"Mr. Narkom!"
It was an hour later, and Cleek's voice broke the silence abruptly.
He had taken out his notebook and had been scribbling in it for some
little time, but now, as he spoke, he tore out the written leaf and
passed it over to the superintendent.
"Mr. Narkom, I refused, in the beginning, to give you the address
of the little house at which I was located. Here it is. Put it in
your pocketbook against future need, will you?"
"Yes, certainly. But cinnamon! old chap, what good is it to me now
when you've left the place?"
"You will understand, perhaps, when I tell you that Miss Lorne is
its present occupant. It was for that I took it in the beginning.
There may come a need to communicate with her; there may come a need
for her to communicate with you. There's always a chance, you know,
that a candle may be put out when the wind blows at it from all
directions; and if anything should happen--I mean if--er--anything
having a bearing upon me personally that you think she _ought_
to be told should come to pass--well, just go to her at once,
will you?--there's a dear friend. That's the address (don't lose it)
and full directions how to get there speedily. I am giving it to
you now, as we shall soon be in town again and I shall leave you
directly we arrive there. I'm in haste to get back to Dollops and see
if between us we can't hit upon some plan, he and I, to get at the
whereabouts of Waldemar. That plain-clothes man of yours is like
the butler with the bottle of cider--he 'doesn't seem to get any
forrarder.'"
"Kibblewhite!" blurted out the superintendent, sitting up sharply.
"Well, of all the born jackasses, of all the mutton-heads in this
world----"
"Well, he doesn't seem to be very bright, I must say."
"He? Lud! I wasn't talking about _him_; I was talking about myself.
I had something to tell you to-day, and this blessed business drove
it clean out of my head. Kibblewhite had the dickens and all of a
time trying to get at that chap Serpice, as you may remember?"
"I do--in a measure. Succeeded in finding out, finally, that the
carriage he drove was one he hired from a liveryman by the month, I
think was the last report you gave me; but couldn't get any further
with the business because Serpice took it into his head not to call
for the carriage again and made off, this Kibblewhite chap didn't
know where, and appears never to have found a means of discovering."
"No; he didn't. But ten days ago he got word from the liveryman
that Serpice had just turned up and was about to make use of the
carriage again; and off Kibblewhite cut, hotfoot, in the hope of
being able to follow him. No go, however. By the time he arrived
at the stable Serpice had already gone; so there was nothing left
for the poor disappointed chap to do but to go out on the hunt and
see if he couldn't pick him up somewhere in the streets."
"Which he didn't, of course?"
"Excuse me--which he _did_. But it was late in the afternoon and
he was coming back to the stable with the carriage empty. Also, it
was in the thick of the traffic at Ludgate Circus, and Kibblewhite
was so afraid the fellow might mix himself up in it and give him
the slip that he took a chance shot to prevent it. Nipping up the
officer on point, he made himself and his business known, and, in
a winking, in nips the constable, hauls Mr. Serpice up sharp, and
arrests him for driving a public vehicle without a license."
"Well played, Kibblewhite!" approved Cleek. "That, of course, meant
that the fellow would be arrested and have to give his address and
all the rest of it?"
"So Kibblewhite himself thought; but what does the beggar do but
turn the tables on him in the most unexpected manner by absolutely
refusing to do anything of the kind, and, as he did _not_ have a
license, and would not call anybody to pay his fine, the magistrate
finished the business by committing him to _jail_ for ten days in
default. And here's the thing I was ass enough to forget: His ten
days' imprisonment was up this morning; Kibblewhite, in disguise,
was to be outside the jail to follow him when he was discharged and
see where he went, and he told me to look for him to turn up at the
Yard before six this evening with a full report of the result of
his operations."
"Bravo!" said Cleek, leaning back in his seat, with a sigh of
satisfaction. "I've changed my mind about leaving you, Mr. Narkom;
we will go on to the Yard together. As, in all probability, after
ten days without being able to communicate with his pals or with
Waldemar, our friend Serpice will be hot to get to them at once
and explain the cause of his long absence, the chances are that
Kibblewhite will have something of importance to report at last."
He had, as they found out when, in the fulness of time, they arrived
at the Yard and were told that he was waiting for them in the
superintendent's office, and in his excitement he almost threw it
at them, so eager he was to report.
"I've turned the trick at last, Superintendent," he cried. "The
silly josser played straight into my hands, sir. The minute he was
out of jail he made a beeline for Soho, and me after him, and there
he 'takes to earth' in a rotten little restaurant in the worst part
of the district; and when I nips over and has a look inside, there
he was shakin' hands with a lot of Frenchies of his own kind, and
them all prancin' about and laughin' like they'd gone off their
bloomin' heads. I sees there aren't no back door to the place, and
I knows from that that he'd have to come out the same way as he
went in, so off I nips over to the other side of the street and
lays in wait for him.
"After about ten minutes or so, out he comes--him and another of
the lot--moppin' of his mouth with his coat-sleeve, and off they
starts in a great hurry, and me after them. They goes first to a
barber shop, where the man I was followin' nips in, has a shave, a
hair-cut and a wash-up, while the chap that was with him toddles off
and fetches him a clean shirt and a suit of black clothes. In
about fifteen minutes out my man comes again, makin' a tolerable
respectable appearance, sir, after his barberin' and in his clean
linen and decent clothes. Him and his mate stands talkin' and
grinnin' for a minute or so, then they shakes hands and separates,
and off my man cuts it, westward.
"Sir, I sticks to him like a brother. I follers him smack across
to the Strand and along that to the Hotel Cecil, and there the beggar
nips in and goes up the courtyard as bold as you please, sends up
his name to a gent, the gent sends down word for him to be showed
up at once, and in that way I spots my man. For when I goes up to the
clerk and shows my badge and asks who was the party my johnnie
had asked for, he tells me straight and clear: 'Gentleman he's making
a suit of clothes for--Baron Rodolf de Montravenne, an Austrian
nobleman, who has been stopping here for weeks!"
Cleek twitched round his eye and glanced at Narkom.
"'Things least hidden are best hidden,'" he quoted, smiling. "The
dear count knows a thing or two, you perceive. You have done very
well indeed, Kibblewhite. Here is your ten-pound note and many thanks
for your services. Good evening."
Kibblewhite took the money and his departure immediately; but so long
as he remained within hearing distance--so long as the echo of his
departing steps continued to sound--Cleek remained silent, and the
curious crooked smile made a loop in his cheek. But of a sudden:
"Mr. Narkom," he said, quietly "I shan't be found in any of my usual
haunts for the next few days. If, however, you should urgently need
me, call at the Hotel Cecil and ask for Captain Maltravers--and
call in disguise, please; our friend the count is keen. Remember
the name. Or, better still, write it down."
"But, good God! Cleek, such a risk as that----"
"No--please--don't attempt to dissuade me. I want that man, and I'll
get him if getting him be humanly possible. That's all. Thanks very
much. Good-bye."
Then the door opened and shut, and by the time Mr. Narkom could turn
round from writing down the name he had been given, he was quite
alone in the room.