions. Directly he knew for certain that this
man was about to leave Russia, he was to communicate with me by cypher,
and with my representative in Berlin, and then follow him with all speed
to that city himself. As I had good reason to know, he was a shrewd and
intelligent fellow, and one who never forgot any instructions that might
be given him. Knowing that he was a great votary of the Goddess
Nicotine, I gave him a few cigars to smoke on the way to Dover.
"Write to me immediately you have seen your man," I said. "Remember me
to Herr Schneider, and if you should see----"
I came to a sudden stop, for there, among the crowd, not three
carriage-lengths away from me, a travelling-rug thrown over his
shoulder, and carrying a small brown leather bag in his hand, stood
Gideon Hayle. Unfortunately, he had already seen me, and almost before I
realized what he was doing, he was making his way through the crowd in
the direction of the main entrance. Without another word to Turner, I
set off in pursuit, knowing that he was going to make his bolt, and that
if I missed him now it would probably be my last chance of coming to
grip with him. Never before had the platform seemed so crowded. An
exasperating lady, with a lanky youth at her side, hindered my passage,
porters with trucks piled with luggage barred the way just when I was
getting along nicely; while, as I was about to make my way out into the
courtyard, an idiotic Frenchman seized me by the arm and implored me to
show him "ze office of ze money-changaire." I replied angrily that I did
not know, and ran out into the portico, only to be in time to see Gideon
Hayle take a seat in a hansom. He had evidently given his driver his
instructions, for the man whipped up his horse, and went out of the yard
at a speed which, at any other hour, would certainly have got him into
trouble with the police. I called up another cab and jumped into it,
promising the man a sovereign as I did so, if he would keep the other
cab in sight, and find out for me its destination.
"Right ye are, sir," the cabman replied. "You jest leave that to me. I
won't let him go out of my sight."
Then we, in our turn, left the yard of the station, and set off
eastwards along the Strand in pursuit. Both cabmen were sharp fellows
and evidently familiar with every twist and turn of their famous
London. In my time I have had a good many curious drives in one part of
the world and another, but I think that chase will always rank first. We
travelled along the Strand, about a hundred yards behind the other
vehicle, then turned up Southampton Street, through Covent Garden by way
of Henrietta Street into Long Acre. After that I cannot pretend to have
any idea of the direction we took. I know that we passed through Drury
Lane, crossed High Holborn, to presently find ourselves somewhere at the
back of Gray's Inn. The buildings of the Parcels' Post Depot marked
another stage in our journey. But still the other cab did not show any
sign of coming to a standstill. Leaving Mount Pleasant behind us, we
entered that dingy labyrinth of streets lying on the other side of the
Clerkenwell House of Detention. How much longer was the chase going to
last? Then, to my delight, the other cab slackened its pace, and
eventually pulled up before a small public-house. We were so close
behind it that we narrowly escaped a collision. I sprang out, and ran to
the other vehicle in order to stop Hayle before he could alight.
"Wot's up, guvner?" asked the cabman. "Don't go a worritting of
yourself. There's nobody inside."
He was quite right, _the cab was empty_!