CHAPTER IX
THE LADY'S MAID'S MOTHER
When the manager, much appeased and relieved in mind, had gone, Fullawaytapped at the door of the bedroom, summoned the pretty chambermaid, andhanded her the rosewood box.
"Put this back exactly where Mademoiselle has kept it since she camehere," he commanded. "Now you yourself--you're going to stay in the roomsuntil she comes back from the concert? That's right--if she returnsbefore my friend and I come up again, tell her that we shall presentourselves at five minutes to eleven. Come downstairs, Allerdyke," heproceeded, leading the way from the room. "We must book rooms for thenight here, so we'll send to the station for our things and make ourarrangements, after which we'll smoke a cigar and talk--I am beginning tosee chinks of daylight."
He led Allerdyke down to the office, completed the necessaryarrangements, and went on to the smoking-room, in a quiet corner of whichhe pulled out his cigar-case.
"Well?" he said. "What do you think now?"
"I think you're a smart chap," answered Allerdyke bluntly. "You did allthat very well. I said naught, but I kept an eye and an ear open.You'll do."
"Very complimentary!--but I wasn't asking you what you thought about me,"said Fullaway, with a laugh. "I'm asking you what you think of thesituation, as illuminated by this last episode?"
"Well, I'm still reflecting on what you said to that managerchap," answered Allerdyke. "You really think this young woman haslost her jewels?"
"Oh, no doubt, no doubt at all," replied Fullaway. "Mademoiselle isimpetuous, impulsive, demonstrative, much given to insisting on her ownway, but she's absolutely honest and truthful, and I've no doubtwhatever--none!--that she's been robbed. But--not here. She never broughtthose jewels here. They were not in that box when she came here.Mademoiselle, my dear sir, was relieved of those jewels either on thesteamer, as she crossed from, Christiania to Hull, or during the fewhours she spent at the Hull hotel. The whole thing--the robbery from yourcousin, the robbery from Mademoiselle de Longarde--is all the work of aparticularly clever and brilliant gang of international thieves; and, bythe holy smoke, sir, we've got our hands full! For there isn't a clue tothe identity of the operators, so far, unless the lady with whom we aregoing to sup can help us to one."
Allerdyke ruminated over this for a moment or two. Then, after lightingthe cigar which Fullaway had offered him, he shook his head--in grimaffirmation.
"I shouldn't wonder," he said. "Certainly, it seems a big thing. You'refiguring on its having been a carefully concocted scheme? No mere chanceaffair, eh?"
"This sort of thing's never done by chance," responded the American."This is the work of very clever and accomplished thieves who somehowbecame aware of two facts. One, that your cousin was bringing with him toEngland the jewels of the Princess Nastirsevitch. The other, thatMademoiselle Zelie de Longarde carried her pearls and diamonds in aninnocent-looking rosewood box. My dear sir! you observed that I examinedthat box with seeming carelessness--in reality, I was looking at it withthe eye of a trained observer. I am one of those people who, from havingknocked about the world a lot, engaging in a multifarious variety ofoccupations, have picked up a queer scrap-heap of knowledge, and I willlay you any odds you like that I am absolutely correct in affirming thatthe box which I just now handed to Maggie, the chambermaid, was newlymade by a Russian cabinet-maker within the last four weeks!"
"For a purpose?" suggested Allerdyke.
"Just so--for a purpose," assented Fullaway. "That purpose being, ofcourse, its substitution for the real original article. You did nothandle the box which is now upstairs--it is carefully weighted, though itis empty. I believe--nay, I am sure, it contains a sheet of lead underits delicate lining of satin. That, of course, was to deceiveMademoiselle. You heard her say that the jewels were in her box atChristiania, and that she never opened the box until this evening here inEdinburgh? Very good--between here and Christiania somebody substitutedthe imitation box for the real one. Ah!--in all these great criminaloperations there is nothing like sticking to the old, well-worn,tried-and-proved tricks of the trade!--they are like well-oiled,well-practised machinery. And now we come back to the real, great,anxious question--Who did it? And there, Allerdyke, we are atpresent--only at present, mind!--up against a very big, blank wall."
"On the other side of which, my lad, lies the secret of the murder of mycousin," said Allerdyke grimly. "Mind you that! That's what I'm after,Fullaway. Damn all these jewels and things, in comparison withthat!--it's that I'm after, I tell you again, and a thousand times again.And I'm considering if I'm doing any good hanging round here after thissinging woman when the probable sphere of action lies yonder away atHull, eh?"
"The proper--not probable--sphere of action, my dear sir, is thesupper-table to which we're presently going," answered Fullaway, withsupreme assurance. "What the singing woman, as you call her, can tell uswill most likely make all the difference in the world to ourinvestigations. Remember the shoe-buckle! Have it ready to exhibit when Ilead up to it. Then--we shall see."
The prima donna, back for her engagement at eleven o'clock, came influshed and smiling--the extraordinary warmth and fervour of herreception by the audience which she had at first been so inclined totreat with scant courtesy had restored her to good humour, and when shehad eaten a few mouthfuls of delicate food and drunk her first glass ofchampagne she began to laugh almost light-heartedly.
"Well, I suppose you've been doing your best, Fullaway," she said, witheasy familiarity. "I declare you turned up at the very moment, for thatfat Weiss would have been no good. But I'm still wondering how you cameto be here, and what this gentleman--Mr. Allerdyke, is it?--is doing herewith you. Allerdyke, now--well, that's the same name as that of a man Icame across from Christiania with, and left at Hull."
