"Why did the gentleman call Mr. Barraclough 'Judkins'?"
"Most of his friends clip his double barrel name to that, I expect.
But let me go on. After the two gentlemen separated, Mrs. Judkins
followed her husband until he was in a quiet part of the promenade
and then touched him on the shoulder and said 'Jack!'
"Judkins started and turned as pale as his bronzed face would let
him. Then he took her arm and they went out into Leicester Square
together. He explained that he had intended to write to his wife
after he decamped, but he had got into fresh trouble and had to
clear out of the country. He had come back some years ago intending
to find his wife, but he was in with a bad set and for his share in
a fraud he had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. He had
been out for a year, but he was still getting his living by his wits.
"He had promised her he would do what he could for her, and gave her
£50 in bank-notes. He met her by appointment some time after that,
and made her a present of some jewellery and quite won her
confidence, only he was always careful to warn her that he was
still what the fraternity call 'crook,' and the police were keeping
an eye on him.
"One day he said he should have to lie quiet for a bit, and he told
her to come to him where he was staying at No. ---, Burton Crescent.
She was to come at midnight. He would, he hoped, have some money and
jewellery to give her which he wanted her to take care of while he
was away.
"The woman fell into the trap. At midnight her husband let her in.
The house was in darkness. He took her by the hand and led her
upstairs.
"Suddenly the idea came to her that all was not right--she grew
nervous and tried to drag her hand away. The man seized her forcibly
and thrust his arm across her mouth to stop her screaming. She
struggled and bit fiercely into his flesh. He uttered a cry of rage,
and thrust his pocket-handkerchief into her mouth. Then he held
something to her nose, which she supposed must have been chloroform,
for she remembers no more. When she came to herself she felt weak
and unable to move, and was lying in a kind of cage in one of the
rooms. She saw brandy by her side and she drank. The brandy was all
she had, and she drank to drive away her terror. She confesses that
she had been a hard drinker, and that on several occasions when
Judkins met her she had been drinking heavily. It was probably this
discovery which gave him the idea of letting her drink herself to
death quietly, using the chloral as a means to an end."
"And now?" I said as Dorcas finished her narrative.
"And now she is getting round----Well?"
The last word was addressed to Inspector Stromberg, who had come
upstairs.
"Everything is ready," he said. "I've two men posted out of sight
in front, and there's no chance of an escape at the back."
We went into the room all three together.
"Now," said the Inspector to the Indian, "you quite understand what
you are to do?"
"Yes, I understand," replied Mr. Mohammed with a sickly grin.
"And remember you can't save him. If you warn him and he tries to
bolt, my men are outside--so you'll let him come in and do exactly
as he tells you."
"Yes."
"Now, once more you are sure you have no idea to whom those old
clothes in the cupboard belong, nor why Barraclough brought them here!
"No; he must have brought them and put them there when I did not see."
* * * * * * *
At ten o'clock there was the sound of a key turning in the lock
downstairs. The house was in darkness. In the centre of the
first-floor back room the cage, restored to its former condition,
stood as before; only one side had been torn away by Aleem in order
that he might ascertain if the woman was really dead. Covered over
with a scarlet blanket lay something that looked like a human form.
A cloth was flung over the face.
Dorcas and I were sitting with the front room door open when we heard
the key. Stromberg and the plain-clothes officer were nowhere to be
seen.
The Indian had taken down the sacking that formed the roof of the
cage, and flung it into the corner. Through the thin partition that
separated the back and front rooms two gimlet-holes had been bored.
Dorcas knelt down and fixed her eyes to these. We could hear every
word that was spoken.