I
Quick on the heels of the case of the Burnt Barn followed the next of
the Red Triangle affairs. Indeed, the interval was barely two days. Mr.
Victor Peytral, it will be remembered, had declined to reveal to Hewitt
the addresses of the two houses in London which he had seen Mayes visit,
desiring to think the matter over for a few days first; but before any
more could be heard from him, news of another sort was brought by
Inspector Plummer.
It may give some clue to the period whereabout the whole mystery of the
Red Triangle began to be cleared up if I say that at the time of
Plummer's visit this country was on the very verge of war with a great
European State. It is a State with which the present relations of
England are of the friendliest description, and, since the dreaded
collision was happily averted, there is no need to particularise in the
matter now, especially as the name of the country with which we were at
variance matters nothing as regards the course of events I am to
relate. Though most readers will recognise it at once when I say that
the war, had it come to that, would have been a naval war of great
magnitude; and that during the time of tension swift but quiet
preparations were going forward at all naval depôts, and movements and
dispositions of our fleet were arranged that extended to the remotest
parts of the ocean.
It was at the height of the excitement, and, as I have said, two days
after the return of Hewitt and myself from Throckham, when the case of
the Burnt Barn had been disposed of, that Detective-Inspector Plummer
called. I was in Hewitt's office at the time, having, in fact, called in
on my way to learn if he had heard more from Mr. Victor Peytral, for, as
may be imagined, I was as eager to penetrate the mystery of the Triangle
as Hewitt himself--perhaps more so, since Hewitt was a man inured to
mysteries. I had hardly had time to learn that Peytral had not yet made
up his mind so far as to write, when Plummer pushed hurriedly into the
room.
"Excuse my rushing in like this," he said, "but your lad told me that it
was Mr. Brett who was with you, and the matter needs hurry. You've heard
no more of that fellow--Myatt, Hunt, Mayes, whatever his name is
last--since the barn murder, of course? Has Peytral given you the tip he
half promised?"
Hewitt shook his head again. "Brett has this moment come to ask the same
question," he said. "I have heard nothing."
"I must have it," said Plummer, emphatically. "Do you think he will tell
me?"
Hewitt shook his head again. "Scarcely likely," he said. "He's an odd
fellow, this Mr. Peytral--a foreigner, with revenge in his blood. I have
done him and his daughter some little service, and he told me all his
private history; but he seemed even then disposed to keep Mayes to
himself and let nobody interfere with his own vengeance. But I will wire
if you like. What is it?"
"I'll tell you," said Plummer, pushing the door close behind him. "I'll
tell you--in confidence, of course--because you've seen more of this
mysterious rascal than I have, and--equally in confidence, of
course--Mr. Brett may hear, too, since he's been in several of the cases
already. Well, of course, we all know well enough that we want this
creature--Mayes, we may as well call him, I suppose, now--for three
murders, at least, to say nothing of other things. That's all very well,
and we might have got him with time. But now we want him for something
else; and it's such a thing that _we must have him at once_, or
else"--and Plummer pursed his lips and snapped his fingers
significantly. "We can't wait over this, Mr. Hewitt; _we've got to have
that man to-day_, if it can be done. And there's more than ordinary
depending on it. It's the country this time. The Admiralty telegraphic
code has been stolen!"
"By Mayes?"
Plummer shrugged his shoulders. "That's to be proved," he said; "but he
was seen leaving the office at about the time the loss occurred, and
that's enough to set me after him; and there's not another clue of any
sort. Mr. Hewitt, I wish you were in the official service!"
Hewitt smiled. "You flatter me," he said, "as you have done before. But
why in this case particularly?"
"It's a case altogether out of the ordinary, and one of a string of
such, all of which you have at your fingers' ends. And I don't mind
confessing that this man Mayes is a little too big a handful for
one--for me, at any rate. I wish you could work with me over this; in
fact, in the special circumstances I've a good mind to ask to have you
retained, as an exceptional measure. But the thing's urgent, and there's
red-tape!"
Hewitt had taken a glance at his desk tablet, which he now flung down.
"I'll do it for love," he said, "if necessary. My appointment list is
uncommonly slack just now, and even if it weren't, I'd make a
considerable sacrifice rather than be out of this. This fellow Mayes is
a dangerous man; and I feel it a point of honour that he shall not
continue to escape. Moreover, I have begun to form a certain theory as
to the Red Triangle, and all there is at the back of it--a theory I
would rather keep to myself till I see a little more, since as it stands
it may only strike you as fantastic, and if it is wrong it may lead some
of us off the track; but it is a theory I wish to test to the end. So
I'm with you, Plummer, if you'll allow it; and you can make your
official application for a special retainer or not, just as you please."
