The Launch “Enid”
For several days after the attempted burglary events in the Cheyne
household pursued the even tenor of their way. Cheyne went back to
Plymouth on the following morning and interviewed the manager of the
Edgecombe, and the day after a quiet, despondent-looking man with the
air of a small shopkeeper arrived at Warren Lodge and was closeted
with Cheyne for a couple of hours. Mr. Speedwell, of Horton and
Lavender’s Private Detective Agency, listened with attention to the
tales of the drugging and the burglary, thenceforward appearing at
intervals and making mysterious inquiries on his own account.
On one of these visits he brought with him the report of the analyst
relative to the dishes of which Cheyne had partaken at lunch, but this
document only increased the mystification the affair had caused. No
trace of drugs was discernible in any of the food or drink in
question, and as the soiled plates or glasses or cups of _all_ the
courses were available for examination, the question of how the drug
had been administered—or alternatively whether it really had been
administered—began to seem almost insoluble. The cocktail taken with
Parkes before lunch was the only item of which a portion could not be
analyzed, but the evidence of the barmaid proved conclusively that
Parkes could not have tampered with it.
But in spite of the analysis, the coffee still seemed the doubtful
item. Cheyne’s sleepy feeling had come on very rapidly immediately
after drinking the coffee, before which he had not felt the slightest
abnormal symptoms. Mr. Speedwell laid stress on this point, though he
was pessimistic about the whole affair.
“They know what they’re about, does this gang,” he admitted ruefully
as he and Cheyne were discussing matters. “That man in the hotel that
called himself Parkes—if we found him tomorrow we should have precious
little against him. However he managed it, we can’t prove he drugged
you. In fact it’s the other way round. He can prove on our evidence
that he didn’t.”
“It looks like it. You haven’t been able to find out anything about
him?”
“Not a thing, sir; that is, not what would be any use. I can prove
that he sent your telegram all right; the girl in the Post Office
recognized his description. But I couldn’t get on to his trail after
that. I’ve tried the stations and the docks and the posting
establishments and the hotels and I can’t get a trace. But of course
I’ll maybe get it yet.”
“What about the address given on his card?”
“Tried that first thing. No good. No one of the name known in the
district.”
“When did the man arrive at the hotel?”
“Just after you did, Mr. Cheyne. He probably picked you up somewhere
else and was following you to see where you’d get lunch.”
“Oh, well, that explains something. I was wondering how he knew I was
going to the Edgecombe.”
“It doesn’t explain so very much, sir. Question still is, how did he
get all that other information about you; the name of your lawyer and
so on?”
Cheyne had to admit that the prospects of clearing up the affair were
not rosy. “But what about the burglary?” he went on more hopefully.
“That should be an easier nut to crack.”
Speedwell was still pessimistic.
“I don’t know about that, sir,” he answered gloomily. “There’s not
much to go on there either. The only chance is to trace the men’s
arrival or departure. Now individually the private detective is every
bit as good as the police; better, in fact, because he’s not so tied
up with red tape. But he hasn’t their organization. In a case like
this, when the police with their enormous organization have failed,
the private detective hasn’t a big chance. However, of course I’ve not
given up.”
He paused, and then drawing a little closer to Cheyne and lowering his
voice, he went on impressively: “You know, sir, I hope you’ll not
consider me out of place in saying it, but I had hoped to get my best
clue from yourself. There can be no doubt that these men are after
some paper that you have, or that they think you have. If you could
tell me what it was, it might make all the difference.”
Cheyne made a gesture of impatience.
“Don’t I know that,” he cried. “Haven’t I been racking my brains over
that question ever since the thing happened! I can’t think of
anything. In fact, I can tell you there _was_ nothing—nothing that I
know of anyway,” he added helplessly.
Speedwell nodded and a sly look came into his eyes.
“Well, sir, if you can’t tell, you can’t, and that’s all there is to
it.” He paused as if to refer to some other matter, then apparently
thinking better of it, concluded: “You have my address, and if
anything should occur to you I hope you’ll let me know without delay.”
When Speedwell had taken his departure Cheyne sat on in the study,
thinking over the problem the other had presented, but as he did so he
had no idea that before that very day was out he should himself have
received information which would clear up the point at issue, as well
as a good many of the other puzzling features of the strange events in
which he had become involved.