Fullaway kicked Allerdyke under the table.
"You haven't heard of that Mr. Allerdyke since you left him at Hull,then?" he asked, gazing intently at their hostess.
"Heard? How should I hear?" asked the prima donna. "He was just atravelling acquaintance. All the same, I had certainly fixed up to seehim in London on a business matter."
"You don't read the newspapers, then?" suggested Fullaway.
"Not unless there's something about myself in them," she answered, withan arch smile at Allerdyke.
"If you'd read this morning's papers, you'd have seen that the Mr.Allerdyke with whom you travelled--this gentleman's cousin, by theby--was found dead in his room at the hotel in Hull not so long after youquitted it," said Fullaway coolly. "In fact, he must have been dead whenyou passed his door on your way out."
The prima donna was genuinely shocked. She set down the glass which shewas just lifting to her lips; her large, handsome eyes dilated, her lipsquivered a little. She turned a look of sympathy on Allerdyke, who, atthat moment, realized that she was a very beautiful woman.
"You don't say so!" she exclaimed. "Well, I'm really grieved to hearthat--I am! Dead?--and when I left! Why, I was in his room that verynight we reached Hull, having a talk on the business matter I mentionedjust now--he was well enough and lively enough then, I'll swear.Dead!--why, what did he die of?"
The two men looked at each other. There was a brief pause; thenAllerdyke slowly produced a small packet, wrapped in tissue-paper, fromhis waistcoat pocket. He laid it on the table at his side and looked athis hostess.
"I knew you had been in my cousin's room," he said. "You left or droppedyour shoe-buckle there. I found it when I searched his room. Then thehotel manager showed me your wire. Here's the buckle."
He was watching her narrowly as he spoke, and his glance deepened inintensity as he handed over the little packet and watched her unwrap thepaper. But there was not a sign of anything but a little surprisedsatisfaction in the prima donna's face as she recognized her lostproperty, and her eyes were ingenuous enough as she turned them on him.
"Why, of course, that's mine!" she exclaimed. "I'm ever so much obligedto you, Mr. Allerdyke. Yes, I wired to the hotel, in my proper nam
e, youknow--Zelie de Longarde is only my professional name. I didn't want tolose that buckle--it was part of a birthday present from my mother. Butyou don't mean to say that you travelled all the way to Edinburgh to handme that! Surely not?"
"No!" replied Allerdyke. He wanted to take a direct share in the talking,and went resolutely ahead now that the chance had come. "No--not at all.I knew you'd come to Edinburgh--found it out from that chauffeur who wasdriving you when you and I met at Howden the night before last, and so Icame on to find you. I want to ask you some questions about my cousin,and maybe to get you to come and give evidence at the inquest on him."
"Inquest!" she exclaimed. "I know what that means, of course. Why--youdon't say there's been anything wrong?"
"I believe my cousin was murdered that night," answered Allerdyke. "So,too, does Fullaway there. And you were probably the last person who everspoke to him alive. Now, you see, I'm a plain, blunt-spoken sort ofchap--I ask people straight questions. What did you go into his room totalk to him about?"
"Business!" she replied, with a directness which impressed both men."Mere business. He and I had several conversations on board the_Perisco_--I made out he was a clever business man. I want to invest somemoney--he advised me to put it into a development company in Norway,which is doing big things in fir and pine. I went into his room to lookat some plans and papers--he gave me some prospectuses which are in thatbag there just now---I was reading them over again only this evening.That's all. I wasn't there many minutes--and, as I told you, he was verywell, very brisk and lively then."
"Did he show you any valuables that he had with him--jewels?" askedAllerdyke brusquely.
"Jewels! Valuables!" she answered. "No--certainly not."
"Nor when you were on the steamer?"
"No--nor at any time," she said. "Jewels?--why--what makes you ask such aquestion?"
"Because my cousin had in his possession a consignment of such things, ofgreat value, and we believe that he was murdered for them--that's why,"replied Allerdyke. "He had them when he left Christiania--he had themwhen he entered the Hull hotel--"
Fullaway, who had been listening intently, leant forward with a shakeof his head.
"Stop at that, Allerdyke," he said. "We don't know, now, that he did havethem when he entered the hotel at Hull! He mayn't have had. MissLennard--we'll drop the professional name and turn to the real one," hesaid, with a bow to the prima donna--"Miss Lennard here thinks she hadher jewels in her little box when she entered the Hull hotel, and alsowhen she came to this hotel, here in Edinburgh, but--"
"Do you mean to say that I hadn't?" she exclaimed. "Do you mean--"
"I mean," replied Fullaway, "that, knowing what I now know, I believethat both you and the dead man, James Allerdyke, were robbed on the_Perisco_. And I want to ask you a question at once. Where is your maid!"
Celia Lennard dropped her knife and fork and sat back, suddenlyturning pale.
"My maid!" she said faintly. "Good heavens! you don't think--oh, youaren't suggesting that she's the thief? Because--oh, this is dreadful!You see--I never thought of it before--when she and I arrived at Hullthat night she was met by a man who described himself as her brother. Hewas in a great state of agitation--he said he'd rushed up to Hull to meether, to beg her to go straight with him to their mother, who was dying inLondon. Of course, I let her go at once--they drove straight from theriverside at Hull to the station to catch the train. What else could Ido? I never suspected anything. Oh!"
Fullaway leaned across the table and filled his hostess's glass.
"Now," he said, motioning her to drink, "you know your maid's name andaddress, don't you? Let me have them at once, and within a couple ofhours we'll know if the story about the dying mother was true."