I FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF THE SUPER-BUTLER
My first thought, as I journeyed towards London, was that I was
horribly alone in this business. Whatever was to be done I must do
it myself, for the truth was I had no evidence which any authority
would recognise. Pitt-Heron was the friend of a strange being who
collected objects of art, probably passed under an alias in South
London, and had absurd visions of the end of civilisation. That, in
cold black and white, was all my story came to. If I went to the
police they would laugh at me, and they would be right.
Now I am a sober and practical person, but, slender though my
evidence was, it brought to my mind the most absolute conviction. I
seemed to know Pitt-Heron's story as if I had heard it from his own
lips--his first meeting with Lumley and their growing friendship; his
initiation into secret and forbidden things; the revolt of the decent
man, appalled that his freakishness had led him so far; the
realisation that he could not break so easily with his past, and that
Lumley held him in his power; and last, the mad flight under the
pressure of overwhelming terror.
I could read, too, the purpose of that flight. He knew the Indian
frontier as few men know it, and in the wild tangle of the Pamirs he
hoped to baffle his enemy. Then from some far refuge he would send
for his wife and spend the rest of his days in exile. It must have
been an omnipotent terror to drive such a man, young, brilliant,
rich, successful, to the fate of an absconding felon.
But Lumley was on his trail. So I read the telegram I had picked up
on the floor of the Blackheath house, and my business was to
frustrate the pursuit. Some one must have gone to Bokhara, some
creature of Lumley's, perhaps the super-butler I had met in the
County Court. The telegram, for I had noted the date, had been
received on the 27th day of May. It was now the 15th of June, so if
some one had started immediately on its receipt, in all probability
he would by now be in Bokhara.
I must find out who had gone and endeavour to warn Tommy. I
calculated that it would have taken him seven or eight days to get
from Moscow by the Transcaspian; probably he would find Pitt-Heron
gone, but inquiries would set him on the track. I might be able to
get in touch with him through the Russian officials. In any case, if
Lumley were stalking Pitt-Heron, I, unknown and unsuspected, would be
stalking Lumley.
And then in a flash I realised my folly.
The wretched letter I had written that morning had given the whole
show away. Lumley knew that I was a friend of Pitt-Heron, and that I
knew that he was a friend of Pitt-Heron. If my guess was right,
friendship with Lumley was not a thing Charles was likely to confess
to, and he would argue that my knowledge of it meant that I was in
Charles's confidence. I would therefore know of his disappearance
and its cause, and alone in London would connect it with the decorous
bachelor of the Albany. My letter was a warning to him that he could
not play the game unobserved, and I, too, would be suspect in his
eyes.
It was no good crying over spilt milk, and Lumley's suspicions must
be accepted. But I confess that the thought gave me the shivers.
The man had a curious terror for me, a terror I cannot hope to
analyse and reproduce for you. My bald words can give no idea of the
magnetic force of his talk, the sense of brooding and unholy craft.
I was proposing to match my wits against a master's, one, too, who
must have at his command an organisation far beyond my puny efforts.
I have said that my first feeling was that of loneliness and
isolation; my second was one of hopeless insignificance. It was a
boy's mechanical toy arrayed against a Power-House with its shining
wheels and monstrous dynamos.
My first business was to get into touch with Tommy.
At that time I had a friend in one of the Embassies, whose
acquaintance I had made on a dry-fly stream in Hampshire. I will not
tell you his name, for he has since become a great figure in the
world's diplomacy, and I am by no means certain that the part he
played in this tale was strictly in accordance with official
etiquette. I had assisted him on the legal side in some of the
international worries that beset all Embassies, and we had reached
the point of intimacy which is marked by the use of Christian names
and by dining frequently together. Let us call him Monsieur Felix.
He was a grave young man, slightly my senior, learned, discreet, and
ambitious, but with an engaging boyishness cropping up now and then
under the official gold lace. It occurred to me that in him I might
find an ally.