Plummer was plainly delighted.
"Most certainly I will," he said. "Shall I give you the heads of the
case, or will you come to the Admiralty and see for yourself?"
"Both, I think," said Hewitt. "But first I will send a telegram to
Peytral. Then you can give me the heads of the case as we go along, and
I will look at the place for myself. I am in this case heart and soul,
pay or no pay--and I expect my friend Brett would like to be in it, too.
Is there any objection?"
"Well," Plummer answered, a little doubtfully, "we're glad of outside
help, of course, but I'm not sure, officially----"
"Of course you are always glad of outside help," Hewitt interrupted,
"and in this case we may possibly find Brett more useful than you think.
Consider now. He has seen a good deal of these cases--quite as much as
you, in fact--but he is the only one of the three of us whom Mayes does
not know by sight. Remember, Mayes saw us both in the affair of Mr.
Jacob Mason, and he saw you again in the case of the Lever Key--escaped,
in fact, because he instantly recognised you. I'll answer for Brett's
discretion, and I'm sure he'll be glad to help, even if, for official
reasons, you may not find it possible to admit him wholly into your
counsels."
Of course I willingly assented, and the conditions understood, Plummer
offered no further objection. Hewitt despatched his telegram, and in a
very few minutes we were in a cab on the way to the Admiralty.
"This is the way of it," Plummer said. "You will remember that when we
lost Mayes at the end of the Lever Key case, I was waiting for him in
that city office, with an assistant, and that we only saw him for an
instant in the lift. Well, that assistant was a very intelligent man of
mine, named Corder--a fellow with a wonderful memory for a face. Now
Corder is on another case just now, and we'd put him on, dressed like a
loafer, to hang about Whitehall and the neighbourhood, watching for some
one we want. Well, this morning there came an urgent message to the Yard
from the Admiralty, to ask for a responsible official at once, and I was
sent. As I came along I saw Corder lounging about, and of course I took
no notice--it would not do for us people from the Yard to recognise each
other too readily in the street. But Corder came up, and made pretence
to ask me for a match to light his pipe; and under cover of that he told
me that he had seen Mayes not an hour before, coming out of the
Admiralty. At this, of course, I pricked up my ears. I didn't know what
they wanted me for, but if there was mischief, and that fellow had been
there, it was likely at least that he might have been in it. Corder was
quite positive that it was the man, although he had only seen him for a
moment in the lift. He hadn't seen him go into the Admiralty office, but
he was passing as he came out, and noted the time exactly, so that he
might report to me at the first opportunity. The time was 11.32, and
Mayes jumped into a hansom and drove off. He walked right out into the
middle of the road to stop the hansom--you know how wide the road is
there--so that Corder couldn't hear his direction to the cabman, but he
took the number as the cab went off. Corder ought to have collared him
then and there, I think, but he was in a difficult position. It would
have endangered the case he was on, which is very important; and
besides, he didn't realise how much we wanted him for, having only been
brought in as an assistant at the tail of our bond case. Still less did
he guess--any more than myself--what I was going to hear at the
Admiralty office."
"At any rate," interrupted Hewitt, "you've got the number of the cab?"
"Here it is," Plummer answered, "and I've already set a man to get hold
of the cabman. You'd better note the number--92,873."
Hewitt duly noted the number, and advised me to do the same, in case I
should chance to meet the cab during the afternoon; and as we neared our
destination Plummer gave us the rest of the case in outline.
"In the office," he said, "I found them in a great state. A copy of the
code, or cypher, in which confidential orders and other messages are
sent to the fleet all over the world, and in which reports and messages
are sent back, had disappeared during the morning. It was in charge of a
Mr. Robert Telfer, a clerk of responsibility and undoubted integrity. He
kept it in a small iron safe, which is let into the wall of his private
room. It was safe when he arrived in the morning, and he immediately
used it in order to code a telegram, and locked it in the safe again at
10.20. Two hours later, at 12.20, he went to the safe for it again, in
order to de-code a message just received, and it was gone! And the lock
of the safe is one that would take hours to pick, I should judge. There
isn't a shade of a clue, so far as I can see, except this circumstance
of Mayes being seen leaving by Corder--just between Telfer's two visits
to the safe, you perceive. And of course there may be nothing in that,
except for the character of the man. And that's all there is to go on,
as far as I can see. I needn't tell you how important the thing is at a
time like this, and how much would be paid for that secret code by a
certain foreign Government. We have made hurried arrangements to have
certain places watched, and as soon as I have taken you to the office I
must rush off and make a few more arrangements still. But here we are."
