jack nodded significantly to his companion, as much as to signify that seymour must be allowed to have his own way. the latter had taken the matter into his own hands from the first. it was quite evident that he was working out some deep and subtle scheme, and the others were disposed to give him a free hand.
"would you like to see bates now?" jack asked.
"most emphatically not," seymour laughed. "it is no cue of mine to come in contact with the police until i have seen my way quite clear. besides, you are by no means certain yet that bates will be put on to this case, and be given the opportunity of investigating the startling burglary at the city and provincial bank. again, it may be too much for bates's nerves if i burst upon him suddenly, and he recognizes me as the dead nostalgo who was so mysteriously spirited from shannon street police station. no; on the whole, i should prefer that you should go and see bates alone. tell him exactly what happened and what you saw to-night, leaving me out of the question. then come and see me some time to-morrow afternoon, and i will tell you what to do next."
"one moment," rigby exclaimed, as seymour was turning away. "what was that idea of yours about the cotton waste?"
seymour winked significantly, and remarked that it was time he was in bed. with a cheery nod to his companions, he turned his face in an easterly direction and strolled off down the street.
"now there's a clever man for you," rigby cried. "quite as clever a man as anstruther, and i should say a great deal more subtle. but let us go as far as shannon street police station, and tell bates our story."
bates had been detained rather late. he had only just come in, and was preparing to go home when the two friends entered. he had no need to ask if they had anything of importance to communicate to him--he could glean that from the expression of the friends' faces. he led the way to his private room, and passed the cigarettes across the table.
"it's about carrington," rigby explained. "but perhaps i had better go back a bit, and tell you one or two little things you don't know."
it was a fairly long story, and it thoroughly aroused bates to a sense of action. his questions were clear and intelligent; he followed the narrative, punctuating it here and there with shrewd suggestions.
"mind you," he said. "i have been expecting something like this for a long time. all the same, i can see that you gentlemen have only told me half the story. still, i can't complain, especially as i see my way to make a good thing out of this. when i tell the people at scotland yard all i know they are pretty sure to put me on the case--indeed, i will make a special favor of it. you say that you saw anstruther blowing up all those locks, and you are pretty sure that the great bulk of the plunder is in carrington's private safe. you don't suggest that anstruther carried that service of plate home with him?"
"anstruther wouldn't be such a fool," rigby said curtly. "he is much too cool a hand for that. he will feel quite sure that the stuff is perfectly safe where it is, and fetch it away from the city a bit at a time. of course, he won't do this till the affair has blown over and he is quite safe in so doing."
bates was inclined to share the speaker's opinion. there was no more to be said for the present, and he intimated his intention to go up to scotland yard and ask the authorities to put him on the case. jack and rigby went their respective ways, a clock somewhere striking two when they parted at length.
precisely as bates had prophesied, the mysterious burglary at the city and provincial bank caused the greatest sensation the following morning. the later editions of the evening papers were full of it. carrington had been interviewed by more than one bright reporter; indeed, he had been dragged out of bed for the purpose, and he had been understood to say that the bank's loss could not fall far short of a million unless the thieves could be promptly arrested. the story was vividly told, carrington's distress and agitation being expressly accentuated.
but this was not the worst part of the distracted bank manager's story. there had been in the possession of the bank a tremendous lot of valuable personal property belonging to various esteemed clients. all this had disappeared, and more than one great lady in london was mourning the loss of her family jewels. the greatest sympathy was felt with the bank; it was only one or two carping critics who were asking questions.
they were pertinent questions, too; a desire, for instance, to know what carrington could possibly be doing on the bank premises at so late an hour. but these were merely pin pricks, and the great bulk of the population felt nothing but sympathy for carrington. the only people who had a fairly good grip of the real state of the case besides rigby and his companions were the barmouths and claire helmsley. jack saw claire in lady barmouth's drawing-room late the following morning, and explained to her and lady barmouth what had happened the night previous.
"it is most mysterious," claire said, "and almost impossible to believe that my guardian had anything to do with the matter. i dined very quietly at home last night, and sat up till long past one finishing a novel in which i was deeply interested. i can assure you of this--that from half-past nine till the time i went to bed mr. anstruther's violin practically did not cease. if i were brought into the case as a witness, i should be bound to swear that my guardian was in his study during the whole time that the burglary was taking place."
"that is another phase of the mystery that we have to solve," jack said. "it is all very clever and very ingenious and very useful, but seeing is believing. after all, anstruther was there last night, as three of us are prepared to testify."
"then in that case i shall never see my jewels again," lady barmouth said. "but what are the police going to do about it, mr. masefield? the thing cannot be possibly allowed to remain here. if they were to arrest mr. carrington at once and search his safe----"
"but the police don't work quite in that way," jack interrupted. "besides, carrington is not the only one. the chief villain in the play is spencer anstruther; and at the present moment he is in a position to prove a perfect alibi. it is not the slightest use laying carrington by the heels till we are in a position to prove anstruther's alibi to be nothing but an ingenious mechanical fraud. don't you recollect the case of the ph?nix park murders? in that case the police could have laid their hands upon half the culprits within a few days. they preferred to wait months, until every one of the gang were swept up in the meshes of the law. i will go and see bates presently, and ascertain if he has anything fresh to tell us."
it was quite late in the afternoon before jack managed to get a few words with the inspector. he seemed to be very cheerful and sanguine, and dropped a hint to the effect that his morning had not been altogether wasted.
"oh, we are going on, right enough," he exclaimed in answer to jack's question. "in the circumstances, they can do nothing else. most of my morning has been spent in calling on the various unfortunate people whose valuables were deposited at carrington's bank, and getting a full description of the same. after that i made the rounds of the principal pawnbrokers and such people as advance money on real property."