Shortly after lunch, then, on this day, the eighth after the burglary
and drugging, Cheyne, on re-entering the house after a stroll round
the garden, was handed a card and told that the owner was waiting to
see him in his study. Mr. Arthur Lamson, of 17 Acacia Terrace, Bland
Road, Devonport, proved to be a youngish man of middle height and
build, with the ruggedly chiselled features usually termed
hard-bitten, a thick black toothbrush mustache, and glasses. Cheyne
was not particularly prepossessed by his appearance, but he spoke in
an educated way and had the easy polish of a man of the world.
“I have to apologize for this intrusion, Mr. Cheyne,” he began in a
pleasant tone, “but the fact is I wondered whether I could interest
you in a small invention of mine. I got your name from Messrs. Holt &
Stavenage, the Plymouth ship chandlers. They told me you dealt with
them and how keen you were on yachting, and as my invention relates to
the navigation of coasting craft, I hoped you might allow me to show
it to you.”
Cheyne, who had had some experience of inventors during six weeks’
special naval war service after his convalescence, made a noncommittal
reply.
“I may tell you at once, sir,” Mr. Lamson went on, “that I am looking
for a keen amateur who would be willing to allow me to fit the device
to his boat, and who would be sufficiently interested to test it under
all kinds of varying conditions. You see, though the thing works all
right on a motor launch I have borrowed, I have exhausted my leave
from my business, and am therefore unable to give it a sufficiently
lengthy and varying test to find out whether it will work continuously
under ordinary everyday sea-going conditions. If it proves
satisfactory I believe it would sell, and if so I should of course be
willing to take into partnership to a certain extent anyone who had
helped me to develop it.”
In spite of himself Cheyne was impressed. This man was different from
those with whom he had hitherto come in contact. He was not asking for
money, or at least he hadn’t so far.
“Have you patented the device?” he asked, reckoning willingness to
spend money on patent fees a test of good faith.
“No, not yet,” the visitor answered. “I have taken out provisional
protection, which will cover the thing for four months more. If it
promises well after a couple of months’ test it will be time enough to
apply for the full patent.”
Cheyne nodded. This was a reasonable and proper course.
“What is the nature of the device?” he asked.
The young man’s manner grew more alert. He leaned forward in his chair
and spoke eagerly. Cheyne frowned involuntarily as he recognized the
symptoms.
“It’s a position indicator. It would, I think, be useful at all times,
but during fog it would be simply invaluable: that is, for coasting
work, you know. It would be no good for protection against collision
with another ship. But for clearing a headland or making a harbor in a
fog it would be worth its weight in gold. The principle is, I believe,
old, but I have been lucky enough to hit on improvements in detail
which get over the defects of previous instruments. Speaking broadly,
a fixed pointer, which may if desired carry a pen, rests on a moving
chart. The chart is connected to a compass and to rollers operated by
devices for recording the various components of motion: one is driven
off the propeller, others are set, automatically mostly, for such
things as wind, run of tide, wave motion and so on. The pointer always
indicates the position of the ship, and as the ship moves, the chart
moves to correspond. Steering then resolves itself into keeping the
pointer on the correct line on the chart, and this can be done by
night without guide lamps, or in a fog, as well as in daytime. The
apparatus would also assist navigation through unbuoyed channels over
covered mud flats, or in time of war through charted mine fields. I
don’t want to be a nuisance to you, Mr. Cheyne, but I do wish you
would at least let me show you the device. You could then decide
whether you would allow me to fix it to your yacht for experimental
purposes.”
“I should like to see it,” Cheyne admitted. “If you can do all you
claim, I certainly think you have a good thing. Where is it to be
seen?”
“On my launch, or rather, the launch I have borrowed.” The young man’s
eagerness now almost approached excitement. His eyes sparkled and he
fidgeted in his chair. “She is lying off Johnson’s boat slip at
Dartmouth. I left the dinghy there.”
“And you want me to go now?”
“If you really will be so kind. I should propose a short run down the
estuary and along the coast towards Exmouth, say for two or three
hours. Could you spare so much time?”
“Why, yes, I should enjoy it. I shall be back, say, between six and
seven.”
“I’ll have you back at Johnson’s slip at six o’clock. I have a taxi
waiting now, and I’ll arrange with Johnson to call another for you as
soon as he sees us coming up the estuary.”
“I’ll go,” said Cheyne. “Just a moment until I tell my people and get
a coat.”