I reached London about eleven in the morning, and went straight to
Belgrave Square. Felix I found in the little library off the big
secretaries' room, a sunburnt sportsman fresh from a Norwegian salmon
river. I asked him if he had half an hour to spare, and was told
that the day was at my service.
"You know Tommy Deloraine?" I asked.
He nodded.
"And Charles Pitt-Heron?"
"I have heard of him."
"Well, here is my trouble. I have reason to believe that Tommy has
joined Pitt-Heron in Bokhara. If he has, my mind will be greatly
relieved, for, though I can't tell you the story, I can tell you that
Pitt-Heron is in very considerable danger. Can you help me?"
Felix reflected. "That should be simple enough. I can wire in
cypher to the Military Governor. The police there are pretty
efficient, as you may imagine, and travellers don't come and go
without being remarked. I should be able to give you an answer
within twenty-four hours. But I must describe Tommy. How does one
do that in telegraphese?"
"I want you to tell me another thing," I said. "You remember that
Pitt-Heron has some reputation as a Central Asian traveller. Tommy,
as you know, is as mad as a hatter. Suppose these two fellows at
Bokhara, wanting to make a long trek into wild country--how would
they go? You've been there, and know the lie of the land."
Felix got down a big German atlas, and for half an hour we pored over
it. From Bokhara, he said, the only routes for madmen ran to the
south. East and north you got into Siberia; west lay the
Transcaspian desert; but southward you might go through the Hissar
range by Pamirski Post to Gilgit and Kashmir, or you might follow up
the Oxus and enter the north of Afghanistan, or you might go by Merv
into north-eastern Persia. The first he thought the likeliest route,
if a man wanted to travel fast.
I asked him to put in his cable a suggestion about watching the
Indian roads, and left him with a promise of early enlightenment.
Then I went down to the Temple, fixed some consultations, and spent a
quiet evening in my rooms. I had a heavy sense of impending
disaster, not unnatural in the circumstances. I really cannot think
what it was that held me to the job, for I don't mind admitting that
I felt pretty queasy about it. Partly, no doubt, liking for Tommy
and Ethel, partly regret for that unfortunate fellow Pitt-Heron, most
of all, I think, dislike of Lumley. That bland super-man had fairly
stirred my prosaic antipathies.
That night I went carefully over every item in the evidence to try
and decide on my next step. I had got to find out more about my
enemies. Lumley I was pretty certain would baffle me, but I thought
I might have a better chance with the super-butler. As it turned out
I hit his trail almost at once.
Next day I was in a case at the Old Bailey. It was an important
prosecution for fraud, and I appeared, with two leaders, for the Bank
concerned. The amazing and almost incredible thing about this story
of mine is the way clues kept rolling in unsolicited, and I was to
get another from this dull prosecution. I suppose that the
explanation is that the world is full of clues to everything, and
that, if a man's mind is sharp-set on any quest, he happens to notice
and take advantage of what otherwise he would miss.
My leaders were both absent the first day, and I had to examine our
witnesses alone. Towards the close of the afternoon I put a fellow
in the box, an oldish, drink-sodden clerk from a Cannon Street
bucket-shop. His evidence was valuable for our case, but I was very
doubtful how he would stand a cross-examination as to credit. His
name was Routh, and he spoke with a strong North-country accent. But
what caught my attention was his face. His jaw looked as if it had
been made in two pieces which did not fit, and he had little, bright
protuberant eyes. At my first glance I was conscious of a
recollection.
He was still in the box when the Court rose, and I informed the
solicitors that before going further I wanted a conference with the
witness. I mentioned also that I should like to see him alone. A
few minutes later he was brought to my chambers, and I put one or two
obvious questions on the case, till the managing clerk who
accompanied him announced with many excuses that he must hurry away.
Then I shut the door, gave Mr. Routh a cigar, and proceeded to
conduct a private inquiry.
He was a pathetic being, only too ready to talk. I learned the
squalid details of his continuous misfortunes. He had been the son
of a dissenting minister in Northumberland, and had drifted through
half a dozen occupations till he found his present unsavoury billet.