Mr. Robert Telfer's room was at the side of a long and gloomy corridor
on the upper floor, and the door was distinguished merely by a number
and the word "Private" painted thereon. We found Mr. Telfer sitting
alone, and plainly in a state of great nervous tension. He was a man of
forty or thereabout, thin, alert, and using a single eye-glass. Plummer
introduced us by name, and rapidly explained our business.
"I told you the name of the party I am after, Mr. Telfer," Plummer said,
"and I went straight to Mr. Martin Hewitt, as being most likely to have
information of him. Mr. Hewitt, whose name you know already, of course,
is kind enough, seeing we're in a bad pinch, and pushed for time, to
come in and give us all the help he can. Both he and his friend, Mr.
Brett, know a good deal of the doings of the person we're after, and
their assistance is likely to be of the very greatest value. Do you mind
giving Mr. Hewitt any information he may ask? I must rush over to the
Yard to put some other inquiries on foot, and to set an observation or
two, but I'll be back presently."
"Certainly," Mr. Telfer answered, "I'm only too anxious to give any
information whatever--so long as it is nothing departmentally
forbidden--which will help to put this horrible matter right. Please ask
me anything, and be patient if my answers are not very clear. I have
been much overworked lately, as you may imagine, and have had very
little sleep; and now this terrible misfortune has upset me completely;
for, of course, I am held responsible for that copy of the code, and if
it isn't recovered, and quickly, I am ruined--to say nothing, of
course, of the far more serious consequences in other directions."
"That is the safe in which it was kept, I presume?" Hewitt said,
indicating a small one let into the wall. "May I examine it?"
"Certainly." Mr. Telfer turned and produced the keys from his pocket.
"The code was here, lying on this shelf when I needed it this morning at
ten. I took it out, used it, returned it to the same place exactly, and
locked the safe door. Then I took the draft of the telegram, together
with the copy in cypher, into the Controller's room, gave it into safe
hands, and returned here."
Hewitt narrowly examined the lock of the safe with his pocket lens.
"There are no signs of the lock having been picked," he said, "even if
that were possible. As a matter of fact, this is a lock that would take
half a day to pick, even with a heavy bag of tools. No, I don't think
that was the way of it. You have no doubt about locking the safe door at
10.20, I suppose, before you went to the Controller's room?"
"No possible doubt whatever. You see, I left the whole bunch of keys
hanging in the lock while I coded the telegram. It was a short one, and
was soon done. Then I returned the code to its place, locked the safe,
and then used another key on the bunch to lock a drawer in this desk. I
had no occasion to go to the safe again till about 12.20, when the
Controller's secretary came here with a telegram to be de-coded. The
safe was still locked then, but when it was opened the code was gone."
"You had had no occasion to go to the safe in the meantime?"
"None at all. I locked it at 10.20, and I unlocked it two hours later,
and that was all."
"You were not in the room the whole of the time, of course?"
"Oh, no. I have told you that at 10.20 I went to the Controller's room,
and after that I went out two or three times on one occasion or another.
But each time I locked the door of the room."
"Oh, you did? That is important. And you took all your keys with you, I
presume?"
"Yes, all. The keys on the bunch I took in my pocket, of course, and the
room door key I also took. There are one or two rather important papers
on my desk, you see, and anybody from the corridor might come in if the
door were left unlocked."
"The lock of the door would be a good deal easier to pick than that of
the safe," Hewitt observed, after examining it. "But that would be of no
great use with the safe locked. Shortly, then, the facts are these. You
locked the code safely away at 10.20, you left the room two or three
times, but each time the door, as well as the safe, was locked, and the
keys in your pocket; and then, at 12.20, or two hours exactly after the
code had been put safely away, you opened the safe again in presence of
the Controller's secretary, and the code had vanished. That is the whole
matter in brief, I take it?"
"Precisely." Mr. Telfer was pallid and bewildered. "It seems a total
impossibility," he said; "a total, absolute, physical impossibility; but
there it is."