The day was ideal for the run. Spring was in the air. The brilliant
April sun poured down from an almost cloudless sky, against which the
sea horizon showed a hard, sharp line of intensest blue. Within the
estuary it was calm, but multitudinous white flecks in the distance
showed a stiff breeze was blowing out at sea. Cheyne’s spirits rose.
It was a glorious sport, this of battling with the foaming, tumbling
waves in the open. How he loved their blue-black depth with its
suggestion of utter and absolute cleanness, the creamy purity of their
seething crests, their steady, irresistible onward movement, the
restless dancing and swirling of the wavelets on their flanks! To him
it was life to feel the buoyant spring of the craft beneath him, to
hear the crash of the bows into the troughs and the smack of the
spindrift striking aft. He was glad this Lamson had called. Even if
the matter of the invention was a washout, as he more than half
expected, he felt he was going to enjoy his afternoon.
Three or four minutes brought them to Johnson’s boat slip on the
outskirts of Dartmouth. There Lamson drew the proprietor aside.
“See here,” he directed, “we’re going out for a run. I want you to
keep a lookout for us coming back. We shall be in about six. As soon
as you see us send for a taxi and have it here when we get ashore.
Now, Mr. Cheyne, if you’re ready.”
They climbed down into a small dinghy and Lamson, taking the oars,
pulled out towards a fair-sized motor launch which lay at anchor some
couple of hundred yards from the shore. She was not a graceful boat,
but looked strongly built, showing a high bluff bow, a square stern
and lines suggestive of speed.
“A sea boat,” said Cheyne approvingly. “You surely don’t run her by
yourself?”
“No, a motoring friend has been giving me a hand. I am skipper and he
engineer. We hug the coast, you know, and don’t go out if it is
blowing.”
As he spoke he pulled round the stern of the launch upon which Cheyne
observed the words “Enid, Devonport.” At the same time a tall,
well-built figure appeared and waved his hand. Lamson brought the
dinghy up to the tiny steps and a moment later they were on deck.
“Mr. Cheyne has come out to see the great invention, Tom. I almost
hope that he is interested. My friend, Tom Lewisham, Mr. Cheyne.”
The two men shook hands.
“Lamson thinks he is going to make his fortune with this thing, Mr.
Cheyne,” the big man remarked, smiling. “We must see that there is no
mistake about our percentages.”
“If you want a percentage you must work for it, my son,” Lamson
declared. “Mr. Cheyne must be back by six, so get your old rattletrap
going and we’ll run down to the sea. If you don’t mind, Mr. Cheyne,
we’ll get under way before I show you the machine, as it takes both of
us to get started.”
“Right-o,” said Cheyne. “I’ll bear a hand if there’s anything I can
do.”
“Well, that’s good of you. It would be a help if you would take the
tiller while I’m making all snug. There’s a bit of a tumble on
outside.”
The boat was certainly a flier. The charmingly situated old town
dropped rapidly astern while Lamson “made snug.” Then he came aft,
shouted down through the engine room skylight for his friend, and when
the latter appeared told him to take the tiller.
“Now, Mr. Cheyne,” he went on, “now comes the great moment! I have not
fixed the apparatus up here in front of the tiller, partly to keep it
secret and partly to save the trouble of making it weatherproof. It’s
down in the cabin. But you understand it should be up here. Will you
come down?”
He led the way down a companion to a diminutive saloon. “It’s in the
sleeping part, still forward,” he pointed, and the two men squeezed
through a door in the bulkhead into a tiny cabin, lit by electric
light and with a table in the center and two berths on either side. On
the table was a frame on the top of which was stretched a chart, and a
light rod ran out from one side to a pointer fixed over the middle of
the chart.
“You can see that it’s very roughly made,” Lamson went on, “but if you
look closely I think you’ll find that it works all right.”
Cheyne bent forward and examined the machine, and as he did so
mystification grew in his mind. The chart was not of the estuary of
the Dart, nor, stranger still, was it connected to rollers. It was
simply tacked on what he now saw was merely the lid of a box. How it
was moved he couldn’t see.
“I don’t follow this,” he said. “How do you get your chart to move if
it’s nailed down?”
There was no answer, but as he swung round with a sudden misgiving
there was a sharp click. Lamson had disappeared and the door was shut!
