CHAPTER II
THE HUNTER DECLINES HIS QUARRY
"This is Mr. Milburgh," said Lyne awkwardly.
If Mr. Milburgh had heard the last words of his employer, his face didnot betray the fact. His smile was set, and not only curved the lips butfilled the large, lustreless eyes. Tarling gave him a rapid survey anddrew his own conclusions. The man was a born lackey, plump of face, baldof head, and bent of shoulder, as though he lived in a perpetual gestureof abasement.
"Shut the door, Milburgh, and sit down. This is Mr. Tarling. Er--Mr.Tarling is--er--a detective."
"Indeed, sir?"
Milburgh bent a deferential head in the direction of Tarling, and thedetective, watching for some change in colour, some twist of face--anyof those signs which had so often betrayed to him the convictedwrongdoer--looked in vain.
"A dangerous man," he thought.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see what impression the manhad made upon Ling Chu. To the ordinary eye Ling Chu remained animpassive observer. But Tarling saw that faint curl of lip, an almostimperceptible twitch of the nostrils, which invariably showed on the faceof his attendant when he "smelt" a criminal.
"Mr. Tarling is a detective," repeated Lyne. "He is a gentleman I heardabout when I was in China--you know I was in China for three months, whenI made my tour round the world?" he asked Tarling.
Tarling nodded.
"Oh yes, I know," he said. "You stayed at the Bund Hotel. You spenta great deal of time in the native quarter, and you had rather anunpleasant experience as the result of making an experiment in opiumsmoking."
Lyne's face went red, and then he laughed.
"You know more about me than I know about you, Tarling," he said, with anote of asperity in his voice, and turned again to his subordinate.
"I have reason to believe that there has been money stolen in thisbusiness by one of my cashiers," he said.
"Impossible, sir!" said the shocked Mr. Milburgh. "Wholly impossible! Whocould have done it? And how clever of you to have found it out, sir! Ialways say that you see what we old ones overlook even though it's rightunder our noses!"
Mr. Lyne smiled complacently.
"It will interest you to know, Mr. Tarling," he said, "that I myself havesome knowledge of and acquaintance with the criminal classes. In fact,there is one unfortunate protege of mine whom I have tried very hard toreform for the past four years, who is coming out of prison in a coupleof days. I took up this work," he said modestly, "because I feel it isthe duty of us who are in a more fortunate position, to help those whohave not had a chance in the cruel competition of the world."
Tarling was not impressed.
"Do you know the person who has been robbing you?" he asked.
"I have reason to believe it is a girl whom I have summarily dismissedto-night, and whom I wish you to watch."
The detective nodded.
"This is rather a primitive business," he said with the first faint hintof a smile he had shown. "Haven't you your own shop detective who couldtake that job in hand? Petty larceny is hardly in my line. I understoodthat this was bigger work----"
He stopped, because it was obviously impossible to explain just whyhe had thought as much, in the presence of the man whose conduct,originally, had been the subject of his inquiries.
"To you it may seem a small matter. To me, it is very important," saidMr. Lyne profoundly. "Here is a girl, highly respected by all hercompanions and consequently a great influence on their morals, who, as Ihave reason to believe, has steadily and persistently falsified my books,taking money from the firm, and at the same time has secured the goodwillof all with whom she has been brought into contact. Obviously she is moredangerous than another individual who succumbs to a sudden temptation. Itmay be necessary to make an example of this girl, but I want you clearlyto understand, Mr. Tarling, that I have not sufficient evidence toconvict her; otherwise I might not have called you in."
"You want me to get the evidence, eh?" said Tarling curiously.
"Who is the lady, may I venture to ask, sir?"
It was Milburgh who interposed the question.
"Miss Rider," replied Lyne.
"Miss Rider!"
Milburgh's face took on a look of blank surprise, as he gasped the words.
"Miss Rider--oh, no, impossible!"
"Why impossible?" demanded Mr. Lyne sharply.
"Well, sir, I meant----" stammered the manager, "it is so unlikely--sheis such a nice girl----"
Thornton Lyne shot a suspicious glance at him.
"You have no particular reason for wishing to shield Miss Rider, haveyou?" he asked coldly.
"No, sir, not at all. I beg of you not to think that," appealed theagitated Mr. Milburgh, "only it seems so--extraordinary."
"All things are extraordinary that are out of the common," snapped Lyne."It would be extraordinary if you were accused of stealing, Milburgh. Itwould be very extraordinary indeed, for example, if we discovered thatyou were living a five-thousand pounds life on a nine-hundred poundssalary, eh?"
Only for a second did Milburgh lose his self-possession. The hand thatwent to his mouth shook, and Tarling, whose eyes had never left the man'sface, saw the tremendous effort which he was making to recover hisequanimity.
"Yes, sir, that would be extraordinary," said Milburgh steadily.
Lyne had lashed himself again into the old fury, and if his vitriolictongue was directed at Milburgh, his thoughts were centred upon thatproud and scornful face which had looked down upon him in his office.
"It would be extraordinary if you were sent to penal servitude as theresult of my discovery that you had been robbing the firm for years," hegrowled, "and I suppose everybody else in the firm would say the same asyou--how extraordinary!"