Truth was written large on his statement, he had nothing to conceal,
for his foible was folly, not crime, and he had not a rag of pride to
give him reticence. He boasted that he was a gentleman and
well-educated, too, but he had never had a chance. His brother had
advised him badly; his brother was too clever for a prosaic world;
always through his reminiscences came this echo of fraternal
admiration and complaint.
It was about the brother I wanted to know, and Mr. Routh was very
willing to speak. Indeed, it was hard to disentangle facts from his
copious outpourings. The brother had been an engineer and a highly
successful one; had dallied with politics, too, and had been a great
inventor. He had put Mr. Routh on to a South American speculation,
where he had made a little money but speedily lost it again. Oh, he
had been a good brother in his way, and had often helped him, but he
was a busy man, and his help never went quite far enough. Besides,
he did not like to apply to him too often. I gathered that the
brother was not a person to take liberties with.
I asked him what he was doing now.
"Ah," said Mr. Routh, "that is what I wish I could tell you. I will
not conceal from you that for the moment I am in considerable
financial straits, and this case, though my hands are clean enough,
God knows, will not make life easier for me. My brother is a
mysterious man, whose business often takes him abroad. I have never
known even his address, for I write always to a London office from
which my communications are forwarded. I only know that he is in
some big electrical business, for I remember that he once let drop
the remark that he was in charge of some power station. No, I do not
think it is in London, probably somewhere abroad. I heard from him a
fortnight ago, and he told me he was just leaving England for a
couple of months. It is very annoying, for I want badly to get into
touch with him."
"Do you know, Mr. Routh," I said, "I believe I have met your brother.
Is he like you in any way?"
"We have a strong family resemblance, but he is taller and slimmer.
He has been more prosperous, and has lived a healthier life, you see."
"Do you happen to know," I asked, "if he ever uses another name? I
don't think that the man I knew was called Routh."
The clerk flushed. "I think it highly unlikely that my brother would
use an alias. He has done nothing to disgrace a name of which we are
proud."
I told him that my memory had played me false, and we parted on very
good terms. He was an innocent soul, one of those people that clever
rascals get to do their dirty work for them. But there was no
mistaking the resemblance. There, without the brains and force and
virility, went my super-butler of Blackheath, who passed under the
name of Tuke.
The clerk had given me the name of the office to whose address he had
written to his brother. I was not surprised to find that it was that
of the firm of stockbrokers for whom I was still acting in the
bearer-bonds case where I had heard Pavia's name.
I rang up the partner whom I knew and told him a very plausible story
of having a message for one of Mr. Pavia's servants, and asked him if
he were in touch with them and could forward letters. He made me
hold the line, and then came back and told me that he had forwarded
letters for Tuke, the butler, and one Routh who was a groom or
footman. Tuke had gone abroad to join his master and he did not know
his address. But he advised me to write to the White Lodge.
I thanked him and rang off. That was settled anyhow. Tuke's real
name was Routh, and it was Tuke who had gone to Bokhara.
My next step was to ring up Macgillivray at Scotland Yard and get an
appointment in half an hour's time. Macgillivray had been at the
Bar--I had read in his chambers--and was now one of the heads of the
Criminal Investigation Department. I was about to ask him for
information which he was in no way bound to give me, but I presumed
on our old acquaintance.
I asked him first whether he had ever heard of a secret organisation
which went under the name of the Power-House. He laughed out loud at
my question.
"I should think we have several hundreds of such pet names on our
records," he said. "Everything from the Lodge of the Baldfaced
Ravens to Solomon's Seal No. X. Fancy nomenclature is the relaxation
of the tired anarchist, and matters very little. The dangerous
fellows have no names, no numbers even, which we can get hold of.
But I'll get a man to look up our records. There may be something
filed about your Power-House."