"But as no such thing as a physical impossibility ever happens," Hewitt
replied calmly, "we must look further. Now, are there any other ways
into this room than by that door into the corridor? I see another door
here. What is that?"
"That door has been locked for ages. The room on the other side is one
like this, with a door in the corridor; it is used chiefly to store old
documents of no great importance, and I believe that whole stacks of
them, in bundles, are piled against the other side of that same door. We
will send for the key and see, if you like."
The key was sent for, and the door from the corridor opened. As Telfer
had led us to expect, the place was full of old papers in bundles and
parcels, thick with ancient dust, and these things were piled high
against the door next his room, and plainly had not been disturbed for
months, or even years.
"There remains the skylight," said Hewitt, "for I perceive, Mr. Telfer,
that your room is lighted from above, and has no window; while the grate
is a register. There seems to be no opening in that skylight but the
revolving ventilator. Am I right?"
"Quite so. There is no getting in by the skylight without breaking it,
and, as you see, it has not been broken. Certainly there are men on the
roof repairing the leads, but it is plain enough that nobody has come
that way. The thing is wholly inexplicable."
"At present, yes," Hewitt said, musingly. He stood for a few moments in
deep thought.
"Plummer is longer away than I expected," he said presently. "By the
way, what was the external appearance of the missing code?"
"It was nothing but a sort of thin manuscript book, made of a few sheets
of foolscap size, sewn in a cover of thickish grey paper. I left it in
the safe doubled lengthwise, and tied with tape in the middle."
"Its loss is a very serious thing, of course?"
"Oh, terribly, terribly serious, Mr. Hewitt," Telfer replied,
despairingly. "I am responsible, and it will put an end to my career,
of course. But the consequences to the country are more important, and
they may be disastrous--enormously so. A great sum would be paid for
that code on the Continent, I need hardly say."
"But now that you know it is taken, surely the code can be changed?"
"It's not so easy as it seems, Mr. Hewitt," Telfer answered, shaking his
head. "It means time, and I needn't tell you that with affairs in their
present state we can't afford one moment of time. Some expedients are
being attempted, of course, but you will understand that any new code
would have to be arranged with scattered items of the fleet in all parts
of the world, and that probably with the present code in the hands of
the enemy. Moreover, all our messages already sent will be accessible
with very little trouble, and they contain all our strategical coaling
and storing dispositions for a great war, Mr. Hewitt; and they can't,
they _can't_ be altered at a moment's notice! Oh, it is terrible!... But
here is Inspector Plummer. No news, I suppose, Mr. Plummer?"
"Well, no," Plummer answered deliberately. "I can't say I've any news
for _you_, Mr. Telfer, just yet. But I want to talk about a few things
to Mr. Hewitt. Hadn't we better go and see if your telegram is
answered, Mr. Hewitt? Unless you've heard."
"No, I haven't," Hewitt replied. "We'll go on at once. Good-day for the
present, Mr. Telfer. I hope to bring good news when next I see you."
"I hope so, too, Mr. Hewitt, most fervently," Telfer answered; and his
looks confirmed his words.
We walked in silence through the corridor, down the stairs, and out by
the gates into the street. Then Plummer turned on his heel and faced
Hewitt.
"That man's a wrong 'un," he said, abruptly, jerking his thumb in the
direction of the office we had just left. "I'll tell you about it in the
cab."
As soon as our cab was started on its way back to Hewitt's office
Plummer explained himself.
"He's been watched," he said, "has Mr. Telfer, when he didn't know it;
and he'll be watched again for the rest of to-day, as I've arranged.
What's more, he won't be allowed to leave the office this evening till
I have seen him again, or sent a message. No need to frighten him too
soon--it mightn't suit us. But he's in it, alone or in company!"
"How do you know?"