Cheyne seized the handle and turned it violently, only to find that
the bolt of the lock had been shot, but before he could attempt
further researches the light went off, leaving him in almost pitch
darkness. At the same moment a significant lurch showed that they were
passing from the shelter of the estuary into the open sea.
He twisted and tugged at the handle. “Here you, Lamson!” he shouted
angrily. “What do you mean by this? Open the door at once. Confound
you! Will you open the door!” He began to kick savagely at the
woodwork.
A small panel in the partition between the cabins shot aside and a
beam of light flowed into Cheyne’s. Lamson’s face appeared at the
opening. He spoke in an old-fashioned, stilted way, aping extreme
politeness, but his mocking smile gave the lie to his protestations.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cheyne, for this incivility,” he declared, “and hope
that when you have heard my explanation you will pardon me. I must
admit I have played a trick on you for which I offer the fullest
apologies. The story of my invention was a fabrication. So far as I am
aware no apparatus such as I have described exists: certainly I have
not made one. The truth is that you can do me a service, and I took
the liberty of inveigling you here in the hope of securing your good
offices in the matter.”
“You’ve taken a bad way of getting my help,” Cheyne shouted
wrathfully. “Open the door at once, damn you, or I’ll smash it to
splinters!”
The other made a deprecatory gesture.
“Really I beg of you, Mr. Cheyne,” he said in mock horror at the
other’s violence. “Not so fast, if you please, sir. I have an answer
to both your observations. With regard to the door you will—”
Cheyne interrupted him with a savage oath and a fierce onslaught of
kicks on the lower panels of the door. But he could make no impression
on them, and when in a few moments he paused breathless, Lamson went
on quietly.
“With regard to the door, as I was about to observe, it would be a
waste of energy to attempt to smash it to splinters, because I have
taken the precaution to have it covered with steel plates. They are
bolted through and the nuts are on the outside. I mention this to save
you—”
Cheyne was by this time almost beside himself with rage. He expressed
his convictions and desires as to Lamson and his future in terms which
from the point of view of force left little to be desired, and
persistently reiterated his demand that the door be opened as a
prelude to further negotiation. In reply Lamson shook his head, and
remarking that as the present seemed an inopportune moment for
discussing the situation, he could postpone the conversation, he
closed the panel and left the inner cabin once more in darkness.
For an hour Cheyne stormed and fumed, and with pieces which he managed
to knock off the table tried to break through the door, the bulkheads,
and the deadlighted porthole, all with such a complete absence of
success that when at last Lamson appeared once more at the panel he
was constrained to listen, though with suppressed fury, to what he had
to say.
“You see, it’s this way, Mr. Cheyne,” the erstwhile inventor began.
“You are completely in our power, and the sooner you realize it and
let us come to business, the sooner you’ll be at liberty again. We
don’t wish you any harm; please accept my assurances on that. All we
want is a slight service at your hands, and when you perform it you
will be free to return home; in fact we shall take you back as I said,
with profuse apologies for your inconvenience and loss of time. But it
is only fair to point out that we are determined to get what we want,
and if you are not prepared to come to terms now we can wait until you
are.”
Cheyne, still at a white heat, cursed the other savagely. Lamson
waited until he had finished, then went on in a smooth, almost coaxing
tone:
“Now do be reasonable, Mr. Cheyne. You must see that your present
attitude is only wasting time for us both. Not to put too fine a point
on it, the situation is this: You are there, and you can’t get out,
and you can’t attract attention to your predicament—that is why the
deadlights are shipped. It grieves me to say it,” Lamson smiled
sardonically, “but I must tell you that you will stay there until you
do what we want. In order to prevent Mrs. Cheyne becoming uneasy we
shall wire her in your name that you have left for an extended trip
and won’t be back for some days. ‘To Cheyne, Warren Lodge, Dartmouth.
Gone for yachting cruise down French coast. Address Poste Restante,
St. Nazaire. All well. Maxwell.’ You see, we know exactly how to word
it. All suspicion would be lulled for some days and then,” he paused
and something sinister and revolting came into his face, “then it
wouldn’t matter, for it would be too late. For you see there is
neither food nor drink in the cabin and we don’t propose to pass any
in. You won’t get any, Mr. Cheyne, no matter how many days you remain
aboard: that is,” his manner changed, “unless you are reasonable,
which of course you will be. In that case no harm is done. Now won’t
you hear our little proposition?”
