"Good morning, my friend. I hope I haven't taken you too much by
surprise," he said, as the limousine sprang into activity the
instant he closed the door, and settled himself down beside the
superintendent.
"Not more than usual, dear chap. But I shall never get quite used to
some of your little tricks. Gad! You're the most abnormally prompt
beggar that ever existed, I do believe. You absolutely break all
records."
"Well, I certainly came within a hair's breadth of losing my
reputation this morning, then," he answered cheerily, as he fumbled
in his pockets for a match. "It was a hard pull to cover the
distance and get through the business in time, I can tell you,
with the brief margin I had. But fortunately----Here! Take charge
of that, will you? And read it over while I'm getting a light."
"That" was a long legal-looking envelope which he had whisked out of
his pocket and tossed into Narkom's lap.
"'Royal British Life Assurance Society,'" repeated he, reading
off the single line printed on the upper left-hand corner of the
envelope. "What the dickens----I say, is it a policy?"
"Aha!" assented Cleek, with his mouth full of smoke. "The medico who
put me through my paces, some time ago, reported me sound in wind and
limb, and warranted not to bite, shy, or kick over the traces, and I
was duly ordered to turn up at the London office before noon on a
given day to sign up (and pay down) and receive that interesting
document, otherwise my application would be void, et cetera. This,
as it happens, is the 'given day' in question; and as the office
doesn't open for business before ten A. M., and there wasn't the
least likelihood of my being able to get back to it before noon,
when you were calling for me--'there you have the whole thing in a
nutshell,' as the old woman said when she poisoned the filberts."
Meanwhile, Narkom had opened the envelope and glanced over the
document it contained. He now sat up with a jerk and voiced a cry of
amazement.
"Good Lord, deliver us!" he exclaimed. "In favour of Dollops!"
"Yes," said Cleek. "He's a faithful little monkey and--I've nothing
else to leave him. There's always a chance, you know--with Margot's
lot and Waldemar's. I shouldn't like to think of the boy being forced
back into the streets if--anything should happen to me."
"Well, I'll be----What a man! What a man! Cleek, my dear, dear
friend--my comrade--my pal----"
"Chuck it! Scotland Yard with the snuffles is enough to make the
gods shriek, you dear old footler! Why, God bless your old soul,
I----Brakes on! Let's talk about the new limousine. She's a beauty,
isn't she? Locker, mirror: just like the old red one, and----Hello!
I say, you are taking me into the country, I perceive; we've left
the town behind us."
"Yes; we're bound for Darsham."
"Darsham? That's in Suffolk, isn't it? And about ninety-five miles
from Liverpool Street Station, as the crow flies. So our little
business to-day is to be an out-of-town affair, eh? Well, let's have
it. What's the case? Burglary?"
"No--murder. Happened last night. Got the news over the telephone
this morning. Nearly bowled me over when I heard it, by James! for I
saw the man alive--in town--only the day before yesterday. It's a
murder of a peculiarly cunning and cleverly contrived character,
Cleek, with no apparent motive, and absolutely no clue as to what
means the assassin used to kill his victim, nor how he managed to get
in and out of the place in which the crime was committed. There
isn't the slightest mark on the body. The man was not shot, not
stabbed, not poisoned, nor did he die from natural causes. There is
no trace of a struggle, yet the victim's face shows that he died in
great agony, and was beyond all question the object of a murderous
attack."
"Hum-m!" said Cleek, stroking his chin. "Sounds interesting, at all
events. Let's have the facts of the case, please. But first, who was
the victim? Anybody of importance?"
"Of very great importance--in the financial world," replied Narkom.
"He is--or, rather, was--an American multi-millionaire; inventor,
to speak by the card, of numerous electrical devices which brought
him wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and carried his fame all
over the civilized world. You will, no doubt, have heard of him. His
name is Jefferson P. Drake."
"Oho!" said Cleek, arching his eyebrows. "That man, eh? Oh, yes, I've
heard of him often enough--very nearly everybody in England has by
this time. Chap who conceived the idea of bettering the conditions
of the poor by erecting art galleries that were to be filled and
supported out of the rates and, more or less modestly, to be known
by the donor's name. That's the man, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's the man."
"Just so. Stop a bit! Let's brush up my memory a trifle. Of
English extraction, wasn't he? And, having made his money in his
own native country, came to that of his father to spend it? Had
social aspirations, too, I believe; and, while rather vulgar in
his habits and tastes, was exceedingly warm-hearted--indeed,
actually lovable--and made up for his own lack of education by
spending barrels of money upon that of his son. Came to England
something more than a year ago, if I remember rightly; bought a fine
old place down in Suffolk, and proceeded forthwith to modernize it
after the most approved American ideas--steam heat, electric
lights, a refrigerating plant for the purpose of supplying the ice
and the creams and the frozen sweets so necessary to the American
palate; all that sort of thing, and set out forthwith to establish
himself as a sumptuous entertainer on the very largest possible
scale. That's the 'lay of the land,' isn't it?"
"Yes, that's it precisely. The estate he purchased was Heatherington
Hall, formerly Lord Fallowfield's place. The entail was broken
ages ago, but no Fallowfield ever attempted to part with the place
until his present lordship's time. And although he has but one
child, a daughter, I don't suppose that he would have been tempted
to do so, either, but that he was badly crippled--almost ruined,
in fact--last year by unlucky speculations in the stock market, with
the result that it was either sell out to Jefferson P. Drake or be
sold out by his creditors. Naturally, he chose the former course.