"I daresay they would, sir," said Mr. Milburgh, his old smile back, thetwinkle again returning to his eyes, and his hands rubbing together inceaseless ablutions. "It would sound extraordinary, and it would beextraordinary, and nobody here would be more surprised than theunfortunate victim--ha! ha!"
"Perhaps not," said Lyne coldly. "Only I want to say a few words in yourpresence, and I would like you to give them every attention. You havebeen complaining to me for a month past," he said speaking withdeliberation, "about small sums of money being missing from the cashier'soffice."
It was a bold thing to say, and in many ways a rash thing. He wasdependent for the success of his hastily-formed plan, not only uponMilburgh's guilt, but upon Milburgh's willingness to confess his guilt.If the manager agreed to stand sponsor to this lie, he admitted his ownpeculations, and Tarling, to whom the turn of the conversation had atfirst been unintelligible, began dimly to see the drift it was taking.
"I have complained that sums of money have been missing for the pastmonth?" repeated Milburgh dully.
The smile had gone from his lips and eyes. His face was haggard--he was aman at bay.
"That is what I said," said Lyne watching him. "Isn't that the fact?"
There was a long pause, and presently Milburgh nodded.
"That is the fact, sir," he said in a low voice.
"And you have told me that you suspected Miss Rider of defalcations?"
Again the pause and again the man nodded.
"Do you hear?" asked Lyne triumphantly.
"I hear," said Tarling quietly. "Now what do you wish me to do? Isn'tthis a matter for the police? I mean the regular police."
Lyne frowned.
"The case has to be prepared first," he said. "I will give you fullparticulars as to the girl's address and her habits, and it will be yourbusiness to collect such information as will enable us to put the case inthe hands of Scotland Yard."
"I see," said Tarling and smiled again. Then he shook his head. "I'mafraid I can't come into this case, Mr. Lyne."
"Can't come in?" said Lyne in astonishment. "Why not?"
"Because it's not my kind of job," said Tarling. "The first time I metyou I had a feeling that you were leading me to one of
the biggest casesI had ever undertaken. It shows you how one's instincts can lead oneastray," he smiled again, and picked up his hat.
"What do you mean? You're going to throw up a valuable client?"
"I don't know how valuable you're likely to be," said Tarling, "but atthe present moment the signs are not particularly encouraging. I tell youI do not wish to be associated with this case, Mr. Lyne, and I thinkthere the matter can end."
"You don't think it's worth while, eh?" sneered Lyne. "Yet when I tellyou that I am prepared to give you a fee of five hundred guineas----"
"If you gave me a fee of five thousand guineas, or fifty thousandguineas, I should still decline to be associated with this matter," saidTarling, and his words had the metallic quality which precludes argument.
"At any rate, I am entitled to know why you will not take up this case.Do you know the girl?" asked Lyne loudly.
"I have never met the lady and probably never shall," said Tarling. "Ionly know that I will not be concerned with what is called in the UnitedStates of America a 'frame up.'"
"Frame up?" repeated the other.
"A frame up. I dare say you know what it means--I will put the mattermore plainly and within your understanding. For some reason or other youhave a sudden grudge against a member of your staff. I read your face,Mr. Lyne, and the weakness of your chin and the appetite of your mouthsuggest to me that you are not over scrupulous with the women who are inyour charge. I guess rather than know that you have been turned down witha dull, sickening thud by a decent girl, and in your mortification youare attempting to invent a charge which has no substance and nofoundation.
"Mr. Milburgh," he turned to the other, and again Mr. Milburgh ceased tosmile, "has his own reasons for complying with your wishes. He is yoursubordinate, and moreover, the side threat of penal servitude for him ifhe refuses has carried some weight."
Thornton Lyne's face was distorted with fury.
"I will take care that your behaviour is widely advertised," he said."You have brought a most monstrous charge against me, and I shall proceedagainst you for slander. The truth is that you are not equal to the job Iintended giving you and you are finding an excuse for getting out."
"The truth is," replied Tarling, biting off the end of a cigar he hadtaken from his pocket, "that my reputation is too good to be risked inassociating with such a dirty business as yours. I hate to be rude, andI hate just as much to throw away good money. But I can't take good moneyfor bad work, Mr. Lyne, and if you will be advised by me, you will dropthis stupid scheme for vengeance which your hurt vanity has suggested--itis the clumsiest kind of frame up that was ever invented--and also youwill go and apologise to the young lady, whom, I have no doubt, you havegrossly insulted."
He beckoned to his Chinese satellite and walked leisurely to the door.Incoherent with rage, shaking in every limb with a weak man's sense ofhis own impotence, Lyne watched him until the door was half-closed, then,springing forward with a strangled cry, he wrenched the door open andleapt at the detective.
Two hands gripped his arm and lifting him bodily back into the room,pushed him down into a chair. A not unkindly face blinked down at him,a face relieved from utter solemnity by the tiny laughter lines aboutthe eyes.
"Mr. Lyne," said the mocking voice of Tarling, "you are setting an awfulexample to the criminal classes. It is a good job your convict friend isin gaol."
Without another word he left the room.