knowing, and i knew it well, that people of "the scorpion" were watching, i do not pretend that i felt at my ease as i drove around to the empty house in which i garaged my cab. my inquiry had entered upon another stage, and charles malet was about to disappear from the case. i was well aware that if he failed in his vigilance for a single moment he might well disappear from the world!
the path which led to the stables was overgrown with weeds and flanked by ragged bushes; weeds and grass sprouted between the stones paving the little yard, also, although they were withered to a great extent by the petrol recently spilled there. having run the cab into the yard, i alighted and looked around the deserted grounds, mysterious in the moonlight. company would have been welcome, but excepting a constable who had stopped and chatted with me on one or two evenings i always had the stables to myself at night.
i determined to run the cab into the stable and lock it up without delay, for it was palpably dangerous in the circumstances to remain longer than necessary in that lonely spot. hurriedly i began to put out the lamps. i unlocked the stable doors and stood looking all about me again. i was dreading the ordeal of driving the cab those last ten yards into the garage, for whilst i had my back to the wilderness of bushes it would be an easy matter for anyone in hiding there to come up behind me.
nevertheless, it had to be done. seating myself at the wheel i drove into the narrow building, stopped the engine and peered cautiously around toward the bright square formed by the open doors. nothing was to be seen. no shadow moved.
a magazine pistol held in my hand, i crept, step by step, along the wall until i stood just within the opening. there i stopped.
i could hear a sound of quick breathing! there was someone waiting outside!
dropping quietly down upon the pavement, i slowly protruded my head around the angle of the brick wall at a point not four inches above the ground. i knew that whoever waited would have his eyes fixed upon the doorway at the level of a man's head.
close to the wall, a pistol in his left hand and an upraised stand-bag in his right, stood "le balafre!" his eyes gleamed savagely in the light of the moon and his teeth were bared in that fearful animal snarl. but he had not seen me.
inch by inch i thrust my pistol forward, the barrel raised sharply. i could not be sure of my aim, of course, nor had i time to judge it carefully.
i fired.
the bullet was meant for his right wrist, but it struck him in the fleshy part of his arm. uttering a ferocious cry he leapt back, dropped his pistol—and perceiving me as i sprang to my feet, lashed at my head with the sand-bag. i raised my left arm to guard my skull and sustained the full force of the blow upon it.
i staggered back against the wall, and my own pistol was knocked from my grasp. my left arm was temporarily useless and the man of the scar was deprived of the use of his right. pardieu! i had the better chance!
he hurled himself upon me.
instantly he recovered the advantage, for he grasped me by the throat with his left hand—and, nom d'un nom! what a grip he had! flat against the wall he held me, and began, his teeth bared in that fearful grin, to crush the life from me.
to such an attack there was only one counter. i kicked him savagely— and that death-grip relaxed. i writhed, twisted—and was free! as i regained my freedom i struck up at him, and by great good fortune caught him upon the point of the jaw. he staggered. i struck him over the heart, and he fell i pounced upon him, exulting, for he had sought my life and i knew no pity.
yet i had not thought so strong a man would choke so easily, and for some moments i stood looking down at him, believing that he sought to trick me. but it was not so. his affair was finished.
i listened. the situation in which i found myself was full of difficulty. an owl screeched somewhere in the trees, but nothing else stirred. the sound of the shot had not attracted attention, apparently. i stooped and examined the garments of the man who lay at my feet.
he carried a travel coupon to paris bearing that day's date, together with some other papers, but, although i searched all his pockets, i could find nothing of real interest, until in an inside pocket of his coat i felt some hard, irregularly shaped object. i withdrew it, and in the moonlight it lay glittering in my palm … a golden scorpion!
it had apparently been broken in the struggle. the tail was missing, nor could i find it: but i must confess that i did not prolong the search.
some chance effect produced by the shadow of the moonlight, and the presence of that recently purchased ticket, gave me the idea upon which without delay i proceeded to act. satisfying myself that there was no mark upon any of his garments by which the man could be identified, i unlocked from my wrist an identification disk which i habitually wore there, and locked it upon the wrist of the man with the scar!
clearly, i argued, he had been detailed to dispatch me and then to leave at once for france. i would make it appear that he had succeeded.
behold me, ten minutes later, driving slowly along a part of the thames embankment which i chanced to remember, a gruesome passenger riding behind me in the cab. i was reflecting as i kept a sharp look-out for a spot which i had noted one day during my travels, how easily one could commit murder in london, when a constable ran out and intercepted me!
mon deiu! how my heart leapt!
"i'll trouble you for your name and number, my lad," he said.
"what for?" i asked, and remembering a rare fragment of idiom: "what's up with you?" i added.
"your lamp's out!" he cried, "that's what's up with me!"
"oh," said i, climbing from my seat—"very well. i'm sorry. i didn't know. but here is my license."
i handed him the little booklet and began to light my lamps, cursing myself for a dreadful artist because i had forgotten to do so.
"all right," he replied, and handed it back to me. "but how the devil you've managed to get all your lamps out, i can't imagine!"
"this is my first job since dusk," i explained hurrying around to the tail-light. "and he don't say much!" remarked the constable.
i replaced my matches in my pocket and returned to the front of the cab, making a gesture as of one raising a glass to his lips and jerking my thumb across my shoulder in the direction of my unseen fare.
"oh, that's it!" said the constable, and moved off.
never in my whole career have i been so glad to see the back of any man!
i drove on slowly. the point for which i was making was only some three hundred yards further along, but i had noted that the constable had walked off in the opposite direction. therefore, arriving at my destination—a vacant wharf open to the road—i pulled up and listened.
only the wash of the tide upon the piles of the wharf was audible, for the night was now far advanced.
i opened the door of the cab and dragged out "le balafre." right and left i peered, truly like a stage villain, and then hauled my unpleasant burden along the irregularly paved path and on to the little wharf. out in mid-stream a thames police patrol was passing, and i stood for a moment until the creak of the oars grew dim.
then: there was a dull splash far below … and silence again.
gaston max had been consigned to a watery grave!
returning again to the garage, i wondered very much who he had been, this one, "le balafre." could it be that he was "the scorpion"? i could not tell, but i had hopes very shortly of finding out. i had settled up my affairs with my landlady and had removed from my apartments all papers and other effects. in the garage i had placed a good suit of clothes and other necessities, and by telephone i had secured a room at a west-end hotel.
the cab returned to the stable, i locked the door, and by the light of one of the lamps, shaved off my beard and moustache. my uniform and cap i hung up on the hook where i usually left them after working hours, and changed into the suit which i had placed there in readiness. i next destroyed all evidences of identity and left the place in a neat condition. i extinguished the lamp, went out and locked the door behind me, and carrying a travelling-grip and a cane i set off for my new hotel.
charles malet had disappeared!