My second question he answered differently. "Routh! Routh! Why,
yes, there was a Routh we had dealings with a dozen years ago, when I
used to go the North-Eastern circuit. He was a trade-union official
who bagged the funds, and they couldn't bring him to justice because
of the ridiculous extra-legal status they possess. He knew it, and
played their own privileges against them. Oh, yes, he was a very
complete rogue. I once saw him at a meeting in Sunderland, and I
remember his face--sneering eyes, diabolically clever mouth, and with
it all as smug as a family butler. He has disappeared from
England--at least we haven't heard of him for some years, but I can
show you his photograph."
Macgillivray took from a lettered cabinet a bundle of cards, selected
one and tossed it towards me. It was that of a man of thirty or so,
with short side-whiskers and a drooping moustache. The eyes, the
ill-fitting jaw, and the brow were those of my friend, Mr. Tuke,
brother and patron of the sorrowful Mr. Routh, who had already that
afternoon occupied my attention.
Macgillivray promised to make certain inquiries, and I walked home in
a state of elation. Now I knew for certain who had gone to Bokhara,
and I knew something, too, of the traveller's past. A discredited
genius was the very man for Lumley's schemes--one who asked for
nothing better than to use his brains outside the ring-fence of
convention. Somewhere in the wastes of Turkestan the ex-trade-union
official was in search of Pitt-Heron. I did not fancy that Mr. Tuke
would be very squeamish.
I dined at the club and left early. Going home, I had an impression
that I was being shadowed.
You know the feeling that some one is watching you, a sort of
sensation which the mind receives without actual evidence. If the
watcher is behind where you can't see him you have a cold feeling
between your shoulders. I daresay it is a legacy from the days when
the cave-man had to look pretty sharp to keep from getting his
enemy's knife between the ribs.
It was a bright summer evening, and Piccadilly had its usual crowd of
motor-cars and busses and foot passengers. I halted twice, once in
St. James's Street and once at the corner of Stratton Street, and
retraced my steps for a bit, and each time I had the impression that
some one a hundred yards or so off had done the same. My instinct
was to turn round and face him, whoever he was, but I saw that that
was foolishness. Obviously in such a crowd I could get no certainty
in the matter, so I put it out of my mind.
I spent the rest of the evening in my rooms, reading cases and trying
to keep my thoughts off Central Asia. About ten I was rung up on the
telephone by Felix. He had had his answer from Bokhara. Pitt-Heron
had left with a small caravan on June 2d by the main road through the
Hissar range. Tommy had arrived on June 10th and on the 12th had set
off with two servants on the same trail. Travelling the lighter of
the two, he should have overtaken Pitt-Heron by the 15th at latest.
That was yesterday, and my mind was immensely relieved. Tommy in
such a situation was a tower of strength, for, whatever his failings
in politics, I knew no one I would rather have with me to go
tiger-shooting.
Next day the sense of espionage increased. I was in the habit of
walking down to the Temple by way of Pall Mall and the Embankment,
but, as I did not happen to be in Court that morning, I resolved to
make a detour and test my suspicions. There seemed to be nobody in
Down Street as I emerged from my flat, but I had not walked five
yards before, turning back, I saw a man enter from the Piccadilly
end, while another moved across the Hertford Street opening. It may
have been only my imagination, but I was convinced that these were my
watchers.
I walked up Park Lane, for it seemed to me that by taking the Tube at
the Marble Arch Station I could bring matters to the proof. I have a
knack of observing small irrelevant details, and I happened to have
noticed that a certain carriage in the train which left Marble Arch
about 9.30 stopped exactly opposite the exit at the Chancery Lane
Station, and by hurrying up the passage one could just catch the lift
which served an earlier train and so reach the street before any of
the other travellers.
I performed this manoeuvre with success, caught the early lift,
reached the street and took cover behind a pillar-box from which I
could watch the exit of passengers from the stairs. I judged that my
tracker, if he missed me below, would run up the stairs rather than
wait for the lift. Sure enough, a breathless gentleman appeared, who
scanned the street eagerly, and then turned to the lift to watch the
emerging passengers. It was clear that the espionage was no figment
of my brain.