"I'll tell you. It seems the lead roofs are being repaired at the
Admiralty, and the plumbers are walking about where they like. Now
I needn't tell you I've had a man or two fishing about among the
doorkeepers and so on at the Admiralty, and one of them found a plumber
he knew slightly, working on the roof. That plumber happens to be no
fool--a bit smarter than the detective-constable, it seems to me, in
fact. Anyhow, he seems to have got more out of my man than my man got
out of him; and soon after I reached the Yard he turned up, asking to
see me. He said he'd heard that a valuable paper was missing (he didn't
know what) from the room with the skylight in the top floor, where the
gentleman with the single eye-glass was, and where the safe was let in
the wall; and he wanted to know what would be the reward for anybody
giving information about it. Of course I couldn't make any promise, and
I gave him to understand that he would have to leave the amount of the
reward to the authorities, if his information was worth anything; also,
that we were getting to work fast, and that if he wished to be first to
give information he'd better be quick about it; but I promised to make a
special report of his name and what he had to say if it were useful. And
it will be, or I'm vastly mistaken! For just you see here. Our friend,
Mr. Telfer, says he put that code safely away at 10.20 in the safe, and
that he never went to the safe again till 12.20, when the Controller's
secretary was with him; never went to it for anything whatever,
observe. Well, the plumber happened to be near the skylight at half-past
eleven, and he is prepared to swear that he saw Mr. Telfer--'the gent
with the eye-glass,' as he calls him--go to the safe, unlock it, take
out a grey paper, folded lengthwise, with red tape round it, re-lock the
safe, and carry that paper out into the corridor! The plumber was
kneeling by a brazier, it seems, which was close by the skylight, and he
is so certain of the time because he was regulating his watch by
Westminster Hall clock, and compared it when the half-hour struck, which
was just while Telfer was absent in the corridor with the paper. He was
only gone a second or two, and you will remember that Corder saw Mayes
leaving the premises within two minutes of that time!"
"Yes!"
"Well, Telfer was back in a second or two, _without the paper_, and went
on with his affairs as before. That's pretty striking, eh?"
"Yes," Hewitt answered thoughtfully, "it is."
"It was a sort of shot in the dark on the part of the plumber, for he
knew nothing else--nothing about Telfer legitimately having the keys of
the safe, nor any of the particulars we have been told. He merely knew
that a paper was missing, and having seen a paper taken out of the safe
he got it into his head that he had possibly witnessed the theft; and
he kept his knowledge to himself till he could see somebody in
authority. Mighty keen, too, about a reward!"
"And now you are having Telfer supervised?"
"I am. Not that we're likely to get the code from him; that's passed
out, sure enough, in Mayes's hands--or else his pockets."
To this confident expression of opinion Hewitt offered no reply, and
presently we alighted at his office, eager to learn if Peytral had given
the information Hewitt so much desired. Sure enough a telegram was
there, and it ran thus:
/#
"On the night you know of, Mayes went first to 37 Raven Street,
Blackfriars, then to 8 Norbury Row, Barbican. Message follows."
#/
"Now we're at work," Hewitt said, briskly, "and for a while we part. I
shall make a few changes of dress, and go to take a look at 37 Raven
Street, Blackfriars. Will you two go on to Norbury Row? You'll have to
be careful, Plummer, and not show yourself. That is where Brett will be
useful, since he isn't known; if anybody is to be seen let it be him. I
shall be very careful myself--though I shall have some little disguise;
and I fancy I shall not be so likely to be seen as you."
"What are we to do?" I asked.
"Well, of course, if you see Mayes in the open, grab him instantly. I
needn't tell Plummer _that_. I think Plummer would naturally seize him
on the spot, rush him off to the nearest station and go back with enough
men to clear out No. 8 Norbury Row. If you don't see him you'll keep an
observation, according to Plummer's discretion. But, unless some
exceptional chance occurs, I hope you won't go rushing in till we
communicate with each other--we must work together, and I may have news.
My instinct seems to tell me that yours is the right end of the stick,
at Barbican. But we must neglect nothing, and that is why I want you to
hold on there while I make the necessary examination at the other end.
Do you know this Norbury Row, Plummer?"
"I think I know every street and alley in the City," Plummer answered.
"There is a very good publican at the corner of Norbury Row, who's been
useful to the police a score of times. He keeps his eyes open, and I
shall be surprised if he can't give us _some_ information about No. 8,
anyhow. Moon's his name, and the house is 'The Compasses.' I shall go
there first. And if you've any message to send, send it through him.
I'll tell him."
On the stairs Plummer and I encountered another of his assistants.
"I've got the cab, sir," he reported. "Waiting outside now. Took up a
fare in Whitehall, opposite the Admiralty, and drove him to Charterhouse
Street; got down just by the Meat Market. That's all the man seems to
know."
Plummer questioned the cabman, and found that as a matter of fact that
was all he did know. So, telling him to wait to take us our little
journey, we returned and reported his information to Hewitt.
"Just as I expected," he said, quietly. "He stopped the cab a bit short
of his destination, of course,--just as you will, no doubt. There's not
a great deal in the evidence, but it confirms my idea."