That it turned out to be a most excellent thing for him you will
understand when I tell you that Drake conceived an almost violent
liking for him and his daughter, Lady Marjorie Wynde, and not only
insisted upon their remaining at Heatherington Hall as his guests
in perpetuity, but designed eventually to bring the property back
into the possession of the original 'line' by a marriage between
Lady Marjorie and his son."
"Effective if not very original," commented Cleek, with one of his
curious one-sided smiles. "And how did the parties most concerned
view this promising little plan? Were they agreeable to the
arrangement?"
"Not they. As a matter of fact, both have what you may call a 'heart
interest' elsewhere. Lady Marjorie, who, although she is somewhat
of a 'Yes, papa,' and 'Please, papa,' young lady, and could, no
doubt, be induced to sacrifice herself for the family good, is, it
appears, engaged to a young lieutenant who will one day come in
for money, but hasn't more than enough to pay his mess bills at
present, I believe. As for young Jim Drake--why, matters were even
worse with _him_. It turns out that he'd found the girl _he_ wanted
before he left the States, and it took him just about twenty seconds
to make his father understand that he'd be shot, hanged, drawn,
quartered, or even reduced to mincemeat, before he'd give up that
girl or marry any other, at any time or at any cost, from now to
the Judgment Day."
"Bravo!" said Cleek, slapping his palms together. "That's the spirit.
That's the boy for my money, Mr. Narkom! Get a good woman and stick
to her, through thick and thin, at all hazards and at any cost. The
jockey who 'swaps horses' in the middle of a race never yet came
first under the wire nor won a thing worth having. Well, what was
the result of this plain speaking on the young man's part? Pleasant
or unpleasant?"
"Oh, decidedly unpleasant. The father flew into a rage, swore by all
that was holy, and by a great deal that wasn't, that he'd cut him
off 'without one red cent,' whatever that may mean, if he ever
married that particular girl; and as that particular girl--who is
as poor as Job's turkey, by the way--happened by sheer perversity
of fortune to have landed in England that very day, in company
with an eminent literary person whose secretary she had been for
some two or three years past, away marched the son, took out a
special license, and married her on the spot."
"Well done, independence! I like that boy more than ever, Mr. Narkom.
What followed? Did the father relent, or did he invite the pair of
them to clear out and hoe their own row in future?"
"He did neither; he simply ignored their existence. Young Drake
brought his wife down to Suffolk and took rooms at a village inn,
and then set out to interview his father. When he arrived at the
Hall he was told by the lodgekeeper that strangers weren't admitted,
and, on his asking to have his name sent in, was informed that
the lodgekeeper had 'never heard of no sich person as Mr. James
Drake--that there wasn't none, and that the master said there never
had been, neither'--and promptly double-locked the gates. What young
James Drake did after that it appears that nobody knows, for nobody
saw him again until this morning; and it was only yesterday, I
must tell you, that he made that unsuccessful attempt to get into the
place to see his father. _He_ says, however, that he spent the time
in going over to Ipswich and back in the hope of seeing a friend
there to whom he might apply for work. He says, too, that when he
got there he found that that friend--an American acquaintance--had
given up his rooms the day before, and rushed off to Italy in
answer to a cable from his sister; or so, at least, the landlady
told him."
"Which, of course, the landlady can be relied upon to corroborate if
there is any question regarding the matter? Is there?"
"Well, he seems to think that there may be. He's the client, you
must know. It was he that gave me the details over the telephone,
and asked me to put you on the case. As he says himself, it's
easy enough to prove about his having gone to Ipswich to see his
friend, but it isn't so easy to prove about his coming back in the
manner he did. It seems he was too late for any return train, that he
hadn't money enough left in the world to waste any by taking a
private conveyance, so he walked back; and that, as it's a goodish
stretch of country, and he didn't know the way, and couldn't at
night find anybody to ask, he lost himself more than once, with the
consequence that it was daylight when he got back to the inn, where
his frightened wife sat awaiting him, never having gone to bed nor
closed an eye all night, poor girl, fearing that some accident had
befallen him. But, be that as it may, Cleek, during those hours he
was absent his father was mysteriously murdered in a round box of
a room in which he had locked himself, and to which, owing to
structural arrangements, it would seem impossible for anything to
have entered; and, as young Drake rightly says, the worst of it is
that the murder followed so close upon the heels of his quarrel
and promised disinheritance, that his father had no time to alter
the will which left him sole heir to everything; so that possibly
people will talk."
"Undoubtedly," agreed Cleek. "And yet you said there was no motive
and absolutely no clue. M' yes! I wonder if I shall like this
independent young gentleman quite so well after I have seen him."
"Oh, my dear fellow! Good heavens, man, you can't possibly think of
suspecting him. Remember, it is he himself who brings the case--that
the Yard would never have had anything to do with it but for him."
"Quite so. But the local constabulary would; and the simplest way
to blind a jackass is to throw dust in his eyes. They are natural
born actors, the Americans; they are good schemers and fine planners.
Their native game is 'bluff,' and they are very, very careful in
the matter of detail."
Then he pinched up his chin and sat silent for a moment, watching
the green fields and the pleasant farmlands as the limousine went
pelting steadily on.