“I’ll see you in hell first,” Cheyne shouted, his rage once again
overwhelming him. “You’ll pay for this, I can tell you. It’ll be the
dearest trip you ever had in your life,” and he proceeded with threats
and curses to demand the immediate opening of the door. Lamson, a
whimsical smile curling his lips, shrugged his shoulders at the
outburst, and replied by withdrawing his head from the opening and
sliding the panel to.
Cheyne, left once more in almost complete darkness, sat silent, his
mind full of wrath against his captors. But as time passed and they
made no sign, his fury somewhat evaporated and he began to wonder what
it was they wanted with him. His rage had made him thirsty, and the
mere fact that Lamson had stated that nothing would be given him to
drink, made his thirst more insistent. It was impossible, he said to
himself, that the scoundrels could carry out so diabolical a threat,
but in spite of his assurance, little misgivings began to creep into
his mind. At all events the vision of his usual cup of afternoon tea
grew increasingly alluring. When therefore after what seemed to him
several hours, but what was in reality about forty minutes only, the
panel suddenly opened, he admitted sullenly that he was prepared to
listen to what Lamson had to say.
“That’s good,” the young man answered heartily. “If you could just see
your way to humor us in this little matter there is no reason why we
should not part friends.”
“There’s no question of friends about it,” Cheyne declared sharply.
“Cut your chatter and get on to business. What do you want?”
A smile suffused Mr. Lamson’s roughhewn countenance.
“Now that’s talking,” he cried. “That’s what I’ve been hoping to hear.
I’ll tell you the whole thing and you’ll see it’s only a mere trifle
that we’re asking. I can put it in five words: We want Arnold Price’s
letter.”
Cheyne stared.
“Arnold Price’s letter?” he repeated in amazement. “What on earth do
you know about Arnold Price’s letter?”
“We know all about it, Mr. Cheyne—a jolly sight more than you do. We
know about his giving it to you and the conditions under which he
asked you to keep it. But you don’t know why he did so or what is in
it. We do, and we can justify our request for it.”
The demand was so unexpected that Cheyne sat for a moment in silence,
thinking how the letter in question had come into his possession.
Arnold Price was a junior officer in one of the ships belonging to the
Fenchurch Street firm in whose office Cheyne had spent five years as
clerk. Business had brought the two young men in contact during the
visits of Price’s ship, and they had become rather friendly. On
Cheyne’s leaving for Devonshire they had drifted apart, indeed they
had only met on one occasion since. That was in 1917, shortly before
Cheyne received the wound which invalided him out of the service. Then
he found that his former companion had volunteered for the navy on the
outbreak of hostilities. He had done well, and after a varied service
he had been appointed third officer of the _Maurania_, an
eight-thousand-ton liner carrying passengers, as well as stores from
overseas to the troops in France. The two had spent an evening
together in Dunkirk renewing their friendship and talking over old
times. Then, two months later, had come the letter. In it Price asked
his friend to do him a favor. Some private papers, of interest only to
himself, had come into his possession and he wished these to be safely
preserved until after the war. Knowing that Cheyne was permanently
invalided out, he was venturing to send these papers, sealed in the
enclosed envelope, with the request that Cheyne would keep them for
him until he reclaimed them or until news of his death was received.
In the latter case Cheyne was to open the envelope and act as he
thought fit on the information therein contained.
The sealed envelope was of a size which would hold a foolscap sheet
folded in four, and was fairly bulky. It was inscribed: “To Maxwell
Cheyne, of Warren Lodge, Dartmouth, Devonshire, from Arnold Price,
third officer, S.S. _Maurania_,” and on the top was written: “Please
retain this envelope unopened until I claim it or until you have
received authentic news of my death. Arnold Price.” Cheyne had
acknowledged it, promising to carry out the instructions, and had then
sent the envelope to his bank, where it had since remained.
The insinuating voice of Lamson broke through his thoughts.
“I think, Mr. Cheyne, when you hear the reasons for our request, you
will give it all due consideration. For one—”
What? Break faith with Price? Go back on his friend? Rage again choked
Cheyne’s utterance. Stutteringly he cursed the other, once again
demanding under blood-curdling threats of future vengeance his
immediate liberty. Through his passion he heard the voice of the other
saying he was sorry but he really could not help it, the panel slid
shut, and darkness and silence, save for the sounds of the sea,
reigned in the _Enid’s_ cabin.