"did you find anything of the missing stuff?" jack asked eagerly. "i mean, did you see any of it?"
bates explained that up to now he had been successful in three instances. he knew where to lay his hands upon the tiara of diamonds that had only been deposited with carrington four days ago.
"it belongs to one of our fashionable society leaders," he explained, "and really is a most magnificent piece of work. mind you, carrington must have been a great fool, or he must have been desperately pressed for money, to pledge these things in london. he could have sent them to amsterdam or paris, where they could have been broken up and disposed of in such a manner that it would have been impossible to trace them. this might have entailed a financial sacrifice, but see how safe it would have been. i feel pretty sure that within the next two days i shall trace every atom of the lost property."
"but it is usual to pledge such valuable jewels in this casual way?" jack asked.
"certainly it is. the thing has been done over and over again. in a great many instances the lady does not go through the ordeal herself, but sends a maid or some confidential servant with a note addressed to the pawnbroker, and asks for ten thousand pounds, or whatever it may be. that is how this business has been worked."
"but the pawnbrokers?" jack protested. "when they come to see a list of the missing jewels a full story must be told."
bates admitted the ingenuity of the suggestion. it was just possible that there was danger in that direction. still, as he pointed out, no one could blame the pawnbrokers for not recognizing from a bald printed description certain gems pledged at their establishments.
"but i think you can leave that safely to me," he said. "there is nothing to prevent me from applying for a warrant for the arrest of carrington, and producing all that damning evidence from his private safe; but by doing this we are practically allowing a greater ruffian to escape."
jack cordially agreed with this view of the case. he proceeded to speak at some length as to what he had seen and heard the night before last in carrington's smoking-room.
"you must not forget," he said, "that the man who was with me on that occasion is in possession of the duplicate plans of the bank cellars."
"oh, no," bates cried. "i have not overlooked those plans; in fact, i particularly wish to have a glance at them. and, by the way, sir, you appear to be very reticent over the name of the companion who was with you on that important occasion."
"we will merely call him seymour," jack said, cautiously.
bates smiled in a queer, significant kind of way.
"i will be more candid with you than you are with me," he said, "though you have told me more than you intended. now, tell me if my suspicions are correct--is not this 'seymour' and our missing nostalgo one and the same person? it is a mere deduction on my part, but----"
"i suppose i had better admit it at once," jack said. "besides, you are bound to know sooner or later. why not come with me and see mr. seymour now?"
bates replied that he would be only too delighted. they set off together without delay, and presently found themselves at seymour's residence. the latter was doing something mysterious with a file and a pair of handcuffs, both of which he threw aside as his visitors entered. he extended his hand cordially to bates.
"i am not in the least surprised to see you, inspector," he said. "in fact, i rather wanted to do so. now, frankly speaking, are you not a little puzzled to know how to lay anstruther by the heels?"
"we will come to that presently, sir," bates said quietly. "i shall be glad in the first place to know what hold anstruther has on you gentlemen who have so suffered at his hands. anstruther is a blackmailer, i know. but you are a man of pluck and courage--why can't you fight him in the open? i can quite understand that there are others broken in health and spirit, who dare not have their story told and dragged before the diabolical curiosity of the cheap press. but in your case, why, it seems to me----"
"yes, yes," seymour interrupted. "but suppose you have a dear friend in whom you are interested? and that friend had done somebody a great wrong? and supposing that anstruther knew all this? my friend is poor, but i am not. let us go farther and grant my friend a daughter--a beautiful girl who is just coming to the front in the world of art. she is passionately attached to her father; any disgrace to him would break her heart. and it is in my power to save this dear child by letting anstruther believe that both myself and others who have suffered are afraid of him. surely you have heard of many such cases, mr. bates?"
bates nodded. the field was clearing wonderfully. "you will pardon me," he said. "it was stupid of me not to think of that before. the blackmailer generally strikes through the innocent. but another question. why did anstruther publish those nostalgo posters at all?"
"there, to a certain extent, you have me," seymour confessed. "you see, it is only recently that we nostalgos have drifted together in london. we must give anstruther credit for having discovered this. mind you, there may be many others who have suffered, and are now hiding in silence. they would be nerveless wrecks for the most part. anstruther probably wanted to let them know that the terror was not dead. you see, it is like the sign of some secret society, reminding members of the long arm. but who can say what was uppermost in the mind of anstruther? suppose that the whole dramatic thing had failed in its purpose? what then? why, anstruther would have probably turned the posters to some business purpose--a new soap, a novel kind of pill--why, many business houses would gladly buy the reversion of the nostalgo posters, and make a good thing out of them. i may be wrong, but that is my view. besides, how are we to know how many other nostalgos have not dropped into anstruther's net through those diabolical posters?"
"it is possible you are right," bates admitted. "nothing seems to be impossible in the way of crime. but as to anstruther?"
"i have a heavy debt to pay to him," seymour said, with a ring in his voice. "and i am in a position to show you how you can lay him by the heels. i presume my friend masefield has told you everything. that being so, all you have to do is to open carrington's private safe, and carefully remove a service of cellini plate which you will find there. when i say carefully, i mean carefully--the thing is not to be fingered. take it away to the police station, and place it in your glass case. then, if you follow my advice, within eight and forty hours i pledge you that you shall have evidence against anstruther as clear and convincing as if it had come from heaven itself."
a silence followed, so impressive was seymour's speech. then bates, who appeared to be utterly puzzled, promised that the thing should be done. at the same moment, there was the sound of an altercation on the outer landing, and a hoarse voice was heard asking some imperative question. the voice struck familiarly on jack's ears. he glanced significantly at bates.
"the very man himself," he cried.
"yes, anstruther," seymour said, in his deep, ringing voice. "friend anstruther. shall we ask him in?"
