CHAPTER IX
THE BROKEN FIGURE
"Any particular object in that course?" David asked.
"There ought to be an object in everything that even an irrational mansays or does," Bell replied. "I have achieved some marvellous results byfollowing up a single sentence uttered by a patient. Besides, on theevening in question you were particularly told to approach the house fromthe sea front."
"Somebody might have been on the look-out near the Western Roadentrance," Steel suggested.
"Possibly. I have another theory.... Here we are. The figures over thefanlights run from 187 upwards, gradually getting to 219 as you breastthe slope. At one o'clock in the morning every house would be indarkness. Did you find that to be so?"
"I didn't notice a light anywhere till I reached 219."
"Good again. And you could only find 219 by the light over the door.Naturally you were not interested in and would not have noticed any othernumber. Well, here is 218, where I propose to enter, and for whichpurpose I have the keys. Come along."
David followed wonderingly. The houses in Brunswick Square are somewhatirregular in point of architecture, and Nos. 218 and 219 were the onlymatched pair thereabouts. Signs were not wanting, as Bell pointed out,that at one time the houses had been occupied as one residence. The twoentrance-halls were back to back, so to speak, and what had obviouslybeen a doorway leading from one to the other had been plastered up withincomparatively recent memory.
The grim and dusty desolation of an empty house seemed to be supplementedhere by a deeper desolation. Not that there was any dust on the groundfloor, which seemed a singular thing seeing that elsewhere the boardswere powdered with it, and festoons of brown cobwebs hung everywhere.Bell smiled approvingly as David Steel pointed the fact out to him.
"Do you note another singular point?" the former asked.
"No," David said, thoughtfully; "I--stop! The two side-shutters in thebay-windows are closed, and there is the same vivid crimson blind in thecentre window. And the self colour of the walls is exactly the same. Thefaint discoloration by the fireplace is a perfect facsimile."
"In fact, _this_ is the room you were in the other night," Bellsaid, quietly.
"Impossible!" Steel cried. "The blind may be an accident, so might thefading of the distemper. But the furniture, the engravings, the fittingsgenerally--"
"Are all capable of an explanation, which we shall arrive at withpatience."
"Can we arrive at the number over the door with patience?"
"Exactly what I was coming to. I noticed an old pair of steps in the backsitting-room. Would you mind placing them against the fanlight for me?"
David complied readily enough. He was growing credulous and interested inspite of himself. At Bell's instigation he placed the steps before thefanlight and mounted them. Over his head were the figures 218 inelongated shape and formed in white porcelain.
"Now then," Bell said, slowly. "Take this pocket-knife, apply the bladeto the _right-hand_ lower half of the bottom of the 8--to half the smallO, in fact--and I shall be extremely surprised if the quarter sectiondoesn't come away from the glass of the fanlight, leaving the rest of thefigure intact. Very gently, please. I want you to convince yourself thatthe piece comes away because it is broken, and not because the pressurehas cracked it. Now then."
The point of the knife was hardly under the edge of the porcelain beforethe segment of the lower circle dropped into Steel's hand. He could feelthe edges of the cement sticking to his fingers. As yet the full force ofthe discovery was not apparent to him.
"Go out into the road and look at the fanlight," Bell directed.
David complied eagerly. A sharp cry of surprise escaped him as he lookedup. The change was apparent. Instead of the figures 218 he could read nowthe change to 219--a fairly indifferent 9, but one that would have passedmuster without criticism by ninety-nine people out of a hundred. With astrong light behind the figures the clumsy 9 would never have beennoticed at all. The very simplicity and ingeniousness of the scheme wasits safeguard.
"I should like to have the address of the man who thought that out,"David said, drily.
"Yes, I fancy that you are dealing with quite clever people," Bellreplied. "And now I have shown you how utterly you have been deceivedover the number we will go a little farther. For the present, the way inwhich the furniture trick was worked must remain a mystery. But there hasbeen furniture here, or this room and the hall would not have been socarefully swept and garnished whilst the rest of the house remains in sodirty a condition. If my eyes don't deceive me I can see two fresh nailsdriven into the archway leading to the back hall. On those nails hung thecurtain that prevented you seeing more than was necessary. Are you stillincredulous as to the house where you had your remarkable adventure?"
"I confess that my faith has been seriously shaken," David admitted. "Butabout the furniture? And about my telephone call from Mr. Gates's townhouse? And about my adventure taking place in the very next house to theone taken by him at Brighton? And about Miss Gates's agitation when shelearnt my identity? Do you call them coincidences?"
"No, I don't," Bell said, promptly. "They are merely evidences of cleverfolks taking advantage of an excellent strategic position. I said justnow that it was an important point that Mr. Gates had merely taken thenext door furnished. But we shall come to that side of the theory in duecourse. Have you any other objection to urge?"
"One more, and I have finished for the present. When I came here theother night--provided of course that I did come here--immediately upon myentering the dining-room the place was brilliantly illuminated. Now,directly the place was void the supply of electric current would be cutoff at the meter. So far as I can judge, some two or three units musthave been consumed during my visit. There could not be many less than tenlights burning for an hour. Now, those units must show on the meter. Canyou read an electric meter?"
"My dear fellow, there is nothing easier."
"Then let us go down into the basement and settle the matter. There ispretty sure to be a card on the meter made up to the day when the lasttenant went out. See, the supply is cut off now."
As Steel spoke he snapped down the hall switch and no result came. Downin the basement by the area door stood the meter. Both switches wereturned off, but on Bell pressing them down Steel was enabled to lightthe passage.
"There's the card," Bell exclaimed. "Made up to 25th June, 1895, sincewhen the house has been void. Just a minute whilst I read the meter. Yes,that's right. According to this the card in your hand, provided that thelight has not been used since the index was taken, should read at 1521.What do you make of the card?"
"1532," David cried. "Which means eleven units since the meter was lasttaken. Or, if you like to put it from your point of view, eleven unitsused the night that I came here. You are quite right, Bell. You havepractically convinced me that I have been inside the real 219 for thefirst time to-day. And yet the more one probes the mystery the moreastounding does it become.... What do you propose to do next?"
"Find out the name of the last tenant or owner." Bell suggested."Discover what the two houses were used for when they were occupied byone person. Also ascertain why on earth the owners are willing to let ahouse this size and in this situation for a sum like L80 per annum. Letus go and take the keys back to the agents."
Steel was nothing loth to find himself in the fresh air again. Someprogress had been made like the opening of a chess-match between masters,and yet the more Steel thought of it the more muddled and bewildered didhe become. No complicated tangle in the way of a plot had ever beenanything like the skein this was.
"I'm like a child in your hands," he said. "I'm a blind man on the end ofa string; a man dazed with wine in a labyrinth. And if ever I help awoman again--"
He paused as he caught sight of Ruth Gates's lovely face through thewindow of No. 219. Her features were tinged with melancholy; there was alook of deepest sympathy and feeling and compassion in her gloriouseyes. She slipped ba
ck as Steel bowed, and the rest of his speech waslost in a sigh.