I walked slowly to my chambers and got through the day's work as best
I could, for my mind was preoccupied with the unpleasant business in
which I found myself entangled. I would have given a year's income
to be honestly quit of it, but there seemed to be no way of escape.
The maddening thing was that I could do so little. There was no
chance of forgetting anxiety in strenuous work. I could only wait
with the patience at my command, and hope for the one chance in a
thousand which I might seize. I felt miserably that it was no game
for me. I had never been brought up to harry wild beasts and risk my
neck twice a day at polo like Tommy Deloraine. I was a peaceful,
sedentary man, a lover of a quiet life, with no appetite for perils
and commotions. But I was beginning to realize that I was very
obstinate.
At four o'clock I left the Temple and walked to the Embassy. I had
resolved to banish the espionage from my mind, for that was the least
of my difficulties.
Felix gave me an hour of his valuable time. It was something that
Tommy had joined Pitt-Heron, but there were other matters to be
arranged in that far country. The time had come, in my opinion, to
tell him the whole story.
The telling was a huge relief to my mind. He did not laugh at me as
I had half feared, but took the whole thing as gravely as possible.
In his profession, I fancy, he had found too many certainties behind
suspicions to treat anything as trivial. The next step, he said, was
to warn the Russian police of the presence of the man called Saronov
and the super-butler. Happily we had materials for the description
of Tuke or Routh, and I could not believe that such a figure would be
hard to trace. Felix cabled again in cypher, asking that the two
should be watched, more especially if there was reason to believe
that they had followed Tommy's route. Once more we got out the big
map and discussed the possible ways. It seemed to me a land created
by Providence for surprises, for the roads followed the valleys, and
to the man who travelled light there must be many short cuts through
the hills.
I left the Embassy before six o'clock and, crossing the Square
engrossed with my own thoughts, ran full into Lumley.
I hope I played my part well, though I could not repress a start of
surprise. He wore a grey morning-coat and a white top-hat and looked
the image of benevolent respectability.
"Ah, Mr. Leithen," he said, "we meet again."
I murmured something about my regrets at my early departure three
days ago, and added the feeble joke that I wished he would hurry on
his Twilight of Civilisation, for the burden of it was becoming too
much for me.
He looked me in the eyes with all the friendliness in the world. "So
you have not forgotten our evening's talk? You owe me something, my
friend, for giving you a new interest in your profession."
"I owe you much," I said, "for your hospitality, your advice, and
your warnings."
He was wearing his tinted glasses and peered quizzically into my face.
"I am going to make a call in Grosvenor Place," he said, "and shall
beg in return the pleasure of your company. So you know my young
friend, Pitt-Heron?"
With an ingenuous countenance I explained that he had been at Oxford
with me and that we had common friends.
"A brilliant young man," said Lumley. "Like you, he has occasionally
cheered an old man's solitude. And he has spoken of me to you?"
"Yes," I said, lying stoutly. "He used to tell me about your
collections." (If Lumley knew Charles well he would find me out, for
the latter would not have crossed the road for all the treasures of
the Louvre.)
"Ah, yes, I have picked up a few things. If ever you should care to
see them I should be honoured. You are a connoisseur? Of a sort?
You interest me for I should have thought your taste lay in other
directions than the dead things of art. Pitt-Heron is no collector.
He loves life better than art, as a young man should. A great
traveller our friend--the Laurence Oliphant or Richard Burton of our
day."
We stopped at a house in Grosvenor Place, and he relinquished my arm.
"Mr. Leithen," he said, "a word from one who wishes you no ill. You
are a friend of Pitt-Heron, but where he goes you cannot follow.
Take my advice and keep out of his affairs. You will do no good to
him, and you may bring yourself into serious danger. You are a man
of sense, a practical man, so I speak to you frankly. But, remember,
I do not warn twice."
He took off his glasses, and his light, wild eyes looked me straight
in the face. All benevolence had gone, and something implacable and
deadly burned in them. Before I could say a word in reply he
shuffled up the steps of the house and was gone....