CHAPTER XXVI
THE STRONG-ROOM
I wonder how often a sense of humour has saved a man fromdesperation? Perhaps only the Easterns have thoroughly appreciatedthat divine gift. I have interpolated the adventure of InspectorBristol in order that the sequence of my story be not broken;actually I did not learn it until later, but when, on the followingday, the whole of the facts came into my possession, I laughed andwas glad that I could laugh, for laughter has saved many a man frommadness.
Certainly the Fates were playing with us, for at a time very nearlycorresponding with that when Bristol found himself bound andhelpless in Bank Chambers I awoke to find myself tied hand and footto my own bed! Nothing but the haziest recollections came to me atfirst, nothing but dim memories of the awful being who had lured methere; for I perceived now that all the messages proceeded, not fromBristol, but from Hassan of Aleppo! I had been a fool, and I wasreaping the fruits of my folly. Could I have known that almostwithin pistol shot of me the Inspector was trussed up as helpless asI, then indeed my situation must have become unbearable, since uponhim I relied for my speedy release.
My ankles were firmly lashed to the rails at the foot of my bed;each of my wrists was tied back to a bedpost. I ached in every limband my head burned feverishly, which latter symptom I ascribed tothe powerful drug which had been expelled into my face by theuncanny weapon carried by Hassan of Aleppo. I reflected bitterlyhow, having transferred my quarters to the Astoria, I could not wellhope for any visitor to my chambers; and even the event of such avisitor had been foreseen and provided against by the cunning lordof the Hashishin. A gag, of the type which Dumas has described in"Twenty Years After," the poire d'angoisse, was wedged firmly intomy mouth, so that only by preserving the utmost composure could Ibreathe. I was bathed in cold perspiration. So I lay listening tothe familiar sounds without and reflecting that it was quitepossible so to lie, undisturbed, and to die alone, my presence therewholly unsuspected!
Once, toward dusk, my phone bell rang, and my state of mind becameagonizing. It was maddening to think that someone, a friend, wasvirtually within reach of me, yet actually as far removed as if anocean divided us! I tasted the hellish torments of Tantalus. Icursed fate, heaven, everything; I prayed; I sank into bottomlessdepths of despair and rose to dizzy pinnacles of hope, when afootstep sounded on the landing and a thousand wild possibilities,vague possibilities of rescue, poured into my mind.
The visitor hesitated, apparently outside my door; and a change, assudden as lightning out of a cloud, transformed my errant fancies.A gruesome conviction seized me, as irrational as the hope which itdisplayed, that this was one of the Hashishin--an apish yellowdwarf, a strangler, the awful Hassan himself!
The footsteps receded down the stairs. And my thoughts revertedinto the old channels of dull despair.
I weighed the chances of Bristol's seeking me there; and, eager asI was to give them substance, found them but airy--ultimately wasforced to admit them to be nil.
So I lay, whilst only a few hundred yards from me a singular scenewas being enacted. Bristol, a prisoner as helpless as myself,watched the concluding business of the day being conducted in thebank beneath him; he watched the lift descend to the strongroom--thespying apparatus being slightly adjusted in some way; he sawthe clerks hastening to finish their work in the outer office, andas he watched, absorbed by the novelty of the situation, he almostforgot the pain and discomfort which he suffered...
"This little peep-show of ours has been real useful," Dexterconfided out of the darkness. "I got an impression of the key ofthe strongroom door a week ago, and Carneta got one of the keys ofthe safe only this morning, when she lodged her box of jewellerywith the bank! I was at work on that key when you interrupted me,and as by means of this useful apparatus I have learnt thecombination, you ought to see some fun in the next few hours!"
Bristol repressed a groan, for the prospect of remaining in thatposition was thus brought keenly home to him.
The bank staff left the premises one by one until only a solitaryclerk worked on at a back desk. His task completed, he, too, tookhis departure and the bank messenger commenced his nightly duty ofsweeping up the offices. It was then that excitement like ananaesthetic dulled the detective's pain--indeed, he forgot hisaching body and became merely a watchful intelligence.
So intent had he become upon the picture before him that he had notnoticed the fact that he was alone in the office of the Congo FibreCompany. Now he realized it from the absolute silence about him,and from another circumstance.
The spying apparatus had been left focussed, and on to the screenbeneath his eyes, bending low behind the desks and creeping,Indian-like, around, toward the head of the stair which communicatedwith the strongroom and the apartment used by the messenger, came thealert figure of Earl Dexter!
It may be a surprise to some people to learn that at any time inthe day the door of a bank, unguarded, should be left open, whenonly a solitary messenger is within the premises; yet for a fewminutes at least each evening this happens at more than one Citybank, where one of the duties of the resident messenger is to cleanthe outer steps. Dexter had taken advantage of the man's absencebelow in quest of scrubbing material to enter the bank through theopen door.
Watching, breathless, and utterly forgetful of his own position,Bristol saw the messenger, all unconscious of danger, come up thestairs carrying a pail and broom. As his head reached the levelof the railings The Stetson Man neatly sand-bagged him, rushedacross to the outer door, and closed it!
Given duplicate keys and the private information which Dexter soingeniously had obtained, there are many London banks vulnerable tosimilar attack. Certainly, bullion is rarely kept in a branchstoreroom, but the detective was well aware that the keys of thecase containing the slipper were kept in this particular safe!
He was convinced, and could entertain no shadowy doubt, that atlast Dexter had triumphed. He wondered if it had ever hithertofallen to the lot of a representative of the law thus to be madean accessory to a daring felony!
But human endurance has well-defined limits. The fading lightrendered the ingenious picture dim and more dim. The painoccasioned by his position became agonizing, and uttering a stifledgroan he ceased to take an interest in the robbery of the LondonCounty and Provincial Bank.
Fate is a comedian; and when later I learned how I had lain strappedto my bed, and, so near to me, Bristol had hung helpless as abutchered carcass in the office of the Congo Fibre Company, whilst,in our absence from the stage, the drama of the slipper marchedfeverish to its final curtain, I accorded Fate her well-earnedapplause. I laughed; not altogether mirthfully.